29 April, 2007
Free
Trade vs. Small Farmers
By Walden Bello
Today, perhaps the greatest threat to small farmers
is free trade. And the farmers are fighting back. They have helped,
for instance, to stalemate the Doha round of negotiations of the World
Trade Organization (WTO). This tug of war between farmers and free trade
is nowhere more visible than in Asia
India Needs Her
Small Farmers
By Vandana Shiva
India is a land of small farmers, with 650 million
of her 1 billion people living on the land and 80 per cent farmers owning
less than 2 ha of land. In other words, the land provides livelihood
security for 65 per cent of the people, and the small farmers provide
food security for 1 billion
The 450ppm,
2 Degrees, Change Now Imperative
By Bill Henderson
450ppm; 2 degrees; change now is as yet a minority
opinion amongst climate change specialists but do the deep reading and
thinking and you'll realize that there is nothing more important and
that this bottom line must now impact everything we do
All Dead Politicians
Become Angels
By David Truskoff
As I write this Ex American Presidents George H.
Bush, (yes the same Bush that once said, "We will bleed them (Russians)
White") and old Yelstin buddy Bill Clinton are in Moscow to pay
their RESPECTS to the great man that defeated Communism.One might think
that all Russians are slow thinkers. How could they have tolerated it
for so long
Bush's So
Called "War Against Evil"
By Richard L. Franklin
Beware of the "fog of war", and try to
avoid contributing to that fog with this kind of metaphysical nonsense
or to allow semantic folderol to confuse your own thinking about what
your government is doing or not doing. Those who use empty terms such
as "evil" should be called upon to give us real, tangible
reasons for their acts
Tensions Run
High After Sunni Killings
By Dahr Jamail
The killings of two pro-government Sunni Muslims
has raised tensions across Lebanon. Rival political leaders have called
for calm amidst fear that the killings could spark civil strife
Massacre In Mogadishu—
War Crime Made In The USA
By Bill Van Auken
The brutal military siege against the Somali capital
of Mogadishu constitutes a war crime for which the US government bears
the principal responsibility
The Status Of
Tamil Statehood
By Chandi Sinnathurai
The state of the Tamils is tragic. The point is,
best part of the world is yet to know the narrative of the Tamil struggle.
That is truly tragic
Yesterday’s
Prophecy And Today’s Bangladesh
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
With all these proven facts, possibly there is
some room for the conscious people in the world to be concerned about
the rise of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh, especially after the series
blasts that rocked the entire country in August 2005
False Domestic
Violence Accusations
Can Lead To Parental Alienation Syndrome
By David Heleniak
Parental Alienation Syndrome is a pattern of thoughts
and behavior that can develop in a child of separated parents where
the custodial parent causes the child, through manipulation and access
blocking, to unjustifiably fear and/or hate the other parent
A Reluctant
Hero For Our Times
By Heather Wokusch
Agustín Aguayo is a powerful symbol for
the anti-war movement. And his three-year fight against the war "machine"
is a lesson for us all
28 April, 2007
An
Answer To Uri Avnery
By Ilan Pappe
Ilan Pappe's response to Uri Avnery's essay "Bed
of Sodom"
Avnery Is
Dead Wrong
By John Spritzler
The One-State Solution and a general boycott of
Israel are excellent ideas, but they will only be successful if we use
them and advocate them in an openly revolutionary manner. Otherwise,
the Uri Avneris will befuddle us and millions of others with wrong-headed
thinking that only makes sense in the fantasy world inside the reformist
box
Uri Avnery's
Loyalty
By Virginia Tilley
Avnery is indeed a sharp critic of Israel's worst
racist abuses. But the basic abuse which necessarily gives rise to all
the others, which is the tenet that Israel must remain a state with
an overwhelming Jewish majority, is one he has always worked to defend
Open Letter
To Uri Avnery,Noam Chomsky
And Jimmy Carter
By Roger Tucker
Another rebuttal of Uri Avnery's article Bed of
Sodom
Israel's Choice:
"Jewish Only" Or Democratic?
By Sonja Karkar
The time will have to come for Israel to declare
its hand: is it "a state of the Jewish people throughout the world"
as it defines itself, or a state of all its citizens, both Jewish and
non-Jewish? So far Israel has managed to convince the Western world
that it is the only democracy in the region, but neglects to add that
this democracy works only for its Jewish citizens
Shi’ite
vs. Sunni?
By Conn Hallinan
If the Bush administration is successful in its
current efforts to divide Islam by pitting Shi’ites against Sunnis
it will revitalize the old colonial tactic of divide and conquer, and
maintain the domination of the Middle East by authoritarian elites allied
with the U.S. and the international energy industry
Weather Versus
Climate
By Rand Clifford
Part One of the series: Perspectives On Our Changing
Climate
In The
Trenches Of The New Cold War
By M K Bhadrakumar
The missile-defense controversy has gone beyond
a mere Russian-US spat. It is assuming three distinct templates. First,
profound issues of arms control have arisen, and along with that the
role of nuclear weapons in security policies gets pronounced. Most certainly,
the controversy relates to the United States' trans-Atlantic leadership
in the post-Cold War era. And, finally, quintessentially, it is all
about the United States' global dominance, of which the unfolding Great
Game in the Eurasian theaters forms the salience
Latin America:
Four Competing Blocs Of Power
By James Petras
In reality there are four competing blocs of nations
in Latin America, contrary to the highly simplistic dualism portrayed
by the White House and most of the Left
One Unexploded
Bomb Per Person
By Dahr Jamail
Close to a million unexploded bombs are estimated
to litter southern Lebanon, according to UN forces engaged in the hazardous
task of removing them
Ho, ho, ho:
The End Of Racism And Sexism
By Mickey Z.
Why stop with bitches, ho's, and niggers? Let's
take this strategy to its natural conclusion and ban "war"
and "poverty" and "rape" and "genocide"
and "oppression," We'll even ban "global warming"
if Al Gore promises to finally shut his redneck mouth (all right, perhaps
we'll ban "redneck," too). Shit, after only an hour or so
of work, the planet will be a goddamned equalitarian paradise and we
can all get back to our couches, our flat-screens, and our remote controls
Democracy In
China: Fact Or Fiction
By Thomas Riggins
Is democracy fact or fiction in China? Once you
realize that a concept such as "democracy" is not a "one
size fits all" sort of concept, you rephrase the question to "what
kind of democracy or what level of democracy exists in China?"
The answer to this question will vary with each observer depending on
his or her class outlook, political philosophy, and ideas about communism
Aliens Everywhere
By K A Shaji
Half a million Tamil repatriates whose forefathers
had been uprooted from the native land to work in Sri Lankan tea plantations
around two hundred years back find that they are Indians only in name
Madhany: Victim
Of State Terror
By B.F Firos
This is the story of Abdul Nasar Madhany, a man
who continues to be hunted like a hardcore criminal by a ruthless system.
And the mainstream media continues its criminal silence
27 April, 2007
Mr.
Bush, Tear Down These Walls!
By Scott Ritter
The ongoing policy of building walls in Baghdad
designed to segregate Sunni neighborhoods from Shiite neighborhoods
is as morally despicable as it is ineffective. The Soviets built walls;
the Nazis walled off entire communities, often as a precursor to rounding
up the segregated population and shipping it off to concentration camps
The Great Wall
Of Segregation
By Baghdad Burning
The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes
wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi
government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect
the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people
to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will
also be difficult to get out
When In Doubt,
Build A Wall
By Sally Kohn
Good fences have never made good policy, just as
they’ve never made good neighbors. Bush’s embrace of wall
building and secrecy reminds me of totalitarian feudal lords. But feudalism
failed too, didn’t it? Now that Nouri al-Maliki has poked a hole
in Bush’s Baghdad wall plans, can we start building some bridges
instead?
