Gwynne Dyer Fifteen months ago, the armed wing of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and most other Western countries, attacked Israel’s northern border, capturing two Israeli soldiers and killing eight more. Israel replied with a month of massive air attacks all across Lebanon that destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure, leveled a good deal of south Beirut, and killed around a thousand Lebanese
While terrorists can wound and disrupt our democracy, only we can kill it By Chris Hedges A Dallas jury, a week ago, caused a mistrial in the government case against this country’s largest Islamic charity. The action raises a defiant fist on the sinking ship of American democracy. If we lived in a state where due process and the rule of law could curb the despotism of the Bush administration,
(Iran Daily) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday the fate of regional nations are interlinked and they should safeguard one another’s interests. In a meeting with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, Ahmadinejad also said that the Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish nations have friendly and brotherly relations, IRNA reported. He added that enemies are bent on dominating the region and that they are against regional countries, including Iran, Turkey and
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The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan By Patrick Cockburn in Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurds of northern Iraq, expressed defiance yesterday in the face of a threatened invasion by 100,00 Turkish troops, and was scornful of Turkey’s claim that it wants only to pursue Turkish-Kurd rebels.“We are not a threat to Turkey and I do not accept the language of threatening and blackmailing from the government
(DemocracyNow) UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday the International Atomic Energy Agency has no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons. During an interview on CNN, ElBaradei urged the Bush administration to back away from its bellicose statements about Iran. Mohamed ElBaradei: “I very much have concern about confrontation, building confrontation, Wolf, because that would lead absolutely to a disaster. I see no military solution. The only durable
(RINF) Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of “ordering and authorizing” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest. US embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed
(Reuters) – Iran has access to evidence of U.S. support for terrorist groups in the Middle East, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Sunday. Iran’s new chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, made the allegation in comments to visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, whose country may soon send troops to hunt down Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq. Tehran says the rebels are operating in Iraq with U.S.
by Ian Bruce The US is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to military sources. The improvement of the B1 Spirit jet infrastructure coincides with an “urgent operational need” request for £44m to fit racks to the long-range aircraft. That would allow them to carry experimental 15-ton Massive Ordnance
Democracy Now! reports: On Visit to France, Donald Rumsfeld Hit with Lawsuit for Ordering, Authorizing Torture The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor’s office as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit. This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11. We speak with two attorneys with the plaintiffs — Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner and Jeanne Sulzer of the
Livni behind closed doors: Iran nukes pose little threat to Israel By Gidi Weitz and Na’ama Lanski, Haaretz Correspondents Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said a few months ago in a series of closed discussions that in her opinion that Iranian nuclear weapons do not pose an existential threat to Israel, Haaretz magazine reveals in an article on Livni to be published Friday. Livni also criticized the exaggerated use that Prime
By Patrick Cockburn in the Qandil mountains, Iraq Turkey used its helicopters and artillery to attack Kurdish guerrillas inside northern Iraq yesterday as the Turkish army massed just north of the border. The helicopter gunships penetrated three miles into Iraqi territory and warplanes targeted mountain paths used by rebels entering Turkey. Guerrilla commanders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were defiant in the face of an impending invasion. In an
(Indymedia) A bi-partisan group of Congressmembers have personally apologized to Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen seized by U.S. officials secretly flown to Syria where he was tortured. Arar testified last week before a House panel, the first time he has had a chance to tell his story to U.S. lawmakers. But he couldn’t testify in person. Even though the Canadian government has cleared his name, Arar remains barred from the
Sy Hersh delivers the annual Amnesty International/Trinity College lecture. This is the third year, previous speakers were Noam Chomsky (2006) and Michael Ignatieff (2005). Recorded on 24th October 2007. Click here to listen to the lecture (file in mp3 format)
More Than 755,000 on US Terrorist Watch List (AFP) The US terrorist watch list includes more than 755,000 names and continues to grow, the US Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.The list exploded from fewer than 20 entries before the September 11, 2001 attacks to more than 150,000 just a few months later, after the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) was created in December 2003 to keep tabs on terrorist suspects, according
Watch how Podhoretz is unable to answer his critics at a New York Barnes&Noble:
Probe Finds Taser Use on Student Was OK University of Florida police were justified in using a Taser against a student who refused to stop questioning Sen. John Kerry on campus last month, according to a state investigation released Wednesday. Some had questioned the use of force in using the stun gun against Andrew Meyer, leading to the investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. A summary of the
(Reuters) – An anti-war protester waved blood-colored hands in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s face at a congressional hearing on Wednesday and shouted “war criminal!”, but was pushed away and detained by police. Rice, an architect of President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy, appeared unfazed by the incident, which occurred when she entered a House of Representatives meeting room to testify at a hearing on U.S. Middle East policy.
By Maya Schenwar The Bush administration’s $196.4 billion war supplemental spending request, released Monday, has Democrats reeling. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd called the supplemental “short-sighted at best,” while House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey remarked in a statement, “It’s amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously.” Yet beyond the request’s mind-boggling size, its open-ended aims point to the potentially vast scope of the “war
The Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq. The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels. President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone yesterday in an effort to ease the crisis. And Prime Minister John Howard says the tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border will
