30 November, 2007
Ten
Reasons Why “Save Darfur” Is A PR Scam
By Bruce Dixon
Among the latest false realities
being pushed upon the American people are the simplistic pictures of
Black vs. Arab genocide in Darfur, and the proposed solution: a robust
US-backed or US-led military intervention in Western Sudan. Increasing
scrutiny is being focused upon the “Save Darfur” lobby and
the Save Darfur Coalition; upon its founders, its finances, its methods
and motivations and its truthfulness. In the spirit of furthering that
examination we here present ten reasons to suspect that the “Save
Darfur” campaign is a PR scam to justify US intervention in Africa
Why
American Troops Can't Go Home
By Michael Schwartz
As long as that government is determined
to install a friendly, anti-Iranian regime in Baghdad, one that is hostile
to "foreigners," including all jihadists, but welcomes an
ongoing American military presence as well as multinational development
of Iraqi oil, the American armed forces aren't going anywhere, not for
a long, long time; and no relative lull in the fighting -- temporary
or not -- will change that reality. This is the Catch-22 of Bush administration
policy in Iraq
A
Tenuous 'Peace' In Al-Anbar
By Ali al-Fadhily
A semblance of calm belies an undercurrent
of violence, detentions and fear across Iraq’s volatile al-Anbar
province
The
First Days Of Petro Collapse
By Peter Goodchild
Without hydrocarbons, the darkness
closes in, literally and metaphorically. Yet instead of dealing with
the issue in a realistic manner, we sit around and hope that magic and
superstition will solve the problems
The
Iran Threat
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
No doubt the perceived threat from Iran will diminish
should Tehran yield to Washington, generously delivers its oil to Israel
to better enable it to continue its expansionist policies, and participate
in human rights abuses in the name of freedom and democracy vs. state
sovereignty. But even if the regime in Tehran succumbs, will the people
who have accomplished so much under such extraordinary circumstances,
surrender?
Distorting
Fascism To Demonize Iran
By Ismael Hossein-zadeh
In their frantic drive to pave
the way for a military strike against Iran, leading figures in the neoconservative
pro-Israel lobby have embarked on a vicious campaign of demonizing that
country by comparing it with the early years of Nazi Germany and its
President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with Hitler. These champions of war
and militarism are the same trigger happy characters who helped orchestrate
the criminal war against Iraq on the basis of ghastly lies and criminal
fabrications of evidence
The
Palestine That We Are Struggling For
By Jamal Juma’
The gulf between the Authority
and the Palestinian people is becoming increasingly obvious. Indeed
the whole range of Palestinian political and social forces joined in
condemning the repression on Tuesday. The choice for the Authority is
clear: either to go along with the dictates of the US and the Occupation;
or to radically alter their course, to return to the people and remember
that they are leaders of the Palestinian national struggle. The grassroots
movement against normalisation with the occupiers will continue to grow.
Resistance will continue as the Palestinian people assert their fundamental
rights
Same
Old, Same Old –Israel Wins Again
By Jim Miles
As I sit and read the announcements
from today’s first discussions from Annapolis, all I can see is
another dismal failure for peace and another year long “negotiation”
process that like Oslo, Camp David, the ‘road map’ all lead
to the same place. That place, as so clearly denoted by the late Tanya
Rinehart, is nowhere
It’s
The Land, Stupid. The Land
By David Truskoff
The Annapolis Agreement renews
the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in
peace and security. Now, there is a new Idea. The new idea that has
been rejected time and time again by Israel when the right of return
is injected. The issue of " Greater Israel" hangs like a ghost
over all the so-called "Peace conferences", but is never discussed
The
Responsibility To Protect Self-Determination
By Cameron Hunt
29 November 2007, marked sixty
years since the decision by the UN General Assembly to partition historic
Palestine into “Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special
International Regime for the City of Jerusalem”; yet the Palestinian
nation continues to be denied its right to national self-determination.
If ICISS has its way, and if the so-called ‘international community’
continues to do nothing to uphold the UN Charter, it could well be ‘the
right to national self-determination’ that is massacred
Counterpunching
The CounterPuncher
By Jeff Berg
Counterpunch has for a long time been a very important
voice of reason in a world gone mad. This is however very much going
to change if you personally do not begin to appreciate what has become
the zeitgeist of our age. I say this because the fact of the matter
is that your grasp of resource geology and atmospheric chemistry is
as weak as your tongue is tart and your sense of justice is strong.
If this does not change it will doom Counterpunch to being no more than
a side show I'm afraid
29 November, 2007
What’s
Really Happening In Venezuela?
By Lee Sustar
Venezuelans will vote December
2 on constitutional reforms proposed by President Hugo Chávez
and his supporters, capping weeks of sometimes-violent protests by right-wing
opposition forces, a defection by a top Chávez political ally,
and mass mobilizations by Chávez supporters.LEE SUSTAR, recently
returned from Venezuela, looks at the aims of Chávez’s
proposals, the response of the opposition and the shape of Venezuelan
politics today
Impending
Destruction Of The US Economy
By Paul Craig Roberts
Which will Washington sacrifice,
the domestic financial system and over-extended homeowners or its ability
to finance deficits? The answer seems obvious. Everything will be sacrificed
in order to protect Washington’s ability to borrow abroad. Without
the ability to borrow abroad, Washington cannot conduct its wars of
aggression, and Americans cannot continue to consume $800 billion dollars
more each year than the economy produces
Bush’s
Twenty-Billion Dollar Arms Sale
To Saudi Arabia Scuttled By The Israel Lobby
By James Petras
By blackmail and deceit, the Israelis
got their additional $30 billion dollars over the next ten years and
they double-crossed ‘their’ president by unleashing their
Fifth Column to block his military sales to the Saudis. And if Bush
dares a complaint, he will be added to the list of ‘anti-Semites’
– the only honorable list in his entire 8 years in office
Taslima
Controversy: No To Appeasement Politics
By Kashif ul-Huda
By shipping Nasreen out, the West
Bengal government seems to be giving into the demands of Muslims, but
it has chosen to act on an issue that has no socio-economic relevance
to a majority of them. This appeases known anti-Muslim parties more
than the average Muslim individual, as it gives them more ammunition
to target Muslims with. It might also please those Muslim leaders and
organizations that have been campaigning against Nasreen for their own
ulterior motives. These Muslim leaders can now claim victory and be
on the lookout for another symbolic issue to add another feather in
their cap
Taslima
Nasrin vs MF Hussein
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
The other hypocrisy that comes
out very clearly from this episode is while the Sangh Privar and others
welcome Taslima Nasrin, a foreigner with open arms to live any where
in India, they have booted out MF Hussein, the living Picasso of India
from his own country. It seems the ninety-year- old living legend is
heading to become another Bahadur Shah Zafar who may bemoan for not
getting two meters of land for his burial in his own motherland
The
Paradox Of Taslima Nasreen
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Is Taslima treading a dangerous path in India by
courting the Hindu fundamentalists?
The
Iraqi Miracle: From Invasion To “Partnership”
By James Rothenberg
The morning newspaper carries an
Associated Press story detailing the signing by President Bush and Iraqi
Prime Minister al-Maliki of a “declaration of principles”
between the two countries, which, for those still interested in the
real reason we invaded Iraq, amounts to a full confession. Not in front
of the International Criminal Court (that’s not for us) but mainstreamed,
normalized, now fit to print
Iraq
:'Internationally Sponsored Genocide'
By Felicity Arbuthnot
If anyone treated a domestic or
farm animal in the West, as the Iraqis have been treated for over seventeen
years: denied a proper diet, medication, clean water, a safe environment,
that person would end up in Court and likely in prison
Spain's
PSOE Socialist Party Follows The Same
Foreign Policy As The PP Under Aznar
By Agustin Velloso
The lies, cliches and slick, superficial
slogans, that mixture of political machismo and fake Spanish-ism that
are typical of Aznar, have broken out again lately, the difference being
they come not from him - although he backs them 100% - but from the
PSOE Zapatero government Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos
General
Musharraf's Second Martial Law:
The Hidden Agenda!
By Mehroz Siraj Sadruddin
Pakistan needs a fresh start that
should enable Pakistanis to enmesh democratic, pluralistic and secularist
values within its social and political psyche and fabric. The sooner
we do away with military dictatorships and civilians like Miss Benazir
Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the better
Bush’s Magic
Wand
By Dr Marwan Asmar
On face value, at Annapolis peace
negotiations were restarted again. How far it will reach, that’s
anybody’s guess, will it be even strangled in its cot since the
first of such meetings begins on 12 December, we will have to wait and
see
Holbrook's
Revelation
By Jeff Berg
What this writer found more revelatory
came out when Mr. Holbrook held forth on the subject most on everyone's
mind these days. I.e. Whether or not the U.S. will bomb Iran and its
people. The first intriguing fact is that he did not speak of this action
in terms of the U.S. nation bombing Iran. He spoke of it in terms of
the Bush Administration bombing Iran. That an Ambassador of his calibre
chooses his words very carefully I think goes without saying. For this
reason I found this purposeful differentiation between the nation of
the U.S. and its government deeply interesting
Iran, The U.S.,
And The Twisted Path
To Confrontation
By Jim Miles
Book Review: Bitter Friends, Bosom
Enemies – Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation
By Barbara Slavin
28 November, 2007
Climate
change: How Poorest Suffer Most
By Paul Vallely
Global warming is not a future
apocalypse, but a present reality for many of the world's poorest people,
according to the most hard-hitting United Nations report yet on climate
change, published yesterday.A catalogue of the "climate shocks"
that have already hit the world is set out in the Human Development
Report 2007/08. Fewer than two per cent of these have affected rich
countries. Europe had its most intense heatwave for 50 years and Japan
its greatest number of tropical cyclones in a single year. But far more
intense drought, floods and storms than usual have plagued the developing
world
US
Signs Deal For Long-Term Occupation Of Iraq
By Jerry White
President Bush and the Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri Al-Maliki signed an agreement Monday paving the way for
the long-term occupation of the Middle Eastern country and its transformation
into a semi-colonial protectorate of the US.The “Declaration of
Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship”
outlines plans for the establishment of permanent US military bases
in Iraq to suppress internal opposition to the US-installed regime and
protect US economic and political interests throughout the region. It
also provides for preferential treatment for US energy conglomerates
and investors to exploit Iraq’s newly opened up oil resources
Forecast:
U.S. Dollar Could Plunge 90 pct
By UPI
A financial crisis will likely
send the U.S. dollar into a free fall of as much as 90 percent and gold
soaring to $2,000 an ounce, a trends researcher said. "We are going
to see economic times the likes of which no living person has seen,"
Trends Research Institute Director Gerald Celente said, forecasting
a "Panic of 2008."
A
Dollar The Size Of A Postage Stamp
By Mike Whitney
Central banks across the globe
are trying to figure out how to ditch their dollar reserves without
triggering a stampede for the exits. No one wants to see that. But,
then, nobody wants to be stuck with vaults full of Uncle Sam's green
confetti either. So, the question arises; What is the best way to divest
oneself of $5.6 trillion (total USD held overseas) before the Lusitania
capsizes?
