مقالات

By Jonathan Cook If there is one story that encapsulates the corruption of public life at every level, it is the latest revelations about HSBC’s Swiss bank helping thousands of clients evade tax. Some £78 billion was stashed away, out of sight of the tax authorities of various countries. HSBC was praised in the UK after the banking crash for being …

By James G. Abourezk, University of Nebraska Press Reviewed by Andrew I. Killgore- WRMEA   Former Congressman and U.S. Senator from Rapid City, South Dakota James (Jim) Abourezk mulls over his life and career with special praise for some and harsh words for others. The balance comes out about even, but Jim’s summing up of people and events leaves a …

 by Nora Barrows-Friedman– The Electronic Intifada Following the recent approval of a resolution to divest from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid at the University of California at Davis, a barrage of hateful, Islamophobic and racist attacks have been launched against Arab and Muslim students — including a student senator. UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi condemned the divestment resolution just …

By Juan Cole The revelation by the Washington Post’s Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima that the car-bomb assassination of Hizbullah commando Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 was a joint CIA/ Israeli Mossad operation comes at an awkward time for Washington. The administration of George W. Bush did not target Mughniyah because of his alleged involvement of past actions against …

By Amer Zahr By most accounts, American Sniper depicts its Arab Iraqi subjects in a simplistic and shallow fashion.  No one has accused director Clint Eastwood of portraying the Arab characters of the film in a manner that is nuanced or layered. And I don’t mean to be too elementary, but that is really all that matters.  When a movie …

Restricted Space for Refugees- HRW (Amman) – Jordanian reform initiatives in 2014 failed to end long-term abuses, and authorities continued to detain and prosecute peaceful critics, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2015. A three-year deadline for lawmakers to bring domestic legislation into compliance with basic freedoms guaranteed by Jordan’s 2011 constitution passed in October 2014 without …

By Gerald Caplan- Rabble.ca Good for the Harper government for facilitating the secret talks between a pig-headed Washington and Cuba’s geriatric “communist” dictatorship. Despite the widespread demoralization within the Department of Foreign Affairs, its officials, backed by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister John Baird, demonstrated to the world exactly what kind of role Canada is capable of playing on …

By Richard Silverstein – Tikun Olam Galey Tzahal (Army Radio) reported today that Israel welcomed with open arms two Ukrainian oligarchs wanted by Interpol for serious crimes.  The suspects, Yuri Borisov and Eduard Stavitsky, are suspected of embezzlement and money-laundering in Ukraine.  They flew into Ben Gurion airport and received Israeli entry visas.  Borisov’s visa was approved for the purposes of medical treatment, …

By Jonathan Cook  I watched American Sniper the other night and it really is the most puerile propaganda imaginable. It is not even as though it is simply unfair to the “enemy” – that is, mostly ordinary Iraqis, who are shown to be ruthless and heartless killers filled with irrational hatred for the American soldiers sent to liberate them from …

By Arjan El Fassed– The Electronic Intifada On Wednesday July 22 1987 at five in the afternoon, Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali parked his car in southwest London, and walked a few meters towards the offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas where he worked. He was shot in the head by a gunman, dressed in a denim jacket, who walked calmly …