Month: July 2008

In spite of reassurances from the Washington talking heads and policy wonks that the U.S. is not about to launch an attack on Iran, or countenance an Israeli strike, the Sunday Times has the real scoop: “President George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military … Continue reading “Amber Alert!”

[Note for TomDispatch readers:We live in a media world with a remarkably short memory, which means that stories with a past go missing in action all the time. Witness the one that follows. To the extent my aging brain is able, TomDispatch tries to keep the past in mind and, when it comes to the … Continue reading “The Wedding Crashers”

If the dominant themes that have been used to justify the Iraq war recently were sincerely held, the administration and the neocons should be doing backflips of joy this week. Building an independent and sovereign Iraq, preferably with a government responsive to the people? Check. When the Iraqis stand up we will stand down? They’re … Continue reading “An Inconvenient Display of Democracy”

Updated at 7:59 p.m. EDT, July 12, 2008At least 18 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. A possible political assassination took place in a quiet mixed area near Mosul. No Coalition deaths were reported. Gunmen opened fired on a soccer game Dhuluiya. A policeman and an Awakening … Continue reading “Sunday: 18 Iraqis Killed, 22 Wounded”

The Indian government has taken a major step towards completing its controversial nuclear cooperation deal with the United States by moving the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for approving an inspections (safeguards) agreement it signed last year with the IAEA secretariat pertaining to civilian nuclear reactors. The news has been greeted … Continue reading “Deceptions Surface in US-India Nuclear Deal”

Updated at 5:49 p.m. EDT, July 12, 2009At least 23 Iraqis were killed and 16 others were wounded across Iraq. Several weapons caches discovered and confiscated at well. No Coalition deaths were reported.In Baghdad, a bomb in a Adhamiya wounded six people; and unknown number of U.S. soldiers were injured in the blast.. A bomb … Continue reading “Saturday: 23 Iraqis Killed, 16 Wounded”

The chauvinistic American news media have focused on evil Iran’s missile tests and the indignant Bush administration reaction, while missing some key causes of the event. As if the Iranians had started the entire dust up, the media reported Gordon Johndroe, the White House spokesman, barking, "The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the … Continue reading “An Aggressive and Hypocritical US Policy Toward Iran”

Emigré scientists – many of them Jews who had fled Europe to avoid persecution under the Nazi regime – were principal instigators of the United States nuclear-fission weapons program known as the Manhattan Project. In particular, in 1939, a group of Hungarian-born physicists – including Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner – persuaded Nobel … Continue reading “Nuke-Armed Paranoids”

Updated at 9:30 p.m. EDT, July 11, 2008The bodies of two American soldiers, who had been missing for over a year, were found south of Baghdad. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and another nine were wounded in other incidents on a relatively quiet prayer day. Meanwhile, a Sadrist Imam and 25 worshippers were arrested … Continue reading “Friday: 2 US Soldiers, 10 Iraqis Killed; 9 Iraqis Wounded”

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s demand for a timetable for complete US military withdrawal from Iraq, confirmed Tuesday by his national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, has signaled the almost certain defeat of the George W. Bush administration’s aim of establishing a long-term military presence in the country. The official Iraqi demand for US withdrawal confirms what … Continue reading “Pullout Demand Signals Final Bush Defeat in Iraq”