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By Michael Shnayerson
$16.50
By T.J. Stiles
$23.88
$18
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Governments in the Middle East and across the world are exploiting the long chaos of Syria’s populist uprising to gain influence in the region. And Syrians—70,000 of whom have been killed in the conflict—are paying the price with their bodies and lives.
Posted on Mar 15, 2013
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:mrMark: (CC BY 2.0)
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By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch —
Last week there was a perfect drone storm of a story, only a year or so late. The most striking thing is that it should have set everyone’s teeth on edge, yet next to nobody even noticed.
Posted on Feb 13, 2013
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EleArt (CC BY 2.0)
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Major papers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have complied with requests from the Bush and Obama administrations to conceal sometimes-illegal acts performed by the government in the name of national security, writes Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian.
Posted on Feb 8, 2013
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Photo by Paul Lowry (CC-BY)
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By the end of the decade, the United States will produce more barrels of oil per day than Saudia Arabia and more gas than Russia, according to a report by the intergovernmental International Energy Agency.
Posted on Nov 12, 2012
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Screenshot
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By Rachel Newcomb —
On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines—and Future” depicts a society paralyzed by an economy based almost solely on oil and government handouts.
Posted on Oct 3, 2012
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U.S. Army/Pfc. Ryan Hallgarth
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With hostile families, militias and even police on the hunt for gay people, conditions in Iraq are worse than in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the BBC reports.
Posted on Sep 12, 2012
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AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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On Friday, President Obama prepared to put the squeeze on Iran’s international oil business as an oblique, but not ambiguous, means of pressuring Tehran about its nuclear program by laying the groundwork for more sanctions.
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bbc.co.uk
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Claims made by NATO that Pakistan is in cahoots with the Afghan Taliban are tantamount to “old wine in an even older bottle,” according to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. However, this particular batch of wine represents thousands of mandatory conversations (read: interrogations) versus Khar’s official denial.
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AP / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — Barack Obama will be re-elected not as a vindication of his policies but because the Republicans are incapable of providing a reasonable challenge to his flawed performance.
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U.S. Air Force / Airman 1st Class Jeffrey Schultze
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Hold that thought about democracy in the Middle East while we sell $60 billion of military hardware to the princes of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. closed the first $30 billion half of a major arms deal Thursday to send 84 F-15 fighter jets to a country that only this month beheaded a woman convicted of witchcraft. (more)
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AP / Muzaffar Salman
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Delegates from the Arab League arrived in Syria on Monday in yet another attempt to resolve the crisis that’s only intensified since the Syrian government made the evidently hollow gesture last week of agreeing to stop military-enabled assaults on its own people and allow observation from outside its borders.
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bbc.co.uk
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After enduring a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get him to sign his power away, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally put pen to paper Wednesday, effectively ending his 33-year tenure after months of unrest and bloodshed in his home country. In exchange, he’ll reportedly be granted ... (more)
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today.msnbc.msn.com
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What’s a secretary of state to do in the face of international terrorism and domestic unrest? Why, she should set the record straight on the “Today” show, which is just what Hillary Clinton did Thursday to tackle cloak-and-dagger rumors that she might replace Vice President Joe Biden in 2012 ... (more)
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Figuring in among the lineup of top stories on Wednesday’s broadcast of “Democracy Now!” is the alleged assassination plot against Saudi Arabia Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, for which the U.S. has charged two Iranian agents. Meanwhile, government officials in Tehran are accusing the Obama administration of ... (more)
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Wikimedia Commons / Ratfinx (CC-BY-SA)
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As if relations between Tehran and Washington weren’t troubled enough, Tuesday brought news of a purported plan by Iranian government operatives to kill one Adel al-Jubeir (above), Saudi ambassador to the United States. The alleged bomb plot was shut down by American authorities after two agents apparently recruited the wrong … (more)
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AP / Hassan Ammar
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Only 118 years after New Zealand kicked off this dangerous trend, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has decided to allow women to vote and run in municipal elections as soon as 2015. (more)
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AP / Tara Todras-Whitehill
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By William Pfaff — Most Americans would likely agree that the main shock delivered to Americans and the American government by the 9/11 attacks was that of vulnerability. Another such shock is impending.
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Surian Soosay (CC-BY)
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By William Pfaff — Ten years on, Osama bin Laden, were he not at the bottom of the sea, could be reasonably satisfied with what he has accomplished.
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Wikimedia Commons / R. D. Ward
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He wasn’t present to hear the verdict in person, but Monday a local court found Tunisia’s deposed president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, guilty of embezzlement and making personal use of public funds, according to The New York Times.
Posted on Jun 20, 2011
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Flickr / AJTalkEng
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Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh, nursing wounds from a rocket attack Friday on the presidential mosque, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for medical treatment as street celebrations and renewed violence erupted back home in the capital of Sanaa. (more)
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Flickr / Al-Jazeera English
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Just days after the British government pledged $181 million in grants and loans to foster economically viable democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, a Freedom of Information Act report confirmed that British military personnel are training the same Saudi security forces that were used to crush recent popular uprisings in Bahrain. (more)
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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Addressing the upheavals that have occurred and transformations still in progress in the Middle East (except for one notable omission), President Barack Obama put the big shifts that the Arab Spring brought in a broader context during a major speech on Thursday ... (more) Updated
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Wikimedia Commons
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President Obama has confirmed that a U.S.-led operation has killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, and his body is in U.S. custody. Update: In a related development, early Monday the State Department issued a worldwide warning to American travelers.
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By Barry Lando — Scene: The Human Rights Caucus of the U.S. Congress hears the testimony of a 15-year-old girl, introduced by only her first name, Nayira, in order, the audience is told, to protect the safety of her family.
