"Greater Kurdistan" Ambitions Could Spark Regional War

by Sarkis Pogossian

by Rene Wadlow

Berber Boycott in Restive Region Signals Continued Struggle

by Zighen Aym

U.S. State Terrorism in Puerto Rico

by Yeidy Rosa

While his annually recorded speech was being broadcast to radios throughout the island commemorating the 137th anniversary of Puerto Rico's September 23 Grito de Lares revolt against Spanish colonial rule, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, founder and leader of the revolutionary nationalist Ejército Popular Boricua (Boricua Popular Army), and a fugitive for the past 15 years, lay bleeding from a bullet wound to his shoulder that went through the middle of his back, piercing his lung. The shot was fired by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sharpshooter from a helicopter circling above. It would be 24 hours before medical professionals and local authorities would be granted access to the scene. Once granted, the 72-year-old would be found lifeless, lying face-down and having slowly bled to death. The killing has drawn criticism even from those who advocate statehood for the island. Calls for an independent investigation of the FBI operation have come from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, members of the United States Congress, the archbishop of San Juan, and the government of Puerto Rico itself.

BOOK REVIEW

Globalize Liberation:
How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World
Edited by David Solnit
City Lights, San Francisco, 2004

by Gavin Sewell and Vilosh Vinograd

Pollution, Apartheid and Protest in Occupied Palestine

by Ethan Ganor

BOOK REVIEW

INSIDE THE KINGDOM
My Life in Saudi Arabia
by Carmen Bin Ladin
Warner Books, 2004

by Chesley Hicks

"Socially, Saudi Arabia is medieval, dark with sin and interdiction," opens chapter seven of Carmen Bin Ladin's chronicle of the years she spent married to Yeslam Bin Ladin, one of the infamous Osama's 22 brothers.

In her 2004 memoir, recently out in paperback, the Western-raised, half-Swiss, half-Persian Bin Ladin (the book refers to Carmen and Yeslam as Bin Ladin, and the rest of the clan, including the notorious brother, as Bin Laden) outlines how she came to meet and marry a young Saudi Arabian jetsetter, leave her Geneva home, and endure life for nine years as a near-captive on his family compound in the Arabian desert.

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

Shortly before flying to his Texas ranch for a month-long vacation, on Aug. 2 US President George W. Bush signed the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) into law, following a 19-month effort to get the controversial measure approved by Congress. So far, the legislatures of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the US have approved it; Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua have not yet ratified. "CAFTA is more than a trade bill," Bush said at the White House signing ceremony. "It is a commitment among freedom-loving nations to advance peace and prosperity throughout the region." (Bloomberg News, Washington Times, Aug. 2)