Month: May 2006

On his maiden visit to the United States as Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert received a firsthand look at the political muscle of the right-wing "Israel Lobby," part of which used the occasion to launch a campaign to deter him from following through on plans to unilaterally evacuate tens of thousands of settlers living in … Continue reading “Right-Wing Israel Lobby Seizes on Olmert Visit”

Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel and cut off material assistance to Palestinian armed groups and to pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel’s 1967 borders, according to the secret Iranian proposal to the United States. The two-page proposal for a broad Iran-U.S. agreement covering all the issues separating the two … Continue reading “Iran Proposal to US Offered Peace With Israel”

With Salam Talib The Iraqi Oil Ministry’s inspector general reported this week that $1 billion of Iraq’s oil is being illegally smuggled out of the country every month. Smuggling on a large scale, coupled with increasing violence and the lack of basic services like water and electricity, has caused increasing tensions in the southern oil … Continue reading “Basra Explodes”

The conventional historical narrative of U.S. President George W. Bush’s foreign policy has traced the ascendancy of the neoconservative ideologues in his administration to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the ensuing war in Iraq. The common assumption among analysts is that if it were not for the terrorist attacks on … Continue reading “Why Can’t the US Apply Its New North Korea Policy to Iran?”

Is the National Security Agency being “turned against the people,” as the Congressional committee led by Sen. Frank Church warned might happen? We the people cannot know; it’s classified. Thursday’s slick but evasive testimony by Gen. Mike Hayden, the president’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, put the spotlight on Hayden’s personal role in … Continue reading “Eavesdropping, Gagging, and the Constitution”

On late Sunday and early Monday, U.S. air strikes in the Kandahar province in Afghanistan killed 20-80 suspected Taliban militants (a coalition statement confirmed 20 Taliban killed, while other sources reported as many as 60 more unconfirmed killed). The targets were a religious school and mud brick homes in the village of Azizi, where the … Continue reading “Cycle of Violence”

The Administration That Won’t Stop Lying Without a free press, the U.S. will continue to follow the neocon agenda for the world and the bombs will continue to ravage the earth. The Taliban in fact are the successors to the mujahideen, who were America’s friends and partners in the decade-long war against the Soviets; the … Continue reading “Backtalk, May 25, 2006”

The world was horrified to learn the other day, courtesy of Canada’s National Post, that a law supposedly passed by the Iranian Parliament would require non-Muslims to wear special clothing identifying their religious affiliations: Zoroastrians were assigned blue, Christians red, and Jews – in a public relations faux pas so enormous as to defy belief … Continue reading “Fake but Accurate”

LONDON – The war on terror is provoking more terror, Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan told IPS in an interview Tuesday at the launch of the human rights group’s 2006 annual report. "The war on terror and the way it has unfolded actually is premised on the principle that by eroding human rights you can … Continue reading “War Provoking Terror, Amnesty Says”

Less than 18 months after U.S. President George W. Bush declared in his 2005 Inaugural Address his unequivocal commitment to the “ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world,” tyrants, particularly in the Islamic world, are taking heart. From North Africa to Central Asia, top U.S. officials are busy embracing dictators – and their sons, … Continue reading “Bush Democracy Doctrine, RIP”