May 2003
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, May 31, 2003
¤ 'I'm not reading this. This is bullshit' - Powell voiced doubts over Iraq's WMDs
¤ Kilroy's Still Here
¤ Many A Jest Spoken As Truth
¤ Why Bush’s War Against Iraq Violated International Law
¤ How the US Demoralised Iraq’s Army
¤ Snaps Developer Horrified By Iraqi PoWs Torture Pics
¤ Abbas Confident Of Truce, Israeli Killing Continues
¤ Top Marine commander calls analysis of Iraqi weapons 'simply wrong'
¤ Bush 'flyboy' act blithely obscures truth
¤ Conservative journalists' dirty little secret
¤ Nothing sweeter to Bush than revenge
¤ The Sudan Abductees Database: Yet More Questionable Propaganda
¤ The Root of the Democratic Party's Non-Resistance to Bush Policies
¤ Queen Noor, Barbara Bush, and "Loyalty"
¤ US media should not play into the hands of Israeli PR
¤ Israeli radicals break with Sharon over 'road map'
¤ Many Iraqis Say U.S. Is Not Making Up for War Damage
¤ Pentagon dodges damage claims from war's victims
¤ CIA asked to explain prewar reports Congresswoman warns of spy 'hoax'
¤ Israeli occupation troops murder college student
¤ Al-Qaeda members in Iran's custody before Riyadh attacks
¤ US alleges Iranian infiltration into Iraq
¤ Battle fatigue helps push for peace in Middle East
¤ A map and a distant miracle
¤ Is Bush up to it?
¤ Why Washington now wants the fighting to end
¤ Sources of Accuracy
¤ Bush: 'We Found' Banned Weapons
¤ A lack of intelligence
¤ 3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Accident
¤ Weapons of Mass Destruction
¤ U.K Labour party faces more flak on handling of war after TV film
¤ Did Blair lie to us?
¤ Philippine Camps Are Training Al Qaeda's Allies, Officials Say
¤ US steps up search for weapons
¤ Their pride insulted, angry locals take their revenge
¤ Rumsfeld changes tack by insisting that WMD will be found
¤ Fury as Rumsfeld tries to take command of foreign policy
¤ Divisions on Iran rattle Bush team
¤ Why Moscow won't back down
¤ Future oil sales may be pawned to banks
¤ Fighting continues in Saddam's heartland
¤ UN sends troops to stop Congo massacres
¤ Summit floats on sea of wealth while Africa goes thirsty
¤ US terrorism alert level down
Latest News
Posted: Friday, May 30, 2003
¤ We Were Right The War Party was wrong. But will they ever admit it?
¤ Bush's Renewed Push for Middle East Peace
¤ Red Alert Bush Needs Another 9/11
¤ Halliburton And Bechtel Push To Use Iraq Oil Cash For Rebuilding
¥ Things that make you go hmmm...
¤ At Jerusalem Day ceremony, PM vows never to re-divide city
¤ U.S. mired in war's aftermath
¤ Is the U.S. running a terror organization?
¤ US mainstream media: A clear and present danger
¤ Prepare for more hallucinations from the Gulf War Syndrome
¤ Waggy dog stories
¤ US mainstream media: A clear and present danger
¤ Oiling the wheels of government
¤ US prepares military repression in Iraq
¤ Global Eye -- Copycat Killers
¤ British Government blames spies over war
¤ We need visit from the Truth Fairy
¤ Soldier 'took torture snaps'
¤ Nazi Germany's War On Terrorism
¥ Does this seem vaguely familiar?
¤ Media More Diverse? Not Really
¤ No10's Order: Make Saddam Dossier Sexy
¤ Tory poll surge as trust in Blair collapses
¤ Blair: WMD dossier claims 'absurd'
¤ ‘torture Pictures' Soldier Arrested
¤ Chrétien was right to challenge Bush
¤ Vote losses in Spain, Italy blamed on Iraq
¤ We may never find weapons, US hints
¤ Economic Worries
¤ In Searching Homes, U.S. Troops Crossed the Threshold of Unrest
¤ Did Blair lie to us?
¤ They All Think Alike
¤ Uncertainty in Saudi Arabia
¤ British, U.S. Claims On Iraq's WMD Cock-up
¤ Lights, camera, rescue
¤ How US demoralised Iraq's army
¤ Blair visits an Iraq both calm, deadly
¤ Angry Blair Says UK Did Not Invent WMD Evidence
¤ Three Dead in Chechnya Blast as Putin Hosts Leaders
¤ Car Bomb Blast Kills Two People in Spain
¤ Nepal Prime Minister Resigns Amid Protests
¤ MI6 led protest against war dossier
¤ British soldier held over Iraq PoW 'torture'
¤ Air Force Sergeant Killed at Turkey Base
¤ WMD just a convenient excuse for war, admits Wolfowitz
¤ G.I.'s in a Desert Town Face Rising Iraqi Hostility
¤ 'Torture' snaps: man held
¤ Shot peace activist may not recover, says mother
¤ Bush strides into age of American dominance
¤ 'Crude' US rhetoric could boost Iran's hard-liners
¤ 'US plan for military action against Iran complete'
¤ Monopoly or Democracy?
¤ Neo-conservatives do not typify US
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2003
¤ How Israel's US Lobby is Stacking the Deck
¤ What the papers say
¤ Lie and Conquer
¤ They All Think Alike
¤ Arrogance of Rumsfeld
¤ US faces a future of chronic deficits
¤ Hey! Iraq lost! Feelin' safer yet?
¤ Pentagon aims guns at Lynch reports
¤ Rescue of Lynch met no resistance
¤ God Save the Iraqis From the American God
¤ Bush's radical worldview is a big risk
¤ In chatter we trust: Will the real al Qaeda please stand up?
¤ Prime Minister Tony Blair under pressure over Iraq dossier
¤ What's the real story of Lynch's rescue?
¤ British Intelligence Agents Reportedly Disputing Claims By Government
¤ Former British FM calls for parliamentary probe over Iraqi weapons
¤ When Trained Killers Come Home
¤ Israel: Sharon has not changed his spots
¤ The Iran Debate
¤ Saddam bunker never existed
¤ Weapons of Mass Destruction: Who Said What When
¤ Bush Nuclear Policy Do as I Say, Not as I Do
¤ Return to Iran? Popular Uprising, Inc
¤ Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, the US Plans to Overthrow Iranian Regime
¤ The case for war is blown apart
¤ Rumsfeld concedes banned Iraqi weapons may not exist
¤ Blair faces revolt as US admits doubts
¤ Blair walks into Gulf war storm
¤ Iran vows no compromise with US
¤ US insists it is not looking at military solution in Iran
¤ US slaps sanctions on Iranian firms
¤ Two 'clean' trucks - the evidence so far
¤ Rumsfeld's Remarks Spur U.K. War Critics
¤ Iran warned not to interfere in Iraq
¤ Rumsfeld Comments Renew Criticism of War
¤ Bomb suspect dies in custody
¤ Don't blame Mugabe for everything
¤ New York Times Reporter Bragg Resigns
¤ American Jews force Sharon's hand
¤ A long list of demands for Sharon
¤ Israel's approval of US-backed peace plan a trick
¤ 19 held in wave of arrests in West Bank
¤ Iraqi attacks on US: isolated acts?
¤ US dusts off nuclear card
¤ Our ABC's spin on war in Iraq
¤ Iran And Regime Change Leave it to the Iranians
¤ Allies to Retain Larger Iraq Force as Strife Persists
Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003
¤ It's Not So Funny Any More
¤ Oil, Bush Campaign Execs Help in Iraq
¤ The Oily Business of Regime Change
¤ Aceh: In the Shadow of Iraq
¤ The Arrogance of Rumsfeld
¤ Bush's Postwar Iraq Causing Cracks?
¤ Was the Case for Invasion Built on Deception?
¤ Itching for Iran
¤ On To Tehran?
¤ 'Bushies' Iran accusations aimed at justifying regime change
¤ Iran seeks nukes, White House says
¤ Canadian PM Assails US Deficit
¤ Activist Author Addresses ‘Dam/age’ at Royce
¤ Executive Order 13303
¤ Palestinians Accuse U.S. Of Sabotaging Roadmap
¤ A Cage for Palestinians
¤ Israelis set terms for peace plan
¤ War Budget Includes Yet More Money for Israel
¤ Israel boycotts Belgian lawsuit
¤ Russia, Iran Dismiss U.S. Nuclear ‘Objections’
¤ U.S. Provocations Give Momentum To Falluja Resistance
¤ Where Are The WMD'S? In Iran And Syria Of Course
¤ Unease Grows in Washington Over Fruitless Weapons Search
¤ Iraq’s WMDs Might Have Been Destroyed
¤ Anger as Iraqi war justification becomes more dubious
¤ Bio weapons, or just a trailer?
¥ No traces of WMD, because they cleaned the trailer really well...
¤ What if There's No Such Thing as "al-Qaeda"?
¤ CIA-backed exile was source for Times "scoops" on Iraqi arms program
¤ More Attacks Raise Worries of Violent Resistance in Iraq
¤ Warning over war on terror
¤ Suicide Attacker a Heroine to Frustrated Iraqis
¤ Morale reportedly flagging as U.S. soldiers who invaded Iraq
¤ The Saddam intifada
¤ An interpretation of Bush's character
¤ Saving the Private Jessica story
¤ The dead who don't matter
¤ Iran so far away
¤ War: 1968/2003
¤ Image Makers Obscure President’s Policy Failures
¤ The State Sharon Is Talking About
¤ Blair 'should admit he was wrong over Iraq threat'
¤ Lie and Conquer
¤ New sticking points for Blair in draft text
¤ GM crops 'may push poorest farmers into debt'
¤ Pentagon was warned over policing Iraq
¤ Oil sales begin after sanctions are lifted
¥ The only thing that has gone smoothly in Iraq
¤ War takes its toll on the Garden of Eden
¤ Body counts
¤ Iran's dilemma
¤ US issues new warning to Iran
¤ Washington refuses to believe Iran on nuclear weapons and suspects
¤ US finds evidence of WMD at last - buried in a field near Maryland
¤ War on terror has trampled on human rights, says Amnesty
¤ Israeli military put on the spot over abuses
¤ Israelis set terms for peace plan
¥ Really!!!!
¤ Sharon redefines 'occupation'
¥ Sharon you were right the first time
¤ In U.S., wooing of Muslims, or a war on them?
¤ 'Arc of crisis' tests Bush's leadership
¤ Five US soldiers killed in Iraq
¤ The burden of empire
¤ Indonesian military in full control of Aceh
¤ North Korea warns Japan of 'debacle' over following US
¤ Emerging forces in and around Iraq
¤ US willing to wander off the map if it means maintaining 'the Big Mo'
Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, May 27, 2003
¤ Spanking the Empire
¤ Swiss protest to Israel army
¤ Israel says diplomat car was shot unintentionally
¤ Sharon: 'Occupation' can't continue, but no limits on settlements
¤ Ariel Sharon Shocks Hawks; Urges End of Israeli 'Occupation'
¤ Rendering Unto Caesar
¤ Big Media, Big Trouble
¤ A Cage for Palestinians: A 1,000-kilometer Fence Preempts the Road Map
¤ The Hardness of Condoleezza Rice
¤ The Terrorism Trap
¤ An Interpretation of Bush's Character
¤ What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
¤ Worldcom Gets Iraq Contract
¤ The Bush Regime He's Gone Over The Edge!
¤ Just Say No To Polls - Lying Should Be Taxed
¤ The April Fools Day Rescue
¤ Rumsfeld Proposes 'itty-Bitty' Nuclear Weapons For Household Use
¤ Post-War Iraq Quiz
¤ U.S. To Evict Homeless Iraqis From Public Buildings
¤ U.S. Plans Risk Triggering Violent Backlash In Iraq
¤ Iran-Contra Figure Plays Key Role on Mideast
¤ Baghdad Is Asking, Where Are the Police?
¤ Iran Warns U.S. Not to Interfere in Its Affairs
¤ 3 Children Killed in West Bank Violence
¤ Change the justification to accommodate the policy
¤ U.S. diplomats who quit warn that America isn't any safer
¤ UN chief warns of anti-American backlash in Iraq
¤ There he goes again - into Iran
¤ Operation Iraqi eradication
¤ On the role of a journalist in a democracy
¤ Transition in Iraq not so smooth for U.S. leaders
¤ Euro Soars to Record High Against Dollar
¤ New scandal spotlights terror flight school's hidden ties
¤ Israeli Calls for 'Regime Change' in Iran, Syria
¤ Argentines Cheer Fidel Castro's Speech
¤ Sharon backtracks on term "occupation" in face of internal rebellion
¤ Bush goes boldy in wrong direction
¤ Ft. Detrick Unearths Hazardous Surprises
¤ Decoding the media fixation on terrorism
¤ US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists
¤ Bush to hold Middle East summit
¤ US adds power to India's Israeli links
¤ US looking for intelligent answers
¤ 'The Yanks Have Really Screwed Up in Iraq'
¤ Bush shows he's as good as his word
¤ Next stop Tehran?
¤ Bush may take first step to Tehran regime change
¤ UN chief warns of anti-American backlash in Iraq
¤ 2 U.S. Soldiers Killed, 4 Wounded in Iraq
¤ Traffic Nightmares Hit Postwar Baghdad
¤ CIA: Sinned against or sinning?
¤ US: The obvious emperor
¤ Tehran defies US with nuclear program
¤ Road map 'a long way to nowhere'
¤ The roadmap
¤ Algeria's quake toll tops 2217 as fury rages
¤ Iraqi oil contracts with Russia, China halted
¤ A turning point for US?
¤ Casualties soar in America's war on words
¤ Don't drop a missile on me
¤ Pentagon adds to despair of Iran's reformers
¤ Turkey's military chief warns pro-Islamist government of possible coup
¤ Through Iraq War, Russia Reaps Weapons Promotion
¤ Taleban regroups in attempt to harass US forces
¤ TONY Blair’s credibility over Europe lay in tatters
¤ U.S. shift on nuclear arms stirs concern
¤ Washington's rare Byrd
¤ SARS and terrorism: Confront risks with facts and perspective
Latest News
Posted: Monday, May 26, 2003
¤ Making War Out Of Nothing At All
¤ Evidence of Iraq's weapons not found
¤ Bush, Willie Nelson Share Much In Philosophy
¤ Who's To Blame
¤ Turkey air crash kills Spanish troops
¤ Israel adds riders to peace plan
¤ Giving Good War
¤ Aceh
¤ Grave right abuses in Aceh: report
¤ Giving Good War
¤ Britain Supports Terrorism
¤ Fools' Crusade Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions
¤ Iraq needs more troops: British
¤ US plans death camp
¤ U.S. soldier dies in ambush in northern Iraq
¤ Pyongyang threatens South Korea with 'disaster'
¤ Summary executions become routine in Aceh
¤ In Iraq, U.S. Troops Are Still Dying -- One Almost Every Day
¤ Familiar Logo On Unfamiliar Eateries in Iraq
¤ Sorting fact from fiction in the tale of Jessica Lynch's rescue
¤ Syrian leader questions al-Qaida's existence
¤ Iran Denies Harboring Al-Qaeda, U.S. Ups Rhetoric
¤ Does Washington plan to overthrow Iranian regime?
