U.S. military killing the witnesses
NEW YORK — José Couso, a Spanish journalist, died April 8, 2003, when an American tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The hotel was housing 300 journalists, and was considered an oasis of safety in a city that had been under heavy bombardment since the war’s opening. Baghdad had become a sea of fire and Couso was there “to bear witness,” as his brother Javier put it at a recent event here.
When will Congress drop the Hammer?
Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas has again distinguished himself in his ability to use crass political manipulation in an attempt to distract the public from his compromised reputation. As I read the reports on his outrageous statements about the Terri Schiavo case, I could only ask, “What could he have been thinking of?”
Hope and horror at Red Lake
There’s an old Ojibwe saying: “Gego baapiineminaken gidaabinoojiiyug.” Never laugh at your children. That motto invokes a sacred Anishinaabe value: “manaaji’idiwin,” or deep respect. We are to respect others, no matter how young or weak or strange, in part because what goes around eventually comes around. This especially holds true for children. Not only because they have power — as elders will tell you, the only person who ever tricked the Trickster was a child — but also because that child will one day be an adult.
More billionaires, more poverty
Two magazine covers stood out in poignant contrast on newsstands recently. Forbes magazine released its 29th annual listing of the world’s billionaires. Time Magazine’s cover story wondered “How to End Poverty.”
DeLay defends Disneyland fact-finding mission: Not a family vacation, congressman insists
As allegations of ethical lapses continued to swirl around Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the House Majority Leader lashed out at his critics today, insisting that a 2002 trip his family took to Disneyland was a “top-secret fact-finding mission.”
Toyota truck plant to open in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO — The Toyota plant that will be built and open for production here in approximately one year deserves special attention from the labor movement and the auto workers union.
AFL-CIO blasts CAFTA
WASHINGTON (PAI) — With hearings set to start on the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement, the AFL-CIO issued a scathing critique of the trade pact, saying it would hurt Latin American workers as well as their U.S. colleagues.
World Notes
Côte d’Ivoire: Peace pact signed; Iraq: War doubles child malnutrition; Mexico: U.S., Mexican unionists rally; Nepal: Hundreds still detained
Famed attorney blasts U.S. Cuba policy
HOUSTON — Noted civil rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass blasted U.S. policy on Cuba at Texas Southern University here April 5, charging that the government has been “overtly or covertly attacking” the socialist island since 1960. Over the past 40 years, he said, more than 3,000 Cubans have been killed as a result of bombings and other attacks by right-wing Cuban exiles.
Latin America and the Caribbean move left
In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson, expressing his customary arrogance toward the peoples of Latin America, promised to “teach South American republics to elect good men.” The Bush administration’s attitude toward the newly elected left-leaning governments in South America, toward Haiti’s ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and toward socialist Cuba continues this chauvinistic tradition.
