While the United States seems determined as a matter of policy to see to its Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Iraq passed by the Iraqi Parliament, even to the point of making direct threats of severe consequences if they refuse, privately some high ranking...
The US Departments of State and Defense have informed companies that provide the over 160,000 contractors employed in Iraq that the new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), once it goes into effect, will strip them of the broad legal immunity for crimes that they now...
Updated 11/20 9:45 PM EST The Pakistani government has summoned US Ambassador Anne Patterson to lodge a formal protest over yesterday's US missile attack in Bannu District. The strike, which is reported to have killed six people, is just the latest in a long series of...
As President-elect Barack Obama's national security team begins to take shape, there is increasing disquiet among antiwar activists that his appointees and rumored appointees have thus-far, without exception, favored the Iraq invasion and held hawkish foreign policy...
Last week, the Pakistani government warned tribesmen in the restive Bajaur Agency to take action against the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), threatening military action against them if they refused. This week, the new policy seems to have spread to the Mohmand...
The National Intelligence Council (NIC) is expected to release a draft copy of a report titled "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World" as soon as tomorrow. The report will predict a variety of changes to the global situation over the next 17 years, and predict an...
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports that Iran plans to start installing another 3,000 centrifuges for its uranium enrichment program, which would bring the total amount of centrifuges in operation or in the process of being put into operation to...
Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Parvez Kayani met with top NATO officials today, reaffirming his support for their Afghanistan mission and promising to do everything within his power to ensure that the NATO supply line through Pakistan is kept open. Shipment of...
The Iraqi Parliament's debate on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was expected to be contentious, but it would have been difficult to envision just how contentious things ended up today. Influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc had firmly...
The Iraqi parliament continues to debate the contentious Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States which would govern the operation of US forces in Iraq when the current UN mandate expires at the end of the year. Both the Iraqi and US governments had...
