February 2004
U.S. Meddling
Posted: Sunday, February 29, 2004
Chavez Supporters Protest U.S. Meddling
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of supporters of President Hugo Chavez marched on Sunday to protest what they criticized as U.S. meddling and rally support for the leader as he battles an opposition referendum challenge. Waving revolutionary flags and "Out with the CIA" and "No to Yankee Invasion" banners, Chavez sympathizers streamed through the capital under the watch of National Guard troops and two military helicopters circling overhead.
Recall Referendum Results
National Elections Council (CNE) president Jorge Rodriguez has unofficially told reporters in Caracas that preliminary results will be announced later today for at least the signature petition calling for a revocatory referendum against President Hugo Chavez Frias.
Another US-European 'Regime Change' in Haiti
Update: Aristide 'U.S. Forced Me to Leave Haiti'
Posted: Sunday, February 29, 2004
U.S. Rep M. Waters: Aristide Says 'I Was Kidnapped'
Another blow to democracy in homeland, local Haitians lament "Aristide was kidnapped!" they screamed, draped in Haitian flags. "Election yes, coup no," said the placards they raised in defiance.
Haiti's Aristide says he was abducted
Aristide: 'White American Military' Kidnapped Me
Aristide: 'U.S. Forced Me to Leave Haiti'
Aristide accuses U.S. of forcing his ouster
Haiti: return to savagery
by Raffique Shah
Few people bother to probe beneath the facade of what is both a popular uprising against a permanent state of poverty and at the same time yet another grab for power by some of the most despicable excuses-for-human-beings that have haunted the Caribbean. From all appearances, Aristide has failed his people, more so as he was all but revered by them, seen as a saviour-in-cassock at a time when the country was just emerging from almost a century of barbaric rule. In fact, his three terms in office have yielded little more comfort to poverty-stricken masses there than they enjoyed under the string of dictators who preceded him.
There were valid reasons for his failure to deliver. But one cannot assuage the pangs of hunger, the sub-human conditions the mass of Haitians are forced to survive under, on promises. Indeed, Aristide compounded his sins of omission by all but stealing an election in 2000, according to international observers who witnessed the poll. And to top off his failures, having disbanded the organised gang of thugs that was deemed Haiti's army, he resorted to creating his own brand of thugs who acted as his "enforcers", mercenaries little different to the uniformed ones that were banished in 1994.
But in examining Aristide's failure to rid Haiti of poverty and repression, one cannot help but examine the main reasons behind this descent into Hell. I shall try to trace this in reverse chronology. Bear in mind that following his massive victory in Haiti's first democratic elections in 1991, he was deposed by the remnants of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's brutal army within seven months. He fled to the USA as General Raoul Cedras assumed control of the country and re-imposed the savagery that characterised the dictatorships of the past. It took four years of international sanctions and the threat of a US invasion for Cedras and his fellow-butchers to succumb. Aristide was reinstated with the help of a US-led coalition that included Caricom forces (among them members of the T&T Regiment).
His return to power came with a high price tag, though, that would eventually lead to him resorting to human rights abuses, and ultimately to this sorry pass. Because the US insisted that he institute strict IMF measures that were bound to wreak economic havoc the way they have elsewhere in the world. In 1994 Haiti still had some form of agriculture in quality coffee, cocoa and sugar cane (for export), as well as corn, rice and sorghum for domestic consumption. Forced into globalisation by his "sponsors", Aristide lowered import tariffs, opening the way for subsidised US-produced rice and killing the local industry. The US was so intent on exploiting this basket-case market, it withheld some US$30 million in aid because the Haitian authorities dared to impose fines on American rice dealers who were found evading customs duties.
With such draconian measures adopted by the world's richest nation against the poorest, what could one expect to happen to Haiti? Hungry bellies neither know nor care about the IMF. Poor people want only deliverance from their misery, and if they can no longer produce the few crops that brought them relief from hunger, they do not see as far as Washington or Paris. They see Aristide. He becomes the problem. And he realises he is trapped in a vice from which he cannot escape, so he resorts to repression. Even so, we must be fair to him. He knew that the alternative to his kind of democracy lay with men far more dangerous to the country than he.
And just who are these "rebels"? Start with Louis Chamblain, a former sergeant who was accused of atrocities during the years of military rule. He fled to the neighbouring Dominican Republic when Aristide was reinstated in 1994. His sidekick Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, a CIA operative who belonged to a group known as FRAPH. Its members tortured and murdered opponents of the 1991-94 military regime. Add to this vile brew Guy Phillippe, a hand-picked officer who was trained by US Special Forces: he was specially trained in methods of torture and murder and among his victims was the then Justice Minister, Guy Malary. Also, remember this name: Andre Apaid. He is one so-called leader of the "democratic front" who happens to be a US citizen and the owner of sweatshops in Haiti.
The masses in Haiti who have genuine reasons for opposing Aristide are caught in this web among deadly spiders of an era we all thought had died with "Papa" and "Baby" Doc. Caricom leaders probably understand this vicious undercurrent that lies beneath the surface of the "popular" uprising, hence their bid to get an agreement for him to remain in power and give in to some demands of the opposition. The US and France are saying Aristide must resign pronto. They will shed no tears if he is tortured and killed. Because they know the end result will be a country in chaos, but one that does not have the capability to harm them-except for illegal immigrants attempting to reach America. For them, it's another case of "Black people biting the dust". Or maybe eating dirt and dying of Aids like flies. No bother.
But for those who understand the significance of what Haiti came to mean in the 18th century, when Toussaint and Dessalines and Christophe defeated Napoleon's best forces, we cry for that country, for its people. She paid a high price for that bold battle for independence in 1791. The US and France refused to recognise her until she agreed to pay reparations (to former slave owners!) of 150 million francs. Today, they are still extracting revenge and blood from a barren land that has been sucked dry by a despotic ruling class and its natural allies in Washington and Paris.
Reproduced From:
www.trinicenter.com/Raffique/2004/Feb/292004.htm
Embattled Aristide leaves Haiti
¤ Haiti 2004: Another US-Backed Coup
¤ Aristide Bows to Pressure, Leaves Haiti
¤ Bush Increases Push for Haitian to Leave Office
¤ While U.S. Tries to Mask it's Role - Haitians resist coup attempt
¤ The Haiti Boomerang
¤ Bush accused of supporting Haitian rebels
¤ U.S. can end the killing it started in Haiti
¤ US is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
¤ ESC: Act on Haiti now!
¤ Haiti's Descent into Gang Warfare
¤ Haiti still enslaved for all its rebellion
¤ Beloved Haiti: A (Counter) Revolutionary Bicentennial
¤ US Double Game in Hait
¤ Haiti-A Call For Global Action
¤ Media vs. Reality in Haiti
Crisis In Haiti
IMC Coverage
In the past week paramilitary groups in Haiti have continued to burn buildings and attack police stations, while the "opposition" continues to refuse negotiations and call for President Jean-Bertrand's Aristide's resignation, with the support of the US and Canadia n governments.
