In what has increasingly become an outsourced war, the Coalition Provisional Authority has just added half a billion dollars to the amount being spent on private security contractors. The role of such mercenaries has taken on new dimensions in Iraq. Heavily-armed...
Israeli Politician Lets the Truth Slip
Sometimes a person "buys his world in one moment," as the ancient Hebrew saying goes. This was done by the Minister of Justice, Yosef ("Tommy") Lapid, when he uttered the words: "This old woman reminds me of my grandmother!" This old woman, an inhabitant of the Rafah...
Hospitality and Hunger in Baghdad
A friend recently asked me to write some about how Iraqis are getting by in regards to feeding themselves amidst 60% unemployment, the fuel crisis, and the already terrible security situation that continues to degrade. The increased number of women and children...
Justice Dept. Changes Story on Padilla
Jose Padilla, originally detained for an alleged "dirty bomb" plot, is now being accused of conspiring to blow up apartment buildings with natural gas. Padilla, a New York-born American citizen, has been held since May 2002 without being charged. He was forbidden to...
Neocon Collapse in Washington and Baghdad
Fourteen months after reaching the zenith of their influence on U.S. foreign policy with the invasion of Iraq, neoconservatives appear to have fallen entirely out of favor, both within the administration of President George W. Bush and in Baghdad itself. The signs of...
The Neocons’ War
In detailing "the conservative crack-up" over the Iraq war, E. J. Dionne writes: "The isolationist conservatives around Pat Buchanan cannot understand why we went to war in the first place and they opposed it from the beginning. These conservatives speak...
Venezuela Opposition Upbeat about Last Phase of Recall Effort
CARACAS (IPS) The opposition movement in Venezuela assumed a triumphalist attitude Monday while President Hugo Chávez's supporters urged people to wait for the final results of the last phase of the signature-gathering effort aimed at activating a recall...
Venezuela Opposition Upbeat about Last Phase of Recall Effort
by Humberto Márquez CARACAS (IPS) The opposition movement in Venezuela assumed a triumphalist attitude Monday while President Hugo Chávez's supporters urged people to wait for the final results of the last phase of the signature-gathering effort...
U.S. Public Diplomacy
In politics, the name of the game is often zero sum. At times one country may have a positive advantage in reputation and influence while others like North Korea, China and Cuba may be on the negative side. At the end of World War II, no country could compete with the...
Ghazi al-Yawar on Iraqi Politics
Some flavor of the new president can be gathered from this recent FNS interview. Federal News Service May 27, 2004 (Note: The following was translated from Arabic) QUESTION: Would you be willing to intervene personally in trying to stop the fighting at Annajaf al...


