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Lebanon Crisis Veteran reporter Nicholas Blanford explains what is happening in Lebanon. 1. Fath al-Islam is a splinter guerrilla group established last December that has links to the international Salafi Jihadi movement (which some call “al-Qaeda” as shorthand). Its leader has ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It is tiny, with at most 300 fighters, and […]

Haleh Watch Don’t forget imprisoned scholar Haleh Esfandiari, in Iran. The link is to an article just out in the Chronicle of Higher Education. See also Andrew Sullivan. Amnesty International has a convenient form for sending protest emails to the Iranian government.

Wright: Boycott Threat Puts Pressure on Iran Robin Wright at the Washington Post has a piece online today on the growing pressure among US academics to boycott conferences and intellectual contact with Iran as long as Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is detained by Tehran. Wright quotes a statement from Noam Chomsky on Haleh’s imprisonment: ‘ “Now […]

Al-Hakim in US for Cancer Treatment Sistani Aide: US not Serious on Terror Militia Rule in Basra Robin Wright reports that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), is in the US for treatment for lung cancer. Apparently arranging for al-Hakim to see US military physicians was part of what […]

Haleh in Prison I copied here last Saturday our MESA letter of protest about the Iranian government’s imprisonment of Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari [also spelled Esfandiary]. Everyone should be outraged about this story. Her arrest should be an issue for everyone who believes in human rights, in academic freedom, and in women’s rights. I know […]

Annual Blogads Survey Many thanks to readers willing to take the blogads survey. I’m told it isn’t time-consuming. Although I would be blogging anyway, I think there is a lot of important web content that is supported this way. Henry Copeland has been a pioneer in setting up his software so that bloggers get a […]

Chatham House Study on Iraq Fragmentation Gareth Stansfield of Exeter University has written a position paper for Chatham House in the UK, spelling out how dire the situation is in Iraq and making some suggestions. He slams Frederick Kagan’s sunny optimism about the effect of the “surge.” This is the press release. The piece is […]

Ding, Dong, the Witz has Fled The reaction among World Bank employees at the news that Paul Wolfowitz, their president, will resign on June 30: ‘ “Everyone ran into the hallways and were clapping and hugging each other,” one employee, who declined to be named, said. ‘ Bush earlier today complained about journalists dancing on […]

Bush Admits to Destroying Blair’s Career I just caught some of the Bush/Blair news conference on the adult version of CNN at noon. At one point, a reporter asked Bush point blank if he was the cause of Tony Blair having to step down as prime minister. Now, when you get a question like that […]