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31 May, 2007

Reflections On The Psychopathology
Of Racist Thinking

By Tim Wise

The mind of the racist is an intricate web of delusions, in which white majorities are always under siege, preyed upon by dark hordes intent on destruction. Anti-racist activist Tim Wise explores the tortuous mental pathways that lead millions of whites to conclude they are victims - and turn tragedies like the Virginia Tech murders into calls for racial revenge and redemption. Despite all the data to the contrary, a significant body of white opinion insists that Black-on-white crime is down-played by the media - an absurdity that is designed to justify the reality of racial oppression

The Politics of Naming: Genocide,
Civil War, Insurgency

By Mahmood Mamdani

The similarities between Iraq and Darfur are remarkable. But the violence in the two places is named differently. In Iraq, it is said to be a cycle of insurgency and counter-insurgency; in Darfur, it is called genocide. Why the difference? Who does the naming? Who is being named? What difference does it make?

A Letter To Cindy Sheehan:
Darkness Comes Just Before Dawn

By Danny Schechter

Your son Casey perished in one war. Please don’t allow yourself to perish in this one. Understand that it is a war, and in wars, you don’t win every battle. The goal has to be-and I say this with love and respect— to live to fight another day. It’s always dark just before the dawn

To The Shores Of Tripoli
By Uri Avnery

The bloody battles that have erupted around the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli in Lebanon remind us that the refugee problem has not disappeared. On the contrary, 60 years after the "Nakba", the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948, it is again the center of attention throughout the world

'Rockets Of futility'?
By Hasan Abu Nimah

The Israeli onslaught on Gaza should be halted. And if it is the Palestinian "futility rockets" that have provoked, and continue to provoke, the Israeli "defensive" retaliation, the firing of rockets at Israel should be halted too

Terrorism Defined
By Stephen Lendman

Probably no word better defines or underscores the Bush presidency than "terrorism" even though his administration wasn't the first to exploit this highly charged term. Here is an attempt to define the term

The Case Of Shahzima Tariq And Shamial Raj
On Entering Into "Same Sex" Marriage

By Nighat Majid

Here is the story of a couple who have been jailed in Pakistan, simply because they chose to get married and happen to be same sex, though even that is not absolutely certain

Misdirected Hyderabad Bomb Blast Investigations
By Adv. Irfan Engineer

For the truth to be unraveled, there needs to be a thorough and impartial CBI Inquiry which examines all possible theories and marshals thorough evidence to prove the guilt of the accused. For we must know the truth to be able to stop bomb blasts

School For Refugee Kids Tells The Tale Of Neglect
By K.A. Shaji

The `international' school, conceived originally by Rajiv Gandhi and established by NGO Bright Society years back in memory of his mother Indira Gandhi at Yelahnaka in Bangalore, holds no promise for the children of Sri Lankan Tamils who left their own land on different occasions unable to withstand the escalation of ethnic violence

30 May, 2007

The Exit of Cindy Sheehan
By Ron Jacobs

It can be reasonably argued that it was Cindy Sheehan that made it okay for Middle America to protest, and for that she must be thanked. Now that she is taking a breather from the madness it is up to us to continue expanding those protests. It is certainly not time to give up

Good Riddance Attention Whore
By Cindy Sheehan

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources

Why I Am Ashamed To Be An American
By Doug Soderstrom

If we truly care about our country, if we really do want our nation to flourish, then we should realize that we have not only the right, but, much more importantly, the responsibility, perhaps even, one might say, a moral responsibility to point out its deficiencies in order that it might once again be revived

Ideas Cannot Be Killed
By Fidel Castro

When he was recently asked by an important personality about his Cuba policy, his answer was this: “I am a hard-line President and I am just waiting for Castro’s demise.” The wishes of such a powerful gentleman are no privilege. I am not the first nor will I be the last that Bush has ordered to be killed; nor one of those people who he intends to go on killing individually or en masse. But it would serve him well to remember that ideas cannot be killed

Bush Decrees New Sanctions Against Sudan
By Bill Van Auken

President Bush Tuesday announced that his administration is imposing a fresh set of economic sanctions on Sudan, claiming the measures are designed to pressure the government in Khartoum to halt the bloodshed in the country’s western-most province of Darfur

About Saving Darfur: Reflections On
The Carrot And The Stick

By Stephen Eric Bronner

As pundits speak about the growth of "compassion fatigue" concerning Darfur, usually without mentioning the devastating lack of positive proposals offered by the political mainstream, now is the time -- echoing an old slogan -- to give up the cant and return to Kant

Will The Lebanese Army Enter
The Nahr el-Bared Camp?

By Alexander Jenniches

What exactly will be the - at least temporary - solution is uncertain at this point. But there is good reason to assume that the Lebanese government will at the end not confront Fatah al-Islam directly. Not yet, and not under the circumstances that the group is hiding among Palestinian civilians

Global Warming: Who’s To Blame?
By Nicole Colson

In any rational society, the threat of global warming would have gotten attention a long time ago, with every possible resource devoted to measures to slow climate change and alleviate its effects. But under capitalism, greed and profits come first--even at the risk of far-reaching global devastation

Runaway Climate Change: An Obesity Analogy
By Bill Henderson

Sea-level rise in 2100. An increasing risk of hurricanes, weird weather and heat waves. Risks to farming and forestry; drought and famine leading to failed states and refugees. Corroding ecosystems; species extinction; disease migration and bug infestations. Predicted increasing but adaptable - not terminal - risks as the temperature rises

Christians: A Faith Under Assault
In Secular India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

A review of John Dayal's book "A matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India"

29 May, 2007

Earth, Inc. Sliding Into Bankruptcy
By Stephen Leahy

Build a shrimp farm in Thailand by cutting down mangrove forests and you will net about 8,000 dollars per hectare. Meanwhile, the destruction of the forest and pollution from the farm will result in a loss of ecosystems worth 35,000 dollars/ha per year. Many leading development institutions and policy-makers still fail to understand that this ruthless exploitation for short-term profits could trigger an Enron-like collapse of "Earth, Inc."

Tense Siege Continues At Lebanon’s
Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp

By Peter Symonds

The Lebanese army siege of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp outside of the northern city of Tripoli is now in its tenth day. Thousands of Palestinian refugees have flooded out of the camp after a shaky ceasefire was negotiated last Tuesday between the military and the Al Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam fighters entrenched inside the camp. Many residents, however, have refused to leave, despite the danger of a bloody showdown

As'ad Abukhalil On The Nahr al-Bared Siege
By Ali Abunimah

An interview with As'ad Abukhalil, the creator of the Angry Arab News Service blog. Abukhalil explains the origins of Fath al-Islam, the events that led to the violence and what it means for Lebanon and the region

Why I Am Leaving The Democratic Party
By Cindy Sheehan

Letter to Democratic Congress

What Military Service Qualifies
Bush To Lead Iraq War

By Evelyn Pringle

This country is now paying a heavy price for Bush's lack of military experience, and his taunting invitation of "bring it on," that has resulted in a never ending stream of challengers traveling to Iraq to teach our loudmouth President a lesson.When evaluating Bush’s performance as the Commander-in-Chief leading the Iraq war, it might be helpful to take another look at his years of service in military, or lack thereof

Sri Lanka: Balance Of Terror
By Chandi Sinnathurai

In order to negotiate peace, the international peace-brokers must deal with the root cause: And that is the horrorism of STATE TERROR in Sri Lanka. The reality of it has to be recognised, accepted and has to be uprooted. The simple logic of taking care of Cents will ensure that the Rupees will take care of it self. First things first; the State Terror machinery must be dismantled. Until such time, there will be circuitous talks about peace minus the tangible peace on the ground

Lisa Kois’s Film The Art Of Forgetting – Review
By Prasanna Ratnayake

It is sobering to watch Lisa Kois’s Art of Forgetting which covers the past thirty years of brutal civil wars and assassinations in the North, East and South of Sri Lanka. The subject of this documentary is the impact and scale of human suffering for people caught in the clash between those demanding a motherland and those defending a motherland

Looking HIV And AIDS Issues Through
Gender And Human Rights Lenses

By Sirajul Islam

While analysing gender, HIV and AIDS and human rights, we acknowledged that when men are fighting a deadly human immunodeficiency virus, women are fighting both a deadly virus and wide-ranging inequity in trying to defeat the hazards of HIV and AIDS. We understood that from corner to corner of the world, they face a number of conditions which swell their possibility of HIV infection in gender-specific ways

28 May, 2007

Israel Targets Hamas’s Political Leadership
By Jean Shaoul

Israel is continuing to mount air strikes in Gaza as part of its drive to destroy Hamas as a military and political force and torpedo the Palestinian national unity government, as well as any possibility of a negotiated deal with Palestinian leaders

