In 2001, I spent several weeks trekking through remote villages in the highlands and rainforests of Ecuador. It was the same summer that the Bush administration announced the Andean Regional Initiative (ARI), an expansion of policies started under the Clinton...
Bolton Confirmation Would Shatter Intelligence Analysts’ Morale
Few have more at stake in the expected Senate approval of John Bolton to be U.S. representative at the UN than the remnant of demoralized intelligence analysts trained and still willing to speak truth to power. What would be the point in continuing, they ask, when...
Of Cabbages and Kings
Two weeks ago, a small, single-engine plane inadvertently strayed into the closed air space above Washington. The result was panic. Both the White House and the Capitol were evacuated, with police shouting "Run! Run!" at fleeing staffers and visitors....
Tragedy Fuels Calls for End to Chile’s Compulsory Military Service
SANTIAGO -The loss of more than 40 young soldiers in a snowstorm in southern Chile late last week has sparked a fierce debate on the country's compulsory military service. Twenty-one bodies have been found so far, and the search for the remaining 19 continued Tuesday...
Give Rumsfeld the Pinochet Treatment, Says US Amnesty Chief
If the administration of President George W. Bush fails to conduct a truly independent investigation of U.S. abuses against detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, foreign governments should investigate and prosecute those senior officials who bear responsibility for them,...
US Ramps Up Arms Supplies to Repressive Regimes
The United States has accelerated arms sales to some of the world's most repressive and undemocratic regimes since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, according to a new report from leading arms trade researchers. The report, from the Arms Trade...
Rights Groups Assail US Govt Torture Report
Civil rights groups are accusing the U.S. government of failing to admit the extent to which abuse of non-citizens in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, and its base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, violates the international treaty against torture. At issue is a report...
Backtalk May 25, 2005
Parents: The Anti-Recruiter Teresa Whitehurst does some nice deconstructing of military sales propaganda, but I believe her advice at the end ("Parents and teachers who care about kids should study each of these appeals and inoculate naïve, trusting teens against...
Bringing the Arab Street to Power
With no weapons of mass destruction found and nothing to tie Saddam to Sept. 11, the White House has justified the war as America's way to democratize Iraq and, through it, the Arab world. Exhibit A in the White House case is the January elections. Kurds and Shi'ites...
Battling the Windmills While Iraq Burns
Cast aside the nonsensical rhetoric about U.S. President George W. Bush's ostensibly successful efforts to bolster democratic tendencies "sweeping" the Middle East, and you'll discover that the facts are not so rosy, with Iraq remaining the most horrific reminder....


