|
Updated: April 6, 2004 |
 |
|
|
December 2003
Dennis Kucinich for President!
Iraqi Civilian Deaths
|
A Radical Newsletter in the Struggle for Peace and Social
Justice
The worst nightmare for the American occupation has occurred. Portions of the Iraqi Shiite majority have risen in revolt. Full-scale civil war may be just around the corner. The armed uprising by Shiite militias in four Iraqi cities, including the Baghdad metropolitan area, was well coordinated and deadly. The rebellion cost the lives of eight American soldiers and countless Iraqis. The revolt consisted of followers of militant cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who has militias numbering in the tens of thousands across Iraq, Although the American occupation had forbidden the bearing of arms, the militants brandished many weapons, including rocket propelled grenade launchers. They took over the streets, occupied police stations and attacked American forces. . . (full article)
Sometimes, you need to
“interpret” the Bible, or “read between the lines,” in order to know what
it means. For example, when God says, “Thou shalt not kill,” He makes an
exception for wars. Thou shalt kill all you want to in a war and No One On
High has a problem with that -- unless, of course, your enemies think like
you do, in which case thou shalt “pacify” them with “overwhelming force.”
. . .
By and of itself, the word anti seems
innocuous. Etymologically it derives from Greek meaning opposite.
Nowadays it is more at against. So when anti prefixes
another word it denotes opposition to what the word represents. Sometimes
the meaning is benign, such as with antacid: an agent that
neutralizes excess acid. Oft the word expresses opposition to pernicious
forces and hence we have antiwar, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, and
anti-globalization. The term anti-globalization is an unfortunate one in
that very few people actually oppose globalization. . .
With U.S. Marines effectively locking down the defiant city of Fallujah in the rebellious "Sunni Triangle," other US military forces in Iraq opened a new front Monday to quash an apparent uprising by a Shiite militia in Baghdad and the south, in what some experts warn could be a major turning point in the year-old occupation. US officials appear to believe that the two shows of force – coming in the wake of some of the worst US losses since the official end of major hostilities in Iraq 11 months ago – will remind both rebellious Sunnis and increasingly impatient Shiites that Washington remains very much in charge of the ongoing "transition" that is supposed to end in a US transfer to power to Iraqis by Jun. 30. But some experts believe that both actions could well trigger even greater resistance in the Sunni heartland of north-central Iraq, and, more dangerously, among the Shiite community, which, with roughly 60 percent of the country's total population, could create overwhelming problems for an increasingly beleaguered occupying force. . . (full article)
BAGHDAD -- I heard the sound of freedom yesterday in Baghdad's Firdos Square, the famous plaza where the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled one year ago. It sounds like machine-gun fire. On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers, trained and controlled by coalition forces, opened fire on demonstrators here, forcing the emergency evacuation of the nearby Sheraton and Palestine hotels. As demonstrators returned to their homes in the poor neighborhood of Sadr City, the U.S. army followed with tanks and helicopters. As night fell, there were unconfirmed reports of dozens of casualties. In Najaf, the day was equally bloody: 19 demonstrators dead, more than 150 injured. . . (full article)
It's one thing to intensely dislike George W. Bush. It's another thing entirely to want to defeat him so bad, you are willing to adopt his own bring-'em-on worldview. But that is exactly the position in which many progressives and the "liberal media" find themselves. . . (full article)
There seems to be a single question driving bioethics today, a question that never considers alternatives, never doubts whether or not to proceed with medical technologies, but rather focuses its agenda specifically on how best to proceed. . . ethically, that is, of course. With the medical industrial complex expanding rapidly this is something that should concern us. Already U.S. health expenditures are the size of France's entire economy. Canada’s health bill recently reached a tenth of the economy. Around the world medicine is seen as an "economy of the future." This expansion means a lot of money to some big companies. Similarly a lot of doctors and scientists have economic and status stakes in this medical expansion. Yet who does the consumer -- often allowing her/his body to be "worked on" -- have to rely on for protection? (full article)
Machines
will produce 99.4% of the election results for the upcoming 2004
presidential election. With all the hoopla over voting machine "glitches,"
porous software, leaked memos, and the creepy corporations that sell and
service these contraptions, and with all the controversy that surrounds
campaign financing, voter registration, redistricting issues, and the
general privatization of the election process - we are missing the boat on
the biggest crisis facing our democracy. Americans aren't really voting.
