Judging from this pair of articles from the Islamic Republic’s hardline, regime-friendly Kayhan newspaper, Iran’s ruling theocrats have determined to blame anyone but themselves for unrest that has so marred the recent presidential election in that country. In the first article, ‘Zionist-Run News Media’ are Wasting Their Time, the regime alleges that The New York Times and Washington Post, among others, have disproven allegations of vote-rigging in their own pages. The...

The ongoing battle in the streets of Iran isn’t the only political-religious clash going on. For Scientologists, perhaps the most pressing current conflict has been taking place in a Paris court. Seven French members of the group, the organization itself and its bookstore have been charged with organized group fraud and illegal use of pharmaceuticals. Scientology frames the case as a thinly-veiled attack on organized religion. According to this news account by Angelique Negroni of France’s...

Women assail government-funded militia as they beat a protester on the streets of Tehran, Saturday, June 20. While there is widespread global support for those battling for reform in Iran, it should surprise no one that even in the Arab/Sunni world, there is support for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his young apprentice, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For Saudi Arabia’s Dar al-Hayat, in a particularly visceral defense of the reigning Iranian regime, Mostafa Zein writes in part: “In Iran, the...

Are we watching the death throes of a decrepit and corrupt dictatorship – or the beginnings of a Persian-style Tienanmen? According to Jean-Claude Kiefer of France’s Les Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace, the mullahs that run the Islamic Republic are ‘doomed’ because openness to the outside is a mortal threat to the regime there – and as anyone who tweets can see – openness of one kind or another is in Iran to stay. For Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace, Jean-Claude...

Continuing with our coverage of the just-concluded trial against Scientology in France, this news item from Le Monde is in part made up of quotes from Scientology’s lead attorney, Patrick Maisonneuve, who sees the case as a cop-out on the part of prosecutors. While the charges against Scientology are for organized group fraud and the illegal use of pharmaceuticals, Maisonneuve says the real defendent in the case is religion writ large – and prosecutors simply lack the nerve to go after...

A newly-minted piece of commemorative cloth from Ghana, printed for President Obama’s first visit to the heart of Africa since taking office. Ghana’s gain is being seen as nearby Nigeria’s loss. Nigerian soul-searching over why Obama is skipping the oil-rich country is reaching a fever pitch. For Modern Ghana, Nigerian columnist Sola Odunfa writes of an encounter he had recently with a retired Nigerian diplomat, shattered by Obama’s decision to avoid oil and corruption-rich...

Continuing with our coverage of the Iranian election crisis as it impinges upon the United States, we present this article from the boldest publication on the Russian media firmament, Gazeta. This newspaper, owned in part by former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev – reports on events and issues that other Russian media fear to touch. According to this Gazeta editorial, while the West and particularly the United States may be hoping the Kremlin will be able to help with Iran and other rogue...

Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka: One of the most well known and respected people in Nigeria, Mr. Soyinka has sparked a storm of controversy by saying he would ‘stone’ President Obama if he visited Nigeria, because this would be a kind of stamp of approval for Nigeria’s corrupt leadership. With all the global crises involving the United States that have broken out of late, one controversy that has erupted in Africa centering on President Obama has gone largely noticed. Last month, the...

To what degree can the recent election result in Lebanon and the current events in Iran be attrutible to President Barack Obama? That question is at the heart of much of the global commentary in regard to the unfolding drama in the streets of Tehran, and as we learn from this article from Lebanon’s L’Orient Le Jour, Beirut as well. For L’Orient Le Jour, Issa Goraieb writes in part: “‘Everything you know about Iran is wrong’ – that was the front page headline...

Are the Russians and Chinese now the imperialist lackeys of the United States? That’s the implication of this walk on the Stalinist wild side from North Korea’s obsessively state-controlled media. According to this article from the Korean Central News Agency, the U.N. Security Council resolution passed last week calling for toughened sanctions against the isolated regime of Kim Jong-il, ‘is a wicked offensive by the U.S. imperialists to disarm the Democratic People’s Republic...

Former Guantanamo detainees – all Uighurs from China – now residing in Bermuda With its ‘petulant’ attitude toward accepting Guantanamo detainees who are presumed innocent, is German Chancellor Merkel missing a golden opportunity to get into President Obama’s good graces? For Germany’s Die Zeit, Martin Klingst writes in part: “With a bit of goodwill from the Chancellery and Interior Ministry – America’s President would be beside himself with...

Has President Obama’s Cairo speech exposed a deep-seated European fear of ‘Islamization?’ This article from the country that houses the Vatican in part blames the Catholic Church for the phenomena. For Italy’s La Stampa, Guido Ceronetti chastises his European brethren for being too lily-livered to support a stronger European defense and stand up to oppose those they fear – and delivers an incredible broadside against the Catholic Church, for preferring religious Muslim...

COUCH SAYS: ‘MIDDLE EAST’ MULLAH GRUMBLES AS OBAMA SITS NEXT TO HIM The apparent miscarriage of democratic justice now taking place in Iran may more prove, rather than disprove, columnist Michael Thumann’s thesis – that President Obama has presented a face of America that’s much harder to demonize. For Germany’s Die Zeit, Michael Thumann writes in part: “Is the electoral defeat of Islamist Hezbullah in Lebanon the earliest sign of success for Obama’s...

