Caretaker Czech Prime minister Jiri Rusnok and president Milos Zeman have denounced President Obama’s plans to bomb Syria not just as unwise but as actually illegal. In the United Nations Charter, which the US crafted and to which it is a signatory, there are only two grounds for going to war: self-defense and a UN […]
Archives for August 2013
Military-Ruled Egypt Opposes US Strike on Syria
The newly assertive Egyptian military and the civilian transitional government in Egypt are helping make President Obama’s life difficult. Likely it was Egypt that blocked the Arab League from calling for intervention against the Syrian regime despite its condemnation of Damascus for using chemical weapons. Egyptian foreign minister Nabil Fahmy rejected a Western strike on […]
The Ghost of Iraq haunts Obama on Syria as British Parliament Defects
The heavy propaganda for an Iraq War waged by the Bush administration and the Blair government in 2002-2003 came back to haunt the Anglo-American alliance on Thursday when the British parliament voted 285 to 272 not to authorize a military strike on Syria. While the government of Prime Minister David Cameron could theoretically have proceeded […]
Eight things to consider before intervening in Syria (ECFR)
Anthony Dworkin, Daniel Levy and Julien Barnes-Dacey write for the European Council on Foreign Relations: 1. What are the goals of intervention? All statements coming from the western leaders most likely to undertake military action (US, UK and France) suggest a narrow focus on chemical weapons (CW), rather than action designed to sway the overall […]
Rush to Western Strike on Syria slows, but does not Stall
What is known is that during heavy bombardment of Ghouta in Rif Dimashq on August 21, rockets were fired that did not explode and instead released gases that killed several hundred people, most of them non-combatants, and injured hundreds of others. US intelligence agencies released an intercept on Wednesday showing that after the attack, a […]
NSA Spying Abroad isn’t OK Either (Kurzman)
Charles Kurzman writes at ISLAMiCommentary: Caption for graphic: NSAW SID Intelligence Oversight (IO) Quarterly Report – First Quarter Calendar Year 2012 (1 January – 31 March 2012) – Executive Summary, May 3, 2012, compiled by Kurzman from pages 5-6 of 13. http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/nsa-report-on-privacy-violations-in-the-first-quarter-of-2012/395/ Many Americans were upset to learn this month that the National Security Agency […]
The Kosovo Fallacy and Syria (Axworthy-Cole Debate)
I was on the CBC’s excellent The Current to discuss former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy’s proposal that Western action in Syria should resemble the Kosovo campaign of the 1990s. I disagreed, pointing to the many differences between the two situations I come in about halfway through. Click on the image below to go to […]
US Protected Iraq at UN from Iranian Charges of Chemical Weapons Use
Reprint edn., from my article in Truthdig, where you can find the hyperlinks giving the documentation. I thought these findings by Joyce Battle from the documents she FOIA’ed ad posted at the National Security Archive worth revisiting given the current controversy over Syrian use of chemical weapons: In the 1970s, Iraq under Baath Party dictator […]
Oceans Turning Acid with CO2 at Rate Unseen in 250 million Years, Threatening Further Warming (Queally)
Jon Queally writes at Commondreams.org In both a new study published Monday and in a newspaper interview over the weekend, German marine biologist Hans Poertner warns the world that the crisis of ocean acidification—an intricately woven aspect of global warming and climate change—is now happening at a rate unparalleled in the life of the oceans […]
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