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Archives: June 2014
What the Arab Youth Movements have Wrought: Don’t Count them Out Yet
By Juan Cole via Tomdispatch.com Three and a half years ago, the world was riveted by the massive crowds of youths mobilizing in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand an end to Egypt’s…
Photo of the Day: Egyptian Youth Demanded end to Military Trials for Civilians
By Juan Cole Now On the June 30 anniversary of the determined masses gathered in their millions at Tahrir Square and in city centers throughout Egypt, demanding a recall election for then…
The Debacle of the Caliphates: Why al-Baghdadi’s Grandiosity doesn’t Matter
By Juan Cole Ibrahim al-Badri, a run-of-the-mill Sunni Iraqi cleric, gained a degree from the University of Baghdad at a time when pedagogy there had collapsed because of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship…
Hyenas vs. Rhinos: Who could the NYT get to write an Op-ed on Iraq? Hmm…
By Juan Cole New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan did a quick study and found that critics of the paper of record over its preference for Iraq War hawks as sources…
Barzani: Kurdish Rule To Stay In Kirkuk
Via RFE/RL Iraqi Kurdish leader Masud Barzani has said that there is no going back on autonomous Kurdish rule in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other northern towns that Kurdish fighters…
The Fate of Dissenters in Al-Sisi’s Egypt: The New “Disappeared”
By Jihad Abaza As Abdel Fattah el-Sissi assumes his new role as Egypt’s president, enforced disappearances are on the rise in the Middle East’s most populous country, according to a recent press…
20% of Britain’s Electricity is now from Renewables Despite Tory Hostility
By Joshua S Hill New figures published by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show that 19.4% of the UK’s electricity mix for the first quarter of 2014 was…
UN to Detroit: Denial of Water to Thousands 'Violates Human Rights'
By Sarah Lazare Experts slam city's aggressive drive to disconnect water from residents who are unable to pay United Nations experts declared Wednesday that the city of Detroit's shut-off of water to…
Baghdad Strikes Back: Al-Maliki Launches Battle for Tikrit
By Juan Cole Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki is fighting for his political life as well as for the territorial integrity of Iraq. On Saturday he launched a large military operation in an…
A Subtle Alchemy: US Finds it easier to Occupy Abroad than to Withdraw
By Alan McPherson In 2003, former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld infamously foresaw victory in Afghanistan and Iraq as demanding a “long, hard slog” and listed a multitude of unanswered questions. Over…
Iraqi Mosul’s Child Soldiers: ISIS Trickily recruits 10-year-olds
niqash | Special Correspondent | Mosul | Much to the horror of the city’s adults, children and teens in masks, carrying guns, are becoming an increasingly common sight on Mosul’s streets. NIQASH…
Sunni Radicals of ISIS seek showdown with Lebanon’s Hizbullah
By Radwan Mortada The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has decided to instigate a full-scale conflagration in Lebanon. All indications show that the al-Qaeda offshoot is resolved to bring back…
Clinton to Cheney: Blaming Obama for not cleaning up your mess… Unseemly
During recent interview with David Gregory, Pres. Bill Clinton laughed off Dick Cheney’s suggestion that President Obama is to blame for the strife in Iraq, placing the blame directly at the feet…
Top 5 Reasons US Aid to “Moderate” Syrian Fighters is Quixotic
The Obama administration's fruitless search for effective Sunni "moderate" fighters in Syria continues, with the announcement of a $500 million grant to them for training and weaponry. This policy seems in part…
Unconstitutional: Top 4 Ways the US Gov’t has Shredded the 4th Amendment
By Peter Van Buren Here’s a bit of history from another America: the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the people from their government. If the First Amendment’s right to speak out publicly…
Iraqi Idol: Tikrit Woman who Confronted ISIS Becomes Internet Sensation
By Osama Hassan | Tikrit Sad story: Tikrit woman Umiyia Jibara was killed by an ISIS sniper. In a country currently full of sad tales, the tragic death of a Tikrit women's…
Dear Neocons: Why we’re not Sending Combat Troops to Iraq no matter how much you Pout
By Scott Corey There are only three things wrong with the idea of sending combat troops to Iraq at this time, as a range of hawks from Bill Kristol to Sen. John…
FAA insists on Regulating Delivery Drones
Via Gas2 The FAA doesn’t think much of Jeff Bezos’ idea to deliver packages to Amazon.com customers using drones. Yesterday the agency issued a proposed ruling that defines such deliveries as part…
Fox News A ‘Fanatical Terrorist Propagandist Organization’ According To Russell Brand (VIDEO)
By Samuel Warde According to Russell Brand, “fanatical” Fox News is “more dangerous than Isis.” His comments were made in response to a particularly disturbing rant by Fox News host Jeanine Pirro…
July 1: Juan’s new Book, “The New Arabs” hits the Shelves
By Juan Cole For those of you who like "long reads," my new book will be out next Tuesday. For those of you intending to buy it, let me suggest that you…
Is Russia Replacing US in Iraq?
