Tara McKelvey

According to The New York Times, Osama bin Laden has apparently spoken again, addressing Americans in an audiotape in which he explains some of the reasons why Al Qaeda attacked the United States and talks about “injustices against the Muslim world.” After the 2001 attacks, President Bush began considering a new set of interrogation policies […]

After New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped from the Taliban, Sultan M. Munadi, who had worked as an interpreter for The Times, sent him an email: “Oh my God! I’m really really happy for this great news. I’ll thank billions of times the God for this freedom.” Today, Rohde wrote Munadi’s obituary. Munadi was […]

A NATO air strike in Afghanistan this morning killed at least 80 people, and demonstrates the pitfalls of the American strategy in that country. Theoretically, the U.S. is protecting civilians in an enlightened counterinsurgency campaign: As Spencer Ackerman writes in The Washington Independent, “At a Pentagon press conference, Defense Secretary Bob Gates said that he […]

According to The New York Times , a Xe (formerly Blackwater) contract for aviation services in Iraq was supposed to expire today. Xe was to “be replaced by DynCorp International,” but DynDorps is not ready to take on the work. The decision to switch companies has been delayed, and questions could be raised about DynCorp […]

The number of contractors now exceeds the number of troops, according to The New York Times. It is a combustible mix of the private and public sector that led in part to the Abu Ghraib scandal, where contractors set an example of wild, savage behavior when they watched over the detainees, and the soldiers followed […]

A Washington Post article about a forthcoming report on the war from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says that “the Taliban is far more sophisticated than it was just a few years ago.” It is clear that the Taliban has gotten extremely good at fighting Americans, particularly since McChrystal is hinting that he wants more troops […]

Everyone wanted things to go well on August 20, and few people have worked harder to make the polling stations safe and secure than the U.S. Marines. Lt. Col. Dale Alford was there on the day that Hamid Karzai was elected, overseeing a unit of men who were providing security at the polling sites. Up […]

In recent articles, a Stars and Stripes reporter has claimed that officials screen reporters before allowing them to interview people in the military or embed with a unit in Iraq or Afghanistan, and that they have been accepting or rejecting journalists’ requests based on whether or not their previous coverage has been favorable to the […]

Earlier this week, a Frenchman named Marc Aubrière escaped from his kidnappers, who were members of an extremist Islamist group. He then miraculously “appeared on the streets of Mogadishu,” according to The New York Times. He sneaked past sleeping guards, walking barefoot so he would not wake them, and then managed to get free, following […]