This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Haaretz
August 24, 2005
For good reason Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center hastened to commend the pope for his statements against new expressions of anti-Semitism, and for closer links between Jews and Christians. However, the interpretation that the pope offered for events of the past is more troubling and less exact. In reference to World War II and the Holocaust, Ratzinger said that "In the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology bo
Source: Bloomberg
August 24, 2005
The Czech Republic's government apologized to anti-Nazi Czechoslovaks of German ethnicity who, after World War II, were either expelled from the country or were not treated as equal citizens.The government today in Prague unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for the first time to all Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity who ``actively fought fascism or suffered under Nazi rule'' in World War II.
About 3.5 million ethnic Germans were deported from the
Source: Advocate
August 16, 2005
This provocative headline appears on the current website of the gay periodical, the Advocate. It refers to a claim by Douglas Caddy, the attorney who first represented the defendants in the Watergate break-in, that he was singled out by prosecutors as a possible weak link in the Watergate cover-up because he was gay. Prosecutors wanted Caddy to identify the person who hired him to represent the Watergate defendants. When he refused to say--it was E. Howard Hunt, the former
Source: NYT
August 23, 2005
ERBIL, Iraq - If a neighborhood is defined as a place where human beings move in and never leave, then the world's oldest could be here at the Citadel, an ancient and teeming city within a city girded by stone walls. Resting on a layer cake of civilizations that have come and gone for an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 years, the Citadel looms over the apartment blocks of this otherwise rather gray metropolis in Iraqi Kurdistan. The settlement rivals Jericho and a handful of other famous towns for the
Source: American Journal of Archaeology
December 26, 2010
The July 2005 issue of the American Journal of Archaeology presents an engaging report on the looting and recovery of artifacts from the Iraq Museum during Gulf War II. Written by Matthew Bogdanos, a colonel in the U.S. Marines, who has served in Iraq three times and who received a Bronze Star for counterterrorism in Afghanistan, it is the official published account of the antiquities rescue operation and corrects many inaccuracies that have been reported in the media.As Bag
Source: Juan Cole's Blog
August 22, 2005
"I think "US out now" as a simple mantra neglects to consider the full range of possible disasters that could ensue. For one thing, there would be an Iraq civil war. Iraq wasn't having a civil war in 2002. And although you could argue that what is going on now is a subterranean, unconventional civil war, it is not characterized by set piece battles and hundreds of people killed in a single battle, as was true in Lebanon in 1975-76, e.g. People often allege that the US military isn
Source: Project Censored
January 26, 2011
In a long article for Project Censured Dennis Loo, Ph.D. Cal Poly Pomona, claims that George W. Bush stole the election of 2004. He argues: "In order to believe that George Bush won the November 2, 2004 presidential election, you must also believe all of the following extremely improbable or outright impossible things.(1)
1) A big turnout and a highly energized and motivated electorate favored the GOP instead of the Democrats for the first time in histo
Source: Hollywood Reporter
August 18, 2005
Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures are teaming up to slay a classic beast. The two studios are taking the reins on Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf," a big-budget performance-capture film that is being co-financed by Shangri-La Entertainment and boasts an international cast headed by Ray Winstone, Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie.
Source: Australian
August 23, 2005
A FORMER high-ranking official in Hungary's wartime fascist government who fled to Australia under an assumed name in 1949 yesterday denied his party had been responsible for the deportation or murder of Jews.Lajos Polgar, who has lived in Melbourne for more than 50 years since fleeing war crimes prosecutors, admitted yesterday he had been a youth leader in the anti-Semitic Arrow Cross party and worked as secretary to Josef Gera, a senior leader in the Arrow Cros
Source: National Security Archive
August 23, 2005
Today, in anticipation of the planned resumption of the Six-Power talks between the two Koreas the National Security Archive is posting on its website a collection of recently declassified documents that shed new light on the ups and downs of U.S. efforts to deal with the security threat posed by North Korea's nuclear program. Compiled by Dr. Robert A. Wampler, director of the Archive's Korea Project, these documents, dating from the first Bush and Clinton administrations, u
Source: Wa Po
August 22, 2005
A leading Republican senator and prospective presidential candidate said Sunday that the war in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East and is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago.
Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts and other military honors for his service in Vietnam, reiterated his position that the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq. Hagel scoffed at the idea that U.S. troops could be in Iraq four years from now at level
Source: NYT
August 23, 2005
An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement on Monday that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed A
Source: Inside Higher Ed
August 23, 2005
Another stage in the University of Colorado’s long process of reviewing Ward Churchill is done — and his lawyer is claiming that it was a victory for the controversial professor. David Lane, Churchill’s lawyer, told Colorado reporters that the report was a “victory for Professor Churchill” in that there were not conclusive findings of wrongdoing. Lane told the reporters that the panel could not determine whether seven allegations were valid and asked that another panel review them — and the pane
Source: Russian News and Information Agency
August 23, 2005
Most Japanese historians insist that Tokyo did not know that Stalin had promised Roosevelt and Churchill at the Yalta conference that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan, until the end of the war, and that consequently Japan had hoped until the very last moment that Moscow would act as an intermediary and set up peace negotiations with the United States. However, there are certain indications that Japanese intelligence did in fact know about the agreements reached in Yalta.
Source: UPI
August 23, 2005
Chinese and Korean translations of Japanese history textbooks will be posted online Wednesday in an effort to dispel charges that they distort wartime history. In a press release Tuesday the ministry said parts of eight textbooks that deal with Japan's modern history would be translated and posted on the company's Web site (www.je-kaleidoscope.jp) with a link to the site on the ministry's Web site.
Source: Boston Globe
August 22, 2005
GW slept here. Like nearly all national parks across the country, the Longfellow National Historic Site suffers from chronic underfunding. According to the National Parks Conservation Association's new assessment, despite the best efforts of dedicated park staff, the house, grounds, and extensive museum collection are in ''fair" condition. An annual shortfall of $400,000 prevents the Park Service from filling key maintenance and curatorial positions, affecting the condition of the park and
Source: USA Todday
August 22, 2005
NC hopes that history will draw tourists — from die-hard Civil War buffs to the merely curious — to points around the state, each identified by a roadside maker. It's part of the Civil War Trails program, a mission in three states — Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland — to mark 700 historic points from the Civil War. "The Civil War is perennially fascinating to people," said Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the state Office of Archives and History. "If you slap Civil War on any
Source: cnn
August 23, 2005
Retired bookstore owner Helen Schlie can see a higher purpose in selling her 1830 first-edition Book of Mormon one page at a time.Schlie said she believes it will be more of a "missionary tool" since the framed pages -- priced at $2,500 to $4,500 apiece -- can be handed down from generation to generation.
"This way, it will touch hundreds of lives and span generations of time," said Schlie, who is Mormon. "The book has now started a whol
Source: NYT
August 22, 2005
Dead for half a century, Mike Disfarmer, the eccentric portrait photographer from Heber Springs, Ark., has drawn modest yet respectful attention in recent decades. From the 1920's to the 50's, he photographed a steady stream of townspeople in his Main Street studio in an American Gothic style of portraiture that was singularly his own. Now, a trove of recently discovered vintage prints is generating renewed interest in his work. In a hush-hush entrepreneurial ra
Source: Guardian
August 22, 2005
When the crime writer Patricia Cornwell claimed to have discovered the identity of Jack the Ripper, she staked her reputation on it and said she was "100% sure" she had unmasked the killer. But nearly three years on, Cornwell has gone back to the archives to gather more fingerprint evidence to bolster her case and try to silence her critics.Cornwell is convinced that the painter Walter Sickert was the Ripper, but art and crime historians have said her t