Detentions
Escalate In Diwaniyah
By Ali al-Fadhily
Detentions have become commonplace
in Iraq, but now more than ever before people are being detained after
being accused of membership in "militias supported by Iran."
Requiem
For The Lives Lost In Iraq
By David Gespass
Speech given by David Gespass at
Birmingham Alabama. He was invited to address the opening if an exhibit,
" Eyes Wide Open". The exhibit commemorated the lives lost
in Iraq war. It had pairs of boots for every Alabamian GI killed in
Iraq and a representative cluster of shoes for the Iraqi dead
How
The World Helped Pakistan Build Its Bomb
By Catherine Collins & Douglas Frantz
Khan did indeed overcome the obstacles
-- with plenty of help from his friends around the world. And he had
learned his lesson well. When he was finished helping Pakistan build
its bomb, he turned his talents to another kind of globalization --
marketing his wares, and those of his associates from Europe, Asia,
and South Africa, to a new set of clients
The
Right To Our Land Must Be Restored
By Fareed Taamallah
Palestinians hope to reach a peace
agreement with Israel, and we are cautiously optimistic about the upcoming
Annapolis, Maryland conference. But Palestinians are most concerned
with getting back their stolen lands. Incorporating settlement blocs
like Ariel into Israel is not a viable solution. Ordinary Palestinians
will not be able to cope unless their rights are restored
Separate
But Unequal In Palestine:
The Road To Apartheid
By Mohammed Khatib
We pray that our children will
not spend their lives under Israeli military occupation. We hope that
the Annapolis meeting will bring our dreams of freedom closer to fulfillment.
But we are concerned that if Israel is allowed to keep most of its settlements
and the roads that connect them, then the existing system of "separate
but unequal" will be cemented in place in a Palestinian state
Moral
Primitivism Anyone? A Satirical Examination
Of An Apologia For Industrialized Torture
By Jason Miller
For a year now I have been an ethical
vegetarian. Last Thanksgiving, I made what I thought was an enlightened
moral decision to stop eating meat and to severely restrict my egg and
dairy consumption. However, an email recently hit my inbox that presents
such a powerful argument justifying the wanton torture and slaughter
of animals (so we can please our palates) that my moral sensibilities
and capacity to reason have been utterly disarmed. Signed with a cryptic
“JC,” this missive pummeled me with points I had not even
considered when I made what I now rightly view as my ridiculous decision
to go “meatless.”
Reviewing
"Multinationals On Trial"
By Stephen Lendman
Reviewing James Petras and Henry
Veltmeyer's "Multinationals on Trial"
27 November, 2007
Iraq
Has Only Militants,No Civilians
By Dahr Jamail
From the beginning of the American
occupation in Iraq, air strikes and attacks by the U.S. military have
only killed “militants,” “criminals,” “suspected
insurgents,” “IED [Improvised Explosive Device] emplacers,”
“anti-American fighters,” “terrorists,” “military
age males,” “armed men,” “extremists,”
or “al-Qaeda.”The pattern for reporting on such attacks
has remained the same from the early years of the occupation to today
US
Army Reports Rising Desertion Rates
By Naomi Spencer
After a decline in desertion rates
following an initial exodus before the preemptive strikes on Afghanistan
and Iraq, the military is recording a rise in the number of soldiers
who abandon their posts. The Associated Press reported November 16 that
desertions this year stand 80 percent higher than in 2003, when the
US invaded Iraq
120
War Vets Commit Suicide Each Week
By Penny Coleman
Earlier this year, using the clout
that only major broadcast networks seem capable of mustering, CBS News
contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official
records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from
45 of the 50. From the mountains of gathered information, they sifted
out the suicides of those Americans who had served in the armed forces.
What they discovered is that in 2005 alone -- and remember, this is
just in 45 states -- there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120
every week for a year and an average of 17 every day
The
Ghosts of Misplaced Conscience
By Charles Sullivan
Rather than an economy based upon
savage greed and exploitation, let us create an economy based upon justice
and equality, need rather than excess; a society that does not leave
people behind but invites the full participation of everyone and recognizes
that, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” Let it be
all inclusive and worthy of respect: where every woman, man, and child,
every being of this earth is the same under the law and equally respected
and valued—a great global community seeking harmony rather than
competitive advantage
Barbarism
On The Rise – Civilization On The Wane
By Siv O'Neall
What is going on in the world at
this time is utter self-destruction and it is looking less and less
credible that the U.S. Empire, which is leading the destruction, will
ever come to its senses and reverse the trend.There may still be a chance
that the world can be ecologically, financially and socially saved.
But where is the Gandhi, where is the Martin Luther King, where are
the men and women with hearts and brains who are willing to step up
and lead the world back to sanity?
Let's
Reclaim Our Rights
By Gunther Ostermann
What are human beings fundamental
birthrights? We need to know- and claim it, especially for the disenfranchised
and future generations, who cannot speak for themselves
A
Matter Of Opinion
By Ramzy Baroud
JUSTmedia is the first initiative
to be launched by the People Media Project, a global scheme that hopes
to offer a different kind of platform for discourse, dialogue and commentary
by promoting the voices of people from all walks of life. Supported
by intellectuals who refuse to play by the roles of the ‘mainstream’,
the idea is to extend a bridge across cultural, language, geographic
and political divides to show and extend the possibilities of true democracy
and human rights in the media
Gujarat
Muslims: The Way Ahead
By Ram Puniyani
That a section of our society is
made to think that one sided forgiveness is the only way out just shows
that our system is deeply infected and needs to be cleansed by the spirit
of Indian ness. And that's where all the conscientious and aware citizens
believing in democracy have to stick together, for getting justice for
all and to soothe the wounds of those thinking of unsolicited, unilateral
forgiveness
Europe
At War 1939-1945:Norman Davies'
Falsification Of History
By Thomas Riggins
These comments are based on Adam
Tooze's review of the Davies book [Europe at War] in the TLS of 11-16-2007.
Tooze has a low opinion of both the book and of Davies' scholarship.
This is why
26 November, 2007
Australia
Thrashes Bush-ite Coalition:
But What Next?
By Dr Gideon Polya
Australia voted in the 2007 Federal
Elections on Saturday November 24, 2007. The result was a Labor party
thrashing of the incumbent Bush-ite Coalition Government under the “Little
Bush” John Howard, who is likely to lose his seat
Nandigram-III:
Lessons And Challenges
By Dipankar Bhattacharya
The year 2007 will be remembered
as the year when the CPI(M) completely unmasked itself in the mirror
of Nandigram. If January 2007 was re-enacted in March, November witnessed
a brutal replay of the atrocities perpetrated in March 2007. Each time
the operation has been more lethal and barbaric than the previous episode
Nandigram:
The Cowardice Of Mediocrity
By Aseem Shrivastava
Nandigram shows that the CPM is
just another face of the forces that threaten the polity
Preventing
The Impending War On Iran
By Marjorie Cohn
As we go to the polls in the coming
months, it is imperative we scrutinize the candidates’ positions
on Iraq and Iran. The security of the United States, as well as the
Middle East, is hanging in the balance
Iraq’s
Sovereignty Revisited
By Ghali Hassan
The current state of Iraq is a
U.S.-installed colonial dictatorship. The puppet government is a façade
legitimising the Occupation and covering-up its murderous crimes against
the Iraqi people. There is no sovereignty when 175,000 U.S. troops and
some 180,000 foreign mercenaries rampaging through the streets of Iraqi
towns and cities and killing Iraqis with impunity. So, what “sovereignty”
Mr. Bush was talking about?
Reckoning:
The Economic Consequences Of Mr. Bush
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
When we look back someday at the
catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many
things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo
and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the
American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the
repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this
page
Darkness
Falls On The Middle East
By Robert Fisk
In Beirut, people are moving out
of their homes, just as they have in Baghdad
Tragedy
And Travesty At Annapolis
By Stephen Lendman
November 27 at Annapolis kicks
off the latest Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace process round that
may be an historic first. It's the first time in memory the legitimate
government of one side is excluded, and that alone dooms it. Like previous
rounds, it's more pretense than peace
Apartheid
In Israel Palestine! Viability In Annapolis?
By Eileen Fleming
Will Annapolis end with more than
handshakes and photo ops? Is a viable Palestinian state even possible?
The
Final Battle In Bolivia
By Roger Burbach
Evo Morales, the first Indian president
of Bolivia, is forcing a showdown with the oligarchy and the right wing
political parties that have stymied efforts to draft a new constitution
to transform the nation. He declares, “Dead or alive I will have
a new constitution for the country by December 14,” the mandated
date for the specially elected Constituent Assembly to present the constitution
23 November, 2007
The
US’s WarIn Darfur
By Keith Harmon Snow
There is growing dissent within
the “Save Darfur” movement as more supporters question its
motivations and the Jewish-Israeli link. “Save Darfur” leaders
have been replaced after complaints surfaced about expenditures of funds.
Many rebel leaders reportedly receive tens of thousands of dollars monthly,
and rebels emboldened by the “Save Darfur” movement commit
crimes with impunity. There is a growing demand to probe the accounts
of “Save Darfur” to find out how the tens of millions collected
are being spent due to allegations of arms-deals and bribery—rebel
leaders provided with five-star hotel accommodations, prostitutes and
sex parties
Dollar
Is America's Achilles' Heel
By Linda S. Heard
he US may be the most militarily
powerful and technologically advanced country in the world but even
a roaring giant can be stopped in its tracks when he's hit where it
hurts the most in his pocketbook and especially when that pocketbook
is also his Achilles' heel
The
Cancer Of Growth
By Gustavo Esteva
It is time to stop the dominant
insanity. Some things need to grow, and others need to contract. Let
our capacity to sustain ourselves and our vital autonomy grow. Let our
expressions and spaces for exercising liberty and initiative grow. Let
the opportunities for a good life multiply, according to the way in
which each individual and culture defines that good life. And, to make
that possible, let us reduce the weight of a formal economy that oppresses
us and wears us down, through everything that contradicts a good life
for everyone or destroys nature
The
Approaching Holiday Shopping Spree
As The US Economy Declines
By Shepherd Bliss
As Americans head into the annual
holiday shopping orgy, it is a good time to explore how our excessive
spending damages us. The ten busiest shopping days of the year are between
the day after Thanksgiving and two days before Christmas
Annapolis,
As Seen From Gaza
By Laila El-Haddad
If history has taught the people
of Gaza anything, it's that they never have much of a say in their destiny
Sub-planting
Palestinian Memory
By Dr Elias Akleh
After the Jewish Holocaust the
whole world cried “never again”. Yet the same victims of
the Holocaust, and their descendent, are now perpetrating a similar
Holocaust against the Palestinians
Executions
Not Leading To Reconciliation
By Ali al-Fadhily
The executions of former regime
officials are creating greater division, rather than reconciliation,
among Iraqis. Special courts formed by the American occupation authorities
in Iraq are issuing death sentences -- like that carried out on former
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, on 30 December 2006 -- on what many
Iraqis are interpreting as a political basis
Nukes'
Seventh Decade
By David Swanson
Jonathan Schell's latest book "The
Seventh Decade" places our current situation in the context of
the past 62 years of the nuclear age, or the past 68 years as Schell
might prefer to date it. It was 68 years ago that scientists concluded
a nuclear bomb was possible.Schell does place some hope, as do I, in
the possibility that a movement to end global warming will grow to include
a movement to eliminate nuclear weapons. The two movements would seem
to be perfect allies, as it would be quite a shame to save the world
from one of the two dangers we face and lose it to the other
No
Voice Unheard
By Mickey Z.
