Human Rights

(By Juan Cole) President Abdullah Gul has rejected a suggestion by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey might ban Facebook and Twitter. Nearly half of Turkey’s 77 million people use Facebook at least once a month and the country ranks 15th in the world for Facebook use. Turkey had banned Youtube 2008-2010. The good news […]

Barack Obama

Least Transparent Administration Ever: A New Front in Obama’s War on Whistleblowers

contributors

(By Peter Van Buren) The Obama administration has just opened a new front in its ongoing war on whistleblowers. It’s taking its case against one man, former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Air Marshal Robert MacLean, all the way to the Supreme Court. So hold on, because we’re going back down the rabbit hole with the Most […]

Human Rights

AI Calls for Int’l Sanctions on Israel over Systematic Violence against Civilians

contributors

(By Sarah Lazare) Israeli forces are killing Palestinian civilians in the West Bank — including children — with "callous disregard for human life," enjoying near impunity for likely war crimes, and should be immediately cut off from arms shipments by the international community, declares a damning report released by Amnesty International on Thursday. "This is a […]

Dissent

Paranoia strikes Deep: Russian Media Propaganda Feeds Ukraine Crisis

contributors

(By Dan Peleschuk) Russian TV beats war drum on home front (via GlobalPost) MOSCOW, Russia — Ukraine’s new authorities are an ultranationalist, neo-fascist gang who’ve seized power with covert Western support and are bent on marauding Russian-speaking southeastern Ukraine and forcing its peaceful citizens into submission… ——– Related video: Euronews: “Sergei Lavrov defends Russia’s […]

Barack Obama

Don’t Let the Global 1% off the Hook: Obama should Press Saudi State on Human Rights when he Visits Riyadh

contributors

(By Sarah Leah Whitson) President Barack Obama The White House Dear President Obama, As you prepare for your upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, we write to urge you to include critical human rights issues in all your discussions with Saudi officials. While the purpose of your visit may be to discuss “ongoing cooperation to […]

Human Rights

Expelled from their homes by Israel, Palestinian Refugees in Syria’s Yarmouk Camp now Starving in midst of War

Juan Cole

Israeli negotiators repeatedly refuse to consider a right of return for Palestinians Israelis expelled from Palestine to refugee camps in the region. But refugees are without rights and open to serial catastrophes, as stateless non-citizens unwanted locally. When a civil war breaks out around the refugee camps, they can end up being besieged and starved, […]

Dissent

Peeping Toms of the Intel World: Recording Bulk Private Yahoo Webcam Chats

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) In the same way that pedophiles are attracted to professions where they come into frequent contact with children, peeping Toms surely are attracted into electronic surveillance work. That seems to me the only explanation for the US National Security Agency and British intelligence’s Optic Nerve program, just revealed by The Guardian from […]

Human Rights

This Apartheid Week, Read the Report Israel Doesn’t Want you To See

contributors

(By Ben White) This week has seen the promotion of yet more anti-democratic legislation in Israel. A new law that received final approval by the Knesset gives, for the first time, separate representation to Muslim and Christian Palestinian citizens on a national employment commission. The bill’s sponsor, Likud MK Yariv Levin, was clear about his […]

Featured

Who Favors Discrimination against Gay Newlyweds? Most Republicans, old People, Southerners, Evangelicals

Juan Cole

A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute sheds light on the divisions in the US over gay marriage. Over all, acceptance of gay marriage is on an upward trajectory, with a majority of Americans now supporting it compared to only about a third in 2002. What is interesting is who has not joined […]