05 May, 2006
Beating About
The Bush? Not With Hersh
By Robert Fisk
Sy Hersh is an ornery, cussed sort of guy, not
one to suffer fools gladly. As the man who broke the My Lai story and
the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, I reckon he has a right to be ornery from
time to time – and cussed
03 April, 2006
A Lesson From
The Holocaust For Us All
By Robert Fisk
At a second-hand book stall in the Rue Monsieur
le Prince in Paris a few days ago, I came across the second volume of
Victor Klemperer's diaries.Reading these diaries as the RER train takes
me out to Charles de Gaulle airport - I wish President Ahmadinejad of
Iran could travel with me
22 March, 2006
The Iraq
War: Three Years On
By Robert Fisk
Even today the occupation powers tell awesome lies.
Democracy is taking hold when the "Iraqi" government controls
only a few acres of Baghdad greensward. The insurgency is being crushed
when 40,000 armed Iraqis are ripping into the greatest army on Earth;
freedom is taking hold when thousands of Iraqis are dying each month
03 March, 2006
Somebody Is Trying To Provoke A Civil War In Iraq
By Robert Fisk & Tony Jones
I'd like to know what the Americans are doing to get at the people who are trying to provoke the civil war. It seems to me not very much. We don't hear of any suicide bombers being stopped before they blow themselves up. We don't hear of anybody stopping a mosque getting blown up. We're not hearing of death squads all being arrested. Something is going very, very wrong in Baghdad. Something is going wrong with the Administration
27 February, 2006
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
13 January, 2006
Ariel Sharon
By Robert Fisk
Extracted from The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, by Robert Fisk
15 November, 2005
Torture’s Out. Now They Call It Abuse
By Robert Fisk
American journalists now refer to "abuse laws" rather than torture laws. Yes, abuse sounds so much better, doesn’t it? No screaming, no cries of agony when you’re abused
06 June, 2005
Who Killed
Samir Kassir?
By Robert Fisk
The bloody hand has reached out to Lebanon once
more, striking down one of its most prominent journalists and one of
the most vociferous and bravest critics of the Syrian regime
09 April, 2005
Time To Commemorate
The End Of
Lebanese Civil War
By Robert Fisk
That Lebanon's war did not restart with Hariri's
murder is a sign of the people's maturity and of their wisdom, especially
the vast sea of young Lebanese who were educated abroad during the conflict
and who do not - and, I suspect, will not - tolerate another civil war
04 April, 2005
Prisoners In Their
Own Fortresses
By Robert Fisk
Sitting behind that loophole in the castle at Tripoli,
I could even see new meaning in Osama bin Laden's constant reference
to the Americans as "the Crusader armies"
28 March, 2005
When Weeping For Religious
Martyrs Leads
To The Crucifixion Of Innocents
By Robert Fisk
Passion and redemption were part of our parents
religious experience. It would be wiser to reflect on the sins of our
human gods,those evangelicals who also claim we are fighting for "good"
against "evil"
22 March, 2005
Iraqi Invasion Reverberates
Across The Middle East
By Robert Fisk
The idea that "regime change" would bring
new-found stability to the countries of the Gulf - another of President
George Bushs excuses for the 2003 invasion - now appears to be
a myth
15 March, 2005
The People
Make A Stand Over
The Lies Of Lebanon
By Robert Fisk
Never before have we seen anything like it in Lebanon.
Never before have we seen anything like it in the Arab world.Almost
a third of the population of Lebanon was there; they walked many miles
through the city to Martyrs Square, they arrived by bus from the
far north and from Sidon in the south, most of them young, many of them
children
14 March, 2005
What The
Lebanese Fear Most
By Robert Fisk
Assads troops are pulling back, but who will
replace them in Lebanon?