Cheering To The Beat Of The Palestinians' Misery
By Sami Hermez

Accountability does not exist in Lebanon, and thus, there will be no equivalent to the Winograd commission, no call for the prime minister to resign, and no trial of the government or those responsible for starting the current conflagration. The best way to support the army and honor the dead Lebanese soldiers is to call for an internal investigation. Anything short of that is clear proof of our society's moral bankruptcy

What Is Behind The Latest Crisis In Lebanon?
By Alexander Jenniches

What probably directly led to the current clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Fatah al-Islam group is that funds for the group were stopped and some of the group´s members just raised their own funds by robbing a bank, which belongs at least partly to the Hariri family who assumably is also behind the financing of the group. Then, while the robbers where hiding in Tripoli and the Nahr al-Bared camp, security forces went after them, and the fight began

The Best Runner In The Class
By Ilan Pappe

Horror stories from Israel's Independence War or the war of liberation

"Baghdad Is A Smashed City..."
By Dahr Jamail

A letter from Baghdad

The Growing Abuse Of Transfer Pricing By TNCs
By Kavaljit Singh

Transfer pricing, one of the most controversial and complex issues, requires closer scrutiny not only by the critics of TNCs but also by the tax authorities in the poor and the developing world. Transfer pricing is a strategy frequently used by TNCs to book huge profits through illegal means

Venezuela's RCTV: Sine Die And Good Riddance
By Stephen Lendman

Venezuelan TV station Radio Caracas Television's (known as RCTV) VHF Channel 2's operating license expired May 27, and it went off the air because the Chavez government, with ample justification, chose not to renew it

Poisoning The Troops Again
By Heather Wokusch

The Pentagon has a disturbing pattern of withholding information on the impact of chemical/biological weapons and other toxins on US service members. As a result, veterans are often told that their debilitating symptoms are "in their head" and can go decades without receiving medical help. That's not supporting our troops

Muslim Deprivation: Some Thoughts In
The Context Of The Sachar Committee Report

By Yoginder Sikand

Paper presented at a conference on the Sachar Committee Report, 19 May, 2007, Trivandrum, organised by the Forum for Social Action

27 May, 2007

When Oil And Water Mix
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

While oil is the primary motive for the United States, water ideology and expansion are Israel’s motives for giving the Bush administration reason for war, leaving Israel room to benefit from the Bush administration’s ambitions

Franco – Arab Ties Could Yet
Survive Sarkozy’s U-Turn

By Nicola Nasser

The defensive and guarded Arab reaction to the self-pronounced and reported pro-Israel and pro-America statements of Nicolas Paul Stephane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, who was sworn in as the new President of France on May 16, as well as his Jewish connection and that of his foreign policy team, have alerted Arab capitals and public opinion to a possibly imminent break with his country’s more than a five-decade old balanced approach to Arab conflicts and the Arab – Israeli conflict in particular

Make Memorial Day Be Inclusive Of "Foreigners"
Killed In America's Foreign Wars

By Jay Janson

Put ourselves in the shoes of Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Panamanian, Iraqi and Afghan bereaved families. Could we even imagine such bombings upon US towns and countryside? Wecan improve the whole world and ourselves with such imagination. Make a War Victims Day to foster war prevention

Childhood Origins Of Adult Resistance To Marxism
By Thomas Riggins

There may a scientific explanation for Aduld Resistance to Marxism (ARM). In this article I will explore the causes of ARM and propose possible remedies to this serious mental deficiency which severely prevents those who are victims of this disorder from properly functioning in their social environment and maximizing their abilities to provide the best possible existential conditions for the flourishing of themselves and their loved ones

Black Leadership: Unable Or Willing
To Address Black Mass Incarceration

By Bruce Dixon

America’s undeclared but universal policies of racially selective policing, prosecution and mass incarceration of its Black citizens have imposed unprecedented strains on the social and economic viability of Black families and communities – of the entire African American polity

Is Our Peace Activists Learning?
By David Swanson

Over the past two months of repeated Congressional votes to fund the occupation of Iraq, culminating in President Bush's signing the bill on Friday, what – if anything – have we learned? Have we learned anything about individuals or political parties or activist organizations to trust or despise, or have we learned better what to demand of them regardless of such emotions? Have we learned anything about policies to support, battles to lose, pyrrhic victories, or how to talk about ending the occupation?

Indigenous Women’s Pushback
By Yifat Susskind

As this year’s UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues draws to a close, Indigenous women are facing off against the United States and other powerful state actors who oppose the Declaration. The amendment forwarded by the United States -- which would exempt states from enforcing the declaration once they ratify it -- is a classic Bush administration maneuever

One Apartheid Regime Down;One More To Go
By Ramzy Baroud

Amongst the many names scribbled at the fenced wall at the helm of Cape of Good Hope, someone took the time to write “Palestine”. In the Apartheid Wall erected by Israel on Palestinian land in the West Bank, the South African parallel is expressed in more ways than one. The relationship cannot be any more obvious. The fight for justice is one, and shall always be

Holding The Bully’s Coat
By Jim Miles

Book review of Linda McQuaig's new book - Holding the Bully's Coat

Marriage Mirage In Kerala
By K A Shaji

Married and cast away shortly after honeymoon by their Arab husbands, hundreds of poor Muslim women in Kerala's northern coastal districts are cursing their fate

26 May, 2007

Congress Gives War Profiteers Another
Hundred Billion

By Evelyn Pringle

Congress has demonstrated its unconditional love for the Bush administration by handing the war profiteers another $100 billion worth of good reasons to keep the war in Iraq rolling along at full-throttle

Where Nobody Is Accountable
By Ali al-Fadhily

Killings, crime, lack of medical care, collapse of education, the list goes on. But with the occupation by U.S.-led forces now into a fifth year, and a supposedly democratic government in place, no one knows who to hold accountable for all that is going wrong

Globalization And Democracy:Some Basics
By Michael Parenti

The fight against free trade is a fight for the right to politico-economic democracy, public services, and a social wage, the right not to be completely at the mercy of big capital

US Steps Up Threats Against
Iran Over Nuclear Programs

By Peter Symonds

The US administration has responded belligerently to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran’s refusal to suspend its nuclear programs by calling for a third UN resolution and tougher penalties

U.S. And Lebanon
By Seymour Hersh

We're in the business now of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia, against the Shia in Iran, against the Shia in Lebanon, that is Nasrullah. Civil war. We're in a business of creating in some places, Lebanon in particular, a sectarian violence

Japan Infiltrates The Middle East
By Shirzad Azad

The United States is pushing Japan toward greater engagement in the Middle East. Despite its support of the Iraq fiasco, Japan’s reputation in the region is far better than that of the United States, and many people in the Middle East still feel positively about the role it can play. Washington wants Tokyo, a trusted ally, to shoulder some of the economic and security burdens

Obama And The Hunger For A Black President
By Rudolph Lewis

Our true black leaders must be willing to take a new path, create a new rhetoric, support more radical politics-withdraw from mainstream electoral parties, boycott the presidential elections, etc.-until our liberation is achieved. If that means we must leave some of our black brothers behind in the Democratic and Republican parties, then let it be

Arroyo/AFP Carry Out Orchestrated
Betrayal In May 14 Vote

By Brian McAfee

The Philippine May 14 elections were marred by fraud, intimidation, and political murders by the U.S. supported Arroyo regime and military. Reports coming out of the Philippines on the recent elections indicate that there was a climate of fear, intimidation, and harassment before and during the polling

J' accuse: A Children's Doctor
And A Mighty State

By Subhash Gatade

It has been more than ten days that Dr Binayak Sen, a paediatrician by training and profession and a human rights activist by choice has received a new identity. - A menace to public safety - The Chattisgarh police whose own record of human rights violations would shame even the KPS Gills, has used the provisions of the draconian Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act ( a substitute for POTA ) to detain Dr Binayak Sen in the wee hours of 14 th May

24 May, 2007

What Is Happening In Lebanon?
By Laurie King-Irani

What's now happening in Lebanon requires a much more subtle and fine-grained interpretation, one that takes on board the reverberations of political developments from Baghdad to Washington, while attending to emerging social and economic conditions in the Middle East. The situation is much more complicated, fluid, unbounded, and therefore ominous than CNN's "experts" seem to grasp

Innocent Victims Caught Up In
A War Of Endless Revenge

By Robert Fisk

Back at Nahr el-Bared, a heap of empty Lebanese army machinegun cartridges, and I picked one up as a souvenir. And when I got home to Beirut, I put it with a much older cartridge case which I picked up back in the late Eighties when the same army was besieging the Palestinians in Sidon. Of course, the two cases were identical in calibre. The tragedy goes on. And its identical nature has made it normal, routine, typical, easy to accept. And woe betide if we believe that

Two-State Chimera, No-State Solution
By Cameron Hunt

It is time to move on to the actual solution: the ‘no-state solution’. Under this solution, all lands of historic Palestine would be internationalized, and would become part of a new United Nations ‘Trust Territory’ (UNTT). The UN Charter would represent the constitution of that Territory, and the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court – both supra-national bodies – would represent the Territory’s highest courts

