[ Hmmm … –BL ] US mulls 75,000-strong foreign peace force Apr 29, 2004 | Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON — US officials are mulling plans to create a 75,000-member international peacekeeping force to intervene in trouble spots around the globe, two senior officials with the George W. Bush administration said Thursday. “What we envision is about a 75,000-person force starting in Africa for training …. people to be available for peacekeeping,” Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a House of Representatives committee. The pricetag for the program would be “about 100 million dollars the first year and 660 million dollars over […]
Brendan
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[ Recent voting anomalies in California influenced California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley who “on Friday withdrew his approval of electronic voting machines throughout the state.” Further, Diebold, “the state’s leading manufacturer of touch-screen voting machines, had told the state it was nearing federal approval for AccuVote-TSx when it was nowhere close to gaining that approval, Shelley said. The secretary of state said that action amounted to fraud, and he sent a letter Friday asking Lockyer to open a criminal and civil probe of the company.” This follows-up another recent article. Thanks to Alexandra Dadlez for passing along this article. […]
US media alibis for torture in Iraq 3 May 2004 | World Socialist Web Site by Bill Van Auken Photographs of the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US troops became front-page news around the world after their release last week. Only in two countries were they largely suppressed by the media — the United States and Iraq itself. In Iraq, newspapers that can be — and have been — shut down at a moment’s notice by order of the US occupation chief Paul Bremer chose not to publish them. Most Iraqis viewed on Arab television the […]
[ The articles below are about the infusion of federal funds for “‘hot labs’ designed to combat bioterrorism and house the world’s deadliest germs”: A growing number of scientists complain that the $6 billion earmarked by Congress for fighting bioterrorism is excessive, is being doled out with little oversight and is detracting from efforts to combat problems that are much more deadly — for example, AIDS and malaria, which are already killing millions of people. Others worry that the buildup actually threatens national security, by arming more people with the know-how to construct bioweapons, and perhaps even sparking a new […]
[ From the article: On Earth Day … more than 100 reverends, ministers, and bishops representing more than 2 million American churchgoers sent a letter to the White House condemning President Bush’s environmental record…. “[W]e believe that the administration’s energy, clean-air, and climate-change programs prolong our dependence on fossil fuels, which are depleting Earth’s resources, poisoning its climate, punishing the poor, constricting sustainable economic growth, and jeopardizing global security and peace.” Swing voters? –BL ] Getting in Bush’s Faith April 29, 2004 | Grist Magazine by Amanda Griscom
[ Journalist Lee Gordon saved a four-year old Iraqi’s life, who was among the first Falluja evacuees. –BL ] April 29, 2004 | The Guardian by Lee Gordon in Falluja It was when I saw little Ali’s ruined body that I stopped being just a reporter and became a true embed. The scene was a makeshift field hospital in Falluja. A missile fired at the hospital has left the walls of the room Ali lies in pockmarked with shrapnel. Glass crunches underfoot. Four-year-old Ali is lying in a cot, the mattress matted with dried blood. He is bleeding from a […]
April, 2004 | Center for Public Integrity Post-War Contractors Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan From 2002 through March 31, 2004 Archived version of ranking availableContractorContract TotalKellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)$3,967,866,240Bechtel Group Inc.$2,829,833,859Parsons Corp.$880,000,000International American Products Inc.$528,421,252Perini Corporation$525,000,000Contrack International Inc.$500,000,000Fluor Corp.$500,000,000Washington Group International$500,000,000Research Triangle Institute$466,070,508BearingPoint Inc.$304,262,668Louis Berger Group$300,000,000Creative Associates International Inc.$217,139,368Chemonics International Inc.$167,759,000Readiness Management Support LC (Johnson Controls Inc.) $111,964,161DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.)$93,689,421EOD Technology Inc.$71,900,000Tetra Tech Inc.$66,947,671USA Environmental Inc.$66,947,671Development Alternatives Inc.$49,117,857Vinnell Corporation (Northrop Grumman)$48,074,442Abt Associates Inc.$43,818,278International Resources Group$37,230,000Management Systems International$29,816,328SkyLink Air and Logistic Support (USA) Inc.$27,200,000Science Applications International Corp.$23,486,298Ronco Consulting Corporation$22,458,290World Fuel Services Corp.$19,762,792Stevedoring Services of America$14,318,895Raytheon […]
April 27, 2004 | New York Times by CHRISTINE HAUSER FALLUJA, Iraq — The paint on the gravestones is as red as blood. And on some of them, it has not yet dried. “A young brother and sister are buried here,” said one of the gravediggers, who gave only his first name, Hamza, as he pointed to two crudely cut blocks propped up on a dirt mound.
