Stephen Farrell recalls hearing this horrendous, chilling summation of the occupation of Iraq in 2004: [M]y colleagues and I outlined the provisional authority’s worldview to get the Ohanians’ reaction. Astrik’s son Hambartzum listened politely. He assessed what he had just heard about democracy and new freedoms, and then pronounced: “I am free to read the [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 781-10 August 30, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. James C. Robinson, 27, of Lebanon, Ohio, died Aug. 28 at Paktika, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the [...]

Kevin Baron of Stars & Stripes is traveling with Secretary Gates and he reports a bold statement from General Petraeus in Kabul during the secretary’s stop-over: Gen. David Petraeus said U.S. offiicals are seeing signs in Afghanistan that many Taliban members, including those at the “very senior level,” are preparing to take up the Afghan [...]

Matthew Yglesias on the, uh, middle of the end of the Iraq war: [T]he policy of disengagement from Iraq over the past 18 months has been a stunning success. Not because it’s solved all of Iraq’s problems — it hasn’t — but because it’s solved one of America’s biggest problems since the war began, the [...]

As Andrew Exum says, this is the best thing on the Internet right now. Ha ha ha ha it’s a psychotic, bellicose closed society and we can’t begin to understand it except through absurd juxtapositions.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 780-10 August 30, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. James R. Ide, 32, of Festus, Mo., died Aug. 29 at Hyderabad, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. [...]

Steve Aftergood’s email newsletter informs us that the FISA Court has issued new proposed guidelines for compliance with the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, the legislation that blessed the Bush administrations’ warrantless surveillance efforts. They appear to protect the telecos: The proposed FISA Court rules (pdf) provide new procedures by which telecommunications companies can petition the [...]

I can’t find a linkable transcript, but PM Netanyahu’s remarks last night at the White House to inaugurate the renewed peace process were really commendable. President Abbas, you are my partner in peace. And it is up to us, with the help of our friends, to conclude the agonizing conflict between our peoples and to [...]

Via the good transparency people at Public Intelligence, here’s a presentation from the Justice Department about paths to domestic radicalization. There’s only so much one can tell from briefing slides. But the slides provide an important context: the conspiratorial nature of those who enlist. Notice the “Cosmic Crisis” framework, something that should gladden the heart [...]

The actual military commission of Omar Khadr — who, at 15 years old in 2002, allegedly threw a grenade that killed an Army Special Forces sergeant during the storming of a Khost Province terrorist compound in which he stayed — will begin on October 18 at Guantanamo. While I was in Afghanistan, the military judge [...]