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US Terror War and Military
Matters
PENTAGON PREPS
FOR WAR IN SPACE (posted 2/22)
An Air Force report is giving what analysts call the most detailed picture
since the end of the Cold War of the
Pentagon's efforts to turn outer space into a battlefield.
Pakistan denies al-Qaeda chief trapped (posted 2/22)
PAKISTAN has denied any knowledge of al-Qaeda terror network leader
Osama bin Laden being cornered by US and British special forces in a
mountainous area in the northwest of the country.
Mystery over new hunt for Bin Laden (posted 2/22)
Pakistan is to mount new operations
on its border with Afghanistan aimed at cornering al-Qa'ida terrorists in
an area where Osama bin Laden may be hiding, Pakistani military and
intelligence sources said last night. News of the operation came as The
Sunday Express in London claimed that bin Ladenand a small group of
followers had been "boxed in" by US and British special forces in the
mountains on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
A Secret Hunt Unravels in Afghanistan: Mission to Capture or Kill al Qaeda
Leader Frustrated by Near Misses, Political Disputes (posted 2/22)
The seeds of the CIA's first formal plan to capture or kill Osama bin
Laden were contained in another urgent manhunt -- for Mir Aimal Kasi, the
Pakistani migrant who murdered two CIA employees while spraying rounds
from an assault rifle at cars idling before the entrance to the CIA's
Langley headquarters in 1993. For several years after the shooting, Kasi
remained a fugitive in the border areas straddling Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Iran. From its Langley offices, the CIA's Counterterrorist Center
asked the Islamabad station for help recruiting agents who might be able
to track Kasi down. Case officers signed up a group of Afghan tribal
fighters who had worked for the CIA during the 1980s guerrilla war against
Soviet occupying forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistani Offensive Aims at Driving Out Taliban and Qaeda (posted
2/22)
Pakistan is preparing for a major military offensive against Taliban
and Al Qaeda forces along its border with Afghanistan in the next several
weeks, Pakistani government officials said this weekend. The operation may
be the first act of a violent, and potentially pivotal, spring season
along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, according
to Western diplomats, Pakistani military experts and American military
officials.American military officials said they expected Taliban and Qaeda
fighters to try to disrupt national elections scheduled for June in
Afghanistan. American and Pakistani officials said they would step up
their efforts to gain control of the rugged border region, the area where
they believe the fugitive Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, is hiding.
CONTROLLING THE SPACE ARENA (posted 2/22)
Military experts agree that achieving and maintaining superiority in space
has become as important as control of the air during armed conflicts.
USAF Transformation Flight Plan Highlights Space Weapons
(posted 2/22)
For the first time in recent history, the U.S. Air Force has formally
published a list of planned space weapons programs, including both
anti-satellite weapons (ASATs) and terrestrial strike weapons. The “U.S.
Air Force Transformation Flight Plan,” dated November 2003 but only
recently posted on the Air Force web site (www.af.mil)
cites space as a major capability for enabling “transformation” of the
service from its Cold War past to a modern force capable of meeting the
threats of today and tomorrow.
Not a Magic Bullet (posted 2/22)
A highly classified field unit called Joint Task Force 121 has been
activated to coordinate the hunt for "high-value targets." Its
organization and structure have been streamlined to improve its ability to
concentrate on real-time hunter-killer missions against terrorist leaders
and cells. A three-star command is also being designed to oversee the most
clandestine elements of U.S. special operations, according to senior
officers close to the community. And everywhere, final preparations are
being made for the much-whispered-about "spring offensive" to kill or
capture Osama bin Laden along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. This is the
heart of the Bush administration's strategy for the war on terrorism —
centered in the Pentagon, and on the deadly magic of special operations.
"Hunt them down and kill them one at a time" is the strategy in a
nutshell.
Foreign Aid Budget Looks Like a Retread from the Cold War (posted
2/22)
If the "war on terror" is beginning to look increasingly like the cold
war, then President George W. Bush's fiscal year (FY) 2005 foreign-aid
request will not change that impression. While Bush is proposing to
increase funding for his two key anti-poverty initiatives, the Millennium
Challenge Account (MCA) and anti-AIDS money for African and Caribbean
countries, he is also cutting funds for other key humanitarian and
development accounts. At the same time, the president is asking Congress
to increase by more than one billion dollars military and security
assistance, particularly to key "front-line" states in the "war on
terror." Those two categories, which include anti-drug aid and
proliferation categories, would make up nearly one-third of all U.S.
foreign aid under Bush's request, roughly the same percentage of total
foreign aid when the cold war reached its height during the 1980s.
Hidden
defense costs add up to double trouble (posted 2/22)
To measure actual spending by the United States on defense, take the
federal budget number for the Pentagon and double it. That's the "rule of
thumb" advocated by economic historian Robert Higgs.
The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy (posted 2/22)
The fall of the Soviet Union handed the U.S. a unique opportunity, as the
surviving superpower, to lead the world toward a period of greater
cooperation and conflict resolution through the use of diplomacy, global
organization, and international law. This great opportunity is being
squandered, as the world becomes a more dangerous place. Military force is
now looming larger than ever as the main instrument and organizing
principle of U.S. foreign policy. In our new national security doctrine,
in the shape of our federal budget, and in the missions of the agencies
the budget funds, our government is being reshaped to weaken controls on
its use of force and further incline our country toward war.
The Patriot Flawed? (posted 2/22)
In the Pentagon's multi-billion dollar arsenal of weapons, one weapon
the government has already spent more than $6 billion on has not only had
trouble doing what it was designed to do --bring down enemy missiles -- it
also does something it was not designed to do. That weapon is the Patriot
missile system. And the thing it’s not supposed to do is bring down
friendly aircraft.
9/11 Related News
C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11 (posted 2/24)
American investigators were given the first name and telephone number of
one of the Sept. 11 hijackers two and a half years before the attacks on
New York and Washington, but the United States appears to have failed to
pursue the lead aggressively, American and German officials say.
Iraq War and Occupation
Bush 'wanted war in 2002' (posted 2/24)
George Bush set the US on the path to war in Iraq with a formal order
signed in February 2002, more than a year before the invasion, according
to a book published yesterday. The revelation casts doubt on the public
insistence by US and British officials throughout 2002 that no decision
had been taken to go to war, pending negotiations at the United Nations.
Rumsfeld's War is by Rowan Scarborough, the Pentagon correspondent for the
conservative Washington Times newspaper, which is known for its contacts
in the defence department's civilian leadership.
Hans Blix: US
'created' weapons facts
(posted 2/24)
The United States and Britain "created facts where there were no facts" in
the run-up to last year's invasion of Iraq, the former head of the United
Nations' weapons inspections team in the country said in an interview
published on Tuesday.
Gunned
down with abandon by Robert Fisk (posted 2/24)
(The New Nation) Running the gauntlet of small arms fire and
rocket-propelled grenades after check-in at Baghdad airportBaghdad, Iraq
--I was in the police station in the town of Fallujah when I realised the
extent of the schizophrenia. Captain Christopher Cirino of the 82nd
Airborne was trying to explain to me the nature of the attacks so
regularly carried out against American forces in the Sunni Muslim Iraqi
town. His men were billeted in a former presidential rest home down the
road--"Dreamland", the Americans call it--but this was not the extent of
his soldiers' disorientation. "The men we are being attacked by," he said,
"are Syrian-trained terrorists and local freedom fighters." Come again?
"Freedom fighters." But that's what Captain Cirino called them--and
rightly so. Here's the reason. All American soldiers are supposed to
believe--indeed have to believe, along with their President and his
Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld--that Osama bin Laden's "al-Qa'ida"
guerrillas, pouring over Iraq's borders from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia
(note how those close allies and neighbours of Iraq, Kuwait and Turkey are
always left out of the equation), are assaulting United States forces as
part of the "war on terror". Special forces soldiers are now being told by
their officers that the "war on terror" has been transferred from America
to Iraq, as if in some miraculous way, 11 September 2001 is now Iraq 2003.
