June-August 2009 Links

June-August 2009 Links

Afghanistan-Pakistan

• A refugee camp for Pakistani Christians


• A search for motive in attack on Christians in Pakistan


• Afghan Election 2009: Freedom, Fraud, and Fornication


• Afghan Election Poses New Tests for U.S.


• Afghan Husbands Win Right to Starve Wives


• Afghan media refuse to censor election reporting


• Afghan women and girls are still fighting


• Afghanistan and the new great game


• Afghanistan Apocalypse


• Afghanistan passes 'barbaric' law diminishing women's rights


• Afghanistan's Democratic Debacle


• Afghans confuse democracy with fornication


• Afghans Seek Presidency for Ideals and Gain


• Armageddon at the Top of the World: Not!


• Ascetic Afghan presidential candidate wins support


• Attack on Christians a further crisis for Pakistan


• Ballots and Bullets for Afghanistan


• Can Talking To The Taliban Help?


• Command Decision


• Democracy in Afghanistan is wishful thinking


• Dostum's return to Afghanistan: a nod to 'warlord politics'


• Fake Elections Won't Bring Peace to Afghanistan


• Fighting Taliban, if U.S. patrols can find them


• Fixing Afghanistan


• How to Bring Peace to Afghanistan


• In Afghanistan, Violence and Cynicism Keep Voter Turnout Low


• In Helmand, Afghans Feel Caught Between U.S. and Taliban


• In Taliban heartland, coalition's made little headway after eight years


• In the fog, remember: victory is impossible in Afghanistan


• Intimidation and Fraud Observed in Afghan Election


• Is Karzai trying to Steal the Afghanistan Election, taking a Leaf from Ahmadinejad's Book?


• Is Obama 'Acting Stupidly' in Afghanistan?


• Is Pakistan's Taliban movement on the way out?


• Just in Time for Election: Afghanistan Introduces Sweeping New Censorship


• Karzai and Warlords Mount Massive Vote Fraud Scheme


• Karzai in His Labyrinth


• Karzai Wins Afghan Warlords' Support as Others Fear the Cost


• Karzai's secret U-turn on Afghan rape law


• Karzai’s supporters 'buy' votes for Afghanistan election


• Many Women Stayed Away From the Polls In Afghanistan


• Marines Fight Taliban With Little Aid from Afghans


• Marines try a woman’s touch to reach Afghan hearts


• Marines' Mission Doomed to Failure


• Military says linguists can't keep up in Afghanistan


• Military Translators Risk Low Pay and Death


• Mission Essential, Translators Expendable


• Musharraf's emergency was 'unlawful'


• Now Pakistan must strike while the iron is hot


• Obama must call off this folly before Afghanistan becomes his Vietnam


• Obama's bulldozer risks turning the Taliban into Pakistan's Khmer Rouge


• Observers Point to Widespread Fraud in Afghan Vote


• One Step Forward, One Step Back


• Organized Crime in Pakistan Helps Fund Taliban


• Pakistan Lifts Ban on Political Parties in Tribal Areas


• Pakistan Military Not Capitalizing on Taliban Disarray


• Pakistan public opinion turning against Taliban


• Pakistan religious schools get scrutiny


• Pakistan turns on its jihadi assets


• Pashtun ethnic agenda at heart of Afghan war


• Poll finds Pakistanis unhappy with U.S. and militants


• Questions on the Eve of the Afghan Election


• Secret deal to help Karzai win reelection


• Sectarian violence hits Pakistani town


• Security Risks and Segregation Likely to Undermine Afghan Election’s Legitimacy


• Support network in Pakistan accused of helping Taliban, others sneak across Afghan border to attack U.S.


