Human Rights

Absolute Monarchy United Arab Emirates: Sweeping Legal ’Reforms’ Actually Deepen Some forms of Repression

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Wide-ranging legal changes introduced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late 2021 fail to address the longstanding and systematic restrictions on citizens’ and residents’ civil and political rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The new laws maintain previous provisions and include new ones that pose grave threats to […]

Authoritarianism

Biden Reverses himself on Saudi “Pariah,” needing Riyadh’s Oil to Punish Putin for Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden ran on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” given that the CIA accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of authorizing the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul Saudi consulate. Biden and a bipartisan majority in the US Congress were also upset about […]

War

Destroying the Town Is Not Saving It: Two Unsung Heroes as Role Models for the Air Force

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Twenty years ago, I left the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for my next assignment. I haven’t been back since, but today I travel there (if only in my imagination) to give my graduation address to the class of 2022. So, won’t you take a few minutes and join me, […]

National Security State

Supreme Court Expands Government Secrecy Powers in Torture-Related Case

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Robert Pallitto | – (Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The U.S. government doesn’t want to acknowledge a Polish torture site that everyone knows about. By Robert Pallitto | May 31, 2022 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently on the government’s use of the state secrets doctrine in an opinion that will make it […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: Arrests Amid Economic Protests: Attempt to Suppress Growing Social Movements

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have arrested several prominent activists on baseless accusations amid labor union strikes and ongoing protests against rising prices, since May 6, 2022, in dozens of small towns, Human Rights Watch said today. Those arrested include a prominent sociologist and four labor rights defenders. News outlets close to […]

Bush

George W. Bush denounces “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, Ukraine”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michael Williams at the Dallas Morning News reports on George W. Bush’s speech at his presidential center at Southern Methodist University, during which the former president made what MSNBC’s Mehdi Hassan called “one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time.” Bush denounced the rigged elections that produced the dictatorship […]

Displaced and Refugees

Ukraine: Migrants Locked Up Near Front Lines: Free Migration Detainees; Allow Them to Leave Country for Safety

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Berlin) – Migrants and asylum seekers locked up in a migrant detention center in Mykolaiv on the edge of the front lines in southern Ukraine are in danger and should be released, Human Rights Watch said today. Ukraine should urgently release the dozens of migrants and asylum seekers arbitrarily detained in […]

International Criminal Court

If we want the International Criminal Court to investigate Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, we need to stop undermining it Ourselves

OtherWords

By Farrah Hassen | – ( Otherwords.org ) – As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, human rights groups have gathered evidence of Russian atrocities against civilians — including executions, rapes, and mass murder. These are war crimes, President Biden asserted recently, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be held accountable.” Biden is right. Russia’s […]

Pentagon

Bodies beyond Bucha: The Civilian Deaths You Haven’t Heard About

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Madogaz Musa Abdullah still remembers the phone call. But what came next was a blur. He drove for hours, deep into the Libyan desert, speeding toward the border with Algeria. His mind buckled, his thoughts reeled, and more than three years later, he’s still not certain how he made that six-hour […]