War Crimes

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – BBC Arabic reports that Saudi Twitter has gone wild with responses to the apparent sidelining by President Biden of Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, with many Saudis considering it a humiliation. White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said this week that Biden wishes to “recalibrate” the U.S. relationship with Saudi […]

Epidemics

Israel stops Palestinians of Gaza from getting 2K doses of Russian Coronavirus Vaccine

Juan Cole

Update. On Wednesday Feb. 17, Israel finally permitted 1,000 doses into Gaza, despite an earlier temptation to play politics with the pandemic. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to AFP Arabic, Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Mai Al-Kilah announced Monday that Israeli authorities halted a shipment of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine sent to […]

Displaced and Refugees

In Shadows, SecState Mike Pompeo passed ‘Death Sentence’ for Millions in Yemen and poisoned Biden’s well in Cuba, China, Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who styles himself a Christian gentleman, has according to United Nations officials just passed a death sentence on hundreds of thousands or millions of Yemenis by designating the ruling Helpers of God government of North Yemen a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” The Saudi-UAE War on little […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Apartheid Pandemic: As 10% of Israelis get Covid Vaccine, Zero Occupied Palestinians have– Will wait Months

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some ten percent of Israelis have already been given the coronavirus shot, showing what an efficient government can do for its citizens with the right medical and administrative infrastructure. The Trump administration has not been able to ramp up the actual shots in arms, despite shipping millions of doses of […]

Donald Trump

Trump Pardons Blackwater 4 for Nisour Square Massacre in Iraq, because Whites must never Suffer for Killing Innocent Brown People

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Tuesday, Trump the Mad pardoned 4 Blackwater mercenaries who killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, with indiscriminate fire at Nisour Square in downtown Baghdad on September 14, 2007. The four were convicted at then VP Joe Biden’s insistence, and were serving jail terms. WaPo says, “Investigators for […]

censorship

G20: Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable for Abuses

Human Rights Watch

Demand Release of Detained Activists, Dissidents

Displaced and Refugees

American War Crime: Trump’s Child Separation at the Border violates the Rome Statute, Majorly

Everett Wohlers

Boise, Idaho (Special to Informed Comment) – As a retired military lawyer, I have more than a passing familiarity with international humanitarian law. When I saw the reports beginning in 2017, first of the forced separation of children from parents on our southern border, with no prospect of near-term reunification, and more recently of the […]

Armenia

in Conflict with Armenia, Azerbaijan used Cluster Munitions in Nagorno-Karabakh

Human Rights Watch

Stop Use of Banned Weapons; Secure and Destroy Stocks

Bashar al-Assad

Syria’s security services flourish while people starve; what sort of ‘president’ is Assad?

Juan Cole

Ghazi Dahman | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – It is no surprise that the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre has released documents revealing that Syrian Embassies around the world spy on their own citizens on behalf of the Assad regime. Every Syrian who has travelled abroad for any reason knows that the regime’s […]