UN Warns Of
Growing Humanitarian
Crisis In Occupied Iraq
By Kate Randall
A new United Nations report on human rights in
Iraq paints a devastating portrait of the conditions of life facing
the civilian population as the US occupation enters its fifth year
Political Loyalties
Being Rebuilt
By Dahr Jamail
People in this southern Lebanese village are rebuilding
their destroyed houses with renewed vigour. And, with renewed loyalties
to a combination of Hezbollah, Qatar and Iran
The End of
Economic Growth
By Adam Parsons
The myth of endless economic growth is a path towards
disaster and destruction
Behind The
Mask Of Evil
By Doug Soderstrom
A psychologist explains the Virginia Tech massacre
U.N.: Mercenary
Industry Poses
Problems For Latin America
By Cyril Mychalejko
The United Nations quietly released a report in
March exposing an array of human rights abuses associated with a growing
mercenary industry that is recruiting large numbers from Latin American
countries
The Case Of
Ethanol As Motor Fuel
By John Chuckman
Although numbers naturally change over time, ethanol
has roughly 70% the energy content of gasoline, yet it costs about 40%
more to produce and distribute. In order to deliver this economic bargain
to motorists, the government forgoes taxes paid by the users of gasoline,
taxes which, of course, pay for important government services. You don't
need to study economics to appreciate that as a bad bargain
And They
Wish To Shut Our Voice
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
speaks about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in his country and the
violent threat it proposes against the voices of reason including his
own life and that of his family
Understanding
The Jihadi Mindset
By Dr Tariq Rahman
We keep hearing, with deepening dismay, of bombings,
suicide bombings and fighting in the name of Islam by militants who
are called by various names including 'jihadis'. But what is a jihadi?
How does he (or she) think? What circumstances or ideas create the jihadi
mindset? These are questions which bother most of us
25 April, 2007
Mystery:
How Wealth Creates Poverty In The World
By Michael Parenti
There is a “mystery” we must explain:
How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international
loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world
over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living
in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world’s population.
What do we make of this?
Economic Armageddon
Is Coming
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Stop being a compliant consumer. Face the ugly
truth. Don’t get fooled by the stock market. Accept the need for
the mistreated middle class to become the revolutionary class. The British
military establishment's most prestigious think tank sees what too few
over-consuming Americans are willing to anticipate. Unjustified and
mounting economic inequality is planting the seeds for global economic
conflict
Summer, 2017
By Stephen Hren
It would have been impossible to convince anyone
ten years ago that such would be the case, but the sprawling tract housing
that surrounds most of America's cities has been almost completely abandoned
and the reason might be peak oil
Scientists
Offer Frightening Forecast
By Ker Than & Andrea Thompson
Our planet's prospects for environmental stability
are bleaker than ever.Here is a timeline which paints the big picture
and details Earth's future based on several recent studies and the longer
scientific version of the IPCC report
An Island
Made By Global Warming
By Michael McCarthy
The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A
new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland
by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that
is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming
U.S. Blamed
For 'Bloody Wednesday'
By Ali al-Fadhily
Iraqis blame the U.S. occupation for the failure
of two parallel security plans drawn up by U.S. forces and Iraqi troops
that failed dramatically with the bombings last week that killed more
than 300 people in Baghdad
Tempers Rise
Over Reconstruction
By Dahr Jamail
Eight months after Israeli attacks left devastation
across many villages in southern Lebanon, reconstruction comes with
mounting anger towards both Israel and the central Lebanese government
Freedom
For Alan Johnston:Freedom For Us All
By Ramzy Baroud
How can we claim that they are not from amongst
us? How can we claim that they don’t represent us if we lack the
political will to confront them? And when Alan is freed, as he must,
who will free us, Palestinians, from this destructive path on which
we tread?
Liberation Of
A Monster
By Subhash Gatade
Why international terrorist Posada Carriles walks
free in US
Big Business
In Babies: Adoption,
The Child Commodities Market
By Mirah Riben
Adoption needs to be far more transparent, open,
honest and regulated to ensure it serves the best interest of those
it is intended to serve
Nandigram: Fact
And CPI(M)'s Fiction
By Kavita Krishnan
Kavita Krishnan from Liberation takes a look at
facts about the Nandigram massacre and CPI(M)-sponsored fiction
Islamist
Extremist Threat In Bangladesh
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Incidents of extremism and terrorism have witnessed
a sharp increase in Bangladesh in recent years, with the number of attacks
last year exceeding the total number of incidents in the preceding five
years. Most of the attacks have been directed against religious minorities,
secular intellectuals and journalists as well as against politicians
belonging to secular parties and leftist activists. Islamist extremists
have sought to impose an Islamic way of life on people in rural areas,
often through the use of force. Women have been coerced into veiling
themselves and men have been forced to grow beards and wear skull caps
24 April, 2007
How
Iraq Was Looted
By Evelyn Pringle
Coalition Provisional Authority was granted the
authority to award reconstruction contracts in Iraq and it used that
authority to implement what will go down in the history books as the
most blatant war profiteering scheme of all time
Deaths In Other
Nations Since WW II
Due To U.S Interventions
By James A. Lucas
The overall conclusion reached is that the United
States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of
between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over
the world
A Review Of
Chris Hedges' American Fascists
By Stephen Lendman
This review will cover the essence and flavor of
American Fascists beginning with some background on the Christian right,
its influence, and danger it poses that Hedges covers in detail. He
said he wrote the book out of anger and fear of the fundamentalist Christian
Right seeking to establish theocratic dominion over society in America
in the name of God and is using the Republican party as their vehicle
to do it
Corporate Accountability:
Is Self Regulation The Answer?
By Kavaljit Singh
While acknowledging that voluntary approaches could
be used as tools for leverage on corporate behavior and therefore are
worth testing, this chapter underscores the need for enhancing the state
regulatory and supervisory frameworks. Any strategy aimed at privatizing
regulation is bound to fail; even the limited gains made in the past
through voluntary approaches always rested on governmental backing.
Voluntary codes of conduct can never be a substitute for state regulations
UN
Official Says Humanitarian Crisis In Palestine
By Sonia Nettnin
With at least 530 barriers and checkpoints in place,
peoples’ lives are completely disrupted. Moreover, Palestinian
villages have been torn asunder by movement restrictions because they
do not have normal economic life
Gonzales's Long
Record Of Lawlessness
By Mary Shaw
Gonzales's position is that of the nation's highest
law enforcement official. As such, he was entrusted with the responsibility
of protecting our rights and freedoms, and defending the Constitution.
Instead, he has built a career on finding creative ways of ignoring
or undermining the rules while evading accountability for himself and
for those he served
Crackdown In
Jammu And Kashmir:
Humiliation At Its Worst
By Syed Junaid Hashmi
Researchers from Kashmir University maintain that
a lot of women are crying for the fate of their husbands and sons who
either went missing or were killed in custody after being arrested during
a "crackdown" where they were identified by informers working
alongside army and paramilitary forces
Get Under Society’s
Skin
By Gail Omvedt
The Supreme Court’s recent decision and reiteration
to stay the order regarding OBC admissions until accurate data is available
has brought forth the expected reactions. Defenders of ‘equality’
won by ignoring caste are hailing it; proponents of reservations are
trying to put on a brave face. But in one way, the decision is helpful:
the Supreme Court has given cogent arguments for the need for information
to underlay policy. However, what many of the opponents of reservations
may not appreciate is that this brings up squarely, once again, the
argument for a caste-based census
India Needs A
New Altar Of Reason,
Not More Religion
By Jawed Naqvi
Do we need news agencies to remind us that there
are scarcely any Muslims working in India's 10,000-strong external intelligence
agency, and neither Muslims nor Sikhs working as bodyguards for the
country's top leaders? The Outlook magazine reported in November last
year that mainly Hindu but officially secular India has its first Sikh
prime minister but his community is not trusted enough to guard him?
