JP Sottile: It turns out that the world is not better off without Saddam. The Middle East is not better off. Most tragically, neither are the majority of the Iraqi people living in the lower two-thirds of that broken, obliterated nation.
Ten Years Ago and Today: A Warfare State of Mind
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Norman Solomon: The resulting tragedies have been so horrific and large-scale that the overall reporting by U.S. mass media scarcely provides a clue. In real time and in retrospect, the dominant cliches about this war have stayed in circular motion, self-referential, within American bubbles.
AIPAC’s Doomsday Conference: It’s the End of the World Again
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William Blum: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) recent convention in Washington produced the usual Doomsday talk concerning Iran’s imminent possession of nuclear weapons and with calls to bomb that country before they nuked Israel and/or the United States.
In “Going to Tehran,” Former Insiders Criticize Iran Policy as U.S. Hegemony
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Gareth Porter: Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett tackle not only U.S. policy toward Iran but the broader context of Middle East policy with a systematic analytical perspective informed by personal experience, as well as very extensive documentation.
Egypt’s Coming Islamic State
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Nezar AlSayyad: When Morsi issued a decree granting himself unlimited emergency powers, allowing him to hold executive and legislative authority, while shielding himself from any possible judicial challenges, the opposition rightfully compared him to Mubarak and started to call him a dictator and a Pharaoh.
Engagement and Entanglement in the Middle East
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John Peeler: Obama’s task—and that of his successors—will be to engage constructively with the changes the region will be undergoing, without repeating the errors of the imperialist past by seeking to dominate and control those changes.
Fake AP Graph Exposes Israeli Fraud and IAEA Credulity
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Gareth Porter: The graph of the relationship between energy and power shown in the AP story has now been revealed to contain absurdly large errors indicating its fraudulence.
Can Photos From Gaza Help Blaze a Path to Peace?
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Linda Milazzo: In Gaza, because of the hard work and valor of intrepid journalists, we have the horrific photos of dead children and their grieving families that Dershowitz and his cohorts vindictively besmirch.
The Arab Spring’s First Dictator
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Nezar AlSayyad: The Arab World celebrated the fall of several of its most brutal dictators but last week it witnessed the meteoric rise of yet a new dictator, President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt.
Pentagon Nixed 1998 Probe of Iranian Nuclear Program
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Gareth Porter: In 1998, the Defence Department vetoed a delegation of prominent U.S. nuclear specialists to go to Iran to investigate its nuclear programme at the invitation of the government
Turkey’s High Risk Game
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Stephen Lendman: Turkey is Washington’s lead anti-Syrian belligerent. It’s playing with fire. It may end up burned. For good reason, Assad blames Ankara for heightened tensions and border confrontations.
Who Gains from Syria’s Destruction
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Shamus Cooke: The steady destruction of Syria will continue until it reaches a Libya-like crescendo: a “no fly zone” will be the goal of the western powers, with the motive of toppling the regime.
Bibi’s Graphics: Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran
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Vijay Prashad: The bizarre, almost hand drawn, “bomb” in one of Netanyahu’s hands was complemented by the red marker in another: man enough, Bibi suggested, to draw his own red lines. He doesn’t need the Americans.
US Special Forces Deployed in Iraq, Again
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Tom Hayden: The US is caught in the contradictions of proxy wars, favoring Iran’s ally in Iraq while trying to displace Iran’s proxy in Syria.
Iranian Diplomat Says Iran Offered Deal to Halt 20-Percent Enrichment
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Gareth Porter: Iran has again offered to halt its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, which the United States has identified as its highest priority in the nuclear talks, in return for easing sanctions against Iran
Attacking American Sovereign Soil Diminishes the Rights of Religion
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Walter Brasch: President Obama and Secretary Clinton could not allow government action against the filmmakers, as the protestors wanted. The Founding Fathers demanded freedom of speech, the press, and religion.
American Public Opposes War with Iran
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Tom Hayden: The question is whether Obama will be able to hold out against the Israeli and AIPAC pressure in the volatile weeks ahead.
In the Libyan Aftermath: Who Should Make Our Foreign Policy?
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Steve Hochstadt: Mitt Romney defends foreign Christians who pretend to be Jews as they condemn all Muslims, and he condemns American diplomats in danger who try to explain that “Innocence of Muslims” does not represent US policy.
Who Is the Client State?
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Stanley Kutler: Will Netanyahu now force American Jews to choose between the stakes and interests of their own government, or his own political needs and ambitions? Who can doubt the outcome?
Pink Shrouds Aimed to Draw Attention to Iran Military Site, Analysts Say
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Gareth Porter: Former intelligence analysts with experience in interpreting satellite photographs of military facilities say the coverings on the two buildings in published images of the site don’t appear to be aimed at hiding anything.
After Dempsey Warning, Israel May Curb War Threat
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Gareth Porther and Jim Lobe: Obama’s explicit warning that he will not accept a unilateral Israeli attack against Iran may force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from his ostensible threat of war.
New Israeli Deputy PM Undercuts Strategy of Pressure on Obama
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Gareth Porter: Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz has undercut the Benjamin Netanyahu government’s carefully planned strategy to get U.S. President Barack Obama to threaten war against Iran if it doesn’t give up its nuclear programme.
Counter Revolution Disguised as Democracy in Egypt
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Shamus Cooke: The pathetic state of democracy in Egypt led the spokesman for the military’s candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, to declare “the revolution has ended.”
U.S. Hard Line in Failed Iran Nuclear Talks Driven by Israel
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Gareth Porter: Iran nuclear talks with the United States and other members of the P5+1 group ended in fundamental disagreement over the position of the P5+1 offering no relief from sanctions against Iran.
Atomic Energy Agency Holds Up Iran Cooperation Pact
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Gareth Porter: The Iranian proposals for change indicate Tehran believes that the IAEA draft is intended to keep Iran under suspicion for an indefinite period as part of a larger negotiating strategy by the United States and its allies.
U.S. Treasury Claim of Iran-Al-Qaeda “Secret Deal” Is Discredited
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Gareth Porter: Treasury Department claims of a “secret deal” between Iran and Al-Qaeda, which had become a key argument by right-wing activists who support war against Iran, have been discredited by former intelligence officials
Report on Iran’s Nuclear Fatwa Distorts Its History
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Gareth Porter: The Obama administration’s new interest in the 2004 religious verdict, or “fatwa”, by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banning the possession of nuclear weapons has prompted the New York Times to review the significance of the fatwa for the first time in several years.
Syria in Perspective
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William Blum: Regime change in Syria has been on the neo-conservative wish list since at least 2002 when John Bolton, Undersecretary of State under George W. Bush, came up with a project to simultaneously break up Libya and Syria.
Israeli Experts Mum on Iran Attack to Support Bibi’s Bluff
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Gareth Porter: A striking feature of the Israeli political landscape in recent months has been the absence of a serious debate on the issue of the threat of war with Iran led by national security figures.
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Why The Buenos Aires Bombing Is A False Indicator On Burgas
Gareth Porter: It is not clear yet who committed the latest terrorist bombing against Jewish civilians in Bulgaria. But the sorry history of that Buenos Aires investigation should not be used to draw a premature conclusion.