Month: December 2005

In an essay for Bitter Lemons last year, I discussed the ways in which neoconservatives (in tandem with their allies in the Likud Party) were directly involved in manufacturing the invasion of Iraq. What evidence is available to us today if we seek to support the hypothesis that neoconservatives are following a similar script against … Continue reading “After Babylon, Persia”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – At the invitation of the Perdana Peace Foundation, I spent the week attending their Global Peace Forum. The foundation was started by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, who was also the keynote speaker at the event. The conference was attended by approximately 2,000 people from dozens … Continue reading “World Peace Forum Moves to Create International Peace Secretariat”

Editor’s note: The following is the text of a speech given to the Perdana Global Peace Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Dec. 16, 2005. I wish to thank Tun Dr. Mahathir and the Malaysian peace groups for organizing this historic event. The themes of this conference are war and peace. Almost everyone claims to … Continue reading “War, Peace, and the Net”

Don’t believe what you’ve heard in our domesticated media; the much-ballyhooed White House compromise with Sen. John McCain on torture is largely smoke and mirrors. The focus has now shifted to a fresh outrage, as President George W. Bush attempts to defend the deliberate flouting of U.S. laws regulating eavesdropping on American citizens – as … Continue reading “Bush’s Underwhelming Gesture on Torture”

Editorial note: What follows is the text of a speech delivered on Dec. 16, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the 2005 Perdana Peace Forum. The theme for this part of the program is "Crimes Against Peace, Crimes Against Humanity." We are discussing here the question of defining and dealing with war crimes. In any such … Continue reading “Who Are the War Criminals? Naming Names”

U.S. President George W. Bush suffered a stinging defeat Thursday when overwhelming congressional support forced him to abandon his opposition to anti-torture legislation and reach an agreement with its sponsor, Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican. The president’s reversal came after months of White House attempts – led by Vice President Dick Cheney and National … Continue reading “Torture Ban May Have a Loophole”

A bipartisan majority of senators refused to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act Friday, which was hurriedly passed six weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and gave U.S. law enforcement agencies significant expanded powers to investigate suspected terrorists. While in favor of most of the act’s provisions, senators opposing reauthorization targeted several provisions that … Continue reading “PATRIOT Act in Limbo Amid New Spying Flap”

According to the highly influential “experts” at the Heritage Foundation – who have apparently never bothered to read the Iranian Note Verbale [.pdf] to the International Atomic Energy Agency of Aug. 1, 2005 – “Iran remains a dangerous revolutionary power determined to acquire nuclear weapons. No policy short of war is guaranteed to halt the … Continue reading “Those Crazy Mullahs”

Editor’s note: This week, Antiwar.com is on the spot in Hong Kong for the Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference. This is the third in a series about the issues surrounding the conference, the people involved, and the roles played by the U.S. and China in this debate. Since Tuesday, the Sixth Ministerial has … Continue reading “Livelihoods at Stake”

By the end of the current session of Congress later this month, the Pentagon could have legal authority to "covertly" gather intelligence on U.S. citizens in the United States – a power taken away following excesses during the Vietnam War. The Senate Intelligence Committee, meeting in closed session, last month quietly approved a request from … Continue reading “Watchdogs Protest Pentagon’s ‘Mission Creep’”