An interview with animal rights
activist Diane Leigh
Sri
Lanka: ‘Gently Weeps’
By Chandi Sinnathurai
The questions that need to be raised
by all who care for human rights is this: How long can this denial of
justice continue? How much more time is needed for the world community
to sit quietly and watch, and even supply arms under-hand for such an
immoral act to continue?
"3'D'
In Judiciary "
By Amit Chamaria
Apart from other anomalies, the
word 'delay' has become part and parcel of the Indian judicial system.A
close scrutiny of the above data that the 3 ' D' are restricted to that
segments of the society who are socially backward in all dimensions
of the life and at the bottom line of the social hierarchy of the Varna
system. And certainly, Dalits and Adivasi prominently
fall in this category
22 November, 2007
Iraq:
Infighting Increases Instability
By Ali al-Fadhily
Increasing conflict and finger
pointing between leading Shi'ite political blocs are heightening instability
in war-torn Iraq
Handy
Hints For Post-Petroleum
By Peter Goodchild
The priority of these "hints"
will vary as the years go by, but most of them will remain relevant
over the course of the century. The slight bias toward northern North
America is partly due to the fact that the area meets most of the criteria
Wheat
Biopiracy The Real Issues
The Government Is Avoiding
By Vandana Shiva
The epidemic of biopiracy is an
assault on our living heritage of biodiversity and cumulative innovation
embodied in the traditional knowledge of agriculture and medicine. In
the long run, it determines livelihoods and economic sovereignty because
what is commonly available becomes an intellectual property of a company
for which royalty must be paid. It is the governments duty to protect
the resources and heritage of the country and prevent its usurpation
by foreign interests and commercial corporations
Meeting:
Institutionalization Of Racism
By Haidar Eid
The idea of defining the country
as exclusively white and democratic at the same time was never accepted
by the international community. It was considered blatant racism. Unlike
Palestinians, Black Africans are considered human beings, and therefore,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to them. That is precisely
what the call for the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state means
Palestine:
The First Imperative
By Roni Ben Efrat
A new path is needed in Palestine.
The first imperative must be to the stronger: Israel must cease to exploit
Palestinian weakness, as it has in the past, in order to wring concessions.
That is a necessary condition for the process that then must follow:
the building of a Palestinian economy and the renewal of independent
Palestinian institutions
Lincoln
Was Wrong: The Case Of Fooling
Most Of The People Most Of The Time
By John Chuckman
This year marks the forty-fourth
anniversary of John Kennedy’s assassination. What is most remarkable
about this is the stunningly simple fact that, despite innumerable books
and several official investigations, we still do not know what happened
in 1963
The
Trouble With Thankfulness
By David Swanson
This Thanksgiving, go out of your
way to thank somebody who is working for radical democratic change in
the world. And, this holiday season, thank your loved ones for who they
are. Don't thank anybody else for them. But put your generosity where
it belongs: in actions aimed at benefitting those in the world who have
it worst
21 November, 2007
Gaza:
The Final Solution In Slow Motion
By Agustin Velloso
The international community has
refused to put a stop to this slow and painful genocide. On the contrary,
they have chosen to make it possible in many ways for Israel to carry
out its own Final Solution in Palestine: giving them weapons, money,
political support and punishing the Palestinians in Gaza with a boycott
that cries out to heaven with anguish for its cruelty and brutality
The
Turbulent Winds Of The Annapolis Conference
By Dan Lieberman
Discussing the proposed Annapolis
Conference, in face-to-face talks with the prime ministers, foreign
ministers and non-government officials (NGOs) of Israel, Palestinian
Authority, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, revealed how far we are from achieving
peace in the Middle East and how far Annapolis is from the Earth that
others walk upon
Why
Israel Has No "Right To Exist"
As A Jewish State
By Oren Ben-Dor
The Annapolis meeting is a con.
As an egalitarian argument we should say loud and clear that Israel
has no right to exist as a Jewish state
Reflections
At Thanksgiving Time
By Emily Spence
Thanksgiving will be a mixed blessing,
one in which I affirm all for which I am grateful. Yet, it will also
be a time during which I will avow to strive all the harder to ensure
that I am as supportive as possible towards other life in the world.
The reason for doing so is quite simple in the end. It is because my
life and every other one unequivocally depends on this sort of caring
provision
What
Were The Pilgrims
And Their Thanksgiving Like?
By Edward M. Eveld
Nathaniel Philbrick author of 'Mayflower',
spent three years researching the Pilgrims' voyage and what came after,
including the complex and evolving relationships between settlers and
American Indians. He found not the caricatures of his fuzzy impressions
but real humans capable of kindness and murder, of lasting conciliation
and sudden treachery, of charity and the ugliest of greed
Black
Friday: Why This One Is Especially Dark
By Carolyn Baker
So on this Thanksgiving week as
stomachs are stuffed and the cacophony of credit card transactions deafens
and defies the reality of global economic meltdown, I will celebrate
that we are now closer to the total collapse of civilization than we
have ever been, and that for all the rampant suffering it will evoke
around the world, the soul-murdering, mind-numbing, body obliterating
culture of empire is terminally ill and on life-support. I know not
how many, if any of us, will survive its collapse, but I do know that
until it has fallen fatally silent, no life form on earth will ever
experience freedom or fullness of life
First
Woman, First Black, First Latino,
or First Honest President?
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Every reason we use to vote for
someone is a joke. Delusional thinking about candidates has produced
our delusional democracy. Time to stop voting for liars. Better to not
vote at all. Voting for liars only encourages more lies
Haiti:
Survival And Poverty In Carrefour
By Nazaire St Fort
The families of Carrefour often
live on less than one US dollar per day and suffer from malnutrition.
The lack of access to potable water and basic health care further compounds
the problem. Few can afford to attend school. With few options young
people are put at high risk of going into prostitution and crime
Pakistan's
Problems Start At The Top
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Only a freely chosen and representative
government can win public support for taking on the Taliban. But to
do this, it will need to begin addressing the larger, long-term political,
social and economic problems facing Pakistan. The country must seek
a more normal relationship with India. Only then can the army be cut
down to size and Pakistan free itself from the massive military expenditures
and the nuclear weapons that burden it
Plans
For Disintegrating Pakistan
Are Now Up For Debate
By Abid Ullah Jan
In the plans of American warlords,
the time for Pakistan is up. It is up to Pakistan’s religious,
military and political “leaders,” who have facilitated the
neocons plans thus far, to take a note of the impending war on Pakistan,
make necessary course corrections, or get ready to be decimated with
the rest of their countrymen or hanged in the streets in case they survive
the shock and awe
20 November, 2007
US
Steps Up Plans For Military
Intervention In Pakistan
By Bill Van Auken
In the midst of public statements
of support for “democracy” in Pakistan and the recent visit
to Islamabad by the American envoy John Negroponte, Washington is quietly
preparing for a stepped-up military intervention in the crisis-ridden
country
Pakistan’s
Disorder – Another Fine Mess
Created By Uncle Sam
By Javed I. Chaudry
Today, one can pick up almost any
paper or watch any tv news channel, one cannot escape from the news
on the current Pakistani situation revolving around the imposed emergency
in that country. I interpret and explain it to be the direct consequence
of knee deep American involvement and its control, which is leveraged
through the financial aid in order to derive long term geo-political
benefits from the region
Musharraf’s
Crisis Of Legitimacy
By Taj Hashmi
Nothing but democracy and accountability
can either salvage Pakistan or subdue Islamists to put an end to terrorism
in the long run
Fallujah
Now Under A Different Kind Of Siege
By Ali al-Fadhily
Three years after a devastating
U.S.-led siege of the city, residents of Fallujah continue to struggle
with a shattered economy, infrastructure, and lack of mobility
Radioactive
Ammunition Fired In Middle East
May Claim More Lives Than Hiroshima And Nagasaki
By Sherwood Ross
By firing radioactive ammunition,
the U.S., U.K., and Israel may have triggered a nuclear holocaust in
the Middle East that, over time, will prove deadlier than the U.S. atomic
bombing of Japan
Middle
Class Angst: The Politics Of Lemmings- Part I
By Stan Goff
Suburbia is also a spiritual wasteland,
a place where the wonder of nature is desecrated ubiquitously with corporate
logos and all the artifacts of late technological society
Redact
O'Reilly
By Mary Shaw
Every American should see Brian
DePalma's new film, Redacted, including every member of the Bush administration.
Because it's not so much about what American troops are doing to the
Iraqis, but rather what Bush's war is doing to our troops. Their actions
are just a consequence of that
Google
Refuses To Run Impeachment Ad
By Ralph Lopez
Google has refused to run sponsored
ad and link paid for by the Northeast Impeachment Coalition and YaliesForImpeachment.org
to help impeach vice president Cheney
The
Beating Of Medha Patkar
By Satya Sagar
The beating of Medha Patkar by
both BJP and the CPM thugs, which underlines her unique status as a
threat to establishments on both the right and the left, was no mere
coincidence. The fact is these two parties, despite their vehement public
opposition to each other, share a frightening similarity in their overall
political culture- both within and outside their organizations
The
Auschwitz Of Our Times !
Where Are Our Raphael Lemkins !
By Subhash Gatade
Perhaps it is a sign of changed
times or the slackening of the resolve of humanity that today sixty
years after Auschwitz the 'Neros' of Gujarat have been allowed to go
scot free. Forget punishment, these perpetrators of ghastly killings,
- the strategists, the planners and the actual footsoldiers - are today
a respectable lot
Peace:
What Does It Mean?
By Kashoo Tawseef
Peace to me means peace of the
second type Peace which results out of justice not out of oppression
says Kashoo Tawseef
19 November, 2007
A
World Dying, But Can We Unite To Save It?
By Geoffrey Lean
Pollution in the seas is now speeding
global warming, says a devastating new climate report
Globalisation
Or Militarist Imperialism?
India Must Choose
By Rohini Hensman
It is easy to understand why the
current US administration is so desperate to seal a strategic alliance
with India, at a time when Pakistan, its traditional ally in South Asia,
appears to be faltering. For India, however, the deal would be a disaster.