Meanwhile, the corporate media (and some "alternative media") have continues to ignore numerous aspects of the situation: US financial support of the opposition, previous US involvement in the region (including support of military dictators, the freezing of over $500 million in international aid and loans, and efforts to prevent the raising of the minimum wage). Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and has been used as a source of cheap labour by companies like Disney, Wal-Mart and KMart. Workers are paid as little as 11 cents per hour.
US and Canadian diplomats have placed the blame on Aristide, who has publically declared himself to be willing to negotiate with the opposition. The opposition consists of a collection of political parties supported by US funds, the Haitian media and the Haitian economic elite, whose popular support is estimated at between 8 and 12%.
Haiti has a long history of resistance:
The year 2004 marks 200 years of Haitian independence. In 1791, 400,000 Africans enslaved in Haiti rose up against French colonial rule. Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti a free nation in 1804, culminating the world's only successful revolution of enslaved people. From the beginning, Haiti found itself isolated and besieged. The United States led a worldwide boycott against Haiti and refused to recognize the new nation until 1864, fearing that its freedom would pose a danger to the U.S. system of slavery. In 1825, the Haitian people were forced to assume a debt to France of 90 million gold francs (equivalent to $21.7 billion today) as "reparations" to their former "owners", in return for diplomatic recognition and trade. To make the first payment, Haiti closed all its public schools in what has been called the hemisphere's first case of structural adjustment.
www.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/110468.shtml
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, February 29, 2004
¤ U.S. welcomes Aristide's departure; military assembles Marines
¤ U.S. sending Marines to Haiti
¤ Chavez Supporters Protest U.S. Meddling, Reject Vote
¤ Estonian Soldier Killed by Baghdad Bomb - Military
¤ Haiti's leader has history of survival
¤ Haiti: return to savagery
¤ Aristide Bows to Pressure, Leaves Haiti
¤ Bush Increases Push for Haitian to Leave Office
¤ In the Country's Bicentennial Year, another US-Backed Coup
¤ Congresswoman Barbara Lee Regarding the Situation in Haiti
¤ U.S. Must Do More to Avert Coup D'Etat in Haiti
¤ Bush presses Aristide to quit
¥ Why would Bush push for the removal of a Democratically elected leader?
¤ Gaffes and gullibility: NY Times gets it wrong
¤ Korean peace requires US compromise, troop exit
¤ Revealed: Attorney General changed his advice on legality of Iraq war
¤ UN steps up anti-spying measures as Blix reveals belief he was bugged
¤ A History Written In Chechen Blood
¤ Here, there and everywhere
¤ The Taliban'sSecond Coming
¤ Flawed judgement, double standards
¤ Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Administration
¤ Al Qaida’s Unknowing Allies
¤ US blames Aristide for crisis
¤ Avoid the Temptation to Meddle in Haiti
¤ 13 killed in South Waziristan shooting
¤ US senator for admitting Pakistan, India to N-club
¤ Five die in held Kashmir violence
¤ Macedonia leader’s body found
¤ Aristide refuses to stepdown
¤ Downer signals support for new WMD inquiry
¤ Now for a weapon of some distraction
¤ Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
¤ Deepcut report to force inquiry into 'suicides'
¤ US told UK Attorney General to alter legal advice on Iraq war
¤ Bomber Killed Inside Mosque in Pakistan
¤ Kerry: Stations Have Right to Pull Stern
¤ Killed in the name of the Lord
¤ Beware smoking Guns
¤ Israel kills Palestinian resistance fighter
¤ Donor countries count the costs of rebuilding
¤ Controversies Mount Over Cause of Plane Crash in Bosnia
¤ The whistleblower, the loose cannon and the case for war
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, February 28, 2004
¤ More on the Impending Capture of Osama bin Elvis
¤ U.S. Denies Iran Report of Bin Laden's Capture
¤ Real issues? Bush prefers to distract
¤ While U.S. Tries to Mask it's Role - Haitians resist coup attempt
¤ The Haiti Boomerang
¤ Bush accused of supporting Haitian rebels
Flashback ¤ Bush Call for Regime Change in Cuba Violates OAS Charter
¤ Bush dismisses 2 members of bioethics panel
¤ Bush bio on Web inflates Guard service
¤ Will Bush Steal the 2004 Election?
¤ Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing conspiracy
¤ Losing our humanity
¤ One Hour Whitewash
¤ 'Doonesbury' Offers $10,000 for Proof Bush Served
¤ Three Palestinians killed in Israeli strike
¤ U.N. staff see boy shot in back
¤ Israel Exploiting Bereavement: Down and Out in The Hague
¤ Sleepy Iraqi Town Becomes a War Zone
¤ UN bugging scandal widens
¤ Spying at UN brings no shame
¤ UN calls British spying on Annan illegal
¤ British intell gave Blair 'snippets of Chirac's private conversations'
¤ Shiites walk out of talks on Iraqi constitution
¤ Dismantle the Military Goliath
¤ US Pushes UN to Endorse Preemptive Action Against Suspected WMDs
¤ Will Blair Take the Fall for Bush?
¤ Iraqis divided over charter
¤ Haitian Capital in Chaos as Rebels Advance on City
¤ Kerry speech blasts Bush's 'unilateral preemption'
¤ Venezuelan troops clash with protesters
¤ Two Dead, 20 Hurt in Clashes Over Venezuela Vote
¤ Israeli police storm al-Aqsa Mosque
¤ Kerry to search for 'peace' alongside Israel
¤ Former UN chief inspector bugged during Iraq inspections
¤ Dreaming of a White House
¤ Some in the Media are extremely complicit in this...
¤ When soldiers become bullies
¤ Hillary: Iraqi Women Better Off Under Saddam
¤ Iraq Pipeline Attacked North of Baghdad
¤ 11 Killed in Shooting Near Afghan Border
¤ Our most dangerous export
¤ Clare Short: Was Attorney General leant on to sanction war?
¤ 'Britain and US shared transcripts after bugging Blix's mobile phone'
¤ Iraqi youth drowned 'British soldiers forced him to swim across canal'
¤ Iraqi intellectuals under siege
¤ US troops kill two Iraqis
¤ Iraqi Council Weighs Return of Jews, Rejecting It So Far
¤ US Pushes UN to Endorse Preemptive Action Against Suspected WMDs
¤ Why they bugged the Secretary-General
¤ The espionage is unending
¤ US angers allies with new Middle East plan
¤ Shia walk out of Iraq constitution talks
¤ Church studies expose sexual abuse
¤ Australian Iraq report under fire
¤ US-Colombia Coca Eradication Called Destructive, Futile
¤ No Skunks Allowed
Colonial Past Confronts Germans
Posted: Friday, February 27, 2004
Colonial Past Confronts Germans
By Max Hamata
BERLIN www.newera.com.na
THE United Evangelical Mission (UEM) has launched a Namibian documentary film and photo exhibition to educate the German public on the country’s colonial history in commemoration of the Namibian genocide 100 years ago.
