30 June, 2007
Around
The Globe Farmers Losing Ground
By Lester R. Brown
Whether the land is in northern Syria, Lesotho,
or elsewhere, the health of the people living on it cannot be separated
from the health of the land itself. A large share of the world’s
852 million hungry people live on land with soils worn thin by erosion
Intelligence
Services, The Media
And Anti-Iran Propaganda
By Paul Ingram & Mehrnaz Shahabi
Mehrnaz Shahabi interviews Paul Ingram on the role
of the intelligence services in the anti-Iran propaganda in the Western
media
Tony
Blair: A True Friend Of Israel
By Arjan El Fassed
It should not come as a surprise that Israeli government
officials welcome Blair to his new job. Although he has long claimed
to be interested in supporting justice for the Palestinians, Blair has
an unremitting record of bias towards Israel. After George W. Bush,
Blair is probably the most disliked and distrusted individual, among
Palestinians as well as in the Arab world in general
Gaza: From Economic
To Humanitarian Disaster
By Sonja Karkar
Now, in an outrageous abuse of human rights and
political intrigue, the Palestinians in Gaza are being isolated and
pushed deeper into destitution and despair while the funds Israel and
the West withheld for 18 months are pouring into the government coffers
of the Palestinians in the West Bank. Such man-made decisions used to
further political interests are a crime against humanity
Thanks For
Dick Cheney
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Our Constitution should not allow the government
to make us victims and our nation hated by so much of the world. That’s
what Cheney should teach us. Now, it’s up to us. Pray that a petulant
Bush does not learn from Cheney, exploit the Constitution by resigning,
and create President Cheney
A Pipeline Into
The Heart Of Europe
By M K Bhadrakumar
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a published expert
in judo, has used his skills to throw the US off balance in the competition
for energy. In the past few weeks he has defeated all Western-backed
projects to bring gas from Central Asia into Europe, and now he is aiming
at the Balkans. As any judo expert can confirm, brute force is not required.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall
Paradise Lost:
The Endless War In Sri Lanka
By Joseph Grosso
After decades of ethnic and religious nationalism
along with cutting edge violence, it is long past due for Sri Lanka
to overcome a legacy of colonialism and bigotry. However long the short-term
odds, on this the world cannot abdicate
Russell, Rousseau,
And Rationality:A Marxist Critique
By Thomas Riggins
I propose to show that Russell's interpretation
of Rousseau in The History of Western Philosophy (HWP), is both unfair
and inaccurate and misrepresents Rousseau's historical legacy
A Different Kind
Of Peace Candidate For President
By Kevin Zeese
Dal LaMagna is running for president by working
to end the Iraq War. The independently wealthy businessman just returned
from a trip to Amman, Jordan and Baghdad, Iraq where he met with members
of the Iraq Parliament, Iraqi tribal leaders, representatives of the
resistance and U.S authorities, including Generals Petraeus, Lamb and
Newton. He told me that the road to the White House is through Iraq
Muslims In Kerala
And Elsewhere:
Accounting For The Difference
By Yoginder Sikand
Although the Kerala Muslim model cannot be wholly
replicated elsewhere in India because each region has its own specific
context, there is much that can be learnt from it. Muslim organizations
and social activists in other parts of India could consider arranging
for study tours to visit Muslim institutions in Kerala and interact
with their counterparts there
29 June, 2007
Fallujah
On The Boil Again
By Ali al-Fadhily
Strict curfew and tight security measures have
brought difficult living conditions and heightened tempers to residents
of this besieged city.The siege in this city located 60km west of Baghdad
has entered its second month. There is little sign of any international
attention to the plight of the city. Fallujah, which is largely sympathetic
to the Iraqi resistance, was assaulted twice by the U.S. military in
2004
Iraqi Court Hands
Down 22 Death
Sentences In Four Weeks
By James Cogan
Over the four weeks from May 6 to June 2, the Central
Criminal Court in Iraq (CCCI) sentenced 22 people to death, 21 to life
imprisonment and dozens more to terms of between 10 and 30 years. At
this rate, the US-backed Iraqi regime will order the judicial murder
of well over 250 people by the end of the year and condemn another 2,000
to lengthy prison terms. In numerous cases, the “crimes”
for which Iraqis have been convicted were acts of war against US occupation
forces
The
Failing Of Gaza
By Philip Rizk
The democratically elected Hamas government was
doomed to failure when the world refused to recognize the last election
outcome. Now, the new mini state of Gaza will fail, because the world
will not allow it to succeed
How To Destroy
An African-American City
In Thirty Three Steps – Lessons From Katrina
By Bill Quigley
Every fact in this list actually happened and continues
to happen in New Orleans after Katrina
Big Oil And
Big Media V. Hugo Chavez
By Stephen Lendman
On June 27, the New York Times and Wall Street
Journal vied for attention with feature stories on oil giants ExxonMobil
and ConocoPhillips "walking away from their multi-billion-dollar
investments in Venezuela" as the Journal put it or standing "Defiant
in Venezuela" as the Times headlined. Both papers can barely contain
their displeasure over Hugo Chavez wanting Venezuela to have majority
ownership of its own assets and no longer let Big (foreign) Oil investors
plunder them
Mcmansions,
SUVs, Mega-Churches
And The Baghdad Embassy:
Life Among Dim And Brutal Giants
By Phil Rockstroh
The bone-grinding giants of the American corporate
and political classes have shot the Golden Goose full of growth hormones,
enclosed her in an industrial coop, and hoarded her voluminous output
of eggs. Yet, nothing satisfies them
The Bottom Line:
Profit
By Emily Spence
We must resist purchase of products by companies
responsible for these outrageous horrors. We must, likewise, forego
endorsement of all war efforts and turn our back on support of any government
representatives choosing to serve their own best interests in lieu of
their constituents. Similarly, we must let all parties involved in transgressions
know of our deep and adamant ire over their unconscionable practices
Reviewing
Linda McQuaig's
"Holding The Bully's Coat"
By Stephen Lendman
"Holding the Bully's Coat - Canada and the
US Empire" is Linda McQuaig's eighth book. McQuaig explains how
corporate-Canada, its elitist "comprador class," the Department
of National Defense (DND), and mainstream commentators want Canada to
be Washington's subservient junior partner. The result is Ottawa abandoned
its traditional role in peacekeeping, supporting internationalism, as
a fair-minded mediator and conciliator, and it's continuing downhill
from there
27 June, 2007
The
U.S. Role In The Gaza Tragedy
By Stephen Zunes
There is much blame to go around regarding the
tragic turn of events in the Gaza Strip. While Hamas is the most immediate
culprit, responsibility also rests with Fatah, Israel – and the
United States
Our Obligation
To The World
By Paul Buchheit
30,000 people die every day from hunger and disease,
10 times more than the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Over 18,000
children die every day, mostly from hunger. They die from malaria because
they can't afford mosquito nets. They die from diarrhea because they
don't have clean water. They die from accidents in African mines, where
they're forced to work in the heat and toxic dust for 70 hours a week.
These are extreme conditions. These people are living in terror. This
is happening every day. But what can WE do about it?
Overgrown Kids,
Unshackled Ids,
And The Death Of The Superego
By Jason Miller
Frightening as it may be, the Earth’s fate
rests in the hands of children. With incredibly formidable military
firepower at its disposal, the United States could catalyze Armageddon
at any time. And while they may be adults chronologically, our sociopolitical
structure is dominated by emotional infants
King
Hemp- Part II
Battle Lines: Natural, Or Synthetic...Life, Or Death?
By Rand Clifford
Will We The People find the wisdom, coordination
and motivation to take back what CorpoGov stole from us through lies
and manipulation seventy years ago...lies and manipulation still robust
today?
Police Spy
Agencies Target Australian Universities
By Laura Tiernan
Last week’s revelation that police intelligence
sought to recruit University of Sydney Students Representative Council
(SRC) leader Daniel Jones to spy on fellow students points to increasing
state surveillance of political activity on university campuses
Hizbullah—Party
Of God - Book Review
By Yoginder Sikand
Much has been written about Hizbullah, 'The Party
of God', the Lebanon-based resistance movement. Yet, as the editor of
this book, Abdar Rahman Koya, points out, most of this has been by Western
writers, who represent a distinctly Western and, therefore, biased,
perspective. This book, a collection of essays that originally appeared
in the columns of the Toronto-based monthly 'Crescent International',
provides an alternative perspective on the movement
Muslim Dalits
Denied Justice
By Irshadul Haque
According to a special provision in article 341
of the Indian Constitution, 'untouchable' or Dalit communities, termed
as Scheduled Castes (SCs), get several special rights, including reservations
in education, employment and membership of Parliament as well as states
assemblies. But this special right has been extended to only those who
declare themselves to be Hindus, Buddhists or Sikhs, while Muslim and
Christian Dalits are denied these rights
26 June, 2007
Fallujah-Style
Offensive Underway In Baqubah
By Peter Symonds
A huge US offensive codenamed “Operation
Arrowhead Ripper” is underway in the Iraqi city of Baqubah, as
part of extensive American operations aimed at suppressing insurgent
groups in Baghdad and areas to the north and south of the capital. US
troops, backed by armoured vehicles, artillery, helicopter gunships
and warplanes, have sealed off the city of 300,000
After The Spaniards,
Who Will Be
Next To Die In Lebanon?
By Robert Fisk
Which United Nations contingent in southern Lebanon
will be next? It is a ghoulish, terrible question after the car bomb
attack that killed six Spanish soldiers of the 13,000-strong international
army on Sunday evening, but one which the officers of the UN Interim
Force - Unifil - are asking at their intelligence meetings
Can
The Arab World Be Turned Into Gaza’s Jailers?
By Jonathan Cook
Israel looks as if it is dusting off yet another
blueprint for how to manage the Palestinians and their irritating obsession
with sovereignty. Last time, under Oslo, the Palestinians were put in
charge of policing the occupation on Israel’s behalf. This time,
as the Palestinians are sealed into their separate prisons masquerading
as a state, Israel may believe that it can find a new jailer for the
Palestinians -- the Arab world
Goodbye To
The City Upon A Hill
And To Its Fabled Economy
By Paul Craig Roberts
America is being destroyed. Many Americans are
unaware, others are indifferent, and some intend it. The destruction
is across the board: the political and constitutional system, the economy,
social institutions including the family itself, citizenship, and the
character and morality of the American people
Terrorism
Inc.: Violence And
Counter-Violence (of the Letter- Part III)
By Mustapha Marrouchi
Sixty years ago, German soldiers shaved off the
beards of Orthodox Jews. Now the US army is doing the same to Islamists
captured in Africa and elsewhere, before flying them to Guántanamo
to be tortured, degraded, and interrogated in all sorts of ways that
involve electric shock, forcible feeding, and sleep deprivation
"Demonstration"
Government In Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
Everything happening in the Middle East in Iraq,
Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan in Central Asia is interconnected.
In all of it, Washington is partnered with Israel and the EU aiming
to subdue the people in both regions, control their resources, and rule
over this vast area in colonial-occupier fashion directly on the ground
or ideally with puppet-installed governments
The Proof Of climate
Change
And The Inevitability Of 2 C
By Dr John James
Were we to instantly stop all emissions, stop everything
today, average global temperature would continue to rise as follows:
Current temp + latent heat + dimming = 0.78 + 0.45 + 20% = 1.5 C. This
is double the increase of the past two centuries
China's New
Weapons
By John Chuckman
An excerpt from John Chuckman's new book "What's
It All About? The Decline of the American Empire"
It’s The
Crude, Dude - War, Big Oil,
And The Fight For The Planet
By Jime Miles
A review of Linda McQuaig's book "It’s
the Crude, Dude - War, Big Oil, and the Fight For the Planet"
Immunity, Floating
Of Norms Encourages
High Rate of HR Abuse In Jammu And Kashmir
By Syed Junaid Hashmi
In a state where impunity rules the roost, procedural
safeguards designed to prevent torture and other mistreatment of persons
in custody are allegedly being routinely floated by security forces.
Those arrested merely on suspicious grounds are allegedly tortured,
humiliated and abused
Mughals And
Backwardness Of Indian Women
By Adv. Irfan Engineer
The Presidential nominee of the UPA made an unnecessary
statement linking the ghunghat of Hindu women to the Mughal rule
Democracy In
The Line Of Fire
By Hassan N. Gardezi
When Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s memoir, In the
Line of Fire appeared last year it was perhaps dismissed too quickly
by progressive readers and commentators as a military ruler's attempt
at self promotion. Yet, as Pakistan is about to celebrates its 60th
anniversary, once again under the rule of a military man, it is worthwhile
to revisit his book and try specifically to figure out who this man
is, how he rose to power, how his mind works as a military politician,
and how does his rule link up with previous military regimes in shaping
the kind of political system and the civil society we have in Pakistan
today
A Hallowed Institution
That Mirrors
The Split Personality Of A Nation
By Jawed Naqvi
Pratibha Patil appears to be as qualified as Shekhawat
if not more with a law degree and years of experience as a state minister.
More recently she was the governor of Rajasthan. If elected she would
be the first woman to hold the office of the president. But she has
said somewhere recently that Mughals invaders were responsible for the
veil that Hindu women wear. The remark is being interpreted as implicitly
communal if also rooted in ignorance
25 June, 2007
Victory
In Iraq?
By Adil E. Shamoo & Bonnie Bricker
While the American people are seeking a way to
bring the troops home from Iraq, the President and his administration
are aiming to stay for much longer by redefining “victory”
in Iraq once again—this time as a permanent occupier
Saving
President Abbas
By Uri Avnery
At present, all Olmert's actions are endangering
Abbas. His embrace is a bear's embrace, and his kiss is the kiss of
death
Bolivia: The
Clash Of Autonomies
By Federico Fuentes
The election of the indigenous government in Bolivia
is the high-water mark in this struggle for indigenous self-determination
in the Americas, a major leap towards consolidating the right of the
indigenous people to assert majority rule within a plurinational state.
Today, this same indigenous majority is putting its hopes for this new
Bolivia in the constituent assembly
Violence Of
The Master, Violence Of The Slave
By Jorge Majfud
From a humanistic point of view, the violence of
the slave is always engendered by the violence of the master and not
the other way around. But when we impose the idea that the violence
of the slave engenders more violence, we are equating what is not equal
in order to maintain an order that, in fact and in its discourse, denies
the very notion of human equality
Political
Attention Deficit Disorder –
New Psychiatric Condition
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
According to a report not yet released, the Council
on Science and Public Health of the American Medical Association has
recommended that a chronic and widespread affliction of Americans be
officially declared a psychiatric disorder. It has been named the Political
Attention Deficit Disorder (PADD)
Can The Real
Shekhawat Ever Stand Up?
By Subhash Gatade
Nobody seems to recapitulate Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's
his highly controversial statement warning the state government to desist
from 'appeasement of Muslims' if it wants to avoid a 'Gujarat type situation'
when the genocide in Gujarat was on. And nobody seems to remember the
manner in which he graced the occasion of the birth anniversary celebrations
of Golwalkar, the second Supremo of RSS, while he was still a Vice President
of India
Sparks From
"The Notes Of A Vagabond Mind"
By Prasanna Ratnayake
A review of The Sri Lankan film director and writer
Tissa Abeysekara's new book "The Notes Of A Vagabond Mind"
23 June, 2007
The
Fight For The World's Food
By Daniel Howden
Population is growing. Supply is falling. Prices
are rising. What will be the cost to the planet's poorest?
The
Desecration Of Democracy
By Philip Rizk
A fear overtook the Gaza Strip after Hamas took
control of institutions this past week, which are rightfully theirs
to control. Few outside realize that the Gaza Strip can hardly be more
isolated, or sink into a worse economic depression, save starvation,
than it has in the past two years
Everything
Is Possible
By Yigal Bronner
The machine of displacement never tires. It continues
its work in the occupied territories and in Israel proper, from Rafah
to the Negev, from Hebron to Jerusalem, from Budrus to Bil'in, from
Jenin to Sakhnin. It grabs an acre here and an acre there. Let me be
clear: no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is possible so
long as it continues its work. But dismantle it, and everything is possible
Who’s Responsible
For The Palestinian Political Crisis?
By Jamal Juma'
The question where the responsibility lies, with
Hamas or Fatah, is utterly out of place. The real plotters of the current
situation are Israel, the US and Europe
How Can Blair
Possibly Be Given This Job?
By Robert Fisk
I suppose that astonishment is not the word for
it. Stupefaction comes to mind. I simply could not believe my ears in
Beirut when a phone call told me that Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara was
going to create "Palestine". I checked the date - no, it was
not 1 April - but I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man,
this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands
of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating
being "our" Middle East envoy. Can this really be true?
Bush Administration
Rushes
To Pakistani Dictator’s Aid
By Keith Jones & Vilani Peiris
Top Bush administration and Pentagon officials
have held intensive consultations with Pakistan’s embattled military
regime during the past two weeks with the aim of bolstering the autocratic
rule of General Pervez Musharraf and securing increased Pakistani military
support in staunching the insurgency against Afghanistan’s US-installed
government
Out Of Afghanistan
And Iraq And Into Kyoto
By Jeff Berg
For the first time in our history North America
is uniquely disadvantaged when it comes to fundamental resources. This
fact combined with our extraordinary level of accrued wealth and the
sophistication of our information systems gives us every opportunity
and motive imaginable to lead ourselves out of Afghanistan and Iraq
and into Kyoto
Bolivia:
On The Verge Of A Racial Revenge?
By Pablo Stefanoni
Ever since the inauguration of Evo Morales, the
right wing have begun to raise the spectre of a "racial revenge",
supposedly promoted by the new government
Rubber Boom Raises
Hope Of Repatriates
By K A Shaji
Rubber is back in demand again. With the international
market picking up, happiness is back in the faces of scores of Tamil
repatriates from Sri Lanka, who have been rehabilitated in rubber plantations
located at Punalur in Kerala and Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka
22 June, 2007
Palestinians
At A Cross-Road
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Many believe that what happened in Gaza last week
was the result of a failed American/Israeli policy. The opposite is
true; that was exactly what Bush’s administration, Israeli government,
and some Arab leaders were hoping and planning for. The Hamas resistance
phenomenon was to be destroyed for fear of spreading to the rest of
the Arab countries. Hamas government was set up and given no choice
but to pre-emptively defend itself against Dahlan’s death squads
All In The Family:
Disharmony In Gaza
By Remi Kanazi
Rubbing Hamas' face in the dirt (along with the
1.4 million people of Gaza) like schoolyard bullies may seem like an
after school delight, but it will only foment more hatred against Israel
and more disgust with Fatah
In Search
Of Justice In The Middle East
By Ali Abunimah
Intra-Palestinian dialogue without outside interference,
and South Africa or Northern Ireland-style peace talks aimed at ending
all forms of military occupation, inequality and discrimination, with
strong outside support, may yet save the situation. But so far there
are no signs that the Bush administration will heed these obvious rudiments
of peace
Democracy Defeated
By Ramzy Baroud
All my forewarnings have suddenly been actualised,
all at once: Gaza has descended into total and utter chaos; Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas has capitulated to Israel and to the United
States without a shred of reservation; and the Palestinian democratic
experiment, which was until recently an astounding success, has been
smashed to pieces
An Active Complicity
In Israel’s Terror
By Ghali Hassan
On June 5, 2007, the pro-Zionist U.S. House of
Representatives passed Resolution 152, endorsing Israel’s occupation
of Palestinian land and Israel’s illegal and violent “reunification
of Jerusalem”. The passing of the Resolution was a deliberate
violation of UN Security Council and in contempt of world peace
Fears For
Democracy In India
By Martha C. Nussbaum
What we see in Gujarat is not a simplistic, comforting
thesis, but something more disturbing: the fact that in a thriving democracy,
many individuals are unable to live with others who are different, on
terms of mutual respect and amity. They seek total domination as the
only road to security and pride
Displacing
Farmers: India Will Have
400 Million Agricultural Refugees
By Devinder Sharma
Almost 500 special economic zones are being carved
out. What is however less known is that successive government’s
are actually following a policy prescription that had been laid out
by the World Bank as early as in 1995
Are Americans
Unready To Boil?
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Support the effort to get the nation’s first
Article V convention, especially if you sense our societal waters becoming
hotter – sometimes faster, as under Bush. Sign up at www.foavc.org.
Don’t let self-delusion and false hope in Republicans or Democrats
blind you. Let freedom ring. Make Thomas Jefferson proud
Northern Light
By Jason Miller & Tony Sutton
Tony Sutton of ColdType interviewed by Jason Miller
21 June, 2007
Saving
Darfur Or Salvation Delusion?
