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September 17, 2001
War Of The Flea
( Bukka Rennie ) What a world! What could the perpetrators of last Tuesday's dastardly, devastating horror of the levelling of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, symbolic seats of American capitalism and military might, really hope to gain? Full Article
Is Rational Discourse Another Casualty of Tuesday's Attacks?
( Ben Fritz ) A time of tragedy is inevitably, and rightfully, a time of emotion. Just as so many of us are distraught, upset, and angry at the terrorist attacks against the U.S. last week, so too are many political pundits. We should expect no less, of course, as they are Americans who, like all of us, saw their nation wounded and friends endangered or even killed. Full Article
Enemies, Both Foreign and Domestic:
The Limits of Revenge and Rhetoric
( Tim Wise ) Well, it looks as if the good people of the rural U.S. should be breathing a sigh of relief right about now. After all, with the President and most Americans itching to bomb any place where terrorists might be hiding, one can only imagine the kind of wrath that would have been brought down upon the heads of folks in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming or Mississippi had last week's hijackers been white boys with crew-cuts, like Tim McVeigh. Full Article
The United States and Middle East:
Why Do "They" Hate US?
( Stephen R. Shalom ) The list below presents specific incidents of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The list minimizes the grievances against the United States in the region because it excludes more generalized long-standing policies, such as U.S. backing for authoritarian regimes (arming Saudi Arabia, training the secret police in Iran under the Shah, providing arms and aid to Turkey as it ruthlessly attacked Kurdish villages, etc.) The list also excludes actions of Israel in which the United States is indirectly implicated because Israel has been the leading or second-ranking recipient of U.S. aid for many years and has received U.S. high-tech weaponry and the diplomatic benefit of U.S. veto power in the Security Council. Full Article
Lonely voice against war in Congress
The lone member of the US Congress who opposed the resolution authorising the use of armed force against terrorists did so from the security of one of the safest seats in the country.
Barbara Lee represents California's ninth district. This includes the university town of Berkeley, a major centre of anti-war sentiment during the Vietnam era. But a far larger slice of her area is in Oakland, the down-at-heel industrial city overshadowed by San Francisco across the bay. Ms Lee, 55, is black; so are almost a third of her constituents.
Lee was one of only five U.S. Representatives to vote against a resolution supporting the December 1998 bombing of Iraq and the only Member of Congress to vote against a March 24, 1999 resolution regarding the commitment of troops to Kosovo, votes which have been deemed "courageous" by her constituents and by peace activists nationwide. MORE...
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Speaks Out
Why I will not rally around the president
( Robert Jensen ) We are told that in this time of crisis, all good Americans should rally around the president and the flag. I will rally, but not around a leader calling for war or a symbol of nationalism. It is easy to understand the emotion behind the chanting of "USA, USA." But I will not chant.
In this time of crisis, I will rally around policies that seek peace and security, for all people everywhere. And instead of chanting, I will speak quietly about the grief we all feel, and loudly about the need to resist our leaders' plans for global war. Full Article
Getting used to the idea of double standards
( Tariq Ali ) On a trip to Pakistan a few years ago I was talking to a former general about the militant Islamist groups in the region. I asked him why these people, who had happily accepted funds and weapons from the United States throughout the Cold War, had become violently anti-American overnight. He explained that they were not alone. Many Pakistani officers who had served the US loyally from 1951 onwards felt humiliated by Washington's indifference. Full Article
The Greatest Argument Against War
( Brian Dominick ) On Wednesday, September 12, I was witness to the greatest argument against war the North American Left has ever had.
In all, I would meet and talk to dozens of EMTs, hospital staff, firefighters, and other emergency workers. There was by now more exhaustion than dust in the air. Both tasted identical. One doctor who sat down near us was literally surprised by how it felt to actually sit down. It had been 24 hours, he announced, since he hadn't had his full weight on his feet. One nurse complained that her feet were so sore she was having trouble standing, much less walking -- I could only imagine. Full Article
US tells Taliban to give up Bin Laden or face attack
( Guardian UK ) Afghanistan will be offered a final chance today to escape a devastating US military onslaught when a delegation from Pakistan delivers an ultimatum to the Taliban leadership to hand over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the New York and Washington attacks, within three days.
With thousands of Afghans already fleeing their homes in anticipation of an assault, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said: "They will have to make their choice - whether they want to get rid of this curse within their country or face the full wrath of the United States." Full Article
Terrorist attacks in US - Intelligence memo points to Mossad link
Committee on International Relations
John J. Maresca, Vice President of International Relations, Unocal Corporation, speaking before the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives February 12, 1998 Full Article
The Palestinian issue
The Palestinian issue is too close, too real and too emotional for the Arabs to make common cause with Israel, which many of them regard as the root of the problem. Full Article
Five Israelis held
Five Israelis who had worked for a moving company based in New Jersey are being held in U.S. prisons for what the Federal Bureau of Investigation has described as "puzzling behavior" following the terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York last Tuesday. Full Article
Bush, Coincidences and capitalist terrorists
U.S. and British intelligence agencies are reportedly investigating links between alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and various stock trades in the United States and Europe around the time of the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which sent foreign markets into tailspins over worries about the U.S. economy. Full Article
What Was Mobil Up To In Kazakhstan?
In the fall of 1997, an international businessman named Farhat Tabbah filed suit in London against three American businessmen, the oil minister of Kazakhstan, and a subsidiary of the Mobil Corporation. He charged that they had cheated him out of millions of dollars in commissions on what was to have been a ten-year swap of oil between Kazakhstan and Iran. Mobil and the other defendent denied the allegations and successfully moved to suppress all Tabbah's affidavits and supporting documentation. A few months after Tabbah filed his lawsuit, he flew to the United States and gave his account of the swap plan to federal authorities. He also turned over seveeral file drawers of documents, including internal Mobil faxes and memos, to agents of the United States Customs Service. Full Article
Swiss investigation into Bush/Cheney involvement in oil company bribes to Kazakhstan
"War and Globalisation": The "hidden agenda" is "to break Russia's monopoly over oil and gas transport routes" and militarise the Central Asian region. 1998 Congressional Hearing on "US Interests in Central Asia".
