15
May, 2004
The Globe
Grows Darker
By Kenneth Chang
In the second half of the 20th century, the world
became, quite literally, a darker place diminishing sunshine 10% to
37%
A Hard Rain's
A-Gonna Fall
By Geroge Monbiot
The latest disaster movie from Hollywood "The
Day After Tomorrow" has Earth ravaged by a flood and an ice age
caused by climate change. Environmentalist George Monbiot gives his
verdict on the controversy it has stirred
The
Crash Of Civilizations
By Satya Sagar
Between the torture, rape, murder of Iraqi prisoners
by the US army and the gruesome beheading of an American hostage by
Al Qaeda what we have is the very CRASH of Civilizations
1600 Abuse Pictures
Shown In Secret
By Associated Press
The unreleased pictures of prisoner abuse in Iraq
include images of corpses, military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners,
women commanded to expose their breasts and sex acts, including forced
homosexual sex
Who Cares If Iraqi
Prisoners Die - US Soldier's Diary
By Mark Sage
An American soldier's video diary shows her saying
coldly about two Iraqi prisoners who died in custody: "Who cares?
That's two less for me to worry about."
14 May, 2004
BJP
Defeated In India
By Harish Khare
The Indian electorate has decisively rejected the
Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance and has voted
in a Congress-led coalition spearheaded by Sonia Gandhi
Rural India Humbles
Vajpayee
By Edward Luce
"This is a cry of impatience for corrupt and
self-serving politicians to finally start delivering the goods."
Mass Media vs
Mass Reality
By P. Sainath
Elections 2004 brought back to the agenda the issues
of ordinary Indians
Sonia's Journey
From A Small Town In Tuscany
By Randeep Ramesh
Sonia Gandhi's rise from small-town, postwar Italy
to the whitewashed British Raj bungalows of Delhi is a story of love
and death in India's political cauldron, culminating in the most sensational
victory since India became independent in 1947
Let Us Hope The Darkness
Has Passed
By Arundhati Roy
For many of us who feel estranged from mainstream
politics, there are rare, ephemeral moments of celebration. Today is
one of them. The rightwing BJP-led coalition has not just been voted
out of power, it has been humiliated
13 May, 2004
International
Energy Agency Warns Of Crisis
By Bruce Stanley
"If you don't start going out to explore for
and produce new resources, (then) 3 to 5 years from now when you need
them they're not going to be there."
Addicted
To Oil And Violence
By Kurt Vonnegut
Heres what I think the truth is: We are all
addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.
And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are
now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what were
hooked on
'They Abused
Me And Stole My Dignity'
By Rory McCarthy
Saddam Salah al-Rawi, 29, who was held for four
months at the Abu Ghraib jail describes how he spent 18 days naked alone
in a cell, often with his hands and feet bound together, and was frequently
beaten, urinated on and occasionally photographed hooded and naked by
American troops
The story
of Nick Berg - A Tale That Haunts America
By Andrew Buncombe
One senses that Nick Berg's murder has shocked
America in a way perhaps more powerful even than the 700 US soldiers
who have been killed in Iraq
Do You Know
Why They Hate USA?
By Roshnisen Gupta
An open letter to the president of the United States
of America
12 May, 2004
American
Beheaded On Live Video
By Andrew Buncombe and Justin Huggler
A group linked to al-Qa'ida released a video showing
five of its members beheading an American businessman in Iraq, in what
it said was revenge for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail by
US troops. The man's body was found dumped in Baghdad
British Army 'Killing
Civilians'
By Sanjay Suri
The British army has been killing civilians in
areas of southern Iraq that it controls, says a report by Amnesty International
Accounts Of
Atrocities Emerge
From The Rubble Of Falluja
By Dahr Jamail
Along with the daily publication of photos documenting
the atrocities occuring in Abu Ghraib, stories like these underscore
what most people in Iraq now believe -- that the liberators have become
no more than brutal imperialist occupiers of their country
Across America,
War Means Jobs
By Jonathan Weisman
From the manufacturers of armoured vehicles to
apparel manufactures are doing great business. But it wasn't President
Bush's tax cuts, Federal Reserve interest rate policies or even a general
economic turnaround that did the trick. It was war
More Land Grab
For The Wall
By Nick Pretzlik in the West Bank
Two weeks ago 176 dunums of land (176,000 square
meters) were stolen from the beautiful hilltop village of Beit Jalla.
