Politics of War

"Gennady Yefstafiyev, a former general in Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, wrote: 'The US's long term goals in Iran are obvious: to engineer the downfall of the current regime; to establish control over Iran's oil and gas; and to use its territory as the shortest route for the transportation of hydrocarbons under US control from the regions of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia and China. This is not to mention Iran's intrinsic military and strategic significance.'" [more]

"'Every single thing the U.S. did led to civil war,' says Christian Parenti, author of 'The Freedom,' his account of occupied Iraq. 'The failure of reconstruction, the firing of the army, the blatant theft of Iraqi oil money, the use of the Badr Brigade, the use of Peshmerga, the use of death squads, the use of indiscriminate detention and torture, the destruction of Falluja and other towns in Al Anbar province,' explains Parenti, created a raging insurgency and sparked civil war. [more]

"The Eco-village was the epicenter of brilliant tactical coordination. This was a result of months of reconnaissance work and a chaotic yet functional plan of blockading that provided both fluidity and agility. As soon as a report would come in that one blockade was breaking or being threatened by the police, the transportation team would have vehicles ready to take people to the location and reinforce the blockade." [more]

Three seemingly unrelated recent events highlight the imperial nature of the Bush administration's foreign policy: U.S. F-16 sales to Pakistan, the creation of an office in the State Department to plan for future U.S military interventions in developing nations and the indefinite detention in Guantanamo prison of a German man held on the basis of secret evidence that even U.S. intelligence disputes... [more]

An eyewitness report from the 2004 Presidential Inauguration protests in Washington, D.C. [more]

"Hundreds of Pakistanis staged rallies against President Pervez Musharraf in a day of protests after he reneged on his pledge to quit as army chief." [more]

"A revolutionary antiwar movement should be well aware of its ability to create a real state of exception, that is an exception to the exception of global civil war." [more]

"If we study the recent propaganda war waged by Iran's enemies, we will see that it demonstrates their renewed use of old tricks that America has used for the past 25 years. Iran is very familiar with these tricks. However, as to why such accusations are raised at this time, it must be clearly connected with America's defeat in Iraq and the failure of the White House to force Iran to accept the unconditional surrender of its nuclear program." [more]

Interview with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Dr Iyad Allawi by Raja Talab and Ghayth al-Tarawinah; place, date not given: "Allawi: The Prophet's Family Is an Element Unifying the Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, and Kurds" [more]

"Taking a look at the new Bush administration composition in the ministries and institutions that are affiliated to the White House reveals that powerful and influential neo-conservative leaders that earlier were busy in America's research and study centers such as the American Enterprise, the Heritage Institute, the Near East Political Institute, etc., devising and drawing up projects such as the "New American Century", the national security document, have been transferred from centers of producing ideas to centers of decision-making." [more]

"The deals were agreed as three Polish soldiers were killed in Iraq Wednesday and four injured when their Sokol helicopter made an emergency landing south of Baghdad." [more]

"The 'war on terrorism' the United States is babbling about can never coexist with genuine democracy. In the places where the United States wages the 'war on terrorism,' the democratic freedom and rights of the people are repressed and obliterated and the sovereignty of countries and nations is violated without any exception." [more]

"It seems that the other side supporting Abbas is trying at the same time to carry out a harsh and violent pressure campaign on anyone they can apply pressure on within the wings of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, in order to fragment the determination of the firm and controlling group that support Al-Barghuthi. This also explains the emergence of media expressions about differing stances within the Brigades every now and then." [more]

Mr Bush will remain in office till 2008 and General Musharraf would like to be still president when the next general elections are held in Pakistan in 2007. A lot will doubtless happen in Pakistan before that but for any Pakistani leader to rule in Pakistan external support is traditionally a crucial factor. [more]

Long-awaited proposals on reforming the United Nations have been unveiled. Backers hope they will rejuvenate the world body. But they come at a time when the UN is under fire—especially from Americans, many of whom think it is irrelevant and corrupt [more]

Iraq and neighbours Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey signed off on the document in a closed-door meeting Monday, with the Egyptian hosts turning down any last-minute amendments. The text was put to the rest of the delegates Tuesday for approval. [more]

Any U.S.-brokered Israeli settlement reached with Abbas and Qurei would lack widespread legitimacy among Palestinians and would thus be only a paper agreement. [more]

" With the Truman Doctrine and the declaration of support for the governments of the world against the destructive actions of the Communists, this expansionism increased. The Eisenhower Doctrine was a continuation, strengthening, and completion of the past expansionism. With the Kennedy and Nixon Doctrines, the military treaties, nuclear weapons, intercontinental missiles, and suppression of independence-seeking and freedom movements became widespread, while arms competition with the Soviet Union was approaching its height. Parallel to such expansionism, the concept of U.S. national security, or in other words, the interpretation of the Americans of their own national security and interests, became more expansive." [more]

Germany's finance minister has said that he and his US counterpart have reached an agreement under which Iraq's creditors would write off up to 80% of the war-ravaged country's debt. [more]

"The failure of the controlled electronic media--outlets reaching the largest audience in Pakistan--to publicize the commander's statement on the unsuccessful effort to locate Bin Ladin or other Al-Qa'ida leaders contrasts with the airing those remarks received by Pakistan's private electronic and print media." [more]

Many intelligence personnel have leaked embarrassing—and accurate—information to the media about the Bush administration’s missteps in Iraq. Now it’s payback time from the White House. [more]

"Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers who were disloyal to Bush." [more]

But, as it turns out, wanting a US empire and benefiting from one are markedly different things. This is something not well appreciated in many of the recent books analyzing the American Empire... [more]

Probably even worse than the lives lost in vain in the Iraq War is the modern imperial presidency’s ability, using the excessive media coverage accorded to it, to sell the public on an unnecessarily broad “war on terror,” including the aggressive invasion of a sovereign country. [more]

The British government formally withdrew one of the key arguments it had used for invading Iraq, as it faced demands in parliament for a "full apology" on how it presented the case for war. [more]

"It is believed that the United States receives such defective information from Afghanistan's opportunist warlords, Indian secret agencies, or from Pakistani experts who never visited Kabul or Kandahar but who are earning dollars by writing imaginary stories about the Taliban and Al-Qa'ida. " [more]

"Many of the arguments wedding the war in Iraq with a strategy for neoliberal expansion are not readily convincing. They risk reading causality into tangential relationships. And, in their drive to connect, they overlook important disjunctures between the Bush administration’s foreign policy and the policy preferred by many business elites." [more]

The President himself—at one time he not only had declined an invitation to answer the Commission’s questions but had opposed the Commission’s creation—praised the work as “very constructive,” and he and the Vice President commenced citing it in speeches; so did John Kerry. By mid-August, 630,000 copies, priced to move at $10, had been sold. [more]

The free market will no doubt come to Iraq, but the neoconservative dream of transforming the country into a free-market utopia has already died, a casualty of a greater dream—a second term for George W. Bush. [more]

Mr Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN security council or in accordance with the UN's founding charter. [more]

So even oil, the most defensible of the potential unstated reasons for invading Iraq, doesn’t turn out to be very defensible at all. Could 1,000 Americans have died in vain? [more]

"The Judea and Samaria Police is investigating the Gedud Ha'ivri (the Jewish Brigade), a militant right-wing group based in the West Bank settlement of Kfar Tapuach, for setting up unauthorized roadblocks in which its members randomly select Palestinian vehicles for inspection." [more]

"In most key areas—Iraq, the 'war on drugs,' Israel/Palestine, free trade, corporate taxes—[Kerry] will be just as bad. The main difference will be that as Kerry pursues these brutal policies, he will come off as intelligent, sane and blissfully dull. That's why I've joined the Anybody But Bush camp: Only with a bore like Kerry at the helm will we finally be able to put an end to the presidential pathologizing and focus on the issues again." [more]

So there is plenty of room for suspecting that the system has been politicized, especially in the wake of Attorney General Ashcroft’s recent manipulation of terrorist threats for political gain and John Kerry’s unexpected challenge to President Bush’s record on security issues at the Democratic National Convention. [more]

Meanwhile, the US homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, denied claims that the Bush administration was choreographing security warnings for reasons of political expediency, as some Democrats have claimed. [more]

"While Pakistanis swiftly condemned the terrorists' tactics, they said they saw Iraq as an American problem, not a Pakistani one. They also gave credence to the idea that unfair American acts in Iraq, beginning with the invasion, have led people there to adopt terrorism, a view sharply rejected by Washington." [more]

But there have also been disturbing reports of the US military using aid as a political weapon, which has further contributed to undermine the neutrality of the NGOs. [more]

"While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President’s annual physical, details of the President’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President." [more]

"Kerry is trying to appeal to voters who still support Bush's policy in Iraq; at the same time, dispensing the moonshine that the Europeans, at the magic words 'President Kerry,' will send their troops to Iraq so they can be blown up by car bombs just like ours, he is also trying to appeal to the plurality who want out soon. This is called having it both ways, as the Republicans will go broke explaining to undecided voters." [more]

But I have more than a suspicion that the U.S.-led coalition didn't want the United Nations to get credit for its rehabilitation of schools and hospitals, for purifying 11 million liters of water or providing seeds and fertilizer for this year's crops, among other accomplishments. To Western media organizations, these efforts have seemed to be invisible. [more]

"Messianic Jews believe the destruction of the mosque and construction of the temple would expedite the appearance of a Jewish Messiah, or redeemer, who would rule the world from Jerusalem and bring about salvation for the Jewish people." [more]

Telephone interview with extreme right-wing activist No'am Federman by Anat Davidov. [more]

To those who are sceptical of Kurdish intentions in Iraq, perhaps it should be emphasised that when we talk of federalism in Iraq, we do not necessarily mean to imply that the Iraqi Kurds have separatist tendencies. After all, the Kurds have already been quasi-independent from the central government in Baghdad for the past decade. [more]

The Democrats on the committee foolishly bought into an agreement that will likely postpone a committee report on that more important issue until after the election. Yet voters would profit from information about whether the Bush administration pressured the intelligence community or exaggerated, twisted the truth or even lied about the Iraqi threat in its rush to justify war. [more]

Israel is counting on the US to use its veto in the UN Security Council to block any Palestinian attempts to have the ruling enforced. [more]

"This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. The Bush administration denies it has geared the war on terrorism to the electoral calendar." [more]

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is prepared to offer amnesty to the country's insurgents, even those who have attacked and killed U.S. forces, in a surprise bid to co-opt the resistance and demonstrate the appointed interim government's independence from the unpopular Americans. [more]

"I agree that Bush should be kicked out of the White House ... but I don't believe that will be meaningful unless there emerges in the United States a significant anti-empire movement. ... This doesn't mean voters can't judge one particular empire-building politician more dangerous than another. It doesn't mean we shouldn't sometimes make strategic choices to vote for one over the other. It simply means we should make such choices with eyes open and no illusions." [more]

"In a report this week, the General Accounting Office said that 'contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraqi funds have not been independently reviewed.'It also questioned what control over U.S.-approved contracts would now exist with the handover of formal sovereignty to Iraqis." [more]

"The most important tools being used by the Bush administration to maintain varying degrees of economic and political control in Iraq are the 100 Orders enacted by L. Paul Bremer, III, head of the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) before his departure. ... Bremer also ensured the implementation of the Orders by stacking every Ministry with U.S.-appointed authorities with five-year terms—well into the period of the new, elected government." [more]

"The Bush Administration directed the Marines to draft a detailed plan, called Operation Stuart, for the arrest and, if necessary, assassination of Sadr. But the operation was cancelled, the former intelligence official told me, after it became clear that Sadr had been 'tipped off' about the plan. Seven months later, after Sadr spent the winter building support for his movement, the American-led coalition shut down his newspaper, provoking a crisis that Sadr survived with his status enhanced, thus insuring that he will play a major, and unwelcome, role in the political and military machinations after June 30th." [more]

Paul Bremer, the outgoing proconsul, patted himself and his Bush administration employers on the back by bragging that there was “no question the liberation of Iraq was a great and noble thing.” Unfortunately, Iraqis are not feeling so liberated and have not been fooled by the faux handover of governance. [more]

"The Middle East Report concluded in 1998 that probably the greatest strategic move in the Clinton post-Cold War years is what could be called "The Ankara Pact" -- an alliance between the U.S., Turkey, and Israel that essentially circumvents and bottles up the Arab countries. Earlier in 1997, Turkish Prime Minister Yilmaz visited with Bill Clinton to ensure him that Turkey would attempt to improve its human rights record by slaughtering less Kurds, but also mentioned that if the US pushed too hard on that subject or if the US Congress adopted an Armenian Genocide Resolution, Turkey might award a billion dollar contract for attack helicopters to a Europe or maybe even Russia." [more]

All of the Bush administration’s quibbling about the definition of the word “relationship” is as ridiculous as President Clinton’s hair-splitting over the definition of the word “is” during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. [more]

"The post of the EU counter-terrorism coordinator was created last March after the bloody terrorist attack in Madrid and Mr. De Vries' visit to Greece is held in view of the imminent EU Summit meeting in which he will present the first list of action measures." [more]

"For the first time, Europe gives a definition of terrorism underlining that it is any act that tends to terrorize the population and put at risk fundamental political, social and economic structures of the State." [more]

A memo dated October 9, 2003 on "Interrogation Rules of Engagement", which each military intelligence officer was obliged to sign, set out in detail the wide range of pressure tactics they could use - including stress positions and solitary confinement for more than 30 days. [more]

