RIGHTS: Europe Plans Spies in the Skies

Warplanes similar to those used to bomb civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be flying in Europe's skies within the next few years, under a scheme being prepared by Brussels officials.

U.S.: The Guantanamo Shell Game?

Human and rights advocates and members of the Republican Party found unusual common ground Monday.

RIGHTS-US: Guantanamo Prisoners Not “Persons”

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Monday to review a lower court's dismissal of a case brought by four British former Guantanamo prisoners against former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the detainees' lawyers charged Tuesday that the country's highest court evidently believes that "torture and religious humiliation are permissible tools for a government to use".

POLITICS: U.S. Silent About Taliban Guarantee Offer on al Qaeda

The Barack Obama administration is refusing to acknowledge an offer by the leadership of the Taliban in early December to give "legal guarantees" that it will not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries.

US: Increased Focus and Growing Pressure on Pakistan

While President Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he will "surge" 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan has received all of the attention here over the past week, Pakistan appears to be looming larger than ever in Washington’s strategic calculations and concerns.

US: Obama Launches Freedom of Information Initiative

Advocates for greater freedom of information are expressing approval of the Obama administration’s new ‘Open Government Directive’ - but some are sounding cautionary notes that executive agencies are still hiding behind "national security" to conceal government misconduct.

RIGHTS-TURKEY: Jailing Kurdish Children to Undermine Dissent

Turkey is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but that does not stop minors in the country's Kurdish dominated eastern and southeastern regions from ending up with stiff jail sentences.

POLITICS: Pentagon’s War Pitch Belied by Taliban-Qaeda Conflict

U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen argued in Senate Testimony Wednesday that the 30,000- troop increase is necessary to prevent the Taliban from giving new safe havens to al Qaeda terrorists.

POLITICS: Neo-Cons Get Warm and Fuzzy Over “War President”

U.S. President Barack Obama's plan for a 30,000-troop surge and a troop withdrawal timeline beginning in 18 months has caught criticism from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers.

U.S.: Obama’s Afghan Plan Has Something for Everyone… to Hate

President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point laid out his administration's plan to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and start a phased withdrawal beginning in 18 months, but the plan has won the White House few supporters in either its own party or across the aisle.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Obama to Surge 30,000 Troops, With Deadline

In a highly anticipated speech Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced the dispatch of 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan over the next seven months and said he would begin drawing down the U.S. military presence there 12 months later.

U.S.: Obama Had Rejected His Own Speech’s Surge Rationale

President Barack Obama presented a case Tuesday for sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan that included both soaring rhetoric and a new emphasis on its necessity for U.S. national security.

POLITICS-US: High Court to Hear Patriot Act Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging a law that critics say treats human rights advocates as criminal terrorists, and threatens them with 15 years in prison for advocating nonviolent means to resolve disputes.

POLITICS: Tajik Grip on Afghan Army Signals New Ethnic War

Contrary to the official portrayal of the Afghan National Army (ANA) as ethnically balanced, the latest data from U.S. sources reveal that the Tajik minority now accounts for far more of its troops than the Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group.

CANADA: Govt Stonewalls on Alleged Torture of Afghan Detainees

Canadians appear unlikely to get the entire story behind their military's transfer of Afghans captured in war to Afghan government authorities and possible torture.

YEMEN: U.S. Urged to Increase Aid and Involvement

As President Barack Obama ponders escalating Washington's military and political investment in Afghanistan, a think tank close to his administration is urging Washington to ramp up U.S. aid and involvement in strife-torn Yemen, as well.

POLITICS: Afghan Army Turnover Rate Threatens U.S. War Plans

One in every four combat soldiers quit the Afghan National Army (ANA) during the year ending in September, published data by the U.S. Defence Department and the Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan reveals.

POLITICS: Realities Collide at Halifax “War Conference”

While the world's top military elites gather inside a fortified hotel to discuss NATO's future, protesters question the organisation's legitimacy, secrecy, and the lack of democratic debate about the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.

Q&A: “Karzai Assigned a Rabbit to Take Care of the Carrot”

In the aftermath of national elections widely condemned as fraudulent, the United States and its allies are wondering what to do about Afghanistan.

U.S.: Obama Returns to Greater Middle East Mess

As Barack Obama arrives home from his weeklong tour of East Asia, he confronts a growing list of ever more urgent problems in the Greater Middle East that he inherited from George W. Bush's "global war on terror".

RIGHTS-US: “New” Military Courts Still Lack Basic Safeguards

While conservatives complain about Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terror suspects from Guantanamo coming to New York for trial, many legal experts and human rights groups are being equally outspoken in their criticism of the "new and improved" military commissions designated to try five other detainees.