A fascinating story from the New York Times Nov. 5. The Vatican seems to be sending an explicit message here about the need to protect Christians in Muslim lands. But note that the situation for Iraq’s Christians has dramatically worsened… Read moreIraq: Chaldean patriarch becomes Catholic Cardinal
The New York Times reports Nov. 5 on an initiative to win justice for Jews who fled Arab countries after 1948, and their descendants. But the first paragraph makes nearly explicitly clear that they are being exploited as bargaining chips… Read moreMizrahi Jews as political cannon fodder?
Within days of the 9-11 attacks, media speculation started that al-Qaeda was seeking nuclear weapons. Now it is starting to look like US actions could make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Washington imposed sanctions on both Pakistan and India after their… Read morePakistan’s nukes up for jihadi grabs?
From Newsday, Nov. 3: Mom accidentally hits son with SUV The mother of a 4-year-old Central Islip boy accidentally struck her son with her SUV Friday afternoon when she backed up out of the family driveway, police said. Joshua Felisberto,… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Peru is sending a force of 100 national police to what has been declared a zona cocalera (coca-growing zone) in Apurímac region to hunt down suspected Shining Path guerrillas who killed a police commander and wounded an officer in a… Read morePeru: Apurímac militarized after “narcoterror” attack
The Spanish parliament Oct. 31 passed a landmark bill that condemns the 1939-75 fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco and mandates restitution to its victims. The Law of Historical Memory, approved by the lower house, will expand benefits to victims… Read moreSpain passes “Historical Memory” law on Franco era
Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez read out the verdicts Oct. 31 in the long-running Madrid 3-11 terror trial. Three of the defendants—Jamal Zougam, Emilio Suarez Trashorras, and Osman Gnaoui— were found guilty of murder and handed prison terms of up to… Read moreSpain: survivors protest 3-11 verdicts —despite 40,000-year sentences
With the price of oil creeping ominously and seemingly inexorably towards an unprecedented $100 per barrel, the long and equally unprecedented mega-profit-fest for Exxon and the other industry majors is nonetheless starting to level off. It seems that consumption is… Read moreConsumers get revenge on Exxon …a little
The northern Israeli village of Pekiin turned into a battleground Oct. 30 as clashes between police and Druze protesters left some 16 police officers and a similar number of medics and residents injured. One resident was in serious condition after… Read moreIsrael: Druze riot against cellphone antennae
You know, every time we start to develop a soft spot for a politician, he wastes no time in disabusing us of our comfortable illusions. The most recent case in point is New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. After taking flack… Read moreSpitzer capitulates on license plan
We have noted before that, contrary to contemporary assumptions, the first “terrorism” identified by that name was a state phenomenon: that of the Jacobins in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution—which, ironically given its radicalism, was the origin of… Read moreNYT op-ed: Bush est un terroriste
Already facing war crimes charges in Germany, Donald Rumsfeld—like Henry Kissinger before him—now runs into a spot of legal bother in France. From RINF Alternative News Media, Oct. 28: Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest… Read moreRumsfeld flees France fearing arrest?