13 March, 2005
Middle East And Afterlife
By Robert Fisk
In a part of the world where a persons religion
is part of their life, the end of life does not appear so terrible or
so final
11 March, 2005
Syrian Ally Returns
As Lebanese Prime Minister
By Robert Fisk
The most pro-Syrian prime minister of Lebanon -
his cabinet was dubbed "made in Syria" by the US administration
- was reappointed by one of the countrys most pro-Syrian presidents
10 March, 2005
Half A Million
Gather For Pro-Syrian Rally
To Defy Vision Of US
By Robert Fisk in Beirut
This was an inventive piece of history. Israel
certainly killed many thousands of Lebanese - more than the Syrians,
although their soldiers took the lives of many hundreds - but the half
million roared their approval
08 March, 2005
Is Lebanon Walking
Into Another Nightmare?
By Robert Fisk
As the Syrian army begins its withdrawal from
Lebanon, after mounting pressure from President George Bush - whose
anger at the Syrians has been provoked by the insurgency against American
troops in Iraq - there are growing signs that the Syrian retreat is
reopening the sectarian divisions of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war
30 January, 2005
The Shia Will
Inherit Iraq
By Robert Fisk
Shias are about to inherit Iraq, but the election
that will bring them to power is creating deep fears among the Arab
kings and dictators of the Middle East that their Sunni leadership is
under threat
18 January, 2005
Hotel Journalism
Gives American Troops A Free Hand
By Robert Fisk
"Hotel journalism" is the only way to
describe it. More and more, Western reporters in Baghdad are reporting
from their hotels rather than the streets of Iraq's towns and cities
17 January, 2005
My Return To Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
The brush fires are already being lit but fear
not, Bush and Blair will tell us they knew things would get violent
on polling day
14 January, 2005
We Won't Go Home
And We Won't Vote
By Robert Fisk
They live beneath old fly-blown tents in the car-park
of the Mustafa mosque and their canvas-roofed kitchen stands next to
a pool of raw sewage, but the refugees from Fallujah will not return
home.And they are very definitely not going to vote in the January 30
elections
13 January, 2005
Fear Stalks Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
Baghdad is a city of fear. Fearful Iraqis, fearful
militiamen, fearful American soldiers, fearful journalists
10 January, 2005
The Politics Of Lebanon
By Robert Fisk
How Can Syria Keep Lebanon While Condemning Israel?
18 November, 2004
Who Killed Margaret
Hassan?
By Robert Fisk
If Margaret Hassan can be kidnapped and murdered,
how much further can we fall into the Iraqi pit? There are no barriers,
no frontiers of immorality left
02 November, 2004
Bin Laden's Vote
Is For Bush
By Robert Fisk & Amy Goodman
"I'm sure he realizes that further threats
are more likely to help Bush than Kerry and what Osama Bin Laden wants
now, of course, is a president to be elected who will further mire the
country into the Middle East swamp, and cause, of course more American
casualties, which Bush will surely do. So, I think that this is probably
Osama Bin Laden's vote for George W. Bush"
12 October, 2004
The Legacy Of Iraq
By Robert Fisk
Future generations will struggle to escape the
legacy of the disaster in Iraq
29 September, 2004
Anyone Remember
Abu Ghraib?
By Robert Fisk
Kidnappers demand the release of women held prisoner
by the Americans. Abu Ghraib is what they are talking about. Abu Ghraib?
Anyone remember Abu Ghraib? Remember those dirty little snapshots?
06 August, 2004
The Tale Of Saddam's
Cameraman
By Robert Fisk
Mouffak Daoud's story is extraordinary. For eight
years, he was the Iraqi army's top wartime cameraman in the Somme-like
conflict against Iran. He was even filming when the Americans stormed
into Baghdad in April 2003. He still films for the Iraqi Ministry of
Interior
03 August, 2004
Iraq Is About
To Explode
By Robert Fisk
Watching any Western television station in Baghdad
these days is like tuning in to Planet Mars. Doesnt Blair realize
that Iraq is about to implode? Doesnt Bush realize this? The American-appointed
"government controls only parts of Baghdad and even
there its ministers and civil servants are car-bombed and assassinated
29 July, 2004
Baghdad Reeks
Of The Stench Of The Dead
By Robert Fisk
The smell of the dead pours into the street through
the air-conditioning ducts. Hot, sweet, overwhelming. Inside the Baghdad
morgue, there are so many corpses that the fridges are overflowing.
