January 2004

Remind Us: Why did the United States invade Iraq? (FLASH)

Blix: Iraq Worse Off Now Than With Saddam
Published on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 by the Associated Press

"(US President George W.) Bush has claimed that this war was part of an American fight against terrorism. But instead of limiting (the phenomenon), the war has generated more terrorism... This conflict has led to more instability."

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Iraq is worse off now, after the U.S.-led invasion, than it was under Saddam Hussein, Hans Blix told a Danish newspaper Tuesday.

"What's positive is that Saddam and his bloody regime is gone, but when figuring out the score, the negatives weigh more," the former chief U.N. weapons inspector was quoted as saying in the daily newspaper Jyllands Posten. Full Article

Iraq on the records www.house.gov

A Vindicated Hans Blix Returns to U.S.
Tuesday March 16, 2004
NEW YORK (AP) - President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have lost credibility, the world isn't safer now that Saddam Hussein is out of power and it was clear 10 months ago that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to Hans Blix, the former U.N. weapons inspector who returned to New York on the one-year anniversary of the war. Full Article

Blix: Iraq war was illegal
Blair's defence is bogus, says the former UN weapons inspector

By Anne Penketh in Stockholm and Andrew Grice
05 March 2004, news.independent.co.uk

The former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has declared that the war in Iraq was illegal, dealing another devastating blow to Tony Blair.

Mr Blix, speaking to The Independent, said the Attorney General's legal advice to the Government on the eve of war, giving cover for military action by the US and Britain, had no lawful justification. He said it would have required a second United Nations resolution explicitly authorising the use of force for the invasion of Iraq last March to have been legal.

His intervention goes to the heart of the current controversy over Lord Goldsmith's advice, and comes as the Prime Minister begins his fightback with a speech on Iraq today. Full Article

January 28, 2003

Kay Cites Evidence Of Iraq Disarming in '90s

Kay denies evidence of moved Iraqi weapons to Syria

US denies 'imminent' threat warning
Flashback Bush Calls Iraq Imminent Threat
Flashback President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat
Flashback Powell Disagrees With Think Tank on Iraq Threat
Flashback The Times Misfires (Again) on Bush's "Imminent Threat"
Flashback Silly word games and WMD's
Flashback Bush, Powell Defend Remark On Iraq's Weapons Capability
Flashback Transcript of Powell's U.N. presentation

Oh Kay: Now the truth's out
With United States Secretary of State Colin Powell now admitting that the regime of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may not have possessed the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that Washington had claimed as justification for invading Iraq last year, the spotlight once again falls on the ability of US intelligence officials to collect valid and truthful information.

The Deceiving of the Union
It seems that President Bush cannot deliver a State of the Union address without deceiving the American people. Or, at the least, trying to deceive them.

Nearly all WMD claims wrong: Kay

Sexed up: How London sold its war on Iraq
Aside from jointly invading another country, it appears that the United States and Great Britain have another thing in common as a part of their "special relationship". They both twisted and distorted intelligence to suit their political needs.

"We're All Lied To"
We were all lied to. The Iraqi people were all lied to. And I guess we're still being lied to. I mean, Tony Blair is still trying to say there were weapons of mass destruction even when the Bush administration is admitting little by little that there weren't.

Blair defiant over WMDs

Flashback CIA and DOD Attempted To Plant WMD In Iraq

No WMD in Iraq before war, says Kay

The Lie's The Limit? Where Does It End?
Those Americans not dumbed-down by media propaganda are already more than up to speed regarding the extracurricular activities of the Bush administration and the lies told by President George W. Bush to engineer an unnecessary war against a defenseless Third World dictatorship. If human rights are an issue, where was America relative to the cause for world justice as regards Rwanda?

The 50 lies, exaggerations,
distortions and half truths that took this country to war

25 January 2004, Independent UK

Whatever the outcome of the Hutton inquiry and the vote on top-up fees, the central charge this paper has consistently made against Tony Blair is that he took this country to war in Iraq on a false pretext. Raymond Whitaker and Glen Rangwala list 50 statements on which history will judge him and his US partners. Full Article

Iraq's WMD: the big lie?
By Neil Mackay, January 25, 2004
www.sundayherald.com

The justification for war
With the resignation of David Kay from the Iraq Survey Group, the pressure could not be greater on Blair to explain where he got the idea that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Full Article

Bush, Oil & Iraq: Some Truth at Last
Here we have former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill disclosing that George Bush came into office planning to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and MSNBC polls its audience with the question, Did O'Neill Betray Bush?
Is that really the big question? The White House had a sharper nose for the real meat of Leslie Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with O'Neill and Ron Suskind, the reporter who based much of his expose of the Bush White House, The Price of Loyalty, on 19,000 government documents O'Neill provided him.
What bothers the White House is one particular National Security Council document shown in the 60 Minutes interview, clearly drafted in the early weeks of the new administration, which showed plans for the post-invasion dispersal of Iraq's oil assets among the world's great powers, starting with the major oil companies. Full Article

Damaged credibility
The secretary of state put his reputation on the line when he made an exaggerated case for a war in Iraq that has violated the tenets of his own doctrine.
A Times Editorial
Published January 13, 2004
No one's reputation has suffered more damage than Secretary of State Colin Powell's as a result of the Bush administration's misrepresentations of the threat posed by Iraq in the months leading up to war. Other administration officials, such as Vice President Dick Cheney, were more reckless than Powell in making allegations that turned out to be exaggerated or untrue, but none of them enjoyed Powell's reputation for careful language and prudent action on matters of war and peace. In fact, Powell's seemingly meticulous presentation at the United Nations of Iraq's illegal weapons programs was a turning point in marshaling domestic and international support for the White House's decision to go to war. Full Article

The Crumbling Case for War
It is a little frustrating to write that the main hope is that the American people will be more vigilant the next time a president and his administration put on a full court press on behalf of a dubious war. At this time, however, it is probably the best we can hope for. It is fine to entertain the distant hope that various scandals and evidence of untruths will lead to the downfall or even the widespread discrediting of the Bush administration and its decision to invade Iraq. It is more likely, however, that the effect will be more subtle and cumulative – and it might not happen at all.

Bush admits he wanted regime change before 11 September
THE United States president, George Bush, yesterday appeared to support claims made by one of his former advisers that he was intent on invading Iraq long before the 11 September attacks triggered a more aggressive focus to US foreign policy, saying his administration was "for regime change". Speaking during a visit to Mexico, Mr Bush said that, while US policy altered after the terror attacks on New York and Washington, his government had inherited plans to remove Saddam Hussein as leader of Iraq from the previous Clinton administration.

