Jewish, Arab Americans Disapprove of Bush Policy
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan (IPS) - If U.S. President George W. Bush believed that
aligning U.S. policies more closely to those of the
right-wing Likud government headed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would
win him more votes from Jewish Americans, he should
think again.

That is the message of a new survey of 500 Jewish Americans polled by Zogby
International earlier this month, which found that more
than three-quarters of Jewish voters rated Bush’s handling of the Arab-Israeli
conflict negatively. (more…)

The State of the Media Union
By Norman Solomon
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

My fellow American media consumers:

At a time when news cycles bring us such portentous events as the remarkable wedding of Britney Spears, the advent of Michael Jackson’s actual trial proceedings and the start of the Democratic presidential primaries, it is time to reflect upon the state of the media union.

The achievements are everywhere to be seen and heard.

On more than a thousand radio stations owned by the Clear Channel conglomerate, the programming quality is as reliable as a Big Mac. (more…)

By Peter Deselaers

UNITED NATIONS, Jan (IPS) - U.N. head Kofi Annan has urged European
states to find ways to better manage migration so it benefits migrants as well
as
sender countries and receiving states.

‘’Migrants need Europe. But Europe also needs migrants'’, the U.N. secretary-
general said in a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels.

‘’A closed Europe would be a meaner, poorer, weaker, older Europe. An open
Europe will be a fairer, richer, stronger, younger Europe – provided you
manage migration well.'’ (more…)

By: Venezuelanalysis.com (Tahis G. and Martín Sánchez. Translation by Eva Golinger)

Miami, Venezuelanalysis.com).- Recently, a group of Venezuelan ex-military officers opposed to the democratic government of President Hugo Chavez, openly called for the intervention of the U.S. Army to stop the process of change occurring in Venezuela.

On the local television program Maria Elvira Confronta, hosted by Maria Elvira Salazar on channel 22 in Miami, rebel Venezuelan officer Luis Piña was asked if he would agree with a military invention in Venezuela by the United States and if he would like to see the U.S. Marines walking on his native Venezuelan territory with the intention of overthrowing President Hugo Chavez. (more…)

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Brain Machine Interfaces

Program Manager: Dr. Eric Eisenstadt

The Brain Machine Interfaces Program represents a major DSO thrust area that will comprise a multidisciplinary, multipronged approach with far reaching impact. The program will create new technologies for augmenting human performance through the ability to noninvasively access codes in the brain in real time and integrate them into peripheral device or system operations. Focus will be on the following areas:

1. Extraction of neural and force dynamic codes related to patterns of motor or sensory activity required for executing simple to complex motor or sensory activity (e.g., reaching, grasping, manipulating, running, walking, kicking, digging, hearing, seeing, tactile). This will require the exploitation of new interfaces and algorithms for providing useful nonlinear transformation, pattern extraction techniques, and the ability to test these in appropriate models or systems. (more…)

By Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jan (IPS) The invasion of Iraq was no humanitarian
intervention, Human Rights Watch says in its annual report released in
London Monday.

The human rights organisation’s argument on Iraq marks the keynote
essay in its annual report. The 407-page ‘World Report 2004: Human Rights
and Armed Conflict’ includes 15 reports on varying subjects related to
war and human rights. (more…)

Interview with Bill Fletcher
TransAfrica Forum Delegation Left Venezuela With a Very Positive Image of the Bolivarian Project

By: Edgard A. Hernandez, Venezuelanalysis.com correspondant

After spending seven days in Venezuela in January of 2004 visiting several social organizations and meeting people in the Venezuelan government, the US-based TransAfrica Forum delegation headed by its president Bill Fletcher, actor Danny Glover and others, returned to the United States delighted with the warm treatment that they received from the Venezuelan people.

During their visit, the delegation inaugurated a school dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and also opened up a photo exhibition dedicated to Dr. King’s work and legacy. The TransAfrica Forum delegation visited several poor neighborhoods and met with groups that support Venezuela’s progressive government and also with groups from the opposition. (more…)

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan (IPS) - The head of the world’s biggest private foundation
and major figures in the business community are
calling on the Bush administration and lawmakers to approve huge increases in
development aid to eliminate absolute poverty, the
most effective way to address the global challenges facing the United States,
they argue.

