NIGHTWATCH: Push-Back on US Across AF PK IR SY

In summary:  US took ten years to make an issue of two Pakistani fertilizer factories that are the primary source for all Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) killing and maiming in AF.  Taliban gets what it wants in AF school programs, Iran makes progress in AF, SY and on the side with Saudi Arabia.

David Isenberg: PMC Oversight? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’….

For the latest on the effectiveness of oversight on private military and security contractors (PMSC) people should take a moment to peruse the hearing of the National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. On December 7 it held a hearing titled “Oversight in Iraq and Afghanistan: …

Susan Lindauer: A Dangerous Woman? Indefinite Detention at Carswell, and the Trashing of the US Constitution

A Dangerous Woman: Indefinite Detention at Carswell thepeoplesvoice.org, December 11th, 2011 By Susan Lindauer Some things are unforgivable in a democracy. A bill moving through Congress, authorizing the military to imprison American citizens indefinitely, without a trial or hearing, ranks right at the top of that list. I know—I lived through it on the Patriot …

Chuck Spinney: Break-Up of Iraq, History of Oil Invasions

The below report by Patrick Cockburn, one of the best reporters now covering the Middle East, describes the growing tensions in Iraq over the question of sharing its oil wealth among its constituent regions.  Although his report is important in its own right, its contents become even more ominous when they viewed in a larger historical context: …