sances.info

The Iranian payments are not large, at least compared with the hundreds of billions of dollars the United States has spent to oust the Taliban from power, support Mr. Karzai’s government and fight a tenacious insurgency intent on toppling Mr. Karzai.

What explains the difference between the two cases is, precisely as Kurtz suggested, the double standard that exists with regard to Jews and Israel on one hand, and Palestinians on the other. Statements that would never be tolerated against Jews or Israel are regularly made and tolerated against Palestinians.

NOW THAT Senator John F. Kerry has agreed to pay the taxes on his yacht (“Kerry will pay Mass. tax on R.I. yacht,’’ Page A1, July 28), the media should now play “gotcha’’ with all the Massachusetts drivers who register vehicles out of state. Better yet, maybe it’s time to look at all the businesses in the state that avoid paying their fair share of local, state, and federal taxes. I suggest starting with all the hospitals that are nonprofit organizations, but seem to make millions. It would make Kerry’s tax total seem like a drop in the ocean.

"If Iran is indeed becoming a military dictatorship, this probably qualifies it for American aid and hugs, rather than sanctions and threats," wrote Rami Khouri, editor at large of Beirut's Daily Star. "The United States has adored military dictatorships in the Arab world, especially states dominated by the shadowy world of intelligence services."

Khazei at least pretended anguish.

"The part of me that loves democracy is appalled that only 15 percent of the people are likely to vote," he said. "But the part of me that's a dark-horse, grass-roots candidate that's had a strategy from the beginning about going door to door and reaching voters directly for a low turnout is thrilled, because you can win this election with 150,000 to 175,000 votes."

It is not clear where the report of the embassy in Managua began. But in the past two years, it has made its way into congressional testimony, think tank reports, press accounts, and diplomatic events in the United States and elsewhere.

THE WHOLE WORLD knows the story of a delusional man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and kidnapped his daughter from a high-end Boston neighborhood.

President Obama's statement accusing North Korea of "a violation of international law" would have carried greater weight had the United States provided leadership in the area of nuclear nonproliferation by ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Senate ratification of the treaty would go a long way toward demonstrating to the world, and especially to nuclear proliferators such as North Korea and Iran, that the United States finds nuclear testing to be abhorrent and a crime against future generations.

I agree with the May 7 editorial "No Questions Asked," opposing unconditional U.S. support for the repressive and autocratic regime in Egypt. But I wonder why you don't hold the same position regarding U.S. support for Egypt's neighbor Israel. The United States sends Israel more than $3 billion annually.

He and other civilians caught in the operation, just in its fourth day, were already complaining of heavy-handed tactics by the Pakistani military, which has little training in counterinsurgency.