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ARCHIVES: Scoop Commentary Early 2006 - Dec. 2006
ARCHIVES: Scoop Commentary Early 2006 - December 2006
From: http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/commentary.html
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur Examines The
Provenance Of A Bronze Boy - New York collector
Stuart Pivar says the odyssey of his "nearly life-size"
Roman bronze boy includes a chapter on an attempted
"assassination" of the statue. He identifies the place of
treachery as the Hunt-Sotheby's auction, June 19,1990. And
he fingers the lead assassin: Bob Hecht. Hecht is now on
trial in Rome for another conspiracy, one to traffic in
ancient art, including pieces from the Hunt-Sotheby's sale.
See... The
Odyssey Of Stuart Pivar's Roman Bronze Boy
Biological Weapons: Bush Admin.
Developing Illegal Bioterror Weapons - In violation
of the U.S. Code and international law, the Bush
administration is spending more money (in inflation-adjusted
dollars) to develop illegal, offensive germ warfare than the
$2-billion spent in World War II on the Manhattan Project to
make the atomic bomb. See… Developing
Illegal Offensive Use Bioterror Weapons
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Culture: Jackie Little Considers The Deserving
Recognition Of A Brit Pop Idol - Oh Happy Day!
Joyous, joyous day!!! My best friend just texted from
England to inform me of the final result in the Greatest
Living British Icon poll. And Boy did those proud
compatriots of mine get it right? See... Jackie
Little: The People See The Light
Suzan Mazur: Max Bernegger Talks John Deuss - I
remember Max Bernegger's disarming smile the day he walked
through the doors at Alexandra Christie, the 1970s fashion
company owned by Dutch oil trader John Deuss -- where I was
the model. Max was expensively tailored in a dark suit. I
had no idea who he was, but I was certain he was not there
to write an order for slinky silk chiffon dresses. See... Mazur:
John Deuss Oil Trader Max Bernegger Speaks
Race
Relations: Sydney Cops' Big Day At The Beach-
The first anniversary of last year’s violent and
racially-motivated riots on Sydney’s Cronulla Beach has
passed without a major hitch. New Zealand freelance
journalist Jehan Casinader presents this photo essay from
Sydney. Casinader is reporting from Australia courtesy of
Flight Centre. See... Photo
Essay: Sydney’s Cronulla Beach One Year On
The
Rule Of Law: Justice Weighs In On Post Constitutional
America - Washington - In the first legal decision
on a federal law that denies access to U.S. courts to
detainees in the war on terrorism, a federal judge ruled
Wednesday that foreign prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, could not sue for freedom. See Los Angeles Times…
US
Immigrant Detainees' Treatment Unconstitutional
MORE:
Fundamentalism: Video Game For 21stC Crusaders
- "This is the first time any Christian religious
instructional video has recommended killing all
non-Christians who refuse to convert to Christianity. It is
unprecedented and dangerous." This was the view expressed
yesterday by Rev. Timothy Simpson, president of the
Jacksonville, Florida-based progressive advocacy group The
Christian Alliance for Progress, in describing a new video
game titled ""Left Behind: Eternal Forces." See… William
Fisher: Death To Infidels Via Video Game
MORE WILLIAM FISHER:
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
History: Who Gained From Old Europe's
Self-Destruction? - The Bush Dynasty has reached
the end of the line. The family name may go down in history
along with the Romanovs as the embodiment of Imperial
squander and ill-advised military bungling. George W. Bush
is America's Nicholas the Last. See... M.G.
Levey: The History of Dirty-Tricks (Part III)
Kids: Jackie Little Receives A Call Out Of The
Blue - Forgive me if this piece is not entirely
coherent, but my heart rate has only just slowed to
approximately 3 trillion beats per second and my hands are
still a tad on the shaky side. You see, it only happened
about half an hour ago: The phone call that every parent
dreads. See... Jackie
Little: The Phone Call
Iraq:.. Meanwhile, Cynthia McKinney Proposes Impeachment
- Political questions are tricky and complicated.
Sometimes causes that are just and good must take a backseat
to other priorities or long-term strategies. Setting all
such perfectly reasonable considerations aside for a moment,
I'd like you to ask ... See... The
Best Reasons Not to Impeach, Why They're Wrong
MORE:
Chile: Augusto Pinochet In Neverland -
Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, Tinker Bell and General
Augusto Pinochet had much in common. All three performed
magical good deeds. In the case of Pinochet, he was
universally credited with the Miracle of Chile, the wildly
successful experiment in free markets, privatization,
de-regulation and union-free economic expansion whose
laissez-faire seeds spread from Valparaiso to Virginia.
See... Tinker
Bell, Pinochet And The Miracle Of Chile
MORE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Demographics: Tze Ming Mok Considers The Census
- They're taking over. The 'New Zealanders' I mean. As you
can see, they're actively killing off the white-folk,
looting their homes and renaming their children. Once this
demographer realises that we 350,000 'Asians' aren't
actually one ethnic group, she may choose instead to
worry about the 'New Zealanders' threatening to outnumber
Maori to become the minority with the most leverage. See...
Public
Address 07/12/06 - The Identity Game . For more Public
Address see also… Public
Address 06/12/06 - Where You Heard It First, Public
Address 05/12/06 - Doing The Rounds & Public
Address 04/12/06 - How To Smoke An MP
Iraq: America Reconsiders Its War And Its War
Leadership - For most Americans, as the recent
midterm elections made clear, the issue is how do we get our
young men and women out of Iraq as quickly and safely as
possible. For the Administration, it would appear that the
issue is how to avoid blame for the catastrophe of Bush's
war and occupation. See... Bernard
Weiner: Who Brought Us to the Iraq Abyss?
MORE:
Israel/Occupied Palestine: Perspectives On Middle East
War & Peace - A FRIEND of mine, who was brought up in
Egypt, took part in the interrogation of Egyptian officers
captured in the 1956 Sinai war. An Egyptian
lieutenant-colonel told him: "Every time David Ben-Gurion
gave a speech declaring that he was holding out his hand for
peace, we put our forces on alert." See… Uri
Avnery: A Sparkling Bubble
MORE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT AND
OPINION:
Mexico: Julie Webb-Pullman Reports On
A Protest Turning Ugly In Oaxaca - The Popular
Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) protest marches in
Oaxaca of 20 and 25 November have seen an unprecedented
escalation of violence, the former resulting in over 50
requiring hospitalisation and more than 100 detained, and
that of last weekend in at least 3 deaths, scores requiring
hospitalisation and scores more injured, and more than 150
detained by police. Whilst on 20 November the police
activity was largely confined to attacks on marchers, on 25
November the indiscriminate police tactics of Atenco were
evident, with people being rounded up off the street, and
houses entered and people seized from within them. See... Julie
Webb-Pullman: Oaxaca – Means and Ends
MORE:
EARLIER:
Media & Finance: John Deuss The Publisher -
THE HUSH HUSH nature of the John Deuss investigation related
to VAT-skimming deposits at his offshore First Curacao
International Bank gives the impression that deeper politics
are at play. And with the media having reduced Deuss to a
balance sheet over the financial tangle -- even the usually
respectable Guardian newspaper sinking into the Big
Muddy with a story attributing Deuss' childhood scars to
firebombing by anti-apartheid activists -- I decided to
contact two former editors of Deuss' Chief Executive
magazine for their perspective on the man. See... Mazur:
John Deuss' Editors On Record On The Man
Green-Washing: GE, BP and Wal-Mart Exercise Their
Ecomaginations It starts with a light bulb. But not
just any run of the mill watt-sucker—this is the
much-touted CFL, the energy-saver that lasts ten times as
long while using only one quarter of the electricity of the
average incandescent. Accompanied by a press kit from
General Electric’s new “Ecomagination” division, the
wonderbulb rests cozily inside a bright green recycled
cardboard sleeve covered with big, overlapping words like
“sustainability,” “commitment,” “environment”
and “conserve.” Charles
Shaw: Stealing Green
New
Orleans: Greg Palast Releases Big Easy to Big
Empty - Just released today: Big Easy to Big Empty
DVD—the real story of how the White House drowned New
Orleans and holds it underwater today.
On August 22, my
producer and I were charged by the Department of Homeland
Security with violating anti-terror laws—we upset them for
filming the bad guys. While the charges were dropped (whew!)
we still have the film—originally made for Democracy Now!
and LinkTV. See... Get
the Film that Got Us Busted!
Iraq: As Dad's Friends Say "Pullout" – Dubya Says
Hold-up! - President Bush outright rejected calls
for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq Thursday, setting
the stage for what will likely be a bitter showdown between
the White House and the new Democratic leadership in both
houses of Congress, who insist that the cornerstone of US
policy in Iraq going forward must include a firm timetable
by the administration for when US soldiers will return home.
See... Jason
Leopold: Pullout-Pullback Battle Looms
MORE:
Impeachment: Extracts From Elizabeth de la Vega's
United States v. George W. Bush et al. - Assistant
United States Attorney: Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We're here today in the case of United States v. George W.
Bush et al. In addition to President Bush, the defendants
are Vice President Richard B. Cheney, former National
Security ... See... Elizabeth
de la Vega: Indictment US v GWB et al. & Elizabeth
de la Vega: Bringing Bush to Court (1)
MORE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
The
Hollow Men: A Scoop Compendium Of Post Publication News
& Comment - What happened to Frankenstein’s
unnamed creature? He escaped his maker, blundered around
trying to be accepted by real human beings, lashed out and
killed in fury at being rejected, and disappeared into the
frozen Arctic wastes, never to be seen again. Don Brash was
not a politician, any more than Frankenstein’s creature
was a human being. Many of the fascinating exchanges
published yesterday from Nicky Hager’s book The Hollow Men
show how hard his clutch of bumbling Frankensteins tried to
turn him into one – and how cross they were when, despite
their best efforts, he stuffed up yet again. See... Letter
from Elsewhere: Frankenstein’s Creature
MORE:
NATO: Michel Chossudovsky Previews NATO's Summit In
Latvia - On the 29th of November, heads of State and
heads of government from the 26 States together with
Ministers of Defense and senior military brass of the
"enlarged" Atlantic Alliance (NATO) will be meeting in Riga,
Latvia. See... NATO
Debates "War And Peace" Behind Closed Doors
Scoop Blogwatch: Skepticism About The Litvinenko
Poisoning Coverage - We are living in a prime-time
Bond film: we have dashing spies, poisoning, espionage,
allegations of undercover assassinations. Murdered
journalists are involved, as are billionaire 'tycoons'. What
is going on? A former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko, ...
See... Bond
And The Return Of The Evil Empire & Litvinenko
Victim of Weapons Grade Polonium?
Israel & Palestine: Post Election Hopes For Policy
Change - The astounding results of the US
Congressional elections of 7 November were undoubtedly a
welcome sign of change, not in the American political
apparatus, inasmuch as it is in the unmistakable reclamation
by the public of its role as the driving force ... See… Ramzy
Baroud: Democrats Must Truly Change Course
MORE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur Talks To Medici
Conspiracy Author Peter Watson - The Carlyle
Hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side was the designated
meeting spot, in the bar made famous by Ludwig Bemelmans'
mural of Manhattan, Carlyle's very own Euphronios
masterpiece. Bemelmans' was packed at 5:30, and I ran into
US News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman, who was
happy to see me thinking I was his date. Medici Conspiracy
author, Peter Watson, arrived soon after. And Peter and I
settled in at a table beside one of Bemelman's bankers on
the wall. See... Krumpets
With Medici Conspiracy's Peter Watson
Milton Friedman RIP: Killing America Softly With His
Song - You'd never guess it from the sycophantic
obituaries, but Milton Friedman did more damage to American
democracy and culture than just about any figure in the 20th
century. The sycophancy isn't surprising. Friedman was
blessed with it from the start. For example, the supposedly
liberal PBS starred him in a ten part series, "Free to
Choose" in 1980 just in time to help Reagan win the
presidency. See… Friedman:
Killing America Softly With His Song . See also…
Video:
Milton Friedman Addresses 2003 ACT Conf.
Media: The Death Of Newspapers? Journalism? -
If some doomsday industry analysts are to be believed,
newspapers are laid out and stacked neatly inside their own
future death warehouses, not only in the United States, but
worldwide. "October was a pretty depressing month for
national newspapers. While circulations slide, the industry
news has been dominated by job cuts and staff unrest,
particularly among journalists," England's Guardian
Unlimited reported in November. See... Thomas
D. Williams: The Decline of Journalism
Iran: Yet Another Seymour Hersh Scoop On Iran War
Plans - A month before the November elections,
Vice-President Dick Cheney was sitting in on a
national-security discussion at the Executive Office
Building. The talk took a political turn: what if the
Democrats won both the Senate and the House? How would that
affect policy toward Iran, which is believed to be on the
verge of becoming a nuclear power? At that point, according
to someone familiar with the discussion, Cheney began
reminiscing about his job as a lineman, in the early
nineteen-sixties, for a power company in Wyoming. See... Scoop
Link: Seymour Hersh – Iran, The Next Act
MORE ON POTENTIAL IRAN WAR:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Mexico: Julie Webb-Pullman Reports On More Massacres In
Mexico - Monday in Mexico dawned as usual - while
Felipe Calderón fiddled (with a guitar), and Andrés Manuel
López Obrador celebrated his birthday by charming the
ladies and kissing babies, paramilitary groups in Chiapas
were doing what they do so well - massacring yet another
indigenous community, this time Viejo Velasco Suárez, in
the north-eastern zone of the Lacandona, where six women and
two newborns were among the eleven indigenous Tseltales and
Ch’oles murdered in their beds that morning. See... Human
Rights in Mexico – Who Cares? Not U....N..
Correction: Narconews has corrected its initial report on
the massacre. See.. Narconews Correction
Stadium Wars: Ron Law In Praise Of
Waka Stadium - As a citizen of the Auckland region,
Trevor Mallard's claim that Auckland leaders lacks vision
has had some substance up until this morning. The difficulty
is knowing which of the schizophrenic Aucklands he is
talking about? See... Waka
Stadium: I'm Voting Jonathon Gunson for Mayor. See
also… Waka Stadium Website -
http://www.wakastadium.co.nz/
U.S.
Midterms: Can George Change His Spots? Apparently
Not - All the talk of bi-partisanship after the
midterm elections was really nice, wasn't it? Granted, the
only reason conversation got steered in that direction was
because the Republican Party absorbed a staggering defeat
the Tuesday after last, because George W. Bush had the
shattered pieces of his credibility - nay, of his entire
tenure to date - handed to him in a small brown paper sack
by the American people. But hey, it was good while it
lasted. It didn't last. See... William
Rivers Pitt: The Same Old George
MORE US
MIDTERM AFTERMATH COMMENT:
For much much more see...
Scoop
Full Coverage: US Midterm Elections
2006
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Public Address: Keith Ng Bakes Coddington Pie -
Fisking is its own reward - mostly because it's unlikely
that it'll lead to any other sort of reward - but it is
quite satisfying to deconstruct a work and rip its
still-beating heart out as a trophy.Oops. Sorry, that's just
me being a blood-thirsty Asian. The cover story of the
current issue of North & South, penned by Deborah
Coddington, is entitled "Asian Angst: Is it time to send
some back?".See... Public
Address 15/11/06 - Coddington Nation
ALSO:
MORE PUBLIC
ADDRESS:Public
Address 14/11/06 - The Stadium And God
Public
Address 13/11/06 - Glory
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur Scrutinizes A Somewhat
Secretive Sale- With a searing ancient Near East
focus, Hicham Aboutaam, the 30ish Lebanese antiquities
dealer sweeps into the back of his Phoenix gallery showroom
in Manhattan to greet me. He is dressed in French elegance,
his handshake somewhat reserved. I later notice the smooth,
manicured, almost translucent quality of his fingers --
certainly absent any trace of anything freshly dug up.
See... Hicham
Aboutaam: "It Is Good To Be Scrutinized"
Women
& Islam: Must The Veil Be Banned? The question
of the veil has become a heated debate in the British media.
In this debate some fundamental principles seem to be at
stake: Individual freedom to practice one’s religion,
freedom of choice, freedom of clothing and discrimination
against a particular community, that is, the so-called
Moslem community. See... Azar
Majedi: Revisiting The Question Of The Veil & The
Reality of Iran's Women’s Liberation Movement
Jackie Little: Asking The Neighbours
For Money - I answered the door recently to find a
genial elderly gent who was laboriously doorstepping the
street attempting to recruit - well - people to laboriously
doorstep the street. He was after collectors for a
forthcoming street appeal for a well known and worthy
charity. See... Jackie
Little: The Charity Collection
U.S.
Midterms: Bernard Weiner On Bush's Brain -
Psychiatrist: The last time we met, you were so upset
with me I thought I might be headed to Guatanamo. But those
of us in the psychiatric profession are used to momentary
rages from clients when they're dealing with highly
sensitive topics. So why did you ask to see me again? See...
Bush's
Post-Election Session With His Shrink
MORE POST U.S. MIDTERMS COMMENT:
See also…
Scoop Full Coverage: US Midterm Elections 2006
Iraq:
Latest Solution For Iraq Is No Solution At All
- President George W. Bush conferred yesterday with members
of the James Baker-led Iraq Study Group against a background
of chaos in Baghdad, a quisling government demonstrably
incapable of stemming the violence, and an Iraqi resistance
emboldened by the vote of no confidence given to the
president's Iraq policy. As expected, yesterday's meeting
was primarily photo-op. The important question is: Can the
Iraq Study Group be expected to come up with constructive
suggestions for alternative policy on Iraq? The answer is
no. See... Ray
McGovern: Iraq Study Group "Bipartisan?"
MORE ON THE IRAQ RESCUE PLAN:
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Bonus Joules
Meets The Minister Of Energy - At last the BIG Moment!
I reach the godhead, the controller of the universe, the
definer of the potential of our existence, the New Zealand
Minister of Energy. And the truth of it all? The answer
resides in a banana. See... Bonus
Joules: Dancing in the Dark
A Fair
Trade Activist View On Pacific Trading Relations -
No one can doubt that we live in an age of empire and
imperialism. The neo-liberal World Trade Organisation (WTO),
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) stalk
the planet complimented by regional and bilateral free trade
agreements. The attempts by the imperialist nations to open
up new markets and new resources to their trans-national
corporations (TNCs) are intensifying daily. A global trade
system is being forced onto the world by the central
capitalist nations to secure a flow of wealth and natural
resources from the less developed to the developed world.
