The year was 1951. The Korean "police action" was raging. I was a draftee NCO in a military police unit safely nestled in a major American city. But my comrades and I lived each day under the long, dark shadow of being shipped out to fight in a frozen country most of us couldnt find on a map.

A former U.S. Department of Justice ethics adviser who came to prominence as a whistle-blower after she objected to the governments treatment of John Walker Lindh — the "American Taliban" captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan – has joined leading members of the U.S. legal community in calling on Congress to investigate the destruction of tape recordings of interrogations carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Geography, history -- and geopolitics -- has not been very kind to the Kurdish people. Geography has spread Kurdistan across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia. History has only allowed Kurdistan to exist as an independent nation intermittently throughout the ages.

Will money help Palestine?

The West faces an unprecedented year of weakness and confusion in 2008.

Tunisias President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali announced a series of measures to promote democracy and human rights in the country. Experts who follow political and social developments in the country said the Tunisian president has made such promises in the past.

Will Turkey invade northern Iraq? Not according to the results of a role playing game undertaken by my students at George Mason University on Nov. 5. Thats the good news. There is, however, some bad news: it took extraordinary concessions from several parties to prevent this - concessions that are unlikely to be made in real life.

The Cairo press referred to last September as "Black September." A total of 11 journalists received prison sentences for charges that varied from insulting the ruling National Democratic Party to insulting the president.

Who does one turn to for intelligent intelligence in the absence of comprehensive intelligence from the intelligence community?

U.S. President George W. Bushs national security adviser Steven Hadley believes that this particular moment presents a unique opportunity for peace in the Middle East. He gives three reasons for his optimism.

Pakistan strongman Pervez Musharraf stepped down as army chief Wednesday after more than nine years in that position, handing control of the military to Gen. Ishfaq Parvez Kayani, former head of Pakistans notorious intelligence agency, the ISI. More on that in a moment.

There may be no celebrations this Christmas at Baabda, the vacant Lebanese presidential palace overlooking Beirut. President Emile Lahouds term ended on Nov. 23 with no successor. The republics confessional power-sharing system requires that parliament elect a head of state from the Maronite Christian community, but a year-old rift between opposing coalitions has brought the process to a standstill.

Mustafa Barghouti, a medical doctor, a Palestinian democracy activist and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He is a distant cousin of imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. In Washington for the Annapolis peace conference, Barghouti spoke with Middle East Times Editor Claude Salhani.

Middle East author and historian Rashid Khalidi offered the following forecast for Tuesdays peace gathering in Annapolis, "Cloudy with rain and a chance of storms." He added, "Thats been the Middle East forecast for decades."

After the groundbreaking visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states earlier this year, Russian weapons exporter Rosoboronexport has announced a historic first. Russia will sell Saudi Arabia helicopters and related services worth $2.2 billion. Sources in Moscow confirmed that Putin spoke to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia regarding Russian arms sales and assigns high priority to challenging the U.S. and European manufacturers in their traditional markets.

Veteran filmmaker Jonathan Demme had decided to follow former President Jimmy Carter on his book tour, long before anyone realized that his book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" would stir up controversy and a lively but sometimes vicious debate.

There may be six candidates running for the Uzbek presidency this December, but there will be few surprises when the incumbent Islam Karimov is elected for his third term - or perhaps his second, depending on how you count his 18 years in power.

There has been an incredible coincidence in Washington, D.C., this past week. The Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey, the nomination by President George W. Bush for the next Attorney General of the United States. Two days earlier, the first-ever exhibit of the complete series of Fernando Boteros shocking "Abu Ghraib" paintings opened at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, a few miles away from the chambers of the United States Senate. Washington is known for its strange bedfellows, but I doubt that a stranger juxtaposition has ever occurred.

In a speech last week, Zeid Raad Zeid Al-Hussein, the Jordanian Ambassador to the United States, spoke passionately of his hope for a happy marriage between peace and justice in the Middle East and around the world.

Egyptian and Saudi nuclear ambitions, on top of Irans atomic drive, will lead to an "apocalyptic scenario," a senior Israeli cabinet minister said in comments published on Friday.