Stories written by Miren Gutierrez
Miren Gutierrez is chief editor of IPS

IRAQ: The Gloves Came Off

When Aldo Moro who was prime minister of Italy five times was kidnapped and later murdered by Red Brigade terrorists in 1978, a member of the Italian security forces suggested to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa that a suspect be tortured. The general famously replied: "Italy can do without Aldo Moro, but not with the introduction of torture."

IRAQ: The Gloves Came Off

When Aldo Moro who was prime minister of Italy five times was kidnapped and later murdered by Red Brigade terrorists in 1978, a member of the Italian security forces suggested to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa that a suspect be tortured. The general famously replied: "Italy can do without Aldo Moro, but not with the introduction of torture."

THEO VAN BOVEN: ‘CERTAIN COUNTRIES ARE RESORTING TO TORTURE”

Theo Van Boven, UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Against Torture since 2001 -- laughed when we began our interview. He just realised that as he had been speaking with a delegation from the Chinese government, lying on the table was an announcement for a conference on the \'\'Repression of Religious Liberty in China\'\'. It was an embarrassing moment in this international centre for loquacious diplomacy.

MEDIA: Fewer Players, Less Freedom

Comcast's failed 66-billion-dollar bid for Disney in February brought the issue of Big Media to the fore. Now, Viacom, Liberty Media, Microsoft and even Internet firms like Yahoo! and InterActiveCorp might make a play for the firm.

Why should anyone care?


MEDIA: Fewer Players, Less Freedom

Comcast's 66-billion-dollar unsuccessful bid for Disney in February brought the issue of Big Media to the fore.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SAVATER: AS EUROPE BROADENS, IS SPAIN DIVIDING?

Fernando Savater is thrilled to be back in Rome, where he has the luxury of anonymity. The philosopher- activist director of the Basta Ya movement, which represents the victims of terrorism in the Basque Country, can\'t take a step in Spain without a security escort. A professor of history and the author of numerous books, he is in Rome to participate in the colloquium \'\'Europe: A Nation of States or a State of Nations\'\'. He agreed to speak with IPS about the prospects for the upcoming elections in Spain, which will be held 14 March, and the future of the Basque Country.

SPECIAL REPORT: Small Arms Feeding Big Conflicts

A conviction for selling weapons to left-wing guerrillas in Colombia could mean 20 years in prison for Vladimiro Montesinos, who was right-hand man of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori.

COMMUNICATIONS: Who Should Master the Domains?

As the WSIS opens, the international community finds itself drawn into the debate over whether the Internet's core infrastructure, the domains, should remain managed by industry or be taken over by governments, via the United Nations.

MIDEAST: Some Lives Begin and End at the Checkpoint

"I went into labour at one in the morning," Houriyyah Mir'ie recalls. "We took the car to Jericho. At the checkpoint they wouldn't let me pass."

CORRUPTION: It Still Pays to Dig Dirt

When Ida Tarbell published her articles on John D. Rockefeller's monopolistic excesses, the tycoon dubbed her ”Miss Tarbarrel”.. Years later in 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court declared his firm 'The Standard Oil' an ”unreasonable” monopoly, and ordered it dissolved.

CORRUPTION: Murky Business in Oil

Transparency is not one of oil's properties; corruption seems to rise to its surface wherever it is found. Is oil intrinsically dirty?

SPAIN: Basque Country Weighs Referendum and ETA Bullets

In its battle based on a mix of secular nationalism and Marxism, the Basque terrorist group ETA has murdered nearly 1,000 people. Those who criticise ETA or refuse to pay its "revolutionary tax" face harassment, kidnap or even death.

CORRUPTION: Presidents, Beware

Ask former presidents Estrada, Menem, Suharto or Alemán. Corrupt presidents cannot afford to lose power these days. Without the presidency as armour, the world is an inhospitable place

CORRUPTION: Presidents, Beware

Il Cavaliere Silvio Berlusconi is off the hook for the time being. Last week, the Italian Parliament approved an immunity bill that will freeze a trial in Milan where the Italian Prime Minister is charged with bribing judges over a 1985 business deal involving a corporate takeover battle.

FINANCE-PANAMA: Octopus Lands in the Net at Last

A suspected conman who laundered millions of dollars in Panama was arrested in Managua Tuesday. The arrest ends an investigation that lasted years, and gives an insight into money laundering operations in soft jurisdictions.

"[Marc] Harris's arrest is significant for many reasons," David Marchant, publisher of the Miami-based financial bulletin Offshore Alert publisher told IPS. "He is one of the biggest financial crooks ever to operate offshore, and his operations affected many, many people and involved tens of millions of dollars."


IRAQ: Embedded or In-Bed-With?

Senator Hiram Johnson would be long forgotten by now, were it not for his one famous quote: ''The first casualty when war comes is truth," he said in 1917, and every armed conflict before or since has brought that phrase back to life.

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