See... Omar
Hamed:A Citizen’s Guide To An Emerging Empire
MORE PACIFIC COMMENT:
Sodhi: Tonga Monarchy Needs
Modernity
MORE COMMENT &
OPINION:
China: Emma Moore From China On The Hell Chinese Kids
Call Exams - In Japan they call it juken jigoku or
“examination hell”. Starting with their mothers playing
Mozart CDs to fire up their unborn children’s neurons,
Japanese children’s lives are often focused exclusively on
passing a series of increasingly important exams. The
Japanese have long gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure
their children get into a ‘good’ a university in order
to land the ‘good’ job this will most likely lead to. In
China, some pregnant women go even further. See... Emma
Moore: China’s Education Hell
Mexico: Julie Webb-Pullman Reports From Protests In
Oaxaca - As the caravana of suporters from Mexico
Federal District (DF) left the Hemiciclo yesterday at noon
for Oaxaca, hundreds crowded the streets to cheer them on
their way. The scene was repeated throughout the journey,
with indigenous women in traditional ... See... Images:
Caravana Arrives in Oaxaca for Megamarch
MORE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Stateside: Rosalea Barker Hits The Waves & A Torque
Shop - Torque is a measure of how much a force
acting on an object causes that object to rotate. So if you
put a handful of folks together who are determined to move
conservative people's politics towards the progressive end
of the spectrum then you have the torquing heads at the
panel discussion I attended last week, What Are Americans
Voting For? See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Torquing Heads. See also… Stateside
With Rosalea: On The Water
Climate Change: Russell Brown Concerns Himself With The
PR Of Food Miles - If ever there was a place for
good public relations, it's the "food miles" debate. The
Stern report's use of New Zealand kiwifruit as an example of
unacceptable food miles was wholly mistaken - our kiwifruit
is shipped, not flown, to Europe, making ... See... Public
Address 01/11/06 - From A Faraway Place .... For more
Public Address commentary see… Public
Address 31/10/06 - Forthright Responses & Public
Address 30/11/06 - That's A Nice Metaphor
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Letter From Elsewhere: On The Tragic Death Of Two Teenagers - On 22 October nineteen years ago, my younger son Patrick died. He was eighteen, and he thought he was indestructible. But he made one mistake, and he fell to his death. See... Letter from Elsewhere: Death Of A Teenager
Metaphysics: Martin LeFevre Considers The Importance Of
Humanity - Being self-centered by nature (a nature
we’re being compelled to radically change), people have
always tended to put ‘man’ at the center of the
universe. Galileo spent the last years of his life under
house arrest because he found evidence that Copernicus was
right, the earth revolves around the sun. But are we just
specks on a speck in space? That’s just as wrong as
anthropocentrism. See... Martin
LeFevre: Does Man Matter? & Martin
LeFevre: Does Man Matter? Part Two
Corporate Fraud: Halliburton Caught With Its Hands In US
Govt. Till - Halliburton's contracts for work in
Iraq are what's known as costs plus contracts, meaning that
after all the costs for labor, materials and other expenses
are added together, the company makes its profit based on a
percentage of that total. See... Pringle:
Halliburton Motto - "Its Cost Plus Baby" & Why
Bunny Greenhouse Sits In A Corner
Justice: Carla Binion Assesses The Military Commissions
Act 2007 - On October 17, George W. Bush signed into
law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This new law gives
Bush power similar to that possessed by Stalin or Hitler,
and grants agencies within the Executive Branch powers
similar to those of the KGB or Gestapo. See... Carla
Binion: Bush's Absolute Power Grab
RELATED:
Iran: Michel Chossudovsky Reports On The Potential For
Tonkin II - There is a massive concentration of US
naval power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Three
US naval strike groups off the Iranian coastline are
deployed: USS Enterprise, USS Eisenhower and USS Iwo Jima
Expeditionary Strike Group. See... US
Naval War Games Off The Iranian Coastline
RELATED:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Stateside With Rosalea: Arrogance And Stupidity
- Stay after school, Mr Fernandez, and write 500 times: "I
must not say 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the
US in Iraq." Bad diplomat! Climb back into your Green Zone
bubble and hush your mouth! See... Emerald
City, Golden State, Orange Jumpsuit
Publishing & Banking: Suzan Mazur Interviews The Rescuer
Of Banker Deuss' Canterbury Tales - John Deuss,
multi-millionaire Dutch oil man and, until recently,
chairman of Bermuda Commercial Bank, is being questioned in
his native Netherlands about "carousel" financial
irregularities involving his Curacao bank. So what, you
would be pardoned for asking, has that to do with Chaucer's
famous stories? Deuss is surely a latter-day merchant
telling tales as did his medieval forerunner. Someone who
might, if the world's banking authorities succeed, have good
reason to walk his own pilgrim's way and pray forgiveness.
See... The
Rescue Of Deuss' Visionary Canterbury Tales
MORE:
United
States: As Midterm Elections Approach Iraq Gets More
Like Vietnam - With the mid-term elections looming
dangerously close, and with public opinion in opposition to
George's failed foreign policies crossing the two-thirds
mark, the White House announced that they are going to
present their puppet government of Iraq ...
See... Cindy
Sheehan: Is It Vietnam Yet?
MORE IN
IRAQ'S IMPACT ON THE US MIDTERMS:
Religion: M. Shahid Alam Considers The Clash Of
Civilisations - Terrorism has long been the chief
demonizing marker that Israel and the United States have
used in their wars against Islamic states and peoples who
have stood in the path of their imperial ambitions. See...
M.
Shahid Alam: Muslims = Terrorists
War:
Guest Opinion - The Word Of A Soldier - As a
combat veteran wounded in one of America’s wars, I offer
to speak for those who cannot. Were the mouths of my fallen
battle brothers not stopped with dust, they would testify
that life revolves around honor. In war, it is understood
that you give your word of honor to do your duty -- that is
-- stand and fight instead of running away and deserting
your friends. When you keep your word despite desperately
desiring to flee the screaming hell all around, you earn
honor. See... Guest
Opinion: The Warrior’s Code Of Honor
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Islam: Aesha Lorenz Al-Saeed: Eed All Around The
World - Muslims are celebrating Eed in many
countries in the world, in their own unique way, but also
have the main Eed customs in common. In Saudi Arabia people
dress in their nice clothes, or new thobes or pajamas, and
go out for the Eed prayer about 7:00 in the morning.
Afterwards they return home and sleep for a few hours, then
dress to go have lunch in the oldest relatives home. There
they exchange Eediya’s of money and gifts. See... Aesha
Lorenz Al-Saeed: Eed Celebrations Worldwide
Foreign Affairs: Who Is NZ Backing For A UNSC Seat?
MFAT Not Telling - An intense contest is underway
at the United Nations General Assembly over who will get the
next Latin American seat on the United Nations Security
Council. According to reports the level of votes for the two
candidates Guatemala and Venezuela are fairly evenly split.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez recently made a big splash
in the General Assembly in a speech in which he likened US
President George Bush to "El Diablo" (the devil). Which way
is NZ casting its vote? Scoop asks MFAT. See... Scoop
Q&A With MFAT Re: UNSC Latin America Seat
War
Criminals: President Bush's Odd Real Estate
Purchase - Why might the president and his family
need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a
semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who
have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the
Paraguayan government? – Wonkette. PRENSA LATINA - The
land grab project of US President George W. Bush in Chaco,
Paraguay, has generated considerable discomfort both
politically and environmentally. The news circulating the
continent about plans to buy 98,840 acres of land in Chaco,
Paraguay, near the Triple Frontier (Bolivia, Brazil,
Paraguay) is the talk of the town in these countries. Undernews:
Bush Purchases 99000 Acres In Paraguay?
Mexico: Human Rights Commission Report on Texcoco/San
Salvador Atenco Atrocities - At 11am Monday morning,
the National Ombudsman of Mexico, José Luis Soberanes
Fernández, held a press conference to deliver the
recommendations contained in his report into “The facts
that occurred in the municipalities of Texcoco and San
Salvador Atenco on 3 and 4 May 2006,” when two young men
were killed, and 207 people brutally detained by municipal,
state and federal security forces. See... The
Crimes Of Texcoco & Atenco Remain Unanswered
MORE SCOOPS FROM MEXICO:
William Rivers Pitt - Getting Dumberer In The GOP "The 5 Stages of Republican Scandal." As follows: 1. "I have not been informed of any investigation or that I am a target." 2. "I am cooperating fully, but this whole thing is a political ploy by the Democrats." 3. "I'm SHOCKED by the mistakes made by my subordinates." 4. "I'm deeply sorry for letting down my friends and family. I now recognize that I am an alcoholic. I will be entering rehab immediately, so I have no time for questions." 5. "Can I serve my time at Eglin Federal Penitentiary (aka Club Fed)?" See... William Rivers Pitt: Like the Mafia, Only Dumber
Stan
Goff Reflects On U.S. Defence Sec. Donald Rumsfeld -
In August 2003, I was interviewed on CNN as "the father of a
soldier." Iraq had claimed only 270 American armed forces
members' lives. I called the conflict "a quagmire," bringing
hoots of virtual laughter from right-wing bloggers the
following day. See... Stan
Goff: Reflecting on Rumsfeld
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT AND OPINION:
North Korea: Some Things You Didn't Lean About The
Korean War On M*A*S*H - North Korea lost thirty
percent of its population as a result of US led bombings in
the 1950s. US military sources confirm that 20 percent of
North Koreas' population was killed off over a three period
of intensive bombings. See... Brian
S. Willson: Korea and the "Axis of Evil"
MORE NORTH KOREA COMMENT:
See also… Scoop Comment Full Coverage: North Korea
Tests Nuclear Bomb
Money
Laundering: Suzan Mazur: Accused Banker John Deuss & The
Canterbury Tales - The question is why has Dutch
businessman John Deuss' offshore First Curacao International
Bank (FCIB) been singled out over the issue of VAT on mobile
phone sales deposited at FCIB -- which mushroomed over the
last two years from $60 million to billions of dollars
before the bank was recently shut down -- when the
international banking system as a whole is compromised?
See... Why
Has John Deuss Offshore Bank Been Singled Out?
Nobel
Prizes: Tanveer Jafri: Prof. Yunus Brought Economics To
The Poor - Noble Prize committee has decided to
award Noble peace Prize to an economist Prof. Mohammed
Yunus, 66, a native of Bangladesh. It has been decided to
award this prize collectively to Mohammad Yunus and the
Grameen bank set up by him. This honour is considered to be
the highest prize in the world. This honour will be given on
December10, in Oslo. There were well contested 191 entries
for Noble prize but it was decided to give this prize to
Prof. Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen bank established by
him. See... Tanveer
Jafri: Noble Prize
17 October 2006 |
Israel/OT: Genevieve Cora Fraser Takes
A Second Look At Mel Gibson's Motivations - For
those who inhabit Tinseltown and its environs as Mel Gibson
does, there’s one site that is as famous to locals as
Hollywood and Vine is to tourists - the Temple of the Arts
in Beverly Hills. Located at the Wilshire Theater at 8440
Wilshire Blvd, the congregation led by Rabbi David Barron,
though claiming solidarity with their brothers and sisters
in Israel, has been treated to a variety of speakers,
including luminaries such as Hillary Rodham Clinton. See...
Cora
Fraser: Is Mel Gibson Pro-Middle Eastern?
Eco-Economy: An Argentinean Economic
Perspective On The Decline Of The USD - Analysts
the world over are starting to recognize the early warning
signs of a gathering storm regarding the strength of the
international financial system in general, and the stability
of the United States Dollar, in particular. This essay
provides an alternative view on this impending crisis,
written from the viewpoint of an Argentine analyst whose
country has undergone recurrent monetary and financial
crises over the past forty years, albeit on a domestic
rather than an international scale. See... Adrian
Salbuchi: Death & Resurrection Of The $US
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION:
Mexico: Julie Webb-Pullman Reports
From Oaxaca On Mexico's Dirty War - Yesterday in
Oaxaca, delegates to the APPO National and International
Forum were outraged when news came that one of their members
had just died, after being shot in the head by police in the
early hours of that morning. See... Webb-Pullman:
Oaxaca - Another Day, Another Death & Julie
Webb-Pullman: Adios Ruiz, Bienvenidos AEPO
MORE NEWS FROM MEXICO:
United States: Why It's So Hard To Make Good Things
Happen - This is the part of history I don't like.
Not the part where people don't know what's happening to
them nor the part where they try to do something about it.
There's plenty to do in both those parts. No, it's the part
where people know there's something wrong but nobody knows
what to do and how to do it and so they just sit around or
go through the same old motions just as vulnerable as when
they didn't know what was going on only now they're also mad
and frustrated and confused and nothing happens even though
everyone wants it to. See…Sam
Smith: Running Out Of Change
Israel/Palestine: Will Starvation Achieve Israel's
Palestinian Policy - IS IT possible to force a
whole people to submit to foreign occupation by starving it?
That is, certainly, an interesting question. So interesting,
indeed, that the governments of Israel and the United
States, in close cooperation with Europe, are now engaged in
a rigorous scientific experiment in order to obtain a
definitive answer. The laboratory for the experiment is the
Gaza Strip, and the guinea pigs are the million and a
quarter Palestinians living there. See… Uri
Avnery: The Great Experiment
MORE COMMENT
ON THE HOLY LAND:
Iraq: Bringing Iraq's 655,000
Casualties Back To The White House - Two years ago,
a team of epidemiologists at the John Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Heath in Baltimore published a study in the
Lancet estimating that the US invasion and occupation of
Iraq had led to approximately one hundred thousand excess
deaths. While the study caused a storm of outrage among
supporters of the war, its methodology and conclusions were
generally regarded as robust and repeatable. The authors of
the study have now done exactly that, repeating their
sampling with a greater number of clusters. Their midpoint
estimate for the number of excess deaths is now 655,000 .
See... No
Right Turn: Pyramid Of Skulls
MORE ON THE
IRAQ CASUALTY CALCULATIONS:
North Korea: Some Things You Didn't Lean About The
Korean War On M*A*S*H - North Korea lost thirty
percent of its population as a result of US led bombings in
the 1950s. US military sources confirm that 20 percent of
North Koreas' population was killed off over a three period
of intensive bombings. See... Brian
S. Willson: Korea and the "Axis of Evil"
MORE NORTH KOREA COMMENT:
See also… Scoop Comment Full Coverage: North Korea
Tests Nuclear Bomb
Terror: Toni Solo Reports An Outbreak Of Civil Rights
Illogic At Labour's UK Party Conf. - At the recent
Labour Party conference in Britain, Tony Blair led a one
minute standing ovation for Home Secretary John Reid for a
speech in which Reid declared "And let's be clear. It cannot
be right that the rights of individual suspected terrorist
be placed above the rights, life and limb of the British
people. It's wrong. Full stop. No ifs, no buts. It's just
plain wrong." This is the same logic he inherited from his
predecessor Charles Clarke which led to the killing of the
innocent Brazilian "terrorist suspect" Charles de Menezes
and the subsequent return to duty of the police officers who
shot him dead. An officer responsible for the botched
operation was recently promoted. See... T.Solo:
Globalization, Terror, Virtual Colonialism
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION:
Economics & Energy: Bonus Joules Gets The Measure Of
Economic Measures - Recently a school janitor
proposed a new principle of energy. If correct it predicates
the survival or demise of humanity. Should we be concerned
that the principle suggests Peter Jackson’s new movie, the
Dam Busters could be a damn buster? You decide. See... Bonus
Joules: Dark Measures
Cuba: Julie Webb-Pullman Remembers The
(Forgotten) Cuban Five- Wow! The US doesn’t only
do it in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Europe, Asia
and North Africa – they practice cruel and inhuman
imprisonment right there at home as well!! And despite the
daily diet of anti-terrorist rhetoric their mainstream media
dishes up as nauseum, for the last eight years there has
been only misinformation, Miaminformation, or an iron
curtain of silence regarding the treatment of five Cuban
anti-terrorist political prisoners in the U.S. and their
families. See... Julie
Webb-Pullman: Spies, Lies and Visa Red Tape
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Stateside: Rosalea Barker Photographs The Delights Of
Fall In San Francisco - The first week of October
is totally THE best time to be in San Francisco. The days
might start off foggy but by the afternoon it is sunny and
warm, and in the evening you get the golden-est sunsets.
Thursday, October 5, was a day of protest against the Bush
administration, and San Francisco's Justin Herman
Plaza--down by the Ferry Building--was the site of a large
gathering. By the time I got there in the evening it had
mostly dispersed, but I did get to hear the Bay Area
director of the 9-11 Truth Alliance speak. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Rosalea Does SF
Israel/OT: News From Palestine A One-Act Play By
Genevieve Cora Fraser - Based on the life and
writings of Samah Jabr - Palestinian, international and
Israeli peace activists walk in a circle protesting,
chanting and carrying "free Palestine" - "end the
occupation" - "tear down the wall" signs. Israeli occupation
forces approach and spray the crowd with tear gas and rough
people up. Others stand at a distance, rifles trained on the
crowd. Sounds of a helicopter can be heard overhead as shots
ring out. See... One
Act Play: News From Palestine
MORE:
Fascism: John Chuckman Joins The Debate
Over American Fascism - The word fascism is used a lot,
often pejoratively. The image that immediately comes to mind
is Mussolini in a steel helmet, hands on hips, head tipped
back, jaw thrust out. It is an image that influenced other
fascists. Young Hitler was a great admirer. See... John
Chuckman: A Subtle Kind Of Fascism
MORE:
EARLIER:
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur: Italy Seeks Return Of Medea
Vase Highlighted On Scoop - Cleveland Museum's
antiquities officials have failed to respond to my email
request for information as to how the museum acquired the
South Italian Medea vase in 1991 recently cited on this page
Scoop: Cleveland's Got Prized South
Italian Medea Vase. The vase was part of a highly
controversial auction of the Hunt brothers' collection at
Sotheby's in June 1990. However, an informed source close to
the Italian investigation advises that Italy will pursue the
Medea along with other pieces now in Cleveland's collection
of ancient art. See... Italy
Will Contest Medea Vase At Cleveland Museum
Appeal
Filed in Bilbray Election Challenge: Speaker Hastert's
Swearing In At Issue - Attorneys Paul Lehto and
Kenneth Simpkins just entered an appeal to a California
Superior Court decision that prematurely ended an election
contest in California's 50th Congressional District. Just
seven days after the election, Speaker Dennis Hastert swore
in Brian Bilbray on the House Floor on June 13, 2006.
