Terrorism

This is the “gallery filibuster” — shouting by pro-choice advocates in the Senate halls after Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis’s filibuster was shut down– that so delayed the vote on a proposed law virtually banning abortion in Texas that it took place too late to be valid. Video of the ‘Gallery filibuster: After a marathon filibuster […]

al-Qaeda

The Syrian War comes to Lebanon as Sidon Explodes into Violence

Juan Cole

The Syrian civil war spilled over onto Lebanon dramatically on Sunday and again on Monday morning when violent clashes broke out between the Salafi militia of Sheikh Ahmad Asir in Sidon and the Lebanese army and Shiite Hizbullah fighters. The army maintains that the Salafis (hard line Sunni Muslims influenced by Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism) attacked […]

al-Qaeda

Why the 9/11 Argument for NSA Spying Fails: They Tracked, Lost their Suspect (Elliott)

Juan Cole

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica In defending the NSA’s sweeping collection of Americans’ phone call records, Obama administration officials have repeatedly pointed out how it could have helped thwart the 9/11 attacks: If only the surveillance program been in place before Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. authorities would have been able to identify one of the […]

Africa

Will Mali get back stolen Timbuktu Manuscripts?

Juan Cole

A trove of three boxes of rare manuscripts from Timbuktu has turned up near the Algerian border and seems likely to be returned to its original library. Timbuktu was a major intellectual center for the Muslim world during the past millennium, with its scholars producing loads of books on a whole range of subjects, from […]

al-Qaeda

NSA Leads come from others’ police work, not from data mining: the case of Headley (Rotella)

Juan Cole

Sebastian Rotella writes at ProPublica June 12: This story has been updated with NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander’s Senate testimony on surveillance. Defending a vast program to sweep up phone and Internet data under antiterror laws, senior U.S. officials in recent days have cited the case of David Coleman Headley, a key plotter in the […]

al-Qaeda

Gitmo comes Home to America: Torture, Gag Orders and Legal Dirty Tricks have Corrupted the System (Brittain)

Juan Cole

Victoria Brittain writes at Tomdispatch.com A four-month hunger strike, mass force-feedings, and widespread media coverage have at last brought Guantanamo, the notorious offshore prison set up by the Bush administration early in 2002, back into American consciousness. Prominent voices are finally calling on President Obama to close it down and send home scores of prisoners […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Fresh US covert Drone Strikes in Pakistan and Yemen (Serle and Woods)

Juan Cole

Excerpted from a report by Jack Serle and Chris Woods for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Pakistan The only drone strike reported to hit Pakistan in May killed Wali Ur Rehman, second-in-command of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP). It was the first US attack in Pakistan for 42 days and came less than a week after […]

al-Qaeda

Have we no Shame? Will Hunger Strikes and medical Torture finally close Guantanamo? (Hickman)

Juan Cole

John Hickman, author of Selling Guantanamo, writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Curious isn’t it how the decision-making of the United States Government is also imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay? In a seemingly escape-proof blame game President Obama insists that the U.S. Congress prevents him from closing the prison while Congressional Republicans insist either […]

Afghanistan

America’s Murder Inc. Abroad: Engelhardt on Scahill’s Latest

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 — and just about no one noticed. Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people.” In […]