By Steve Fake & Kevin Funk
In addition to funding relief organizations, which
is evidently of less importance to Washington than saber rattling, there
are other paths to pursue, if one cares to seek them. Activists must
push the West to support negotiations between Khartoum and Darfurian
rebel groups, instead of advocating an agreement such as the DPA that
does not reflect popular demands
The Mask Of
Imperial Power Is Dying
By Jim Kirwan
The charade is over in Palestine. The farce that
tried to pass itself off as a pathway to peace has clearly ended. The
‘West’ led by Israel and the US has finally begun to show
the world the duplicity of their joint criminality as that has most
recently been underscored in “Gaza vs. The West Bank.”
The
Light At The End Of The Gaza-Ramallah Tunnel
By Omar Barghouti
This latest dose of American -- Israeli-inspired
-- "constructive chaos" in the occupied Palestinian territory
may well wreak havoc on US-Israeli policy in the region. With the imminent
dissipation of the illusion that a national Palestinian sovereignty
can be established under the overall colonial hegemony of Israel, many
Palestinians are now seriously questioning the wisdom of the two-state
mantra and considering to repose their plight as one for equal humanity
and full emancipation, within the framework of a unitary, democratic
state solution in historic Palestine
West Chooses
Fatah, But Palestinians Don't
By Saree Makdisi
Fayyad and Abbas have the support of Israel, but
it is no secret that they lack the backing of their own people
Palestinians
Must Have Hope To Move Forward
By Mona El-Farra
We, too, have the right to be free. But we must
first free ourselves from fighting over the scraps of power.Like oppressed
people everywhere, we yearn for our rights. Out of this ugly period,
we must promote a new vision of equality for all peoples living on this
land, regardless of race or religion
Uruguay's Frente
Amplio:
From Revolution To Dilution
By MIchael Fox
How one of Latin America’s most radical progressive
coalitions finally achieved their country’s presidency, and how
those at the helm are now turning their backs on their radical base
Sceptical After
Second Shrine Attack
By Ali al-Fadhily
The second bombing of the Shiite shrine of al-Askari
in Samarra, Iraq, last week brought reprisal attacks, but it also brought
solidarity against the occupiers
Shrill Lies
Getting Louder And More Shrill
By David Truskoff
A statue purported to be a memorial to victims
of Communism worldwide was unveiled on June 13,2007 In Washington D.C.
The propaganda show kicked off a barrage of lies that would even make
the wild eyed claims of the Hearst press and the New York times of 1933
seem mild
The Democratic
Party And The Infantile
Omnipotence Of The Ruling Class
By Phil Rockstroh
We've waited and we've seen. Consequently, since
the Republican leadership have not taken ceremonial swords in hand and
disemboweled themselves on nationwide TV, it's time we pulled the plug
on the Democratic Party, an entity that has only been kept alive by
a corporately inserted food-tube. In my opinion, this remains the last,
best hope for the living ideals of progressive governance to become
part of the body politic
Sri Lankan President’s
“Peace” Mask
Starts To Slip Off
By Wije Dias
During a visit to the Middle East late last month,
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse defended his government’s
war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an interview
with Al Jazeera that was notable for its crudeness, arrogance and incoherence.
Taken as a whole, the interview reveals that the mask of peace is starting
to slip, exposing a communal warmonger who is directly responsible for
the terrible crimes being carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces
Living Under
Fear
By Aftab Alexander Mughal
The murder of a Christian in Landi Kotal, North-West
Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, in a very recent incident, once
again endangered Christians of Charsadda, who received two different
messages in May to be converted to Islam
Panchayats
Can Deny Permission For
Field Trials Of GM crops
By Kavitha Kuruganti
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC)
- which is the apex regulatory body for looking into GM crop research
and development in the country – brought in a new condition for
any GM crop field trials to be conducted in India from this year onwards.
As per this, Panchayats have to give prior permission for such a trial
to take place in their jurisdiction before the GEAC considers any application.
Panchayats have to make good use of this authority that they enjoy now
20 June, 2007
The
Scramble For Africa's Oil
By Christopher Thompson
The world's most neglected continent is assuming
an increasing global importance as the international oil industry begins
to exploit more and more of the west coast of Africa's abundant reserves
The General’s
Report
By Seymour M. Hersh
How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib
scandal, became one of its casualties
US Military Launches
Massive Assault In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
Backed by armored columns and helicopter gunships,
some 10,000 US troops have launched a massive assault on the provincial
capital of Baquba and other areas north and east of the Iraqi capital
of Baghdad.The operation, dubbed Arrowhead Ripper, is one of the largest
since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003
Northern Iraq’s
Tangled Web
By Conn Hallinan
There are few areas in the world more entangled
in historical deceit and betrayal than northern Iraq, where the British,
the Ottomans, and the Americans have played a deadly game of political
chess at the expense of the local Kurds. And now, because of a volatile
brew of internal Iraqi and Turkish politics, coupled with the Bush administration’s
clandestine war to destabilize and overthrow the Iranian government,
the region threatens to explode into a full-scale regional war
Taliban Put
Up A New Fight
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
With the Taliban geared for their biggest push
of the year to take control of southern Afghanistan, district by district,
coupled with suicide attacks in the cities, Western intelligence believes
that the killing of Mullah Dadullah was a big mistake
Sorry We Killed
Your Children
But It Couldn't Be Helped
By Thomas Riggins
Its getting harder and harder to believe U.S. government
spokespersons when they imply that the killing of Afghan children is
something we try to avoid. The more you read the news reports the more
it looks like our policy is one of just not giving a hoot about children
and other civilians. It seems like we just don’t care if we kill
them or not
Terrorism
Inc.: Violence And
Counter-violence (of the Letter)-Part II
By Mustapha Marrouchi
To turn from the argument I have been making in
section one to the speech given by Pope Benedict XVI, the bile secreted
by Martin Amis, and the diatribe led by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to be sharply
reminded of the point at issue: From what vantage point could the West
label Islam as inferior, backward, and vengeful?
The Record
Of The Newspaper Of Record
By Stephen Lendman
This article focuses on one example of New York
Times duplicity among many other prominent ones equally sinister and
disturbing - its venomous agitprop targeting Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez
Visible Fist
And The Budget Matrix
By Anu Muhammad
The thin allocation in the present budget of Bangladesh
to mineral resource division reflects government's unwillingness to
do minimum efforts to build own capability to ensure authority over
national resources, explore and make best possible utilization after
ensuring energy security. That certainly makes global lords and local
allies happy
King
Hemp
By Rand Clifford
The sordid tale of hemp prohibition in America
is a superlative example of power working against the population, of
corporate profits trumping We The People
Trauma Of Daily
Violence In Jammu
And Kashmir Telling Upon Mental Health
By Syed Junaid Hashmi
Ravaged by conflict, traumatized by lack of accountability
and strangled by social taboos, people in Jammu and Kashmiri have been
both witness to and victims of violence which has had a significant
effect on their mental health. While a sustainable political solution
to "K" problem seems far away, psychological wounds inflicted
by violence and impunity on the Kashmiri society continue to increase
and go well beyond socio-economic problems
19 June, 2007
The
Earth Today Stands In Imminent Peril
By Steve Connor
Six scientists from some of the leading scientific
institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous
warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.
Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts
in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as
several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is
in "imminent peril"
Global Warming
To Multiply
World’s Refugee Burden
By Allistair Lyon
If rising sea levels force the people of the Maldive
Islands to seek new homes, who will look after them in a world already
turning warier of refugees? The daunting prospect of mass population
movements set off by climate change and environmental disasters poses
an imminent new challenge that no one has yet figured out how to meet
Hamas’
Shock And Awe
By Sam Bahour
The recent overrunning of Gaza by Hamas militants
was the equivalent to the United States’ Shock and Awe campaign
in Iraq. Both campaigns were conducted outside the realm of international
law and were violent and brutal, albeit each relative to their respective
resources and internal contexts; both claimed to be ‘preemptive’
in nature; and both events placed the Palestinian people and struggle
for national liberation in even a more precarious position
Entangled Insurgencies–Hezbollah
And Hamas
By Jim Miles
In the past year, two completely unexpected events
have surprised all the politicians and pundits who never even came close.
The first event was the surprising victory of the Hezbollah forces against
the Israeli attack in Lebanon. The second is the recent surprise of
Hamas taking full control of Gaza, in spite of the overwhelming favour
granted Fatah financially and with armaments by Israel and the U.S.
Behind these two actions is a history replete with commonalities
Whose Coup,
Exactly?
By Virginia Tilley
The Fayyad Government has no democratic mandate,
is not operating by the very rules that establish its democratic legitimacy,
and so is only a facsimile of the 'government' with which many of the
world's states established diplomatic relations. It does not help that
the United States, an obedient Europe, and legless Arab states have
trotted up to anoint it as the sole legitimate authority. Nor does it
help to pretend that Hamas -- a broad movement with popular legitimacy
-- will simply disappear through decrees from Abbas and some nice political
theatre
Towards A Geography
Of Peace: Whither Gaza?
By Ilan Pappé
When the Wall of Apartheid is removed and the electric
fences of Zionism dismantled -- Gaza will become once more a symbol
of Fernand Braudel's coastal society, able to fuse different cultural
horizons and offer a space for new life instead of the war zone it has
become in the last sixty years
A Dream Called
Electricity
By Ali al-Fadhily
Simmering in the summer heat, Iraqis now have
a dream called electricity.It is a part of the bigger dream of reconstruction
that collapsed. On all measurable levels, the infrastructure is worse
than under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, even when it was crippled
by the harshest economic sanctions in modern history
Reviewing Michel
Chossudovsky's
America's War on Terrorism
By Stephen Lendman
The book is in four parts, each discussed enough
to convey the essence and flavor of the heavily documented power-packed
amount of information in the volume's 365 pages - a healthy serving
for each day of the year
No MedGuide
For Zyprexa After Eleven
Years Of Death And Injury
By Evelyn Pringle
Considering everything revealed about Zyprexa in
the filings of all of this litigation, medical professionals and patient
advocacy groups are infuriated over the fact that Lilly is still profiting
from the drug. In the first quarter of 2007, sales were up 11% in the
US from last year, and Zyprexa earned Lilly more than $1.1 billion,
according to the company's April 16, 2007 SEC filing
Socio-Cultural
Empowerment Of Indian Muslims
By Yoginder Sikand
Paper presented at a conference on the Sachar Committee
Report in Kochi
Looking For Common
Remedies
To A Rabid Malaise
By Jawed Naqvi
A couple of weeks ago an Indian TV channel showed
men, women and children somewhere in the country drinking water from
an open gutter because they believed it was a foolproof prevention against
rabies.The gut wrenching sight of a father lovingly scooping up brown
liquid into a glass, with everything floating in it, and offering it
to his young ones revealed a sickening reality for a nation aspiring
to become some kind of a superpower
18 June, 2007
The
Battle For Bolivia's Future
By Federico Fuentes
The breaking of a six-month deadlock in Bolivia's
constituent assembly has paved the way for the opening of an intense
debate on the future of this politically polarised country nestled in
the heart of South America. Beginning to lose the battle within the
halls of the assembly, the right-wing opposition has threaten to take
the fight onto the streets, announcing that it may reject any new constitution
that emerges out of the body
Bolivia: Why
Do They Fear
Indigenous Autonomy?
