Antiwar.com

The Israelis just had to get in on the fun. But then the stories of torture – of hooded, humiliated inmates at Abu Ghraib and other facilities – did have a familiar air, as if the Israelis were tutoring their American sock-puppets in the finer points of squeezing those ragheads until they squealed. Torture – … Continue reading “Israel Unleashed”

Casualties in Iraq Anne Wicks: Please include those soldiers who have committed suicide while in Iraq and those who committed suicide as a result of PTSD once they returned to the United States. Thank you. Mike Ewens: We do. I believe that there have only been two reported. AW: I can tell you that there … Continue reading “”

You remember how King Herod of Judea dealt with a suspected threat to his rule, don’t you? According to Matthew, three Magi – Persian priests – showed up in Jerusalem, and told Herod they had seen a “sign in the heavens” signifying the birth in Bethlehem of a child destined to become “King of the … Continue reading “The Herod Doctrine”

LONDON – Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers. Thousands were reported killed in the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in the north of Iraq in … Continue reading “Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defense”

Somebody ought to tell President George Bush something he obviously doesn’t know. He keeps talking about wanting democracy in the Middle East and reform in general as an antidote to extremism. What apparently his staff members have not told him, probably because they themselves don’t know, is that most of the reformers in the Middle … Continue reading “Islamic Democrats”

Come payday a crew of us head toward Chengdu’s Computer City and stroll past a riot of electronics and dance groups touting their goods to techno beats. Underemployed and bored locals gather with migrant workers and stare at the computers and dancers. We continue on and enter an older building with a rickety elevator. A … Continue reading “In Defense of Piracy”

How are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going? Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to look at what is happening in Saudi Arabia. Until about a year ago, Saudi Arabia was one of the safest countries on earth. Crime was rare, and everyone, including Americans, was secure almost anywhere in the … Continue reading “Iraq: A Failure Without Borders”

JERUSALEM – The security wall Israel is building around Jerusalem is raising concerns among Palestinians about their future and where they belong. The wall is firming up Israeli control in areas it occupied after the 1967 war. Up until then Israel had more or less clear control of territory in west Jerusalem within a border … Continue reading “Palestinians Walled In, and Walled Out”

There is certainly some justification for being less than completely satisfied, as Elaine Cassel certainly is, with the Supreme Court’s decisions this week on people detained without trial or access to friends, family or lawyers by the Bush administration, notably Jose Padilla, Yaser Esam Hamdi and the 600 or so foreign fighters held in the … Continue reading “Restoring Some Balance”

The cliché about bad news – “it never rains but it pours” – was in full view the week of June 20. And the forecast is for more of the same for the foreseeable future. The proverbial torrents in question were the documents and statistics made public by the Bush administration as it tried to … Continue reading “A Deluge of Bad Advice and Statistics”