Features

Quality articles about the Middle East - thought-provoking, informative, or "different" - written by people who are not TFF Associates. We recommend and share them with our readers.

2009

Patrick Cockburn, TruthOut
Iraqi oil minister accused of Mother of All Sell-Outs

Aljazeera Panel discussion, June 29, 2009
Iraqi's Oil for sale
A mind-boggling backgrounder. And the type of discussion largely suppressed in Western media.

Jeremy Hammond,
Foreign Policy Journal
Has the U.S. fomented unrest during Iran's election?
It certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic

Stephen Zunes, FPIF, June 8, 2009
Obama's speech: How not to support democracy in the Middle East
"Imagine the positive reaction Obama would have received throughout the Arab and Islamic world if, instead of simply expressing eloquent but vague words in support of freedom and democracy, he had said something like this..."

Reece Ehrlich on The Real News
Iran is not a Twitter revolution
The uprising crosses all classes, it is neither the result of Internet access nor of CIA involvement

Paul Craig Roberts in CounterPunch
Are the Iranian protests another US orchestrated "Color Revolution"?
Is this the culmination of two years of destabilization?

Paul Craig Roberts in Counterpunch
Are you ready for war with a demonized Iran?

Anthony DiMaggio in CounterPunch
The Iranian elections and the faith-based media

Patrick Cockburn in CounterPunch
Who will control Iraq's oil?

International Herald Tribune, March 18, 2009
Foreign companies would get majority stake in Iraq oil and gas projects
Up to 75%!

Jonathan Steel, The Guardian, February 14, 2009
Nato is deeper in its Afghan mire than Russia ever was
Two decades after the Soviet withdrawal, ever more resources are being poured into a war with scant chance of success.

UNRWA, January 2009
The Gaza film - on YouTube
And here is the UNRWA Channel on YouTube

Shir Hever
War of the tunnels: Economic aspects on the Israeli attacks on Gaza

Mike Whitney
Blue Star rampage: Israel's dress rehearsal for Lebanon

Mahdi Darious Nazemroya
Broader Middle east war? Plans for redrawing the Middle East: The project for a "New Middle East"

New York Times
U.S: rejected Israeli plea to attack Iran

Leigh Phillips
Arms exports to Israel from EU worth € 200 million

2008

November 24, 2008
New Joint Experts' Statement on Iran
Suggestions for US policy/relations and for the President Elect.
Excellent, comprehensive and clearly do-able. Circulate it, please!

SPECIAL - Will Iran Be Bombed?

Hundreds of analyses and comments on the possible risk of attacking Iran are found here:

Collection 1 - 2004 onwards - basic sources

Collection 2 - Autumn 2005

Collection 3 - Autumn 2006

Collection 4 - Summer-Autumn 2007

2008

WorldPublicOpinion.org
Iraqi Public Opinion on the Presence of US Troops
Interesting counterpoints to US propaganda!

Dennis Kucinich, D, July 16, 2008
Video interview about his impeachment of President Bush, about the situation in Iraq, about what peace is and his Department of Peace idea

Dennis Kucinich, D, June 9, 2008
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to present 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush.
There is a complete media blackout about this critically-important event, so please pass the info on through your various networks.

Chris Hedges, TruthDig, June 8, 2008
The Iran Trap
A very important analysis of Obama's views on the Middle East - and frightening too!

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent
Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control
Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors.

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent
Hemligt avtal för USA-kontroll med Irak på obestämd tid
50 militärbaser, USA-kontroll av irakiskt luftrum
Åtals-immunitet för alla amerikanska trupper och entreprenörer...

Dennis Kucinich, April 22, 2008
Rep. Kucinich’s statement from the Congressional Record on Israel and Palestinian human rights
Impassioned and perhaps unprecedented in Congress in support of Palestinian human rights.

Tom Engelhardt, Commondreams.com
Unraveling Iraq
12 answers to questions no one is bothering to ask about Iraq

Paul Craig Roberts, AntiWar.com, April 23, 2008
What the Iraq war is about

CNN - March 10, 2008
US economy could fall casualty to war
In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month.

Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor,
January 7-8, 2008
New look at foreign fighters in Iraq
An analysis shows that the bulk of them comes from countries allied with the US.

Juan Cole - Informed Coment, January 9, 2008
The top ten myths about Iraq 2007

2007

Seymour Hersh, Die Spiegel, Dec 16, 2007
The President has accepted ethnic cleansing

J Kanter and A Smale, IHT, October 30, 2007
OPEC says pumping more won't bring oil price down
Representatives from top oil producing countries Tuesday blamed the steady advance of oil toward $100 a barrel on a combination of financial speculation, geopolitical instability and a shortfall in refining capacity.

Tim Franks, BBC, October 15, 2007
UN expert rails at Quartet policies
South African lawyer John Dugaard, UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories compare Israel with South Africa's apartheid. Unusually outspoken, too, against the UN S-G.

Stephen Zunes, FPIF, October 12, 2007
Support for Iraq partition: Cynical and dangerous
Instead of pushing for the breakup of Iraq, Congress should instead give priority to healing the wounds caused by the U.S. invasion and occupation.

John Pilger, ICH & ITV, June 2000
Paying The Price: Killing the Children of Iraq
A documentary of 75 minutes from 2000.
The sanctions, the most cruel in human history, preceded the invasion and present occupation. Please see this video, begin to talk about our crimes too and not only Saddam's. Please ask yourself whether we will ever win the Iraqi hearts and minds if we do not pull out all the troops and begin a completely new policy of reconciliation, respect and partnership.
If at all there is a road to freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people - perhaps the most victimised in history - it begins when we withdraw our troops.
Sanctions is a closed chapter in Western minds, media and policy circles. But it all started with the killing of the first million Iraqis by one of the most terrible Weapons of Mass Destruction: Sanctions.

