31 October, 2006

UN Investigates Israel's 'Uranium Weapons'
By Eric Silver

The United Nations Environment Programme is investigating allegations that Israel may have used uranium-based weapons during this summer's war in Lebanon. Twenty UN experts, working with Lebanese environmentalists, have spent two weeks assessing various samples. They are planning to report their findings in December

Melting Of Greenland's Ice Sheet
'Is The Turning Point'
By Michael McCarthy

The world's target for stopping global warming should be based on the point at which the melting of the great Greenland ice sheet becomes irreversible

'And His Life Should Become Extinct'
By Arundhati Roy

There ought to be a Parliamentary Inquiry into the December 13 attack on Parliament. While the inquiry is pending, Afzal's family in Sopore must be protected because they are vulnerable hostages in this bizarre story. To hang Mohammed Afzal Guru without knowing what really happened is a misdeed that will not easily be forgotten. Or forgiven. Nor should it be

Pushing India Toward A Dollar Democracy
By Aseem Shrivastava

You cannot hide 300 or 400 million starving mouths, and the insistently unjust social reality of India will break through into one or another rear-view mirror, disturbing the fantasies of financiers' wives and girlfriends

Hell Awaits America
By Jason Miller

Mass manipulation, blissful psychosis, and 7 easy wys to achieve damnation

Snake Oil And The Midterm Elections
By Joshua Frank

Of the 23 new Democratic candidates for the House, 22 are ardently pro-war. The other is suspect. But The Nation and the PDA don’t want you to know any of that. Instead they’d rather see left-leaning voters cramped inside the cage of the Democratic establishment. Nothing could be more damaging to social movements or our hope for real progressive change

From Orangi To Grameen Bank: An Alternative
Route To Pro-Poor Development
By Md. Saidul Islam

Both Grameencredit and the OPP have left ground-breaking legacies for both poor and development planners all over the world. There are questions as to whether both are congruent or different, but there is no question that both are alternative route to "pro-poor development", models devised by the poor themselves

An Open Letter To Rajdeep Sardesai
By Ravikiran Shinde

If you feel you have been at fault, then better be late than never. Cover the Kherlanji case and its legal proceedings. Awake the people on the gruesome caste realities in India. Telecast a half and hour program dedicated specially to Dalit atrocities every week

30 October, 2006

Africa Burning Into A Desert
By Geoffrey Lean

Nowhere is the effect of global warming more dangerous than in Somalia, where the worst drought in 40 years is affecting the lives of 1.8 million people

Mystery Of Israel's Secret Uranium Bomb
By Robert Fisk

Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?

Genocide And denial
By Gabriele Zamparini

As soon as the British medical journal the Lancet published a new scientific study estimating 655,000 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, the propaganda machine started to work full time to discredit it as it did with the other Lancet study published in 2004

Halliburton Motto - Its Cost Plus Baby
By Evelyn Pringle

Halliburton's contracts for work in Iraq are what's known as costs plus contracts, meaning that after all the costs for labor, materials and other expenses are added together, the company makes its profit based on a percentage of that total.It certainly does not take a financial genius to figure out that under the terms of such a contract, a company has every motive in the world to increase the costs of every project to increase profits

The Oil Crisis Started 30 Years Ago
By Peter Goodchild

It is customary to look for the critical year of oil production in absolute terms, but in the year 1970 or thereabouts there was another important "conjunction," to use an astrological metaphor

American Voters Must Not Reward Failure
By Ramzy Baroud

On November 7 only the American voter has the power to decide: whether to reward failure or to gracefully search for a way out of Iraq

The Battle In Seattle
(Looking Back Seven Years)
By Mickey Z.

Infighting and compromises aside, those five days in Seattle injected American dissidents into an internationalist movement

Books As Crime
By Subhash Gatade

Sunita Narayan, owner of Daanish Books, Delhi stands accused under the section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Ordinance, 2004 for committing the ‘offence’ of selling legally available literature

Child Abuse: As American As Apple Pie
By Lucinda Marshall

In the context of the real enormity of child abuse both in the US and in the world as a whole, it is hardly surprising that we allow the moral of the Foley story to be mis-framed as the sexual proclivities of one man, rather than a symptom of a much larger crime. If we truly valued families and the lives of children, these are the issues we would address

Engaging With Pakistan
By Warisha Farasat

Indians pride themselves on the vibrancy of civil society and democratic movements within the country. However, we fail to acknowledge the culture of resistance that has developed in neighboring Pakistan

Does Self-Rule Have New Delhi 's Backing?
By Zafar Choudhary

History makes a full circle on Jammu and Kashmir at United Nations when former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed will address the UN General Assembly next week. But what exactly will Mufti say there involves a crucial question on Government of India's Kashmir policy

28 October, 2006

Lebanon's Irreplaceable Cultural Loss
By Mulham Assir

The loss inflicted by the Israeli war on Lebanon is measured in the 1,400 people killed, the thousands maimed (with more continuing to be killed and maimed by the hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs left behind), the hundreds of thousands displaced or left homeless, and the wholesale destruction of infrastructure essential to life. And yet there is even more loss, impossible to put a number to and irreplaceable- Lebanon's cultural loss

A Jewish Hitler?
By Justin Raimondo

With the entry of Avigdor Lieberman into the government as deputy minister for "strategic threats" – essentially in charge of preparing for war with Iran – Israel makes a qualitative step toward a regime that increasingly resembles, in all its essentials, a rogue state, and, I might add, potentially a very dangerous one

Ahmadinejad's Divine Inspiration
By Omid Memarian

Amid a struggle between two major clerical factions for control of Iran's influential Assembly of Experts, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is trying to shore up his conservative base by portraying himself as a man with a direct link to God

Christian Supremacists And American Imperialism
By Yoginder Sikand

Bush is on record as having claimed that only Christians have a place in heaven. Many other religious fundamentalists in other faiths, including Osama bin Laden, whom Bush regularly refers to as his principal adversary, think likewise about their own co-religionists. A recipe for despair? Perhaps, although, hopefully, not necessarily. But all the more reason for taking the battle against bigots parading in the guise of virtue even more seriously

Is It Vietnam Yet?
By Cindy Sheehan

With the mid-term elections looming dangerously close, and with public opinion in opposition to George's failed foreign policies crossing the two-thirds mark, the White House announced that they are going to present their puppet government of Iraq with a "timetable" for US withdrawal. This reminds me of Richard Nixon's "secret plan" to remove US troops from Vietnam that he touted in his narrow electoral victory over Hubert Humphrey in 1968

The Massacre Of A Town
By Murtaza Shibli

On 22nd October 1993, during a peaceful protest against the Hazratbal siege, around 50 civilians were killed and 200 injured by the Indian paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) in Bijbehara, district Anantnag, on the Indian side of Kashmir. The atrocity was committed by the 74 Battalion of BSF, and was initiated and directed by its second most senior officer, Deputy Commandant JK Radola, who fired the first shot in the crowd

Taking The American Congress
By David Truskoff

AIPAC gives large amounts of money through many satellite groups to politicians it favors and to those running against politicians it does not favor.In that way they can actually reshape the congress of the United States and that is why so many American politicians are in their grip.It is a nightmare come true. The Pope did not take over the American Government, but AIPAC did

Members Of Bush Gang Swore Under Oath
Saddam Was Behind 9/11
By Evelyn Pringle

For those Americans still wondering about a motive for Bush taking the country to war in Iraq, the first and foremost goal of the neocons was to gain control of the world's oil supply and the number two goal, was to set up a war profiteering scheme to funnel billions of tax dollars into their own bank accounts for many years to come

Why Can't The Australian Imam
Think Beyond Meat?
By Farzana Versey

Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali chose the month of Ramzan to talk about meat. Unfortunately, he was referring to women in that demeaning fashion. Said he, "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?"

