Archives for April 2005

NYT Coverage of Palestinian Deaths Criticized Alison Weir maintains that a statistical study of the New York Times’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shows that the killing of Israeli children is highlighted and fully reported in a way that the killing of Palestinian children is not.

4 Carbombings Kill 23, Wound at Least 80 2 US Troops Killed Thomas Wagner of the Associated Press reports that on Sunday, guerrillas detonated 4 car bombs in Baghdad and Tikrit, leaving a trail of death and mayhem behind them. Wagner writes, A vehicle packed with explosives was driven into a crowd gathered in front […]

Jaafari Decides to Exclude Allawi Al-Zaman/ Reuters reports that prospective Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has decided to give up attempting to form a government of national unity that would include the Iraqiya list of outgoing PM Iyad Allawi, which consists in significant part of secularist ex-Baathists. It has been reported that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani […]

Guerrillas Kill 16 in Iraq Associated Press reports that a ‘series of explosions shook the Iraqi capital Saturday. The deadliest was a roadside bomb that exploded near an Iraqi army convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 . . . The attack occurred near the Abu Ghraib prison . . […]

11 Killed, 26 Wounded in Bombing of Shiite Mosque AFP reports that a bomb killed 9 and wounded 26 at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Friday. Other sources put the death toll at 11. Shaikh Sadruddin al-Qubanji, the clerical representative of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq in Najaf, said in his […]

Moussaoui Pleads Guilty Trial Begins in Spain Zacarias Moussaoui pled guilty Friday to September 11- related charges. But he appears actually to have been envisaged as a “second wave”, and wanted to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House. Moussaoui is clearly mentally disturbed and his being unbalanced led to his arrest. […]

Guerrillas Shoot down Helicopter, Killing 11 (6 Americans) AP reports that guerrillas shot down a helicopter carrying civilian security guards on Thursday. A jihadi website claimed that the guerrillas executed the one survivor of the crash, a Bulgarian. There are thousands of civilian security guards in Iraq of various nationalities. If the Iraqi guerrillas are […]

The New McCarthyism at Columbia My extended op-ed on the Columbia affair (“The new McCarthyism: A witch hunt against a Columbia professor, and the New York Times’ disgraceful support for it, represent the gravest threat to academic freedom in decades”) is out in Salon.com. I had earlier addressed the controversy briefly here.

Al-Qaeda Fights on in Mecca Two Muslim radicals and two policemen died Thursday in a running gun battle between the authorities and the jihadis in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. The Saudis said that the gunmen were linked to al-Qaeda. There has been a string of such violent incidents between the Saudi military and […]