Month: October 2004

NEW DELHI – Before Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met last Friday in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations, no one could have forecast how their first-ever talks would turn out. As it happened, their scheduled 15-minute one-on-one meeting extended to an hour. The two men – … Continue reading “India, Pakistan Turning a New Leaf?”

George W. Bush took a terrible pummeling in Thursday night’s debate, as John Kerry took off the gloves and let him have it on the issue of the war. But was it a knockout punch? Kerry only fumbled around for a few minutes as he got his bearings after Jim Lehrer’s uninspiring initial question: "Do … Continue reading “Kerry Cleans the President’s Clock”

Fortunately for my own peace of mind, I didn’t expect much in the way of positive developments from last night’s debate, although I have cheered and continue to cheer John Kerry’s decision to make George Bush’s incredible mismanagement of the war on Iraq and fumbling of the misnamed and misbegotten "war on terrorism" a central … Continue reading “Good News Where You Can Find It”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the most powerful architects of the world economy and controlled by the planet’s wealthiest nations, marked its return to U.S.-occupied Iraq with a new loan worth $436 million. The IMF Executive Board approved the loan late Wednesday as Emergency Post-Conflict Assistance (EPCA), to the loud praise of the … Continue reading “IMF Delivers Iraq Loan; US Motives Questioned”

“I was at a rap concert the other night,” said a 17-year-old neighbor last night. “And they were saying all kinds of crazy things, like ‘Bush is a baby-killer.’” He rolled his eyes and laughed. I asked him, “Well the truth is that children and infants have been killed this very week – did you … Continue reading “As I Lay Crying”

ROME – "Shukran, shukran gesilan, ma salama (Thank you, many thanks, see you later)," Italian aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta said after being freed this week in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The women, who work for the Italian non-governmental organization (NGO) "A Bridge to . . ." were kidnapped by militants on Sept. … Continue reading “A Ray of Hope in Iraq’s Hostage Crisis”

Several high-profile FBI investigations, in which substantial progress has been made, may well have been put on hold by the Bush administration for political reasons. That is, it has been alleged to me that the White House may have leaned on the FBI – not to drop the investigations but to postpone some key arrests … Continue reading “Justice Delayed by Politics?”