Carey L. Biron

Carey L. Biron writes for Inter Press Service.

US Snooping Makes It a Neighborhood Pariah

As the first formal probe by an international rights body into allegations of U.S. mass surveillance began here Monday, privacy advocates from throughout the Americas accused Washington of violating international covenants and endangering civil society. Monday’s hearing took place before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an arm of the 35-member Organization of American … Continue reading “US Snooping Makes It a Neighborhood Pariah”

US Selling Cluster Bombs Worth $641 million to Saudi Arabia

Arms control advocates are decrying a new U.S. Department of Defense announcement that it will be building and selling 1,300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, worth some 641 million dollars. The munitions at the heart of the sale are technically legal under recently strengthened US regulations aimed at reducing impact on civilian safety, but activists … Continue reading “US Selling Cluster Bombs Worth $641 million to Saudi Arabia”

Rate of US, Russian Nuclear Disarmament ‘Slowing’

Although the United States and Russia have massively reduced their collective number of nuclear weapons since the heyday of the Cold War, the rate of that reduction is slowing, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) warned Monday. Further, these two countries alone continue to account for more than 90 percent of the world’s total nuclear … Continue reading “Rate of US, Russian Nuclear Disarmament ‘Slowing’”

US Military Assistance to Central Asia Highly ‘Opaque’

U.S. military assistance to key Central Asian governments has increased dramatically in recent years but remains highly “unexamined,” according to new research presented in Washington on Tuesday. Military assistance, which stood at around 5% of all U.S. aid to the region during the 1990s, today constitutes nearly a third the total. This added up to … Continue reading “US Military Assistance to Central Asia Highly ‘Opaque’”