Al Franken’s Successful Fundraising Minnesota Senate Race at Stake Iraq an Issue for Coleman Al Franken is proving himself a formidable political fundraiser as he revs up his campaign to be the Democrat who faces Neoconservative Senator Norm Coleman in the ’08 elections. It is tiresome that some observers dismissed Mr. Franken because he is […]
Pakistan Aftermath On Last Words Of
Pakistan Aftermath On the last words of the Pakistani clerical leader at the Red Mosque, see Manan Ahmad’s posting at ICGA, as well as my own entry.
Pakistani Army Invades Red Mosque
Pakistani Army Invades Red Mosque The Pakistani military invaded the Red Mosque and seminary complex early on Tuesday morning. As I write, Aljazeera is reporting that the army has 85% of the complex. Some 40 Muslim militants inside the mosque have been killed, as have 3 Pakistani soldiers. For the background of this crisis, see […]
140000 Turkish Troops Mass At Iraq
140,000 Turkish Troops Mass at Iraq Border Iraq Benchmarks still Waiting for Godot Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (a Kurd) warned Monday that 140,000 Turkish troops were massed at the border with Iraq. Ankara accuses Iraqi Kurdistan of giving safe harbor to PKK terrorists who are blowing up soldiers and others in Turkey’s eastern Anatolia. […]
Informed Comment Global Affairs Our New
Informed Comment: Global Affairs Our new group blog, Informed Comment: Global Affairs has gotten favorable notice in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Speaking of which, contributors have made some very important entries in the past couple of days. Barnett Rubin, among the world’s foremost experts on Afghanistan explains why he is a “pessoptimist” on the […]
Physicians Of Fear My Column At Salon
Physicians of Fear My column at Salon.com this week is “Inside the minds of killer doctors”: Some of the accused behind the recent terror plots in Britain were professional healers. What on earth prompts someone to snap from caregiver to killer? Excerpt: “the actions of the group in Britain were too erratic and error-prone to […]
Al Qaeda In Iraq Threatens Iran
“Al-Qaeda” in Iraq Threatens Iran Thousands of Sadrists Demonstrate against al-Maliki The “Islamic State in Iraq” led by Abu Umar al-Bagdadi, has theatened to target Iran unless it ceases its support for Shiite groups in Iraq. Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, a right hand man of Saddam who still leads a major Baathist cell in the north, […]
Al Maliki To Face No Confidence Vote As
Al-Maliki to Face No-Confidence Vote? As Many as 150 Dead in “Turkmen Massacre” Readers sometimes ask me if analyzing the news from Iraq every day doesn’t get me down. It got me down today. Sunni Arab guerrillas, unable to operate as effectively in Baghdad because of the US troop surge, had a suicide bomber drive […]
Pakistan Mosque Tensions Rise
Musharraf Warns Militants of Death See Manan Ahmed’s excellent analysis of the crisis in Pakistan at our group blog. He points out that the militant Red Mosque was an ally of the United States and the Pakistani government in the 1980s, when they were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. On Saturday and early Sunday, Pakistan’s […]
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