POLITICS: Rice Picks Neo-Con Champion of Iraq War as Counselor

In a move that has surprised many foreign policy analysts here, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed a prominent neo-conservative hawk and leading champion of the Iraq war to the post of State Department Counselor.

POLITICS: U.S. to Send Top Refugee Official to Damascus

The State Department plans to send its top refugee official to Damascus in the coming weeks to discuss how best to deal with the estimated 500,000 to one million Iraqis who have sought safe haven in Syria, a Department spokesman confirmed here Thursday.

RIGHTS-US: Fate of Many “Ghost Prisoners” Still Unknown

The U.S. government should account for all "ghost prisoners" detained by the Central Intelligence Agency in secret prisons around the world, urges a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

RIGHTS: U.S., Canada Diverge on Terror War Tactics

In stark contrast to last week's U.S. court decision upholding the Military Commissions Act, Canada's court has unanimously struck down a law that would allow the Canadian government to use secret evidence to detain foreign-born terror suspects indefinitely without charges or open court hearings.

POLITICS: Pentagon Meet Discussed Escalating Pressure on Iran

Two weeks ago, Pentagon officials discussed a strategy to escalate U.S. pressure on Iran with the intention of creating the impression that the U.S. is ready to go to war, according to an account by one of the participants.

POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Ready to Talk With Iran, Syria

Two weeks after making major concessions for a nuclear accord with North Korea, the administration of President George W. Bush said Tuesday it was prepared to sit down with Iran and Syria as part of a regional conference to stabilise Iraq.

IRAQ: New Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatisation

The U.S.-backed Iraqi cabinet approved a new oil law Monday that is set to give foreign companies the long-term contracts and safe legal framework they have been waiting for, but which has rattled labour unions and international campaigners who say oil production should remain in the hands of Iraqis.

POLITICS: Will Surge Hurt US More Than Sanctions Hurt Iran?

The winds of fortune in the Iranian nuclear stand-off seem to have shifted, judging by the U.S.'s new confidence. But in Washington's apparent quest to get an upper hand, misreading the causes of the backlash against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran may cause the U.S. to lose rather than gain leverage.

RIGHTS-US: Top Court May Again Take Up Guantanamo

Following a U.S. appeals court's divided decision upholding the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act, opponents of the measure raced against the clock to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and have it heard during the court's current term.

US/MIDEAST: Rice Faces Formidable White House Foe

If, as she insists, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is determined to make concrete progress toward achieving George W. Bush's vision of a two-state solution, one in which Israel would be required to make major territorial concessions, it appears that she faces a major foe in the White House.

POLITICS-US: Bush Suffers First Iraq Defeat in Congress

In a significant defeat for President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives Friday voted 246 to 182 to "disapprove" his plan to add an estimated 30,000 U.S. troops to the 140,000 marines and soldiers already deployed in Iraq. Seventeen Republicans voted with the majority Democrats to approve the non-binding resolution.

RIGHTS-US: Guantanamo Trials Near Amid Myriad Challenges

In the face of multiple legal and legislative challenges, President George W. Bush this week issued an executive order to allow cases against prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to move forward to trials by military tribunals.

POLITICS-US: Rove Said to Have Received 2003 Iranian Proposal

Karl Rove, then White House senior political advisor for President George W. Bush, received a copy of the secret Iranian proposal for negotiations with the United States from former Republican Congressman Bob Ney in early May 2003, according to an Iranian-American scholar who was then on his Congressional staff.

POLITICS-US: The Neo-Con Dog That Isn’t Barking

For several weeks now, Washington has been abuzz with rumours that U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to attack nuclear and other sites in Iran this spring - rumours deemed sufficiently credible that lawmakers from both parties are hastily preparing legislation precisely to prevent such an eventuality.

POLITICS: U.S. Religious Leaders to Visit Iran

Amid rising tensions between their two countries, a group of U.S. religious leaders will leave Saturday for meetings with Iranian clergy and political leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Tehran next week.

HEALTH: US Ill-Equipped to Deal With Wave of Troubled Vets

Staff Sergeant Don Hanks had served 15 years in the U.S. Army before he spent a year running patrols in the heart of Iraq's Sunni triangle. He said he returned from the conflict a changed man.

POLITICS-US: Korea Deal Marks Big Victory for Realists

Tuesday's deal between North Korea and five other nations, including the United States, to take the first concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament in exchange for aid and normalised relations marks a long-awaited diplomatic breakthrough for U.S. President George W. Bush and a clear victory for "realists" in his administration.

POLITICS-US: National Security Experts Grim on Terror War

A new survey of more than 100 U.S. foreign policy experts - both Republicans and Democrats, as well as retired military and intelligence professionals - has found deep pessimism over the "global war on terror" and even deeper pessimism over the war in Iraq.

POLITICS: U.S. Briefing on Iran Discredits the Official Line

The first major effort by the George W. Bush administration to substantiate its case that the Iranian government has been providing weapons to Iraqi Shiites who oppose the occupation undermines the administration's political line by showing that it has been unable to find any real evidence of an Iranian government role.

POLITICS-US: Bush Library to Boost a Sagging Legacy

In the midst of the United States Senate debate over whether to allow a non-binding resolution opposing President George W. Bush's 21,000-plus troop surge in Iraq, and the United Nations climate change panel's report attributing global warming to human activity, it seems a little strange perhaps that a debate over a proposed presidential library would stir so many passions.

RIGHTS-US: Audit Finds Multiple Abuses in Immigration Jails

Suspected illegal immigrants held in detention by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are failing to receive timely medical treatment and adequate food, are subjected to frequent sexual harassment, and have their access to lawyers, relatives and immigration authorities improperly limited.