Human Rights

Iran: 1988 Mass Executions Evident Crimes Against Humanity: Senior Officials Implicated Should Be Investigated, Fairly Prosecuted (HRW)

Human Rights Watch — (Beirut) – Overwhelming evidence shows that the Iranian authorities’ mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 amounts to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in an in-depth question-and-answer document released today. In 1988, Iranian authorities, acting on the orders of then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, summarily and extrajudicially […]

Guns

What Can Be Said After So Much Grief, so Many Guns?

Hugh J. Curran

Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – What more can be said with so much grief, after the spate of recent gun violence around the country? Can anything be added that has not already been said. The same questions have been haunting the country over the past two decades. Why do mass shootings appear to […]

Iran

‘New Phase Of Assassinations’: Mysterious Death Of Iranian Aerospace Engineer Fuels Speculation

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/RL ) – When Iranian aerospace engineer Ayoob Entezari died on May 31, authorities handed his family a letter of appreciation in which they referred to him as a “martyr,” suggesting that he had been killed. Soon after, authorities in the central city of Yazd backtracked, saying the wording in the letter was a […]

Human Rights

Absolute Monarchy United Arab Emirates: Sweeping Legal ’Reforms’ Actually Deepen Some forms of Repression

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Wide-ranging legal changes introduced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late 2021 fail to address the longstanding and systematic restrictions on citizens’ and residents’ civil and political rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The new laws maintain previous provisions and include new ones that pose grave threats to […]

Authoritarianism

Biden Reverses himself on Saudi “Pariah,” needing Riyadh’s Oil to Punish Putin for Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden ran on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” given that the CIA accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of authorizing the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul Saudi consulate. Biden and a bipartisan majority in the US Congress were also upset about […]

War

Destroying the Town Is Not Saving It: Two Unsung Heroes as Role Models for the Air Force

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Twenty years ago, I left the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for my next assignment. I haven’t been back since, but today I travel there (if only in my imagination) to give my graduation address to the class of 2022. So, won’t you take a few minutes and join me, […]

National Security State

Supreme Court Expands Government Secrecy Powers in Torture-Related Case

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Robert Pallitto | – (Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The U.S. government doesn’t want to acknowledge a Polish torture site that everyone knows about. By Robert Pallitto | May 31, 2022 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently on the government’s use of the state secrets doctrine in an opinion that will make it […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: Arrests Amid Economic Protests: Attempt to Suppress Growing Social Movements

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have arrested several prominent activists on baseless accusations amid labor union strikes and ongoing protests against rising prices, since May 6, 2022, in dozens of small towns, Human Rights Watch said today. Those arrested include a prominent sociologist and four labor rights defenders. News outlets close to […]

Bush

George W. Bush denounces “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, Ukraine”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michael Williams at the Dallas Morning News reports on George W. Bush’s speech at his presidential center at Southern Methodist University, during which the former president made what MSNBC’s Mehdi Hassan called “one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time.” Bush denounced the rigged elections that produced the dictatorship […]