Articles by Glenn Brigaldino

Spinning a Resource War in Afghanistan

Glenn Brigaldino July 8, 2010 Glenn Brigaldino

It has taken some years, but now the numbers are coming in and adding up. The ongoing so-called war terror in Afghanistan is openly revealing its imperial character as the US geological service proudly reports of fantastic mineral finds in Afghanistan. In June the BBC said that Afghanistan may have more than a trillion dollars worth of untapped mineral deposits (1). However this appears to be yesterday’s news, and critics, with eyebrows raised, have already started questioning the purpose and motivation for launching an apparently old news story.

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Torture Taxi: Extraordinary Rendition in the Crosshairs

Glenn Brigaldino September 6, 2007 Glenn Brigaldino

Back in late 2001, Swedish police had arrested Mohamed al-Zery and Ahmed Agiza as suspected terrorists and were in a hurry to deport them rather than have them claim refugee status. Lacking their own logistics of rapid deportation, the Swedes welcomed the offer from a US-based plane operator to make available a Gulfstream jet marked N379P. The plane's hooded US crew picked up its unwilling passengers and flew them to Egypt, where both were detained, interrogated and tortured.

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Somalia, the Horn of Africa and US Troops in Odd Places

Glenn Brigaldino July 20, 2006 Glenn Brigaldino

Today's street gang killers in Somalia were barely 10 years old when I first came to Mogadishu in 1988. Since heavy fighting broke out again in Mogadishu in early May 2006, far more than 300 people have been killed and many more have been injured. Somalia has been the focus of repeated US attention. One might have thought that after the complete failure of the "Black Hawk Down" or officially the "Operation Restore Hope" mission in 1993, the US would have decided to call it quits in Somalia. They have not. (1)