Discrimination At The National
Endowment For Democracy
By Bev Clark

George Bush and Robert Mugabe may have a lot more in common than they think, homosexuality being just one of them. I have striven for gay and lesbian equality in a country where our presidents says homosexuals “have no rights at all” and calls us “worse than pigs and dogs”. And in the United States I find myself and my partner being discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation by an organisation that claims, in its Statement of Principles and Objectives that:Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny

27 October, 2006

Global Warming Threatens Pacific Island States
By Kathy Marks

While rich nations tinker with policies that may shave their carbon dioxide emissions, low-lying South Pacific nations such as Kiribati are sinking beneath the waves

The Case For Iraqi Genocide
By Ghali Hassan

For nearly sixteen years, U.S. and British forces have been killing Iraqis with impunity. The number of Iraqis killed is increasing rapidly and could easily reach 3 millions if the U.S. refuses to end the Occupation

Active-Duty US Troops Voice
Opposition To The Iraq War
By Joanne Laurier

More than 100 serving members of the US military have to date sent “Appeals for Redress” to members of Congress, urging “the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq.”

Lieberman Is Not An Israeli ‘Internal Affair’
By Nicola Nasser

The absence of a proportionate Palestinian reaction to the ascendancy of Israel’s far right leader, Avigdor Lieberman, into the mainstream strategic decision-making in Tel Aviv has indicated of how dangerously the inter-Palestinian divide is overshadowing the Israeli threats

James Petras' New Book:The Power Of Israel
In The United States
By Stephen Lendman

Petras' powerful new book is titled The Power of Israel in the United States. It's a work of epic writing and essential reading documenting the enormous influence of the Jewish Lobby on US policy in the Middle East

Vote For James H. 'Jim'
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan

One type of mess in Florida, another in Ohio, yet another in Virginia... Who says originality is dead in America?

Science,Medicine,And The Gullible Left
By Mickey Z.

If the heart of being a dissident in America is to reject conventional wisdom and cast doubt on the corporate propaganda being foisted upon us at every turn, why do so many on the Left accept-without protest-the scientific and medical company line?

Pakistan Diary: Part IV : Lahore: Day 1
Mall Road and a Mula Jat
By Yoginder Sikand

The pavement is blocked with milling crowds and with stalls selling all manner of trinkets and food. It's all so Delhi-like. I wonder why Delhi Punjabis, like my own folks, persist with the myth of a Lahore that probably never existed

DD Kashir Needs Overhaul
By Zafar Choudhary

DD Kashir is finally on its way to where it ideally should have been –Srinagar. A welcome step indeed, but still a lot more needs to be done to appropriate the role of a television channel running on the public exchequer

26 October, 2006

World Silent As Fascists Join Israel Government
By Ali Abunimah

In a frightening but long expected move, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has brought the Yisrael Beitenu party into his coalition government. Yisrael Beitenu is a dangerous extremist party with fascist tendencies that has openly advocated the "transfer" of Palestinians, including the transfer of Arab towns within Israel to a Bantustan-like future Palestinian entity

Out Of The shadows: Israel's
Minister Of Strategic Threats
By Jonathan Cook

So why are Israel’s politicians, of the left and right, so comfortable sitting with Lieberman, the leader of Israel’s only unquestionably fascist party? Because, in truth, Lieberman is not the maverick politician of popular imagination, even if he is every bit the racist -- a Jewish Jorg Haider or Jean Marie Le Pen. In reality, Lieberman is entirely a creature of the Israeli political establishment, his policies sinister reflections of the principles and ideas he learnt in the inner sanctums of the Likud party

Nuclear Dual Standards
By Ramzy Baroud

The US administration’s double standards in dealing with the intensifying nuclear crisis in North Korea further strengthens the argument that President George W Bush’s colonial designs are either exasperated by the vulnerability of his foes or deterred by their lethal preparedness

And What Aabout Global Denuclearization ?
By S Faizi

The world has just renewed the agonizing memory of the American savagery in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet there was the disturbing absence of the call for global denuclearization from any of the international players or from the United Nations

The Shame Of The Nation: A Collective Perversion
By Stephen Lendman

The daily headlines about a single congressman's online pedophiliac behavior obscure the greater issue of a nation off its moorings and afflicted by the collective perversion of defiling the foundational equity and justice-for-all letter and spirit of what the nation long-claimed to stand for but no longer does if it ever did

Selling Satan: Iraqi War Dead And
The Collateral Damage To America's Soul
By Phil Rockstroh

Regarding the death of well over half-a-million Iraqis, the majority of the citizenry of The Corporatists States of America have experienced a comparable degree of regret and remorse that their oligarchic overlords experience when topping-off the tanks of their corporate jets with fuel purchased with money plundered from their employee's retirement accounts ... Sans conscience above -- sans conscience below

Corrode Your Conformity: Big Brother
Doesn’t Practice Fraternal Love
By Jason Miller

It took 230 years, but an authoritarian regime predominated by the patrician class and corporations has finally seized the means to exercise absolute political power. Their “War on Terror” enabled them to slay their most persistent adversary. The Constitutional Rights of their own people

The Hindu Islamist
By Farzana Versey

Dhiren Barot is the first person in Britain to be convicted for a terrorist conspiracy. There has been silence among op-ed writers about the episode. What is curious about this case is not that he is an Al Qaeda activist, but the arguments being dished out by the British Indian community to delink themselves from him. It isn't because of their immense concern about terrorism, but due to their covert Islamophobia

A Tribute To Heritage Of Poonch
By Zafar Choudhary

For nearly five decades a marvelous building with English architecture, in frontier district of Poonch in Jammu region, stood as a clue to the drawing of a bloody line dividing not only territory but also the people of Jammu and Kashmir into two parts

What's In A Label?
By Monish R. Chatterjee

Anglophile authors and pandering to neocon and Anglo-American sentiments on colonial freedom fighters.A review of the book Calcutta: a Cultural and Literary History by Krishna Dutta

25 October, 2006

Humans Living Far Beyond Planet's Means
By Ben Blanchard

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday

Mitigating Water-crisis In Punjab :
Empowering Society With Water Vision
By Umendra Dutt

The impending water crisis in Punjab has not only eclipsed its agriculture and economy but also ruined the ecology, health, life style and social fabric of the state. It has severely destroyed the water heritage and cultural value system also

The Path Beyond Petroleum: Twelve Theses
By Peter Goodchild

Oil production in the year 2025 will be half that of the year 2000. If we combine those figures with those of world population, we find a ratio of 5 barrels of oil per person per year in 2000, but only 2 barrels of oil per person per year in 2025

A Massive Turn Around Needed
By Ted Bohne

A massive turn around of American foreign policy is in order. This will do more to make the US safe than any action in Iraq which is well known to have never been a threat to the US. Remember, each day we wait to dismiss the current regime, American lives and Iraqi lives are being squandered like drunk's drinking money

The Antiwar Movement And Independent Politics:
An Interview with Cindy Sheehan
By Joshua Frank

To save our democracy our country needs a viable and credible third party. This nation was founded on rule by a few rich white males, and for all intents and purposes, we are still ruled by a corporate elite.We need a third party that will represent all the people, not just the wealthy

Israel, Palestine And Canada
By John Chuckman

Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper said that his government supports a two-state solution in the Middle East. That is the policy of most Western governments, and there was nothing original in Harper's way of stating it. It was the kind of vague, tepid stuff we might hear from Olmert himself

Godzilla vs. The Condoleezzard
(Celebrating Halloween in the United States of Anxiety)
By Mickey Z.