Machines are. Call it faking democracy. . .
Jump on our Bandwagon:
The corporations’ Achilles heel is
the environment. It’s time for the left to hit it.
Beside the disaster in Iraq, the new Islamic
terror campaign and the battle over immigration policy, the survival of
the black-browed albatross may not look like the most pressing political
issue. For many of those on the left, environmentalism is at a best a
distraction, at worst a regression. As Christopher Hitchens said in a
debate last week, "Environmentalism and ecology ... are conservative
positions. They may be honourable ones, they may be defensible ones, they
are not radical ones." . . . (full
article) April 5
Richard Clarke was right. So was Paul
O’Neill. During the six months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks the Bush
administration paid little attention to the threat from al-Qaeda and
instead set the stage for a war with
I often wonder what Chicago's late, great Mike Royko thinks about "Boss" Dick Cheney literally snickering up his sleeve at the direction he's managed to steer the Independent (sic) 9-11 Commission to effectively cover up what he and others in the administration knew before 9-11. I suspect the acerbic renegade columnist would be quick to point out that the Commission is working pretty hard on its own to make Cheney's job easier. . . . The Cheney White House has gone from angrily resisting an independent investigation, to sabotaging it via curtailing funds and imposing unrealistic cut-off dates and, finally, to blatant manipulation. Distractions, such as public outrage over selecting Henry Kissinger to be in charge of anything even remotely honorable, gave Cheney the cover he needed, for example, to install as Commission executive director Philip Zelikow, a Condoleezza Rice buddy and former member of the 2000 Cheney/Bush transition team. . . (full article)
Former counterterrorism chief Richard
Clarke’s absorbing public testimony to the 9/11 Commission triggered an
avalanche of sound bites and ink, yet the implications of his comments
remain largely unexplored. . . (full
article) The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported today that it will publish an interview with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday evening in which he states that Israel will expel tens of thousands of Palestinians after it completes its “security fence.” Mr. Sharon said in the interview that “[Israel has] a difficult problem with those who are illegally exercising [what they perceive] as their right of return, by infiltrating into Arab cities and villages within Israel.” The Israeli prime minister is referring to areas within the 1967 borders which are populated mostly by Palestinian Arabs who are Israeli citizens. . . (full article)
Ha’aretz reports that after completing the “separation fence” the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon will push the government to “act vigorously to expel Palestinians living illegally within Israeli Arab communities.” Ha’aretz lackadaisically provides no background on the declamations by President George Bush’s “man of peace,” otherwise known as a war criminal drenched with the blood of Palestinian civilians slain in massacres perpetrated under his command, such as at Qibya, and Sabra and Shatila. It is more than puzzling to refer to people who have lived on the land for millennia as “living illegally within Israeli Arab communities.” It is difficult to know what to make of this. Would it be okay if the Palestinians lived within Jewish communities? Obviously not; otherwise there would be no need for an apartheid wall. So when Sharon says, “We have a difficult problem with the fulfillment of their desire to return by infiltrating Arab cities and villages in Israel,” what Sharon really has difficulty with is the internationally recognized Right of Return -- the Palestinians’ desire to live in, what is indisputably, their homeland. It is a right that, if exercised, turns out to be life threatening for Palestinians. . . (full article)
A while back I listened to a recording of a teach-in at Colombia University in which Cornel West was giving a speech. At the beginning he said, "I'd like to thank that group that made September 13th an upbeat day for me, even given the death of brother Tupac Shakur." He was referring to the group of prisoners who took part in the Attica prison uprising on September 13, 1971, the same day that Tupac died in 1996. Some of the white liberals in the audience responded by laughing, thinking that West was making a joke. They were so clueless that they didn't realize West was expressing genuine remorse over Tupac's death. I was reminded of that incident when I started learning about this new "liberal radio network." I thought that a lot of black folks must be laughing right now, because although white liberals don't seem to realize it yet, Air America Radio is a joke. . . (full article)
On March 31, four retired Special Operations forces employed by the private security firm Blackwater Security Consulting were ambushed, killed, and their bodies mutilated in Fallujah. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an estimated 15,000 "private security agents" are currently operating in Iraq. With the U.S. casualty toll ticking ever upward, and its troops stretched thin on the ground, the Bush administration is looking to mercenaries to help control Iraq. These soldiers-for-hire are veterans of some of the most repressive military forces in the world, including that of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and South Africa's apartheid regime. . . (full article)
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 private US security contractors, whose fiery and grisly end at the hands of an angry mob in the chronically rebellious city of Fallujah was caught on videotape. . . (full article)
