Some 7,000 Egyptians demonstrated on Friday, demanding that Gen. Ahmad Shafiq be disqualified as a candidate for president of Egypt in the run-off elections scheduled for later this month. Smaller demonstrations were held in other cities, including in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Alexandrians seem upset, but thec capital was more jaded. The turnout in Cairo was […]
Top Ten Reasons Romney Shouldn’t Arm Syrian Rebels
GOP presidential hopeful Willard “Mitt” Romney has called on President Barack Obama to arm the Syrian opposition, accusing the president of lacking leadership for declining to do so. Romney can’t decide whether he is afraid of Muslims or wants to give them sophisticated weapons. He once explained that he did not want to focus on […]
Hot Drone on Drone Action (Turse)
Nick Turse writes at Tomdispatch.com: Introduction by Tom Engelhardt [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Today, you are witnessing the birth of a TomDispatch experiment. Nick Turse and I are launching Dispatch Books, our own little publishing venture (and adventure), with our initial e-book, Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050. We’ve carefully reworked the […]
Satellite Images Show Syrian Army Siege of Houla (BBC)
The UN is debating whether to withdraw its observers from Syria, given that there is no point in deploying observers if they are just going to witness the violence. The point of the observers was to enforce a cease-fire by moral suasion, but there is no ceasefire. Meanwhile, the UN has found evidence of a […]
The Great Landgrab (Oldroyd)
Rachel Oldroyd writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism The latest book by science and environment author Fred Pearce is a breezy waltz through a key global problem that has yet to register with most people. In 2008, food prices around the world spiked, tipping many on the edges of poverty into crisis. But the […]
Omar Khayyam (134) “When life has been drunk to the dregs”
When life has been drunk to the dregs, whether at home or abroad; and its full measure used up, whether it’s been bitter or sweet; have some wine, since after you and me, the moon will go on waxing and waning from crescent to full. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield […]
How Obama changed definition of ‘civilian’ in secret drone wars (Woods)
Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of investigative Journalism: Two US reports just published provide significant insights into President Obama’s personal and controversial role in the escalating covert US drone war in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In a major extract from Daniel Klaidman’s forthcoming book Kill Or Capture, the author reveals extensive details of how […]
My Last Phone Call from Charles Taylor, Or how Qaddafi Plagued Africa (Pirio)
Gregory Alonso Pirio writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: Charles Taylor would call me on regular basis in the early 1990s. It’s not that I was a friend of the former Liberian rebel leader and later president, whom the International Criminal Court recently convicted for his role in aiding the bloody Sierra […]
The Secret Army inside the Army (Bacevich)
Andrew J. Bacevich writes at Todispatch.com: Unleashed Globalizing the Global War on Terror By Andrew J. Bacevich As he campaigns for reelection, President Obama periodically reminds audiences of his success in terminating the deeply unpopular Iraq War. With fingers crossed for luck, he vows to do the same with the equally unpopular war in Afghanistan. […]
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