Ghosts, to me, are not a bigger or more urgent concern than irreparable environmental damage, and I certainly lose less sleep over the dead rising from their graves to eat me than I do a planet populated with oppressed and starving humans

He's B-A-A-A-C-K
By Sheila Samples

Much to the dismay of the Bush Crime Family and the Flying Monkey Right, their most fervent nemesis, talk-show host Mike Malloy, will return to progressive airwaves on Monday, Oct. 30 -- a whole week-and-one-day before the mid-term elections. When you consider the corruption and scandals oozing like slime from the right over just the past week-and-one-day, Malloy's return is not a moment too soon

Mayhem In Mangalore
By Yoginder Sikand

Early this month, a series of violent incidents rocked Mangalore and several nearby towns and villages in coastal Karnataka. Two people were killed, dozens injured and property worth several lakhs was destroyed. Although a semblance of peace has now been restored, tension remains

Little Fingers Which Used To Pick Rags
From Dustbins Are Learning To Write
By Anil Gulati

In the state of Madhya Pradesh in India more than two lakhs girls are either out of school or have dropped out at elementary level. Though state is doing their bit which when complemented by the efforts of non governmental organizations can help many like Divya and Madhu to go to school which helps add some colour on to the canvass of their lives

23 October, 2006

1.6m Iraqis Have Fled Since The War
By Patrick Cockburn

Out of the population of 26 million, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000 in Syria. In Syria alone they are arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month

The Lancet Study...
By Baghdad Burning

The latest horror is the study published in the Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war. Reading about it left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it sounded like a reasonable figure. It wasn't at all surprising. On the other hand, I so wanted it to be wrong. But... who to believe? Who to believe....?

21 October, 2006

Medics Beg For Help As Iraqis Die Needlessly
By Jeremy Laurance

The disintegration of Iraq's health service is leaving its civilians defenceless in the continuing violence that is rocking the country. As many as half of the civilian deaths, calculated at 655,000 since the 2003 invasion, might have been avoided if proper medical care had been provided to the victims

Govt. Death Squads Ravaging Baghdad
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail

Death squads from the Ministry of Interior posing as Iraqi police are killing more people than ever in the capital, emerging evidence shows

Hospitals Now A Battleground
In The Bloody Civil War
By Patrick Cockburn

Iraqi hospitals are dangerous places. Policemen and soldiers carry their wounded comrades into operating theatres and demand immediate treatment, forcing doctors at gunpoint to abandon operations on civilians before they are completed

Climate Change 'Will Cause Refugee Crisis'
By Michael McCarthy

Mass movements of people across the world are likely to be one of the most dramatic effects of climate change in the coming century

Greenland Ice Sheet Shrinking Fast
By Reuters

The vast sheet of ice that covers Greenland is shrinking fast, but still not as fast as previous research indicated

U.N. Says Number Of Ocean "Dead Zones" Rising Fast
By Daniel Wallis

The number of "dead zones" in the world's oceans may have increased by a third in just two years, threatening fish stocks and the people who depend on them

In Defence Of Afzal
By Colin Gonsalves

Afzal's case before the President must be made on the basis of truth. It needs no embellishments. It certainly needs no falsehoods. The record of the trial court shows undoubtedly that he did not receive a fair trial. The arguments before the President should proceed on the basis of the evidence on record that would shock anyone's conscience

Divide And Rule, But For How Long?
By Jawed Naqvi

In Delhi, Kashmiri Mohammed Afzal Guru, was falsely informed by someone that his lawyer instead of defending him at the High Court had in fact pleaded for him to be put to death by a lethal injection. We do not know how Guru came to that conclusion since he was not present during the proceedings at the high court

Military Conflict Escalates In Sri Lanka
After Two Major LTTE Attacks
By Sarath Kumar

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out two major attacks against the Sri Lankan military in the past three days, raising the danger of a further escalation in the open civil war that has erupted since late July

How Not To Engage With The 'Muslim World':
Insights From Delhi
By Yoginder Sikand

In recent years, particularly following the events of 11 September 2001, several Western organisations based in Delhi have launched programmes ostensibly seeking to 'engage' with Muslims. Some of these are funded by their respective governments. Rather than aiming to promote serious dialogue between Muslims and the 'West', some of these programmes seem motivated almost entirely by narrowly-defined security concerns, and aimed at defending Western governments' imperialist policies and interests

20 October, 2006

Space: America's New War Zone
By Andrew Buncombe

The Bush administration has staked an aggressive new claim to dominate space - rejecting any new treaties that seek to limit the United States' extraterrestrial activities and warning that it will oppose any nations that try to get in its way

US Turns Space Into Its Colony
By Ehsan Ahrari

President George W Bush signed an executive order creating a new National Space Policy on Wednesday. The most crucial feature of this policy is that it "rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit US flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to US interests'"

Attack On India's Parliament:Last Chance
To Know What Really Happened
By Nirmalangshu Mukherji

The attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 was a major event in contemporary India. As the judicial procedure into this case nears its end, with Mohammed Afzal to be hanged on October 20, our effort to get at the truth as to what really happened is about to be scuttled. Who attacked Parliament and what was the conspiracy? On what basis did the NDA government take the country close to a nuclear war? What was the role of the State Task Force (J and K) on surrendered militants? What was the role of the Special Cell of Delhi Police in conducting the case?

Retributive Violence By The State
By Prashant Bhushan

There are many reasons therefore for commuting Afzal's death penalty. But given the charged opinions on this issue and with the BJP threatening to make this a national issue, I doubt that this government would have the courage to decide this matter on rational and relevant considerations

US Military And Iraqi Deaths Soar Amidst
Preparations For Major Offensive
By Joe Kay

Ten US troops died on Tuesday in Iraq and at least one more on Wednesday, bringing the monthly death toll for October up to 70. At the current rate, US casualties for the month will be the highest since November 2004, and the third highest since the invasion in March 2003. The latest surge in casualties brings the total US death toll to at least 2,786

The Killing Fields Of Iraq
By Robert Scheer

An occupation initially advertised as a “cakewalk” war to disarm a tyrant is now, according to our politically desperate president, a fight for the soul of the world—good versus evil, democracy versus tyranny.But the carnage we have visited upon Iraq represents nothing of the sort. We are not building democracy, we are creating mayhem

When "Anti-War" Doesn't Mean Anti-War
By Mickey Z.

The label "anti-war" signifies one as being against all war no matter what political party has commenced the invasion, the bombing, the sanctions, or the covert operations. Until the anti-war movement is guided by genuine anti-war sentiment, it'll play right into the hands of the two-party (sic) game...a game with no long term winners

Iran Sparked Islamic Divide,
Iran Only Can Defuse It
By Nicola Nasser

The prerogatives of Islamic unity and averting a Shiite-Sunni divide from playing into the hands of U.S. occupiers in Iraq and far beyond in the region requires that Iran accommodates the proven historical experience that exclusion of Arabs and Pan-Arabism deprives Islam of its vital component, acknowledges that sectarization of Islamic politics adversely affect Islamic unity, rejects in principle the exploitation of foreign powers’ interference to settle intra-Muslim scores, and translating these prerogatives into concrete policies

Behind Closed Doors: The Invisibility
Of Domestic Violence
By Lucinda Marshall

Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women. A recent study by the World Health Organization found that intimate personal violence (IPV) rates around the world varied from 15% in Yokohama, Japan to 71% in Ethiopia. Here in the U.S. one out of four women will be assaulted by a partner during her lifetime

The Unheard Voices Of"Orang Bangla" In Malaysia
By Md. Saidul Islam, Mazharul Hoque,
Delwar Hossain & Kazi Shahadat Kabir

Bangladeshi labor migrants, locally known as "Orang Bangla" albeit in a derogatory sense, continue to serve Malaysia to perpetuate its status as an "economic tiger" in Asia

19 October, 2006

Beware Empires In Decline
By Michael Klare

Just as an empire on the rise, like the United States on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, is often inclined to take rash and ill-considered actions, so an empire on the decline, like the British and French empires after World War II, will engage in senseless, self-destructive acts. And I fear the same can happen to the United States today, as we, too, slip into decline

