Selves and Others
Who is Janet Sanderson? Haiti’s Ambassador Nominee
by
In a surprise move Nov. 9, President George W. Bush nominated former Algerian Ambassador Janet Sanderson to be the new United States ambassador to Haiti, a position that has been vacant since August. Little information is available on Sanderson, who is alleged to have been intimately involved in the illegal detention of two dozen Algerian nationals at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanemo Bay in 2002.
[November 23, 2005]
Where is the Iraq war headed next?
by
In recent weeks, there has been widespread speculation that President George W. Bush, confronted by diminishing approval ratings and dissent within his own party, will begin pulling American troops out of Iraq next year. The Administration’s best-case scenario is that the parliamentary election scheduled for December 15th will produce a coalition government that will join the Administration in calling for a withdrawal to begin in the spring. By then, the White House hopes, the new government will be capable of handling the insurgency. In a speech on November 19th, Bush repeated the latest Administration catchphrase: “As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.” He added, “When our commanders on the ground tell me that Iraqi forces can defend their freedom, our troops will come home with the honor they have earned.” One sign of the political pressure on the Administration to prepare for a withdrawal came last week, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News that the current level of American troops would not have to be maintained “for very much longer,” because the Iraqis were getting better at fighting the insurgency. (...)
[Issue of December 05 2005]
EI EXCLUSIVE: Did UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw help sell out Jerusalem?
Documents obtained by EI under freedom of information act: top UK officials violated international law, helped British firm profit from Israeli occupation of Jerusalem while assuring public of opposite. Paper trail leads right to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was asked by his officials to personally lobby the Israeli government to award a contract to a British firm which, in breach of international law and long-standing UK policy, extends Israel’s administrative and legal structures into Occupied East Jerusalem, an exclusive EI investigation can reveal.
New documents obtained by EI under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act (2000) from the Department of Trade and Industry indicate that Straw was asked to back the bid, while UK officials dismissed concerns that the company’s work could violate British policy and UN resolutions on the status of Jerusalem. In fact, UK officials have repeatedly and misleadingly reassured the public they would not support any work by firms in Occupied East Jerusalem when the record shows just the opposite.
The active role of British officials in helping the firm secure the contract was first revealed by EI last April. (...)
Incident at Ogalala thirty years later
Leonard Peltier
by ,
Leonard Peltier, one of America’s longest-serving political prisoners, turned sixty-one-years-old on September 12, 2005. Peltier has spent nearly thirty years in federal prison, the result of one of the most infamous political frame-ups in modern U.S. history. He was convicted of killing two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Believing he could not receive a fair trial in the U.S., he fled to Canada. The Canadian government extradited him in 1976, and he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to two life terms in 1977. (...)
[Issue 44, November-December 2005]
Indian Politics in the context of Iranian Crisis
by
The postponement of the decision to refer Iran to the UN Security Council has given the Indian rulers temporary relief. A few days back, India’s Foreign Secretary denied giving away any inkling about India’s stand if voting on Iran issue took place on November 24. But did he or his superiors themselves have any hint of what they were going to do? (...)
The Tragic Blindness of the Embedded BBC
White Phosphorus, Fallujah And Unreported Atrocities
Helen Boaden, director of BBC News, said earlier this year:
"We are committed to evidence-based journalism. We have not been able to establish that the US used banned chemical weapons and committed other atrocities against civilians in Falluja last November. Inquiries on the ground at the time and subsequently indicate that their use is unlikely to have occurred.” (Email forwarded to Media Lens, July 13, 2005)
Sadly, their use has occurred, as the Pentagon has now been forced to admit.
Readers may recall from previous media alerts that we did not know then whether unusual or banned weapons - including cluster bombs, depleted uranium, napalm, white phosphorus and poisonous gas - had been used in Fallujah, or whether atrocities had been committed by ‘coalition’ forces against civilians. We did know, however, that the BBC had consistently overlooked credible testimony from multiple sources suggesting such weapons had been used and such acts had taken place.
Last November, Fallujah was placed under “a strict night-time shoot-to-kill curfew” with “anyone spotted in the soldiers’ night vision sights... shot”; male refugees were prevented from leaving the combat zone; a health centre was bombed killing 60 patients and support staff; refugees claimed that “a large number of people, including children, were killed by American snipers” and that the US had used cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons in the offensive.
Recent US military offensives in Ramadi, Baghdadi, Hit, Haditha, Mosul, Qaim, Tal Afar and elsewhere, have likely also killed many civilians and created thousands more refugees. (For sources and further details see: http://www.rememberfallujah.org/why.htm) (...)
A History of Violence
by ,
Robert Dreyfuss explains how America’s meddling in the Middle East unleashed the current deadly wave of Islamic fundamentalism.
