Archive for February, 2011

Gilad Atzmon recently gave an interview to Silvia Cattori, he considers it one of his most important. The interview can be seen on Cattori’s own site or at Atzmon’s site. The interview gotes under the title of “To Call a Spade a Spade”. It is quite long and deals with many topics of importance to [...]

There were some interesting points made by Abdel Bari Atwan today on a BBC program. First in his view Qaddafi is quite different to Hussein, Mubarak or the Tunisian former leader. Atwan sees Qaddafi as a ‘soft’ person who desperately tries to impress people with his status as a ‘thinker’ and recalled an interview he [...]

Der Spiegel online has an extremely interesting article on the present position in the Middle East. What they see is the lack of any role by Al Qaeda in the present position and the fact that the jihadists had nothing to do with this position being reached. That of course is hardly a desired outcome [...]

This is another Jason Ditz article from the antiwar.com site. He starts with an observation that,” The Gadhafi regime held a public rally in Green Square in the center of Tripoli today, which appears to be the absolute last holding they have in the entire country. Meanwhile, while feigning confidence in the square, the regime’s [...]

There is an excellent video interview at the Real News site. Paul Jay interviews Professor Gilbert Achcar who grew up in Lebanon, and is currently Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. His books include The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder, published [...]

Here is an article by Fidel Castro as reported at the Sabbah site. Castro starts by looking at the history of oil and its importance to both the US and the rest of the world he commences by saying that, “Oil has become the principal wealth in the hands of the great Yankee transnationals; through [...]

The following is an Al Jazeera report on the position in Libya. You can get good coverage of events there from Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, the Guardian as well as several well known commentators. Some of these views are in video interviews at the Real News site. Links to these sites are http://english.aljazeera.net/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/ http://therealnews.com/t2/ [...]

What will probably end up being called the Davis Affair has reached the level of court proceedings in Pakistan. What looks like a preliminary hearing was held at the gaol where he is and there is a report at the Guardian site that is quite illuminating. As the report commences it says that, “ The [...]

Apparently Qaddafi’s son is at odds with the Colonel. The following report says that, “The youngest son of the embattled ruler Muammar Gaddafi has joined the pro-democracy protesters in Libya amid an unabated outpouring of rage against Gaddafi, reports say. According to the reports, Saif al-Arab, Gaddafi’s youngest son, who was sent by his father [...]

This article is from Press TV at link. It seems that Qaddafi has some dissent in his own family.” At least 1,000 people have been killed in Tripoli by airstrikes conducted by the Libyan military in a desperate move meant to quell the popular uprising, according to some reports. Meanwhile, a total of 130 Libyan [...]

The conclusion Jason Ditz reaches in this article is not far fetched or without support. Particularly when we are dealing with the imperial project that thinks it owns the Middle East or at least those parts that Israel will allow it to think it owns. As it is often said by the US, “what we [...]

Here is another brief article from antiwar.com. The author is Jason Ditz.” Though the internal protests in Tripoli have more or less been crushed by a brutal crackdown from the mercenary forces still loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, the massive nationwide movement continues to spread, and moves inexorably toward that last bastion of regime power, the [...]

What follows is an excellent article by, Prof. Bouthaina Shaaban who is Political and Media Advisor at the Syrian Presidency, and former Minister of Expatriates. She is also a writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985. She’s got Ph.D. in English Literature from Warwick University, London. She was the spokesperson for Syria. She was [...]

The Guardian has an article about the latest from Obama regarding Libya. The ship must be close to the bottom for Obama to be talking about no fly zones and sanctions against a former ally. But the US had no problems with sanctions against Iraq a very loyal ally. In that case huge numbers of [...]

This is from the Guardian site blog on Libya. As has been mentioned before the site is updated each minute so it is an excellent way to look at what is or seems to be happening there. Given the rambling nature of the latest Qaddafi statements and his strange personal appearance there is at least [...]

There is a recent Reuters report about Libya and money from the US. According to the report it seems that, “Libya’s ruling family tried to coerce billions of dollars from Libyan and foreign oil companies, and its leader Muammar Gaddafi exhorted the United States to sow division in Saudi Arabia, leaked American diplomatic cables reveal. [...]

Here is another Jason Ditz article on Libya. It seems that the area around Benghazi has as it were fallen to the people who now have their own flag. Ditz commences by saying that, “ Celebrations have begun in earnest across East Libya, particularly in the major city of Benghazi, where locals have replaced the [...]

Every once in a while you come across a fairly unique article. Here is one that is at the Sabbah site, It comes from, Lamya Hussain is a Toronto-based activist and a researcher on issues around Palestinian refugees. The article deals with the position in and around refugee camps among other topics. Hussain commences by [...]

Eric Margolis has written an article concerning how curveball made the US look like fools. Perhaps that is a bit simplistic. They were desperate to go to war it was a fait accompli before curveball all this liar did was give them an added reason to do it. The groundwork had already been done by [...]

This is another excellent short piece by Jason Ditz on Bahrain. He notes that, “ The island nation of Bahrain’s Pearl Square Roundabout has been the site of major protests for more than a week, but today they were an absolute mass of people, with over 100,000 protesters, fully 1/5 of the island’s population, massed [...]

Here are some of the headlines from the latest antiwar.com email re their site. As usual there is a lot of very interesting reading. Please try and make a donation if you can. More comment will follow. Reports: Over 1,000 Dead in Libya Crackdown Dishevelled Gadhafi Pledges to Retain Power ‘Anonymous’ May Attack Nicaragua, Venezuela [...]

According to Jason Ditz there are reports of over 1,000 dead in Libya. He has an article at the antiwar.com site that commences with the observation that, “An Italy-based NGO has reported that the situation in Libya, just across the Mediterranean Sea, is getting enormously grim according to witnesses, and that the death toll from [...]

Here is yet another first rate article from the War is Crime site. It is titled,” Dear Mr. Beck: I Shook Hands with the Antichrist it is by Josh Steiber and commences with, “Earlier this week, Michael Lind wrote an article for Salon about the misplaced energy in demeaning alarmists like Glenn Beck.1 Having friends [...]

Here is another good article by Jonathan Cook titled “Egypt and Israel’s armies will only grow more powerful” Cook starts by saying that, “Israel has been indulging in a sustained bout of fear-mongering since the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled earlier this month. The ostensible aim has been to warn the international community that [...]

Here is another good article by Jonathan Cook titled “Egypt and Israel’s armies will only grow more powerful” Cook starts by saying that, “Israel has been indulging in a sustained bout of fear-mongering since the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled earlier this month. The ostensible aim has been to warn the international community that [...]

Many people have expressed a fear that a returning General of the completely military mad category could reach dizzy heights in the US presidency or Administration. Just in case you thought that was alarmist take a look from some of the more recent efforts of General Petraeus. Built in the same mould as all military [...]

Here are some excerpts from the Guardian live blog on the Middle East. It is updated every minute. It is one of the better ways of assessing the position and also comes with photos and on occasions video presentations. The longer the people speak in the Middle East the greater chance for a true democratic [...]

The following is the very latest report from Al Jazeera about Libya it starts, “Protesters Monday overran several Libyan cities and regime stalwarts began defecting as the pillars of Moamer Gathafi’s hardline rule were targeted in Tripoli amid reports he had fled the country. Cities including Benghazi in the east had fallen to demonstrators opposing [...]

You may find this quote from Alex Carey’s book Taking the Risk Out of Democracy has application beyond major wars and actually extends to all wars whether major or otherwise. Carey says at p138/8. “Major wars always create major problems for defenders of the established order. For modern wars require the support of everyone; and [...]