Unpleasant Things,Pleasantly
Speaking
By Sirajul Islam
As our military grows ever more confident, accusing
the queen-bees of Bangladesh politics corruption and flouting law, they
moves to either sent in exile the queen-bees or deploy forces on their
doorstep meaning exclusion. So, I could be forgiven for believing that
we're back to the bad old days of confrontation again
23 April, 2007
US Mass Murder At Home And Abroad
By Gideon Polya
The Blacksburg Massacre was enabled because America
is awash with guns, has a power-obsessed, abusive and racist culture
and IGNORES the appalling human consequences of its actions
USA: Cornering
The Market On Morality
By William Blum & Jason Miller
William Blum interviewed by Jason Miller, including
satirical commentary by Miller
Running On Inferno’s
Platform
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Senator John McCain (R, Arizona) while on a campaign
in N. Carolina, was videoed singing “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”
to the tune of the Beach Boys “Barbara Ann”
The
Myth Of Jewish Refugees From Arab Land
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Victimizing the Jews has been the successful old
political trick Zionists have been using to gain international political
sympathy for the Israeli cause, and to justify all aggression and terror
the Israeli army perpetrates on Palestinians and on the neighboring
Arab countries. Whenever the international views turn against Israel,
due to its aggression, a new Jewish victimizing story pops up
Trickledown
Economics Perpetuates War
By David Truskoff
Trickle down creates and thrives on war. War profits
do not trickle down they land on the workers drip by drip, but inflation
keeps them at the faucet trying to survive. Those of us who call ourselves
"peace people" do what we can issue by issue. We try, but
only if we can cut off the serpent’s head will real peace arrive.
The serpent is greed and it feeds at the trough of Trickle down Economics
Turning Back
On The Palestinians
By J.W.F. Small
As people, Jew and non-Jew alike, find both the
courage and common ground to speak with one voice on Palestine it will
become clear that in the long term, Israel can be secured only by an
open recognition that she was built on the ravaged home and subsequent
expulsion of another people and everything that follows that. That the
dispossessed nation still exists and has infinitesimally more courage
and consequence than their crude, vulgar portrayal as a few wretched
dessert Bedouin allows for
Resisting La-la
Land
By Emily Spence
Another Earth Day will come and go. Yet during
its twenty-four hours, people around the globe will join together in
a tremendous effort to address a host of varied woes facing planet.
Some will pick up trash along highways and beaches. A few will build
bat and bird houses for their neighborhoods. Others will pitch in to
do a greater job in recycling. However and despite their good intentions,
the stark backdrop surrounding these special events will not go away
The Invisible
People In A Land Of Plenty
By Siv O'Neall
Nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep
or severe poverty
BBC = Blair's
Broadcasting Corporation
By Rory Winter
In the Blue-Pill Matrix world, the BBC is a news
service which disseminates an impartial view of daily events. In the
real world, it is nothing more than a shameless and servile tool of
the British capitalist state and, in recent months, a mouthpiece for
Tony Blair's neocon, very-British form of fascism
21 April, 2007
Australia's
Epic Drought
By Kathy Marks
Australia has warned that it will have to switch
off the water supply to the continent's food bowl unless heavy rains
break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven
disaster to strike a developed nation
World Needs To
Axe Greenhouse Gases By 80 Pct
By Alister Doyle
The world will have to axe greenhouse gas emissions
by 80 percent by 2050, more deeply than planned, to have an even chance
of curbing global warming in line with European Union goals, researchers
said on Thursday
The Malignant
Resentments That Erupted Into
Mass Murder In Virginia
By David Walsh
The resentments are real. Huge social divisions
exist on a college campus. Snobbery and elitism exist. With Cho, the
resentments were psychotically internalized and developed in a pathological
manner. The society denies that social classes exists, it papers over
social inequality. The contradictions emerge in a malignant fashion,
they explode in this anti-social form
What
The Persecution Of
Azmi Bishara Means For Palestine
By Ali Abunimah
Azmi Bishara is the only Palestinian leader of
international stature expressing a vision and strategy that is relevant
to all Palestinians and can effectively challenge Zionism. That is why
he is in fear for his life, safety and future while the quisling "president"
Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah receives money and weapons from the United
States and tea and cakes from Ehud Olmert
Interview With
Senior Ba'ath Party Member
By Dahr Jamail
On Sunday April 15th I interviewed a high ranking
member of Iraq's Ba'ath Party in Damascus, Syria. Like many senior party
members, he lives in exile in Syria, and spoke on condition of anonymity
by asking to be referred to as Abu Mohammed. The following is an exclusive
interview
Basra Splits
Between Warring Shias
By Ali al-Fadhily
Oil-rich Basra in the south of Iraq is getting
caught up in an increasingly more fierce battle between warring Shia
groups
Anger Erupts
In Iraq Over Baghdad Bombings
By James Cogan
Four more bombings on Wednesday by suspected Sunni
fanatics have left Shiite districts of Baghdad in a state of grief,
shock and outrage against the US military and the Iraqi government
Iraq Four Years
On:A Note For Mr Zapatero
By Agustin Velloso
Prime Minister Zapatero helped Spain avoid the
moral collapse and political and military failure that the United States
has sought out in Iraq. In better keeping with its international weight
and with the old tactic of lighting one candle for God and another for
the devil, he abandoned his predecessor's imperialist dream and limited
himself to proposing to the world an alliance of civilizations - while
sending troops to Afghanistan and Lebanon
Roadblock: Riders
On The Storm
By Paul Burka
The two-year moratorium on the privatization of
highways that Lois Kolkhorst tacked onto a transportation bill in the
House last week was just the first shot against the Trans-Texas Corridor
Human
Rights And Globalization
By Dr Samir Naim-Ahmed
If economic corporations became transnational and
that much powerful what is needed is a powerful transnational government
based on real democracy for all the countries and citizens of the world
. A government which is capable of issuing and implementing global rules
aimed at realization of the maximum use of all humankind achievements
for the sake of all the dwellers of our globe . A government which is
capable of making economy in the service of man instead of making man
a victim and a slave for the market economy
Can Their Lordships
Too Rise To The Occasion?
By Ayaz Amir
For the first time in this luckless nation's history
the nation is behind the judiciary. Displaying unprecedented unity,
the legal community has rallied to the judiciary's defence. Question
is: can their lordships rally to their own defence?
The Great 911
Deception And Its Reptilian Effect
By Rory Winter
I cannot bring myself to acknowledge Bush as President.
He is not and should never have been allowed that office. He is, to
put it bluntly, a usurper. He's a rogue and a criminal mass-murderer
who, in the seven years, since the White House was first hijacked --yes
hijacked, terrorist-style--has destroyed our constitutional freedoms
and brought a terrible suffering upon the world's innocents
India Does
Not Need SEZs –
The SEZ Act Will Have To Go!
By Dipankar Bhattacharya
Even as the Congress and the CPI(M) and their respective
governments in New Delhi and Kolkata are busy covering up the state-sponsored
barbarism in Nandigram, the 'empowered group of union ministers' has
cleared the deck for the government's SEZ campaign with only a few minor
modifications in the SEZ policy
20 April, 2007
The
Inexplicable Enrichment Of Bush Cronies
By Evelyn Pringle
It's time for Americans to face the cold hard truth
that nothing will be accomplished by allowing the daily carnage in Iraq
to continue, and if Bush has his way, our young people will be dying
in this war profiteering scheme until hell freezes over. Congress needs
to authorize funding to pull our troops out of that deathtrap and not
one dime more
A War To Spread
Terror
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
So as a subject of this world, I am asking all
Americans, hyphenated or not, to defend their birthright, humanity,
and justice. We must determine our own destiny today lest someone robs
us of our future with their actions. America cannot afford to lose the
battle for peace, justice and humanity because humanity has not found
a place in this Administration. In the American ‘Dialogue’,
we are the ‘strong’, for we have the power of the people,
justice, and above all, the Constitution of the United States of America
US Continues
Detention Of Five Iranian
Officials In Iraq
By Peter Symonds
In a decision that was barely reported, the Bush
administration resolved last week to continue to hold five Iranian officials
seized in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on January 11. While the
US and international media was flooded with stories about Iran’s
contentious arrest of 15 British sailors last month, there was not a
murmur of protest over the illegal and provocative American detention
of the Irbil five
The BBC's Neocon
Propaganda War
By Kosmik Knight
The BBC's approach to war and world affairs is,
first and foremost, a reflection of the British puppet state's viewpoint.
