When Hassan Rouhani recently announced at his first press conference as the new President of Iran that he is ready to enter "serious and substantive" negotiations with the United States "if the United States shows goodwill and mutual respect", the statement was heralded by the Western media as a hopeful new beginning for Iranian nuclear …
Continue reading “Iran, Egypt, and America”
In Mosul, gunmen killed five people in two separate locations. A sixth victim was shot dead elsewhere. A bomb in Kanaan killed a woman and a child; another woman was wounded. One person was killed and three more were wounded during shelling in Mahaweel. A bomb planted at an Essouira farm killed one person and …
Continue reading “Random Attacks Leave 14 Dead Across Iraq”
Those rollicking jihadists, the Syrian rebels, love a joke: although they can be deadly serious – such as when they’re eating the internal organs of their enemies – what they enjoy more than anything is a really good prank. There was the time they claimed the Assad regime was killing babies in incubators – not …
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Yesterday’s bombing trend continued. Baghdad and nearby regions were the targets of several bombings. In the capital, several bombs were detonated within minutes of each other. Overal, at least 76 people were killed and 227 more were wounded.
How do U.S. intelligence agencies eavesdrop on the whole world? The ideal place to tap trans-border telecommunications is undersea cables that carry an estimated 90 percent of international voice traffic. These cables date back in history to 1858 when they were first installed to support the international telegraph system, with the British taking the lead …
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The violence spread east and south from Baghdad in Diyala and Babil provinces. A least 29 people were killed and 76 more were wounded.
Arms control advocates are decrying a new U.S. Department of Defense announcement that it will be building and selling 1,300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, worth some 641 million dollars. The munitions at the heart of the sale are technically legal under recently strengthened US regulations aimed at reducing impact on civilian safety, but activists …
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Insurgents turned their attention back on Baghdad where several bombings took place. The worst attack targeted children and woman at a neighborhood park. Overall, at least 45 people were killed and 75 were wounded across the country. In Baghdad, a suicide bomber attacked a Qahira park filled with women and children, where he killed 28 …
Continue reading “45 Killed, Including Children in Baghdad Park Massacre”
As the administration of President Barack Obama continues wrestling with how to react to the military coup in Egypt and its bloody aftermath, officials and independent analysts are increasingly worried about the crisis’s effect on U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich kingdom’s strong support for the coup is seen here as having encouraged Cairo’s …
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The recently released secret FISA court opinion is supposed to promote the idea that the administration elected on a promise of "transparency" is now making good on that pledge. There’s just one problem: a good 20 percent of the 83-page document is redacted, including some key paragraphs. It is to a large extent unreadable. But …
Continue reading “Yes, Black Is the New ‘Transparency’” 
