In the PBS Newshour segment to which I linked last week, Richard Haas said: Why are we so confident that we know enough about the tribal structure of Libya, about the various clans that are competing for power, that if we intervene, that the guys we want are going to win, that we’re not, for […]
UPDATE: March 15, 2011, 11:00 AM EST: In addition to the links to aid organizations and funds that are aiding Japan, the Japanese Red Cross Society and the American Red Cross are providing disaster relief. The Japanese Salvation Army is also actively aiding in the affected areas. Lady Gaga is offering fans a “We Pray […]
Over the weekend forces loyal to Colonel el-Qaddafi advanced against rebel forces in the west regaining lost territory and heading east toward Benghazi, the opposition capitol. General Abdul Fattah Younes, Qaddafi’s former interior minister and one of the rebel leaders is calling the movement a strategic retreat. According to press reports, the rebels are preparing […]
The events of the past several days in Japan are in many ways beyond the scope of the mind to comprehend. Thousands of lives were swept away in an instant. I walked around the World Trade Center on September 12, 2001 and had a very hard time then being able to grasp the enormity of […]
Keeping fingers crossed since Friday hasn’t helped avoid nuclear troubles in Japan. After Friday’s 8.9 Richter-scale earthquake and the following tsunami, a few nuclear reactors lost power, and the cooling systems failed. The facts here are elusive, but we know that pumping sea water into the reactors to cool them as is happening is a […]
Last year I coined a phrase: getting 527-ed. It comes from the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Bush was asked whether he would condemn the Swift Boat ads against Kerry, and instead, Bush condemned all ads made by 527 organizations. Bush 527-ed Kerry. This, apparently, is also what Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, did over the weekend. […]
The World Trade Organization announced the Appellate Body’s ruling on Friday, which essentially bars counties from imposing the “double dipping” duties in retaliation for dumping. The Appellate Body also affirmed that when a state had majority ownership of an enterprise this made it necessarily a “pubic body.” Long story short, While the US is not happy, both […]
The U.S. is rushing military and civilian assistance to Japan in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. According to this CNN report: The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived off the coast of Japan Sunday to support Japanese forces in disaster relief operations, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement. […]
North Africa food security is under threat The longer the political crisis in Libya goes on, the greater the risk to food security in North Africa because of the region’s dependency on cereal imports, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. “In Libya, the situation may lead to a sudden disruption of imports and […]
This explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is just one part of the nightmare that visited Japan Friday. There is an ongoing effort now to cool the reactor. Bloomberg reports here that the engineers are trying to avoid damage to the radioactive core of the reactor. Anti-nuclear group in Japan says emergency was […]
The U.S. Defense Department is mobilizing support to assist in the earthquake relief efforts. The U.S. military has a total of 38,000 military personnel, 43,000 military dependents, 5,000 Department of Defense civilians, and 25,000 Japanese civilians working and living on bases throughout Japan. On the main Japanese island of Honshu there are 7 major bases […]
The largest recorded earthquake, an 8.9 on the Richter scale, hit Japan’s northern coast on Friday afternoon, generating a thirty-foot tsunami setting off warning systems in fifty-three countries (WSJ). The quake struck just two hundred and fifty miles from Tokyo, and caused fires to erupt in several parts of the city and causing a closure of […]
by Sarwar Kashmeri As the situation in Libya becomes daily more chaotic, pressure mounts on President Obama to militarily intervene on the side of the Libyan opposition. He should resist these calls. Without a clear mandate from the United Nations Security Council in support of Libyan intervention, the United States has little to gain, and […]
A few hours ago, Japan got hit with an earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter scale, the biggest temblor in more than a century. The damage done extends to at least two nuclear power plants. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the top civil servant in the nation, said that there was a mechanical failure […]
As the violence in Libya continues to escalate as the air attacks on cities continue and growing numbers of refugees flee cities and now remain trapped on the borders, it threatens to turn into a full-scale humanitarian crisis. More than 200,000 people have already fled the fighting in Libya, most of them crossing into the […]