[ The story alleging chemical weapons found in Iraq was a false alarm. Let’s hope Fox News gives this correction a treatment as prominent as it gave the alarm itself. –BL ] Jul 02, 2004 | AFP BAGHDAD – Multinational forces in Iraq said on Friday that more than a dozen missile warheads said to contain mustard gas or sarin have tested negative for chemical agents. Washington had announced the find by Polish troops on Thursday, which was later confirmed by Warsaw.
Brendan
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[ Installments of the story of Florida’s racist, sly purging of the voter rolls are posted here periodically. –BL ] July 2, 2004 | NPR Thousands of eligible Florida voters are named on a list of suspected felons the state plans to remove from voter registration rolls ahead of November’s presidential election. A Florida judge ordered the state to release the list after news organizations sued for access to check its accuracy. Hear NPR’s Steve Inskeep and Miami Herald reporter Erika Bolstad. [ listen to piece ]
[ This is a late follow-up of a story posted here around April, 2003. –BL ] July 3, 2004 | Los Angeles Times by David Zucchino The Army’s internal study of the war in Iraq criticizes some efforts by its own psychological operations units, but one spur-of-the-moment effort last year produced the most memorable image of the invasion. As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV […]
July 15, 2004 | New York Review of Books by Marcia Angell 1. Every day Americans are subjected to a barrage of advertising by the pharmaceutical industry. Mixed in with the pitches for a particular drug—usually featuring beautiful people enjoying themselves in the great outdoors—is a more general message. Boiled down to its essentials, it is this: “Yes, prescription drugs are expensive, but that shows how valuable they are. Besides, our research and development costs are enormous, and we need to cover them somehow. As ‘research-based’ companies, we turn out a steady stream of innovative medicines that lengthen life, enhance […]
[ Although I doubt the UN will send election monitors, other international monitoring bodies, such as Pax Christi, are doing so. –BL ] 02 July 2004 | AFP WASHINGTON – Several members of the House of Representatives have requested the United Nations to send observers to monitor the November 2 US presidential election to avoid a contentious vote like in 2000, when the outcome was decided by Florida.
[ From the piece: Bye has a novel approach. He’s planning to reflect the media’s own words right back at them. Normally the evolution of electronic media coverage is too gradual and unwieldy for observation. That is until someone comes along and condenses hundreds of hours of news feeds that unwind to reveal the major broadcast news organizations as partners with the Bush administration Here’s a related report from the Columbia Journalism Review: THE LIST: How Chalabi Played the Press. –BL ] Caught on Tape Filmmaker Kent Bye Says the Media is Partially Responsible for the Iraq War–and He Has the […]
[ Following up an earlier story, Israel is appealing to the U.S. to support its plan to complete the illegal wall that gives Israel greater control over the West Bank. The Israeli foreign minister’s claim that “Israel can deal with this issue by itself” in effect asks the world to trust Israel itself to reach a just solution on the Palestinian issue. That’s about as crazy as trusting the Bush Administration not to violate international law, which is just what the Administration requested of the Supreme Court! –BL ] Jul 2, 2004 | Reuters WASHINGTON – Israel’s foreign minister said on […]
[ Underlining below is mine. –BL ] Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defence 2 July 2004 | InterPress Service by Sanjay Suri LONDON – Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers. Thousands were reported killed in the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in the north of Iraq in March 1988 towards the end of Iraq’s eight-year war with Iran. The gassing of the Kurds has long been held to be the […]
by George Lakoff © 1995, George LakoffNote: this document is a mirror. IN THIS DOCUMENT… Keeping the Moral Books The Moral Accounting Schemes Experiential Morality Conservativism Conservative Metaphors for Morality The Strict Father Model The Nation-as-Family Metaphor Liberalism The Nurturant Parent Model Liberal Metaphors for Morality The Nation-as-Family Metaphor Filling in Some Details Moral Pathologies Consequences Coda: Deep and Superficial Metaphor About the Author We may not always know it, but we think in metaphor. A large proportion of our most commonplace thoughts make use of an extensive, but unconscious, system of metaphorical concepts, that is, concepts from a typically […]
by Brendan Lalor Until the publication of the July 2 issue of the Boston Phoenix, the ‘Anonymous’ author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s, Inc.) was known only as the “former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit.” The Phoenix now reveals the author is Michael Scheuer, upon whose anonymity the CIA insisted as a condition of approval of his manuscript for publication. As the Phoenix points out, in the book, Scheuer disputes the Bush administration’s assertions, holding that, among other things, bin Laden is not on the run; the invasion of Iraq […]
[ This piece follows up a story previously printed here. –BL ] The US-led CPA is leaving a legacy of muddled accounting July 01, 2004 | The Daily Star by Khatoun Haidar Real sovereignty in Iraq includes holding the CPA accountable for $20 billion in reconstruction contracts. Handing over sovereignty to the new Iraqi interim government means that the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ceased to exist. Many fear that the US and UN commissioned audits checking for waste and fraud in Iraq reconstruction contracts will simply disappear and accountability will be lost.