The dead are on the floor. Dozens of them
27 July, 2004
Terror By Video
By Robert Fisk
As the heads of Iraq's kidnap victims are sawn
off, Koranic recitations--usually by a well-known Saudi imam--are played
on the soundtrack. Terror by video is now a well-established part of
the Iraq war
20 July, 2004
Crisis Of Information
In Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
Here is the central crisis of information in Iraq
just now. With journalists confined to Baghdad--several have not left
their hotels for more than two weeks - a bomb-free day in the capital
becomes a bomb-free day in Iraq
09 July, 2004
Imported Democracy
Of Iraq
By Robert Fisk
Iraq has introduced legislation allowing the Iraqi
authorities to impose martial law; curfews; a ban on demonstrations;
the restriction of movement; phone-tapping; the opening of mail; and
the freezing of bank accounts
05 July, 2004
The New Iraq
By Robert Fisk
One leftist group in Baghdad now claims that several
women, allegedly raped by Iraqi policemen at the jail while Americans
watched, have been murdered by their families for their "dishonour"
Pentagon Tried
To Censor Saddam's Hearing
By Robert Fisk
A team of US military officers acted as censors
over all coverage of the hearings of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen
, destroying videotape of Saddam in chains and deleting the entire recorded
legal submissions of 11 senior members of his former regime
03 July, 2004
The Defiant Dicatator
By Robert Fisk
Watching that face, one had to ask how much Saddam
had reflected on the very real crimes with which he was charged: Halabja;
Kuwait; the suppression of the Shi'ite Muslim and Kurdish uprisings
in 1991; the tortures and the mass killings
02 July, 2004
Another Circus
In Bagdad
By Robert Fisk
No mention of power cuts and violence at trial
of the century
30 June, 2004
Alice In An Iraqi
Wonderland
By Robert Fisk
What is supposed to be the most important date
in Iraq's modern history was changed--like a birthday party--because
it might rain on Wednesday
Savages Of The
21st Century
By Robert Fisk
The American torturers in Iraq are creatures of
our century. For if you are taught to despise your enemy as inhuman,
you will - if you get the chance - cease to be a human yourself
The Immoral war
By Robert Fisk
The Abu Ghraib pictures have the status of those
most damaging snapshots of the Vietnam war: the police chief in Saigon
executing his Vietcong prisoner, the naked girl burnt by napalm, the
pile of bodies at My Lai. For Arabs, read Deir Yassin and the corpses
piled in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Chatila in 1982
Pictures Of Wounded
Men
Being Shot Censored By TV
By Robert Fisk
As a wounded Iraqi crawls from beneath a burning
truck, an American helicopter pilot tells his commander that one of
three men has survived his night air attack. He received the reply:
"Hit him, hit the truck and him." As the helicopter's gun
camera captures the scene on video, the pilot fires a 30mm gun at the
wounded man, vaporising him in a second
George Bush Has Legitimised
Terrorism
By Robert Fisk
What better recruiting sergeant could Bin Laden
have than the President of the United States?
Najaf Bloodbath
A Bad Omen For Coalition Forces
By Robert Fisk
That the latest bloodbath should have occurred
in Najaf - one of the holiest shrines in Islam - was as dangerous as
it was painfully symbolic
Atrocity In Fallujah
By Robert Fisk
These were the horrors of Iraq, pictures which
would have reminded the world of the American debacle in Somalia had
they been shown outside the Middle East
Occupiers Spend
Millions On Private
Army Of Security Men
By Robert Fisk and Severin Carrell
An army of thousands of mercenaries has appeared
in Iraq's major cities, many of them former British and American soldiers
hired by the occupying Anglo-American authorities and by dozens of companies
who fear for the lives of their employees
Mordechai Vanunu- The
Man
Who Knew Too Much
By Robert Fisk
He was drugged, kidnapped and locked up for 18
years after revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to the world. Next month
Mordechai Vanunu is finally set to be released, but just how much freedom
will he be allowed?
