The Arab American News
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Local attorney Attalla acquitted in federal court
November 22nd, 20100 After just under 18 months of waiting, hoping, and fighting the biggest legal battle of his life, local attorney Hatim "Tim" Attalla received the most welcome verdict of his 22-year career when he was acquitted of a drug conspiracy charge in federal court in Detroit on the afternoon of Monday, November 15. TIM ATTALLAThis time...
Lebanon’s 67th Independence Day celebrated
November 22nd, 20100 DEARBORN — International superstar Assi El-Helani was awarded with a certificate of appreciation from the Lebanese American Heritage Club at the LAHC's Anniversary and Independence Day reception on Wednesday, November 17. "Back then in the 80s, the only people who used to gather the community together were the pop singers," said LAHC...
Political prisoners in America
November 22nd, 20100 U.S. activists face new repression as political prisoners fight for justice For decades the United States government has attempted to criminalize work in the Palestinian community in support of their national liberation cause. But in recent years this repression has increased dramatically. The Electronic Intifada spoke with the...
Health and privacy concerns dog airport body scanners
November 22nd, 20100 NEW YORK (IPS) – Privacy advocates called on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Tuesday to end its controversial new initiative of whole-body scans and enhanced pat-downs of airline passengers, calling the program "dangerous to health, ineffective and unconstitutional." Led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, a...New America Media celebrates 40th anniversary
SAN FRANCISCO — Over 400 people attended the Anniversary Reunion Party of Pacific News Service/New America Media to honor four decades of alumni of PNS and NAM and their youth programs. The party, marking a coming together of old and new — a "media fusion" as one guest called it — as journalists from the first two decades heard...Arab poet: Empowered women build nations
When the Egyptian poet Hafiz Ibrahim declared that "the mother is a school; empowering her is nation building," she expressed a dream: if women were offered the social and economic opportunities they deserve, they would build strong nations. Do poets today provoke the conscience of society as they did in the past? For several...AIPAC officials admit lack of policy on classified info, porn viewed in office
WASHINGTON (JTA) — AIPAC officials acknowledged in depositions that the organization only recently adopted a stated policy forbidding the receipt of classified information. The depositions also produced claims regarding the viewing of pornographic materials on office computers. The depositions are part of a brief filed earlier this...American Muslims foil terror threats
NEW YORK — A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that American Muslim communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since Sep. 11, 2001. The report comes from the Muslim...Multi-billion-dollar arms deals could haunt U.S.
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) — When the Shah of Iran, a strongly pro-U.S. ally, was ousted from power after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the stridently anti-U.S. regime of Ayatollah Khomeini that captured power also inherited a military bonanza: billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art weapons provided by the United States. The U.S....Iraqi kids struggle on dangerous edges
DAMASCUS (IPS) — Leila, 17, presses her hijab-clad head against the front door and strains to hear outside. "There's nothing," she says cautiously, turning towards her mother Rawda, the head of the household, in their quiet basement apartment. Along the brocade couch sit her two sisters, Mona, 19, Nadja, 15, and 10-year-old brother...
Protesting religious cleansing in Iraq
November 15th, 20100 Detroit protest urges U.S. and Iraqi governments to stop massacres of Christians Iraqi Christians express solidarity with the victims of the recent Baghdad church raid during a protest outside the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit. PHOTOS: Natasha Dado/TAANDETROIT — Hundreds protested outside the McNamara Federal...Religious harmony existed before Iraq invasion
One day before we went to press this week, a spate of early morning bomb and mortar attacks on homes of Christians in Baghdad left at least three people dead and 26 wounded, according to an interior ministry official. The day before that, three homes in the Mansur district of western Baghdad belonging to Christians were firebombed...
Lebanese superstar Assi El Helani given key to Dearborn, honored at UM-Ann Arbor
November 14th, 20100 Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly giving El Helani the key to the city at his office at city hall.DEARBORN — Lebanese superstar singer and philanthropist Assi El El helani continued his tour of southeast Michigan on Monday, November 8 with a visit to Dearborn City Hall. The 39-year-old native of Baalbeck, Lebanon, whose son...Egypt cracks down as U.S. stands by
NEW YORK — In the face of police brutality, crackdowns on political parties and media, and a host of other violations ahead of Egypt's Nov. 28 parliamentary election, human rights advocates are calling on President Barack Obama to use U.S. leverage to persuade Egypt to reform its electoral process, allow international monitors to...Finkelstein stokes discussion at HFCC
Internationally-known author and scholar Norman Finkelstein spoke at HFCC on Tuesday, Nov. 9. PHOTOS: Tariq Abdel-Wahid/TAANDEARBORN — Henry Ford Community College wrapped up its seven-day "Middle Eastern Visions II" film festival on Tuesday, November 9 with a second screening of "American Radical: The Trials of Norman......
New airport pat-downs called invasive, humiliating
WASHINGTON — CAIR this week issued a travel advisory for airline passengers who may be subjected to new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "enhanced pat-downs" that many of those who undergo the procedure describe as invasive and humiliating. The advisory comes after two of the nation's largest pilots' unions urged...Bazzy to replace Darany on council come January
DEARBORN — Local businessman David Bazzy is expected to fill the vacant seat of former Dearborn City Councilman Democrat George Darany, who defeated city council member Suzanne Sareini of the Republican Party in the race for 15th District State Representative. Bazzy was in line to pick up the vacant seat of the winner. He is last...Corrie, Said’s legacies celebrated at MPT event
DEARBORN - The Lansing-based Michigan Peace Team in partnership with the Palestine Cultural Office held its 2010 signature event entitled "Living Justice: Celebrating the Life & Work of Edward Said and Rachel Corrie" on Friday, November 5 at Greenfield Manor in Dearborn in front of a sold-out crowd honoring the two legendary...Netanyahu pounds war drums
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Less than a week after Republicans made major gains in the U.S. midterm elections, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called on President Barack Obama to "create a credible threat of military action" against Iran. Initial official reaction was negative, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates insisting that......
Iraqi MPs vote in new government
Iraqi politicians have broken an eight-month political impasse by agreeing to take part in a new unity government headed by the incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition, which had been opposing al-Maliki's continuation in power, has decided to join his government. "This is a great victory for Iraqi...From Balfour to Obama
On November 2, 1917, Lord Arthur Balfour, the then British foreign secretary, promised to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Known as the Balfour Declaration, the document became the first stepping stone towards the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. Palestine was still under Ottoman rule when it was written. But......
Behind drone issue in Yemen, a struggle to control covert ops
WASHINGTON — The drone war that has been anticipated in Yemen for the last few months has been delayed by the failure of U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) to generate usable intelligence on al Qaeda there. That failure has given the CIA a new argument for wresting control of the drone war in Yemen from the Joint Special Operations...Two Arab Americans inducted into Heritage Hall of Fame
DETROIT — On Tuesday, November, 9, 2010, Wassim Mahfouz, executive director of the Lebanese American Heritage Club and executive assistant to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, and and Fr. George Shalhoub, religious leader at the Basilica of St. Mary in Livonia.were inducted into the Heritage Hall of Fame with four other community......