The Supreme Court today vacated a ruling by the US Court of Appeals in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal resident of the United States who was declared by then-President Bush to be an enemy combatant and held without charges for several years. They did not, however, take up the case themselves, [...]
Just one day after Afghanistan’s Election Commission overturned President Hamid Karzai’s decision to hold the presidential election, as the constitution requires, before his term ends on May 22, rival candidates said they felt Karzai should resign at the end of his term and turn the nation over to an interim government. A Karzai spokesman rejected [...]
Avigdor Lieberman, the controversial leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party which scored a major gain in last month’s elections, seems set to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s would-be coalition government, putting the role of foreign minister in the hands of one of these least diplomatic figures in all of Israeli politics. Incredibly, having apparently gained one of [...]
Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a high-level international conference on Afghanistan, which would be sponsored by the United Nations and would seek to arrive at a “common set of principles, perhaps embodied in a chairman’s statement, on a common way forward.” Then, having proposed the meeting, Secretary Clinton urged the inclusion of the [...]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for NATO to make “a fresh start” with Russia, saying the alliance “must find ways to work constructively with Russia where we share areas of common interest, including helping the people of Afghanistan.” Secretary Clinton says that at a meeting planned tomorrow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov she [...]
Bloomberg is reporting today that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been raising its flags and deploying its military in areas outside of their official borders. One Kurdish military officer explained that “Saddam kicked out Kurds, Arabs came in. Kurds are back, Arabs fled. If the Iraqi army comes, they will stab us in the [...]
In an event today at the White House, President Barack Obama called for a crackdown on wasteful defense spending and said there must be more competition in the contracting process. Obama declared the “days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over.” The statement came less than a week after the president’s budget, in [...]
Just one day after the Obama Administration declared an end to America’s four-year long diplomatic embargo of the Syrian government, US Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte claimed there was “growing evidence of clandestine nuclear activities in Syria.” The ambassador demanded that Syria provide all cooperation requested by the IAEA. The latest charges by the [...]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out at the Iranian government today, declaring them a threat to the Middle East, Europe and Russia. Clinton also claimed that “it is clear that Iran intends to interfere with the internal affairs of all of these people.” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed disappointment with the Obama [...]
A report issued today by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) warned that the Israeli government believes that it still retains the ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear program with a unilateral attack, and as the international community’s diplomatic path remains unsuccessful in stopping a weapons program or indeed proving that one exists, Israel [...]
