Only a couple days after US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta declared the Iraq War over and turned the last US base in Iraq over to the Iraqi military, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has struck against a Sunni Arab vice President, Tariq al-Hashimi. Iraqi police have issued an arrest warrant for Hashimi, a member […]
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One year on– Mohamed Bouazizi’s Sacrifice
Aljazeera English on the one-year anniversary of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia– an act of despair that sparked the Arab upheavals of 2011: In Sidi Bouzid today, people were outting up banners in his honor. See also the retrospective by AFP: Russia Today also covers the anniversary and continued Tunisian […]
Obama/ Maliki Conflicts on the Future of Iraq
Al-Sharq al-Awsat carried an article on December 15 about the behind the scenes conflicts between US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. My guess is that a Maliki staffer leaked these conflicts. The piece was translated by the USG Open Source Center and I’m using their rendering when quoting in English below. […]
No War Crimes Trial for Bush/Cheney, While Chirac Convicted on minor Fraud
The United States is now officially more corrupt than the Old World. Former French president Jacques Chirac has been found guilty of corruption when he was mayor of Paris in the early 1990s (he allegedly paid his own party workers for jobs that did not exist). He was given a two-year suspended sentence. George W. […]
Cole interview with Nobelist Tawakkul Karman
My interview on Arab feminism, youth activism, and revolution with Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman of Yemen is now up at YouTube. I asked her not only about high politics but about social issues such as the role of women in the revolution and the threat of religious radicalism. I asked each question twice […]
Obama and NDAA: Chipping away at the Constitution – HRW
Press release from Human Rights Watch: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 Human Rights Watch For Immediate Release US: Refusal to Veto Detainee Bill A Historic Tragedy for Rights President Decides to Sign Ill-Conceived National Defense Authorization Act (Washington, DC, December 14, 2011) – US President Barack Obama’s apparent decision to not […]
Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich, The Fall of the "Liberal Elite"
Until a few months ago, the 99% was hardly a group capable of articulating “the identity of their interests.” It contained, and still contains, most “ordinary” rich people, along with middle-class professionals, factory work…
Israel to defend its Military from Israelis
Coddling violent fanatics who attack and steal from Palestinians might just backfire on the Right wing Likud government. What? It already has? I wonder if there is a connection?? The USG Open Source Center translates reaction from the Israeli press: “Israeli Media Urge ‘Harsh’ Punitive Steps Against Jewish Right-Wing ‘Criminals’ Israel — OSC Summary Wednesday, […]
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