Before the motley bands of rifle-wielding toughs off the coast of Somalia accelerated their attacks on cargo ships in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, it was hard for some people to talk seriously about pirates. In fact, a number of reports on the most recent pirate attacks still include a reference to...
Monthly Archives: November 2008
Is Baghdad Ready for the U.S. to Start Leaving?
BAGHDAD–In late October, the U.S. military quietly returned control of the once deadly Wasit province to the Iraqi government. Lost in an avalanche of news about the U.S. presidential election, the small ceremony in the capital city of Kut marked an important step toward the conclusion of the war in Iraq. Wasit, which is...
Intelligence Report: IMF, World Bank May Have Less Influence by 2025
As the nation tries to understand the depth of the current global financial crisis, the U.S. intelligence community is contributing its own critique of international economic institutions as part of a larger analysis of where the world is headed in the coming years, known as the Global Trends 2025 report.
Homeland Security Experts to Obama: Make Fewer Natural-Disaster Declarations
With an economy in shambles, two wars underway, and Osama bin Laden still on the loose, natural disasters may be low on the list of presidential transition briefings. But given that President Bush has declared a near-record number of disasters this year, perhaps they should rank higher.
Internal Report Found CIA Lied About Plane Shootdown in Peru, Says GOP Congressman
A classified CIA report suggests that the agency lied to Congress and withheld information from the Justice Department concerning a clandestine drug interdiction mission in Peru that resulted in the deaths of a missionary and her infant daughter in 2001, says a congressmen who helps oversee the intelligence community.
How the Al Qaeda Terrorism Threat is Mutating
Terrorist chieftain Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding in one of the world’s most remote areas-the tribal territories between Pakistan and Afghanistan-but tracking him down remains a priority for the CIA, seven years after the 9/11 attacks. At the moment, bin Laden “appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of...