By James Bone | Six Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been notified that they could face prosecution in America for shooting dead 17 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in an infamous incident that provoked fury in Iraq. The Blackwater employees have reportedly been sent “target letters” by US prosecutors telling them that they could face charges for opening fire at the crowded intersection on September 16 last year. The move ...

By Bob Egelko  | After more than six years as a prisoner of the United States, former TV cameraman Sami al-Hajj is back at work with Al-Jazeera, the largest broadcaster in the Arab world, a thorn in the side of most Arab governments - and, by most indications, a target of deep hostility from the Bush administration. Al-Hajj, 39, was the longest-held journalist in U.S. custody at the time of his ...

Some 190,000 private personnel were working in the Iraq theater as of early this year, a new report says. By Peter Grier | Washington - The American military has depended on private contractors since sutlers sold paper, bacon, sugar, and other small luxuries to Continental Army troops during the Revolutionary War. But the scale of the use of contractors in Iraq is unprecedented in US history, according to a ...

CRAWFORD, Texas - The United States on Sunday accused Russia of stalling its military pullback in Georgia, but the Bush administration is not rushing to repudiate Moscow for its actions. The White House is struggling to figure out the best way to penalize Russia. It doesn't want to deeply damage existing cooperation on many fronts or discourage Moscow from further integrating itself into global economic and political institutions. At the same ...

By Tim Swanson | The US military recently accused Iran of training “death squads” whose primary goal is carrying out assassinations.  The information is being made public to supposedly “pressure” Iranian leadership into halting these operations. So if Iranian assassins are called “death squads” what are similarly trained operatives from the CIA or Army called? Perhaps the euphemisms that Pentagon officials use ...

By Carol Rosenberg | GUANTANAMO BAY NAY BASE, Cuba — One general testified about another general at the war court Wednesday, describing a Pentagon official fast-tracking trials here as "abusive, bullying, unprofessional.'' Moreover, in testimony, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy prison camps commander, described the approach employed earlier this year by his counterpart, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, this way: "Spray and pray. Charge everybody. ...

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart of Stratfor.com | Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told a congressional subcommittee on July 22 that the risk of a large-scale biological attack on the nation is significant and that the U.S. government knows its terrorist enemies have sought to use biological agents as instruments of warfare. Runge also said that the United ...

Truthdig | In the past two decades I have had the opportunity to participate in certain experiences pertaining to my work that fall into the category of “no one will ever believe this.” I usually file these away, calling on them only when events transpire that breathe new life into these extraordinary memories. Ron Suskind, a noted and accomplished journalist, has written a new book, “The Way of the ...

By Barry Grey | In a provocative statement delivered from the White House Rose Garden on Monday, President George W. Bush escalated the confrontation between the United States and Russia over the current fighting in Georgia. Bush denounced what he called Russia’s “dramatic and brutal” military escalation and demanded that Moscow agree to an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of its troops from the Caucasian country on its border. He ...

For past seven years, Israeli companies have been helping Gerogian army to preparer for war against Russia through arms deals, training of infantry units and security advice By Arie Egozi | The fighting which broke out over the weekend between Russia and Georgia has brought Israel's intensive involvement in the region into the limelight. This involvement includes the sale of advanced weapons to Georgia and ...

Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A suicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq ...

Raw Story | A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer. The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes ...

By Ritsuko Ando in New York | A MAN with a black hood pours water on the face of a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit strapped to a table: no, it's not Guantanamo Bay naval base, but New York's Coney Island amusement park. The scene using robotic dolls is an installation built by artist Steve Powers to criticise waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique the US has admitted using on ...

A Guantanamo detainee on Wednesday urged a human rights panel that investigates abuse cases in the Americas to review his accusations that he was tortured in the US "war on terror" prison. Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian who has been held at the US naval base in Cuba for six years as an "enemy combatant" without charge, became the first Guantanamo detainee to file a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human ...

The case against the lone suspect in the 2001 anthrax case, who killed himself last week, has been blasted by his lawyer as based on nothing but "innuendo and a staggering lack of real evidence".  By Guillaume Simard-Morissette  Justice Department officials claim that Bruce Ivins, 62, a US government bio-weapons scientist, posted envelopes containing anthrax spores to members of Congress and the media in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist ...