News and Analysis (11/5/15)

A uniquely French plan to stop extremism: “This was the week that schoolchildren in one Paris suburb got a stark choice at the cafeteria: pork or nothing at all”:

• France Walks Narrow Line on Religion in Schools — with Islamic Extremism the Unspoken Threat (AP / US News and World Report)

Which should be reported as a potential terrorist: “a person posting about a plan to attend a political event, or someone with an Arabic name posting about going on ‘a mission’ overseas”? For the FBI training program it is a no-brainer [No brains, indeed!]:

• F.B.I. Tool to Identify Extremists Is Criticized (NY Times)

“Filkins thus assembled a set of ‘facts’ … supporting his thesis of Iranian guilt, without any serious effort to inquire into its accuracy, reliability and significance [and] …suggests a readiness to interpret data that doesn’t fit the accepted picture in such a way as to keep it intact”:

• The New Yorker Doesn’t Factcheck What ‘Everyone Knows’ Is True (FAIR)

“There is an undeniable link between media censorship and the proliferation of conspiracy theories in Turkey. In turn, society is so polarized that it lacks the means to negotiate truth claims”:

• Censorship and Conspiracy Theories Rule the Day in Post-election Turkey (Open Democracy)

The accusations that the man who provided the rational for America’s disastrous Iraqi intervention was working for Iran were never proven, but there is no doubt that he “justified his lies by insisting that they served a greater good” …

• Charlatan or hero: Ahmed Chalabi’s death and the lessons of Iraq (Washington Post)

… while a “new biography of the 41st president – Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush – reveals that Bush Sr held Cheney and Rumsfeld responsible for the hawkish stance that ‘hurt’ his son’s administration”:

• ‘Iron-ass’ Cheney and ‘Arrogant’ Rumsfeld Damaged America, Says George Bush Sr (Guardian)

Friday’s narrative that the mission “would be totally ‘non-combat’” and suggesting “keeping the operation purely advisory … was ditched almost immediately:

• White House Admits US Troops In Syria Will Go On Combat Raids (Mint Press)

Saad Almasmari, newly elected to what is believed to be “the first majority Muslim City Council … in the entire country” says, “We are going to represent everybody. We are going to serve everybody, Christians, Jewish, Muslims, everybody”:

• Hamtramck Is 1st American City to Elect Majority Muslim Council (Click on Detroit)

• Indian Muslim, Accused of Stealing a Cow, Is Beaten to Death by a Hindu Mob (NY Times)

• CT AFL-CIO Adopts Resolution in Support of BDS and Justice and Peace for the Palestinian People (Portside)

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