The strafing and bombardment in Tripoli of civilian demonstrators by Muammar Qaddafi’s fighter jets on Monday powerfully recalled the tactics of some decades ago of Benito Mussolini, who spoke of imposing a ‘Roman Peace’ on Libya. In 1930, under Mussolini’s governor of Libya, Rodolfo Graziani, some 80,000 Libyans were removed to concentration camps, where 55% […]
The Gates of Hell Have Opened in Tripoli
I am watching Aljazeera Arabic, which is calling people in Tripoli on the telephone and asking them what is going on in the capital. The replies are poignant in their raw emotion, bordering on hysteria. The residents are alleging that the Qaddafi regime has scrambled fighter jets to strafe civilian crowds, has deployed heavy artillery […]
Revolutionary Situation in Libya
After the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi fell to the protest movement on Sunday, clashes broke out in the Libyan capital of Tripoli late that afternoon, the first time that city saw substantial demonstrations. The events shook the rule of Muammar Qaddafi to the core, eliciting from one of his sons Saif al-Islam Qaddafi a […]
Alimagham: What Egypt & Tunisia Tell us About Iran
Pouya Alimagham writes in a guest column for Informed Comment What the Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutions Tell Us about Iran There has been much debate about whether the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, especially in the latter, will produce a system resembling that of the Islamic Republic in Iran, which was born of revolution […]
Top Five Myths about the Middle East Protests
5. Dear right wing blogosphere and also Bill Maher: You can’t generalize about women’s position in Muslim countries based on a reprehensible mob attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan. Generalizing about a whole group of people based on a single incident is called “bigotry.” It is also a logical fallacy (for wingnuts challenged by six […]
Days of Rage in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain
ITN has video on Friday’s dramatic protests in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain (for the latter scroll down). Some 80 protesters have been killed in the past three days in Libya, and 35 were killed in Benghazi on Friday evening alone. They are challenging the rule of dictator Muammar Qadhafi. Some crowds are pulling down statues […]
50,000 Protest in Bahrain Before Another Bloody Crackdown
Breaking News: Bahrain security forces appear to have run out of ammunition at the downtown Pearl Roundabout, as thousands of Shiite protesters flooded in Saturday morning. The demonstrators took the square and a festive mood settled in. The Wifaq Party, which had represented the majority Shiites in parliament until its members resigned en masse on […]
Iraq Roiled by Protests, 2 Killed in Sulaimaniya
What I can’t understand is, if the American Right Wing were correct that George W. Bush was ‘right’ in trying to kick start democracy in the Middle East by invading and occupying it, then why would it be necessary for people to demonstrate and burn government buildings in… Iraq? And why have 5 people been […]
Bahrain Shiites Withdraw from Parliament, Call for King’s Overthrow
Members of parliament from the Shiite Wifaq Party, which had 18 of 40 seats in the lower house of the Bahrain legislature, have resigned en masse from their positions. They were objecting thereby to the deaths so far of 5 protesters and the brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators early on Thursday morning by government security […]
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