Halper: Whose Road Map?10 Nov 2007As did his pronouncements last August in Jericho, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated a willingness to withdraw from an area equivalent to 100% of the occupied territories, his latest declarations to the Saban Forum, in the presence of Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair, sounded promising, even stirring. “Annapolis is a landmark,” he said, “on the path to negotiations and of the genuine effort to achieve the realization of the vision of two nations: the State of Israel – the nation of the Jewish people; and the Palestinian state – the nation of the Palestinian people.
Nasser: NATO Expands South, Hindered By US-created Chaos10 Nov 2007Discreetly but progressively and confidently the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is expanding south and southeast almost uncontested—after the collapse of the former USSR-led Warsaw Pact—outside the mandate designated by its statute into the Arab Middle East as well as into the Caspian Sea regions.However, the U.
Tariq: Pakistan: A View From the Pakistani Left10 Nov 2007In recent days, the already tenuous political situation in Pakistan has made a turn toward the worse. Musharraf’s government clamped down first on the judiciary and other opponents in the government in the first days after his declaration of martial law.
Meister: Tobacco’s Other Victims9 Nov 2007Ideally, tobacco should be outlawed. But as long as people continue to use the deadly stuff, those who harvest it for the great profit of tobacco companies deserve far better than the miserable pay and working conditions imposed on them.
Street: Leading Democrats: “Expropriate the Expropriators”9 Nov 2007Tired of defending their business-friendly and state-capitalist policy proposals against Republicans’ insistent description of them as weapons of radical Leftist “class warfare,” the leading Democratic candidates for the United States presidency have taken a surprising new turn. span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family.
Cronin: In My Mind, I Haven’t Reached My Vision’9 Nov 2007New York’s Carnegie Hall was akin to a pilgrimage site in September when Sonny Rollins marked the 50th anniversary of his debut at the revered venue. Jazz musicians and aficionados who have drawn inspi.
Baroud: Peace and Democracy must go Hand in Hand9 Nov 2007After years of marked absence, the Bush administration has finally decided to upgrade its involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The announcement of a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland has raised red flags for anyone who has learned from past experience how unbalanced and insincere peace efforts actually can lead to further violence.
Fletcher: Thoughts on the Jena 6 Mobilization and New Movements9 Nov 2007I was thrilled by the tremendous mobilization surrounding the now infamous Jena 6 case in Louisiana. Credit must go to radio personalities such as Michael Baisden and Tom Joyner, as well as Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, in addition to the work of the NAACP, for their successful efforts to call attention to the travesty of justice that has been unfolding before us.
Revelli: The View From Bone Hill8 Nov 2007President Lula da Silva has promised billions of dollars to improve housing problems in Brazil’s cities. Conditions for the poor are so grim that the Homeless Workers’ Movement has mobilised thousands of families to occupy and improvise housing on waste sites, particularly those that are empty because of land speculation span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana; mso-fareast-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: ‘courier .
Jacobs: Without Freedom of Speech, I Might Be in the Swamp:8 Nov 2007Kennebunkport is a vacation home of the Bushes and the place where many of America’s wealthy like to “recreate as they wish,” as George HW Bush’s said in 1990 as he prepared to send the US military into Iraq. It is now also a battleground over free speech.
Holland: The Iraqi Government Opposes Renewing the U.N. Mandate for U.S. Troops8 Nov 2007The United Nations Security Council, with support from the British and American delegations, is poised to cut the Iraqi parliament out of one of the most significant decisions the young government will make: when foreign troops will depart. It’s an ugly and unconstitutional move, designed solely to avoid asking an Iraqi legislature for a blank check for an endless military occupation that it’s in no mood to give, and it will make a mockery of Iraq’s nascent democracy (which needs all the legitimacy it can get).
Manthorpe: Warlord’s death evokes CIA’s Golden days in the heroin trade8 Nov 2007The death of Burmese warlord Khun Sa severs one of the few remaining links between Washington’s Central Intelligence Agency and the trafficking of heroin out of Southeast Asia’s famed Golden Triangle. Khun Sa apparently died last Friday in the Burmese commercial centre and former capital, Rangoon.
Gresh: Towards fresh disaster in Iran8 Nov 2007There’s a substantial difference between declaring that the third world war has begun and identifying the new Hitler. Since 9/11 President George Bush’s enemies have included al-Qaida, the “axis of evil”, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and Islamic fascism.
Miller: Review of John Berger’s “Hold Everything Dear”8 Nov 2007Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance By John Berger Verso 2007 142 pages, hardback £12.99 John Berger’s latest book consists of 16 short essays, written between 2001 and 2006, concerning “surviving the nights and imagining a new day” in the era of unimpeded capitalism and the “war on terror”.
Lendman: Our Man in Islamabad8 Nov 2007The Islamic Republic of Pakistan was established in August, 1947 when its majority Muslim population separated from British-controlled India and became a sovereign state. Since then, the country has been plagued by wars, political instability, and a series of military coups as it continues stumbling unsuccessfully toward democracy.
Faludi: They Always Play the Gender Card7 Nov 2007No sooner had Hillary Clinton proceeded from the Democratic presidential debate to a speech at Wellesley College last week than the wailing began. Barack Obama hit the “Today” show accusing her of playing the “don’t pick on me” woman and a chorus line of media pundits denounced her for having hurt the cause of feminism by acting like the injured girl and dealing the “gender card.
Astore: The Enemy Within7 Nov 2007The world’s finest military launches a highly coordinated shock-and-awe attack that shows enormous initial progress. There’s talk of the victorious troops being home for Christmas.
Glover: Say No to Africom7 Nov 2007With little scrutiny from Democrats in Congress and nary a whimper of protest from the liberal establishment, the United States will soon establish permanent military bases in sub-Saharan Africa. An alarming step forward in the militarization of the African continent, the US Africa Command (Africom) will oversee all US military and security interests throughout the region, excluding Egypt.
Olbermann: Waterboarding and Torture7 Nov 2007Olbermann: Bush may not observe the rules, but the country abides by them. It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W.
Sanders: The Canadian-backed Coup Regime’s Reign of Terror:7 Nov 2007Fuelling the deadly flames of human rights abuses that ravaged Haiti’s pro-democracy advocates after the 2004 coup, was an organization that received generous financing from the Canadian government. Within a few days of the Canadian-backed coup, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) agreed to give the National Coalition for Haitian Rights–Haiti (NCHR-Haiti) $100,0001 for a project to assist nonexistent victims of a bogus “genocide” for which they framed Aristide’s Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune.
Cournoyer: Nicaragua Confronts Natural Disasters6 Nov 2007Hurricane Felix smashed into the north Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua September 4, destroying more than 350 communities and entire forests on its sweep inland from the Caribbean Sea. Fifty days of torrential rains in the western and north-central regions of the country on the Pacific side added to the national disaster.
Ngugi: Justice for Mau Mau Veterans6 Nov 2007As the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) prepares to sue the British Government for personal injuries sustained by survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence whilst in British detention camps in Kenya, Mukoma Wa Ngugi unravels the Colonial myths of Christianisation and civilization and exposes the reality of torture, murder, slavery, landlessness, dehumanization and internment. In February 2008, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) will file a representative law-suit against Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) in the British High Court on behalf of the survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence.
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