Month: May 2005

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050524.html

While lavishing praise on his guest Monday, President George W. Bush indicated that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will receive neither greater control over U.S. troops in his country nor substantially more aid to persuade poppy farmers to drop out of the narcotics business. "I’ve got great faith in this man as a leader," Bush told … Continue reading “Pleasantries but No Change as Bush Greets Karzai”

For more than two decades, James Bamford has been a noted investigative journalist focusing on intelligence-gathering in the United States. He exposed the ultra-secret National Security Agency two decades ago in The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets, both award-winning bestsellers. He has testified as an expert witness on intelligence issues before committees of both … Continue reading “A Pretext for War”

The current episode of Star Wars is dynamite for the duplicitous Bush administration. Palpatine, a Sith lord masquerading as a galactic republican, becomes chancellor of the Galactic Republic through deception. Palpatine uses wars that he instigates to elevate security over the power of the Senate and to become dictator. In a moment of triumph, Palpatine … Continue reading “Is Bush a Sith Lord?”

On March 19, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussed the “metrics” of measuring success in Iraq with Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Here is part of that interview: “NPR: I want to start, Mr. Secretary, with something you said recently. You were at a meeting with troops, taking questions from troops. You … Continue reading “The Return of the Body Count”

I will give the Bush administration credit: it has more brass and more chutzpah than a pawnbroker in Bombay. It has now proclaimed that America’s miserably bad image in the Muslim world is entirely the fault of one or two lines that appeared in a Newsweek magazine story. The administration has even more or less … Continue reading “Brass and Chutzpah”

The stories of guards and interrogators flushing, stuffing, or dumping Korans in toilets may remain frozen between allegation and denial forever. However, there is another instance of alleged Koran mishandling that has been far better substantiated. As reported by the press in February and March 2002, it does not sound nearly as damning as the … Continue reading “Lost History: The February 2002 Koran Incident at Gitmo”

[Spoiler warning: This article gives away important details about the new movie.] “For a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the Dark Times. Before the Empire.” – Ben Kenobi “This is how liberty dies: with thundering applause.” – Senator Padme Amidala Listen to Scott’s … Continue reading “Star Wars and the American Empire”

A week after Uzbekistan’s dictator Islam Karimov crushed a protest in the eastern town of Andijan – ordering riot police to fire directly into a crowd, killing as many as 1,000 – the death toll is rising and the reaction is growing. Inside the country, demonstrations continue just down the road in the town of … Continue reading “Our Uzbek Problem, and Theirs”

Jackie Sanders, special representative of the president for the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, began her address to the Seventh Review Conference of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons by noting that on March 7 of this year, President Bush urged all NPT parties to take "strong action" to confront the "threat of noncompliance" … Continue reading “NPT Vigilantes”