Monthly Archive for April, 2007

“The Most Lawless War of Our Generation” – Fmr. UN Spokesperson on Somalia
Democracy NOW!, 27 April 2007

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, on April 8, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration recently allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea, in violation of international sanctions. The US allowed the arms delivery to go through in January, shortly after Ethiopia invaded Somalia, from North Korea. Salim?

SALIM LONE: Well, I mean, this just, you know, shows the lawlessness, the complete lack of pretense, even, to try to honor these resolutions. The big powers decide what resolutions are passed. But now what we see is the big powers then decide, are we actually going to honor the resolution that we just passed?

[ Listen to Segment | Read the Transcript ]

Bush, Abe warn of tougher stance on North Korea
By Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, 27 April 2007

After talks at the mountain retreat that was cloaked in fog, Abe said he and Bush saw “eye-to-eye” on North Korea. “They need to respond properly on these issues, otherwise we will have to take a tougher response on our side,” Abe said.

Abe wants to see Japan take a more assertive role in global security, revise its U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution and become an equal security partner with the United States.

Some Japanese officials have expressed concern that Washington is softening its stance toward Pyongyang. U.S. support for the February deal marked a shift for Bush, who labeled North Korea part of an “axis of evil” in 2002.

[ Read the report ]

More Like an Air Ball
by Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 28 April 2007

He says Condi panicked in October 2002 and made him call a Times reporter, Alison Mitchell, who covered the Congressional debate about invading Iraq. In essence, he hypocritically told Alison to disregard the conclusions of his own agency, which had said that the links between Saddam and terrorist groups were tenuous, and that Saddam would take the extreme step of joining with Islamic fanatics only if he thought the U.S. was about to attack him. His nose growing as long as his cigar, he said nothing in the C.I.A. report contradicted the president’s case for war.

“In retrospect,”� Slam writes, “I shouldn’t have talked to the New York Times reporter at Condi’s request. By making public comments in the middle of a contentious political debate, I gave the impression that I was becoming a partisan player.”�

Tenet Tries to Shift the Blame. Don’t Buy It.
By Michael F. Scheuer, Washington Post, 29 April 2007

But as with Rice and the warnings in the summer of 2001: Now he tells us. At this late date, the Bush-bashing that Tenet’s book will inevitably stir up seems designed to rehabilitate Tenet in his first home, the Democratic Party. He seems to blame the war on everyone but Bush (who gave Tenet the Medal of Freedom) and former secretary of state Colin L. Powell (who remains the Democrats’ ideal Republican). Tenet’s attacks focus instead on the walking dead, politically speaking: the glowering and unpopular Cheney; the hapless Rice; the band of irretrievably discredited bumblers who used to run the Pentagon, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith; their neoconservative acolytes such as Richard Perle; and the die-hard geopolitical fantasists at the Weekly Standard and National Review.They’re all culpable, of course. But Tenet’s attempts to shift the blame won’t wash. At day’s end, his exercise in finger-pointing is designed to disguise the central, tragic fact of his book. Tenet in effect is saying that he knew all too well why the United States should not invade Iraq, that he told his political masters and that he was ignored. But above all, he’s saying that he lacked the moral courage to resign and speak out publicly to try to stop our country from striding into what he knew would be an abyss.

Walden Bello, Foreign Policy in Focus, 27 April 2007

The 20th century was a terrible blight on small farmers everywhere. In both wealthy capitalist economies and in socialist countries, farmers paid a heavy price for industrialization. In advanced capitalist countries like the United States, a deadly combination of economies of scale, capital-intensive technology, and the market led to large corporations cornering agricultural production and processing. Small and medium farms were relegated to a marginal role in production and a minuscule portion of the work force.

