Russia has stolen a march over the United States in the multi-million-dollar arms market in cash-strapped Yemen, whose weapons purchases are being funded mostly by neighboring Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni armed forces, currently undergoing an ambitious military modernization program worth an estimated four billion dollars, are armed with weapons largely from Russia, China, Ukraine and …
Continue reading “Russia, China Sustain Military Toehold in Yemen”
China’s on the rise and so is its arrogance, says Sascha Matuszak
Over the weekend, six of the remaining 13 Uighurs in Guantánamo – Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province – were released to resume new lives in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau (population: 20,000). I have written at length about the plight of Guantánamo’s Uighurs, innocent men caught up in the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in …
Continue reading “Who Are the Six Uighurs Released From Guantánamo to Palau?”
Last Thursday, while most U.S. media outlets were focused relentlessly on the marathon endurance test that was Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing to investigate why the Bush administration had allowed Chinese interrogators to visit Guantánamo to interrogate the …
Continue reading “Obama Maintains Bush Policies on Gitmo Uighurs”
Fragile – and not a threat, says Justin Raimondo
SEOUL – If the Obama administration needed a rogue nation to demonstrate its foreign policy resolve, central casting couldn’t have supplied a better candidate than North Korea. The government in Pyongyang routinely promises to unleash destruction of biblical proportions on its enemies. It has pulled out of international agreements, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty …
Continue reading “Playing the Hawk With North Korea”
UNITED NATIONS – The world’s biggest military spenders last year were countries that were either permanent members of the Security Council or aspiring to hold that privileged rank, according to the latest figures released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The United States, China, France, Britain, and Russia – all veto-wielding members …
Continue reading “UN’s Big Powers World’s Top Military Spenders”
Let’s tend to our own garden, says Justin Raimondo
Sunday’s underground nuclear test by North Korea drew strong condemnation Monday from U.S. President Barack Obama, who suggested that Washington will seek strong international sanctions by the UN Security Council and possibly impose tough unilateral measures of its own. According to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna, the blast slightly exceeded …
Continue reading “Drive for Sanctions Likely in Wake of North Korean Test”
Back in March, Pepe Escobar, that itchy, edgy global reporter for one of my favorite online publications, Asia Times, began laying out the great, ongoing energy struggle across Eurasia, or what he likes to call Pipelineistan for its web of oil and natural gas pipelines. In his first report, he dealt with the embattled energy …
Continue reading “Pipelineistan Goes Af-Pak” 
