Lebanon
On Brink Of
Civil War
By Chris Marsden
Lebanon stands on the brink of all-out civil war. A general strike by the leading trade union to protest rising prices and demand an increase in the minimum wage has led to armed conflict between the pro-Western Sunni and Druze-based government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the Shia-based Hezbollah and its ally, Amal
Lebanon
Descends Into Chaos
By Robert Fisk
What is it about Lebanon that creates these crises? Maybe at heart, it is the same old problem: to be a modern state, Lebanon must abandon confessionalism – the system which provides a Maronite for the presidency, a Sunni for the prime minister's seat, a Shia for the speaker of parliament, and so on. But if Lebanon abandoned confessionalism, it would no longer be Lebanon, because sectarianism is its identity; a fate which its children do not deserve but whose country was created by French masters on the ruins of the Ottoman empire
Nasrallah
Opens With A Knight,Next move, Bush
By Franklin Lamb
Street Notes and Findings from Beirut's Hamra District
Lebanon
On The Brink
By Franklin Lamb
Blindsided Hezbollah mulls its response
Bush
Says Starving India Eats Too Much
By Kavita Krishnan
The global policeman Bush, in the time-honoured traditions of backyard bully, has long harboured the habit of dictating to nations who their friends and enemies should be. Now, he has taken to telling nations how much they should eat, and of wagging a disapproving finger at poor nations whose middle class has made some improvements in its diet
Dalits In
U.P. Face Hunger Deaths And Suicides
By S.R.Darapuri
When George Bush is admonishing India for eating too much, Dalits in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh face hunger deaths and suicides
Portrait Of
An Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
By Michael T. Klare
How Rising Oil Prices Are Obliterating America's Superpower Status
Conversation
With Dahr Jamail
By Stephen Moss & Dahr Jamail
Texas-born Dahr Jamail was outraged that the US media were swallowing the Bush administration's line on Iraq and so, with just $2,000 and no previous journalistic experience, he set off to find out what was really happening in the country
12
Stepping Our Way To Armageddon
By Carolyn Baker
While I do not feel optimistic about survival in the abyss into which we appear to be descending, I believe that the principles inherent in the Steps can facilitate our planting seeds that may ultimately germinate and flourish as a new paradigm lived out by some of us and our descendents who are committed to creating lifeboats of localized, sustainable living that serve the entire earth community
Common
Sense Regarding
The Middle East Conflict
By Roger Tucker
The viral madness that is Zionism, the most virulent form of fascism in today's world, can only be defeated by the spiritual weapons of wisdom and compassion, wielded by people of good will around the world, and the considerable hard work required to cut through the fog of confusion
Beyond
Media Revolutions:
Is Arab Media Truly Free?
By Ramzy Baroud
The Arab foreign ministers communiqué can be understood as a call for a truce between various Arab governments: you hold your journalists back from attacking me, I’ll hold mine. It’s neither a call for the suppression of civil society nor the gagging of free expression: the former is largely suppressed and truly free expression never fully existed
Ramzy
Baroud's "The Second Palestinian Intifada"
By Stephen Lendman
Ramzy Baroud's "The Second Palestinian Intifada" is poignant and masterful. It blends his personal experience with a gripping narrative of his peoples' struggle for justice
Democracy:
Inclusion Or Exclusion?
By Asghar Ali Engineer
True test of our democracy would be when any deserving citizen of India, be he/she tribal, dalit, Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Sikh can become prime minister of India. It is true a Muslim, dalit and Sikh have risen to the office of President and a Sikh is now Prime Minister but President's post is decorative one, not executive one. True test lies in making a dalit or Muslim or Christian Prime minister of India
Muqtada
By Jim Miles
Book Review: Muqtada – Muqtada al-Sadr, The Shia Revival, And The Struggle For Iraq By Patrick Cockburn
AIDS
And The Contradictions Of Spanish Development Cooperation In Equatorial
Guinea
By Agustin Velloso
Despite the sonorous propaganda about international aid, more resounding still is the silence about the Obiang family's corruption and the results of Spanish development cooperation in Equatorial Guinea
Justice
Must Be Served In Bangladesh
For Two Ex-PMs
By GM Solaiman
Justice must be served to Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia along with others who are accused. If the court ruled that they are innocents, by all means, they should be free. If the court ruled that they are guilty, they must serve prison time like every body else. We must see that law has been followed. We must see that justice has been served. Only then we need to elect more law makers to make yet more laws. If we do not need any law to execute, we do not need any law makers either
When
Lawyers Masquerade As Judges
By Subhash Gatade
Ismail Jalagir, a senior counsel from Hubli (Karnataka) and Mohammad Shoaib, a senior advocate from Lucknow (U.P.) might not have heard about each other. But even their strongest critics would admit that they are made of the same mettle.If there are rewards meant for lawyers who are ready to go the extra mile to defend rigths granted to citizens under the constitution then both these worthy citizens of the country would be the first on the list
Sri
Lanka! Armed Resistance Or Terrorism?
By Thulasi Wesley Pillai
State terror is a reality in Sri Lanka. That is something that the international community has chosen to ignore. When a state is hell-bent on ‘secret’ ethnic cleansing, head-hunting human rights activists, journalists, intellectuals, parliamentarians, vocal clerics and witnesses of state crimes then what is the duty and responsibility of the citizens?
06 May, 2008
U.N.
Bodies Under Fire For Food Crisis
By Thalif Deen
As the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) readies for a summit of world leaders next month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday defended the Rome-based U.N. agency, which has come under fire for its failure to help meet the growing challenges of hunger worldwide
Insurrection
Of The Famished – Causes And Possible
Remedies Of The World Hunger Crisis
By Siv O'Neall
The rich people in the world have to be made aware of this daily massacre that is taking place right under our eyes, in the third-world countries and even in the United States. It is strictly criminal. It is a question of crimes against humanity. The awareness of having the means to act against these crimes must make us impose radical change on our governments against the interests of the transnational institutions. Without these radical changes even the multinational institutions can do nothing. It's up to us, the people, to rebel and by means of reasoned and democratic political acts practice international solidarity
How
To Make Mud Cookies
By Maurice Dufour
Mud cookies are all the rage in Haiti today. The “rage” in this case, though, has been sparked by soaring food prices. The cookies have become a staple in poor households across the country because food is simply unaffordable. Everyone, it seems, is dying to get their hands on the biscuits
The
Gospel Of Consumption
By Jeffrey Kaplan
If we want to save the Earth, we must also save ourselves from ourselves. We can start by sharing the work and the wealth. We may just find that there is plenty of both to go around
Hospital
Struck As US Military Tightens
Siege Of Baghdad’s Sadr City
By Peter Symonds
US missile strikes on a small building adjacent to a major hospital in Baghdad’s Sadr City on Saturday left more than 20 people injured, destroyed ambulances and shook the entire neighbourhood. The incident provides a glimpse of the hellish conditions created for residents of the huge working class slum through the month-long siege by American and Iraqi government forces
Israel
At 60
By Uri Avnery
One of our national peculiarities is a form of discussion where all the participants, whether from the Left or from the Right, use the clinching argument: "If we don't do this and this, the state will cease to exist!" Can one imagine such an argument in France, Britain or the USA? This is a symptom of "Crusader" anxiety
Sixty
Years Of Palestinian Displacement,
Occupation And Suffering
By Stephen Lendman
On May 14, Israelis will commemorate the 60th anniversary of their "War of Independence" and founding of the Jewish State. It also marks 60 years of Palestinian Nakba suffering
Austrian
Atrocity Horrifies But Media Ignore
US, UK And Australian Mass Infanticide
By Dr Gideon Polya
Simple quantitative assessment of the “Fritzl horror” with child abuse horrors being perpetrated by the US, the UK, NATO and Australia in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan tell us that this is a very serious and obscenely exaggerated case of “the Pot calling the Kettle black”
The
Winds Of The Right Over Europe
By Gaither Stewart
As I write these lines, Berlusconi’s pfalange is occupying every nook and cranny it can get its hands on in the country people of the world so love. First Berlusca swept the elections to become the new Leader. Then, on the heels of his Blitzkrieg, the Fascist heirs of the old Fascist Party—who now call themselves post-Fascists, collected the magnificent capital city of Rome and ancient capital of Europe
How
Our System Works
By Thomas Riggins
Imagine, a company lies to the Patent Office to get a patent because if the truth were known it would not qualify for the patent. The truth comes out. Our senators and representatives are actually debating a new law which says its ok for the company to keep the patent; it cannot be revoked just because it was obtained by lying to the government. Remember if you as an individual lie to the government, i.e., the FBI or the IRS, it’s off to jail
Haj's
Release Revives Gitmo Closure
By Ismail Kamal Kushkush
The release of Aljazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj from the Guantanamo Bay after spending six years without charge has aroused high hopes of bringing the curtains down on the notorious US detention camp
The
Ordeal Of Al Jazeera Cameraman Sami Al-Haj
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
After six and a half years of imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay military prison, Al Jazeera cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, was released on May 2, 2008 in a very bad shape. He was carried off a US air force jet on a stretcher when he arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, and immediately taken to hospital. Al-Hajj's case symbolizes the policy of torture and human rights violation of the Bush Administration
Ashamed
To Be American
By Mickey Z.
