Monday, May 31st
Aristide Arrives In South Africa
JOHANNESBURG: The South African government has re-iterated that former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide's stay in the country will be open-ended, and that he can remain until the situation in Haiti normalises. Deputy Foreign Minister Azi Pahad has made this clear after Aristide's red-carpet welcome at Johannesburg International Airport today. Pahad says the South African government supports multi-lateralism and an inclusive and lasting solution to the conflict in Haiti: SABC Congolese Soldiers Retreat From The Airport After Heavy Fighting KINSHASA: Armed men have surrounded the airport in the eastern DRC's main city of Goma. United Nations forces in the city have taken Congolese government officials in the city under their protection. One of Congo's four vice presidents, Azarias Ruberwa, is among them. The DRC government, aided by 18-thosuand UN troops, is trying to assert control in the country's lawless east after a five-year war. Rebel militias are resisting government forces. There's been fighting around the city of Bukavu for about a week. SAPA www.channelafrica.org
Africa on 05.31.04 @ 11:56 PM CST [ link]
How Bush got into this quagmire
Dedicated hardliners and an Iraqi conman finally got what they wanted in Iraq, writes Robert Manne.Even former enthusiasts now generally acknowledge that the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq is the greatest disaster in the recent history of US foreign policy. It took almost a decade for the folly of Vietnam to become clear. In Iraq it has taken only a little over a year. Nothing is more important than to try to understand how this catastrophe occurred. Recently two outstanding and impartial investigations into the origins of the Iraq war have been published - Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack and James Mann's Rise of the Vulcans. Woodward chronicles the road to invasion following September 11. Mann, more ambitiously, analyses the political and intellectual revolution in right-wing American foreign policy thought and practice - loosely, the rise of neo-conservatism - since the end of the Vietnam War. In combination, Woodward and Mann can provide a far more detailed and nuanced understanding of the Iraq debacle than was previously the case. www.theage.com.au
USA on 05.31.04 @ 03:17 PM CST [ link]
Abu Ghraib prompts denial, spin, evasion
By Garrett Epps
www.registerguard.com Psychologists have a term for it: "cognitive dissonance" - the tendency of human beings to reinterpret reality so it remains consistent with their beliefs. Leon Festinger, who coined the term a half-century ago, studied a religious group that believed the world would end on a set date. When nothing happened, the most committed members of the group didn't lose their faith; they simply "discovered" that their prayers had convinced God to spare mankind. The revelations of torture and abuse by U.S. military personnel at Abu Ghraib are not the end of the world, of course; but they do challenge some of our deepest beliefs. So the national denial mechanism has begun to kick in. In the letters to the editor columns, on Fox News and on talk radio, the minimizations, evasions and denials are growing stronger every day. If we are to learn the lesson of Abu Ghraib, it's important not to fall into these fallacies. Below is a partial list, in roughly ascending order of perniciousness: Full Article
USA on 05.31.04 @ 02:15 PM CST [ link]
New York Times says it was duped by Pentagon 'cunning'
David Teather in New York
The Guardian UKThe New York Times donned sackcloth and ashes again yesterday when its ombudsman said the newspaper had been duped by "the cunning campaign" of those that wanted the world to believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Some stories, Daniel Okrent said, "pushed Pentagon assertions so aggressively you could almost sense epaulets on the shoulders of editors". The half-page critique of the newspaper's coverage during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq followed a separate admission signed by "the editors" last week that said the newspaper had not been as "rigorous as it should have been" in questioning Iraqi exiles. Mr Okrent said that in the run-up to the invasion, "cloaked government sources ... insinuated themselves and their agendas into prewar coverage". The newspaper's failure, he said, was institutional. "To anyone who read the paper between September 2002 and June 2003, the impression that Saddam Hussein possessed, or was acquiring, a frightening arsenal of WMD seemed unmistakable." Full Article
USA on 05.31.04 @ 02:02 PM CST [ link]
Looking at the Jewish Holocaust again
by David Mullenax, www.augustafreepress.comTo look again - part threeRarely in our society does a historical event play such an important role that it takes on a persona of its own, elevated beyond the scope of intellectual questioning. However, we must never lose sight of the role that history plays in shaping our beliefs, views and culture. History should always be placed in its proper perspective through unbiased examination. The purpose of history is not the regurgitation of dates, facts and timelines, but is an instructor in understanding and enlightenment. History is the revealer of human behavior, the identity shaper of nations and a lighthouse to guide our paths towards the future. Mark Weber of the Institute of Historical Review stated regarding history, "Any people that has a distorted sense of its own history is unable to know what to do. The best guide to the future is an understanding and a study of the past. When history is distorted, then any kind of rational, wise policies for the future become impossible." Full Article
USA on 05.31.04 @ 09:09 AM CST [ link]
Sunday, May 30th
UN slammed for slow response to conflicts in Africa
HARARE, May 30 (Xinhuanet) -- African peace activists and military experts have slammed the United Nations for reacting slowly to conflict situations in Africa, compared to other parts of the world, according to the New Ziana on Sunday. Speaking at a seminar to mark UN Peace Keeping in Africa in the eastern Zimbabwean city of Mutare, they said the world body was faster in reacting to crisis situations outside Africa, particularly areas where the big powers had interests, such as Kuwait. Zimbabwean Manicaland Resident Minister and Governor, retired lieutenant general Mike Nyambuya cited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), saying that it took four years for the UN to deploy peacekeepers to the DRC, while it took just three months todeploy troops in Kuwait when it was invaded by Iraq in 1990. Nyambuya said developed countries were no longer interested in peacekeeping in Africa but looting and plundering wealth in conflict areas on the continent. "We owe nobody an apology as Africa, but should stand up on ourown and join hands to resolve our own conflicts," he said. news.xinhuanet.com
Africa on 05.30.04 @ 04:50 PM CST [ link]
AFRODAD warns Zimbabwe to stay clear of IMF
The Debt and Development in Africa (AFRODAD) group has warned Zimbabwe to stay clear of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other similar global financial institutions whose policies it said impoverished small nations. In an interview with New Ziana, AFRODAD research and analysis programme officer, Charles Mutasa, said the country was better advised to pursue home-grown economic solutions such as the central bank’s monetary policies than seek renewed ties with the IMF. He said restoring ties between the IMF and Zimbabwe would lead to increased indebtedness, and worsen economic hardships in the country. www.africaonline.co.zw
Africa on 05.30.04 @ 01:49 PM CST [ link]
Mbeki alleges campaign to descredit South Africa
SOUTH AFRICA - Unidentified forces were trying to undermine South Africa’s international status and had attempted to sabotage the country’s 2010 Soccer World Cup bid, President Thabo Mbeki claimed in parliament on Thursday. He said there were people who wanted to see the African National Congress (ANC) government fail, and were propagating a false image of the country. These included a US-based ratings company, London-based fund managers and South African mining executives, Mbeki told the National Assembly in his reply to the debate on his state of the nation address. www.africaonline.co.zw
Africa on 05.30.04 @ 01:49 PM CST [ link]
S.Africa to give Haiti's Aristide red carpet welcome
www.alertnet.orgJOHANNESBURG, May 30 (Reuters) - South Africa will give ousted Haiti leader Jean Bertrand Aristide a welcome reserved for heads of state when he arrives on Monday in exile, the presidency said on Sunday. "(South African) President Thabo Mbeki will officially receive President Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in South Africa at Johannesburg International Airport," the presidency said. "On Tuesday Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr (Nkosazana) Dlamini Zuma and President Aristide will address a media briefing," the presidency added. Aristide and his family have been staying at a state-owned guest house northeast of Kingston while in Jamaica. They will live in a mansion in the South African capital Pretoria paid for by the government. The offer of asylum underlines the South African government's implicit view that the elected Aristide was unconstitutionally removed from power in a "regime change" sanctioned by U.S. President George W. Bush. www.alertnet.org
Africa on 05.30.04 @ 12:28 PM CST [ link]
Attack On Iraqi Governing Council Member Kills Two
28 May 2004 -- A member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has survived an assault on her convoy yesterday, but her son and at least one bodyguard were reported killed in the ambush. Governing Council member Salamah al-Khafaji's convoy came under fire in the town of Yusufiyah during the drive to Baghdad from Al-Najaf, where she had been helping negotiate an end to clashes between Shi'a Muslim militiamen and U.S. forces. www.rferl.org
Iraq on 05.30.04 @ 12:15 PM CST [ link]
Saturday, May 29th
Who killed Nick Berg?
