I was interviewed last week by Radio Farda, Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe, on my attitudes toward 9/11 and the subsequent decade. My answers were translated into Farsi so my English responses are below: 1) Do you remember how and where you got the info on 9/11? I was in Melbourne, Australia and I…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
Memo to New York Times; you have no idea about the Middle East
Angry Arab: While watching the scenes in Egypt today [protestors breaking into the Israeli embassy in Cairo], [New York Times columnist] Thomas Friedman, should have tweeted this to himself: I am so clueless. … I have no idea what is going on in the Middle East. … I was sitting in my suite at the Marriott and…
This is what Israeli isolation looks like (and Washington can’t do much)
Tony Karon in Time.com shows what happens when you brutally occupy another people for decades; the world gets sick of it: Israel’s fallout with long-time ally Turkey is no isolated spat that will be repaired any time soon; it’s a dramatic illustration that no amount of U.S. backing can prevent the growing international isolation resulting…
While the Wikileaks revelations continue, questions to be asked
One: The US and Australia schemed unsuccessfully in 2005 to block Mohamed ElBaradei’s election to a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a newly leaked US diplomatic cable shows. Both countries were unhappy with Mr ElBaradei’s “unhelpful” response to Iran’s nuclear program, but the bid to prevent his re-election to…
New Wikileaks cables on Israel/US/Palestinians that show Arabs aren’t liked
2008: Yadlin replied that the Palestinians are only Israel’s number four threat in the IDI’s assessment, following Iran, Syria, and Hizballah. Although the Palestinians are not the IDI’s top concern, Yadlin said he would answer the question by noting that it will take time to marry Netanyahu’s approach to Fayyad’s. If the parties attempt to…
Iran’s insecure mullahs attempt to cut off country from the web
Insane, unworkable and signs of autocrats who fear freedom of expression and their own citizens: Communication and information technology minister Reza Taqipour Anvari announced at the start of July that the first phase of a “National Internet,” also called “Clean Internet,” will get under way at the end of August, offering an 8 Mbps speed…
What US occupation looks like on the ground
My following lead book review appeared in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald: INFERNAL TRIANGLE Paul McGeough Allen & Unwin, $32.99 This unblinking collection of dispatches separates the rhetoric from the reality of the post-September 11 battlefields. The new US Defence Secretary and former CIA director, Leon Panetta, recently told journalists the Obama administration was ”within reach”…
Ahmadinejad’s Iran looking to isolate itself bit by bit
What a paranoid and fundamentalist regime looks like: Iran has stepped up online censorship by upgrading the filtering system that enables the Islamic regime to block access to thousands of websites it deems inappropriate for Iranian users. The move comes one month after the United States announced plans to launch new services facilitating internet access…
Hands up who knows the enemies in the false “war on error”?
Robert Fisk on the “terrorists” so needed by the West to assist them in their own “war on terror”: If you held a mirror up to the vast “anti-terrorism” conference in Tehran this weekend – the anti-Iranian version of terrorism, of course – you would see three men sitting down in private to discuss what…