Saturday, 31 May 2003

Why Moscow won't back down My horror at PoW sex abuse pics No Doubt It Was the Lying, Right? Clinton, Bush and Impeachment Russian Central Bank Switches Currency Reserves to Euro Elaine Cassel: Wake Up, America: Or Is It Already Too Late? Protection on the Cheap

President Bush's budgets have generally shortchanged environmental programs. His proposed budget for all discretionary (nonfarm) environmental protection programs for fiscal 2004 is down $1.6 billion, or 5 percent, from actual spending in 2002. These numbers do not really register, however, until you suddenly wake up to the fact that for want of a few million strategically placed dollars, programs essential to the government's ability to carry out important environmental laws have been compromised. There have been two distressing examples of this in the last week alone.

Analysis of Iraqi Weapons 'Wrong': The predicted use of banned agents did not occur, a Marine commander says. The CIA chief defends his staff's assessments. Bush Lied and Soldiers Died No quick solution to N Korean crisis: Wolfowitz America's `laserkrieg' Straw, Powell had serious doubts over their Iraqi weapons claims: Secret transcript revealed A lack of intelligence

Australia's spies knew the United States was lying about Iraq's WMD programme. So why didn't the Government choose to believe them? Andrew Wilkie writes.

Friday, 30 May 2003

Radio Netherlands broadcast of a special edition of the Amsterdam Forum with Noam Chomsky U.S. Insiders Say Iraq Intel Deliberately Skewed New statue replaces Saddam Fiction and the Tax Cut: Bush gets his gimmicky tax cut while a $400 child credit for millions of low-wage families is eliminated. Are his critics suffering from outrage exhaustion? Iran: Tehran Ready To Accept Full IAEA Inspections Under Certain Conditions Bush dismisses reports of Iran attack Soldier 'took torture snaps' Federal workers knock job cuts Allied use of cluster bombs illegal, minister admits FAIR Activism Update: Networks Pick up on FCC Story AOL Drops Suit, Joins Microsoft In Alliance: Software Firm to Pay $750 Million Ted Rall: The Rise of a Bigger, Better Taliban

We told you so.

We warned the Bush Administration that invading Iraq would destabilize the Middle East and spread radical anti-American Islamism. We told the American people that taking out Saddam Hussein without a viable government to replace him would open a vacuum for anarchy, civil war and a power grab by radical Iranian-backed Shiite clerics. Now the antiwar movement's doomsday scenarios have been fulfilled so completely that military history scarcely mentions a more thoroughly botched endeavor -- and we'll be living with the fallout for years.

Nicholas D. Kristof: Save Our Spooks

On Day 71 of the Hunt for Iraqi W.M.D., yesterday, once again nothing turned up.

Maybe we'll do better on Day 72. But we might have better luck searching for something just as alarming: the growing evidence that the administration grossly manipulated intelligence about those weapons of mass destruction in the runup to the Iraq war.

Senator Rips Lack of Iraqi Weapons Finds Powell was under pressure to use shaky intelligence on Iraq: report Lawmaker says Halliburton deals on Iraq bigger than reported Lights, camera, rescue Vanishing Agents: Did Iraq really have weapons of mass destruction? Working poor can't expect any help from Washington: Millions of poverty-line families cut from child tax credit in last-minute negotiations We need visit from the Truth Fairy: with Jessica Lynch, Osama, WMDs, it's tough to tell what's real Band-aids, beans & conversion for Iraqis Whacking the Waitresses: And the other effects of George W. Bush's war on the poor

WAITRESSES AND JANITORS and security guards were around, of course, but they somehow didn't get consulted about the president's new tax bill either. No lobbyist in a nice suit with a Blackberry roamed the corridors, representing their interests. So it wasn't until after President Bush signed the bill in front of a 98 percent white audience at the White House (if you don't believe me, look at the wide angle picture of the signing ceremony in The New York Times), that someone read the fine print and found out that working people mostly got the shaft.

In Searching Homes, U.S. Troops Crossed the Threshold of Unrest North Korea nuclear mishap more likely than attack, says U.N. expert U.S. Split Over How Hard to Push Against Iran

WASHINGTON -- The debate within the Bush administration over confronting Iran has generated an even deeper divide than occurred during prewar discussions on Iraq, according to administration officials.

U.S. Forces in Europe Set Sights East, South: Realignment plan would mean drastic changes for the continent and the troops stationed there.

STUTTGART, Germany -- The talk in U.S. Gen. Charles F. Wald's office here veers from Al Qaeda to oil pipelines to borderless enemies. And the general, who likes to point to the big map on the wall, is less focused on his base in Central Europe than on emerging trouble spots such as resource-rich Nigeria and the Caspian region.

His eyes then shifted south, focusing on Nigeria. "Eight percent to 14% of the [United States'] oil comes from Nigeria," he said, adding that in the future that figure may jump to 25%.

"All of a sudden the west coast of Africa becomes an area of strategic interest and you start saying to yourself, 'I'd like to have some forward bases in Africa.' The world has changed. We're going to have to make our own security," Wald said. "The halcyon days are over."

Villagers fall ill amid fears of nuclear contamination

Elifat Rusum Saber, 14, of Riyadh village, has been nauseated, tired and bleeding from the nose since her brother brought home metal and chemicals from the neighbouring Tuwaitha nuclear research centre two days after the fall of Baghdad.

"I used to take care of my family and my youngest sister," Elifat, her frail figure lost in a billowing flower-print dress, said through an interpreter this week. "Nowadays I feel weak. I can't pick up a pot."

Thursday, 29 May 2003

Catholic Workers Disarm Ship in NYC During Fleet Week Rockefeller rips lack of Iraqi WMD finds White House Denies Shelving Budget Deficit Warning Rain contains dangerous levels of mercury Lynches Say They Can't Discuss POW Rescue Weapons of Mass Destruction: Who Said What When Conservative Journalists' Dirty Little Secret Jailing the messenger: With the media suffering self-inflicted wounds, the CIA spies an opening

NEW YORK, May 29 -- The latest opinion polls show the American public takes a dim view of its media outlets in the post 9/11 world - numbers punctuated by a roiling fraud and fabrication scandal that has shaken The New York Times. With big media back on its heels, the CIA fired its own broadside this week, publishing an "unclassified" memorandum that recommends using espionage laws to prosecute media outlets that publish or broadcast leaked information from government officials if that information turns out to be classified.

N Korea warns US of nuclear retaliation Shell keeps distance from buried papers

Royal Dutch/Shell Group said documents found buried in New Mexico are "everyday" office waste and shouldn't be linked to litigation involving Houston-based EOTT Energy.

Residents of a subdivision in Midland have sued Shell and EOTT for groundwater contamination that occurred when a section of the pipeline leaked before EOTT purchased it. EOTT has cleaned up the Midland site and settled with most of the plaintiffs but filed its own suit against Shell to recover those costs.

Iraqi missile targeted coalition HQ during war Anti-War Polish Mayor Banned from Bush Visit Officials: Rumsfeld trying to make foreign policy

From his first days in office, Rumsfeld has inundated Washington with a blizzard of memos regarding foreign policy, not usually the responsibility of a defense secretary.

"There are literally thousands of them," said one frequent recipient of Rumsfeld's foreign policy ideas and advice. "The theme is control. He wants everyone to have to play on his field."

Blair faces revolt as US admits doubts: 'It is possible that Iraqi leaders had decided to destroy the weapons of mass destruction prior to conflict' ... Donald Rumsfeld, on Tuesday night Pentagon Aims Guns at Lynch Reports Riot Chases Troops Out of Iraqi Town: 'They were terrifying the women and children,' one protester says after U.S. soldiers search homes for weapons. Chrétien hit by storm of controversy

Athens and Ottawa -- Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has sparked a storm of criticism ranging from the White House to his own backbenchers after attacking the United States for its burgeoning federal deficit.

Mr. Chrétien's remarks prompted a spokesman for U.S. President George W. Bush to fire back that the deficit was, in part, caused by extraordinary circumstances, including the U.S. decision to fight the war in Iraq.

"One of the reasons for that [difference between deficit and surplus] is the United States was attacked on Sept. 11; Canada was not," Ari Fleischer said. "The United States helped lead a war to bring freedom to the people of Iraq."

Tax Law Omits Child Credit in Low-Income Brackets THE ROVING EYE: G8 behind the barricades

There were rumors about a blacklist, US-style, of thousands of European activists.

Iranian refugee who sewed eyes up wins case The case for war is blown apart Rumsfeld concedes banned Iraqi weapons may not exist

Wednesday, 28 May 2003

Young: Head Start dissidents PM assails U.S. deficit Al-Jazeera TV chief sacked US bills Australia for bombs Democrat search probe spreads to Perry, aide US finds evidence of WMD at last - buried in a field in Maryland White House insider cleans up Bush's image on film China's Hu calls for multipolar world Microsoft chief calms investors after selling shares "War on terror" has made world worse -Amnesty Amnesty International Report 2003 Helen Thomas: Bush's Intimidation Tactics Undiplomatic: President Holds Grudge Against Nations That Opposed War White House shelved deficit report

WASHINGTON, May 29 -- The Bush administration has shelved a report commissioned by the Treasury that shows the U.S. currently faces a future of chronic federal budget deficits totaling at least $44 trillion in current U.S. dollars.

Geldof: I don't know how to describe five million starving kids any more. I'm sick of it myself Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming

WASHINGTON, May 27 -- Exxon Mobil has publicly softened its stance toward global warming over the last year, with a pledge of $10 million in annual donations for 10 years to Stanford University for climate research.

At the same time, the company, the world's largest oil and gas concern, has increased donations to Washington-based policy groups that, like Exxon itself, question the human role in global warming and argue that proposed government policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions associated with global warming are too heavy handed.

ON TO TEHRAN? The threat of war is real Morale reportedly flagging as U.S. soldiers who invaded Iraq anticipate going home Democrats Too Craven to Fight Back: They are paralyzed by the fear of doing or saying something that could be turned against them in GOP attack ads.

Party leaders are so timid, spineless and lacking in confidence that to call them jellyfish would be an insult to invertebrates.

Peru Declares State of Emergency Amid Protests Iraqi weapons only one reason for war-Wolfowitz

''For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on,'' Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in Vanity Fair magazine's July issue.

Wolfowitz said another reason for the invasion had been ''almost unnoticed but huge'' -- namely that the ousting of Saddam would allow the United States to remove its troops from Saudi Arabia, where their presence had long been a major al Qaeda grievance. ''Just lifting that burden from the Saudis is itself going to open the door'' to a more peaceful Middle East, Wolfowitz was quoted as saying.

IMF says concerted action needed if dollar continues to decline rapidly

The dollar has lost around 30 percent of its value against the euro within the past year and Koehler told the business daily Handelsblatt such a development was no surprise given the United States' huge current account deficit.

"On a trade-weighted basis, the depreciation is around 16 percent. That's still within limits and should come as no surprise given the huge current account deficit of the US," Koehler said.

"But there comes a point when a further rapid decline in the dollar would demand that a number of governments and central banks should come together. However, I don't want to speculate about this point publicly," he added.

Washington refuses to believe Iran on nuclear weapons and terror suspects

Tuesday, 27 May 2003

Paul Krugman: Stating The Obvious Turkey's military chief warns pro-Islamist government of possible coup Refugee sews up his lips, eyes and ears U.S. Report Faults Efforts to Track Water Pollution Back in Political Forefront: Iran-Contra Figure Plays Key Role on Mideast Robert Fisk: Iraqi brigadier explains how Saddam lost the war 'War vaccines poisoned us' Where did the feisty Americans go? US aware of efforts to split Europe over Iraq

The US administration was informed of and approved two European declarations earlier this year designed to isolate France and Germany over Iraq.

The involvement of officials in the White House and a consultant working with the administration in Washington came at a critical moment in the diplomacy in the weeks before the invasion of Iraq.

Next stop Tehran? With Iraq beaten, the US is now playing the same dangerous WMD game with Iran Canberra was warned on spy reports, says ex-analyst

Warnings by Australian intelligence officials that US spy reports exaggerated Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorists were discounted by the Federal Government, a former intelligence analyst said yesterday.

Slain Spanish cameraman's family files suit

MADRID, May 27 (Reuters) - Relatives of a Spanish cameraman killed in a U.S. tank attack on a Baghdad hotel asked Spain's high court on Tuesday to investigate and put on trial three U.S. soldiers.

Jose Couso, 37, a cameraman for Spain's Telecinco TV station, was killed on April 8 when a U.S. tank fired at a hotel serving as the main Baghdad base for international journalists covering the war in Iraq.

Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a 35-year-old Ukrainian, was killed in the same incident.

Sharon backtracks on term "occupation" in face of internal rebellion

Monday, 26 May 2003

U.N. nuclear inspectors to return to Iraq North Korea not facing sanctions soon: Koizumi Howard Kurtz: Intra-Times Battle Over Iraqi Weapons Washington Post Editorial: No More Nukes US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists: Uzbekistan's president steps up repression of opponents Bush makes poor pay for military might and tax cuts: Schools and health lose out as US public services endure worst crisis since 1930s Texan values 'are new global menace': Anti-American sentiment dominates discussions In Iraq, U.S. Troops Are Still Dying -- One Almost Every Day: Death Rate Down, but Families of Victims Face Special Anguish Summary executions become routine in Aceh as Jakarta's generals break their promises Downer's call to Iran: crack down on terror Reviewing the Intelligence on Iraq (New York Times, 26 May 2003) Azadeh Moaveni: Baghdad Women Shrouded in Fear (Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2003) Media 'duopolies' blamed for drop in children's programming Army and MIT aim to create super-soldiers US plans death camp

THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.

Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.

Sunday, 25 May 2003

Faith-Based Charities May Not Be Better, Study Indicates Saddam sold out Dissenting diplomats say America isn't safer (AP, 25 May 2003) Milton Viorst: Why They Don't Want Democracy (Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2003) NKorea could consider multilateral talks only after bilateral meet with US US declares war on the euro: America's policy of competitive deflation poses a real threat to the Eurozone, writes William Keegan RIGHTS AND THE NEW REALITY: Power, Ever More Power

When it passed the USA Patriot Act in October 2001, giving law enforcement agents sweeping new powers, Congress unleashed a spying free-for-all that shows no sign of abating. Pentagon analysts are even trying to figure out if they can nab terrorists by watching how people walk -- "gait recognition," it's called.

Now pushing for even broader authority, the Bush administration's operating principle seems to be if a lot of power is good, a lot more would be better.

Here is what's on the table now:

* "Patriot Act II," a hush-hush draft that would give the Justice Department more power to snoop and more leverage over suspects. This measure, formally known as the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, seeks to free the FBI from requirements that it get a judge's OK before prying into a person's phone, bank or credit records. It would expand government power to make secret arrests, like those of hundreds of people, mostly Middle Eastern nationals, after Sept. 11, 2001. The Justice Department largely refused to reveal the identities of those suspects, where they were detained or the reasons for their arrest. The draft measure would also allow the attorney general to strip Americans of their citizenship in some cases for donating to what they may have thought were legitimate nonprofit groups.

Although the measure doesn't officially exist, a copy was leaked this year. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has declined to brief Congress on his proposals.

* The CIA and the military are asking for authority to peruse phone records, credit card records and e-mail logs of people in the U.S. These agencies can ask the FBI for much of this, but the Bush administration believes that giving the CIA and the Pentagon direct authority would be more efficient. It would also mark an unprecedented expansion in the mission of the CIA and the military. Senate Democrats struck this program from a larger bill but it probably will return.

* The Defense Department wants permission from Congress to use a new high-powered computer system, costing billions to create, to paw through the private records of millions of Americans in search of patterns that might -- might -- lead to a terrorist. The architects of this creepy Terrorism Information Awareness initiative (previously Total Information Awareness) want access to health-care files, rental car receipts, employment and school records, credit histories, e-mail traffic and more.

Set against the broad Patriot Act powers already in place and the administration's continued refusal to release the House-Senate investigation into the 2001 terrorist attacks, these proposals are assaults on the Constitution.

Hidden crisis is taking root in U.S. parks Israeli Cabinet Approves Landmark Peace Blueprint Congo death toll: 2,500 per day: No end in sight for deadliest conflict since WW II: Diplomat sees `a type of genocide going on here' Red Cross denied access to PoWs: Up to 3,000 Iraqis - some of them civilians - believed to be gagged, bound, hooded and beaten at US camps close to Baghdad airport Ewan McGregor waves goodbye to 'Trainspotting' cast reunion U.S. Eyes Pressing Uprising in Iran: Terrorists in Iran Suspected of Role In Riyadh Blasts

Saturday, 24 May 2003

Political freebies pour in: Despite ban on perks, lobbyists offer gifts for access to Legislature US, Japan "will not tolerate" nuclear weapons in North Korea Out of Money, Some School Districts in Oregon End the Year Early Brauchli: Tax cuts for the rich, health-care shaft for poor US army chief says Iraqi troops took bribes to surrender On the streets of Baghdad, there are no heroes or villains. Only victims

Haider Tahab was so quiveringly angry that the blood vessels at his temples seemed ready to burst. He kept returning to deliver another blast of point-blank invective, as if driven by a compulsion that would only fully be relieved once he had hit someone.

Bobbing above the heads of the people crowded behind him was a crude wooden coffin, which they were trying to load on to the roof of a white mini-van. They seemed as furious as he. "Down Bush! Up Saddam!" he bellowed into my face. "The Americans have turned into murderers and thieves."

Return of assault weapons feared in U.S.: 1994 ban on semi-automatics lurches toward expiry date: Issue expected to play pivotal role in presidential election Policing Iraq's police: US tries to train force to maintain local security Pentagon sets sights on a new Tehran regime: UK and state department reject blunt approach US blamed for Baghdad tension: Britain says American military failure to secure capital threatens to delay reconstruction Women losing freedoms in chaos of postwar Iraq: Shiite clerics move into power vacuum

Friday, 23 May 2003

Philippe Raynaud and Stephane Rials: Liberalism Faced with the Imperial Temptation (Le Figaro, 23 May 2003) US contracts come under scrutiny: Reconstruction offers rich pickings, but must you be a Bush supporter to benefit? Guardian reporters investigate Dollar losing value in Iraq Bush answers on 9/11 overdue

After the Bay of Pigs disaster when the CIA tried to invade Cuba, President John F. Kennedy took personal responsibility and ordered an independent investigation. In fact, the invasion had been planned during the Eisenhower administration, and JFK could easily have blamed the mess on his predecessor.

Iraq: France Worries about American Resentment: Paris and Washington Have not yet Gotten Over their Crisis Mouths Open FAIR Action Alert: Does Stossel Deserve a Promotion? Palestinian Presbyterian is a pioneer

"National Public Radio introduced me to the nation as a Muslim clergyman," says Abu-Akel, still ruffled at the implication that any Arab must be Islamic.

The moral of the story?

"It is naive and dangerous to lump people together the way most of us do in this country. A superpower cannot afford to think that way. It makes us more likely to cave in to emotion and racism."

David Krieger: Economic Justice for All The Coastline Pilot: Chasing Down the Muse: Who do you trust?

What if everything you read in the newspapers was a fabrication? What if every piece of reporting you heard on the radio or saw on the TV was manipulated? What if, in the process of biased reporting, truth became the handmaiden of power, and you became an unknowing consumer of lies?

Blair faces war crimes suit: Greek lawyers say they are going to sue British officials - including Prime Minister Tony Blair - for their role in the Iraq war. Swedish Minister on the American President: «That fucking Texas geezer» Whopper of the Week: Donald Rumsfeld

"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons."

--Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14

"We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."

--Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16

Street attack stuns visiting doctors: Psychiatrists at S.F. convention get dose of reality on streets

Members of the nation's largest psychiatric association discovered San Francisco's mentally ill homeless problem up close this week, as they stepped out of their annual convention and were surprised -- some say shocked -- by the legions of people living on the street.

