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Juan Cole

Donald Trump
Trump  Awaits orders from Saudis; and Why the Houthis could have Done It

Trump Awaits orders from Saudis; and Why the Houthis could have Done It

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s bizarre infatuation with strongmen and dictators was on full display in his response to Saturday’s drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. As our foremost Gulf expert, Kristian Ulrichsen, noted, The way you phrase it sounds like you are waiting for the Saudis to tell you what to do. […]

Featured
Pompeo Manipulatively blames Iran as Saudi Arabia loses 58% of Oil Production to Houthi Attack

Pompeo Manipulatively blames Iran as Saudi Arabia loses 58% of Oil Production to Houthi Attack

Juan Cole

Yemen’s Zaydi Shiite Houthi rebels, who control the northwest of Yemen, including the capital of Sana’a, claimed on Saturday to have launched the 10 drones that struck the major Saudi petroleum production and refining installations at Abqaiq and Khurais. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied that the drones came from Yemen, blaming the attack on […]

Authoritarianism
'Emperor has no Clothes:' Trump asked of Egypt's al-Sisi, 'Where's my Favorite Dictator?'

‘Emperor has no Clothes:’ Trump asked of Egypt’s al-Sisi, ‘Where’s my Favorite Dictator?’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump has long been accused of having a soft spot for dictators, but now he has admitted it, even if only in the form of a jest. Nancy Youssef, Vivian Salama, and Michael Bender at the Wall Street Journal report that at the recent G7 meeting where Trump saw a […]

Espionage
Israel caught by FBI electronically Spying on Trump, White House

Israel caught by FBI electronically Spying on Trump, White House

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Daniel Lipmann at Politico dropped the bombshell that mysterious electronic spying devices placed throughout Washington, D.C. and close to the White House and the Capitol were traced by the FBI to Israel. The Israelis deployed StingRay mobile identity-catchers, devices that are mistaken for cell towers by cell phones, allowing them […]

Featured
Netanyahu Openly Boasts About Stealing vast Swathes of Palestine, but US Pols Won't Acknowledge It

Netanyahu Openly Boasts About Stealing vast Swathes of Palestine, but US Pols Won’t Acknowledge It

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Beleaguered Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is under serious corruption charges and is not assured of winning the upcoming election. So he engaged in grandstanding, saying that if he was reelected he would usurp the the Jordan valley and other parts of Palestine where Israeli squatters had already been sent […]

Donald Trump
With Bolton gone, will Trump meet Iran's Pres. Rouhani?

With Bolton gone, will Trump meet Iran’s Pres. Rouhani?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the wake of the firing of national security adviser and full-time warmonger John Bolton, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and treasury secretary Dan Mnuchin held a press conference on Tuesday. Both reaffirmed that Trump is open to meeting Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani “without preconditions.” They also, however, affirmed that […]

Authoritarianism
Trump's NOAA reduced to agency of Tinpot Dictator like al-Sisi's Egypt

Trump’s NOAA reduced to agency of Tinpot Dictator like al-Sisi’s Egypt

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last week Trump erroneously tweeted out that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, which could have set off a panic in Alabama that led to people leaving their homes unnecessarily, and to economic harm. The Birmingham National Weather Service contradicted the president. It now transpires that Wilbur Ross, […]

Afghanistan
Trump-Taliban Talks like those with N. Korea-- a Photo Op on the Deck of the Titanic

Trump-Taliban Talks like those with N. Korea– a Photo Op on the Deck of the Titanic

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Afghanistan government has been miffed and apprehensive for some time that the Trump administration has been talking to the Taliban in Qatar without any representation from Kabul. Government officials were therefore happy about Trump’s abrupt cancellation of what he depicted as a summit with the Taliban at Camp David […]

China
Israeli PM Netanyahu's Himalayan Miscalculation on Iran: Bringing China into the Mideast

Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Himalayan Miscalculation on Iran: Bringing China into the Mideast

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is one of the world players who pushed Trump to breach the 2015 treaty with Iran. Trump then slapped the severest economic sanctions on Iran ever imposed on any country in the absence of war. Trump went around the world menacing other countries into […]

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