Human Rights Watch (Beirut) – A Cairo court of minor offenses handed down three-year sentences to 23 people for breaking an anti-protest law that allows Egyptian authorities broad powers to ban or disperse most public demonstrations. One of those sentenced on October 20, 2014, Yara Sallam, is a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal […]
Archives for October 2014
Iraq: Is the Sunni-Shiite Slaughter at Jurf al-Sakhr really a US Victory?
By Juan Cole Apparent good news was announced on Sunday in the fight against the extremist ISIL organization: The Iraqi army, backed by fundamentalist Shiite militias, managed to take the village of Jurf al-Sakhr, southwest of Baghdad, from ISIL fighters. This town has a population of about 80,000, consisting mostly of Sunnis from the Janabi […]
Israeli restrictions on movement strangle Palestinian life
By Daoud Kuttab “My homeland is not a suitcase and I am not a traveler,” wrote Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. But for many Palestinians living in the besieged homeland, the right to movement guaranteed in the University Declaration of Human Rights (Article 13) is just ink on paper. I met last week in Beirut a […]
Burned: Valerie Plame Wilson’s new Roman a Clef on Dick Cheney’s Great Betrayal
Bloomberg “Valerie Plame Wilson, author and former CIA officer, discusses her new book entitled “Burned” and national security in the 21st century with Bloomberg’s Pimm Fox on “Taking Stock.” (Source: Bloomberg)” Channel 4: “Former CIA Agent Valerie Plame Embraces Being ‘Burned’ ”
Does Fox “News” cultivate Closed Minded “Right Wing Authoritarians”?
TheLipTV “Is Fox News creating content that appeals to closed minded people of a “right wing authoritarian” mind state? That is the case being argued by a University of Alabama Psychologist, Dr. William Hart, who cites the Republican slanted cable news channel as a mirror for similarly ideologically minded people. Does this create a distortion […]
‘Thanks for your Service’ = Silencing the Vets
By Rory Fanning via Tomdispatch.com Last week, in a quiet indie bookstore on the north side of Chicago, I saw the latest issue of Rolling Stone resting on a chrome-colored plastic table a few feet from a barista brewing a vanilla latte. A cold October rain fell outside. A friend of mine grabbed the issue […]
The Tunisian Achievement
By Juan Cole Fears that the historic vote on Sunday in Tunisia might be marred by violence committed by the country’s tiny lunatic fringe were not borne out. The interim government of Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa deployed 80,000 police and troops to protect polling stations. Contrary to the breathless reporting one hears in the mass […]
Protests after Israeli Troops kill American Teenager near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager late Friday during clashes in Silwad village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, medical officials said. Orwa Abd al-Wahhab Hammad, 14, was shot multiple times with live bullets. He was taken to Palestine Medical Complex where he was pronounced dead. An Israeli army […]
The Ultra Orthodox vs. The Israeli Army: Israel’s Other Religious War (VICE)
VICE News: “Since Israel’s inception, the Haredi — ultra-Orthodox adherents of Judaism —have been exempt from the country’s military conscription laws. But their growing population, coupled with their high unemployment rate and dependence on state benefits, sparked outrage within the country’s secular majority. After years of demanding that the Haredi share the responsibility of serving […]