• Taliban avert attacks with U.S. equipment


• Taliban drug proceeds lower than thought, U.S. report says


• Taliban slick propaganda confronts NATO forces and government


• Taliban's growth in Afghanistan's north threatens to expand war


• Tensions Rise as Thousands of Fraud Allegations Hit Afghan Vote


• The Afghan pipe dream


• The aid Afghanistan really needs


• The big lie of Afghanistan


• The Irresistible Illusion


• The Lesson from Pakistan: Less Is More


• The Madrasa Myth


• The Taliban will 'never be defeated'


• The truth behind the insurgency


• The Unsinkable Hamid Karzai


• The War We Can't Win


• These attempts to win hearts and minds are futile


• Today's Afghan election is a moment of truth for zealous liberal aggressors


• U.S. and Britain Again Target Afghan Poppies


• U.S. envoy: Most Taliban funds come from overseas


• U.S. gives up on eradicating Afghanistan's opium


• U.S. Helicopter Opens Fire on Afghan Medical Clinic


• U.S. Said to Have Averted Inquiry into '01 Afghan Killings


• U.S. Sees Limited Iranian Aid To Afghan Insurgency


• U.S. trains reluctant Afghan police to fight Taliban


• Ultimate Dodge: America Plans to Reduce Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan… And???


• Vote fraud allegations mount in Afghanistan


• Was the Afghan election rigged, and where's the proof?


• Waziristan is still a hangover from the colonial headache


• What’s happening in the Afghan massacre probe?


• Where the Mullahs Are the Upper Crust


• Why Afghans Have No Hope in This Week's Vote


• Why Are We in Afghanistan?


• Why Is a Leading Feminist Organization Lending Its Name to Support Escalation in Afghanistan?


• Why South Waziristan has long posed challenge to Pakistan's government


• Why the Taliban won't take over Pakistan


• Why these deaths hit home as hard as the Somme


• Winning the Good War


• Without opium, Afghan village economy spirals


• Women voter turnout sinks in Afghanistan

Africa

• In a Changing Somalia, Islamist Forces See Support Wane


• International Court Under Unusual Fire


• Jihadists find global Somali communities ripe for recruiting


• Pirates, Inc.: Inside the booming Somali business


• Western Attitudes, Toxins Stunting African Growth

Al-Qaida

• A Saad Story


• Al-Qaida Leader Hopes to Use Pakistani Nukes Against U.S.


• Al-Qaida plays key role on both sides of Pakistan-Afghan border


• Bin Laden worked for U.S. till 9/11


• Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists


• New direction in anti-terrorism fight may stem from case of American al-Qaida recruit


• No sign of voters on election day in Afghanistan despite official claims


• The Other Sons of Iraq


• Why America is losing the intelligence war


• Yemen's Problems Go Far Beyond Narrow U.S. Focus on al-Qaida

American-Israeli Relations

• AIPAC Wall Beginning to Crack


• Anti-Americanism in Israel


• DOJ: AIPAC case witness was asked to 'fake… suicide'


• Same As It Ever Was?


• Sentence reduced for Pentagon analyst who leaked to AIPAC officials

Balkans

• Bosnia needs to sort itself out without our help


• Envoy rules by decree to scrap law in Bosnia


• Fourteen Years After War's End, Ethnic Divisions Once Again Gripping Bosnia


• Risky business in the Balkans

Iran

• 'Reformer' is relative for Iranian election challenger


• A classic revolutionary dilemma


• A Divided Country United by the Spirit of Democracy


• A Shi'a Schism On Clerical Rule


• A shift in Iran would not change nuclear policy


• A Supreme Leader Loses His Aura as Iranians Flock to the Streets


• A Thought Experiment: If the Soviet Union Had Verbally Backed the U.S. Civil Rights Movement


• Ahmadinejad Wins Surprise Iran Landslide Victory


• Apocalypse Not


• Battle for the Islamic republic


• Between Tel Aviv and Tehran


• Can Iran's Minorities Help Oust Ahmadinejad?


• Can Iran's protesters keep momentum?


• Claims of student massacre in Tehran spread


• Clashes Continue in Iran as Guardian Council Admits to Irregularities


• Class vs. Culture Wars in Iranian Elections: Rejecting Charges of a North Tehran Fallacy


• Clerics’ Call for Ouster Challenges Iran's Supreme Leader


• Clinton: U.S. Supported Iran Protesters 'Behind the Scenes'


• Did Ahmadinejad Win Fair and Square--and Cheat, Too?


• Did an Australian sell nukes to Iran?


