Bush is shocked to find that his soldiers tortured prisoners, but does he really intend to put an end to the practice?

I was not surprised to hear that the Bush forces were torturing Iraqis. It's normal for an occupying army to get tougher and tougher when the conquered population turns out not inclined to love its conquerors. Torture also follows a long US tradition. Remember the School of the Americas, which taught officers from other countries how to torture political prisoners and how to murder dissidents. After public protest, they changed its name, but apparently not its mission.

In addition, Americans and British have been taught to hate and despise Arabs. And until the news started to leak and embarrass them, officers did not really care much about what their men had done.

Bush forces speak of a deal where Falluja would be controlled by Iraqi forces led by a former general of Saddam Hussein.

That might work in Falluja, but since the Iraqi resistance has spread to many areas of the country, a broader solution is needed.

Perhaps Bush's next step will be to put Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq. He certainly knows how to keep Iraq under control--and will probably kill fewer Iraqis than the Bush forces have been killing. The US government supported Hussein before, so why not again? Bush only has to teach Americans to forget that Hussein was ever labeled an enemy.

A Year from "Mission Accomplished", Iraqis celebrate when Bush forces are defeated. This is not by accident, it is because of how the occupation works.

Italy's most famous TV journalist has quit, condemning Berlusconi for trying to bias the public TV there.

Another story, which is not available in a place I can stably link to, reported that Berlusconi objected when she referred to the Bush forces in Iraq as an "occupation force" and resistance to them as "Iraqi resistance". Berlusconi wanted her to call them "the coalition bringing liberty and democracy to Iraq" and "rebels".

The Irish government banned a large protest march at the last minute, after a campaign of lies designed to pretend that violence was planned by someone other than the police.

(More recently I've heard that the march took place anyway, that the protest was peaceful, but the police attacked the protestors anyway. I will post information when I find a good article to reference.)

The Iraqi resistance has helped other kinds of resistance to US and corporate power in other parts of the world.

Who is fighting who in Iraq?

Polls in Iraq show clearly that Iraqis view the Bush forces as an occupying army. Polls in the US show Americans are starting to wake up from the sleep spell that Bush cast on them. However, since Kerry has mostly supported the war, he is not benefiting from the increased opposition to Bush.

The Bush forces have started to prosecute some of the soldiers in Iraq for torturing prisoners. However, some of those involved in the torture are "civilian" contractors and thus hard to punish for what they do.

What's Wrong with the European Union?

The Bush forces have changed the Iraqi flag, but Iraqis reject it and use their old flag as a symbol of resistance.

Bush and his policies remind me increasingly of the former Soviet Union. In Iraq we see what we used to call a "puppet government" when the Soviet Union used them to rule other countries. The Soviet Union also claimed to be giving these countries great benefits.

Korean organizations are defying a law requiring them to verify the name of anyone who posts a comment about elections on the internet.

Thugs in Colombia recently killed relatives of a Coca Cola union leader.

Coca Cola company is being sued in the US for acts like this, and there is a world-wide boycott (pass the word).

The reason these things go on in Colombia is that the US-supported government there does not try to stop them.

A US court has become legal battleground for abortion vocabulary.

Unlike some people, I'm not afraid to say "abortion". I'm not "pro-choice", I'm in favor of the right to have an abortion.

Bush decided to recruit Baathist generals and teachers, after the new Iraqi army refused to fight against the resistance.

Interview with Al Sadr's men.

One said that the Bush forces are the terrorists. That description seems to be accurate, because they seem to intend to cause so much death and destruction in Falluja that Iraqis will be terrified to resist the continued occupation of their country.

FIPR reports that the ID card scheme will be an expensive failure for its stated purposes such as preventing terrorism.

In Iraq, "we" (meaning the Bush forces) are the barbarians.

I disagree partly with one point in this article: it criticizes American Liberals for a point of view that I have not seen anyone actually endorse. Speaking as a Liberal, I don't think the Liberals I know would consider the mutilation of a few dead bodies more important than the killing of thousands of civilians.

Canadian police appear to be using foreign governments to arrest traveling Canadian citizens, and bypass their human rights.

Flooding caused by global climate change could cause $40 billion damage annually in the UK by the end of this century (and proportionally more in the rest of the world). Even with the greatest possible efforts to hold back global warming, the damage will increase. Without great efforts, it will increase more.

Global warming is far more dangerous than terrorism. A hot spell killed over ten thousand people in France last summer--more than all the non-state-sponsored terrorism since 2000.

The UN launched an independent investigation into charges that the Iraq oil-for-food program was corrupted by Saddam Hussein.

There are rumors that the investigation might be given up to buy support from various countries for a UN legitimization of Bush control in Iraq.

Many problems with vote counting are expected in the 2004 US election, as Republicans walk out of the US Civil Rights Commission which is trying to address them.

Sibel Edmonds was blocked from testifying about Bush administration lies, but will have another hearing on June 14. Public support is needed.

The Bush forces threatened to enter Najaf, demanding that Al-Sadr "fight with ideas not guns". How strange, because he was doing exactly that until the Bush forces closed his newspaper. It looks like they condemn all opposition whether it is peaceful or violent. That's "democracy" for you, Bush style.

Meanwhile, the Bush forces in Baghdad started firing randomly after they were attacked, and killed four Iraqi children. Bush continues to insist that only supporters of Saddam Hussein, or foreigners, would fight back after that kind of treatment.

Here is the letter that 50 former British diplomats signed, criticizing Blair's mideast policy.

Afghan women burn themselves to death in despair because they are mistreated by their husbands and in-laws.

Future Iraqi Security Forces Are Already Unraveling.

Two ways to terrorize the public: with real attacks, or with false warnings.

Drug companies have killed hundreds of thousands by manipulating medical research. One method they use is to publish only the studies that give favorable results, hiding other studies that don't. (Parapsychologists use the same technique to fabricate evidence for psychic powers.)

Drug companies also influence studies by funding them. University researchers are afraid to publish unfavorable results because they might not get corporate funding for another study. But even those who have the courage to publish the results whatever they may be still face an obstacle: the drug companies sometimes put censorship power into their contract with the university.

The European Parliament voted to go to court against the EU's surrender to US demands for lots of personal information about air travelers.

When Christ Patten says that Europeans would want their governments to do "everything possible" to stop terrorism, "everything possible" implicitly means complete abolition of restraints on police power and the rights of the accused, and total surveillance. (To stop short of that point is not doing "everything".) He wants Europeans to hand over their rights quietly to the Bush regime, as it tries to do "everything possible" to Europeans as well as Americans.

What the 9/11 commission hearings revealed about what the Bush administration knew before 9/11. And contradictions it did not investigate.

Over 50 former British diplomats have signed a letter to Tony Blair criticising his Middle East policy.

