September 2009

How to put pressure on Netanyahu

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

How to put pressure on Netanyahu By Pierre Razoux, New York Times, September 15, 2009 Faced with the Israeli prime minister’s delaying tactics, President Obama, who has displayed both determination and extreme caution on this issue, is well aware that he may not be able to reduce the financial aid or lay so much as [...]

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‘Nuclear-free zone impossible in anti-Israel Mideast’

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

‘Nuclear-free zone impossible in anti-Israel Mideast’ By Yossi Melman and Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, September 15, 2009 [Shaul Chorev, chairman of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, in an address to the International Atomic Energy Association in Vienna] stressed that in order for the Middle East to function as a nuclear-free zone, the Arab states in the region [...]

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Who’s afraid of a terrorist haven?

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

Who’s afraid of a terrorist haven? By Paul R. Pillar, Washington Post, September 16, 2009 Rationales for maintaining the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan are varied and complex, but they all center on one key tenet: that Afghanistan must not be allowed to again become a haven for terrorist groups, especially al-Qaeda. Debate about Afghanistan has raised [...]

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Afghanistan’s other front

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

Afghanistan’s other front By Joseph Kearns Goodwin, New York Times, September 16, 2009 Allegations of ballot-stuffing in the presidential election in Afghanistan last month are now so widespread that a recount is necessary, and perhaps even a runoff. Yet this electoral chicanery pales in comparison to the systemic, day-to-day corruption within the administration of President [...]

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Iran arrests children of dissident clerics

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

Iran arrests children of dissident clerics By Nazila Fathi, New York Times, September 16, 2009 Authorities in Iran have arrested at least seven children and grandchildren of senior clerics in the religious city of Qum and threatened to arrest the son of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful cleric and a former president, in what [...]

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Is Bagram Obama’s new secret prison?

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

Is Bagram Obama’s new secret prison? By Andy Worthington, Antiwar.com, September 16, 2009 On Monday, one day after the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was planning to introduce tribunals for the prisoners held in the U.S. prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, the reason for the specifically timed leaks [...]

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Me talk presidential one day

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

Me talk presidential one day By Matt Latimer, GQ, October, 2009 If my colleagues at the White House were even momentarily scared straight about McCain over the convention fracas, the clarity wore off just as quickly as it came when the very conservative governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, was picked as McCain’s running mate. I [...]

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Israel’s war against human rights

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

UN: Evidence Israeli ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ a ‘result of deliberate planning and policy decisions’ By Sharon Otterman, New York Times, September 15, 2009 A United Nations fact-finding mission investigating the three-week war in Gaza issued a lengthy, scathing report [PDF] on Tuesday that concluded that both the Israeli military and Palestinian armed [...]

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Withdrawal without winning?

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

Withdrawal without winning? By Robert Jervis, Foreign Policy, September 14, 2009 Most discussion about Afghanistan has concentrated on whether and how we can defeat the Taliban. Less attention has been paid to the probable consequences of a withdrawal without winning, an option toward which I incline. What is most striking is not that what I [...]

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UN chief Peter Galbraith is removed in Afghanistan poll clash

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

UN chief Peter Galbraith is removed in Afghanistan poll clash By James Bone, Jerome Starkey and Tom Coghlan, The Times, September 15, 2009 America’s top diplomat at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan has been ordered out of the country after a row with his boss over how to respond to last month’s fraud-riddled presidential [...]

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U.S. kills top Qaeda militant in southern Somalia

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

U.S. kills top Qaeda militant in southern Somalia By Jeffrey Gettleman and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, September 15, 2009 American commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia on Monday, according to American and Somali officials, an indication of the Obama administration’s willingness to [...]

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Iran agrees to meeting on nuclear program

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

Iran agrees to meeting on nuclear program By Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2009 The Obama administration, hoping to persuade Tehran to curtail its nuclear program and initiate a dialogue that focuses on other issues, will have its first formal meeting since it took office with Iran on Oct. 1. The four other [...]

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Terror group builds big base under Pakistani officials’ noses

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

Terror group builds big base under Pakistani officials’ noses By Saeed Shah, McClatchy, September 13, 2009 A Pakistani terrorist group that’s allied with al Qaida and sends jihadists to Afghanistan to fight U.S. and government troops is building a huge new base in full view of the authorities in Pakistan’s most heavily populated province, locals [...]