The Result Of Bad Politics
By Hasan Abu Nimah

Why should anyone holding the can, pouring oil on the fire, scream with surprise that there is fire or that the fire is raging? The raging fire in Gaza is the inevitable outcome of occupation, siege and starvation, of years of humiliation and suffering, of frustration and desperation, of injustice and oppression, of resulting lawlessness and chaos, of absence of leadership, and vicious foreign intervention and senseless incitement. With such ingredients, all planned and premeditated, the Gazans should deserve all the respect in the world for only behaving that badly

John Howard's Dubious Jewish
National Fund Honor

By Sonja Karkar

There is something worrying about a prime minister of a liberal, democratic country who imposes values on his country's citizens and those who wish to become citizens, yet does not adhere to those values when he regards it politically expedient to ignore them. This is precisely what Prime Minister John Howard has done in accepting the "honour" of having a forest named after him in Israel's Negev Desert and also the Jerusalem Prize for his support of Israel and its "values"

Walls As Enforcer Of Occupation
By Ghali Hassan

The ongoing Occupation is not to “stop the violence”; the Occupation is the violence. The aim of the occupiers is to create pretexts to justify the Occupation. The U.S.-built walls around Iraqi towns and suburbs, including the recent wall around Baghdad’s district of al-Adhamiyah, are evidence of a U.S.-backed strategy of “divide and rule”. It is the last of many desperate measures to protect the Occupation and it’s headquarter, the “Green Zone”, from a determined national Resistance

Violence Against The Cross
By Ram Puniyani

The scattered attacks on the Christian missionaries working in remote places of India speaks a lot about the nature of the political formation carrying out these attacks, their agenda of regarding Muslims and Christians as internal threat to Nation explains the current politics which is far from the one which should be seen in a civil society!

March For Land, Dignity And
Freedom In Poorvanchal

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Hunger and starvation deaths in the eastern Uttar-Pradesh continue to haunt communities during the last one decade. Every year people are dying of different diseases particularly Malaria, and Japanese Encephalitis (brain fever). While the names have changed the target of these viral diseases remain the same communities. Keeping in view of this, Uttar-Pradesh Land Alliance and Social Development Foundation, Delhi are organizing a Padyatra ( Footmarch) beginning from June 1 st, 2007 till June 22nd , 2007

Bihar: Pension To The Emergency Detenus, Whether
The Hindutva Activists Deserve This Bonanza?

By Subhash Gatade

Nitish Kumar led government, in the Indian state of Bihar is in the news for its latest proposal to honour detenus during emergency. While it has generated lot of heat in the state politics, it has inadvertently or so reopened the chapter pertaining the not so glorious role of the Sangh Parivar during this tumultuous period

23 May, 2007

What Really Happened At Mecca Masjid
A Fact Finding Report

By identifying the probable accused and the organizations with out any preliminary evidence show the attempts of the police to close all other areas of suspicion. The investigating agency can only come up with the names of the organizations which are responsible for the blast only after eliminating all other organizations which can be suspected in such nature of crimes. The committee feels that both the bomb blast and the subsequent police firing are aimed at terrorizing Muslims and trampling minimum agitation from that side

Hyderabad Blasts: Malegaon Syndrome
Travels South

By Mubasshir Ahmed

Time is ripe for India to come out of its conditioned mentality. Investigators must break their mental blocks. Indian law enforcement agencies suffer from the fatal disease of prejudice. India is once again going through the 'siege within' phase

Forty Years Of Occupation
By Stephen Lendman

For 40 years under occupation on one-fifth of their original land and nearly 60 years after the "Nakba," Palestinians are forced to endure the most appalling repression no one should have to face for a single day. Five million of them, including 1.4 million Israeli citizens, are denied all rights afforded Jews only and are subjected to daily abuse and neglect along with regular IDF assaults against which they're defenseless. The Palestinians suffer for it, and the world community is silent except, like Israel, to shamefully call the victims the victimizers

The Road To Jerusalem (via Lebanon)
By Robert Fisk

They came into Lebanon last summer when the world was watching Israel smash this small nation in a vain attempt to destroy the Hizbollah. But the men who set up their grubby little office in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, some of them fighters from the Iraq war, others from Yemen, Syria or Lebanon itself, were far more dangerous than America and Israel believed the Hizbollah to be

Opium: Iraq's Deadly New Export
By Patrick Cockburn

Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan

Pet Panacea Of India’s Ruling Classes:
Two-Party Political System

By Badri Raina

India’s ruling think gurus are forever on the lookout for a smart panacea for what they perceive the country’s ills. In arguing for a two-party political system, the idea seems to be to subdue the proliferation of organic discontent among the lower orders of the polity by imposing a mechanical structural arrangement from the top

Letter To A Young American Hindu
By Vijay Prashad

The choice lies between giving over the traditions you love to the forces of hatred who might masquerade as the defenders of tradition; or to the force within you, and around you, a force of love and ecstasy, passion and pain to transform the world. What would you have?

Pope, Brazil And Arrogance
By Mike Ghouse

Pope Benedict just visited Brazil and his comments have caused uproar when he said, “the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas. They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were "silently longing" for Christianity.” Satere Mawe, chief coordinator of the Amazon Indian group Coiab responded, “It’s arrogant and disrespectful to consider our cultural heritage secondary to theirs."

G8 summit: Will They Listen?
By Kumi Naidoo

Germany has an opportunity to change the course of history. It could be remembered not as the place where Africa’s woes began but where impoverished nations got the chance they needed to recover, once and for all. Just as Germany benefited from the Marshall plan, surely a global Marshall plan now makes sense. It would ensure future generations live in a world characterised by political, social, economic, gender and environmental justice

Is Evo An Evil Enemy Of The People?
By Guillermo Almeyra

For some there is no doubt. There are those that say "there is no reason to look at Bolivia" and who instead declare that Evo Morales "will never decolonise the country", that the nationalisations that have been announced are no such thing and, forgetting that support for the indigenous and popular government surpasses 75%, say, without flinching, that all the social movements are against the government.So what is the truth?

Dr. Paul’s Truth Prescriptions
By Rand Clifford

Emergence of Ron Paul so bravely standing up for truth could not have come at a more crucial time, though it seems neither of our industrial parties have room for any more than token truth. Perhaps the best we could hope for is that the GOP becomes intolerable for Dr. Paul—or even kicks him out, and he becomes an Independent

22 May, 2007

More Than 100 Dead And Injured
At Nahr Al-Bared Camp

By Ma'an News Agency

Fighting has entered its third day around the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr Al-Bared, in the north of Lebanon.The number of dead is not clear. Reports range from 50 to over 80 dead, including soldiers, militants and civilians. According to Al-Jazeera, at least 20 fighters, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been killed since fighting between the army and Fatah Al-Islam fighters erupted early on Sunday

Lebanese Bloggers React To Refugee Camp Siege
By Moussa Bachir

The clashes between the Lebanese army and the organization of Fatah al Islam, as well as the explosion in Ashrafieh (Beirut), took precedence over all other news and blog posts in almost all of the blogs during the past two days. Following are quotes from a number of these posts including a post quoting a civilian trapped in the camp of Nahr el Barid in North Lebanon, in the crossfire, between the army and the organization

Lebanese Army Lays Siege
To Palestinian Refugee Camp

By Peter Symonds

It is quite possible that sections of the Siniora government have deliberately provoked the current confrontation and blamed Syria in order to refocus international attention on Lebanon. Last week, Siniora called on the UN to set up the Hariri tribunal despite the failure of the Lebanese parliament to approve the measure. At the same time, clashes enable the army to weaken further Fatah al-Islam and tighten security around Palestinian camps throughout the country

A Front-Row Seat For This Lebanese Tragedy
By Robert Fisk

And then comes the crackle-crackle of rifle fire and a shoal of bullets drifts out of the camp. A Lebanese army tank fires a shell in return and we feel the faint shock wave from the camp. How many are dead? We don’t know. How many are wounded? The Red Cross cannot yet enter to find out. We are back at another of those tragic Lebanese stage shows: the siege of Palestinians

Operation Iraq Forever
By Manuel Valenzuela

Iraq is too valuable, in the minds of America’s elite and her corporatists, to simply walk away from. For all intents and purposes, therefore, Iraq has become America’s 51st state, a colony that will act as America’s gas station for decades to come. Iraq is destined to become the grease that provides the lubrication needed to run the great American engine

Hamas, Mickey Mouse And Other Horror Stories:
Those Violent Palestinians Again

By Agustin Velloso

The Palestinian Mickey Mouse story is yet one more of the numerous lies disseminated by Israel and taken as it stood by Western journalists. The translation of the Mickey Mouse words, again, as happens with statements about Israel attributed to Ahmedinejad and in other cases too, is corrupt. But which news outlet is going to ask for an explanation from the people who distributed it? Which TV presenter is going to publicly admit they were fooled? Which chief editor is going to confess that they failed to check the - obviously Israeli - source?

