Western media hails EU oil deal as potential game changer, despite admitting Al Qaeda holds oil fields. … Read More
The world is actually more peaceful than ever
In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, it is important to keep things in perspective, by emphasizing what the mass media tend to neglect — namely, the fact that the world has become much more peaceful in recent decades and is getting more peaceful all the time.It does not diminish the horror of mass casualty attacks on civilians, in this and other countries, to point out that today’s terrorist incidents provide a counterpoint to a declining arc of political violence worldwide. Both violence among states and violence within states have diminished dramatically in the last few generations.If we look at battle deaths in the last century, the spurts in the Cold War, associated with the Korean, Indochina and Soviet-Afghan wars, were dwarfed by the huge spikes of slaughter associated with the world wars. And with the end of the Cold War came a steep decline in political violence worldwide — mainly because the two sides no longer kept local conflicts going by arming and supplying opposing sides from Latin America to Africa to Asia and the Middle East.Continue Reading… … Read More
Three Saudis jailed for plot to kill Americans
A special anti-terror court has sentenced three Saudis to six years in jail each for a plot to kill US nationals at the height of a campaign of Al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, a witness said. The court in Riyadh issued its ruling late on Sunday, said a witness at the hearing…
Al-Qaeda Pressure Cookers?
Are the pressure cooker bombs used in Boston really a link to Al Qaeda? No. But some reporters are trying to make that connection. … Read More
Turkish police prevent ‘Al-Qaeda U.S. embassy plot’
Turkish police have uncovered and foiled an alleged plot by Al-Qaeda to bomb the US embassy in Ankara, as well as a synagogue and other targets in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Friday. As a result of a February raid in Istanbul and the northeastern city of Corlu, police had arrested 12…
Al-Qaeda claims to have executed French hostage in Mali
The French government was scrambling Wednesday to verify a claim by Al-Qaeda’s north African branch that it has executed a French hostage in Mali as a “spy”. A man claiming to be a spokesman for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) told Mauritania’s ANI news agency late…
Drones are on the “wrong side of history”
Last week, The New York Times published a chilling account of how indiscriminate killing in war remains bad policy even today. This time, it’s done not by young GIs in the field but by anonymous puppeteers guiding drones that hover and attack by remote control against targets thousands of miles away, often killing the innocent and driving their enraged and grieving families and friends straight into the arms of the very terrorists we’re trying to eradicate.
The Times told of a Muslim cleric in Yemen named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber, standing in a village mosque denouncing al Qaeda. It was a brave thing to do — a respected tribal figure, arguing against terrorism. But two days later, when he and a police officer cousin agreed to meet with three al Qaeda members to continue the argument, all five men — friend and foe — were incinerated by an American drone attack. The killings infuriated the village and prompted rumors of an upwelling of support in the town for al Qaeda, because, the Times reported, “such a move is seen as the only way to retaliate against the United States.”