By Juan Cole Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday told BBC Arabic that he was buying used fighter jets from the Russian Federation and from Belorussia. He said it had been…Jailed Jazeera reporter donates funds to Sisi's Egypt plan
An Al-Jazeera journalist whose jailing triggered global outrage has donated 15,000 Egyptian pounds to a fund initiated by the president to boost Egypt's ailing economy, his brother said on Thursday.
Is it ISIS? French, Saudi Suicide Bombers Target Beirut
Via al-Akhbar English: A suicide bomber blew himself up as security forces raided his hotel room in Beirut's Raouche district Wednesday evening, injuring at least 11 people, in the third such blast…
What Drove Iraqi Sunnis to Revolt and ally with ISIS?
By Charles Recknagel via RFE/RL As Sunni insurgents have swept across northern Iraq, they have sought to win support by portraying themselves as the liberators of the country's Sunni population. One of…
Fox’s Cavuto slams Bachmann on suing Obama: “There’s so much Wrong Here”
It’s not often that a FOXNews host takes a Tea Party “darling” like Michelle Bachmann to task for her Obama-Derangement-Syndrome, but that’s exactly what happened earlier today when Neil Cavuto got into…
Supreme Court Requires Warrants for Cell Searches, But won’t Protect Internet Streaming
Via Electronic Frontier Foundation Justices Rule Changing Technology Demands Limits for Police but Requires Permission from TV Broadcasters San Francisco - The U.S. Supreme Court issued two big rulings in important technology…
Iraq’s PM al-Maliki Rejects Gov’t of Nat’l Unity as Sunnis Demand he step Down
By Juan Cole Secretary of State John Kerry is an experienced and knowledgeable diplomat, but the difficulty of the situation in the Middle East right now is demonstrated by the repeated reversals…
Elizabeth Warren Crushes Chris Matthews, And A Word On Cement
By Sandy Dechert Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, met more than his match last Thursday when he took on lively freshman Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Looked as if Matthews got…
Iraq Crisis: It’s the Oil, Stupid!
By Michael Schwartz via Tomdispatch Events in Iraq are headline news everywhere, and once again, there is no mention of the issue that underlies much of the violence: control of Iraqi oil.…
Cheney’s Blame Game on Iraq: Mess O’Potamia – 300 (Jon Stewart)
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show: "The militant group ISIS quickly gains control of much of Iraq, giving Dick Cheney an opportunity to place blame for the crisis on everyone but himself."…
Iraq in last Throes as Kurdistan Seeks Independence, Syria & Iran intervene
By Juan Cole Former Vice President and unindicted felon Richard Bruce Cheney (they always give the criminals' names that way, in full) once said that he was sure that the Sunni Arab…
Obama’s Drone Memo Revealed: US Gov’t can over-rule 4th Amendment
By Sarah Lazare The U.S. government on Monday partially released the formerly-classified Department of Justice "drone memo," dated 2010, in which Obama administration lawyers argue they have the right to extra-judicially kill…
“Ready, Fire, Aim!” Are We Stumbling into another War?
