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Al Qaeda
Strikes Back
by Bruce
Riedel
Foreign Affairs Magazine
May/June 2007
(Excerpt)
Five
years after 9/11, the United States' deadliest adversary is stronger
than ever — and may even be trying to lure Washington into a war with
Iran.
AFP
May 4, 2007
(Excerpt)
"We
are taking the fight to the enemy to counter his capabilities, but over
time, especially as we continue to put our forces in areas where they
have never operated we can expect to take continued casualties,"
he said.
Thirteen
US soldiers under Lynch's command were killed and 39 wounded last
month, mainly as a result of roadside bombs, according to the general,
who said the number of attacks in his area has increased.
More…
Folly in the
Baltics
by Charley Reese
Antiwar.com
May 5, 2007
The
row over the removal of a statue of a Soviet soldier in Estonia is
another bit of evidence why major powers should never ally themselves
with small, powerless countries.
By
the second day, Estonian officials were calling for the European Union
to consider the Russian response as an "attack on the EU." It
was, of course, no such thing, but little kids with big bodyguards are
always quick to employ their surrogate muscle.
The
Baltic States –
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – are
small countries sitting against the breast of Mother Russia. Yes, they
have suffered, both under Nazi occupation and later Soviet occupation.
Yes, many brave people died in their futile effort to win their
independence.
But
facts are facts, and small countries that close to Russia are
independent by Russia's permission. It is in their self-interest,
despite bitter memories, to cultivate good relations with Russia. But when
the West comes along and says to join the EU and NATO, their
politicians are encouraged to believe they can spit in the eye of the
Russian bear.
World
War II was a murderous business in Russia. Some 18 million Soviet
citizens died in it. It resonates strongly among the Russian people,
even today. It was a foolish thing to do to dismantle the statue of a
Russian soldier, erected in 1947, and dump it in a park on the
outskirts of the city. The bear may only growl this time, but he is
still a bear.
The
removal caused a riot, and the Russians are hopping mad about it – and rightly so. Just as the sins of Hitler should not be
visited on the present-day Germans, so, too, the sins of Stalin should
not be visited on today's Russia. That statue does not symbolize Soviet
occupation. It symbolizes the Red Army's victory over the Third Reich.
And it is a statue of a common soldier, not of Stalin.
It
is a bad destiny to be born in a small country that larger countries
use in their wars. When the Nazis occupied the Baltic countries, they
murdered the people who were communists and who cooperated with the
communists. When the Soviets came back in, they murdered the people who
were Nazis and those who cooperated with Nazis or who wanted
independence.
A
lot of blood has been spilled in the Baltic countries, but despite our
admiration for the courage of Baltic patriots, it is important to
remember that they never succeeded, either against the Germans or the
Russians. Little countries do not have the manpower or the resources to
whip big countries.
Which
brings me to the point: Alliances are only for the purpose of
war-fighting. No one needs an alliance during peacetime. When
Russia disbanded the Warsaw Pact armies, the U.S. should have disbanded
NATO. NATO was formed in 1947 to deter the Soviet Union from attacking
the West. Even so, when the age of the nuclear missiles came along, it
was clear to anybody that if war came, it would be the United States
and the Soviet Union. The smaller countries of NATO would have been
fools to get mixed up in it. So what is the value of a military
alliance with Estonia or Latvia or Lithuania? Zilch and zero.
There
are some mad fools calling the shots in the West, trying to extend U.S.
hegemony right up to the suburbs of Moscow. They may well end up
provoking a nuclear war. NATO no longer has a legitimate purpose, and using
NATO to intervene in the Yugoslav Civil War and now in Afghanistan just
robs every member in it of any kind of moral high ground. It is now
become simply an instrument of imperialism.
video
Police used
batons and rubber bullets to control a crowd at MacArthur Park that
had
gathered at the end of the immigrant rights march.
(Rick Loomis / LAT)
May 1, 2007
A police
officer takes aim at crowds gathered in MacArthur Park Tuesday
afternoon.