It is questionable that the BBC was ever an independent organization.
But, along with the widespread damage to civil and judicial freedoms
caused by the noxious Blair de facto dictatorship, the BBC's reputation
has dropped to an all-time low of news-whoring
Tacoma Police
Aggressively Attack
Peace Demonstrators
By Kevin Zeese
An Interview with Caitlin Esworthy of the Port
Militarization Resistance of Olympia
The EU Finances
Privatization Of Water
By Abel Esteban Cabellos
Since 2005, the European Union has provided funding
to the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), a public-private
consortium in charge of providing technical assistance in processes
of privatization of infrastructure for vital public needs such as water
or sanitation
SEZs: Behind
The Curtain
By Aseem Shrivastava
The outsourcing and sub-contracting of corporate
totalitarianism
The Confused
American Left Ask,Am I A Racist?
By David Truskoff
Black Television programs; modern Black music and
Black attitudes in general are all in the line of fire. Liberal left
Americans particularly Jews who can no longer deny or defend the blatant
racism of Zionism and dreamed along with Doctor King about a better
America are disappointed in Black efforts to help bring that about and
are again asking themselves the question, am I, after all, a Racist
On "The
Darker Nations"
By Radical Notes
An Interview With Vijay Prashad
The Vicious Circle
At Aligarh Muslim University
By Mirza A. Beg
The Vice Chancellor suddenly resigns – A
student is shot dead in the heart of the university. The sad happenings
at AMU have all of us aghast and lamenting. It keeps repeating every
few years, the characters change, but the malady remains the same. I
plead guilty of being a distant observer, but at times it is a picture
is clearer from a distance
19 April, 2007
Iraq
Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day
By Juan Cole
The profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American
public by the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline
for what the Iraqis are actually living through. They have two Virginia
Tech-style attacks every single day
Our Dead, Their
Dead
By Mickey Z.
As tragic as the Virginia Tech shootings are, let's
face it: 32 dead is a slow day in U.S.-occupied Iraq. "Those whose
lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate," President
Bush said. "They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He would know. In America, we have the luxury of mourning our dead for
days or even years (see 9/11). If Iraqis tried to
"pull together" and "come to grips" with every massacre
of innocents...well, you get the idea
A Lot Of Uninvited
Guests
By Dahr Jamail
The massive influx of Iraqi refugees into Syria
has brought rising prices and overcrowding, but most Syrians seem to
have accepted more than a million of the refugees happily enough
Refugees Bring
In Some Brittle Strength
By Dahr Jamail
Syria's decision to accept Iraqi refugees streaming
into the country has brought the government of President Bashar Assad
more power within Syria and the region, but at significant cost
Sadrist Ministers
Withdraw From Iraqi Cabinet
By James Cogan
Six ministers of the Iraqi cabinet, members of
the Shiite fundamentalist movement headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,
formally resigned their positions on Monday. The Sadrists declared they
were responding to the mass sentiment among their supporters that US
and other foreign troops must be ordered to leave the country
The Virginia
Tech Massacre:
Social Roots Of Another American Tragedy
By David Walsh
A day after the mass killing at Virginia Tech in
Blacksburg, Virginia, along with grief and dismay, some reflections
on life in the US are clearly in order. The event was horrifying, but
no one who has followed the evolution of American society over the past
quarter-century will be entirely shocked
Iran: The Price
Of Being Defenceless
By Ghali Hassan
Ever since the U.S. began its preparation for aggression
against Iran, Western media and Western elites have continue to demonise
Iran and provide misleading propaganda to justify U.S. attacks against
the Islamic Republic. On her part, Iran has the right to defend her
sovereignty against any unprovoked act of aggression. A defenceless
Iran would pay the heavy price Iraq is paying
New US Postal
Rates Undermine Small Publications
By Stephen Lendman
With the new rates scheduled to take effect July
15 under which small publications will pay postal rates as much as 20%
higher than the largest ones in a willful plan to undermine them
What Is The
Main Plank Of The US Foreign Policy?
By Chandi Sinnathurai
The US proscribed the Tamil Tigers in October 1997
under the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act of 1996. In October of 2003, “after further review it re-designated
the Tamil Tigers as a “Foreign terrorist organisation.”
Whilst taking all such drastic actions however, the Bush Administration
often neglected to take action or even to exert pressure against the
State terror in Sri Lanka, particularly aimed at the Tamil population.
The Tamils are facing a mass slaughter in the East [Mattakalappu &
Amparai] and the North of Sri Lanka even as I write
Status Of Manual
Scavengers In Laar, Deoria
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Time has come for all of us to scrutinize government's
programmes and action to eliminate manual scavenging and take the officials
of the department to task. India's 9% growth rate or shining India is
absolutely farcical if this large community remains outside the ambit
of global change
Should BJP
Be Derecognized?
By Ram Puniyani
In a democracy it is a difficult choice to ban/derecognize
parties or organizations. What does one do with the organizations which
pay lip service to democracy but are tied to apron strings of those
organizations which stand opposed to democracy and Indian constitution?
It is no secret that RSS chief just six years ago called for scrapping
of Indian constitution and bringing in one based in India holy books.
It is no secret that RSS combine is working for Hindu Nation. By implication
though BJP takes oath for preserving Indian constitution, it has no
qualms in violating the same when the time comes
18 April, 2007
Climate
Change Will Devastate South Asia
By Daphne Wysham & Smitu Kothari
In South Asia, millions of people will find their
lands and homes inundated, according to a draft report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
How Close Are
We To Irreversible Damage?
What Can We Still Do About It?
By Dr John James
How close are we to a 2 degree rise, and when will
we get there? This report will show that this critical threshold is
much closer than most are prepared to admit
Iraqi Parliament
Bombing: A Sign Of Deepening Crisis
By Peter Symonds
The bombing inside the Iraqi parliament last Thursday
has underscored the deepening quagmire created by the US-led invasion
and occupation. Four years after American troops entered Baghdad, nowhere
in the country—including the heavily fortified and guarded Green
Zone where the huge US embassy and Iraqi government offices are also
sited—is invulnerable to attack
Please God,
Deliver Us From The Banality Of Evil
By Jason Miller
Virtually every day our mendacious corporate media
publicizes the farcical “debate” between officials of the
Bush Regime and Congress. While numerous polls have indicated that over
2/3 of US Americans want an end to the war in Iraq, and voters positioned
the Democrats to exercise the will of the people, the war rages on
My movement
Is Bigger Than Yours
By Mickey Z.
Americans wield more influence and power than any
people on the planet but, while the vast majority of humans in this
world live in abject poverty, we live our lives in such a manner as
to threaten every living being on the planet
Under The Gaze
Of The Counterrevolution
By Stella Calloni
Bolivia is once again under the most formidable
gaze of the Empire. Latin America needs to support president Evo Morales,
because the symbolic significance of his presence is a revolutionary
fact, and because he has the arduous task of once again raising Bolivia
to its feet
Dare To Look
Back
By Sheila Samples
Bush reminds us on a daily basis that our world
changed on "September the 11th." That is true. But we must
dare to look back even further to that dark December day when five Supreme
Court judges made the ghastly decision that spawned the horrors of not
only 9-11, but of the carnage in which we are embroiled today
BJP's Hate Campaign
By The Hindu
What the BJP's election campaign CD `Bharat ki
Pukar' presents — excerpts from the transcript
54 Indian POWs
Versus Sarabjit Singh
By Farzana Versey
Rahul Gandhi may have made a politically rash comment,
but even if he had not intended to reveal the truth, it hurts. Too much
has happened since and Bangladesh is dealing with its own problems.
