|
World-wide
News
Sources
Cuba
Cuban Culture
Cuba: Race
& Identity
Colombia
News
Central
America
Venezuela
Anti-War News
Suppressing Dissent
in the US
Israeli Actions in the Americas
War
on Terrorism planned before 9-11
Beta Israel
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Afghan Genocide
Chechnya
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Enron News
10/20 Kandahar raid: US defeat and
coverup 11/8
Cuba's friendly response
to 9-11
Bin Laden, Narcoterrorism, the CIA, and
the House of Saud
Risks of Nuclear War
The Far Right and Islamic
Militants
Search the News
Daypop
Newstrove
World News
Local times around the
world
Maps
Death from America : Irak
Statewatch
Civil Liberties in the EU
WebCam in Karachi
|
World News
5/26/03 - 6/1/03
Sunday 6/1/03
US says its planes are being attacked in Iraq 6/1/03 Hindustan Times
Chirac to Call for Shift From Battling Terrorism to Helping Poorer Nations 6/1/03 NYT
Soldier killed in Iraq grenade attack 6/1/03 Reuters: "At least one American soldier and two Iraqis have been killed and several more people wounded in a grenade attack on a U.S. tank in central Baghdad, al-Jazeera television reports.
The network, quoting its Baghdad correspondent Fayiza al-Ezzi, said unidentified attackers had lobbed two hand grenades at the tank after exchanging fire with its crew."
Saturday 5/31/03
 Why Moscow won't back down 5/31/03 Asia Times: "Given this reality, Russia should have every reason to believe it to be one of the next states, if not the next one, on the American list of targets if Washington restores its influence in neighboring Iran. Fear of such a scenario seems to be a major reason for the Russians to continue their multi-dimensional ties with Iran, including in the nuclear realm, to prevent its weakness and isolation, two tempting prerequisites for any future American designs on Iran."\
While Mr Blair talks of victory in Iraq, the troops are afraid to go out at night 5/31/03 Independent: by Robert Fisk -- "Tom Friedman's latest essay in The New York Times, in which the columnist (blaming Saddam for poverty with no mention of 13 years of US-backed UN sanctions) announces: "The Best Thing About This Poverty: Iraqis are so beaten down that a vast majority clearly seem ready to give the Americans a chance to make this a better place."
I am awed by this and other "expert" comments from the US East Coast intelligentsia. Because it sounds to me, watching America's awesome control over this part of the world, its massive firepower, bases and personnel across Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Bahrain, Doha, Oman, Yemen and Israel, that this is not just about oil but about the projection of global power by a nation which really does have weapons of mass destruction. No wonder that soldier told me not to go out after dark. He was right. It's no longer safe. And it's going to get much worse."
Allied Officials Now Allow Iraqi Civilians to Keep Assault Rifles 5/31/03 NYT
CIA asked to explain prewar reports - Congresswoman warns of spy 'hoax' 5/31/03 SF Chronicle: "President Bush's contention that America went to war with Iraq to rid Saddam Hussein of hidden biological and chemical weapons "could be the greatest intelligence hoax of all time," the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee warned Friday.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Rancho Palos Verdes (Los Angeles County), has sent a letter along with Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., the Intelligence Committee chairman, to CIA Director George Tenet asking him to explain what intelligence led spy agencies to believe Iraq had stocks of the banned weapons or that al Qaeda operated on Iraqi territory.
"U.S. credibility is at stake," Harman told the Chronicle editorial board on Friday. "Especially if there is an interest in another military adventure, we need the facts." "
My horror at PoW sex abuse pics 5/31/03 Sun, UK: "ANOTHER picture showed a pair of white legs and the head of a male Iraqi.
The hand of a man behind the Iraqi’s head appeared to be forcing him to perform oral sex.
The Iraqi was squatting and again appeared to be at least naked to the waist. The soldier’s face was not visible.
A THIRD picture showed a pair of bare backsides. One Iraqi man was on his knees on the floor with his body bent.
Another was pressed behind him, tightly moulding his body like a spoon in what seemed to be a sexual position."
Friday 5/30/03
Your Rights: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em 5/30/03 Alternet
Make your city or town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone. Visit our Tools page to find out how! 5/30/03 Bill of Rights Defense Committee
'Crude' US rhetoric could boost Iran's hard-liners 5/30/03 CS Monitor
Plan for Ethiopian Immigrants Collapses 5/30/03 Forward: "Meanwhile, Israel-based Ethiopian activists are accusing the JDC and Jewish Agency of racial discrimination for spending more to aid Russian and Argentine communities than the Falash Mara starving in Ethiopia. Neguise sent a letter to the JDC, threatening to "protest in every legal manner against the heads of the JDC and the United Jewish Communities," the roof body of North American Jewish charitable federations. The goal, Neguise wrote, is to make leaders of these organizations aware of "the discrimination against our brethren in Ethiopia."
The UJC recently allocated $39 million to aid Argentine Jews. Yet its welfare agency caring for the Falash Mura — the JDC — allocates only $600,000 of its $45 million budget from UJC for those in Ethiopia."
Bloody repression in Peru on second day of state of emergency 5/30/03 Granma
UN ready to back French-led force to halt Congo carnage 5/30/03 Independent, UK
New Al-Qaida Operations Concealed By The Media 5/30/03 Jihad Unspun: "The first operation took place in Al-Abdali area in Kuwait when an Afghan driver opened up heavy gun fire on American soldiers near a military camp killing more than 25 and injuring 7… The second operation took place in the main oil refinery in Texas that led to the total destruction of the refinery and unknown number of casualties. Sources criticized the American coward and liar way of controlling the media not only in the US but in the Arab world as well so that no single bit of information was announced about the 2 operations or even the losses. "
World Ignores Dangerous Afghan Situation - A new Taliban may arise 5/30/03 Pravda
U.S. Insiders Say Iraq Intel Deliberately Skewed 5/30/03 Reuters: "A growing number of U.S. national security professionals are accusing the Bush administration of slanting the facts and hijacking the $30 billion intelligence apparatus to justify its rush to war in Iraq."
100th Civil Liberties Safe Zone! Hawaii Is the First State to Defy Ashcroft 5/30/03 Village Voice: "In the spirit of Jefferson, on the same day that Broward County became part of the Resistance, it was joined by San Mateo, Marin, and Sausalito counties, all in California. On April 25, Hawaii's legislature passed the first statewide resolution to preserve and protect the Bill of Rights. Alaska followed on May 22. On May 29, Philadelphia became the 116th town or city to pass one of these resolutions.
According to Nancy Talanian, director of the original Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Northampton, Massachusetts—where this grassroots renewal of constitutional democracy started—the term civil liberties zone means "a locale whose local government has passed a resolution declaring its commitment to protect the civil liberties of its residents."
Talanian is a longtime invaluable source of news of the Resistance for this column. Through the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's Web site (bordc.org), organizing tools and texts of resolutions already passed are continually available to communities that want to mount the ramparts."
U.S. Commander Says War Not Over in Iraq 5/30/03 Washington Post: "The division was relieved of its responsibility for Baghdad today and had been expecting to head home soon after. Instead, it was told earlier this week to expect at least two more months in Iraq, an extension that will likely leave at least 160,000 U.S. and British troops in place through the time when U.S. officials hope to begin the delicate task of selecting a new Iraqi-led interim government." - can anyone spell escalation?
Thursday 5/29/03
The Iran Debate - Pentagon Eyes Massive Covert Attack on Iran 5/29/03 ABC
Iran vows no compromise with US 5/29/03 AFP
Violent anti-US protest in Iraq against house-to-house searches 5/29/03 AFP
Mexican-American Groups to "Confront" Border Vigilantes 5/29/03 Aztlan: published 5/22/03.
U.S. soldier killed by 'hostile fire' 5/29/03 CNN: "A U.S. soldier was killed by hostile fire while traveling on a main supply route in Iraq today," a statement said. The soldier was evacuated to a combat hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Central Command said the incident happened at Anaconda, Iraq, which spokesman Capt. Jeff Sandrock described as "a U.S. military logistics support area northwest of Baghdad." He would not pinpoint the location, citing security concerns."
Trail of a bullett 5/29/03 CS Monitor: "Depleted uranium is created as a by-product of the processes used to convert natural uranium for use as nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons."
Al-Qaida 'sheltered in shah's lodge' 5/29/03 Guardian, UK
Honduras: Murdered with Impunity 5/29/03 Guardian, UK: "Casa Alianza claims that many of the murders are a form of "social cleansing" whereby vigilante groups and police regard the deaths as others might regard the removal of vermin. The Honduran government believes that most of the killings are gang-related. Both human rights groups and government agree that the numbers of deaths amount to an epidemic of violence, with a murder rate 50 times that of the UK."
