WAR is NOT the ANSWER
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Horrors of the Beslan atrocity Europe's help for Russia is now vital
[UK Observer, 09/05/04:
More Murder Is Not The Answer] Yesterday, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, said that he considered the event a declaration of 'full-scale war' against his nation. But depraved terrorism of this type does not come unannounced. Russian forces fighting the two wars in Chechnya have distinguished themselves with their own brand of brutality - killing, torturing, maiming and kidnapping with equal abandon and disregard for the rule of law.
Putin's policy of a draconian crackdown and his failure to even countenance a limited degree of self-determination in some parts of the Caucasus has been a policy doomed to fail.
Pentagon spy investigation goes beyond Israeli connection
[Knight Ridder, 08/30/04:
This Republican administration has ugly "patriots"] The investigation...has focused on...civilians in the secretary of defense’s office...In addition...FBI investigators in recent weeks have conducted interviews to determine whether Pentagon officials gave classified U.S. intelligence to a leading Iraqi exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, which might in turn have passed it on to Iran....The link, if any, between the two leak investigations remains unclear....But they both center on the office of Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, the Pentagon’s No. 3 official.
Howard fury over White House ban
[UK Independent, Francis Elliott and Rupert Cornwell, 08/29/04:
The British Tory (conservative) Leader wants to impeach Blair for same offenses that Bush is even more guilty of] Mr Howard hit back after it emerged that his calls for Mr Blair to stand down over the Iraq war have enraged the US President. The simmering feud was laid bare yesterday as it emerged that Karl Rove, Mr Bush's most powerful official, told the Tory leader that he "could forget about meeting the President".
War with Russia is close, president of Georgia declares
[AFP, 08/27/04:
Could the crashed Russian airliners be related to this?] Denouncing military aid from Russia to rebels in Georgia’s break-away region of South Ossetia, [Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili] stressed that he had "no intention of provoking it [a war]" and called for an international conference to discuss the status of South Ossetia.Chile Court Strips Pinochet of Immunity
Margaret Thatcher's Son faces jail over alleged link to African coup plot
[Independent, Basildon Peta and Kim Sengupta, 08/26/04:
To the fascist oligarchy, like the mafia, laws are less a hindrance to seizing an opportunity] The son of the former prime minister Margaret Thatcher is accused of funding an attempted coup by mercenaries to overthrow the ruler of the African nation and replace him with an exiled opposition leader, in return for lucrative oil contracts.
Now for the politics of last resort - impeach Tony Blair Having duped us into war, the prime minister must be held to account
[Guardian, Adam Price, 08/26/04:
Meanwhile the US press and Congress can't think of anything 'bad' to say about Bush] [Blair] exaggerated, distorted, suppressed and manipulated the information for political ends. This was an organised deception to win over a sceptical parliament and public to the military action he had long ago promised his ally Mr Bush.The evidence for Blair's duplicity is overwhelming.
Pakistan serving as Taliban sanctuary
[Pakistan Daily Times, Khalid Hasan, 08/25/04:
US Puppet Karzai's fixed election will be threatened] The diplomats were said to have been dismissive of President Pervez Musharraf’s assurance to visiting Afghan leader Hamid Karzai that his country would not allow Islamic militants to disrupt the Afghan election from Pakistani soil. “They are training, financing and organising these operations on Pakistani soil,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul, the Afghan capital. “There is evidence from people who have been picked up in Afghanistan that they were being trained in Pakistan.”US warplanes pound Najaf
[Aljazeera, Amira Hass, 08/25/04:
Portrayed as Iragis vs. Iraqis, it's really the US military making a heavy and bloody assault]
US AC-130 gunships have resumed an aerial assault on al-Mahdi Army positions in Najaf as Muqtada al-Sadr aides say they want to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff.... A witness reported seeing Iraqi National Guard troops in two white pickup trucks appear for the first time in the battle zone.
Gandhi's Grandson to Kick off
Unarmed Palestinian Campaign
[Haaretz, Amira Hass, 08/19/04:
Go get'um Gandhi!]