¤ Official: U.S. to consider destabilizing Iran
¤ U.S. Demands That Iran Turn Over Qaeda Agents
¤ US cuts off contacts with Iran
¤ Iran, Al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction
¤ U.S. considers new moves against Iran
¤ US Bombs Iran
¤ U.S. hawks want Iran Govt. ousted
¤ Bitter exchanges mar 6-hour debate on road map
¤ Bashar doubts Osama's capability of recent blasts
¤ Sharon, Abbas to meet as cabinet approves road map
¤ Few Kurds want to be part of Iraq
¤ North Korea not facing sanctions soon: Koizumi
¤ Shiite group ignores US demand to disarm militia
¤ Downer's call to Iran: crack down on terror
¤ Tests Clear Canada Herd Linked to Mad Cow
¤ Algeria Earthquake Kills Nearly 2,200
¤ 'NY Times' suspends another journalist
¤ Shiite group ignores US demand to disarm militia
¤ Bush must ease G-8 frictions
¤ Security and Saudi oil
¤ Bush's Mideast vision
¤ Bush makes poor pay for military might and tax cuts
¤ Assault on Aceh targets students
¤ The power of one
¤ Texan values 'are new global menace'
¤ US will 'work round' German leader
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2003
¤ Britain finds Iraq's 'smoking gun': a top-secret missile By Con Coughlin
¥ Definately another CON job,
given that what they said they found were
only plans by Saddam Hussein to build a missile.
¤ Getting rich on Iraqi oil
¤ Empire of Mass Dysfunction
¤ Bush '04 fund-raising cites war on terrorism
¤ Bush unchallenged by media
¤ Yo, Ayatollahs!
¤ Today Iraq, tomorrow Iran
¤ Iran-US rift widens
¤ Oh, what a tangled web Bush weaves
¤ War on Iraq was illegal, say top lawyers
¤ Nasa deal closes the door on Columbia inquiry
¤ Divided Israel Cabinet Accepts Peace Plan
¥ Pretend to give a little
¤ Israelis raid Tulkarm camp hours after new hopes for peace roadmap
¥ Then take it back
¤ Syria blames Israel for U.S. "differences"
¤ Pro-Israeli Americans pushing Iran issue
¤ US cuts all contact with Iran, paper reports
¤ U.S. Eyes Pressing Uprising In Iran
¥ Those drums they're saying 'more war', 'more war'
¤ Iraq (U.S.) Expects Oil Exports to Resume Soon
¤ Iran Unlikely Key to Mideast Stability & Bush Re-Election
¤ Five Stupid Things I've Heard Now That The "War" Is "Over"...
¤ Bilderberg Puts Heat on 'Loose Cannon' Bush Over Mideast Policy
¤ Needless brutality in U.S Jails
¤ Who Benefits from Lifting the Sanctions on Iraq?
¤ American Idle: 'Dubyatizing' Americans into the GOP Posse
¤ Afghanistan asks West for $15bn more
¤ UK humiliated in Eurovision 'post-Iraq backlash'
¤ U.S. Eyes Pressing Uprising In Iran
¤ Ill-Suited for Empire
¤ Red Cross denied access to PoWs
¤ 17 Killed in Philippine Ferry Collision
¤ Algeria Earthquake Toll Could Reach 3,000
¤ Quake toll passes 2000, toddler survives
¤ Quake toll rises to 1720
¤ Angry quake survivors hurl stones at president
¤ Red or dead
¤ US declares war on the euro
¤ Desert Storm
¤ The story of the African dog
¤ Pyongyang warns US of 'tougher military counteraction'
¤ Thousands flee homes in Aceh
¤ We Keep Building Nukes For All the Wrong Reasons
¤ Gun gangs rule streets as US loses control
¤ Shiite Clerics' Ambitions Collide in an Iraqi Slum
¤ Their Jobs in Jeopardy, Iraqi Troops Demand Pay
¤ British officer: Iraqi war hero or pistol-whipping bully?
¤ Pentagon snubs French ahead of G8 summit
¤ Iran: No need for dialogue with U.S.
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, May 24, 2003
¤ May 13, 1985: What the Corporate Media Didn’t Tell You
¤ The Wrong Direction
¤ "Just Cause" or "Kill The Bastards"
¤ Afghans Protest US Killing of Afghan Soldiers
¤ Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
¤ Promoting Human Conflicts to Make Money
¤ International Law, R.I.P. Oct 24th, 1945- May 22nd, 2003
¤ Americans are Liars
¤ Towers of Babel
¤ Israel at the Bottom of the List in Democracy and Human Rights
¤ Anti-U.S. Protest Turns Violent in Kabul
¤ Iraq's free fall
¤ Why Do They Hate Us?
¤ Friend or foe - the world according to Bush
¤ Mideast and world beyond seem as dangerous as ever
¤ Terror days
¤ George Bush doesn't exist
¤ Mutiny on the Potomac
¤ U.S. Sped Bremer to Iraq Post
¤ On the streets of Baghdad, it's open season for revenge
¤ UK Shoot-to-kill order for police on terror alert
¤ Order Dissolving Iraqi Military Raises Other Worries
¤ Pale Orange
¤ War Talk
¤ Women Losing Freedoms in Chaos of Postwar Iraq
¤ NGOs Decry 'Bribes' and 'Threats' Behind U.N. Vote
¤ The Arabs: An Unprecedented Crisis
¤ Palestinian Suffering Boils Down to Travel Restrictions
¤ US: New master of Iraqi oil ceremonies
¤ Reasons for war invalid
¤ US Official, Iraqi 'Intellectual Capacity' Justified Invasion
¤ Robert Byrd Opposed the Iraq War, and He's Not About to Yield
¤ Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
¤ DAY OF DECEIT: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
¤ Right! It was all wrong
¤ US and Israel look set to embrace assassination
¤ War is not the answer
¤ For now, U.S. rule in Iraq
¤ Columbia could have been saved: NASA
¤ Iraqi Soldiers Join the Jobless
¤ Conservative Iraqi city can't stomach US presence
¤ On 9/11, U.S. radar was facing wrong way
¤ For Iraq's children, a new war has begun
¤ Pentagon sets sights on a new Tehran regime
> UK and state department reject blunt approach
¥ Really, this is not what they want???
¤ Pledge to share out bulk of Iraq 'pie'
¤ Well-connected and wealthy: Bechtel wins from Saddam's demise
¤ On the streets of Baghdad, Only victims
¤ Son's approach towards Europe misunderstood, says Bush Sr
¤ The Truth Will Emerge
¤ It's true, the New York Times can get it wrong
¤ Next in the firing line?
¤ Algerian quake toll rises to 1,600
¤ US blamed for Baghdad tension
¤ Might is right
¤ US building giant warns of Iraq chaos
¤ A Palestinian roadmap
¤ The war and after
Latest News
Posted: Friday, May 23, 2003
¤ Bush criticized over 9/11 probe
¤ Victims of the peace decide Americans are worse than Saddam
¤ Bush 'is on brink of catastrophe'
¤ Coalition of the killing
¤ War and peace: Which one will prove more costly for the U.S.?
¤ Now U.S. has its own West Bank
¤ As the world burns
¤ A quick transfer to democracy? Forget it
¤ Expert questions authenticity of al-Qaeda tape
¤ Ship me off to Guantanamo
¤ Sanctions are lifted but on the streets few are celebrating
¤ Prominent Bush Critic Alan Hale is Censored in Las Cruces
¤ History 101: Some Reality in the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict
¤ U.S. Has Not Gotten Over French Actions Before Iraq War
¤ A History of Secret Human Experimentation By the US Government
¤ Blix Suspects Iraq May Have Had No Banned Weapons
¥ Too little too late.
¤ War profiteers Shell, Bechtel, Fluor take terror from Africa to Iraq
¤ China, Iran hit by U.S. sanctions
¤ Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Beloved Emperor Declares Victory Over Barbarians
¤ Jason Blair isn't the only deceiver
¤ The Fictional War On Terrorism
¤ The Mists of Falsehoods
¤ Con Job All The Bushtilt Print To Fit
¤ Children massacred by military in Aceh
¤ Why? (Part III) More Questions For The Bush Administration
¤ Iraq's free fall
¤ UN mandate oils wheels for reconstruction of Iraq
¥ UN Mandate oils US pockets
¤ Iraqi oil to be exported after sanctions
¤ Operation: Fantasy America
¤ 1,092 killed in Algerian quake
¤ Algeria Earthquake Kills More Than 1,000
¤ Warning to Bush from contrite cold war veteran
¤ FBI sheds new light on Luther King the orator
¥ Martin Luther King used to blindside, read following article
¤ French plan to aid Africa could be sunk by Bush
¤ We don't do war
¤ War fallout as French traders banned from farmers' market
¤ The quagmire of liberation gone sour
¤ US stamps its supremacy
¤ US allows Israeli radar sale to India
¤ US troops gun down two Iraqis
¤ 12 militants killed in held Kashmir
¤ The Axis of Deceit - Still Pushing for U.S. Imperial Expansion!
¤ Tommy Franks quits US army
¤ Bayer sold drug with AIDS taint
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2003
¤ Decoding The Media Fixation on Terrorism
¤ To Liberate or not to Liberate, Ours is not to Question
¤ Weapons Failure
¤ U.S. Weapons will be Taking Their Toll Long After War
¤ U.S. Troops on Shooting Spree After Attack in Iraq
¤ The biggest US defense budget since the cold war
¤ Colonial residue
¤ Terror-Alert Orange The Conditioning of American Reflexes
¤ Return to Sender
¤ Iraqi Arsenal Now Seems a Phantom Menace
¤ Um, Folks, This Doesn't Look Like Victory
¤ U.S. facing 1,001 Arabian nightmares
¤ A Proud Nation Should Be Sorry
¤ Road Map or Road Kill?
¤ Not Another Afghanistan
¤ Trust in leaders is lost if WMD are not found
¤ Car Alarm Named New Iraqi National Anthem
¤ The Truth Will Emerge
¤ Occupation of Iraq illegal, Blair told
¤ Chirac to embarrass Bush at G8 conference
¤ Control the pictures, and you control the truth
¤ A victory (of sorts) in Iraq
¤ Coming now to Iraq: 'Justice' American style
¤ Teed Off The press corps as collective caddie
¤ Minimalist imperialists
¤ Dancing with the Devil
¤ White House fluent in language of fanatics
¤ So long, Ari: The liar's gone, the enablers remain
¤ Iraq after occupation
¤ The Daily Telegraph bosses
¤ Time's attack on Canada doesn't ask right question
¤ Will Powell apologize?
¤ Fifty Protest While Bush Speaks
¤ US media blitz angers Castro
¤ Israeli Propaganda Campaign Aims at Aborting Peace
¤ Pentagon hands major Iraq deal to scandal-ridden WorldCom
¤ Iran Says Qaeda Charges Due to Bad U.S. Intelligence
¤ Indonesian troops accused of massacre
¤ Algerian Earthquake Kills at Least 509
¤ Bomb blast at Yale law school
¤ Reporter gloats over story of his downfall
¤ On rescuing Private Lynch and forgetting Rachel Corrie
¤ Bin Laden deputy calls for a repeat of 11 September
¥ Sure!!!!
¤ Anti-war nations approve new UN resolution on Iraq
¥ We already know the UN has no strenght
¤ US troops kill four Afghan soldiers
¤ Israeli army returns to Gaza town
¤ Iraqi revival will cost Russia
¤ Taliban thinking
¤ Tent city for villagers as army tightens Aceh vice
¤ Power reality means more anger, more bombs
¤ Lies and Consequences
¤ Surveys pointing to high civilian death toll in Iraq
¤ Blair 'ignored advice that occupation is illegal'
¤ US halts talks with Iran amid al-Qaeda claim
¥ Excuses, excuses.
Update : May 22, 2003
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2003
Massive turnout expected to call for expulsion of US Ambassador Shapiro from Venezuela
Citizens for the Defense of the (Venezuelan) Constitution are calling for a massive demonstration of force tomorrow, Friday, to demand that the government should unceremoniously kick US clown prince Ambassador Charles Shapiro out of Venezuela for allowing the political opposition to insult the Head of State in a clearly inappropriate opposition rally at his embassy residence in La Florida last week. www.vheadline.com
Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2003
¤ The Oily Americans
¤ Weapons Of Mass DOO-DAA
¤ Russia blocks vote on UN resolution on Iraq
¤ Belgian government refers war crimes complaint to U.S.
¤ Next War Could Begin in December 2003
¤ Who Is Running al-Qaeda?
¤ Report blasts Miami-Dade's new voting machines as inadequate
¤ Pentagon changes the name of its anti-terror spy system
¤ A police state
¤ The Apartheid Wall
¤ British press panel nixes complaint over anti-Sharon cartoon
¤ Text of the Rockford College graduation speech by Chris Hedges
¤ U.S. soldiers mistakenly kill Afghan troops
¤ US certain al Qaeda in Iran
¥ The U.S was also certain about the WMD in Iraq.
¤ So What Was It All For?
¤ Patriot Act used for more than anti-terror
¤ Bush's secret plan to win in '04'
¤ Play it again, Uncle Sam
¤ How do you spell democracy in Arabic? D-i-g-n-i-t-y
¤ Bush Is Doing Exactly What bin Laden Wants
¤ It's apparent that Washington has no clear plan for Iraq
¤ Walk this way
¤ Oiling the Colonial Gears
¤ Baghdad police powerless to stop crime
¤ Where the heck are Saddam's weapons?
¤ Government Raises Terror Alert Level To Orange
¥ Terror alert 'high,' but no specifics of threat
¤ The American Taxpayer Is Paying Dearly to Be Attacked by Terrorists
¤ Strange Orwellian Telescreens Debut At UK Supermarkets
¤ Ad-Libbing Iraq's Infrastructure
¤ George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
¤ Why The Sudden Interest In Kashmir?
