TEHRAN - As Iran reluctantly begins implementing Thursday a plan to reduce consumption of mostly imported gasoline by cutting massive consumer subsidies, it is with an eye to possible tightening of international sanctions for the country's controversial nuclear...
On the Escalator to War With Iran
These are the "birth pangs" of a "new Middle East," said Condi Rice last summer, as Israel pounded Lebanon. Unfortunately, the new Middle East may make us all pray for the return of the old. Hamas is today engaged in savage street-fighting with Fatah for control of...
Fighting Wars for Oil to Fight Wars
Today, Michael Klare, expert on war and energy, and author of the indispensable book, Blood and Oil, gives us an unprecedented sense of what it means when the Pentagon fills its own tank (as well as its tanks). It is, after all, the Hummer of Defense Departments, the...
Fighting Wars for Oil to Fight Wars
Today, Michael Klare, expert on war and energy, and author of the indispensable book, Blood and Oil, gives us an unprecedented sense of what it means when the Pentagon fills its own tank (as well as its tanks). It is, after all, the Hummer of Defense Departments, the...
Scooter’s Fate:
I Say Torture Him
As he informed Scooter Libby's lawyers that their client would not squirm out of his jail term of two and a half years, Judge Reggie B. Walton revealed that he had been threatened, via letters and phone calls, by some of Libby's more rabid supporters not really...
Overblown Confronts Consensus of Fear
Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them John Mueller Free Press, 2006 259 pp. Sept. 11 changed everything, it is said, and nowhere has its effect been more significant than on U.S. foreign...
Thursday: 2GIs, 56 Iraqis Killed; 36 Iraqis Wounded; Several Mosques Attacked
Updated at 1:25 a.m. EDT, June 15, 2007Thanks to increased security presence and curfews, violence was kept somewhat in check following yesterday’s bombing of the Golden Mosque. However, at least 56 Iraqis were killed and 34 were wounded anyway. A number of...
Wednesday: 3 GIs, 45 Iraqis, 1 American Contractor Killed; 52 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 1:01 a.m. EDT, June 14, 2007Once again the Golden Mosque in Samarra has suffered extensive damage during a bombing. Although no casualties were reported during the incident, a bombing at the mosque last year unleashed a wave of sectarian violence that...
It’s All About Israel
I see that Zbigniew Brzezinski is stealing my ideas and not giving me credit, but, what the heck, I'm in a generous mood and he puts his own gloss on it so I don't mind (via Matthew Yglesias): "Zbigniew Brzezinski at the conference says the U.S. and...
Homeless Vets Struggle Long After War’s End
The U.S. Vets Westside Residence Hall is a hulking eight-story structure a few blocks from Los Angeles International Airport. It's the largest transitional housing and employment center for homeless veterans in the country, hosting 700 veterans annually. Michael Hall...


