January 2010

An American world of war

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2010

An American world of war By Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse, TomDispatch, January 3, 2010 … let’s pause a moment as the New Year begins and take stock of ourselves as what we truly are: the preeminent war-making machine on planet Earth. Let’s peer into the future, and consider just what the American way of [...]

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Yemen dismisses Al Qaeda threat as ‘exaggerated’

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2010

Yemen dismisses Al Qaeda threat as ‘exaggerated’ By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2010 Yemeni officials on Sunday dismissed the threat posed by Al Qaeda in their country as “exaggerated” and downplayed the possibility of cooperating closely with the United States in fighting Islamic militants, even as the U.S. and Britain temporarily closed [...]

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Free Barghouti now

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2010

Free Barghouti now By Bradley Burston, Haaretz, January 4, 2010 Now, more than ever, Palestinians need Barghouti. But Israel needs Barghouti as well. He is the key to the future of the two-state solution, and therefore, to an Israel which is democratic without qualification, peaceable without biennial war, demographically Jewish without apartheid, a true neighbor [...]

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Many Karzai Afghan cabinet choices are rejected

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2010

Many Karzai Afghan cabinet choices are rejected By Alissa J Rubin, New York Times, January 3, 2010 In a clear signal to President Hamid Karzai that he cannot count on Parliament for support, lawmakers resoundingly rejected most of his nominees for cabinet posts and expressed discontent with the candidates’ competence. Of Mr. Karzai’s 24 cabinet [...]

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Chinese evade U.S. sanctions on Iran

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2010

Chinese evade U.S. sanctions on Iran By Peter Fritsch, Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2010 Chinese companies banned from doing business in the U.S. for allegedly selling missile technology to Iran continue to do a brisk trade with American companies, according to an analysis of shipping records. A unit of state-owned China Precision Machinery Import-Export [...]

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Over 700 killed in 44 drone strikes in 2009

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

Over 700 killed in 44 drone strikes in 2009 Dawn, January 2, 2010 Of the 44 predator strikes carried out by US drones in the tribal areas of Pakistan over the past 12 months, only five were able to hit their actual targets, killing five key Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of [...]

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Wade Davis on endangered cultures

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

Wade Davis on endangered cultures Wade Davis, TED Talks, February, 2003 You know, one of the intense pleasures of travel and one of the delights of ethnographic research is the opportunity to live amongst those who have not forgotten the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind, touch it in stones polished [...]

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Iran’s younger, smarter revolution

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

Iran’s younger, smarter revolution By Hamid Dabashi, The Daily Beast, January 2, 2010 The paramount question these days, six months into the making of the Green Movement, is will the Islamic republic fall? Is this yet another revolution in the making, like the one we saw in 1979? Or will the military apparatus of the [...]

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5 myths about keeping America safe from terrorism

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

5 myths about keeping America safe from terrorism By Stephen Flynn, Washington Post, January 3, 2010 With President Obama declaring a “systemic failure” of our security system in the wake of the attempted Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner, familiar arguments about what can and should be done to reduce America’s vulnerabilities are again filling [...]

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The Yemen dilemma: what would Mr Bush have done?

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

The Yemen dilemma: what would Mr Bush have done? By Tony Karon, The National, January 2, 2010 The rhetoric is different, but there has been more continuity than change in US foreign policy from George Bush’s second term to Barack Obama’s first. The US is leaving Iraq on the terms laid down by Mr Bush’s [...]

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The iron wall

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

The iron wall By Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom, January 2, 2010 Egypt considers itself as the leader of the Arab world. It is the most populous Arab country, situated at the center of the Arab world. Fifty years ago the president of Egypt, Gamal Abd-al-Nasser, was the idol of all the Arabs, especially of the [...]

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Settlers, tell us, what do you think will happen?

by Paul Woodward 01.03.2010

Settlers, tell us, what do you think will happen? By Gideon Levy, Haaretz, January 3, 2010 What constitutes the life of a settler? A house on the cheap; a standard of living above the national average; a job usually subsidized by the government; a fierce religious, nationalist, uncompromising conviction on the justness of his cause; [...]