OBAMA: ‘WHY DO THEY LOVE US?’ BUSH: ‘WHY DO THEY HATE US?’ Could Russia turn out to be a source of great advice about how to deal with Muslims? Whether or not one agrees with Izvestia‘s Malor Stuorua, there are some good arguments to assume Moscow could, if properly motivated – help President Obama ‘reach out’ to the Muslim world with the experience the Kremlin has gleaned over the years. Hinting at, among other things, the ongoing catastrophe in Chechnya,...

What has been the reaction in the German ‘heartland’ to Obama’s visit – in particular his trip to Nazi death camp Buchenwald, his perceived ‘chemistry’ with Chancellor Angela Merkel and whether Germany should accept Guantanamo detainees? To find out, Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland took an editorial sampling from 11 smaller, regional newspapers in that country – the equivalents of say the Cleveland Plain Dealer or the Kansas City Star in the...

What seems like weakness to U.S. Republicans is actually the steely resolve of President Obama to ensure a safer world for his two young children. That’s the thesis of this article by Swiss columnist Patrik Etschmayer, who like Philippe Coste of France’s Liberation, contends that America’s opposition party is so out of touch that it doesn’t recognize real strength when its sees it. For Nachrichten, Etschmayer writes in regard to his recent trip to Egypt, Germany and France: “The...

According to Swiss columnist Patrik Etschmayer, the United States bears a striking resemble to GM just before it collapsed. For Nachrichten, Etschmayer writes in part: “The United States today seems like General Motors did not too long ago. It’s still the greatest power in the ‘market,’ but customers are beginning to turn away from the goods it offers. … Brand ‘USA’ now has some nasty blemishes.” Etschmayer then outlines the legacy he sees as lost: The...

‘OBAMA AS JESUS, CARRIES THE CROSS TO SAVE THE MIDDLE EAST. NETANYAHU PREPARES TO CRUCIFY HIM.’ By all accounts, Muslims are cautiously optimistic after hearing President Obama’s speech to Muslims, which he delivered last week from Cairo. But according to Kader Abdolah of the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, their biggest concern is that he’ll never succeed in accomplishing his goals due to resistance from Americans and Israelis. For de Volkskrant, Abdolah writes in part: “Obama...

Scientology ‘electometer’: Does this $7,000 device actually identify unwanted influences, emotions or painful traumas? The trial of Scientology, France continues, and here is the latest report on the proceedings from France’s Le Parisien magazine. According to the report, on Monday the former leader of Scientology in Lyon and a former member of the French National Assembly testified on how the Church operates, how it persuades its adherents to fork over thousands and thousands...

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the USSR’s last head of state, knows a thing or two about nuclear talks. This past weekend, Gorbachev contributed this article to Russia’s Rossijskaya Gazeta about how the world should deal with the nuclear challenge of Kim Jong-il’s North Korea. Here’s some of what Gorbachev had to say: “The goal should be to find a way to resume the political and diplomatic dialogue –...

Our Man?: Mr. Luis Posada Carriles Is the United States shielding a terrorist that is not only responsible for a number of terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a civilian airliner in 1973 and most recently an attempt on the life of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela? According to Venezuela’s state press agency Agencia Bolvariana de Noticias, a man named Luis Posada Carriles, who it has been established was a CIA operative in the 1960s and 70s, was involved in a plot to kill Chavez...

Continuing our monitoring of Muslim reaction to President Obama’s Cairo speech – now being called the ‘Cairo Declaration,’ Kharroubi Habib of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran speaks for a huge swath of the Muslim world when he expresses appreciation mixed with skepticism – not in regard to the president’s sincerity, but whether Mr. Obama can and will make real the declarations he put forward last Thursday. For Le Quotidien d’Oran, Kharroubi Habib...

It will probably come as small comfort to the families of American reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee that although the two have been sentenced to ‘twelve years of reform through labor,’ they are likely to go to one of two ‘special camps’ maintained for ‘the detention of Workers’ Party officials, senior cadres and important figures who must be well-treated.’ According to this article from today’s Daily North Korea, a publication staffed by a good number...

Continuing with our Muslim coverage of President Obama’s speech to the Islamic world, we present this article from Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper. So what are Iraqis saying about President Obama’s long-awaited speech? While loathing the necessity of having Obama lecture Muslims on what they should already know about their own religion, Kitabat’s Ali Abd al-Khaleq - ‘appreciated’ Obama’s lecture to Muslim leaders, who he says are more concerned with their own well-being...

For those who are possessed of the misapprehension that the French don’t appreciate what America did for them sixty five years ago yesterday, this article by Le Figaro’s Philippe Labro expresses the tremendous gratitude that continues to be felt for the bloody sacrifice made by thousands of Americans who lost their lives along the beaches of Normandy in the name of an ideal: ‘Freedom!’ For Le Figaro, Philippe Labro writes in part: They knew nothing, or nearly nothing. They...