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Archives: September 2011
Arab Spring Roundup
A pro-Baath mob in Damascus attacked the convoy of US ambassador Robert Ford, pelting his and other vehicles with tomatoes and eggs. Ford has visited dissident cities as they protested the regime…Why we Need a Palestinian State: (Cole at Truthdig Podcast)
In my interview by podcast for Truthdig this week, I discuss Palestinian statehood and how foolish the US government is in sptopping this movement. I also describe the demonstrations at Wall Street
Visiting Liberty Square (Occupy Wall Street)
I spent the summer going to rallies and demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt, and was even in Barcelona during their protest. (Nighttime Protest at Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, July 2011) I was…What should have been Headlines in the Corporate Media: Today’s Best of the Blogosphere
Talking Points Memo: Michele Bachmann's latest batsh*t crazy conspiracy theory has Lebanon's Shiite Hizbullah hooking up with Castro's Communist Cuba. Tomdispatch: A State Department official is being threatened with losing his job…Palestine UN Vote and American Decline (Cole at Truthdig)
My column, "Palestine Vote Showcases the Decline of American Power,", is out at Truthdig. Excerpt: "The United States, castigated by its critics as recently as a decade ago as a “hyper-power,” is…Pakistani Newspapers Respond to US Threats, call for War Readiness
The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases Pakistani Urdu newspaper editorials responding to the US threats against Pakistan should it not curb the Haqqani Network (Pashtun Mujahidin based in North Waziristan).…
Lindsey “Dr. Strangelove” Graham & War with Pakistan
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a major proponent of the idea of a US perpetual war, now wants conflict with Pakistan. He told Fox News Sunday, "The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in…
Saudi Women’s Vote: Does it Go Far Enough?
The surprise announcement on Sunday by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that women will be allowed to vote in and run for office in the municipal elections scheduled in four years is…Greater Middle East Turns More Dangerous for US
Here are some troubling reports suggesting trouble ahead for the United States in the Greater Middle East, and, indeed, trouble for the region internally: 1. The surprise return to Yemen on Friday…Palestine, Bahrain and US Hyprocrisy
Brazen hypocrisy most often deeply damages the reputation, whether of a person or of a country. President Barack Obama appears to have thought that he could go to the UN with a…
Strange Satellite Craze
The NASA satellite re-entering earth orbit late Friday has caused a sensation for some strange reason. Maybe because people have heard that it is 6 tons, about the weight of a mail…
Mahmoud Abbas goes to the UN
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestine Authority will give a major speech on Friday at the United Nations in conjunction with his planned request to the UN Security Council that Palestine be…Iraq Denies calling for Syrian President’s Resignation
According to Agence France Presse's Arabic service, Ali Moussawi, the spokesman for the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is now denying that he told the New York Times that the Iraqi…
Rabbani’s Assassination Sharpens Afghanistan Contradictions
Burhan al-Din Rabbani's assassination late Tuesday was a further signal that things are going very badly in Afghanistan. Rabbani is a former president of Afghanistan (1992-1996) who, however, was impossible to work…
Libyan Transitional Troops enter Sabha
Reuters reports that Libyan troops of the new government have taken the airport of the southern desert city of Sabha, a key site on the route down to Niger. Sabha is one…Obama’s Tax Critics: Political Doggerel of the Day
The Tea Party tore into Obama for staging a taxation drama. They would rather he cut doctor visits somewhat and save millionaires from such trauma.Top Arab Spring Stories Today
Yemeni security forces killed 24 protesters on Sunday as the conflict between partisans of wounded president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his detractors escalated. Anti-Saleh protesters in Sanaa are taking their demonstrations to…
Cole on the 9/11 Aftermath at AskM
I cover questions about Iraq, Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and the Arab Spring in this recent interview at AskM (a program of the University of Michigan News and Information Service)Cole on the Middle East at O Globo’s “Milenio”