Angry Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called on Ashcroft to provide the document, saying leaked portions that have appeared in news reports suggest the Bush administration is reinterpreting U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture. [more]

The Bush administration is trying to make Tenet a sacrificial lamb for its blundering into an Iraqi quagmire. But that ill-advised military adventure was actually championed by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and their subordinates. [more]

If, as war supporters claim, our goals in Iraq (now that we've lost the rationale of hunting down weapons of mass destruction) are stability and democracy, we are proceeding in exactly the wrong way. [more]

In the battles for the Sunni town of Falluja and the Shiite cities south of Baghdad, the Bush administration has essentially capitulated—hoping to reduce, until the U.S. election is over, images of fighting, mayhem and U.S. blood streaming to the American public. [more]

Friday, with 20 of its 23 members present, the Governing Council unanimously endorsed Allawi. There were no other candidates. [more]

The Germany chancellor has signaled that under certain conditions he would approve the resolution, which the United States presented to the United Nations Security Council on Monday. But he has also made clear that Germany would not send troops to the war-torn country even with the blessing of the UN... [more]

The president is somehow deluded that a fake turnover of power to a puppet interim government—to replace the widely discredited U.S.-picked Governing Council—will take the fire out of the guerrilla insurgency... [more]

If today the U.S. government were to put itself on trial, on the same basis it employed to try the Nazis at Nuremberg, for actions taken in Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years, it might have to convict itself—if only for the sake of consistency. [more]

Despite widespread ill-feeling about the abuse of prisoners by American forces and allegations of mistreatment by British troops, coalition forces will be protected from any legal action. [more]

So what can the United States do to dampen the insurgency and avoid a potential civil war? Something that the Bush administration and the Washington foreign policy establishment have avoided like the plague: rapid U.S. troop withdrawal and genuine and complete self-determination for Iraqis... [more]

"Terrorism does not necessarily come from the Islamic world; it could come from anywhere. It could be championed by many other groups and could originate in all communities. Before fighting this phenomenon, we must understand why others resort to terrorism." [more]

As for the members of Congress holding the hearings, they seemed more concerned about the release of the photos than with the barbaric behavior depicted in them. Would the behavior have been more acceptable if no photos or videos had been taken of it? Hardly. [more]

"Although no principle stands higher in military doctrine than that the commander bears full responsibility for the actions of his subordinates, neither Bush nor Rumsfeld, the two top military commanders, has the decency to resign — not just on account of the prison disclosures, of course, but also on account of the plethora of actions by which they have abused their constitutional powers and brought everlasting shame upon the United States." [more]

The US administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, acknowledged Friday that mistakes had been made in the occupation of the country and invited former Iraqi army officers who served under ousted president Saddam Hussein to help establish a new national force. [more]

"The Bush Administration has no intention of allowing the kind of Iraqi self-rule and self-determination invoked by the president in his speeches over the last year and a half." [more]

"Iran said on Sunday that America’s iron-fisted policies and the lack of security undermined Iranian efforts to bring calm to Iraq and that it would no longer cooperate with Washington on those endeavors." [more]

"United Nations police in Kosovo are investigating a weekend shootout between Jordanian and US police units in the province which left two US woman officers and a Jordanian dead. There are fears that it was motivated by anti-Americanism." [more]

"Negroponte, 64, has a reputation as a hardened diplomat who attracted considerable controversy as the US ambassador to Honduras in the early Eighties when he was instrumental in assisting the Contras overthrow a leftist regime in Nicaragua. He has always denied allegations that he turned a blind eye to human rights violations, including death squads, in the region in that period." [more]

"The White House said the accurate figure for the Libyan mustard gas was 23.6 metric tons, or 26 short tons, not 50 tons. Moreover, the substance was found at different locations across Libya, not at a turkey farm. And observers did not find mustard gas on the farm at all, but rather unfilled chemical munitions, the White House acknowledged." [more]

"At least 80 foreign mercenaries — security guards recruited from the US, Europe and South Africa and working for American companies — have been killed in the past eight days. The occupation authorities have kept the figures secret." [more]

"As I reflect on lessons learnt from the Rwandan genocide, the most powerful one remains the reality that African lives do not matter to the leaders, and the majority of the citizens, of the world's most powerful nation and its European allies./ Their non-interventionist attitude is couched in references to lack of strategic interest. But the underlying reason is an entrenched racism that prevents them from reacting with the urgency and emotional commitment that has propelled them to intervene in less extensive acts of mass murder among their kinsmen in Europe." [more]

"When US troops are attacked with mortars in Baghdad, they use mortar-locating radar to find the firing point and then attack the general area with artillery, even though the area they are attacking may be in the middle of a densely populated residential area..." [more]

"Lockheed Martin Corp. will open an office dedicated to homeland security, in advance of the government’s award next month of a hotly chased, $10 billion contract to track the entry and exit of foreign visitors, the company said today." [more]

"The correct moral to draw from al-Qaeda's involvement in Afghanistan is not the danger of rogue states but the danger of failed ones where the collapse of the central government allowed a lightly armed but highly motivated group of fanatics to seize control. Rather than resolve the problem of Afghanistan's lack of effective authority, however, Bush simply treated a symptom and left the disease in place. Now, not only are Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders still at large, the possibility that they and their allies will gain control over a substantial portion of Afghan territory remains quite real." [more]

And the recent suggestions of the presidential commission on intelligence make the 9/11 commission's appetite for recommendations look restrained. The presidential commission went on a federal feeding frenzy and recommended stuffing the intelligence community with many new offices and organizations. [more]

"Cries of 'bias' aren't limited to public universities. The same week that Crystall's e-mail hit the press, conservative students at Duke published an ad in their campus newspaper taking university leaders to task for the lack of 'intellectual diversity' on campus. As evidence, students cited the percentages of registered Democrats and Republicans among deans and on the faculty in eight departments to show how GOP members are almost nonexistent." [more]

"The United Jewish Communities, which is spearheading the effort to garner federal funds for high-risk non-profit organizations, is touting a plan to give the federal dollars directly to contractors, who would perform security upgrades at Jewish and other vulnerable sites. / 'By having the flow of money go from the federal government to the contractor, there no longer will be church-state concerns,' said Charles Konigsberg, vice president for public policy at UJC..." [more]

"The hearings have highlighted serious gaps between Dr Rice's statements about what the White House did before September 11 and evidence from Mr Clarke that is backed by classified White House documents. In particular, Dr Rice's claim that a White House plan to 'destroy' al-Qaeda was radically different from president Bill Clinton's plan has been brought into question." [more]

"Proliferation is merely globalization of weapons of mass destruction. ... Proliferation, however, is not, as the President seemed to think, just a rogue state or two seeking weapons of mass destruction; it is the entire half-century-long process of globalization that stretches from Klaus Fuchs's espionage to Tahir's nuclear arms bazaar and beyond. The war was a failure in its own terms because weapons of mass destruction were absent in Iraq; the war policy failed because they were present and spreading in Pakistan." [more]

"Many observers, however, say what the alliance mainly wants from its new members are soldiers for peacekeeping missions and sparsely populated areas for training exercises." [more]

"Today's military is fighting the first war of the 21st century, a war that began on September 11th, 2001, when enemies struck the United States and murdered thousands of our fellow citizens. That day changed everything. In the space of a few hours, we saw the violence and the grief that terrorists can inflict. And we had a glimpse of the even greater harm they wish to do to us. The terrorists hate our country, they hate our freedom, they hate everything we stand for in the world. They seek even deadlier weapons and they would use them against us if they could." [more]

"Some exercises Kerry could try, according to Peabody, are to imagine he is talking in a church, then imagine he is talking to someone over the noise of a subway car, then to an audience of children, then to an ailing patient. Kerry should also do breathing exercises to "uncover parts of the voice that may be unfamiliar or covered by habit," Roth said. In giving a speech, she added, he needs to be willing to go "off the page" in the manner of Clinton or Martin Luther King Jr., adjusting to the audience." [more]

"The Bush/Cheney campaign Wednesday unleashed its most famous Democratic booster — Georgia Sen. Zell Miller — to make the case presidential foe John Kerry's policies are inconsistent with some of history's most popular Democratic presidents." [more]

"By making Syria a pariah nation, Bush has helped to realize a goal of current Israeli policy: to secure US help in weakening its unfriendly neighbors. In addition, by getting Congress to condemn Syria for alleged weapons development, Israel refocused attention away from its own nuclear arsenal." [more]

"In his weekly radio address to the nation today, President George W. Bush told the American people that the war on terror isn't a figure of speech, 'it's the inescapable calling of our generation.'" [more]

"'That they deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride,' Kwasniewski said." [more]

Mr. Zapatero offered scathing criticism of the American-led war in Iraq, which his party, like 90 percent of the Spanish people, opposed. He stated: "The war has been a disaster; the occupation continues to be a great disaster. It hasn't generated anything but more violence and hate. What simply cannot be is that after it became so clear how badly it was handled there be no consequences." [more]

"... it was a tad misleading to demand Hussein's ouster on grounds that he 'harbors a deadly terrorist network' -- when it was not Hussein, but a Taliban-like crowd of Islamic radicals in the U.S. Air Force-protected north, doing the harboring." [more]

"I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message." [more]

"'Humanitarian' interventionism, based on the right of interference, ultimately rallied most US liberal intellectuals, who identified with the neoconservatives in criticizing former President Bush for his lack of interest in Bosnia's Muslims, and Bill Clinton for his prevarication." [more]

I saw a narrow and deeply flawed policy favored by some executive appointees in the Pentagon used to manipulate and pressurize the traditional relationship between policymakers in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies. I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the Executive Office of the President. [more]

"John Kerry said early in the race that he intended to treat female voters exactly like male voters, because they care about the same things—jobs, health care, good wages, security. He's right—up to a point. But far more men have health coverage through work, and women's jobs not only pay less, they're more marginal. Many employers keep part-time hours just below the threshold where laid-off workers can collect unemployment, and the largest group working for minimum-wage jobs is adult women." [more]

"Now, therefore, be it...resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress, on behalf of the American people, extends its birthday greetings and best wishes to Ronald Reagan on his 92d birthday." [more]

"Mr Kay, who was formerly a UN weapons inspector, called for the president to go further. 'It's about confronting and coming clean with the American people. He should say we were mistaken and I am determined to find out why,' he said." [more]

"According to past and present military and intelligence officials, however, Washington’s support for the pardon of Khan was predicated on what Musharraf has agreed to do next: look the other way as the U.S. hunts for Osama bin Laden in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan ..., where he is believed to be operating. American commanders have been eager for permission to conduct major sweeps in the Hindu Kush for some time, and Musharraf has repeatedly refused them. Now, with Musharraf’s agreement, the Administration has authorized a major spring offensive that will involve the movement of thousands of American troops." [more]

"The expansion of the geographical boundaries of the region dilutes the importance of the Palestinian problem and demotes it from its central position on the political stage of the Middle East to a marginal position as just one of several "hot" issues plaguing a much wider region. Moreover, given Washington's fixation on terrorism, it could well use the new rationale to classify the Palestinian struggle for nationhood as just one more example of the terrorism that is widely propagated throughout the greater Middle East." [more]

"The elected leader in Haiti has now been given a thumbs down by Washington. The power of the bullet is ironically speaking more effectively than the ballot ( or, at least as effectively as the bombs did in Iraq, to urge on regime change)." [more]

"The secretary is not particularly moved by accusations that the intervention in Iraq is 'illegal.' 'I am not a lawyer; I dropped out of law school,' he jokes." [more]

"Have the neo-conservatives had dual agendas, while professing to work for the internal security of the United States against its terrorist enemies?" [more]

"The United States military is facing the gravest accusations of sexual misconduct in years, with dozens of servicewomen in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere saying they were sexually assaulted or raped by fellow troops, lawmakers and victims advocates said on Wednesday." [more]

"As with human rights, Rumsfeld largely ignored Uzbekistan’s repeated failures to implement promised economic reforms. He focused solely on praising Karimov’s administration for being a 'key member of the [anti-terrorist] coalition’s global War on Terror.'" [more]

"It now appears that appeasing Bin Laden was a major part of the neo-con sales pitch to the White House. Congressman Christopher Shays... made a startling revelation about the war party’s marketing strategy. In an attempt to deflect a question over the non-existent WMDs, he gave away part of the neo-con arguments presented to key decision makers. 'We knew we needed to get out of Saudi Arabia, that was one of the contentions of Osama bin Laden. We knew we needed to bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. We could not do that as long as Saddam Hussein existed.'" [more]

"With master’s degrees from Harvard in government and zoology and two books on Saharan Africa to her credit, she found herself transferred in the spring of 2002 to a post as a political/military desk officer at the Defense Department’s office for Near East South Asia (NESA), a policy arm of the Pentagon." [more]

"Ms. Gun's arrest last March and her assertion that she had acted out of conscience to expose what she regarded as an attempt by the United States to undermine the debate at the United Nations, has attracted broad attention." [more]

"Both liberals and leftists in the U.S. have had difficulty in believing that a much-discredited American film genre, the Western, could suddenly be structuring and mandating U.S. political rhetoric. It is -- from Bush's 'Wanted Dead or Alive' Bin Laden poster, to Colin Powell's insistence that 'time is running out' as we cut to the chase, to the numerous U.S. television and print media that report daily on the 'Showdown' or 'Standoff' with Iraq." [more]

