Month: July 2004

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e040706.html

Foreign ministers attending the Asia Regional Forum – hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in Jakarta, this week – agreed on the need for political reform in Burma and a diplomatic solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula. Forum attendees included the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Japan, both Koreas, the … Continue reading “Crisis in Asia”

NEW DELHI – Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan have returned in earnest to the negotiation table after a break that witnessed a parliamentary election and path-breaking political changes in India. On May 28, they wrapped up the first round of talks to be held in six years between their foreign secretaries. They said these were … Continue reading “Pakistan, India Try Peace”

BOGOTA – The Colombian government hopes to demobilize 14,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters by late 2005 – 95 percent of the combatants that the paramilitary leaders sitting down at the negotiating table in a remote village in northwestern Colombia claim to represent. The government of hard-right President Alvaro Uribe set up a 368-sq-km safe haven for … Continue reading “Colombia’s Paramilitaries to Disarm?”

In Istanbul, Jacques Chirac, in fine French style, gave the wet mitten to the face of the president of the United States. After President Bush had carried out the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq, as demanded by Old Europe, Chirac gave the “Non!” to French or NATO troops to help train the new army. Chirac … Continue reading “Old Europe AWOL in Iraq”

CARACAS – The last battle for power is on in Venezuela, with a new soap opera shedding a positive light on President Hugo Chávez and his cause, and conflicting opinion poll results regarding the outcome of the Aug. 15 presidential recall referendum. Amores de Barrio Adentro (roughly translated as Love Inside the Neighborhood) is a … Continue reading “Soap Opera Propaganda in Venezuela”

The Israelis just had to get in on the fun. But then the stories of torture – of hooded, humiliated inmates at Abu Ghraib and other facilities – did have a familiar air, as if the Israelis were tutoring their American sock-puppets in the finer points of squeezing those ragheads until they squealed. Torture – … Continue reading “Israel Unleashed”

Casualties in Iraq Anne Wicks: Please include those soldiers who have committed suicide while in Iraq and those who committed suicide as a result of PTSD once they returned to the United States. Thank you. Mike Ewens: We do. I believe that there have only been two reported. AW: I can tell you that there … Continue reading “”

You remember how King Herod of Judea dealt with a suspected threat to his rule, don’t you? According to Matthew, three Magi – Persian priests – showed up in Jerusalem, and told Herod they had seen a “sign in the heavens” signifying the birth in Bethlehem of a child destined to become “King of the … Continue reading “The Herod Doctrine”

LONDON – Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers. Thousands were reported killed in the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in the north of Iraq in … Continue reading “Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defense”