"Democracy, U.S.-Style"

U.S. aid for Africa is up, but short of Bush claim

Rock Star Bono Applauds Bush Efforts to Aid Africa

Crisis hits Botswana bank

Angola: Pockets of Need Emerge After Poor Harvest

US forces hold exercises with Algeria

Black gold in the Sahara
The US' Kerr-McGee is the only oil firm currently exploring the area with a Moroccan license

Nigeria, Benin United Against Child Trafficking

Bitterness, broken dreams for Benin's child slaves
The problem is not confined to Benin -- a slim, poor country stretching from the Gulf of Guinea to the barren border of Niger and best known as the ancestral cradle of voodoo.

The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF estimates there are some 246 million child labourers around the world, with 70 percent working in hazardous conditions. It says at least 200,000 children are trafficked in West and Central Africa each year.

Phantom Menace
A new Bureau of Reconstruction and Stabilization in the State Department is charged with organizing the reconstruction of countries where the United States has deemed it necessary to intervene in order to make them into market democracies. The bureau has 25 countries under surveillance as possible candidates for Defense Department deconstruction and State Department reconstruction. The bureau's director is recruiting "rapid-reaction forces" of official, nongovernmental, and corporate business specialists. He hopes to develop the capacity for three full-scale, simultaneous reconstruction operations in different countries.

Have the Latortues Kidnapped Democracy in Haiti?
For the past two months, the coup-installed Haitian government led by de facto Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has been overseeing a climate of insecurity and generalized terror featuring, among other crimes, dramatic, high-profile kidnappings. The kidnappings and terror are - according to multiple sources - orchestrated by the PM's nephew and Security Chief, Youri Latortue. But they are blamed, in media and government circles, on the principal victims: Haiti's poor majority and specifically supporters of ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Baiting, Not Debating
There should have been no doubt what would happen to anyone who questioned George W. Bush's case for war. The dissenters would be baited, ridiculed, marginalized, and drowned out by accusations of disloyalty as well as epithets about "Saddam sympathizers."

Palestinians placed between false choices
For some time the Palestinians have been divided on how to pursue their cause. Their choice, it seems, is between winning the support and favour of the international community and actually pursuing their rights, but not both.

Iraq reality check
Americans go from delusion to denial to depression
Slowly, grudgingly, the American people are being compelled by reality to accept the truth: The Bush administration has led this country into a quagmire in Iraq. The result: in the latest poll, only 42 percent approve of the way Bush is handling his job.

COINTELPRO:
US Domestic Covert Operations against La Raza

U.S. plans radioactive project

Democracy, U.S.-Style
Don't bank on the honesty of Rice's call for free votes in the Mideast, Eric Margolis writes
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went to Cairo last week to tell her Egyptian hosts and the Saudis, America's two most important Arab allies: No more stalling, you have to hold honest elections now. Rice's tough talk was certainly long overdue. She admitted America's policy of supporting Mideast despots and oligarchs for the past 30 years had been wrong. (Actually, Condi, it's 60 years, but never mind.) So will Washington really push its Arab client states into genuine democracy? Don't bank on it.

The tipping point
US public opinion on the Iraq war dips with every dead soldier, and plummets at the first sniff of defeat
At just around the time when Hush Puppies were believed to have been relegated to the footwear of choice for old geezers and ageing hippies, they suddenly enjoyed a comeback. Hip people started scouting around in unfashionable shops to buy them and then hip stores in Greenwich Village started to sell them. A Hush Puppy executive, Geoffrey Lewis, was taken completely by surprise. "We were told that Isaac Mizrahi was wearing the shoes himself," he said. "I think it's fair to say that at the time we had no idea who Isaac Mizrahi was."