Former company auditor: ?It’s just a gravy train? July 01, 2004 | NBC News by Lisa Myers, Senior investigative correspondent The Pentagon has already awarded Halliburton Co., the controversial military contractor, deals worth up to $18 billion for its work in Iraq. But now former Halliburton insiders have come forward with new allegations of massive waste of taxpayer money. Marie deYoung, a former Army chaplain who worked for Halliburton, was so upset by attacks on the company she e-mailed the CEO in December with a strategy on how to fight the “political slurs.” But today, after five months inside Halliburton’s […]
[ CBS’ coverage of the voucher issue misled viewers to believe that public school students could go to private school “on a $7,500 voucher” … According to the liberal group People for the American Way, half of D.C.’s private schools cost $10,800 or more per year. With a maximum voucher amount of $7,500, private school attendance would still be out of the reach of many low-income families. –BL ] CBS Slants the Voucher Debate July 1, 2004 | Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting On its June 28 broadcast, CBS Evening News debuted a new campaign feature called “What Does It Mean […]
1 July 2004 | Misleader.org Two weeks ago, Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge said that U.S. ports and ships were in “full compliance” with international security requirements that go into effect today.1 However, a new report2 by the non-partisan General Accounting Office (GAO) reveals that Ridge was incorrect. According to the GAO, around seven percent of all U.S. ports and half of all ships have not even been reviewed by the federal government. The Administration allowed industry groups to “self-certify to the Coast Guard that they were using appropriate standards.” But every security plan the Coast Guard did review “had […]
Bush’s AIDS Hypocrisy Cons the NY Times 30 June 2004 | The Nation by DOUG IRELAND When President Bush gave a speech on AIDS in Philadelphia on June 23, the New York Times got all moist because he mentioned the word “condoms” just once in his speech. “Bush Backs Condom Use to Prevent Spread of AIDS,” blared the Times headline on the story, signed by David Sanger and Donald McNeil Jr.
1 July 2004 | World Socialist Web Site by Don Knowland On June 14, the US Supreme Court reversed an appellate court decision that had ruled that permitting elementary school children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance?s affirmation that the US is a nation ?under God? violated the principles of separation of church and state embodied in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The majority of justices declined to decide the issue of the Pledge?s constitutionality. Instead, the justices decided the case on a dubious technicality, ruling that the adult plaintiff in the case had no right or ?standing? […]
[ As important as it is to end the Bush Occupation of the White House, that ought not eclipse the long-term need to open the political process to more than Democrats and Republicans. While there are differences between the two, especially between Bush and Kerry, the many similarities leave “tens of millions of people … entirely unrepresented” on, for instance, issues of NAFTA-style trade policies and the Iraq war/occupation, to some degree. But even if, for the sake of argument, there were an excuse for “duopoly” opposition to third party participation in the presidential election (due to the special circumstances […]
[ In this article David Morris points out that the Didache teaches us that to evaluate whether an individual is pro-life depends on far more than his or her position on abortion; that for more than 1500 years the position of the Catholic Church on abortion was very close to that of the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade: Early term abortion is not a mortal sin; and that in a private Mass in 2003, the Pope himself gave Communion to Tony Blair, a pro-abortion Episcopalian. U.S. Catholic bishops would be well-served if they were to emulate the example […]
[ This article follows up another printed here in April. –BL ] Charlie Tuna: Unsafe At Any Speed June 29, 2004 | AlterNet.org The EPA and two doctors’ groups have issued strong warnings about the dangers of eating mercury-laced fish. Then why is the White House working to loosen restrictions on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants? by Sharon Lerner Remember when fish was the healthy choice? Today, the pluses of seafood — being low in saturated fat and high in omega-3 oils — are offset by creepy mounting knowledge about how much pollution has become a part of most fish […]
