It is very easy to think you understand what it is the IAEA, or, as it is called in so many media stories, the “UN Nuclear Watchdog”, can actually do to detect a covert nuclear weapons program or the diversion of nuclear material. You envision IAEA safeguards inspectors busting down doors like nuclear superheroes, pointing […]
Has former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrossian been personally profiting from the Iranian narcotics trade? This is the conclusion that some people are drawing from a Wikileaks release on the Norwegian news site Aftenposten. The cable can be viewed here, and the story has gotten circulation on Armenian web sites, including PanArmenian.net, whose editors wrote the […]
Zainab Jeewanjee discusses CNN coverage of Libya’s Gaddafi and recent uprisings. She weaves that story into a larger discussion of enemy, but rational world figures operating against American interests and how understanding their political objectives is key to an effective counterterrorism strategy post 9/11, specifically in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a somber illustration of the ever warming ties between Baghdad and Tehran, Iraqi security forces carried the remains of 38 dead Iraqi soldiers across the border crossing between Iraq and Iran in al-Shalamjah, Iraq, on Tuesday.
In a developing story, Reuters is reporting that firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has returned to Iraq after years of self-imposed exile in Iran. The radical nationalist visited the holy city of Najaf where his father is buried. The source said Sadr had left Iraq at the end of 2006. Sadr, whose Mehdi Army fought U.S. troops after […]
Renowned Iranian filmmaker receives harsh prison sentence and banned from making films for the next twenty years. The oppression of Iranian activists in all shapes and sizes continues. Jafar Panahi, whose passionate speech in court was reproduced in a previous blog post, is one of the latest opponents of President Ahmadinejad’s government to be firmly […]
The fact that government outrage continues to provide the international media with grist for its insatiable mill is one of the great ironies in this scenario: perturbed at the site’s revelation of embarrassing diplomatic discussions and fumblings–tales only mildly interesting to the average reader–government officials are now in the process of creating a better, and far more spectacular story over First Amendment rights and the ‘treasonable’ activities of a Dutch citizen accused of committing “sex by surprise” (in Sweden?).
Even worse, the official call from some quarters for draconian regulation of the internet has given Russia (which suggests nominating Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize) and China, a human-rights violator of mammoth proportion, opportunities to ‘prove’ to an already hostile world that when Washington suddenly finds itself looking out through wall-to-wall glass, this nation of stone-throwers is no better than anyplace else.
Jafar Panahi, a celebrated Iranian filmmaker accused of organizing demonstrations against the government and various other crimes, delivered an impassioned defense in court last month. Panahi was imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison from March 1 to May 25 of this year. Panahi is the director of several internationally acclaimed films, including “The White Balloon,” […]
Sunday’s Wikileaks release containing some 250,000 diplomatic cables included headline-creating news regarding Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. One of the cables, marked as “confidential” (not a terribly high level of secrecy) was “classified” and perhaps written by Donald Lu, who at the time was the US Chargé d’Affaires in Baku. The cable summarizes in great detail […]
by Elizabeth Samson On November 10, 2010, the United Nations took an important step towards committing itself to female empowerment with the election of 41 member states to the board of a new agency—the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Known as UN Women, the new body brings four organizations that […]
The spotlight is on Chinese weapons this week. The Washington Post reported that the Obama administration has gathered evidence of Chinese companies helping Iran develop its missile technology and nuclear weapons. One U.S. official associated with this investigation said the companies may be acting without the knowledge of the Chinese government. UN sanctions currently restrict […]
The news of India’s election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council was reported with a sense of elation by the national media. Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna referred to it as a “chance to prove worth” for the big throne indicating India’s claim for permanent membership of the Security Council. The South […]
Bug Out Now, says Obama…
All of this follows on the heels of revelations–more ‘leaks’– from Woodward’s soon to be published best-seller, “Obama’s Wars,” especially a specific and ‘bizarre,’ as Woodward calls it, statement by the President about the nation’s ability to ‘absorb’ another 9/11 type attack, and by inference, the inability of the US government (or any government for that matter) to safequard its citizens from the bombs, bullets, and bacteria that are terrorism’s stock-in-trade.
Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr will not be up and running until next year, according to reports from the Iranian atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi. Iran began loading Russian-made fuel rods into the plant in August with the expectation that the plant would be connected to the national power grid by October. […]
The topic of Lebanese arms is in the news once again. Externally, the United States has put on hold $100 million in military aid for fear that the weapons may fall into the hands of Hizballah. Internally, Prime Minister Hariri is talking up elevated arms control in the wake of a sectarian altercation in Beirut […]