The Awful Truth
January 13, 2003 - nytimes.com
I was one of the few commentators who didn't celebrate Paul O'Neill's appointment as Treasury secretary. And I couldn't understand why, if Mr. O'Neill was the principled man his friends described, he didn't resign early from an administration that was clearly anything but honest. But now he's showing the courage I missed back then, by giving us an invaluable, scathing insider's picture of the Bush administration.

WMD: He Was So Sure

The wheels have come off the Bush war wagon
If there is anyone out there who still believes any of the Bush administration's rationales for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, they are either hopelessly stupid or working for President Bush. Or both.

Bush Speak: a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Bush's WMD Case Weakens Further
When will George W. Bush say, "We were wrong on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction"? The evidence--or lack of evidence--continues to mount suggesting that Bush and his aides made false statements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war. Remember all that alarmist rhetoric? In an October 2002 speech, Bush said Iraq had a "massive stockpile" of weapons of mass destruction. Vice President Dick Cheney claimed "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction...that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." In his famous presentation to the United Nations Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared, "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq, today, has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent."

Bush decided to remove Saddam 'on day one'
Former aide says US president made up his mind to go to war with Iraq long before 9/11, then ordered his staff to find an excuse.

Bush was demanding excuse to invade Iraq
in January 2001, says ex-treasury secretary

Bush's deception on Iraq
Most Americans have never heard of the Joint Captured Materiel Exploitation Group. Let me bring them up to speed: It is the 400-member military team whose job was to search every inch of Iraq for any and all military equipment. Well, guess what? The Bush administration has quietly pulled the team out of Iraq.

Bush and Blair behind Khadaffy's WMD sham
Khadaffy, in fact, had no viable WMD, contrary to fevered claims by neo-con propagandists.

I don't know about WMD, admits Blair

The truth is he lied

Powell withdraws al-Qa'ida claim
as hunt for Saddam's WMD flags
news.independent.co.uk

The faltering American and British case for war in Iraq has suffered another blow with an admission by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, that there was no hard proof of links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida, contrary to his claims before the invasion.
"I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection," Mr Powell said last week. Almost at the same moment, the assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - another crucial aspect of the Secretary of State's presentation to the UN Security Council last February - was being further discredited.
As recently as his Christmas message to troops in Iraq, Mr Blair said weapons hunters had unearthed "massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories" in Iraq, only for the claim to be dismissed by Paul Bremer, America's most senior official in Baghdad, before he knew who had made it. Full Article

Colin Powell's Credibility Gap
Surprise, surprise! Out of the blue, and in remarkably synchronized unity, the American media has awakened from a deep sleep to discover that the President of the United States lied to the nation in his State of the Union Speech. The pundits suddenly are astounded by what alternative sources on the Internet have known for months: documents "proving" uranium purchases by Iraq were known forgeries.

White House 'distorted' Iraq threat
By Stephen Fidler in London

Bush administration officials "systematically misrepresented" the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to war, according to a new report to be published on Thursday by a respected Washington think-tank. These distortions, combined with intelligence failures, exaggerated the risks posed by a country that presented no immediate threat to the US, Middle East or global security, the report says. Full Article

WMD IN IRAQ Evidence and Implications ceip.org

Media AWOL
Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, believes the Bush administration may "have given up on [finding] the weapons." Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair still claims the WMD exist and insists that they'll be found, and in a television interview, President Bush claims that there's no difference between weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass destruction "programs."

A year all out of lies, lies and more lies
The year 2003 started with a hoax about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. It ended with a bogeyman in Libya. But still, both the US and the world are not any safer because of it.

Empty handed: U.S. withdraws a team of weapons hunters from Iraq
The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment, according to senior government officials. The step was described by some military officials as a sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March.

US disbands weapons team
Friday January 9, 2004
The Guardian

The Pentagon has pulled out a 400-strong military team which was searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, but US officers insisted yesterday that the hunt would go on.

The disbanded multinational team was known as the Joint Captured Materiel Exploitation Group (JCMEG) and its job, according to a Pentagon official who confirmed its withdrawal, had been to "scavenge the battlefield for military equipment".

It was an important element of the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group (ISG), which has spent seven months hunting for the arsenal that was the justification for the invasion.

Over the past few months the ISG has been stripped of translators, special forces troops and other specialists.

The continuing questions about the justification of the Iraq war are President George Bush's principal weakness as he faces re-election in November against the backdrop of a steadily rising death toll of US troops there. Full Article

America: The real danger lies within
The so-called "war on terrorism" was a hoax used to mask and justify the long-planned expansion of U.S. military power around the globe. What were in reality a series of police actions waged against tiny anti-American groups was no more a war than the farcical "war on drugs." But invoking war trumped criticism and dissent - and justified a real war of aggression against oil-rich Iraq. Full Article

¤ The weapons that weren't
¤ US arms search team withdrawn from Iraq: report
¤ Questions About Iraq Weapons Haunt U.S. Election Year
¤ White House misled public on WMD
¤ US 'exaggerated Iraqi WMD threat'
¤ White House 'Systematically Misrepresented' Prewar WMD Claims
¤ US disbands Iraq team looking for WMD's
¤ US plays down withdrawal of Iraq weapons team
¤ Those WMDs: Bush's Case Weakens Further
¤ No proof links Iraq, al-Qaida, Powell says
¤ Chances of WMD find slipping

Anti-Empire Report: Code Orange, Code Orange!
Posted: Thursday, January 8, 2004

Page one headlines in The Washington Post, Los Angles Times and New York Times of December 20 about Libya "vowing to give up its banned weapons!" ... Bush and Blair -- in a "choreographed sequence" as the Post called it -- hailing Qaddafi's seeing the light! What's that? You didn't know that Libya was stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction and was the newest Danger To The Civilized World? Think Iraq. That's what Bush and Blair have been thinking -- What can we do to regain our credibility as saviors, as the good guys? If only we could remove "another" imminent WMD threat. Perhaps it might come out sounding believable this time. Full Article