¤ The Children's Teeth
¤ Canada Finds a single cow with 'Mad Cow'; U.S. Bans Beef Imports
¥ It's pay back time.
¤ Ends and Means in Iraq
¤ Jakarta sends in thousands of troops
¤ U.K., Germany Close Saudi Embassies
¤ 25 Die As Indonesian Troops Fight Rebels
¤ The hornets' nest
¤ America first
¤ Terror Alert in U.S. Raised to 'High'
¥ What are they trying to overshadow this time?
¤ Skepticism on Bush's Weapons Claims Grows
¤ For better or worse
¤ Crushed: the farmers caught between the Israeli army and Hamas
¤ Blair 'broke his promise not to tap MPs' phones'
¤ Hey, War Supporters
¤ Suit against Franks to be sent to US
¤ Resistance to US draft on Iraq softening
¤ Rockets fired at US base in Afghanistan
¤ US arms control officials hold talks
¤ N Korea warns South of 'unspeakable disaster'
¤ Fierce fighting breaks out in Aceh, killing 13
¤ Children will sit exams under trees after schools burnt down
¤ Thugs in uniform go about their bloody business
¤ When the army's brutal fist comes knocking at the door
¤ Ethnic battles threaten northern Iraq
¤ Let's Hope They're Wrong...Again
¤ Israelis hinder UN workers' travel
¤ U.S. companies are eager to land Iraq deals
¤ UN warns of halt in Gaza aid as border is closed
¤ British colonel in war crimes inquiry
Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003
¤ Oil wars Pentagon's policy since 1999
¤ Richest nations arming rights abusers: Amnesty
¤ It's All About Oil!
¤ U.S. plans to keep control of Iraq oil
¥ Surprise!!!!!
¤ Challenging Empire on the World Stage
¤ Just Where are Those Weapons?
¤ The US is Addicted to War on Drugs
¤ Time to Question the US Role in Saudi Arabia
¤ Human Rights Groups Protest Indonesia’s War
¤ Hush, Hush on Coalition Deaths
¤ Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis
¤ United States goes on orange alert
¤ Secrets galore
¤ Iraqi Free-for-all: US post-war effort seen as on the brink of fiasco
¤ Iraq nuclear and oilfield chaos confront US rulers
¤ The biggest foreign policy whopper ever'
¤ Saving Private Lynch: Take 2
¤ A Truck Bomb Scare, Hollywood Style
¤ Top Off: Or is it just another rip off?
¤ US Removes Evidence That President Musharraf Lied
¤ Who's Lying to Whom?
¤ Arab press blasts Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on roadmap delay
¤ Calls for restraint as Indonesia steps up offensive
> In Washington State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said:
> "We deeply regret that the government of Indonesia and
> the Free Aceh Movement forfeited a rare opportunity
> to advance a peace process with the assistance
> of the international community."
¥ Human Rights Are Not an Issue The U.S. will sell arms to any one
¤ Many will die but few will really care
> Indonesia has borrowed shamelessly from the US's Iraq war to win a 27-year-old battle
¤ Indonesian troops told to "exterminate" Aceh rebels, spare civilians
¤ Indonesia prepares for war reading from a US script
¤ Indonesia uses UK Hawks in Aceh offensive
Flashback May 17, 2003
¤ Indonesia seizes Aceh rebels on way to talks
Flashback May 13, 2003
¤ Indonesia withdraws from ceasefire on Aceh
Flashback December 10, 2002
¤ Aceh rebels agree truce with Jakarta
Flashback May 19, 2002
¤ Indonesia Uses War on Terror to Win US Arms
¤ Iraq 'first battle of a wider US war'
¤ Self-fulfilling prophecy - US threats make matters worse in Iran
¤ No Al-Qaeda Militants In Iran
¤ A 'Statistical' Victory Over Terrorism Cannot Be Achieved
¤ Meanwhile...in Afghanistan
¤ Beware, we are all targets now
¤ Britain is 'still important support base' for al-Qa'eda
¤ Let's hear it for Belgium
¤ Cafe Bombing Kills 1 in Turkey
¤ Russia and the war in Iraq
¤ 5 Dead After Marine Copter Crash in Iraq
¤ WorldCom pays record $500m to settle fraud
¤ US uses GM foods in first assault of EU trade battle
¤ Afghan warlords hoarding income
¤ Explosion rocks Ankara cafe
¤ Pragmatism redefined
¤ Bush and Blair spokesmen resign in tandem
¤ Bush's press chief resigns
¤ Protesters in Iraq assail U.S. occupation
¤ Peacekeeping in Iraq: The lesson of Afghanistan
¤ US plans interim authority in Iraq
¤ American propaganda
¤ Some more worries to calm the nerves
¤ Asymmetric morality
¤ Mystery of the failed suicide attacker found dead in the sea
¥ Could he have been murdered by the Israeli security forces?
¤ BP pipeline will displace thousands, says Amnesty
¤ 16 dead in held Kashmir violence
¤ Not every bomber is an al-Qaida bomber
¤ 10 die in Arab-Kurd clashes in Iraq
¤ Becoming the 51st State
¤ Eight die as Palestinians clash in Lebanon
¤ Markets hit by dollar's fall
Latest News
Posted: Monday, May 19, 2003
¤ Leo Strauss' Philosophy of Deception
¤ Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest
¤ Suicide bombers sabotage road map
¥ Just who was against this peace process again?
Flashback: 13 May 2003
¤ Israel slams the door in setback for peace plan
Flashback: 12 May 2003
¤ Palestinians accept peace plan 'as it is'
¤ Sharon gives no leeway on peace process
Flashback: May 2, 2003
¤ Israeli attack undermines peace: Annan
Flashback: July 20, 2001
¤ Sharon War Plan Exposed: Hamas Gang Is His Tool
"I want to tell you something very clear, don't worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it."
Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, October 3rd, 2001, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio
¤ You Let Al-Qaida Off Hook, Bush Told
¤ Plan to Secure Postwar Iraq Faulted
¤ Retired General Dissents, Big Media AWOL
¤ A Letter to Kofi Annan The Missing Evidence
¤ "Isn't the World Better Off...?"
¤ The Awkward Lies that Led to War
¤ Surveillance State
¤ Of Monopolies and Hypocrisy
¤ Egypt Says Iraq War Stokes International Terrorism
¤ Bush's Road Map Better Read the Fine Print
¤ Philippine Forces Launch Attacks on Muslim Rebels
¤ Afghan president threatens to resign if governors don't send money
¤ Science Confirms: Politicians Lie
¤ 3 people killed, 48 wounded in suicide bombing at Afula mall
¤ Shiites hold noisy but peaceful protest in Baghdad streets
¤ Iraqis uneasy about power handoff
¤ Bush would rather play video games while Rove manipulates fear
¤ Bush Is Flunking Reconstruction 101
¤ One Nation, Under Informed
¤ TV's best news show? 'Daily Show' skewers the media hypocrites
¤ Dennis Miller's Zionist Career Move
¤ Speak loudly, carry a big stick - and use it!
¤ The Saudi Bombing: A Calculated Act With a Political Message
¤ Uncle Sam is YOU
¤ Bush Press Secretary Fleischer Resigns
¤ Indonesian Military Launches a Massive Attack in Aceh
¤ Taste of victory turns out to be short-lived in Middle East
¤ Washington's claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction don't add up
¤ U.S. Dollar falls to fresh lows
¤ Hold Onto Your Brain: It's A Weapon
¤ Military waste under fire $1 trillion missing
¤ Israeli military targets solidarity activists
¤ 18 UN agencies and NGOs protest Gaza closure
¤ Cuba says Gov. Bush is urging an attack
¤ IOF Seal off West Bank and Gaza, Kill Palestinian Child
¤ Iraqis Flooded With a 'Free' - and Lively - Press
¤ Sri Lanka Floods Kill 141
¤ Second Bush Term Will Sink Economy
¤ 2 million and counting
¤ Alarms in Saudi Arabia
¤ Peace as paradigm
¤ Are military conquests profitable?
¤ Palestinian suicide bomb attacks claim 11 lives
¤ US troops in perilous police work
¤ After war, the terrible peace
¤ Who's in Charge Here?
¤ 50 dead in Philippines operation against MILF
¤ Peace remains a pipedream
¤ Six killed in Afghan infighting
¤ The Iraqi crossroads
¤ We have to think again
Update : May 18, 2003
Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003
Liar, liar ... pants on fire!
US diplomats (?) caught in the act!
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias most vitriolic opponents of are never short of insults, but impoverished millions in the nation's barrio-slums see him as their salvation ... most say they wouldn't bother with any of the dozen or so other political leaders jousting for position in Venezuela's colorful political stage ... if history is any meter, they're only interested in the common people as long as it takes for them to drop a voting paper through the slot on a ballot box, then they're the forgotten masses until a new election calls for them to have some fleeting importance. -Roy S. Carson, www.vheadline.com
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003
¤ Democracy is the Free World's whore
¤ So what was the war for?
¤ Inventing Jayson Blair
¤ For Iraq's Children, A New War Has Begun
¤ Undocumented death count in Iraq is left to media
¤ Secrecy over shoot-to-kill fear in Gaza
¤ Weak Abbas, terror are good for Sharon
¤ Suicide Bombers Strike Israel Amid Summit
¤ Sharon postpones Washington trip following wave of attacks
¥ So, just who got what they wanted from this bombing? Who benefited?
¤ Afghanistan's Leader Unable to Prevent Violence
¤ Odyssey of Frustration
¤ More Troops Deployed as New Iraqi Government Postponed
¤ Missteps on the Trail of Deceit
¤ Arabs and Kurds Clash in Kirkuk, and at Least 5 Are Killed
¤ Troops 'vandalise' ancient city of Ur
¤ Intelligence versus Al-Qaida
¤ Canada refuses refugee status for Israeli agent for role in `war crimes'
¤ More Bang For Their Buck
¤ Child Drug Abuse, Crime on the Rise in Iraq
¤ Rift Over Transfer of Power Divides U.S., Iraqis
¤ Next Rescue: Uncovering the Truth
¤ Conned into conflict
¤ Lose yourself in Iraq; (Saddam did)
¤ 'Who let the dogs out? Condy Rice's yipping tirades'
¤ Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy. Buy One, Get One Free
¤ Amid riches, a rising poverty yields terror recruits
¤ The real bio-terrorists are in Washington
¤ Israel in charge of the US military dictatorship
¤ The Power Elite’s Double Standard
¤ On the other hand
¤ How the Bush gang loots Iraq
¤ Boycott of French wine losing fizzle with public
¤ Guns, Crime, And The Swiss
¤ How truth was edited in saving Private Lynch
¤ Israeli troops shoot dead two armed Palestinians
¤ Two UN guards among eight killed in Afghanistan
¤ This is no way to run an occupation
¤ Half of al-Qaeda leaders have been eliminated: Bush
¤ Our friends the Sauds
¤ America threatens to move Nato after Franks is charged
¤ Weak Abbas, terror are good for Sharon
¤ The return of al-Qa'eda
¤ Occupation is destroying democracy
¤ Blown to pieces
¤ 28 German tourists on prize coach trip die in French crash
¤ Odyssey of Frustration
¤ Asian currencies strengthen against the dollar
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2003
¤ US Must Show Iraq Is Free of WMD If Sanctions Are to Be Lifted
¥ Touche, trapped between Iraq and a hard place.
¤ UN Human rights expert slams Israel on violations
¤ 'Pay for Destruction', Indigenous People Tell Corporations
¤ Campaigners Count Bodies to Ensure US Compensation
¤ Countering a Wave of Hate
¤ Put Criticism on the Record, Official Tells US
¤ U.S. Adviser Says Iraq May Break With OPEC Only Because...
¤ OPEC won't recognise US as Iraqi representative
¤ The Strategic Value of American Preeminence in the Middle East
¤ No Iraqi WMD?-US media scoundrel shrugs his shoulders
¤ Missing weapons blow a hole in reasons for war
¤ We've thrust the world into chaos, yet al-Qaida terrorizes still
¤ Israel denies Muslims access to mosques in Al-Qods
¤ Settlements: A User's Guide
¤ Palestinian filmmaker denied entry to Israel on "security" grounds
¤ UN rights chief slams Israeli raids in Gaza
¤ Sharon's rejection of US "road map" has powerful support in Washington
¤ U.S. probes passports as France protests 'lies'
¤ Letter of protest from French Gov't
¤ '40 dead' in Morocco bombings
¤ Never mind: In reversal, plan for Iraq self-rule has been put off
¤ The 'war' is over, time to get angry
¤ Spoils of Iraq war: taking Mexico's oil
¤ The Most Heinous Crime of the New Millenium
¤ War good, peace bad
¤ Instant Understanding
¤ Let Asia resolve the North Korean crisis
¤ North Korea to Respond with War to U.S. Strike
¤ Iraqi Women Out of the Picture
¤ Morning in Iraq
¤ Lynch job not what it seemed
¤ U.S Oil overseer says he'll keep it honest
¤ The bloating of America
¤ 11 killed in held Kashmir violence
¤ Terrorist Blasts Rock Casablanca, Kill 24
¤ Oil boss paid $1m a year by contract bidder
¤ Indonesia seizes Aceh rebels on way to talks
¤ America's crumbling schools
¤ Who is the U.S. trying to fool?
¤ Return of Caesar on the global order
¤ Terror alert provokes dispute
¤ US warned off barring Baathists
¤ Now a second generation follows bin Laden's lead
¤ Al-Qaeda may be weaker, but also harder to eliminate
¤ Baathists banned from jobs in US policy U-turn
¤ Saudi Arabia feels the squeeze
¤ Russia and China want changes to postwar deal
¤ US Muslims plan to launch cable TV network
¤ Canada will join US missile system
¤ Saddam fit enough to hide for years, say doctors
¤ Revised draft on Iraq still has no central role for UN
¤ France accuses US of skulduggery
¤ Shaping a new relationship with Afghanistan
Latest News
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2003
¤ Home run to Havana
¤ US can cry wolf only so many times
¤ A Nation of Fear
¤ US sees obstacles in Al Qaeda hunt
¤ US accuses Iran of stockpiling chemical arms
¤ Mass Graves How The US And Britain Are Betraying the Iraqi People
¤ 5 Palestinians Die in Israeli Incursion
¤ Weapons search could take years
¤ WMD? MIA
¤ Iran says it has no biological weapons
¤ The reek of injustice
¤ Something fishy for Haddock
¤ But we were focused on fighting terrorism ...
