Month: December 2005

To the consternation of Bush, Cheney, and Rice, at the end of 2004, Iran concluded a $70 billion agreement with China, wherein state-owned Sinopec contracted to buy 250 million tons of LNG, help Iran develop its giant Yadavaran field and construct related oil, gas and petrochemical facilities, including a 220-mile pipeline to link up with … Continue reading “Diplomatic Rout”

(With Arkan Hamed) BAGHDAD – Many Iraqis are demanding a new poll after more than 1,500 cases of election fraud and forgery were reported in the Dec. 15 elections, at least 30 of them "extremely serious." The results so far indicate a strong win for Shi’ite religious groups. There are widespread complaints that many of … Continue reading “Coalitions Reject Election Results”

Now that President Bush has launched a new propaganda campaign to convince Americans that we are winning the war in Iraq, it’s a good idea to go back to the basics and look at the pluses and minuses of this war. The minuses we all know. The war was sold on false pretenses, there being … Continue reading “Pluses but Mostly Minuses”

Christmas in Malaysia I attended the Perdana Peace Forum as a representative of the Malaysian Bar Council. At the start of the forum, a lady seated next to me asked me if Robert Mugabe was attending. I replied, “Not according to the program.” She said that the latest forum program had him down as a … Continue reading “Backtalk, December 31, 2005”

Andrew Sullivan, the blogger and former New Republic editor, who supported the war and to some extent still does but became horrified at torture and official justifications for it and the lack of frankness, called it "The Year We Questioned Authority," or "the year we stopped going along. We gave up blind trust and demanded … Continue reading “Building on Realism”

In last year’s New Year’s column, I wrote: “If 2003 was the year of the liar, and 2004 the year of the war criminal, then let 2005 be the year of justice. That is not a prediction, but only a hope.” It is a hope that, if not yet fulfilled, is at least now well … Continue reading “2006: The Year of Revelation?”

Journalists should be in the business of providing timely information to the public. But some – notably at the top rungs of the profession – have become players in the power games of the nation’s capital. And more than a few seem glad to imitate the officeholders who want to decide what the public shouldn’t … Continue reading “The NY Times Fails Its Readers”

Since his retirement by Ronald Reagan, President Carter has given active service to the causes of human rights and peace. He has written a number of books, and now he has delivered a humdinger: Our Endangered Values (Simon & Schuster, 2005) in which he takes the Bush administration to task. Jimmy Carter is an uncommonly … Continue reading “Three Books to Wake You Up”

Amid undenied charges that the Pentagon is paying Iraqi journalists to write "good news" stories about the country’s progress, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced a new international exchange program for journalists named for famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and emphasizing "the democratic principles that guided Mr. Murrow’s practice of his craft – … Continue reading “The Freest Press Money Can Buy?”

The Reader-in-Chief is at it again, and anti-imperialists around the world have reason to be concerned. According to the White House, U.S. President George W. Bush has taken two books with him to Texas for his holiday reading, which he will presumably indulge between his favorite ranch pursuits – clearing brush and biking. The first … Continue reading “Anti-Imperialists Beware – Bush Is Reading Again”