The strength of the military-industrial complex (MIC) was made readily apparent by President Obama’s latest proposal to House Speaker Boehner to avoid the fiscal cliff. Other than raising taxes on rich Americans, Republicans have been most horrified by the fiscal cliff’s cuts in defense spending. With Obama’s most recent proposal, Republicans can relax because even …
Continue reading “Reducing Defense … Cuts”
At least six Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded as Iraqis waited to learn the full scope of President Jalal Talabani’s stroke.
GAZA CITY — Shortly after Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement on Nov. 21, the Israeli navy abducted 30 Palestinian fishers from Gaza’s waters, destroyed and sank a Palestinian fishing vessel, and confiscated nine fishing boats in the space of four days. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that fourteen fishers from …
Continue reading “Ceasefire Means Nothing to Gaza Fishers”
It was like walking through a nightmare: drifting in an out of hospital rooms, down the long hallways, her contact with shock-ravaged Iraqi parents interrupted only by glimpses of their physically deformed and terminally sick babies who in many cases, would never see the outside of Fallujah’s main hospital, ever. Then, the more than vague …
Continue reading “The Babies Will Haunt Us”
A day after Kirkuk saw escalated attacks, violence expanded into surrounding areas and Baghdad. At least 92 people were killed and 227 more were wounded. Among them were fourteen Iranian pilgrims who were wounded in one attack and a Lebanese visitor who was killed in the west. Several of the attacks were within a region of northern Iraq that is claimed by Kurdistan or nearby. Kurds and other Iraqi minorities were targets in other violence.
The knives are out: “Send us Hagel and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite.” That’s what a top Republican Senate aide told the Weekly Standard in response to the news that President Obama is likely to nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his new Secretary of Defense. Normally, the …
Continue reading “Chuck Hagel: An Unconventional Realist”
Weren’t those the greatest of days if you were in the American spy game? Governments went down in Guatemala and Iran thanks to you. In distant Indonesia, Laos, and Vietnam, what a role you played! And even that botch-up of an invasion in Cuba was nothing to sneeze at. In those days, unfortunately, you — …
Continue reading “The Visible Government”
GAZA CITY — Yesterday in al-Faraheen, Gaza, Israeli Occupation Forces shot and wounded an unarmed 22-year-old farmer, Mohammed Qdeih, from behind. Mohammed and nine others went out to their fields in the early afternoon, walking approximately 250 meters from the Israeli border. Within minutes, two heavily armed Israeli military jeeps rushed to the security fence. …
Continue reading “The Struggle for Land Rights Near the Gaza Border”
“Palestine, from the Jordan to the Sea, belongs to us!” declared Khaled Meshal last week at the huge victory rally in Gaza. “Eretz Israel, from the sea to the Jordan, belongs to us!” declare right-wing Israelis on every occasion. The two statements seem to be the same, with only the name of the country changed. …
Continue reading “The Sea and the River”
About 19 Iraqis were killed, and 80 more were wounded, mostly in northern Iraq. Nearly all of today’s casualties occurred in cities claimed by both the central and Kurdish government. Tensions between the two governments heated up with Baghdad created a new security force for a heavily Kurdish region not yet subsumed by the autonomous government.
