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alternative perspectives on the "war on terrorism"
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The man who would testify against Sharon is blown up. Was this another targeted killing?
Robert Fisk, The Independent, 25 January 2002
Who on earth would want to murder the key witness for the
prosecution in a war crimes indictment against the Israeli Prime
Minister, Ariel Sharon? Why would anyone want to car-bomb the former
Lebanese Phalangist militia leader and government minister Elie Hobeika
in Beirut – less than two days after he agreed to give evidence against
Mr Sharon in a Belgian court, which may try the Israeli leader for the
murder of up to 1,700 Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Chatila
refugee camps in September, 1982?
[The complete story]
Misery of 'slaughterhouse' tent city
Alex Spillius, Telegraph, January 26, 2002
The war against the Taliban may have been won, but for Unicef the struggle against deprivation has barely begun.
[The complete story]
Saudi Arabia, US: When the relationship sours
Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service, January 26, 2002
Judging by the media coverage, much of the United States and the
international political establishment was taken aback to learn that
Saudi Arabia is considering asking Washington to withdraw its military
presence from the kingdom. But to experts on the US-Saudi alliance,
which dates back to World War II, the story came as little surprise.
[The complete story]
The others
Howard Zinn, The Nation, February 11, 2002
What if all those Americans who declare their support for Bush's
"war on terrorism" could see, instead of those elusive symbols--Osama
bin Laden, Al Qaeda--the real human beings who have died under our
bombs?
[The complete article]
US silence and power of weaponry conceal scale of civilian toll
Craig Nelson, Sydney Morning Herald, January 26, 2002
Many factors combine to make an accurate count of the innocent victims of US bombing in Afghanistan almost impossible.
[The complete article]
Bound and gagged
Charles Glass, The Nation, January 24, 2002
I thought the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution prohibited "cruel
and unusual punishments." I'm looking at the Bill of Rights, the first
ten amendments that Americans regard as sacred, and read the words, "nor
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Full stop. It does not say
that only American passport holders, legal residents of the United
States and members of the Senate who take contributions from
corporations that violate the law are exempt from government torments.
It makes clear that no category of human being is excluded from
America's obligation to refrain from cruel and unusual punishments. The
Eighth Amendment means suspects, it means enemies, it means criminals,
it means prisoners of war, it means--and the term is as new to me and
you as it undoubtedly is to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld--"illegal"
combatants.
[The complete article]
'Vietnam syndrome' is alive and thriving
Mark Weisbrot, Common Dreams, January 25, 2002
Politicians and journalists have interpreted widespread support for
the military actions in Afghanistan as a significant shift in Americans'
attitudes toward war. In the weeks following the massacre of September
11, Vice President Dick Cheney described the crowd's reaction to a
speech he made in New York: "There wasn't a dove in the room," he said
with a smile.
[The complete article]
Key witness blown up in Beirut
Israel denies link to murder of Lebanese warlord who promised to give evidence against Ariel Sharon at Brussels war crimes trial
Brian Whitaker and Ian Black, The Guardian, January 25, 2002
A potential key witness in the Belgian war crimes case against the
Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was blown up outside his house in
Beirut yesterday, together with three bodyguards.
[The complete article]
Iraq - the phantom threat
Scott Ritter, Christian Science Monitor, January 23, 2002
The lack of documentation of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection in this
intelligence trove [coming out of Afghanistan] should lead to the
questioning of the original source of such speculation, as well as the
motivations of those who continue to peddle the "Iraqi connection"
theory. Foremost among them are opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi of the
Iraqi National Congress and his American sponsors, in particular Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, former CIA Director James Woolsey,
and former Undersecretary of State Richard Perle.
[The complete article]
US penal culture baffles its allies
America's absolutist approach to retribution underlies the conditions both at Guantanamo Bay and in its 'supermaximum' prisons
Julian Borger, The Guardian, January 23, 2002
It is hard to imagine how disoriented the new inmates of Camp X-Ray
must feel as they sit staring from their Guantanamo Bay cages. They
signed on to fight a holy war in the dry mountains of Afghanistan, but
have ended up in a sweaty corner of a tropical island on the other side
of the world, being fed bagels and cream cheese a few strips of razor
wire away from one of the world's last outposts of communism.
