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Juan Cole

Afghanistan
Report: Highest US Officials Responsible for Use of Torture (Plus Daily Show Video)

Report: Highest US Officials Responsible for Use of Torture (Plus Daily Show Video)

Juan Cole

The political reality of the United States in the world is that of blowback. Blowback is a term of art in the intelligence community for what happens when a covert operation goes bad and comes back to bite you on the ass. The US spent the 1980s encouraging Muslim radicals to engage in ‘freedom fighting’ […]

Egypt
The New Muslim World: Dictators on Trial

The New Muslim World: Dictators on Trial

Juan Cole

The Muslim world has now witnessed several instances of a former dictator being exiled under threat of prosecution or actually being forced to appear in court to face charges arising from illegal actions performed while dictator. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia has fled to Jedda, in Saudi Arabia. Sayf al-Din Gaddafi is awaiting […]

Environment
Small Government: Texas Fertilizer Plant that blew up not inspected for years

Small Government: Texas Fertilizer Plant that blew up not inspected for years

Juan Cole

The Texas fertilizer plant that suffered a massive explosion had not been subject to an OSHA inspection for many years. The current American obsession with deregulation and ending inspections has claimed yet more victims, as The Nation shows. And Texas has also cut funding for first responders like firemen. Democracy Now! reports :

Islamophobia
CNN Fail:  Imaginary “Dark Males,” “Accents,” and “Arrests” Haunt Reporters

CNN Fail: Imaginary “Dark Males,” “Accents,” and “Arrests” Haunt Reporters

Juan Cole

Between about 1:00 pm and 2:40 pm ET on Wednesday, April 17, the CNN news team was at the worst I’ve ever seen them. The afternoon began well, with the exciting revelation that the FBI now had recovered video of a suspect from a security camera at Lord & Taylor Department Store. But things went […]

Islam
Top Ten Ways Islamic Law forbids Terrorism

Top Ten Ways Islamic Law forbids Terrorism

Juan Cole

Erik Rush and others who hastened to scapegoat Muslims for the Boston Marathon bombing are ignorant of the religion. I can’t understand why people who have never so much as read a book about a subject appoint themselves experts on it. (Try this book, e.g.). We don’t yet know who carried out the attack, but […]

Iraq
Can the Boston Bombings increase our Sympathy for Iraq and Syria, for all such Victims?

Can the Boston Bombings increase our Sympathy for Iraq and Syria, for all such Victims?

Juan Cole

The horrific bombings of the Boston Marathon produced inspiring images of a spirited, brave Boston refusing to be cowed. Some spectators surged forward toward the danger to apply tourniquets, offer first aid, share blankets, and later to give blood, for the victims. President Obama followed the crisis from its first moments and came out promptly […]

Iran
How Washington Dropped the Ball on N Korean Nukes while Obsessing about Iran (McShane)

How Washington Dropped the Ball on N Korean Nukes while Obsessing about Iran (McShane)

Juan Cole

Michael McShane writes in a guest column for Informed Comment In a recent article published in the Wall Street Journal, Jay Solomon highlighted the disproportionate attention President Obama has paid to Iran’s nuclear program since coming to office compared to the diplomatic engagement the United States has pursued vis-à-vis North Korea’s own steadily growing nuclear […]

Israel
Israel at 65: Welcome to the Neighborhood (Map)

Israel at 65: Welcome to the Neighborhood (Map)

Juan Cole

Satire Israel (in red) is welcomed into the Muslim Middle East in 2013 Zionism: The theory that because murderous Nazis hated Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, all Jews should now crowd into a narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean and 400 million angry Muslims.

Uncategorized
Gun “Control” “Legislation,” Parodied by Saturday Night Live

Gun “Control” “Legislation,” Parodied by Saturday Night Live

Juan Cole

Saturday Night Live satirizes the minimalism of the gun registration bill proposed by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)

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