By William R. Polk Analysis of foreign affairs problems often ends in a mental block. As we have seen in each of our recent crises -- Somalia, Mali, Libya, Syria, Iraq, the…
How WW I, British Greed, and Oil Distorted Modern Iran
By Farhad Malekafzali With one hundredth anniversary of the start of WWI fast approaching, the consequences of the war for Iran deserves attention. When it comes to European role in shaping Middle…
Why you need an EV: Radicalism in Iraq Menaces the World’s most Important Oil Fields
By Juan Cole The virtual collapse of the Iraqi army and its inability to take back any territory from Sunni forces coordinated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria brings into…
Blue Planet et al. Appeal to UN over Detroit Water cut-off to Thousands
By Sarah Lazare 'By denying water service to thousands, Detroit is violating the human right to water.' As thousands of people in Detroit go without water, and the city moves to cut…
Religion and the Fight over Public Space in Egypt
By Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei | Cairo (Special to Informed Comment) “Have you pronounced blessings on the Prophet today?” These words alarmed the Egyptian regime and impelled it to announce a war…
Hardliners in Israel & Iran Resist US Pivot to Iran over ISIS
By Juan Cole The continued advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) on Sunday brought the radical Sunni movement to the borders of Jordan and consolidated its…
Afghanistan and the Artificial US War on Terror (Anand Gopal’s New Book)
By Juan Cole I guest-hosted a book salon over at Firedoglake on Sunday concentrating on Anand Gopal's expose of the so-called 'war on terror' in Afghanistan. Below is my review of the…Circumcision ceremony at Eskişehir archeology museum stirs controversy
A circumcision ceremony held in the midst of ancient monuments at the ETİ Archeology Museum stirs controversy
Israel Threatens Witnesses to its Killings of Palestinians, and it Must Stop
Via Human Rights Watch Israeli Army targets Man Whose Cameras Recorded Deaths Israel should be investigating these deaths, but instead its forces seem intent on intimidating witnesses and ensuring future abuses won’t…
In American Turning Point re: Settler Zionism, Presbyterians Divest
By Andrea Germanos "Divestment is not the end, it’s the beginning of non-violent means to fight the oppression of our Palestinian brothers and sisters," said Ruling Elder Rick Ufford-Chase. The Presbyterian Church…
Koch Bros. Laguna Beach Black Sabbath targets Green Energy Activists with Greenbacks
Via Sourcewatch and The Young Turks: Anti-Regulation Energy Initiative At a secretive summit held in June 2014 at a resort in Laguna Beach, California, the Koch Brothers discussed their plan to launch…
Neo-Zangid State erases Syria-Iraq Border, cuts Hizbullah off from Iran
By Juan Cole With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of Qa'im on Saturday, and of Talafar a few days ago, the border between Iraq and Syria…
Inside Mosul: ISIS fears Popular Uprising; Baathists cry Foul
By a Special Correspondent via Niqash.org NIQASH’s correspondent takes a walk around Mosul to see how the city has changed since extremists took it over last week. Despite masked men at checkpoints…
Fiji to Rich Carbon-Spewing Nations: History will Judge you for Sinking Us!
By Jon Queally The interim prime minister of Fiji on Thursday condemned the international community for its continued failure to address the crisis of climate change, saying Pacific island nations like his…
Global Warming is about to Decimate the Building Blocks of Life in the Ocean
By Alex Kirby Researchers warn that marine life could be dramatically affected as climate change threatens to cause severe reduction of plankton – the key source of nutrients − in some ocean…
Afghanistan Elections: Abdullah refuses to Concede, Protests Erupt charging Fraud
By Frud Bezhan via RFE/RL KABUL -- As allegations of fraud in Afghanistan's runoff election pile up, protest movements have mobilized against what they see as systematic vote-rigging. Two groups have taken…
Palestinians 66 Yrs Later: An Unsustainable Refugee Crisis
By Pierre Krähenbühl via EurActiv Commissioner General of the United United Nations Relief and Works Agency Pierre Krähenbühl writes on the unsustainability of the Palestine refugee crisis on World Refugee Day (20…
Iraq: Ayatollah Sistani hints that Parliament should dump al-Maliki as Muqtada mobilizes “Peace Brigades”
The chorus for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq to step down grew louder on Friday, as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf had his representative in Karbala read a Friday prayers…
Flashback: All the Ways the Neocons were Wrong about Iraq
via Bernie Sanders US Senator Dick Cheney “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use…
How US Hawks Created an Arc of Instability in the Middle East
By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch As Iraq was unraveling last week and the possible outlines of the first jihadist state in modern history were coming into view, I remembered this nugget from…
Is Iraq Actually Falling Apart? What Social Science Surveys Show
By Mansoor Moaddel Several nationally representative surveys carried out in Iraq between 2004 and 2013 provide important facts about Iraqi orientations toward secular politics, basis of identity, Americans, and Iranians. These facts…
Pakistan Needs Regional and Global Alliances to Fight the Extremists
By Muqtedar Khan Pakistan on Sunday launched another military operation -- Zarb-e-Azb -- against the extremists in Waziristan. The name of the operation means sharp and cutting or surgical. This is not…
Obama Prepares for Drone War in Iraq
By Juan Cole President Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he will send 300 Green Beret Army special operations soldiers to Iraq. They will be detailed to Iraqi National Army Headquarters and…
Israeli Occupation Army harasses Palestinians on Pretext of Missing Settler Youth
Palestinian families bear brunt as Israel hunts teens (via AFP) It was the sound of the front door being kicked in that woke the Izrayqat family early Wednesday as Israeli troops barged…
It’s come to this: Fox News brings on NFL’s Terry Bradshaw for Benghazi analysis
It’s come to this: Fox News brings on NFL’s Terry Bradshaw for Benghazi analysis (via Raw Story ) Fox News on Wednesday continued its multi-year obsession with the terrorist attack in Benghazi…
Iraq is more like N. Ireland than Lebanon, Reconciliation is Possible
By Jocelyne Cesari The attack of The Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) on Mossul and its march on Baghdad has taken the international community by surprise and raised the…
Torture: What’s Race Got to do with It?
