December 2009

Obama’s bloody re-election calculus

by Paul Woodward 12.11.2009

Obama’s bloody re-election calculus By Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason, Foreign Policy, December 10, 2009 Obama’s new “strategy” is no strategy at all. It is a cynical and politically motivated rehash of Iraq policy: Toss in a few more troops, throw together something resembling local security forces, buy off the enemies, and get [...]

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Israel expresses anger at new Palestine food labels

by Paul Woodward 12.11.2009

Israel expresses anger at new Palestine food labels By Valerie Elliott, The Times, December 12, 2009 Labels will soon show whether food from the West Bank, such as strawberries, dates and olives, comes from Palestinian farms or Israeli settlements, to give buyers a clearer choice. Supermarkets and other retailers have decided to follow controversial new [...]

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Blackwater guards tied to secret CIA raids

by Paul Woodward 12.11.2009

Blackwater guards tied to secret CIA raids By James Risen and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, December 11, 2009 Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, [...]

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Beleaguered Iraqi leader puts off Gates meeting

by Paul Woodward 12.11.2009

Beleaguered Iraqi leader puts off Gates meeting By Elisabeth Bumiller and Marc Santori, New York Times, December 11, 2009 Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived here on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, but the prime minister said he was too busy to see Mr. Gates because he had to defend himself [...]

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In Iran, protests gaining a radical tinge

by Paul Woodward 12.11.2009

In Iran, protests gaining a radical tinge By Robert F Worth, New York Times, December 11, 2009 In the video, one of hundreds filmed during Iran’s nationwide demonstrations on Monday, an enraged woman’s voice can be heard as a paramilitary truck runs a motorbike off the road amid a crowd of fleeing protesters. “This is [...]

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How America won the Nobel Peace Prize

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2009

How America won the Nobel Peace Prize By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 10, 2009 Having been nominated for the peace prize after only ten days in office; having spent the previous three weeks as a president-elect who silently monitored the slaughter in Gaza; and having just assumed the role of commander-in-chief in two [...]

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The US cash behind extremist settlers

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2009

The US cash behind extremist settlers By Andrew Kadi and Aaron Levitt, The Guardian, December 8, 2009 Last month, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organisation called the Hebron Fund, which supports Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied city of Hebron, held a fundraiser at the New York Mets’ stadium, Citi Field. The fundraiser went forward despite calls for [...]

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Iran accuses U.S. and Saudis of kidnapping a nuclear scientist

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2009

Iran accuses U.S. and Saudis of kidnapping a nuclear scientist By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2009 Iran’s top diplomat accused the United States and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday of kidnapping one of its nuclear scientists. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters that Shahram Amiri, who worked for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, disappeared [...]

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Baghdad bombs kill 127 as Iraq vote is set

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2009

Baghdad bombs kill 127 as Iraq vote is set By Ned Parker, Raheem Salman and Usama Redha, Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2009 As Iraqi officials prepared to announce a date for delayed national elections, car bombs detonated Tuesday at government buildings and in crowded Baghdad streets, killing at least 127 people and wounding nearly [...]

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Hundreds of women lead protest in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2009

Hundreds of women lead protest in Afghanistan By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2009 Several hundred women, many holding aloft pictures of relatives killed by drug lords or Taliban militants, held a loud but nonviolent street protest today, demanding that President Hamid Karzai purge from his government anyone connected to corruption, war crimes [...]

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McChrystal’s stovepipe operation

by Paul Woodward 12.09.2009

McChrystal’s stovepipe operation By Mark Perry, Asia Times, December 10, 2009 President Barack Obama’s national address last Tuesday not only detailed the United States’ strategy on Afghanistan, it laid bare his new administration’s strengths and weaknesses – and confirmed the growing suspicion that, eight years after September 11, 2001, meeting America’s global challenges with a [...]

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The New York Times and the war

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Pakistan and the war Editorial, New York Times, December 8, 2009 In his speech last week, Mr. Obama laid down a marker for Islamabad, declaring “we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists whose location is known and whose intentions are clear.” In private, administration officials have been even more explicit, warning Pakistani leaders that [...]