[ Read the report ]

You Are What You Eat
By Michael Pollan, New York Times, 22 April 2007

A few years ago, an obesity researcher at the University of Washington named Adam Drewnowski ventured into the supermarket to solve a mystery. He wanted to figure out why it is that the most reliable predictor of obesity in America today is a person’s wealth. For most of history, after all, the poor have typically suffered from a shortage of calories, not a surfeit. So how is it that today the people with the least amount of money to spend on food are the ones most likely to be overweight?

Continue reading ‘Free Trade vs. Small Farmers’

from Birthright Unplugged

Organizers Suspect Political Motives

Boston Public Library Branch Reports First Time Ever Theft Of Art Exhibit

BOSTON, USA- On April 19, 2007, eighteen photographs were stolen from an exhibit documenting Palestinian children’s journey to Jerusalem, the sea, and their ancestral lands. The exhibit, which opened on April 14, was hanging in the Honan-Allston branch of the public library, and was scheduled to remain there until May 25.

The exhibit was created by children from Balata refugee camp in Nablus, West Bank. In January 2007, the Boston-based organization Birthright Unplugged took the children on a trip to areas that their grandparents were expelled from and that their families have been prohibited from returning to since Israel was established in 1948. The children documented their experiences and created an exhibit.

“An important part of our work is the ability to bring Palestinian voices to people in the United States,” says Birthright Unplugged co-founder Hannah Mermelstein. “This is a sad reminder that members of our community will resort even to theft to silence these voices.”

While the thieves of the artwork are unknown, Birthright Unplugged organizers suspect that the motives were political. The Honan-Allston library confirms that this is the first time a theft of this kind has happened there, although they often display art exhibits.

“We are grateful to the Boston Public Library for allowing us to share these children’s images and words,” says Birthright Unplugged co-founder Dunya Alwan. “We are working with library staff to replace and re-hang the photos as soon as possible.”

Birthright Unplugged has taken more than 80 children on these “Re-Plugged” trips since January 2006, and more than 60 North American people, mostly Jewish, on 6-day “Unplugged” trips through the West Bank since July 2005.

by Oreib Al Rantawi, IMEMC, 24 April 2007

It is not by chance, not accidental that only a few days after the Arab Follow-up Committee assigned Jordan and Egypt to start holding talks with Israel, to present the Arab Initiative, Israel escalated its attacks and assassination against Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli attacks did not exclude anybody; the army killed men, women and children, and also killed fighters and security men.

The under-cover forces of the Israeli army escalated their operations in the occupied West Bank, and once again, resumed the assassination policy.

It is never by chance that every time the Arabs take one step towards peace, declare an initiative or renew an initiative, the Israeli response comes by more invasions, more assassinations and more settlement expansion.

[ Read the article ]

Israeli Military Shoots Nobel Peace Laureate

Institute for Public Accuracy, 24 April 2007

Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maguire said today: “I was invited with my friend to attend a nonviolent conference in Bilin, a village outside Ramallah [in the West Bank], and to give a talk there, which I did. At the end of the conference, we were invited to participate in a nonviolent demonstration with some of the Palestinian members of parliament and Israeli peace activists and local villagers and international visitors.

“We walked along to try to walk up toward the separation wall, and it was a totally nonviolent protest. And we were viciously attacked by the Israeli military. They threw gas canisters into the peace walkers, and they also fired rubber-covered steel bullets Continue reading ‘Israeli bullets and the Arab Initiative’

Haniyya condemns talks as ‘political deception’

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Monday, April 23, 2007

Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants and a teenager in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, bringing to nine the death toll from the bloodiest weekend of violence in months.

Responding to the deaths, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya of Hamas called on Arab countries to drop any notion of negotiating peace with Israel.

“I urge them to stop any political initiative that would lead to creating a state of normalization with the Israeli occupation,” he told Reuters.

Haniyya added during the interview in Gaza City that Israel’s killings “reveal the political deception which is being practiced on the Palestinian people through the political meetings and the meetings of leaders” with Israelis.

Karim Zahran, 17, was shot dead while throwing stones at Israeli troops near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian security sources and medics said.