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Archives: June 2011
Senate Committee Backs Obama on Libya as Rebels capture major Arms Depot
Muammar Qaddafi's increasingly beleagured security forces were hit with three demoralizing developments on Monday and Tuesday. First, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted to authorize President Obama to pursue the…
Qaddafi, son, indicted by International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court has issued indictments against Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and the head of the secret police. This move is a great good thing, and combines…Rudolph: US Inequality Quiz
Can You Pass The US Inequality Quiz? The American mainstream media regularly laments the incontrovertible reality of rising inequality yet rarely provides historical perspective or detailed analysis. Rather, the typical article provides…Notar: Syria and the Palestine Card
Paul Notar writes a guest column for Informed Comment: Palestine: Bashar Assad’s Ace in the Hole? by Paul Notar There has been much speculation in the media that the Assad regime in…
The Audacity of the Gaza Flotilla
A new Gaza aid flotilla is set to take off from Greece on Sunday, including 600 persons representing 22 countries, on ten ships. Pulitzer-prize winning author Alice Walker is among them. (Swedish…
House Libya Vote: Anti-War or Just Anti-Obama?
The Republican-dominated US House of Representatives voted down an authorization for President Obama to have the US participate in the Libya War on Friday. (Many Democrats also joined in). The House did…
Afghanistan: How will Taliban React to Obama Drawdown?
Aljazeera English reports the Taliban have rejected President Obama's plans for Afghanistan, but that President Hamid Karzai welcomed steps that would return the country to Afghan rule. Still, this report says that…
Kukis: Leave Iraq, Too
Mark Kukis writes a guest column for Informed Comment: Leaving Iraq: Why total U.S. military withdrawal is best By Mark Kukis The Obama administration’s move to accelerate a U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan…Cole/Goodman Interview on the Obama Drawdown and the Afghanistan War
Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow! interviewed me Wednesday on the significance of President Obama's announcement of a significant drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan. Here is the video (it may display also the…DemocracyNow! On Bush/CIA Spy Mission against Juan Cole
Amy Goodman devoted her whole program on Wednesday to an interview with Glenn Carle and me, much of which centered on Mr. Carle's revelations about the Bush White House asking the CIA…Obama: The Tides of War are Receding
June 22, 2011 Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery On the Way Forward in Afghanistan Washington, D.C. June 22, 2011 As Prepared for Delivery— Good evening. Nearly ten…The End of the Beginning in Afghanistan
Breaking news: CNN is reporting that President Obama has decided to take 30,000 troops out of Afghanistan over the next year eighteen months, including 10,000 by the end of this year. Military…Stewart Figures out what Rupert is Up To
Jon Stewart explains what Rupert Murdoch's Fox Cable News thinks it is actually about, and it has nothing to do with fair reporting. The Daily Show - Fox News Channel - Fair…
Key developments in the Arab Spring Today
Tens of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets Monday to demand an end to the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh and a move to a transitional government and elections. Saleh is…
Gates: Winding down the Wars
Outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley on Sunday, and he sees a diminished American superpower on the horizon. Gates foresaw the winding…Top Ten Mistakes in the Libya War
In the post-World War II international legal regime, there are only two grounds for going to war, according to the United Nations Charter. One is self-defense. The other is if the United…Maddow on Bloggergate
Warm thanks to Rachel Maddow for her cogent reporting on the Bush White House/ CIA plot to "get" Cole. As she notes, I was a frequent guest on her Air America radio…Feinstein: Senate Intel Committee May Investigate CIA Targeting of Cole
Senator Diane Feinstein says that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence may open an investigation into allegations that the Bush White House attempted to use the CIA to have my reputation destroyed…Carle and Cole on CNN: More Details about Bush/CIA Sting of Cole
Below is a transcript of an interview by Eliot Spitzer on CNN's "In the Arena" with Glenn Carle and Juan Cole concerning the Bush White House/ CIA attempt to destroy Cole's reputation.…Repeal the PATRIOT Act is the Lesson of Bush White House Spying
Very unfortunately, President Obama just signed a four-year extension of the so-called PATRIOT Act, with three central provisions that permit warrantless spying by government agencies on US residents. This extension was rushed…
Cole on Goodman & CIA Surveillance
With something like being put under CIA surveillance by the Bush White House, you keep thinking to yourself, as in an old argument, about the things you should have said. I talked…Ret’d. CIA Official Alleges Bush White House Used Agency to “Get” Cole
Eminent National Security correspondent at the New York Times James Risen has been told by a retired former official of the Central Intelligence Agency that the Bush White House repeatedly asked the…
Women to Protest Driving Ban in Saudi Arabia
Despite its vast oil wealth and the measures the kingdom has taken to buy off potential dissidents, Saudi Arabia is nevertheless not completely able to escape the citizen activism of the Arab…Pakistan Arrests CIA Informants in Bin Laden Case