One morning recently I woke up and read through my usual array of international media. In the middle of the lead story from the Washington Post about mercury levels in seafood, I began to feel a deep wash of shame. The article warned women of childbearing age to limit their intake of fish from species such as white tuna. Issued by the Food and Drug Administration, the advisory was immediately criticized for understating the risks of eating fish. The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit group of environmental investigators, said the FDA was misusing scientific data and withholding information regarding the true level of mercury in seafood. Senior vice-president Richard Wiles said the coal and seafood industries' interests beat out the health interests of America's children. And here's where New Zealand comes in. . . (full article)
His mother still calls him Neilsie. He refers to his dad, the former president, as Gampy. Neil Bush may be the black sheep of the Bush family, but his relatives have never let him down. Whenever he's been mired in financial, legal or marital imbroglios, someone in the Bush family entourage has always reached out a helping hand and often that hand has slipped Neil a fat check. Neil Bush, the fourth child of George and Barbara, was long thought to be the rising star of the family. He had the looks, the convivial demeanor, middle-of-the-road politics and, despite suffering from a severe case of dyslexia that made him the laughing stock of St. Albans, the stuffy DC prep school that groomed Al Gore, the brainpower. At least he seemed brighter than Jeb or George Jr. And, most important of all, he was the favorite son of Barbara Bush, the Agrippina of American politics. All those lofty political aspirations came to a fatal crash in the fall of 1988, at the precise moment his father was poised to ascend to the presidency, when the Silverado Savings and Loan went belly up with Neil in the driver's seat. . . (full article)
Cartoon comment: some atrocities are more worthy of attention and indignation than others. . . (cartoon)
I am guilty of being an American Idol fan. For someone who is supposed to be politically radical, it just doesn't feel right. It started out innocently enough. I'd watch it with my little sisters every now and then. After a while, however, I wasn't just watching it on weekends. It was almost every day. Before long, I was watching it alone. I even visited the show's official message boards to see what other fans were saying about the contestants. It was there that I got an interesting glimpse in to the racist underside of mainstream America. . . (full article)
The most ominous threat to academic freedom in decades looms in a seemingly innocuous Senate bill expected to come up for vote shortly. A short but critical clause would rob our society of the open exchange of ideas on college campuses that is vital to our democracy. . . (full article)
US occupation chief Paul Bremer hasn't
started wearing a hijab yet, and is instead tackling the rise of
anti-Americanism with his usual foresight. Baghdad is blanketed with inept
psy-ops organs like Baghdad Now, filled with fawning articles about how
Americans are teaching Iraqis about press freedom. "I never thought before
that the Coalition could do a great thing for the Iraqi people," one
trainee is quoted saying. "Now I can see it on my eyes what they are doing
good things for my country and the accomplishment they made. I wish my
people can see that, the way I see it." Unfortunately, the Iraqi people
recently saw another version of press freedom when Bremer ordered US
troops to shut down a newspaper run by supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr. The
militant Shiite cleric has been preaching that Americans are behind the
attacks on Iraqi civilians and condemning the interim constitution as a
"terrorist law." So far, al-Sadr has refrained from calling on his
supporters to join the armed resistance, but many here are predicting that
the closing down of the newspaper--a nonviolent means of resisting the
occupation--was just the push he needed. But then, recruiting for the
resistance has always been a specialty of the Presidential Envoy to Iraq:
Bremer's first act after being tapped by Bush was to fire 400,000 Iraqi
soldiers, refuse to give them their rightful pensions but allow them to
hold on to their weapons--in case they needed them later. . . (full
article)
Reading al-Qaeda into Madrid
It's almost laughable the way our corporate media reads the shadowy presence of al-Qaeda into nearly every terrorist incident around the world. I said almost. Fact is, the often absurd claims made by Fox News, CNN, and other alphabet corporate news organizations effectively demonstrate how eagerly a supposedly free press has bought into the preposterous idea of an international Islamic terrorist network symbolized by Osama bin Laden and his intrepid cave dwellers with satellite phones. . . (full article)
The barbaric bombing of a Spanish passenger train followed by the public hearings of the commission investigating the events of 9-11 has refocused attention on the so-called “war” on terrorism. The Spanish tragedy reminds us that the terrorist enemy does not fit the tightly structured and organized paradigm that the U.S. associates with the terrorist threat. Spanish police accuse members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as responsible for the attack. Some members have ties to al Qaida. But whether the plot was hatched by bin Laden in the mountain caves of Pakistan or Afghanistan is doubtful. . . (full article)
Some of the most closely guarded documents in the White House are sure to be the ones written by the president's top media strategist. The public will never get to see the key memos from Karl Rove, but a typical one these days might read something like... (full memo)