US Removes Evidence That President Musharraf Lied To The Pakistani People 5/29/03 Information Clearing House: "The US Central Command (Centcom) has provided startling official data of what General Pervez Musharraf’s Pakistan did for the US in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) against Afghanistan, allowing 57,800 US air attacks from Pak soil with the Pakistan economy suffering a staggering loss of US$ 10 billion."
The FBI's Missing Nazi Files 5/29/03 Memory Hole
Leukaemia peril of the 'Iraqi Chernobyl' 5/29/03 Times, UK: "MORE than 1,000 villagers could die of leukaemia after the looting of tonnes of radioactive material from Iraq’s atomic plant, the country’s national nuclear inspector said."
Symptoms will show in 3 months 5/29/03 Times, UK: "The low-energy radiation is then so close to the production of the red blood cells that it disrupts the process, causing leukaemia, or cancer of the blood. Red blood cells live for 120 days, so the signs of leukaemia generally emerge only after about three months.
Because the inhabitants washed yellow cake into the water supply and used the containers to store food and drink it is likely that many of them are at risk."
Wednesday 5/28/03
ON TO TEHRAN? The threat of war is real 5/28/03 AntiWar
Neo-cons move quickly on Iran 5/28/03 Asia Times: "Pentagon hawks, particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith, who have long been closely associated with neo-conservatives outside the administration centered at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), reportedly favor using the heavily armed, Iraq-based Iranian rebel group, the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization, which surrendered to US forces in April, as the core of a possible opposition military force.
They are also pursuing links with the Iranian exile community centered in southern California, which has rallied increasingly around Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
According to a recent story in the US Jewish newspaper The Forward, Pahlavi has cultivated senior officials in Israel's Likud government with which the neo-conservatives in Washington - both in the administration and outside it - are closely allied."
Iran seeks nukes, White House says 5/28/03 Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The future of Iran is to be determined by the Iranian people," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "It's a diplomatic course that the president is pursuing. It's a course that trusts the Iranian people at its core." - that's why he wants to re-install the Shah, it was such a success the first time around!
Jason Blair isn't the only deceiver 5/28/03 Capital Times, WI
U.S. Provocations Give Momentum To Falluja Resistance 5/28/03 Islam Online: "On Tuesday, May 27, two U.S. soldiers were killed and nine others injured when an armed group of unknown size attacked an American army unit in Falluja.
An American helicopter trying to evacuate the wounded was also shot down during the firefighting… Raheem al-Delemi, another eyewitness, told IOL correspondent that the U.S. troops were detaining a number of Iraqi citizens and killed all of them in cold blood in retaliation for the resistance operation.
“They left them lying on the ground till morning, denying ambulances or any one to remove the bodies,” Delemi said."
Armed Gangs Rule Baghdad As US Loses Control 5/28/03 Jihad Unspun
Nine More US Troops Wounded In Iraq 5/28/03 Jihad Unspun: "Middle East Online on Tuesday received a letter attributed to Saddam which called for resistance against US and British forces and a separate statement claiming the Fallujah attack.
The statement from the "General Command of the Iraqi Armed, Resistance and Liberation Forces" said the ambush had been carried out by "special forces, al-Faruk Brigades and members of the Baath Party." "
Taliban Rule Comes To Pakistan 5/28/03 Jihad Unspun
U.S. Plan Targets Iran Clerics 5/28/03 Newsday: "But behind the scenes, the administration officials are exploring ways to support a public uprising by diminishing the influence of Iran's mullahs, or religious leaders, some of whom control the country's Revolutionary Guards and provide support for militant groups like Hezbollah.
Sources familiar with the discussions said the Pentagon has been pushing hard to launch a covert plan aimed at destabilizing the clerics. Some Defense Department officials have suggested using the Mujaheddin-e Khalq - an Iraq-based resistance group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization - as a ready-made opposition group in Iran, a source said."
Corporate colonialists loot Congo, slaughtering millions 5/28/03 SF Bay View: "While covering a conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and trying to keep a close watch on the faltering steps toward peace in that country, I find it is necessary to cast a wider view to understand the causes of the civil war and how it eventually involved eight countries and cost in excess of 3 million lives. It is even more important to wonder how this could have become one of the most deadly conflicts since World War II while most of us have never heard of it."
Prison sensory deprivation 5/28/03 SF Bay View: "Sensory deprivation in prison is most blatant in the Management Control Units (MCU) and Security Housing Units (SHU). It is in these isolated cells in prisons located in remote areas that sensory deprivation is routinely and indiscreetly utilized for the purpose of experimentation and of course cruel punishment.
