Iraqi chaos hardening sectarian fiefdoms
April 18th, 20080 To the extent that a government in Iraq exists, it provides services on a sectarian basis WASHINGTON (IPS) There are an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced within their own country. No house; no food; no security. Who do they turn to for help? The international community's humanitarian organizations?...
Reality ignored in hearings on Iraq
April 11th, 20080 Sure, Arizona Senator John McCain's campaign may still be selling him as some kind of "maverick" or "independent thinker" and most of the media may still be buying that ridiculous line. But when it comes to the fundamental foreign policy issue of the 2008 race whether to continue the war in Iraq, and at what cost McCain's a...
Hizbullah has new weapons to wage war
April 11th, 20080 Teir Dibba The Shi'a "martyrs" of this hill village are normally killed in the dangerous, stony landscape of southern Lebanon, in Israeli air raids or invasions or attacks from the sea. The Hizbullah duly honors them. But the body of the latest Shi'a fighter to be buried here from the local Hashem family was flown back to...Iraqi Olympians dodge violence and politics on the path to Beijing
A sprinter and an archer two of the four Iraqis who have qualified so far struggle to train amid sectarian divides and a dearth of equipment. BAGHDAD It's a glorious spring day and sprinter Dana Hussein Abdul-Razzaq is busy stretching and warming up ahead of her morning training routine. Nearby, under the shade of...Basra battles: What reporters omitted and fabricated
The latest battles in Basra, Iraqs largest city and a vital oil port, provide ample examples of misleading and manipulative practice in corporate journalism today. One commonly used tactic is to describe events using self-styled or "official" terminology, which deliberately confuses the reader by giving no real indication or...Iranian public sees reduced U.S. threat
WASHINGTON (IPS) While still distrustful of U.S. intentions, the Iranian public believes that the threat posed by Washington has diminished over the past year and favors increased exchanges between the two countries, including direct talks on stabilizing Iraq and other issues, according to a major new survey released here Monday by...Arab world’s minorities must be respected
NEW YORK The gunmen used silencers on their weapons when they assassinated Assyrian Orthodox priest Youssef Adel outside his home in Baghdad last Saturday. But their message was loud and clear: Iraq's dwindling Christian minority is the target of a cruel bloodletting. It may seem insensitive just to single out one group for...Jordan acts as hub for U.S. renditions
NEW YORK (IPS) Jordan, often described in the mainstream press as the most moderate country in the Arab Middle East, was the first to receive prisoners "as a true proxy jailer for the CIA" and has received more victims of "extraordinary rendition" than any other country in the world, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch...Iraq still a quagmire say experts
WASHINGTON (IPS) Despite a reduction in violence over the past 15 months, "the U.S. risks getting bogged down in Iraq for a long time to come, with serious consequences for its interests in other parts of the world," according to a new assessment by the same group of experts who advised the bipartisan blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group...Ghosts from the land of milk and honey
NEW YORK (IPS) Somewhere in Baghdad, a family sits down to dinner. Heaped plates of food line the long table. A man sits at the head, fork in hand. Beside him, a youngish woman with immaculately shaped eyebrows turns to speak with a young girl. Forks and spoons face upwards on still empty flowered plates. Somewhere in Baghdad,...Battle of Lebanon’s political players on billboards
BEIRUT Hours after Hizbullah commander Imad Mughnieh was killed, huge billboards of his burly face stenciled like the iconic Che Guevara portrait or a photo of him in battle fatigues were printed and ready to display all over Lebanon. Pictures of this man on America's Most Wanted list are among the first images to greet visitors...Iraq lawmakers seek help from Iran
BAGHDAD (IPS) Despite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure. The date March 25 of this year will be remembered as the day of truth through five years of occupation. Fighting had...Turkish scholars aim to modernize hadith
Theologians are revisiting the collections of the Prophet Muhammad's sayings that Muslims use as a guideline for daily life. Ankara For centuries, the hadith a collection of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad has guided Muslims in their daily lives and served as a basis for Islamic jurisprudence, offering...PLO representative discusses challenges to Palestinian statehood
Palestinian ambassador calls for non-violent resistance movement, discusses peace prospects TUCSON The Palestinian ambassador to the United States said Palestinians should move toward a non-violent resistance movement in the Occupied Territories, even as latest reports reveal Israel does not intend to halt its settlements in the...Whispers for engagement with HAMAS
WASHINGTON (IPS) Two years after HAMAS was isolated almost unanimously by the international community following its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, the militant Islamist group has repeatedly proved that it can disrupt U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for a decisive agreement on Palestinian-Israeli peace by the......
Divided Arabs deliver little at summit
April 4th, 20080 DAMASCUS (IPS) The Arab summit held in Damascus over this weekend has convinced many Iraqis that Arab leaders do not speak for them. More than anything done or not, the very absence of many Arab leaders at the summit has left displaced Iraqis here angry. "It was a disappointment to us that some Arab leaders decided not to attend...With friends like these, Israel needs no enemies
The amount of support being shown for Israel these days is almost embarrassing. The parade of highly-placed foreign guests and the warm reception received by Israeli statesmen abroad have not been seen for quite some time. Who hasn't come to visit lately? From the German chancellor to the leading frontrunner for the American......
A smart Arab investment
Social and industrial awakening in the Middle East and North Africa may start in unexpected ways. The most potent indicator of social change is the status of women's education. Nine years of schooling for every woman would wipe out a large segment of poverty. It would also significantly reduce children's school dropout rates and...Lebanon bans prize-winning animated film ‘Persepolis’
BEIRUT (AFP) The Oscar-nominated film "Persepolis," which has annoyed authorities in Iran for its critical portrayal of the Islamic revolution, has been banned in Lebanon, an interior ministry official told AFP on Wednesday. The official, from the ministry's general security department, would not give a reason why the French...Hopes of peace remain unfulfilled
BEIRUT (IPS) The pages of Lebanon's history are drenched in blood. And, more than 30 years after the start of the 1975 civil war, Lebanese factions are still pitted against each other in a...Saudi king calls for interfaith dialogue
RIYADH (AP) -- The Saudi king has made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews the first such proposal from a nation with no diplomatic ties to Israel and a ban on non-Muslim religious services and symbols. The message from King Abdullah, which was welcomed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders,......
Fierce fighting shows failure of Petraeus strategy
March 28th, 20080 WASHINGTON The escalation of fighting between Mahdi Army militiamen and their Shi'a rivals, which could mark the end of Moqtada al-Sadr's self-imposed ceasefire, also exposes Gen. David Petraeus's strategy for controlling Sadr's forces as a failure. Petraeus reacted immediately to Sunday's rocket attacks on the Green Zone by...
Death of the two-state solution
March 28th, 20080 It is now clear beyond reasonable dispute that a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has passed into the realm of fiction. The project if it ever was a real project is stone dead. Some Western politicians, U.S. President George W. Bush among them, continue to pay lip service to the notion of an independent......
Israel’s ‘religious right’ gains clout, complicating peace with Palestinians
Givat Zeev, West Bank On a hilltop far enough from the existing Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev that one needs directions to get here stands the framework of a settlement meant to house up to 750 families. Eli Yishai stood on an unfinished balcony of one of the new development's shell homes. He's a key coalition partner of Prime...
Iran election: hard-liners hold on, despite high inflation
March 21st, 20080 Conservatives win 70 percent of parliament. But reformers gain, too. TEHRAN From tomatoes to rent, prices in Iran have soared. Iran's nuclear defiance has brought four sets of U.N. and American sanctions. But that didn't stop Ashraf Banoo Rahimikia from casting her vote for Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And......