USA | Keys Corner

How to win friends and influence people

By John, on March 4th, 2005

This is really going to improve Italian public opinion about being involved in the Coalition of the Willing: March 4 (Bloomberg) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi demanded the U.S. explain the shooting death of an Italian officer at a U.S.-controlled Baghdad checkpoint who was escorting a journalist freed in Iraq after a month . . . → Read More: How to win friends and influence people

Electronic passports – a security problem

By John, on February 17th, 2005

An article in the latest Economist highlights a problem with the biometric passports that the USA has been insisting be implemented by October 2005.

I was aware that the new passports would carry data such as digital photographs or finger prints of the owner, which could be read out a chip integrated into the . . . → Read More: Electronic passports – a security problem

Par for the course

By John, on January 31st, 2005

Well, if you can’t stop looting of museums and hospitals, plan ahead or have an exit strategy, I suppose it should come as no surprise to discover you have mislaid $9 billion within nine months: According to a scathing report by the U.S. Inspector General, the U.S. occupation authority, known as the Coalition Provisional . . . → Read More: Par for the course

Consequences of an invasion in Iran

By John, on January 30th, 2005

Mark Cliff, chief economist at ING Financial Markets, writes in the Independent today about the possible economic consequences of an invasion of Iran by the USA: …this would imply: a $12 per barrel increase in the oil price, taking West Texas crude up to more than $60 per barrel; a 14 per cent drop . . . → Read More: Consequences of an invasion in Iran

On this day

By John, on January 28th, 2005

This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It’s what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve.

– George W. Bush in a speech to students on Perseverance Month, 2000-01-28

Stating the obvious

By John, on January 14th, 2005

Human Rights Watch, an organisation dedicated to the protection of human rights worldwide, issued its annual report yesterday, covering over 60 countries. The report picks out two main areas of concern – the situation in Dafur, and the behaviour of the USA in Abu Ghraib in particular and in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo in . . . → Read More: Stating the obvious