Instruments of Empire Hugh Wilford, The CIA: An Imperial History: Basic Books: New York 2024 Reviewed by Ed McNally In the historiographical field of intelligence studies, ideological blinkers abound. The standard account in the American case is that the democratic mandate which brought the Central Intelligence Agency into being through the 1947 National Security Act… Read More The CIA: An Imperial History
We conclude that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including mass killing, arbitrary detention and torture, meets the legal threshold for the term… Israel has now killed more than 52,000 Palestinians in its attack on Gaza, an estimated 15,000 of whom are children. In 2024, we co-authored a report concluding that Israel’s actions met the international definition of genocide. On Thursday, we issued… Read More We are human rights lawyers. Our new report is clear: Israel perpetrates apartheid
Speaking to The Wire, Ali Khan Mahmudabad said he had been misquoted by legacy media and denied deleting any posts. He has described the notice as a new form of censorship. New Delhi: The Haryana State Commission For Women on May 12 summoned Ali Khan Mahmudabad, head of the political science department at Ashoka University, over remarks… Read More ‘Inverted the Meaning, Invented an Issue’: Professor on Women’s Panel’s summons
Yousef Al-Bayouk weeps over his brothers, Moath and Moataz, who were killed in Israeli strikes, as mourners attend their funeral at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters what about Gaza? What about its sacrifice? How have we reached a situation in which no Zionist politician can come out in its defense? Not one righteous… Read More Israel’s New Gaza Operation Should Be Called ‘Chariots of Genocide’
NB: May 15 is the eighteenth anniversary of my father’s passage into eternity. He died in the Research and Referral Military Hospital in Delhi on this day in 2007; and was given a military funeral at the Army cremation grounds. Scores of his old students, many of them senior military and service officers were present… Read More Street Cafe
NB: Dr Mobarak Haider is a historian, writer and public intellectual. Here he writes about a very public tragedy. His capacity to speak unpleasant truths about his own society is to be appreciated. DS First posted February 05, 2013 War is a tragedy but a society at war with itself and everything around, with no objective… Read More Mobarak Haider: A society at war with itself
Six-month-old Palestinian girl’s painfully emaciated body symbolised starvation in Gaza Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Julian Borger Siwar Ashour, born in November, has only known war. Her mother, Najwa Aram, 23, gave birth in the one surviving room of a house that was otherwise destroyed and which 11 other people were sharing. Photograph: Doaa Albaz / Anadolu/Getty… Read More A picture that shocked the world: the story behind baby Siwar Ashour
Who saved israel in 1947? The usual answer is Truman—but it could just as easily be Stalin A truck with the faces of Soviet Communist leaders Lenin and Stalin stuck to it, at the labor day (1 may 1949) parade held in Tel Aviv. Wikipedia Commons NB: On 29 November 1947, the partition plan for… Read More Stalin, the USSR and Israel: 1947-49 (2017)
As drones and missiles shoot across borders, it’s worth thinking of Pahalgam as a cautionary tale. The final destination of majoritarianism is the complete dehumanisation of the Other Mukul Kesavan The residents’ association’s WhatsApp group was alive with information about mock drills and blackouts. This was gleaned from notices sent to condominiums in distant Gurgaon… Read More Noises off
Mawadda Iskandar / The Cradle In a major recalibration of its year-long Red Sea military campaign, the US has agreed to a ceasefire with Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces, brokered by Oman. After months of escalating attacks under the guise of “protecting international shipping,” Washington now finds itself calling time on a conflict it launched – but failed… Read More US Ceasefire in Yemen: Retreat Masquerading as Restraint
After the truth-shower 