But one major problem is ours. The state of our prisoners of war
17 April, 2007
Blood
For Oil Control
By Paul Street
U.S. forces are in Iraq to protect Iraq oil from
the Iraqis themselves and from the possibility that the Iraqis might
act to accelerate U.S. global decline by aligning their energy resources
with the development of competing states and sectors in the world system
Where Al-Qaeda
Reigns
By Dahr Jamail
Refugees from Baquba city who have now found shelter
in Damascus describe their hometown as a "dead city" where
armed men roam the streets and al-Qaeda reigns
The Terrorist
Walks
By Fidel Castro
George W. Bush is undoubtedly the most genuine
representative of a system of terror forced on the world by the technological,
economic and political superiority of the most powerful country known
to this planet. For this reason, we share the tragedy of the American
people and their ethical values. The instructions for the verdict issued
by Judge Kathleen Cardone, of the El Paso Federal Court last Friday,
granting Luis Posada Carriles freedom on bail, could only have come
from the White House
A Paradigm Shift:
America As Proxy
By Ramzy Baroud
A paradigm shift has occurred since the US invasion
of Iraq four years ago. While the US was the major power that often
orchestrated proxy wars through clandestine tactics, as it did in Central
America and various parts of Asia, Israel is now adopting a similar
scheme. While Israel's heart is set on a war against Iran, it is elementary
knowledge that a war against Iran would bring irrevocable disaster for
the United States. Prolonged political hostility with Iran is equally
dangerous, for it will further complicate the American task in Iraq
Blood
On Our Hands
By Uri Avnery
At this moment, negotiations on a prisoner exchange
are in full swing. The term "negotiations" is really inappropriate.
"Haggling" seems more fitting. One could also use an uglier
expression: "trafficking in human beings"
Palestine Is
Disappearing: The Last Hope
By Max Kantar
As Palestinian 'citizens' in the occupied territories
are living under conditions described by several human rights organizations
as a "humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions," western
media outlets inform the public that Israel is freezing sincere discussion
about Palestinian statehood because Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has
not been released. What is not widely publicized is that Israel is holding
an estimated 10,000 Palestinians prisoner: men, women, and children,
many whom of which are as young as 14 years old
The Politics
Of Pragmatism
By Remi Kanazi
The latest back and forth between Israel and the
Palestinian unity government (and its regional interlocutors) will not
bring peace to fruition. Many respected commentators in the Middle East
have accused Israel of rejecting peace, primarily due to its refusal
to fully embrace the Arab peace initiative. Yet this initiative, when
entered into the international community’s trash compactor of
“pragmatism,” will leave the Palestinian people with nothing
more than an old, albeit neatly packaged, version of the Oslo Accords
Ecuador Votes
For Revolutionary Change
By Stephen Lendman
Ecuadorean President Raphael Correa took office
January 15 promising his people progressive, revolutionary social and
economic change unlike anything this country of mostly impoverished
people ever had before under its right wing only governments beholden
solely to capital interests
Wages Of Fanaticism
Are Paid In
Different Foreign Currencies
By Jawed Naqvi
Two facets of the Lal Masjid standoff in Islamabad
between the mullahs and the civil/military administration have a universal
relevance
Bangladesh: Sovereign
Or Subsidiary?
By Anu Muhammad
Global capital is in confrontation with people
all over the world, among others, on three issues: (a) whether people
and the country should own and have authority over their own lives and
natural resources or global corporates should be allowed to take over;
(b) Whether natural resources should be used or preserved for the maximum
utilization for the development of the country or to be extracted in
a big way to maximize profit of foreign big companies; and (c) whether
resources will remain common property or turned into private property
of corporates. Bangladesh needs to answer these too
Minority Judgement
By Nasiruddin Haider Khan
"The court finds that Muslims have ceased
to be a minority religious community in the state of Uttar Pradesh on
consideration of the materials on record which includes various census
reports of 1951 and 2001 and, therefore, directs the state of Uttar
Pradesh to treat any member of Muslim community equal to other non minority
religious communities…" This is the line of the famous and
important judgment given by the Allahabad high court on April 5, 2007
14 April, 2007
Iran
May Be The Greatest Crisis Of Modern Times
By John Pilger
It is time we in Britain and other Western countries
stopped looking from the side. We are being led towards perhaps the
most serious crisis in modern history as the Bush-Cheney-Blair "long
war" edges closer to Iran for no reason other than that nation's
independence from rapacious America
A
Bloody Message From Iraq: Nowhere Is Safe
By Patrick Cockburn
Nowhere is safe. Insurgents struck in the heart
of the Green Zone yesterday, one of the most heavily defended places
in Baghdad. The symbolism - and the bloody message - was clear with
this attack on the home to the US-imposed democracy. A suicide bomber
cleared at least eight rings of security to blow himself up in the Iraqi
parliament, killing eight people including three lawmakers as they were
eating lunch. It was the most deadly attack mounted from within the
Green Zone
Militarizing
The Border
By Frida Berrigan
As with so many other pressing issues -- from terrorism
to oil dependency -- the White House is turning to the military industrial
complex for a solution. SBI is the plan of the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) to erect a "virtual fence" of monitors, sensors,
unmanned planes, and communications to help border agents catch illegal
immigrants crossing the southern border
13 April, 2007
US
Raid On Mosque Leads To Massacre
In Baghdad
By Bill Van Auken
Scores of people were left killed or wounded and
bodies littered the streets of two crowded urban neighborhoods in central
Baghdad following a major battle between US occupation forces and city
residents Tuesday
India: Home
To Asia's Biggest Club Of
Billionaires And Half Of The World's Poor
By Dipankar Bhattacharya
The UNDP's annual Human Development Report, for
instance, is enough to expose the growing hiatus between the rising
fortunes of the billionaire brigade of 'Shining India' and the pathetic
human development indices that characterize the real India. The country
that accounts for three among the world's top twenty billionaires remains
home to half the world's poor and the starving while nearly half of
India's children below five remain suffer from malnutrition
Chipping
At foundations Of Belief
By Omar Ahmad
Imagine if Iran decided to build a museum on the
site of a 1,000-year-old Jewish cemetery, or if the Egyptian government
threatened to destroy an ancient Jewish temple. Both scenarios would
likely be met with outrage. Members of Congress might make indignant
speeches decrying anti-Semitism. They might even threaten to tighten
the spigot on aid to Egypt. They would be right to protest such acts.
Yet both offenses against another religion are being committed today
-- by Israel. And the outrage is conspicuously missing
Ruling Class
Democracy
By Max Kantar
People all over the world, the poor, the working
classes, the disenfranchised, the refugees, black, brown, beige and
white need realize that the power ultimately rest in our hands. Political
and economic institutions are supposed to represent and serve the needs
of the people, not exploit them. As these powers that be have undoubtedly
failed us, we the vast majority, must exercise our own overwhelming
influence and dissent to achieve the authentic democracy that is so
sorely needed
Wall Street
Journal And New York Times
Attack Journalism
By Stephen Lendman
This article addresses two of the writer's favorite
corporate media targets - the Wall Street Journal's far-right editorial
page and New York Times on every page. Both broadsheets were recently
in attack mode taking on two Latin American leaders deserving praise
but never getting any other than occasional backhanded kinds from papers
devoted to one dual core mission - supporting the power elite and their
own bottoms lines
A Literary
Icon For "Les Dammés de la Terre"
By Michael Deibert
He was born to an affluent family in the Haitian
capital of Port-au-Prince in 1907, and spent much of the first 20 years
of his life at schools in Belgium and Switzerland. But there are few
literary voices that have spoken more eloquently of the plight of Haiti's
peasantry than that of Jacques Roumain
‘Sri Lankan
Forces Won’t Attack
Tiger Heartland’ - Why?
