Archive | September, 2010

New reports of fraud in Afghan elections

Internal reports from Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission provide new evidence of fraud in Afghanistan’s recent parliamentary elections, including ballot stuffing, intimidation, and turnouts exceeding 100% of eligible voters–with one district in Paktika province recording a 626% voter turnout.  The widespread problems, combined with an increase in violence from last year’s presidential elections, has raised further questions about […]

Global recession hits arms sales

The global economic downturn that hit in 2008 has led to a drop in the value of worldwide arms sales, the U.S. Congressional Research Service has reported (Thom Shanker, “Bad Economy Drives Down American Arms Sales,” New York Times, 12 September 2010). Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2002-2009 reports that the value of new […]

Joint Task Force 2 under investigation for improper killing

Canada’s Defence Department is quietly conducting its second investigation into allegations regarding the conduct of  Joint Task Force 2, the highly secretive Canadian special forces unit, in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2008.  The initial probe, Sand Trap I, lasted a year and a half and resulted in no charges.  However, it sparked a second, wider criminal investigation, Sand Trap II.  The […]

Russian bomber flights rare: NORAD

NORAD statistics obtained by the Ottawa Citizen show that Russian bomber flights near Canadian airspace–which the Harper government has been hyping in its efforts to sell Canadians on the controversial plan to buy F-35 fighters–have occurred only three to five times a year since 2007 (David Pugliese, “NORAD logs few Russian flights,” Ottawa Citizen, 4 […]