Month: December 2010

“[A]mid a spiraling crackdown on religious groups and government critics,” Rights Group: 39 Uzbeks Died of Torture in Prisons (AP / Herald online) Just asking: Is a country whose state-paid clerical officials issue a formal religious ruling against renting or selling to a religious or ethnic minority really a democracy? Is Israel a Democracy? Five…

“The last American soldier will leave Iraq…. This agreement is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration. It is sealed.” — Nouri al-Maliki: Iraqi Prime Minister Says U.S. Not Welcome After 2011 (abc News) “The protests began in the central town of Sidi Bouzid after a young man tried to set himself on fire…

Planting conifers that remind them of the forests of their Eastern European homelands (even as they destroy the native Palestinians’ indigenous olive trees) has been an ecological disaster for the Zionists: Forest Fire Fuels Review of Israel’s Tree-planting Tradition (Washington Post) (Be)Coming Home(less): Fighting Abroad, Homeless at Home (abc News) ElBaredei says Egypt’s growing number…

A U.S. District Court ordered the award to a  chapter of the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in response to “its legal challenge of the Bush administration’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program” Feds to Pay $2.5 Million over ‘Terrorist’ Wiretaps (MSNBC) The marriage was illegal not  because of the bride was eleven, but because “elements of threat…

“Even though I personally don’t agree with Shia teachings …,  I cannot accept the approach of the allegedly democratic Malaysian government in denying the people’s right to practice their faith” — Muslim scholar Asri Zainul Abidin: More than 200 Shia Muslims Nabbed in Malaysia May Be Charged for Deviating from Islam (AP / Huffington Post)…

Big brother is watching; the U.S. “is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators”: Top Secret America: Monitoring America (Washington Post) Members of the group claiming responsibility for last week’s mosque bombing are executed for spreading “corruption on…

Anwar is punished “for saying in March ‘1Malaysia,’ a government campaign to promote unity among Malaysia’s ethnic groups, was named after ‘One Israel’”: Malaysia Parliament Suspends Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (Christian Science Monitor) By dictating Friday sermons to West Bank imams, Abbas’ government entangles religion and state more than Hamas has ever done and demonstrates…

Afghanis complained Holbrooke was more concerned with their neighbors than them; now his death complicates a war “plagued by unreliable partners, reluctant allies and an increasingly skeptical American public” … Holbrooke’s Death Leaves Major Void in Obama’s Afghan Strategy (Washington Post) … and the diplomat’s last words to his doctors were,  “You’ve got to stop…

Karzai again says he prefers the Taliban to the status quo of civilian vulnerability to contractor violence: As US Assesses Afghan War, Karzai a Question Mark (Washington Post) New Wikileak: Iran’ s interest in nuclear weapons is deterrent and “Tehran sees a ‘grand bargain’ with the United States as its best way to ensure national…

Standing by their claim that they killed in self-defense, Israel offers the deceased civilians’ families cash and a “a statement of regret” instead of a mea culpa — if Ankara helps indemnify “the Israeli navy against lawsuits”: Israel Offers Gaza Flotilla Raid Payouts (Guardian) “Derakhshan – nicknamed The Blogfather – started the first Farsi-language blog…