By Chandi Sinnathurai
In the end it seems, there are no winners and losers.
If at all, it is the civilians who really are the losers – in
terms of life, livelihood, homes and lands. Over 80,000 people have
died in this conflict since the 1980’s. Many thousands have simply
disappeared. Currently some 153,000 internal refugees are displaced
only in the Batticaloa district
From Brothels
In Islamabad To A Bandh In Bhopal
By Farzana Versey
Look forward to a Bhopal bandh. The BJP-RSS combine
has decided that two adults from different religions getting married
is wrong. This warrants the state to close shop. Praful Goradia, who
TV anchors politely refer to as a Hindutva "ideologue", had
the gall to say that it is okay if the marriage is between a Hindu and
Christian or a Parsi, but with a Muslim it would be one-sided
Judicial Absurdity:
Recent Ruling On Muslims In UP
By Yoginder Sikand & Nigar Ataulla
A recent ruling by Justice S.N. Srivastava of the
Allahabad High Court declaring that Muslims in Uttar Pradesh could no
longer be considered a minority, has, predictably, stirred up a hornet's
nest. Although the ruling was stayed by a two-member bench of the same
court the next day, it raised crucial questions that pertain to minority
rights, secularism and democracy and the impartiality of the judiciary
Whither Autonomous
Women's Movement?
By Anjali Sinha
The seventh national conference of women's movement
particularly autonomous women's movement was held in Kolkata in the
beginning of September 2006. Although it has been more than six months
that the conference was held, but looking at the fact that the issues
discussed/not discussed had a lot of import for the women's movement
in general and the autonomous women's movement in particular, a few
observations about the same are being shared with the wider audience
Valmiki's Illustrious
Son Challenges The Hegemony
Of Knowledge And Merit In India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Profile: Dr Bachchu Lal Valmiki
12 April, 2007
Divide
And Rule : America's Plan For Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
Revealed: a new counter-insurgency strategy to
carve up the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam. So
what chance does it have in Iraq?
Myth Of Tal
Afar, Beacon Of American 'Success'
By Patrick Cockburn
It was always a myth. On 27 March, a gigantic truck
bomb exploded in a Shia market area in Tal Afar. It was the deadliest
single bomb out of the many that have been detonated by Sunni insurgents.
The Interior Ministry said that 152 people were killed and 347 wounded
in the explosion
Refugees Speak
Of Escape From Hell
By Dahr Jamail
Refugees from Iraq scattered around Damascus describe
hellish conditions in the country they managed to leave behind
Now The South
Erupts
By Ali al-Fadhily
The eruption of demonstrations in the south of
Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered
a critical bastion of support
Squeezing
Palestinians Into Impossible Mission
By Nicola Nasser
The Israeli 40-year old military occupation and
the more than a year old economic siege are eroding the national existence
of Palestinians and squeezing the Palestinian leadership into an almost
impossible mission of securing law and order by practically renewing
an old plan thwarted because, in the end, it could not secure individual
safety in the absence of national safeguards
Hunger Strike
Expanding Despite
Repression At Guantánamo Prison Camp
By Tom Carter
Despite the threat of retaliation by prison guards,
several more Guantánamo prisoners recently joined an ongoing
hunger strike, according to an April 8 article in the New York Times.
US authorities acknowledge that 13 prisoners are now on hunger strike,
though lawyers who have recently visited the prison put the number as
high as 40
There Is Climate
Change Censorship -
And It’s The Deniers Who Dish It Out
By George Monbiot
Global Warming scientists are under intense pressure
to water down findings, and are then accused of silencing their critics
Death From
Above
By Mickey Z.
"Death from Above" means nothing less
than mass murder from 15,000 feet. It means daisy cutters, bunker busters,
cruise missiles, napalm, and white phosphorous. It means depleted uranium
and cluster bombs littering the landscape for decades. It means rubble,
destruction, the ruination of lives by the hundreds, by the thousands
and more. It means Dresden, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. It
means "shock and awe." It means 9/11. It means more than space
allows me to explain, yet it's perfectly normal for an American to slap
a "Death from Above" decal on his/her vehicle...right next
to "support the troops" sticker
Democrats For
War
By Joshua Frank
When will the antiwar movement begin to put pressure
on the Democratic Party? More importantly, when will we break with the
Democrats? They have given us more than enough reason to do so. And
until we do, we will continue to remain politically irrelevant
The Train
Stops At Nandigram
By Amit Sengupta
After 30 years of being big bully, big brother
in Orwellian West Bengal, with 'Buddha' being equated with Narendra
Modi as 'the role model of development', Nandigram might mark the epitaph
of the CPI(M) in 'India Shining'
Betis As Bombs
– Exploding The Borders
Of Caste And Community
By Kavita Krishnan
We need to recognise the links between Babu Bajrangi's
assaults on women's freedom, and those structures and practices that
we tend to take as normative, natural and acceptable – such as
the practice of arranging marriages within one's caste and community,
disapproving of independent relationships forged by one's sisters or
daughters, holding oneself to be the 'guardian' of one's sisters or
daughters, and so on
11 April, 2007
Congress
Must Cut Off Bush Family War Profits
By Evelyn Pringle
According to an August 2006, report entitled, "Executive
Excess 2006," by the Washington-based, Institute for Policy Studies,
and the Boston-based, United for a Fair Economy found that since 9/11,
the 34 defense CEOs have pocketed a combined total of $984 million,
or enough to cover the wages for more than a million Iraqis for a year.
But the last name of one family, which is literally amassing a fortune
over the backs of our dead heroes, matches that of the man holding the
purse strings in the White House
Troops Continue
To Die For Bush's Lies
By Evelyn Pringle
Bush plans to leave our troops dying in a war without
end indefinitely, and therefore, its up to American citizens to rescue
these young men and women in the only way possible, by insisting that
Congress cut off funding for Iraq to force Bush to get them out of that
hellhole. And this year, May 1, should be designated as a day to not
only honor the fallen soldiers, but also the widows, orphans and grieving
family members in America and Iraq, who are paying the consequences
for the reckless conduct of the President
A
Win, Win, Win Ending For Tehran
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Even as Iran basks in worldwide praise for its
handling of the crisis over the 15 British sailors and marines it seized
and then released after two weeks, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has
ensured that the focus stays on his country by announcing that Iran
has the ability to produce enriched uranium at "industrial scale"
Business
As Usual
By Emily Spence
The future for the whole Earth looks horribly bleak.
If worst case scenarios transpire, an inordinate number of people will
die, during this century, due to the effects of global warming. In addition,
up to one fourth of all species, in the same time span, will become
extinct for identical reasons
Hundreds
Of Thousands March In Iraq
To Demand End Of US Occupation
By Bill Van Auken
In a huge demonstration marking the fourth anniversary
of the fall of Baghdad to US invasion forces, hundreds of thousands
of Iraqis marched in the city of Najaf Monday to demand an end to the
American occupation of their land
Not
An Intellectual Squabble
By Ramzy Baroud
In a spacious yet fortified UN compound in Rome
members of the Palestine committee at the General Assembly repeated
old mantras; they vowed support for the Palestinians, issued a press
release and then went to lunch
Whose Responsibility?
By Anna Baltzer
The "sewage tsunami" is as much a result
of population density as anything else. In comparison, the land-rich
West Bank feels like paradise, but perhaps not for long. As the Wall
continues to snake around West Bank towns and villages, cutting inhabitants
off from their land, jobs, schools, hospitals, and each other, Israel's
intention seems clear: those Palestinians who won't leave the West Bank
altogether will be squeezed into bantustans, each of them a new Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority, civilians, and popular resistance
will continue to be demonized with claims of "anti-Semitism"
even though the worst crimes are not their own. The guilt and responsibility
are not just Israel's. They are all of ours
Globalisation,
Yes, Globalisation, No
By Sirajul Islam
In reflecting on the good and bad sides of globalisation
we find that whatever good has come out of it is actually a by-product.
