Colleteral Damage

More Stories

A Repugnant Choice
In dealing with Uzbek dictator, U.S. buys access to air field — even after eviction
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 — Uzbekistan presents one of the clearest examples of the paradox confronting the United States in its war on terror: As it pursues Islamist extremists around the world, it sides with a repressive despot out of what is perceived as military necessity.  >>
Renditions vs. Rights
Jordan's apparent willingness to participate in transfers of suspects trumps poor record on human rights
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2007 — Jordan, according to a U.S. State Department request that Congress appropriate the country nearly $500 million in 2007 military aid, continues "to lead the way as a regional model for democracy, good governance, economic reform, and tolerance."  >>
An Interrogation Role Model
U.S. picked up tactics — including torture — from Israeli intelligence
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 30, 2007 — The King Hussein bridge is the most direct route from Amman to Jerusalem, but it was not a trip Marwan Ibrahim Mahmoud Jabour wanted to make — he had no choice. It was September 2006, and Jabour, a 30-year-old Jordanian engineer who says he made the mistake of going to Afghanistan in a fruitless attempt to join the jihad, had spent the last two years as a U.S. prisoner — possibly in Afghanistan but he wasn't sure, since his captors had never revealed the location. >>
Operation 'Targeted Killings'
U.S. shows signs of emulating controversial Israeli anti-terrorism policy
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 30, 2007 — One of Israel's most controversial anti-terrorism tactics has been its policy of targeted killings of suspects believed to be planning attacks. Since the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the fall of 2000, dozens of members of the Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad have been assassinated by Israeli military and security forces. As American intelligence and armed forces continue to employ many Israeli counterterrorism and interrogation techniques, the question of whether targeted killings have become another arrow in the American quiver looms large.  >>
The Price of Independence: $1 Billion
Once-loyal Turkey passed up aid to maintain its own Iraq policy
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2007 — Despite an offer of $6 billion in cash from the United States in the weeks leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, the Turkish Parliament voted against allowing U.S. troops to use Turkish territory as a base for launching a northern front against Iraq. With that rejection, the United States quickly learned that Turkey was no longer the predictable NATO ally of the Cold War years.  >>
An Opportunity Seized
In its zeal to please U.S., Romania tramples foreigners' rights
BUCHAREST, Romania, May 24, 2007 — There are only a few hundred Muslim immigrants in Iaşi, a city of 350,000 that is Romania's second-largest metropolis, and few of them seem eager to talk about what happened in January 2005. That's when Romanian security forces converged on an Iaşi mosque and arrested five North African and Middle Eastern students enrolled at the local University of Medicine and Pharmacy on suspicion of being terrorists. >>
Anatomy of a Rendition
In cleric's abduction in Italy, the CIA all but left a calling card
MILAN, Italy, May 24, 2007 — Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a Muslim cleric from Egypt also known as Abu Omar, had just stepped out of his home on via Conte Verde in Milan around noon on February 17, 2003, and was heading for prayers at the mosque when a military policeman confronted him. "Mi mostri il passaporto!" came the order. "I don't speak Italian," the cleric responded, so the officer, Luciano Pironi, repeated the question in English. "Show me your passport!"  >>
A Strained Alliance
Poland's cooperation with the U.S. brings internal and diplomatic disapproval
WARSAW, Poland, May 24, 2007 — To describe the tiny town of Szymany as an unlikely focus of the world's attention is an understatement. About 95 miles north of the Polish capital of Warsaw, it is little more than a crossroads with a few shops and houses along the main road in a region covered with dense woods. Enter the CIA, and thus the world's attention. >>
A Casualty in the War on Terror
Europe's relations with U.S. undermined by apparent complicity on CIA prisons
WASHINGTON, May 24, 2007 — One of the most significant fallouts from the U.S. war on terror has been the strain on America's historically strong relationship with Europe. Allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe and European governments' complicity with the kidnappings of terror suspects (known as "extraordinary renditions") have irritated trans-Atlantic relations, stressed the NATO alliance and jeopardized U.S. national security priorities, including maintaining an international coalition in Iraq. >>
Post-9/11 Renditions: An Extraordinary Violation of International Law
