31
August, 2004
New
Evidence Of Recent Torture In Iraq
By Lisa Ashkenaz Croke
Shereef Akeel, an attorney representing former
detainees says his recent fact-finding mission to Baghdad uncovered
dozens of cases of physical and psychological abuse, sexual humiliation,
religious desecration and rape in ten US-run prisons throughout occupied
Iraq
Days Of Plunder
By Zainab Bahrani
The Occupation forces are doing little to prevent
the widespread looting and destruction of Iraq's world-famous historical
sites
Illegal Logging In
The Solomon Islands
By Chin Ching Soo
The Voko people of the Iriri village have been
an inspirational development story for Solomon Islands and community
development workers world-wide. For over the past 20 years the Voko
people have pursued sustainable development and have rejected exploiting
their timber resources for the sake of protecting their environment
Religion,
Politics And The Modern State
By Ram Puniyani
Last two decades have witnessed a constant invocation
of religion in the arena of politics.There are many an arguments , which
regard Secularism as a western concept. This stream is joined by an
unexpected quarter of Post Modernists
The Impact Of
Fahrenheit 9/11
By John Berger
Fahrenheit 9/11 is astounding. Not so much as a
film - although it is cunning and moving - but as an event.The film,
considered as a political act, may be a historical landmark
27 August, 2004
First
Signs Of Global Decline Of Oil?
By Adam Porter
New statistics are claiming that oil production in 18 producer countries
has passed its peak and is declining faster than previously thought:
At about 1.14 million barrels a day
Global
Warming Means More Frost-Free Days
Frost will become less and less common across much
of the world as global warming accelerates. The latest of a series of
reports on the real-life effects of climate change shows fewer days
and nights when the air temperature dips below freezing
Abu Ghraib
Abuse More Wide Spread
By Elise Ackerman
The Fay-Jones report revealed that the incidents
of abuse - 44 in all - far exceeded the amount of mistreatment shown
in the photographs and included 24 serious incidents of physical and
sexual abuse
Abu Ghraib: Ordinary
Folk or Human Aberrations?
By Linda S. Heard
Although the Abu Ghraib torturers should be held
to account, those further up the chain of command, responsible for the
culture in which they worked, should not be exempt
26 August, 2004
Twin
Kufa Attack Kills Peaceful Marchers
By Aljazeera
Two attacks in and around Kufa, including one on
a mosque has left at least 47 people dead and scores wounded
Oil Price Hike
Blessing in Disguise
By Gwynne Dyer
The only short-term hope of slowing the global
warming is a steep drop in the use of oil and gas and the only
thing that is going to make that happen is a steep rise in price
WTO
Tricks
By Devinder Sharma
The July 31 WTO framework agreement, agreed upon
by 147- members in Geneva has drawn a structure that needs to be implemented
for furthering the Doha Development Agenda.No sooner the details began
to be analysed, it became clear that the developing countries had not
only been duped but robbed in the daylight
BJP's New Stunt
By Praful Bidwai
The Bharatiya Janata Party has proved to be a bad,
terribly peevish, loser. It still behaves as if the last Parliament
election were somehow stolen from it
25 August, 2004
Gambling
For Greater Israel
By Jonathan Freedland
Sharon knows it's time to cash in his chips and
claim the prize of Greater Israel, but his party wants to gamble on
A Very Special
Kind Of War
By Uri Avnery
What's going on in occupied territories is a very
special war, because it confers rights only on the fighters of one side.
On the other side, there is no war, no fighters, and no rights of fighters,
but only criminals, terrorists, murderers. Why?
