EGYPT: Church Bombing Fuels Sectarian Rift

It was a tragic year for Egypt’s minority Coptic Christian community that began with a drive-by shooting at a church in southern Egypt, and ended in deadly clashes near Cairo after authorities halted construction of a church. As 2010 came to a close, Copts ushering in the New Year with a midnight mass in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria wondered if 2011 would be any better.

RIGHTS: Guantanamo Closure Recedes Into Distance

President Barack Obama's hopes of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility appear as far from being realised as ever in the wake of new legislation approved by Congress this week.

US Stepping Up Pressure on Pakistan

This week's leak to the New York Times of a proposal for U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids against Afghan insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan may be intended to put more pressure on the Pakistani military to take action against those sanctuaries.

Gains in Kandahar Came with More Brutal U.S. Tactics

The Barack Obama administration's claim of "progress" in its war strategy is based on the military seizure of three rural districts outside Kandahar City in October.

U.S.: And Justice for Few

Poor defendants on death row, immigrants in unfair deportation proceedings, torture victims, domestic violence survivors and victims of racial discrimination - all these groups are consistently being denied access to justice while those responsible for the abuses are protected, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Govt Accused of Fuzzy Math in Gitmo Report

A prominent public interest law firm that has defended numerous Guantanamo Bay detainees charged Thursday that a recent government report on a high rate of recidivism among former inmates is loaded with "vague and unsubstantiated claims and misinformation".

Judge Declines to Rule on Targeted Killings of U.S. Citizens

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a court challenge to the policy of the administration of Barack Obama to target and execute U.S. citizens outside combat zones who do not pose an imminent threat.

U.S.: Govt Forced to Release Docs on Spying Programme

Last week's release of 900 pages of U.S. government documents dealing with the implementation of the nation's primary surveillance law suggests that the government has been systematically violating the privacy rights of U.S. citizens.

U.S.-WEST AFRICA: Report Urges Enhanced Maritime Security

The United States and its allies should give much more attention - and resources - to ensuring that weak West African governments along the oil- and gas-rich Gulf of Guinea can protect their territory and coastal regions from terrorists, drug and human traffickers, and other threats, according to new report by an influential think tank released here this week.

German Govt ‘Crying Wolf’ on Terrorist Attacks

Government officials in Germany are being accused of manipulating threats of terrorism to induce public hysteria, even while warning against such reactions. The self-contradictory approach has prompted German citizens to call the terror warnings "farcical" and "negligent."

Wikileaks Bolsters Claim of Deadly U.S. Attack in Yemen

A diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks corroborates images released earlier by Amnesty International (AI) showing that the U.S. military carried out a missile strike in south Yemen in December 2009 that killed dozens of local residents, including women and children, the rights group says.

U.S.: No Top Secrets, but Damaging Nonetheless

While the massive dump of some 250,000 internal U.S. diplomatic communications by Wikileaks includes none marked "top secret", their dissemination is already causing considerable embarrassment and may well inflict longer-term damage on Washington's foreign relations.

Leaked Cables Cast Light on Bungled CIA Kidnapping

Wikileaks' spectacular paper dump of U.S. diplomatic cables may not yet have produced any blockbusters, but many of the restricted or secret documents released to the world on Sunday have served to peel back the scabs of serious injuries inflicted by the administration of George W. Bush.

An Overeager Petraeus Ignored Danger Signs on Taliban Imposter

The revelation that the man presumed to be a high-ranking Taliban leader who had met with top Afghan officials was an imposter sheds new light on Gen. David Petraeus's aggressive propaganda about the supposed Taliban approach to the Hamid Karzai regime.

U.N. Remains Deadlocked on Defining Terrorism

When Israeli commandos killed nine mostly Turkish activists during a raid on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians last May, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the attack as a prime example of "state terrorism".

New York Terror Verdict Hailed as Vindicating Civil Trials

The conviction of the first Guantanamo Bay detainee brought to New York for trial is triggering a wide range of reactions from politicians and legal experts.

U.S.: Health and Privacy Concerns Dog Airport Body Scanners

Privacy advocates called on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Tuesday to end its controversial new initiative of whole-body scans and enhanced pat-downs of airline passengers, calling the programme "dangerous to health, ineffective and unconstitutional".

Britain to Settle Rendition, Torture Case for Millions

The British government will reportedly pay millions in compensation to seven British nationals who were unlawfully "rendered" to U.S.-run prisons and tortured with the cooperation of British intelligence.

U.S.: Blue-Ribbon Panel Finds AfPak Strategy at “Critical Point”

The administration of President Barack Obama should begin shifting to a counterterrorism (CT) strategy requiring many fewer troops in Afghanistan if its pending review finds that the current counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy is not working, according to a new report by a bipartisan task force of 25 prominent analysts and former top foreign policy officials.

Outrage Mounts over Bush’s Waterboarding “Confession”

After a three-year investigation, President Barack Obama's mantra – "look forward and not backwards" – appears to have trumped the rule of law as a special prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against the Central Intelligence Agency operatives involved in the destruction of video recordings of interrogations of "war on terror" suspects.

Q&A: “There Is No War on Terrorism”

"The U.S. intentionally confuses al Qaeda with other groups around the world fighting for their independence or liberation, but it's [just] a convenient way to whip up support and get people very afraid," says author and journalist and Reese Erlich.