Hastert claimed that Bilbray was the rightful winner of the
close election based on a communication he received from the
office of California's Republican Secretary of State, Bruce
McPherson. See... Appeal
Filed in Bilbray Election Challenge
RELATED:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT
AND OPINION:
Justice: Seditionist Will Eat Xmas Pud In Clink -
My release date is 4 April 2007. The date of my
appeal hearing is 22 February 2007. Mathematics was never
my strong suit, but isn’t that only about five and a half
weeks before I’m going to be getting out anyway?! (Does
Terence Arnold set the fixtures dates?). Can I appeal the
appeal date? See... Justice
Delayed…
Kids: Jackie Little's Life As A
Domestic Ogress - As Victor Medlrew would say: " I
don't belieeve it" Except I can! Number three child had
fallen on a cactus. A Cactus!!! for Pete's (whoever Pete
may be) sake!! This was while in care of the grandparents,
so I admonish myself, though Grandma hastens to add, 'twas
in Grandad's sole charge See... Jackie
Little: The Cactus Incident
Foleygate: - Suzan Mazur - Where Do Congressmen Have
Their Trysts? - The current sex scandal involving
former Congressman Mark Foley (Rep.-FL)begs the question:
Just where do Washington politicians and US military seeking
private trysting spots -- free of pesky media and routine
security questions -- continue to find them? See... DC &
Int'l Officers Clubs For Trysting Politicians
Torture: William Rivers Pitt: When Fear Of The State
Gets Personal - I have been told a thousand times
at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the
astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies and failures of the
Bush administration, to watch my back. "Be careful," people
always tell me. "These people are capable ... See... William
Rivers Pitt: In Case I Disappear
MORE
COMMENT ON TORTURE IN THE USA:
See also…
Full
Coverage: US Legalises Torture
Iraq War: Sean Penn's Address To The World Can't Wait
Marchers - The arrogant, the misguided, the cowards
would argue that an immediate pull-out of our troops from
Iraq would inspire lack of confidence and the lost
credibility of the United States. See... The
Arrogant, the Misguided, and the Cowards
MORE COMMENT ON IRAQ WAR:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
ISRAEL & OCCUPIED
PALESTINE:
E-VOTING & VOTE
FRAUD:
BIG
PHARMA:
Faith: When Kamala Sarup Met Mother Teresa - I
slowly look at her and smiled, "You like to love,
forgiveness, companionship. Life is not easy as I think."
Mother Teresa began to speak, "Live easily and let others
live easily. You have to understood the meaning of life at
all. The meaning of life is not to keep yourself in misery.
Yes, you can offer many people happiness". See... Kamala
Sarup: When I visited Mother Teresa
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
China: Emma Moore Kiwi Expat- Letter
From China - There is no shortage of inches devoted
to China in the New Zealand media. China’s economy, top
companies, financial institutions, trade surpluses, trading
relationships, savings and spending rates… Are you
detecting a theme? Yes, all of these stories appear in the
same section – the business section. See... Emma
Moore: China - Just A Pile Of Stats?
Politics: Anne Else Assesses The Relativities Of
Political Offence - Interesting choice of words in
the headlines this week. Helen Clark was described as
"furious" and "bitter", "savage" and "lashing out", over the
ludicrous insinuations about her husband's sexuality, and
the fact that the Exclusive Brethren had hired a private
investigator to scurry around him, her, and senior Labour
ministers. See... Letter
from Elsewhere: The Adjectives Of Outrage
RELATED:
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur Finds A (Possibly) Looted
Treasure In Ohio - After an online search for the
whereabouts of the fabulous "Medea in Flight" vase featured
in my recent story about artifacts Italy wants back from
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, it appears that the Red-figure
Calyx Krater, 5th/early 4th Century BC is now in the
Cleveland Musuem collection. Once part of Bunker Hunt's
hoard, it was auctioned at Sotheby's in June 1990 along with
the signed Euphronios vase and wine cup, and sold above
estimates for $360,000 (plus tax). See... Cleveland's
Got Prized South Italian Medea Vase & Ancient
Art Italy Wants Back From Boston's MFA
Prison Tales: Is Wilbur Smith A Cruel
And Unusual Punishment? - Incarcerated seditionist
Tim Selwyn points out in his latest letter from jail that
the prison he's incarcerated at has a rather pitiful library
- 'Wilbur Smith’s epic chronicles of super-macho Victorian
elephant slaughterers seems to be the backbone of a bleak
expanse of Readers Digest condensed novels and 80’s
paperback fiction," writes prisoner 60477981 of Hawkes Bay
Prison. See... Tumeke
– Sorry State of Book Learnin' In Clink
Satan: - Hugo Chavez Calls President Bush The
Devil - I’m no fan of Hugo Chavez. He has all the
earmarks of a demagogue, and has repressed dissent in
Venezuela. But his UN performance, mixing theater with
truth, was astounding. Delivering a line with panache that
will go down in the annals of history, he said, ... See...
Martin
LeFevre: Is The Devil In The White House?
MORE:
Religion: Uri Avnery On The Pope's Trouble With
Intolerance - Since the days when Roman Emperors
threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the
emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many
changes. See... Uri
Avnery: Muhammad's Sword
MORE:
Environment: Catherine Austin Fitts Reviews An
Inconvenient Truth - The day after 9-11, a person
whom I respect and care about a great deal said to me,
"George Bush was anointed by God for a time such as this."
He then asked me what I thought. I said that I thought that
the Bush family was anointed by financial fraud, narcotics
trafficking, and pedophilia. Stunned, he said, "If that is
true, then it's hopeless." I replied that things were far
from hopeless, but that for me solutions started with faith
in a divine intelligence rather than affirming a dependent
relationship with organized crime. See... The
Real Deal: The Source Of Hopelessness
MORE:
Torture: President Bush's Torture Amnesty
Legislation - The United States is following the
lead of "dirty war" nations, such as Argentina and Chile, in
enacting what amounts to an amnesty law protecting U.S.
government operatives, apparently up to and including
President George W. Bush, who have committed ... See... Robert
Parry: Bush's "Dirty War" Amnesty Law
MORE:
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Torture: Keith Olbermann On The Acceptability Of
Thought - The President of the United States owes
this country an apology. It will not be offered, of course.
He does not realize its necessity. There are now none around
him who would tell him or could. The last of them, it
appears, was the very man whose letter provoked ... See...
Keith
Olbermann: Bush Owes Us an Apology
MORE
COMMENT ON BUSH'S PLANS TO LEGALISE TORTURE:
EARLIER
RELATED NEWS:
Good
Returns Reviews Gareth Morgan's Pension Panic -
Warning: This book is intended to scare
you. Its message is keep saving, but clean up your act when
it comes to investing those savings for your retirement, or
its milk arrowroots and mittens in Bluff for you. Pension
Panic will show you just how many investment advisers and
managed funds rip you to bits, and help you to avoid the
traps. Author and economist, Gareth Morgan, dispels some of
the mythology, hype and bluster that can cloud your
judgement when it comes to planning for a secure future.
See... Pension
Panic - Tough Talk On Sorting Your Finance
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Boston's Looted Antiquities That Italy Wants Back -
With Boston's Museum of Fine Arts nearing an accord with
Italy over its collection of classical art acquired
primarily from Italy both before and after the1983 UNESCO
curb on antiquities trafficking - I thought it might be
interesting to revisit a conversation I had with Cornelius
Vermeule III, MFA's "swashbuckling" curator of classical art
for almost 40 years (1957-1996). Vermeule has also shared a
long friendship with Bob Hecht, the dealer now on trial in
Rome for antiquities trafficking, and he's acquired
important antiquities from him as well -- like the beautiful
statue of Sabina -- in which Hecht acted as "agent" for the
November 1979 transaction. Hecht also sold an oil flask
(lekythos) to MFA in November 1989, and in 1991, a South
Italian amphora that he first owned was sold to the museum,
depicting the murder of Atreus. See... Ancient
Art Italy Wants Back From Boston's MFA
Rosalea
Barker On The Impending US Mid-term Election -
Election season is here again, and once more I'm pounding
the pavements in support of electoral reform. The third city
in six years where I've volunteered on an Instant Runoff
Voting campaign is Oakland, and we kicked off the effort
this weekend. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Hail Atlantis!
MORE US
ELECTION BUILDUP COMMENT:
The
Failed US Response to Rwanda and Darfur - In 1994,
an estimated 800,000 people died in Rwanda, as the U.S. and
the international community failed to mount an intervention
to stop genocide. Senior U.S. officials later expressed
regret, and acknowledged that this crime against humanity
should have invoked a more urgent and active response. It is
reported that President Bush reviewed a memo on the Rwandan
genocide early in his presidency and wrote "Not on my Watch"
in the margin of that document. Less than a decade after the
Rwandan genocide, the U.S. was faced with another unfolding
genocide in Africa, this time in Darfur, western Sudan.
See... Africa
Action: The Tale of Two Genocides
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Bush Is
Found Guilty By The Bush Crimes Commission - The
testimony that I presented in January to the International
Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed
by the Bush Administration was related to the evidence found
in the Downing Street Memos. This evidence is connected to
Count 1 in the Wars of Aggression Indictment being delivered
today, which reads: "The Bush Administration authorized a
war of aggression against Iraq." See... Bush
Crimes Commission Verdict: Bush Is Guilty
MORE RELATED COMMENT:
Keith
Olbermann's Special 911 Comment on Bush - "History
teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government
cannot be taken away from that government, by its critics.
It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a
nation’s wounds, but to take political advantage.
Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense
of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did
the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people. The
President — and those around him — did that." See... Blogwatch:
Keith Olbermann 9/11 Comment Transcript
MORE
ON/FROM THE PEOPLE'S KEITH:
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
The
Independent: Gaza Is Dying! - Gaza is dying. The
Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that
its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores
of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is
being ignored because the world's attention has been
diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq. A whole society is
being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians
imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world.
Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden
fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the
surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.
See... The
Independent: A People Betrayed By The World
RELATED:
Gaza: Media Fails To Report Plight Of
Reuters Reporters - Two Fox News journalists, Steve
Cantani and Olas Wing were released by their Palestinian
kidnappers in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, August 27. Just one
day earlier, two Reuters’ cameramen were seriously wounded
in an apparently deliberate Israeli strike on their clearly
marked vehicle, according to news reports. The names of the
two wounded cameramen, however, as well as their story went
largely unreported. Their plight seemed inconsequential
compared to that of the Fox News journalists. See... Kidnapped
In Gaza: Chaos As A Strategy
MORE SCOOP COMMENT
& OPINION:
Iran:
The US, Israel & Iran - Conflict? - In the
final installment of this interview series for Truthout,
McGovern discusses links between US/Israeli policy, the need
for change if there is to be true security for either
country, the Bush administration's use of torture, and the
likelihood of a US attack on Iran. See... Dahr
Jamail: Interview With Ray McGovern, Part 3
Plamegate: Marc Ash Speaks Out In Praise Of
Fitzmass - Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald
and his investigation of the outing of undercover CIA
operative Valerie Plame are under attack by multiple
mainstream media organizations acting simultaneously. The
reports are - at best - shoddy journalism and at worst ...
See... Marc
Ash: Special Counsel Fitzgerald Under Attack
RELATED:
Robert
Parry: How Obtuse Is the US Press?
Israel/Palestine: Sol Salbe On What's Not In The Israeli
Media - Sometimes it is easier to write on what the
Israeli media is not covering rather than on it does.
Foreign Minister Downer’s spat with the Australian media
is a no-show. Downer has slammed our media for telling fibs
about Israel. See... Sol
Salbe's Middle East Round-Up - 5 Sept 2006
RELATED:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Bad
Language: Russell Brown Defends A "Blue" Bill Ralston &
Corresponds With Rosalea Barker - I'm not sure I get
Bill Ralston's moment of shame, as breathlessly reported by
two Sunday newspapers. During the week, a Herald on Sunday
reporter was pursuing a "news" story on an itinerant
Auckland man, whose only conventional news value appears to
be that he's Ralston's cousin... See... Public
Address 04/09/06 - The Clearing Of Throats & Public
Address 01/09/06 - Home And (Bombs) Away
MEANWHILE…
If you, like I, have ever wished that
the writing at Stateside could be as well-informed as the
writing over at www.PublicAddress.net , then wish no more!
PA founder and Hard News-man, Russell Brown, stopped over
last week in San Francisco on his way back to New Zealand.
See... Stateside
With Rosalea: A Godwit Flies By
Plamegate: Jason Leopold - Armitage's Guilt Does Not
Exonerate Rove - Richard Armitage, the former deputy
Secretary of State, may be syndicated columnist Robert
Novak's primary source who told him on July 8, 2003, that
Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for
the CIA. But that doesn't change the fact that Karl Rove
told former Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper the same
thing three days later - and then subsequently failed to
tell federal investigators about it for a year. See... Jason
Leopold: Plame Leak(s)
Martin
LeFevre Meditates On Bush And Rumsfeld's Rhetoric -
President Bush made an extraordinary statement at his
unexpected news conference on August 21st. He said: “the
consequence of leaving Iraq before the job is done…[is
that] we will have lost our soul as a nation.” The Nazis
used that kind of rhetorical trick, turning the root cause
of their rise to power into a rallying cry. It won’t work
this time. See...
Meme Warfare: Bush & Rumsfeld - They’ve Lost the
'War of Ideas'
A
Pakistani View On What's Cricket & What's Not -
While people admire Australian sports' talent and strength
worldwide; they are also famous for being arrogant and
sledgers in some parts of the world. Famous World
Cup-winning Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga branded the
Australian cricketers as arrogant as well as vulnerable.
Another great alrounder and World-cup winning captain of
Pakistan, Imran Khan called the Australian cricketers as
biased. See... Syed
Atiq ul Hassan: Pompous Aussie or Firebrand
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION:
Kids: Jackie Little Takes A Trip To
Town With The Tykes - One of the perks of being a
stay at home mum is that you get to re-live some great
childhood experiences without the scary parts - and under
the guise of being a responsible adult too. It had been a
long time since I had been aboard a vehicle so fraught with
social hazard as the good old school bus, but here I was,
standing with my group of supervisees awaiting voyage to the
Capital.and a day of exploring national treasures at the
museum. See... Jackie
Little: The School Trip
Terror: Toni Solo Takes A Global
Perspective On Terror - The bomb attacks in Madrid
in 2004 and London in 2005 raised the issue of racism
especially starkly for politicians in Europe as well as for
their North American and Pacific allies. No matter how they
spin it, the fundamental question they face is whether they
value people's lives on racist criteria or not. The record
of their responses to terror attacks by the US government
and its allies weakens their condemnations of such attacks
against civilians in the US and Europe. See... Toni
Solo: Globalization And Terror
RELATED:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Anne
Else & Tze Ming Mok Ponder The Meaning Of "Bedrock
Values" - I knew it was a long time since the last
Letter, but I hadn’t realised HOW long. I have a good
excuse, of course: I was finishing off my PhD, otherwise
known as “getting doctored”. Then I went away for a
while to recover, and when I got back, I discovered ...
See... Letter
from Elsewhere: Bedrock values & Public
Address 28/08/06 - Women Elsewhere
One Year
On: Greg Palast & Ors Recall The Near Death Of The Big
Easy - DON'T blame the Lady. Katrina killed no one
in this town. In fact, Katrina missed the city completely,
going wide to the east. It wasn't the hurricane that
drowned, suffocated, de-hydrated and starved 1,500 people
that week. See... Hurricane
Expert Threatened For Katrina Warnings
MORE:
Regarding The War Clouds Gathering Over Iran - Once
again we are being prepared for another devastating war in
the Middle East. A terrorist group is “allegedly”
discovered planning to blow-up 6 aircraft in UK. Another
group is “discovered” in Germany planning to blow-up a
train. Then UK warns whole Europe about the threat of
terrorism. Then there are “loud” accusations that Iran
has been trying to buy Uranium from Congo followed by a
small retraction. Then there is the release of the 9/11
sound tapes of the fire-fighters along with the release of
the emotional movie “9/11”. And finally we have the
President of the United States warning us about the threat
of Islamo-Fascism. See... US
vs. Iran - Is An Attack Inevitable?
MORE:
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Michael
Collins: Mexico Demonstrates How To Defend Democracy
- The Mexican peoples’ democracy movement and
their leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador are modern heroes
of democracy and to all who demand clean elections. They
recall the heroics of the Ukrainians with one important
difference. See... The
Mexican People: Heroes of Democracy & in Spanish El
Pueblo Mexicano: Héroes De La Democracia
MORE NEWS FROM MEXICO:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
NZ & ELSEWHERE:
UNITED
STATES:
NEPAL:
Stateside: Where Rosalea Visits A Electronics Emporio
Fit For The Pharaoh- There’s an ad on TV that has
puzzled me ever since I moved to the Bay Area. It’s for an
electronics store that sells not just consumer products but
the kind of stuff techies go nuts for--memory upgrades,
gold-plated audio jacks, all that jazz. The curious thing
about the ad is that it features an owl and the night sky.
So, being down in the South Bay this weekend, I decided to
find out why. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Campbell And Fry’s
Terror: Michel Chossudovsky Assesses The
Credibility Of USUK Terror Alerts The British Home
Office announced (August 10) that a "foiled terror plot" to
simultaneously blow up as many as ten airplanes on
transatlantic flights had been uncovered. So far Scotland
Yard has not presented documentary evidence of this
carefully coordinated suicide bombing operation. See... Michel
Chossudovsky: Crying Wolf
MORE:
Murder: Richard S. Ehrlich's JonBenet
Murder Confession Coverage - BANGKOK, Thailand --
Accused murderer John Mark Karr's last hours in Bangkok on
Sunday (August 20) were spent dressing up and discussing
Chopin and classical music, while listening to his Thai
jailer serenade him with a personal, impromptu version of a
1960s Bee Gees song. Self-conscious, sullen, pale and
silent, Karr walked out of the Immigration Department's
detention center in the afternoon, escorted for several
yards (meters) by a phalanx of unarmed Thai police. See...
