Obama’s legacy; increase in private mercenaries

Really: The number of private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan has more than tripled to about 19,000 since June 2009, according to a new congressional study. The study found a steady increase in private security contractors — most of whom are Afghans — since the DOD started tracking the data in…

With US veto, Washington clearly wants end to Jewish state

Gideon Levy in Haaretz on the Obama administration’s disastrous decision last week: The first veto cast by the United States during Obama’s term, a veto he promised in vain not to use as his predecessors did, was a veto against the chance and promise of change, a veto against hope. This is a veto that…

Memo to Washington; Israel will bring your downfall

Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst at Al Jazeera English and host and editor of the television program Empire, talks to Democracy Now! about the desperate need for America to see the world in a way other than through a Zionist frame: Everyone was caught in the headlights—What is going on? Who are these people?—not realizing…

Rest assured, Mubarak regime saw Obama as a friend

One of the latest Wikileaks cables just released, from January 2009, makes that clear: The Egyptian leadership is taking notice of, and welcoming, President Obama’s recent outreach to Egypt, and focus on the Middle East peace process. Safwat El Sherif, the powerful secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party and speaker of the Shura Council…

Obama administration keen to maintain money to Egyptian torturers

Washington is extremely happy to be funding and arming an Egyptian elite that routinely tortures its own citizens and terror suspects sent from the US: U.S. military aid to Egypt has been of “incalculable value,” helping its armed forces become a capable, professional body, the top U.S. military officer told Congress Wednesday. Admiral Mike Mullen,…

Not all democratic movements are created equal

According to America. For example, if a brutal ally cracks down on protesters, well: For instance, while the Obama administration has been vocal about events in Iran, it has been relatively quiet about violence by pro-government forces in Yemen.

Young Iranians are looking for a new revolution?

My Iranian friend, Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, who currently works in London for BBC Persian and featured in my book The Blogging Revolution when we were together in Iran in 2007, writes that this week’s mass protests across the Islamic Republic signal a shift in focus of the opposition; It is clear that Monday’s demonstrations in Iran…

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