War Glance
MI6 plotted the toppling of Saddam Hussein nearly 18 months before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, secret papers revealed.
Spy chiefs discussed with Downing Street a plan that was layered ‘like an onion’, with ministers openly supporting ‘regime change’ while behind the scenes working closely with those carrying out a coup.
The intelligence service also made clear in newly declassified papers that the ‘prize’ for removing the Iraqi dictator was ‘new security to oil supplies’.
MI6 plotted with No10 to oust Saddam in bid to win 'prize' of secure oil supplies
Iraq dossier drawn up to make case for war – UK intelligence officer
A top military intelligence official has said the discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons programme was drawn up "to make the case for war", flatly contradicting persistent claims to the contrary by the Blair government, and in particular by Alastair Campbell, the former prime minister's chief spin doctor.
In hitherto secret evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Major General Michael Laurie said: "We knew at the time that the purpose of the dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence, and that to make the best out of sparse and inconclusive intelligence the wording was developed with care."
US targets, but misses bin Laden successor
Pentagon officials said an unmanned aircraft bombed a remote compound Thursday, targeting the U.S.-born al-Awlaki, The New York Times reported Saturday.
There were casualties, but al-Awlaki was not among them, unidentified military officials told the Times. Since locating and killing bin Laden in Pakistan Sunday, the U.S. intelligence community's concern has been to identify the apparent heir to the leadership of the Muslim terrorist group.
Why the US and NATO Fed Detainees to Afghan Torture System
Starting in late 2005, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan began turning detainees over to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), despite its well-known reputation for torture.
Interviews with former U.S. and NATO diplomats and other evidence now available show that United States and other NATO governments become complicit in NDS torture of detainees for two distinctly different reasons.
Tunnel under prison wall in Afghanistan sees 500 inmates escape
Some 500 inmates made a mass prison break via a hand-dug tunnel from a penitentiary in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar early on Monday, regional deputy police chief Nasrallah Yusufzai said.
Yusufzai told RIA Novosti by phone that the inmates had dug a tunnel under one of the prison walls and reached an ancient underground irrigation network that was built during the time of Alexander the Great. The tunnel the prisoners dug to the underground irrigation network was nearly 400 meters in length, he added.
2 US soldiers killed in southern Iraq
The U.S. military says two American soldiers have been killed while conducting operations in southern Iraq. In a statement, released on Saturday, the military says the deaths occurred Friday.
No further details about how they died were released. The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.
Iraqi interpreters seek punishment of contractor they say sexually harassed them
The Iraqi women all took nicknames — Linda, Susan, Kathy, Mary, Angel — to make it easier for the American soldiers to remember them. They had college educations and spoke English well enough to work as interpreters with U.S. combat units, jobs that came with a high mortality rate even off the battlefield: insurgents targeted them for assassination as collaborators.
Because of the lingering dangers for Iraqis who had allied themselves with the Americans, the State Department created a special visa to allow interpreters and other workers into the United States. For most of the women, the Special Immigrant Visa became a lifeline.
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