‘’The Seattle Initiative for Global Development'’, which its sponsors are
introducing in meetings with President George W. Bush’s
national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, top cabinet members and key
lawmakers on Capitol Hill, is urging Washington to provide
some 20 billion dollars in annual funding towards that goal. (more…)

New book says Bush Administration has made America vulnerable;
2004 Presidential Election is “not business as usual”

Washington DC: In a speech delivered today at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, acclaimed philanthropist and financier George Soros
said the Bush Administration’s foreign policy was a threat to America and
the world. Soros argued that the Administration’s policies have made
America less safe and have alienated people around the world. Soros stated:
“After September 11th we had the sympathy and support of the entire world.
Today, we are widely feared and resented. It is difficult to think of a
period in history when the standing of America in the world deteriorated so
far, so fast. Even in terms of its own objectives the policies of the Bush
administration have been a dismal failure.” (more…)

Headscarves Blindfold a Government or Two
By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jan (IPS) û A proposed French law to ban the wearing of religious
symbols in schools and public buildings is turning rapidly into an international
joke.

It does not help France that some Germans want to repeat the French move..

The dispute began with headscarves but has not stopped there. In an attempt
to explain that the French law does not target Muslims, French minister for
education Luc Ferry told French parliament last week that Sikh turbans would
have to be invisible under the law. (more…)

By Delphine Minoui
Le Figaro

From the Maghreb to the Middle East, the question of family law is at the heart of political debates in the Arab world. In Iraq, a recent decision of the Governing Council abrogated the code in force since 1959, considered one of the most advanced in the Muslim world. A surprising retreat in a country supposed to be en route towards progress and democracy under the United States’ aegis. In contrast, three months after Mohammed VI’s speech in Morocco on the status of women, the Moroccan Parliament should approve the equality of the sexes today. Algeria lags behind in this regard.
Baghdad: Standing in her high-heeled ankle boots, Samira Hosseini gathered her “friends from the association” in this ruined old building in the center of Baghdad that serves as general headquarters for the League of Iraqi Women. The subject for the day is hot news: “The Provisional Governing Council has decided to abrogate the Family Code and entrust family questions to religious institutions,” explains Samira, Secretary of the League. (more…)

Europeans Urged To Help Themselves And The Poor
By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN, (IPS) An international conference has urged European
nations to boost the share of renewables in their energy consumption and to
assist developing countries in energy strategies.

The call emerged from the three-day ‘European Conference for Renewable
Energy û Intelligent Policy Options’ in Berlin Jan. 19-21. The conference drew
more than 650 participants from 45 countries. (more…)

The State of the Union’s New Educational Eugenics
by Greg Palast

Go ahead, George, and lie to me. Lie to my dog. Lie to my sister. But don’t you ever lie to my kids.

Deep into your State of the Siege lecture tonight, long after sensible adults had turned off the tube or kicked in the screen, you came after our children. “By passing the No Child Left Behind Act,” you said, “We are regularly testing every child … and making sure they have better options when schools are not performing.”

You said it … and then that little tongue came out; that weird way you stick your tongue out between your lips like the little kid who knows he’s fibbing. Like a snake licking a rat. I saw that snakey tongue dart out and I thought, “He knows.” (more…)

ICC to Get Evidence of ‘Illegality’ of War
By Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jan (IPS) - A strong case arguing the illegality of the invasion
of Iraq will be handed soon to the International Criminal Court at The
Hague.

The report prepared by eight leading international lawyers and professors
of law drawn from four countries makes a strong case against the illegality
of the way British and U.S. troops fought the war. (more…)

A Dishonest War
By Edward M. Kennedy
The Washington Post

Of the many issues competing for attention in this new and defining year, one is of a unique order of magnitude: President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq. The facts demonstrate how dishonest that decision was. As former Treasury secretary Paul H. O’Neill recently confirmed, the debate over military action began as soon as President Bush took office. Some felt Saddam Hussein could be contained without war. A month after the inauguration, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said: “We have kept him contained, kept him in his box.” The next day, he said tellingly that Hussein “has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction.” (more…)

Wealth for Just a Few
Analysis by Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Jan (IPS) - Corruption, a lack of transparency, a weak democracy and a population that barely scrapes by while watching the country’s leaders get richer and richer – these are some of the things said to describe the Angola ruled by President José Eduardo dos Santos.

