Juan Cole

A string of bombings on Sunday targeted political offices of those parties willing to contest the March 7 parliamentary elections, including secular Sunnis. The violence comes as one more worry in the course of Iraq’s most controversial election. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that over a hundred (145) candidates for parliament were disqualified from running by […]

Link BBC News – Afghanistan Nato operation 'meets first objectives' BBC reporting British advance from north, met ‘minimum interference’ from Taliban. US Marines were brought into Marjah city by helicopter. Four small firefights going on Saturday evening but in the city, as well, resistance seems less than expected. Taliban are guerrillas who know they are […]

Link: Official Site of We Are The World 25 For Haiti Here is the official site of the new ‘We are the World’ video for Haiti. Proceeds go for relief efforts for the earthquake victims. You know what to do. End/ (Not Continued)

AFP reports that the joint NATO/ Afghanistan National Army assault force of 15,000 on Friday moved toward the Helmand city of Marjah, at the center of the poppy growing heartland of Helmand Province. The city of some 80,000 has been surrounded for weeks. On Friday the road east to the capital, Lashkar Gah, was crowded […]

Israel Violates Economic Sanctions Against Iran by Grant Smith — Antiwar.com Economic sanctions don’t produce regime change in and of themselves. They mainly hurt the little people in places like Cuba or Iraq. And, they create black markets for the unscrupulous. Obama Iran sanctions another buying opportunity for the Marc Riches of the world. End/ […]

Palestinians dressed as ‘Na’vi’ from ‘Avatar’ join protest against the wall. | MONDOWEISS Courtesy Mondoweiss & the Nation Institute Yeah, but the implication from the film is also that you need some good people from the Israeli Army and academia to help out if the Na’vi aren’t to be obliterated. End/ (Not Continued)

The opposition press in Iran says that former presidential candidate Mir Hosain Musavi attempted to go to Azadi (Freedom) Square in downtown Tehran on the occasion of the commemoration of 31 years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, but was prevented from doing so by a phalanx of plainclothesmen. Musavi had been prime minister under […]

The regime seems to have successfully repressed any significant demonstrations by the opposition on Thursday. One of the problems for the opposition is that it has essentially been mounting ‘flashmobs’— fairly spontaneous demonstrations organized by email and Facebook. The regime closed down most electronic communication earlier this week, foiling the tactic. It may also be […]

Thursday February 11 (22 Bahman of the Iranian calendar) is the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran of Imam Ruhollah Khomeini. This year, the commemoration is fraught with irony, since the political opposition intends to use it to protest what they consider the fraudulent presidential election of June, 2009, and the drift of the […]