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Archives: October 2009

Abdullah May Withdraw from Second Round

Abdullah Abdullah is threatening to withdraw from the presidential runoff contest in Afghanistan if the head of the Electoral Commission is not replaced. That commission oversaw the fraud-ridden first round. President Obama…

Abdullah May Withdraw from Second Round

Abdullah Abdullah is threatening to withdraw from the presidential runoff contest in Afghanistan if the head of the Electoral Commission is not replaced. That commission oversaw the fraud-ridden first round. President Obama…

Baltzer and Barghouti on Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart this week showed his usual stone cold courage in having on to his show Palestinian activist Moustafa Barghouti and Jewish-American peace worker Ann Baltzer for a frank discussion of the…

Baltzer and Barghouti on Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart this week showed his usual stone cold courage in having on to his show Palestinian activist Moustafa Barghouti and Jewish-American peace worker Ann Baltzer for a frank discussion of the…

Blast At Peshawar Bazaar Kills 105

The story of the gigantic car bombing of the area between Meena and Kochi bazaars in Peshawar, which killed at least 105 persons, is especially heartbreaking. Muslim extremists in Darra Adam Khel…

Pakistan Army Takes Militant Stronghold

The Pakistani military announced Saturday that its troops have taken Kotkai in South Waziristan, the erstwhile headquarters of the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. Both Hakimu'llah Mahsud and…

Taliban Attack Pakistan Air Force Base

A suicide bomber at the gates of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (an Air Force base) detonated his payload on Friday, killing 8 and wounding 17. Kamra is northwest of the capital, Islamabad,…

ECC: Karzai must Stand in Runoff Election

The UN-sponsored Electoral Complaints Commission in Afghanistan has determined that after fraudulent ballots are thrown out, incumbent Hamid Karzai received less than 50% of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with…

Pakistan Begins Major Campaign in S. Waziristan

Dawn reports that about 30,000 Pakistani troops on Saturday moved into South Waziristan, a stronghold of the Mahsud tribe, whence have sprung important leaders of the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or Pakistani Taliban…

Taliban Condemn Obama Nobel Peace Prize

The USG Open Source Center Translates the Taliban reaction to President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.Afghan Taleban 'strongly' condemn Obama peace prize - agencyAfghan Islamic PressFriday, October 9, 2009 Document Type: OSC…

What did Rawalpindi Militants Want?

A hostage standoff at Pakistani military HQ in Rawalpindi ended violently on Sunday morning when Pakistani troops stormed the compound where the militants had holed up with 25 hostages. Three of the…

Obama as Nobelist, Obama as game-changer

I was listening to National Public Radio on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama, and they brought on some nonentity from one of Rupert Murdoch's faux "magazines,"…

Nearly One in Four Persons on Globe is Muslim

CNN reports that nearly one in four human beings is Muslim, based on a new extensive survey by the Pew Forum for Religion in Public Life.The number of Muslims they estimate, about…

Rethinking Afghanistan

You get your pick of polls on the Afghanistan war this morning. AP-GfK found only 40% of Americans any longer support the war, though they back sending one-off expeditionary forces to fight…

Gross: Massive Fraud in Afghanistan Election

Nasrine Gross writes in a guest op-ed for ICFriends & Colleagues,I have just returned from Kabul. And I am shocked how little the extent of fraud in the presidential elections is understood…

Iran and Nuclear Latency

When you tool around the blogosphere and the news sites, the discourse about Iran's nuclear program is maddeningly contradictory. But I think a single hypothesis can account for all the known facts.…

Ron Paul on Iran; Ahmadinejad has Jewish Heritage

International Atomic Energy Agency official Mohammad Elbaradei arrived in Tehran on Saturday to begin making preparations for the inspection of Iran's new nuclear research facility near Qom. The NYT reports that an…

Russia, China, Satisfied with 10/1/09 Talks

The US plan to place further sanctions on Iran for its nuclear energy research program may founder at the United Nations Security Council because of the reluctance of Russia and China to…