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USA & Tobacco

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (IPS) - Eleven days after the Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming entered into force despite staunch opposition from the George W. Bush administration, another international treaty, this one on tobacco, will take effect Sunday without U.S. ratification.

U.S. on Sidelines of Yet Another Global Treaty
by Jim Lobe - IPS

The EU Constitution and the French NO

The EU constitution is a Trojan horse slapped together by corporate and banking elites with the clear purpose of undermining national sovereignty and accelerating globalization. Thank God the French had the common sense to read the document and vote it down. Unlike their American counterparts, who have been the victims of a barrage of free trade agreements (NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA) which have sacrificed the environment, eviscerated national sovereignty, and savaged the middle-class, the French thumbed their noses at a plan that was designed to torpedo their economic system. If the constitution had passed, its neoliberal policies would inevitably put Frenchmen in direct competition with the lowest paid workers in Canton Province. No thanks; that’ a model that only works for the corporate oligarchy and their friends in the “free press”.

The EU Constitution; savaging national sovereignty
by Mike Whitney
ZNet

Iraqi Resistance

The flurry of news, hypotheses, and disinformation about the nature of the Iraqi Resistance against the Occupation continues unabated. How much of this is managed propaganda against the Iraqi Resistance? According to both the Western mainstream media and the alternative media, the U.S. is "building democracy" and fighting "terrorism" in Iraq. The distortions of reality and lack of oppositional media leave people in the West, Americans in particular, ill informed. The Western media diligently diverts public attention from the illegal Occupation of Iraq and the responsibility of the U.S./Western governments for the horrendous crimes committed against the people of Iraq. Western journalists and pundits are the main agents of this distorted propaganda. The aims are to portray the Iraqi Resistance as violent "religious fanatics" isolated from the rest of the population and to advocate for ongoing occupation.

Media Disinformation and the Nature of the Iraqi Resistance
by Ghali Hassan
www.globalresearch.ca

MICHAEL NEUMANN

Naomi Klein, in a recent article posted on In These Times, tells us "How to end the war". She says we need to know the reasons for it, that these are exposed by the US' pursuit of military bases and Iraqi oil wealth. She says that we should struggle for what the Iraqis themselves want, meaningful self-determination and real democracy, buttressed by respect of international law. Her essay pretty well collects in one place everything that is wrong with so much left-wing thinking right now.

Ain't But One Way Out
Naomi Klein's "Courage"
By MICHAEL NEUMANN
CounterPunch

John Pilger

As the workings of foreign aid in Cambodia demonstrate, behind the charade of "loans", "assistance" and "partnerships" lies systematic western plunder and corruption. (Read the article on GlobalEcho)

John Pilger reads an expose of aid
NewStatesman
Monday 30th May 2005

CBS Poll: Bush Out Of Touch

(CBS) Four months into his second term, President Bush is increasingly viewed as being out of touch with the American people, according to a CBS News poll.

CBS Poll: Bush Out Of Touch

Monomaniac Who Would Be Ambassador

Few have more at stake in the expected Senate approval of John Bolton to be U.S. representative at the UN than the remnant of demoralized intelligence analysts trained and still willing to speak truth to power. What would be the point in continuing, they ask, when ­ like so many other policymakers ­ Bolton reserves the right to "state his own reading of the intelligence" (as he wrote to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee)?

Monomaniac Who Would Be Ambassador
Bolton Nomination Would Shatter Intelligence Analysts' Morale
By RAY McGOVERN
Former CIA Analyst
CounterPunch

Oklahoma City Bombing

In 1995 Kenneth Trentadue was murdered by federal agents in a federal prison in Oklahoma City. A coverup immediately went into effect. Federal authorities claimed Trentadue, who was being held in a suicide-proof cell, had committed suicide by hanging himself, but the state coroner would not buy the story.

The FBI, the Torture and Murder of Kenneth Trentadue and Advanced Knowledge of the Oklahoma City Bombing - Uncovering a DOJ Coverup
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch

Bush & HIV/AIDS

In 2001, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was established to coordinate international HIV/AIDS policies and distribute funding from many governments, health organizations, and religious institutions. The Global Fund has been successful by matching their programs to the specific needs of the nations most affected by HIV/AIDS. And The Global Fund has been willing to apply practical solutions for preventing HIV and treating AIDS, without being influenced by parochial religious viewpoints. However, the Bush administration is now attempting to change that. This week, the administration forced The Global Fund to accept Randall Tobias, U.S. Ambassador for AIDS Coordination, as the chairman of the Policy and Strategy Committee. This will give the Bush administration undue influence on international HIV/AIDS policy, and will likely be a death sentence for many living with the disease.