The Chilling Implications
Of
The Killing Of Sheikh Yassin
By Robert Fisk
Yet another Arab - another leader, however vengeful
and ruthless - had been assassinated. It's getting to be a habit
New Iraq? Hooded
Protest
And Masked Statistics
By Robert Fisk
The US military searches of Iraqi Sunni villages,
the Israeli-style battering down of doors and houses, the constant American
killing of innocents is embittering a new generation of Iraqis. And
soon we will have "democracy" in Iraq
Spanish Soldiers
Pepare To Return Home
By Robert Fisk
"We used to think of 'us' here and 'them'
- our Spanish people - 'there'," Colonel Benito says. "Now
we think much more that 'here' is also Spain."
Iraq: A Year Of
War
By Robert Fisk
The invasion of Iraq would, we were told, rid the
world of mortal danger. One year on, the only people who feel safer
are those who prefer not to think for themselves
The West Was Warned.
Now It Is Paying
The Price Of The 'War On Terror'
By Robert Fisk
The Madrid bombings are not only a terrible revenge
for Spain's participation in "part two" of the "war on
terror" - the illegal invasion of Iraq - but a cruel and incrementally
more painful attack on civilians by al-Qa'ida
Happy First Birthday,
War On Iraq
By Robert Fisk
It was almost year ago, on March 20, when the first
bombs struck 30km from Baghdad. And what followed are better not said
The Unexplained Death
Of Mohamed Aboul Abbas
By Robert Fisk
Perhaps Aboul Abbas will always be on the margins
of Palestinian history. But he will be the first Palestinian leader
to die in US custody, and thus is assured his place in "Palestine's"
history
More Interested In
Electricity Than Constitutions
By Robert Fisk
Veiled ladies and tribal sheikhs, some good men
and true but also a convicted fraudster, Ahmed Chalabi, scribbled their
signatures on the new Iraq constitution in front of the US proconsul
Paul Bremer on Monday
'It's the same old
Iraq"
By Robert Fisk
Each time I return to Iraq, it's the same, like
finding a razor blade in a bar of chocolate. The moment you start to
believe that "New Iraq" might work - just - you get the proof
that it's the same old Iraq, just a little tiny bit worse than it was
last month
Shia vs Sunni
Civil War?
No, I Dont Believe It
By Robert Fisk
There never has been a civil war in Iraq.Never
heard a single word of animosity between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq. But,
now the Americans warn us of a civil war. And then the deadly explosions.
Are they all just coincidences?
The Fantasy Of Democracy
In An Arab State
By Robert Fisk
The West never wanted the Arab states to have democracy.
Now they break into Iraq, promising democracy. But after so many deaths,
where is it?
British Soldiers 'Kicked
Iraqi Prisoner To Death'
By Robert Fisk
Eight young Iraqis arrested in Basra were kicked
and assaulted by British soldiers, one of them so badly that he died
in British custody
Mr Bush Has One Priority
For 2004
By Robert Fisk
Get America out of Iraq. Fast Iraq is breaking
up into rebels and collaborators, with a vast heap of innocent bodies
turning up each day at the morgues
UK Charity Seeks Compensation
Over
"Lost" Cancer Drugs For Iraqi Children
By Robert Fisk
A British charity for Iraqi children is demanding
that the Government repay almost £100,000 to its donors after
nearly half its shipment of medicines including vital cancer drugs
was lost by the British Army after the Anglo-American invasion
of Iraq
From Joy To Despair:
Iraqis Pay For Saddam's Capture
By Robert Fisk
"Saddam brought us to this tragedy and the
Americans used it," he said. "You want to know who is to blame?
I say this: Fuck Saddam and fuck the USA."
Iraq Through The American
Looking Glass
By Robert Fisk
Terror is being let loose in Iraq in order to elicit
information about the guerrillas who are killing American troops
Capturing Saddam Won't
End The War
By Robert Fisk
Saddam was neither the spiritual nor the political
guide to the insurgency that is now claiming so many lives in Iraq.
