Archives for March 2009

The USG Open Source Center translates Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s response to the Persian New Year’s message of US President Barack Obama. For a canny reading of this text, see the blog posting of Iran expert Farideh Farhi. See my own first impressions in my Sunday comments, as well as Michael Jensen’s article in the […]

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday, “Of course, we have no prior experience of the new president of the American republic and of the government, and therefore we shall make our judgment based on his actions.” The US corporate media mysteriously interpreted Khamenei’s words as a rebuff to Obama, but in light of […]

Walter L. Hixson writes in a guest op-ed for IC After receiving his welcoming gifts from the departing Bush administration—a depression and two failed wars—President Barack Obama faces a perhaps unprecedented combination of challenges. While it is not clear whether he or anyone possesses the wherewithal to resurrect the debt ridden American economy, Obama does […]

Am doing live Q & A at the Firedoglake book salon Saturday afternoon 3/21 at 5 pm ET. Refresh the page to see the start of it at 5. End/ (Not Continued)

President Barack Obama gave an unprecedented adress to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and to its people on the occasion of the Persian New Year, “Now-Ruz,” which is celebrated on the vernal equinox. Obama caught the spirit of renewal that marks the special day’s commemoration, when he spoke of a changed world […]

Was traveling, but finally getting time tonight to post the video of my appearance on the Colbert Report to promote Engaging the Muslim World, which Comedy Central kindly allows bloggers to embed: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Juan Cole comedycentral.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford I blogged the […]

A discussion among Israeli veterans of the past winter’s military campaign against Gaza has become public, embarrassing the Israeli military and the politicians who launched that attack, which killed many more innocent civilians than it did Hamas militants, and which wrought enormous damage on Gaza’s already dilapidated civilian infrastructure. The Israeli soldiers complained of their […]

With regard to my argument in Engaging the Muslim World that the Iraq War was fomented by an unusual alliance of oil interests (Dick Cheney) and Neoconservative Zionists, M. J. Rosenberg gets it. I’ll be interested to know if Philip Weiss still disagrees once he has had a chance to see the full argument with […]

So I was on the Colbert Report, hosted by Stephen Colbert at Comedy Central, on Wednesday night, to promote my new book, Engaging the Muslim World. The clip is up at the Colbert site now Colbert has four Emmys for his comedy writing on the show, and also just won a Producers Guild Award for […]