“It Doesn’t Get Any Worse Than That, Ray” By William Cook Ray Suarez (PBS News Hour Reporter, October 2, 2007): “You’re saying that the national legislature of this country, rather than doing the will of the citizens of the United States, passed that Iran resolution, sanctioning the Republican Guard, because of the American-Israeli Political Action Committee?” Mike Gravel (Democratic Presidential Candidate): “Wait a second. They’ll (sic) be some information coming
By CECILIE SURASKY (Special to the Star-Telegram) Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel’s occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself “America’s pro-Israel Lobby.” A week before, a shaken program leader said the AIPAC staffer had threatened to get the entire
Seymour Hersh was interviewed today by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez on DemocracyNow! JUAN GONZALEZ: The Bush administration is approaching its last year in the White House. As the clock ticks toward 2008, speculation grows over whether President Bush and Vice President Cheney will indeed launch a widely feared attack on Iran. The latest report from the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says war planning is intensifying. Writing in the New
By Joel S. Hirschhorn After many years of political disappointment, more progressives, liberals and conservatives – and certainly moderates and independents – know in their hearts that voting for Democrats or Republicans is a waste. Just imagine if voter turnout was cut to 25 percent or less! Let the whole world see Americans boycotting a broken and corrupt political system and rejecting what has become a delusional democracy. To keep
BBC – Cuban doctors working in Bolivia have saved the sight of the man who executed revolutionary leader Che Guevara in 1967, Cuban official media report. Mario Teran, a Bolivian army sergeant, shot dead Che Guevara after he was captured in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands. Cuban media reported news of the surgery ahead of the 40th anniversary of Che’s death on 9 October. Mr Teran had cataracts removed under a Cuban
By Ali Quli Qarai First I want to make some remarks about that now world-famous statement of President Ahmadinejad at Columbia: “We do not have homosexuals in Iran of the kind you have in your country.” The American media conveniently ignored the second, and crucial, part of his sentence as something redundant. Obviously he was not saying, We don’t have any homosexuals whatsoever in Iran—something nobody in the world would
by Gareth Porter The Lieberman-Kyle amendment has just passed the Senate overwhelmingly after two sections were removed to satisfy Democrats that it will not serve as a backdoor authorization for war against Iran, using U.S. forces operating in Iran. Even after that compromise, it remains a poison chalice, because it endorses a set of “findings” that are fundamentally false and which are being used by the administration to lay the
On Monday Sep. 24, ’07 in the Intercontinental Hotel, at 48th St. and Lexington Ave. New York City at 9:00am anti-Zionist Orthdox Rabbis met with Iranian President Ahmadinejad then participated in a counter demonstration against protestors of the Iranian President in the Dag Hamerskold Plaza at the United Nations followed by a counter demonstration during the speech of the Iranian president at Colombia University. To understand why the Rabbis met
Here is a transcript and video of the Democracy Now report for Sept. 25th AMY GOODMAN: World leaders are gathering in New York this week for the annual opening session of the UN General Assembly. With the ongoing speculation of a possible US military strike on Iran, no guests are attracting as much attention as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He opened his visit a public forum at Columbia University. A
Posted on the blog Moon of Alabama: ——- Shortly after Columbia University’s president insulted the invited guest Ahmedinejad by repeating lies of the Bush government, there was this event. Columbia University World Leaders Forum, CMU Monday, September 24, 2007, 9:00–10:00 a.m.The Italian Academy, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue at 117th StreetGurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, President of Turkmenistan Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute A keynote address followed by a question and answer session with the
PRESS TV reports: A number of Jewish rabbis carrying placards of “I’m a Jew, not a Zionist” have met President Ahmadinejad at his residence in New York. The senior Jewish rabbi welcomed the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and called the meeting an extraordinary good fortune for the Jewish rabbis. The senior Jewish rabbi said the memory of this meeting would never fade, adding that the Iranian President understands the Jews,
Demonizing the Iranian president and making his visit to New York seem controversial are all part of the neoconservative push for yet another war. By Juan Cole “Salon” — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad‘s visit to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly has become a media circus. But the controversy does not stem from the reasons usually cited. The media has focused on debating whether he should be
By Carolyn Baker As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air-however slight-lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness. ~Justice William O. Douglas~ 09/20/07 “ICH” — — In April, 2007 I was pleasantly surprised to find Naomi
By US Army Reserves Colonel (Retired) Ann Wright “I HOPE IT’S YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS THAT DIE” said US Representative Dana Rohrabacher to American citizens who questioned the Bush Administration’s unlawful extraordinary rendition policies. Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives-and sometimes, the insight is not pretty. On April 17, we witnessed Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) unleash his unbridled anger onto members of the
by Michael Lerner 1. A Zionist Boy Reads the Prophets—How I came to critique the Israel Lobby I grew up in the heart of what would eventually become the Israel Lobby in the U.S. My father and mother were national leaders of the Zionist movement in the U.S. My mother used to talk proudly of how, at five years old, I was standing outside the local bank on Bergen Street
by Tom Engelhardt I often think of the letters that come into the Tomdispatch email box as the university of my later life — messages from around the world, offering commentary, criticism, encouragement, but mainly teaching me about lives (and versions of life) I would otherwise know little or nothing about. Then again, the Internet has a way of releasing inhibitions and, from time to time, the Tomdispatch email box
By Robert Verkaik An al-Jazeera journalist captured in Afghanistan six years ago and sent to Guantanamo Bay is close to becoming the fifth detainee at the US naval base to take his own life, according to a medical report written by a team of British and American psychiatrists Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national, is 250 days into a hunger strike which he began in protest over his detention without charge
by Gareth Porter In sharp contrast to the lionization of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the US Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus’ superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting. Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little
by Andy Worthington In another resounding demonstration of the importance of legally constituted checks and balances on executive power in the United States, the Associated Press, after filing a request to the Pentagon under the Freedom of Information Act, has secured 58 transcripts from the latest round of annual Administrative Review Boards at Guantánamo, convened to assess whether the detainees still pose a threat to the US, or if they
By Cindy Sheehan “I believe it is imperative that we never lose our voice of dissent, regardless of political pressure. As Martin Luther King, Jr said: ‘there comes a time when silence is betrayal’…However, it is unforgivable that Congress has been unwilling to examine these matters or take action to prevent these circumstances [executive branch crimes] from occurring again.” – Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Introduction to Constitution in Crisis (2006)
