During the 2010 midterm election campaign, virtually every hard-charging candidate on the far right took a moment to trash a Muslim, a mosque, or Islamic pieties. In the wake of those elections, with 85 new Republican House members and a surging Tea Party movement, the political virtues of anti-Muslim rhetoric as a means of rousing …
Continue reading “Islam-Baiting Doesn’t Work”
At least nine Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded in light violence. Several people may also have been killed during unconfirmed fighting at the Iran-Iraqi Kurdistan border.
A second day of attacks against pilgrims traveling to Karbala has left scores dead or injured in the holy city. Across the country at least eight Iraqis were killed and about 85 more were wounded, either in new attacks or the Karbala bombings.
In today’s violence, at least six Iraqis were killed and 50 more were wounded, along with one U.S. soldier who was killed in southern Iraq. Also, the United States handed over 206 high-value detainees over to Iraqi authorities. Five of them, including two of Saddam’s half brothers, will be executed within a month.
The big question looming over U.S.-Iraqi negotiations on a U.S. military presence after 2011 is what game Shi’a leader Moqtada al-Sadr is playing on the issue. U.S. officials regard Sadr as still resisting the U.S. military presence illegally and are demanding that Sadr call off his Promised Day Brigades completely. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s …
Continue reading “What Is Sadr’s Game on Future US Troop Presence?”
Justin Raimondo on what’s driving the debt ceiling debate
Political change is slow. One doesn’t go to sleep in a democracy and wake up in a fascist regime. The citizens of Egypt and Tunisia can attest to the fact that the opposite is also true: dictatorship does not become democracy overnight. Any political change of such magnitude is the result of a lot of …
Continue reading “Israel’s Crackdown Grows with Boycott Bill”
The United States’ popularity in the Arab world has plummeted to levels lower than the last year of the George W. Bush administration, according to a new survey of public opinion in six Arab countries released here Wednesday. The "Arab Attitudes" survey found that favorable ratings of the United States have fallen by nine percent or more …
Continue reading “US Standing Plunges Across Arab World “
At least four Iraqis were killed in new attacks, while 13 more were wounded. A Spanish judge will look into the actions of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and three army officers, including the head of the army, in connection with a deadly raid on Camp Ashraf in 2009. Spain claims “universal jurisdiction” in cases of human rights abuses regardless of where the crimes may have taken place.
EAST JERUSALEM — Widespread strikes across Palestinian civil society could be in store for East Jerusalem at the start of the next school year, as the municipality moves ahead with its current plan to implement an Israeli curriculum in Palestinian schools. “I expect that the beginning of the new school year will not be a …
Continue reading “Palestinians Won’t Learn Israeli Lessons” 
