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In an indication of their growing estrangement with the Bush administration, neoconservatives are slamming the White House for failing to stop what they describe as an antisemitic campaign to marginalize them being conducted by the CIA and the State Department. This view was outlined in a memo circulating among neoconservative foreign policy analysts in Washington. Obtained by the Forward, the memo criticizes the White House for not refuting press reports on the FBI's investigation of Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin that suggest wrongdoing on the part of Jewish officials at the Defense Department. "If there is any truth to any of...

I’m not much good at timing. I was visiting Jordan on a lecture tour when the Israelis assassinated Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin. Amman closed down and much of my program had to be canceled; Americans weren’t welcome on campuses where student groups were mourning the sheikh and vowing revenge. I was in Indonesia when the Israelis invaded Lebanon; I was able to go ahead with the program, but all the audiences wanted to discuss was the war and America’s responsibility for Israeli crimes. I first came to Pakistan about the time then-Senator Obama called for escalating the drone strikes in...

Dr. Jack Wheeler, whose death-defying adventures span the globe and whose achievements have inspired wide-ranging acclaim, is providing accurate, insider information about the many staff changes within the Bush administration and federal agencies. On his unique intelligence website, To the Point, Wheeler analyzes recent shake-ups at the CIA and a key departure from the president's national security staff. Writes Wheeler: "'The Sheriff,' as new CIA Director Porter Goss is becoming known, is getting rave reviews from the agency's rank and file for serving notice to the Rogue Weasels that their left-wing views and attempts to sabotage the Bush administration will...

Ex-Adviser Reportedly Hurt Embassy Aide Kuwait Airport Incident Disputed Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, November 12, 2004; Page A06 Robert D. Blackwill, who resigned last week as the White House's top official on Iraq policy, was recently scolded by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told her that Blackwill appeared to have verbally abused and physically hurt a female embassy staffer during a visit to Kuwait in September, administration officials said. The incident took place as Blackwill was rushing to return home after a visit to Baghdad to join a campaign swing planned by...

Any semblance of a ceasefire evaporated today as fierce fighting erupted around the Shrine of Imam Ali, Shii Islam's holiest site. Even if Iraqi forces lead the charge into the Shrine of Imam Ali, Iraqi Shia will blame the U.S. for any damage. Even if a peaceful solution is found, the U.S. will have lost out. It didn't have to be this way. Sadr was not initially popular among Iraqi Shia. Many Iraqis consider him responsible for the April 10, 2003 murder of Shia cleric Majid al-Khoei. Many Iraqi Shia ridiculed Sadr's October 10, 2003 declaration of a parallel government...

The US is preparing to reshuffle top officials with responsibility for Afghanistan, expand the number of staff serving in the country, and award an additional $1bn (?870m, £620m) in assistance in a bid to re-energise its reconstruction effort, according to US and Afghan officials familiar with the plans. The policy shift, whose motto is "Accelerate Success", was a response by US State and Defense Department officials to a chorus of concern about the Afghan reconstruction process, officials said. The US government was eager to point to Afghanistan as a success story as it faced difficulty in getting the situation in...

In the end, even his personal friendship with the President could not help the Professor save his job in New Delhi. Robert Blackwill, the US ambassador to India who announced his resignation today, was left with little choice but to take that return ticket to Harvard because of his constant and increasingly unpleasant run-ins with a US State Department that sought to openly wear its predilection for Pakistan on its sleeve. The last time a genteel exchange of views between India and the US — led, respectively, by foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal and US assistant secretary of state for South...