U.S. and the World
Film Festivals Become Centers of Controversy
Film festivals in Melbourne, Australia, and San Francisco have provoked fierce opposition from China and Israel over the screenings of documentaries about an exiled Uighur leader and a young American killed while trying to defend a Palestinian hom... read more
Iraqi Imprisoned without Charges for Telling the Truth
Hussam Mohammed Amin has been described as having the most impossible job in Iraq before the U.S. invasion in March 2003. The major general was responsible for overseeing the compilation of a massive volume of data showing that Iraq had no weapons... read more
U.S. Still Training Honduras Military after Military Coup
Despite President Barack Obama’s denunciations of last month’s coup in Honduras and promises to cut ties with its military, the U.S. government is still training Honduran officers at the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Coop... read more
Guantánamo Soldiers Helped Chinese Communist Interrogators
Not only were interrogators from China allowed to question Uighur prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, but U.S. military personnel helped out in the process, according to testimony provided at a congressional hearing last week.
Three Uighurs who ... read more
Clinton Finds New Business in India for Lockheed, Boeing, GE, Westinghouse
U.S.-India 3.0, the catchphrase being pushed by the Obama administration to laud the results of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to India, might also be called “billions for big business.” Negotiations between Clinton and Indian le... read more
Deadliest Month in Afghanistan
A familiar, but deadly nemesis has reappeared for the American combat soldier, helping make July the worst month for U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Thirty American soldiers have perished so far this month, partly ... read more
Bill Promotes Mental Health Screening for Combat Troops
Alarmed by escalating rates of suicide among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has introduced legislation requiring mental health screening for all soldiers and reservists. Therapists would examine combat personn... read more
U.S. Commanders Peeved by Iraqi Restrictions
American military commanders are finding their jobs a lot tougher these days since the U.S. pullout from all of Iraq’s cities and the sudden assertiveness by Iraqi security forces to protect urban areas. Immediately following the June 30 deadline ... read more
Joint U.S.-Cuba Military Exercise
In another sign of improving, if not incremental change in relations between the United States and Cuba, the U.S. military formally acknowledged a joint disaster-preparedness exercise last week between American and Cuban soldiers. Troops stationed... read more
Release of Poet Jailed for Making Fun of U.S.-Supported Dictator
Mounir Said Hanna, a 55-year-old administrator at a vocational school in southern Egypt, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,000 in U.S. dollars) for writing poems deemed insulting to President Hosni Mubar... read more
U.S.-Funded Bridge Helps Heroin Smugglers
Heroin smugglers in Central Asia are saying “Thanks, America!” for the $37 million bridge built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2007. Intended to help expand trade between poverty-stricken Afghanistan and Tajikistan, the bridge across the P... read more
Billionaire U.S. Arms Dealer Buys Uranium Mine in Australia
Not satisfied with just one uranium mine in his corporate empire, billionaire and arms merchant James Neal Blue has now purchased an adjoining mine in Australia used to supply radioactive material for civilian nuclear reactors in the United States... read more
Bush Stymied Investigation of Massacre by CIA-Paid Afghan Warlord
Political alliances with anti-Taliban forces kept the Bush administration from investigating allegations of mass slaughter in November 2001 by Afghanistan soldiers under the command of warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was on the CIA payroll and la... read more
Texas Reservist Spent One Week in Afghanistan, But Earned Silver Star
Army Reservist David Hutchinson barely got himself assimilated in Afghanistan last May before his superiors started calling him a hero for his actions in an intense firefight with Taliban guerrillas.
A convoy of the Army Reserve’s 420th Engine... read more
Hotel Survey: American Tourists Loud and Complain Most, But Best Tippers
Tourists from the United States have managed to expand the definition of “ugly American” in the latest Expedia survey ranking the worst travelers around the world. American tourists took top honors for being loudest, sloppiest, biggest complainers... read more
Detainee Asks to Stay at Guantánamo
For Umar Abdulayev the only thing worse than spending seven years at Guantánamo Bay is going home to Tajikistan, which is why the detainee prefers to stay behind bars. The Bush and Obama administrations accused Abdulayev of having connections with... read more