Entitled, "Erinnert Namibia! Mission, Kolonialismus und Freiheitskampf" (Remember Namibia! Mission, Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation), the mobile exhibition will run over 12 months at 19 church centres across Germany in memory of the 100th anniversary of the German genocide in Namibia.
"It was the first genocide in the 20th century, when 90 000 Namibians were wiped out at the extermination order of General Lothar von Trotha. People – women and children – died in concentration camps in Swakopmund or in the desert while fleeing, but still Namibia is only remembered as a tourist destination, with an attractive wilderness and German architecture by German visitors," said Bishop Zephania Kameeta who is the current head of UEM. Full Article
Latest News
Posted: Friday, February 27, 2004
¤ The Haiti Redux
¤ Weapons inspectors' phones 'bugged'
¤ Bush to Seek Reelection
¤ Iraq More Than Bush Bargained For
¤ U.S. can end the killing it started in Haiti
¤ Hunting Osama: Why Has It Taken So Long?
¤ Critics of US policy are racist, says Rice
¤ 'The Passion' of the Americans
¤ 'Uncle Sugar'
¤ Angry Arabs and American media
¤ Spying on Kofi Annan: Undermining the UN Mission in Iraq
¤ George W. Bush: Persona Non Grata
¤ U.S. Haitian Immigration Policy Condemned
¤ Bush Echoes Powell's Doubts on Aristide
¤ Rebel fighters at gates of Haitian capital
¤ Aristide Appeals for International Help
¤ Israelis kill two villagers in barrier protests
¤ Land grab in Gaza casts doubt on pullout
¤ Powell Questions Aristide Tenure in Haiti
¤ Britain Accused of Spying on U.N.'s Annan
¤ Blair backs new drive to transform Africa's dire outlook
¤ History Repeating, But Faster
¤ The Souter Presidency
¤ Britain's spying shame
¤ 'US plans to democratise Islamic world under Western security umbrella'
¤ Scientists suspect health threat from GM maize
¤ Blair faces UN spying charges
¤ Israeli soldier, four Palestinians killed in clashes
¤ China rejects US report on HR
¤ A lesson in 'disappearing the dead'
Flashback ¤ How much does America pay for supporting the Israelis?
¤ I was bugged by US, UK, France and Russia, says Butler
¤ Bugging UN chief 'a tradition', says former boss
¤ Bush's tough task to keep troops in Iraq
¤ 'We'd joke that the phones were bugged, but...
¤ Bitter white whine
¤ Blair and Bush must take the blame
¤ 'La Plus Ca Change' – NY Times Hit for WMD Gullibility
¤ A crucial case for the International Criminal Court
¤ Show us the Pentagon Papers on Iraq
¤ Why the Government is tying terror to economic security
¤ US soldiers accused of raping 100 colleagues
¤ Israeli bank raid breaks new turf
¤ Blix's phone tapped: sources
¤ Spy claims 'irresponsible': Blair
Namibia plans 'white' land seizures
Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2004
by Christof Maletsky, www.namibian.com.na
GOVERNMENT last night announced plans to expropriate commercial farms, in an effort to speed up land reform.
Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, making the announcement on NBC radio and television, said farmers who lost their farms would be justly compensated as provided for in the Namibian Constitution.
Gurirab said delays in implementing land reform, brought about by the "cumbersome" willing-seller, willing-buyer process left expropriation as the only other way Government would meet the "high public demand for agricultural land". Full Article
BBC: Namibia will start to forcibly take land from white farmers to give to landless blacks, the government says. Full Article
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2004
¤ Africa is definitely not Bush country
¤ Chalabi to U.S.: "Thanks, suckers."
¤ UN Spying and the Evasions of US Journalism
¤ The Deeper Meaning of the Wall
¤ US is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
¤ Why Aristide Should Stay
¤ CIA Cash Funded Drugs Trade
¤ Laura's pet project disparaged
¤ In the words of George W. Bush: 'Game's up!'
¤ Like his father, Bush doesn't get it
¤ Dick Cheney's Nigerian nightmare
¤ The Propaganda of William Safire
¤ Monkey Protein Fights HIV from Inside Cells
¤ Rumsfeld emphasises security of Caspian Sea
¥ WHY?????????
Flashback The Oil Connection:Afghanistan and Caspian Sea oil pipeline routes
Flashback Pipe Dreams - The Struggle for Caspian Oil
Flashback Caspian Sea Region
Flashback How Oil Interests Play Out In Us Bombing Of Afghanistan
Flashback Terror and Oil in Central Asia
Flashback America, oil and Afghanistan
Flashback Is Oil the Real Target in Afghanistan?
Flashback The Price of Oil?...War
Flashback Pipe dreams
¤ Plane Crash Kills Macedonia's President
¤ Guantanamo defendants identified
¤ America's new coal rush
¤ France Says Haiti Situation Is Urgent
¤ Source: Britain Spied on U.N.'s Annan
¤ Muslim raid kills 48 in Nigeria
¤ Make nuclear proliferation a punishable crime
¤ Where Is Brazil on Haiti?
¤ Time running out for Osama: US
¥ They need to catch him before U.S elections
¤ Israeli wall equated with Indian fence
¤ Iraq war termed ‘terrorism to all mankind’
¤ Bush-Musharraf equation
¤ State Department Reports Paint Dismal Human Rights Picture
¤ Arguments End But Israel's Wall Goes On
¤ Washington Conceals US Casualties in Iraq
¤ Perle Resigns
Flashback ¤ Power struggle over oil
¤ Aid workers killed in ambush
¤ Rapes Reported by Servicewomen in the Persian Gulf and Elsewhere
¤ Aristide begs for outside help as rebels tighten noose
¤ IDF raid on Ramallah banks could destabilize PA banking
¤ Israeli nuclear arsenal a mystery to UN
¤ US takes hard line with Pyongyang
¤ Why Howard took us to war
¤ Israeli Police Kill Two Palestinians, Witnesses Say
¤ Charges dropped against UK intelligence translator
¤ US defence secretary arrives in Afghan city of Kandahar
¤ Israeli troops loot millions from Arab banks
¤ Nine Killed in Cafe Explosion in Siberia
Who, and what, is behind America's recurrent drive to war?
Posted: Wednesday, February 25, 2004
By Stephen Gowans
February 18, 2004
When Sam Smith led the mob of angry white men that strung up a black man accused of a heinous crime, he faced a torrent of criticism.
When it turned out the victim was innocent, he faced more.