Note too how the Americans always leave the Iraqis out of the culpability
bracket--unless they can be described as "Baath party remnants",
"diehards" or "deadenders" by the US proconsul, Paul Bremer.
The Business Of Intelligence: Chalabi Still Cashing In
(posted 2/24)
Ahmad Chalabi, the former exile leader of the Iraqi National Congress, is
still on the Pentagon’s payroll, according to Knight-Ridder. Chalabi’s
so-called intelligence service, the "Intelligence Collection Program," is
getting $3-4 million a year from the Pentagon. (Knight-Ridder gently
points out: “It. . . suggests some in the administration are intent on
securing a key role for Chalabi in Iraq’s political future.”)
A joint British and American spying operation at the United Nations
scuppered a last-ditch initiative to avert the invasion of Iraq
(posted 2/24)
Senior UN diplomats from Mexico and Chile provided new evidence last week
that their missions were spied on, in direct contravention of
international law. The former Mexican ambassador to the UN, Adolfo Aguilar
Zinser, told The Observer that US officials intervened last March, just
days before the war against Saddam was launched, to halt secret
negotiations for a compromise resolution to give weapons inspectors more
time to complete their work.
You Call This
Liberation? Why No Democracy in Iraq? (posted (2/24)
It's almost a year since the Iraq war began, and now that the "official"
reasons for the invasion--Iraq's storied stockpiles of weapons, the
imaginary ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden--lie in
disrepute, the Bush administration's new tack is to say the war was really
about something else all along: democracy. The trouble is, the Iraqi
people seem more interested in democracy than President Bush. Just three
weeks ago, 10,000 Iraqis marched on the U.S.-installed governing council
in Nasiriyah, just south of Baghdad, demanding that the U.S. appointees
resign and that elections be immediately held.
Is the
Army sandbagging its anticipated ‘suicide report’? (posted 2/24)
Military members and their families are asking the same question: Where is
the Army’s so-called suicide report? It’s the work of the 12-member Mental
Health Advisory Team, commissioned by the top generals in charge of the
Iraq war after a string of battlefield suicides. It was initially due out
last Thanksgiving. Then it was supposed to be released in early February.
Now, there’s talk that it’s been shelved indefinitely.
Report says military distorts war deaths (posted 2/24)
By refusing to make public its estimates of civilian casualties in Iraq
and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has undercut international support for the
US campaigns in those countries and has made the postwar stabilization of
the two societies more difficult, according to an independent report to be
released today that accuses the Pentagon of appearing indifferent to the
civilian cost of war.
Soldier for
the Truth: Exposing Bush’s talking-points war
(posted 2/24)
After two decades in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Karen
Kwiatkowski, now 43, knew her career as a regional analyst was coming to
an end when — in the months leading up to the war in Iraq — she felt she
was being “propagandized” by her own bosses.
Absent Without Regrets: A Soldier's Story (posted 2/24)
On New Year’s Eve, Jeremy Hinzman sat in a McDonald’s on N.C. 401 in
Fuquay-Varina explaining his precarious situation. On December 20th,
Hinzman, a U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Bragg, got the news he
had dreaded. His unit--the 504th Brigade, 2nd Battalion--would be shipping
out to Iraq shortly after the new year for an indefinite deployment in the
war on terrorism. Last year, Hinzman, 25, the father of a 1-year-old son,
was deployed for more than eight months to Afghanistan. When he left,
Hinzman’s son, Liam, was just 7 months old. When Hinzman returned, Liam
was walking and didn’t remember his father. While he didn’t see any combat
in that first deployment, Hinzman said he had a bad feeling about going to
Iraq. In Iraq, Hinzman, said he felt like he would have to do some things
he’d regret. During Christmas leave, Hinzman, who is a member of the
Fayetteville Friends Meeting, discussed his options with his wife, Nga
Nguyen. He could go to Iraq--an option both he and Nguyen rejected. He
could refuse the deployment order and face court martial and a likely
prison term. Or he could follow a plan of action that thousands of young
men like himself had taken during the Vietnam War--he could flee to
Canada.
LIES ABOUT
WAR, ECONOMICS, SCIENCE: PRESIDENT'S LIES ARE NEVER-ENDING
(posted 2/24)
The house of cards in the House of Bush is toppling. The whole
administration is in serious disarray and everywhere you turn there is
evidence that the once invincible and slick political operation is
unraveling.
Officers: Terrorists Chief Threat in Iraq (posted 2/24)
The chief threat to stability in Iraq
is evolving away from pro-Saddam guerrillas to suicide bombers and other
terrorists, U.S. military officers told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
on Monday.
Reuters Book Tells Untold Tales From Iraq
(posted 2/24)
In recent months, we've seen many articles and books about journalists'
experiences covering the Iraq war, the vast majority of them emerging from
the "embed" experience. Now Reuters has provided a more wide-ranging
collection of stories, in a new book, "Under Fire: Untold Stories from the
Front Line of the Iraq War"
Dying of Neglect: The State of Iraq's Children's Hospitals (posted
2/22)
In Iraq's hospitals, children are
dying because of shockingly poor sanitation and a shortage of medical
equipment. In Baghdad's premier children's hospital, Al-Iskan, sewage
drips from the roof of the premature babies' ward, leaking from waste
pipes above. In the leukaemia ward, the lavatories overflow at times,
spreading filthy water across the floor that carries potentially lethal
infection. Rubbish is piled on the stairs and in the corridors: old broken
bits of machinery, discarded toilet cisterns, babies' cots filled with
mountains of unwanted paperwork. The fire escape is blocked with discarded
razor wire. Nearby lie blankets still black with the blood of Iraqi
soldiers wounded during the war - for months, they must have been fetid
breeding grounds for disease. This is the reality of life in Iraq under
American occupation. Ten months after the fall of Saddam, the invasion
that was supposed to have transformed the lives of ordinary Iraqis has
done little for the children in Al-Iskan Hospital.
The
terrible human cost of Bush and Blair's military adventure: 10,000
civilian deaths (posted 2/22)
More than 10,000 civilians, many of them women and children, have been
killed so far in the Iraqi conflict, The Independent on Sunday has learnt,
making the continuing conflict the most deadly war for non-combatants
waged by the West since the Vietnam war more than 30 years ago.
WHO
‘suppressed’ scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq
(posted 2/22)
An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq’s civilian
population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU)
weapons has been kept secret. The study by three leading radiation
scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after
breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically
toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health
Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock,
as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately
suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.
Pentagon distorted Iraqi casualty issue, says new report (posted
2/22)
Weapons of mass destruction is not the only Iraq war-related subject
clouded by misinformation. According to a new study, the Pentagon
conducted "perception management" campaigns during the Afghan and Iraq
wars that also obstructed the public's awareness of civilian casualties.
These activities included Pentagon efforts to "spin" casualty stories in
ways that minimized their significance or cast unreasonable doubt on their
reliability. Efforts also may have included the placement of misleading
news stories. Such activities are "antithetical to well-informed public
debate and to sensible policy-making," according to the report's author,
Carl Conetta.
What Iraqis
receive for their losses (posted 2/22)
Anwar Kadhum, her husband, and four children were
driving past an unmarked American checkpoint one August evening when
soldiers without warning opened fire. "Don't shoot. We are family," Anwar
recalls her husband yelling. Twenty-eight bullets riddled the car,
instantly killing Anwar's 20-year old son and her 18-year old daughter.
Her husband and 8-year old daughter died an hour later in a local
hospital. US military officials gave Anwar $11,000 in "sympathy pay". So
far, the US military has paid out $2.2 million to Iraqi civilians in
response to a flood of claims of wrongful or negligent injuries or death
at the hands of US forces. In total, the military has received 15,000
claims, 5,600 of which it has accepted.
Occupation, Inc. (posted 2/22)
War profiteers in Iraq pursue quick fixes and high profits by
overcharging for shoddy work, while Iraqis protest that they could do the
work better and cheaper
Snub to ayatollah as Bremer puts Iraq poll on hold (posted 2/22)
Paul Bremer, America's administrator in Iraq, has ruled out holding full
elections for at least a year, snubbing the country's most powerful
religious leader who has called for direct polls as soon as possible.