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From the Cairo Speech to the Cairo Declaration

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

From the Cairo Speech to the Cairo Declaration By Paul Woodward, War in Context, January 2, 2010 In early June last year, after Barack Obama gave his Cairo speech, the think tanks in Washington were abuzz as analysts could barely contain their excitement at witnessing the new Democratic president making history. “The United States does [...]

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Simultaneous solidarity marches held on northern and southern borders of Gaza Strip

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

Simultaneous solidarity marches held on northern and southern borders of Gaza Strip By Saed Bannoura, IMEMC, January 1, 2010 A s a group of Israeli peace activists gathered near the Erez crossing on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, 1200 international activists with the ‘Gaza Freedom March’ held a rally in Cairo to commemorate [...]

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The role of place in the world

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

The role of place in the world By Harm de Blij, Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2009 In recent years, the notion that the world, if not flat, is rapidly flattening as a result of the forces of globalization has gained currency to the point of becoming a platitude. So mobile, so interconnected, so integrated [...]

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Standoff in Iran deepens with new show of force

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

Standoff in Iran deepens with new show of force By Michael Slackman, New York Times, January 2, 2010 Iranian authorities sent police officers into the streets to deter protests on Friday as Mir Hussein Moussavi, the principal opposition leader, said in a statement that he did not fear giving his life as “a martyr.” The [...]

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Different Taliban groups claim role in Afghanistan bombing

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

Different Taliban groups claim role in Afghanistan bombing By Alissa J Rubin, New York Times, January 2, 2010 Both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban groups claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing this week that killed eight Americans — seven of them C.I.A. officers — suggesting that the attack was viewed as a success and could be [...]

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The Genesis 2.0 Project

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

The Genesis 2.0 Project By Kurt Anderson, Vanity Fair, January, 2010 Among the defining attributes of now are ever tinier gadgets, ever shorter attention spans, and the privileging of marketplace values above all. Life is manically parceled into financial quarters, three-minute YouTube videos, 140-character tweets. In my pocket is a phone/computer/camera/video recorder/TV/stereo system half the [...]

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Of ants and men

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

Of ants and men By Christine Kenneally, Slate, December 1, 2009 In The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, Bert Holldobler and E.O. Wilson survey the last 15 years of myrmecological research. Picking up where their Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ants left off, The Superorganism is a completely wonderful book. It is packed [...]

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Iraqis express dismay over Blackwater ruling

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

Iraqis express dismay over Blackwater ruling By Raheem Salman and Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2010 Cars breezed by the trimmed green hedges and flowers of Baghdad’s Nisoor Square on Friday, while pedestrians strolled past billboards of smiling men and women promoting national elections. Little trace was left of the September 2007 day [...]

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PULSE: 20 Top Global Thinkers of 2009

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

PULSE: 20 Top Global Thinkers of 2009 Pulse, December 16, 2009 On 30 November 2009 Foreign Policy magazine published its ’Top 100 Global Thinkers’ list. We were naturally skeptical since the selection included Dick Cheney, General Petraeus, Larry Summers, Thomas Friedman, Bernard-Henri Lévy, David Kilcullen, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salam Fayyad, The Kagan Family (yes, all [...]

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Muslim profiling is a recipe for insecurity

by Paul Woodward 01.02.2010

Muslim profiling is a recipe for insecurity By Ed Husain, The Guardian, January 1, 2010 Here we go again. Another botched terrorist attack, and a much-needed excuse for some agenda-driven American ideologues to demand opening “new fronts” in the “war on terror”, with “profiling” of Muslims at airports expected to be at the core of [...]

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‘Israel resembles a failed state’

by Paul Woodward 01.01.2010

‘Israel resembles a failed state’ By Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, December 28, 2009 One year has passed since the savage Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, but for the people there time might as well have stood still. Since Palestinians in Gaza buried their loved ones – more than 1,400 people, almost 400 of them [...]

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Playing for Change: Stand By Me

by Paul Woodward 01.01.2010

Playing for Change: Stand By Me Share

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