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We had just finished a meal of lamb, rice and tabbouleh. My host, an intellectual and fluent in several languages, was talking about the Middle East. He was a Kurd and Syrian. "A French general put his foot on the grave of Saladin and said, ‘Saladin, we have returned.’" He spit the words out. His … Continue reading “In Lebanon, Syria Is Not ‘Foreign’”

KIRKUK – Whatever the circumstances, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena is free at last. But questions remain at what price. Her release has been clouded over by the death of the Italian intelligence agent who freed her from kidnappers. He was killed on the road to Baghdad’s airport by U.S. security forces there to protect U.S. … Continue reading “Where Abducted People Are An Expensive Product”

Human rights groups and some senators are expressing growing frustration over the Pentagon’s failure to hold senior officers or civilian leaders accountable for widespread abuses by U.S. forces against detainees in Washington’s "war on terror." The latest report on abuses, released at a Senate hearing Thursday, drew new calls for Congress or the administration to … Continue reading “Groups: Latest Abuse Investigation Report a Whitewash”

President Bush has nominated John Bolton – currently undersecretary of state – to be ambassador to the United Nations, a presidential appointment that requires Senate confirmation. Will examining Senators focus on what they expect Bolton to accomplish in his new post, or will they focus on the mess of things he made in his last … Continue reading “Bolton’s Stewardship”

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a major advocacy group, has filed the first challenge to "rendition," known by critics as "outsourcing torture," a practice used by U.S. intelligence agencies to deliver detainees to prisons in countries known to practice abuse. "Torture is against the law in the United States," said Ron Daniels, CCRs’ executive … Continue reading “Rendition, or Outsourcing Torture?”

In The Image, Daniel Boorstin’s ground-breaking and magisterial study of the rise of the modern media and the public relations profession, the renowned historian coined the term "pseudo-event." He was referring to a "happening" that is designed to be covered by the news. It is not spontaneous, but comes about because someone has planned, planted … Continue reading “‘Pseudo-Events’ Stir Mideast Pot”

President Bush was uncharacteristically slow to take credit, in his speech this week at the National Defense University, for what appear to be democratic-like changes in the Middle East. This might have been in part because if you’re just counting numbers, which to some extent is what democracy as such boils down to, the 500,000-strong … Continue reading “Parsing the President”

CANBERRA, Mar 10 (IPS) – The father of the only Australian prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba has renewed his plea that his son be brought home to face any charges following the return by the U.S. government of three French men to Paris this week. Attending the screening of a film, … Continue reading “‘Bring My Son Home,’ Pleads Guantanamo Bay Detainee’s Father”

The Syrian government must put an immediate end to human rights abuses against Syrian Kurds, Amnesty International said in a report published Thursday on the eve of the anniversary of the Qamishli clashes. More than 30 Kurds were killed in clashes that spread from a football match between Kurdish and Arab teams in Qamishli in … Continue reading “Torture and Oppression of Kurds in Syria”

Throughout much of the Cold War, people feared above all else a global hot war, the third great one in a century of devastating world wars; and we crept up to it more than once – most desperately, there can be no doubt, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. For … Continue reading “Which War Is This Again?”