Iraq’s Eclipsed Red Star?
How many anti-war activists like Sean Penn know their left from their right in Iraq? Or that the Iraqi Communist Party produces more detailed reports on torture under Saddam than any Western human rights group?
Posts
Pentagon’s Latest Friend is Africa’s Newest Tyrant
/in St. Louis Post-Dispatch/by Frank SmythSecretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld last week became the highest ranking American official to ever visit Africa’s newest nation, the small state of Eritrea on the Red Sea across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Living Dangerously: A Review of “The Lion’s Grave”
/in The Washington Post/by Frank SmythAny egomaniac with an audience can do a live stand-up in an alleged combat zone, but Jon Lee Anderson is a war correspondent’s journalist. His book, The Lion’s Grave, skillfully navigates Afghani politics.
Hussein Opens His Prison Doors to Trouble
/in Newsday/by Frank SmythIraqi President Saddam Hussein released thousands of political and other prisoners from jails across his country, including from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The broad amnesty was no doubt welcomed by many Iraqis.
Iraq’s Forgotten Majority
/in The New York Times/by Frank SmythOn the eve of the invasion, few U.S. experts seem to know that nearly two-thirds of Iraqis are Shi’ite Muslims, who populate the slums of Baghdad as well as the south of Iraq.
The Chance to Cry
/in United Nations/by Frank SmythI never heard an outburst like the one a young Iraq Shia boy made as I helplessly watched from my own prison cell as he was tortured by Saddam’s guards, until my golden retriever cried out one day after she was bitten by a Rottweiler.
Saddam’s Real Opponents
/in The American Prospect/by Frank SmythThe influential journal Foreign Affairs ran an article on Iraq entitled “The Rollback Fantasy.” But unfortunately, it got Iraqi’s basic demographic’s all wrong to create a myth that misled President George W. Bush and others.