Chomsky On India-Pakistan Relations
By Michael Shank & Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. On April 26, Michael Shank interviewed him about relations between India and Pakistan. This is the second part of a two-part interview

Hillary Clinton's Achilles Heel?
By Joshua Frank

The Iraq war to Hillary Clinton is more about political expediency than honesty or integrity, and it may well prove to be her Achilles' heel over the course of the next year. Like President Bush, and so many other wayward politicians, Hillary is also to blame for the shameful bloodshed that plagues Iraq today

US Reaffirms Support For Musharraf
By Vilani Peiris & Keith Jones

The Bush administration has reiterated its support for Pakistan’s military strongman, General Pervez Musharraf, in the wake of bloody, government-orchestrated attacks on opposition protesters in Karachi, May 12 and 13, that left more than forty people dead

Peace Into Pieces
By Syed Ali Safvi

The ground situation in Kashmir will not improve unless and until the Govt. of India or the State govt. (remember, it has the power to do so) revoke the draconian acts – Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA). The government must ensure that errant troops involved in the humanitarian crimes should be brought to book so that others would learn a lesson

21 May, 2007

Why Working Less Is Better For The Globe
By Dara Colwell

Americans are working harder than ever before. The dogged pursuit of the paycheck coupled with a 24/7 economy has thrust many of us onto a never-ending treadmill. But of workaholism's growing wounded, its greatest casualty has been practically ignored -- the planet

Tracking Dangerous Climate Change This Week
By Bill Henderson

The turn it around within a decade, 2 degrees imperative seems to be sinking in, but, for the moment, at the government level, only as a lofty European goal to be rejected by the White House and sycophants

Israel Stokes Up Hamas-Fatah Strife
In Gaza, Considers Ground Invasion

By Jean Shaoul

Israel is intervening in the mounting factional strife in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas, with the explicit aim of eliminating Hamas as a military and political force

Palestinian Pinochet Making His Move?
By Tony Karon

The Fatah gunmen who are reported to have initiated the breakdown of the Palestinian unity government and provoked the latest fighting may profess fealty to President Abbas, but it’s not from him that they get their orders. The leader to whom they answer is Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza warlord who has long been Washington’s anointed favorite to play the role of a Palestinian Pinochet

FDA Protects SSRI Makers With
Misleading Suicide Warning

By Evelyn Pringle

On May 2, 2007, the FDA announced its most misleading warnings to date about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants when it said the drug makers would revise the current black box warning of an increased risk of suicidality in children and adolescents to include adults, but only young adults ages 18 to 24. Apparently at the ripe old age of 25 the increased risk no longer exists

'Where One Burns Books,
One Will Soon Burn People'

By Jawed Naqvi

Cultural censorship is rapidly gathering steam in India. A drawing student was recently picked up from an arts college in Baroda and thrown into prison because religious zealots raided the campus and objected to his painting of Hindu gods and goddesses

Supreme Court Upholds Importance Of Biosafety
By Kavitha Kuruganti

In the orders passed after the May 8th hearing in the GMOs PIL filed by Aruna Rodrigues and three others, the Supreme Court of India clearly upheld once again the importance of biosafety when it comes to Genetically Modified Organisms

20 May, 2007

Zimbabwe: Once Again, No Easy Victories
By Joseph Jordan

The author, who as a youth was among the millions of African Americans that hailed revolutionary leader Robert Mugabe as a hero, says Blacks are now required "to speak out directly against the violations of human rights that have marked the rule of President Robert Mugabe over the past few years." The covenant made by African Americans more than a generation ago was with the people of Zimbabwe. Silence in the face of "clear and unequivocal" evidence of Mugabe's abuses of power would violate that covenant. The "the rights of Zimbabwe's people" are paramount

Resource Wars
By Emily Spence

Human resource wars, likewise, have gone on since time immemorial. Two of our current ones, to secure oil for the US in the Middle East and northern Africa, are merely emblematic of practices that are occurring everywhere else across the globe despite that painful and unjust deaths result. Yet, this ongoing pattern of gain for some at the expense of others is hardly new and the ways that it sets up are nearly always the same

India's Dams Largest Methane Emitters
Among The World's Dams

By Himanshu Thakkar

Latest scientific estimates show that Large dams in India are responsible for about a fifth of the countries' total global warming impact. The estimates also reveal that Indian dams are the largest global warming contributors compared to all other nations

Behind The World Bank’s Ouster Of Paul Wolfowitz
By Patrick Martin

The Wolfowitz affair, in the final analysis, is an expression of the decline of the United States and reflects the greater willingness of rival capitalist powers in Europe and Asia to push back against the supposed “sole superpower.”

Charges Dropped Against Police
In de Menezes Shooting

By Paul Mitchell

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has dropped disciplinary charges against 11 front-line firearms and surveillance officers involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on July 22, 2005

India's Political Quake- Mayawati
By Ravikiran Shinde

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is the winner. After handsomely winning the assembly elections in the biggest state in India, she has declared that she is on her way to capture "Delhi" and that plans to give UP the best government and Sarvasamaj (all sections of the society) the power to share with her

Seeds Of Disaster
By David Truskoff

Education, as everyone knows, is directly linked to income. How can any American not be panicked? If this trend continues with the seemingly unstoppable high school drop out rate what will the income gap be in just one more decade? Are we really on a runaway train headed for depression and more violence? Can our military based foreign policy be maintained in the face of such a fracture in our society? Those questions seem to escape all of the Party candidates. If there is a savior he or she is not yet visible

19 May, 2007

Ghostly Streets, Ghostly Skies
By Laila El-Haddad

We were shaken by another large explosion, Israelis tanks are amassing at Gaza's northern border, and unmanned Israeli drones are whirring menacingly, incessantly, overhead in great numbers patrolling the ghostly skies that only the kites can reach, preparing, perhaps, for yet another strike against an already bleeding, burning, and battered Gaza

The American Empire is Failing –
A Good Thing for America And the World

By Kevin Zeese

An Interview with Terry Paupp

Earth’s Natural Defenses Against
Climate Change ‘Beginning To Fail’

By Michael McCarthy

The earth’s ability to soak up the gases causing global warming is beginning to fail because of rising temperatures, in a long-feared sign of “positive feedback,” new research reveals today

US Government To Set Up New Military
Command In Africa

By Lawrence Porter

In an ominous development mirroring the explosive expansion of US militarism, the Bush administration has designated Africa as a continent of “strategic national concern,” and has initiated a new military policy to coincide with this new classification

Afghan Battle Lines Become Blurred
By M K Bhadrakumar

New fault lines have appeared on the Afghan chessboard. While the "international community" kept watch on the obscure lawless borderlands of Pakistan's tribal agencies for the Taliban's spring offensive, templates of the war began to shift - almost unnoticed

Islamabad Succumbs
By Pervez Hoodbhoy

The stage is being set for transforming Islamabad into a Taliban stronghold. When Musharraf exits - which may be sooner rather than later - he will leave a bitter legacy that will last for generations, all for a little more taste of power

ADB And The Case Of Phulbari Coal Project
By Anu Muhammad

While the US administration obstructed Canadian open pit mining in a mountain area because of 'potential for irreversible environmental damage to Park and natural lake about 25 miles north of the border', US backed institutions and agencies are pushing Bangladesh Government to go ahead with open pit mining in a densely populated and agricultural land area against experts opinion and strong public opinion

Islam In Western Mirror
By Dr Nasir Khan

Present-day images of Muslims and Islam in Western media vary considerably. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union the general drift of Western concerns has been to portray Islam as the main enemy of the West and the Muslim world as a hotbed of terrorism that threatens Western civilisation and its democratic values

Lies, Damned Lies And Terrorists
By Ziauddin Sardar

Most low-intensity attacks against businesses and governments are carried out by terrorists who have nothing to do with Islam

Advani And Savarkar: The Sangh's
Bid For Heroism via 1857

By Kavita Krishnan

Lal Krishna Advani wrote a piece on May 10, the 150th anniversary of the 1857 war of independence ('150 yrs of Heroism, via Kala Pani', Indian Express, May 10). It is well known that the RSS and BJP and their ideological predecessors had nothing to do with the anti-colonial freedom struggle, and rather have a history of collaborating with the British colonizers. What can Advani possibly have to say about 1857?

17 May, 2007

As Gaza Burns
By Laila El-Haddad

Things have been crazy in Gaza over the past two days. Very crazy. In between working and actually trying to keep our wits about us as we've been holed up indoors for two days

Should We Want A Black President?
By Margaret Kimberley

Is Barack Obama more worthy of Black "loyalty than any other Democrat?" The answer is no - Black America should not "purchase a lemon" just because the "seller looks like us." Obama has mastered the fine arts of bullshitology, while avoiding issues of core concern to African Americans in order to make white people feel comfortable

Chomsky Takes On The World (Bank)
By Michael Shank

Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. On April 26, Michael Shank interviewed him about the conflict between Congress and the U.S. president over Iraq and Syria, the scandal enveloping World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz, and the nature of foreign debt

The Silence Of Clergy Today Versus
Rev. King's "Silence Is Betrayal!"

By Jay Janson

At the polls, citizens have finally expressed themselves against the war in Iraq. Candidates and incumbents feel the need to call for an end to the war. But we rarely hear even a peep from Clergy. Is this for its observing the doctrine of ‘Separation of Church and State’ or because the Church has become BOUND to the State and SEPARATED from its faith?

Baloney, Brooks And Blair
By Thomas Riggins

Reading David Brooks, the ultra-right New York Times op-eder, never fails to amuse. He is able to take the simplest facts and twist them around to such a degree that they come out looking like the exact opposite of what they really mean. A recent case in point is his article on Tony Blair (NYT 5-11-07) which he entitled “The Human Community.”

Only One Kind Of Science
By Rand Clifford

We have one planet with finite resources. There is only one science, and when it tells us what damage consumerism has wrought, perhaps instead of calling it bad names, we should simply learn what science is, listen, and think

Special Economic Zones -
Neoliberal "Enclosures" In India

By Soumitra Bose

Specially Enclosed Zones for forming Capital through production or servicing within a nation-state and without the encumbrances of law of the native land is what gets called as Special Economic Zone (SEZ)

16 May, 2007

Is Imperial Liquidation Possible For America?
By Chalmers Johnson

When Ronald Reagan coined the phrase "evil empire," he was referring to the Soviet Union, and I basically agreed with him that the USSR needed to be contained and checkmated. But today it is the U.S. that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world forces are gathering to stop us

The Nakba Has Never Ended
By Julia Pitner

With the celebration of Israel's 59th year of independence comes the mourning of the 59th year of what the Palestinians call Al-Nakba -- the disaster. Israel celebrated its Independence this week by "locking down" the Palestinians in their towns and villages through the total closure of all checkpoints encircling major Palestinian population centers

"Fifty-Nine Years Of Dispossession"
By Samar Assad

For Palestinians, 15 May represents the date when they lost 78 percent of their historic homeland and the date that turned them into the world’s oldest and largest refugee population. Palestinians refer to 15 May as the al-Nakba, or catastrophe, to describe their dispossession when over 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled prior to, during and after the 1948 war. This May, Palestinians memorialize 59 years of exile as Israelis celebrate 59 years of statehood

Debating Barack Obama’s Cash Flow
By Joshua Frank

A recent editorial in The Chicago Sun-Times, published on May 14, attempted to defile an essay I wrote in these pages about Barack Obama’s fundraising channels and his ties to corporate America. The Sun-Times piece, written by former Clinton White House counsel Abner J. Mikva, challenged my claim that Barack isn’t taking on the pay-to-play politics we are all so used to in Washington. Instead Mikva asserted that the ethically minded Obama is “incorruptible”

Falwell's Legacy
By John Chuckman

Yes, Jerry has ordered his last tent-sized silk suit, taken his last bag of cash from lonely old ladies, and ordered his last truckload of cheap, merchandising Bibles with his picture stamped on the cover. Gone on to his reward, as they say

A Review Of Alexander Cockburn's
And Jeffrey St. Clair's End Times

By Stephen Lendman

"End Times - The Death of the Fourth Estate" is a collection of 50 wide-ranging essays written in recent years under six topic headings, mostly by Cockburn and St. Clair with a few by other contributors, on the dismal state of the corporate print media today

Pakistani President Seeks To Drown
Mounting Opposition In Blood

By Vilani Peiris

This is an objective view of an outsider looking inside Pakistan. Musharraf has been at the helm for eight years in which he has achieved much. But he risks comprmising all the gains if he exited office in a box, which appears increasingly likely

The Message From Uttar Pradesh
By Dipankar Bhattacharya

There is absolutely no point in either lauding or blaming Mayawati for rewriting caste equations – what remains to be done is to enable the people to grasp the class character of her politics. The BSP is one party that never declares its policies, but all its policies will now anyway be revealed in practice – and that is the basis on which the people will now judge the BSP

Wheat Imports: Subverting
Procurement, Cheating Farmers

By Bhaskar Goswami

For the second year in the running, India is importing wheat. Last year the government justified imports on account of lower production. This year it is being justified in the name of higher prices for farmers

Earth Democracy Thrives In Nandigram
By Vandana Shiva

I have come away from Nandigram humbled and inspired. These are the elements of Earth Democracy we need to defend and protect from the violence and greed of corporate globalisation

15 May, 2007

One Billion To Be Displaced By 2050
By Agence France Presse

At least one billion people risk fleeing their homes over the next four decades because of conflicts and natural disasters that will worsen with global warming, a relief agency warned Monday

Notes On A Cultural Renaissance
In A Time Of Barbarism

By James Petras

We live in a time of imperial-driven destructive wars in the name of ‘democracy’, savage exploitation in the name of ‘emerging world powers’, massive forced population displacement in the name of ‘immigration’ and large-scale pillage of natural resources in the name of ‘free markets’

Public Terror: Escalating The War On Migrants
By Juan Santos & Leslie Radford

The white power elite views migrants as a dangerous force for political instability and for undermining the white cultural dominance of the US. It means that migrants and the pro migrant movement are the targets of America, no matter how many US flags are waved, how much English is spoken, or how much profit is provided for the exploiters

A Political Marriage Of Necessity:
A Single State Of Palestine-Israel

By Ali Abunimah

The case of South Africa shows that a unity government can succeed

Bolivia – From Colonialism To Indianism
By Christian Rudel

The "new Bolivia" that emerged from the ballot boxes in 2005 cannot be reduced to a mere victory of the political left, as some Western commentators have characterized it. Rather, it is the victory of "Indianism" over more than 500 years of colonialism and injustice

Gas Prices Rise As Oil Companies
Take In Record Profits

By Mark Rainer

The average price for a gallon of gas in the United States has surpassed the $3.00 mark and is currently at $3.07 per gallon. The sharp rise in gas prices has contributed to record high profits of the major oil companies

Capitalism, Communism And Cat Food
By Thomas Riggins

So we have recently been reading about all that contaminated cat food (also dog food and feed for some other animals) that had to be recalled because it was full of Chinese wheat gluten. The NY Times reports (5/3/07) that thousands of animals have become sick or died (according to the FDA 4000 dogs and cats have died already). How did it happen?

Emergency Toolkit For Dismantling
Of The Arroyo Killing Machine

By E.San Juan, Jr.

Election day, May 14, 2007: a time of reckoning for the oppressors, a time of judgment for the avengers of the oppressed, exploited and slaughtered generations of Filipinos, from the 1.4 million killed by the U.S. invaders in the Filipino-American War (1899-1913) to the over 850 victims murdered by Arroyo and her generals and their death-squads

Sri Lanka: Who Is The Organ Grinder?
By Chandi Sinnathurai

If Ukraine, which I respect greatly, can give self-government to Crimea and life can go on, Sri Lanka must give self-government to the Tamils, where they want it

MP Reports A Child Death Every Five Minutes,
Maternal Death Every Hour

By Anil Gulati

The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. At present infant mortality rate is 76 infant deaths per thousand live births - meaning out of every one thousand children born seventy six die even before their first birth day. If we calculate on an indicative terms this means that approximately every four to five minutes a child dies in the state of Madhya Pradesh

Future Of Biotechnology In India
By Farah Aziz & Suman Sahai

If we want A, and biotechnology is providing Z, its no use for us…says Suman Sahai…A thorough critic of the new technology, she is not biased but has strong views against the use of biotechnology in India without any trials and tests

14 May, 2007

The Hidden War For Oil
By Carl Bloice

Carl Bloice elucidates the failure or unwillingness of the Western media to accurately report the invasion and occupation of Somalia by a US backed Ethiopian government. He asserts that behind the US-Ethiopian political alliance lies a strategic move to secure positioning in this oil region

For Palestinians, Memory Matters
By George Bisharat

My Palestinian father grew up in Jerusalem before Israel was founded and the Palestinians expelled, when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in peace and mutual respect. Recalling that past provides a vision for an alternative future -- one involving equal rights and tolerance, rather than the domination of one ethno-religious group over others

Last-Ditch Myths Of The Zionist Left
By Stephen Langfur

Is there then no other footing by which we may justify a Jewish state in this land? We come back to the persecutions, the Holocaust. The heart cries out for a place where Jews can live in safety and self-determination. But there can be no safety in a state established by conquest and confiscation. There is certainly no safety for Jews in the present Jewish state

Deforestation: The Hidden Cause Of Global Warming
By Daniel Howden

The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now being recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories

Dangerous Climate Change: Eco-Fascism
By Bill Henderson

Eco-fascism - is it possible that soon a government will introduce Draconian regulations in an effort to avert dangerous (runaway or abrupt) climate change against the wishes of the majority of the population?

Pakistani President Seeks To Drown
Mounting Opposition In Blood

By Vilani Peiris

Karachi, a city of 10 million and Pakistan’s commercial hub, was convulsed by gun-battles Saturday, as Pakistan’s US-backed military strongman, President Pervez Musharraf, resorted to deadly violence in a bid to quash the growing popular challenge to his rule

Removing Musharraf From Power
By Usman Khalid

There is neither cause nor opportunity for the Army to ask Musharraf to resign until he invokes emergency or imposes martial law. The question is, how can he be removed from his perch in power? There are three methods

War-Pimping With A Smile: Of American
Exceptionalism, Apple Pie, And Moral Rot

By Jason Miller

Kathleen Parker may project an “apple pie” image, but her ardent moral and intellectual defense of the wholesale liquidation of human beings, her dehumanization of Islamic people to fuel the fraudulent “War on Terror”, and her pathological nationalism reveal that she is morally rotten to the core

The Myth Of Muslim Appeasement
By Mubasshir Ahmed

Out of the Union government's total expenditure of Rs 680,521 crore, the total allocation for minorities (it includes Sikhs and Christians too) is less than Rs 320 crore. The total number of minorities in India is 200 million (Muslims 150m, Sikhs and Christians 50m)

We Salute Our Journalists
By Syed Ali Safvi

We salute our journalistic fraternity for showing the utmost audacity and commitment in order to sketch a real picture of Kashmir, sometimes with the colour of their own blood. We salute those indefatigable journos who braved the tyrannical establishment and highlighted the atrocities of the forces and in the process laid down their lives for a cause – the cause so dear to their hearts, the cause of projecting the TRUTH

12 May, 2007

Venezuela Takes On Oil Multinationals
By Stuart Munckton

Thousands of Venezuelan workers took control of foreign-owned oil fields yesterday as Hugo Chavez stepped up his battle with Washington in a new wave of nationalisation and an announcement that the country was leaving the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund [IMF], - reported the British Guardian on May 2

Adios, World Bank!
By Nadia Martinez

As the controversy around Iraq War architect Paul Wolfowitz’s uncertain future as president of the World Bank intensifies, the financial institution is not only losing supporters. It’s also losing victims. In Latin America, countries are paying off their World Bank loans early, cutting off ties with the Bank, and creating their own financing instruments to replace the world’s oldest multilateral lending agency

The Good American
By Scott Ritter

I yearn for a time when “good Americans” will be able to stop and reverse equally evil policies of global hegemony achieved through pre-emptive war of aggression. I know all too well that in this case the “enemy” will only be emboldened by our silence, since at the end of the day the “enemy” is ourselves

Cheney Threatens Iran From
US Aircraft Carrier In Persian Gulf

By Bill Van Auken

Underscoring the essential objective of his Middle East tour, US Vice President Dick Cheney used the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Persian Gulf Friday to deliver a bellicose threat against Iran

Blair's Departure:The View From Baghdad
By Patrick Cockburn

Iraq may be seen in Britain as Tony Blair's nemesis but Iraqis yesterday greeted his departure with utter indifference. Asked what they thought about it, most simply shrugged their shoulders and looked surprised at being asked the question. Others said they saw him as a surrogate for President Bush

Scottish Election Fiasco Casts Doubt
Over New Parliament

By Niall Green

The actual number of votes rejected in the May 3 elections to the Scottish Parliament is far higher than the already staggering figure of 100,000 previously admitted to. Earlier this week, Newsnight Scotland revealed that some 142,000 votes had been ruled out—3.5 percent of all votes cast

National Geographic Prejudice – Part 2
By Dan Lieberman

Possible racial prejudice against Arab people in the National Geographic exhibit, Zakouma: Elephant Crisis in Chad, has some more twists. It also highlights how innocent words can unknowingly contribute to misunderstanding and encourage hatred – even if that isn’t the intention

Iraq: Indian History In Reverse?
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan

Mutiny at Meerut: 150 Years After

Defining Moment Of Dalit Empowerment
In Uttar-Pradesh

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Dalits defeats Hindutva with the help of Brahmins: Will it work?

10 May, 2007

Bush's Zombie Shuffles Off Stage
By Tariq Ali

Tony Blair announces his resignation and reveals his final day as prime minister will be 27 June. A reflection on Tony Blair's days in office

The Likely Historical Significance Of
The War In Iraq

By John Chuckman

The U.S., for the first time in years, has shown interest in talking to Syria and Iran, countries with vital interests in the area, long ignored. Perhaps, it finally means the beginning of the end for the destructive idea of Greater Israel, the beginning of some degree of justice and hope for a people, the Palestinians, long without either. Perhaps it means genuine effort towards peace, rather than the tiresome, ongoing fraud of a "peace process." I'm hopeful, but not too optimistic

The War On Free Expression
By Stephen Lendman

In a post-9/11 climate, the right of free expression is under attack and endangered in the age of George Bush when dissent may be called a threat to national security, terrorism, or treason. But losing that most precious of all rights means losing our freedom

The Common Denominator
By Emily Spence

Information about and realistic solutions for the ravages of overpopulation desperately need to be examined on a global scale. Attempting to address the symptoms -- the assorted environmental dilemmas and social conflicts that are signs of this larger crisis -- is simply not enough!

Finding Hope In A Dismal World
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

You too can find hope. It is located at www.foavc.org. Then let that hope channel your moral energy by becoming a member. The Friends of the Article V Convention need you. America needs you. Now

Playing Politics With The Iraq War Brings Out
The Worst In The Duopoly

By Kevin Zeese

Both Parties Attempt to Shift the Blame to Iraqis Rather Than Accept Their Shared Responsibility for the Iraq Quagmire

Laser Barking At Terrorists
By Mike Ghouse

If we can laser shoot the tiny object 3000 miles away, we can get the six footer and his cronies. We can laser bark at the right tree and quit barking at the universe. We have excuses for our failure, and have sacrificed over 3000 of our sons and daughters and a million plus Iraqis, and the latter simply doesn’t count

Fighting A Losing Battle
By K A Shaji

The Xinjiang province of China was actually shot to fame after Hollywood movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed there. Now, Beijing's crackdown on political dissent by Uighur activists has dragged the region into a big human rights debate

The Looming Water Crisis In Madhya Pradesh
By Anil Gulati

Government of India has announced the year 2007 as "Water Year" with a view to address water-related issues – probably a need which is immediate here in Madhya Pradesh. May be time has come to move away from realm of words, to bring change in reality for people of the state

09 May, 2007

Infant Mortality Soars In Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe

Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa

Anti-Capitalism In Five Minutes Or Less
By Robert Jensen

One of the common responses I hear when I critique capitalism is, “Well, that may all be true, but we have to be realistic and do what’s possible.” By that logic, to be realistic is to accept a system that is inhuman, anti-democratic, and unsustainable. To be realistic we are told we must capitulate to a system that steals our souls, enslaves us to concentrated power, and will someday destroy the planet

Carbon Call
By Rand Clifford

Instead of sitting in this luxurious blue lifeboat and arguing over the size of the hole in the hull, or arguing about how to slow the leaking—rather than risking a sinking, perhaps it’s time we started bailing. Tweaking emission levels at this point are just so much arguing about that hole, because carbon dioxide we’ve already emitted tends to persist in the atmosphere about a century. And major systems we’ve already sent into positive feedback increasingly threaten to make anything we do or don’t do now virtually irrelevant

Early CIA Involvement In Darfur
Has Gone Unreported

By Jay Janson

There has been a glaring omission in the U.S. media presentation of the Darfur tragedy. The compassion demonstrated, mostly in words, until recently, has not been accompanied by a recognition of U.S. complicity, or at least involvement, in the war which has led to the enormous suffering and loss of life that has been taking place in Darfur for many years

Right Way Ahead For France
By Mahir Ali

The French electorate this week forwent an opportunity to pick a woman as the head of the state for the first time, opting instead, by a small but decisive margin, for a sharp turn to the right. It’s a decision quite a few of those who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday may come to regret before long

When We Forget To Remember
By Sheila Samples

Surely Americans must know that a crisis without precedent is underway in this country. The first target in the Straussian neocon's war of terror was the Constitution and, by extension, the American people. We are hurtling headlong into tyranny and, as Harold Pinter so aptly put it -- those whom we elected to protect both us and the Constitution have either lost their voices or seem to have forgotten the tune

The Forum At The Crossroads
By Walden Bello

After the disappointment that was Nairobi, many long-standing participants in the Forum are asking themselves: Is the WSF still the most appropriate vehicle for the new stage in the struggle of the global justice and peace movement? Or, having fulfilled its historic function of aggregating and linking the diverse counter-movements spawned by global capitalism, is it time for the WSF to fold up its tent and give way to new modes of global organization of resistance and transformation?

Dalits, Panchayat Raj And Power Equations
By Goldy M. George

It is evident that the upper castes controlled the affairs of the village cannot tolerate the changes being brought about by the decentralized democratic institutions. In the backdrop of such incidences an array of question raises with reference to Panchayat Raj vis-à-vis Dalits. The initial prediction of decentralization envisioned through Panchayat Raj hasn’t become a reality. It also tells us how Panchayat Raj is utilised as a tool of disempowerment of Dalits and consolidation of caste system

08 May, 2007

Darfur Revisited
By Ramzy Baroud

The Darfur crisis in Sudan is perhaps the most politically convoluted conflict in the world today. Its underpinnings involve local, regional and international players, all selfishly vying for power and economic interests

How Bush Sabotaged Reconstruction
In Iraq

By Thomas Riggins

Bush still thinks he can impose his “mindset” on Iraq and the world. It is a narrow, fundamentalist, ignorant mindset. It is not the mindset of the majority of the American people. The Congress has the opportunity to send it packing. It should do so

Rebuilding Resistance
By Dahr Jamail

As reconstruction resumes in the heavily bombed southern Beirut district Dahiyeh, the signs are evident of a rebuilding of resistance against Israel and the U.S.-backed government, largely by way of increased support for Hezbollah

C4 Accused Of Falsifying Data In
Documentary On Climate Change

By Steve Connor

The makers of a Channel 4 documentary which claimed that global warming is a swindle have been accused of fabricating data by one of the scientists who participated in the film

Giving Up On Two Degrees
By John James

The rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie. You won’t find this statement in the draft of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was leaked to the Guardian last week. But as soon as you understand the numbers, the words form before your eyes. The governments making genuine efforts to tackle global warming are using figures they know to be false

Doctors Fail To Recognize
Life-Threatening Serotonin Syndrome

By Evelyn Pringle

In addition to recent reports that the drugs work no better than sugar pills, the latest warnings added to the long list of adverse events linked to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants have focused on birth defects, suicide risks and violence

The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children
By Juan Santos

Brown children are expendable in Los Angeles, and migrants are the new scapegoats for a nation steeped in a deep tradition of white racism

The Price Of Fire In Latin America:
An Interview with Ben Dangl

By Joshua Frank

Ben Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press 2007) and the editor of Upside Down World, an online magazine that covers Latin American politics, and Toward Freedom, a progressive perspective on world events. Recently Dangl, who won a 2007 Project Censored Award for his coverage of US military operations in Paraguay, spoke with Joshua Frank about the emerging social movements in South America and how they are threatening Washington’s power in the region

Freedom Of Speech Denied In Mid East 'Democracy'
By Eileen Fleming

The restrictions against Vanunu are eerily similar to the "banning" that was practiced in South Africa under Apartheid, which also controlled human interaction, place of residence, and type and content of communications

Mabira's Resistance To Monopoly Of
Mehtas In Museveni's Uganda

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

There is a need to understand the issue of blacks, apartheid and Indian domination in the African countries and any analysis based on our 'nationalistic' pattern would be bias and unfair

Unsafe Campus, Safe Harassers?
By Subhash Gatade

Delhi University, which has under its ambit 79 colleges and which caters to more than 7.5 lakh students, and which has remained in the forefront of many a democratic demands of the people in general and teaching community in particular, is today very much in the news albeit for totally wrong reasons. This short note focuses itself on two recent cases of sexual harassment and the way the university administration has tried to deal with them

05 May, 2007

Climate Change Can Be Halted, UN Concludes
By Michael McCarthy

Global warming is solvable, United Nations climate change experts said yesterday, in a landmark judgement running counter to increasing pessimism about the most serious threat facing the world. The greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, whose emissions growth is causing the atmosphere to warm, can be brought under control, said the economists of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - but only if governments act decisively

One Day You’re Gonna Wake Up, America
By David Michael Green

One day you’re gonna wake up, America, and realize how far it’s all gone. But if that day isn’t very soon, it won’t matter.Because one day you’re gonna wake up, and it will be far, far too late

The Media, The People, And Why Nobody
Can See The 'Invisible Hand'

By Max Kantar

If you read the news this past week, you would've learned that unprovoked 'thugs' armed with dynamite and guns attacked Chevron oil workers in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.Mark Twain once said that "he who does not read the newspaper is uninformed. He who reads the newspaper is misinformed." More than 100 years later, his words couldn't be more true....

A Way Out Of The SEZ Impasse?
By Aseem Shrivastava

If SEZs are not aimed at enriching developers and builders at the expense of farmers and tribals and are not about real estate speculation at all, this, two months after Nandigram, is perhaps the last call for the governments in New Delhi and the state capitals to consider a serious rethink, tear up the 1894 Land Acquisition Act, draw up a completely new land rights legislation, in addition to a rehabilitation policy which will restore the dignity and respect due to Indian agriculture and its long-standing guardians as also to pastoralists, forest-dwellers, fisherfolk and artisans who have all suffered from long neglect by Downtown India

04 May, 2007

A Eulogy For The NewStandard
By Steve Anderson

It’s official, as of Friday April 27th 2007 The Newstandard (TNS) officially ceased operations. This is a significant loss for both the independent media ecology, and for citizens who use independent media to stay informed about current events and social issues

Blair's Corrupt Britannia Gerrymanders
The Scottish Elections

By Rory Winter

It looks like Tony Blair's corrupt crowd have done a Bush fix and stolen the election from under our very noses

The Democrats Cave To Bush –
The Peace Movement Must Stand Up

By Kevin Zeese

In reaction to President Bush’s veto the Democrats are reportedly caving in to give him a Iraq War funding without any obligation to end the war

History 101
By Paul Buchheit

For America,history seems to have an eerie way of repeating itself. We seem determined not to pay attention

Malaria Fear As Global Warming Increases
By Colin Brown

Global warming could lead to a return of insect-borne diseases in Britain such as malaria, and increased incidence of skin cancer caused by exposure to the sun, a government report warns today

Response To Cockburn
By George Monbiot

Cockburn's article cannot be taken seriously until we have seen his list of references, and affirmed that the key claims he makes have already been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. This would not mean they are correct, though it does mean that they are worth discussing

Iraq’s “stable” South Descends Into
Political Chaos

By James Cogan

A power struggle between rival Shiite parties in Iraq’s oil-rich southern province of Basra is escalating toward open warfare and looming as a major crisis for the US-led occupation and the British government in particular

Why Israel Is After Me
By Azmi Bishara

I am a Palestinian from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France’s Dreyfus affair — in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state — the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel’s failed war against Lebanon in July

IMF And World Bank Face Declining Authority
As Venezuela Announces Withdrawal

By Mark Weisbrot

Venezuela's decision this week to pull out of the IMF and the World Bank will be seen in the United States as just another example of the ongoing feud between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bush Administration. But it is likely to be viewed differently in the rest of the world, and could have an impact on both institutions, whose power and legitimacy in developing countries has been waning steadily in recent years

May Day Message
By Fidel Castro

It is imperative to immediately have an energy revolution

Wall Street Journal Claims Chavez
Oil Policy "Aims To Weaken US"

By Stephen Lendman

The Bush administration and US corporate media, flacking for Big Oil, is all over Hugo Chavez with the Journal's May Day article staying true to form

Israel: Government On Ropes After Report Condemns
Olmert And Peretz Over Lebanon War

By Jean Shaoul & Chris Marsden

The interim report of the Winograd Commission into Israel’s initial conduct of its 33-day war against Lebanon in July and August last year has lambasted the country’s political and military leadership for what is regarded within ruling circles as a debacle

The Growing Revolt Against Disposability
By Aseem Shrivastava

At Badli, a village of some 11,000 people, in the district of Jhajjar, Haryana, about 30 kms west of New Delhi’s International Airport farmers are organizing a movement to resist a 25,000-acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) planned by Reliance Industries

03 May, 2007

Around Globe, Walls Spring
Up To Divide Neighbors

By Bernd Debusmann

When completed, the barriers will run thousands of miles, in places as far apart as Mexico and India, Afghanistan and Spain, Morocco and Thailand, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, and Iraq

Olmert Undone By The Militia
He Said He Could Destroy

By Robert Fisk

One of Washington's last "pro-American" cabinets in the Middle East is now threatened by the very militia which Mr Olmert claimed he could destroy

The Real Problem With The Arab Initiative
By Hasan Abu Nimah

The basic problem with the Arab Peace Initiative is in its "begging approach" which surrenders completely to the charitable whims of the aggressor. The victim continues to make gestures and offers without any hint as to what would happen if such offers are dismissed

