Countercurrents Archive February 2006

28 February, 2006

Bush In India: Just Not Welcome
By Arundhati Roy

Nothing the happy newspapers say can change the fact that all over India, from the biggest cities to the smallest villages, in public places and private homes, George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America, world nightmare incarnate, is just not welcome

Gandhi, Bush, And The Bomb
By Lawrence S. Wittner

On February 24, at a press briefing, White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley announced that, when U.S. President George W. Bush travels to India next week, he will lay a wreath in honor of Mohandas Gandhi

India's Smiling Buddha Blast And Canada's
CANDU Snafu-Bush Mired In Fallout
By Ingmar Lee

There's virtually no sign of any interest, effort or demand to stop the alarming nuclear arms race that Canada launched between India and Pakistan. Everything here is all about the growth, expansion and massive development of India's nuclear projects. In Pakistan it's the same. Bush's visit has got utterly nothing to do with reducing nuclear proliferation, and in fact will most certainly exacerbate this world's dreadful march towards inevitable nuclear holocaust

Depleted Uranium - A Hidden
Looming World wide Calamity
By Stephen Lendman

Forget about Avian (bird) flu. The threat of it becoming a pandemic is more a political scare tactic and potential bonanza for drug company profits and its major shareholders' net worth than a likely public health crisis. But, there's possibly one threat that tops all others both in gravity and because it's been deliberately concealed from the public . It's the global threat from the toxic effects of depleted uranium (DU), and like global warming, DU has the potential to destroy all planetary life

Defeat Is Victory, Death Is Life
By Robert Fisk

Everyone in the Middle East rewrites history, but never before have we had a US administration so wilfully, dishonestly and ruthlessly reinterpreting tragedy as success, defeat as victory, death as life - helped, I have to add, by the compliant American press

Offensive Cartoons And Need For
Standards Of Decency
By Mirza A. Beg

Average Danes, Europeans, Muslims and all others want to respect others and be respected. They feel helpless and are gradually being polarized by the cacophony of charges and counter-charges. In the West thoughtlessly some feel obliged to defend crude, inane and gratuitous insult to Islam in the name of freedom of the press, and among Muslims, some feel licensed to violence in the most un-Islamic defense of Islam

The World That Dick Built
By Sheila Samples

"It is a Dick Cheney world out there - a world where politicians and lobbyists hunt together, dine together, drink together, play together, pray together and prey together, all the while carving up the world according to their own interests"

27 February, 2006

The Emperor's Visit: Whither India?
By Rajesh Ramakrishnan

The official invitation to President George Bush to visit India is a slap in the face of India's history of struggle against imperialism and has therefore evoked strong opposition from a sizeable section of Indians

Depleted Uranium Contaminates Europe
By Lauren Moret

"Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War II result in contamination of Europe? Evidence from the measurements of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK," reported the Sunday Times Online (February 19, 2006) in a shocking scientific study authored by British scientists Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan

Is The Problem Weather, Or Is It War?
By Robert Fisk

Something more serious is happening to our planet which we are not being told about

Mosque Outrage Also Brings Solidarity
By Dahr Jamail And Arkan Hamed

Widespread sectarian violence generated by the recent bombing of the Shia Golden Mosque in Samarra has also brought widespread demonstrations of solidarity between Sunnis and Shias across Iraq

Political Motives Behind Attacks Surface
By Brian Conley And Isam Rashid

The political motivations behind the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra have begun to surface through several accounts

Volatile Days...
By Baghdad Burning

It does not feel like civil war because Sunnis and Shia have been showing solidarity these last few days in a big way. I don’t mean the clerics or the religious zealots or the politicians- but the average person

The Neo-Conned And Neo-Conned Again
By Ibrahim Ebeid

A book in two Volumes "Neo-Conned and Neo-Conned Again" have come out exposing the neocon complicity in the war on Iraq

"U.S. Administration Sees Itself As Being
Outside The Rule Of Law"
By Siddharth Narrain & Irene Khan

Amnesty International Secretary GeneralIrene Khan is the first woman, the first Asian, and the first Muslim to head the world's largest human rights organisation. In an interview in New Delhi recently, she spoke of the dangers of American policies, the need to reform the U.N. system, and India's human rights record

U.S. And India Part Company On Nepal
By Siddharth Varadarajan

The United States and India, never fully on the same page as far as King Gyanendra's illegal seizure of power in Nepal was concerned, have now decisively parted company with Washington publicly opposing a key aspect of Indian policy: the need for the Nepalese parliamentary parties and Maoists to make common cause for the restoration of democracy in the Himalayan kingdom

Arab Women’s Movement In US
By Sonia Nettnin

Arab and Arab-American Women will be having a national gathering June 9-11, 2006 in Chicago

26 February, 2006

War On Terra:US Empire Versus Gaia And Infants
By Gideon Polya

What is at stake is urgent elimination of the largely avoidable deaths of about 30,000 infants daily around the world and the very survival of a Spaceship Earth with tolerable circumstances for humanity

Death In U.S Custody
By William Fisher

A major human rights advocacy group is charging that of the 98 detainees who have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, 34 are suspected or confirmed homicides, another 11 suggest that death was a result of physical abuse or harsh conditions, but only 12 deaths have resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official

Remember When Cartoons Used To Be Funny?
By Am Johal

The cartoon controversy is a mere sideshow and distraction to the real issues at play in the region: what will be the US and European Union approach to strategic intervention in the Middle East and is the Arab world willing to play the game? Who will be the winners, who will be the losers and what will be the cost in financial and human terms? If not the clash of civilizations, then what does the alternative look like?