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Iraqi shoe thrower says he was tortured in jail

by Paul Woodward 09.15.2009

Iraqi shoe thrower says he was tortured in jail By Marc Santori, New York Times, September 15, 2009 Hours after his release from prison, the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush said that he had been tortured while in jail, and his family said that he would flee Iraq, [...]

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The point of no return

by Paul Woodward 09.14.2009

The point of no return By Sever Plocker, Ynet, September 9, 2009 Let’s just ask ourselves what would have happened in Israel itself without what is known as the “settlement enterprise.” Where would another half a million women, children, and men live within the 1967 borders? How many new towns, neighborhoods, and communities would have [...]

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Obama’s tough choice on Iran

by Paul Woodward 09.14.2009

Obama’s tough choice on Iran By Tony Karon, Time, September 13, 2009 The U.S. and its allies are not saying Iran is currently developing nuclear weapons; they’re warning that allowing Iran to assemble the full nuclear fuel cycle to which it is entitled as a signatory of the Non Proliferation Treaty — particularly uranium enrichment [...]

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A somber warning on Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 09.14.2009

A somber warning on Afghanistan By Alison Small, New York Times, September 14, 2009 Western powers now in Afghanistan run the risk of suffering the fate of the Soviet Union there if they cannot halt the growing insurgency and an Afghan perception that they are foreign invaders, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former U.S. national [...]

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Obama’s squandered summer

by Paul Woodward 09.13.2009

Obama’s squandered summer By Frank Rich, New York Times, September 13, 2009 … health care reform, while an overdue imperative, still is overshadowed in existential urgency by the legacies of the two devastating cataclysms of the Bush years, 9/11 and 9/15, both of whose anniversaries we now mark. The crucial matters left unresolved in the [...]

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Rethinking our Iran strategy

by Paul Woodward 09.13.2009

Rethinking our Iran strategy By Robin Wright and Robert Litwak, Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2009 Three decades of assumptions about Iran — including the premises behind Washington’s recent outreach to Tehran — have been transformed by its stunning uprising. It’s time for a policy rethink. The Obama administration’s offer to engage was the right [...]

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Dismantling the matrix of control

by Paul Woodward 09.13.2009

Dismantling the matrix of control By Jeff Halper, MERIP, September 11, 2009 Many Palestinian, Israeli and international proponents of a just peace took heart in Obama’s early gestures. Beginning with the appointment of former Sen. George Mitchell as special envoy and continuing through the president’s June 4 speech in Cairo, these proponents allowed themselves, after [...]

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Al-Qaida faces recruitment crisis, anti-terrorism experts say

by Paul Woodward 09.13.2009

Al-Qaida faces recruitment crisis, anti-terrorism experts say By Ian Black and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, September 10, 2009 Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida is under heavy pressure in its strongholds in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas and is finding it difficult to attract recruits or carry out spectacular operations in western countries, according to government and independent [...]

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‘I told the US to talk to the Taliban. They jailed me’

by Paul Woodward 09.13.2009

‘I told the US to talk to the Taliban. They jailed me’ By Kim Sengupta, The Independent, September 12, 2009 He was the man they called the mullah with a human face, the internet mullah, or the Rudolph Hess of the Taliban. Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil was the Taliban’s foreign minister. It was he who in [...]

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How Islamist gangs use internet to track, torture and kill Iraqi gays

by Paul Woodward 09.13.2009

How Islamist gangs use internet to track, torture and kill Iraqi gays By Afif Sarhan and Jason Burke, The Observer, September 13, 2009 Sitting on the floor, wearing traditional Islamic clothes and holding an old notebook, Abu Hamizi, 22, spends at least six hours a day searching internet chatrooms linked to gay websites. He is [...]

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U.S. accepts offer from Tehran for broad talks

by Paul Woodward 09.12.2009

U.S. accepts offer from Tehran for broad talks By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, September 12, 2009 The United States has decided to ignore Iran’s refusal to discuss its nuclear program and instead accept a vague Iranian plan for talks on security issues as the opening gambit to draw Tehran into real negotiation. The effort to [...]

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