BOGOTÁ, Colombia — U.S aid to Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S aid in the Western Hemisphere, is set to pour in at the same levels as in previous years. But with a Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress, the focus of that aid may shift more toward social spending and away from military spending. In the 2008 budget request, the Bush administration asked for $586 million for Colombia, a slight decrease from $587 million in 2006. The bulk of aid is earmarked for the Colombian armed forces, with 76 percent allocated to counterinsurgency and anti-narcotics operations and the remainder [...]
WASHINGTON — “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” may have prompted Americans to run and find Kazakhstan on a map. But another recent development appears to have a growing number of Washington insiders talking seriously about political discord in the massive former Soviet republic. A rising young Kazakh politician visited Washington recently trying drum up support from U.S. policy makers and journalists for his newly established and reform-minded Kazakh political party — the official registration of which he claims is being obstructed by his country’s “draconian law on political parties.” The second largest of [...]
U.S. authorities are pushing forward with a newly designed system of special military tribunals to try suspected terrorists detained at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay. With the first cases expected to be announced this month, it remains to be seen whether such high-level suspects as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the accused mastermind behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will be on the docket. Congress passed legislation calling for the new system in September, after President George W. Bush announced the transfer of KSM to Guantanamo, and after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed an earlier tribunal system set up [...]