• Difficult moment for Iran--and the world


• Distorting U.S. Intel On Iran: Obama Follows Bush’s Lead, Again


• Divine assessment vs. people power


• Don't Forget Mousavi's Bloody Past


• Extraordinary scenes in Iran


• History suggests the 'revolution' will fail


• How Quarreling Ayatollahs Affect Iran's Election Crisis


• In Iran, an Iron Cleric, Now Blinking


• In Iran, One Woman's Death May Have Many Consequences


• In Iran, Rafsanjani Urges Khamenei to Stop Ahmadinejad's 'False Allegations'


• Inconsistency on Electoral Legitimacy, in Lebanon and Iran


• Inquiry on 1994 Blast at Argentina Jewish Center Gets New Life


• Iran and America: The Spirit of 1908


• Iran and the U.S. do a 'war on terrorism' somersault


• Iran book publisher recalls weeklong ordeal in prison


• Iran Clerical Rift Widens as Rafsanjani Relatives Arrested


• Iran conflict isn't class warfare


• Iran erupts as voters back the democrator


• Iran Extends Election Probe Amid Growing Evidence


• Iranian Cabinet nominee wanted in Argentine attack


• Iranian Prosecutor General Acknowledges Torture of Some Protesters


• Iran's Crisis: The Opposition Weighs Its Options


• Iran's Election: The Odds of Fraud


• Iran’s Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think


• Iran's Factional Disputes Grow Increasingly Bitter


• Iran's Green Revolution: Made in America?


• Iran's Michelle Obama?: The Woman Ahmadinejad Should Fear


• Iran's Next Supreme Leader?


• Iran's Power Struggle


• Iran's Pre-Political Revolt


• Iran's Rafsanjani is central to struggle within the regime


• Iran's Red Tide


• Iran: The Tragedy and the Future


• Is Iran gas ban a step toward war?


• Khamenei on the Way Out?


• Krauthammer's Projections


• Landslide or Fraud? The Debate Online Over Iran’s Election Results


• Liberty and the Tehran Spring


• Lincoln-Douglas debates, Iranian style


• Media fantasies in Iran


• Meet the ayatollahs


• Millionaire Mullahs


• Most Israelis could live with a nuclear Iran


• Mousavi, celebrated in Iranian protests, involved in anti-U.S. attacks in Lebanon


• Neocons for Ahmadinejad


• No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me


• Non-Interference Means Not Interfering


• Outlasting the Ayatollahs


• Poetic justice of a green revolution


• Protesters cry: 'Death to Khamenei'


• Rafsanjani has enough support to remove Khamenei: reports


• Rafsanjani Quotes Khomeini Principles


• Regime Cracks down Again in Tehran, but Hardliners Question Brutal Tactics


• Requiem for a revolution


• Secret letter seems to prove Mousavi won poll


• Senior Iranian ayatollah slams election, confirming split


• Show Trials in Iran


• Something profound has changed: Iranians are losing their fear and mock the official line


• Spectre of Khomeini as religious radical still stalks Iran


• Stealing the Iranian Election


• The End Game in Iran: Four Ways the Crisis May Resolve


• The Guardian Council, the Power Behind the Elections


• The Impact of the Iranian Elections and TV Debates


• The Iranian Demonstrations Are Homegrown, and Must Stay That Way


• The Leaking Game: Planted News Stories Show New Bid by West to Say Iran Seeks Nuclear Weapons


• The Need for Strategic Patience on Iran


• The New Democrats: An intellectual history of the Green Wave


• The Next Explosion in Iran


• The State will win: Deal with it


• The Suffrage Green Preservation Society


• The urge to split the world into two warring camps is childish


• The 'Bomb Iran' contingent's newfound concern for The Iranian People


• The 'Neda video', torture, and the truth-revealing power of images


• There Will Be Blood


• Tiananmen Moments


• Top Jundallah Figure Says U.S. Ordered Attacks Inside Iran


• U.S. grants support to Iranian dissidents


• U.S. to increase funding for ‘hackivists’ aiding Iranians


• War with Iran: Has It Already Begun?


• Was Iran's election rigged? Here's what is known so far


• Who Put the 'Green' in the Green Revolution?


• Who Said 'No Comment'?


• Why are the Iranians dreaming again?


• Why is Dennis Ross being ousted as Obama envoy to Iran?

