AJ+ Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was in prison when his son was born, and is now in prison as his father lies in the ICU. He’s fed up and is taking action. Who is this activist and why does the world care so much about him? AJ+ Meet The Activist Punished By Egypt’s Last […]
Archives for August 2014
Dear Hillary Clinton: When did not bombing Syria create Isis?
By Fariborz S Fatemi Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Barack Obama on Syria and the rise of Isis is wrong, and an exercise in selective memory. When did not bombing Syria create ISIS? In her interview with The Atlantic magazine, the former secretary of state fails to point out that the president wanted to bomb Syria […]
Why Militarized Policing is the worst Response to Ferguson’s Problems
By Chris Cocking, University of Brighton The town of Ferguson, Missouri has now seen ten days of almost nightly disorder following the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by the police. The decision to bring in the National Guard has not quelled the disorder and in fact may be aggravating the situation. Society often has […]
What do Iraq’s Sunni Arabs have in common with Ferguson, Mo. African-Americans?
By Juan Cole If prime minister-designate Haydar al-Abadi in Iraq is to hope to defeat the so-called “Islamic State” (actually a kind of mafia made up of serial murderers and marauders), he must find a way to re-incorporate Iraq’s Sunni Arabs into the government, which has been dominated by Shiite religious parties since 2005, partly […]
How effective will Erdogan be as Turkey’s new President?
By Mustafa Gurbuz The future of Turkey depends not only on Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions but also strategies of the opposition parties, which have proven to be ineffective so far. Turkey’s first direct presidential election results were no surprise. But despite his success by a narrow margin of 51.8 %, Erdogan did not achieve the […]
Iran Hard Liners denounce US Human Rights Abuses in Ferguson, Mo.
By Golnaz Esfandiari via RFE/RL The unrest in the U.S. state of Missouri sparked by the fatal police shooting of a black teenager is being played up by Iranian hardliners, with several lawmakers calling on the Foreign Ministry to react and highlight what they describe as blatant human rights abuses in the United States. The […]
The American Cult of Bombing
By William J. Astore via Tomdispatch.com When you do something again and again, placing great faith in it, investing enormous amounts of money in it, only to see indifferent or even negative results, you wouldn’t be entirely surprised if a neutral observer questioned your sanity or asked you if you were part of some cult. […]
Five things to Know about the Peshmerga Fighters of Iraqi Kurdistan
AJ+ “The Peshmerga are seen as one of the only forces who can defeat the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL. But who are the Peshmerga and what are they fighting for?” AJ+ The Peshmerga of Iraqi Kurdistan
ISIS to US: We’ll drown you in Blood; beheads US Journalist, Holds Tikrit
By Juan Cole The Iraqi military made a push on Tikrit north of Baghdad on Tuesday, but had to call off their campaign when they ran into minefields, booby-trapped buildings, sniping and artillery and mortar fire on the part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now styles itself the “Islamic State” […]