Ehrlich:
John Mark Karr's Last Night In Bangkok
EARLIER: Why
Did John Mark Karr Confess Murder In Thailand? & Ehrlich:
Ramsey JonBenet Thailand Murder Presser
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur Wonders Why
The NYT Isn't On Trial Too? While various American
antiquities dealers, curators and collectors are "subjects
of interest" of Italian and Greek prosecutors who, in the
last year, particularly, have opened the floodgates for the
return of their countries' cultural patrimony - the question
is: Why not the media? For instance, there is no finer
example of promotion and protection afforded the antiquities
trade than New York Times reporter Rita Reif's June 1988
plug for art dealer Bob Hecht in the story titled, "Archaic
Smiles Have Persisted for 2,000 Years". Hecht is on trial in
Rome for trafficking in ancient art --charged with being one
of the capos, if not the mastermind of an international
conspiracy. See... Add
NYT To Bob Hecht Antiquities Ring Organigram?
Law: Ray McGovern On The President Who
Would Be King - Who can forget the chutzpah of
President George W. Bush as he bragged to Bob Woodward, "I'm
commander in chief.... That's the interesting thing about
being president ... I don't feel like I owe anybody an
explanation." See... Ray
McGovern: Checking A Would-Be King
MORE ON
POST-CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA:
David
Kelly: Andrew Gilligan - Investigative Journalist Turned
Apologist? - You would think a journalist whose BBC
career was ruined by the death of Dr Kelly would be
terrier-like in his determination to get at the truth. Not
so Andrew Gilligan. Baker and the conspiracy theories are
wrong' he states in his 24 July 'Evening Standard' article
‘ Those who say Kelly was murdered are so wrong ‘. But
as no one has put up any 'theories', how can they be
'wrong?' See…
Rowena Thursby: Is Gilligan Afraid Of The Truth?
MORE:
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
David Swanson Says Just Impeach The Man
Already - Last December, when Congressman John
Conyers released a huge report documenting the evidence that
Bush and Cheney had lied us into a war, he also introduced a
bill (H. Res. 635) to start a preliminary investigation of
the matter and make recommendations on impeachment. This
showed far more courage, not to mention long hours of work,
than any other member of Congress had mustered at that time
or since. But it was disingenuous. Impeachment is itself an
investigation; a preliminary investigation is redundant. And
any investigation is unnecessary when the impeachable
offenses are part of the public record. See... Bush
Versus the Constitution
ALSO:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT
& OPINION:
Paul
Buchanan: Why Lebanon Conflicts Logistics Outweigh
Moral Concerns - Buried beneath the chorus of moral
indignation at the loss of life and calls for a ceasefire in
Southern Lebanon are the logics of warfare at play. These
reduce to the geopolitical and military rationales
underpinning the conflict, which is a classic instance of
asymmetrical war between agents as well as principals.
See... The
Logics of War in South
Lebanon
ALSO:
Kiwi FM Audio: Paul Buchanan and Wammo on
Israel/Lebanon
VF Bombshell: Hijack Exercise Disrupted 911
Response - NORAD & Dick Cheney Lied For 5 Years On
Feb 19 2002 Scoop published a seminal article
detailing inconsistencies in the NORAD account of what
happened in two hours on the morning of September the 11th
2001. Yesterday the Washington Post reported: "We to
this day don't know why NORAD told us what they told us,"
said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican
governor who led the [US Congress Apppointed 911]
commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's
one of those loose ends that never got tied."
Kyle
Hence Writes For The UQ Wire: Recent articles in
corporate media examine deception and lying by the
Department of Defense relative to the attacks of September
11th 2001. They shed light on an effective cover-up by the
9/11 Commission... Links to these articles follow as do 11
questions which these revelations and NORAD tapes beg to be
asked and which must be answered: See... 11
Questions Avoided by the Media On NORAD Tapes
EARLIER COVERAGE OF NORAD LIES:
For 5 years of investigative reporting on this and other questions related to 911... FULL COVERAGE: September 11th - Unanswered Questions
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION:
Scoop
Link: Meanwhile The Ultimate Goal... - Even before
the bombs fell on Baghdad, a group of senior Pentagon
officials were plotting to invade another country. Their
covert campaign once again relied on false intelligence and
shady allies. But this time, the target was Iran. See... Scoop
Link: Rolling Stone - Iran, The Next War
Suzan
Mazur Assesses The Gender Gap In The Land Of The
Free - With the dramatic lowering of the competency
bar in the Bush II Presidency, no one can say any longer
that American women are unqualified to govern. Still the
issue of how to get a critical mass of women in public
office -- so crucial to America becoming a truly egalitarian
society -- remains elusive. But progress has been made.
See... Women,
Sexual Politics & the American Dream
Jackie
Little Meets A Charming Visitor From The Old Country
- I was in the midst of an article concerning the joys of
joining a school outing (Bet you're kicking yourselves that
you're missing out on that) when an e-mail from a beloved
friend back in the mother country brought back a flood of
possibly repressed memories about my experience last Summer
of the Visitor From Hell. See... Jackie
Little: The Charmer
Welcome
To Post Constitutional America- The Independent
UK - The controversy over the US-run detention centre at
Guantanamo Bay is to erupt anew with confirmation by the
Pentagon that a new, permanent prison will open in the Cuban
enclave in the next few weeks. See... Bush
to Open New Maximum-Security Jail at Gitmo and;
Washington -U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be
detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian
courts under legislation proposed by the Bush
administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version
of the bill. See... Link:
Bush Bids for Sweeping Detention Power
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
SCOOP COMMENT ON THE LEBANON WAR:
Civilian Casualties + Depleted Uranium + Massive Oil Spills
+ White Phosporous Weapons = ??? - The delivery of at
least 100 GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted
uranium warheads by the United States to Israel for use
against targets in Lebanon will result in additional
radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent
adverse health and environmental effects throughout the
middle east. See... Depleted
Uranium Situation Worsens Requires Action
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION ON THE LEBANON WAR:
See
also... Full
Coverage: Israel Attacks Lebanon (Part III), (Part
II) &
(Part I) MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE COMMENT AND
OPINION: MORE
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT
& OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPIONION:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Jason Leopold: Where The Rove Indictment Is Now At -
Four weeks ago, during the time when we reported that White
House political adviser Karl Rove was indicted for crimes
related to his role in the leak of covert CIA operative
Valerie Plame Wilson, the grand jury empanelled in the case
returned an indictment that was filed under seal in US
District Court for the District of Columbia under the
curious heading of Sealed vs. Sealed. See... Jason
Leopold: Sealed vs. Sealed
More Comment On The Death Of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi -
As reported in 2004 by Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News the U.S.
Military presented President Bush three plans to kill or
capture Abu Musab Al Zarqawi [link] between June of 2002 and
January, 2003 before the invasion of Iraq. In each instance
the authorization was not forthcoming. They never pulled the
trigger and by March of 2004 over 700 terrorist killings had
been blamed on Zarqawi. Investigative reporter, Greg Palast
presents the case that it was the U.S. that effectively
invited Zarqawi into Iraq in the first place. See? UQ
Wire: Zarqawi, 9/11 and the Bogus War on Terror
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE COMMENT
& OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
The
Inconvenient Truth about An Inconvenient Truth -
Sorry Al and Laurie. The perhaps inconvenient truth is that
An Inconvenient Truth is perhaps convenient and not the
truth. Science suggests the movie not based on science and
it does not reflect reality. It's a trace out of focus.
Here's why: See... The
Inconvenient Truth about An Inconvenient Truth 
Toni
Solo On Symptoms Of Imperial Decay - If people
needed reminding that North American and European foreign
policy, including policy on aid and trade, is based on
sadism and hypocrisy, events in Palestine and Lebanon will
surely have done so. While people inside the imperial
Bluebeard's Castle come to terms with the narcissistic
cynicism of leaders like Tony Blair and George Bush, outside
the Castle other people are determined to realise the
potential of themselves and their families and rescue as
best they can the settlement embodied in the UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights so contemptuously trashed by the
imperial leaders. See... Toni
Solo: Varieties Of Imperial Decline 
David
Dill, Doug Jones & Barbara Simons On Diebold - Most
computer scientists have long viewed Diebold as the poster
child for all that is wrong with touch screen voting
machines. But we never imagined that Diebold would be as
irresponsible and incompetent as they have turned out to be.
See... The
Diebold Bombshell
RELATED:
Daily
Mail Continues Its Assault On Dr Kelly Suicide Story
- Everyone knows, don't they, that most untoward events
generally have banal explanations such as muddle,
incompetence or sheer blind chance. To believe otherwise is
to run the risk of being branded a 'conspiracy theorist', a
small step away from being lumped together with the kind of
people who think that crop circles are designed by visitors
from Mars or that Princess Diana was murdered by MI6.
See... Will
We Ever Be Told The Truth About Dr Kelly?
MORE:
The
Battle For Connecticut - Let Joe Go - Here we go
again - There is a grass-roots movement picking up steam in
the nutmeg state, but the old guard is rushing in to
maintain the status quo. Bill Clinton is rushing to
Connecticut to save Joseph Lieberman for the party insiders
who don't want to lose their power in the party. We saw the
same thing when Howard Dean energized the grass roots in
2004. Clinton and others rallied to John Kerry to make sure
that a nominee would emerge that would answer to the party's
moneyed interests.See... Scott
Galindez: Hands Off Connecticut 
Rosalea
Barker: Burn The Butter! - Hmmm. You guys seem to
be having a bit of a problem with the yummy stuff, I see.
Well, let me revive an idea I first had back in the 70s for
NZ's famed "butter mountain"--melt the stuff down and sell
it as biofuel! (Only back then, there there was no such
word; I just thought we could run the Silver Streak railcar
on it and not have to do away with the service.) See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Melting Moments 
Greg
Palast: They Don't Call It The "White" House For
Nothing - God lost this time. I counted: Bush
mentioned God only six times in his speech to the NAACP
yesterday. The winner was 'faith' - which got seven
mentions, though if you count "The Creator" as God, well,
then the Lord tied it. Coming in right behind God and Faith,
other big mentions in the First Home Boy's rap included: The
Voting Rights Act, his family's "commitment to civil
rights," the "death tax," rebuilding New Orleans, "public
school choice"and "soft bigotry." See... Greg
Palast: Bush at the NAACP Convention 
War
Lies: Why Outed CIA Officer & Husband Are Suing
- Syndicated columnist Bob Novak and officials speaking on
behalf of White House political adviser Karl Rove have
attempted to convince the American people that there wasn't
a White House campaign to smear and discredit former
Ambassador Joseph Wilson three years ago for speaking out
publicly against the Bush administration's use of pre-war
Iraq intelligence. See... Leopold:
Why Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Filed
MORE:
Energy: Bonus Joules uses solar energy
to stop the shivers and THE ECONOMY shakes - Could
it be the British Conservative Party is about to put care
back into Conservative? And is Labour about to put arduous,
difficult and wearisome into Labour? And is the Green
Movement about to go green about the gills? Check this new
Conservative policy out. See... Bonus
Joules: The Economy Jitters 
Mexico: Narconews.Com Lifts Lid
On Mexican Vote Fraud - Things are looking worse and
worse in Mexico for the Felipe Calderon, his National Action
Party, and the Federal Elections Institute that prematurely
announced his victory. New evidence of fraud and crimes on
the part of the electoral authorities is appearing every
day. The White House is backtracking from its initial
enthusiasm for Calderon's "victory." Citizens in towns and
cities across Mexico are standing up to make sure the crimes
they've witnessed and the stealing of their election is
known. And Narco News isn't missing a beat. See... Giordano:
Mexico's Election Fraud Is Coming Undone
MORE:
EARLIER:War
Lies: Outed CIA Officer & Husband Sue Bush Admin.
Officials - Valerie Plame Wilson and Ambassador
Joseph Wilson initiate a civil action against Vice President
Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby for violations of their
Constitutional and other legal rights. See... Wilson,
Plame to Sue Cheney, Rove and Libby
MORE:
Guantanamo Bay: William Rivers Pitt On
Post-Constitutional America - BBC News reported it
this way: "All US military detainees, including those at
Guantanamo Bay, are to be treated in line with the minimum
standards of the Geneva Conventions. The White House
announced the shift in policy on Tuesday, almost two weeks
after the US Supreme Court ruled that the conventions
applied to detainees." See... William
Rivers Pitt: Minimum Standards
MORE:
Mexico &
U.S. Ruling Parties Ties to Blow Bust - On April
10th an American-registered DC9 was caught carrying 5.5 tons
of cocaine destined for the U.S., the Mexican military
announced, at an airport in Ciudad del Carmen. In the more
than two months since, the incident has slipped into a black
hole. See... UQ
Wire: The Homeland Security Rackets 
Karl
Ferguson Reviews Varieties Of Peugeot 307 - Peugeot,
it would seem, are in the mood for makeovers. Not only has
the 206 hatch range had a recent revitalisation with the
arrival of the 407 sedan, estate and coupe, but now so has
mid-range vehicle the 307. See... MOTORNET:
Makeover Madness French Style 
Has
Bonus Joules Discovered The Postie's Nightmare? -
Have you ever wondered why we have a Climate Change Office?
I can understand the need for Climate Balance Research
Centre or even a Climate Balance Protection Agency. But an
office of climate change? It's as weird as having an Energy
Conservation Authority or a Minister of Energy or a Ministry
of Existence. Existence is, energy is conserved and climate
change happens. Its real! They are all real. As real as real
can be. See... Bonus
Joules: At One yet Everywhere 
Rosalea
Barker On The Berkeley Cohousing Project -
Saturday, I was standing under a Norfolk pine in northern
California reading about a housing development in Ranui, New
Zealand. I was on a bus tour of six cohousing communities in
the East Bay, and the book was one of many that had been put
out for our perusal during our stop at the Berkeley
Cohousing project. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Clayton's Communes Jackie
Little's Life As A Domestic Ogress - Well, the time
had come. Sons number one and two established at the local
primary school, the tiny terror dispatched to wreak his
havoc at the kindergarten three afternoons per week. Perhaps
my head would stop spinning for long enough to make a much
needed return to paid employment. See... Jackie
Little: My Life As A Domestic Ogress 
The Seige
Of Gaza Continues & Intensifies - This year the 9th
of July is a bitter day for Palestinians. The Occupation
Army besieges Gaza, massacres its people and attacks its
infrastructure. The ghettos of the West Bank take shape as
the Apartheid Wall edges closer to completion and the
Palestinian exodus from Jerusalem has begun. Over 9000
Palestinians sit in Israeli prison cells whilst Palestinians
who remain on their 1948 lands do so under the subjugation
of the most vicious and discriminatory Apartheid system.
See... Global
Powers Failing Palestinians Once Again
MORE:
American Coup: Michael Collins: Big Dawg Steps Up To
Election Fraud Plate - Former President Clinton
spoke to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies on June
17, 2006. He gave the keynote address which covered a number
of topics. He even provided his answer to "the fundamental
nature of the 21st century" - "interdependence." Former
President Clinton Raises Cain - Almost 
Environment: Pacific Ecologist Winter 2006 Edition
Out Now! - Golden leaves pile high on the ground
here as autumn gives way to winter's bare trees. Nature's
abundance and beauty creates, sustains and inspires us all.
But for how long will it continue to sustain us in the
extravagant way rich countries and multinational
corporations promote as a way of life? See... Pacific
Ecologist Editorial: Healthy Communities & Pacific
Ecologist - issue 12, winter 2006 - CONTENTS
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur Returns To The Case Of
"Bully Bob" Hecht - "Bully Bob" Hecht is best
known for escorting Italy's priceless Sarpedon Euphronios
vase to the US in 1972 and selling it for personal profit to
a private museum that gets public funding -- the
Metropolitan Museum of Art; his price was $1million. Hecht
is also known for his threatening fist, including an
attempted assault on this writer. See... "Bully
Bob" Hecht And The Euphronios Questions 
Gaza: James Zogby On The Ongoing Attack On Gaza
- Today I thought of Kitty Genovese. Some of you
won't remember her, but many in my generation will recall
the horror and shame they felt after hearing the story of
how she was raped and stabbed to death on a New York City
street in 1964. What shocked the nation was the fact that 37
witnesses heard Kitty's cries but did nothing to help. Years
later, social scientists, studying this disturbing
passivity, termed it the "Genovese Syndrome." See... James
Zogby: Watching Gaza "The Genovese Syndrome"
MORE:
Tanveer Jafri - A
Hindrance in World Peace- Central Asia Conflict
Tel
Aviv Notes - Operation
"Summer Rains" - Aims, Methods, Outcomes
Green
Left Weekly - Palestine:
Israel Escalates Brutal War 
Video & Text: Brit MP Advances
Investigation Into David Kelly's Death - David Kelly
was an employee of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence
(MoD), an expert in biological warfare, and a former United
Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. His talk with a
journalist about the British government's dossier on weapons
of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq inadvertently caused a
major political scandal, and he was found dead days after
appearing before a Parliamentary committee investigating it.
The Hutton Inquiry, a public inquiry into his death, ruled
that he had committed suicide. Now a British LibDem MP
Norman Baker is two months into a private, year-long
investigation into the suspicious death.
Video and Text: Investigation Into The
Death Of David Kelly
Election: Matt Pascarella Reports On A Looming Mexican
Coup - Gore vs. Bush. Kerry vs. Bush. Lopez Obrador
vs. Calderon. As in Florida in 2000, as in Ohio in 2004, the
exit polls show the voters voted for the progressive
candidate, but the race is "officially" too close to call.
See... Pascarella,
Palast: Stealing Mexico In Plain Sight
EARLIER:
MORE:
American Coup: Bobby Kennedy, Jr. To Sue US Voting
Machine Companies - Since Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and
attorney Mike Papantonio have now discussed this out loud on
the air on their Ring of Fire radio program (where yours
truly will be a guest next Saturday, by the way) and since
this week's Rolling Stone references it, we may as well
share a few more prevoiusly undisclosed exclusive details
about the upcoming federal qui tam (false claims or fraud)
lawsuits to be filed against two of the major American
electronic voting machine companies. See... RFK
Jr Files Fed. Suit Against Voting Machine Cos.