"More than 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, issued a statement yesterday asserting that the Bush administration had systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad ... According to the report, the Bush administration has misrepresented scientific consensus on global warming, censored at least one report on climate change, manipulated scientific findings on the emissions of mercury from power plants and suppressed information on condom use." [more]

"Given that so much confusion exists about whether to apply wartime or law-enforcement rules to a given situation, a better approach would be to make the decision based on its public policy implications. Unfortunately, the Bush administration seems to have ignored such concerns." [more]

"Iraqi defectors gave misleading information to bolster the case for war, U.S. officials have found." [more]

" 'We have been following the question of Iran pretty closely and there's no doubt in our mind that Iran continues to pursue a nuclear weapons program,' Armitage said in a press interview in Washington. Earlier Thursday, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Disarmament John Bolton made a similar remark in Berlin. 'We're not convinced Iran has come completely clean,' said Bolton." [more]

"Terror is both a real phenomenon and a fraud ... The United States has made a long series of blunders in the Middle East guaranteed to offend and intimidate Muslims, especially fundamentalists, the people from whom an organization like al Qaeda draws support. These blunders must be seen in the context of an almost irrational support for Israel's bloodiest behavior." [more]

"To get public attention off of Kay's report (and resignation), Bush has used his political skills to try to silence his former weapons inspector, and to preempt Kay's knowledge and suggestions by making it yesterday's news." [more]

"Action by Western nations on behalf of human rights and democracy in Saudi Arabia does not go beyond accusations made by Western writers and journalists who describe Saudi society as backward and dictatorial." [more]

"Iraq demonstrated that waging war against a nation that has not attacked another and ousting its leader — even a dictator — smacks of arrogance and sours allies whose help is needed in fighting other enemies and financing postwar reconstruction." [more]

"Unlike the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which was established by a congressional resolution, the executive order creating the intelligence commission does not mention subpoena power or the authority to take testimony under oath or even hold public hearings." [more]

"Given the well-documented rights violations and other issues, the Bush administration’s policy towards Azerbaijan has been less than exemplary, and inconsistent with its self-declared 'forward strategy of freedom.' Whereas the circumstances appear to warrant a strong US condemnation of the Aliyev administration’s repression, the Bush administration has been solicitous of the new Azerbaijani president." [more]

"The dispatch of soldiers to Iraq has jarred the national psyche. No Japanese soldier has fallen — or killed an enemy — since the surrender to the United States in 1945." [more]

"Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, three of the four chiefs of the armed services expressed concerns about a financing gap, perhaps of four months, for the two missions, whose combined cost is about $5 billion a month." [more]

"If there's an upset in a close presidential race, will we be able to trust it? Ironically, the paperless systems were supposed to restore trust in a democracy that saw the presidency hang by a few thousand chads in Florida three years ago. In Georgia, and increasingly across the nation, they're in danger of doing quite the opposite." [more]

"It's worth noting that the announcement came from an anonymous official, The Associated Press reported, a sign that the Pentagon wants its backpedaling to be done with as much secrecy as the American citizen gets inside the voting booth." [more]

"The speech generated overall negative comment in 62 percent of the 274 editorials collected by US embassy staff and FBIS monitors in 70 countries." [more]

"Our assessment of the unsanctioned by the UN Security Council military operation against Iraq as a big political mistake remains in force it is necessary to think together about ways out of this situation and methods to solve the Iraq problem in line with the norms of international law, and about ways to ensure a better life for the Iraqi people." [more]

"Pakistan's approach to dealing with the problem has contrasted with the Libyan and the Iranian approach. Libyan's, under pressure, opted to essentially wrap up their nuclear program. Last week a US air force plane carried 55 tons of paper and equipment related to Libya's nuclear program to the US. Iran, meanwhile, under pressure gave 'South Asian' names to the IAEA inspectors divulging the source of their technology. Pakistan has resisted pressure to rollback its nuclear program, while choosing to take steps to enhance Pakistan's credentials as a responsible nuclear state." [more]

"In fiscal year 2002, the Big Three received a total of more than $42 billion in Pentagon contracts ... This is an increase of nearly one-third from 2000, Clinton's final year. These firms get one out of every four dollars the Pentagon doles out for everything from rifles to rockets. In contrast, Bush's No Child Left Behind Act is underfunded by $8 billion a year, with the additional assistance promised to school districts swallowed up by war costs and tax cuts." [more]

Blair and Bush both continue to suffer from the near-total lack of evidence of WMD in Iraq. [more]

US self-isolation makes Iraq a virtual non-issue in the elections so far. [more]

"A consensus — based on false facts, outright lies and exaggerated fears — took over the nation ... More than 500 Americans and thousands of Iraqis have died for a mistake. Peace has not been brought to the Middle East and America is not only no safer than it was, it may well be in even greater danger. This was no mere failure of intelligence. This was a failure of character." [more]

"The U.S. should embark on a frank dialogue with China, conveying to the Chinese the mutual benefits of circumventing oil and offering any assistance required to curb China's growing appetite for it." [more]

"Fundamentalists come in a multitude of sects [...] but all are agreed on this basic eschatological truth: It is upon the coming of the Messiah that the Jewish Kingdom will arise, and the twice-destroyed Temple will be reconstructed on the site where the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques now stand." [more]

"Last night the former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, said that Washington would not want to see Blair concede now to pressure for a WMD inquiry and thereby 'jack-up the pressure on the White House to follow', Cook added that if the White House announced its own inquiry terms first 'then Britain would indeed find it difficult to resist launching a parallel inquiry.' " [more]

"This is what is so astonishing about this victory for Blair: It dissolved into thin air within a few hours. What's more, it soon came to be viewed as an undeserved gift, nothing but spin, a political Houdini act. According to a survey conducted by The Guardian, three times as many Britons trust the BBC as the government. Who should resign? Blair, and not the director general of the BBC." [more]

"The idea that political and economic liberty could trigger ... atrocities is heretical to many Western liberals. That, Ms. Chua says, is because people here are blind to ethnicity." [more]

"Pentagon adviser Richard N. Perle, a strong advocate of war against Iraq, spoke last weekend at a charity event that U.S. officials say may have had ties to an alleged terrorist group seeking to topple the Iranian government and backed by Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Iraq's weapons programs were apparently in shambles, for instance, while Libya's were surprisingly advanced. Pakistan's nuclear scientists might have been rogue agents, proffering secrets for cash. And it appears that North Korea may be the most advanced rogue nuclear nation of all, with an advanced capacity to produce fissile material." [more]

"Despite the sensitive climate surrounding the publication of Lord Hutton's report, the BBC's marketing department has decided to focus on the BBC website's in-depth coverage of the inquiry as part of a drive to attract new users." [more]

"Chief among the discoveries that led him to see Vietnam as a mistake, McNamara said, was his realization that the United States could not, by itself, properly analyze the actions and ground-level conditions necessary to achieve the complex and ambiguous goals of a war — reversing the influence of communism in Asia, in Vietnam's case, or bringing democracy to the Arab world, in Iraq's." [more]

"At one stop outside a burger joint, an older man came out of the crowd and embraced Kucinich in a bear hug. He commandeered the microphone Kucinich was using to address the large crowd and demanded that U.S. troops be withdrawn immediately from Iraq. Kucinich hailed him, shook his hand, and went inside the shop to address the rest of the crowd away from the bitter wind." [more]

"Kay's statements undermined one of the primary justifications set out by President Bush for the war with Iraq. Bush and other top administration officials repeatedly cited Iraq's possession of chemical and biological weapons as a threat to the United States, and the lack of evidence so far that Saddam Hussein actually had large caches of weapons has fueled criticism that Bush exaggerated the peril from Iraq." [more]

"Two days before he laces up his skates to take the ice with Boston Bruins legends this weekend, John Kerry today scored a 'hat trick' of endorsements from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Boston Phoenix." [more]

" 'There appears to have been no hacking, no stealing, and no violation of any Senate rule,' Miranda said. 'Stealing assumes a property right and there is no property right to a government document ... These documents are not covered under the Senate disclosure rule because they are not official business and, to the extent they were disclosed, they were disclosed inadvertently by negligent [Democratic] staff.' " [more]

"This is not the first American return to the United Nations, but it is the most spectacular ... Nine months after the fall of Baghdad, the American government faces a Gordian knot of problems." [more]

One Japanese paper writes "that Iraq differs greatly from places such as East Timor, where Japanese troops are currently carrying out peacekeeping duties under the auspices of the UN." [more]

"The military prefers bases that resemble small fundamentalist towns in the Bible Belt rather than the big population centers of the United States. For example, even though more than 100,000 women live on our overseas bases — including women in the services, spouses, and relatives of military personnel — obtaining an abortion at a local military hospital is prohibited." [more]

"The endorsement by the Abenaki Tribal Council and its Chief, April Rushlow, follows on the heels of other major endorsements from the American Indian and Alaskan Native community. Chairman Brian Wallace of the Washoe Nation and the Native American Times, the nation's largest independent Indian news source, also endorsed Clark." [more]

Four generations of the Bush Dynasty have chased profits through cozy ties with Mideast leaders, spinning webs of conflicts of interest. [more]

"The Carnegie study, based on five months of interviews and research that compared statements by US officials with declassified documents, said that the Bush administration ignored experts who could have offered more accurate information and swept aside the assessments of the State and Energy departments, whose different findings were not made public until July, months after the invasion." [more]

"Information dominance, by contrast, sees little distinction between command and control systems, propaganda and journalism. They are all types of 'weaponized information' to be deployed." [more]

"Investigators have found no support for the two main fears expressed in London and Washington before the war: that Iraq had a hidden arsenal of old weapons and built advanced programs for new ones." [more]

"We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public ... Contrast this with the behavior of the RNC, when supporters of President Bush used TV ads morphing the face of Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) into that of Osama Bin Laden during the 2002 Senate race." [more]

"The fact that researchers could only get access to the Giuliani records through a laborious, time-consuming, and usually unsatisfactory process for three years was not well received by the research public or by citizens with evidential and informational needs for the records. These records included documentation of the City's response to 9/11, a subject on which the former mayor has already published a book - a book that no one has been able to effectively examine because the records are not available." [more]

"A presidential advisory board has concluded that a questionable claim about Iraqi efforts to obtain nuclear materials resulted from a desperation to show an active nuclear-weapons program." [more]

"The war on terrorism is apocalyptic exactly because it is militarized and yet amorphous, without limits of time or place, and has no clear end. It therefore enters the realm of the infinite. Implied in its approach is that every last terrorist everywhere on the earth is to be hunted down until there are no more terrorists anywhere to threaten us, and in that way the world will be rid of evil." [more]

"All the suspects were charged with 'association with the aim of international terrorism' — a charge introduced in Italy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They are believed to have provided false passports and money for recruits." [more]

"This is not the first time the administration has done some creative editing of government Web sites. After the insurrection in Iraq proved more stubborn than expected, the White House edited the original headline on its Web site of President Bush's May 1 speech, 'President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended,' to insert the word 'Major.' " [more]

"U.S. officials said Kay, who could leave as early as January or February, was frustrated in part by the lack of progress and because some of his staff have been diverted from the weapons search to helping combat Iraqi insurgents." [more]

"Nelson said the senators were told [by the White House] Iraq had both biological and chemical weapons, notably anthrax, and it could deliver them to cities along the Eastern seaboard via unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones." [more]

"Any trial of Hussein would be a hugely complicated undertaking, especially for an Iraqi justice system that barely exists eight months after U.S. forces captured Baghdad. Human rights organizations raised questions today about the credibility of a still-unformed Iraqi tribunal that would operate with U.S. backing." [more]

"The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in an American court in connection with the attacks, has also been thrown into doubt by the government's refusal to make captured Qaeda operatives available for questioning." [more]

"A Pentagon investigation has found evidence that a subsidiary of the politically connected Halliburton Company overcharged the government by as much as $61 million for fuel delivered to Iraq under huge no-bid reconstruction contracts, senior military officials said Thursday." [more]

"These are tough times for the architects of the 'Bush doctrine' of unilateralism and preventive war. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their fellow Project for a New American Century alumni viewed Iraq as a pilot project, one that would validate their views and clear the way for further regime changes. Instead, the venture has turned sour — and many insiders see Mr. Baker's mission as part of an effort by veterans of the first Bush administration to extricate George W. Bush from the hard-liners' clutches. If the mission collapses amid acrimony over contracts, that's a good thing from the hard-liners' point of view. [more]

"The United States government is paying the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show." [more]

"While the official coalition figures list the British as the second largest contingent with around 9,900 troops, they are narrowly outnumbered by the 10,000 private military contractors now on the ground." [more]

"Critics said the policy could discourage countries from helping to rebuild Iraq and complicate American efforts to restructure Iraq's estimated $125 billion debt, much of it owed to France, Germany, Russia and other nations whose companies are excluded under the Pentagon directive." [more]

"The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying the step 'is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States.'" [more]

"The administration's justification for war was not merely flawed or imperfect—it was wrong in almost every detail, and completely wrong at the heart. There was no imminent danger—indeed there was no distant danger. Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction to give to al-Qaeda or anyone else." [more]

"It is being billed as the perfect place for celebrations during the Republican National Convention next summer, with shows, fine works of art, health clubs, bars, cafes, amazing views, luxury staterooms and restaurants serving cuisine from around the world. And it is just a short walk to Midtown." [more]

