Soon after Bush administration officials realized they had no plan on what to do after invading Iraq, they figured out they would have to do some reconstruction there. Then they figured out they needed money to pay for that. Then they decided they needed cash. Lots of it.
They literally trucked $20 billion in cash via tractor-trailers …
The high-profile prosecution of former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake mostly collapsed on Thursday in a huge embarrassment for the Justice Department, but also for the prosecutor of the case, William Welch II. And it is not the first time Welch has been at the center of a blunder. The development further highlights …
The news that the Obama administration is stepping up the secret war in Yemen says a lot about the White House. The Obama administration, it is said, has a bit of an infatuation with special operations. According to some sources, Obama has unleashed the military’s special operations command even more aggressively than the Bush …
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during his farewell tour in Afghanistan that troops there were poised to deliver a “decisive blow” against the Taliban.
I’m not sure why anybody would buy that kind of rhetoric at this late date, unless they had some reason to believe this decisive blow was somehow different from the “turning point” …
One of the worst things about these Afghanistan reports is the part where the authors document billions of our tax dollars flowing to contractors that might be crooked, don’t finish the job, payoff the Taliban, and generally dump money into the black hole that is Afghanistan.
The new report from Democrats on the Senate Foreign …
In case you missed it, China just gave us the finger.
Anybody reading the Wall Street Journal last week was probably struck by the news that the Pentagon now considers computer sabotage from another country an act of war, and that the United States might respond with military force.
I was really glad when Battleland’s Mark Thompson …
There is a spreading rash of assassinations and bombings in Iraq from Baghdad up to Kirkuk. News clips say the so-called Sons of Iraq are drifting back into the ranks of al-Qaeda since they are no longer getting paychecks from the United States.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed late last month. Five died in this latest attack, a rocket …
An article and video from the Guardian explore whether alleged Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley Manning ever should have been deployed because of his fragile mental state. He was apparently such a mess he wet his pants. The piece also explores allegedly lax data security at Manning’s post overseas.
This doesn’t necessarily excuse Manning’s …
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has released a landmark report announcing that the War on Drugs is over. Drugs won. Or rather, the so-called war is a failure. The criminalization of addiction is cruel and stupid. Legalization and regulation of some drugs, particularly marijuana, would defang criminal enterprises the way a legal …
Fighting is intensifying in Yemen and in particular in the capital city of Sanaa. Reports say thousands of armed fighters are flowing into that city to support the Hashed tribal confederation, which is locked in battle with forces loyal to Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The main airport is closed in the fractured …
“We believe that Pakistanis pursue the same goals and share the same hopes,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a press conference last week after a high-level meeting with the head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Suja Pasha, and other top Pakistani leaders. She noted success hunting down terrorists, thanks to …
The Pentagon announced today that the military has sworn charges — again — against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others for their involvement in the 9-11 attacks. The Obama administration had to backtrack and use military tribunals at Guantanamo for KSM after Congress freaked out when the Justice Department moved to press charges …
Last week I posted on two Senate Democrats, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, expressing concern that the government was abusing a section of the Patriot Act that allows the broad collection of records on Americans so long as the records are collected “for an investigation to protect against international …