Even if the man who was beaten was death was proven-beyond a reasonable doubt-to be personally responsible for 9/11, how can anyone but a sociopath justify such treatment? Can anyone but a sadistic criminal justify the existence of "Gitmo"? How much more will it take before everyday Americans collectively hang their heads in shame over this ongoing crime and the many other examples of their nation's contemptible conduct?
25
Civilians Killed In America For Each
GI Killed In Iraq
By Sherwood Ross
Preoccupied with the fighting in Sadr City, it may have escaped President Bush’s notice that millions of African-Americans live in blighted neighborhoods, some of which, like Sadr City, also appear to have been ravaged by bloodshed and violence
Barack
Obama's REAL Albatross
By Leigh Saavedra
The real problem is that in addition to having his opponent wage war on him, as is expected, he has the Republican party out en masse campaigning for Hillary Clinton. A year ago, I would have said, "Huh?" to such a statement, but it proves itself more true every day
Al-Qa’ida
Murder Inc.
By Mustapha Marrouchi
A follower of Salafi Sunnism, bin Laden does not express absolute solidarity with all Muslims. The assassination of two devout Muslims, Ahmad Shah Massoud and Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, meant nothing to him. Nor does he claim to have the support of the regime in Iran, which is Shi’ite. The religious intensity lies in the millenarian beliefs underlying his statements; politics play a poor second role
Conversion:
A Political Weapon
By Ram Puniyani
The realization that to impose Hindu rashtra in this country the electoral majority is needed as a starting point, the process of co-opting Adivasis into Hindu fold has been stepped up. And this 8% population can be the wonderful addition to electoral base for the right wing politics. The second advantage is that by indoctrinating them they can be unleashed against the other enemies of Hindu nation, like Muslims, as witnessed in Gujarat, where they were used as ideal foot soldiers for the agenda of Hindu Rashtra
03 May, 2008
Americans
Ditch SUVs
By Leonard Doyle
America's love affair with sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks is finally over.With petrol now selling for almost $4 (£2) a gallon, consumers are trading in their Humvees and Ford Explorers so fast that for the first time, one in five cars sold in the US is now a compact or subcompact. In another first, sales of six-cylinder vehicles were bypassed by smaller four-cylinder, mostly Japanese, cars in April
Iraq:
Corruption Eats Into Food Rations
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
Amidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption
Is
Sadr City Becoming The Next Gaza?
By Rannie Amiri
The ripples of the March 25th Basra offensive-turned-fiasco initiated by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have been transformed into waves of bloodletting, crashing rhythmically northward onto Sadr City. According to one governmental official, more than 900 people were killed and 2600 wounded in the teeming slum of three million in April
Who
Gets Totally Obliterated, Iran Or The US?
By Michael Nolan
Mrs. Clinton is so desperate to play the tough guy card that she’s had herself photographed throwing shots and beers back with the boys. Now, with her nuclear threat, she proves that she’ll say anything, do anything in order to win what Ken Silverstein of Harper’s calls “the frenzied bidding war to be the most ‘pro-Israel.’” There’s no indication, as yet, that she’s ready to explain the monstrous consequences of a war with Iran to the American people
The
Harsh Reality Of The Middle East Conflict
By Dan Lieberman
A century old conflict between the state of Israel and stateless Palestinians, many of whom have been disposed from lands that created the Israel state, has precipitated a argument: Is it preferable to have two states living side by side or have one state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River that includes Jews and Palestinians without prejudice and with equal rights for all?
How
Many Deaths Will It Take?
By Rohini Hensman
Given the radical undermining of the rule of law by the government, the only way to break this vicious circle is to invite a UN human rights monitoring mission to help with the task of investigating both crimes by the LTTE and crimes by the state, and bring the perpetrators to justice
Are
You Ready?
By Lech Biegalski
I don't know, if people have enough strength, wisdom, and intrest to build a massive grassroots movement in order to defend their freedom, their rights, and their lives. This would require a great deal of solidarity, time, hard work, and coordination. What I see around is rather discouraging. But I believe that promoting and preserving a culture of liberty and humanitarian values within small grups of people and within families will work as seeds for a better future. When the time is right, the seeds will grow branches and deliver fruits
How
To Get Universal Health Care
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say they believe in giving Americans universal health care. I don’t believe them. Anyone who takes the time to understand universal health care should conclude that only a simple single payer system will reform the current outrageous system that benefits the insurance and pharmaceutical industries
Where
Is The "Follow-Up"To The FLDS Raid?
