After the announcement of the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C. (a case that, on the basis of what has been released so far, sounds as phony as a three dollar bill), President Obama pledged to tighten international sanctions further on Iran. There is no doubt that US and international […]
This is the Way the Iraq War Ends, with Bangs and Whimpers
The Associated Press is reporting that its sources in the Obama administration are admitting that all US troops will have to leave Iraq by 31 December, in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) negotiated between George W. Bush and the Iraqi parliament. The US embassy in Baghdad announced the US Air Force has […]
Did Columbus Cause Climate Change?
This story is irresistible for a world historian interested in climate change. Richard Nevle, a geochemist at Stanford, argues that the European advent in the New World, which killed 90% of the 80 million native Americans, caused the Little Ice Age. The native peoples of the New World burned a lot of wood. When they […]
Facebook Shanghaiing
There are lots of problematic things about the way Facebook is run, and many more serious than the one I’m going to complain about. For instance, Facebook is apparently letting your applications track your browser activity even after you sign off the site. It is being sued for essentially wiretapping its customers in this way. […]
Somalia Drought Victims
Somalia has been suffering from drought for two years, but now the situation is becoming a crisis. Even the recent arrival of rains is problematic because of flash floods. The corporate media in the US has given the problem relatively little coverage. Aljazeera English reports: Oxfam has more
Mayor Bloomberg and Occupy Wall Street by the Numbers
Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zucotti Park where the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been gathered for weeks, is insisting on “cleaning” its property on Friday. Although New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that the protesters would be allowed to return thereafter, New York City police chief Raymond Kelly has warned that they would […]
Wagging the Dog with Iran’s Maxwell Smart
I personally do not understand how the corporate media in the US can report the following things about Manssor Arbabsiar and then go on to repeat with a straight face the US government charges that he was part of a high-level Iranian government assassination plot. It seems pretty obvious that Arbabsiar is very possibly clinically […]
Is an Iranian Drug Cartel Behind the Assassination Plot against the Saudi Ambassador?
As many observers have pointed out, the story given us by Attorney General Eric Holder about the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., makes no sense. Veteran CIA operative Bob Baer, now retired, notes that Iranian intelligence is highly professional and works independently or through trusted proxies, and this sloppy […]
Why did the Egyptian Military Attack the Copts?
Monday saw clashes yet again between Coptic Christians and Egyptian police, when a crowd of mourners gathered outside a hospital where the bodies of some of the over 30 protesters killed Sunday night are being kept because relatives haven’t yet given permission for them to be sent for autopsies. The protesters threw stones at police. […]