Ray McGovern, ICH, October 6, 2007
So who is afraid of the Israel Lobby?
Virtually everyone...with discussion about the shocking silence since 1967when Israel atacked the US Liberty...

Uri Avnery, MediaMonitors, Oct 4, 2007
Two knights and a dragon
About John Mearsheimer's and Stephen Walt's important book, "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy". He thinks it could/should change the world - and adds his own experience with the power of that lobby.Very important documentary video about the lobby and the book here.

Linda S. Heard, Gulf News, Oct 2, 2007
Let's try partitioning the US
Here's a suggestion for the Arab world. How about a vote on the break-up of America? How about giving California back to Mexico, returning Hawaii to its indigenous islanders and Alaska to the Eskimos and Indians?
And while we're about it, let's invite foreign conglomerates to buy up the country's oil, gas and timber.

Reuters, October 2, 2007
Iraq refugess may be undercounted, experts say

Reuters, Octobe 2, 2007
Most Americans want Iraq war funding cut - poll

Andrew Lichtenstein, Alternet, September 27, 2007
America 2003-2006
Photographs from Lichtenstein's book "Never Coming Home" - produced by Nina Berman

Eux.TV & DPA, September 26, 2007
US Senate calls for Iraq's partition
US lawmakers voted Wednesday to split Iraq into a loose federation of sectarian-based regions and urged President George W Bush to press Iraqi leaders to agree.

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, September 26, 2007
'Hitler' does New York
Articulate, evasive, manipulative, the Iranian president - even lost in translation - was especially skillful in turning US corporate media's hysteria upside down consistently to paint those in the administration of President George W Bush as incorrigible warmongers.

Juan Cole, Salon, September 24, 2007
Turning Ahmadinejad into public enemy No. 1
Demonizing the Iranian president and making his visit to New York seem controversial are all part of the neoconservative push for yet another war.

President Ahmedinejad, YouTube, September 24, 2007
Answering questions at Columbia University - Part 1-4

Columbia University President Bollinger, YouTube, September 24, 2007
"Welcoming" President Ahmadinejad

Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation,
The enormous costs of the war
$456 billion has now been appropriated for the war...could have provided over 48 million children with health care coverage for the length of the War; built 3.5 million affordable housing units; 45,800 elementary schools; hired 8 million additional public school teachers for a year;

Andrew Tilghman, Washington Monthly, Oct 2007
The myth of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is the last big argument for keeping US troops in the country. But the military's estimation of the threat is alarmingly wrong.
Well-documented and thought-provoking to say the least.

Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor,
September 19, 2007
Basra oil fuels fight to control Iraq's economic might
The province sits on as much as 20% of the Middle East oil reserves.

Robert Scheer, TruthDig, September 18, 2007
Checkbook imperialism: The Blackwater fiasco in Iraq
Why does the “democratically elected government” of “liberated” Iraq not have the legal power to expel Blackwater USA from its land or hold any of the 50,000 private contractor troops that the U.S. government has brought to Iraq accountable for their deadly actions?
And on September 21, 2007, they were reportedly back in Baghdad?

Mark Mazetti & Helene Cooper, IHT,
September 18, 2007
Israeli attack point to possible North Korean and Syrian nuclear ties
The Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence asserts was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.
Or, perhaps, Israel was just testing Syria's air defence in preparation for a later attack on Iran?

Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor,
September 18, 2007
In the "Venice of the East" - a history of diversity
Basra was know as a teeming port city that boasted a mix of culture and religion.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - LewRockwell.com,
September 18, 2007
Non dare call it genocide
We are god-like liberators. They are devil-like terrorists. No amount of data or contrary information seems to make a dent in this irreligious faith. So it is in every country and in all times. Here is the intellectual blindness that war generates.

Opinion Research Business, September 18, 2007
More than 1,000,000 Iraqis murdered
In the week in which General Patraeus reports back to US Congress on the impact the recent ‘surge’ is having in Iraq, a new poll reveals that more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have been murdered since the invasion took place in 2003.

On the Iraqi death toll, see also:

Les Roberts, The Independent, February 14, 2007
Iraq's death toll is far worse than our leaders admit
The US and Britain have triggered an episode more deadly than the Rwandan genocide .

Sam Dagher, Christian Science Monitor, September 17, 2007
As British troops exit Basra Shiites vie to fill power vacuum.
What happens in the city may provide a window on the future of the rest of Iraq.

Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom, September 15, 2007
Marwan Barghouti - The Palestinian Mandela
The division of the Palestinian territories into a "Hamastan" in the Gaza Strip and a "Fatahland" in the West Bank is a disaster. But in private conversations in Ramallah, one name pops up more and more often: Marwan Barghouti.

Thomas E. Woods Jr., LewRockwell.com, September 12, 2007
What the warfare state really costs
Trillions of dollars for the Iraq war...The public is inclined to think of the costs of the military establishment in terms of the annual defense budget. The true costs, however, are much greater, although usually hidden.

Mohamed Elmenshawy, Christian Science Monitor,
September 11, 2007
What do Arabs really think of America? Ask them!
Arabs have been largely neglected in this debate about the relationship between the US and the Arab world.

Brian Bogart, Information Clearing House,
September 11, 2007
Bin Laden is right?
Analyzing his message alongside bipartisan excuses for war -- and juxtaposed with President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower’s keep-an-eye-on-the-defense-industry speech of January 1961 -- only Bin Laden’s words and Eisenhower’s warnings stand up to current United States Department of Defense statistics.