By Timothy V. Gatto
The lead story in April was the raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. The story was that a woman (in this case a sixteen year old girl), called the authorities and claimed that she was being held against her will and was being forced to have sex with older men. The details from that point on are a little bit confusing. The truth is that this entire saga is, and continues to be, so confusing that the mainstream media has seemingly dropped it
Children
Of Pleasure: A Sad Story Of Afghanistan
By Rakesh Kumar Meena & Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee
Trafficking amongst children has turned into one of the major menaces of a developing society amongst which Afghanistan, a war torn and socio-economically dilapidated nation, has turned into one of the major breeding grounds of such menace after illegal narcotics trafficking
Bullets
And Bananas: The Violence Of
Free Trade In Guatemala
By Cyril Mychalejko
The ongoing violence against workers in Guatemala makes it clear that talk of free trade improving human rights in developing countries is lost in translation. Free trade has done nothing but exacerbate poverty and inequality, while rewarding governments for sustaining repressive conditions that allow corporations to exploit vulnerable, and often powerless workers
02 May, 2008
No
Mercy
By Najwa Sheikh
In their simple house made of metal sheets, Myassar Abu Me'teq was sitting next to three of her children having breakfast and holding her one-year-old baby in her arms. She listened to their daily complaints and loving quarrels, trying to comfort them and keep them away from the sound of the Israeli shelling close to their home in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. This mother did not know that their clock would soon stop ticking, not by their creator but by their enemy
Blockade
Puts Gaza On Brink Of Serious Food Crisis
By Donald Macintyre
Destitution and food insecurity among Gaza's 1.5 million residents has reached an unprecedentedly critical level, according to unpublished UN findings that they now need "urgent assistance" to avert a "serious food crisis" in the occupied Palestinian territories
The
Bomb Squads: How To Survive
A Gaza Refugee Camp
By Ramzy Baroud
Excerpts from Baroud’s upcoming book, “101 Ways to Survive a Refugee Camp.”
India/Iran:
Course Correction
By Praful Bidwai
Relations between India and Iran, which deteriorated over the past three years from traditional friendship and warmth into mutual suspicion and tension, have started looking up again. This development has significant implications for India’s role in West Asia and Central Asia as well as ties with its new 'strategic partner', the United States
Iraq
After Basra
By Ashley Smith
The assault on Basra has ended the false calm of the surge and sparked both increasing resistance to the occupation as well as ethnic and sectarian conflict between and among Iraq’s three great communities
Pop
Goes The Race-Neutral Campaign!
By Glen Ford
The relationship between Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama has undergone “great damage,” says Obama, understatedly. But the break was inevitable and is no tragedy, because it reveals the incompatibility of Obama’s adapted world view with the body of knowledge amassed by African Americans since before the landing of the Mayflower. The truth is always a revelation
Since
I Gave Up Hope, I Feel Better
By William Blum
Food riots, in dozens of countries, in the 21st century. Is this what we envisioned during the post-World War Two, moon-landing 20th century as humankind's glorious future? It's not the end of the world, but you can almost see it from here
The
U.S. Role In Indigenous Exploitation
By Max Kantar
While the United States continues to block efforts in the international arena to include native peoples in important political and economic decision making that holds unwavering implications for their continued existence on this planet, it is the job of the people to stand in solidarity with the struggling indigenous masses to assure that the power structure of government and corporate tyranny will not finally complete their historic genocide of native people everywhere
Five
Ways To Think About Iran Under The Gun
By Pepe Escobar
What a disaster in the making, and yet, now more than ever, Vice President Dick Cheney's faction in Washington (not to mention possible future president John McCain) seems ready to bomb. Perhaps the Mahdi himself -- in his occult wisdom -- is betting on a U.S. war against Asia to slouch towards Qom to be reborn
The
Passing Of Nirmala Deshpande
By Mirza A. Beg
Nirmala Deshpande, 79, a veteran Gandhian, died in her sleep at her home in Delhi, Thursday morning. It is natural to mourn the passing of a dear friend. Though I did not know her personally, I mourn her passing as if she was a close friend. We knew of her great sacrifice and struggle to keep the flame of humanity and justice alive against powerful winds of hatred and strife around the world, particularly in her homeland, India, the land of Gandhi
01 May, 2008
The
Fed Sinks The Dollar
By Michael Hudson
Against the recommendations of most economists and even the Financial Times of London, the Federal Reserve Board yesterday cut its discount rate by yet another quarter-point, to just 2%. Ostensibly, the intention is to try and spur economic “recovery” – as if a cut in the interest rates would do this
A
Barrage Of US Threats Against Iran
By Peter Symonds
During a press conference on Tuesday, US President George Bush spelled out the threat to Iran contained in last week’s release of CIA intelligence on an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor. As well as warning Syria and North Korea, which purportedly helped construct the building, he declared that the US was “sending a message to Iran, and the world for that matter, about just how destabilising a nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East”
Denying
Palestinians Free Movement
In The West Bank
By Stephen Lendman
This article summarizes an August 2007 B'Tselem report now available in print. It's one of a series of studies it conducts on life in Occupied Palestine to reveal what major media accounts suppress. This one is titled: "Ground to a Halt - Denial of Palestinians' Freedom of Movement in the West Bank."
May
Day 1939
By David Truskoff
Thanks to the excellent work of the surgeons, I am well again. That is they saved my body, but my mind now views the sinking America and it angers me. The labor movement has given way to outsourcing. The civil rights movement that I was so involved in has deteriorated to the horrendous high school drop out rate among minorities and the constant reports of black children shooting each other in the streets
US
Military Coordinated Day Of Prayer Events
With Christian Right Group
By Jason Leopold
At least half-a-dozen active-duty military officials have been working closely with a task force headed by the far-right fundamentalist Christians planning religious events at military installations around the country to commemorate Thursday’s National Day of Prayer
The
Missed Message Of Reverend Wright
By Bill Noxid
It’s more than a little unfortunate that Obama does not recognize this age old tactic to divide the Black populous. Repeatedly Obama has been asked to renounce one thing ( or person ) after another, and Obama continues to oblige… Whittling away at the people who are truly on his side
The
World Is As Dangerous As We Think It Is
By James Rothenberg
The longer the occupations go on, the more we will seem to be “past” the point of our motivation’s original relevance. All the really “serious” talk now is restricted to the narrow confines of today’s “responsibilities” toward these countries. But how one even defines responsibility in this case is determined by one’s worldview. It can be put in the form of a simple question. Do we have a right to be in these countries?
"The
Challenge Of Modern Slavery"
By Loretta Napoleoni
Slavery is in our refrigerators. From fruit to beef, from sugar to coffee, slave labor brings food to our tables. “Miguel,” a Mexican slave freed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a US human-rights organization, may have harvested the apples we eat at breakfast. Miguel picked fruit under guard in the United States. He had traveled to el norte to earn the money to pay for treatment for his six-year-old son who has cancer; instead, his employer enslaved him
Confessions
Of A Renegade Christian
By Case Wagenvoord
The first order of business for Progressives must be to challenge this atmosphere of fear and trembling. Those of us who dissent from our national paranoia must find the spiritual strength to stand up and proclaim that there is nothing to fear. For myself, I draw my strength from The Way of the Christ, and from the Liberation Theology of Latin America. This is not for everybody, nor should it be. But it could well be that at some future date; it may be missionaries from Latin America who will teach us how to live a life in harmony with creation
Negotiable
Or Not, The American Way Of Life
Must Be Extinguished….
By Jason Miller
Is the Western consumerist culture that we inflict upon the rest of the world truly the pinnacle of our evolution? If it is, I resign my membership in the human race. Though I don’t fear that I’ll be compelled to tender my resignation any time soon because our so-called “non-negotiable American Way of Life” is a piece of shit, for myriad reasons
30 April, 2008
Food
Crisis To Impact
Women And Children Heavily
By Thalif Deen
The spreading food crisis -- triggered primarily by rising prices, declining outputs and growing scarcities worldwide -- is threatening to impact heavily on the most vulnerable in society: women and children
US
Escalates Siege In Baghdad’s Sadr City
By Kate Randall
US forces continued their siege against Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood on Tuesday, leaving dozens dead. The US military said a four-hour firefight broke out around 9:30 a.m. between US forces and militiamen as a US soldier injured by small-arms fire was being evacuated
War
With Syria? The Military Option
By Uri Avnery
War with Syria? Peace with Syria? A big military operation against Hamas in the Gaza strip? A cease-fire with Hamas? Our media discuss these questions dispassionately, as if they were equivalent options. Like a person in a showroom making a choice between two cars. This one is good, and so is the other one. So which should one buy? And nobody cries out: War is the height of stupidity!