Lynne Stewart's Crime Of Courage,
Honor And Resisting Tyranny
By Stephen Lendman

Years from now, Lynne F. Stewart's name will be spoken of with even greater reverence than it is today.On October 17, Lynne Stewart faced the possibility of 30 years in prison because of a modern-day state-sponsored campaign of intimidation using her trial to set a precedent allowing the government the right to deny those it accuses of "terrorism" their right of due process represented by competent counsel

The Palestinian Cause: A Routine For Deception
By Ghali Hassan

It is becoming a routine for Western leaders to use the “Palestinian cause” as a way to further their own interests at the expense of Palestinian lives and Palestinian struggle to self-determination. The main objective is to manipulate public opinion and serve U.S.-Israel Zionist agenda

Viable Solutions For Israeli-Palestinian Peace
By Sonia Nettnin

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Professor Jeff Halper spoke about the Israel-Palestine conflict and viable solutions to bring peace to the Middle East

Cindy Sheehan’s Lesser-Evilism:
Democrats Or Bust?
By Joshua Frank

Most disappointing of all, Cindy Sheehan, the brave soul who almost single handily resurrected the antiwar movement from the dark vestiges of the 2004 elections, has now surrendered to the politics of lesser-evilism

Guajarat 2006 Is Deadlier Than 2002
By Prashant Jha

That is the story of Gujarat 2006. A tale of a society that is sharply polarised and prejudices about the 'other' deeply entrenched, and a state that happily engineers everyday hatred. In its wake, lies a community that lives in fear. The Gujarat of today is in some senses more dangerous than the Gujarat of 2002. For here, the violence is invisible. It operates systematically, as well as subtly, at the establishment and social level

Fiction And Environmental movement
By K. Venugopal Reddy

India's environmental movement began indisputably in the early seventies. However, a critical understanding of the text 'Nectar in a Sieve' published in 1954 by Kamala Markandaya implies that it had its ideological moorings from the first decade of India's independence

Buddha As Untouchable
By Raja Sekhar Vundru

Buddhism in India has a predominantly Dalit following, as a result of the revival by Ambedkar. For this reason, it appears that our society prefers to treat Buddha as an untouchable. In 2005, this event, which attracted an estimated 10 lakh people to Nagpur, escaped the national media attention

Afzal Must Not Be Executed
By Praful Bidwai

Afzal is by no means beyond the pale of reform. President Kalam should act sagaciously and commute his sentence. It's his constitutional and moral duty to prevent miscarriage of justice and apply a humane touch

18 October, 2006

Peak Oil: The Clock Is Ticking
By Peter Goodchild

All civilizations grow too large to support themselves, and their leaders have little foresight. These civilizations then collapse and are buried in the mud. The same will happen to America, but human shortsightedness prevents us from seeing America as only one among many civilizations

Major Problems Of Surviving Peak Oil
By Norman

I do not believe that we can stop the crash but I believe that we can, to a degree, prepare ourselves and those close to us for the aftermath

Message Of An Iranian To American people
By Borhan Azemi

Let the Iranian people take care of the needed regime change in Iran. And let’s get the American people to take care of the needed regime change here. That will be the greatest gift to the people of Iran and the rest of the world

China Pulls Its Punches On North Korea
By Asia Times Online

The US was forced to compromise on Chapter VII because of strong opposition - both from Russia and China - over the possible invocation of that chapter for a future military attack on Pyongyang

Escalating Political Murders In The Philippines
By Dante Pastrana

The death toll of political activists has continued to mount in the Philippines. On September 20, eleven gunmen, wearing bonnets, black shirts and combat boots, barged into the backyard of Christopher Lunar, and shot and killed the peasant leader in broad daylight

Why Do We Criticize Our Nations?
By Sujai

India, which has been the champion of independence and freedom movements elsewhere, has now become the same aggressor it abhorred. It is slowly becoming exactly like its enemy. And we critics do not want that to happen

Special Exploitation Zones
By Tejal Kanitkar & Puru Kulkarni

Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is a pseudonym for a new tsunami let loose on the Indian working class and peasantry by the Indian State.One hundred-fifty Special Exploitation Zones have already been sanctioned. This means 70,000 hectares of land is being grabbed as we read this.Two hundred twenty five more Special Exploitation Zones are waiting approval. This means that 2,74,000 hectares of land will be grabbed soon. The extent of the planned mass murder and mass displacement is unimaginable

Rites And Rights
By Margot Badran

Women are flocking to mosques around the world. Now, during Ramadan, they are packing mosques nightly in many countries for tarawwih or the recitation of the Qur'an. It has not always been easy, or indeed possible, for women to participate in communal worship

Capital Invading Spaces Of The Poor
By Vidyadhar Date

Thousands of textile workers in Mumbai are now being evicted from central parts of the city with the closure of the mills and the rich taking over their spaces which are highly coveted by the property market

Pakistan Diary-Day 1
In Lahore: Of Nomadic Odhs And Parathas
By Yoginder Sikand

I think of how 'upper' caste prejudice, both Hindu and Muslim, must surely have at least something to do with the fact that probably not a single of the literally hundreds of books about the trauma of the Partition focuses on what the tragedy meant for the millions of Dalits on both sides of the border

17 October, 2006

UN Resolution Against North Korea
By Peter Symonds

The US administration has prepared the way for an escalating confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear test last Monday, by pushing tough new sanctions against Pyongyang through the UN Security Council

Irom Sharmila: 'Iron Lady' Of Manipur
By Subhash Gatade

It is difficult to believe the saga of struggle of Irom Sharmila Thanu In fact it will be nearly six years that she would be on her hunger strike.She has remained without solid food since then, demanding withdrawal from her state, of one of the most draconian laws in the statue books called Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)

Bush Unleashes The Nuclear Beast
By Joseph Cirincione

Rather than negotiate treaties to eliminate weapons, the Bush administration forged a strategy to eliminate the regimes that might use them against us. The Bush team felt they knew who the bad guys were, and they aimed to get them — one by one. But the strategy has backfired

Swallowing The Blue Pill: Frank Talk
On Race And Fascism In The US
By Juan Santos

As the US veers on a radical course toward fascism, the Democrats, who are riding high on a national wave of revulsion against the Bush regime, breathe not a word about reversing the legalization of torture or restoring habeas corpus; they say nothing about reversing the Patriot Act, nothing about averting war in Iran, and nothing of substance about pulling out of Iraq

The Great Experiment In Gaza
By Uri Avnery

Is it possible to force a whole people to submit to foreign occupation by starving it?The governments of Israel and the United States, in close cooperation with Europe, are now engaged in a rigorous scientific experiment in order to obtain a definitive answer.The laboratory for the experiment is the Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs are the million and a quarter Palestinians living there

Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide
By Robert Fisk

On Thursday, France's lower house of parliament approved a Bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide. And, within an hour, Turkey's most celebrated writer, Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the mass graves below the deserts of Syria and beneath the soil of southern Turkey, a few souls may have been comforted

Microcredit, Macro Problems
By Walden Bello

So probably the best way we can honor Muhammad Yunus is to say, Yes, he deserves the Nobel Prize for helping so many women cope with poverty. His boosters discredit this great honor and engage in hyperbole when they claim he has invented a new compassionate form of capitalism--social capitalism, or "social entrepreneurship"--that will be the magic bullet to end poverty and promote development

The Mettle Of A UN Secretary-General
By Stephen Lendman

It will be refreshing if Ban Ki-Moon actually takes his obligation and sworn oath seriously enough to respect the rights of all nations, uses his prominent public stage as an advocate for them, and works for peace and an end to all injustice and conflicts still raging around the world

Is Betty Ugly?
By Lucinda Marshall

It has become normal to consider normal women ugly. We abide by the denigration of women's bodies because it is very, very profitable. The result for millions of women is not only damaged self-esteem and unrealistic expectations, but damaged health and bodies as well. And that is a very, very high price to pay

Spiritual Felo De Se: Fealty To A Moral Abomination
By Jason Miller

Those leaders (like Chavez) who fight for the poor and oppressed are treated as threats and pariahs, champions of the privileged elite like Reagan are enshrined in the pantheon of American politics, and malefactors in the Bush Regime garner enough support to continue perpetrating their heinous crimes

An Appeal For South India's Wild Elephants!
By Ingmar Lee & Krista Roessingh

We are appealing for your immediate help to protect South India's last significant herds of Wild Elephants! Please take a few moments to familiarize yourselves with the predicament of these magnificent animals!

