May 2010

Floundering in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 05.17.2010

Last fall, President Obama faced criticism in the early months of his presidency during his exhaustive strategic review of the war in Afghanistan. The review had become so drawn out that his detractors claimed it presented an image of indecisiveness. Obama’s defenders responded by saying this was a process of careful and thorough deliberation from [...]

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After denied entry to West Bank, Chomsky likens Israel to ‘Stalinist regime’

by Paul Woodward 05.17.2010

Haaretz reports: The Interior Ministry refused to let linguist Noam Chomsky into Israel and the West Bank on Sunday. Chomsky, who aligns himself with the radical left, had been scheduled to lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, and visit Bil’in and Hebron, as well as meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and various [...]

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Lula and Erdogan demonstrate their diplomatic clout

by Paul Woodward 05.16.2010

If President Obama had accomplished what Brazil and Turkey are about to pull off — a deal through which Iran will exchange its stockpile of enriched uranium in return for fuel rods for a medical research reactor — then the US media would be hailing this as a diplomatic breakthrough. Instead, this is being described [...]

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Biological warfare in Afghanistan?

by Paul Woodward 05.16.2010

Agence France Presse reports: A mystery disease infecting opium poppies in Afghanistan could cut this year’s illicit crop in some areas by up to 70 percent, an official said Sunday. The disease has led authorities to expect a “significant” reduction in opium production this year, with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) saying [...]

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U.S. is still using private spy ring, despite doubts

by Paul Woodward 05.16.2010

The New York Times reports on a secret network of private spies who have produced hundreds of reports from deep inside Afghanistan and Pakistan, despite concerns among some in the military about the legality of the operation. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Pentagon has used broad interpretations of its authorities to expand military [...]

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Remembering the Nakba

by Paul Woodward 05.15.2010

Shabbah TV: Palestine/Israel history since 1878 — 13 min 33 sec Nabil Shaath writes: Today Israel celebrated 62 years since its formation on 15 May 1948. For Palestinians, today marks the 62nd year since the Nakba – our national and personal catastrophe, involving the loss of our ancestral homeland and the dispersal of three-quarters of [...]

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Israel’s red line: real democracy

by Paul Woodward 05.15.2010

Jonathan Cook writes: The recent arrest of two respected public figures from Israel’s Palestinian Arab minority in night-time raids on their homes by the Shin Bet secret police – brought to light this week when a gag order was partially lifted – has sent shock waves through the community. The arrests are not the first [...]

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The attacks on Goldstone

by Paul Woodward 05.15.2010

In Haaretz, Hagai El-Ad writes: What will they come up with next? The campaign to discredit Judge Richard Goldstone, his fact-finding commission and the report that now bears his name seems to reach new heights every week. The latest installment in this high-drama farce has been the revelations about Goldstone’s record during apartheid-era South Africa, [...]

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Obama wants US taxpayers to pay for an Israeli defense ‘scam’

by Paul Woodward 05.14.2010

Israel’s newly developed “Iron Dome” missile defense shield will supposedly provide vital protection from rocket attacks from Gaza or Lebanon. The system’s manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, says: The Iron dome is a cost effective system that can handle multiple threats simultaneously and efficiently [and] has been selected by the Israeli Defense Ministry as the [...]

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Obama’s torture loophole

by Paul Woodward 05.14.2010

What’s the difference between a US-military-run detention facility and an intelligence gathering facility? For one thing, Red Cross officials are being prevented from seeing how prisoners are treated when held at Bagram’s intelligence gathering facility. Is that so that they can be tortured in secret? Two days after taking office, Barack Obama signed an executive [...]

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Israel’s unlawful destruction of property during Operation Cast Lead

by Paul Woodward 05.13.2010

In a press release, Human Rights Watch said today: Israel should investigate the unlawful destruction of civilian property during the 2009 Gaza hostilities and lift the blockade that hinders residents from rebuilding their homes, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The 116-page report, “‘I Lost Everything’: Israel’s Unlawful Destruction of Property [...]

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Russia’s Middle East moves

by Paul Woodward 05.13.2010

While Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan are like lead weights that limit the flexibility of the United States in the Middle East, other powers are now taking advantage of Washington’s inability to function as an agent of change. After Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Turkey this week, commentator Semih Idiz wrote: [I]f U.S. President Barack Obama’s [...]

