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Juan Cole

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Karzai accuses Taliban of Serving US Interests, Slams (Non-Existent) US-Taliban Talks

Karzai accuses Taliban of Serving US Interests, Slams (Non-Existent) US-Taliban Talks

Juan Cole

Once again, the erratic president of Afghanistan, had US officials shaking their heads in disbelief after he gave a speech while Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is in Kabul in which he blamed the interactions of the US and the Taliban for his country’s security problems. Karzai was visibly angry about the Taliban bombing at […]

Pakistan
Pakistan: Violence against Christian Neighborhood rooted in Blasphemy Law, Union Contest

Pakistan: Violence against Christian Neighborhood rooted in Blasphemy Law, Union Contest

Juan Cole

On Sunday, Pakistani police rounded up 70 suspects in the mass arson attacks on Saturday on the Christian neighborhood of Joseph Colony on Noor Road in the Badami Bagh district. The incident has its origin in a misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which desperately needs to be repealed if the country is ever to make […]

Egypt
Cairo Burning:  The Great Soccer Riots of 2013 and the Revolution

Cairo Burning: The Great Soccer Riots of 2013 and the Revolution

Juan Cole

Some two thousand angry youth in Port Said attempted to block ferries and sent speedboats into the canal zone, aiming at disrupting shipping in the Suez Canal on Saturday (they failed), while in Cairo soccer ruffians angry about a court verdict set fire to the HQ of the Egyptian Soccer Federation and to a nearby […]

Syria
Humanitarian Catastrophe in Syria:  Why don't We Hear More, Do More?

Humanitarian Catastrophe in Syria: Why don’t We Hear More, Do More?

Juan Cole

Oxfam says that the Syrian refugee crisis is ‘spiraling out of control’; Amy Christian reports: The Real News Network interviews Omar Dahi on this humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, with 70,000 dead, a million displaced abroad, and two million displaced internally. Dahi is scathing on the lack of reporting on the direness of the refugee situation […]

Afghanistan
Two Bombings Kill 18 As Hagel Arrives in Afghanistan

Two Bombings Kill 18 As Hagel Arrives in Afghanistan

Juan Cole

The Taliban appear to have strategized embarrassing new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. As he arrived in Kabul on his first visit to Afghanistan, a suicide bomber on a bicycle detonated his payload in front of the Ministry of Defense, killing nine civilian bystanders. This was obviously a purely symbolic act, since it did no […]

Afghanistan
Overcoming Woman-Hatred in Afghanistan: 3 Stories

Overcoming Woman-Hatred in Afghanistan: 3 Stories

Juan Cole

In honor of International Women’s Day, here is a short documentary on women in Afghanistan, focusing on three women who have achieved something in recent years, after Taliban rule was overthrown. The Taliban state was perhaps the most misogynistic in world history, which is fancy way of saying that they absolute hate women.

Lebanon
Lebanese Soccer Team, Coach Assault Referees after Penalty Called (Video)

Lebanese Soccer Team, Coach Assault Referees after Penalty Called (Video)

Juan Cole

A Lebanese soccer/ football referee is quitting after having been assaulted for a call he made on the field at a match last weekend in a game between al-Nahda and Al-Salam Zgharta. He says he felt his life was in danger, and is resigning in an attempt to force Lebanese sports authorities to put in […]

Drones
Obama & Brennan Brought GOP Filibuster on themselves by Extreme Secrecy on Drones

Obama & Brennan Brought GOP Filibuster on themselves by Extreme Secrecy on Drones

Juan Cole

John O. Brennan was confirmed as head of the Central Intelligence Agency yesterday, after the confirmation was held up for 13 hours by a filibuster by Rand Paul and other Senate libertarians or tea partiers. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas gave as his reason for the attempt to delay the vote his concerns that the […]

US politics
Did the Man who Tried to buy our Presidential Election Get rich by Bribing Communist China? (Engelberg)

Did the Man who Tried to buy our Presidential Election Get rich by Bribing Communist China? (Engelberg)

Juan Cole

Stephen Engelberg writes at ProPublica Last week’s admission by Sheldon Adelson’s casino company that it had “likely” violated provisions of the federal law barring U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials raises some intriguing questions. Chief among them: Which transactions by Las Vegas Sands and its far-flung subsidiaries are at issue? Adelson, one of the world’s […]

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