Archive for August, 2002
Iraq and Poison Gas
“It is suddenly de rigueur for US officials to say, "Saddam Hussein gassed his own people." They are evidently referring to the Iraqi military’s use of chemical weapons in the Iraqi Kurdistan town of Halabja in March 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War, and then in the area controlled by the Teheran-backed Kurdish insurgents after the [...]
Anti-Summit Decries U.N. Trade Agenda
“So frustrated are many South Africans with global trade’s failures to improve their living conditions that there are not one, but two alternative conferences in Johannesburg this week. The Global People’s Forum is a gathering of trade unions, relief agencies and anti-globalization activists being held at a soccer stadium in Soweto, the all-black township that [...]
Uganda Troop Pullout from Congo Complete – Army
“The U.N. has only 4,200 personnel in Congo, Africa’s third largest country, and member states have failed to provide another 1,500 requested by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. By contrast, the U.N. deployed 17,500 peacekeepers to end civil war in tiny Sierra Leone.” (washingtonpost.com)
Lack of Basics Threatens World’s Poor
“The United Nations says that 1.1 billion people lack clean drinking water and that 2.4 billion need access to sanitation. More than 2.2 million people in poor countries die each year from illnesses associated with dirty water and poor sanitation.” NY Times
Secrets and Lies – Seventy-five little reasons to be terrified of the FISA court. By Dahlia Lithwick
“The Fourth Amendment guarantees that "the right … against unreasonable searches and seizures ?
US blocks move to give powers to those threatened by multinationals
“The United States is blocking human, environmental and freedom of information rights from being enshrined in the earth summit’s plan of action in order to protect multinational companies from litigation and protests by the poor. The EU and developing countries such as Thailand, Uganda and Indonesia believe that giving communities the right to take on [...]
Who Declares War? White House v. Congress
Thanks to Tapped for finding this Legal blog which discusses the constitutionality of the White House’s assertion that it doesn’t need Congress to start a war with Iraq. “As I understand it, the White House counsel’s conclusion that the president can commit forces to Iraq without further congressional action rests on three grounds: first, the [...]
Report of Mass Afghan Graves Won’t Be Probed, Envoy Says
“The U.N. special representative in Afghanistan said today that the weakness of the Afghan government and the risk to investigators or witnesses make it almost impossible to investigate reports that there are mass graves in northern Afghanistan.” washingtonpost.com
Apple: Burn DVDs–and we’ll burn you
“At issue in the legal threat is Apple’s well-received iDVD application, which permits users to burn DVDs only on internal drives manufactured by Apple. In unmodified form, it does not permit writing to external drives manufactured by third parties. That means Macintosh owners with older computers or laptop computers, or people who opted not to [...]
Court Calls For Open Detainee Hearings
“Under the order, "The Executive Branch seeks to uproot people’s lives, outside the public eye, and behind a closed door," Senior Judge Damon J. Keith wrote in the opinion for the court. "Democracies die behind closed doors. The First Amendment, through a free press, protects the people’s right to know that their government acts fairly, [...]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
