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 Johnny Depp.
But as the Somali marauders prove, modern-day piracy is far from the supposedly romantic business that inspired Daniel Defoe, not to mention innumerable Halloween costumes. Read the rest of this entry »

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 south of Baghdad and shares a 125-mile border with neighboring Iran, was the 13th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be returned to Iraq’s control. The handover comes amid a sharp decline in violence. No Americans have died in Wasit so far this year. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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