The LAT reports that a night-time raid by NATO forces that left 4 dead provoked a big demonstration in Taloqan in northern Afghanistan, the repression of which killed 12 and wounded 70. Taloqan is the capital of Takhar Province, population about 200,000 and people of Uzbek ethnicity are the single largest group. The area was […]
Salaita: Dressing like a Terrorist
Steven Salaita writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Dressing Like a Terrorist Like many others, I was dismayed to learn of the two imams wearing traditional Muslim garb who were forcibly removed a couple of weeks ago from an airplane that was to carry them to a conference on Islamophobia (the irrational fear […]
Drake the Heroic Whistleblower
Is Thomas Drake, the National Security Agency whistleblower a hero or a criminal? A hero, obviously. Drake revealed to the Baltimore Sun how how the NSA abandoned a legal and promising data mining program for an intrusive, unconstitutional and ultimately useless one. For telling the public how its rights had been violated and its money […]
Tripoli’s Gradual Collapse: ICC Indictment of Qaddafi and Ghanem’s Defection
Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem has defected from the Qaddafi regime and fled to Tunisia. This defection is a big deal. Ghanem had been at OPEC when Libya was under economic sanctions, and his return to Libya as prime minister and head of the ruling party in 2003 was intended to signal Muammar Qaddafi’s return […]
Shihade: A New Era for Palestinians
Magid Shihade writes in a guest column for Informed Comment The Palestinian Unity Agreement and the Beginning of New Era The agreement of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, ending years of Palestinian political divisions and paralysis, was signed last week. The reasons for signing the unity agreement at this point are many including local, regional […]
Arabs: 90% say Qaddafi illegitimate, 75% Want him Forcibly Removed
I received this press release from the Doha Debates (a member of the Qatar Foundation) by email. The results vis-a-vis Libya are not surprising, since Qaddafi is widely hated in the Arab world and everyone watched in horror as he had tank salvos and cluster bombs fired at non-combatants. But that last bit about being […]
Meyer: After Bin Laden: Israel & Middle East Peace
Carlyn Meyer writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: I recently returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank. I am not Jewish but work with JStreet, the trip’s sponsor, because it is the only group in the US actively lobbying Congress and the Administration for a two-state solution to the Palestine/Israeli […]
The Arab Spring comes to Israel
Contrary to the line taken by the Israeli leadership, the Palestinian protests on May 15, Nakba Day, were not an Iranian or Syrian plot but rather the grassroots protests of a dispossessed and displaced people that refuses to accept its fate as flotsam of the earth, deprived of their identity and dignity by the great […]
Why was Strauss-Kahn Arrested but W. & Cheney went Free?
What is it about the United States that makes for harsh prosecutions over sex crimes but lets leaders off the hook when it comes to war crimes? New York police rushed to arrest Dominique Strauss-Kahn , the head of the international Monetary Fund, on Saturday on learning of charges against him by a hotel maid […]
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