Antiwar.com

I‘m typing as mortars are blasting away in the nearby "Green Zone." Mortars are easy to tell – the higher pitched thunk of their launch, then a pause, then a loud boom that echoes through the still night. Blaring sirens wail in the distance, along with the random cracking of gunfire. Nightfall always seems to … Continue reading “What Calm Looks Like in Iraq”

Perhaps the most striking thing about the official acknowledgment that the two-year hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over is the fact that it was greeted by most with a collective shrug of the shoulders and an almost cheerful defense of what many of us view as utterly indefensible. “Based on what … Continue reading “No Semblance of Accountability”

In the 18th century, Goethe’s romantic novel The Sorrows of Young Werther led than more than one “sensible” young gentleman to emulate the protagonist and kill himself. I hope a happier end awaits Old Werther, the northern Virginia defense analyst who writes under that nom de plume for Chuck Spinney’s DNI Web site. Just as … Continue reading “The Century of the Believers”

The only thing worse than seeing endless news stories about the torture of "detainees" at U.S. prison camps like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay is seeing the word "shocking" in relation to something that we all, in our heart of hearts, knew was happening from the start. That is, unless I’m the only person in … Continue reading “Let’s Not Pretend We Didn’t Know”

CANBERRA – The U.S. and Australian governments could face legal action for damages after the Pentagon announced that it would release Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib from the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba after three years in detention without charges. While Habib’s legal team was taken by surprise by the Pentagon’s decision, future legal moves … Continue reading “Aussie Gitmo Detainee Mulls Legal Action”

The authorities in Belgrade entered the new calendar year in the same state of mental disarray and logical confusion they’ve displayed since ascending to power in 2000. That PM Kostunica and President Tadic would continue to say opposing things has by now become accepted as normal, but so has the even more pronounced dissent between … Continue reading “Unprepared for Challenges Ahead”

In the Dec. 29 New York Times, George Bush said of Osama bin Laden: “His vision of the world is one in which there is no freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and/or freedom of conscience.” But in the president’s zealous fervor to export democracy at the end of a gun barrel, the he has … Continue reading “Against War? Stop Buying It”

NEW YORK – Like President George W. Bush’s nominee for attorney general, his choice for Homeland Security czar is likely to face stiff opposition from some Democratic senators and human rights advocates because of what they say were abuses of civil liberties during his service in the Justice Department. Michael Chertoff was assistant attorney general … Continue reading “Chertoff Wrote Blueprint for Sept. 12 Crackdown”

On Sunday, the U.S. periodical Newsweek revealed that the Pentagon is actively considering an effort in Iraq that human rights groups say more closely resembles a dark and desperate homage to D’Aubuissonism than an actual policy initiative. Harking back to the days when the Ronald Reagan administration and its Salvadoran proxies, led by the extreme … Continue reading “Death Squads: Neither Quaint nor Obsolete”

JERUSALEM – Mahmoud Abbas must have unleashed a great sigh of relief when the results of the Palestinian election were announced Monday and it became clear he had won over 60 percent of the vote – a result he can present as a broad, popular mandate. But the electioneering was the easy part. Whether the … Continue reading “Now Comes the Hard Part for Abbas”