Though Abu Zubaydah was rejected by al Qaeda and is mentally ill, he’s been detained at Guantanamo for nine years with no plans to review his case.
WikiLeaks: Zubaydah Not Certified al Qaeda, Just Plain “Certifiable”
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War & Peace
Time to Sever the Saudi Ties That Bind
It would be nice to see America expand its cache of good will cache to enhance our diplomatic — as opposed to military — capital.
North Korea Ready to Deal, But West Wants It to Go All In
To the West, nuclear talks with North Korea have to be all or nothing.
The Undead Chicken
Muammar Gaddafi is the undead chicken. Bashar al-Assad of Syria and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain are the unscared monkeys. The United States has shaped its policy toward the evolving situation in the Middle East according to the Chinese proverb of “killing the chicken to scare the monkey.” The Obama administration has intervened in the conflict in Libya with the apparent goal of punishing Gaddafi for cracking down on the emerging protest movement back in February. This intervention was designed to send a message to other autocrats in the region: don’t fire on your unarmed opposition — or else. But the United States and its allies are having problems with the “or else” part of the equation.
Should We Feel Guilty Over How Sad the Deaths of Hetherington and Hondros Make Us?
The deaths of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya hold a mirror up to how much value we put on the lives of Middle-Easterners.
WikiLeaks: No Special Treatment for Non-Compos-Mentis Gitmo Detainees
The latest WikiLeaks dump confirms that American officials have been slow to recognize and treat mental health disorders in Guantanamo detainees.
Beyond Gbagbo’s Last Stand
After the drama of Laurent Gbagbo’s capture in Abidjan, international attention has swung away from Cote d’Ivoire. At the precise moment when external voices for justice are most necessary, the cameras and critics seem to have moved on. Reducing Cote d’Ivoire’s political struggle to the recent presidential contest is a profound misunderstanding of the complexity of the Ivorian conflict and a sure way to miss the path toward peace.
Forces Opposed to Dangerous, Extravagant Nuke Project Get Day in Court
Nuclear watchdogs take to the courtroom to halt the manufacture of a new facility to build the part that makes nuclear weapons explode.
In Death, Hetherington and Hondros Stand in Mute Witness to Mankind’s Latest Savagery
We all owe a debt to Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros for their commitment, however costly, to chronicling man’s inhumanity to man.
Is the Nuclear Taboo More of a Deterrent Than Deterrence Itself?
Deterrence — or Mutual Assured Destruction — isn’t all that’s kept us from blowing each other up in a nuclear war.