Corruption, a lack of transparency, a weak democracy and a population that barely scrapes by while watching the country’s leaders get richer and richer – these are some of the things said to describe the Angola ruled by President José Eduardo dos Santos. (more…)

Charities Raised More Money in ‘03, but Costs Grew Even Faster
By Stephanie Strom
The New York Times

Monday 19 January 2004

Many nonprofit organizations responding to a new survey managed to increase their revenue in 2003 despite the sputtering economy, but those gains were more than offset by higher costs.

While 64 percent of the 236 organizations across the country that responded reported more income, 66 percent said they had higher costs for health and liability insurance as well as for wages and salaries and other expenses.

More than half of the respondents reported being in “severe” or “very severe” financial stress. (more…)

By Raúl Pierri

MUMBAI, India, Jan 20 (IPS) - The World Social Forum took an historic step
in moving from Brazil to India this year, but there is plenty of room for
improvement, say activists, convinced that the global gathering should head
to Africa in 2006.

Proposals must be formalised, more sectors of society must be encouraged to
participate, and greater solidarity amongst the world’s communities must be
promoted, were some of the ideas presented at the fourth WSF, taking place
in the western Indian city of Mumbai, a six-day event ending Wednesday. (more…)

Halliburton working on Mars drilling technology

New polls show that at a time of record deficits, the public is against spending billions on a Mars mission while cutting domestic priorities. Nonetheless, there is one company that has supported a Mars mission for years: Halliburton. The company, which was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney and is a major financial backer of the Administration, has long supported funding a Mars plan because it is good for its drilling technology business (it was also Cheney who spearheaded the Mars plan inside the White House).
In fact, Kiplinger’s reported back in 2001, “several companies and university labs will stand to benefit from new projects” in a Mars mission—including Halliburton. And the payoff could be big: Citizens Against Government Waste notes that, despite the White House’s initial lowballing, legitimate “cost estimates for the new program range from $550 billion to $1 trillion.” (more…)

Tune In to AIDS Fight, UN Tells World Media

Peter Deselaers

UNITED NATIONS, Jan (IPS) - The media has a key role to play in the fight against the spread of HIV, the deadly virus that causes AIDS, said U. N. chief Kofi Annan on Thursday, urging the industry’s senior officials to do more to fulfil that role.

“I think this is one of the most important meetings this year will bring,” Annan told media leaders from around the world at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The fight against AIDS cannot be won “without the unparalleled power of you (the media)", he added. (more…)

By Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Jan (IPS) - The recent critique of U.S. climate-change
policies by UK Chief Scientific Advisor Sir David King
is a reminder of how differently the two nations approach the issue of global
warming.

In an article in the current issue of the U.S. journal ‘Science’, Sir David
chides the administration of President George W. Bush
for insisting that more research is needed on climate change when, “we already
know enough about the problem to agree on the urgent
need to address it". (more…)

By Luke Harding
The Guardian UK

News agency demands inquiry after American forces in Iraq allegedly treated camera crew as enemy personnel.
The international news agency Reuters has made a formal complaint to the Pentagon following the “wrongful” arrest and apparent “brutalisation” of three of its staff this month by US troops in Iraq. The complaint followed an incident in the town of Falluja when American soldiers fired at two Iraqi cameramen and a driver from the agency while they were filming the scene of a helicopter crash.

The US military initially claimed that the Reuters journalists were “enemy personnel” who had opened fire on US troops and refused to release them for 72 hours. (more…)

Thomas Hurndall finally died this evening, after months in a comatose state, brain-dead after being shot by an Israeli soldier while he pulled a Palestinian child to safety under live gunfire. His family and supporters have called for a vigil outside 10 Downing Street in London tomorrow, Wednesday, at 5.30pm. Bring candles, placards, media. Messages of condolence or encouragement may be sent to the following email address:

messages@tomhurndall.co.uk

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What Price a Life?
The Israeli Army Shot My Son, and the Toll Continues to Rise
by Jocelyn Hurndall
© 2004 The Guardian

Saturday January 10, 2004 – In the pensive hours of the night, I am struck by the varying values that mankind chooses to allot to life - as was my son Tom.