Bush Administration Attempts to Influence Global HIV/AIDS Policy
by Gene C. Gerard
ZNet

The REAL Nuclear Option

A metaphorical "nuclear option" -- the cutoff of debate in the Senate on judicial nominees -- has just been defused, but a literal nuclear option, called "global strike," has been created in its place. In a shocking innovation in American nuclear policy, recently disclosed in the Washington Post by military analyst William Arkin, the administration has created and placed on continuous high alert a force whereby the President can launch a pinpoint strike, including a nuclear strike, anywhere on earth with a few hours' notice. The senatorial "nuclear option" was covered extensively, but somehow this actual nuclear option -- a "full-spectrum" capability (in the words of the presidential order) with "precision kinetic (nuclear and conventional) and non-kinetic (elements of space and information operations)" -- was almost entirely ignored.

A Revolution in American Nuclear Policy
By Jonathan Schell
TomDispatch.com

Don Silvio: the friend

There were further allegations of excessive use of force, ill-treatment and racial abuse by law enforcement and prison officers, together with reports of detainee and prisoner deaths in disputed circumstances. Detention conditions in some facilities, including temporary holding centres for aliens, fell below international standards. Many asylum-seekers faced obstacles in exercising their right to claim asylum; some may have been returned to countries where they were at risk of human rights violations. Roma and a number of other ethnic minorities suffered discrimination in many areas including policing, housing and employment. Domestic violence against women remained prevalent, but the majority of victims did not report it to the authorities, leading to calls for more concerted efforts to educate the public about the assistance already available to women and for further research into this serious abuse. Trafficking in people, in particular women and children, for sexual exploitation and forced labour remained a problem, despite government efforts to combat it.

Amnesty International Report: ITALY

US - UK Governments: A Human Rights Problem

The US abdicated its responsibility to set a global example in upholding human rights in 2004 and, with the UK, led a "dangerous new agenda" by sanctioning torture in a failed attempt to combat terrorism, Amnesty International warned today.

Amnesty condemns US example on human rights
by Sarah Left
Wednesday May 25, 2005
The Guardian

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT

Lenni Brenner

On May 4th, an article, "Board's Amazon Appeal," appeared on Jewish News, a Zionist website. It reported that the Board Of Deputies Of British Jews, pro-Zionist religious Jewry's central organization, had complained to Amazon re a book I edited, 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis. I wrote the Board. It responded. I answered their critique & challenged them to publicly debate the issue. Below is the Jewish News article and the correspondence between me & the Board.

Board of Deputies of British Jews: "Pragmatic" Nazi-Zioinist Collaboration was OK
The Plot to Stigmatize "51 Documents" on Amazon.com
By LENNI BRENNER
CounterPunch

Supporting dissent is not enough

Just about a year a go I was tried by a special Court-Martial at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The charge: desertion with the intent to avoid hazardous duty. My case received a lot of attention from the media, mainly because I was the first Iraq veteran to have been to combat, returned on a two-week furlough, and publicly refused to return to Iraq while denouncing the war as illegal, and who then surrendered himself to military authorities. For the first time since the invasion of Iraq the military had to deal with the delicate issue of public dissent within the ranks.

Supporting dissent is not enough
by Camilo Mejia
ZNet
Article by Camilo E. Mejia, former prisoner of conscience, Iraq war veteran, war resister, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Camilo's conscientious objector application is still pending. He served nine months in confinement for refusing to return to Iraq after a two-week leave.

MEDIA ALERT

MEDIA ALERT: BBC STILL IGNORING EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES
BBC News Director Helen Boaden Responds
MEDIALENS

Against Discouragement

In 1963, historian Howard Zinn was fired from Spelman College, where he was chair of the History Department, because of his civil rights activities. This year, he was invited back to give the commencement address. Here is the text of that speech, given on May 15, 2005.

Against Discouragement
By Howard Zinn
TomDispatch.com

Israel and Apartheid

The boycotts and sanctions ultimately helped liberate both blacks and whites in South Africa. Palestinians and Israelis will similarly benefit from this non-violent campaign that Palestinians are calling for.

Both Palestinians and Israelis will benefit from a boycott
The racist and colonial policies echo apartheid, and call for a similar response
by Ronnie Kasrils and Victoria Brittain
Wednesday May 25, 2005
The Guardian

(*) Ronnie Kasrils is minister for intelligence in the South African government and a former commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, military wing of the African National Congress. He is writing in his personal capacity. Victoria brittain is a journalist.