¤ In Iraq, Water and Oil Do Mix
¤ If Bush Was Popular, We Wouldn't Need Polls to Convince Us
¤ Bombings Bring U.S. 'Executive Mercenaries' Into the Light
¤ Miracle Grow!
¤ Laos: Hotbed of unrest
¤ Villagers vs oil giant: Ashcroft to the rescue
¤ The spoils of victory have become a huge mess
¤ Some questions for Dick Cheney
¤ Bush's snub endangers existence of U.N.
¤ Fear Itself
¤ Global Eye -- Language Barrier
¤ Iraqi troops say U.S. owes them back pay threaten attacks on American forces
¤ Government by criminals
¤ We're All in Bush's Movie
¤ Raging Bush
¤ Some Audience Members Told Not to Wear Ties for Bush Speech
¤ Rummy Has 15,000 Reasons Why Iraq is Not in the Midst of Anarchy
¤ Coalition Troops Are Accused of Torture
¤ The New Mercenaries - Corporate Armies For Hire
¤ Jack Straw trying to reinvent history
¤ Bush Saw The First Plane Hit The WTC On TV????
¤ Deflationary spiral feared as Japan's GDP falls
¤ Bush Is Ready to Sick the CIA Dogs on the American People
¤ When is your property not yours? Whenever the U.S. government wants.
¤ Norway demands explanation from Israel
¤ CIA may be behind Saudi bombing: Ka Roger
¤ Truth Is Often Hard To Swallow
¤ How Howell Raines Enables Journalistic and Presidential Lying
¤ Government by criminals
¤ Grit Your Teeth Surgery in 'Liberated' Iraq
¤ Why The U.S. FCC's Rules Matter
¤ Are Palestinians Too Radical For Wanting to Return Home?
¤ Fallout of America's vain hunt for WMD confined to embarrassment
¤ Kenya flights grounded over al-Qaida attack fears
¤ In Baghdad, a surge in homicides
¤ Powell Wants U.N's Iraq Sanctions Lifted
¤ U.S Officials Warn Americans of More Attacks
¤ Venezuela Says U.S. Envoy Provoked Row
¤ US accuses Iran of stockpiling chemical arms
¤ French complain about smear campaign in American press
¤ Powell strikes deal with Russia on debt
¤ One US, one market, one media mogul
¤ U.S. Disputes Saudi Security Claim
¤ Baghdad pays the postwar price: 242 die in three weeks
¤ New Front Sets Sights On Toppling Iran Regime
¤ Tehran accused of biowarfare program
¤ Kurds making their own Iraq oil deals
¤ Army strikes target Iraqi unrest
¤ Sharon A, Sharon B and the dictator
¤ Mistakes in Afghanistan
¤ The Guantánamo scandal
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003
¤ The truth about Jessica Lynch
¥ Another American Lynching
¤ Saving Private Lynch story 'flawed'
¤ So, Mr Straw, why did we go to war?
¥ Flashback:
Jack Straw, 21 February 2003:
Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order
Jack Straw, 14 May 2003:
Straw retreats on finding banned weapons
¤ From Dire threat to minor concern in six easy stages
¤ Hoping that inconvenient facts disappear, Bushies change tune
¤ And now, 'shock and awe' at home
¤ Some Questions for Dick Cheney
¤ Have Road Map, Need Drivers
¤ We Need a New Foreign Policy
¤ The Guaranteed Failure of the Road Map
¤ Force Feeding
¤ Bush feels the heat after Riyadh bombings
¤ Israeli Troops Kill 5 in Gaza Raid
¤ The Pentagon and Halliburton's secret November deal for Iraq's oil
¤ Hillbilly in the White House: Bush attack on Iraq 'handy'
¤ Blowback in Riyadh
¤ Believe George Bush At Your Own Peril
¤ Case proven - war does not eradicate terrorism
¤ US troops in Iraq gun crackdown
¤ Saudis feel US wrath over bombs
¤ Russia Wants Iran to Sign Nuclear Pact
¤ 14 die as Chechen rebels step up attacks during Powell visit
¤ U.N. to Get Armed Escorts in Afghanistan
¤ US Can't Turn Back Now - Must Remain Global Bully
¤ All the News That's Fit To Print ... and Then There's the US Government
¤ Bush's Mideast strategy goes up in flames
¤ Airwaves abuzz with Hollywood blacklist; no secrets this time
¤ Why keep Americans guessing about 9/11?
¤ Terrorism Déjà Vu in Saudi Arabia
¤ Federal lawyer cites Israeli 'war crimes'
¤ Ad depicts Rumsfeld, Saddam
¤ Senators Criticize Rumsfeld Over Instability Plaguing Iraq
¤ Straw retreats on finding banned weapons
¤ No Deal on UN Resolution Over Iraq
¤ Baghdad's blundering victors
¤ Remains of toxic bullets litter Iraq
¤ Sharon criticises Blair for 'unnecessary intervention'
¤ US Says Has No Plans for Military Action in Iran
¥ We'll keep this for one future referance
¤ Palestinians fear 'road map' may lead to a dead end
¤ US to toughen stand on N Korea, Syria: Rice
¤ N.Korea Tells U.S. to Drop Hostile Policy, End Crisis
¤ Powell: U.S. to Consider Suspending Iraq Sanctions
¤ Angry Australians hit their team for six
¤ US used new missile in Iraq: Rumsfeld
¤ Winners who will never be seen as such
¤ Al-Qaeda hated corporation
¤ IDF deterrence backfires
¤ Blair answers critics on Baghdad papers
¤ Grave find proves war was right, says Blair
¤ Attackers used inside information and stopwatch timing
¤ Nine Iraqi children, US Marine die in blasts
¤ Russia, US still at odds over Iraq, technology sales to Iran
¤ 12 die in held Kashmir violence
¤ North Korea ditches South on nuke arms pact
¤ More losers than winners
¤ The pandemic of lying
¤ Winners who will never be seen as such
¤ US may stoke Asian arms race
Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2003
¤ Nuclear Weapons We Don't Need
¤ Victory in Iraq Shows Signs of Unraveling
¤ Police offering reward to identify anti-war protesters
¤ Powell and Putin Say Iraq Rift Is Mended, and Then Disagree
¤ Nine Iraqi children killed in explosion
¤ Bush under fire over Saudi attacks
¤ Bush Officials Change Tune on Iraqi Weapons
¤ Anti-U.S. songs top pop charts in cities
¤ 9/11 v The Truth Comes Out Israel's 9/11 connection exposed
¤ 4 Hurt As Bomb Rips Through Yemeni Court
¤ 60 killed in China mine blast
¤ US says it will hunt down terrorists
¥ Here we go again!!!!!
¤ Saudi Arabia is kernel of evil, says US brief
¤ Flashback: Views Aired In Briefing On Saudis Disavowed by U.S. Gov't.
¤ US confusion over Saudi bombing death toll
¤ Press Not Ready to Cover Our Own Gaza
¤ Israel's New Anti-Activist Strategy
¤ Firm was 'cover for CIA'
¤ Building a nation of snoops
¤ The US war on terrorism has backfired
¤ IISS warns Europe must accept US predominance
¤ Leave no CEO behind
¤ US-made Weapons to Be Used In Indonesian Military War on Aceh
¤ 'The message is: you're not safe here'
¤ 16 Found Dead Inside Texas 18-Wheeler
¤ Going Global: Building A Movement Against Empire
¤ No Big Difference
¤ U.S. Forces Nab Dr. Germ, Dr. Octopus, Riddler, Penguin
¤ Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
¤ Policy through rose-colored pilot's goggles
¤ Asymmetric advantages
¤ Ha-ha, suckers, BushCo Reams Nation Good
¤ Fraud at the New York Times: Blaming Blacks
¤ Corporate shills in black robes
¤ Mainstream media still treating Bush with kid gloves
¤ Too Cocky For Our Own Good
¤ Bits of Cheese in Oil
¤ How not to run a country
¤ Chechnya hit by new suicide bombing
¤ Intelligence chiefs forced to rethink as bomb targets complacency
¤ Kick Their Ass and Take Their Gas: Democracy Comes to Iraq
¤ Mercenaries Inc.: How a U.S. Company Props Up the House of Saud
¤ The Hydra's New Head: Propagandists, and Selling the US-Iraq War
¤ Two Eyewitness Accounts of Israeli Military Violence Against Children
¤ Race An Outdated Concept?
¤ The CEO of USA, Inc.
¤ Iraqi TV alleges US censorship
¤ 29 killed and 194 wounded
¤ America challenges GM crops ban
¤ Israeli Forces Kill 3 Palestinian Police
¤ South Korean Wary About 'Bush Doctrine'
¤ Sharon rejects US pressure on settlements
¤ US orders diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia
¤ Cook accuses Blair of sidelining the UN in post-war Iraq
¤ Pyongyang has dozens of nukes, top defector says
¤ Downer to discuss N Korea nuclear crisis with Japan
¤ Jewish settlements stay put, says Sharon
¤ US will not budge on road map, says Powell
¤ France balks at US control of Iraqi oil revenue
¤ Intelligence chiefs forced to rethink as bomb targets complacency
¤ Firm was 'cover for CIA'
¤ US is set to add to nuclear weapons
¤ Attacks increase pressure on fragile ties between US and Saudi Arabia
¤ Iraqi holy men leap into postwar politics
¤ Terror crackdown has not reduced al-Qaida threat, warns thinktank
¤ Iraq situation calls for a new way of thinking in US
¤ Bush vows to punish perpetrators
¤ US will not 'rewrite' ME roadmap: Powell
¤ Time for a new option
¤ Little protects Americans in risky postings
¤ Iran urges quick US pullout from Iraq
Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2003
¤ Renewed Fighting in Congo city
¤ Iranian leader angry at US talks
¤ Enron-Like Unreality
¤ The American Taxpayer Is Paying Dearly to Be Attacked by Terrorists
¤ Does defeat always have to be so humiliating?
¤ 'Up to 50 dead' in Saudi suicide blasts
¤ Iraqi Democracy
¤ The Lady Is A Tramp!
¤ Currency Wars - Euro Versus Dollar
¤ US expels Cuban diplomats
¤ Iraq's Oil Wealth May Be Headed For Privatization
¤ Aceh: The more things change ...
¤ Pax Romana v. Pax Americana
¤ Freedom , American style
¤ Was it really a war, or just a neo-con job?
¤ Bush should be impeached and tried for war crimes
¤ Ayoon wa azan (Useless Bush)
¤ Media ownership: The China syndrome
¤ Fascism Anyone?
¤ A nuclear road of no return
¤ This Wartime Candidacy Leaves Casualties
¤ Fortified Saudi Compounds Fail to Protect Expats
¤ U.S. Expels 14 Cuban Diplomats
¤ US officials say more than 90 killed in Riyadh suicide bombings
¤ Up to 10 dead in Riyadh suicide attacks
¤ Yanks go home
¤ SARS: depopulation bio-weapon for hegemony?
¤ New U.S. Administrator Begins Job in Iraq
¤ Policing Baghdad Poses Challenge for U.S
¤ At least 40 die in Chechnya blast
¤ Indonesia withdraws from ceasefire on Aceh
¤ New blockade imposed on Gaza
¤ 'Road-map' process stalls as Israel closes Gaza again
¤ Why friends of Israel should see Gaza
¤ US and Iran hold secret talks after 23 years of hostility
¤ PM obsessed with place in history, says ex-minister
¤ U.S. risks losing Iraq in anarchy, Kurd says
¤ After the Iraq war, a new balancing act in U.S.-European relations
¤ The UN's role in Iraq
¤ America's judicial 'crisis'
¤ Go to Gaza, Mr. Bush
¤ Sharon winner in talks with Powell
¤ Uprising in the Chechnya Ghetto
¤ Skippering the Yacht of State
¤ What Have We Really Won in Iraq?
¤ Three cannot tango
¤ Powell visit was signal for attacks in Riyadh
¤ Franks rejects top Pentagon post
¤ Bremer aims to end rivalry that has crippled aid efforts
¤ For Baghdad, an American oilman
¤ Frustrated hunt for banned weapons
¤ North Korea scraps N-accord with South
¤ America's role: The South's disillusioned young
¤ Afghan soldiers face terror on the job
¤ Iraqi soldiers march on US base to demand back pay
¤ India test-fires air-to-air missile again
¤ No need to rush concessions to India
¤ Bush sets sights on defending the White House in 2004
¤ 'All the news that's fit to print' - or so we thought
Latest News
Posted: Monday, May 12, 2003
¤ Seeking the Conscience of the Nation
¤ Galloway: Fakes Prove It's A Smear
¤ Surrounded by Chaos in Iraq, Middle Class Takes Up Arms
¤ Egypt says Arabs have lost confidence in US diplomacy
¤ Brit agent at heart of IRA for decades
¤ Where the CIA is in control, narcotics flourish
¤ US backs off from 'strong dollar'
¥ They will put a spin on anything. The headline should read
'The Value of the U.S. dollar is plummeting'
¤ US Fed acknowledges deflation threat
¤ Canadian dollar rises above 72 cents US
¤ Chinese bid for share of Caspian oil blocked
¤ Florida's new voting machine
¤ FCC close to easing media caps Giant firms want to own more outlets
¤ Jayson Blair Cracked the Code
¤ George W. Bush Military Record
¤ We like to look as if we support our troops
¤ Global Menace
¤ The Blair Watch Project
¤ The USA decieved the world on Iraq
¤ US tables a transparent plan for plundering Iraqi oil
¤ Panic and hysteria reign at the New York Times
¤ Will Europe and Russia seek to check U.S. power?
¤ The Most Important Liberation
¤ Entrapment, American Style
¤ "Clear Thinking" Counterfeit Conservatives
¤ Human, almost human
¤ Palestinians accept peace plan 'as it is'
¤ Israel slams the door in setback for peace plan
¤ Sharon & Sons, Inc.
¤ Sharon gives no leeway on peace process
¤ Reward for Iraqis over weapons information
¤ The spoils of peace continue to elude Rumsfeld
¤ Owner will dock workers for Bush's visit to Nebraska
¤ Just another week for the Bush administration and the media
¤ The Women Like This War
¤ 30 dead in Chechen truck bomb attack on govt building
¤ Letting London Set The Agenda On Zimbabwe
¤ US begins week-long homeland security drill
¥ Using scare tactics to distract from these real issues.
