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Rape, killings of Iraqis called tip of the iceberg
July 14, 2006Former Army Pfc. Steven Green was arrested this month and charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdering her, her parents and her 5-year-old sister on March 12 in Mahmudiyah, Iraq.
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Bush retreat fails to silence demand: Close Guantanamo!
July 13, 2006WASHINGTON — Fighters for justice and peace greeted a Pentagon memo asserting 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 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 The White House announced that it has withdrawn part of Bush’s 2002 executive order in which he asserted that the detainees are not covered by the Geneva Conventions. Bush...
Read moreEDITORIAL: Standing up for a free press
July 07, 2006Do the American people have a right to know what their government is doing? For President Bush and members of his administration, the given answer would be a resounding “no.” Listening to the administration, one would get the impression that it believes that every time the press refuses to roll over and play dead — every time it uncovers the barbaric conditions in Abu Ghraib or some other Bush-approved torture...
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Chicago torture probe draws worldwide attention
June 30, 2006CHICAGO — As many as 200 people, mostly African American men, were allegedly tortured while in the custody of the Chicago Police Department during the 1970s and ’80s. The goal, victims charge, was to force them to falsely confess to crimes they did not commit. Some of the torture victims, based on their “confessions,” were sentenced to death row. Several were subsequently found innocent and released. Many are still in...
Read moreEDITORIAL: Honoring all the war dead
June 02, 2006Two grim reminders of war’s toll on innocent civilians marked Memorial Day weekend this year. In Iraq, details continued to emerge about the November 2005 tragedy at Haditha, where after a Marine was killed by a roadside bomb, U.S. Marines reportedly slaughtered as many as two dozen unarmed civilians including women and children, and then tried to cover up what had happened. In Afghanistan, demonstrators launched violent protests in Kabul...
Read moreGrowing movement assails Bush torture policy
May 19, 2006WASHINGTON — Two years after photographs exposed U.S. military personnel engaged in torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, demands are rising that President Bush be held accountable for criminal abuses at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret CIA or Pentagon prisons around the world. The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, announced May 12 that 38 Christian, Jewish and...
Read moreGenerals stick by demand: Fire Rumsfeld!
April 21, 2006WASHINGTON — Despite President George W. Bush’s strenuous defense, former high-ranking military commanders continue to demand that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld be fired for his role in the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq. So far, seven retired Army and Marine Corps generals have joined in the call that Rumsfeld be ousted. None has recanted in the face of White House and Pentagon attempts to intimidate them. The Pentagon sent...
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Iraqi women fight for their future amidst new kind of war
April 14, 2006When I telephoned Huda Al-Jazairy in Baghdad exactly two years ago, a bomb had fallen 12 feet from her house. At that time, she told me, “There is no security.” But as bad as it was in 2004, now it’s “below zero.”
Read moreU.S. drops bid to serve on UN human rights body
April 14, 2006UNITED NATIONS — The United States refused to run for a seat on the newly created UN Human Rights Council, the first session of which will take place in Geneva June 19. While U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said this was in part because the U.S. is unhappy with the HRC, several commentators said the Bush administration feared it might not have enough votes in the General Assembly to be elected....
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Peace, peace, peace! Children greet antiwar pilgrimage
March 31, 2006OAKLAND, Calif. — All morning, it was the same. At each schoolyard stop through Oakland’s Fruitvale district, groups of children and teachers gathered outside their classrooms, waiting eagerly to greet the marchers who had walked so far to bring them a message of peace, respect and justice. It was an especially poignant moment for Fernando Suarez del Solar, who with fellow peace leaders Pablo Paredes, Camilo Mejia and Aidan Delgado,...
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