Behind Drone Issue in Yemen, a Struggle to Control Covert Ops

The drone war that has been anticipated in Yemen for the last few months has been delayed by the failure of U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) to generate usable intelligence on al Qaeda there.

Obama Lawyers Defend “Kill Lists”

Lawyers for the Barack Obama administration told a federal judge Monday that the U.S. government has authority to kill U.S. citizens whom the executive branch has unilaterally determined pose a threat to national security.

Muslim Americans Foil Terror Threats

A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that Muslim-American communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since Sep. 11, 2001.

BOOKS-US: Dissecting the Perpetual War Machine

Andrew J. Bacevich emerged in the first decade of the century as this country's most widely read and widely respected critic of U.S. militarism and empire.

Torture Orders Were Part of U.S. Sectarian War Strategy

The revelation by Wikileaks of a U.S. military order directing U.S. forces not to investigate cases of torture of detainees by Iraqis has been treated in news reports as yet another case of lack of concern by the U.S. military about detainee abuse.

Military Jury Tried to “Send a Message” in Khadr Case

A military jury at Guantanamo Bay sentenced a "child soldier" to 40 years in prison – unaware that Omar Khadr's defence and prosecution lawyers had already agreed on an eight-year sentence and further agreed that the United States would send the Canadian home next year.

U.S.: Guilty Plea for Child Fighter Averts “Publicity Nightmare”

With tongue in cheek, constitutional experts congratulated the U.S. government Tuesday for negotiating a plea deal with Guantanamo prisoner Omar Khadr, thus avoiding a trial in the military commission "puppet theatre" of a defendant who was just 15 at the time of his offences.

Wikileaks Paints Grim Picture of Iraqi Civilian Casualties

Two revelations await the reader of the Wikileaks section dealing with civilian deaths in the Iraq War: Iraqis are responsible for most of these deaths, and the number of total civilian casualties is substantially higher than has been previously reported.

Leaked Report, New Iraqi Alignment Reveal U.S. War Failure

A newly released Wikileaks document on Iraq and the new political alignment between Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki both provide fresh evidence that Gen. David Petraeus's war against Shi'a militias in 2007-2008 was a futile exercise.

More Iraqi Prison Abuses Exposed on Wikileaks

The publication of a motherlode of secret field reports from the Iraq War are shining a bright light on heretofore unknown or underreported suspicions about the power of private security contractors and the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by their fellow Iraqis, often with their U.S. military counterparts "turning a blind eye".

AFGHANISTAN: Do Peace Talks Have Traction?

Reports over the past 10 days of high-level talks between the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and senior representatives of the Taliban have spurred growing speculation here about whether Washington is looking for a speedy exit to the longest foreign war in its history.

U.S.: Think Tank Calls for “Bold Leap Forward” in India Ties

On the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama's maiden voyage to India early next month, an influential think tank is calling for "a bold leap forward" in ties between the two nations.

AFGHANISTAN-US: Report Shows Drones Strikes Based on Scant Evidence

New information on the Central Intelligence Agency's campaign of drone strikes in northwest Pakistan directly contradicts the image the Barack Obama administration and the CIA have sought to establish in the news media of a programme based on highly accurate targeting that is effective in disrupting al Qaeda's terrorist plots against the United States.

DEATH PENALTY-INDIA: No Noose Is Good News

Campaigners against the death penalty in India are hopeful that a series of commutations of hanging sentences to life imprisonment this month will add up to a trend against the award of capital punishment.

Senate Urges Pentagon to Rein in Afghan Contractors

Failures in vetting, training and supervising Defence Department private security contractors are putting U.S. and coalition troops as well as Afghan civilians at risk and unwittingly aiding Afghan militants by hiring security contractors provided by the Taliban and by warlords, warns a new report released last week by the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.

Pakistan’s Convoy Halt Forces U.S. to Reduce Tensions

By continuing its halt in NATO convoys headed for Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing into a second week, Pakistan's military leadership has brought an end to the unilateral attacks in Pakistan pushed by Gen. David Petraeus and forced Washington to make a new accommodation.

AFGHANISTAN: Nine Years in, Afghans Don’t Trust U.S.

On the ninth anniversary of the U.S. military intervention in their country, a new report released here Thursday finds that Afghans remain deeply distrustful and resentful of the impact and intent of foreign forces there.

U.N. Admits Congo Crisis Beyond Its Limited Capacity

Amid accusations that most U.N. peacekeepers turned a blind eye to the recent "mass rape" of more than 300 civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted that the mounting problems in the sprawling, crisis-stricken country are virtually beyond the capacity of the world body.

U.S. Still Taking a Hard Line on Peace Talks with Taliban

Following serious setbacks to the U.S. military's war plan in Afghanistan, the Barack Obama administration has taken the first tentative step toward a negotiated settlement of the conflict by actively seeking to ascertain the willingness of the Taliban to enter into negotiations, according to a source familiar with the administration's thinking about the issue.

US-PAKISTAN: Rise in Cross-Border Attacks Spurs Backlash

The steady increase in U.S. cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into the frontier areas of Pakistan – whether by drone missiles or attack helicopters – is causing a serious backlash from both the region's residents and Islamabad's government and military leadership.

U.S.: 9/11 Rescue Workers Still Waiting for Healthcare

Election-year interparty political wrangling is threatening to again sabotage congressional efforts to provide medical help for tens of thousands of firefighters and other first responders whose health was damaged by the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre.