31 October, 2006
UN
Investigates Israel's 'Uranium Weapons'
By Eric Silver
The United Nations Environment Programme is investigating
allegations that Israel may have used uranium-based weapons during this
summer's war in Lebanon. Twenty UN experts, working with Lebanese environmentalists,
have spent two weeks assessing various samples. They are planning to
report their findings in December
Melting
Of Greenland's Ice Sheet
'Is The Turning Point'
By Michael McCarthy
The world's target for stopping global warming
should be based on the point at which the melting of the great Greenland
ice sheet becomes irreversible
'And His Life
Should Become Extinct'
By Arundhati Roy
There ought to be a Parliamentary Inquiry into
the December 13 attack on Parliament. While the inquiry is pending,
Afzal's family in Sopore must be protected because they are vulnerable
hostages in this bizarre story. To hang Mohammed Afzal Guru without
knowing what really happened is a misdeed that will not easily be forgotten.
Or forgiven. Nor should it be
Pushing
India Toward A Dollar Democracy
By Aseem Shrivastava
You cannot hide 300 or 400 million starving mouths,
and the insistently unjust social reality of India will break through
into one or another rear-view mirror, disturbing the fantasies of financiers'
wives and girlfriends
Hell Awaits
America
By Jason Miller
Mass manipulation, blissful psychosis, and 7 easy
wys to achieve damnation
Snake Oil
And The Midterm Elections
By Joshua Frank
Of the 23 new Democratic candidates for the House,
22 are ardently pro-war. The other is suspect. But The Nation and the
PDA don’t want you to know any of that. Instead they’d rather
see left-leaning voters cramped inside the cage of the Democratic establishment.
Nothing could be more damaging to social movements or our hope for real
progressive change
From Orangi
To Grameen Bank: An Alternative
Route To Pro-Poor Development
By Md. Saidul Islam
Both Grameencredit and the OPP have left ground-breaking
legacies for both poor and development planners all over the world.
There are questions as to whether both are congruent or different, but
there is no question that both are alternative route to "pro-poor
development", models devised by the poor themselves
An Open
Letter To Rajdeep Sardesai
By Ravikiran Shinde
If you feel you have been at fault, then better
be late than never. Cover the Kherlanji case and its legal proceedings.
Awake the people on the gruesome caste realities in India. Telecast
a half and hour program dedicated specially to Dalit atrocities every
week
30 October, 2006
Africa
Burning Into A Desert
By Geoffrey Lean
Nowhere is the effect of global warming more dangerous
than in Somalia, where the worst drought in 40 years is affecting the
lives of 1.8 million people
Mystery Of
Israel's Secret Uranium Bomb
By Robert Fisk
Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon
in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more
than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?
Genocide
And denial
By Gabriele Zamparini
As soon as the British medical journal the Lancet
published a new scientific study estimating 655,000 excess Iraqi deaths
as a consequence of the war, the propaganda machine started to work
full time to discredit it as it did with the other Lancet study published
in 2004
Halliburton
Motto - Its Cost Plus Baby
By Evelyn Pringle
Halliburton's contracts for work in Iraq are what's
known as costs plus contracts, meaning that after all the costs for
labor, materials and other expenses are added together, the company
makes its profit based on a percentage of that total.It certainly does
not take a financial genius to figure out that under the terms of such
a contract, a company has every motive in the world to increase the
costs of every project to increase profits
The Oil
Crisis Started 30 Years Ago
By Peter Goodchild
It is customary to look for the critical year of
oil production in absolute terms, but in the year 1970 or thereabouts
there was another important "conjunction," to use an astrological
metaphor
American
Voters Must Not Reward Failure
By Ramzy Baroud
On November 7 only the American voter has the power
to decide: whether to reward failure or to gracefully search for a way
out of Iraq
The
Battle In Seattle
(Looking Back Seven Years)
By Mickey Z.
Infighting and compromises aside, those five days
in Seattle injected American dissidents into an internationalist movement
Books As
Crime
By Subhash Gatade
Sunita Narayan, owner of Daanish Books, Delhi stands
accused under the section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention)
Amendment Ordinance, 2004 for committing the ‘offence’ of
selling legally available literature
Child Abuse:
As American As Apple Pie
By Lucinda Marshall
In the context of the real enormity of child abuse
both in the US and in the world as a whole, it is hardly surprising
that we allow the moral of the Foley story to be mis-framed as the sexual
proclivities of one man, rather than a symptom of a much larger crime.
If we truly valued families and the lives of children, these are the
issues we would address
Engaging
With Pakistan
By Warisha Farasat
Indians pride themselves on the vibrancy of civil
society and democratic movements within the country. However, we fail
to acknowledge the culture of resistance that has developed in neighboring
Pakistan
Does
Self-Rule Have New Delhi 's Backing?
By Zafar Choudhary
History makes a full circle on Jammu and Kashmir
at United Nations when former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed will
address the UN General Assembly next week. But what exactly will Mufti
say there involves a crucial question on Government of India's Kashmir
policy
28 October, 2006
Lebanon's
Irreplaceable Cultural Loss
By Mulham Assir
The loss inflicted by the Israeli war on Lebanon
is measured in the 1,400 people killed, the thousands maimed (with more
continuing to be killed and maimed by the hundreds of thousands of cluster
bombs left behind), the hundreds of thousands displaced or left homeless,
and the wholesale destruction of infrastructure essential to life. And
yet there is even more loss, impossible to put a number to and irreplaceable-
Lebanon's cultural loss
A
Jewish Hitler?
By Justin Raimondo
With the entry of Avigdor Lieberman into the government
as deputy minister for "strategic threats" – essentially
in charge of preparing for war with Iran – Israel makes a qualitative
step toward a regime that increasingly resembles, in all its essentials,
a rogue state, and, I might add, potentially a very dangerous one
Ahmadinejad's
Divine Inspiration
By Omid Memarian
Amid a struggle between two major clerical factions
for control of Iran's influential Assembly of Experts, President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad is trying to shore up his conservative base by portraying
himself as a man with a direct link to God
Christian
Supremacists And American Imperialism
By Yoginder Sikand
Bush is on record as having claimed that only Christians
have a place in heaven. Many other religious fundamentalists in other
faiths, including Osama bin Laden, whom Bush regularly refers to as
his principal adversary, think likewise about their own co-religionists.
A recipe for despair? Perhaps, although, hopefully, not necessarily.
But all the more reason for taking the battle against bigots parading
in the guise of virtue even more seriously
Is It Vietnam
Yet?
By Cindy Sheehan
With the mid-term elections looming dangerously
close, and with public opinion in opposition to George's failed foreign
policies crossing the two-thirds mark, the White House announced that
they are going to present their puppet government of Iraq with a "timetable"
for US withdrawal. This reminds me of Richard Nixon's "secret plan"
to remove US troops from Vietnam that he touted in his narrow electoral
victory over Hubert Humphrey in 1968
The
Massacre Of A Town
By Murtaza Shibli
On 22nd October 1993, during a peaceful protest
against the Hazratbal siege, around 50 civilians were killed and 200
injured by the Indian paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) in Bijbehara,
district Anantnag, on the Indian side of Kashmir. The atrocity was committed
by the 74 Battalion of BSF, and was initiated and directed by its second
most senior officer, Deputy Commandant JK Radola, who fired the first
shot in the crowd
Taking
The American Congress
By David Truskoff
AIPAC gives large amounts of money through many
satellite groups to politicians it favors and to those running against
politicians it does not favor.In that way they can actually reshape
the congress of the United States and that is why so many American politicians
are in their grip.It is a nightmare come true. The Pope did not take
over the American Government, but AIPAC did
Members
Of Bush Gang Swore Under Oath
Saddam Was Behind 9/11
By Evelyn Pringle
For those Americans still wondering about a motive
for Bush taking the country to war in Iraq, the first and foremost goal
of the neocons was to gain control of the world's oil supply and the
number two goal, was to set up a war profiteering scheme to funnel billions
of tax dollars into their own bank accounts for many years to come
Why Can't
The Australian Imam
Think Beyond Meat?
By Farzana Versey
Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali chose the month of Ramzan
to talk about meat. Unfortunately, he was referring to women in that
demeaning fashion. Said he, "If you take out uncovered meat and
place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or
in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose
fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?"
Discrimination
At The National
Endowment For Democracy
By Bev Clark
George Bush and Robert Mugabe may have a lot more
in common than they think, homosexuality being just one of them. I have
striven for gay and lesbian equality in a country where our presidents
says homosexuals “have no rights at all” and calls us “worse
than pigs and dogs”. And in the United States I find myself and
my partner being discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation
by an organisation that claims, in its Statement of Principles and Objectives
that:Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine
their own destiny
27 October, 2006
Global
Warming Threatens Pacific Island States
By Kathy Marks
While rich nations tinker with policies that may
shave their carbon dioxide emissions, low-lying South Pacific nations
such as Kiribati are sinking beneath the waves
The Case
For Iraqi Genocide
By Ghali Hassan
For nearly sixteen years, U.S. and British forces
have been killing Iraqis with impunity. The number of Iraqis killed
is increasing rapidly and could easily reach 3 millions if the U.S.
refuses to end the Occupation
Active-Duty
US Troops Voice
Opposition To The Iraq War
By Joanne Laurier
More than 100 serving members of the US military
have to date sent “Appeals for Redress” to members of Congress,
urging “the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces
and bases from Iraq.”
Lieberman
Is Not An Israeli ‘Internal Affair’
By Nicola Nasser
The absence of a proportionate Palestinian reaction
to the ascendancy of Israel’s far right leader, Avigdor Lieberman,
into the mainstream strategic decision-making in Tel Aviv has indicated
of how dangerously the inter-Palestinian divide is overshadowing the
Israeli threats
James Petras'
New Book:The Power Of Israel
In The United States
By Stephen Lendman
Petras' powerful new book is titled The Power of
Israel in the United States. It's a work of epic writing and essential
reading documenting the enormous influence of the Jewish Lobby on US
policy in the Middle East
Vote For James
H. 'Jim'
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan
One type of mess in Florida, another in Ohio, yet
another in Virginia... Who says originality is dead in America?
Science,Medicine,And
The Gullible Left
By Mickey Z.
If the heart of being a dissident in America is
to reject conventional wisdom and cast doubt on the corporate propaganda
being foisted upon us at every turn, why do so many on the Left accept-without
protest-the scientific and medical company line?
Pakistan Diary: Part IV : Lahore:
Day 1
Mall Road and a Mula Jat
By Yoginder Sikand
The pavement is blocked with milling crowds and
with stalls selling all manner of trinkets and food. It's all so Delhi-like.
I wonder why Delhi Punjabis, like my own folks, persist with the myth
of a Lahore that probably never existed
DD
Kashir Needs Overhaul
By Zafar Choudhary
DD Kashir is finally on its way to where it ideally
should have been –Srinagar. A welcome step indeed, but still a
lot more needs to be done to appropriate the role of a television channel
running on the public exchequer
26 October, 2006
World
Silent As Fascists Join Israel Government
By Ali Abunimah
In a frightening but long expected move, Israeli
prime minister Ehud Olmert has brought the Yisrael Beitenu party into
his coalition government. Yisrael Beitenu is a dangerous extremist party
with fascist tendencies that has openly advocated the "transfer"
of Palestinians, including the transfer of Arab towns within Israel
to a Bantustan-like future Palestinian entity
Out Of The
shadows: Israel's
Minister Of Strategic Threats
By Jonathan Cook
So why are Israel’s politicians, of the left
and right, so comfortable sitting with Lieberman, the leader of Israel’s
only unquestionably fascist party? Because, in truth, Lieberman is not
the maverick politician of popular imagination, even if he is every
bit the racist -- a Jewish Jorg Haider or Jean Marie Le Pen. In reality,
Lieberman is entirely a creature of the Israeli political establishment,
his policies sinister reflections of the principles and ideas he learnt
in the inner sanctums of the Likud party
Nuclear Dual
Standards
By Ramzy Baroud
The US administration’s double standards
in dealing with the intensifying nuclear crisis in North Korea further
strengthens the argument that President George W Bush’s colonial
designs are either exasperated by the vulnerability of his foes or deterred
by their lethal preparedness
And What Aabout
Global Denuclearization ?
By S Faizi
The world has just renewed the agonizing memory
of the American savagery in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet there was the
disturbing absence of the call for global denuclearization from any
of the international players or from the United Nations
The Shame
Of The Nation: A Collective Perversion
By Stephen Lendman
The daily headlines about a single congressman's
online pedophiliac behavior obscure the greater issue of a nation off
its moorings and afflicted by the collective perversion of defiling
the foundational equity and justice-for-all letter and spirit of what
the nation long-claimed to stand for but no longer does if it ever did
Selling
Satan: Iraqi War Dead And
The Collateral Damage To America's Soul
By Phil Rockstroh
Regarding the death of well over half-a-million
Iraqis, the majority of the citizenry of The Corporatists States of
America have experienced a comparable degree of regret and remorse that
their oligarchic overlords experience when topping-off the tanks of
their corporate jets with fuel purchased with money plundered from their
employee's retirement accounts ... Sans conscience above -- sans conscience
below
Corrode Your
Conformity: Big Brother
Doesn’t Practice Fraternal Love
By Jason Miller
It took 230 years, but an authoritarian regime
predominated by the patrician class and corporations has finally seized
the means to exercise absolute political power. Their “War on
Terror” enabled them to slay their most persistent adversary.
The Constitutional Rights of their own people
The Hindu
Islamist
By Farzana Versey
Dhiren Barot is the first person in Britain to
be convicted for a terrorist conspiracy. There has been silence among
op-ed writers about the episode. What is curious about this case is
not that he is an Al Qaeda activist, but the arguments being dished
out by the British Indian community to delink themselves from him. It
isn't because of their immense concern about terrorism, but due to their
covert Islamophobia
A
Tribute To Heritage Of Poonch
By Zafar Choudhary
For nearly five decades a marvelous building with
English architecture, in frontier district of Poonch in Jammu region,
stood as a clue to the drawing of a bloody line dividing not only territory
but also the people of Jammu and Kashmir into two parts
What's In
A Label?
By Monish R. Chatterjee
Anglophile authors and pandering to neocon and
Anglo-American sentiments on colonial freedom fighters.A review of the
book Calcutta: a Cultural and Literary History by Krishna Dutta
25 October, 2006
Humans
Living Far Beyond Planet's Means
By Ben Blanchard
Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented
rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year
by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday
Mitigating
Water-crisis In Punjab :
Empowering Society With Water Vision
By Umendra Dutt
The impending water crisis in Punjab has not only
eclipsed its agriculture and economy but also ruined the ecology, health,
life style and social fabric of the state. It has severely destroyed
the water heritage and cultural value system also
The Path
Beyond Petroleum: Twelve Theses
By Peter Goodchild
Oil production in the year 2025 will be half that
of the year 2000. If we combine those figures with those of world population,
we find a ratio of 5 barrels of oil per person per year in 2000, but
only 2 barrels of oil per person per year in 2025
A Massive
Turn Around Needed
By Ted Bohne
A massive turn around of American foreign policy
is in order. This will do more to make the US safe than any action in
Iraq which is well known to have never been a threat to the US. Remember,
each day we wait to dismiss the current regime, American lives and Iraqi
lives are being squandered like drunk's drinking money
The Antiwar
Movement And Independent Politics:
An Interview with Cindy Sheehan
By Joshua Frank
To save our democracy our country needs a viable
and credible third party. This nation was founded on rule by a few rich
white males, and for all intents and purposes, we are still ruled by
a corporate elite.We need a third party that will represent all the
people, not just the wealthy
Israel,
Palestine And Canada
By John Chuckman
Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper said that
his government supports a two-state solution in the Middle East. That
is the policy of most Western governments, and there was nothing original
in Harper's way of stating it. It was the kind of vague, tepid stuff
we might hear from Olmert himself
Godzilla
vs. The Condoleezzard
(Celebrating Halloween in the United States of Anxiety)
By Mickey Z.
Ghosts, to me, are not a bigger or more urgent
concern than irreparable environmental damage, and I certainly lose
less sleep over the dead rising from their graves to eat me than I do
a planet populated with oppressed and starving humans
He's B-A-A-A-C-K
By Sheila Samples
Much to the dismay of the Bush Crime Family and
the Flying Monkey Right, their most fervent nemesis, talk-show host
Mike Malloy, will return to progressive airwaves on Monday, Oct. 30
-- a whole week-and-one-day before the mid-term elections. When you
consider the corruption and scandals oozing like slime from the right
over just the past week-and-one-day, Malloy's return is not a moment
too soon
Mayhem
In Mangalore
By Yoginder Sikand
Early this month, a series of violent incidents
rocked Mangalore and several nearby towns and villages in coastal Karnataka.
Two people were killed, dozens injured and property worth several lakhs
was destroyed. Although a semblance of peace has now been restored,
tension remains
Little Fingers
Which Used To Pick Rags
From Dustbins Are Learning To Write
By Anil Gulati
In the state of Madhya Pradesh in India more than
two lakhs girls are either out of school or have dropped out at elementary
level. Though state is doing their bit which when complemented by the
efforts of non governmental organizations can help many like Divya and
Madhu to go to school which helps add some colour on to the canvass
of their lives
23 October, 2006
1.6m
Iraqis Have Fled Since The War
By Patrick Cockburn
Out of the population of 26 million, 1.6 million
Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced
within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In
Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000
in Syria. In Syria alone they are arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month
The Lancet
Study...
By Baghdad Burning
The latest horror is the study published in the
Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed
since the war. Reading about it left me with mixed feelings. On the
one hand, it sounded like a reasonable figure. It wasn't at all surprising.
On the other hand, I so wanted it to be wrong. But... who to believe?
Who to believe....?
21 October, 2006
Medics
Beg For Help As Iraqis Die Needlessly
By Jeremy Laurance
The disintegration of Iraq's health service is
leaving its civilians defenceless in the continuing violence that is
rocking the country. As many as half of the civilian deaths, calculated
at 655,000 since the 2003 invasion, might have been avoided if proper
medical care had been provided to the victims
Govt. Death
Squads Ravaging Baghdad
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
Death squads from the Ministry of Interior posing
as Iraqi police are killing more people than ever in the capital, emerging
evidence shows
Hospitals
Now A Battleground
In The Bloody Civil War
By Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi hospitals are dangerous places. Policemen
and soldiers carry their wounded comrades into operating theatres and
demand immediate treatment, forcing doctors at gunpoint to abandon operations
on civilians before they are completed
Climate
Change 'Will Cause Refugee Crisis'
By Michael McCarthy
Mass movements of people across the world are likely
to be one of the most dramatic effects of climate change in the coming
century
Greenland
Ice Sheet Shrinking Fast
By Reuters
The vast sheet of ice that covers Greenland is
shrinking fast, but still not as fast as previous research indicated
U.N. Says
Number Of Ocean "Dead Zones" Rising Fast
By Daniel Wallis
The number of "dead zones" in the world's
oceans may have increased by a third in just two years, threatening
fish stocks and the people who depend on them
In Defence
Of Afzal
By Colin Gonsalves
Afzal's case before the President must be made
on the basis of truth. It needs no embellishments. It certainly needs
no falsehoods. The record of the trial court shows undoubtedly that
he did not receive a fair trial. The arguments before the President
should proceed on the basis of the evidence on record that would shock
anyone's conscience
Divide And
Rule, But For How Long?
By Jawed Naqvi
In Delhi, Kashmiri Mohammed Afzal Guru, was falsely
informed by someone that his lawyer instead of defending him at the
High Court had in fact pleaded for him to be put to death by a lethal
injection. We do not know how Guru came to that conclusion since he
was not present during the proceedings at the high court
Military Conflict
Escalates In Sri Lanka
After Two Major LTTE Attacks
By Sarath Kumar
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried
out two major attacks against the Sri Lankan military in the past three
days, raising the danger of a further escalation in the open civil war
that has erupted since late July
How Not To
Engage With The 'Muslim World':
Insights From Delhi
By Yoginder Sikand
In recent years, particularly following the events
of 11 September 2001, several Western organisations based in Delhi have
launched programmes ostensibly seeking to 'engage' with Muslims. Some
of these are funded by their respective governments. Rather than aiming
to promote serious dialogue between Muslims and the 'West', some of
these programmes seem motivated almost entirely by narrowly-defined
security concerns, and aimed at defending Western governments' imperialist
policies and interests
20 October, 2006
Space:
America's New War Zone
By Andrew Buncombe
The Bush administration has staked an aggressive
new claim to dominate space - rejecting any new treaties that seek to
limit the United States' extraterrestrial activities and warning that
it will oppose any nations that try to get in its way
US Turns
Space Into Its Colony
By Ehsan Ahrari
President George W Bush signed an executive order
creating a new National Space Policy on Wednesday. The most crucial
feature of this policy is that it "rejects future arms-control
agreements that might limit US flexibility in space and asserts a right
to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to US interests'"
Attack
On India's Parliament:Last Chance
To Know What Really Happened
By Nirmalangshu Mukherji
The attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 was
a major event in contemporary India. As the judicial procedure into
this case nears its end, with Mohammed Afzal to be hanged on October
20, our effort to get at the truth as to what really happened is about
to be scuttled. Who attacked Parliament and what was the conspiracy?
On what basis did the NDA government take the country close to a nuclear
war? What was the role of the State Task Force (J and K) on surrendered
militants? What was the role of the Special Cell of Delhi Police in
conducting the case?
Retributive
Violence By The State
By Prashant Bhushan
There are many reasons therefore for commuting
Afzal's death penalty. But given the charged opinions on this issue
and with the BJP threatening to make this a national issue, I doubt
that this government would have the courage to decide this matter on
rational and relevant considerations
US Military
And Iraqi Deaths Soar Amidst
Preparations For Major Offensive
By Joe Kay
Ten US troops died on Tuesday in Iraq and at least
one more on Wednesday, bringing the monthly death toll for October up
to 70. At the current rate, US casualties for the month will be the
highest since November 2004, and the third highest since the invasion
in March 2003. The latest surge in casualties brings the total US death
toll to at least 2,786
The Killing
Fields Of Iraq
By Robert Scheer
An occupation initially advertised as a “cakewalk”
war to disarm a tyrant is now, according to our politically desperate
president, a fight for the soul of the world—good versus evil,
democracy versus tyranny.But the carnage we have visited upon Iraq represents
nothing of the sort. We are not building democracy, we are creating
mayhem
When "Anti-War"
Doesn't Mean Anti-War
By Mickey Z.
The label "anti-war" signifies one as
being against all war no matter what political party has commenced the
invasion, the bombing, the sanctions, or the covert operations. Until
the anti-war movement is guided by genuine anti-war sentiment, it'll
play right into the hands of the two-party (sic) game...a game with
no long term winners
Iran Sparked
Islamic Divide,
Iran Only Can Defuse It
By Nicola Nasser
The prerogatives of Islamic unity and averting
a Shiite-Sunni divide from playing into the hands of U.S. occupiers
in Iraq and far beyond in the region requires that Iran accommodates
the proven historical experience that exclusion of Arabs and Pan-Arabism
deprives Islam of its vital component, acknowledges that sectarization
of Islamic politics adversely affect Islamic unity, rejects in principle
the exploitation of foreign powers’ interference to settle intra-Muslim
scores, and translating these prerogatives into concrete policies
Behind
Closed Doors: The Invisibility
Of Domestic Violence
By Lucinda Marshall
Domestic violence is the most common form of violence
against women. A recent study by the World Health Organization found
that intimate personal violence (IPV) rates around the world varied
from 15% in Yokohama, Japan to 71% in Ethiopia. Here in the U.S. one
out of four women will be assaulted by a partner during her lifetime
The Unheard
Voices Of"Orang Bangla" In Malaysia
By Md. Saidul Islam, Mazharul Hoque,
Delwar Hossain & Kazi Shahadat Kabir
Bangladeshi labor migrants, locally known as "Orang
Bangla" albeit in a derogatory sense, continue to serve Malaysia
to perpetuate its status as an "economic tiger" in Asia
19 October, 2006
Beware
Empires In Decline
By Michael Klare
Just as an empire on the rise, like the United
States on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, is often inclined to take
rash and ill-considered actions, so an empire on the decline, like the
British and French empires after World War II, will engage in senseless,
self-destructive acts. And I fear the same can happen to the United
States today, as we, too, slip into decline
Lynne Stewart's
Crime Of Courage,
Honor And Resisting Tyranny
By Stephen Lendman
Years from now, Lynne F. Stewart's name will be
spoken of with even greater reverence than it is today.On October 17,
Lynne Stewart faced the possibility of 30 years in prison because of
a modern-day state-sponsored campaign of intimidation using her trial
to set a precedent allowing the government the right to deny those it
accuses of "terrorism" their right of due process represented
by competent counsel
The
Palestinian Cause: A Routine For Deception
By Ghali Hassan
It is becoming a routine for Western leaders to
use the “Palestinian cause” as a way to further their own
interests at the expense of Palestinian lives and Palestinian struggle
to self-determination. The main objective is to manipulate public opinion
and serve U.S.-Israel Zionist agenda
Viable
Solutions For Israeli-Palestinian Peace
By Sonia Nettnin
Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Professor Jeff Halper
spoke about the Israel-Palestine conflict and viable solutions to bring
peace to the Middle East
Cindy Sheehan’s
Lesser-Evilism:
Democrats Or Bust?
By Joshua Frank
Most disappointing of all, Cindy Sheehan, the brave
soul who almost single handily resurrected the antiwar movement from
the dark vestiges of the 2004 elections, has now surrendered to the
politics of lesser-evilism
Guajarat 2006
Is Deadlier Than 2002
By Prashant Jha
That is the story of Gujarat 2006. A tale of a
society that is sharply polarised and prejudices about the 'other' deeply
entrenched, and a state that happily engineers everyday hatred. In its
wake, lies a community that lives in fear. The Gujarat of today is in
some senses more dangerous than the Gujarat of 2002. For here, the violence
is invisible. It operates systematically, as well as subtly, at the
establishment and social level
Fiction And
Environmental movement
By K. Venugopal Reddy
India's environmental movement began indisputably
in the early seventies. However, a critical understanding of the text
'Nectar in a Sieve' published in 1954 by Kamala Markandaya implies that
it had its ideological moorings from the first decade of India's independence
Buddha
As Untouchable
By Raja Sekhar Vundru
Buddhism in India has a predominantly Dalit following,
as a result of the revival by Ambedkar. For this reason, it appears
that our society prefers to treat Buddha as an untouchable. In 2005,
this event, which attracted an estimated 10 lakh people to Nagpur, escaped
the national media attention
Afzal Must
Not Be Executed
By Praful Bidwai
Afzal is by no means beyond the pale of reform.
President Kalam should act sagaciously and commute his sentence. It's
his constitutional and moral duty to prevent miscarriage of justice
and apply a humane touch
18 October, 2006
Peak
Oil: The Clock Is Ticking
By Peter Goodchild
All civilizations grow too large to support themselves,
and their leaders have little foresight. These civilizations then collapse
and are buried in the mud. The same will happen to America, but human
shortsightedness prevents us from seeing America as only one among many
civilizations
Major Problems
Of Surviving Peak Oil
By Norman
I do not believe that we can stop the crash but
I believe that we can, to a degree, prepare ourselves and those close
to us for the aftermath
Message
Of An Iranian To American people
By Borhan Azemi
Let the Iranian people take care of the needed
regime change in Iran. And let’s get the American people to take
care of the needed regime change here. That will be the greatest gift
to the people of Iran and the rest of the world
China Pulls
Its Punches On North Korea
By Asia Times Online
The US was forced to compromise on Chapter VII
because of strong opposition - both from Russia and China - over the
possible invocation of that chapter for a future military attack on
Pyongyang
Escalating
Political Murders In The Philippines
By Dante Pastrana
The death toll of political activists has continued
to mount in the Philippines. On September 20, eleven gunmen, wearing
bonnets, black shirts and combat boots, barged into the backyard of
Christopher Lunar, and shot and killed the peasant leader in broad daylight
Why Do We
Criticize Our Nations?
By Sujai
India, which has been the champion of independence
and freedom movements elsewhere, has now become the same aggressor it
abhorred. It is slowly becoming exactly like its enemy. And we critics
do not want that to happen
Special
Exploitation Zones
By Tejal Kanitkar & Puru Kulkarni
Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is a pseudonym for
a new tsunami let loose on the Indian working class and peasantry by
the Indian State.One hundred-fifty Special Exploitation Zones have already
been sanctioned. This means 70,000 hectares of land is being grabbed
as we read this.Two hundred twenty five more Special Exploitation Zones
are waiting approval. This means that 2,74,000 hectares of land will
be grabbed soon. The extent of the planned mass murder and mass displacement
is unimaginable
Rites And Rights
By Margot Badran
Women are flocking to mosques around the world.
Now, during Ramadan, they are packing mosques nightly in many countries
for tarawwih or the recitation of the Qur'an. It has not always been
easy, or indeed possible, for women to participate in communal worship
Capital
Invading Spaces Of The Poor
By Vidyadhar Date
Thousands of textile workers in Mumbai are now
being evicted from central parts of the city with the closure of the
mills and the rich taking over their spaces which are highly coveted
by the property market
Pakistan Diary-Day 1
In Lahore: Of Nomadic Odhs And
Parathas
By Yoginder Sikand
I think of how 'upper' caste prejudice, both Hindu
and Muslim, must surely have at least something to do with the fact
that probably not a single of the literally hundreds of books about
the trauma of the Partition focuses on what the tragedy meant for the
millions of Dalits on both sides of the border
17 October, 2006
UN
Resolution Against North Korea
By Peter Symonds
The US administration has prepared the way for
an escalating confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear test last
Monday, by pushing tough new sanctions against Pyongyang through the
UN Security Council
Irom Sharmila:
'Iron Lady' Of Manipur
By Subhash Gatade
It is difficult to believe the saga of struggle
of Irom Sharmila Thanu In fact it will be nearly six years that she
would be on her hunger strike.She has remained without solid food since
then, demanding withdrawal from her state, of one of the most draconian
laws in the statue books called Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
Bush
Unleashes The Nuclear Beast
By Joseph Cirincione
Rather than negotiate treaties to eliminate weapons,
the Bush administration forged a strategy to eliminate the regimes that
might use them against us. The Bush team felt they knew who the bad
guys were, and they aimed to get them — one by one. But the strategy
has backfired
Swallowing
The Blue Pill: Frank Talk
On Race And Fascism In The US
By Juan Santos
As the US veers on a radical course toward fascism,
the Democrats, who are riding high on a national wave of revulsion against
the Bush regime, breathe not a word about reversing the legalization
of torture or restoring habeas corpus; they say nothing about reversing
the Patriot Act, nothing about averting war in Iran, and nothing of
substance about pulling out of Iraq
The
Great Experiment In Gaza
By Uri Avnery
Is it possible to force a whole people to submit
to foreign occupation by starving it?The governments of Israel and the
United States, in close cooperation with Europe, are now engaged in
a rigorous scientific experiment in order to obtain a definitive answer.The
laboratory for the experiment is the Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs
are the million and a quarter Palestinians living there
Confronting
Turkey's Armenian Genocide
By Robert Fisk
On Thursday, France's lower house of parliament
approved a Bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide.
And, within an hour, Turkey's most celebrated writer, Orhan Pamuk won
the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the mass graves below the deserts
of Syria and beneath the soil of southern Turkey, a few souls may have
been comforted
Microcredit,
Macro Problems
By Walden Bello
So probably the best way we can honor Muhammad
Yunus is to say, Yes, he deserves the Nobel Prize for helping so many
women cope with poverty. His boosters discredit this great honor and
engage in hyperbole when they claim he has invented a new compassionate
form of capitalism--social capitalism, or "social entrepreneurship"--that
will be the magic bullet to end poverty and promote development
The Mettle
Of A UN Secretary-General
By Stephen Lendman
It will be refreshing if Ban Ki-Moon actually takes
his obligation and sworn oath seriously enough to respect the rights
of all nations, uses his prominent public stage as an advocate for them,
and works for peace and an end to all injustice and conflicts still
raging around the world
Is Betty
Ugly?
By Lucinda Marshall
It has become normal to consider normal women ugly.
We abide by the denigration of women's bodies because it is very, very
profitable. The result for millions of women is not only damaged self-esteem
and unrealistic expectations, but damaged health and bodies as well.
And that is a very, very high price to pay
Spiritual
Felo De Se: Fealty To A Moral Abomination
By Jason Miller
Those leaders (like Chavez) who fight for the poor
and oppressed are treated as threats and pariahs, champions of the privileged
elite like Reagan are enshrined in the pantheon of American politics,
and malefactors in the Bush Regime garner enough support to continue
perpetrating their heinous crimes
An Appeal For
South India's Wild Elephants!
By Ingmar Lee & Krista Roessingh
We are appealing for your immediate help to protect
South India's last significant herds of Wild Elephants! Please take
a few moments to familiarize yourselves with the predicament of these
magnificent animals!
Keeping
Alive The Ghost Of Godhra
By Farzana Versey
The Gujarat High court has dismissed the very existence
of the union government setting up the U.C.Banerjee committee and its
findings into the death of 59 people who were burnt in the train on
February 27, 2002. On Friday, October 13, 2006, Justice D N Patel repeated
what Narendra Modi and the saffron parties have been saying. It is an
endorsement of their insecurities. The arguments do not work
14 October, 2006
Nobel
Committee Acknowledges
Counter Economy
By Mirza A. Beg
Yunus proved that the poor need respect, trust,
economic justice, and a helping hand. They do not need pity and charity.
It is truly a Peace Price because there can not be peace without justice,
particularly economic justice
This
Terrible Misadventure
Has Killed One In 40 Iraqis
By Richard Horton
The best hope we can have from our terrible misadventure
in Iraq is that a new political and social movement will grow to overturn
this politics of humiliation. We are one human family. Let's act like
it
Excess
Death In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
In the context of the horror stories that have
reached us over the three-plus years of the occupation, this latest
figure is not nearly as shocking as when the first Lancet report was
published in October of 2004. It has been abundantly clear since then
that the number of Iraqis being killed by and because of the occupation
has continued to increase exponentially
Why Is The
American Press Silent On
The Report Of 655,000 Iraqi Deaths?
By Joe Kay & Barry Grey
The US media is virtually silent on a new scientific
study that estimates the Iraqi death toll from the US war at 655,000
Resistance
Growing Up At School
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
"How can we teach them forgiveness when they
see Americans killing their family members every day," the teacher
in the classroom who gave her name as Shyamaa told IPS. "Words
cannot cover the stream of blood and these signs of destruction, and
words cannot hide the daily raids they see."
The Final Dispatch
By Anna Politkovskaya
This is Anna Politkovskaya's final unfinished article
for her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. It was written shortly before she
was murdered last Saturday. After two wars of independence, Russian-backed
forces are torturing a whole generation of young Chechens, she writes,
to try to restore order in the troubled north Caucasus region
Musharraf's
Coup- Seven Years Later
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Musharraf and his generals are determined to stay
in power. They will protect the source of their power - the army. They
will accommodate those they must - the Americans. They will pander to
the mullahs. They will crush those who threaten their power and privilege,
and ignore the rest. No price is too high for them. They are the reason
Pakistan fails
Reflections
On The Oil Wars
By Peter Goodchild
Modern warfare is mainly about oil, in spite of
all the pious and hypocritical rhetoric about "the forces of good"
and "the forces of evil." The real "forces" are
those trying to control the oil wells and the fragile pipelines that
carry that oil. A map of American military ventures is a map of petroleum
Nazi Cleansing
Of America’s Universities:
Could It Happen Here?
By Reggie Dylan
There is a need for political, ideological, and
theoretical debate and clarity around the importance not only of challenging
the direction the country as a whole is being driven toward, and the
role the universities should play in society at this time, but also
the need to fiercely defend, while deepening, an understanding of the
scientific approach to reality
The
Logic Behind Rice's Grin
By Ramzy Baroud
Rice's visit to the region was neither intended
to "reinvigorate" the peace process nor to support the voice
of "moderation" in the region. It was meant to ensure the
fortitude of her allies and secure and extend the collective punishment
of the Palestinian people until they repent and throw out their democratically
elected government
If Only
George Bush Had Been Amish
By Doug Soderstrom
The Amish response to the brutal slaying of five
of their own offspring in an old fashioned, one-roomed school house
was a blueprint for how President George Walker Bush should have responded
to the slaughter of nearly 3,000 of our own citizens in the tragedy
of September 11, 2001
J&K
Reluctant To Share Information With Public
By Zafar Choudhary
The identity of Jammu and Kashmir as a State that
refuses to share power with people or devolve authority to the grassroots
democratic institutions of governance can be seen in the regional and
sub-regional dissension. Over a period of last two and half years Jammu
and Kashmir has assumed yet another unique identity –a State that
refuses to share information with people
Colin
Gonsalves On Afzal Case
A Letter
"I was taken aback to hear that certain persons
are spreading a rumour that I did not defend Afzal in the High Court
and instead asked for him to be put to death by lethal injection"
13 October, 2006
Israel's
Plan For A Military Strike On Iran
By Jonathan Cook
The Middle East, and possibly the world, stands
on the brink of a terrible conflagration as Israel and the United States
prepare to deal with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons
World War
W
By Michael Carmicheal
Still unable to bring themselves to exercise diplomacy,
the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice administration is now preparing to broaden
America's military activities in the Middle East in anticipation of
a wider, more engulfing and, perhaps, even global war - World War W
North
Korea's Bomb
By John Chuckman
Harsh sanctions against North Korea, already advocated
by the emotionally-numb Bush, are a foolish response. North Korea's
rulers would not suffer any more than did Saddam Hussein under American-imposed
sanctions against Iraq after Desert Storm. Only ordinary people would
be driven to misery and starvation, just as they were in Iraq where
tens of thousands of innocents died. How much easier and more productive
just to talk
Abusing
The Arab Peace Initiative
By Nicola Nasser
The failed Qatari mediation in the still unresolved
inter-Palestinian divide was in practice an American success in turning
the Arab Peace Initiative (API) into a pressure tool that further exacerbates
fractures both in Arab and Palestinian ranks
Behind
The UN Debate On North Korea:
Growing Great Power Rivalry
By Peter Symonds
The result of the Bush administration’s reckless
policies is now evident: by provoking North Korea to carry out a nuclear
test, the US is encouraging a regional arms race that threatens to take
the intensifying rivalry in North East Asia to a new and more dangerous
level
Why José
Won’t Be Home For Christmas
By John A. Murphy
Like José's little sister I want our troops
home now but my forces sit stranded and immobilized simply because they
lack one simple element: a few miserable gallons of gasoline. I would
love to meet José’s mother once more in six weeks on the
Streets of Lancaster without feeling like I was going to cry this time.
Will we ever get those few miserable gallons of gasoline?
Clutching
Our Values Aboard
The Death Train Of Empire
By Phil Rockstroh
So what exactly are values anyway? Values are what
the clergy and the corporatists allow us to keep for ourselves -- after
they've made off with all the valuables
BBC Guilty
Of Venality In Its
Misreporting On Venezuela
By Stephen Lendman
Listeners and viewers expecting to find a safe
alternative to the corporate-controlled media by turning to the BBC
better reconsider their choice based on the vaunted news organization's
reporting on Venezuela and specifically on the misinformation it put
out in an online piece on October 8 titled - "Mass Venezuela opposition
rally."
Eroding
Freedom: From John Adams
To George W. Bush
By Mickey Z.
President John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition
Act in 1798. Under this ugly bit of legislation, I might've receive
a fine "not exceeding two thousand dollars" and/or "imprisonment
not exceeding two years" simply for writing an article such as
this
Kashmir
Earthquake Survivors Face
Another Freezing Winter
By Vilani Peiris
A year later after the Kashmir quake many refugees
face the dangers of another Himalayan winter without proper shelter,
basic supplies or adequate health services
Belabouring
Over Child Labour
By Farzana Versey
The Indian government's recent announcement banning
the employment of children as domestic servants and workers in roadside
eateries, restaurants, teashops starts with a problem. The age limit
is below 14 years. And its figures are 80 per cent off the mark –
the verdict talks about 20 million children whereas the number is close
to a 100 million
Hindutva
And The Defence Of
'Upper' Caste Hegemony
By Yoginder Sikand
The ideology and politics of Hindutva are geared
to protecting and promoting the hegemony of 'high' caste Hindu elites.
