Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Archives for April 2011

Uncategorized
Starship Amerika and Obama’s GPS Surveillance (Cole in Truthdig)

Starship Amerika and Obama’s GPS Surveillance (Cole in Truthdig)

Juan Cole

My column in Truthdig is out: “Starship Amerika.” Excerpt: ‘President Barack Obama is actually siding with police who want to use GPS devices to track you without a warrant. It always disturbed me when on “Star Trek” the captain asked the ship’s computer where a crew member was and was told the person’s exact location. […]

Libya
Saif admits Qaddafis are Brutal Foreign Occupiers

Saif admits Qaddafis are Brutal Foreign Occupiers

Juan Cole

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of the dictator, gave an interview yesterday to the Washington Post. In it he justified the Libyan army’s horrific attacks on the besieged city of Misrata: ‘ “You know what happened in Misurata? It’s exactly what happened in the Cold River [Nahr al-Bared], in Tripoli, Lebanon. The Lebanese army went and […]

Israel/ Palestine
Israeli Soldiers' Brutality at Prison Camp for Palestinians

Israeli Soldiers’ Brutality at Prison Camp for Palestinians

Juan Cole

Israeli television has shown shocking cellphone video of the October, 2007, actions at Ketziot Prison, against unarmed Palestinian prisoners, by Israeli security forces. The thousand or so prisoners there revolted at a provocative search abruptly conducted by “Control and Restraint” units or Metzada. Far from being menacing, the Palestinian prisoners are shown cringing and obeying […]

Uncategorized
Informed Comment & Big Blog on Campus

Informed Comment & Big Blog on Campus

Juan Cole

Pamela Paul includes Informed Comment in her Sunday NYT piece, “Big Blog on Campus.” Favorite line from her interview with me: “Good blogging involves attitude and snark.” Now if only I finally got that sweater with the letter on it. —- PS: It is already a little dated, especially on developments in Egypt, but my […]

Uncategorized
Saving What’s Left of the Constitution

Saving What’s Left of the Constitution

Juan Cole

Hmm. Somehow I missed this one. The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against the US government under George W. Bush regarding surveillance of phone calls made and emails sent overseas by US citizens was reinstated last month by an appeals court. The suit began because of the revelation that the National Security Agency had been […]

Egypt
Egypt's Ruling Party Dissolved

Egypt’s Ruling Party Dissolved

Juan Cole

A special administrative high court in charge of ruling on Egyptian political party affairs on Saturday declared the former ruling party, the National Democratic Party, to be defunct. For Egypt, a major opinion leader in the Arab world and a country with a fourth of all Arabs, to move to multi-party democracy is a world-historic […]

Yemen
Yemeni Women: "We Will not be Silent!"

Yemeni Women: “We Will not be Silent!”

Juan Cole

Oh no he di’n’t! Thousands of Yemeni women demonstrated against President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday in Sanaa and Taizz, saying “We will not be silent!” They were protesting his complaint on Friday that there was gender mixing in the public rallies, which he said was contrary to Muslim culture, and his call for them […]

Libya
The Music of the Libyan Resistance

The Music of the Libyan Resistance

Juan Cole

Libyan rock guitarist Massoud Abu Assir is entertaining Free Libya forces and volunteers not far from the front lines, says AP. I couldn’t find Abu Assir’s video clips, but here are is Benghazi liberation rap via Russia Today : See also this PRI report on the music of the Libyan uprising.

Bahrain
Arab Spring Protests Continue

Arab Spring Protests Continue

Juan Cole

1. Syria: In the biggest day of protests in Syria so far, tens of thousands of Syrians demonstrated against the Baathist state of Bashar al-Asad on Friday. Large crowds came out in the Douma suburb of Damascus, but were prevented by the tear-gas and the batons of the Syrian police from reaching the center of […]

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • …
  • Page 7
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Top Things You Still Think You Know About Iran that are Not True
  • Iran's Grand Strategy - Vali Nasr
  • Colonial Logic, not Jewish Wisdom Guides Israel's Wars
  • Air Campaigns don't Win Wars on their Own: Why Israel will largely Fail in Iran
  • Why Trump Bombed Iran: Preserving US and Israeli Nuclear Supremacy in the Middle East

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved