At least four policemen were killed and six more were wounded in today’s violence. A driver was also wounded. Two policemen were killed and three more were wounded when they came across a roadside bomb in Abu Saida. A blast in Tal Afar killed a policeman and wounded two more. Gunmen shot a policeman then …
Continue reading “Four Policemen Killed in Iraq”
The outing of Gen. David Petraeus as an adulterer, and his subsequent resignation as CIA Director, was carried out by an unknown FBI “whistleblower” who leaked the facts of the FBI investigation into the General’s private life to Rep. Eric Cantor. The New York Times reports: “Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, said Saturday an …
Continue reading “A Covert Affair:
Petraeus Caught in the Honeypot?”
The Iraqi government put 10 men to death today, bringing the total number of known executions to 129 for the year. One other person was wounded.
A day after the surprise announcement that CIA Director David Petraeus was resigning because of marital infidelity, the pundits continue to miss the supreme irony. None other than the head of the CIA (and former bemedaled four-star general) has become the first really big fish netted by the intrusive monitoring of the communications of American …
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The ousted head of the central bank, Sinan al-Shabibi, reiterated his claims that he is innocent of wrongdoing and was fired in order for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to further consolidate the premier’s control of the government. Two very young girls were killed in separate incidents in Zubayr. Meanwhile, at least 12 Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded in other attacks.
After the Afterglow At least one national nightmare finally ended on the morning of November 7, when the media frenzy over the election finally abated. An entire industry devoted to perception management dutifully created the perception that the race was close and the outcome fateful. In actuality, it was nothing of the sort. The Clinton …
Continue reading “Winter of Discontent”
Outside a downtown Islamabad coffee shop that sells an assortment of French macaroons (cupcakes are so passé), I strike up a conversation with Omar Malik. A 34-year-old who works for a private telecommunications company, Malik seems liberal. Liberal in the way Americans stumbling through Muslim-majority countries might find comforting. He’s dressed smartly in a collared …
Continue reading “Pakistan: The Real Swing State”
Untitled Document In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Cold War was commonly said to have partially plunged "into the shadows" as a secret, off-the-grid, spy-versus-spy conflict fought between the planet’s two superpowers. No one caught this mood better than John le Carré in his famed Smiley novels which offered a riveting portrait of Soviet, …
Continue reading “Beyond Bayonets and Battleships”
A new study says the British have invaded nine out of ten countries on earth: during the course of their long history of conquest, only 22 nations escaped Britannia’s imperial wrath. And it looks like they’re at it again, with British Prime Minister David Cameron declaring it’s time to arm the Syrian rebels, outfit the …
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Iraq suffered a second day of attacks that were spread across the country. At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 44 more were wounded. This latest spate of violence began on an otherwise quiet Tuesday with an attack on an army base. Also, two of fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s staff were sentenced to death, in absentia, on charges of terrorism.
