News Abroad

White House Lies: A Brief History

by John Quigley

The White House's selective use of intelligence information to provide a reason for war in Iraq stems in significant measure from the capture of the Bush administration by elements with their own foreign policy agenda. For the grouping associated with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the issue of Iraq's weaponry provided a public rationale for an invasion carried out for other aims. A false case on Iraq's weaponry was broadcast to the world in Secretary of State Colin Powell's now inf

Why Haiti's Such a Mess (And Why Bill Clinton Was So Wrong to Prop Up Aristide)

by Michael Radu

Ten years ago, in September 1994, U.S. troops invaded Haiti under the auspices of restoring democracy, human rights and the rule of law. At the time, the Clinton-conceived operation was hailed by leftists as a model of liberal interventionism, as former Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was restored to power and an oppressive military regime was ousted. There was only one problem with this scenario: not only was Aristide vehemently anti-capitalist and (ironically) anti-American, he was e

Why Israelis Are Now Bad-Mouthing the World Court

by Howard N. Meyer

Reports of a case involving Israel that will be heard at The Hague on February 23 have troubled the government and people of the Jewish State and aroused concern among her American supporters. The International Court of Justice, the “World Court,” was requested by the U.N. Assembly to render an Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel 's construction of a barrier that will separate portions of the West Bank from Israeli territory. The barrier will be a wall twenty

Should You Read the Koran to Understand Muslim Terrorism?

by Daniel Pipes

"Anyone concerned with what's happening in our world ought to spend some time reading the Koran." Andy Rooney, the famed CBS commentator, gave this advice shortly after 9/11, as did plenty of others. His suggestion makes intuitive sense, given that the terrorists themselves say they are acting on the basis of the holy scripture of Islam. Accused 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta had a Koran (sometimes spelled Qur'an) in the suitcase he had checked for his flight. His five-page document

Iraq: A Short History of What Went Wrong

by Harvey Sicherman

Editor's Note: This brief history of what went wrong in Iraq was published in mid-August by the Foreign Policy Research Institute. It remains surprisingly undated. We are republishing it to draw attention to the fact that so little has changed, despite the many events that have taken place in Iraq in the interim: the bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad, the capture of Saddam, the struggle with Ayatollah al Sistani over the schedule of elections. Nearly half a year later the situation rem

The Arithmetic of America's Military Bases Abroad: What Does It All Add Up to?

by Chalmers Johnson

As distinct from other peoples, most Americans do not recognize -- or do not want to recognize -- that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire -- an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class.

Lessons from the Mexican War We Ignore at Our Peril

by John C. Pinheiro

Many Americans look no further into their past than the Vietnam War for instructive analogies about Iraq. They had better search further. While comparisons of Iraq with Vietnam may stir Howard Dean's supporters to send him their milk money, they obscure rather than clarify what's needed to "win the peace" in Iraq.The Vietnam experience justifiably impels Americans to question Pentagon statements, presidential promises and the need of armed intervention overseas. Understandab

Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

by Jack Miles

A week or so ago, President Bush scandalized some of his evangelical fans by innocently asserting, during his trip to England , that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Evangelical theologian Richard Land, speaking for the scandalized, rebuked the President for what Land calls playing “theologian-in-chief.” In Land's view, “When President Bush concludes that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, he is simply mistaken.” In my view and that of some evangelicals as well, notably

Are Democrats in Denial About 9-11?

by Daniel Pipes

For about a year, Republicans and Democrats agreed on the need vigorously to prosecute the war on terror. No longer. Nearly all the Democratic presidential contenders as well as other heavyweight Democrats have spoken out against the war on terror, preferring it to be a police action against terror. Howard Dean , replying to a question that if bin Laden should be caught, whether to put him to death:"I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I s

Why You Should Still Worry About Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East

by William Lambers

Saddam Hussein's regime is gone. An Iraqi nuclear weapons program is no longer to be feared. Libya has just relinquished its weapons of mass destruction programs. These recent developments no doubt bring comfort to some. But we can't rest easy. The dangers of nuclear weaponry still exist in the Middle East. Israel has nuclear weapons, and its rival Iran is suspected of developing them. Other Middle Eastern nations may resort to nuclear weapons as a response to Israel's and Iran's possession of them. The Middle East can avoid the vicious cycle of nuclear proliferation, as one past example suggests. More than 40 years ago, the nations of Latin America also faced the threat of nuclear weapons in their region. In September 1962, Brazil called for a Latin American nuclear weapon-free zone. Just one month later, the Soviets placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The resulting Cuban missile crisis almost led to a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States.