Some say lack of due process in kidnappings and detention at secret prisons amounts to war crimes
PORTSMOUTH, England, May 22, 2007 — A plane lands in darkness and is directed to a far corner of an airfield, well out of public view. A group of men described as "masked ninjas" — wearing black overalls and hoods with slits for their eyes, nose and mouth — descend the aircraft steps and make their way to a nearby airport building. Inside a small room the detainee is waiting under armed guard, perhaps already blindfolded. He is immediately hooded as a process known as a "twenty-minute takeout" begins. Soon he is aboard the plane, on his way to another country to be harshly interrogated and possibly tortured.  >>
U.S. Treatment of Detainees Deplored
Critics denounce 'waterboarding' and other interrogation techniques banned by Geneva Conventions
PORTSMOUTH, England, May 22, 2007 — When a conservative talk-show host from radio station WDAY in Fargo, N.D., recorded an interview with Vice President Cheney in late October 2006, the broadcaster was just a small fish in a vast ocean of airwaves. Big scoops rarely came his way. Scott Hennen had interviewed Cheney several times for his weekday "Hot Talk" program but never before in the West Wing of the White House during the run-up to major midterm elections.  >>
Profiteering on Location
Djibouti's repressive regime, not its people, has prospered since 9/11
DJIBOUTI, May 22, 2007 — Allow us to introduce you to Djibouti, the United States' new East African ally in its campaign against terrorists: Its territory is slightly smaller than the state of New Hampshire. It is arid and torridly hot, 9,000 square miles of volcanic rock sticking out like a sore thumb on the Horn of Africa. It exports practically nothing that is locally produced and has almost no arable land. >>
A Society Consumed With Qat
Drug's soothing effects mask its true roles: revenue and control
DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti, May 22, 2007 — In less than a quarter of an hour every day, life in Djibouti City all but comes to a standstill. It begins just after an Ethiopian Airlines flight lands at 1 p.m. at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport, bringing the 11 to 12 tons of qat Djiboutians consume daily. Qat, a leaf harvested from the homonymic tree that grows widely in Ethiopia and Yemen, is used commonly in the Horn of Africa, in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and more recently in the Somali expatriate community in London. Chewed raw, it produces a mild hallucinogenic effect that, for a few hours, puts you gently out of business. >>
An Incentive to Clamp Down
With U.S. prodding, 3 East African nations get tough on terrorist suspects — even when evidence is lacking
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22, 2007 — The United States ambassador to Kenya was frustrated. It was almost eight months after suicide bombers blew up part of a resort hotel at almost exactly the same time other terrorists tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner taking off from nearby Mombasa-Moi International Airport — yet no one had been convicted. >>
Allegiance Rewarded
Ethiopia reaps U.S. aid by enlisting in war on terror and hiring influential lobbyists
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2007 — One dramatic act sets Ethiopia apart from the array of countries with poor human rights records that have become United States counterterrorism allies since the September 11, 2001, attacks: With U.S. backing, it invaded a neighboring country and overthrew a Taliban-like Islamist movement. >>
Collateral Damage
U.S. hands out vast sums of money to combat terrorism while ignoring human rights records; lobbying key to funding flows
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2007 — Five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the influence of foreign lobbying on the U.S. government, as well as a shortsighted emphasis on counterterrorism objectives over broader human rights concerns, have generated staggering costs to the U.S. and its allies in money spent and political capital burned. >>
Pakistan's $4.7 Billion 'Blank Check' for U.S. Military Aid
After 9/11, funding to country soars with little oversight
WASHINGTON, March 27, 2007 — In the three years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.7 billion from $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks — a 45,000 percent increase — boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving this type of funding. >>
Jakarta's Intelligence Service Hires Washington Lobbyists
Former Indonesian president's foundation served as conduit for push to overturn ban on military cooperation
JAKARTA, Indonesia, September 7, 2006 — The Indonesian national intelligence agency used the charitable foundation of a former Indonesian president to retain a Washington lobbying firm that pressed for a full resumption of controversial military training programs to the country, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has learned. >>