Reiterating accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq’s internal affairs, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Wednesday that he was in "100 percent agreement" with remarks by the top U.S. commander in Iraq regarding Iran’s involvement in a highly controversial decision that eventually barred over 140 candidates from running in Iraq’s parliamentary elections next month. Among …
Continue reading “US Ambassador Accuses Iran of Role in Iraq Election Ban”
A federal district court has thrown out the case of two men who died in U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay in 2006 and who are seeking to hold U.S. government officials responsible for the men’s torture, arbitrary detention and ultimate deaths. The families of the dead men claimed that it was a violation of due …
Continue reading “Court Won’t Rule on Deaths at Guantánamo”
A pair of attacks in two major cities took the lion’s share of casualties today. At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 55 more wounded across the country. Meanwhile, many provincial governments and agencies are tightening security ahead of elections, but they have also given journalists more freedom to cover them.
Just over a year after it was opened for signature, an international treaty banning cluster bombs received the final two ratifications it needed to become international law Tuesday. Burkina Faso and Moldova ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions to much praise from human rights and victim advocacy groups. The treaty will become international law Aug. …
Continue reading “Cluster Bomb Ban to Become Law – Without US”
After eight tumultuous months, during which attention from all sides of Iran’s political spectrum as well as anxious watchers around the world focused on a series of street clashes between protesters and the government’s security forces, an eerie calm has taken hold in Iran. The government’s ability to control the aesthetics of street demonstrations on …
Continue reading “Iran’s ‘Now What’ Moment”
The US needs to take the first step, says Philip Giraldi
RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah is fighting a tidal wave of fresh allegations, including sexual harassment, an internal power struggle and embezzlement. But the arrest of a cell of Fatah members, including officials working for the PA’s security forces, by their PA colleagues on the grounds that they planned to assassinate members …
Continue reading “Scandals, Assassination Plan Rock Palestinian Authority”
Memories of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib have resurfaced as a military appeals court reviews whether the judge in one case conducted the trial properly. Meanwhile, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani encouraged voters to participate in next month’s national elections. At least eight Iraqis were killed and five more were wounded in light violence. Also, there are rumors that the Mahdi Army may be resurfacing as sectarian violence appears to be re-igniting.
VetVoice.com (a project of VoteVets.org) recently launched a $2 million television campaign supporting the Clean Energy and American Power Act. In all, there are eight television ads that essentially claim that oil money finances terrorism and that we need to wean ourselves off of foreign oil to be more safe and secure. (The red herring …
Continue reading “Yet Another Energy and National Security Myth”
Over the past few days, graffiti scrawled on walls around the mixed Jewish and Arab town of Jaffa in central Israel exclaims, "Settlers, keep out" and "Jaffa is not Hebron." Although Jaffa is only a stone’s throw from the bustling coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, Arab residents say their neighborhood has become the unlikely battleground …
Continue reading “Jews-Only Homes for Ajami” 
