Links for March 16th
Links from my del.icio.us account for March 16th:
- Freeman Explains His Intelligence Post Withdrawal : NPR - Chas Freeman interviewed on NPR.
- Informed Comment: Did Schumer and Emanuel Sink Freeman? - Juan Cole: "Israeli Apartheid will continue unabated under Obama."
- Sic Semper Tyrannis : Freeman speaks out on his exit - "It is apparent that we Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public discussion or exercise independent judgment about matters of great importance to our country as well as to our allies and friends."
- Egyptian chronicles: The Sawiris Clan in the Forbes 2009 World's billionaires - The Sawiris brothers tumble in the most-rich list. I remember Naguib once was #63, now he is 205 and his brother Nassef is nine places ahead.
- I Just Can't Wait to Be King - Forbes.com - On al-Waleed bin Talal, who just lost $8bn and slipped out of the top 20 billionaires' list.
- Did Cheney Run a Murder-on-demand Program?—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) - Surely not. He's a nice guy.
- Buying Time with Iran: The F-22 Fighter - Lobby outfit WINEP fantasizes about what it could do with the F-22, the most insanely expensive jet fighter ever (in age of guerrilla warfare), and advocates transfering this bleeding edge technology to Israel (which has not contributed to its R&D) because they could use it to bomb bomb bomb Iran. Has there ever been a more delightful marriage of Zionism and the military industrial complex?
- Israel’s war crimes - Le Monde diplomatique - English edition - Richard Falk.
- Rêves contrariés à Dubaï, par Samir Aita (Le Monde diplomatique) - Gulf markets lose 50% of value in six months, Dubai real estate plummets by 70%.
- The Magnes Zionist: Traub on Khalidi in Today’s NY Times - Very good post on a NYT review of Rashid Khalidi's new book on America's Middle East imperium. The reviewer says Khalidi ignores the Arab role in the dismal situation of the Arab world, thus showing anti-Western bias. That would be completely ignoring, for example, Khalidi's "The Iron Cage" which goes on at depressing lengths about crappy Palestinian leadership.
- Netanyahu signs coalition accord with far-right - Lieberman to be foreign minister. Every country in the world should refuse to meet with him and treat him like Austria's Jorg Haider was treated. OK now back to reality: he will be in Sharm al-Sheikh within weeks.
- Egypt said planning to invite Netanyahu for official visit - Haaretz - Israel News - I wouldn't be so sure, but then again considering Egypt's tolerance for murderous Israeli leaders in recent years I wouldn't be surprised either.