End election 'stalling,' Shiite leader tells U.S. (posted 2/22)
A leading Shiite member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council today
demanded no more "stalling" on arranging for elections for a new
government. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb near the northern city of Mosul
killed an Iraqi, while another bomb south of Fallujah exploded as a U.S.
Army convoy passed, witnesses said. There was no report from the U.S.
command on casualties.
Al Qaeda Rebuffs Iraqi Terror Group, U.S. Officials Say (posted
2/22)
The most active terrorist network inside Iraq appears to be operating
mostly apart from Al Qaeda, senior American officials say. Most
significantly, the officials said, American intelligence had picked up
signs that Qaeda members outside Iraq had refused a request from the
group, Ansar al-Islam, for help in attacking Shiite Muslims in Iraq. The
request was made by Ansar's leader, a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and
intercepted by the United States last month. The apparent refusal is being
described by some American intelligence analysts as an indication of a
significant divide between the groups. Since before the American invasion,
Bush administration officials have portrayed Al Qaeda and Ansar as close
associates and used the links as part of their justification for war
against Saddam Hussein's government.
C.I.A. Admits It Didn't Give Weapon Data to the U.N. (posted 2/22)
The Central Intelligence Agency has
acknowledged that it did not provide the United Nations with information
about 21 of the 105 sites in Iraq singled out by American intelligence
before the war as the most highly suspected of housing illicit weapons.
The acknowledgment, in a Jan. 20 letter to Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of
Michigan, contradicts public statements before the war by top Bush
administration officials.
Whistleblower calls for new inquiry into Iraq `intelligence’
(posted 2/22)
“A journalist recently asked me whether the average Australian cared any
more about the unravelling case for war”, Andrew Wilkie told a Stop the
War Coalition public meeting on February 15. “It’s true that some have
taken PM John Howard’s advice and moved on. But others are affected by the
scale of deception, which is so big that it’s almost incomprehensible —
invading a sovereign state for reasons that have been totally
discredited.” A former Office of National Assessments (ONA) intelligence
analyst, Wilkie resigned in protest at the Howard government’s lies over
the reasons for invading Iraq. Since then, he has become a passionate
campaigner for truth in government.
US Still
Paying Millions to Group that Provided False Iraqi Intel (posted
2/22)
The Department of Defense is
continuing to pay millions of dollars for information from the former
Iraqi opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and
fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for war. The
Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this year for the
Information Collection Program of the Iraqi National Congress, or INC, led
by Ahmed Chalabi, said two senior U.S. officials and a U.S. defense
official.
Uncle Sap Suckered Again Chalabi to US: You've been scammed!
(posted 2/22)
Of all the expressions of anti-Americanism
reported since the beginning of the Iraq war, none drips with more
contempt for the red-white-and-blue than the recent remarks of Ahmad
Chalabi, the neocons' man in Iraq. In regard to the complete absence of
any "weapons of mass destruction," which Chalabi and Co. insisted were in
Saddam's possession, the British Telegraph quotes him as saying: "We are
heroes in error…. As far as we're concerned we've been entirely
successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad.
What was said before is not important. The Bush administration is looking
for a scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants." So we
lied. So shoot us. Who cares what the Americans, say, anyway: they're
stuck in Iraq, and there's no backing out of it now.
UK Soldiers accused of another fatal beating: 2nd 'heart attack' claim
dismissed by victim's family
(posted 2/22)
The family of an Iraqi headmaster who was seen being beaten with a rifle
butt by British soldiers before they took him away, was told he had died
in custody of a "sudden heart attack". But his son, who was also arrested,
told The Independent on Sunday yesterday that he heard his father
screaming as he was beaten, and the family says that the headmaster's body
was bruised and covered in blood.
'NY Times' Fails to Acknowledge Its Role in WMD Hype
(posted 2/22)
The NY Times offered a sharp editorial Tuesday critiquing the indisputable
role of the White House in distorting the intelligence on Iraq and weapons
of mass destruction, and in stampeding Congressional and public opinion by
spinning worst-case scenarios -- "inflating them drastically" -- to
justify an immediate invasion last March to repel an alleged imminent
threat to the United States. However, strangely missing from the paper of
record was any indictment of the national press, starting with the Times,
for its obvious role in gravely misleading the institutions of government
and the public when hyping the WMD threat.
Reservists told to shoulder greater burdens in Iraq
(posted 2/22)
A massive rotation of U.S. forces is now under way in Iraq. One of the
goals of this movement is to bring home troops who have been "in country"
for almost a year now. Another is to reduce the overall number of U.S.
troops. But there is one aspect of the U.S. military contingent in Iraq
that will not decrease but rather will grow once the rotations are
completed, and that is the role played by National Guardsmen and
reservists.
Is this the face of the man who gave Blair the cue for 45-minute WMD
claim? (posted 2/22)
Former Iraqi general thought to be source of controversial intelligence.
Nizar al-Khazraji, in his mid-60s, was the most senior military man to
defect from the Iraqi regime. A Sunni Muslim former combat general with
considerable support among the officer corps, he was considered by the CIA
to be a potential replacement for Saddam if the army staged a coup.
Stunned Kuwait demands clarification from Iraq over new land claims
(posted 2/22)
Kuwait, invaded and occupied by Saddam Hussein’s army, said on Sunday it
was amazed and concerned by new territorial claims from Iraq and demanded
clarification from the interim Governing Council over statements
attributed to its current president. “The State of Kuwait followed up the
statement with concern and amazement. We are awaiting clarification from
the interim Governing Council of brotherly Iraq about the truth of the
statement and its aim,” the state-run KUNA news agency quoted an official
source as saying. It was Kuwait’s first official reaction to the council’s
president who said on Saturday that Baghdad could consider territorial
claims over neighbouring Jordan and Kuwait in the future.
Iraq may claim Jordan, Kuwait (posted 2/22)
The president of Iraq's interim Governing Council has said Baghdad would
consider territorial claims over neighbouring Jordan and Kuwait in the
future.
Chaos No Friend of the Court (posted 2/22)
As Iraq struggles through a severe crime wave, the courthouse in Karkh, a
district in the capital, is a reminder that the criminal justice system is
not ready for prime time. Overwhelmed investigators are stymied by the
onslaught of violent offenses. The quality of the investigations is so
poor that judges — who also operate as juries here — convict only 40% of
the accused.
Case set to be dropped against GCHQ mole who blew whistle on US bugging
(posted 2/22)
The
prosecution is preparing to abandon the case against a former GCHQ
employee charged with leaking information about a "dirty tricks" spying
operation before the invasion of Iraq, the Guardian has learned. Katharine
Gun, 29, is due to appear at the Old Bailey next week where she has said
she will plead not guilty to breaking the Official Secrets Act. She has
said her alleged disclosures exposed serious wrongdoing by the US and
could have helped to prevent the deaths of Iraqis and British forces in an
"illegal war".
Bush Iraq
Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other" (posted 2/22)
In a series of statements from top Administration officials including
Condi Rice, Colin Powell and Paul Bremer,( as well as their counterparts
in the Military) we have heard repeatedly that the US plans to hand over
more responsibility to the Iraqis. The most recent of these came from the
supreme commander of the armed forces in Iraq, General John Abizaid.
Abizaid said last week, "We have to take risk to a certain extent, by
taking our hands off the controls. It's their country, it's their future."
His comments came on the heels of an announcement that the Military is
planning to remove its troop s from within Baghdad to eight bases beyond
the city. There they will create a military cordon around the entire city
to stop the flow of insurgents and terrorists from entering. The real
meaning of the General's remarks is entirely clear and much more sinister.
The Bush Administration has decided to ignore its responsibilities to
provide security for the Iraqi people; a responsibility that is required
of an occupying force under the Geneva Conventions. Instead, the military
will situate itself in a way that it can secure the oil fields from
disruptive elements, but not put American lives at risk. Abizaid's
comments are the "kiss of death" for Iraqis who have already seen a steady
increase in attacks and suicide bombings. Now, that the US expressing its
intention to withdraw, the potential for factional fighting and even civil
war looks much more likely.