Smith didn't care. The victim was a ne'er-do-well. And he had taken over the victim's farm, and was running it at a profit for the first time ever.
The way Smith figured it, the world was better off without the victim, innocent or not.
Besides, what's a mob to do -- wait until it's absolutely clear a potential assailant is blameless? The victim surely had to bear some of the responsibility for not doing more to prove his innocence.
Few people found Smith's reasoning compelling.
When criticism persisted, Smith exploded. "I know in my heart and brain that white people ain't what's wrong in the world."
***
Defending his government's decision to invade Iraq on entirely spurious grounds, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared, "I know in my heart and brain that America ain't what's wrong in the world."
If by America, Rumsfeld means Blair Doan, who works at the hardware store on Main Street, or Cynthia Firsby, a cubicle worker with Hewlett-Packard, he's right.
Doan and Firsby and hundreds of millions of other Americans ain't what's wrong in the world.
Rumsfeld is.
Or more precisely, what's wrong is the recurrent theme in US foreign policy of seeking to dominate foreign territory, a theme that has roots in capitalism itself, and spans Republican and Democratic administrations.
Rumsfeld, his cabinet colleagues, and British toadies, are mere agents, no more so, and no less so, than Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman were agents of the same theme.
No more than the next Democrat president will be.
War isn't an aberration, the policy of hawks and neo-conservatives in power. It's an ongoing motif in US external relations.
And the reason why is war is good for business.
The destruction of Iraq by the US military has been a boon to weapons manufacturers like Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing, who depend on the Pentagon -- and a robust military budget -- to provide an unceasing flow of revenue.
These firms have an interest in a continually expanding war budget, and will see to it that there's no shortage of potential enemies whose demise must be presided over by the combined forces of the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines -- profitably equipped by the combined forces of Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon and so on.
Downstream, firms like Becthel (one of whose directors, George Shultz, led a committee that lobbied for the invasion of Iraq), Fluor, (Dick Cheney's old firm) Halliburton, and dozens of others, pocket billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts.
This is the charmed circle of US capitalism. Corporate America builds the bombs and missiles to destroy the infrastructure of other countries, and then moves in to rebuild what it has destroyed.
At a profit.
And spending on the military serves to combat the incessant danger of aggregate demand falling, and the economy slipping into recession, or worse.
Meanwhile, an endless round of tax cuts have relieved corporate America and its wealthy functionaries of their fair share of the tax load, so it's ordinary Americans who pay the bulk of the taxes to fund the merry-go-round of capital accumulation, not the corporations who profit from the "destroy it-rebuild it" cycle and not the wealthy investors who pocket the interest on bonds sold to finance the national debt that grows ever larger as military spending spirals ever upward.
It's no accident that things work out this way.
After all, who's running Washington?
You don't have to go far to run up against millionaires, former corporate directors and CEOs on sabbatical on Capitol Hill.
And it doesn't matter who's in power -- Republicans or Democrats. It's always the same.
In fact, all branches of government -- executive, legislative and bureaucratic -- to say nothing of the key positions in both major parties, are teeming with personnel drawn from corporate America. Just the kind of people who know a thing or two about the importance of new markets and new outlets for investment and how inimical taxes are to the expansion of capital.
What also makes war good for business is the practice of "smash it, reconstruct it" being applied to target countries that impose limits on American exports and investments, providing the benefit of expanding corporate America's vistas, once the target country's government is ousted, and a pro-US (trade and investment) regime is left in its place.
Iraq's economy was largely state-owned, hardly the kind of arrangement that corporate America's leaders, continually scouring the world for outlets for the profitable investment of their capital, looked upon kindly.
So, it's no accident that the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer (himself plucked from the heights of corporate America), has set about making over Iraq into a Middle Eastern model of free trade, free enterprise and free markets (read: an economy open to US exports and investments.)
Similarly, US hostility to the government of Slobodan Milosevic had much to do with Serbia's refusal to jettison a socialist orientation, which limited US investment opportunities.
As the former communist countries of Eastern Europe embraced the free market, and breakaway republics of Yugoslavia elected neo-liberal reformers, Milosevic replied with a defiant rejection of privatization, free markets, and integration into Western capitalism.
Sanctions, subversion, bombardment from the air, the buying of the opposition, and finally a coup, put an end to Milosevic keeping part of the Yugoslav economy closed to corporate America.
So, Rumsfeld's right. America ain't what's wrong in the world.
It's the expansionist theme of US foreign policy, fueled by capitalism's drive to accumulate, that's wrong.
****
While Rumsfeld seeks to make ordinary Americans complicit in the Iraq war by using the inclusive "we" to draw them into the crime, Blair Doan and Cynthia Firsby should think twice about taking the bait.
Their inclusion is selective. They weren't consulted about the war; they didn't gather phony intelligence to contrive a sham casus belli; they didn't decide to defy the UN.
And yet Rumsfeld wants to make them accountable, because they're Americans. What's that got to do with it? They may be Americans, but they're hardly beneficiaries. On the contrary.
Billions of dollars in taxes are hoovered out of their pockets and injected directly into corporate America's collective bottom line.
And they're paying the opportunity cost of squandering America's enormous productive assets on the fevered pursuit of capital expansion, when they could be used to the benefit of the majority, to provide basic material needs, high quality education and universal health care, the kinds of benefits the USSR, Eastern European countries, and yes, Yugoslavia, used to provide all its citizens, despite having more modest productive assets; the kinds of benefits even Cuba -- poor, harassed and systematically disturbed for the last four decades -- provides universally.
Some 55,000 Iraqis have been killed so far, 13,000 herded into concentration camps (John Pilger, "Mass Deception," The Mirror, February 3, 2004).
The toll is monstrously high. We should be clear who -- and what -- is responsible.
It ain't ordinary Americans.
Reproduced from:
www3.sympatico.ca/sr.gowans
Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, February 25, 2004
¤ Iraq Helicopter Crash Kills Two Soldiers
¤ The Politics of Duplicity
¤ Bush's New Red Herring
¤ The Pentagon Sounds The Alarm On Global Warming
¤ Haiti's Second Coup
¤ Misuse worries 'limit Iraq aid'
¤ Beyond the pale: Bush, Iraq, and treason
¤ Cheney's unprecedented power
¤ Posture Bush: How George W. Bush plans to get away with murder
¤ Osama in the house?
¤ Halliburton, Faces Second Criminal Probe In Four Years
¤ Quagmire world
¤ And now for something really dangerous
¤ CIA chief predicts war with no end
¤ Putin sacks his cabinet ahead of elections
¤ Hundreds feared dead as quake hits Morocco
¤ What if the roof were to cave in?
