Foreign Service officer Peter Van Buren had an interesting week. Aside from getting a book published, he became a news-cycle celebrity of sorts in Washington — not for his book, per se, but for the fact that he might get fired for it. Reporters and bloggers quickly...
Who doesn’t like roasted chicken? Fresh, crispy with a little salt, it falls off the bone into your mouth. It’s a great thing, unless the price is $2.5 million of your tax dollars. As a Foreign Service Officer with a 20-year career in the State Department, and as part...
In a development that could help resolve an 8-year-old diplomatic and humanitarian standoff, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group that has several thousand adherents at a military camp in Iraq, has agreed to allow residents to apply for refugee...
This week marks the beginning of what is supposed to be the final 100 days of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. But if U.S. troops are to leave Iraq at the end of this year as promised — repeatedly — it will take grassroots pressure to counter the growing “occupy Iraq...
BAGHDAD — When a middle-aged mother took a taxi alone from Baghdad to Nasiriyah, about 200 miles south, earlier this year, her 20-year-old driver stopped on the way, pulled her to the side of the road and raped her. And that began a telling legal struggle. "She is not...
If he were to pat you on the back, you would list it on your resume. When in Rome, they do as he does. He is the life of parties he has never attended Sharks have a week dedicated to him. He is the most interesting man in the world. Just a few lines from the...
