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Archives for May 2014

Domestic Surveillance
Greenwald: NSA sneaking backdoors into hardware exports

Greenwald: NSA sneaking backdoors into hardware exports

Juan Cole

Glenn Greenwald has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of inserting backdoors for surveillance purposes into servers being exported to other countries. The irony here is that this is just the sort of thing that the US government has in the…

Dissent
Rising Numbers of Palestinian Children Subjected to Solitary Confinement

Rising Numbers of Palestinian Children Subjected to Solitary Confinement

Juan Cole

Rising Numbers of Palestinian Children Subjected to Solitary Confinement (via PRWeb) A new report from Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-Palestine) finds that in 21.4 percent of cases documented in 2013, children detained in the Israeli military detention system reported undergoing solitary confinement as part of the…   ——- Related video: The Guardian: “Cell 36: […]

Arab Spring
Activists in Bahrain denounce anti-Shia Policies

Activists in Bahrain denounce anti-Shia Policies

Juan Cole

(By Catherine Shakdam) Early last week political activists affiliated with Bahrain’s opposition groups delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon calling for his office to take a stand against Bahrain’s systematic targeting of the Shia community. Al Jazeera English Ever since Bahrainis rose against the government in 2011, emboldened by the Arab […]

Climate Change
You always knew it was a Gas Hog:  Ben Affleck's Batmobile to be a Hybrid

You always knew it was a Gas Hog: Ben Affleck’s Batmobile to be a Hybrid

Juan Cole

Ben Affleck is slated to be the next Batman, and the Batmobile could get a major overhaul too. A hybrid Batmobile? Even the Dark Knight is going green. Yesterday director Zack Snyder tweeted the above teaser picture of the next Batmobile, and later…

Climate Change
Iran Going Big With Renewables! 5,000 MW Of New Solar & Wind Capacity By 2018?

Iran Going Big With Renewables! 5,000 MW Of New Solar & Wind Capacity By 2018?

Juan Cole

Iran is aiming big with renewables, based on recent statements made by the Iranian Energy Minister, Hamid Chitchian. As revealed by Chitchian, the country’s new goal is to add 5,000 MW of new solar energy and wind energy capacity by the year 2018.…

American Jews
Donald Sterling's Illiberal Zionism Part of Racism Controversy with Magic Johnson

Donald Sterling’s Illiberal Zionism Part of Racism Controversy with Magic Johnson

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Major political ideas and philosophies are complex and ambiguous, not straightforward. American conservatism is an alliance of economic conservatives and cultural conservatives. Economic conservatives are champions of entrepreneurs and business, seeking low taxes and little regulation and opportunity for risk-takers from all persons of all backgrounds. Their ideology contains contradictions. Economic conservatives […]

Climate Change
NASA:  West Antarctic ice sheet collapse now Inevitable, 10 ft Sea Rise Locked In

NASA: West Antarctic ice sheet collapse now Inevitable, 10 ft Sea Rise Locked In

Juan Cole

West Antarctic ice sheet collapse ‘unstoppable’, says NASA (via AFP) Ice is melting in the western Antarctic at an “unstoppable” pace, scientists said Monday, warning that the discovery holds major consequences for global sea level rise in the coming decades. The speedy melting means that prior calculations of sea level…   ——- Reuters: “Antarctic ice […]

Domestic Surveillance
When Greenwald met Snowden: "Spark a ... movement against the dangers of state surveillance"

When Greenwald met Snowden: “Spark a … movement against the dangers of state surveillance”

Juan Cole

(By Glenn Greenwald via Tomdispatch) [This essay is a shortened and adapted version of Chapter 1 of Glenn Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Security State, and appears at TomDispatch.com with the kind permission of Metropolitan Books.] On December 1, 2012, I received my first communication from […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula
Yemeni anti-Al-Qaeda Campaign gains Popular Support but US Embassy forced to Close

Yemeni anti-Al-Qaeda Campaign gains Popular Support but US Embassy forced to Close

Juan Cole

(By Robert Sharp) As Yemen enters the post-National Dialogue Conference period, theory and practice are colliding; the constitutional referendum will take place in June followed by hopefully credible presidential and parliamentary elections. The promise of a “new” Yemen will be debated formally through the ballot box and the people will decide the future leadership of […]

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