Earlier this month, I read with mixed feelings the news that local Palestinian militia had dynamited an Israeli defense force watchtower in the town of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. It was from this watchtower, which has been responsible for untold misery to many innocent families in Rafah, that Tom was shot in the head last April. At the time he was trying to help Palestinian children to safety. He now lies in a vegetative state in a hospital in London, with no hope of recovery. (more…)

‘Europe Needs a Constitution Fast’
By Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jan (IPS) - Negotiations on a new constitution for Europe should
be concluded soon, a leading think-tank here says.

The European Policy Centre (EPC) is urging the new Irish presidency of the
European Union (EU) to kickstart moves towards a new constitution. EU leaders
failed to agree a constitutional treaty at an intergovernmental conference (IGC)
in December. (more…)

Bush Visits Neighbors No Longer So Friendly

By Richard Boudreaux
The Los Angeles Times

Monday 12 January 2004

A summit will highlight how views have changed in Latin America.

MONTERREY, Mexico — Three months after taking office, a deferential President Bush made his debut on the world stage by embracing — and charming — Latin America.

“I grew up in a world where if you treat your neighbor well, it’s a good start to developing a wholesome community,” he told his 33 counterparts at the Summit of the Americas.

Three years later, Bush is deeply unpopular in much of the region. Latin Americans view him as a distant neighbor at best — often at odds with them over security and trade policies, and aloof from their worst economic and political crises. (more…)

By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 13(IPS) - Diplomacy is no longer an exclusive arena of governments, as proven in the past decade by the growing role of civil society organisations in the international debate – and by the repeated successes of the World Social Forum, now in its fourth year.

This process has been particularly evident since 1992, when the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, also known as the Earth Summit, followed by other global summits on social issues, which included the active participation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). (more…)

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 12 January 2004

Air Force Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski wore the uniform of the United States military for most of her adult life. In the last few years, until her retirement last April after 20 years of service, she has watched the infrastructure of American foreign policy creation rot from the inside out. Her view was not from the cheap seats, from some faraway vantage point, but from the hallways where the cancer walked and talked. Lt. Colonel Kwiatkowski worked in the same Defense Department offices where the cadre of hawkish neoconservatives that came in with George W. Bush trashed America’s reputation, denigrated her fellow soldiers, and recreated the processes of government into a contra-constitutional laughingstock. (more…)

By Ranjit Devraj

MUMBAI, India, Jan 12 (IPS) - A gathering of 75,000 people for the fourth
World Social Forum (WSF) that begins in this bustling Indian port city on
Friday does not impress office clerk Abhay Khadilkar.

In fact, Khadilkar is preparing to leave Mumbai and travel 600
kilometres east to attend a ‘Kumbh Mela’ or mass bathing ritual in the city
of Allahabad, an event that attracts several million people for a month
starting Jan. 15. (more…)

Colin Powell accepted policies on Iraq that he believed were calamitous. He is diminished as a result

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday January 8, 2004
The Guardian

Shortly before the holidays, just before he underwent surgery for prostate cancer, US secretary of state Colin Powell gave a forlorn and illuminating interview to the Washington Post, published only in one brief excerpt. In it he explained that there was no matter of principle over which he would resign and depicted tenure as a long mission of retreat and loss. (more…)

By Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jan (IPS) - Up to a third of animal and plant species could face
extinction by 2050 due to climate change, says a major new study by
international scientists.

The study suggests that between 15 to 37 percent of a sample of 1,103
land plants and animals would become extinct by that date. (more…)

New Contract for Controversial Bechtel Worth Billions
By Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jan (IPS) - The United States awarded a 1.8-billion-dollar reconstruction contract to U.S. engineering giant Bechtel on Tuesday despite charges from watchdog groups that the company is too close to the U.S. administration and that such deals exclude many Iraqis.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said the 24-month ‘Iraq Infrastructure II’ contract will fund a wide range of projects, which include repairing power generating facilities, electrical grids, municipal water systems and sewage systems. (more…)