"The dominant position the United States occupies in the world is the element of reality that is being distorted. The proposition that the United States will be better off if it uses its position to impose its values and interests everywhere is the misconception. It is exactly by not abusing its power that America attained its current position." [more]

"Ground Rule 9 for the media covering President Bush's presidential visit Monday sounded more like an edict from Beijing or a banana republic: 'Write positive stories about Ft. Carson and the U.S. Army.' " [more]

"More than 150 Bush supporters participated in a pre-game rally organized by Bush-Cheney '04 and Michigan Students for Bush in an event designed to engage young people in presidential politics. The rally took place outside Elbel Field prior to the Michigan v. Ohio State football game." [more]

"Bush was driven from the back of the palace to the front in his own armored Cadillac for the official welcoming ceremony—a made-for-TV election commercial that no one could get close enough to watch. This was the new empire condescending to the old while borrowing a little of its glitter-and-paste glamour." [more]

"US Major-General Tommy Crawford told the conference he strongly opposed the policy that blocked Australian officers from getting intelligence on Iraq, even when some of it originated from Australian intelligence sources." [more]

"A new U.S. office established in Baghdad to supervise and oversee contracts has set an aggressive timetable, awarding up to $18.7 billion in 25 contracts over the next 10 weeks to rebuild Iraq." [more]

"In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: 'I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.' " [more]

"The US imperialist military forces of aggression which are forward deployed in Japan and South Korea are not for deterring instability. Rather, they are for aggravating instability and tension and militarily attacking our Republic and other countries." [more]

"Some council members, who were appointed by the coalition in July, are pressing for full sovereign powers as a provisional government, with the United States handing over responsibility for security to an Iraqi-led paramilitary force composed of private militias." [more]

"Iraqi officials, including the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service ... offered to allow American troops and experts to conduct a search. The businessman said in an interview that the Iraqis also offered to hand over a man accused of being involved in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 who was being held in Baghdad. At one point, he said, the Iraqis pledged to hold elections." [more]

"This notion of the nation, or its president, having been chosen to fulfill some divine purpose was repeated many times, with the active encouragement of the White House. ... Since God was on America's side, there need be no further reason to discuss the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction. Since we were acting out divine will, we could regard as moot any question of whether we had succeeded mainly in further encouraging those who would act against us." [more]

"I wish administration officials were lying, because I would prefer hypocrisy to delusion — at least hypocritical officials make decisions with accurate information." [more]

"Arar said his prison cell 'was like a grave, exactly like a grave. It had no light, it was 3 feet wide, it was 6 feet deep, it was 7 feet high ... It had a metal door. There was a small opening in the ceiling. There were cats and rats up there, and from time to time, the cats peed through the opening into the cell.' " [more]

"The Iraq reconstruction aid is down from the $20.3 billion Bush had requested, but is still the biggest one-shot foreign aid outlay Congress has ever approved — and more money than Congress is providing this year for all other countries combined." [more]

"For the second consecutive day, Baghdad's Green Zone, a secure area that houses the headquarters of the US-led coalition, was the target of a bomb attack." [more]

"Some pundits and politicians, even those who may have been skeptical about the war to begin with, now argue that we must 'finish the job,' even if it means increasing our commitment of troops or ruling Iraq indefinitely. This is, however, exactly the kind of stubborn and mushy thinking that led us into the hell of the Vietnam War and the deaths of 58,000 Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese and Cambodians." [more]

"The best minds in the computer-security world contend that [electronic] voting terminals can't be trusted." [more]

"The students say that, by trying to spread the word about problems with the company’s software, they are performing a valuable form of electronic civil disobedience, one that has broad implications for American society. They also contend that they are protected by fair use exceptions in copyright law." [more]

"A growing number of computer scientists are now warning that [electronic voting], far from solving America's voting problems, may actually make things worse. 'If you look at the consequences for democracy, it's terrifying,' says David Dill, a Stanford University computer-science professor." [more]

"In tactical terms, yesterday's action was troubling but unlikely to result in major changes in how the U.S. military operates on the ground and in the skies over Iraq. But the latest round of attacks in Iraq, and especially yesterday's deaths — which amounted to the biggest single day of losses since last spring's conventional war — may prove more significant in strategic terms." [more]

"The Bush administration's point man on nonproliferation has exaggerated the threat posed by Syria, Libya and Cuba in an effort to build the case that strong action is needed to prevent them from developing weapons of mass destruction, former intelligence officials and independent experts say." [more]

"Consider that the total enlistment goal for active Army and Army reserves in the fiscal year ended Oct. 1 was 100,000. If half of the 140,000 troops currently in Iraq were to go home and stay, two-thirds of this year's recruits would be needed to replace them." [more]

"It is becoming painfully clear that the American plan (if it can even be dignified with the name) for dealing with postwar Iraq was flawed in its conception and ineptly carried out. At the very least, the bulk of the evidence suggests that what was probably bound to be a difficult aftermath to the war was made far more difficult by blinkered vision and overoptimistic assumptions on the part of the war's greatest partisans within the Bush administration." [more]

"Portillo: It is arguable that Chirac's policy is not anti-American; it is much more difficult to argue that it is not non-American. It almost defines itself in terms of being non-American, which I think from time to time will be anti-American." [more]

" 'The computer science community has pretty much rallied against electronic voting,' said Stephen Ansolabahere, a voting expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'A disproportionate number of computer scientists who have weighed in on this issue are opposed to it.' " [more]

"Swarthmore College students embroiled in a legal battle against voting machine-maker Diebold Election Systems have received a ground swell of support from universities and colleges nationwide." [more]

"The coalition does not intend to recruit from the grassroots, where a number of existing movements opposed the war on Iraq. It will instead focus on the recruitment of foreign-policy specialists and analysts who can help frame the context for public and media debate." [more]

"Despite prewar claims, it is now clear Iraq had no active program to build a nuclear weapon." [more]

"Many political analysts of both parties said they believed that the memorandum, although seemingly sent in confidence, was written to carefully position Mr. Rumsfeld in the struggle within the Bush administration for control of postwar policy in Iraq." [more]

"Peace activists, many carrying placards, said increasing concerns about casualties in Iraq have spurred the U.S. anti-war movement back into action after months of relative quiet." [more]

"Squadrons of shiny new Touch Screen Trojan horses are being rolled into precincts across America. Not, as we are told, to make voting easier or more accurate, or to help disabled people vote privately, or to save America from the dangers of hanging chad and butterfly ballots — no. The real reason America is being flooded with billions of dollars worth of paperless computerized voting machines is so that no one will ever again be able to prove vote fraud." [more]

Forty-one Australian Labour Party federal parliamentarians have written an open letter to George Bush, explaining why so many Australians opposed the war on Iraq. [more]

"A Christian extremist in a high Defense post can only set back the U.S. approach to the Muslim world." [more]

"Not only is the law being used to prosecute one of the administration's most vocal critics in an unprecedented attack on the 1st Amendment, but it appears to be part of a broader campaign by Ashcroft to protect the nation against free speech, a campaign that has converted environmentalists into 'sailor-mongers' and nuns into terrorists." [more]

"[Gen.] Boykin's new job makes his role especially sensitive: He is charged with speeding up the flow of intelligence on terrorist leaders to combat teams in the field so that they can attack top-ranking terrorist leaders. Virtually all these leaders are Muslim." [more]

"The [governing] council as a whole rejected the plan, insisting that Iraq's neighbors should not play a military role in the country. But Kurdish leaders went further, arguing that Turkey has a different agenda and would encourage other Iraqi neighbors to enter the fray." [more]

"[Bush] is travelling to Tokyo with two really major asks in mind. First, there is the question of Japan sending troops, as well as money, to Iraq. The Japanese public are understandably nervous. The nation has been branded 'Washington's ATM' by sections of the domestic and international media." [more]

"Alarmed by the number of suicides among soldiers in Iraq, the Army has asked a team of doctors to determine whether the stress of combat and long deployments is contributing to the deaths. A psychiatrist at the Army's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences ... is helping to investigate the suicides in Iraq. 'Is there something different going on in Iraq that we really need to pay attention to?' " [more]

"The [Bush] administration has engaged in political screening of appointees to peer review study sections that are charged with evaluating the scientific merits of research proposals ... these activities go to the very heart of scientific independence. There is now mounting evidence of systematic attempts to infiltrate political opinion into scientific deliberation." [more]

A series of letters to hometown newspapers, purportedly written by US soldiers in Iraq, contain identical language. The letters praise the US effort to rebuild the war-torn Mideast nation. [more]

"Foley said he was 'fully confident' Iraq could become 'a thriving capitalist economy.' He said he believed estimates that placed Iraqi unemployment at 50 to 60 percent were too high." [more]

"Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded privately that Iraq did not have the quickly deployable weapons of mass destruction that the British government cited as justification for war, former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook asserted today." [more]

"I am haunted by the fear that Tony still sees [Iraq] as an issue of manipulating press and public opinion, and has not grasped that on the substance of the issue the public and he are so far apart that he cannot win this one ... I never doubted that No 10 believed in the threads of intelligence which were woven into the dossier. But that does not alter the awkward fact that the intelligence was wrong and ministers who had applied a sceptical mind could have seen that it was too thin to be a reliable basis for war." [more]

"The task force, which was based at the Pentagon as part of the planning for the war, produced a book-length report that described the Iraqi oil industry as so badly damaged by a decade of trade embargoes that its production capacity had fallen by more than 25 percent. Despite those findings ... Wolfowitz told Congress during the war that 'we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.' " [more]

"In a rare act of defiance, Kofi Annan dispatched a senior official to brief reporters on his alternative proposal, which is almost identical to that favoured by Germany and France. Mr Annan’s rejection of the US-British approach has stopped the coalition partners’ draft UN resolution dead in its tracks." [more]

"Kay's inability to find such weapons in three months of searching will make it even harder for the administration to continue to insist that Saddam was an imminent threat — the core argument the White House had made last winter for going to war." [more]

"Two years on, Americans remain deeply hurt by September 11, but the country is not transformed. This was not another Pearl Harbor, uniting the nation in a steely determination to do whatever it takes to defeat a clear enemy. The ambiguities and complexities of Iraq, the mixed success against al-Qaeda and confusion about domestic counter-terrorist efforts in the US itself have all deflated the spirit of 1942 that was invoked so often in the last months of 2001." [more]

"Bush did not mention [in his speech] that Saddam Hussein's ouster, rather than dealing a blow to Al Qaeda, was followed by a rise in terrorism in Iraq and an influx of jihadists primed to strike at the United States, or that the war may have succeeded in uniting Baathist secularists and Islamic fundamentalists, something even Saddam couldn't do." [more]

"Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government." [more]

"The Justice Department is looking into an allegation that administration officials leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer to a journalist," with the intent of intimating others from speaking out about the intelligence scandal. [more]

"Leaders of the House intelligence committee have criticized the U.S. intelligence community for using largely outdated, 'circumstantial' and 'fragmentary' information with 'too many uncertainties' to conclude that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda." [more]

"The United States was the leader in total worldwide sales in 2002, with about $13.3 billion, or 45.5 percent of global conventional weapons deals, a rise from $12.1 billion in 2001. Of that, $8.6 billion was to developing nations, or about 48.6 percent of conventional arms deals concluded with developing nations last year." [more]

"The US decision to refuse access to Hambali came as The New York Times reported that Hambali ... had told CIA interrogators of plans to attack two US hotels and commercial airliners in Bangkok, in the lead-up to the APEC summit there next month." [more]

"I think that the world is gradually moving towards major blocs, but I think that among these blocs, there are at least two such blocs - Europe and the U.S - that should show solidarity for each other, vis à vis the others, which have a different culture. This is because these two have the same overall culture, the same values and the same overall interests. So even if we are irritated by this or that, it can only be superficial, and the fact is we do share the same values, and as the world changes, it will be even more important tomorrow than today that there should be a strong degree of solidarity between Europe and the United States. Hence the importance I attach to trans-Atlantic ties." [more]

"Scientists working for Silex Systems Ltd, which leases space at the Commonwealth Government's Lucas Heights reactor near Sydney, are developing techniques to enrich uranium with lasers. " [more]

" 'I once believed that I served for a cause: "To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States." Now I no longer believe that,' Tim Predmore, a member of the 101st Airborne Division serving near Mosul, wrote ... 'I can no longer justify my service for what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies.' " [more]

"Until now, the assumption in Washington was that Saudi Arabia was content to remain under the US nuclear umbrella. But the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US has steadily worsened since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington." [more]

"Bolton testified that Syria and Libya had weapons of mass destruction programs that must be 'rolled back' and eliminated. [He] said diplomacy is the administration's preferred approach but that 'every tool in our nonproliferation toolbox' was an option. Bolton refused to rule out 'regime change' as an administration option in Syria." [more]

"A spokesman in Iraq did not specify how many were being held but U.S. defense officials in Washington said six people claiming American nationality and two who said they were British were in detention at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad." [more]

"Military officials [are] deeply worried about an exodus from the state-based National Guards and the reserves of the nation's armed forces. Since 9/11, hundreds of thousands of citizen soldiers have been mobilized at a level thought to be the highest since World War II." [more]

"The testimony also alleges that Syria has 'a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin that can be delivered by aircraft or ballistic missiles, and has engaged in the research and development of more toxic and persistent nerve agents such as VX.' Syria is not a party to the international treaty banning chemical weapons." [more]