RELATED:
Gaza: Israel's Restraint Increasingly Hard To Discern
- My friend Hoda , lives next to the ministry of
interior building , in Gaza, that was hit last night with 2
rockets ,the attack occurred 2am yesterday, please forgive
me about the accuracy , l am starting to lose track of days
and nights , and how many times we were attacked , hoda told
me that the whole building was shaking. Collective
Punishment And State Terrorism In Gaza
MORE:
Guantanamo Bay: Bush's Gulag Gets Marching Orders From
SCOTUS - A rolling sense of awe has enveloped the
mainstream news media since yesterday's Supreme Court
decision on Guantanamo. The specifics of the decision are
part of the discussion, to be sure, but the sense of
amazement has a more basic root. After all this time, after
a seemingly endless series of over-reaching power grabs by
the Bush administration, someone with a big enough stick
finally got in the way and said, "No." See... William
Rivers Pitt: A Moment of Pause
RELATED:
Russia Rising: Regarding The Games That Empires
Play - Along with all Americans, save the generation
now in high-school and younger, I grew up and lived under
the shadow of the Cold War, and behind it the ever-present
threat of nuclear annihilation. We all remember it well.
See... What
About the Russians? Personal Encounters
RELATED:
Timor
L'este: Maryann Keady & John Pilger On The Timor Crisis
- Three years ago, I wrote a piece talking about
attempts to oust Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in East Timor,
then a new struggling independent nation. I wrote that I
believed the US and Australia were determined to oust the
Timorese leader, due to his hardline stance on oil and gas,
his determination not to take out international loans, and
their desire to see Australia friendly President Xanana
Gusmao take power. See... 2
Alternate (Aussie) Views Of East Timor Crisis 
Greg Palast: Looking For A
Better-Documented Conspiracy Theory - The US
Congress will open hearings this week on the War in Iraq - a
wee bit late one might think. But one question at the
forefront of the minds of many on both the Left and the
Right is sure not to be asked: Did the Jews do it ? I
mean, after killing Jesus, did the Elders of Zion manipulate
the government of the United States into invading Babylon as
part of a scheme to abet the expansion of Greater Israel?
See... Palast:
The Invasion of Iraq A Jewish Conspiracy?
Sheila Samples: On Oklahoma and
The Darn Government! I've been reading about this
"grass roots" phenomenon that's sweeping the country. It
must not have "swept" down this far, because I scoured the
prairies and plains of Oklahoma, and the only thing I came
up with was a clump or two of Johnson grass, a few scraggly
buffalo and some errant loco weed... See... Musings
from Tom Joad Country
Entertainment: Suzan Mazur Resurrects
An Interview With Michael O'Donoghue - As the Bush
administration inches closer and closer to resembling a
"cheap, sleazy" science fiction movie from the 1950s, I'm
reminded of a conversation I had in New York with late
Saturday Night Live comic Michael O'Donoghue about that
very subject. O'Donoghue died in 1994, but he was always
ahead of his time so his humor is now totally relevant.
See... Comic
Michael O'Donoghue on the "End of the World" 
Media: Sam Smith On Jason Leopold's
New Book - If I were Jason Leopold I probably
wouldn't bother to tell you that we had the same publisher
since, after all, Process Media (which published Leopold)
and Feral House (which published me) are separate operations
even if Adam Parfrey is the force behind both. It's the way
you start to think after you've been reading 'News Junkie'
for awhile. We have a few other differences. I, for example,
have never been a drug addict, never stolen 450 CDs from a
record company to feed that habit, never agreed to a plea
bargain for doing so, never tried to kill myself, and never
had to worry that if I went on national TV someone might
recognize me and inform my editor of my felonious past.
See... Sam
Smith: News Junkie - Jason Leopold 
Peter
King Examines The New Zealand Defence Force - This
study is a private investigation into the value for money
offered by Vote Defence. It concludes that it should be
possible to operate a defence force that is better equipped
and more capable of responding to all likely emergencies
than the one we have at present. The force would have higher
wages, lower operating costs but have a headcount of just
over two thirds of the current force. See... A NZ
Security Review - Opportunities Lost 
Stateside: Where Rosalea Attends An NZ Maori Rugby
Match - So what if the only technical rugby terms
I know are "whip" and "arse"? They're all anyone needed to
do a commentary for the Barclay's Churchill Cup match on
Wednesday evening at Santa Clara University, down in the
Silicon Valley. I will spare you the commentary, but here
are some pix. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: What Can I Say?
MORE:
Evelyn
Pringle - Karl
Rove Gets Off - I Want My Money Back 
Supercomputer Weather: Hurricane Alberto vs Florida
- The Atlantic Hurricane season for 2006 is expected to be
one of the worst ever. Last year's season was in fact the
worst ever to date, and will be hard to beat, however, so
far 2006 is shaping up as expected. See... Supercomputer
Weather: Hurricane Alberto? 
Gitmo ?
Where Suicide Is "A Good PR Move " - The US
Government today sought to distance itself from a statement
calling the suicides of three Guantanamo Bay prisoners "a
good PR move to draw attention" as human rights groups,
legal experts and newspapers in the Middle East renewed
calls for the prison's closing. Colleen Graffy, deputy
assistant U.S. secretary of state for public diplomacy, told
the British Broadcasting Corporation over last weekend that
the suicides at the US-run camp in Cuba were a "good P.R.
move to draw attention" and "a tactic to further the jihadi
cause." See... William
Fisher: Will Gitmo Go Away? & William
Fisher: And the Oscar Goes To ...
MORE:
MORE:
NRT: Sedition Verdict Shameful -
Tim Selwyn has been found guilty of sedition. This
is a shameful verdict, and a major step backwards for
freedom of speech in this country. Punishing people for
their words and intentions rather than their actions should
require meeting a very high threshold, and one which our
sedition law, with its vague references to "violence,
disorder, and lawlessness" simply does not come close to.
See... No
Right Turn: A Shameful (Sedition) Verdict
ALSO:
Charles
Shaw Reviews Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" - It
never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to
maintain their delusions, or to serve their own agendas.
Despite there being literally unanimous consensus within the
scientific community that Global Warming is indeed a real
and perilous crisis on a scale we have never witnessed, a
tiny gaggle of political ideologues and their corporate
benefactors continue to try and convince us that Global
Warming is ?theory, rather than fact,? and is a result of
?cyclical change? and not rapacious industrialization.
See... Charles
Shaw Movie Review: "An Inconvenient Truth" 
Polygamy: The Polygamist Mormon's
Private ? yet Govt. Funded - Airport - The first
shock is the realization that an airport costing Americans
$3 million exists in the polygamist-owned Arizona wastelands
of Colorado City. It sits "Spielberg-like" north of the
Grand Canyon, east of the Colorado River and serves a
handful of planes. How and why it materialized is the second
shock. But most disturbing is what a town of outlaw cultists
might be using an isolated airstrip for under the radar.
See... The
AZ Polygamy Town Airport Built With Fed $$$Mns 
Blood & Oil: Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar: Meanwhile In The
House Of Saud - ?Passing over, for the present, all
the evils and mischiefs which monarchy has occasioned in the
world, nothing can more effectually prove its usefulness in
a state of civil government than making it hereditary. Would
we make any office hereditary that required wisdom and
abilities to fill it? And where wisdom and abilities are not
necessary, such an office, whatever it may be, is
superfluous or insignificant. See... When
Will The House Of Saud Feel Safe?
MORE:
Treason: No Right Turn Previews The Tim Selwyn
Sedition Trial - Today we will see a remarkable step
backwards for freedom of speech in this country. Tim Selwyn
- an Auckland freelance writer - will go on trial in the
Auckland District Court on sedition charges relating to
flyers left at the scene of an axe attack on ... See... A
Step Backwards For Freedom Of Speech 
Iraq:
Cindy Sheehan On The Abominations Of War - This
is the most difficult article that I have ever had to write,
but I have to write it anyway, unfortunately. I and just
about anyone and everyone who criticizes George Bush and
this war are accused of "not supporting the troops." Since
my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq because of lies and to
actually make that country safe for our corporate interests,
I have been saying the only way we can support our troops at
this point is to get them the hell out of this illegal and
immoral war. See? The
Abominations of War From My Lai to Haditha
MORE:
Art:
Graham Reid Steps Into The Et. Al. Debate - I
suspect I am in a fairly small minority in this country: I
have been to two Venice Biennales and -- here's the punch
line -- I paid my own way both times. More fool me, I like
art. When we went to Europe for two months at the end of
last year I had three specific things I wanted to see: the
moving painting of Pilgrims Going To Mecca by Leon Belly in
the Musee d'Orsay in Paris (it was in storage!); Sir Norman
Foster's bridge at Millau in the south of France (it
confirmed my belief that it is the first great piece of 21st
century architecture); and a Venice Biennale again. See...
Public
Address 01/06/06 - Et Al, Etcetera Etc. 
Tourism: Richard S. Ehrlich Writes Home From
Istanbul - ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The cylindrical "fez"
hat, with its dangling black tassel, provokes feelings of
resentment, humiliation and grim memories of repression
among many proud, nationalistic Turks. Another traditional
symbol of Turkey, the white-robed Whirling Dervishes and
their 700-year-old mystical Sufi brand of Islam, conjure up
different responses, evoking a confused mix of suspicion and
admiration. See... Richard
S. Ehrlich: A Letter From Turkey 
Oil
& Gas: Toni Solo Has A Recon. Around Latin America's Oil
Industry - Much attention has focused lately on
the Bolivian government's nationalization of the country's
hydrocarbon resources. Bolivia's policy change follows up
the Venezuelan government's systematic renegotiation of
contracts with foreign petroleum companies which
dramatically increased revenue available to benefit
Venezuela's people. Ecuador has reinforced that regional
trend by terminating agreements with the US oil
multinational Occidental Petroleum in response to 43 alleged
breaches of contract by that company. All these moves
indicate a rethink by Latin American governments about how
best to manage their energy resources. See... Rough
Reckoning: Energy In Latin America
Leopold
On The Conviction Of Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay - The
Bush administration knew Enron was on a collision course two
months before the high-flying energy company collapsed in a
wave of accounting scandals that wiped out $60 billion in
shareholder value and left thousands of company employees
penniless. See... Jason
Leopold: George W. Bush and Kenneth Lay
Rosalea
Barker: Cowboys and Indians - Some younger Indians,
second and third generation US citizens, are attracted to
colours on the political spectrum other than the blue of
Democrats and the red of Republicans. One such candidate on
the ballot this June 6 if you're registered Green is Mehul
Thakker, who is uncontested for his party's nomination to
run for State Treasurer in November. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Cowboys and Indians
John
Roughan Considers The Equation For Solomons Success
- Solomons? newly elected government is to be congratulated
on its determination to turn the fortunes of our country
around by focusing the state?s many and varied resources on
rural people?s daily lives. But it?s completely out of
character for me to simply roll over, heap lavish praise on
government?s latest initiative and not mention a number of
serious stumbling blocks along the difficult path it has
chosen. See... New
Direction - Old Attitudes - Deadwood =
?
EARLIER:
MORE COMMENT &
OPINION:
Polygamy: Suzan Mazur Widens The Senatorial
Responsibility Net - To be fair, while the FLDS,
America's largest polygamy cult, is incorporated in Utah --
members live and vote on either side of the Utah-Arizona
border. That means media darling John McCain's (R--AZ)
stance on polygamy is also an issue, particularly because of
McCain's 2008 US presidential aspirations. See... Senator
John Mccain Passes The Buck On Polygamy
EARLIER STORIES IN THIS SERIES:
Crooked Spooks: Cocaine One Was Most Probably A CIA
Plane - The ?mystery? of Porter Goss? resignation
last month as CIA Director is apparently directly related to
the huge seizure in Mexico several weeks earlier of over 5.5
tons of cocaine, according to government documents recently
obtained by the The MadCowMorningNews. After Goss?s surprise
resignation last month he told reporters his reason for
resigning was "just one of those mysteries," offering no
other explanation for his sudden departure after almost two
years on the job. See... UQ
Wire: Porter Goss Resignation Solved
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Dennis Hastert Illustrates What Not To Say To A Taxpayer
- In a debate over extending tax cuts for the wealthy and
corporations, Dennis Hastert justified the rip-off of the
middle class and poor with these words: "well, folks, if you
earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay
any taxes. So you probably if you don't pay any taxes, you
are not going to get a big tax cut. Now, if you earn $1
million a year, you are going to pay about $400,000 of
taxes. Maybe you'll get a $40,000 tax cut ..." See... Hastert
Gave the Dems the House, If They Want It
Catherine Austin Fitts On Who Is REALLY Winning The War In
Iraq - I never cease to be amazed at the extent to
which successful policies are portrayed as failed policies,
and the transfer of public resources to private parties are
spun as the result of government and bureaucratic
?incompetence.? Recent financial headlines are full of news
of record profits by oil companies and strong stock
performance, proof positive that the invasion of Iraq has
been successful. See... The
Real Deal: The Great "Incompetency" Heist
Who's
Afraid Of The Mexicans? - Whenever a new crisis
develops in an election year and it's not nature's or the
stock market's fault, the odds are pretty good that it's not
a crisis. Witness the sudden discovery of immigrants, a
much more comfortable topic for some than Iraq, global
warming, globalization, or runaway corporate greed. See...
When
Was The Last Time A Mexican Cut Your Pension?
MORE SAM SMITH:
Human
Rights: United Nations Seeks Closure Of Gitmo ?
Again - For the second time this year, a United
Nations body has chastised the United States for its torture
of prisoners and told it to close its prison camp at
Guantᮡmo Bay, Cuba. In February, the UN Human Rights
Commission criticized the US government for force-feeding
hunger strikers there - calling it torture - and urged the
United States to "close the Guantᮡmo Bay detention
facilities without further delay." See... Marjorie
Cohn: UN to US: Close
Guantanamo!
ALSO:
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Pacific: John Roughan Analyses
How RAMSI Failed Solomon Islanders - Whether the
Solomons was a failed state or not, there is no
doubt that in the hour of our greatest need, the Regional
Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) failed us. The
heroics of police personnel, ordinary citizens, both men and
women, fortunately spared the nation the agony of mourning
its dead. Startling as it was, during the whole two-day
riot--Black Tuesday and Black Wednesday--not a single person
died although some experienced narrow escapes. But the
bottom line remains: the rowdy crowd that surrounded
Parliament Building spun out of control and became an
uncontained, rock throwing mob. What happened?
Image by Jason Dorday See... John
Roughan: RAMSi failed us!
Mexico: Julie Webb-Pullman Reports On
The Rape Of The Women Of Atenco, Mexico - I have
spent the last week translating statements given to human
rights organisations by 19 women brutally detained, beaten,
sexually assaulted and/or raped in San Salvador Atenco,
Mexico, and who are now in prison, invariably charged with
blocking public ...See... Atenco
- Women of Mexican Dissent the New Target
Narconews Reports From Atenco:
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Karl
Ferguson's Motornet: Peugeot?s Excellent 407 -
Honestly, I really didn?t think I was going that quick. It
was a bright sunny weekend in late summer, and we were
headed for New Plymouth for a weekend away. The idea was to
travel in two cars and rendevous in Wanganui for lunch.
See... MOTORNET:
Six-Speed Sensation
Falling
In Love In NYC - I love America. And I have to say I
love Americans too. I feel the need to say this because as a
New Zealander living overseas I often hear about what a
friendly nation we are and how we?re always happy to help
people out and ?lend a hand.? But here?s a news flash, so
are Americans ? incredibly so and in my view they?re a lot
more friendlier than your average Kiwi. See... Kirk
MacGibbon: I love America
UQ Wire:
Cocaine One --> Titan Corp --> 9/11 - A
MadCowMorningNews investigation into the ownership of the
DC9 airliner caught carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine in Mexico
last month has uncovered explosive new details about some of
the many lingering mysteries still surrounding the 9.11
attack. See... UQ
Wire: Coke Bust Connection To 9.11 Attack & UQ
Wire: Titan Corp. Connection To Cocaine One
SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Bill
Grigsby Considers The Lies And The Liars - This
White House has challenged the frontiers of propaganda and
political discourse in ways that make previous
administrations look like rank amateurs. Mainstream news
media outlets may occasionally report, but the vast majority
shy away from labeling government accounts as propaganda.
But of all the Orwellian perversions perpetrated by the
BushCo White House, perhaps the most spectacular is the
?free speech zone.? See... How
Stephen Colbert Got Picked, Truthy, And Panned
Is Al
Gore Considering A Second Shot At The White House? -
(APN) ATLANTA - Al Gore may be a "recovering politician,"
but "You always have to worry about a relapse," Gore told
Atlanta Progressive News. The in-person exchange with the
former Vice President took place following a special
screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," here at Atlantic
Station in Midtown Atlanta. See... Gore
May Run Again in 2008 for US President
Legitimizing Palestinian Bantustans - The
Occupation has a ?new? scheme to ensure Palestinian rights
continue to be negated and violated: the ?Convergence Plan?.
Offering the media as much excitement as the ?Disengagement
Plan?, it aims to legitimize the annexation of all
territories and resources west of the Apartheid Wall
including Jerusalem. Palestinians are to be left under siege
in Bantustans, sealed in from the East and dissected by
settler-highways. Meanwhile the refugees are supposed to
vanish from political discourse. See... Jamal
Juma: The Occupation?s ?Convergence Plan?