[ This new report is just the right response to Bush’s oft-repeated “it’s your money” justification of cutting taxes. The belief that what’s collected in taxes is “your money,” to be returned to you by the government in times of budget surplus, rests on a confusion. The precondition of “you” acquiring large sums of money is that a society set goals (security, education, transportation infrastructures, etc.) and raise funds through taxation to satisfy those goals. It is conventions in such societies that determine how much money counts as “your money.” There is no quantity of money that counts as “yours” […]
[ Perhaps the Bush Administration likes the prospect of no contingency plan better. This story follows up an earlier one printed here. –BL ] Voting Official Seeks Terrorism Guidelines 25 June 2004 | Associated Press by ERICA WERNER WASHINGTON — The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission. Such guidelines do not currently exist, said DeForest B. Soaries, head of the voting panel. Soaries was appointed to the federal Election Assistance Commission last year by President Bush. Soaries said he wrote to […]
Justice Department Says It Can’t Share Lobbying Data Because Computer System Will Crash Jun 29, 2004 | Associated Press by Ted Bridis WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department’s database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.
Abu Ghraib, Stonewalled June 30, 2004 | New York Times While piously declaring its determination to unearth the truth about Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration has spent nearly two months obstructing investigations by the Army and members of Congress. It has dragged out the Army’s inquiry, withheld crucial government documents from a Senate committee and stonewalled senators over dozens of Red Cross reports that document the horrible mistreatment of Iraqis at American military prisons. Even last week’s document dump from the White House, which included those cynical legal road maps around treaties and laws against torturing prisoners, seemed part of […]
The power behind the Bush throne U.S. policy should have as its explicit goal removing Saddam Hussein’s regime from power and establishing a peaceful and democratic Iraq in its place. We recognize that this goal will not be achieved easily. But the alternative is to leave the initiative to Saddam, who will continue to strengthen his position at home and in the region. Only the U.S. can lead the way in demonstrating that his rule is not legitimate and that time is not on the side of his regime…. We should establish and maintain a strong U.S. military presence in […]
Jun. 29, 2004 | Knight Ridder Newspapers By Seth Borenstein WASHINGTON – In a few key areas – electricity, the judicial system and overall security – the Iraq that America handed back to its residents Monday is worse off than before the war began last year, according to calculations in a new General Accounting Office report released Tuesday. The 105-page report by Congress’ investigative arm offers a bleak assessment of Iraq after 14 months of U.S. military occupation. Among its findings: -In 13 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, electricity was available fewer hours per day on average last month than before […]
June 8, 2004 | New York Times by MARK LACEY NAIROBI, Kenya, June 7 – Isnino Shuriye still remembers the pride she felt years ago when she leaned over each of her three daughters, knife in hand, and sliced into their genitals. Each time, as the blood started to flow, she quickly dropped the knife and picked up a needle and thread. Quickly, expertly, she sewed her daughters’ vaginas almost shut. “I was full of pride,” she recalled recently. “I felt like I was doing the right thing in the eyes of God. I was preparing them for marriage by […]
Attack Iran, US chief ordered British 30 June 2004 | Telegraph by Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent America’s military commander in Iraq ordered British troops to prepare a full-scale ground offensive against Iranian forces that had crossed the border and grabbed disputed territory, a senior officer has disclosed. An attack would almost certainly have provoked open conflict with Iran. But the British chose instead to resolve the matter through diplomatic channels. “If we had attacked the Iranian positions, all hell would have broken loose,” a defence source said yesterday.
