Category: Uncategorized

Two weeks after the Bush administration began attacking Amnesty International for calling the U.S. detention practices against suspected terrorists "the gulag of our times," it finds itself increasingly on the defensive on the issue. With the Senate Judiciary Committee poised to hold unprecedented hearings this week on the administration’s detention policies, the issue is also … Continue reading “Sen. McCain: Try or Release Detainees”

The indictment [.pdf file] of Larry Franklin, the 58-year-old analyst who headed up the Pentagon’s Iran desk, marks a milestone in the FBI’s four-year-plus probe into Israel’s covert activities in the U.S. The investigation predates 9/11 and involves some of the leading figures associated with planning and agitating for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The … Continue reading “Indictment Shows Washington Is ‘Israeli-Occupied Territory’”

What is the first picture the term “occupation” raises in our mind? Probably some kind of extreme violence among civilians: lethal fire in the middle of town, terrified kids in pajamas watching heavily armed soldiers searching a house, a helicopter firing a missile in the midst of Gaza. All these violent scenes do happen, but … Continue reading “The Quiet Occupation”

In 1996, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen published Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. His thesis is that the mass murder of Jews was not done on the quiet by a few Nazi fanatics. Instead, Goldhagen writes, by their complicity, ordinary Germans were willing participants in the slaughter. In other words, the German people as … Continue reading “Enabling Evil”

War: Realities and Myths Your article is a clear message of truth and paints war exactly for what it is, a tragedy made by men. As a career military officer and combat pilot, I find the Iraq war to be the greatest failure of the American system ever recorded. The death and destruction this country … Continue reading “Backtalk June 15, 2005”

“Debt Cut Is Set for Poorest Nations” was the headline in Sunday’s Washington Post over the lead story. “The world’s wealthiest nations,” wrote Paul Blustein, “agreed yesterday to cancel more than $40 billion in debts that some of the world’s poorest nations owe to international lenders – a move inspired by the belief that full … Continue reading “Reviving the Foreign Aid Racket”

Sunnis and Shi’ites are now sliding toward a civil war, and the Bush administration has shown no interest in trying to avert it.  With Congress growing increasingly restless over the absence of an administration exit strategy, opponents of the occupation could take the offensive by offering a clear alternative policy of using U.S. influence to encourage … Continue reading “How Bush Is Contributing to Civil War in Iraq”

This week, Congress will vote on a bill to expand the power of the United Nations beyond the dreams of even the most ardent left-wing, one-world globalists. But this time, the UN power grabbers aren’t European liberals; they are American neoconservatives who plan to use the UN to implement their own brand of world government. … Continue reading “UN Bill Not What It Appears to Be”

Washington keeps condemning Iran’s government and making thinly veiled threats. But in Iran, many people are in the midst of challenging the country’s rulers, in the streets and at the ballot box. The June 17 election for president could be a turning point or a hollow spectacle – no one knows which – but the … Continue reading “Rooting for Iran’s Theocrats”

It didn’t take long for the war crimes to begin – in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo, in Iraq. By November 2003, Mike Davis was writing about them for TomDispatch. And in introducing his piece, “The Scalping Party,” I suggested that the seeds of our future were well-planted and already beginning to sprout their monstrous crop. I … Continue reading “The Scalping Party”