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Archives: June 2010
Petraeus confirmed Quickly by Committee;
The LAT reports on the lightning speed with which the Senate Armed Forces Committee confirmed the appointment of Gen. David Petraeus as commander of US troops in Afghanistan. The full senate votes…Turkey Forbids Israeli Military Overflights
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday in Toronto in the wake of the G20 conference that Turkey will no longer routinely give Israeli military aircraft permission to fly in Turkish…
Walthen: I saw 100 Dolphins in the Oil, some Dying
John L. Walthen and companions take a helicopter trip out over the Gulf of Mexico. "This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done! A flight over the BP Slick…
7 NATO Troops Killed;
as Karzai is Said to Dicker with Insurgents;
and Panetta Scoffs
Taliban Rejoice in McChrystal Firing
Radio Azadi reports that from early Sunday morning in the Marawara District of Kunar Province, a vigorous firefight has been pursued by the Taliban on the one hand and on the other,…Public Souring on the Afghanistan War
If you've lost Rory Stewart, you've lost the war. Rory Stewart is a young British conservative, who once walked Afghanistan and later governed the Iraqi province of Maysan in 2003-2004 under Paul…Jindal idles National Guardsmen He Demanded
CBS reports that after jumping up and down demanding Federal government resources for Louisiana to deal with the BP Gulf oil gusher, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has only put to work about…
Blue Planet
Sam Lardner, "Blue Planet":
On Ghana
Since the US is playing Ghana today, I thought it would be nice to mirror some video on, like, Ghana. So here is a Worldbusiness report on Ghana's remarkable economic progress and…Top Ten News that is Not News
10. "Tropical Depression Stirs Concern." 9. " Financial reform package wouldn't change Wall Street much." 8. " In Afghanistan, Petraeus will have difficulty replicating his Iraq success." 7. BP Stock Reaches all-time…
Hurricanes could Threaten BP Ships, Relief Well Operations
Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico could force oil recovery ships to seek a safe harbor for as much as two weeks starting early July. since the upward estimate for oil flow…
Aerial footage of tar on Pensacola Beach
Aerial footage of tar on Pensacola Beach from Escambia County Sheriff's Office helicopter.
Bhopal Victims Protest, Draw Contrast with US Treatment of BP
T.L. Caswell on how Union Carbide's negligence in the Bhopal chemical leak near Agra in the 1980s was punished late and lightly, whereas BP was forced by the US to establish a…
Raining Oil in Louisiana
OK Rachel Maddow says it isn't so. Raining oil in Louisiana:McCain Bashes Obama’s Afghan Withdrawal Timetable
As British, Poles, Dutch Plan Exit
Controversy is swirling in Washington about whether the firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of US troops in Afghanistan has contributed to a weakening of NATO commitment to the war. And…Lessons of Petraeus’ Iraq for Petraeus’ Afghanistan
President Obama's appointment of Gen. David Petraeus to succeed Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of US forces in Afghanistan signaled a continued commitment by the White House to a large-scale counter-insurgency campaign…McChrystal Drama is Sideshow;
Can Obama define a realistic Goal?