Keeping Alive The Ghost Of Godhra
By Farzana Versey

The Gujarat High court has dismissed the very existence of the union government setting up the U.C.Banerjee committee and its findings into the death of 59 people who were burnt in the train on February 27, 2002. On Friday, October 13, 2006, Justice D N Patel repeated what Narendra Modi and the saffron parties have been saying. It is an endorsement of their insecurities. The arguments do not work

14 October, 2006

Nobel Committee Acknowledges
Counter Economy
By Mirza A. Beg

Yunus proved that the poor need respect, trust, economic justice, and a helping hand. They do not need pity and charity. It is truly a Peace Price because there can not be peace without justice, particularly economic justice

This Terrible Misadventure
Has Killed One In 40 Iraqis
By Richard Horton

The best hope we can have from our terrible misadventure in Iraq is that a new political and social movement will grow to overturn this politics of humiliation. We are one human family. Let's act like it

Excess Death In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail

In the context of the horror stories that have reached us over the three-plus years of the occupation, this latest figure is not nearly as shocking as when the first Lancet report was published in October of 2004. It has been abundantly clear since then that the number of Iraqis being killed by and because of the occupation has continued to increase exponentially

Why Is The American Press Silent On
The Report Of 655,000 Iraqi Deaths?
By Joe Kay & Barry Grey

The US media is virtually silent on a new scientific study that estimates the Iraqi death toll from the US war at 655,000

Resistance Growing Up At School
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail

"How can we teach them forgiveness when they see Americans killing their family members every day," the teacher in the classroom who gave her name as Shyamaa told IPS. "Words cannot cover the stream of blood and these signs of destruction, and words cannot hide the daily raids they see."

The Final Dispatch
By Anna Politkovskaya

This is Anna Politkovskaya's final unfinished article for her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. It was written shortly before she was murdered last Saturday. After two wars of independence, Russian-backed forces are torturing a whole generation of young Chechens, she writes, to try to restore order in the troubled north Caucasus region

Musharraf's Coup- Seven Years Later
By Pervez Hoodbhoy

Musharraf and his generals are determined to stay in power. They will protect the source of their power - the army. They will accommodate those they must - the Americans. They will pander to the mullahs. They will crush those who threaten their power and privilege, and ignore the rest. No price is too high for them. They are the reason Pakistan fails

Reflections On The Oil Wars
By Peter Goodchild

Modern warfare is mainly about oil, in spite of all the pious and hypocritical rhetoric about "the forces of good" and "the forces of evil." The real "forces" are those trying to control the oil wells and the fragile pipelines that carry that oil. A map of American military ventures is a map of petroleum

Nazi Cleansing Of America’s Universities:
Could It Happen Here?
By Reggie Dylan

There is a need for political, ideological, and theoretical debate and clarity around the importance not only of challenging the direction the country as a whole is being driven toward, and the role the universities should play in society at this time, but also the need to fiercely defend, while deepening, an understanding of the scientific approach to reality

The Logic Behind Rice's Grin
By Ramzy Baroud

Rice's visit to the region was neither intended to "reinvigorate" the peace process nor to support the voice of "moderation" in the region. It was meant to ensure the fortitude of her allies and secure and extend the collective punishment of the Palestinian people until they repent and throw out their democratically elected government

If Only George Bush Had Been Amish
By Doug Soderstrom

The Amish response to the brutal slaying of five of their own offspring in an old fashioned, one-roomed school house was a blueprint for how President George Walker Bush should have responded to the slaughter of nearly 3,000 of our own citizens in the tragedy of September 11, 2001

J&K Reluctant To Share Information With Public
By Zafar Choudhary

The identity of Jammu and Kashmir as a State that refuses to share power with people or devolve authority to the grassroots democratic institutions of governance can be seen in the regional and sub-regional dissension. Over a period of last two and half years Jammu and Kashmir has assumed yet another unique identity –a State that refuses to share information with people

Colin Gonsalves On Afzal Case
A Letter

"I was taken aback to hear that certain persons are spreading a rumour that I did not defend Afzal in the High Court and instead asked for him to be put to death by lethal injection"

13 October, 2006

Israel's Plan For A Military Strike On Iran
By Jonathan Cook

The Middle East, and possibly the world, stands on the brink of a terrible conflagration as Israel and the United States prepare to deal with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons

World War W
By Michael Carmicheal

Still unable to bring themselves to exercise diplomacy, the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice administration is now preparing to broaden America's military activities in the Middle East in anticipation of a wider, more engulfing and, perhaps, even global war - World War W

North Korea's Bomb
By John Chuckman

Harsh sanctions against North Korea, already advocated by the emotionally-numb Bush, are a foolish response. North Korea's rulers would not suffer any more than did Saddam Hussein under American-imposed sanctions against Iraq after Desert Storm. Only ordinary people would be driven to misery and starvation, just as they were in Iraq where tens of thousands of innocents died. How much easier and more productive just to talk

Abusing The Arab Peace Initiative
By Nicola Nasser

The failed Qatari mediation in the still unresolved inter-Palestinian divide was in practice an American success in turning the Arab Peace Initiative (API) into a pressure tool that further exacerbates fractures both in Arab and Palestinian ranks

Behind The UN Debate On North Korea:
Growing Great Power Rivalry
By Peter Symonds

The result of the Bush administration’s reckless policies is now evident: by provoking North Korea to carry out a nuclear test, the US is encouraging a regional arms race that threatens to take the intensifying rivalry in North East Asia to a new and more dangerous level

Why José Won’t Be Home For Christmas
By John A. Murphy

Like José's little sister I want our troops home now but my forces sit stranded and immobilized simply because they lack one simple element: a few miserable gallons of gasoline. I would love to meet José’s mother once more in six weeks on the Streets of Lancaster without feeling like I was going to cry this time. Will we ever get those few miserable gallons of gasoline?

Clutching Our Values Aboard
The Death Train Of Empire
By Phil Rockstroh

So what exactly are values anyway? Values are what the clergy and the corporatists allow us to keep for ourselves -- after they've made off with all the valuables

BBC Guilty Of Venality In Its
Misreporting On Venezuela
By Stephen Lendman

Listeners and viewers expecting to find a safe alternative to the corporate-controlled media by turning to the BBC better reconsider their choice based on the vaunted news organization's reporting on Venezuela and specifically on the misinformation it put out in an online piece on October 8 titled - "Mass Venezuela opposition rally."

Eroding Freedom: From John Adams
To George W. Bush
By Mickey Z.

