July 2009

The making of an Iran policy

by Paul Woodward 07.31.2009

The making of an Iran policy By Roger Cohen, New York Times, August 2, 2009 In Tehran, just before the election, I sat down with Nasser Hadian, who once taught at Columbia and is now at Tehran University. He’s an influential thinker on foreign affairs who got to know [Dennis] Ross while he was in [...]

Read the full article →

In Afghanistan, U.S. may shift strategy

by Paul Woodward 07.31.2009

In Afghanistan, U.S. may shift strategy By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, July 31, 2009 The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is preparing a new strategy that calls for major changes in the way U.S. and other NATO troops there operate, a vast increase in the size of Afghan security forces and an intensified military effort [...]

Read the full article →

Hamas chief outlines terms for talks on Arab-Israeli peace

by Paul Woodward 07.31.2009

Hamas chief outlines terms for talks on Arab-Israeli peace By Jay Solomon and Julien Barnes-Dacey, Wall Street Journal, July, 2009 The chief of Palestinian militant group Hamas said his organization is prepared to cooperate with the U.S. in promoting a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict if the White House can secure an Israeli settlement [...]

Read the full article →

The case for a tactical pause with Iran

by Paul Woodward 07.30.2009

Make them wait By Trita Parsi, Foreign Policy, July 30, 2009 The Obama administration should avoid repeating the key mistake of the Bush administration, for which Iran was solely viewed through the prism of its nuclear program. Delaying nuclear talks a few months won’t make a dramatic difference to Iran’s nuclear program. It could, however, [...]

Read the full article →

It’s time for the US to declare victory and go home

by Paul Woodward 07.30.2009

It’s time for the US to declare victory and go home By Col. Timothy R. Reese, New York Times, July 30, 2009 As the old saying goes, “guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, [...]

Read the full article →

Clinton moved to halt disclosure of CIA torture evidence, court told

by Paul Woodward 07.30.2009

Clinton moved to halt disclosure of CIA torture evidence, court told By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, July 29, 2009 Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, personally intervened to suppress evidence of CIA collusion in the torture of a British resident, the high court heard today. The dramatic turn emerged as lawyers for Binyam Mohamed, [...]

Read the full article →

Iran hard-liners warn Ahmadinejad he could be deposed

by Paul Woodward 07.29.2009

Iran hard-liners warn Ahmadinejad he could be deposed By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2009 Political hard-liners warned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday that he could be deposed like past Iranian leaders if he continued to defy the country’s supreme religious leader. The implied threat was the latest evidence of the rift within [...]

Read the full article →

Obama faces court test over detainee

by Paul Woodward 07.29.2009

Obama faces court test over detainee By William Glaberson, New York Times, July 29, 2009 The fate of one of the youngest detainees at the Guantánamo Bay prison is emerging as a major test of whether the courts or the president has the final authority over when prisoners there are released. After a federal judge [...]

Read the full article →

Syria key to regional power shift

by Paul Woodward 07.29.2009

Syria key to regional power shift By Mark Levine, Al Jazeera, July 28, 2009 It is hard not to feel like it is déjà vu all over again. A US Middle East peace envoy travels to Damascus and then to Israel in an effort to jump start Israel-Syrian negotiations over a land for peace deal [...]

Read the full article →

Brüno’s so-called ‘terrorist’ speaks out

by Paul Woodward 07.29.2009

Brüno’s so-called ‘terrorist’ speaks out By Ann El Khoury, Pulse, July 29, 2009 Sacha Baron Cohen, who makes low-grade shock comedies such as the moronic Borat, is an unreconstructed zionist. Some friends also find his politics distasteful but acknowledge Cohen’s comedic ‘talents’. I can make no such acknowledgment and have never found his movies or [...]

Read the full article →

After Kurdish vote, Talabani pledges to rebuild party

by Paul Woodward 07.29.2009

After Kurdish vote, Talabani pledges to rebuild party By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post, July 29, 2009 Facing what could prove a turning point in tumultuous Kurdish politics, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani vowed Tuesday that he would lead the revival of his party after a surprisingly successful challenge by opponents in last week’s election led some [...]

Read the full article →

Anti-American Israeli demonstrator: “At some point, Israel will survive and America will fall”

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

Yitzhak Rabin’s killers target Obama By Max Blumenthal, July 28, 2009 In October 1995, Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu appeared before thousands of right-wing demonstrators in Jerusalem’s Zion Square to deliver a stinging denunciation of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Oslo Accords he had signed two years earlier. “Death to Rabin! Nazis! Judenrat!” [...]