The worst, however, came when an official of the American Psychiatric Association, a Baltimore doctor known for being an advocate for the indigent mentally ill, was assaulted by an apparently homeless man with a history of psychiatric problems.

Blix Suspects Iraq May Have Had No Banned Weapons Blix casts doubt on WMDs

The chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said he was starting to suspect Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction in advance of the war on Iraq, a German newspaper reported today.

"I am obviously very interested in the question of whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction, and I am beginning to suspect there possibly were none," Mr Blix told the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel.

FAA Delay in Reporting 9/11 Hijackings Probed: Commission also questions ex-chief on shooting report London axes plan for British troops to replace US troops in Baghdad DeLay admits to role in hunting for Democrats: DPS focus of 'potentially criminal' action James K. Galbraith: Bush Tax Cuts Will Do a Number on Us

Bush's new law will give a taste of Texas taxation to the whole country. Tax on dividends will go down to nothing - supposedly for only a few years, but that's a joke. Tax on capital gains will drop to 15 percent. The top rate on the income tax comes down to 35 percent. Add to this the in-progress reduction of the estate tax, and the pattern is clear. It will be great to be American - if you are very rich.

But suppose you actually want to live here? The tax bill throws peanuts at the fiscal crisis of the states. Sales taxes will keep going up. Poor people pay those. Property taxes will rise relentlessly, as they are doing down in Texas. Middle-class folk pay the property tax. Funds for schools, health care, transportation and the environment will be cut. In Texas we are cutting almost 10 percent from state university budgets next year, just for starters. There is a tragic threat that vital mental health institutions here in Austin will be closed. Expect to see a lot like this coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

The train wreck will come after the election. The Fed will turn about, and the collapsed dollar will be declared an inflation threat. So much for today's "deflation" talk, which is mostly nonsense. Interest rates will be raised "in order to defend the dollar," as the Fed will say. Households will hit the debt wall. The housing bubble will pop. Household spending will tank. Many will lose their over-mortgaged homes.

Fiscal Death by 1,000 Tax Cuts

The 2001 tax cuts -- including interest costs on the additional debt they entail -- will cost at least $2.6 trillion through 2013. And that number climbs to $3.2 trillion after the alternative minimum tax is modified to ensure that all Americans are receiving their promised tax cuts. Now add the full costs of the administration's new proposals to exclude taxation on dividends and add or extend even more new tax cuts and, presto, we are looking at a combined tax cut of more than $4 trillion through 2013.

Unemployment benefits do more than help jobless

They insist that tax cuts benefiting wealthy investors will create jobs and solve the problem. But the research firm Economy.com has produced statistics that show a dividend tax cut will generate only 9 cents of economic growth per dollar, while each unemployment benefit dollar returns $1.73.

Bush 'is on brink of catastrophe' Victims of the peace decide Americans are worse than Saddam Congolese Pygmies say they are being hunted by cannibals Old and bloody tradition revived as Utah prepares firing squad

Utah is getting ready to execute two convicted criminals by firing squad, an old and bloody means of execution that is likely to stir renewed debate about the cruelty of capital punishment in the United States.

Strikes push France to brink of crisis Eyewitness: Bunia mother's heartbreak US moves to try Cuba prisoners: Prisoners detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are a step closer to standing trial following two key legal appointments made by the Americans. Franks to Leave Central Command and Retire: Army General Will Close Military Career Following Campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan

Thursday, 22 May 2003

Francis Boyle on ending Iraq sanctions

Professor of international law at the University of Illinois and author of Foundations of World Order, Boyle said today: "Bush is basically getting the Security Council to reverse the long-standing Stimson Doctrine: That the world will not recognize the fruits of an aggressive war. But that is exactly what the Security Council has just done."

Pentagon hands major Iraq deal to scandal-ridden WorldCom, rivals incensed (The Star Online, 22 May 2003) U.S. rich-poor gap "unsustainable"-Fed's McDonough

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) - A large gulf between the rich and poor can tear at a society's fabric, departing New York Federal Reserve Bank President William McDonough said on Thursday, calling U.S. income disparity "unsustainable."

U.S. 'negation' policy in space raises concerns abroad Robbers and killers stalk city of terror [Alaska State] Senate passes resolution questioning federal Patriot Act Bush equated with Hitler in 'Matrix' sequel? Image of president shown with dictator in discussion of evil Well Connected: FCC and Industry Maintain Cozy Relationship on Many Levels Japan Cracks Down on Firms Tied to N. Korea Ashcroft to appear before House panel on Patriot Act British troops step in to bail out Yanks Molly Ivins: Um, Folks, This Doesn't Look Like Victory Telegraph boss under fire over payments Threat level to remain at 'orange' through holiday: Security stepped up around nation amid warnings Robert McNamara's Film Debut: Documentary Reveals Former Defense Secretary's Role Chirac to embarrass Bush at G8 conference States Cut Test Standards to Avoid Sanctions Texas OKs rigid abortion-counseling law: Doctors must cite nonexistent link to cancer Veterans For Peace Calls for the Impeachment of George W. Bush As the White House Moves to Develop a New Generation of Nuclear Weapons, Dr. Helen Caldicott Speaks on Nuclear Proliferation and the Invasion of Iraq (audio) Trust in Leaders is Lost if WMD Are Not Found No Fiscal Sense in Tax Plan: The new $350-billion House-Senate package is yet another boon to the well-to-do. Occupation of Iraq illegal, Blair told

Leaked advice from the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, reveals that he warned Tony Blair two months ago that attempts at postwar reconstruction of Iraq by US-British occupying authorities would be unlawful without a further UN resolution.

Lord Goldsmith, the government's chief law officer, told the prime minister that the longer the occupation went on and the more the actions of the occupying authorities departed from their main task of disarmament, the harder it would be to justify the occupation as lawful.

Blair was told it would be illegal to occupy Iraq New Bush volunteer fund-raising group to raise $200,000 each for campaign

President Bush is upping the ante for his campaign's volunteer fund-raisers, complementing the record-setting "pioneers" with a new group called the "rangers" who will be expected to raise twice as much: $200,000 each.

Plan to cut Fort Sam Houston jobs called 'union-busting'

SAN ANTONIO - A union official said the plan to eliminate 225 support jobs at Fort Sam Houston is part of a nationwide plan to privatize the Department of Defense and attack unionized civil service staff.

Afghans' uranium levels spark alert: A small sample of Afghan civilians have shown "astonishing" levels of uranium in their urine, an independent scientist says. Indonesian troops accused of massacre: Villagers say children shot in raid on rebels Bush weighs effort to undermine Iranian leadership Existing Iraq oil supply contracts void-envoy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi oil supply contracts signed by oil trading firms before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government will not be honored under a new United Nations resolution to lift sanctions on the war torn country, diplomats said Thursday.

With the lifting of sanctions, Iraq's stalled oil exports are expected to resume quickly.

"The oil is ready to flow. The tanks are full," one diplomat said Wednesday. "I think you will find it will move quite quickly."

East German uprising left to go it alone

The British government under prime minister Winston Churchill refused to support a pro-democracy uprising by 1m East German workers and farmers in 1953, leaving protesters to face persecution by Soviet Union and East German troops, according to a new book.

If You're in Favor of Buttoned-Down Secrecy in the Budget Office, You'll Love the New OMB Director Surveys pointing to high civilian death toll in Iraq NGOs Decry 'Bribes' and 'Threats' Behind U.N. Vote So Much for the Peace Dividend: Pentagon is Winning the Battle for a $400 Billion Budget: Despite huge military inefficiency, Republicans return US defense spending to cold war levels to buy cold war weaponry US 'mini nukes' decision alarms critics Lawmakers Pass $400.5 Billion Defense Bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a $400.5 billion defense bill that ends a decade-long ban on research and development of small nuclear weapons, a step critics said may heighten risks of nuclear war.

Experts fear U.S.-Russia nuclear 'perfect storm' Senate backs off on small nuclear warheads: Bill is amended to permit only research, design Chirac to embarrass Bush at G8 conference

President Chirac is preparing to embarrass President Bush at the forthcoming G8 summit in France by laying out an agenda heavy on environmental, development and economic issues and light on the fight against terrorism.

Indonesia will intern civililians in war against Aceh rebels Guilty of war crimes - or victim of a feud with US soldiers? British officer who won international recognition for speech to troops on eve of Gulf War accused of pistol-whipping an Iraqi civic leader

Lt Col Collins, it is alleged, pistol-whipped an Iraqi "civic leader", gashing his head; punched and kicked prisoners of war; shot the tyres of vehicles when there was no threat to Allied lives; fired on the ground "near the feet" of Iraqi civilians and also spoken to civilians in a "threatening" fashion.

Serious as the accusations are, they do not, despite what Lt Col Collins himself said yesterday, equate to the depredations of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

More pertinently, his British colleagues were yesterday comparing them to the actions of the Americans who shot dead unarmed demonstrators in cities such as Mosul and, as western journalists witnessed, killed civilians without provocation at various checkpoints in Baghdad.

UN backs coalition administration of Iraq and lifts sanctions Japan ready to strike first if threatened: PM Democrats' probe runs into wall: DPS destroys data; feds mum

Wednesday, 21 May 2003

It's About (Mexico's) Oil Immanuel Wallerstein: Empire and the Capitalists George Galloway: Anti-war campaigner and MP for Glasgow Kelvin West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd: Iraq War, "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation" Los Angeles Times editorial: Declassify the 9/11 Report Lockyer: Don't link activists, terrorists: State attorney general admits warning shouldn't have been issued before April 7 anti-war protest Democrats critical of Ridge's remarks, claims Anti-Terror Power Used Broadly: Laws Invoked Against Crimes Unrelated to Terror, Report Says Sierra Club's Reaction To Whitman Resignation

From resisting efforts to get arsenic out of our drinking water, to weakening the clean air act and the enforcement of environmental safeguards, the Bush Administration has demonstrated a pattern of siding with corporate polluters over the health and safety of America's families.

Just weeks after taking office, Whitman tried to act on President Bush's campaign pledge to curb the carbon dioxide causing global warming, but the Administration quickly cut her off. Then, in June, both President Bush and Administrator Whitman disavowed a government report acknowledging humans' role in causing global warming. An administration that ignores their own scientists' report on global warming makes us fear for the future.

U.S. Risks New Arms Race, Democrats Warn Rumsfeld pushes for new nuclear weapons study U.S. researching N Korea's geological structure Afghan opium production soars, country top producer

PARIS, May 21 (Reuters) - Three years after the Taliban stamped out opium growing in Afghanistan, a U.N. expert said on Wednesday the country had reclaimed its spot as the world's biggest opium producer.

The Pentagon's secret weapon: Bribing our way to a speedy victory in the Iraq war

May 21 -- A fascinating piece in the May 19 Defense News quotes Gen. Tommy Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, confirming what had until now been mere rumors picked up by dubious Arab media outlets -- that, before Gulf War II began, U.S. special forces had gone in and bribed Iraqi generals not to fight.

War profiteers Shell, Bechtel, Fluor take record of terror from Africa to Iraq

As Bush creates a corporate protectorate in Iraq, many companies who stand to benefit from reconstruction and oil exploration there are familiar to Africans. Shell, Bechtel and Fluor are all associated with massacres and crimes against humanity in Africa.

Oil giant Shell had a hand in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the massacre of hundreds of Ogoni in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Bechtel has profited from and exacerbated the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And Flour had tight relationships with the apartheid regime of South Africa.

Tarrytown judge's remark sparks outrage

TARRYTOWN -- An Arab-American woman who fainted in village court said she suffered an anxiety attack after the judge asked if she were a terrorist.

Anissa Khoder has filed a complaint against Tarrytown Village Justice William Crosbie with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Khoder went to court on Thursday to contest a pair of parking tickets. As she approached the judge's table, she said, Crosbie considered her name out loud and asked if she were a terrorist. She said she was stunned by the implication, but responded with a weak, reflexive smile.

"I felt offended, and I kept it to myself," she said, but then it got worse. After completing her explanation for why the tickets should be dismissed, she said the judge asked her, "You don't really want to pay these tickets, do you?"

"Then he said something like, 'You have money to support the terrorists, but you don't want to pay the ticket,' " Khoder said. "I could not believe I was hearing that."

She was unable to say anything in protest and, almost immediately, collapsed to the floor. A court officer and two Tarrytown police officers helped her and called for an ambulance, but Khoder soon recovered and declined medical attention.

Blair 'broke his promise not to tap MPs' phones' Law Bans Selling Violent Games to Kids Congress watches its power ebb 'Iron hand' cleric issues fatwa amid Baghdad chaos Africa's Aids drugs trapped in the laboratory: Kenya has the pills. Now the fight is on to get them to the people Alarm at Pentagon's email snooping Senate backs study of low-yield nuclear weapons Senate Backs Bush on 'Mini-Nukes' Allies May Accept UN Help at Iraqi Nuclear Sites, Rumsfeld Says Democracy, civility debated at college: A reporter says watching reaction to his speech was 'heartbreaking.' Study Warns of Rising Tide of Released Inmates Dividend Tax Cut Cost More Than Thought

WASHINGTON - Senators who approved a suspension of taxes on investor dividends last week underestimated the cost of the measure by $70 billion because of an error by congressional tax experts.

Texas agency destroyed records related to search for Democrats

AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - One day before Democrats ended their boycott of the Texas House last week, the Texas Department of Public Safety ordered the destruction of all records and photos gathered in the search for them, documents obtained Tuesday show.

Addressed to "Captains," the order said: "Any notes, correspondence, photos, etc. that were obtained pursuant to the absconded House of Representative members shall be destroyed immediately. No copies are to be kept. Any questions please contact me."

It was signed by the commander of the DPS Special Crimes Service, L.C. "Tony" Marshall.

Crushed: the farmers caught between the Israeli army and Hamas NPR: Gus Faucher, an economist with Economy.com, comments on the Bush administration's decision to move the president's Council of Economic Advisors to office space further away from the White House.

Tuesday, 20 May 2003

Oil giants eye African prospects: African governments and major international oil explorers are meeting in Angola to discuss to how to exploit offshore oil from West and Central African nations. Looters cart away Basra University Bush Shows Economists the Door--Literally German Attorneys Sue Bush for Iraqi War Six French journalists detained on arrival at Los Angeles, sent back to France Panel Stays Campaign Finance Ruling: McCain-Feingold Law Restored Until Decision By Supreme Court Suicide Bomber Kills 3 at Israeli Mall: Peace Efforts in Jeopardy After Fifth Attack in 2 Days Nuclear accord still valid: Seoul North Korea Warns South of 'Disaster' Pentagon Readies Massive Spying System

Other databases DARPA wants to make available to U.S. agents include financial, education, medical and housing records and biometric identification databases based on fingerprints, irises, facial shapes and gait.

TIA is developing breakthrough software ``for treating these databases as a virtual, centralized grand database'' capable of being quickly mined by counterintelligence officers even though the data will be held in many places, many languages and many formats, DARPA documents say.

U.S., Allies Close Diplomatic Offices in Saudi Arabia: Threat of New al Qaeda Attacks Prompts Security Measure U.S. Raises Terror Alert After Wave of Attacks Overseas U.S. Deported Suspected Terrorists Whose Trials Could Jeopardize Probes

Individuals in the U.S. with links to terrorism were deported to their home countries even though investigators believed they posed a danger to national security and could be prosecuted, according to a Department of Justice brief.

Congress curious about Iraq deals: Members from both parties want details on awarding of contracts Bush fund-raising effort may shatter record

WASHINGTON - Gearing up a money machine that he hopes to ride to re-election, President Bush will return to the fund-raising circuit Wednesday with a $12 million dinner for Republican congressional candidates.

Florida Gov. Bush Signs Contentious Everglades Bill

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law on Tuesday a sugar industry-backed bill relaxing requirements to clean up the Everglades, which critics say threatens the health of the massive Florida wetland.

Shiites Denounce Occupation: Clerics Say U.S. Has Not Involved Them in Postwar Planning Washington Stands Alone in Opposition to Relaxing Patents on AIDS Drugs U.N. Atomic Chief Again Warns U.S. About Iraq US Plans to Keep Control of Iraq Oil Household Names Face Apartheid Profiteering Charges US Uses GM Foods in First Assault of EU Trade Battle Noted Scientists Reject Nuclear Quest: U.S. research would give legitimacy to others to develop low-yield bombs, letter says Stephen Zunes: Time to Question the US Role in Saudi Arabia White House Policies Divert Funds from National Parks Flag-waver's arrest tells us we have something to fear

Be scared that we live in a time when a 57-year-old husband and father who has spent his entire adult life playing peacemaker, who his supporters swear is the epitome of restraint and reason, whose heroes are Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., gets busted for waving a flag when the prez is in town.

War crimes case against General Franks: Interview with Belgian lawyer Jan Fermon Dividend Voodoo

The annual Forbes 400 lists prove that -- with occasional blips -- the rich do indeed get richer. Nonetheless, the Senate voted last week to supply major aid to the rich in their pursuit of even greater wealth.

Paul Hawken: McDonald's a "Green Business"? I Resign

Increasingly, corporations such as McDonald's have tried to direct the concept of a green business to recycled tray liners, reduced waste stream, and other molecular flows. Those are important issues and require our attention and diligence. But doing so does not make a business green. Green refers to the environment, to ecology. It is about the awareness that we are part of a complex living system, not simply trying to be part of a short term fix. Integral to that system are human beings-their lives, their bodies, their wages, and how they are treated and respected.

Schools burned as fear sweeps Aceh George Monbiot: Let's hear it for Belgium Iraq war helped boost Al Qaeda: Allowed network to recruit: Experts

LONDON - The U.S.-led war on Iraq gave Al Qaeda the opportunity to reinvigorate its weakened terrorist network with new recruits and more funding, say experts on terrorism.

The Iraq war "clearly increased the terrorist impulse," said Jonathan Stevenson, senior fellow for counter-terrorism at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Richest nations arming rights abusers: Amnesty

Amnesty said it was calling for an international arms trade treaty to strengthen and harmonise national controls on the flow of arms to countries it describes as human rights abusers such as Israel, Colombia, Afghanistan and Senegal.

The report, entitled "A Catalogue of Failures: G8 Arms Exports and Human Rights Violations", said the United States accounted for 28 per cent of global arms transfers from 1997 to 2000, making it the world's top supplier of weapons.

Oil wars Pentagon's policy since 1999

A top-level United States policy document has emerged that explicitly confirms the Defence Department's readiness to fight an oil war.

According to the report, Strategic Assessment 1999, prepared for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defence, "energy and resource issues will continue to shape international security".

Pentagon calls BBC's Lynch allegations 'ridiculous': Report said commando raid was unnecessarily theatric Saving Private Lynch: Take 2: The rescue was pure Hollywood, reportedly a bit of Pentagon fiction. Speaker disrupts RC graduation: A New York Times reporter delivers an antiwar speech that offended many.

ROCKFORD -- New York Times reporter Chris Hedges was booed off the stage Saturday at Rockford College's graduation because he gave an antiwar speech.

Iraq nuclear and oilfield chaos confront US rulers A Spy Machine of Darpa's Dreams

The Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index it and make it searchable.

The Defense Budget Spills Forth Diplomatic Bonfires Three Israelis killed as wave of suicide attacks grows Indonesia launches military assault against Aceh rebels Woman dies in Turkish cafe bomb Israel Leaves Gaza Town After 5 - Day Siege

Troops withdrew from Beit Hanoun earlier Tuesday, after a five-day takeover during which they flattened orchards, demolished 15 homes, knocked over garden walls, tore up streets and damaged the sewage, water and electricity systems.