Rent-a-resistance (posted 2/22)
Who's behind the suicide bombings, roadside attacks and prison breakouts
in postwar Iraq? Whoever you want it to be, by the look of things. No
Iraqi or Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the sporadic
attacks, but there is no shortage of Western commentators, coalition
officials and anti-war activists claiming responsibility on behalf of
various groups and interests and reading their own interpretations into
the bloody assaults. Many in the West are effectively marshalling the
nameless, nihilistic terrorists/resisters like a phantom army, to back up
their own views of the war, the occupation and what should happen next.
Dear Mr.
Prosecutor (posted 2/22)
If the Justice Department wants to know who leaked Valerie Plame's
identity, all they have to do is talk to a longtime Republican operative
named Clifford May.
President Bush's
New Iraq Commission Won't Be Investigating the Key WMD Issue: How the
Executive Order Fatally Limits Their Agenda (posted 2/22)
(By John Dean) Bush's magic appears to have worked again. His commission
is a sham, and simply ignores the very reason he was pressured to create
it. Yet it seems no one is complaining -- or at least, no one who could
force the commencement of an legitimate investigation.
Start-up Company With Connections: US gives $400M in work to contractor
with ties to Pentagon favorite on Iraqi Governing Council (posted
2/22)
U.S. authorities in Iraq have awarded more than $400 million in contracts
to a start-up company that has extensive family and, according to court
documents, business ties to Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon favorite on the
Iraqi Governing Council. The most recent contract, for $327 million to
supply equipment for the Iraqi Armed Forces, was awarded last month and
drew an immediate challenge from a losing contester, who said the winning
bid was so low that it questions the "credibility" of that bid.
Not a shred of evidence (posted 2/22)
Did Saddam Hussein really use industrial shredders to kill his enemies?
Brendan O’Neill is not persuaded that he did.
The insurgency threat in southern Iraq (posted 2/22)
Jane's assesses the insurgent threat in southern Iraq with an analysis of
the weapons and tactics available to the former regime security forces and
tribal militias in the region.
Special forces quitting to cash in on Iraq (posted 2/22)
BRITAIN’S elite special forces are facing an imminent crisis because
record numbers of men are asking to leave their units early, lured by high
wages on offer in a growing security industry in Iraq.
Economics (US and International)
Zero Inflation and the Neoliberal Agenda (posted 2/24)
If asked to choose between full employment and constant purchasing power
of existing money, most ordinary people would lean towards job creation.
That's because almost all of us are dependent on employment for our
income. Not so for people with lots of money. For them maintaining the
"value" of what they've got is paramount. That's because capital (piles of
cash) is the source of their income. It's no surprise then, in this era
when the self-interest of the rich and powerful trump all else, that
central banks opt to limit inflation at the expense of job creation. What
is surprising, however, is how little the left has paid attention to this
key plank of neoliberalism. As opponents of neoliberal ideology we
denounce "free" trade (investment) agreements, cuts to social programs,
corporate deregulation, privatization of public institutions/space and the
liberalization of labour markets. Less often, however, do we challenge the
no inflation at all costs monetary policy. In fact, the right has almost
total control over monetary policy on both an ideological plane and, in
most countries, tangibly through central bank independence from political
control.
Encouraging Job Flight & Benefit Reductions (posted 2/24)
With millions out of work and U.S. wages stagnating, the Bush
Administration has pushed economic policies that are making the situation
worse. From touting offshore outsourcing, to encouraging companies to
moving jobs to China, the White House has systematically put the interests
of working families behind the interests of its largest corporate
benefactors.
Poll: Free trade loses backers (posted 2/24)
High-income Americans have lost much of their enthusiasm for free trade as
they perceive their own jobs threatened by white-collar workers in China,
India and other countries, according to data from a survey of views on
trade.
Instead of Admitting Economic Truth, Bush Resorts to Statistical
Manipulation
(posted 2/24)
President Bush, attempting to obscure his record as the worst economic
steward since Herbert Hoover, has become so desperate that he is exploring
ways to manipulate statistics. Just days after Bush reneged on his pledge
to create 2.6 million jobs and said with a straight face that "5.6%
unemployment is a good national number," the New York Times uncovered a
White House report showing that the president is considering
re-classifying low-paid fast food jobs as "manufacturing jobs" as a way to
hide the massive manufacturing job losses that have occurred during his
term.
Two Tales of American Jobs (posted 2/24)
FOR more than a year, Bush administration officials and Republicans in
Congress have seized on an intriguing statistical puzzle to suggest that
job creation in the United States may be much stronger than it appears at
first glance. The puzzle is the enormous divergence between the two
surveys that are used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to measure job
creation and unemployment. The payroll survey, which is based on a monthly
poll of 400,000 employers, shows a loss of more than two million jobs
since 2001. The household survey, based on questions posed to people in
50,000 households, shows an increase of more than 500,000 jobs over the
same period.
A
Precarious Existence: The Fate of Billions? (posted 2/22)
The number of people living a precarious existence has been increasing in
many countries of the world, with hunger all too widespread. There are
approximately 6 billion people in the world, with about half living in
cities and half in rural areas. Between the poor living in cities and
those in rural areas, a vast number of the world’s people live under very
harsh conditions. It is estimated that that about half of the world’s
population lives on less than two dollars per day, with most of those
either chronically malnourished or continually concerned with where their
next meal will come from. Many have no access to clean water (1 billion),
electricity (2 billion), or sanitation (2.5 billion).
The Bush
Budget More for the military and more deficits (posted 2/22)
There are few surprises in President Bush’s 2005 budget. The main contours
follow the same pattern as his past budgets, with more tax cuts oriented
toward the wealthy and increased spending on the military and homeland
security. The result of this pattern of taxation and spending is large
deficits that will prove unsustainable in the not-very-distant future.
Bush budget clearly tailored for election year (posted 2/22)
The centerpiece of the Bush Administration's fiscal policy is a pledge to
cut the budget deficit in half by 2009. To make this a serious
possibility, the budget would need a politically unappetizing combination
of tax increases and spending cuts. At the same time, election-year
politics are driving many of the budget decisions. The result is a pattern
in the budget numbers where the appearance of increases is contradicted by
the reality of the long-term budget averages. In particular, the
administration asks for immediate increases in politically sensitive
spending, while at the same time reducing subsequent spending that
undercuts its commitments for 2005.
White House backs off jobs forecast (posted 2/22)
The Bush administration backed down Wednesday from its own forecast that
U.S. employers would add 2.6 million jobs this year, a shift that gave
Democrats new ammunition in the battle over the economy.
Job Loss, Rising Inequalities Dog Bush Administration (posted
2/22)
The wealth gap between the rich and poor and the
sluggish job market in the United State are looming as major problems for
President George W. Bush as he campaigns for another term in office,
analysts here say. According to the latest figures, the wealth gap has
been growing over the past decade, despite a boom in housing and the stock
market, while the job situation, another important economic indicator, has
also worsened.
Poverty and Inequality in the Global Economy (posted 2/22)
Capitalism is hundreds of years old and today dominates nearly every part
of the globe. Its champions claim that it is the greatest engine of
production growth the world has ever seen. They also argue that it is
unique in its ability to raise the standard of living of every person on
earth. Because of capitalism, we are all “slouching toward utopia,”—the
phrase coined by University of California at Berkeley economist J.
Bradford DeLong—slowly but surely heading toward a world in which everyone
will have achieved a U.S.-style middle-class life. Given the long tenure
of capitalism and the unceasing contentions of its adherents, it seems
fair to ask if it is true that we are “slouching toward utopia.” Let us
look at three things: the extent of poverty and inequality in the richest
capitalist economy—that of the United States; the extent of poverty and
inequality in the poor countries of the world; and the gap between those
countries at the top of the capitalist heap and those at the bottom.
GLOBALIZATION: A Positive Force or Source of World's Woes? (posted
2/22)
One of the most provocative interpretations of globalisation comes
from former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who has said the
process "is really another name for the dominant role of the United
States."