[The complete article]
Briton [Omar Sheikh] linked to al-Qaida 'behind Calcutta killings'
Peter Popham, The Independent, 24 January, 2002
The drive-by shooting that killed five policemen and left 20 people
wounded outside the American Centre in Calcutta on Tuesday has been
linked by a senior Indian government minister to a Briton thought to
have supplied crucial finance to Mohamed Atta, the pilot of one of the
two planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.
[The complete story]
The story of Omar Sheikh, as told in his own words and reported in the Indian Express last October
It's a 35-page note handwritten in English, gathering dust for over
five years in New Delhi's Patiala House courts. Now it could play a key
role in the September 11 investigation. The author of this note is Omar
Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin who studied at the London
School of Economics and was one of the three militants released by the
Indian Government in the Kandahar hijack drama in 1999.
The FBI is exploring leads that Sheikh could have been involved in the
transfer of $100,000 to Mohammad Atta, one of the hijackers in the
September 11 attacks in the US. Sheikh’s note, describes, in almost
diary-like detail, how he went about his ‘‘kidnapping mission’’ in India
at the behest of his superiors in Pakistan. His mission: to kidnap a
group of foreigners in India and then demand, as ransom, the release of
several Kashmir militants, the most high-profile being Maulana Masood
Azhar. The mission failed, Sheikh was arrested but five years later he
got what he had come for. With Azhar, he was on a plane to Kandahar,
delivered to the Taliban by India's External Affairs Minister, Jaswant
Singh.
[The complete story]
Global aid for Kabul, Iranian arms for Herat
The warlord Ismail Khan has found an eager ally in the fight to keep his regional fiefdom
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, January 24, 2002
The officer, a veteran of the Afghan army, heard a loud noise -
"hummm, like that" - then a big explosion followed by a number of small
ones. The official explanation of the blast that killed at least 18 of
his men was a mishandled rocket. But that is not what he and his fellow
officers believe. "The officers at the military base told me afterwards
it was a cruise missile," he said. Two missiles, in fact, fired with
considerable precision at a shipment of Iranian guns, anti-personnel
mines and other munitions nestling in the military headquarters of
Qul-i-Urdo. It was a sign of Washington's displeasure with the legendary
warlord Ismail Khan who, with Iran's backing, styles himself the emir
of western Afghanistan.
[The complete story]
A fog descends on Kashmir
The situation in Kashmir remains obscured by lies, confusion and bad
weather, as seen when two Dutch nationals were shot dead by the Indian
army
Luke Harding, The Guardian, January 22, 2002
The tiny bedroom where they spent their last hours does not exactly
look like a terrorist hideout. From their window, the two Dutch tourists
had a serene view of Dal Lake, Kashmir's most famous tourist
attraction. They slipped out of the side of their scruffy houseboat last
Sunday morning and headed in the freezing gloom into town. It was
7.15am. What happened next is still not entirely clear. But within
minutes of setting off Indian soldiers had shot Bakiowli Ahmad and
Hassnowi Khaliq dead. The Indian army claims that the two Dutch
nationals - who were Muslims of Moroccan origin - had tried to attack an
army post with knives. "The duo attacked our boys deliberately and
without any provocation whatsoever," GS Gill, a senior Indian army
official, insisted last week. Two of his officers were badly injured, he
said. But few people in Srinagar, the troubled summer capital of
Indian-controlled Kashmir, accept the army's version of events. They
have good reason not to. Since the insurgency against Indian rule in
Kashmir began in 1989, Indian security forces have shot dead plenty of
other people like the two hapless tourists in what are euphemistically
described as "encounters".
[The complete story]
One year on, Bush's US going it alone
Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service, January 22, 2002
One year after George W Bush was sworn in as president of the United
States, prospects for a more peaceful, democratic and equitable world
order about which his predecessor, Bill Clinton, used to wax eloquent,
appear to have receded.
[The complete article]
Afghan Victims of US Bombings Demand Compensation
Agence France-Presse, January 22, 2002
Victims of the September 11 terrorist strikes in the United States
handed over compensation claims to US officials here on behalf of Afghan
civilians who lost family or homes in Washington's retaliatory bombing
campaign in Afghanistan.
[The complete article]
The war against terror is making villains of us all
Camp X-Ray isn't the only disgrace. What about Belmarsh?
Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, January 22, 2002
The pictures of prisoners at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay
in Cuba, facetiously called Camp X-Ray by their guards, and dismissive
remarks about their status and their rights uttered by Donald Rumsfeld,
the US defence secretary, show the complete disregard, not to say
contempt, the Bush administration has for international opinion.