Five thousand olive trees, together with orchards of apricots and apples,
have been confiscated
11 May, 2004
Fallujah
Celebrate As Marines Leave
By Dahr Jamail
After the Marines left, thousands upon thousands
of residents of the defiant city, joined by mujahideen fighters and
US-trained Iraqi police and soldiers, poured into the streets to celebrate
what Fallujans saw as their "victory" over US forces in the
battle for their city
10 May, 2004
Bush's
Rape And Torture Rooms
By Seymour M. Hersh
More revalations on the Abu Ghraib torture chambers
and pictures published on the New Yorker Mag
Imposing A Flag
With Tanks And Guns
By Dahr Jamail
"I have yet to see the new flag
anywhere, aside from seeing it burned in Fallujah. Anywhere it is flown,
it is promptly torn down. Nobody would dare hang one in their car"
Support The Iraqi
ResistanceMovement!
By James Petras
Since the resistance began a year ago
not
a single US intellectual, of the dozens of progressive, critical thinkers
("Not in My Name") has dared to declare their solidarity with
the anti-colonial struggle. "But", they protest, "we
oppose the war" while they scramble to endorse candidate Kerry
who does support the war and even calls for 40,000 more troops to pour
missiles into crowded neighborhoods
A Baghdad Love
Story
By Toufic Haddad
Taking pictures of themselves smiling at hooded
Iraqi prisoners' genitalia, arranging them in naked pyramids, or putting
dog leashes around their necks.... This is the story of Lynndie England
and Spc. Charles Graner.The occupation of Iraq's first love story
Two-Nation
Theory...
By Sheela Reddy
In Gujarat new boundaries segregate the Muslim
and Hindu communities dividing the neighbourhoods virtually into two
nations
09 May, 2004
More
Horrific Pictures To Follow
By Andrew Buncombe
The Bush administration is bracing itself for the
release of new pictures and video footage from Abu Ghraib which show
US soldiers having sex with an Iraqi woman prisoner, troops almost beating
a prisoner
The Pornography
Of Pain
By Joanna Bourke
The pictures of American soldiers humiliating Iraqi
detainees are reminiscent of sadomasochistic porn
Just Go...
By An Unknown Iraqi Girl
I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions
or make suggestions. Fine. Today's lesson: don't rape, don't torture,
don't kill and get out while you can
Savages Of The
21st Century
By Robert Fisk
The American torturers in Iraq are creatures of
our century. For if you are taught to despise your enemy as inhuman,
you will - if you get the chance - cease to be a human yourself
Six Pakistanis
And One Indian Were
Gunned Down to Impress America
By Greg Bearup
Six Pakistanis and one Indian migrant workers who
were trying to get to Greece to find work on the Olympic sites were
picked up Macedonian officials and they were shot in a stage managed
encounter
Another One
Falls in Kashmir,
But What's The Point?
By Bashir Manzar
Leaders like Yasin Malik and Shabir Ahmad Shah
owe an explanation to Kashmiris and will have to answer, if not today
but sometime in future, that what they actually stand for. If they really
believe in non-violence and peaceful means of struggle, why don't they
take the same message to those Kashmiri boys
08 May, 2004
The
Fresh Graves Of Falluja
By Dahr Jamail
Rows and rows of fresh graves fill the football
stadium in Falluja. Many of them are smaller than others. My translator
Nermim reads the gravestones to me: This one is a little girl.
We take another step. And this one is her sister. Next to them
is their mother.
