Month: March 2009

Leading advocates for lifting the nearly 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba are hailing Congress’s approval Tuesday of a general appropriations bill that eases – albeit in a mostly symbolic way – several restrictions on travel and sales to the Caribbean nation. The bill, which was signed by President Barack Obama Wednesday, denies funding to … Continue reading “NGOs Hail Congressional Moves to Ease Embargo”

RAMALLAH – Intensive unity talks are under way in Cairo as five Palestinian committees, representing 13 factions and independents, face each other across a table in a bid to form a new Palestinian unity government. But significant obstacles, differences in ideology, internal power struggles and manipulative proxy sponsors with competing geopolitical interests threaten to derail … Continue reading “Palestinian Unity as Elusive as Deal With Israel”

Former Antiwar.com columnist Doug Bandow writes this week in The National Interest President Barack Obama has unveiled his new budget, which proposes continued increases in military outlays. What for? The United States is spending far too much on the Pentagon. There is no more important federal role than providing for the common defense. But what … Continue reading “Squaring the Pentagon”

On Tuesday morning Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, employed the indicative mood in describing the high value that Chas Freeman, his appointee to head the National Intelligence Council (NIC), will bring to the job – "his long experience and inventive mind," for example.  By five o’clock in the afternoon, Freeman announced that he … Continue reading “Obama Caves to Israel Lobby”

Updated at 6:41 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2009 At least nine Iraqis were killed and 42 more were wounded in the latest violence, but no Coalition deaths were reported. Amidst the recent surge in bombings, two Iraqi officials gave their opinion on the country’s security gains. Meanwhile, new sentences have been doled out in connection … Continue reading “Wednesday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 42 Wounded”

RAMALLAH – Eight-months pregnant Shireen Abu Sbeh, 20, mother of a 2-year-old, lives with eight other people in a two-bedroom apartment that is on a list of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to be demolished by the Israeli authorities. "I am struggling to sleep at night. I have nightmares that we are on the streets … Continue reading “Israeli Home Demolitions Threaten Peace Talks”

Amb. Chas Freeman withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post in the Obama administration on Tuesday, following a vitriolic battle that pitted Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel hardliners opposed to his appointment against liberals and members of the intelligence and diplomatic communities who had come to his defense. Freeman’s withdrawal came as a surprise to … Continue reading “Freeman Withdrawal Marks Victory for Israel Lobby”

How come they get to be the hawks? And we get to be the doves? A hawk is a noble bird. A dove – well, basically it’s a pigeon. The sort of bird that, in New York City anyway, messes your building’s window sills, is always underfoot, and, along with the city’s rats, makes a … Continue reading “A Falcon of Peace”

Those Chinese sailors who "harassed" a U.S. military vessel lingering perilously close to a Chinese base on Hainan Island, in the South China Sea, reportedly stripped down to their underwear when our sailors turned water hoses on them. Maybe the shower facilities on Chinese fishing vessels – it was fishing trawlers, not military gunboats, that … Continue reading “China: The Next Big Enemy?”

In 2003 and 2004, President George W. Bush announced his intention to initiate a major realignment and shrinkage of what his administration described as an economically wasteful and outdated U.S. overseas basing structure. The plan was to close more than a third of the nation’s Cold War-era bases in Europe, South Korea, and Japan. Troops … Continue reading “The Battle Over Bases”