President John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Act in 1798. Under this ugly bit of legislation, I might've receive a fine "not exceeding two thousand dollars" and/or "imprisonment not exceeding two years" simply for writing an article such as this

Kashmir Earthquake Survivors Face
Another Freezing Winter
By Vilani Peiris

A year later after the Kashmir quake many refugees face the dangers of another Himalayan winter without proper shelter, basic supplies or adequate health services

Belabouring Over Child Labour
By Farzana Versey

The Indian government's recent announcement banning the employment of children as domestic servants and workers in roadside eateries, restaurants, teashops starts with a problem. The age limit is below 14 years. And its figures are 80 per cent off the mark – the verdict talks about 20 million children whereas the number is close to a 100 million

Hindutva And The Defence Of
'Upper' Caste Hegemony
By Yoginder Sikand

The ideology and politics of Hindutva are geared to protecting and promoting the hegemony of 'high' caste Hindu elites. Claiming to speak on behalf of all 'Hindus', Hindutva formations have made no bones about defending 'upper' caste privilege.This is clearly evident in their opposition to caste-based reservations

12 October, 2006

654,000 Deaths Tied To Iraq War
By Jonathan Bor

In an update of a two-year-old survey that sparked wide disagreement, Johns Hopkins researchers now estimate that more than a half-million Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and its bloody aftermath

Provocative US Attack On Shiite Militia In Iraq
By James Cogan

An attack over the weekend in Diwaniyah, a city to the south of Baghdad, signals a major intensification in the operations of US forces in Iraq against the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the Shiite fundamentalist movement nominally headed by the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr

Iraqi Journalists Stare Death In The Face
By Firas Al-Atraqchi

Iraq's translators, journalists and cameramen are living on borrowed time as they repeatedly come under attack in the war-ravaged nation

A Re-Run Of The Lebanon War In Palestine?
By Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali Abunimah

There are ominous signs that the long-contemplated plan to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas-led Palestinian Authority cabinet is about to enter its most dangerous phase: a political coup, supported by local militias, with foreign and regional backing. This could ignite serious intra-Palestinian violence

Lunch In Damascus
By Uri Avnery

Why don't we make peace with Syria? There are two reasons.the one domestic, the other foreign.The domestic reason is the existence of 20 thousand settlers on the Golan Heights, who are far more popular than the West Bank settlers. The second reason for rejecting peace with Syria is connected with the United States. Syria belongs to George Bush's "axis of evil"

Bush And North Korea
By Mike Whitney

It took 6 years of relentless threats, sanctions and belligerence, but Bush finally succeeded in pushing Kim Jong-Il to build North Korea's first nuclear bomb. Now, Kim can just add a few finishing touches to his ballistic-missile delivery system, the Taepo-dong ICBM, and he'll be able to wipe out the 9 western states with a flip of the switch

U.S. Neo-Cons Call For Japanese Nukes,
Regime Change
By Jim Lobe

Encouraging Japan to build nuclear weapons, shipping food aid via submarines, and running secret sabotage operations inside North Korea's borders are among a raft of policy prescriptions pushed by prominent U.S. neo-conservatives in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear test

US Population Hits 300 Million,
But Is It Sustainable?
By Andrew Buncombe

The population of the United States will pass 300 million today, or tomorrow. No one knows exactly where, no one know precisely when. It is a milestone for sure but is this a cause for celebration or anxiety?

11 October, 2006

Rising Seas Could Leave
Millions Homeless In Asia
By Michael Perry

Millions of people could become homeless in the Asia-Pacific region by 2070 due to rising sea levels, with Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, China and Pacific islands most at risk

Anti-Putin Journalist Murdered In Moscow
By Patrick Martin

The assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya is an ominous warning to working people and intellectuals in Russia and throughout the world of the lengths to which the regime headed by the former KGB agent Vladimir Putin will go to suppress criticism and political opposition

Death Of A Courageous Journalist
By Katrina Vanden Heuvel

Russia and the world have lost a great and courageous journalist. The killing of Anna Politkovskaya on October 7 is horrifying and shocking, but not unexpected

Baquba: An Unknown City Erupts
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail

The little known city of Baquba is emerging as one of the hotbeds of resistance in Iraq, with clashes breaking out every day

The End Of An Era
By Siv O'Neall

The era of superpower domination of the world is rapidly coming to an end. The very arrogance of the present superpower has caused its impending downfall

Who’s Really Preying On Teenagers?
By David Howard

But if the idea of your school being obliged to pimp for the Army disturbs you as much as it disturbs me, you probably won’t rest until the recruitment provision of NCLB is repealed and we all acknowledge that child recruitment is as obscene as child pornography

Piercing The Simulacrum: Of Faux Democracy,
Petty Tyrants, And Painful Realities
By Jason Miller

Given humankind’s United States-led pursuit of self-destruction, an economic, ecological, or humanitarian cataclysm is virtually inevitable at some point. However, there is a silver lining

My Starving Friend
By Sarah Saba

One of my intellectual friends, who is a famous researcher, author of a number of books and numerous research articles, with years’ of committed and selfless struggle to bring about peace in the society is simply starving with his small family

Crossing The Border- Pakistan Dairy: 2
By Yoginder Sikand

The bus crosses the white lines drawn across the road and we slip under an archway into Pakistan. I think I might be hallucinating and that I might actually be fast asleep and dreaming in my room in the hostel where I live in Delhi. Tears stream down my cheeks and I let my emotions overwhelm me. For me, passing through the archway is like landing on the moon

The power Of Will To Fight HIV
By Anil Gulati

Yesterday I was in training on HIV/AIDS wherein I had a chance to hear Pradeep on his experience in fighting with HIV, which he and his wife had been living with HIV for last six years. One got moved not only because the way he narrated his story but the way he has been fighting the dreaded virus

10 October, 200

How North Korea Bungled Its Nuclear Timing
By Donald Kirk

North Korea's nuclear test has altered the landscape of alliances and enmities in East Asia, suddenly putting Japan in common cause with two terrible foes, China and South Korea

Pyongyang's 60-Year Obsession
By Bertil Lintner

Given the reaction of the outside world to North Korea's test, others would argue that peace, stability and detente on the peninsula have become the latest casualties in the "war on terror"

North Korean Nuke Tests Say World
Must Return To Peace Agenda
By Praful Bidwai

North Korea has shocked the world by detonating a nuclear explosion and making good the threat it had held out six days earlier. Pyongyang's action is one more blow to the existing global non-proliferation order and will trigger greater instability in Northeast Asia and in the Asian continent and world as a whole

Earth's Ecological Debt Crisis
By Martin Hickman

Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day of the year when mankind over-exploits the world's resources - the day when we start living beyond our ecological means

The King Of The Jungle
By Rima Merriman

When it comes to imposing law and order on the Palestinians, what applies is not international humanitarian law, but the law of the jungle. And, of course, it is quite clear who the king of the jungle is

Bye, Bye Civil Liberties:Blame The Democrats
By Joshua Frank

We shouldn’t be all that surprised the Democrats didn’t filibuster the awful bill, which also expanded the definition of “enemy combatant” to include anybody who “has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean. No, the Democrats have long been on the frontlines of the federal government’s assault on our civil liberties

War For Souls And Empire In Christ's Name
By Yoginder Sikand

Although rarely commented on in the press, Christian fundamentalism has emerged as a powerful factor in shaping American foreign policies, particularly in the 'Muslim world'. With a born-again Christian fundamentalist as President of America this is hardly surprising

A Tribute To Kanshiramji
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

If India's politics has grown through a radical change with Dalit becoming the mainstream political force, the one man who made is possible was Kanshi Ram. He worked diligently and religiously to develop a cadre who could bring the party to National mainstream and ultimately to the power in Uttar-Pradesh

09 October, 2006

The Age Of Terror
By Robert Fisk

With chaos stretching from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, we have never lived in a more dangerous time. Robert Fisk looks back over a lifetime of covering war and death, and lays out a bleak future for all of us - one that even those living in the comfort of the Home Counties cannot escape

Revolt Of The Generals
By Ralph Nader

Daddy Bush should take his son and have him repeat after him again and again--"options for revision," "options for revision," "options for revision." Unless, that is, Bush and Cheney both do the country a favor and resign

A Subtle Kind Of Fascism
By John Chuckman

America is a democracy, isn't it? It certainly has many of the forms of a democracy, but when you closely examine the details, as I've written previously, American democracy resembles a badly worn wood veneer. The ugly structural stuff underneath sticks out the way elbows do in a threadbare coat