Claiming to speak on behalf of all 'Hindus', Hindutva formations have
made no bones about defending 'upper' caste privilege.This is clearly
evident in their opposition to caste-based reservations
12 October, 2006
654,000
Deaths Tied To Iraq War
By Jonathan Bor
In an update of a two-year-old survey that sparked
wide disagreement, Johns Hopkins researchers now estimate that more
than a half-million Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion
and its bloody aftermath
Provocative
US Attack On Shiite Militia In Iraq
By James Cogan
An attack over the weekend in Diwaniyah, a city
to the south of Baghdad, signals a major intensification in the operations
of US forces in Iraq against the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the Shiite
fundamentalist movement nominally headed by the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
Iraqi Journalists
Stare Death In The Face
By Firas Al-Atraqchi
Iraq's translators, journalists and cameramen are
living on borrowed time as they repeatedly come under attack in the
war-ravaged nation
A
Re-Run Of The Lebanon War In Palestine?
By Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali Abunimah
There are ominous signs that the long-contemplated
plan to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas-led Palestinian Authority
cabinet is about to enter its most dangerous phase: a political coup,
supported by local militias, with foreign and regional backing. This
could ignite serious intra-Palestinian violence
Lunch In Damascus
By Uri Avnery
Why don't we make peace with Syria? There are two
reasons.the one domestic, the other foreign.The domestic reason is the
existence of 20 thousand settlers on the Golan Heights, who are far
more popular than the West Bank settlers. The second reason for rejecting
peace with Syria is connected with the United States. Syria belongs
to George Bush's "axis of evil"
Bush
And North Korea
By Mike Whitney
It took 6 years of relentless threats, sanctions
and belligerence, but Bush finally succeeded in pushing Kim Jong-Il
to build North Korea's first nuclear bomb. Now, Kim can just add a few
finishing touches to his ballistic-missile delivery system, the Taepo-dong
ICBM, and he'll be able to wipe out the 9 western states with a flip
of the switch
U.S. Neo-Cons
Call For Japanese Nukes,
Regime Change
By Jim Lobe
Encouraging Japan to build nuclear weapons, shipping
food aid via submarines, and running secret sabotage operations inside
North Korea's borders are among a raft of policy prescriptions pushed
by prominent U.S. neo-conservatives in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear
test
US Population
Hits 300 Million,
But Is It Sustainable?
By Andrew Buncombe
The population of the United States will pass 300
million today, or tomorrow. No one knows exactly where, no one know
precisely when. It is a milestone for sure but is this a cause for celebration
or anxiety?
11 October, 2006
Rising
Seas Could Leave
Millions Homeless In Asia
By Michael Perry
Millions of people could become homeless in the
Asia-Pacific region by 2070 due to rising sea levels, with Bangladesh,
India, Vietnam, China and Pacific islands most at risk
Anti-Putin
Journalist Murdered In Moscow
By Patrick Martin
The assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya
is an ominous warning to working people and intellectuals in Russia
and throughout the world of the lengths to which the regime headed by
the former KGB agent Vladimir Putin will go to suppress criticism and
political opposition
Death Of
A Courageous Journalist
By Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Russia and the world have lost a great and courageous
journalist. The killing of Anna Politkovskaya on October 7 is horrifying
and shocking, but not unexpected
Baquba:
An Unknown City Erupts
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
The little known city of Baquba is emerging as
one of the hotbeds of resistance in Iraq, with clashes breaking out
every day
The End Of
An Era
By Siv O'Neall
The era of superpower domination of the world is
rapidly coming to an end. The very arrogance of the present superpower
has caused its impending downfall
Who’s
Really Preying On Teenagers?
By David Howard
But if the idea of your school being obliged to
pimp for the Army disturbs you as much as it disturbs me, you probably
won’t rest until the recruitment provision of NCLB is repealed
and we all acknowledge that child recruitment is as obscene as child
pornography
Piercing
The Simulacrum: Of Faux Democracy,
Petty Tyrants, And Painful Realities
By Jason Miller
Given humankind’s United States-led pursuit
of self-destruction, an economic, ecological, or humanitarian cataclysm
is virtually inevitable at some point. However, there is a silver lining
My
Starving Friend
By Sarah Saba
One of my intellectual friends, who is a famous
researcher, author of a number of books and numerous research articles,
with years’ of committed and selfless struggle to bring about
peace in the society is simply starving with his small family
Crossing The Border-
Pakistan Dairy: 2
By Yoginder Sikand
The bus crosses the white lines drawn across the
road and we slip under an archway into Pakistan. I think I might be
hallucinating and that I might actually be fast asleep and dreaming
in my room in the hostel where I live in Delhi. Tears stream down my
cheeks and I let my emotions overwhelm me. For me, passing through the
archway is like landing on the moon
The power
Of Will To Fight HIV
By Anil Gulati
Yesterday I was in training on HIV/AIDS wherein
I had a chance to hear Pradeep on his experience in fighting with HIV,
which he and his wife had been living with HIV for last six years. One
got moved not only because the way he narrated his story but the way
he has been fighting the dreaded virus
10 October, 200
How
North Korea Bungled Its Nuclear Timing
By Donald Kirk
North Korea's nuclear test has altered the landscape
of alliances and enmities in East Asia, suddenly putting Japan in common
cause with two terrible foes, China and South Korea
Pyongyang's
60-Year Obsession
By Bertil Lintner
Given the reaction of the outside world to North
Korea's test, others would argue that peace, stability and detente on
the peninsula have become the latest casualties in the "war on
terror"
North
Korean Nuke Tests Say World
Must Return To Peace Agenda
By Praful Bidwai
North Korea has shocked the world by detonating
a nuclear explosion and making good the threat it had held out six days
earlier. Pyongyang's action is one more blow to the existing global
non-proliferation order and will trigger greater instability in Northeast
Asia and in the Asian continent and world as a whole
Earth's
Ecological Debt Crisis
By Martin Hickman
Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day
of the year when mankind over-exploits the world's resources - the day
when we start living beyond our ecological means
The
King Of The Jungle
By Rima Merriman
When it comes to imposing law and order on the
Palestinians, what applies is not international humanitarian law, but
the law of the jungle. And, of course, it is quite clear who the king
of the jungle is
Bye, Bye Civil
Liberties:Blame The Democrats
By Joshua Frank
We shouldn’t be all that surprised the Democrats
didn’t filibuster the awful bill, which also expanded the definition
of “enemy combatant” to include anybody who “has purposefully
and materially supported hostilities against the United States.”
Whatever that’s supposed to mean. No, the Democrats have long
been on the frontlines of the federal government’s assault on
our civil liberties
War For Souls
And Empire In Christ's Name
By Yoginder Sikand
Although rarely commented on in the press, Christian
fundamentalism has emerged as a powerful factor in shaping American
foreign policies, particularly in the 'Muslim world'. With a born-again
Christian fundamentalist as President of America this is hardly surprising
A Tribute
To Kanshiramji
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
If India's politics has grown through a radical
change with Dalit becoming the mainstream political force, the one man
who made is possible was Kanshi Ram. He worked diligently and religiously
to develop a cadre who could bring the party to National mainstream
and ultimately to the power in Uttar-Pradesh
09 October, 2006
The
Age Of Terror
By Robert Fisk
With chaos stretching from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean,
we have never lived in a more dangerous time. Robert Fisk looks back
over a lifetime of covering war and death, and lays out a bleak future
for all of us - one that even those living in the comfort of the Home
Counties cannot escape
Revolt Of The
Generals
By Ralph Nader
Daddy Bush should take his son and have him repeat
after him again and again--"options for revision," "options
for revision," "options for revision." Unless, that is,
Bush and Cheney both do the country a favor and resign
A Subtle
Kind Of Fascism
By John Chuckman
America is a democracy, isn't it? It certainly
has many of the forms of a democracy, but when you closely examine the
details, as I've written previously, American democracy resembles a
badly worn wood veneer. The ugly structural stuff underneath sticks
out the way elbows do in a threadbare coat
Lawsuit Intends
To Force The Bush Administration
To Recognize The Constitution”
By Gene C. Gerard
A recent lawsuit filed by Americans United for
Separation of Church and State (AU) against the Department of Health
and Human Services aims to force the Bush administration to cease violating
the Constitution by funding marriage programs with an overtly religious
slant. If successful, this lawsuit would have a profound impact on the
ability of the Bush administration to continue funding religious organizations
with taxpayer dollars
Canada Need
Not Follow The US
By Javed I. Chaudry
It is high time, the Canadian government and its
public learn to differentiate between right and wrong in the light of
the lessons learned from the history rather than make decisions on the
basis of political expediency
Hazardous
Intent: US Brokers In Palestine
By Remi Kanazi
The Palestinians for their part have fallen into
the trap set by Israel and America -- divide and conquer each other.
