August 2008
-
Waiting for the Bus in New Orleans By Bill Quigley
In the blazing midday sun, hot and thirsty little children walk around bags of diapers and soft suitcases piled outside a locked community center in the Lower Ninth Ward. Military police in camouflage and local police in dark blue uniforms and sunglasses sit a few feet away in their cars. Moms and grandmas sit with… Continue reading
-
FREE GAZA — LIBERTY ARRIVE IN CYPRUS WITH PALESTINIANS ON-BOARD
The historic return voyage represents the first time ever that Palestinians have been able freely to enter and leave their country. The Free Gaza Movement will mark this historic moment with a reception at Larnaca Harbour , as will Palestinians in Gaza , as both boats return safely from Gazan and international waters after a… Continue reading
-
Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh
“The book describes over two decades of turmoil and change in the Middle East, steered via the history-soaked landscape of Palestine. A lawyer and human rights activist of independent temper, Raja has always found much-needed peace by taking walks in the Palestinian hills – a landscape which, owing to occupation, Jewish settlements and disastrous environmental… Continue reading
-
Back to the future: “Chaos and instability Washington’s official policy line” By William Bowles
The West, led by the US and the UK have inflamed the situation by sending an armada into the Black Sea, promised to re-arm Georgia, broken off any meaningful dialog with Russia, and re-invented the Cold War. And in so doing, backed Russia into a corner by refusing to recognize its legitimate rights. Continue reading
-
President Manuel Torrijos’ Velvet Panamanian Coup
On September 3, a number of Panamanian civic groups and political movements have scheduled a nationwide protest against the recently enacted five-pronged National Security Reform package. President Martin Torrijos and his Cabinet approved what essentially was a presidential edict, during the National Assembly’s two-month recess. Continue reading
-
Palestine: When is the doctor a doctor? And when is he a citizen? By Derek Summerfield
Summerfield has spent the last 16 years exposing Israeli war crimes and publishing scathing critiques in Britain’s leading medical journals on the complicity of Israeli doctors. Today, the name of this honorary senior lecturer at London’s Institute of Psychiatry and teaching associate at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, stands out in… Continue reading
-
Leaving Gaza – Journey Hour One
The SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty left port in Gaza at 3:40 PM, and have begun their long voyage back to Cyprus. Aboard the ship are seven Palestinian passengers, including several children. We were able to speak with Paul Larudee on the SS Liberty just a few minutes ago: Continue reading
-
SS FREE GAZA & SS LIBERTY TO LEAVE FOR CYPRUS WITH PALESTINIANS ON-BOARD
Several Palestinians who have previously been denied exit visas by Israel will join international human rights workers on the journey. Among the Palestinians leaving are Saed Mosleh, age 10, of Beit Hanoon, Gaza. Saed lost his leg due to an Israeli tank shell and is leaving Gaza with his father to seek medical treatment. Also… Continue reading
-
Fulbright or McCarthy for Palestinian students? By Fidaa Abed, 17 August 2008
“Last week, I landed in Washington, DC, brimming with optimism. Upon arrival, I was whisked into a separate room. An American official informed me that he had just received information about me that he could not reveal. However, it required him to put me on the next plane home. I was shocked. And I was… Continue reading
-
Sailing into Gaza By Huwaida Arraf August 25, 2008
On Saturday, after 32 hours on the high seas, I sailed into the port of Gaza City with 45 other citizens from around the world in defiance of Israel’s blockade. We traveled from Cyprus with humanitarian provisions for Palestinians living under siege. My family in Michigan was worried sick. Continue reading
-
GazaFriends – Gone Fishing 25 August, 2008
Israel has refused to let Palestinians fish in their own waters for the past 15 months. Even before that, they restricted Palestinian fishermen to around 6 miles. Now, they shoot holes in the boats and in the fishermen if they are caught farther out than about a kilometer. Continue reading
-
GazaFriends – Mary’s report from Gaza City 25 August, 2008
It was a day of smiles and a day of tears for me here in Gaza City. Another early press conference, followed by a visit to the hospital which has seen most of the carnage created in Gaza by Israeli bombs and rockets. The doctor related some of the difficulties faced by the population of… Continue reading
-
Can a revolt of ‘consumers’ spark a revolution… By William Bowles
The power of big, transnational capital has transformed not only the economic landscape but also the nature of the way we live — from the food we eat (and where we buy it) to the fundamental fabric of our social spaces, and judging by the level of dissatisfaction with contemporary capitalist society, great swathes of… Continue reading
-
A STATEMENT TO THE PRESS FROM THE FREE GAZA MOVEMENT
Forty-six international human rights workers are now sailing to Gaza through international waters with one overriding goal: to break the Israeli siege that Israel has imposed on the civilian population of Gaza. Any action designed to harm civilians constitutes collective punishment (in the Palestinians’ case, for voting the “wrong” way) and is both illegal under… Continue reading
-
Recycling the spin cycle By Jerome Spring
Before joining the London Independent to become its diplomatic editor, Anne Penketh trailed around Moscow, Paris and New York as a foreign correspondent. Apparently, she tries to “separate the spin cycle from the news cycle”. In a main article on Russia and Georgia in the Independent of the 20 August, she asserted that “the Georgian Continue reading
-
BEAT THE DEAD HORSE Or PUTIN’S REVENGE By Gaither Stewart
For the first time since the collapse of the USSR, Russia went on the offensive. Its victory accomplished in a few hours rewrote the global balance of power. Yet, the American public knows little or nothing of these earth-shaking events. Continue reading
-
Aprés la deluge — wracking up the fear quotient By William Bowles
20 August 2008 Russia is following a course “horrifyingly similar to that taken by Stalin and Hitler in the 1930s.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s former national security adviser The other night I went to a meeting on the situation in Georgia organized by the Stop the War Coalition at which one of the Continue reading
-
Pop ‘til We Drop? by JOHN FEFFER
We are currently at 6.6 billion and expected to approach 9 billion some time before 2050. Mother Earth is mad as hell and isn’t going to take us anymore. We’ve heard this all before. Continue reading
-
This is a tale of US expansion not Russian aggression By Seumas Milne
The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that “Russian aggression must not… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 