September 2010

Nick Turse: Afghanistan on life support

by TomDispatch 09.13.2010

Reprinted with permission of TomDispatch.com You’ve undoubtedly had the experience of pulling on a tiny, fraying thread and discovering, to your shock, that the larger piece of clothing you’re wearing suddenly begins to unravel.  The equivalent seems to be happening in Afghanistan right before our eyes.  There, “the pride of Afghanistan’s financial system,” Kabul Bank, [...]

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This is America

by Paul Woodward 09.12.2010

A burned Quran along with excrement-smeared pages from the holy book were found outside the Islamic Center of East Lansing, Michigan yesterday. The FBI have been called in to launch an investigation. The same day, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for federal hate crime charges to be brought against three men who allegedly [...]

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What makes Americans afraid?

by Paul Woodward 09.11.2010

9/11 has become the emblem of all our fears not because it represents a national security failure or because it exposed poorly crafted foreign policy. From our perspective the most terrifying dimension of the threat posed by al Qaeda is not its destructive capacity but its operatives’ casual disregard for life. Like moths drawn towards [...]

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In the wake of 9/11, Israel put Iran into “Axis of Evil”

by News Sources 09.11.2010

Marsha Cohen writes: When, on September 11, 2001, two terrorist attacks occurred on U.S. soil, Israeli political figures anticipated that the Americans would now be better able to empathize with Israel’s vulnerability to its own random terror attacks. In the hours immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Israeli leaders [...]

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Obama preaches tolerance

by News Sources 09.11.2010

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The real Ground Zero Mosque was destroyed by al Qaeda

by Paul Woodward 09.10.2010

In the midst of the heated debate about the construction of an Islamic center two blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center, Samuel Freedman tells a story that should be heard by everyone who has declared their concern about the sensitivity of this issue. Sometime in 1999, a construction electrician received a [...]

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Pastor Jones’ daughter says he’s a megalomaniac

by News Sources 09.10.2010

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Pastor Terry Jones’ daughter Emma Jones describes her father as a megalomaniac who she characterizes as a delusional cult leader. SPIEGEL ONLINE: How did you grow up? Emma Jones: We were raised in a very Christian household, and it was very strict. But also very social. We received visits [...]

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What America left behind in Iraq

by News Sources 09.10.2010

Nir Rosen reports from Iraq: Hundreds of cars waiting in the heat to slowly pass through one of the dozens of checkpoints and searches they must endure every day. The constant roar of generators. The smell of fuel, of sewage, of kabobs. Automatic weapons pointed at your head out of military vehicles, out of SUVs [...]

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Juan Cole: the media as a security threat to America

by TomDispatch 09.10.2010

Reprinted with permission of TomDispatch.com Call it strange or call it symptomatic.  These last weeks, Afghan War commander General David Petraeus has been on a “media blitz.”  He’s been giving out interviews as if they were party favors.  Yet, as far as I can tell, not a single interviewer has asked him anything like: “General Petraeus, twenty percent of [...]

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Why burn Qurans when you can move a mosque?

by Paul Woodward 09.09.2010

Firebrand Pastor Jones now says he won’t be burning Qurans on Saturday because he claims he extracted a deal to get the Cordoba House project moved to a different site. “Americans don’t want the mosque there and of course Muslims don’t want us to burn Qurans,” Jones said. The problem is, Jones appears to have [...]

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Islam and America’s most powerful cult

by News Sources 09.09.2010

M. Junaid Levesque-Alam writes: In their spirited assault on Islam, conservatives have seized upon one notion with particular delight: the Abrahamic faith embraced by a quarter of humanity is a “cult.” Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey popularized the claim in July when a constituent asked about the “threat that’s invading our country from Muslims”; Ramsey [...]

