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Some Takeaways From the Pentagon’s Afghanistan Minerals Briefing
I wasn’t able to join yesterday’s briefing with two U.S. officials who commented on James Risen’s big story about geologists’ estimate that Afghanistan possesses about a trillion dollars worth of mineral wealth. But here’s the condensed version of what Paul Brinkley of the Defense Department’s Task Force for Business More…
The Biddings Bonanza on Afghan Mineral Rights Is Set to Begin
Whatever the speculation on the timing of The New York Times’ apparently-not-a-disclosure of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth — see Marc Ambinder, Matthew Yglesias, Tom Ricks — the Afghan government is very happy to have the story out. The Times’ Alissa Rubin describes Afghan officials as “giddy” over the More…
Are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Investigating U.S. Officials for Maher Arar’s Torture?
Maher Arar may not have been able to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal for redress after U.S. officials rendered him to Syria to be tortured. But Arar and his lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights are now disclosing that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have More…
When Rendition Victims Can’t Seek Justice
Via Kevin Drum, the Toronto Star reports that Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen captured in 2002 by U.S. officials and sent to Syria for a year’s worth of torture, has lost his appeal for a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Center for Constitutional Rights’s Maria LaHood More…
What Does the Next Marine Commandant Believe About ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’?
Check out this bit of inside baseball in this excellent Greg Jaffe piece about gay servicemembers waiting patiently for a final and to-be-determined end to the military’s ban on open gay service:
Even President Obama, set to name a new Marine Corps commandant in the coming weeks, is likely to
Afghan Troop Size Numbers to Watch
Gen. Stanley McChrystal is citing these figures in the expansion of the Afghan security forces as an accomplishment of his first year in command of the Afghanistan war:
“A year ago, there were about 150,000 total Afghan national security forces,” he said. “Today, there are 230,000. That’s a significant
White House Withheld From Intel Chief a Blueprint for Strengthening His Office
Here’s something that Dennis Blair probably doesn’t want to read now that he’s vacated his job as director of national intelligence. The Atlantic’s Max Fisher reports that a (typically powerless) White House intelligence advisory group issued a report around March outlining a plan to bolster the authority and More…
The ‘Resource Curse’ Comes to Afghanistan
After 30 years of war, Afghanistan’s economy is based around opium and foreign aid. But an important New York Times piece reports that geological data indicate that Afghanistan actually possesses an estimated trillion-with-a-T dollars’ worth of mineral wealth. And that’s most likely a bad thing.
Making Muslims Justify Their Americanness
There’s no good response to the command “Prove you don’t support Hezbollah.” Acceding to a bad-faith frame is hopeless. That’s why we consider “When did you stop beating your wife?” or “Are you now or have you ever been a Communist?” to be disgraceful locutions. Except, apparently, if you’re an More…
Amb. Crocker: Putting Iran in the ‘Axis of Evil’ Led Them to Release Brutal Insurgent Leader
At the Center for a New American Security’s annual conference yesterday, the respected former ambassador to Iraq and Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, made a point of saying that the rhetorical antagonization of Iran in 2002 had a real operational impact on the Afghanistan war. Including Iran in President Bush’s “Axis of More…