Latest News
Posted: Thursday, January 8, 2004

¤ Bush to Announce Missions to Mars, Moon
¤ Ohio Woman Admits Lying in Lottery Case
¤ Empty handed: U.S. withdraws a team of weapons hunters from Iraq
¤ New think tank report concludes that White House distorted Iraq threat
¤ The Lie Factory
¤ Anti-Empire Report: Code Orange, Code Orange!
¤ With Friends Like These, U.S. Enemies Don’t Seem As Bad
¤ Whither America's homegrown terrorists
¤ 9 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraqi helicopter crash
¤ Travellers face embassy chaos as US imposes security curbs
¤ Tactical Evolution, or Tactical Desperation?
¤ Regime change in Iran
¤ Never mind the quality, read the totality
¤ US marines anger army over Iraq tactics
¤ "Extraordinary rendition" and other terms of our times
¤ U.S. Withdraws WMD Search Team From Iraq
¤ US pulls out Iraq arms search team
¤ Carnegie group says Bush made wrong claims on WMD
¤ The totality is - the Prime Minister lied
Flashback Lying for a Living
¤ U.S. Soldier Dies in Iraq Mortar Attack
¤ Rebels injure 35 US soldiers in attack
¤ Baghdad US chopper crash kills eight
¤ US helicopter comes down in Iraq, eight dead
¤ Five killed in Iraq violence
¤ 12 gunned down in Afghan ambush
¤ U.S. soldiers turn down $10K to stay in Iraq
¤ The domination effect
¤ He won the battles, but lost the wars
¤ Bush: Let illegal aliens work in U.S.
¤ Bush's bullies at the border
¤ Costs Mounting From Terrorism Alert
¤ More Deadly Than Gas
¤ Indiana soldier dies from burns suffered in Iraq
¤ Nine hundred and Eleven Missing Pieces
¤ President Wavers on Pledge to Help Find Leaker
Flashback Generous new tax break for Bechtel and Halliburton?
¤ How global warming will cause extinction of a million species
¤ Britons will need visas to visit US
¤ Argentina and US row over Cuba
¤ US 'endangering world economy'
¤ US set to back state control of Iraqi oil
¤ US frees Iraqis after British protest
¤ Amnesty confusion angers relatives in Iraq
¤ Case Yields Chilling Signs of Domestic Terror Plot
¤ US extremists to be sentenced over bomb plot
¤ Is American culture really superior to all others?
¤ Time Travel
¤ Syrian Truths
¤ Israel Kills Three Palestinians In West Bank
¤ Libya denies high-level talks with Israel
¤ My fellow columnist, Osama
¤ Osama: Resist the new Rome

The S factor explains Bush's popularity
Posted: Wednesday, January 7, 2004

By Neal Starkman
seattlepi.nwsource.com

Millions of words have been written as to the motivations of voters. Particularly in close elections, as in the 2000 presidential contest, pundits and laypeople alike have speculated on why people voted for whom. The exit poll has been a major tool in this speculation.

But the speculation misses the mark by far. It's increasingly obvious, for example, that none of the so-called theories can explain President Bush's popularity, such as it is. Even at this date in his presidency, after all that has happened, the president's popularity hovers at around 50 percent -- an astonishingly high figure, I believe, given the state of people's lives now as opposed to four years ago. Full Article

Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, January 7, 2004

¤ Syria has no WMDs - Arab League
¤ Iraq's Arsenal Was Only on Paper
¤ US official stands by Iraq WMD report
¤ The Bush Administration's Ongoing Intelligence Problem
¤ CIA misinformed about Ansar
¤ Generating fear has always been a factor for the U.S
¤ Bechtel Wins Iraq Contract For $1.8 Billion
¤ Considering the source, why should we trust 'alerts'?
¤ GIs in Iraq Scoff at Re-Enlistment Bonus
¤ That Pesky Bush-Hitler Thing
¤ Blair pledges to quit if proven a liar
¤ Israeli refuseniks begin prison sentence
¤ Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go!
¤ Mad Politician Disease
¤ The S factor explains Bush's popularity
¤ Haiti-A Call For Global Action
¤ No respite in sight for diving dollar
¤ US and Britain get tough with Syria over arsenal
¥ What about Israel?
¤ Ya'alon: we may have to attack Syria again
¤ Chilling signs of a far-right domestic terror plot, ignored
¤ Resolution #1: Oust BushCo For 2004
¤ The Access of Evil
¤ Only Those Who Sacrificed Cartoon
¤ WMD search ends
¤ Saddam captured by Kurds?
¤ US ignores fears over Kurdish autonomy
¤ Firms Tied to Officials Win Iraq Deals
¤ Protests widen over sky marshals
¤ Terrorism alerts 'no-win' for Bush
¤ Bicycle bomb kills 11 children in Afghanistan
¤ Kandahar Bomb Was Hidden in Apple Cart
¤ Flawed charter for a land ruled by fear
¤ Pakistan rubbishes claims it gave nuclear equipment to Libya
¤ French workers shot in Iraq
¤ Former Iraqi soldiers demand pay
¤ There are dangers in hyperbole
¤ MoD pays out for Iraqi civilian deaths
¤ Assad given weapons ultimatum
¤ A hell of a coup
¤ Is the US ready for democracy?
¤ 15 die in Kandahar blast
¤ Georgia: A small pawn in the Great Game
¤ Moscow wary over Georgia's new leader
¤ Syria asserts its right to chemical weapons
¤ There's no partner for Syria
¤ Pakistani experts helped Libya with nuclear weapons
¤ Occupation case studies: Algeria and Turkey
¤ Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein who?
¤ Kurds start to rock the boat

US privatises its military aid to Georgia
Posted: Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Nick Paton Walsh in Tbilisi
Tuesday January 6, 2004
The Guardian

The Pentagon is to privatise its military presence in Georgia by contracting a team of retired US military officers to equip and advise the former Soviet republic's crumbling military, embellishing an eastward expansion that has enraged Moscow.

After a Georgian appeal for support to the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, during a visit last month, a team of 20-30 private defence consultants are already in Tbilisi. Their employer, a Washington security firm, Cubic, has a three-year $15m contract with the Pentagon to support all aspects of the Georgian ministry of defence.

A senior western diplomat said: "One of the goals is to make the army units capable of seizing and defending a given objective. The consultants will work with US defence liaisons in the US Tbilisi embassy and the European command in Stuttgart." He said the programme could continue for much longer than three years.

About 60 US military trainers arrived in Georgia in the summer of 2002 to help the dilapidated military deal with the perceived threat of terrorists linked to al-Qaida hiding in the Pankisi gorge, on the border with Russian Chechnya.