29 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! A new study by the British charity Christian Aid has found the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority can not account for $20 billion of Iraq’s money over the past 15 months. In addition the CPA recently handed out a series of contracts with little oversight. The report states, “In the run-up to the handover, billions more dollars have been hastily allocated to projects that do not appear to have been properly planned. This lack of accountability creates an environment ripe for corruption and theft at every level.” The CPA officially dissolved itself on Monday after the […]
[ Terrorism experts like Pollack, Gunaratna, and Cannistraro agree that Bush’s Iraq War has helped create bin Ladenism. –BL ] The Wrong War | Backdraft: How the war in Iraq has fueled Al Qaeda and ignited its dream of global jihad July/August 2004 | Mother Jones by Peter Bergen
[ From the column: By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor. –BL ] Who Lost Iraq? June 29, 2004 | New York Times by PAUL KRUGMAN The formal occupation of Iraq came to an ignominious end yesterday with a furtive ceremony, held two days early to foil insurgent attacks, and a swift airborne exit for the chief administrator. In reality, the occupation will continue under another name, most likely until a hostile Iraqi populace […]
[ In a related story from the July 1 issue of the Guardian by Rory McCarthy, entitled, “US will override Baghdad in war on terrorism”: American commanders will risk launching high-profile military actions at targets in Iraq even if they go directly against the wishes of the new Iraqi government, a senior US general said yesterday. Lieutenant General Thomas Metz, the second most senior American officer in Iraq and the force’s tactical operations commander, said the US military was prepared to risk provoking “friction” with the new government in strikes against “professional terrorists.” His frank admission, just two days after […]
[ From the article: Keeping the public in the dark until after the November election is the immediate benefit of the decision for Bush. It is believed that the task force records, if released, would confirm that the Bush energy policy was authored by industry officials and lobbyists. This could only further inflame an electorate already angry over rising fuel prices. Additionally, there is evidence that the task force reviewed maps of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines and refineries, as well as contracts of foreign companies for Iraqi oilfield development. The publication of such evidence would underscore the fact that the Bush […]
Congress Passes Bill to Force Payment on Western Shoshone Land Struggle — A Sad Day for the Rule of Law in the United States, but the Fight?s not Over Say the Western Shoshone. 28 June 2004 | UN Observer Crescent Valley, Nevada, U.S.A. — As of Friday morning, the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill has passed both houses of Congress and is on its way to the Bush Administration for signature. The bill would authorize an alleged payoff of approximately 15 cents an acres for tens of millions of acres of disputed lands in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. A majority […]
Poll finds teens view some U.S. actions as global threat excerpted from June 27, 2004 | The Ottawa Citizen by Misty Harris Evil is a word usually reserved for serial killers, Austin Powers villains, and kids who tear the legs off baby spiders. But, a new poll shows a significant number of young Canadians would use “evil” to describe their U.S. neighbours. In a telephone poll of 500 teens aged 14 to 18, more than 40 per cent of respondents saw the U.S. as an evil global force. Among French-Canadians, that number jumped to 64 per cent.
Jun 28, 2004 | Reuters by James Vicini WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court placed the first limits on President Bush’s war on terrorism on Monday and ruled that terror suspects can use the American judicial system to challenge their confinement. The historic moves on the day before the end of the high court’s term marked a bitter defeat for Bush’s assertion of sweeping presidential powers to indefinitely hold “enemy combatants” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was the court’s first rulings on Bush’s terrorism policies. In one ruling, the court said the nearly 600 foreign terror suspects held […]
June 18, 2004 | Foreign Policy In Focus by Arnold J. Oliver Democracy has been much in the news of late. At the G-8 Summit in Georgia, one of the main items on the agenda was the democratization of the Middle East, and the recent commemoration of the D-Day anniversary and the passing of President Reagan both generated discussion concerning the defense and spread of democracy. But amidst all the hoopla, the anniversary of a decisive event in the modern history of democracy has somehow escaped notice. Fifty years ago, on June 17, 1954, the government of the United States […]