Bush is telling more lies, this time about the USA PAT RIOT act.

Shulamit Aloni: "Like The Germans, We Don't Want To Know"

After reading this, I have to ask myself whether most Americans likewise don't want to know what the Bush forces are doing in Iraq.

Tampa police arrested Food not Bombs activists for sharing food with homeless people.

The cruelty and injustice of a law against distributing food to the homeless is evident. Many US cities try to make it impossible for homeless people to live, because they are considered ugly and may drive customers away from businesses. These businesses think the place for homeless people is in the cemetary.

Food aid to Gaza has been resumed after Israel gave way to international pressure. However, new Israeli demands threaten to halt it again.

The US government focus on foreign terrorists may be helping right-wing US terrorists regroup.

The right-wing ideology of the Bush regime might also be contributing to it.

Diebold was aware early on that its voting machines had gross flaws. The state of California is now considering decertifying them for the coming election.

The Chinese government criticizes the US human rights record.

The US Commission on Ocean Policy proposes a trust fund filled from oceanic oil and gas revenues, to protect the health of the oceans.

What is the terrible secret Vanunu could talk about?

250 French doctors have accused the right-wing governing party of trying to destroy the national health system.

The Bush forces and the US government use contract armies to evade legal restrictions. The result is that other laws are thrown by the wayside.

Pro-government militias in Sudan killed over a hundred men from a minority group. The UN is proving to be weak in its criticism of this, and Human Rights Watch says the Sudanese government has blocked UN investigation.

The US-supported leaders in Haiti, many of whom are gangsters and murderers, are arresting and murdering supporters of President Aristide.

Dubya's "ambassador" to Iraq is not a real embassador, but he has lots of experience with terrorism.

The electric power, and the security cameras, were turned off in the World Trade Center for much of September 9, 2001. This had never happened before.

There were protests at the Coca Cola annual shareholders meeting.

The attacks on the union in Colombia continue; a recent note describes how relatives of a union leader were killed in their home a few weeks ago.

Life in Iraq today, where the war isn't flaring up: occasional violence, alongside shopping--while the Bushmen live in the gated communities where Baath party leaders used to live, and try never to go outside.

Bush officials lied to Congress about the consequences of a change in air quality rules .

9/11: Gross Negligence or Treason?

What triggered the Shia insurrection? It was the March 25 announcement of Bush plans to turn Iraq into a permanent colony.

The Bush forces, operating on Sharon's advice, are traveling the same road that Sharon's invasion of Lebanon traveled, turning the Shi'ite population into persistent enemies.

Right-wing Christian fanatics that support Bush demand a middle-east policy of encouraging Israeli aggression, because they hope this will bring about their prophecies of armageddon .

NORAD held drills based on the idea of airliners used to attack buildings, in the years and months before the 9/11 attacks.

Invading Iraq was a no-brainer after Bush's lobotomy.

Recent US "free trade" treaties have phony "protections" for labor rights and the environment, but they are too vague to do any good.

Other countries should cancel these treaties.

Kerry is now talking about giving the UN real control over Iraq, which is borrowing some of Kucinich's program. Maybe that will satisfy Iraqis that it isn't a plan to turn their country into a colony. If so, maybe it will mean peace there.

However, Kerry is still saying things like "We can't fail", which really means "We can't ever admit a mistake, we can't ever cut our losses". That attitude makes all mistakes bigger.

I agree with the people polled who say that Kerry says what he thinks people want to hear. However, it is a mistake to think that Bush says what he really believes. Bush says what he wants Americans to believe--paying no attention to them. Kerry at least pays some attention.

I think that a lot of Americans are hoping now that Kerry won't stick to his position about keeping troops in Iraq "for as long as necessary". I too hope he doesn't really mean it.

Bush Says World Owes Israel's Sharon a 'Thank You'

The planned elimination of Israeli settlements from Gaza will be a good thing, if Sharon ever really does it. But we can't thank Sharon for this while ignoring the rest of what he orders the Israeli forces to do to the Palestinians.

An Internet TV station in Belgium was shut down by the police, who accused it of supporting terrorism. It is associated with an opposition group in Turkey, whose government mistreats human rights workers. (Many governments do that nowadays.)

The Israeli border police beat up a Palestinian child then used him as a human shield. When witnesses complained about this, they too were arrested and used as human shields.

Sharon's Banana Republics

Is Bush really supporting his troops?

I regret the use of the term "our troops" in that article; Americans, British, Italians, and citizens of the various countries whose troops Bush has made use of should resist the pressure to identify with Bush's war.

The propaganda used to justify the Bush invasion of Iraq has been used many times before...to justify crushing uprisings against various colonial regimes.

Washington is proposing a new agency to spy on Americans, when there are already too many intelligence agencies stumbling over each other. This is a distraction from the questions the US government really ought to focus on.

A surgeon heads for Falluja, where he will support the resistance by operating on the wounded (mostly civilians). He reports on the civilians that the Bush forces have killed, and how they did it.

An imprisoned Palestinian leader proposes peace in Gaza in exchange for effective Palestinian sovereignty within Gaza.

The Bush forces have declared main highways of Iraq off limits, essentially cutting the country in pieces.

This is the classic way for an occupying army to lose a guerrilla war: to stay in power, they must turn to increasingly oppressive security measures. These sometimes achieve their short-term goals, but they increase the occupied population's determination to win independence.

This article gives the history of the recent fighting in Iraq (through April 16), and the history that led up to it--forgotten or never learned by Americans, but remembered by Iraqis.

On the occasion of Mordechai Vanunu's non-release, here is information on Israel's weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration backed down from a demand to prohibit US publishers from editing scholarly articles published in Iran, Cuba, etc.

However, as far as I can tell, the ban on subscribing to journals from those countries remains in effect.

A human rights activist in Thailand, who is married to a member of a minority group, is about to be deported-- because he complained to the public and the UN about how the minority is treated in Thailand.

See also www.akha.org.

Mordechai Vanunu is about to be "released" from one prison into another kind of prison.

He has been forbidden to speak about how he was abducted by Israeli agents. What kind of excuse can there be for that?

A Colombian whose family members had been killed by right-wing gangs sought asylum in the UK, but the UK sent him home; they did not believe he was in danger. Two months later, he has been shot (fortunately not fatally).

The Colombian government supports these gangs, and the US government supports the Colombian government.

Why Weinstein would be suspect as US National Archivist, and how his appointment could be harmful.

Indian police have charged policemen and members of the Hindu nationalist party in the massacre of thousands of muslims in Gujarat two years ago.

Iraqi insurgents are taking control of roads. The recent Bush forces road curfews may be a response to that--but it won't work, for reasons previously explained.

Some Iraqi insurgents are capturing various foreigners who work in Iraq and holding them as hostages. They killed one Italian "security guard" who was working for a US company, and appears to have really been a mercenary quasi-soldier, guarding convoys of supplies.