Iraq

• A reporter reflects on what war brought to Iraq


• After six years of 'liberation', Iraqis learn the limits of a free press


• Al-Hakim's Death Unsettles Iraqi Politics


• Blackwater in Court Today in War Crimes Hearing


• Colonizing Iraq


• Confidential memo reveals U.S. plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq


• Elections Shake Kurdistan: Strong Showing of 'Change' Party Stuns Political Elite


• From beyond the grave, Saddam reveals all (nearly)


• George Galloway at the U.S. Senate: Part 1, Part 2 (YouTube videos)


• Heads in the Sand: The 'Sunni awakening' could have started in 2004 if the Bush administration hadn't been so driven by ideology


• How the FBI Broke Saddam: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4


• Iraq: mission accomplished?


• Iraq book ban raises fears of free speech clampdown


• Iraq in throes of environmental catastrophe, experts say


• Iraq's Assyrian Christians find temporary home in Kurdistan


• Iraq's New Death Squad


• Iraq’s Shi'a power base shifts: Death of key leader brings questions about future of political empire


• Iraqi Oil Minister accused of mother of all sell-outs


• Iraqi Who Threw Shoes at Bush to Be Released Early


• Is Ethnic Strife Inevitable in Iraq?


• Kurdish magazine sparks wrath by urging Jews to return


• Minorities Can’t Escape Northern Iraq’s Ethno-religious Maelstrom


• Now It's a Census That Could Rip Iraq Apart


• Out Now!


• Powerful Iraqi Shi'a leader has died in Iran


• Radioactive wreckage and landmines blight Iraq


• Recalling the Downing Street Minutes


• Religion and Politics in Iraq: What Type of Sectarianism Really Exists?


• The Case for Leaving Iraq—Now


• The Saddam Files: His final interviews


• The Sheikh Down


• U.S. criticised for use of phosphorous in 2004 Fallujah attack


• U.S. forces to continue patrolling in Basra after June 30


• U.S. forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah


• U.S. role in Iraq doesn't end just yet


• U.S. takes in 1,350 Palestinian refugees


• U.S. troops to return to northern Iraq despite Barack Obama’s withdrawal plan


• Visits to a U.S. Prison in Iraq Often Bring More Worries and Questions


• Water, Water Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink in Iraq


• With Hakim’s Death, Who Leads Iraq’s Opposition Bloc?


• Worries About a Kurdish-Arab Conflict Move to the Fore in Iraq

Islam

• A better way to rid Canada of the burqa


• Declining Christian population a fact of life in Middle East


• Fears of an Islamic revolt in Europe begin to fade


• Why Fears of a Muslim Takeover Are All Wrong

Israel-Palestine

• 'Palestinians' Without 'Palestine'


• 'Socialized Medicine' and Hamas: Big Lies Thrive


• Abridged Histories of the Holy Land


• Are the Arabs Ready for Peace with Israel?


• Behind Hamas's Own War on Terrorism


• Breaking Bibi


• Can Fatah reinvent itself?


• Debating, Again, the Founding of Israel


• Fatah extends stormy conference


• Fatah strangled at rebirth


• Fatah's old guard ousted by election of intifada chief


• From Sheikh Jarrah to Sheikh Munis


• Gaza's two years under Hamas: order and absurdity


• Hamas leader says ready to accept state on 1967 borders


• Hamas profits from Israel's Gaza blockade


• How Israel's naval blockade denies Gazans food and aid


• Israel considered two-state solution just after Six-Day War


• Israel starving Gaza of power and water


• Israel's settlement setback


• Israel's settlements are on shaky ground


• Israeli, Palestinian mayors address water contamination


• Israeli 'Settlements': Fictions on the Ground


• Loss of nuclear monopoly: an Israeli nightmare


• Netanyahu's Illusory Concession on a Palestinian State


• Palestian Violence Overstated, Jewish Violence Understated


• Quiet Slicing of the West Bank Makes Abstract Prayers for Peace Obscene


• The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian-Controlled Areas


• The Disappearing Palestinian


• The First Israeli Jew in Fatah's Parliament


• The Million Person Gap: The Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza (.pdf file)


• The Two-State Solution Doesn't Solve Anything


• Unlikely Ally for Residents of West Bank


• What Actually Happened in Fatah's Elections?


