"Iran is important, Iran is dangerous, Iran is urgent, and we have no choice but to deal with Iran, despite the negatives," Frank G. Wisner II, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, told the committee. "In short, if we're to make any progress with the questions that we face in Iraq, Afghanistan, with the nuclear questions, energy issues, Israel-Palestine, we have to be able to take Iran into account and deal with it."
Group items tagged
Pressure grows on Obama to engage Iran directly | McClatchy Washington Bureau - 0 views
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"To the extent that we are lessening Iran's commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for a missile defense system,"
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"Regime change is a wish, not a strategy," Haass said. "We need to have a strategy."
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McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Jerusalem - 0 views
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"We chose the medium of animation to try to get viewers to recognize the humanity of the residents of Gaza,"
Israeli soldiers say army rabbis framed Gaza as religious war | McClatchy - 0 views
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Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and "get rid of the gentiles" — effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza.
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Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem thinks that the public release of the testimony helped spur the investigation. "There have been many cases where we have asked the advocate general to look into cases, and they drag their feet until it gets into the media."
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It is to the great credit of Israel's civil society that issues like this can be aired and investigated. Disturbing questions raised about the IDF's conduct - but they can be raised without people being 'disappeared' for voicing their concerns.
McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Jerusalem - 0 views
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Sounds like a fun book.
WASHINGTON: Study finds bias in Internet postings about Syria's civil war | Syria | McC... - 1 views
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After reviewing more than 38 million Twitter posts about the Syrian conflict, a team of Middle East scholars from The George Washington University and American University concluded that rather than an objective account of what’s taken place, social media posts have been carefully curated to represent a specific view of the war. It said the skewing of the social media view of the conflict has been amplified by the way more traditional news outlets make use of the postings – for example, passing along social media posts written in English over those written in Arabic. The analysts studied tweets that mentioned Syria in English or Arabic from the start of 2011 through April 2013. They then analyzed how “traditional” forms of media, such as newspapers, used social media to supplement their coverage of the conflict.
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Because journalists were largely unable to get direct access to the events in Syria at the start of the conflict, many relied on “citizen journalism,” or accounts from Syrians who said they’d witnessed events firsthand, often posted on social media, said Marc Lynch
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as the uprising continued, tweets in Arabic began to dramatically outpace tweets in English. From January 2011 to June 2011, English-language tweets were most common, but Arabic tweets made up almost 75 percent of all tweets about Syria just a year later.
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Iraqi lawmaker disputes claims that he ordered attacks | McClatchy Washington Bureau - 0 views
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An Iraqi lawmaker on Monday blasted accusations that he'd ordered mafia-like murders, charging that the case was politically motivated because of his hard-line stance on human rights issues.
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The bombing exposed how much the heavily guarded Green Zone — then under U.S. military control — was still vulnerable to attacks.
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He said that the accusations were part of a political attack because of his advocacy on human rights
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McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Jerusalem - 0 views
U.S. Army captain learning new skills in war-torn Afghanistan | McClatchy Washington Bu... - 0 views
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U.S. Army Capt. Matthew Crowe trained to obliterate distant foes with high-explosive shellfire. But in this mud-washed, mountain-framed provincial capital in eastern Afghanistan, he is learning to be a diplomat, urban planner, construction manager, humanitarian worker and politician.
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There was virtually no Taliban presence in Maydan Shahr until last year. Insurgent leaders believed to be wintering in Pakistan's nearby tribal region have been recruiting among the area's dominant Pashtun ethnic group. Even some senior city officials are now said to support the guerrillas, who often target public workers.
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"I want to focus on Maydan Shahr," he said, "because it becomes a very visible sign of how we are here to help."
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Public diplomacy - the visibility of deeds
McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Jerusalem - 0 views
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It's not clear if the anonymous official is just letting off steam, trying to push back, or stating evolving policy.
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Which is, of course, a major problem with officials spouting anonymously. On the other hand, ambiguity can be politically useful.
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And Israeli security officials have directed Israeli airlines not to fly to the Turkish resort city of Antalya because local authorities there aren't allowing armed Israeli security to enter. Antalya's tourism industry, which relies heavily on Israeli visitors, is trying to entice Israeli tourists by offering special deals.
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Sounds like something out of one of my WWE shows. The intensity, the passion, the soap opera like dynamics. Surely, they can settle their differences within the squared circle. Or, perhaps not.
McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Jerusalem - 1 views
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Is this a smart move by Israel?
Bahraini police taking aim at reporters, teachers | McClatchy - 0 views
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After severely curbing news coverage of its crackdown on opposition groups by foreign reporters, Bahraini authorities have begun an assault on local journalists working for international news agencies — with arrests, beatings and, apparently in one instance, electric shock.
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Besides ousting the editors of the only independent daily newspaper, Al Wasat, the authorities have arrested local reporters and photographers and expelled the only resident foreign reporter, who worked for the Reuters news agency. Most foreign news reporters, including this one, have been prevented from entering Bahrain.
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The intimidation campaign appears to be focused on teachers, who report that as many as 30 elementary and secondary school teachers are taken from their classrooms at a time and driven to police stations where they are subjected to hours of verbal and physical abuse before being released.
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with allies like these, who needs enemies?