June 27, 2004 | Washington Post by Emily Wax MORNAY, Sudan — There are tents here that no parent wants to visit. They are called feeding centers, shady rectangular units where children fight death. Sitting on a mat and holding his son’s frail hand, Mohammed Ishaq and his wife, Aisha, have been here five days, nursing 9-month-old Zohar on drops of water from a large pink cup, praying that somehow he will survive. Zohar spits up the water. His cough is rough, and his thin skin clings to his ribs. His withered left arm is connected to an IV. He […]
by Brendan Lalor To briefly follow up an earlier article on the new book “by a senior CIA analyst who headed the agency’s task force on Osama bin Laden,” Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s, 2004), the Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reports: The author, who writes under the name “Anonymous,” argues it is not dislike of freedom, democracy and Western culture that led bin Laden to wage war against America, but rather his disdain for U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world, particularly America’s relationship with Israel. Senior U.S. leaders, the book argues, […]
[ Alexandra Dadlez asks: IS IT THAT COLIN POWELL WAS WRONG, OR THAT ARE THEY ACTUALLY GOING TO STAGE AN ELABORATE HAND-OVER WITH U.S. SOLDIERS & IRAQI POLICE PARADING ABOUT WITH A HANDCUFFED SADDAM, TAKING HIM TO AN IRAQI JUDGE & THEN JUST HANDING HIM BACK TO THE AMERICANS? IT SEEMS HE WILL BE RETURNED TO SAME CELL FROM WHICH HE WAS TAKEN… LIKELY … AN AMERICAN-CONTROLLED CELL. HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK PEOPLE ARE? –BL ] Saddam to Be Given to Iraq Police Soon, CBS Says 27 June 2004 | Reuters WASHINGTON – Saddam Hussein will be handed over to […]
excerpted from 27 June 2004 | Washington Post “When we returned to camp that afternoon, me and my gunners were all shaking,” [Lt. Jon] Silk [whose platoon pushed into Kufa in May] said. “It was the first time we’d ever seen what our guns were doing to them.” Capt. Geoff Wright, who commands a tank company, was in the fight with Silk that day in Kufa. And he, too, was taken aback after seeing the faces of his enemy, much younger than he had imagined, up close.
Michael and them: Moore foes hold fest June 25, 2004 | Hollywood Reporter by Paul Bond Just as his “Fahrenheit 9/11” opens nationwide, several filmmakers are readying documentaries aimed at debunking Michael Moore, and a new film festival is being planned that will feature such works as well as other movies well to the right of Moore’s films. Scheduled Sept. 9-11 in Dallas, the American Film Renaissance, as the festival will be known, has just been announced by co-founder Jim Hubbard, who said it is bankrolled primarily by some “big-time conservative donors.”
[ While I am somewhat skeptical of the more neurochemically reductionistic elements of Shermer’s theory and would prefer a more qualified identification of trade as a trust-generating “engine,” I am extremely sympathetic to the material on the evolution of cooperation and the moral imperative to “expand the tribe.” Thanks to Bill Bryant of Oklahomans for Global Solutions for forwarding this article. –BL ] June, 2004 | Science and Theology News by Michael Shermer In Rob Reiner?s 1992 film A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson?s character — the battle-hardened Marine Col. Nathan R. Jessup — is being cross-examined by Tom Cruise?s naive […]
[ According to the 9/11 Commission, 9/11 appears to have been motivated in part by opposition to U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians. In related news, the Commission also reports bin Laden links with Iran: In relation to Iran [a sponsor of anti-Israel group Hezbollah], commission investigators said intelligence “showed far greater potential for collaboration between Hezbollah and al Qaeda than many had previously thought.” (Washington Post, 25 June) –BL ] June 25, 2004 | The Forward [New York] by Marc Perelman In an interim staff report released last week, the presidential commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks shed […]
[ Cronkite reports on recent high-level talks at which ideas about U.N. reform are being floated — on setting up an effective system to respond to the need to protect human rights, on ways of dealing with anti-democratic members, on proportion representation, and even on Security Council reform. –BL ] 13 June 2004 | Denver Post by Walter Cronkite New life is being breathed into the United Nations. The organization that is the world’s best hope for a lasting peace seems to be relevant again, having been consigned to irrelevancy a year and a half ago by George Bush and much […]
by Brendan Lalor Comedy Central’s Daily Show with John Stewart has a number of seriously great Bush videos on its website, including the following: click Bush vs. Bush click Stephen Colbert Faces the Imaginable try these, including A-Boo Gareff They are damning and often funny.