For insurgents to have shot him while he was on duty would have been ordinary war. Killing him after capturing him is probably a war crime. However, wrong as that is, we should not let it distract us from the much larger war crimes being committed every day by the Bush forces.

Bush seeks to replace the Archivist of the US with a partisan supporter who will block the release of papers from the presidency of Bush I. (The office of Archivist was supposed to be non-political.)

What did not occur in Iraq really happened in Lebanon: in 1982, the Shi'ites of Lebanon welcomed invading Israeli forces as liberators. But when liberation turned into occupation, they threw the occupiers out. Bush, and everyone he asks for support, should pay attention.

The Bush administration allowed a Guantanamo interrogator to talk about an Australian prisoner, while trying to gag the prisoner's lawyer. The statement might be the truth, or it might be a disinformation campaign designed to influence a court hearing.

The Bush forces told noncombatants to flee from Falluja to Baghdad, then attacked them in the desert on the way, say witnesses.

Scientists have projected that the Greenland ice cap will begin to melt before 2100, and this could flood many coastal cities.

The Bush forces in Falluja have orders to shoot at anyone who moves during the night, without trying to determine whether the person is a combatant. That is a recipe for a massacre, so it's no surprise that one is occurring.

Iraqis in Falluja are saying that the Bush forces make them nostalgic for Saddam's secret police.

Setting the Record Wrong on "News Hour".

US taxpayers: 1/4 of your taxes are going to pay for crushing Iraq.

Kerry supports the war in Iraq, and his economic program is that of Clinton--which means, make life harder for everyone but the rich.

It looks like Kerry will continue Dubya's policy of war crimes in Iraq, and destroying social programs for the sake of the rich in the US.

Whatever question you ask, Bush has the same answer: "Iraq is a better place now, and Saddam was bad."

General Kimmitt: if seeing children being killed by the Bush forces bothers you, change the channel. Pay no attention to the killers behind the curtain!

His statement has a kind of logic behind it, which this article exposes and then refutes.

The Bush forces are heating up the fighting across Iraq. They say that about 80 of their numbers have been killed in April.

Those official casualty figures are less than half the true amount. According to Robert Fisk, at least 80 mercenaries were killed in the past week, but the Bush forces don't count them.

Jo Wilding reports on being inside an ambulance in Falluja with the Bush forces shooting at her.

She was helping to pick up wounded, because the Bush forces won't allow anyone Arab-looking to do it. People who try, just get shot in turn. Would you like your country to be "liberated" like this?

Bush and Cheney saw a whole stream of warnings about Al Qa'ida in 2001.

After the massacres of Muslims in Gujarat, the ruling Hindu Nationalist party (BJP) interfered with the trials of some of the killers. India's Supreme Court has ordered a retrial in a different state.

Japanese revisionists are trying to rewrite the history of WWII, presenting Japan as the good guy, and treating the emperor once again as a god. School textbooks are being rewritten, and teachers are punished if they do not endorse the lies.

I wish the US had put itself in a position to criticize Japan about this.

50+ U.S. CITIES HOLDING EMERGENCY IRAQ PROTESTS & new cities are announcing their plans by the hour!

Many endangered species are not protected by any of the existing wildlife reserves.

Even if they were protected, after global warming the reserves might be in the wrong places for the job.

What the Bush forces did in Sadr City, Baghdad. (Shooting an ambulance driver is just the beginning.)

This may be a partial answer to why no fighters met the hijacked planes on 9/11: only 14 fighters were kept on standby to do the job. And Rumsfeld was trying to reduce it even more.

Keeping fighters on standby is expensive, but if you plan to launch an expensive war, you need to save money somewhere.

Even some members of Bush's puppet Iraqi Governing Council have condemned the Bush forces' violent attacks of recent days.

If Bush can't find anyone to "hand control of Iraq to" on June 30, that will be good, because the "handover" would mean no benefit to Iraqis, and would help validate whatever laws or give-aways he wants to impose on Iraq.

A Russian academic was convicted of spying, after he collected information published in newspapers and books and sent it to a UK company. His trial was rigged. The case is part of a pattern of cases apparently intended to punish Russians for talking to foreigners in ways that the Russian government does not like.

I wish the US were conducting itself in better fashion, but the Bush plans for "military tribunals", and the practice of imprisonment without trial, are worse.

Conditions in the Veteran's Administration hospitals are outrageous.

One contributing factor is that the system is overloaded. With all the casualties Bush has caused, the system needs a lot more staff, or else they have to cut corners.

I was in Mass General Hospital last weekend; my arm was infected. A nurse there told me that Mass General, unlike most hospitals, did not overload their nursing staff. Still, there were times when nobody responded to my request for assistance for an hour. I'm sure they were busy with someone else who needed help more urgently, and the consequence for me was nothing serious. However, if this happens in a place with adequate staff like Mass General, I'm sure the staff in a VA hospital must be struggling to cope, struggling to do the most essential jobs. I would not blame them for trying to use the fastest possible method when a patient needs to move his bowels. They did not decide to hire too few nurses.

A friend who left nursing ten years ago told me she was required, as a condition of employment, to take legal responsibility for the actions of a number of nurse's aides who were doing things they were not licensed to do without supervision. It was her job to supervise them--but there were so many of them that she could not possibly do the job properly.

She had another field to go into, so she quit. Other nurses, who don't have any alternative except destitution, do sign, even though they must feel bad about it. They're doing something wrong, but they have been pressured into it and not everyone has the strength to resist such pressure. I would put the blame on the management, not on these nurses.

As a Bush forces commander was telling Al Jazeera that the Bush forces had declared a unilateral cease fire in Falluja, Al Jazeera was broadcasting live video of F-16s attacking residential areas of Falluja, and women and children killed by their missiles. The commander later said Al Jazeera's coverage was a "series of lies".

No wonder the Bush forces forced Al Jazeera out of Falluja. Honest journalism might show the truth.

I suppose the people refer to Al Jazeera as "the CNN of the Arab world" are unaware of what CNN is like. They probably just mean it is much more popular than anything else.

The Bush forces have been faking their public support in Iraq ever since the beginning, while using a series of ever-changing lies to keep denying the truth. The lies continue now, but more people see through them.

Just a couple of victims of America's War on Drugs.

When a war is on drugs, it forgets who the enemy was supposed to be and starts hurting whoever it can get its hands on.

Remote Control Warriors

I wish that our army could fight without putting its soldiers in danger. I also wish I could identify which army is "ours".

The Bush forces have killed over 450 Iraqis in Falluja and wounded over 1000 in a week of fighting, reports the head of the city's main hospital.