25 February, 2006

Sectarian Violence Engulfs Iraq
By James Cogan

The bombing of the Al-Askariya mosque in the city of Samarra on Wednesday is a deliberate provocation that has immediately unleashed widespread sectarian violence and threatens to take US-occupied Iraq to a new level of savagery and barbarism

Payback Time In Iraq
By Sami Moubayed

With violence escalating in the wake of Wednesday's explosives attack on the Shi'ite Golden Mosque in Samarra, the situation in Iraq is as close to civil war as it has been since the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003

Pakistani Protests Over Anti-Muslim
cartoons Threaten Musharraf’s Rule
By Deepal Jayasekera

Ongoing protests in Pakistan against the provocative Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have increasingly been directed against the ruling regime and the US, as well as European countries where the images have been published. The demonstrations not only complicate US President George Bush’s planned visit to Islamabad next month, but also threaten the position of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf

White House ‘Discovers’ 250 Emails
Related To Plame Leak
By Jason Leopold

The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office senior aides had sent in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing Friday

What The Ports Controversy Says About
Washington’s “War On Terror”
By Patrick Martin

The political uproar in Washington over the sale of cargo facilities in six US ports to an Arab-owned company has exposed the cynicism of the Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror”

Bowing Before Emperor Bush
By Prashant Bhushan

The Foreign Service bureaucracy of India is buzzing with excitement these days with the prospect of a US Presidential visit. The almighty George Bush himself, plenipotentiary Caesar of the world has deigned to honour us with a personal visit

Gujarat: Four Years After The Genocide
By Azim Khan

The Gujarat police are almost completely saffronised,cooking up false cases of sedition, illegal arms and criminal conspiracy against young and innocent boys of the Muslim community. Extending illegal detention of poor Muslims by the Anti-Terrorist Squad and Crime Branch is an everyday affair. In Modi's Gujarat equality before the law and equal protection of the law have no meaning

Shared Traditions In Gujarat
Challenge The Communal Divide
By Yoginder Sikand

Exactly four years ago, Gujarat witnessed a state-sponsored genocide that culminated in the deaths of some three thousand Muslims and led to a complete breakdown of inter-community relations, the scars of which have still not healed. Yet, despite the relentless assault of Hindutva forces in Gujarat, all is not lost

24 February, 2006

How To Bury Global Warming
By Froma Harrop

Wallace Broecker,one of the planet's top Earth scientists, says he likes windmills and fuel-efficient cars to the extent that they can buy time against global warming. But the ultimate solution has to be technology that can actually extract carbon dioxide from the air and power plants, and bury it

Hotter, Faster, Worser
By John Atcheson

Over the past several months, the normally restrained voice of science has taken on a distinct note of panic when it comes to global warming

Tensions...
By Baghdad Burning

Extreme Shia are blaming extreme Sunnis and Iraq seems to be falling apart at the seams under foreign occupiers and local fanatics

Human Rights First Report Documents Deaths
Of Iraqis And Afghans In US Custody
By Tom Carter and Barry Grey

A report issued Wednesday by Human Rights First (HRF) documents the deaths of 98 people while in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report gives details of some of the killings, putting names and faces on the victims of US imperialism. The HRF report, coming on the heels of the newly released Abu Ghraib photos, provides a devastating exposure of systematic torture, abuse and murder

Death-Squad “Democracy” In Iraq
By Eric Ruder

In mid-February, Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced that it was launching an official investigation into reports that death squads targeting Sunni Muslims are operating from within its own police forces

What The Price Of Gold May Be Telling Us
By Stephen Lendman

My best judgment is that the gold market senses trouble and is sending an ominous message that all is not well in the world, and it's better to take cover in the traditional safest of all safe havens than risk potential big losses in the financial markets. As one market seer once said - we'll know for sure "in the fullness of time." Place your bets, and stay tuned

Punishing Hamas Is Punishing
The Palestinian People
By Hasan Abu Nimah

Punishing Hamas for being elected and punishing the Palestinians for practising their right to democratic life is wrong, irresponsible and not conducive to peace and security

23 February, 2006

Norwegian Bourse Director Wants Oil Bourse - Priced In Euros
By Laila Bakken and Petter Halvorsen

Bourse Director Sven Arild Andersen is fed up with Norwegian oil having to be traded in London and wants to have a commodities and energy bourse in Norway,that too, priced in Euros

India Spreads Its Net For Gas,Any Gas
By Siddharth Srivastava

While efforts are under way to seal nuclear deals with the US and France to generate electricity, India's efforts to tie up gas resources as another alternative to fossil fuels have gathered momentum

A Tale Of Two GITMOS: Where Was The MSM
By William Fisher

Last June 17, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, "If you think of the people down there (at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba), these are people, all of whom were captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, (Osama bin Laden's) bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."Yet two recent reports, based on the Defense Department’s own documentation, reach conclusions that are dramatically different than Mr. Rumsfeld’s

Cartoon Awakening: Toward
A Positive Media Strategy
By Ramzy Baroud

What is effectively lacking in the Arab and Muslim debate is the most fundamental issue of all: how can they respond as a collective to growing anti-Muslim sentiment, touted through the media and further inflamed through belligerent right-wing political forces in the West, and, dare I say, belligerent and self-defeating Arab and Muslim voices whose obnoxious and inconsistent response is playing well into the hands of their adversaries?

Sanitising The Supremo
By Subhash Gatade

On the birth anniversary of Golwalkar Guruji

The Business Of Encounter Killing
By Sorit Gupto

Encounter killing is again a hot topic nowadays. This time it is for the arrest of Daya Nayak the sub inspector from Mumbai on corruption charges,who is better known as a Encounter specialist. According to an unconfirmed 'estimate' he has gunned down some 80-90 persons till date, amassing huge wealth in the process

22 February, 2006

Rumsfeld Declares War On Bad Press
By Emad Mekay

Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has signaled that he plans to intensify a campaign to influence global media coverage of the United States, a move that is likely to heighten the debate over press freedom and propaganda-free reporting

Chad: Darfur Conflict Spills Across Border
By Human Rights Watch

Janjaweed militias and Chadian rebel groups with support from the Sudanese government are launching deadly cross-border raids on villages in eastern Chad, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today

NSC Cheney Aides Conspired To OUt CIA Operative
By Jason Leopold

The investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson is heating up. Evidence is mounting that senior officials in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Security Council conspired to unmask Plame Wilson's identity to reporters in an effort to stop her husband from publicly criticizing the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence, according to sources close to the two-year-old probe

Extracting Intellects
By Roger Moody

Not content with such feeble precedents of the corporate subversion of Academia, the executive chairman of Vedanta Resources plc is going a big step further. Anil Agarwal intends to establish an eponymous university to "nurture" not just his type of yes-people, but also "tomorrow’s Nobel Laureates, Olympic champions and community leaders."