The
Lords of Capital Decree
Mass Death by Starvation
By Glen Ford
Having crushed the planet's peasants and converted food into just another commodity for global manipulation, the Lord's of Capital have unleashed upon humanity the threat - no, certainty - of mass starvation. The criminal mega-enterprise is centered in the United States, the former "breadbasket of the planet" whose massive conversion to biofuels has caused staple crop prices to skyrocket beyond the reach of hundreds of millions of the world's poor. The death of millions translates into profits in the trillions for the Lords of Capital, killers on a mass scale whose only talents lie in "the production of overlapping calamities, each more lethal than the last."
America's
University Of Imperialism
By Chalmers Johnson
This essay is a review of Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella
Another
American War–Look Out Earth
By Jim Miles
Without a greater awareness of all the relationships between global warming as a symptom, and environmental over-consumption and over population as the underlying cause, an American “war on global warming” is sure to be another fiasco
The
Supreme International Crime
By Max Kantar
Iraq has been crushed beyond recognition, with over 1.3 million human beings butchered (Oxford Research Bureau), over five million people driven out, and tens of millions of lives ruined. This supreme international crime and slaughter is being carried out in our names. We can turn the other cheek, or we can stop it together. You decide
USA:
Fastened To A Dying Animal
By Phil Rockstroh
A short jeremiad regarding that affront to the nation's dignity known as the US election process
Canada's
Shameful Legacy Of Aborginal Abuse
By Dave Bennett
According to the received wisdom, Indians were simple people. They couldn’t handle liquor, and they certainly weren’t mature enough to vote. They needed -- and benefited from -- our protective custody. In the prevailing culture of good Christian arrogance these were givens. In such a climate we stole the birthright of Canada’s aboriginal peoples
Carter,
Israel, Hamas And The Truth
By Timothy V. Gatto
I feel that Carter did what he believed he had to do. History may see him as a weak, indecisive President, but I feel that history will also see him as the one President that did more after leaving office than any other. I can only hope that the concessions that he managed to get from Hamas will spur some serious dialogue between the two sides of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute
Halliburton
Bribe Case Haunts Cheney
By Jason Leopold
Dick Cheney’s tenure at Halliburton ended eight years ago, but a federal investigation of alleged bribes from a company subsidiary to Nigerian officials lingers from the Cheney era, raising questions about what the Vice President knew or should have known
Kabul
Attack A Virtual Replay Of
1981 Assassination Of Anwar Sadat
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
In a virtual replay of the 1981 assassination of the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the Afghan militants attempted to assassinate the Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a military parade in Kabul last Sunday (April 27, 2008)
A
Prize For The Prisoner
By P. Zachariah
Binayak Sen has just received a major international award but is still in jail. P. Zachariah applauds his former student
Governing
Human Rights Violation
And Dr. Binayak Sen
By Arpita Banerjee
The unethical detention of Dr. Binayak Sen is one of the many glaring examples of state repression. On May 14th 2008, it will be one year since Dr. Sen was arrested under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and the Crimes Against the State Chapter of the Indian Penal Code. The Supreme Court of India has denied the bail petition, ironically on the International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2007
Alas..!!
Women
By Pardeep S Attri
Though the top most position of India (President) a woman is occupying but it would be one of the biggest misconceptions “by this women society is going to be empowered” as being claimed by the most of the political parties. We can only hope that Mrs. President will do something for empowering or making women society to live with dignity. Before this let’s see past record of last six to eight months
One
Tight Slap!
By Arasu Balraj
I don’t even have a trace of belief that these whiz kids of globalisation will ever care our words. But the vast masses of India who are getting marginalized as waste by the same globalisation, will definitely arise against this system which is nearing by, thanks to the price rise and inflation. On that day, all Nero’s guests will be paid back in Bhajji’s language, one tight slap!
29 April, 2008
Mother,
Four Children Amongst Victims Of
Israeli Gaza Strike
By Al Mezan
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed four children and their mother when they shelled their home in Ezbet Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip today. Another man was killed in the attack which occurred during an IOF incursion in different parts of the town of Beit Hanoun
Climate
Change Could Force One Billion
From Their Homes By 2050
By Nigel Morris
As many as one billion people could lose their homes by 2050 because of the devastating impact of global warming, scientists and political leaders will be warned today. They will hear that the steady rise in temperatures across the planet could trigger mass migration on unprecedented levels
Food
Crisis And The Failure Of The Capitalist Model
By Ian Angus
Food is not just another commodity – it is absolutely essential for human survival. The very least that humanity should expect from any government or social system is that it try to prevent starvation – and above all that it not promote policies that deny food to hungry people. That’s why Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was absolutely correct on April 24, to describe the food crisis as “the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model.”
Food
Crisis Adds To Women’s Burden
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
As if the burdens they shoulder are not enough, Asia’s women are being compelled to bear the additional weight of rising food prices, say women’s rights activists from across the region
Hunger
Plagues Haiti And The World
By Stephen Lendman
The Haitain crisis is so extreme it forces people to eat (non-food) mud cookies (called "pica") to relieve hunger. It's a desperate Haitian remedy made from dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau for those who can afford it. It's not free. In Cite Soleil's crowded slums, people use a combination of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening for a typical meal when it's all they can afford
The
Global Food Crisis…And
The Ravenous System Of Capitalism
By Li Onesto
Unless and until this system is abolished through revolution, and is replaced by a new socialist system, there will continue to be massive hunger and starvation... and some people will continue to be forced to eat “mud cookies” and drink pesticide out of horrific desperation... in what could—and should—be a world of shared abundance for everybody
Breaking
The Silence: Israeli Soldiers Speak
By Stephen Lendman
May 14 is the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. Commemorations there and in the West will celebrate it. People of conscience won't participate. Refuseniks may not either. Use this time to demand an illegal occupation end and that Israel no longer be allowed a pass on the international law it disdains
Green
Scare State Terrorism
By Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, future prospects look grim with fear prevailing over reason, a bipartisan effort exploiting it, and convictions more important than justice. If friends of the earth and animal rights champions are targeted, so can anyone. Governments today won't protect us and neither do courts that defer to their lawlessness. As a result, expect lots more innocent people hurt because those in power want unlimited amounts of it and won't let anyone stop them from getting it. It means hard times ahead when the law won't protect us, dissent is a crime, and the greater good is sacrificed to benefit the privileged
Banned!
By Timothy V. Gatto
So go ahead and read you “Progressive” sites and remember that people that don’t agree with their perspective are banned from writing on these sites. Think about the meaning of the word banned. I do, I’m living with it
Why
Do The Republicans Oppose Fair Pay?
By Mary Shaw
I wonder what Cindy McCain thinks about the fact that her husband doesn't want to guarantee fair pay for their daughters, because their daughters might then be able to sue if they are paid unfairly. Does she even care? And, if so, would it matter?
28 April, 2008
Indian
Food Crisis?