Prisoners are trained to become zombie-like, as they must adapt to conditions similar to a mental ward."
The real roots of terrorism 5/28/03 SF Bay View: by Mumia Abu-Jamal -- "The roots of terrorism in the modern world are Cold War rivalries and an American determination to provide the hated Soviet Union with a dreaded Vietnam-like experience. The U.S. founded, funded and supported these armies of jihadis and aimed them at the Soviets. They gave Moscow its own Vietnam, but not only that. They nourished the seeds that would become the Taliban government in Afghanistan. And they formed the genesis of what we now call Al-Qaeda ... It is truly your tax dollars at work!"
Newspaper reporters in row over Chalabi 5/28/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "An internal email by Judith Miller, the paper's reporter on bio-terrorism, acknowledges that her main source for such articles has been Ahmad Chalabi, an exile leader who is close to senior Pentagon officials." - doing Jayson Blair one better…
Iraq proves perilous place for unwelcome U.S. troops 5/28/03 Toronto Star
Vote losses in Spain, Italy blamed on Iraq 5/28/03 UPI
Tuesday 5/27/03
'The Yanks Have Really Screwed Up in Iraq':
Interview with Scott Taylor 5/27/03 AntiWar: "The Yanks won't be able to keep the lid on it much longer. Look, Chalabi had 80 bodyguards, and 12 of them were killed on his second day in the country. Now he is under Marine protection."
US adds power to India's Israeli links 5/27/03 Asia Times: "While Israel sees India as a comrade in the fight against Islamic militants, the US has a somewhat broader agenda to pursue with New Delhi, particularly its possible role as a counter-balance to China, which US hawks see as Washington's strategic competitor in Asia. "India is the most overlooked of our potential allies in a strategy to contain China," according to Lloyd Richardson of the Hudson Institute, a think tank very close to the administration.
With India determined to build a naval force capable of projecting power into the South China Sea, says Conn Hallinan, an analyst at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Washington has especially courted India's navy, most recently with the Malabar IV joint exercises involving thousands of sailors and pilots from both countries."
Fallujah attack leaves 1 US soldier dead, 7 injured 5/27/03 Channel News Asia: "US Central Command said one US soldier was killed and seven others injured in an early Tuesday attack in the town of Fallujah in Iraq, that also left two attackers dead.
"A hostile force of unknown size attacked a US army unit here early this morning with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. One soldier was killed and seven others were injured," Centcom said in a statement dated from Fallujah."
Attack on U.S. Army unit kills soldier, wounds 7 5/27/03 CNN
Pentagon adds to despair of Iran's reformers 5/27/03 Guardian, UK: "The Pentagon's pronouncement that it would seek to "destabilise" Iran's Islamic republic has given the country's clerics ammunition to portray their liberal opponents as traitors. Hardly a day passes without warnings in the official press against reformists accused of sowing divisions."
Rescuing Private Lynch, Forgetting Rachel Corrie 5/27/03 Guardian, UK: "According to former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, President George Bush was "full of joy for Jessica Lynch." Her rescue, we were told, was a testament to a core American value: as West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller said to the Senate: "We take care of our people."
Do they? Rachel Corrie's death, which made the papers for two days and then virtually disappeared, has met with almost total official silence, despite the fact that eyewitnesses claim it was a deliberate act. President Bush has said nothing about a US citizen killed by a US-made bulldozer bought with US tax dollars. A US congressional resolution demanding an independent inquiry has been buried in committee, leaving the Israeli military's investigation – which cleared itself of any wrongdoing – as the only official investigation."
Turkey's military chief warns pro-Islamist government of possible coup 5/27/03 Guardian, UK
Israeli settlers vow: 'We will never leave' 5/27/03 Independent, UK
A Very Mixed Marriage 5/27/03 Newsweek: "Evangelical Christians lining up to fight for Israel may
be an unmovable obstacle to Bush’s ‘road map’ "
Back in Political Forefront 5/27/03 NYT: "When Elliott Abrams stood in front of a federal judge in October 1991 and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress, few imagined he would ever return to government. At age 43, he had become one of the casualties of the Iran-contra scandal, detested by Democrats for his combative political style and mistrusted by human rights activists for playing down the crimes of right-wing dictatorships in Central America.
Twelve years later, Abrams is helping to shape White House policies toward many of the world's trouble spots. Appointed in December as President Bush's senior adviser on the Middle East, his responsibilities extend from Algeria to Iran. But nowhere is his influence more evident than on the Arab-Israeli peace process.