[ Driver’s delegation to Haiti documented nighttime raids conducted by U.S. forces, violence against Aristide supporters in Haiti, and more: “Later that day, we found out that his name was read out on the radio, which is like being marked for death.” Click here for more on Haiti. –BL ] 28 April 2004 | Sojourners by Tom F. Driver I want to send you some news about the Haiti I have been visiting since March 23, when I came down with the first non-governmental delegation that’s gone there since the United States forcibly removed President Aristide on Feb. 29. The delegation […]
[ Although many in the U.S. suppose that the U.S. gives more than its share of development aid, this is a woefully inaccurate belief. The United States gives little development assistance for its size, ties much of it to the purchase of U.S. goods and services, and allocates it to countries generally richer or more corrupt than recipients of development assistance from other donors. — Center for Global Development –BL ] Index Ranks Richest Nations’ Aid Contributions 27 April 2004 | NetAid.org New York — In the second annual Commitment to Development Index (CDI), released yesterday by the Center for […]
[ A new Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker suggests that “military police at the prison were urged by Army military officers and C.I.A. agents to ‘set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses.’” General Karpinski, who was in charge of the prison, says she did not visit Cellblock 1A, in keeping with the wishes of military intelligence officers who, she said, worried that unnecessary visits might interfere with their interrogations of Iraqis. She acknowledged that she “probably should have been more aggressive” about visiting the interrogation cellblock, especially after military intelligence officers at the prison went […]
[ Labor rights activist Ray Rogers at the April shareholder meeting: [Union leader] Acedro Guild was assassinated, murdered in one of your bottling plants in Colombia. The next day those same paramilitary security forces [purportedly contracted by Coke to bust the union] went into the plant, rounded up the workers. Coca-Cola managers in the plant had prepared resignation forms. Those workers were told that if they did not resign by 4:00 p.m. That day, they, too, would be murdered like their union officer, Acedro Hill. They all resigned in mass, and the wages in that plant went from $380 a […]
[ From the article: A military report into the Abu Ghraib case – parts of which were made available to the Guardian – makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein. One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him. Hired guns from a wide array of private security firms are playing a central role in the US-led occupation of Iraq. The killing of four private contractors in Falluja on March […]
[ For more on the conditions — condemned by Amnesty International — in which the U.S. has detained and tortured Iraqis, including Free Speech Radio Network interviews with Abu Ghraib prison insiders and more, visit this DemocracyNow! page. –BL ] by Brendan Lalor If you have not seen the photos of U.S. soldiers sexually and otherwise abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, they are available at InformationClearingHouse.info. The prison photo story, which broke in a major way when the photos became public a few days ago, has of course fueled anti-U.S. sentiment in the Arab world. […]
[ In what appears to be a loss of nerve, Brazil’s Lula said, “his country was prepared to take command of the U.N. force and send 1,470 troops if the international community made a commitment to rebuild Haiti.” The commitment may represent capitulation of the socialist leader, and acceptance of the recent U.S.-supported coup in Haiti. On the other hand, Lula doesn’t aim to facilitate a return of Aristide, does he? (Note the reference to “a … rebellion [that] led the country’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to flee in February.” No mention of the coercive role the U.S. […]
April 30, 2004 | Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Volunteers hunting for bodies in Fallujah find a woman and her daughter in their home, killed in the siege but undiscovered for days. Chanting mourners bury two boys caught in the crossfire of a Baghdad gunfight. A morgue in Basra overflows with torn and burned bodies from a suicide bombing. Victims — young and old, women and men, insurgents and innocents — have been piling up day by day, making April the deadliest month for Iraqis — and Americans — since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago. Official […]
Study Tracks Boom in Prisons and Notes Impact on Counties April 30, 2004 | New York Times by FOX BUTTERFIELD A study mapping the prisons built in the boom of the last two decades has found that some counties in the United States now have more than 30 percent of their residents behind bars. The study, by the Urban Institute, also found that nearly a third of counties have at least one prison. “This study shows that the prison network is now deeply intertwined with American life, deeply integrated into the physical and economic infrastructure of a large number of […]
[ The very justices who made the actual votes of the American people in the 2000 presdential election irrelevant are those who today sided with Republicans to disenfranchise voters in Pennsylvania (Rehnquist, O’Connor, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy). With a Republican governor and Legislature, the new [Congressional district] boundaries were set so that Democratic incumbents were placed in the same district in two instances, and another Democratic representative was placed in a heavily Republican district. Districts were given highly irregular shapes to give Republicans a further advantage. A similarly devious scheme was carried out by Republicans in Texas. As Justice Stevens opined, […]
[ The Bush Administration has expressed “callous disregard for workers in China” by refusing to punish China for violating the rights of workers. As the National Labor Committee has demonstrated, Wal-Mart, Nike, RCA, and other companies exploit lax labor and environmental policies in China to keep costs down and profits up. –BL ] April 29, 2004 | New York Times by ELIZABETH BECKER WASHINGTON, April 28 – With unusual fanfare, the Bush administration rejected on Wednesday an American labor organization’s demand that China be punished for gaining trade advantages by violating the rights of workers. Four cabinet members – Commerce Secretary […]
[ Alert: Tonight’s Frontline on PBS might be a must-see. Catch it here. –BL ] April 29, 2004 | New York Times REVIEW | ‘THE JESUS FACTOR’ by ALESSANDRA STANLEY The question is not, When did George W. Bush accept Jesus as his personal savior? The “Frontline” documentary “The Jesus Factor,” on PBS tonight, raises a different issue: Do most Americans realize just how fervent the president’s evangelical faith really is? “The Jesus Factor” is a little like those illustrated anatomy books where transparent plastic pages can be flipped to reveal the muscle, bone and organs beneath the skin. Stripping off […]
April 29, 2004 | New York Times by CELIA W. DUGGER GORMA, Bangladesh — Nearly every woman in this village seems to have gotten tiny loans to invest in a miniature business. None has made better use of the cash than Firoza Akhter, a shrewd, flinty young mother who put her profits from four loans into cows, goats, land, a sturdy house and private tutors for her daughter. “I can make money out of anything,” she boasted in her wheezy voice, a gold, flower-shaped stud glinting in her nose. Hers is a shining success story for microcredit. But while she […]
April 28, 2004 | USA TODAY by Cesar G. Soriano and Steven Komarow BAGHDAD — Only a third of the Iraqi people now believe that the American-led occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that could put them in greater danger, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll. The nationwide survey, the most comprehensive look at Iraqi attitudes toward the occupation, was conducted in late March and early April. It reached nearly 3,500 Iraqis of every religious and ethnic group.
Center for American Progress Conservatives have spent the last 20 years distorting reality and getting away with it. That is about to change. The Center for American Progress has launched this new database project to chart the dishonesty and lies of conservatives — and compare them with the truth. In this database, each conservative quote will be matched against well-documented facts. [ Below is the database’s output for just one conservative, Rush Limbaugh. You ought to visit the site to extract the results for a host of other opponents of progress. –BL ] Date: 9/1/1994 Quote/Claim: “If you have any doubts about the status of American […]
April 28, 2004 | Salon.com A damning new report reveals that the Bush administration has quietly removed 25 reports from its Women's Bureau Web site, deleting or distorting crucial information on issues from pay equity to reproductive healthcare. by Rebecca Traister If you'd logged onto the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau Web site in 1999, you would have found a list of more than 25 fact sheets and statistical reports on topics ranging from “Earning Differences Between Men and Women” to “Facts About Asian American and Pacific Islander Women” to “Women's Earnings as Percent of Men's 1979-1997.” Not anymore. Those […]
April 28, 2004 | The Daily Mislead President Bush yesterday tried to deflect questions about his environmental record by claiming that he supports efforts to reduce America's fossil fuel usage1. He said he had “introduced ideas like a hydrogen-powered automobile, put money behind it and research behind it” so that so that we will be “less dependent on foreign sources of energy” and we will “improve the environment.” But Bush's hydrogen-automobile proposal is purposely engineered to be fossil fuel dependent, and it is paid for by taking money out of programs that are actually reducing fossil fuel use. As Mother […]
April 28, 2004 | Associated Press by DAVID CRARY NEW YORK – U.S. military police stacked Iraqi prisoners in a human pyramid, and attached wires to one detainee to convince him he might be electrocuted, according to photographs obtained by CBS News which led to criminal charges against six American soldiers. CBS said the photos, to be shown Wednesday night on “60 Minutes II,” were taken late last year at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, where American soldiers were holding hundreds of prisoners captured during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
