Category: Uncategorized

The appeal court’s decision on the Sibel Edmonds case is out: case dismissed, no opinion cited, no reason provided. The court’s decision of Friday, May 6, has generated a string of obituaries; “another major blow, maybe the last one, to Sibel Edmonds, a woman who has faced an unprecedented level of government secrecy, gag orders, … Continue reading “Gagged, but Still Going Strong”

“When the people of the Palestinian territories went to the polls,” said President Bush in Riga, Latvia, “they chose a leader committed to negotiation instead of violence. … The direction of events is clear in the Middle East. Freedom is on the march.” Well, freedom may be on the march, but in Palestine it may … Continue reading “Speed Bumps on Democracy Boulevard”

Memo to: Republican senators Buried down in Saturday’s New York Times report on President Bush reaffirming his unqualified support for John Bolton as UN ambassador is the reason why almost all of you are ready to vote for his confirmation. "Republicans are hoping to shame Democrats into a quick vote on Mr. Bolton. They argue … Continue reading “The Bush-Bolton Plan to Bomb Bushehr”

As if to add insult to injury, with over 400 Iraqis killed in violence during the first two weeks of the newly sworn in Iraqi “government,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a surprise one-day visit to the newest U.S. colony. After visiting northern Iraq, which has been spared the brunt of the ongoing … Continue reading “A Welcome Parade of Seething Anger”

Why is Washington standing by Uzbekistan’s dictator Islam Karimov, even as he massacres his own people – 500 of them so far? “They shot at us like rabbits,” says one Uzbek who escaped the carnage in Andijan, where Uzbek troops fired directly into a crowd of thousands, killing “hundreds,” according to news accounts. The whole … Continue reading “Uzbekistan’s Nightmare:
Made in Washington”

One of the more hilarious charges leveled against Bonkers Bolton recently was that he was too preoccupied with winning confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations to prepare the U.S. delegation for the Seventh Review Conference of the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Levelers of this charge assume that Bush and Bolton want to … Continue reading “Strengthen the NPT – or Else”

At a moment when the North Koreans claim to have just “harvested a nuclear reactor for weapons fuel,” the latest flare-up in the Iranian/European Union negotiations involving the “Iranian bomb,” well described below by Dilip Hiro, only highlights the increasingly precarious state of nuclear proliferation on our poor planet. It’s almost impossible to tell quite … Continue reading “The Iran Crisis in Global Context”

What role did John Bolton play in the Bush administration’s efforts to manufacture the intelligence needed to justify the invasion of Iraq? As it turns out, a hidden but important role. Remember the “yellowcake from Niger"? Briefly reported last week in Steve Clemons’ The Washington Note was that a Congressional subcommittee, citing a State Department … Continue reading “John Bolton’s Yellowcake”

There was panic in the streets of Washington, the Capitol emptied, and Congress scattered in fear – all because a small plane had entered the airspace over the Imperial City. “Run, run, run!” It was, of course, nothing to laugh or gloat about. All of us remember that day in September: the shadow of it … Continue reading “Iraq Falls Apart”

Last week I wrote about some of the reasons it is just possible that we won’t see another major imperial military adventure during the Bushlet’s second term. The reasons ranged from the second-term blues that afflicts most two-term presidencies, to the resources tied up (or tied down) in Iraq, to the fact that North Korea … Continue reading “Tired of Empire?”