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Archives: September 2010
Redd: What About Jerusalem?
Adrienne Redd writes in a guest column for Informed Comment After remaining silent for the first month of the semester, a student in my seminar entitled “Understanding Global News” spoke up after…Update on German Terrorist Plot
Update: The plot is alleged to have been hatched by young Muslim-German men who had been attending the same mosque in Hamburg where the 9/11 hijackers attended. Some of them went to…Major al-Qaeda Attacks on European Cities Said Foiled
The FT reports that the intensification of US drone bombardment of suspected al-Qaeda positions in Pakistan's tribal northwest in recent days appears to have been related to intelligence that the cells were…Deputy Gov. Ghazni Killed;
Karzai Weeps, announces Peace Outreach Council
Anti-government guerrillas attacked the convoy of the deputy governor of Ghazni province on Tuesday. According to Pajhwok, "Deputy governor of Ghazni province Mohammad Kazem Allahyar, his son, two of his nephews and…Netanyahu Blows off US; Mahmoud Abbas pleads for Settlement Freeze
President Barack Obama has just gotten the Netanyahu treatment. Obama came into office saying that a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli one…
Engaging the Muslim World Out in Paperback
Today is the official publication date for the paperback edition of my most recent book, Engaging the Muslim World. Click here to purchase It is somewhat revised, taking some of the stories…
Afghan Villagers Protest US Air Strike, as Ballot Fraud Evidence Surfaces
According to the Afghanistan government, about 186 civilians have died in each of the last 6 months in the war. (Other studies suggest the bulk of them are killed in Taliban attacks).…New Polls: Dems Very Likely to Keep Senate
Jason Easley's essay looking at recent opinion polls in Kentucky, Nevada, and California argues that Democrats are substantially improving their position in senate races in each. I've been noticing the same thing.…Worst Reporting on Green Energy of the Week
This week's award for bad environmental reporting goes to John Spear of the Toronto Star for his article on the cost of wind power in Ontario "when we don't need it." Spear…Will Resumption of Israeli Colonization of West Bank End the Two State Solution?
The Palestinian negotiating team is categorically rejecting any compromise with Israel over the latter's plan to re-start settlement building on Palestinian land Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also reviving his threat to…Colbert on Immigrant Labor
Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's Colbert Report testifies before Congress on problems facing immigrant labor. Colbert's television show spoofs rightwing Fox Cable News anchors.Attack on US Base Repulsed in Afghanistan
Afghan guerrillas attacked a US forward operating base in Gardez, Paktia Province, on Friday. NATO issued a press release, saying "The attack began when a vehicle, followed closely by four suicide vest-wearing…
O’Donnell wonders why Monkeys aren’t still evolving into Humans
Bill Maher on his HBO television show Friday night played another clip of Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate for senator from Delaware, from the 1990s. In it, she denied the evolution of…Rumsfeld, Bush and the Supreme War Crime
Joyce Battle at the National Security Archive has used the Freedom of Information Act to spring classified documents from 2001 about the Bush administration's sneaky plans for getting up an aggressive war…Ahmadinejad Mugs for Cameras, Blames USG for 9/11 Attacks
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's outrageous speech at the United Nations, in which he blamed the US government for staging the September 11 attacks against itself, was not aimed at an American audience.…Tomdispatch: Decline of US Empire Not So Bad
Tom Engelhardt is fine reading for a Thursday.