¤ Tax Cut Debate Moves to Senate Floor
¤ Trouble in Bush's America
¤ Iraq's new US chief takes charge amid fury over slow reconstruction
¤ Weakened roadmap, fresh violence mark end of Powell visit
¤ Powell fails to achieve breakthrough on peace in Mideast
¤ Palestinians see US double standard in implementation of roadmap
¤ Returning cleric puts US leadership on notice
¤ US sacks its woman in Baghdad
¤ Disorder deepens in liberated Baghdad
¤ Only despair remains at hospital
¤ Mexican President Rejects U.S. Oil Action
¤ Shia leader calls for US to get out
¤ US weapons team ends its search with no discovery
¤ Minister quits, buildings burn, rubbish rots. So much for 'reconstruction'
¤ Weapons taskforce leaves in failure
¤ From cold war to holy war
¤ Bush's Iraq venture could blow up in our faces
¤ Evil is as evil does
¤ Yanks go home
¤ Aid officials overwhelmed by chaos and violence
¤ The only credible vehicle for peace
¤ Iran's vision of rebuilding Iraq
¤ US dissolves Iraq's Baath Party
¤ EU and whose army? A force for the world
¤ Empire economics
¤ Syria not to restrict Palestinian groups, says Assad
¤ Afghans protest against amnesty to Taliban
¤ 14 die in Indian poll violence
¤ Sanctions busting
¤ Are we going to bed with the US again, or just asleep over Korea?
¤ The Israeli-Kurd nexus
¤ Powell detours from tough issues in road map talks
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2003
¤ Baghdad skeptically waiting for better days
¤ The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted
¤ The omens of occupation are not good
¤ In Talk Show Nation, might makes right
¤ Working for the Yankee dollar
¤ Introspective media not in the cards
¤ Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq
¤ Baath Party 'is dissolved', Franks says
¤ Bush Shakes Up Iraq Administration
¤ 'Guerrilla raids' raise fears that Saddam is still active
¤ 'Secret train' the Americans don't seem to be asking questions about
¤ US blocks return of UN arms inspectors
¤ Fury rises in Baghdad as drugs return to the alleys
¤ Bush seeks Iraq trial for Saddam's henchman to ensure death penalty
¤ U.S. Offers Rewards in Iraq Weapons Hunt
¤ Police state propaganda
¤ Congo air toll may top 200
¤ Reject Baath Party, U.S. Tells Iraqi Job Hopefuls
¤ On U.S. Demands, Iraq and Sharon
¤ Iraq in danger of starvation, says UN
¤ US must accept some responsibility
¤ Afghan Cleric Close to Karzai Killed
¤ US rivals turn on each other as weapons search draws a blank
¤ Sharon set to frustrate US
¤ Powell seeks new Middle East deal
¤ Bush ally set to profit from the war on terror
¤ Dozens Dead, Homes Destroyed by Twisters in US
¤ US endures one of the roughest storm seasons ever
¤ Daughters of the revolution
¤ Exxon probed over $500m Africa scandal
¤ US forces to stay 'as long as it takes'
¤ Franks says US presence is long-term
¥ As long as there is oil they will be there
¤ US, Britain control Iraq in new plan
¤ 3 PDP men among 11 killed in Kashmir
¤ Are wars really so beneficial?
¤ 'Victory' is only the beginning
¤ The awful truth: arrogant America got it right
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, May 10, 2003
¤ The blood and the money are not added up
¤ Silence speaks volumes on Halliburton's sweet deal
¤ Refusing Pessism
¤ Door opened for new era of nuclear arms
¤ The Karamazov Question: What Price for Paradise?
¤ When Lying Pays Off: The Fabrications of the Neo-Cons
¤ Looks like WMD have gone AWOL
¤ Choosing enemies with more care
¤ June 15 Deadline Set for Iraq Stability
¥ Don't hold your breath.
¤ Afghan reconstruction is a slow road
¤ US still has to win the peace
¤ U.S.-led Convoy Bombards House in Eastern Afghanistan After Attack
¤ US Senate committee agrees to lift ban on development of small-scale nukes
¤ Vying for Eyes, Ears of Iraq
¤ 'Road Map' Has Little Momentum
¤ Roadmap ignores basic human rights issues
¤ Blueprint gives coalition control of oil
¤ Iraqi cleric calls for 'independence'
¤ Iraqi court to try 'crimes against Iraqi people'
¥ First up U.S. and Britian
¤ Thirteen dead in bomb blast in southern Philippines
¤ U.S. govt's "official" version of 9/11 greatest deception ever
¤ World Trade Center 'Conspiracy Theory' is a Conspiracy Fact
¤ Do we want an American empire?
¤ Indian's Congress slams gov't for 'Israel obsession'
¤ Freedoms crumble, press sleeps
¤ Blair tops worst Britons poll
¤ U.S. Troops Surround Iranian Opposition Group in Iraq
¤ U.S. defends plan to `occupy' Iraq
¤ Rumsfeld link to sale of reactors to North Korea
¤ Cholera threat in Basra
¤ At 10,000 feet the door flipped open and passengers were sucked out
¤ Powell arrives to face uphill struggle on road map
¤ Isreali settlers vow to resist any move to expel them
¤ US pledges to rebuild Afghanistan
¤ Black Hawk Crash in Iraq Kills 3 Soldiers
¤ Iraq Inc: A joint venture built on broken promises
¤ The allies' broken promises
¤ The thief of Baghdad
¤ US soldiers shot in Baghdad
¤ Bush offers free trade
¤ Iran's nuclear secrets
¤ Abusing old allies doesn't pay
¤ Fear and hatred claim three more lives
¤ Why western values may not fit
¤ Australians held at Guantanamo helpless as days turn into years
¤ The Money or Your Lives: Wild West in Iraq
¤ Spreading a big lie
¤ The reality of Pakistan-India talks
Latest News
Posted: Friday, May 9, 2003
¤ The guys who are running America now are basically just thugs
¤ Perhaps it is about oil
¤ You Call This Victory?
¤ U.S. General May Censor Iraqi TV Station's Programs
¤ Halliburton Unit's Bill for Iraq Work Mounts
¤ Iraqi National Congress Seeks Enhanced Credibility
¤ The Two Faces of Rumsfeld
¤ Ideology is Key to Corporate Imperialism in Iraq
¤ Those Who Don't Count
¤ New World Order: Bullying
¤ Vive La France
¤ Soldiers of the new front
¤ Israel imposed curbs on journalists in Gaza Strip
¤ Amnesty Says Israel Shutting Out Foreign Scrutiny
¤ U.S. Diplomats Decry 'Military Coup'
¤ President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11
¤ Halliburton Deal Includes "Pumping" and "Distributing" Iraqi Oil
¤ Confronting Semitism It's Called Brainwashing
¤ Protests planned for Bush speech at USC
¤ Senate Broadens Terror Surveillance Law
¤ U.S. asks approval to control Iraq's oil industry
¤ London mayor compares Bush to Saddam
¤ Vigilantes take up arms, vow to expel 'Muslim filth'
¤ It's the ferocity, stupid
¤ Empire of the Son
¤ Waving the flag while the cameras roll
¤ A cabal of liars
¤ Bush Is An Insipid Show-Off
¤ Mission 2004: Defeat G.W. Bush
¤ The Post-War Iraq Paradox
¤ The Fabrications of the Neo-Cons
¤ G.W. Bush: Drunk on Power
¤ One Million Black Children In Extreme Poverty In The U.S.
¤ US, Britain want power to spend Iraq oil money
¤ Baghdad liable for September 11: judge
¥ The Easter Bunny and Santa also had a major role
¤ The two faces of Rumsfeld
¤ Gaza visitors must sign waiver in case army shoots them
¤ Gunmen kill 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad
¤ Check Iraq's free fall
¤ Disneyfication
¤ The U.S. and Iran together again?
¤ US pushing for UN action against Iran
¤ Nine die in held Kashmir
¤ Bush's carrier landing a costly political stunt, say Democrats
¤ Hamas militant among two killed in missile strikes on Gaza
¤ Iraqi court to try 'crimes against Iraqi people': US
¤ 33 Germans killed in train-bus accident
¤ No evidence of plan to use banned weapons in war
¤ Archbishop wary of triumphalism in Blair's thanksgiving plans
¤ UN to be partner with no power
¤ Cheney firm paid millions in bribes to Nigerian official
¤ Neocons dance a Strauss waltz
¤ Chaos in court as hearings begin
¤ Liberation, one month on: Chaos, cholera and killings.
¤ Was the President's 'Top Gun' moment an expensive mistake?
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2003
¤ Halliburton linked to deals with 'axis of evil'
¤ Plans to rebuild Iraq exclude women
¤ US Army Biological Weapons Delivery System, Violates Bioweapons Convention
¤ Former POW Lynch May Never Remember What Happened to Her in Iraq
¤ Secret Halliburton deal endangers U.S. credibility
¥ Which credibility????
¤ Cheney's Connections To Halliburton Inappropriate
¤ White House adviser pushes Bush agenda
¤ Israel fashions a bomber of its own
¤ The Oil Grab Begins?
¤ The president's real goal in Iraq
¤ Can we handle the truth?
¤ Lies About Iraq's Weapons Are Past Expiration Date
¤ Ship Carrying Bush Delayed Return
¤ 'Roadmap' Only Days Old, Settlers Begin Enlarging Illegal Colonies
¤ India Says It Won't Get Rid of Nukes
¤ Bush's Big Lie
¤ Cheney's pals at Halliburton are now in control of Iraq's oil industry
¤ A Plan for Iraq: Leave
¤ Brezhnev, Bush and Baghdad
¤ Welcome to the Virtual U.S.A.
¤ Now in open, 'empire' talk unsettling
¤ Winning a war; alienating the world: 10 lessons of the Iraq war
¤ I loathe America, and what it has done to the rest of the world
¤ David Bloom's death tied to smallpox shot?
¤ Basra suffers cholera outbreak
¤ Taliban appears to be regrouped and well-funded
¤ US Media Helped Bush Sell the War
¤ Scaring America half to death
¤ Sharon to urge Powell to press PA
¤ Explosion on U.S. Warship Near Gulf Injures 11-Navy
¤ Suspected Iraqi Bioweapons Lab Tested
¤ Iraqi Boy Killed by U.S. Army Vehicle
¤ U.S. to Urge U.N. to Lift Iraq Sanctions
¤ Bush preparing to outline a political role for the UN in Iraq
¤ Sars threatens to wreck Asian markets
¤ New demand from Sharon puts peace plan at risk
¤ Saddam's fate not important
¤ Top Gun Bush chose TV-friendly jet landing over simple helicopter ride
¤ Irate Afghans march against 'US lies'
¤ Looters at key Iraqi nuke site terrify residents
¤ Cheney confirms he will be Bush's running mate
¤ Germans dismayed that Poles could command their troops
¤ For better or worse, black market brisk
¤ U.S. Adviser Warns Syria on Iraqi WMD
¤ US terror tactics in Iran
¤ Palestinian baby shot dead by IDF troops in Gaza Strip
¤ Bush adds to demands on Pyongyang
¤ Indian shelling kills seven in Azad Kashmir
¤ Tribal separatists' kill 21 in India's north-east
Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, May 7, 2003
¤ Legality of war no longer an issue: Australian PM
¤ US Prevents Weapons Inspectors Access in Iraq
¤ Backlash begins over Bush's toy soldier photo op
¤ Delusions
¤ George W. Bush: The Little Snot, the Little Bully
¤ An Activist in the Trenches: an Interview with Greta Duisenberg
¤ Making the military a stage prop for politics
¤ Crying Wolf
¤ The Warrior President: Aggression With an All-American Grin
¤ Who's Gonna Take Away Washington's License to Kill?
¤ Rich in Imagination
¤ Is Bush a war criminal
¤ Rummy the Genius Forgot About Nukes
¤ America's weapons evidence flawed, say spies
¤ The virus that has infected the American mind
¤ Ways to profit from war
¤ Pearle told investors they could profit from war
¤ U.S. tries to rule world
¤ US wants Turkey on side over Iran, Syria
¤ Byrd criticizes Bush's carrier visit
¤ EU gets greenlight to impose record sanctions on US trade
¤ Mad Dogs Of War
¤ Halliburton Iraq contract larger than previously known
¤ Halliburton: Winning the Spoils of War
¤ Poland puts Iraq carve-up in doubt
¤ Straw under fire for ignoring Israeli attacks on UK nationals
¤ Colombian rebels execute 10 hostages as army attempts rescue
¤ Death toll from Vietnam bus blast rises to 27
¤ New civilian chief appointed for Iraq
¤ A shot of democracy
¤ Suspected Rebels Kill 19 in India
¤ North Korea's nuclear threat
¤ Blair wants free speech in Baghdad but not UK, says Galloway
¤ Globalization and America
¤ Missing in action: the truth about Iraqi arms
¤ America's weapons evidence flawed, say spies
¤ Bush's political use of war images is shameless
¤ Bush names civilian administrator for Iraq
¤ First anti-US protest held in Kabul
¤ Organised gangs 'were involved in looting of museum'
¤ Iran failing to clear up nuclear concerns: US
¤ Rising risks of nuclear N. Korea
¤ Mbeki, Mandela pay tribute to Sisulu
¤ Road to the roadmap
¤ Rumsfeld And Saddam
¤ Occupying power's role
¤ Keep the US at bay
Pests, Pesticides and Modern Science
Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2003
By Devinder Sharma
It took three decades for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to realise the gravest mistake of Green Revolution - pesticides are unnecessary. But by the time the mistake was realised, pesticides had polluted the environment, poisoned the fertile soils, contaminated the ground water and taken a heavy human toll.
Not far from where IRRI is located, rice farmers in Central Luzon province in the Philippines, had gradually got disenchanted with the indiscriminate use of pesticides. From a peak insecticide use in the mid-1980s, it is now at an historic low. Contrary to what agricultural scientists and the chemical industry had maintained all these years, the decline in insecticides use has been accompanied by an increase in productivity from an average of 2.75 tonnes to 3.25 tonnes per hectare in 2002. It also resulted in savings on an average of up to 1,000 pesos per hectare for these farmers.
Equally significant is the scientific courage with which IRRI's director general, Dr Ronald Cantrell has accepted the reality: "It shows that the mistakes of the Green Revolution - where too much emphasis was sometimes put on the use of chemicals for pest control - have clearly been recognized and corrected," adding, "because of their toxicity, insecticides really should be used by farmers as a last resort, and we are very pleased to see that farmers have realized this for many years, especially here in the Philippines." His colleagues at IRRI are now equally critical of the extent and use of pesticides. Says Gary John, an ecologist: "The simple fact is that, in the rest of Asia, most insecticide use on rice is a waste of the farmers' time and money."