Continental Revolt Against Neo-Liberalism
By Tony Saunois

In Venezuela under the government of Hugo Chávez and in Argentina under the Peronist Nesto Kirchner, the anti-neoliberal revolts have bought radical populist, nationalist governments to power in Latin America. The same development now seems likely in Bolivia with the election of Evo Morales. This could be followed in April with the victory of Ollanta Humala in Peru who is ahead in the opinion polls and dubbed the “Peruvian Chávez”

Dubai Does Dallas
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan

OK, you got me. Dallas doesn't have a port.But if it did, it would likely be among those given over to be run by a Dubai company, as are the ports of New York, Newark, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami and New Orleans

Check Your Conscience At The Door:
We're Building An Empire
By Jason Miller

This is America, baby! Shut up and swear allegiance to the Flag, the Dollar, the Corporatocracy, and to the Regime

What To Do With The Prisoners?
By William Fisher

Foreign policy and human rights experts appear to agree with the United Nations report calling on the U.S. to shut down its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – but most believe that simply closing it misses a larger point: What to do with the prisoners?

Horrors Of Camp Delta Are Exposed
By British Victims
By Nigel Morris

Michael Winterbottom's film "The Road to Guantanamo" shows prisoners in orange jumpsuits beaten, manacled to floors and subjected to defeaning music in solitary confinement. Winterbottom has called for the immediate closure of the US-run camp

Booming Indian Bourse: Illusion And Reality
By Girish Mishra

The sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, during the first week of February 2006, performed the much-awaited feat of crossing the 10,000-mark. If one looks slightly deeper, many things become crystal clear, underlining the fact that what is being propagated is seer illusion with not much connection with domestic realities

Indian Government Opens Retail Sector
To Foreign Corporations
By Jake Skeers

In a decision that will have devastating consequences for some of the poorest sections of Indian society, the Indian cabinet last month approved the opening up of the country’s retail and other sectors of the economy to foreign investment

21 February, 2006

Killer Drought Threatens East Africa
By Meera Selva

The wildlife in East Africa is dying of thirst and starvation, the people are suffering - and now the lack of rain threatens even the Serengeti migrations

Why I Published Those Cartoons
By Flemming Rose

The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously or to insult Islam -- but simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter

Those Danish Muhammad Cartoons
By Gary Leupp

A historical perspective on the cartoon controversy

Washington Reluctantly Concedes Préval
Is Haiti’s President-Elect
By Richard Dufour and Keith Jones

The attempt of Haiti’s traditional elite and elements in and around the Bush administration to prevent René Préval, the clear winner of the country’s February 7 presidential election, from being proclaimed president-elect has failed

Disease Takes Wing
By James Carroll

If the worst case unfolds, and the dreaded transmission mutations occur, avian flu might be taken as nature's revenge for the human despoiling of the planet. The best case will be that this outbreak came as a timely reminder that the health of humanity and the health of nature, including beloved winged creatures, are the same thing

IMF Measures Wreak Havoc On Iraqi People
By James Cogan

The disastrous social conditions that exist for the Iraqi people after decades of war and nearly three years of US occupation are being dramatically worsened as a result of International Monetary Fund (IMF)-dictated economic restructuring

Crime Becomes Another Occupation
By Brian Conley and Isam Rashid

Iraqis live amidst the excesses of the occupation, death squads, shooting and terrorist bombing — but that is not all. They have learnt to live increasingly with crime that often enters homes without anyone to check it

What The US Ambassador Taught Nepalis
By Pratyush Chandra

Recently, the United States has been anxiously trying to pre-empt every possible uncomfortable situation in South Asia. Its ambassadors are actively intervening in internal political debates in South Asian countries

The Plight Of National Security Whistle Blower
By William Fisher

Find illegal activity in the U.S. national security agency you work for. Report it to your superiors. Get rewarded by being demoted or having your security clearance revoked -- tantamount to losing your career – while those whose conduct you’ve reported get promoted. This was the picture painted to a House of Representatives committee last week, as its members heard from five soldiers and civilians who say their livelihoods and reputations have been destroyed or placed in serious jeopardy by their attempts to expose and correct waste, fraud or abuse in their workplaces

Waging Peace On The Death Penalty
By David Howard

Michael Morales will be executed at San Quentin prison tonight

Second Green Revolution: Recipe
For Farmers' Genocide
By Parshuram Rai

The idea of Second Green Revolution is an old poison in an old bottle with a new label on it. It will kill farmers and destroy family farms at very large scale with "high efficiency". This is a blueprint for loot, plunder and pillage of not only farmers but entire rural India

The Muslim As The ‘Other’In Bollywood
By Gagandeep Ghuman

In Bollywood caricatures, Muslims have either been Rahim Chacha’s or self-indulgent nawabs. By putting guns in their hands and jehad on their minds, Bollywood now fosters more dangerous stereotypes

20 February, 2006

World War III Or Bust
By Heather Wokusch

Implications of a US attack on Iran

Shias Pick Kingpin
By Nermeen Al-Mufti

The nomination of Al-Jaafari came about through a democratic vote among the Shias, but will it be acceptable to other parliamentarian blocks?

From Che To Chavez: Latin America
Revolts Against The Empire
By Stuart Munckton

Imperialism is yet to be defeated in Latin America, but it is being pushed onto the back foot. From Bolivia to Venezuela to Cuba, people are putting paid to the notion that the only spirit Che Guevara represents today is the vodka that the Smirnoff corporation uses his face to flog. The exact opposite is true: the revolutionary socialism that Che fought and died for is alive and well — and advancing

The Op-Ed Assassination Of Hugo Chávez
By Justin Delacour

In studying the opinion pages of the top 25 circulation newspapers in the United States during the first six months of 2005, it was found that 95 percent of the nearly 100 press commentaries that examined Venezuelan politics expressed clear hostility to the country's democratically elected president

Kenya's Drought Takes Tragic Toll
By Stephen Digges & Jennifer Warren

Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, is once again appealing for $221 million in international aid and foodstuffs as the country enters its fifth year of persistent drought, standing on the brink of famine time and again

Crime Of Compassion
By Katherine Hughes

On October 27, 2005, after being detained 31 months and being denied access to his own records, Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an oncologist from Upstate New York, was sentenced to 22 years in Federal prison.As a direct response to the humanitarian catastrophe created by the Gulf War and U.S. sanctions Dhafir founded the charity Help the Needy (HTN). Despite many difficulties, including the U.S. embargo and a brutal dictatorship in Iraq, HTN got food and medicines to millions of starving Iraqis for 13 years.Without HTN aid the UN statistic of 5,200 preventable deaths per month of children under the age of five would undoubtedly have been much higher

Assam: Police Kill At Least 10 During
protest against Indian Army murder
By Kranti Kumara

