Month: October 2005

Dresden – Budapest – Tbilisi – Baku

Dresden In Dresden, I visited the daughter of my mother’s old friend Guenter Reimann, author of The Vampire Economy: Doing Business Under Fascism, a seminal study known to many classical libertarians. Karen showed me around and told me how the German economy strangled entrepreneurs. She had various stories of East Germans being prohibited from or … Continue reading “Dresden – Budapest – Tbilisi – Baku”

Yellowcake Dossier Not the Work of the CIA

by Carlo Bonnini e Giuseppe D’Avanzo of La Repubblica [translated at the request of Antiwar.com by Azzurra Crispino] Anything found in [ ] are translator’s notes and not originally in the article. For Nicolò Pollari, director of SISMI [sic Military Intelligence Agency of Italy] the rules of his job are non-negotiable. He tells La Repubblica: … Continue reading “Yellowcake Dossier Not the Work of the CIA”

Dozens of Abu Ghraibs?

GENEVA – U.S. human rights groups have announced before the UN Human Rights Committee that there are perhaps dozens of secret detention centers around the world where Washington is holding an unknown number of prisoners as part of its "war on terror." This week in Geneva, the Committee began to examine the United States’ compliance … Continue reading “Dozens of Abu Ghraibs?”

Background to Betrayal

Has I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff, made a deal with CIA leak investigator Patrick J. Fitzgerald – and turned on his boss in return for leniency? It sure looks like it. Or else how is it that Scooter suddenly discovered his notes of a “previously undisclosed” conversation held with Cheney … Continue reading “Background to Betrayal”

Who Are We to Pick Syria’s President?

Someone should tell Condi Rice that the game is up. With the Bush administration dissolving in illegalities committed by key officials in their attempts to protect the lies that they used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the secretary of state is trying to ramp up war against Syria. Grasping a UN report that … Continue reading “Who Are We to Pick Syria’s President?”

Two Thousand Dead – and for What?

These are not the halcyon days of George W. Bush. With his approval rating below 40 percent, his reputation as a decisive leader ravaged by Katrina, his conservative base shattered by Harriet, and his closest aide facing indictment, the president is said to be shouting at and blaming subordinates for the lost opportunities of his … Continue reading “Two Thousand Dead – and for What?”

The Quiet Occupation

One of the difficulties in writing regularly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, in my eyes, that so little ever changes. The basic constants – above all, Israel’s overwhelming military, economic, and political superiority, all serving its colonialist aims – change slightly over years, if at all. The media concentrate on immediate episodes: a violent incident, … Continue reading “The Quiet Occupation”

Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neocons, Cheney

One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush’s father, assailed neoconservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq. In an interview with The New … Continue reading “Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neocons, Cheney”

Fixing and Forging

On May 6, 2003, the New York Times published a column by Nicholas Kristof that included the following: "I rejoice in the newfound freedoms in Iraq. But there are indications that the U.S. government souped up intelligence, leaned on spooks to change their conclusions, and concealed contrary information to deceive people at home and around … Continue reading “Fixing and Forging”