The New Mexico Independent

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The New Mexico Independent going forward

By | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…

EIB hears more anti-cap-and-trade testimony

Mesa Verde 80
By | 11.10.11

While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…

New Mexico’s largest university low in popularity

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By | 11.10.11

Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.

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LGBT groups gear up for today’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal fight

By | 05.26.10 | 9:35 am

The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled today to consider the bill that includes a repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell.”  That’s why a coalition of LGBT-rights organizations pushing to secure passage in the committee, and then later this week…

Gates sharply limits ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

By | 03.25.10 | 10:06 am

In a major victory for opponents of the military’s ban on open homosexual service, Defense Secretary Robert Gates significantly revised how the Pentagon will implement the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, effectively making it difficult to remove a soldier, sailor, airman or marine who does not out himself or herself as gay.

Systemic failures may give Blackwater another Afghanistan contract

By | 03.08.10 | 9:03 am

By March 24, the private security corporation formerly known as Blackwater — last seen in Afghanistan shooting civilians and stealing weapons intended for the Afghan police — may win a new Defense Department contract to train the Afghan police. And nearly no one in the government wants to own up to how it could happen.

Blackwater took hundreds of guns From U.S. military, Afghan police

By | 02.24.10 | 9:28 am

Employees of the CIA-connected private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Analysts question al-Qaeda efforts at counterterrorism center

By | 01.15.10 | 8:50 am

Analysts — those who have worked on al-Qaeda and on other threats — describe themselves as “drinking from a firehose” of information shared with the National Counterterrorism Center by the partner intelligence agencies.

Experts question efficacy of profiling

By | 01.12.10 | 8:14 am

Will increased security measures for flights from certain countries–mostly Muslim countries–be effective in combatting terrorist attacks?

Security experts: administration overstates domestic al-Qaeda threat

By | 12.14.09 | 8:51 am

Some security experts say the Obama administration is mischaracterizing the terrorist threat to get the public to back escalating the Afghanistan war.

Obama Announces 30K More Troops for Afghanistan

By | 12.02.09 | 8:15 am

For the first time in the war’s history, President Obama announced a date — July 2011 — when U.S. forces in Afghanistan will begin handing over security responsibilities to Afghan soldiers and policemen.

Obama Decisions Complicated by Progressive Opposition to Afghanistan Escalation

By | 10.12.09 | 10:18 am

As President Obama and his advisers debate strategy for the Afghanistan war and its related crisis in Pakistan, a factor that so far has not intruded on their discussions is emerging: the antiwar movement is showing signs of strength.

Future of U.S. public diplomacy unsettled at State Department

By | 02.17.09 | 8:59 am

As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton near an announcement of a top State Department official to promote the United States’ image abroad, some wonder if the position will be viewed as a national-security or public-relations job.

Iraqi translators fear retribution

By | 02.02.09 | 9:06 am

Documents obtained by the Washington Independent reveal Iraqi linguists working for the U.S. military could be in peril under new disclosure rules fostered by the Status of Forces Agreement.

The counterinsurgents’ defense secretary

By | 12.05.08 | 5:02 pm

A just-published article in Foreign Affairs by Defense Secretary Robert Gates provides a snapshot of an emerging irregular-warfare-heavy Pentagon — and interagency process — in the Obama administration.

Richardson’s stepping stone to State?

By | 12.03.08 | 3:09 pm

If confirmed as Secretary of Commerce, Gov. Bill Richardson would oversee the U.S. Commercial Service, the agency’s equivalent of the State Dept.’s foreign service.

A window into Obama’s foreign policy

By | 11.14.08 | 10:45 am

According to interviews with longtime associates, Susan Rice, the woman who was just named to head the foreign-policy transition team for an Obama administration — and herself a likely candidate for deputy national security adviser or other top position — is a rigorous thinker and thorough pragmatist, impatient with ideology and incompetence.

Productive Obama-military relationship possible

By | 11.13.08 | 4:47 pm

During his July trip to Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama met with a man who represents both an opportunity and an obstacle to his presidency: Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. Petraeus, a hero to many Americans for his management of the war in Iraq, argued in a private briefing that military commanders should be given wide latitude in handing the future course of the war — though Obama was running for president on a platform calling for a withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months.

Barack Obama’s Pentagon-in-waiting

By | 11.11.08 | 11:09 am

The rumor started to spread last week that if Sen. Barack Obama won the presidential election, Michele Flournoy would resign from the Center for a New American Security on Thursday following the election. Friday at the latest.

Karzai’s popularity slips in Afghanistan

By | 09.26.08 | 7:52 am

For the first time in Hamid Karzai’s meteoric ascent to the presidency of Aghanistan’s presidency, Afghans are beginning to express disillusionment with Karzai, who is a key U.S. alley. Corruption, instability and tough economic times are starting to turn even Karzai’s fellow Pashtuns against him.

Weapons cache hunting in Afghanistan

By | 09.16.08 | 3:00 am

COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan -– National security reporter Spencer Ackerman rides along with Alpha Cavalry Troop’s First Platoon in search of a weapons cache in Afghanistan.

Bush Dissenter: ‘Don’t Start a War With Iran’

By | 07.30.08 | 3:04 pm

WASHINGTON — In a roundtable Tuesday, Adm. William "Fox" Fallon, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East ousted for dissenting from the Bush administration’s bellicose posture toward Iran, gave a rare public elaboration of his view of…

Afghanistan’s descent

By | 07.14.08 | 9:09 am

WASHINGTON — As U.S. casualties continue to climb in Afghanistan, an American public distracted by the war in Iraq can be forgiven for wondering: what happened? How did a war that seemed…