Month: May 2005

Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or … Continue reading “Newsweek Got Gitmo Right”

Why is Washington standing by Uzbekistan’s dictator Islam Karimov, even as he massacres his own people – 500 of them so far? “They shot at us like rabbits,” says one Uzbek who escaped the carnage in Andijan, where Uzbek troops fired directly into a crowd of thousands, killing “hundreds,” according to news accounts. The whole … Continue reading “Uzbekistan’s Nightmare:
Made in Washington”

As if to add insult to injury, with over 400 Iraqis killed in violence during the first two weeks of the newly sworn in Iraqi “government,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a surprise one-day visit to the newest U.S. colony. After visiting northern Iraq, which has been spared the brunt of the ongoing … Continue reading “A Welcome Parade of Seething Anger”

Memo to: Republican senators Buried down in Saturday’s New York Times report on President Bush reaffirming his unqualified support for John Bolton as UN ambassador is the reason why almost all of you are ready to vote for his confirmation. "Republicans are hoping to shame Democrats into a quick vote on Mr. Bolton. They argue … Continue reading “The Bush-Bolton Plan to Bomb Bushehr”

“When the people of the Palestinian territories went to the polls,” said President Bush in Riga, Latvia, “they chose a leader committed to negotiation instead of violence. … The direction of events is clear in the Middle East. Freedom is on the march.” Well, freedom may be on the march, but in Palestine it may … Continue reading “Speed Bumps on Democracy Boulevard”

The appeal court’s decision on the Sibel Edmonds case is out: case dismissed, no opinion cited, no reason provided. The court’s decision of Friday, May 6, has generated a string of obituaries; “another major blow, maybe the last one, to Sibel Edmonds, a woman who has faced an unprecedented level of government secrecy, gag orders, … Continue reading “Gagged, but Still Going Strong”

Well, according to Reuters, France-Britain-Germany "warned" Iran that they will "break off talks and join Washington in seeking UN Security Council action if Tehran makes good on its threats to resume atomic work." Poodle Blair promptly announced, “We certainly will support referral to the UN Security Council if Iran breaches its undertakings and obligations." What … Continue reading “Bush’s Nutty Referral”

At a moment when the North Koreans claim to have just “harvested a nuclear reactor for weapons fuel,” the latest flare-up in the Iranian/European Union negotiations involving the “Iranian bomb,” well described below by Dilip Hiro, only highlights the increasingly precarious state of nuclear proliferation on our poor planet. It’s almost impossible to tell quite … Continue reading “The Iran Crisis in Global Context”

One of the more hilarious charges leveled against Bonkers Bolton recently was that he was too preoccupied with winning confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations to prepare the U.S. delegation for the Seventh Review Conference of the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Levelers of this charge assume that Bush and Bolton want to … Continue reading “Strengthen the NPT – or Else”

The sudden and untimely arrival on U.S. territory of a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset and admitted terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, poses an embarrassing challenge to the credibility of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. Posada, who in an interview with the New York Times seven years ago admitted to organizing a wave of … Continue reading “A Terrorist Comes Home to Roost”