"I certainly cannot make an offer of which Washington would take notice. The Americans listen to criticism and then act as they see fit. I think it is obvious that there must ultimately be a procedure through which an objective judicial entity decides whether a specific person constitutes a threat, and that such a person also needs legal counsel in that procedure. Otherwise fundamental principles are lost." [more]

"Congressional Republicans deny the Democratic charge that the deficit was deliberately created to shrink government, but nonetheless acknowledge that it will be a useful tool to achieve that goal." [more]

"By trying to justify the current fight in Iraq as a fight against terrorism, the administration has done two frightening things. It has tried to divert attention from Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the wave of terrorist attacks against American interests from New York and Washington to Yemen. And the policy advanced by the speech is a major step toward creating a dangerous, self-fulfilling prophecy and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the facts on the ground." [more]

"The United States and other leading nations on the Security Council held intensive discussions over the future governance of Iraq today but failed to break the impasse over France's insistence that Iraq's transition to self-rule be overseen by the United Nations rather than the American occupation." [more]

"In fact the entire Islamic World is the target of [Bush's] allegation[s]. Iran and Syria are facing US threats right after its occupation of Baghdad. Now the intensity of these threats against Iran has increased, especially with reference to its nuclear program. The United States is very much concerned with the presence of Islamist groups in Lebanon. Libya is yet to get a pardon from the United States, despite its acceptance of the Lockerbie air crash. Indonesia is also under tremendous pressure because of the Bali blasts. Turkey has tried its best to please the West, but none of the European countries is interested in making a member of the European Union." [more]

"France's center-right Le Figaro said that on September 11 terrorists declared war on the entire West, and 'there can be no neutrality' despite the shortcomings of US policies. Even strongly antiwar, center-left Le Monde noted the threat for all democracies as it urged the US to 'listen to its allies.' " [more]

"Just as there is a terrorist threat in Iraq where none previously existed, so the clash of civilisations predicted two years ago is more nearly a reality than it was then. Just as Mr Bush's cynical exaggeration of Iraq's WMD threat and 9/11 links has eroded trust in him at home, so has it shattered European and Arab confidence that the US can be a dependable friend, not a reckless juggernaut." [more]

"The pan-Arab station, operating since 1996, was funded by the Qatari government but has shown an editorial independence and aggressiveness that were remarkable in a region where governments usually dictate what goes on the air." [more]

"The very different forces of Islamist terrorism and American militarism operate according to peculiarly similar criteria: They see the whole world as their legitimate battlefield; they paint their actions in a context of divine mandates and existential struggles for the triumph of good over evil; they cater explicitly to their public opinions and exaggerate fears and threats from the other and, most troublingly, they repeatedly misdiagnose the motives and miscalculate the reactions of the other." [more]

"Israel on Wednesday said that an 'unwritten and abstract' axis with India and the United States has been created to combat international terrorism and make the world a more secure place for all." [more]

"More than four months after US President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said facts presented by Iraq in the 12,000-page document may have been accurate." [more]

"The 288 American soldiers and countless Iraqis who have since died in a pointless, bloody war will not be mentioned, nor will the administration's own responsibility in their deaths. Of all the lies this administration has told its people, one false promise resonated most deeply with frightened Americans — the promise that a war with Iraq would make us safer." [more]

"Senior administration officials for the first time acknowledged that they vastly underestimated the damage to [Iraq's] infrastructure and greatly overestimated the amount of oil revenue that could be used to help rebuild the war-torn country. The disclosures ... mark the administration's strongest acknowledgment to date that it failed to fully comprehend the complexities of rebuilding Iraq." [more]

"New lobbying groups dedicated to promoting India's interests in Washington, such as the US-India Political Action Committee set up in September 2002, are increasingly working with Jewish groups such as the American Jewish Committee to promote what they say are India and Israel's common concerns and values. The AJC is planning to open a permanent liaison office in India this year and has been helping to train Indian Americans in the art of lobbying." [more]

"The White House acknowledged Monday that it substantially underestimated the cost of rebuilding Iraq, and that even the additional $87 billion it is seeking from a wary Congress will fall far short of what is needed for postwar reconstruction." [more]

"Lawmakers of both parties warned before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that stabilizing post-war Iraq could be far more expensive than waging war. For months, the Bush administration was reluctant to discuss the financial costs of the commitment, much as the Johnson administration seldom directly addressed the budget impact of Vietnam." [more]

"A history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies." [more]

"Ashcroft has always been one of the Bush administration's most controversial figures ... but now the attorney general finds himself at odds with some fellow Republicans from Idaho to Capitol Hill who are troubled by the extent of his anti-terrorism tactics and angered by his unwillingness to compromise." [more]

"Nearly 300 American personnel and dozens of British soldiers, plus U.N. officials and untold numbers of Iraqis, [may] have died due to incredibly bad or corrupted intelligence." [more]

"The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than previously disclosed and demonstrate the U.S. military's increasing reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations." [more]

"This appears to be the true message of Bush's war franchise: why negotiate with your political opponents when you can annihilate them? In the era of [the war on terrorism], concerns such as war crimes and human rights just don't register." [more]

"The EPA inspector general said the agency was persuaded by the White House to omit cautionary language about the possible hazards from air pollutants such as asbestos, cadmium and lead after the World Trade Center towers fell. In addition, the report said the EPA omitted from early public statements guidance for the professional cleaning of indoor spaces, leading some people to return to their homes before they had been properly cleaned." [more]

"Most people don't realize just how frequently the United Nations puts itself between trigger-happy combatants around the globe ... [yet] which do most people associate with the United Nations? The ones in which U.N. troops failed to prevent disaster." [more]

"Classified spending next fiscal year will reach about $23.2 billion of the Pentagon's total request for procurement and research funding. When adjusted for inflation, that is the largest dollar figure since the peak reached during President Ronald Reagan's defense buildup 16 years ago." [more]

"Americans say they’re spending too much in Iraq with too little to show for it. And with the 2004 approaching, Bush is losing ground." [more]

"Bush ... made the peaceful transformation of the Middle East the main justification for war in Iraq. With the failure to find forbidden weapons in Iraq, Bush and his aides have said the invasion of Iraq will allow it to become the linchpin of a stable and democratic Middle East. As a result, continued violence in Iraq and the Middle East would deprive the administration of another key justification for the war." [more]

"Only one thing ever said by the White House is true, which is that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator. That he was. And so now, eight lies later, the administration falls back on this rhetoric, which is obviously the Republican National Committee's No. 1 talking point: Would you rather ... that Saddam Hussein still be in power butchering his people? This is the question of a demagogue, a shill or an idiot." [more]

"The Bush team has now created the very monster that it conjured up to alarm Americans into backing a war on Iraq. Before the Iraq war, the Bush team inflated the threats to America; since the war, the Bush team has deflated the threats to America." [more]

"The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are to pull their staff out of Iraq after the devastating bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Some countries that had been considering sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq might heighten their reluctance after the bomb blast." [more]

"Yesterday's attack, the worst in U.N. history, was another sign that surly, chaotic postwar Iraq is becoming a magnet for terrorists. That is yet another consequence of the Iraq war that the Bush administration failed to anticipate, like the uncontrolled postwar looting, the delays in restoring water and electricity, the ambushes of American soldiers and the sabotage of infrastructure." [more]

"The description of active combat in Iraq was one of several statements Bush made in the interview that differed with earlier administration positions." [more]

"Saudis who have gone to Iraq have established links with sympathetic Iraqis in the northern area between Baghdad, Mosul and Tikrit, where they have hidden in safe-houses." [more]

"[The] exercise would consist in part of ships and helicopters practicing the 'nonpermissive boarding' of ships suspected of carrying drugs, missile components, nuclear materials and other items that the United States says are being imported or sold by North Korea. Some diplomats are known to worry that [such] exercises ... might be seen as provocative by the government of Kim Jong Il in North Korea, and perhaps by China and Russia." [more]

"Thai officials say Hambali is currently in US custody, though the US refused to say where upon announcing his arrest last Thursday. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage ... said it would be 'foolish' to believe the threat has evaporated with Hambali's arrest." [more]

"For Pakistanis who support the US-led war on terrorism, and for Washington, [jihadist rallies are] a troubling sign that Pakistan remains a breeding ground for extremist groups and for an ideology of cultural war shared by Al Qaeda." [more]

"The move could disappoint those who viewed the ouster of Saddam Hussein as an opportunity to set Iraqi oil policy on a pro-American course, open the nation's oil sector to Western companies and reduce the influence of OPEC on world oil production and prices." [more]

"The cameraman was the second Reuters journalist to be killed in Iraq since the invasion began on March 20. His colleague died on April 8 when an American tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, from which Mr. Protsyuk was filming the United States advance into the city center." [more]

"The Pentagon has been making it increasingly clear that while the war is over in Iraq, the peace is far from won. But now some Americans have had enough, and have started the campaign to bring the troops home." [more]

"Presidential contenders and congressional Democrats criticized the Pentagon on Thursday for opposing legislation that would extend an increase in combat pay for troops in Iraq and other war zones." [more]

"If the Bush administration had been wrong only about the Niger purchase, it would have indicated carelessness. But the references to nuclear weapons, taken as a whole, indicate dissatisfaction with the truth of the matter and a disregard for inconvenient facts." [more]

"People nowadays are not willing to bow down before an emperor, even a benevolent one, in order to be democratised. They will protest, and the ensuing pain will be felt by the imperial power as well as by its subjects. For Americans, the pain will not be just a matter of budget deficits and body bags; it will also be a blow to the very heart of what makes them American—their constitutional belief in freedom." [more]

"The missile shipped into the New York area last month was not a real missile — just a mockup — arranged entirely by the government. The government also arranged the meetings at a New Jersey hotel and elsewhere, where Lakhani allegedly told undercover agents posing as al Qaeda terrorists about his support of bin Laden. 'One would have to ask yourself, would this have occurred at all without the government?' said [one] criminal defense attorney." [more]

"One of the psychologists behind the study, Jack Glaser, said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for 'closure' could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." [more]

"Recently, U.S. English [a group for which Schwarzenegger sits on the board of advisors] has come under the scrutiny of watchdog groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center for its hiring of [James] Lubinskas in March. [He] has long ties to right-wing nationalist groups, such as American Friends of the British Nationalist Party. The Summer 2000 edition of the AFBNP newsletter describes a meeting in which Lubinskas shared a stage with former Louisiana Klansman David Duke." [more]

"With all the attention paid to neo-conservatives in the international media nowadays, one would think that there would be a standard definition of the term. Yet, despite their now being credited with a virtual takeover of US foreign policy under President George W Bush, a common understanding of the term remains elusive." [more]

"Pipe's nomination has been stalled for months in the Senate, where key Democrats objected to his controversial statements and writings defending racial and religious profiling and suggestions that mosques in America should be targets of police surveillance." [more]

"Originally set up after World War II to fight communism, NATO has decided that now it is time to target international terrorism. In this way the alliance hopes to ease the sense of its own inaction, and even pointlessness, which has been haunting it since the break-up of the USSR." [more]

"According to knowledgeable U.S. and overseas sources, experts from U.S. national laboratories reported in December to the Energy Department and U.S. intelligence analysts that Iraq was manufacturing copies of the [missle]. Not only [its] alloy, but also its dimensions, to the fraction of a millimeter, matched the disputed aluminum tubes." [more]

"The first evidence that the home-team body count is being whitewashed has to do with the 'cause of death.' There are increasing reports that soldiers killed due to hostile action are listed by the Pentagon as killed in accidents." [more]

" 'I don't believe that anyone who's wearing a uniform in this country in a public forum should be critical of the chain of command. Period,' [one] general said." [more]

"No matter how you rationalize it — budget shortfalls, election schedules or partisan politics — the prospect of multiple states calling off [primary] elections is deeply disturbing. The result is that in 2004, fewer Americans will get to participate in one of their country's most important political choices." [more]

"We now have the House Judiciary Committee threatening to investigate the sentencing records of every federal judge in the country for suspected 'political' bias. All this stems from the matter of James Rosenbaum, chief judge for the Minnesota Federal District Court, who thinks sentencing guidelines for low-level drug dealers are too harsh." [more]

"[National security adviser Condoleezza] Rice and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz are the leading candidates to replace [Secretary of State Colin] Powell, according to sources inside and outside the administration. Another dark horse is former House speaker Newt Gingrich." [more]

"Protests against Bush's war on Iraq drew more students than any other recent protest movement, and they were younger, more working-class and more racially and geographically diverse. Now it looks as if that protest energy may provide momentum for the 2004 elections." [more]

" 'When I examined the task organization, my estimate was totally contrary to this asshole Rumsfeld, who went in light and on the cheap, all based upon this rosy scenario. I never thought this would be a fight without resistance. And there was another guy who thought the same way I did; his name is Saddam Hussein.' " [more]

"What would the occupying forces and their families make of Bush's executive order 13303, promulgated without fanfare in May, which gives sweeping powers to US oil companies operating in Iraq while granting immunity to them for the consequences of any of their actions in exploiting the oil?" [more]

"The Prime Minister, who this weekend becomes the longest continually serving Labour Prime Minister in history, has set up a ministerial working group in the Home Office charged with injecting religious ideas 'across Whitehall'. One expert on the relationship between politics and religion described the move as a 'blow to secularism.' " [more]

"He said that Washington's warning was likely to be heeded. 'Mr Cohen did not spell it out but everybody in Niger knows what the consequences of upsetting America or Britain would be. We are the world's second-poorest country and we depend on international aid to survive.' " [more]