Iraq in flames, Washington an object of disgust. What to do? At this pivotal moment, CNN and Fox News are tipped off to a clip of an American citizen being beheaded. The victim is a 26-year-old idealist from Pennsylvania, Nick Berg. Despite the perpetrators being masked, the vile deed is deemed the work of al-Qaeda. The clip was first "discovered" on an Islamic website in Malaysia. Its Arabic title reads "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American". al-Zarqawi is a 38-year-old Jordanian militant who fled to Iraq in 2001 after reportedly losing a leg in a US missile strike. al-Zarqawi's face is widely known and he credits himself with the deed, so why a mask? The timing of the video was brilliant for the West. Media pundits judged the crime a deeper evil than the systemic torture of innocent Iraqis. But some people sensed a rat. But if it was not al-Qaeda, who? Surely not Uncle Sam. That's too dark, even for the CIA. www.smh.com.au
USA on 05.29.04 @ 11:42 PM CST [ link]
U.S. agencies collect, examine personal data on Americans
By Audrey Hudson
The Washington TimesNumerous federal government agencies are collecting and sifting through massive amounts of personal information, including credit reports, credit-card purchases and other financial data, posing new privacy concerns, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO). The GAO surveyed 128 federal departments and agencies and found that 52 are using, or planning to implement, 199 data-mining programs, with 131 already operational. The Education, Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, Justice, and Treasury departments are among those that use the contentious new technology to detect criminal or terrorist activity; manage human resources; gauge scientific research; detect fraud, waste and abuse; and monitor tax compliance. The audit released yesterday shows 36 data-mining programs collect and analyze personal information that is purchased from the private sector, including credit reports and credit-card transactions. Additionally, 46 federal agencies share personal information that includes student-loan application data, bank-account numbers, credit-card information and taxpayer-identification numbers. ((( This link opens with a pop-up ))) www.washtimes.com/national/20040528-122605-9267r.htm
USA on 05.29.04 @ 05:09 PM CST [ link]
Reports: Tillman Killed by Friendly Fire
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former pro football player Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire as he led his team of Army Rangers up a hill during a firefight in Afghanistan last month, newspapers in California and Arizona reported Saturday. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command was to release information later Saturday on the death of Tillman, who walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Arizona Republic and The Argus of Fremont (Calif.) both reported the Army would announce Tillman was killed by fire from his fellow soldiers. www.guardian.co.uk
USA on 05.29.04 @ 07:40 AM CST [ link]
Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim
The choice of Iyad Allawi, closely linked to the CIA and formerly to MI6, as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 30 June will make it difficult for the US and Britain to persuade the rest of the world that he is capable of leading an independent government. He is the person through whom the controversial claim was channelled that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be operational in 45 minutes. news.independent.co.uk
USA on 05.29.04 @ 07:38 AM CST [ link]
Friday, May 28th
Fatal Error: The Lies of Our Times
by Amy Goodman and David Goodmanwww.democracynow.orgIn our new book, The Exception To the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them, we titled one chapter "The Lies of Our Times" to examine how The New York Times coverage on Iraq and its alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction helped lead the country to war. Yesterday, The New York Times, for the first time, raised questions about its own coverage in an 1,100-word editor's note. Here is an excerpt from our section of the book on the New York Times and Iraq.
USA on 05.28.04 @ 10:44 PM CST [ more..]
AU's Peace, Security Council lauded
By Innocent Gore recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopiawww.herald.co.zwTHE launch of the African Union Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa on Tuesday should be a step in the right direction for the continent which has been ravaged by wars and conflicts that have had a massive impact on economic development. Wars and conflicts have gone on unabated on the continent, killing millions of people, including innocent women and children. And the now defunct Organisation of African Unity did not help matters by not taking action through its policy of noninterference with the affairs of sovereign nations.
Africa on 05.28.04 @ 03:02 PM CST [ more..]
Governing Body, U.S. Pick CIA Link Allawi as Iraq PM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iyad Allawi, a former supporter of Saddam Hussein who then worked with the CIA to topple him, was chosen as prime minister of Iraq Friday. www.reuters.com
USA on 05.28.04 @ 02:41 PM CST [ link]
900 dead in Caribbean flood
CNN - Forecasters are expecting more rain today in the flood-soaked regions of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where floods have killed hundreds of people and left thousands homeless. The International Committee for the Red Cross said the death toll in Haiti and the Dominican Republic has risen to at least 900 and 15,000 people have nowhere to live. www.cnn.com
Caribbean on 05.28.04 @ 10:45 AM CST [ link]
A lesson in racism
Dr Fareda Banda was shocked to discover that her white peers at the School of Oriental and African Studies earned up to £10,000 more. Robert Verkaik reports Few academics can expect to reach the professional heights scaled by the women's rights expert Fareda Banda. Educated in racially segregated schools in Zimbabwe, Dr Banda, 37, became the first black African woman from her country to be awarded a doctorate in law from Oxford University in 1993. Her talents were later recognised by the Law Commission, where she worked closely with a number of senior judges, including Dame Brenda Hale, now the country's first female Law Lord. Then, in 1999, she was invited by the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, to help to investigate the perceptions of lawyers and judges on the system for appointing QCs. The final report, written with Dr Kate Malleson, was well received and confirmed Dr Banda's status as a leading expert in women's human rights. Dr Banda, by now a senior lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), could expect a bright future. But last year, she made an alarming discovery. After a casual enquiry about her pay, she uncovered evidence that, for the six years she had been employed by SOAS, she had been paid up to £10,000 less than her white colleagues. It was a shocking moment in Dr Banda's career and one she says she will never forget. How could one of the world's centres of excellence for black and Asian studies be operating a policy that racially discriminated against one of its leading academics? Full Article
Tyehimba on 05.28.04 @ 12:03 AM CST [ link]
Thursday, May 27th
Bush Has a Plan - Really
So Bush has a "war aftermath plan." He only waited until more than a year after "major combat" was supposedly over to fill in Americans about his plan. Could it be because his approval rating is fast approaching single digits? During Monday's speech Bush was reading a teleprompter and looked like he was speaking words he didn't believe. He also struggled with pronunciation of about 20 words. He choked on Abu Ghraib twice. He mentioned that Iraq has become the center of the "war on terror." Not a giant mental leap to figure out why that may be the case now. He talked about giving Iraqis total sovereignty. Does he mean the US will accept who the majority of Iraqis choose? Not in a Texas minute. www.democraticunderground.comIs the US govt crying 'wolf'?
USA on 05.27.04 @ 10:43 PM CST [ more..]
Africa: African Union Inaugurates Its Security Council
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
May 26, 2004
Posted to the web May 26, 2004 Addis Ababa The African Union (AU) on Tuesday inaugurated its Peace and Security Council (PSC), hailing it as a manifestation of Africa's determination to end conflicts and wars that have been witnessed across the continent for decades. "The decisions expected of the PSC must be strictly implemented by all the states concerned," Mozambique's president and the AU Chairman, Joaquim Chissano, said in a speech during the launch at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Africa on 05.27.04 @ 02:32 PM CST [ more..]
2,000 Dead - Haiti and Dominican Republic flood
Haiti and Dominican Republic reel from deluge The death toll from mudslides and flooding in the Dominican Republic and Haiti soared to around 2,000 last night as rescuers discovered more than 1,000 bodies in a ruined Haitian town. The border region between the two Caribbean countries, which share the island of Hispaniola, has been devastated by water and mudslides which have engulfed the area after 10 days of heavy rain. Entire villages have been swept away by a vast tide of mud miles long and several hundred metres wide. www.guardian.co.uk
Caribbean on 05.27.04 @ 07:05 AM CST [ link]
Wednesday, May 26th
The New York Times and Iraq
FROM THE EDITORS www.nytimes.comPublished: May 26, 2004 Over the last year this newspaper has shone the bright light of hindsight on decisions that led the United States into Iraq. We have examined the failings of American and allied intelligence, especially on the issue of Iraq's weapons and possible Iraqi connections to international terrorists. We have studied the allegations of official gullibility and hype. It is past time we turned the same light on ourselves. In doing so - reviewing hundreds of articles written during the prelude to war and into the early stages of the occupation - we found an enormous amount of journalism that we are proud of. In most cases, what we reported was an accurate reflection of the state of our knowledge at the time, much of it painstakingly extracted from intelligence agencies that were themselves dependent on sketchy information. And where those articles included incomplete information or pointed in a wrong direction, they were later overtaken by more and stronger information. That is how news coverage normally unfolds. But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged - or failed to emerge. www.nytimes.com
USA on 05.26.04 @ 07:36 PM CST [ link]
US prisoner abuse 'widespread'
A leaked study by the US army says abuse of prisoners in US custody is more widespread than previously known, a US newspaper has reported. Cases of maltreatment date from as early as the war in Afghanistan in 2002 to as recently as last month in Iraq, according to The New York Times. news.bbc.co.ukAbu Ghraib: Dark stain on Iraq's pastAbu Ghraib prison lurks behind high walls and brooding watchtowers on the main highway west of Baghdad. A square kilometre of hell during Saddam Hussein's horrific rule, it has retained some of its malevolence since US forces took over the facility, two weeks after toppling the Iraqi regime. The huge prison complex was built by British contractors in the 1960s. news.bbc.co.uk
USA on 05.26.04 @ 09:54 AM CST [ link]
AU to Launch Peace, Security Council
BuaNews (Pretoria)
May 24, 2004
Posted to the web May 25, 2004by Karen PretoriusCape Town The African Union (AU) will launch its Peace and Security Council in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa tomorrow; on the day Africans will be celebrating Africa Day. Africa Day commemorates and honours the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which fostered unity among African states towards Africa's decolonisation, liberation, equality, justice and economic development. Founded in 1963 in Addis Ababa, the OAU ultimately gave birth to the African Union (AU) and its socio-recovery plan Nepad in July 2002, to address the challenges and ensure that the 21st Century truly becomes an African one.
Africa on 05.26.04 @ 08:48 AM CST [ more..]