The very motive, maximising profit is responsible for its bad sides.
So, globalisation may well be one of the most serious challenges ever
to the integrity of human civilisation. As a citizen of an underdeveloped
country, Bangladesh, how can we deal with this challenge?
Election
Commission Must Derecognize BJP
By Shamsul Islam
It is high time that the Election Commission of
India should take serious note of the anti-national utterances of the
BJP president and initiate proceedings for the de-recognition of the
BJP. It is unfortunate that none of the organs of the Indian Democratic-Secular
State has so far bothered to challenge BJP and its president on this
account
Defining
Minorities
By Ram Puniyani
Allahabad High Court ruling (April 2007) that Muslims
have ceased to be a minority in UP as their percentage in population
is 18.5% totally defies the logic of Indian Constitution, the legislatures
understanding and the pronouncements of the Supreme court on the issue
10 April, 2007
Where
Have All The Bees Gone?
By Fidel Castro
Daniel Weaver, president of the US Beekeepers Association,
stated that more than half a million colonies, each with a population
of nearly 50 thousand bees, had been lost. He added that the syndrome
has struck 30 of the country's 50 states. What is curious about the
phenomenon is that, in many cases, the mortal remains of the bees are
not found
Dire Warming
Report Too Soft, Scientists Say
By Alan Zarembo & Thomas H. Maugh II
A new global warming report issued Friday by the
United Nations paints a near-apocalyptic vision of Earth’s future:
hundreds of millions of people short of water, extreme food shortages
in Africa, a landscape ravaged by floods and millions of species sentenced
to extinction.Despite its harsh vision, the report was quickly criticized
by some scientists who said its findings were watered down at the last
minute by governments seeking to deflect calls for action
The True Story
Of Free Speech In America
By Robert Fisk
Sami al-Arian is 49 but he stayed on hunger strike
for 60 days to protest the government outrage committed against him,
a burlesque of justice which has, of course, largely failed to rouse
the sleeping dogs of American journalism in New York, Washington and
Los Angeles
Mohamed Hasseinein
Heikel:
The Wise Man Of The Middle East
By Robert Fisk
From Khrushchev to Sadat, many world leaders have
felt the venom of Mohamed Hasseinein Heikel's acerbic commentary. Robert
Fisk has an audience with the great Egyptian writer
Shalom, Shin
Bet
By Uri Avnery
Recently the chief of the Shin Bet declared that
the "Israeli Arabs", a fifth of Israel's population, constitute
a danger to the state
Conditions
For Guantánamo Prisoners Worsening
By Tom Carter
A report released Thursday by Amnesty International
(AI) describes “deteriorating” conditions at the infamous
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba prison camp, citing an increase in the use
of physical isolation to break prisoners, and an accompanying rise in
mental health problems
How Much
Can Iraq Survive
By Ali al-Fadhily
Iraqis surviving violence are not so sure they
can also survive disease
And These Refugees
Are Lucky
By Dahr Jamail
Salim, a railways worker in Baghdad, sold his car
and furniture to raise money to bring his wife and three children to
Damascus five months ago. Syria it had to be, because by then the Jordan
government was no more letting in men his age.He found the money to
get to Syria, and he has all of a tea shop now, and that makes him one
of the luckier Iraqis who could flee
A Revolving Door
For Democrats,
Dictators And Bankers
By Jawed Naqvi
Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed , "chief adviser"
to the "caretaker government" of Bangladesh is a banker with
experience of working in various capacities at the World Bank. Pakistan's
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz too is a banker, his last outing being with
New York-based Citicorp. Both are backed by the military in their countries.
And who can deny the revolving door that links the Indian Prime Minister's
Office (the all powerful PMO) to the World Bank
Goa : Communal
Tinderbox Waiting To Explode?
By Subhash Gatade
It does not need lot of wisdom to comprehend how
things may unfold in the near future. A ascendant Hindutva brigade,
a lacklustre Congress and the absence of a strong people's movement
to unite people cutting across communities and castes, it would not
come as a surprise if the situation deteriorates further
06 April, 2007
Iran
Takes The Wind Out Of US Sails
By Jim Lobe
When Western powers engage Iran with respect and
as an equal, they are more likely to get what they want than when they
take a confrontational path designed to bully or humiliate the regime
Torture:
Read It In The Israeli Press
By Miko Peled
Thanks to the Israeli press, people in Israel are
informed regularly about their government's mistreatment of the 4.5
million Palestinians under their rule. Most of the information regarding
the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of its people is well
documented and accurately reported in the Israeli press. But even the
most serious offenses are given a "kosher" stamp, so to speak,
once the word "security" is attached to them
The Long Ordeal
Of Sami Al-Arian - Civil
And Human Rights Advocate And Political Prisoner
By Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian is one of many dozens, likely hundreds,
of political prisoners in the US today but is noteworthy because of
his high-profile status and as an especially egregious example of persecution
and injustice in post-9/11 America with its climate of state-induced
fear and resulting repression with special targeting of Latino immigrants
and all Muslims characterized as "Islamofascists" because
of their faith and ethnicity. One of them is Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Arab Perspective:
Playing US Politics
With Iraqi Blood For Oil
By Nicola Nasser
Both Democratic and the Republican approaches simply
seek to leave it to the Iraqis to fight it out among themselves, which
will inevitably exacerbate “that” civil war: For Americans
it is the usual political power struggle. For Arabs it is playing American
politics with Iraqi blood for oil
MLK Assassination
Anniversary Unnoticed
By Jay Janson
A Memphis jury's verdict on December 8, 1999, in
the wrongful death lawsuit of the King family versus Loyd Jowers "and
other unknown co-conspirators," found that Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. was assassinated by a conspiracy that included agencies of his own
government. Take a moment to put King's condemnation of U.S. wars to
use today!
Swadeshi Bapu,
Videshi Fame
By Farzana Versey
If we do not want to make Gandhi into a commercial
enterprise we will have to insist that no industrial house or financial
institution puts in ads during his birth and death anniversaries; no
political party uses his name to get votes, because votes mean power,
power means money; no plays are staged on the subject or films made
that will result in profit. Did anyone object to the box-office hit
Lage Raho Munnabhai?
05 April, 2007
A
Humiliating Episode For Britain
By Chris Marsden
Iran’s release of the 15 British naval personnel
captured in the Gulf is the dénouement of a humiliating episode
for the Blair government and for British imperialism
Jesus Wouldn't
Bomb Anyone
By Jason Miller
Why are we waging war on the poor and oppressed?
The
New War Against The New Iraq
By Dan Lieberman
It's not a surge. It's a brand new war
Freedom Fight
Against 'Freedom Champions'
By Dahr Jamail
The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging
as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading
media figures say
Is John McCain
Morally Fit To Be President?
By Thomas Riggins
I think that McCain’s recent pronouncements
in Iraq, widely reported in the mass media, disqualify him as a viable
presidential candidate. In truth, he is not fit to be a U.S. senator.