The "train and equip" programme, which left the Kremlin silently fuming at a Pentagon presence on its southern border, was supposed to end this year. Full Article

US to fingerprint millions of foreign visitors
Posted: Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Britons and citizens of 27 other countries who do not need visas - mainly Europeans but also Japanese, Singaporeans and Canadians - will be exempt from the procedure if they are tourists. But at 115 airports, Britons with student, work or business visas are subject to the measures. Full Article

Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, January 6, 2004

¤ Changing Arguments in Midstream
¤ A Fistful of Kryptonite Against SuperGeorge...
¤ The Politics of the Iranian Earthquake
¤ RNC Plays the Hitler Card
¤ Hashish & the War on Terror
¤ Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go!
¤ Anthropological Notes on Occupation
¤ Assad given weapons ultimatum
¤ AP Kills Limbaugh Painkillers Story
¤ AP Kills Limbaugh Painkillers Story Photo of original page
¤ Bomb blast kills at least 15
¤ French nationals killed in Iraq
¤ Delay on Kelly report pressures Blair
¤ U.S. Army Gives Halliburton Waiver for Oil Deal
¤ How the war machine is driving the US economy
¤ Interrogation, Torture, the Constitution, and the Courts
¤ Empire of lies
¤ Iraq Police Fire on Protesting Ex-Soldiers
¤ Twenty Questions
¤ Pound breaks $1.80 as greenback sinks again
¤ Bush Cartel Feigns Outrage In Order to Smear MoveOn.org!
¤ Syria Says Having WMD 'Natural' to Counter Israel
¤ Report: Syria hiding Iraqi WMD
¤ Israel Develops Chemical Super-Laser
¤ U.S. Decries Venezuela's Ties to Cuba
Flashback George W. Bush: Words vs. Deeds
¤ US 'regrets' Brazil's tit-for-tat move
¤ US to fingerprint millions of foreign visitors
¥ Guilty until proven innocent
¤ Passport to America
¤ Many killed in Afghanistan bicycle blast
¤ 10 Dead After Bomb Rocks Kandahar
¤ Powerful Bomb Rocks Kandahar and Kills 10
¤ US ignores fears over Kurdish autonomy
¤ Syria warns against Kurdish entity in Iraq
¤ US sticks with Musharraf
¤ Pakistan's nuclear dilemma
¤ Pakistan Angrily Denies Nuclear Report
¤ Pakistan caught out by its own publicity on nuclear technology
¤ Jeers and scuffles as Sharon defends settlements plan
¤ Israeli troops kill Palestinian teenager in West Bank camp
¤ Israeli 'water for arms' deal with Turkey
¤ U.N. Envoy to Afghanistan Steps Down
¤ Syrian President Makes Visit to Turkey
¤ Assad: Syria will only abandon WMD stockpile if Israel does
¤ Syrian president rejects calls to renounce WMD
¤ Bush renews US sanctions on Libya
¥ Dammed if you do dammed if you don't
¤ US renews sanctions against Libya
¤ Back into the fold
¤ US soldiers sent home for beating prisoners of war
¤ America's Abominable Record in Okinawa
¤ US, British experience different realities in Iraq
¤ How Ethiopia's cooking-oil industry got burned by US aid
¤ Russian-US Victory in Georgia
¤ Russia must forgo hopes of 'eternal presence' in Georgia'
¤ US privatises its military aid to Georgia
¤ Don't Let Them Catch You Reading!
¤ Chatter, chatter everywhere
¤ Letter bombers target European Parliament
¤ Airline rejects guns on flights
¤ US soldier handed over to Seoul police
¤ Odd couples in space: Israel, Russia

On the 45th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution
Posted: Monday, January 5, 2004

By FIDEL CASTRO

Many of us who had the privilege of witnessing that exciting day are still alive; many others are deceased. On January 1, 1959 the overwhelming majority of those here tonight were less than 10 years old or had not been born or there were still many years to go before they would be born.

It was never our purpose to attain individual or collective glory, honors or recognition. However, those of us who today have a legitimate right to call ourselves Cuban revolutionaries found ourselves obliged to write what has turned out to be an unprecedented page in the annals of history. Unhappy with the social and political situation in our country, we simply resolved to change it. This was not something new in Cuba; it had happened many times for almost a century.

We believed in the rights of the peoples, including the right to independence and to rise up against tyranny. It was from the exercise of such rights in this hemisphere, conquered by European powers by fire and the sword, mass slaughter of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of millions of Africans, that a group of independent nations emerged, one of which was the United States of America.

When, on July 26 1953, the Cuban Revolution fought its first battle against an illegal, corrupt and bloody regime, 8 years had not yet gone by since the end of World War II unleashed by fascism in 1939, which took the lives of more than 50 million people and brought about the destruction of the economies of all the then industrialized countries, with the exception of the United States, which was out of reach of enemy bombs and guns.

The fascist ideas that were the cause of that colossal conflict were in total contradiction with the principles proclaimed by the 13 former British colonies in America on July 4, 1776 in their Declaration of Independence, which literally read: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [...]That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness".

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, which resulted from the 1789 French Revolution, carried this point even further when it proclaimed: "When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties".

The fascist ideas also clashed head on with the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter after the gigantic battle that was World War II. Among the principles the Charter proclaimed to be essential prerequisites of a world political order are respect for the rights of the people to sovereignty and independence.

Actually, the rights of the peoples have never been respected throughout humanity's brief known history, so full of wars of conquest, empires and an infinite variety of forms of plunder and of ways for human beings to exploit other human beings. Nevertheless, at that historic point in time and despite the reality that the victorious powers imposed a world political order with privileges for a minuscule group of the most powerful states that became ever more irritating, many nations, institutions and people were hopeful that a new and promising stage for humanity was beginning. More than 100 nations or groups of nations, including human groups that still lacked a national identity, were formally recognized as independent States. It was a time that greatly favored illusions and deception.

The overwhelming majority of countries that formally received the status of independent states was made up of former colonies, dominions, protectorates and other forms of oppressing and controlling countries that the most powerful nations have used for centuries.

Their dependence on the former colonial powers was almost total; their struggle to attain greater sovereignty and act on it has been difficult and often heroic. The dreadful harassment to which they are submitted in Geneva to get them to support the US resolutions or, as a last resort, to abstain from voting against them is proof of this. The way these states behave in the United Nations General Assembly is admirable. An expression of this is the growing and almost unanimous support for Cuba against the blockade.

The worst of all is that a considerable number of those countries that were supposedly independent before that conflict was unaware of just how little independence they really had, and Cuba was one of them. Almost all of the Latin American countries were on that sorry list, as would become blatantly clear. As soon as our heroic people achieved real and full independence, almost all of their governing elites joined with the United States to destroy the Revolution and prevent the social and political accomplishments we were rapidly achieving.

The aggression began as early as 1959 with the use of all possible economic and political measures, including violence, terrorism and the threat of the massive use of US military might.

What happened to Cuba would help showing all of the illusion and deception contained in those elegant texts about principles and rights proclaimed by the United Nations Organization.

Might and not rights would continue to be the basic fact of human life, as it has been the case through the millennia.