In keeping with the arbitrary and violent manner that Indian security forces typically respond to protests in the country’s north-east, police shot and killed at least 10 villagers and wounded more than 20 others during a February 10 protest in the state of Assam

Thaw In The Thar: New Train
Links India And Pakistan
By Yoginder Sikand

Cries of 'Long Live India-Pakistan Friendship' rend the air as the Thar Express streams out of the Jodhpur railway station on the evening of the 17th of February, heading for the Pakistan borde

17 February, 2006

Bush Administration Seeks Funds For
Regime Change In Iran
By Peter Symonds

The Bush administration took a further step on Wednesday in its campaign against Iran by requesting a large increase in funding for the political destabilisation of the Tehran regime

Ahmadinejad On The Warpath
By Mahan Abedin

Reformists and conservatives alike are desperate to avoid war, for diametrically opposed reasons.The central question is how the second-generation revolutionaries led by Ahmadinejad view potential conflict with the US. While they do not welcome conflict, they see it as an opportunity for a full-scale catharsis

Abu Ghraib Photos- Interview With SBS Reporter
By Amy Goodman & Olivia Rousset

The Australian news program Dateline aired a report earlier this week that showed new photographs of Iraqi detainees being tortured inside Abu Ghraib.Here is an interview with the reporter who obtained these photographs

Salon.com Runs Abu Ghraib Torture Photos
Leaked from Internal Army Source
By Amy Goodman & Mark Benjamin

Salon.com published even more torture photographs from Abu Ghraib a day after the Australian report aired on SBS public broadcasting. The online publication obtained photos, video and other electronic documents from an internal Army investigation. We speak with salon.com reporter Mark Benjamin, who obtained the files and other electronic documents

Peak Oil - The Great Tsunami
By Michael Payne

Peak Oil- the giant wave that will change our lifestyles forever

Venezuela's Bolivarian Movement -
Its Promise And Perils
By Stephen Lendman

Chavez and his Movement for the Fifth Republic Party (MVR) have created the beginnings of a mass social and political revolution based on participatory democracy and social justice. In a nation in which 80% of the people are poor by any measure, Chavez is a populist hero with mass public support outside the minority middle and upper classes and business interests

No Aid For HIV Positive 'Outsiders'
By Preetu Nair

If you are a poor HIV/AIDS patient in Goa and do not have a ration card, it will be a matter of time before your family gets your death certificate. Harsh! but shockingly true. The Goa Medical College has been refusing to supply antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs to non residents or those who have no proof of residence in Goa, in gross violation of NACO guidelines and the fundamental right to life

17 February, 2006

Outrage Spreads over New Images
By Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed

New footage of British soldiers beating up young Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison has spread outrage across Iraq

The Abu Ghraib Photos And The
Anti-Muslim “Free Speech” Fraud
By David Walsh

The release of more horrifying photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison sheds a revealing light on the hypocritical and genuinely sinister character of the supposed “free speech” campaign surrounding the publication of anti-Muslim cartoons in the European and international press

Eyes Wide Open
By Chris Floyd

Salon.com has obtained a cache of torture photos and videos from Abu Ghraib, along with previously unreleased investigation reports which detail "a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."

CNN Blames The Photos,Not The Torture
By Jeremy Scahill

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr should be given some kind of award for the most outrageously off-target reporting on the newly released photos and videos of U.S. torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq

UN Report Denounces US Torture And Calls For
Closure Of Guantánamo Prison Camp
By Kate Randall

A United Nations investigation has found that the US is committing acts amounting to torture at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The report, released Thursday, is a stinging rebuke to the American government’s illegal practices, justified in the name of the so-called “war on terrorism.” The UN body is calling for the prison camp to be closed

The Next War?
By Geov Parrish

What Bush is playing with -- practically unnoticed by the American public -- is a conflagration that could involve Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and the entire Middle East, and perhaps beyond

Climate change: On The Edge
By Jim Hansen

Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

Sea Levels Likely To Rise Much Faster
Than Was Predicted
By Steve connor

Global warming is causing the Greenland ice cap to disintegrate far faster than anyone predicted. A study of the region's massive ice sheet warns that sea levels may - as a consequence - rise more dramatically than expected

Memories Of Coretta
By David Truskoff

I watched Coretta's funeral this week and remembering that night in the motel, I got all choked up. The March was so long ago and I just made a talk titled, "Did We Win, and if so what did we win? I pointed out that schools in the north are much more segregated than they were then. The drop out rate is greater than it was then. The income gap is worse than it was then. The fear in the suburbs is worse than it was then. Leaderless Minority kids are shooting each other in the streets. Whites are afraid to drive into town.Did Coretta know that?

Permanent Bases Point Toward Permanent War
By Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D.

In Mr. Bush's "State 0f The Union" address, he claimed that "US forces will be drawn down as Iraqi forces stand up." However, this claim is flatly contradicted by the Pentagon's ongoing multibillion-dollar expenditures for the construction of 106 permanent bases - including six hi-tech "super-bases" - inside Iraq

Attack on America’s Middle East Studies
By Sonia Nettnin

Since Sept. 11 private advocacy groups that promote U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the war on terror have targeted professional academics who disagree with right-wing agendas

Weathering The Globalization Storm
By Ramzy Baroud

One of many realizations that I have aggregated is the incredible and deliberate conformity that most Third World countries are pressed to embrace, one that is unquestionably forcing the uniqueness of these cultures to disintegrate in favor of imposed and manufactured cultural alternatives

Asia's Quest For Energy security
By Mani Shankar Aiyar

Text of the speech Mani Shankar Aiyar gave in Beijing on January 13 during his two-day visit to China as Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas

16 February, 2006

More Photos; More War Crimes
By Mike Whitney

The photographs illustrate in excruciating detail the commitment to physical coercion that the Bush administration has vigorously defended in its legal memoranda and justified in terms of its war on terrorism. The battered faces and hooded victims of American brutality attest to the shocking inhumanity of the present campaign

Australian TV Airs More Photos Of
US Torture At Abu Ghraib
By Bill Van Auken

These photographs and videotapes are evidence of a grave crime against humanity. Murder, rape, the sodomizing of children, sexual torture, the use of dogs to tear the flesh of prisoners, all of this was carried out as a matter of state policy

Goodbye Iraq, Hello Afghanistan
By Pepe Escobar

Washington neo-conservatives, from Cheney to former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, may have dreamed of unlimited strategic power by controlling Iraq. What they got instead is a loose Iran/Iraq alliance. And they still could get something even more nightmarish