However happy Messrs Bush and Blair may be at the capture of Saddam,
the war goes on
Shifting Truths
By Robert Fisk
How genocides become "alleged genocides"
Attacked For Telling
Some Home Truths
By Robert Fisk
The bitter truth that is unfolding in Iraq is a
taboo in America. And those who prefer to speak out should watch out
Press Freedom Falls
Short In Iraq
By Robert Fisk
Freedom of the press is beginning to smell a little
rotten in the new Iraq
The Palestine Regiment
By Robert Fisk
How an Arab and a Jew fought Hitler, then each
other, and died as friends
Frightening Winds
Swirl Around
The House Of Saud
By Robert Fisk
Sunday's attack in Riyadh is part of a growing
insurrection against Bin Laden's enemies in the House of Saud
When Did "Arab"
Become A Dirty Word?
By Robert Fisk
Is "Palestinian" now just a dirty word?
Or is "Arab" the dirty word?
This is
a Resistance Movement,
Whether We Like It or Not
By Robert Fisk
Robert Talks to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
Iraq's Guerrillas
Learn The American Lesson
By Robert Fisk
The Iraqi guerilla's have learnt a lesson from
America's "war on terror". Kill the leadership.
Living On Lies
By Robert Fisk
All American soldiers are supposed to believe
that Osama bin Laden's "al-Qa'ida" guerrillas, pouring over
Iraq's borders from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia are assaulting United
States forces as part of the "war on terror"
A Lethal Step Towards
War
By Robert Fisk
US gave Israel greenlight for attack on Syria
Oil, War And A
Growing Sense Of Panic In The US
By Robert Fisk
The USA occupied Iraq but it can't make the oil
flow. The cost of making it flow could produce an economic crisis in
the US. And it is this - rather than the daily killing of young American
soldiers - that lies behind the Bush administration's growing panic
Edward Said: An Icon
And an Iconoclast
By Robert Fisk
Edward Said railed against Arafat and Sharon to
his dying breath
Iraq's Occupiers
Lose Touch With Reality
By Robert Fisk
A culture of secrecy has descended upon the Anglo-American
occupation authorities in Iraq. They will give no tally of the Iraqi
civilian lives lost each day
SABRA AND SHATILA
By Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk was one of the first journalists to
be present at the scene of the horrific murders in Lebanon, September
17th, 1982. He has published a number of different books and currently
writes columns for The Independent newspaper. The following is extracted
from his book, "Pity the Nation."
Secret Slaughter
By Night, Lies And Blind Eyes By Day
By Robert Fisk
Almost 1,000 Iraqi civilians are being killed every
week - and that may well be a conservative figure
Manipulating
Grief Of 9/11
By Robert Fisk
President Bush cruelly manipulated the grief of
the American people - and the sympathy of the rest of the world - to
introduce a "world order" dreamed up by a clutch of fantasists
advising the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld
How
'liberation' has brought anarchy to Kabul,
and now history is repeated in Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
For Fallujah, read Kandahar.
For Baghdad, read Kabul
How The British
Troops Became A Soft Target
By Robert Fisk
Whether or not Tony Blair realises it, the British
are playing once more the game of colonial occupiers - and now it is
time to pay the price
So
He Thinks Its All Over...
By Robert Fisk
When Iraqi civilians look into the faces of American
troops, President Bush famously told the world on Thursday, they
see strength and kindness and goodwill. Untrue, Mr Bush. They
see occupation
Final Chapter:
Burning Books
By Robert Fisk
Library Books, Letters and Priceless Documents
are Set Ablaze in Final Chapter of the Sacking of Baghdad
Why Syria Is in
Americas Gunsights
By Robert Fisk
Syria, Israels second most powerful enemy
is now in Americas gunsights
Americans Knew What
to Defend
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
If the Americans looked on as looters plundered
and vandalized Baghdad musuem, tanks and armoured personnel carriers
were positioned to defend the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry
of Oil
Vandalization
of Iraq's History
By Robert Fisk, In Baghdad
In Baghdad's most important museum, something truly
terrible has taken place, while the occupation looked on
So
What Was The War For?
