On October 9, the revolutionaries in Syria took the town of Maaret al-Numan in northern Idlib province for a second time, and began besieging the nearby Wadi Deif military base. From this position, the revolutionaries can cut off road access to Aleppo from the capital of Damascus. They are thus making it impossible for Bashar […]
Campaign Humor from the Candidates: Obama and Romney do Stand-Up
Barack Obama tells jokes at the Al Smith dinner, three weeks before the election. Obama observes that he was much more awake in the second debate, having gotten a nice long nap during the first one. He said he had done some shopping in New York City; he heard Gov. Romney had done some shopping […]
The US & Pakistan: The Mr & Mrs Smith of Foreign Policy (Hiro)
Dilip Hiro writes at Tomdispatch.com: The Alliance from Hell How the U.S. and Pakistan Became the Dysfunctional Nuclear Family of International Relations The United States and Pakistan are by now a classic example of a dysfunctional nuclear family (with an emphasis on “nuclear”). While the two governments and their peoples become more suspicious and resentful […]
A Letter from Benghazi on Crappy Republican Talking Points
A common friend sent me this message from a resident of Benghazi, Libya: === I’m so fed up with all the nonsense that’s repeated over and over about the Benghazi attack that I need to vent. You kind of get used to most reporting on international issues being more or less complete crap, but for […]
Creepy Israeli Planning for Palestinian Food Insecurity in Gaza Revealed
An Israeli human rights organization, Gisha, sued in Israeli courts to force the release of a planning document for ‘putting the Palestinians on a diet’ without risking the bad press of mass starvation, and the courts concurred. The document, produced by the Israeli army, appears to be a calculation of how to make sure, despite […]
Two Canadians Discover the US has become a Police State
From YouTube: “If you’re told to do something, do it without asking the reason.”
Romney Binder full of Top Ten Mistakes and Falsehoods
1. Romney attempted to convey the impression that he has worked to increase women’s employment as governor, reaching out to women’s groups and receiving “binders of women” from them. (Yes, that is what he said). But Romney made no effort to hire women managers at Bain Capital, and even today only 4 of out of […]
US Drone Strikes on Pakistan: Counting the Bodies (Ross)
Alice K. Ross writes at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism The US government must release its estimates of how many people are being killed in CIA drone strikes, to end an over-reliance on often scanty media reports, a new study on drone casualties says. The absence of ‘hard facts and information that should be provided […]
10,000 Syrian Refugees Trapped on Iraq & Turkish Borders
Human Rights Watch is calling on Iraq and Turkey to open their borders in Syria’s northeast to allow the passage of some 10,000 Syrian refugees, caught in the desert without proper sanitation. Aljazeera English reports on the closed Iraqi border at Qa’im. The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government fears that some of the Syrians seeking to escape […]
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