IPS Writers in the Blogosphere

Currently viewing the tag: "democracy"

Cold Winds in Cairo

From On November 26, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

When I was living in Cairo, the transition to winter was sometimes smooth. The beastly oven of summer changed slowly into a bearable fall of cool-warm. The fall moved from the cool-warm to a few weeks of cold, or at least what was cold to Egypt. These were smooth changes. It [...]

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Michael Rubin’s Problem with Democracy in the Middle East

From On September 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

In a recent Fox News article, the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Rubin presents an issue that will consume Middle East policy makers for decades: “Is There Really Democracy in the Middle East?” He’s apparently not interested, however, in serious analysis of that question. Instead Rubin offers a partisan polemic [...]

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Bahraini Repression Amidst a Failing Strategy

From On September 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via IPS News

This week’s decision by the Bahraini court of appeals to uphold the prison terms against Bahraini opposition activists is a travesty of justice and an indication that Bahraini repression continues unabated.

Bahraini officials, when confronted with angry world reaction to the court’s decision, cynically hid behind the claim they would [...]

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Is the United States’ Iran Policy Incoherent?

From On August 17, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

This past week a couple of articles have been published that hint at the central incoherence of the United States’ Iran policy. The arguments are not necessarily new, but they show in concrete terms how the stated objective of US sanctions, which is to change the calculations and behavior of Iran’s [...]

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The Return of Ghosts: Debating the rise of Geert Wilders and the far-right at the Nexus Symposium

From On May 29, 2012 · Leave a Comment

The following is cross-posted from Max Blumenthal’s blog.

By Max Blumenthal

I spent last week in Amsterdam, where I participated in the “Return of Ghosts” symposium of the Nexus Institute, a discussion/debate about the resurgence of neo-fascism in Europe and anti-democratic trends in the West. Besides providing a forum for debating European politics, [...]

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Matt Duss on Herzliya, or: 'Neocon Woodstock'

From On February 20, 2011 · 4 Comments

If you haven’t already, head over the website of the Nation and read every last word of Matt Duss’s report from Herzliya, the biggest annual Israeli security conference. The event is best known for being where Israeli rightists and U.S. neocons swoon over each other.

Just look at some of the Americans who took [...]

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Fox hones in on Iran at State Civil Society Initiative Briefing

From On February 17, 2011 · 1 Comment

The Fox News Channel has been going after Iran pretty hard lately. In only the past few weeks, Fox has done at least two interviews promoting the settler propaganda movie “Iranium,” which, according to the host of a New York premiere, is aimed at promoting an attack on the Islamic [...]

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State Spox on Iran demos, Farsi Twitter

From On February 15, 2011 · 1 Comment

Yesterday, State Department Spokesperson P.J. Crowley made a few comments about Iran in his daily press briefing. The Assistant Secretary confirmed that, as LobeLog reported yesterday, State has commenced tweeting in Farsi.

Full Iran-related sections of both his prepared statement and the Q & A are below, but a few things are worth pulling [...]

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Is "Iranium" settler propaganda or partisan shot? Or both?

From On February 7, 2011 · 1 Comment

At the Heritage Foundation screening of the ‘bomb Iran’ scare documentary released by the Clarion Fund, writer and director Alex Traiman rambled extemporaneously about why the U.S. needs to “do something” about Iran.

Traiman, an ideological settler in the West Bank, told the crowd he made “Iranium” (which Eli and I reviewed) [...]

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U.S.-backed Mubarak Cracks Down on Protesters

From On February 2, 2011 · 4 Comments

This is from Cairo, right in the middle of this turmoil.

Mubarak is clearly backed by the Americans. He took some moves after speaking with Obama and a visit by a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner (sp.?).

Mubarak, the army, the Americans and the Israelis are clearly on one side. That’s one camp. [...]

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