Veer Savarkar
: Brave By Half
By Ram Puniyani
This article was written when Savarka's potrait
was unveiled in the Parliament. The article is republished in the context
of the latest controversy involving Manishankar Aiyar and the Sangh
Parivar
24 August, 2004
Start
Learning To Live Without Oil
By George Monbiot
The Age of Entropy is here. We should all now be
learning how to live without oil
Public Power In The
Age Of Empire
By Arundhati Roy
Transcript of full speech by Arundhati Roy in San
Francisco, California on August 16th, 2004
The Warlords Of
America
By John Pilger
Most of the US's recent wars were launched by Democratic
presidents. Why expect better of Kerry? The debate between US liberals
and conservatives is a fake; Bush may be the lesser evil
Iraqi Editor's
Experience In US Custody
By Ahmed Janabi
Dr Muthana al-Dhari, editor-in-chief of al-Basaer
newspaper and media officer of the Association of Muslim Scholars speaks
how he was picked by the American military in Baghdad and interrogated
in custody
Nader's Raid
By Andrew Buncombe
Ralph Nader holds a unique position in American
politics. Hated by Democrats, adored by his hardcore supporters and
now championed by trouble-making Republicans, the 70-year-old consumer
rights presidential candidate represents many different things to different
people
India's Intifada
By Satya Sagar
The rest of India should oppose what is happening
to their brethren in the north-east as the Indian State is perpetrating
atrocities in their name
23 August, 2004
US
Wrecks Middle East Peace
By Conal Urquhart
The US was yesterday accused by Palestinian leaders
of destroying hopes for peace in the Middle East by giving its covert
support to Israel's expansion of controversial settlements in the West
Bank
A
Trip To Najaf
By Helen Williams
Helen Williams writes about an eventful trip to
Najaf
Atttack On
Dalits At Gumka
By Tamaskar Tandon and Goldy M. George
On 16th August 2004 nearly 250 Dalits were attacked
by caste Hindus numbering about 800 at the village of Gumka, in the
Chattisgarh state of India. More than 150 people including 35-40 women
are injuried in this gruesome attack. The police and local administration
is taking a lethargic attitude towards the culprits. Here is a fact
finding report
22 August, 2004
Iraqi
Soccer Team Gives Bush The Boot
By Dave Zirin
In an incredible piece by Grant Wahl on Sports
Illustrated.com, the Iraqi Olympic Soccer team has issued a stinging
rebuke to George W. Bush's attempt to use them as election year symbols
Oil
Market Outlook Mired In Confusion
By Adam Porter
The recent announcement by Saudi Arabia that it
plans to raise output by 1.3 million barrels per day , was trumpeted
across the media. Seemingly this announcement was to ease market pressure
and prices
Kufa Still
Belongs To The Mehdi
By Donald Macintyre
Kufa, Najaf's sister city is totally in the control
of the Mehdi Army, who patrol the streets with AK-47s, rocket launchers
and light machine-guns, many of them with ammunition belts draped over
their shoulders
A Taste Of
Reality From Baghdad
By Helen Williams
Helen Williams who is living in Baghdad writes
her impressions of a city ravaged by war and sanctions
Gujarat: The
Wheels Of Justice Get Moving
By Jyotirmaya Sharma
Faced with a hostile Centre, a determined Supreme
Court, and an unforgiving set of liberal activists, the Narendra Modi
regime will not have it easy in the weeks ahead. Some of the affidavits
filed in the riot cases too show up the Gujarat Government
Let's Not
Forget Godhra
By Siddharth Varadarajan
Two years after 58 people were killed on board
the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, the incident is still shrouded in mystery.
It is high time a Central probe was launched into the case
21 August, 2004
What
Is So "Radical" About Moqtada Sadr?
By Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi
Calling Moqtada Sadr a "radical" is not
only a misrepresentation of his policies, it is an insult to all those
who oppose foreign occupation and domination, religious in-fighting
and regional instability
Medics Involved
In Torture At Abu Ghraib
By Brian Dominick
According to charges made by an ethicist in a major
medical journal, military physicians and medics in Iraq have been complicit
or actively engaged in some of the worst known incidents of cruelty,
torture and murder
The Trouble
With Electing Caesar
By John Chuckman
America's campaign for Emperor is becoming nasty
Still Not Getting
By In Bush's America
By Joel Wendland
According to recent statistics provided by the
U.S. Census Bureau, the gap between the rich and poor since 1967 has
grown by 75 percent. Approximately 26 million households combined to
earn only 3.5 percent of the total income earned by people in the US
Say Yes To
Affirmative Action
By Praful Bidwai
India must emulate and adapt affirmative action
methods from the US and post-apartheid South Africa too. To start with,
we must ensure jobs for Dalits and Adivasis roughly in proportion to
their share in the population
20 August, 2004
What
Does Muqtada Al-Sadr Want?
