Americas

The U.S. administration, admitting that Iraq posed no threat, have changed their rationale for waging the war from something tangible, i.e. finding “weapons of mass destruction,” to something theoretical, ‘promoting democracy’. As a result, the concept of the “failed and failing state” has been (re)introduced into the lexicon of global politics.

"Sharon's people are closely following events in Washington. They know that Bush is in deep trouble and is fast becoming a Lame Duck. Condi, the duckling, is limping along behind him."

"The Christian Zionists have essentially become Sharon’s mouthpieces, calling on their respective governments to legitimize Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem and to move their embassies there, and not to vote against the rogue state at the United Nations."

"The name War on Terror is itself perhaps the darkest example of Bushspeak. You cannot have a war on ideas, or a war on religious beliefs, or even a war on people's feelings of grievance and injustice. The War on Terror is code for belligerent interference in the Middle East. It is also code for the suppression of dissent in America, something dear to the kind of people with which Bush surrounds himself, people who lie, cheat, and profit from billions of dollars being squandered. And all this crashes over us as a result of what the intelligence community calls blowback from bad policies and neglect of years ago."

"We have 24 hours of news availability on hundreds of television stations in hundreds of markets, but we do not get our necessary ration of truth and facts to allow our democracy to stay healthy. When the government and the complicit media completely control the content of the news, the public only hears what it is supposed to hear, and this favors the status quo, not the real public interest."

"Detlev Mehlis’ role in the investigation into the La Belle bombing raises disturbing questions about his role in the investigation of the assassination of Hariri. As Berlin public prosecutor, Mehlis inadvertently but consistently covered up the dubious involvement of US, Israeli and German intelligence interests in the 1986 terrorist attack; actively built a selective politically-motivated case against suspects without objective material proof; while ignoring and protecting a group of suspects with documented connections to western secret services. This background fundamentally challenges the credibility of his investigation of the Hariri assassination."

"The war in Iraq is a horrific consequence of President Bush’s determination to launch an invasion. That determination repeatedly led to false claims about Iraq -- claims that Bush insisted were certainties. Now, media coverage should clearly explain how the scandal engulfing the White House has its origins in a propaganda campaign for war."

"Under the Coalition, by 2002 the Afghan opium poppy cultivation area had jumped from 3% to 38% of the World total and Afghan opium production was 76% of the World total. By 2004, the Afghan opium poppy acreage had jumped to 67% of the World total and Afghan opium production was 86% of the World total. The US and its Coalition allies (notably the UK and Australia) have a clear complicity in the rapid restoration of the Afghan opium industry to World domination and are accordingly complicit in an estimated post-9/11 opioid-related death toll of 0.4 million (the World), 40,000-60,000 (the US), 3,200 (the UK), 2,000 (Australia) and 1,200 (Scotland)."