Month: February 2007

Karl Rove, then White House deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, received a copy of the secret Iranian proposal for negotiations with the United States from former Republican Congressman Bob Ney in early May 2003, according to an Iranian-American scholar who was then on his Congressional staff. Ney, who pleaded guilty last … Continue reading “Rove Said to Have Received 2003 Iranian Proposal”

For several weeks now, Washington has been abuzz with rumors that U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to attack nuclear and other sites in Iran this spring – rumors deemed sufficiently credible that lawmakers from both parties are hastily preparing legislation precisely to prevent such an eventuality. The evidence cannot be ignored. As cited … Continue reading “The Neocon Dog That Isn’t Barking”

Credibility is a precious trait, but once it is lost, it’s darned difficult to restore. That’s the main problem of the Bush administration. After the outrageously false claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, it has no credibility. Hence, its new claims that the Iranian government is supplying weapons to the insurgents in Iraq are … Continue reading “Credibility, a Precious Trait”

Updated at 12:30 a.m. EST, Feb. 17, 2007 Friday is usually a quiet news days in Iraq. It is the weekly prayer day and curfews are in place in several cities; many reporters in Iraq consider this their day off. Overall though, 26 Iraqis were killed and seven were wounded in violent incidents. Meanwhile, the … Continue reading “Friday: 26 Iraqis Killed, 7 Wounded”

Amid rising tensions between their two countries, a group of U.S. religious leaders will leave Saturday for meetings with Iranian clergy and political leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Tehran next week. Participants in the 13-member U.S. delegation, organized by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and the Philadelphia-based American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), said their … Continue reading “US Religious Leaders to Visit Iran”

TEHRAN – Whether or not the military posturing by the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman actually results in armed hostilities, militarists in this country are having a field day. While politicians such as Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karrubi (reformist former parliament speaker) are seeking to … Continue reading “Field Day for Iranian Militarists as Standoff with US Continues”

Staff Sergeant Don Hanks had served 15 years in the U.S. Army before he spent a year running patrols in the heart of Iraq’s Sunni triangle. He said he returned from the conflict a changed man. "I lost friends over there and some of those friends I’d had for my whole frickin’ adult life," he … Continue reading “US Ill-Equipped to Deal With Wave of Troubled Vets”

It was the tail-end of a bleak November 2001: a pall of shocked numbness hung over the country, and a rising war hysteria had nearly everyone cowed. Americans were just beginning to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and focus on what had happened, and how to react. It was very early on the morning … Continue reading “The High-Fivers”

Faced with growing public opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq, the Bush administration has been desperately trying to divert attention to Iran. Washington has gone so far as to make a series of dubious and unfounded charges that blame the Iranian government for the difficulties facing American forces fighting the Iraqi insurgency. Despite the … Continue reading “Scrambling to Frame Iran”

The Iraq war continues to consume lives, both American and Iraqi. The conflict also is burning mountains of cash. No wonder U.S. military outlays are spiraling out of control. Earlier this month, the Bush administration proposed a complex $715 billion defense spending package. There is $481 billion for standard Pentagon operations in 2008. There is … Continue reading “The Great Defense Budget Black Hole”