Two kinds of imperial whining have come to pervade foreign policy discussion. One relates to Bush's overextending the military so they cannot deploy to other places desperately needing their lethal capacity.
Others fixate on "American credibility." If we withdraw, an October 22, 2006 Washington Post editorial declared, we forego our "moral obligation." After all the U.S. military and Iraqi sacrifices, the U.S. must not allow a co... (more)
Recently the chief of the Shin Bet declared that the "Israeli Arabs", a fifth of Israel's population, constitute a danger to the state.
He requested permission for the General Security Service to act against anyone who aims at changing the official designation of Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" - even if they use nothing but completely legal means.
It follows that In the view of the chief of the S... (more)
The government is predicting that some 15m people will revolt against Tony Blair’s controversial ID card scheme by refusing to produce the new cards or provide personal data on demand.
The forecast is made in documents released by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act. The papers show ministers expect national protests similar to the poll tax rebellions of the Thatcher era, with millions prepared to risk criminal prosecution. ... (more)
Iranian intelligence officers told the 15 British captives they first became suspicious about their activities after watching an interview with one of them on British television.
Families of the hostages said that their loved ones had told them the Iranians had made the claim soon after capturing them.
The revelation is likely to raise questions about the Ministry of Defence's decision to allow the media to accompany Cornwall, the ship on ... (more)
An airman received second-degree burns April 4 during a test of the Defense Department’s nonlethal millimeter-wave heat beam at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., according to Marine Corps Maj. Sarah Fullwood, spokeswoman for the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator program, Quantico, Va.
The airman was burned as the Air Force’s 820th Security Forces Group was testing a demonstrator version of the Active Denial System, a Humvee-mounted system that pr... (more)
MORE than half of Victoria Police officers caught speeding are being let off with a warning, The Sunday Age can reveal.
Figures obtained under freedom of information show that 134 police were caught speeding in police vehicles last year and more than half escaped without a fine. Only one in every 44 members of the general population caught speeding received the same kind of leniency. The others were booked.
This means that police caught speeding last year were 20 ti... (more)
Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. "Flashmobs" - groups rapidly mobilised by criminal gangs or terrorists groups.
This is the world in 30 years' time envisaged by a Ministry of Defence team responsible for painting a picture of the "future strategic cont... (more)
In a few weeks the US Congress is likely to vote to phase out the standard incandescent lightbulb within a decade. The frantic race to see who can best appease the global warming alarmists will claim another victim, the friendly glow of the direct descendant of Thomas Edison's filament-based light bulb.
Why would the humble lightbulb, a staple commodity that has raised the standard of living throughout the world, be in the bullseye? It was the incandescent electric light bulb t... (more)
Now that the U.S. Congress is investigating the truth of President George W. Bush's statements about the Iraq war, they might look into one of his most startling assertions: that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Critics dismissed that as an invention. They were wrong. There was a link, but not the one Bush was selling. The link between Hussein and Bin Laden was their banker, BCCI. But the link went beyond the dictator and the jihadist -- it passed throu... (more)
Newly released documents confirm that a Pentagon unit knowingly cooked up intelligence claiming a direct link between Iraq and al-Qaeda in order to win support for a preemptive strike against the country.
A report prepared by the Defense Department's Inspector General for Carl Levin, the Democratic Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, explicitly shows how former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith used his Defense Department position to cook intelligence c... (more)
Vice-President Dick Cheney continues to insist that al-Qa'ida had close ties with Iraq before the 2003 US-led invasion, despite the publication of further evidence, including the interrogation of Saddam Hussein, confirming the consensus to the contrary of US intelligence.
Mr Cheney's assertions came as Congress released the full declassified version of a Pentagon report that sharply criticises a special office in its own building for writing intelligence re... (more)
Were the post 9/11 anthrax mail attacks a well timed 'inside job' designed to target and intimidate U.S. senate opponents to the White House sponsored Patriot Act just prior to it's Capitol Hill passage?
Were the Washington, DC 'Beltway Sniper' shoot... (more)
In an interview conducted prior to his capture, but broadcast only after the release of the 15 Royal Navy personnel, Royal Marine Captain Chris Air, told Sky News TV that the object of their mission was to "gather intelligence" on Iran.
"We sort of gather int (intelligence) as well".
How did they do it? They were, according to Captain Chris Air, gathering intelligence from Iraqi fishing vessels.
The use of fishing vessels for spying purposes... (more)
Many months ago, I sent you an email concerning Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian American you managed—by way of the bully pulpit of your television program—to have arrested for crimes he did not commit, as a jury of his peers acquitted him on eight of 17 counts of terrorism, while remaining deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal on the other nine.
During Al-Arian’s trial, the FBI admitted intercepting 472,239 telephone calls o... (more)
Perhaps you remember Ralph Peters? He’s the United States Army Lieutenant Colonel formerly assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence who redrew the map of the Middle East for Armed Forces Journal in June, 2006. In the article, entitled “Blood Borders,” Peters wrote that his “hypothetical redrawing of boundaries reflects ethnic affinit... (more)
Mike Ergo is a 23-year-old honorably discharged Marine who fought in Fallujah. A tattoo on the inside of his left forearm depicts the first insurgent he killed in Iraq. A tattoo on his right arm reads: "Born to Fight." He loves the Marines, is proud of what he and his colleagues did overseas and is on inactive ready reserve through July 2009.
Yet a few weeks ago, the Walnut Creek native marched near the front of the anti-war demonstration that rolled through San ... (more)
Iran's state television said the British military "dictated" to its sailors what to say in a press conference on Friday.
The former captives told reporters they were pressured while in custody to admit to being in Iranian waters.
In its news report on the sailors, Iranian state TV said they held a "pre-organised" press conference in which "the British sailors only read from pages dictated to them."
We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.
No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to "invest" in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.
The Democrats, led by their increasingly erratic ... (more)
The Government was accused of bringing in road charges by stealth last night as it emerged that technology capable of running the system is already being introduced.
Ministers have repeatedly insisted that no final decision has been made on pay-as-you-go road charges, proposals for which led 1.8 million people to sign a petition on the 10 Downing Street website against the idea.
But it has emerged that nearly £500 million is being spent b... (more)
Plagued by the ghosts of his Communist childhood and struggling with new responsibilities as an American journalist, Alex Prokop reluctantly accepts an assignment to verify the offi... (more)
