(By Kara Brandeisky) President Obama on Friday announced some reportedly limited reforms to National Security Agency surveillance programs. Since the first disclosures based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Obama has offered his own defenses of the programs. But not all of the president’s claims have stood up to scrutiny. Here are […]
Taking on al-Qaeda: Syria’s Uprising within an Uprising
(By Rania Abouzeid) It was bound to happen, this uprising within an uprising against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a transnational ultraconservative Islamist group that ostensibly fights alongside Syria’s disparate rebel groups but more often intimidates, antagonises, or opposes most of them, including other conservative Islamists. Long brewing tensions between ISIS and […]
The Iraqi Heroine who Took on al-Qaeda in Northern Iraq
(By Ahmad al-Sayegh) Locals in the northern province of Ninawa are worried that extremists fleeing conflict in Anbar are going to end up back in Mosul, a traditional base for them. As signs that this may well be happening grow, many are singing the praises of one woman who took up arms against the group. […]
America Black Ops Wars in 134 Countries
(By Nick Turse) They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia and stalk through the jungles of South America. They snatch men from their homes in the Maghreb and shoot it out with heavily armed militants in the Horn of Africa. They feel the salty spray while skimming over the tops […]
NSA Collects Hundreds of Millions SMS Text Messages every Day
(By Mike Masnick) NSA Collecting Hundreds Of Millions Of Text Messages Daily, Looking At ‘Untargeted’ Messages & Data (via Techdirt) The latest in the ongoing revelations for the Ed Snowden leaks is that the NSA and GCHQ are collecting what appears to be hundreds of millions of text messages every day. While it does try […]
Books go Online for Free in Norway
(By AFP) Literature goes online for free in Norway (via AFP) Most books published in Norway before 2001 are going online for free thanks to an initiative that may have found the formula to reconcile authors with the web. At a time when the publishing world is torn over its relationship to the Internet — […]
American Public Pushes back against AIPAC Senators seeking Iran Conflict
(By Sarah Lazare) A congressional drive for new sanctions on Iran, backed by the lobbying muscle of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, is meeting growing push-back from a public that does not want another war. "We have an opportunity to stand up and say we're not going to support legislation that will only move […]
How the Arab Spring Left the Palestinians Behind
(By Abdalhadi Alijla) Reading about the murder of Hassan Hassan, the Palestinian actor and comedian, in Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria was like a bombshell. Hassan and his wife were arrested by Syrian regime forces three months ago; his wife and son were released two days later. He was believed to be detained when recently […]
Messianic Israeli Minister obsessed with Palestinian Land accuses Kerry of Messianic Obsession
(By AFP) US slams Israeli defense minister attack on Kerry (via AFP) A senior US official on Tuesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly disavow a complaint by Israel’s defense minister that John Kerry has a messianic “obsession” with Middle East peace. The official made the highly unusual demand… ——- Juan Cole […]
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