¤ The Dancing Bear
¤ Terror threat to US remains: CIA chief
¤ US, UK created facts for Iraq war, says Blix
¤ ‘Bush signed secret directive for Iraq war in Feb 2002’
¤ Bush on the back foot
¤ Nuclear emasculation
¤ US snub for Libya over PM's remarks
¤ Killed as they slept: 560 die in Moroccan earthquake
¤ Earthquake Kills More Than 550 in Morocco
¤ 564 dead, hundreds injured in Morocco quake
¤ Bush backs gay wedding ban
¤ Nader is a wrecker, but he's right about public malaise
¤ Nervous flyer
¤ World Court Decision Will Have Little Effect on Israel
¤ Cheney's gay daughter urged to oppose marriage ban move
¤ Desperately seeking solutions in Iraq
¤ Russia vs the US: Star wars revisited
¤ Unveiling America: Women in war and politics
¤ Iraq not ready for early poll, warns UN chief
¤ US troops kill militant in Iraq
¤ Iraqi artists face curbs on freedom.
¤ Three Hizb leaders among eight killed in held Kashmir
¤ Insurgent and soldier: two views on Iraq fight
¤ Bullets claim stirs Iraq equipment row
¤ New book claims Israel possesses 82 nuclear warheads
¤ Bush unhappy with Iranian elections
¤ The perils of pressuring Russia
¤ Palestinians beaten for barrier demo
¤ Blix: Iraq war arguments unfounded
Haiti still enslaved for all its rebellion
Posted: Tuesday, February 24, 2004
by Gwynne Dyer, www.nzherald.co.nz
Haiti's trip to the brink of civil war began last September, when Amiot Metayer, the leader of a gang of street thugs called the Cannibal Army that enforced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's will in the northern city of Gonaives, threatened to reveal details of the murder of opposition figures. It was presumably in connection with some quarrel over the division of the spoils, but Metayer was promptly murdered. His widow then conducted a voodoo seance in which his soul appeared and identified his killers: local supporters of President Aristide. Full Article
Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, February 24, 2004
¤ Haiti still enslaved for all its rebellion
¤ 9/11 Families Issue Bold Challenge over Compromised Investigation
¤ Jordan Argues Israeli Barrier Is a Threat
¤ U.S. Scrambles to Find New Course in Haiti
¤ The True Lies of George W. Bush
¤ Lies About War, Economics, Science: President's Lies Are Never-Ending
¤ Letter from Iraq
¤ Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
¤ CIA fires Baghdad station chief
¤ Paying for propaganda
¤ Human rights groups denied seats at tribunals Space is limited
¤ Guantanamo Bay continues as a blot of shame on the U.S.
¤ At Least 229 Dead in Morocco Earthquake
¤ Middle East conflict hits The Hague
¤ Israel accused of 'illegal land grab'
¤ A Wall as a Weapon
¤ EU terms West Bank barrier unlawful
¤ Israel's wall will kill peace hopes, UN court told
¤ 'No jobs, no hope, no life, no freedom': Palestinians and the 'security' barrier
¤ Is barrier a defense or terrorists' spring-board?
¤ Israel vows to forge on with barrier
¤ Peres calls on Powell, Rice to support Israeli withdrawal
¤ Thousands march in protest against separation barrier
¤ Afghanistan: Now it's all-out war
¤ Iraq: Now for the base truth
¤ India embraces lavish living in style
¤ Death Toll Among Iraqi Police Rising
¤ Thirteen Iraqis die in suicide bombing as Rumsfeld flies in
¤ C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11
¤ U.S., U.N. Play 'After You' Game on Iraq
¤ Heads Should Roll
¤ Is Nader as Evil as Bush?
¤ The Iraq war is the Suez of our time
¤ Earthquake in Morocco Kills 86 People
¤ Bush 'wanted war in 2002'
¤ It’s the Electoral System, Stupid!
¤ Stunned Kuwait Demands Clarification From Iraq Over New Land Claims
¤ Annan says Iraq voting not feasible until winter
¤ The new Laura Bush reveals her feisty side
¤ What Bush Did Wrong during the War
¤ UN Report Warns Against Early Elections, Offers No Solutions on Transition
¤ Seven dead men
¤ Gunned down with abandon
¤ Bush fights back with attack on war critics
¤ Rumsfeld warns Iran, Syria against helping militants in Iraq
¤ US-led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan slammed
¤ Controversial research work on terrorism continues
¤ Forecast of Rising Oil Demand Challenges Tired Saudi Fields
¤ Amnesty barred from Guantanamo trials
¤ Pentagon starts probe into Halliburton claims
¤ How stupid white men helped Bush win the presidency
¤ CIA accused of lying about WMDs
¤ US soldiers suspended in abuse probe
¤ Morocco quake toll could reach 300
Latest News
Posted: Monday, February 23, 2004
¤ The embarrassment president
¤ The man who would be king
¤ Is the Army sandbagging its anticipated 'suicide report'?
¤ All in the (profiteering first) family
¤ George W. Bush's Bright Shining Lies
¤ Call Bush to account on Iraq, economy
¤ Iraq: Democracy Or Doublespeak?
¤ Depleted Uranium: The War Crime That Has No End
¤ Who Should Be the Next Commander-in-Chief?
¤ America is Complicit in Illegal Wall
¤ Bombing vindicates West Bank barrier: Israel
¤ What Iraqis receive for their losses
¤ Hidden defense costs add up to double trouble
¤ 'Five Lies' Lives On
¤ Improve the CIA? Better to abolish it
¤ Bomb explodes at northern Iraq police station
¤ Suicide bomb kills 10 in Kirkuk
¤ Car bomb hits Iraq police station
¤ Propaganda TV won't help the U.S.
¤ Chalabi, Garner Provide New Clues to War
¤ Oil pipeline blown up in Iraq
¤ Throttled by history
¤ US targeted us on racial grounds: Australians
¤ In Haiti, shift from disjointed rebellion to wider uprising
¤ Iraqis Say Deal on U.S. Troops Must Be Put Off
¤ White House readies a push for Middle East reforms
¤ Afghan crash kills pilot
¤ The UN's moment in Iraq
¤ Dude, where's my vote: self-defeating choice of pot plant over Bush
¤ No polls, but Iraq gets sovereignty - and troops
¤ Uncle Sap Suckered Again
¤ Israel Dismisses Palestinian Challenge to Barrier
¤ India Space Center Fire Is Said to Kill 5
¤ Gasoline Tanker Blast Kills 18 in Angola
¤ Taliban claim responsibility for fatal attack on American reconstruction team
¤ Palestine: Barrier will bolster occupation
¤ February bloodiest month for Iraqis
¤ Rumsfeld in Iraq to plan US withdrawal
¤ Rights group slams Israeli violations
¤ Palestinians Open Case Against Barrier
¤ Bomber kills eight on Jerusalem bus
¥ How convenient....
