Month: June 2004

TOKYO – The commitment made by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the international community that the country’s Self Defense Forces (SDF) would join a planned multinational force in Iraq, has far-reaching implications globally. According to analysts, Japan can now be expected to play a more active role in foreign policy. “Japan has preferred to … Continue reading “Japan Abandoning Postwar Constitution”

I come to the floor today to offer amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill. The amendment would reaffirm a very important, long-standing position of our nation: that the United States shall not engage in torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. This is a standard that is embodied in the U.S. Constitution and in … Continue reading “We Must Remain the Shining City Upon a Hill”

A recently released report from New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) places the blame for torture by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other locations around the world firmly on the policies of the Bush administration. In the 38-page report titled The Road to Abu Ghraib, HRW describes the pattern of official … Continue reading “Human Rights Watch: Official US Policy to Blame for Torture”

From Dahr’s weblog I haven’t slept very well the last couple of nights, as the growing anxiety of car bombs has me waking at the smallest noises outside my window nowadays. Dave was typing on his computer as I walk past him to the kitchen to make some coffee at 8:15 this morning and a … Continue reading “Life and Death on Vietnam Street”

WASHINGTON – In an unprecedented broadside, more than two-dozen top retired U.S. career diplomats and military commanders, many of whom reached their top positions under former President George H.W. Bush, have called for George W. Bush to be defeated in his re-election bid in November. “It is time for a change,” declared a one-page statement … Continue reading “Retired Diplomats, Soldiers Tell Bush to Beat It”

WASHINGTON – In a direct challenge to recent assertions by both President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the special bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon has found “no credible evidence” of any operational link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. While the commission, which has … Continue reading “9/11 Panel Denies Al-Qaeda-Iraq Links”

WASHINGTON – Amid increasingly strident calls from United Nations officials for international intervention to stop “ethnic cleansing” in western Sudan, a U.S. group is calling on Washington to declare the situation “genocide” and lead a military force into the region until UN troops can be assembled. Washington-based Africa Action on Tuesday announced it was circulating … Continue reading “Group Wants US to Intervene in Sudan”

WASHINGTON – U.S. military auditors have criticized construction giant Halliburton for the way it does business in Iraq, concerns amplified by former employees who are alleging financial abuses in the U.S.-occupied country. “In our opinion, the contractor’s billing system is inadequate in part,” said the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) in a report made available … Continue reading “Halliburton Under Renewed Fire for Iraq Deals”

Although their hopes for transforming Iraq into a pro-U.S. base in the heart of the Arab world have been badly set back, neo-imperial hawks in the Bush administration are proceeding as fast as possible to reinvent U.S. forces worldwide as “globocop,” capable of preempting any possible threat to its interests at a moment’s notice. In … Continue reading “Stymied in Iraq, Hawks Still Positioning US as Globocop”

It’s pathetic, really, to have to hear our war birds squawk and complain about the consequences of the policy they wanted so passionately, the glorious crusade they argued for with such overriding certainty and sense of mission. Here’s Andrew Sullivan on the Abu Ghraib horror show: “We have to know who really sanctioned this. And … Continue reading “The Essential Dishonesty of Christopher Hitchens”