Backing out of it under pressure from public opinion may be embarrassing,
but not shameful; on the contrary, it is the only democratic option
Of
Boycotts And Elections
By Charles Sullivan
Electoral boycotts are one of many
tools available to us as we plant the seeds of revolution and create
the atmosphere for a major paradigm shift sometime in the future. Boycotts
are a peaceful way of hastening the change that will eventually make
a more just society possible; a world in which just people, not wealth
and privilege, decides the future
Coup
D'Etat Rumblings In Venezuela
By Stephen Lendman
Venezuela's social democracy is
on the line in the crucial December 2 vote, and the entire region depends
on it solidifying and surviving
Super-Patriotism’s
Intercourse
With The Secret Sect Of Power
By Gaither Stewart
The Patriot Act threatens freedoms,
at home and abroad. It gives the US President the power to access your
private life, to secretly search your home and make arbitrary arrests.
Abroad, it conducts criminal activities, the black night flights of
CIA aircraft in the kidnapping, secret jailing in foreign lands and
torturing of suspected “terrorists.” Such powers are the
essence of Fascism
The
U.S. vs. The World In The Death Penalty Debate
By Mary Shaw
On November 15, a human rights
committee of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution
calling for a global "moratorium on executions with a view toward
abolishing the death penalty."The vote was 99 in favor and 53 against,
with 33 abstentions.Want to guess who voted against the resolution?
Yep, the good ol' United States of America, along with Afghanistan,
China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and a handful of other countries
known for their systematic violations of human rights
Somalia:
What The News Failed To Report
By Ramzy Baroud
Somalia is more under the mercy
of foreign powers and self-serving internal forces, foreshadowing yet
more bloodshed. Our informed support is essential now because the Somali
people have suffered enough. Their plight is urgent and it deserves
a much deeper understanding, alongside immediate attention
Treacherous
Alliance
By Jim MIles
Book Review: Treacherous Alliance
– the secret dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States By
Trita Parsi
Nandigram:
The Poor Killing The Poor
On Neo-Liberal Bidding
By Debarshi Das
It all started on a clear neo-liberal
stirring. The 25,000 acres that the government was desperate to acquire
was not to build a new party office, not even to distribute largesse
to the party sycophants. It was to act as an over-enthusiastic, real
estate agent of a multinational company with an anti-people track record.
It's not surprising that the corporate media is working overtime to
obfuscate the underlying neo-liberal insinuations on which the poor
are butchering the poor
Orphans
Of Jammu And Kashmir Await Justice
By Syed Junaid Hashmi
Prior to the ongoing conflict in
the state, we had only one orphanage run by an NGO and only two homes
run by the social welfare department. Now we have ample number of orphanages
and Bal Ashrams in the state but accountability has gone missing. Homes
for the orphan have been declared insufficient by various international
organizations
17 November, 2007
Averting
World War III, Ending
Dollar Hegemony And Imperialism
By Rohini Hensman
If the Bush administration has
decided to attack Iran militarily, is there any power on earth that
can stop it if the people of the US are unable or unwilling to do so?
The argument below is that if the USA’s ability to undertake imperial
conquests depends on its obvious military supremacy, this in turn is
ultimately based on the use of the US dollar as the world’s reserve
currency. It is the dominance of the dollar that underpins US financial
dominance as a whole as well as the apparently limitless spending power
that allows it to keep hundreds of thousands of troops stationed all
over the world. Destroy US dollar hegemony, and the “Empire”
will collapse
The
Dollar's Decline: From Symbol Of Hegemony
To Shunned Currency
By Andy McSmith
The decline of the dollar, symbol
of US global hegemony for the best part of a century, may have become
so entrenched that some experts now fear it is irreversible
A
Real Terrorist Is On The Loose:
Humanity And Mother Earth Are in Danger
By Ali Baghdadi
George Bush told the Palestinian
Authority "President", Mahmoud Abbas, that God told him to
invade Iraq to spread democracy. He is waiting for the green light from
his god to strike Iran. Of course, Bush's god is big business. He prays
for the oil companies and the war industrial complex. He gives alms
in the form of governmental contracts to his friends, who are robbing
the American tax-payers in the billions of dollars. If he is allowed
to push the button, the consequences will be a global disaster. Humanity
and mother earth are at great risk
The
One-State Reality
By Ben White
To say that the "one-state
solution" is impractical or equals the "destruction"
of Israel is poorly concealed code for defending the indefensible and
a recipe for continual conflict in a land it is impossible to partition.
It is to maintain, against the odds, the Zionist fiction that Palestine
was a land without a people for a people without a land. It is to entertain
the fantasy that the occupied territories so comprehensively colonized
by Israel can become a "Palestinian state" which isn’t
apartheid in name only
Jordan’s
Iraqi Social Revolution Is Politically-Loaded
By Dr Marwan Asmar
The social revolution in the country
has been building up for the last 17 years, today the Iraqi communities
in Jordan have started to build roots, and it would be difficult for—apart
from the fact they may not personally want to—to go back their
traditional home place which they have been alienated from, firstly
by the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent Iraqi
governments in the wake of the American occupation of the country
The
Monarchy's Clash With Socialism
By Pablo Ouziel
In November 2007 at the Ibero-American
Summit in Santiago de Chile, the King of Spain Juan Carlos pointed his
finger at Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and asked him, "Why
don't you shut up?", after Chávez had called José
María Aznar Spain's former Prime Minister a fascist, and José
Luis Rodríguez Zapatero the current Spanish Prime Minister was
trying to defend him
Remember
LIBERTY
By Eileen Fleming
The Veterans of the USS LIBERTY
have repeatedly requested an open independent panel to investigate the
horrific and unprovoked attack upon them and have only received pro-forma
letters from a White House staffer in this Administration stating that
the attack had already been investigated
Where
Does Your Money Go?
By Paul Buchheit
America is experiencing the greatest
disparity between rich and poor since the Great Depression, with an
income gap that is worse than anywhere else in the developed world
Pakistan:
Today's Imperatives
By M.B. Naqvi
The people of Pakistan have the
grit, wit and wisdom to effect a true regime change through sustained
peaceful agitation. But change there has to be
16 November, 2007
Venezuela:
Between Ballots And Bullets
By James Petras
Venezuela’s democratically
elected Present Chavez faces the most serious threat since the April
11, 2002 military coup. Violent street demonstrations by privileged
middle and upper middle class university students have led to major
street battles in and around the center of Caracas
Peak
Oil And Silence
By Peter Goodchild
Perhaps the silence will never
end. Most people will never personally see the oil wells running dry,
so they will never really know who or what to blame. Modern surveillance
techniques will ensure that no protester gets more than half a mile
down a street. The process of erosion will be so slow at first that
people will wonder if they are imagining the whole thing: higher costs
for food and fuel, lower quality of goods and services, a general third-world
ambience to what were supposed to be first-world cities. One day, however,
there will be a realization that the Grand Plan is not forthcoming,
and that staying alive will depend on the Small Plan, person by person,
family by family
The
Great American Water Crisis
By Leonard Doyle
The US drought is now so acute
that, in some southern communities, the water supply is cut off for
21 hours a day. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, a once-lush region where
the American dream has been reduced to a single four-letter word: rain
Thanksgiving
Hypocrisy
By Stephen Lendman
On November 22, we should do more
than give thanks. We should ask for forgiveness and demand accountability
Two
Months After Deadly Shooting, No Charges
Against Blackwater Mercenaries
By Kate Randall
Two months after the deadly September
16 shooting in Baghdad by contractors of Blackwater Worldwide, no charges
have been filed against any of the mercenaries involved. The incident
left 17 civilians dead and as many as 27 wounded
Sane
Bush Hatred
By Joel S.Hirschhorn
The only rational and sane conclusion
is that hating Bush is justified and completely sane
Charges
Dropped Against
Last Of 'Los Angeles Eight'
By Michel Shehadeh
For the last 20 years, the U.S.
government has accused me of being a terrorist. Along with six other
Palestinians and a Kenyan, we were dubbed the "Los Angeles Eight"
by the media. Our case even made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Oct.
30 - 20 grueling years after the early morning raid in which armed federal
agents barged into my apartment, brutally arrested me before my 3-year-old
son's eyes, incarcerated me in maximum security cells in San Pedro State
Prison for 23 days without bond, and attempted to deport me - the government
dropped all charges fabricated against me
Gore’s
Triumphant ‘Second Act’ Dramatizes
Bush Failures, Signals Reversal
By Robert S. Becker
Like comets once viewed as heavenly
omens, Al Gore’s triumphant blaze of glory ripples with significance,
sharply reminding us of what could have been, what is, and what may
well come to pass. Positioned nicely before the ’08 election,
Gore’s redemption presages a major paradigm reversal, beyond global
warming, threatening the conservative dominance begun by Ronald Reagan
Mentes
Peligrosas: Confession Of
An American Thought Criminal
By Jason Miller
If you needed more evidence that
most of our “esteemed” members of Congress are members of
a criminal class of ruling elites, who regard the likes of us in the
poor and working classes with the disdain most people reserve for cockroaches,
look no further than H.R. 1955.93% of the filth “representing”
us in the House voted in favor of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. Once this vile piece of legislation
sails through the Senate and the sociopath on Pennsylvania Ave gleefully
slaps his endorsement on it, the mechanisms will be in place for our
lords and masters to initiate programs that will make Cointelpro and
the murder of Fred Hampton look like child’s play
Slavoj
Zizek On The Dilemmas Of Capitalism
By Thomas Riggins
Zizek lists eight ways in which
the “Left” reacts to “the hegemony of global capitalism
and its political supplement, liberal democracy.” His “Left”
is very broad and seems to include everyone from the “US Democrats”
to “Hugo Chavez.” Of the eight responses to capitalist hegemony
one is political and the other seven are either redundant or abstract
responses of European and American intellectuals or third world utopians.
The working class is barely mentioned. Here are the eight responses
Disconnected
And Depoliticized In Pakistan:
Elite Inaction In Emergency Times
By Mahnoor Khan
There are overt and subtle ways
in which the emergency is effectively legitimized by the Pakistani elite.
In the following piece, I have attempted to articulate my own stance
on the issue, and address some of these arguments
Children
In Kashmir Conflict
By Tawseef Kashoo
In state of Jammu and Kashmir state
children suffer day and night. They suffer because they are subjected
to frisking like every individual of the state. They are subjected to
torture and molestation. They suffer because parents of so many children
remain in jail, remain absconding because security agencies are looking
for them and in order to force them to surrender their children are
subjected to torture
15 November, 2007
Imran
Khan's Message: 'My Life Is
In Danger'
By Kim Sengupta & Andrew Buncombe
Imran Khanexpressed his grave concern
for his security in a text message sent to his lawyer in the UK, in
which he warned that failure by British authorities to prosecute a key
London-based ally of General Musharraf, Altaf Hussain, could lead to
lethal repercussions. His message to his lawyer, also named Imran Khan,
suggested another possible cause for his arrest
Are
You With Us… Or Against Us?
By Jonathan Schell
The Road from Washington to Karachi
to Nuclear Anarchy
Bush
Stands By His Dictator
By Robert Scheer
“The war on terror”
made me do it. That’s the excuse that works for George W. Bush
to rationalize his assaults on the rule of law, from arbitrary arrest
to torture. So why not try some war-on-terror obfuscation to bail out
his president-dictator buddy over in Pakistan?
