Recent raids by federal agents on the homes and offices of peace activists are being viewed by civil libertarians and civil society groups as further proof that the U.S. is morphing into a “surveillance state” where the right to privacy and other constitutional protections are being quietly whittled away. On Sept. 24, agents of the …
Continue reading “FBI Raids Seen as Political Retribution”
Hundreds of people who believe they were falsely detained and imprisoned by the Department of Justice in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are now seeking redress through the U.S. courts. The exact number of detainees is unclear, as no lists were ever released publicly. But according to a report by the Office …
Continue reading “Ashcroft’s Post-9/11 Roundups Spark Lawsuit”
Updated at 8:25 p.m. EDT, Sept. 27, 2010
As if the political deadlock over the premiership did not already stoke sectarian tensions in Iraq, the Interior Ministry has now ordered the demotions of hundreds of Sunni police officers. Meanwhile, the violence continues. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 28 more were wounded across the country. Meanwhile a U.S. soldier was killed in a vehicle rollover in Kuwait, and a sniper wounded a U.S. soldier in Amara.
The proposal to free spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israel extending a temporary freeze on settlement building has now received support from four Democrats in Congress. Although many claim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated this latest bid to free Pollard, it may not be that simple. Since the 1990s the Conference of Presidents of …
Continue reading “Free Pollard Now, Pay Later”
We know the endpoint of the story: another bestseller for Bob Woodward, in this case about a president sandbagged by his own high command and administration officials at one another’s throats over an inherited war gone wrong. But where did the story actually begin? Well, here’s the strange thing: in a sense, Woodward’s new book, …
Continue reading “The Washington Gossip Machine”
FBI raids on six houses in Minneapolis and Chicago, including the office of the Minneapolis Antiwar Committee, have the antiwar movement – and the left in general – in an uproar. Agents came barging into homes guns drawn, kicking down doors and smashing furniture, armed with search warrants. The warrants described, in suitably vague terms, …
Continue reading “The Obama Boomerang”
“How can we humanize people in the Middle East and not humanize people in our own country?” That was a wise question in the midst of a speech full of wisdom from former Army captain and West Point graduate Paul Chappell. He gave the speech at a Sept. 5 event sponsored by the Peace Coalition …
Continue reading “An Afternoon With Paul Chappell”
Surfing the television channels, I came across an interview with the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi on an American network (Fox – would you believe it?). “My grandfather told us to love the enemy even while fighting him,” he said, “he fought against the British resolutely, but loved the British.” (I quote from memory.) My immediate …
Continue reading “Gandhi’s Wisdom”
Baghdad and nearby Garma today suffered a string of small but highly visible attacks that left a number of government employees and security elements injured or dead. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 27 more were wounded in that and other violence. Also, Iraq launched a new U.S.-built patrol boat, the first of its expanding fleet, at the Umm Qasr naval base.
At least three Iraqis were killed and 16 others were wounded in new attacks. Separately, two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third one was injured during a non-combat event. Further underscoring the ongoing U.S. presence in Iraq, a leading Sunni cleric urged Arab leaders to boycott the Arab summit next March in Baghdad, in protest of this continuing U.S. occupation.
