Perhaps some of you noticed Bill Clinton’s $15,000-a-head confab at a Midtown Manhattan Sheraton hotel last week to raise funds and awareness to tackle global poverty and climate change. Hillary, Colin Powell and even Laura Bush were all on hand…. Read moreGore stumps with “World War 4” architect Woolsey
After Richard Armitage was named as the source in the Valerie Plame leak, there was a paroxysm of unseemly crowing from the right-wing pundits, who predicted that Plame would not now sue Armitage because he is such a handsome, straight-shooting… Read moreArmitage threatened Pakistan blitzkrieg
The irony is certainly not lost on Iran. From Business in Africa, Sept. 22: Cairo – The United States ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, said his country has no problem with an Egyptian nuclear programme and was ready to supply… Read moreUS pledges nuclear aid to Egypt
From the LA Times, Sept. 25: BAGHDAD – Iraq’s sectarian leaders stepped back from a simmering constitutional crisis yesterday, agreeing to wait at least 18 months before setting up autonomous regions that would shift power away from the central government…. Read moreIraq: autonomy on hold
Don’t you just love it when the government contradicts itself? The White House responds to the National Intelligence Estimate report finding the Iraq war is fueling global terrorism. From the LA Times, Sept. 25: White House: Terrorism not linked to… Read moreWhite House denies Iraq link to terror escalation
In “Return to Sender” raids from Sept. 8 to 13, ICE agents arrested 55 people, 11 of them with prior criminal records, in the area around Lansing, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek in western Michigan. Those arrested were from Burma,… Read moreOperation “Return to Sender” hits Michigan
On Sept. 21, the House of Representatives voted 328-95 to approve HR 6094–the “Community Protection Act of 2006”–an anti-immigrant bill which would allow indefinite detention, overturning the Supreme Court’s June 2001 Zadvydas v. Davis ruling. The bill would also allow… Read moreHouse passes more anti-immigrant bills
From Shared Responsibilites, a Colombia-led international initiative to find solutions to the global problem of narcotics trafficking, Sept. 25: A recently dismantled cocaine and heroine trafficking ring tricked indigenous people into transporting drugs within Colombia. Colombian Antinarcotics Police, in a… Read moreColombia: narco gang exploits indigenous people
Fox is a savvy one. We recently noted that the UN’s Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples has singled out his government for criticism. Yet he casts a vote for the Universal Declaration of Indigeous Peoples to win support from Mexico’s… Read moreMexico votes for UN indigenous rights declaration
Yeah, but they’ll probably have their own website. From BBC, Sept. 24, emphasis added: Internet’s future in 2020 debated The internet will be a thriving, low-cost network of billions of devices by 2020, says a major survey of leading technology… Read moreArmed Luddite resistance to Internet foreseen
C’mon Bernard, don’t you think they’re just waiting for Yom Kippur? Baruch Kimmerling writes for Haartez, Sept. 25: Thus spoke Bernard Lewis On September 22, 2006, Iran was supposed to attack Israel and perhaps the entire Western world. And why… Read moreRajab 27 passes without Iranian attack on Israel
From the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, Sept. 17: An open letter to Mr. Kofi Annan United Nations Secretary-General Re: Deportation of Kurdish asylum seekers from Britain Dear Mr. Annan, In violation of the Geneva Convention of 1951 and Human… Read moreKurdish refugees protest forced UK-Iraq deportations