All that has happened up until the present, since the first known historical facts were registered, is the result of the natural and spontaneous, torpid and disorderly evolution of human society. Nobody can be blamed for the various economic and social systems that have followed one another over the course of five thousand years.

The different civilizations which arose in the most distant regions of the world: China, India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Central and South America obviously were, to a greater or lesser extent, ignorant of the others' existence, were independent, although many things attest to the extraordinary range of their knowledge. Some are amazing like, for example, the Greek civilization with its art, philosophy, literature, its knowledge of history, physics, mathematics, astronomy and other subjects.

Our knowledge of Mayan and other pre-Incan civilizations is growing, and this knowledge shows that human beings, even when separated by tens of thousands of years in time and tens of thousands of kilometers in space were already creators and capable of extraordinary works. Yet, in all the civilizations that preceded us and even today, empires, wars of conquest, different kinds of slavery and feudalism, rich and poor, privileged, ruling social classes and exploited, marginalized and excluded classes have existed in one form or another. To ignore this fact would require enormous ignorance.

I must admit that Marx was right when he sketched out the idea that only when a truly rational, just and equitable social regime exists on this earth, will humankind have left prehistory behind.

If the whole development of human society has inevitably been chaotic, disorderly, unpredictable, extremely cruel and unjust, the struggle to create a different and truly rational world, worthy of our species' intelligence is, at this moment in its history, which bears no resemblance to any of humanity's previous stages, something that was not possible or even imaginable in other circumstances: an attempt by human beings to plan their own destiny for the first time.

Dreaming of impossible things is called utopia; struggling for goals that cannot only be reached but which are essential if the species is to survive, is called realism.

It would be wrong to assume that such an aim would be motivated by ideology alone. We are talking about something that goes beyond the noble and completely justifiable whishes for justice, beyond the deep desire that all human beings can live a free and decent life: we are talking about the survival of the species.

The big difference between the age of the Greeks and our age lies not in the intellectual capacity of our species but in the exponential and seemingly infinite development of science and technology that has taken place in the last 150 years, and which completely eclipses the negligible and ridiculous political capacity we have shown for facing up to the risk of perishing as a species, a risk which really is threatening humanity.

Less than 60 years ago, when the first nuclear device equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT exploded over Hiroshima, it became clear that technology had created a tool which, if developed, could bring about the obliteration of human life on this planet. From that day on, the development of such new weapons and weapons systems, hundreds of times more powerful, varied and accurate has not ceased, not for one day. Today, there are tens of thousands of them. Actually, very few have been destroyed under deceptive and limited covenants.

A small group of countries that have a monopoly over such weapons have taken upon themselves the exclusive right to produce and improve them. Meanwhile the contradictions and interests of its members change and humanity develops under a web of nuclear weapons that threaten its very existence. Someone could say something similar to what that Persian emperor said as he and his huge army closed in on the 300 Spartans defending the pass at Thermopiles: "Our nuclear weapons shall hide the sun".

The lives of the billions of human beings who inhabit this planet depend on what a few think, believe and decide. The worst of it all is that those who wield such great power do not have psychiatrists to look after them. We cannot just accept this. We have the right to denounce it, to exercise pressure and demand changes and an end to such an absurd, unheard of situation, which makes hostages of us all. No one should ever have such powers or else no one on this earth will be able to talk of civilization again.

There is another lethal problem as well: nearly 40 years ago some people began to voice their concerns over what has come to be called the environment, because a barbarous civilization was destroying the natural conditions for life. This extremely sensitive issue was then put on the table for the first time. Quite a few people thought it was just some alarmists exaggerating, a kind of neo-Malthusianism, like in previous centuries.

They were, in fact, well-informed and intelligent people who took to building a public awareness on this issue, at times worried sick that it was too late to take useful measures. Regrettably, those who due to their great political responsibilities should have shown greater concern, showed only ignorance and disregard.

More than ten years have passed since the UN-convened Rio de Janeiro Summit and despite the usual proliferation of speeches, pledges and promises, very little has been done. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness of the mortal danger. And the struggle must grow and will grow. There is no option.

Recently, a conference was held in Havana on desertification and climate change, which was also convened by the UN. It was an important effort to inform, raise awareness and call people to join the struggle.

In Rio de Janeiro, I was a witness to the deep concerns and fear of representatives from small islands in the Pacific and from other countries threatened by the risk of being either partially or totally submerged by the seas because of climate change. This is sad. The first to suffer the consequences of environmental damage are the poor. They do not have cars, or air conditioners; it is possible they do not even have furniture, if they have houses, that is. The effects of huge emissions of carbon dioxide causing atmospheric warming and the destructive effect of the ultra violet rays that pass through the damaged ozone layer filter have a greater impact on them. When they fall ill, it is common knowledge that there are no hospitals, doctors or medicines for them or their relatives.

A third problem: according to the most conservative estimates possible, world population took no less than 50,000 years to reach one billion. This happened around 1800, just as the 19th century was beginning. It reached two billion 130 years later, in 1930. It reached 3 billion in 1960, thirty years later; 4 billion in 1974, fourteen years later; 5 billion in 1987, thirteen years later; 6 billion in 1999 only 12 years later. Today, it stands at 6.3 billion.

It is really amazing that in just 204 years world population increased by 6.4 times from the figure of one billion reached in 1800, after no less than 50 thousand years, calculated in a relatively arbitrary and conservative way so as to have a point of reference, but that should be further analyzed. It could have taken many more years, if we limit ourselves only to the time it took to reach its current capacity.

At what rate is it growing now?

1999: population 6,002 millions; growth 77 millions.

2000: population, 6,079 millions; growth 75 millions.

2001: population, 6,154 millions; growth 74 millions.

2002: population, 6,228 millions; growth 72 millions.

2003: population, 6,300 millions; growth 74 millions.

2004: estimated population, 6,374 millions; growth 74 millions.

What will the world population be in the year 2050?

The lowest estimates say it will be 7,409 millions; the highest say 10,633 millions. According to many experts, there will be around 9 billion inhabitants. The enormous alarm generated by this colossal demographic explosion plus the accelerated degradation of the natural conditions needed for our species' survival have caused people to react with true dismay in many countries, since almost one hundred per cent of the growth I mentioned will take place in Third World countries.

Aware of the growing deterioration and reduction of land and water resources, of the famines in many countries, of the indifference and wastage in consumer societies and the educational and health problems facing the world population, one could imagine that if all of these problems are not solved our human society might become one where its members devour each other.