By Carlos Cuasase Surubi
Why do they fear indigenous autonomy? Is it not
the best option for the democratic life and tranquillity that all us
Bolivians want, that our rights be written into the constitution and
respected by governments?
The
Gaza Cage
By Uri Avnery
The timing of Hamas' decision to take over the
Strip by force was not accidental. The Hamas leaders decided that they
had no alternative but to destroy the armed organizations that are tied
to Fatah and take their orders from President Mahmoud Abbas. The US
has ordered Israel to supply these organizations with large quantities
of weapons, in order to enable them to fight Hamas
Oslo's Baleful
Legacy
By Nimer Sultany
The fighting in Gaza is shameful. Fatah and Hamas
bear the main responsibility of the bloodshed. Oslo, it turns out, was
a mistake. The reality of Palestinians killing each other over a meaningless
authority (while the occupier is laughing down the road) is tragic
The Battle
Of Gaza
By Mike Whitney
The battle of Gaza is just a macrocosm of a much
larger phenomenon which now extends from Mogadishu to Kabul. Change
is coming, but it might not be to Bush’s liking. That’s
the real lesson of what happened in Gaza
US Needs
To Exit Iraq
By Mikhail Gorbachev
U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is inevitable. But is
it not better to withdraw when the major players inside and outside
of Iraq agree on key issues?
War Foretold:
Mark Twain
And The Sins Of Our Race
By Ramzy Baroud
The war is real and frightening and hurtful; it’s
not an intellectual argument; it cannot be reduced to a few images and
captions and editorials; nothing can ever capture a moment where a mother
receives the corpse of a son or the scene of a father kneeling before
the shattered body of a daughter. It’s all real, and it’s
all our own doing, whether by supporting, financing and fighting the
war, or by staying silent as it rages on
Dr. Rafil A.
Dhafir At Terre Haute Prison’s
New Communications Management Unit
By Katherine Hughes
CMU Prisoner Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir and The War on
Muslim Charities Some of the major casualties in the government’s
“war on terror” have been Muslim charities and their principals.
Two CMU inmates, Enaam Arnaout of Benevolence International Foundation
(BIF) and Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir of Help the Needy (HTN), were defendants
in Islamic charity cases. Neither has been convicted of charges that
have anything to do with terrorism
AFSPA In Jammu
And Kashmir
By Syed Junaid Hashmi
With Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in
"application", people across the state who have been battered
by impunity being enjoyed by security forces under this law, desire
the law to be revoked at the earliest. However, separatists and mainstream
"representatives" of these voices are yet to reconcile and
demand revocation of the act in one voice
16 June, 2007
Awaking
To A Different Gaza
By Philip Rizk
Although the final Fatah stronghold was still standing
by the evening Hamas fighters were already making the rounds in the
streets, three and four jeeps at a time, loaded with armed men wearing
all black, their faces covered with masks, holding their guns in the
air, a few, rather uncomfortably, waving to the people. On al-Aqsa,
the only remaining radio station being aired from Gaza belonging to
Hamas, these areas are being called "freed" from the traitors
Welcome To 'Palestine'
By Robert Fisk
No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel
Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the
post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building -
vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even
more of the 22 per cent of "Palestine" still left to negotiate
over ?
Laboratory
Rats: Palestinians Of Gaza
And Our Contemporary Josefs Mengeles
By Agustin Velloso
Faced with the fear that things may get even worse,
one must not lose sight of the causes of the events in Gaza, their connection
with the situation in Lebanon and Iraq and above all the lies the media
use to defend the interests of the West and Israel at the expense of
the Palestinians
Gaza: Not Just
A Prison, A Laboratory
By Naomi Klein
At a glance, things aren’t going well for
Israel. But here’s a puzzle: why, in the midst of such chaos and
carnage, is the Israeli economy booming like it’s 1999, with a
roaring stock market and growth rates nearing China’s?
The Pentagon
v. Peak Oil
By Michael Klare
How Wars of the Future May Be Fought Just to Run
the Machines That Fight Them
Suicidal Attacks
In Pakistan: Only One Of Its Kinds
By Akhtar Ali Syed
The combination of sectarian and political agendas
in suicidal killing exist no where else other than in Pakistan
Pakistan: What
Are We Leaving Behind?
By Abid Ullah Jan
We are approaching the 60th year of national denial
and treachery. We don’t have any independent national foreign
or national policy. We have forgotten the reason d’être
of Pakistan. We have become the mirror opposite of who and what we said
we will be if we achieved an independent state
Canada: Funding
Faith-Based Schools
By Tarek Fatah & Salma Siddiqui
In 2003, in an attempt to break into the Liberal-dominated,
vote-rich urban ridings, the government of Ernie Eves started funding
private religious schools with public funds. It did not work and he
was voted out of office. Now, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory
has embarked on the same venture
Looking Beyond
‘K’ Issue
By Zafar Choudhary
What Jammu and Kashmir would look like the day
after Kashmir conflict is amicably resolved with a consensus between
New Delhi, Islamabad and separatist leadership of Srinagar
Cuppa Of Woes
Brimmeth Over
By K A Shaji
The tea industry in India is now on the road to
recovery. However, the slow increase in prices and the growing demand
across the globe are yet to be reflected in the faces of thousands Tamil
repatriates and refugees, who work in tea plantations in Nilgiri hills
15 June, 2007
A
Tragedy For Palestinians?
By Donald Macintyre
Mr Abbas's move, which Fatah hopes will underpin
its dominance of the West Bank after the near-total defeat of its forces
in Gaza, underlined the growing separation of the two Palestinian entities
and prompted talk among some Israeli analysts of a "three state
solution" involving Israel, Gaza and the West Bank
A Setback
For The Bush Doctrine In Gaza
By Ali Abunimah
The dramatic rout of the US and Israeli-backed
Palestinian militias in Gaza by forces loyal to Hamas represents a major
setback to the Bush doctrine in Palestine
Amid This Chaos,Suffering
Will Get Worse
By Sami Abdel Shafi
The suffering for civilians here can only grow
worse. We have not abandoned hope for an eventual peaceful outcome,
but right now it feels as if Gaza is staring into an abyss
Fatah-Land
And Hamastan?
By Chris Marsden
The fall out could be the de-facto creation of
two Bantustan-like ghetto formations. One, “Fatah-land,”
would be presided over by Abbas, functioning as a Western puppet, and
would leave Israel in control of the prime land it has seized, including
East Jerusalem. The other, “Hamastan,” with more than a
million Palestinians huddled in a 360 square kilometre strip, would
be hemmed in on one side by Israel and on the other by Egypt and a possible
UN force. Both could be attacked at will by Israeli forces
Reviewing Noam
Chomsky's "Interventions"
By Stephen Lendman
"Interventions" is a collection of 44
op-ed pieces, post-9/11, from September, 2002 through March, 2007.This
review covers a healthy sampling of Chomsky's book dealing mostly with
foreign policies but also some domestic ones in a post-9/11 world
Terrorism
Inc.: Violence And
Counter-Violence (of the Letter)
By Mustapha Marrouchi
Today’s discourse on terrorism is an altogether
more streamlined thing. Its scholarship is yesterday’s newspaper
or today’s CNN bulletin. Most of the writing about terrorism is
brief, pithy, and totally devoid of the scholarly armature of evidence,
proof, or argument. Its paradigm is the television interview, the spot
news announcement, the instant gratification one associates with the
Bush White House’s “reality time,” the evening news
based entirely on the sound bite
A World Without
Oil
By Daniel Howden
Scientists challenge major review of global reserves
and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time
Tantrums
Of Mass Destruction or
The Enduring Beauty Of Ugly Truth
By Phil Rockstroh
Recent news reports have revealed that the Bush
Administration has bestowed upon itself the right to grant itself absolute
power if "any incident, regardless of location, that results in
extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely
affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy,
or government functions" might come to pass
Avandia Hearing
Exposes FDA As Negligent Watchdog
By Evelyn Pringle
The FDA has ignored repeated warnings about the
potential cardiac risks associated with the diabetes drug Avandia, and
medical experts predict Americans will likely pay a heavy price for
trusting its negligent watchdog because US doctors wrote 13 million
Avandia prescriptions in 2006 alone, according to IMS Health a medical
information tracking firm
Political Hindutva
: The Countdown Has Begun?
By Subhash Gatade
A report prepared by one of the national secretaries
of the BJP Mr Prabhat Jha analysing the election results to UP, provide
enough proof of the pathetic situation in which the party itself finds
today. This report would be presented before the national executive
meeting of the BJP to be held in last week of June and much fireworks
are expected there
Entry To Lord's
Abode: Who Can Qualify?
