Religions survey: Americans have much to learn
October 10th, 20100 While almost six in ten Americans say religion is important to them and four in ten attend religious services once per week, a recently released study from the Pew Center on Religion and Public Life suggested that U.S. citizens still have a great deal to learn about religious practices in general, including their own in some...Obama imposes new Iran sanctions as war chorus rises
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Amid new calls for Washington to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if its diplomatic efforts at curbing Tehran's uranium-enrichment program fail, the United States Wednesday imposed unilateral sanctions against eight senior Iranian officials whom it accused of committing "sustained and severe violations of human...Obama letter confirms Palestinian fears
The disclosure of the details of a letter reportedly sent by U.S. President Barack Obama last week to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will cause Palestinians to be even more skeptical about U.S. and Israeli roles in the current peace talks. According to the leak, Obama made a series of extraordinarily generous offers to...9/11 rescue workers still waiting for healthcare
NEW YORK – Election-year interparty political wrangling is threatening to again sabotage congressional efforts to provide medical help for tens of thousands of firefighters and other first responders whose health was damaged by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center. As of June 2010, 836 of those...
FBI raids on activists seen as political retribution
October 1st, 20100 Supporters of anti-war activists whose homes were raided by FBI agents gathered, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010 in Minneapolis.NEW YORK – Recent raids by federal agents on the homes and offices of peace activists are being viewed by civil libertarians and civil society groups as further proof that the U.S. is morphing into a "surveillance...
Wisdom of the ‘terrorist’s son’
September 30th, 20100 Those who embrace violence, whether in the form of acts of terrorism or acts of war, are necrophiliacs. They worship death. They sacrifice life, including at times their own, for the heady intoxication that comes with becoming an angel of destruction. And in the wake of their fury and violence they not only leave grief, pain and...MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: Record U.S. arms sale to Saudis pending
A U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet does a low-level flyby in eastern Afghanistan in this January 1, 2009 file photo. The Obama administration will soon notify Congress of an arms sale to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, U.S. officials said on Monday, a potentially record-breaking deal that may help counter Iran's growing...
Petraeus: ‘Damage done’ by threat of Qur’an burning
September 16th, 20100 WASHINGTON — The commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan on Tuesday said a Florida pastor's threat to burn Qur'ans had done damage to U.S. interests in the country even though the church minister did not go ahead with his plan. In an interview with ABC News, General David Petraeus expressed regret at the effect of...Religious leaders condemn growing Islamophobia
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Center...
War crimes ad infinitum
September 12th, 20100 U.S. soldiers ‘killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies’ Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he...9/11 demonstration planned in favor of Ground Zero Mosque
NEW YORK – It’s being billed as rally and a march against racism and anti-Muslim bigotry. A coalition of groups in favor of the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero announced it will hold a counter-demonstration to those planning to protest the project. It will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Broadway and Park Place — just east...Statement by the President on the Occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr
As Ramadan comes to an end, Michelle and I extend our best wishes to Muslims in the United States and around the world on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. For Muslims all over the world, Eid ul-Fitr marks the end of a holy month of fasting and prayer. It is a time of self-reflection focusing on the values that Muslims and people of all...
U.S. wasted billions in rebuilding Iraq
September 4th, 20100 KHAN BANI SAAD – A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey (L-R),...Clandestine Israeli PR campaign in America
WASHINGTON PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Declassified files from a Senate investigation into Israeli-funded covert public relations and lobbying activity in the United States were released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on July 23rd, 2010. The subpoenaed documents reveal Israel's clandestine programs for...
Immigration system a broken behemoth, groups say
August 29th, 20100 WASHINGTON – One year after the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama announced that it intended to overhaul the country's heavily criticized immigration detention practices and create a "truly civil detention system," a new academic paper bolsters claims by human rights groups that real reform is still a long way off.......
Deported for running a red light
NEW YORK (IPS) — A government program designed to prosecute serious criminals is instead deporting people who received traffic tickets and committed other minor offenses, according to immigration rights advocacy groups. The organizations charge that 79 percent of people deported through the so-called Secure Communities program are not...Poll finds 20% in U.S. believe Obama is Muslim
WASHINGTON — A new poll has found one in five Americans mistakenly believes that President Barack Obama is Muslim, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Despite Obama's attendance in church and his repeated and public statements about his Christian faith, the number of Americans who believe he is actually Muslim is rising, the Pew...
Obama sends Ramadan wishes
August 13th, 20100 President hails 'Islam's role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, dignity of all human beings'.WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday offered best wishes to Muslims in the United States and around the world as they observe the holy fasting month of Ramadan. "All of us must remember that the world we want to...
Walking in the shoes of a Muslim in New York
August 13th, 20100 NEW YORK – A woman waits on a subway platform, head bowed, pretending to ignore the insults. Perched on bar stools, a group of friends listen to racist jokes, suppressing giggles. Kneeling, a young war veteran tells his fiancée of his decision to return to combat. Two men wait expectantly at a job interview. An old man and a young......
Obama drops 2009 pledge to withdraw combat troops from Iraq
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Seventeen months after President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by Sep. 1, 2010, he quietly abandoned that pledge Monday, admitting implicitly that such combat brigades would remain until the end of 2011. Obama declared in a speech to disabled U.S. veterans in Atlanta that "America's...Iran officials slam U.S. admiral’s attack plan remarks
TEHRAN — Iranian officials lashed out on Tuesday at remarks by the top U.S. military chief that Washington had a plan to attack Tehran, saying the U.S. would suffer a defeat worse than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday the United States has drawn up the plan to......
Court blocks Arizona’s anti-immigrant law
July 30th, 20100 WASHINGTON — In a legal victory for the administration of President Barack Obama, a federal court Wednesday temporarily blocked the implementation of key provisions of a controversial Arizona immigration law that was to take effect Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton ruled that state authorities could not enforce...Audit: U.S. can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds
BAGHDAD – The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday. The report by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction offers a compelling look at continued laxness......