(YellowTimes.ORG) -- Rosie Boycott, former editor of the Daily Express recently said of Afghanistan: ‘"This is a war that will be fought through the media. It is a war where we know the first casualty will be the truth."

Muslims know this better than anyone. Our fate is tied closely with the people of Afghanistan - and not only because they are Muslims too. We should be aware that how we are perceived will determine our effectiveness to educate people about Islam and the contradictions of British foreign policy in places like the Middle East and Afghanistan.

British society will not hesitate to bomb a bunch of wife-beating zealots, never mind listen to them, if that is who they think Muslims are. It has certainly allowed the Americans to get away with the incarceration of thousands of people simply because they look like Arabs or Muslims. Many, many more in America and Britain will have been secretly monitored on the same basis. It is no surprise that the new “anti-terror” laws are specifically aimed at people like us.

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(YellowTimes.ORG) - The Bush administration has been completely hypocritical in its attempts to stop terror groups. The US president announced to CNN that he would be cracking down on financiers of the radical Palestinian group Hamas; however, he completely failed to mention Saudi Arabia and other “moderate” gulf states as being financial and verbal supporters of the Palestinian terror group.

CNN reported yesterday that the president “froze the U.S. assets of a Texas-based Islamic foundation…alleging that the organization acts as a front to finance the militant wing of the Palestinian group Hamas.”

The group, known as the Holy Land Foundation, is reported to have raised $13 million dollars in the United States; money allegedly used to help fund the militant Hamas.

After condemning the foundation, Bush failed to even criticize Saudi Arabia, who according to Britain’s The Guardian, recently gave a grant to Hamas amounting to over $140 million dollars; money which probably went toward purchasing more nail laden plastic explosives.

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by John C. Polanyi

STOCKHOLM - Some Nobel prize winners are intelligent, but some are no more so than other people. Why, therefore, pay attention to the views of more than 100 of them who support the Nobel statement issued to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize this month?

The answer is that one's perception of truth comes not from intelligence but from a sense of values. Scholarship embodies those values.

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by Robert Scheer

Enron is Whitewater in spades. This isn't just some rinky-dink land investment like the one dredged up by right-wing enemies to haunt the Clinton White House--but rather it has the makings of the greatest presidential scandal since the Teapot Dome.

The Bush administration has a long and intimate relationship with Enron, whose much-discredited chairman, Kenneth L. Lay, was a primary financial backer of George W. Bush's rise to the presidency.

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by Sean Gonsalves

By now, you've probably heard about that Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week in which Attorney General John Ashcroft testified in support of the president's decree on Nov. 13, authorizing special military tribunals in this "war on terrorism."

For those who take our Constitutional freedoms seriously, his remarks were more frightening than a Stephen King horror story. For example, Ashcroft said congressional oversight is "not without limits" and that in some areas, "I cannot and will not consult with you."

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by M. Shahid Alam

When I crossed the border into USA in 1988, after teaching in Canada for two years, I had the curious feeling that my wife, my son and I, still brown-skinned and dark-haired, had somehow become invisible.

We walked the streets of Hamilton, Utica and Syracuse-each town predominantly white-without attracting any unwanted attention. The motorists did not gawk at us while we waited at the curb for the walk signal. At restaurants, there were no heads turning in our direction. The shoppers at stores did not greet our entry with a quizzical, perplexed look, following our very steps. Even our neighbors left us alone.

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by Arianna Huffington

Skip the appointment with Madge the Manicurist. Put the squeeze on Mr. Whipple. Say good-bye to the Budweiser Frogs. Who needs those guys when you've got the 43rd president of the United States as your TV pitchman? He's got high name-recognition, comes with his own wardrobe, and, best of all, he's willing.

Making like a star-spangled version of Paul Hogan, the president can now be seen shilling for the U.S. travel and tourism industry in a new TV commercial. Uncle George wants you to enlist in a home-front battle against terrorism by shipping out on vacation. And bring the kids and charge cards, soldier!

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by Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot

When it comes to politicians, the best advice is to look at what they do, not what they say. By this standard, President Bush's Social Security Commission agrees with what some of us have been saying all along -- there is no urgent need to "fix" Social Security.