By Ram Puniyani
On June 11(2007) the Guruvayur temple trust issued
an apology for the purification ritual carried out by them, in the aftermath
of the visit of Vayalar Ravi with his family to the temple. The purification
was performed to cleanse the temple as Mr. Ravi's wife Mercy is a Christian
13 June, 2007
Gaza
Erupts In Violence
By IRIN News
Patients are dying in crossfire as hospitals have
been overrun by gunmen in a new wave of Gaza violence, which the UN
has warned is jeopardising the delivery of essential humanitarian aid
20,000 Children
Affected By Conflict
In Lebanese Camp
By IRIN News
With the violence now in its fourth week, UNICEF
estimates that some 15,000 children from Nahr al-Bared camp, once home
to up to 40,000 people, and 5,000 children from the smaller Beddawi
camp have been adversely affected by the conflict
The Secret War
Against Hizbollah
By Alberto Cruz
In March the journalist Seymour Hersh said that
the US Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Council adviser
Elliot Abrams and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, himself his country's Security
Minister, had agreed to fund Fatah al Islam "as a counterweight
to Hizbollah".Hizbollah itself, via its Al Manar television station
confirms the thesis, alleging that the presence of jihadists in Lebanon
is part of a US, Israeli and Saudi strategy seeking a regional war between
Sunni and Shia which would see the partition of Iraq followed by the
partition of Syria and Lebanon
Bush Administration
Embarks On
Reckless New Tactic In Iraq
By Peter Symonds
With its much-vaunted “surge” showing
no signs of success and American casualties continuing to rise, the
US military has begun to arm and equip sections of the Sunni insurgency,
supposedly to fight against intransigent layers such as Al Qaeda-linked
groups. Weapons, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies are being provided
to selected Sunni militia
Phony Terror
And Black America
By Margaret Kimberley
Black Americans, Muslims and immigrants are being
targeted as terror suspects without terror plots
A Black Day
For Pakistan's Press
By Omar Waraich
With the government loath to allow journalists
to report from Baluchistan and the tribal areas, much of Pakistan's
own war on terror has gone largely unreported
Daw Suu Kyi
And Movement For Democracy,
Freedom And Human Rights In Burma
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
The SPDC's tactics to ignore Daw Suu Kyi on its
proposed roadmap shows their naked hypocrisy or insincerity. This so-called
blue-print for democracy will not have any better luck than dozens of
other efforts that were tried out before that did not have people's
support. The sooner the SPDC planners understand the importance of Daw
Suu Kyi in restoration of democracy, human rights and freedom, the better
SEZs For The
Rich,Poor To Bear The Brunt
By Arun Kumar
With ‘growth-at-any-cost’ being the
sole motto of the Special Economic Zone policy, the cost of this new
brand of industrialisation is falling on the marginalised, Indian farmers
and tribals. Economist Arun Kumar analyses the phenomenon called SEZs
12 June, 2007
U.S.To
Arm Sunni Arab Groups
By Kevin Zeese
The U.S. military has decided to provide arms to
Sunni Arab groups some of who have been suspected of involvement in
attacks on Americans. This act of desperation shows the deceit in any
claims of success of the “surge.” The DoD would not be taking
this risky approach if the U.S. military strategy was working
106
Journalists Killed In Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn
Sahar al-Haideri, an Iraqi journalist, had received
13 death threats before she was murdered in the northern Iraqi city
of Mosul last week. Her killing brings to 106 the number of journalists,
almost all Iraqi, murdered in the country since the US invasion in 2003
along with 39 support staff
The Neoconservative
Threat To American Freedom
By Paul Craig Roberts
The neoconservatives also believe that nuclear
attack on Iran will isolate America in the world and, thereby, give
the government control over the American people. The denunciations that
will be hurled at Americans from every quarter will force the country
to wrap itself in the flag and to treat domestic critics as foreign
enemies. Not only free speech but also truth itself will disappear along
with every civil liberty
The Hariri Tribunal:
A Fait Accompli?
By Nisrine Abiad & Victor Kattan
While we welcome the establishment of the tribunal,
the manner in which it has been adopted presents itself as a fait accompli,
rather than a genuine attempt to hold those accused of serious criminality
to account for their actions
‘Cleansing’
The Two-State ‘Vision’ In Jerusalem
By Nicola Nasser
“Israel Slides towards the Disastrous One
State Trap,” The Baltimore Sun’s editorial concluded on
June 5. The conclusion is no more true than in Jerusalem, where systematically
and persistently Israel is accelerating her “Israelization”
plans for eastern Jerusalem that will in the foreseen future doom the
“land-for-peace” formula as obsolete, outdated and dead
letter, and rule out the widely trumpeted solution of the two-state
“vision” based on it as “unrealistic” wishful
thinking
Testimony:
Man Used As Human Shield
Injured In Jenin Camp
By B'Tselem
Majd Mufid Abd al-'Aziz Ghanem, 20, is a student
and a resident of Jenin refugee camp. His testimony was given to 'Atef
Abu al-Rub on 19 May 2007
Hundreds Of Tamils
Forcibly Expelled From Colombo
By W.A. Sunil
In a blatantly illegal action on June 7, the Sri
Lankan government ordered police to raid cheap boarding lodges in Colombo
and forcibly evict Tamil residents from the capital. Police rounded
up hundreds of ordinary Tamils at gunpoint, packed them into buses,
drove them to the distant towns of Vavuniya in the North and Trincomalee
in the East, and dumped them
International
Aid And Economy
Still Failing Sub-Saharan Africa
By Rajesh Makwana
A recent report by the United Nations has revealed
that not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa is on track to achieve
the internationally agreed target for halving extreme poverty by 2015.
This dire failure is unsurprising given the G8’s undelivered aid
commitments, the inability of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to
negotiate development-friendly trade rules, and the financial burdens
imposed on many African countries by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and The World Bank
The Wrath Of
2007: America's Great Drought
By Andrew Gumbel
America is facing its worst summer drought since
the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still
Confessions:
Cindy re Casey,Bill Moyer re Vietnam,
Jimmy Carter re Funding Terrorism
By Jay Janson
While we await Cindy's return, Bill Moyer, please
tell all, and Jimmy Carter please come clean for the sake of the people
of the world, and for your own reputation and peace of mind and heart.
Silence from both of you will not erase the truth already well documented
for future reference. We wish to think highly of you and continue to
appreciate your help
A Bridge Too
Far
By Satya Sagar
A communist stronghold for ages, Nandigram, along
with Singur, is going through hell in a state where the Left Front has
never been dethroned in the last three decades. All this because West
Bengal has been bitten by the latest brainchild of India’s economic
liberalisers for attracting global capital. Weeks after unimaginable
State-sponsored brutalities on farmers, Satya Sagar travels through
the restless districts and discovers intense fury amidst the wounds
that will take a long time to heal
10 June, 2007
“Two
States or One State”
By Uri Avnery & Ilan Pappe
A debate between former Knesset Member Uri Avnery
and Doctor Ilan Pappe
40 Bad Years
By Uri Avnery
Beyond all the bad things the occupation has brought
upon Israel, inside and outside, there is something that concerns each
of us. Every human being wants to be proud of his country. The occupation
deprives us of this
Jerusalem: Endorsing
The Right Of Conquest
By Stephen Zunes
In a flagrant attack on the longstanding international
legal principle that it is illegitimate for any country to expand its
territory by military means, the U.S. House of Representatives, by an
overwhelming bipartisan majority, passed House Concurrent Resolution
152 congratulating Israel for its forcible “reunification of Jerusalem”
and its victory in the June 1967 war
Turkey Not Done
With The Kurds
By M K Bhadrakumar
Over and above all, the fabulous oilfields of Kirkuk
beckon US and Israeli business interests. Evidently, it is in the interests
of the US and Israel that the region must remain an oasis of stability.
Israel, in particular, would gain immensely if Kurdistan gained full
independence
Hidden Wars:
US Troops In Germany
By Heather Wokusch
There's an unexpected front in the Bush administration's
"war on terror" - Germany. And the roughly 68,000 US troops
stationed across the country often find themselves in the center of
controversy over US foreign policy
Widespread Lies:
An American Woe
By Emily Spence
Many Americans (50% in 2006 according to a Harris
Poll) still believe that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq
and provided a sufficient reason for US to preemptively attack. A considerable
portion, also, think that the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq and that
the Iraqi government had ties to Al Qaeda (64% according to same tally).
Yet, none of this has been proven one iota true. Indeed, evidence suggests
quite the contrary
Lies, Damn Lies,
And Lies That Unleash Hell
By Jason Miller
The people of the United States are not freaks
or anomalies. 96% of us have a conscience and can act empathetically.
It is simply a matter of time, and perhaps a few more doses of pain,
before reality obliterates what is left of the fiction we have been
inculcated to embrace as the United States of America
A Few Good Reasons
To Remember
Pablo Neruda Today
By Jawed Naqvi
How many poets or intellectuals or for that matter
politicians in India or Pakistan are willing to arm themselves with
the "terrorist's sonnet"? Let's look for them. Neruda's 103rd
birthday falls on July 12, a good time as any to redeem an old pledge
Forward March
Of Capitalism In Orissa
By Sarbeswar Sahoo
The Orissa government’s patrimonial and profit
oriented policies by permitting corporations for extracting mineral
wealth indiscriminately and pushing thousands of people into destitution
reveal the exploitative and exclusionary development agenda and unstoppable
forward march capitalism in Orissa. The primacy of profit over people
has severely violated the human rights of the people
Trouble In The
Blue Hills
By K A Shaji
Nilgiris, the summer retreat of British Raj in
the then Madras Presidency, now holds not much promise either to its
residents or to those who visiting it once in a while. It only has a
dying legacy to tell. Forget both Ooty and Coonoor, destroyed by the
tourism mafia in their bid to make easy money by throwing all rules
and regulations to the wind. Even other destinations like Gudalur and
Kotagiri are under the tight hold of land sharks and mafia groups. Deforestation
is rampant and the exodus of repatriates, refugees and migrants is still
continuing
10 June, 2007
Losing
Afghan: Firepower
Doesn’t Always Win Wars
By Ramzy Baroud
The Taliban could soon find itself in a strong
bargaining position, that even the Americans themselves cannot ignore;
the Taliban’s “Spring Offensive” might’ve been
delayed, but the balance is clearly tipping in favor of the Taliban,
in a war that promises more of the same sorrows
Safety Of Afghan
Civilians Appears
Not To Be Paramount In Afghan War
By Brian McAfee
The apparent disregard of women, children and old
men in attacks on civilians from both sides indicates a lack of legitimacy.
Another situation where the "War on Terror" has become a "War
of Terror."
Expulsion Of
Malalai Joya From Afghan Parliament
By Zia -Ur-Rehman
The most outspoken female MP of Afghanistan, Malalai
Joya, has been expelled from parliament for speaking truth and her straightforwardness.