¤ Bomb gives Israel case for the wall
Haiti: Throttled by history
Posted: Monday, February 23, 2004
Throttled by history
Haiti's political class has failed it, but the first black republic has also been squeezed dry by a vengeful west
As civil war encroaches, civil society implodes and civil political discourse evaporates, one of the few things all Haitians can agree on is their pride in Toussaint L'Ouverture, who lead the slave rebellion in Haiti that established the world's first black republic. "The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organise themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day is one of the great epics of revolutionary struggle and achievement," wrote the late Trinidadian intellectual CLR James in his book The Black Jacobins. The transformation of that achievement into a nation riven by political violence, ravaged by Aids and devastated by poverty is a tragedy of epic proportions. Full Article
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, February 22, 2004
¤ Ugandan Rebels Attack Refugees, Kill 192
¤ Haiti Rebels Seize Major Northern City
¤ Haiti Rebels Seize Second-Largest City
¤ Jerusalem Bus Bombing Kills 8, Wounds 59
¤ Bus bomb casts shadow on world court hearing
¥ Why would the Palestinians give Israel 'grounds' for the 'wall'?
¤ WHO 'suppressed' scientific study into depleted uranium
¤ Iraq Shock For Kuwait
¤ Howard defends pre-war intelligence
¤ Sweeping new powers in UK war on terror
¤ Bin Laden 'surrounded'
¤ Where are Iraq's Pentagon papers?
¤ To hell - and back
¤ Political hate speech
¤ Iraq war is boon for Halliburton
¤ Halliburton's rising cost for Bush
¤ Rumsfeld Says Insurgents Could Disrupt U.S. Plans
¤ Rumsfeld says al-Qaeda 'clearly involved' in Iraq
Flashback ¤ 'No link' between Iraq and al-Qaida
Flashback ¤ CIA, FBI Staffers See No Link Between Iraq, al Qaeda
Flashback ¤ 'A link between Saddam and bin Laden? No way'
¤ "Al Qaeda says no to link with Iraqi ultras"
¤ Rumsfeld in Iraq sectarian war warning
¤ Stretch of fence to be torn down today
¤ Suicide Bomb Blast Tears Through Jerusalem Bus
¤ Pakistan's Bhutto says Musharraf in nuke cover-up
¤ Pilot killed in Afghanistan crash
¤ Pakistan to get US arms
¤ Three killed in held Kashmir
¤ Is America targeting our bomb?
¤ Tip of the iceberg
¤ Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
¤ 'If you oppress people long enough, things will erupt.
¤ Gunmen Attack Police in North Iraq Cities
¤ Afghan Helicopter Crash Kills U.S. Worker
¤ Rumsfeld: Insurgents Not Scaring Iraqis
¤ They're off ... and it's going to be dirty
¤ What Becomes of Brits Released From Guantanamo to Become Test Case
¤ Soldiers accused of another fatal beating
¤ Guantanamo Britons left in limbo as talks with US stall
¤ Is this the face of the man who gave Blair the cue for 45-minute WMD claim?
¤ Seven veterans of Iraq war 'have committed suicide'
¤ Snub to ayatollah as Bremer puts Iraq poll on hold
¤ Mystery over new hunt for Bin Laden
¤ MI5 expands to meet terror threat
¤ Sunni cleric killed while leaving Baghdad mosque
¤ NBC News: Ricin Tests May Have Been Wrong
¤ North Korea accuses U.S. of telling 'whopping lie'
¤ American tribes build for the future ... but fear for their past
¤ United States aiding a plot to oust President Chavez Frias
¤ Why this interference by the USA in a sovereign and democratic country?
Haiti: Aristide Agrees to U.S. 'Peace' Plan
Posted: Saturday, February 21, 2004
Haiti: Aristide Agrees to U.S. 'Peace' Plan
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide agreed Saturday to a U.S.-backed peace plan calling for shared power with political opponents. He said rebels will be disarmed, and a new government will hold elections. Full Article
Latest News
Posted: Saturday, February 21, 2004
¤ Four U.S. Troops Wounded, Iraqi Killed in Ambush
¤ Incident in Kuwait has put careers on the line
¤ Aristide Agrees to U.S. 'Peace' Plan
¤ Iran too slow in proving it has no nuclear bomb program: Powell
¤ C.I.A. Admits It Didn't Give Weapon Data to the U.N.
¤ Live Video Coverage of World Court Hearings on the Internet
¤ Sharon lashes out at fence hearings
¤ Using Images Of Bush To Manipulate The Minds Of Voters
¤ Artists are being refused entry to the US on security grounds
¤ Has Rumsfeld done an about-face?
¤ Dying of neglect: the state of Iraq's children's hospitals
¤ W's reality gap
¤ Bush's Backpedaling
¤ Criminal dissent
¤ Troops accused on Iraq killings
¤ 'They were kicking us, laughing. It was a great pleasure for them'
¤ US soldier on frontline in battle for refugee status
¤ Bush Installs Judge, Bypassing Senate
¤ Two Bombs Explode in Southwest Pakistan
¤ Exit blocked?
¤ War and Crime
¤ Richard Perle, Walking Disaster
¤ Israel's West Bank Wall Assailed by Key Civil Society Groups
¤ Chalabi, Garner Provide New Clues to War
¤ Iran's meaningless vote
¤ Schoolteacher among 12 killed in held Kashmir
¤ US pressurising G-8 over travel security initiative
¤ The developing world’s angst on US policies
¤ Special forces quitting to cash in on Iraq
¤ CIA struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan
¤ Soldiers indicted on murder charge in slaying of fellow soldier
¤ Iranian oilfield deal sparks US anger
¤ No polls, but Iraq gets sovereignty - and troops
¤ Top agency 'pressured' over WMD
¤ White House admits failure of caucus plan
¤ Bremer says elections in Iraq could be 15 months away
¤ U.S. judge: Swiss banks trying to 'delay justice'
¤ Holes in his defence
¤ Bremer: No elections in Iraq for a year
Latest News
Posted: Friday, February 20, 2004
¤ Five Questions About Haiti and the Coup Attempt
¤ An Aboriginal Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
¤ Operation Enduring Misery: The Afghanistan Debacle
¤ An Opportunity for Debate on Nuclear Weapons
¤ 'We want answers: why have they been held so long without charge?'
¤ Plan for Caucuses In Iraq Is Dropped
¤ How Camp Delta allowed US to avoid Geneva Convention
¤ Soldier for the Truth: Exposing Bush's Talking-Points War
¤ 'NY Times' Fails to Acknowledge Its Role in WMD Hype
¤ Bush backs off a jobs forecast
¤ War means never having to say you're sorry
¤ Is Dick Cheney Scary On Purpose?
¤ Not much difference between '1984' and 2004
¤ Garbage in, Garbage Out
¤ Iraq council opposes Bush plans
¤ Analysis: U.S. caucus idea dead in Iraq
¤ To vote or not to vote ...