The grandson of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, is to kick off a Palestinian campaign for an unarmed, popular struggle against the Israeli occupation.Iran warns of first strike on Israel
[Pakistan Daily Times, BRIAN DONNELLY, 08/19/04:
If Iran's nuke plant is attacked, retaliation would be war against both Israel and the US] “If Israel fires one missile at Bushehr atomic power plant, it should permanently forget about its Dimona nuclear centre, where it produces and keeps its nuclear weapons, and Israel would be responsible for the terrifying consequence of this move,” General Muhammad Baqer Zolqadr said.
Blair’s BBC clash was like ‘worst days of communism
[The Herald, BRIAN DONNELLY, 08/19/04:
Brave paper beats up on Blair for intimidating Independent Media] THE Blair government was last night likened to the worst of the former eastern European communist states over its clash with the BBC on the Andrew Gilligan affair and Iraq.
Lesson from Venezuela on what to do with oil
[The Herald, Joan McAlpine, 08/19/04:
Bush & Co. will be confused by this writer] This is a story of how to bring true democracy to an oil-rich country. It even has a happy ending, for it involves no vast armies, no death squads, murders and only a minuscule amount of mayhem. George Bush could learn from it...
Iraqi senate already shaped before vote
[Pakistan Daily Times, 08/18/04:
Sounds like the forthcoming election in the United States®] BAGHDAD: Furious national conference delegates accused the main political parties of hijacking a scheduled vote on Tuesday for a new interim legislature for Iraq, saying most members were chosen long ago in secret.The Ultimate Stupidity
The Attack on Najaf
[Counterpunch, GARY LEUPP, 08/17/04:
Bush-Rumsfeld get it wrong, AGAIN] I have been thinking for months that if those commanding U.S. forces in Iraq really wanted to perform the ultimate stupidity, and ratchet up exponentially the degree of hatred they face in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world---then they'd surely attack the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, or be drawn into a situation where they'd damage it.
1.3 billion reasons to worry about oil China to rival U.S. as oil guzzler
[Newsday, EDITORIAL, 08/17/04:
China to have more cars than U.S. by 2030, and India's economy is growing fast too]
With 1.3 billion people, a phenomenal rate of economic growth, and an insatiable consumer demand for cars, China will soon come into direct conflict with the United States over oil, the world's most valuable and increasingly scarce industrial commodity.
The pressure on supply will inevitably jack up prices to levels that would make today's motorists and electricity customers blanch.
UN/World condemns massacre of Tutsi refugees in UN camp
[UK Guardian, 08/16/04:
Maybe George Bush is part Hutu?]
The UN security council has condemned the massacre last week of more than 160 Tutsi Congolese refugees in Burundi [by a Hutu rebel group]. Most of the victims were women, children and babies, shot dead and burned...
Chavez wins yet another battle with referendum triumph, 58% to 42%
[Sydney Morning Herald, 08/16/04:
The victory margin was by 58 to 42 per cent; Fireworks lit up the night sky in Caracas...]
Venezuela's...President Hugo Chavez won yet another battle today, fending off a recall after earlier surviving a [Bush-backed] coup and a ruinous strike aimed at wrenching him from power. [Related: Carter Says Human Rights Respected in Venezuela; Update: Observers endorse Venezuela vote, but US State Department has stubbornly refused to acknowledge the Chavez victory]
India's rise tipped to cause world power shift The eventual impact of India's rise will be much greater than the headline-grabbing story of China
[Sydney Morning Herald, Louise Williams, 08/14/04:
“The eventual impact of India's rise will be much greater than the headline-grabbing story of China”]
India's rising economic power, coupled with China's growth, will shift the geographic distribution of global power to Asia and force a restructuring of Western-dominated international bodies, right up to the United Nations Security Council, an Australian study says.Rev. Moon's submarines, sold to Kim Jong-Il: nuke threat?
