Month: February 2004

Can China Keep Up the Pace? It’s funny, but your "Can China keep up the pace?" can apply word by word to the US. The question in NOT whether can China keep up the pace, the REAL question for the 21 century is can the US keep up the pace of spending, spending money it … Continue reading “”

The latest Bush administration spin on the war is that they got the intelligence “wrong.” The administration is passing the blame on to the CIA and the rest of the nation’s intelligence apparatus for supposedly feeding them bad information about the WMD threat. In other words, we fought the wrong war because the President listened … Continue reading “The Great Bait-and-Switch”

Bush’s decision to appoint a commission to examine why government officials averred with certainty that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” underscores the political side of globalization, and, as such, is not too surprising. After all, he had a model on the other side of the Atlantic, in British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s halfway successful … Continue reading “The Potemkin Commission”

Pressed by the United States, the United Nations will send an electoral team to assess the feasibility of holding nation-wide elections in Iraq before the end of June. But some observers doubt the world body will be able to present an unbiased perspective of the view on the ground, because of U.S. opposition to the … Continue reading “Is the UN Returning to Iraq as US Front?”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e040204.html

Napoleon III, Emperor of France, saw his opportunity. With the United States sundered and convulsed in civil war, he would seize Mexico, impose a Catholic monarchy and block further expansion of the American republic. In 1863, a French army marched into Mexico City. In 1864, Maximilian, the brother of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, was crowned … Continue reading “What Are We Doing in Russia’s Neighborhood?”

The Church in Africa is concerned about the U.S. pressure on African countries to introduce anti-terror legislation on pretext of fighting terrorism. The church is cautioning African governments against enacting such laws blindly, which it warns infringe on human rights. Uganda and Tanzania have already passed Anti-Terror Acts amid protests from human rights groups. Neighbor … Continue reading “East African Churches Slam US Pressure on Anti-Terror Bills”

A proposal for secret trials for suspected terrorists has run into a wall of opposition in Britain. Civil rights groups, lawyers, the opposition Conservative Party and even Labour leaders have strongly opposed new proposals outlined by Home Secretary David Blunkett towards the end of a six-day visit to India last week. Under these proposals British … Continue reading “Britain: Tories, Civil Rights Groups Lead Strong Opposition to Secret Trials”

Iraq’s governing council has quietly approved a plan to replace some existing legal rights of women with Islamic law or “Shariah,” according to 44 U.S. lawmakers, who warn Washington of a “brewing women’s right’s crisis” in the U.S.-occupied country. In a letter sent to President George W. Bush on Monday, the federal politicians, led by … Continue reading “US Lawmakers Say Iraqi Council Plan Would Cut Women’s Rights”

Reuters is one of the more independent wire services. So, a recent news story from Reuters – flatly describing American military activities in Iraq as part of "the broader U.S. war on terrorism" – is a barometer of how powerfully the pressure systems of rhetoric from top U.S. officials have swayed mainstream news coverage. Such … Continue reading “Linking the Occupation of Iraq With the ‘War on Terrorism’”