World Analysis Newswire Archive

It took a while for Venezuela’s political opposition to figure out the best way to get rid of a president it doesn't like. First it tried general strikes, then a coup last year, then the shutdown of the country’s main industry, then an unconstitutional petition drive. Now, about two years after its campaign began, it's opting for the only constitutional way to oust an elected president: a recall referendum...

On August 14, 2004, Venezuelan voters will decide on a referendum, which has the utmost world historic and strategic significance. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the energy world, the relations between the US and Latin America (particularly Cuba), and the political and socio-economic fate of millions of Venezuela's urban and rural poor. If Chavez is defeated and if the Right takes power, it will privatize the state petroleum and gas company, selling it to US multinationals, withdraw from OPEC, raise its production and exports to the US, thus lowering Venezuelan revenues by half or more. Internally the popular health programs in the urban "ranchos" will end along with the literary campaign and public housing for the poor. The agrarian reform will be reversed and about 500,000 land reform recipients (100,000 families) will be turned off the land. This will be accomplished through extensive and intensive state bloodletting, jailing and extrajudicial assassination, and intense repression of pro-Chavez neighborhoods, trade unions and social movements. The apparently "democratic" referendum will have profoundly authoritarian, colonial and socially regressive results if the opposition wins.

A weekly 30 minute review of news and opinion recorded from a shortwave radio. 2 files- broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quick download (3.3MB). With times and freqs for listening at home. Free to rebroadcast. Netherlands, Spain, China, Russia, and Cuba.

The 9-11 Commission Report failed to ask WHY. Why was the U.S. attacked? If it had addressed the root cause of the problem, America's foreign policy toward the Middle East would have had to be dealt with. And then it would have had to deal with its unconditional support for Zionist Israel and its rape of Palestine.

Expensive parties in hotels have become the rage, but for some the choice is between picking a wife and paying the rent.

In November 2001, near the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, a major battle was raging between the Northern Alliance forces of Rashid Dostum and the suddenly vulnerable Taliban. Following the battle, thousands of the latter surrendered, "under assurances that they would not be harmed." However, due to a complex series of events, this was not to be. Now, up to 3,000 murdered Taliban prisoners lie in an unmarked mass grave in a lonely stretch of Afghan desert, according to Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death, a compelling new documentary from veteran BBC journalist and filmmaker Jamie Doran.

Latest info as follows:
A. Suspected VBIED (m/cycle) along Jalalabad Road. Souter are dealing with it. Man arrested with 18kg of explosives. Further VBIED (Taxi), same area being checked. Also Apple cart found in same area with rockets inside.

Angry international aid agencies say U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan are endangering their workers' lives by linking humanitarian assistance with military objectives.

Afghan interim President Hamid Karzai has announced he is standing as a candidate in presidential elections due on 9 October.

What does America stand for and where are American relations with the Arab and Muslim world going? The 28 June "transfer" of power in Iraq marks a turning point for the Bush administration and American politics. The American presidential race will intensify the debate, raising even more strongly questions about the US mission, role, failures, and the resultant decline of America's moral authority in the world.

This document has been passed to me for publication, so here it is.

IED: On 28 Jul GLOBAL reported that another IED was discovered last night in the centre of Taliqan city placed near a shop. Reportedly it was removed by Halo Trust EOD team.

This document has been passed to me for publication, so here it is.

SECURITY Central Region, Afghanistan

United States President George Bush considers Afghanistan a prize in his "war on terror" – and many western regimes continue backing Afghan president Hamid Karzai as the best choice for the Central Asian country. Others expect Afghanistan to eventually resolve its internal insecurity, as it heads towards a long awaited transition to representative government, with presidential elections planned for October.

-- The most powerful warlords in the country call her a communist, and in Afghanistan that could be enough to seal a death warrant.
But Malalai Joya, a 25-year-old Afghan woman who runs an orphanage and health clinic, refuses to give up her crusade to rid the country of what she calls "warlords and criminals" involved in drug trafficking, land seizures and attacks on civilians.

ISAF have been on red alert this week. In one morning in Jalalabad Road they were tipped off and found one motorbike bomb, one car bomb, a man with 18 kg of explosives and an apple cart with rockets hidden in it. Also a few rockets have been fired into the centre of Kabul. Prior to the elections this is predictable. See the security reports attached. It may not be as straight forward as it seems. In some cases local security forces may have planted explosives and then take credit for finding them and justify their positions. If rewards are offered there is even more incentive to do this. The international community is getting a bit nervous and travel restrictions have become very strict.

The death of civility and decency in the U.S. and the reconditioning of the minds of the American people.

A weekly 30 minute review of news and opinion recorded from a shortwave radio. 2 files- broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quick download (3.3MB). With times and freqs for listening at home. Free to rebroadcast. Netherlands, Russia, China, and Cuba.

Crime and punishment in the US - a warning to British activists

Javier Correa, President of Sinaltrainal (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos-Colombia), gives an evaluation of the Coca Cola Boycott campaign one year after the beginning of the boycott.

Many are calling for international intervention in the Negev