Fatah al-Islam Finished as Political Battle Heats Up

Joshua Landis writes in Syria Comment:
Shaker Youssef Al-Absi (also spelled Abssi), the fugitive leader of the Fatah al-Islam militants was killed today as he was trying to flee the Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. The army victory today brings to an end the Fatah al-Islam organization, and the life of of [...]

A Change of Guard in Tehran

Farideh Farhi writes in Informed Comment Global Affairs:
On September 1st, Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei announced a change in the leadership of Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Eslami (IRGC). Brigadier (now Major) General Mohammad Ali (Aziz) Jafari was given a new star and appointed as sepah’s new commander while Yahya Rahim Safavi who had led sepah for [...]

Why We Oppose the Indo-U.S. Military Ties

Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn, Medea Benjamin, Judith LeBlanc, Mike Davis, John Bellamy Foster, and Vijay Prashad write in Toward Freedom:
Since the 1990s, the U.S. government made overtures to the Indian Government for a military alliance. When the Bush administration came to power it wanted India to be a part of its missile defence [...]

Burn Rate

Ed Harriman writes in the London Review of Books:
As General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, prepares to report to Congress on 15 September on the success of George Bush’s ‘surge’, Bush himself is trying hard to talk it up and to discredit the policy of withdrawal. In a speech on 22 August to [...]

Absolute War, by Chris Bellamy

Virginia Rounding reviews Chris Bellamy’s book, Absolute War. Below is an excerpt from The Independent:
Chris Bellamy’s aim in Absolute War is to provide “in one volume, a modern history of the greatest and most hideous land-air conflict in history”: that between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia on the eastern front of the Second World War [...]

The War on Democracy

John Pilger’s documentary is up on Google
Video.

US Digs in Deeper in the Philippines

Noel Tarrazona writes in Asia Times:
As the Armed Forces of the Philippines expand the scope of their offensive against Muslim insurgent groups on Mindanao, some are wondering if the escalating conflict could lead or already has led to the establishment of a permanent US military presence in the restive region. Since the September 11, 2001, [...]

Basra Crisis is Iran’s Opportunity

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi writes in Asia Times:
In the US’s worst-case scenario, Shi’ites in Basra descend into anarchy-driven factional strife following the withdrawal of British troops, opening the door for Iran to draw southern Iraq further into its sphere of influence. Iran’s interests, however, are far better served by a peaceful transfer of power, although the [...]

China’s Balancing Act at the Party Congress

Wu Zhong writes in Asia Times:
The Chinese Communist Party’s 17th National Congress, which opens on October 15, is expected to produce a Politburo Standing Committee balanced among veterans of the Communist Youth League allied with President Hu Jintao, remaining members of the Jiang Zemin “clique”, and supporters of Vice President Zeng Qinghong – with Hu [...]

News in Brief: 4 September 2007

A brief list of news for the day:
Rafsanjani bounces back to head Iran clerical body. Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts Tuesday, continuing a political comeback from the humiliation of his defeat in the 2005 presidential election. Rafsanjani becomes the second head of the Assembly of Experts [...]