Immigration system a broken behemoth, groups say
August 29th, 20100 WASHINGTON – One year after the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama announced that it intended to overhaul the country's heavily criticized immigration detention practices and create a "truly civil detention system," a new academic paper bolsters claims by human rights groups that real reform is still a long way off....Deported for running a red light
NEW YORK (IPS) — A government program designed to prosecute serious criminals is instead deporting people who received traffic tickets and committed other minor offenses, according to immigration rights advocacy groups. The organizations charge that 79 percent of people deported through the so-called Secure Communities program are not...Poll finds 20% in U.S. believe Obama is Muslim
WASHINGTON — A new poll has found one in five Americans mistakenly believes that President Barack Obama is Muslim, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Despite Obama's attendance in church and his repeated and public statements about his Christian faith, the number of Americans who believe he is actually Muslim is rising, the Pew...
Obama sends Ramadan wishes
August 13th, 20100 President hails 'Islam's role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, dignity of all human beings'.WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday offered best wishes to Muslims in the United States and around the world as they observe the holy fasting month of Ramadan. "All of us must remember that the world we want to...
Walking in the shoes of a Muslim in New York
August 13th, 20100 NEW YORK – A woman waits on a subway platform, head bowed, pretending to ignore the insults. Perched on bar stools, a group of friends listen to racist jokes, suppressing giggles. Kneeling, a young war veteran tells his fiancée of his decision to return to combat. Two men wait expectantly at a job interview. An old man and a young...Obama drops 2009 pledge to withdraw combat troops from Iraq
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Seventeen months after President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by Sep. 1, 2010, he quietly abandoned that pledge Monday, admitting implicitly that such combat brigades would remain until the end of 2011. Obama declared in a speech to disabled U.S. veterans in Atlanta that "America's...Iran officials slam U.S. admiral’s attack plan remarks
TEHRAN — Iranian officials lashed out on Tuesday at remarks by the top U.S. military chief that Washington had a plan to attack Tehran, saying the U.S. would suffer a defeat worse than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday the United States has drawn up the plan to...
Court blocks Arizona’s anti-immigrant law
July 30th, 20100 WASHINGTON — In a legal victory for the administration of President Barack Obama, a federal court Wednesday temporarily blocked the implementation of key provisions of a controversial Arizona immigration law that was to take effect Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton ruled that state authorities could not enforce...Audit: U.S. can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds
BAGHDAD – The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday. The report by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction offers a compelling look at continued laxness...Poll: Majority of Americans lack faith in Obama
Nearly 60 percent of American voters say they lack faith in President Barack Obama, according to a public opinion poll published on Tuesday. The results of the Washington Post/ABC News poll are a reversal of what voters said at the start of Obama's presidency 18 months ago when about 60 percent expressed confidence in his decision...Department of Justice announces lawsuit against Arizona’s misguided immigration law
Washington — The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit this week intended to block the implementation of SB 1070, a law recently signed by Governor Jan Brewer (R–AZ) of Arizona. The law, widely criticized by civil rights groups, essentially codifies racial profiling and requires local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws...Report says U.S. tax breaks aiding illegal outposts in West Bank
According to The New York Times report, lenient American tax regulations allow funds to flow to settlement outposts that are illegal under Israel law as opposed to larger settlement blocks that receive money from the Israeli government, daily Haaretz reported Tuesday. The result is that it is easier to fund outposts from the United...Obama approval among Muslims falls
President Barack Obama Confidence in U.S. President Barack Obama has drastically dropped in the Muslim world, according to surveys released by the Pew Global Attitudes project. Among the seven countries surveyed with substantial Muslim populations the poll shows that more than eight out of ten people in Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan...
CNN’s firing of Octavia Nasr protested
July 9th, 20100 CNN’s firing of Senior Middle East News Editor Octavia Nasr has prompted an outcry from Arab-Americans, angry about what they see as a double standard when it comes to coverage of the Middle East in the American media. Octavia Nasr Nasr’s 20-year career at CNN ended Wednesday after a tweet mourning the death of Sayyed...
Anti-immigrant state laws could multiply, Obama warns
July 2nd, 20100 WASHINGTON (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama criticized "ill conceived" immigration laws in Arizona and called on Republicans to end their opposition to immigration reform and pass bipartisan immigration reform in a speech delivered Thursday morning. Immigration reform has become a pressing issue in Washington as individual states,......
USSF: Love, commitment and anger in Detroit
July 2nd, 20100 DETROIT (IPS) — The 2010 U.S. Social Forum ended Saturday in Detroit, a city viewed by many as a metaphor for the excesses of U.S. capitalism, with strong parting words from Pablo Solon, Bolivia's permanent representative to the United Nations. On Saturday evening, to the thunderous applause of the thousands of civil society...Peace groups slam high court ruling on “terror support”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the court's ruling "thwarts the efforts of human rights organizations to persuade violent actors to renounce violence or cease their human rights abuses and jeopardizes the provision of aid and disaster relief in conflict zones controlled by designated groups."NEW YORK ......
Israeli ship blocked from unloading in U.S. port
Oakland, CA — Longshoremen were prevented from unloading an Israeli ship by hundreds of protestors who formed a picket line blocking gates operated by Stevedore Services of America at the Port of Oakland in California. No Israeli ship has been blocked in the U.S. before. The protest was a response...Timing of leak of Afghan mineral wealth evokes skepticism
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The timing of the publication of a major New York Times story on the vast untapped mineral wealth that lies beneath Afghanistan's soil is raising major questions about the intent of the Pentagon, which released the information.Given the increasingly negative news that has come out of Afghanistan — and of U.S....
The Nation Publisher: Isn’t there some room for Helen Thomas?
June 8th, 20100 White House correspondent Helen Thomas (2nd L) takes notes as former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson faces reporters during a news conference in the White House Oval Office, in this handout photograph taken on April 25, 1968 and obtained on June 7, 2010. Thomas announced her retirement on June 7, 2010 according to media...Guantanamo deaths in 2006 won’t go away
NEW YORK (IPS) — A leading good-government group is asking the U.S. Justice Department to disclose details of its investigation into the deaths of three Guantanamo prisoners in 2006. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Wednesday sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Justice Department......
Controversy rages in NYC over planned mosque near Ground Zero
May 23rd, 20100 NEW YORK— The project to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center close to Ground Zero in New York City has raised a sense of hope in a city whose Muslim population wants to move on from the 9/11 attacks.Construction is yet to begin at the site where the mosque and Islamic center are set to be located, which is the former...Renowned scholar Michael Suleiman dies
Renowned Arab American professor of political science and author Dr. Michael W. Suleiman died this week at the age of 76 after a long battle with cancer. Professor Michael W. SuleimanSuleiman was in the process of finishing an annotated bibliography on the Arab American community and working on a book-length manuscript on......
BDS Movement grows despite UC-Berkeley divestment veto
After a 16-4 original vote by student senators for divestment from two companies (General Electric and United Technologies) that are allegedly providing military technologies to Israel that were used in alleged war crimes, the University of California-Berkeley’s student senate seemed on its way to passing a historic bill. But a March...Groups challenge U.S. airport body scanners
NEW YORK (IPS) — More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organizations have filed a formal petition with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), urging the federal agency to shut down the use of "full body scanners" (FBS) at the nation's airports. At a press conference, Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy......
