40 posts
In a speech on the 43rd anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s epochal spaceflight, President Vladimir Putin called for the demilitarization of outer space: “We all know that for many years, space was an area for military and political rivalry. Today, we…
Xinhua is reporting that seven Chinese nationals were kidnapped by armed men in Fallujah, after they entered Iraq via Jordan. I just arrived in Beijing for a conference on Technical Aspects of Space Security at Beihang (Beijing Aeronautical and Aerospace…
I can’t let up on the bridge thing, I suppose, because Bremer compared the Iraqi reconstruction effort to the Marshall plan: “The grants to Iraq the President seeks bespeak grandeur of vision equal to the one which created the free…
Having read the declassified PDB, we now know the answer to President Bush’s rhetorical question, “Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on…
Two members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council have resigned over the operation in Fallujah and three others have condemned the operation. Abdel Karim Mahud al-Mahamadawi said “we have failed the Iraqi people”, while Abdel Basit Turki, according to another…
Some “highlights” in the USAID fact sheet released a couple of weeks ago: Power Production“In April, Iraq’s electrical generation capacity was 1,275 MW-29 percent of the pre-conflict level. … Total demand in Iraq is still estimated to be 7,000 MW,…
The Moscow City court sentenced Sutyagin to 15 years in a maximum-security prison.
The New York Times is reporting that, contrary to “repeated statements by the Bush administration and American officials in Iraq”, U.S. intellgience officials “are confronting a broad-based Shiite uprising that goes well beyond supporters of one militant Islamic cleric who…
Wolfowitz, in October 2003, responding to suggestions that an ambush that killed several Ukranian soldiers might dash hopes for a more international force: Actually, I visited down in that area. I met with the commander of the multinational force. It’s…
As I try to write a section in the dissertation on the principles of design behind the Chinese nuclear arsenal, I am confronted by the following two passages, both written by the eminent political scientist John Lewis (no relation): “Zhang…
