Two big bombings targeted Shiites on Friday. A bomb killed over 30 persons and wounded over 40 in Dujail, a largely Shiite city northeast of Baghdad. Earlier on Friday, a bomb at the Dhakir al-Din Mosque in Sinjar killed two and wounded 15. The security situation has deteriorated in Mosul, (pop. 1.8 mn), Iraq’s second […]
Afghanistan: Taliban hit US Security Firm, 23 Dead
Taliban in Afghanistan attacked the convoy of the US security firm, US Protection and Investigations, on Friday. 23 persons were killed in the clash,including 15 Taliban attackers. A US predator attack on a target in nothern Waziristan, Pakistan, left 12 persons dead on Friday. The target appears to have been a building used by the […]
Palin on World Affairs: Just not Ready for Prime Time
Sarah Palin revealed herself in the Charlie Gibson interview on ABC to be nervous,uninformed, green and generally not ready for prime time. The interview was full of stock phrases she was made to memorize, and which she repeated over and over again when stumped. She knows nothing about how Iran is run, or about Pakistan, […]
Bombings in Karbala; US Plot against Maliki? Japanese say Sayonara to Iraq
Two bombs in the Shiite holy city of Karbala were detonated near the shrine of Imam Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The explosions killed 3 and wounded 15. Because of the extreme religious sensitivity of the Shiite shrines in Iraq, these bombings had security implications far beyond what is apparent on the surface. […]
On the Seventh Anniversary of September 11: Time to Declare the original al-Qaeda Defeated
The original al-Qaeda is defeated. It is a dangerous thing for an analyst to say, because obviously radical Muslim extremists may at some point set off some more bombs and then everyone will point fingers and say how wrong I was. So let me be very clear that I do not mean that radical Muslim […]
Why is lying an acceptable tactic, asset, even, in campaigning for the most important job in the world?
E. J. Dionne: Does the Truth Matter any More? Subtitled at Reddit.com, “Why is lying an acceptable tactic, asset, even, in campaigning for the most important job in the world? “ John McCain wasted all that time trying to control big money in politics and got slapped down by the courts. Maybe he would have […]
Iraq F-16 Purchase Roils Relations with Kurds; Bush’s Minimal Withdrawal Points to Minimal Gains; Al-Maliki’s Head of Security Injured
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a big dispute has broken out between the three largest blocs in parliament. The government has so far been characterized by an alliance of the Shiite Iraqi Accord Front with the Kurdistan Alliance. But now the Shiites want to equip the Iraqi military with F-16s. The day before yesterday, the […]
Eyewitnesses: Palin Asked Repeatedly about Removing Books: Eyewitness: "No Way it was Rhetorical."
Despite the whitewashing attempt being made by the Republican Party, it is obvious to me that the allegation stands, that Palin inquired pointedly and repeatedly with the Wasilla librarian about how to remove objectionable books from the library. “Mary Ellen Emmons was Wasilla’s librarian at the time. She told a local newspaper, the Mat-Su Valley […]
Dirty Wars in Baghdad
We know Iraq has been the scene of several wars in recent years. But it seems increasingly clear that it has been a set of dirty wars. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Ali al-Lami, an Iraqi politician, protege of Ahmad Chalabi,and member of the Debaathification Committee,is being charged by a high unnamed American official with […]
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