We have had a president lying to us on a daily basis for over four years
about this war and we don’t want another one to lie us for the
next four years after the elections
Senator Feinstein's
War Profiteering-
Democratic Blood Money
By Joshua Frank
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California
silently resigned from her post on the Military Construction Appropriations
subcommittee (MILCON) late last week as her ethical limbo with war contracts
began to surface in the media, including an excellent investigative
report written by Peter Byrne for Metro in January. MILCON has supervised
the appropriations of billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts
since the Bush wars began
Drug Companies
Want Women Of
Childbearing Years
By Evelyn Pringle
Drug makers are hell-bent on recovering the antidepressant
customer base represented by women of childbearing years. With doctors
now reluctant to prescribe the drugs to pregnant women, a new recruitment
scheme has cropped up. Screening programs are being set up all over
the country to screen every pregnant woman for mental disorders
A Giant Leap
Backwards
By Anindita Sengupta
State governments in Maharashtra, Karnataka and
Madhya Pradesh have banned sex education in schools. This is despite
the central government's attempt to make it compulsory from standard
six, next academic year onwards
04 April, 2007
Palestine:
The Political Ecology Of Disaster
By James Petras
On Monday, March 26, 2007 in Northern Gaza a river
of raw sewage and debris overflowed from a collapsed earth embankment
into a refugee camp driving 3,000 Palestinians from their homes. Five
residents drowned, 25 were injured and scores of houses were destroyed
A Few words
About The Children of Palestine
By Max Kantar
The Israeli government and its political allies
are molding a generation of Palestinian youth into fighters whose wide
eyes will never lose sight of the trouble they've seen and the people
they've buried. Yes, another generation of Palestinians, alienated from
the world, to whom 'justice' is only a word found in books, and 'peace'
was never meant for them
Style Or Substance
Following Riyadh Summit?
By Michael F. Brown
The Riyadh summit has ratcheted up the pressure
on Olmert. A comprehensive peace offer from the Arab League is on the
table. Olmert presumably realizes that some sort of counter-offer is
mandatory following the political evisceration of Yasser Arafat when
he offered a merely implicit counterproposal at Camp David. The Israeli
prime minister aims for talks with the Saudis on Arab recognition of
Israel while again sidestepping the substance of Palestinian demands
Arab Summit
And The Carrot Of Palestinian State
By Elias Akleh
Wednesday March 28th had witnessed the nineteenth
Arab Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Such summits had been a source
of anxiety for the Arab population, since they had been accustomed to
see these summits coming out with meaningless patriotic rhetoric reflecting
the status quo of Arab political situations, more political concessions
to Israel, and more complicity to the hegemonic American policies for
a “Greater Middle East” (Greater Israel). This summit has
proved to be no different than its predecessors
U.S. vs. Iran
(a Marxist perspective?)
By Mickey Z.
Now we have Iran asking for U.S. permission. We
are faced with the spectacle of America only nation to have used nuclear
weapons on civilians about how nuclear weapons might, well, be used
on civilians
Bush Skips
Baseball’s Opening Day
By David Walsh
If George W. Bush’s unpopularity and isolation
needed to be underscored, his decision not to throw out the ceremonial
opening day ball of the major league baseball season served the purpose
From Socialism
To Barbarism?
By Akhila Raman
The Ugly Might of the State has descended in an
unholy manner on the farmers in Singur and Nandigram. How can CPIM reconcile
its conflicting history of admirable land reforms in West Bengal with
the recent brutal repression of farmers in its desperate bid of industrialization?
Bush, Blair
And Ahmedinejad Trial
By Mike Ghouse
The community of Nations need to bring peace to
the world. Neither Bush nor Ahmedinejad represent the people of their
respective countries any more. Both are hard headed individuals, who
are willing to destroy their nations repute and put American and Iranian
lives in harm's way. If they have to prove their manliness, let them
get out on a duel rather than put their nations (they do not represent
any more), at risk
03 April, 2007
Iraqi
Oil Belongs To The Iraqi People
By Nancy Wohlforth & Fred Mason
The proposed Petroleum Law creates a Federal Oil
and Gas Council on which would sit representatives of Exxon- Mobil,
Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts.
Instead of Iraqi central government decision-making on oil, the proposal
authorizes regional authorities to individually sign contracts with
foreign companies, promoting contract bidding wars between regions that
could lead to breaking Iraq into three states
The War Of Humiliation
By Robert Fisk
The humiliation of Britain, the humiliation of
Tony Blair, of the British military, of George Bush and the whole Iraqi
shooting match. And the master of humiliation - even if Tony Blair doesn't
realise it - is Iran, a nation which feels itself forever humiliated
by the West
Partners In
Crime
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
While the display of the captured sailors is not
serving Iran’s national interest, especially by putting a headscarf
on the female sailor – something not tolerated by the majority
of women in Iran, it should by no means be a distraction of who the
real guilty party is. Threat of inciting war in order to commit mass
murder is far graver than that of foolhardiness
A Falklands
War In The Persian Gulf
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
With the growing crisis over the detained British
sailors fanning the flames of patriotism in both Iran and Britain, and
incessant criticisms of weak responses by the Foreign Office in nearly
all British papers, Thatcher nostalgia is rising steadily, particularly
in light of the similar US backing of Britain in both cases
Iran-US:
Fighting Fire With Fire
By Trita Parsi
As the dispute over Iran's seizure of British sailors
continues to twist and turn, what may have been an isolated incident
at the outset is quickly developing into yet another move in the geopolitical
chess game between the West and Iran
Olmert And The
Pussycat
By Uri Avnery
Can a pantheress turn into a pussycat? Impossible,
a zoologist would say. But last week, we saw it happen with our own
eyes. Condoleezza Rice came here to teach Ehud Olmert, once and for
all, who is boss. The President of the United States wants to make order
in the Middle East, and the government of Israel has to fall into line.
Otherwise!Two days later, nothing of the threat remained. Olmert refused
again. And what happened? Nothing happened. The fearful pantheress slunk
home, her tail between her legs
Climate
Report Maps Out ‘Highway To Extinction’
By Seth Borenstein
A key element of the second major report on climate
change being released Friday in Belgium is a chart that maps out the
effects of global warming, most of them bad, with every degree of temperature
rise.There’s one bright spot: A minimal heat rise means more food
production in northern regions of the world.However, the number of species
going extinct rises with the heat, as does the number of people who
may starve, or face water shortages, or floods, according to the projections
in the draft report obtained by The Associated Press
What Do The
Young Jews Know?
By David Truskoff
Today in 2007 young Jews know very little, if anything,
about the campaign to make Young German Americans afraid to be called
UN-German and to make it unpleasant for them in their own community.
Even if they did, I doubt that it would make any difference, for as
Henry David Thoreau said, "Every generation laughs at the old and
follows religiously the new."
The American
Dream Book Tour
And Protest Across America
By Mike Palecek
Hello from the road, The American Dream Book Tour
and Protest Across the USA has arrived in Omaha
Who Is Calling
The Shots In Bangladesh?
By Taj Hashmi
As the Emergency cannot be an end in itself, making
“politics difficult for politicians” is not going to salvage
the country either. It is high time that the present regime start calling
a spade a spade by identifying itself not only as an interim government
to hold free and fair elections but also as the one determined to establish
the rule of law and a corruption-free society in Bangladesh
01 April, 2007
Biofuels And
Global Hunger
By Fidel Castro
The sinister idea of turning foodstuffs into fuel
was definitely established as the economic strategy of the US foreign
policy on Monday, March 26th last
Guantánamo
Prisoner Charges Confession
Extracted Through Torture
By Kate Randall
A Guantánamo detainee has charged that he
was tortured into confessing to a role in the 2000 bombing of the USS
Cole. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 41, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent,
said he faced years of torture following his arrest in 2002 and that
he fabricated stories to satisfy his captors
War Anniversary:
Israel, Palestine Links Absent
By Ramzy Baroud
It’s the same war, the same occupation; Israel
and its neoconservative benefactors are recurring faces in the Middle
East’s ongoing chaos. That is a fact that anti-war movements everywhere
must keep at the forefront if they want their message to have validity
or relevance
Ortega Government
Shows Some
Response To Civil Society Demands
By Witness for Peace
While nothing is certain about the direction of
this new government, it merits attention that within the first week
of taking office, the Ortega administration announced the end of the
IMF-pushed school autonomy policy, the launch of a program to revitalize
small-scale farming, and the appointments of an anti-privatization activist
to head the public water utility and a labor rights activist to lead
the Labor Ministry
Nandigram:
Let The Truth Be Known
By Prakash Karat
In this article Prakash Karat, general secretary
of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) explains the events that led
up to the events that happened in Nandigram on March 14, which caused
the death of 14 people in police firings
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