Month: May 2005

GUSH KATIF, Gaza Strip – Israel’s government last week postponed the implementation of its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip for three weeks, ostensibly to take into account an annual Jewish period of mourning. One look around the settlements and a few conversations with some people there confirm what has been mooted as an alternative explanation … Continue reading “Gaza Moves Into Unsettling Times”

Here’s a question for international news hounds. Who is the “son of a bitch” referred to in this comment by a U.S. Defense Department spokesman? “People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?” Is he an unnamed Defense Department source who told Newsweek magazine that … Continue reading “Who’s the S.O.B.?”

Nineteen years ago, Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at the secret nuclear weapons production facility at Dimona in Israel, did something that he was right to do, something that others with his knowledge of Israel’s nuclear activities and their implications for Israeli security and democracy and for world order should have done earlier, or later. He … Continue reading “Vanunu Deserves Our Thanks”

It seems that the movement of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is getting ready for a major push against the occupation. In his first public address in months, the scion of one of Iraq’s most important religious families called for an immediate end to U.S. occupation. “I demand several things,” the black-robed cleric told a press … Continue reading “Return of the Mahdi”

The American effort in Iraq may be locked in a "vicious circle," according to a new report that surveys Iraqi public opinion data and interviews with Iraqis. The report, released on Wednesday by the Project on Defense Alternatives, concludes that U.S. military actions meant to quell the insurgency have increased its recruiting base. "A paradox … Continue reading “Report: US Locked in ‘Vicious Circle’ in Iraq”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050517.html

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials say government steps have made it more difficult for terrorists to operate in the United States – even as leaders of an investigative panel assail Washington for moving too slowly to protect the nation and the Department of Homeland Security itself reveals it will scrap billions of dollars worth … Continue reading “Conflicting Security Assessments Breed Suspicion of Govt Claims”

In its June 9 issue (on sale this week), the New York Review of Books will be the first American print publication to publish the full British “smoking gun” document, the secret memorandum of the minutes of a meeting of Tony Blair’s top advisors in July 2002, eight months before the Iraq War commenced. Leaked … Continue reading “The Smoking Gun Memo”

Media activism has achieved a lot. But I don’t believe there’s anything to be satisfied with – considering the present-day realities of corporate media and the warfare state. War has become a constant of U.S. foreign policy, and media flackery for the warmakers in Washington is routine – boosting militarism that tilts the country in … Continue reading “The Media and the Madness Of Militarism”

George W. Bush and his gang of neocon warmongers have destroyed America’s reputation. It is likely to stay destroyed, because at this point the only way to restore America’s reputation would be to impeach and convict President Bush for intentionally deceiving Congress and the American people in order to start a war of aggression against … Continue reading “America’s Reputation in Tatters”