TEHRAN - When the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad uncharacteristically denounced the country's police force for strictly enforcing the Islamic dress code (hijab), it was attributed to fears of losing popularity ahead of parliamentary elections in March. In...
How the Pentagon Planted a False Story
Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the Jan. 6 U.S.-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran's military aggressiveness, a...
War on Terror Moves East
The Pentagon's announcement Tuesday that it is dispatching some 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan underlines both Washington's mounting concern about the strength of the Taliban insurgency and the growing sense here that the central front in its nearly...
US, Iran One Misstep
From the Edge
Just as the Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference morphed largely into an exercise in lining up a coalition against Iran, so too is President George W. Bush's first visit to Israel quickly becoming the latest round of Tehran-bashing. The trip, which was initially...
The Hands of Esau
Which of the two men is the leader of the greatest power on earth and which is the boss of a small client state? A visitor from another planet, attending the press conference in Jerusalem, would find it hard not to answer: Olmert is the president of the great power,...
Iraqis ‘Awake’ to a New Danger
BAGHDAD – The newly formed "Awakening" forces set up by the U.S. military are bringing new conflict. For months now the U.S. military has been actively building what it calls Awakening forces and "concerned local citizens" in an effort to...
Afghan Prison Looks Like Another Guantanamo
As the world marks the sixth anniversary of the arrival of the first orange-jumpsuit-clad prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, human rights groups are attempting to focus public and congressional scrutiny on what some are calling "the other...
Tuesday: 15 Iraqis Killed, 38 Wounded
Updated at 11:45 p.m. EST, Jan. 15, 2008At least 15 Iraqis were killed and 38 were wounded in mostly small bombings. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq and praised reconciliation efforts...
Charlie Wilson’s Warlords
Both the book and movie Charlie Wilson's War glorify the "colorful" liberal Democratic congressman's successful crusade to bludgeon the reluctant, neoconservative Reagan administration into dramatically escalating funding, arming, and training of radical...
Gulf of Tonkin Will Be
Tough to Repeat
When the Tonkin Gulf incident took place in early August 1964, I was a journeyman CIA analyst in what Condoleezza Rice refers to as "the bowels of the agency." As a current intelligence analyst responsible for Russian policy toward Southeast Asia and China, I worked...