Cover-Up Found in Honduras Prison Killings

Church leaders said the Porvenir report, written by three outside experts appointed by the Ministry of State Security, might force the nation to deal in a different way with its most despised citizens -- the growing number of teenage gang members.

Their emergence reflects the acute social problems of Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, where half the population of 6.5 million is under 18. Honduras, like other Central American countries, is struggling to create a democracy. It is trying to build a justice system and a civil society out of very little after pthree decades of military rule.

From 1963 until 1993, the police were under military control. The army, which received millions of dollars in military aid from the United States, killed and tortured citizens, including prisoners, the Central Intelligence Agency found in a 1998 inspector general's report.

Bush Affirms U.S. Is Ready to Send Troops to the Philippines

WASHINGTON, May 19 -- President Bush reaffirmed Washington's commitment today to send American troops to help root out Muslim militants in the southern Philippines, but he did not provide any details of how or when they would be sent.

Guest List for White House State Dinner

Monday, 19 May 2003

Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial: SUV tax cut Al Qaeda Arms Traced to Saudi National Guard: 3 Attackers Identified In Riyadh Bombings Cuba says Gov. Bush is urging an attack: On U.S. news show, Alarcón claims plot Truth, Lies and Subtext "Terror" Slut Steve Emerson Eats Crow (Just for Starters) Edward Said: An Unprecedented Crisis: The Arab Condition Glover latest star under criticism after speaking out on U.S. foreign policy Cuba says Gov. Bush is urging an attack

A top Cuban official charged in an interview broadcast Sunday that Gov. Jeb Bush is pressing his brother, President Bush, to bring down the government of Fidel Castro.

Shiites March in Baghdad Against U.S.

Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched peacefully through the capital Monday to protest the American occupation of Iraq and reject what they feared would be a U.S.-installed puppet government.

Euro Climbs to 4-Year High as Dollar Continues to Weaken The Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity: We are Perplexed at the US Refusal to Permit the Return of UN Inspectors to Iraq

We are former intelligence officials who have served many years at senior levels of the US intelligence community. As the role of intelligence on Iraq assumed critical importance over the past several months, we established Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) as a collegial body to monitor the unfolding of events. Our first analytic paper was a same-day commentary on Secretary of State Colin Powell's performance at the UN Security Council on February 5. Six papers on related subjects have now been issued, three of which have taken the form of Memoranda for the President. We have had no response from the White House.

Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Jeffrey Sachs: An economic 'menu of pain'

OUR GOVERNMENT is going broke. The feds face bills that are far beyond our capacity to pay -- by $44 trillion to be precise. The longer we ignore them, the bigger they get. Yet President Bush is working overtime to deepen our fiscal trap. This $44 trillion figure is not ours. Nor is it some other academics' calculation. It was produced last fall by economists and budget analysts at the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Budget Office. The study was ordered by then Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil and was slated to appear in the president's budget, released in February.

10 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan: Sources BBC correspondent defends Lynch documentary 18 UN agencies and NGOs protest Gaza closure Looting Is Derailing Detailed U.S. Plan to Restore Iraq

Senior administration officials said they had foreseen some problems, but not all. "You couldn't know how it would end," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a telephone conversation on Friday that he initiated. "When it did end, you take it as you found it and get at it, knowing the single most important thing is security."

Another senior administration official said the White House was surprised to learn how badly broken Iraq's prewar infrastructure was. "From the outside it looked like Baghdad was a city that works," the official said. "It isn't."

Pentagon OKs Next Phase of U.S. Army Modernization

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has approved the $14.92 billion development and demonstration phase of the Future Combat Systems program, a project led by Boeing Co. to modernize the U.S. Army, the Army said on Monday.

High Court Declines Terror Detainee Case: Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal Over Hundreds of Terror-War Suspects U.S. Holds in Cuba Supreme Court Rejects Afghan War Detainees' Case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by a group of clergy, lawyers and professors who challenged the detention of hundreds of captives from the Afghan war at a U.S. military prison on Cuba.

US post-war effort seen as on the brink of "fiasco" Villagers vs Oil Giant: Ashcroft to the Rescue

WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has launched a sweeping attack against a 214-year-old human rights law that has helped provide justice to Nazi Holocaust victims and peasants from Latin America and Asia.

The law, the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), has been used with increasing frequency over the past 24 years by victims of serious rights abuses committed overseas by foreign government leaders and senior military officials, as well as U.S. and foreign-owned corporations, to get a hearing before U.S. federal courts.

Now, however, Ashcroft's Justice Department has asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California to effectively throw out all cases that deal with abuses that allegedly took place overseas, arguing that the law is "somewhat of a historical relic" that itself has been abused by plaintiffs to enforce international human rights laws and norms.

Bush Press Secretary Fleischer Resigns Ari Fleischer to leave White House post President Bush cavalier with media traditions, public access to data Stephen Byers: I was wrong. Free market trade policies hurt the poor: The IMF and World Bank orthodoxy is increasing global poverty

In November 1999, during the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Seattle, I watched from my hotel room as thousands demonstrated against the evils of globalisation.

As leader of the delegation from the United Kingdom, I was convinced that the expansion of world trade had the potential to bring major benefits to developing countries and would be one of the key means by which world poverty would be tackled.

In order to achieve this, I believed that developing countries would need to embrace trade liberalisation. This would mean opening up their own domestic markets to international competition. The thinking behind this approach being that the discipline of the market would resolve problems of underperformance, a strong economy would emerge and that, as a result, the poor would benefit. This still remains the position of major international bodies like the IMF and World Bank and is reflected in the system of incentives and penalties which they incorporate in their loan agreements with developing countries. But my mind has changed.

I now believe that this approach is wrong and misguided. Since leaving the cabinet a year ago, I've had the opportunity to see at first hand the consequences of trade policy. No longer sitting in the air-conditioned offices of fellow government ministers I have, instead, been meeting farmers and communities at the sharp end.

Labour's free trade policy harms millions, says Byers

The government's policy of liberalising trade and removing protectionist measures such as subsidies and tariffs is dangerous for millions in the developing world, the former trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers says, showing a remarkable change of heart, in the Guardian today.

"I was aware of the arguments, but it's not until you see first hand the consequences of policies, that you see they need to be changed."

It was "getting away from Whitehall and the persuasive arguments of trade policy experts" and discovering the plight of ordinary farmers in developing countries that made the difference.

Desperate measures: Iraqi children are tampering with dumped ammunition to help feed their hungry families. Their deaths come as no surprise to aid workers in Basra, says Dominic Nutt Thousands of al-Qaida suspects ready to attack, warns US official Sharon calls off US visit after bomb kills seven: Suicide attack on bus seen as protest against meeting between prime ministers to discuss road map You let al-Qaida off hook, Bush told: Democrats attack presidential record on homeland security Al-Qaida is back and stronger than ever: Security agencies say latest attacks show new level of planning and recruitment Casablanca's shanty town poverty that spawned attackers Morocco wakes up to reality of violence Belgian far right poised for breakthrough Britain considers UN call for Congo help Jakarta orders attack on Aceh Indonesian forces begin Aceh offensive EU law could prevent GM ban From joy and hope to corruption, tyranny and the misery of poverty Indonesia launches air and sea offensive against rebels

Indonesian troops launched a major offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province just hours after the breakdown of peace talks in Tokyo and the imposition of martial law.

Jane Goodall: 'We can't have any wildlife conservation unless we deal with people problems too'

The bushmeat crisis is (as you might expect) painful for her in the extreme. She thinks eating apes is wrong. "Yes, I do. Partly because they're so close to us ... I mean, when you know them as I know them, as personalities, and they can live to be 60 years old, and they have their own family life, it's like eating another person. It really is. It's like cannibalism."

Israel: Another day, another outrage

The attacks themselves are no surprise; international observers had been expecting an Islamist backlash after the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. But the ferocity and frequency has been shocking. And yesterday there were still more.

Democrats turn on Bush over handling of national security

Democratic contenders for next year's presidential election made their first spirited attack on George W Bush over the weekend on the issue widely regarded within the United States as his greatest strength -- his handling of national security and the so-called "war on terrorism".

Attacks jolt Mideast peace plan

Sunday, 18 May 2003

U.S. faces phalanx of dangerous, destabilizing groups in Iraq State Monitored War Protesters: Intelligence Agency Does Not Distinguish Between Terrorism and Peace Activism

"You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that (protest)," said Van Winkle, of the state Justice Department. "You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."

Blair has betrayed Britain ... not me: Defiant Galloway's blast at PM Karzai Powerless As Warlords Battle: Afghanistan's Leader Unable to Prevent Violence Dean Says Nation Faces Economic Depression if Bush Wins Another Term Al-Qaeda threatens 'stunning blows' against US, Israel Is It Legal to Stop North Korea's Nuclear Exports?

If negotiations with North Korea fail, the list of options kept in a White House safe, officials say, calls for a selective but escalating series of "interdictions" of cargo from the starving North. First, freighters suspected of carrying missiles would be stopped; then cargo ships that might have cocaine, counterfeit dollars or, the biggest nightmare, bomb-grade plutonium.

At the Pentagon, officials talk of a more audacious quarantine: trying to convince the Chinese to cut off the country's oil. The idea, as developed in a classified memorandum that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld circulated last month, is to keep squeezing the North Korean leaders until they collapse. "You let in food," one senior Korea expert in the administration said, describing the memo, "but nothing else."

Confusion Surrounds Missouri '04 Primary

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's 2004 presidential primary appears to be in limbo after legislators went home without canceling the election, but also without appropriating money to pay for it.

Kevin Phillips: Postwar Chaos: Bush's Undoing?

WASHINGTON -- It's too early to suggest that peace in Iraq has already set some of the snares for President Bush that caught his father in 1991-92, although not having killed or captured Saddam Hussein could get politically hairy as the 2004 presidential season opens.

With Patriot Act, companies forced to play informant on customers Barbs aside, 9/11 questions aren't going away Troops 'vandalise' ancient city of Ur

One of the greatest wonders of civilisation, and probably the world's most ancient structure - the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq - has been vandalised by American soldiers and airmen, according to aid workers in the area.

They claim that US forces have spray-painted the remains with graffiti and stolen kiln-baked bricks made millennia ago. As a result, the US military has put the archaeological treasure, which dates back 6,000 years, off-limits to its own troops. Any violations will be punishable in military courts.

Iraq's Slide Into Lawlessness Squanders Good Will for U.S. Odyssey of Frustration: In Search for Weapons, Army Team Finds Vacuum Cleaners

BAGHDAD -- For once the team found a building intact.

The low stucco structure, one of several walled off from the street, was the 17th target of the war for Army Lt. Col. Charles Allison and the special weapons hunters under his command. Heavy crossbars sealed the doors. That, at least, was encouraging. There would not have been much left to lock if looters got here first.

[...]

One last bolt snapped. The door creaked open and Deal stepped through. There, in the innermost chamber, he found a cache of vacuum cleaners.

U.S. Says No Plan to Delay Iraqi Interim Authority

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, said on Sunday that Washington had no plans to suspend the transition to an Iraqi interim authority planned for the next few weeks.

"I've read a report in the American press about a delay (in the transitional government). I don't know where these stories are coming from because we haven't delayed anything," Bremer told reporters during a visit to the northern city of Mosul.

Baghdad's Death Toll Assessed: A Times survey of hospitals finds that at least 1,700 civilians were killed and more than 8,000 hurt in the battle for the Iraqi capital. DNC Boss Accuses Bush of `new McCarthyism' Half of al-Qaeda leaders have been eliminated: Bush

Almost half of al-Qaeda's leadership has been captured or killed, US President George W Bush said yesterday, after a week that began with bombings in Saudi Arabia and ended with bomb attacks in Morocco.

"The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Kurds go it alone with international oil deals: Local authorities ignore US administration and seek to lure major companies with generous contracts Jerusalem suicide bomber kills seven Fresh violence overshadows Israel summit Robert Fisk: So what was the war for?

LONDON - More than 50 dead in a week. Thanks for the Iraq war.

Thank you, Mr Bush and Mr Blair, for making our world safer by ridding us of the one tyrant - Saddam Hussein - who never had any connection with 11 September 2001, or with the Riyadh bombings or with the bombings in Casablanca.

Prize fighter thumps Bush: Faisal Islam meets Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate who took on the IMF and is now turning his guns on the American President US tips bigger war coalitions

The United States expects future "coalitions of the willing", modelled on an alliance that supported the US-led war against Iraq, to become still bigger, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview.

"It will be more difficult to always reach a consensus with 25 European Union members and 26 NATO members," Powell told six German newspapers before meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer this week.

New mass grave found as anti-US sentiment rises: Bodies thought to be those of executed Kuwaitis located close to military firing range Casablanca gripped by fear and anger after horror night Back with a vengeance

The threat of international terrorism against Western targets loomed larger last night than at any time since 11 September after a string of deadly suicide bombings in Casablanca appeared to confirm fears that al-Qa'ida has regrouped.

Horror in Casablanca as al-Qaeda toll hits 41

Harrowing details of how terrorists slit the throats of security guards before detonating bombs in Moroccan bars and restaurants were revealed last night as police disclosed that at least 41 people had been killed in the latest atrocities linked to al-Qaeda.

Plan for Iraq handover government scrapped

US and British plans for rebuilding Iraq were descending into chaos this weekend as officials admitted they had indefinitely scrapped plans for a transitional government and Spain revealed a gaping hole in funding for reconstruction.

Terror's myriad faces: Jason Burke, a world expert on international terrorism, says those leading the war against the bombers misunderstand the true nature of al-Qaeda

It has not been a good week for counter-terrorism. After a brief pause following the war in Iraq, it is now business as usual for the bad guys. This weekend sees terror alerts covering a great part of the world. The past few days have brought a casualty list running into the hundreds. 'It's dangerous in the world,' President George Bush said on Friday with his customary perspicacity, 'and it's dangerous so long as al-Qaeda continues to operate.'

Saturday, 17 May 2003

Rumsfeld baffled by bin Laden

Bush Administration officials have acknowledged that the United States now faces serious obstacles in finding Osama bin Laden and other remnants of al-Qaeda's leadership.

In the first public comments in months about the possible whereabouts of bin Laden, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters they cannot even be certain whether bin Laden is alive.

"I just don't know," Mr Rumsfeld said. "What can I say? Who knows?"

GM foods: TOWARDS AN APOCALYPSE Victims of a Republican Plot: The Dixie Chicks Cross the Road

ccording to a story from americannewsreel.com sent to RRC by former Reprise president Howie Klein, "Phone calls originating from Republican Party headquarters in Washington went out to country stations, urging them to remove the Chicks from their playlists.The 'alternative concert' [to the Dixie Chicks' tour opener] is actually the work of the South Carolina Republican Party and party officials are helping promote the concert.We received a call from 'Gallagher's Army,' urging us to support the alternative concert. Caller ID backtraced the call to South Carolina GOP headquarters."

Billy Graham: God detests even small lies Lakes Cleanup: Report reveals dismal effort, especially by Michigan

The United States and Canada both have a lot to be embarrassed about in this month's International Joint Commission report on how well the two countries have met their stated goals to clean up toxic sediment in the Great Lakes.

It's not like this is undue pressure from the IJC, which by treaty oversees water issues that affect both countries. The commission last checked for progress nine years ago, and that was the first report after the two countries agreed in 1987 to make a special effort to clean 42 hot spots. Just two of those, both in Canada, have now been removed from the list; two more -- one U.S. and one Canadian -- are listed as "in recovery."

Northen California Town Criminalizes Compliance With Federal Patriot Act Old Memos Detail Link of Money to Influence

Bill Clinton was in the White House, and Eli Lilly and Co. executives were worried. After receiving publicity for giving tens of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, they decided they needed to cozy up to Democrats, fast.

"Dems are upset," an executive scribbled in an Aug. 20, 1996, note. "[If] White House stays Dem we are in trouble."

So, after consulting with the administration, the Eli Lilly official wrote this recommendation to colleagues: "Jay has talked to the White House and we can get back into this by giving $50[,000]-100,000 to the [Democratic National Committee] -- says they would be pleased with this."

A Robert Byrd in Hand Is Worth Two Bushes: Going Like 90 Against the War

Robert Byrd is more than just a lone voice in Congress speaking out against the war. He is one of a number of people in Washington who have had enough.

And Bush will be hard put to get the 85-year-old Byrd. The senator has nothing to lose. Not only has he been in the Senate for decades (since 1958), but as a head of the Appropriations Committee for years, he's at the heart of the legislative process. More to the point, he has been an ally of Republican business interests through his longtime defense of the West Virginia coal industry. Byrd has led the fight against pollution controls that would hurt coal sales.

Democrats Target Bush at Iowa Forum Top al-Qaida Harbored in Iran: Source: New attacks ordered from there

Washington - The United States has developed intelligence indicating that top al-Qaida leaders operating inside Iran directed Monday's bombing attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and have ordered a terrorist strike in East Africa, according to counterterrorism sources.

Francis Boyle on War Crimes: Should the Belgian Law Suit Accusing the US of War Crimes in Iraq be Taken Seriously

Of the charges we have heard, certainly the use of cluster bombs in Baghdad has already been condemned by Human Rights Watch and the use of cluster bombs in a civilian area, in a city, certainly could raise to the level of war crimes. I'm not saying General Franks ordered the use of cluster bombs, but their fact is undeniable.

I think the Pentagon needs to determine who gave the order to use cluster bombs in Baghdad.

[...]

The second point is the question of command responsibility. U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, on the laws of armed conflict, says that General Franks, quote, "shall take all measures in his power to restore and insure as far as possible public order and safety," unquote, in Iraq.

For some reason, General Franks failed to give an order to secure Baghdad after it fell. I really do not know why he failed to do this.

Clearly, the obligation in the Field Manual and the Hague regulations are obvious and well-known to any commanding officer in the United States Army, that they have an obligation as the belligerent occupant, to preserve law and order. That order was not given. There was widespread looting and plundering in Iraq. People did suffer.

Again, I think we do need an investigation as to why that order was not given.

Iraqi PoWs tell Amnesty they were tortured U.S. Agency to Review Its Role in Hunt for Texas Lawmaker Campaigners count bodies to ensure US compensation

When the first American tanks rolled past Hassan Karim Hassan's house he ran with his friends to peer over the fence at the end of the street and watch the army finally advance into Baghdad.

Although unarmed, the three young men were immediately mistaken for enemy soldiers. One, Qasim Ali, was shot dead, another, Ali Jawad, was hit by a bullet in his left arm. Minutes later a man driving a taxi was killed in a burst of gunfire from a tank which turned his car into a fireball.

Humiliated Swiss ask Germans to police G8 protest

The Swiss government has taken the unprecedented step of inviting hundreds of German riot police to safeguard Geneva during large anti-globalisation and anti-American protests expected next month.

As protest organisers met in Geneva on Thursday to hone plans to disrupt the G8 summit of industrialised countries just across the border in Evian, France, the Swiss government backtracked on an earlier decision not to request assistance, admitted that it could not cope, and called for more than 700 riot police from Germany to fill the law and order gap.

Oil boss paid $1m a year by contract bidder: America braced for criticism over rebuilding plans and claims of human rights abuse

The US-led effort to rebuild Iraq was facing more criticism yesterday after the Texan businessman installed to run the country's oil industry admitted having financial links to a company bidding for reconstruction work.

Police Now Using 'Person of Interest' City studies budget options - including bankruptcy No Political Fallout for Bush on Weapons

President Bush appears to be in no political danger from the failure to find chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, with Democrats reluctant to challenge Bush on any aspect of the war and polls showing Americans unconcerned about weapons discoveries.

Disarming Saddam Hussein of his "weapons of mass destruction" was the main justification the Bush administration used both at home and abroad for attacking Iraq. But while other countries that opposed the U.S. military action claim they are vindicated by the failure so far to find those weapons, Americans -- even some of Bush's political opponents -- seem content with the low-casualty victory and believe the discoveries of mass graves and other Hussein atrocities justify the war.

