Steadily increasing opium production is an impediment to Afghanistan's stability and security, and so it was important that President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai addressed the issue at Camp David. The Taliban has become more effective at profiting from the Afghan poppy crop and is using the opium industry to fuel its resurgence. The challenge for both governments is to make sure that counternarcotics and security efforts reinforce — not undermine — one another.
ISTANBUL, Turkey. -- Evangelical Christians helped President Bush win the White House twice and in return, the president set up an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001 to help religious groups compete with secular organizations for federal grants to provide social services. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the White House-sponsored initiative, but on July 25, the Supreme Court decided that it breaks no laws, allowing the White House to continue advocating on behalf of faith-based charities. There is a debate about whether this effectively dwindles the separation of church and state, and whether the Bush-appointed judges are allowing religion to guide their decision-making.
THURMONT, Md. — President Bush said yesterday that the United States and Pakistan, if armed with "actionable intelligence," could take out al Qaeda leaders, but he did not say whether he would ask permission from the Pakistani president before sending U.S. troops into that nation.
Within the last several weeks, Democratic presidential aspirant Barack Obama has announced he would meet with America's enemies and attack America's friends. Those interested in a dramatic departure from Bush-Cheney need look no further.
The sorry spectacle that took place on Capitol Hill in recent days was an outbreak of Bush Derangement Syndrome (Charles Krauthammer's term) that has threatened to cripple our ability to intercept international terrorist telephone calls. In the end, coalitions of responsible Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate were able to pass legislation that met the minimum recommendations of Director of National Intelligence Adm. Mike McConnell: modernizing the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to ensure that our intelligence agencies can intercept jihadist telephone calls abroad without having to get judicial approval. But it only happened after an ugly scorched-earth campaign by congressional Democrats who suggested that Adm. McConnell and the Bush administration were negotiating in bad faith and that the changes they wanted would undermine Americans' constitutional rights. Both assertions are false.
(AP) — President Bush said today that with the right intelligence U.S. and Pakistan governments can take out al Qaeda leaders, and wouldn't say whether he would consult first with Pakistan before ordering U.S. forces to act on their own.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — One of Pakistan's most outspoken opposition leaders emerged from prison to a cheering crowd yesterday and vowed to press his campaign against President Pervez Musharraf, who is already struggling with rising dissent and militant violence.
The eruption of violence resulting in many casualties in Pakistan when the Islamists entrenched in the Red Mosque in Islamabad clashed with government troops storming the compound is just the tip of the jihadi iceberg President Pervez Musharraf faces.
PAKISTAN