Patrick McElwee & Robert Naiman, ZNet
September 11, 2007
Is the US responsible for a million Iraqi deaths?
It is the most reliable estimate, but there seems to be a lack of interest in how many Iraqis have been killed even as many who oppose withdrawal warn of the deaths that would ensue if the troops left. As a result, the American public is completely uninformed as to how many Iraqis have been killed.

Sukant Chandan, Sons of Malcolm, September 11, 2007
Bin Laden and 'Azzam the American'
What is most noticeable about this latest statement is the stridently radical anti-capitalist rhetoric which many have attributed to the influence of former white US citizen Azzam Al-Amriki - 'Azzam the American' - previously known as Adam Gadahn, the son of a Jew and a Catholic, who has
family members who live in Israel, who now runs al-Sahab, Al-Qaeda's media wing.

Frank Rich, The New York Times,
September 9, 2007
As the Iraqis stand down...We'll stand up
September 8, 2002 marked the beginning of an epic propaganda onslaught of distorted intelligence, fake news, credulous and erroneous reporting by bona fide journalists, presidential playacting and Congressional fecklessness. Much of it had been plotted that summer by the then-secret White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a small task force of administration brass charged with the Iraq con job.
A remarkable NYT Op-Ed...

Osama Bin Laden, NowPublic.com,
September 7, 2007
Transcript and 1 min video of his 7 page long speech
Read it - so incompletely covered by most media.

Scott Ritter, truthdig, September 6, 2007
Reporting from Baghdad
A devastating account of CBS's and other media corporations biased, dependent way of covering Iraq - and covering up reality...

Ibrahim Wade, Le Monde Diplomatique
September 4, 2007
Bin Laden as a fantasy figure. Riches beyond belief
Most of the factoids that have become canon about Osama bin Laden and the financing of terror were estimates, guesstimates or simply made up, as in the case of his presumed $300m personal fortune. But these fantasies have driven real and dangerous actions.

Regis Debray, Le Monde Diplomatique,
August 2007
Palestine: a policy of deliberate blindness
Last year President Jacques Chirac asked Régis Debray to study the situation in the Middle East. On 15 January 2007 Debray sent the French authorities the following document on Palestine. It is an important key to understanding a long policy drift whose results are now obvious.

Paul Craig Roberts, Information Clearing House, August 29, 2007
More shame, more sorrow
In the administration of George W. Bush, the Republican Party has achieved the greatest combination of idiocy and evil in human history

Bill Christison, CounterPunch, August 27, 2007
Why the US and Israel should lose Middle East wars
For overwhelming moral reasons, I do not want the U. S. and Israeli governments to be victorious in any present or future Middle East wars. I want them to lose such wars.
One more former CIA analyst heading the struggle against US imperial ambitions.

TPM Muckraker, August 24, 2007
GOP lobby firm's Allawi contract worth $ 300.000 over 6 months.
An Iraqi who does not suffer!

Mark Mazetti & David S. Cloud
IHT, August 23, 2007
US report see bleak future in Iraq
A bleak assessment by U.S. spy agencies released Thursday casts strong doubts on the viability of the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq, depicting a paralyzed Iraqi government

Several U.S. military, New York Times Op-Ed, August 19, 2007
The war as we saw it
Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched.
Remarkable account prior to Petraeus' testimony.

Mark Steel, The Independent, August 1, 2007
Why does Saudi Arabia need military aid?
Military aid worth $ 60 thousand million bastard dollars??

Louise Arbour, August 1, 2007
Response to Open Letter from Hans von Sponeck and Dennis Halliday
Concerning the human rights (monitoring) situation in Iraq - see their letter here. Would you say that Mme Arbour's letter is a response?

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, July 30, 2007
Iraq: One in seven joins human tide spilling into neighbouring countries
Four million Iraqis have run away from their homes. Yet, while the US and Britain express sympathy for the plight of refugees in Africa, they are ignoring - or playing down- a far greater tragedy which is largely of their own making.

Aljazeera.net, July 30, 2007
Half of Iraq in 'aboslute poverty'
Up to eight million Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in "absolute poverty", according to a report by Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi groups.

Layla Anwar, Information Clearing House,
July 30, 2007
Why is half if Iraq in absolute poverty?
A deeply moving questioning of the Western citizens who seem to never ask or answer the questions most relevant to the Iraqi people. It's a genocide...

Reuters, July 30, 2007
Big US presence in Iraq until mid-2009: Commander
Such a timeline would hand President George W. Bush's successor the task of bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq, more than six years after Bush dispatched them.

PIPA - any time
Program on International Policy Attitudes
Studies public opinion arund the world on international issues
What do the Irans think about nukes and about making a revolution? Do the Iraqis want US withdrawal? How do Russians and Americans see each other? Do people want market economy? How do Americans think about the use of the military??
Incredibly important for thinking about a citizens' foreign and secrity policy...and people seem more moderate and wise than their governments!

Noam Chomsky, Information Clearing House,
July 30, 2007
Guillotining Gaza
The death of a nation is a rare and somber event. But the vision of a unified, independent Palestine threatens to be another casualty of a Hamas-Fatah civil war, stoked by Israel and its enabling ally the United States.

Helene Cooper, IHT, July 30, 2007
Biden plan for "soft partition" of Iraq gains momentum.

Nicholas Blandford, Christian Science Monitor,
July 24, 2007
In Lebanon, the UN and Hizbullah make unlikely bedfellows
Face with a new threat from Sunni militants, UN peacekeepers turn to Hizbullah for protection.

Michael R. Gordon, IHT, July 23, 2007
U.S. seen in Iraq until at least 2009
While Washington is mired in political debate over the future of Iraq, the American command here has prepared a detailed plan that foresees a significant American role for the next two years.

Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun, July 22, 2007
America's next big blunder
Fears are growing the U.S. may be planning to attack Pakistan's "autonomous" tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The U.S. claims the 27,200- sq.-km region, home to 3.3 million Pashtun tribesmen, is a safe haven for al-Qaida and Taliban, and a hotbed of anti-American activity. Indeed it is, thanks mostly to the U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan...

Augustus Richard Norton and Sara Roy
Christian Science Monitor, July 17, 2007
Yes, you can work with Hamas
Why the US approach to the Palestinian territories i inviting disaster

Chris Hedges, TruthDig, July 15, 2007
A Declaration of Independence from Israel
The alliance between Israel and the United States has culminated after 50 years. This involvement, which is not furthering American interests, is unleashing a geopolitical nightmare. Time to declare indepednece from it...

Mohamed Elmasry, Islam Daily, July 15, 2007
Blackwater: America's (deadly) secret mercenary army
Jeremy Scahill’s just-published 450-page "Blackwater" (2007) uncovers a story of deception and intrigue whose moral is that some of America’s richest and most powerful have no respect for human lives.

Global Policy Forum, July 15, 2007
"War and Occupation in Iraq" A new NGO report.
Among the topics covered are: destruction of cultural heritage, killing of civilians, attacks on cities and long-term military bases. The report has been written and produced by Global Policy Forum and co-published by thirty NGOs.

Nir Rosen, Washington Post, July 12
What Bremer got wrong
I arrived in Iraq before L. Paul Bremer arrived in May 2003 and stayed on long after his ignominious and furtive departure in June 2004 -- long enough to see the tragic consequences of his policies in Iraq.

Chris Hedges & Laila Al-Arian, The Nation,
July 9, 2007
The other war: Iraq vets bear witness
These combat veterans, some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars, and many of whom have come to oppose the occupation, gave vivid, on-the-record accounts. They described a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts. .

Dan Lieberman, Alternative Insight, July 9, 2007
The course of history
A return to history's natural course might resolve the Middle East crisis.

Juan Cole, ICH, June 28, 2007
Ahmadinejad: "I am not an anti-Semitic"
Plaestinians should decide on two-state solution
Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul continue to show themselves among the few in Congress with any integrity and backbone. They declined to go along with a resolution charging Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad with incitement to genocide, given his alleged call for Israel to be 'wiped off the face of the map.'

Petitions Online
Oppose Tony Blair as Middle East Envoy
Join the protest here.It's a scandal!

Ohpols.com, June 28, 2007
US Congress votes to send Iran's president before UN Court
Peace presidential candidate Kucinich argues why this is a misreading of what Ahmadinejad has said.

James Rothenberg, ICH, June 27, 2007
Candidate Hillary does Iraq
Hillary believes that “the President should abandon his escalation of the war”. She chooses not to say “his” war because it could not have been “his” war without the help of people like “her”.

Rob Winder, Aljazeera, June 26, 2007
Blair's Middle East legacy
Dr Omar Nazdi, a professor of political science at Baghdad University, says of Blair's legacy in the region: "Tony Blair has destroyed British prestige in Iraq and across the Arab world. No one who has their eyes open can say that Iraq is not worse now than it was before."

Robert Fisk, The Independent, June 25, 2007
Welcome to "Palestine"
We shall go on giving our affection to the kings and princes and unlovely presidents of the Middle East until the whole place blows up in our faces and then we shall say - as we are already saying of the Iraqis - that they don't deserve our sacrifice and our love.

Jeff Halper, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, June 25, 2007
Keeping on a steady course to apartheid
For all the attention and hysteria the latest events in Gaza have generated since the Hamas “takeover,” for Israel they represent nothing but a minor blip in its inexorable drive towards its own unilateral “solution:” apartheid.

Anne Penketh and Eric Silver, The Independent, June 25, 2007
Iran 'accused of attacks in Iraq to bolster US strategy'
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog told journalists in Luxembourg: "I was simply expressing concern that we are moving towards Iran building the capability, Iran building the knowledge, without the IAEA being in a position to clarify the nature and scope of that programme. If we continue in that direction, we will end up with a major confrontation and we reduce the possibility of a peaceful resolution."

Forced Migration Newsletter, June 24, 2007
Iraq's displacement crisis: The search for solutions

Robert Fisk, CounterPunch, June 23, 2007
The bumbling envoy
How could Blair possibly get this job?
I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating being "our" Middle East envoy.

Mike Whitney, ICH & GlobalResearch, June 21, 2007
The CIA and Fatah, spies, Quislings and the Palestinian Authority
If the documents found by Hamas gunmen prove to be authentic, they will confirm that US-Israeli intelligence agencies have been collaborating with high-ranking members of the PA to help crush the Palestinian national liberation movement...

Fred Halliday, TNI, June 21, 2007
Crisis of the Middle East 1914, 1967, 2003
The reverberations of the Iraq war will be as profound for the future of the middle east as were two epic dates in its 20th- century past, says Fred Halliday.

Shawn Pogatchnik, The Guardian, June 20, 2007
Jimmy Carter blasts US policy on the Palestinians
The US, Israel and the EU split the Palestinian people. Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal." And he predicted what happens today 17 months ago in the Washington Post.'

Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, June 19, 2007
An Iraqi city resists violence
A referendum on the status of ethnically diverse and oil-rich Kirkuk will test its peaceful resolve.

Alvaro De Soto, June 19, 2007
End of Mission Report - Confidential
Rare insights into the international community's operations - and failures - in the Middle East by the outgoing Under-Secretary-General and UN Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process (PDF, have patience when downloading).

Shirin Saeidi, GlobalResearch, June 19, 2007
US military threat directed at Iran: Muffled ElBaradei's unheard assessments
In recent weeks, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of IAEA, has repeatedly condemned any plans for military action against Iran. He got little attention and traditionally well-reputed publications, including the Observer and Guardian, have reported distorted and unsubstantiated articles regarding Iran’s intentions.