By Rebecca Gordon June is Torture Awareness Month, so this seems like a good time to consider some difficult aspects of torture people in the United States might need to be aware…
As US Pressures Maliki to Resign, will Iraqi Gov’t Collapse?
By Juan Cole A consensus is forming in Washington that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must resign, as part of accountability for his failures with his Sunni Arab citizens. Because Washington is so…
Cons of Going to War against Iraq (Cole, Jan. 2003)
By Juan Cole From a talk I gave at the University of Michigan in late 2002, publised at the beginning of 2003. It is often alleged by hawks that no one saw…
Torturing for the Nation
By Ariel Dorfman via Tomdispatch.com According to an Amnesty International Poll released in May, 45% of Americans believe that torture is “sometimes necessary and acceptable” in order to “gain information that may protect…
America Has Gained Almost 1 Million Healthcare Jobs Since Obamacare Was Passed
America Has Gained Almost 1 Million Healthcare Jobs Since Obamacare Was Passed (via Atlas Left) Ask any Republican about the link between the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and job growth in America…
Dear GOP: Captured Benghazi Suspect Says He Was Inspired By Video
Captured Benghazi Suspect Says He Was Inspired By Video (via Liberaland) Abu Khatalla, the captured suspected ringleader of the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack, says it was the much-discussed video that inspired…
Who are Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and What did we Do to them?
By Juan Cole The two great branches of Islam coexist in Iraq across linguistic and ethnic groups. There are Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs, Sunni Kurds and (a tiny minority of) Shiite…
Mass Sunni Uprising in Iraq: Sectarian Blowback of 2003 U.S. Invasion (Cole on Democracy Now!)
I appeared on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! to discuss the situation in Iraq Transcript: AARON MATÉ: President Obama has announced plans to deploy about 275 U.S. military forces back to Iraq. In…
Absolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War
Absolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War (via Americans Against The Tea Party) Tragically, all we’ve fought for in Iraq, all that 4,500 American lives were shed to gain,…Rabbi Nachman Sudak, head of Chabad UK, dies
Directed personally by the Lubavitcher rebbe to move to London, the rabbi guided the movement in Britain for over 50 years
Opportunities Abound in Iraq to Reset US Middle East Policy
By Kirk J. Beattie The crisis induced by ISIL’s advances in Iraq presents tremendous opportunities for the United States, and the U.S. government should move quickly to take full advantage. ISIL represent…
Fracking Threatens US Water: AP
US Water Woes Add Punch To AP Fracking Report (via Clean Technica) The Associated Press has been doing a bang-up job of covering fracking issues lately, and over the weekend they released…
Why were Wall Street & Banking not Reformed after 2008? Congress!