Hillary's
Musharraf
By Greg Palast
Four years ago, as Bush was proclaiming
victory over the Butcher of Baghdad, I wrote, "Given our experiences
with Saddam and Osama, our monsters tend to get out of control after
about 11 years. Therefore, we can expect, in the year 2013, that President
Jeb Bush will have to order the 82d Airborne into Pakistan to remove
Musharraf, the Killer of Karachi."
Modi
And Budhadeb: A Comparison
By Satya Sagar
A comparison between the Gujarat
chiefminsiter Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb
Bhattacharya
West
Bengal's Stanilist Government Mounts
Terror Campaign To Quash Peasant Unrest
By Kranti Kumara
At least eight persons were killed
and scores more injured in a week of violence, beginning November 6,
mounted by armed goons organized by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The CPM is the dominant partner in West Bengal’s Left Front government
The
Titanic Economy
By Mike Whitney
The only thing looking up are oil
futures. And they’ll be denominated in euros soon enough
Corruption
Adds To Baquba's Problems
By Ahmed Ali
Facing violence, unemployment
and poverty, the capital city of Iraq's volatile Diyala province now
finds itself confronting also corruption
Gwyn
Don't Know Dyer
By Jeff Berg
Richard Gwyn’s November 13,
2007 article “Pessimistic Fuel Report too Bright” comes
tantalizingly close to understanding the full peril that the energy
question presents to development, our collective wealth and the planet’s
health. For this he deserves kudos. Though at this point in the energy
and emissions narrative it is hardly news to say that if India and China
were to consume like North America we would fry the planet
Sri
Lanka: An Arms Embargo
By Chandi Sinnathurai
There is almost an out cry against
Sri Lanka to stop the un-declared war Against the Tamils. For the last
so many years, this unceasing conflict has continued and up to date
it has claimed over 18,000 lives. Many more thousands are maimed and
traumatised by this bloody war since the early 1980s. Even as we write,
thousands simply ‘disappear’ daily, never to be found again
14 November, 2007
Cost
Of US Wars $1.6 Trillion
By Bill Van Auken
The price tag for the wars being
waged by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan will hit nearly $1.6
trillion during the coming year, according to a report released Tuesday
by the Democratic staff of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee
Peak
Oil Doomsday:Ahead Of Schedule
By Peter Goodchild
When we try to predict the effects
of oil decline, we may assume that human "die-off" will follow
a gradual but steady curve from about the year 2000 or 2010 to about
2030, which will then flatten out toward about 2050. But such events
will probably happen much more quickly than that, because there is a
"synergistic" effect due to the fact that the two forces of
oil depletion and human population are now heading in opposite directions
U.S.
Economy: Recession, Depression, Or Collapse?
By Shepherd Bliss
Our economy is paying and will
continue to pay the consequences of over-consumption and the over-purchasing
of people reaching beyond their resources that characterized the housing
market. We have been greedy. There are limits to growth and those limits
are crashing in on us
Divisions
In Our World Are Not The Result Of Religion
By Karen Armstrong & Andrea Bistrich
Karen Armstrong was a Catholic
nun for seven years before leaving her order and going to Oxford. Today,
she is amongst the most renowned theologians and has written numerous
bestsellers on the great religions and their founders. She is one of
the 18 leading group members of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative
of the former UN General Secretary, Kofi Anan, whose purpose is to fight
extremism and further dialogue between the western and Islamic worlds.
She talks here to the German journalist, Andrea Bistrich, about politics,
religion, extremism and commonalities
Torturing
Palestinian Detainees
By Stephen Lendman
B'Tselem's May, 2007 report states
that the Israeli Security Agency (ISA - formerly called the General
Security Service or GSS) admits to using "exceptional" methods
that include "physical pressure" of interrogation in "ticking
bomb" cases that can be used as an excuse to abuse anyone. In addition,
law enforcement officials openly admit harsh measures are approved retroactively
so that Palestinian detainee rights can be freely violated without fear
of recrimination
Child
Prisoners Of The 'Holy' Land
By Eileen Fleming
These children are subjected to
physical and psychological torture and interrogated without family or
lawyers. The majority of confessions and sentences are related to throwing
stones, such as at Caterpillar bulldozers that demolish Palestinian
homes without compensation, in order to grab land for The Wall, that
is NOT being built on the internationally recognized 1949 Green Line
boundary between Israel and the West Bank, but on Palestinian owned
land, and thus illegal under international law
The
Last Refuge
By Uri Avnery
The Arab governments will be compelled
to support the US, at least with their tongues. But the hearts and souls
of the Arab peoples, from Morocco to Iraq, will be with the Iranians
defending themselves against the Americans and Israelis. Especially
if the Annapolis meeting does end, as expected, without bringing redemption
to the Palestinian people.There is only one way to come out of this
in one piece - not to get into it in the first place.It has been said
that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". For a
failed politician, the last refuge is war
Articulating
The Unprintable
By June Rugh & Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud discusses media response
to His book
Outrage
In A Time Of Apathy
By Aaron Glantz
Unlike most U.S. journalists who
went to Iraq to cover a war, Dahr Jamail went to try to stop it. Once
in Iraq, Jamail set about reporting the stories of regular Iraqi people.
He spent months in Iraq's hospitals, morgues and mosques. His journalism
covers some of the most mundane, but important, aspects of the U.S.
occupation -- like gas lines, checkpoints, and bombed out telephone
switching stations. His stories appeared in numerous outlets around
the world
Venezuela:
Reform Battle Continues
As Chavez Ally Splits
By Federico Fuentes
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans
took to the streets of Caracas on November 4, in a massive sea of red,
to support the proposed constitutional reforms adopted by the National
Assembly that will be put to a referendum on December 2. Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez has explained that the reforms aim to deepen the
Bolivarian revolution that his government is leading
Lilly
Makes Billions Off Zyprexa While
Approved For Schizophrenia Only
By Evelyn Pringle
Experts say there is no way that
Zyprexa could have become Lilly's most widely prescribed drug in the
US without influencing doctors to prescribe the drug off-label. For
instance, even though Zyprexa was approved to treat the manic phase
of bipolar disorder only, which is typically brief, patients were kept
on the drug for years
Lessons
From Nandigram's Heroic Land Struggle
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Nandigram is burning and the Neros
of the left front governments are watching it with great patience. Those
who are up in arms against any displacement elsewhere remain mute spectators
at the butchering of people in this 'war zone', as the governor of the
state Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi mentioned in his statement
Shameful
Events In Nandigram
By Concerned Citizens
Statement from concerned citizens
on the shameful events in Nandigram
13 November, 2007
Oil-Protection
Base Being Built In Iraq
By Patrick Martin
The US Navy, with the assistance
of British and Australian commandos, is building a permanent base to
guard two oil-export platforms in Iraqi waters at the northern end of
the Persian Gulf, according to a report Monday in the Wall Street Journal
A
Tale Of One City, Now Two
By Ali al-Fadhily
The separation of religious groups
in the face of sectarian violence has brought some semblance of relative
calm to Baghdad. But many Iraqis see this as the uncertain consequence
of a divide and rule policy
Just
East Of Eden-Iran: Images And Reflections
By Gaither Stewart
While the drums of war roll and
the US President speaks of war against Iran, questions and more questions
emerge from the disastrous past of US-Iran relations. After the great
lie about Iraq, one must wonder if Iran’s nuclear ambitions are
the problem. The obvious answer is: not at all. Oil is the issue
Faith
And War
By Cindy Sheehan
If Jesus came back today and was
a politician, I know, because of my faith in the inherent goodness of
the Universe, that he would not be a "politician" but a public
servant. Jesus would be in favor of single-payer health care, solar
and wind energy, unions, free post-secondary education, Social Security,
fair trade, free speech, civil rights, and human rights. Jesus would
be against the death penalty, torture, extremist religions that exploit
His Name for profit, extremist states that exploit His Name to kill
innocent people, and the ultimate crime against humanity: war
How
Can A Dying Man Pose A Security Threat?
By Roi Mandel
Na'al al-Kurdi, 21, from Gaza is
dying of cancer; for the past four months Na'al has been waiting for
a permit from the State of Israel to enter the country in order to receive
medical care in one of its hospitals. This permit has not been granted
so far due to "security concerns."
Dennis
Kucinich Is Not A Joke
By Mary Shaw
If the pundits and the Congress
could get past the nonsense and focus on the issues, Dennis Kucinich
might have a chance to bring about some of the change that the American
people have been more and more impatiently waiting for
Use
Of Russian And Canadian
Asbestos Rising In India
By Gopal Krishna
Asbestos is a proven human carcinogen
(a substance that causes cancer). Lack of health surveillance of asbestos
exposed workers and consumers is an invitation to disaster from wholesale
public exposure, especially babies and infants in India. Some 45 countries
have banned this killer fiber. But countries like Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan
and Brazil continue to produce, trade and promote this ticking time
bomb in India
Would
the Kashmiri Muslims Be heard,
Would They Get The Answer?
By Sareer Khalid
Kashmiris are denied travel documents
for their alleged connection with militants
Suffering
Kashmir: Present Tense...
Future Imperfect
By Kashoo Tawseef
Kashoo Tawseef encapsulates the
miseries that Kashmiris have been going through all of these years
12 November, 2007
US
Prepares For Tougher Action Against Iran
By Peter Symonds
With the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) due to report on Iran’s nuclear programs this week,
the US administration has been intensifying its campaign for stronger
action against Tehran. While insisting that it is still “pursuing
diplomacy”, Washington refuses to rule out a military attack on
Iran
Iran
And Balancing The Case For
War On The Middle East
By Dr Marwan Asmar
Things are slowly changing in the
region and the area but nobody, including the Israelis, are willing
to recognize the fact. Predicting the next global moves in the Middle
East is especially difficult. Is war on our doorstep, what are the stakes
and who is first likely to take the plunge?
Communists
Turn Unpopular Over SEZ Plans
By Sujoy Dhar
Last week’s killings at Nandigram,
located about 150 km south of the provincial capital of Kolkata, were
only the latest in a series of clashes, between the villagers and CPI-M
cadres backed by the state police, since January over the provincial
government’s plans to acquire land for a special economic zone
The
Grand Delusion
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
With an endless, futile and costly
Iraq war, a stinking economy and most Americans seeing the country on
the wrong track, the greatest national group delusion is that electing
Democrats in 2008 is what the country needs
Awareness
Is Overrated
By Mickey Z.
The current patterns of dissent
in America are long overdue for re-evaluation and overhaul. The powers-that-be
have long ago figured out how to either marginalize or co-opt dissent.
Until our tactics evolve, we are accomplices to the perpetual global
crime we call civilization
Adoption
Awareness Means
Acknowledging Corruption
By Jessica DelBalzo
The government may have taken to
calling November “Adoption Awareness Month,” but with the
adoption industry and adopting couples dominating the month’s
articles and events, we might as well rename it Adoption Promotion Month.
