June 2010

The shifting sands of state power in the Middle East

by Paul Woodward 06.30.2010

In The Washington Quarterly, Alastair Crooke writes: In his commendably candid interview with Time in January 2010, President Barack Obama noted that managing politics in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict “is just really hard.” The president, however, might well have been speaking about the Middle East as a whole. It is not just the Israeli-Palestinian track that [...]

Read the full article →

Erdogan interview

by Paul Woodward 06.30.2010

Charlie Rose: There are those who will say that Turkey has taken over the mantle of being the best friend of Palestinians in the region. Turkey’s Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan responds: Watch the complete interview here. Share

Read the full article →

Jean MacKenzie: war by other means

by Paul Woodward 06.30.2010

It is a famous axiom of military strategy that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” This GlobalPost special report looks at how economic aid in Afghanistan has become “war by other means.” It reveals how the “civilian surge” is struggling to succeed and in some places actually creating instability and inadvertently benefiting [...]

Read the full article →

The price of perpetual war

by Paul Woodward 06.29.2010

If wars could be won through slick advertising, no one would be better qualified to become the US commander in Afghanistan than General David Petraeus. This is how he recently encapsulated his wisdom on counterinsurgency: We have learned above all that, in campaigns such as those in Iraq or Afghanistan, the human terrain is the [...]

Read the full article →

The terrorist-naming game

by Paul Woodward 06.28.2010

On September 11, 2001, George Bush changed the way Americans look at the world and the success with which he accomplished this feat is evident in the fact that his perspective largely remains unchallenged — even among many of his most outspoken critics. Bush’s simplistic for-us-or-against-us formula was transparently emotive yet utterly effective. For almost [...]

Read the full article →

Kenneth O’Keefe interviewed on BBC’s Hardtalk

by Paul Woodward 06.27.2010

Share

Read the full article →

Grave injustice: Maher Arar and unaccountable America

by Paul Woodward 06.27.2010

At Middle East Report Online, Lisa Hajjar writes: On June 14, the Supreme Court buried the prospect of justice for Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin who was “extraordinarily rendered” by the United States (via Jordan) to Syria in 2002. Arar was suing the US officials who authorized his secret transfer, without charge, [...]

Read the full article →

Obama about to get tough with Netanyahu?

by Paul Woodward 06.27.2010

Preemptive reporting of news that has yet to happen is an irritating phenomenon in and of itself. Accounts about policy statements that yet to be released or about meetings that have yet to take place are transparent ways in which journalists allow themselves to be led by officials who believe that it is a government’s [...]

Read the full article →

The Obama administration adopts an imperious tone with Turkey

by Paul Woodward 06.26.2010

Philip H Gordon is the US Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. He sat down with an AP reporter this week to talk about Turkey. Turkey is alienating US supporters and it needs to demonstrate its commitment to partnership with the West, Gordon says. “We think Turkey remains committed [...]

Read the full article →

Idiocy holds sway on the Supreme Court and inside the Obama administration

by Paul Woodward 06.25.2010

It seems hard to fathom but the evidence is now overwhelming: if someone repeats the word “terrorist” often enough their brain will become functionally useless. Consider the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday in support of the Obama administration’s sweeping definition of “material support” as applied to so-called Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) — a designation applied [...]

Read the full article →

Risk-free killing and the fear of death

by Paul Woodward 06.25.2010

There was an age when those afraid of dying knew they should, if they could, stay away from war. They could instead, if so inclined, read about war and fantasize about battlefield heroics from the comfort of an armchair. Nowadays, America’s newest class of warriors enjoy the same comfort with as little risk. Tom Engelhardt [...]

Read the full article →

Where kindness is a crime

by Paul Woodward 06.24.2010

Max Blumenthal reports: In a May 7 article, Haaretz reporter Ilana Hammerman described in dramatic detail a crime she had methodically planned and committed. In defiance of laws supposedly related to Israel’s security, Hammerman picked up three teenage Palestinian girls in their village in the West Bank, took them through the Betar checkpoint, and drove [...]

Read the full article →

Let the flotillas through

by Paul Woodward 06.24.2010

In the Jerusalem Post, Larry Derfner writes: The Iranians say the ship Infants of Gaza is due to sail on Sunday, carrying humanitarian aid and 10 pro- Palestinian activists to the Gazan shore. The Lebanese say two more relief ships, one of them carrying just women passengers, will leave soon for Cyprus and go on [...]

