Arab World

After the death of hundreds of people since the eruption of Iraq’s revolution in October, there is no return to the old system.

Featured

That’s not Good. Popular ToTok App is Emirates Spyware

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – ( Lily Hay Newman at Wired explores the implications of the revelation that the ToTok app is actually spyware for the United Arab Emirates. The app is fiendishly clever in the sense that there is nothing virus-like about it. It is just a communications application that wants to know who […]

Houthi

World’s Worst War: Can South Yemen’s Warring Factions Make Peace amid Saudi-Emirates Rivalry?

Middle East Monitor

By Stasa Salacanin | – At the beginning of November, warring parties from Yemen’s south reached a power-sharing deal which aimed not only to defuse tensions among Arab alliances in South Yemen but was also seen to as a step closer towards ending the war in the country. The tensions between the Saudi-backed Hadi government […]

Government surveillance

How the Emirates Weaponized ex-NSA Spying Expertise against Democracy Activists

Middle East Monitor

US officials and former NSA employees build UAE secret surveillance unit

Iraq

No to Sexism and Ageism! Iraqi Youth Protesters are Changing the Culture

Mustafa Habib

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | – ( Niqash.org ) – Iraq’s ongoing anti-government protests are turning out to be about more than just political demands. They’re also changing the country’s culture around sexism, ageism and other long-held prejudices. Despite a lack of coordination between all the different groups of Iraqi protesters taking part in anti-government […]

Featured

Was Pensacola Shooter part of a terrorist Cell inside Saudi Officer Corps?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The information now emerging from AP and other sources about Saudi Air Force pilot 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamran is extremely disturbing inasmuch as it point to the possible existence of al-Qaeda cells inside the Saudi military. Eric Schmitt, Frances Robles and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs at the NYT reported that Alshamran […]

Iraq

The Iraqi Street Revolution of 2019 is still Challenging the American-Installed Order

Mustafa Habib

Mustafa Habib | – (Niqash.org) – Neither of the two opposing groups seem to want to give any quarter and despite impactful events and legislative manoeuvres, nobody is any closer to common ground. 6.12.2019 | Baghdad Politics A man in Baghdad’s informal “museum of martyrs”, a memorial to the young demonstrators who have been killed. […]

Human Rights

Saudi Arabia’s Strategy to ‘Sportswash’ Abuses

Human Rights Watch

By Minky Worden | Director of Global Initiatives | – (

Featured

At NATO, Trump irrelevant as France’s Macron Confronts Turkey on Invasion of Syrian Kurds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 70th anniversary of NATO was commemorated with a low-key meeting rather than a summit and was not the united show of success hoped for by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, reports Al Jazeera. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made waves. And a CBC camera crew caught some NATO leaders, including Canada’s Justin […]