Los Angeles
Police Chief William J. Bratton said today that some actions taken by officers
trying to
clear a crowd of marchers at MacArthur Park were
"inappropriate" and that he has
launched
two investigations.
(Rick
Loomis / LAT)
Victor
Narro with the UCLA Labor Center holds a rubber bullet like the ones police
shot at demonstrators. Activists held a press conference Wednesday
afternoon to call for an investigation into Tuesday's clashes between
police and protesters, which capped a mostly peaceful day of
immigration rights marches.
(Anne
Cusack / LAT)
Some
news outlets whose reporters and camera operators were hurt in Los
Angeles melee mull legal claims against LAPD
By Anna Gorman and
Stuart Silverstein
Times Staff
Writers
May 3, 2007
(Excerpt)
One
day after several reporters and camera operators were injured while
covering an altercation at an immigrant rights rally in MacArthur Park,
news organizations condemned the Los Angeles Police Department for its
use of batons and riot guns against members of the media, and some said
they were considering legal options.
By Thomas E. Ricks and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 5, 2007; A01
(Excerpt)
More than
one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they
believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information
about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday. Four in 10 said
they approve of such illegal abuse if it would save the life of a
fellow soldier.
In addition,
about two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they
would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for
destroying civilian property unnecessarily. "Less
than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should
be treated with dignity and respect," the Army report stated.
by Glenn Jacobs
Future of Freedom Foundation
(Excerpt)
The Davidians were initially
subjected to a paramilitary raid by a heavily armed force nearly the
size of an army company. The federal government then employed bizarre
psychological warfare, including blaring out sounds of rabbits being
slaughtered and Nancy Sinatra’s hit song “These Boots Were Made for Walking,” as well as using unreasonable and
unnecessary force, including military tanks, helicopters, and chemical
weapons.
In the subsequent investigations,
the government whitewashed the incident, suggesting to the American
people that it was more important to “put the incident behind us” than to uncover the truth. In spite
of all this, however, instead of being held accountable for criminally
negligent (or perhaps worse) acts, those involved in the Waco massacre
were actually praised.
More…
Tuesday April 24, 2007
The Guardian –
London, UK
(Excerpt)
From Hitler
to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any
would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. Moreover,
argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking
them all.
Gitmo Lawyers
Push Back
by William Fisher
t r u t h o u t | Report
May 4, 2007
(Excerpt)
A Justice Department proposal to limit
lawyers' access to the nearly 400 detainees at Guantanamo Bay is drawing
sharp criticism from much of the legal community in the US. Mary Shaw
of Amnesty International USA told Truthout: "The right to a fair trial is one of the
universally applicable principles recognized in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, to which the US is a signatory. The US
took a huge step away from this standard with the Military Commissions
Act of 2006. And now the proposal to limit attorneys' access to their
clients at Guantanamo Bay will further hinder detainees' rights to full
equality under the law."
Current
News & Views
·
Another Guantanamo Outrage Editorial Boston Globe
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The Sham of the Padilla Trial by Jacob G. Hornberger Future of Freedom Foundation
·
Washington’s Terrorist - Hypocrisy in War against Terror
Editorial El Diaro
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Washington’s
Iraq 'Israel Solution’: Anger in Baghdad as Americans finish wall
·
Iraqi
Lawmakers Demand US Pullout
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FORMER
COMMANDER OF BRITISH OCCUPATION FORCES: Coalition should 'admit
defeat and leave Iraq'
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OOPS!
US now says ‘Senior Qaeda’
figure killed not Iraq insurgent chief
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Switzerland
and the Gun “Guns are deeply rooted within Swiss culture - but
the gun crime rate is so low that statistics are not even kept.” BBC
·
The Real Cost of Ethanol – How Government Subsidized Biofuels
Could Starve The Poor Foreign
Affairs Magazine
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Futile Drug War Ignores Target: Safety by Cynthia Tucker Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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