via email comes this from Rep. Alan Grayson: In the New York Times for June 13th, the Pentagon proclaimed that Afghanistan holds almost one trillion lira – no, sorry, that’s one trillion dollars – in hitherto-unknown mineral wealth. Allow me to offer these revelations: (1) Paris Hilton actually is Albert Einstein, with a wig. Think about [...]

For women in Iraq, running for office is an especially risky proposition. The country’s Constitution, like those of many nations that have been racked by conflict, requires that a quarter of all parliamentary seats must go to women. Yet even as the number of female leaders and political activists has increased, so has the backlash. [...]

The CIA’s extensive use of unmanned drones to kill alleged terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere is arguably against international law and raises the possibility that top U.S. officials will someday be tried at the Hague for war crimes, a law professor told a congressional oversight panel on Tuesday. Despite the rapidly increasing use of drones in [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today demanding that the government disclose the legal basis for its use of unmanned drones to conduct targeted killings overseas. In particular, the lawsuit asks for information on when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, the number and rate [...]

We’ve all seen a television show or a movie about an undercover narcotics cop who become crooked. He loses the trust of his colleagues, then his family. Soon, the only contacts he has are with the world of drug dealers that he originally set out to destroy. Now picture this scenario of the criminal cop [...]

A new investigation by journalist Anand Gopal reveals harrowing details about US secret prisons in Afghanistan, under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Gopal interviewed Afghans who were detained and abused at several disclosed and undisclosed sites at US and Afghan military bases across the country. He also reveals the existence of another secret prison [...]

Two years ago, the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion — $1 billion more than any of its competitors from Canada, Europe, Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan — for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about [...]

“We need to view this sober reality,” Scahill told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday. “The war is in Pakistan right now. There’s no question about it. The question, though, is how much it’s going to expand. … These are actions that are going to destabilize Pakistan and are going to create new enemies for the United [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Rachel Maddow’s comment on whether Obama is keeping the Bush Doctrine alive in Afghanistan [02 Dec 2009].

For eight years, Republican and Democratic administrations have said the Taliban controls narcotic trafficking in Afghanistan. In fact, according to both the CIA and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, the insurgents control about 2-3 percent of the total. [...] The Taliban do tax poppy farmers and extort protection money from smugglers passing through [...]

“I worked for the United Nations,” Galbraith said. “And certainly, the United Nations could have done something to prevent the fraud before it took place. I tried to do that. But my boss, Kai Eide, stopped me.” Eide on Sunday admitted that widespread fraud took place amid the crucial vote. via Former UN envoy to [...]