Launching Brand Petraeus

[Note for Readers: This is the third in TomDispatch's "by the numbers" series, leading up to this week's White House "Progress Report" from the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. The first, in July, was "Iraq by...

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The Mystery of al-Qaeda

Six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the entity known as al-Qaeda remains largely a mystery: its intent, its ideology, its leadership, and its inner workings are all largely unknown to the American people. Experts study them and interpret the arcane meanings of...

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Waiting for Gen. Petraeus

So all of Washington (and maybe even a few of those out in the rest of the country) is waiting for Gen. David Petraeus to deliver his report on the "surge" and how things are going in Iraq. It is a curious phenomenon whose curiosity has been too little...

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Neocons Put on a Surge-Stravaganza

With US General David Petraeus's eagerly anticipated final report on Iraq due on Sep. 15, supporters of the troop surge are busily trying to set the stage for the report that they believe will refute their opponents. The media blitz in Washington is unfolding under...

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Saturday: 66 Iraqis Killed, 60 Wounded

Updated at 12:15 a.m. EDT, Sept. 9, 2007During the latest round of violence, 66 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 60 more were wounded. No foreign military were reported killed, but the British military announced a troop reduction. Also, a small Sunni bloc has...

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Are Petraeus and Westmoreland Birds of a Feather?

The killing in Hawijah, Iraq of 18-year old Corporal Jeremy Shank of Jackson, Missouri (population 12,000) merited an article in the Southeast Missourian. Cpl. Shank was killed on Sept. 6, 2006 and I was in that part of Missouri when his body came home for burial....

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Rogue Regulator?

Days after Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei made his most recent "confidential" report to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Cheney Cabal sycophantic editorialists at the Washington Post charged ElBaradei with being a...

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