Month: May 2004

Transcript: Senate Hearing on Iraq Prison Abuse Wednesday, May 19, 2004; 2:02 PM SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR JOHN W. WARNER (R-VA) CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ) U.S. SENATOR JAMES M. INHOFE (R-OK) U.S. SENATOR PAT ROBERTS (R-KS) U.S. SENATOR WAYNE ALLARD (R-CO) U.S. SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS (R-AL) U.S. SENATOR SUSAN M. COLLINS (R-ME) U.S. SENATOR JOHN … Continue reading “Transcript: Senate Hearing on Iraq Prison Abuse”

The killing of at least 10 Palestinian demonstrators and the wounding of many others by Israeli forces in Rafah in the southern Gaza strip Wednesday increased domestic and international pressure on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end the military operation in the town. In Rafah a senior representative of the al-Aqsa … Continue reading “Death and Rage in Gaza”

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. -Arundhati Roy Porto Alegre, Brazil, World Social Forum, January 27, 2003 “Kathleen Kelly, report to Admin.” I was routinely cleaning toilets in my dorm at Pekin Federal Prison Camp when the loudspeaker summoned me to … Continue reading “Change Agents”

The coalition of Bush administration hawks that was empowered by the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon agreed on three main strategic objectives. The neo-conservatives and Christian Right wanted to decisively shift the balance of power in the Middle East in favor of Israel, so that it could effectively impose … Continue reading “Imperial Dreams Sink in Iraqi Quagmire”

Motorists honked in celebration in this western Iraqi town as news spread of the assassination of the president of the Iraqi Governing Council Ezzidin Salim Monday. Many people clapped and raised their fists. “The GC is nothing,” one man shouted. “They are not the Governing Council. They are the Prostitution Council.” Sfook, a storeowner in … Continue reading “Where an Assassination Is Celebrated”

A few dozen militants could be seen trickling into the Block O neighborhood of Rafah along the border with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip Monday afternoon. They said they came in anticipation of a major Israeli army operation in the area. That operation may become the biggest that Israel has undertaken in the Strip … Continue reading “Firing Line Comes Home”

The US Dept of Defense has requested an additional $50 billion to continue its torture, killing and abuse of Iraqis in the name of “freedom and democracy.”  The US government has a long tradition of wasting borrowed money, but do we really want to squander billions of dollars building our war criminal dossier? Iraqis have … Continue reading “Is Iraq a Captive Nation?”

“Outlandish, conspiratorial and filled with error and anonymous conjecture,” said Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita the other day, and, no, he wasn’t talking about the campaign of lies that preceded the invasion and conquest of Iraq, but of Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker scoop exposing Operation “Copper Green.” Citing CIA and other high-level officials, Hersh detailed the … Continue reading “Rumsfeld’s Secret Army”

“So, how do we advance the cause of female emancipation in the Muslim world?” asks Richard Perle in An End to Evil. He replies, “We need to remind the women of Islam ceaselessly: Our enemies are the same as theirs; our victory will be theirs as well.” Well, the neoconservative cause “of female emancipation in … Continue reading “What Does America Offer the World?”

In the special court-martial of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia in Georgia on Wednesday, the wrong man is on trial. If Monday’s revelations by Seymour Hersh are confirmed, on the personal responsibility of Donald Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush for treatment of prisoners amounting to torture, they should both resign or be impeached and tried … Continue reading “Statement on the Trial of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia”