September 2009

The path to peace is hard to find on Obama’s ‘roadmapolis’

by Paul Woodward 09.07.2009

The path to peace is hard to find on Obama’s ‘roadmapolis’ By Tony Karon, The National, September 5, 2009 President Bush’s “road map” first emerged as the US began preparing to invade Iraq. Key Arab regimes had long made clear to Washington that the price of even tacit support for the war was American willingness [...]

Read the full article →

The Afghanistan abyss

by Paul Woodward 09.07.2009

The Afghanistan abyss By Nicholas D Kristoff, New York Times, September 6, 2009 President Obama has already dispatched an additional 21,000 American troops to Afghanistan and soon will decide whether to send thousands more. That would be a fateful decision for his presidency, and a group of former intelligence officials and other experts is now [...]

Read the full article →

China oil deal is new source of strife among Iraqis

by Paul Woodward 09.07.2009

China oil deal is new source of strife among Iraqis By Timothy Williams, New York Times, September 6, 2009 When China’s biggest oil company signed the first post-invasion oil field development contract in Iraq last year, the deal was seen as a test of Iraq’s willingness to open an industry that had previously prohibited foreign [...]

Read the full article →

Iran canceling major Ramadan events in wake of election protests

by Paul Woodward 09.07.2009

Iran canceling major Ramadan events in wake of election protests By Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post, September 7, 2009 Iranian officials have canceled or downgraded major Shiite religious events during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, suggesting fear that the opposition might use them to stage protests. A typically massive evening celebration scheduled for next weekend [...]

Read the full article →

American power and the fall of modernity

by Paul Woodward 09.05.2009

American power and the fall of modernity — Part I By Michael Vlahos, The Globalist, September 2, 2009 Modernity is still rooted in a framework of state religious nationalism. Yes, modernity made the state the arbiter of identity. For two centuries and more, collective belonging and meaning has been a state enterprise. In the great [...]

Read the full article →

Israel to build new houses in settlements

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

Israel to build new houses in settlements By Matti Friedman, AP, September, 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will approve hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before slowing settlement construction, two of his aides said Friday, in an apparent snub of Washington’s public demand for a total settlement freeze. The aides also said [...]

Read the full article →

The best Congress AIPAC can buy

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

The best Congress AIPAC can buy By Philip Giraldi, Antiwar.com, September 3, 2009 Many Americans who thought that the health care debate was important must have wondered where their congressmen were in early August during the first two weeks of the House of Representatives recess. It turns out they were not hosting town hall meetings [...]

Read the full article →

A seven-step program to return America to a quieter, less muscular, patriotism

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

A seven-step program to return America to a quieter, less muscular, patriotism By William Astore, TomDispatch, September 3, 2009 It’s time to stop deferring to our generals, and even to their commander-in-chief. They’re ours, after all; we’re not theirs. When President Obama says Afghanistan is not a war of choice but of necessity, we shouldn’t [...]

Read the full article →

Advisers to Obama divided on size of Afghan force

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

Advisers to Obama divided on size of Afghan force By Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, September 4, 2009 The military’s anticipated request for more troops to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan has divided senior advisers to President Obama as they try to determine the proper size and mission of the American effort [...]

Read the full article →

Ahmadinejad wins approval of key cabinet slots

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

Ahmadinejad wins approval of key cabinet slots By Michael Slackman, New York Times, September 4, 2009 Iran’s Parliament approved all but three of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 21 nominees for his cabinet on Thursday, handing a victory to the beleaguered president, who now has close allies overseeing the crucial oil, interior and intelligence ministries. Iran’s new [...]

Read the full article →

Did Isreaelis intercept a ship loaded with missiles?

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

Did Isreaelis intercept a ship loaded with missiles? By Alexander Marquardt, ABC News, September 2, 2009 “You can easily hide an alley of cruise missiles under a lumber stockpile,” Kouts told an Estonian newspaper two weeks ago, and the Russian maritime expert who broke the story on Aug. 8 of the ship’s disappearance agrees with [...]

Read the full article →

Shaker Aamer’s long wait for justice

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2009

Shaker Aamer’s long wait for justice By Moazzam Begg, The Guardian, September 4, 2009 Imagine, gathered under one roof, over a dozen men who were once regarded as the most dangerous people on the planet – and a man who once guarded them, breaking their Ramadan fast together with lords and baronesses, poets and writers, [...]