In Reversal, Plan for Iraq Self-Rule Has Been Put Off

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 16 -- In an abrupt reversal, the United States and Britain have indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly and an interim government by the end of the month.

Four explosions rock Casablanca, killing at least 20 people, officials say

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Terrorists exploded four bombs in the coastal city of Casablanca late Friday, killing at least 20 people and damaging the Belgian consulate, a synagogue and a Spanish restaurant, officials said.

Suicide bombers kill more than 40 in Casablanca

Terrorists attacked Jewish and western targets in the heart of Casablanca, killing at least 40 people, including 10 of the suicide bombers.

Night out in Casablanca becomes night of terror, carnage

CASABLANCA, Morocco, May 17 -- It was a normal Friday evening of bingo in the upscale Casa de Espana club and restaurant in downtown Casablanca when five near-simultaneous explosions transformed the night into chaos and killed at least 30 bystanders.

Africa is on the verge of another genocide

BRUSSELS After 800,000 men, women and children were slaughtered in Rwanda nine years ago, everyone said "never again." But unless the United Nations Security Council moves swiftly and decisively, another African genocide seems distressingly imminent.

Terrorist threat in whole of eastern Africa

The Government issued a warning yesterday of a "clear terrorist threat" to British citizens across the entire east Africa region.

Palestinian minister quits after being left out of talks

The Palestinian minister in charge of negotiating with Israel resigned yesterday after the new Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, left him out of the team for his first meeting with Ariel Sharon, his Israeli counterpart.

L'économie européenne est menacée d'une récession durable Paris s'élève contre une "campagne de désinformation" dans la presse américaine

Friday, 16 May 2003

Bush protester picks jail over bail Scott Peterson on depleted uranium contamination in Iraq Police raid three buildings, detain occupants Iran A Safe Haven For Al Qaeda?

(CBS) U.S. officials say they have evidence the bombings in Saudi Arabia and other attacks still in the works were planned and directed by senior al Qaeda operatives who have found safe haven in Iran, reports CBS News Correspondent David Martin.

GOP group makes $100,000 donation for Davis recall Economists worrying about deflation

WASHINGTON -- For American consumers, the prospect of falling prices sure sounds like a good thing. But a prolonged and widespread decline, with everything from real-estate values to incomes collapsing, would spell disaster for the U.S. economy.

Centrist Democrats take aim at Dean

WASHINGTON -- In case there was any doubt, the New Democrats don't like former Vermont governor Howard Dean, and they definitely don't want him to win their party's 2004 presidential nomination.

U.S. now afraid of its own shadow--Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad mocked the United States on Friday for issuing travel warnings for its citizens, saying Washington had become "afraid of its own shadow".

Paul Krugman: Paths of Glory

The central dogma of American politics right now is that George W. Bush, whatever his other failings, has been an effective leader in the fight against terrorism. But the more you know about the state of the world, the less you believe that dogma. The Iraq war, in particular, did nothing to make America safer -- in fact, it did the terrorists a favor.

Bid to Find Tex. Lawmakers Decried: Federal Workers Were Led to Believe They Were Looking for Downed or Lost Plane

A Texas political battle turned into a matter of national security for a few hours this week when state officials enlisted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help track down more than 50 Democratic state lawmakers who had vanished from Austin.

Saudis Are Shaken as Jihad Erupts at Their Front Door

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 15 -- The mourners came pouring in to the wealthy Khozama neighborhood by the hundreds over the last three nights, the younger men kissing the deputy governor of Riyadh on the forehead as a Bedouin mark of respect, his peers bussing him on the cheeks. "May God extend his condolences," they murmur.

Bombings Bring U.S. 'Executive Mercenaries' Into the Light: The shrouded history of Vinnell Corp. raises questions about its role in privatization of U.S. foreign policy.

You had probably never heard of the Vinnell Corp. before the brutal bombing that killed at least nine of its employees in Saudi Arabia this week, but you should have.

Fallout of America's vain hunt for WMD confined to embarrassment

The continuing failure to discover any evidence of Iraq's alleged chemical, germ and nuclear weapons, more than a month after the fall of Baghdad, is thus far a very minor embarrassment for the Bush administration -- and probably one which will grow only if order collapses completely and there is an uprising against US military occupiers.

Literary Groups Decry Patriot Act as Invasion of Privacy

A national coalition of publishers, authors, librarians, and booksellers yesterday called on Congress to modify the part of the antiterrorist USA Patriot Act that allows the government to secretly inspect Americans' book-buying and -borrowing habits.

Iraqis Say Anarchy Could Lead to Anti-US Violence

BAGHDAD - Iraqis said on Friday their patience with U.S. pledges to restore law and order in Baghdad and to improve the economy was running thin and fear of lawlessness could lead to anti-American violence.

Iraqi troops say U.S. owes them back pay: Bitter soldiers threaten attacks on American forces, sabotage An attempt to fathom Hitler: Robert Carlyle conveys depths of tyrant's evil Layoff Notice Shatters Teacher's Dream Career: Massive Deficit a Nightmare in Oakland

Will Chavarin didn't become an Oakland school teacher for the pay.

He certainly didn't come to Oakland so he could see firsthand what bankruptcy and a state takeover looks like.

Chavarin came to Lowell Middle School because teaching is the only job he's ever had that "gives me the chills."

He never thought when he started last fall that the bad economy would erase his job. But his mother found his layoff notice in the mail on Thursday.

"I'm trying to cry; they say men don't cry, but if I cry, then I won't hit the wall," he said, moments after opening the letter, which began: "It is with sincere regret that I am writing to inform you . . . your services will not be required for the 2003-2004 school year."

Survey: Israel Yet to Grasp Concept of Democracy Hastert Scolds DeLay for Speaking Out of Turn on Gun Bill Keepers of Bush Image Lift Stagecraft to New Heights Beirut says it holds anti-US terrorists

BEIRUT -- The Lebanese army has arrested more suspected members of a terrorist network that allegedly had planned to assassinate the American ambassador and attack the US Embassy and other Western targets, officials said yesterday.

[...]

Syrian forces in Lebanon helped to make the arrests, the statement said. Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon.

Lebanon foils plot on U.S. Embassy: Nine rounded up for planning attacks and kidnappings Le Liban annonce avoir déjoué un attentat contre une ambassade occidentale Lebanon says it crushed terror cell Lebanon Says Foils Plot Against U.S. Embassy

The Lebanese army said that it and Syrian military intelligence had detained members of a cell planning "sabotage and attacks on various targets, the most important being the embassy of a major Western state, security and military outposts and kidnappings of officials" to bargain for the detainees' release.

Iran Denies Has Banned Weapons or Shelters Al Qaeda

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian government officials strongly denied on Friday that Iran was producing weapons of mass destruction or was sheltering members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Now it's JFK and the intern: Mimi breaks cover after 40 years Baghdad pays the postwar price: 242 die in three weeks

Statistics unpublished until today reveal the stark facts: 242 people have died in Baghdad in just over three weeks, almost all from bullet wounds. It is an epidemic, and it is getting worse.

New Front Sets Sights On Toppling Iran Regime Counterspin: Mark Crispin Miller on George W. Bush Learn more about Mark Crispin Miller

Thursday, 15 May 2003

Embed Catches Heat: TV Sanitized the Iraq Conflict, But a Paper Gets the Hate Mail

There must have been two wars in Iraq. There was the war I saw and wrote about as a print journalist embedded with a tank company of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized). Then there was the war that many Americans saw, or wanted to see, on TV.

I saw and wrote about a war that was confusing and chaotic, as are all wars. It was a war in which plans and missions changed almost daily - and on one occasion changed three times in an hour. It was a war in which civilians died and were horribly wounded. It was a war in which soldiers questioned the intelligence they received, the logistics lines that had trouble supplying them with water and spare parts, and the reasons they were fighting the war.

Apparently that is not the war the TV-viewing and occasional newspaper-reading public wanted to see or thought it saw. But, according to a recent study by the Readership Institute, a large percentage of Americans preferred to get their war news from TV and not from newspapers. The war they saw, or thought they saw, on TV was meticulously planned, flawlessly executed - and not a single member of the armed forces had a complaint or problem. Few civilians died in that war.

Fishing Has Decimated Major Species, Study Says

Industrial fishing practices have decimated every one of the world's biggest and most economically important species of fish, according to a new and detailed global analysis that challenges current fisheries protection policies.

Fully 90 percent of each of the world's large ocean species, including cod, halibut, tuna, swordfish and marlin, has disappeared from the world's oceans in recent decades, according to the Canadian analysis -- the first to use historical data dating to the beginning of large-scale fishing, in the 1950s.

BAGHDAD DISPATCH: Beirut Redux

Every night for the past month, Mazen Al Bakir and his sister Layla have prepared themselves for the worst. Around 9 o'clock in the evening, the nightly security detail begins at their home in the southern Baghdad district of Saydiya. Bakir pulls a loaded pistol out of the closet, secures his front gate and doors with massive locks, and hides the keys. For the rest of the evening, the Bakirs stand guard at their home as sporadic gunfire from across their neighborhood ushers in another sleepless night in Iraq's capital.

Can the thought police be far behind? A hundred years after Orwell's birth, some of his concepts look uncomfortably familiar, while others seem overused Questions Linger About Hillah Battle That Left Hundreds of Civilian Casualties

HILLAH, Iraq, May 15 -- The telltale evidence is everywhere: in the pattern of blast marks gouged in a schoolyard's concrete, in the yellow metal casings that once held small bombs, in the bomblets themselves. ''They're all over. They're even in people's bedrooms,'' said one bomb disposal specialist.

A month after U.S. cluster munitions fell in a deadly shower on Hillah's teeming slums as U.S. forces drove toward victory in Baghdad, 55 miles to the north, the most telling evidence may lie in the crowded, fly-infested wards of the city hospital, where the toll of dead and wounded still mounts.

At least 250 Iraqis were killed and more than 500 wounded during 17 days of fighting in the area, most of them civilians and many the victims of cluster munitions, according to hospital medical staff. Leftover bomblets still kill or maim hapless civilians daily, they said.

US to toughen stand on N Korea, Syria: Rice Panel Rejects Nuclear Arms of Small Yield

WASHINGTON, May 14 -- A proposal by the Bush administration to allow development of new kinds of small nuclear weapons has been rejected by the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee.

[...]

In a compromise reached between Representative Curt Weldon, a Republican from Pennsylvania, and Representative John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat who was an author of the original ban, the Armed Services Committee approved a measure to allow research into low-yield nuclear weapons.

Arundhati Roy: "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free" (audio of Roy's speech) (transcript of Roy's speech) American Airlines to lay off 3,100 Boosting growth the 'top priority' for G8 Iraqi Town Still Tense After U.S. Row

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Two weeks after the last confrontation here with U.S. troops, some residents still want the Americans out - and the Americans say they have no plans to go.

GOP leaders warned to shun agenda of gays

Top Republicans "flirting" with the agenda of homosexual activists are endangering President Bush's re-election bid next year, social conservatives have told the White House.

Bob Herbert: Shooting to Kill

The sequence starts with Billy looting beer from a liquor store. Then a squad car pulls up and police officers with shotguns jump out. Billy takes off, the tails of his light-colored shirt flapping. A uniformed cop in a yellow hard hat lifts his shotgun to his shoulder, aims and fires.

In a photo that covers two-thirds of Page 22, Billy lies on the blood-stained sidewalk, dead. On the next page was another photo of the 12-year-old boy. He was a bystander who was hit in the neck and thigh. Although seriously wounded, he would recover.

This all came back to me yesterday with the news report out of Baghdad that U.S. military forces would be authorized to shoot looters on sight. The first thing I thought was that Billy Furr had been dead these 36 years because he stole some beer. It was wrong, but the barbaric punishment in no way fit the crime.

Iraq Disorder Worries Senators: Rumsfeld Acknowledges Problems, Defends U.S. Military Bush feels the heat after Riyadh bombings

The impact of the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia began to reverberate through US politics yesterday as the Bush administration defended itself against charges that it had taken its eye off the ball over al-Qaida because of its obsession with Iraq.

Pacifica Peacewatch: Dr. Jim Jennings on cluster bomb use and effects in Iraq/Afghanistan (audio) Free Speech Radio News: Law Suit Against Gen. Tommy Franks (audio) France says it is victim of smear campaign: Bush administration disputes charge France complains of US 'smears': The French ambassador to the United States is sending a letter to US Congress complaining about media "bias" against France. French let fly at US hawks over smears White House denies French accusations Bush administration sought to discredit it France Claims U.S. Is Engaging in Disinformation Campaign U.S. Reduces Paris Air Show Participation White House denies anti-French snipes Saudis ignored warnings of terror attacks, says US Despairing Shias search for the bones of loved ones Sharon criticises Blair for 'unnecessary intervention' So, Mr Straw, why did we go to war?

* Jack Straw, 21 February 2003: 'Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them'
* Jack Straw, 14 May 2003: Asked of the need to find weapons of mass destruction... 'It's not crucial'

Nine Iraqi Children Killed In Explosion Ad depicts Rumsfeld, Saddam: Berkeley group uses real photo to show U.S. once backed Iraqi leader The truth about Jessica

Her Iraqi guards had long fled, she was being well cared for - and doctors had already tried to free her. John Kampfner discovers the real story behind a modern American war myth

Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived. It provides a remarkable insight into the real influence of Hollywood producers on the Pentagon's media managers, and has produced a template from which America hopes to present its future wars.

U-S military tells Iraqis to turn in all guns or face arrest

Baghdad, Iraq-AP -- The U-S military is now telling Iraqis they cannot own or sell guns. Any Iraqi who does faces arrest, according to a new radio spot running in the country.

Lieutenant General David McKiernan, who is commanding U-S forces on the ground, says a new set of laws in Iraq are aimed at rebuilding law and order.

One problem U-S forces have is the tens of thousands of weapons Saddam Hussein's government gave out in its final days in power. Many ended up in the hands of looters or criminals.

McKiernan has issued a statement saying coalition forces will hunt down those people -- whom he calls a threat to everyone in Iraq. He is urging any Iraqi who owns a firearm to turn it in to coalition forces.

Saving Private Lynch story 'flawed'

Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict.

But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.

Hidden Casualties

One novel way news reporters have tried to pinpoint the start of major U.S. military engagements is to monitor pizza deliveries at the Pentagon. It's been called the "Domino's theory:" When the generals and their staffs go into imminent-war mode, they stay at their posts late into the night, and the pizza orders shoot up.

There are more grim indicators that a military operation is nigh. As the war in Afghanistan began in October 2001, for example, "We could literally tell what units were being deployed from where, based on the volume of calls we received from given bases," says Christine Hansen, executive director of the Connecticut-based Miles Foundation, which has assisted more than 10,000 victims of military-related domestic violence since 1997. The calls were from women who were facing threats and physical abuse from their partners -- the same men who were supposedly being deployed on a mission to make America safer. "Then the same thing happened on the other end, when they came back," Hansen adds.

Bush's Plan to Cut Taxes Is Less Than Stimulating Plenty more fish in the sea? The ocean's great predator fish are disappearing fast. Numbers have dropped by 90% in just 50 years. Time to give up those swordfish steaks, says Ian Sample

"Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends." Tough words from Hemingway's aged Santiago, who nearly kills himself landing the mother of all marlin, only to watch it get ripped to shreds by sharks on the way home. But the great battle of man versus fish played out in The Old Man and the Sea is rapidly becoming a romantic fantasy of a lost age. The marlin are disappearing now; sharks are disappearing faster. And those two great predators are not alone in their struggle for survival.

Reports of terror crimes inflated

In the first two months of this year, the Justice Department filed charges against 56 people, labeling all the cases as "terrorism."

But an Inquirer investigation has found that at least 41 of them had nothing to do with terrorism - a point that prosecutors of the cases themselves acknowledge.

Among the cases:

28 Latinos charged with working illegally at the airport in Austin, Texas, most of them using phony Social Security numbers.

Eight Puerto Ricans charged with trespassing on Navy property on the island of Vieques, long a site of civil protests of ordnance testing.

A Middle Eastern man indicted in Detroit for allegedly passing bad checks who has the same name as a Hezbollah leader.

A Middle Eastern college student charged in Trenton with paying a stand-in to take his college English-proficiency tests. He received a one-month jail sentence after pleading guilty.

Bush and South Korean President Are Vague on North Korea Strategy France Says It Is Target of Untruths: U.S. Official Calls Claim 'Nonsense' Fear of Baghdad Unrest Prompts a Halt in Sending Troops Home Straw retreats on finding banned weapons: Finding WMDs is not crucial because UN inspectors provided an overwhelming case for war, foreign secretary says

Britain back-tracked on the contentious issue of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction yesterday when the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was forced to concede that hard evidence might never be uncovered.

"We did not go to war on a contingent basis. We went to war on the basis of the evidence which was fully available to the international community."

Alice Mahon, the Labour MP for Halifax, who has been one of the government's strongest critics, said: "The whole basis of the war is based on an untruth. The whole world can see that ministers are backing away from their claims.

"People genuinely believed what the prime minister said about Iraq's weapons programme and its ability to launch an at tack in 45 minutes. This is making the war even more illegal."

Molly Ivins: Bucking the Texas Lockstep

Creepin' fascism. That's what we're lookin' at.

U.S. under fire for use of cluster bombs in Iraq; Pentagon plays down dangers to civilians

Now that the war in Iraq has ended, the U.S. military must quickly remove thousands of unexploded cluster bombs to keep its promise to do everything possible to limit civilian casualties, human rights groups say.

Each 1,000-pound cluster bomb contains between 200 and 300 "bomblets" -- canisters that can explode into hundreds of fragments over an area the size of several football fields.

According to Myers, U.S. warplanes dropped 1,500 cluster bombs in Iraq, 26 of them within 1,500 feet of civilian neighborhoods. Britain's Ministry of Defense said the British army fired by artillery or rocket launchers more than 2,000 cluster munitions and dropped 66 cluster bombs around Basra.

Remains of toxic bullets litter Iraq: The Monitor finds high levels of radiation left by US armor-piercing shells.

BAGHDAD -- At a roadside produce stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, business is brisk for Latifa Khalaf Hamid. Iraqi drivers pull up and snap up fresh bunches of parsley, mint leaves, dill, and onion stalks.

But Ms. Hamid's stand is just four paces away from a burnt-out Iraqi tank, destroyed by - and contaminated with - controversial American depleted-uranium (DU) bullets. Local children play "throughout the day" on the tank, Hamid says, and on another one across the road.

Vinnell, Whose Employees Died in Bombing, Is Example of Sutling

Paris, May 15 (Bloomberg) -- The car-bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed nine Vinnell Corp. employees has triggered alarm bells among the hush- hush coterie of some 200 firms that, like Vinnell, specialize in sutling. That is, the business of supplying U.S. military operations abroad with logistical support and of training foreign armies in the art of war.

``They are in the terrorist cross-hairs and being targeted,'' says P.W. Singer, an analyst at the Brookings Institution and author of the recently published ``Corporate Warriors: The Rise and Ramifications of the Privatized Military Industry.''

Al-Qaeda hated corporation

The bloody attacks in Riyadh are telling because of their targets, in particular the Vinnell Corporation. The residential compound and the offices used by Vinnell were hit, killing nine of the company's employees and injuring several others, two critically.

Al-Qaeda has a particular hatred for the US Vinnell Corporation because it trains the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the country's internal security force and an integral part of the Saudi military forces.

Giants of the ocean 'facing extinction'

MORE than 90 per cent of the world's stocks of large fish such as tuna, marlin and swordfish have disappeared over the past half-century, purged from the ocean by industrial fishing, research has found.

