In a series of developments – some more publicized than others – the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has been undergoing a transformation that will more closely align its activities with the State Department and the Pentagon....
The Politics of Pushback
On Veterans' Day, Nov. 11, President Bush told troops gathered at Pennsylvania's Tobyhanna Army Depot that, "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war [in Iraq] began." He said that, "Some Democrats and antiwar critics are now...
The Selling of Brand Kurdistan
As chaos continues across much of Iraq, the governing authority is coming to yet another crossroads. Inside the Green Zone – the location of the U.S. Embassy and major Iraqi government offices – officials are struggling to forge an acceptable constitution by...
Neocons Bludgeon Professors With ‘Academic Freedom’
OAKLAND, California - A specter is again haunting U.S. colleges and universities. At the beginning of the Cold War in the early 1950s, Joseph McCarthy, the infamous Republican senator from Wisconsin, stalked the political landscape recklessly hurling charges that...
‘Heathens’ Not Welcome at Air Force Academy
In late April, the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a longtime religious watchdog group, called the nation's attention to numerous incidents of religious bias and the official promotion of fundamentalist Christianity at the...
Rehearsals for the Rapture
In mid-February, Israel's parliament backed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. While the vote in parliament has set off a few disruptive demonstrations by anti-disengagement settlers and their supporters,...