Terrorism

The headlines this week were full of stories from the Muslim world about Muslims attacking the Muslim religious Right, whether the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the Jama’at-i Islami in Bangladesh. The rise of the religious Right in politics is producing a backlash throughout the region. Part of the backlash comes from secularists of Muslim […]

al-Qaeda

How the British Gov’t Stripped Alleged Militants of Citizenship before they were Droned to Death (Woods & Ross)

Juan Cole

Chris Woods and Alice K Ross write at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism The government has secretly ramped up a controversial programme that strips people of their British citizenship on national security grounds – two of whom have been subsequently killed by US drone attacks. An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and published […]

al-Qaeda

Why there Were no CIA Torture Black Sites in Latin America (Grandin)

Juan Cole

Greg Grandin writes at Tomdispatch.com: The map tells the story. To illustrate a damning new report, “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detentions and Extraordinary Rendition,” recently published by the Open Society Institute, the Washington Post put together an equally damning graphic: it’s soaked in red, as if with blood, showing that in the years after 9/11, […]

Afghanistan

Naming the Dead Killed by US Drones: (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Juan Cole

The Drones Team at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism writes: The Bureau is launching an ambitious new investigation, which will seek to identify as many as possible of those killed in US covert drone strikes in Pakistan, whether civilian or militant. The Bureau is raising some of the money for this project through a crowd-funding […]

al-Qaeda

Top Five Objections to the White House’s Drone Killing Memo

Juan Cole

NBC’s Michael Isikoff has revealed the text of a white paper composed for Congress by the Department of Justice that sheds light on the legal arguments made by Eric Holder in justifying the killing by drone strike of Americans abroad, who are suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda. That the memo did not even require that […]

al-Qaeda

Paranoia Strikes Deep: A Cowering America still Haunted by Bin Laden’s Ghost (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com Consider Inauguration Day, more than two weeks gone and already part of our distant past. In its wake, President Obama was hailed (or reviled) for his “liberal” second inaugural address. On that day everything from his invocation of women’s rights (“Seneca Falls”), the civil rights movement (“Selma”), and the gay rights movement (“Stonewall”) to […]

Pakistan

Malala Yousafzai nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, Starts Foundation for Girls’ Education

Juan Cole

Malala Yousafzai has released two videos in the past few days, one before her surgery to put a plate in her skull, and after she came out of the successful operation. She announced that she has created a foundation to promote the education of girls. She also spoke of her ordeal and said that she […]

Africa

US Covert Drone War in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia – Jan. Update (Woods et al.)

Juan Cole

Chris Woods, Jack Serle and Alice K Ross write at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism Yemen was hit by the highest number of airstrikes in one month since June 2012, though none have been formally confirmed as US operations. No US operations were reported in Somalia. The United Nations also launched a major investigation into […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Algerian Military Retakes Gas Plant: 16 Hostages, 32 terrorists Dead

Juan Cole

The Algerian military took back the Ayn Imnas gas plant on Saturday, invading it and killing 32 radical fundamentalists, including their leader, Abdul Rahmani al-Nijeri, from Niger. Some of the 16 Western hostages who were killed may have been executed by the radicals as the Algerian troops closed in. Algiers announced that 107 foreign hostages […]