Recent revelations indicate that the President of the United States continues to flout the law. In December, we learned that Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by wiretapping without a warrant. Two weeks ago, the Boston Globe revealed that Bush has claimed… Read more »
Now that the mission – whatever it was – has not been accomplished in Iraq, Bush is setting up a potentially bigger disaster in Iran. Last month, Seymour Hersh revealed that the US military is making preparations for an attack on Iran. Recent events confirm Hersh’s report. The Bush administration is stepping up the pressure… Read more »
Last week, the President of the United Nations General Assembly announced a new proposal to revamp the UN Human Rights Commission and rename it the UN Human Rights Council. The product of months of negotiations between the 53 member nations of the Commission, the proposal will be voted on by the General Assembly next month…. Read more »
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency and its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The award was a slap at George W. Bush, who had pressed for ElBaradei’s removal just months before. It was also a blow to Bush’s policies of… Read more »
Laden with heavy security, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a quick visit to Haiti on Tuesday. Her mission: to reassure Haiti’s interim government that the United States wants the elections to go forward in November, and to see to it that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide does not return to Haiti. Once again, the US is… Read more »
The 1945 nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people, mostly civilians. Many tens of thousands more have been afflicted with radiation-induced cancers, immunologic disorders, birth defects, and lasting psychological trauma. For years, the United States government engaged in a massive cover-up of the devastation wreaked by its… Read more »
George Bush and John Bolton have a symbiotic relationship. They need each other to nail shut the coffin of the United Nations, to make the world safe for US domination. Bolton’s record of cooking intelligence to whip up US aggression against other countries fits nicely with Bush’s modus operandi. In 2002, while Bush told Tony… Read more »
Challenging US Human Rights Violations Since 9/11Ann Fagan Ginger, ed., Prometheus Books, 2005, 574 pp. The Bush administration is using the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as an excuse to launch a massive assault on the human rights of people throughout the world. From the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, to the torture and… Read more »
John Bolton is the wrong man for the job of US ambassador to the United Nations. His status as an avowed UN-hater, standing alone, disqualifies him. But there are other, stronger reasons to reject his appointment to that important post. Bolton’s performance in his current position as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and… Read more »
John Bolton refused to come clean at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, playing down his contempt for the UN and for international law. Bolton, who claimed in 1994, “there is no such thing as the United Nations,” pledged to forge a “close partnership” with the UN if confirmed as US… Read more »