Dear Friends,
We invite you to visit us at our new website! We wish to thank each of you for the many kind words we receive every day, via e-mails, about our newsletter. We hope you will enjoy the website as well. You are invited to submit articles, your own essays, poetry and art. A big thanks to everyone who helped us name the site with the many names and suggestions you sent in. Any additional suggestions to help us enhance the new site are most welcome!
We also wish to thank Fariba Agheli,who contributed so much of her time and
- Les Blough, Boston, MA
(Note: Our Editorial Group researches and distributes news and information often not presented in the major news outlets. We also announce action alerts, conferences and seminars. If you wish to be taken off this list-serve, please reply accordingly and please accept our apology. If you know someone who wishes to receive our news daily, please feel free to tell them about us and send them our e-mail address [rmc2001@earthlink.net]. Also, your comments and submissions are welcomed. - Les Blough)
- I await the hour when a journalist can be driven from
- the press room for venal practices, as a minister can be
- unfrocked, or a lawyer disbarred.
- -- John Haynes Holmes
US Compromises at UN but Keeps Control of Iraq Oil, by Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, May 20, 2003
United Nations- In hopes of getting strong U.N. support, the United States made some concessions in its quest to lift 13-year-old trade sanctions against Iraq (news - web sites), somewhat enhancing the role of the United Nations (news - web sites) and opening the door for the return of U.N. arms inspectors.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=1&perpage=5
Acts of Hope: Challenging Empire on the World Stage, by Rebecca Solnit, Orion Magazine, May 20, 2003
‘I Am in the Midst of a Genocide’: E-Mails from Gaza, by Rachel Corrie, published on Monthly Review, May, 2003 (Editor's Choice)
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_161.shtml
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The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart. He does not think
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beforehand that his words shall be sincere, nor that his acts shall be resolute;
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he simply abides in the right.
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~ Mencius
Disunited nations - In the first of this week's series on global institutions, Jonathan Steele examines how the conflict in Iraq has undermined the role of the UN Tuesday, The Guardian, May 20, 2003
"The worldwide attention given to every report the inspectors made to the security council were unprecedented. Not since the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 had the council's proceedings been followed so avidly. Yet in the end the UN was humiliated. The US went to war regardless. A triumph of international debate ended in a tragedy of unilateralism. "Since the end of the cold war, the UN has never been so weak. The situation is disastrous," says Dr Volker Stanzel, director general for political affairs at Germany's foreign ministry."
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=1&perpage=5
Shiites March in Baghdad Against U.S. Occupation, by Hamza Hendawi, AP, May 19, 2003
10,000 Shias (by western news reports) marched against the occupation of their country by U.S. invaders yesterday. In solidarity with one another, they chanted "No Shi’ites and no Sunnis - just Islamic unity!" Others chanted, "No to the foreign administration!". The U.S. Office there reported, ". . . it did not mind such demonstrations but expressed confidence that a majority of Iraqis welcome the new authorities." - Ed.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=1&perpage=5
Iraq
- Kurd-Arab clashes imperil Iraq cease-fire, by Charles A. Radin, Boston Globe, May 20, 2003
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- A Civil War budding in Iraq?
Kirkuk, Iraq -- A wave of village burnings, forcible evictions, and armed clashes between Kurdish forces and Arab fighters is sweeping through north-central Iraq in an outbreak of ethnic strife that threatens the tenuous cease-fire imposed by the US-led coalition.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?start=6&template=index%2Fdefault.html&perpage=5
North Korea
U.S. Seen Cracking Down on North Korea's Exports, by Carol Giacomo, Reuters, May 15, 2003
Washington - The Bush administration, aiming to increase pressure on North Korea (news - web sites) to abandon nuclear arms, intends to crack down on narcotics and missile exports that earn hard currency for Pyongyang and may agree on a plan in the next few weeks, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?start=6&template=index%2Fdefault.html&perpage=5
North Korea
North Korea Warns South of 'Disaster', by Soo-Jeong Lee, AP, May 20, 2003
Seoul, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) condemned a recent summit between President Bush (news - web sites) and South Korea (news - web sites)'s president, and warned Tuesday of an "unspeakable disaster" for the South if it confronts the communist state over its nuclear weapons programs.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?start=6&template=index%2Fdefault.html&perpage=5
- You ask me why I dwell
- amidst these jade green hills
- I smile, no words can tell
- the stillness in my heart
- the peach bloom on the water
- how chantingly it drifts!