The Al Jazeera news team is the only one in Falluja. The Bush forces are demanding that it leave, as a condition of estblishing a temporary cease-fire. We know that they have been studying Israeli tactics, and Israel has used various policies to prevent outside witnesses to what their forces do in Gaza. I think Bush wants to make sure there are no witnesses to report on the next thousand casualties, or the thousand after that.

Defying Stereotypes About Death Row

This illustrates how it is easy to convict a person of some crime or other if the majority of the community starts out prejudiced against him. That lowers the threshold of evidence necessary for a conviction to the point where it's not hard to fabricate.

I think it is instructive to compare this with the recent case where several American Muslims were sentenced to 50 years in prison under guilt by association.

Coleen Rowley is an FBI agent who in May 2002 wrote to the director accusing the FBI top brass of hampering the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui. This letter was published.

In a recent interview she reveals that the FBI is gagging her from telling the public any more about what the FBI did wrong.

Putin won the Russian election by controlling the media, but the vote counting was fishy too.

NJ policemen have been sentenced to prison for beating a handcuffed man to death.

It's common for police to savage those who have been detained, and not too rare for this to be fatal. It feels good to see them, for once, punished under the same laws that they claim to enforce.

The Iraqi intelligence source who reported mobile bioweapons labs was already known as a habitual liar.

It has been documented that Bush and Blair agreed to attack Iraq just days after the 9/11 attacks, and that they used various more or less dishonest means to come up with excuses for it. Treating false or unreliable information as valid is a pattern commonly repeated.

Ocean "dead zones" caused by excess fertilizer runoff are growing.

High demand for beef speeds destruction of Amazon forest.

Around 1/4 million seabirds were killed by the oil spilled from the tanker Prestige, which sank near Spain.

The Bush administration refuses to show the 9/11 investigation the speech that Rice was supposed to give on 9/11, but nonetheless claims it is cooperating with the investigation.

Saying and doing opposite things is common for politicians; only a few, the truly honest ones, don't do it. But Bush seems to do this everywhere, every time.

Neither Fallujah nor the Iraqi Shi'ites supported Saddam before the war. The Bush forces created the armed opposition that they face now. In each case they started with violence against nonviolent opposition. After the opposition took up violence too, the Bush forces escalated it.

(The "contractors" working for Blackwater Security would be more accurately described as mercenary soldiers in the Bush forces.)

Al-Sadr claims that the Iraqi Ministry of Justice says it has no evidence to suspect him of involvement in the murder of another Shi'ite cleric in Apil 2003. Perhaps this is why the Bush forces were unable to cite any such evidence when asked by the press.

Bush has taught the Iraqis something about freedom and democracy, and justice as well. They now ridicule the idea that he supports those ideals. If only Americans would learn this.

Sibel Edmonds says that before 9/11 she saw specific warnings that terrorists might use airplanes to attack skyscrapers in the US.

The Bush administration wants Americans to say "Support our troops" but its own idea of supporting the troops is more like cheating them and endangering them. Here's a compendium of different ways.

I don't agree 100% with all of the points made there. I disagree that the US should have a larger army--if it avoids unjust war, the current army is quite adequate.

I think that it is right to explain to reservists that they may someday be called up--people joining the reserves should understand that the reserves exist because they may be needed in war. What was wrong was to get people to join by encouraging them to imagine they'd never have to fight.

Today in America - Conservative Fascism and Environmental Decline . Key American Ideals Are in Conflict with the Earth and Other Nations.

Walter Cronkite describes several instances where Bush has used secrecy to support lies. And sometimes used lies to support the secrecy.

Copyright will prevent thousands of Canadian boaters from updating their computerized navigational charts this year. The result could be dangerous.

The Canadian government should not allow any monopolies or limitations on the use of navigational charts, or other maps. Everyone should be free to redistribute them, and to publish changed versions too, as long as they label them as changed. The GNU GPL would be a good license to use.

China announced a bizarrely twisted interpretation of Hong Kong's basic law, intended to prevent direct elections in Hong Kong.

Another article, for which I can't find a good URL, said that Hong Kong's democracy campaigners are not giving up. They may try to pressure Hong Kong's nondemocratic government into adopting democracy even though Beijing does not like it.

How the closure of Al-Sadr's newspaper led to widespread fighting in Iraq. The fighting was not inevitable, at least not now. But the Bush forces repeatedly acted to make things worse: first closing the paper, then arresting Al-Sadr's aide, then saying they would arrest Al-Sadr himself.

The Bush forces are meeting heavier fighting in Fallujah now than anything they encountered a year ago. Officers are comparing this with Vietnam.

The fighting in most Iraqi cities has shut down normal life around the country. People are afraid to go out on the street, afraid in particular to get near a Bush forces convoy.

A few Iraqis talk about how the blind killing of their relatives, and the arrest of others, and a year of humiliation and fear, have brought them to the point where all they want is to kick the Bush forces (they say "America") out of their country.

I don't know if they will ever see a distinction between America itself and the perversion of America that is George Bush.

Here's an article that argues that the Bush forces cannot transfer control of Iraq to a provisional government, because they don't have control of Iraq.

The article proceeds to say that the Bush forces should make sure someone or something is in control in Iraq before leaving. Some Democratic presidential candidates took similar positions. However, the article doesn't suggest how to do this, and neither did most of those presidential candidates.

I doubt that the Bush forces have the ability to put anyone "in control" in Iraq. Whoever they try to put in charge will be seen as an illegitimate foreign puppet. As they did in Vietnam, maybe large military forces could keep the puppet in power officially, at the cost of permanent war, but pull them out and he will fall.

Kucinich suggested the UN might be able to take control, if the US allowed the UN to make clear that it would not let Bush steal Iraqi oil or impose privatization schemes, etc. I am not sure that any international organization commands enough trust among Iraqis to be able to do this now.

If the common hatred for Bush can unite Shi'ites and Sunnis, maybe they can establish some sort of government together without the need for a bloodbath. I am not sure whether it will be better than Saddam's regime, but it would be better than the present permanent war of occupation. There would still be the problem of how they would deal with the Kurds, who mostly want to be independant. Perhaps if they peacefully recognize indepedence for the Kurds, at least in a quiet de-facto way, a civil war can be avoided.

Nonviolent protestors (Palestinian, Israeli, and foreigners together) blocked construction of the land-grab wall through the Palestinian village of Biddu. But they paid a high price, since the Israeli soldiers tried violence before they gave up and went away.

Nonviolent resistance is growing in Palestine, and it is even becoming a point of solidarity for some Israelis with Palestinians. It is like a dream starting to come true. But this dream could still be forcibly crushed. Sharon wants Palestinians to commit terrorist acts which could be an excuse for even more deadly Israeli terrorist acts. If nonviolent resistance starts to succeed, Palestinians might head in that direction instead and away from terror. Then what excuse will Sharon use?

