December 2011

Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Glenn Greenwald writes: The Ron Paul candidacy, for so many reasons, spawns pervasive political confusion — both unintended and deliberate. Yesterday, The Nation‘s long-time liberal publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, wrote this on Twitter: That’s fairly remarkable: here’s the Publisher of The Nation praising Ron Paul not on ancillary political topics but central ones (“ending preemptive [...]

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With reservations, Obama signs act to allow indefinite detention of U.S. citizens

by News Sources 12.31.2011

ABC News reports: In his last official act of business in 2011, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act from his vacation rental in Kailua, Hawaii. In a statement, the president said he did so with reservations about key provisions in the law — including a controversial component that would allow the military [...]

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Steven Pinker’s tilted measure of violence

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Steven Pinker claims we are living in the most peaceable era of human existence. In a review of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Timothy Snyder challenges Pinker’s thesis. The central psychological virtue of modern civilization, Pinker claims, is “self-control.” Over the centuries, after people are pacified by the state, they [...]

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Occupy protests ‘could intensify’

by News Sources 12.31.2011

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Slavoj Zizek talks to Al Jazeera

by News Sources 12.31.2011

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Listening Post — Arab revolutions and the media

by News Sources 12.31.2011

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Orthodox Judaism treats women like filthy little things

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Yossi Sarid explains that when ultra-Orthodox men in Israel push women to the back of the bus because they are not fit to be seen or spit on little girls because they disapprove of their dress, these misogynistic forms of behavior are not an aberration — they are the application of Jewish law. If you [...]

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High Court says Israel can exploit West Bank resources

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Haaretz reports: The High Court of Justice has authorized Israel to exploit the West Bank’s natural resources for its own economic needs by rejecting a petition against the operation of Israeli-owned quarries in the territory. In its ruling, issued on Monday, the court adopted the state’s position: that no new Israeli-owned quarries should be established [...]

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How many U.S. soldiers were wounded in Iraq? Guess again

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Dan Froomkin writes: Reports about the end of the war in Iraq routinely describe the toll on the U.S. military the way the Pentagon does [PDF]: 4,487 dead, and 32,226 wounded. The death count is accurate. But the wounded figure wildly understates the number of American servicemembers who have come back from Iraq less than [...]

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Largest Syrian opposition groups sign unity agreement

by News Sources 12.31.2011

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Pakistani death squads go after informants to U.S. drone program

by News Sources 12.31.2011

The Los Angeles Times reports: The death squad shows up in uniform: black masks and tunics with the name of the group, Khorasan Mujahedin, scrawled across the back in Urdu. Pulling up in caravans of Toyota Corolla hatchbacks, dozens of them seal off mud-hut villages near the Afghan border, and then scour markets and homes [...]

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The Cafe – Libya: When the impossible became possible

by News Sources 12.31.2011

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In his first interview, Saif al-Islam says he has not been given access to a lawyer

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Human Rights Watch’s Fred Abrahams writes: The guards in the remote Libyan town of Zintan called their prisoner, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, “our black box.” The second-oldest son of Muammar Gaddafi knew the secrets of Libya’s past, they said: Gaddafi’s deals with foreign governments and companies, the whereabouts of still-missing prisoners, the details of crimes committed [...]

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The decline of the American empire

by News Sources 12.30.2011

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Activists hold mass rallies across Syria

by News Sources 12.30.2011

The New York Times reports: Tens, and possibly hundreds, of thousands of people defied a continuing government crackdown to fill the streets of several Syrian cities on Friday, intent on showing visiting monitors from the Arab League the extent of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. As thousands marched in Idlib, Homs, Hama and in the [...]

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The excommunication of Ron Paul

by News Sources 12.30.2011

Steve Kornacki writes: When you’re running near the top of the polls, it’s inevitable that your opponents will gang up on you. But there’s something different about the nature of the attacks Ron Paul is now facing – and, potentially, about their implications. In the past few days, three of Paul’s rivals – Newt Gingrich, [...]

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Why Ron Paul challenges liberals

by News Sources 12.30.2011

Matt Stoller writes: The most perplexing character in Congress, ideologically speaking, is Ron Paul. This is a guy who exists in the Republican Party as a staunch opponent of American empire and big finance. His ideas on the Federal Reserve have taken some hold recently, and he has taken powerful runs at the Presidency on [...]

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Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies

by News Sources 12.30.2011

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Hamas forces ordered to cease attacks on Israeli targets, Palestinian sources say

by News Sources 12.30.2011

Haaretz reports: Hamas leader Khaled Meshal has instructed the group’s military wing to cease attacks on Israeli targets, senior sources in Fatah say. The sources say Meshal issued the order based on understandings between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Meshal during their recent talks in Cairo. Israeli defense sources say they are unaware of such [...]

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Mossad chief: Nuclear armed Iran not an existential threat to Israel

by Paul Woodward 12.29.2011

A year ago Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Tamir Pardo as the director of Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad. Pardo has spent his whole career in Mossad — an organization which in recent years has focused most of its attention on Iran. It is reasonable to assume that there is no one else inside Israel’s national security [...]

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Hawks who learned nothing

by News Sources 12.29.2011

Matt Duss writes: This month, after almost nine years that left 4,484 American soldiers and well over 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, the U.S. war in Iraq came to an end. As the troubling recent reports indicate, the new Iraq will continue to struggle with enduring political tensions and serious security challenges for years to come. [...]

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2012 embedded journalism

by News Sources 12.29.2011

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How to save Iraq from civil war

by News Sources 12.29.2011

Ayad Allawi, leader of the Iraqiya coalition and former prime minister of Iraq, Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, and finance minister Rafe al-Essawi, write: Iraq today stands on the brink of disaster. President Obama kept his campaign pledge to end the war here, but it has not ended the way anyone in Washington [...]

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Once again the United States supports a strongman in Iraq

by News Sources 12.29.2011

The New York Times reports: The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government. The military aid, including [...]

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