Ali Gharib

It wasn’t U.S. relations with an Arab country on the tips of many tongues at this year’s National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations meeting in the last week of October. Rather, much of the focus was on the Arab Middle East’s ethnic Persian neighbor to the east: Iran. The question and answer session of a panel … Continue reading “Pundits Debate the Inevitability of a Nuclear Iran”

*with Zainab Mineeia An estimated 17,000 Iraqis detained in their own country by occupying US forces may soon face transfer into an Iraqi government detention system where reports of abuse and torture are commonplace, says a leading human rights advocacy group. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement Wednesday focuses on the potential for detainee transfers … Continue reading “Iraqi Detainees May Go From Frying Pan to Fire”

A cross-border raid into Syria by U.S. forces in Iraq and subsequent stonewalling by U.S. officials unwilling to divulge details have led to rampant speculation among U.S. analysts about the origins and meaning of the attack. "So the question is: Why?" wrote geo-strategic analyst and journalist Helena Cobban on her blog, wondering if the raid … Continue reading “Analysts Question Timing of Syria Raid”

U.S. human rights and civil rights groups lauded a federal court decision Tuesday that orders the release of 17 Muslim minority Chinese men who have been held without charges for seven years at the infamous U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But despite the praise of the organizations, it is uncertain whether the … Continue reading “Judge Orders Release of Uighurs at Guantanamo”

The U.S. is failing to rein in its primary target in the "global war on terror" – al-Qaeda – according to a new poll [.pdf] of 23 countries across the globe. Conducted for the BBC World Service by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and Globescan, the poll reveals that in … Continue reading “US War on al-Qaeda Widely Viewed as a Bust”

with Eli Clifton and Jim Lobe A group of hard-line US neoconservatives and former Israeli diplomats, among others, are behind the mass distribution, ahead of the November US presidential election, of a controversial DVD that critics have denounced as Islamophobic. The group, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), is working with another organization called … Continue reading “Neocons, Ex-Israeli Diplomats Push Islamophobic Video”

With the conflict between Georgia and Russia lowered to a simmer after the signing of a cease-fire agreement, questions still remain about the U.S. role and positions on the start of the conflict as well as where it stands moving forward toward a resolution. Ten days ago, a full-scale war broke out when Russian and … Continue reading “Kosovo Casts Shadow on
South Ossetian Standoff”

The controversial Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee and thousands of supporters filled a convention center in downtown Washington this week for his Christians United for Israel (CUFI) organization’s Washington-Israel Summit, where the “Iranian threat” was a recurrent theme. CUFI is a proponent of Christian Zionism – the belief that the modern state of Israel is … Continue reading “Iran in the Spotlight at Christian Zionist Confab”

Palestinian activist and former university professor Sami Al-Arian was arraigned Monday in US federal court on two counts of criminal contempt for his refusal to testify in a grand jury investigation of a Northern Virginia Muslim think-tank. The indictment is the latest episode of a long, Kafka-esque process that has violated nearly every tenet of … Continue reading “Critics See Vendetta in Al-Arian’s Legal Limbo”

Proponents of a US military withdrawal from Iraq routinely brush off criticisms that their ideas are "irresponsible". But until today, the charge that withdrawal cannot be accomplished responsibly – and just how that would be done – has never been coherently answered. With the release Wednesday of the report "Quickly, Carefully, and Generously: The Necessary … Continue reading “A Blueprint for Iraq Withdrawal”