"The Bush administration had developed an uncommonly twisted way of discussing deception itself. In his own way, Rumsfeld is uncommonly candid about his willingness to deceive and about his techniques for doing so. But even the deceptions are delivered in a convoluted manner-usually through insinuations or evasive language games rather than outright falsehoods." [more]

"The administration is not seeking a second resolution because it is satisfied with the financial and peacekeeping assistance it is getting from other countries willing to participate without a broader U.N. mandate." [more]

"The administration of President Bush has intensified efforts to seek troops from India, Pakistan and Turkey in order to bolster a multinational force that now includes troops mostly from former Soviet republics and Latin American nations." [more]

"A Bush aide outlined a long-term strategy in which the United States would spread its values through Iraq and the Middle East much as it transformed Europe in the second half of the 20th century. As outlined, the U.S. commitment to Iraq and the Middle East would be far more expansive than the administration had described to the public and the world before the Iraq war." [more]

"The disclosure by the Foreign Office makes it plain the CIA's objections went far beyond the well-aired dispute over whether Iraq was seeking uranium from the west African state of Niger." [more]

"Public opinion polls published during the first week of July indicate that 60% of the American public believes that the United Nations should take leadership in post-war Iraq." [more]

"In its latest report, the House of Commons foreign affairs committee also argues that nearly two years on from the 11 September atrocity it cannot conclude the threat from al-Qaeda has diminished." [more]

"The return of a multilateral tilt signifies a correction after the Iraq war, according to some analysts. These observers also say it reveals how the US has lost ground in some central goals, and is now playing catch-up. One of those buffeted priorities is the international war on terrorism." [more]

"The top Republican senator on the 9-11 inquiry, Richard Shelby, said Sunday that 95 percent of the classified pages could be released without jeopardizing national security. Bush ignored a reporter's question on Shelby's assessment." [more]

"American soldiers are no longer merely terrestrial combatants; they have become missionaries. They are no longer simply killing enemies; they are casting out demons. The people who reconstructed the faces of Uday and Qusay Hussein carelessly forgot to restore the pair of little horns on each brow, but the understanding that these were opponents from a different realm was transmitted nonetheless. Like all those who send missionaries abroad, the high priests of America cannot conceive that the infidels might resist through their own free will." [more]

The lawyers "said the war in Iraq breached international treaties such as the Charter of the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions and the ICC's own Statute." [more]

"Like other examples of doublespeak, the concept of 'shock and awe' enables its users to symbolically reconcile two contradictory ideas. On the one hand, its theorists use the term to plan massive uses of deadly force. On the other hand, its focus on the psychological effect of that force makes it possible to use the term while distancing audiences from direct contemplation of the human suffering that force creates." [more]

Did the Bush Administration burn a useful source on Al Qaeda? [more]

"John Brady Kiesling may have a promising future as a trivia question. But for one brief, undiplomatic moment, his resignation from the Foreign Service crystallized the opposition to the Iraq war." [more]

"Among the things Wolfowitz says the U.S. guessed incorrectly was the assumption that some Iraqi Army units would switch sides; that the Iraqi Police would help maintain security; that regime remnants would not resort to guerrilla tactics ... [and he] says it also had no idea how badly Iraq's infrastructure had been neglected over the past three decades." [more]

"The information ... significantly alters the explanation previously offered by the White House. The CIA warned the White House early on that the charge, based on an allegation that Iraq sought 500 tons of uranium in Niger, relied on weak evidence." [more]

"For organizations that opposed the war, these are busy days. Not since hundreds of thousands of people across the country marched in antiwar rallies in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion has the rationale for the preemptive war come under such fire." [more]

"'I was much more comfortable with end-strength during the cold war than I am today,' said the Republican, James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma. He said reducing the size of the military after the collapse of communism left America's ground force 'in near crisis' as it was stretched to deal with expanding global commitments in the battle against terrorism." [more]

"There are those within the Bush inner circle known to be resisting the [UN] option, arguing it would be a humiliation to head back to the international body, which the government shunned in its zeal to remove Saddam Hussein from power, particularly if it was needed to bring war opponents France and Germany into the equation." [more]

The report "shows the intelligence services were much more worried that Hussein might give weapons to al Qaeda terrorists if he were facing death or capture and his government was collapsing after a military attack by the United States." [more]

"On July 1, the White House unexpectedly announced that it would be immediately cutting off all military aid to certain countries unless their leaders signed bilateral agreements guaranteeing the total immunity of all Americans (military and civilian) before the International Criminal Court." [more]

"The media loves the trivial and can't grasp the significant. If the United States fabricated evidence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as critics are claiming, the question is not whether it did so. The question is: Why did it do so? In other words, why was invading Iraq important enough to lie about — if indeed it was a lie, which is far from clear." [more]

"The point is not that an apology is in order, though it plainly is. The point is that ... the vice president dismissed [contradictory] information out of hand and disparaged its source. He did not, however, refute it. Refutations plunge you into the realm of facts, where this administration is exquisitely uncomfortable." [more]

"His job is to keep a hawk eye on dovish Colin Powell. And he's helped turn Bush foreign policy into an ideological hammer." [more]

"The defense secretary couldn't count on the CIA or the State Department to provide a pretext for war in Iraq. So he created a new agency that would tell him what he wanted to hear." [more]

"Instead of shouting 'US Out,' those who opposed Washington's unilateral war must get serious about creating an international vision of their own." [more]

"The officials didn't develop any real postwar plans because they believed that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops with open arms and Washington could install a favored Iraqi exile leader as the country's leader. The Pentagon civilians ignored CIA and State Department experts who disputed them, resisted White House pressure to back off from their favored exile leader and when their scenario collapsed amid increasing violence and disorder, they had no backup plan." [more]

"Donald Rumsfeld, told the Senate the US had not gone to war against Iraq because of fresh evidence of weapons of mass destruction but because Washington saw what evidence there was prior to 2001 'in a dramatic new light' after September 11." [more]

"The measure said administering and rebuilding Iraq likely will cost tens of billions of dollars over several years, and projected Iraqi oil revenues will not meet those costs." [more]

"Mr Blair refused to apologise for inadvertently 'misrepresenting' the dossier issued in February as 'intelligence' when large parts of it were culled from an article in a Middle East journal based on a PhD thesis." [more]

"If the information was ignored because it did not fit certain preconceptions about Iraq, then a legitimate argument can be made that we went to war under false pretenses ... At a minimum, Congress, which authorized the use of military force at the president's behest, should want to know if the assertions about Iraq were warranted." [more]

" 'Sure, Bush is coming to visit our AIDS clinic — and he will be here for a whole four hours,' said Walfula Oguttu, editor-in-chief of Uganda's independent newspaper. 'But we all know it all has to do with fighting terrorism. His AIDS money is trying to buy Africa.' " [more]

"The administration that had 100 percent certainty that there were weapons of mass destruction has zero percent certainty as to where they are now. The White House and the president's defenders have reverted to their fall-back humanitarian position — that the removal of Hussein was justification enough for the war." [more]

"Intelligence reports suggesting Saddam Hussein's regime was attempting to obtain uranium from the African nation of Niger were based on false information, including forged documents. What's even more embarrassing is that the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department had themselves earlier concluded the reports were almost certainly not true." [more]

"[Bush's] statement was apparently primarily based on American intelligence ... but many analysts did not believe those reports at the time, and were shocked to hear the president make such a flat, declarative statement." [more]

"Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said that given the level of intelligence co-operation between Australia and the US, it was 'downright unbelievable' that no one from the Australian Government was in any way aware that the earlier reports from the US were flawed." [more]

"The [British] government was 'fundamentally opposed' to the use of the death penalty and would raise the strongest possible objections if there was any chance of this being applied in these cases." [more]

"The two men face a trial where US military officers will serve as judge, jury and prosecution. The men can nominate their defence lawyer, but the lawyers have to get special US clearance." [more]

"Tony Blair and his government did not mislead parliament or doctor evidence to justify the war on Iraq, a parliamentary committee concluded on Monday. The government, though, did get its knuckles wrapped over its dossiers on Iraq's weapons." [more]

"Once a model of stability in a chaotic region, Turkish-American relations are going from bad to worse. Over the weekend, ties between the NATO allies hit a new low after U.S. forces in northern Iraq arrested 11 Turkish military officials reportedly suspected of plotting to kill an Iraqi Kurdish leader. Ankara and Washington have since been trying to control the damage, but the wounds could be lasting." [more]

"The three known defendants are being held with as many as 680 other foreign captives at Camp X-Ray at Washington's Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba where, according to a series of court decisions, none of them enjoys the basic due-process rights required by the U.S. Constitution." [more]

"The United States put monetary muscle behind its vehement opposition to the International Criminal Court, suspending more than 47 million dollars in military aid to 35 countries for their failure or refusal to give US citizens immunity from the tribunal." [more]

"A leader of a prominent Shiite group accused the Bush administration on Wednesday of reneging on pledges to hand over power to local political groups in Iraq and blamed Americans for failing to secure Iraq after Saddam's fall and 'plunging the country into an unending cycle of violence.' " [more]

Analysts lay out ten international-security developments that aren't getting the attention they deserve. [more]

"The charges against Bush, according to the indictment, include aggression, attacks against civilians and nonmilitary facilities and the torturing and execution of prisoners." [more]

" 'We are going to fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or ... kill them until we have imposed law and order on this country,' [Bremer] declared at the weekend. 'We dominate the scene and we will continue to impose our will on this country.' " [more]

"Questions were growing on Monday over the funding and composition of the 30,000 additional international troops the US expects to see deployed in Iraq by September." [more]

"We put [George W. Bush] on the board and [he] spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years — you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company." [more]

"Washington tried to have the Security Council adopt a statement putting pressure on Pyongyang in April. But the plan was shelved because Beijing and Moscow — permanent members of the council with veto power — disapproved." [more]

"The Americans call the guerrillas '[Hussein] loyalists' and 'Ba'athist fighters,' in the same way they used to dismiss the Vietnamese as 'communists.' Recently in the Sunni heartland of Iraq, it was clearly not the presence of Ba'athists or Saddamists, but the brutal behaviour of the occupiers, who fired point-blank at a crowd, that inspired the resistance." [more]

"Foreign policy is always difficult in a democracy. Democracy requires openness. Yet foreign policy requires a level of secrecy that frees it from oversight and exposes it to abuse. As a result, Republicans and Democrats have long held that the intelligence agencies—the most clandestine of foreign policy institutions—should be insulated from political interference in much the same way as the higher reaches of the judiciary. As the Tower Commission, established to investigate the Iran-Contra scandal, warned in November 1987, 'The democratic processes ... are subverted when intelligence is manipulated to affect decisions by elected officials and the public.' " [more]

"Two former senior British ministers accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of deceiving the public at the start of a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday into the government's justification for launching a war with Iraq." [more]

"The focus on Iraq has robbed domestic security of manpower, brainpower and money, [the counterterrorism adviser] said. The Iraq war created fissures in the United States' counterterrorism alliances, he said, and could breed a new generation of al Qaeda recruits. Many of his government colleagues, he said, thought Iraq was an 'ill-conceived and poorly executed strategy.' " [more]

"To create a dependency dynamic between him and the electorate, Bush describes the nation as being in a perpetual state of crisis and then attempts to convince the electorate that it is powerless and that he is the only one with the strength to deal with it. He attempts to persuade people they must transfer power to him, thus crushing the power of the citizen, the Congress, the Democratic Party, even constitutional liberties, to concentrate all power in the imperial presidency and the Republican Party." [more]

"The emptiness of the policy is clear from the way the aims have been put forward in public relations terms. Phrases like 'axis of evil', or 'the road map' are not policy statements, but merely sound bites that accumulate their own policy potential. The overwhelming newspeak that has swamped the world in the past 18 months is an indication of the absence of real policy. Bush does not do policy, but a stage act." [more]

"Bush spoke of Iraq's weapons program, rather than its weaponry, and referred to it in the past tense. Asked to clarify Bush's remarks, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush did not intend to make a distinction between weapons and weapons programs. 'The president, in saying programs, also applies that to weapons,' the spokesman said. Fleischer also said Bush believed Iraq had weapons when the war began." [more]

"This ... bad behavior by the North Koreans has resulted in negative public opinion in Japan, providing the agency with an opening to speed up acquisition of an 'off-the-shelf' missile defense system. Additionally, Washington has been pushing its East Asia allies hard to establish missile defense systems in concert with the United States." [more]

"European Union officials say they are bracing for the next tug-of-war in strained ties with Washington over whether to isolate or engage with the Islamic republic." [more]

"Pipes is ... founder of Campus Watch, a website that compiles public files on college professors who are critical of Israel or certain aspects of American Foreign policy." [more]

"The coalition demanded that the United Nations play the lead role in rebuilding Iraq, while safeguarding human rights and being allowed to send its weapons inspectors back into the country." [more]

"Veteran senators from both parties, expressing some of the strongest congressional concern to date about the civil disorder in Iraq, appealed to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday to quickly bring the situation under control." [more]

"The problem now is that that the mistakes that were made in the period leading up to the conflict are being repeated in the post-conflict situation. In particular, the UN mandate necessary to bring into being a legitimate Iraqi Government is not being supported by the UK Government." [more]

"The premise on which the White House sold this war to Americans — Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that were a direct threat to us — has yet to be validated. Some who accepted that are beginning to feel a little bit had. If you're going to invade a country without direct provocation, the justification should be ironclad both before and after the fact." [more]