The removal of this outspoken feminist demonstrates the hollowness of
the claims of women's advancement under the occupation by Karzai’s
government
Pakistan’s
US-Backed Dictator Lashes Out
By Keith Jones & Vilani Peiris
Having failed to intimidate the populace by orchestrating
violent attacks in Karachi on the weekend of May 12-13 that left more
than 40 people dead, the regime of General Pervez Musharraf has lashed
out with new repressive measures and threats. These include “preventative
arrests” and a raft of regulations aimed at intimidating the press
and silencing dissent
The Missing Links
In The Debate
On Disappearances And Torture
By Abid Ullah Jan
Unlike Bush who detains foreigners away from the
US mainland, General Musharraf is detaining his own people in hundreds
on his own land. CIA and other US forces are torturing and killing foreigners.
ISI and Pakistan armed forces are detaining, torturing and killing their
own people. They are invading and carrying out occupation forces like
operation in their land
Forty Years
Later, Searching For Truth
By Ward Boston, Jr.
Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate
the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II. As senior
legal counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry it was my job to help uncover
the truth regarding Israel’s June 8th 1967 bombing of the USS
Liberty.For decades, I have remained silent. I am a military man and
when orders come in from the Secretary of Defense and President of the
United States, I follow them. However, attempts to rewrite history and
concern for my country compel me to share the truth
Al Gore: ‘To
The Ramparts Of Reason!’
By Martin LeFevre
Al Gore obviously sees himself, as do many of his
erstwhile supporters, as a victim of something that has gone “terribly
wrong in America.” But in fact he was the historical pivot upon
which our long punishment under Bush Junior turned
A Blind Spot
In The Anti-War Movement
By Alex Wolfson
The anti-war movement must move away from politics
of the individual (including its obsession with the Bush/Cheney regime)
and begin to analyze and discuss in depth the fundamentals of why American
power is being spent on Iraq, and the very real difficulties faced in
helping to free the Iraqi people from imperial control. Otherwise, we
are in danger of running around in circles, barking loudly, but only
grasping at our own tails
Lawmaker Confirms
Kurd-Shia Clashes In Baghdad
By Ali al-Fadhily
Speaking on condition of strict anonymity inside
the heavily-fortified Green Zone of central Baghdad where the Iraqi
government meets, the MP told IPS that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
"sold Kirkuk in exchange for Kurdish support for his collapsing
government, and other matters such as not being in the way of Shiite
militias in Baghdad
Behind Venezuela's
"Student Rebellion"
By George Ciccariello-Maher
But it's worth asking: who are "the students,"
and what do they represent? In recent days, it has become clear that
these student mobilizations have been, in fact, largely directed and
supported by sectors of the opposition, all in an effort to provoke,
in Chávez's own words, a "soft coup" against the revolutionary
government
Oil And Water,
Corporatism And Truth
By Rand Clifford
Lies are all we’ve been fed regarding our
invasion and occupation of Iraq: "Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction";
"We are giving the Iraqis Democracy"; "We are giving
Iraqis Freedom"; "We are Liberating the Iraqis"; "Saddam
Hussein was involved in 9-11"; or the latest, "If we don’t
fight The Terrorists there, they’ll follow us home!"....
The cluster bombs of lies cannot conceal the fact that we invaded Iraq
firstly to plunder their oil, and will continue our current massive
military occupation at least until passage of the New Iraqi Oil Law
Victimising
Religious Minorities
In Pakistan Under Blasphemy Laws
By Dr.Tahmina Rashid
Recent upsurge of invoking blasphemy laws to incriminate
Christians (PIMS nurses) reflects the inability of the state to protect
religious minorities; increased public display of intolerance towards
christens and amplified vulnerability of religious minorities in Pakistan
09 June, 2007
Climate
Compromise Masks Mounting Conflicts
By Peter Schwarz
On a closer look the alleged breakthrough on the
climate question proves to be nothing other than a hollow compromise.
The G8 have agreed to aim for a “substantial reduction”
of greenhouse gas emissions. Concrete goals, however, have not been
determined—not to speak of binding obligations
We’re
Nearing Climate’s Tipping Point
By P. H. Liotta
With the continuing failure of decision makers
to deal with climate change and its impact, we are entering a future
from which we may not be able to turn back. Indeed, the last time in
history carbon dioxide (CO{-2}) levels were at levels similar to today’s
was during the time of the mid-Pliocene “warm” period —
some 3.5 million years ago
The Real Reason
For Bush’s Invasion Of Iraq
Is A National Security Secret
By Paul Craig Roberts
War without cause is murder, not war.That Bush
persists with a war for which he can provide no legitimate reason indicates
that there is a secret agenda that has not been shared with the American
people. Are we experiencing the privatization of the US government by
police agencies, the military-security complex, and the Israel Lobby?
Lies And Outrages...
Would You Believe It?
By Robert Fisk
("Believe It or Not, 17,000 Lebanese and Palestinians,
most of them civilians, were killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon"),
no major casualty tolls ("Believe It or Not, up to 650,000 Iraqis
died in the four years following the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of
Iraq"). See what I mean?
Report Details
CIA Prisons In Europe
By Joe Kay
A report released Friday by the Council of Europe
confirms that the CIA has used interrogation centers in Europe, including
in Romania and Poland, to secretly hold and torture prisoners captured
in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the globe
Turkish Troops
Chase Kurd Guerrilla Into Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn
Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern
Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas early Wednesday. The incursion,
though limited in scope, gives the crisis in Iraq a new twist
Water And Resistance
By Timothy Seidel
The view from the Palestinian village of Nahhalin,
in the west Bethlehem area, is sobering. This small village -- along
with the villages of Husan, Battir, Wadi Fuqin, and Al Walaja -- are
becoming more and more isolated from Bethlehem
Three Flat Tires
By Dr. Marcy Newman
The intense media coverage has died down and seems
to have forgotten that Palestinians are still being killed in Nahr al-Bared,
that tanks are now lined up facing Ein al-Helweh, that Palestinians
inside Nahr al-Bared and around the country are hungry, are tired, are
scared, are in need of safe homes. We need to simultaneously remember
that Palestinians have a right to safe homes in Lebanon even as we fight
for every Palestinian's right of return to their original homes in Palestine
Wall Street
Journal's Looking Glass World
By Stephen Lendman
She's at it again on the Journal's editorial page
in her June 4 article called "The Young and the Restless,"
subtitled "Is this the beginning of the end for Hugo Chavez?"
The writer is self-styled Latin American expert Mary Anastasia O'Grady
always getting top grades in vilification and disinformation but failing
ones on regional knowledge and legitimate journalism
The Theology
Of Senator Brownback
By Thomas Riggins
In the first debate of the Republican candidates,
Brownback raised his hand when the question was put as to which candidates
did not believe in “evolution.” Now he has written an article,
“What I Think About Evolution”, in the New York Times published
as an op-ed piece on 5-31-07. Brownback wrote the article to clarify
his views. It is not, I think, a good article for a man who wants to
be president for it shows that he has no understanding of science and
that he does not use valid evidence or reasons to ground his beliefs.
We have just had two terms of such a president, who has left the country
in a mess, and we can ill afford another president whose views are not
grounded in reality
Spurious Textbooks
By Suvi Dogra
A small book – Schools or Hate-Labs by Apoorvanand
— based on the findings of an NGO about textbooks being taught
in schools of Rajasthan highlights attempts to initiate children into
a particular ideology, courtesy the state government. This, besides
being against the secular spirit of the Constitution and ethos of the
country, is detrimental to the interests of children
08 June, 2007
Losing
Iraq, Nuking Iran
By Paul Craig Roberts
More evidence that the war is lost arrived June
4 with headlines reporting: "U.S.-led soldiers control only about
a third of Baghdad, the military said on Monday." After five years
of war the US controls one-third of one city and nothing else
Iraq Occupation
Coming To A Head Over Oil
By Kevin Zeese
The situation in Iraq is coming to a head. Oil
workers have been on strike for three days and are being threatened
by the Iraqi government and surrounded by the Iraqi military. The Parliament
passed a resolution urging an end to the U.S. occupation and has refused
to act on the oil law the U.S. is demanding
Kokesh Stripped
Of Honorable Discharge Status
By Mark Rainer
A US military panel has recommended that decorated
combat marine and Iraq war veteran Adam Kokesh be stripped of his “honorable
discharge” status for wearing his uniform in an antiwar demonstration
The British
Army Rebels Against Propaganda
By John Pilger
An experienced British officer serving in Iraq
has written to the BBC describing the invasion as "illegal, immoral
and unwinnable" which, he says, is "the overwhelming feeling
of many of my peers". In a letter to the BBC's Newsnight and Medialens.org
he accuses the media's "embedded coverage with the US Army"
of failing to question "the intentions and continuing effects of
the US-led invasion and occupation"
It's
Not Just The Occupation
By Ali Abunimah
Israelis will not easily give up their privileges
any more than whites in Alabama, Georgia or Mississippi did in the face
of the American civil rights movement. But racism is not a lifestyle
choice the rest of the world is obligated to respect. Determined movements
can bring about transformations that seem scarcely imaginable from the
depths of the gloom. We have seen enough shining examples to maintain
our hope and inspire us to action
Four Decades
Of Occupation
By Sandy Tolan
For the 2.4 million Palestinians who live on the
West Bank, their movements are controlled by checkpoints, they are denied
permission to pray at the Jerusalem holy sites, their homes and workplaces,
in many cases, are subject to random search by the occupying military
authorities, and their teenaged children blankly speak of having no
future. For them the occupation is as intolerable in 2007 as it was
on the day, 40 years ago, when it began
Cementing Israeli
Apartheid:
The Role Of World Bank
By Jamal Juma
In Palestine, the World Bank has played a key role
in facilitating the cooperation of global capital and occupation
The G8 Should
Not Forget The Congolese 60 Million
By James Waters
If they want to have any claim of humanitarian
concern for the world’s poor, the G8 leaders meeting this week
in Germany should not ignore the plight of the 60 million people in
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sangh Spreads
Its Cloak In American Campus
By Girish Agrawal
Hindutva forces are systematically spreading their
ideology in American universities, reports Girish Agrawal from New York
Annals Of Mendacious
Punditry:
When The Shill Enables The Kill
By Jason Miller
Jonah Goldberg is the living, breathing embodiment
of virtually all that is pernicious in the malignant socioeconomic and
political structures collectively known as the American Empire. Yet
tragically, this scheming sycophant to the cynical, privileged criminals
of the US plutocracy reaches countless millions through myriad corporate
media conduits as he weaves his sophistic arguments supporting nearly
every morally repulsive aspect of United States foreign policy
Exiles In Their
Homeland
By K.A.Shaji
Illiterate migrant workers from north Kerala who
were stuck in Pakistan after Partition have waged a fruitless lifelong
struggle to regain their Indian citizenship
07 June, 2007
Countdown
To War On Iran
By Alain Gresh
Silently, stealthily, unseen by cameras, the war
on Iran has already begun. Many sources confirm that the United States,
bent on destabilising the Islamic Republic, has increased its aid to
armed movements among the Azeri, Baluchi, Arab and Kurdish ethnic minorities
that make up about 40% of the Iranian population
Republican Presidential
Candidates
Back Nuclear Strike Against Iran
By Patrick Martin
Nine of ten candidates for the Republican presidential
nomination explicitly or tacitly supported a US attack on Iran using
nuclear weapons, in response to a question at Tuesday night’s
nationally televised debate in New Hampshire
Iran Forces
The Issue In Afghanistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Iran's expulsion of thousands of Afghan refugees
indicates the twofold motive behind the move. First, Iran wanted to
weaken Sunni-led insurgents in its bordering areas, and second, it believed
that the return of the refugees would fuel the Taliban-led insurgency
in Afghanistan
In Antarctica,
Proof That Action On
climate Change Is More Urgent Than Ever
By Steve Connor
Fears that global sea levels this century may rise
faster and further than expected are supported by a study showing that
300 glaciers in Antarctica have begun to move more quickly into the
ocean
Is Bill Gates
Trying To Hijack Africa's Food Supply?