The Rhetorical Gore
By Joshua Frank

Al Gore was certainly no peacenik during his days as serving under Bill Clinton. He supported NATO’s intervention in Bosnia and bombing of the Sudan. Up until George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion Gore was even delivering stump speeches highlighting Saddam’s potential threat

Clearing The Jordan Valley Of Palestinians
By Amira Hass

The Palestinians have disappeared from the valley, aside from a few thousand who live there plus some to whom Israel agrees to give daily entrance permits for various reasons

If Teachers Were Congressmen
By Doug Soderstrom

I began wondering what our schools might be like if they were to be run like that of congress, that is, if students, with cash-in-hand, were allowed to run rampant through campus corridors conducting themselves like their counterparts on Capital Hill, students lobbying their teachers for better grades

Gonzales Withholding Plame Emails
By Jason Leopold

Sources close to the investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have revealed this week that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not turned over emails to the special prosecutor's office that may incriminate Vice President Dick Cheney, his aides, and other White House officials who allegedly played an active role in unmasking Plame Wilson's identity to reporters

India: Sacrificing sovereignty
By Praful Bidwai

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's weak response to U.S. fatwas, his pro-Western stand on Iran, and his decision to divest Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Petroleum Ministry speak of a new willingness to kowtow to Washington

15 February, 2006

Who Will Possess Iraq’s Oilfields?
By Karen Button

The modern investment model being promoted in Iraq during these secret meetings is production sharing agreements, or PSAs. Mostly political in nature, PSAs maintain the technicality—and just as importantly, the appearance—of keeping oil ownership in government hands, yet the majority of profits goes to private companies

The Anti-Empire Report
By William Blum

How I spent my 15 minutes of fame

Australian Corruption And 20,000
Iraqi Infant Deaths
By Dr Gideon Polya

The UN Volker Report (2005) has disclosed that the monopoly Australian Wheat Board (AWB) was responsible for kickbacks totalling over US$250 million out of an estimated US$1.8 billion of illicit payments to Saddam Hussein’s régime during the US$35 billion UN Oil For Food program in 1997-2003

Iraqis Learn To Live With Abductions
By Maki Al-Nazzal

While the world focuses on high-profile kidnappings, Iraqis face the daily threat of abductions for ransom

Siniyah Isolated And Simmering
By Brian Conley and Isam Rashid

Twice now, an IPS correspondent has been refused entry to this town that has become a prison for its inhabitants. Contact with residents of the town came only at the checkpoint

Iraq: How The Corporate Media Promotes War
By Rohan Pearce

It's ironic that the greatest threat to providing accurate news coverage of the different fronts of Washington's “war on terror” has not come from without, in the form of bullets and bombs, but from within the corporate media, in the form of the slavish accommodation to the disinformation programs of the White House and its allies

In Their Own Words: The Politics
Behind The Anti-Muslim Cartoons
By Barry Grey

Common to the statements of virtually all of the pundits and politicians who have come to the defense of the Danish government and Jyllands-Posten in the controversy over the newspaper’s publication of anti-Muslim cartoons is a refusal to consider the political context which gave rise to these ugly and offensive caricatures

The Politics Of Fear
By Peter Oborne

How Tony Blair misled Britain over the war on terror

'It Was A Crime That I Was Born A Woman'
By Indira Jaising

While on the one hand, the judges sympathise about violence against women, on the other hand women lawyers are disrespected in the very temple of justice.Navratna Chaudhary, while appearing in the court of Justice S N Dhingra on January 7, 2006, was told by the judge that he knew how women lawyers make it, implying thereby that they use immoral means

Exposing An Abhorrent Practice
By S Viswanathan

Review of "India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and their work" By Gita Ramaswamy published by Navayana

Freedom Of Expression As Incitement Of Violence
By Subhash Gatade

One does not know how things would unfold themselves in such a delicate issue, but one thing is certain that things would just not remain the same once the controversy is over. As an outsider to the whole scenario one can just wish that they turn for the better

14 February, 2006

The Pentagon’s War On The Internet
By Mike Whitney

The Pentagon has developed a comprehensive strategy for taking over the internet and controlling the free flow of information. The plan appears in a recently declassified document, "The Information Operations Roadmap", which was provided under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and revealed in an article by the BBC

As The Arctic Ice Retreats,
The Old Great Game Begins
By Ben Macintyre

Climate is changing the world’s economy as well as the environment, and the thawing of the polar ice is opening up the Arctic as never before, creating shipping routes and fishing grounds, promising tourism opportunities and, most lucratively, the exploitation of new oil and gas fields

The Next War - Crossing The Rubicon
By John Pilger

What the Bush regime fears is not Iran's nuclear ambitions but the effect of the world's fourth-biggest oil producer and trader breaking the dollar monopoly. Will the world's central banks then begin to shift their reserve holdings and, in effect, dump the dollar? Saddam Hussein was threatening to do the same when he was attacked

Iran Attack: Turning America Into
A Straussian Totalitarian State
By Kurt Nimmo

To attack Iran’s nuclear facilities will not only provoke war, but it could also unleash clouds of radiation far beyond the targets and the borders of Iran

Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline in Trouble
By Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Along with the possibility of international sanctions hanging over Iran, the future of a 2,600 km pipeline to transport natural gas from Iran to India through Pakistan, that is actively opposed by Washington, has fallen into jeopardy

Cheney’s Hunting Accident:
A Bizarre And Sinister Episode
By David Walsh

What distinguishes this apparent mishap from the others, however, is that the man who pulled the trigger is the foremost champion of the doctrine that the government of the United States can arrest and jail people without charges and without informing anyone—torture those branded as “enemy combatants” in clandestine overseas prisons and covertly spy upon American citizens

“War On Terror”
By Noam Chomsky

Amnesty International Annual Lecture Hosted by Trinity College

Life In Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman

If real justice is ever to be achieved, 6 decades of Israeli Zionist oppression must be fully exposed and condemned for what it's been and still is - crimes as grievous as everything the Nazis did to the Jews except for the mass production death camps. The Zionists have their own type death camps - slow motion genocide behind the false facade of conciliation

