Europe

The Egyptian military’s obvious determination to crush the Muslim Brotherhood involves serious human rights violations, apparent in the appalling scenes of the siege of members in a mosque on Saturday. A separate question, which any political pragmatist would ask, is, can it work? If we look at long term attempts to limit political expressions of […]

Russia

And another thing! Russia denies Visas to US Officials involved in Torture, including Yoo, Addington

Juan Cole

The food fight between the United States and the Russian Federation has revolved around relatively minor issues in the two countries’ relationship like whether Obama will have a summit with Putin in September (no), whether Russia would grant Edward Snowden asylum (yes), whether Americans can adopt Russian babies (no), whether the US would sanction Russian […]

Domestic Surveillance

Putin as America’s Frenemy: The Snowden Paradox

Juan Cole

Russia’s decision on Thursday to grant NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum for one year and allow him freely to live and work in the Russian Federation hit Washington like a hydrogen bomb. Angry politicians called on President Obama to cancel talks in Moscow with Putin scheduled in September. Russia Today covered the decision rather breathlessly: […]

Domestic Surveillance

Thousands of Germans Protest Obama/ Merkel STASI-like Spying on Them

Juan Cole

A few thousand people came out to demonstrate in 40 cities Germany on Saturday against US National Security Agency spying and German government complicity with it. They hailed from the Green Party, the Pirate Party, and organizations like “Stop Watching Us!” The biggest demo was in Frankfurt, the financial capital. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (center-right) […]

European Union

European Union Boycotts Israeli Colonies on the Palestinian West Bank

Juan Cole

The Israeli government’s de facto annexation and colonization of the Palestinian West Bank is illegal in international law. United Nations members cannot acquire territory by warfare according to the UN Charter (it doesn’t matter from whom they acquire the territory). The UN Charter was written by people who disapproved of the behavior of the aggressors […]

Energy

Pussy Riot Protests Russian Oil Oligarchs and Putin

Juan Cole

The Russian Punk Rock band “Pussy Riot” has released a new video, Rolling Stone reports, entitled “Like a Red Prison,” in which they attack Russia’s oil magnates and their ties to President Vladimir Putin. The song likens Putin to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because of his favoritism toward the Russian Orthodox Church, and complains that […]

Domestic Surveillance

UK’s Channel 4 Schools US Media on How to cover NSA, Snowden

Juan Cole

This report by Channel 4 News in the UK, covering Edward Snowden’s application for asylum in the Russian Federation and his revelations of collaboration between Microsoft and the National Security Agency struck me as everything that US “news” coverage is not. The reporters don’t just parrot the Washington line. They point out that the transit […]

Government surveillance

Snowden Fall-out: European Denial of Overflight to Bolivian President Angers South America

Juan Cole

As Bolivian President Evo Morales was returning from Moscow in a private jet after consultations on energy, his pilot was suddenly informed that France and Portugal had revoked overflight permissions, along with Spain and Italy. Spain ultimately relented, and Morales’s plane refueled there, before heading to Vienna to overnight. The Bolivian government is furious at […]

Russia

Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Unmanned Russian rocket crashes (spectacular video)

Juan Cole

At the Baikonur Space Station in Kazakhstan, an unmanned Russian Proton M rocket booster went sideways and crashed this morning. Here’s the video from Russian t.v.: