United Press International

...A policy brief released by the New America Foundation analyzing the Top 10 defense contractors with the U.S. government found that companies involved with the production of mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, among other armored transportation, had the biggest growth in Pentagon prime contract awards... LINK

WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- The displacement of Iraqi refugees -- close to 4 million -- represents the most serious crisis involving population movements in the Middle East since the exodus of Palestinians in 1948, when fleeing the creation of the state of Israel, hundreds of thousands established themselves in decrepit refugee camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, as well as in Gaza and in the West Bank.Yet despite their numbers, the Iraqis remain "an invisible refugee crisis,"… more

The United States must build new nuclear weapons to maintain its deterrent capabilities, a National Nuclear Security Administration official said Friday.The development of new warheads to replace the U.S. Cold War stockpile is necessary to assure a nuclear deterrent for the future, John Harvey, the NNSA's policy planning staff director, told a press conference at the New America Foundation, a [post-partisan] Washington think tank. The NNSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The controversial… more

The violent confrontation between warring Palestinian factions unfolding in Gaza is far more than a civil war. It's a coup d'etat accompanied by a civil war. And it's also the most serious, most nefarious chapter in the short history of the Palestinian Authority.The heavy fighting pitting forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, against members of the Islamist Hamas movement, have not only revived fears of an intra-Palestinian civil war, but they have shattered the… more

WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- Taliban insurgents are challenging U.S.-led forces for the moral high ground in Afghanistan by avoiding mass casualty attacks and calling for an international commission to investigate civilian deaths in the conflict.

Analysts and experts say the battle for this vital hearts-and-minds territory is the key to winning the war in Afghanistan, and U.S. and NATO forces are handicapped in it. They are held to higher standards by the local population, and have… more

WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- The potential of solar energy to help solve many of America's energy woes is real, but its success hinges on establishing long-term incentives, industry advocates say. "The only risk posed by solar is not going forward rapidly," Michael Splinter, chief executive officer of Silicon Valley-based Applied Materials, said this week at a briefing sponsored by the New America Foundation on the potential for the technology to meet global energy demand. more

WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- Despite the hype surrounding the first public appearance by Valerie Plame Wilson last week, the testimony that was most indicting of the Bush administration's handling of the CIA leak controversy came not from the former CIA agent but from the second witness: a White House official responsible for carrying out internal White House investigations. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, testified that in the weeks following the… more

WASHINGTON, March 6 (UPI) -- While the reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program enjoys widespread support, state health officials say they are worried that the "new improved" program might include cumbersome new mandates or restrict the flexibility in health benefits built into the current program.At a briefing Tuesday in Washington, health-policy analysts pronounced the decade-old federal/state grant program a stunning success -- plucking about 5 million U.S. children whose families make too much money… more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Attacks by jihadist groups and the rate of fatalities in those attacks have increased significantly since the invasion of Iraq, according to a new study. The study's authors data shows a sevenfold increase in the global yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks.

"Even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one-third," [said] Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, authors of… more

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials say they are taking steps to monitor and combat the possible spread of Islamic extremism and support for a violent holy war against the West among a "Pepsi jihad" generation of young Muslims in the United States.At a hearing last week, officials from the CIA, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security told lawmakers that the United States had less of a problem with potential "homegrown" Islamic terrorists than Europe did, because… more