By Juan Cole President Obama wrote a letter to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the possibility of US-Iran non-military cooperation in defeating ISIL, as a sidebar to the ongoing negotiations with Tehran over the shape of its civilian nuclear enrichment program and ways of making sure the program is not militarized. The Wall Street Journal’s […]
Archives for November 2014
Is the Qur’an Really Violent? Not if you Read the whole Book!
By Alexander Gaute (Your Middle East) “Analyses tend to misuse the references to the Qur’an, often only citing single verses” Following the advent of the murderous Islamic State (IS), the need to scrutinize the relationship between Islam and violence has proved necessary. Several attempts have been made towards this aim, some even arguing for the […]
Will GOP Senate Hawks Deep-Six CIA Torture Report, push Ukraine Intervention?
By Luke Johnson (RFE/RL) WASHINGTON — Republicans have captured control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years, picking up at least seven seats in the November 4 Congressional elections. The shift means that Republicans will control the three top Senate committees dealing with U.S. foreign policy and national security: foreign relations, armed […]
If Orwell had had a “Ministry of Science” it would look Like GOP Science Committees
Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks: “”The Republican Party is widely predicted to win control of the Senate as a result of today’s midterm elections. In broadstrokes, that outcome portends a green light for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a blow to the Affordable Care Act and a push for corporate tax reform. But what would a […]
Amid Jerusalem Clashes, Israeli Housing Minister Claims al-Aqsa Site, Declaring War on 1.5 bn Muslims
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Dozens of Palestinians suffered tear-gas inhalation and several others were injured by stun grenades, shrapnel and rubber-coated steel bullets during clashes in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound area on Wednesday, an official said. Palestinian Red Crescent official Amin Abu Ghazaleh told Ma’an that Red Crescent ambulances moved nine injured to the Al-Maqased Hospital […]
Top 5 Reasons Obama is Seeking Congressional Approval for War on ISIL
By Juan Cole President Obama said Wednesday that he would seek Congressional authorization for his war on ISIL or the “Islamic State” Group in Iraq and Syria. This statement comes after months of his administration maintaining that the AUMF of 2001 was still sufficient to underpin this effort. (In fact, it referred to war on […]
How Secret Millionaire Donors Bought the Midterms with Dark Money Superpacs
by Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica In the final weeks before this year’s elections, a super PAC called Key Questions, Key Answers started buying TV ads across Pennsylvania attacking Tom Wolf, the Democratic candidate for governor. “Don’t vote for a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the narrator says in one of the ads as a sheep with Wolf’s […]
The Pressure to Escalate: How Washington governs by Whipping up Paranoia
By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch.com Sometimes it seemed that only two issues mattered in the midterm election campaigns just ended. No, I’m not talking about Obamacare, or the inequality gap, or the country’s sagging infrastructure, or education, or energy policy. I mean two issues that truly threaten the wellbeing of citizens from Kansas, Colorado, and […]
Is a Showdown between Radical Shiites and al-Qaeda Brewing in Yemen?
SANAA (IRIN) – Yahia Abu Talib, serious and stoic, is in no doubt about the importance of his role. “We protect homes and mosques,” he says, referring to the so-called popular committees of which he is a member. In a mixed neighbourhood of Yemen’s capital Sana’a, Abu Talib calls himself a “social superviser” for the […]
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