I expect Sharon will respond to nonviolent resistance with constantly increasing violence.

A doctor testified in support of the the law prohibiting the "dilation and extraction" abortion technique, claiming that a 20-week fetus can feel pain, and that it is conscious.

He surely is exaggerating about the latter. A fetus at that stage of development cannot be conscious the way a dog or a cow is conscious, since its brain cells are mostly not wired up to each other. (That happens arond the 7th month, I think I recall.) It can't even have the consciousness of a lobster. The most it can be capable of is reflexes, and that does not confer rights. A fetus after 20 weeks of development qualifies as a kind of animal, but it is not a person.

We generally condemn causing animals unnecessary suffering, but most people do not condemn killing animals. Even most vegetarians will support the killing of animals for stronger reasons, such as when a particular animal is causing great trouble for people.

If fetuses can feel some kind of pain, perhaps we should anesthetize the fetus during an abortion, so it doesn't feel any pain. But that doesn't translate into an obligation to keep it alive until it turns into a person. It doesn't merit the right to life until it is a person.

Unlike most supporters of abortion rights, I do not oppose the recent law that makes it a crime to injure a fetus (abortion excluded). If you do something to a fetus so that *when* it becomes a person it is seriously injured or impaired, at that point a person has indeed been harmed.

I doubt there is any need for a law against this as regards individuals, since I doubt many people intentionally injure fetuses. When they do, it is probably a crime for some other reasons already.

Corporations, however, have sometimes willfully followed practices that they knew would subject fetuses to the danger of being deformed or impaired after they become persons--through toxic products, and toxic environmental pollution. And the biggest culprit is the US Army, with its uranium munitions. The uranium can cause birth defects.

If such a law is to be effective, it has to be aimed primarily at corporations and government agencies, rather than at individuals.

Many stores are cheating workers by falsifying their working hours.

It is illegal to do this, and some workers are beginning to sue. However, with both management and workers terrified of losing their jobs, often nobody says "Stop!" What we see here is that the shortage of living-wage jobs in the US creates a situation where it is easy for businesses to cut everyone's pay. It is hard to hold back so much pressure.

It would be useful for some state officials to start investigating this and prosecuting the lying managers. They could send in undercover agents to take jobs and carefully record their hours, and check whether the store reduces them. That might scare the crooked managers enough that they stop.

Meanwhile, I think that the size of the chains that these stores are part of plays a role too. The chain can put pressure on managers to cheat or else be replaced, without officially ordering them to cheat; and thus they can deny responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

A publication by the human rights group Liberty demolishes the case for national ID cards in the UK.

Condoleezza Rice's testimony in the 9/11 investigation is part of a deal that enables her to get away with lies, because the investigation will be unable to summon further testimony from anyone else who worked with or for her.

Iraq is falling into chaos as the insurrection spreads to most major cities.

The Bush forces are treating nearly all Iraqis as enemies now, and learning from the Israeli Army how to do it. Can anyone still believe the fiction that they are trying to "liberate" these selfsame Iraqis? Rumsfeld said recently that this is a "contest of wills". The contest is now between the Bush administration and the people of Iraq.

The Bush forces say they want to arrest Al-Sadr for a murder committed months ago, but refuse to disclose any evidence connecting him to the crime. We have to suspect that there isn't any evidence, and that this accusation was fabricated as a response to the protests he launched about the closure of his movement's newspaper. This backfired, and Bush got what he deserved.

I don't think that the many (Americans, Iraqis, and others) who were killed or wounded in the process deserved what they got. This fighting is pointless and unnecessary. We have to ask, is it virtuous to be stubborn and never admit a mistake? Is there any reason for this contest of wills against Iraqis who want independence for their country?

The right thing to do in Iraq is to let the Iraqis win soon. They will win in the end, but the longer it takes, the more people will suffer or die along the way.

Blair is citing a thwarted bomb plot in the UK, as well as the actual bombings in Spain, as a new excuse for imposing compulsory ID cards.

These are completely irrational grounds. The UK government's success in thwarting this plot shows there is little need for compulsory ID cards. The success of the bombs in Spain, which already has compulsory ID cards (a hold-over from Franco's tyranny, I'd guess), shows they are not necessarily effective.

This article explains how terrorists will be able to get official ID cards using false identification. These ID cards won't be labeled "terrorist".

Whether or not they are useful for preventing terrorism, ID cards may be useful for Blair's unadmitted goal, which is to crush dissent. The UK's "anti-terrorism" laws have been repeatedly applied to nonviolent protestors, and ID cards will surely be no exception.

Former professor Al-Arian is to be tried for financing terrorism. The US government has refused to give the court the recordings of his phone taps.

They say this is because "he already knows what's in them", which is completely absurd. The point is not what he knows, but what he can demonstrate in court. If this is evidence that would clear him, he has the right to get it and present it; to deny him evidence that is available to the government prosecuting him would make the trial manifestly unfair.

Republicans in Bush's Office of Strategic Communications in Iraq are sending out press releases about the "progress" of the war designed to help re-elect Bush.

Only some of the soldiers in the Bush forces in Iraq come from armies of various countries. Many are "civilian" mercenaries. The four "civilians" recently killed in Fallujah were mercenaries, not real civilians at all. This is a tactic designed to underestimate the casualty figures.

The stupid war in Iraq is putting such strain on the Bush forces that they are sending injured soldiers back into combat against medical orders. Often the result is to exacerbate the injury that didn't have time to heal.

Ten years of mergers have made the US oil industry highly concentrated at all levels. The result is a lack of real competition. Public Citizen points out how the Bush energy bill would do nothing to help, and would actually make this worse.

I support all of Public Citizen's recommendations, but I think they don't go far enough. Today's 5 big oil companies should be split up into at least 15 companies. It is dangerous to let companies become too big, in any field, because that gives them power no company should have.

Meanwhile, we had better increase the gasoline tax so that people start to conserve, as they do in Europe.

The Republican Party is trying to shut down various Democratic political activist groups before the election.

When Jeb Bush blocked tens of thousands of eligible black voters from voting in Florida, thus stealing the election for Dubya, it took two years to reach a settlement that Florida wouldn't do this any more. That was long enough for Jeb Bush to get himself reelected before giving them back their voting rights. Dubya apparently believes that he deserves fast service while Democrats do not.

9 days after September 11, Bush got Blair to promise to support an attack on Iraq. When Blair subsequently claimed that he had made no final decision, he was lying.

Some soldiers returning from the Bush forces are suffering from poisoning from the uranium used in munitions --and in tank armor in US tanks, too.

While it may be a good idea to test more soldiers for this problem, that is not much of a solution, since there is no treatment for uranium poisoing. The only constructive action we can take is to stop using uranium in supposedly non-nuclear weapons.