Read the full article →

Was McChrystal ready to get pushed out?

by Paul Woodward 06.23.2010

The problem with owning a military strategy the way Gen Stanley McChrystal owned the counterinsurgency strategy at the center of the war in Afghanistan, is that it’s hard to admit it’s not working. It might be easier just to get fired. Are we really supposed to believe that McChrystal knew so little about journalism or [...]

Read the full article →

McChrystal gets the boot

by Paul Woodward 06.23.2010

I guess they just couldn’t figure out the seating chart for this morning’s meeting of the national security team in the Situation Room. Have McChrystal sit between Gen “Clown” Jones and Richard “Wounded Animal” Holbrooke? Instead, after meeting President Obama for 30 minutes, McChrystal returned to his home in Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C. He is [...]

Read the full article →

America’s war and its illusive heroes

by Paul Woodward 06.23.2010

The Russian mystic, Gurdjieff, is said to have advised that if a spiritual seeker wants to guard his faith, he should avoid getting too close to a saint. Perfection can rarely withstand close scrutiny. The same can be said of war heroes. The legend of General Stanley McChrystal has been years in the making, but [...]

Read the full article →

Maverick McChrystal out of line again

by Paul Woodward 06.22.2010

A Rolling Stone profile of Gen Stanley McChrystal due out on Friday “was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and it should have never happened,” the commander of US forces in Afghanistan now says. It was a mistake to say what he and his staff said, or it was a mistake to make these remarks in [...]

Read the full article →

Syria’s new alliances

by Paul Woodward 06.21.2010

At Foreign Policy, Helena Cobban writes: From 2003 to 2008, when the Bush White House was working hard to encircle and isolate Syria, with a definite view to overthrowing the Asad regime, Damascus’s strengthening tie to NATO member Turkey provided what regime insiders have described as “almost literally, a lifeline for us.” Today, Syria’s relationship [...]

Read the full article →

US-Israeli relations improve — time to bulldoze Palestinian homes

by Paul Woodward 06.21.2010

Since US-Israeli relations are so famously cozy, maybe it’s time to extend the familial metaphor a bit further: Washington is a victim of domestic violence. Every time the Obama administration reaches out to the Netanyahu government, it gets slapped in the face. Netanyahu has once again been invited to Washington — due to the poorly-time [...]

Read the full article →

White House welcomes empty promise from Israel on Gaza

by Paul Woodward 06.20.2010

“Today, the United States welcomes the new policy towards Gaza announced by the Government of Israel, which responds to the calls of many in the international community. Once implemented, we believe these arrangements should significantly improve conditions for Palestinians in Gaza, while preventing the entry of weapons,” the White House press secretary’s office said in [...]

Read the full article →

Mordechai Vanunu: prisoner of conscience

by Paul Woodward 06.20.2010

How many countries in the world are there where someone can be thrown in jail for talking to a foreigner? That was one of Mordechai Vanunu’s most recent “crimes” as a citizen in “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Having spent 18 years in prison — more than 11 of those in solitary confinement [...]

Read the full article →

Israel’s Secret Weapon

by Paul Woodward 06.20.2010

A BBC documentary, “Israel’s Secret Weapon,” which first aired in 2003 just weeks before the start of the war in Iraq, examines Israel’s nuclear weapons program, the secrecy in which it has always been shrouded, and the ruthless measures through which Israel’s “nuclear taboo” is enforced. The film reveals: The brutality with which Mordechai Vanunu, [...]

Read the full article →

Reclaiming self-determination

by Paul Woodward 06.19.2010

In a policy brief for Al-Shabaka, Ali Abunimah reviews the evolution of the concept of self-determination, its applicability to the Palestinian people, and its gradual erosion since 1991. He argues not only that self-determination must return to the center of the Palestinian struggle; he also shows how the Palestinian exercise of this right can be [...]

Read the full article →

Interview with Ken O’Keefe

by Paul Woodward 06.19.2010

Ken O’Keefe, an activist who was on board the Mavi Marmara, is interviewed by Mark Dankof on his podcast, The Ugly Truth. Powered by Podbean.com (During the first ten minutes of the broadcast, Phil Tourney, a survivor from the USS Liberty, describes the circumstances in which Israel attacked that American intelligence vessel in 1967.) In [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries