Month: January 2009

Updated at 5:27 p.m. EST, Jan. 8, 2009At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 15 more were wounded in the latest attacks. More politically motivated assassinations are taking place ahead of upcoming provincial elections, especially in Diyala where many residents want parts of the province annexed to Kurdistan. No Coalition deaths were reported. Six Iraqi … Continue reading “Thursday: 13 Iraqis Killed, 15 Wounded”

Consumed by coverage of the Nov. 4 presidential election, US mainstream media ignored a key Israeli military attack on a Hamas target that some Palestinians claim marked the effective end of the ceasefire between the two sides and set the stage for the current round of bloodletting. While the major US news wire Associated Press … Continue reading “Media Eyeless in Gaza at Key Moment”

RAMALLAH – Israel has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted in an international court, says Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza. "The repeated bombing of clearly marked civilian buildings, where civilians were sheltering, crosses several red lines in regard to international law," Sourani told IPS. Palestinian Authority … Continue reading “Israel May Face Charges for War Crimes”

There are two persistent myths about the aim of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza: the first that it is an entirely defensive move, a way to end the rocket fire of Hamas; and the second that it is designed to restore the army’s credibility after its failure to cow Hezbollah in 2006. No doubt the Israeli … Continue reading “Israel’s Aim: To Make the Gazan Prison Even More Secure”

Updated at 4:00 p.m. EST, Jan. 7, 2009Reports of violence were light on the final day of Ashuraa. Many reporters are on holiday. Overall, at least three Iraqis were killed and 11 more were wounded in overnight violence. The DoD reported that one U.S. soldier was killed yesterday during a small arms attack. Meanwhile, the … Continue reading “Wednesday: 1 US Soldier, 3 Iraqis Killed; 11 Iraqis Wounded”

RAMALLAH – At least 42 Palestinians sheltering in a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City were killed Tuesday afternoon after two Israeli tank shells exploded outside the school. Hundreds of terrified Palestinians, desperately trying to escape the bombing, had sought shelter there assuming that a clearly marked school would not be … Continue reading “Israel Attacks Schools, Ambulances”

A new year, and a new president – plenty of grist for my prediction mill, or, at least, for the obligatory January “predictions” column. Not that there’s anything special, really, about it: all punditry is prediction, in an important sense. Every time a writer advocates a particular policy or decries another, the author is predicting … Continue reading “Predictions”

Updated at 7:35 p.m. EST, Dec. 6, 2009Although security is tight for the culmination of the Ashuraa religious observance, at least 15 Iraqis were killed and 26 more were wounded in violent attacks. In Baghdad, women have been banned from one neighborhood as a security measure. Meanwhile, the DoD reported that a Marine died at … Continue reading “Tuesday: 1 Marine, 15 Iraqis Killed; 26 Iraqis Wounded”

Despite two wars involving more than 200,000 U.S. troops and a global economic crisis, foreign-related news coverage by the three major U.S. television networks fell to a record low during 2008, according to the latest annual review of network news coverage by the authoritative Tyndall Report. Squeezed out by intense coverage of the presidential election … Continue reading “Networks’ Int’l News Coverage at Record Low in 2008”

Until mid-2007, there was a serious political obstacle to a massive conventional war by Israel against Hamas in Gaza: the fact that Hamas had won free and fair elections for the Palestinian parliament and was still the leading faction in a fully legitimate government. But the George W. Bush administration helped Israel eliminate that obstacle … Continue reading “Bush Plan Eliminated Obstacle to Gaza Assault”