Tuesday, May 25th
When is Prisoner Abuse Racial Violence
by Sherene Razack
May 24, 2004, www.zmag.org My stomach contracts and I feel a deep chill in every pore of my Brown skin when I see the prisoner abuse photos. I know that this is about racism. So why are so many publicly reluctant to say so? Or is it that we can't get our words into print? Only a few people have noted that the photos remind them of prison abuse and police brutality of Black and Brown men in North America, and of American military and covert operations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Vietnam and elsewhere. Most of these writers are non-Western with the notable exception of Washington Post staff writer Phillip Kennicott. Not mincing words, Kennicott maintains that "these pictures are pictures of colonial behavior, the demeaning of occupied people, the insult to local tradition, the humiliation of the vanquished." Using the words of Aime Cesaire, Kennicott actually names the abuse "race hatred." The Egyptian writer Ahdaf Souief declares that the abuse reflects the "deep racism underlying the occupiers' attitudes to Arabs, Muslims and the third world generally." John Pilger calls it "modern imperial racism. " Recalling Vietnam, and the way that the My Lai massacre is remembered only as a rare incident of exceptional violence, Pilger predicts that prisoner abuse in Iraq will come to be seen the same way, as exceptional and unconnected to the national project of dominating racially inferior peoples. Two weeks into the scandal, the exceptional violence argument rules the day and the word racism is not even uttered as a possible contributing factor. Full Article
USA on 05.25.04 @ 04:25 PM CST [ link]
Continent celebrates Africa Day
By Sifelani Tsiko, www.herald.co.zw AFRICA today celebrates the 41st anniversary of the founding of the continental body - the African Union at a time when it is battling to put a whole array of economic, political and social issues onto an even keel with other powerful countries. This vast continent is working and hopes to drag the economy from a crisis by fighting corruption, poverty, hunger, the deadly HIV and Aids pandemic and encouraging investment.
Africa on 05.25.04 @ 08:12 AM CST [ more..]
Sex and death in the heart of Africa
Hungry, frightened and helpless, young women in the Democratic Republic of Congo are selling their bodies in exchange for food and shelter. And the men expecting such 'payment' are the UN peacekeepers responsible for protecting them. By Kate Holt and Sarah Hughes news.independent.co.uk
Africa on 05.25.04 @ 07:59 AM CST [ link]
Monday, May 24th
Iraq Resolution Gives Wide Powers to U.S. Forces
Well it is a good time to explore these bogus ideas that the US is proposing for Iraq. Those who are aware of African history and colonialism should be familiar with these ideas that are based on further exploiting the people they consider inferior to them. Anyhow, read on.... story.news.yahoo.com-Ayinde
Ayinde on 05.24.04 @ 05:49 PM CST [ link]
'I will always hate you people'
Family's fury at mystery death Luke Harding in Baghdad
Monday May 24, 2004
The Guardian UK The first Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly's family knew of his death was when his battered corpse turned up at Baghdad's morgue. Attached to the zipped-up black US body bag was a laconic note. The US military claimed in the note that Dr Izmerly, a distinguished chemistry professor arrested after US tanks encircled his villa, had died of "brainstem compression". Dr Izmerly's sudden death after 10 months in American custody left his family stunned, not least because three weeks earlier they had visited him in the US prison at Baghdad airport. His 23-year-old daughter, Rana, recalled that he had seemed in "good health". www.guardian.co.uk
USA on 05.24.04 @ 12:01 PM CST [ link]
The myth of the reluctant occupier
www.theage.com.auNow a new orthodoxy is shaping comment and analysis about events in Iraq. Let's call it the "reluctant occupier myth". Having removed Saddam and his cohorts from power and set Iraq on a path towards democracy, the US is now preparing to leave - the "Vietnamisation" of Iraq. It will find a smooth way out by returning sovereignty to a new Iraqi administration, initially on July 1 through the auspices of the UN and then early next year through democratic elections. Coalition forces, which don't want to be in Iraq a day longer than is necessary to "finish the job", will stay on for a time to "maintain" security, but only at the pleasure of a new interim government in Baghdad. Like the earlier myths, this one is also a fabrication. It is difficult to see what could be more obvious than that the US is desperately trying to stay in Iraq - and specifically, in charge in Iraq. Despite disingenuous claims that coalition troops would leave if asked to by a new Iraqi authority after July 1, US Secretary of State Colin Powell got closer to the truth when he stated on April 26 that "I hope they (the Iraqi people) will understand that in order for this government to get up and running - to be effective - some of its sovereignty will have to be given back (to Washington)". So, coalition troops will stay on regardless. After all, what was the point of invading in the first place if they were going to get out? www.theage.com.au
USA on 05.24.04 @ 07:26 AM CST [ link]
War Crimes in the name of Democracy and Freedom
War Crimes in the name of Democracy and FreedomThe US is supposed to represent the apex of 'democracy' and 'freedom'; hence, those terms have become as ugly as the US. Just hearing the terms makes ones stomach turn, feeling revulsion, as does looking at the faces of Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfwitz, Cheney, Powell, Blair and Sharon. All of them are vile war criminals and state terrorists from their own definitions and actions. www.paknews.comProfessor Denounced for POW Memo for Bush BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Some graduating University of California law students used their commencement Saturday to denounce a professor who helped the Bush administration develop a legal framework that critics say led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The Jan. 9, 2002, memo, first reported by Newsweek magazine Monday, laid out the legal reasons why the United States didn't have to comply with international treaties governing prisoner rights. It argued that the normal laws of armed conflict didn't apply to al-Qaida and Taliban militia prisoners because they didn't belong to a state. www.guardian.co.uk
USA on 05.24.04 @ 06:22 AM CST [ link]
Sunday, May 23rd
Bush, Sharon lurching from crisis to crisis
by Haroon Siddiqui Events in Iraq and the Israeli-occupied territories show how George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon continue to create one nightmare after another. Whereas recent headlines have been about two events — an Israeli tank firing on a Palestinian protest march, and American jets bombing what was said to be an Iraqi wedding — there's been no shortage of horrors. www.thestar.comMemos Reveal War Crimes WarningsCould Bush administration officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought soThe White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the debate over the issue. The concern about possible future prosecution for war crimes—and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration officials themselves— is contained in a crucial portion of an internal January 25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention. www.msnbc.msn.comTension rises as bulldozers tear down zoo in RafahBy Donald Macintyre in RafahWith a parrot that had escaped the Israelis perched on his shoulder, and a kangaroo crouching in the corner of the room, Mohammed Juma contemplated the little that was left of the zoo he had spent five years creating. "This was my life," he declared. "I watched my dream being destroyed." news.independent.co.uk
USA on 05.23.04 @ 07:05 PM CST [ link]
Our world was never wrenched from its true course
by Ayanna Gillian
Self Empowerment Learning Fraternity
Trinidad and TobagoThe original URL of this article is:
www.rootswomen.com/ayanna/articles/23052004.html For so many African people in the Diaspora it is difficult to really conceptualize our history and heritage as something miraculous and marvelous. Centuries of racism, colonialism and misappropriated history have created a people who have very little concept of the great civilizations that they were taken from, a large segment of humanity which is in a sense rootless, with no real understanding of its own historical origins. Even as Afrocentric historians attempt to uncover what was buried and rediscover what was thought lost, it seems to be a drop in the bucket in the face of the daily wars, massacres, poverty and political torment that take place on so much of the continent in our present day. Added to this, the only African history that is often taught to our children in schools is the legacy of slavery and colonialism and the awful brutalization at the hands of Europeans. It is little wonder then that psychologically for so many African people, their history seems to begin with European intervention. This is not the fault of the historian who works tirelessly to expose the real history of the colonial era, or the journalist who seeks to bring to light the political and economic travesties that many Africans face at home and abroad. However it is perhaps the inevitable result of our recent history.
Africa on 05.23.04 @ 11:51 AM CST [ more..]
Are American troops out of control in Iraq?
Fresh allegations of American abuse of prisoners continue to appal the world. But now 'The Independent on Sunday' has uncovered proof of US troops deliberately and indiscriminately shooting civilians. Here we examine new evidence that suggests the lawlessness in the American military was never confined to the prison camps and torture rooms but extended to the streets and homes of Iraq. news.independent.co.ukOrdinary Iraqis killed: 11,500 and not countingBill Clinton attacks Bush over Iraq Bill Clinton said yesterday that the UN, not America, should be taking Iraq towards democracy, and that George Bush erred in forcing out UN weapons inspectors and going to war without UN support. "There are so many people who suspect our motives," the former US president said in an address in Brazil. "I don't think Iraq was about oil and imperialism but it was about unilateralism over co-operation as a way to shape the world in the 21st century." news.independent.co.uk
USA on 05.23.04 @ 10:33 AM CST [ link]
Saturday, May 22nd
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
America's Contempt for the WorldBy RANDALL ROBINSONBASSETERRE, St. Kitts. On Feb. 29 the legally elected government of Haiti was driven from power by armed force. Its president, after being taken against his will to the Central African Republic, was given refuge in Jamaica. The Bush administration's response has been to demand that the democratic countries of the Caribbean (1) drop their call for an investigation into the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, (2) push the Aristide family out of Jamaica and the region, and (3) abandon their policy of admitting only democratically elected governments into the councils of Caricom (a multilateral organization established by the English-speaking Caribbean countries 31 years ago to promote regional cooperation).
Caribbean on 05.22.04 @ 08:12 PM CST [ more..]
Global Eye: These cheap hoods
By Chris Floyd, www.moscowtimes.ru Matters of great moment are suddenly in the air all around us: stark evidence of war crimes by the leaders of the West; the growing certainty of a humiliating geopolitical defeat inflicted on the world's greatest power; terrorism and torture as the mirrored emblems of the age, a deadly double helix giving rise to a hideous global reality. It's tempting in such times to inflate the image of those in the forefront of events, painting them, for good or ill, in the colors of legend: bold, outsize figures, Great Ones playing dice with nations, characters whose roiling depths -- tragic, evil or heroic -- transcend the puny limits of the common herd. Although on rare occasions this viewpoint might hold true, the squalid history of our ill-cobbled species provides endless examples to the contrary. www.moscowtimes.ru
USA on 05.22.04 @ 07:20 PM CST [ link]
African unity a must to fairer trade with the West
news.xinhuanet.comKAMPALA, May 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A good humored Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called Friday afternoon in his country's capital Kampala for African unity in trade talks with the West to stop the continent from "exporting dollars," claiming the current global trade system benefits the industrial world at the cost of Africa's economy. Declaring opening of the Economic Commission of Africa's meeting of African finance and economic ministers, Museveni began his hour-long speech with an introduction to trade, explaining demand as the combination of desire and ability to buy. "Africans have got ... desires, but they don't have the ability to pay," Museveni said. The President attributed African's lack of purchasing powers to the unfair trade policies practiced by western industrial countries, saying that without access of African products into the West, the world's poorest continent can't develop commercial agriculture. The president's remarks were supported by the South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who said in a speech read on behalf of him that the West uses tariffs and subsidies to diminish the competitiveness of African products, especially finished products with added value. Full Article
Africa on 05.22.04 @ 12:02 PM CST [ link]
The Truth About Ahmed Chalabi
Why the US Turned Against Their Former Golden Boy -- He was Preparing a Coup! What He Did as a Catspaw for Tehran: How He Nearly Bankrupted Jordan; the Billions He Stands to Make Out of the New IraqBy Andrew Cockburn, www.counterpunch.orgIn dawn raids today, American troops surrounded Ahmed Chalabi's headquarters and home in Baghdad, put a gun to his head, arrested two of his aides, and seized documents. Only five months ago, Chalabi was a guest of honor sitting right behind Laura Bush at the State of the Union. What brought about this astonishing fall from grace of the man who helped provide the faked intelligence that justified last year's war? The answer lies in Chalabi's reaction to his gradual loss of US support in recent months and the realisation that he will be excluded from the post June 30 Iraqi "government" being crafted by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Lashing out against his exclusion from power, he has in effect been laying the groundwork for a coup, assembling a Shia political coalition with the express aim of destabilising the "Brahimi" government even before it takes office. "He has been mobilising forces to make sure the UN initiative fails," one well connected Iraqi political observer, who knows Chalabi well, told me today. "He has been tellling these people that Brahimi is part of a Sunni conspiracy against the Shia." Full Article
USA on 05.22.04 @ 11:51 AM CST [ link]
Friday, May 21st
Dithering on Haiti
ONCE AGAIN efforts by some regional governments to convene a meeting to probe the ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti have been stymied. A meeting initially scheduled for today among delegates to the Permanent Council of the Organisation of American States (OAS), has been postponed because, according to the agency's information officer, they were unable to agree on a mutually convenient date. www.jamaica-gleaner.com
Caribbean on 05.21.04 @ 03:05 PM CST [ link]
Thursday, May 20th
Soldier says intelligence directed abuse
High-ranking intelligence officers allegedly involvedMilitary intelligence officers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq directed military police to take clothes from prisoners, leave detainees naked in their cells and make them wear women's underwear, part of a series of alleged abuses that were openly discussed at the facility, according to a military intelligence soldier who worked at the prison last fall. Sgt. Samuel Provance said intelligence interrogators told military police to strip down prisoners and embarrass them as a way to help "break" them. The same interrogators and intelligence analysts would talk about the abuse with Provance and flippantly dismiss it because the Iraqis were considered "the enemy," he said. www.msnbc.msn.com
USA on 05.20.04 @ 03:27 PM CST [ link]
Israel ignores UN and world condemnation
Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians in Rafah as Israel threatens to continue demolitions despite a sharp rebuke from the UN Security Council. Reacting to Wednesday's Security Council resolution that criticised it for the death and destruction in Gaza, Israel vowed to continue to do whatever it considers appropriate. Passed overwhelmingly after a US abstention, the UN Security Council resolution had earlier condemned the killing of Palestinian civilians in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah. It also called on Israel to halt house demolitions, which are in violation of international humanitarian law. "Israel cannot continue to flout its authority and norms of international law with impunity," said Abd Allah Baali, Algeria's UN ambassador. "After today's butchery, Israel would be well counselled to heed the voice of reason," Baali told the council after the vote. english.aljazeera.net
USA on 05.20.04 @ 12:56 PM CST [ link]
C.I.A. cut Nick Berg's head off?
by Sirajin Sattayev, Kavkaz-Center The video of execution of American hostage Nick Berg in Iraq is threatening to develop into a major scandal. During a press conference the father of the beheaded American accused Bush and Rumsfeld of killing his son. There are more and more suspicions that Nick Berg was really executed not by Arab militants, but by the US intelligence services in order to divert the attention from the scandal about the tortures in Baghdad prison. First there was a report that a video showing an execution of an American expert captured in Iraq was shown on a so-called 'Islamic extremist' website. It was reported that the execution was carried out by a group of guerillas tied to Al-Qaeda in order to take revenge for the tortures that the American soldiers did to Iraqi inmates.
USA on 05.20.04 @ 10:22 AM CST [ more..]
Wednesday, May 19th
Iraqis slain as 'US bombs wedding'
 US occupation forces have reportedly killed at least 40 Iraqi civilians in an air raid that targeted the village of Makr al-Dib on the Syrian border. Quoting witnesses and broadcasting images of dozens of shrouded bodies lined up on a dirt road on Wednesday, al-Arabiya television said warplanes had blasted dozens of people who were celebrating a wedding. "US planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man who said he was from the village said on al-Arabiya. "They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they levelled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he added. The Dubai-based network also showed those who survived digging graves for the numerous men, women and children that died in the raid. english.aljazeera.net
USA on 05.19.04 @ 06:23 PM CST [ link]
Take care, Arundhati Roy warns Sonia
NEW DELHI: Indian novelist Arundhati Roy rejoices that Sonia Gandhi, who "doesn't play the princess", humbled the men who berated her and warns she will face a "blatant game" from a corporate world unmoved by the electoral verdict of India's poor. Roy said she had been "exhaling slowly" since Gandhi triumphed over all polls and a smear campaign by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to become the frontrunner as India's prime minister heading a left-of-centre coalition. "I'm always very happy with people who are slightly unsure of themselves. She has taken so many risks, and yet she's so unsure of herself and careful," Roy said. "She doesn't play the princess." But Roy, a leading activist and the only non-expatriate Indian to win the Booker Prize for her novel "God of Small Things", warned that Gandhi had a tough road ahead against an establishment which the novelist believes firmly sided with the right-wing. www.dailytimes.com.pk
India on 05.19.04 @ 03:18 PM CST [ link]
Israeli forces massacre protesters in Rafah
 Israeli forces have fired on thousands of Palestinians peacefully protesting in the occupied Gaza Strip, leaving up to 20 dead and dozens injured. Scenes of panic and carnage unfolded as Israeli helicopters fired missiles and occupation soldiers fired tank shells and machineguns at demonstrators in Rafah on Wednesday. More than a dozen Palestinians have been confirmed killed, with witnesses and local medical staff telling Aljazeera up to 20 were feared dead. english.aljazeera.netIsraeli Forces Kill 10 Protesters in GazaRAFAH, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces fired a missile and a tank shell Wednesday into a large crowd of Palestinians demonstrating against the invasion of a neighboring refugee camp, witnesses said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, all of them children and teenagers, a Palestinian health official said. story.news.yahoo.com
USA on 05.19.04 @ 10:52 AM CST [ link]
Tuesday, May 18th
Ethiopia 'terrorists' killed
Addis Ababa - Government forces killed 20 members of an armed group accused of terrorising civilians in southwestern Ethiopia, the official news agency reported on Tuesday. An unknown number of government troops were also killed in fighting that lasted for several hours on the outskirts of Gambella, about 500km southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa, a priest said by telephone from the region. www.news24.com
Africa on 05.18.04 @ 02:29 PM CST [ link]
Namibia tells farmers to sell
14/05/2004 14:10 - (SA) Windhoek - The Namibian government has told a first group of farmers they must sell their property under land reforms that some fear could wreak as much havoc with agriculture as a similar programme did in Zimbabwe. Land Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba this week sent letters to about 10 white farm owners. The letter were hand-delivered by ministry officials accompanied by police, The Namibian newspaper reported on Friday. In the letters, Pohamba told the farmers they were "cordially invited to make an offer to sell their property to the state and to enter into further negotiations in that regard," according to the report. www.news24.com
Africa on 05.18.04 @ 02:16 PM CST [ link]
Suspected Mercenaries held in Zimbabwe Seek South Africa Trial
Johannesburg - A group of 70 suspected mercenaries held in Zimbabwe on charges of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea are preparing to take the government to court unless it helps them, a lawyer said on Tuesday. The men, who have been in a Harare jail for the past two months, have asked President Thabo Mbeki's government to either seek their extradition to South Africa or provide assurances that they will not be handed over for trial in Equatorial Guinea, lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said. The government was notified in an official letter served on Monday and Tuesday that it has 24 hours to respond to the request or face court action. "If we do not receive the undertakings... we will proceed with an urgent matter in the Pretoria High Court," Griebenow told AFP, adding that the petition could be heard next week. www.news24.com
Africa on 05.18.04 @ 01:52 PM CST [ link]
Nigeria declares state of emergency in central state
ABUJA, May 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday took action to restore peace between Muslims and Christians in the west African country by declaring a state of emergency in the central state of Plateau. In a televised address on the lingering crisis following the rivals' "near mutual genocide" earlier this month, Obasanjo said Plateau state governor Joshua Dariye, his deputy and the state house of assembly would cease to perform their functions as elected representatives of the people for six months. news.xinhuanet.com
Africa on 05.18.04 @ 01:48 PM CST [ link]
Lynndie Bares New Jail Horrors
 May 18, 2004 -- Notorious Abu Ghraib leash girl Lynndie England told investigators that male Iraqi prisoners were forced to wear women's "maxi pads" and crawl on their hands and knees through broken glass. England said "everyone in the company, from the commander down," knew about the abuse, which she described as "basically us fooling around." "Personnel from MI [military intelligence] . . . would tell us to keep it up, that we were doing a good job," she said. "I was just told we were doing a good job." England said she did not believe the guards should be punished, because "we did what we were told." www.nypost.com
USA on 05.18.04 @ 01:10 PM CST [ more..]
Gandhi Declines Leadership of India
NEW DELHI (AP) - Sonia Gandhi said she would "humbly decline" to be the next prime minister of India, a decision that followed Hindu nationalist outrage over the prospect of a foreign-born woman at the helm of the nation. "The post of prime has not been my aim," Gandhi said over a crowd that yelled at her to take the job. "I was always certain that if ever I found myself in the position I am in today I would follow my inner voice. I humbly decline the post." apnews.myway.com
USA on 05.18.04 @ 01:05 PM CST [ link]
Monday, May 17th
Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide
That Halo Over Romeo Dalliare's Head Has More Than One Hole in It!By ROBIN PHILPOTWhen International Criminal Tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte learned from a Canadian newspaper in 2000 that the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its leader Paul Kagame were prime suspects in the April 6, 1994, assassination of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, she reportedly said: "If it is the RPF that shot down the plane, the history of genocide must be rewritten". Hopefully others will be as candid as Ms Del Ponte as more and more information surfaces on events in Rwanda in the early 90s. First on that list should be retired Canadian general and former UN peacekeeper in Rwanda Romeo Dallaire. However, Dallaire may find it hard to swallow his pride after enjoying such a massive PR campaign organized for him ever since his 600-page book appeared in October 2003 (Shake Hands with the Devil, The failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Random House Canada).
Africa on 05.17.04 @ 07:53 PM CST [ more..]
God, Country and Torture
The Anti-Empire ReportBy WILLIAM BLUMOn October 21, 1994, the United States became a State Party to the "Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment". Article 2, section 2 of the Convention states: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture." "If you open the window [of torture], even just a crack, the cold air of the middle ages will fill the whole room."{1} "The thing with the soldiers there, they think because we're Americans, you can do whatever you want," said Spc. Ramon Leal, an MP who served at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
USA on 05.17.04 @ 11:50 AM CST [ more..]
Rebels 'to extend war zone'
Cairo - The head of the main rebel force in Sudan's Darfur region has threatened to extend a war affecting more than a million people to other areas if the government refuses to include it in all-round peace talks. Abdel Wahed Mohammad Ahmad Nour, leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) warned that "we will extend the zone of our military operations to encompass Kordofan (in central Sudan), Khartoum and the east" if excluded from Sudanese peace talks entering a critical week in Kenya. "Any agreement leaving out the SLM will not lead to real peace," Nour added in an interview published on Monday by the Arabic daily al-Hayat, where he also accused pro-government forces of breaching a shaky ceasefire reached last month. www.news24.com
Admin on 05.17.04 @ 09:07 AM CST [ link]
Baghdad blast kills Iraq's US-appointed leader
The current head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council has been killed in a car bomb blast near the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad. Ezzedine Salim was waiting to enter the compound when the bomb went off at 0530 GMT, killing him and several others. It is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was the target of what US officials say was a suicide attack. Iraq's interim foreign minister has vowed that the political process will not be derailed. news.bbc.co.uk
Admin on 05.17.04 @ 05:08 AM CST [ link]
Sunday, May 16th
War Crimes Have Doomed the Occupation
War CrimesBy Tom Engelhardt It's always interesting to see what floats into the mind. If critics of the Bush administration's war and occupation policies in Iraq started talking about My Lai in the same breath with Abu Ghraib, you know what would be said. But it's a fact of this administration that part of its collective brain is still living in Vietnam (though Powell was the only one among its top officials not to escape that war in one fashion or another) -- hence the importance of the much-rejected Vietnam analogy. And of course, the murders of small numbers of Iraqis in prison and the abuse, torture and humiliation of many more is not the equivalent of the slaughter of more than 500 unresisting Vietnamese, mostly old people, women, and children in less than a day by Charlie Company of the Americal Division, while higher commanders circled overhead in helicopters. But it's interesting that My Lai leapt so quickly to Colin Powell's mind, and in fact there are parallels. War Crimes Have Doomed the OccupationBy Mark LeVine As Voltaire reminded us over 250 years ago: "Those who can make you believe absurdities will get you to commit atrocities... As long as we believe in absurdities we will commit atrocities." In other words, as long as the occupation of Iraq is based on the absurdities sold to us by the Bush and Blair governments, its very structure will make atrocities a necessary part of the functioning of the system it's put in place. And as long as Americans continue to believe in the absurdities behind the much larger "war on terrorism," they will continue to be accomplices to international crimes, and to increasing violations of the rights of their fellow citizens as well -- and on a grand scale at that. Full Article
Admin on 05.16.04 @ 10:19 PM CST [ link]
Ethnic Cleansing In Africa
by Linda Edwards - Houston, Texas
May 09, 2004Once again, the painful images of bone-thin African children and their mothers on the move fill our TV screens. The headlines shout that ethnic cleansing is going on in the Southern Sudan, and that the government of the Arab north is practising a scorched earth policy to get rid of the dark skinned people of Southern Sudan. And for a moment, we are shocked. There are pious mouthings, of course, from all the right poeple, all of whom are overweight. (Aid agencies, UN rights people and so on). So this is news? This was documented by World News Television, Channel 366 on Direct TV, three years ago. Maybe the world's policy makers do not watch that version of reality TV.
Africa on 05.16.04 @ 07:26 PM CST [ more..]
The Terrible and Strange Death of Nick Berg
By James Conachy
14 May 2004, www.wsws.org The terrible death of Nick Berg in Iraq - beheaded in front of a video camera - has taken place in such strange and suspicious circumstances that it raises deeply troubling questions. Among them is whether American agencies had a direct or indirect hand in the young man's murder. Questions immediately arise from the timing and political consequences of his killing. At the height of a massive scandal engulfing the Bush administration, Berg's death has been exploited by the American government and the US media to launch a counter-offensive against the revelations of systematic US torture in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons. A wholesale attempt is being made to shift American and international public opinion away from the outrage over the criminal character of the US occupation of Iraq and behind the self-serving argument that American forces are needed in Iraq to prevent the country descending into barbarism and chaos.
USA on 05.16.04 @ 03:36 PM CST [ more..]
Democrats agree to suppress photos of US torture in Iraq
As evidence of mass torture of Iraqi detainees by US forces continues to emerge, the Senate Armed Services Committee has, through its public hearings, assumed the role of point-man in the effort of the US political establishment to conceal the dimensions of American war crimes and obscure the colonialist character of the Iraq war. True to form, congressional Democrats are playing the crucial role in shielding the chief perpetrators in the Bush White House and Pentagon. www.wsws.org
USA on 05.16.04 @ 03:32 PM CST [ link]
British businessman accused of leading role in failed coup
By Paul Lashmar and Adrian Gatton
16 May 2004, 1ndependent.co.ukA management consultant from west London has been accused of being one of the masterminds behind a plot to overthrow the government of the oil-rich African state of Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea is a recently oil-rich but still impoverished country in west Africa whose President, Teodore Obiang, has ruled for 30 years. At Harare Airport on 7 March, Zimbabwean police arrested a former SAS officer, Simon Mann, and 66 South African former special forces personnel on a chartered Boeing 727. They have been charged with plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. In a series of morning swoops on 8 March, a South African former special forces officer, Nick du Toit, and 14 other men in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, were arrested by local police. Full Article
Admin on 05.16.04 @ 09:51 AM CST [ link]
Military times: real 'morons' in White House
By Raffique Shah, www.trinicenter.com/RaffiqueLAST Sunday I argued that what has now come out in the open, those photographs of prisoner-abuse at Abu Ghraib, was not the exception. It was not a case of a few "bad eggs" in the US military who had broken all the rules and conventions of war. New evidence reveals that the methods of interrogation used against captives in America's futile war against terrorism were devised at the highest levels of the Bush administration. The CIA was actually in charge of Abu Gharaib. And at the top of the torture heap sat the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld's castle.
Admin on 05.16.04 @ 08:43 AM CST [ more..]
Friday, May 14th
Africa to be anointed as influence grows
Africa's rapidly spreading influence will be underlined this weekend when soccer's biggest event goes to the continent for the first time. South Africa is favourite, hoping to beat Morocco and Egypt to host the World Cup in 2010, with Libya and Tunisia the bolters when FIFA's 25-strong chief executive votes. Europe, South America and the rest of the soccer world will look on as FIFA has ruled, as part of its globalisation plan, that Africa will stage the 2010 event. Whoever wins, it will be another sign of the rising status in soccer of the continent that gave the game George Weah, Roger Milla and Nwankwo Kanu. Nigeria and Cameroon won the previous two Olympic soccer titles. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said a week ago the Tunisians would withdraw as they wanted to co-host the event with the Libyans and that was no longer an option. Although it happened with Japan and South Korea in 2002, he said that was a one-off. www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/14/1084289883212.html
Admin on 05.14.04 @ 01:57 PM CST [ link]
Gandhi moves quickly to form new Indian government
by Laurinda Keys, Canadian Press NEW DELHI (AP) - Sonia Gandhi worked swiftly Friday to build a new coalition government around her family's Congress party after a stunning upset election victory, but stock markets plummeted on fears that her leftist allies would wind back fundamental economic reforms. www.canada.com
Admin on 05.14.04 @ 10:38 AM CST [ link]
Thursday, May 13th
Europe Growing Uneasy over Alliance with U.S.
by Julio Godoy PARIS - European officials seem agreed that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. and British forces rule the two countries out of an international peace initiative. But they stop short of considering a European policy independent of the United States. At the least the pictures of abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners have further undermined the already weak European backing for the war and occupation. Earlier supporters of the United States are now in withdrawal mode. Full Article
USA on 05.13.04 @ 10:05 PM CST [ link]
Photos show dead Iraqis, torture and rape
By Marian Wilkinson
United States CorrespondentGraphic new photographs and videotape of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison including images of dead Iraqis, prisoners being brutalised, tortured and forced to have sex, and female detainees being forced to expose their breasts have stunned members of Congress who saw them in a secure briefing room on Capitol Hill. "There were some awful scenes", said Democrat senator Richard Durbin, "It felt you were descending into one of the wings of hell and sadly it was our own creation." "There are a lot of dead people shown and a lot of people brutalised," said independent senator Jim Jeffords, formerly a Republican, but he said it was unclear whether the Iraqis shown had died in combat or after they were imprisoned. "Take the worse case and multiply it several times over," said Democrat senator Ron Wyden. "I expected that these pictures would be very hard on the stomach lining and it was significantly worse than anything that I had anticipated." www.theage.com.au
USA on 05.13.04 @ 03:25 PM CST [ link]
Senseless Crackdown on Cuba
by Douglas Starr, www.boston.com WHILE AMERICA was watching the images of abused Iraqi prisoners, I saw the same images from my hotel room in another country slated for regime change: Cuba. I'd gone there to do research on that nation's biotech industry. During the week I spent there I learned more about my own country than I'd expected -- much of it disappointing. I'd always been an agnostic on Castro and Cuba, but it's hard to remain that way after seeing the collateral effects of our four-decade embargo. Whole sections of Havana seem to be decaying. Hospitals exist day to day on medicines, researchers improvise scientific equipment, and there are national shortages in just about everything. Even accounting for Cuban mismanagement, world health authorities have linked the embargo and its ripple effects to epidemics and food shortages. The embargo does more than cut off American trade. It seeks to prevent all other commerce as well. Under the ever tightening restrictions, no ship that loads or unloads anything in a Cuban port can dock in America for six months. Food and medicine have been restricted. Foreign companies that do business with Cuba are discouraged or even prohibited from doing business in the United States. In other words, even though no other nations agree with our Cuba policy, we bludgeon them into acquiescing. Sound familiar? Those measures are sinking to new levels of meanness under the Bush administration. Eager to curry the Miami extremist vote, the administration has eliminated all "people to people" cultural exchanges and university-related educational travel. Customs agents at airports in Canada, Mexico, and other third-country way stations have been alerted to nab any American tourists who might try to end-run the travel restrictions. The enforcement branch of the Treasury Department has beefed up its anti-Cuba surveillance, devoting 21 full-time employees to enforcing the Cuban embargo and travel ban. Only four track the finances of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Full Article
USA on 05.13.04 @ 01:47 PM CST [ link]
Wednesday, May 12th
US Abuse of Black Men a Prelude to Scandal
by Derrick Z. Jackson, www.boston.com DEFENSE Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the abuse of Iraqi soldiers by American soldiers was "inconsistent with the values of our nation. It is inconsistent with the teachings of the military to the men and women of the armed forces, and it was certainly fundamentally un-American." In his Rose Garden press appearance with King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Bush said he told the king: "I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families. I told him I was equally sorry that people who have been seeing those pictures didn't understand the true nature and heart of America. "I assured him Americans, like me, didn't appreciate what we saw, that it made us sick to our stomachs. I also made it clear to His Majesty that the troops we have in Iraq, who are there for security and peace and freedom, are the finest of the fine, fantastic United States citizens, who represent the very best qualities of America: courage, love of freedom, compassion, and decency." Of course, all of the apologizing over un-American behavior comes only after the global equivalent of the Rodney King tape. What happened in Iraq is a natural extension of the humiliation that has gone on for two decades in this country. Whether Americans' behavior in Iraq is due to racial, religious, or other cultural feelings of superiority -- or a numbed acceptance of government sponsored violence -- the abusing soldiers and the commanders who let it happen assumed that they were dealing with people who had no voice. So thought the Los Angeles police who clubbed King in 1991 -- until the videotape.
USA on 05.12.04 @ 07:16 PM CST [ more..]
Bucks battle free speech in US media
english.aljazeera.netThe decision by the Walt Disney Co to block distribution of filmmaker Michael Moore's controversial new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, has cast new light on the growing influence of large corporations over the flow of information in the US. "The idea that Disney is declining to release the film because it is political does not bode very well for democratic debate in this country," says Jim Naureckas, a spokesman for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal watchdog group.
USA on 05.12.04 @ 01:18 PM CST [ more..]
American's Beheading, Fishy and Flawed
 Was this really Nick Berg's last moment or was he killed earlier?A group linked to al-Qa'ida released a video last night 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. news.independent.co.ukFishy Circumstances and Flawed Timelines Surround American's BeheadingInfowars.com 1) extremely convenient "wag the dog" timing at the height of furor regarding U.S. torture of Iraqis 2) CNN poll question: "Is the Berg killing a reason for withholding any remaining Iraq prisoner abuse pictures?" Bush has been reported to be struggling with question of whether Pentagon should release additional torture photos. Given that the alleged decapitation of Berg was allegedly prompted by the first wave of torture photos, Bush could now cite "national security" issues for witholding additional materials. 3) Berg's last known whereabouts was in U.S. custody. 4) Berg shown in video wearing orange jumpsuit known to be of U.S. issue (compare with pictures at Guantanamo). 5) Berg mysteriously captured by Al-Quaeda (still wearing jumpsuit). Either he escaped from U.S. captors or U.S. let him out -- with orange suit and all -- to be immediately apprehended by Al-Quaeda (before he had a chance to change). 6) Tape obviously spliced together and heavily edited. Goes from a) Berg sitting in chair talking about family, to b) Berg sitting on floor with hooded "militants" behind, to c) blurry camera movement, to d) almost motionless Berg on floor as head cut off. 7) Audio clearly dubbed in.
USA on 05.12.04 @ 11:37 AM CST [ more..]
South Africa's 'mercenary' village
An unusual group of protestors gathered on the lawns of Pretoria's Union Buildings, the seat of the South African government. These are the relatives and friends of the 85 suspected mercenaries who were allegedly involved in a plot to overthrow the government in the oil-rich West African state of Equatorial Guinea. Fifteen of them are behind bars in Equatorial Guinea, the remainder are imprisoned in Zimbabwe, where their plane was stopped in March, allegedly en route to join their colleagues in the coup plot. news.bbc.co.uk
Africa on 05.12.04 @ 10:27 AM CST [ link]
Tuesday, May 11th
Brutality: the home truths
by Gary Younge
Tuesday May 11, 2004
The Guardian In an interview with an online magazine, Corrections.com, last January, Lane McCotter described Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison at the centre of the torture scandal, as "the only place we agreed as a team was truly closest to an American prison". Rarely has a truer word been spoken. And rarely has there been a more appropriate person than McCotter to utter them. He was head of Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 when Michael Valent, a prisoner diagnosed with schizophrenia died after he was strapped to a restraining chair for 16 hours. The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union said the first word that came to mind when she saw the chair was "torture". McCotter resigned as the scandal gathered pace, went into the lucrative world of private prison management and last year directed the reopening of Abu Ghraib.
Admin on 05.11.04 @ 06:07 AM CST [ more..]
Monday, May 10th
I Believed In This War.. I Was So Wrong
by Tony ParsonsSTOP me if I am missing something here, but if former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic can end up on trial for war crimes committed under his leadership, then why can't Tony Blair? Former Yugoslav President Milosevic didn't personally murder anyone. He didn't actually rape anyone. And he didn't soil his suit by torturing anyone in a stinking prison cell. And yet Milosevic stands accused of crimes against humanity. He faces life imprisonment for unspeakable atrocities in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo that happened when he was many miles away. But Milosevic was dragged to The Hague because he was the man at the top, and the indisputable architect of a mountain of misery. "He (Milosevic) controlled events," the judges at The Hague were told when his trial began, "because he controlled the people who constituted the bodies that did evil." Which is a perfect definition of Tony Blair's moral responsibility for everything that has been done in this country's name in Iraq. www.mirror.co.uk
Admin on 05.10.04 @ 09:18 PM CST [ more..]
Trials and Tribulations: U.S. and Saddam
The French lawyer Jacques Vergès reveals how he plans to secure a not-guilty verdict for his latest client - Saddam HusseinExtract from: Trials and TribulationsBy Robert Chalmers, news.independent.co.ukHe is recognised, even by his enemies, as one of the greatest defence lawyers of his time. He says he was appointed to begin work on Saddam Hussein's case about a month ago. "His nephew called me," he explains. "He said that he felt his uncle had been publicly humiliated, in contravention of the Geneva Convention." Vergès himself has had no contact with the former Iraqi leader.
Admin on 05.10.04 @ 10:49 AM CST [ more..]
