Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – The volunteer militias formed to fight the Islamic State group are now policing Baghdad’s neighbourhoods. But as they do, they compete with the real police, ignore the real laws and often act more like a mafia. Recently Baghdad local Jafar al-Aboudi’s son got into a fight […]
Top 3 Ways to rig an Election
By William deBuys | ( Tomdispatch.com ) – – Donald Trump was right. The election was rigged. What Trump got wrong (and, boy, does he get things wrong) is that the rigging worked in his favor. The manipulations took three monumental forms: Russian cyber-sabotage; FBI meddling; and systematic Republican efforts, especially in swing states, to […]
Even after Russia included US in Syria Peace Talks, can they Succeed?
By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | – – The Middle East keeps going its way as usual, continuously creating global news headlines. Two such current and hot news events are the much awaited peace talks in Astana, the Kazakh capital, between the Syrian government and the diverse rebel groups under Russian–Turkish initiatives, and the […]
Is Trump the Shock America needs to Transition to Social Democracy?
David Graham Sweet | (Informed Comment) | – – Here on the “Left Coast” there’s much anguish & foreboding over the results of our recent election, and talk of “resistance.” I’m anguished too, but if you’ll forgive me, less pessimistic than ever about the future of our country. Here’s why. It’s not that the new […]
How Much is a Palestinian Life Worth? Disappointment at Azaria Sentence
By Ilaria Grasso Macola | (GlobalVoices.org) | – – On January 4, 2017, Elor Azaria, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier, was convicted of manslaughter by the Israeli military court. Azaria, now 20 years old, was found guilty of killing Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif, a 21-year-old Palestinian man, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron […]
Will Donald Trump bring back torture? Can Foreign leaders stop him?
By Vincent Charles Keating | (The Conversation) | – – There can be no doubt that the swearing in of Donald Trump on January 20 will usher in a new era for the United States. But the president-elect’s open support for torture and waterboarding could mean his inauguration also marks a return to what President […]
Will Americans go along with Authoritarian Trumpism?
By Thomas Pepinsky | (TeleSur) | – – Everyday life in the modern authoritarian regime is boring and tolerable. Malaysia is a country that I know well, and whose political system I have studied closely for 15 years. It is also a country whose political liberalization I have long awaited. Malaysia has a multiparty parliamentary […]
Palestinian Parliamentarians say Israeli Legislation aims to annex West Bank
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a controversial bill on Tuesday that would allow verdicts from military court proceedings in the occupied West Bank to be submitted as evidence in Israeli civilian courts, a move which critics claim is another step aiming to illegally annex the […]
Credible: Author of Trump’s dirty dossier ‘had UK agencies’ for clients
By Georgi Gotev, James Crisp | Euractiv.com | – – EXCLUSIVE/ Christopher Steele, the former MI6 spy and author of the dirty dossier on President-elect Donald Trump, claimed to have carried out investigations for UK financial regulatory authorities in emails seen by EurActiv.com. The “dirty dossier”, written by Steele, a former Russia operations officer for […]