Dissent

By Juan Cole President Obama admitted on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday that the US had underestimated the military potential of ISIL. Obama understands that a generational struggle is going on in the Middle East, but some of his comments in the interview seemed to me to show insufficient appreciation for the true nature of […]

Arab Spring

Syria: If Violent Extremists are the Problem, why is al-Assad Jailing Peaceful Democracy Advocates?

contributors

By Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch In a speech before the European Parliament in 2009, Syrian activist Mazen Darwish warned that unless civil society was strengthened “[the whole] region, not only Syria … could explode at any moment and leave behind thousands of refugees.” A dire warning at the time, Darwish’s prophetic words fail to […]

Democracy

‘You killed a million people in Iraq’ George Galloway tells Blair Cabinet Member

contributors

BBC “George Galloway told a former member of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s cabinets she killed one million people in Iraq. The former Labour MP, now a Respect MP, turned on Jacqui Smith as they looked ahead to Friday’s vote in Parliament on possible UK military action in the Middle East.” Ed. note: It isn’t […]

Banking

Climate Protesters Flood Wall Street – And A Polar Bear Is Arrested

Juan Cole

AJ+ “Hundreds of people attended the #FloodWallStreet demonstration to protest the role big business plays in fueling climate change. The protest was largely peaceful, but police arrested a number of people by the end of the night, including a polar bear.” AJ+ : “Protesters Flood Wall Street – And A Polar Bear Is Arrested”

Climate Change

Climate Marchers join Alarmed Scientists against “Drill-Baby-Drill” Corporations & Politicians

contributors

AJ+ interviews Naomi Klein “As people gather in New York City for what organizers are billing as the largest climate-change protest in history, AJ+ asks Naomi Klein about her new book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate. She tells us why the planet is doomed if we don’t change course. And why it’s up […]

Barack Obama

‘We’re on edge of large war in MidEast’ – Daniel Ellsberg

contributors

RT: “With Washington wading into another war in the Middle East, one iconic US whistleblower says Americans are being kept in the dark about the risks of the latest intervention. And he called for more people to spill the beans, as RT’s Ameera David reports.” ‘We’re on edge of large war in MidEast’ – Daniel […]

censorship

Is Israel’s Far-Right Government Inciting against the Israeli Left?

contributors

Middle East Eye Leftist Israeli activists staged weekly protests during the war in Gaza and they were confronted by rightwing protesters that shouted racial slurs and physical attacks. Middle East Eye: Israel’s Zionist Left: A Chronicle of Ambivalence

Climate Change

HIstoric Mass March against Global Warming: Saving the Planet Next Sunday in NYC

contributors

By Eddie Bautista, La Tonya Crisp-Sauray, and Bill McKibben On Sunday, September 21st, a huge crowd will march through the middle of Manhattan. It will almost certainly be the largest rally about climate change in human history, and one of the largest political protests in many years in New York. More than 1,000 groups are […]