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CAF Letter on the Finkelstein Case Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association, Letter on the Finkelstein Case: 10 April 2007 The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., Ed.D.President De Paul University1 E. JacksonChicago, Illinois 60604Fax: 312-362-7577 Dear Father Holtschneider: I write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and […]

Turkish/ Iraqi Kurdish Crisis over Barzani Comments All hell has broken loose rhetorically between the politicians in Turkey and those in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (IKRG), Massoud Barzani, for Barzani’s comments on April 6 in an interview with the al-Arabiya satellite television […]

Israel vs. Bush & the Neoconservatives on Syria? Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Damascus makes perfect sense as domestic US politics. The Democratic Party is developing its own foreign policy, different from that of Bush, which involves negotiating with Middle Eastern actors rather than just attempting to isolate them, call them evil, […]

Breaking News: British Sailors Freed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that the 15 British sailors and Marines captured by Iran on March 23 would be released. Iran had alleged that the UK seafarers had been in Iranian waters, which Britain denies. The decision to keep the British naval personnel for a couple of weeks […]

Cole in Salon: Iran’s New Hostage Crisis My column, “Iran’s new hostage crisis,” is out at Salon.com. Excerpt: ‘ The capture by Iranian Revolutionary Guards of 15 British sailors and marines on March 23 has set off a diplomatic crisis and mobilized the public in both Britain and Iran . . . Why would the […]

Iranian Television: Surge of Violence in Iraq The USG Open Source Center translates an Iranian program discussing the increase of political violence in Iraq. Iranian Al-Alam TV ‘Iraq Today’ Program on Surge of ViolenceAl-Alam TelevisionMonday, April 2, 2007 Tehran Al-Alam Television in Arabic at 1330 GMT on 1 April broadcast its “Iraq Today” program which […]

Hope is not A Plan Thomas Mowle’s edited book, Hope is not a Plan, is now available. Below is the amazon.com blurb. I have heard Mowle speak at a conference and his insights are invaluable. Book DescriptionFrom the outset, the war in Iraq was directed from Washington and executed by troops on the ground. Between […]

March 19, 2003: Bush’s Address on Iraq What struck me in looking again at Bush’s address to the American public late on March 19, 2003, is how obviously mendacious it was. That dishonest and propagandistic character is even more apparent with the passage of time. The accusation that Iraq was planning to attack anyone in […]

Renewed US Anti-War Protests Sunday; Gates: Surge is to Buy Time for Reconciliation; Al-Maliki Cabinet Shuffle Postponed Thousands of antiwar demonstrators came out again on Sunday. Some cities , such as San Francisco, Seattle, and Minneapolis, had especially vigorous protests. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates revealed on Sunday that the surge of US troops […]