¤ In Iraq, the chaos theory in action
¤ Scientists accuse Bush team of distorting facts
¤ 20 hurt in Amritsar blast
¤ Not a shred of evidence
¤ Exposing Bush’s talking-points war
¤ Mr. Bush's Grand Illusions
¤ The privilege of a 'war president'
¤ Boycott or turnout: Iran elections set
¤ US citizens urged to leave chaos in Haiti
¤ Stop building security barrier, Red Cross urges
¤ Iraqi leader defends intelligence
¤ U.S. Expects Troops in Iraq for Years
¤ Has Bush's running mate gone lame?
¤ Haiti rebels declare independence and Americans leave
¤ How Camp Delta allowed US to avoid Geneva Convention
¤ Halliburton's Rising Cost for Bush
¤ Top General Says U.S. Lags in Aiding Iraqis Under Fire
¤ Bad for the poor and bad for science
¤ Faulty Intelligence
¤ Israel receives two new-generation F-16I fighter jets
¤ Bin Laden between a hammer and a hard place
¤ Iraq roadside bomb toll rises to four
¤ Brain study confirms placebo effect
¤ Female politician slaps male rival
¤ Dangerous Liaison
¤ Iraq Intelligence Timeline
¤ The Bush Budget
U.S. to send military team to Haiti
Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2004
U.S. to send military team to Haiti
The Bush administration said Thursday it would send a military team to Haiti to assess the security of the U.S. Embassy there, but stressed that it is still looking for a political solution to the bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
More Articles:
Beloved Haiti: A (Counter) Revolutionary Bicentennial 02.18.04
Haiti-A Call For Global Action 01.07.04
Hands off Haiti 02.17.04
Latest News
Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2004
¤ Scientists say administration distorts facts
¤ U.S. to Send Military Team to Haiti
¤ Anti-Semitism at the World Social Forum?
¤ Iraq Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence
¤ How Far Will Bush Go?
¤ Iraq PoWs cry in terror
¤ Killings of Vendors in Iraqi City Drive Alcohol Sales Off Streets
¤ Can Anyone Top Cheney & Halliburton?
¤ Roots of Pakistan Atomic Scandal Traced to Europe
¤ More than enough enemies
¤ Russian might ... might not
¤ Iraq roadside bomb kills three
¤ Suicides in Iraq, Questions at Home
¤ What Bush's Guard File Reveals
¤ Washington's Double Standards Toward Mass Murderers
¤ Bush Rouses The Sleeping Dogs Of The Culture War
¤ Bush plays bait-and-switch with 9/11 panel
¤ How To Get Bush Elected (memo to Karl Rove)
¤ The other superpower: Solidarity and the world's people
¤ New inquiry examines Hollinger bonus plan
¤ Iraq: A convenient letter from an Al Qaeda terrorist
¤ What makes you think you actually KNOW what happened on those planes?
¤ Israel/Occupied Territories: The fence/wall violates international law
¤ Scattered Attacks on U.S. Forces in Iraq
¤ 309 Confirmed Dead in Iran Train Blast
¤ Japan and Iran Sign Major Oil Deal
¤ Shampaign moments
¤ Bush 'bending science to his political needs'
¤ UN to defy Shia clerics and call for delay in Iraq poll
¤ Why one Saddam-hating Iraqi is resisting the US
¤ Will Afghan turmoil postpone elections?
¤ Afghan Elections Could Deepen Ethnic Divide
¤ Rent-a-resistance
¤ U.S. has nuclear double standard
¤ Under The Bright Lights
¤ Scientists claim Bush bends data
¤ Dear Mr. Prosecutor
¤ Hypocrite Season
¤ Bush Retreat on Jobs
¤ Spies in your computer
¤ After Iraq, let's forgive some other debts
¤ British troops 'beat Iraqi prisoner', claims soldier
¤ Japan's 'Fortress of Solitude' in Iraq - plus karaoke
¤ U.S. National Debt Tops $7 Trillion for First Time
¤ Afghanistan: When push comes to shove
¤ Annan: No Iraq elections by 30 June
¤ Malaysia officially protests US nuke claim
¤ Eleven dead in Iraq army base blasts
¤ Chalabi stands by faulty intelligence that toppled Saddam's regime
¤ Suicide Attack Kills 13 Iraqis
¤ The neo-con philosophy of intelligence
¤ How significant are Russia's war games?
U.S. still at it!
Posted: Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Chavez: US is trying to overthrow me
By Alexandra Olson in Caracas, Independent UK
The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, yesterday angrily accused the United States of being behind a 2002 coup and of helping continuing opposition attempts to overthrow him.
Mr Chavez said the US Government was providing millions of dollars to Venezuelan groups. "The Government of Washington is using the money of its people to support not only opposition activities but acts of conspiracy," the President said.
Latest News
Posted: Wednesday, February 18, 2004
¤ "B. S. Away!" -- The Miracle Truth-Spray
¤ Beloved Haiti: A (Counter) Revolutionary Bicentennial
¤ Spirit of the Dean machine
¤ Attack at Coalition Base Kills 10 Iraqis
¤ Mush-Minded Liberals
¤ Canadian gov't insists it will not agree to "weaponisation of space"
¤ Missing in Action in Iraq
¤ Body Count Redux
¤ Iraqis say, "Same Donkey, Different Blanket"
¤ Interview of Bush Reveals Dangerous Assumptions Behind U.S. Foreign Policy
¤ 'It's over'
¤ Iran to agree on multi-billion dollar oilfield project
¤ AWOL = Always Without Logic
¤ SINGAPORE: Sentence cut in oral sex case
¤ CBS Apologizes for OutKast 'Native American' performance
¤ '200 die' in train explosion in Iran
¤ 200 dead, 350 injured in train explosion
¤ 11 Iraqis Killed in Failed Suicide Attack
¤ Four killed in Hilla car bombing
¤ US to endorse Israeli plans for Gaza
¤ Red Cross Breaks Silence on Israel Barrier
¤ Halliburton suspends bill for army meals
¤ US increases pressure on Aristide to compromise
¤ French intellectuals attack 'war on intelligence'
¤ Will US delay Iraq sovereignty transfer?
¤ War erodes Bush support
¤ Bush's Economics Unsustainable
¤ Distorting the intelligence
¤ 'Terrorism': A world ensnared by a word
¤ Japan-US not so cozy in the future
¤ Beware populism, the enemy of democracy
¤ US election plan in Iraq founders
¤ Howard denies leaking WMD report
¤ Attacks grow bolder, better organized
¤ Iraq trade ministry official killed
¤ Hair trigger planet
¤ US is trying to overthrow me, says Venezuelan leader
¤ US envoy in Israel on 'disengagement' talks
¤ Iraq: No let-up in anti-occupation attacks
¤ Seven dead in attack on Polish base in Iraq
Latest News
Posted: Tuesday, February 17, 2004
¤ Few Americans see caskets come home
¤ A Daily Look at U.S. Deaths in Iraq
¤ Why Tony Blair fears the coming of President Kerry
¤ It's Bush, stupid
¤ Old MacDonald Had a Judge
¤ CIA Reports Seven Months Before 9/11 Said Iraq Posed No Threat To U.S.