By Bruce Dixon
Genetically altered crops will rescue Africa from
endemic shortfalls in food production, claim corporate foundations that
have announced a $150 million "gift" to spark a "Green
Revolution" in agriculture on the continent.Of course, U.S.-based
agribusiness holds the patents to these wondercrops, and can exercise
their proprietary "rights" at will. Are corporate foundations
really out to feed the hungry, or are they hypocritical Trojan Horses
on a mission to hijack the world's food supply --- to create the most
complete and ultimate state of dependency
Where Do I Stand?
By Rania Masri writing from Beirut
A dear friend of mine told me yesterday that I'm
taking sides. That it seems as if I'm condemning only one form of violence.
I thank him for that note -- it forces me to clarify my position. So,
here is my position on what is happening now in Lebanon
Turkish Military
Flexes Its Muscles In Northern Iraq
By Peter Symonds
Reports of a Turkish military incursion into northern
Iraq yesterday have highlighted the escalating tensions between the
two countries along the border. In recent weeks, Turkish leaders have
repeatedly warned that the Turkish army would take action against separatist
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq, if US and Iraqi forces failed
to do so
Democrats And
Republicans: Two Peas In A Pod?
By Thomas Riggins
The great debate rages on! Democrats are really
different from Republicans. No, they are the same. I think the confusion
results from not looking at this from a dialectical perspective
Paradoxes
Of Globalization
By Md. Saidul Islam
Evidence shows that Friedman's propagation on globalization
is nothing but a "mere dream" and a form of deception, as
even in the USA the middle class is gradually shrinking. On the other
hand, the middle class/Disney land is now moving to the wretched of
the earth. From priests to prostitutes all are selling their labors
in capitalism as long as their labor is valued in the market. The capitalists
will move to any place where labor is poor and cheap
Freedom Next
Time: Resisting The Empire
By Jim Miles
A review of John Pilger's book "Freedom Next
Time:Resisting the Empire"
I Wish To Rule
India One Day, says Mayawati
By Sharat Pradhan
After creating history by becoming chief minister
of the country's largest state for the fourth time, Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Mayawati has set new goals for herself - to rule India some
day and build a "casteless society"
06 June, 2007
Resource
Wars: Can We Survive Them?
By Stephen Lendman
This article addresses reckless living unmindful
of the consequences. It's about endless wars and resources they're waged
for. It's about gaining control of what we can't do without, but must
learn to, or we'll risk losing far more, including the planet's ability
to sustain life. If we reach that point, it won't matter except to resilient
beetles and bacteria free at last from us. Instead of being an asset,
superior human intelligence has us on the brink of our own self-destruction
Mukesh
Ambani To Build $1 Billion “Home”
By Parwini Zora
The richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani, is reportedly
building a 27-storey skyscraper mansion in the heart of the country’s
commercial capital, Mumbai (Bombay). The total cost of the project is
expected to be US$1 billion, roughly the average annual income of 1.5
million Indians
G8: Watch What
They Do,Not What They Say
By George Monbiot
The leaders of the G8 nations present themselves
as a force for unmitigated good. Sometimes they fail, but they seek
only to make the world a kinder place. Bob Geldof and Bono give oxygen
to this deception, speaking of the good works the leaders might perform,
or of the good works they have failed to perform; but not mentioning
the active harm. They refuse to acknowledge that what the rich nations
give with one finger they take with both hands
Climate Change
Flap At The G8
By Walden Bello
A close look at a leaked draft of the G8 declaration
reveals that the Merkel-Bush quarrel concerns details not substance.
The guiding principle of the document’s approach to climate change
is to “decouple economic growth from energy use.” In other
words, economic growth remains central and sacrosanct, meaning that
the G8 will not likely propose any cuts in consumption levels
Defending
Israel From Democracy
By Jonathan Cook
So now we know. As Israel's Palestinian politicians
have long been claiming, a Jewish and democratic state is intended as
a democracy for Jews only. No one else is allowed a say -- or even an
opinion
Imprisoning
A Whole Nation
By John Pilger
Israel is destroying any notion of a state of Palestine
and is being allowed to imprison an entire nation. That is clear from
the latest attacks on Gaza, whose suffering has become a metaphor for
the tragedy imposed on the peoples of the Middle East and beyond
Tormenting My Palestinian
Christian Mother
By Abe W Ata
A letter from a Bethlehem born Paletinian christian
living in Australia
Refugee Resentment
Simmers As Fighting Escalates
By Jackson Allers
Palestinians in the camps in Lebanon are gathered
around their television sets, or keeping close watch on news through
their mobile phones and at Internet cafes, waiting to see what the body
count will be for those civilians trapped inside the Nahr al-Bared camp
Can The Lebanese
Army Fight
America's War Against Terror?
By Robert Fisk
So can the Lebanese army really fight America's
war in the north of this country? Though composed of Shias, Sunnis,
Druze and Christians, it has held together. But it was not created to
fight the West's wars in the Middle East
Turkish Media
Ramps Up Anti-Kurdish Attacks
By Martin Zehr
As the sectarian warlords seek to undermine governments
around the region, the Turkish media and the military in Turkey seek
to escalate the level of criticisms leveled on the Kurdish Regional
Government
Counterfeit
Encounters And The 'Nation'
By Harsh Mander
The current wave of outrage in the country over
the horrific murders by the men in khaki in Gujarat is likely to be
transient, a passing squall. The dust that it raises will rapidly settle,
and we will forget, in the same way as we have expelled from memory
so many similar inequities of the recent past
05 June, 2007
Fightback
To Save Our Planet
By Frank Field
Protecting the rainforests offers the world one
last crucial breathing space
Haiti, We're
Sorry
By Deniece Alleyne LL.B
Haiti dared to violently throw off the yoke of
bondage, colonialism, imperialism and all notions of racial inferiority
in a relentless 10 year war of attrition that in the words of Prof.
George Lamming proved that black men were men. For this daring audacity
the Haitians have been made to suffer. Their country has been turned
into a terrible cautionary tale to the rest of us that if we don''t
drink the swill from the swine trough of white supremacy we too will
be imprisoned in a barren wasteland desperately seeking the means of
escape
Film On Plantations
Spurs Backlash
By Michael Deibert
However disjointed, the mysterious man's interjections
appeared of a piece with similar interruptions and protests that have
greeted events attempting to discuss the ever-more contentious issue
of the treatment of the estimated 650,000 to one million Haitians living
in the Dominican Republic, fleeing the political violence and economic
stagnation of their often-tumultuous homeland
Humanitarian
Disaster Looms As Lebanese
Attack On Palestinian Camp Continues
By Chris Marsden
The Lebanese military siege of the Palestinian
refugee camp at Nahr al-Bared in the north continues, even as fighting
spreads to the Ain Al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in Saida in the
south
40th
Anniversary Of Racist
Zionist Kidnap Of Palestinians
By Gideon Polya
June 5 1967 marks the 40th anniversary of the carefully
planned, criminal attack of Racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel on Syria,
Jordan, Palestine and Egypt – and the beginning of a 40 year forcible,
abusive and traumatizing Occupation of the Palestinian Occupied Territory
by a criminal, racist and genocidal Occupier
40th Anniversary
Of The Six-Day War
By George Bisharat
Forty years ago this week, Israel conquered the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, re-establishing a political system in which
one sovereign ruled over all of former Palestine. Unnoticed by the world,
this brought about a version of a "single state solution"
to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- albeit one in which Palestinians
and Jews do not have equal rights
Turkish Threat
Echoes Across Iraq
By Sami Moubayed
Beleaguered Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,
who could be days away from losing US support and with it his job, is
seeking renewed Kurdish support, even expressing his full backing for
the Kurds in a potentially disastrous confrontation with Turkey
Kurdish Rebels
Attack Turkish Military Outpost
By Selcan Hacaoglu
Kurdish rebels fired rockets and grenades at a
Turkish military outpost yesterday, killing 7 soldiers in a bold attack
that heightened tension at a time when Ankara has threatened military
action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq
The JFK “Plot”:
Another Grossly Inflated Threat
By Bill Van Auken
The obvious question is why these six unnamed “individuals”
have not been charged. One likely explanation is that they too were,
in one form or another, participants in an elaborate effort to ensnare
a hapless and sometimes homeless retiree and others in a plot that was
fundamentally staged by the US government for its own purposes
Indian Muslims
And The Media
By Nigar Ataulla
Muslims are severely under-represented in the Indian
media: they are only 3 % among the key decision makers, compared to
13.4% in the country's population
Pakistan Parliament
Rejects
Changes In Blasphemy Laws
By Aftab Mughal
The National Assembly (NA), lower house of the
parliament, crushed a bill on May 8, which was moved by a Parsi member
MP Bhandara, seeking amendments to the controversial blasphemy laws
Hotspot As Trouble
Spot
By K A Shaji
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, one of the world's
top bio-diversity hotspots which hosts several endemic species of plants
and animals, might just fall off the world biosphere map altogether
if the proposed multi-dam Pandiar Punnapuzha Hydro-electric Project
comes up at Gudalur near Udhagamandalam, better known as Ootty
04 June, 2007
Internet
Radio May Soon Be Dead
By Davey D
In a cruel sense of irony, what has become a viable
alternative and a place of solace for many is threatened. The major
record labels along with their organization Sound Exchange successfully
petitioned the US Copyright Board and convinced them to increase royalty
fees a whooping 300-1200% to be applied retroactively. The rates which
were supposed to kick in May 15th threatened to bankrupt the Internet
Radio industry
Connect The
Dots Of Those Who Are Connected
By David Truskoff
Tens of thousands have died in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and the oil barons are running amuck. Murdoch’s media still controls
the minds of millions of people. Realists are wondering are the people
going to allow the 9/11 commission report to stand? Should we not be
demanding a new investigation? Do we not owe that to the children of
Iraq and the millions of other suffering people including Americans?