Lawsuit Intends To Force The Bush Administration
To Recognize The Constitution”
By Gene C. Gerard

A recent lawsuit filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) against the Department of Health and Human Services aims to force the Bush administration to cease violating the Constitution by funding marriage programs with an overtly religious slant. If successful, this lawsuit would have a profound impact on the ability of the Bush administration to continue funding religious organizations with taxpayer dollars

Canada Need Not Follow The US
By Javed I. Chaudry

It is high time, the Canadian government and its public learn to differentiate between right and wrong in the light of the lessons learned from the history rather than make decisions on the basis of political expediency

Hazardous Intent: US Brokers In Palestine
By Remi Kanazi

The Palestinians for their part have fallen into the trap set by Israel and America -- divide and conquer each other. Hamas and Fatah know well that the way forward is together rather than in disgruntled factions vying for power. Civil war status will bear fruit for no one

Lebanon- Foreplay For The Rape Of Iran
By Dick Mazess

A nuclear attack on Iran would not only alienate European allies and make the US a pariah state but likely would stimulate nuclear proliferation worldwide

Should Mohammad Afzal Guru Be Hanged?
By Ram Puniyani

While Supreme Court deserves all the respect, one has to see that the primary investigation done by the police, whatever its flaws, forms the base of the judgment. When that investigation has holes should it be accepted as it is presented? When the primary culprits are either dead are some of them absconding, can 'the whole truth be out'? Or is it that somebody has anyway to be punished to quench the thirst for revenge, and who better than the one who has a Muslim name and happens to be from Kashmir

Environmental Health Crisis
In Punjab, Who Cares?
By Umendra Dutt

Any action to save Punjab from ecological catastrophe and environmental health crisis is a great service to fellow countrymen. It would be a service to our Motherland, Humanity and God and more over it is as sacred as any worship. We all pray for the wellbeing of all, but have to live the very life which pleads this

07 October, 2006

The Two Faces Of Iraq
By Sami Moubayed

As head of state, though, Maliki (and his rebel ally Muqtada) should be blamed and punished for the chaos in Iraq, rather than supported by the encouraging words of Rice

The US Occupation Of Iraq:
Casualties Not Counted
By Dahr Jamail

Civilian contractors in Iraq, though they are paid handsomely for their time there, are easily lost in a legal no-man's-land if tragedy strikes. Their families are then left in the lurch as well. With an estimated 100,000-125,000 American contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can safely assume there are thousands of stories similar to Tim's and still counting. To each story is attached an individual and a family

Two Roads Diverged For America
By Anthony Signorelli

As I have written in my new book Call to Liberty, the political conditions in the country are ripe for fascism. If principled ideas do not emerge in the new leadership of the Democratic Party, the vacuum will likely be filled by dynamic ideas vying for prominence from the far right wing

Jack Straw’s Anti-Muslim Provocation
By Chris Marsden & Julie Hyland

Only in a climate of deliberately cultivated hostility to Muslims could the comments by Jack Straw opposing women wearing the veil be described as a contribution towards a “debate.”

Just Another Mother Murdered
By Alison Weir

Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the 35-year-old woman had interfered. She tried to explain that her husband was deaf, screamed at the soldiers that her husband couldn't hear them and attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several times. Her name was Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar

Intervention And Terrorism
By Paul Buchheit

If we were to accept the recommendation of military experts to cut the military budget, eliminate a tax cut that benefits the rich, and end a controversial war, we could free up about $300 billion for alternative energy research. With American ingenuity and this kind of money, we'd have a good chance of overcoming the dependencies that cause people to want to attack us

Resisting The Canadian Capital In South Asia
By Harsha Walia

Let us strengthen our end of this resistance by demanding an end to Canadian and other Western countries projects for the corporatization, militarization, and NGOization of the people of South Asia

Bricks In The Wall
By Farzana Versey

The fate of the filming of Monica Ali's book will add her to the roster of Joans of Arc in what has now become a routine canonisation ritual of pop multiculturalism. A group of Bangladeshis has been opposing the film version of ' Brick Lane'; they found her story a caricature of them and their surroundings

Where Myths And Superstitions Heal…….
By Anil Gulati

If child has pneumonia– a hot saddle shaped iron dipped in a oil is paced on navel of the little one – with a belief that it will cure it ! Well this is true that too in very heart of India in Shivpuri

Looney American Foundation Threatens
To Sue The Nobel Committee
By Ra Ravishankar

An (as yet) imaginary account of the developments following the announcement of the Nobel Physics Prize in a Hindutva community; the lack of context and critical information (in the account below) is typical of how the mainstream press has covered Hindutva-related issues in the U.S.

06 October, 2006

Palestinian Power-Struggle: Siege Within
By Ramzy Baroud

The current leadership struggle in Palestine is an illustration of the misguided priorities of Palestinian leaders, and for once, Palestinians must possess the courage to realise and confront it

The Struggle For Palestine's Soul
By Jonathan Cook

If the goal of establishing a Palestinian state cannot be realised, then the danger is that many Palestinians will look elsewhere for their liberation, not necessarily in national but in wider, regional and religious terms. The Islamic component of the struggle -- at the moment a gloss, even for Hamas, on what is still a national liberation movement -- will grow and deepen. National liberation will take a back seat to religious jihad

Hizb Allah, Party Of God
By Nir Rosen

In the wake of Israel’s 33-day war with Hizballah, the 24-year-old Islamic movement has become the most popular political party in the Middle East. Here’s why that shouldn’t worry us

Alvaro Vargas Llosa Sends Hugo Chavez
To Dante's Inferno
By Stephen Lendman

For those who know how Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution has benefitted the Venezuelan people, Vargas Llosa has lost all credibility and disgraced himself. He lies exposed as a charlatan and false prophet of right wing imperialism based on market-based solutions that don't work and must be forced on the unwilling from the barrel of a gun

Six Flags Over Neo-Nuremberg: Bush, Oprah,
The San Diego Chicken, And A Proto-Fascist
Panopticon Of The Mind
By Phil Rockstroh

Many believe fascism will come to the United States of America resembling contrived spectacles such as The Super Bowl, The Academy Awards, and American Idol, with the proceedings intercut with teary, yet ultimately triumphant, Oprahesque tales of how redemption can be gained through the renunciation of one’s rights, liberties, as well as, the dutiful turning in of one’s subversive neighbors. Don’t reach for that remote, folks: It’s already here

Domestic Genocide Of An Economic Nature
By Jason Miller

3.5 million human beings experience homelessness each year in the United States. Almost a million are homeless every night.According to Sixty Minutes, the latest extreme means for teens to alleviate adolescent ennui involves savagely beating the most vulnerable human beings in the United States, the homeless.This so-called “bum hunting” has resulted in the murder of at least one homeless person per month for the past 60 consecutive months

Strange Liberators - Militarism, Mayhem,
And The Pursuit Of Profit
By Gregory Elich

Book Reiveiw- From war and sanctions to corporate plunder and the looming threat of climate change, the harrowing accounts in Gregory Elich's Strange Liberators comprise an essential source for understanding today's world. This is U.S. foreign policy as seen by those on the receiving end

Peak Oil And The Myth Of Sustainability
By Peter Goodchild

If we have already established the premise that "the human race faces unsolvable problems," the answer is not to waste further amounts of time and energy in asking whether those problems exist. The best response is to find ways to survive within that problematic world

Naseem's Story
By Azim Sherwani

Naseem Mohammad Shekh is an activist working with victims of the state -sponsored anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat in 2002. She is based in the Qasimabad Colony, near Kalol in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat. Eleven members of her own family, including her daughter and husband, were slaughtered in this most large-scale wave of anti-Muslim violence in India in recent times, the victims of which are yet to get justice

A Prelude To Malegaon Bomb Blast
By Aleem Faizee

All the Muslims are continually demanding with their fellow secular non-Muslim friends that impartial and independent inquiry should be made about not only Malegaon blast but all terror acts on Indian soil then why government of India is afraid of independent inquiry is a question in the minds of plenty of people

