Tag Archives: Shia

Calls Mount for Release of Saudi Woman Facing 34 Years in Prison Over Tweets

Leave a reply

The United Nations human rights office urged Saudi authorities to quash Salma al-Shehab’s conviction and “release her immediately and unconditionally,” arguing that “she should never have been arrested and charged in the first place for such conduct.”

By Jessica Corbett  Published 8-20-2022 by Common Dreams

Salma Al-Shehab, a 34-year-old graduate student and mother of two, faces 34 years in prison for tweets critical of the Saudi monarchy. (Photo: European Saudi Organization for Human Rights/Twitter)

Human rights advocates around the world this week called on Saudi Arabia to free Salma al-Shehab after she was sentenced to 34 years in prison and a 34-year travel ban for tweets criticizing the kingdom’s repression of women.

Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Friday that “we are appalled by the sentencing” of al-Shehab, a 34-year-old mother and graduate student in the United Kingdom. Continue reading →

Share Button

Afghans left to pick up the pieces of the West’s failed war

Leave a reply

As the Taliban rapidly expand in the shadow of US and NATO allies’ retreat, has anyone considered the impact on innocent civilians?

By Paul Rogers.  Published 7-3-2021 by openDemocracy

Photo: Piqsels

Military leaders in the United States and Britain, as well as allied countries, now accept that they have lost their war with the Taliban.

When US President Joe Biden confirmed his predecessor Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, this was tacit acceptance of a position that is rarely stated so bluntly in public. Although General Austin S Miller, the US commander in Afghanistan, came close this week when he admitted it was worrisome that as his troops pull out, there has been a rapid loss of districts throughout the country to the Taliban. Continue reading →

Share Button

Failed US Policy in the Middle East

Leave a reply

By Ellen Rosser. Published 2-29-2016 by Common Dreams

(Photo: Mark Holloway/flickr/cc.)

(Photo: Mark Holloway/flickr/cc.)

The United States has been involved in the Middle East for almost one hundred years because of the vast oil reserves there, and the US has been militarily involved since 1967, when the US began supplying Israel with weapons with which to defend itself. However, the US has only been involved in the “quagmire” of Middle East wars since 2001. Continue reading →

Share Button

Deaths Reported as MSF-Linked Hospital Bombed in Yemen

Leave a reply

The medical charity said it ‘cannot confirm’ attacker but noted the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for the two other air strikes in last three months

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-10-2016

Photo: Gordon Zammit [GFDL 1.2] via Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Gordon Zammit [GFDL 1.2] via Wikimedia Commons

A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-supported hospital in northern Yemen was bombed Sunday morning, killing at least four people and wounding eleven—marking the third attack in as many months against a facility associated with the medical charity.

MSF said in a statement that it “cannot confirm the origin of the attack” on the Shiara Hospital, which is located in the Razeh district. But the organization noted that “planes were seen flying over the facility at the time.”  Continue reading →

Share Button

Growing Support in America for a Ground War in Iraq: Why a Sequel is a Worse Idea than the Original

Leave a reply

If you are a regular reader of ours, you are fully aware of our verbose writings regarding Iraq, America’s involvement in the 2003 invasion, our steadfast support of Peshmerga forces and belief in a free and independent Kurdistan, and our disdain of US contractors pilfering the peoples of Iraq to profit from the spoils of an illegal war.

Baghdad on May 28, 2015. Photo via Twitter

Baghdad on May 28, 2015. Photo via Twitter

So it should come as no surprise that we now are horrified to see a growing support for going back into Iraq to “help defeat ISIS.” But we are not alone in our view. In an article published in August, 2014 via The Diplomat, in a piece titled “Iran Didn’t Create ISIS; We Did,” Ben Reynolds write: Continue reading →

Share Button