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A TF investigation of South Asia’s garment industry chronicles
globalization’s race to the bottom

Each day, 20-year-old Farida leaves her home in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital (population 13 million), and walks an hour to her job at the Dalia Garment Factory. She works from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., sometimes as much as two hours more, and often seven days a week. Like many garment workers interviewed for this article, she didn’t want her real name used for fear of losing her job. For her labor, the young worker earns the equivalent of about $18 per month. At night, she must walk through the pitch black and dangerous streets of a city notorious for its crime rate. read more

Bush’s "Teflon" secretary has built his career on playing it safe

 In the controversy over the half truths and outright lies about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, one top US official has remained above the fray. Yet, it was Secretary of State Colin Powell, darling of the US media, who made the key February 5 presentation to the United Nations that most persuasively outlined the US argument for war.

Then came the revelation: the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), the State Department’s Intelligence Analysis Unit, along with experts from the Department of Energy, had advised Powell that the evidence he planned to use, supposedly proving that Saddam Hussein intended to re-start a nuclear weapons program, was "questionable." The ever dutiful servant of power proceeded away, making the dubious case for invasion. read more

The Quiet Rise of National Security, Inc.

Four years ago, candidate George W. Bush promised to make government more efficient, lean, and responsive by looking at whether some federal agencies should be privatized or abolished. On the record, the plan was to start with almost one million federal positions, those said to be “commercially replaceable,” and open them up for private bidding. Shortly after taking office, he took the idea a step further, stating his preference for privatized peacekeeping operations. read more