January 2010

Aftershock hits Haiti; U.S. troops guard convoys in Port-au-Prince

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2010

Aftershock hits Haiti; U.S. troops guard convoys in Port-au-Prince By William Booth and Scott Wilson, Washington Post, January 20, 2010 A massive aftershock jolted awake thousands of earthquake victims and relief workers in this ravaged capital early Wednesday, sparking new cries of fear and sorrow even as an enormous international aid effort continued. [continued...] U.S. [...]

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The crime of not “looking backward”

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2010

The crime of not “looking backward” By Glenn Greenwald, Salon, January 19, 2010 The single biggest lie in War on Terror revisionist history is that our torture was confined only to a handful of “high-value” prisoners. New credible reports of torture continuously emerge. That’s because America implemented and maintained a systematic torture regime spread throughout [...]

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Israel’s effort to silence political protest

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2010

Israel deports US journalist By Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, January 20, 2010 Israeli authorities today deported an American journalist who was working as an editor for a Palestinian news agency. Jared Malsin, who is Jewish and in his late 20s, was detained at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport eight days ago as he returned from [...]

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New wave of warlords bedevils U.S.

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2010

New wave of warlords bedevils U.S. By Matthew Rosenberg, Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2010 In his teen years, Sirajuddin Haqqani was known among friends as a dandy. He cared more about the look of his thick black hair than the battles his father, a mujahideen warlord in the 1980s, was waging with Russia for [...]

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The Muslim Brotherhood: new leadership, old politics

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2010

The Muslim Brotherhood: new leadership, old politics By Fawaz Gerges, The Guardian, January 19, 2010 There is no better way to take the temperature of Arab politics than to examine the state of the Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful religiously-organised opposition movement in Egypt and the Arab world. With branches in several Arab and Muslim [...]

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Don’t send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

Homeless Haitians told not to flee to U.S. By James C McKinley Jr, New York Times, January 19, 2010 America has a message for the millions of Haitians left homeless and destitute by last week’s earthquake: Do not try to come to the United States. Every day, a United States Air Force cargo plane specially [...]

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The Guantánamo “suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

The Guantánamo “suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle By Scott Horton, Harper’s, January 18, 2010 When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great.” Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring [...]

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FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

FBI broke law for years in phone record searches By John Solomon and Carrie Johnson, Washington Post, January 19, 2010 The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau [...]

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A Palestinian state has become impossible

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

A Palestinian state has become impossible Sari Nusseibeh: Interview With Le Figaro, January 6, 2010 For the pacifist Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh, Israel will soon have no choice but to integrate its Arab population. Sari Nusseibeh, Dean of al-Quds University in Jerusalem and committed Palestinian intellectual, was the author in 2002 of a peace plan co-written [...]

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The United States, Israel and the retreat of freedom

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

The United States, Israel and the retreat of freedom By Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, January 14, 2010 Freedom House’s approach to Israel provides the starkest example of the abyss into which liberal thinking has fallen on the relationship between colonialism and freedom. Israel, we are told, “remains the only country in the [Middle East] region [...]

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Kabul attack shows resilience of Afghan militants

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

Kabul attack shows resilience of Afghan militants By Dexter Filkins, New York Times, January 19, 2010 A team of militants launched a spectacular assault at the heart of the Afghan government on Monday, with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting to the death only 50 yards from the gates of the presidential [...]

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The rise and fall of a Sunni in Baghdad

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

The rise and fall of a Sunni in Baghdad By Nada Bakri, New York Times, January 19, 2010 Saleh al-Mutlaq has never shied from controversy, sometimes relishing his plunge into the turbulence of Iraqi politics. But even Mr. Mutlaq, a disheveled former agronomist, seems taken aback at landing square center in a growing dispute that [...]

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Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial By Paul Woodward, The National, January 19, 2010 As Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial in a federal court in New York City her case is unknown to most Americans yet in her native Pakistan the frail neuroscientist, mother of three and reputed al Qa’eda associate has become a [...]

