Juan Cole

The WSJ headlines that Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano “has become “a target” for the GOP in the wake of the attempted Christmas day bombing of a Northwest Airliner. And I expect Ms. Napolitano, an extremely competent civil servant, to take a drubbing on the Sunday talk shows today. So let us look more closely […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an interview with the “Old Taliban’s” number 2 man, Mullah “Baradar” Abdul Ghani, on Taliban tactics against the US. Taleban deputy leader warns of more attacks in Afghanistan in 2010Afghan Islamic PressThursday, December 31, 2009 Document Type: OSC Translated Text Taleban deputy leader warns of more attacks in Afghanistan […]

DETNEWS | WebVideo | Detroit 2009, The Movie Tbe main hope I see for Detroit is that rising petroleum prices may hurt commuting and suburbs, and reverse the exodus from places like downtown, causing companies to relocate there and employees to seek condos. It is amazing how many relatively nice office and apartment buildings are […]

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Death toll climbs to 93 in Lakki Marwat blast Only a few days after Monday’s horrific bombing of a Shiite procession in Karachi, the Pakistani Taliban struck again, blowing up a truck bomb in the middle of a volleyball match at a Pashtun village bordering South Waziristan. The village is the […]

10. Saudi Arabia opened its first coeducational college campus, the King Abdullah Science and Technology University. In a country where the sexes have been so separated in public that some have spoken of ‘gender Apartheid,’ this move, which came from King Abdullah, provoked raging controversy. When a prominent cleric criticized having male and female students […]

New Year fireworks in Dubai End/ (Not Continued)

Eugene Robinson – Dick Cheney's lies about President Obama – washingtonpost.com Excellent demolition of Dick Cheney’s shameful attack on the president in the wake of the Detroit attempted attack. Cheney wanted to use the nonsensically phrased ‘war on terror’ as a wedge to destroy the Bill of Rights and permanently undermine the US constitution, and […]

Today’s dramatic events in Iran reminded me a little bit of the dueling demonstrations mounted by the Lebanese in spring of 2005, when pro-Syrian forces brought out nearly 1,000,000 protesters, only to be answered by crowds nearly as large mobilized by Hizbullah. In Iran on Wednesday, the regime bussed in tens of thousands of supporters, […]

I hear these on tv or from Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Peter King and Sen. Joe Lieberman. 1. President Obama did not speak publicly swiftly enough. In fact, Bush was silent for 9 days after the shoe bomber attack in 2001. 2. Bush would have tried Abdulmutallab as an enemy combatant. Well, he tried Richard […]