By Mukesh Ray
Our production has not declined till now (we might experience low production in the khariff, due to untimely rain), we hardly produce any biofuel and our per capita meat consumption is below one kg, which is one of the lowest in the world (it is 50 kg for US). So the question remains intact; why is the price of cereals rising?
Financial
Speculators Reap
Profits From Global Hunger
By Stefan Steinberg
A series of reports in the international media have drawn attention to the role of professional speculators and hedge funds in driving up the price of basic commodities—in particular, foodstuffs. The sharp increase in food prices in recent months has led to protests and riots in a number of countries across the globe
Mixed
Priorities: Why Palestinian Unity
Is Not An Option
By Ramzy Baroud
While such noble efforts by the UN’s John Dugard, former US President Jimmy Carter and Bishop Desmond Tutu have brought much needed attention to the plight of Palestinians and Gazans in particular, PA officials are too busy attending donor’s conferences and issuing empty statements which few even bother to read. They act as if they are a neutral party caught in the middle of religious fanatics and Israel. Their fight no longer seems even remotely related to Palestine or its people
When
Right And Left Agree,
Something Is Happening!
By Timothy V. Gatto
The political situation in the United States is different at this particular time than in any other time that I have witnessed in my 57 years on this planet. This is the only time in my life that I can ever remember when the right and the left agree more with each other than the so-called “centrists’” of the GOP and the Democratic Party
Poverty
Gets The Survivors
By Maki al-Nazzal & Dahr Jamail
More than a million Iraqis were lucky enough to flee into Syria. But in this relatively safe haven, there is no getting away from poverty
Black
Hole In Bush's Brain
By Peter Chamberlin
Judging from the campaign rhetoric coming out of both camps, whoever wins the Oval Office will be inclined to continue the failed military policies in Iraq and to pursue a confrontation with Iran. Apparently it does not matter to either party what will follow those actions, or what these disastrous policies have produced as they played-out in Iraq and Afghanistan. It does not matter who gets elected, whether it is "bomb, bomb Iran" McCain, or "obliterate/massive retaliation" Clinton, nothing will change
But,
I Thought We Were Friends
By Rand Clifford
A fictionalised monologue an educated conservative
18 April, 2008
Iraq:
Chaos Hardening Sectarian Fiefdoms
By Ali Gharib
There are an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced within their own country. No house; no food; no security. Who do they turn to for help? The international community's humanitarian organisations? The occupying United States government? The central Iraqi government based in Baghdad? According to a report released Tuesday by Refugees International (RI), none of these has been able to provide sufficient assistance to the most vulnerable Iraqis
War
And Pain: Nothing New Under The Sun
By Gaither Stewart
I have begun examining Greek classics for confirmation that human beings are not as innovative as we like to think. A recent look at Greek ideas on Power subsequently led me step by step to considerations of how Power in the time of the Greeks of 2500 years ago led inevitably to war, as it does today
But
What Is Good About Biofuels?
By Julio Godoy
The German government decision two weeks back against increased use of biofuels was based on technical reasons -- more than three millions vehicles cannot burn biofuels without risking engine breakdown. But this reason might be the least important of all. Environmental experts have been warning that biofuels, far from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, actually have a negative environmental footprint
The
Ethanol Apologists
By Robert Bryce
It's time for the ethanol apologists to face the facts: The ethanol and biofuels mandates that have been foisted on American taxpayers are not just fiscal insanity, they are immoral. And over the coming months and years, the people in the developing world will pay a heavy price for Congress's scandalous approach to food and energy policy
Hansen's
Climate Change And
The Mobilization Solution
By Bill Henderson
Mobilization nationally and globally. And practically such mobilization governance innovation must begin and be led by the US, the world's foremost economic and political power. This essay will explore this possible solution: this radical but compelling vision of all of our futures, our immediate futures. Mobilization first and foremost to get us below 350 ppm before the polar ice melts completely
No
Peace Without Hamas
By Mahmoud al-Zahar
Former US President Jimmy Carter's sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end
Venezuela:
Democracy, Socialism And Imperialism
By James Petras
Venezuela ’s President Hugo Chavez remains the world’s leading secular, democratically elected political leader who has consistently and publicly opposed imperialist wars in the Middle East , attacked extra-territorial intervention and US and European Union complicity in kidnapping and torture
Updating
Sami Al-Arian - His Ordeal Continues
By Stephen Lendman
The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice supports Al-Arian proudly, it's backed him from the start, and it urges everyone of conscience to contact their elected officials, DOJ and DHS to demand that justice delayed him no longer be denied. His imprisonment term ended April 11, yet he remains confined. His plea bargain stipulated that his long ordeal end and that he be deported expeditiously
Wars
Begin In High School Cafeterias
By David Swanson
Citizens in a number of school districts around the country have dramatically reduced military recruitment through simple procedures that anyone can do. No marching or civil disobedience is required. You might, however, have to chat with a principal at a football game or write a couple of letters. Why aren't more of us doing more of this?
Nepal:
An Interview With Baburam Bhattarai
By Prateek Pradhan, Ghanashyam Ojha & Puran P Bista
Dr Baburam Bhattarai is not surprised by the results of the CA election. He argues that the CPN (Maoist) has changed the country’s ground realities. Dr Bhattarai spoke with Prateek Pradhan, Ghanashyam Ojha and Puran P Bista of The Kathmandu Post on how the CPN (Maoist) would proceed with its economic and political agenda
India:
Rot In The prisons
By Colin Gonsalves
Applying even the most retrogressive standards, Indian prisoners are the pits — a level of perversity matched only by our pious, moralistic and sanctimonious preachings abroad. In the land of Gandhiji and non-violence, prisons remain depraved and brutish. Internally the prisoners rot
The
Tikait Treatment
By Ravikiran Shinde
Jat leader Mahendra Singh Tikait finally surrendered meekly before the court after resisting arrest by UP Police. The dust has finally settled two weeks after his castiest remarks but it has raised a serious question. How 'normal' is the casteist abuse in day to day life of Dalits? If a chief minister can be abused publicly, what does it speak of common Dalits?
Who
Would Wipe Professor Sanaullah Radoo's Tears?
By Subhash Gatade
Perhaps it is high time that the honourable Prime Minister is told that 'Dr Haneef' is not just the name of doctor who was wrongly apprehended in Australia rather it is another name for a phenomenon which is quite rampant in this part of the earth. And the case of Pervez Ahmad Radoo is one such important case which demands his immediate intervention. Such a move only can bring back the smile on Professor Sanaullah's face !
17 April, 2008
Gaza:
The Holocaust Continues
By One Democratic State Group
The latest Israeli war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip have resulted in the brutal killings of 21 Palestinians, including 6 children, within the last 12 hours. More than 40 have been injured. Fadel Shanaa, a Reuters cameraman, was amongst the dead. His visibly marked car was targeted by an Israeli missile in an attempt to cover up crimes committed in day light
No
Child's Play In The Occupied
Palestinian Territories
By Kim Bullimore in the West Bank
Today I witnessed, for the first time, a Palestinian child being abducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces. This, of course, is not the first time that a Palestinian child has been abducted insuch a manner. It happens every single day in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Shame
On Arab Petrodollars
By Khalid Amayreh
A day’s revenue of Arab oil and gas can solve all the Palestinian people’s financial problems. It can enable Palestinian authorities to pay for the salaries of all civil servants and help poor college students continue their education for an entire year. It can also serve to subsidize basic consumer products such as bread, sugar and cooking oil, especially for the most impoverished segments of society
Israel
Doesn't Want To Know Carter Any More
By Peter Hirschberg
Three decades after he brokered the first-ever peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has become persona non grata in the Jewish state. Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak refused to meet with him during his four-day visit here. So did former prime minister and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused Carter of holding "anti-Israel views in recent years."
