August 2009

With Iran — slower, please!

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Under pressure from hawks, Obama tacks to the right By Daniel Luban, IPS, August 12, 2009 In the face of mounting pressure from hawks in Washington and the continued threat of military action from Israel, the Barack Obama Administration has been taking a harder line in its latest pronouncements about Iran. Recent media reports have [...]

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The Palestinians aren’t suckers, either

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

The Palestinians aren’t suckers, either By Larry Derfner, Jerusalem Post, August 12, 2009 Look at that Mahmoud Abbas – another Palestinian who never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Here Binyamin Netanyahu has accepted the two-state solution, he’s offering to negotiate peace without preconditions, and all Abbas can say is nyet. He’s waiting for [...]

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A window into CIA’s embrace of secret jails

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

A window into CIA’s embrace of secret jails By David Johnston and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, August 13, 2009 In March 2003, two C.I.A. officials surprised Kyle D. Foggo, then the chief of the agency’s main European supply base, with an unusual request. They wanted his help building secret prisons to hold some of [...]

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Israeli diplomat just doing his job

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Israeli diplomat just doing his job By H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe, August 13, 2009 In the practice of diplomacy it is not enough simply to represent your country abroad or to put its policies in the best light possible. It is not enough to give speeches and throw a party on your country’s national day. [...]

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Is Karzai in trouble?

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Is Karzai in trouble? By Jean Mackenzie, Foreign Policy, August 6, 2009 Afghanistan should, perhaps, be called the “graveyard of expectations.” Every time the shrewd analyst thinks he knows what is going to happen, the picture shifts. The country’s presidential election, scheduled for August 20, is no exception. Just a few weeks ago, pundits were [...]

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Iran opposition leader decries ‘show trials,’ prisoner treatment

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Iran opposition leader decries ‘show trials,’ prisoner treatment By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2009 Iran’s legal system came under fresh criticism Wednesday amid allegations of prisoner abuse and controversy over televised courtroom confessions, decried as “show trials” by domestic and international critics. The country’s leading opposition figurehead and a prominent conservative, both [...]

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How America is funding corruption in Pakistan

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

How America is funding corruption in Pakistan By Azeem Ibrahim, Foreign Policy, August 11, 2009 “When [Musharraf] looks me in the eye and says, … ‘there won’t be a Taliban and won’t be al Qaeda,’ I believe him, you know?” So said George W. Bush of then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in September 2006. The [...]

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Obama officials to tour Michigan prison

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Obama officials to tour Michigan prison By Tim Martin, AP, August 13, 2009 Obama administration officials plan on Thursday to tour a soon-to-be-shuttered Michigan state prison considered an option to hold terrorism suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Two government officials said representatives of the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security departments would visit [...]

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Cheney uncloaks his frustration with Bush

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Cheney uncloaks his frustration with Bush By Barton Gellman, Washington Post, August 13, 2009 In his first few months after leaving office, former vice president Richard B. Cheney threw himself into public combat against the “far left” agenda of the new commander in chief. More private reflections, as his memoir takes shape in slashing longhand [...]

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Target of Obama-era rendition alleges torture

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Target of Obama-era rendition alleges torture By Scott Horton, Huffington Post, August 11, 2009 During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama sharply criticized the Bush Administration’s extraordinary renditions program. “To build a better, freer world, we must first behave in ways that reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people,” he wrote in Foreign [...]

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Has Kandahar already fallen?

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Has Kandahar already fallen? By Erica Gaston, Huffington Post, August 10, 2009 In a week where security in Afghanistan seems headed anywhere but up (rocket strikes on Kabul, a Taliban frontal assault in Logar province today), the question on many a commentator’s lips has been: where is this all going? Some of the strongest analysis [...]

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Pakistan denies militants attacked nuclear sites

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Pakistan denies militants attacked nuclear sites AP, August 12, 2009 A military spokesman denied a recent report that militants have attacked Pakistan’s nuclear facilities three times in two years, saying Wednesday there is “absolutely no chance” the country’s atomic weapons could fall into terrorist hands. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said an article written by a [...]

