POLITICS-US: Primordial Right-Wing Think Tank Still a Player

Last month, the Heritage Foundation, Washington's largest and one of its most influential conservative think tanks, celebrated its 35th anniversary of saying no to so-called "big government" and yes to privatisation, deregulation, eviscerating the United States' social safety net, "traditional family values" and pre-emptive military strikes and a muscular foreign policy.

POLITICS: Sunni Insurgents Exploit U.S.-Sponsored Militias

For months, U.S. President George W. Bush and Gen. David Petraeus have been touting the programme of recruiting tens of thousands of Sunnis into U.S.-financed "Awakening Councils" as a master stroke of Iraq strategy which has weakened al Qaeda in Iraq and helps reduce sectarian conflict through "bottom up reconciliation".

POLITICS-US: Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post

Another high-ranking George W. Bush administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit Thursday amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organisation where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.

POLITICS: Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group

The George W. Bush administration has long pushed the "laptop documents" - 1,000 pages of technical documents supposedly from a stolen Iranian laptop - as hard evidence of Iranian intentions to build a nuclear weapon. Now charges based on those documents pose the only remaining obstacles to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring that Iran has resolved all unanswered questions about its nuclear programme.

POLITICS-US: Vets Break Silence on War Crimes

U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are planning to descend on Washington from Mar. 13-16 to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in those countries.

POLITICS-US: Bush, Congress Wrangle Over Domestic Spying

Former senior intelligence officials are disputing claims by the George W. Bush administration that the failure of Congress to pass a new foreign surveillance law is jeopardising the country's national security.

CANADA: Some Say Afghan Mission Is in the Wrong Hands

As Canada's parliament debates whether to extend the country's mission in Afghanistan beyond next year's withdrawal deadline, some peace advocates and conflict resolution experts say a U.N.-led mission is the best bet to negotiate a peace settlement involving all of the major parties in the ongoing civil war.

RIGHTS-US: Renditions Clothed in State Secrets Mantle

As the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency acknowledged it had erroneously denied using British territory to transport victims of "extraordinary rendition", a federal court bowed to pressure from the George W. Bush administration to dismiss a case against a Boeing subsidiary being sued for providing the aircraft that carried the suspected terrorists.

POLITICS-US: Neo-cons Fine-Tune Iran Angle

A new report published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think-tank purports to show the reach and scope of Iranian influence across the Middle East, but stops short of drawing conclusions about Tehran's intentions or grand strategy.

U.S./IRAQ: Strategic Alliances Remain Elusive

The George W. Bush administration has ballyhooed recent legislation passed by the Iraqi parliament as a sign that its troop escalation strategy has indeed created space for political reconciliation.

POLITICS-US: Snake Oil Sellers of the Christian Right?

The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs came under heavy criticism earlier this month from Muslim and religious freedom advocacy groups after it invited to a conference three self-professed "former terrorists" with strong links to the Christian right.

PAKISTAN: U.S. Reactions To Election Results Mixed

Forty-eight hours after Pakistani voters overwhelmingly repudiated the Bush administration’s "man in Islamabad", President Pervez Musharraf, Washington seemed uncertain about whether the election results marked a setback to U.S. strategic interests or an advance.

RIGHTS-US: Guantanamo Suspects Face Death, Fair Trial Doubts

As the U.S. moves towards holding death-sentence trials for six Guantánamo Bay detainees alleged to have plotted the Sep. 11 attacks, legal scholars and human rights advocates are questioning not only the six-year-long process and timing of the charges, but also whether the accused could ever receive fair trials.

POLITICS: Can the U.S. Brace Its Fall?

"Is the American era over?" That was the big question that launched a lengthy analysis by veteran international affairs reporter James Kitfield in the influential ‘National Journal’ last May. Significantly, the article - which featured interviews with an all-star cast of former top U.S. policy-makers - was titled "The Decline Begins."

POLITICS-US: Bush’s Budget Sidelines Transparency

President George W. Bush’s critics are charging that he is attempting to use a "backdoor signing statement" to thwart Congress’ desire to lift the veil of secrecy that has shrouded the U.S. Government for the past seven years.

U.S./IRAN: A History of Violence

By his own admission, U.S. Ambassador John W. Limbert's ordeal as a captive during the Iranian hostage crisis began with a monumental failure of negotiation.

POLITICS-US: The Cat’s Pause

As the man responsible for the health and strength of the U.S. military, Pentagon chief Robert Gates is increasingly finding himself between the devil and the deep blue sea.

POLITICS-US: The King Is Dead. Long Live McCain?

At the end of last summer, Sen. John McCain's bid for the Republican nomination for president was running on fumes. Broke and dejected, McCain was polling below New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and senator-turned-actor-turned-candidate Fred Thompson.

RIGHTS-US: White House, Justice Won’t Renounce Waterboarding

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Thursday to open a criminal investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" or to let Congress see the memorandum prepared by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that concluded that these practices were legal.

POLITICS-US: Iranian-Americans Seek Least-Hawkish Candidate

Jaded toward their government back home and cynical of the current U.S. administration and the Republicans they historically supported, a new generation of Iranian-Americans appears to be looking to Barack Obama to bring about change, especially with regards to U.S. foreign policy toward Iran.

MIDEAST: Annapolis Hopes Withered by Gaza Crisis

As President George W. Bush returned from his visit last month to Israel to reinvigorate the Annapolis process, the international media was dominated by reports of Palestinian militants firing rockets into Gaza, and Israel's response - an unprecedented blockade of the territory to effectively squeeze the population to turn against the Islamist group Hamas.