Iraqi insurgents mounted several large attacks on the Bush forces, causing substantial casualties.

The quotes from the Bush forces claim signs of success which really don't mean anything. Killing some of the insurgent fighters means nothing, and even capturing their leaders means little, since they can always recruit more. The strength of a guerrilla campaign is limited either by available arms or by public support. Arms being plentiful in Iraq, public support is the limiting factor. The Bush forces may "retake" Fallujah in some sense, but what they do to achieve this will increase public support for the insurgents. I saw some news about helicopters shooting at a mosque and killing people. That's not likely to win any hearts and minds.

One other point: the arrest warrant against Al-Sadr is based on the killing of a rival cleric by a mob. I wonder what evidence there is to connect the killing with Al-Sadr in particular. While I would surely be strongly against his religious views, I still have to wonder if he is being framed. I wish the US had the sort of leadership I could count on not to do such a thing.

I've also read claims that the arrest warrant for Al-Sadr was in response to predominantly peaceful protests about the closure of a newspaper (previously reported below). It sounds like the current increased violence was instigated by the Bush forces.

Bush may try to delay the 9/11 commission report until after the election.

The Taliban were seriously considering turning over Osama bin Laden to the US in early 2001.

I hoped for liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban for other reasons (which is why I supported the US invasion there). Unfortunately things are not going very well, partly because the aid that would have been needed to get Afghanistan on its feet has been spent instead on war in Iraq.

A 15-year-old female, was accused of "child abuse" as well as "child pornography", for taking nude photos of herself and posting them on the Internet. They are taking the prudish term "self abuse" seriously to the point of cruelty.

I have not seen these photos, but 15 years is several years past the average age of puberty in the US. Calling her a "child" is an exaggeration almost as dishonest as accusing her of "abusing" herself.

The prohibition of "child pornography" is based on the premise that a child has been abused in producing it. In some cases, that may be true. But this case proves it is sometimes false. I wish I knew how to contact her, so I could tell her, "Don't ever admit that there was any wrong in what you did!"

Rice was preparing a speech for Sep 11 on national security, which focused on missile defense and paid no attention to terrorism as a threat.

To speak about missile defense is not itself a bad thing, since missile defense might be a good idea if it worked and were affordable. (The actual plans for missile defense plans are an absurd waste and would not work.) But this reinforces other evidence that the Bush administration was ignoring Al Qa'ida until Sep 11.

After Sep 11, Al Qa'ida became the favorite excuse to attack "enemies" such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and civil liberties and justice in the US, which had no real connection with Al Qa'ida.

A New Zealand advocate of the right to die has been convicted of murder because she granted the request of her terminally ill mother for a quick death.

There is no justice in forcing suffering people to live to the bitter end. The purpose of jury trials is so that juries can prevent governments from imprisoning people for reasons that their peers consider unjust. The jurors should have disregarded the judge and voted "not guilty".

Camilo Mejia, a soldier in the Bush forces, ran away rather than return to Iraq. His experiences convinced him that he was fighting on the side of injustice.

His commander accused Mejia of cowardice. I am sure it was frightening to be in Iraq; but is obeying orders and not thinking true courage?

The corporations that are helping to shift Americans' eating habits in the direction of obesity are pushing a bill to exempt themselves from liability for the results.

Individuals have part of the responsibility for what they eat, but other actors in society share the responsibility. Individuals pay most of the price of their own obesity, and will continue to do so. It makes sense to ensure that the other actors that share the responsibility also pay part of the price; then they may change their actions.

A high school student in Arizona was arrested for wearing his cap turned sideways.

The authorities said this was a "symbol of defiance". There's some doubt about whether that's true, so let's imagine he had worn a completely explicit and indisputable symbol, like the anarchist shirt that Katie Sierra wore. Would that justify arresting someone, in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

If the people who run the school district think this conduct is even remotely close to legitimate, they deserve to be fired. They are running their school system to teach Americans to obey tyrants. Not just real defiance, but even its symbols, are forbidden. Three cheers for the students who protested this arrest!

Note also how the "crime" of failing to obey an arbitrary demand was disguised under other names. This is standard practice for stretching laws into injustice.

Iraqi resistance forces in Fallujah killed nine of the Bush forces, then burned and hung some of the corpses, as crowds cheered. (This article mentions four contractors, but five official soldiers were killed in a separate attack. The Bush forces use lots of contractors alongside official soldiers, as an excuse to understate casualty figures.)

Those who describe this attack as an "atrocity" and "barbaric" are exaggerating. There have been real atrocities in Iraq--for instance, killing unarmed religious pilgrims, and dropping tons of depleted uranium dirty bombs. The car bomb recently set off in a market is the kind of act that qualifies as an atrocity, though perhaps it was not big enough to deserve the term. But this attack, which was directed at members of the occupying forces and hit no one else, was simply war. We should not weaken the word "atrocity" by applying it to attacks against occupying armies.

Perhaps those who use these words are expressing horror at the mutilation of the corpses. Since they claim to be devout Christians, they should remember that according to their own religion a corpse is just an empty husk. Damaging a corpse is not hurting the person who died, who is beyond all harm; it merely expresses anger. The cheering crowds showed that the anger was general, not limited to the few who were actually holding the corpses.

How should we respond to this anger? We could, like the Bush administration, use it as an excuse to attack all the Iraqis in Fallujah. (This could mean committing a real atrocity.) But it would be more intelligent to reflect on what the Bush forces have done to arouse this anger, and whether it is justified.

The US Senate is considering a bill to censor university education in departments that teach foreign languages. The House already passed it.

The International Federation of Journalists criticized Belgium Bfor laws that inadequately protect the freedom of the press, and said this made Brussels a bad place to locate EU institutions.

This problem was illustrated by the arrest of investigative journalist Hans-Martin Tillack

The US vetoed a UN resolution condemning the Israeli murder of Sheikh Yassin and bystanders. The resolution condemned "all attacks against civillians". The only state that opposed it was the US.

Why does the US support attacks on civilians? The article explains that the US also engages in such assassinations. The US may at present to be limiting this policy to armed adversaries that it cannot arrest, much as Israel did until recent years, but they do kill bystanders.

As explained in that article, we cannot expect Democrats to criticize assassination any more than Bush does. There is more opposition to this assassination policy within Israel than in the US.

The president of Uzbekistan, with US support, has banned opposition parties. This illustrates how Bush supports democracy around the world.

Israeli forces attacked and arrested Israeli peace activists who were nonviolently blocking the demolition of Arab homes. They also attacked and arrested settlers who were blocking the demolition of a new settlement attempt.

If looked at superficially, those two attacks seem symmetrical, but the situation is not really balanced. The settlers are taking the Palestinians' land, and are only rarely impeded in doing so. The Palestinians are using their own land, and are subject to a barrage of demolitions.