"A high-level UK source said last night that intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were furious that briefings they gave political leaders were distorted in the rush to war with Iraq." [more]

"After resigning [as a US diplomat in Greece], I came to see myself as the canary in the mine shaft, the squeamish soul that keeled over first when our policy became toxic. [The Greeks'] view is that of the majority of the Muslim world: The United States put itself into the ranks of evil by failing to impose the just peace in the Middle East its power allegedly permitted it." [more]

"Why have American and British Forces not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? The most plausible answer is that there are none, in the true sense of the word, even though forces are likely eventually to come across some very unpleasant weapons created by Saddam Hussein." [more]

"This looks like America's moment. History should give us pause." [more]

"This is nation-building, Republican-style, with huge contracts awarded in secret to politically connected companies." [more]

"Most Americans are satisfied with U.S. and British efforts to restore civil order in Iraq, and they now rank humanitarian needs as the top priority there." [more]

" 'Peace' means more than just 'anti-war.' It summarizes in a word the concepts of economic and environmental justice, civil rights, equality, democracy and compassion. With that understanding in mind, peace organizers can broaden the call for a massive [voter] registration." [more]

"Although only a handful of them have gone public, at least several hundred U.S. soldiers have applied for conscientious objector status since January. " [more]

"On at least six occasions, [Rumsfeld] insisted that the number of ground troops be sharply reduced. His faith in precision bombing and his insistence on streamlined military operations has had profound consequences for the ability of the armed forces to fight effectively overseas. 'They've got no resources,' a former high-level intelligence official said." [more]

" 'When cities like Cleveland and Lorain pass antiwar resolutions, you know they think about that at the White House. This isn't people demonstrating in Paris. This is local elected officials, who know what the mood is in their towns, and they are taking an antiwar stand.' " [more]

"A shuddering sense of outrage at President Bush and the United States fell over the Arab world today as television networks and newspapers reported a U.S. air assault that Iraqi officials said killed 58 people at a vegetable market in Baghdad." [more]

"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forced his military chiefs to accept his idea that a relatively small, lightly armed force should go to war with Iraq, it is being alleged." [more]

"The Army Corps of Engineers didn't solicit bids for the Iraqi oil contract announced Monday. Rather, it said it awarded the work to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary, based on the firm's previous government contract for planning a response to Iraqi well fires and managing oil fields." [more]

"Fearing friendly fire incidents with U.S. forces and clashes with Iraqi Kurds, the United States opposes Turkish intervention." [more]

"While Americans watch Baghdad burn from a distance, most of the Arab channels have corespondents inside the city, and they emphasize reporting of civilian casualties. There's also lots of news about worldwide protests." [more]

"The U.S., once a guarantor of peace, is now perceived in the rest of the world as an aggressor. Its victim is a small Muslim nation unable to defend its own air space, much less to project power beyond its borders. If Iraqis attempt to resist invasion, they will be slaughtered." [more]

"As the U.S. attack on Baghdad gets underway, the military strategy dubbed 'Shock and Awe' by Pentagon war planners is emerging as a lightning rod for criticism in the international online media." [more]

"Today the world may have reached a defining geopolitical moment similar to the late 1940s, when the East-West alignment that characterized the cold war emerged from the chaos of World War II." [more]

"France and Germany have spoken out against war with Iraq at a meeting of the UN Security Council, just hours before the American deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq expires." [more]

"Appeals for continued diplomatic engagement with Baghdad were summarily dismissed by the United States ambassador to the United Nations." [more]

"Even minimal casualties and devastation will not justify overturning international norms that have prevailed for sixty years." [more]

"Some of the biggest rallies this month have endorsed President Bush's strategy against Saddam Hussein, and the common thread linking most of them is Clear Channel Worldwide Inc., the nation's largest owner of radio stations." [more]

"The country now stands at a decisive turning point, not just in regard to the Iraq crisis, but in how it means to define its role in the post-cold-war world. President Bush's father and then Bill Clinton worked hard to infuse that role with America's traditions of idealism, internationalism and multilateralism. Under George W. Bush, however, Washington has charted a very different course. Allies have been devalued and military force overvalued." [more]

"Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to create? Why is it necessary to resort to war this week, while Saddam's ambition to complete his weapons programme is blocked by the presence of UN inspectors?" [more]

"Robin Cook has won an unprecedented standing ovation in the [British] House of Commons after telling MPs why he resigned from the government over the looming war with Iraq." [more]

"The U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq may be withdrawn because of France's threat to veto it, the Spanish foreign minister said Wednesday." [more]

"Washington acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Tony Blair’s political troubles could force the US to go into battle alone against Iraq." [more]

"Facing almost certain defeat, the United States and Britain delayed a vote to give Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to disarm and signaled they might compromise to try to win support from [UN] Security Council members who oppose a rush to war." [more]

With Pakistan's abstention, the United States must now win the votes of all five undecided nations — Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Mexico — in the UN Security Council in order for the resolution authorizing war on Iraq to pass without a veto. [more]

"A U.S. diplomat resigned from government service on Monday in protest of President Bush's preparations to attack Iraq, the second to do so in less than a month." [more]

"If the U.S. issues the expected warning, [Annan] can and should announce that the U.S. has no authority to evict the inspectors, who are United Nations employees. Furthermore, Annan can say that he will not withdraw the inspectors from Iraq unless he is ordered to do so by the U.N. Security Council or the inspectors report that they are not being allowed to do their job." [more]

"Officials said Washington was waiting to hear from international inspectors before deciding on a response to disclosures Iran's nuclear program was more advanced than previously thought." [more]

"Last week a member of the Canadian Parliament for the ruling party, Carolyn Parrish, was caught on television declaring: 'Damn Americans. I hate those bastards.'" [more]

"Why does our president condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials? Has 'oderint dum metuant' really become our motto?' So reads the resignation letter of John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat who recently left the Foreign Service in protest against Bush administration policy." [more]

"Russia made it clear to the US and Britain yesterday that it is prepared to use its security council veto against a second UN resolution authorising war against Iraq." [more]

"The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon's war plan for Iraq entailed shocking the Iraqi leadership into submission quickly with an attack 'much, much, much different' from the 43-day Persian Gulf war in 1991." [more]

"Senior aides to President George W. Bush say he faces a humiliating defeat before the United Nations Security Council next week." [more]

"[Front-line] reporters have to go through a mini-boot camp, under the guidance of drill sergeants and training officers. In theory, the pseudo-basic training will get them in physical shape to slog through desert sands. In fact, it will acclimatize them to the military mindset and make them think that they’re part of the team. Instead of objective reporters, they’ll be participants." [more]

"Alleged U.S. spying at the U.N. — huge news in the rest of the world, ignored here — provides fodder to festering anti-Americanism." [more]

"The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq." [more]

"Turkey's parliament has narrowly failed to approve the deployment of US troops on its territory for a possible war with neighbouring Iraq." [more]

"Tony Blair's Iraqi war strategy was shaken to the core last night when 121 Labour backbenchers defied a three-line whip to join a cross-party revolt and tell the prime minister that the the case for military action against Saddam Hussein is not yet made." [more]

"The diplomat, the political counselor at the United States Embassy in Athens, said in his resignation letter, 'Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson.' " [more]

"Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security." [more]

"A generation of Arabs wooed by the United States and persuaded by its principles has become among the most vociferous critics of America's world view. Within its ranks are affluent businessmen with ties to the West, U.S.-educated intellectuals and liberal activists. Their ire is directed not at U.S. culture, but at preparations for a war that they believe has left them voiceless, discredited and isolated in a landscape almost universally opposed to U.S. policy." [more]

"Mexico appeared to be the first among a handful of undecided U.N. Security Council members to shift toward the U.S. position on Iraq as Canada sought to find a middle ground among members split between disarming Saddam Hussein by force or giving weapons inspectors more time." [more]

"You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said U.S. officials told him. "That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not." [more]

"An incident last week shows how close US forces and their allies in Afghanistan come to fighting one another, instead of their enemies. It also points to a lack of coordination between two forces with very different mandates — one keeping the peace, the other catching terrorists." [more]

"Tony Blair's options for going to war on Iraq were shrinking last night after Jacques Chirac publicly pledged that France would veto an early second United Nations resolution explicitly authorising military action." [more]

"The rift between Tony Blair and the British public over war against Iraq is today confirmed by an opinion poll which shows for the first time that a clear majority of British voters now oppose a military attack." [more]

"A key parliamentary vote to allow foreign troops here was due to take place Tuesday but is now being postponed, much to Washington's chagrin, because Turkish officials say they have not yet received the US assurances they require." [more]

"After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a French newspaper ran the now-famous headline, 'We are all Americans.' Now, with growing resistance worldwide to the idea of a US-led war in Iraq, a new slogan — 'We are all French' — is dotting antiwar protests" [more]

"The United States and Britain have indicated they will press on with a second UN resolution preparing the way for war against Iraq — in spite of a weekend of unprecedented worldwide peace rallies." [more]

"Attempts are being made to close the international divisions over what to do about Iraq. Although new UN resolutions are in the works, the prospects for war remain high." [more]

"As he prepares for a summit meeting of European leaders on Monday, Mr. Blair is heading for the gathering armed with little more than a sense of high moral purpose and an alliance with President Bush — neither of which has done much to persuade fellow Europeans to join a war in Iraq." [more]

"From the parks of London to the piazzas of Rome and the avenues of Paris and Berlin, more than 1.5 million Europeans marched today in a huge protest against war in Iraq. It was the Continent's biggest coordinated peace demonstration in memory and left many protesters jubilant at the show of antiwar sentiment." [more]

"The antiwar mood in Europe seemed to crystallize Friday after Hans Blix, the United Nation's chief weapons inspector in Iraq, told the Security Council that he had not uncovered any weapons of mass destruction." [more]

"Despite intense pressure from the Bush administration, French President Jacques Chirac continues to maintain that France will veto a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a war in Iraq. Today, I witnessed firsthand why Chirac maintains his firm antiwar stance." [more]

"Interviews conducted over the past few days in England, France and Germany show mounting anger and disgust with the administration's perceived determination to push the Iraq crisis to a military conclusion regardless of world opinion." [more]

"The Bush administration faced broad opposition in the U.N. Security Council today to its quest for authorization for military action to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and destroy any weapons of mass destruction." [more]

"About 30 elected officials from more than 80 cities and towns opposed to a preemptive attack on Iraq lobbied the White House and Congress Thursday, trying to reverse a course toward war." [more]

A crisis was triggered when NATO members France, Germany and Belgium blocked a plan to begin shipping defensive equipment to Turkey for a possible war with Iraq. [more]

"Despite a policy of 'active neutrality' in the crisis with Iraq, Iran has launched a strategy of conducting business as usual with Mr. Hussein's regime while also dealing with Iraqi opposition leaders." [more]

"The Bush administration faced new problems today in its confrontation with Iraq as China and Russia joined U.S. allies France and Germany in rejecting early military action." [more]

"Tony Blair today refused to rule out using nuclear weapons in a conflict against Iraq. The prime minister said Britain and the US would deal with the threat from Iraq by 'any way necessary.' " [more]

"A hail of automatic rifle fire killed an American working for the U.S. military and wounded another in an ambush on their car Tuesday near a U.S. base in Kuwait where Washington is preparing for a possible war on Iraq." [more]

"Fewer than 10 percent want Turkey to allow the U.S. to attack Iraq from Turkish military bases, [yet] Turkey's cooperation would be essential for opening up a northern front on Iraq." [more]

"The White House argued that France believes that Saddam Hussein still has programs in place to build weapons of mass destruction in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Iraq has denied that it has any such programs in place." [more]

"The Office of Global Communications has been up and running for at least six months, quietly working with foreign news media outlets to get the American message out. It was an outgrowth of an earlier administration effort to build public support overseas for the war on terrorism." [more]

"In unusually blunt terms aimed at pre-empting the United States, France said today that it would not support any Security Council resolution for military action against Iraq in the coming weeks." [more]

"Hopes have been affixed to a revival of progressivism within the Democratic party, when it was the Democrats themselves who proposed the Homeland Security Department, endorsed the Patriot Bill for the most part, and earlier failed to stand up to a stolen election that was predictably going to usher in the dictatorial actions that we've seen this regime engage in." [more]

"An Israeli defense source said that the talks with Simpson did not attest to Israeli involvement in the expected war, but were aimed rather at dealing with a situation in which Iraq responded to an American strike by attacking Israel." [more]

"The withdrawal of the inspectors working for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna sets the stage for a new showdown between North Korea and the United Nations Security Council, which is expected to meet soon to discuss Pyongyang's defiance of its obligations under existing resolutions." [more]

"The move comes at the end of a difficult year for the Peace Corps in Russia, with the Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB, charging that some volunteers were spying." [more]

"U.S. Treasury and State Department officials said on Saturday they had discussed economic aid for close ally Turkey to reassure markets and ensure stability in the event of a war in neighbouring Iraq." [more]

"German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer appeared on Saturday not to rule out his country voting for military action against Iraq on the U.N. Security Council despite German insistence it will not take part in a war." [more]

"U.S. officials said Saturday they made progress on a possible aid package to help protect Turkey's struggling economy from any damage caused by a possible war in neighboring Iraq." [more]

"Dramatic confrontations in Iran between hard-liners and reformers, suggesting that the Islamic Republic may be tottering, recall the lesson history taught Mikhail Gorbachev: A political system rooted in lies and repression cannot long survive the telling of truth that comes with free speech." [more]

