The ethics of the online photos of Moammar Gadhafi

Gruesome photos of an apparently lifeless Moammar Gadhafi raced around the Internet today as news broadcasters struggled to confirm reports that Libya’s longtime strongman was dead. First came a photograph showing what appeared to be Gadhafi’s bloodied face slumped against a man’s crimson-stained leg, as he was manhandled, dead or dying, among a crowd. A […]

Osama bin Laden How and why he was radicalized

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of al-Quds al-Arabi, provides the following insights: I spent three days with Osama bin Laden in 1996 when I traveled to the remote, mountainous Tora Bora area of Afghanistan to interview him. I found him gently spoken, humble — even shy — and extremely polite. It is difficult to reconcile these […]

America’s choice of Egyptian dictator Omar Suleiman

As it now stands, the United States appears content to contemplate exchanging Hosni Mubarak for Egypt’s new Vice President, Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian spy master–that is, one dictator for another– to maintain the status quo. Of course, Israel must sign off on this deal, assuring the U.S. that Egypt can remain as its main base […]

Fulfilling Osama Bin Laden’s 9/11 Goals

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, succeeded far beyond anything Osama bin Laden could possibly have envisioned. This is not just because they resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, nor only because they struck at the heart of American financial and military power. Those outcomes were only the bait; it would remain for the United States […]

Tariq Aziz: “Bush and Blair lied intentionally”

The familiar black-ringed spectacles signal to the visitor that this was Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s former face to the world – Saddam Hussein’s right-hand man, his most powerful deputy, also a practicing Christian. Iraq has been through hell since Aziz was last seen in public, days before Baghdad fell in April 2003. He has been in prison seven years […]

Former MI5 Chief testifies Iraq War increased the terrorist threat

The war in Iraq led to a huge increase in the terrorist threat to the UK, the former head of MI5 has told the Iraq Inquiry. Baroness Manningham-Buller added that the decision to remove Saddam Hussein had caused a “long-term major and strategic problem” for Britain by allowing al-Qaeda time to build a stronghold in […]

Iraq: “We need another Saddam to get things under control”

Since 2003, a million people have died in Iraq in the wake of post-invasion violence. Sectarian wars have torn the country apart, foreign troops have established huge military bases, and politicians who have sworn to crack down on militias have their own private armies. This once secular nation has been scarred by extremism, with terrible […]

Tony Blair and George W. Bush stand accused

From an article by a Emeritus Professor of Law, as published in a prominent Malaysian paper: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair … stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by many learned and independent scholars of international law. The case against him looks rock solid, especially after his confession to the BBC […]

Ron Paul: “An even more disastrous and costly war on Iran”

An excerpt from Ron Paul’s speech before Congress: The same falsehoods and distortions used to push the United States into a disastrous and unnecessary one trillion dollar war on Iraq are being trotted out again to lead us to what will likely be an even more disastrous and costly war on Iran. The parallels are […]

Iranians chant “Death to no one!”

Today, November 4, is the 30th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, a turning point in Iranian history, in the geopolitics of the region and in the troubled history of U.S.-Iran relations. On that day, militants, many of them students, invaded the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking about 70 Americans as hostages in a drama […]