An argument can be made that implementation of the CIA’s “torture paradigm” never violated the 1984 Torture Convention, at least as Washington interpreted it. McCoy points out that the highly sophisticated CIA paradigm developed at enormous cost in the 1950s and 1960s, based on the “KGB’s most devastating torture technique,” kept primarily to mental torture, not crude physical torture, which …

Alas! It is a great and terrible world. – the Lama in Kipling’s Kim. My purpose in this article is to argue that the West has done incalculable harm to Sri Lanka, though without any malevolent intent, through its over-indulgent attitude towards the LTTE. That attitude bred in the LTTE what might be called a victim syndrome which became a …

Dear friends,  this is a fascinating article. The commonsense of the matter is given in the Egyptian Grand Mufti’s view that the Koran , more specifically parts of it, should be read through “the prism of the era”, meaning that some Koranic provisions take into account varying cultural practises in different societies at different times. The most potent argument against …

Blunder But the biggest blunder of all was to believe wrongly that the LTTE could at some point deliver a crippling blow on the battlefront and exact a heavy casualty toll. This would demoralize the army and help reverse the process, he surmised. The politico – military situation deteriorated but Prabhakaran living in a fool’s paradise was pretty sure that …

Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran is no more. The body of the 54-year-old supreme leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) was found on Tuesday May 19  near the Mullaitivu lagoon known as “Nanthikkadal” (sea of conches). He had gunshot wounds  in the head and forehead.  Thus ended the life of the man who was once described by the LTTE’s  political …

Jakarta – It is not only important to explain what Islam really is, but it is also important to make a distinction between what Islam involves, and what people have incorrectly associated with and attributed to it. What is the relation between Islam and the actions of people that practice the Muslim faith? In my opinion there are many things …