With U.S. President George W. Bush stopping in Guatemala on his March 2007 tour of Latin America, we published a special two-part exclusive feature on gang culture and violence in Guatemala. Part I and Part II of the series were written by a new contributor to WPR, Billy Briggs, who traveled to Guatemala last fall with veteran photographer Angela Catlin. Briggs is a freelance journalist based in the United Kingdon, who in 2005 was the recipient of Amnesty International’s Nations and Regions Award for his reporting on human rights issues. His writing has appeared in various publications. For more about [...]
The man the Bush administration and other authorities around the world have long said masterminded the suicide hijackings of 9/11 apparently confessed during a secret hearing held recently by military officials at Guantanamo Bay that, indeed, he “was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z.” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) also said he was tortured by CIA operatives after being captured in 2003 and, according to a report by The New York Times, the once chief aide to Osama bin Laden, made various other rambling statements, including one in which he described his actions were part of a military [...]
The BBC’s report on the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at Guantanamo Bay is notable for the extent to which the BBC anchor bends over backwards to cast doubt on the veracity of the Pentagon transcript of KSM’s confession. No matter where you stand politically, you must admit that a British newsman’s seeming willingness to give a person like KSM the benefit of the doubt, while being suspect of a transcript from a U.S. military tribunal, is a tragedy. Is the cause of the anchor’s apparent attitude the result of knee-jerk anti-Americanism and his sort’s penchant for terrorist appeasement, or [...]