After all, awareness implies an eyes-wide-open approach to the subject,
not a shameless marketing ploy. Rather than celebrating how good adopters
and adoption workers feel about adoption, we ought to be learning about
the very real impact it has on children and their natural family members
Jammu
& Kashmir's National Song
By Syed Junaid Hashmi
Jana Gana Mana or Lehra Aye Kashmir
Kye Jhanday - Which is the "National Song" of Jammu and Kashmir?
Heavens
Did Fall In Pakistan
By Naeem Malik
Elections would not satisfy the
people of Pakistan. They want a genuine democracy that guarantees them
protection from the excesses of their rulers. They will only be able
to get this with independent judiciary and a free press that can stand
to the bullying of the political rulers, be that is the army or corrupt
politicians
Nehru
And India's Foreign Policy
By Ram Puniyani
Time that we build the non aligned
movement again, time that we promote regional alliances, time that we
see the vision of Nehru in its perspective of indigenous growth and
global democracy away from the domination of one or the other superpower
10 November, 2007
The
Battle For Pakistan
By Imran Khan
Another five years of Musharraff
will mean that certain discontented sections of the society will lose
faith in the democratic process and will also join the militants; thereby
raising the prospects of Pakistan turning into another Algeria –
the Army against its own people
The
Real Musharaf
By Asma Jahangir
Pakistan is threatened by Islamist
militants, and our civil society suffers the worst of this creeping
Talibanization. Woefully, the Musharraf regime is neither inclined to
reverse this trend nor capable of doing so. No one has exact solutions,
but there is virtual unanimity that Pakistan's political leadership
must take charge and that the military must cooperate with an elected
civilian government
Open
Letter to General Musharraf:
"Cruel Necessity"
By Tahir M. Qazi
Dear General! The world will perhaps
never be able to figure out what were your fears when you snatched freedoms
of the whole nation, and when criminals were let loose. But, rest assured
justice cannot be silenced and innocence cannot be convicted
Solidarity
By Charles Sullivan
In the end, there is only one way
to remove the thugs and punks from our schoolyard. It is to face them
down, not alone, which would be suicidal, but in unison, for we outnumber
them millions to one. Unity, solidarity and justice are more powerful
forces than hate and violence, just as surely as truth is superior to
lies, life is preferable to death; and freedom is preferable to imprisonment
and servitude. The disparate parts of solidarity already exist in broken
disarray at our feet: We have only to bring them together in a continuous
chain of ironclad unity
Fossil
Fuel Train Heads Into Overdrive
By Stephen Leahy
Today's skyrocketing fossil fuel
use will accelerate far faster in the coming decades, driving oil prices
higher and virtually guaranteeing catastrophic climate change in the
decades to come, energy experts say.Emissions of greenhouse gases could
increase a staggering 57 percent by 2030 if current trends continue,
and with the strong growth of coal and oil energy use in India and China,
the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported this week
Fewer
Deaths Bring No Reassurance
By Ali al-Fadhily
Despite claims by Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki and Bush administration officials that violence in Iraq
is decreasing, residents in the capital tell a different story. Attacks
by Iraqi resistance groups against the U.S. military continue in Baghdad
and Iraq's al-Anbar province, despite U.S. military support for certain
Sunni militias in the areas
Bush
And Armageddon
By G. Asgar Mitha
Armageddon will not be about the
complete annihilation of mankind. No nation that has nuclear capability
will dare use it for fear of starting a nuclear war but Armageddon (WW3)
will certainly result in an unprecedented destruction of our society
and a great technological and civilisation setback
Peace
And Democracy Must Go Hand In Hand
By Ramzy Baroud
After years of marked absence,
the Bush administration has finally decided to upgrade its involvement
in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The announcement of a Middle East
peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland has raised red flags for anyone
who has learned from past experience how unbalanced and insincere peace
efforts actually can lead to further violence. And it requires little
cynicism to ponder how genuine these current efforts are
NATO
Expands South, Hindered By US-created Chaos
By Nicola Nasser
Discreetly but progressively and
confidently the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is expanding
south and southeast almost uncontested -- after the collapse of the
former USSR-led Warsaw Pact -- outside the mandate designated by its
statute into the Arab Middle East as well as into the Caspian Sea regions
On
Lyrical Terrorists
By Michael Deibert
Today in London, a 23 year-old
Heathrow airport employee named Samina Malik, born and raised in England,
was declared guilty of possessing material likely to be useful in terrorism.It
just seems to me to be a slippery slope once you start arresting people
for things that you think they might do in the future. And our current
crop of political leaders - who have already managed to cause death
and destruction on a mass scale - would seem to be the last people in
a position to judge who will and who will not be a danger to society
Shouting
At The Devil: “Fuck You, Capitalism!”
By Jason Miller
Capitalism exists in a state of
perpetual crisis. Inequality is on the rise, globally and domestically.
Our lords and masters are beginning to fall victim to their own hubris
as they practice their predations more and more overtly. Palliatives
can only delay the system’s inevitable collapse for so long. Sooner
rather than later the deepening undercurrent of social unrest will burst
the levees of injustice asunder. Relative to what’s coming, the
Great Depression was a mere warm-up
Krugman
On The Democrats
By Thomas Riggins
So, the question is, can the Democrats
really push forward a progressive agenda even if they have both the
presidency and a bigger majority? What will keep them from still failing
to solidly push a progressive people’s agenda instead of caving
in to pressures from the corporate plutocracy and the military-industrial
complex?
Does
Anything Matter?
By Tarun Tejpal
The fact is India needs not just
economic tinkering but great political vision. And there are no signs
of it. The apathy of Gujarat tells us that the most complex country
in the world faces its most complex challenges ever
08 November, 2007
US
Alliance Afghan Genocide:Six Million Excess Deaths?
By Dr Gideon Polya
Post-invasion non-violent excess
deaths in Occupied Afghanistan - a month on from the 6th anniversary
of the war criminal US invasion and occupation on 7th October 2001 –
now total an estimated 3.2 million. However comparisons with Occupied
Iraq (1.5-2 million TOTAL post-invasion excess deaths, and 0.8-1.2 million
or about 50% of these being VIOLENT deaths) suggest that the post-invasion
violent excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan could total 3 million
Dollar
Slumps To Record On China's
Plans To Diversify Reserves
By Agnes Lovasz & Stanley White
The dollar fell the most since
September against the currencies of its six biggest trading partners
after Chinese officials signaled plans to diversify the nation's $1.43
trillion of foreign exchange reserves
The
End Is Near!—Gisele Bundchen Dumps Dollar
By Paul Craig Roberts
When the dollar ceases to be the
reserve currency, foreigners will cease to finance the US trade and
budget deficits, and the American Empire along with its wars will disappear
overnight. Perhaps Bush will be able to get a World Bank loan, or maybe
one from the "Chavez bank", to bring the troops home from
Iraq and Afghanistan
Seven
Countries Considering
Abandoning The US Dollar
By Jessica Hupp
It’s no secret that the dollar
is on a downward spiral. Its value is dropping, and the Fed isn’t
doing a whole lot to change that. As a result, a number of countries
are considering a shift away from the dollar to preserve their assets.
These are seven of the countries currently considering a move from the
dollar, and how they’ll have an effect on its value and the US
economy
To
Free The Jena Six, The Struggle Must Continue
By Hank Brown & Alice Woodward
The people must continue to build
the struggle and fight on to Free the Jena Six! This is not a time to
chill. The events that sparked a movement- the protest and resistance
of the Black people in Jena against the hanging of the nooses, and the
authorities coming down on these six youth to enforce the racist status
quo- are still playing out today. Jena is a racist and segregated place,
in a racist and segregated society where Black people are systematically
discriminated against. There can be no “reconciliation”
with this
Appeal
For Support To Lawyers
And Judges In Pakistan
By Asma Jahngir
Representatives of bar associations
should approach their governments to pressure the government of Pakistan
to release all lawyers and judges and immediately provide access to
Muneer A Malik, Tariq Mahmood, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Aitzaz Ahsan. The
bars are also urged to hold press conferences in their country and express
their solidarity with the lawyers of Pakistan who are struggling to
establish the rule of law
Pakistan:
Media Muffled Under
Musharraf's Emergency
By Zofeen Ebrahim
Pakistan's television industry,
save for the state-controlled Pakistan Television (PTV), came to a grinding
halt after the government blocked all transmission early Saturday evening,
as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule
Our
Man In Islamabad
By Stephen Lendman
Musharraf portrays himself as a
rock of stability so who in Washington cares how he solidifies power
or if he'll accept Bhutto as Prime Minister. For Bush and Democrats,
only the "war on terror" matters so any leader backing it
is an ally. Bottom line despite muted criticism - democratic credentials
are not an issue. Fact is they never are
Jordan’s
Electoral Festivities Drum To Different Tunes
By Dr Marwan Asmar
Jordan is doing well despite different
hiccups, but the Arab world in general has to pull itself by the bootstraps
if it is to enter into a meaningful political era where representation,
democracy, political pluralism is seen as healthy for society. Our problem
now is to move faster to catch with different regions of the world and
develop politically
Scapegoating
US Diplomats For Failures In Iraq
By William Fisher
Facing growing scrutiny of the
State Department's shortage of experienced diplomats in Iraq - and the
Department's announced intention to force Foreign Service Officers to
serve in Baghdad against their will -- the leader of America's diplomatic
service is charging that critics, "including people who urged the
2003 invasion," are seeking to blame the State Department for their
own failures
Robbery
In The Name Of Dalits
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat & Ram Chandra Prasad
Fund meant to provide the Dalits
housing under Indira Awas Yojana is fraudlently withdrawn by the village
Sarpanch in connivance with the bank authorities in village Anand Nagar,
Ghotap, block Pathardeva, district Deoria, Uttar-Pradesh
07 November, 2007
A
Year In Hell For 1,000 Dollars A Month
By Ángel Páez
Former Peruvian noncommissioned army officer Norman Alfonso Solano is
happy because he has once again been recruited to work as a private
security guard in one of the most dangerous places in the world: Iraq
Who
Determines The Price Of Oil?
By Ralph Nader
So long as the price of crude oil
is set by speculators on trading floors, so long as the oil-indentured
politicians are not challenged by new candidates standing tall for people
and environments, so long as we do not protest for change and press
ourselves to prevent wasteful habits and uses, get ready for higher
oil prices
The
Western Appetite For Biofuels Is Causing
Starvation In The Poor World
By George Monbiot
Developing nations are being pushed
to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to political
expediency
Humanity
Is The Greatest Challenge
By John Feeney
The growth in human population
and rising consumption have exceeded the planet's ability to support
us, argues John Feeney. He says it is time to ring the alarm bells and
take radical action in order to avert unspeakable consequences
Burma:
Do-It-Yourself Democracy
By Satya Sagar
If sheer sacrifice of body, mind
and soul for a noble cause were convertible into hard currency Burma’s
legions of pro-democracy warriors would be among the richest citizens
in the world. And yet, for all their great sacrifices the saga of the
Burmese struggle for democracy seems to run like an old horror movie
one has seen too many times before. The recent round of nationwide protests
in Burma that had raised hopes of major political change for example
once again ended in bloodshed and tears
U.S.
