Stories tagged "terrorism and security"

When Barack Obama tapped Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, Leon Panetta, to be director of the CIA there was some grumbling in intelligence circles. And the grumbling hasn’t stopped. For an insider's take on the appointment we turn to Sam Faddis a retired CIA operations officer (we think that means spy) and author of the book, "Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War inside Iraq."

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Can you sue the Attorney General?

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For insight into how the Indian-American community here at home is reacting to the events in Mumbai, we spoke with Amy Paul, the Development Director at the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights. She did graduate work in Mumbai and still has family there.

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Now that it's possible to program unmanned combat vehicles to make decisions about where (and who) to strike in war situations, new questions of ethics have risen: In which situations can we allow robots to make their own decisions? Can we program robots to follow the Geneva Conventions? There is a more basic question, too: Do we even want robot soldiers?

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As of October 2008, 520 detainees had been released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a new study from the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, finds the stigma of being a prisoner still haunts many of them. After spending an average of three years in the prison, six of the 62 former detainees tracked (none of which were convicted of a crime) had found employment, and many were not able to return home.

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"The Bush Administration believes they are on pretty firm legal ground to carry out these types of attacks." — Mark Mazzetti, the New York Times.

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With conditions worsening in Afghanistan, many experts worry that if the transition from President George W. Bush to incoming president Barack Obama doesn't go smoothly, the situation there could spiral out of control.

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A federal judge in Washington, D.C., will hear the case of 17 Chinese Uighurs who have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for seven years. Though the government cleared them for release in 2004, they can't be returned to China for fear that they will be tortured. No other country will take them.

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Key to the success of the troop surge in Iraq was a change that took place between U.S. forces and former insurgent tribal groups that came to be called "The Awakening." These groups, impatient with militants like al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite insurgents, began to work with U.S. forces. They used to work with al-Qaida. Now they fight against them, with the help of the Americans. They were paid for their allegiance, but starting today U.S. forces are going to stop paying these groups. The Iraqi army will hand out their pay packets instead. Will the alliance hold?

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Jury selection begins today in the trial of five men accused of plotting a terrorist attack on the army base in Fort Dix, New Jersey. The Muslim men, all in their 20s, were taken into FBI custody in May 2007 after a tip from a store clerk asked to dub a videotape containing scenes of men with weapons and cries for jihad.

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Today in Pakistan, authorities say a bomb blast derailed a train, killing three people and injuring at least 15. The attack comes just days after another bomb destroyed a Marriott hotel in the nation's capital, Islamabad. Meanwhile, Washington is pressing Pakistani officials for answers as America suspends consular services citing deepening security worries.

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North Korea has removed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) surveillance equipment to prepare for reactivating the Yongbyon nuclear plant. This action comes nearly two years after North Korea carried out its first nuclear weapon test. Nathan Hodge, senior Americas writer with Jane’s Defence Weekly, brings this latest development into perspective.

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In this week's New York Times Magazine ("When Judges Make Foreign Policy"), Harvard Law professor and author Noah Feldman breaks down what liberals and conservatives understand about international law, and whether the Geneva Conventions apply to accused terrorists. How is the Supreme Court shaping the future of international relations?

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WNYC's Arun Venugopal reports live from Ground Zero.

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President Bush will dedicate a memorial at the Pentagon today, as the nation reflects on seven years since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The president starts this morning with a moment of silence at the White House at 8:46 a.m., the exact time the first jetliner slammed into the World Trade Center. For the first time since June, John McCain and Barack Obama will appear together. WNYC's Arun Venugopal reports live from Ground Zero.

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