by Brendan Lalor The Bush Administration is quick to oversimplify insurgent elements in Iraq through demonizing its opposition with slogans such as “anti-democratic extremists,” “enemy insurgents,” and “terrorist killers.” These propagandistic tendencies of the Bush Administration make it all the more important for the American public to guard against such unsubtle and premature characterizations. The Asia Times has reported an apparently extensive network composed of mostly native Iraqis opposed to the occupation. These forces claim that they aim to expel the U.S. and set up a secular democracy. If correct, it would be a complete mischaracterization to lump such a […]
by Brendan Lalor Christopher Hitchens has given Michael Moore a beating for his new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, often disingenuously — as when he points out that Moore complains that, on the one hand, Bush failed to send enough troops to Iraq, and, on the other hand, Bush should not have sent any troops. Isn’t Moore entitled to oppose sending troops at all, but then complain that if troops are being sent, Bush had better send enough? As David Edelstein properly argues, Fahrenheit 9/11 must be viewed in the context of the Iraq occupation and the torrent of misleading claims that […]
24 June 2004 | The Hill by Alexander Bolton Michael Moore may be prevented from advertising his controversial new movie, ?Fahrenheit 9/11,? on television or radio after July 30 if the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today accepts the legal advice of its general counsel. At the same time, a Republican-allied 527 soft-money group is preparing to file a complaint against Moore?s film with the FEC for violating campaign-finance law. In a draft advisory opinion placed on the FEC?s agenda for today’s meeting, the agency?s general counsel states that political documentary filmmakers may not air television or radio ads referring to […]
Court rejects FCC ownership rules in historic victory! June 25, 2004 | FreePress.net On June 24, 2004, a federal appeals court overturned the FCC’s dramatic loosening of media ownership rules, handing the public a historic victory. The court’s ruling sends the FCC?s controversial rules — which relaxed the limits on newspaper, TV, and radio ownership — back to the drawing board. The decision is a tremendous victory for media diversity, localism, and for the general public, including the millions of citizens who have been writing, e-mailing and calling the FCC and Congress to protest the FCC’s caving in to Big […]
[ When Bolivia auctioned off the water system of Cochabamba, its third-largest city, “to U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation in 1999, residents experience water price hikes of 30-300%”… –BL ] The New Blue Gold June 23, 2004 | AlterNet.org by Silja J.A. Talvi There are untold profits to be made from controlling the simplest and most vital ingredient of our survival: water. The only question, from a profit standpoint, is why it has taken this long. “You can’t do anything without water,” says Alan Snitow, co-producer and co-director of Thirst, a groundbreaking and provocative new film about the rush to privatize what the […]
24 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! The Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy In Focus just released a new study titled “PAYING THE PRICE: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War” that examines the costs of the war and occupation in terms of lives, the increased military budget demands and the stripping of the domestic budget. Among the report’s findings: Total number of coalition military deaths between the start of war and June 16, 2004: 952 (853 U.S.) Of those 952, the number killed after President George W. Bush declared “an end to combat operations” on May 1, 2003: 693 […]
25 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! John Negroponte was sworn in as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Wednesday. As ambassador [to Honduras], he played a key role in US aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua and shoring up the brutal military dictatorship of General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez in Honduras.
22 June 2004 | NewStandard News by Chris Shumway A last minute spending spree by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and language in the UN Security Council resolution setting the conditions for Iraqi sovereignty appear likely to limit the interim government’s ability to exercise meaningful control over the country’s oil revenues. According to documents posted on its own web site, the CPA?s little-known Program Review Board (PRB) has quietly committed billions of dollars in Iraq’s oil revenues to new contracts that critics say will enrich US and British corporations while limiting the amount of revenue Iraq’s new interim government […]
24 June 2004 | United Press International (UPI) Washington, DC — The U.S. government is bypassing the United Nations and is granting its own forces immunity from prosecution in Iraq after the June 30 handover of control. U.S. administrator Paul Bremer is expected to extend by at least six months an order that gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from “local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states.”
