If three, five, or 10 years from now, Latin America returns to the military dictatorships and "dirty wars" of its all-too-recent past, analysts may point to the past week's conference in Quito of the hemisphere's defense ministers and particularly...
Burma Prisoner Release May Be Just a Ploy
BANGKOK - The initial euphoria that greeted the freedom granted to nearly 4,000 prisoners, recently released from jails in military-ruled Burma, seems to be dissipating fast. For all it may be, this amnesty might not necessarily translate into possible political...
Israeli Closures Crush Palestinian Economy
Four years of an Israeli military crackdown on a popular Palestinian uprising, based on closures of towns and villages, have left the economy of the occupied territories in tatters and its people facing soaring poverty, the World Bank said Tuesday. Israeli army sieges...
Iraq Debt Relief Weighed Down by IMF Burden
Rich nations' decision to accept a U.S. request and forgive part of Iraq's debt will help the occupied country but also saddle it with a burdensome economic program that threatens to take decision-making power from Iraqis and put it in the hands of officials from the...
‘Democracy’ and Mendacity
In the Ukraine, tens of thousands of protesters march through the streets demanding that pro-Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich give up the reins of power: he stole the election, they claim. The whole thing was "rigged." How...
Repressive MEMRI
I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made at Informed...
Repressive MEMRI
I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made at Informed...
A Worthless Intelligence Agency
It's well known that Washington was originally built on a pestilential swamp. Right now, the Bush administration is in the process of draining its own "swamp" of potential critics and doubters of any sort and installing "family" members, many from George's (and...
Dubious Source for New Iran Charges
NEW DELHI - As Iran promised to meet Monday's deadline for suspending a uranium enrichment process that could be used for making nuclear weapons a freeze that could spare it UN Security Council sanctions questions still remain unanswered. Does Iran...
Diplomatic Front Heats Up in Ivory Coast
PARIS - Beneath the apparent calm after the last round of clashes, the diplomatic battle in Cote d'Ivoire is getting hotter. This time the clash is building up not between government and rebel leaders but between the government of President Laurent Gbagbo and the...


