By Martin Conway | (The Conversation) | – – “What we feared has happened,” remarked Charles Michel, the prime minister of Belgium, in the immediate aftermath of the horrible and violent attacks on Brussels airport and the Maelbeek metro station on March 22. Yes, indeed. Nothing is less surprising than that the vortex of terrorism […]
Archives for March 2016
After Brussels, the Strategy of ISIL/ Daesh
By Paul Rogers | (OpenDemocracy) | – – Tunisia, Paris, and now Brussels: escalating attacks on western targets reflect a shift of focus by ISIL. The security consultancy IHS Jane’s has just completed an assessment on the risk of an armed attack in Europe. Its report was published a few days before the assaults in […]
How Green Energy is already taking over the World
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In 2015 energy companies invested more in new renewables power plants in 2015 than in fossil fuel plants for the first time in history. The majority of these plants were planned for the developing countries, which is a sign that the technology is viewed as now […]
Fall of Palmyra: Syrian regime races to take ISIL’s ‘Berlin’ and forestall ‘Partition’
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – That massive Russian air strikes and a determined infantry and armor assault by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the ancient city of Palmyra could dislodge from it a few hundred or at most a couple thousand Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) fighters is not all that surprising. […]
Why are American Elections so much worse than Everybody Else’s?
by Pippa Norris | (The Conversation) | – – The world is currently transfixed by the spectacle of American elections. From New York, London and Paris to Beijing, Moscow, and Sydney there is endless heated debate in the news media and across dinner tables about the factors fueling the remarkable success of Donald Trump, speculation […]
Momentum: Sanders Sweeps with Huge Wins in Hawaii, Washington and Alaska
TeleSur | – – “I think it is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum,” Sanders told supporters. Bernie Sanders won all three caucuses held Saturday in the states of Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, beating Hillary Clinton by 40 or more points in each contest. Sanders picked up 117 delegates from […]
Israeli Squatters issue death threats against Videographer who filmed execution of Palestinian
By Celine Hagbard | IMEMC | — A Palestinian videographer and human rights worker whose video of the murder of a 21-year old Palestinian by an Israeli soldier has received widespread attention has received a number of death threats, as well as gatherings outside his home of Israeli settlers threatening to harm him, and has […]
What would effective Counter-Terrorism look like after Brussels?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The various nostrums proposed to counter Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) terrorism in Europe and North America by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (armed patrols by police of putative “Muslim neighborhoods”, a Muslim exclusion act, etc.) are of course complete non-starters. So too are killing the children of […]
Beyond Victimhood: 5 Slaves Who Fought Back and Changed History
By Mohamed Hemish | ( TeleSur | – – March 25 marks the United Nations’ “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery,” which aims to draw attention to the more than 15 million men, women and children who fell victim to the Transatlantic Slave Trade that lasted from the 15th through to the […]