The UNWRA, which provides food to much of the population of Gaza, says that Israeli checkpoint restrictions have forced it to stop. It can no longer bring enough food in. The problem has continued so long that its warehouses in Gaza have run empty.

If Israel does not relent, this could mean mass starvation.

Bayer gave up on trying to grow genetically modified corn in the UK. Bayer said the conditions made it uneconomical.

One of the tough conditions that Bayer surely did not like was that if Bayer's modified genes polluted the crops of other farmers, Bayer would be liable for the damages. This illustrates that much of global business only appears to be "economically viable" because the corporations dump part of the costs on other people.

A fairly hawkish Israeli commentator says that the murder of Sheikh Yassin shows that Sharon has no strategy for peace.

As Bush continually asks for more government power "to fight terrorism", he doesn't fund the full use of the government's existing powers for this purpose.

This is more evidence that terrorism is just an excuse for an agenda based on ulterior motives.

A researcher who published information on flaws he discovered in an anti-virus program is being prosecuted in France for "counterfeiting".

Dennis Kucinich says he regards uranium munitions as illegal under the existing treaties about war, and would order the cessation of their use.

Many US businesses impose drug tests on their employees. The employees respond by trying to fool the tests.

There might be a legitimate reason to test whether employees are incapacitated (due to drugs or other reasons) while on the job, but these tests detect drug use while off the job, and that is none of the employer's business. I think it is justified for employees to lie about such things.

This article analyzes the evidence about the September 11 attack on the Pentagon, in an attempt to determine what actually happened. It ends up with a peculiar conclusion, which in my view suggests that the evidence is simply hard to reconcile.

I still think it is unlikely that the US government organized the September 11 attacks (though Bush seems to have played a big role in failing to stop them). However, the fact that much of the important evidence has been withheld from the public is suspicious.

If the official investigations are to command respect, they need to investigate the evidence--all of it, including the Pentagon security tapes and the recorders of the airplanes--and establish for us, not just assume, that the buildings were hit by jetliners, that the jetliners were being flown by hijackers, and who the hijackers were.

Bremer closes hardline newspaper and Iraqis ask: Is this democracy US-style?

Sharks around the world are in danger from fishers who cut off their fins for shark fin soup, and let the rest of the shark rot.

A friend who studies sharks in Tahiti says that the sharks she has studied for years have recently all been killed for their fins. (These sharks do not hurt people--they are too small for that.) If all the mature females are killed, the species cannot reproduce. It may soon be wiped out in the Tahiti area. And perhaps everywhere else too, since the finning is going on world-wide.

The Afghan government postponed first elections, to gain time to disarm warlords and register voters.

This may be necessary; I am sure they wouldn't accept the humiliation of this delay if they did not have to. But will it be sufficient?

Uri Avnery explains how Hamas, including the recently murdered Sheikh Yassin, has been willing to accept peace in the past -- and how his killing is helping to unite Palestinian combat organizations even as it helps convert pragmatic supporters of Hamas into hard-core religious fanatics.

Comparisons with events in Israel's own liberation struggle add to the interest of the article.

Assassination was formerly an Israeli tactic applied, very rarely, against fighters living in hostile foreign countries--in effect, a tactic of war.

Assassinating people in territories where the Israeli army moves at will is a different matter. And that's not even to mention the regular killing of bystanders.

Condoleezza Rice is contradicting herself and other administration officials, as the tissue of lies falls apart.

The US has started making threats against Jamaica over its plans to host Haitian President Aristide.

The Caribbean nations have refused to recognize the Haitian government that the US installed.

How global corporations move their profits and losses around artificially, so as to avoid taxes and bilk the public. And how the US government encouraged dictators to stash their funds in dollars.

Prohibiting related businesses from operating in multiple countries might help with the problem of phony transfer pricing. If country X says that its businesses must deal with those of other countries through short-term contracts only, and makes sure they get negotiated in a competitive situation, that trick could not be played. (That solution might be appropriate for some fields and not others.)

A little known international organization is being allowed to impose biometric passports in many countries.

More information

In Europe, the recent medium-sized terrorist attack in Madrid is already being cited as an excuse to attack civil liberties, including increased surveillance of travel.

A US investigation found Bush acted inadequately against Al Qa'ida. While it's true that we can't demand of any government that it block all terrorist attacks, the Bush administration had enough information to block the 9/11 attacks--if only it had tried.

This article lays out why the 9/11 attacks should have been stopped.

Several members of the Bush administration have been telling demonstrable lies about the 9/11 attacks and about the decision to invade Iraq.

Amnesty International summarizes how the US is violating both treaties and the international standards of human rights, imprisoning people in Guantanamo with no trials or with sham trials.

Three scandals at once about the Bush Medicare law.

The Bush regime used the PAT RIOT act to seize a lawyer's email from AOL, and turn off his account as well. This included privileged communications with his clients. This punishment was imposed without a trial--if he wants to challenge it, he has to sue the government, which is impractical for a mere individual even when he is a lawyer.

Punishment without trial has been a feature of US law for 20 years. Using the procedure called "civil forfeiture", state or federal governments can seize your assets (including your car, your house, or your money) on suspicion it was used in connection with buying drugs. Then you have to sue to get it back, and if you ever do, it may be trashed completely.

Springmann could have prevented part of this disaster by not keeping any important information in his ISP's machine. Don't use the services that offer to keep your mail and your address book! Keep them on your own computer. The police can't seize your own computer without at least informing you, and you may get a chance to argue about it. If you keep backups, they won't be able to present much of an argument for seizing those. Meanwhile, use encrypted mail for anything sensitive.

Springmann's failure to do these things was a mistake in that it made him more vulnterable, but such mistakes do not excuse wrongdoing. If you walk into a dangerous part of town, that may be a mistake, but it doesn't excuse someone else for robbing or raping you there. The issue is the same here.

The madness of King George.

Three Americans have been sentenced to 50 years in prison for association with an organization that was subsequently declared terrorist.

These men had neither committed nor planned any act that would normally be called a crime. In the tyranny of today's US, playing paintball with the wrong people is considered a crime.

The article raises the possibility that these people's religion was part of the motive for this abortion of justice. I think that doesn't change anything. Guilt by association is so unjust that nothing can make it worse.

The 9/11 investigation commission got testimony from Rumsfeld, but omitted to ask him several crucial questions about the lack of the standard military response to the hijackings.

An investigation cannot be adequate unless it gets to the bottom of why fighter planes were not immediately dispatched, as usual, to the hijacked jets. If there was some sort of hijacking training exercise on 9/11, the investigation needs to figure out how it happened that the real hijackings occurred on the same day.

FBI translator Sibel Edmonds says she was told, after 9/11, to change her translations of some intercepted messages in order to support Bush priorities. Then she was both bribed and threatened not to tell the public about these orders.

