So the big political news today is that the Iraqi parliament on Saturday finally passed a revision of the “De-baathification” law issued by US viceroy Paul “Jerry” Bremer in May of 2003. That law got tens of thousands of Sunni Arabs fired from their government jobs and excluded from public life and helped kick off […]
Archives for January 2008
Yamli Arabic software
My readers sometimes ask me about Arabic software tools for the web. I just wanted to flag for them Yamli.com, which I’m finding a real delight. It would be slow for someone who was a good touch typist in Arabic, but for those of us who peck out the letters, it is wonderful, and it […]
4 Killed in Baghdad Bombing Turks attack Kurds inside Iraq Again
PM Nuri al-Maliki called for widened political participation. He appears to be working on a compromise that might bring the parties of Iyad Allawi and Tariq al-Hashimi/ Adnan Dulaimi back into his government. Ammar al-Hakim, called on the Iraqi Accord Front and the National Iraqi List to rejoin the al-Maliki government, giving al-Maliki some support. […]
US Video of Iran Speedboats Doctored; Iranians Charge Fabrication
The Bush administration’s assertion that 5 small Iranian boats confronted big, well-armed US ships in the Straits of Hormuz and threatened to blow up the American vessels is looking more and more like a serious error if not a Republican Party fabrication. The episode featured prominently in the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, according […]
9 US Troops Killed; 250,000 Civilians Dead in Bush’s War?
Sunni Arab guerrillas have killed 9 US soldiers in the past two days. They killed 6 and wounded 4 with a bomb in a booby-trapped safe house on Wednesday. The deaths come in the course of an American sweep in Diyala Province aimed at weakening the Salafi radicals. A new World Health Organization study estimates […]
McCain Republicans’ anti-War Candidate; Sunnis Fear Return of Baghdad Violence;
In the US, here is an irony. John McCain, “Mr. Surge,” who dreams of a century-long US occupation of Iraq, was the anti-war candidate for Republicans in Iowa. Yes: ‘ Exit polls found 64 percent of Tuesday’s Republican voters still support the conflict — and Romney, whose criticism of President Bush’s management of the war […]
OSC: Pakistani Papers React to NYT Story on Expansion of CIA Activities
The USG Open Source Center provides translated excerpts from Pakistani editorials reacting to Sunday’s New York Times story on discussions by VP Dick Cheney with others in the administration about widening the role in Pakistan of the Central Intelligence Agency and giving it permission to carry out paramilitary strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas […]
24 Dead in Sunni Counter-Attacks; Major Refinery in Flames
In a further sign of a determined new year’s counter-attack by the radical Salafis and/or neo-Baathists, a wave of bombings and kidnappings swept Iraq on Monday, leaving 24 dead, dozens wounded. In the eastern Sunni enclave of Adhamiya in Baghdad, now more and more surrounded by purely Shiite districts, Sunni guerrillas attacked the offices of […]
Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby New Hampshire Tracking Poll: Big "Mo-bama" Grabs Dems in Granite State; McCain Regains Lead Over Romney in GOP Battle
Zogby gave permission to reprint the below, just in: ‘ UTICA, New York—Democrat Barack Obamas dramatic post-Iowa momentum has come to full bloom in the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby New Hampshire daily tracking poll, rocketing to a 10-point lead over rival Hillary Clinton and a 20-point over Edwards. In New Hampshires Republican primary race, the survey shows Arizonas […]
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