Talk about Phyrric victories. The quick overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 paved the way for the invasion of Iraq and the quick overthrow of Saddam Hussein a year and a half later. Now, just as Iraq is spinning horribly… Read moreAfghanistan: back to the brink?
Remember all those wacky conspiracy theorists who said that “liberating” Afghanistan from the Taliban was really about building an oil pipeline through the country? From India’s Rediff.com, May 19: India joins Afghanistan gas pipeline project The Cabinet on Thursday approved… Read moreAfghanistan pipeline project advances
Today’s Wall Street Journal features a maddening front-page story on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch parliamentarian of Somali birth who has been facing death threats for her opposition to Islamism. She has just announced that she is finally leaving Holland… Read moreDutch legislator to step down following Islamist threats
Yet again. All it takes is reading the New York Times to get pretty damn paranoid these days. From May 16: Defendant Says Police Informer Pushed Him Into Bomb Plot A Pakistani immigrant accused of plotting to blow up the… Read moreNYC: police informant behind terror plot?
Ten Palestinians have been shot and killed in the last two years while protesting Israel’s separation wall non-violently. Hundreds of protestors have been injured, including internationals and Israelis. From the ISM media office, May 14: Non-Violent Demonstration Against the Wall… Read moreIsraeli army attacks protest, girls’ school
A national summit of indigenous and campesino organizations is meeting at the Guambiano indigenous reserve of La Maria Piendamó, along the Pan-American Highway in Cauca, southern Colombia, and has just been attacked by the security forces. At least one death… Read moreColombia: army fires on indigenous protesters
From Ya Libnan, May 15: Beirut & Damascus — Prominent writer and democracy campaigner Michel Kilo was detained after calling for better relations between Syria and Lebanon. Syria detained Kilo days after he signed a petition calling for radical reform… Read moreSyrian dissident detained
Its about out way of life, remember? From Newsday, May 15: Fatal accident leaves grief on Mother’s Day It was a simple Mother’s Day gift: Alvin Johnson was going to surprise his girlfriend of 20 years, Emma Liverman, with a… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
From BBC, May 16. Maybe this will finally shut up the conspiranoiacs. (Yeah, as if…) Why Pentagon released 9/11 tape A non-profit government watchdog has succeeded in getting the US to release videotapes of a plane striking the Pentagon on… Read morePentagon releases 9-11 footage; conspiranoiacs appeased?
From Ha’aretz, May 11: Fear and loathing in Petah Tikva / Neo-Nazi gangs assaulting ultra-Orthodox Jews A week after the desecration of the Great Synagogue in Petah Tikva, nothing remains of the horror the worshipers encountered there last Thursday when… Read moreIsraeli neo-Nazis attack Jews
We recently noted an internal shake-up in the Libyan regime that seemed to signal a tilt back to the sidelined hardliners. This seems not to have affected Washington’s plans, announced today, to restore diplomatic relations. This may actually reveal something… Read moreChávez, State Department woo Qadaffi
After 63 days on hunger strike, four jailed Mapuche rights activists agreed to temporarily suspend their protest on May 14 after reaching an agreement with Chilean legislators. In exchange for an end to the fast, the government promised to give… Read moreChile: Mapuche end hunger strike