Nov. 28, 2005 | History can be a truly explosive force when it’s connected tightly to contemporary events. The linkage of Islam, terrorism and the war in Iraq has a deep and vivid history, with the potential to hit the American public like a roadside bomb, but it has gone largely untold, emerging only in bits and pieces - until now. "Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam" digs up the knotty roots of Islamist violence, exhuming the deep, dirty story behind the "war on terror."
Part of the story has been told before, in newspaper and magazine articles that put together some of its many pieces. But with "Devil’s Game," author Robert Dreyfuss has written what may be the most clear and engaging history of the deadly, historic partnership between Western powers and political Islam. Dreyfuss, who covers national security for Rolling Stone, delves deep into the explosive mix of shrewd realpolitik and raw, ignorant fervor that helped fuel the worldwide enterprise of radical Islam and create the extremist theocracies that hold sway today in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The book is a chronicle of mistakes made, opportunities lost, and lessons most vividly not learned. It’s also the story of the historical error that has come to define U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world: the Machiavellian use of political Islam as a sword and shield against communism and Arab nationalism. Contextualized by the modern-day neoconservative push for war with Iraq, "Devil’s Game" records the long and sordid history of right-wing and hard-line elements in the U.S. government finding common cause with fundamentalist groups in the Middle East. (...)
Bush Game on Padilla May Backfire
by
Once again, at the 11th hour, the Bush administration has pulled its punches in the case of Jose Padilla. Using an approach that more closely resembles a game of chess than a system of justice, Team Bush has altered its strategy, while seeking to keep all options open. Its fancy footwork, however, may ultimately backfire.
Last Tuesday, just before today’s due date for the government’s reply to Padilla’s petition to the Supreme Court, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the criminal indictment of Padilla. With this move, Bush hopes to prevent the high court from placing limits on his power to hold anyone he designates an "enemy combatant."
I remember the day in May of 2002 that Jose Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft interrupted his trip to Moscow to ceremoniously announce on television that the government had foiled Padilla’s effort to detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb on the streets of America. Coming just 8 months after the September 11 attacks, those were fighting words to the American people.
The day of Padilla’s arrest, I appeared on MSNBC’s Abrams Report. Dan Abrams was foaming at the mouth about "the dirty bomber." When I reminded Abrams, a lawyer himself, about the presumption of innocence, he became furious, slamming his papers on the table. (...)
Balanced reporting and the Middle East conflict
by
The desicion to maintain the disciplinary proceedures against Barbara Platt and even to go as far as to establish a commission of inquiry into the way the BBC covers the Palestine question (BBC bias complaint upheld, November 26) is one of many manifestations of the grotesque phase we have all reached in this troublsome part of the world.
Had it not been for Ms Platt’s balanced and informative reports, it would have been difficult to distinguish between the BBC coverage of the occupied territories and that of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. Ms Platt admirably tried for many months to "balance" a simple imbalanced reality: of Israeli occupation and Palestinian victimisation. The atrocities on the ground - the killing of children and women and the blowing up of houses - warranted an emotional response as it is, and it was only natural that once, and only once, this would show in her reports (as many BBC reporters allowed themselves a show of emotion when reporting the deaths of George Best or Princess Diana). Only outside pressure could have produced such an ill-thought procedure and action.
As for the inquiry commission, one can save taxpayers’ money. The cable companies in Israel come now and then under official pressure for allowing free access to international TV news stations. They would like to remove CNN and al-Jazeera. There are no complaints in Israel about Fox news (representing the US neoconservative pointof view) and the BBC. The BBC is indeed a pro-Israeli news agency and is going to remain so if its directors silence the professional reporting of Barabara Platt.
[page 31 | Leaders & Reply]
Saddam on trial: Ten reasons justice may not be served
by
DETENTION BEFORE TRIAL
Saddam Hussein has been held in custody by the US since December 2003. Under international law, a defendant facing a criminal prosecution must be brought before a court as quickly as possible. But his first appearance before the Iraqi tribunal was not until July 2004, seven months after his capture.
DEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is not prohibited under international law. But it has been outlawed in Europe for 50 years, and Britain is one of more than 40 countries that are signatories to the protocol of the European Convention of European Rights which outlaws the death penalty. If Saddam is found guilty and then sentenced to death, his execution will be seen as a stain on international justice. (...)
Swiss back ban on modified crops
by
GENEVA, Nov. 27 - In a further sign of widespread distrust in Europe of scientifically enhanced foods, Swiss voters on Sunday supported a five-year ban on the farming of genetically modified crops, a vote that underscores the problems facing the European Commission and biotech companies like Syngenta, Bayer and Monsanto as they try to overcome consumer doubts about safety.
"The vote reflects the view across the EU, not just Switzerland," said Adrian Bebb, an expert on the issue at Friends of the Earth, an advocacy group. "The public doesn’t want to eat genetically modified food." (...)
RSS 2.0