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Archives: December 2011

Top Ten Myths about the Arab Spring of 2011

1. The upheavals of 2011 were provoked by the Bush administration's overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq Bzzt! Wrong answer. None of the young people who made this year's revolutions ever pointed…

Gascoigne: Syria, the Invisible Massacre

Martin Gascoigne writes in a guest essay for Informed Comment The ongoing conflict in Syria, in a year of tremulous conflict across the region and beyond, singularly fails to ignite passions in…
Egyptian Blogger-Activist Alaa on Democracy Now!

Egyptian Blogger-Activist Alaa on Democracy Now!

Amy Goodman interviews Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who was recently released from jail, on Democracy Now! @Alaa is a renowned leftist blogger from a family of longtime Egyptian activists.…
Christian Priests Brawl at Jesus’ Birthplace

Christian Priests Brawl at Jesus’ Birthplace

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has now seen its annual brawl between Armenian and Eastern Orthodox priests, who are jointly responsible for its administration. Police of the Palestine Authority broke…

Iranian Navy Menaces Oil Exports from Hormuz

United Nations and United States financial and economic sanctions on Iran have probably gone about as far as they can in damaging Iran's economy. They have had a significant effect, but are…
Bombings Roil Iraq as Sunni Arabs Re-arm

Bombings Roil Iraq as Sunni Arabs Re-arm

The death toll in Thursday's bombings and attacks in Baghdad and environs rose to about 67 dead, with hundreds wounded. Most of the attacks honed in on soft targets (schools and markets)…

Suleimani: The US Decline in the Middle East

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Persian press about Qasim Suleimani, the head of the Jerusalem (Qods) Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. In it, Suleimani says…

Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, Occupy Your Heart

From Tomdispatch: Excerpt... Compassion Is Our New Currency Notes on 2011’s Preoccupied Hearts and Minds By Rebecca Solnit Usually at year’s end, we’re supposed to look back at events just passed --…
60 Dead in Baghdad Bombings; Iran and Al-Maliki

60 Dead in Baghdad Bombings; Iran and Al-Maliki

Update: 60 are dead in massive Baghdad bombings, probably by Sunni Arab guerrillas, as PM Nouri al-Maliki attempts to marginalize Sunnis politically Is Iran a consideration in Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki…
Massacre alleged in Syria

Massacre alleged in Syria

Syrian opposition groups alleged that the Syrian government committed a massacre in Idlib on Wednesday, leaving over 100 dead, most of them said to be civilians. The escalation of regime violence came…
Egyptian Women Rally against Police Brutality

Egyptian Women Rally against Police Brutality

Thousands of women rallied near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo on Tuesday, protesting the mistreatment meted out to women protesters by security forces. In some instances, the police had pulled up the…

Egypt Scientific Institute up in Flames

The Scientific Institute in Cairo has been burned. It was the second oldest such institute outside Europe, after the one in Philadelphia. Some 200,000 rare books and manuscripts are abruptly gone. The…

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Restless Planet

From Tomdispatch: "On the streets of Moscow in the tens of thousands, the protesters chanted: “We exist!”  Taking into account the comments of statesmen, scientists, politicians, military officials, bankers, artists, all the…
Success!

Success!

You did it! Thanks a million everyone for your warm and generous support. Here's to a vibrant Informed Comment in the New Year, and may it bring you many good things! I’d…
One year on– Mohamed Bouazizi’s Sacrifice

One year on– Mohamed Bouazizi’s Sacrifice

Aljazeera English on the one-year anniversary of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia-- an act of despair that sparked the Arab upheavals of 2011: In Sidi Bouzid today,…

Obama/ Maliki Conflicts on the Future of Iraq

Al-Sharq al-Awsat carried an article on December 15 about the behind the scenes conflicts between US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. My guess is that a Maliki staffer…
Cole interview with Nobelist Tawakkul Karman

Cole interview with Nobelist Tawakkul Karman

My interview on Arab feminism, youth activism, and revolution with Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman of Yemen is now up at YouTube. I asked her not only about high politics but…

Israel to defend its Military from Israelis

Coddling violent fanatics who attack and steal from Palestinians might just backfire on the Right wing Likud government. What? It already has? I wonder if there is a connection?? The USG Open…
Top Arab Revolution Stories the US Media Ignored

Top Arab Revolution Stories the US Media Ignored

Long time human rights activist Moncef Marzouki became Tunisia's president this week. Tunisians wept, at the idea that this principled man, forced into exile by the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,…

Post-American Iraq by the Numbers

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Washington this week, in something of a commemoration of the withdrawal of all US troops from his country. As the American War on Iraq draws to…
Climate Change Disaster looms despite Durban Agreement

Climate Change Disaster looms despite Durban Agreement

The global summit on climate change and curbing carbon emissions at Durban in South Africa ended on a positive note diplomatically. The international community rededicated itself to binding emissions limits and pledged…

Tomgram: Engelhardt, The 1% Election

Sometimes words outlive their usefulness.  Sometimes the gap between changing reality and the names we’ve given it grows so wide that they empty of all meaning or retain older meanings that only…
Iran Displays Drone, Complains to UN

Iran Displays Drone, Complains to UN

Iran said Thursday that it had hacked into the unmanned RQ-170 Sentinel US spy drone flying over eastern Iran and brought it down that way. The Iranians have complained to the United…

Tomgram: William Astore, The Remoteness of 1% Wars

America’s wars are remote.  They’re remote from us geographically, remote from us emotionally (unless you’re serving in the military or have a close relative or friend who serves), and remote from our…
Fox Viewers think Mubarak Still runs Egypt

Fox Viewers think Mubarak Still runs Egypt

A study by Fairleigh Dickenson University researchers has found that frequent viewers of Fox Cable News are worse informed than people who watch no news at all! It is not that Republicans…

Hizbullah Leader Condemns Syrian Opposition

The Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hizbullah party-militia, Sayyid Hasan Nasrullah, made an appearance in largely Shiite South Beirut on Tuesday for the first time since 2008, according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic.…
Pakistan and the US: Quarrel or Divorce?

Pakistan and the US: Quarrel or Divorce?

The Pakistani government is forcing the United States to depart the Shamsi Air Base in Baluchistan within two weeks, as one of three steps taken to protest the killing of 24 Pakistani…

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Into the Whirlwind

He was 22, a corporal in the Marines from Preston, Iowa, a “city” incorporated in 1890 with a present population of 949.  He died in a hospital in Germany of “wounds received…

Britain Closes Tehran Embassy

The British government has closed its embassy in Tehran and given Iranian diplomats two days to depart the UK. London has not severed diplomatic relations with Iran, but has reduced them to…