The Philippines is not the only country where farmers have proved the scientists wrong. In Vietnam, almost 2 million rice growers in the Mekong Delta have been persuaded to cut back on using harmful and unnecessary farm chemicals. The campaign - which was a joint effort of a team of Philippine and Vietnamese scientists - has sharply reduced pesticide misuse, and won the collaborative effort the US$25,000 Saint Andrews' Environmental Prize for 2002. The prize money is now being used to extend the campaign to another million rice farmers in the Red River Delta.
"What we hope to learn next is why the farmers of central Luzon have learned these lessons so much more quickly than farmers elsewhere," adds Dr. John. First launched in 1994 in the Mekong Delta - long one of the great rice bowls of Asia - the research and subsequent campaign marked a milestone in rice production for two reasons. IRRI says that first it clearly identified the damage caused by insecticide overuse, which kills off friendly insects and so encourages the pests they would otherwise help control, and it also developed a completely new way of communicating important information to farmers.
The basic premise of integrated pest management (IPM) is that no single pest-control method can be successful over a long period. Therefore, a mixture of biological, physical and chemical methods must be considered and integrated into a cohesive strategy designed to sustain a pest-management system. The ultimate goal of IPM is sustainable agricultural systems with minimal or no pesticide use, says an IRRI press release. One wonders when will this new found wisdom be applied in cotton, which alone consumes more than 50 per cent of the total pesticides used.
Well, if that is true, isn't it a fact that agricultural scientists had misled farmers all these years? Isn't it a fact that because of the over-emphasis on the use of chemicals to control pests, more problems have been created rather than being addressed? Isn't it a fact that besides polluting the environment, insecticides have changed the pest profile turning many minor insect species to emerge as major pests? Does it not mean that if scientists had learnt from farmers, probably they could have found simple time-tested technologies that wouldn't have destroyed the fertile lands?
For instance, in the State of Tamil Nadu, situated in the southern part of India, more than 8,000 farmers in some 10 districts have been using herbal pest repellents. Such has been the mental conditioning that no agricultural scientist, graduating from the land grant colleges, will ever accept the efficacy and utility of such an herbal spray. The result being that while expensive and unwanted pesticides are being promoted and pushed by the scientists and extension workers, farmers are looking for safe and ecological alternatives. While Philippino researchers say one of the key factors continuing to influence Philippine farmers is the return of fish, frogs and edible snails to their farms, confirming the positive environmental impact of IPM strategies, it may take some time for Indian agricultural scientists to see the writing on the wall.
A Karikali-based group in Tamil Nadu, prides in calling itself a university with multifarious ecological roles -- Vazhviyal Multiversity. Its herbal pest repellant is based on traditional knowledge listed in the scripture -- Vriksha Ayurveda. The repellant is prepared from the leaves of five plant species that are not eaten by cattle. These can vary from a place to place, but would ideally have neem, tulsi, and datura. The leaves are collected, cut into pieces and then pounded. The biomass is then put in an earthen pot filled with cow urine. The pot is kept in a compost pit for ten days, during which period it gets fermented. Filter the fermented solution with a cotton cloth, add ten times the quantity with water, and the herbal spray is ready.
The only catch being that the herbal spray is applied before the insects appear. Such simple technologies unfortunately do not find any mention in the agriculture textbooks and curriculum. The reason is simple: there is no industry behind it.
Numerous such technologies have been in vogue. But with the advent of modern science, which began to view everything traditional as backward and sub-standard, the collective wisdom of generations of farmers was lost. Such was the massive campaign to discredit everything that was time-tested for ages that modern science, its blind adoption, and extensive application became the essential ingredient for classifying farmers as ‘progressive'. The chemical industry, which gained commercially from the surge in widespread use, very cleverly used agricultural scientists as its promoters. By the time the scientists realized, and thanks to a concerted campaign by some civil society groups and organizations, the damage and destruction had been done.
The chemical industry has meanwhile moved into life sciences. The same industry now decries pesticides and sings virtues for the new 'promising technology' - genetic engineering. Pesticides are now being replaced with genetically modified crops, which perform the same functions. The tragedy is that agricultural scientists are being once again used as promoters of a technology, the negative impact of which have not been fully studied. Once again, agricultural scientists appear more than keen to take the farming community on a faulty garden path. And like the pesticides imbroglio, it may take decades before the disastrous implications of the cutting-edge technology, as genetic engineering is fondly called, become visible.
But then, who is responsible for and should be directed to pay for the clean-up operations to restore the sustainability of the lands and environment? Why shouldn't the ‘polluter pays' principle be applied to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which governs the 16 international agricultural research centers, and of course the multi-billion dollar chemical industry to pay for the environmental damages? It is time agricultural science is made accountable. It is high time that the CGIAR is directed to cough out the real cost of the environmental destruction its technologies have wrought. Modern science cannot be allowed a free play for un-necessary experimentation that does irreparable damage to the land and water that feeds the world. A beginning has to be made, the sooner the better.
(Devinder Sharma is a New Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst. Email: dsharma@ndf.vsnl.net.in)
Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2003
¤ First Anti-American Protest Held in Afghan Capital
¤ WITH IRAQ UNDER OCCUPATION; NEXT TARGET: IRAN?...
¤ Anti-Apartheid Fighter Walter Sisulu Dies
¤ The Iraqis Will Have to Learn Democracy Someplace Else
¤ Liberation at Gunpoint
¤ Operation Support Garner
¤ What we really need is a Loyalty From the Top Day
¤ Up to his usual stunts
¤ The only law west of the Tigris
¤ Regime change begins at home ... literally
¤ Commander-in-Costume
¤ An Activist in the Trenches
¤ The Little Snot, the Little Bully
¤ Delusions
¤ Don't They Mean "Wear Something Brown?"
¤ Population of Israel 6.7 million - eight times what it was in '48
¤ We were born here, so what?
¤ Israeli killed, 2 seriously hurt in West Bank shooting attack
¤ Spin behind Jessica Lynch story?
¤ Where Do the Neocons Go from Here?
¤ Rocky start for new Iraqi police force
¤ Despite US denials, cluster bombs continue to claim lives in Iraq
¤ U.S. TV lost focus on war, says editor
¤ US considers ignoring UN over Iraq sanctions
¤ Israeli Tourist Minister Terrorizes Palestinian Homes
¤ Associated Press Puts Violent Words in Iraqi Protesters' Mouths
¤ Envoy dubs US a police state
¤ Rebuilding America's Defenses
¤ US: Finding Iraq's WMD not a top priority
¤ Algiers: No news, no talks on missing tourists
¤ Conference on looted Iraqi treasures
¤ US warns Russia over N-cooperation with Iran
¤ SARS riots hit China as medical workers sacked
¤ 50 years later, the snarl of McCarthy lives again
¤ US admits it cannot stop North Korea's nuclear programme
¤ U.S. shifts focus to North Korea's nuclear exports
¤ Powell to visit Germany in move to smooth ties
¤ Garner to be replaced by former diplomat
¤ What to do about America
¤ The Osama bin Laden effect
¤ Twisters hammer US mid-west
¤ Bad news Bush
¤ US 'shifts stance' on North Korean arms
¤ Israelis fire on parents of injured British peace activist
¤ Bush may lift sanctions on his own, despite opposition
¤ Seven die in Kashmir
Latest News
Posted: Monday, May 5, 2003
¤ Sources Say Jessica Lynch Has Amnesia
¥ Of course. She can't remember the story as told by the U.S
¤ The real 'Saving Pte. Lynch'
¤ Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources. Are they reliable?
¤ White House refuses to release Sept. 11 info
¤ So he thinks it’s all over...
¤ Iran Asks U.S. to Stop Opposition Attacks
¤ America: The failed experiment
¤ The biggest bomb in Bush's arsenal
¤ In the Company of Spies
¤ Dept. Of Connections: The Contractors
¤ USA's preference is dictatorship over democracy
¤ Weapons of Mass Destruction Were a Fantasy From the Start
¤ MSNBC Article on Bush "Misstatement" Pulled Off Site
¤ Israel to lobby against US ‘roadmap’ for peace
¤ Unanswered Iraq Questions: The Media isn't Asking
¤ Fabrication will result in more pre-emptive warfare
¤ North Korea Urges Washington to Respond to Its Proposal to End Crisis
¤ Stop Attacks on Medical Relief Services
¤ Faking it
¤ Powell tells Syria, play ball or pay the price
¤ Iraq goes back to school, but not back to normal
¤ Pakistan states nuclear position
¤ Dangerous patients roam streets as Shia gunmen hold asylum
¤ Democratic contenders for White House clash over Iraq war
¤ Putin, Bush to Focus on Missile Defense
¤ Ominous Precedent
¤ Ruling prompts calls for Gulf war syndrome inquiry
¤ Firm in Florida election fiasco earns millions from files on foreigners
¤ How US paid for secret files on foreign citizens
¤ The world won't forgive or forget
¤ Boy, 14, killed in Basra army incident
¤ Boy, 14, is shot dead 'by British soldier'
¤ Magnitude 5.8 Quake Hits Northwest China
¤ Rumsfeld: U.S. Seeks Info on Iraq Weapons
¤ MI5 knew of bombers' ties to Islam
¤ Al Qaeda may be rebuilding
¤ India withholds its verdict on Pakistan's invitation
¤ Thaw on the subcontinent
¤ Powell warns Syria of 'consequences'
¤ The end of wilderness
¤ Bush's risk for peace
¤ The mother of all nation-building
¤ A little bit of a Mideast peace plan
¤ President for ensuring integrity of Iraq
¤ Lessons for Iraq
¤ Afghanistan, not Iraq, test of US commitment to the region
¤ Rebels kill 22 in Philippine attack
¤ US wants others to take over Iraq peace role
¤ America has been weakened by its victory in Iraq
¤ Lessons for Iraq in the aftermath of Afghan war
The History of Hizbullah
Posted: Sunday, May 4, 2003
By Marc Sirois, yellowtimes.org
(Lebanon) – The war between Israel and Hizbullah was not simply born. It was conceived in a seething cauldron of all the things that make the Middle East a snake pit of unending bloodshed, unrivaled bitterness, and unfathomable duplicity.
To understand how this violent relationship might evolve in the future, and how the international community can most effectively seek to keep it under control, it is best to start at the beginning - the real one, rather than the red herrings bred by a mainstream media that is alternately guilty of gross ignorance and shameless fabrication.
The beginning was not in 1985, when Israel declared a memorably ill-named "security belt" in southern Lebanon. It was not in 1982, either, when the Jewish state's then-defense minister, Ariel Sharon, sent his forces crashing all the way to Beirut in a bid to eliminate the Palestine Liberation Organization.
No, to truly understand why the water still running under this particular bridge is so heavy with blood and hatred, one has to go back to 1978. That was when Israel first occupied a strip of southern Lebanon in response to cross-border raids by Palestinian guerrillas fighting to regain lands lost during conventional wars in 1948 and 1967.
By 1978, Lebanon was three years into a civil war that would last until 1990 and kill approximately 250,000 people (something like 15 percent of the population). The war had many causes, but one of the main ones was the growing power and influence of Palestinian militant groups operating on Lebanese soil and drawing Israeli retaliation.
The PLO and other organizations came to Lebanon as a last resort. Egypt and Syria had long since prevented them from using their respective borders with Israel as staging grounds for attacks, and in 1970, Jordan had ruthlessly put down a Palestinian rebellion that resulted when it sought to ban operations from its territory as well.
The Palestinians were left with tiny Lebanon as a base, a situation that represented a double-edged sword of conspicuous lethality. On the one hand, Lebanon's government and military were too weak to keep the Palestinian movement from displacing their authority in selected areas, especially near the border. On the other, the very paucity of power that made possible such freedom of action also translated into extreme vulnerability to outside action: Israel might hesitate to invade Egypt to go after Palestinian militants operating from there, but there was nothing to stop it from running roughshod over Lebanon.
Lebanon was left with the Palestinians, too. Its own internal divisions made it impossible to put up a united front in the face of what amounted to the creation of a state within a state. For all the might amassed by PLO's armed wings, however, they were certainly incapable of repelling an Israeli onslaught if and when it came. To make matters worse, until the full-scale invasion did come, Lebanon and the Lebanese - especially those in the South - would be subjected periodically to punishment by the Jewish state's vastly superior military.
In effect, the Arab world's major players had abandoned two of its weakest links to one another. All that remained was for the Israelis to appreciate the gulf that had been opened up and dive in.
Before doing so, however, they wanted to test the waters, and so the border strip was occupied in 1978. Even this relatively small step radically altered the equation in the South: It meant that even more of the fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces would take place on Lebanese soil rather than inside the Jewish state. This caused no small amount of resentment among the local population, exacerbating some differences between sects but causing others to become blurred.
There was, after all, a civil war going on that in broad strokes pitted Christians against Muslims. Certain camps in the former community saw the Israelis as potential allies against the latter. Little did they know how quickly the Israelis would discard them once their "usefulness" had expired, but that is another story.
On the Muslim side, a new split was shaping up. By 1978, Lebanon's Shiites, a badly neglected under-class, were probably the largest religious group in the country if not yet an outright majority. Heavily represented in the South, their towns and villages bore the brunt of Israeli reprisals for Palestinian attacks. In addition, once the border strip was taken over, the proximity of Israeli combat forces put the Palestinians under greater strain than ever. They reacted by implementing tougher security measures, eventually imposing a de facto government on what had become known as "Fatahland" after the PLO's dominant faction, Yasser Arafat's Fatah.
All through the Palestinian build-up in the South during the 1970s, entire families felt compelled to leave, many of them Shiite. The conjoined pressures applied by Palestinian militant groups and Israeli air and artillery strikes were too much to bear. Many of those who could afford to do so fled the country entirely, but the great majority of displaced Shiites ended up as illegal squatters in Beirut's southern suburbs, an overcrowded and squalid area known as Al-Dahhiyeh. Both those who left the South and those who tried to stay behind harbored tremendous resentment against the Palestinians, to whose presence they (often rightly) attributed, directly or indirectly, their misfortune.
The Christians had expected to be pushed around by the Palestinians, whose goals were different and whose forces they had been fighting in the civil war, but the Shiites felt betrayed. The last thing they expected was to be oppressed by another "have-not" group. The seeds of Shiite bitterness against the Palestinians had been planted.
Then came the infamous summer of 1982.
On June 3 of that year, militants working for the radical Palestinian group Abu Nidal gunned down the Israeli ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov. Despite the fact that Abu Nidal was a blood enemy of the mainstream Palestinian resistance movement and had assassinated several of its key leaders, Israel targeted its "retaliation" for the London hit by launching air strikes at PLO ammunition dumps and offices in Lebanon, including Beirut. An undeclared truce had reigned along the border for several months, and the PLO was not about to take the escalation lying down. Instead, it pounded northern Israel with artillery.
