This analysis recognizes that the US military presence in Iraq is ultimately counter-productive to a recovery of the country’s oil industry. But it seems to assume that US leaders are capable of smelling the coffee and getting out. It fails… Read moreIraq: oil sector in crisis
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has responded the latest ant-Israel tirade by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad y saying that Israel must prepare solutions “other than diplomatic” in the face of Tehran’s nuclear program. “The right move would be to let… Read moreIsrael, Iran gird for war
A voice of unassailable moral credibility—we hope—is added to chorus demanding release of the four hostages from the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq. LONDON (Reuters) – A former Guantanamo Bay detainee has pleaded for the release of peace worker Norman… Read moreEx-Gitmo detainee: free CPT hostages
In the spirit of laughing with tears in your eyes (or, as Wavy Gravy put it, demanding your right to bring a whoopie-cushion to Auschwitz), file this under “Leftist Conspiracy Theorists Vindicated Again.” From the BBC, Dec. 9: The US… Read moreSecret prisons: US admits it
The ugly face of petro-tyranny (or is the better term autocracy?). From AP, Dec. 6: Man Who Received Jaywalking Ticket Dies of Injuries Washington D.C. (AP) A 73-year-old man who received a $5 jaywalking ticket after he was hit by… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Here’s some good news for humanity, but a real no-win for the neo-Ustashe and neo-Chetniks who plague this blog. The neo-Ustashe will be aghast that the proud defender of an ethnically-pure Croatia has been subjected to this indignity—or, the more… Read moreGotovina busted; riots in Croatia
Noting the rise of Islamist Shi’ites to power in Iraq, we recently asked Is Iran the real winner? One who seems to think so is Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. In the Nov. 30 National Review Online, he… Read moreMichael Ledeen: “regime change” for Iran, Syria
From Reporters Without Borders, Dec. 8: The 2005 Reporters Without Borders/Fondation de France prize in the “cyberdissident” category was awarded on 7 December to Massoud Hamid. He was arrested in July 2004 and sentenced to three years in prison for… Read moreSyrian photojournalist wins “cyber-freedom” award
You can’t make this stuff up. From the Jerusalem Post, Dec. 8: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued his anti-Israel rhetoric Thursday afternoon, denying the Holocaust and calling on Germany and Austria to create a Jewish State within their borders, Israel… Read moreTehran: send Jews back to Germany; Berlin: “totally unacceptable”
The current (Dec. 1) issue of The Economist includes a profile of “China’s far west”—a region variously known as Xinjiang (to the Chinese), or East Turkestan or Uighurstan to its indigenous inhabitants, the Turkic and Muslim Uighurs. After providing some… Read moreChina builds pipeline through restive Uighurstan
The patrician wonks at the Council on Foreign Relations raise the alarm in a January report that Africa will be increasingly strategic to global energy security in the coming century—and that China is beating the US to the punch in… Read moreDarfur: pawn in US-China oil war?
From Amnesty International, Dec. 7: Eritrea: Government must end religious persecution “You will receive no visitors and you will rot here until you sign this paper.” The reported words of an Eritrean military commander to Helen Berhane, a well known… Read moreEritrea cracks down on gospel singers
