Entries Tagged 'International Affairs' ↓

The US pulled a surprise move and handed over “sovereignty” early to the Allawi government. Sovereignty in quotes, because what was handed over was nothing of the kind. Puppets are not sovereign.

for all kinds of documents and analysis, and most of it is entirely accessible to lay persons. In particular, check out Findlaw’s version of Portions of Pentagon Working Group March 2003 Draft Report on Interrogation Methods. Very nicely presented.

writer Elena Lappin described the ordeal she went through on a trip to the US to do some interviews in LA: Welcome to America. “…Cases such as mine are part of a systemic policy of harassing media representatives from 27 friendly countries whose citizens - not journalists! - can travel to the US without a visa, for 90 days.”

about what has been going on in Iraq on the governance side of things - and who isn’t, what with the nonexistent roadmap, the multiple acronymously-named groups with the same membership, and spying-for-Iran accusations - you can do much worse than to read Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, particularly the archives starting May 30 and May 23. Marshall’s conclusion, at least as of just now?

Now that some of the dust has settled, we can see one thing pretty clearly: the IGC basically hijacked the process. The IGC essentially reconstituted as a caretaker government. The new President, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, was the current president of the IGC. Hoshiyar Zebari, who was the foreign minister in the IGC, is now the foreign minister under the interim government. Allawi was a member of and choice of the IGC, etc. And so on down the list. The only key issue is that Chalabi, if not his crew, has been purged. Brahimi agreed to a laying on of hands. But he didn’t make the choices. He was sidelined.

from the world of pizza: Italy sets strict guidelines for pizza-making. Of course this has little to do with the practically unrelated dish we call ‘pizza’ in North America.

coming from Sy Hersh and others about what Rumsfeld did or did not know and authorize about the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Jason Vest’s article about Stephen Cambone is very interesting. Cambone, if you haven’t been following, was the guy the Pentagon sent to the May 11 Hearings to chaperone Gen. Taguba.