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April Fools’ Day is traditionally one of good-natured mischief, but not this year. Indeed, U.S. President George W. Bush’s trademark smirk, which normally fits the day’s spirit almost to a T, was nowhere to be seen Thursday. The reason was clear enough: Iraq suddenly, if gruesomely, recaptured the headlines with Wednesday’s horrific killings of four … Continue reading “Fallujah Deflates Washington’s Optimism”

I can’t deny that it has been fun to see all the Bushies pushed on the defensive or jolted into attack mode so dramatically that you can’t help but discern just how insecure and vulnerable they are – as are most people who are at least dimly aware that they have advanced themselves on false … Continue reading “Missing the Point on the New Terror”

In a scene that conjures memories of Mogadishu, Somalia, where Americans were murdered and dragged through the streets, the grisly killing of 4 American private security guards in Fallujah has reverberated throughout the Western media, giving rise to two reactions: plain horror and self-righteous rage. The former emanates from ordinary Americans and their European counterparts, … Continue reading “Lessons of Fallujah”

WASHINGTON – Just before Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified before the 9-11 Commission last week, reporters were handed his prepared statement. Unlike statements by other witnesses during the hearings, his came with an attachment – a stack of papers almost an inch thick, held together by a binder clip. "Boy," one reporter remarked under her … Continue reading “Rummy’s Rules for War”

Mohammed Haneef Abdul Razak Sheikh says he was held under India’s controversial anti-terrorism law for distributing food to victims of the anti-Muslim pogrom that swept western Gujarat state two years ago. All the 287 cases booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in Gujarat following the violence were aimed at members of the minority … Continue reading “India’s Post-9/11 Law on Terrorism More Abused Than Used”

This week’s outburst of apparently Islamist-related violence, which has killed more than 40 people in two major cities in Uzbekistan in the past three days, could spur renewed attention to the strategically located Central Asian country’s deplorable human rights record. In a new report whose release coincided with the bloodiest day yet in three days … Continue reading “With Friends Like Uzbekistan…”

What Albanian separatists did in occupied Kosovo in four mid-March days resulted in over 30 deaths, the destruction of over 30 churches and hundreds of homes and vehicles – but more so, threatened to yank off the idyllic mask the occupiers and the compliant media have been forcibly keeping on things for nearly five years. … Continue reading “Saying It Ain’t So”

"He needs to get his story straight," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says of her whistleblowing former aide Richard Clarke. Oh, he does? Rice’s contradictory statements about what the White House knew or didn’t know, did or didn’t do, before 9-11 are legion. And much of what she’s told the media is at odds with … Continue reading “Condi’s Contradictions”

A newly declassified audiotape and documents released here Wednesday 40 years after the 1964 coup that installed military rule in Brazil show that then US President Lyndon Johnson was directly involved in the decision to back the coup forces, if necessary. In a six-minute tape of Johnson being briefed by phone at his Texas ranch, … Continue reading “Documents Shed New Light on US Support for 1964 Brazilian Coup”

In a shocking upsurge of violence, American deaths in Iraq reached a grim milestone yesterday. The bombing in Fallujah resulted in the deaths of five GIs and four contract workers: In one of the bloodiest days for the U.S. military this year, five 1st Infantry Division soldiers died when their M-113 armored personnel carrier ran … Continue reading “A Grim Milestone”