Like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, leading candidate for the IMF directorship Christine Lagarde has skeletons in her closet.
Like Strauss-Kahn, Christine Lagarde Dragging Baggage Into Likely IMF Directorship
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Europe & Central Asia
100% Scared: How the National Security Complex Grows on Terrorism Fears
In terms of damage since 9/11, terror attacks have ranked above shark attacks but below just about anything else that could possibly be dangerous to Americans, including car crashes which have racked up between 33,800 and 43,500 deaths a year since 2001.
Germans Now Draw as Much of Afghans’ Ire as Americans
The people of both Afghanistan and Germany want Germans out of Afghanistan.
Pepsi, Pot, Porn…and Politics
News sources have recently reported on an interesting assortment of materials at Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. Not only was bin Laden living far from any cave on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, his house apparently had a large supply of Pepsi and Coke (inexplicably, Pakola wasn’t good enough), a significant stash of pornography, and marijuana plants on the property.
France Seeks to Act (Operative Word) as Israel-Palestine Peace Broker
France is attempting to present itself as a diplomatic alternative to the United States, yet its position doesn’t differ significantly from that of the United States.
The Sisyphus of Europe?
In Greek mythology, King Sisyphus was sentenced to eternal senseless labor as a punishment for insulting the gods. Until the end of time, he must push an enormous stone up the hill only to have it roll back over and over again. Turkey was granted candidate status in December 1999 — 50 years after it first applied for membership — but has managed 12 years later to close only one chapter of the accession negotiations. Despite uphill movement by Ankara, the stone keeps rolling back down again to block Turkey’s entrance to the EU.
Israel’s Madrassas
At best, when taught in schools, extremist religious views dilute the quality of education; at worst, they breed violence.
The Death of Shahzad: Leave It to the ISI to Make al Qaeda Look Tame in Comparison
Such is the depth of Pakistan’s moral corruption, that Syed Saleem Shahzad’s death leaves al Qaeda and the Taliban on a higher moral ground than Pakistan’s infamous intelligence agency, the ISI.
A Tale of Two Raids
They were both responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in causes they believed were righteous. They both occupied top spots on the World’s Most Wanted list. They were both the subject of raids that were years in the making and required extensive intelligence work. But in all other respects — and particularly in the messages they sent to the international community — the operations against Ratko Mladic and Osama bin Laden couldn’t have been more different.
It’s Not Just Pakistan Whose Nuclear Program Is in Danger of Infiltration
Like Pakistan, the United States may be in danger of the wrong person getting his — or her — hands on the nuclear “button.”