Bill Moyers Essay: Wall Street’s Secret Weapon: Congress (via Moyers & Company) Why haven’t any big bankers been prosecuted for their role in the housing crisis that led to the Great Recession?…
Don’t Trust the Bombers on Iraq: “Shock and Awe” Never Works
By Juan Cole In March of 2003, we were treated to an intensive bombardment of Iraq, which the Bush White House propagandists termed "Shock and Awe." As usual, the US Air Force…
Americans’ Freedom of Speech has gone downhill since 9/11
By Peter Van Buren What We've Lost Since 9/11 Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America By Peter Van Buren America has entered its third great era: the post-constitutional one. In…
Why some Iraqis would rather try their luck under Sunni Extremists
Why some Iraqis would rather try their luck under ISIL (via GlobalPost) ERBIL, Iraq — Five days after fleeing Mosul in northern Iraq, Ahmed says he's now more nervous than ever. But…
Wikileaks’ Manning says US public was lied to about Iraq from the start
Manning says US public lied to about Iraq from the start (via AFP) The detained US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks made a rare foray into…
7 Myths about the Radical Sunni Advance in Iraq
By Juan Cole Already in the past week and a half, many assertions are becoming commonplace in the inside-the-Beltway echo chamber about Iraq's current crisis that are poorly grounded in knowledge of…Blair cannot duck blame for troubles in Iraq
The former prime minister tries to twist the facts of Iraq to suit his political decisions
The seven people who need to STFU about Iraq right now
The seven people who need to STFU about Iraq right now (via Raw Story ) We at Raw Story’s Oh God Here We Go Again desk know that we can’t be the…
We need new Maps! That’s how much Arctic Sea Ice has melted
By Lauren McCauley A map of the Arctic from the National Geographic Atlas of the World. (Screenshot via National Geographic)Cartographers working on the latest edition of the National Geographic Atlas of the…
Obama Ridicules Science Denialists on Climate Change
Obama renews climate change push (via AFP) President Barack Obama renewed his campaign to curb carbon emissions Saturday, saying the debate over climate change is over. Obama, who made the battle against…
Blair-Bush & Iraq: It’s not just the quagmire but the Lawbreaking & Deception
By Juan Cole Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is complaining that he is unfairly blamed for causing the current mess in Iraq and that if Saddam had still been in power…
Can Egypt face up to its sexual assault problem?
Egypt may finally face its sexual assault problem (via GlobalPost) At first, the blurry video of a celebration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, captured by an onlooker’s cellphone, is difficult to make out.…
Iraq: Radical Shiite Militia fights Sunni Extremists as US Carrier reaches Gulf
By Juan Cole Saturday was a day of militia pushback against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. In a sign of growing polarization on both the Sunni and the Shiite…Foreign nationals struggle to send money home
By Libya Herald staff. Tripoli, 14 June 2014: Money transfer companies are reportedly operating reduced hours, leaving many foreign nationals working in Libya struggling to send money home to their families. “Some…
When will they ever Learn? America on Brink of another Military Engagement
By William R. Polk America appears once again to be on the brink of a war. This time the war is likely to be in Syria and/or in Iraq. If we jump…
The Biggest effect of Carbon Emissions: Rapid Ocean Warming
Scientists in focus – Lyman and Johnson explore the rapidly warming oceans (via Skeptical Science) Posted on 12 June 2014 by John Abraham One benefit of working in the climate science arena…
“If you take down the central gov’t…you could… see… pieces of Iraq fly off”- Dick Cheney 1994
Dick Cheney on why the US shouldn't invade Iraq (1994): "Because if we had gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. It…
Enter the Ayatollah: Sistani calls on Iraqis to enlist in Fight against “Terrorists”
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of most Iraqi Shiites, intervened forcefully in Iraqi politics on Thursday and Friday, giving his support to the national army and urging Iraqi men to volunteer…
Dear America: You’re in the Army Now
By William J. Astore I spent four college years in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and then served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. In the military, especially in basic…
Elon Musk on Tesla Electric Car: “All Our Patents Are Belong To You”
Tesla: “All Our Patents Are Belong To You” (via Gas 2.0) In a blog post entitled “All Our Patents Are Belong To You”, Elon Musk has once again done something revolutionary; opened…
The Second Iran-Iraq War and the American Switch
Iran has decided to intervene directly in Iraq and has already sent fighters to the front, according to the Wall Street Journal, based on Iranian sources. It is alleged that Iranian special…
Seven Key Takeaways From Eric Cantor’s Shocking Defeat
Seven Key Takeaways From Eric Cantor’s Shocking Defeat (via Moyers & Company) No incumbent majority leader had lost a seat in Congress since 1899, when the post was first created. Rep. Eric…
Egypt: 15-Yr. Sentence for Hero of Tahrir Revolution, blogger Alaa, 24 others
By Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch (Beirut) – A Cairo court on June 11, 2014, sentenced the prominent Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others to 15 years in prison and…
After Piketty, is the Study of Economics the Study of Rising Inequality?