[ I learned of this important paper through InformationClearingHouse.info. –BL ] Testimony to the World Tribunal on Iraq, International Forum on Globalization, New York, May 8, 2004 by Antonia Juhasz The Bush Administration is using the military invasion and occupation of Iraq to advance a corporate globalization agenda that is illegal under international law, has not been chosen by the Iraqi people and may ultimately prove to be even more devastating than twelve years of economic sanctions, two U.S.-led wars and one occupation. The Administration’s ultimate goal is to take the agenda to the entire region. In direct conflict with its […]
[ Otto Reich, Bush’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs since 2002, is a far-right wing propagandist and former Reagan appointee. He supported the Contras, and was ambassador to Venezuela, in which, more recently he probably helped orchestrate the Bush Administration’s 2002 coup attempt. Reich smears the popular, democratically elected Chavez (Venezuela) and Aristide (Haiti). They both oppose the Bush Administration’s hegemonic policy in Latin America. –BL ] US wants Chavez out The departing US envoy to Latin America and the Caribbean said the Bush administration would like to see the removal of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. 19 […]
[ In this important yet questionable article, members of the Iraqi resistance tell the Asia Times of their plans to expel the American forces and set up a secular democracy of their own design. –BL ] 25 June 2004 | Asia Times by Alix de la Grange Editor’s note: Coordinated attacks and skirmishes in several Iraqi cities on Thursday killed at least 66 people and wounded more than 250. Forty-four people were killed in a series of car bomb blasts in the northern city of Mosul and 216 wounded. Fighting in al-Anbar province, where there were clashes in Fallujah and Ramadi, […]
Below is an excerpt from "Why We Didn’t Remove Saddam" by George Bush, Sr. and Brent Scowcroft, Time (2 March 1998): While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and […]
June 22, 2004 | Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting The Bush administration’s long-running attempts to link Iraq and Al Qaeda were dealt a serious blow when the September 11 commission’s June 16 interim report indicated that there did not appear to be a “collaborative relationship” between Iraq and Osama bin Laden, and that there was no evidence that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks. But if you were watching the Fox News Channel, you saw something very different, as the conservative cable network eagerly defended the Bush administration and criticized the rest of the media for mishandling the […]
[ The AP is still on the Bush Texas Air National Guard story: The White House has yet to respond to a request by the AP in April asking the president to sign a written waiver of his right to keep records of his military service confidential…. When the government did not produce the documents, AP appealed to the Pentagon, saying that by law, the microfilm copy should have been produced within 20 days. –BL ] 22 June 2004 | Associated Press by PETE YOST WASHINGTON – The Associated Press sued the Pentagon and the Air Force on Tuesday, seeking access […]
[ Michael Moore was right: the Iraq war was based on a fiction. And now it’s all the more clear that it’s being followed by fictional sovereignty! Could it be that only a “sovereign” nation can enter into binding oil contracts and mass-privatization deals that commit Iraq to exporting its wealth? If so, this fiction is an important fiction. –BL ] Iraq ministers told only US can impose martial law by Nicolas Pelham in Baghdad 22 June 2004 | Financial Times The US-led occupation authority in Baghdad has warned Iraq’s interim government not to carry out its threat of declaring martial […]
3 June 2004 | USA Today by Paul Wiseman To an astonishing degree, the sexes are going their opposite ways in Japan. Young women are revolting against the traditional role of obedient housewife, opting instead to live at home and shop and socialize with girlfriends. Startled men are retreating into solitary ways. Check-ins at the country’s famed ‘love hotels’ are even falling. As birthrates slip, a social crisis looms.
22 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! Police Given OK to Stop & Ask ID From Anyone The Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 ruling, decided yesterday that police can now stop anyone on the street and demand that they identify themselves as long as the identification is not self-incriminating. The Washington Post reports the ruling overturns one?s right to remain silent and allows for the prosecution of anyone who refuses to identify themselves to a police officer. Supreme Court Bars Patients From Suing HMOs The Supreme Court also issued a unanimous ruling yesterday barring health care patients from being able […]
21 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! A new study by the Defense Manpower Data Center has found the military discharged 770 people last year because they were gay under the Pentagon’s ?don’t ask, don’t tell policy?. The majority of the discharged were enlisted personnel. This comes at a time [when] the military is issuing stop orders to prevent thousands of soldiers from retiring or returning home from Iraq. Hundreds of the discharged were specialists including 88 linguists, seven of whom spoke Arabic; 39 specialists who worked on nuclear, chemical and biological warfare were dismissed as were 90 nuclear power engineers.
21 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! The National Lawyers Guild has called for President Bush to be prosecuted for war crimes for approving or for failing to stop the torture of detainees. The Guild also charged that the Bush administration has illegally tried to justify the use of torture by claiming the president has the right to disregard existing laws. In related news, more than 400 legal scholars signed a letter last week to Congress urging them to consider impeaching President Bush.