The Anti-War Movement and Iraq

A little over two years ago, anti-war demonstrations of unprecedented magnitude rocked the globe and the New York Times termed the anti-war movement "the world's second superpower." Unfortunately, no one could mistake the anti-war demonstrations that took place this spring for the "world's second superpower."

The Anti-War Movement and Iraq
by Stephen R. Shalom
May 24, 2005
ZNet

Stephen R. Shalom teaches political science at William Paterson University in New Jersey. He can be reached at shaloms@wpunj.edu

The Nation

On April 20 Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean tried to steer his party out of a forceful position on Iraq: "Now that we're there, we're there and we can't get out," he told an audience of 1,000 in Minneapolis. Dean's comment was startling not just because the chairman stepped so far back from the vigorous posture of his presidential campaign but because public opinion is so actively and rapidly moving away from the Bush Administration's Iraq policy. In a recent Gallup poll, Iraq topped the issues Americans would like to discuss with the President, and three-quarters of those for whom Iraq is the top issue want to see an American withdrawal.

Anti-war, Pro-democracy
The Nation
Editorial

Afghanistan

President George W Bush has ruled out handing over command of US troops in Afghanistan to the government there. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would demand the move during talks with Mr Bush at the White House. It follows anger over fresh details of torture and the deaths of two Afghan citizens at the main US military base in the country. "Our troops will respond to US commanders," Mr Bush told journalists, when pressed on the issue. He said the US and Afghans would "co-operate and consult" over military operations. He also made no commitment to hand over prisoners to the Afghan authorities.

Bush rejects Karzai army demand
BBC News

Seymour Hersh

It's been over a year since I published a series of articles in the New Yorker outlining the abuses at Abu Ghraib. There have been at least 10 official military investigations since then - none of which has challenged the official Bush administration line that there was no high-level policy condoning or overlooking such abuse. The buck always stops with the handful of enlisted army reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company whose images fill the iconic Abu Ghraib photos with their inappropriate smiles and sadistic posing of the prisoners.

The unknown unknowns of the Abu Ghraib scandal
Seymour Hersh: The 10 inquiries into prisoner abuse have let Bush and Co off the hook
The Guardian

ASBO

The onward march of the anti-social behaviour order was halted yesterday by a judge who threw out an attempt by the Ministry of Defence to use an asbo against a Quaker peace campaigner.

Anti-war protester escapes asbo
by Martin Wainwright
The Guardian
Wednesday May 18, 2005

Exclusive Interview with George Galloway

How to Build a Successful Progressive Alliance
By ESTHER SASSAMAN and THOMAS NAGY
CounterPunch

Luis Posada Carriles

CARACAS, May 18 (IPS) - Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles, an admitted terrorist who was taken into custody in Miami and whose extradition has been formally requested by Venezuela, may be sent by the United States to a third country, like Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago.

Admitted Cuban Terrorist Poses Tough Test for U.S.
Humberto Márquez
IPS

Dahr Jamail

AMMAN, May 19 (IPS) - As with the siege of Fallujah six months back, U.S. claims over the siege of the Iraqi town Al Qa'im are being challenged now by independent sources. The U.S. military claims a ”successful” end to the weeklong operation earlier this month around Al-Qa'im, a town about 320km west of Baghdad close to the Syrian border. The operation was launched against what the U.S. military saw as the presence of Al-Qaeda fighters in the town. Iraqi civilians and doctors in the area say no foreign fighters were present in the town. Al Qa'im and surrounding areas have suffered great destruction, and many in the town population of 110,000 were killed, they say.

U.S. Claims Over Siege Challenged
Dahr Jamail
IPS

World Tribunal on Iraq

At various Embassies around the world today, representatives of the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) delivered law summons and letters inviting US President Bush and UK Prime Minister Blair to the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq to be held in Istanbul between 23-27 June, 2005. The letter of invitation is signed by leading international figures; Prof. Richard Falk, Ken Coates, Prof. Baskin Oran, Dr. Nadje Al-Ali, Prof. Joel Kovel, Denis J. Halliday, Dr. Jayan Nayar, Hans von Sponeck, Haifa Zangana and Prof. Johan Galtung.