'Big Six' split with smaller nations over constitution

BRITISH Eurosceptics can take comfort from one feature of the new EU constitution that is emerging from the Brussels convention: almost all the other member states are unhappy about aspects of the draft that has been crafted under the chairmanship of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

US 'will not tolerate' Korean weapons

PRESIDENT BUSH and Roh Moo Hyun, the newly elected South Korean President, declared last night that they “will not tolerate” nuclear weapons in North Korea, as Mr Bush assured South Koreans that he seeks a peaceful solotion to the crisis.

Runaway Texans liven up town

Wednesday, 14 May 2003

Jan Oberg: Do you want to know who the Americans running Iraq really are? Republicans resisting extending jobless benefits

WASHINGTON - Margaret Johnson-Motley, a former Kansas City, Mo., education aide, stays up nearly every night job-hunting on the Internet. She's 55, she's been out of work for months and she's exhausted her regular unemployment benefits.

SBS-TV Australia interview with Richard Butler, 14 May 2003

MARK DAVIS: Richard Butler, the US Armed Services Committee has just passed a motion supporting the development of what they're calling mini nukes. Does this signal the beginning of another arms race? How serious should we take it?

RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER UN CHIEF ARMS INSPECTOR: I can't overstate the seriousness of it. It is absolutely shocking. If this becomes the policy of the United States Government, if it passes through the Congress and the Bush Administration, which wants it to be the policy, if it implements it, it will involve the United States walking away from, tearing up, solemn obligations that it's made for 30 years now under international law, and on which the world relies - an obligation to progressively reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world so that they don't spread to other countries. Instead of honouring that obligation, this would involve tearing it up, walking away from it and, in fact, making new nuclear weapons, going in exactly the opposite direction.

War Crimes Lawsuit Filed Against Franks in Belgium Dirty bomb victims 'may be shot' On democracy: One step forward, two steps back

Last week, Wolfowitz gave an interview to CNN-Turk, a joint venture of CNN and a Turkish media conglomerate. When asked about the future of U.S.-Turkish relations, Wolfowitz said that if Turkey wanted to get back into America's good graces, the Turks would have to admit they were wrong to deny the U.S. permission to use their territory as a staging ground for invading Iraq and, in essence, apologize.

That's a rough demand for a fellow democracy and a longtime ally. But what raised the ire of many Turks was another of Wolfowitz's statements: the Bush administration, he said, was disappointed that the Turkish military "did not play the strong leadership role on that issue [i.e., the Iraq debate] that we would have expected."

Outside the context of Turkish politics, that statement might seem obscure or insignificant. But in Turkey the meaning seemed painfully clear: The United States wished the Turkish military had either overruled the elected government or perhaps even pushed it aside in favor of one more subservient to U.S. demands.

As numerous Turkish commentators have noted, that's an odd stance for a country now presenting itself as the champion of Middle Eastern democracy. But it's particularly ill-conceived at the present moment in Turkish political history.

Bush Officials Change Tune on Iraqi Weapons

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has changed its tune on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the reason it went to war there. Instead of looking for vast stocks of banned materials, it is now pinning its hopes on finding documentary evidence.

Pyongyang has dozens of nukes, top defector says

A man claiming to be a former North Korean People's Army general who fled the impoverished state last year has told a Japanese publication that Pyongyang secretly imported nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union and developed dozens of its own weapons.

Simon Jenkins: Case proven - war does not eradicate terrorism

The bombs in Riyadh show that the threat of September 11 is not over. That much is clear. Equally clear is that the present danger is not from rogue states or weapons of mass destruction, but from murderous gangs with dynamite and cars. As Afghanistan was followed by Bali, so Iraq is followed by Riyadh. After waiting out the razzmatazz of war, reality terrorism is back in business.

Democracy Now!: As Washington & Seoul prepare for talks on North Korea, Noam Chomsky discusses U.S.-Korean relations Democracy Now!: UN Security Council to Discuss US Proposal that Would Lift the Sanctions on Iraq and Give US Forces Full Control of Iraq's Oil Some Audience Members Told Not to Wear Ties for Bush Speech Ari & I: White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer, 14 May 2003

Mokhiber: Ari, you said on April 10th, about weapons of mass destruction, "That is what this war was about." On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the group directing U.S. search efforts for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is winding down operations without finding proof that Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of outlawed arms.

Death in Riyadh

The deadly suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia serve as a reminder -- if anyone needed it -- that the threat of terrorism out of the Middle East is still very much with us.

Tribe Stops Recreation Construction

PICKSTOWN - Members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe blocked construction at North Point Recreation Area with their bodies Tuesday in a protest that will most likely send the long-delayed project back to court.

U.S. investigating whether Saudi Arabia bombings were planned in Iran Anti-U.S. songs top pop charts in cities

The U.S.-led war on Iraq and the strong anti-war movement in the country have encouraged established artistes and newcomers to produce songs which attack the U.S. action and call for unity in the Muslim world.

Such songs currently remain at the top of the charts in cities such as Lahore, Karachi and even in Quetta and Peshwar, where the musical efforts began. The music, especially in the Pushto language spoken in the NWFP, has taken on an increasingly aggressive tone, and some fear it will act to spur on extremist violence.

As during the 1991 U.S. attack on Iraq, and 10 years later in Afghanistan, this time too poets in the local Pushto language have been writing songs to capitalise on popular feelings.

Police offering reward to identify anti-war protesters This is What Justice Looks Like

On August 17, 1999, when I arrived in Dili, the capital of East Timor, it was Indonesian Independence Day. But hardly anyone was celebrating.

The pretty town, like a Portuguese fishing village set down in the South Pacific, was hot and pale at midday. The red and white Indonesian flags hung limp above empty sidewalks and streets. Indonesian army trucks, UN vehicles, motorcycles, and a few cars stirred up a floury dust that hung in the air. A few people went about their business, drying coffee beans in the streets, following after two or three goats, carrying bundles of water spinach on their heads. But they were quiet. Wary. Because in East Timor, fear hung in the air with the dust, and people were right to be afraid.

Graduates Lower Sights in Stagnant Job Market 3 call centers take jobs to India Iraqi children killed by rocket

At least six children have been killed and seven wounded after a rocket they were playing with in southern Iraq detonated.

Institute for Public Accuracy interview resources on the Saudi bombing Iraq: U.S. Unresponsive on Mass Graves: New Information on Site North of Baghdad

BAGHDAD - May 14 - The U.S. government has known since May 3 about the existence of a mass grave in Hilla but has not taken action to protect the site, Human Rights Watch charged today.

N.Y. Times Apologizes in Blair Case: New York Times Editors Apologize to Hundreds of Staff Members Over Handling of Jayson Blair Case

In a town hall-style meeting that drew hundreds of staff members, top editors at The New York Times apologized Wednesday for mistakes and oversights that allowed a former reporter to repeatedly fabricate and plagiarize material.

Related Item: Judith Miller's idiotic and widely discredited pg. 1 article from the April 21 edition of the New York Times Harper's publisher John R. Macarther eviscerates the Miller piece Democrat Says Iraq War Let al-Qaida Rebuild

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has allowed a resurgence of the al-Qaida terrorist organization by focusing on toppling the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Sen. Bob Graham said Tuesday.

Murdoch rejects C5: Media chief denies doing a deal with Labour

Rupert Murdoch yesterday dismissed rumours of a secret deal with the government over the communications bill, accusing the British media of being "paranoid" about an alleged secret agenda behind the legislation.

Resurgent in Riyadh: Terrorism is still our greatest threat

Colin Powell was quick to blame al-Qaida for the Riyadh bombings and, although a full investigation will take time, the US secretary of state's instant assessment will probably prove to be correct. This appalling attack certainly looks like the work of Osama bin Laden's followers. It was aimed at "soft" civilian targets and designed to cause a maximum number of casualties. Its perpetrators were all prepared to die - and die they all apparently did, at the epicentre of the enormous explosions described by survivors.

Faith in the food: America jumps the gun on GM Privatized Military Wave of the Future, Firms Say

LONDON - Mercenaries no more, the successors to the dogs of war who rampaged across post colonial Africa now call themselves private military companies and focus on postwar reconstruction, mine clearance and humanitarian aid.

Thailand Resists U.S. Smokescreen on Anti-Tobacco Pact Activist's Death in Gaza Moved Atlanta Cousin to Push Palestinian Rights

"Rachel Corrie was my cousin."

With those words, Elizabeth Corrie, an administrator and teacher at the Lovett School in Atlanta, thrust herself into one of the world's most volatile situations -- the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

[...]

Rachel's death "radicalized me to do something," said Elizabeth Corrie, who considers herself a private person but who has deliberately placed herself in a political hot zone.

"Rachel is a way for the average American person to begin to understand what's going on in the occupied territories," said Corrie, who grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and moved to Atlanta in 1993 to attend Emory University. "For the most part, people don't really know what's going on. It's just not covered that much in the news. We can relate to her because she's like us. Young people especially relate to her."

New Iraqi TV Complains of US Censorship

BAGHDAD -- The US-sponsored Iraqi television station began broadcasts yesterday after complaining of American censorship, including efforts to stop it from airing passages from the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

At the start of what is being trumpeted as a new broadcasting era in a nation fed on a diet of state propaganda, Baghdad residents with electricity saw the Iraqi flag appear on their screens as a pan-Arab nationalist anthem played.

Deprived of any locally produced television since US troops ousted Saddam Hussein, Iraqis watched canned interviews and decades-old music shows.

Firm was 'cover for CIA'

AS BEFITS a company that has been accused of being a CIA front, of recruiting “executive mercenaries” and attempting to overthrow the Prime Minister of a Commonwealth state, the Vinnell Corporation kept a low profile in Riyadh.

Its discreet security fooled nobody, however: the bomb attack was the second it has suffered in eight years. In 1995 seven people were killed. This shadowy corporation is said to have been founded during the Depression. Dan Briody, author of The Iron Triangle, a study of Vinnell’s one-time owners, the Carlyle Group, serialised last week in The Times, says that there is “no publicity, no press releases, no news clippings”.

Britons warned: stay away if you can

The Foreign Office yesterday warned British nationals against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the terror attacks.

Police investigate alleged British war crimes in Kenya

Scotland Yard has launched a war crimes inquiry into events 50 years ago in Kenya, where British officials are accused of involvement in atrocities during the Mau Mau insurgency.

It is thought to be the first time that British police have investigated acts by British citizens that could lead to their prosecution for breaching the Geneva Convention.

Rampaging badger's reign of terror

A badger named Boris went on a two-day rampage, attacking five people and leaving one man needing surgery for his bites, it emerged yesterday.

Bloody Sunday officer, 84, fails to recall Terror crackdown has not reduced al-Qaida threat, warns thinktank: Iraq war and internet aids network

Al-Qaida remains a "potent" international terrorist network with more than 18,000 trained members at large in up to 90 countries, and could take a generation to dismantle, a leading international affairs thinktank warned yesterday.

The warning came in the annual strategic survey of the International Institute for Strategic Studies whose author, Jonathan Stevenson, said the Riyadh bombings "bore the hallmarks" of an al-Qaida operation.

The bombings "may be the first indication that the regime change in Iraq in the short term is going to cause a terrorist backlash and be an inspiration for terrorists", he added.

Western firms beef up security: With billions of pounds at stake and thousands of expatriate workers involved, mass exodus is unlikely Black Tuesday brings France to a standstill

France's famously organised public service unions brought the country to a halt yesterday, and severely affected travel across the rest of Europe, posing the biggest domestic challenge yet to the year-old rightwing government.

More than a million demonstrators took to the streets in a display of union muscle unseen for years, and those commuters who dared to go to work were forced to jog, bike, scooter, rollerblade or even skateboard into the office.

French offer relief force for Congo emergency

France promised to send a relief force to Bunia in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday as 625 UN peacekeepers and about 8,000 civilians sheltered in two UN compounds.

Unidentified rebels who seized control of the town on Monday after a week of inter-tribal fighting continued marauding through the streets and fired random shots outside the compounds.

Menem set to surrender in poll fight

Argentina's former president, Carlos Menem, was last night on the brink of throwing in the towel on his re-election bid, as aides admitted that he was ready to withdraw from this Sunday's run-off vote.

They went thataway ... Texan Democrats go the extra mile

State troopers in Texas were hunting yesterday for some of the 59 Democratic state legislators who went into hiding to avoid voting on measures they say would aid their Republican opponents.

US expels 14 Cuban diplomats as relations take a nosedive

The United States ordered the expulsion yesterday of 14 Cuban diplomats for alleged spying, the latest incident in a marked souring of relations between the two countries since George Bush came to power.

Nuclear watchdog fears terrorist dirty bomb after looting at al-Tuwaitha Power of protest forces out senior Ba'athist officials Kingdom threatened by collision of worlds

Monday night's spectacular al-Qaida-style attack may not have come as a great surprise to moderate Saudi Islamists familiar with the thinking of the extremists in their midst.

The Iraq war brought anti-American feeling in the kingdom to new heights, as well as the militants' determination to give expression to this feeling in violent, "jihadist" deeds.

"They are a volcano waiting to explode," one of them, Muhsin al-Awaji, told me in Riyadh, "and I fear that they will strike not just at Americans and British, but at westerners in general."

29 killed and 194 wounded - the deadly return of al-Qaida: Blunders by Saudi police let attackers slip through their net US says it will hunt down terrorists

President George Bush vowed yesterday that the perpetrators of the bombings in Saudi Arabia would "learn the meaning of American justice", warning the US would be "on the hunt" after the worst terrorist attack on American interests since September 11 2001.

"These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate. And the United States will find the killers and they will learn the meaning of American justice," Mr Bush said. "Any time anybody attacks our homeland, or our fellow citizens, we will be on the hunt. We will bring them to justice. Just ask the Taliban."

America challenges GM crops ban

President Bush launched a legal challenge at the World Trade Organisation yesterday, to force Europe to accept imports of American genetically modified crops.

'The message is: you're not safe here': It was possible to imagine the westerners' enclaves as holiday resorts, not security compounds. All that will change May 3: 'Organised attacks here are imminent' Iraqi mass grave contains 'thousands of Saddam's victims' Relatives converge on burial pit in search of political prisoners Troops shot in Afghan school

Suspected Taliban sympathisers shot and wounded two Norwegian peacekeepers yesterday, in a daytime ambush north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Sharon rejects US pressure on settlements: Israel will not surrender sovereignty of Jewish towns to Palestinian state, PM warns before Washington talks on Middle East peace deal Villagers fear being forced out by being locked in

The mayor of Azzun Atma, a Palestinian village on the West Bank, traced his finger through the air to outline the path of the barrier which will encircle his village - around the school and carving through the olive groves. He said it was a strange thing to try to force people out by shutting them in.

Ibrahim Ahmad's hand came full circle at the only road into the village. He said the Israeli army would stand there as warder deciding who could leave and enter the village.

BG urges speedy oil handover to Iraq North Sea revival hailed Rumsfeld: U.S. Used New Missile in Iraq New Policy in Iraq to Authorize G.I.'s to Shoot Looters Environment Concerns Put ExxonMobil in Hotseat Homeland Security Department Used to Track Texas Democrats

Republicans in Washington and Austin, Texas apparently used a Homeland Security Department agency to track Texas Democratic legislators who left the state to block passage of a GOP-backed Congressional redistricting bill.

Soap opera on Burundi radio turns a force for evil into a force for good Report: U.S. to Approve Shooting of Iraqi Looters Firm was 'cover for CIA' 20 dead in Chechnya suicide bombing: Female bombers attack memorial service Cook accuses Blair of sidelining the UN in post-war Iraq Israeli army kills three Palestinian policemen Defiant Khatami insists Tehran still supports Hizbollah Retail Plunges, Economic Worry Is Up

Tuesday, 13 May 2003

Belgian war lawsuits "very serious": US defense chief Over 50 Texas Democrats Remain on the Lam Paul Krugman: The China Syndrome

Meanwhile, both the formal rules and the codes of ethics that formerly prevented blatant partisanship are gone or ignored. Neil Cavuto of Fox News is an anchor, not a commentator. Yet after Baghdad's fall he told "those who opposed the liberation of Iraq" -- a large minority -- that "you were sickening then; you are sickening now." Fair and balanced.

Baghdad Anarchy Spurs Call For Help: Iraqis, U.S. Officials Want More Troops Ethics conflict seen as ex-CIA officials turn to lobbying: Some working for foreign regimes

WASHINGTON -- In the mid-'90s, Barry Broman was CIA station chief in Burma, also known as Myanmar, a leading producer of illegal narcotics that is governed by one of Southeast Asia's most repressive military regimes. In retirement, though, Broman switched clients: Last year, the former US intelligence officer worked on behalf of Burma as a $5,000-a-month lobbyist, trying to persuade American officials to adopt a more friendly stance toward the regime.

Democracy Now!: Gore Vidal on the "United States of Amnesia," 9/11, the 2000 Election and the War in Iraq Dean Unveils $88 Billion Health-Care Plan

NEW YORK (AP) - Presidential hopeful Howard Dean, a physician-turned-politician looking to become the Democratic authority on health care, unveiled an $88 billion plan Tuesday that would provide coverage for all Americans up to age 25 and expand coverage for uninsured adults.

Bush Cuts Would Result in Millions Losing Vital Health Care Coverage N. Korea fired laser at troops Resignation statement: Errors, secrecy and control freakery - Clare Short's parting shot to Blair U.N. nuke agency wants to return to Iraq US Expels 14 Cuban Diplomats for Espionage as Tensions Mount Cox Rejects Anti-Tax Cut Ad, Citing Controversy Bush would rather play video games while Rove manipulates public fear Cable Provider to Run Ad Critical of Bush Cox rejects anti-tax cut ad, citing controversy

A television commercial opposing tax cuts sought by President Bush won't be seen on Cox cable in Phoenix because it is either "in poor taste" or is "too controversial."

[...]

The ad is a re-enactment of 50 parents lining up a month ago in Eugene, Ore., to sell blood plasma to help pay a teacher's salary.

"George Bush's tax cuts for the rich" are to blame for shortfalls in education funding, the commercial contends. Further cuts sought by Bush to create jobs and boost the economy are being debated in the U.S. Senate.

Saul Landau: Censors and Ideological Pitbulls: Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves 'Hitler' Depicts Dictator's Rise, Fall

"People don't want the real news," says Fritz Gerlich (Matthew Modine), a real-life Munich journalist who, trying to expose the Hitler scourge, battles public indifference. "They don't want to hear about anything they might have to do something about."

[...]

And the list of credits must also include Ed Gernon. One of the film's executive producers, he was recently quoted in TV Guide, where he said that fear was behind the German public's acceptance of Hitler's policies. Then he made the mistake of likening that fear to the atmosphere in the United States today.

For that, he was denounced by a New York newspaper. Then his views were jointly condemned by CBS and the production company he worked for. Then he lost his job.

Thus was Gernon's point confirmed more forcefully than he might have imagined. And, though comparatively slight, his punishment is underscored by that of Fritz Gerlich, who, imprisoned at Dachau prison near the film's conclusion, implores his wife to "urge others to speak out, even when what they have to say is not popular."

It becomes one more reason to watch this important film.

Britain has capitulated to US hawks over UN resolution Interior Dept. Official's Role as Oil Lobbyist Is Investigated Arabs Feel Let Down by Powell: Disappointment rises over U.S. failure to get Israel to accept key elements of 'road map.' Cox Rejects Anti-Tax Cut Ad, Citing Controversy Victims of Iraq War File Lawsuit Against US Commander Iraq Crisis Has Damaged US International Standing: IISS Survey Bush Is Seeking Newer, Smaller Nuclear Bombs: Cold War-era devices are too big to be a believable deterrent, and the U.S. needs options to confront current threats, proponents say. Marie Cocco: This Wartime Candidacy Leaves Casualties Kim feared targeting after Saddam Robert Scheer: A Nuclear Road of No Return: Bush's bid for new kinds of weapons could put the world on a suicidal course. U.S.-N. Korea Tension Grows Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter Crosses The New York Times' Line of 'Strict Neutrality'

While Miller's article has certainly received wide notice, what's less well known is her formal link to the Middle East Forum, a hawkish, political pressure group that advocates using U.S. military force if necessary to oust Syria from Lebanon.

