Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Iraqi government forces gearing up to drive Islamic State fighters from Mosul should prioritize protection of civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, took control of in June 2014. ISIS and pro-government […]
Archives for April 2016
Not al-Qaeda: Abu Zubayda as Bush’s Mengele Experiment
By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Intro: Rebecca Gordon catches the nightmarish quality of those [Bush] years, now largely buried, in the grim case of a single mistreated human being. It should make Americans shudder. She has also just published a new book, American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial […]
US finally acknowledging al-Qaeda factor in breakdown of Ceasefire
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the frustrations of following the Syria conflict from the Arabic press is that when you then turn to the English language accounts, they tend to play down the importance of al-Qaeda or the Support Front (al-Jabha al-Nusra). In American parlance, there have just been […]
Trump’s Bad ideas are just our Current Practices on Steroids
By Janine Jackson | ( Otherwords.org) | – – Mass deportations? Attacks on innocent [non-]combatants? Punishing abortion restrictions? They’re all happening already. Readers of The Boston Globe were recently treated to an unusual spectacle — a parody front page and insert filled with mock stories of how a Donald Trump presidency might play out. “Deportations […]
Caravan Schools and educating Syrian Refugee Children
By Samantha Schmidt | ( Yes | – – In response to overcrowded public schools in countries neighboring Syria, caravan schools provide refugees with free education to keep them from falling behind. ZAATARI, Jordan – In a tiny classroom in a metal trailer, the 11-year-old Syrian refugee writes his name on the chalkboard, practicing the […]
Berlin Pirate Party Leader Arrested for Erdogan Insult
TeleSur | – – Bruno Kramm was arrested while protesting against a German law allowing the prosecution of citizens for insulting foreign leaders. The head of Berlin’s Pirate Party branch has been jailed after protesting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Pirate Party’s news agency, Pirate Times. Bruno Kramm was arrested in […]
NYU grad student union votes to boycott, divest from Israel
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A graduate student union at New York University on Friday voted in favor of joining the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. Two-thirds of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee cast a vote in support of the resolution, which calls on […]
After Paris COP21: Top 6 Green Energy good News Stories Today
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – World leaders signed the COP21 Paris climate accord on Friday, Earth Day. Whether it will be meaningful in stopping carbon dioxide emissions and emissions of other dangerous greenhouse gases that are warming our planet remains to be seen. But there is some good news on the […]
US confused over Russia’s real intentions in Syria
By EurActiv.com | – – Russia’s latest military moves in Syria have sharpened divisions within the US administration over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin genuinely backs a UN-led initiative to end the civil war or is using the negotiations to mask renewed military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia has repositioned artillery near the […]