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Washington: George Bush's Political Advisor
Karl Rove Indicted For Perjury - Special Prosecutor
Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the
offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl
Rove. During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served
attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl
Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House
official with perjury and lying to investigators related to
his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the
attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his
affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge
of the meeting said Saturday morning. See... Karl
Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying and Rove
Informs White House He Will Be Indicted
MORE:
Intelligence: Paul Buchanan on
'Potential' Threats - In early April Director
General of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service,
Ambassador Richard Woods, presented his 2005 annual report
to the government. In it he highlighted the potential threat
of local al-Qaeda sympathisers, drawing direct parallels
with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 2005 London tube and
bus bombers and the arrest of purported jihadists in
Australia. He urged vigilance against a threat that, if low
at the moment, had the potential to become real sometime in
the indeterminate future. See... Of
Myth and Reality in Terrorist Threat Assessment
Utah: Suzan Mazur Gets Inside The Polygamy Protection
Scandal - It will take more than Utah Attorney
General Mark Shurtleff's "mea culpa" to the Los Angeles
Times to clear him and other officials who are
responsible for allowing polygamy to flourish up and down
the US Rocky Mountains, with Utah currently at the epicenter
of sex cult activity. Why? Because America along with 182
other countries is signatory to the 1979 UN Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
recognizing that Polygamy Is A Human Rights
Violation. See... Suzan
Mazur: Most Wanted In Polygamy Coverup
RELATED:
Stateside: Rosalea Barker Marks Mothers Day With Some
Pix - I have only a cheap internet camera so these
pix aren?t all that good, but hopefully you?ll get some idea
of how the recent months of rain and the subsequent warm,
sunny weather of the last two weeks have brought out the
best in the Bay Area. See... Stateside:
A Postcard and Flowers for Mothers Day . See also... Stateside:
Banana Sunday With A Sprinkling Of Nuts
MORE
MOTHERS DAY COMMENT:
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Energy - Dave McArthur's Bonus
Joules - (In which Chapter Bonus Joules explores how
our current image of the nature of energy came to rule human
consciousness and who made the rules.) Bonus Joules asks the
Minister of Energy the Big Scientific Question. See... Bonus
Joules: Gods of Energy
Postal Diplomacy: The President Of Iran's Unanswered
Mail - What drives American foreign policy as much
as - if not more than - ideology is male insecurity
mitigated occasionally by women secretaries of state trying
to prove that they can act just as insecurely as males. It
is a foreign policy led by an intelligentsia that went to
Ivy schools or Georgetown but wishes it had played football
for Notre Dame. See? The
Unanswered Mail Of Insecure Males
MORE:
Spooks: Are You Paranoid Yet? -
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting
the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans,
using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people
with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
See... Links:
NSA's Database of Americans' Phone Calls
Polls: American's Believe Bush Stole Election Then Lied
America Into War - In the first poll of its kind,
OpEdNews.com , in the second OpEdNews/Zogby People's poll
has learned that except for viewers of right wing news show,
Fox News, poll respondents believe that the 2004
presidential election was stolen. See... Poll:
2004 Election Was Stolen ('Cept Fox Viewers) & Bush
Lied About Iraq, Has No Right to Attack Iran
Media: Greg Palast's The Armed
Madhouse - Audio, Contents & Introduction -
President Jeb Bush declared his reelection victory early, in
August, before the machines were fully programmed, but the
results were nevertheless assured. President Jeb accepted a
call from ?Hillary Kerry Gore??the virtual candidate, put up
as quadrennial opponent, designed to lose?who always made
the same moving concession speech, ?American democracy has
triumphed again,? written for her by Karl Rove. The official
voting won?t take place until November. ?Our nation,?
Vice-President Kate Harris assures us, ?is safer and more
prosperous than at any time in our history.? See... Audio:
Larry David On How Kerry Won In '04 & Greg Palast's New Book: The Armed Madhouse
Media: Back When The Bird Really Was The Word
(APN) ATLANTA - It's difficult to talk about the leftist
scene in Atlanta in the 1960's and 70's without someone
bringing up The Great Speckled Bird, the leftist alternative
newspaper which influenced so many minds of the time. But
what was The Bird? Who ran it and how did it operate?
Atlanta Progressive News has conducted extensive interviews
and uncovered vast archives of The Bird's back issues, to
explain this historical phenomenon to our progressive
readers of today. See? Jonathan
Springston: Great Speckled Memories
MORE SCOOP
COMENT & OPINION:
NEW ZEALAND:
ELSEWHERE:
UNITED STATES:
NEPAL:
Telecommunications: Theresa Gattung Features On
Public Address - Still - Dear Ms. Gattung,"The"
unbundling should keep the ICT industry in gossip for a few
weeks as yet: over at gen-i I am sure the walls are
positively pulsing with theory and rumour. I actually want
to offer a word of support and some advice, but I need to
start with some criticism. See... Public
Address 10/05/06 - Dear Ms. Gattung, Public
Address 09/05/06 - Everything Broadband & Public
Address 08/05/06 - "Not Being Straight-Up". Listen also to this short, startling clip in MP3
Audio
War
Lies: Ray McGovern vs US Defence Sec. Donald
Rumsfeld - Ray McGovern wasn't aiming to make Donald
Rumsfeld stutter and stammer like a kid caught cheating on a
test when he asked him last week why he'd lied us into a
war. That was just a side benefit. Ray wants answers, and
he's taking his demand to Donald Rumsfeld's house in
Washington, D.C. Ray
McGovern Is Going to Rumsfeld's House
MORE
COVERAGE:
Immigration: Charles Shaw Attends Chicago Immigrant
Demonstration - The worm, as they say, is turning.
Last Monday witnessed the largest political demonstration in
Chicago's history, and the second march of 400,000 or more
people I have participated in within the last two years.
See... Photo
Essay: Chicago Immigrant Rally
Spooks: Scoop Looks Behind The Goss Gloss -
If the New York Times is correct, John Negroponte and
Michael Hayden are hell bent on shifting critical analytical
functions from the CIA to some other part of government
(perhaps a stand-alone entity). If true, the death knell for
the CIA is sounding, and an important national security
capability will disappear if they are permitted to institute
this madness. While right-wing crazies, convinced that the
CIA is part of an elaborate plot to undermine the Bush
administration, will celebrate this pyrrhic victory, sane
Americans should hit the panic button. See? Whither
the CIA?
FULL COVERAGE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Antiquities: Suzan Mazur's Continuing Coverage Of
Antiquities Theft - It is not totally surprising
that New York antiquities dealer Ed Merrin appears to be
caught in the dragnet of Italian prosecutors who are
conducting a criminal trial in Rome, having already charged
dealer Bob Hecht and former Getty Museum curator Marion True
with conspiracy to traffic in ancient art. Merrin testified
before US Congress in the 1970s in opposition to H.R. 5643,
a bill designed to implement the UNESCO convention
protecting cultural property. He has said "prohibition never
worked and never will work". See... Merrin
Gallery In Italy's Antiquities Dragnet?
Smuggling: Daniel Hopsicker On The Mystery Of
"Cocaine One" - In the two weeks since an American
DC9 airliner was busted by Mexican troops at a small airport
in the Yucatan, carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine packed neatly
into 128 identical black suitcases (somewhat hilariously
marked 'private') the search for the true owners of the
plane has produced these startling new developments...
See... The
CIA, Cocaine One & Putting Planes in 'Suspense
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION
NEW
ZEALAND:
UNITED STATES:
ELSEWHERE:
NEPAL:
Matt Robson: Goff Should Shake Hands
With Chavez Not Rumsfeld - Former Associate
Minister of Foreign Affairs Matt Robson argues that New
Zealand should be paying close attention to the changes
happening in Latin America flowing on from Hugo Chavez being
elected president of Venezuala. Mr Robson suggests that
rather than paying attention to US foreign policy and
sending Phil Goff to shake hands with Donald Rumsfeld
perhaps New Zealand would be better off having a chat to
Hugo Chavez. See... The
Sins Of Venezuelan President Chavez
Iran: Iran's Tragic Path Into The 21st
Century - How did Iran arrive at the crossroads
that it finds itself at today? Many Westerners believe Iran
to be an angry anti-Western entity that for some unknown
reason, took American's hostage in 1979 and has maintained a
passionate hatred for America and the West ever since. The
truth is, that there is much more to Iran's story. See... M.
Gary Hucul: The Tragedy of Iran
Mayday: After The April Sun In
Cuba - From Julie Webb-Pullman in Havana:
Over the rise, and into the Plaza de la Revolucion ? to
where it all happens on 01 May ?under Che's approving
gaze... when it's not obscured by the flags of workers from
so many countries. See... Photo
Essay: May Day In Cuba
Foreign Policy: Scoop's Suzan Mazur
Makes Madeleine Albright Blush - Secretary
Albright's discussion of her morality & foreign policy book
was immediately followed by two questions about her
widely-rumored romantic relationship with diamond broker
Maurice Tempelsman during the Clinton years, some say
resulting in Tempelsman ... See... Madeleine
Albright & Maurice Tempelsman Q&A
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Media
& Race: Tze Ming Mok 'Respectfully Disagrees' With The
SST - In my initial contract discussions with Sarah
Stuart, then of the SST, now of the Herald on Sunday, we
discussed the meaning of 'no bagging the SST on my blog'.
She said there was a difference between 'bagging' and
'respectfully disagreeing', which would be fine of course.
Right then - herewith, some respectful disagreement with the
content and framing of the Sunday Star-Times article on the
'foreign criminal explosion'. See... Public
Address 02/05/06 - Satanic Majesties . See also? Public
Address 01/05/06 - Foreigners And Freelance
Impeachment: Neil Young And Bruce
Springsteen Join The Revolution - Bruce Springsteen
and Neil Young have just released a pair of incredible
albums of protest, one a bone-rattling revival of the best
of rebel music of ages past, the other an impassioned attack
on our present slide toward fascism. David
Swanson: Springsteen & Young
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
NEW
ZEALAND:
UNITED STATES:
ISRAEL & OCCUPIED PALESTINE:
ELSEWHERE:
Iran: John Stanton Considers The
Implications Of War With Iran - Just when it seemed
unlikely that domestic and international events would unfold
to test an already incompetent US government, along comes
the acceleration of the movement to destroy Iran. See... Strike
Iran, Watch Pakistan and Turkey Fall
RELATED:
Peak
Oil: Kelpie Wilson On The End Of Cheap Oil - Gas
prices are on the rise again and news analysts are kicking
it around, wondering who is being ripped off this time. But
geologists, scientists and even some economists suspect that
unlike other gas shortages, this one is the real thing, or
at least the beginning of the real thing: production has
peaked and the era of cheap oil is about to end. See..Kelpie
Wilson: Stop the Fossil Foolishness
RELATED:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT
& OPINION:
Suzan
Mazur: Interview With Prof. David N. Gibbs - I
first met University of Arizona political science professor
David N. Gibbs about a year ago while researching a story
about the Patrice Lumumba matrix. Dr. Gibbs spent a couple
of years in Africa in the Peace Corps(Niger, 1979-1980)
where his ... See... Mazur:
Deeper Into The Dillon-Euphronios Nexus
Bernard Weiner: Dim Son Rex Ignobilis -
The world of theatre that I've swum in for decades as a
drama critic provides a useful prism through which to view
today's political events and players. This is especially
true when thinking about drama from ancient Greece and
Europe's Renaissance. Those periods remind us how often
human tragedy repeats itself over the centuries. (Which is
why many modern directors return so often to the wisdom of
these ancient plays, often staging them with contemporary
conceits so as to make the connections overt for their
audiences.) Much of ancient Greek drama focuses on the
disastrous results of "hubris," an overweening pride and
arrogance that can lead rulers to go outside the
ethical/legal boundaries. See... Bushism
As Greek Drama: "Hubris" And "Tragic Flaws
Kara-Leah Grant: Are You Kiwi Or Kea
Like? - After all, are New Zealanders easy prey? Or
are they hardy survivors? Are we dowdy and round? Or
colourful and sleek? Are we habitual creatures? Or we
blessed with an unusual ability to learn and create new
solutions to whatever problems we encounter? See... A
Lighthearted Look At Our National Nickname
Michael Collins: State Legislators
Begin Impeachment Process - Representative Karen
A. Yarbrough, a Democratic member of the Illinois State
Assembly, introduced a resolution calling for the
impeachment of President George W. Bush. House Joint
Resolution 125 was introduced on April 20, 2006 with two co
sponsors, Representatives Sara Feigenholtz and Eddie
Washington, also both Democrats. Derided by Thomas Jefferson
as ?scarcely a scarecrow,? the presidential impeachment
process is a rarity in United States history. The
impeachment of federal judges is more common but also a rare
event. See... Bush
Impeachment Resolution Introduced In Illinois
MORE:
MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
NEW ZEALAND:
ELSEWHERE:
ISRAEL & OCCUPIED PALESTINE:
NEPAL:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
Scoop
Satire: Phil Goff and the Handshake of Doom -
Trade and Defence Minister Phil Goff, currently visiting
Washington, is assumed to have shaken the hand of United
States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during an amiable
meeting in which they discussed New Zealand's military ties
with the US and our role in regional security. Based on
similar past handshakes, New Zealand can expect to be the
subject of a US-led invasion in mid-July 2016. See... Lyndon
Hood: Defence Briefs
Scoop
EXCLUSIVE: Cramdown, Stripdown, Lockdown Democracy In
The USA - The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA)
was passed on the heels of the Florida 2000 presidential
election and its ?hanging chad? problem. These ambiguous
ballot chads riveted and frustrated the nation for a couple
of months in late 2000. However, few thought the solution to
the ambiguity of hanging chad evidence of a voter?s intent
would be to completely eliminate that evidence. See... Cramdown,
Stripdown, Lockdown Democracy In The USA
RELATED:
Bob Fitrakis - Evidence
Of Ballot Tampering In Warren County, OH
Lebanon: From Beirut NZ's Nuclear Free
Oasis Looks Attractive - The issue of nuclear
energy, and nuclear weapons, has been in the news lately.
First, it was the allegations made by the British and U.S.
governments against the former socialist dictator in Iraq,
Saddam Hussein. See... NZ's
nuclear-free voice sounds sweet from MidEast
Arts: Karim Sahai Snaps Blues Legend
Keb Mo. - Wellington digital photographer and Scoop
contributor Karim Sahai was at this week's Keb Mo concert at
the State Opera House where he captured these images of Mr
Mo. See... Karim
Sahai: Images of Keb Mo
Nepal:
D.Michael Van De Veer Reports From Kathmandu, -
Overnight the sky above Kathmandu and much of the Kingdom
was filled with beautiful displays of lighting and earth
shaking thunder. The cold winds falling from the Himalayas
clashed with the warm steamy air rushing up from the Indian
sub-continent and bathed the country for 15 hours in cool
rain. See... Nepal?s
"Orange Revolution" Has Rain Break
MORE VIEWS
FROM NEPAL:
EARLIER:
United States: Leading US Magazines
Savage Bush The Younger - George W. Bush's
presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace.
Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist
attacks of September 11th, after which the public might
rally around the White House once again, there seems to be
little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on
the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the
best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering
whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst
president in all of American history. See... Scoop
Links: Vanity Fair & Rolling Stone vs Bush
United States: Former Top
US Spook Slams Bush Iraq Policy - Former National
Security Agency Director Lt. General William Odom dissected
the strategic folly of the Iraq Invasion and Bush
administration policies in a major policy speech at Brown
University last week for the Watson Institute- America?s
Strategic Paralysis . See... NSA
Director William Odom Dissects Iraq Blunders
Middle
East: Hamas's Palestinian Leadership Talks Peace &
Security - Prime Minister of the Palestinian
Authority Ismail Haniyeh outlines the basis for
comprehensive peace & Hamas's speaker Abdul-Aziz Duwaik
answers questions. See... Hamas'
PM: Peace Can Only Be The Fruit Of Justice & Interview
With Hamas's Speaker Abdul-Aziz Duwaik
MORE:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
NEW
ZEALAND:
UNITED STATES:
ELSEWHERE:
Rosalea Barker: Easter In
America - "If I was in Boston I wouldn't have
forgotten it was Easter," a workmate said on Friday. He was
relating how he'd parked his usual three blocks from the
BART commuter train station thinking that he was too late to
get a parking space, but in fact the carpark was more than
half deserted. See... Stateside:
Yul-Brynner-in-a-Tin-Skirt Weekend
United
States: US Defence Sec. Donald Rumsfeld Faces Friendly
Fire - One day, when he was in the third grade,
Donald Rumsfeld brought a bomb to school. He put it on the
teacher?s desk. ?Is it real?? she asked. ?Maybe,? he
replied. See... Mark
W. Bradley: Donald in Miscalculand
RELATED:
George W Bush: The Leaker-In-Chief &
The Wilson-Plame Hit Squad - Now that we've spent
millions of tax dollars on the CIA leak investigation,
here?s a new bit of information that adds a whole new twist
to the saga. According to a recent article by ace
investigative reporter, Jason Leopold, Dick Cheney met with
Bush in early June 2003, and told him that CIA agent Valerie
Plame was the wife of Iraq war critic Joe Wilson and that
she was responsible for sending Joe on a fact-finding
mission to check out reports about Iraq's attempt to
purchase uranium from Africa. See... Bush
and Cheney Directed Wilson-Plame Hit Squad
MORE:
MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Easter
2006 & The Seige Of Gaza - She was finally able to
contact him over the internet but their messages were cut
short because helicopters were flying over head again. We
are all dead men he later admitted to her. The time is NOW,
the place is GAZA, i.e. Occupied Palestine. See... SOS:
Palestine - the Holy Land - Is Under Siege
MORE:
Leaker-In-Chief Caught Out In YET Another WMD Lie -
Yesterday the Washington Post broke yet another story
apparently catching U.S. President George Bush in a lie.
This time in a direct, conscious and often repeated lie over
the discovery of WMDs in Iraq in the form of "biolab"
biological weapons mobile laboratories. See... Leaker-In-Chief
Caught Out In Another WMD Lie
MORE:
EARLIER:
Ramzy
Baroud: The End Of The American Empire? - The
miscalculated policies of the US administration in the
Middle East are quickly depleting the country?s ability to
sustain its once unchallenged global position. Winds of
change are blowing everywhere, and there is little that
Washington?s ideologues can do to stop it. The above claim
is increasingly finding its way into the realm of mainstream
thinking, despite all attempts to mute or relegate its
import. See... Ramzy
Baroud: Imminent Decline of Empire?
William
Rivers Pitt On The Nuking Of Iran - Things have come
to a pretty pass in the United States of America when the
first question you have to ask yourself on matters of war
and death is, "Just how crazy are these people?" See... William
Rivers Pitt: How Crazy Are They?
MORE:
EARLIER:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT AND
OPINION:
Internet: Are You Being Watched Online?
Apparently So - On 26 Jan 2006 I wrote:
Particularly scary is that the Patriot act gives the feds
the right to basically march up to every ISP in the country
and install special 'black boxes' [doing] God only knows
what and the ISP's cannot even mention this fact publically
let alone not comply... Now we have confirmation from a
whistleblower that this is exactly what they've been doing.
See... Scoop
Blogwatch: Are We Paranoid Enough Yet?
MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT
& OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT &
OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP COMMENT
AND OPINION: SCOOP
KIWI COMMENT & OPINION: MORE
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
Am Johal Surveys The Merits Of Non-conformism - The
public sphere as a concept which has been under development
since the days of Socrates and Plato, continues to be the
subject of modern debate. Socrates, in the end, was executed
not for asserting the way the world should be, but for
doubting the truths of others. Non-conformism in the public
sphere has thus historically often been dangerous
intellectual terrain virtually since the beginning of modern
civilization. See... The
Public Sphere in Conflict and Transition State
Jason Leopold Gets Inside PlameGate - The identity
of intelligence officials who are thought to have passed
information about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson
to Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, surfaced in a federal court document
filed Friday evening. See.. Attorneys
Identify CIA Officials in Plame Leak and Leopold:
Obstruction Trial May Jog Libby's Memory MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE SCOOP
COMMENT & OPINION:
MORE SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION: MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE
SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: MORE
SCOOP COMMENTARY:
Jason Leopold: Emails Implicate More Neo-cons In
PlameGate - The White House confirmed Tuesday that
it recently turned over to Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald 250 pages of emails from the Office of Vice
President Dick Cheney related to covert CIA operative
Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador
Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration's
pre-war Iraq intelligence. The emails were not submitted
three years ago when then-White House Counsel Alberto
Gonzales ordered White House staffers to turn over all
documents that contained any reference to Valerie and Joseph
Wilson. See...