- I live in another realm here
- beyond the world of men.
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- Li T’ai-Po
Iraq
Four U.S. Marines Die in Iraq Helicopter Crash, Reuters, May 19, 2003
There seem to have been an inordinant number of U.S. helicopter "crashes" over the last year in Afghanistan and Iraq, no? -Ed.
Washington - Four U.S. Marine Corps crewmen were killed on Monday when their CH-46 "Sea Knight" helicopter crashed into a waterway near Kerbala in Iraq (news - web sites), defense officials said.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?start=6&template=index%2Fdefault.html&perpage=5
Europe
Curb government war powers, say MPs, by Matthew Tempest, The Guardian, May 20, 2003
Parliament should be able to veto the government's power to send British troops to war, an influential committee of MPs said today. In the wake of the second Gulf war, the public administration committee is calling for radical constitutional reform which would see a range of powers - including sending troops to war and conferring honours - taken from the government and handed to parliament.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?start=6&template=index%2Fdefault.html&perpage=5
U.S. News/Comment
You let al-Qaida off hook, Bush told; Democrats attack presidential record on homeland security, Matthew Engel, The Guardian (UK), May 19, 2003
The attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca emboldened the Democrats contending for next year's presidential nomination to launch the most vigorous attack yet on President George Bush's war on terrorism.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=11&perpage=5
Saudi Arabia
Saudi, U.S. Officials Warn of New Attacks, by Donna Abu-Nasr, AP, May 20, 2003
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - U.S. diplomats said Tuesday more attacks in Saudi Arabia were "imminent" and closed their embassy and consulates for a few days in response. A Saudi official said investigators believed about 50 hard-core Muslim militants were ready to volunteer for suicide strikes like the ones that targeted Westerners in the capital last week.
- It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
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- ~Delores Ibarruri
Blair: Britain will veto EU control of tax and defence, by Andrew Grice and Stephen Castle in Brussels, May 20, 2003
Tony Blair warned last night that he would veto important parts of a proposed blueprint for the European Union unless it preserved Britain's right to keep control of tax and foreign and defence policy.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=11&perpage=5
Saudi Arabia
Saudi, U.S. Officials Warn of New Attacks, by Donna Abu-Nasr, AP, May 20, 2003
Saudi Arabia - U.S. diplomats said Tuesday more attacks in Saudi Arabia were "imminent" and closed their embassy and consulates for a few days in response. A Saudi official said investigators believed about 50 hard-core Muslim militants were ready to volunteer for suicide strikes like the ones that targeted Westerners in the capital last week.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=11&perpage=5
Israel
Three Israelis killed as wave of suicide attacks gathers strength, by Eric Silver, The Independent, May 20, 2003
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up yesterday at the entrance to a crowded shopping centre in the northern Israeli town of Afula, killing three Israelis and wounding at least 18.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/search.cgi?template=index%2Fdefault.html&start=11&perpage=5
Critical Analysis
A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America, by Wendell Berry, Orion, May 20, 2003
The New National Security Strategy published by the White House in September 2002, if carried out, would amount to a radical revision of the political character of our nation. Its central and most significant statement is this:
While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support of the international community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self defense by acting preemptively against such terrorists...
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_146.shtml
- People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
- But you are life and you are the veil.
- Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror.
- But you are eternity and you are the mirror
- ~Kahlil Gibran
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