Noonday in the Shade 22 June 2004 | New York Times by PAUL KRUGMAN In April 2003, John Ashcroft’s Justice Department disrupted what appears to have been a horrifying terrorist plot. In the small town of Noonday, Tex., F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully automatic machine guns, remote-controlled explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a chemical weapon — a cyanide bomb — big enough to kill everyone in a 30,000-square-foot building. Strangely, though, the attorney general didn’t call a press conference to announce the discovery of the weapons cache, or the arrest of William Krar, […]
Flurry of Suicide Attempts at Guantanamo Came After New General Took Charge 22 June 2004 | Associated Press WASHINGTON — Three months after a get-tough general took command of the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, prisoners began a flurry of suicide attempts, according to military records. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller took over as commander at Guantanamo in November 2002 after interrogators criticized his predecessor for being too solicitous for the detainees’ welfare. Between January and March 2003, 14 prisoners at Guantanamo tried to kill themselves, according to Pentagon figures. That’s more than 40 percent of the 34 suicide attempts […]
[ ThereItIs.org reader David Donahoe points out a few ironies in the following piece: The death penalty in Iraq was suspended during the U.S. occupation? The U.S. is “turning over” Saddam “to the Iraqis” in much the way it is turning over the country to them: legally, but not physically. –BL ] Jun 22, 2004 | Reuters by Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD – The United States plans to turn over legal, but not physical, custody of Saddam Hussein and some other prisoners to the Iraqi interim government soon after it takes over on June 30, a senior official said on Tuesday.
[ Following up a story printed here, the Bush Administration has had to admit its estimation of its anti-terror successes were way off. Thanks to David Donahoe for forwarding this article. NPR’s coverage is brief, but worth a listen, too: Terrorism was at a 20-year high during 2003, rather than a 34-year low! –BL ] Jun 22, 2004 | Reuters WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Tuesday will say terrorism killed 625 people in 2003, more than double the 307 deaths it cited in a faulty report used to argue it is winning the war on terrorism, a U.S. official said. […]
21 June 2004 | Cursor.org (after June 2004) A New York Times report on Guantanamo finds "that government and military officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the intelligence they have provided," and that "contrary to the repeated assertions of senior administration officials, none of the detainees… rank as leaders or senior operatives of Al Qaeda."
June 18, 2004 | Future of Freedom Foundation by Jacob G. Hornberger Given all the indignant neoconservative “outrage” over the financial misdeeds arising from the UN’s socialist oil-for-food program during the 1990s, when the UN embargo was killing untold numbers of Iraqi children, one would think that there would be an equal amount of outrage over a much more disgraceful scandal — the U.S. delivery of weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein during the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
[ “I don’t go near the Americans anymore, because I’m afraid they will kill me,” says Ali, an 11-year-old Iraqi child whose family had celebrated the U.S. capture of Saddam. –BL ] Shooting death angers Iraqi family: US tactics in raid raise concerns June 21, 2004 | Boston Globe by Thanassis Cambanis BAGHDAD — American soldiers stormed into Sajid Kadhum Bouri al-Bawi’s house three hours after midnight on May 17, breaking two doors and rousing the dozen children who live there. An hour later, family members recalled, the soldiers led a hooded man from the house and told the family they […]
[ This story follows up an earlier one printed here. Palast’s BBC News Night piece from February of 2001 (about the Florida 2000 election debacle) is truly still well worth a watch! Underlining below is mine. –BL ] The Sour Smell of Spoiled Ballots 20 June 2004 | San Francisco Chronicle by Greg Palast In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. “Spoiled votes” is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them — half of the rejected ballots — were cast by […]
The Patriot Amendment June 17, 2004 | AlterNet.org by Molly Ivins AUSTIN, Texas — No sooner do we win a long struggle to clean up politics and restore democracy in this country than we find the whole thing under attack, and we have to go out and re-fight the same battle all over again. Good thing we’re not easily discouraged. This is what’s happening in Arizona, where the successful Clean Elections law is now under attack by the big special interests and national conservatives with ties that run from Tom DeLay (surprise!) to Bush’s fund-raising machine.
[ Although Laura Miller complains that Justin Frank’s new book, Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President is sometimes simplistic, others uneven, she finds in it some insights, excerpted below. Thanks to Alexandra Dadlez for forwarding the original article. The underlining below is mine. –BL ] Three new psychological portraits of George W. Bush paint him as a control freak driven by rage, fear and an almost murderous Oedipal competition with his father. And that’s before we get to Mom. excerpted from 16 June 2004 | Salon.com by Laura Miller … What emerges is the image of a […]