[ The article below is about an 85 year-old socialist who, for the past 15 years, has been preparing for the adventure of a lifetime: He is building a boat and will sail to Cuba along with a crew of friends he’s met on the journey. –BL ] The Old Man, the Mountain and the Sea: Naturalist Has Big Plan for Sailboat April 28, 2004 | Washington Post by Blaine Harden ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. — At 85, App Applegate keeps pushing the limits of living off the grid. Out here in Puget Sound, on the upper west side of the American […]
The El Shifa Tragedy 1999 | media-criticism.com by Scott Loughrey On August 20, 1998 Bill Clinton launched 79 cruise missiles at seven defenseless targets in the Middle East. One was a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan called El Shifa. A pair of outstanding articles in Covert Action Quarterly (CAQ, Winter, 99) illustrates what a colossal crime was committed by this act of terrorism from our now-unimpeachable president. According to a well-researched article written by Richard Becker, Sara Flounders and John Parker in CAQ, the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant was responsible for over 50% of Sudan’s medicine. This included 90% of […]
[ The fundamentalist Islamic Sudanese government is committing or aiding in ethnic cleansing, and stalling the release of a UN human rights report in order to deter a UN envoy. As reported here over the course of the last month, Sudan may be the international community’s test of whether it has learned the lesson of Rwanda. I suspect the campaign of terror, murder, and relocation against black Sudanese is in part another resource war (that is, motivated by a plan to clear the way for oil exploration). Sudan, a British colony until less than 50 years ago, lost its main […]
October 21, 2003 | Washington Post by Dana Milbank Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets. To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers’ homecomings on all military bases. In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. “There will be no arrival […]
[ A statement from an NGO delivering aid to Iraqis in Fallujah, Merlin, says: “Humanitarian agencies trying to supply life-saving supplies such as food and medicine have been obstructed by coalition forces”; the agency is “extremely concerned by reports that the general hospital of Falluja is being used as a military base by coalition forces,” as well. –BL ] April 26, 2004 | The Guardian by Tash Shifrin Aid agencies have warned that the Geneva convention is being breached in Falluja, Iraq, amid serious concern about the safety of civilians in the city where at least 600 people have been killed […]
[ Dahr Jamail is Baghdad correspondent for The NewStandard. You can read his other daily dispatches online, or through ZNet. –BL ] 04/26/04 New Standard by Dahr Jamail The current “negotiations” in which the U.S. is engaged with the mujahedeen in Falluja boil down to this: the mujahedeen are to relinquish their “heavy weaponry” (ie, turn in their rocket propelled grenade launchers) to the U.S. military. This is an interesting proposition in light of how this all began. First the U.S. invaded Iraq. Just afterwards, in April 2003, American soldiers gunned down several people in Falluja during a demonstration against […]
[ In connection with the article below, you might want to consult the DemocracyNow! interview with Edmonds, who the Bush Administration wants to gag. –BL ] 26 April 2004 | The Independent by Andrew Buncombe in Washington The Bush administration will today seek to prevent a former FBI translator from providing evidence about 11 September intelligence failures to a group of relatives and survivors who have accused international banks and officials of aiding al-Qa’ida. Sibel Edmonds was subpoenaed by a law firm representing more than 500 family members and survivors of the attacks to testify that she had seen information proving […]
Pastrami & Champagne May 10, 2004 | The Nation by ROANE CAREY & ADAM SHATZ Three decades ago Winston Churchill’s grandson asked Ariel Sharon how Israel should deal with the Palestinians. “We’ll make a pastrami sandwich out of them,” he replied. “We’ll insert a strip of Jewish settlements in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlements right across the West Bank, so that in twenty-five years’ time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart.” Mission accomplished. On April 14 in Washington, Sharon unwrapped his pastrami sandwich and received […]
April 26, 2004 | Reuters/AFP Four schoolchildren have been killed by gunfire in Baghdad, shortly after a roadside bomb ripped through a US military vehicle, witnesses said. Some witnesses said the children, all aged around 12, were shot dead by US troops who had opened fire randomly after the blast on Canal Street in eastern Baghdad. At least five other people were wounded. The children had left their nearby school to look at the burning Humvee, the witnesses said. Children and some passersby were “celebrating” the attack near the vehicle when the deadly shots were fired. The US military had […]
