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US Imperialism

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    The Meaning of Gaza Bilal El-Amine February 11, 2009

    The Israeli assault on Gaza was a brutal and one-sided onslaught where one of the most powerful armies in the world used its deadliest weapons against a virtually defenseless population. Like the Lebanon war in 2006, Israel's military campaign was little more than a string of war crimes that succeeded only in butchering thousands of civilians (including a frightening number of children) but did little to weaken the resistance, the declared target of the war.

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    Aafia Siddiqui: Another Person Disappeared in the War on Terror Cullen Goldblatt January 01, 2007

    SEEKING INFORMATION states the FBI in large bold letters at the top of the notice, then:

    Date of Birth Used: March 2, 1972

    Details: Although the FBI has no information indicating this individual is connected to specific terrorist activities, the FBI would like to locate and question this individual.

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    Waning US Influence in the Middle East Rayan El-Amine October 01, 2008

    The countries of the Middle East will be going through a transition of enormous proportions in the next few months. The context of the coming changes is the United States' waning influence in the region - evidenced by their utter failure to bring forth their version of a "New Middle East." Washington's crusade in the region has not only led to catastrophic failures for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also has led to the weakening of US allies in the region. This period of change carries many risks but there are also real opportunities for the people of the region to reclaim some control over their own affairs.

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    Echoes of Seattle: From Manama to Casablanca Sonya Meyerson-Knox July 14, 2002

    They’re talking about McDonald’s and Starbucks. Someone’s already downloaded the facts about a Burger King restaurant in an Israeli settlement, and now they’re compiling a “Top Ten American Companies to Boycott—and Why” list. They’re talking about petitions, about email forwards, maybe building a website, sending out cellular phone text messages. It could be New York or San Francisco, Porte Allegre or Buenos Aires. It happens to be Beirut, Lebanon.

    America’s left had its Seattle. The Middle East just had its equivalent.

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    The Media & War Eric Laursen February 14, 2003

    "I did not look on the press as an asset. Frankly, I looked on it as a problem to be managed.”
    —Then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, on how he managed press coverage during the 1991 Gulf War.

    Was Dick Cheney the father of modern warfare? If not, he at least helped birth the postmodern art of wartime press management as Defense Secretary during the first Gulf War in 1991. Now, along with his old White House mentor Don Rumsfeld and sidekicks Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, Cheney is no doubt looking forward to another lightning campaign against Saddam Hussein and another free pass from an obliging press corps.

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    An Antidote for Apathy: Venezuela's President Has Achieved a Level of Grassroots Participation Our Politicians Can Only Dream Of Selma James August 13, 2004

    Increasing numbers of people, especially the young, seem disconnected from an electoral process which, they feel, does not represent them. This is part of a general cynicism about every aspect of public life.

    Venezuela has many problems, but this is not one of them. Its big trouble - but also its great possibility - is that it has oil; it is the fifth largest exporter. The US depends on it and thus wants control over it. But the Venezuelan government needs the oil revenue, which US multinationals (among others) siphoned off for decades, for its efforts to abolish poverty. Hugo Chávez was elected to do just that in 1998, despite almost all of the media campaigning against him.

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    Clash of Civilizations? Junaid Ahmad September 14, 2004
      The fashionable idea amongst some Western “experts” of Islam has been that there is an inherent tendency in Western civilization and Islamic civilization to remain on a permanent collision course. Deriving its Islamophobic venom from such establishment apologists as Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis, this particular worldview gained renewed legitimacy after September 11. The fact that it was Muslims who carried out this attack is taken to be a validation of the “clash of civilizations” thesis. Junaid Ahmad from the Center for Progressive Islam begs to differ.

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    War and Terror Pranjal Tiwari September 14, 2004
      As the “war on terror” announced by our rulers approaches its third year, it is receiving bad reviews all around, even in the mainstream media, establishment, and intellectual circles. Pranjal Tiwari takes a look.

    Typical of the barrage of criticism that the war on terror has been subjected to is a recent report from none other than the Army War College which concluded that “[T]he global war on terrorism as currently defined and waged is dangerously indiscriminate and ambitious,” but qualified that “its parameters should be readjusted.”

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    Torture, Inc. Rayan El-Amine March 01, 2006

    “Black sites,” “ghost prisoners,” and “points of darkness” are all real terms used to describe the clandestine nature of US detention facilities all over the world being used as part of the “war on terror.” Hearing these terms, one might think of a Hollywood movie of espionage and intrigue. But as more stories come out on torture and abuse in these detention facilities, the reality seems less like an action drama and more a like a horror film.

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    Syria in a Box Bilal El-Amine March 01, 2006

    The Syrian Baath regime, in power now for over 40 years, is in very tight spot. Internal political reform is long, long overdue. External pressures, mainly from the US but increasingly from Europe and the Arab world are mounting quickly. President Bashar Assad’s defiant speech to the nation on November 10 had all the hallmarks of regime in a corner, fighting for its very survival.

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