Archive for May 19, 2007
“…some of these lawyers are on hunger-strike—or, more accurately, skipping lunch.”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“Neither can General Musharraf count on the mullahs. His campaign in the tribal areas, which border the MMA‘s heartland of North-West Frontier Province, is bloody and hugely unpopular. More broadly, so is the general’s pro-America stance. In the private poll, Pakistanis rated India a more trusted ally than America, though America has given Pakistan an [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“Of the 1,767 troops questioned by the Pentagon’s mental-health advisory team last September, four in ten (41% of soldiers and 44% of marines) believed that torture should be permitted if it would save the life of a fellow soldier or marine. Almost as many (36% of soldiers and 39% of marines) said torture should be [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“The killing of large numbers of civilians by American forces, through indiscipline or heavy reliance on air strikes, has marked the campaigns in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Since March there have been five episodes in which Western troops have been accused of killing Afghan civilians. Between April 27th and 29th, for example, an operation by [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“Gordon Brown is prepared to risk the future of the “special relationship” with the United States by reversing Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq war, President George W Bush has been warned.”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“Decline and fall of the neocons”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“Growing number of Afghan casualties in anti-Taliban operations turns population against their ‘liberators’”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“Momentum is building behind an academic boycott of Iran to pressure the government to free imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who was jailed in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on May 8 after more than four months under house arrest.”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“The parallels may be most stark when it comes to the current troop increase in Iraq. Military escalation was also LBJ’s answer to unrelenting attacks by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese in an uncontrollable civil war — an increase from 16,800 advisers in 1963 to 545,000 combat troops by 1968. But compare that [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
Al-Balad newspaper (Kuwaiti-funded) published an opinion survey of the Lebanese people. When asked “Who Rules Lebanon,” 26.7% said that nobody knows; 23.0 said France and US; 9.83% said Iran and Syria; 8.50% said nobody; 8.17% said March 14th; and 3.0% said Hizbullah.
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“The killing of the unborn child, Daoud, by Israel Defense Forces troops raises a series of moral, legal and philosophical questions. Is the killing of a fetus manslaughter? Is it murder? And how old is the victim? But all these questions are dwarfed by the woman lying stunned and injured in the maternity ward of [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
Conspiracy? What conspiracy? “The United States is pressing Israel to help bolster security forces in the Gaza Strip that are loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Major General Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator, recently discussed the function of the pro-Abbas Presidential Guard and National Security forces with senior Israeli officials.”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
“The prosecution of three black Louisiana youths reveals the rise of discrimination by stealth”
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
The only government I know that lies more than Arab governments do is the Israeli government. “Although the US and Israel have openly supported Fatah in the fight by supplying money, equipment and training to its top military commander in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, the Israelis insist that the daily air and artillery attacks on Hamas [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
My secular past. When I was growing up, you rarely heard the words “Jihad” or “fatwa”. When we were growing up, my siblings and I would get scared when we saw a woman in a niqab, and would literally run away. When I was a student at the American University of Beirut, I remember that [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
I saw Fadi Ghandur (founder and CEO of Aramex) on Al-Arabiyya TV. I only watched the first hour (unfortunately the host allowed `Amr Musa to speak too much). The subject of the forum was job creation in the Arab world. Fadi said that “political proposals”–whatever that means–is responsible for the flight of young people away [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
There are clashes between Lebanese Army troops and Palestinian fighters belonging to Fath Al-Islam in northern Lebanon. Going by historical precedence, it takes 1000 Lebanese Army soldiers to handle one Palestinian fighter (and usually the Palestinian fighter wins). Stay tuned.And the Army that did not dare to fire a shot at the Israeli occupation army [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
Hillary Inc.
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
Fatwawawa wars in Gaza.
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad
Rewarding dictatorships and Punishing democracies. I watched an interview with former Sudanese Prime Minister, Sadiq Al-Mahdi on Al-Jazeera’s Ziyarah Khassah. He made an interesting point. He said that the US government gave generous economic and military aid to the dictatorship of Ja`far An-Numayri. But when Numayri was replaced with a democratic government, US aid was [...]
Posted on May 19, 2007 by As'ad