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Why America and China will clash

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

Why America and China will clash By Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, January 18, 2010 oogle’s clash with China is about much more than the fate of a single, powerful firm. The company’s decision to pull out of China, unless the government there changes its policies on censorship, is a harbinger of increasingly stormy relations between [...]

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Iran praises West’s ‘realism’ on nuclear issue

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2010

Iran praises West’s ‘realism’ on nuclear issue AFP, January 19, 2010 Ian on Tuesday welcomed what it called the West’s newfound “realism” on Tehran’s nuclear programme after world powers failed to decide on new sanctions. China, meanwhile, urged flexibility on the standoff over Iran’s nuclear drive and a return to negotiations. However, Defence Minister Ahmad [...]

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Unholy alliance at war with Obama’s foreign policy

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Unholy alliance at war with Obama’s foreign policy By Philip Stephens, Financial Times, January 14, 2010 Mr Cheney’s outburst [as he recently accused Barack Obama of being soft on terrorism]… is part of a bigger story in Washington. The aim reaches beyond self-exculpation for his lead role in the calamities of George W. Bush’s administration. [...]

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Netanyahu: We’re a small country with a big heart

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Netanyahu: We’re a small country with a big heart By Ronen Medzini, Ynet, January 17, 2010 Referring to the Israeli aid delegation sent to Haiti, the prime minister said that “the moment the dimensions of the disaster became known, I instructed the immediate deployment of an aid delegation on behalf of the State of Israel, [...]

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Taliban launch bold attack in central Kabul

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Taliban launch bold attack in central Kabul By Dexter Filkins, New York Times, January 18, 2010 A team of militants launched a spectacular assault at the heart of the Afghan government Monday, with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting to the death only 50 yards from the gates of the presidential palace. [...]

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Candidate bans worsen Iraq’s political turmoil

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Candidate bans worsen Iraq’s political turmoil By Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, January 18, 2010 Iraqi officials have done little to clarify who, exactly, has been disqualified from running for Parliament in March because of ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. They did, however, make clear on Sunday that, contrary to Iraqi television news, [...]

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Iran prosecutor calls for death penalty against protesters

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Iran prosecutor calls for death penalty against protesters AFP, January 18, 2010 An Iranian prosecutor called Monday for the death penalty against five protesters arrested during demonstrations staged as Shiites participated in solemn Ashura rituals last month, state media reported. The five were accused of having ties with Iran’s exiled and armed opposition, the People’s [...]

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Turkey and Russia move closer to building strategic partnership

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Turkey and Russia move closer to building strategic partnership By Faruk Akkan, Today’s Zaman, January 15, 2010 Turkey and Russia have come closer to building a strategic partnership by agreeing to deepen cooperation in the area of energy and work on a plan to lift visa requirements for their citizens. The two countries also have [...]

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After the earthquake, how to rebuild Haiti from scratch

by Paul Woodward 01.17.2010

After the earthquake, how to rebuild Haiti from scratch By Jeffrey D. Sachs, Washington Post, January 17, 2010 President Obama has declared that the United States will not forsake Haiti in its moment of agony. Honoring this commitment would be a first for Washington. To prevent a deepening spiral of death, the United States will [...]

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Israel threatened a “seond Gaza” in the West Bank

by Paul Woodward 01.17.2010

Diskin to Abbas: Defer UN vote on Goldstone or face “second Gaza” By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, January 17, 2010 The request by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nations Human Rights Council last year to postpone the vote on the Goldstone report followed a particularly tense meeting with the head of the Shin Bet [...]

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Elite US troops ready to combat Pakistani nuclear hijacks

by Paul Woodward 01.17.2010

Elite US troops ready to combat Pakistani nuclear hijacks By Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times, January 17, 2010 The US army is training a crack unit to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants, possibly from inside the country’s security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or [...]

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