Striking LA grocery worker speaks out: "Hit them where it hurts"
(posted 2/22)
Labor
movement criticism of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
leadership in the strike and lockout of 70,000 grocery workers in Southern
California has spilled over into the media. AFL-CIO officials, who in late
January began coordinating strategy for the struggle, told reporters that
they were surprised when the UFCW made a sudden offer to the three
chains--Safeway Inc., Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.--for binding
arbitration. It was the latest in a series of erratic steps by the UFCW,
which first told the AFL-CIO to hold off when the struggle began in
October, and pulled picket lines at the Kroger-owned chain, Ralphs. The
struggle got a boost in November when the Teamsters honored picket
lines--but the lines were pulled a month later. The struggle has won
widespread support from the LA labor movement, with several big marches
and a dockworkers’ solidarity rally that shut the ports for a night. Yet
as the battle entered its fourth month, picket lines have dwindled, and
many workers are demoralized by the union’s passive strategy.
Injustice For All (posted 2/22)
The strike by 70,000 grocery workers in Southern California is a watershed
moment, not just for the union members who walked out, but for the
standard of living of all Americans. If workers lose the strike, it would
signal the beginning of a final dismantling of employer-based health care
in every corner of our country.
Rice Imperialism: The Agribusiness Threat to Third World Rice Production
(posted 2/22)
Food is an essential human need. All cultures involved in settled
agriculture have produced food and food production is basic to all
culture. The seed used in agricultural cultivation is the product of
thousands of years of cultural development. Most of this development of
food crops over the millennia has occurred in regions that are now in the
periphery of the capitalist world economy. In recent years, however,
agribusiness corporations located in the rich nations of the core have
attempted to patent various forms of food crops, such as basic grains, and
then to monopolize these patented grain varieties, creating dependence on
seeds of the agribusiness corporations. When such practices involve, as in
recent years, a crop such as rice on which much of the world’s population
depends for subsistence, the implications are enormous and potentially
disastrous for the world’s poor.
After
Neoliberalism: Empire, Social Democracy, or Socialism? (posted
2/22)
Since the early 1980s, the leading capitalist
states in North America and Western Europe have pursued neoliberal
policies and institutional changes. The peripheral and semiperipheral
states in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, under the
pressure of the leading capitalist states (primarily the United States)
and international monetary institutions (IMF and the World Bank), have
adopted “structural adjustments,” “shock therapies,” or “economic
reforms,” to restructure their economies in accordance with the
requirements of neoliberal economics. A neoliberal regime typically
includes monetarist policies to lower inflation and maintain fiscal
balance (often achieved by reducing public expenditures and raising the
interest rate), “flexible” labor markets (meaning removing labor market
regulations and cutting social welfare), trade and financial
liberalization, and privatization. These policies are an attack by the
global ruling elites (primarily finance capital of the leading capitalist
states) on the working people of the world. Under neoliberal capitalism,
decades of social progress and developmental efforts have been reversed.
Global inequality in income and wealth has reached unprecedented levels.
In much of the world, working people have suffered pauperization. Entire
countries have been reduced to misery.
The
Current Account Deficit and the Budget Deficit: Is $600 Billion Missing?
(posted 2/22)
This paper examines the impact of the persistence of a large current
account deficit on the budget deficit. The U.S. is currently running a
current account deficit of approximately $550 billion or 5 percent of GDP.
This deficit corresponds to a transfer of $550 billion in U.S. financial
assets, such as stocks, bonds, and short-term deposits, to foreign wealth
holders. The interest, dividends, and capital gains earned on these assets
in subsequent years will accrue to foreigners and will therefore largely
escape domestic taxation.
Gouging the Poor (posted 2/22)
There's been a lot of whining about health care recently:
the shocking cost of insurance, the mounting reluctance of employers to
share that cost, the challenge--should you be so lucky as to have
insurance--of finding a doctor your insurance company will deign to
reimburse, and so forth. But let's look at the glass half full for a
change. Despite the growing misfit between health care costs and personal
incomes, it is not yet illegal to be sick. Not quite yet, anyway, though
the trend is clear: Hospitals are increasingly resorting to brass knuckle
tactics to collect overdue bills from indigent patients.
Elections 2004
In Season of Campaigns, Halliburton Joins In (posted 2/24)
The chief executive of the Halliburton Company, Dave Lesar, never imagined
that he would be the star of his own television commercial. But there he
is, on the airwaves in Washington and Houston, assuring viewers that his
company has billions of dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq and feed
American troops "because of what we know, not who we know."
Kerry's
China Connection: Selling Out Democracy (posted 2/24)
The world's struggling democracies and democratic activists should not be
terribly sanguine about the prospects of a John Kerry presidency. Not if
Kerry is serious--and the man aptly described as resembling a dead Abraham
Lincoln is nothing if not serious--in his thinking about Taiwan. In a
January debate among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Kerry said that
Taiwan should adhere to a "ne-country, two systems" approach in its
relations with the People's Republic of China.
Tangled Up
in Red and Blue: Bush may trail in national polls, but beware the
electoral college (posted 2/24)
Among my own acquaintances, at least, I've noticed a new polarity lately
between folks who still presume Bush cannot lose and others who think he's
already beaten. They're both wrong--but the latter more palpably. Look
past the national poll numbers that put Kerry 6-10 points ahead. On a
state-by-state basis, W is still in a surprisingly strong position despite
the many hits he's taken recently.
Dems Call
Ralph: But Is Nader's Raid on the Race Really So Bad? (posted
2/24)
If the DLC wonks, unimaginative leftists, and others devoted to the "Beat
Bush" agenda can manage to stop gnashing their teeth over Ralph Nader's
"betrayal" long enough to really think about it, they might just find that
the consumer advocate's candidacy can help, rather than hurt, their cause.
Nader at the National Press Club (posted
2/24)
Text of a news conference with Ralph Nader at the National Press Club in
Washington, D.C.
The Merchants of
Fear: Smearing Nader (posted 2/24)
"The worst Democrat is better than the best Republican." That's what my
grandfather, a union man, used to say and it's still considered political
bedrock in my family. I, on the other hand . . .
Candidate Ralph
Nader, Meet Candidate Dennis Kucinich (posted 2/24)
To hear Ralph Nader dismiss the Democratic field, as he did in announcing
his presidential candidacy Sunday, you'd think he'd never heard of Dennis
Kucinich.
Canadian film may put Nader on radar (posted
2/24)
Ralph Nader doesn't need the hundreds of millions that his Democratic and
Republican rivals for the White House have in their campaign war chests.
Thanks to a Canadian documentary, the independent candidate for the U.S.
presidency has political advertising for his message beyond what he could
ever have planned.
Memphian Bob Mintz and flying mate Paul Bishop looked forward to greeting
George W. Bush at Dannelly ANG base in 1972 – but never saw him
(posted 2/24)
Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George W. Bush
allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to
expect him late in that year and were on the lookout for him. He never
showed, however; of that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.
Kerry under
fire over missiles contract
John Kerry, the Democratic
presidential front-runner, pressured Congress and the Pentagon to fund a
missile system on behalf of a San Diego contractor who, years later,
pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to the senator and other
politicians, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Purging the
Neo-Cons: Will Kerry Make a Stand? (posted 2/22)
(by Wayne Madsen) From my vantage point in the nation's
capital, I am increasingly becoming confident that the Democrats will oust
the Bush-Cheney regime from power this coming November. However, just
winning the election is only the first step for the Democrats. There must
be a thorough house cleaning, a purge, if you will, during the transition
of power and after the January 20, 2005 inauguration. Of course, the
Democrats will take over John Ashcroft's Justice Department and Tom
Ridge's huge Homeland Security bureaucracy, both of which have become
tremendous threats to our constitutional democracy. But just assuming
control over Cabinet departments and other Federal agencies will not
eliminate the scourge of the neo-con apparatchiks who have, for the past
four years, cast an extremely unpleasant stench over America's body
politic. A total purge of the right-wing neo-con political opportunists,
along with their hodgepodge fascist/Trotskyite/neo-imperialist political
philosophy, must be one of the first goals of a new Democratic
administration.
