Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s outrageous speech at the United Nations, in which he blamed the US government for staging the September 11 attacks against itself, was not aimed at an American audience. Ahmadinejad is a populist, and wants to whip up loyalty to himself among a dwindling stratum of true believers in Iran. The speech […]
Tomdispatch: Decline of US Empire Not So Bad
Tom Engelhardt is fine reading for a Thursday.
Mass Protests as Israeli Contractor Kills two in Palestinian East Jerusalem
The poor Palestinians of East Jerusalem have few assured human or civil rights. Anyone may do anything to them at any time, and they have little recourse. They can be thrown out of property they legally purchased after 1948, and made to live in tents in front of their former residences; and then the tents […]
Makdisi: The Tragedy of Obama’s Middle East Policy
Ussama Makdisi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: In the tragic story of U.S-Arab relations, no era has been as violent as our own. And yet when President Obama began his presidency, he initiated a series of highly-anticipated gestures to the Muslim world. His interview with the Arabic satellite channel Al-Arabiyya was followed […]
9 US GIs Killed in Afghan Heli Crash as Violence Grows
A helicopter crash in Zabul near Qandahar in southern Afghanistan left 9 American troops dead and 3 other persons (one an American civlian) wounded. The troops were likely a special operations unit aiming to reduce the power of the Taliban in the outskirts of this major city. NATO denied Taliban claims to have shot down […]
Obama dismisses Iran War Prospects, overrules Clinton
The Obama administration is clearly trying to send signals to Iran during the General Assembly session of the United Nations that Washington is open to engagement and just wants Iran to be more transparent about its nuclear power research program. Reuters reports: ‘ “The door is open to them [Iran] having a better relationship with […]
100,000 Children at Risk in Pakistan, Sindh Flooding Continues
5 more villages were drowned in Sindh on Monday, and more people were cut off from the outside world by waters splashing down from a full lake that could well overflow and wreak yet more damage on Sindh Province. Iran’s PressTV has video: Meanwhile, UNICEF is warning that 100,000 children made homeless by the floods […]
Witches, Exorcisms, and Billionaire Pickpockets
Because the main point of the Republican Party is to throw more money to the super-rich, the poor thing has to find something else to talk about that will take peoples’ minds off this central message, which can’t appeal to more than one percent of the population. It seems to me that this unpalatable campaign […]
50 Dead, 128 wounded in Iraq Attacks
As Iraq continues to muddle along with no new government all these months after the March 7 parliamentary elections, insurgents struck in the capital. The London pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Sunday witnessed a series of massive bombings in Baghdad that left 160 dead or wounded, the worst toll since 17 August. In […]
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