July 2009

Ahmadinejad defies ayatollah on vice president

by Paul Woodward 07.22.2009

Ahmadinejad defies ayatollah on vice president By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2009 Iran’s president, under attack by reformists after his disputed election victory last month, on Tuesday openly defied his most powerful backer, refusing an order by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to dump a newly chosen vice president who is despised [...]

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Netanyahu: Israel won’t dismantle West Bank fence

by Paul Woodward 07.22.2009

Netanyahu: Israel won’t dismantle West Bank fence Haaretz, July 22, 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel has no intention of dismantling the West Bank separation fence, which he called “a critical component of Israel’s security.” “The separation fence will remain in place and will not be dismantled,” Netanyahu told Knesset members. Media [...]

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Taliban claims responsibility for new wave of attacks in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 07.22.2009

Taliban claims responsibility for new wave of attacks in Afghanistan By Laura King, Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2009 Sowing security fears less than a month before presidential elections, a wave of gunmen and suicide bombers staged coordinated attacks in two eastern cities Tuesday that killed at least six Afghan security officers and eight of [...]

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Iraq’s reluctant leader emerges as unlikely force

by Paul Woodward 07.22.2009

Iraq’s reluctant leader emerges as unlikely force By Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2009 Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, reluctantly thrust three years ago into a job few expected him to hold onto, arrives in Washington this week as a transformed leader — with widening popularity among Iraqis, grudging respect of some political [...]

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Amnesty accuses Saudi Arabia of ‘gross’ abuses

by Paul Woodward 07.22.2009

Amnesty accuses Saudi Arabia of ‘gross’ abuses By Alan Cowell, New York Times, July 22, 2009 The human rights group Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of using its campaign against terrorism as a facade for “a sustained assault on human rights” and said the rest of the world had failed to hold the [...]

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Revolutionary Guards Corps extends grip over a splintered Iran

by Paul Woodward 07.21.2009

Revolutionary Guards Corps extends grip over a splintered Iran By Michael Slackman, New York Times, July 21, 2009 As Iran’s political elite and clerical establishment splinter over the election crisis, the nation’s most powerful economic, social and political institution — the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — has emerged as a driving force behind efforts to [...]

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Israel weighs confiscation of more Palestinian land

by Paul Woodward 07.21.2009

Israel weighs confiscation of more Palestinian land By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, July 21, 2009 The government is considering confiscating privately-owned Palestinian land near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, contrary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge during his Bar-Ilan speech not to take such actions. This announcement was made by the state prosecutor, in response [...]

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The “swiftboating” of Human Rights Watch

by Paul Woodward 07.21.2009

The “swiftboating” of Human Rights Watch By Daniel Levy, Huffington Post, July 20, 2009 Last week witnessed a concerted attack against the credibility of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), seeking to link supposed fundraising activities in Saudi Arabia with that organization’s criticism (“bias”, according to its detractors) of Israeli practices in the occupied territories, [...]

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Obama’s Gitmo task force blows its deadline

by Paul Woodward 07.21.2009

Obama’s Gitmo task force blows its deadline By Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, July 20, 2009 An Obama administration task force set up to develop a plan for the closure of the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay will miss its first deadline this week—and put off a key report—amid continued divisions over how to resolve one [...]

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US-Israeli tensions

by Paul Woodward 07.20.2009

‘No difference to U.S. between outpost, East Jerusalem construction’ By Akiva Eldar, Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury, Haaretz, July 20, 2009 The United States views East Jerusalem as no different than an illegal West Bank outpost with regard to its demand for a freeze on settlement construction, American sources have informed both Israel and the [...]

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Iran – 7/20

by Paul Woodward 07.20.2009

Khatami seeks referendum By Robert F Worth, New York Times, July 19, 2009 Iran’s reformist former president Mohammad Khatami called Sunday for a referendum on the legitimacy of the government in the wake of last month’s disputed presidential election, Iranian Web sites reported. Mr. Khatami’s comments amounted to a bold challenge to Iran’s supreme leader, [...]

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Pentagon seeks to overhaul prisons in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 07.20.2009

Pentagon seeks to overhaul prisons in Afghanistan By Eric Scmitt, New York Times, July 20, 2009 A sweeping United States military review calls for overhauling the troubled American-run prison here as well as the entire Afghan jail and judicial systems, a reaction to worries that abuses and militant recruiting within the prisons are helping to [...]

