The Arab American News
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Vested interests drove new Pakistan policy
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The George W. Bush administration's decision to launch commando raids and step up missiles strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda figures in the tribal areas of Pakistan followed what appears to have been the most contentious policy process over the use of force in Bush's eight-year presidency. That decision has...
New police chief named for Detroit
September 19th, 20080 DETROIT — Incoming Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel announced James Barren, a psychologist and counter-terrorism expert who has spent time training Iraqi police, as the city's new chief of police. Barren, who spent 31 years on the force before his retirement four years ago, replaces former Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, who retired...The Syria-Israel peace gambit
Few would argue that the indirect Israel-Syria talks through Turkish mediation, which were first announced 21 May, were a sign of political maturity and readiness for peace. In fact, while the discussions seemed concerned with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and Israel's desire for security at its northern borders, the true...Boycott group: McCartney embraces Israeli apartheid
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) says it regrets Paul McCartney's insistence on going ahead with his September 25th gig in Israel despite many appeals to him to cancel it due to Israel's crimes against the Palestinians, particularly its current brutally devastating siege of 1.5 million...Arab women artists create “Utopian Visions”
DEARBORN — Have you ever dreamed of a better, more perfect world? The word "utopia" represents a grand vision for an ideal society, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. This imaginative concept reflects the human desire for civic improvement and perfection. In Utopian Visions, running from...To hell and back
It was one of the worst killing sprees of the twentieth century. The actual number is still in dispute, but as many as 3,000 unarmed men, women and children of the Sabra/Shatila refugee camps in west Beirut were systematically slaughtered by Lebanese Christian militiamen with Israeli help for the crime of being Palestinian. The...The license to target Islam
The late Reverend Jerry Falwell's comment about the "impersonal" God of Islam is a dramatic example of televangelical deviation from ethics of interfaith dialogue. Pope Benedict's unfortunate lecture on Islam and reason illustrates the characteristically condescending stance of the church on the faith of Mohammad. President Bush's...
Car bomb, ambush at U.S. Embassy in Yemen, 16 dead
September 19th, 20080 SAN'A — Attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb assaulted the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday. Sixteen people were killed, including six assailants, officials said. The U.S. said no Americans were hurt. Multiple explosions rang out outside the...Tzipi Livni needs three things
Here's one major difference between Tzipi Livni, the new leader of Israel's Kadima party, and her rivals for leadership: There are no war crime charges against her. In what must be a relief for some in Israel, Livni doesn't have to look over her shoulder in case she gets arrested when she gets off a plane overseas. Kadima...Israeli, Canadian water experts collaborate
Last month Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon and Efi Stenzler, head of the Jewish National Fund, returned from a visit to Manitoba with an agreement to share expertise. Manitoba experts will teach Israel about water conservation and Israeli experts will instruct Manitobans about water purification. Water is a major...Five ex-secretaries of state urge talks with Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — Five former secretaries of state, gathering to give their best advice to the next president, agreed Monday that the United States should talk to Iran. The wide-ranging, 90-minute session in a packed auditorium at The George Washington University, produced exceptional unity among Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell,...Bush’s war widens to Pakistan
The decision to make public a presidential order of last July authorizing American strikes inside Pakistan without seeking the approval of the Pakistani government ends a long debate within, and on the periphery of, the Bush administration. Senator Barack Obama, aware of this ongoing debate during his own long battle with Hillary...Slow Sunni integration could derail Iraq successes
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Amid reports that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has launched a campaign to disband the so-called Awakening Movement, or Sahwa, concerns among analysts and policy makers here is growing that such an effort could result in a resumption of sectarian violence, if not civil war. Only a...Teachers trapped between Fatah and Hamas
GAZA CITY (IPS) - A strike call has trapped thousands of teachers between Fatah unions and the Hamas government. The strike in Gaza called by the Palestine Teachers' Union — a non-elected body supported by the government of Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank — continues into its third week. Of...
Obama advisor stresses carrots over sticks
September 19th, 20080 DETROIT (IPS) — Dr. Susan Rice, senior foreign policy advisor to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, says the U.S. would make every effort to avoid resorting to a military attack on Iran under an Obama administration. Tough diplomacy would be used to curtail Iran's reach for nuclear capability instead of rushing to......
Michigan office sued over unlawful voter purging
DETROIT – Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging two statewide voter purge programs that could potentially disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters in advance of the November 2008 presidential...
Noted anti-Zionist to make appearance in Dearborn
September 19th, 20080 Dearborn — Norman Finklestein, the resilient former Depaul University professor who resigned after an all out attack from the right-wing propagandist attorney Alan Dershowitz, will address the Metro Detroit community in an event open to the public and the media on Friday, Sept. 26. The speaking engagement was scheduled by local...
Obama campaign meets with Arab Americans
September 12th, 20080 Arab Americans listen to a group of high-level Barack Obama presidential campaign figures in a meeting at a Southfield banquet hall Tuesday. SOUTHFIELD – High-level Barack Obama campaign figures met with a group of Arab Americans on Tuesday to discuss foreign and domestic policy issues in an effort to shore up support from a...
Flint police chief revokes gag rule in response to ACLU lawsuit
September 12th, 20080 DETROIT — Flint Police Chief David Dicks will rescind his controversial gag rule on police officer speech to the press in response to a free speech lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan on behalf of three police union leaders. "We hope that Chief Dicks' announcement signals a change of heart and......
Group vows to continue vigils for peace
September 12th, 20080 Growing up in what he described as a "conservative Jewish home," Henry Herskovitz was oblivious to the happenings in Palestine. But a conversation with a stranger in 1985 on the holiday of Yom Kippur wound up as a life-changer for the current social activist. "I remember him telling me that Israel had the fourth-largest...
Arab Americans attend state convention
September 12th, 20080 It's become a yearly trip for local Arab American Democrats, but with one of the most important elections in recent memory looming, this year's Michigan Democratic Convention seemed a little more important. The September 6 event in Lansing was deemed successful by Taleb Salhab, who is a member of the executive committee of the......
New water meters put an end to estimated bills
September 12th, 20080 DETROIT—Estimated water bills for Detroit residents are becoming a thing of the past, a concept that east side resident Nicola Singal finds reassuring. Singal recently had new, high tech water meter equipment installed in her home as part of the Detroit Water Automated Meter Reading (AMR) program, an initiative of the Detroit...
Gregg Brighton named Dearborn deputy police chief
September 12th, 20080 DEARBORN — Dearborn Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr., has selected Commander Gregg A. Brighton as deputy chief of the police department. In his new post, Brighton will oversee police department operations while the selection process continues to fill the post of Chief of Police, left vacant by Chief Michael Celeski's sudden passing on......