Leopold: Details Emerge in Latest Plame Emails MUCH MORE COMMENT
& OPINION: MORE
COMMENT & OPINION: MORE
COMMENTARY & OPINION: MORE COMMENTARY: MORE COMMENTARY:
MORE COMMENTARY: MORE
COMMENTARY: MORE
COMMENTARY: MORE
COMMENTARY: MORE
COMMENTARY: MORE
COMMENTARY: MORE
COMMENTARY: ENDS
Scoop Publisher Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Scoop
Image: When The Snow Comes - A dedicated Scoop
reader has sent in this image of the first snow on the hills
of South Canterbury. The reader lives in Pleasant Point.
See... Scoop
Images: First Snows Hit South Canterbury 
No Right Turn: New Zealand's Silence On
Gitmo Investigated - Where does the New Zealand
government really stand on Guantanamo? The first point is
that the government has not made any public statement
condemning Guantanamo Bay or raising concerns about its
legality under international law. They've repeatedly said
that detainees must be treated in accordance with
international humanitarian law, but they have not said "we
think that this treatment violates that law". See... No
Right Turn: New Zealand and Guantanamo 
The Polygamy Apologist Who Would Be President "I
have to admit that as a Mormon, I believe that marriage
should be between a man and a woman - and a woman and a
woman..." -- Mitt Romney at a political roast in
Boston March 2005. Aside from HBO's Big Love series
generating big laughs at the expense of tens of thousand of
women and children who languish in polygamy cults up and
down the Rocky Mountains as American Justice looks the other
way -- the show is believed designed to clear the air for a
successful 2008 US presidential bid by Massachusetts
Republican governor Mitt Romney. See... Suzan
Mazur: Big Love, Romney, Bush & Mormons 
Scoop
Blogwatch: Plain Speaking From Canada On Iran - This
little gem is topping the reddit charts right now.. but its
so excellent Scoop.co.nz thought it would cross post it. We
are pretty sure that people will enjoy this - a new classic
in blogger vernacular. See... BlogWatch:
Is Your Entire Country On Crack? 
United States: Has George Bush Been
Caught Lying Through His Teeth? (More Coverage) -
It's a crime. No kidding. But the media has it all wrong. As
usual. 'Scooter' Libby finally outed 'Mr. Big,' the
perpetrator of the heinous disclosure of the name of secret
agent Valerie Plame. It was the President of United States
himself -- in conspiracy with his Vice-President. Now the
pundits are arguing over whether our war-a-holic President
had the legal right to leak this national security
information. But, that's a fake debate meant to distract
you. See... A
Leaky President Runs Afoul Of 'Little Rico'
MORE
ON THE PLAMEGATE REVELATIONS:
Seymour
M. Hersh - The Iran Plans - The Bush
Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order
to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased
clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning
for a possible major air attack. See... Scoop
Link: Seymour M. Hersh - The Iran Plans
RELATED:
Internet: Russell Brown On Public
Address's Netguide Victory - We won a People's
Choice NetGuide Web Award last night: Best Blog. I'm really
pleased. Thanks everyone, and big ups to the other
finalists, Kiwiblog and IdolBlog... See... Public
Address 07/04/06 - Thanks Everyone. Earlier? Public
Address 06/04/06 - Read Graham 
Thailand: Richard S. Ehrlich On The
Fall Of Thaksin Shinawatra - BANGKOK, Thailand --
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigned on Wednesday
(April 5), and appointed a loyal colleague, to end
anti-Thaksin street protests before the June arrival of the
world's kings, queens and other royalty to honor Thailand's
revered monarch. See... Thailand's
PM Thaksin Shinawatra Resigns 
Daily
Telegraph Reports Secret Iran Attack Meetings - The
[UK] Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs
tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran.
A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of
Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government
officials will consider the consequences of an attack on
Iran. See... UK
Govt. In Secret Talks About Strike Against Iran 
Will
Pitt On The Fall Of "The Hammer" Tom Delay - Stone
the crows. Tom DeLay is checking out. "I'm going to announce
tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm
going to leave Congress," said DeLay on Monday. "I'm very
much at peace with it." This is the man who once said, in a
debate about the minimum wage, "Emotional appeals about
working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour are hard
to resist. Fortunately, such families do not exist." See...
William
Rivers Pitt: He's Gone 
When
Killing The Innocent Is No Longer Newsworthy - US
soldiers killing innocent civilians in Iraq is not news.
Just as it was not news that US soldiers slaughtered
countless innocent civilians in Vietnam. However, when some
rare reportage of this non news from Iraq does seep through
the cracks of the corporate media, albeit briefly, the
American public seems shocked. Private and public statements
of denial and dismissal immediately start to fill the air.
We hear, "American soldiers would never do such a thing," or
"Who would make such a ridiculous claim?" See... Dahr
Jamail: How Massacres Become the Norm 
911Truth
Reports On A Breakthrough Week - We always knew
that one good news event exposing the official deception of
9/11 could be the catalyst to unravel the Big Lie. We didn't
know there would be several news events in one week! Now we
see what it looks like when the truth breaks loose. See...
The
Week The USA Went Down The 911 Rabbit Hole
MORE:
Bonus
Joules Considers The Departure Of David Parker - New
Zealand ? land of the long white cloud. Or should that read
land of the long dark shroud. Our Parliament is cloaked in
ignorance, confusion, obscuration and pure nastiness and the
statistics of our carbon emissions form a pall over the
nation. The sacking of the Minister for Transport, Energy
and Climate Affairs deepens the murk. See... Bonus
Joules: Suffocating Images 
Immigration Iniquity Has The World & U.S. In A Froth
- In same the week that ETA announced an indefinite
ceasefire - after more than 40 years of terrorism and 817
deaths - Spanish police revealed that between 1000 and 1500
sub-Saharan Africans had died attempting to reach the Canary
Islands in the last five months. The first item was,
rightly, front-page news and attracted acreage of coverage
in the world?s press ? the second was, generally, relegated
to single story on the inside pages. See... Jeremy
Rose: Globalisation?s Unsung Martyrs
MORE
ON IMMIGRATION:
Cindy
Sheehan Remembers Her Fallen Son - As far as we can
piece things together, March 31st, two years ago, is the day
that the First Cavalry arrived in Sadr City, a slum in
Baghdad formerly named "Saddam City," Iraq. I say "as far as
we can piece together" because we have heard many different
stories, but this date seems to be the one that we have
heard most often. See... Casey
Austin Sheehan - May 29 1979 / Apr. 4 2004. See also...
Which
Soldier Will Be The Last To Die For Bush? 
Uri
Avnery Reports On The Israeli Election Outcome - THE
MOST dramatic and the most boring election campaign in our
history has mercifully come to an end. Israel looks in the
mirror and asks itself: What the hell has happened? Uri
Avnery: What The Hell Has Happened? 
Richard
S. Ehrlich Interviews A Khmer Rouge Survivor -
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Vann Nath is one of seven survivors of
Cambodia's Tuol Sleng torture chambers, and escaped when Pol
Pot's "killing fields" regime suddenly collapsed in 1979.
Vann Nath is also an artist, and painted graphic pictures of
communist Khmer Rouge extracting "confessions" from victims
before dumping an estimated 16,000 corpses from Tuol Sleng
into more than 100 mass graves. See... Tuol
Sleng Survivor Paints Pictures Of His Torture 
John
Pagani Reports From The Barricades In Paris - The
Maori guy in the All Blacks beanie confused me. We emerged
from the underground right in the middle of Place de
Republique and he came straight up to us. I thought he had
clocked us as kiwis, so I said, 'kia ora'. See... John
Pagani: Paris Manifestation 
Stateside: Where Rosalea Participates In The
Peace Process - I went on the Peace March this
morning. The audio file (click above) is part of the
blessing we were given by a local Native American leader,
one of the Vietnam War conscientious objectors who got a
health clinic and a law clinic established in the
Fruitvale/Oakland area during the '60s. The clinics still
operate today. See... Stateside
With Rosalea: Peregranacion Por La Paz & Stateside:
It's Not Over Yet
Image
Norman Mackay Captures An Avalanche - "Recently in
the Mount Cook area on my way to the Hooker glacier when I
heard what turned out to be the start of a smallish
avalanche. Luckily I had my camera at the ready and was able
to get off one shot as the avalanche started. Truly
spectacular ... See... Scoop
Image: Avalanche On Mount Cook 
Landscape: Norman Mackay Finds Fire In
The Sky Over Ohau - From now until mid winter, the
skies will become a deeper colour of red as the sun
gradually sinks over the horizon at the end of each day.
Spectacular colours in a truly beautiful area situated in
the High Country of the south island. See... Scoop
Images: Fire Returns To The Sky Over Ohau 
Nepal: Siddhi B. Ranjitkar On
Understandings With Maoists - Communist Party of
Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) leader, Madhav Kumar
Nepal and his associates have been engaged in dialogue with
the Maoists in the country and out of the country already
for some time. Mr. Nepal has visited Lucknow and New Delhi
several times for talks with the Maoists in 2005. He even
once went to Silgudi, India to meet with the Maoist leaders.
So, he had courting the Maoists hoping to bring them to the
mainstream politics. Nepali Congress Leader, Girija Prasad
Koirala also visited New Delhi ostensibly for routine health
check-ups but obviously for talks with the Maoist leaders
several times in 2005. See... Siddhi
B. Ranjitkar: Understanding with Maoists 
Internet: President Jimmy Carter
Becomes A Blogger - There is a desperate need in
America to block and reverse the radical departures from the
moral and ethical principles that have made ours a great
nation. See... Former
President Jimmy Carter's First Blog Post.
EARLIER: Scoop Feedback: An
Open Letter to President Jimmy Carter & Jimmy Carter:
Colonization of Palestine Precludes Peace 
Twin MSM
Allegations Of US Military Murder In Iraq -
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Knight Ridder)- Iraqi police have accused
American troops of executing 11 people, including a
75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath
of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of
Baghdad. See... Iraqi
Police Report: Civilians Killed By US Troops. Meanwhile
Last November, U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in
their homes. Was it self-defense, an accident or
cold-blooded revenge? Scoop
Link: Time - US Marines Civilian Massacre?
RELATED:
Bob
Woodward Becomes The President's Man - He is
referred to as "official one" and he is the mysterious
senior Bush administration official who unmasked the
identity of an undercover CIA operative to Pulitzer
Prize-winning reporter Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003 and
conservative columnist Robert Novak a month later. See... Jason
Leopold: Woodward's Plame Leak Deep Throat 
Leaving
The Bank Of America - Okay, there it was, and I had
to face it. I was out of sync, not in alignment, a sore
thumb in the evenhanded practicality of ?Coming Clean.? Ever
since the first time I heard Catherine Austin Fitts speak,
in December 2004, she had been talking about how it
important it is to change to a local bank. Ten months later,
even after Solari?s excellent audio seminar "Where Would
Jesus Bank (and other good folks too)?" had been released, I
was still feeding the Bank of America, commonly known as the
B of A. See... Mapping
The Real Deal: Banking Local 
An
Engineer Comments On Auckland's Traffic Woes - One
of the most important events of the present decade in New
Zealand is Auckland?s traffic problem. Auckland is facing a
serious traffic problem, which is deteriorating day by day.
See... Auckland?s
Traffic and Changes in Travel Behaviour 
Iraq: Through The Looking Glass Darkly -
On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush swaggered across an aircraft
carrier deck and declared "Mission Accomplished." Yesterday,
his proclamation was a little more understated. He said it
marked "the third anniversary of the beginning of the
liberation of Iraq," and claimed to be "implementing a
strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq." So far, that
victory appears as elusive as a greased pig. See... Marjorie
Cohn: Bushies in Wonderland
MORE ON THE VICTORY
THAT ISN'T:
Jason
Leopold: Looking Forward To The Libby Trial -
The criminal trial against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice
President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, may still be
nearly a year away, but the special counsel prosecuting the
case has already provided a preview into the government's
criminal case against the ex-White House official, who is
accused of lying to the FBI and a grand jury about his role
in the leak of a covert CIA operative. See... Fitzgerald
Previews Government Case Against Libby 
Suzan Mazur: "Dirt Archaeologist" Elizabeth Stone
Weighs Into The Euphronius Debate - Hungry for love
after a trouncing on these pages by antiquities
whistleblower Oscar Muscarella [ Antiquities Whistleblower
Oscar White Muscarella], New York Times chief art critic
Michael Kimmelman and Metropolitan Museum of Art director
Philippe de Montebello took their "Who Owns Art" show last
week to Greenwich Village's New School and an audience
packed with collectors. See... NYT,
Met Sing to Collectors: Elizabeth Stone I/V 
John
Pagani: Paris's Probationary Employment Legislation
Protests - They say the street always wins in French
politics. Daily for a week the Paris streets have filled
with protests organised by students and unions demanding
'retrait du Contrat Premi貥 Embauche', or withdrawal of the
'first employment contract' law. The CPE introduces a
two-year probationary period for anyone under 26 when
employers could fire them for any reason. See... France
Protests Over Probationary Employment Law 
Walter
Brasch: The Land Of The Not So Free Anymore? -
Two weeks before President Bush signed Congressional
legislation that made permanent all but two sections of the
USA PATRIOT Act, State College, Pennsylvania., became the
397th American community to reaffirm the belief that the
Constitution and Bill of Rights take precedence over any
federal law. Not one of those resolutions should have been
necessary. Nor should the legislatures of eight
states?Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine,
Montana, and Vermont?have had to pass legislation affirming
the rights of all Americans. But they had to, and they did.
See... Brasch:
Compromising Americans? Civil Liberties 
Upton-On-Line: The Latest Diaspora
Edition - The annual French Salon de l?Agriculture
takes place amidst self-doubt and virally induced gloom;
James Lovelock preaches climate apocalypse and nuclear
salvation; and Simon Upton opines on a recently published
report, Closing the Net, which brings to a close an
interesting experiment in trying force the pace of
international action on illegal high seas fishing. See...
Upton-on-line
Diaspora Edition 15th March 2006 
Book
Review: How To Work Less And Live More - How do
you fund the life you want when you are no longer part of
the daily grind? When you do get to the stage of wanting to
step back and have an easier lifestyle how do you know you
have enough? Best-selling financial author, Martin Hawes
shows you how to plan the life you want, maximise your
financial potential in your earning years and recognise when
the time is right to make the break and re-organise your
finances to sustain your new lifestyle.See... Book
Review: Martin Hawes' Twenty Good Summers 
Anthony Ravlich: New Zealand's Role In The New UN
Human Rights Council - Countries with a more
balanced approach to human rights at the international
level, such as New Zealand, should be used in peace-maker
roles on the new United Nations Human Rights Council. See?The
New United Nations Human Rights Council 
Remi
Kanazi: America Has Lost The War In Iraq -
America has lost the war in Iraq. The chance for victory
vanished long ago with the hearts, minds, arms, legs and
lives of the Iraqi people. The insurgence hasn?t won; rather
the American government never obtained the formula to win.
America, led by war-bent hawks (Vice President Dick Cheney,
Secretary of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz) entered this war with
many interests. In this excess of interests, the US
neglected a major factor in the equation?the Iraqi people.
See... Accepting
Reality: America Lost the War in Iraq 
Look Who
Helped Get Nukes Into The Holy Land The UK supplied
Israel with quantities of plutonium while Harold Wilson was
prime minister, BBC Newsnight can reveal. The sale was made
despite a warning from British intelligence that it might
"make a material contribution to an Israeli weapons
programme". See... BBC
Link: Secret Sale Of UK Plutonium To Israel 
Richard
Seymour: The Pillorying Of A Palestinian -
Axiomatically, leading academic institutions involve intense
and varied debate over a variety of topics, and some of that
debate ranges over territory that mainstream conversation
often misses. The School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), a prestigious higher learning institution in the
centre of London, would appear to have a defender of free
and open discussion in head Colin Bundy. In the last month,
the Director & Principal has openly defended the right of an
apologist for the Uzbekistan regime, Shirin Akiner, to speak
at SOAS, rejecting calls for reconsideration by former
British ambassador the dictatorship, Craig Murray. See...
Richard
Seymour: A Caricature of Free Speech 
Dahr
Jamail On The US Bases In Iraq - Why does the Bush
Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation
forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid
contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in
Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year
history? Why do these bases in Iraq resemble self-contained
cities as much as military outposts? See... Dahr
Jamail: Iraq - Permanent US Colony 
Rosalea
Barker Takes A Look Around Her Cyber-TV - At the
risk of having you wander out into cyberspace never to
return to our beloved mothership, Scoop, I'm going to pepper
this post with hyperlinks to interesting video on the Net.
If you want to cut to the chase, go to the last one. See...
Stateside
With Rosalea: Untethered Mike
Whitney On The Prospects Of War With Iran - In the
last 48 hours all the major players in the Bush
administration have issued statements warning of the
impending danger of Iran. Cheney blasted the Islamic regime
saying there would be "meaningful consequences" if it
refuses to comply with international ... See... The
48 Hour Media-blitz For War With Iran 
Am Johal
On The European Union Dilemma - From November 2004
until March 2006, Israelis and Palestinans will have seen
the following happen in only seventeen months: the death of
Yasser Arafat, the election of Mahmoud Abbas as President of
the Palestinian Authority, the first withdrawal from Gaza
and four West Bank settlements since 1967, a centrist
breakaway from the ruling Likud Party in Israel and a new
leader of Kadima and the Labor Party, a debilitating stroke
which has incapacitated former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, the election of Hamas in Palestinian legislative
elections and the upcoming Israeli elections in March.