Hamas and Fatah know well that the way forward is together rather than
in disgruntled factions vying for power. Civil war status will bear
fruit for no one
Lebanon-
Foreplay For The Rape Of Iran
By Dick Mazess
A nuclear attack on Iran would not only alienate
European allies and make the US a pariah state but likely would stimulate
nuclear proliferation worldwide
Should
Mohammad Afzal Guru Be Hanged?
By Ram Puniyani
While Supreme Court deserves all the respect, one
has to see that the primary investigation done by the police, whatever
its flaws, forms the base of the judgment. When that investigation has
holes should it be accepted as it is presented? When the primary culprits
are either dead are some of them absconding, can 'the whole truth be
out'? Or is it that somebody has anyway to be punished to quench the
thirst for revenge, and who better than the one who has a Muslim name
and happens to be from Kashmir
Environmental
Health Crisis
In Punjab, Who Cares?
By Umendra Dutt
Any action to save Punjab from ecological catastrophe
and environmental health crisis is a great service to fellow countrymen.
It would be a service to our Motherland, Humanity and God and more over
it is as sacred as any worship. We all pray for the wellbeing of all,
but have to live the very life which pleads this
07 October, 2006
The
Two Faces Of Iraq
By Sami Moubayed
As head of state, though, Maliki (and his rebel
ally Muqtada) should be blamed and punished for the chaos in Iraq, rather
than supported by the encouraging words of Rice
The US
Occupation Of Iraq:
Casualties Not Counted
By Dahr Jamail
Civilian contractors in Iraq, though they are paid
handsomely for their time there, are easily lost in a legal no-man's-land
if tragedy strikes. Their families are then left in the lurch as well.
With an estimated 100,000-125,000 American contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan,
we can safely assume there are thousands of stories similar to Tim's
and still counting. To each story is attached an individual and a family
Two Roads
Diverged For America
By Anthony Signorelli
As I have written in my new book Call to Liberty,
the political conditions in the country are ripe for fascism. If principled
ideas do not emerge in the new leadership of the Democratic Party, the
vacuum will likely be filled by dynamic ideas vying for prominence from
the far right wing
Jack Straw’s
Anti-Muslim Provocation
By Chris Marsden & Julie Hyland
Only in a climate of deliberately cultivated hostility
to Muslims could the comments by Jack Straw opposing women wearing the
veil be described as a contribution towards a “debate.”
Just
Another Mother Murdered
By Alison Weir
Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the
35-year-old woman had interfered. She tried to explain that her husband
was deaf, screamed at the soldiers that her husband couldn't hear them
and attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several
times. Her name was Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar
Intervention
And Terrorism
By Paul Buchheit
If we were to accept the recommendation of military
experts to cut the military budget, eliminate a tax cut that benefits
the rich, and end a controversial war, we could free up about $300 billion
for alternative energy research. With American ingenuity and this kind
of money, we'd have a good chance of overcoming the dependencies that
cause people to want to attack us
Resisting
The Canadian Capital In South Asia
By Harsha Walia
Let us strengthen our end of this resistance by
demanding an end to Canadian and other Western countries projects for
the corporatization, militarization, and NGOization of the people of
South Asia
Bricks
In The Wall
By Farzana Versey
The fate of the filming of Monica Ali's book will
add her to the roster of Joans of Arc in what has now become a routine
canonisation ritual of pop multiculturalism. A group of Bangladeshis
has been opposing the film version of ' Brick Lane'; they found her
story a caricature of them and their surroundings
Where Myths
And Superstitions Heal…….
By Anil Gulati
If child has pneumonia– a hot saddle shaped
iron dipped in a oil is paced on navel of the little one – with
a belief that it will cure it ! Well this is true that too in very heart
of India in Shivpuri
Looney
American Foundation Threatens
To Sue The Nobel Committee
By Ra Ravishankar
An (as yet) imaginary account of the developments
following the announcement of the Nobel Physics Prize in a Hindutva
community; the lack of context and critical information (in the account
below) is typical of how the mainstream press has covered Hindutva-related
issues in the U.S.
06 October, 2006
Palestinian
Power-Struggle: Siege Within
By Ramzy Baroud
The current leadership struggle in Palestine is
an illustration of the misguided priorities of Palestinian leaders,
and for once, Palestinians must possess the courage to realise and confront
it
The Struggle
For Palestine's Soul
By Jonathan Cook
If the goal of establishing a Palestinian state
cannot be realised, then the danger is that many Palestinians will look
elsewhere for their liberation, not necessarily in national but in wider,
regional and religious terms. The Islamic component of the struggle
-- at the moment a gloss, even for Hamas, on what is still a national
liberation movement -- will grow and deepen. National liberation will
take a back seat to religious jihad
Hizb Allah,
Party Of God
By Nir Rosen
In the wake of Israel’s 33-day war with Hizballah,
the 24-year-old Islamic movement has become the most popular political
party in the Middle East. Here’s why that shouldn’t worry
us
Alvaro
Vargas Llosa Sends Hugo Chavez
To Dante's Inferno
By Stephen Lendman
For those who know how Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian
Revolution has benefitted the Venezuelan people, Vargas Llosa has lost
all credibility and disgraced himself. He lies exposed as a charlatan
and false prophet of right wing imperialism based on market-based solutions
that don't work and must be forced on the unwilling from the barrel
of a gun
Six Flags
Over Neo-Nuremberg: Bush, Oprah,
The San Diego Chicken, And A Proto-Fascist
Panopticon Of The Mind
By Phil Rockstroh
Many believe fascism will come to the United States
of America resembling contrived spectacles such as The Super Bowl, The
Academy Awards, and American Idol, with the proceedings intercut with
teary, yet ultimately triumphant, Oprahesque tales of how redemption
can be gained through the renunciation of one’s rights, liberties,
as well as, the dutiful turning in of one’s subversive neighbors.
Don’t reach for that remote, folks: It’s already here
Domestic
Genocide Of An Economic Nature
By Jason Miller
3.5 million human beings
experience homelessness each year in the United States. Almost a million
are homeless every night.According to Sixty Minutes, the latest extreme
means for teens to alleviate adolescent ennui involves savagely beating
the most vulnerable human beings in the United States, the homeless.This
so-called “bum hunting” has resulted in the murder of at
least one homeless person per month for the past 60 consecutive months
Strange Liberators
- Militarism, Mayhem,
And The Pursuit Of Profit
By Gregory Elich
Book Reiveiw- From war and sanctions to corporate
plunder and the looming threat of climate change, the harrowing accounts
in Gregory Elich's Strange Liberators comprise an essential source for
understanding today's world. This is U.S. foreign policy as seen by
those on the receiving end
Peak Oil
And The Myth Of Sustainability
By Peter Goodchild
If we have already established the premise that
"the human race faces unsolvable problems," the answer is
not to waste further amounts of time and energy in asking whether those
problems exist. The best response is to find ways to survive within
that problematic world
Naseem's
Story
By Azim Sherwani
Naseem Mohammad Shekh is an activist working with
victims of the state -sponsored anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat in 2002.
She is based in the Qasimabad Colony, near Kalol in the Panchmahals
district of Gujarat. Eleven members of her own family, including her
daughter and husband, were slaughtered in this most large-scale wave
of anti-Muslim violence in India in recent times, the victims of which
are yet to get justice
A Prelude
To Malegaon Bomb Blast
By Aleem Faizee
All the Muslims are continually demanding with
their fellow secular non-Muslim friends that impartial and independent
inquiry should be made about not only Malegaon blast but all terror
acts on Indian soil then why government of India is afraid of independent
inquiry is a question in the minds of plenty of people
05 October, 2006
The
Siege Of Gaza Goes On
By John Dugard
In August last year Israel withdrew its settlers
and armed forces from Gaza, claiming that this brought to an end 38
years of military occupation. Of course, it did nothing of the sort.
