AlJazeera includes the following interesting passage in its Feb. 22 coverage of the conviction of Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman. Now, did “rendition” victim Abu Omar show up to support Soliman, despite his taunts of reactionary Islam on his… Read moreEgypt: “rendition” victim speaks
Wow, like, nostalgia for the ’80s, dude. This should be read to the strains of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Except that now the Russkies are threatening to nuke former Warsaw Pact members—which just indicates how desperate their post-imperial position is,… Read moreNuclear sabre-rattling in Europe
The New York Times informs us Feb. 21 that this still hasn’t been resolved. But here’s an informative overview from the Press Trust of India, Feb. 6. There were five suicide bombings in Pakistan between Jan. 26 and Feb. 6?… Read morePakistan: madrassa students pledge resistance to mosque demolitions
The arrogance of invoking Cuban “sovereignty” to justify this trangression when the Cubans oppose everything Washington is doing at Guantánamo Bay is staggering even by the standards of our deeply cynical age. Oh and by the way, freedom’s on the… Read moreCourt: no habeas corpus for Gitmo detainees
Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo stepped down Feb. 19, four days after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of her brother Senator Alvaro Araujo and 12 other legislators for their ties to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the… Read moreColombia: foreign minister resigns as para scandal heats up
Among the world’s many escalating cycles of terror and militarization that fail to make headlines is that in Northeast India, the scene of multiple tribal and ethnic struggles which the government has long been attempting to crush or co-opt. We… Read moreIndia: police torch homes in Northeast border dispute
That certainly seems to be the implication of these statements from the Tehran regime. Oh and by the way, it sure didn’t take long to get a conviction, did it? From UPI, Feb. 19: Man hanged in public in Iran… Read moreIran: CIA behind Baluchistan terror?
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC by its French initials) has been very busy lately. With little note in the world media, Tunisia last month apparently squelched a plot to attack the US and British embassies. It ended… Read moreNYT: North Africa “staging ground for terror”
Another ominous sub-plot in the struggle for Iraq’s oil—and a step closer to the brink for a region that has thus far managed to avoid complete embroilment in Iraq’s civil war. From AP via the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA),… Read moreIraq: Turkey demands delay in Kirkuk referendum
We strongly suspect that the front-page Feb. 19 story in the New York Times—based entirely on anonymous “studies” and quotes from anonymous “officials”—purporting huge hydrocarbon deposits in Iraq’s Sunni center (“Iraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise” by… Read moreIraq: oil lure fails to chill out jihadis
Despite a long activist campaign against India’s controversial Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada River, authorities have just announced the project’s completion. From Planet Ark World Environment News, Feb. 1: AHMEDABAD – India completed construction of a highly ambitious… Read moreIndia: completion of Sardar Sarovar dam announced
The Feb. 18 fire bombing that killed 68 mostly Pakistani passengers and destroyed two coaches on the Samjhauta Express about an hour after the train left New Delhi was an obvious attack on one of the most visible symbols of… Read moreIndia, Pakistan pledge “anti-terrorist” cooperation after deadly train attack
