:: REAL VOICE ::

Sword Play By Chris Floyd [February 18, 2005 ] 'You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security." This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies. First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (fr...

Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians By TIM WISE I should have known better than to listen in to the conversation immediately to my left, sitting as I was in the Northwest Airlines World Club, in Detroit. Unlike most of the folks who have paid their $450 for an annual membership--which entitles one to little more than some free booze, cheese, crackers and coffee, along with a comfy chair between flights--I am hardly, after all, the typical "business traveler." I usually spend my time in such places, hastily composing one or another radical screed (like this one), while waiting to fly somewhere to deliver a speech that will, in some small way, move forward the cause of social transformation. This is not the purpose for which the guy talking about mutual funds in the cubicle next to me, is here. But this time, I couldn't avoid hearing the discussion between the two men, appropriately white and with matching blue suits and red power ties, whose familiarity with a bottle ...

History by Laptop By ROBERT FISK The Independent T he laptop has done bad things to us. I've spent the past year writing a history of the Middle East which has proved to me--quite apart from the folly of man--that the computer has not necessarily helped our writing or our research into the sins of our fathers. As a journalist who still refuses to use e-mail--forcing people to write real letters cuts down the amount of ungrammatical and often abusive messages we receive--I would say that, wouldn't I? But, along with two researchers, I've ploughed through 338,000 documents in my library for my book--my reporter's notebooks, newspapers, magazines, clippings, government statements, letters, photocopies of First World War archives and photographs--and I cannot escape the fact that the laptop has helped to destroy my files, my memories and, indeed, my ...

By P. SAINATH Number of homes damaged by the tsunami in Nagapattinam: 30,300. Number of homes destroyed by the Congress-NCP Government in Mumbai: 84,000. How agonized we are about how people die. How untroubled we are by how they live. Maharashtra's Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, says every Chief Minister would like to leave behind a legacy. His own, he believes, will be that of the man who cleaned up Mumbai. Mr. Deshmukh, in short, wishes to be remembered. He will be. His Government wiped out 6,300 homes on a single day. This is a record the Israeli army would be proud to match on a busy afternoon in the occupied territories. The Mumbai mass evictions - now on hold - reflected well an elite mindset towards the deprived that fully matured in the 1990s. It is a lot about how we see the poor today. About a view marked by contempt for the rights and suffering of ordinary people. Unless that suffering is certified as genuine by the rest of us. Mr. Deshmukh now say...