Of course this is not what they say. When the commission began its work last spring it issued dire proclamations about the impending doom of the program. They tried to convince the public that bankruptcy was just around the corner (perhaps confusing Social Security with Enron). The commission's co-chairs, former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and AOL-Time Warner new chief executive Richard D. Parsons, warned that the program would be running short of money in 2016, less than 15 years down the road. They said urgent action was needed now, to avert disaster.

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Afghans Have Paid a High Price for a Campaign That Has Failed to Meet Its Original Aims
by Jonathan Steele

The toppling of the Taliban may eventually prove to be the best thing to have happened in Afghanistan for a decade. But it was not an initial aim of the US-led war. In the wake of their departure from Kandahar, that point cannot be stressed enough, before the drumbeat of triumphalism deafens us all. Victory over the wrong opponent is not much of a victory. It sounds more like "collateral benefit" - provided we are sure the benefit outweighs the costs.

Remember the war's stated purpose: to bring to justice those who had helped to mastermind the atrocities of September 11, and eliminate the bases where the terrorists had learned their skills. All the information available (and it was known before the first missile was launched against Afghanistan) suggests that the 19 hijackers trained for their mission in Europe and the United States, and entered the US with legal visas. Evidence that they personally had any connection with Afghanistan has been minimal, verging on nil. No suggestion has ever been made that any of the al-Qaida network were Afghans.

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by Marie Cocco

START AT the beginning.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

So far, so good, on the right to peaceably assemble. The rest of the freedoms grow envious.

The government is considering relaxing generation-old prohibitions that keep the FBI and CIA from spying on religious organizations. Current rules, a legacy of J. Edgar Hoover's excess, allow such pursuit only if the government has some evidence a member of a religious group might have broken the law. This is not enough now, we are told. No explanation is offered.

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by James E. Jennings

POLLS AND anecdotal evidence make it plain that Americans overwhelmingly favor the war in Afghanistan. But there's something terribly disquieting about TV images of an impoverished country filled with acutely suffering, starving people being bombed daily while millions of Americans cheer.

Bombing Afghanistan has meant overkill from the beginning. The stark fact is that the world's richest and most powerful nation has for the past two months bombed one of the poorest and weakest. That's nothing to crow about. If a humanitarian catastrophe, such as is now looming, follows the war, then instead of celebrating a victory the United States will suffer a strategic setback.

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The Bush doctrine is now a template for conflicts worldwide: to every action a disproportionate response by Gary Younge

President George Bush has cemented unlikely friendships over the last months. Not even war crimes during Ramadan could shake his partnership with Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf. Nor could his insistence on pursuing military supremacy in space disrupt his chemistry with the Russian premier, Vladimir Putin. But there can be no less likely partner in his war against terror than Zimbabwe's President Mugabe.

As a leader who constantly rails against the nefarious effects of colonialism, imperialism, racism and international capital on developing countries - often correctly but always cynically - Mugabe would not appear to be a natural cheerleader for US military campaigns. But when it comes to combating terror the US president could have no finer friend. "We agree with President Bush that anyone who in any way finances, harbours or defends terrorists is himself a terrorist," says Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe's mouthpiece. "We, too, will not make any difference between terrorists and their friends and supporters."

Bush's words are reverberating around the world. They are most obviously echoed in Israel. "You in America are in a war against terror," Ariel Sharon said after he left the White House following suicide bombings in Haifa and Jerusalem. "We in Israel are in a war against terror - it's the same war."

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by Inger Sethov

OSLO - At least 16 Nobel Peace Prize laureates called for disarmament and non-violent pursuit of peace in the 21st century in a joint appeal on Monday marking the 100th anniversary of the first Nobel award.

The declaration, agreed in Oslo at the biggest gathering of Nobel Peace Prize winners in history, also called for the establishment of an international criminal court.

``We offer support for the unrelenting, patient and non-violent pursuit of peace wherever conflicts may rage today or tomorrow, such as the Middle East, Colombia or the Great lakes of Africa,'' the statement said.

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