Month: September 2005

The plea bargain struck by former Pentagon analyst Lawrence A. Franklin – charged with five counts of handing over classified information to officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group, who passed it on to Israeli diplomatic personnel – has delivered a body blow to the defense of the two remaining accused spies. Steve Rosen, who for … Continue reading “AIPAC and Espionage:
Guilty as Hell”

The U.S. public is deeply skeptical about the priority President George W. Bush has put on promoting democracy abroad, and its experience in Iraq has made it more so, according to a detailed new survey [.pdf] released Thursday by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) and the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) of … Continue reading “Public Skeptical About Bush’s Democracy Crusade”

As parents and teachers, we are always looking to turn mistakes committed by our children and students into teachable moments. We know lessons can be learned from bad experiences if we recognize what led to them and learn from the experience. The bad experience then becomes a teachable moment: an opportunity to learn why something … Continue reading “A Teachable Moment”

My brief immersion in the almost unimaginable life of Cindy Sheehan begins on the Friday before the massive antiwar march past the White House. I take a cab to an address somewhere at the edge of Washington, D.C. – a city I don’t know well – where I’m to have a quiet hour with her. … Continue reading “Our Imploding President”

Boris Tadic, Serbia, and the Empire Whether the American Empire – a belligerent entity that has usurped the physical body and much of the mind of the republic once known as the United States of America – is loved or hated by peoples of the world, it is still to some extent universally feared. It … Continue reading “Laughable Sycophancy”

If the referendum on Iraq’s draft constitution next month is conducted fairly, it now appears very likely that the document will be defeated by a two-thirds majority in the three Sunni-dominated provinces of Anbar, Salahadeen, and Nineveh, plunging Iraq into a new political crisis. However, one way such a defeat could be averted is by … Continue reading “Kurdish Voting Shenanigans May Tip Referendum”

The decision Tuesday by a U.S. immigration judge in Texas to deny Venezuela’s request to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, whom Caracas has dubbed “the Osama bin Laden of Latin America,” was greeted with surprise and disappointment by Latin America activists and even some former U.S. officials. Venezuela wants Posada to stand trial for the October … Continue reading “Cuban Terror Case Erodes US Credibility, Critics Say”

What could possibly be the purpose of the “gentle slap” (according to the L.A. Times headline, 9/25) delivered to Iran via the IAEA vote that found it in noncompliance with the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and requires that it be reported to the UN at an unspecified date? One might argue that the threat of sanctions … Continue reading “The Meaning of the IAEA Iran Vote”

Ah, the joy of schadenfreude! There’s really nothing quite like it. Wikipedia tells us there is no equivalent word in English, and defines this German expression as meaning "pleasure taken from someone else’s misfortune" or “shameful joy." In short, it means gloating, albeit of a very special kind, and these days there is plenty of … Continue reading “The Joy of Schadenfreude“

NEW DELHI – By voting for a Western-sponsored resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meant to reprimand Iran, India has signaled the collapse of its long-standing policy of nonalignment. Capping recent agreements signed with the United States on military and civilian nuclear cooperation within an increasingly closer "strategic partnership" with it, this constitutes … Continue reading “India Ditches Iran and Nonalignment”