The Bush Administration announced a surprise push for a new Security Council Resolution by Friday that would extend by one year an exemption from prosecution by the International Criminal Court granted to U.S. personnel (including contractors). “Given the recent revelations…
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone has been at the center of the Abu Ghraib controversy, basically being accused in Sy Hersh’s article of running the special access program. This has led to a minor revival of “how…
Armscontrolwonk.com is going to be a little neglected over the next couple of days due to a strange confluence of events—a headcold, dead logic board in my laptop, a talk I have to give tomorrow at the Stimson Center and…
The aide who abruptly ended Colin Powell’s interview with Tim Russert is a former press flack for Tom DeLay. I knew the right wing had salted the State Department to undermine Powell’s influence, but this is nuts. An aide to…
I know better than to read the National Review, but this quote in an article on “Gen X in the Green Zone” contains a remarkably stupid comment from Michael Ledeen’s daughter in defense of the vast number of kids who…
The Hindu natonalist (BJP) government of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has fallen. The Congress party (led by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) won a surprise victory in India’s elections and is expected…
The Bush Administration and the Missile Defense Agency may run into trouble over their plans to place weapons in outer space. The Senate Armed Services Committee, in its defense authorization mark-up, directed the Missile Defense Agency “to provide the congressional…
Today, two pieces of terrible news for the arms control community and, more generally, anyone serious about discouraging the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. First, the United States collapsed the NPT Prepcom. The third nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory…
Bush plans to defend his space exploration initiative in a speech timed to coincide with the release of a report by a presidential commission to review the plan, according to administration sources quoted by United Press International. UPI also reported…
I wouldn’t call it a “torture” tape. I don’t think cutting someone’s head off is torture, just to be precise.Donald Rumsfeld, October 2003 Some other stunningly insensitive remarks about torture from the SECDEF: We don’t torture people. To suggest that…
