While the original pretext offered to the Australian people for the invasion and occupation of Iraq was the presence of weapons of mass destruction and their certain use against Western targets, the justification has now moved from the pragmatic to the ideological. As Prime Minister Howard has repeatedly articulated, the project is now one of …
Continue reading “Forcing Square Pegs Into Round Holes”
A coalition of civil-rights and veterans groups charged in a New York court Wednesday that the U.S. Defense Department is withholding records about the abuse of detainees in military custody as part of the Bush administration’s “war against terrorism.” The federal court lawsuit accuses the Pentagon of failing to comply with a Freedom of Information …
Continue reading “Groups Sue Pentagon Over Iraq Abuses”
A View from Iraq It’s hard to watch the world turn as I sit here in Iraq and watch the biggest US mistake unfold. It’s absolutely ludicrous the facts that are hidden by the US government. I have been here 5 months and take no pride in being here or even have the faintest notion …
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Foreign policy scholar Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire and, Blowback, discusses his works with Saul Landau. Check out his other interviews High Bandwidth (DSL or Cable modem): Low Bandwidth (dial-up modem):
CARACAS (IPS) – Venezuela will hold a recall vote for President Hugo Chávez, it was confirmed Thursday, after the election authorities announced that the opposition had gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum. The valid signatures total at least 2.451 million, according to the National Electoral Council. That exceeds the minimum of 2.436 million, or …
Continue reading “Recall Qualifies: Regime Change Imminent in Venezuela?”
CARACAS (IPS) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez admitted that the opposition may have gathered enough signatures to trigger a recall referendum that could remove him from power within the next few months. The political crisis thus seems to be moving smoothly in the direction of a peaceful, electoral solution, according to analysts. “I never said …
Continue reading “Chávez Says Opposition May Have Enough Signatures”
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The United States is seeking the approval of the new interim government in Baghdad for a joint UK-U.S. resolution that will legitimize the continuing military occupation of Iraq. Iraq’s newly-anointed foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, is due to arrive in New York later this week to voice his government’s support for the …
Continue reading “US Seeks Iraqi Nod for Continued Occupation”
Rafah, Jenin, Khan Yunis, Zeitun: Foreign-sounding names of so distanced and disturbing a reality. All that we know of them is what the media have selectively determined to impart, if we are interested to hear the story. The Rafah refugee camp, a small strip of land at the southern edge of Gaza was the target …
Continue reading “Celebrating Life in Rafah”
It had to happen, sooner or later, or else the irony would not be complete: news has emerged this week that oil has been discovered in Bosnia. Granted, the find is nowhere near as big as the Middle Eastern fields, but given the precious liquid’s current paucity in the world, chances are it will be …
Continue reading “Once More, With Irony”
While Iraqi and American political players have been frenetically rearranging the chairs of interim government members on the Titanic that is occupied Iraq today, a massive car bomb explosion rumbles my hotel, miles from where it detonated outside of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan building near the so-called Green Zone. So rather than celebratory gunfire …
Continue reading “New President, New Car Bomb”