It would be a good idea to ask the Olympic champions of human rights in the West if they have ever used a single minute to reflect on these realities, which to a very large degree are the result of the current economic and social system. It would be worth asking them how they feel about a system that, instead of educating the masses as a fundamental element for making progress in the search for urgently needed, viable solutions, with the support of science, technology and culture, spends one trillion dollars every year on alienating consumerist advertising. With the money spent in just one of those years to spread this peculiar poison, all the illiterate and semi-illiterate people in the world could be taught to read and write and even reach ninth grade in less than ten years and no poor child would have to go without schooling. Without education and other social services, crime and drug abuse can never be reduced or eradicated. This we proclaim from Cuba, a country blockaded for 45 years, accused and condemned more than a few times in Geneva by the United States and their closest allies but which is about to provide health, education and cultural development services the like of which the developed and rich West has never even dreamed of and, what is more, these are absolutely free for all citizens, with no exceptions whatsoever.

The neoliberal globalization imposed on the world, designed to facilitate greater looting of the planet's natural resources, has, in the wake of the fateful "Washington Consensus" led most of the countries in the Third World, and especially those in Latin America, into a desperate and unsustainable situation.

The first fruit of this disastrous policy was the "lost decade" of the 80s during which economic growth in the region only reached 1%; it rose to 2.7 % between 1990 and 1998, much lower than false hopes and pressing needs, to drop again to 1% between 1998 and 2004.

The foreign debt, which in 1985, the year of that treacherous "consensus", was $300 billion, today stands at more than $750 billion.

Privatizations wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars worth of national assets that took many years to create but which evaporated with the speed at which capitals flee from those countries to Europe and the United States.

Unemployment reached record heights. Of every 100 new jobs created, 82 are in the so-called "informal sector" which includes a long list of those who earn their living any way they can without any kind of social or legal protection.

Poverty has grown alarmingly, especially extreme poverty; it has grown by 12.8 % involving 44 % of the population. Development is stagnant and social services are deteriorating by the day. Neoliberal globalization, as was to be expected, caused a veritable disaster in these services, first and foremost health and education.

If old and new forms of looting, such as unequal terms of trade, the unceasing, forced flight of capital, the brain drain, protectionism, subsidies and the WTO's edicts are added to this, then no one should be surprised by the crises and other developments in South America.

Latin America is the world region where neoliberal globalization was applied most rigorously and exactingly. Now it is facing the challenge of the FTAA which will sweep away national industries and turn the MERCOSUR and the Andean Pact into appendages of the US economy: it is a last assault on the economic development, the unity and the independence of the Latin American peoples.

But, even if this attempt at annexation is successful, this economic order will still be unsustainable, both for the Latin American peoples and for the people in the United States whose jobs are threatened by plentiful cheap labor recruited by the maquilas from among those who were prevented by the existing poverty, educational disaster and unemployment from getting properly trained. Cheap, unskilled labor is something that the Latin American oligarchies can offer on a grand scale.

A summary of all that I have said shows my profound conviction that our species, and with it each one of our peoples, are at a turning point in their history: the course of events must change or else our species shall not survive. There is no other planet we can move to. There is no atmosphere, no air and no water on Mars, neither is there any transportation for us to emigrate there en masse. Either we save this what we have, or many millions of years will have to go by before another intelligent species arises that can start all over again the adventure we have gone through. Pope John Paul II has already explained that the theory of evolution is not irreconcilable with the creation doctrine.

I must draw my talk to a close. There is much work awaiting us in 2004.

I want to congratulate our people for everything it has done over all these years, for its heroism, its patriotism, its fighting spirit, its loyalty and its revolutionary fervor.

I want to offer special congratulations on this 45 anniversary to those who took part in glorious internationalist missions, today epitomized by the exemplary behavior of the five heroes imprisoned by the Empire who, with impressive dignity, have withstood the unjust, vengeful, cruel actions of the enemies of their homeland and their people; epitomized too by the 15,000 doctors who, making great sacrifices, taking risks and dangers carry out their internationalist duties anywhere in more than 64 countries, a human feat that the United States and Europe could never accomplish as they lack the human capital to demonstrate which human rights they are really defending.

Nobody can prevent with threats or aggressions that our doctors, teachers, sports instructors or any other collaborator show their solidarity; nobody can hold back the bravery of our sons and daughters because many are ready for the honor of taking the place of those who might fall victims of terrorist actions encouraged and promoted by extremist officials in the US government.

I congratulate all those who struggle, those who never give up in the face of adversity; those who believe in humanity's capacity to create, sow and cultivate values and ideas; those who bet on humanity; all of those who share the beautiful tenet that a better world is possible!

We shall fight hand in hand with them and we shall overcome!

Latest News
Posted: Monday, January 5, 2004

¤ Israel to reject the Hague court's authority on fence
¤ Dollar falls to record low vs euro
¤ We Shall Overcome
¤ North Korea for Dummies
¤ Iraq Police Chief Says U.S. Army Gunned Down Family
¤ How Will Bush Deal With the Deficits? Connecting the Dots to Iraq
¤ The Search for Iraqi WMD has Become a Public Joke
¤ Tape 'probably Bin Laden' - CIA
¤ UK "assumes" latest tape is voice of Osama - Straw
¤ Flashback Voice Cloning - Software Recreates Voices Of Living & Dead
¤ How the Secret Service protects Bush from free speech
¤ Bush and democracy hypocrisy, part 1
¤ Bush and democracy hypocrisy, part 2
¤ Private agendas provide distraction from world's real priorities
¤ Two loud words: 'Bush Knew'
¤ The Exploitation of the American Soldier: Part I
¤ The exploitation of the American soldier, part 2
¤ Washington's Past Relationship with Saddam Hussein Worth Looking At
¤ A regime targeted for change?
¤ Protect us from the protectors
¤ Crying Wolf On Terrorism?
¤ Terror still a no-show on US soil
¤ 'Bin Laden tape' urges uprising against US troops
¤ Al-Qaeda plots new air attacks
¤ Air travellers 'face years of terror checks'
¤ Terror Alert based on Fabricated Intelligence
¤ Flashback Osama: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
¤ Terror threats cloud air-travel recovery
¤ The search for Iraqi WMD has become a public joke
¤ Iraqi 'died after beating by British'
¤ Blair defends Iraq invasion
¤ One Killed, Others Hurt in Thailand Blast
¤ Jewish women fight holy war
¤ Fence could lead to SA-style boycott of Israel
¤ Israel faces SA-style boycott
¤ Palestinian PM slams world 'silence' over ongoing Israeli operations
¤ Israeli forces invade Tulkarem
¤ Palestinians killed in day of violence
¤ U.S. Looks at Cuban-Venezuelan Leftists
¤ Landslide poll win for pro-US Georgian firebrand
¤ Pakistan and Indian leaders meet at summit
¤ Saddam in the Slammer, so why are we on Orange?
¤ Misquoted Iraq rape tales arouse Turks' fury
¤ Secret police force to be set up in Iraq
¤ Washington begins handover without firm plan
¤ In Bush's America, Rules of War Trump Civil Law
¤ Iranians See Tricky Questions in Trial of Saddam
¤ Credibility and Virginity
¤ Vajpayee meets Musharraf today
¤ US has full confidence in Musharraf,says Powell
¤ Nuclear weapon 'brochure' adds to US dilemma over Musharraf
¤ Afghanistan adopts new constitution
¤ Distrust of U.S. foils effort to stop crippling disease

