Archives for December 2008

The pace of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza slowed on Wednesday, with two big airstrikes. One aimed at destroying tunnels that allow Palestinians to smuggle in goods from Egypt. The other targeted the offices of deposed Palestine Authority prime minister Ismail Haniya, who is now in hiding. Aljazeera English has compelling video of Tuesday’s bombardment from […]

1. Iraqis are safer because of Bush’s War. In fact, conditions of insecurity have helped created both an internal and external refugee problem: ‘ At least 4.2 million Iraqis were displaced. These included 2.2 million who were displaced within Iraq and some 2 million refugees, mostly in Syria (around 1.4 million) and Jordan (around half […]

Israel pursued “all out war” on Hamas in Gaza on Tuesday, as the death toll rose to 360, with wounded at over 1000. Already in the morning on Tuesday, 10 Palestinians had been killed. AP reports that the Islamic Mission Party (Da’wa) of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on all Muslim countries to cut […]

Here is my translation of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s fatwa or legal ruling issued on Sunday concerning the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Arabic text courtesy of Sawt al-Iraq. Sistani is the spiritual leader not only of Iraqi Shiites but of many other Shiites in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Lebanon and India. He is explicit in […]

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Iraq has called upon Arab and Muslim nations to support the Palestinians in Gaza with more than lip service. Iran’s PressTv translated the statement this way: ‘ “Condemning what is going on in Gaza and supporting our brothers only with words is meaningless, considering the big tragedy they are facing […]

Aljazeera English reports on the Israeli air strikes on Gaza, which have killed 230 persons, a third of them civilians and wounded 388. The Other 2/3s were largely Palestinian policeman, as targeted 32 police stations, maintaining that they are essentially Hamas foot soldiers. The 100 air sorties killed the Gaza chief of police and other […]

A brazen car-bombing in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad killed 28 and wounded 55 on Saturday. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that an Iraqi security official expressed surprise and dismay that Kadhimiya could be bombed that way. He said that the district is very heavily guarded and checkpoint inspections at the entrance to it should have […]

Sunni fundamentalist guerrillas in Iraqi government custody staged a jail break in Ramadi on Friday, when a ringleader grabbed a guard’s gun and shot him, then released other prisoners. In the subsequent melee, six Iraqi policemen were killed and 7 of the escaping prisoners were. Three persons described as “senior al-Qaeda operatives” escaped. Ramadi is […]

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani pledged no first strike against India on Friday, but said his country was ready to defend itself. Gilani’s statement came after Pakistan was reported to be moving 20,000 troops from the frozen north to Kasur and Sialkot nearer to India. This troop movement appears to be preventative, and to […]