[The complete article]
The getaway - questions surround a secret Pakistani airlift
Seymour M Hersh, The New Yorker, January 22, 2002
American intelligence officials and high-ranking military officers
said that Pakistanis were indeed flown to safety [from Kunduz in
November], in a series of nighttime airlifts that were approved by the
Bush Administration. The Americans also said that what was supposed to
be a limited evacuation apparently slipped out of control, and, as an
unintended consequence, an unknown number of Taliban and Al Qaeda
fighters managed to join in the exodus. "Dirt got through the screen," a
senior intelligence official told me. Last week, Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld did not respond to a request for comment.
[The complete article]
Congratulations, America. You have made bin Laden a happy man
'We are turning ourselves into the kind of deceitful, ruthless people whom bin Laden imagines us to be'
Robert Fisk, The Independent, 22 January, 2002
Shackled, hooded, sedated. Taken to a remote corner of the world
where they may be executed, where the laws of human rights are
suspended. Sounds to me like the Middle East. Shackled, hooded,
threatened with death by "courts" that would give no leeway to defence
or innocence. In fact, it sounds like Beirut in the 1980s.
[The complete article]
Bound, shaved, deprived of sight and sound - how to lose the moral high ground
Lead Editorial, The Independent, January 21, 2002
The photograghs of the prisoners from Afghanistan, bound, shaven and
deprived of sense of sight, sound, touch and even smell, confirm the
folly of the United States in its determination to go it alone in
dispensing justice to those responsible for the mass murders of last
September.
President George Bush asked the world to support him in the war in
Afghanistan and in tracking down al-Qa'ida members elsewhere, and
succeeded in marshalling an unprecedented coalition behind him. Yet it
does not seem to occur to most people in the US that other nations have
an interest in the judicial process now that several hundred alleged
terrorists have been taken prisoner.
[The complete article]
The prime-time smearing of Sami Al-Arian
By pandering to anti-Arab hysteria, NBC, Fox News, Media General and
Clear Channel radio disgraced themselves -- and ruined an innocent
professor's life.
Eric Boehlert, Salon, January 19, 2002
It may not provide him much comfort, but tenured University of South
Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, recently fired after his appearance on
a conservative talk show revived discredited, years-old allegations of
ties to anti-Israel terrorists, may be the first computer science
professor ever mugged by four of the nation's most influential news
organizations.
[The complete article]
How bin Laden network spread its tentacles
Jason Burke, Martin Bright, Anthony Barnett, Nick Paton Walsh and Burhan Wazir, The Observer, January 20, 2002
Since 11 September there have been dozens of arrests throughout the
country [Britain]. A handful have been under the Government's new
emergency internment legislation. Many have been for alleged immigration
offences. The rest are being held under suspicion of breaking existing
anti-terrorist laws. So many suspected al-Qaeda terrorists have now been
arrested in the UK that Belmarsh, the high-security prison in
south-east London, has got a special wing for the 'Binmen' - as they
have been dubbed by guards. Their cells are next to those occupied by
the Real IRA.
The lesson now appears clear. There are al-Qaeda links from Brighton
to Bolton, from Scotland to Slough. The idea that Islamic extremism was
limited to a few loud-mouthed polemicists in north and west London has
been shown to be nothing more than a comforting fallacy. 'For years the
intelligence community has tried to play down the levels of activity and
the threat from Islamic extremism in Britain,' one London-based
security expert said yesterday. 'But they can't do that any longer.'
In Washington, Paris and capitals across the Middle East and Asia,
officials charged with winding up al-Qaeda are pointing to the UK. They
say that Britain is more than just a haven for Islamic dissidents and a
centre for the dissemination of extremist propaganda. The French and the
Americans maintain that the UK has played a key role as a logistics
base for al-Qaeda itself and was critical to the 11 September attacks.
[The complete article]
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HOME
September 11 and the declaration of a "war on terrorism," has
forced Americans to look at the World in a new light. No one can afford
any longer to define the limits of their concerns by refusing to look
beyond this nation's borders. If the freedom that every American
cherishes, is not to become a freedom bound within a fortress, then
every American will need to understand and respect the needs and
concerns of the rest of the World. To this end, The War in Context
invites anyone with interest and an open mind to listen to the critical
discourse in which the policies and actions of the Bush administration
are now being questioned. This debate, which is engaging inquiring minds
inside and outside America, will hopefully inform the development of a
sustainable new world order - a world order in which America is as much
shaped by the World as is the World shaped by America.
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