By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Jabhat al-Nusra or Support Front is one of the major rebel groups in Syria, holding extensive territory in the hinterland of cities like Homs and Aleppo and in the province of Idlib. The Support Front is just al-Qaeda. It has announced allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, […]
Archives for September 2015
America’s Dumb Bigots: Sikh Man Beaten Before Anniversary Of 9/11
Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, John Iadarola, and Wes Clark Jr. | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “One tragic aspect of our post-9/11 legacy is Americans terrorizing, beating, and murdering muslims (as well as people they mistake for Muslims). Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz (Turner Classic Movies), John Iadarola (Think Tank), and Wes Clark […]
‘Bibi in Bible Land’: The Likud Party Miscalculates and loses on Iran Deal
By Shalom L. Goldman | (Informed Comment) | – – Now that the Democratic senators have blocked a challenge to the Iran deal, pundits are looking at what the most persuasive arguments in the presentations to Democratic members of Congress were. What persuaded most Democrats to back the Iran deal, despite the well-funded campaigns against […]
Can Syrian Asylee Airlift from Turkey to Sweden be Crowd-Funded? Iranian Expats Think So
By Elisabeth Braw | (RFE/ RL) | – – A group of Iranian emigres and friends has announced an ambitious project to mount a crowdfunded airlift from troubled areas around the Mediterranean to Sweden, allowing would-be refugees to bypass hazardous land-and-sea journeys via what they’re calling Refugee Air. One of the organizers says he was […]
Over Israeli, US Objections, UN votes to raise Palestinian flag at HQ
Ma’an News | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations General Assembly voted late Thursday in favor of raising the Palestinian flag at its headquarters in New York by an overwhelming majority, in a symbolic diplomatic victory in the PLO’s campaign for statehood. A resolution was adopted by member states with 119 in favor, […]
Top 5 Reasons Obama defeated GOP, AIPAC effort to vote Down Iran Deal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – 40 Democratic senators and two independent senators stood with President Obama on Thursday, preventing any congressional condemnation of the UN Security Council’s Vienna agreement with Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program. By the genteel rules of the senate, proponents of the censure vote needed 60 […]
Is the Obama Admin. pressuring CIA to paint a Rosy Picture of War on ISIL?
Elliot Hill and Mark Sovel | (TheLipTV Video Report) | – – “ISIS intelligence reports are being cooked by the Obama administration, according to over 50 intelligence analysts working out of the US military’s Central Command who have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered […]
Why Young Iraqis Are Risking Their Lives to Get to Europe
By Marwan Jabbar | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraq’s security crisis means that if you are “different”, you may be a threat to militias ruling the streets now. Would-be asylum seekers tell NIQASH why they want to leave Baghdad, despite good jobs and nice homes. Europe is dealing with an influx of refugees […]
ISIL’s campaign may be going chemical – why no international outcry?
Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – Evidence is mounting that [so-called] Islamic State (IS) [group] is using chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria – and yet this egregious crime, which once used to be a “red line” for the rest of the world, has yet to provoke a proportionate response. One the most […]