Από το ANDREW E. KRAMER | Μια ομάδα αμερικανικών συμβούλων που οδηγήθηκαν από μια μικρή ομάδα υπουργείου εξωτερικών έπαιξε ένα αναπόσπαστο τμήμα στη σύνταξη των συμβάσεων μεταξύ της ιρακινής κυβέρνησης και πέντε σημαντικές δυτικές επιχειρήσεις πετρελαίου για να αναπτύξουν μερικών από τους μεγαλύτερους τομείς στο Ιράκ, αμερικανικοί ανώτεροι υπάλληλοι λένε. Η κοινοποίηση, που έρχεται την παραμονή της ανακοίνωσης των συμβάσεων, είναι η πρώτη επιβεβαίωση της άμεσης συμμετοχής από τη διοίκηση των Μπους…

Από το Δαβίδ Willman | Η ομοσπονδιακή έρευνα σχετικά με τις θανάσιμες αποστολές ανθράκων τα τέλη του 2001 υπονομεύθηκε από τις διαρροές και μια πρόωρη σταθεροποίηση σε έναν ενιαίο ύποπτο, σύμφωνα με τους ανακριτές και τους επιστήμονες που συμμετέχουν στην περίπτωση. Περισσότερο από έξι έτη μετά από τις αποστολές, κανένας δεν έχει χρεωθεί, και ο κορυφαίος ύποπτος, προηγούμενος επιστήμονας Steven J. στρατού. Το Hatfill ήταν όλο εκτός από απάλλαξε την Παρασκευή όταν οι ΗΠΑ. Υπουργείο Δικαιοσύνης συμφωνηθε'ν…

Από ALISSA J. RUBIN | Οι ιρακινοί κυβερνητικοί ανώτεροι υπάλληλοι την Κυριακή επέκριναν τους αμερικανικούς στρατιωτικούς για δύο πρόσφατες επιθέσεις στις οποίες οι στρατιώτες σκότωσαν τους ανθρώπους που η κυβέρνηση εν λόγω ήταν πολίτες. Ένας θάνατος εμφανίστηκε κατά τη διάρκεια μιας επιδρομής από τους αμερικανικούς στρατιώτες την Παρασκευή κοντά σε Karbala δύο ημέρες νωρίτερα, τρεις άνθρωποι που περιγράφηκαν από τον Υπουργείο εσωτερικών θεμάτων ως υπάλληλοι τραπεζών στο δρόμο τους να εργαστούν πυροβολήθηκαν και…

ΗΠΑ. οι του Κογκρέσου ηγέτες συμφώνησαν αργά πέρυσι με τον Πρόεδρο George W. Το αίτημα χρηματοδότησης του Μπους για μια σημαντική κλιμάκωση των συγκεκαλυμμένων διαδικασιών ενάντια στο Ιράν στόχευσε στην αποσταθεροποίηση της ηγεσίας του, σύμφωνα με μια έκθεση στο περιοδικό Νεοϋρκέζου που δημοσιεύθηκε on-line την Κυριακή. The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers on a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be ...

By Nat Hentoff | In a June 6 letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey—largely ignored by a press immersed in the future of Hillary Clinton—56 Democrats in the House of Representatives asked for "an immediate investigation with the appointment of a special counsel to determine whether actions taken by the President, his Cabinet, and other Administration officials are in violation of the War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 2441) ...

ANDREW O. SELSKY | This was a sleepy Navy outpost before the U.S. began using it to hold prisoners in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks — and it may soon become one again. It is increasingly obvious that the days of this U.S. offshore prison are numbered. The Bush administration's main rationale for holding terrorism suspects without trial vanished when the Supreme Court ruled on June 12 ...

By Hannah Allam | BAGHDAD, Iraq — Senior Iraqi government officials said Saturday that a U.S. Special Forces counterterrorism unit conducted the raid that reportedly killed a relative of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki , touching off a high-stakes diplomatic crisis between the United States and Iraq . U.S. military officials in Baghdad had no comment for the second day in a row, an unusual position ...

By Tim Shipman in Washington and Philip Sherwell in New York | Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president's future campaign role is a "sticking point" in peace talks with Mrs Clinton's aides. The Telegraph has learned that the former president's rage is still so ...

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay are turned into "nomads" to keep them agitated and to punish those who break rules, a Sudanese journalist recently released from the U.S. military prison said Friday. Sami al-Haj said moving detainees between camps and from cell to cell appeared to be part of an official policy to destabilize them. "They were made into nomads," the Al-Jazeera journalist said. Frequent cell transfers at the prison became an issue ...

AP News | The Pentagon is preparing to order roughly 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year in a move that would allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in the country through 2009, The Associated Press has learned. The deployments would replace troops currently there. But the decisions could change depending on whether Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, decides in the fall to further reduce ...

Billboard | QUESTION: A liberal friend of mine in New York saw the Twin Towers fall while stuck in traffic on the Verrazano Bridge. She was so shook up, and remained so scared that in 2004 she voted for Bush, simply out of fright. ANSWER: Well, he used that. He played on people's fear, instead of people's faith and their real faith, real belief, their real human feelings. They used ...

SchNews | If you knew that someone was putting poison into your water supply, what would you do? Call the authorities? Well don’t bother cos it’s the government wot’s doing it! If you live in the West Midlands or the North East, the chances are that you already have a fluoridated water supply - and comments earlier this year from Health Secretary Alan Johnson made it clear that he ...

By Scott Ritter | I am a former U.N. weapons inspector. I started my work with the United Nations in September 1991, and between that date and my resignation in August 1998, I participated in over 30 inspections, 14 as chief inspector. The United Nations Special Commission, or UNSCOM, was the organization mandated by the Security Council with the implementation of its resolutions requiring Iraq to ...

By Slavoj Zizek | In 1968 Paris, one of the best-known graffiti messages on the city's walls was "Structures do not walk on the streets!" In other words, the massive student and workers demonstrations of '68 could not be explained in the terms of structuralism, as determined by the structural changes in society, as in Saussurean structuralism. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's response was that ...

IPS | By bringing together the world’s major oil producers and consumers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia marked a turning point in the negotiations for a new global energy order that is emerging under the weight of soaring oil prices, which are driven by factors other than supply and demand. "It could be asked whether the 140 dollars per barrel price can be negotiated between OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting ...