Month: March 2004

A total of 36 journalists were killed as a direct result of their work during 2003, almost double the death toll of 19 in 2002, according to the latest in an annual series of reports on ‘Attacks on the Press’ released today by the New York-based watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The increase … Continue reading “Journalist Death Toll Doubles in 2003”

To encourage restraint in war coverage, governments don’t need to shoot journalists – though sometimes that’s helpful. Thirteen journalists were killed while covering the war and occupation in Iraq last year, says a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The deaths were a subset of 36 on-the-job fatalities related to journalistic work across … Continue reading “They Shoot Journalists, Don’t They?”

Was Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet really the last person in Washington to find out that both the president and vice president were being fed phony or “sexed up” intelligence about prewar Iraq by a Pentagon office staffed by ideologically driven neoconservatives? It is highly doubtful, but in his desperate attempt to walk … Continue reading “CIA Chief Clueless on Neocon Intelligence Channel”

Khalid al-Zabin, a 59-year-old Palestinian journalist was ambushed outside his office in Gaza, on Tuesday, March 2. His body was riddled with bullets. All that is known about his executioners is that they wore masks. No faction has claimed responsibility for his murder and the Palestinian Authority has no suspects. The disturbing episode is likely … Continue reading “Gazans Must Spurn Internal Strife and Egyptian Rule”

From its very beginning, the Yugoslav crisis has vexed both the people of the western Balkans and the world powers intervening in the region. Almost 14 years of efforts by all to reach some sort of solution, all the self-congratulatory and optimistic rhetoric aside, have resulted in repeated failures, often of catastrophic magnitude. That is … Continue reading “A Mockery of Reason”

I’m paying the price for being prolific with a major case of writer’s cramp – which, in the computer age, takes on a whole new and (quite painful) meaning. The other night I felt a twinge in my right forearm, and, by morning, it had turned into a constant aching. My fingers are now curled … Continue reading “Time Out”

With threats of a Venezuelan oil blockade helping to push petroleum prices higher, neo-conservative politicians and analysts continue to insist the biggest threat to U.S. energy supplies is Washington’s reliance on Middle East oil. President Hugo Chavez on Sunday vowed to halt oil exports to the United States and launch a “100-year war” if Washington … Continue reading “Neoconservatives Use Oil to Keep Heat on Mideast”

Haiti: Barbara Lee Doesn’t Speak for Me Barbara Lee does speak for me, and I live in Wisconsin! When Lee is asking Bush to “intervene” in Haiti, it isn’t really an intervention she is calling for so much as a cessation of intervention. The US military shipped arms to the ‘rebels’ in the Dominican Republic … Continue reading “”

“I prayed to God that the wound was not a mortal one, so I could see my children grow up,” said Carlos Montenegro, a photojournalist who was shot in the leg by a political police agent he was filming during the recent disturbances in Venezuela. Reporters in this South American country are licking their latest … Continue reading “Covering a Protest? Don’t Forget Your Flak Jacket”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads India’s ruling coalition, has launched a new stratagem in its high-pitched election campaign to rake up its trademark issue of religious and ethnic identities. Starting Mar. 10, Lal Krishna Advani, the part’s best-known hawkish leader and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s deputy, will begin a month-long tour covering … Continue reading “Hindu Warrior Back in His ‘Chariot’”