Some political articles
As the saying goes : Even a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day ...Little Green Footballs is a political blog that often has an Islamophobic tone. It often gets anonymous tips of important news.It broke the word on Dan Rather's flop with G. W. Bush's army service letter.It also broke the news on photoshopped pictures from Beirut freelance photographer Adnan Hajj. See the CBC coverage as well.
The BBC compares and contrasts the Suez crisis of 1956 to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.Britain and France allied with Israel to attack Egypt and end Gamal Abdel Nasser's rule of a few years, but the US stopped them.This was the end of Britian's Empire.There are differences too, but the mindset of going to war with deception is common.Here is the article, definitely worth a read.
The Yesha Rabbinical Council, commenting on the Qana massacre, has said that during the time of war, there are "no innocents".
Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocentsThe Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy." All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)(07.30.06, 17:37)
Britian's defence secretary has said that the presence of UK troops in Afghanistan has energized the Taleban. The same goes for US and Canadian troops of course.
In a strongly tribal country, the mere presence of foreign troops can cause the previously bad guys to become heroes and defenders.
On Google Video, there is a documentary called Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land.An interesting aspect of this documentary is that the interviewees include US Jews as well as Israeli academics, defense forces and others.Although it is 1 hour 19 minutes, it is worth watching carefully.
After spending almost a month and a half in prison, Alaa has finally been released.
Mainstream media and neo-cons in the USA continuously paint a rosy picture of post-Saddam Iraq, to retroactively justify the invasion.Despite that, a leaked memo from the US Embassy in Iraq shows a very different picture.Here is the memo itself, and the article in the Washington Post on it. BBC also has coverage.
The recent arrests in the Greater Toronto Area have netted 17 accused person. Five of them are youth.
The accused are a very diverse bunch. Two of them, troubled youth of Somali descent, were already in prison for pleading guilty for having guns when crossing the border from the USA. One of them told his mother that "they are changing my story around". One is a widower over 40. A recent graduate of health sciences and the son of a medical doctor. A really "calm and religious" good basketball shooter.
Alaa Abdel Fattah علاء عبد الفتاح, a young Egyptian activist, free software advocate and blogger has been detained by the Egyptian authorities, after protesting the politically motivated trial of two judges who exposed that there was widespread fraud in the recent elections.
Alaa and his wife Manal run an Egyptian blog aggregator from their Drupal web site. They are known for activism on political and social issues, as well as free software.
I saw Alaa on Al Jazeera last summer, and he looked to me like an Egyptian Richard M. Stallman (the father of GNU and GPL), with his curly locks of hair.
Some time ago, an anonymous visitor wrote a comment on an article I wrote. In response, I wrote a comment listing some contemorary and recent influential and rich non-Muslims in Muslim majority countries. This is now its own article. Here are some example from recent times:
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