POLITICS-US: Pundits Debate the Inevitability of a Nuclear Iran

It wasn't U.S. relations with an Arab country on the tips of many tongues at this year's National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations meeting in the last week of October. Rather, much of the focus was on the Arab Middle East's ethnic Persian neighbour to the east: Iran.

POLITICS-US: Top Obama Advisor Has Long Ties to Neocons

With the 2008 presidential campaign at its end, pundits have begun to discuss in earnest what expected winner Barack Obama's administration might look like. An important piece of evidence is Obama's campaign team, which largely escaped the harsh scrutiny that his opponent's lobbyist-laden team received.

POLITICS-US: Analysts Question Timing of Syria Raid

A cross-border raid into Syria by U.S. forces in Iraq, and a subsequent stonewalling by U.S. officials unwilling to divulge details, has led to rampant speculation among U.S. analysts about the origins and meaning of the attack.

CANADA: Conservatives Win Minority Govt Amid Larger Battle

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives will continue ruling Canada as a minority government, they are several steps closer to a coveted parliamentary majority after Tuesday's general election.

POLITICS-US: Bush Set to Go With a Whimper, Not a Bang

With only three months left in office, U.S. President George W. Bush appears increasingly determined to calm the international waters he so vigorously churned up, especially during his first term.

POLITICS: Neo-cons, Ex-Israeli Diplomats Push Islamophobic Video

A group of hard-line U.S. neo-conservatives and former Israeli diplomats, among others, are behind the mass distribution, ahead of the November U.S. presidential election, of a controversial DVD that critics have denounced as Islamophobic.

POLITICS-US: The Return of the Return of History

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Georgia last month, many commentators have been quick to proclaim that the war signals "the return of history". But attentive observers could be forgiven for responding to these pronouncements with a sense of déjà vu.

US-GEORGIA: Expats Unite Against Russia

When the Russian military launched a military invasion of its small neighbour Georgia - operating at will in Georgia’s secessionist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Georgia proper - New York’s Georgian-American community responded almost immediately by gathering outside United Nations Headquarters here to protest the invasion of their homeland.

IRAQ: U.S. Officials Admit Worry over a ‘Difficult’ al-Maliki

U.S. officials privately admit being concerned that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki has become "overconfident" about his government’s ability to manage without U.S. combat troops, according to an Iraq analyst who just returned from a trip to Iraq arranged by U.S. commander General David Petraeus.

POLITICS-US: One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors

As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush - a staunch contractor supporter - is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.

POLITICS: U.S. Debates Putin’s Ambitions

Just days after the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia, the debate in Washington over how to view the crisis historically has become nearly as contentious as the debate over how to respond politically.

US/IRAN: Nothing Behind U.S. Allegations?

While the United States has repeatedly accused Iran of providing lethal weapons to Shiite militias, last week, U.S. officials once again failed to provide solid evidence for this charge, raising questions about the actual level of Iran’s meddling in Iraq.

POLITICS-US: How Tenet Betrayed the CIA on WMD in Iraq

Journalist Ron Suskind’s revelation that Saddam Hussein’s intelligence chief was a prewar intelligence source reporting to the British that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) adds yet another dimension to the systematic effort by then Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet to quash any evidence - no matter how credible - that conflicted with the George W. Bush administration’s propaganda line that Saddam was actively pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

RIGHTS-US: Hamdan’s Future Remains Unclear

Despite a sentence that effectively means convicted war criminal Salim Hamdan could be a free man before the end of this year, the future of Osama bin Laden’s driver is far from clear.

POLITICS-US: No Traction in the Middle East

More than five years after invading Iraq as a first step towards "transforming" the Middle East, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush seems to have lost its footing - let alone its unquestioned domination - throughout the region.

RIGHTS-US: ‘When You Have To Leave America To Be Free’

Nearly three years after the U.S. government failed to convict Palestinian activist and former college professor Sami Al-Arian of any charges in one of the most high-profile terrorism trials following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he continues to be held in federal prison - where, if convicted in an upcoming trial on criminal contempt charges, he faces the prospect of remaining for decades.

POLITICS-US: Neocon Flap Highlights Jewish Divide

A mushrooming media controversy pitting neoconservatives against a prominent Jewish-American political commentator could mark a new stage in the growing battle over who speaks for the U.S. Jewish community on foreign policy issues, particularly regarding the Middle East.

BOOKS-US: Blogging Brobdingnagian Blowback

It was neoconservative pundit Charles Krauthammer who, in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, inaugurated Washington's unipolar moment.

POLITICS-US: Hawks Belie Iran's "Existential Threat" to Israel

New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favour of U.S. strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the U.S. and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all.

POLITICS-US: A League of Their Own

A radical foreign policy idea put forth by presumptive Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has drawn cheers of support from sources as varied as his campaign's neo-conservative backers to liberal internationalists from the camp of his rival, Sen. Barack Obama. But the idea is not without some surprising detractors.

POLITICS-US: On Middle East, McCain Vows to Stay the Course

In a major address on Middle East policy Monday, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, pledged to maintain the Bush administration's hard line against Iran and expressed strong scepticism about the ability of the current Palestinian leadership to reach a peace accord with Israel.