Gets Tough With Undocumented Immigrants
By David Rosen
A recent series of raids by the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service, which is part of
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, signals a new era of anti-immigrant
hysteria in America
Attacking
Iran: The Defining Moment Of
The Foolish Generation
By Robert Weitzel
If our Foolish Generation cannot
find a way to extricate itself from the black hole of history into which
it is plunging, our children’s blood-spattered generation will
face the court of world opinion with a weak defense
Musharraf's
Coup Against Judiciary
By Gul Jammas Hussain
The Americans do not want a genuine
political process to flourish in Pakistan, something that could bring
into power true leaders who will not side with the United States. As
Hamid Mir, one of the country's sharpest journalists, said Saturday
that he believed the U.S. embassy in Islamabad had green-lighted Musharraf
for the emergency move
Pakistan
- Back To The Past Again
By Mirza A. Beg
Will the future ever arrive in
Pakistan? It is back to the past again. Technically, President Musharraf
has declared an emergency, but in reality, it is a coup against the
democracy creeping in; which he reluctantly promised eight years ago.
This time General Musharraf overthrew the government of the other infernal
co-resident in his body, President Musharraf
Pakistanization
Of Pakistan
And The Night Of The Generals
By Taj Hashmi
We may single out the “Pakistan
Syndrome”, which stands for the supremacy of the military-civil
bureaucracy with the ever-growing influence of the mullah, for the prevalent
chaos in the country. The Pakistani experience could be a good lesson
for other Muslim majority countries that the promotion of mullahs, Shariah,
Islamism or Political Islam, even out of political expediency, could
be disastrous for a liberal democracy
Educating
Pakistan
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Give us time, give us time, said
Musharraf in his speech, appealing to the West; we are still learning,
our democracy is not yet as evolved as yours. Musharraf is right --
Pakistan is still a child in these matters. Clearly his friend and financier
in the White House has not let him in on the big secret -- in an 'evolved'
democracy, you can get all this power without declaring an emergency!
Sri
Lanka: Bombing To Peace A Tactical Diversion
By Chandi Sinnathurai
After killing the Tamil Tiger political
head and the chief peace negotiator Mr Thamil Chelvam on November 2
in an air raid, the Rajapaksha regime is determined to bomb to smithereens
other top-level Tiger leaders. This strategy will achieve the objective
: there will be peace in Sri Lanka. War for peace. That is the mantra
of the Government
06 November, 2007
US
Vows Continued Aid To Musharraf
By Bill Van Auken
Even as the protests mounted and
Pakistan’s jails were filled to overflowing with thousands of
political prisoners dragged off of the streets or from their homes,
the Bush administration signaled that it will not take any substantive
reprisals against the regime in Islamabad
Musharraf
Has Lost His Marbles
And Is Targeting Progressives
By Asma Jahangir
Ironically the President (who has
lost his marbles) said that he had to clamp down on the press and the
judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive,
secular- minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations
and ceasefires
Hard
On Civil Society, Soft On Extremists
By Beena Sarwar
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf appears to be following a strategy of being hard on lawyers
and the judiciary and soft on Islamist extremists -- the two groups
he blamed for imposing emergency rule in the country on Saturday
Another
Coup In The 'Land Of The Pure'
By Tarek Fatah
Every country has an army, but
in Pakistan the army has a country
Turmoil
In Pakistan Brings Uncertainty To The World
By Tahir M. Qazi
Omen for a stable and progressive
Pakistan is not optimistic. Jihadist elements do have their hands on
a wide variety of weapons. They may not have their hands on the nuclear
arsenal as yet but it may not be far away from their reach either directly
or through support from within military, if living realities remain
unchanged. Important question is, will Ms. Bhutto bring Pakistan's nuclear
arsenal under international monitoring prior to complete loss of state
control on it? How the rest of world wants to handle this difficult
situation remains a question mark. It is a somber moment for the whole
world
The
Night Of The Massacre
By Sherry Rehman
It was the worst of nights because
just a few minutes after midnight as we went into October 19, the bomb
blasts that turned a carnival into carnage ripped through the flesh
and bone of young people who had been dancing on the streets. The blast
was a heinous attempt at curtailing the activities of progressive, democratic
forces, and it did so without sparing the lives, limbs and futures of
anyone. It marked in red letters the helplessness of ordinary people
against the deadly intent of the mass murderer. It left its grisly imprint
of pellets and flames on skin and bone, but also on the hearts and minds
of all those who see peaceful association as a fundamental right
Targeting
Iraqis As "Big Game"
By Nick Turse
From the commander-in-chief to
low-ranking snipers, a language of dehumanization that includes the
idea of hunting humans as if they were animals has crept into our world
-- unnoticed and unnoted in the mainstream media. Perhaps a few linguistics
professors or other social scientists might like to step into the breach
and offer their views on the subject -- unless, of course, they've already
been mustered into those Human Terrain Teams
Millions
Trapped In Their Own Country
By Ahmed Ali
At least five million Iraqis have
fled their homes due to the violence under the U.S.-led occupation,
but half of them are unable to leave the country, according to well-informed
estimates.According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), there are more than 4.4 million displaced Iraqis, an estimate
that many workers among refugees find conservative
Punishing
Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
Even before the latest crisis,
Gaza's industrial production had fallen 90% and its agricultural output
was half its pre-2007 level. In addition, nearly all construction had
stopped, unemployment is around 80%, and the level of poverty is shocking
based on World Bank data showing over 80% of Gazans live on less than
$2.40 a day
Climate
Change Leadership
By Bill Henderson
Politicians in America don't lead
- they are pushed. There is less than a year left to build such a robust
consensus on climate change to free up the electoral process, to push
aside the vested interests that do not want change, to create an opportunity
for a climate change mandate so that needed emission reduction is possible.
Those that recognize the danger must get much more innovative in making
state of the art risk and mitigation science impossible to ignore
Hillary
Flips Over Her Debate Flop
By Carey Roberts
What are we to make of a presidential
candidate who portrays herself as strong and independent, a courageous
exemplar to the members of her gender -- but at the first hint of criticism
collapses as the pitiable victim of gender politics?
Bolivia:
'A Project For The Liberation Of The Poor’
By Federico Fuentes
When Loayza, together with Morales,
was first elected to parliament in 1997 it marked the entrance of the
indigenous and campesino (peasant) movements onto the political stage
nationally. Two years previously, three of Bolivia’s key indigenous
and campesino organisations, including the United Union Confederation
of Campesino Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) headed by Loayza, came together
to construct a “political instrument” that aimed to be “a
political project of the poor, for the liberation of the poor”
Modi
Must Be Punished
By Kuldip Nayar
The brutality of a pogrom is not
lessened if it is hidden from the nation. Exposing a crime is not linked
to electoral strategy, but to the value system. I believe, a person
begins to die the day he sees an act of injustice being committed but
keeps quiet
05 November, 2007
Pakistan
Sinks Deeper Into The Night
By Tariq Ali
If the constitution remains in
suspension for more than three months then Musharraf himself might be
pushed aside by the Army and a new strongman put in place. Or it could
be that the aim of the operation was limited to a cleansing of the Supreme
Court and controlling the media. That is what Musharraf indicated in
his broadcast to the nation. In which case a totally rigged election
becomes a certainty next January. Whatever the case Pakistan's long
journey to the end of the night continues
With
Washington’s Complicity, Musharraf
Imposes Martial Law In Pakistan
By Vilani Peiris & Keith Jones
The Bush administration and the
US political elite have for years sustained the Musharraf dictatorship.
They no less than the general himself are responsible for the systematic
rape of the democratic rights of the Pakistani people and the threat
of state terror that now hangs over Pakistan
Our
Masters, Ourselves
By Dale Allen Pfeiffer
People need to understand that
we are faced with a madness that will make life miserable for us and
for generations to come, if it does not severely damage the viability
of this entire planet. Yet they also need to know that each of us has
the power to stop this madness, simply by ceasing to take part in the
system that perpetuates this madness
Pope
Honors Spanish “Martyrs”
By Gary Leupp
The Spanish state wants to dig
up the victims of fascism. The Church wants to leave them buried, while
launching its own remembered martyrs into the stratosphere for veneration.
Whom do these include? Augustinian Fr. Gabino Olaso Zabala, executed
by Republican forces. In 1896 he participated in the torture of a priest
in the Philippines, a Filipino Fr. Mariano Dacanay, who was suspected
of sympathy for anti-Spanish revolutionaries. He encouraged prison guards
to kick the priest in the head. But as of Sunday, Catholics so inclined
are authorized to seek his intercession between themselves and God
Humanitarian
Tsunami Sweeping Across Iraq
By Haroon Siddiqui
Up to 1.2 million of them, out
of a population of 21 million, may have been killed since 2003. And
one in five Iraqis has been displaced. Two million, maybe more, have
fled to neighbouring nations, and another 2.2 million have been displaced
internally. Of the latter, the world knows the least, and for a reason
Why
Bush Needs Bin Laden
By Mary Shaw
As long as al-Qaeda has a face,
Bush can continue his unwinnable war in Iraq, keep life a living hell
for the innocent civilians there, and never have to admit that it was
a mistake. As long as al-Qaeda has a face, Bush can continue to shred
our Constitution, kill habeas corpus, torture people, and spy on you
and your grandmother without a court warrant. As long as al-Qaeda has
a face, Bush can continue to tell you that it's all for your own good
Modi
A Psychic Killer
By Yoginder Sikand
Modi A Psychic Killer, Worse Than
Hitler, Should Be Jailed, says Father of Slain Gujarat BJP Home Minister
The
Truth Of Gujarat Carnage
By Ram Puniyani
Time has come that we face the
truth head on, punish the guilty and protect the innocent irrespective
of religion and caste. In Gujarat if state Government has failed to
prosecute the guilty, that's a breach of the oath taken by political
leadership and it has to be dealt with like that, i.e. violation of
constitutional obligations by state Government
Equal
Rights And Opportunities
By Nishikant Waghmare
Why the upper castes are not interested
in giving up caste? Because caste (jati) helps him to exploit his fellowmen
better — as it has a theological sanction under the Hindu religion.
In the jungle of Hinduism this law has the blessings of its sacred scriptures.
That is why in India wealth is getting accumulated in the bands of top
10% to 15% of the upper castes and the rest are getting pauperised.
And yet there is no public debate on the merits of caste anywhere, not
even among our university eggheads
Farming
With Passion For Wellbeing Of All
By Umendra Dutt
A Creative revolution in service
of Mother Earth by natural farmers in Punjab
04 November, 2007
'Judicial
Activism' Triggered Emergency Rule
In Pakistan
By Beena Sarwar
By taking a stand on crucial constitutional
issues, implicit in cases before it, the Pakistan Supreme Court may
have raised the political temperature to a point where, in order to
remain in power, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf felt compelled to declare
emergency on Saturday
Don’t
Let Musharraf Live With What He Has Just Done
By Abid Ullah Jan
The Musharraf’s declaration
of emergency also coincides with the US military exercises in the Gulf
and Condoleezza Rice visit to China. May be the US could not afford
a civilian government setting in Pakistan when it goes to war on Iran.