America’s role in the stability of globalization reached a new level when in 1990 President George H. W. Bush declared the “new world order.” His political rhetoric symbolized a) a notion of progress in United States history; b) a proclamation of American success in the battle against worldwide communism; and c) the global parameters by which America would now dictate its expansion. But the language also invoked something much older; an implication that America was embarking on a journey, bringing with it the terms of peace and prosperity that have been idolized in the United States since its conception. Just over a decade later, rhetoric surrounding the most recent Gulf War continues to invoke similar language that has paradoxically extended from father to son. Moreover, both Bush administrations’ mission to protect and defend American interests has subsequently come about during a historical period where the US has possessed absolute global superiority. That the US now operates under this context is not the sole accomplishment of coincidence. . . (full article)
The rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, the delays in addressing imminent environmental catastrophe, on the part of both Bush and Kerry --that alone-- warrants a thumbs down for both candidates. As per Mickey Z's heartfelt article, "Don't Turn Off, Turn ON", I urge everyone to vote for Ralph Nader in the upcoming election. If you don't act to make certain that neither Bush nor Kerry gets in, you're signing the planet's death warrant. If you have any doubts, look at Kerry the Lesser's statement below: "When John Kerry is president, the U.S. will reengage in the development of an international climate change strategy to address global warming, and identify workable responses that provide opportunities for American technology and know-how." . . . (full article)
The truth about the invasion of Iraq was perhaps best summed up by Ray McGovern, one of the CIA's most senior analysts: "It was 95 per cent charade. And they all knew it: Bush, Blair, Howard." One might think that exposés of this kind would lead the media to take a fresh look at some of the US-UK governments’ earlier claims justifying war. . . (full article)
Tuesday's White House
decision to permit National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify
publicly under oath before the so-called 9/11 Commission marks an unusual
reversal by an administration that has fiercely resisted taking any moves
that suggests it is capable of making mistakes. . . (full
article)
Uzbekistan's Terrorism: Who to Blame?
On March 28-30, a series of attacks on militia posts and several explosions rocked the city of Tashkent and a village near Bukhara. At least twenty militia and bystanders were killed and many wounded. The explosions involved women suicide bombers, one of whom detonated her tragic load near the beautiful Kukaldash mosque in the old part of Tashkent. A sad first for the Uzbek nation. President Karimov denounced the events on Uzbek TV, explaining that they "were carried out by those forces that hate in their very souls our country, the peaceful life of our citizens and their achievements. Their aims are to disrupt peace, destabilize the situation, sow fear and panic, disrupt faith in our policies, disrupt our good thoughts and creative work." True, they were carried out to "destabilize the situation" and "disrupt faith in our policies", but as for the rest...(full article)
Many have asked why OPEC is cutting its production when the price is already over OPEC’s projected market design price. This has caused consternation in the Bush administration, upset Kerry and allegedly puzzled many American financial analysts who think the price is already too high for America’s and the world’s economies. The answer is simple: the OPEC countries are tired of Bush and his administration trying to tell them how to run their countries—from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait to Venezuela—they are all tired of Bush trying to be the dictator and government framer of the world. . . (full article)
Jamal al-Harith made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And for that, the last two years of his life have been one long nightmare. The 37-year-old British Web site designer went to Pakistan in October 2001 to study Muslim culture. Jamal says that on his way to Turkey, he mistakenly entered Afghanistan. Once there, he was arrested as a suspected spy and turned over to U.S. authorities. Then the real horror began. Jamal was transported to Camp X-Ray--and later Camp Delta--the notorious U.S. prisons located at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay. . . (full article)
Monday’s Financial Times had two reports about the Bush administration’s pro chemical lobbying that should alarm all those concerned about human health and the environment. The first was titled “US diplomats to lobby EU on chemicals rules” and second “US wins deal over Montreal Protocol.” The FT reports: “Colin Powell, US secretary of state, has directed US diplomats to lobby European governments against controversial European Commission plans for new regulations on the chemicals industry.” Why is Powell anxious? (full article)
"Seven
in 10 Iraqis say things overall are going well for them -- a result that
might surprise outsiders imagining the worst of life in Iraq today," ABC
News reported on March 15, touting the results of an opinion poll marking
the anniversary of the U.S. invasion. Headlines trumpeted the poll’s claim
that nearly half of all Iraqis believe the U.S. was right to invade Iraq,
while only 15 percent want the occupation forces to leave now--the vast
majority preferring troops to stay and help with the transition to a new
Iraqi government. These headlines seem to offer evidence to those peace
activists who are reluctant to call for an immediate end of the U.S.
