Middle East

On Friday, tens of thousands of Tunisians took to the streets to protest the shocking assassination of leftist, secular politician Chokri Belaid earlier this week. He had been the leader of a small opposition party and had been an outspoken critic both of the ruling al-Nahda Party and of the neighborhood militias that sprung up […]

Afghanistan

Naming the Dead Killed by US Drones: (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Juan Cole

The Drones Team at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism writes: The Bureau is launching an ambitious new investigation, which will seek to identify as many as possible of those killed in US covert drone strikes in Pakistan, whether civilian or militant. The Bureau is raising some of the money for this project through a crowd-funding […]

Iran

Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Natural Gas Platform Sinks

Juan Cole

A $40 million platform unit in the Persian Gulf designed to increase Iran’s natural gas production sank last week. It was built with Iranian government funding via a company belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. On this evidence, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina can stop staying up every night worrying that the IRGC […]

Arab Spring

Will a declining America Start Having to Obey the same Rules as Everybody Else? (Chomsky)

Juan Cole

Noam Chomsky writes at Tomdispatch.com: [This piece is adapted from “Uprisings,” a chapter in Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire, Noam Chomsky’s new interview book with David Barsamian (with thanks to the publisher, Metropolitan Books). The questions are Barsamian’s, the answers Chomsky’s.] Does the United States still […]

Syria

Syria: Rebels take Aleppo Airport Road; NYT: Obama Nixed Clinton/Petraeus Plan to Arm Rebels

Juan Cole

Syria’s revolutionaries are saying that they have taken a key Aleppo district, Sheikh Said, that enables them to block the road to the airport. The Baath regime has been using its airports and air bases to resupply troops in the north. If the rebels can block the use of Aleppo airport for this purpose, they […]

Egypt

Egyptian Cities Erupt in anti-Morsi Demonstrations

Juan Cole

Tens of thousands of Egyptians demonstrated around the country on Friday, despite cold, rainy weather in Alexandria and along the Canal zone. In Cairo itself, crowds gathered in front of Morsi’s presidential palace in Heliopolis, and some youth threw Molotov cocktails. Aljazeera English reports: Crowds in major cities chanted that they wanted new presidential elections, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Arts under the Occupation: Dispatch from Palestine (Quran)

Juan Cole

LAYLA QURAN writes at ISLAMiCommentary: Layla Quran (pictured outside Ofer Prison, left) is a sophomore global studies major at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Palestinian-American who moved to the U.S. from Jerusalem when she was four-years-old. She spent 10 weeks in Palestine this past summer researching the impact and role of the […]

Iran

Chuck Hagel Mauled in Bizarro World of US Senate

Juan Cole

The confirmation hearing in the Senate for Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, was painful to watch because it displayed the tomfoolery, pretense, self-righteous know-nothingism, and embarrassing lack of contact with reality that dominate the landscape of America’s broken democracy. It was like watching a Nebraska ordinary Joe set upon by circus […]

Israel

Russia slams Israeli bombing of Syria as Violation of UN Charter

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates the statement at the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sharply condemning Israel: Text of “Russian Foreign Ministry statement in connection to reports about air strikes by the Israeli Air Force on targets on Syrian territory” published on the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on 31 […]