Israel retained power over Gaza by controlling its air space, sea space
and external borders
The Economy
Of Gaza
By Sara Roy
The pauperization of Gaza's economy is not accidental
but deliberate, the result of continuous restrictive Israeli policies
(primarily closure), particularly since the start of the current uprising
six years ago, and more recently of the international aid embargo imposed
on Palestinians
Rice Hopes To
Exploit The Arab-Iran Divide
By Ehsan Ahrari
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the
Middle East again to shore up Arab support against Iran. If she succeeds
in achieving that objective - and that is a big if - there is likely
to be a major realignment of forces in that area
They Lied
About Iraq's WMDs;
They're Lying About Iran's
By Luciana Bohne
Together with the suspension of "habeas corpus,"
this congressional endorsement of Bush's preparations for war against
Iran should make it perfectly clear to November voters that the US Congress
is an illiberal and warmongering institution in partnership with the
policies of the Bush White House, whether the Republicans or the Democrats
are in power
Soldier Who
Chose Jail Over Iraq Goes Home
By Aaron Glantz
Last week, a 41-year-old U.S. army sergeant Kevin
Benderman from Hinesville, Georgia was released from prison after serving
13 months of a 15-month sentence for refusing to board a plane bound
for Iraq
"No
Blood For Oil"
By David Truskoff
"No Blood For Oil" - Most popular sign
carried all over the world during May, 2003 anti-war demonstrations
Land Of Five
Rivers In Water Crisis
And Water Chaos
By Umendra Dutt
But there is another side of the picture also which
shows doom, distress and destruction is fast engulfing this land of
five waters. It is a Water-Chaos in the Punjab. We can see farmers committing
suicides due to failure of pumps, neighbors in farms killing each other
over the quarrel for irrigation water, Women are bound to fetch water
on their head from as far as 3 kms, and a vast majority of people have
no option other then to drink sub-human water
04 September, 2006
The
Century Of Drought
By Michael McCarthy
One third of the planet will be desert by the year
2100, say climate experts in the most dire warning yet of the effects
of global warming
Global Warming
Devastates Sea Ice In Arctic Circle
By Steve Connor
Sea ice in the Arctic last month melted to its
second lowest monthly minimum in the 29-year record of satellite measurements
The Erosion
Of Democracy And
Freedom In America
By Stephen Lendman
Anyone reading Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen
Here" will be scared wondering if it really can happen here. Anyone
living in the surreal age of George Bush and his out-of-control extremist
neocon administration knows it already has, and we haven't yet found
a way to stop it. This is no time for complacency. We are all now "enemy
combatants."
The "F"
Word And How To Escape From Its Clutches
By Bernard Weiner
So we're here. No more shilly-shallying about whether
America is beginning to resemble a fascist society. We're now plopped
right down into it
New Militias
Push Govt Back Further
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail
Reports of the setting up of U.S.-backed Sunni
militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq.The
occupation forces now back both Shia and Sunni militias in different
areas of the country
Hang Guru,
If That Helps
By Zafar Choudhary
After reading this the campaign must go on for
hanging Afzal Guru if that helps to get rid of a problem
A Trip To Pakistan - Part 1
Heading for the Border
By Yoginder Sikand
Yoginder Sikand works with the Centre for Jawaharlal
Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi. He spent a month [December
2005- January 2006] in Pakistan, his first trip there. He is now writing
about his trip. Countercurrents will be publishing it in weekly installments
The Forgotten
Other India
By Kevin Watkins
The country's booming economy hides a far larger
reality of mass poverty, illiteracy and inequality
Reclaiming
Not "Converting To" The Sufi Way
By Jayshree Kewalramani
The Gujarat Religious Freedom (Amendment) Bill
2006 not only encroaches upon individual space, it further seeks to
perpetuate Hindus (subsuming Jains & Buddhists), Muslims and Christians
as mutually exclusive and, what are worse, hostile categories. It is
not business of the state to determine or monitor the parameters of
individual preference, especially those pertaining to matters of personal
faith
03 September, 2006
Paralysis
Of The Palestinian Authority
By Rima Merriman
The paralysis of the present Palestinian Authority
has simply highlighted to the world and to the Palestinians themselves,
who are persistently in denial about this, the real Wizard-of-Oz nature
of their Authority and public institutions
Road Map
To Nowhere
By Eric Hazan
Interview With Tanya Reinhart
America Must
Destroy The Wall Of Fear And Isolation
By Ibrahim Ebeid
Will America destroy the wall of fear and isolation?
Can we be part of the civilized World? Can we be more productive than
destructive? The answer is with you America!
Why I'm
Banned In The USA
By Tariq Ramadan
For more than two years now, the U.S. government
has barred me from entering the United States to pursue an academic
career. The reasons have changed over time, and have evolved from defamatory
to absurd, but the effect has remained the same: I've been kept out
Enlightened
Musharraf And Bigoted Masses
By Rehman Faiz
Religious minorities are awfully discriminated
in Pakistan and a wave of religious extremism is all embracing across
the land that is evident by the repeated acts of violence, discrimination
and extremism against the people belonging to religious minorities
Mumbai Bomb
Blasts – Intelligence
And Counter-Intelligence
By Sarah Saba
In the era of a neo-globalisation with multiple
actors on the stage to shaping up the future image of the global village,
this becomes very important for the regional actors like India and Pakistan
to immediately agree on an agenda of regional cooperation for progress,
prosperity and better facilities for the people of the two nations
We Haven’t
Even Heard Afzal’s Story
By Nandita Haksar
Mohammad Afzal has been sentenced to death by hanging
for the offence of conspiring to attack the Indian Parliament on December
13, 2001.Can the collective conscience of our people be satisfied if
a fellow citizen is hanged without having a chance to defend himself?
We have not even had a chance to hear Afzal’s story. Hanging Mohammad
Afzal will only be a blot on our democracy
Sri Lankan
War Refugees Live In
Appalling Conditions In southern India
By Ram Kumar and T. Kala
Fleeing death and destruction in Sri Lanka, around
15,000 people have escaped to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu
since January, amid an escalating war on the island between the security
forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
02 September, 2006
Pakistan:Taliban
Back In Business
In Border Areas
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's controversial
peace deal with Pakistan-based Taliban has already resulted in a new
assertiveness by the 'Islamic Scholars' in the Waziristan agency which
borders Afghanistan
Iraq:
The Breaking Point
By Mike Whitney
Whatever transpires, the first phase of the Iraqi
fiasco is nearly over. The Bush administration will be compelled to
protect its interests while limiting the exposure of its troops. They
may choose to minimize their activities to bombing raids and counter-insurgency
operations, further destroying the threadbare fabric of Iraqi society
Torturer-in-Chief
By Ralph Nader
The messianic, authoritarian George W. Bush and
the minds of his cohorts have further collapsed the rule of law with
his bulldozing through a divided Congress more dictatorial powers in
his increasingly self-defined, self-serving and failing "war on
terror."
Bush Uses The
Word Fascism To Mislead
By John Cox
As a historian of Nazi Germany, I have been intrigued
by the widespread use of the term "fascist" in public discourse
over the last few weeks. Since early August, the Bush Administration
has undertaken a coordinated campaign to link "fascism" with
political Islam and with Muslim-based opposition to U.S. policy in the
Middle East
Sixth
Anniversary Of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Intifada Passes Still Unresolved
By Stephen Lendman
September 28 marked the sixth anniversary of former
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the al-Aqsa
Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem (the Noble Sanctuary for Muslims and
Temple Mount for Jews and Christians) that caused the eruption of the
al-Aqsa Intifada still raging today with Palestinians on the painful
receiving end of most of it
Seeing
The Forest For The Trees
By Rima Merriman
The Quartet (along with the international community
generally) has failed to enable the Palestinian president to act credibly
towards the goal of making "progress towards a two-state solution
through dialogue and parallel implementation of obligations."
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