occupation, fearing that Iraq would descend into "chaos." . . . (full
article)
Air America Radio: Democratic Party Business
as Usual Scholars at the Glorious Revolutionary Federation of Fortune 500 Killers's Research Bureau announced their Preliminary Federation Assessment of Air America Radio, the new self-described "liberal" radio network that debuted today. "It sounded like an 11-hour ad for the Democratic Party," said one Senior Federation Research Analyst. . . (full article)
Recently, I was fortunate enough to be on Sonali Kolhatkar's excellent radio show, Uprising. My fellow guests were Michael Albert of ZNet and Rania Masri, director of the Southern Peace Research and Education Center at the Institute for Southern Studies and the Associate Editor of Southern Exposure. We were there to discuss the 9/11 hearings and how they had become (surprise, surprise) yet another partisan politics dog-and-pony show. . . In 2000, there were 195,027,520 eligible voters in America of which 156,421,311 were registered. Of that number, only 110,604,647 actually hit the polling booths. That's 56.7% of eligible voters participating. Almost 85 million more Americans could have voted in the 2000 presidential election...but didn't. After the radio show, I was speaking with friend and colleague Richard Oxman about those numbers when he hit upon the idea of ON (only-Nader) to run parallel with the ABB (anyone-but-Bush) craze sweeping the nation. . . (full article)
Let's not mince words: President George W. Bush's Medicare plan benefits private interests over public good. The pharmaceutical corporations, HMOs and insurance companies got what they paid for, and then some. . . (full article)
The civil rights movement of the 1960s raised high hopes among African American citizens that they were at last on the road to true equality with the opportunity to share fully in the nation's prosperity. Now, nearly a half century later, there are big questions about just how far we have come to meet those high hopes, particularly in the economic arena. Yes, there has been progress, but for many minority citizens the advances have been painfully slow. . . (full article)
In his epic theater, Bertolt
Brecht sought to illuminate the historically specific features of an
environment in order to show how that environment influenced, shaped, and
often battered and destroyed the characters. Unlike dramatists who focused
on the universal elements of the human condition and fate, Brecht was
interested in the attitudes and behavior people adopted toward each other
in specific historical situations. . . (full
article) March 30-31
Condoleezza Rice wants to bring democracy to the Middle East. Ms. Rice, an expert on what is now an obsolete subject, the Soviet Union, believes this can be done the way the United States brought democracy to Chile or Iran or Afghanistan -- that is, by violently overthrowing governments. Does democracy come from the full belly of a B-52 and the murderous aftermath of coups? (full article)
Former White House Counter-Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke has managed to do something that defies modern political gravity. He has stayed in the news, hour after hour and day after day. He was hurled many days ago into the maelstrom of the 24-hour news cycle, which reports one moment on an incredibly important story, flings that story out beyond the Oort Cloud the next moment, and that story is never seen again. Clarke, somehow, has managed to maintain his position at the top of the news despite this process we mistakenly call "journalism" for longer than any other ten major recent stories combined. . . (full article)
An extensive discussion has
already taken place in Israel regarding the cost-benefit ratio of Yassin's
assassination. But the question of justice has hardly been raised.
The United States has delivered George Bush’s ghoulish brand of democracy to Haiti. The nightmarish components of Haiti’s ruling troika gathered last Saturday, in Gonaives, the country’s fourth-largest city – a macabre assemblage that seemed designed to assault the sensibilities of civilized humans. . . (full article)
2004 is turning out to be an important political year in many ways. For those on the political Left, the independent, non-Green, Ralph Nader Presidential campaign is bringing to the fore a number of important strategic and tactical issues, among them: an assessment of the danger-or not-of a second Bush administration; what our attitude should be toward progressives in the Democratic Party; the political and organizational nature of the kind of "third party" needed; and with whom in the process of party-building we should be willing to make alliances. . . (full article)
Dear
Progressive Democrat: I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 and I’m proud of it.
