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October 01, 2001
The Weakest Link
( Meri Ranut ) America should note that 'evidence' of this magnitude is not to be kept private while they lobby for world support in their effort to capture Bin Laden. If they want the jury (us public) to accept the case they are putting forward then the most sensible line would be for them to present their evidence in total.
Pakistan, who is their 'closest' ally in this 'war' against Bin Laden, is on the brink of a civil war, where one side is calling for the evidence of Bin Laden's involvement. One would believe that Pakistan is the best country for America to 'show' this 'evidence'. But, America has chosen to leave their ally to go into further civil unrest while they hold back this "incontrovertible link" (according to Blair). Full Article
Me Big Chief
( Bukka Rennie ) Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere, paid reparations to France to the tune of 150 million in "gold francs". Imagine paying reparations for having won your independence in one of the bloodiest episodes in modern history. The oppressed compensating the oppressor for their freedom.
That was a shock to many in the audience at the recently-held CLR James conference who may not have been so informed previously. Full Article
Does George W. have a Grasp of Key Foreign Policy Issues?
( Michel Chossudovsky ) America is preparing for war. British and US Special Forces "trained in the arts of kidnapping and assassination" are already operating inside Afghanistan. More than one million US troops are on standby. US military bases around the World are on high alert: "the Japan-based USS Kitty Hawk battle group and the 7th Fleet are ready to join" in the largest display of military might since the Vietnam war.
The Bush Administration is planning on launching this military operation without delay, prior to the development of a cohesive anti-war movement in the US and around the World. Full Article
"Taliban,
I thought you were talking about some rock group"
( Alexander Yanov ) When a Glamor correspondent asked Governor Bush what he thought about the Taliban, he just shrugged his shoulders, bemused. It took a bit of prompting from the journalist ("discrimination against women in Afghanistan") for Bush to rouse himself: Taliban in Afghanistan! Absolutely. Reprisals. I thought you were talking about some rock group.
That's how well-informed about the outside world the prospective U.S. president is. Even about very important present-day developments that are on everyone's lips - that is, everyone with the slightest pretensions to culture; developments that he, if elected, will have to deal with. Full Article
How to wash a brain
( Donna Yawching ) Last week, my colleague Jillian Ballantyne advanced a theory that Osama bin Laden's suicidal terrorists might actually have been professionally brainwashed into committing their fanatical and terrible deeds. It is an interesting idea, and may even be correct; but my suspicion is that for adherents of Osama bin Laden's world-view, professional mind-controllers would be almost redundant: history is the most effective brainwasher of all.
There is a tendency among some disingenuous observers (though I'm not suggesting that Ballantyne is one of these) to write off bin Laden's disciples as simple religious fanatics; and an even more dangerous tendency to define fanaticism as a kind of mindless Frankenstein response manipulated by an evil puppet-master. The whole package is then tied up neatly with a Muslim bow (a religion whose precepts, particularly that of fatalism, have never sat easily with Christians) , and offered as a valid explanation of what happened on September 11, as in: "A bunch of Muslim fanatics who hate democracy killed 7,000 innocent Americans." Full Article