A self-described "neo-conservative and neo-Reaganite" with strong ties to Jews and evangelical Christians, Abrams has become a flash point for the debate on how much pressure the Bush administration is prepared to apply to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to reach an agreement with the Palestinians."
Tehran defies US with nuclear program 5/27/03 Sydney Morning Herald
US plans death camp 5/27/03 The News, Australia: "THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.
Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday."
Taleban regroups in attempt to harass US forces 5/27/03 Times, UK
Monday 5/26/03
Demobilised Iraqi officers threaten protests, suicide attacks against US 5/26/03 AFP
Four dead, six wounded in Iraq as US troops come under attack 5/26/03 AFP
Army troops gang-rape four adolescent girls 5/26/03 ANNCOL: "Soldiers from the Colombian Army have attacked the indigenous Guahibo reservation in oil-rich Arauca department. According to witnesses, the soldiers raped a pregnant teenage girl, then cut open the teen's belly, cut up her unborn baby and threw both mutilated corpses into the river. Three other members of the Guahibo community were also butchered."
Afghanistan Rumbles: Two US Soldiers Dead 5/26/03 Jihad Unspun
New Report From The Arab Mujahideen In Iraq 5/26/03 Jihad Unspun
Group Says Iran Has 2 Undisclosed Nuclear Laboratories 5/26/03 NYT: "The group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella for Iranian opposition organizations, said the facilities were two small laboratories that operate as satellite plants to a larger nuclear facility in Natanz, in central Iran. The group said the facilities were discovered by the People's Mujahedeen, a resistance group that brought the Natanz plant to the attention of international weapons inspectors." - the Mujahedeen have been described as a terrorist cult group.
Israel builds at settlements despite peace plan 5/26/03 Reuters
Israelis Shoot at Diplomatic Cars in Gaza 5/26/03 Reuters: "Israeli troops shot at a convoy of diplomatic vehicles at a military roadblock in the Gaza Strip on Monday, twice hitting the windshield of one of the cars but causing no injuries, diplomatic sources said.
The diplomats were badly shaken by the incident as the small convoy was stopped leaving the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, close to the main Erez crossing with Israel, the sources said.
They said the convoy included representatives of Switzerland, Britain, Greece, Sweden, and Austria."
Britain told to choose between US and Europe 5/26/03 Scotsman: "THE former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing raised the temperature in the debate over the new EU constitution yesterday by declaring Britain had to choose between a future with Europe or its special relationship with the United States.
In a series of controversial statements, Mr d’Estaing, who is chairing the convention drawing up the blueprint for an enlarged EU, insisted there were two prerequisites for the constitution: a common foreign policy and a stable presidency.
His remarks provided further ammunition to those calling for a referendum on the issue, fearing that the proposals put forward by the convention will mean Britain losing a swathe of sovereign powers as it becomes subsumed into a United States of Europe."
Downer's call to Iran: crack down on terror 5/26/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "The Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, delivered a tough, last-chance call to Iran yesterday to crack down on al-Qaeda terrorists allegedly in the country.
His warning came as the United States threatened aggressive action to overthrow the Iranian Government.
Mr Downer told his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, that Tehran must do everything possible to crack down on al-Qaeda and other terrorists. Australia wanted to see tougher action and Washington saw this as a "life-or-death issue", he told Dr Kharrazi."
Shiite group ignores US demand to disarm militia 5/26/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "The largest Shiite party in Iraq has refused to disarm its militia of 25,000 men after a United States draft directive called for all armed groups except the Kurdish peshmerga fighters to surrender their weapons.
Relations between the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and US administrators in Baghdad were at breaking point at the weekend after the group rejected moves to force the Badr Brigade to disarm."
Collins inquiry finds no evidence of war crime 5/26/03 Telegraph, UK: "The inquiry into Col Collins, 42, who was widely praised for an eve-of-battle speech in which he urged his men to be magnanimous in victory, followed a complaint by Major Re Biastre, a US army reservist.
Major Biastre, 37, a school guidance counsellor and part-time policeman, made a series of allegations in a sworn statement after a public clash with Col Collins."
US cuts off contacts with Iran 5/26/03 The Age, Australia: "But State Department officials are concerned that the level of popular discontent there is much lower than Pentagon officials believe, leading to the possibility that US efforts could ultimately discredit reformers in Iran."
U.S. to send 20,000 additional troops to stabilize Iraq 5/26/03 World Tribune
"There
is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and
security to all, but especially to Democracies as against despots:
suspicion." -- Demosthenes
|
