Foreign Policy
In the wake of a nearly fatal display of U.S. security and intelligence agencies inability to protect the United States from airborne terrorists, the White House has joined forces with its equally befuddled British counterpart and announced a roster of responses aimed at preventing similar slip-ups in the future.
A suicide bomber somehow managed to gain entry to a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan on December 30 and detonated explosives that killed at least eight Americans. This is thought to represent the deadliest single attack on U.S. intelligence personnel during the war in Afghanistan and one of the worst attacks ever suffered by the CIA.
As reported by TheNewAmerican.com several months ago, the United States is presently shifting tens of thousands of military personal and family members from bases in Japan to expanded facilities in the U.S. territory of Guam, with the Japanese government paying over a third of the cost of the relocation. A major reason for the redeployment of these troops is the increased tensions between American service personnel and the surrounding communities in Okinawa.
The Navy Times website reported on December 28 that a Defense Department survey of service members for 2008 showed a higher attempted-suicide rate in the U.S. Navy than any other branch of the armed forces.
Kai Eide, the Norwegian diplomat who is the UN Special Representative to Afghanistan, has said his former deputy — Peter W. Galbraith, an American — wanted to seek U.S. government support to force Afghan President Hamid Karzai from office, the New York Times reported on December 17.
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