Poll shows majority want UK troops to pull out
Independent/MOP pollShould British troops pull out of Iraq by 30th June? 55 per cent: YES 28 per cent: NO 17 per cent: DON'T KNOW Voters support the withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq by the end of next month by a majority of two to one, a poll for The Independent reveals today. news.independent.co.uk
Admin on 05.10.04 @ 10:19 AM CST [ link]
Venezuelan President condemns US 'terror'
Venezuela's president has condemned the United States as a "terrorist state" for toughening sanctions against Cuba. Hugo Chavez vowed on Sunday that his government would increase its trade and cooperation with the Communist island. The policy includes an increase in support for internal opponents of President Fidel Castro. "That's called state terrorism, inciting people to kill President Castro, to overthrow him, inciting violence," Chavez said. Since he was elected in 1998, Chavez has angered the United States by forging a close relationship with Cuba - the target of a long-running US trade embargo. Venezuela is Cuba's biggest trade partner, sending cheap oil to Havana, while more than 10,000 Cuban doctors, sports instructors and other experts work in the South American country. He said he had ordered the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to study the possibility of investing in an idle Soviet-built refinery at Cienfuegos on the island's south-central coast. Under a 2000 energy accord, Venezuela ships at least 53,000 barrels per day of oil to Cuba. english.aljazeera.net
Caribbean on 05.10.04 @ 12:39 AM CST [ link]
Sunday, May 9th
How the U.S. is Liberating Iraq
CHAIN OF COMMAND
by Seymour M. Hersh, www.newyorker.com An Iraqi prisoner and American military dog handlers.
Other photographs show the Iraqi on the ground, bleeding.One of the new photographs shows a young soldier, wearing a dark jacket over his uniform and smiling into the camera, in the corridor of the jail. In the background are two Army dog handlers, in full camouflage combat gear, restraining two German shepherds. The dogs are barking at a man who is partly obscured from the camera’s view by the smiling soldier. Another image shows that the man, an Iraqi prisoner, is naked. His hands are clasped behind his neck and he is leaning against the door to a cell, contorted with terror, as the dogs bark a few feet away. Other photographs show the dogs straining at their leashes and snarling at the prisoner. In another, taken a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate’s leg. Another photograph is a closeup of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another, larger wound on his left leg, covered in blood. Full Article
USA on 05.09.04 @ 05:14 PM CST [ link]
Sudan agreeable in south, murderous in west
Haroon SiddiquiSudan evokes images of Muslim fundamentalists and Christian missionaries, the slave trade, oil skulduggery and civil war. Add ethnic cleansing to that unhappy mix. But just as the northern-dominated government in Khartoum and the rebellious south are negotiating an end to their 21-year civil war, a similar conflict has broken out in the west. Backed by federal helicopter gunships, bombers and troops, local militias in the Darfur region have looted, torched and depopulated villages. About 10,000 people have been killed, 1 million displaced and 100,000 forced to flee to Chad. www.thestar.com
Africa on 05.09.04 @ 12:12 PM CST [ link]
Saturday, May 8th
Gunned down to impress America
Several senior police officers have been charged with murder. After a lengthy investigation, the Macedonian authorities have admitted that the six Pakistanis and one Indian were simply illegal immigrants, trying to get to Greece to find work on the Olympic sites, or anywhere else. "This was the act of a sick mind," Mirjana Konteska, a Macedonian official, said. "They lost their lives in a stage murder [so the police and officials] could present themselves as participants in the war against terror." The seven were picked up as they entered Macedonia through Bulgaria. They were detained for several days before being driven to a spot en route to the US embassy. Then they were shot. Mr Boskovski claimed that his forces had foiled a major terrorist attack on the US embassy, and that bags of guns and uniforms were found on the "mojahedin fighters". www.guardian.co.uk
USA on 05.08.04 @ 05:45 PM CST [ link]
'It will convince almost no one'
The Arab papers respond to Bush's appearances on Arabic television "Mr Bush cannot justify what cannot be justified, vindicate what cannot be vindicated, or apologise for something for which apology cannot be accepted ... [The torture scandal] is a war crime by any standard. It must not be forgotten or overtaken by more violent and more atrocious events. This is a crime for the champions of human rights in the whole world ... to examine. And above all, it calls for a European role in the face of 'the civilised monster' that expressed itself in Abu Ghraib prison." www.guardian.co.uk
Admin on 05.08.04 @ 03:19 PM CST [ link]
Sudan 'starving Darfur refugees'
Two reports have accused the Sudanese government and Arab militia of massive abuses in western Darfur region. The United Nations says Darfur refugees are systematically being starved. Human Rights Watch says black Africans are deliberately being driven off the land. www.sudan.netSudan Slams U.S. Human Rights Record Citing IraqBlamed by the United Nations and the United States for committing atrocities against its own people, Sudan on Thursday slammed Washington's own human rights record citing the treatment of Iraqi prisoners. "What the U.S. soldiers are doing there, torturing people with electric shocks punishments, all these have been shown on the TV," Ismail said. "Instead of establishing an independent inquiry to find out about it and to punish the American soldiers for doing this dirty job, they are saying that they are going to do their own investigation." www.sudan.net
Africa on 05.08.04 @ 03:11 PM CST [ more..]
Friday, May 7th
South Africa income disparities widening
South African income disparities have widened in the face of HIV/AIDS, an inadequate social safety net and the economy's inability to create jobs, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The UN’s 2003 Human Development Report for South Africa said that according to the Gini coefficient – a widely used measurement of inequality – income disparities grew between 1995 and 2001. www.lexpress.mu
Africa on 05.07.04 @ 04:34 PM CST [ link]
GM food aid comes under fire again in Africa
Environmental groups have clashed again with the World Food Programme (WFP) over the extent to which the programme is able to meet the food needs of African countries that doubt the safety of genetically modified (GM) crops. Earlier this week, a coalition of more than 60 African groups signed a letter of protest about what they claim to have been pressure by both the WFP and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Sudan and Angola, both of which have decided to impose restrictions on GM food aid. www.scidev.net
Africa on 05.07.04 @ 04:26 PM CST [ link]
Nigerian Muslims bury 600 after Christian slaughter
Reuters in Yelwa
The GuardianA Muslim community leader in the Nigerian town of Yelwa said yesterday that 630 bodies had been buried there after an attack by Christian militia on Sunday. The previous estimate of the death toll was 300. Survivors of the attacks said many people were still missing and the final death toll could reach 1,000. Another 600 were said to be seriously wounded. "We buried a total of 630 people yesterday, 1,500 people were injured and 600 were taken for emergency treatment," the community leader, Abdullahi Abdullahi, said. There was no independent confirmation of the toll. Many residents fled Yelwa after the attack. www.guardian.co.uk
Africa on 05.07.04 @ 06:59 AM CST [ link]
Arabs attack Africans in Sudan: report
REIGN OF TERROR: The Arab-led Sudanese government is being accused of joining Arab militias in attacks on black Africans, clearing villages and executing 'enemies' THE GUARDIAN, DAKAR, SENEGAL
Sunday, Apr 25, 2004,Page 7 Human Rights Watch on Friday issued a stinging report accusing the Arab-led Sudanese government of joining Arab militias in attacks on black Africans in the Darfur region of western Sudan, clearing villages, destroying their food supplies and executing men deemed enemies. It came on a day that the UN's top human rights body passed a resolution on human rights abuses in Darfur that the US rejected as too soft on Sudan.
Africa on 05.07.04 @ 06:46 AM CST [ more..]
Sudan 'like Rwanda in 1994'
Cairo - Sudan is waging a bloody campaign of "ethnic cleansing", killing thousands of people and driving a million more from their homes by bombing villages, shooting men and raping women, a prominent human rights group said on Friday. The New York-based Human Rights Watch described a pattern of violence by government forces and militiamen, known as janjaweed, made up of nomads who often sweep into villages riding camels and horses. Human rights groups said the two forces - the Arab-dominated government and the Arab militia - set out last year on a deliberate campaign to drive black African tribes from the Darfur region. www.news24.com
Africa on 05.07.04 @ 05:47 AM CST [ link]
Thursday, May 6th
Sudan Blamed in 'Cleansing'
Human Rights Watch Says Military Backs Militias in Darfur By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 7, 2004; Page A26 UNITED NATIONS, April 6 -- A leading human rights organization Thursday published the most detailed independent account yet of Sudan's alleged complicity in the "ethnic cleansing" of more than a million tribal villagers in Darfur province and the murder of thousands more. www.washingtonpost.com
Africa on 05.06.04 @ 11:52 PM CST [ link]
This War and Racism -- Media Denial in Overdrive
by Norman Solomon Among the millions of words that have appeared in the U.S. press since late April about abuse and torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, one has been notably missing: Racism. Overall, when it comes to racial aspects, the news coverage is quite PC -- as in Pentagon Correct. The outlook is "apple pie" egalitarian, with the media picture including high-profile officers who are African-American and Latino. Meanwhile, inside the policy arena, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice are frequently in front of cameras to personify Uncle Sam in blackface. The U.S. government doesn't drop bombs on people because of their race. Washington's geopolitical agendas lead to military actions. But racial biases make the war process easier when the people being killed and maimed aren't white people. An oversize elephant in the American media's living room is a reality that few journalists talk about in public: The USA keeps waging war on countries where the victims resemble people who often experience personal and institutional racism in the United States. www.commondreams.org
USA on 05.06.04 @ 08:50 PM CST [ link]
Red Cross Says Repeatedly Warned U.S. on Iraq Jail
by Richard Waddington GENEVA - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Thursday it had repeatedly urged the United States to take "corrective action" at a Baghdad jail at the center of a scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The Geneva-based humanitarian agency, mandated under international treaties to visit detainees, has had regular access to Abu Ghraib prison since U.S.-led forces began using it last year, according to chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari. www.commondreams.org
USA on 05.06.04 @ 08:25 PM CST [ link]
Wednesday, May 5th
Tbilisi Offers Abashidze Safe Passage
BATUMI, Georgia -- Thousands of people protested in the tense capital of Georgia's Adzharia region on Wednesday, calling for its defiant leader to resign amid signs he was losing support in his standoff with the central government over control of the Black Sea province. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili offered Aslan Abashidze safe passage if he resigned and left the country. "I am ready to give full safety guarantees to Abashidze and members of his family if they leave Adzharia and go abroad," Saakashvili said in televised address. Saakashvili said he had discussed offers of asylum for Abashidze with authorities in Russia and the United States. www.themoscowtimes.com
USA on 05.05.04 @ 04:33 PM CST [ link]
Ja's musical giant, Coxsone Dodd, dies
LEGENDARY MUSIC pioneer and founder of Studio One, Sir Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd, died yesterday from heart complications, it is believed. Dodd, 72, is survived by his wife and six children. www.jamaicagleaner.com
Caribbean on 05.05.04 @ 12:07 PM CST [ link]
Tuesday, May 4th
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Force May Conquer a Nation; But It Can't Govern ItBy Fidel Castro(Excerpted from Castro's May Day speech.)Washington's reckless policies have led the world to face ever more difficult problems. For that reason, it is no surprise that social demonstrations occur in different parts of the world, such as those in Spain, which led up to a significant and encouraging action, an extraordinary and almost exclusive event carried out by the Spanish people, particularly Spanish youth. Their heroic political struggle during the elections led to the humiliating defeat of the previous Spanish government's shameful attempts to use the atrocious events of 11 March to its benefit and in support of George Bush's warmongering.