[Gorenfeld.net, John Gorenfeld, 08/11/04:
Like Chalibi, Rev. Moon is "a great friend of US Republicans"] ...Where does Kim [Jong-Il] get those wonderful toys? Funny story: According to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents from 1994 (which you can browse here), they were furnished by Reverend Moon. Robert Parry, the ace reporter who broke the Iran-Contra story, obtained these files through the Freedom of Information Act while writing his 2000 story, 'Rev. Moon, North Korea and the Bushes,' about Moon's gifts to the Communist regime. Read on, if you dare.VENEZUELA FLUORIDATED
[GregPalst.com, 08/11/04:
Why were anti-terrorist budgeted dollars spent on data collection on citizens of S. American countries?] ...Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair.
They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.
Why Hugo Chávez is heading for a stunning victory
[Guardian, Richard Gott, 08/07/04:
The expected Chávez victory will be the (mostly fascist) opposition's third defeat in as many years] To the dismay of opposition groups in Venezuela, and to the surprise of international observers gathering in Caracas, President Hugo Chávez is about to secure a stunning victory on August 15, in a referendum designed to lead to his overthrow.Hiroshima mayor slams US plan to develop small nukes
[Reuters, 08/07/04:
The idiocy of this administration keeps setting new highs as stock markets set new lows] Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba made the remarks at a ceremony attended by about 40,000 people, including Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plus survivors and relatives of victims of the world's first atomic attack.
"The egocentric world view of the US government is reaching extremes," Akiba told the annual memorial ceremony at the city's Peace Park, near where the bomb was dropped. "Ignoring the United Nations and its foundation of international law, the US has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more 'usable'."
Worst day of violence since Iraqi handover sees more than 100 killed
[BBC, 07/29/04:
In the US there's not much coverage of Iraq anymore: the "corporate media" is limiting reports of Iraq's killing-fields to help Bush's (re)election chances] The worst day of violence since the handover of sovereignty exactly a month ago saw more than 100 people killed across Iraq.
Doctors Without Borders leaving Afghanistan After 5 staff members killed in June, aid organization says it's too dangerous
[AP-Toronto Star, STEPHEN GRAHAM, 07/28/04:
Just one of the countries Bush The Destroyer bombed back to the stone-age] The Nobel Prize-winning relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) announced today it was withdrawing from Afghanistan because of the slayings of five of its staff in June, fear of further attacks and its frustration with the U.S. military.The group complained that American-led forces were using humanitarian aid "for political and military motives," though it didn't elaborate. It also said it was unhappy with the Afghan government's investigation into the June 2 shootings — claimed by Taliban militants.
Opium trade booms in 'basket-case' Afghanistan
[UK Independent, Colin Brown and Andrew Clennell, 07/28/04:
The Taliban had almost stopped production. But now greater supply cuts costs and increases drug use worldwide! An unintended consequence?] The opium harvest in Afghanistan this year will be one of the biggest on record, the Foreign Office said yesterday, and it has triggered a flood of heroin on Britain's streets.The revelation will prove highly embarrassing for Tony Blair, who cited cutting the supply of heroin as one of the main reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001...
Hard Reign
[Moscow Times, Chris Floyd, 07/25/04:
Is Bush puppet Allawi better than Chalabi or Hussein?] ...But the actual facts buried underneath the high-toned harrumphing leave no doubt that both [Bush & Blair] deliberately and willingly manipulated the caveat-laden assessments of their intelligence services in order to whip up a war fever based on threats that they knew were exaggerated or nonexistent.
UK troops 'ready to go to Sudan'
[BBC, 07/25/04:
A More adult nation acts to stop genocide] The UK would be able to send 5,000 troops to Sudan to help ease the humanitarian crisis, the Army's most senior general has said.Dilip Hiro on the Kurdish crisis
[TomDispatch, Tom Engelhardt, 07/23/04:
"Plan B" may erupt into civil war in Iraq that could spread throughout the region] The Israelis have...added...to a Kurdish situation in northern Iraq that is, as Dilip Hiro points out below, explosive. Any such explosion could draw all sorts of states into conflict. Hiro, a veteran Middle Eastern analyst, surveys the Kurdish situation at this perilous moment and suggests what the shape of a future Iraqi civil war might look like and where it might begin.