Le Monde | China and the Dollar
Le Monde | Editorial

January 2004

The continuous decline of the dollar (20% with respect to the Euro in 2003) does not come from a transatlantic commercial battle. It’s not only a matter- perhaps tomorrow a disagreement- between the United States and the European Union. It is certainly part of the arsenal the Bush government is deploying to revive the American economy: doping exports so as to redress an ever more deficient commercial balance. However, the dollar’s decline demonstrates a still deeper phenomenon: the ever tighter interdependence, both economic and financial, between the United States and China. Were it to be confirmed, it would be a major strategic upheaval. (more…)

By James Carroll, 1/6/2004

THE DEMOCRATS see a hobgoblin under the bed, and his name is George McGovern. Low-grade panic is beginning to set in as pundits forecast a repeat of 1972: “As Massachusetts goes, so goes the District of Columbia.” The prospect of “another McGovern” whets the appetite of Bush partisans while generating gloom and shame among Democrats. Howard Dean, for one, flees the association, while other candidates tar him with it.

Here’s the problem: In 1972, McGovern was right. If there is shame attached to that election, it is America’s for having so dramatically elected the wrong man. Apart from the rank dishonesty of Richard Nixon and his administration (a pattern of lies that would be exposed in Watergate), there were two world-historic issues that defined that election, and on both Nixon was wrong. 1972 was a fork in the road, and history shows that the United States made a turn into a moral wilderness from which it has yet to emerge. (more…)

By Sanja Romic

BRUSSELS, Jan 7 (IPS) - The mid-December European summit in Brussels
brought a watershed agreement on EU defence despite the failure to agree a
new constitution.

French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
and British Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed the setting up of a temporary,
independent European Union (EU) planning cell within the North Atlantic Treaty
organisation (NATO) centre at Mons, Belgium. (more…)

By Norman Solomon

t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Sunday 04 January 2004

We can argue about George Will’s political views. But there’s no need to debate his professional ethics.

Late December brought to light a pair of self-inflicted wounds to the famous columnist’s ethical pretensions. He broke an elementary rule of journalism – and then, when the New York Times called him on it, proclaimed the transgression to be no one’s business but his own. (more…)

Analysis - By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan (IPS) - If U.S. President George W Bush were to look east
from his colonial enterprise in Iraq, he may find lessons to draw from the
spirit of democracy due to take hold in the Islamic world this new year.

That is because out of the nine Asian countries where national elections
are to be held, four will be in Muslim nations - Afghanistan, Indonesia,
Iran and Malaysia. The other countries where polls are due in 2004 are
India, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and, possibly, Sri Lanka. (more…)

One After-Effect Could be Détente
Analysis by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan (IPS) - The earthquake that levelled Bam last week
appears to have provided an opening for pro-détente forces in both Washington
and Teheran.

Washington’s sympathy, expressed dramatically in the despatch of relief
workers and a dozen planeloads of emergency aid, elicited warm words from
reformist President Mohammed Khatami and from conservative leaders and
media in Teheran. Up to 50,000 people have died in the earthquake that hit the
ancient Iranian city just before dawn Dec. 26. (more…)

More security, more delays

Jan 5th 2004
From The Economist Global Agenda

More than two years after the September 11th hijackings, aviation security is still being tightened. So too are immigration procedures. Some countries are chafing at America’s stringent new restrictions

Welcome to America: passports and fingers please

IT WAS probably the best-inspected flight in aviation history: British Airways flight 223 finally took off for Washington’s Dulles airport on Saturday, January 3rd after being cancelled on the two previous days owing to security concerns. Its passengers were thoroughly searched and their names checked repeatedly against terrorism watch-lists. Since American homeland-security officials raised their national threat level in December to orange, indicating a high risk of an attack, airlines have been back on the front line of the war on terror. Some recent Air France and Aeroméxico flights have been escorted by American fighter jets or cancelled altogether. The turbulence is unlikely to end soon: on Sunday, Britain’s transport secretary, Alistair Darling, warned that passengers should expect extra security “for many years to comeâ€? and that sometimes the inconveniences will be “quite severeâ€?. (more…)

By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jan 2 (IPS) Increasing takeover of European military industry by U.S.
companies is raising new concerns in France and Germany.

The U.S. investment fund KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co) bought the
German aeronautics firm Motoren und Turbinen Union (MTU) last month for an
estimated 1.8 billion dollars. The firm produces engines for the Eurofighter
aircraft. The company is also a leading supplier to the German federal army
(Bundeswehr). (more…)