USA on 05.04.04 @ 08:02 PM CST [ more..]
Self-Censorship and Torture
Abu Ghraib, CBS and American PowerBy David PetersonRight before the close of last Wednesday's 60 Minutes II segment about the torture and abuse of Iraqis at the hands of the American military personnel in control of the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, the program's host Dan Rather added a "postscript" ("Court Martial in Iraq; US Army soldiers face court martials for actions at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Prison," 60 Minutes II, CBS TV, April 28, 2004): RATHER: A postscript. Two weeks ago, we received an appeal from the Defense Department, and eventually from the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, to delay this broadcast given the danger and tension on the ground in Iraq. We decided to honor that request while pressing for the Defense Department to add its perspective to the incidents at Abu Ghraib Prison. This week, with the photos beginning to circulate elsewhere and with other journalists about to publish their versions of the story, the Defense Department agreed to cooperate in our report. Today, Tuesday, May 4, marks the sixth day since this program and these words first aired on CBS TV. And yet this appalling confession on the part of CBS TV's news department---that, based on a request from the American state to delay the broadcast of its Abu Ghraib report, CBS agreed, and only changed course when Seymour Hersh's article on the same for the New Yorker was set to be published (i.e., "Torture at Abu Ghraib," May 10)---has received next-to-zero coverage in the U.S. media, let alone expressions of the monumental outrage that it deserves.(Note that Hersh's report was first posted to the New Yorker's website on April 30---that is, two days after the 60 Minutes II report first aired.) www.counterpunch.org
USA on 05.04.04 @ 07:57 PM CST [ link]
A Broad Pattern of Abuse and Denial
A Timeline of Torture & Abuse Allegations and ResponsesBy Human Rights WatchAllegations of torture and mistreatment of detainees by U.S. forces in Iraq do not involve isolated cases, but are part of a broader pattern of what the Army's own investigation into the matter called "systemic abuse." Concerns about mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in other undisclosed detention facilities set up after September 11, 2001, have been raised many times by the media, NGO's, and the Congress. www.counterpunch.org
USA on 05.04.04 @ 07:48 PM CST [ link]
Climbing the White Escalator
by Betsy Leondar-Wright "America is a meritocracy," my father always told me. The harder he worked, the more money he got: clear cause and effect. From individuals' prosperity or poverty, he believed he could determine their effort and talent. Therefore the poor black people in a nearby city clearly hadn't applied themselves. My father had a legacy that he couldn't see, a legacy he only got because he is white. His ancestor, John Prescott, came from England in 1638. The Massachusetts Bay Colony granted him land in Central Massachusetts something no people of color got -- and he built the first sawmill there. As far as I can tell, none of his descendants have ever been poor. Some of my ancestors moved west to Ohio in the 1800s, where they may have received land under one of the Homestead Acts government programs closed to people of color. www.commondreams.org
USA on 05.04.04 @ 07:33 PM CST [ link]
Monday, May 3rd
Is the US military torturing Iraqis with electricity?
7 January 2003 -- Sadiq Zoman Abrahim, 55 years old, was detained this past August in Kirkuk by US Soldiers during a home raid which produced no weapons. He was taken to the police office in Kirkuk, questioned by the Americans there, then transferred to Kirkuk Airport Detention Center. In the photos taken by the Red Crescent, Mr. Abrahim appears with long hair and an unshaven, scruffy face. The staff at the hospital shaved him, and cleaned up his ragged appearance. The doctors at the hospital in Tikrit, after performing diagnostic tests, informed the family that Mr. Abrahim had suffered massive head trauma, electrocution, and other bruises on his arms. An EKG proved that his heart was functioning perfectly. The family was told that he was in an unrecoverable state and would be in a coma for the rest of his life from the obvious trauma suffered. electroniciraq.net
USA on 05.03.04 @ 07:32 PM CST [ link]
Accumulate This
by Seth SandronskyFor centuries, military might has paved the way for the theft of people and nature in Africa, Asia and the Americas. A dead German called this process "primitive accumulation." Later, people are legally looted of the wealth their energy creates when they become wage workers. A current example of primitive accumulation is underway today in Iraq. That Persian Gulf nation has much oil, an essential input for the global system, and desired by elites in rich countries. A fraction of them in the U.S. is leading the charge. As the Iraqi body count mounts, it is worth noting that perpetual peace and prosperity for humanity was supposed to follow the fall of the former Soviet Union. So ended the Cold War begun with the Russian Revolution. Some said the failure of Soviet-style socialism proved once and for all that there were no alternatives to capitalism, to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher. At last, mankind would be free. Billions of people acting to maximize their choices in the world market would make democracy a planetary reality. www.dissidentvoice.org
USA on 05.03.04 @ 06:35 PM CST [ link]
Sunday, May 2nd
Racism at the Core of Iraq Invasion
The popular perception in the US is that Iraq is a country of uncivilized criminals and terrorists raised to hate America because common people hate freedom and liberty, "ragheads" and "sand niggers" who brought down the Twin Towers in New York City and attacked the Pentagon. US-based columnists have taken to calling Iraqis lazy and ungrateful... www.unobserver.com
USA on 05.02.04 @ 04:05 PM CST [ link]
Castro Rails Against New U.S. Measures
HAVANA - President Fidel Castro said Saturday that the country would defend itself "to the last drop of blood," declaring Cuba unafraid of a U.S. measures to change the island's four-decade-old socialist system. story.news.yahoo.com
USA on 05.02.04 @ 11:42 AM CST [ link]
The Pictures That Lost The War
Sunday Herald (Scotland) by Neil MackayGrim images of American and British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners have not only caused disgust and revulsion in the West, but could have forever lost Bush and Blair the moral high ground that they claimed to justify the invasion of Iraq. IT'S an image that would do Saddam proud. A terrified prisoner, hooded and dressed in rags, his hands out-stretched on either side of him, electrodes attached to his fingers and genitals. He's been forced to stand on a box about one-foot square. His captors have told him that, if he falls off the box, he'll be electrocuted. The torture victim was an Iraqi and his torturers were American soldiers. The picture captures the moment when members of the coalition forces, who styled themselves liberators, were exposed as torturers. The image of the wired and hooded Iraqi was one of a series of photographs, leaked by a horrified US soldier inside Saddam's old punishment center, Abu Ghraib - now a US PoW camp. When the images were flashed around the world by America's CBS television network last Wednesday, there was a smug feeling within the UK that British troops would never behave like that to their prisoners. But on Friday night, the UK was treated to images - courtesy of the Daily Mirror - of British soldiers urinating on a blood-stained Iraqi captive, holding guns against the man's head, stamping on his face, kicking him in the mouth and beating him in the groin with a rifle butt. www.commondreams.org
USA on 05.02.04 @ 11:20 AM CST [ link]
Saturday, May 1st
Shame Of Abuse By British Troops in Iraq
 A HOODED Iraqi captive is beaten by British soldiers before being thrown from a moving truck and left to die. The prisoner, aged 18-20, begged for mercy as he was battered with rifle butts and batons in the head and groin, was kicked, stamped and urinated on, and had a gun barrel forced into his mouth. After an EIGHT-HOUR ordeal, he was left barely conscious and close to death. Bleeding and vomiting and with a broken jaw and missing teeth, he was driven from a Basra camp and hurled off the truck. No one knows if he lived or died. www.mirror.co.uk
USA on 05.01.04 @ 01:47 PM CST [ link]
Iraqi Prison Photos Show True U.S. Image
 More Abu Ghraib Prison Photos
It's the "liberation" of the Iraqi people – and it isn't pretty.www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444LONDON - Photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners drew international condemnation on Friday, prompting the stark conclusion that the U.S. campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a lost cause. "This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. "The liberators are worse than the dictators." www.commondreams.org
USA on 05.01.04 @ 08:58 AM CST [ link]
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