The retraction of Newsweek’s allegations of Koran-abuse at Guantanamo, which had sparked violent protests in Afghanistan, may not win the U.S. peace in that country for very long. A vivid report in the NY Times May 20 depicts horrendous details… Read moreEscalation in Afghanistan
The head of Iraq’s largest Christian community has denounced U.S. evangelical missionaries in his country for what he said were attempts to convert poor Muslims by flashing money and smart cars, al-Jazeera reported May 20. Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, head of… Read moreIraq: Chaldean bishop protests U.S. evangelicals
We have a new winner for the dubious honor of most cynical exploitation of 9-11: Newsday columnist Ellis Henican has it right when he writes that New York development mogul Donald Trump “towers in tackiness.” He used the final episode… Read moreTrump mouths off on Ground Zero debacle
As we noted yesterday, rulers in Uzbekistan and Belarus are worried that Bush is preparing a regime change offensive against them, encouraging dissidents to launch protest campaigns. Now it looks like the strategy is being applied in Cuba too. BBC… Read moreRegime change roulette: Cuba next?
The Pentagon is claiming to be very upset about the photos of a captive Saddam Hussein in his skivvies which grace the covers of today’s NY Post and UK Sun, both owned by right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch. The tabloids… Read moreDoes the world really need to see Saddam Hussein in his underwear?
The May 19 Jerusalem Post reports that the Palestinian Authority pulled a link to the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the notorious 19th-century anti-Semitic forgery, from one of its Web sites. The link reportedly appeared on the site of… Read moreThe “Protocols” and the Palestinians
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, who leads a Moscow-aligned Soviet-nostalgist authoritarian regime, has got to be concerned about the recent unrest in Uzbekistan–especially coming on the heels of regime change in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the past year-and-a-half. However… Read moreBelarus: the last domino?
The New York Times reported yesterday that Kuwait, at long last, has granted full political rights to its women citizens. Better late than never, eh? An interesting irony that during Operation Desert Storm women had the vote (for what it… Read moreKuwait grants women political rights
Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban exile and accused terrorist who re-entered the U.S. to file an asylum claim, has been arrested by immigration authorities and is being held at a Florida facility run by the Homeland Security Department’s Bureau of… Read morePosada Carriles arrested
There has been a second conviction in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal–once again of a low-ranking MP, Army Spc. Sabrina Harman. The media have made much of her conviction in a court martial at Fort Hood, TX, playing up quotes… Read moreAbu Ghraib convictions: spooks stay in the shadows
The government and opposition protesters are sharply at odds in Uzbekistan days after the eastern city of Andijan exploded into violence. A May 15 AP report claimed some 500 bodies had been laid out in a school in Andijan for… Read moreWhat happened in Uzbekistan?
Allegations in the May 9 Newsweek that U.S. military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had abused a Koran, and even flushed one down a toilet, led to riots that left several dead in Afghanistan May 11. By the next day, protests… Read moreNewsweek “retraction” on Gitmo Koran controversy: rush to judgement?