BUSH AND BLAIR ARE CALLED TO JUSTICE AT DIFFERENT EMBASSIES AROUND THE WORLD
World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI)

GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

At the end of March 1998, when I had confirmed to Princeton University my literary workshop for April 25, I contacted Bill Richardson on the phone to ask him to arrange a private visit with President Clinton to discuss the Colombia situation. Richardson asked me to call him a week before my trip for the answer. A few days later I went to Havana, to get some data for a press report I'd write on the Pope's visit, when talking with Fidel I mentioned the possibility of a meeting with President Clinton. It was there that Fidel came up with the idea of sending a confidential message on a sinister terrorist plan, which Cuba had just discovered, that could affect not only both countries but many others as well. He decided himself that it should not be a personal letter to avoid putting Clinton in the predicament of giving an answer; he preferred a written summary of our conversation on the plot and on other subjects of mutual interest. In addition to the text, he suggested two unwritten questions that I could raise with Clinton if the circumstances were propitious. That night I became aware that my trip to Washington had taken an unforeseen and significant turn, and that I could no longer see it as a simple personal visit. Thus, I not only confirmed to Richardson the date of my arrival but I also announced him, on the phone, that I was carrying an urgent message for President Clinton.

Bearing a Secret Message from Fidel About Terrorism
My Visit to the Clinton White House
By GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ
CounterPunch

Star Wars & the American Empire

PALPATINE: In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society which I assure you will last for ten thousand years.

There is a loud, sustained CHEER from the Senate. BAIL ORGANA and PADME sit, dumbfounded.

PALPATINE: (continuing) An empire that will continue to be ruled by this august body, and a sovereign ruler chosen for life . . .

The Senate CHEERS again. BAIL and PADME are devastated. PADME begins to cry.

PALPATINE: (continuing) An empire ruled by the majority . . . Ruled by a new constitution . . .

The Senate APPLAUDS.

PADME: So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause . . .

From STARWARS EPISODE III: Revenge of the Sith, by George Lucas

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher

BROOKLIN, Canada, May 19 (IPS) - Africa's chief negotiator for the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety has been denied entry into Canada to attend meetings to finalise key provisions regarding the international movement of genetically engineered organisms.

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, the Ethiopian government's chief scientist, had his passport returned without the requested Canadian visa Wednesday despite previous visits to Canada. Tewolde is trying to attend talks starting May 30 in the Canadian city of Montreal. "I have been to Montreal many times," Tewolde said in an interview from Addis Ababa. "I have never heard of something like this happening before." While this may be just a case of "exceptional bureaucratic bungling", he said, he wonders if it's a not-so-subtle but effective way of preventing him from participating. "I have always been on the opposite side of the Canadian delegation especially on biosafety," he said. The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the biosafety protocol in 2000 to address the safe transfer, handling, and use of living genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that could have an adverse effect on biodiversity. A respected scientist and champion of biodiversity, Tewolde received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the alternative Nobel prize) from the king of Sweden in 2000. He is considered by some to be the father of the Biosafety Protocol. Unlike the U.S. and Canadian governments, he firmly believes in the need for strong international regulations for genetically engineered (GE) seeds and crops.

Africa's Top Biosafety Envoy Shut Out of Canada Talks
Stephen Leahy
IPS

Hoods and 'yob culture'

Joshua Akim, 19, security guard: It's a load of rubbish saying that people wearing hoodies are more likely to do antisocial things, although they could act as a disguise. The ban is totally prejudiced, it's like saying you're a criminal because of the clothes you put on that morning. I just like my clothes to match, which is why I'm wearing this black hoodie today, to go with my black jeans, black hat and black shoes.
In the hood
The Guardian
Friday May 13, 2005


The government's chief adviser on youth crime has called on politicians and the media to stop calling children 'yobs' and warned that Britain risks demonising a generation of young people. (...) The word 'yob' is now traded fairly freely even in the formal confines of the House of Commons. Michael Howard referred during the debate following the state opening of parliament last week to the need to tackle 'yob culture' and school discipline, while last year Tony Blair referred from the dispatch box in the Commons to dispersal orders which allowed action to be taken 'against gangs of yobs'.
Crime czar: stop calling children 'yobs'
Britain risks demonising a whole generation, says government adviser
Martin Bright, home affairs editor
Sunday May 22, 2005
The Observer


I guess the question we should ask ourselves is: What does it mean when mass murderers and war criminals talk about “yob culture”, “gangs of yobs” and hoods?

Genetically modified food?

Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food.

