The initial deal to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade in exchange for raising the debt ceiling contained what is called a trigger mechanism: if the debt committee couldn’t pass a budget cutting proposal, automatic across the board cuts would be activated – including defense. But now members of Congress are working [...]
McClatchy news service recently reported that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were “largely aloof from the process” of negotiating whether U.S. troops could or would remain in Iraq past the December deadline for withdrawal. As evidence, the story quoted logs that indicated neither had spoken to the Maliki government from March to October. The [...]
Libya’s interim government has vowed to prosecute anyone found responsible for the death of Muammar Gadhafi, in a sharp break with earlier denials that he was executed. The National Transitional Council initially lied about the circumstances of Gadhafi’s death, claiming after inspecting the body that he was shot in the crossfire of gun battles in [...]
US and Afghan forces exchanged six hours of gunfire with Taliban insurgents who launched attacks on two US bases in Kandahar on Thursday before exploding a car bomb outside a military outpost west of the city and firing rocket-propelled grenades at another garrison downtown. The onslaught of attacks ended with three Afghans killed and six [...]
NATO’s Secretary General has said the alliance will confirm on Friday a decision to end its operations in Libya by October 31. In tandem, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to end military operations in Libya. These decisions conflict with what Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil had requested earlier [...]
The defense industry and their associates in government continue to issue ominous warnings about the drastic hit to the economy the country would take if deep budget cuts become a reality. But a look at the revenue stream of top weapons manufactures like Lockheed Martin reveals steady profit margins even if the cuts take place. [...]
The United States and Russia agreed more than eight months ago to reduce their stock of strategic intercontinental missiles, bombers and nuclear warheads. But the US continues to maintain a nuclear edge over Russia. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty requires both countries to reduce their deployed nuclear warheads down to 1,550 each by February 2018. Currently, the United [...]
The recently announced co-chair of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Middle East advisory group is Walid Phares. He is dubbed as an academic and a counter-terrorism expert and is one of the primary advisers of Romney’s foreign policy. But as Mother Jones reports, there’s one thing left off his list of qualifications: “He was a high [...]
French FM: Syrian Govt ‘Almost Certain’ to Fall | Says Assad’s ouster ‘could take time’
Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a longtime American ally, is still benefiting from US support, despite tenuous calls for him to step down. But tensions are building as calls for his ouster intensify and as Washington’s concerns drift farther from his own. In a largely secret war, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special [...]
