U.S.: Stuck in No-Fly Limbo

Ten U.S. citizens or lawful residents are suing the government for placing them on the "no-fly" list without notice or due process and then giving them no way to get their names off the list.

Unmanned Drones – Targeted Killing vs. “Collateral Murder”

When a Pakistani-U.S. national pleaded guilty last week to a failed attempt to detonate explosives packed in a vehicle in the heart of New York City, he admitted that one of the reasons he targeted the busy Times Square neighbourhood was to "injure and kill" as many people as possible.

Inspectors Call Afghan Police Tracking System a Failure

A system designed to track the success of Afghan police training is deeply flawed, says a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR).

US-AFGHANISTAN: What Now?

Nearly a week after the abrupt demise of Washington's top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. strategy for reversing the flood of bad news that has been recently pouring out of that strife-torn country remains as unclear as ever.

POLITICS: All Quiet on the Australian Front on Role in Afghanistan

The lack of debate here concerning Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan is unlikely to change in the near future despite the recent deaths of five Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel in the war-ravaged nation.

Switch to Petraeus Betrays Afghan Policy Crisis

Despite President Barack Obama's denial that his decision to fire Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan and replace him with Gen. David Petraeus signified any differences with McChrystal over war strategy, the decision obviously reflects a desire by Obama to find a way out of a deepening policy crisis in Afghanistan.

U.S. Private Security in Afghanistan “Pay Off Warlords, Taliban”

Every day, as many as 260 trucks filled with supplies for U.S. troops - from muffins to fuel to armoured tanks - are driven from the Pakistani port of Karachi across the Khyber pass into Afghanistan.

BOOKS-US: The More They Promise Change…

A year and a half into the presidency of Barack Obama, any hopes that he would usher in a dramatic rethinking of U.S. foreign policy have been more or less definitively dashed.

Canadian Rendition Probe Expands to U.S., Syria

The Canadian government has quietly been conducting an international criminal probe of the actions of Syrian and U.S. authorities in the case of Maher Arar, the Canadian who was arrested in 2002 by U.S. officials and then rendered to a Syrian jail where he was held incommunicado and tortured for 10 months before being released without charge, it was revealed Monday.

Peace Groups Slam High Court Ruling on “Terror Support”

In the wake of Monday's Supreme Court decision upholding a law making it a crime to provide any "material support" to an organisation designated as a "terrorist" by the U.S. government, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter charged that the law "actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organisations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence".

Hearings Reveal Lapses in Private Security in War Zones

Jerry Torres, CEO of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions, has a motto: "For Torres, failure is not an option." A former member of the Green Berets, one of the elite U.S. Army Special Forces, he was awarded "Executive of the Year" at the seventh annual "Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards" in November 2009.

U.S. High Court Derails Rendition Victim’s Lawsuit

The quest for justice for a Canadian who was mistakenly tagged as a terrorist by U.S. authorities and shipped off to a Syrian prison for close to a year of abuse came to an abrupt halt Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case.

Timing of Leak of Afghan Mineral Wealth Evokes Scepticism

The timing of the publication of a major New York Times story on the vast untapped mineral wealth that lies beneath Afghanistan's soil is raising major questions about the intent of the Pentagon, which released the information.

McChrystal Faces “Iraq 2006 Moment” in Coming Months

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal confronts the spectre of a collapse of U.S. political support for the war in Afghanistan in coming months comparable to the one that occurred in the Iraq War in late 2006.

AFGHANISTAN: The News Is Bad

While U.S. officials insist they are making progress in reversing the momentum built up by the Taliban insurgency over the last several years, the latest news from Afghanistan suggests the opposite may be closer to the truth.

Concerns Grow over Bagram’s Prison within a Prison

The administration of President Barack Obama is considering using Afghanistan's U.S.-run Bagram Air Base prison to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects captured far from a battlefield and who have not been charged with a crime - without any judicial oversight.

Health Agency Urged to Probe CIA Torture Claims

Human rights groups are turning to an obscure government agency to investigate allegations that medical professionals on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped the agency to perform experiments on detainees in U.S. custody following the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, in an effort to make "enhanced interrogation techniques" more efficient and provide them with legal cover.

Draft U.N. Treaty Targets Security Firms in War Zones

A United Nations Working Group that monitors the activities of mercenaries worldwide is now trying to rein in the widespread human rights abuses by private military and security companies (PMSCs), which are being increasingly deployed in war zones and peacekeeping operations.

Performance Series Tackles U.S. Accountability Deficit

The Culture Project, a New York City political performance group, staged the latest installment in its "Blueprint for Accountability" series - launched earlier this year to mark the anniversary of President Barack Obama's lapsed deadline to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp – to a sold-out audience Monday.

CIA Medics Honed Torture Techniques on Detainees, Group Charges

A major human rights organisation claims it has uncovered evidence indicating that the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush conducted "illegal and unethical human experimentation" and research on detainees in CIA custody.

EUROPE: Flotilla Raid Fires Up Israel Lobby

Within three days of Israel's attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Monday, the pro-Israel lobby in Brussels was already seeking to deflect attention from the killing of nine peace activists in international waters.