Mid-East Meets Midwest

Obama: Iran has secret nuclear fuel facility; hopes to add urgency by pushing Int’l Atomic Energy Agency to inspect now http://bit.ly/3EBC1b

No new Gitmos:Obama admin. will not push for new indefinite detention legislation. Will abide by guidelines to hold terrorism suspects.

Chicago’s Public Radio had a very interesting exclusive Tuesday.  CPR’s “Worldview” spoke with Fouad and Ahmed, two Iraqi participants in the Iraqi Student Project, a non-profit helping Iraqi students get degrees from American universities.

These teens, like so many others, fled Iraq to Syria because of the war and have found themselves in U.S. Before beginning their time at university, together these students took a road trip, stopping in New York City and Dearborn, Michigan, among other places, to learn from others how the Iraq War has affected their lives.  Amazed by what they heard, these teens are now making an audio documentary about the effects of the war.

Listen to their opinions of America, and how what they found was different from what they expected:

Chicago Public Radio goes on the road with the Iraqi Student Project

Overstaying their welcome: Blackwater’s extended Stay In Iraq. Despite ban, firm will remain until replacements arrive. http://bit.ly/1YQpCp

Afghanistan’s latest election has been bogged down with complaints of fraud and intimidation. The latest voices to join the chorus of complaints are the tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan.  These leaders say the governor of their district,
Delaga Bariz, was detained by aides to President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, in order to keep him from endorsing Karzai’s top opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.

In addition, these leaders are saying that all 45 of the local polling sites were shut down and some 23,900 ballots were sent in to be counted—all for Karzai. “Not a single person in Shorabak District cast a ballot—not a single person,” Bariz told The New York Times.

And unfortunately the election dispute is hardly the only pressing problem in the country as terrorists are still gaining ground and staging major attacks. A bomb in Kabul on Wednesday killed 24, including a high ranking intelligence official.

Read More:

Huffington Post: The Afghanistan election on the ground

Asia Times: In Afghanistan, war trumps elections

AP: World envoys ask what next after Afghan elections