Then all Hell broke loose. On June 6, the Israeli Defense Forces rolled out of the area they already occupied and, despite a promise to the United States that they would advance no more than 40 kilometers, headed for Beirut. Given the rapidity with which a full-scale invasion was launched, the IDF had obviously been preparing for quite some time, and the shelling of Galilee offered the perfect pretext.
For the most part, the only resistance they met came from Palestinian fighters, who acquitted themselves far better than had been expected, and the Syrian military, whose performance was more of a mixed bag. The Lebanese Army was too much in disarray to contribute anything of value. Two of the militias nominally allied with the Palestinians stayed out of the fight. Both the Druze grouping (then led by Walid Jumblatt, who would later serve as a Cabinet minister) and the AMAL force (a Shiite group led by future parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri) stood aside as Israeli troops and tanks slashed their way toward the capital. AMAL's formation and activities are a key part of Hizbullah's later emergence, but more on that later.
Given the firepower at the Israelis' disposal, it is not surprising that these militias elected to stay out of the way. What amazed Israeli soldiers and their officers was the way they were greeted by the Shiite population in the South. In village after village, the interlopers were welcomed as liberators and showered with flowers and rice. Some Palestinian groups had so badly mistreated their natural allies that people threw their arms open to invading troops.
It did not take long, though, for the Israelis to wear out their welcome. In short order, the Jewish state dispatched "experts" on civil administration in occupied areas who promptly replaced traditional village elders and other leadership figures with more "reliable" elements from among the local population. The result was anger at the Israelis and total distrust of the administrators they had installed.
Over the succeeding months, Israeli occupation forces steadily eroded whatever remained of the locals' respect for them via such tactics as draconian restrictions on movement that kept farmers from tending their fields and collective punishment that penalized hundreds of people for the actions of a single individual.
Just over six months after the Israelis arrived in the South, the kettle of rage among a community that had once invited them into their homes finally boiled over. On Nov. 11, a suicide bomber destroyed an eight-story building housing the IDF's headquarters in the occupied city of Tyre. At least 75 Israeli troops and members of its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, were killed.
Hizbullah did not yet exist as we know it today but the ingredients for a Shiite "awakening" were all on hand, and the catalyst of Israeli occupation was drawing them to the same place.
Like their co-religionists everywhere else in the Islamic world, their Sunni counterparts had long treated Lebanon's Shiites as second-class citizens. By the mid-1970s, despite being the country's most populous sect, they were tired of a political system that froze them out of key leadership positions. The set-up, based on the colonial model imposed by the French, guaranteed half of the country's parliamentary seats and Cabinet positions including key portfolios like the defense and interior ministries to Christians. The Presidency was reserved specifically for a Maronite Christian.
Shiites were denied even a proper share of the remainder, with Sunni representation among the ruling elite remaining unduly heavy and even the tiny Druze sect holding more than its share of influence. Those Shiites who were politically active were fragmented, operating under the banner of secular groupings like the Baathists, the Communists, and the Nasserites.
One man tried mightily to change all that. Musa Sadr, an Iranian cleric whose family is said to have originally come from Lebanon, was invited to lead the Lebanese Shiite community in 1959. Tall and exceedingly charismatic, he captured the imagination of his followers and eventually inspired them to demand their rights.
In 1974, Sadr founded the Harakat al-Mahroumeen (Movement of the Dispossessed), which, as the civil war approached, spawned a militia called the Afwaj al-Moqawama al-Lubnanieh (Lebanese Resistance Detachments), popularly known by the acronym AMAL, which means "hope."
Sadr established a political forum designed to communicate the Shiite community's concerns to the state. Chief among their demands were better infrastructure, increased representation in politics, more access to government employment, and steps to either end the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians or help keep Shiites from getting caught in the crossfire.
Once the war broke out, AMAL fought on the side of the Palestinians, the Lebanese Sunni and the Druze militias against the Christians. But eventually, Sadr concluded that the conflict was pointless and opted to back a Syrian-sponsored peace initiative. Shortly thereafter, he disappeared during a visit to Libya. He was last seen leaving a hotel in Tripoli for a meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
AMAL then fell under the sway of Nabih Berri, a secular lawyer-cum-warlord. Over the years, his uninspiring leadership, reputation for unabashed corruption, and tendency to shift loyalties at Syria's behest alienated many of the movement's cadres. When AMAL failed to help the Palestinians resist the Israeli offensive, many fighters quit in disgust. More left in 1985 after AMAL launched its bloody "War of the Camps" against Palestinian refugee communities.
Over the next few years, these militiamen and a group of Shiite clerics formed the core around which a new group congealed. Eventually it became Hizbullah, but along the way some of its members used other names such as Islamic AMAL, Islamic Jihad, etc. There were no less than 55 private "armies" operating in Lebanon at the time. It is, therefore, impossible to say with certainty which early actions taken against the Israelis and Western interests in Lebanon were the work of Hizbullah itself, which were committed by freelancers using the name, and which were carried out by actual members acting without authorization.
What is undeniable is that the Israelis had acquired a deadly new enemy, one whose adherents were neither afraid to die nor willing any longer to sit quietly while the international community let a foreign occupier dominate their homeland. It took until late 1983, however, for the Israelis and just about everyone else to realize that the rules of the game had changed forever.
On Oct. 16, 1983, the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh was bustling with celebrations of Ashura, the Shiite holiday marking the assassination of Hussein at Karbala 13 centuries ago. Despite the Jewish state's subsequent claims that its units had orders not to interfere with the goings-on, an Israeli convoy proceeded to interrupt the procession so that its vehicles could pass through.
When the crowd of 50,000 worshippers became restless, then hostile, some of the Israelis opened fire. Two people were killed and about a dozen wounded. It was not the casualty toll that caused the ensuing explosions of vengeance, though: It was the timing of yet another humiliation on the very day when Shiites bemoan the original persecution of their faith.
One week later, a suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives destroyed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. The blast killed 241 American troops serving with the Multi-National Force, ostensibly on a peacekeeping mission. Almost simultaneously, a building housing the French MNF contingent was also brought down, killing 59 paratroopers. Ten days after that, the Israeli military intelligence headquarters in Tyre was demolished by yet another bomb, killing about 30 Israeli troops and a similar number of Palestinians and Lebanese prisoners.
Over the next few years, Lebanon became an exceedingly dangerous place for foreigners. Several Westerners were kidnapped and murdered, and despite what certain self-styled "experts" continually claim but fail to back up with evidence, the situation was too chaotic to identify those responsible for the vast majority of what qualified as terrorist attacks. Some were likely the work of Hizbullah in some shape or form, but others, for example, were "honor crimes" against Westerners who had abused positions of authority to seduce young women. In any event, before one deems that sufficient to condemn the group forever, one should understand the context of Lebanese hostility to the West.
For starters, the MNF's activities were simply not consistent with those of a peacekeeping force. This was especially true of the Americans, who took sides almost from the instant they came ashore and occupied an exposed position next to a Christian militia.
In August 1982, the MNF's job had been to supervise the evacuation by sea of PLO militants from West Beirut. The Israelis had laid siege to this mostly Muslim section of the city, cutting off food and water to combatants and civilians alike. Under an agreement brokered by the United States, the PLO agreed to have its fighters leave by boat. The Israelis agreed not to enter either the capital or camps in the area that were home to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and displaced Lebanese. The U.S. undertaking was to guarantee the security of Palestinian civilians left behind.
In mid-September, a powerful bomb ripped through a building in East Beirut, killing President-elect Bashir Gemayel, the man Israel had been counting on to serve as its viceroy in a new puppet state. Gemayel's Christian Phalangist supporters responded by entering the now-unprotected Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila and engaging in an orgy of violence. Estimates of the death toll vary from 800 men women and children to 3,000.
Whatever the precise figure, the Israeli military was responsible under international law for the security of noncombatants on territory it controlled. As for the United States, it had broken a solemn vow to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians.
In addition, the Marines' proximity to Christian forces made it inevitable that when the latter exchanged shellfire with Muslim gunners, the former would be hit by errant rounds. Instead of telling the Christians to stop firing or move away, the Americans responded by using naval gunfire against Muslim positions.
Thus, the October 1983 bombings did not come out of the blue. Like the destruction of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut a few months earlier, their background lay in a deep-rooted sense that the United States was anything but a neutral party - either between Israel (whose invasion had killed as many as 20,000 civilians) and the Palestinians or among various Lebanese factions.
While these attacks were impossible to pin on any single group, from 1985 on, however, there was no mistaking the source of armed resistance to the Israeli occupation in the South. Armed, financed, and initially trained by Iran, Hizbullah began to come into its own. Coupled with logistical backing from Syria, the party eventually grew into a highly professional guerrilla army that by 2000 had fought the IDF and its South Lebanon Army allies to a standstill.
Along the way, there were actually precious few terrorist incidents in which Hizbullah was even a suspect, let alone a proven perpetrator. Among them were the bombings of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center in Argentina in the 1990s - which together claimed more than 100 lives - but despite tireless propaganda to the contrary, no firm link has ever been established.
Instead, what Hizbullah did - day after day, year after year - in the South was to engage the IDF on the battlefield. It was not foolish enough to confront the U.S.-armed juggernaut in set-piece battles, but its guerrilla tactics grew increasingly bold and its preferred targets were always legitimate military ones.
When Hizbullah's operations did stray from IDF soldiers and facilities, it was in retaliation for Israeli and/or SLA attacks on Lebanese civilians. These were frequently preceded by several days of verbal warnings that the targeting of noncombatants on this side of the border had to stop or draw a response in kind. Typically, the warnings were ignored.
Hizbullah's usual "punishment" for Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians was to lob antiquated Katyusha rockets across the border. Seeing as how these weapons have little range and poor accuracy, they are deemed to be of little military value. This has caused Israel to claim that the rocket salvoes were evil acts of terror, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, given that ample warning generally preceded them, most of the inhabitants of the areas they hit were in bomb shelters when the projectiles landed. That was the goal: to inconvenience and/or intimidate Israeli civilians into demanding that their government at least stop killing Lebanese civilians and at most withdraw altogether.
So there you have it. Hizbullah was not hatched as an evil plot to destroy Israel but rather as an almost begrudging attempt to defend a community whose patience for oppression -be it foreign or domestic- had finally run out. That Israel happened to be the primary target of this organization was due to the fact that its forces were on someone else's land and that the international community - led by the United States - did nothing to make Israel withdraw its forces under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Thus it was that a combination of lopsided military power, undeserved diplomatic privilege, wholesale disregard for civilian casualties, and unbridled arrogance made the Jewish state suffer as badly as it did in Lebanon. Israel has every right to fear its long-time tormentors, but none to call them terrorists.
[Marc Sirois is a Canadian journalist who lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where he serves as managing editor of The Daily Star. The proud and fanatically protective father of three beautiful princesses, his opinionated writing style owes to the fact that he is never wrong along with his holding monopolies on wisdom, logic, morality, and justice. He is also exceedingly modest.]
Marc Sirois encourages your comments: msirois@YellowTimes.org
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, May 4, 2003
¤ US: 'Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction'
¤ Note the Bias
¤ Hunt Goes on for War's Motives
¤ Real American agenda now becoming clear
¤ The Iceman cometh
¤ Iraqi rage grows after Fallujah massacre
¤ More false leads, but no smoking gun
¤ Why look in the crystal ball? because...
¤ Bush Says Weapons Will Be Found in Iraq
¤ Dead cameraman 'carried white flag'
¤ Baghdad still restless as Bush claims victory
¤ No, no to America! Yes to Islam!
¤ U.S. far from tying up Taliban's loose ends
¤ US appoints new team to run oil ministry
¤ Britain expects to control south-eastern Iraq
¤ Powell to Syria: U.S. Expects Changes
¤ Bloodshed and bullets fuel rising hatred of Americans
¤ Nine die in Kerala Hindu-Muslim riots
¤ A victim of his own laws
¤ Two boys having fun on Air Force One
¤ Taking it off the streets
¤ Soldiers fear 'Afghan Vietnam'
¤ Allies carve up Iraq but sideline UN
¤ Blair trusts in God over the casualties of war in Iraq
¤ Neoconservatives push for a new world order
¤ US charges against Syria smack of double standards
¤ Fury as Dalyell attacks Blair's 'Jewish cabal'
¤ British Jewish MP Censures Blair For Toeing Zionist Line
¤ A Civilization Wrecked
¤ Finally, the truth about Bush's military service record
¤ Rumsfeld: U.S. Seeks Info on Iraq Weapons
¤ Tariq Aziz not telling truth: Bush
¤ Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted
¤ Israeli journalist gets World Press Freedom prize
¤ Who's Afraid of Hizballah?
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, May 3, 2003
¤ Bush Says Weapons Will Be Found in Iraq
¥ Even if they have to plant them
¤ C4 cameraman killed in Gaza
¤ 70 die in Chinese submarine disaster
¤ Terrorism scare used to censor press
¤ Israel Plans Palestinian Statehood In Jordan
¤ Forming New Iraq Proving Difficult
¤ Few Signs Emerge of U.S.-Iran Thaw
¤ Canvas v camera
¤ Over our dead bodies
¤ It's the permanent war on terrorism, stupid
¤ A confederacy of amnesiacs
¤ Plan Aims to Ban Criticism of Israel at Universities
¤ Powell rejects Syrian weapon proposal aimed as Israel
¤ Fired-up W gives tanks for help
¤ A heartless hit-and-run in hot times
¤ Pakistan demands proof to back US terror watch list
¤ Indications are that Bush intends to stay on the warpath
¤ 'Liberators' find they are not wanted
¤ Powell vows to challenge Syria to accept new ME realities
¤ US forces kill 3 Iraqi paramilitary fighters
¤ After war, a hard path to peace
¤ US warns of terrorist attack on Karachi consulate
¤ Garner goes down a rank in US switch
¤ Road to somewhere
¤ Hamas defies roadmap, vows revenge
¤ Iraq remains a dangerous place: Rumsfeld
¤ Weapons of mass distruction
¤ We will bomb if you don't go, US told
¤ US warns citizens against non-essential travel in S Arabia
¤ Bush speech a good photo-op -- but what comes next?
¤ The new road map: will it work?
