The London pan-Arab daily al-Hayat [Life] reports in Arabic that the appeals court will issue its judgment on the coming Monday, May 3, concerning whether 9 candidates should have been allowed to run for parliament and whether they should now be disqualified, as urged by the Justice and Accountability Committee (formerly the Debaathification Committee). So […]
3 Killed in Qandahar Bombing as the UNO leaves; South Asia now Most Dangerous
On Tuesday, insurgents bombed an Afghan security company, Homayun at Qandahar, wounding at least 38 of them. Three persons were killed. Homayun provides security services to NATO troops, and this must have been in part an inside job– the firm could not have been hit this way otherwise. The UN has pulled its workers from […]
Disqualifications of ‘pro-Baathists’ throw Iraq into Political Uncertainty
McClatchy/ CSM reporters Jane Arraf and Mohammed al-Dulaimy cover the decision of an appeals court to uphold the disqualification of 52 Iraqi politicians. The exclusion had been ordered by the ‘Justice and Accountability Committee’ headed by Ahmad Chalabi and Ali al-Lami, themselves candidates on the fundamentalist Shiite list. Two of those disqualified actually did run […]
Apartheid in Israel, Showing Papers in Arizona
Jonathan Cook gives concrete examples of the various forms of Apartheid practiced in Israel by Jews toward Palestinian-Israelis and Palestinians. An important recent policy announcement makes it possible for the Israelis to expel from the West Bank any Palestinians who do not have what the Israeli authorities consider the proper identification papers. The Israeli law […]
Iran Quiz
Take the Iran Quiz at Countercurrents. (The quiz is based in part on a chapter in my Engaging the Muslim World, which will be revised and in paperback in August.
India Urges Kabul not to Deal with Taliban; Logar Protesters Torch NATO Fuel Trucks
About 1000 protesters massed in the streets of Pul-i Alam in the central Logar Province on Sunday, angry about a NATO attack that they alleged killed innocents. The demonstrators then set fire to 16 NATO convoy trucks carrying fuel for Western troops. The US military insists that its raid only killed bad guys. Local Afghan […]
Taliban Resemble Successful Insurgencies
CSM reports on a RAND study by Ben Conable and Martin Libicki of 89 major insurgencies in the 20th century and early 21st, and what they might tell us about the likelihood of Obama succeeding in Afghanistan. Connable found that weak governments prevail militarily against insurgencies only 10 percent of the time. RAND’s own news […]
Bombings in Baghdad target Shiites
AP reports that guerrillas set off at least 4 car bombs in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 69 persons and wounding hundreds. The target of four of the attacks was Shiite Muslim mosques or religious centers. Sunni Arab insurgents have lost the war in Iraq, but they have turned to occasional campaigns of massive […]
Netanyahu Commits to Colonizing East Jerusalem; First Palestinian Expelled under new Policy
The new Israeli policy of deporting Palestinians from the West Bank on arbitrary grounds has kicked in with Ahmad Sabah, who has just been deported to Gaza and separated from his family in the West Bank. The measure contravenes the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations, and it also goes contrary […]
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