Venezuela may
suspend oil shipments to US
[PetroleumWorld, Elio Ohep, 07/23/04:
The threat stems from foreknowledge that a 2nd Bush coup attempt is planned] Venezuela`s Energy and Mining Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Wednesday that Venezuelan government may suspend oil shipments to the United States in case of an eventual conflict with that country, according Xinhua news agency.US casualty rate high since handover Long guerrilla war is feared in Iraq
[Boston Globe, Bryan Bender, 07/20/04:
This headline runs counter to broadcast coverage...is the Iraq War story banished until after the election?] Nearly as many US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq in the first half of July as in all of June, even as Iraqi insurgents seem to have shifted focus from attacking US targets to aiming instead at Iraqi security forces and government officials.Allawi shot prisoners in cold blood: witnesses
[Sydney Morning Herald, Paul McGeough, 07/19/04:
Fits the pattern: it's usual and expected that Republicans install fascist thugs, just as they installed and pampered Hussein for decades] The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Herald, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the centre and he did not carry a gun.
But the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence. [Update: Iraqi Human Rights Minister to investigate Allawi execution claims]
Blair's Oft Repeated Claim of '400,000 Graves' of Murdered Iraqis is Revealed as a Lie
[Mail & Guardian, 07/19/04:
How many other grotesquely inflated claims and outright lies will be revealed in coming months?] Downing Street has admitted to The Observer newspaper that repeated claims by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that "400 000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves" is untrue, and only about 5 000 corpses have so far been uncovered
UK's Attorney General Says He Warned Blair that Iraq War Was Likely Illegal
[UK Independent, Severin Carrell and Andy McSmith, 07/19/04:
The revelation will intensify pressure on Blair to publish all Lord Goldsmith's legal advice leading up to the war] Tony Blair was warned before the Iraq war by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, that a UN court could rule Britain's invasion unlawful, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.How we got it so wrong in Iraq
[Information Clearinghouse, Scott Ritter, 07/19/04:
Some good history of coup planning that should have remained the focus instead of war] Both the Senate committee and the Butler Commission appear to take pains to underscore their shared findings that the failures of intelligence regarding Iraq's missing WMD rest largely with the analysts and intelligence collection managers, on both sides of the Atlantic... Pointing a critical finger at these analysts and managers is fair; [but] limiting the scope of criticism to these failures is not.
Oops! Bush-Blair Invaded The Wrong Country!
[Sunday Herald, Jenifer Johnston, 07/18/04:
Not that war is ever the right answer, but Bush & Blair slaughtered thousands of the wrong civilians and drafted teenage soldiers] [ A US government official] said: “If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran.”
[Related, from Pakistan Daily Times: 9/11 commission to implicate Iran] Shocker! Blair Admits Hutton Report was a Whitewash Blair & Bush knew the evidence for WMD was faked!
[UK Independent, Colin Brown, Kim Sengupta and Andrew Grice, 07/17/04:
Bush & Blair should be tried for pre-meditated mass-murder] In an astonishing admission after the disclosure of the cover-up in yesterday's Independent, Tony Blair's official spokesman said MI6 decided not to tell the Hutton inquiry - set up to investigate the death of the government scientist David Kelly - that crucial intelligence on Saddam's chemical and biological weapons was unsound. The security services, he said, felt it was "too sensitive'' to be made public.
US Christian Right's Grip on Middle East Policy
[Asia Times, Colin Brown, Kim Sengupta and Andrew Grice, 07/17/04:
"Jesus" tells them what to do at "prayer meetings" in the White House, Justice Department and the Pentagon] The Reverend Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State recently quipped: "The good news is that the Christian coalition is fundamentally collapsing. The bad news is that the people who ran it are all in the government." He noted, for example, that when he goes to the Justice Department, he keeps seeing lawyers formerly employed by prominent right-wing fundamentalist preacher Pat Robertson.
10 years after Rwandan genocide, Sudan may be next, humanitarian groups say
[Canada's Canoe, GEORGE GEDDA, 07/17/04:
They're just black and poor so who cares...] The black African tribes of Darfur province in western Sudan have faced murder, displacement, pillage, razing of villages and other crimes committed by Arab militias known as janjaweed.
