José Maria Peredo Pombo, a professor of International Relations at the European University in Madrid, penned an opinion piece about Senator Obama in the online journal “Forum For A Safe Democracy.” In the piece titled “The Multipolar World of Barack Obama,” Pombo gives a historical take on past American Presidents who have tried to affect change: “To […]
NIGERIA: The trafficking of girls and abuse is worsening, as girls from villages to cities in Nigeria is increasing and the state is powerless to stop the trade. "The business of recruiting teenage girls as domestic help in rich and middle-class homes is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it", Bello Ahmed, […]
As this blog and everybody else and her cousin have been saying for some time now, we can do so much, and faster and cheaper, by optimizing our energy use. The granddaddy of much of this eminently sensible, sober and smart thinking is Amory Lovins. I have directed you to his good works and the work […]
Tonight at 11:30PM EST, ABC Nightline will air an episode inspired by the first chapter of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. The book by E. Benjamin Skinner's, has been heavily touted and a much needed eye opener into the world of modern day slavery. Tonights episode, How to Buy a Child in […]
I’d like to recommend one of my favorite foreign policy blogs. FP Passport is a group blog by the editors of Foreign Policy magazine. They describe themselves as: Equal parts scout and translator, we draw on the world's leading journalists, thinkers, and professionals to analyze the most significant international trends and events of our times, […]
Former Ambassador Chas Freeman addressed the World Affairs Council in Washington, DC last week. The title of his talk: “America In the World: Magoo at the Helm.” His remarks provide a sobering, yet extremely important account of the changes afloat in the international realm. I’ll let the Ambassador speak for himself. “A great many governments abroad now fear that Washington […]
It's gotten to the point that Afghanistan is no longer "the other war," but is starting to claim more of the spotlight from Iraq with each day. Consider these developments: In the months of May and June, more Americans died in Afghanistan than died in Iraq. On June 13th, the Taliban successfully staged a well-planned out […]
THE CASE OF Huzaifa Parhat provides the clearest, most compelling evidence yet that the process used by the Bush administration to justify holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay is deeply and irreversibly flawed and must be discarded. Mr. Parhat is an ethnic Uighur who fled China in 2001 because of the abuses against Uighurs in that […]
Sorry, folks, for not writing sooner, but we were away for a long July Fourth weekend. Here are some interesting bits now, though. I'll have more tomorrow. Denmark , My favorite journalist, Elizabeth Kolbert, has another minor masterpiece, at the "New Yorker" this week, The Island in the Wind. She's writing about a nearly zero-carbon enclave […]
An article in the Norwegian daily Bergens Tidende on July 4 again demonstrated how parts of the European media are struggling to present a non-biased picture of the U.S. presidential election despite their support for Barack Obama. The article sought to analyze the most important battleground states and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the […]
Anthony Julius of the Mischon de Reya law firm, well known for his work on behalf of Princess Diana and Deborah Lipstadt (an American historian accused by historian David Irving of libel), recently wrote an opinion piece for the The Times of London accusing an imperial United States of throwing its weight around even on […]
As this blog has documented, Barack Obama has received extensive, and mostly positive, coverage in Europe. Just as he is planning a trip to Europe, however, many in the European media are for the first time strongly criticizing some of his policy pronouncements, particularly those seen as signaling a move to the political center for […]
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) issued a statement last Thursday about the Department of Justice's aim to update the Attorney General Guidelines. MPAC reported that besides for its own organization, other groups, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Arab American Institute (AAI), are concerned by developments in the drafting of the new […]
In the spirit of 4th of July and America's celebration of not only freedom, but of the men and woman who have fought, died and continue to devoted their lives to freedom. I wanted to write about heroes, as I feel its a word often said, but also all too often forgotten. Heroes walk among […]
In response to a proposed US Congressional resolution to label the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV a terrorist entity, the head of the channel's administrative council said on Thursday that the resolution goes against international regulations and conditions for media freedom, insisting that the channel plays an important role in informing the Arab/Islamic Ummah on the Palestinian […]