War Crimes

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US Founding Fathers had a cynical side. They did not think people in government could be trusted to do the right thing. They thought people often do what they can get away with. The point of James Madison’s checks and balances was not just to guard against tyranny but […]

Authoritarianism

Brazilian Senate Panel urges Pres. Bolsonaro be Charged with Crimes against Humanity for killing 150K by worsening Pandemic

The Conversation

By Matt Williams | – A Brazilian congressional panel has recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro be charged with “crimes against humanity” over his alleged bungling of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The near-1,200 page report, formally presented on Oct. 20, 2021, holds Bolsonaro culpable for worsening a crisis that has to date killed […]

Corporate Surveillance

Haugen: Facebook has become the Terminator

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Frances Haugen’s whistleblower testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security highlighted Facebook’s interactions with children, but the testimony was a devastating indictment of the pernicious effects of the company’s algorithms on human societies across the planet. Haugen is […]

Bush

The Accumulated Evil of the Whole: That time Bush and Co. made the September 11 Attacks a Pretext for War on Iraq

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kyle Swenson at the Washington Post reported in 2018 that Floridian Ishnar Lopez-Ramos was in love, but her intended only had eyes for another woman. So Ms. Lopez-Ramos enlisted two 22-year-old accomplices to target the other woman, who worked at the Ross Dress for Less at a shopping Center near […]

Apartheid

Stop comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa; it is worse

Thembisa Fakude

( Middle East Monitor ) – It is common these days to compare the institutional racism in Israel, and its occupation of Palestine, to Apartheid South Africa. Up to a point, it’s a reasonable comparison. Up to a point. For all its horrors and brutality, the apartheid regime in South Africa never used fighter jets […]

Featured

“Making the enemy blind”: Did Israeli AF destroy Highrise housing AP and Al-Jazeera to Hide War Crimes?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Associated Press is flatly denying the Israeli military’s cover story for why it bombarded the al-Jala tower in Gaza, which housed media offices of AP and al-Jazeera, and where dozens of journalists were based. Israel maintains that there was a Hamas intelligence unit in the building that was targeting […]

Arab Americans

Yemeni people are being starved — so this Detroit organizer went on hunger strike in solidarity

Waging Nonviolence

By Loretta Graceffo | – ( Waging Nonviolence) – During the early days of the war, when Iman Saleh called her family in Yemen, they would lie to reassure her they were safe. “They would always say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s happening far from us,’” Saleh said. “It felt like I was becoming a burden to […]

Apartheid

From Myanmar to Israel, what are the Offenses of ‘Apartheid’ and ‘Crimes Against Humanity?’ and How can we Make sure they are Prosecuted?

Human Rights Watch

By Clive Baldwin | Senior Legal Adviser | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The use of the word ‘apartheid’ in its legal meaning can sometimes, but not always, generate considerable power and attention. The related crime against humanity of persecution never seems to attract the same interest. Our finding in 2020 that the Myanmar […]

Human Rights

The Saudi Lobby is Coming for You, Small Town America

Juan Cole

By Ben Freeman, Brian Steiner and Leila Riazi | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., was on the hot seat. In early March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world, oil prices collapsed and a price war broke out between Saudi Arabia and Russia, leaving […]