Corporate Ally Helped Few Workers in Kerry's State (posted 2/22)
Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry said last week that he was fighting for
jobs in his home state when he wrote 28 letters in support of a San Diego
defense contractor and campaign contributor. But only six jobs in
Massachusetts were ever at stake, the engineer in charge of the project
said Saturday.
'It's
Time to Get Over It': Kerry Tells Antiwar Movement to Move On
(posted 2/22)
The leading mouthpiece for the New Democrats' radical interventionist
program could be our next president. John Kerry, the frontrunner in the
quest for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, has been promoting
a foreign policy perspective called "progressive internationalism." It's a
concept concocted by establishment Democrats seeking to convince potential
backers in the corporate and political world that, if installed in the
White House, they would preserve U.S. power and influence around the
world, but in a kinder, gentler fashion than the current administration.
Spinelessness
and Credulity: Why is Kerry Getting a Pass? (posted 2/22)
I was listening to excerpts from a debate on "Democracy Now" the other
day. On one side was Mark Green, Michael Bloomberg's opponent in the
recent mayoral race, and John Kerry's New York campaign chair. On the
other were Robert Scheer, the Los Angeles Times columnist, and his son
Christopher who writes for AlterNet. The Scheers' argued that Kerry should
call for Bush's impeachment for lies he told in the run-up to war. Green
pretty much labeled such an approach "wack-job" politics, and said it
would result in Bush regaining the White House. In defending Kerry, Green
painted him as the near twin of Ted Kennedy, and praised the stalwart
service that both had given to Democratic causes. Both sides' apparently
agreed that Kerry was not culpable in voting for war since, like everyone
else, he was deceived by the Bush administration. The comparison of Kerry
to Kennedy made this particularly disquieting. As you may recall, Ted
Kennedy did not vote to authorize Bush to attack Iraq. In Kennedy's own
words, "[Bush] did not make a persuasive case that the threat [from Iraq]
is imminent and that war is the only alternative." What?
On John
Kerry And the Marginalization of Emboldened Democrats (posted
2/22)
We now face another war and attempted occupation in Iraq. Initially, in
desperation for a viable candidate there seems to be a temptation to
rationalize Kerry’s vote authorizing the Iraq War as a passing “act of
commonplace political cowardice,” or just “that he was so easily conned”
by Bush’s lies, and that he is “good” on Iraq now.
Syria and the Double Standards of John Kerry (posted 2/22)
It would take
quite an effort to find someone willing to defend Syria’s government as a
beacon of openness and freedom. Syria’s inhabitants are ruled by a
dictatorship that maintains a tight grip on most aspects of public life.
Aside from the viciousness of its internal police agencies, Syria’s
military continues to maintain a large and suffocating presence in
neighboring Lebanon. And yet, there are many people who are willing to
defend similar conduct by other nations in the region. Condemning Syria
for its appalling domestic and foreign policies, while letting the
governments of Israel and the United States off the hook for the
atrocities they’ve committed in the region — as the Syria Accountability
Act has done — is just one example of how U.S. foreign policy in the
Middle East is laden with double standards.
Nader joins presidential race (posted 2/22)
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said Sunday he would seek the presidency
one more time to "retire the supremely selected president" and to wrestle
the country from "the grip" of corporate greed. Nader, 69, who has run for
president three times before, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he had
considered not running, but opted to campaign again for the White House
because "this country has more problems and injustices than it deserves."
Nader's nadir (posted 2/22)
Even many of his former allies don't support maverick Ralph Nader's
presidential bid. And more mainstream Democrats aren't just mad -- they're
apoplectic.
Nader
Runs...From Reality (posted 2/22)
(by Micah Sifry) Watching Ralph Nader announce his unsurprising decision
to run for president as an independent, I didn't hear anything new. There
was no sign from him that he understands that there might be some
differences in the political context of 2004, compared to 2000. All of his
arguments were the same: the need to address the "democracy gap"; how
Washington is "corporate-occupied territory;" how we have too many
solutions to problems that aren't being adopted as a result. "The two
parties are ferociously competing to see who's going to go to the White
House and take orders from their corporate paymasters," he declared at one
point. He gave both parties flunking grades: a D- for the Republicans and
a D+ for the Democrats. Which is amazing, considering his fierce
condemnation of Bush's illegal war-mongering and call for his impeachment.
Political realities change, but not Ralph.
Will
Nader matter at all? (posted 2/22)
The best-case scenario for Ralph Nader's fourth presidential campaign -- a
1992 write-in effort in the New Hampshire primary, Green Party runs in
1996 and 2000, and the independent candidacy he announced on Sunday -- is
to pull a Norman Thomas. In the Great Depression election of 1932,
Democrats worried that Thomas, the perennial Socialist Party candidate,
would draw off votes in key states and help reelect Republican President
Herbert Hoover.
Third parties
aim for an impact (posted 2/22)
As leading Democrats compete for the nomination to battle with George
Bush in the 2004 election, BBC News Online takes a look at some of the
smaller parties hoping to make their mark.
Survey: Anger against Bush growing louder
(posted 2/22)
In Arizona, Judy Donovan says she feels desperate for a new president.
In Tennessee, Robert Wilson says he finds the president revolting. In
Washington state, Maria Yurasek says she'd vote for a dog if it could beat
President Bush. A subtext to this year's presidential campaign is the
intense anger that many Democrats are directing toward Bush, an attitude
that has been growing in recent months.
Disenchanted Bush Voters Consider Crossing Over (posted 2/22)
In the 2000
presidential election, Bill Flanagan a semiretired newspaper worker,
happily voted for George W. Bush. But now, shaking his head, he vows,
"Never again." "The combination of lies and boys coming home in body bags
is just too awful," Mr. Flanagan said, drinking coffee and reading
newspapers at the local mall. "I could vote for Kerry. I could vote for
any Democrat unless he's a real dummy." Mr. Flanagan is hardly alone, even
though polls show that the overwhelming majority of Republicans who
supported Mr. Bush in 2000 will do so again in November. In dozens of
random interviews around the country, independents and Republicans who
said they voted for Mr. Bush in 2000 say they intend to vote for the
Democratic presidential candidate this year. Some polls are beginning to
bolster the idea of those kind of stirrings among Republicans and
independents.
The
America will vote for Bush (posted 2/22)
The US is currently going through the peculiar process of deciding which
Democratic presidential candidate will stand against George Bush in
November. The aversion to Bush, at home and abroad, makes us forget how
many people support this spokesman for another America sure of its
superiority and its values.
Doctored Kerry photo brings anger, threat of suit: Software, Net make it
easy to warp reality (posted 2/22)
The photographer who snapped John Kerry attending a 1971 anti-war rally
says he and his photo agency intend to track down -- and possibly sue --
whoever doctored and circulated a photo that made it appear that the then
27-year-old Vietnam veteran was appearing alongside actress Jane Fonda.
Ken Light, now a UC Berkeley professor of journalism ethics, says he
photographed Kerry at an anti-war rally in Mineola, N.Y., on June 13,
1971. The decorated Vietnam veteran was preparing to give a speech at the
rally -- but Fonda was never at the event.
Bush Loads $104 Million in Ammo for Ad War (posted 2/22)
President Bush's reelection campaign reported Friday that it had
raised a record $143.5 million through Jan. 31 and had $104.4 million in
the bank, a war chest it will tap heavily shortly after Democrats settle
on a nominee.
What they really mean by "electability" (posted 2/22
FORGET WHETHER they supported the war on Iraq. Doesn’t matter if they
voted for USA PATRIOT. Who cares what they say about health care. The only
thing that seems to matter in the race for the 2004 Democratic Party
presidential nomination is "electability."
