The US and Pakistan remain allies in the international fight against terrorism but relations have been worsening. The US is accusing Pakistan of failing to rein in Taleban and al-Qaeda militants that take refuge in its border region and, as Barbara Plett reports, there is growing anger among Pakistanis towards the US.
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But a recent counter-terrorism case in Toledo, Ohio, shows how the FBI already started down that road in the wake of 9/11. Thanks largely to the work of a well-compensated FBI undercover informant, federal prosecutors last month secured the convictions of three Islamic radicals in Toledo on charges of conspiring to kill or maim U.S. [...]

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Members of Congress may not come to the floor armed with pistols as they did in the days leading up to the Civil War, but their words are as toxic as any time since then. And we are — in many ways — a more divided nation than any time since then.
In interviews with political [...]

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“If you look at the assessment by the Intel community, they say that by about 2015, 2017, in that timeframe, they may even have a missile that can reach the United States, which is an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) class missile,” he added as quoted by Reuters.
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The Bush administration let it be known last week that it is prepared to start reducing the number of troops in Iraq, indicating that three brigades out of 15 might be withdrawn before Inauguration Day in 2009. There are many dimensions to the announcements, some political and some strategic. But perhaps the single most important [...]

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This article is by the MoscowTimes.Com. The signals coming out of Washington are alarming to Russians.
From the article:
For the past eight years, Washington has tried to impose its will to other nations. It has been a failure, reducing, not enhancing, U.S. influence and alarming not only former foes but even close allies. In the process, [...]

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Russia’s angry response to an accord between Washington and Prague on building part of a U.S. missile defence shield in the Czech Republic is reminiscent of the rhetoric of the Cold War. Although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says Moscow still wants talks on the missile shield, his Foreign Ministry has threatened a “military-technical” response if [...]

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Wealth and innovation are bubbling up in the most unexpected places. The tallest buildings, the biggest dams, the highest grossing movies, some of the most advanced technologies: they’re all being created outside of the United States. It’s called “the rise of the rest”, and as global power shifts, Washington will face its greatest challenge: it’ll [...]

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America is losing its lead in the space race as other countries challenge its dominance on the “final frontier”, the head of Nasa has warned.
The more obvious rivals such as Russia and Europe have been joined by countries as diverse as Brazil, Israel and India, which are all launching their own space programmes.
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By Peter Zeihan
As students of geopolitics, we at Stratfor tend not to get overexcited when this or that plan for regional peace is tabled. Many of the world’s conflicts are geographic in nature, and changes in government or policy only rarely supersede the hard topography that we see as the dominant sculptor of the international [...]

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Russia’s angry response to U.S. plans to build a missile shield underlines the need for Europe to seek closer security ties with the United States, a top aide to Polish President Lech Kaczynski said on Wednesday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in Japan on Wednesday that Moscow was very upset after Washington signed a deal with [...]

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The United States and Iran appear on a collision course in the Middle East, firing off mixed messages that are raising world tension and roiling oil markets amid fears that an eventual confrontation may be military.
Both insist war is not imminent, but their sharp words and provocative actions are stoking uncertainty as Washington and Tehran [...]

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Iran believed to test missiles for attack on U.S.
Graham warned in 2005 that Iran was not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, but was already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America’s technical infrastructure with the aim of neutralizing the world’s lone superpower.
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IRAN has issued a strident warning that it would “set on fire” Israel and target the US navy in the Persian Gulf as its first response to any American attack over its nuclear programme.
Rising tension in the area where Iran and the United States are both carrying out military exercises have contributed to driving oil [...]

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A Global Approach to Iranian Nuclear Ambitions
Over the last few years, the United States has lost considerable influence and trust in the Middle East and other regions, undermining the expectations and power of US leadership in the eyes of the world. Today, Iraq remains mired in political discord combined with a tenuous security situation. At [...]

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Wanna see a map of every military base in the United States? Check out the map at SeeAndAvoid.org.
We don’t want to make it too hard to target Russian and Chinese ICBMs against our military.
From the article:
In an era of increasingly accessible information about America’s defenses, the Federal Aircraft Administration (FAA) has launched a website overlaying [...]

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Will Israel attack Iran? I see the probability of an Israeli attack at less than 50% with the Olmert government.
Olmert knows he needs to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons, but he just doesn’t have the will to pull off an attack on Iran.
The bottom line - we need to wait for a new Israeli [...]

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Obama’s feel-good approach puts nuclear deterrent at risk
More worrisome, Mr. Obama has called for de-alerting all of our 450 Minuteman III missiles - taking their warheads off and putting them in storage. This would effectively eliminate this critically important leg of our nuclear Triad. It would make it useless in a crisis, as it would [...]

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The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
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But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new [...]

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According to Gen. Michael Moseley, who was recently dismissed from his position as U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, “there is almost zero chance we will fight a nation state” in the 21st century.
While senior American flag officers acknowledge the increasing unlikelihood of great power war in the 21st century, a handful of U.S. think [...]

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Increased military action by U.S. forces in Afghanistan to target suspected terrorists in Pakistan’s tribal areas is putting a strain on Washington’s already tense relationship with Islamabad. A June 10 U.S. air strike (IHT) in which Pakistan’s army says eleven of its soldiers died was followed, just weeks later, by NATO forces firing into Pakistan [...]

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