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...
Pakistani Govt Accuses Opposition Leader of ‘Sedition’
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,...
Israeli Govt Close: Say Hello to Foreign Minister Lieberman
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....
Karzai: Obama’s Call to Reach Out to Moderate Taliban ‘Good News’
At a speech for International Women's Day, Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared an interview in which President Barack Obama spoke of "opportunities" to reach out to moderate Taliban "good news," saying this had been the position of the Afghan government for quite...
US Forces Kill Two Afghan Police in ‘Friendly Fire’ Incident
Some time on Friday night, Afghan National Policemen opened fire on a joint Afghan-US patrol in the Kapisa Province of Afghanistan. The troops returned fire, killing two of the police in what has been described as a case of mistaken identity. The coalition says the...
Israeli General: Iran Capable of Creating Nuclear Bomb
Speaking at an Israeli cabinet meeting today, Military Intelligence chief Major-General Amos Yadlin declared that Iran "has crossed the technological threshold, so that reaching a military nuclear ability is only a matter of matching the strategy to the goal of...
Pakistani Military Touts Victory in Bajaur
The Pakistani military showed off its previously declaring victory in the tiny Bajaur Agency today, showing off a captured (and largely destroyed) marketplace and declaring "the resistance has been broken down," providing a rare upnote to the military's ongoing, and...
12,000 US Troops to Leave Iraq by September
The US military announced today that 12,000 troops, less than 10 percent of the overall US presence on the ground, will be leaving Iraq in the next 6 months. The announcement that the long-promised pullout will continue at a snail's pace was further marred, however,...
Supreme Court Ruling Limits President’s Power to Detain Legal Residents
Though they left open the question of presidential orders to detain legal residents by refusing to take up the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the Supreme Court made a significant statement against such detentions by vacating a split 2008 decision by the Court of...
US Blames Afghan Weather for Taliban Success
Considering 2008 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the 2001 American invasion and predictions that 2009 would be even worse, it hardly seems a shock that the winter of 2008-09 has been quite a bit more violent than normal. Yet Colonel Pete Johnson gave...