By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Alarabiya television is reporting 16 new casualties in Syria since October 9 among Iranian fighters there. There are thought to be some 1,500 Iranian military personnel in Syria, though some of these are actually Afghans. Several of those Iranian personnel killed during the past 2 years […]
Archives for October 2015
Earthquake in Pakistan & Afghanistan hits Poor Worse
Channel 4 News | (Video News Report) | – – “More than 200 people have been killed in a powerful quake which shook areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan and was felt as far as New Delhi.” Channel 4 News: “Pakistan earthquake”
Senior National Security Advisers urge Obama to put Spec Ops Troops close to ISIL Front
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Missy Ryan and Greg Jaffe at the Washington Post reveal that President Obama’s senior national security advisers have recommended positioning US special operations forces closer to the enemy lines of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) in Iraq and even in Syria. Apparently it is felt that Iraqi troops […]
Tel Aviv: Israelis Rally against Netanyahu’s Policies toward Palestinians
By IMEMC | – – Thousands of Israeli protesters have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv to denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, which they blame for the recent wave of tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as in the besieged Gaza Strip. On Saturday night, the demonstrators held signs that read, […]
Let’s not forget: the real drivers behind Palestinian anger
By Hugh Lovatt | ( Your Middle East) | – – “Israeli society continues to turn a blind eye to the suffering it inflicts on Palestinians” An end to the violence will only happen when the Israeli public decides to move in the direction of de-occupation, something that is unlikely to occur so long as […]
Are Red Meat & Bacon As Cancer-Causing As Cigarettes and Plutonium?
By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Processed meats have been placed in the same health risk category as smoking and asbestos by the cancer research body of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday. Products that have been salted, cured, or otherwise processed to enhance flavor are “carcinogenic to humans,” the […]
Bush Lapdog Blair can’t Even Apologize Correctly for Destabilizing the Middle East
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Former British PM Tony Blair reiterated on Sunday some of his previous half-hearted “apologies” for illegally launching a war of aggression on Iraq in 2003. Blair’s “apologies” always take the form of the little boy who, when instructed to apologize for calling a lady fat, says, […]
Palestine: Hebron at eye of the storm as death toll rises from Squatter attacks
By: Killian Redden | Ma’an News Agency | – – HEBRON (Ma’an) — As the death toll has risen across the occupied Palestinian territory, the southern West Bank city of Hebron has found itself at the center of violence. In just over a month, Israeli forces have killed 10 Palestinians in the sharply divided city. […]
But are they effective? Elite US Forces Deploy to a Record-Shattering 147 Countries in 2015
By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – They’re some of the best soldiers in the world: highly trained, well equipped, and experts in weapons, intelligence gathering, and battlefield medicine. They study foreign cultures and learn local languages. They’re smart, skillful, wear some very iconic headgear, and their 12-member teams are “capable of […]