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Taliban prepare to return to power

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Taliban shadow officials offer concrete alternative By Griff Witte, Washington Post, December 8, 2009 Like nearly all provinces in Afghanistan, this one has two governors. The first was appointed by President Hamid Karzai and is backed by thousands of U.S. troops. He governs this mountainous eastern Afghan province by day, cutting the ribbons on new [...]

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Israel must unpick its ethnic myth

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Israel must unpick its ethnic myth By Tony Judt, Financial Times, December 7, 2009 What exactly is “Zionism”? Its core claim was always that Jews represent a common and single people; that their millennia-long dispersion and suffering has done nothing to diminish their distinctive, collective attributes; and that the only way they can live freely [...]

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What the U.S. elite really thinks about Israel

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

What the U.S. elite really thinks about Israel By Jeffrey Blankfort, Counterpunch, December 7, 2009 The Council on Foreign Relations is always near the top of the Left’s list of bogeymen that stand accused of pulling the strings of US foreign policy. It is right up there with the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission, [...]

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The interview Ha’aretz doesn’t want you to see

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

The interview Ha’aretz doesn’t want you to see Pulse, December 6, 2009 Rehaviya Berman conducted an interview with Ali Abunimah, for Ha’aretz, a few weeks ago. The Interview was never published. Berman decided to publish it on his blog [Hebrew] and I decided to translate it, for your reading pleasure: Exclusive: One On One with [...]

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Iran is no existential threat

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Iran is no existential threat By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, Foreign Policy, December 4, 2009 After months of halfhearted, fruitless attempts at engagement, the United States and its European partners are effectively re-enacting George W. Bush’s Iran policy. In 2006, after Iran had ended a nearly two-year voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment, then-U.S. [...]

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Is Turkey the only real country in the Middle East?

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Is Turkey the only real country in the Middle East? By Rami G. Khouri, The Palestine Note, December 7, 2009 Every time I visit Turkey I ask myself what is it that makes me marvel at the many political and economic developments that make it stand out as the most impressive country in the greater [...]

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Was Russian secret service behind leak of climate-change emails?

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Was Russian secret service behind leak of climate-change emails? By Shaun Walker, The Independent, December 7, 2009 The leaked emails, Professor van Ypersele said, will fuel scepticism about climate change and may make agreement harder at Copenhagen. So the mutterings have prompted the question: why would Russia have an interest in scuppering the Copenhagen talks? [...]

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U.S. man accused of helping plot Mumbai attack

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

U.S. man accused of helping plot Mumbai attack By Ginger Thompson and David Johnston, New York Times, December 8, 2009 An American at the center of an international terrorism investigation has been charged with helping plot the 2008 rampage in Mumbai, India, that left 163 people dead, according to a Justice Department complaint unsealed on [...]

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After delays, deal set on Iraq election law

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

After delays, deal set on Iraq election law By Marc Santora and Riyadh Mohammed, New York Times, December 7, 2009 Lawmakers pulled Iraq back from the brink of a constitutional crisis on Sunday night, brokering a last-minute compromise that will allow for the first national elections since 2005. A deal on the election law has [...]

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The third Viva Palestina Gaza convoy leaves London

by Paul Woodward 12.07.2009

“What Viva Palestina have achieved on their previous convoys has been incredible. Not only did they break the siege on Gaza, but they brought much needed aid, and solidarity on a massive international scale. The efforts of everyone from right across the world who took part in the previous convoy’s by giving up their time [...]

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Obama wanted a surge, he’s getting a surge, and it feels good

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

Obama wanted a surge, he’s getting a surge, and it feels good By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 6, 2009 Mine might not be a headline the New York Times would choose, but that’s the story they tell under their flatly descriptive: “How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan.” The narrative reads [...]

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Separatists, Islamists and Islamabad struggle for control of Pakistani Balochistan

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

Separatists, Islamists and Islamabad struggle for control of Pakistani Balochistan By Chris Zambelis, Jamestown Foundation, December 3, 2009 To say that the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in October 2001 shook Pakistan to its core would be an understatement. Since then, the war in Afghanistan has spilled over into Pakistan on multiple levels. The [...]

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