White House Losing Ground on Prisoner Treatment

Despite strong opposition from the Pentagon and the White House, the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate is coming under growing pressure to set specific standards for the "humane" treatment of detainees taken in Iraq and elsewhere in the George W. Bush...

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Public Skeptical About Bush’s Democracy Crusade

The U.S. public is deeply skeptical about the priority President George W. Bush has put on promoting democracy abroad, and its experience in Iraq has made it more so, according to a detailed new survey [.pdf] released Thursday by the Chicago Council on Foreign...

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Cuban Terror Case Erodes US Credibility, Critics Say

The decision Tuesday by a U.S. immigration judge in Texas to deny Venezuela's request to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, whom Caracas has dubbed "the Osama bin Laden of Latin America," was greeted with surprise and disappointment by Latin America activists and even...

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Iraq Withdrawal Debate Gathers Momentum

The growing specter of a full-scale civil war in Iraq – and the likelihood that such a conflict will draw in neighboring states – has intensified a summer-long debate here over whether and how to withdraw U.S. troops. Some analysts believe that an immediate...

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Whistleblowers Describe Routine, Severe Abuse

As a military jury in Texas considers the fate of Lynndie England, the low-ranking reservist pictured in the notorious photos of the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, two sergeants and a captain in one of the U.S. Army's most decorated combat...

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Promise and Peril in North Korea Deal

This week's six-party agreement on the principles for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula is being greeted somewhat warily here, with most experts stressing that the accord marks only the beginning of what is likely to be a protracted negotiating process that could...

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Uzbekistan Killings Set Off Massive Crackdown

The government of Uzbekistan has been engaged in unprecedented efforts, including massive detentions, torture, and forced confessions, to persuade its people and the outside world that Islamist extremists were responsible for a bloody massacre in Andijan last May,...

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Uncertain Anniversary for Iraq War Champions

It was four years ago that a little-known group called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) published an open letter to President George W. Bush advising him on how precisely he should carry out his brand-new "war on terrorism." In addition to ousting...

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Afghan Elections May Be Less Than Free

While Afghanistan's parliamentary elections Sunday are expected to go relatively smoothly, the freedom with which they are being carried out is being questioned by many observers. The presence on the ballot of a number of notorious warlords and their close associates,...

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Transatlantic Group Calls for Nuclear Deal With Iran

Ahead of a crucial International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting, next week, a group of some 50 prominent experts and former foreign-policy officials from the United States and Europe have mooted a deal with Iran on its controversial nuclear program. If Iran...

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