Vladimir Putin | (Der Bild) | – – Excerpt from part II of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview in the German publication, Der Bild, on Jan. 12, 2016, according to the Kremlin website. Highlight: Putin admits that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has made many errors, and says that if necessary he can have asylum in […]
Archives for January 2016
The Best Way to Close Guantanamo? Give It Back to Cuba
By Alli McCracken | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – In one fell swoop, President Obama could erase the stain of Guantanamo and make major headway on normalization with Cuba. President Obama should be given props for the progress made in thawing U.S.-Cuban relations, but there’s a piece of unfinished business on the island […]
Politics, not just Bombs, will defeat ISIL/ Daesh
By Frank-Walter Steinmeier | (Project Syndicate) | – – BERLIN – The November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris – which struck at the heart of France and of Europe as a whole – have brought the terrorist threat posed by the [so-called] Islamic State [group] (ISIS) to the forefront of the foreign-policy agenda. For me, […]
Why Arson was suspected in Fire at Offices of Israeli Human Rights & Peace Group B’Tselem
Nir Hasson | Haaretz | (Video News Report) | – – Update: N.B. an investigation by the Jerusalem fire brigade appears to have concluded that an electrical wiring fault was responsible for the fire at the offices of B’Tselem. Initial reports by Haaretz and others, as below, suspected arson. The reason is that a school […]
Oregon Standoff: What If The Armed Men Were Muslim Or Black?
Jessica Sherry | AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “The Ammon Bundy–led armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon isn’t just about land rights. Dena Takruri gets the thoughts of occupiers LaVoy Finicum and Jon Ritzheimer on what would happen if they were brown, black or Muslim. Shot by video […]
Beset by Loneliness and Memories, Syrian Refugees Struggle even in Safe Spaces
By Silvia Boarini | (Inter Press Service) | – – ZARQa, Jordan (IPS) – Emelline Mahmoud Ilyas is an outgoing 35-year-old mother of three from Syria. Sitting in a community centre in Zarqa, Jordan, where she just held a meeting with Jordanian and Syrian parents on the subject of childcare, she remembers the ‘journey of […]
Majority of Jerusalem Palestinians detained in 2015 were minors
Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained more than 1,900 Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem in 2015, the majority of whom were minors, a prisoners’ rights group said on Sunday. A spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies, Riyad al-Ashqar, said in a statement that around two-thirds of those […]
How We Learned to Stop Worrying About People and Love the Bombing
By Rick Shenkman | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – After Senator Ted Cruz suggested that the United States begin carpet bombing Islamic State (IS) forces in Syria, the reaction was swift. Hillary Clinton mocked candidates who use “bluster and bigotry.” Jeb Bush insisted the idea was “foolish.” Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, tweeted: “You […]
How the fate of Syria’s al-Assad divides the GOP Field: Cruz, Trump, Rubio
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Foreign policy is not a strong suit for most of the Republican candidates for president. Many of them probably couldn’t find Syria on a blank world map. But the fate of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad has become a flashpoint issue distinguishing them from one another. Donald […]