Jim Lobe

Two days after the coup d’etat that brought a brutal military junta to power in Argentina, then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered his subordinates to "encourage" the new regime by providing financial support, according to a previously classified transcript released here by the independent National Security Archive (NSA). The document, whose public release … Continue reading “Kissinger Backed Argentine Junta 30 Years Ago”

President George W. Bush has long assured the world that his intentions in Iraq are strictly honorable – to set the country on a clear and stable path toward democracy and withdraw U.S. troops as soon as Iraqi forces can take control, “and not one day more.” But more recent statements by top U.S. officials, … Continue reading “Are US Intentions More ‘Base’ Than Honorable?”

Three years after Pres. George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq, public confidence in the operation is dwindling ever smaller, as is the belief that Bush’s stated reasons for going to war were sincere, according to a new poll released here Wednesday by the University of Maryland’s Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA). Only … Continue reading “US Support for Iraq War Down to 28%”

If the medium is the message, then U.S. President George W. Bush’s choice of forum to launch a new public campaign to defend his beleaguered Iraq policy should be troubling to those, particularly in Europe, who had hoped that his administration was moving toward a more evenhanded stance in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The staunchly neoconservative … Continue reading “Bush Reaffirms Ties With Leading Neocons”

Pres. George W. Bush’s fast-waning political authority is far and away the biggest immediate casualty in what the Wall Street Journal Friday called “a debacle of the first order.” But the U.S. “war on terror” may also have suffered a major blow from what is widely perceived as a gratuitous slap in the face given … Continue reading “Mass Casualties in Collapse of Port Deal”

Releasing the latest edition of its annual human rights "Country Reports," the U.S. State Department Wednesday named Iran and China as among the world’s "most systematic human rights violators" in 2005, along with North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and Belarus. In a 16-page introduction, the report also singled out the human rights performances of Syria, … Continue reading “State Dept Lauds Iraq, Slams Iran in Rights Reports”

WASHINGTON – Fifteen years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, bilateral ties between Russia, its successor state, and the United States are "headed in the wrong direction," according to a new report [.pdf] released here this week by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In addition to disagreements over a growing number of … Continue reading “Report: Relations with Russia Moving in ‘Wrong Direction’”

WASHINGTON – While U.S. President George W. Bush hailed Thursday’s nuclear accord with India as a major breakthrough in forging a "strategic partnership" with the South Asian giant, the pact has been broadly denounced by nonproliferation experts here as a devil’s bargain. The agreement, which must still be approved by the U.S. Congress, marks a … Continue reading “US Critics Question Nuclear Pact With India”

U.S. President George W. Bush hopes his maiden tour of India and Pakistan this week will draw both South Asian giants more firmly into Washington’s orbit, as well as help restore his battered foreign policy image back home. Bush will spend three days in India, which U.S. policymakers increasingly depict as a long-term strategic counterweight … Continue reading “Bush Seeks to Draw India, Pakistan Closer to US”

WASHINGTON – Two days after the bombing of one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines in Iraq, analysts and officials here are holding their breath, desperately hoping that a rapid descent into a sectarian civil war in Iraq can still be avoided, if not reversed. While a Friday curfew and appeals for restraint by religious leaders … Continue reading “US Holds Its Breath in Aftermath of Mosque Bombing”