The European Union had a prominent journalist arrested. He was investigating corruption; perhaps he made some corrupt officials feel uncomfortable.

As the president of South Africa was celebrating Human Rights Day and inaugurating the Constitutional Court, the police were attacking and arresting peaceful protestors trying to march there.

Just ten years ago, South Africa held its first democratic elections. How quickly those who fight for liberty can become the oppressors.

The BBC is cracking down harshly on people who were involved in broadcasting the slightly flawed report based on Dr Kelly's information. Their colleagues are standing up for them.

Mordecai Vanunu is still wondering whether he will be subject to some form of prison-after-prison when his sentence for whistle-blowing ends.

"Administrative detention" is what Bush has done with two supposed terrorist suspects. It's another word for "nobody has any rights".

How is the Gaza Strip different from a prison?

New Israeli restrictions keep most foreigners out of Gaza, so that they can't observe the atrocities committed there, or participate in non-violent resistance.

Exxon has delayed for 15 years the payment of compensation for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This is ruining people's lives.

The atmospheric carbon dioxide level increased even more in 2003 than in recent years.

Israelis have joined their Palestinian neighbors in petitioning to reroute the separation wall to prevent the wall from cutting those neighbors off from their land.

Scientists have projected the extinction of up to 50% of all species of life in the coming century, but this is a rough estimate. Perhaps only 40% of species will be wiped out. This isn't reliable enough to satisfy Bush, who has relaxed the requirements for protecting endangered species in some US forests.

Protecting a species in small areas may work while the climate is stable and that can keep living where they live now. But we know the climate is going to change.

It is ironic that Israel is now assassinating HAMAS leaders (along with whoever is in the area at the time), because Israel secretly supported HAMAS in the 80s to weaken the position of Arafat. (The history parallels that of the US with Osama bin Laden, and also with Saddam Hussein.)

In recent years, HAMAS has given Israel an excuse to destroy the Palestinian police force--on the grounds that it could not control HAMAS terrorism. Now Israel can forever demand that Arafat stop terrorism, confident he is in no position even to try.

I have to ask: when civilians are killed by a bomb, does the fact that it was dropped by a pilot in total safety, rather than carried by a person expecting to die, mean this is not terrorism?

Israel's defense is that these killings are "targeted". Not all the victims are random, since one person has been singled out for attack. But does the fact that one of the victims was specifically intended mean that the inevitable killing of unknown others is not terrorism? For instance, if a suicide bomber were to detonate a bomb at a street corner where a specific government employee is thought to be passing by, would this mean that the deaths of others who were passing by at the time was not terrorism?

Civilized countries are supposed to arrest those who are accused of wrongdoing, or at least offer them the chance to surrender. Shooting without warning, even if it were done with weapons that usually did not kill bystanders, is barbarism. But its sneaky purpose is to make sure the cycle of revenge continues.

The Bush forces imprisoned Al Jazeera reporters for 6 weeks, torturing them, based on false accusations while refusing to check the facts. This is part of a systematic campaign to suppress independent Arabic reporting from Iraq.

The campaign also includes European journalists. Robert Fisk reports on the visit he received.

I like the way he has identified the practice of insulting people, and tacking on "Sir" as an excuse to claim to have been polite. The resulting message is an insult disguised transparently as respectful treatment.

We also see, in these reports, examples of the standard practice of excusing outrageous acts with outrageous lies. This pattern is widely repeated. During the capture of Baghdad, when a Bush forces tank killed Al Jazeera staff in the hotel that all the foreign journalists used, they said "We were being fired at from that room". This was provably false.

To tell a blatant lie, one that everyone knows is a lie, conveys the message: "We won't hesitate to lie any time. The truth won't protect you, because we spit on the truth."

Which is more serious--broadcasting "indecent" material, or killing an employee?

It is interesting to view the Israeli assassination of Sheikh Yassin in the light of this article by Lev Grinburg of Ben Gurion University.

Increasing carbon dioxide in the air is changing the ecology of the Amazon rainforest, helping some species and hurting others.

This is an additional threat to the survival of whatever species make it past habitat destruction and global warming. It may also contribute to global warming, because it favors trees that absorb less carbon dioxide.

The Vancouver police department defended its violent attacks on activists--thus placing the moral onus for the act directly on the department's leadership.

The "interim" Iraqi constitution is designed so that the Bush-appointed governing council can make decisions that elected Iraqis will be unable to undo.

This must be how Bush plans to steal the oil and force the doors open for Halliburton and Bechtel to privatize the government.

The assassination of the leader of HAMAS illustrates how Sharon ensures the continuation of sufficient terrorism to serve as an excuse for his policies.

Israeli soldiers shot at nonviolent protestors, both Israeli and Palestinian, who were jointly opposing the construction of the land-grab wall.

They used rubber bullets, but used them in a way forbidden by Army regulations because it is too likely to kill or seriously injure people. And--isn't this amazing--they were building the wall in violation of a court order to stop.

It's not news that the Israeli forces act like an occupying army. What's noteworthy is that they act that way towards Israelis and their civil institutions, as well as towards Palestinians and theirs.

Bush proposes a constitutional amendment to "protect democracy".

Richard Clarke, who was Bush's chief counterterrorism advisor, says he was pressured to blame the 9/11 attacks on Iraq.

He also says that Bush paid very little attention to terrorism as a threat prior to 9/11.

Rep. Waxman has made a report analyzing the pattern of statements made about Iraq by Bush and his main lieutenants.

A million protestors opposed the occupation of Iraq.

In Kosovo, Albanian gangs are rampaging against the few remaining Serbs, driving them out. Although the official leaders of the Albanians say they disapprove, they can't or won't stop this.

I'm not surprised by this; in fact, I was surprised to learn that so many Serbs were still in Kosovo. I supported the NATO intervention in Kosovo, but I did not think it had any chance of leading to ethnic tolerance. NATO prevented Serbia from permanently oppressing, or driving out, or killing, large numbers of Albanians; shortly thereafter, the KLA (which was effectively a gang) drove most of the Serb minority out of Kosovo. The expulsion of the remaining Serbs is evil, but at least it's a smaller evil.

Kerry supported Bush in asking the newly elected leader of Spain to continue supporting the Bush forces in Iraq. Fortunately he seems to be courageous enough to stand up to both of them.

Kerry is only a little better than Bush. Kerry voted for the USA PAT RIOT Act. Kerry voted to invade Iraq. Kerry supports the Reagan/Clinton policies of globalizing the power of corporations. I'm not sure if I will vote for him, but I can't possibly endorse him.

Haitian President Aristide is now visiting Jamaica at the request of a group of caribean nations. The US ambassador said that allowing Aristide to come so near Haiti is "promoting violence".