Huffington Post was so very kind this week to give space to almost frustratingly moderate Palestinian intellectual Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi. In his well-reasoned article, "Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood," he supplied all the basic facts behind...
Say What You Will About Cynthia McKinney…
But no matter what one thinks of Ms. McKinney, she backs her convictions not just with her own money but her very skin: she went as a human rights advocate aboard a Gaza relief boat. And this morning, that boat was rammed three times by an Israeli patrol vessel, leaving it damaged and forcing it to take a detour in Tyre, Lebanon.
First Amendment Takes Another Hit
Fellow Brooklynite Javed Iqbal, 45, today plead guilty to broadcasting Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV programming to US customers. The charge is "providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization." Eric brought this news item to my attention and asked if I...
The Problem with the Blackwater Indictments
So, five Blackwater guards have been indicted on charges related to a 2007 shooting in which 17 Iraqis were killed. Blackwater hired guns should be held accountable for their actions—actions that Iraqis call premeditated murder. However, I see a major problem with...
How Many Troops will Obama Withdraw from Iraq?
The InTrade prediction markets allows individuals to bet on the winner of the presidential elections and US recession timings. They can also be used to bet on US foreign policy. The graph below shows the contract price for the outcome "Number of US Troops in Iraq...
Summary Executions in Iraq
The Independent's Robert Fisk has a great article tonight about the summary executions being carried out in Saddam's old intelligence HQ, now a "high-security detention facility." Of particular note is that the government's "security officials" are so inept that they...
Every Iraqi Was Murdered
In the excellent article by Ann Wright, "When Refusing to Kill Has a Higher Sentence Than Murder," mention was made of the light sentences that were given out to U.S. soldiers for murdering Iraqi civilians. Many who support the war are also outraged about this. Yet,...
Extrude Mahmoud
In an interview in Der Spiegel, former Mossad agent and current cabinet minister, Rafi Eitan suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might find himself in front of an International Criminal Court in The Hague if he doesn't watch himself. Anyone with even...
War Doesn’t End With Treaties
Something made me perk up this morning, going through the weekend's news. After two weeks of reading about South Ossetia's irregulars, the militiamen blamed for everything from looting to attempted genocide, in the periphery of news stories, this morning I read this...
The Arrogant Hypocrisy of the U.S. Government
Is there any government more hypocritical than the U.S. government? Has there ever been? The United States is considering punishing Russia for its military actions in Georgia by cancelling U.S. participation in an annual Russia-NATO naval exercise. Read the full...
