contributions

Whistleblowers’ testimony shows desire for revenge on Palestinians
by Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
From a distance of 70 metres and through the sight of his machine gun, Assaf could tell that the Palestinian man was aged between 20 and 30, unarmed and trying to get away from an Israeli tank. But the details didn’t matter much, because Assaf’s orders were to "fire at anything that moved".
Assaf, a soldier in the Israeli army, pressed the trigger, firing scores of bullets as the body fell (…)

by Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Israeli military prosecutors have opened criminal investigations following allegations by soldiers that they carried out illegal shoot-to-kill orders against unarmed Palestinians.
The 17 separate investigations were prompted by the testimony of dozens of troops collected by Breaking the Silence, a pressure group of former Israeli soldiers committed to exposing human rights abuses by the military in suppressing the Palestinian intifada. The investigations (…)

Lannan speaker delayed in Canada
U.S. immigration officials refused Tuesday to allow Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the London newspaper, The Independent, to board a plane from Toronto to Denver. Fisk was on his way to Santa Fe for a sold-out appearance in the Lannan Foundation’s readings-and-conversations series Wednesday night.
According to Christie Mazuera Davis, a Lannan program officer, Fisk was told that his papers were not in order.
Davis made last-minute (…)

By Geoffrey Lean and Christopher Silvester
Tony Blair has admitted that he is changing his views on combating global warming to mirror those of President Bush - and oppose negotiating international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol.
His admission, which has outraged environmentalists on both sides of the Atlantic, flies in the face of his promises made in the past two years and undermines the agreement he masterminded at this summer’s Gleneagles Summit. And it endangers talks that (…)

Washington - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suggested on Sunday that chickens in Cuba get better treatment from authorities than black residents of the hurricane-ravaged US city of New Orleans.
"In Cuba, when they know a hurricane is coming, chickens, hens and people are all evacuated," Chavez said in an interview with The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, stepping up his rhetoric against the US government.
"A hurricane recently destroyed many towns in Cuba but not a single person (…)

Waives trafficking sanctions
by Brian Richards
WASHINGTON, D.C. — (OfficialWire) — 09/25/05 — George W. Bush and his religious Right administration decided Wednesday to waive all financial sanctions against Saudi Arabia-Washington’s closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism and a major owner of the United States-for failing to do enough to stop the slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. Go figure.
Last June, U.S. State Department officials singled out 14 (…)

By Miranda S. Spivack and Petula Dvorak
Thousands of protesters against the war in Iraq rallied today in Washington and other U.S. and European cities to demand the return of U.S. troops in what organizers hope will be the largest gathering since the war began more than two years ago.
Protest organizers estimated a crowd of about 200,000 rallied at the Ellipse, then marched around the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue. Police downgraded the count to about 150,000. The crowd (…)

By Derrick Z. Jackson
AS THE MEDIA screams about the one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the question becomes how many more times does America need to be knocked to the canvas before we answer the bell on global warming.
The only talk from our leaders is about rebuilding. In his address to the nation from a ghostly New Orleans, President Bush said, ’’When one resident of this city who lost his home was asked by a reporter if he would relocate, he said, ’Naw, I will rebuild but (…)

by Nafeez Ahmed
Zarqawi Eat Your Heart Out
Basra is relatively stable compared to central Iraq where violence involving insurgents, civilians and coalition forces is a daily routine. The city has rarely been a site of clashes between insurgents and coalition troops, nor is it a victim of regular terrorist attacks. This week, however, things changed, but not thanks to Zarqawi and his al-Qaeda ilk.
On Monday, two British soldiers were arrested and detained by Iraqi police in Basra. (…)

Cindy Sheehan "My Speech" (from the Sept 24 anti-war rally)
Ahhhh, I love the smell of Patriotic Dissent in the afternoon!
As we stand here on the grounds of a monument that is dedicated to the Father of our Country, George Washington, we are reminded that he was well known for the apocryphal stories of never being able to tell a lie. I find it so ironic that there is another man here named George who stays in this town between vacations and he seems to never be able to tell the truth. (…)