(By Juan Cole) The Associated Press article on the Ukrainian hijacker who tried to divert a plane to Sochi on Friday is interesting for the words it does not use. (I’m not picking on AP– all the other articles on this subject are like this one in this regard.) This Ukrainian man had political discontents […]
Daily Show: How much of an A*hole do you have to be that Al-Zawahiri won’t Work with You?
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show at Comedy Central covers the fruitless Syria negotiations and break between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Imagine my surprise when a a clip from an interview I did at Aljazeera America on the issue was included in this piece! Thanks, Daily Show! The Daily […]
Turkey’s Ruling Party enacts “Orwellian” Web Censorship
(Via AFP) Turkey lawmakers adopt ‘Orwellian’ Internet curbs (via AFP) Turkish MPs late Wednesday adopted new Internet legislation roundly criticised as a fresh assault by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on freedom of expression, access to information and investigative journalism. The proposals come amid parallel moves… ——— Related Video: Euronews reports, “Turkey approves new […]
“In the Seam”: Israel Strangles Palestinian Town
(By Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch) (Jerusalem) – The Israeli military is severely harming livelihoods in a Palestinian village in the West Bank that it plans to turn into an archaeological tourist site. The military should drop the project and lift excessive restrictions that keep residents from building or farming on their land and […]
Camel Bones and Jerusalem: Archeology Shows Bible written Late, Full of Errors
(By Juan Cole) A new paper by Israeli archeologists Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef, [pdf] posted at the University of Tel Aviv web site , is bad news for biblical literalists and far right wing Israeli nationalists who use the Bible for support. The Hebrew Bible’s oldest chapters– Genesis, Exodus, and even Judges purport to […]
Iceland: Major Green Energy Breakthrough using Magma for Geothermal
(Via CleanTechnica) First Magma-Enhanced Geothermal System In The World Developed In Iceland (via Clean Technica) The first “magma-enhanced” geothermal system in the world — the IDDP-1 well at Krafla — has proven to be a great success, based on the first scientific reports on the project, which are now starting to be released. The well, […]
Bush ordered NSA to spy on Germany’s Schroeder over Iraq War Opposition
(By Juan Cole) The Guardian reports that the George W. Bush administration put German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s personal telephone under surveillance in 2002. Schroeder was opposed to the Bush-Cheney aggressive war on Iraq. This surveillance allowed the Bush administration to know where it stood with Germany and NATO. The surveillance continued, on the personal phone […]
Broken Democracy: Republicans poised to take Senate, Americans Reject their Platform
(By Juan Cole) A lot of political analysts think it is entirely possible that the Republicans will take the senate next November. This development won’t change much, in all likelihood, if it does occur. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives can already block most legislation, and in 2013 it dedicated itself the the […]
Egyptian Junta increasingly sees Journalism as a form of Terrorism, Arrests Journalists
(Via Globalpost) Why Al Jazeera’s journalists are being targeted in Egypt (via GlobalPost) CAIRO, Egypt — In Egypt, journalists are being accused of terrorism. Twenty Al Jazeera employees, including four foreigners, are to stand trial on charges of joining or assisting a terrorist group, as well as fabricating news to convince readers that… —— […]
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