( Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine my surprise when, nearly eight months ago, commenting on the state of the country as it approached the 2024 presidential election, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg noted that “Biden has set himself the task of trying to jolt the country out of its learned helplessness in the face of Trump’s […]
Archives for August 2024
Iran condemns “medieval barbarity” of Israel’s Sde Teiman Camp, insists on Right to Deter further Aggression
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Iranian spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanani, condemned Israel on Saturday on “X” for practicing “medieval forms of torture” at the detention center for Palestinians at Sde Teiman, where it was revealed this week that rogue military police had engaged in gang rape and severe torture of detainees, […]
Israeli Lawmakers try to Block Torture Prosecutions
By Bill Van Esveld, Associate Director, MENA, Children’s Rights Division | – A standoff at Israel’s Sde Teiman military base this week has thrown longstanding abuses against Palestinian detainees and the Israeli military’s history of impunity for torture into stark relief. On July 29, Israeli military police arrested nine Israeli soldiers at the base on […]
German Colonialism in Africa left Hundreds of Thousands Dead: Its Chilling Afterlife
By Henning Melber, University of Pretoria | – (The Conversation) – Germany was a significant – and often brutal – colonial power in Africa. But this colonial history is not told as often as that of other imperialist nations. A new book called The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism aims to […]
Israeli Total War infects 40,000 with Hepatitis A, threatens Polio Epidemic, Recalling Past Experiments on Human Subjects
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a 2011 exposé , Mike Stobbe of NBC news revealed a long history of federal physicians from the US deliberately infecting challenged persons or prisoners with diseases so as to experiment on them. For instance, Stobbe wrote, “In the 1946-48 study, American scientists infected prisoners and patients in a […]
Assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders is a Gamble for Benjamin Netanyahu that buys him Time but risks wider Wars
By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin | – (The Conversation) – The missile that struck a building in southern Beirut on Tuesday, killing Hezbollah’s senior military commander Fuad Shukr, had been widely anticipated. Three days earlier, a Hezbollah rocket – which had no doubt missed its military target in northern Israel – struck a football […]
Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country
By Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented | – ( ProPublica; Co-published with Documented ) – A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of […]
Turkey’s Erdogan denounces killing of Haniyeh, blocks Israel at NATO, Boycotts it, and threatens Intervention
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The only Middle Eastern country that has taken significant political and administrative actions to protest Israeli war crimes is Turkey. President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the assassination of Hamas Politburo head Ismail Haniyeh at “X,” writing, “I vehemently denounce and anathematize (lanetliyorum) the perfidious assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the […]
Iran vows “Harsh” Response to Haniyeh’s Killing, But how Likely is all-out War with Israel?
Ali Mamouri, Deakin University | – (The Conversation) – Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed to inflict “harsh punishment” on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of the top Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Haniyeh’s killing is a critical escalation in the already volatile and increasingly hostile region. But the severity […]