Month: November 2004

QUITO – The final declaration of the sixth conference of western hemisphere defense ministers, which ended Friday in the Ecuadorian capital, did not include several of the proposals set forth by the United States and seconded by Colombia. During the meeting, the gap between the U.S. government’s positions and those of a number of South … Continue reading “Defense Ministers Reject Intervention in Colombia”

NEW DELHI – When it comes to Kashmir there can be no pleasing of anyone, as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must surely have discovered during a two-day visit, this week, to the state troubled by 15 years of separatist insurgency and half-a-century-old territorial claims by neighboring Pakistan. During his whirlwind tour on Wednesday and … Continue reading “Road to Peace Is Still Long in Kashmir”

HELSINKI – To human rights activists, Turkmenistan is a "black hole" because little of its human rights violations is known to the outside world. Things are not much better in neighboring Uzbekistan. Its 26 million people have only restricted political rights. Torture such as burning dissidents with hot water to extract information is common, activists … Continue reading “‘War on Terror’ Cloaks Abuses in Central Asia”

With all of the political hoopla and heifer dust that is spread about the Middle East, you might think we are totally dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Actually, we are not. The United States imports about 62 percent of its oil and other petroleum products. Only about 11 percent of domestic usage comes from the … Continue reading “Not What You Think”

To get your support for the application of the Bush Doctrine to Iraq last year, the neo-crazies claimed to have slam-dunk intelligence that Saddam had secretly reconstituted his uranium-enrichment program and would, therefore, soon have nukes to give to terrorists. But Mohamed ElBaradei – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – had … Continue reading “Uranium-Enrichment Myths Busted”

Congress is once again engaging in fiscal irresponsibility and endangering the American economy by raising the debt ceiling, this time by $800 billion dollars. One particularly troubling aspect of today’s debate is how many members who won their seats in part by pledging never to raise taxes, will now vote for this tax increase on … Continue reading “Raising the Debt Limit: A Disgrace”

BAGHDAD – An eyewitness commentary to IPS through a U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque Friday gives a vivid picture of what a "successful raid" can be like. U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers. At 12:30 p.m. local time, … Continue reading “Eyewitness to US Forces Raiding a Mosque”

“‘We didn’t go in with a plan. We went in with a theory,’ said a veteran State Department officer who was directly involved in Iraq policy… The Bush administration’s failure to plan to win the peace in Iraq was the product of many of the same problems that plagued the administration’s case for war, including … Continue reading “Draining the Swamp”

I spent a couple of hours with Condoleezza Rice back in 1999, when I was a media fellow at the Hoover Institution and she was still provost at Stanford but already an adviser to Dubya, who was obviously going to be influential. Then I wrote about it for WorldNetDaily. (I think the piece holds up … Continue reading “Hubris Goeth Before…”

UNITED NATIONS – The world’s human rights defenders – including lawyers, journalists, judges, women’s activists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – are increasingly coming under attack by repressive governments, according to a senior UN official. "The violation of the physical integrity of defenders takes the form of killings, attempted killings, torture, beatings, death threats, … Continue reading “Human Rights Personnel Under Attack”