In contrast to their Cold War counterparts of yesterdecade, who openly embraced any dictator who was “our son of a bitch,” today’s neocons often seem to really believe their own rhetoric about how their global project is expanding democracy. This… Read moreGeorgia: Rose Revolution meets the new boss
Ten years after New York City’s notorious Abner Louima case, police in Egypt appear to be emulating the brutal techniques of Rudolph Giuliani’s NYPD. Two Cairo police officers were convicted this week of torturing a man in their custody—after a… Read more“Giuliani time” in Cairo
The Pentagon has, astutely, chosen an African American as first chief of the new Africa Command, Gen. William “Kip” Ward—and his first official visit to the continent was, of course, to chief US ally Ethiopia. Meeting with African Union leaders… Read moreAfriCom chief does Ethiopia; proxy war escalates in Somalia
In our last post on China, we noted that it is now the key nation falling under the rubric of the 1992 Pentagon “Defense Planning Guide” drawn up by Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby which said the US must “discourage… Read moreChina emerges as “peer competitor” —in race for global oil
Six US soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in Iraq Nov. 5, bringing the number of deaths this year to 852—and making 2007 the deadliest year of the war for US troops. The news comes days after the military… Read moreIraq deaths hit record; Congress talks tough, funds carnage
Nearly two dozen high school students in Illinois have been suspended and face possible expulsion for holding a peaceful protest against the war in Iraq. On Nov. 1, students at Morton West High School in the town of Berwyn locked… Read moreIllinois high school students face expulsion for anti-war protest
From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC): Amid Passionate Revolutionary Chants, Iraq Freedom Congress Concludes First Convention with Great Success Delegates determined to challenge serious security conditions for success of the first convention On October 21, 2007 the first Convention of… Read moreIraq Freedom Congress holds national convention
While we certainly don’t put it past the Taliban to blow up a bunch of schoolchildren to take out a couple of politicians, we note that this attack comes in the normally (relatively) peaceful north of the country, where the… Read moreAfghanistan: who is behind Baghlan suicide blast?
Days after a car bomb in the normally (relatively) peaceful northern city of Kirkuk left eight dead in a Kurdish neighborhood (Reuters, Oct. 28), comes this ominous news from AlJazeera Nov. 6: Kirkuk’s Arabs paid to pack up It is… Read moreArabs paid to leave Kirkuk in “reverse ethnic cleansing”
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?
State and municipal police arrested some 20 people on Nov. 2 in Oaxaca city, the capital of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, during protests marking one year since federal security forces ended militant strikes and occupations there. In 2006… Read moreMexico: anniversary protests in Oaxaca
