Human Rights

Layal Abu Rahhal reported in Arabic from Beirut for al-Sharq al-Awsat [The Middle East] on the dilemmas of Syrian Christians and their Lebanese neighbors, Dec. 13, 2013. This is my paraphrase, influenced by the translation done by BBC Monitoring: Considering what the Christians of Syria are facing, Christians in Lebanon are raising alarums about the […]

Featured

Dozens Killed by Regime Barrel Bombs in Aleppo, half of them Children

Juan Cole

The Lebanese newspaper al-Nahar reports that the Syrian air force bombed Aleppo on Sunday with makeshift barrel bombs, killed at least 36 persons, including 15 children. They targeted neighborhoods controlled by rebels in the country’s largest city, in the north of the country. The Aleppo Information Center made up of activist citizen journalists said that […]

Human Rights

Indian Gays Shocked by Supreme Court Ruling upholding Colonial Sodomy Laws

csstester

(By Boris Dittrich) The day after International Human Rights Day, India’s Supreme Court published its ruling on whether the country’s sodomy law, which had been overturned by the Delhi High Court and then appealed, was unconstitutional. I’ve been a lawyer, a judge and a member of parliament in the Netherlands and each of those roles […]

censorship

Dear Pres. Obama: Dissent isn’t Possible in a Surveillance State

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole In his stirring eulogy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first president to be legitimately elected, by the entire South Africa people, President Barack Obama said, “There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing […]

Africa

After Mandela: Can Massacred South African Mine Workers get Justice?

Juan Cole

The summer, 2012, massacre of striking mine workers by South African police, which killed 44 persons and wounded at least 78, continues to wend its way through the South African system. The largest casualty toll was on August 16, 2012. The mine is owned by Lonmin and is located in Marikana. South Africa is seeing […]

Bush

Uygur: Bush Targetting of Juan Cole proves that NSA can’t be trusted with our Personal Data

Juan Cole

Cenk Uygur at Young Turks makes the point that the National Security Agency and other US intelligence (services who are ending up with massive amounts of electronic surveillance information on Americans –whether that is what they were mainly going for or not) keep saying we should trust them with the information. They maintain that they […]

Dissent

Egypt: Harsh Sentences Commuted but Case a Dangerous Message for Protesters

csstester

By Human Rights Watch Update: December 7, 2013 The Sidi Gaber Minor Offenses Court on December 7 commuted the sentences for the 21 female Brotherhood protestors. The 14 young women received a 1 year suspended sentence, while the 7 girls were ordered to be released subject to the three months of probation. (New York) – […]

Africa

The Mandela Problem of the AWM Wing of the GOP

Juan Cole

The US Republican Party has become the party of the angry white man (AWM) in the United States, which is a large part of the reason it has had trouble winning presidential elections. There are more female than male voters, and if you add white females to Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, gays and agnostics, you have […]

Domestic Surveillance

FBi Laptop Camera Snooping and Orwell’s 1984: Side by Side Comparison

Juan Cole

Jon Schwartz ( @tinyrevolution ) posted this to Twitter. It is a side by side comparison of a passage from “1984” to the news report from a former senior FBI official that the FBI can turn on the laptop cameras of individuals without activating the red light that shows the camera is operating. The Washington […]