By Juan Cole
Juan Cole lists Muqtada Al-Sadr's position from
the sermons and interviews he gave in the past 16 months outlining his
goals exactly
Israel And US Elections
By Uri Avnery
Right from the beginning, the State of Israel has
been critically affected by events in the United States. If America
sneezes, Israel catches cold, is the local version of the universal
saying. This is particularly true in the run-up to American elections
America's
Moral Dilemma
By Andrew Gumbel
In one world they were stripping, abusing and raping
Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, in another world they were despairing
over the moral deprivation of an exposed nipple. It has been impossible
to ponder the issue of public morality in America these past few months
without wondering whether we aren't living in weird parallel universes
Imprisoned
Decency
By Arjan El Fassed
Palestinian prisoners in four different Israeli
prisons started an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday to press for better
living conditions of the nearly 8,000 Palestinian prisoners
Open
Source And Post- Capitalistic Society
By Libervisco
These global networked movements, such as open
source and free software movement are actually forming a third industrial
revolution which may crush capitalism as a social structure and finally
bring the power to the majority and support the unrestricted growth
of technology
When Priests
Preside Over Newsrooms
By Chandrabhan Prasad
Editors, columnists and anchors must be contemporary
in their knowledge of events taking place in the world. If they are
ignorant of American diversity, then they are terribly incompetent as
media professionals. If they are aware of it but afraid of diversity,
then they are terribly casteist
19 August, 2004
Now,
Iran Flexes The Muscles
By Aljazeera
Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani has warned
that Iran might launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent an attack on
its nuclear facilities.He said this in an interview with Aljazeera TV
on Wednesday
Muqtada Al-Sadr:
A Voice Of Resistance
By Ghali Hassan
The recent sectarian and ethnic tensions in Iraq
are not the product of deep-seated cultural differences. They are the
product of Western imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East
As Help The
Needy Charity Trial Nears,
Case Further Politicizes
By Madeleine Baran
In the eighteen months since Central New York oncologist
Rafil Dhafir was arrested and charged with violating the US embargo
against Iraq, he has been sitting in a Syracuse jail, ignored by most
of the national media, as prosecutors continue to add charges threatening
him with a maximum sentence of almost 300 years in prison
Harsud Lost
Too
By Angana Chatterji
"They stood there, the guards, and ordered
me to tear down my home. It felt like my bones were breaking"
18 August, 2004
Sharon
Rips Up 'Road-Map'
By Eric Silver
Israel issued tenders yesterday for 1,001 new homes
in West Bank settlements, despite its commitment to a building freeze
under the international "road-map" for peace. It is expected
to publish another 633 within the next few months
Dehumanisation
Of The Other
By Ghali Hassan
Whether in the US, Britain or in Australia, the
common enemy is the same kind of human who must be despised
and excluded. Today it is the Arabs; at other times it is
the Vietnamese. Negative images of the others are fuel for
Western colonial war machine
World Faces Population
Explosion
By John Vidal
The world is heading for wildly uneven population
swings in the next 45 years, with many rich countries "downsizing"
during a period in which almost all developing nations will grow at
breakneck speed
Najaf Prompts
Outrage, Talk Of Secession
Among Iraqi Politicians
By Lisa Ashkenaz Croke
From the disrupted Iraqi National Conference in
Baghdad to the low-key threat of secession from Shi'ite leaders in Southern
Iraq, the entire country's future may be determined by events in the
holy city of Najaf
Technology
For A New Economic System
By Howard Rheingold & Robert D. Hof
The tech guru Howard Rheingold sees a "new
economic system" in the unconscious cooperation embodied by Google
links and Amazon lists
17 August, 2004
Hugo Chávez
Triumphs
By Sharmini Peries
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, first elected
in 1998 made democratic history today in a triumphant defeat of the
recall referendum on his Presidency
The
Importance Of Hugo Chávez
By Tariq Ali
Chavez' victory will have repercussions beyond
the borders of Venezuela. It is a triumph of the poor against the rich
and it is a lesson that Lula in Brazil and Kirchner in Argentina should
study closely
Najaf - City
Of Defiance
By Donald Macintyre
They came from across Iraq, marching in solidarity
with Shia brothers. Civilians they bear no arms, for the moment
anyway who are willing die on the steps of the Imam Ali shrine.
Thehuman shields have arrived in Najaf
The Bad or The
Terrible?
By George Monbiot
Those who insist Nader supporters should vote Kerry
are holding back US democratisation
16 August, 2004
Promises
Not Kept: 2000 Die Every Day In Darfur
By Norm Dixon
Despite their public resolve and care
for the people of western Sudan, Western governments are allowing more
than 2000 hungry and sick Darfuris to die every single day for want
of urgently needed food, medicines and shelter
Tread
Softly In Sudan
By Eric Margolis
The worst of Darfur's crisis appears over. Let
humanitarian groups do their work. Continuing U.S. attempts to overthrow
Sudan's government are only making things worse. Allow Africa to solve
its own problems
Anarchy,
Not Chaos In The West Bank
By Amira Haas
There's no theft in Nablus. Maybe here and there,
but it's not a phenomenon. About half the residents of the town have
been impoverished by the tough closure, and the classic tension between
the refugee camps has intensified
Acid Test
For Being Women
By Ammu Joseph
Nearly 280 women were killed and 750 injured through
acid attacks in Pakistan in 2002, according to Human Rights Watch. The
Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh recorded 485 such attacks in
2002 alone