A stable Iraqi state would constitute a strategic victory—and the only one still possible. by William S. Lind Among the bits of lore of the United States Senate is a story that dates back to before I arrived there in 1973 as a staffer to Sen. Robert Taft Jr. of Ohio. A senator—from New York, perhaps—known for depending wholly on his staff while treating it with contempt, told his assistant
How reporters trumped up a story about Iranians killing Americans in Iraq by Gareth Porter On July 2 and 3, The New York Times and the Associated Press, among other media outlets, came out with sensational stories saying that either Iranians or Iranian agents had played an important role in planning the operation in Karbala, Iraq last January that resulted in the deaths of five American soldiers. Michael R. Gordon
By David Ivanovich Washington – More than 1,000 civilian contractors have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion more than four years ago, according to Labor Department records made available Tuesday. In response to a request from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., the Labor Department revealed that 1,001 civilian contractors had died in Iraq as of June 30, including 84 during the second quarter of the year. So far in
by Robert Fisk They’ve done it again. The Arabs have, once more, followed democracy and voted for the wrong man. Just as the Palestinians voted for Hamas when they were supposed to vote for the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, so the Christian Maronites of Lebanon appear to have voted for a man opposed to the majority government of Fouad Siniora in Beirut. Camille Khoury – with a strong vote
Where is the War on Terror heading?By Bita Ghaffari, Press TV, TehranRecent remarks by the US presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo have shed more light on the absolute chaos governing American politics. The Republican long shot said last week the best way to ward off a nuclear assault on American soil is to threaten to bomb Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The brash assertion even sparked a reaction from
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation. Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning – for the first time – that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves
On Tony Karon’s excellent blog Mark Perry offers 10 reasons why Hamas, rather than Abu Mazen and his U.S. backers will prevail in the struggle for Palestinian hearts and minds. The Islamists today represent the Palestinian mainstream, while Fatah is broken from top to bottom. Even more importantly, Abbas is increasingly isolated within his own organization, most of whose grassroots and mid-level leadership want nothing to do with the U.S.
TEHRAN, Aug. 6 –Iran has manufactured the Middle East’s most powerful supercomputer at the Research Center for Ultra High-Speed Processing of Amir Kabir University of Technology.A researcher with the project’s team, Bahman Javadi, said the project is the result of two years of research, Fars reported.“The supercomputer has 216 Aptron processing units with two gigahertz frequency that utilizes cluster technology and functions in a parallel manner. This computer has 56
By Gareth Smyth, Financial Times The following is the transcript of an interview that Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for legal and international affairs, Abbas Araghchi, has given to UK’s Financial Times. Financial Times: What is the big obstacle to Iran and the US talking to each other? Abbas Araghchi: We had no plan to do so, although the Americans were obviously interested … We didn’t think the theatrical behavior would
Larouche reports that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, the Congressman from the 14th CD of Texas, would not back down in an interview today with Murdoch’s Fox TV News, about the fact that the White House would use a “Gulf of Tonkin” incident to launch war against Iran. This is also the view of Lyndon LaRouche, who has identified this danger, calling it “Gulf of Tonkin II.” In a straightforward
AFP – WASHINGTON: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a key US ally, contradicted US assessments of the threat posed by Iran and insisted in an interview aired Sunday that Tehran played a beneficial role in his region. “So far, Iran has been a helper and a solution,” Karzai told CNN on the eve of a visit here Sunday to meet with President George W. Bush for talks on the deteriorating security
BEIRUT, Aug 6–Lebanon’s Western-backed ruling majority was dealt a blow on Monday in by-elections that split the country’s Christian camp in two and boosted the opposition ahead of a presidential poll. Official results showed the candidate representing opposition leader Michel Aoun winning by a slim margin of 418 votes over former president Amin Gemayel, who was backed by the ruling Western-backed coalition. Camille Khoury won 39,534 votes as against 39,116
by Cindy Sheehan I was sitting behind the stage at Union Square the other day when a young woman with a cameraman in tow approached me and asked me if she could ask me a “question.” Seldom when I am approached to answer “a” question does it turn out to be just one question and this person looked like she was about 14 years old. “Sure,” I answered her. With
So why hasn’t Iran started by wiping its own Jews off the map? By Jonathan Cook 08/03/07 “ICH” — – — Iran is the new Nazi Germany and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Hitler. Or so Israeli officials have been declaring for months as they and their American allies try to persuade the doubters in Washington that an attack on Tehran is essential. And if the latest media reports
According to Iranian news reports, Iraqi sources have confirmed that an American surveillance plane has crashed into Iyad Allawi’s residence. The aircraft slammed into Allawi’s house in Baghdad on Thursday. The incident comes as US support of the former Iraqi prime minister is heightening while at the moment he is the most vocal opposition to the current Iraqi government. Allawi had told Aljazeera that he dismissed some of the US
by Gordon Prather Last week the Christians United For Israel organization held its annual show-of-force in our Nation’s Capital and Max Blumenthal recorded for posterity – if, God Willing, there is to be one – this most “politically extreme, outrageous” spectacle. “Founded by San Antonio-based megachurch pastor John Hagee, CUFI has added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby. Hagee and his minions have
DEBKA reports that Tehran and the Russian Rosoboronexport arms group are about to sign a mammoth arms deal running into tens of billions of dollars for the sale to Tehran of 250 Su-30MKM warplanes and 20 IL-78 MKI fuel tankers. DEBKAfile’s military sources report Iran has stipulated delivery of the first aircraft before the end of 2007. The transaction, Russia’s largest arms deal in 30 years, will endow Iran with
TEHRAN, July 25 –President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran’s firm policy regarding Iraq is to support the country’s security, solidarity and its government.Ahmadinejad made the remark while speaking to reporters at the end of the Cabinet session on Wednesday, ISNA reported.Commenting on the second round of Iran-US talks on Iraq held in Al-Khadra district west of Baghdad on Tuesday, the president said, “Assisting the people and government of Iraq was the
by Matt Duss for Foreign Policy in Focus In a July 11 Wall Street Journal op-ed, writer Kimberly Kagan touted the success of the Iraq surge strategy. Kagan noted, among other supposed triumphs, that the Maliki government had “confronted Muqtada al-Sadr for promoting illegal militia activity, and has apparently prompted this so-called Iraqi nationalist to leave for Iran for the second time since January.” While one can perhaps excuse Kagan’s
Today I am publishing an interview which truly gives me great pleasure: my Q&A email exchange with Mizgîn, a Kurd who has studied in the West and who generally supports the PKK. That is all I can say about her as in fact that is all I know about her. And that is how it should be. On my blog, names do not matter, not even self-evidently nonsensical ones (like,
