Ali: Pakistan at Sixty26 Oct 2007October 4, 2007—Pakistan is best avoided in August, when the rains come and transform the plains into a huge steam bath. When I lived there we fled to the mountains, but this year I stayed put.
Bennis: Responding to Islamophobia: A Pro-Active Strategy26 Oct 2007The current Islamophobic crusade in the US reflects a deeply rooted racist demonisation of Muslim communities that, if not responded, might consolidate the racist demagoguery as a “legitimate” part of public discourse. Right-wing and neo-conservative political forces are calling for campus mobilizations .
Omar: Commemorating Thomas Sankara26 Oct 2007Between 1983 and 1987, Thomas Sankara, Pan African Revolutionary and former President of Burkina Faso, led one of the most people-centered revolutions that Africa has produced in the post colonial era. An incorruptible man, Sankara earned a meager salary of only $450 a month and his most valuable possessions were said to be a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.
FIDH…: Donald Rumsfeld Charged With Torture During Trip To France26 Oct 2007Press Release: October 26, 2007, Paris, France – Today, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor before the “Court of First Instance” (Tribunal de Grande Instance) charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine.
Bloice: Condi on the Ropes?25 Oct 2007Condoleezza Rice is being set up. The neo-conservatives that surrounded her in the Bush Administration when the Iraq war was plotted and launched are regrouping, distancing themselves from the White House and mobilizing against the “peace process” the Secretary of State is ostensibly promoting in the Middle East.
Miles: Endgame for Iraqi Oil?25 Oct 2007The oil game in Iraq may be almost up. On September 29th, like a landlord serving notice, the government of Iraq announced that the next annual renewal of the United Nations Security Council mandate for a multinational force in Iraq—the only legal basis for a continuation of the American occupation—will be the last.
Turse: (Un)Fair Game25 Oct 2007Earlier this month, news of the military’s use of Human Terrain Teams—U.S.
Herman: Genocide Inflation is the Real Human Rights Threat: Yugoslavia and Rwanda25 Oct 2007We have all heard about “genocide denial” and “holocaust denial” as very bad happenings that have focused attention, indignation, and concern to the point of laws passed to criminalize such behavior in Austria, Belgium, France, and elsewhere. But very little attention has been paid to genocide inflation, where killings are wildly exaggerated and claims of genocide are made based on hearsay, rumor, knowing lies, and otherwise problematic “information.
Sadjadi: Creating a Second War within Iraq25 Oct 2007In the past few weeks, media attention on the Middle East has been largely focused on the possibility of a Turkish military invasion of the northern Kurdish region in Iraq. To much of the public, the conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) highlighted in the midst of these reports is new.
Francome: In Prison My Whole Life: An interview with William Francome25 Oct 2007The trailer for the new British documentary about US death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, titled “In Prison My Whole Life,” begins with the film’s central character, William Francome, explaining that he’s “been aware of Mumia for as long as I can remember. That’s because he was arrested on the night I was born, for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
Purkayastha: The Myth Of Free Nuclear Energy25 Oct 2007THE Congress and its spokespersons have been on overdrive selling a number of myths about the benefits of the India-US Nuclear Deal. Foremost in that has been that of a mythical nuclear bus, which if we do not hop on right now, will leave us in permanent electricity deficit.
Carlson: The Struggle to Industrialize Venezuela25 Oct 2007 “Two systems are before the world… One looks to pauperism, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; the other to increasing wealth, comfort, intelligence, combination of action, and civilization. One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace.
Sustar: The story behind Bush’s SCHIP veto25 Oct 2007WHY DID George W. Bush veto an expansion of the overwhelmingly popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)—and why did House Republicans vote to sustain it, even though this will make their poor electoral prospects for 2008 even worse? House Republicans, after all, had plenty of political cover to break with Bush.
Street: “Dead Man Talking”: Shocking Allegations and Ongoing Investigations25 Oct 2007Sparked by recent allegations that Public Broadcasting System (PBS) News hour host Jim Lehrer died more than four years and seven months ago, political and medical investigators are monitoring the appearance, life signs, and behavior of a number of key American public figures. span style=”fon.
Sandronsky: Ann Wright’s conscience24 Oct 2007Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and State Dept. diplomat, recently spoke at Sacramento City College, wearing a black t-shirt with white letters that spelled out “We shall not be silent” in Arabic and English.
Prashad: The Nuke Deal Is Dead24 Oct 2007On October 12, 2007, the Congress Party threw in the towel. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the leader of the United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi told the press that they would s.
Parenti: Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and the Fast-Track Saints24 Oct 2007During his 26-year papacy, John Paul II elevated 483 individuals to sainthood, more saints than all previous popes combined, it is reported. One personage he beatified but did not live long enough to canonize was Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun of Albanian origin who had been wined and dined by the world’s rich and famous while hailed as a champion of the poor.
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