"To ultimately be the victor in the war against terrorism, we need all Americans to be engaged." – DHS Secretary, Tom Ridge Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge found this exhortation so fine, he used it in two of the radio and television ads that...
‘There Are So Many People the Americans Have Shot’
Seventeen year-old Amir is crying during much of the interview. "We were coming home from work, and were shot so many times," he says with deep anguish and frustration. "Walid told me to leave the car because he was hurt and needed help." The man he speaks of, Walid...
Karpinski Was ‘Set Up,’ but Sanchez Takes the Fall
Less than two weeks after Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez abruptly removed Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski from her command of Abu Ghraib prison, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's chief deputy, convened a meeting at which certain legal issues emerging at the prison were...
Only a Lull Before Another Storm
JERUSALEM, (IPS) - The Israeli attack on Rafah in the Gaza Strip did not come in a political and military vacuum. The Israeli army's "operation rainbow" is now only "paused" and all indications are that the struggle that has continued between Israel and the...
Patriotism: The New Third Rail
The dire consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq go beyond a failed occupation and attendant war crimes. By making excuses for torture in public hearings, the U.S. Senate has besmirched itself. In Senate hearings on May 19, Republican senators enabled three...
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter Crosses The NY Times‘ Line of ‘Strict Neutrality’
Now that The New York Times has issued a halfhearted apology for its coverage of WMD issues last year, we thought it might be interesting to look back at what one critic wrote at the time. The following examination of NYT reporter Judith Miller’s questionable...
Amnesty: Abu Ghraib Cases Not Isolated
London, (IPS) - The abuses committed by U.S. agents in Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad are not isolated cases, Amnesty International says in its annual report published Wednesday. Amnesty had handed in a report documenting abuses by the U.S. government long before the...
Amnesty: War on Terror Used to Justify Abuses
Leading human rights group Amnesty International Wednesday said efforts by several governments – including many in Asia – to fight terrorism through stringent domestic measures in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the U.S. are curtailing human...
Getting Kosovo Wrong
When tens of thousands of Albanians rampaged through Kosovo in mid-March, it was the most obvious sign so far that the entire five-year NATO/UN occupation was crumbling. The southern Serbian province was finally recognized as Empire's failed Potemkin village – or...
Arab League Turns On Itself
The Arab world is in a dilemma. Never before have internal dissension and the ills facing it been so numerous, mirrored in the just-concluded Arab summit in Tunis. Arab unity has never been legendary. Contradictions and discord have plagued the Arab League, older than...