The Immoral war
By Robert Fisk
The Abu Ghraib pictures have the status of those
most damaging snapshots of the Vietnam war: the police chief in Saigon
executing his Vietcong prisoner, the naked girl burnt by napalm, the
pile of bodies at My Lai. For Arabs, read Deir Yassin and the corpses
piled in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Chatila in 1982
Nothing New,
It's Racism
By John Pilger
In boasting openly about killing "rats in
their nest," US marine snipers, who in Falluja shot dead women,
children and the elderly, just as German snipers shot dead Jews in the
Warsaw Ghetto, were reflecting the racism of their leaders
Panic In Bangkok
By Satya Sagar
The massacre at Pattani's Krue Se Mosque could
be a turning point in the history of Thailand with the heightened possibility
of retaliation and real (as opposed to the hitherto imagined) terrorism
in different parts of Thailand including the capital city Bangkok
Irshad Manji:
Islam's Marked Woman
By Johann Hari
Irshad Manji is a lesbian Muslim who says her religion
is stuck in the Middle Ages. The outspoken author tells how she became
a target for assassination
Bhopal's Legacy
By Mark Hertsgaard
As the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal gas
tragedy approaches, Bhopal is back in the news. On April 19, two poor
women, Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, survivors and advocates for
the victims won the most prestigious environmental award given in the
United States
A Guiding Light
Falls On Ramallah
By Sam Bahour
Tonight the deafening silence of Ramallah was broken,
not by the frequent Israeli tanks and jeeps that now enter and exit
the city at will, but rather by the music of the distinguished Daniel
Barenboim, one of the great musicians of our time
07 May, 2004
The
Oil Crunch
By Paul Krugman
Before the start of the Iraq war his media empire
did so much to promote, Rupert Murdoch explained the payoff: "The
greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could
put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil." Crude oil prices
in New York rose to almost $40 a barrel yesterday, a 13-year high
Toward
The Petro-Apocalypse
By Yves Cochet
In a few years, the global production of conventional
oil will fall, while the global demand continues to rise. The resulting
shock of this structural oil famine is inevitable.The alternative is
chaos
The couple
At The Centre Of A Scandal
That Horrified The World
By Andrew Buncombe
A journey into the backyard of the couple Lynndie
England and Charles Graner who gained notoriety by the torture pictures
of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
Hellish Scenes
From A Suicide Bomb Explosion
By Dahr Jamail
"A leg was found 200 meters from the blast
site. Broken glass covers the grass near the line of blasted cars.Ambulance
sirens blared, soldiers yelled at people who got too close, and the
overall feeling of doom and sadness pervaded the hellish scene."
Pictures Of Wounded
Men
Being Shot Censored By TV
By Robert Fisk
As a wounded Iraqi crawls from beneath a burning
truck, an American helicopter pilot tells his commander that one of
three men has survived his night air attack. He received the reply:
"Hit him, hit the truck and him." As the helicopter's gun
camera captures the scene on video, the pilot fires a 30mm gun at the
wounded man, vaporising him in a second
World Food
Prices Set To Rise
By Jim Lobe
U.S. and global consumers, already hit hard by
sustained high oil prices, may be looking at increases in food prices
as well over the coming year, according to an independent Washington-based
research group, the Earth Policy Institute
The Right To
Conversion
By Nivedita Menon
Why is religious conversion any different from
other conversions?
06 May, 2004
A
torture Victim Recalls The Humiliation
By Andrew Buncombe and Justin Huggler
Hayder Sabbar Abd, the man in the hood, who was
stripped, humiliated, beaten and abused by American reservists and interrogators
at Abu Ghraib prison speaks of his humiliation
Ali Baba's Of
Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
Daily life is a struggle for most Iraqis, and
it isn't helped by the brutal occupation or by the corrupt police department
who act like Ali Babas (thieves) of the street
Biddu: The Struggle
Against The Wall
By Yediot Aharonot
A unique struggle is going on the Palestinian village
of Biddu. Israelis and Palestinians jointly protest against the building
of the separation wall dividing the village
Gujarat-Lengthening
Shadows Of Trident
By Ram Puniyani
The tragic affairs of Gujarat are just a mirror
to our democracy. How if unguarded, the fascist tendencies can grow
and engulf the democracy lock sock and barrel. Gujarat is very close
to 'Fascism in one state' as far as Indian nation is concerned
Tharu Autonomy: When
The Slaves
Rise Up On The Nepal Plains
By A World to Win News Service
The Tharus, an aboriginal people who inhabit the
western plains of Nepal are asserting themselves and winning back their
lost under the programme of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Killings At Pattani's
Krue Se Mosque
And A Cover Up Enquiry
The commission of inquiry inquiring into the killings
at Pattani's Krue Se mosque is restrictive, unrepresentative and inconsistent
with international standards on independence and impartiality for holding
such inquiries
05 May, 2004
Global
Warming's Bottom Line
By Mindy Lubber
Global warming is a reality that is already putting
the financial pinch on weather-dependent businesses. Despite mounting
scientific evidence, most of the world's largest companies have been
operating as if global warming is fiction
The Horror Story
Of Sadiq Zoman
By Dahr Jamail
American soldiers detained Zoman at his residence
in Kirkuk on July 21, 2003 when they raided the Zoman family home.More
than a month later, on August 23, US soldiers dropped Zoman off, already
comatose, at a hospital in Tikrit where he is still lying in coma
Abu Ghuraib
Prisoners Speak of 'Torture'
Ex-detainees say acts of abuse were too immoral
to talk about
Washington
Fields Mercenary Army In Iraq
By Harvey Thompson
According to recent estimates there are around
15,000 private bodyguards and security personnel operating inside Iraq,
of which at least 6,000 are believed to be armedmaking them the
second biggest military presence after the US Army
Chinese Capitalism:Industrial
Powerhouse
Or Sweatshop Of The World?