America's Abominable Record in Okinawa

by Chalmers Johnson

America's 703 officially acknowledged foreign military enclaves (as of September 30, 2002), although structurally, legally, and conceptually different from colonies, are themselves something like microcolonies in that they are completely beyond the jurisdiction of the occupied nation.1 The United States virtually always negotiates a"status of forces agreement" (SOFA) with the ostensibly independent"host" nation, including countries whose legal systems are every bit (and perhaps more) sophisticat

After Saddam ... Now What?

by Kenneth M. Pollack

The Middle East is in a great deal of difficulty right now, after Saddam Hussein and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Not only do we have a mess in Iraq to fix, but there is an even bigger mess out there in the larger Middle East. We're going to need to deal with that mess, too, if we are going to be able to defend our interests and our own security from the threats we now face in the region. The Arab states are broken. They are absolutely stagnant, politically, economically, and socially. And the

Why Profiling Is Necessary (If Its Done Right)

by Daniel Pipes

In mid-November, Yusuf Suleman Motala, a Muslim leader in the United Kingdom said to be highly regarded and have a vast following, was at Heathrow Airport on his way to the lesser pilgrimage in Mecca. But British officers stopped him and Mr. Motala reports they asked him questions about the Islamic religion, the instruction at schools under his guidance, and his association with"jihadi groups." The resulting delay caused him to cancel his pilgrimage. The Muslim Council of Britain respo

Try Saddam In Iraq--But With International Advisors

by Nikolas K. Gvosdev

From Baghdad to Washington, from Teheran to Paris, the world agrees: Saddam Hussein should be held accountable for his crimes. But who should Saddam answer to -- a domestic Iraqi court or an international tribunal? Washington wants to avoid creating something like the Nuremberg tribunal, convened by the victorious Allies after World War II to hold Nazi leaders accountable for "crimes against humanity." Having declined to ratify the 1998 Rome Statute creati

Who Is Yasir Arafat?

by Barry and Judith Colp Rubin

In the summer of 1994,Yasir Arafat made a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with a special request. After months of tortuous secret negotiations that came close to collapse on many occasions, the two leaders had finally signed the detailed deal on how they would implement the peace process. Arafat was about to return to his ancestral homeland to rule the Gaza Strip and Jericho, starting a transition period that - if all went well - would produce an independent Palestin

Saddam's Capture: Roundup of Articles

Articles Published on HNN Reflections on the Capture of Saddam Juan Cole After Saddam's Capture: Will His Apologists Now Recant? Irfan Khawaja Roundup of Excerpts Published on Other Websites Put Saddam on Trial From the Iraqi Perspective, Paul Bremer's Press Conf

About Iraq: What Tocqueville Would Advise If He Were Alive Today

by Robert Widen

MemorandumFrom: Alexis de Tocqueville To: People of Iraq Re: Democracy in Iraq A new birth of freedom can be a blessed event, but it's painful. In 1831, when Gustave de Beaumont and I left France to visit the United States to examine first hand this interesting experiment in democracy, Americans had yet to experience their most excruciating moment of freedom's birth, the Civil War. Yet they had already surmounted the major obstacle

After Saddam's Capture: Will His Apologists Now Recant?

by Irfan Khawaja

An old, mad, blind and despised king …. --Shelley   Has it come to this then: an unconsciously held ideology that permits the most scandalous and disgusting lies—execrably written, totally disorganized, hysterically asserted—to pass as genuine scholarship, factual truth, political insight, without any significant challenge, demurral, or even polite reservation? --Edward Said, “Conspiracy of Praise,” Blaming the Victims (1988), p. 30.As I sit here refl

Reflections on the Capture of Saddam

by Juan Cole

Seeing a captive, disheveled Saddam on television released a cascade of memories for me. I remembered the innocent Jews brutally hanged in downtown Baghdad when the Baath came to power in 1968; the fencing with the Shah and the Kurds in the early 1970s; the vicious repression of the Shiites of East Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala in 1977-1980; the internal Baath putsch of 1979, when perhaps a third of the party's high officials were taken out and shot, so that Saddam could become president; the

Will Baghdad Be Another Stalingrad?

by Geoffrey Roberts

"Iraq will become a second Stalingrad for the British and American invaders," claimed Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's deputy, in an interview with Izvestia. Aziz's comments were prompted by the 60th anniversary of the German surrender at Stalingrad in February 1943. His words would have struck a deep chord with the Russian newspaper's readers, but Baghdad is not Stalingrad. While Aziz might have hoped for a dramatic reversal of the Anglo-American invasion, the