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The end of an era?

by Paul Woodward 05.13.2010

A few hours before Gordon Brown resigned as Britain’s prime minister, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications director said: “I think the reason why I’ve got involved in the election campaign is because I really think it would be terrible for Britain if David Cameron was prime minister and there was a Tory government, but [...]

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Is Obama moving to escalate the war in Pakistan?

by Paul Woodward 05.12.2010

The United States is at war in Pakistan. It will be up to historians to decide when this war began. “Drone Strikes Pound West Pakistan” says the headline above a brief report in the New York Times. After the CIA fired 18 missiles resulting in at least 14 deaths on Tuesday, the operation was described [...]

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Israel’s dark past arming apartheid South Africa

by Paul Woodward 05.11.2010

A new attack on Judge Richard Goldstone is the latest effort in a campaign to direct attention away from his allegations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. In this instance though, questions about Goldstone’s record as a judge in apartheid South Africa are overshadowed by the Jewish state’s own role in helping support the [...]

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America’s latest nemesis

by Paul Woodward 05.10.2010

Among the many problems the Obama administration inherited from the Bush administration, none may be more troublesome than the fact that the man once granted the status most dangerous man in the world still remains the most elusive man in the world. But if Osama bin Laden can’t be tracked down, maybe the alternative is [...]

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The terrorism recruiting myth

by Paul Woodward 05.10.2010

After almost a decade of a US-led global war on terrorism, America’s approach to the issue has barely advanced from being a deadly game of Whack-a-Mole. On CBS, Scott Pelley asked Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton: “I wonder if there’s anything about U.S. foreign policy that needs to change in your estimation to put more [...]

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To See If I Am Smiling

by Paul Woodward 05.09.2010

In the documentary, To See If I Am Smiling (released in 2007), six young Israeli women recount their experiences of military service in the occupied Palestinian territories. The title comes from a story told by Meytal, a medic and medical officer. Having described how cleaning the corpses of Palestinians after they had been brutalized by [...]

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IAEA set to focus on Israel

by Paul Woodward 05.08.2010

The Associated Press reports: Israel’s secretive nuclear activities may undergo unprecedented scrutiny next month, with a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency tentatively set to focus on the topic for the first time, according to documents shared Friday with The Associated Press. A copy of the restricted provisional agenda of the IAEA’s June [...]

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Israel still might not dodge a human rights threat from Britain

by Paul Woodward 05.07.2010

“Sighs of relief will have been heard in Israel’s London embassy on Friday morning as it emerged that Britain’s Liberal Democrat party had failed to capitalize on a surge in pre-election opinion polls,” Haaretz reported. Cleggmania might have proven to be short-lived — or at least not translated well in a parliamentary system that disregards [...]

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Lieberman’s TEA party and dual loyalty

by Paul Woodward 05.07.2010

Joe Lieberman’s Terrorist Expatriation Act is designed to strip the constitutional rights from any American who is accused of supporting terrorism, but the political sentiment he’s tapping into is simply, America first. Does Lieberman have no concern about where this might go? How about this New Yorker who Max Blumenthal interviewed recently? Presumably she’s an [...]

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An arrest warrant needs a name on it; a death warrant needs none.

by Paul Woodward 05.06.2010

In the narrative that sketches the legality of the war on terrorism, the tribal nature of the “battlefield” is the pretext used to justify killing people instead of attempting to arrest them. Counterterrorism experts scoff at the notion that FBI agents (or Pakistani law enforcement officials for that matter) could possibly waltz into a village [...]

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The Israeli exception

by Paul Woodward 05.05.2010

At Foreign Policy in Focus, John Feffer draws attention to the contradiction between Israel’s behavior as a rogue state and the fact that it is about to be granted the privileged status of membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — unless, that is, a country such as Turkey steps up and exercises [...]

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Afghanistan: is it time to talk to the Taliban?

by Paul Woodward 05.05.2010

In The Guardian, Jonathan Steele writes: Eight years after they were overthrown by US air power, a drumbeat is starting to sound across Afghanistan in favour of talking to the Taliban, the country’s once-hated former rulers. An idea that used to seem absurd, if not defeatist, is coming to be seen as the only credible [...]

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