By Chris Edwards, University of East Anglia The economic and political focus is increasingly on the inequality of income and wealth as they both rise in Europe and the US. At a…
Tallest German Residential High-Rise Will Also Be Solar Aktivhaus
Tallest German Residential High-Rise Will Also Be Solar Aktivhaus (via Planetsave) Award-winning proposed Aktivhaus apartment tower at Skyline Plaza complex in Frankfurt (skyscrapercity.com) The European residential high-rise boom has a green twist…
Iraq: Looming War of Shiite, Kurdish, Extremist-Sunni Militias
By Juan Cole The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] is apparently keeping control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city of 2 million, and advanced to take Tikrit, the birthplace of…
Lighting the Darkest Corners of Government: Review of Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide
Review of Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide Lighting the Darkest Corners of Government: Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide Explores the Role of Journalism in the Internet Age and How Mass…
US Military Fail: Long Asian Land Wars a Route to Disaster since 1963
By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch.com The United States has been at war -- major boots-on-the-ground conflicts and minor interventions, firefights, air strikes, drone assassination campaigns, occupations, special ops raids, proxy conflicts, and…
And the Walls Come Tumbling Down: Israeli PM Netanyahu on Notice from both Left and Right
By Carlyn Meyer If there was any doubt about which side came out stronger from the failed Kerry peace initiative, it’s been put to rest by events since. Neither side wanted to…
The Fall of Mosul and the False Promises of Modern History
By Juan Cole The fall of Mosul to the radical, extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a set of historical indictments. Mosul is Iraq's second largest city, population roughly…
Pakistan’s War on Terror? Gov’t bombs Taliban after Deadly Airport Attack
Pakistan pounds 'terrorist hideouts' after Karachi attack (via AFP) Pakistan carried out early morning air strikes Tuesday on a militant-infested tribal district, killing at least 15 people, the military said, a day…
Right Said Fred: Syria’s Assad a War Criminal (John Oliver Video)
Right Said Fred (really!) appears on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to tell Syrian president Bashar al-Assad what a dick he is. It's going to be especially disappointing to Assad, as…
Vegas ‘Revolution’ Shooters inspired by Tea Party Law allowing Shooting of Police
Vegas cop killers 'had pro-gun militia links' (via AFP) A gun-toting couple possibly linked to anti-government militias killed two US cops execution-style and left a swastika on the bodies, in America's latest…
Egypt: Sisi Celebrations marred by mob sexual assault in Tahrir Square
Amid celebrations for Sisi, more mob sexual assault in Cairo's Tahrir Square (via GlobalPost) CAIRO — Egypt's police arrested half a dozen men for sexually assaulting women during celebrations for the inauguration…
Top 3 White Terrorist Attacks in America this Week
By Juan Cole Our capitalist class may be becoming an absolute danger to ordinary Americans. By promoting a doctrine of absolute right to gun ownership (which rather helps gun manufacturers) and at…
That time when White Terrorists Ambushed Nevada Police after Fox Supported Bundy Gunmen Threatening Law Enforcement
They shouted, "This is a revolution!" ABC News: "Deadly Shooting Spree in Las Vegas" Related posts: Fox News asks Rand Paul if Reid is right to “call Americans” “Domestic Terrorists” and: "Top…
Pope Francis hosts Israeli, Palestinian Leaders as “Brothers”
Deborah Lutterbeck reports: "Pope Francis, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attend a peace prayer meeting in "neutral" Vatican gardens." Reuters: "Pope calls on Israelis, Palestinians to find "courage"…
Iraq: 450,000 have fled al-Anbar as Gov’t Deploys Militias against al-Qaeda
Euronews reports: "Security slips further in Iraq as car bombs hit Baghdad" Ahmad Hadi gives the background at Niqash.org Members of an extremist Shiite Muslim militia have been recruited to fight Sunni…
Student Debt: Blame Law-Makers, Tax-Shirking Rich, War on Drugs, not Universities
By Juan Cole In honor of President Obama's support for Senator Elizabeth Warren's bill to address the student debt crisis by offering students with older debt loads lower interest rates [see video…
Dear Sen. McCain: No, the Taliban Prisoners didn’t Carry out 9/11; but you Supported Muslim Radicals
By Juan Cole Sen. John McCain on Sunday maintained that President Obama, in releasing the five officials who had served in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the 1990s and until 2001,…
5 Falsehoods Defenders of NSA keep Repeating that Destroy their Credibility
By Cindy Cohn and Nadia Kayyali Over the past year, as the Snowden revelations have rolled out, the government and its apologists have developed a set of talking points about mass spying…
Despite dire predictions, Denver crime falls over 10 percent in wake of pot legalization
Despite dire predictions, Denver crime falls over 10 percent in wake of pot legalization (via Raw Story ) Despite dire predictions by anti-marijuana activists, overall crime rates in the city of Denver…
Prelude to Ethnic Cleansing? Israel Plans 3200 more Squatter homes on Palestinian Land
Israel huge new settlement push raises Palestinian ire (via AFP) Israel unveiled plans for 3,200 settler homes Thursday in retaliation for the formation of a Palestinian unity government backed by Hamas and…
Egypt, Syria, Libya . . . . What is the Appeal of Phoney Elections in the Middle East?