Mass Protests as Israeli Contractor Kills two in Palestinian East Jerusalem
The poor Palestinians of East Jerusalem have few assured human or civil rights. Anyone may do anything to them at any time, and they have little recourse. They can be thrown out…Makdisi: The Tragedy of Obama’s Middle East Policy
Ussama Makdisi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: In the tragic story of U.S-Arab relations, no era has been as violent as our own. And yet when President Obama began…9 US GIs Killed in Afghan Heli Crash as Violence Grows
A helicopter crash in Zabul near Qandahar in southern Afghanistan left 9 American troops dead and 3 other persons (one an American civlian) wounded. The troops were likely a special operations unit…Obama dismisses Iran War Prospects, overrules Clinton
The Obama administration is clearly trying to send signals to Iran during the General Assembly session of the United Nations that Washington is open to engagement and just wants Iran to be…
100,000 Children at Risk in Pakistan, Sindh Flooding Continues
5 more villages were drowned in Sindh on Monday, and more people were cut off from the outside world by waters splashing down from a full lake that could well overflow and…
Witches, Exorcisms, and Billionaire Pickpockets
Because the main point of the Republican Party is to throw more money to the super-rich, the poor thing has to find something else to talk about that will take peoples' minds…50 Dead, 128 wounded in Iraq Attacks
As Iraq continues to muddle along with no new government all these months after the March 7 parliamentary elections, insurgents struck in the capital. The London pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reports in Arabic…Davidson: Martin Peretz And The Dangers of Obsessive Love
Lawrence Davidson writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Martin Peretz is editor-in-chief of The New Republic. He acquired that position by simply buying the magazine in 1974. Although he resold…Ahmadinejad as Cyrus the Great?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stopped off in Syria for consultations with his ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, this weekend, on his way to New York for the United Nations General Assembly session.…
Light Turnout, Closed Polling Stations, Attacks Mar Afghanistan Elections
Turnout in the Afghanistan parliamentary elections was disappointingly light, some 40% below expectations, according to Euronews. Some 10 percent of polling stations that had been intended to be used simply did not…
Afghanistan Elections face Violence, Kidnappings, Fraud
As Afghans went to the polls Saturday morning, Taliban slammed a rocket into the area of the capital where the Radio and Television building stands. It caused no casualties. Pajhwok News Agency…
Dude, You Have no Quran
CNN reports on "Dude, you have no Quran!" And, of course: The Remix:
Fears of Election Fraud in Afghan Parliamentary Polls
Saturday's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan could end up causing more harm than good. No political parties can run because they still are not allowed in Afghan law (so much for democracy). Some…Demonstration outside US Base in Afghanistan against Quran-Burning Turns Violent
On Thursday, a hundred or so demonstrators gathered outside a US military base at Mirwais in southern Afghanistan on hearing that there had been a ritual Quran-burning inside the base. In fact,…Maher on Dr. Laura etc.
Bill Maher is starting his fall season on HBO Friday night-- here is a rant on our moment of neo-racism.... (Adult language and themes).
1 Dead, 45 Wounded in Kabul anti-American Protest
Kabul Bank Taken over by Government
Thousands of angry protesters rallied in West Kabul on Wednesday, chanting "Death to America," "Death to Christians," and "Death to Karzai," burning tires, and blocking a road going south. Police fired in…Maher: Tea Bag Repubs are Racist
Bill Maher comes right out with it on CNN's "Larry King Live": The Tea Bag branch of the Republican Party just does not want an African American in the White House, and…US Drone Strikes Kill 15 in N. Waziristan
The Associated Press does an important story about an intensive drone strike campaign by the US military since September 2 in southern Afghanistan and in Pakistan's North Waziristan that has left 60…Squirrel! – Stewart Skewers Media Islamophobia
Jon Stewart at the Daily Show has some fun with corporate media's recent Islam obsession The funniest thing about the bit is his comparison of them to that dog in the animated…Amnesty: 30,000 Held in Iraq without Due Process;
Evidence of Abuse
Every time there is an election in Iraq, as happened last March 7, the Neoconservatives come out to crow about how great the Iraq War was. Their implicit argument is that Iraq…Schama: Islamophobia Recalls anti-Catholic, Anti-Jewish Nativism of America’s Past