Bush Vows to Find 'Killers' of Seven Americans and Many Others

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 13 -- The death toll rose to at least 90 today in the three suicide attacks against residential compounds and a business in the Saudi capital, according to news reports quoting the State Department.

[...]

"Today's attacks in Saudi Arabia, the ruthless murder of American citizens and other citizens, remind us that the war on terror continues," he said at an appearance in Indianapolis.

Mr. Bush called the bombings "despicable acts committed by killers whose only faith is hate." The crowd of 7,000 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds roared its approval when he said, "The United States will find the killers, and they will learn the meaning of American justice."

Harper's Weekly Review

Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress and a great favorite of the Pentagon, warned his detractors that he had acquired about 60 tons of documents from the files of the Iraqi secret police and the Baath Party, and that the documents detailed Saddam Hussein's relations with other Arab leaders. He also threatened to shut down Al Jazeera and accused the television station's journalists of having been informants for the Iraqi government. "We will not allow this channel to continue its destructive work, which might lead to civil war in Iraq through their lies and the spreading of rumors, because rumors," Chalabi said, "are worse than killing." President Bush continued to maintain that "Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction" even as high-ranking administration officials said that they would be "amazed" if such weapons were found.

AWOL Democrats hole up in Oklahoma motel Enron-Like Unreality

So whose books were more cooked -- Enron's accounts of its financial doings or the administration's prewar reports on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

The war that Bin Laden is winning: The US withdrawal from Saudi Arabia will not save the regime Dozens killed in Riyadh suicide bombings

Dozens of people were killed in a series of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on Western targets in Saudi Arabia hours before the US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in the country today.

E. J. Dionne Jr.: The Say-Anything School Outgunned, Texas Democrats Vamoose: With rangers on their trail, 53 lawmakers vanish from Austin to derail GOP's agenda. Afghan Finances in Disarray: U.S. urges President Karzai to reclaim revenue from warlords and may help get it.

Monday, 12 May 2003

War and Intelligence: Q & A with Seymour M. Hersh Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Why Military Action Should Not Be Used to Resolve the North Korean Nuclear Crisis What The Boss Makes Rumsfeld's Dr. Strangelove: Keith Payne says 7,000 warheads aren't enough.

Last May 9, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to repeal a 10-year ban on the research and development of "low-yield" nuclear weapons?defined as nukes having an explosive power smaller than 5 kilotons. (The House committee will take up the measure this week.) The Bush administration has lobbied heavily for the repeal. Democrats oppose the idea on the grounds that "mini-nukes" -- by blurring the distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons -- make nuclear war more thinkable and, therefore, in the minds of some, more doable.

William Rivers Pitt: The Women Like This War

"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war." -- Chris Matthews, 'Hardball' on MSNBC, 05/01/03

Criticism Grows at U.S. Failure to Find Iraqi Weapons Arundhati Roy: "There are two ways that Empire spreads its tentacles - one is with cruise missiles and daisy cutters...the other is with the IMF checkbook." De Villepin: "There Must be an Iraqi Administration Legitimized by the UN" U.S. begins to downplay hunt for banned weapons North Korea says a no-nuke accord with South Korea nullified Americans losing democracy: Arundhati Roy Vote backs Bush mini-nuke plan Iraq war brainchild looks ahead

THE softly spoken US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz, gets called all sorts of things: dangerous ideologue, warmonger, brilliant strategic thinker, right-wing zealot, revolutionary, empire builder.

Colombia warns Nicaragua over oil plans

BOGOTA, Colombia - The defense minister warned Monday that Colombia was prepared to use force if Nicaragua begins to explore for oil near an island chain claimed by both nations.

Colombia threatens force in water row

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A top Colombia lawmaker called Monday for the Colombian military to respond if Nicaragua explores for oil in Colombian waters, and the country's defense minister said its navy was prepared to do so.

French town under siege before G8 summit Short attacks 'obsessed' Blair Just Another Week for The Bush Administration and the U.S. Media Ramsey Clark speech, 12 May 2003 Ivins: Not Finding Weapons of Mass Destruction a Crucial Detail FCC close to easing media caps: Giant firms want to own more outlets (San Francisco Chronicle, 12 May 2003) Dollar Falls to 4-Yr Low Vs Euro on Snow Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq threaten war in case of crackdown (AFP)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that it will retaliate with force if either Turkey or the United States move to purge northern Iraq of its militants.

New Mexico attorney general not hot on looking for missing Texas legislators Group Budgets $50,000 to Attack Daschle US states borrow more to ease financial crunch Denise Giardina: Bush Should Be Impeached and Tried for War Crimes Graham Alleges a 9/11 'Coverup': Democratic Florida senator, running for the presidency, says intelligence failures are being kept secret, endangering Americans. Aid Officials Overwhelmed by Chaos and Violence Lessons From Iraq Include How to Scare North Korean Leader Short quits with attack on Blair

Sunday, 11 May 2003

The siege of Baghdad U.S. to Syria: Don't Be 'On Wrong Side of History'

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that Syria would find itself "on the wrong side of history" if it tried to destabilize postwar Iraq or continue harboring radical Palestinian groups.

Bush's nuclear arms plan: Administration wants billions to update U.S. warheads Baath Party Is Dissolved, American General Tells Iraqis US rivals turn on each other as weapons search draws a blank

One key argument for war was the peril from weapons of mass destruction. Now top officials are worried by repeated failures to find the proof - and US intelligence agencies are engaged in a struggle to avoid the blame

Socialism Lives! Bush describes a utopia of nationalized oil and universal health care. But only for Iraq. Freedoms crumble, press sleeps Powell Ends Mideast Talks with No Sign of Progress Iraq set to resume oil exports soon Dems Call Bush Tax Plan 'Hogwash'

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said plans to revive the economy needed to go another way. "I think this whole 'trickle-down' is hogwash," she said. "We in the Senate, Democrats and some Republicans, are going to do what we can to get him to adjust his direction."

Blair branded 'worst Briton': A week after being showered with accolades and birthday presents, Tony Blair finds himself with an unwanted gift - the title of Britain's most unpopular person. A Minister Quits, Buildings Burn, Rubbish Rots. So Much for the 'Reconstruction' Bush Visit Could Cost Some Omaha Workers a Day's Pay: Stop on President's Tax Cut Tour Aimed at Neb. Senator Would Close Plant for Most of Two Shifts Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq: Task Force Unable To Find Any Weapons Neighbors of Vast Hog Farms Say Foul Air Endangers Their Health US rivals turn on each other as weapons search draws a blank: One key argument for war was the peril from weapons of mass destruction. Now top officials are worried by repeated failures to find the proof - and US intelligence agencies are engaged in a struggle to avoid the blame (The Observer, 11 May 2003) Mexicans upset by move linking immigration to oil: Committee advises to ease immigration laws only if investment rules are relaxed

MEXICO CITY -- A move in the U.S. Congress to link immigration with opening up Mexico's state oil company to U.S. investment has outraged Mexicans, and newspapers Saturday accused American lawmakers of arrogance and blackmail.

American overseeing Baghdad to step down

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. official sent in to oversee Baghdad and a large swath of its surrounding territory is leaving her position immediately after less than a month, a spokesman for the postwar American administration said Sunday.

Move to bring Bush, Blair to trial taking on int'l scale

Dubai, May 11, Itar-Tass/ACSNA/IRNA -- Thousands of people in Arab and other Islamic countries have signed a petition demanding that US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair be brought to trial for the actions committed by US and British forces on Iraqi territory.

Shia mullahs take charge of hospitals to halt chaos: A new force is emerging on the streets as doctors in Baghdad treat a tide of casualties.

Ten minutes pass and the gates of Chuwada hospital are again flung open by guards with machine guns slung over their shoulders. A rusting truck heaves through, and the latest bloodied arrival is hauled out.

This time it is Abdel Hussein, aged seven, injured by explosives he was playing with at the food market, which in Iraq's first month of freedom has expanded to include an arms bazaar. All morning there has been the crack of small arms fire cutting the distant heat haze.

Bush ally set to profit from the war on terror (The Observer, 11 May 2003)

James Woolsey, former CIA boss and influential adviser to President George Bush, is a director of a US firm aiming to make millions of dollars from the 'war on terror', The Observer can reveal.

Woolsey, one of the most high-profile hawks in the war against Iraq and a key member of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is a director of the Washington-based private equity firm Paladin Capital. The company was set up three months after the terrorist attacks on New York and sees the events and aftermath of September 11 as a business opportunity which 'offer[s] substantial promise for homeland security investment'.

Iraq in danger of starvation, says UN US blocks return of UN arms inspectors: Washington still refusing to allow Blix's teams access to Iraq as it scales down expectations of finding banned weapons

Saturday, 10 May 2003

Anti-poppy spray kills five in Afghanistan A mellow revolution stirs among Hawaiians Sovereignty: Some envision the islands not as the 50th state - but as an independent country. Karl Rove's Campaign Strategy: It's the Terror, Stupid

"First of all, it's the battle of Iraq, not the war," Mr. Rove carefully corrected. He went on to describe a far larger and longer war against terrorism that he sees clearly, perchance fortuitously, stretching well toward Election Day 2004.

If there were any doubt, Mr. Rove served notice to any and all Democratic challengers that feeding the aura of a wartime president, which has been bolstering Mr. Bush's standing in opinion polls by 15 points and more, would remain his campaigners' first priority across the next 18 months.

Iraqi cleric calls for 'independence'

The leader of Iraq's best-known Shia opposition group has told thousands of supporters that Iraqis would not accept a government imposed by foreigners.

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim was addressing a crowd in the southern city of Basra, after returning from exile in Iran on Saturday.

L'ex-opposition irakienne veut élargir son "conseil de direction" The Ex-Iraqi Opposition Wants to Enlarge its "Board of Directors'' London mayor attacks Bush CANADIAN BROADCASTER: " U.S. government's "official" version of 9/11 is the greatest deception ever launched." Senate Panel Votes to Lift Ban on Small Nuclear Arms Punditman: Was it Really a War, or just a Neo-Con Job? Killing Them with Goodwill: The Ass-Backwards Universe of Gangster George

There is much cheering amongst the hawks concerning the fine job Big Bush (and little Blair) have done with Iraq--as if another lop-sided massacre of a 1970's era army, this time functioning at a mere 70% capacity--by an integrated 21st century army with premium technology is something to gloat about.

Seven Nuclear Sites Looted: Iraqi Scientific Files, Some Containers Missing FCC Democrats Frustrated on Media Review Door Opened for New Era of Nuclear Arms Israel's 'We have the right to kill you' visa for Gaza

"I am aware of the risks involved and accept that the Government of the State of Israel and its organs cannot be held responsible for death, injury and/or damage/loss of property which may be incurred as a result of military activity."

Blueprint gives coalition control of oil: US and Britain see advisory role for UN in draft resolution In the wreckage of Saddam's nuclear research centre, villagers take their pick of lethal spoils Bin Laden died from wounds suffered in Tora Bora air raid, says Arab expert Iraq Inc: A joint venture built on broken promises The allies' broken promises Light pollution puts Milky Way out of sight for most people in Britain

Friday, 9 May 2003

Gaza visitors must sign waiver in case army shoots them

Yesterday, the British government demanded an Israeli military police criminal investigation into Miller's death and the shooting of another Briton by the army in Gaza, Tom Hurndall, a peace activist.

Mr Hurndall is in a coma with severe brain damage after being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier last month as he attempted to protect a small child from gunfire. The Foreign Office minister, Mike O'Brien, called in the Israeli ambassador to London to press the demand, which diplomatic sources portrayed as a ratcheting up of pressure on the Israeli government.

"On the basis of the evidence we've seen, we feel this case is so serious that we are asking for a military police investigation," said a Foreign Office spokesperson.

Bush Delays 9/11 Report, Graham Says

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bob Graham accused the Bush administration Thursday of stonewalling on the public release of a congressional report on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Halliburton Unit's Bill for Iraq Work Mounts: Cost of one contract for aiding U.S. in rebuilding nears $90 million, but little is going to Iraqis.

BAGHDAD -- The Pentagon has paid nearly $90 million to a subsidiary of the well-connected Halliburton Co. to cater to the Americans who are working to rebuild Iraq, U.S. officials said -- while the reconstruction effort has yet to show significant results for ordinary Iraqis.

Up in Arms in Baghdad: Remnants of Iraq's Forces Battle U.S. Indifference to Problems The End of the Internationalist Experiment of the Twentieth Century "La fin de l'expérience internationaliste du XXe siècle" The Stampede for Reconstruction Contracts is Also a Boon for Lobbying Firms La ruée sur les contrats de reconstruction est aussi un pactole pour les agences de lobbying Anti-Tax Cut Billboard Alteration in Worcester, MA Japan studied attack on North Korea - report Kurt Vonnegut: Strange Weather Lately

I note that construction has stopped of a Mark Twain Museum here in Hartford -- behind the carriage house of the Mark Twain House at 351 Farmington Avenue.

Work persons have been sent home from that site because American "conservatives," as they call themselves, on Wall Street and at the head of so many of our corporations, have stolen a major fraction of our private savings, have ruined investors and employees by means of fraud and outright piracy.

Shock and awe.

And now, having installed themselves as our federal government, or taken control of it from outside, they have squandered our public treasury and then some. They have created a public debt of such appalling magnitude that our descendants, for whom we had such high hopes, will come into this world as poor as church mice.

Shock and awe.

Mayor slams 'corrupt' Bush

THE mayor of London has launched an outspoken attack against US President George W. Bush, branding him "corrupt".

Veteran left-wing firebrand Ken Livingstone said: "I think George Bush is the most corrupt American president since (Warren) Harding in the '20s.

"He is not the legitimate president."

Livingstone was answering questions on the Iraq war and other subjects during a two-hour meeting with 200 schoolchildren at London's City Hall.

"This (the Bush administration) really is a completely unsupportable government, and I look forward to it being overthrown as much as I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown," he added.

Bush targets Iran U.S. Diplomats Decry `Military Coup'

"I just wake up in the morning and tell myself, `There's been a military coup,' and then it all makes sense," said one veteran foreign service officer.

Voting Machine Leaves Paper Trail Stuart Appelbaum: Class Warfare's Collateral Damage Rule would give utilities more profits, rights Police Chief Says Reserving Arrest Times Will Be Safer Bremer of Iraq: Counter-terrorism and corporate crisis management specialist heads Iraq's reconstruction GOP Faces Battle Within Going in style: Fisher Island residents enjoy luxury in miniature with golf carts that cost some long green

''I can blow past the other golf carts in mine,'' said resident Jim Ferraro of Ferraro & Associates PA. ``It's loaded.''

Feds Doing More Secret Searches

A record number of searches and wiretap orders granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2002 underscores a growing trend of reliance on the secret court in government investigations, privacy advocates say.

The number of FISA orders jumped more than 30 percent to 1,228 last year, compared to 934 the year before. The FBI uses the warrants in investigations of suspected terrorists and spies to eavesdrop on communications and conduct physical searches.

A first line of strategic defense

The Strategic Medical Intelligence unit, formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is a pilot program begun in the FBI's Pittsburgh office that quietly has forged an alliance between the agency and a small group of doctors.

Cop takes midnight photos of pacifist teacher's classroom, then Rush Limbaugh posts them on his website GOP backs down on Patriot Act: Provisions won't be permanent; less divisive measure passes easily

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans backed down yesterday from an effort to make permanent the sweeping anti-terrorism powers in a 2001 act, clearing the way for passage of a less divisive measure that would still expand the government's ability to spy on foreign terrorist suspects in the United States.

US moves on Iran Cheney firm paid millions in bribes to Nigerian official

The reputation of Halliburton, the oil industry giant once run by Vice-President Dick Cheney, took a new blow yesterday when it admitted one of its subsidiaries had paid millions of dollars to a Nigerian official in return for tax breaks.

U.S. General May Censor Iraqi TV Station's Programs U.S. Military "Footprint" Extends to Africa Veterans' Nuclear Exposure Underestimated, Panel Says The $1m Question: Was the President's 'Top Gun' Moment an Expensive Mistake? Bush Decries Tactics to Block Judicial Nominees: President Calls Some Senators' Actions a 'Disgrace' Ralph G. Neas: Bush Statement on Judges Demonstrates Orwellian Doublespeak: Despite 13-Year Low in Vacancies, Bush Claims Judicial Crisis

"It is becoming apparent that this is a blatant effort by the president and Republican leaders to construct a Senate scenario that would ensure a swift partisan rubberstamping of Supreme Court nominees 'in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.'"

Carolyn Kuhl's Hearing Strengthened the Case Against Her Confirmation Turn off the lights

More than half of us can no longer see the Milky Way - our own galaxy - because of rising light pollution at night. David Adam examines the problem, and some possible solutions.

U.S. Proposes Broader Control Of Iraqi Oil, Funds U.S. Mission in Iraq Could Take More Than a Year: Rumsfeld Says It's Impossible to Know How Long Bush Says Prosperity Key to Transforming Mideast: President Promises to Increase Trade With Arab World Surveillance Bill Sails Through Senate: 'Moussaoui Fix' Would Ease Laws on Obtaining Warrants U.S. Seeks Surrender Of Iranian Group: Policy Is Reversed on Exiles in Iraq

But the State Department, which in 1997 labeled the group a foreign terrorist organization, successfully argued that the United States could not condone its existence in the midst of fighting a war against terrorism. Moreover, State Department officials believe, last month's cease-fire agreement was a betrayal of an arrangement the administration set with Iran before the Iraq war to disarm the group.

Bush Uses Trade Pledge in Mideast Peace Drive US urges backing for resolution

The US and its allies today asked the UN security council to approve a resolution lifting 12-year-old sanctions on Iraq and giving them control over the country's oil revenue.

US ambassador John Negroponte officially introduced the eight-page resolution in a closed meeting of council members. It envisions the US and Britain running the country as "occupying powers" for at least a year, and probably much longer.

The resolution would also give them control over Iraq's oil money to finance the country's reconstruction. The UN would be limited to a largely advisory role.

Draft of new UN resolution on Iraq: A US-supported draft resolution on Iraq being considered today by the United Nations security council, taken from a draft copy circulated among UN diplomats ahead of the meeting. A nation's fate is sealed: Forget Sars or the North Korean threat, Japan's biggest worry is the fate of one aquatic mammal, writes Jonathan Watts Graham Claims Bush Administration Blocking Release Of 9/11 Report Amnesty Says Israel Shutting Out Foreign Scrutiny US and Britain seek to limit UN role in Iraq 'Waking visions' inspired trapped climber to break free by chopping off his arm The two faces of Rumsfeld

2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change

Liberation, one month on: Chaos on the streets, cholera in the city and killings in broad daylight No evidence of plan to use banned weapons in war Into the Sunset

Chutzpah, according to the classic definition, is when you murder your parents, then ask for sympathy because you're an orphan. But what do we call it if after you are placed with foster parents, you try the same thing all over again?

I ask this question in light of the tax-cut package the House is expected to pass today -- a package that relies on exactly the same bait-and-switch tactics used to sell the 2001 tax cut. Since the scam involved in the 2001 tax cut remains one of the wonders of modern political economy, it is a measure of our leaders' contempt for the intelligence of the public -- or maybe for the press -- that they think they can use the same tricks a second time.

