Antiwar.com

Southeast Asian regimes known for their human rights violations are receiving a reminder here of how close the US government is to marching in their step, including having the habit of detaining without trial people deemed to be national security threats. On Friday, a senior US official appealed for more global understanding about a this … Continue reading “On Rights, US Government Not Too Far from Asian Regimes”

Washington’s policymakers might believe they have scored a diplomatic coup of sorts in South Asia by reportedly reaching a deal with Pakistan to allow US troops to be deployed in Pakistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden. This deal with Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is supposedly in return for the pardon that Musharraf gave … Continue reading “US Move Is Bad News for South Asian Security”

As I was finishing a piece for the Orange County Register on Iraq a year after hostilities began (if you’re interested it should be available on the Register web site) on Sunday morning, or maybe even on Saturday if they post earlier) I got to thinking about some of the more fundamental problems that make … Continue reading “Middle East: More Fundamental Problems”

The U.S.-backed government in Kabul is facing large-scale desertions by western-trained local security forces as it tries to establish a safe environment in the run-up to scheduled June elections. The success of the upcoming vote has been predicated primarily on the creation of a 10,000-strong Afghan National Army (ANA) and a 20,000-strong police force, both … Continue reading “Army Desertions Complicate Afghan Election Plans”

A cornered rat will fight to the death, squealing and clawing and baring its yellowed fangs – just like Max Boot in today’s (Thursday’s) Los Angeles Times, who lashes out at war opponents with rat-like ferocity. He doesn’t say they’re wrong, he doesn’t dispute the facts: instead, he employs a time-honored device straight out of … Continue reading “Inside the War Party”

A total of 36 journalists were killed as a direct result of their work during 2003, almost double the death toll of 19 in 2002, according to the latest in an annual series of reports on ‘Attacks on the Press’ released today by the New York-based watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The increase … Continue reading “Journalist Death Toll Doubles in 2003”

To encourage restraint in war coverage, governments don’t need to shoot journalists – though sometimes that’s helpful. Thirteen journalists were killed while covering the war and occupation in Iraq last year, says a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The deaths were a subset of 36 on-the-job fatalities related to journalistic work across … Continue reading “They Shoot Journalists, Don’t They?”

Was Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet really the last person in Washington to find out that both the president and vice president were being fed phony or “sexed up” intelligence about prewar Iraq by a Pentagon office staffed by ideologically driven neoconservatives? It is highly doubtful, but in his desperate attempt to walk … Continue reading “CIA Chief Clueless on Neocon Intelligence Channel”

Khalid al-Zabin, a 59-year-old Palestinian journalist was ambushed outside his office in Gaza, on Tuesday, March 2. His body was riddled with bullets. All that is known about his executioners is that they wore masks. No faction has claimed responsibility for his murder and the Palestinian Authority has no suspects. The disturbing episode is likely … Continue reading “Gazans Must Spurn Internal Strife and Egyptian Rule”

From its very beginning, the Yugoslav crisis has vexed both the people of the western Balkans and the world powers intervening in the region. Almost 14 years of efforts by all to reach some sort of solution, all the self-congratulatory and optimistic rhetoric aside, have resulted in repeated failures, often of catastrophic magnitude. That is … Continue reading “A Mockery of Reason”