A Fight For The Future At The Top Of The World
By Li Onesto

On the Occasion of the 10th anniversary of the People's War in Nepal

13 February, 2006

US Prepares Military Blitz Against
Iran's Nuclear Sites
By Philip Sherwell

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb

What Freedom? What Democracy?
What Civilization? “Naughty Little Boys!”
By Aseem Shrivastava

Freedom is dead. Democracy is dying. There are no human rights for those without power. The example of Iraq should teach us that there are things – loss of human dignity, for one, civil war for another – worse than dictatorship. It is for the citizens of Europe and America to terminate their shameful silence, resume the struggles for freedom, peace and justice that have been in abeyance since the 1960s, and march in their millions on the streets of Western capitals

Evangelicals Do A 180
By Saul Rosenthal

We may be destined, sooner rather than later, to follow into extinction the thousands of failed species that have preceded us. And not necessarily out of inexorable entropy, evolutionary fatigue or decay, but out of a failed character, a moral failure, a failure to surmount the beast in us, the hate, the bigotry, the envy, the greed, the egomania, the vindictiveness, the hubris, the lust for power and profit, the drive for exploitation, for dominion over our fellow creatures

Democracy In America -
It's Spelled C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N
By Stephen Lendman

The all-powerful rampaging U.S. juggernaut is not invulnerable. It faces at least 2 serious challenges. One is its own imperial arrogance, hubris and potentially fatal overreach that may hasten its own demise. The other is mass world public opinion that by using its "ultimate authority", becoming aroused and energized, flexing its collective muscle, can make even superpowers give ground

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
By Dahr Jamail

If one watches corporate media or listens to Cheney Administration propaganda, one is either not getting information about Iraq at all, or hearing that things are looking up as the U.S. approaches another “phase” in the occupation

Indian Villages For Sale
By Devinder Sharma

Harkishanpura is a non-descript village in Bathinda district of Punjab in northwestern India. It suddenly made its way into news when in an unprecedented move the village panchayat announced that the village was up for sale. That was in Jan 2001. Since than five more villages in Punjab - in the midst of the food bowl of the country - are awaiting auction

Muslim-Buddhist Clashes In Ladakh:
The Politics Behind The 'Religious' Conflict
By Yoginder Sikand

The underlying causes of the simmering conflict in Ladakh are thus largely political and economic, and not religious as such, although this is how it has been sought to be presented

11 February, 2006

Global Warming: Passing 'Tipping Point'
By Michael McCarthy

Research commissioned by The Independent reveals that the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has now crossed a threshold, set down by scientists from around the world at a conference in Britain last year, beyond which really dangerous climate change is likely to be unstoppable

The Permanent Energy Crisis
By Michael T. Klare

President Bush's State of the Union comment that the United States is "addicted to oil" can be read as pure political opportunism. But there is another, more ominous way to read his comments: that top officials have come to realize that the United States and the rest of the world face a new and growing danger – a permanent energy crisis that imperils the health and well-being of every society on earth

Iran: The Next War
By John Pilger

Bush and Blair are gearing up for it, and they are preparing us, too - just as they did before attacking Iraq. But where is the threat?

Why We Fight
By Eugene Jarecki & Amy Goodman

A new film which opened in theatres in USA yesterday takes a look at the American war machine over the past half century. "Why We Fight" looks at conflicts from World War II right up to the current war in Iraq to examine the political, economic and ideological reasons that drive American war policy

The Raid...
By Baghdad Burning

Who do you call to protect you from the New Iraq’s security forces?

Denmark And Jyllands-Posten:
The Background To A Provocation
By Peter Schwarz

Last autumn Jyllands-Posten assigned 40 prominent Danish caricaturists to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Twelve responded and the results were published on September 30. The project was deliberately designed to provoke. According to the cultural editor of the newspaper, Flemming Rose, it was aimed at “testing the limits of self-censorship in Danish public opinion” when it comes to Islam and Muslims. He added: “In a secular society, Muslims have to live with the fact of being ridiculed, scoffed at and made to look ridiculous.”

Cartoons And Bombs
By John Chuckman

Condoleezza Rice told the world that Iran and Syria were stoking the fires of these protests. At first pass, this sounds like the days when Moscow was held responsible for every change of weather in Peoria. But for once, I think Condoleezza may be right, but her words mean something different than she intends

The Ultimate Chicken Joke
By Lucinda Marshall

It is of course possible for there to be a bird flu pandemic with very serious consequences. But spending billions of dollars on unproven vaccines and treatments seems of little value, particularly when many more lives would be saved by spending the same money on available, effective treatments for the ongoing existing pandemics that already plague our planet. But in the spirit of SARS and Anthrax, a little panic goes a long way in instilling fear and feeding the corporate coffers

Greater Support For A ‘Fair Go’
For The Poor At The United Nations
By Anthony Ravlich

An increasing number of States are expressing support for people to be able to lay complaints at the United Nations when faced with social injustice. This is despite a group of countries led by the United States who are continuing to resist drafting of the complaints procedure which potentially could be of significant benefit to the poor

10 February, 2006

World Is At Its Warmest For A Millennium
By Steve Connor

The entire northern hemisphere is experiencing a sustained period of warming that is unprecedented in the past millennium. A review of a range of temperature records, from tree rings and ice cores to historical documents, has found that at no time since the 9th century have temperatures been so consistently high

An American Indian's View Of The Cartoons
By Robert Robideau

With all the comparisons that have been made and continue to be made between the struggles of Muslim people and North American Indian people, it did not come as a surprise to find similar cartoons historically used to create racism, hatred and war against American Indians

Interview With Prachanda, Maoist Leader
By Sidharth Varadarajan & Prachanda

This is a complete verbatim transcript of Nepali Maoist leader Prachanda's interview with Siddharth Varadarajan of The Hindu, conducted at an undisclosed location in the first week of February 2006

On NSA Spying: A Letter To Congress
By Beth Nolan, Curtis Bradley, David Cole, Geoffrey Stone, Harold Hongju Koh, Kathleen M. Sullivan, Laurence H. Tribe, Martin Lederman, Philip B. Heymann, Richard Epstein, Ronald Dworkin, Walter Dellinger, William S. Sessions, William Van Alstyne

An expert opinion by fourteen distinguished American constitutional law scholars and former government officials

On The President’s Warrantless
Wiretapping Program
By Russ Feingold

Statement delivered on the Senate Floor by U.S. Senator Russ Feingold February 7, 2006

