Saba Bahrat Square, Damascus, 12 October 2011 Baghdad Street, Damascus, 12 October 2011 Women and Youth, Damascus, 12 October 2011 Cf. “LOL AlJazeera is saying that tens of thousands were at the rally today while MILLIONS rally at the anti ones. Da funk?” (Joud, 12 October 2011); “Notice that when demonstrations take place in support […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
U.S. Charge against Iran: Who Could Make That Up?
Dear friends, As you probably know, the Obama administration has just publicly charged that Iranian government agents have been plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Washington is now using this outrageous claim to try and rally support for new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, isolate it in the international arena, and […]
Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, regarding the US Allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful No. 1110 11 October 2011 H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon Secretary General United Nations, New York Excellency, I am writing to you to express our outrage regarding the allegations leveled by the United States officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran on the involvement of my country […]
The Iran-Saudi Assassination “Hoax”?
I have been staring incredulously at my TV screen these past few hours as the story of Iran’s alleged assassination attempt of a Saudi diplomat in Washington unfolds in dramatic increments. Reporters keep repeating the theme “like out of a Hollywood script” as they eke out increasingly unlikely details about this “terror” plot. My immediate […]
Protest 10 Years of War on Afghanistan
Oct. 15 is a day of nationally coordinated antiwar actions in cities across the U.S., the 10th anniversary of the massively destructive and criminal U.S. war on Afghanistan. When the U.S. government began its attack on Afghanistan 10 years ago, President Bush called it a “war on terror.” It was followed by 8 years of […]
Bahrain, Where Every Day Is a Friday
Bahraini and GCC security forces continue their systematic suppression of popular protests against the regime. Feelings of tension mount in Manama, as signs of renewed protest become more evident. Manama — At the airport in Manama, there are fewer passengers than usual. Most of the flights are operated by airlines from the Gulf — […]
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya: Worthy Victims and Unworthy Victims
Trafalgar Square, London, 8 October 2011, Video by Harry Fear TV At the very moment we are here, the United States, Britain, and France are bombing a city in Libya called Sirte. There are 100,000 people. Day and night, residential buildings, clinics, schools have been hit with fragmentation bombs and Hellfire missiles. . . […]
From Palestine to Pelican Bay
On October 7th, 2011, 10 days into hunger strikes across California State and Israeli occupation prisons, Palestinian, formerly incarcerated, Jewish Anti-Zionist, and other activists demonstrated in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York City. Solidarity with Prisoners, from California to Palestine For more information about the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, visit <www.ijsn.net/home/>, and about the US […]
Egypt: Mobs and Army Attack Coptic Protesters
“A march of 10,000 Copts began today from Shubra to the State TV building in Maspero turned violent when protesters were attacked by stone throwing mobs from on top of the surrounding walls while they were trying to cross the Shubra tunnel. A 15-minute battle ensued as the Coptic protesters fought back and hurled stones […]
Michel Kilo: A Voice of Courage in Syria
Michel Kilo has spent decades in the opposition, dedicated to politics despite his prison experiences. Naturally he raised his voice for the Syrian intifada, and yet he has remained independent, distancing himself from many opposition parties and especially from the external opposition fronts formed abroad. Michel Kilo stands out in Syrian politics for his unfailing […]
What Happens If the Call for “International Protection” of Protesters in Syria Gets Answered?
(1) “We Call for Foreign Intervention” (2) But if the call gets answered. . . . Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist. Cf. “US State Department tool Radwan Ziadeh today called for a war on Syria. Speaking on Aljazeera’s prime-time, evening newscast ‘daily harvest’, Washington’s favorite Syrian ‘human rights activist’ did not actually utter the […]
Before October: The Unbearable Romanticism of Western Marxism
Most Western Marxists suffer from a deep resentment: they have never experienced a successful communist revolution. For some unaccountable reason, all of those successful revolutions have happened in the ‘East’: Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, China, Vietnam and so on. And none of the few revolutions in the ‘West’, from Finland to Germany, […]
On the Tenth Anniversary of NATO’s War and Occupation of Afghanistan
Hi everyone, I would like to thank all supporters and anti-war movements around the world who are marking the dark day of occupation of the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan. Respected friends — ten years ago the U.S. and NATO invaded my country under the fake banners of women’s rights, human rights, and democracy. […]
Libya: NATO Provides the Bombs; The French “Left” Provides the Ideology
Last April, former Le Monde diplomatique director Ignacio Ramonet published (in Mémoire des Luttes) a text entitled “Libya, the Just and the Unjust.” The war had been started a few weeks earlier, inaugurated by French aircraft which had the honor of dropping the first bombs on Tripoli. On March 19, “a wave of pride […]
Zainab al-Hosni, the “Flower of Syria,” Alive and on TV: Will Human Rights Organizations and Mass Media Issue Corrections?
Zainab al-Hosni, dubbed the “Flower of Syria,” who the Syrian opposition claimed was tortured and murdered, burned and decapitated, by the Syrian government, has just appeared on Syrian TV, very much alive. Here is the video of the TV interview with Zainab, who says she fled from her family home because her brothers were beating […]
The Terrorist Attack in Syria
Grand Mufti of Syria Sheikh Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun On October 2, near the University of Ebla in Idlib province, gunmen shot dead the son of the Grand Mufti of Syria Sheikh Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun — Saria Hassoun, a student of the university. A victim of the attack also was Professor Mohammad al Omar. […]
Egypt: Political Parties in Service to SCAF
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, “The Arab Counterrevolution” (New York Review of Books, 29 September 2011); Hatem Maher, “Egypt’s Revolution Youth on the Backfoot as Parties Steal Limelight” (Ahram Online, 2 October 2011); “Political parties and movements across the spectrum are deeply divided over the meeting on Saturday […]
Yet Another Syrian Exile Opposition Council
So, yesterday, it was announced in Istanbul that yet another exile opposition group was formed. It has no head. There were conflicts among the various constituent groups. But I will tell you this lesson from Arab contemporary history: there has never been a case in which leftists or secularists were aligned with fundamentalists (Sunni or […]
Syria’s Path to Reforms: An Obstacle Course
Hamid Karout is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was first published in Tishreen on 8 August 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Cf. . | Print
CCR Condemns Targeted Assassination of U.S. Citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki
CCR Cites a Lack of Adherence to Constitutional and International Laws That Afford Due Process Today, in response to the news that a missile attack by an American drone aircraft had killed U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which had previously brought a challenge in federal court to the legality […]
