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Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Army foresees doubling up tours 8/25/03
For the first time since the all-volunteer Army began in 1973, significant numbers of U.S. combat soldiers may have to start serving back-to-back overseas tours of up to a year each in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea, top Army officers say.
Monday, August 25, 2003
Inside story of the hunt for Bin Laden from The Guardian, 8/23/03
Experts who have been following the attempts of the Pakistanis and the US to find the al-Qaida leader have suggested that... [t]he Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, struck a deal with the US not to seize Bin Laden after the Afghan war for fear of inciting trouble in his own country.... With the US election nearing and mounting concerns about Washington's second great military project - Iraq - George Bush more than ever needs the incalculable political boost that Bin Laden's capture would bring.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Rumsfeld to resume US air missions in Colombian drug trade crackdown from The Independent, 8/20/03
Washington is already heavily involved in Colombia, which receives more US aid than any other country except Israel and Egypt. Much of the $3bn (£bn) provided in the past three years has been military assistance, prompting widespread criticism because of the links between the Colombian armed forces and paramilitary groups responsible for kidnappings and murders, especially of union leaders and civilian critics of the Bogota government.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Bush Revises Views On 'Combat' in Iraq from The Washington Post, 7/19/03
The description of active combat in Iraq was one of several statements Bush made in the interview that differed with earlier administration positions.... Asked about U.S. force presence in Afghanistan, Bush said the U.S. presence is being "gradually replaced" by other troops.... In fact, the 10,000 troops in Afghanistan represent the highest number of U.S. soldiers in the country since the war there began.
Sunday, August 17, 2003
The Case Against the Generals: US Now Home to Hundreds of Accused War Criminals and Torturers from All Over Latin America from The Washington Post, 8/17/03
By the time El Salvador's civil war finally ended in 1992, many members of the military elite -- the people who presided over the torture and murder of thousands of guerrillas and suspected leftist sympathizers -- had chosen the same haven [torture victim Juan Romagoza] had: the United States.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
A Debate Over U.S. 'Empire' Builds in Unexpected Circles from The Washington Post, 8/10/03
Has the United States become the very "empire" that the republic's founders heartily rejected? Liberal scholars have been raising the question but, more strikingly, so have some Republicans with impeccable conservative credentials.
Secret Talks With Iranian Arms Dealer from Newsday, 8/8/03
Pentagon hardliners pressing for regime change in Iran have held secret and unauthorized meetings in Paris with a controversial arms dealer who was a major figure in the Iran-contra scandal, according to administration officials.... [An] official said that the immediate objective of the Pentagon hardliners appears to be to "antagonize Iran so that they get frustrated and then by their reactions harden U.S. policy against them."
Bush Administration Paralyzed Over Iran 8/8/03
According to a series of leaks by U.S. officials, Iran has offered to hand over, if not directly to Washington then to friendly allies, three senior al-Qaeda leaders and might provide another three top terrorist suspects that Washington believes are being held by Teheran. But its price -- for the U.S. military to permanently shut down the operations of an Iraq-based Iranian rebel group that is on the State Department's official terrorism list -- might be too high for some hard-liners, centered in the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, who led the charge for war in Iraq.
'Dr Strangeloves' meet to plan new nuclear era from The Guardian, 8/7/03
US government scientists and Pentagon officials will gather today behind tight security at a Nebraska air force base to discuss the development of a modernised arsenal of small, specialised nuclear weapons which critics believe could mark the dawn of a new era in proliferation.
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Hiroshima Mayor Lashes Out at Bush on Atomic Bombing Anniversary 8/6/03
"The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse," Akiba said Wednesday in an address to some 40,000 people. "The chief cause is US nuclear policy...."
Monday, August 04, 2003
Judge Rules Unocal Can Be Tried in US for Alleged Myanmar Rights Abuses 8/1/03
US oil giant Unocal must stand trial in California for alleged complicity in human rights abuses by Myanmar's military junta, including forced labor, rape and torture, a judge ruled.
Friday, August 01, 2003
Read Between the Lines of Those 28 Missing Pages from The Nation, 7/29/03
In the last week we've moved from the 16 deceitful words in George W. Bush's State of the Union speech to the 28 White House-censored pages in the congressional report that dealt with Saudi Arabia's role in the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States. Yet even in its sanitized version, the bipartisan report... makes clear that the United States should have focused on Saudi Arabia, and not Iraq, in the aftermath of September 11.
Operation Iranian Freedom from The Nation, 7/31/03
...Iran has not forgotten that it was the United States and Britain that utilized king and cleric to bring about the regime change fifty years ago that destroyed Iran's fledgling democracy.
