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
From Amnesty International, Dec. 7: Rendition and ‘disappearances’ in the ‘war on terror’ 800 secret CIA flights into and out of Europe Amnesty International has revealed that six planes used by the CIA for renditions have made some 800 flights… Read moreAmnesty International documents CIA “rendition” flights
Nice sentiments. Now we wonder if the good king will abolish public flogging, as demanded by Amnesty International. Dec. 7: MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah appealed to Muslim leaders on Wednesday to unite and tackle extremists… Read moreKing Abdullah: Islam in crisis
We wrote in our last post on the Egyptian elections: The first-round results cast a dubious light on the apparent assumption of the neocons that a wave of democratic revolutions in the Arab and Islamic worlds will bring pro-West “moderates”… Read moreElectoral violence in Egypt
Perhaps some of our Eritrean readers could explain the logic of this decision: ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Eritrea has ordered the expulsion of U.S., Canadian and European staff of the U.N. peacekeeping mission that monitors the tense border with… Read moreEritrea expels UN troops
Similar dynamics on both sides of the Caspian Sea. We recently noted unrest over contested elections in Azerbaijan, where the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline has just opened. Now Kazakhstan—slated to be connected to the new pipeline by a link across the Caspian—seems… Read moreKazakhstan: “regime change” next?
Here’s the exact quote, as reported in the New York Times Dec. 7: “I am Saddam Hussein!” the former ruler said repeatedly, shaking his fist. “Like the path of Mussolini, to resist occupation to the end, that is Saddam Hussein,”… Read moreIts official: Ramsey Clark supports fascism
Palestinian mufti appeals for release of Iraq hostages 6 December 2005 05:05 AM BBC Monitoring Newsfile Text of report by Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV on 6 December Mufti of the Palestinian Territories Ikrimah Sabri appealed on Monday [5 December] for the… Read morePalestinian mufti appeals for release of hostages on Iraqi TV
All sides continue to exhibit the utmost cynicism in the increasingly confused Iraq war. The anti-terrorist SITE Institute notes that the self-declared al-Qaeda in Iraq has issued a communique on the Nov. 28 assassination of Sheikh Ayad al-Izzi, a prominent… Read moreIraq: is Iran the real winner?
Another turn of the screw. Shame on Judge Richard Berman. From the New York Daily News, Dec. 2: Judge: Searches of bags in subway is constitutional Random police searches of riders’ bags to deter terrorism in the nation’s largest subway… Read moreNYC: judge upholds subway searches
From Beirut Indymedia: The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Palestine From your brothers in arms, the sons of the same blood who have suffered from one enemy, to the fighters against the invaders in Iraq, at a time when we are… Read moreAl-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades call for freeing CPT hostages
The December issue of The Broken Rifle, newsletter of the War Resisters International, which supports conscientious objectors from military service around the world, offers this report from a strategically-placed country not often in the news: Eritrea. We noted in our… Read moreConscientious objection in Eritrea