Thursday, 8 May 2003

Army Orders Troops to Seize TV Station in Northwest Iraq: A Major Balks at Directive And Gets Relieved of Duty Environmentalists = Terrorists: The New Math U.S. Soldier Reported Killed in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An American soldier was shot and killed Thursday in a bold daylight attack on a Baghdad bridge, military officers said.

Livingstone attacks President Bush: London Mayor Ken Livingstone has launched an astonishing attack on US President George W Bush, calling him "corrupt". Jay Bookman: Now in Open, 'Empire' Talk Unsettling Margaret Drabble: I loathe America, and what it has done to the rest of the world The Black Commentator: Bush's Harvest of Shame: One Million Black Children in Extreme Poverty Turkey Unapologetic About Refusing to Aid U.S. in War Troops Overstretched on Iraq Security -US Officials Enemy Within: Democratic candidates need to stop attacking one another, and start attacking Bush. Scaring America half to death

PARIS -- Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations met in Paris on Monday to affirm that terrorism remains a "pervasive and global threat." Just three days earlier, the State Department had announced that terrorism is at its lowest level in 33 years.

Halliburton Says Gave Bribes in Nigeria (Reuters, 8 May 2003) US quietly eases rules for faith-based groups Lieberman's Bait-and-Switch: Joe's walked away from the people and straight into the arms of the right Shadow Over the Oil Fields: The administration's no-bid contract with a Halliburton subsidiary gives the impression of a grab of Iraqi resources for American business. Euro Matches Life High Vs Yen Some to protest Bush visit to USC: Students, staff plan alternate graduation ceremony

Sycamore -- David Broder's April 29 column on the Commentary page claims that President George W. Bush's leadership abilities are his strong suit.

Bush's leadership abilities have brought the American people an illegal election, an illegal war and the illegal U.S. industrial takeover of the Iraqi people's oil reserves.

Jim Crow revived in cyberspace Strong Must Rule the Weak, said Neo-Cons' Muse The U.S. and Post-War Iraq: An Analysis Pulling FBI's Nose Out of Your Books Bhopal Protest Reflects Continued Calls for Justice US Quietly Eases Rules for Faith-Based Groups Lieberman Urges Bush to Apply Pressure on Cuba Congress gives Bush flak on cost of carrier flight

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said that the total could top $1 million, because the trip required delaying the USS Abraham Lincoln for a day as it steamed from the Persian Gulf to San Diego, an extra day of air patrols, plus presidential security, and the cost of the flight itself. The lawmakers issued a news release headed ''shameless'' in large red type. It cited the ''nerve required to delay the return of 4,000 sailors to their families after 10 months at sea in order to stage [a] photo-op.''

Oil deals for Halliburton's subsidiary are 'wider than first declared' Halliburton flap roils as Corps tacks on task U.S. pumped up Halliburton deal U.S. Approves NATO Expansion Bob Herbert: Trouble in Bush's America

While our "What, me worry?" president is having a great time with his high approval ratings and his "Top Gun" fantasies, the economy remains in the tank. And the finances of state and local governments are sinking tragically into ever deeper and ever more unforgiving waters.

Taliban appears to be regrouped and well-funded House to Vote on Church Programs: Bill Would Allow Hiring Based on Beliefs Ship Carrying Bush Delayed Return: Carrier That Spent Night off San Diego Could Have Gone Straight to Home Port

Pentagon officials said yesterday that an aircraft carrier waited within sight of San Diego last week while President Bush slept aboard, instead of heading straight to port after 10 months at sea.

S.Korea Sees No Sign of North's Nuclear Activity NRA Seeks Stay on Ad Restrictions Ruling Trailer found in Iraq 'was bioweapons lab' U.S. Commander: No evidence Iraq tried to deploy WMD in battle

Wednesday, 7 May 2003

100th Anti-Patriot Act Resolution Passed In Broward, Florida Ecuadorean Court to Handle Villagers vs. ChevronTexaco Secret Service Questions Students Welcome to the Virtual U.S.A. September 11 Showdown: Will the White House block a terror panel's access to critical documents? Plus, here's another reason to badmouth France KBR's Iraq Work Seen as Interim Deal: Army to Award 2nd Contract Senate asks NATO to review policy requiring unanimity

Reflecting U.S. frustration about opposition within NATO to the Iraq war, the Senate on Wednesday said the alliance should consider dropping its requirement that decisions be made by unanimous vote.

Poland rethinks troops' mission in Iraq Report: Pentagon adviser in Iraq flap: L.A. Times: Perle gave advice on making profit from conflicts New Furor Over Halliburton

(AP) Halliburton Co.'s emergency, no-bid contract to work on Iraq's oil wells must be fully disclosed, a Democratic lawmaker says, pointing to the Army's admission that the company has a far more lucrative role than originally believed.

An Open Letter to the U.S. Military by Charlie Liteky in Baghdad, Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

By way of introduction, my name is Charlie Liteky, a U.S. citizen, a Vietnam Veteran, and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. However, I renounced the Medal of Honor on July 29,1986 in opposition to U.S foreign policy in Central America. What the U.S. was supporting in El Salvador and Nicaragua, namely the savagery and domination of the poor, reminded me of what I was a part of in Vietnam 15 years earlier.

Bush prepared for another test of strength: Democrats will struggle to mount a challenge to an incumbent enjoying the glow of victory, writes Julian Borger Iraq Doctors Rally Against Health Ministry GOP senators keep 'nuclear option' in reserve for judges House Approves $2.4 Billion for Nanotech Research U.S. Senate tax writers agree on dividend plan Going Backwards: Bush Still Backs Nuclear Arms, Says They're Needed in Today's Climate

Jayantha Dhanapala, undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs at the United Nations, said there were already deep concerns that the Bush administration's nuclear policies could trigger a new arms race and undermine years of success in limiting the spread of the weapons.

"I never imagined that this kind of regression would take place," said Dhanapala. He added that if the Bush administration were to create new low-yield weapons and then resume underground testing, other countries would surely follow.

Consulting and Policy Overlap: Advisor Perle has given seminars on ways to profit from possible conflicts discussed by defense board he sits on. (Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2003)

WASHINGTON -- Last February, the Defense Policy Board, a group of outside advisors to the Pentagon, received a classified presentation from the super-secret Defense Intelligence Agency on the crises in North Korea and Iraq.

Three weeks later, the then-chairman of the board, Richard N. Perle, offered a briefing of his own at an investment seminar on ways to profit from possible conflicts with both countries.

Report: Daniels among 32 subpoenaed in securities probe

INDIANAPOLIS -- White House budget director Mitch Daniels has been subpoenaed in a lawsuit accusing him and other former IPALCO Enterprises directors of dumping millions of dollars in stock before the utility company was sold.

David Krieger: Ten Lessons of the Iraq War State Subpoenas 30 Business Elite: Regulators probe allegations insiders 'dumped' $71 million in IPALCO stock. My war: The first-time protester: The war in Iraq inspired many people to get involved in protests for the first time. Ozgur Yazici an 18-year-old student from Turkey, explains how the war inspired him and his friends to take to the streets. Straw under fire for ignoring Israeli attacks on UK nationals Suspected Bioweapon Mobile Lab Recovered: Results of U.S. Probe on Iraqi Vehicle Due Today Police had war protest game plan: Report detailed how officers should respond, which port entrances could be blocked

On April 7, police outfitted in riot gear bumped protesters with motorcycles and fired bean-bag rounds, wooden dowels and stinger grenades filled with rubber pellets and a small amount of tear gas -- all "less-lethal" ammunition -- at the crowd after it blocked traffic from entering the APL facility.

Latinos, blacks suffer setbacks in wage parity 10 universities cut programs for minorities: Summer sessions faced legal threats Contract Much Larger Than Previously Known: US says Halliburton Deal Includes Operating Iraq Oil Fields

"It's extremely troubling that our government is using taxpayer money to deliver lucrative contracts to companies like Halliburton that have used offshore subsidiaries to maneuver around restrictions on doing business with state sponsors of terrorism," said spokesman Charlie Cray.

Lawmaker Decries Halliburton's Iraq Deal

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Halliburton Co.'s emergency, no-bid contract to work on Iraq's oil wells must be fully disclosed, a Democratic lawmaker says, pointing to the Army's admission that the company has a far more lucrative role than originally believed.

Prior descriptions said Vice President Dick Cheney's former company would fight oil fires. The contract also lets the company operate the oil fields for a time and distribute the petroleum, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Tuesday. Waxman cited information he received from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which awarded the contract.

America's weapons evidence flawed, say spies Explanation for Bush's Carrier Landing Altered

President Bush chose to make a jet landing on an aircraft carrier last week even after he was told he could easily reach the ship by helicopter, the White House said yesterday, changing the explanation it gave for Bush's "Top Gun" style event.

White House officials had said, both before and after Bush's landing in a Navy S-3B Viking jet, that he took the plane solely to avoid inconveniencing the sailors, who were returning home after a deployment of nearly 10 months. The officials said that Bush decided not to wait until the ship was in helicopter range to avoid delaying the troops' homecoming.

But instead of the carrier being hundreds of miles offshore, as aides had said it would be, the Lincoln was only about 30 miles from the coast when Bush made his "tail-hook" landing, in which the jet was stopped by cables on deck. Navy officers slowed and turned the ship when land became visible.

Citing Fleischer's revised explanation, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) wrote to the General Accounting Office to ask for a "full accounting" of the cost of the trip.

After Fleischer's remarks, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, saying he was "deeply troubled" by Bush's actions, which he called "flamboyant showmanship." The octogenarian lawmaker criticized the White House for using the carrier "as an advertising backdrop" and the military "as stage props" for Bush's speech.

Judge Awards $104 Million to 9-11 Victims Robert Byrd Senate Remarks: Making the Military a Stage Prop for Politics

As I watched the President's fighter jet swoop down onto the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, I could not help but contrast the reported simple dignity of President Lincoln at Gettysburg with the flamboyant showmanship of President Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Daschle-bashing reaches a new low in South Dakota

And now, according to a new Kranz article, two Republican operatives are organizing something called the Daschle Accountability Project, a yearlong, $800,000 anti-Daschle ad-campaign featuring a folksy duo modeled off those old Bartles & James TV commercials. The goal is to tar Daschle as a liberal out of touch with South Dakota values and in league with outsiders.

A Respected Face, but Is It News or an Ad?

Aaron Brown of CNN, Walter Cronkite and other broadcast journalists have been hired to appear in videos resembling newscasts that are actually paid for by drug makers and other health care companies, blurring the line between journalism and advertising.

Labour suspends Galloway as third inquiry is launched Galloway suspended by Labour: Rebel MP now subject of three inquiries Dan Plesch: A shot of democracy: Institutions such as the UN, EU and World Trade Organisation have lost credibility. Could the election of national representatives restore it? Plan for N. Korea Will Mix Diplomacy and Pressure Pakistan matches Indian offer to renew diplomatic ties Bush Names Iraq Administrator: Longtime Diplomat Bremer Becomes Presidential Envoy

Bremer joined the consulting firm of Henry A. Kissinger as managing director after leaving government in 1989. He was appointed chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism in 1999. Since 2001 Bremer has been chairman and chief executive of Marsh Crisis Consulting, part of Marsh & McClennan Companies Inc.

U.S. Inflames Some Iraqis By Bringing Back Baathists Wolfowitz Scolds Turks Over Failure To Back U.S. Afghans Rally in Anger Toward U.S.: Protesters Say U.S. Hasn't Kept Promises to Rebuild Nation After War

"They have lied to us," said Sediq Afghan, a philosopher who organized the protest. "At the beginning we thought that the United States was one of the good countries, the most wealthy country, and it would help us. Then we saw that they came here to capture Afghanistan. I think the U.S. intends to keep us hungry."

[...]

Said Reshad, 19, said his father works at the Finance Ministry and hasn't received a paycheck in three months. His family of nine has begun selling household belongings.

"We sold the carpets and the refrigerator," Reshad said. "Now we'll borrow money to live. Finally, we'll have to start stealing something to eat. We'll join the Taliban just to support our family. If they give us money, we'll join them."

The Iraqi job: How a 4am raid netted the dictator's son a $1bn prize 'Saddam tape recorded this week in Iraq' Fed Fears A Spiral Of Falling Prices: Deflation Risk May Prompt Rate Cuts

Tuesday, 6 May 2003

Neither Rival nor Vassal Ni rival ni vassal Israeli courts uphold Israeli Army order to demolish 120 newly-built Palestinian family homes Jet-Boy Bush went missing when it mattered, media paid no mind Study shows class counts

The study shows that class mobility has decreased over the past few decades. While the study shatters the myth that working hard will lead to a better station in life, it shores up the idea that "the rich are getting richer."

Bush plan would wreck an already ailing economy Student faces 2nd fine for chalking: Protesters say actions target anti-war activists Y'all don't despair, Ivins tells UW crowd HIGHTOWER: Shredding Ashcroft Nicholas D. Kristof: Missing in Action: Truth (New York Times, 6 May 2003)

I'm told by a person involved in the Niger caper that more than a year ago the vice president's office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former U.S. ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger. In February 2002, according to someone present at the meetings, that envoy reported to the C.I.A. and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong and that the documents had been forged.

Howard Zinn: My Country: The World Envoy dubs US a police state

THE strained relations between Germany and the United States took a turn for the worse yesterday after a senior Berlin diplomat was reported to have told Foreign Ministry colleagues that America was turning into a "police state".

US persuades Russia of Iran's nuke program Walter Sisulu, 90; Political Leader Helped Shape Anti-Apartheid Fight Paul Krugman: Man on Horseback

Some background: the Constitution declares the president commander in chief of the armed forces to make it clear that civilians, not the military, hold ultimate authority. That's why American presidents traditionally make a point of avoiding military affectations. Dwight Eisenhower was a victorious general and John Kennedy a genuine war hero, but while in office neither wore anything that resembled military garb.

Given that history, George Bush's "Top Gun" act aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln -- c'mon, guys, it wasn't about honoring the troops, it was about showing the president in a flight suit -- was as scary as it was funny.

A U.S.-based British journalist told me that he and his colleagues had laughed through the whole scene. If Tony Blair had tried such a stunt, he said, the press would have demanded to know how many hospital beds could have been provided for the cost of the jet fuel.

Nukes should be confined with five superpowers: US U.S. Says Iran Failing to Clear Up Nuclear Concerns FBI takes up heavy load of corporate fraud probes Israelis fire on parents of injured British peace activist

The parents of a British peace activist who was shot in the head by Israeli troops came under fire themselves as they travelled to the spot where their son was critically injured.

Special Report: Israel-Palestine George Monbiot: Poor, but pedicured: It appears that those at the bottom are getting richer - but sadly the maths just doesn't add up

A new paper by the economist Sanjay Reddy and the philosopher Thomas Pogge demonstrates that the World Bank's methodology is so flawed that its calculations cannot possibly be correct. Not only does it appear wildly to underestimate the level of global poverty, but the downward trend it purports to show appears to be an artefact of the way in which it has been compiled. The World Bank's figures, against which the success or failure of the entire global economy is measured, are useless.

Wall Street pink slips hit record: 80,400 jobs lost

Tuesday, May 06, 2003 -- New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is keen to host a ticker-tape parade for victorious U.S. troops returning from Iraq, but pink slips are already raining down, in record numbers, on Wall Street employees.

Big-dollar Bush donors revealed in court documents

DALLAS -- A network of big donors to George W. Bush called "the Pioneers" was far more extensive than previously known, producing perhaps half the record-smashing $100 million for his 2000 presidential race, court documents show.

'Pioneers' Paved Bush's Way With Big Dollars US troops 'encouraged' Iraqi looters: General Tommy Franks is threatened with a Belgian war crimes trial alleging US troops failed to prevent looting in Iraq. BBC News Online uncovers evidence suggesting his soldiers even egged on some looters. Robert Scheer: The Only Law West of the Tigris: "We have ways to make you talk."

According to an Associated Press report Sunday, "Expected intelligence from senior captured Iraqis who might have been most knowledgeable about the government's secrets is not materializing. One by one, they are insisting under interrogation that the government had no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs in recent years, U.S. officials say."

Special Report: What about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction? House Considers Measure to Cut Billions in Pension Obligations

Monday, 5 May 2003

Why Ecocide Is 'Good News' for the GOP Little Support for a Big Tax Cut: Reducing Budget Deficit and Maintaining Government Services Seen as More Important to Americans than Cutting Taxes The "Heroic Narrative'' of the War of Good Against Evil Head of U.N. nuclear agency asks Washington to permit it to send mission to Iraq U.S. Struggles in Quicksand of Iraq: Continuing disorder is fueling skepticism and allowing competing political forces to fill the void.

BAGHDAD -- Nearly a month after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces, the reconstruction effort is struggling to gain visibility and credibility, crime is a continuing problem, Iraqis desperate for jobs and security are becoming angry and the transition to democracy promised by President Bush seems rife with risk.

The world won't forgive or forget: A vast global majority opposed the war - and nothing has changed

So that's all right, then? George W proclaims the fighting over; Tony Blair shifts his adjectives of mass persuasion to the home front; house-trained local mandarins begin talking about consensuses restored, bridges rebuilt. Time to move on. We must give a lead. But why is nobody following?

Iraqi welcome for US turns to fury

This is the way the war ends: not with the jubilation of the liberated but with the whimpering of ragged children. "Water! Water!" they cry, running from the roadside towards passing cars, thrusting their fingers towards their mouths in the salute of the thirsty.

White House refuses to release Sept. 11 info

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and the nation's intelligence agencies are blocking the release of sensitive information about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, delaying publication of a 900-page congressional report on how the terrorist assault happened.

Intelligence officials insist the information must be kept secret for national security reasons. But some of the information is already broadly available on the Internet or has been revealed in interim reports on the investigation, leading to charges that the administration is simply trying to avoid enshrining embarrassing details in the report.

Howard Dean and His American Dream Team When no news is big news: The frenzy surrounding Bush's speech last week affirmed how easy it remains to manipulate the major media Peace force for Iraq may take half the [British] Army Nuclear Looters On Loose Bush Shifts Focus to Nuclear Sales by North Korea Observers disagree on how official the North Korean drug trade is Tax Flak: Critics of cuts shouldn't have patriotism questioned Dozen arrested at Kent anti-war rally Bad news Bush

I am not boasting. I am merely establishing my credentials so you will know it is a true Texan, one who loves and cherishes his Lone Star State heritage, who makes this statement, on the record for all to read: I am ashamed that George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, calls my home state his own.

As you probably well know, another Texan, the eminently outspoken and often hilarious Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, told a London audience the same thing in early March. Ms. Maines later apologised, no doubt conscious of the effect such a comment would have on her group's record sales in the States, but I will not. Ever.

No matter what. Even if US federal agents spirit me away and try to torture a retraction out of me - which, with this administration, is a distinct possibility.

ChevronTexaco faces $5 bln Ecuador pollution suit North Korea Urges U.S. Action on 'Bold Proposal' Layoff announcements soar 71 percent in April

NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) The number of job cuts announced in April soared 71 percent from March, marking the highest monthly number of layoffs since November, according to a survey released Monday.

Bob Herbert: The Faces of Budget Cuts

"I'll tell you what's going to happen," she said. "I'm going to be dead. That's what's going to happen."

Ms. Asbell, tall, thin and middle-aged, described herself as deeply depressed and paranoid. Her periodic descents into psychosis, she said, are becoming more and more difficult to handle.

She tried to commit suicide in January and ended up in a hospital for 10 days. "I stopped breathing, but they brought me back," she said. "I feel a little better now."

During one psychotic episode she removed the metal plates from all of the switches and outlets in the apartment. "I thought there were cameras in there," she said.