Predictions for the US in this 'crucial year'
Posted: Sunday, January 4, 2004

People say it every December but for once it's true: the year ahead will be a crucial one for America. The 2004 elections will offer voters a discrete choice between two possible futures, each offering benefits and pitfalls. Should the Republicans and Bush prevail, the radical reforms enacted under his first term - a shift of power away from Congress toward an increasingly imperious presidency, the transition from European-influenced secular democracy to Third World-style theocratic police state, perpetual war - will take on an air of institutional permanence. Full Article

Latest News
Posted: Sunday, January 4, 2004

Flashback Mandela: U.S. wants holocaust
¤ America: The real danger lies within
¤ Going After the Left, Not al-Qaeda
¤ At What Price Security ?
¤ Blair's Visit to Troops Choreographed Ahead of Hutton Report
¤ The truth about WMD lies beyond Hutton
¤ An Australian Answers An American Critic
¤ Some suspicions refuse to be resolved away
¤ 9-11 Made Simple
¤ Identifying the enemy before starting a war
Flashback Bush's Worst Enemy
¤ Iraq Has Made us Safer From Terrorism My Ass
¤ Predictions for the US in this 'crucial year'
¤ Another crisis, Mr Annan
¤ A Nation Gripped by Paranoia
¤ U.S. Troops Kill 4 Iraqis, U.K. Soldiers Kick Fifth To Death
¤ Dutch marine charged with murder of Iraqi civilian
¤ BA will refuse to fly with armed guards
¤ An Arsenal of Evidence on U.S. Weapons Sales to Iraq
¤ U.S. intelligence used for propaganda
¤ Saddam's capture: was a deal brokered behind the scenes?

¤ Orange Code Terror Alert based on Fabricated Intelligence
¤ FBI agents say White House scripting 'hysterics' for political effect
Flashback Bogus Terror Threats and Bush's Police State
Flashback Bush's Christmas Terror Alert

¥ U.S Terrorism 101: Constantly Instill fear in public
¤ 2004 begins with massive military mobilization in US cities
¤ Al-Qaeda exodus triggers panic
¤ Hazardous Material False Alarm Evacuates U.S. Capitol
¤ Airline groundings linked to al-Qa'eda shoe-bomb threat
¤ New York Times' Safire predicts "major terror attack in the US"
> on eve of 2004 election

¤ Blair rallies troops on surprise Iraq visit
¤ Bomb kills eight in Philippines gym
¤ U.S. Wants Libya Discussed in Private
¤ Fidel Castro Celebrates 45th Anniversary
¤ Even with Iraq, Iran, Libya defanged, Israel still prepare for war
¤ Selling Iraqis on benefits of democracy no easy task
¤ Israeli Soldiers Kill Four Palestinians
¤ US troops kill four Iraqis in attack on car
¤ 3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks
¤ Regime of werewolves
¤ Too Much Power
¤ US says intelligence justified groundings
¤ British soldiers 'kicked Iraqi prisoner to death'
¤ Anti-fence protesters detained in W. Bank
¤ Iraqi kicked to death by UK soldiers

Terror Alert based on Fabricated Intelligence
Posted: Saturday, January 3, 2004

by Michel Chossudovsky
www.globalresearch.ca
January 03, 2004

On December 21st, the country was put on High Terror Alert by the Department of Homeland Security.

Based on "credible" intelligence sources, presumed Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists were planning to hijack an Air France plane and "crash it on US soil in a suicide terror strike similar to those carried out on September 11, 2001."

Air France Christmas flights out of Paris were grounded. F-16 fighters were patrolling the skies.

Following the investigation by the French authorities, the Al Qaeda terrorists turned out to be a five year old boy, an elderly Chinese lady and a Welsh insurance salesman.

A routine case of "mistaken identity" had contributed to breaking the Spirit of Christmas, across the Land.

Based on erroneous intelligence, an entire Nation had been brought under Orange Code terror alert.

Was it incompetence or was it deliberate? Either way, a public inquiry into the workings of the Homeland Security Department is long overdue. Full Article

Related Articles:

¤ FBI agents say White House scripting 'hysterics' for political effect
¤ Flashback Bogus Terror Threats and Bush's Police State
¤ Flashback Bush's Christmas Terror Alert

Seeing no evil doesn't mean there is no evil
Posted: Saturday, January 3, 2004

By Firas Al-Atraqchi

In recent weeks, I have been writing more profusely about the Iraq situation. I have been in touch with various Iraqi groups and individuals, human rights groups, non-governmental agencies, and other independent journalists who have visited Iraq since the capture of Baghdad. The news from all is absolutely dismal; Iraq has disintegrated into a ruthless avenue of rogue militias serving one cleric or another, various business interests of some foreign-based Iraqi corporations competing against other Arab enterprises, or a spectacular venue for revenge killing. Full Article