So, the imposition of emergency in Pakistan is directed at the Supreme
Court in particular and serving the US interests in the region in general
Missing
Nukes: Treason Of The Highest Order
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
According to a wide range of reports,
several nuclear bombs were “lost” for 36 hours after taking
off August 29/30, 2007 on a “cross-country journey” across
the U.S., from U.S.A.F Base Minot in North Dakota to U.S.A.F. Base Barksdale
in Louisiana. Reportedly, in total there were six W80-1 nuclear warheads
armed on AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles (ACMs) that were “lost.”
The story was first reported by the Military Times, after military servicemen
leaked the story
America’s
Road To Tyranny
By Vincent L. Guarisco
Let's tell our children to save
us from our miserable mistakes. America’s road to tyranny is no
future worth living. Let the words of Paul Wellstone echo in the youth
of tomorrow: 'If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we
stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really
stand for them.'
Britain
In The Collective Memory Of Iraq
By Marwan Asmar
Before the invasion of Iraq in
2003, I used to think about Britain regularly, having lived there in
the 1970s and 1980s. After the invasion and the straddling of British
and American troops on Iraqi soil, I consciously tried to blot the UK
out of my collective memory
A
Case For Arab Dignity
By Ramzy Baroud
The ongoing socio-economic and
political ills that mar potential progress in Middle Eastern countries
can largely be attributed to the ill-defined foreign policy of the United
States. Utterly desperate situations have arisen whereby US clients
rule with an iron fist, making prospects for a meaningful democracy
sit at an all-time low
Adoption
And The Role Of The Religious Right
By Mirah Riben
Why are infants such as these are
leaving the US while US couples are traveling half way around the word
to meet their desire for a baby when both countries have children in
foster care? The answer is that adoption is far from an altruist social
program to care for needy orphans. Instead, adoption is a business;
babies are priced based on age, race, ethnicity, health, and physical
ability. It all sounds vulgar because it is
Islamophobia:
Slogan Of Empire's March
By Ram Puniyani
As the major goal of empire became
control of oil resources, the political stage shifted to the West Asia,
and Islam and Muslims came under the ideological attack
Sri
Lanka: Investing In Peace?
By Chandi Sinnathurai
Over eighty thousands lives have
perished up to now in this conflict. Many more have been injured, maimed
and disappeared. Now even the Tamil chief negotiator of peace has been
killed. Tragically Sri Lanka continues in its lethal folly of combating
against the very peace it desperately needs
Kashmir's
Debt Trap
By Arjimand Hussain Talib
If the government of India gives
its go ahead in the coming days, it would mean a 720 million dollar
loan for constructing two hydel power projects at Karthai and Ganderbal,
besides "capacity building" in power sector. This time round
we are glad there has been honesty at governmental level to say it plainly
that the loan would come at an interest of 6-7 per cent. But looking
at the fissiparous and highly divisive regional and communal polity
of the State do you see hope that this loan will achieve its objectives?
02 November, 2007
US
Intensifies Push For Further UN Sanctions On Iran
By Peter Symonds
The Bush administration is pressing
for tough new UN Security Council sanctions at a meeting in London today
of the five permanent members—the US, Britain, France, Russia
and China—plus Germany. The demand for a third UN resolution is
one more step in Washington’s campaign to vilify Tehran over its
nuclear programs and to justify US preparations for a military strike
on Iran
Faisal
The Fox
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
It is hard to image the foreign
minister of a third world country more capable of hypocrisy than Mr.
Bush - but, without a doubt, Prince Saud al-Faisal takes the prize for
being the more obnoxious of the two. Such insincerity and double-standards
must surely make Mr. Bush feel inclined to ask himself if he got short-changed
by having Rove as his ‘brain’ – or perhaps Mr. Bush
has a prince as the new ‘brain’
Will
Iran Celebrate The 100th Anniversary
Of Its Oil Discovery With $100 Petroleum?
By Shirzad Azad
Oil prices have surpassed a record
US$96 a barrel. Given the growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle
East involving an imminent war between the Turks and the Kurds over
the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and the prospect of an independent Kurdish
state, and the current standoff about Iran's nuclear program, petroleum
prices may cross over $100 a barrel in coming months
Behind
The Facade Of Incompetence
By Charles Sullivan
Every citizen is faced with a simple
choice: organize or perish. The storm clouds of World War Three are
looming on the horizon. These are extraordinary times that demand something
from every one of us
Peak
Oil: Time's Up
By Jeff Berg
The fact of peaking oil and peaking
energy clinches the argument for conservation and speeding up the timetable
on renewables . It is past time environmentalists and socialists use
its reality at least as effectively as has the military industrial class
Six
Steps To “Getting” The Global Ecological Crisis
By John Feeney
Some of us who examine and discuss
environmental matters are constantly puzzled and frustrated by the seeming
inability of elected officials, environmental organizations, and environmental
and political writers to “get” the nature of our ecological
plight. Could it be they’re simply unaware of the ecological principles
which enable one to understand it?
Tehelka,
Journalists Lead Indians
To Redeem Their Values
By Mirza A. Beg
Tahelka, the intrepid news magazine
did what the Indian government should have done in the past five years.
The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the editor of Tahelka, Tarun
Tejpal and reporter Ashish Khetan who took enormous risk to procure
evidence on video tapes about the planning of the genocide perpetrated
by the fascistic Gujarat state government in February – March
2002. The tapes also record admissions of suppression of evidence and
bribery by the public prosecutors to protect the guilty
Silicosis:
A Death Trap For Agate Workers In Gujarat
By PUCL Gujarat
Workers working in the agate industries
are dying of silicosis in regular interval for last 40 years in Khambhat.
Families are wiped out totally. But there is no respite from the death
trap of economically impoverished people of this area
Cases
Of Gross Violation Of Human Rights
In Barak Valley Of Assam
By Wali Laskar
The Assam Police and CRPF personnel
have been violating human rights systematically in Barak Valley killing
serially innocent persons, denying justice, framing fake charges, arresting
and detaining people in trumped-up cases, and raiding, harassing, abusing
and humiliating in false charges
01 November, 2007
Forests
Losing The Ability To Absorb Carbon
By Steve Connor
The sprawling forests of the northern
hemisphere which extend from China and Siberia to Canada and Alaska
are in danger of becoming a gigantic source of carbon dioxide rather
than being a major "sink" that helps to offset man-made emissions
of the greenhouse gas
Attacking
Iran For Israel?
By Ray McGovern
With 200-300 nuclear weapons in
its arsenal, the Israelis enjoy a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East.
They mean to keep that monopoly and Israel’s current leaders are
pressing for the US to obliterate Iran’s fledgling nuclear program
Could
Iran Redefine Euro-American Relations?
By Pablo Ouziel
As European officials express concern
about the fact that the Bush administration's designation of Iranian
agencies and firms as supporters of terrorism could block relations
with Tehran for years to come, President Vladimir Putin's description
of these new U.S. sanctions, as America "running around like a
madman with a razor blade in his hand," seems appropriate and worrisome
Liberals,
Racism And The English Language
In 21st Century America
By Larry Pinkney
One of the most powerful and devastating
forms of mental colonization in America is the English language itself—or
more to the point the controlling definitions of said language. The
so-called conservatives and liberals alike of white America are well
aware of this, and often actually count on it. Mental colonization of
we Black, Brown, and Red peoples assures the continuance of our physical
subordination and control
Voting
As Political Narcotic
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
When it comes to our nation our
choice is not to love it or leave it, but to accept the painful truth
and take responsibility for restoring American democracy – because
we love it. Let’s move forward with this slogan: “Don't
vote--it only encourages them.”
Congressional
Shame And Duplicity
By Stephen Lendman
The latest October Reuters/Zogby
Index shows record low approval ratings for George Bush and Congress
- 24% for the president that looks almost giddy compared to the bottom-scraping
11% level for the nation's lawmakers. It's more evidence that the criminal
class in Washington is bipartisan and hoping November, 2008 will change
things is pure fantasy
Jesus
Rides the #7 Train
By Mickey Z.
Nowhere else in the industrial
world can such pre-Enlightenment levels as this be found. The development
of highly irrational and self-destructive attitudes is one of the consequences
of the growing alienation and isolation of people I am wallowing in
right now on the #7. Indoctrinated to leave governing to the people
who we’re told can actually “handle” it, we’ve
almost given up demanding results from our leaders. Instead, we take
State Department press releases and New York Times editorials at face
value and end up directing our pleas for help to the heavens instead
of to the people we voted into office
Manifesto
For A New Constitutional Convention
By Robert S. Becker
The notion of periodic, systemic
retooling already exists on the state level. Illinois must vote every
20 years whether to call a state Constitutional Convention. Why not
make that option a first agenda item for a national convention?
Why
We Torture: Martha Nussbaum On
Zimbardo's "The Lucifer Effect"
By Thomas Riggins
Philip Zimbardo is the psychologist
who carried out the Stanford Prison Experiment [SPE] in 1971. He has
published a book about the lessons to be learned from that experiment
and others. The book is “The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn
Evil”. This article is a review of the American philosopher Martha
Nussbaum’s discussion of the book in the October 19, 2007 issue
of the TLS
Gujarat:
Silence Of The Lambs
By Shoma Chaudhury
The real faultline in India today
is not between Hindus and Muslims. It is between Hindus and Hindus.
If the Hindus of Gujarat are going to re-elect Modi after being confronted
with visual proof of what he stands for, we have to aggressively reclaim
what being Hindu means. The problem is too few people seem to have a
stomach for that fight. It is not a fight that can be won by burning
and slashing. Or ducking. It requires words and eloquence and conviction
Narendra
Modi And Indian Democracy:
They Two Cannot Coexist
By Daya Varma & Vinod Mubayi
The hesitation of the UPA government,
which survives with the support of the left parties, on the Gujarat
genocide is beyond comprehension. This marriage between parliamentary
democracy and feudal highhandedness must be broken if India is to emerge
as a modern democratic society
Sri
Lanka: “SURPRISE!”Seems To Be
The Wonder Weapon…
By Chandi Sinnathurai
The October 23rd. attack by the
Tiger Kamakazi-type commandos on the Anurathapuram air force base have
proved the Government strategy and security systems to be wanting. A
multi-million dollar spy fleet was totally devastated, in this dawn-combat
while they were still grounded. Military analysts, both foreign and
local, are of the mind that, the Tigers have effectively neutralised
the intelligence gathering capabilities of the Sri Lankan armed forces
New
Package For Gilgit And Baltistan:
New Bottles With Old Wine
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
Islamabad has tried to show to
the EU and other members of the international community that they believe
in their own brand of 'democracy' and human rights, and they are willing
to give this to people of Pakistan and people of Gilgit and Baltistan.
But what they have given will not satisfy people of this area, as they
know they are given old wine in new bottles; and it will not result
in more political, economic, social rights for the local people. It
will surely not improve status of women, stop violations of state subject
law or deal with settlement of non - local people and their domination
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