Samir Al-Youssef, The Guardian, June 18. 2007
Let Hamas govern
Fatah must concede defeat and learn to become an effective democractic opposition.

Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 18, 2007
The measure of a life, in dollars and cents
What's an Iraqi life worth? How about an Iraqi car?For the U.S. military in Iraq, it may be roughly the same.

Uri Avnery, June 16, 2007
Crocodile tears
What happens when one and a half million human beings are imprisoned in a tiny, arid territory, cut off from their compatriots and from any contact with the outside world, starved by an economic blockade and unable to feed their families?

Gary Leupp, CounterPunch, June 15, 2007
The day after we strike Iran
What will we do then?

Melissa Tuckey, FPIF, June 12, 2007
Interview with Iranian poet Farideh Hassanzadeh
What role do poets play in today's Iran? What is the larger relationship between politics and poetry?

Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, June 11, 2007
'Military plan against Iran is ready'
Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power. Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to "go nuclear."

Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, June 8, 2007
In Iraq's four-year looting frenzy, the allies have become the vandals
British and American collusion in the pillaging of Iraq's heritage is a scandal that will outlive any passing conflict..

Shirin Ebadi & Muhammad Sahimi
IHT, May 30, 2007
The follies of Bush's Iran policy
Iranian reformists believe that democracy can't be imported. It must be indigenous. They believe that the best Washington can do for democracy in Iran is to leave them alone. The fact is, no truly nationalist and democratic group will accept Bush's funds for "bringing democracy" to Iran.

Dennis Kucinich, (D), 29. maj 2007
Min plan for Irak
Den danske oversættelse af den bedste plan for vejen til fred i og med Irak...

Praful Bidwai, TNI, May 23, 2007
Persian Puzzles
Has consistent bashing from the West given Iran’s conservative mullahs the handle to turn the clock back on the country, asks Praful Bidwai.Iran is a land of paradoxes, contrasts and contradictions. Consider a few.

Think Progress
Mission accomplished by the numbers
On May 1, 2003, President Bush stood underneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner and announced that “Major combat operations have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the situation then, compared to the situation now!

Brian Ross & Richard Esposito,
ABCNews, May 22, 2007
Bush authorizes new covert actions against Iran
President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts in motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated camp of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

Gail Russell Chaddock, The Christian Science Monitor, May 18, 2007
How will Iraq share the oil?
So far, the frustration on Capitol Hill is mainly over the Iraqi government's perceived foot-dragging in finishing the oil law, which US advisers had a hand in crafting. But resistance is also surfacing to the substance of the oil bill, especially whether its main effect will be to ensure international companies a lucrative role in Iraq's rich oil fields.

Forlaget Vandkunsten, 7. maj 2007
Johannes Breve
Mod, nysgerrighed og vilje til at gøre en indsats der hvor det synes allermest nødvendigt har bragt Johanne Djurhuus til Mellemøsten i flere omgange.
"Det er en på alle måder spændende og letlæst bog om livet i konfliktzoner, som jeg anbefaler på det varmeste. Johanne er en formidabel iagttager af mennesker og de mer eller mindre produktive organisationer, de skaber", siger Jan Øberg, TFF.

EkstraBladet, Copenhagen, May 6, 2007
Krigsløgne ud på nettet
Historisk dokumentation - EkstraBladet offentliggørtusindvis af regeringens Irak-dokumenter.

Kate Hudson, The Guardian, April 29, 2007
Here comes the new Cold War
Popularly termed Star Wars, NMD is part of the US military strategy to achieve "full spectrum dominance" - full military control of all land, sea, air, space and information. While the US describes it as a defensive system, because it allows the US to shoot down incoming missiles, in reality it will enable the US to attack other countries without fear of retaliation.

ICH - Washington Post, April 27, 2007
Kucinich announces impeachment charges against Vice President Cheney
Because I believe the vice president's conduct of office has been destructive to the founding purposes of our nation. I do so in defense of the rights of the American people to have a government that is honest and peaceful.

John Pilger, New Statesman, April 16, 2007
Iran: The War ahead
we live in the most dangerous of times. On 6 April, Blair accused "elements of the Iranian regime" of "backing, financing, arming and supporting terrorism in Iraq". He offered no evidence, and the Ministry of Defence has none. This is the same Goebbels-like refrain with which he and his coterie, Gordon Brown included, brought an epic bloodletting to Iraq. How long will the rest of us continue looking from the side?

David Monetero, Christian Science Monitor,
April 13, 2007
China and Pakistan team up on energy
A new China-financed port on Pakistan's coast ups the ante in the new 'Great Game' for energy resources in the Middle East and Central Asia.
If China is to become the economic powerhouse it envisions, the road to its new future could run, literally, through Pakistan.

BBC, April 11, 2007
Iraqis face "immense" suffering
Four years after the US-led invasion, the ICRC says the conflict is inflicting immense suffering, and calls for greater protection of civilians.

David Zlutnick, IndyMedia, April 9. 2007
Making a killing: America's private army and the business of war
Private contractors are the second-largest con- tingent of the “Coalition of the Willing” with a ratio of about one armed contractor for every two American soldiers. The Pentagon estimates the number of contractors at around 100,000—but this is only an estimate...

Henrik Olesen, Berlingske Tidende,
April 8, 2007
Irak-indsatsen var mest symbolsk
Selv om en aktivistisk dansk udenrigspolitik flere gange er proklameret, har man i Danmark aldrig givet sig de nødvendige
midler til at udføre en sådan politik i praksis, bortset fra sporadiske tiltag. Derfor bliver vi ikke taget alvorligt i internationale sammenhænge.
Forfatteren er cand.scient.pol., tidligere Danmarks forbindelsesofficer til koalitionsadministrationen i Irak.

