Foreign Affairs

The Washington Post, January 14 2009, by Bob Woodward: The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a “life-threatening condition.” “We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani,” said Susan J. Crawford, in her first…

These are the headlines that I’ve been reading this afternoon: The New York Times: On Slog to Safety, Seething at West One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov. “We killed as many of them as we could,” he said. “But where are our friends?” It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said…

Big ups to my cousin Karim Sadjadpour for his latest interview in FP: Foreign Policy: Last week, Iran sounded conciliatory notes when Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki hailed a “new trend” in negotiations with the West over the nuclear issue. But this week, Iranian officials vowed to strike back against any U.S. or Israeli attack and test-fired missiles that they claim can hit Tel Aviv. What explains this shift in tone? Karim Sadjadpour: The last two weeks have been very representative…

Or, if you prefer, direct from the source (Spanish), or in translation (English).

Apparently Kosovo is poised for independence this Sunday. Remember this map, kids: Update: George Kenney points to this recent interview he did with Sir Ivor Roberts, former UK Ambassador to Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s.

This is from my good friend and Columbia classmate, Sarmad Ali, who has written a follow-up piece to his story from last February. I wasn’t there in Baghdad; I couldn’t be there. I am an Iraqi citizen caught between two worlds. I’m a guest in the U.S., where I have lived since 2004, studying and working for this newspaper. But I have no U.S. travel documents. And my Iraqi passport has been invalidated. More unsettling, more disruptive than the possibility…

Estonia and a whole host of other countries joined the expanded Schengen Zone today! >

Tom Friedman: “On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel.” This is absurd.

Caspian Sea countries say “no way.” But guv’ment spooks say “Please?” Uh oh. [Source: FP Passport]