The Pentagon has promoted or nominated for promotion two senior Army officers who oversaw or advised detention and interrogation operations in Iraq during the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal.The Army promoted Maj. Gen. Walter Wodjakowski, the former deputy commander of American forces in Iraq, earlier this month to be the head the Army’s [...]
Archive for June, 2005
Sistani offers a political compromise
Posted in Igor Volsky Posts, Iraq on June 30, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The President’s lack-luster primetime address confirmed what we have all long suspected: the Bush administration is out of ideas when it comes to defeating the ever-growing insurgency in Iraq. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has endorsed a voting system that would elect candidates via [...]
Bush hides uncomfortable CAFTA realities
Posted in Debt and Trade, Igor Volsky Posts on June 30, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The Bush administration claims that the Central American Free Trade Agreement would bring tougher labor standards to Central American workers. But the agreement, which would encompass the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, would have just the opposite effect. Such [...]
Lies in Primetime
Posted in Igor Volsky Posts, Iraq on June 30, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
For those who heard or read President Bush’s Saturday June 25th radio address, his speech last night, touting a connection between 9/11 and Saddam, was hardly surprising. In an article published on Scoop, investigative reporter Jason Leopold, the journalist who broke the California Blackout and Enron stories, weighed in on Bush’s radio deception– providing the [...]
CIA report: Iraq is a fertile training ground for terrorists
Posted in Igor Volsky Posts, Iraq, U.S. Foreign Policy on June 22, 2005 | 1 Comment »
A classified CIA assessment has revealed that young jihads are leaving Iraq “experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism” and “form a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries.”
According to the report, President Bush’s invasion is “likely to produce a dangerous [...]
PBS funding debate
Posted in Igor Volsky Posts, Media on June 19, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) by 25% in October. The original proposal would have completely eliminated “funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2008, but a Democratic amendment earmarked $400 million so that public broadcasting could use the money in the [...]
Downing Street Memo Hearings
Posted in Igor Volsky Posts, Iraq on June 17, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Thirty U.S. lawmakers gathered in the basement of the U.S. Capital on Thursday to discuss the so-called Downing Street Memo. Chaired by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the hearing featured former ambassador Joseph Wilson, veteran CIA analyst Ray McGovern, and attorney John Bonifaz.
Audio excerpts of the hearings:
Part I
Part II
Part II
Ray McGovern introduces and discusses the memo [...]
Debt relief adopted
Posted in Debt and Trade, Igor Volsky Posts on June 12, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Kevin Danaher, founder of Global Exchange explains the politics of debt relief (mp3, 50 sec)
Finance ministers of the world’s wealthiest nations agreed to wipe out “$40 billion in debt owed by 18 of the world’s poorest countries as part of a major assault on global poverty.” G8 nations (Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Italy, [...]
