Search Results
LETTERS
February 02, 2007Remember Cuba I thank letter writer Bernadette Geller (PWW 1/13-19) for codifying in list form the leaders and nations in Latin and South America that have swerved left these past few years, and are moving in the direction of people-oriented governments and economies. There have even been those heads of state that have been re-elected with substantial mandates. But there was one thing omitted in Geller’s comments. Each and every...
Read more
Book Review: The question of torture, then and now
December 15, 2006Henri Alleg’s book “The Question” is a searing, firsthand account of the torture that the author experienced during the Battle of Algiers. Although it was first published in 1958, it is a book that should still be read today: first, because it is a classic of anti-colonialist literature; and second, because — as the horrors of Abu Ghraib and the current debates in the U.S. about the use of torture...
Read moreEDITORIAL: Human Rights Day
December 08, 2006Many urgent opportunities for action vie for attention on the eve of International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10. Besides speedily ending the Iraq war, two areas where the new Congress can make major progress are passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, and ending the Bush administration’s vile treatment of post-Sept. 11 detainees. The Employee Free Choice Act now before Congress has implications far beyond the workers benefiting directly from...
Read moreLETTERS
October 06, 2006Drug prices I would like to see some organization or publication compare the price of drugs the way we price other familiar items such as steak, vegetables or fruit. For example what would Mobic cost per pound? I think people would be even more shocked if drugs were compared in this way. I am 65 and don’t have to take many drugs yet, but for those who do have to...
Read moreProgressive cinema at 2006 Toronto film fest
September 29, 2006TORONTO — Many consider the Toronto International Film Festival one of the greatest film events of the Western Hemisphere, certainly the most viewer-friendly. Toronto is hosting over 350 films from 60 countries. Some 250 are feature film premieres categorized under the headings of “The Masters,” “Real to Reel,” “Midnight Madness” and others. Films are projected digitally in state-of-the-art theaters, providing clarity and immediacy to screen images. Most filmmakers and cast...
Read more
Outrage over Bushs bid to OK torture
September 22, 2006WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush is meeting stiff resistance both inside and outside Congress as he attempts to ram through legislation to permit use of coerced testimony and secret evidence in kangaroo-style military tribunals at the Pentagon’s detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bush’s legislation would authorize continued use of many of the extreme methods of interrogation outlawed in the 2005 McCain anti-torture amendment and in the Supreme Court’s...
Read moreBush fears war crimes prosecution, impeachment
September 15, 2006With great fanfare, George W. Bush announced to a group of carefully selected 9/11 families that he had finally decided to send Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 13 other alleged terrorists to Guantanamo Bay, where they will be tried in military commissions. After nearly five years of interrogating these men, why did Bush choose this moment to bring them to “justice”? Bush said his administration had “largely completed our questioning of...
Read moreEDITORIAL: The tragedy of Iraq
July 21, 2006An average of more than 100 Iraqi civilians are being killed every day, the United Nations reported July 18 — the highest rate since George W. Bush launched his war. The report, based on Iraqi government figures, says 14,338 civilians — men, women and children — have died in violence in the first six months of this year — 3,149 in June alone. This unspeakable tragedy is the result of...
Read more
Essence music festival declares Peace is power
July 14, 2006HOUSTON — Another Katrina survivor arrived here in July: the annual Essence Music Festival, sponsored by the magazine of the same name, which had to be relocated to the Reliant Center because of continuing adverse conditions in New Orleans. The festival theme was “A call to action to secure our youth” with an opening seminar called “Peace is power.” The festival ran for three days, with all-day seminars and top...
Read more
Bush retreat fails to silence demand: Close Guantanamo!
July 14, 2006WASHINGTON — Fighters for justice and peace greeted a Pentagon memo saying that 1,000 or more detainees at secret U.S. military prisons around the world are protected by the Geneva Conventions. They called for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The White House announced that it has withdrawn part of Bush’s 2002 executive order in which he asserted that the detainees are not covered by the Geneva Conventions....
Read more