Revealed: health fears over secret study into GM food
Rats fed GM corn due for sale in Britain developed abnormalities in blood and kidneys
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
The Independent
22 May 2005

Related article: "Biotechnology Will Feed the World" and Other Myths by Karen Charman on Center for Media and Democracy
Publishers of PR Watch

Bush & Blair's Criminal Lies

The question of prewar intelligence has been thrust back into the public eye with the disclosure of a secret British memo showing that, eight months before the March 2003 start of the war, a senior British intelligence official reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair that U.S. intelligence was being shaped to support a policy of invading Iraq.

Prewar Findings Worried Analysts
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 22, 2005; Page A26

Scott Ritter on George Galloway

In the recent parliamentary elections, the British people, given the choice between standing for the rule of law or embracing partisan politics, chose the latter, voting with their pocketbooks, even though it meant re-electing a man who led Britain into an illegal war of aggression, based on lies and misrepresentation of fact. Tony Blair is a man who has shown himself more subservient to an American president with empire in his eyes than to a British tradition of respect for the rule of law that dates back to the Magna Carta. There is at least one politician, however, that the citizens of Britain can today be proud of, regardless of how one views his politics. This is a man who, back in 2002, had the courage to stand up to Blair and George Bush, calling Blair a liar and declaring that both were behaving like "wolves" towards Iraq. For speaking the truth, he was castigated, thrown out of the Labour party and smeared with false allegations of corruption - at the same time as the US government hid its role in enriching Saddam Hussein's government with illegal kickbacks. He has now charged back, winning a parliamentary seat previously controlled by the very party that evicted him.

In the belly of the beast
by Scott Ritter
The Guardian

Scott Ritter, a senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, is one of the many Voices of Dissent featured in XXI CENTURY, American Voices of Dissent and The Peace! DVD

Gay Marriage

“Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?”

In contemporary Australia, the answer to Groucho Marx’s famous quip is an ever increasing number of same-sex couples. Dozens of Australian same-sex couples have already married in Canada. That number will increase exponentially as more countries allow gay unions to be officially solemnised. (...) Back when Groucho Marx summed up the reservations many heterosexuals had about “the institution” of matrimony, gay marriage seemed bizarre, not least to those homosexuals who led the 20th century’s march toward individual fulfillment. But times change. If freedom was the catch cry then, today it is belonging. It is the search for home in a world of alienation and social disconnection that many homosexuals now lead. And the banner under which they march is the right to marry.

Marching under the banner of marriage
Rodney Croome
Green Left Weekly

Girl Blog from Iraq

We've been watching the protests about the Newsweek article with interest. I’m not surprised at the turnout at these protests- the thousands of Muslims angry at the desecration of the Quran. What did surprise me was the collective shock that seems to have struck the Islamic world like a slap in the face. How is this shocking? It's terrible and disturbing in the extreme- but how is it shocking? After what happened in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons how is this astonishing? American jailers in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown little respect for human life and dignity- why should they be expected to respect a holy book?

The Dead and the Undead...
by Riverbend
Girl Blog from Iraq... let's talk war, politics and occupation.

Dahr Jamail

It isn't an accident that, after 11 weeks, only as I'm leaving again, do I find myself able to write about what it was like to come home -- back to the United States after my latest several month stint in Iraq. Only now, with the U.S. growing ever smaller in my rearview mirror, with the strange distance that closeness to Iraq brings, do I find the needed space in which the words begin to flow. For these last three months, I've been bound up inside, living two lives -- my body walking the streets of my home country; my heart and mind so often still wandering war-ravaged Iraq.

Coming Home
an Iraq Correspondent Living in Two Worlds
By Dahr Jamail
Tomdispatch.com

Robert Fisk

To use the mumbo-jumbo of psychobabble, the Iraqis have "moved on". They don't need "closure". They don't, most of them, care whether Saddam lives or dies. They want electricity, security, a real state. And they still haven't got it. It's typical of us - the Westerners - to believe that Saddam is still our real enemy, at a moment when Iraq can produce an endless supply of suicide bombers and an army - probably the original Iraqi army of Saddam - to assault US and British soldiers. Yes, Saddam was to blame. He was the reason we illegally invaded Iraq. Wasn't he? It gets so tiresome now. Weapons of mass destruction. Links to 11 September 2001. Forty-five minute warnings. Maybe not. But now we can say what we've never said before: we illegally invaded Iraq because - this will soon be the new leitmotif - Saddam illegally invaded Iran. Could it get better than that? (Read the whole article on GlobalEcho)

Saddam handed blame for Iraq's eight-year war with Iran
by Robert Fisk
The Independent

GLOBALISE RESISTANCE CONFERENCE

This year's annual conference of Globalise Resistance comes in the thick of the run up to the G8 protests in Scotland.

