The reported execution of an alleged Uighur "separatist" in China's Xinjiang province is adding to concern by human rights groups that Beijing is taking advantage of the ongoing "war on terrorism" to crack down on the predominantly Muslim indigenous population in its...
Palestinians Run Into Another Wall
This other wall is not so visible as the controversial "security barrier" Israel is building around itself, but it is as real. It divides thousands of Palestinians from one another, and it does not look like it is going to come down. The name of this wall is The...
CIA: From Bad to Worse?
Blame the CIA. That's a political agenda that has found bipartisan support in Congress. Both the right and the left saw the departure of CIA chief George Tenet as a first step toward improving U.S. intelligence capabilities. This month two bipartisan committees ...
The Cult of Power
With almost 900 Americans dead, thousands horribly wounded, and talk of canceling a national election that is taking place in the shadow of terrorism, one has to ask: how did we get here? Seymour Hersh, speaking at the American Civil Liberties Union conference on July...
Wrongful Death and Everything After
BAGHDAD - Allawi Kathem Abed sat waiting patiently in the Iraqi assistance center in the capital last Saturday, confident things would be solved soon. He had come from the town of Abu Ghraib to Baghdad with a death certificate, a list of stolen property, and an oral...
Government Attempts End-Run on Detainee Rights
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that suspects imprisoned during the so-called "war on terrorism" could use the American legal system to challenge their detention, lawyers for prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center are moving forward with...
Papuan Self-Determination Sacrificed to US Courtship of Suharto
On the 35th anniversary of the so-called "Act of Free Choice" (AFC) that resulted in West Papua's annexation by Indonesia, newly declassified documents depict the administration of President Richard Nixon as unwilling to raise any objections to the process despite its...
Condoleezza Needs to Call Anonymous
In our various oral and written presentations on Iraq, my veteran intelligence officer colleagues and I took no delight in sharply criticizing what we perceived to be the corruption of intelligence analysis at CIA. Nothing would have pleased us more than to have been...
Quandary Over Saddam’s Defense
DUBAI - The rumor mill has been hard at work since Saddam Hussein first appeared before an Iraqi investigative judge after his December capture. The questions, now, are who will defend the former Iraqi president and will he get a fair trail under the new government....
Whitewash!
The real purpose of a government report is to place the blame where it does the least damage to the political party in office. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq" carefully...