Doctors have prescribed a long list of medications to ward off the worst manifestations of Ms. Asbell's illness. But she can't afford them. She has been dumped from a state program that paid for the medication and for sessions of much-needed psychotherapy. Now she gets some medication in the form of samples from doctor's offices. The rest she does without.

Ms. Asbell is one of thousands of Oregon residents who are seriously in need of medical care but are being cut from essential (and even life-saving) programs because of the state's budget meltdown.

New National Data Reveals Annual Salaries for 5 Vital Community Occupations Fall Short of $50,000 Necessary to Own Home Pittance Is A Pity

I wouldn't even pretend to give anybody financial advice, but I can give you this human-nature advice: If you expect the elite or the representatives of the elite to do you any favors, you probably still believe in the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy. Every society, including ours, is a mixture of reality and myth. In our society, the elite, the government and Wall Street all are presented with a benign face, and that is a myth. Theirs is a world where the pursuit of self-interest is as ruthless as Josef Stalin's. The only reason they don't have people murdered is because they don't have to in our system. Yet these same people would thrive in a totalitarian system. Whether communist or capitalist, a burning desire to succeed no matter what the price other people have to pay will take you to the top.

William Rivers Pitt: George W. Christ?

This was the same man, however, who mocked Texas death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker so viciously before she rode the lightning to whatever awaits us on the Other Side. He was asked, in an interview for Talk Magazine during the campaign, what Tucker might say to him if she were given the chance to plead for her life. "Please," said Bush with pinched face and lips drawn down in a quivering bow as he imitated the woman about to die, "don't kill me." Then he laughed.

You would think we'd have known better 835 days ago. We didn't, mostly because the news media decided such stories were without merit. Now we are a humble nation that brazenly disregards the entire planet as we seek military solutions to diplomatic problems. Now we are a humble nation that breaks treaties by the boatload and 'punishes' nations that foolishly believe they can make decisions for themselves. One is forced to wonder if Bush sat in front of a television as the 'Shock and Awe' firebombing/cluster-bombing of Baghdad began, face pinched and mouth drawn down, saying "Please, don't kill me" in the voice of an Iraqi civilian. One is forced to wonder if he laughed afterwards.

Veterans Against the Iraq War (VAIW): Ritter Blasts Bush's War: News Ex-weapons inspector and former Marine Scott Ritter is calling for regime change in Washington. Irvine Welsh: From America: Fratboy Dim and his buddies are told lies

I was in a North Side of Chicago bar, packed full of college fraternity guys, who were watching the assortment of baseball, basketball and news programmes on the multiple screens.

One guy, very much the worse for wear, shouted proudly: "We killed far less Iraqi citizens than Saddam." In a moment of grotesque comedy, his fratboy friend misunderstood him and said defensively: "But we've only been there a few goddamn weeks!"

[...]

The "freed" Iraqi people now have a retired US general as ruler of their country, and have already faced the guns of American troops. In Falluja, two civilians were shot dead by US troops for protesting about the previous slaughter of another 14.

[...]

Last September, George W Bush, near the anniversary of September 11, referred to a report from the Atomic Energy Agency. He claimed this proved that Saddam was only months away from having nuclear weapons. "I don't know what more evidence we need", he trumpeted.

This was a clear lie: the report in question said no such thing. For a few sane hours, the MSNBC's website bore the headline: "White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq." Then the story vanished mysteriously.

[...] As the New York Times reported, it is probable that most Americans now believe that America has found weapons of mass destruction thanks to the pattern of each potential find receiving huge television coverage, followed by the short (if that) notice of false alarm later on: "It's a pattern of misinformation that recapitulates the way the war was sold in the first place. Each administration charge against Iraq received prominent coverage; the subsequent debunking did not".

Simon Tisdall: What Europe has to do to avoid becoming a US vassal: A multipolar world is the third way between resistance and domination How US paid for secret files on foreign citizens: Latin Americans furious in row over selling personal data Firm in Florida election fiasco earns millions from files on foreigners Dept. of Connections: the Contractors Director assaulted after Bush play

THE director of a Paris theatre that staged a play critical of US President George W. Bush, has been beaten and slashed across the face with a box cutter.

British bombers 'smuggled explosive inside the Koran'

Sunday, 4 May 2003

Wall St. to Ship Research Jobs Overseas The War Comes Back Home: Can Attorney General John Ashcroft fight terrorism on our shores without injuring our freedoms? Woes For Dubya

May 4, 2003 -- If history is a lesson, President Bush's re-election bid has already been ambushed by rising unemployment, weak economic growth and the bear market.

Pentagon dominates US foreign policy with dubious intelligence: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US insistence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction is based on dubious intelligence from a shadowy Pentagon committee that now dominates US foreign policy.

Haroon Siddiqui: Real American agenda now becoming clear

A superpower like the United States does not invade a pipsqueak power like Iraq -- outside the framework of international law and against worldwide opposition -- only for its publicly stated reasons, in this case, fighting terrorism, liberating Iraq and triggering a domino effect for the democratization of the Middle East.

The real American agenda is only now becoming clearer.

The conquest of Iraq is enabling a new Pax Americana that goes well beyond the much-discussed control of oil, as central as that is to the enterprise.

Anger grows after Baghdad academy looted: U.S. had reportedly promised security Soldiers fear 'Afghan Vietnam' US: 'Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction'

The Bush administration has admitted that Saddam Hussein probably had no weapons of mass destruction.

Senior officials in the Bush administration have admitted that they would be 'amazed' if weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were found in Iraq.

According to administration sources, Saddam shut down and destroyed large parts of his WMD programmes before the invasion of Iraq.

Ironically, the claims came as US President George Bush yesterday repeatedly justified the war as necessary to remove Iraq's chemical and biological arms which posed a direct threat to America.

Bush claimed: 'Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We will find them.'

Special Report: What about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction? Warsaw's role in postwar Iraq surprises EU - and the Poles Jimmy Breslin: A Furor Over Dogs, But Not The War

I would like to apologize to the people whose love for dogs caused them to be so vituperative in their calls and letters to me over a column I wrote about dogs.

[...]

So many people were angered at these comments I made. For three weeks before that, I had written that the war was a fake and a fraud, that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that George W. Bush was a myth, or thereabouts.

Only a few people were angered. Most were vicious in defense of their dogs. That would seem to show where their interests are. The dog is more important than a war.

Virtues maven may have played last slots Bribery alleged in Kazakh oil deals: Charges strain ties to key ally in war on terror Crawford authorities arrest five in Bush protest

Freddi Yasinkosky, who watched the spectacle from her front porch, said her son was in basic training in the Army and that colored her opinion of the protesters.

"I think they could find a better way to get their message across," she said. "They dress like bums, which undermines their cause. It defeats the purpose. A lot of them seemed to not be taking it very seriously, and if they are not going to take their message seriously, neither am I."

Britain expects to control south-eastern Iraq A new occupation

Khadija is one villager who lost all her land because of the Apartheid Wall. She is a widow with several handicapped children to support. Now Khadija has only the small piece of land next to her house to plant crops to feed her entire family. She wept openly throughout our interview. Her 32 year old son says he has lost his future. "We are nine people in a small house, and we are hurting psychologically". He was building a house. Now he cannot complete it.

N. Korea has '300 nukes' Press freedom pays: The political case for freedom of information as a human right is well known. But there is also plenty of evidence that press freedom accelerates economic development. Baghdad still restless as Bush claims victory Iraqi rage grows after Fallujah massacre

Nearly a week after troops from the 82nd Airborne Division randomly opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators here, prompting the US military to announce an inquiry, commanders have yet to speak to the doctors who counted the bodies.

Dead cameraman 'carried white flag'

Israeli soldiers who killed a British television cameraman, James Miller, in southern Gaza could have been in no doubt about his identity as a journalist, according to witnesses. They said yesterday that he was shot at close range while in a group carrying a large white flag and shouting repeatedly that they were journalists.

Saturday, 3 May 2003

Mystery man keeps the best of company

He has been invited to a forum with one of the most powerful men in the Bush Administration, been photographed with the Prime Minister and visited the head of the World Trade Organisation.

He has run for Parliament as a Labour candidate under another name and been entangled in allegations about a plot to help North Korean defectors escape to the west.

He denies being a CIA agent.

Who is Jack Sanders?

See also Shadowy Kiwi 'CIA operative' For a free press Jobless Rate Rose to 6% in April Tide turning on terrorism: Bush

Calling the battle of Iraq "one victory in the war on terrorism", President George Bush declared major combat operations in the country over and issued a veiled warning to Syria and North Korea they too will be confronted by the United States.

Israeli troops kill British cameraman in Gaza Strip Pot plan puts U.S. noses out of joint: Trade at risk, warns drug czar: Decriminalization called a mistake

Friday, 2 May 2003

Rose: The White House lied

"The White House Lied" was the headline on the ABCNews.com Web site on April 25. They weren't harking back to the days of Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

Wrote ABC News reporter John Cochran: "To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war - a global show of American power and democracy."

EU says U.S. delays medical supplies for Iraq G.O.P. Fails in Bid to End Filibuster Against Texas Judge Lib Dem surge changes the landscape: Councils now three-party race as Labour tries to explain scale of losses Navy Leaves a Battered Island, and Puerto Ricans Cheer Rep. Waxman Questions Halliburton Ties to Terrorism Halliburton cash registers ring in Iraq: Subsidiary's contracts reach all aspects of reconstruction

Halliburton Energy Services, the giant government contractor formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, is overseeing no-bid Army projects worth nearly a half-billion dollars that involve almost every aspect of U.S. operations in Iraq, NBC News has learned. The projects extend well beyond a previously reported Pentagon contract the company won to put out oil-well fires in Iraq two months ago.

For Bush, Cold Truths Are Lurking After Pomp on Carrier

WASHINGTON, May 1 -- President Bush's made-for-television address tonight on the carrier Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war. But beneath the golden images of a president steaming home with his troops toward the California coast lay the cold political and military realities that drove Mr. Bush's advisers to create the moment.

A mean-spirited America: Today, I fear my own government more than I do terrorists

NEW YORK, May 2 -- These days, a sense of apprehension and foreboding lurks in the back of my head and the pit of my stomach. It's a gut-wrenching reminder that something very bad has happened and is about to happen anew. It is an anticipation of the next insult and injury in an America that has been defined under the Bush administration by a profound meanness of spirit.

Pentagon: Tribunals to include gag rule

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- The Pentagon plans to impose a permanent gag order on attorneys who defend alleged terrorists or "enemy combatants" before any U.S. military tribunals, senior defense officials said Friday. All statements and information about the trials will be made through the Pentagon spokesman's office.

Weapons of mass distortion: The concept of WMD is dishonest. When they are in friendly hands we call them defence forces Bush pick for appeals court called gays 'queers': Allen, an abstinence-only advocate, would serve on Md., Va. court Doubts grow over Iraq 'smoking gun' U.S. jobs jumping ship: Cheap offshore labor is not just for manufacturing any more -- is your job heading overseas, too? Seoul backs off demand for a seat at nuclear talks North Korea Urges Workers to be Prepared for War With U.S. Afghanistan: Launchpad for terror Daschle believes Iraq war justified

The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq should continue, but coalition forces don't need to find them to justify the war against Saddam Hussein.

That's the take of U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

"Regime change was a legitimate goal, it was accomplished and I think that's laudable in and of its own right,'' Daschle said Thursday.

''In 21 days we eliminated somebody who for 20 years has repressed and tortured his own people and posed a serious risk not only to his country, but to countries all over the world, including the United States,'' he added.

U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., agreed.

"It's probably the grandest military success in the history of this country," Janklow said.

Expert on Terrorism To Direct Rebuilding Roh Frustrated at US Will for Nuke Talks Impatient Justice: Congratulations. We've just won the wrong war. Frida Berrigan: Proud to be American? Not While it Chooses Bombs Over Bread

Jay Garner wants us to be proud. The man in charge of rebuilding Iraq was quoted in the New York Times on Thursday saying, "We ought to look in the mirror and get proud, and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say, 'Damn, we're Americans.'"

Well Jay, I am sorry to say that I am not feeling it. American soldiers shooting unarmed Iraqi demonstrators and killing at least 17 in two separate incidents. American police officers firing rubber and wooden bullets at unarmed American demonstrators outside of Oakland. Thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in a so-called precision war for their liberation. A multibillion dollar empire building effort underway in Iraq that is masked as a humanitarian reconstruction effort, while children are hungry, seniors are without medication, and education is less and less accessible right here in USA.

Democracy Now!: Did the Commander in Chief go AWOL for a year when he was in the reserves? | "The Iron Triangle: The Secret History of the Carlyle Group" | The Secrets of September 11, what is the White House hiding? | Did Donald Rumsfeld aid North Korea's nuclear program? | Occidental Petroleum sued for role in civilian massacre in Colombia | Celebrations continue in Vieques following the departure of the U.S. military Amnesty urges tough U.N. stand on Zimbabwe Zimbabwe sanctions 'have failed': The Commonwealth has admitted that its sanctions have had little effect on President Robert Mugabe. US plots to oust Mugabe with African nations' help Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon Nomination Of Tex. Judge Is Blocked Air Force's Roche Picked to Head Army: Surprise Decision Is Viewed as Continuation of Rumsfeld's Attempt to Revamp Service

Roche has been secretary of the Air Force for the past two years. Before that, he was a senior executive at Northrop Grumman Corp. for 16 years. He was seen there as one of the people who helped turn around the defense contractor, in part by helping it focus not on "old defense" work, such as making airplanes and tanks, and instead on "new defense" jobs, such as making electronic sensors and other gear that capitalized on the computer revolution.

Unemployment Rate Rose to 6% in April as 48,000 Jobs Are Cut Senator in Heated Exchange With Parents of Gay Children

"What we tried to do in this meeting was reach him on a human level, and we found no humanity there."

War propels Exxon profits to record $7bn Cleric's Killing a Setback to U.S.: CIA lost an ally and $13M With pot and porn outstripping corn, America's black economy is flying high: Illegal migrants provide the muscle for US black market

Marijuana, pornography and illegal labour have created a hidden market in the United States which now accounts for as much as 10% of the American economy, according to a study. As a cash crop, marijuana is believed to have outstripped maize, and hardcore porn revenue is equal to Hollywood's domestic box office takings.

Unemployment reports from the Dismal Scientist Economic Indicators

Employers eliminated 48,000 jobs in April, a smaller than expected decline. The March decline was revised upward to 124,000. Losses in the manufacturing, retail trade and transportation industries were partially offset by gains in construction, financial services and government payrolls. The unemployment rate rose to 6% in April.

Iraqis vow revenge as hatred of US grows Appetite for Authoritarianism Spawns an American Gulag

Last week, the United States confirmed it is holding children under the age of 16 at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Military Is the Message: Triumphant President Casts Strong Image for '04 Election

Thursday, 1 May 2003

A cruel sea of capital Kelly's 'fairies' threaten peace

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Last October, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly set off an international crisis by claiming that North Korean officials had told him that Pyongyang was developing nuclear weapons. The officials denied saying that.

The North Korean officials claimed that in response to Kelly's "highhanded and arrogant" display of a "hardline policy of hostility" they had simply stated that North Korea had a right to develop such capability.

Kelly now appears to be at it again, setting off another crisis based on what he says a North Korean said to him. This time he claims that Li Gun, deputy director of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. Affairs Office, told him that North Korea "has atomic weapons and that it might test, sell or use, depending on U.S. actions."

Bush's Top Gun Photo-Op

As the cable news networks enthusiastically covered George W. Bush's trip to the USS Abraham Lincoln--cool military hardware, guys in uniforms, the Big Man, and a touch of can-anything-go-wrong drama--there were plenty of references to Bush's days in the Texas Air National Guard, when he flew F-102 fighter jets. (Well, sort of--but we'll get to that.) On MSNBC, correspondent George Lewis noted that Bush, with his tailhook landing on the aircraft carrier, was "becoming one of" the troops on board. He didn't add, only 25 years late. That is, neither Lewis nor any of the other television journalists covering this gee-whiz event (whom I saw) mentioned Bush's rather spotty (to be kind about it) record in the National Guard.

Critic Accuses Media of Aiding U.S. War Propaganda

"The concept of a self-governing American republic has been crippled by this propaganda," MacArthur said. "The whole idea that we can govern ourselves and have an intelligent debate, free of cant, free of disinformation, I think it's dead."

[...]

Cynthia Kennard, assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, said the Bush administration has mastered the art of building favorable public images and shaping messages to suit its own interests.

"It's put the journalism profession in somewhat of a paralysis," said Kennard, a former CBS correspondent who covered the 1991 Gulf War. "This is not a particularly glowing moment for tough questions and enterprise reporting."

The Dixie Chicks & Civility

If anyone ever doubted it, we now know for a fact that in spite of the "global village" we are supposed to live in, we still more or less build our relationships on fault lines that threaten to shake and thunder at a moment's notice. We also know that virulent nationalism is alive and well. There is nothing wrong with nationalism except the fact that it is a prime breeding ground for hate and prejudice. Smaller countries can justify their "nationalism" as fear of being swallowed by bigger and mightier states. The bigger the country, the harder it is to cling to such notions. In America, for example, nationalism has a code: Patriotism.

U.S., U.K. Waged War on Iraq Because of Oil, Blair Adviser Says

Sir Jonathan Porritt, head of the Sustainable Development Commission, which advises Blair's government on ecological issues, said the prospect of winning access to Iraqi oil was ``a very large factor'' in the allies' decision to attack Iraq in March.

``I don't think the war would have happened if Iraq didn't have the second-largest oil reserves in the world,'' Porritt said in a Sky News television interview.

Intelligence Officers Challenge Bush by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

We write to express deep concern over the growing mistrust and cynicism with which many, including veteran intelligence professionals inside and outside our movement, regard the intelligence cited by you and your chief advisers to justify the war against Iraq. The controversy over intelligence on Iraq has deep roots, going back a decade. It came to a head over recent months as intelligence was said to be playing a key role in support of your administration's decision to make war on Iraq. And the controversy has now become acute, since you have been backed into the untenable position of assuming the former role of Saddam Hussein in refusing to cooperate with UN inspectors. (Chief UN nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei noted earlier this week, "We have years of experience and know every scientist worth interviewing.") The implications not only for US credibility abroad but also for the future of US intelligence are immense. They need to be addressed without delay.

Sheldon Wolin: Inverted Totalitarianism Rumsfeld taking no prisoners in Army power grab Meet the Enron of Workers' Rights

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer and the richest company in the world, may just be the new Enron.

Number of Black Children in Extreme Poverty Hits Record High: Tax Cuts for the Rich Will Erode Safety Nets for Children Even Further New Mexico Stands Against the Patriot Act Oil firm's work for terrorist sponsors challenged: Giving contracts to Halliburton questioned Media Monopolies Have Muzzled Dissent

If information is the oxygen of democracy, the United States has just been gassed, not by weapons of mass destruction but by a weapon of mass distraction.

Two Killed In New Iraq Demo Shooting Vilified weapons inspectors may have got it right: Condoleezza Rice has talked her way into a U-turn, writes Marian Wilkinson. Pictures from Fallujah, Iraq At Iraqi Oil Plant, Bitterness and Idleness: Workers' Frustrations Mount in South as Operations Remain Stalled U.S. Clashes with World Health Organization Controversy Over Whether UC Should Be in Bomb Business: It's not clear if university will bid on contract Extraordinary Reactor Leak Gets the Industry's Attention

WADSWORTH, Tex., April 30 -- Reactor experts around the country hope that there is something unique about Reactor No. 1 at the South Texas Project here. If not, the little crust of white powder that technicians found at the bottom of the reactor vessel, a discovery that has brought operations here to a halt for the indefinite future, could be the beginning of a broad problem for the nuclear power industry.

Bob Herbert: Teaching Kids a Lesson At The Turning Of The Tide