US politics

TeleSur | – – More drone and airstrikes have rained on Yemen in the past week than in any year of Barack Obama’s administration, with dozens of U.S. coalition airstrikes hitting schools, hospitals, markets and private homes. The strikes have reportedly targeted Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, yet also killed civilians, including at […]

Donald Trump

Do Syria’s Kurds hold the Key to the future of the Middle East?

contributors

By Clemens Hoffmann and Can Cemgil | (The Conversation) | – – The Trump administration’s plans for the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) are at last becoming clear. And it seems his still-young government has chosen which ally to put first: the Syrian Kurds. On February 24, the US’s top commander in the […]

Arab Americans

Middle East Studies Assn., joins Md. Suit to block Trump Muslim Ban

contributors

Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2017 Groups Challenge Revised Muslim Ban BALTIMORE —- Civil rights and refugee groups today asked a federal court in Maryland to block the Trump administration’s revised executive order, arguing that it would cause irreparable harm for their plaintiffs. The order, which still maintains the suspension of refugee resettlement […]

Dissent

To Counter Normalization, deflect Elite tactics to dampen Outrage

contributors

By Brian Martin | ( Waging Nonviolence ) | – – The Trump administration’s policies have already triggered public outrage and massive opposition. To understand the techniques that make opposition effective, it is useful to look at regular patterns of injustice and outrage. When powerful groups do things that might trigger resistance, they regularly use […]

Featured

Syria: As 400 more Troops go in, What’s Trump’s Mission?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US had about 500 troops embedded with the People’s Protection Units (Kurdish acronym YPG) until this week, when another 400 were deployed, along with heavy artillery. It is rumored in the Arabic press that yet more troops, perhaps as many as 2000, will soon be […]

Donald Trump

Surging Trump’s America: What didn’t work in Baghdad won’t work in Washington

contributors

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – The other day, I found myself flipping through old photos from my time in Iraq. One in particular from October 2006 stood out. I see my 23-year-old self, along with my platoon. We’re still at Camp Buerhing in Kuwait, posing in front of our squadron logo […]

Corruption

Is the Public turning on Trump over Russia Ties, Sessions’ Perjury?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Americans have become deeply concerned about Russia. Some 75% of them see it as a very or moderately serious threat. This, according to an ORC/ CNN opinion poll. They are ranking it just after North Korea and Iran. This level of anxiety about Moscow is irrational, […]

Central Intelligence Agency

WikiLeaks Vault 7 reveals staggering breadth of ‘CIA hacking’

contributors

David Glance | (The Conversation) | – – WikiLeaks today released what it claims is the largest leak of intelligence documents in history. It contains 8,761 documents from the CIA detailing some of its hacking arsenal. The release, code-named “Vault 7” by WikiLeaks, covers documents from 2013 to 2016 obtained from the CIA’s Centre for […]

Donald Trump

Let them eat iPhones: Jason Chaffetz on Health Care & the Poor (Young Turks)

Juan Cole

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video Clip) | – – TYT metadata: “Poor people don’t fund Jason Chaffetz’s campaigns, so they can take a long walk off a short pier. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down. . . “Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is proposing a quick fix for low-income Americans […]