SATURDAY MAY 28th 2005
South Camden Community School
Charrington Street London NW1 Click here for Map
10am - 5pm

Speakers
Charles Abugre, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Christian Aid. Patrick Bond, South Africa, writer and activist. Sue Brandford, author of 'Cutting the Wire'. Jan Burgess, editor Review of African Political Economy. Alex Callinicos, Globalise Resistance and author of 'The New Mandarins of American Power'. Nick Dearden, campaigns officer at War on Want Nadine Finch, Statewatch. Richard Gott, author and journalist. Billy Hayes, General Secertary CWU. Sarjoh Kamara, Newham Refugee Forum. Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP for SE England. Emily Madamombe, Zimbabwe Community Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers. David Miller, editor 'Tell Me Lies'. Jonathan Neale, Globalise Resistance and author 'You are G8, We Are 6 Billion'. Chris Nineham, Globalise Resistance and chief steward for the Stop the War Coalition. Sami Ramadani, Iraqi, Guardian columist. David Shayler, former MI5 agent. Phil Thornhill, Campaign Against Climate change. Guy Taylor, Globalise Resistance Eric Toussaint, Belgium, Anti Debt campaigner and author. More info

Alexander Cockburn

An Interview with Alexander Cockburn
Advice for the Left-Lorn
By BILL FORMAN
Sacramento News and Review

SN&R: CounterPunch just did a piece on Air America cheerleading the Democratic Party. Yet, mainstream media continue to portray the network as some sort of fringe outpost.

Cockburn: Right, as the cutting edge of Bolshevik activism! Isn't it insane? I mean, Air America? My darling niece Laura Flanders is on it as a hostess, but, I mean, really. And now Laura Bush, who I've always loved, gives this great comedy routine--where she makes fun of George Bush, Dick Cheney and her horrible mother-in-law--and all these liberal wusses like David Corn in The Nation all say it was very shocking, and they wouldn't want to tell children what she said. If you want one single portrait of the utter decay of the liberal progressive so-called left, it's that they can't even laugh happily when Laura Bush makes a few jokes. They churn up inside and say that she was perhaps indecent. And now they're organizing a letter-writing campaign about her raunchy language.

Read it on CounterPunch

Saddam, US Government and The Sun

The US military has condemned the Sun for publishing photographs of a captive Saddam Hussein and said it was "aggressively" investigating who took them. Today's paper carries a series of photographs showing the former Iraqi dictator in his cell, including one on the front page showing him in his underwear. Another shows him washing clothes under the headline "Tyrant? He's washed up". The Sun says it obtained the photos from "US military sources" who handed them over "in the hope of dealing a body blow to the resistance in Iraq". "Saddam is not superman or God, he is now just an ageing and humble old man," the paper quotes its source as saying. "It's important that the people of Iraq see him like that to destroy the myth." But in a statement issued today, the American military in Baghdad said the photos violated military guidelines "and possibly Geneva convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals".

Sun under fire over Saddam pics
Claire Cozens and agencies
The Guardian

Among friends! Saddam Hussein, US Government and The Sun
What's interesting here is that "the American military in Baghdad said the photos violated military guidelines 'and possibly Geneva convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals' ".

So, after the first Gulf war and its violations of the Geneva conventions, after the genocidal US led UN sanctions against the Iraqi people, after the ‘supreme international crime’ of invasions and occupations of sovereign countries by the most powerful death machine in history, after Afghanistan and Guantanamo, after Iraq and Abu Ghraib, now someone in the US military remembers the Geneva conventions…

The fascist, coarse, classist, sexist and reactionary propaganda called ‘The Sun’ is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a megalomaniacal billionaire who returned his Australian passport so to be able to own more, pay less taxes and free his insatiable greed in the United States where he owns one of the most large media empire with names such as FOX and The New York Post. (Sorry for the use of bad words!) Mr Murdoch is believed to have had a big role in the elections of Ronald Reagan, Margareth Thacher (remember her? Yes, the very good friend of General Augusto Pinochet), Tony Blair, George W. Bush and he’s a good friend of Italy’s PM Silvio Berlusconi.

George Galloway

George Galloway received a rapturous welcome this Wednesday at a Respect rally in central London, less than twenty four hours after his barnstorming performance in the US senate.

