U.S.

Today is the day: about an hour ago, talks got underway in Vienna between Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S., Russia and France to see if an initial deal last month will indeed result in sending 75 percent of Iran’s low-enriched-uranium to Russia for reprocessing into fuel, which would be a concrete step [...]

A British High Court on Friday ordered that previously redacted text concerning the alleged torture of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed must be made public.
This is a breakthrough for Mohamed, because while he claims that he was tortured while detained in Pakistan and interrogated by U.S. and British agents, he’s never been able to [...]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the door for the first time Wednesday to the prospect of a U.S. military presence in Iraq after the December 2011 deadline for troop withdrawal set by last year’s bilateral accord — something President Obama appeared to rule out during a joint appearance on Wednesday.

It’s not been the greatest year for resupplying the Afghanistan war. The Kyrgyzstan government has been iffy about allowing the U.S. continued access to the Manas Air Base, a major transit hub, though it’s looking more like the U.S. military will keep access to Manas. Then there’s the NATO supply route through Pakistan, which goes [...]

What the hell, international community? Here we go, using the politically-saleable term “offshore balancing” to propose an alternative to invading and occupying Middle East countries, where we do things like protect Persian Gulf shipping lanes with our Navy — you know, the sealanes from which Gulf oil is exported? The ones that are like the [...]

My extremely tall friend Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress has a fascinating video interview with CNN’s Michael Ware, who’s done yeoman work reporting from Baghdad. Ware’s take on the Status of Forces Agreement: Iran had much more influence over the process than the U.S. seems to realize.