Month: October 2004

Elections in Afghanistan and Iraq may prove disastrous by increasing violence and extremism, according to studies of other post-conflict societies included in a book released Monday by United Nations University Press. If elections in volatile situations are ill-timed or poorly designed, they risk producing the direct opposite of the intended outcome, fueling chaos and reversing … Continue reading “UN Study: Premature Vote May Prove Disastrous”

BOGOTA – The Intercongregational Justice and Peace Commission in Colombia was recently told "watch what you write," in a message threatening that "something terrible" could happen. The anonymous message threatened a "major attack" that would destroy the group’s network, which produces news bulletins on human rights abuses. "So many denunciations can be harmful," said the … Continue reading “Colombian Church Group Threatened Over Rights Work”

What really is important is not what he said or why he said it, but the worldview that animates him. By now, everybody has had a go at analyzing the interview with Dov (“Dubby”) Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s most intimate confidant. But there is precious little to analyze. His statement is crystal clear: the “redeployment plan” … Continue reading “Sharon’s One-Dimensional Worldview”

Spc. Amber McClenny’s voice on the answering machine was emphatic and no doubt more than a little panicked, early Thursday morning, as she relayed the latest news from Iraq to her mother: “Hey, Mom. This is Amber. Real, real big emergency. I need you to contact someone. I mean, raise pure hell. We had broken … Continue reading “Suicide Mission”

Instead of reprimands or dismissals, one general tied to the torture and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison will probably receive a promotion and another has been recommended for a new command position. At the same time, both U.S. corporations with direct ties to the abuse scandal have been rewarded with lucrative contracts valued in the … Continue reading “Pentagon Rewards Abu Ghraib Accomplices”

In response to a specific question, John Kerry said that if elected president, his first priority would be preventing nuke proliferation. George Bush then opined that preventing the proliferation of "weapons of mass destruction" was high on his priorty list, too. Now, as you and Kerry know, the only real WMD is a nuke. But … Continue reading “Dubya Gets Serious About WMD”

NAIROBI – Motivated by the success in resolving Somalia’s conflict, African leaders have stepped up efforts to end the civil war in the tiny central African nation of Burundi, where more than 300,000 people have been killed since 1993. The leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti, working under the auspices of … Continue reading “African Nations to Increase Involvement in Burundi”

While Israel’s military, purportedly on its way to get out of the Gaza Strip, is getting deeper and deeper into it, exercising its long terrorist tradition of forcing the civilian population to collaborate in massive killing and the destruction of homes and infrastructure, Sharon’s top advisor Dov Weisglass made it to Ha’aretz‘s front page (Oct. … Continue reading “Sharon’s True Face Exposed (and Ignored)”

Free speech advocates say the six-day shutdown of nearly two dozen Web sites belonging to Indymedia is a severe blow to democratic principles and, perhaps, an ominous sign of things to come. An international collective of journalists born out of the combative World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle five years ago, Indymedia has evolved … Continue reading “Indymedia Seizure Signals Clampdown on Dissent”

TORONTO – The growing use of international treaties to bypass the will of national parliaments, by bodies waging the so-called "war on terrorism," increasingly threatens civil liberties and freedom of the media, warn privacy advocates. When U.S. officials – reportedly the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), though the agency denied it Tuesday – last week … Continue reading “Global Agreements Threaten Media, Privacy”