The
Assassination of Howard Dean (posted 2/22)
Two months ago, Howard Dean was the man to beat for the Democratic
nomination. Then his campaign fell over a cliff, limping in as a distant
second, third and even fourth, in the primaries. On Wednesday Dean
officially ended his bid for the White House, telling supporters, "I am no
longer actively pursuing the presidency." What happened? How could Dean's
insurgent candidacy, which had energized and excited voters in every
state, come to such a screeching halt?
Racism and Presidential Elections Since 1964: A Short History
(posted 2/22)
Racism within U.S. institutions, law and culture is deeply imbedded in the
history and reality of the United States going back to the 17th century,
but in the 20th century, the deliberate and overt use of racially-coded
language and positions in Presidential campaigns was begun in 1968 by the
Richard Nixon campaign. Even Barry Goldwater, conservative Republican that
he was, made an agreement in 1964 with Lyndon Johnson to keep race out of
the Presidential contest between them.
Tripping on Internet Populism (posted 2/22)
There was a contagious optimism in the air about the potential of the
Internet to effect political change.
Civil Liberties/Repression
The Ideology
Police: Targeting Middle East studies, zealots' 'homeland security'
creates campus insecurity (posted 2/24)
In a gesture that consolidates the 1990s culture wars, the post-9-11 chill
on dissent, and the relentlessness of hawkishly pro-Israel lobbying, the
U.S. House voted unanimously last fall to establish an advisory board to
monitor how effectively campus international studies centers serve
"national needs related to homeland security" and to assess whether they
provide sufficient airtime to champions of American foreign policy.
Currently the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
is considering a parallel provision for its upcoming higher education
reauthorization bill. The bill will likely go to the floor in March.
Pentagon Denies Access to Guantanamo Trials (2/24)
The Pentagon has refused to allow three leading human rights groups to
attend and observe military commission trials of detainees at Guantanamo
Bay.
Military
justice system a self-inflicted casualty in terror war (posted
2/24)
Has our traditional system of military justice become the latest casualty
in the war on terror? One gauge of that question is the handling of the
case against a former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, US Army Capt.
James Yee.
US still
funding powerful data mining tools (posted 2/24)
The Associated Press reports that the US government is still financing
research to create powerful software tools that could mine millions of
public and private records for information about terrorists, despite last
year's controversy over how easily and how often the software might
implicate people who have nothing to do with terrorism.
Supreme Court
decision may limit access to terror cases (posted 2/24)
The US Supreme
Court has given a green light for the government to conduct certain
federal court cases in total secrecy.
Police
infiltration of protest groups upsets rights activists
(posted 2/22)
Chicago Police officers infiltrated five protest groups in
2002 and launched four other spying operations in 2003 -- actions that
civil rights activists are calling outrageous. The investigations have
come in the wake of a court decision that expanded the department's
intelligence-gathering powers.
John Ashcroft's Subpoena Blitz: Targeting Lawyers, Universities, Peaceful
Demonstrators, Hospitals, and Patients, All With No Connection to
Terrorism (posted 2/22)
Over the past two weeks, the Justice Department has issued two intensely
controversial sets of subpoenas. The first targeted peaceful demonstrators
in Iowa. The second targeted medical caregivers in Illinois, New York,
Pennsylvania and Michigan. None of the targets of these subpoenas is
alleged to have anything to do with terrorism.
Convention Plan Puts Protesters Blocks Away (posted 2/22)
Protesters at this summer's Democratic National Convention in Boston
may be confined to a cozy triangle of land off Haymarket Square, blocked
off from the FleetCenter and convention delegates by a maze of Central
Artery service roads, MBTA train tracks, and a temporary parking lot
holding scores of buses and media trucks.
Federal subpoenas seen as targeting dissent (posted 2/22)
A federal grand jury, in a move some see as an attempt to harass and
intimidate the antiwar movement, subpoenaed Drake University in Des
Moines, Iowa, in early February, ordering it to turn over all documents
related to an antiwar conference held three months ago on its campus.
Feds back off drive to target activists (posted 2/22)
FACED WITH mounting pressure, the U.S. government dropped subpoenas for
the records of antiwar activists at an Iowa university. "Friends, the
piece of news that I have is historic," Brian Terrell announced to a crowd
of 150 cheering protesters gathered at the federal building in Des Moines,
Iowa, February 10. "The subpoenas against the four of us were dropped
today."
Giving Due Process Its Due (posted 2/22)
During the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the most
heated debates concerned the separation of powers in this emerging
democracy. The reason for that concern was emphasized by James Madison in
the Federalist Papers, often cited by the Supreme Court as a reliable
guide to the intentions of the Framers: "The accumulation of all powers,
legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands . . . may justly
be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." On December 18, echoing the
founders, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, in the case of
Padilla vs. Rumsfeld, said to George W. Bush: "The President, acting
alone, possesses no inherent constitutional power to detain American
citizens seized within the United States, away from the zone of combat, as
enemy combatants." Citizen Jose Padilla, incommunicado in a Navy brig in
South Carolina for eighteen months--without charges, without access to his
lawyer, and with no date of release--had no idea that his case was even in
the Second Circuit. He is insulated from the world. But his case, and that
of the other American citizen, Yaser Hamdi, who had also been removed from
the protections of the Constitution after George W. Bush designated him as
an enemy combatant, has aroused more intense criticism of the
Administration's war on the Bill of Rights than any of its other actions.
How the Janet
Jackson "Nipplegate" Scandal Illustrates the Dangers of Chilling Free
Speech (posted 2/22)
The chronology of the
Jackson scandal clearly illustrates a major concern of First Amendment
advocates: The "chilling effect." This concern arises from the fact that
when someone is punished -- or left in limbo, awaiting possible punishment
-- because of the way they exercised their First Amendment rights, the
predictable result is that others feel less free to speak.
Pentagon's anti-terror program lives on (posted 2/22)
Despite an outcry over privacy implications, the government is pressing
ahead with research to create ultrapowerful tools to mine millions of
public and private records for information about terrorists.
Anti-abortion fanatics: Ashcroft’s goons go after hospital records
(posted 2/22)
IF ANTI-ABORTION fanatic John Ashcroft has his way, the U.S. Justice
Department will pore over the private medical records of hundreds of women
who had abortions. In the Bush administration’s crusade to crack down on a
late-term abortion procedure that abortion opponents have misnamed
"partial-birth" abortion, Ashcroft’s fanatics last week issued subpoenas
ordering at least six hospitals in New York City, Philadelphia and
elsewhere to turn over medical records on abortions they performed.
How Camp Delta allowed US to avoid Geneva Convention (posted 2/22)
President Bush promised a "different kind of war" after the 11 September
attacks, and no place on earth better illustrates quite how different than
Camp X-Ray, the prison camp established on the US naval base at Guantanamo
Bay. It seemed extraordinary enough, back in late 2001, that detainees
would be flown halfway around the world from the war in Afghanistan to the
eastern tip of Cuba. But that was only the start of it. The hundreds of
men, suspected members of either the Taliban or al-Qa'ida, were not to be
regarded as conventional prisoners of war. Instead, the US Secretary of
Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, told us, they were being categorised as "enemy
combatants", subject neither to the Geneva Conventions nor to the purview
of the US civilian court system. In other words, they were subject to
indefinite detention, without access to a lawyer, without the privilege of
knowing why they were being held or what they were accused of. Even if
they were to come to trial, they would appear before a military commission
whose three-judge panel would have sole discretion to convict them and, if
they so chose, to sentence them to death.
'We want answers: why have they been held so long without charge?'
(posted 2/22)
The images were stark and shocking. Britons, swathed in orange overalls,
hooded and shackled, kneeling in front of their American captors. Others,
on stretchers, being wheeled into mesh cages. None of them charged, let
alone convicted, of any crime, yet facing indefinite sentences in prison.
The unabating controversy caused by the treatment of British citizens
arrested in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then shipped off to Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba, was one of the most embarrassing problems faced by Tony
Blair, the British Prime Minister, as he stood "shoulder to shoulder" with
President George Bush in the war on terror.
