Human Rights Watch | – – (New York) – The United Nations Security Council should impose an arms embargo on the Syrian government following the government’s repeated air attacks on Douma’s popular markets and residential areas on August 16, 2015. The attacks killed at least 112 people, whom witnesses and first responders described as overwhelmingly […]
Archives for August 2015
Iran Pres. Rouhani criticizes Hardliners, is slapped down by Revolutionary Guards
By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Iran’s Guardians Council, long accused of being a tool for hard-liners in factional power struggles, is at the center of a new war of words among top state officials. The exchange comes ahead of elections early next year for parliament, which is currently controlled by conservatives […]
Global Warming: Humans made California drought 15-20% worse by Burning Coal, Gas, Oil
By Park Williams | (The Conversation) | – – With each passing year, human-caused global warming bullies California for more water. Each year, the heat squeezes more moisture from soils and ecosystems. This is because, as the atmosphere warms, its demand for moisture rises. Just as a puddle evaporates more quickly on a warm day, […]
Crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan: Attacked by ISIL & Turkey; and Now Leaderless
Honar Hama Rasheed | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – As the issue of Iraqi Kurdistan’s vacant presidency heats up, delegations from the US, Turkey and Iran have all visited to have their say. But what do they really want? The current Iraqi Kurdish presidency officially ended yesterday. Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdish Democratic […]
Huge ISIL Blast at Cairo Security Bldg. Injures 29; Sisi Security Claims in Tatters
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – An enormous explosion damaged a building housing secret police in a northern district of Cairo (Shubra al-Khayma) on Thursday early morning, wounding nearly 30 persons, including 6 police personnel, who were transferred to hospital for treatment. Two different branches of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility, the […]
Israel and the BDS debate: two scholars respectfully agree to differ
By Ingrid Matthews and James Arvanitakis | (The Conversation) | – – From Australia, we watch Israel at a great distance, safe in the knowledge that the regular and horrific levels of violence in the region are far from our shores. But we still find ourselves, like most of the world, asking: what can we […]
“The Iranian Threat”: Who Is the Gravest Danger to World Peace?
By Noam Chomsky | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Throughout the world there is great relief and optimism about the nuclear deal reached in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1 nations, the five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. Most of the world apparently shares the assessment of the U.S. Arms Control […]
Trump Takes on the World
By John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – It was 1972. The flamboyant rock star Alice Cooper, not quite a household name at that point in England, was booked to play London’s Wembley Stadium. Shortly before the concert date, only a couple hundred of the 7,000 available tickets had been sold. Facing […]
No, AP, Iran doesn’t get to Inspect its own Nuclear Facilities under Deal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Eminent Iran and security expert Gary Sick pointed out in an email late Wednesday that the Associated Press just ran a shamefully inaccurate story alleging that under the UN Security Council deal with Iran, Iran would carry out some of the inspections of their own “sensitive […]
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