Guantánamo video, deserter case draw Canadian criticism of U.S. ties
Toronto — At a glance, they look like unrelated events unfolding thousands of miles apart and yet, they're both windows into Canada's passive partnership with the U.S. in the war on terror. On Tuesday, the release of a previously classified video shows a Canadian teenager accused of killing a U..S soldier in Afghanistan sobbing...Saudi king to lead interfaith talks in Spain
RIYADH — In a first for a Saudi Arabian leader, King Abdullah will convene a conference in Madrid as part of a Saudi outreach to defuse interfaith tensions, improve Islam's image, and restore respect for religious values. King Abdullah's initiative — a three-day meeting starting July 16 that will include Muslim, Christian, and...Does Iran have Bush over a barrel?
WASHINGTON (IPS) — If U.S. President George W. Bush wants to boost Republican chances of holding on to the White House and keeping Democratic gains in Congress to a minimum in the November elections, he might consider taking an attack on Iran before the end of his administration "off the table." Of course, that's probably the last...
Resolutions amount to declaration of war
July 5th, 20080 Non-binding resolutions in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to demand that President Bush impose "stringent inspection requirements" on trade with Iran — language that leaves the door open for a military blockade — will likely come to a vote this week or next, according to sources close to Congressional leadership. The...Anti-torture campaign wins influential backers
WASHINGTON (IPS) — On the eve of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, a bipartisan group of some 200 religious leaders and former top U.S. national security and military officers launched a campaign for a presidential order to outlaw torture and cruel and inhumane treatment of all detainees. The campaign,...China can’t get enough oil
WASHINGTON (IPS) — For China these days it seems that nothing — not rising energy prices, not sanctions aimed at its more unsavory business partners, Burma and Sudan, not even the prospect of a nuclear Iran — can curb its thirst for oil. As China's energy needs grow at a rate higher than any other country's, so too have its...Fearing escalation, Pentagon fought Cheney plan
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the United States would go in escalating the conflict with Iran,...
Supreme Court delivers death blow to Gitmo
June 13th, 20080 The June 12 ruling by the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush delivered a dramatic blow to the president's lawless detention policies and overturned an effort by the previous Congress to eliminate the centuries-old right of habeas corpus. The ruling means that prisoners at the U.S. military base at Guantanámo Bay, who have been held...British PM warns of global oil “shock” as fuel price protests spread
London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned this week that the world faced an era-defining oil "shock" that required urgent action, as European leaders argued how best to contain protests over soaring fuel prices. "It is now understood that a global shock on this scale requires global solutions," Brown wrote in The...Around The World: China hit by massive earthquake
China's confirmed death toll is 41,353 as of May 21, 2008. After last week's massive earthquake, more than 32,000 remain missing. Officials expect the final death toll to exceed 50,000. A survivor searches for his relatives amid the ruins of a collapsed house where he once lived, in earthquake-hit Beichuan, Sichuan province May...A Turkish model for Arab politics?
WASHINGTON — Many are watching closely legal developments in Turkey. A government prosecutor is seeking to ban for five years more than 70 members of the Justice & Development (AK) Party. The charge: contradicting the tenets of secularism guaranteed in Turkey's constitution. The outcome of this case, according to a...Democrats okay funds for covert ops
Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, is "unprecedented in its scope." Bush's secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area — from Lebanon to Afghanistan — but is also far more sweeping in...Jewish Defense League energized by Israel’s far right
TORONTO (IPS) — Like an aging group of retro rocker musicians, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) resurfaced in Toronto recently after a decade of dormancy, trying to look a little more mainstream. The group made its largest public foray in quite some time on Mar. 27, when it hosted a meeting of about 150 for Israeli politician Moshe...
Pollard is the Americans’ Vanunu
May 3rd, 20080 Like a particularly dirty cloud of smog, the Pollard case has been following us for decades, polluting everyone who comes in contact with it. Many of the young men and women who worked on behalf of Jonathan Pollard in the various political frameworks were not even born in his finest days, while the malicious people who handled him...
Pro-Israel group plans to rewrite history on Wikipedia
April 25th, 20080 A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged. A series of emails by......
Muslim reformer’s ‘heresy’: The Islamic state is a dead end
Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naim has seen what can happen to an Islamic reformer: His mentor was executed in 1985 in Sudan; he himself had to flee the country. Still, the self-described "Muslim heretic" has no trouble traveling the Islamic world spreading his controversial message: There is no such thing as an Islamic state. A secular...Report issued on Muslim-West relations
Washington — Interfaith leaders from the worlds of government, religion, academe and civil society gathered at a roundtable organized by the World Economic Forum and Georgetown University, on the occasion of the official U.S. launch of the first "Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue." The report is the first of......
Deterrence: Mother’s milk of nuclear proliferation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced last week that he was cutting France's total nuclear capability to fewer than 300 warheads. This, he said, was a return to Charles de Gaulle's vision of minimal deterrence that would create "strength from weakness." His speech was not only, or even primarily, about French nuclear weapons. It...
A third American war in the making?
April 4th, 20080 The U.S. Congress, the U.S. media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran. If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If there were a shred of integrity left in American political life, perhaps a third act of naked aggression — a third war...‘Fitna’: Dutch leader’s anti-Islam film brings strife
Far-right politician Geert Wilders's latest attempt to air the controversial video has been delayed by U.S.-based website host Network Solutions. The Hague — It's a lurking provocation in Europe's sometimes rocky encounter with its burgeoning Muslim population: For months, a popular, flamboyant far-right Dutch...Easter message from Michel Sabbah
Jerusalem Patriarch challenges the world to build societies, not destroy......
War on Iran may be near
Every horror movie has that "Oh shit!" moment, when the hero or heroes are huddled in some creepy hideout, and suddenly something happens that tells you that the monster is just around the corner, or just about to attack. In "Jurassic Park" it was the pulsing ripples in a cup of water, heralding the arrival of a T-Rex. In "Jaws" it...Heads to the right
It is still unclear whether the terrorist who entered the Mercaz Harav yeshiva on Thursday night and killed eight of its students knew exactly what place he was entering. But the thousands of people who walked behind the coffins on Friday knew very well. "The flagship of religious Zionism" was the common expression used, the "holy of......
Islamic law in non-Muslim countries
Recently, Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England, delivered a speech about the inevitability of having an Islamic legal system implemented in Britain. His words caused a media frenzy, as some individuals and organizations politicized his statements, shifting the focus from a legitimate...Canada’s response to Israel’s actions in Gaza – biased, ignorant and ineffective
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier issued a news release expressing his concern about the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip. It does nothing to help resolve the situation and only demonstrates that the Canadian government is only putting out more face-saving rhetoric for the international community and to......