Robot soldiers more fact than fiction
May 6, 2009
The world is on the brink of a “robotics revolution” in military combat that will have profound social, psychological, political and ethical effects, says a leading US defence analyst.
Peter Singer, who headed Barack Obama’s defence policy team during last year’s presidential campaign, said yesterday that the use of robots for fighting war was growing exponentially.
Bush: ‘There are some things I would do differently’
January 16, 2009
Keeping Americans safe from further terrorist attacks on home soil was the greatest achievement of his presidency, the 43rd President of the US, George Bush, told the nation as he bade farewell in a final address at the White House.
In his 13-minute speech – in which he spoke robustly for his national security record and barely touched on the two wars he leaves behind – he was forceful in defending his Administration, humble about leading the nation, and gracious to his successor, Barack Obama, who will be sworn in on Tuesday.
Obama presses forward on Iran, backward on Iraq
January 12, 2009
THE US president-elect, Barack Obama, has confirmed that he will pursue a clear policy of engagement with Iran and press immediately for peace in the Middle East.
Speaking on the ABC News television program This Week, Mr Obama said he wanted to work directly with Iran – a country whose president has called for Israel’s destruction – to improve relations and halt a nuclear program that Tehran describes as peaceful, but the West believes is not.
“We are going to have to take a new approach,” he told the program’s host, George Stephanopoulos, in his first interview since arriving in Washington.
America didn’t jump off the cliff – it was Bushed
January 5, 2009
We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians. So here, too, George Bush has let us down. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He is smaller than life.
Journalist sorry for hurling shoes at Bush
December 19, 2008
The Iraqi journalist arrested for throwing his shoes at US President George W Bush has written to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki apologising over the incident, Maliki’s office said on Thursday.
“In his letter, he asks the prime minister’s pardon,” said press aide Yassin Majid, speaking of a note Muntazer al-Zaidi had “written by hand.”
Iraqis demand release of shoe-hurling journalist
December 16, 2008
Thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W Bush.
The protests came as suicide bombers and gunmen targeted Iraqi police, plus US-allied Sunni guards and civilians, in a series of attacks on Monday that killed at least 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.
The journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, was being held by Iraqi security on Monday and interrogated about whether anybody had paid him to throw his shoes at Bush during a press conference on Sunday in Baghdad, said an Iraqi official.
Rumsfeld responsible for abuse: report
December 11, 2008
Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top administration officials are responsible for abuse of detainees in US custody, a bipartisan Senate report says.
“Rumsfeld’s authorisation of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there” and “influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques … in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the report released on Thursday concluded.
Hillary’s Baptism of Fire
December 5, 2008
Approaching the November 4 US presidential election, Joe Biden confided that America’s enemies would quickly test an elected Barack Obama.
“Mark my words,”
Obama’s running mate warned all too presciently,
“it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.”
“Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
Pranksters dupe Americans with fake New York Times
November 13, 2008
A group of pranksters handed out more than 1.2 million fake New York Times newspapers mainly in New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday with a front page story declaring “Iraq War Ends”.
The elaborate 14-page edition, dated July 4, 2009, is said to be the work of a group called the Yes Men, whose previous hoaxes include masquerading as World Trade Organisation officials announcing they were disbanding the body.
Bush lists regrets and gets advice from Clinton
November 12, 2008
US President George Bush says that he reached out by telephone to his predecessor, Bill Clinton, before talks with president-elect Barack Obama at the White House yesterday.
“‘Bill, I’m getting ready to meet with the new president and I remember how gracious you were to me. And I hope I can be as gracious to president-elect Obama as you were to me,”‘ Bush told CNN today in a description of the call.