U.S. Hegemony Or Global Good Neighbor Policy?
By Laura Carlsen And Tom Barry

As more governments and political leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean assert their differences with U.S. foreign policy and in doing so assert their determination to follow their own political paths, it's time for the United States to reconsider its hegemonic habits. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has reacted to political changes in the hemisphere with the same “us vs. them” policies that have been so disastrous elsewhere on the international stage

Cheney Spearheaded Effort To Discredit Wilson
By Jason Leopold

Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley led a campaign beginning in March 2003 to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for publicly criticizing the Bush administration's intelligence on Iraq, according to current and former administration officials

Shed Your Addiction: Beyond Mere
Survival In the American Dystopia
By Jason Miller

Under the Bush Regime, the mask of civility, morality, and democracy has slipped to the point that the hideous visage of raw capitalism and imperialistic ambition is almost completely exposed.We the People have a choice. We can bend to the will of the hectors who have stolen the soul of our nation or we can follow the example of our predecessors and work vigorously to reclaim our humanity

Islamic Feminism Revisited
By Margot Badran

Surveying the most recent developments in Islamic feminism, Margot Badran finds an increasingly dynamic global phenomenon that is as varied as it is radical

Communalism 2005
By Ram Puniyani

Year 2005 turned out to be a year of mixed fortunes for the right wing Hindutva politics in India. At surface it seemed that it is crumbling but deep down its grip on societal affairs is getting firmer at places

09 February, 2006

Evangelical Leaders Call For Action On Warming
By Jim Lobe

Breaking with some of their colleagues in the Christian Right, a group of more than 85 U.S. evangelical Christian leaders called on Congress Wednesday to enact legislation that would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases

Why Is Washington Taking Aim At Iran?
By Lee Sustar

The U.S. government’s escalating threats against Iran over its nuclear program are really aimed at breaking Washington’s impasse in Iraq--even at the risk of plunging the Middle East into a wider war

The Iran Crisis - "Diplomacy"
As A Launch Pad For Missiles
By Norman Solomon

The current flurry of Western diplomacy will probably turn out to be groundwork for launching missiles at Iran

The Corporate Plunder Of Iraq
By Dave Whyte

The largest part of the money spent by the US-British occupation was not US or international donor funds, but oil revenue that belongs to the Iraqi people. During the period of direct rule the US spent, or committed to spend, around £11.3 billion, most of which was disbursed to US corporations

An Appeal From A Women's Organisation From Iraq

There is an organization in north of iraq in a city which is called Irbil and we want to know the other organizations in the world .This is the first organization in north of iraq .we want to defend iraqi women rights if u can or u know any organizations that can come here to visit ours we will be very happy

Addicted To Oil Profits
By Nicole Colson

In his State of the Union address, George W. Bush said America was “addicted to oil.” The U.S., Bush said, must reduce its dependence on Middle East oil imports by developing “cleaner, cheaper and more reliable alternative energy sources.” But Bush neglected to mention the real “addiction” that drives the production and consumption of oil in the U.S. and around the globe--the addiction of the oil companies to making huge sums of money

Australia: A First-Rate Country
Run By Second-Rate People
By John Pilger

Shortly after Christmas, the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer died in his mansion overlooking Sydney Harbour, guarded by large, salivating dogs. In Britain, he was remembered as the man who brought hoopla and money to cricket. Here, in Australia, his death provided a glimpse of the changes imposed on societies that once were proud to call themselves social democracies

Tale Of A Connecticut Donkey
By Sheila Samples

Democrats in that very blue, anti-war state of Connecticut are unhappy with their three-term senator, Joe Lieberman, for his stubborn, rabid support of President Bush and his bloody, illegal war

Survey Of Socio-Economic Conditions Of
Muslims In India
By Imran Ali & Yoginder Sikand

Muslims are among the most marginalised communities in India in terms of economic and educational indices and also in terms of political empowerment. As one of the largest communities in the country, and found in almost every part of India, obviously this fact cannot afford to be ignored by the state, policy-makers and Muslim leaders themselves

08 February, 2006

Seven Years To Save Planet,Says Tony Blair
By Andrew Grice

Tony Blair has warned world leaders they have less than seven years to save the planet. But he ruled out a "ticket tax" on British airline passengers to combat global warming

How Can Humanity Best Regulate Itself
By Stephen Hren

The peak in fossil energy extraction will expose the fallacy of limitless growth. This realization can lead to two paths. The first is the violent theft of the last remaining resources. The second is a fuller understanding of the right to property that makes it truly accessible to all

Interview With Prachanda

Chairman Prachanda, supreme leader of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) spoke about his party's current situation, insurgency, and the ways ahead to resolve the conflict. Prachanda, flanked by Dr Baburam Bhattarai, in an exclusive interview with Prateek Pradhan, editor of The Kathmandu Post and Narayan Wagle, editor of Kantipur, spoke his mind on various facets of politics and insurgency

Danish Cartoons: Enough Is Enough
By Zafarul-Islam Khan

Muslim anger around the world against the outrageous, blasphemous and insulting cartoons published by Norwegian and Danish newspapers and later by a number of other European publications, was natural.But the expression at this mindless outrage seems to have now crossed all limits. Embassies have been attacked, Danish business interests have been harmed and the personal safety of some western citizens is at risk. This is sheer intolerance and represents inhuman behaviour

Radical Islamic Fundamentalism;
Radical Christian Fundamentalism;
Two Different Versions of Hate
By Leigh Saavedra

It seems that there is an unending war between all the fanatics. It dies down, lulls us to sleep, but it never goes away. Right now we are seeing the Islamic extremes, and self righteous as we might want to be, we have to remember that history is not just a linear occurrence. Everything that ever happened is, I believe, a part of everything that will ever happen in the future

Devious Dealings And Dire Threats
– Iran, The EU And The Petro-dollar
– Anglo-US Brinkmanship
By William Bowles

Ideally of course, the US would like to re-establish direct ownership of Iranian oil resources as they have done in Iraq but failing that, maintaining the petro-dollar as the fiat currency is the only method it has for continuing its control of the world’s economy and forcing the EU and its other competitors into line

The Third Intifada
By Sam Bahour

welcome to the third Palestinian intifada. The first was with stones, the second a mix between non-violent and more violent means, and this one via a ballot box. With Hamas' landslide victory in the Palestinian elections breaking years of political stagnation, we are witnessing, right before our eyes, a chapter of history being made

