Freedom’s on the march. From the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 24: One of the Bush administration’s most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus — the right to… Read moreGonzales: Constitution doesn’t guarantee habeas corpus
From AP, Jan. 24: Former Social Distortion Bassist Killed Placentia, Calif. — Brent Liles, a former bassist for the 1980s punk rock group Social Distortion, was struck and killed by a truck while riding a bicycle, authorities said Wednesday. He… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Freedom’s on the march. From AlJazeera, Jan. 18: The US defence department has released new rules allowing terror suspects to be convicted and possibly executed on the basis of hearsay evidence and some coerced testimony. The rules, which the department… Read morePentagon terror trials to allow hearsay evidence
The current violent unrest in Bangladesh is generally portrayed (when the global media bother to take note of it at all) as a contest between the secular, left-leaning Awami League which governed until July 2001 and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party… Read moreTaslima Nasrin: fundamentalism “destroying” Bangladesh
An international commission of human rights observers announced Jan. 21 that at least 23 people were killed and a number of cases of physical abuse and sexual assaults against women were recorded during the months-long conflict in the southern Mexican… Read moreOaxaca: government disputes rights report; police block religious gathering
From the Editor & Publisher, Jan. 22: Conrado de la Cruz Jiménez, the publisher of the most influential daily in the Mexican state of Chiapas, has died in Miami, where he fled to escape prosecution by the state government, the… Read moreExiled Chiapas newsman dies in Miami
This is what George Bernard Shaw called “the extreme form of censorship.” From the New York Times, Jan. 19: ISTANBUL — The editor of Turkey’s only Armenian-language newspaper was assassinated today on an Istanbul street. The editor, Hrant Dink, 53,… Read moreArmenian editor assassinated in Turkey
Another glimmer of hope—or is someone going to rain on our parade by demonstrating that these people are all domesticated neocons or State Department dupes? From the AP, Jan. 19: NEW YORK – In a statement to be published next… Read moreIranian activists condemn revisionist confab
From the New York Times, Jan. 18: BISBEE, Ariz. — A Mexican immigrant was shot and killed on Friday by a Border Patrol agent in Arizona, prompting an investigation by federal authorities and condemnation from President Felipe Calderón of Mexico…. Read moreMexico protests new shooting on border
Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, bishop of the Chiapas Highlands, called upon Mexico’s federal government to urgently address the recent spike in tortilla prices, invoking the possibility of a new uprising in the restive state. “With all respect for the federal authorities,… Read moreMexico: Chiapas bishop warns of unrest; agbiz exploits “tortilla crisis”
Israeli historian Benny Morris, once seen as a post-Zionist dissident, produces a terrifying piece of war propaganda. Far be it from us to be optimistic, but this scenario strikes us as a long shot. Is Ahmedinejad likely to still be… Read moreBenny Morris predicts new Holocaust
Another step closer to global catastrophe. From Kuwait News Agency, Jan. 9 (emphasis added): TOKYO — Japan on Tuesday upgraded the Defense Agency to a full-fledged ministry for the first time since World War II, when the US stripped Japan… Read moreJapan gets Defense Ministry