Carter's
Visit With Hamas' Meshal
By Hasan Abu Nimah
It is unlikely that Carter would come out of a meeting with Meshal fully convinced of the Hamas program, but he may not adopt the notion that Hamas is merely a terrorist organization and an obstacle to peace that no one should ever talk to. Indeed, in an interview with Haaretz, he stressed that to make peace you have to talk to everyone. That possibility alone is frightening enough for an Israel that has no interest in genuine negotiations or an end to conflict that requires it to recognize the rights of the Palestinians
Electoral
Revolution In Nepal
By Gary Leupp
It ought to be the ballot heard 'round the world. It ought to be front page news. But chances are you haven't yet learned that the Maoists of Nepal have apparently swept to power in an election that international monitors acknowledge was free and fair
Peter
Hallward's "Damning The Flood" (Part II)
By Stephen Lendman
This is Part II of Peter Hallward's masterful account of recent Haitian history and what may lie ahead for its beleaguered people
Beyond
The Speed Of Lies
By Rand Clifford
Obvious murder, "mysterious" plane crashes, "suicides", freak accidents—or simply ruined careers for the lucky...since 9-11 they continue to whittle away at opposition to America’s plans for world domination via perpetual war. We are losing the battle for our nation largely because few even realize our only real war is internal. Our options to "the unthinkable" are so few now, though not gone. A new American blitz for truth kicked off by telling CorpoMedia where to put their "news" could help
16 April, 2008
The
End Of The World As You Know It
By Michael T. Klare
Oil at $110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live — trends that, so far as anyone can predict, will only become more pronounced as energy supplies dwindle and the global struggle over their allocation intensifies
Financial
Meltdown And The Madness Of Imperialism
By Raymond Lotta
As serious and potentially destabilizing as this crisis may become, it is also possible that U.S. imperialism could turn this crisis to its advantage. We live in an age of “endless war” and environmental devastation. We live in an ever-more globalized capitalist system that thrives on the toil and agony of the great bulk of humanity but that cannot escape the anarchy that lies at its very foundations. There is necessity and freedom for the imperialists. And so too for the people
Global
Hot Spots Of Hunger Set To Explode
By Thalif Deen
As food prices continue to escalate worldwide, some of the poorest nations in the developing world are in danger of social and political upheavals. The unrest, which is likely to spread to nearly 40 countries, has been triggered largely by a sharp increase in the prices of staple commodities, including wheat, rice, sorghum, maize and soybeans, according to the United Nations
Credit
Crunch? The Real Crisis Is Global Hunger
By George Monbiot
A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse
"Why
Do You Want Us To Have A Civil War?"
By Dan Glazebrook & Robert Fisk
Western journalism and the Middle East conflict: an interview with Robert Fisk
The
Left And Europe’s Religious Roots
By Gaither Stewart
Pope Benedict XVI, the Bavarian Conservative Joseph Ratzinger, arrived in the USA today asking forgiveness for the pedophiles in the repressed ranks of the Church he largely fashioned: the reactionary, retrograde and still restive Roman Catholic Church. In America, as in Italy, in the world, his message is a return to the obscurantism of a bureaucratic religious order and more temporal power as seen in the Roman Church’s battle against divorce, birth control, abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, same sex marriage and women’s rights. Centered on opposition to Islam, his major thrust today is the primacy of religion over the secular and its centrality in the roots of Europe
The
Most Powerful People In America
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
The most powerful people are US, American consumers that account for over 70 percent of the economy. It is exactly now, when the economy is in the toilet, that consumers hold the maximum power. So why are we the people still deluding ourselves that the path to a better future rests on electing a new president?
The
Next Election or. . .What?
By James L. Secor
A crisis or war will occur, martial law will be invoked and elections will be suspended in the name of national security and we will have a new Hitlerean rule. Is it possible? Nuclear warheads at Barksdale AFB, home of the 8th Air Force and staging area for all points in the Middle East. Bush and Co. could care less about intelligence findings on Iran; invasion is still on the table. Dick Cheney goes off on a Middle East tour suspiciously similar to that undertaken just prior to the invasion of Iraq. The Tibet-China-Olympics affair is cloud cover, a wagging of the dog--what is going on behind the scenes as our attention is diverted?
FBI
Email Says Bush Signed Exec Order
Authorizing Harsh Interrogation Methods
By Jason Leopold
President George W. Bush’s comment to ABC News – that he approved discussions that his top aides held about harsh interrogation techniques – adds credence to claims from senior FBI agents in Iraq in 2004 that Bush had signed an Executive Order approving the use of military dogs, sleep deprivation and other tactics to intimidate Iraqi detainees
My
Perspective On Modern World Events
By Mitchell Valentine
There is recently a mass uprising all over the world about the current relationship between Tibet and China and I begin to ask myself a lot of questions being a resident here and all. There is mounting concern that the 2008 Olympics may be affected by the flack that arises. From my perspective on the ground here I have come to a few observations on what is really going on here
Searching
For Soul In The Progressive Wasteland
By Case Wagenvoord
A system is collapsing, and nobody knows what will arise from its rubble. All we know for now is the smell and the sound of structural and systemic failure. Our leaders are tap dancers in a burning theater, tapping gamely away with frozen smiles on their faces, denying the fire even as its flames engulf them
Condoleezza’s
Snarling Poodle
By Irving Wesley Hall
What if Condoleezza, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld personally had to torture the prisoners they ordered waterboarded? The following prophetic spoof was written before ABC's stunning April 9 revelation that Grand Inquisitor Rice chaired the secret star chamber that micromanaged the torture regimen for each U.S. prisoner
The
Return Of Land Hunger
By Mritiunjoy Mohanty
Sixty years after Independence, the challenge facing India is implementing the radical economic and political agenda inherent in the Constitution of 1950, a movement that must be propelled by political mobilisation from below
Advani's
Autobiography Is RSS Version Of Events
By Ram Puniyani
What is most frightening about the book is that communal common sense manufactured by RSS shakhas and propagated by various other means has been presented as a sugar coated pill by this wily swayamsevak turned politician in the service of Hindu Rashtra
15 April, 2008
Why
Food Costs Are Climbing
By Eric Reguly
For the first time in decades, the spectre of widespread hunger for millions looms as food prices explode. Two words not in common currency in recent years — famine and starvation — are now being raised as distinct possibilities in the poorest, food-importing countries. Unlike past food crises, solved largely by throwing aid at hungry stomachs and boosting agricultural productivity, this one won't go away quickly, experts say. Prices are soaring and stand every chance of staying high because this crisis is different
Let
Them Eat Ethanol!
