Israel has agreed to a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah. Israel is seeking to obtain the bodies of two soldiers presumed dead, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were captured in 2006, precipitating an invasion of Lebanon by Israel and war with Hezbollah. 159 Israelis were killed during that war, and…
Syria agreed this week to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency investigate an alleged nuclear site bombed last September by Israel. IAEA inspectors visited the site and collected soil samples earlier this week. The IAEA criticized Israel for the bombing, saying any intelligence that Syria was developing a nuclear program…
A report recently published by Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) “reveals the widespread phenomenon of violence against bound Palestinian detainees by IDF soldiers and the almost absolute indifference to the IDF, the Ministry of Defense and the Knesset towards the existence of this phenomenon and the need to…
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai threatened to send forces into Pakistan in response to militant groups using Pakistan as a base to launch attacks into Afghanistan. “If these people in Pakistan give themselves the right to come and fight in Afghanistan,” Karzai said, “as was continuing for the last 30 years,…
The New York Times reports on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statements over the weekend on her visit to Israel with regard to Israel’s continued settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. “Ms. Rice was more explicit than usual in asserting that the construction was reducing confidence in the talks.”…
The story of how the Bush administration is trying to push through an agreement with Iraq that would grant the US permanent military bases, control of Iraqi airspace, immunity for US troops and contractors, the ability to engage in any military actions they desire and to arrest and detain anyone…
Der Spiegel reports that “The Israeli government no longer believes that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. A broad consensus in favor of a military strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities — without the Americans, if necessary — is beginning to take shape.” In a standard line, Spiegel reports…
The A.Q. Khan nuclear black market network not only proliferated uranium enrichment technology, but also designs for nuclear warheads small enough to be fitted to a ballistic missile, it has been reported. Khan’s network was shut down in 2004 under pressure from the US. Khan is considered the “father” of…
The EU offered incentives to Iran this week in an effort to convince it to stop enriching uranium. Iran responded by once again declaring that it had no intention of stopping enrichment and that its right to do so for nuclear power was guaranteed as a member of the NPT…
The threat of military attack against Iran has continued to escalate as the European Union this week conceded to pressure from the US to implement stricter sanctions against Iran for refusing to cease from enriching uranium for its nuclear program. Earlier this week, Israeli transport minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, “If…
Pakistan condemned a US airstrike within the country near its border with Afghanistan that officials claimed resulted in the deaths of 11 Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistani government called the incident a “major setback to our relations with the US” and an ambassador from a NATO member nation warned that “Pakistan…
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned that Israel is planning a large scale invasion of the Gaza Strip. The purpose would be to put a stop to rocket attacks that have killed a number of Israelis recently, and wrest away control of the territory from Hamas and hand it…
Amid a growing number of reports that the US is increasingly unhappy with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, the Independent reports that Zalmay Khalilzad is being considered as a replacement for the job. Zalmay Khalilzad is, like Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun and native of Afghanistan. He is currently the US ambassador…
More information about the Bush administration’s desire to sign a “security” agreement with Iraq came out this week. The agreement would grant the US continued use of more than 50 military bases, immunity to US troops and contractors, use of Iraqi airspace, power to arrest anyone it wants, and carte…
The Washington Post had an editorial yesterday suggesting that it is difficult to say whether President George W. Bush “lied” about Iraq’s possession of WMD, which has become “an article of faith” among many Americans. The author, Fred Hiatt, limits his criticism of Cheney and others in the administration to…
Israel once again threatened to attack Iran over its nuclear program this week. Speaking to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, transport minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, “If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective. Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear…
There is continuing talk that the cause of ever-increasing oil prices is the result of a speculative investment “bubble”. As an example, a Washington Post subtitle the other day read, “Trading Loophole for Wall Street Speculators Is Driving Up Prices, Critics Say”. This seems to be increasingly becoming the given…
The Senate Committee on Intelligence finally released its report on “Phase II” of its investigation into the “intelligence failure” on Iraq’s WMD. The report based upon “Phase I” of the investigation was released in 2004. That report made no judgments or assessments of the truthfulness of Bush administration statements about…
After “six years” of being “the darling of the United States”, the “luster” of Afghan President Hamid Karzai “may be fading”, reports the New York Times, because of a “growing concern” that he “is not up to addressing Afghanistan’s many troubles.” “According to American and European diplomats, recent tension has…
When the International Atomic Energy Agency sent its follow-up report on the implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement in Iran to the United Nations Security Council on May 26, the response from the U.S. media was pretty much along predictable lines. The next day, The New York…
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