DAVID SCHANZER writes at ISLAMiCOMMENTARY When you cut through the bluster and controversies surrounding the Bradley Manning/Wikileaks case, it raises a difficult unresolved question that has great significance for our democracy: How can the government be held accountable for its national security policies (and mistakes) in a world where there are far too many secrets, […]
Syrian Regime running out of Troops as Britain Threatens to arm Rebels
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday that he would veto the renewal of a European Union ban on weapons exports to Syria, and hinted that Britain might go it alone in supplying rebels with arms. The Syrian opposition wants the ban lifted, arguing that the rebels would benefit more than the regime (which is […]
Pakistan, Iran defy US Sanctions to Inaugurate Gas Pipeline
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistani president Asaf Ali Zardari on Monday inaugurated a gas pipeline that will supply Pakistani cities with Iranian natural gas. The pipeline has been largely completed on the Iranian side, but Pakistan had problems getting the international financing to complete its leg, which will cost $1.5 billion. Iran is loaning […]
Uh, Segregated Buses aren’t the Issue on the West Bank, Folks
Russia Today reports on the controversy over Israel’s segregated bus lines for Palestinians coming in and out of the West Bank. UAE’s The National has more. It is a little odd that the segregated buses should have caused an uproar whereas the Israeli illegal de facto annexation of the Palestinian West Bank and settling it […]
Saudis gone Wild
Saudi revelers put the “fire” in “celebratory fire”:
Japan on the Anniversary of Fukushima: Anger, Protests and Hope
On the two-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, 40,000 people rallied in downtown Tokyo against the current conservative government’s plans to start back up Japan’s nuclear reactors. Asahi Shimbun reports that it may take 40 years to decommission the four reactors there. Some 60 percent of Fukushima residents have no hope of returning home for […]
Karzai accuses Taliban of Serving US Interests, Slams (Non-Existent) US-Taliban Talks
Once again, the erratic president of Afghanistan, had US officials shaking their heads in disbelief after he gave a speech while Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is in Kabul in which he blamed the interactions of the US and the Taliban for his country’s security problems. Karzai was visibly angry about the Taliban bombing at […]
Pakistan: Violence against Christian Neighborhood rooted in Blasphemy Law, Union Contest
On Sunday, Pakistani police rounded up 70 suspects in the mass arson attacks on Saturday on the Christian neighborhood of Joseph Colony on Noor Road in the Badami Bagh district. The incident has its origin in a misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which desperately needs to be repealed if the country is ever to make […]
Cairo Burning: The Great Soccer Riots of 2013 and the Revolution
Some two thousand angry youth in Port Said attempted to block ferries and sent speedboats into the canal zone, aiming at disrupting shipping in the Suez Canal on Saturday (they failed), while in Cairo soccer ruffians angry about a court verdict set fire to the HQ of the Egyptian Soccer Federation and to a nearby […]
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