¤ SARS virus said to be 'rapidly mutating'
¤ Iraq's Shiites contemplate a power vacuum
¤ Baghdad battle 'killed 2,300'
¤ U.S. unemployment hits an 8-year high
¤ With echoes of presidents past
¤ U.S. Urges UN To Go After Iran Over Nuclear Weapons
¤ Rumsfeld's soundbites take a back seat as he lashes out
¤ Iraq peace force must have UN backing, Blair tells US
¤ Afghanistan: Launchpad for terror
¤ A long way from victory
¤ Grandstanding in Brussels
¤ Moscow's archives hold lessons for Iraq
Latest News
Posted: Friday, May 2, 2003
¤ Pentagon: Tribunals to include gag rule
¤ North Korea Urges Workers to be Prepared for War With U.S.
¤ Kissinger heaps praise on Bush
¤ 'Bush's splendid little war'
¤ There is no media
¤ Combat over, but there's no peace in Afghanistan
¤ U.S. warns Canada against easing pot laws
¤ Airlines Want 9/11 Lawsuits From Families Thrown Out
¤ Mayday, Mayday, Mayday
¤ A Simple Request - Put My Son's Name on a Bomb
¤ War leaders may face war crimes charges
¤ The Yellow Brick "Road Map"
¤ Congratulations. We've just won the wrong war
¤ Bomb-plot accomplice sentenced to 41 months
¤ MORE "BULLETS TO THE HEAD" : Sharon's Reply to Road Map
¤ Media bosses admit pro-war bias in coverage of Iraq
¤ Bush promises unending war in Iraq and internationally
¤ U.S. hawks seeking to block plan worry Blair
¤ State Attorney to meet with A-G on criminal probe of Sharon
¤ Moussaoui opts out of a classified hearing
¤ Media bosses admit pro-war bias in coverage of Iraq
¤ Boy, 2, among 14 killed by Israeli troops
¤ Israeli raid kills 12 in Gaza City
¤ U.S. urges Israeli 'restraint' after Gaza raid leaves 13 dead
¤ Israeli attack undermines peace: Annan
¤ Sharon's Reply to Road Map
¤ Egypt Says Arafat Still Key to ME Peace
¤ Israel to bar pro-Palestinian activists from entering country
¤ Downer summons N Korea ambassador
¤ Iraqis Warn US Killings Will Breed Terror
¤ DEPT. OF CONNECTIONS: THE CONTRACTORS
¤ Cuba's Castro Says U.S. Is Provoking War
¤ Marijuana, pornography have created a hidden market in the U.S.
¤ Paying the cost of unilateralism
¤ In Iraq, a murky end to conflict
¤ U.S. shoots itself in the foot
¤ A fractured Iraq needs an unyielding guide
¤ 12 U.S. and 7 Afghan Soldiers Killed in Paktika
¤ Annan slams Israel's raid in Gaza
¤ Anti-war demos, violence at May Day rallies
¤ Toowoomba snubs UN and keeps 'nigger' sign
¤ Stakes high in this hoedown
¤ Is John Howard trying to be Australia's George Bush?
¤ Road map to peace fails to reflect lie of the land
¤ What if real democracy rears its head?
¤ Iraqis vow revenge as hatred of US grows
¤ American shot near Saudi base
¤ Assailed by US rhetoric, Syria circles its wagons
¤ Bush has little mileage to gain from latest drive
¤ Farewell to US arms in Saudi Arabia
¤ 65 dead in South Africa bus crash
Venezuela, Labour Day 2003
Posted: Thursday, May 1, 2003
By Franz J. T. Lee www.franz-lee.org
To Learn to Act and Think the Revolution
A spectre is haunting the Fourth Reich -- the spectre of Chavéz!
All the oligarchic powers in Venezuela and abroad have entered into a fascist, neo-liberal alliance to exorcise this spectre: Otto Reich and CAP, Aznar and Estanga, Ortega and Gaviria, "Friends of Venezuela" and Enemies of "Castro-Communism". Where is the "party" in the "opposition" that did not decry Chavéz as a "dictator", as a "tyrant"? Where is the anti-governmental "stormtrooper of the apocalypsis" that did not try to assassinate his character?
After the brutal massacre of dozens of bolivarians, especially between April 11 and 13, 2002, after various serious attempts of political and economic coups, that normally no oppressive government ever would have survived, now Chavéz is No. 1 on the hit list of the mercenary "Death Squads". With the most democratic constitution that the world ever has seen in the hand, for the majority of Venezuelans, for 85% of 24 million people, who have been languishing in critical misery and poverty over the last half-a-century, two things remain very clearly: No puede ser!! Uh, Ah, Chavéz no se va!! Their President must remain in power, if necessary, till 2021.
Never mind the Damocles Sword of global fascist "shock and awe", of a possible foreign intervensionist "awestruck" over Caracas, the Bolivarian Republic is fulfilling its historic, social order, demonstrating praxically to the world a viable, possible alternative to neo-liberal savagery in Venezuela, in Latin America, and elsewhere. Definitely, the belligerent, corporate oil mongrels of Washington, London and Madrid, in their global fascist megalomania, first would have to eradicate every single worker, peasant, buhonero, child or bolivarian, in barbaric invasion, would have to raze the whole of Venezuela to the ground, in their forward march of trying to establish a Global Fourth Empire. They would have to develop arms against "miracles", against a people in arms, to eliminate all the people's armed forces, would have to commit war crimes against a revolution in arms, in the arms and hearts of millions across the globe. They would have to extinguish the very Bolivarian revolutionary spirit from the very globe.
Now, what have the above got to do with "Labour"? With May 1, with Labour Day? Yesterday, why did Chavéz, in a speech to the nation, so vehemently attack Capital and Capitalism? Why does Lula speak about a "class war" in Latin America?
Looking through my window here in Mérida, outside there, at the foot of Pico Bolivar, everything is still near and clear, simple and easy, only a limited panorama enters our vision. Higher up, things already move to a distance, they are seen in another context, more related, complex and they can only be reflected as such. To explain this complex, complicated matter to someone who forever has been living, acting and thinking in a flat limited world, is well-nigh impossible. For her/him to understand concepts like Labour, Ideology or Revolution, s(he) must make some intellectual effort, must ascend Pico Bolivar, at least to the second station of the "teleférico", of the cable car, lying in the middle part.
Who reaches the top, has an all round view, see things in the far distance, everything appears vague, cloudy and intangible, but s(he) can see all sorts of relations, have a global vision. And because s(he) has seen the other levels and degrees already, this mension can be used for precise, incisive and decisive investigation and research work, enabling her/him, to mount other "inaccessible" heights and depths, to reach other microscopic and macroscopic spheres of productive world revolution and creative, galactic emancipation.
This has to be kept in mind, in the Bolivarian schools and people's universities, where revolutionary práxis and theory have to be developed, studied, applied. To mix up the levels, degrees and mensions of things, of reality, can only lead to confusion, to reactionary "escualidism", to political bankruptcy of the so-called "opposition".
In short, simple things, like conserving potable water, not to sing more than one song under the shower, realities that are able to be captured by an opressed, uniformal mind, can and must be expressed straightforwardly as levels, and as such, they could be understood precisely. Complex things, like Práxis and Theory, like Ideology and Practice, cannot be expressed as simplicity, it is not their natural habitat. They presuppose intellectual work, social reflection and intellectual reproduction. Vague things like revolution and emancipation, include simple and complex issues, but scientifically and philosophically, they can only be seen rationally, with real, true Reason, with Wisdom, and should be understood and explained in an opaque fashion; to explain them in a simple and complex way, as catechism or manual for beginners, is simply a useless task, will just call turmoil and devastating typhoons on the scene, and this will transform itself into an ill wind which blows nobody "good".
In real socialization, true education, there are three legitimate ways to express any "event": simply, complex and vague, thus, reflecting its even, uneven and combined development. The most precise scientific and philosophic method is precisely the latter, no matter how "concrete" we generally want to be, to be down to earth. Creatively, the Bolivarian Revolution has to be acted, be thought, be formulated transhistorically, it needs a Práxis-Theory, that considers political economy, social class differences, the labour struggle, its internal, intensive "class struggle", a philosophy that surpasses all forms of global lies, ideology and mind control.
Everybody, every Venezuelan worker, every Bolivarian should know what is Labour, what is a Labourer, what is Capital, what is Capitalism; should learn the transhistoric lessons, resulting from such gruesome phenomena like September 11 or April 11, the hard way, by her- or himself, by means of simple Práxis, complex Theory and vague Emancipation.
Very briefly, in our conception of History, there are, exist and transcend various relations between Nature and Society; one of them is Labour, which forms the very essence and existence of the Patria, of the Fatherland. This Relation, Labour, we identified as Alienation, as the process of Estrangement itself in History. Hence, it is not Labour which is alienated, and that it should be emancipated from Alienation. Alienation is Labour per se, and Labour is Alienation ab ovo. Creativity, Creation, Recreation, are certain identifiable things, however, Labour, Work, are completely different things.
Ever since the 19th century "Social Democracy", ever since the 20th century "October Revolution", a lot has changed within the international working class, from war to war it was transformed, has transformed itself. Now, in the Third Millennium, Workers of the World, Quo vadis? What do you have to lose? Your "golden" chains? No! Meanwhile, your very heads!
Looking at the British "mad cows", looking at the US-British human butchery in Iraq, it's Labour Day, 2003. May Day! May Day!! It's S.O.S.! Millions of useless "cattle", ten thousands of dirty, unciivilized "Arabs", were slaughtered like "Jews"; they were burnt in a horrible nazi "holocaust". Look at the fascist, heinous "awestruck" in Baghdad!! We thought that those times were gone; we still wonder how it could have happened at all. But, Big Brother is here! He is ignipotent, he is omnipotent, blows anything, from Twin Towers to the Cradle of Humanity, to Mesopotamia, to blazes!
When absolutist feudalism was toppled by the French Revolution, when the Industrial Revolution was driving the serfs and peasants off the lands because their agricultural labour was obsolete, Vagrant Laws -- especially under Henry VIII already, by hundred thousands -- just massacred the unwanted en masse. Of course, then, the modern working class, the proletariat, the future physical labourers were also born, came of age.
Now, we are experiencing another Global Technological and Nanotechnological Transvolution, a Revolution, that is ushering in a post-productive mode of existence, mainly utilizing "intellectual labour forces", thus condemning physical labour forces to extinction; globally, over the last decades, machines, computers, the intelligentsia drove hundreds of thousands of physical labourers into dire poverty, into obsolescence.
After Iraq, more massive global Euro-American butcheries are on the global order of the day; in the 20th century, it was called fascism or nazism. Today it is called "Anti-Terrorism", "Civilization", the New World Order or Globalization. And, the international working class, the obsolete sector, is now the "terrorist class". Long live the "terrorist class"! You have nothing to lose, except your "terror"! It's Civilization or Barbarism! It's Hobson's Choice!
Until now, in all modes of production, War supposedly had cured all Labour Problems -- will it succeed this time? Will the pipe-dreams of the giga-corporations in the oil-rich Persian and Caspian regions sweep away the physical labour class by the billions? Can the O.78% of the current working class, the intellectual labourers, still save humanity? Can the Venezuelan práxico-theoretical "Miracle of Caracas", the emancipatory result of decades of revolutionary dedication, light the transhistoric trail towards historic beauty, truth and love?
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, May 1, 2003
¤ U.S., U.K. Waged War on Iraq Because of Oil, Blair Adviser Says
¤ Annan says Israel 'undermining peace'
¤ U.S. says Canada cares too much about liberties
¤ Critic Accuses Media of Aiding U.S. War Propaganda
¤ U.S. govt purchase data on Mexico's 65 million registered Voters
¤ Lula: The Drug War is a Class War
¤ McVeigh Lawyers Express Ire Over Letter
¤ The Oklahoma City Bombing
¤ French concessions on Iraq met by US threats
¤ NPR ignores Israel's killing of 8 in Gaza, including two children
¤ Again, We're Ashamed Of Our Nation
¤ Report: U.S. Special Forces may have captured Bin Laden
¤ Israelis Raid Gaza Killing 12 Palestinians
¤ Text of the Middle East peace roadmap
¤ TWO KILLED IN NEW IRAQ DEMO SHOOTING
¤ Hooray for Bush! Wait . . . never mind
¤ Don't Try This At Home: Preemption Strikes Back
¤ Powell ready to press Syria over arms and militants
¤ North Korea Prompts U.S. to Investigate Nuclear Boast
¤ The war is over (except for Iraq)
¤ Pentagon was told to pour praise on Canberra
¤ Bush wants Canberra role in Iraq
¤ Iraqis left baffled as Don drops in for a chat
¤ Giving contracts to Halliburton questioned
¤ Crime of the century: A never-ending 'war against terrorism'
¤ Chanting the party line
¤ George's 'Evita' cry to Iraqis: I broke my promise
¤ Bush has little mileage to gain from latest drive
¤ Does 'consent of the governed' imply 'informed consent'?
¤ Iraq 101: What We've Learned
¤ Is this letter proof that Saddam Hussein is alive?
¤ Media monopolies have muzzled dissent
¤ The Republican theocracy
¤ Treasury Says U.S. Could Face Default
¤ Ivory Coast's warring factions have agreed to stop to hostilities
¤ Hoon says 6,500 UK troops will pull out
¤ Iran fights to loosen America's noose
¤ Taliban Attack on Uruzgan Base Kills 7 U.S. Troops
¤ Imperialists without the right stuff
¤ Marine investigated for war crimes after newspaper interview
¤ Public asked to help find British would-be bomber
¤ Vilified weapons inspectors may have got it right
¤ Imperialists without the right stuff
¤ Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
¤ US releases 'road map' amid underlying tensions
¤ US troops fire on new protest over killings
¤ About 135 Kids Buried After Turkey Quake
¤ Saudis wonder, will they be next?
¤ Ealing planners square up to North Korea
¤ Grumpy old men
¤ The war is over (except for Iraq)
¤ Suicide bomber and accomplice 'were British'
¤ On the road again¤ US troops kill three more Iraqis in Fallujah
¤ When Hawks Soar
¤ Four killed in Tel Aviv suicide bombing
¤ Mubarak warns against provoking 'ethnic imbalance'
¤ Saddam: hero or traitor?
¤ Tidying up minds
¤ The gaping hole in Iraq
¤ Two more die as protesters heckle departing soldiers
¤ The dangers in the looming US world hegemony
¤ Peace map shows a road to nowhere
¤ Road Map" to Peace: On track or dead-end
¤ Powell ready to press Syria over arms and militants
¤ North Korea Prompts U.S. to Investigate Nuclear Boast
¤ When Uncle Sam comes calling in Africa...
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