March 2011

The fight for Libya

by News Sources 03.31.2011

Colonel Gaddafi’s regime has sent one of its most trusted envoys to London for confidential talks with British officials, The Guardian can reveal. Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, visited London in recent days, British government sources familiar with the meeting have confirmed. The contacts with Ismail are believed to have [...]

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Holy moly — here comes another 9/11. Fears of blowback from Libya

by Paul Woodward 03.31.2011

Reuters reports that the CIA is now on the ground in Libya and the Obama administration is considering arming Gaddafi’s opponents. This is some of the reaction from Firedoglake‘s David Dayen: I can just go back to the American track record of arming insurgencies and it’s not very good. Robert Gates knows well from his [...]

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CIA agents in Libya aid airstrikes and meet rebels

by News Sources 03.31.2011

The New York Times reports: The Central Intelligence Agency has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and to contact and vet the beleaguered rebels battling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces, according to American officials. While President Obama has insisted that no American military ground troops participate in the Libyan campaign, small [...]

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Civilian toll from Western airstrikes in Libya

by News Sources 03.31.2011

Here’s a report from the New York Times that needs to be read by anyone who opposes intervention in Libya, primarily on the grounds that there are always innocent victims in war. Have no doubt, that ever since the Western air attacks on Libya began, the Gaddafi regime has been on the lookout for opportunities [...]

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Assad sticks to the Mubarak survival plan

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2011

Israelis are quietly confident that Bashar al-Assad can survive the unrest in Syria but fear what might follow if he falls. Assad himself seems confident he can use the same tactics as Mubarak, but with the opposite outcome. The Guardian reports from Damascus: The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has blamed foreign conspirators and satellite television [...]

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The myth of tribal Libya

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2011

The Interim Transitional National Council has presented its “vision of a democratic Libya.” Simon Tisdall offers a cynical review: The two-page declaration, published to coincide with the international conference on Libya’s future hosted in London by David Cameron, aspires to all that is correct, admirable, and fashionable in the booming nation-building and nation-shaping business. Key [...]

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The single demand that can unite the Palestinian people

by News Sources 03.30.2011

Karma Nabulsi writes: After another week of breathtaking demonstrations from Jordan to Yemen heralding dramatic revolutionary change, in occupied Palestine things appear much the same. The repetitions of bombing, air attacks on civilians, muted international protests, and dubious gestures towards a bankrupted peace process: all lend an air of futility and hopelessness to the trajectory [...]

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Egypt is still Mubarakstan

by News Sources 03.30.2011

Amira Nowaira writes: More than two months after the start of the popular uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians are increasingly fearful that although he is gone, his regime is still alive and kicking. Egyptians now realise that Mubarakstan, the virtual edifice created by Mubarak and his coterie to ensure the continued dominance of [...]

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Pakistan’s secret dirty war

by News Sources 03.30.2011

Declan Walsh reports: The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; faces are bruised and swollen. Flesh is sliced with knives or [...]

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Karen Greenberg: Intolerance “R” Us

by TomDispatch 03.30.2011

Reprinted with permission of TomDispatch.com Back in the 1990s, if I had told you that the U.S. would be fighting, or escalating, or winding down at least three major conflicts in Muslim lands (or if you want to count Pakistan separately from Afghanistan, and toss in periodic air strikes in Yemen, as many as five), [...]

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Does the US have a strategic interest in the success of the Arab democratic revolution?

by Paul Woodward 03.29.2011

One of the most pernicious effects of the Bush era was that the neocons succeeded in turning so many progressives into realists. Before Bush, “the national interest” was correctly viewed as the abiding concern of insular conservatives. It meant that Americans should be concerned with the rest of the world only in as much as [...]

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The fight for Libya

by News Sources 03.29.2011

Al Jazeera reports: World powers meeting in London have agreed to set up a contact group to lead international efforts to map out Libya’s future, with the first meeting to take place in Qatar, Britain has said. “Participants of the conference agreed to establish the Libya Contact Group,” said a statement issued by William Hague, [...]

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Syrian revolution

by News Sources 03.29.2011

The New York Times reports: President Bashar al-Assad accepted the resignation of his cabinet on Tuesday as thousands of government supporters took to the streets of the capital in an effort to counter a rising tide of pro-democracy protests in several cities, news agencies reported. The cabinet resignation, announced on state television, appeared to be [...]

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Cornel West and the fight against injustice

by News Sources 03.29.2011

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Rebecca Solnit: the earthquake kit

by TomDispatch 03.29.2011

Reprinted with permission of TomDispatch.com Somewhere, someone should write about the official euphemisms that accompany disasters.  The roiling set of problems at the Fukushima nuclear complex seems only to grow as one unprecedented situation after another arises, including a possible massive build-up of salt — 99,000 pounds are estimated to have accumulated in reactors 2 [...]

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Gaddafi’s campaign of disappearances

by News Sources 03.29.2011

“Libya: detainees, disappeared and missing,” a newly released report from Amnesty International, describes Colonel Gaddafi’s campaign to silence his critics which has targeted government critics, writers, journalists, pro-democracy activists — even children. He is in their (the forces of Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi) hands and we have no idea where he is being held and what [...]

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Diplomats discuss Libya’s future as Italy plots Gaddafi’s escape route

by News Sources 03.28.2011

The Guardian reports: Efforts appear to be under way to offer Muammar Gaddafi a way of escape from Libya, with Italy saying it is trying to organise an African haven for him, and the US signalling it will not try to stop the dictator from fleeing. The move came as diplomatic and military pressure on [...]

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Libya’s decisive battle looms as Gaddafi troops head east

by News Sources 03.28.2011

The Guardian reports: Libya’s army is pouring reinforcements into Muammar Gaddafi’s strategic hometown of Sirte against rebels advancing from the east under cover of UN-mandated air strikes. Units of regular soldiers in jeeps mounted with heavy machine guns were driving towards the town on Monday as the frontline moved ominously closer to a key regime [...]

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Protests in Syria

by News Sources 03.28.2011

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Is Bahrain back to normal?

by News Sources 03.28.2011

Khuloud at Jadaliyya writes: “Your remarkable and unflinching efforts have protected the lives of innocent people, restored order and maintained security and stability across Bahrain,” Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa praised security forces on Friday March 25th for bringing life in Bahrain back to “normal.” As he thanked his dedicated forces for “creating conditions [...]

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Map of the rebellion in Libya, day by day

by News Sources 03.28.2011

Click on the image below to see the Libyan revolution mapped day-by-day from February 16. Share

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The fight for Libya

by News Sources 03.28.2011

The New York Times reports: As rebel forces backed by allied warplanes pushed toward one of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s most crucial bastions of support, the American military warned on Monday that the insurgents’ rapid advances could quickly be reversed without continued coalition air support. “The regime still vastly overmatches opposition forces militarily,” Gen. Carter F. [...]

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Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests

by News Sources 03.28.2011

Ever since a man in Tunisia burnt himself to death in December 2010 in protest at his treatment by police, pro-democracy rebellions have erupted across the Middle East. Click on the image below to view the interactive timeline tracing key events: Share

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Juan Cole: An open letter to the Left on Libya

by News Sources 03.27.2011

Juan Cole writes: As I expected, now that Qaddafi’s advantage in armor and heavy weapons is being neutralized by the UN allies’ air campaign, the liberation movement is regaining lost territory. Liberators took back Ajdabiya and Brega (Marsa al-Burayqa), key oil towns, on Saturday into Sunday morning, and seemed set to head further West. This [...]

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