Latest News
Posted: Saturday, January 3, 2004

¤ Never Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Flashback Evidence of "huge" laboratory system found in Iraq: Blair
¤ Who forged the Niger uranium papers?
¤ The Geneva Bubble
¤ Hypocrisy on Taiwan
¤ Code Orange, Code Orange!
¤ Weapon of Meat Destruction
¤ U.S. Restricts Demonstrations In Iraq
Flashback Resistance Songs Best-Seller In Iraq
¤ Most of the World Thinks Bush Sucks. Why Don't We?
¤ Seeing no evil doesn't mean there is no evil
¤ Bush vs. Hitler
¤ Was U.S. complicit in atrocities?
¤ Libya cooperated fully with UN nuclear inspectors
¤ GI Killed in Attack on U.S. Base in Iraq
¤ All 148 Aboard Killed in Egypt Jet Crash
¤ Airlines Face Uncertainty on Schedules
¤ Why Bush must be captured and tried alongside Saddam Hussein
¤ Beef, the meat of Republicans
¤ Bush doling out Iraq monopolies to corporate cronies
¤ Syria: Settlements harm peace prospects
¤ Seeing no evil doesn't mean there is no evil
¤ US military personnel blocked from accessing Electronic Iraq
¤ Bulgarian soldiers refuse duty in Iraq after deadly attack
¤ How Much Worse Can It Get? When will mainstream America wake up?
¤ Al Qaeda Threatens to Nuke New York on February 2
Flashback US: Terror threats can be bogus
¤ Rebranding Bush as man of peace
¤ U.S. GI Dies As Copter Shot Down in Iraq
¤ US soldiers ransack Sunni mosque
¤ Bush is ignoring the political lesson of Vietnam
¤ The new cold war
¤ The George Who Lost America, Redux
¤ Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians
¤ Four soldiers killed in held Kashmir’s train station shoot-out
¤ White man's burden
¤ Extreme peace
¤ Musharraf wins wider powers
¤ Israelis torn on WMD
¤ Israel in no hurry to clear the nuclear fog
¤ Lift sanctions quickly, Libya urges Washington
¤ Israeli NGOs demand probe into Palestinian deaths

Latest News
Posted: Friday, January 2, 2004

¤ Bush Appeals to Iran Pro-Democracy Forces
¤ Given the History of the U.S., what Bush is saying is Coup, Coup.
¤ Manifesto demands Bush change regimes in other 'rogue' countries
¤ Powell outlines US priorities for new year
¤ US-bound flights cancelled due to FBI mistake: France
¤ How Israeli Plot to Kill Saddam Became a 'Training Accident'
¤ U.S. worried about safety of Musharraf
¤ U.S. Baghdad embassy will be biggest
¤ U.S. soldier dies in Iraq copter crash
¤ War, Race and Elections
¤ A Year of Colossal Fibs signals a need to Escape the Matrix
¤ Top 10 Most Moronic Stories of 2003
¤ Britain Says U.S. Planned to Seize Oil in '73 Crisis
¤ Background / A new arena of military refusal jolts Israel
¤ A History of Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land
¤ Manifesto demands Bush change regimes in other 'rogue' countries
¤ Powell outlines US priorities for new year
¤ Israel in no hurry to clear the nuclear fog
¤ Families dispute ID of 'most wanted'
¤ Confidence votes tighten Musharraf's grip on Pakistan
¥ While many were blindsided by the 'attempted assinations
Musharraf cements himself as Pakistans 'leader'
¤ N. Korea to Let U.S. Experts See Nuke Site
¤ Baghdad explosion: Death toll rises
¤ Mistaken identity grounded flights
¥ Faulty US intelligence or is the US gov't terrorizing the World
¤ Officers board airplane on terrorism tip
Flashback Squinting at the many hues of terror
¤ Terrorism alert grounds BA flight to US twice
¤ Terror on TT pilots
¤ Eight Facts About Iraq
¤ UN hands Iraqi funds to occupying forces
Flashback US hawk admits Iraq war 'illegal'
Flashback Links to Opinions on Legality of War Against Iraq
Flashback Former UN head calls Iraq war 'illegal'
¤ Is War about Oil or Bad Ideas?
¤ Bush lists demands of Iran
¤ Libya PM urges U.S. to lift sanctions by May 12
¤ 2003: Imperial Gong Show Year
¤ Scent of sleaze persists amid US boom
¤ Bush says he is still eating beef
¤ We know! The symptoms were there a long time
¤ Bush Touts Beef Amid Mad Cow Concerns
¤ 'My Lump in the Bed'?
¤ Is Image Everything? Ask the propaganda experts.
¤ Democratic rivals turn their fire on 'erratic' Dean
¤ Russia no longer a game of business roulette
¤ Will U.S. decide to overthrow Putin?
¤ Karzai released 48 high-ranking Taliban
Flashback Scenario for a Comeback
Flashback Opposing slavery and Yankees in U.S. Civil War
¤ Best-Laid Plans
¤ The Bubble of American Supremacy

Congratulations!!!
Posted: Thursday, January 1, 2004

Happy New Year

You are a slave.

I know that's not what you want to hear as you hoist your New Year's champagne, but it is the unpleasant truth that we all face going into 2004.

Movies and public school like to portray slaves as bound by chains and beaten with whips, creating a polarized image of slavery that can be pointed to with the comment, "You are not like that, therefore you are not a slave." But history shows that slaves have been treated in all manner of ways, some more cruel than others, yet even with the most kind treatment, a slave remains a slave.

Setting aside the stereotyped image of a slave as a bleeding chain-bound wretch, slaves throughout history are often hard to recognize. In some cases, such as the Medieval Serfs, they were held slaves to the rulers by religious belief, and did not see themselves as slaves even though they were treated as such. The favored slaves of Asian potentates wore jewels to make a movie star gasp, yet were still slaves for all their finery and comfort.

So, what is a slave? How do we define a slave? What test do we use to tell if someone is a slave. What makes them different from free people? Full Article

Latest News
Posted: Thursday, January 1, 2004

¤ David Kay leaving Iraq empty handed
¤ A new arena of military refusal jolts Israel
Flashback Kissinger and Argentina
> A case study in US support for state terror
¤ U.S. considered oil invasion in 1973, Britain says
¤ New Willie Nelson Song Condemns War in Iraq
¤ New Year's Eve Blast in Indonesia Kills 9
¤ Nine killed in Aceh concert blast
¤ 11 die in Iraq violence on New Year eve
¤ The pitfalls of trying Hussein
¤ Five killed and 25 injured by suicide car bomber at Baghdad restaurant
¤ US has got wrong men, Iraqi families claim
¤ Israel snubs Syria with Golan plan
¤ Bush Brother Makes Big One-Day Profit
¤ Halliburton loses fuel contract in Iraq
¤ More arrests as Parmalat fraud scandal deepens
¤ 2004 – Year of the Slave
¤ Nine hundred and Eleven Missing Pieces
¤ Israelis to double settlers in Golan
¤ Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian teen
¤ Earth-friendly resolution No. 1: Reduce campaign hot-air emission
¤ Who 'Delegitimized' Sharon?
¤ We made foreign policy mistakes: Powell
¤ Hawks demand an end to all evil, and maybe France, too
¤ US eases Iran sanctions for quake relief
¤ Iran dampens US hopes of better relations
¤ Musharraf's sweeping powers enshrined in law
¤ Brazil gives the U.S. a nuclear headache
Flashback Tit for Tat: Brazil to Fingerprint US Citizens
¤ Fantasy of the final solution

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