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The “insensitive” set-up in the Quran burning stunt

by Paul Woodward 09.09.2010

“Republicans are usually eager to trumpet their support for the troops and the war against terror. So why aren’t they condemning the Florida pastor who plans to lead his congregation in a Quran-burning bonfire on Sept. 11?,” wrote Fred Kaplan on Tuesday. His call has been answered — by Sarah Palin: “Book burning is antithetical [...]

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Contested America — dreams and reality

by Paul Woodward 09.08.2010

Arguments about the construction of an Islamic center and the destruction of Qurans may have less to do with Islam than they have with who gets to define America and why this nation is grappling with its own identity. The New York Times reports: Prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held an extraordinary “emergency summit” [...]

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Castro: ‘No one blames the Muslims for anything’

by Paul Woodward 09.08.2010

Jeffrey Goldberg just went to visit the father of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, and was surprised and pleased to hear the 84-year-old castigate Iran’s President Ahmadinejad and denounce anti-Semitism: Over the course of this first, five-hour discussion, Castro repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism. He criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and explained [...]

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Tom Engelhardt: The Pentagon triumphant on the media battlefield

by TomDispatch 09.07.2010

The military’s media megaphone and the U.S. global military presence By Tom Engelhardt The fall issue of Foreign Policy magazine features Fred Kaplan’s “The Transformer,” an article-cum-interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.  It received a flurry of attention because Gates indicated he might leave his post “sometime in 2011.”  The most significant two lines in the piece, however, [...]

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Pastor Jones’ phony Muslim-friendly posture on CNN

by Paul Woodward 09.07.2010

In an interview on CNN this morning, Dr Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who has organized “International Burn a Koran Day” for September 11, said: We want to send a clear message to the peaceful Moslems. We have freedom of speech. We have freedom of religion. They are more than welcome to be here. More [...]

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Pastor Jones’ Quran burning stunt

by Paul Woodward 09.06.2010

The Wall Street Journal reports: The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort. Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward [...]

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Ground zero church launches with anti-Muslim, anti-Mormon sermon

by News Sources 09.06.2010

Justin Elliot reports: To an audience of about 50 people — fully half of whom were members of the press — Pastor Bill Keller launched his 9-11 Christian Center at ground zero this morning with a fiery sermon targeting Muslims and Mormons as hell-bound followers of false faiths. Keller took aim in particular at Glenn [...]

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Jewish supremacism among Israeli youth

by Paul Woodward 09.06.2010

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released numbers today which show that almost a third of the population is under 15 years old. What can we expect from the next generation? A new poll reveals how deeply entrenched bigotry is in Israel. A survey of Israeli teens revealed that most believe that Palestinian Israelis do not [...]

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Anti-Israel economic boycotts are gaining speed

by News Sources 09.06.2010

In Haaretz, Nehemia Shtrasler writes: The world is changing before our eyes. Five years ago the anti-Israel movement may have been marginal. Now it is growing into an economic problem. Until now boycott organizers had been on the far left. They have a new ally: Islamic organizations that have strengthened greatly throughout Europe in the [...]

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No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare

by Paul Woodward 09.05.2010

Those are the words of James Madison, cited by Fareed Zacharia as the anniversary of 9/11 approaches. Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to [...]

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Hamas official: Israeli settlers are a legitimate military target

by News Sources 09.04.2010

Haaretz reports: Israeli settlers in the West Bank are legitimate targets since they are an army in every sense of the word, a senior Hamas official told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper on Saturday, adding that Palestinians were still committed to an armed struggle against Israel. The comment by Ezzat al-Rashk, a member of Hamas’s political [...]

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CIA views Israeli intelligence service as worst US ally

by News Sources 09.04.2010

In the Washington Post, Jeff Stein reports: The CIA took an internal poll not long ago about friendly foreign intelligence agencies. The question, mostly directed to employees of the clandestine service branch, was: Which are the best allies among friendly spy services, in terms of liaison with the CIA, and which are the worst? In [...]

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The Listening Post – The media and the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ story

by Paul Woodward 09.04.2010

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