By John Chan
The combination of plentiful labour, low wages,
low taxation and brutal police-state repression made China one of the
most attractive investment sites for transnational corporations
Prawn Farms Destroying
The Life of Fishworkers
By Goldy M. George
"The prawn farms have ruined our lives. Since
the prawn farms are built the water is poured into our farms and villages.
Our crops are destroyed. Even we are unable to fish properly since they
destroy the fishes "
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Lives On
By Scott Baldauf
Nearly 20 years after an accident at a Union Carbide
chemical plant killed thousands here, there are signs that a second
tragedy is in the making. New environmental studies indicate that tons
of toxic material dumped at the old plant have now seeped into the groundwater,
affecting a new generation of Bhopal citizens
Outsourcing
Religion
By Siddharth Srivastava
A mix of economics and a shortage of priests in
Western Europe and the United States have fueled the outsourcing of
the "holy mass" to parishes in the south Indian state of Kerala
04 May, 2004
Psychodynamics
Of Occupation
By Stephen Soldz
What happened at Abu Graib prison is the direct
consequence of the logic of occupation and the planners and organizers
of that occupation bear primary responsibility
Living In A Bubble
By Uri Avnery
Palestine and Israel each live sealed in its closed
bubble, cut off from the other, and, indeed, from the world at large.
Inside its bubble, each people cultivates their grievances, the conviction
of being the ultimate victim, the memory of the injustices done to them,
the anger at the other, cruel, murderous and detestable people
A History Of
Racial Tension
By Pius Kamau
"In Aurora, we run into each other in corridors
and the past is unfurled before us. But there's no bitterness in me,
only a wish they would open their minds to a world that's fluid and
not always divided into rigid castes." The personal account of
an African American doctor, how uppercaste Indian Hindu's treat Africans
Criminal Case Against
Modi Launched in Gujarat
Gujarat Chief Minister to face Genocide, Torture
and Crimes
against Humanity charges from UK family
03 May, 2004
Subcontracting
The War
By James Conachy
Operating behind a veil of state and corporate
secrecy military work is being subcontracted to private security firms.
It is one of the most outrageous forms of war profiteering taking place
under the auspices of the Bush administration
Indians Back
Home From Iraq After
Ordeal In U.S. Camp
By Ignatius Pereira
After facing great difficulties, four natives of
Velichakala, Kerala state, India, who worked as kitchen assistants at
U.S. military camp in Iraq, escaped from there and reached home today
Torture At Abu
Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up
does the responsibility go?
02 May, 2004
Antarctica
Will Soon Be The Only Place To Live
By Geoffrey Lean
Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable
continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked
Iraqis Declare
Victory Over U.S. In Falluja
Many returning Falluja residents found their homes
damaged or destroyed, but saw the absence of American soldiers in their
city as a victory over the U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq
1,361 Iraqis
Killed In April
By Lee Keath
A count by The Associated Press found that around
1,361 Iraqis were killed from April 1 to April 30 _ 10 times the figure
of at least 136 U.S. troops who died during the same period
Apportioning
The Blame Of Communal Riots
By Ram Puniyani
The argument that during BJP regime only Gujarat
riots have taken place while during Congress regimes thousands of riots
have taken place is totally misplaced
01 May, 2004
Lured
By Dollars Indian Soldiers Are In Iraq
By Siddharth Srivastava
In a very discreet operation, US and British security
sub-contractors are seeking out Indian ex-servicemen known for their
professionalism and discipline for deployment in Iraq
Bush Can't
Count On The Saudis
By Marshall Auerback
The hope that Saudis would try to fine-tune oil
prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move that would
favor Bush's reelection could be very misplaced
Mutiny In Iraq
By Naomi Klein
The last month of inflammatory US aggression in
Iraq has inspired what can only be described as a mutiny: Waves of soldiers,
workers and politicians under the command of the US occupation authority
are suddenly refusing to follow orders and abandoning their posts