The dictionary defines genocide as "the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group." The U.S. government is reviewing whether Darfur qualifies for the designation. [Upon which determination, which they seem to be delaying, the UN and US would be treaty-bound to take action.]
[Related: Indictments of US & UN inaction; Send a letter to your representatives!; or WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR]
Now Blair cites regime change as basis for war. So, was it legal?
[UK Independent, Andrew Grice and Ben Russell, 07/15/04:
Blair and Bush are seemingly PERMITTED to commit war crimes! Aren't they special!] Tony Blair shifted his grounds for going to war in Iraq yesterday when he said that Saddam Hussein's humanitarian record had tipped the balance in favour of military action against him.
Afghan warlords 'bigger threat than Taliban'
[UK Guardian, Duncan Campbell, 07/13/04:
Opium crops are doing well though! That's the good news!] The warlords and private militias who were once regarded as the west's staunchest allies in Afghanistan are now a greater threat to the country's security than the Taliban, according to the interim president, Hamid Karzai [a former Unocal employee].World court rules Israeli barrier illegal
[AP, 07/11/04:
Bush's US (as distinct from MY country) will likely veto any action against Israel in the UN Security Council] "This decision calls on Israel to destroy this wall and desist from further actions," said Ambassador Yahya Mahmassani, the Arab League's representative at the United Nations. "Israel is in violation of international law, of international legitimacy, and the General Assembly now will be called upon to look into this matter." [Related: UK Independent - Ruling on barrier divides US and Europe as Arafat hails triumph; UK Guardian: World court tells Israel to tear down illegal wall ]
How Bush's Overreaching Hurts the War Against Terrorism
[The Atlantic, Stuart Taylor Jr, 07/07/04:
"...when the president bypasses Congress and assumes near-dictatorial powers, the ultimate result is not a stronger presidency, but a weaker one."] The Supreme Court rulings on enemy combatants and the Bush administration's handling of torture guidelines represent a failure of leadership by the president.
Fighting World Poverty: Count the U.S. Out
[The Atlantic, Barbara Crossette, 07/07/04:
"It almost looks as it they feel there should always be beggars around," he said"] No longer is the United States content merely to deprive the U.N. Population Fund of all U.S. contributions—nearly $60 million so far if Congress does not act very soon on the latest budget request. Washington is also taking aim at organizations—other U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations—that work in coordination with UNFPA. At this point in history, do we really want to hurt UNICEF? The World Health Organization? The High Commissioner for Refugees?America has sown the seeds of civil war in Iraq It's not religious rivalry but the puppet regime that threatens stability
[UK Guardian, Sami Ramadani, 07/04/04:
Let American stupidity (temporarily) reign!] The seeds of the Vietnam war were sown by the US installing a [puppet] regime in Saigon. And unless Bush and Blair are stopped by the American and British peoples, a similar catastrophe is in the making in Iraq and the wider Middle East. But it will not be a war of Arabs against Kurds, Sunnis against Shia or Muslims against Christians, but an equally devastating war between a US-backed minority (of all religions, sects and nationalities) against a similarly composed overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people. The killing fields of this war could eventually stretch from Afghanistan to Palestine.Defiant Saddam faces court
Chalabi's son was "selected" as his judge!
"I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," the calm and resolute former dictator replied when asked to identify himself to the court.
"This is all a theatre," he said, according to reporters attending the hearing. "The real criminal is [the US president George] Bush."
[Related by Robert Fisk: Confused? Shadow of His Old Self? Hardly]
UK Reveals that Bush Tried to Start War with Iran in July, 2003
[Bloomberg, 07/01/04:
"We v'ill rule ze world!"] America's top general in Iraq last July ordered British troops to prepare to attack Iranian forces that had crossed the border into Iraq...Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told the British to prepare to send thousands of troops to the border region north and east of the southern city of Basra in order to reclaim territory occupied by the Iranians. The incident lasted about a week...[The situation was resolved without a shot by Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary.]
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