The Daily Telegraph in the UK talked to a senior congressional figure late Tuesday or very early Wednesday ET, who said that Gen. Stanley McChrystal had submitted his resignation in advance of…Obama’s MacArthur Moment? McChrystal Disses Biden
Gen. Stanley McChrystal is apologizing for remarks he made in a Rolling Stone interview denigrating Vice President Joe Biden and US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. McChrystal is said to have asked…
Israel Makes Small Change to Gaza Blockade
Brands Lebanese Women’s Aid Mission ‘Hizbullah’
Edmund Sanders of the LAT puts the matter correctly when he says that Israel's national security government (a subset of key cabinet ministers) took a "small step" Sunday in announcing a further…US Strike Kills Civilians in Khost,
Bombings Rock Helmand Capital
UN: Roadside Bombings Double
Things are not going well for the Obama administration in Afghanistan, and the only good news for the White House is that almost no one in the United States seems to be…Twin Oil Disasters: BP and Iraq
Bloody Friday in Iraq Leaves 27 Dead, over 80 Wounded
The wave of violence in Iraq on Friday, wherein guerrillas killed at least 27 and wounded dozens, underlined how fragile the country still is. In many ways, American Iraq resembles BP's Gulf…
Limited Israeli Easing of Gaza Blockade Greeted with Dismay
Despite the breathless flurry of approving statements provoked by the English-language pledge issued by the prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu that the blockade of Gaza would be 'eased,' in fact ,…Turkey Shelves Israeli Cooperation,
Considers breaking off Ties;
Israel Lobbies in Congress denounce Ankara
Members of the US Congress attacked Turkey on Wednesday for voting against the UN Security Council resolution imposing further sanctions on Iran, and for its heavy criticism of the Israeli blockade of…
Obama Launches Green Equivalent of Moon Mission
President Obama for the first time addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening, on the Gulf of Mexico oil volcano. The address came as scientists revised upward their estimate…Big Oil’s Predations are not Your Fault
No, the BP oil volcano in the Gulf of Mexico is not your fault, despite what many pundits will tell you. Back in the 1960s when the environmental movement got going, major…Meh story about $1 Trillion in Minerals in Afghanistan
The report that geologists have found $1 trillion in mineral wealth in Afghanistan is less important than it seems.. That Afghanistan has minerals is not in fact news. But none of the…
Palestinians Need a State: Loosening Blockade is not Enough
One problem with the focus the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid flotilla is that it may make it appear that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is the central issue. Then any…
The Greens in Iran are a Movement, not a Coup
Small protests broke out around Iran on June 12, the anniversary of the 2009 presidential election, which protesters say was stolen by the country's clerical Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on behalf of…
Schumer’s Sippenhaftung and the Children of Gaza
"Gaza" is an abstraction to most Israelis, including [partisans of Israel like] Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. A majority of the 1.5 million Gazans is not even from Gaza, but rather…Dayan Calls for Assassination of Erdogan via Sinking of his Proposed Aid Ship
The former deputy general Chief of Staff of the Israeli military has called for a proposed aid ship to Gaza from Turkey to be sunk by the Israeli navy. Since the Turkish…
One Hour of Video Released by Gaza Aid Worker
A full hour of raw video from the Mavi Marmara Gaza aid ship from before and during the brutal and illegal assault on it in international waters by Israeli commandos is now…
Russia: Missiles not Covered by UN Weapons Ban on Iran
After wavering at first, Russian now maintains that the new round of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran do not forestall a sale by Moscow to Tehran of S-300 surface-to-air missiles, which…
Cameron Plans changed by RPG Threat;
Taliban Resurge in Helmand
British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to abandon a planned visit to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan during his trip to that country because of fears that the Taliban might…
Gaza Humanitarian Workers Release Video
Democracy Now! interviews Iara Lee about the video she managed to get past Israeli jamming, from the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship in international waters. She later that day…Colbert: Palestinians Should Go Back where they Came From
Stephen Colbert, who parodies rightwing t.v. pundits, debates himself on the Israeli assault on the Gaza aid flotilla and tells the Israeli ambassador to the US that 'the Palestinians should go back…
Video Shows Israeli Commando Executing American
Update: Paul Woodward has discovered an earlier video posted to the Web from which the following was apparently culled, via what he calls 'creative editing.' Obviously, raw footage is preferable, but it…BP Spills Coffee
UCB Comedy: BP Spills Coffee:Israel’s Gift to Iran’s Hardliners:
Cole at Tomdispatch
My essay on the anniversary of the protests in Iran and the ways in which Israeli and US Mideast policy has strengthened the hard liners is up at Tomdispatch.com. Excerpt: ' Iran’s…40 Killed in Afghan Wedding Bombing;