An explosion in British Politics
by Antony Wright
GlobalEcho

Avraham B Yehoshua

But doesn't continued expansion of the West Bank Jewish settlements undermine the chances of agreement? "The United States could stop it so easily," he replies. "Since the Six Day War they were saying all the time they were against the settlements and they have done nothing." Uncharacteristically, he raises his voice. If the US did, "they would be blessed by half of the Jewish population of Israel. They could stop it by saying to the prime minister of Israel 'you will not get funds for these weapons if you will not stop it'." US foreign policy also figures in his scathing denunciation of the British university teachers' union boycott of the university of which he is the most celebrated faculty member. It is "a shame for the British spirit" of debate and enquiry "to do this without finding out what is happening" in the universities. "I didn't see any boycotting of American universities during the Vietnam war or during the Iraq war which you yourselves are fighting in... you [boycott] a fine university that puts on its flag co-operation with the Arabs."

A B Yehoshua: A road map to righteousness
As novelist and commentator, A B Yehoshua acts as a moral touchstone for Israelis. Donald Macintyre talks to him in Haifa about the ethics of writers and states
The Independent

Hugo Chavez

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations. And tell your friends. Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."

Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
by Jeff Cohen
CommonDreams.org

"Democracy" in Iraq

From: "Democracy" in Iraq
by Dahr Jamail

I also wonder how people in America have yet to take the appropriate action necessary in order to force their government to impeach Bush and bring him and his regime to justice for the countless war crimes they have committed in Iraq. (...) I watched the news about the aforementioned statements by al-Dahri on Al-Jazeera with one of my close Iraqi friends here. As we watched the large funeral procession with the body of the murdered cleric while al-Dahri made his ferocious statements, I watched her head drop into her hands as she said softly, "This is so horrible what has happened to my country since the Americans came." And she couldn't be more correct. For the Bush Administration is guilty under international law for the catastrophe Iraq has become. Under international law it is the primary responsibility of the occupier to safeguard the citizens of the country they occupy. For the Bush Administration, that means over 100,000 dead Iraqis and counting. Other news most likely ommitted by most corporate television outlets in the US today? In Baquba a car bomb detonated near a police convoy which injured 18 people, most of them policemen. In Kirkuk 7 bodies of Iraqis who worked for a security company were found. In Baghdad a roadside bomb aimed at a US convoy injured 7 Iraqis. A Transport Ministry driver was shot dead in Sadr City. In Beji 2 Iraqi police were killed by a car bomb. In Mosul mortar attacks killed 2 Iraqis and injured 7 school kids. So that's nearly 500 dead Iraqis in a little over two weeks to add to the list of crimes for the Bush Administration, which grows longer with each passing day.

"Democracy" in Iraq
by Dahr Jamail

Newsweek, the Clown and the tortures

Meanwhile, the left side of the blogosphere has erupted with fury over the possibility that American interrogators might not have flushed a Koran down the toilet. The Nation and leftish Web sites are in a frenzy to prove that the story is probably true even if Newsweek is retracting it. This, too, is unhinged. Would it be illegal for more people on the left to actually be happy that a story slurring Americans may turn out to be unproven? Could there be a few more liberals willing to admit that prisoners routinely lie about their treatment? (Do we expect them to say their time in captivity wasn't so bad?)

Bashing Newsweek
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: May 19, 2005

FBI targets peace activists

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado released documents today that it says confirm that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Denver is targeting peaceful political activists for harassment and building files on constitutionally-protected political activities and associations that have nothing to do with terrorism or other criminal activity. The documents are the first FBI responses to a formal request that the Colorado ACLU filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of 26 organizations and 10 individuals last December. At the time, the Colorado ACLU presented evidence that the JTTF was collecting information on peaceful advocacy groups whose issues ranged from animal rights, protection of the environment, labor rights, military policy, social and economic justice in Latin America, and the treatment of Native Americans. Six additional ACLU affiliates around the country filed similar requests in December, and ten additional ACLUs filed FOIA requests today.

New documents confirm: FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force targets peaceful activists for harassment, political surveillance
A.C.L.U.


New FBI documents to be released today show that anti-terrorism agents who questioned antiwar protesters last summer in Denver were conducting "pretext interviews" that did not lead to any information about criminal activity. The memos were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of ongoing litigation and provide a glimpse of the FBI's controversial efforts to interview dozens of members of leftist protest groups before the party conventions last year in Boston and New York. (...) But the new memos provide no indication of specific threat information. Instead, one heavily censored memo from the FBI's Denver field office, dated Aug. 2, 2004, characterized the effort as "pretext interviews to gain general information concerning possible criminal activity at the upcoming political conventions and presidential election." Another memo from December 2004 indicated that Sarah Bardwell, one of the Denver activists singled out for interviews, was targeted because she had helped organize an antiwar protest and was a member of a group called Food Not Bombs, which the memo characterized as having a "close association" with a radical anarchist group.

