The ‘Right’ to Remain Silent

In a world where "democracy" means anything the Empire wants it to mean, and is used as a tool of conquest, it stands to reason that Powers that Love Democracy meet any actual instances thereof (flawed as they may be) with unrelenting hostility. Conversely, any abuses...

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Rights Groups Condemn Iranian Crackdown

As Iran moves toward a diplomatic agreement with Britain, France, and Germany to freeze parts of its nuclear program, its right-wing security forces are cracking down hard against the country's besieged reformist movement, according to human rights groups here. About...

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Springtime for Spooks?

The biggest source of speculation about President George W. Bush's foreign policy in a second term is if it will continue on the same aggressive trajectory that marked the first, or whether, chastened by Iraq, it will be more restrained over the next four years. Much...

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The Big Dog’s Lapdogs

"One of the first things you learn in the military," my father was saying during the monthly call I put through to his home in South Africa, "is to stay mum about impending operations. Soldiers' lives depend on it." Dad, who had served in the Israeli Defense Force...

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Reporting Arafat Becomes Another Crisis

RAMALLAH - The remarks by Yasser Arafat's wife Suha must have rattled the Palestinian leadership and some in the media back in Ramallah. She said some temporary leaders are conspiring to bury her husband alive. She added that he was fine and would return. The fear of...

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Another War?

What next for the War Party? Like a giant anaconda after a humongous meal, the monster is hardly finished with the process of swallowing its latest prey, let alone digesting it. Yet the hunger that drives it is relentless and the creature is already eyeing the next...

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The ‘Christian Nation’ Bombs Again

The military machine is ravaging Fallujah in yet another "final clamp down" in neighborhoods not unlike our own. I worry about the people there who are like my mother, bedridden and on oxygen – she could never simply "leave the city," as Allawi and his U.S....

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The Fire of Resistance Is Spreading

The blasts of mortars exploding in the so-called "Green Zone" are thumping out my window as I type tonight. The blades of military helicopters chop the air as they circle above the area looking for, well, looking for something. "I know what they are...

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Secrecy Cloaked During Election Campaign

NEW YORK - "It's always a fight to find out what the government doesn't want us to know. It's a fight we're once again losing. ... [President Bush] has clamped a lid on public access. ... It's not just historians and journalists he wants locked out; it's Congress...

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