See... The
EU, Israel, Palestine & The Geneva Initiative 
Race
Relations: Melbourne's Stolenwealth Games About To
Begin - The 2006 Commonwealth Games is an
opportunity for Australia to showcase its success and wealth
to the rest of the former British Empire. Such spectacles
can only be held in economically secure locations and are
only successful when a vibrant local culture is able to hold
the festival up and make it shine. The financial benefits
for cities that host these extravaganza are huge. As
Commonwealth Games Minister Justin Madden said "It's the
best thing we've ever done. We'll be displaying to the world
what we're best at, in sport, in festivities, in celebration
and unity". See... Rayna
Fahey: Stolen or Sharing Wealth? 
Corporations: See Dick Loot
-Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root
(KBR) have been making hay in the burning Iraqi sun for
years now. It is, of course, no coincidence that the man
sitting as vice president played a key role with his
influence in obtaining the lion's share of contracts in Iraq
for the company he was CEO of prior to his self-appointed
position. Yet none of this is news. See... Dahr
Jamail: See Dick Loot 
Middle
East: He Who Sows Hatred Will Reap A Field Of Blood
- On Thursday 4 September 1997, five innocent
people were murdered in the Ben-Yehuda Mall in Jerusalem. It
was one of the ?mere? three suicide bombings that occurred
during the time of the Netanyahu government. And in that
?mere?single bombing eight years ago, I lost my one and only
daughter, 14-year-old Smadari. Through no fault of my own,
I earned the dubious honour of belonging to the ranks of the
victims of Palestinian terrorism. I ended up being one of
those who pay the price for others? arrogance and stupidity.
They
Are Laughing, And Our Children Are Dying? 
Leopold: Origins Of The Plan To Out Plame -
In mid-June 2003, when former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's
criticism against the White House's use of pre-war Iraq
intelligence started to make national headlines, Vice
President Dick Cheney told his former chief of staff and
close confidant I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to leak classified
intelligence data on Iraq's nuclear ambitions to a legendary
Washington journalist in order to undercut the charges made
against the Bush administration by the former ambassador.
See... Leopold:
CIA Leak Path: Cheney, Libby, Woodward 
Tanveer Jafri: George Bush In India As
Seen In India - The president of United States of
America, George W. Bush may consider himself the most
powerful and the best statesman of the world but in reality
he stands at the top of the list of controversial leaders.
He is constantly under the controversy just for the steps
taken to encounter the terrorist attack on 11 September.
Today the reason of his being more controversial is the
vague and policies lacking result, to fight terrorism being
adopted by him. See... Most
Controversial, Most Powerful, Bush The Great 
Suzan Mazur: Where The Antiquities Trade Meets
Spookworld - Metropolitan Museum director Philippe
de Montebello now refers to it as an "impropriety". He seems
to believe that the "grand acquisitors" are off the hook
following the Met signing an agreement with Italy regarding
title transfer back to Italy of the Euphronios vase and
other highly important looted antiquities. De Montebello is
mistaken. The arm-twisting of Italy to sign on the dotted
line and absolve all guilt on the part of the Met has merely
opened another window into the corruption of the US
political system through the involvement of late exofficio
C. Douglas Dillon. See... Suzan
Mazur: The Euphronios C Douglas Dillon Nexus 
Ptech: - The Terrorist Connected Computer Co. In The
911 Frame - While Congress and the media focus on
the potential dangers of a UAE-owned company running
American port operations, any possible threat is dwarfed by
the current insecurity of the US government's computer
infrastructure, which has been compromised by a company with
multiple connections to terrorist financing. The company,
once known as Ptech (now GoAgile), has been contracted to
provide sophisticated computer software to several
government agencies, including the Army, the Air Force,
Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the
Department of Justice, Customs, the FAA, the IRS, NATO, the
FBI, the Secret Service, and the White House. See... UQ
Wire: Port Deal Pales In Comparison To Ptech 
SCOOP
EXCLUSIVE: Adding Insult to Injury for Katrina Survivors
- Wash. DC. - Two court decisions this
weekend create barriers to voting for hurricane Katrina
survivors spread around the United States. The U.S. District
Court of Louisiana (Eastern) denied a lawsuit that sought to
delay elections and allow special measures to enable voting
by several hundred thousand displaced New Orleans evacuees.
Advancement Project, a civil rights organization, filed the
suit with ACORN (a national community rights organization)
and individual voters. See... The
Disenfranchisement Of Katrina's Survivors
MORE
ON US VOTING:
Suzan
Mazur: The Bermuda Euphronius Nexus - It's
privately gated - Tucker's Town, Bermuda. Who comes and goes
is not public information. But that they've talked
antiquities, maybe even had a serious dinner conversation
over she-crab soup and mako shark while sketching out
possible title transfer of Italy's highly important
antiquities from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art seems
more likely than not. See... Was
NY Met-Italy Deal A Bloomberg-Berlusconi Pact? 
George
Bush's Big Katrina Porkie Exposed - The video is
gut-wrenching. There they sit, a whole room full of
hurricane experts and disaster managers, shouting down a
telephone line at George W. Bush, warning him a full day
ahead of time that Hurricane Katrina is a catastrophe
waiting to happen. ... See... William
Pitt: 'No One Could Have Anticipated...' 
Martin
LeFevre Addresses The United Arab Emirates Ports
Deal - You couldn?t make this stuff up. George
Bush, who invokes 9/11 ad nauseam to stoke primal fears of
Arab ?lurkers? whenever his policies come under attack, has
been hoisted on his own petard by a mishandled port leasing
deal with the United Arab Emirates. See... Meditations:
Requiem for the Post-Cold War Order
MORE ON THE
DUBAI PORTS DEAL:
KIWI COMMENTATORS:
UNITED STATES:
LATIN
AMERICA:
MIDDLE
EAST:
PHARMA:
NEPAL:
Jason
Leopold On What's Missing From The Enron Trial -
More than 400 pages of documents released by federal energy
regulators suggest that former Enron chairman Ken Lay and
former chief executive Jeff Skilling were aware that the
company's west coast traders may have broken the law by
using manipulative trading tactics in California to boost
Enron's profits during the height of the state's power
crisis. See... Jason
Leopold: Enron Trial Avoids the Real Ripoff 
Sheila
Samples On The World That Dick Built - This is the
guy who pulled the trigger of the gun that fired the round
that hit his friend that ruined the hunt and shed some light
on the world that Dick built... Sheila
Samples: The World That Dick Built 
Mamas,
Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Mutants - Few
people who have seen David Cronenberg's 1986 classic, The
Fly, could ever wish upon themselves the horror and personal
tragedy that the genetic disaster in that film ultimately
created. This touching, yet profoundly disturbing gross-out
fest told the story of eccentric scientist Seth Brundle who,
in pursuit of teleportation technology, accidentally has his
DNA fused with that of a common housefly. The resulting
mutation, "Brundlefly", seems at first to be an
inexhaustible Superman with tremendous strength, heightened
senses, lightning-fast mental acuity, and the marathon
sexual proclivities of an African lion. See... BioEthics
& Pandora's Box of Genetic Engineering 
Dahr
Jamail & Ors On Sectarian Violence In Iraq - The
most important question to ask regarding the bombings of the
Golden Mosque in Samarra on the 22nd is: who benefits? Prior
to asking this question, let us note the timing of the
bombing. The last weeks in Iraq have been a PR disaster for
the occupiers. See... Dahr
Jamail's Iraq Dispatches: Who Benefits?
MORE:
Jason
Leopold On The PlameGate Blowback - Two top Bush
administration officials who played an active role in the
leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, have been
removing from their jobs, career State Deptartment weapons
experts who have spoken to investigators during the past two
years about the officials role in the leak, according to a
half-dozen State Department officials. See... Plame
Whistleblowers Targeted by Administration 
Paul
Buchanan on Cold War Communism and World Peace - In
1990, somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon, someone in
the Joint Chiefs of Staff is reputed to have said that the
United States would rue the day that the Berlin Wall fell.
At least the Communists running the Soviet Union and its
allies shared the logics of conventional and nuclear
deterrence that preserved the relative peace of the
45-year-old Cold War. See... Paul
Buchanan: When Communists Look Good 
Motornet
Takes Directions From A Beamer - ?Please take the
next exit on your left. Then, turn right in 200 metres,?
says the modulated voice of BMW?s satellite navigation
system. Failing to follow instructions does nothing to raise
a non-automated response. Even a complete 360 will see the
GPS based system pause for the briefest of seconds before
re-plotting the correct course, and re-issuing instructions.
It?s really quite frustrating? There?s an unflappable
quality in many German cars and the new BMW 330i is no
exception. See... MOTORNET:
On Your Command - The BMW 330i 
Suzan
Mazur: Spinning the Returned Euphronios - The battle
for ownership of the Euphronios vase illustrates perfectly
how the New York Times publishing family fools only itself.
Sales of the newspaper deservedly continue to decline as the
people responsible for putting the Times out think they can
get away with hoodwinking the public. See... Suzan
Mazur: The Italy-Met Euphronios Accord?
David
Slack compares broadband deals and oranges -
Business New Zealand waded into the Broadband debate
yesterday. Quoting from the release: "Business NZ has called
for a more factually based argument over broadband access."
... Coverage, so far, of their contribution has been a
little short on an actual comparison of the oranges, apples
and lemons in question, which of course is what you want in
a more factually based argument, so I asked Business NZ for
a copy of the data. See... Public
Address 23/02/06 - All you can eat, assuming you're not very
hungryRussell
Brown posts long on telecommunications - I'm
inclined to believe that the Business Roundtable's
submission of a column by its chairman Rob McLeod arguing
against regulation of Telecom - without the fairly important
declaration that McLeod is a director of Telecom - was an
error, rather than an attempt to mislead the public. I'm
less inclined to credit McLeod's argument. See... Public
Address 22/02/06 - Telecommunications & God
ALSO:
William
Fisher on the Guantanamo Evidence - Last June 17,
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, "If
you think of the people down there (at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba), these are people, all of whom were captured on a
battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers,
recruiters, financiers, (Osama bin Laden's) bodyguards,
would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."
Yet two recent reports, based on the Defense Department's
own documentation, reach conclusions that are dramatically
different than Mr. Rumsfeld's. See... A
Tale Of Two Gitmos: Where Was The MSM?
ALSO:
Ramzy
Baroud on the Western media and the Muslim world -
In Arab and Muslim media, few condoned the aggressive
protests, embassy burnings and threats of violence awakened
by the global cartoon campaign. Except of a few
holier-than-thou Arab and Muslim journalists, however, there
seemed to be consensus among most commentators that both
appreciate the enormity ? and harm- of the inherent
anti-Muslim bias in Western societies and acknowledged the
need to respond to such vilification of Muslims and Arabs on
a collective level, even if it includes modes of pressure
and muscle flexing. See... Ramzy
Baroud: Cartoon Awakening: A Positive Media Strategy
ALSO:
Science: Brian Carter's The March Night
Sky - We are moving into Autumn now with the Sun
visible for half the day. This means that the nights for
astronomy are rapidly getting longer. Planets - March is a
good month for viewing the planets. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn will be visible for the whole of the month. Mercury
will be visible for the last half of March. Mars will be
visible for the first third of the night. Mars is in the
constellation of Taurus. Its magnitude fades from 0.7 to 1.2
during the month. Saturn will be visible for the first two
thirds of the night. Saturn is in the constellation of
Cancer, in which it remains until September 2006. Its
magnitude slightly fades from ?0.1 to 0.1. See... The
Night Sky
Abbas'
message to Hamas - President Mahmoud Abbas advised
the Hamas dominated opening session of the Second
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) that the peace
process, which was established by the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) to build a present and a future for the
Palestinian people in a modern state, must be allowed to
move forward if there is to be any hope in combating Israeli
extremism which is attempting to eliminate the political
identity of the Palestinian people and its national rights.
See... G C
Fraser: National Rights of Palestine Key to Peace -
AbbasNo Right
Turn on UN Guantanamo Report - Guantanamo must be
closed, and its prisoners either released or given a fair
trial in the United States under US law. That is the
recommendation of an investigation conducted by the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights. Why? Apart from general
principles of justice and a respect for human rights, the UN
has three reasons. See... No
Right Turn: Guantanamo Delenda Est 
Kirk
MacGibbon: A New York Perspective on Labour's
Spending - News that the Labour Party is being
investigated for allegedly breaching campaign spending
limits by a whopping $400,000 seems almost quaint from a New
York perspective. What struck me was just how cheap it is to
win office in New Zealand. The Labour party spent $2.8
million to win control of the Treasury for another three
years. Helen Clark said the laws were in need of
?clarification.? See... Kirk
MacGibbon: The Price Of Office 
Jason
Miller on the Brits' Good News Agency - A succession
of scandals in the US has revealed widespread government
funding of PR agencies to produce 'fake news'. Actors take
the place of journalists and the 'news' is broadcast as if
it were genuine. The same practice has been adopted in Iraq,
where newspapers have been paid to insert copy. These
stories have raised the usual eyebrows in the UK about the
pitiful quality of US democracy. Things are better here, we
imply. See... Miller:
The British Government's Global Fake News Network 
Pierre
Tristam Defending the Enlightenment - In the eternal
battle between reason and regression there's never been a
rallying cry as powerful as Voltaire's double-barreled
phrase: Ecrasez l'infame. It has been translated variously
as "crush the infamous," "crush the horror" or -- my
preference -- "smash the rogues." Voltaire's targets, his
recent biographer Ian Davidson writes, "included
superstition, theological repression, Jesuits, monks,
fanatical regicides, and the Inquisition in every shape and
form; in short, all facets of the dark and regressive
alliance between the Catholic Church and the French State."
... It's a lesson the Islamic world has not yet learned.
It's a lesson the western world risks forgetting. See... When
Liberty's The Ward Of A Higher Power's Rogues 
Dale
Mills on Australia's Taser Plans - Australia's
police is becoming increasingly militarised, with NSW Police
leading the way in trialling Taser stun-guns. Taser are
hand-held guns that fire two metal probes attached to copper
wires, delivering a 55,000-volt electric shock that lasts
for five seconds. Victims typically fall to the ground and
involuntarily urinate, with all major muscle groups going
into spasm. The guns have an effective range of 6.4 metres,
with the possibility that inaccurate shooting will hit
bystanders. See... Australian
Police To Use Taser Stun-Guns No Right
Turn on UN Guantanamo Report - Guantanamo must be
closed, and its prisoners either released or given a fair
trial in the United States under US law. That is the
recommendation of an investigation conducted by the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights. Why? Apart from general
principles of justice and a respect for human rights, the UN
has three reasons. See... No
Right Turn: Guantanamo Delenda Est 
Gregory
Fortuin on Cartoons and Drawing Lessons - There is
no such thing as an unbiased view. Our opinions are mostly
formed by our values, our experiences and our exposures. I
am unashamed of my faith in God and my often stumbling
desire to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. This belief
system informs my opinion. See... Gregory
Fortuin: Cartoons ? 5 Lessons To
Draw
ALSO:
Richard
S. Ehrlich: Background to the New Terror Plot - When
CIA and Thai authorities caught Hambali in Thailand in 2003,
nothing was said publicly about his involvement in a
9/11-style plot to fly an airplane into a skyscraper in Los
Angeles. Shaving off his beard, Hambali, then aged 40, had
bounced around incognito in neighboring Cambodia, while
staying in a cheap hotel among international backpackers,
before allegedly using a Spanish passport to hide in
Thailand's ancient Buddhist town of Ayutthaya, 50 miles (85
kilometers) north of Bangkok. See... Bush
Recalls The Capture Of Hambali In
Thailand
ALSO:
Bill
Rosenberg on the WTO Ministerial - The official line
from the WTO?s Director-General Pascal Lamy is that the 6th
WTO Ministerial conference in Hong Kong, was a modest
success, and that its scant results recognised that this is
a ?Development Round?, putting the developing countries to
the fore. Yet the process and outcome leaves developing
countries not only seriously disadvantaged but with more and
more rungs sawn away from the development ladder. Most are
expressing disappointment. See... Bill
Rosenberg: WTO (Hong Kong) Wrap Up - Part One
ALSO:
Met
Whistleblower Oscar White Muscarella On Immediate Return Of
Italy's Euphronios - Unlike many in the museum
world, Metropolitan Museum Ancient Near East expert Oscar
White Muscarella was not born with a silver spoon in his
mouth. His childhood was spent in foster homes. And at age
ten or eleven he was adopted by his mother's second husband,
Mr. Muscarella. See... Suzan
Mazur "No Ransom" - Part II (With Audio)
Media: Prophet Muhammad Cartoons Depict More Than
Culture-Clash - Paul Buchanan writes that the
publication of cartoons depicting the prophet
Muhammad have raised the spectre of a deepening cultural
clash between Islam and the West... The issue is one of
pre-modern versus postmodern perspectives on life... One
person?s blasphemy is another person?s parody.
Image of Paul Buchanan by Jason
Dorday. See... Paul
Buchanan: The Politics of Cartoon
Conflict
MORE:
Russell
Brown on Kiwi Tolerance - Apparently our local imams
have called for amputations and executions of errant
cartoonists and publishers. Well, that's what it says in the
New York Times anyway: "From Gaza to Auckland, imams have
demanded execution or amputations for the cartoonists and
their publishers." Guess it must be true, then ? See... Public
Address 09/02/06 - Is It Because I Is White
ALSO:
Uri
Avnery Sees Two Movies - If one wants to understand
what the Palestinians did on election day, one has to see
the film "Paradise Now", which has been nominated for an
Oscar for the best foreign film, after collecting several
prestigious international prizes. It explains better than a
million words. See... Uri
Avnery: "? Shall We Not Revenge?"
Tse Ming Mok on Different Kinds of Famous
People - The year I moved to Wellington one of my
flatmates got incredibly excited that I knew someone on
Shortland Street. People get excited about that sort of
thing in Wellington. I got excited that she knew Kate Camp -
and yes she thought that was weird. If you're an Aucklander,
knowing actors is not a very big deal. New Zealand actors,
even if they're in a movie, are generally still poor and
just shlumping around, freely accessible. See... Public
Address: Mt Roskill Will Take Over World Alastair Thompson
Eugene Doyle: BBC Goes Full Goebbels In Support Of Israeli Soccer Hooligans
Binoy Kampmark: They Were There First - Election Denialism, The Democratic Way
Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Self-knowing Is The Gateway To Liberation And Transmutation
Alastair Thompson: Google's Support For Democracy And Media In NZ | Part 1 - The Digital Media Bargaining Bill, NZME, STUFF & Google
Binoy Kampmark: The Remembrance Day Amnesia Racket
Gordon Campbell: On The Crown’s Sorry Excuse For An Apology