¤ US terror laws 'damage human rights'
¤ Serial Liar Bush Finally Gets Caught
¤ Syria says Israel does not want peace
¤ Who Has got WMD? Graph
¤ Weapons 'capacity' of Iraq challenged
¤ President Bush: Six impossible things, all before breakfast
¤ Documenting the Halliburton/Cheney Crimes and Controversies, Pt II
¤ Running for cover on Iraq
¤ A Bush Doctrine, of Sorts
¤ John Kerry:The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America
¤ Rebellion spreads to central Haiti
¤ Australia: More Aboriginal unrest likely
¤ Eleven years later, and promises have done little for the people
¤ Don't hold your breath on war report: Downer
¤ US seeks China’s support in stopping WMD proliferation
¤ Arab silence over WMD scandal is perplexing
¤ Britain under Blair
¤ Bush Family Values: War, Wealth, Oil
¤ Roadside bombs kill American soldiers
¤ Iraq oil cash funded MPs' campaigns
¤ 10 cents a barrel: how Iraqi oil fuelled UK campaigns
¤ Iraq Bombings Kill Three U.S. Soldiers
¤ Was I wrong about Iraq?
¤ US says Iraqis, not foreign fighters, are behind attacks
¤ Rifts widen in Bush's foreign policy team
¤ US terror laws 'damage human rights'
¤ Airline pilots angry over 'needless' cancellations
¤ US soldier killed in Iraq blast
¤ Syrian PM: Israel benefitted from Iraq
Riot Highlights Australia Race Problems
Posted: Monday, February 16, 2004
An Aboriginal Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
There is a boy dead in a city morgue. A teenager. Thomas "TJ" Hickey. Dead at 17. How do you write about death? About riots? About an issue no-one in power seems to want resolved? The mad scramble of Australia as it is today. Inner city Sydney Redfern. Put on some music. Whatever is on the player. Hi 5 and Paul Kelly. And try and describe what happened this past weekend. Before time and more life fades. Full Article
Australia's Enduring Shame
Once again, the neat, placid surface of white Australia is disturbed by those who owned and cared for this country and remain its internal exiles. On 15 February, a crowd of Aboriginal youths set fire to a railway station and fought riot police in a run-down area known as The Block, in the Redfern district of Sydney. It is the last redoubt of Australia's original inhabitants in the centre of a city built on land from which their forebears were first evicted 216 years ago. Full Article
Race hatred polarises Australian town
Aboriginal leaders say skinhead attacks on homeless are fuelled by official crackdown on park dwellers
David Fickling in Townsville
Saturday June 21, 2003, The Guardian
Claims of racism are nothing new in Townsville, the hardbitten industrial city in Queensland's humid tropics, which is often described as the capital of Australia's deep north. "This is probably the most racist town in Australia," says Lloyd Wyles, a broadcaster for indigenous radio station 4K1G.
Aboriginal and Melanesian people here claim to have been harassed by the police, refused housing and jobs, turned away from pubs and restaurants, and subjected to verbal and physical attacks. Full Article
Riot Highlights Australia Race Problems
SYDNEY, Australia - A young Aborigine dies. His family and friends bitterly blame police, and within hours gasoline bombs and rocks rain down on a Sydney ghetto. Cars and a train station are torched.
Australians like to think of their society as fair and egalitarian. But a riot in Sydney's Redfern neighborhood has dramatically highlighted problems of race that have haunted this country ever since the first white settlers arrived more than two centuries ago. Full Article
Tutu tells Blair: Apologise for 'immoral' war
Posted: Monday, February 16, 2004
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
16 February 2004, news.independent.co.uk
Archbishop Desmond Tutu will challenge Tony Blair and George Bush today to apologise for their pursuit of a counter-productive and "immoral" war in Iraq.
In a scathing analysis of the background to the invasion, he will ridicule the "dangerously flawed" intelligence that Britain and the US used to justify a military action which has made the world a "great deal less safe". Full Article
Latest News
Posted: Monday, February 16, 2004
¤ History, Presidents and Lies
¤ Bush Goal Was Dodging War
¤ Iraqnophobia
¤ 1971 Photo of Kerry Doctored
¤ Bremer pins hopes on UN as exit strategy from Iraq
¤ High Noon with Dubya Fudd
¤ Bush's attack dogs and lapdogs
¤ The Coming Iraq Debacle
¤ New York Times Reports Illegal Florida Vote Purge
> Three Years After Killing Story
¤ At Least 1 Dies in Iraq Schoolyard Blast
¤ Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Bomb Attacks
¤ No WMD? One jailed Iraqi scientist is not a bit surprised
¤ UN criticises vague 'terror' laws
¤ Iraq school bomb kills two children
¤ U.S. sets red lines on pullout plan
¤ Will Bush be Swept Away
¤ Baghdad Blast Kills One U.S. Soldier
¤ 'A Sunni war against the occupation'
¤ Tutu tells Blair: Apologise for 'immoral' war
¤ Let Blair pay the price
¤ Kerry takes war to Bush as candidacy gathers pace
¤ American Troops Cut Down Iraqi Couple, Terrorize Village
¤ Roadside bomb kills US soldier in Baghdad
¤ Packed minibus, fuel tanker collide in Uganda
¤ Bush and me, guarding the homeland
¤ US civilian dies in Iraq ambush
¤ Voting chaos looms for American election
¤ The Wisdom of a Patriot
¤ Yes, Minister!
¤ Find Me a Way To Do This
¤ No More "Great Presidents"
¤ WMD: A primer
¤ Tension high in Iraq as two more killed in rocket attack
¤ Thousands march in Madrid against Iraq occupation
¤ Blix terms Bush, Blair ‘salesmen’
¤ Game of world domination
¤ Police 'provoked' riot: Jackson
¤ Aborigines riot in anger at boy's death
¤ War makers' WMD cover-up continues
¤ Playing lost and found in Iraq
¤ Deadly attack on police most daring yet
¤ Blair ponders break-up of BBC
¤ Getting international help on WMD
¤ Two-year wait for Saddam trial
¤ China link to nuclear network
Latest News
Posted: Sunday, February 15, 2004
¤ Two Fires in China Kill 90, Injure 71
¤ War stories
¤ Why the president's record matters
¤ Bush obfuscations may sink him
¤ Notable, Quotable Presidents
¤ White House Admits Bush Lied in 2002 State of The Union
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