• Why Israel will thwart Obama on settlements


• Zionism: A Defense

Latin America

• Democracy hangs by a thread in Honduras


• History Haunts Honduras


• Honduras’s swift coup was months in the making


• U.S.-Colombia Strategic Accord Prompts Questions at Home, Across Region

Lebanon

• 'Despite defeat Hezbollah remains a potent political force'


• A victory where all 'remains the same'


• Aah, that damned popular vote…


• Anatomy of a Victory


• Balancing act for Lebanon's opposition


• Breakthrough in Tribunal Investigation: New Evidence Points to Hezbollah in Hariri Assassination


• Bring it Aoun


• Deconstructing the Popular Vote


• Deconstructing the Popular Vote in Lebanon's Election


• Democracy, Lebanese-Style


• Did Obama Win Lebanese Election?


• Enemies All Around Us


• Five hours of hate town can't forget


• Hezbollah handed a stinging defeat


• Hizbullah: It Feels So Good to Be So Bad…


• In Lebanon Vote, Stark Options, Complex Choices


• Lebanon dodges Hezbollah bullet, for now


• Lebanon vote undercuts Hezbollah and is a boost for Obama


• Lebanon's Exodus


• Militant captured in Lebanon day after jailbreak


• More political strife in Lebanon expected after victory of U.S.-backed coalition


• New to Politics But Not to Sorrow


• Preserving Christian Lebanon


• Shattered Christian Minorities in the Middle East: The Case of Lebanon


• Shi'a-Christian alliance shakes Lebanon politics


• Shooting blanks and the popular vote


• Should We Worry About Sami Gemayel?


• The 1983 Suicide Attack on US Marines in Beirut - Hezbollah Attack Killing 241 US Marines in Beirut (1983)


• The Closing of the Christian Womb in the Middle East


• The Lebanese Elections: A Box Office Success?


• The political dilemma facing Lebanese Christians


• What Really Happened in the Lebanese Elections?

Media

• Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters


• Journalists' Recent Work Examined Before Being Embedded


• Military Prepares Profiles on Reporters Visiting War Zones


• Shocked, Shocked! The Pentagon Is Profiling Journalists!


• The Coming Media Bailout


• The media can't handle the truth

Russia and Its Neighbours

• Canada to spend $30M securing bio-warfare labs


• Central Asia Sounds Alarm on Islamic Radicalism


• Fear stalks Caucasus amid hidden war


• Fool Me Twice


• Kyrgyzstan: At the Crossroad of Empires, a Mouse Struts


• Letter from Tbilisi


• NATO Gains Weight


• North Korean labor camps a ghastly prospect for U.S. journalists


• Russia's Knotty Policies on Islam, Mirrored in Trial


• Russia's 'Loose Nukes': The continuing threat to American security


• Truck bomb signals on Russia's southern flank


• U.S. courts Central Asian human-rights abusers in Taliban fight

Illegal and Questionable U.S. Government Policies

• A day of reckoning for Bush's 'torture' lawyers


• A Thousand Little Gitmos


• A Window Into C.I.A.’s Embrace of Secret Jails


• ABC News' Interview with Lakhdar Boumediene and Our Current Policies


• Attorney General Appoints Torture Prosecutor, Rejects Nuremberg Principle


• Bush Surveillance Program Was Massive


• Bush's Search Policy For Travelers Is Kept


• Cheney's New Gambit


• Cheney's Plans for a Military Coup


• Christians Largely Mum on Torture


• CIA Documents Provide Little Cover for Cheney Claims


• CIA Releases Its Instructions For Breaking a Detainee's Will


• CIA Renewed Contract With Psychologists Who Endorsed Waterboarding Weeks After Obama Took Office Before Firing Them


• CIA spies 'certified' with 2 weeks training


• CIA Used Gun and Drill in Interrogation of Alleged USS Cole Attack Mastermind


• Civilian trials won't be cakewalks for Guantanamo detainees


• Conservative Magazine: 'Sibel Edmonds Speaks, But No One is Listening'


• Deaths and Missing Detainees Still Blacked Out in New CIA Report


• Enhanced Justification Techniques


• Extraordinary Measures


• Feds Urge Dismissal of Wiretapping Case


• Freed Uighurs relishing Bermuda’s sun and sand


• Fringe Leftist Losers: Wrong Even When They're Right


• From Guantanamo to the South Pacific: Is This a Joke?