By Juan Cole The world has been treated to a whole series of "elections" in the Middle East recently. Iraq had parliamentary elections, Libya's parliament voted for a new prime minister, and…
How Reagan subverted the meaning of D-Day & the New Deal of the Greatest Generation
Ronald Reagan, D-Day Anniversaries and the Suppression of Memory (via Moyers & Company) The following is an excerpt from Harvey J. Kaye’s The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and…
Harvard confirms antique book is bound in human skin
Harvard confirms antique book is bound in human skin (via AFP) Harvard University scientists have confirmed that a 19th century French treatise in its libraries is bound in human skin, Harvard University…
“In your Wild Dreams, what are you Looking for?” Rubaiyat of Jalalu’d-Din Rumi
Courtesy Anthony A. Lee, here are four poems from his and the late Amin Banani's translation of the quatrains of the great Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalalu'd-Din Rumi: Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, 53 Secrets from…
Georgia Courthouse is shot up by Sovereign Citizen after GOP backs Bundy, Open Carry
By Juan Cole That didn't take long. The Georgia GOP rushed into law an 'open carry' provision in April allowing people to tote around guns in bars and churches (apparently these are…
Can Obama Make good on his Pledge to overturn Citizens United with a Constitutional Amendment?
New Book Reveals Obama Told Big Donors He Wants to Repeal Citizens United…and Thinks He Can (via Atlas Left) In his new book, Ken Vogel claims that President Barack Obama told Democratic donors…
Iran’s Rouhani pulls a Pope Francis: ‘Let People choose own path to Heaven’
By Golnaz Esfandiari Twenty-five years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death, the clerical establishment ushered in by the Islamic republic's founding father is at odds over how far its influence on Iranians' lives…
Does our and Obama’s Paralysis on Global Warming come from American Exceptionalism?
By William Espinosa President Obama’s proposal to modestly curb carbon emissions from power plants is – if carried out—a serious one. But opposition was immediate, so is there reason to think anything…
On D-Day: Remembering the Muslim Troops who Fought the Axis
By Juan Cole One of the frustrations for a world historian is the unyieldingly parochial vision of the North Atlantic common among journalists and even many historians, and consequently among the public.…
Facial Hair, Patriotism and the Enemy in American History
By Juan Cole Media Matters for America put together a collage of Fox Cable News commentators smearing the father of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl as having a Taliban-like beard and maybe even being…
Tiananmen still Under Lockdown after all These Years
By Philip Cunningham I approached the Square from Qianmen which back in the old days of the Qing Dynasty was the traditional gate into the Forbidden City; nowadays it's the gate to…
Climate Change, Economic Inequality Are One Debate, says Sen. Warren
By Jon Queally Both issues show clearly that 'we have a rigged system, where a handful are able to reap benefits at the cost of everyone else.' Sharing a stage with French…
US support for Palestinian Gov’t a ‘Knife in the Back’ says Israel, after Sabotaging Kerry Talks
Israel decries US 'knife in back' over Palestinian govt (via AFP) Washington's support for a new Palestinian government backed by Israel's Islamist foe Hamas, has left the Jewish state feeling betrayed, triggering…
Another Pivot: Can Obama’s New CO2 Rules Break Our Stalemate With China?