[ If the “coalition” occupying Iraq is frustrated that all Iraqis are not more appreciative of their liberators’ efforts, it would do well to recall the devasting effects of the 1991 bombing of Iraq, the sanctions that followed under which thousands of children per month died of preventable causes (see below), and the more than 10,000 civilian casualties (and uncounted tens of thousands of conscript deaths) suffered under recent “coalition” bombings and attacks, not to mention the “regime change” British invasion of 1941. While many Iraqis appreciate the removal of Saddam Hussein, they may be tiring of suffering under the […]
[ This in light of reports that U.S. soldiers shot dead four Iraqi children in Baghdad. –BL ] Extremism in the defence of liberty April 24, 2004 | The Spectator [UK] by Paul Robinson Paul Robinson says that some well-respected hawks are threatening civilisation by advocating terror tactics in the war on terror “I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy,” said the Duke of Wellington of his troops, “but, by God, they terrify me.” I feel much the same way about some of those who purport to be on our side in the so-called Global […]
by Brendan Lalor While I am not a Kerry enthusiast, I am pleased to recommend this MoveOn.org ad for your viewing pleasure: click here to see the Bush-Kerry comparison ad. A little background: It is hard to imagine a more absurd angle of attack against John Kerry for the GOP than to question his military record, in particular, whether he deserves all three of his Purple Hearts. While the claim that George W. Bush fulfilled his military service requirements is iffy at best, and Dick Cheney had “other priorities” than military service, Kerry’s life was on the line in Vietnam. […]
Ad uses Saddam, bin Laden to question Cleland’s record Oct. 11, 2002 | Associated Press by JEFFREY McMURRAY WASHINGTON – Sen. Max Cleland is angrily defending himself against a rival’s television ad that shows pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and implies the Democratic incumbent is soft on homeland security. The ad, sponsored by Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss’ Senate campaign, doesn’t directly compare Cleland and the rogue leaders but alleges the senator isn’t telling the truth when he claims to support some of President Bush’s efforts in the war against terrorism. It began airing Friday in the Atlanta […]
[ WARNING: “57 percent of respondents … said they believed Iraq was either ‘directly involved’ in carrying out the 9/11 attacks … or had provided ‘substantial support’ to al-Qaeda.” –BL ] April 22, 2004 | InterPress Service by Jim Lobe U.S. public perceptions about former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to al-Qaeda and stocks of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) continues to lag far behind the testimony of experts, boosting chances that President George W Bush will be re-elected, according to a survey and analysis released Thursday. WASHINGTON (IPS) – Despite statements by such officials as the Bush administration’s former […]
Why Bush is spending so much on nuclear weapons. by Fred Kaplan Friday, April 23, 2004 | Slate The budget is busted; American soldiers need more armor; they’re running out of supplies. Yet the Department of Energy is spending an astonishing $6.5 billion on nuclear weapons this year, and President Bush is requesting $6.8 billion more for next year and a total of $30 billion over the following four years. This does not include his much-cherished missile-defense program, by the way. This is simply for the maintenance, modernization, development, and production of nuclear bombs and warheads. Measured in “real dollars” […]
[ The article below is a primer on how companies like Bush-patron Enron (which was run by Bush pioneer Ken Lay) Harken Energy (with Bush on its board) Halliburton (with Cheney as its CEO) and their ilk evaded taxes — and continue to evade taxes — by setting up off-shore subsidiaries. (The Republican White House likes prefers “tax competitiveness” to “evasion.”) Of course, it goes without saying that education, health care, foreign aid, and more suffer for want of funds while the Bush Administration prefers to let the real anti-patriotic criminals go unpunished, as it expends IRS resources to catch […]
[ According to the Newsweek article below, although “For the Bush administration it has been a mantra … America’s troops will get whatever they need to do the job,” a recent study concludes that “one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had stronger armor around them … Thousands more who were unprotected have suffered grievous wounds, such as the loss of limbs.” “[T]he I Marine Expeditionary Force … has paid dearly … with an astonishing 30 percent-plus casualties (45 killed, more than 300 wounded) in Fallujah and Ar Ramadi.” “The military […]
April 21, 2004 | AlterNet by Sean Gonsalves Analysts at United for a Fair Economy have just released a new report called “Shifty Tax Cuts: How They Move the Tax Burden off the Rich and onto Everyone Else.” Here are some of the key findings in the report. (Click here to see the full report.) For fiscal years 2002-2004, state governments filled approximately $200 billion in budget gaps by raising state taxes and fees and by cutting services. And during those same years, newly enacted federal tax cuts delivered about as much money — $197.3 billion — in new tax […]
[ This piece covers the Pentagon’s chagrin over the Air Force’s erroneous release of photos of U.S. soldiers’ flag-draped coffins (in violation of the Administration’s policy preventing access to the Dover mortuary). Getting photos like these out has already cost U.S. workers in the Middle East their jobs. –BL ] by Caroline Overington April 24, 2004 | The Age [Australia] The US Air Force released 361 photographs of the flag-draped coffins of American soldiers to an internet website yesterday, angering the Pentagon. The photographs – which Department of Defence photographers took at an air force base that doubles as a soldiers’ […]
[ This piece covers the U.S. military’s declaration of posters picturing the controversial cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, forbidden. Company commander Capt. Ronald Hayward, who gave his soldiers the order to quell Iraqis’ free expression, said, “I think it was important [to remove the posters] because al-Sadr currently stands for all things that are anti-coalition.” –BL ] Tension forms when Soldiers take down posters of Al-Sadr April 21, 2004 | Army News Service by Spc. Jan Critchfield BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service, April 21, 2004) — Engineers from Fort Hood avert a possible riot after taking down posters of anti-coalition cleric Muqtada […]
[ From the article below: The political calculation by President George W Bush is that, even if the disgruntled families of the 20,000 troops affected immediately – one in every seven in Iraq – vote against him later this year in the presidential elections, that will still add up to fewer votes against him than if he adds 20,000 new troops who begin to suffer casualties. The piece mainly addresses the effect of the regional instability that would be caused if the U.S. abandons Iraq on Russia’s economic (and other) interests. –BL ] DANCES WITH BEARS: Russia revels in US’s woes […]
Apr 20, 2004, U.S. Newswire NEW YORK, April 20 — Amnesty International today welcomed the decision by governments meeting at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva to confirm the importance that the Commission assigns to companies’ responsibilities in relation to human rights. The Commission adopted a resolution on the UN Norms for Business, which clarify the obligations and responsibilities of businesses with regard to human rights. Amnesty International noted that this decision to adopt the resolution was made in the face of sustained opposition from the Bush Administration. “Amnesty International USA welcomes the adoption today, despite intense US […]
Apr 20, 2004 | Reuters PARIS (Reuters) – Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever following the invasion of Iraq and Israel’s assassination of two Hamas leaders, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in comments published Tuesday.
April 20, 2004 | The Progressive by Matthew Rothschild Bush’s announcement that he intends to appoint John Negroponte to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq should appall anyone who respects human rights. Negroponte, currently U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., was U.S. ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s and was intimately involved with Reagan’s dirty war against the Sandinistas of Nicaragua. Reagan waged much of that illegal contra war from Honduras, and Negroponte was his point man. According to a detailed investigation the Baltimore Sun did in 1995, Negroponte covered up some of the most grotesque human rights abuses imaginable.
[ This article is a decent primer on the human rights issues surrounding the military’s use of depleted uramium. Thanks to Barbara Geary for passing this article along. –BL ] What “Support Our Troops” really means April, 2003 | The Idaho Observer by Amy Worthington On March 30, an AP photo featured an American pro-war activist holding a sign: “Nuke the evil scum, it worked in 1945!” That’s exactly what George Bush has done. America’s mega billion dollar war in Iraq is indeed a NUCLEAR WAR. Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a […]
[ The Iranian press is insinuating that the Bush Administration may have an “October Surprise” in store, to boost Bush’s ratings just before the election: the discovery of WMDs in Iraq, which the Administration may have begun planting after the invasion (see the article below). Nor would this charge be refutable, because the Bush Administration “has refused to allow the [International Atomic Energy A]gency’s weapons inspectors into the country, saying that the alliance has taken over responsibility for illicit weapons searches.” This is not the only potential October Surprise. Bob Woodward’s recent revelations suggested that Bush and Saudi Prince Bandar […]
Whatever It Takes April 5, 2004 | The Nation by ASHLEY SHELBY Shortly after the catastrophic 1989 Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Exxon sent Don Cornett, the company’s top official in Alaska at the time, to the fishing port of Cordova to reassure the fishers that the company would make things right. “You have my word,” Cornett told them then. “I said it, Don Cornett. We will do whatever it takes to keep you whole. We do business straight.”
Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power US Christian fundamentalists are driving Bush's Middle East policy April 20, 2004 | The Guardian by George Monbiot To understand what is happening in the Middle East, you must first understand what is happening in Texas. To understand what is happening there, you should read the resolutions passed at the state's Republican party conventions last month. Take a look, for example, at the decisions made in Harris County, which covers much of Houston. The delegates began by nodding through a few uncontroversial matters: homosexuality is contrary to the […]
[ News about Haiti and the U.S.’ anti-democratic influence there continues to be overshadowed by the “major stories.” The Associated Press reports today that the U.S. State Department is demanding that CARICOM — the 15-nation Caribbean Community — recognize the interim government, non-democratically set up by the U.S. CARICOM and much of the world still see Aristide as the rightful president of Haiti. In another story, Reuters is reporting that Haiti’s new U.S.-backed leader said on Sunday he had dropped a “ridiculous” demand by ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for France to return $22 billion he said the Caribbean nation was forced […]
Terry Jones on what makes our leaders tick April 19, 2004, The Guardian Everyone agrees that President George Bush’s lobotomy has been a tremendous success. Dick Cheney, the vice-president, declared that he was fully satisfied with it from his point of view. “Without the lobotomy,” Mr Cheney told the American Academy of Neurology, “it might have proved difficult to persuade the president to start wars all around the world without any good pretext. But the removal of those parts of the brain associated with understanding the outcome of one’s actions has enabled the president to function fully and without hesitation. […]
April 19, 2004, The News International (Pakistan) by Nayyar Zaidi Washington: Saudi Ambassador to Washington for last two decades, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, was informed of US decision to invade Iraq, a full 48 hours ahead of the briefing to Secretary of State Colin Powell. On January 11, 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney invited Ambassador Sultan to the White House where Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Richard B Myers were also present. Sitting on the “edge of the table”, General Myers took out a large map labeled “TOP SECRET: NOFORN”. The term […]
[ According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters reports that “US forces have detained around 200 Iraqi paramilitary” who refused to kill their fellow Iraqis in Fallujah. “They were bombing the city with warplanes and using cluster bombs. I could not be a part of this,” a Kurdish soldier said. –BL ] April 18, 2004 | Sydney Morning Herald / Reuters US forces have detained around 200 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers who refused to take part in a US offensive against the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah, their former comrades said on Saturday. The US military declined to confirm whether the men […]
[ Must read! From the article (based on the April 18 episode of 60 Minutes), on Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, Plan of Attack: [Saudi] Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election – to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day…. That’s the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a […]
October 3, 2001 | New York Times by MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Over and over since Sept. 11, aviation and security officials have said they were shocked that terrorists had hijacked airliners and crashed them into landmark buildings. ”This is a whole new world for us,” Jane F. Garvey, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in testimony before a House subcommittee on Sept. 20. But the record shows that for her and others, there were numerous warnings. In 1994, two jetliners were hijacked by people who wanted to crash them into buildings, one of them […]
[ It is shocking that this story about the Army’s simulation of plane attacks on the Pentagon has not been covered by the major news agencies. Did I miss it? It provides some context in which to evaluate Rice’s and Bush’s claims that no one could have imagined terrorists using planes to attack major targets. Notice that the article comes from an Army website! (It appears it had occurred to the FAA, too.) This is a follow-up to a recent story. Thanks to Alexandra Dadlez for finding the article below. –BL ] Contingency planning Pentagon MASCAL exercise simulates scenarios in preparing […]
[ After a few prefatory paragraphs, the lengthy article below is largely an indictment composed of damning excerpts, mostly from standard news sources, categorized by the following topic areas: what Bush knew about about 9/11 the planes incompetence predictions what a mess war fever the defectors [within the Administration] a statesman's guide to Iraq [or: why previous administrations would not invade] the media [failed] about face [shifting rationales for invasion] support the troops [vets speak out] the draft mob mentality [the mean ways of the Bush cabal] funny money It's a reference work, forwarded by Suzanne Faye. –BL ] Deep Dark […]
[ Paul Bremer’s decision to close the al-Sadr-affiliated newspaper, Al Hawza, was arguably an important cause of the increased violence in Iraq. Hence, it is important that journalists properly represent to the American people the rationale for the censorship. –BL ] NewsHour Should Correct Lehrer’s Falsehood April 16, 2004 | Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) On the April 7 edition of the PBS NewsHour, anchor Jim Lehrer offered a rationale for the U.S. closure of the Al Hawza newspaper, affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. But so far the program has been unable to supply evidence to back up Lehrer’s […]
by LOURDES NAVARRO April 15, 2004 — FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) On a rooftop overlooking Fallujah’s industrial wasteland, Lance Cpl. Tom Browne pokes his machine gun muzzle out of a hole in a barrier wall, singing to himself to pass the time. In the street below, the corpse of an insurgent suspect lies baking in the sun. Browne, from Boston, says he has killed several rebels, probably Iraqis, so far. “I don’t even think about those people as people,” he says. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The band of Marines in this insurgent stronghold received two big orders this […]
[ Most citizens of Najaf do not support radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. But the U.S.’s sledge hammer approach to winning hearts and minds is helping al-Sadr win converts. Even more sobering, if the U.S. makes good on its threats to attack Najaf, that could well define the future of Iraq…. Any attempt by the US military even to approach this most sacred of sites, burial place of the Prophet Mohammad’s son-in-law Ali, would inflame Islamic opinion across the globe and bring on to the streets of Najaf even those who have little time for Mr Sadr’s extremism. –BL ] Gunmen […]
[ From the article below: Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country…. The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to United States officials three weeks ago telling them of the findings…. Officials said the agency was awaiting a reply from the United States … Arms control officials fear that the war and the continuing unrest may have increased chances that terrorists may get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be exposed to radioactive materials. The agency has been unable to investigate, monitor […]
4/14/2004, Boston Globe by Bryan Bender WASHINGTON — Five months before Sept. 11, 2001, the officers responsible for defending American airspace wanted to test their ability to prevent a hijacked airliner from being crashed into the Pentagon, but the scenario was rejected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as impractical, a Joint Chiefs spokesman confirmed yesterday. The disclosure was made after a government watchdog group released a leaked e-mail from a former official at the North American Air Defense Command. In the message, the official told colleagues a week after the attacks that in April 2001 NORAD requested that war […]
U.S. Funding for Foes Enrages Venezuela’s Chavez Apr 15, 2004, Reuters by Pascal Fletcher CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Documents showing U.S. funding for Venezuelan opposition groups have prompted an increase in personal attacks by President Hugo Chávez against President Bush, according to a U.S. lawyer who helped unearth the evidence. Eva Golinger, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based attorney who supports Chavez, said documents obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act showed that around $4 million in U.S. Congress-allocated funds had been channeled to the groups before and after a 2002 coup that briefly toppled Chavez.
