Updated at 6:26 p.m. EDT, June 26, 2009
A significant bombing in Baghdad reminded residents of more violent prayer days when marketplace attacks were common. Otherwise, the prayer day was fairly quiet. Overall, at least 22 Iraqis were killed and 54 more were wounded. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents. Elite Iraqi troops, meanwhile, are preparing to take security voer from U.S. troops next week.
read moreAfghan Air Strike Report Belies ‘Blame Taliban’ Line
The version of the official military investigation into the disastrous May 4 air strike in Farah province made public last week by the Central Command was carefully edited to save the U.S. command in Afghanistan the embarrassment of having to admit that earlier claims...
Now We See You, Now We Don’t
In early June, 2009, I was in the Shah Mansoor displaced persons camp in Pakistan, listening to one resident detail the carnage which had spurred his and his family's flight there a mere 15 days earlier. Their city, Mingora, had come under massive aerial bombardment....
Misreading the Protests in Tehran
After 30 years of enmity that closed off most lines of communication, the recent crisis in Iran has suddenly engendered a boom of U.S. interest in the Islamic Republic. But much of the attention in Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. is often misplaced, misguided, or...
US Admits Funding Somali ‘Govt’
The U.S. State Department Thursday confirmed that Washington is providing arms and ammunition to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in a bid to thwart its defeat by a loose coalition of radical Islamist militias which, according to some analysts, are...
Iran: It’s All About US
FBI Ignored Evidence of bin Laden Role in Khobar Attack
Osama Bin Laden had made no secret of his intention to attack the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia. He had been calling for such attacks to drive it from the country since his first fatwa calling for jihad against Western "occupation" of Islamic lands...
Palestinian Violence Overstated, Jewish Violence Understated
The American media in its 24/7 half-life tends to turn the surprises of history, large and small, into flood-tide events. They sweep over us, offering a kind of news satiation that leads quickly enough to forgetfulness -- as the media moves on. And then the subjects...
