Rising Up with Sonali | Sonali Kolhatkar | (Audio and Video Interview) | “Just days before the UK elections, US president Donald Trump has wielded his Twitter account as a weapon once more, accusing London’s mayor Sadiq Khan of making a “pathetic excuse” for the attack that killed 7 people on London bridge last Saturday. […]
Archives for June 2017
Civilian Casualties Mount in Battle to Re-take Mosul
By Mark Lattimer | (Inter Press Service} | – – LONDON (IPS) – East of Mosul, many of the lands liberated from ISIS stand empty. Driving through the Nineveh plains, traditional homelands of Iraq’s minority communities of Yezidis, Christians, Shabak and Turkmen, you pass one ghost town after another, peopled only by members of the […]
Muslims less likely to Commit Terrorism & other Reality-Based Statistics
By Michael Jetter | (The Conversation) | – – Recent events in London, Manchester and elsewhere highlight that Western societies are vulnerable to terrorist attacks – and political decision-makers need to find solutions. Two key questions to consider are: How likely are you to fall victim to terrorism? What increases or decreases that likelihood? Our […]
Turkey OKs draft Bill to send Troops to bolster Qatar re: Saudis
TeleSur | – – Turkey and Qatar also both supported Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated projects throughout the Arab Spring, drawing strong Saudi ire. Turkey has waded into the geopolitical storm engulfing Gulf Arab states as its Parliament approved a draft bill Wednesday to expedite the deployment of troops to a Turkish military base in Qatar. The move […]
Trump’s Ally: Saudi Arabia’s drive for Aristocratic Hegemony in the Middle East
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia is making a drive to become a regional hegemon. It has long used its oil wealth to achieve a great deal of influence among neighbors, of course. But it is now flexing military muscles. From a Saudi point of view, they have suffered decades […]
First, the Soviets Collapsed: Is it America’s Turn Now?
By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Jump into your time machine and let me transport you back to another age. It’s May 2001 and the Atlantic Monthly has just arrived in the mail. I’m tantalized by the cover article. “Russia is finished,” the magazine announces. The subtitle minces no words: “The […]
Popular Protest against US-backed Government in Kabul: What is going On?
By Solaiman M. Fazel | (Informed Comment) | – – Two days after a deadly blast in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter, why did thousands of residents and civil society activists participate in a protest near Kabul’s presidential palace calling for the resignation of President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah? There are several lingering […]
Qatar in the Cross-Hairs – How Bad can it Get?
By Brian Whitaker | ( Al-Bab.com ) | – – The extraordinary propaganda offensive against Qatar which has been raging in sections of the Arab media for the last couple of weeks shifted from words to deeds yesterday when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in effect placed Qatar under siege. There are four possible […]
London Mayor Sadiq Khan uninvites Trump as opposed to Humane British Values
By Juan Cole | (informed Comment) | – – Trump’s shameful and out of context attacks on Sadiq Khan, the popular mayor of London, have only reminded us of what a boor Trump is. Britain agrees. Khan told Channel 4 News Monday, “I don’t think we should roll out the red carpet to the president […]