The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence has arrested five Pakistani informants who gave the CIA information leading to the raid on Usamah Bin Laden's compound at Abbotabad, according to the NYT. The arrests appear…
Libya not a War for Oil
The allegation out there in the blogosphere that the United Nations-authorized intervention in Libya was driven by Western oil companies is a non-starter. The argument is that Muammar Qaddafi was considered unreliable…
Under Punitive Israeli Blockade, Gaza Unemployment among Worst in World: UN
The illegal Israeli blockade of little Palestinian Gaza (pop. 1.5 million) has produced 45% unemployment, perhaps the highest in the world, and a situation in which real income has fallen by a…Shadow Internet Story Fishy
Sunday's report by the NYT on the 'shadow internet' being funded by (a paltry) $2 mn. in State Dept. money iis either a psy-ops plant or another sign that the US government…
Top Ten Green Energy Good News Stories
1. Environmentalists and peace advocates are hoping that cooperation on solar energy projects can help foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians. What this article doesn't say is that such cooperation might also…Gates & NATO: Misery Loves Company
Shorter SecDef Robert Gates: European members of NATO need to bankrupt themselves with military spending and wars just as the United States has done, or else the US Congress will stop being…Ridge Alleges Bush Political Pressure for Terrorism Alert
Ooops, a golden oldie from 2009 thrown up by mistake. Tom Ridge appears to be alleging in a new book that the Bush administration put political pressure on him to raise the…
Thousands Protest in Bahrain
The Shiite Wifaq Party succeeded in staging a demonstration some 10,000 strong in the town of Sar, Bahrain, on Saturday. Movement leader Sheikh Ali Salman called a "big lie" the charge that…
Arab Spring Turns Deadly Again
Thousands of Syrians demonstrated all over the country on Friday, especially in smaller cities and rural towns. Some 7000 came out in downtown Homs. Troops fired on crowds and responded with brutality…
Top Ten Things Anthony Weiner has Said that are Worse than Sexting
The real scandal surrounding Anthony Weiner is that he is bigoted against Palestinians and has misused his position in Congress to support punitive policies against them. Americans appear to be bored by…
Qaddafi Accused of Systematic Rape, War Crimes by ICC, UN
The International Criminal Court not only has evidence that Libyan soldiers have been using rape as a way of punishing and humiliating rebel populations, it has credible evidence that the policy was…Dagan, Ofer and Israel’s Growing Iran Credibility Gap
Far rightwing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin ("Bibi") Netanyahu of the Likud Party has attempted to sidestep making peace with the Palestinians by using the magician's favorite tactic of misdirection-- of trying to…
Which Headline Doesn’t Fit?
Screenshot of most viewed headlines at Yahoo News, 6/8/2011. Which headline seems to you out of place here?
Ellsberg: All Nixon’s Crimes Against me now Legal
Daniel Ellsberg (Website here) interviewed on CNN's "In the Arena": Courtesy Martin Torsleff [CNN:]These days, when you find yourself thinking about Richard Nixon, what comes to mind? [Ellsberg]: "Richard Nixon, if he…
Leonard Nimoy to Palestinians and Israelis: Live Long and Prosper in Two States
Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock on Star Trek, speaks out as a Jewish American in favor of a two-state solution and a divided Jerusalem. Nimoy said, ' "I reach out to…
Our News and their News
Americans live in a late capitalist society where the rich have gotten many times richer and the middle class has gotten poorer, where Wall Street bankers have stolen us blind and blamed…
What if Everything Ran on Gasoline?
"What if Everything Ran on Gas" is a smart, thought-provoking ad for the Nissan Leaf. I've often thought that one of the problems environmentalists face is that most automobile emissions are not…
Israeli Troops kill 20, wound Hundreds at Golan
Israeli troops on Sunday fired live ammunition into unarmed crowds of protesters who moved toward the barbed wire fence marking the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (which is Syrian territory). Aljazeera reports: Israeli troops…One to Go
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia), Ali Abdullah Saleh (Yemen), Muammar Qadhafi (Libya), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt); from: VOA report on Afro-Arab summit, October 10, 2010, Sirte, Libya.
Was there a Yemeni Revolution?
Aljazeera Arabic is reporting that later in the day Sunday, clashes between armed groups of pro-Saleh and anti-Saleh gunmen broke out in the capital, where the situation is "unstable," after Yemeni President…
Yemen’s Saleh Narrowly Avoids Death, Civil war Looms
Yemeni president for life Ali Abdullah Saleh nearly reached the end of his term on Friday, when rockets slammed into the mosque where he was praying in congregation. His prime minister was…Libya Rebels take Key Western Mountains, Train Women Fighters
The Free Libya forces centered at Benghazi are turning out to have a vivid political imagination. For instance, they are training female soldiers for the fight against the Qaddafi brigades: Women guerrillas…
Top Struggles in the Arab Spring Today
The Arab Spring began with peaceful protests in Tunis, Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere in the region, with masses of demonstrators giving their elites a choice of getting rid of the country's dictator…