Archives for 2009

You have an economy in shambles, increasing international isolation, the danger of further wars, an unpopular millenarian president who thinks God put him in office to reshape the world, and an alarmed public across the board. And you have a liberal challenger to the woeful status quo who is known for an ability to reach […]

While the attention of the US public and the news media here has been consumed (understandably enough) by the congressional debate over the economic stimulus plan, America’s war in Afghanistan has nearly collapsed because of logistical problems. First, the Taliban destroyed a crucial bridge west of Peshawar over which NATO trucks traveled to the Khyber […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Da`wa Party official Hasan Sunayd said the al-Maliki government has been conducting secret behind-the-scenes negotiations with armed guerrilla groups active in the Sunni Arab provinces, as well as with ex-Baathist officers in exile in Dyria. The government wants to use the recent provincial elections in the Sunni Arab provinces as […]

Iran has unveiled what it says is the world’s most powerful natural-gas driven automobile engine: ‘TEHRAN, Feb. 7 (MNA) – The world’s most powerful natural-gas-based car engine was unveiled on Saturday by the Iranian carmaker Iran Khodro under the intellectual property of the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to IRINN, the engine is to be […]

UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Friday, and praised Iraq’s recent provincial elections. The USG Open Source Center translated Iraqi television coverage of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s remarks on this occasion, in which he sought a new relationship of iraq to the UN Security Council: “Within its 1500 GMT newscast, […]

The Iraqi provincial election results are out. They confirm what I said last Monday, that the parties who want a strong, united Iraq have come to the fore in these elections. Although Nuri al-Maliki’s Da’wa Party got over a third of the votes in Baghdad and Basra, they clearly did not achieve a commanding position, […]

It is being alleged by US pundits that the outcome of the provincial elections in Iraq, as far as it is known, indicates a defeat for the religious parties and for Iran. This allegation is not true. In the Shiite provinces, the coalition of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Islamic Mission Party […]

Neither the Obama administration nor the Iranian government seems likely to rush into new contacts, despite the opportunity presented by the Munich Security Conference, according to the LAT. Iranian Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, has called on Obama to spell out in specifics just what changes he intends to introduce into US policy toward […]

A common response from the Right to President Obama’s capping of CEO salaries and bonuses at $500,000 a year in companies that take big USG bailout money has been to warn that it will be difficult to attract the best management talent to run those firms. Uh, wasn’t it those geniuses, the ‘top management talent’ […]