4 US Troops killed in Helicopter Downing
A wedding in Nagaan in Qandahar province was bombed on Wednesday, killing at least 40 persons and wounding at least 70. The new violence comes as it is being reported that President…A Sign of Modernization: Saudi Clerics Promote Kinship by Sharing Breast Milk
Two Saudi clerics have followed an Egyptian one in advocating breast-milk feeding as a way of establishing kinship between men and women, which would then allow the two to be in each…
Mystery of Iranian Nuclear Scientist and the Duelling YouTube Videos
Aljazeera English reports on the two contradictory videos that have surfaced, in one of which Dr. Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, maintains that he was kidnapped while on pilgrimage to Mecca…
Raid Survivor Says he Disarmed 2 Israeli Commandos in Midst of Shooting Rampage
Kenneth O'Keefe, a victim of the brutal Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara on Memorial Day that killed one American citizen and 8 others, at least, speaks of how he grabbed Israeli…
Insurgents Kill 10 NATO Troops;
Afghanistan Condemns Israel
Insurgents in Afghanistan killed 10 NATO troops on Monday, 7 of them Americans. Five of the US troops were killed in Eastern Afghanistan, the two others in the south. One of the…
Catty BP Strategies in Gulf
Catty BP Strategies in GulfJewish Gaza Aid Flotilla Planned
Now a German Jewish organization, Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East, is planning an aid flotilla to Gaza! Please send them money. There are over 250,000 Jews in contemporary Germany,…“Peace is Terror, Protest is Terror”
– The Israeli Ministry of Truth
Eric Blair, a.k.a. George Orwell, is often wrongly thought to have been writing science fiction in his seminal novel, 1984. In fact, he was simply warning about certain tendencies in governmental practice…
Key Afghan Security Officials Sacked by Karzai
Taliban Reject Peace Talks
Bombings in Jalalabad, Kunduz, Qandahar
The security situation in Afghanistan continued to be bad on Sunday. In Jalalabad in the eastern Pashtun region, a roadside bomb targeting a US convoy injured 13 Afghans. It may be that…
Tel Aviv Rally Against Gaza Blockade;
Wave of Protests, Gov’t Condemnation
Waves of protests and governmental denunciations against Israel's attack on the Mavi Marmara relief vessel last Monday washed over the world, even as Israel raided and captured another aid vessel, the Rachel…Northern Ireland Condemns Israeli Raid on Rachel Corrie,
“Completely unacceptable Use of Force”
In what N. Irish Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness described as a "raid," the Israeli Navy again commandeered an unarmed, peaceful ship in international waters, the Rachel Corrie, in a bid to…
The Big Mistake in the New BP Ad
Uh, BP, fire that Public Relations firm you hired to make a new commercial. They gave you some good advice and some rotten advice. We wanted some empathy from BP - Check…Rachel Corrie Intercepted;
The 9 activists killed last Monday were shot 30 Times
Wire services reported early Saturday morning that the Rachel Corrie had been intercepted by Israeli war ships and that its communications had been jammed by the Israelis. The ship, which had set…Rachel Corrie Steaming toward Gaza
Likud Vows it will Not Arrive
Oh, oh. Part Deux. The Rachel Corrie Gaza aid ship is now steaming toward the Gaza coast, and its communications may have been already jammed. It is flagged as an Irish vessel,…
Eyewitnesses Say Israelis came in with Guns Blazing
As The Lede points out, the more Mavi Marmara passengers who talk to the press, the more the Israeli official narrative about their landing on the deck of the ship is challenged.…
Erdogan: Israel in danger of losing its “best friend” in the Region
NATO HQ Seething
As funerals were held in Turkey on Thursday for 7 Turks and 1 US citizen, a new wave of anger swept over Turkey at Israel. The popular emotions have potential implications for…American Citizen Killed by Israeli Navy
Hey, Tea Party. A foreign navy boarded an unarmed ship flying the flag of a NATO member in international waters and shot dead an American citizen with four bullets to the head…The Hypocrisy of Netanyahu
The sloppy Israeli propaganda effort against the Free Gaza humanitarian flotilla has been so bad that the pictures released by the Israeli army have been tagged by alert bloggers as forgeries, some…Eyewitness Account: ‘They began to fire machine guns …’
"The Gaza Flotilla Massacre: An Eyewitness Account" from pan-Arab London daily, The Middle East (Al-Sharq al-Awsat): ' Haneen Zoabi, who is a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel and an MP for the…Eyewitnesses Confirm Israeli Gunplay;
Egypt’s lifting of the Blockade likely Temporary
More eyewitness accounts are emerging from released aid activists whom the Israelis had imprisoned." They corroborate the videotape showing that Israeli forces were firing at the deck of the Mavi Marmura before…“The Ship Turned into a Lake of Blood”: Israeli Commandos Used Beatings, Stun Guns, Live Ammo
The humanitarian aid workers taken hostage by Israel on the high seas are beginning to be released, and they describe to the Associated Press a horrific scene when Israeli troops boarded the…