Read the full article →

GOP support may be vital to Obama on Afghan war

by Paul Woodward 09.03.2009

GOP support may be vital to Obama on Afghan war By Helene Cooper, New York Times, September 3, 2009 As President Obama prepares to decide whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, the political climate appears increasingly challenging for him, leaving him in the awkward position of relying on the Republican Party, and not his [...]

Read the full article →

CIA doctors face human experimentation claims

by Paul Woodward 09.03.2009

CIA doctors face human experimentation claims By Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, September 2, 2009 Doctors and psychologists the CIA employed to monitor its “enhanced interrogation” of terror suspects came close to, and may even have committed, unlawful human experimentation, a medical ethics watchdog has alleged. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a not-for-profit group that has [...]

Read the full article →

A nuclear deadline looms for Iran — and for Obama

by Paul Woodward 09.03.2009

A nuclear deadline looms for Iran — and for Obama By Tony Karon, Time, September 3, 2009 President Barack Obama took office promising to pursue a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, but so far, he’s gotten little out of Tehran. So little, in fact, that the President has given Iran a [...]

Read the full article →

Norway fund expels Israel firm for barrier work

by Paul Woodward 09.03.2009

Norway fund expels Israel firm for barrier work Reuters, September 3, 2009 Norway’s $400 billion-plus wealth fund has excluded Israeli company Elbit Systems (ESLT.TA) for supplying surveillance equipment for the separation barrier in the West Bank, the government said on Thursday. “We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of [...]

Read the full article →

How the Taliban are winning the war

by Paul Woodward 09.02.2009

Warlord’s defection shows Afghan risk By Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2009 Ghulam Yahya, a former mayor of this ancient city along the Silk Road, battled the Taliban for years and worked hand in hand with Western officials to rebuild the country’s industrial hub. Now, Mr. Yahya is firing rockets at the Herat [...]

Read the full article →

Afghan tribal leaders call for Karzai to quit after detailing election fraud

by Paul Woodward 09.02.2009

Afghan tribal leaders call for Karzai to quit after detailing election fraud By James Hider, The Times, September 2, 2009 Hundreds of tribal elders and officials from southern Afghanistan gathered in Kabul yesterday to protest against alleged electoral fraud that robbed entire districts of their votes and allocated them to President Karzai. In a string [...]

Read the full article →

Liberation, not a fictitious Palestinian “state”

by Paul Woodward 09.02.2009

Liberation, not a fictitious Palestinian “state” By Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, September 2, 2009 Late last month, Salam Fayyad, the appointed Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister in Ramallah, made a surprise announcement: he declared his intention to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip before the end [...]

Read the full article →

How the US Congress plans on supporting the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

by Paul Woodward 09.02.2009

Buying American in Tehran By Jerry Guo, New York Times, September 2, 2009 American sanctions against this country are not only obviously ineffective, … they often have unintended consequences that hurt American interests. President George W. Bush’s 2005 sanctions on financial assets, meant to crack down on rogue banks facilitating Iran’s nuclear program, had two [...]

Read the full article →

Is the war in Afghanistan in the interests of the United States and its allies?

by Paul Woodward 09.01.2009

Is the war in Afghanistan in the interests of the United States and its allies? By Major Jeremy Kotkin, Small Wars Journal, August 30, 2009 Operation Enduring Freedom [OEF], through the lens of vital national interests, was largely won but for some inexplicable reason we have not realized it. What is worse, we allowed our [...]

Read the full article →

Fifteen minutes of hate in Silwan

by Paul Woodward 09.01.2009

Fifteen minutes of hate in Silwan By Meron Rapoport, The Guardian, August 31, 2009 It’s searing hot, but there’s some pleasantness about the stone-flagged path rising from the centre of Silwan, Jerusalem. Maybe it’s the breeze, or the stone houses oozing coolness into the air, or maybe it’s the wide-open mountain landscape. There are three [...]

Read the full article →

The real winner of Afghanistan’s election

by Paul Woodward 09.01.2009

The real winner of Afghanistan’s election By Hillary Mann Leverett, Foreign Policy, August 31, 2009 The real winner of Afghanistan’s presidential election will not be Hamid Karzai or his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah. It’s a man named Mohammad Qasim Fahim. He is Afghanistan’s senior-most military commander, with the lifetime rank of marshal, and was Karzai’s [...]

Read the full article →

Once-legendary Fatah figure makes a comeback

by Paul Woodward 09.01.2009

Once-legendary Fatah figure makes a comeback By Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2009 He ran the Gaza Strip like the Godfather, dispensing brutal punishment and benevolent largess. But that was before his summer of disgrace, two years ago, when Hamas militants drove out his armed followers and allowed looters to pick apart his [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →