By HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Allegations of torture and mistreatment of detainees by U.S. forces in Iraq do not involve isolated cases, but are part of a broader pattern of what the Army's own investigation into the matter called "systemic abuse." Concerns about...
Pledge Week I went ahead and made a contribution to your site today. I consider myself a sort of libertarian democrat, typical of many people here in Silicon Valley, and there are times I don't agree with with all the points of view on your site, but I do appreciate...
The Mideastization of the US, or: Rumsfeld Must Resign
The Bush administration keeps talking about bringing democracy to the Middle East, but a key element in democracy is always the accountability of public officials to the public. That is why we have elections, that is why we have a division of powers, that is why...
Iraq Scandal Opens US to Charges of Double Standards
According to a joke circulating in Washington political circles, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's notorious torture chamber in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad – once held up as a symbol of barbarity – was never shut down. A signboard outside the...
Ironic Difference
It's ironic that at a time when the whole world is disgusted by pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused by thugs and sluts in American uniforms, an American doctor in Germany reports that Thomas Hamill was reasonably well-treated by his Iraqi kidnappers. A bullet...
New General, Old Methods at Iraq Prisons
"Banned" methods of prisoner interrogation were approved at the highest levels of US command. Methods authorized include so-called pain-inducing "stress positions" in which detainees are bound to stand or squat until they are unable to comply, or until they break. The...
Iraq’s ‘Ali Baba’ Police
Along with an increase in temperatures here in Baghdad, there is an accompanying increase in tempers where the unfulfilled promises made by the U.S. to rebuild and rehabilitate Iraq are coming more into focus with each passing day. Daily life is a struggle for most...
Bush Tightens Cuba Embargo
Six months before an election in which the state of Florida may again play a decisive role, U.S. President George W Bush on Thursday announced new measures to tighten the 44-year-old US embargo on Cuba and hasten what he called "democratic change" on the Caribbean...
US Prison Labor: Another Cog in the War Machine
It's Saturday morning, May 1, 2004, and women here at Pekin Federal Prison Camp who watched CNN news feel indignant about the way Iraqi prisoners have been treated by US military guards. "Did you see those pictures?" Ruth asked. What in the world is going on...
Dying for an Exit Strategy
Wouldn't it be ironic if the current imperial venture – I'm not so naive as to suppose our neocon buddies don't have more ventures in mind for your children and mine, and note that even as Iraq blows up the United States is stirring the pot in Cuba, planning to...