BANI WALID, Libya — Suleyman and Rasool have come to the University of Bani Walid, in western Libya. If they are lucky, they might find some chemistry notes and, perhaps, a computer that works. Unfortunately, it is not likely, since NATO reduced the campus to rubble. Saif al Islam — Moammar Gadhafi’s son and heir …
Continue reading “Libya’s Other Victims Pick Up the Pieces”
Excerpted from With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful by Glenn Greenwald, published October 25th by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by Glenn Greenwald. All rights reserved. Given the clarity of this law [Article 2 of …
Continue reading “America’s Elites Look Out for Each Other”
Shortly after the first U.S. cruise missiles fell in Libya on March 19, 2011, signaling the start of the seven-month NATO campaign to “protect civilians” by dropping bombs on that country, I wrote that even if we reduced our moral standards to those of Osama bin Laden, the murder of even one Libyan in the …
Continue reading “Libya: Military Success Doesn’t Erase Moral Questions”
At least seven Iraqis were killed and 15 more were wounded in new violence.
Glitches in Empire’s Matrix In the virtual reality concocted by the Empire, the lynching of Moammar Gadhafi was a splendid victory for NATO. Never mind now that it was the “transitional rebels” who were supposed to be fighting the “kinetic military action” in Libya — or any such inconvenient details. No, insist the Imperial partisans, …
Continue reading “A Most Stubborn Reality”
Herman Cain may not know or care who is the president of Uzbeki-beki-stan-stan, but the US government surely does. With the supply route to occupied Afghanistan via Pakistan increasingly problematic, the Americans are turning to what US officials have dubbed the “Northern distribution network” (NDN) to ensure the viability of their Central Asian outpost of …
Continue reading “Back to Uzbekistan”
At least 16 Iraqis were killed and 14 more were wounded in new violence, most of it small arms attacks. Meanwhile, a conference that aims to have Basra province formally declared a semi-autonomous region is underway. Although the area is oil-rich, much of the population is poor; it’s believed that semi-autonomy could turn the region into an economic powerhouse like Iraqi Kurdistan.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lauded the mass arrests of suspected Ba’ath Party members, while downplaying obvious criticisms of the operation. Meanwhile, insurgents killed nine Iraqis and wounded 17 more in attacks.. Across, the border in a Kurdish area of Turkey, a female suicide bomber killed three people and wounded twenty others.
In a White House Statement on Oct. 21, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged that his country would finally withdraw forces from Iraq. "After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over," he said. Providing some context to Obama’s announcement, a CBSNews.com report published on the same day stated, "The war in Iraq has …
Continue reading “Iraq War’s Lessons Lost on US”
Conn Hallinan on new points of view
