Jim Lobe

The White House emphatically denied a report by a British tabloid Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush considered bombing the headquarters of the al-Jazeera satellite television station in Qatar during the U.S. Marine assault on Fallujah in April 2004. But al-Jazeera, joined by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), called on the … Continue reading “A Close Call for al-Jazeera?”

Amid growing pressure to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and mounting charges by Democrats that senior administration officials misled the nation into war there, Vice President Dick Cheney appears to have taken charge of defending his boss and taking on the critics. In his second public appearance in less than a week, Cheney told … Continue reading “Cheney: WMD Criticism ‘Dishonest and Reprehensible’”

In a major new blow to President George W. Bush’s determination to "stay the course" in Iraq, an influential Democratic hawk with close ties to the uniformed military has called for Washington to begin withdrawing U.S. troops immediately. In an emotional press conference Thursday morning, Rep. John Murtha, a former officer in the Marines and … Continue reading “More Wheels Spin Off Iraq Policy”

U.S. opinion leaders who expressed strong confidence in Washington’s global leadership in the late 1990s have been chastened by the Iraq war, which has also spurred a sharp rise in isolationist sentiment in the general public, according to the latest in a series of surveys released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the … Continue reading “Survey: Americans Reject Globo-Cop Role”

Although he dislikes foreign travel and formal summits, U.S. President George W. Bush must be relieved to be spending this week as an honored guest in several Asian capitals. According to the stereotype, Asians are unfailingly polite. The same can no longer be said even of the president’s fellow Republicans in Washington – not to … Continue reading “Republicans Cut and Run from Iraq and Bush”

Was she an innocent dupe who was played mercilessly by exile chieftain Ahmed Chalabi and his neoconservative and Pentagon backers who led the march to war with Iraq in March 2003? Or was she a co-conspirator in what former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson called a "cabal" that hijacked U.S. … Continue reading “Controversial WMD Reporter and NY Times Divorce”

Has U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney become so much of an albatross around his boss’ neck that he will have to go? While that question may appear a bit premature at the moment – speculation about the tenure of President’s George W. Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, remains on the front burner – it … Continue reading “Cheney Under Siege”

Amid growing concern over the fate and conditions of inmates engaged in a lengthy hunger strike at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday said he would not permit UN investigators to interview detainees there. Rumsfeld depicted the strike, in which about half of the estimated 540 detainees … Continue reading “Rumsfeld Rejects UN Access to Guantanamo”

With his closest aide for the past five years facing arraignment in federal court Thursday on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be hunkering down with a familiar cast of faces. His choices to replace his now-indicted former chief of staff and national security adviser, I. … Continue reading “Cheney Circles the Wagons”

with Katherine Stapp US Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff and top national security aide resigned Friday, hours before a grand jury formally indicted him on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice following a 22-month probe into the public disclosure of the identity of a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative. The resignation … Continue reading “Cheney’s Top Aide Indicted in CIA Leak Case”