William Blum, ICH, April 6, 2007
War is terrorism
When will the dropping of bombs on innocent civilians by the United States, and invading and occupying their country, without their country attacking or threatening the US, become completely discredited?

Bert de Belder, Al-Ahram, April 5-11, 2007
Pity the sick of Iraq
After repeatedly topping the Arab health index, Iraq's health record is now worse than ever because of the US-led occupation. The general effect on the Iraqi population amounts to a massive war crime

Joy Gordon, Le Monde Diplomatique,
April 2007
Iraq - follow the money.
US agencies in Iraq claim that extraordinary sums have been spent on reconstruction projects; that thousands have been completed and that many more are under way. But the cash (some of which was Iraq’s own) has gone to shady contractors who have done a bad job or none at all.

Ladane Nasseri, IHT, April 4, 2007
War? You must be joking!
Most of my fellow Iranians are inclined to dismiss the possibility of an American military action against Iran. Iranian government propaganda excels at insulating Iranians from any sense of urgency about the current conflict with the West.

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent & ICH
April 3, 2007
The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis.
How the bid to kidnap Iranian security officials sparked a diplomatic crisis

Richard Horton, The Guardian, March 28, 2007
A monstrous crime
With more than 650,000 civilians dead in Iraq, our government must take responsibility for its lies, says the editor of The Lancet.

Phyllis Bennis, The Transnational Institute, March 26, 2007
Occupation funding: Opposing the Iraq Supplemental
The Iraq Supplemental bill currently passing through the US Congress is not an anti-war measure. It continues to fund the occupation, makes concessions on Iraq’s oil law and on US bases, exempts thousands of troops from actual withdral by August 2008...

Valerio Pellizari,
International Herald Tribune, March 15, 2007
NATO repeats Moscow's mistakes in Afghanistan
Just one generation after the failed Soviet example, the Western presence in Afghanistan is tilting towards chaos, largely because the lessons of history, culture and modern warfare are being ignored.

Andrew Stephen, New Statesman,
March 12, 2007
Iraq: The hidden cost of the war
America won't simply be paying with its dead. The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion.

Frida Berrigan, FPIF and AlterNet,
March 8, 2007
The US nuclear hypocrisy
The contradictions between what the administration is demanding of Tehran and other powers, and the nuclear capabilities it is pursuing for its own arsenal, are provocative and dangerous.

Frank Barnaby, Oxford Research Group,
BBC March 5, 2007
Report warns against Iran attack
Military strikes against Iran could speed Tehran's development of nuclear weapons

Ira Chernus, Asia Times, March 3, 2007
Beware the Iraqi boomerang
The Iraqi syndrom is headed America's way...

George Lakoff, ICH, March 1, 2007
The words none dare say: Nuclear war
A familiar means of denying a reality is to refuse to use the words that describe that reality. A common form of propaganda is to keep reality from being described.

Dennis Kucinich, Democrat Ohio
HR 1234: To end the United States occupation of Iraq immediately
Probably the most important policy document for the future. Much more constructive than all the critics together. His proposal should win worldwide support, says Jan Oberg.
See also his eminent My plan for Iraq.

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, February 28, 2007
The Iraqi oil grab is a done deal
But there was not much to be debated. The law was in essence drafted, behind locked doors, by a US consulting firm hired by the Bush administration and then carefully retouched by Big Oil, the International Monetary Fund, former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz' World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development. It's virtually a US law (its original language is English, not Arabic).

Dan Plesch, New Statesman,
February 18, 200
Iran - Ready to attack, American preparations for invading Iran are complete.
American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day. They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons.

Robert Dreyfuss, Washington Monthly, February 19, 2007.
Leaving Iraq: Apocalypse Not
Much of Washington assumes that withdrawing from Iraq will lead to a bigger bloodbath. We need to question that assumption.

Phyllis Bennis, The Transnational Institute & Institute for Policy Studies, February 15, 2007
Escalating Threats of U.S. Attacks Against Iran
A comprehensive, well-documented analysis of the issues and, remarkably, an excellent plan for what peace people must now do.

Jad Mouawad, IHT, February 12, 2007
An excess of problems for Iranian energy
Fall in oil production may lead to gasoline shortfall and protests. Read it to understand what the main issue is from the Iranian angle.

Ray McGovern, ICH, February 12, 2007
Wake up! The next war is coming
A shattering account of the former CIA analyst

Javad Zarif, Iran's UN Ambassador, New York Times, February 8, 2007
How not to inflame Iraq

Gwynne Dyer, New Zealand Herald,
February 8, 2007
Chirac's nuclear talk fall out
"[Iran] having one [bomb], or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that's not very dangerous."

Diana Johnstone, CountePunch, February 6
Pre-Emptive Strike Against Chirac
Frenzy in France Over "Iranian Threat"
Simply one of the most important articles on the West-Iran issue, says Jan Oberg.

Michael Howard, The Guardian
February 6, 2007
Children of war: The generation traumatised by violence in Iraq
A truly heart-breaking report.

Adam Elkus, FPIF, February 6, 2007
Surging Right Into Bin Laden's Hands
Al-Qaida hopes to repeat bin Laden’s victory over the Soviet empire in Afghanistan by eliminating the chief obstacle in the way of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. Osama bin Laden wants to provoke the United States into destroying itself. And it works...

Independent Jewish Voices,
February 6, 2007
A time to speak out
A new network of individuals who wish to have a platform for critical debate on major political questions, the situation in the Middle East in particular.