Read the full article →

Associating with anyone from the West is dangerous

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

Associating with anyone from the West is dangerous By Laleh Azadi, Middle East Online, July 27, 2009 Associating with anyone from the West is dangerous. In these times, those abroad play a delicate but vital role. Their assistance in disseminating information from Iran is crucial but any form of intervention, be it military (the bombing [...]

Read the full article →

The rise of Ayatollah Moqtada al-Sadr

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

The rise of Ayatollah Moqtada al-Sadr By Barak Rahimi, Foreign Policy, July 27, 2009 When Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was a young seminary student during the country’s Baathist era, he preferred playing video games to attending theological courses. Now several years and a U.S. occupation later, that same Sadr is a major Iraqi political figure, [...]

Read the full article →

A century of frenzy over the North-West Frontier

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

A century of frenzy over the North-West Frontier By Juan Cole, TomDispatch, July 27, 2009 Despite being among the poorest people in the world, the inhabitants of the craggy northwest of what is now Pakistan have managed to throw a series of frights into distant Western capitals for more than a century. That’s certainly one [...]

Read the full article →

Cheney’s plans for a military coup

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

Cheney’s plans for a military coup By Scott Horton, Harper’s, July 27, 2009 On Saturday, Mark Mazetti and David Johnston of the New York Times, quoting sources close to former President Bush, revealed that former Vice President Dick Cheney had advocated deploying the military for domestic policing purposes. Bush apparently declined to take Cheney’s advice. [...]

Read the full article →

U.S. citizens wrongly detained, deported by ICE

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

U.S. citizens wrongly detained, deported by ICE By Tyche Hendricks, San Francisco Chronicle, July 27, 2009 The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a U.S. citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months. Veloz had to prove his [...]

Read the full article →

“I am both Muslim and Christian”

by Paul Woodward 07.28.2009

“I am both Muslim and Christian” By Janet I Tu, Seattle Times, June 17, 2009 Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill. On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest. She does [...]

Read the full article →

The effort to “Judaize” Jerusalem is a campaign of ethnic cleansing

by Paul Woodward 07.27.2009

The effort to “Judaize” Jerusalem is a campaign of ethnic cleansing By Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, July 27, 2009 Netanyahu does not care so much whether people believe him or not. This week, like every other week since he returned to power, he was fully occupied with survival. In order to survive, the coalition must remain [...]

Read the full article →

Women in Gaza

by Paul Woodward 07.27.2009

Women choosing to be By Rana Shubair, Open Democracy, July 22, 2009 There are many twists in the fate of Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, but in Palestine as a whole. They are all significant steps in the one million mile journey of my people. Gaza, not more than 360 square kilometres, may be [...]

Read the full article →

Ahmadinejad seen as increasingly vulnerable since re-election

by Paul Woodward 07.27.2009

Ahmadinejad seen as increasingly vulnerable since re-election By Robert F Worth and Nazila Fathi, New York Times, July 27, 2009 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran dismissed his intelligence minister on Sunday and his culture minister resigned, the latest fallout of a bitter dispute among conservatives that has exposed Mr. Ahmadinejad’s vulnerability in the aftermath of [...]

Read the full article →

Meet the Taliban’s new leader

by Paul Woodward 07.27.2009

America’s new nightmare By Ron Moreau, Newsweek, July 25, 2009 In all likelihood, you’ve never heard of Mullah Baradar. The only Taliban leader most people know is Mullah Mohammed Omar, the unworldly, one-eyed village preacher who held the grand title amir-ul-momineen—”leader of the faithful”—when he ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Omar remains a high-value [...]

Read the full article →

Worries about a Kurdish-Arab conflict move to fore in Iraq

by Paul Woodward 07.27.2009

Worries about a Kurdish-Arab conflict move to fore in Iraq By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post, July 27, 2009 Louis Khno is a city councilman whose city is beyond his control. In his barricaded streets are militiamen — in baseball caps and jeans, wielding Kalashnikov rifles, with the safeties switched off. They answer to someone else. [...]

Read the full article →

Assiya Rafiq stands up for women in Pakistan

by Paul Woodward 07.27.2009

Not a victim, but a hero By Nicholas D Kristof, New York Times, July 26, 2009 (An update from Nicholas Kristof, July 28.) After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries