Updated at 6:47 p.m. EDT, Oct. 5, 2009
At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 62 more were wounded across the country. Meanwhile, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned that he would call for a boycott of January elections if it is not run on the “open list” system.
In the Washington Times, some astonishing news: "President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said. The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, …
Continue reading “Israeli Exceptionalism”
Saturday was the 1,196th day in captivity for the soldier Gilad Shalit. A prisoner of war must not be left in captivity. A wounded soldier must not be left in the field. The state signs an unwritten contract with every person who joins the army, and most definitely with everyone who serves in a …
Continue reading “The Betrayal of Gilad Shalit”
Authors of serious books seldom have cause to celebrate, but Larry Stratton and I have two reasons to open the champagne. Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, has announced a second printing of the second edition of The Tyranny of Good Intentions, and the noted civil libertarian and defense attorney, Harvey Silverglate, has just …
Continue reading “The Threat to Your Liberties Is Here”
Updated at 5:05 p.m. EDT, Oct. 4, 2009
At least five Iraqis were killed 21 more were wounded across the country. One of the dead belonged to a group of escapees. Also, the Iraqi parliament passed a new Victims of Terrorism and Military Operations law.
Updated at 9:33 p.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2009
At least three Iraqis were killed and eight Iraqis were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, the sudden exit of U.S. troops from Anbar province has become a local scandal for chiefs who feel abandoned by the absence. Also, an International Monetary Fund official said the IMF would likely approve $7 billion loan to Iraq.
You read it here first: There is a 50-50 chance that President Obama will not get his party’s nomination in 2012, much less be re-elected, so grave have been his policy errors. Presidents rarely escape the consequences of serious misjudgments. Andrew Johnson came within a vote of being removed from office after underestimating the power …
Continue reading “Obama and the Graveyard of Empires”
John Prados on the CIA torture cover-up
An Iranian assertion that construction on its second enrichment facility began only last year and further analysis of satellite photos of the site have cast fresh doubts on the Barack Obama administration’s charge that the construction of the plant near Qom involved a covert decision to violate Iran’s obligations to report immediately to the International …
Continue reading “New Doubt Cast on US Claim Qom Plant is Illicit”
While experts here are being deliberately tentative in their assessments of Thursday’s meeting in Geneva between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany (P5+1), there appears to be a growing sense that the results could lay the basis for a long-sought diplomatic breakthrough. Much depends on whether Iran complies …
Continue reading “Geneva Talks Seen as Potential Breakthrough” 