Veterans Groups
Unite Behind Kokesh
Battle With Marines For Free Speech
By Kevin Zeese
I’m writing this while on the road to Kansas
City, MO in what the Veterans of Foreign Wars, in supporting Adam Kokesh
in his fight for the free speech rights of vets, has described as a
"circus" but which is a very real effort to muzzle veterans
of the Iraq War and preventing the public from hearing their views of
what is going on in Iraq
All They Have
Is Each Other
By Sheila Samples
To Bush, body bags and deaths are simply an inconvenience
and, with the help of the corporate media, he is very adept at hiding
them from prying eyes. Bush is on a righteous mission -- he is the President,
the Decider, the Commander-in-chief and God has chosen him to lead this
country to its destiny. And the troops? They have learned when it comes
to support, all they have is each other
Four
Decades Of Occupation
By Zahi Khouri
On this anniversary of the 1967 war, the United
States should fully engage and commit to winning the war of peace. The
first step is for the occupation to end. Surely 40 years has been too
long
Ritter's Repudiation
Ritual
By David Swanson
Ritter thinks that if we impeach and remove Bush
and Cheney we will simply replace them with new tyrants. The authors
of our Constitution considered that entirely possible. Their advice
would have been to impeach the new tyrants as well. But here's what
we know for certain. If we do not impeach Bush and Cheney and remove
them from office, we will not end the occupation of Iraq any time soon,
and we will elect nothing but tyrants to follow the current ones, tyrants
with a precedent licensing their tyranny
FDA And Glaxo
Share Blame For Avandia Disaster
By Evelyn Pringle
On May 21, 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine
reported a study that found GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia
is associated with a 43% increase in heart attacks and possibly a 64%
increase in cardiovascular death
The Disappearing
Act Of A
Character Called Sukhi Lala
By Jawed Naqvi
It is Sukhi Lala who supports Narendra Modi in
Gujarat as the model chief minister, then strikes a deal for various
industrial projects with the communists in West Bengal. He controls
the politics of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana that surround Delhi. He has
his liaison officers masquerading as party apparatchiks in the Congress,
BJP and most regional parties. Therefore, even though Sukhi Lala of
Mother India is still going about his business, plundering economically
vulnerable village folk, in his new avatar he is no longer regarded
as a villain but the harbinger of a world order of which India would
be an integral part
New Wave Of
Political Arrests In Bangladesh
By Wimal Perera & Sarath Kumara
The military-backed interim government in Bangladesh
instigated a new wave of arrests of top political and business figures
last week in a bid to consolidate its grip over the country. In the
name of “fighting corruption” and maintaining stability,
the so-called caretaker regime headed by former central bank governor
Fakhruddin Ahmed has assumed the character of a military dictatorship
Gujarat: Symptoms
Of Hindu Nation
By Ram Puniyani
As far as the gross violations and that too the
one's related to minority community are concerned, Gujarat is the worst
state without any shadow of doubt. In other BJP ruled states like MP,
Rajasthan and Chattisgarhg also, the violations are of severe degree,
still they do not match with the ones in Gujarat
The Green Man
Of Kerala
By K A Shaji
A 60-year-old Economics professor, who planted
more than one lakh trees in Kozhikode district of Kerala, wins the prestigious
Indira Priyadarshini National Vriksha Mitra Award this year
03 June, 2007
Global
Warming Is Three Times Faster
By Geoffrey Lean
Global warming is accelerating three times more
quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has
revealed. They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been
rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting
three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as
had been predicted
Baghdad Burns,
Calgary Booms
By Naomi Klein
The invasion of Iraq has set off what could be
the largest oil boom in history. This isn't the boom in Iraq sparked
by the proposed new oil law--that will come later. This boom is already
in full swing, and it is happening about as far away from the carnage
in Baghdad as you can get, in the wilds of northern Alberta
To Be Palestinian
In Lebanon Is To Be
Wished A Thousand Deaths
By Sami Hermez
By denying Palestinian civilian deaths we effectively
commit a double crime: The first is the indiscriminate death of the
victim; the second is the denial of this original crime. I suppose the
victim is meant to carry a camera and document her own death to truly
confirm it in the public's eyes
For
Boycott To Be Effective, An International
Coalition Is Indispensable
By Ramzy Baroud
Calls for boycotting Israel have dotted the political
landscape of the Arab-Israeli and later Palestinian-Israeli conflict
for years. The main obstacle to utilising civil societies in compelling
Israel to end its brutal policies against the Palestinians is that these
efforts are neither centralised nor do they emanate from a respected
Palestinian authority and leadership
The US Media
“Discovers” Pakistan’s
Musharraf Is A Dictator—Why Now?
By Keith Jones
If sections of the press have now “discovered”
that Musharraf is a despot, it is because they fear that the general
is losing his grip and are anxious about the consequences for US interests
and influence in Pakistan, as well as for the US’s larger strategic
ambitions in South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East
Uncovering The
Myth Of “Fair Go” Australia
By Ghali Hassan
While Anglo-Australians can be proud of a long-time
forgotten truth of “Fair Go” Australia for the privileged,
today’s Australia is an unequal and unfair society. The myth of
“Fair Go” Australia is just a shield, protecting Australia
against criticism of Australia’s unfair treatments of Indigenous
Australians and Australians from other minority groups
The Ugly Canadian
– Embracing
The American Empire
By Jim Miles
A review of "Whose War Is It? How Canada Can
Survive In The Post 9/11 World" By J. L. Granatstein
Boston Muslims
Forgive Israel Advocates
By Karin Friedemann
The furor over the Roxbury mosque has exposed the
ways Israel advocacy groups pollute discourse on US foreign and domestic
policy, which have until now remained mostly invisible to American political
scientists
Nilgiri Rail
Road: Trouble In Jumbo Heartland
By K.A.Shaji
Guess who is going to inherit the dubious legacy
of forest brigand Veerappan in the Sathyamangalam range of forests,
which form part of the highly sensitive Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve? The
Indian Railway, it seems. Sounds strange….?
India's Lower
Castes
By Nishikant Waghmare
An empowered India bereft of the respect for women,
values of civilised existence and morality will collapse in the face
of the disaffection and discontent of those who have suffered for centuries.
Day in and day out we take pride in claiming that India has a 5000-year-old
civilization. But the way the Dalits and those suppressed are being
treated by the people who wield power and authority speaks volumes for
the degradation of our moral structure and civilized standards
01 June, 2007
The
Destruction Of Iraqi
Healthcare Infrastructure
By Adil Shamoo
Ten thousand doctors have fled the country. Two
thousand have been killed. Some hospitals lack the rudimentary elements
of care: hygiene, clean water, antibiotics, anesthetics and other basic
drugs. Oxygen, gauze, rubber gloves, and diagnostic instruments such
as X-rays are absent or rarely evident. This is Iraq today
Tribunals, Trials
And Tribulations In Lebanon?
By Laurie King-Irani
Finally, an international tribunal will be tasked
with investigating and prosecuting murder and mayhem in an Arab country.
For human rights activists who have railed against continuing impunity
for grave crimes in the Middle East, whether committed by Israelis or
Arabs, whether orchestrated by states or non-state actors, this should
be an occasion for unalloyed celebration, or at least relief
Lessons Learned
By Grassroots Katrina
And Tsunami Social Justice Activists
By Bill Quigley
The Christmas Tsunami that claimed hundreds of
thousands of lives along the coasts of the Indian Ocean did not destroy
the people's will to rebuild on land that was their birthright. But
"disaster capitalism" has apparently triumphed in the United
States, where rights can be washed away with no trace
The Problem With
The Global Warming Skeptics
By Joshua Frank
Alexander Cockburn has been making waves with his
recent series on global warming, which has been published in The Nation
and online at CounterPunch.org where he serves as co-editor. In them,
Cockburn attacks the logic of those fear-mongering scientists and all
of us uneducated “Greenhousers” who believe humans, and
our industrialized economy, are negatively impacting the planet’s
climate
For
A Secular Democratic State
By Saree Makdisi
For, having unified all of what used to be Palestine
(albeit into one profoundly divided space) without having overcome the
Palestinian people's will to resist, Zionism has run its course. And
in so doing, it has terminated any possibility of a two-state solution.
There remains but one possibility for peace with justice: truth, reconciliation--and
a single democratic and secular state
An Open Letter
To Cindy Sheehan
By Emily Spence
It is up to each and every one of us to decide
the type of world we want to help create. What version of the future
do we want? I do know yours and need the hopeful vision that it creates.
It helps makes life worthwhile and serves to propels me onward. So,
thank you for it and for the time you dedicated to improving our collective
condition
Gender Identity
And Homophobia In Pakistan
By Tahmina Rashid
Pakistan is in the grip of homophobia after the
same sex couple was imprisoned for three years for perjury. The sensational
response that this incident received in Urdu and English newspapers
highlights our homophobic attitudes, Issues surrounding gender identity
and lack of empathy as human beings
The Only
Solution To Reservation Imbroglio
By Satinath Choudhary
100% reservation for all segments of the society
(as far as practicable) is the best way for amicable and peaceful coexistence.
Otherwise a segment that has bigger control over power will succeed
in appointing larger and larger percentage of its members to positions
of power leading to what we currently see in the judiciary, armed forces
and the media
Who Wants Democracy?-
Book Review
By Sarbeswar Sahoo
Writing from a subaltern perspective, Javeed Alam
in his slender volume on Who Wants Democracy? presents a concise yet
comprehensive overview of the complex dynamics of democracy in India
since independence
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