You voted for Nader and you regret it (or, you voted for Gore, even though
you liked Nader better). Ever since then, you participated in a vigorous
campaign to convince Nader and the Green Party not to run in 2004. It is
unprecedented for so many progressive people to fight so intensely to
prevent a progressive voice from entering the campaign. However, I intend
to support Nader and/or the Green Party candidate (and I have not given up
hope that Nader will be the Green Party candidate). I hope you will have
the patience to listen to my point of view. . .
You don’t have to go far to realize that an economy tenuously on the rebound for Wall Street is very much in the dumps on Main Street. Just check out the proliferating dollar stores and paycheck loan providers that both owe their existence to far too many of us being too poor to shop at “real” retailers or to go through a month without running completely out of money. Even in cases where usually at least two breadwinners are struggling to make ends meet, a shockingly high number of us look at our forebears’ expectation of seeing their progeny lead better lives than they themselves did...as totally impossible. The American dream has become a forbidding nightmare. . . (full article)
In Washington, noses continue to grow, minds continue to be devoid of intelligence and hearts have yet to be found. Such is the calamity that is the group of liars who comprise the Bush administration, nothing more than an amalgam of unscrupulous beings molded out of the same bed of clay. This clay has yielded us men and women of similar proclivity towards malfeasance who are leading us into bottomless sewers of ignoble and hazardous waste. They have for three years caused us to drown in fear-infested cesspools of toxic insecurity, causing our emotions and lives to be controlled as they succumb to the Bush administration’s incessant fear mongering manipulation. As such, for three years they have been allowed to do as they please, causing nothing but trouble to our beleaguered nation. They are called the Washington Pinocchios. . . (full article)
The apology of Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser to the Clinton and Bush administrations, for the U.S. government’s failure to protect its citizens on September 11 starkly contrasts with the U.S. government’s standard operating procedure. Sitting government officials, whether in Democratic or Republican administrations, rarely apologize for any transgressions of the state, no matter how grievous. . . (full article)
A Review of Jeff St. Clair's Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature: For all the environmental havoc uncovered in these 56 essays it is miraculous we stll have a planet and any clean air and water at all. St. Clair co-edits Counterpunch, along with Alexander Cockburn. To get a sense of the dimensions of what we’ve lost, he says, you have to “get the feel of your fingers skimming over 800 grow rings on the stump of a Douglas fir,” which is all that’s left of ninety-five percent of the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. This book is a dire warning, the work of a singular investigative journalist and master story-teller. . . (full article)
When most people think of Costa Rica, they don't imagine oil rigs stationed off the pristine beaches. Nor do they envision pit mines cutting into the cloud-forested mountains. But, despite the country's noteworthy conservation efforts, its scenic vistas and extraordinary biodiversity have faced real threats from extractive industries -- and are now endangered by international trade deals. . . (full article)
The paradox of modern
warfare works like this: by enhancing our military strength, we enhance
our opponents' capacity to destroy us. The Russian state developed
thermobaric bombs (which release a cloud of explosive material into the
air) for use against Muslim guerillas. Now, according to New Scientist,
Muslim terrorists are trying to copy them. The United States has been
producing weaponized anthrax, ostensibly to anticipate terrorist threats.
In 2001, anthrax stolen from this programme was used to terrorize America.
The greatest horrors with which terrorists might threaten us are those
whose development we funded. . .
Senator
John Kerry's recent aggressive declaration on Venezuela confirms that
whoever is in the White House, Venezuela will remain subject to
intervention from the United States government and its allies. The role of
the Venezuelan army in the face of this reality will be crucial to defend
peace and democracy in Venezuela. The first part of this interview,
published earlier, covered issues of US intervention, relations with
Colombia, and efforts by the government's opponents to create an
atmosphere of crisis inside the country. In this final part of the
interview, General Raúl Baduel, head of the Venezuelan army explains to
Heinz Dieterich efforts to combat terrorist snipers and the role of media
manipulation. Baduel ends with a call for respect for democracy and
peaceful coexistence. . . (full
interview)
|