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Obama and the Bush years

by Paul Woodward 07.20.2009

Obama and the Bush years By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2009 Whenever he’s asked about the scandals of America’s war on terror — the torture, the wrongful detentions, the legal corners cut — President Obama has responded with some version of this statement: “We have to focus on getting things right in [...]

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Iran – 7/19

by Paul Woodward 07.19.2009

Rafsanjani is seeking the mantle of Khomeini By Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, July 19, 2009 During his decades in Iranian politics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been praised as a pragmatist, criticized as spineless, accused of corruption and dismissed as a has-been. Now, in assailing the government’s handling of last month’s disputed presidential election, [...]

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Jerusalem – 7/19

by Paul Woodward 07.19.2009

Netanyahu: Israel rule over Jerusalem not up for discussion By Barak Ravid, Haaretz, July 19, 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem was not a matter up for discussion. The prime minister’s comments came after the U.S. State Department told Israeli envoy Michael Oren that Israel must halt a construction [...]

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The counter-terrorists – 7/19

by Paul Woodward 07.19.2009

Internal rifts on road to torment By Joby Warrick and Peter Finn, Washington Post, July 19, 2009 In April 2002, as the terrorism suspect known as Abu Zubaida lay in a Bangkok hospital bed, top U.S. counterterrorism officials gathered at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for a series of meetings on an urgent problem: how [...]

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Afghanistan – 7/19

by Paul Woodward 07.19.2009

Americans won’t accept ‘long slog’ in Afghanistan war, Gates says By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2009 After eight years, U.S.-led forces must show progress in Afghanistan by next summer to avoid the public perception that the conflict has become unwinnable, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a sharp critique of [...]

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Iran – 7/18

by Paul Woodward 07.18.2009

Iranian protesters galvanized by sermon By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2009 A sermon by powerful cleric and opposition supporter Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reignited Iran’s simmering protest movement Friday, heartening thousands of supporters who braved tear gas and club-wielding militiamen to march and chant slogans across Tehran. In [...]

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US intelligence – 7/18

by Paul Woodward 07.18.2009

House launches investigation into CIA program By Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, July 17, 2009 The House Intelligence Committee said on Friday it was launching a formal investigation into the concealment of a secret CIA program from Congress that one senator said was withheld on orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney. Immediately after the Democrats announced [...]

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US-Middle East – 7/18

by Paul Woodward 07.18.2009

New Hope for Peace: What America Must Do to End the Israel-Palestine Conflict part 1 New Hope for Peace: What America Must Do to End the Israel-Palestine Conflict part 2 Revisiting Obama’s Riyadh meeting By Laura Rozen, Foreign Policy, July 17, 2009 US relations with Saudi Arabia are always something of a proverbial black box. [...]

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Afghanistan-Pakistan – 7/18

by Paul Woodward 07.18.2009

Obama’s war By Tariq Ali, London Review of Books, July 23, 2009 June is never a good month on the plains. It was 46ºC in Fortress Islamabad a fortnight ago. The hundreds of security guards manning roadblocks and barriers were wilting, sweat pouring down their faces as they waved cars and motorbikes through. The evening [...]

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Iraq – 7/18

by Paul Woodward 07.18.2009

Iraq government faces claims of prisoner abuse AP, July 17, 2009 Iraqi officials outraged by the abuse of prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison are trying to contain a scandal of their own as allegations continue to surface of mistreatment inside Iraqi jails. Accounts of Iraqis being beaten with clubs, blindfolded and coerced into [...]

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Iran – 7/17

by Paul Woodward 07.17.2009

Rafsanjani backs tolerance, dialogue By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2009 Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s premier power broker and a force behind opposition figurehead Mir-Hossein Mousavi, took the podium for Friday prayers today for the first time in eight weeks, urging tolerance and dialogue but acknowledging that the disputed election results [...]

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US-Middle East – 7/17

by Paul Woodward 07.17.2009

Obama, Foxman and Israel’s purpose By Tony Karon, Rootless Cosmopolitan, July 16, 2009 Abe Foxman, President of the Anti-Defamation League and a stalwart cheerleader for Israel in Washington, has been worried about President Barack Obama ever since the new Administration took office. When Obama named Senator George Mitchell as his Mideast envoy, Foxman actually complained [...]

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