Time for Canada to exit NATO
NATO has recently had one of its regular meetings of the "Military Committee" in Victoria, B.C., Canada, with appropriate demonstrations against it for Canada's role within NATO and Afghanistan. Phil Lyons, the organizer of the demonstration, which ended peacefully, says "NATO is now a weapon of American imperialists." Another...Benamar Benatta sues Canada for torture
Benamar Benatta has decided to sue Canada for his treatment at the hands of Canadian and U.S officials. He is asking $35 million. His story begins back in his homeland. Benatta was in a tight spot back in Algeria. In 1992 he joined the air force, but that was the year that the military seized power to prevent the Islamic Salvation...U.S. denies visas to Iranian religious leaders
WASHINGTON (IPS) — A religious delegation from Iran has canceled a scheduled visit to the United States this week after members of the group were denied visas by the State Department. The denial of the visa applications of four of the 14 delegation members was denounced by one of one of the trip's sponsors, who suggested Washington's...An important marker has been passed in global boycott effort against Israel
From a limestone hill rising above Qalandia refugee camp, you can see Jerusalem. I watched a lone figure standing there in the rain, his son holding the tail of his long tattered coat. He extended his hand and did not let go. "I am Ahmed Hamzeh, street entertainer," he said in measured English. "Over there, I played many musical...Muslims scapegoated in Canada
Fear-mongering at the expense of Muslims is the current political game in Canada. In Quebec we have a public consultation on what constitutes "reasonable accommodation" of minorities. That consultation grew out of the code of conduct adopted by the town of Hérouxville, which denounced such behavior as stoning women to death and female...Robert Fisk: Even I question the ‘truth’ about 9/11
Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always soameone in the audience — just one —whom I call the "raver." Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions — often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist — and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a...Bush plans war on Iran
The Sunday Times of London is reporting that the Pentagon has plans for three days of massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran . Last week, Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center , told a meeting of The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal, that the military did not...Examining the religion-building enterprise
Blaming Islam for the lack of democratic and scientific developments in Muslim countries is not a new idea but an old enterprise, rooted in the nineteenth and twentieth century European Orientalism. The late Edward Said succeeded, in the 1980s, in unmasking Orientalist notions within Western academia and exposing its false pretense. In...Canada: Dual citizenship in question
When Canada spent $100 million to rescue Lebanese-Canadians from the war between Israel and Hizbullah last year, some Canadians reacted by accusing these people of being fair weather—or, rather, ill weather—Canadians. As former Immigration Minister Montel Solberg put it, “Canadians want to know that citizenship means something, that we...Strange request from Bush on detainees
The American government has approached Canada on several occasions with a request to admit 17 Ugyhurs being held in Guantanamo. Canada is reluctant to grant this strange request. Obviously, the U.S. has decided that they are not terrorists and not a danger. Yet, it refuses to admit them to the United States and continues to imprison the...Israel “boycotts” Palestinian scholars
When the British University and College Union voted to promote a boycott of Israeli universities, critics hit back with a firm defense of academic freedom. Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, found the very idea of the boycott to be �utterly antithetical to fundamental values of the academy.� Such an action, he said,...Iran ties weaken Iraqi government further
BAGHDAD (IPS) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's increasing ties with Iran have triggered a splintering of his government. Several groups, both Sunni and Shi'a, have followed the Sunni al-Tawafuq bloc (Iraqi Accord Front) in quitting the U.S.-backed government. But Maliki refuses to make the concessions necessary to bring his...Terror label for Revolutionary Guards entrenches U.S.-Iran enmity
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The White House's decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization could deal a double blow to efforts to utilize diplomacy with Iran to stabilize Iraq. Not only does the designation risk undermining the important yet limited talks between the United States and Iran in Baghdad,...Prospects of Armageddon: A strike against Iran
The logic that defends past nuclear atrocities is now used to support a strike against Iran It is appalling, if unsurprising, to read the neoconservative cheerleader Oliver Kamm arguing in these pages that the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki 62 years ago saved lives and ended suffering. The subtext is plain. The...Bush line distorts Iran’s real interest in Iraq
WASHINGTON (IPS) — As U.S. and Iranian diplomats met in Baghdad thisweek for a second round of talks on Iraq, the domestic U.S. political climate appears decidedly more supportive of an aggressive U.S. posture toward Iran than just a few months ago, reflecting the apparent triumph the George W. Bush administration's narrative on Iran's......
E.U. support of U.S. Mideast policy challenged
BRUSSELS (IPS) — The European Union's foreign policy supremo Javier Solana this week declared himself "fully behind" the call for an international conference on the Middle East made recently by U.S. President George W. Bush. But is it time for the E.U. to cease being guided on the Israeli-Palestinian question by the United States, which...The cold war that could explode
Iran's President AhmadinejadsThe release of the 15 British naval personnel this week should not be seen solely within the context of the U.N. sanctions placed on Iran or the tough rhetoric from President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Neither should it be attributed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim of doing......