Patrick Cockburn, Counterpunch,
February 6, 2007
Iraqis on the run
One of the greatest man-made disasters is taking place

Paul Rogers, New Democracy,
February 6, 2007
The United States and Iran: the logic of war.
The Bush administrations's hardline rhetoric, backed by more military hardware in the Persian Gulf, brings a devastating confrontation nearer.

John Pilger, New Statesman,
February 6, 2007
Iran: War is coming

BBC February 5, 2007
Iran strike 'would be disastrous'
A coalition of charities, faith groups and unions has warned Tony Blair that any military action against Iran would have "unthinkable" consequences.

BBC February 5, 2007
Grassroots worries growing over Iran

Barry Lando, Democracy Now, February 1, 2007
"The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, From Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush"
I think what they owe Iraq is to stop trying to tell the Iraqis what to do, to stop interfering in the politics of that country. The problem is that they've destroyed the country, too.

Jerusalem Post, January 29, 2007
Experts: US-Iran tensions could trigger accidental war
Tensions between the United States and Iran have risen to the point where a war could be kicked off by mistake, an outcome that neither Tehran nor Washington wants, US military officials and private analysts say.

James Glanz, New York Times
January 29, 2007
Iranian reveals plan to expand role in Iraq

Mark Weisbrot and Robert Naiman, The Huffington Post
Arash Norouzi Explains the "Wiped Off the Map" Controversy - What Iran's President Never Said
Several useful sources, including Juan Cole.

Michael Carmichael, GlobalResearch, January 26, 2007
Israel’s plans to wage nuclear war on Iran: History of Israel's nuclear arsenal
Hundreds of nuclear warheads under the control of Israel's defense establishment.

Associated Press, January 23, 2007
U.S. warns Iran to back off in Persian Gulf
A U.S. State Department official ruled out talks with Iran and said Tuesday that a second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Tehran not to challenge America.

Alexander Cockburn
Counterpunch, January 21, 2007
First bomb Carter; then nuke Iran

Sam Gardiner, The Left Coaster
The other surge - Update on Iran

Jimmy Carter, ICH, January 19, 2007
A new chance for peace?

Barry Lando, ICH - ideo, 5 min
Western Complicity in the Halabja Massacre
Shocking clip from a French documentary exposing how governments and corporations in the west knowingly aided and abetted Saddam's most ruthless crimes.

Christian Science Monitor
January 18, 2007
Saudi Arabia casts wary eye on its Shiites
With a Sunni-Shiite cold war descending on the Middle East, Saudi Arabia appears to be hardening its sectarian battle lines.

Nazila Fathi, International Herald Tribune, January 18, 2007
Ahmadinejad under pressure at home over UN sanctions

Sam Gardiner, Counterpunch
January 16, 2007
Escalation against Iran

Arab Times, January 14, 2007
US military strike on Iran seen by April ’07; Sea-launched attack to hit oil, N-sites

Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch,
January 14, 2007
Is Energo-fascism in your future?
The Global Energy Race and Its Consequences (Part 1)
Petro-power and the nuclear renaissance
Two Faces of an Emerging Energo-fascism (Part II)

Aljazeera, January 14, 2007
Chavez and Iran unveil anti-US fund

Amira Hass, Haaretz, January 12, 2007
Can you really not see?
Historians and mathematicians, senior editors, media stars, psychologists and family doctors, lawyers who do not support Gush Emunim and Kadima, teachers and educators, lovers of hiking trails and sing-alongs, high-tech wizards. Where are you? And what about you, researchers of Nazism, the Holocaust and Soviet gulags? Could you all be in favor of systematic discriminating laws?

Ismael Hossein-zadeh GlobalResearch.ca, January 12, 2007
Why the US Is Not Leaving Iraq: The Booming Business of War Profiteers

Stephen Zunes, FPIF, January 11, 2007
Annotate This: Escalation in Iraq
George W. Bush' January 10 speech about a new strategy in Iraq.

Chris Floyd, Information Clearing House, January 10, 2007
Bush surge aimed at securing Iraqi oil

Robert Parry, Information Clearing House, January 10, 2007
Bush's rush to Armageddon
Bush has purged senior military and intelligence officials who were obstacles to a wider war in the Middle East, broadening his options for both escalating the conflict inside Iraq and expanding the fighting to Iran and Syria with Israel’s help.

Paul de Rooij, Dissident Voice,
January 10, 2007
The military death toll while enforcing the occupation of Iraq
Data sheet of US-UK military fatalities post-May 1, 2003

Dennis Kucinich, January 8, 2007
My plan for Iraq
Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, declaring that the U.S. Congress has a co-equal role and responsibility in ending the war in Iraq, today laid out a comprehensive 12-point plan to withdraw American forces and contractors, establish a U.N. peacekeeping force, convene a regional conference to assist in stabilization, and provide funding for reconstruction, jobs, and reparations.

Barry Lando, AlterNet, January 8, 2007
100,000 mercenaries, the forgotten "Surge"
The number of American forces in Iraq is not 140,000, but more like 240,000.

Dahr Jamail, January 8, 2007 at FPIF
Managing Escalation: Negroponte and Bush's New Iraq Team

Financial Times, January 7, 2007
US twists civilian arms to fill Fortress Baghdad
Details about history's largest embassy, six times larger than the UN compound in New York.

The Independent, January 7, 2007
Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's most precious commodity
The 'Independent on Sunday' today reveals a draft for a new law that would give Western oil companies a massive share in the third largest reserves in the world. To the victors, the oil? That is how some experts view this unprecedented arrangement with a major Middle East oil producer that guarantees investors huge profits for the next 30 years.

The Sunday Times, January 7, 2007
Revealed: Israel plans nuclear attack on Iran

Roger Howard, January 4, 2007 at FPIF
Time to lift Iran's sanctions

Peace ideas

The Millennium Project.
Global Futures Studies & Research
American Council for the UN University
Three Middle East Peace scenarios
These three normative scenarios provide new stories for the Middle East intended to stimulate and be a resource for new discussions and actions for peace.

