Middle East

(Special to Informed Comment) – To those outside of the music business the title, “The House that Ahmet Built” might sound like the name of a Turkish folktale for children. But for those in the know, the ‘house’ was Atlantic Records and ‘Ahmet’ was Ahmet Ertegun, the great record company’s co-founder. In 1947 along with […]

Featured

Was Pensacola Shooter part of a terrorist Cell inside Saudi Officer Corps?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The information now emerging from AP and other sources about Saudi Air Force pilot 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamran is extremely disturbing inasmuch as it point to the possible existence of al-Qaeda cells inside the Saudi military. Eric Schmitt, Frances Robles and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs at the NYT reported that Alshamran […]

Iraq

The Iraqi Street Revolution of 2019 is still Challenging the American-Installed Order

Mustafa Habib

Mustafa Habib | – (Niqash.org) – Neither of the two opposing groups seem to want to give any quarter and despite impactful events and legislative manoeuvres, nobody is any closer to common ground. 6.12.2019 | Baghdad Politics A man in Baghdad’s informal “museum of martyrs”, a memorial to the young demonstrators who have been killed. […]

Human Rights

Saudi Arabia’s Strategy to ‘Sportswash’ Abuses

Human Rights Watch

By Minky Worden | Director of Global Initiatives | – (

Donald Trump

Trump Fails again to Bring our Troops Home from Mideast: Mulling Escalation of 14,000 v. Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s Pentagon is allegedly mulling sending 14,000 US troops to the Middle East to counter Iran. Although the Pentagon pushed back against the initial report, that had only said they were considering the troop escalation, and the Pentagon did not deny considering it. Trump has sent 14,000 troops to the […]

Iran

Is Iran an Expansionist Power or Just in Defensive Mode?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Edward Hunt | – (Foreign Policy in Focus) – The Iranian military is focused on deterring external threats not launching an attack on its adversaries. As the Trump administration continues to incite fears about Iran, portraying the country as an aggressor that is destabilizing the Middle East, a new report by the Defense Intelligence […]

Islamophobia

Israel-Based Group is Behind Bigoted Facebook Smear Campaign Aimed at Rep. Ilhan Omar

Common Dreams

By Eoin Higgins, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – “The goal of these anti-Muslim hate campaigns is clear—they put Muslim lives here and around the world at risk and undermine our country’s commitment to religious pluralism.” Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress, have been the target of […]

Featured

At NATO, Trump irrelevant as France’s Macron Confronts Turkey on Invasion of Syrian Kurds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 70th anniversary of NATO was commemorated with a low-key meeting rather than a summit and was not the united show of success hoped for by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, reports Al Jazeera. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made waves. And a CBC camera crew caught some NATO leaders, including Canada’s Justin […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis, Not Conflict, Drove Many Syrian Refugees from their Homes

The Conversation

By Hussein A. Amery | – People who fled Syria in recent years are often viewed as war refugees because of the violence that has engulfed much of the country since 2011. But those from the northern and northeastern parts of Syria may more accurately be viewed as climate refugees, fleeing not a worsening conflict […]