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Climate disobedience

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Climate disobedience By Mark Engler, TomDispatch, August 11, 2009 In the early morning of October 8, 2007, a small group of British Greenpeace activists slipped inside a hulking smokestack that towers more than 600 feet above a coal-fired power plant in Kent, England. While other activists cut electricity on the plant’s grounds, they prepared to [...]

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Iran roiled by prison abuse claims

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Iran roiled by prison abuse claims By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, August 12, 2009 Nearly a month later, she can’t erase images of the dying young man from her mind. All but two of his upper teeth had been knocked out. His nails had been pulled out. His head had been bashed in. His [...]

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Israel’s threats to Lebanon only boost Hezbollah

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Israel’s threats to Lebanon only boost Hezbollah By Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, August 11, 2009 Which Lebanon exactly does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold responsible for every Hezbollah action? Two months following the elections, Lebanon still has no government. The prime minister-designate, Sa’ad Hariri, just returned on Monday from a vacation in the south of France, [...]

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Rabbis fight flu pandemic on a wing and a prayer

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Rabbis fight flu pandemic on a wing and a prayer Reuters, August 11, 2009 Dozens of rabbis and Kabbalah mystics armed with ceremonial trumpets have taken to the skies over Israel to battle the H1N1 flu virus, Israeli media said on Tuesday. About 50 Jewish holy men chanted prayers and blew ritual rams’ horns known [...]

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Shiites in Iraq show restraint as Sunnis keep attacking

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Shiites in Iraq show restraint as Sunnis keep attacking By Rod Nordland, New York Times, August 12, 2009 Shiite clerics and politicians have been successfully urging their followers not to retaliate against a fierce campaign of sectarian bombings, in which Shiites have accounted for most of the 566 Iraqis killed since American troops pulled out [...]

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Officials see rise in militia groups across US

by Paul Woodward 08.12.2009

Officials see rise in militia groups across US By Eileen Sullivan, AP, August 12, 2009 ilitia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends. The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are [...]

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Israel clouds Obama’s nuclear summit

by Paul Woodward 08.11.2009

Israel clouds Obama’s nuclear summit By Josh Gerstein, Politico, August 11, 2009 President Barack Obama’s call for a nuclear security summit next March could end up turning an uncomfortable spotlight on at least one nation — Israel — and further strain the administration’s relations with the Jewish state, analysts said. Obama told leaders at the [...]

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The two-state solution doesn’t solve anything

by Paul Woodward 08.11.2009

The two-state solution doesn’t solve anything By Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, New York Times, August 11, 2009 The two-state solution has welcomed two converts. In recent weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, have indicated they now accept what they had long rejected. This nearly [...]

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Karzai offers rival top Cabinet post in effort to avoid election defeat

by Paul Woodward 08.11.2009

Karzai offers rival top Cabinet post in effort to avoid election defeat By Tom Coghlan and Jeremy Page, The Times, August 11, 2009 One of the three main contenders in Afghanistan’s presidential election admitted yesterday that he had been offered a power-sharing deal by President Karzai in an apparent attempt to sideline the other leading [...]

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Iranian lawmakers demand say on cabinet, hinting at a rift among hard-liners

by Paul Woodward 08.11.2009

Iranian lawmakers demand say on cabinet, hinting at a rift among hard-liners By Robert F Worth and Nazila Fathi, New York Times, August 11, 2009 A bout 200 conservative Iranian lawmakers signed a letter on Monday calling on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to consult them about cabinet appointments, the latest sign of a struggle among hard-liners [...]

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Iraq attacks raise fears of renewed ethnic tensions

by Paul Woodward 08.11.2009

Iraq attacks raise fears of renewed ethnic tensions By Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2009 A string of bombings in northern Iraq and Baghdad that has killed at least 112 people in the last several days, including 60 on Monday, has raised fears that insurgent groups are embarking on a sustained attempt to [...]

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Judge: CIA interrogations not relevant to 9/11 accused’s sanity

by Paul Woodward 08.11.2009

Judge: CIA interrogations not relevant to 9/11 accused’s sanity By Carol Rsenberg, Miami Herald, August 10, 2009 US military defense lawyers for accused 9/11 conspirator Ramzi bin al Shibh cannot learn what interrogation techniques CIA agents used on the Yemeni before he was moved to Guantánamo to be tried as a terrorist, an Army judge [...]

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