Historian Simon Schama explains the outburst of anti-Muslim bigotry in contemporary US society on CNN. Yay for Schama and kudos to CNN for seeking out a historian's view. I made a similar…
Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum Extends Range of Liberties
The question in the American blogosphere seems to be whether the referendum on Turkey's constitutional changes was good for democracy or good for the sharia (the system of Muslim law, analogous to…2 Dead in Afghan Protests Against American Quran-Burning Plans
The Pashtun-majority province of Logar just south of Kabul saw further protests on Sunday against American threats of Quran-burning, which turned deadly, leaving two dead and five wounded in Barki Barak district.…Stewart Nails Hannity Lying (Same as ‘Stewart Nails Hannity Breathing’)
Jon Stewart nails Sean Hannity for dishonestly showing only part of an Obama clip and distorting its meaning. (At 5:30 in). Actually, I think the other networks should sue Fox Cable News…
Afghans Demonstrate Against US Quran-Burning That Never Happened
Saturday witnessed a second wave of demonstrations against the threats by small American fundamentalist churches (especially the Dove Outreach group of some 50 in Gainesville, Fl.), to burn copies of the Muslim…Top Ways 9/11 Broke Islamic Law
On the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it is clear that al-Qaeda was a tiny fringe terrorist movement, not a globe-straddling threat to Western societies. The organization has been decisively…
Top Stories More Important than Quran-Burning Nut Job
The horrible era of anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States yielded a one-day silly season on Thursday, covered wall-to-wall by the US cable news channels. The weird cultist Terry Jones, fired from…The Invisible Deluge in Pakistan (Cole in Tomdispatch)
My essay on the strange near-invisibility of the world-historical Great Deluge in Pakistan during the past month is out at Tomdispatch.com (click here). Excerpt: ' Today, almost six million Pakistanis are still…They used to Burn Catholic Churches, now they Burn Mosques
The hysteria about mosques in the United States is nothing new in our history. Even though the United States was founded by a ragtag series of religious heretics seeking freedom to worship…Iraqi Soldier Kills 2 Americans, Wounds 9
The killing of two American servicemen and the wounding of 9 others by a Kurdish member of Iraqi special operations unit on Tuesday at Tuz Khurmatu is a real puzzle. The US…
Hellegers: American Income Inequality is the Cause of our Crisis
Plutarch, writing almost 2,000 years ago, told us that "an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." Below is a chart that shows the…
‘Burn the Qur’an Day’ Endangers US Troops: Petraeus
Every day for the past few days there have been demonstrations in Afghanistan against the scheme of the Christian fundamentalist Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, to burn copies of the…Jordanian Responses to President Obama’s Iraq Speech
The USG Open Source Center summarizes Jordanian editorials on the end of US major combat in Iraq and the future of that country, as well as American-Arab relations: Jordanian Writers View US…
Iraqi Military Acts Swiftly to Avert Minibus Bombing at Rusafa HQ
Five suicide bombers set off a minibus bomb outside the military facility at the old Defense Ministry building in Baghdad around 10 am on Sunday, killing 12 persons and wounding at least…
Toll in Quetta Bombing Rises to 65
The death toll rose to 65 in Friday's deadly suicide bombing of a Shiite rally in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province in Pakistan. The Shiites had been commemorating Jerusalem Day, in…Shiites Choose Adel Abdul Mahdi as PM Candidate
Al-Hayat writing in Arabic reports that the Shiite fundamentalist coalition, the National Iraqi Alliance, has conducted a vote and selected Adel Abdul Mahdi as the list's candidate for the post of prime…Collapse of Kabul Bank Points to Fatal Corruption of Karzai Government
I write in anger. Not blind rage, mind you. A cool, searing, steady anger. I think it is a righteous anger. It is not consequential, but it is my reality. I am…
Dems Reluctant to Allow Taxes on Rich to Rise
AP says more Democrats are reluctant to allow taxes to rise on the rich. It is a matter of despair to me that the constituents of these Democrats don't put their feet…
Jolie Appeals for Pakistan Aid as Flood Refugees Return
Angelina Jolie makes a plea for aid for flood-stricken Pakistan: Reuters reports on what returnees to flooded areas are finding when they arrive: