31 December, 2003
The Reconstruction's Bottom-Line
By Herbert DocenaThe US-led reconstruction business in Iraq is faltering because it is less about reconstruction than about business
Samarra: Plenty Of Troops,still No Infrastructure
By Dahr JamailIf repairing/rebuilding something in Iraq isn't necessary to serve US and British interests, it is left as it is
Pride Without Prejudice
By A.J. PhilipThere were events that Indians could feel proud about during 2003. But when famines,religious massacres, ignorance and illiteracy stalk the land can we sit back relax?
2003 Israel attacks the Press
By Arjan El FassedYear 2003 was a period when Israeli army particularly targeted working journalists in the occupied territories. Two journalists, a Palestinian cameraman and a British documentary filmmaker were killed by the Israeli army
30 December, 2003
Behind The India-Pak Ceasefire
By Keith JonesThe Bush administration, which has embraced Pakistan’s military regime as a key ally in its “war on terrorism” and has identified India as a potential strategic partner of the US, is a moving force behind the India -Pak ceasefire
Afghanistan's Women After 'Liberation'
By Meena NanjiAfter the fall of the Taliban the Jehadi leaders, including Buhruddin Rabbani, Abdul Sayyaf, and members of the Northern Alliance, have re-emerged, with disastrous consequences for Afghans, especially women
Israel's Conscientious Objectors
By Uri AvneryWhen five 19-year old youngsters choose to go to prison rather than enjoy the freedom of the occupiers, Kant himself would have saluted them. The protest against an immoral regime is a categorical imperative
When God Goes To War
By Karen ArmstrongReligions usually espouse peace and goodwill, so why have they sparked so many conflicts?
Liberating Womanhood
By Kunda. PramilaniManusmriti Dahan Day celebrated as Indian women’s Liberation Day on 25th December 2003 at Chaitya Bhoomi , Mumbai- A Report
28 December, 2003
America's War For Global Domination
By Michel ChossudovskyThe antiwar and anti-globalisation movements must be integrated into a single worldwide movement. People must be united across sectors, "single issue" groups must join hands in a common and collective understanding on how the New World Order destroys and impoverishes
From Joy To Despair: Iraqis Pay For Saddam's Capture
By Robert Fisk"Saddam brought us to this tragedy and the Americans used it," he said. "You want to know who is to blame? I say this: Fuck Saddam and fuck the USA."
The Politics Of Land And The Besieged Lot
By Goldy M. Georgeland reforms is an unfinished task and land struggle is an ongoing phenomena. A lot of serious effort needs to be put into this
Remembering Gujarat
By Kalpana SharmaCan we afford to bury and forget the terrifying messages that the massacres in Gujarat carry?
27 December, 2003
Iraq Through The American Looking Glass
By Robert FiskTerror is being let loose in Iraq in order to elicit information about the guerrillas who are killing American troops
23 December, 2003
Sharon's Speech Decoded
By Uri AvnerySharon's "Herzliyah speech" outlined a whole, detailed - and extremely dangerous - plan. It is impossible to decipher it without breaking the code. And it is impossible to break the code without knowing Ariel Sharon very well indeed
Can It Ever Really End?
By Sam BahourThe world is trying to resolve only the most recent Israeli historic wrong - the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. However, the initial wrong that culminated in the 1948 expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from today's Israel is purposely being neglected
Capturing Saddam Won't End The War
By Robert FiskSaddam was neither the spiritual nor the political guide to the insurgency that is now claiming so many lives in Iraq. However happy Messrs Bush and Blair may be at the capture of Saddam, the war goes on
Social Engineering To The Fore -
BJP Sweeps the Assembly Elections
By Ram PuniyaniIt is not just the electoral victory for Sangh Parivar but also is the success of its Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram
12 December, 2003
Keep The Web Worldly And Wide
By Matthew Hindman and Kenneth Neil CukierThose who are trying to govern the world wide web should remember the Web's roots: Its success is due to the fact that it initially flew below the radar of governments and large corporations
Salvador Dali, Fascist
By Vincente NavarroThe year 2004, the centenary of Dali's birth, has been proclaimed "the year of Dali" in many countries. But this movement has been silent on his active and belligerent support for Spain's fascist regime
The Judeo-Jogi test
By Manoj MittaPolitical corruption is ubiquitous in India. But the mechanisms to check and punish the guilty is hardly efficient
11 December, 2003
The New Tragedy In Afghanistan
By Conor Foley and Mark LattimerOne of the big lessons from Afghanistan is that good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law are not optional when it comes to rebuilding a country, but an intrinsic part of reconstruction
Catching Up
By Jo WildingA visit with an Iraqi family provides a reflection on the realities and frustrations that many live with under the occupation
Nobel Lecture
By Shirin EbadiNoble Peace Prize acceptance speech delivered by the Iranian humanrights activist Shirin Ebadi
Defeat And Its Consequences
By Mani Shankar AiyarThe Hindutva brigade have installed three of the ugliest faces of communalism in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, and virtually handed over Chhattisgarh to the tender ministrations of Dilip Singh Judeo. The secular parties must rise from their slumber and form a rainbow coalition
Ayodhya Celebrating Intercommunity Relations
By Ram PuniyaniOn 20th November hundreds of Muslims came to the biggest and most popular temple in Ayodhya, Hanuman garhi. They offered Namaz and broke the fast in the sacred precincts of this temple
10 December, 2003
US, Israel Prepare Mass Killings In Iraq
By Bill VannThe Bush administration is about to launch a campaign of wholesale killings in Iraq with the assistance of the Israeli military, according to both US and Israeli sources quoted in several recent news reports
The Privatisation Of War
By Ian TraynorThe private sector is so firmly embedded in combat, occupation and peacekeeping duties in Iraq that the US military would struggle to wage war without it
‘Slapped’ Into Submission
By Sunita NarainHow corporations threaten institutions raising issues of public interest
Satyendra Dubey-Death Of A Whistleblower
By Sucheta DalalThe anger against the murder of IIT engineer Satyendra Dubey is growing. But the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which is guilty of leaking Dubey’s name to the very crooked contractors that he had complained against seems unaware about the groundswell of public anger
08 December, 2003
Three Metros Will Sink By 2020
Here is a disaster prediction. Coastal cities such as
Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai could go under sea by 2020 at the present levels of global warming and the concomitant rise in sea levelHow To Fix The World Bank
By Mark ScaramellaThe estimated total yearly value of worldwide currency transactions is over $1.2 trillion a day. Or almost $500 trillion per year. Imposing just 1 % tax on these transactions would wipe out poverty from this world
Muslim Women & Modern Society
By Asghar Ali EngineerNeither rejection of religion nor submission to what exists is a solution. Muslim women have to carve out their own way
07 December, 2003
Beginning Of The End Of The Monsoon?
By Geoffrey LeanGlobal warming can lead to the cessation of the Indian monsoon and the ending of the Gulf Stream threatening the survival of life in Asia and Europe
Political Impasse Deepens In Sri Lanka
By K. RatnayakeAttempts to patch up a compromise between Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have run into trouble after Kumaratunga released her own proposals for working relations with the government last Friday, directly cutting across negotiations with Wickremesinghe
06 December, 2003
The True Story Of The Battle Of Samarra
By Phil ReevesA bloody victory or dangerous fantasy? The Samarra story could have been a fabrication which was intended to generate positive headlines for the US, after a disastrous weekend in which guerrilla attacks killed 14 foreigners
Samarra: An Entire City Up In Arms
By May Ying“All of Samarra is with the resistance. The guerrillas can shoot at the Americans on a sidewalk in the middle of town at noon knowing no one will report them. When they do this, the people clap - men, women and children.”
Iraq: The Next Afghanistan
By Philip AdamsLook at Afganistan - the warlords are back in business, the opium poppies are blooming, heroin sales are booming and the country is returning to the same level of corruption and dysfunction that brought about the rise of the Taliban in the first place. This could be the path Iraq is heading
The BBC And Iraq: Myth And Reality
By John PilgerThe BBC gave just 2 per cent of its Iraq war coverage to opposition views
Divide And Destroy
By Alex KlaushoferOver the past few months, the barrier that Israel is building to cut itself off from the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank has come to symbolise the divide between the two peoples at the heart of the Middle East crisis
What Went Wrong?
By Gail OmvedtAll of secular India has to make soul searchings about the BJP victory in the recently concluded assembly elections in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. People like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy might have had some influence in these states,but they have been silent, silent silent
05 December, 2003
InsideThe Iraqi Resistance
By P. Mitchell Prothero"If the Americans leave and Saddam comes back, we will fight him too. Maybe if he were elected we'd allow it. But no one in Iraq wants Saddam back. He turned into a thief and a murderer who made too many mistakes. We don't want Saddam, but American cannot occupy us any longer."
Exporting The Islamic RevolutionTo Iraq
By Michael JansenGeorge W. Bush may be on the way to transforming Iraq into an Islamic state modelled on the Iranian system of “valayet-e-faqih”, rule of the jurisprudence
Trishul To darkness
By Rahul BoseIndia seems destined to pass through a dark tunnel before it sees light again
A Comedy Of Errors
By KrishnakumarAn English- Malayalam dictionary published by the DC Books, Kottayam written by Ramalingam pillai is full of shameful errors. Inspite of the errors the dictionary has been sold over a million copies. The authors efforts to publish an article on it has been refused by the leading dailies and magazines of Kerala making it one of the worst ever cover up in Kerala's publishing history
04 December, 2003
The False Hope Of The Geneva Accord
By Ali AbunimahThe Geneva accord looks superficially promising, but close-up it fails to resolve any of the key issues that have torpedoed every earlier peace plan
Human Rights Testimonies From Iraq
By Le Anne Clausen and David MilneTestimony of an Iraqi Minor Detained and Mistreated by US Forces. The family has asked that the 16 year old youth who gave the testimony not be identified because his relatives are still detained
Perhaps Saddam Read Tolstoy
And Bush’s People Didn’t
By Ben BagdikianThere is an eerie similarity between Leo Tolstoy's novel, War and Piece, which describes with considerable accuracy Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia and George Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq
Reviving Gandhi To Cover Up Gujarat's Shame
By Ruchir JoshiIn an effort to project a more humane face for Gujarat after the post Godhra pogrom against the Muslims, the Gujarat government is reviving Gandhi
03 December, 2003
What Happened At Samarra
By Muhammad Abu NasrEye Witness Report of the "Battle" at Samarra: "After inflicting casualties on the Americans the Resistance fighters withdrew. The American troops, however, continued to shell and rocket residential quarters of Samarra' for hours as if to punish residents and drive a wedge between them and the Iraqi Resistance"
The Battle That Left No Bodies
By Jack FairweatherAmericans say 54 attackers died in the fiercest engagement since the war ended while Iraqis insist that eight civilians were killed by reckless US fire.It was impossible to reconcile the two versions of the battle
India = Cow + Kamasutra
By Satya SagarIndia= Cow + Kamasutra. That in general is the equation that defines this vast, ancient and populous South Asian country even today for many people in the West. Why does this happen?
02 November, 2003
The World Is Running Out Of Oil
By George MonbiotThe world is running out of oil - so why do politicians refuse to talk about it?
Samrra Killings An Inside Story
By A Combat LeaderA combat leader gives the inside story of the samrra killings
Buying Up Iraq
By Amal Sedky WinterThe United States cannot tolerate Arab democracy at the national level because of its unilateral support of Israel's occupation of Palestine and no freely elected Arab government will support Israel against the Palestinians. If real democracy means letting people have a real voice in governing themselves then there is little hope of this happening in any Arab state, including Iraq
The Killing Fields Of Rafah
By Gideon LevyLife in the killing fields of Rafah is as cheap as the hundreds of houses that have been demolished there for various, strange reasons
01 December, 2003
Living In The Shadow Of AIDS
By Florence NamukwayaIn Uganda, 1.7 million children have been orphaned by Aids - a tenth of the world's total. Florence Namukwaya was one of them - now she looks after 13 others. To mark World Aids Day, she tells her story
Shifting Truths
By Robert FiskHow genocides become "alleged genocides"
Hitler, Hindutava And Its Allies
By BalramThe violent dance of death is being played all around the world. It's clothed in saffron these days in India. This Hindutva terrorism in saffron robes which Gujarat has suffered and which is being sought to be spread in rest of India, is borne out of the same psycho-space where Jihadi terrorism takes roots