• Grays of Making Them Talk: The fuzzy line between approved interrogation methods and Torture


• Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib… Bagram?


• Guantanamo's Youngest Prisoner Released to Chad


• How Civilized, Law-Abiding Countries Imprison Terrorists


• In stark legal turnaround, Obama now resembles Bush


• Interview with Philip Giraldi: The long-awaited deposition of Sibel Edmonds, Marc Grossman’s 2001 outing of CIA front group Brewster Jennings, the failure of the MSM to cover news outside the left-right paradigm, the incredible level of corruption in the U.S. government, and the influence of Turkish and Israeli lobbies in Congress.


• Justice Department Eyes Narrow 'Investigation' Into CIA Torture


• Justice Department May Skirt Court Order on Interrogation Documents


• Letting Cheney Off the Hook


• New Revelations About the Torture of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi


• New York Times Finally Apologizes for Guantanamo Recidivism Story


• Obama Administration to Formalize, Continue Rendition System


• Obama goes to bat for Bush wiretap program


• Obama's Embrace of Signing Statements, Riles Congress


• Obama's support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law


• Pentagon Report Verified Detainee Torture


• Real ID: A Real Warning on the Danger of Government


• Report Details 'Massive Surveillance' and 'Inappropriate Secrecy' in Bush-era Wiretap Program


• Seven Points on the CIA Report


• Sibel Edmonds' Deposition: Video and Transcript Released


• Stop Letting Cheney Frame the Torture Debate


• The CIA's Bad Apples


• The Mysterious Eleventh Torture Technique: Prolonged Diapering?


• The New York Times Calls Iranian Interrogation Tactics 'Torture'


• The New York Times's Failure of Understanding


• The NSA is still listening to you


• The Shahrukh Khan Affair—The Aftermath


• To Critics, Obama's Terrorism Policy Looks a Lot Like Bush's


• Tortured Truth


• Two U.S. Architects of Harsh Tactics in 9/11’s Wake


• Uighurs held at Guantanamo Going to Pacific Nation of Palau


• United States: Trade in Torture


• Vanishing Liberties


• Washington Post Helps CIA Defend Torture


• What every American should be made to learn about the CIA Inspector General Torture Report


• What if the Uighurs were Christian rather than Muslim?


• What's Missing from the CIA Documents


• Whistleblower's Courage at Guantanamo


• Who Are We?

War and Intervention

• After $22 billion, little proof UN programs work


• Bill Kristol condemns lying for political ends: seriously


• Bombings Worse than Nagasaki and Hiroshima


• How to Deal with America's Empire of Bases


• Interview with Eric Margolis: The troop increase and mission creep in Afghanistan, U.S. alliances with Central Asian despots, the subservience of the State Department to the Pentagon in foreign policy, and the consequences of the sanctions on Iran.


• Interview with Michael Scheuer: The government’s reliance on CIA covert action instead of conventional military force to protect the U.S., how the Congress and President fail to take meaningful action because they seek the adulation of the media and Europe, the wisdom in leaving Afghanistan ASAP, and how Americans won’t realize their government isn’t protecting them until Osama bin Laden attacks again.


• Is the Antiwar Movement Waking Up?


• Just Six More Months to Victory!


• Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Empire


• Not So Huddled Masses: Multiculturalism and Foreign Policy


• Our Suicide Bombers


• Pentagon Official Questions U.S. Message to Muslims


• The Scapegoat's Apology


• U.S. eyes 12 giant 'bunker buster' bombs


• War? What War?


• What If Osama Calls Obama's Bluff?


• Why Policy Matters

Uncategorized

• A Revisionist's Burden


• Don Marquis: A Non-Religious Anti-Abortion Argument


• Don't Get That College Degree!


• Frail, cowardly Winston saved us


• How new grads can get hired, even now


• Practical Internet Privacy


• Preparedness for Travelers


• The justifications of the torturer


• Top five right and wrong reasons to get married