05 October, 2006

The Siege Of Gaza Goes On
By John Dugard

In August last year Israel withdrew its settlers and armed forces from Gaza, claiming that this brought to an end 38 years of military occupation. Of course, it did nothing of the sort. Israel retained power over Gaza by controlling its air space, sea space and external borders

The Economy Of Gaza
By Sara Roy

The pauperization of Gaza's economy is not accidental but deliberate, the result of continuous restrictive Israeli policies (primarily closure), particularly since the start of the current uprising six years ago, and more recently of the international aid embargo imposed on Palestinians

Rice Hopes To Exploit The Arab-Iran Divide
By Ehsan Ahrari

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East again to shore up Arab support against Iran. If she succeeds in achieving that objective - and that is a big if - there is likely to be a major realignment of forces in that area

They Lied About Iraq's WMDs;
They're Lying About Iran's
By Luciana Bohne

Together with the suspension of "habeas corpus," this congressional endorsement of Bush's preparations for war against Iran should make it perfectly clear to November voters that the US Congress is an illiberal and warmongering institution in partnership with the policies of the Bush White House, whether the Republicans or the Democrats are in power

Soldier Who Chose Jail Over Iraq Goes Home
By Aaron Glantz

Last week, a 41-year-old U.S. army sergeant Kevin Benderman from Hinesville, Georgia was released from prison after serving 13 months of a 15-month sentence for refusing to board a plane bound for Iraq

"No Blood For Oil"
By David Truskoff

"No Blood For Oil" - Most popular sign carried all over the world during May, 2003 anti-war demonstrations

Land Of Five Rivers In Water Crisis
And Water Chaos
By Umendra Dutt

But there is another side of the picture also which shows doom, distress and destruction is fast engulfing this land of five waters. It is a Water-Chaos in the Punjab. We can see farmers committing suicides due to failure of pumps, neighbors in farms killing each other over the quarrel for irrigation water, Women are bound to fetch water on their head from as far as 3 kms, and a vast majority of people have no option other then to drink sub-human water

04 September, 2006

The Century Of Drought
By Michael McCarthy

One third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100, say climate experts in the most dire warning yet of the effects of global warming

Global Warming Devastates Sea Ice In Arctic Circle
By Steve Connor

Sea ice in the Arctic last month melted to its second lowest monthly minimum in the 29-year record of satellite measurements

The Erosion Of Democracy And
Freedom In America
By Stephen Lendman

Anyone reading Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here" will be scared wondering if it really can happen here. Anyone living in the surreal age of George Bush and his out-of-control extremist neocon administration knows it already has, and we haven't yet found a way to stop it. This is no time for complacency. We are all now "enemy combatants."

The "F" Word And How To Escape From Its Clutches
By Bernard Weiner

So we're here. No more shilly-shallying about whether America is beginning to resemble a fascist society. We're now plopped right down into it

New Militias Push Govt Back Further
By Ali Al-Fadhily & Dahr Jamail

Reports of the setting up of U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq.The occupation forces now back both Shia and Sunni militias in different areas of the country

Hang Guru, If That Helps
By Zafar Choudhary

After reading this the campaign must go on for hanging Afzal Guru if that helps to get rid of a problem

A Trip To Pakistan - Part 1
Heading for the Border
By Yoginder Sikand

Yoginder Sikand works with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi. He spent a month [December 2005- January 2006] in Pakistan, his first trip there. He is now writing about his trip. Countercurrents will be publishing it in weekly installments

The Forgotten Other India
By Kevin Watkins

The country's booming economy hides a far larger reality of mass poverty, illiteracy and inequality

Reclaiming Not "Converting To" The Sufi Way
By Jayshree Kewalramani

The Gujarat Religious Freedom (Amendment) Bill 2006 not only encroaches upon individual space, it further seeks to perpetuate Hindus (subsuming Jains & Buddhists), Muslims and Christians as mutually exclusive and, what are worse, hostile categories. It is not business of the state to determine or monitor the parameters of individual preference, especially those pertaining to matters of personal faith

03 September, 2006

Paralysis Of The Palestinian Authority
By Rima Merriman

The paralysis of the present Palestinian Authority has simply highlighted to the world and to the Palestinians themselves, who are persistently in denial about this, the real Wizard-of-Oz nature of their Authority and public institutions

Road Map To Nowhere
By Eric Hazan

Interview With Tanya Reinhart

America Must Destroy The Wall Of Fear And Isolation
By Ibrahim Ebeid

Will America destroy the wall of fear and isolation? Can we be part of the civilized World? Can we be more productive than destructive? The answer is with you America!

Why I'm Banned In The USA
By Tariq Ramadan

For more than two years now, the U.S. government has barred me from entering the United States to pursue an academic career. The reasons have changed over time, and have evolved from defamatory to absurd, but the effect has remained the same: I've been kept out

Enlightened Musharraf And Bigoted Masses
By Rehman Faiz

Religious minorities are awfully discriminated in Pakistan and a wave of religious extremism is all embracing across the land that is evident by the repeated acts of violence, discrimination and extremism against the people belonging to religious minorities

Mumbai Bomb Blasts – Intelligence
And Counter-Intelligence
By Sarah Saba

In the era of a neo-globalisation with multiple actors on the stage to shaping up the future image of the global village, this becomes very important for the regional actors like India and Pakistan to immediately agree on an agenda of regional cooperation for progress, prosperity and better facilities for the people of the two nations

We Haven’t Even Heard Afzal’s Story
By Nandita Haksar

Mohammad Afzal has been sentenced to death by hanging for the offence of conspiring to attack the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001.Can the collective conscience of our people be satisfied if a fellow citizen is hanged without having a chance to defend himself? We have not even had a chance to hear Afzal’s story. Hanging Mohammad Afzal will only be a blot on our democracy

Sri Lankan War Refugees Live In
Appalling Conditions In southern India
By Ram Kumar and T. Kala

Fleeing death and destruction in Sri Lanka, around 15,000 people have escaped to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu since January, amid an escalating war on the island between the security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

02 September, 2006

Pakistan:Taliban Back In Business
In Border Areas
By Ashfaq Yusufzai

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's controversial peace deal with Pakistan-based Taliban has already resulted in a new assertiveness by the 'Islamic Scholars' in the Waziristan agency which borders Afghanistan

Iraq: The Breaking Point
By Mike Whitney

Whatever transpires, the first phase of the Iraqi fiasco is nearly over. The Bush administration will be compelled to protect its interests while limiting the exposure of its troops. They may choose to minimize their activities to bombing raids and counter-insurgency operations, further destroying the threadbare fabric of Iraqi society

Torturer-in-Chief
By Ralph Nader

The messianic, authoritarian George W. Bush and the minds of his cohorts have further collapsed the rule of law with his bulldozing through a divided Congress more dictatorial powers in his increasingly self-defined, self-serving and failing "war on terror."

Bush Uses The Word Fascism To Mislead
By John Cox

As a historian of Nazi Germany, I have been intrigued by the widespread use of the term "fascist" in public discourse over the last few weeks. Since early August, the Bush Administration has undertaken a coordinated campaign to link "fascism" with political Islam and with Muslim-based opposition to U.S. policy in the Middle East

Sixth Anniversary Of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Intifada Passes Still Unresolved
By Stephen Lendman

September 28 marked the sixth anniversary of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem (the Noble Sanctuary for Muslims and Temple Mount for Jews and Christians) that caused the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada still raging today with Palestinians on the painful receiving end of most of it

Seeing The Forest For The Trees
By Rima Merriman

The Quartet (along with the international community generally) has failed to enable the Palestinian president to act credibly towards the goal of making "progress towards a two-state solution through dialogue and parallel implementation of obligations."

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