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By Amy Goodman — One month into Bahrain’s uprising, Saudi Arabia sent military and police forces over the 16-mile causeway that connects the Saudi mainland to Bahrain, an island. Since then, the protesters, the press and human-rights organizations have suffered increasingly violent repression.
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Navin Shetty Brahmavar (CC-BY)
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When the secret history of the current “Arab Spring” is written, we may learn that one of the many unintended consequences of U.S. attempts to keep up with—and influence—the historic events was to provide a flood of new recruits to radical Islam.
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Al-Jazeera English (CC-BY-ND)
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By Juan Cole — Washington’s tendency to handle the Bahraini monarchy with kid gloves and to defer to the Saudis is ill serving the stability of the Persian Gulf. Risking the radicalization of Bahrain’s Shiite community may be a very bad idea.
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AP / Jerome Delay
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By Robert Scheer — Once again an American president summons the passions of a human rights crusade against a reprehensible ruler whose crimes, while considerable, are not significantly different than that of dictators the U.S routinely protects.
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DoD / Cherie A. Thurlby
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U.S. ally and oil-rich Middle East monarchy Saudi Arabia has responded to domestic dissent by slapping a ban on public demonstrations.
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DoD / Cherie A. Thurlby
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With a 10 percent rate of unemployment among his subjects and fear of the unrest that this could unleash, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia decreed an increase in aid to the unemployed, an increase in the salaries of government employees, an increase in aid to students, an increase in funds ... (more)
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AP / Lefteris Pitarakis
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What’s happening in the streets of Cairo and elsewhere around Egypt is likely to lead to substantial changes in that country that could well be contagious across the region.
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AP / Evan Vucci
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By Robert Scheer — Hillary Clinton should cut out the whining about what the Obama administration derides as “stolen cables” and confront the unpleasant truths they reveal about the contradictions of U.S. foreign policy and her own troubling performance.
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By Eugene Robinson — The secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks leave one overriding impression: It’s hard out there for a superpower.
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AP / George Osodi
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Speculation about the health of Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua ended Wednesday with the announcement of his death at age 58. Late last year, Yar’Adua’s position was assumed by his second-in-command, acting President Goodluck Jonathan, but not without controversy.
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AP / George Osodi
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By Gbemisola Olujobi — Now, what was the interest of the Saudi authorities in keeping Yar’Adua, the president of a sovereign nation, incommunicado and out of his people’s reach for three months? And if the Saudi authorities had nothing to do with the president being out of reach, who kept him away from his officials and his people?
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AP / Rachel Jones
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A new assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey says that Venezuela’s oil reserves could be double those of Saudi Arabia, a finding that could significantly alter the world’s geopolitical stage and crude oil market.
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AP / Joerg Sarbach
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By Robert Fisk — Music and Islam have a dodgy relationship. I guess it’s really all to do with that most jealously guarded commodity, the human soul, over which music exerts such passion.
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Flickr / NeoGaboX
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Bragging about one’s sex life is lame, but is it lame enough to earn 1,000 lashes and five years in prison? A Saudi man has been sentenced to just that punishment for going on TV and talking about his extramarital liaisons.
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AP / David Guttenfelder
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By Robert Scheer — True, he doesn’t seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he’s headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam.
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smh.com.au
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After an uninspiring scoreless draw with fellow autocratic state Saudi Arabia, it seems that North Korea’s football (soccer) team has managed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The qualification raises the possibility of a cup confrontation with South Korea—or even the U.S.—next summer.
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Flickr / danesparza
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Here’s a list of countries where you don’t want to find yourself when it comes to human rights: Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Iraq, Pakistan and the good ol’ U.S. of A. Those six states execute more of their citizens than any others, according to Amnesty International’s latest tally. The U.S. is the fourth-worst offender.
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latimes.com
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For the crime of receiving two unrelated men in her home, a 75-year-old Saudi woman has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months behind bars. Once again, a nation that is both one of America’s closest allies and brutally oppressive of women finds itself in an awkward light.
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AP photo / Lefteris Pitarakis
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Now that the war in Gaza has ground to a halt, local and international groups are assessing the needs of tens of thousands of embattled and displaced Palestinians, some of whom have gone for many days without water or power, and are preparing to send aid as soon as possible.
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AP photo / Newsis via Daewoo shipping yards
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A huge Saudi-owned oil tanker, the Sirius Star, was seized by pirates on Saturday as it headed toward the U.S. with 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members on board. The tanker is now on its way to Somalia.
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By Marie Cocco — There’s nothing like the Saudi version of straight talk to put in perspective the tongue-twisting of American politicians.
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The Mosaic Intelligence Report looks at two welcome developments in the Middle East: On Wednesday, Israel and Syria said they had begun indirect talks in Turkey, the first confirmation in eight years of negotiations between the long-time enemies. On that same day, the Gulf state of Qatar scored a diplomatic coup by pulling off a deal intended to end Lebanon’s protracted crisis.
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Hezbollah was the obvious winner of the recent fighting in Lebanon, but the conflict reflected a broader trend in the Middle East. For all of President Bush’s bluster, Iran is stronger and more influential than when he took office.
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wikimedia.org / Ali Mansuri
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The House of Saud clearly takes a top-down approach to ruling. Under mounting pressure from the West to confront religious fundamentalism, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs plans to retrain some 40,000 imams.
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This week’s Mosaic Intelligence Report from Link TV takes a look at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq, where he was greeted with smiles and red carpets, and explains how Ahmadinejad has “outmaneuvered” President Bush everywhere in the Middle East (except Israel).
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Real American Boy: How Our Byzantine Immigration System and Failed Economy May Have Made a Terrorist
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