Just Vision
Stories of more Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders
"If you lost your loved ones to violence, if you spent ten years in prison, if conflict drove you from your home... Would you seek revenge? Or struggle for peace? A true story about the everyday leaders who refuse to sit back as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalates."

Useful links

Robert Fisk
The Independent

Juan Cole
Informed Comment on the Middle East, History and Religion

Stephen Zunes
Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco

Global Issues
Anup Shah's excellent collection of links concerning Iran

PDA - Project on
Defence Alternatives
Confronting Iraq - Critical perspectives on the current crisis, origin and implications - link collection

Foreign Policy in Focus - FPIF - IRAQ Focus
A very remarkable collection of articles covering the entire period 1996 till today

Phyllis Bennis -
End the Occupation
Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.
If you wonder "Why is there violence in the Middle East?" or "Why is the current level of violence so intense?"—this primer is for you.
Using easy-to-understand and straight-forward language, this new updated edition includes an analysis of the "road map" to peace.

If AmericansKnew.org
If Americans - and the rest of us in the West knew..about the Israeli-Palestine conflict
And how misleading the media coverage generally is. All the facts with documentation and sources.

2006

Robert Fisk, The Independent
December 30, 2006
A dictator created then destroyed by the America

Philip Sherwell, The Telegraph, December 5, 2006
The Saudis and Iran prepare to do battle over corpse of Iraq

Frank Rich, NYT/Information Clearing House, December 4, 2006
Has he started talking to the walls?

Eric Margolis, Kaleej Times, December 3, 2006
End is near in Babylon

Paul Craig Roberts, Information Clearing House, December 2, 2006
Is President Bush sane?

ICH, November 29, 2006
President Ahmadinejad's letter to the American people

Jonathan Cook, ICH, August 31, 200
Israel's deceptions as a way of life.

Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, August 13, 2006
Watching Lebanon. Washington's interests in Israel's war
"President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah's heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground."
Hersh has done it - again!

Stephen Zunes, FPIF, August 21, 2006
How Washington goaded Israel

John Feffer, FPIF,
August 14, 2006
Islam's Two Faces?

Robert Fisk, The Independent, August 5, 2006
A terrible thought occurs to me - that there will be another 9/11
Is it to be like this every day? How many civilians can you make homeless before you start a revolution? And what is next? Are the Israelis to bomb the centre of Beirut? The Corniche? Is this why all the foreign warships came and took their citizens away, to make Beirut safe to destroy?

Civil resistance in Lebanon
Civilian Resistance: Call For Action & Solidarity For Lebanon
"We, the people of Lebanon, call upon the local and international community to join a campaign of civil resistance to Israel's war against our country and our people. We declare Lebanon an open country for civil resistance."

Anup Shah, Global Issues, August 1,2006
Crisis in Lebanon
A superb link collection to the present crisis with easy access to yet other link collections to the rest of the Middle East. Go there!

Robert Fisk, SeattlePost-Intelligencer (Washington) , July 23, 2006
The empire leaves Beirut to burn
A deeply personal and moving account of the historical and contemporary suffering of the city the author has lived in and loved for 30 years.

Meg Bortin International Herald Tribune,
June 22, 2006
For Muslims and the West, antipathy and mistrust
Westerners and Muslims around the world have radically different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant, and lacking respect for women, according to a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations.

Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker, April 10, 2006
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
Probably the most well-researched and well-argued analysis telling you how dangerous the situation is and why the window of opportunity is now. Hersh also highlights how the Bush administration discusses whether or not to use nuclear weapons. As they say: if you read only one article about the conflict with Iran, this should be it.

From Global Issues, April 6, 2006
The Iraq Crisis - the Effects of Sanctions
An incredible collection of all the relevant documents by a leading website on international affairs. We link to it here because the cruel sanctions that killed around 1 million Iraqis (and destroyed so much in former Yugoslavia too) must not be forgotten and because there is talk again about sanctions, this time against Iran. Sanctions is a Weapon of Mass Destruction and, as such, should never be used!

Uffe Geertsen, 6. april 2006
Irak, Danmark, Mærsk og medierne
Tre korte artikler af Uffe Geertsen, den første bragt i tidsskriftet SALT nr. 1, februar 2006. De er skrevet over nogle måneder og indeholder enkelte gentagelser når de læses i forlængelse af hinanden, men vi synes de er uhyre vigtige. Den danske regerings og de danske mediers demokratiske og etiske svigt må, som Geertsen så klart siger det, aldrig gå i glemmebogen.

Julie Dyer and Michel Tavir, March 16, 2006
Democratisation in the Middle East
Review of new book with many and varied contributions by Middle Eastern and Danish scholars, edited by Birgitte Rahbek. The best of the articles provide an insight into social and historical events that are seldom discussed in the Western media, and allow the reader to place current events in a both broader and deeper perspective. Warmly recommended as a balanced input at a time with rampant misunderstandings and polarization.
På dansk i samme dokument.

Farhang Jahanpour, March 16, 2006
The political repercussions of the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad
If we are not going to move towards a 'clash of civilisations', all of us must learn tolerance and forbearance. We live in a pluralistic world with ever increasing ease of communication. If we want to avoid constant war and bloodshed in this 'global village' we must learn to accept that others have views different from ours, and are free to express them. After all, God and the prophets can take care of themselves and can accommodate childish insults.

Martin Garbus, Huffington Post - ICH, December 16, 2005
An incredible day in America
First, the United States has legitimized torture and secondly, the President has admitted to an impeachable offense. The New York Times article about spying on Americans here.