How Obama’s New CO2 Rules May Break Our Climate Stalemate With China (via Moyers & Company) There’s going to be a long fight over the Obama administration’s new carbon emissions caps, and…
Turkey’s Erdogan Calls CNN Reporter arrested on air “Lackey,” “Agent of Chaos”
Turkey PM accuses international media of spying, singles out CNN (via AFP) Turkey's embattled prime minister lashed out at international media on Tuesday, accusing news outlets of stirring unrest during the one-year…
9 Questions about the 1%, the Unemployed and why the one produces the Other
By Peter van Buren via Tomdispatch Last year eight Americans -- the four Waltons of Walmart fame, the two Koch brothers, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett -- made more money than 3.6 million American…
Is the Prisoner Swap Hysteria a sign of GOP War withdrawal Symptoms?
By Juan Cole The United States has been continually at war since October of 2001. In many of the succeeding years, until Dec. 31 2011, The US was at war in both…
Danish Energy Agency: 100% Renewable Denmark By 2050 Is Possible
Danish Energy Agency: 100% Renewable Denmark By 2050 Is Possible (via Clean Technica) Originally published on Renew Economy.By Sophie Vorrath A new report by the Danish Energy Agency has found it would…
Big Media is Boring us into accepting End of Net Neutrality: John Oliver
John Oliver: "Cable companies are trying to create an unequal playing field for internet speeds, but they're doing it so boringly that most news outlets aren't covering it. John Oliver explains the…
NSA Intercepting Millions of Personal Images for Facial Recognition Tech
By Sarah Lazare The National Security Agency is mass collecting facial images through its surveillance programs for use in facial recognition technology, journalists James Risen and Laura Poitras revealed Saturday in the…
NYT’s James Risen risks Jail For Protecting Sources after SC declines to Take Appeal
By Trevor Timm: The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen's appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under…
No Regime? Egyptian Satirist Bassem Youssef Cancelled b/c “Enormous Pressure”
So, no regime then? Jon Stewart was on al-Barnamag ["The Program"] last year this time and remarked of the then Muslim Brotherhood government's prosecution of his Egyptian counterpart, Bassem Youssef, for political…
Faced w/ Global Warming Threat, Obama fudges EPA Carbon Reduction
By Juan Cole President Obama's decision to unleash the Environmental Protection Agency on US carbon dioxide emitters is a sea change in environmental policy and is extremely welcome to any who care…
Global warming and the vulnerability of Greenland’s ice sheet
Global warming and the vulnerability of Greenland's ice sheet (via Skeptical Science) Posted on 30 May 2014 by John Abraham News continues to emerge in the scientific literature on the future direction…
#YesAllWomen Changes the Story in Wake of Isla Vista Massacre
By Rebecca Solnit via Tomdispatch.com It was a key match in the World Cup of Ideas. The teams vied furiously for the ball. The all-star feminist team tried repeatedly to kick it…
Top 15 Ways Republicans Have Screwed Our Soldiers and Veterans
Top 15 Ways Republicans Have Screwed Our Soldiers and Veterans (via Atlas Left) Republicans love waging wars, but they sure don’t seem to love America’s soldiers and veterans. Whether they’re getting our…
Dear GOP: The US has negotiated with Terrorists and Amnestied Them all through History
By Juan Cole The GOP talking points in response to the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in a trade for five former officials of the 1990s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) focused…
Now Palestinians must go to the Int’l Criminal Court, and US Should Back Them
By Bill Van Esveld via Human Rights Watch Secretary of State John Kerry called the collapse of the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks “reality-check time” for the peace process. That reassessment…
Global Warming Threat: Florida could be overwhelmed by Sudden Sea Rise
By Harold R. Wanless, University of Miami It is amazing for me to see the very aggressive building boom underway in south Florida; on the beaches and barrier islands, throughout downtown and…
US Drones hitting Civilian Homes, Killing non-Combatants
By Alice K Ross and Jack Serle Domestic buildings have been hit by drone strikes more than any other type of target in the CIA’s 10-year campaign in the tribal regions of…
Republicans Attack Obama For Negotiations Leading To Release Of American POW
------ President Obama Speaks on the Recovery of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl