Archives for November 2009

Since both the US and China have traditionally been allies of Pakistan, any joint US-China call for better relations between the two major countries in South Asia would likely irk New Delhi. It did. Given that the current Minister of External Affairs, S. M. Krishna, had a long political career representing Karnataka State, with its […]

** Africa population tops a billion **The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report.< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8366591.stm >

David Kilcullen’s bizarre prediction last spring that the Pakistani government could fall to the Taliban or al-Qaeda within six months was always downright looney, but recent events have underlined the extent of its daftness. The 650,000-strong Pakistani army has made mincemeat of the Pakistani Taliban wherever they have seriously taken them on. On Tuesday, for […]

Since she’s back, so am I. Below is a reprint edition of my essay from September 2008 comparing Sarah Palin to Muslim fundamentalists on select issues. Also check out Going Rouge: An American Nightmare from OR books, in which another of my Salon pieces on Palin is reprinted: Salon.comTuesday, Sep 9, 2008 03:12 PDTWhat’s the […]

Iran’s PressTV says it has caught Israel forging documents in an attempt to implicate Iran in arms smuggling. The Israelis have been maintaining that a ship, the Francop, that their forces boarded near Cyprus originated in Iran and was bringing arms to Hizbullah and Hamas. Many US news outlets published the accompanying picture, which seemed […]

The Times of London reports that French commanders meeting with local Afghan leaders northeast of Kabul were targeted by insurgents with rockets, which killed 12 Afghan civilians and wounded about 38. No French personnel appear to have come to harm, though the French Gen. Marcel Druart was in some danger. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Also […]

Daniel Luban shows that the assault on the National Iranian-American Council by the rightwing Israel lobbies and their allies in the People’s Jihadi Organization [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO)], a Marxist-Islamist political cult is actually an attempt to mortally wound the Obama administration. A strategist allegedly linked to the MEK, Hasan Daioleslam, wrote to […]

The Palestinian leadership is making medium-term preparations to go to the United Nations to ask for a declaration of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders (i.e. in the West Bank and Gaza). The move comes because the Obama administration’s attempts to kickstart the peace process have crashed and burned, as Elaf pointed out. The Obama […]

The Taliban Movement of Pakistan launched another bombing in Peshawar on Saturday, killing 12 and wounding 30. The bomb-laden vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint by a vigilant policeman intent on stopping it from approaching sensitive sites, and the driver then detonated his payload. The policeman was killed, but he likely stopped a much larger […]