International Politics and Economy

By Sarah Lazare As the human rights crisis grows more acute in this besieged strip, the number of dead and injured children continues to rise As Israeli fighter jets, attack helicopters, and armed drones continue to pummel Gaza for a fourth day, children—who comprise half of the population of this besieged strip—face mounting wounds and […]

Bill of Rights

NSA Spying: Now It’s Personal

contributors

By Eva Galperin and Nadia Kayyali via EFF Imagine that you watched a police officer in your neighborhood stop ten completely ordinary people every day just to take a look inside their vehicle or backpack. Now imagine that nine of those people are never even accused of a crime. They just happened to be in […]

Dissent

Escaping Mosul and ISIS Assassination Campaigns

contributors

niqash | Special Correspondent | Mosul | Refugees from the Ninawa province, of whihc Mosul is the capital, queue to get into Iraqi Kurdistan. One local journalist explains why streets in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul are so quiet, what’s worrying his family and friends there the most and how he himself managed to […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Army: We have been instructed to Hit Hamas Hard

contributors

By Robert Naiman The government of Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a new war on Palestinians in Gaza, a war whose purported justifications make George W. Bush's excuses for his illegal invasion of Iraq smell nice by comparison. So far, the United States, Netanyahu's chief enabler, has been unwilling to stop the carnage, as it could […]

Afghanistan

Will Afghanistan Break up Too? Abdullah Threatens Rival Gov’t As Kerry Raises “Concern”

contributors

By Charles Recknagel As disappointed Abdullah Abdullah supporters label Afghanistan's early election results a "coup d'etat," there is every reason to take seriously their threats to form a parallel government rather than accept one led by rival candidate Ashraf Ghani. This is because Abdullah is part of a powerful network that has both the political […]

Featured

Stop Saying ‘If X fired Rockets at U.S.’: It’s Racist, & assumes we’re Colonial

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Is anyone else disgusted by the propaganda trick of trying to get Americans to sympathize with Israel’s massive attack on the civilian habitations of Gaza by saying “if the US was subjected to rocket fire by X [usually Mexicans], what would it do?” This hope that Americans are racists and that their […]

Featured

ABC News’ Diane Sawyer Mistakes Stricken Palestinians for Israelis

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole In the current round of fighting between mighty Israel and the little Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes have killed 53 Palestinians. The supposedly deadly little rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have killed or injured no Israelis, though they have done some property damage. In fact, those rockets have no guidance systems and […]

Democracy

Exiled Governor of Mosul: We Need Local Troops to Take it Back

contributors

niqash | Special Correspondent | Erbil | Prominent Sunni Muslim politician, Atheel al-Nujaifi, who is also the governor of Ninawa province in-exile, talks about why he fled the city when Sunni Muslim extremists attacked. He also explains why the solution for the current Iraqi crisis must come from within the Sunni Muslim population, and why […]

Democracy

90% of NSA Data from non-Targets, 1/2 accounts had info on US Citizens

contributors

By Jon Queally Washington Post reveals unprecedented look at how 'voyeuristic' spy agency manages private communications it collects New reporting by the Washington Post based on materials leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals an unprecedented view of how the private information of millions of "ordinary people" are caught up in the spy agency's massive […]