We have recently been warning of the imminent emergence of a Taliban state in central Iraq. Today the New York Times op-ed page catches up with us. From “What Osama Wants” by Peter Bergen, a senior fellow of the New… Read moreNYT op-ed warns of Iraqi “Taliban” state
Historian Allen Barra provides some all-too-revealing historical perspective on the New York Times op-ed page, Oct. 26: One hundred twenty five years ago, three lawmen – Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan – and their friend Doc… Read moreOK Corral shoot-out echoes 125 years later
Mexico’s President Vicente Fox, trying to put a good face on things as he leaves a bitterly divided country as his legacy, boasted to a meeting of businessmen at the National Chamber of Industry that the crises of Chiapas and… Read moreFox: Crisis? What crisis?
The Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) issued a “call for a popular peaceful insurrection” Dec. 1 if the state’s governor, Ulises Ruiz, has not stepped down by then. The call steps up pressure on president-elect Felipe Calderon, already facing… Read moreOaxaca: APPO calls for “peaceful insurrection”
File under “Well, duh.” From Reuters, Oct. 22: HOUSTON – Halliburton Co , the world’s No. 2 oilfield services group, on Sunday posted a 25 percent rise in earnings, beating Wall Street forecasts, on robust spending by producers on oil… Read moreHalliburton profits soar
Can you say deja vu? How about chutzpah? From BBC, Oct. 24: North warns against Ortega vote Ex-White House aide Oliver North—at the centre of a 1980s scheme to finance Contra rebels in Nicaragua—has warned the country not to return… Read moreOliver North meddles in Nicaragua —again!
Arthur Neslen on the UK Guardian’s Comment is Free blog Oct. 25 outlines various intellectual responses to the ascendance of the frightening Avigdor Lieberman to the Israeli cabinet. One which he overlooks is the “smokescreen” response, put forth by the… Read moreAvigdor Lieberman: “fascism” or “smokescreen”?
If this turns out to be true, we wager the beneficiary will be Iyad Allawi. From UPI, Oct. 23: CAIRO — Iraqi army officers are reportedly planning to stage a military coup with U.S. help to oust the government of… Read moreUS planning Iraq coup d’etat?
Continuing on his tour of Mexico’s north, Zapatista Subcommander Marcos stopped in Sonoyta (the Sonora border town across from Lukeville, AZ), where his caravan drove into the desert and stopped at the fence demarcating the international border, where signs warned… Read moreSubcommander Marcos crosses into USA!
Even Donald Rumsfeld is starting to make cut-and-run noises. As the Bush White House holds a high-level strategy session on Iraq Oct. 21, the Defense Secretary told reporters: “It’s their country, they’re going to have to govern it, they’re going… Read moreIraq: clerics unite against sectarian terror
Uribe uses this as an excuse to call for a military rather than negotiated solution to the hostage crisis. But the families and supporters of some of the FARC’s hostages aren’t buying it. From Merco Press, Oct. 21: Colombian President… Read moreColombia: car bomb scotches prisoner exchange
But, as we noted as long ago as 2003, the Shining Path guerilla movement has fractured, with a new ultra-hardline element refusing to accept the ceasefire call issued (whether under coercion or not) by Abimael “Chariman Gonzalo” Guzmán upon his… Read morePeru: “Chairman Gonzalo” gets life —again
