Month: January 2005

DOHUK, Kurdistan – As Iraq’s first national election since the fall of Saddam Hussein draws near, the country seems more on the brink of falling apart than of coming together in a celebration of democracy. Attacks against Shi’ite targets have increased in an effort to keep them away from the polling booths, security sources say. … Continue reading “Kurdistan and the ‘Deported Arabs’”

Pulitizer Prize Winner Seymour Hersh first revealed – and neocrazy sycophants at the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and UPI reluctantly confirmed – that the Bush-Cheney Administration has been conducting secret "reconnaissance" missions inside Iran since at least last summer. "Much of the focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on … Continue reading “Targeting Iran”

My Husband Is Defending DemocracyMonica Benderman and her husband are practicing their faith in the truest sense of the word. Those like George Bush who profess to be Christians but persist in breaking the commandments are demonstrating what many of us reject: false faith. To do unto others as we would have them do unto … Continue reading “Backtalk, January 29, 2005”

The departure by mid-2005 of the number-three man at the Defense Department, announced by the Pentagon Wednesday, marks the latest hint that President George W. Bush is moving foreign policy in a more centrist direction. Combined with several other personnel shifts, as well as a concerted effort to reassure the public and U.S. allies abroad … Continue reading “Losing Feith”

How pervasive is the practice of pundit payola? First it was black conservative Armstrong Williams found sucking on the federal teat to the tune of $240,000 to promote the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” legislation. Armstrong, in his own defense, revealed that there were plenty of other pundits on the government dole, and it … Continue reading “Payola Pundits for War?”

BAGHDAD – U.S.-appointed interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi recently handed out $100 bills to journalists at a press conference. He then gave teachers an unexpected $100 bonus. Allawi seems to be on his way to winning the election in Iraq, such as it is. Wa’il Issam, an unemployed translator, has his views about this … Continue reading “The Dollar Campaigns for Allawi”

I suspect there are some among critics of the Iraq war who will be secretly or even publicly pleased if the election in Iraq scheduled for this Sunday goes badly, marred by violence and a certain degree of chaos. That, as some might argue, would validate those who criticized the initial invasion of Iraq and … Continue reading “Elections and Torture”

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – It is a moment many Iraqis living in the United States have longed for, and many thought might never come. But despite expressing deep satisfaction at having a voice in their homeland’s next government, some say the registration process here has not gone quite the way they had hoped. So far, … Continue reading “Frustration Mixes With Joy for Iraqi-American Voters”

The importance of this week’s recognition by the United Nations of the Nazi Holocaust lies as much in its relevance to today’s international realities as it does to the historical significance of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet forces 60 years ago Thursday. As noted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other … Continue reading “From Holocaust to Hyperpower”

ARBIL – Tensions in the northern Iraqi city Kirkuk have reached breaking point after Arab parties announced they will boycott the election Jan. 30. The boycott is potentially explosive. The Arab population of Kirkuk was settled there largely as a move by the Saddam regime to dilute the Kurdish strength in this oil-rich region. Kirkuk … Continue reading “Cracks Surfacing Fast in Iraq’s North”