Month: March 2004

Richard Clarke scored well with the 911 families when he apologized for the government’s intelligence failure. But why stop there? As this column is written, 590 US service men and women have died in the invasion and occupation if Iraq. Their families are due an apology. Another 3,000 or so have been wounded, some permanently. … Continue reading “911 Incongruities”

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” said President Bush. And against whom was Israel defending itself at dawn on Monday? A half blind and deaf paraplegic being wheeled out of a mosque after prayers, Sheik Ahmed Yassin was struck by missiles that blew him to pieces. In carrying out the assassination of the founder … Continue reading “Israel’s Isolation – and America’s”

It isn’t just politics that has driven Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies to number one on the bestseller list: this is one rip-roaring story, and it opens with a bang. It’s September 11, 2001, and Richard A. Clarke, counter-terror “czar,” is right at the center of the action. While POTUS is in flight from Washington, … Continue reading “Against All Enemies”

Rummaging Through the Ashes George Robertson, formerly UK Defense Minister and in 1999 NATO SecGen, repeatedly proclaimed in 1999 the slogan "Serbs Out". (Not "Third Army Out, or "Serb forces out.") The NATO attack was explicitly aimed at ethnically cleansing Kosovo of Serbs. Geoff Hoon, Robertson’s successor at Defense, was explicitly asked whether the NATO … Continue reading “”

The murder of Hamas’ spiritual leader, Sheik Yassin, makes perfect sense as long as you understand Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s strategy. That strategy is to make peace impossible. For three years, Sharon has done everything to prevent peace. He himself provoked the new uprising, re-invaded the occupied territories, destroyed the Palestinian Authority, forced Yasser … Continue reading “US Complicity in Israel’s Misdeeds”

World War II plays a major role in our conception of human history, because, unlike the senseless carnage of World War I, it stands for an ideological struggle between Good and Evil. Whereas the Allies – Britain, the USA and even the Soviet Union – stressed, at least formally, their commitment to the humanistic values … Continue reading “Who Won World War II?”

You might think, if only for the sake of increasing the entertainment value if not for the perhaps more worthy goal of getting a wider array of viewpoints, that they would include a wild card or two on some of these dreary government commissions – especially on something so important as how the United States … Continue reading “A Pride of Wrong Answers”

Dick Clarke’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission turned into a political ping pong match, with John Lehman, former secretary of the navy, insisting that Clarke has a “real credibility problem.” I read Clarke’s book while traveling the past couple of days, and found it anything but a liberal tract. Clarke comes across as a principled … Continue reading “Clarke Smeared by Neocon Slime Machine”

Where are the weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East? Ask Mordechai Vanunu. He knows, all too well. On March 24, 1988, Vanunu was convicted of treason by an Israeli court for revealing the existence of Israel’s secret nuclear arsenal at the Dimona facility, where he worked as a technician. Imprisoned since that time, … Continue reading “The Main Danger to Peace”

For 30 months, 9/11 was a huge political blessing for George W. Bush. This week, the media halo fell off. Within the space of a few days, culminating with his testimony to the Sept. 11 commission Wednesday afternoon, former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke did serious damage to a public-relations scam that the White House has … Continue reading “The Media Politics of 9/11”