Rhode Island's
War on Anarchism You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
(posted 2/22)
I have on my desk right now a copy of
the new Rhode Island "homeland security" bill proposed by Governor
Carcieri. It's an 18 page document, and right on the first page, before
talking about weapons of mass destruction or poisoning the water system or
anything else that a rational person might consider "terrorism", it says
"any person who shall teach or advocate anarchy" will go to prison for ten
years.
Prosecutor
Misconduct In Two Recent High-Profile Cases: Why It Happens, and How We
Can Better Prevent It (posted 2/22)
Federal prosecutorial
misconduct has turned two recent high profile cases -- one involving
allegations of murder, the other involving allegations of a terrorist
conspiracy -- upside down.
A Turn
for the Worse in the United States: Criminalizing Dissent
(posted 2/22)
This is not the article I started out to write. What I
wanted to write about was the Patriot Act and the way this Federal statute
was giving license to federal, state and local law enforcement to curtail
our due process protections, by blurring the line, which is more fluid
than ever, between what law enforcement can do in the name of foreign
intelligence and what it can do in the name of a domestic criminal
investigation. However, reality intruded. The last month was a very bad
one for civil liberties and the First Amendment. So my rather abstract
cautionary narrative about what might happen if we do not pressure
Congress to repeal the Patriot Act morphed into a chronicle of actual
events that should send chills up the spine of all of us who believe in
the U.S. Constitution. It is no longer what might happen, but what is
happening.
Corporate Crime
Pentagon starts probe into Halliburton claims (posted 2/24)
The Pentagon has launched a criminal inquiry into allegations of fraud at
Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil services
company formerly run by Dick Cheney, US vice-president.
Health,
Environment, and Science
Dramatic
Climate Change Could Become Global Security Nightmare
(posted 2/24)
A dramatic climate change could suddenly become a global security
nightmare, warns a worst-case scenario assembled by professional futurists
at the behest of the Pentagon.
In Health,
Canada Tops US (posted 2/24)
Our neighbors to the north live longer and pay less for care. The reasons
why are being debated, but some cite the gap between rich and poor in the
US
Arizona Gov. Blasts Bush on Forest Policy
(posted 2/24)
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on Saturday accused the Bush administration
of mismanaging the federal forests, which she said could lead to "megafires"
this summer.
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
(posted 2/22)
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The
Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising
seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear
conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across
the world.
White House Accused of Science Bias (posted 2/22)
More than 60 leading scientists, including a dozen Nobel laureates, on
Wednesday accused the Bush administration of frequently suppressing or
distorting scientific analysis from federal agencies when it disagrees
with administration policies.
Taking Spin
Out of Report That Made Bad Into Good Health
(posted 2/22)
The Bush administration says it improperly altered a
report documenting large racial and ethnic disparities in health care, but
it will soon publish the full, unexpurgated document. Health Secretary
Thommy Thompson said that "some individuals took it upon themselves" to
make the report sound more positive than was justified by the data.
Pesticide Tests on Humans Backed (posted 2/22)
A panel of the National Research Council said Thursday that human test
subjects could be intentionally given doses of pesticides and other toxic
substances as long as the companies or government agencies conducting the
studies met high ethical and scientific standards. The Bush administration
sought advice from the panel of scientists and ethicists after it
reversed, in a controversial move, a Clinton-era moratorium on the use of
paid volunteers in tests that aid the Environmental Protection Agency in
determining safe exposure levels for pesticides used on fruits, vegetables
and other crops. Some neurologists and environmental activists criticized
the panel for giving firms a green light to conduct the tests, which they
say serve no purpose besides relaxing regulations on chemicals. They were
especially critical of the panel for potentially allowing the use of
children as test subjects.
Environmental Groups Decry Pesticide Report (posted 2/22)
Environmental groups responded with dismay on Thursday to a report from a
panel of government advisers that says it might be OK to test pesticides
on people if the strictest care is taken. The Natural Resources Defense
Council called it an "appalling suggestion" while the Environmental
Working Group said the chemical industry could not be trusted to follow
government testing guidelines.
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People (posted 2/22)
AN AIR THAT KILLS: How the
Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana, Uncovered a National Scandal
is about small-town
Montana and the devastating horrors visited on it by a vermiculite mine
owned by those fun-loving corporate bastards at W.R. Grace & Co, and the
Zonolite Company before it. The mining of vermiculite, used in products
ranging from insulation to potting soil, led to exposure to asbestos that
caused and is causing the deaths of hundreds of Libby residents. Grace
knew of the dangers, but didn't tell the workers or their families of the
deadly dangers associated with living in an environment where more than
two and a half tons of asbestos were released into the town's air every
day, when One heavy exposure or even one tiny fiber can inaugurate the
downward spiral to the grave.
Antidepressants hazardous to health care coverage: Insurance plans stymie
individual policyholders (posted 2/22)
When Amy M.
left her steady job to become a freelance advertising copywriter, she had
no idea the antidepressant she took to combat depression would have an
unexpected side effect. She couldn't get health insurance. "I was turned
down by Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Kaiser," said the 35- year-old Oakland
resident, who has been taking the antidepressant Celexa for several years.
"My rejection letters from the insurance companies stated the reason for
the denial: antidepressants." With nearly 19 million Americans under a
diagnosis of depression, antidepressant use is skyrocketing in the United
States. The newer antidepressants are the second most commonly prescribed
class of drugs in the country. Most Americans with health insurance are
covered through their employer and have little problem getting coverage
for antidepressants, but almost 10 percent of those insured have
individual policies because they are self- employed, unemployed or work
for a company that doesn't offer insurance. That number appears to be
growing, especially in the Bay Area, where the dot- com bust has forced
many jobless people to find alternative coverage.
Low-carb message reaches kids, but is it a good one? (posted 2/22)
With millions of U.S. adults devoting themselves to low-carbohydrate
diets, such as the Atkins weight-loss program, it is not surprising that
some children are following their lead. However, pediatricians and
nutritionists say low-carb diets may be a bad idea for children. With
rising rates of childhood obesity creating a major public health problem,
these experts agree that going easy on refined sugars and starches in
cookies, chips and bagels is a good thing. They worry, however, that kids
who avoid or limit such foods as bread, potatoes, rice and fruit may be
depriving themselves of important nutrients that are necessary for growing
bodies. And they caution that parents who encourage such eating may not be
aware of the consequences.
Wake Up Weyerhaeuser: Protect Forests Now! (posted 2/22)
Activists Brave Dizzying Heights And Unfurl Banner To Protest Wanton
Destruction of Endangered Old-Growth Forests
New Data on 2 Doomsday Ideas, Big Rip vs. Big Crunch (2/22)
A dark unseen energy is steadily pushing the universe apart, just as
Einstein predicted, suggesting the universe may have a more peaceful end
than recent theories envision, according to striking new measurements of
distant exploding stars by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
Culture and
the Arts
Weird
War’s spit bombs from the front lines (posted 2/24)
Modern man has always been ill-equipped to cope with the demands of his
history, so he coined the helpful adage “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”
to justify his shortcomings. That was of course before Weird War came up
with the more elegant solution If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Bite ’Em.
Left
Anti-intellectualism and Its Discontents
(posted 2/22)
"We can't get bogged down in analysis," one activist told us at an
anti-war rally in New York last fall, spitting out that last word like a
hairball. He could have relaxed his vigilance. This event deftly avoided
such bogs, loudly opposing the U.S. bombing in Afghanistan without
offering any credible ideas about it (we're not counting the notion that
the entire escapade was driven by Unocal and Lockheed Martin, the
"analysis" advanced by many speakers). But the moment called for doing
something more than brandishing the exact same signs - "Stop the Bombing"
and "No War for Oil" - that activists poked skywards during the Gulf War.
This latest war called for some thinking, and few were doing much of that.
So what is the ideology of the activist left (and by that we mean the
global justice, peace, media democracy, community organizing, financial
populist, and green movements)? Socialist? Mostly not - too state-phobic.
Some activists are anarchists - but mainly out of temperamental reflex,
not rigorous thought. Others are liberals - though most are too
confrontational and too skeptical about the system to embrace that label.
And many others profess no ideology at all. So over all is the activist
left just | 