Olive Oil In North America
By Sonia Nettnin

An economic market with international growth potential that has emerged recently is the fair trade of Palestinian products in North America. Farmers in village cooperatives and farming collectives have the opportunity to sell goods, such as olive oil and olive soap at fair prices

Is It really So Surprising? –
Hamas Victory In Palestine
By Brita Rose

This is not the end of the peace process, which is no worse of than it was a month ago – going nowhere. If Hamas channels its energies on more realistic goals like negotiating with the international community and a nation that already exists like it or not, it will gain respect

Bush-Blair’s “Democracy” And “War On Terror”:
Submission Of The Compliant Elite In Bangladesh
By Taj Hashmi

Recently US Assistant Secretary for State, Christiana Rocca, and an EU delegation visited Bangladesh to germinate a joint US-Bangladesh anti-terrorist cell and to ensure democracy in the country, respectively. Both the visits, because of their hidden and apparent agenda, and what the respective visitors and their local admirers discussed publicly are nothing to be proud of neither as Bangladeshis nor as conscientious human beings

07 February, 2006

Beware The Ides Of March
By Mathew Maavak

Iran is not Cuba. The Bay of Pigs is not the Straits of Hormuz. There, on an island called Abu Musa, the Iranians have already deployed sophisticated anti-ship missiles and artillery shells, trained on a tiny gateway through which half of our global oil flows. In other words, the Iranians can turn this vital oil route into a fiery inferno and precipitate global pandemonium, should the US embark on a unilateral action

Why Russia Betrayed Iran
By Mike Whitney

Russia’s real goal has always been to reclaim its contract-rights to explore and extract oil from the huge West Qurna-2 oil-field. According to the Boston Globe, Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov met with Iraq’s oil minister Ibrahim al-Ulloum to firm up "an understanding" about Russia’s $6 billion contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field

US Bullies IAEA Into Reporting Iran
To The UN Security Council
By Peter Symonds

Tens of millions of people around the globe, who opposed and continue to oppose the illegal US-led occupation of Iraq, are no doubt looking on in apprehension as Washington once again seizes on unproven allegations concerning “weapons of mass destruction” to threaten economic sanctions and possibly military action against Iran

Al-Jazeera: Holding The Head High
By Samir Khader and Dahr Jamail

Interview with Samir Khader, Program Editor for Al-Jazeera

Pouring Troubled Water On Oil
By Siddharth Varadarajan

The removal of Mani Shankar Iyer, the Petroleum, Oil and Natural Gas cabinet minister of India smacks of Imperialist intervention by the USA.U.S. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice has said on more than one occasion that the Bush administration is dangling the carrot of civil nuclear cooperation in order to get India to stop looking at countries like Iran as sources of energy. Earlier this month, a written demand was made that India not invest in Syria.The common feeling will be that rather than issuing a demarche each time the Oil Ministry makes a move, the U.S. felt it would be better to lobby to get rid of the man at the root of this uppity behaviour

Vonnegut's Blues For America
By Kurt Vonnegut

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t the TV news is it? Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on

Don't Be Fooled This Isn't An Issue Of
Islam Versus Secularism
By Robert Fisk

In any event, it's not about whether the Prophet should be pictured. The Koran does not forbid images of the Prophet even though millions of Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed Mohamed as a bin Laden-type image of violence. They portrayed Islam as a violent religion. It is not. Or do we want to make it so?

Ghettoisation Of Muslims In India
By Imran Ali and Yoginder Sikand

A major issue afflicting Muslims in some parts of India is that of enforced ghettoisation. Periodic anti-Muslim riots and pogroms, sometimes instigated by state authorities in league with fiercely anti-Muslim Hindutva groups, have forced Muslims in several places to shift to separate localities for safety

04 February, 2006

What Would Jesus Do?
By Remi Kanazi

Those in Denmark and their supporters around Europe call it freedom of speech to have a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed—who is not supposed be depicted to prevent idolatry according to clerical interpretation of the Koran—with a turban shaped like a bomb on his head

Is Freedom Really Free Under Bush?
By Ibrahim Ebeid

I was watching the State of the Union speech hoping that the President might come up with something new but my hopes faded away as soon as he started

The State Of The Empire Address
By Jason Miller

"Evolution is intelligently designed: social darwinism, silver spoons, and our emperor’s call to arms to sustain the rich"

03 February, 2006

Capitalism Or A Habitable Planet:
You Can't Have Both
By Robert Newman

Our economic system is unsustainable by its very nature. The only response to climate chaos and peak oil is major social change

With Cabinet Changes, India’s UPA Government
Tilts still Closer To Washington
By Kranti Kumara And Keith Jones

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a major shuffle of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) cabinet January 29. The cabinet changes were clearly aimed at tilting the government still more in the direction of Washington and at reassuring big business that the UPA will heed its demands for a quickening of the pace of neo-liberal reform

Nepal: One Year Of Royal Anarchy

King Gyanendra of Nepal in his address to the nation today refused to give up the absolute power he usurped on 1st February 2005 and urged the political parties to participate in the proposed sham elections. With political parties boycotting municipal elections slated for 8 February 2006, Nepal is all set to descend into further abyss situation. International community is virtually at lost as to how to address the logjam because of the obstinacy of the King

Shias Head For Uncertain Govt
By Dahr Jamail

Six weeks after parliamentary elections, occupied Iraq is still struggling for a viable government, as violence and instability worsen

Election Results...
By Baghdad Burning

I try not to dwell on the results too much- the fact that Shia religious fundamentalists are currently in power- because when I do, I’m filled with this sort of chill that leaves in its wake a feeling of quiet terror

The State Of The Union Speech: Bush Repeats
Litany Of Lies On Iraq War
By Patrick Martin

The State of the Union speech Tuesday night was a typically choreographed affair in which George W. Bush appeared before a fawning audience and an uncritical media to deliver a stale rehash of the lies which the administration has employed to justify the war in Iraq and its attacks on democratic rights at home

Afghanistan Five Years Later:
Buildings Down, Heroin Up
By Mike Whitney

Is this what Bush had in mind when he promised Americans to rebuild and democratize the battle-scarred country; a modern-day drug-colony, occupied by legions of indifferent volunteers who rarely venture beyond their US controlled compounds?

Intimidating A Minority
By Ram Puniyani

There has been a continuous rise in the number of incidents of anti Christian violence since last one decade in India. Currently this violence has become a regular feature in Madhya Pradesh and other BJP ruling states in particular and in other parts of the country in general

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