By Sharon Smith
Mainstream economists have usually described the global food crisis as a food “shortage”, but the shortage has been greatly exacerbated by the merciless laws of the free market. In many cases, the problem is not an immediate shortage of food but merely a shortage of the money to pay for it
India:
Rising Food Prices
Threaten Social Calamity
By Kranti Kumara
Concerned about India’s soaring food prices, the country’s Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government imposed a ban on all rice exports earlier this month
Tibet
Exposes Genocidal
Australian Human Rights Abuses
By Dr Gideon Polya
Australia and other Western nations have been properly chiding China for human rights abuses in Tibet. However Australia has an appalling human rights record as assessed by the horrendous avoidable deaths of its domestic and overseas Indigenous subjects. Indeed White Australia’s appalling and genocidal human rights record has prompted formal complaint to the ICC over Australia’s involvement in ongoing Aboriginal, Iraqi, Afghan and Climate Genocides
What
Is Really Behind The Furore Over Tibet?
By Sharat G. Lin
So why are "human rights activists" in the West demanding what the Dalai Lama himself is not? This fact alone is consistent with an exogenous Tibetan separatist movement, not a true human rights movement that supports the aspirations of Tibetan people. The exogenous separatism is driven by the external influences of the U.S. and other Western governments. Now intervention in Nepal is yet another hidden agenda in their quest for a "free" Tibet
Recession
Takes Hold In US
By Barry Grey
GE’s results shook the financial markets because they indicated that the impact of the housing and credit crisis was spreading beyond the housing and banking sectors to broader parts of the US economy. GE’s report came at the beginning of the first-quarter earnings report season, and seemed to confirm the worst fears on Wall Street that profits will drop sharply nearly across the board
Recession,
Depression, Collapse:
What's Fear Got To Do With It?
By Carolyn Baker
The world we wanted to have is not within our reach; the world we deeply dread is upon us. Meanwhile, the world we have known, ugly as it may be but nevertheless familiar, is vanishing before our eyes. Herein lies an opportunity to experience deeper layers of who we really are and what we are really made of. Collapse is compelling us to confront these issues, whether we want to or feel ready to do so or not. While I do not welcome the suffering this will entail, I do welcome the transformation of human consciousness and thus the evolutionary quantum leap it may offer us
Yankee
Ticket Prices And Fossil Fuels
By James Hansen
Fossil fuel reserves are overstated. Government “energy information” departments parrot industry. Partly because of this disinformation, the major efforts needed to develop energies “beyond fossil fuels” have not been made. The reality of limited supply forces prices higher. Eventually, sales volume will begin to decline, but fossil fuel moguls will make more money than ever. They will continue to assert that there is plenty more to be found, aiming to keep the suckers (that’s us) on the hook
Kurt
Vonnegut: Anarchist And Social Critic
By Gaither Stewart
Remembering Kurt Vonnegut
Losses
Mount In Chinese Export Industry
By Alex Lantier
Light export industries in China are continuing to face massive losses, shedding jobs and moving operations either abroad or to lower-wage regions of China. The immediate triggers of the downturn—the political and commercial consequences of the US financial crisis—are exacerbating working class discontent over low wages, pollution and poor working conditions
Peter
Hallward's "Damming The Flood" (Part I)
By Stephen Lendman
Peter Hallward's newest book, "Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment," is the subject of this review, and here's what critics are saying. Physician and Haiti expert Paul Farmer calls it "the best study of its kind (offering) the first accurate analysis of recent Haitian history." Noam Chomsky says it's a "riveting and deeply-informed account (of) Haiti's tragic history." Others have also praised Hallward's book as well-sourced, thorough, accurate and invaluable. This reviewer agrees and covers this superb book in-depth
Basra
Battles: Barely Half The Story
By Ramzy Baroud
When it comes to Iraq, reporters appear intent on omitting or fabricating news. The latest battles in Basra, Iraq's second largest city and a vital oil seaport, furnished ample instances of misleading and manipulative practice in corporate journalism today. One commonly used tactic is to describe events using self-styled or "official" terminology, which deliberately confuses the reader by giving no real indication or analysis of what is actually happening
From
One Dictator To The Next
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
Many Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was
Five
Years On, Fallujah In Tatters
By Ali al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
Fallujah remains a crippled city more than two years after the November 2004 U.S.-led assault. Unemployment, and lack of medical care and safe drinking water in the city 60 km west of Baghdad remain a continuous problem. Freedom of movement is still curtailed
Jim
Hansen, The Big Ice Melt
And The Mainstream Media
By Bill Henderson
Thousands of mainstream media articles and commentaries on TV, in newspapers and magazines, inform about climate change Scenario A, but there has been minimal, almost nonexistent mainstream coverage of Scenario B even though its main proponents - James Hansen and his NASA climate science team - have released several papers explaining this nonlinear vision of climate change focusing upon the unpredicted rapid melting of the polar ice caps
Will
The "Great Indian Middle Class"
Show Up, Please?
By Partho Sarathi Ray
So, we finally find that our "great" middle class, for whom malls and multiplexes are built, rail fares are reduced, airports are constructed, and "Nanos", stained with the blood and tears of evicted farmers, roll off assembly lines, is more like the legendary Cheshire cat of Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. If you look at it deeply and deconstruct it using statistics, it slowly disappears until what remains of it is its smile, suspended in mid-air as a macabre joke on the Indian people
Iraq
War Costs Skyrocketing, But Congress
Unable To Scrutinize Spending
By Jason Leopold
Nearly all of the $516 billion allocated by Congress to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has come in the form of emergency spending requests, a method the White House has abused, depriving Congress the ability to scrutinize how the Pentagon spends money in the so-called global war on terror
The
Three Trillion Dollar War
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The Three Trillion Dollar War – The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict By Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes
Pakistan:
Where Billions Vanish
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Instead of over-funding universities and research, we need to focus resources on creating good quality schools and colleges. We need to encourage creative and skilled people to become school and college teachers, and for this we need to pay them well. We need teachers who can educate young people into becoming good citizens and with skills valued in the economy, and who can train the few going on to higher education
10 April, 2008
India:
Disappearing The Poor
By Jeremy Seabrook
As if to demonstrate that poverty is now a residual issue in the world, the poor are being slowly eliminated from the imagery of the busy global media. “Nowhere in Bollywood films do you see a poor person,” says Pandurang Hegde, activist in the forests of northern Karnataka. “There is no place in the iconography of the new India for anything that suggests impoverishment and loss.” Nor on the majority of TV stations which have flooded India with their unblinking radiance. The poor have become peripheral figures, with scarcely walk-on parts in the great drama of liberalisation
A
Daughter’s Plea
By Shikha Rahi
The 'Naxal threat' has suddenly surfaced in Uttarakhand. It is a state government’s ploy to demand crores of rupees from the Centre. To bolster this claim an innocent journalist, Prashant Rahi, is arrested. His daughter Shikha Rahi writes
Food
Shortages An Emergency -FAO Chief
By Ranjit Devraj
Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), on Wednesday described spiralling food prices as an "emergency" that demanded concerted global attention
Congressional
Hearings Set Stage For
Wider War—Inside And Outside Of Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
As the mass media’s attention remained focused Wednesday on the rerun of testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker—this time before two House committees—a sparsely attended hearing on the Senate side heard a key architect of the year-old “surge” in Iraq tell Democrats that there ultimately isn’t much difference between their position and that of the administration
BBC:
Imperial Tool
By Stephen Lendman
At a time of growing public disenchantment with the major media, millions now rely on alternate sources. Many online and print ones are credible. One of the world's most relied on is not - the BBC. It's an imperial tool, as corrupted as its dominant counterparts, been around longer than all of them, now in it for profit, and it's vital that people know who BBC represents and what it delivers
The
Failure Of A Civilization
By Maryam Sakeenah
When a civilization, preoccupied with sustaining the culture of Narcissism is unable to see its descent let alone stop it, it is a failed civilization. When all you have of 'civilization' is trapped within brand labels and sophisticated technology, in highbrow rhetoric justifying unjustifiable warfare, yours is a failed civilization
Jesus
Knows A camel When He Sees One:
We Are NOT Passing Through The Eye Of
That Needle, America….
