On the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it is clear that al-Qaeda was a tiny fringe terrorist movement, not a globe-straddling threat to Western societies. The organization has been decisively disrupted and now lacks command and control. Its leader, Usama Bin Laden, has not been seen in a video since 2004, and is […]
Top Stories More Important than Quran-Burning Nut Job
The horrible era of anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States yielded a one-day silly season on Thursday, covered wall-to-wall by the US cable news channels. The weird cultist Terry Jones, fired from his church in Cologne, Germany last year for abusing his congregants, preaching hate-filled sermons, and demanding absolute obedience, was favored by an unprecedented […]
The Invisible Deluge in Pakistan (Cole in Tomdispatch)
My essay on the strange near-invisibility of the world-historical Great Deluge in Pakistan during the past month is out at Tomdispatch.com (click here). Excerpt: ‘ Today, almost six million Pakistanis are still homeless, and many have not so much as received tents for shelter. In large swaths of the country, roads, bridges, crops, power plants […]
They used to Burn Catholic Churches, now they Burn Mosques
The hysteria about mosques in the United States is nothing new in our history. Even though the United States was founded by a ragtag series of religious heretics seeking freedom to worship as they would; even though its constitution enshrines freedom of religion– even so, periods of religious intolerance have reared their ugly heads repeatedly […]
Iraqi Soldier Kills 2 Americans, Wounds 9
The killing of two American servicemen and the wounding of 9 others by a Kurdish member of Iraqi special operations unit on Tuesday at Tuz Khurmatu is a real puzzle. The US troops were up at that Iraqi commando base in the mixed Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab town of Tuz Khurmatu escorting American officers who […]
Hellegers: American Income Inequality is the Cause of our Crisis
Plutarch, writing almost 2,000 years ago, told us that “an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” Below is a chart that shows the course of income imbalance over the last 93 years in the U.S. If it showed the course of net worth imbalance, it would […]
‘Burn the Qur’an Day’ Endangers US Troops: Petraeus
Every day for the past few days there have been demonstrations in Afghanistan against the scheme of the Christian fundamentalist Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, to burn copies of the Qur’an on September 11. This sort of grandstanding by a tiny congregation with global ramifications reminds us that in the contemporary world, technology […]
Jordanian Responses to President Obama’s Iraq Speech
The USG Open Source Center summarizes Jordanian editorials on the end of US major combat in Iraq and the future of that country, as well as American-Arab relations: Jordanian Writers View US Troop Withdrawal From Iraq, Future Possibilities Jordan — OSC Summary Monday, September 6, 2010 Jordanian writers on 1 September express different views on […]
Iraqi Military Acts Swiftly to Avert Minibus Bombing at Rusafa HQ
Five suicide bombers set off a minibus bomb outside the military facility at the old Defense Ministry building in Baghdad around 10 am on Sunday, killing 12 persons and wounding at least 36. According to WaPo, two of the assailants then got inside the building, where they were targeted by US soldiers, in the course […]
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