NATO forces raided the home in Nangarhar of Afghan parliamentarian Safia Siddiqi Wednesday night, in the course of which they killed her brother-in-law. In response, crowds in Nangarhar blocked a major thoroughfare in protest. The Dari Persian press says that crowds came out to demonstrate all over Nangarhar Province, chanting anti-American slogans and demanding that […]
Tehran Police Chief Cracks down on Women with Sun Tans
The Telegraph reports that the police chief of the Iranian capital, Tehran, Brig Hossein Sajediniya, has called for a crackdown on fashionable women as part of his campaign against the reformists of the Green Movement. He is quoted as saying, “The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehaviour […]
The Horrible Gulf Oil Spill Reality versus the Energy Tomorrow Pantsuit
Let us contrast reality to the fantasy that Big Oil projects for us on our television screens. I have long despised the character of the lady in pantsuits, played by Brooke Alexander, who assures us, in the Energy Tomorrow ads, that we really, really need Big Oil’s products. Yeah, like we need a hole in […]
Allawi’s Secularists call for Caretaker Gov’t, New Elections
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 […]
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