By Robert Fisk
More than 50 dead in a week. Thanks for the Iraq
war.
An Anti-Colonial
War Against
The Americans May Have Already Begun
By Robert Fisk and Amy Goodman
An Interview With Robert Fisk On Democracy
Now
In Baghdad, Blood
And Bandages For The Innocent
By Robert Fisk in the Baghdad suburb of Shu'ale
At least 62 civilians had died by yesterday afternoon
by a missile attack in the Baghdad suburb of shu'ale. While the Americans
and the British are trying to put the blame on Iraq, the coding on the
piece of metal retrieved from the site contains the identity of the
culprit.
Bombing of phone
system, another little degradation
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
As the relentless bombing campaign in Bagdad continues,
the telecommunications system is shattered
Raw, Painful, Devastating
War
By Robert Fisk
The unedited al-Jazeera videotape -- filmed over
the past 36 hours and newly arrived here -- is raw, painful, devastating.It
is also proof that Basra is indeed under the control of Saddam's forces.
'It Was An Outrage,
An Obscenity'
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
At Abu Taleb Street more than 20 Iraqi civilians,
torn to pieces by two missiles from an American jet , before they could
be 'liberated' by the nation that destroyed their lives.
Iraq Liberated?
The Real Story Begins Now
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
Winning a war is one thing. Succeeding in the ideological
and economic project that lies behind this whole war is quite another.
The "real" story for America's mastery over the Arab world
starts now.
Does The US Military
Want To Kill Journalists
By Robert Fisk
Was it possible to believe this was an accident?
Or was it possible that the right word for these killings was murder?
Reporters or Snipers?
Journalists Murdered in Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
As the American invaders are on a killing spree
in Baghdad, even the journalists reporting the war are being targeted.
Three journalists lose their life on day 20.
Amid Allied jubilation,
a Child Lies in Agony,
Clothes Soaked in Blood
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
The innocent are bleeding and screaming with pain
to bring us our exciting television pictures
American Thrust
Into Baghdad Had Neither
Humility nor Honour
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
It seemed as if Baghdad would fall within hours.
But the day was characterised by crazed normality, high farce and death
The Allied Grip
Tightens on Baghdad
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
On the streets, grim evidence of a bloody battle
TheTwisted Language
of War
That is Used to Justify the Unjustifiable
By Robert Fisk
Why do we aid and abet the lies and propaganda
of this filthy war?
The Battle of
Baghdad
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
'Ever so slowly, the suburbs were turned into battlefields'
Live From Iraq,
an Un-Embedded Journalist
By Robert Fisk, Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill
Robert Fisk on Washingtons Quagmire
in Iraq, Civilian Deaths and the Fallacy of Bushs War of
Liberation
Wailing Children,
the Wounded, the Dead: Victims of the Day Cluster Combs Rained on Babylon
By Robert Fisk, in Baghdad
They fell like "small grapefruit". But
they exploded and took many lives with it. The day that Cluster bombs
rain down on Babylon.
Saddam Starts To
Sound More Like His Hero, Uncle Joe
By Robert Fisk In Baghdad
President Saddam Hussain in his address on Iraqi
TV sounded like his hero, Joseph Stalin.
The Monster of Baghdad
is Now the Hero of Arabia
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
This is now a nationalist war against the most
obvious kind of imperial power
Sergeant's Suicidal
Act of War Has Struck
Fear Into Allied Hearts
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
Sergeant Ali Jaffar Moussa Hamadi al-Noman's suicide
attack on American soldiers throws up new challenges for the Anglo-American
forces
Baghdad Under The
Shadow Of War
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
"If the people of Baghdad could pretend, a
few days ago, that the war did not exist, yesterday they were living
in its shadow."
Minute After Minute
the Missiles Came,
With Devastating Shrieks
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
Robert Fisk on the devastating shrieks of shock
and awe
Baghdad Sleepwalking
Into History
By Robert Fisk
On the eve of the imminent war, life in Baghdad
goes on as usual, like a sleep walk into history