The U.S.’ War On Democracy
By Pablo Navarrete & John Pilger

An interview with John Pilger

A Whoring She Will Go
By Jason Miller

The next time you are reading one of her columns or books, or listening to her speak, remember that Peggy Noonan is probably weaving a clever, subtle, and sophistic argument to advance the agenda of thieves and murderers. But it’s too late to worry about her soul. She made a whore of that long ago

Childless Mother: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
By Mirah Riben

Infant adoption in the US is in dire need of an overhaul

Prejudice Comes In Many Forms And Directions
By Dan Lieberman

It's difficult to believe the National Geographic could, even carelessly, contribute to prejudice and misunderstanding. Its excellent exhibit at the National Geographic explorers Hall: Zakouma, Elephant Crisis in Chad, seems to do that

Venezuela's Revolution Accelerates
By Federico Fuentes

To thunderous applause and chants of approval, Hugo Chávez has called on the Venezuelan people to radicalize the revolution towards the new socialism of the 21st century

Army And The Peace Process In Kashmir
By Ram Puniyani

Today the thinking on the Kashmir issue has to begin with the idea of respecting the wishes and well being of Kashmiri people, and to apply the soothing balm to the wounded psyche of average person in Kashmir. While dialogue with the dissident factions goes on we need to reduce the heavy-handed presence of army in the area. We also should register the fact that a long stay of army will affect the way of thinking of army itself

‘I was Always Leftist. Economic Reforms
Made Me Completely Marxist’

By Mani Shankar Aiyar

In a speech at a CII meet, Mani Shankar Aiyar argued that policy is hijacked by a small elite. That the cabinet he belongs to is quite comfortable with this hijacking. That India’s system of governance is such that Rs 650 crore for village development is considered wasteful but Rs 7,000 crore for the Commonwealth Games is considered vital. The classes rule all the time, Aiyar says, the masses get a look-in every five years

02 May, 2007

The Palestinian Christian Is
An Endangered Species

By Prof Abe W Ata

When the modern state of Israel was established there were about 400,000 Christians. Two years ago the number was down to 80,000. Now it’s down to 60,000. At that rate, in a few years there will be none of us left

Following Bush veto, Democrats Prepare
War-Spending Bill With No Timeline

By Joe Kay

US President George Bush vetoed the $124 billion bill to fund the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan Tuesday, rejecting provisions of the bill calling for a partial withdrawal of some US troops from Iraq.Democratic Party leaders have already begun circulating drafts of a bill that will fully fund the Iraq war, without the restrictions that the White House opposes

"Worthy And Unworthy Victims"
By Stephen Lendman

"Worthy and unworthy victims" live in different Americas, highlighted in the age of George Bush in blazing starkness. Those anointed "worthy" are named, known, seen media-manipulated heros while the "unworthy" are mostly nameless, faceless unknown abused "unpeople" targets of the administration's "war on terror," the poor and anyone "in times of universal deceit" courageously daring to dissent

Peace, Clean Energy, And Priorities
By Rand Clifford

Our current energy architecture have led to global warming, a potentially-terminal problem at least for civilization and the majority of Earth’s higher species. Everything we need to rebalance the carbon cycle is in our hands. But the enemy that has gotten enormously powerful delivering us to this crucial predicament will use this power to protect their profits

Durbin Gives Edwards More To Apologize For
By Kevin Zeese

Blockbuster Statement on Senate Floor –Intelligence Committee Knew Bush was Lying – Raises Questions About Edwards Judgment and Sincerity on the War

Iraqi Doctors Out On A Limb
By Dahr Jamail

According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and UN statistics, Khattab is one of 18,000 Iraqi doctors and health care professionals who have fled the war-torn country since the US-led invasion began in March 2003

Arctic Sea Ice 'Vanishing At
Faster Rate Than Expected'

By Steve Connor

Scientists may have seriously underestimated the speed at which Arctic sea ice will melt in the coming decades, caused by global warming, according to a study published today

Mandal II: The Struggle For
An Egalitarian Society

By Feroze H. Mithiborwala

India is again in the midst of an OBC upsurge and this "MANDAL II" has been instigated and provoked by the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta. This two bench judgement has issued an interim order staying the Reservations of OBC's in higher educational institutions and this has sent convulsions across the political and social landscape

01 May, 2007

May Day: Under A New Cloud Of Fear
By Sharat G. Lin

As millions of immigrant workers with their families and supporters pour into the streets across the United States on May Day, they do so under a new cloud of fear

The Migrant Trap, And The Migrants'
Way Out: May 1, 2007

By Leslie Radford

In the two months leading up to this year's May Day protests, the detentions have intensified. Armed, warrantless home invasions have left hundreds of families shattered. People have been hauled out of pizza joints, and "Latino-looking" shoppers at a Chicago mall were lined up against a wall at gunpoint, while white shoppers walked away. The Department of Homeland Security's notorious raid and deportation program, Operation Return to Sender, brags that it has imprisoned 18,000 people since its inception eleven months ago

True Costs Of Fossil Fuels
By Rand Clifford

when we pump that $3-a-gallon gasoline into our tanks, we should keep in mind that gasoline is in reality the most expensive fuel imaginable—the most heavily-subsidized commodity in history

Sarkozy: The French Neocon
By Ghali Hassan

The Italian media compare Nicolas Sarkozy to Gianfranco Fini, the leader of the fascist Alleanza Nationale party. Sarkozy has shown to be greatly influenced by the Nazis’ ‘eugenic’ theory of ‘superior race’. It is also revealed that Sarkozy was involved in violation of international humanitarian law concerning immigrants. If elected, Sarkozy will polarise France, incite hatred and divisions, and return France to a violent imperialist power

Southern Transnationals:The New Kids On The Block?
By Kavaljit Singh

Given the fact that most developing countries are usually capital importers, the rise of Southern TNCs poses new policy dilemmas. The policy makers in the developing world are increasingly finding it difficult to strike a balance between the country’s interest as a host country and its newly-found interests as a home country

Barack Obama, Just Another Corporate Candidate
By Joshua Frank

There’s not question that industry loves Barack. As of March 31, UBS, the second largest bank in Europe, has given over $165,000 to his campaign. The Exelon corporation, which is the nation’s largest nuclear plant operator, has donated almost $160,000. The investment Goliath, Goldman Sachs, has also fattened the pockets of Barack Inc. with over $143,000. Citigroup has given well over $50,000 with Morgan Stanley close behind at $40,000. Wall Street has Obama’s back

In The Philippines Bush's War On Terror
Has Become A War Of Terror

By Brian Mcafee

The War Of Terror the U.S. is inflicting on the Philippine people through its blanket support for Arroyo and the Philippine Military and National Police is also a War On The Poor as the targets are generally those concerned with the poverty issue and the beneficiaries of the killings would seem to be those that don't want change, the rich and foreign capital or corporate interests

Fake Killing(s): People As Trophies
By Subhash Gatade

People who had a faint glimmer of hope about Kausar Bi's whereabouts finally know that she is no more. As the counsel for the Gujarat government himself admitted before the Supreme Court, she was killed, burnt and her ashes were thrown in some field. But it does not throw light on the person(s) who killed her ?

Jammu And Kashmir Public Safety Act-1978
By Syed Junaid Hashmi

One of the most draconian laws applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, Public Safety Act (PSA), that is being liberally used as a repressive measure to scuttle any dissent, often also for victimising innocent youth, ironically finds its roots in the Defence of India Act (DIA) during the British rule. In fact, the PSA happens to be a more punitive form of the DIA that was described by various National leaders including Mahatma Gandhi as draconian and a black law enacted by Britishers to suppress Indian freedom struggle

How Safe Is Bt Cotton For Livestock?
By Kavitha Kuruganti

Not many seem to be aware that a serious controversy is dogging GM crop cultivation in India after repeated reports emerged about livestock getting killed or falling sick after grazing on Bt Cotton fields. The limelight is once again on two important aspects related to GM crops – their safety and their regulation

The Ghosts Of Nandigram
By Satya Sagar

There was panic at the CPM headquarters on Calcutta's Alimuddin Street as rumours spread like wildfire of a 'special' investigative team having arrived to do some fact-finding on the gory events of 14 March 2007 in Nandigram. The 'dream' team, spotted by party activists and corroborated by airport immigration staff, is said to have comprised of the founding fathers of the global communist movement - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels themselves. As if their presence was not enough, accompanying them in tow were a certain Vladimir Illych Lenin and Mao Tse-Tung

Sri Lanka: Mismatch Between Multi-Ethnic Cricket Team And The Brutal Reality Of Civil War
By Jehan Perera

In a tragic and unconscionable manner, the unity that the country's multi-ethnic cricket team had demonstrated in both victory and in defeat, was once again not matched by the protagonists in Sri Lanka's long-drawn-out ethnic conflict

Islamist Bomb Attack In Bangladesh Again!
By Salah Choudhury

Simultaneous time bombs exploded in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet on Tuesday injuring at least one person. An Islamist organization named Jadeed Al Qaeda claimed responsibility behind such explosions

 

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