Category: News

From the Washington Post: The very setup of the U.S. presence in Iraq undercut the mission. The chain of command was hazy, with no one individual in charge of the overall American effort in Iraq, a structure that led to frequent clashes between military and civilian officials. On May 16, 2003, L. Paul Bremer III,…

NYT Magazine: The counterfeiting of American currency by North Korea might seem, to some, to be a minor provocation by that country’s standards. North Korea, after all, has exported missile technology in blatant disregard of international norms; engaged in a decades-long campaign of kidnapping citizens of other countries; abandoned pledges not to pursue nuclear weapons;…

From the BBC: One of the Islamist leaders, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, urged all gunmen not allied to the UIC to surrender their weapons. “Any attempt to fight the Islamic courts is pointless. We are committed to put Mogadishu under one leadership,” he said. “Any group that tries to fight the Islamic courts will be…

From the BBC: According to reports on a Somali news network, gunmen arrived to close down the cinema in the town of Dhuusa Marreeb in central Galgadud district, where a crowd had gathered to watch the Germany-Italy World Cup semi-final. Some of the football fans began to protest and according to reports, the gunmen fired…

From the Washington Post: Ali Iman Sharmarke, a businessman and radio journalist in Mogadishu, said he believed the Islamic militias would lose power if they grew too strict in their interpretation of religious law. “People will hate them as they hated the warlords,” Sharmarke said from Nairobi. “The moderates will not fly with bin Laden.”…

June 2006 issue of Crisis Watch, from the International Crisis Group: Tensions and violence escalated in Israel/Occupied Territories as the Israeli military launched operations into Gaza following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants. In Sudan, implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement faltered as rebel divisions widened. Insecurity along the border between Chad and…

Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey, from the New York Times: There is, of course, another possible explanation for all the outraged bloviating. It is an election year. Karl Rove has already said that if it were up to the Democrats, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would still be alive. The attacks on the press are part of…

From the Moscow Times, Chris Floyd on Ron Suskind’s new book “The One Percent Doctrine”: But perhaps the most revealing moment in Suskind’s book is a brief vignette that captures the quintessence of Bush’s callous disregard for the American people — and the regime’s strange, preternatural calm in the face of imminent attack. In August…

From The New Yorker: Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Dick Cheney’s chief of staff David S. Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration’s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm,…

AP, from the New York Times: Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a strongly worded dissent, saying the court’s decision would “sorely hamper the president’s ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy.” The court’s willingness, Thomas said, “to second-guess the determination of the political branches that these conspirators must be brought to justice is…

From the BBC: Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered special services to “find and destroy” the killers of four Russian diplomats taken hostage in Iraq. The head of Russia’s security services immediately pledged to see Putin’s order carried out. The Russian government confirmed the four men’s deaths this week, after an insurgent group released a…