Commander of US forces in Iraq General Ray Odierno said today that despite the recent violence he has yet to receive any indication that the Iraqi government was considering asking US troops to remain in the nation beyond the end of 2011. Late last month Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he thought it was [...]
Yesterday’s reported incident between the USNS Impeccable and several ships in the Chinese Navy appears to have started a war of words, with National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said that China “seems to be in a more military, aggressive” stance and declared the incident “the most serious” since the April 2001 collision between a Chinese [...]
Charles “Chas” Freeman, the former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, withdrew his acceptance of the position of chairman of the National Intelligence Council, citing the media furor around his alleged anti-Israel views. In a statement issued after he withdrew himself from consideration, Freeman attributed his decision to “the barrage of libelous distortions of my record” [...]
Just hours after the Pakistani government threatened opposition leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with “life imprisonment and a fine” for sedition, Sharif spoke at a rally in Jhelum. At the rally, he declared that “we cannot leave Pakistan at the mercy of (President Asif Ali) Zardari,” and told his supporters to “get ready [...]
Just days after President Obama spoke in an interview of reaching out to moderate Taliban in an effort to reconcile at least some aspects of the growing insurgency with the faltering Afghan government, reports are emerging that his administration is planning to dramatically escalate their attacks against Taliban targets in neighboring Pakistan. One diplomat was [...]
In January and February of 2009, 32 coalition troops were killed in IED attacks, more than a threefold increase over the same period in 2008. The number wounded also rose to 96 from 39, reflecting the enormous increase in violence over the last year (which was itself the most violent year since the war began). [...]
Though Polish President Lech Kaczynski conceded that the planned US missile defense base was not vital “from the point of view of our security from so-called rogue states,” he demanded that President Obama go through with the deal signed by President Bush. Citing the reports that the Obama Administration was offering to abandon the controversial [...]
In a statement released today by the Defense Department describes an incident in the South China Sea in which several ships in the Chinese Navy hassled the unarmed USNS Impeccable, an Ocean Surveillance Ship operating in international waters. The Chinese are reportedly claiming that the vessel was engaged in illegal surveying off the coast of [...]
Late last month the Pakistani Supreme Court declared opposition leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz (chief minister of the Punjab Province) ineligible to hold public offices for opposing the 1999 military coup of Pervez Musharraf, sparking a growing series of protests against a government seemingly intent on marginalizing its biggest [...]
When Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman issued his demands for joining a Netanyahu-led government, the enormity of what he was asking shocked a lot of experts: three major ministerships, including foreign affairs – an unprecedented amount for a 15 seat party. But rather than wishful thinking, Lieberman may have turned out to be shrewder than [...]
