Army Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted Sept. 26 by a military jury at Ft. Hood, TX. England, 22, was convicted… Read morePfc. England convicted in Abu Ghraib abuse case —scapegoat?
Chris Thompson writes for East Bay Express in Oakland, CA, Sept. 21: War Pornography US soldiers trade grisly photos of dead and mutilated Iraqis for access to amateur porn. The press is strangely silent. If you want to see the… Read moreSnuff porn from Iraq
A reference in a recent post on ethnic politics in eastern Anatolia to “the two Kurdish dialects of zaza and kurmanci” prompted the following letter from a reader, which we produce verbatim: Zaza(Sassaniden)’s are not Kurds and not Turks We… Read moreNext: Free Zazaistan?
Reports Sarah Ferguson in the Village Voice Sept. 25: Organizers with the dueling anti-war groups United for Peace and Justice and International ANSWER estimated the crowd size for Saturday’s march on Washington, D.C., at 300,000—making it the largest demonstration since… Read moreVets, grieving families strike somber tone at Iraq war protest
Citing a new report concluding that global warming threatens New Mexico’s water supply, state and local officials are joining with environmentalists in demanding immediate steps to address the issue. The report, Less Snow, Less Water, was released Friday by the… Read moreAs planet warms, US West loses water: report
Violence—generally held to be drug-related—is spreading across Mexico at an alarming pace. The Pacific resort of Acapulco, in the conflicted southern state of Guerrero, has seen some 30 killings this year—many in the disco and restaurant zone frequented by tourists…. Read moreViolence grows across Mexico
Activists from Mexico’s east-central indigenous region of La Huasteca held a press conference in the national capital Sept. 21 to protest a growing presence of soldiers and paramilitaries in the the zone, citing a wave of assassinations of peasant leaders…. Read moreMilitarization in Mexico’s La Huasteca
Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the southern state of Chiapas announced Sept. 16 he will leave the group’s jungle strongholds and embark on a six-month tour of all of Mexico, promising to “shake this country… Read moreChiapas: Marcos announces national tour
With the approval of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the ultra-fundamentalist Jewish “Ateret Cohanim” organization “is at the moment conducting a dig” at a depth of 12 meters beneath a building just 80 meters away from the walls of Islam’s… Read moreSecret wars for the Temple Mount
The Fall edition of Yes! magazine carries a proposal by Erik Leaver of Foreign Policy in Focus, entitled “Operation Homcoming: How to End the Iraq War.” The progressive end of the wonk spectrum is weighing in—but is anybody missing? U.S…. Read more“Operation Homecoming”: How to end the Iraq war
From the front page of the Washington Post, via TruthOut: New Reports of Abuse of Detainees Surface Mistreatment Was Routine, Group Is Told By Josh White Saturday 24 September 2005 “Some days we would just get bored so we would… Read moreReport: abuse “routine” at US bases in Afghanistan, Iraq
This profile of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in the Sept. 24 New York Times (online at Iran Focus) is a skillful piece of subtle obfuscation. It notes (largely in the past tense) the ties between the… Read moreIran: Mujahedeen Khalq new US proxy?
