Category: Uncategorized

On the same day the “Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States” [pdf] was released, President Bush signed into law the Project Bioshield Act of 2004. Project BioShield is authorized to spend $5.6 billion over a five-year period to buy and stockpile vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox … Continue reading “Fun with Bio-Terror”

Linda Ronstadt dedicated a song to Michael Moore and his film Fahrenheit 9/11 and got the boot from the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. They treated her shabbily, escorting her out of the building without allowing her to return to her room. This came after some members of the audience booed and walked … Continue reading “Destroying Freedom to Save It”

If U.S. President George W. Bush thinks his “war on terror” is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years… Beginning with changing his policies. That is the unavoidable conclusion of the latest two in a series of major surveys of public … Continue reading “Arabs: It’s the Policy, Stupid”

The newly reconstituted Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), the War Party’s latest high-profile front group, is off to a rocky start. In the face of incoming fire from independent journalist Laura Rozen, what the CPD’s founders characterize as "an army of citizens" was forced into an ignominious retreat on the first day of its … Continue reading “The Present Danger”

DUBAI – The ordeal of a Filipino truck driver freed by militants after his country withdrew its troops from Iraq has not deterred Philippine migrant workers from making their way to the occupied Middle Eastern country through the United Arab Emirates, despite an official ban by Manila. The Philippines banned its citizens from going to … Continue reading “Desperate Filipinos Still Going to Iraq Despite Govt Ban”

OTTAWA – Canada’s broadcast regulator has approved Qatar-based news channel al-Jazeera for the country’s digital cable TV market, but with censorship rules that are so stringent it is unlikely to be carried in this country, say television executives. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved al-Jazeera for digital distribution last week, but accepted demands … Continue reading “Yes Means No for al-Jazeera in Canada”

Vice President Dick Cheney can toss around the F-word all he wants in response to the criticism directed at him as a result of his close ties to Halliburton, the company he headed from 1995-2000, but he can’t hide from the truth. It was Cheney who urged Congress in 1996 to ease sanctions against Iran, … Continue reading “Halliburton Ignores Sanctions”

President Bush’s neoconservatives have announced that they are relaunching the Committee on the Present Danger. The new CPD will be totally different from the original. I was a member of the Committee on the Present Danger. It was a bipartisan private organization consisting largely of former presidential appointees who distrusted naiveté about Soviet intentions. One … Continue reading “Neocons the Real Present Danger”

WASHINGTON – Capping 18 months of work, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission released its 567-page report here Thursday, and challenged President George W. Bush and Congress to make sweeping changes to the structure of the U.S. intelligence community. The report’s central recommendations called for the creation of a “National Counter-Terrorism Center” (NCTC) that would feature joint … Continue reading “9/11 Panel: Security Overhaul Needed”

KARACHI – For no clear reason, the atmosphere around the resumption of the long-delayed India-Pakistan peace dialogue is marked by effusive official optimism on either side, and an aura of hope and expectation among both peoples. The two governments, whose foreign ministers met Wednesday and set a September date for more substantial discussions, have by … Continue reading “India, Pakistan Optimistic About Peace Talks”