Protesters Subjected To 'Pretext Interviews'
FBI Memo Shows No Specific Threats
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 18, 2005; Page A04

Newsweek

"It's appalling that this story got out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on her way back from Iraq. What's NOT appalling to Condi is that the US is holding prisoners at Guantanamo under conditions termed "torture" by the Red Cross. What's not appalling to Condi is that prisoners of the Afghan war are held in violation of international law after that conflict has supposedly ended. What is NOT appalling to Condi is that prisoner witnesses have reported several instances of the Koran's desecration. What is appalling to her is that these things were REPORTED. So to Condi goes to the Joseph Goebbels Ministry of Propaganda Iron Cross. But I don't want to leave out our President. His aides report that George Bush is "angry" about the report -- not the desecration of the Koran, but the REPORTING of it. And so long as George is angry and Condi appalled, Newsweek knows what to do: swiftly grab its corporate ankles and ask the White House for mercy. But there was no mercy. Donald Rumsfeld pointed the finger at Newsweek and said, "People lost their lives. People are dead." Maybe Rumsfeld was upset that Newsweek was taking away his job. After all, it's hard to beat Rummy when it comes to making people dead. And just for the record: Newsweek, unlike Rumsfeld, did not kill anyone -- nor did its report cause killings. Afghans protested when they heard the Koran desecration story (as Christians have protested crucifix desecrations). The Muslim demonstrators were gunned down by the Afghan military police -- who operate under Rumsfeld's command. Our Secretary of Defense, in his darkest Big Brother voice, added a warning for journalists and citizens alike, "People need to be very careful about what they say." And Newsweek has now promised to be very, very good, and very, very careful not to offend Rumsfeld, appall Condi or anger George. For their good behavior, I'm giving Newsweek and its owner, the Washington Post, this week's Yellow Streak Award for Craven Cowardice in Journalism. (Read the whole article)

COWARDICE IN JOURNALISM AWARD FOR NEWSWEEK
Goebbels Award for Condi
by Greg Palast

Greg Palast is one of the many Voices of Dissent featured in XXI CENTURY, American Voices of Dissent and The Peace! DVD

PATRIOT ACT

In a stunning slap at the democratic legislative process, the Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), has suddenly and quietly scheduled a closed-door session for this Thursday to mark up its version of a renewed USA PATRIOT ACT, the frankenstein legacy of former Attorney General John Ashcroft and his then assistant Michael Chertoff (now secretary of Homeland Security).

A CounterPunch Exclusive
The Senate Intelligence Committee's Secret Session
The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act Even Worse
By DAVE LINDORFF

Highly revealing!

"Highly revealing! A documentary which celebrates the peace movement while fuelling your rage to danger levels."
- Red Pepper

“Powerful testimonies! This certainly deserves to be seen by a broad audience. You have done an excellent job.”
- Howard Zinn , Historian, Author of "A People's History of the United States"

From the Award-Winning documentary series "XXI CENTURY"
The Cat's Dream presents:

• NEW BOOK!!!
American Voices of Dissent
Paradigm Publishers, 2005
Foreword by William Blum
To know more and to order your copy, please click here

• NEW FILM!!!
The Peace! dvd
To know more and to order your copy, please click here


Featuring: Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Angela Davis, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scott Ritter, Susan Sarandon, Arno Mayer, Danny Schechter, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Jackson, Desmond Tutu, The Nation, Ramsey Clark, Danny Glover, Jessica Lange, Greg Palast, Ossie Davis, American Civil Liberties Union, Indymedia, Al Sharpton, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Democracy Now!, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, FAIR, Pacifica Foundation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, MediaChannel, Not in Our Name, International ANSWER and many other voices of dissent.


REVIEWS:

“XXI CENTURY is a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking!"
- Indymedia Sheffield, UK

"Brilliant!"
- Dirk Adriaensens , President SOS Iraq

"Fascinating!"
- Geoff Andrew , National Film Theatre, London, UK

“It provides a rich and disturbing overview of the New World Order.”
- Larry Daressa , California Newsreel

Read more reviews...

Jesse Jackson

But this debate isn't about freedom of religion. And it isn't about the filibuster. It's about the judges and the direction of the country.

Our Entire Way Of Life Is At Stake
by Jesse Jackson
ZNet