[ In response to Venezuelan President Chavez’ blaming Bush for the violence in Iraq, State Department weasel Roger Noriega called for an assessment of “Venezuela’s respect for the law and human rights”! Noriega apparently fails to see the irony in his response to Chavez’ criticism of Bush’s immoral war, which continues to violate international law, and which has generated more terrorism and hatred of the U.S. than was imaginable just a few years ago. Further, the Bush Administration has been funding opposition groups in Venezuela and assisted the failed 2002 coup against the democratically elected Chavez. None of this opposition […]
April 15, 2004, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) As the casualties mount in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, Qatar-based Al Jazeera has been one of the only news networks broadcasting from the inside, relaying images of destruction and civilian victims– including women and children. But when CNN anchor Daryn Kagan interviewed the network's editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al-Sheik, on Monday (4/12/04)– a rare opportunity to get independent information about events in Fallujah– she used the occasion to badger Al-Sheik about whether the civilian deaths were really “the story” in Fallujah. Al Jazeera has recently come under sharp criticism from U.S. […]
[ FYI: Here’s the latest from Michael Moore. –BL ] April 14th, 2004, www.michaelmoore.com Friends, I have never seen a head so far up a Presidential ass (pardon my Falluja) than the one I saw last night at the “news conference” given by George W. Bush. He’s still talking about finding “weapons of mass destruction” — this time on Saddam’s “turkey farm.” Turkey indeed. Clearly the White House believes there are enough idiots in the 17 swing states who will buy this. I think they are in for a rude awakening. I’ve been holed up for weeks in the editing room […]
[ From the article: “And what should parents do when the Janjaweed seize their children, or gang-rape their daughters? Should they resist, knowing they will then be shot at once in front of their children? Or what about the parents described by Human Rights Watch who were allowed by the militia to choose how their children would die: burned alive or shot to death? …. We can save many tens of thousands of lives in the coming weeks — but only if Mr. Bush and Mr. Annan speak out more boldly, if the U.N. Security Council insists on humanitarian access […]
[ From the article: “Today, roughly 1,000 miles north of Rwanda, tens of thousands of Africans are herded onto death marches, and Western leaders are again sitting in offices. How sad it is that it doesn’t even seem strange.” –doclalor ] April 6, 2004, New York Times by Samantha Power Ten years ago this week, Rwandan Hutu extremists embarked on a genocidal campaign in which they murdered some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus — a genocide more efficient than that of the Nazis. On this anniversary, Western and United Nations leaders are expressing their remorse and pledging their resolve to prevent […]
[ Although the U.S. has sought to prevent news agencies such as Al-Jazeera from covering the U.S. massacre of Fallujah, a number of independent and alternative media have managed to get stories and footage out — including this story Free Speech Radio filed with Democracy Now!, this coverage by ahr Jamail, and by Voices in the Wilderness. Below is another such report. –doclalor ] Pacifica Network Reports from Iraq, April 13, 2004 BAGHDAD, IRAQ — Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas the President the United States, George W. Bush told reporters American soldiers have acted against, quote: “lawlessness and gangs” […]
14apr04, The Australian AN Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today. The motorist was stopped late yesterday by US troops conducting search operations on a street in the centre of the central city of Kut, Lieutenant Mohamad Abdel Abbas said. After the man refused to remove Sadr’s picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and started beating him with truncheons, he said. US troops also detained from the same […]