My interview on Middle Eastern affairs with the O Globo television network's "Milenio" program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is now on line here. (After the short intro it is in English…Palestinians seek UN Moxie
Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave a major speech Friday making it clear to the Palestinians that the PA will seek membership in the United Nations at this year's General Assembly meeting.…Libyan TNC Fighters Said to have Entered Sirte
Transitional National Council forces announced Thursday night that they had taken most of Sirte, the birthplace of Muammar Qaddafi where elements of his dreaded 32nd Brigade had held out. Some of these…
Muslim Brotherhood Rebukes Erdogan for Advocacy of Secularism
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's speech at at the Arab League on Monday and at the Cairo Opera House on Tuesday made waves in the West because of his denunciation of Israeli…Helman: The Palestinians Seek UN Recognition
Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: The Palestinian Authority has stated its intention this Fall to seek some action at the United Nations to advance its…Turkey, Egypt and Israel
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Cairo on Tuesday morning, being greeted at the airport by thousands of cheering Egyptians. Even though two dramatic moments envisaged by Erdogan's staff-- a side…The New Legal Landscape for Civil Liberties after 9/11
Here is a video courtesy of WDET of a recent American Civil Liberties Union event at Wayne State University, wherein I talk about the ways in which academic work has become more…77 US troops Wounded in Truck Bombing of Base in Wardak; Top Reasons US should get out of Afghanistan
Never before in the Afghanistan War, the longest-running military conflict in US history, have so many US troops been wounded in one day. Some 5 Afghans were killed and some 77 American…Ten Years after 9/11, Do the Arabs value Democracy more than We do?
The September 11 attacks have been revealed as a last gasp of a fading, cult-like twentieth-century vision, not as the wave of the future. They were the equivalent of the frenetic dashing…State of Alert in Egypt after Breach at Israeli Embassy
The assault on the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday represented a dangerous escalation of tensions between the protesters and the transitional regime. The military declared a "state of alert" and cancelled…A tale of two Afghan Leaders, before and after 9/11
Ten years ago, a horrific suicide bombing carried out by Algerian al-Qaeda operatives posing as journalists snuffed out the life of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the great Afghan Mujahidin leader and among the…Sadrists to Demonstrate in Baghdad against US Troops Remaining
One of the major consequences of the September 11 attacks ten years ago was that members of the Bush administration decided to "take advantage" of the resulting passions to pursue their long-planned…Turkey Crisis Provokes Israeli Army Anger at Lieberman
The crisis between Turkey and Israel deepened on Monday, allegedly provoking severe tensions between the Israeli officer corps and the far right-wing Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman. There was also disarray…Accord Reached for Peaceful Entry of Bani Walid?
Aljazeera Arabic is reporting a breakthrough in the negotiations between the new government in Tripoli and the elders of the city of Bani Walid, a center of pro-Qaddafi military personnel and sentiments.…Top Ten Good News Green Energy Stories
Here are the week's top ten energy good news stories. 1. A Japanese technical innovation has the potential to double or triple the power generated by wind turbines. 2. Germany now gets…China offered Qaddafi Armaments in midst of war
People who favored saving the civilian populations of Benghazi and other eastern Libyan cities from Qaddafi's tanks and artillery have often been termed "interventionists." But it turns out that there was more…
Israeli Likud Gov’t Buffeted by Turkish Suit, Massive Protests
The far right wing government of Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel is being buffeted both internationally and domestically. In both instances, the discontent is being produced by right wing policies, which argue for…Qaddafi was a CIA Asset
Human Rights Watch found documents in Libya after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi that it passed on to the Wall Street Journal, which is analyzing them. The WSJ reported today that the…Libya: Oil Bids on Basis of Capacity; World releases $15 bn in Assets
The CSM reviews the jockeying for position in Libya at the Friends conference in Paris, and especially the prospects of the US. But a spokesman for the Transitional National Council emphasized that…