Month: February 2006

New Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos released February 15, 2006 by Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service TV CLICK ON IMAGE FOR BIGGER PICTURE earlier Abu Ghraib photos

Fabrications Persevere, Return As the world continued to ponder how cartoons could provoke deadly rioting, an important anniversary almost slipped under the public radar on Monday. It was four years since the "trial" of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic opened before the Hague Inquisition, with Head Inquisitor Carla Del Ponte laying out the kitchen-sink indictment against … Continue reading “A Resurgence of Lies”

While the country – or, rather, the American media – is fixated on an accidental shooting by the vice president, and the airwaves are filled with the natterings of the chattering classes over this inconsequential albeit unfortunate matter, the real shooting is being largely ignored: the slaughter continues in Iraq. While reporters and pundits rush … Continue reading “Masters of Deception”

One of the best television commercials I have seen in a while comes from Sprint promoting its “Fair & Flexible Plan” for cell phones. We see a pompous business executive discussing the Sprint plan and then telling his assistant that joining the plan is his way of “sticking it to the Man.” The assistant is … Continue reading “Guess Who’s Sticking It
to the Man?”

We’re in a new period in the war in Iraq – one that brings to mind the Nixonian era of “Vietnamization”: A president presiding over an increasingly unpopular war that won’t end; an election bearing down; the need to placate a restive American public; and an army under so much strain that it seems to … Continue reading “Can You Say ‘Permanent Bases’?”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e060214.html

The George W. Bush administration went well beyond refusing to negotiate with terrorists in its handling of the threat by freelance journalist Jill Carroll‘s abductors to kill her if all female detainees were not released from U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. According to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials delayed the scheduled release of six female prisoners whom … Continue reading “US Risks Reporter’s Life to Strike Tough Pose”

The question looms large against the backdrop of the hearing on whistleblowing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon by Christopher Shays, chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations. Among those testifying are Russell Tice, one of the sources who exposed illegal eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, and Army Sgt. Sam … Continue reading “Who Will Blow the Whistle Before We Attack Iran?”

You probably heard that – as a result of extreme pressure brought by the Bush-Cheney administration – a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors was convened last week to discuss what to do about the “gravest” threat to develop to “our” national security since the end of the Cold War. … Continue reading “Sanction the IAEA Board, Not Iran”

In the first installment of this series, I offered 42 names to begin what now seems an endless – and ever growing – list of top officials as well as beleaguered administrators, managers, and career civil servants who quit their government posts in protest or were ridiculed, defamed, threatened, fired, forced out, demoted, or driven … Continue reading “The Bureaucracy Strikes Back”