By Jason Miller
As a nation premised on savage capitalism, we are the antithesis of a Christian nation. Collectively we are an abomination. May God and the rest of the world have mercy on us all as our precious empire crumbles
Is
Google Keeping The Gate In America?
By Case Wagenvoord
Blogspot has notified Case Wagenvoord, who writes a dissenting blog, that the blog “has been identified as a potential spam blog” and that, “You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog
Winds
Of Change
By Pablo Ouziel
The problem for the common people is that there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ because we have no say in what is happening. The people in power are laughing at our individual indifference, if we can understand that, then things can change. I have no answers, I just have one question: Where are the winds of change?
Colonised
Epistemologies
By Ashok Agrwaal
I would ask the following questions. Is there any sense in opposing monoculture? Would you like to see Eucalyptus take over the Indian terrain? Would you like to have just one variety (the Monsanto one) of rice, wheat, etc grown on Indian farms? If not, then why would you like to have western epistemology as the only one available? Is it because you believe that other epistemologies are incapable of "expressing modernity"?
Vanunu's
Fifth Year Of Restrictions
Begins And Norway Caves
By Eileen Fleming
On April 7, 2008 Mordechai Vanunu, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for the last twenty-two years learned that Israel has continued the restrictions against his right to leave the state or to speak with human beings if they are not Israelis. On April 9, 2008 it was reported that now Norway has joined Sweden, Canada and Denmark in refusing asylum to Vanunu
They
Only Know How To Kill
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Drones, machine and human, have drenched Pakistan with the blood of innocents
07 April, 2008
Gaza
Running On Near Empty
By Mohammed Omer
Gaza needs 850,000 litres of fuel every week, says Mahmoud al-Khozendar, vice-president of the Petrol Station Owners Association in Gaza. Israel allows in just 70,000 litres of it. He said Gaza also needs 2.5 million litres of coal gas a week. Only 800,000 litres per week comes in
There
Are No Checkpoints In Heaven
By Ramzy Baroud
"I am sick, son, I am sick," my father cried when I spoke to him two days before his death. He died alone on March 18, waiting to be reunited with my brothers in the West Bank. He died a refugee, but a proud man nonetheless. My father's struggle began 60 years ago, and it ended a few days ago. Thousands of people descended to his funeral from throughout Gaza, oppressed people that shared his plight, hopes and struggles, accompanying him to the graveyard where he was laid to rest. Even a resilient fighter deserves a moment of peace
Barack
Obama: Operation
Board Games For Slumlords
By Evelyn Pringle
Barack Obama has a long history of working with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and governors of Illinois, including the current Governor Rod Blagojevich, in doling government funding for housing development in Chicago. His history is hardly a model of success, except for the hundred of millions in profits made by the chosen few slumlords
Destroying
Public Education In America
By Stephen Lendman
A new Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center report released April 1 is revealing, disturbing but not surprising. It states only 52% of public high school students in the nation's 50 largest cities completed the full curriculum and graduated in 2003 - 2004. This compares to the national average of 70%
The
Protests In Tibet And The Discontent Below
By Li Onesto
The main character and contours of these protests are hard to determine at this point because of the difficulty in getting reliable reports. And an analysis of this is beyond the scope of this article. But some things can be said at this point about the different class forces that are a part of this upsurge
Romancing
The War
By Mustapha Marrouchi
Iraq, the seat of the glorious Abbassid period , which gave us the Golden Age of Islam, is a contaminated place, full of dust, blood, and stench
Israel's
60th Approaches, But Israeli Minister Of
Public Security Can’t Even Secure Himself!
By Cherifa Sirry
I am astonished that this item of news has not been headlines since it happened 2 days ago. Public Security minister Avi Dichter was shot at broad daylight and the shooting was even filmed
Zakariya
Zubeidi, Number One Most Wanted:
Then And Now
By Eileen Fleming
My chance to interview Zakariya Zubeidi, then still commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Jenin, was nearly nine months ago. On April 4, 2008, Haaretz reported their interview with Zubeidi
The
Zoo On The Road To Nablus
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The Zoo on the Road to Nablus – A Story of Survival from the West Bank By Amelia Thomas
Kashmiri
Nation- An Identity Of Their Own
By Rizwana Abbasi
If the Kashmir issue is not resolved promptly, the growing expansion of defence capabilities in the region will have catastrophic results. In a war between India and Pakistan – a war which we are told is ‘unthinkable’, but which is still possible given the posture of the two armed forces and the political establishments -- Kashmiris will fall the victim of the first use of nuclear arsenals in the sub-Continent. This is an outcome which sixty years of fruitless negotiations to date ought to have taught us to avoid at all costs
Women
Behind The Bylines
By A Shaheen
Book Review: Taking an introspective look at a profession that has a significant presence of women today (in terms of numbers though), Ammu Joseph's Making News: Women in Journalism chronicles the experiences of more than 200 women journalists, reflecting upon gender and gender-related issues
04 April, 2008
US
Lawmakers Have As Much As $196 Million
Invested In "Defense" Companies
By The Associated Press
Members of the U.S.Congress have as much as $196 million (126.2 million) collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the start of the Iraq war, according to a new study by a nonpartisan research group
Wanted
- Homes For Small Island People
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
A rapidly warming planet may soon create a new class of refugees -- those fleeing climate change in their homelands
The
Water Thieves
By Steve McGiffen
looking at the way the EU's mania for privatisation is standing in the way of a solution to the growing crisis of water supply in Europe and beyond
Is
It Time For The Peace Movement
To Start Protesting Senator Obama?
By Kevin B. Zeese
In the last two weeks Senator Obama has been sounding rather hawkish. Perhaps he believes he has the Democratic nomination wrapped up and now can start running to the center-right. The peace movement needs to let him know his positions are not acceptable
Saving
The American Left:
The Case For A New Progressive Creed
By Bernard Chazelle
The American left is in the throes of an existential crisis. Some say it's a failure of nerve, others a loss of belief. It is the latter. Neoliberalism has sucked the oxygen out of the left by deflating the political sphere to the economic one. The left must articulate a new creed around three principles: empowerment (the economic is ancillary to the political); social justice (the disadvantaged have an unconditional claim upon the collectivity); and decency (the state may not humiliate anyone). To make its case, the left must redefine that most exalted form of self-interest, patriotism, as pride in a society that grants all of its members the means to belong
Bush
Snubbed At NATO Summit
By Stefan Steinberg
At this week’s NATO summit in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, US President George W. Bush has faced concerted European opposition to his plans for a further eastward expansion of the alliance. Only a last minute compromise allowed the American president to save face. German politicians in particular were reported to be angry and disconcerted at the insistence by the American president on the speedy inclusion of Georgia and the Ukraine into the ranks of the NATO