The Mercenaries Previously Known as Blackwater PR Watch, Feb. 17, 2009 Source: Washington Post, February 14, 2009. First it was Blackwater USA. Then it was Blackwater Worldwide. Now, it’s “Xe“ (pronounced “Zee”). The private military company has repeatedly tried to…
Category: International
Strasbourg to be locked down for NATO’s birthday party
Strasbourg prepares for siege as Anti-NATO forces gather Russia Today, Feb. 15, 2009 From April 3 to 5, 40 heads of state and government leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, will come to Strasbourg and Baden-Baden to celebrate the 60th…
Médecins Sans Frontières criticises UN for inaction over LRA attacks in Congo
United Nations peacekeepers in eastern Congo. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP by Annie Kelly, The Guardian, UK, Monday 16 February 2009 12.52 GMT UN peacekeeping forces are standing by while hundreds of civilians are killed and abducted and scores of villages are…
Sudan, Darfur rebels close to accord: rebel spokesman
by AFP, Feb. 14, 2009 DOHA (AFP) — Sudan and the Darfur rebel group Justice and Equality Movement are close to signing a “trust building and good intentions” draft document, the JEM spokesman said in Qatar on Saturday. “It will…
Afghanistan war unwinnable – retired Soviet general
Last Russian general warns US on Afghanistan By JIM HEINTZ – Feb. 13, 2009 MOSCOW (AP) — Twenty years after Red Army troops pulled out of Afghanistan, the last general to command them says the Soviets’ devastating experience is a…
Bagram Prison: Obama’s Guantanamo
Next flash point over terror detainees: Bagram prison by Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor, February 12, 2009 With Guantanamo set to close, more attention is falling on the US military facility in Afghanistan and those in custody there. At…
Guantanamo on the Brink
Death Looms for Inmates Amid Hunger Strikes and Beatings by Mark Townsend and Paul Harris, Independent UK. Posted on Alternet, February 9, 2009. Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, will step through the grand entrance of the Foreign and…
Afghanistan: civilian carnage increasing
Obama More Deadly for Afghan Civilians than Bush (in Jan 2009): “Change” Afghans Should Look Upon with Skepticism by Marc W. Herold, RAWA News, Feb. 2, 2009 The New Year’s first Afghan civilian killed by U.S/NATO action was a boy…
Fragile ceasefire in Gaza
Palestinians inspect the rubble of buildings in the eastern area of Jebaliya after Israeli troops withdrew from the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) Olmert announces “unilateral truce” Source: Al Jazeera.net Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime…
Gaza: First-hand account
A Report From Gaza: Terribly Bloodied, Still Breathing By Caoimhe Butterly, Counterpunch, Jan. 16-18, 2009 The morgues of Gaza’s hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue. Some…