AltWeeklies Wire
What's Going On in Zimbabwe?new

The latest African despot to lose his mind very publicly and very destructively is 82-year-old Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. In what may be an unprecedented event in the history of dictatorship, Mugabe rigged this year's presidential and parliamentary elections but still lost.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andi |
06-25-2008 |
Commentary
How US Terror Policy is Ruining Your Summer Concert Seasonnew

Summer concert season has just begun, but some of your favorite acts won't be coming to a city anywhere near you -- they'll be stranded in visa purgatory.
Boston Phoenix |
Jason O'Bryan |
06-19-2008 |
Music
Score: Constitution 5, Gulags 4new
The supreme court's recent decision not only restored habeas-corpus rights to enemy combatants, but gave all of us one our most important civil-liberty victories to date.
Boston Phoenix |
Harvey Silverglate |
06-19-2008 |
Civil Liberties
America: The 'Oops' Nation
Prisoners at Guantánamo and possibly other American gulags, will now be allowed to demand their day in court. Since the government doesn't have evidence against them, legal experts say, most if not all of "the worst of the worst" will ultimately walk free. "Liberty and security can be reconciled," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.
In short: Oops.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
06-16-2008 |
Commentary
A Night in Guantánamonew

I'd volunteered to spend the night in the replica cell (which is modeled on the ones at Gitmo) because we've all heard stories about unlivable conditions at Gitmo but can't come close to imagining what it must be like.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
06-12-2008 |
Civil Liberties
Is al-Qaeda Near Defeat?new
If it is, no one has yet informed its A/V department. In the past year, Osama bin Laden and his loyal cavemate Ayman al-Zawahiri (the Smithers of jihadi terrorism) have swamped my al-Netfliqs queue with at least 19 audio and video missives between them.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
06-11-2008 |
Commentary
Too Many Journalists are Just Genetically Modified Mouthpiecesnew
In 2003, when I was working as an anchor for a San Francisco TV station, newscasters and reporters across the country were asked by the White House to refer to the Iraqi invasion as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). We were asked to call the war in Afghanistan Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). With press releases in hand, journalists repeated genetically modified words as if their DNA depended upon it.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Leslie Griffith |
06-11-2008 |
Media
Tags: Iraq, War on terror, journalism, media, Afghanistan, language, war & peace, rhetoric, public relations
What's the Latest from Pakistan?new
The next big event to keep an eye on in Pakistan is whether President Pervez "The Perv" Musharraf steps down.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
06-05-2008 |
Commentary
What is the Country Reports On Terrorism?new
Country Reports On Terrorism is published each spring by the State Department. The State Department doesn't do it out of the goodness of its bureaucratic heart. The report is mandated by Congress. It is an ugly catalog of who's blowing up whom and it's not pretty.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
05-16-2008 |
Commentary
Those Who Promise to be 'Tough on Terror' Ignore Its Root Causesnew
American intervention overseas, from never-ending sanctions on Iraq to permanent military bases on the Arabian Peninsula, is without question the primary cause for 9/11 and the current terrorist threat, a point the 9/11 Commission Report also made perfectly clear. But this is not the answer America is used to hearing from its politicians.
Charleston City Paper |
Jack Hunter |
05-07-2008 |
Commentary
This Memoir from a Survivor of American Torture May Help U.S. Face Realitynew

Reading Five Years of My Life, I realized the situation at Guantanamo is both better and worse than I had feared -- worse because the torture is so severe, so constant, so senseless, and so institutionalized, and better because someone who was subjected to it has survived with his soul intact.
Santa Barbara Independent |
Hannah Tennant-Moore |
04-28-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Harold and Kumar' Star John Cho on the Stoned Sequelnew

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay's politics are as muddled as the baked-out minds that will appreciate it best. But the very existence of a new lowbrow comedy focusing on the U.S. government's racist persecution of innocent people should give the Republicans more fright than Obamamania.
Montreal Mirror |
Malcolm Fraser |
04-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
What is a Nuclear Umbrella?new

At last week's Democratic presidential debate (the one between Sens. Barack Hussein Lapel Pin and Senator Hillary Rodham-Sniper-Fire), the subject of extending our nuclear umbrella to defend Israel against Iran came up. Sen. Sniper-Fire even suggested that our umbrella should be tilted to shield Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
04-24-2008 |
Commentary
The Spurlock Doctrinenew
As comedy, sure! As journalism, not so much.
Sacramento News & Review |
Jonathan Kiefer |
04-16-2008 |
Reviews
Take John Yoo to the International Criminal Courtnew
Yoo blithely tossed out the window the legal principle, enshrined in federal law, of posse comitatus, which says that the military cannot exercise law-enforcement functions that are the province of state officials. The president, in wartime, has the powers of a king, if you believe what Yoo wrote.
Baltimore City Paper |
Brian Morton |
04-15-2008 |
Commentary