Greater Middle East
Yemen: war comes to capital
A suicide attack on the defense ministry thrust Yemen briefly into the news—as an invisible sectarian war rages across much of the countryside.
Tag: Yemen
Greater Middle East
Syria war portends Middle East ‘balkanization’?
Elements of Washington wonkdom are calling for the break-up of Syria into ethno-sectarian mini-states, and see the separatist contagion spreading to the rest of the Middle East.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: US terror alert enflaming conflict?
The closing of the US embassy in Yemen has coinicided with drone strikes and clashes in Marib province, and a gun-battle between rival factions in the capital Sanaa.
Greater Middle East
Yemeni pro-democracy leader barred from Egypt
Egypt banned Yemeni activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman from entering the country for “security reasons”—to protest from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Watching the Shadows
Barbara Lee: repeal AUMF to stop ‘perpetual war’
Rep. Barbara Lee called for the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force to be repealed, warning that the alternative could be a “state of perpetual war forever.”
Watching the Shadows
Press was prone on drones, but cover blown
The media are abuzz with reports that the CIA has a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia—but the New York Times and Washington Post admit they sat on the information for two years.
Greater Middle East
Amnesty: human rights ‘catastrophe’ in Yemen
A report by Amnesty International documents a "raft of gross and deeply disturbing abuses" committed by both Islamist rebels and government forces in the battle for southern Yemen.
Afghanistan
From Afghanistan to Tunisia: back to GWOT?
Both imperialism and political Islam see in the current crisis the opportunity to revive the dystopian dialectic of jihad-versus-GWOT—and reverse the gains of the Arab Spring.
The Andes
Assange and Ecuador: no monopoly on hypocrisy
Julian Assange’s supporters accuse the media of hypocrisy in pointing to Ecuador’s sketchy record on press freedom—but come dangerously close to apologizing for repression.
Greater Middle East
Will provocateur film derail Arab Spring?
In the wave of protest over a provocateur-produced "film" dissing the Prophet Mohammed, jihadists could be seizing back the initiative from secular revolutionaries in the Arab world.
Greater Middle East
Yemen drone war: 29 dead in eight days
While the Democrats are partying in Charlotte, the drone war in Yemen has gone into “overdrive,” leaving scores dead in recent days—to little notice in the US media.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: AQAP blows up gas pipeline
Presumed militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) blew up a pipeline pumping liquefied gas to Yemen’s southern Balhaf export terminal, halting operations.