"Turks overwhelmingly oppose the use of a key U.S. air base in their country in any possible attack against Iraq, a new survey found, underscoring the difficulties faced by Turkey's leaders if they assist in the U.S. campaign against Baghdad." [more]

"Suspicion about U.S. motives in Iraq coupled with the widely held beliefs that the United States routinely ignores the interests of other nations and doesn't do enough to help solve global problems have battered the nation's image around the world." [more]

"The impatience in Washington and Baghdad over the pace and character of the inspections did not appear serious enough for the Bush administration or the government of President Saddam Hussein to walk away from the process. But it dramatized the intense political pressure facing the U.N. inspectors, whose work has become what amounts to a tripwire for possible U.S. military action to destroy Hussein's three-decade rule." [more]

"The public would be better served and the victims of 9/11 better honored by no commission rather than one headed by Kissinger." [more]

"Kissinger is the perfect chair for the 9-11 commission — if what you want is damage control rather than the truth." [more]

"Although it is difficult to predict how much Americans would pay for a new war with Iraq, one fact seems indisputable: It will be many times more than the cost of the last war, if only because other countries are much more reluctant to share the burden." [more]

"President Bush's national security strategy could represent the most sweeping shift in U.S. grand strategy since the beginning of the Cold War. But its success depends on the willingness of the rest of the world to welcome U.S. power with open arms." [more]

The leaders of NATO demanded that Iraq "fully and completely" comply with UN weapons inspections, but did not suggest the allies would necessarily support a military action against Baghdad. [more]

"Why would the Security Council spend two months deciding whether to authorize the use of force if its decision were not binding? How can the council's decision bind Iraq but not the United States?" [more]

"The perception that Washington remains hostile toward Islam is helping drive the victories of some religiously oriented parties across the Islamic and Arab world, experts in the" [more]

"The North Atlantic Treaty Organization appears set to embrace a radically new military posture and strategy that would profoundly alter the shape and mission of the world's most significant military alliance, according to NATO officials here and government officials in a half-dozen European capitals." [more]

European Reaction To the 2002 elections [more]

Saudi Arabia says it will not allow the United States to use its facilities for any attack against neighbouring Iraq, even if a strike was sanctioned by the United Nations. [more]

"On the issue of Arab views of other countries, only Israel, the United States and Britain received overall negative scores among 13 countries listed in the question, including Asian and Islamic nations." [more]

Economic sanctions in Iraq as a weapon of mass destruction. [more]

"For weeks, France and the United States have danced a diplomatic tango to define a UN resolution that could precipitate - or forestall - a war with Iraq. " [more]

"The United States and France are moving toward a compromise on Iraq that would oblige the Bush administration to consult the United Nations Security Council before embarking on military action against Saddam Hussein but still leave it the freedom to act alone." [more]

"Talks to prevent Israel's fragile coalition government from collapsing have failed and Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres have both resigned." [more]

"Many nations may use next week's expected Security Council vote on US resolution to bridle US might. Picture the Lilliputians pulling ropes, tying knots, doing their best to restrain the giant Gulliver. As a historic vote on Iraq nears at the United Nations, some observers describe what is happening as a similarly Swiftian scene. " [more]

"Refusing to sanction spending for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel’s Labor Party has withdrawn from Sharon’s government. New elections are expected. " [more]

"Diplomats say that Britain and the United States can count on the support only of Bulgaria, Colombia, Norway and Singapore for its latest proposal. Russia, China, France and Syria do not support the present US-British text. The swing votes are Cameroon, Ireland, Guinea, Mauritius and Mexico." [more]

"President Bush left a summit conference here today without a pledge from Mexico to support the American resolution in the United Nations Security Council to disarm Iraq." [more]

"The US has formally proposed its draft resolution aimed at disarming Iraq to the United Nations Security Council." [more]

"IRAN told Washington yesterday that it would never accept an American attempt to impose military rule on Iraq if Saddam Hussein were toppled from power. " [more]

"This document presents military's estimate of U.S. forces now deployed to the Central Command area of operations and focused upon Iraq. It is quite probable that a war may be launched within the next three to six months. Currently, more than over 35,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are in the Persian Gulf area, in over half a dozen countries, and more are arriving. " [more]

This explores the rationales for "pre-emptive strikes," from Pearl Harbor through the present, and the wars that often resulted. [more]

"Russia rejected the new U.S. draft resolution on Iraq Tuesday, dealing a sharp blow to American efforts to gain U.N. backing for the automatic use of force if weapons inspectors are thwarted by Baghdad." [more]

"The United States has offered Israel a huge aid package to shield its economy from the fallout of any military action against Iraq, a senior official revealed Monday as a Tel Aviv daily spoke of a request for loan guarantees totalling 10 billion dollars." [more]

"The compatibility of Islam and democracy is an ongoing struggle. In Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia, secular militaries retain a strong hand in preventing Islamic rule and, ironically, keeping some sort of democracy. Even such semidemocratic nation-states provide a better unity and means than more authoritarian governments in both stopping terrorists and winning over the population." [more]

"Several foreign diplomats said they suspected it was the work of the Jemaah Islamiah, an Islamic militant network in Southeast Asia that intelligence officials say is linked to al Qaeda." [more]

"The impasse between the United States and France over military action in Iraq has deepened in recent days after an effort to reach a compromise stalled," while Bush administration officials "said they were trying to foment an uprising in Iraq, a strategy they had dismissed as recently as last spring." [more]

"U.S. President George W. Bush will ask Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for 'maximum restraint' if Israel is attacked by Iraq in the event of an American assault on the Baghdad regime, but he won't ask Sharon for a commitment not to react under any circumstances, Israeli and American sources said yesterday." [more]

"America must be 'willing and prepared to act decisively to use the force necessary to prevail, plus some,' [Rumsfeld] wrote. In particular, leaders must avoid 'promising not to do things (i.e., not to use ground forces, not to bomb below 20,000 feet, not to risk U.S. lives, not to permit collateral damage, not to bomb during Ramadan, etc.).' " [more]

The Bush administration recently chastised German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder for comments he made that expressed grave doubts about the coming war in Iraq. This piece analyzes what these diplomatic exchanges mean for the relationship between the U.S. and its junior partners in NATO. [more]

"It has emerged from coalition talks between Germany's two governing parties that the $24 billion annual military budget is likely to be maintained for the next four years, [and as] one possible answer to Germany's growing military role, leading Social Democratic and Green politicians this week hinted that they may examine a switch from conscription to a professional army." [more]

"Pakistan's masses have sent a clear signal of simmering resentment over the US war on terror which is playing out in their own backyard." [more]

"Observers from the European Union yesterday blamed Pakistan's government for 'serious flaws' in its general election, and questioned claims by the military President, Pervez Musharraf, to be returning the country to a civilian democracy." [more]

"A quite distinct sort of claim is also made in the 'double standards' debate. This holds that Israel stands in breach of Security Council resolutions in just the way Iraq does, and therefore deserves to be treated by the UN with equal severity. Not so." [more]

"The polls, far from rationalizing the Democrats' timidity, suggest they might have won a real debate had they staged one. Support for an Iraq war is falling, with the dicey 51 percent in favor in the latest CNN/USA Today survey dropping to a Vietnam-like 33 percent support level if there are 5,000 casualties, as there could well be. But even so, the Democratic leaders never united around a substantive alternative vision to the administration's pre-emptive war against the thug of Baghdad. That isn't patriotism, it's abdication." [more]

" 'The question we pose to the White House today is: "Do you really want to allow this commission to be created? And if you don't, why not?" ' a frustrated Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut said Friday." [more]

"In key ways, the congressional resolution gives Bush even more leeway than his father received after Iraq overran Kuwait and targeted Saudi Arabia's oil facilities in August 1990. The resolution adopted by Congress the following January required the president to inform Congress that diplomacy had failed before he waged war. The current resolution allows Bush to wage war as long as he informs Congress within 48 hours after the onset of military action." [more]

"The Democrats who voted in surprising numbers not to authorize military action in Iraq needed some encouragement to withstand the majority's tide, and they found it today in a loose coalition of colleagues whose makeup transcended obvious patterns. [One representative] having agonized over her decision until a few hours before the vote, said she was persuaded by a large number of calls and e-mail messages from voters who were deeply uneasy about the prospect of a new war that could be fought with terrible weapons." [more]

The US has been trying to build diplomatic support for military action to topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. This article briefly outlines the diplomatic stances of the international community. [more]

"Polls signal that a majority of the public still supports the possibility of an invasion of Iraq — but that support drops significantly if the US goes in alone. If casualties reach 5,000, most Americans would oppose the war, [and] that concern gives Democrats an opening to back force, yet distance themselves from the president by insisting on the need to build coalitions." [more]

"A letter to Congress from the director of central intelligence has brought into public view divisions within the administration over what intelligence shows about Iraq's intentions and its willingness to ally itself with Al Qaeda." [more]

"I have heard from tens of thousands of Americans — people from all across this country of ours — who have urged me to keep up the fight. I am only one Senator from a small state, yet in the past week I have received nearly 20,000 telephone calls and nearly 50,000 e-mails supporting my position. I want all of those people across America who took the time to contact me to know how their words have heartened me and sustained me in my efforts to turn the tide of opinion in the Senate. They are my heroes, and I will never forget the remarkable courage and patriotism that reverberated in the fervor of their messages." [more]

" 'Our liberal base wants us to stand up and challenge Bush on the war,' said Donna Brazile, who runs the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute. She said loyal Democrats in low-income areas and black neighborhoods, along with many women and liberal suburbanites, are bitterly complaining that 'no one is talking to us, no one is addressing our issues' on the economy and preparation for war." [more]

"Behind the blizzard of claims and counterclaims of the last two months — about whether Iraq has nuclear weapons; about whether United Nations inspectors should be trusted to uncover them; about whether America should heed the views of allies or the international community at all — a more important and subtler drama is being played, about the character of American power and its proper role in the world." [more]

"President Bush's case against Saddam Hussein relied on a slanted and sometimes entirely false reading of the available US intelligence, government officials and analysts claimed yesterday. Officials in the CIA, FBI and energy department are being put under intense pressure to produce reports which back the administration's line, the Guardian has learned." [more]

"As Congress moves this week toward giving President Bush the authority he seeks to make war on Iraq, some of the toughest questions are coming from lawmakers who once were warriors." [more]

"A top State Department envoy left for Europe today to try to persuade several governments to ignore a recent European Union compromise on the international criminal court that would exempt only some Americans from prosecution." [more]

"The situation involving Coleman and Wellstone is similar. The obvious judgment of the Coleman campaign is that Minnesota's electorate is interested above all in supporting Bush on the impending war with no ifs or questions." [more]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday told the cabinet ministers to stop talking about the possible upcoming U.S. strike on Iraq because he believes it could interfere with US and Israeli efforts to plan for possible Iraqi retaliations stemming from the pending US invasion. [more]

"Pakistan is preparing for its second test of a nuclear-capable missile in less than a week, with general elections three days away, local media reported on Monday." [more]

"The media, some of which appear to be actually lusting for conflict and the ratings it will bring, is more focused on the drums of war instead of the chants of peace. In Washington, cable networks keep up an incessant chatter about the need and the rationale for punishing Iraq." [more]

"Using the rationale and sometimes the rhetoric of the Bush administration's antiterrorism campaign, commanders here said this week that the Chechen war is financed, armed and increasingly fought by Islamic militants from abroad. The shift explains Russia's roiling tensions with Georgia, the former Soviet republic bordering Chechnya that President Vladimir V. Putin has accused of sheltering what he calls Chechen and international terrorists." [more]

"Russia has condemned recent US and British air strikes in Iraq's air exclusion zones, saying they hinder efforts to resolve the weapons inspections crisis." [more]

"How did George W. Bush manage to transform himself from leader of the free world into the world's most determined suicide bomber? Of all the remarkable transformations since 9/11, this is the most dangerous." [more]

"By defining the fight as one against global terrorism — including the supposed axis of evil — President George W. Bush was able to endow his controversial and highly partisan agenda with a heroic dimension." [more]

The article deals with the recent narrow victory of Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder of the German Social Democratic Party. It mentions Schroeder's military action in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and now possibly Iraq as evidence of a more assertive or aggressive foreign policy than Germany has had since World War II. [more]

"The Central Intelligence Agency failed to adequately scrutinize information it received before Sept. 11 about the growing terrorist threat posed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a leader of Al Qaeda now believed to have been a central planner of the attacks on New York and Washington, Congressional investigators have concluded." [more]

"We should be ready to impose the will of the United Nations on them if they don't co-operate, but not by hurting the people of Iraq. / "Each one of them is as precious as the 3,000 people in the twin towers. We can't sacrifice them to putting it right," she [Clare Short, the International Development Secretary] said. [more]

"Revisiting Ritter's argument a few days later in his Pentagon office, Wolfowitz seems genuinely puzzled by the notion that we need evidence of imminent danger to justify getting rid of Saddam. He has encountered this argument earlier — from the State Department and the C.I.A., in fact, before President Bush stifled that particular line of internal debate by declaring Saddam an intolerable threat, end of story." [more]

"Russia and the United States clashed openly on Tuesday about whether to hold Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's feet to the fire in a new U.N. Security Council resolution before weapons inspectors return." [more]

"A substantial minority of Americans are unable to identify as an ally a country we defended at a cost of 54,000 lives. The real reason should be pretty obvious. Despite a brief post-9/11 campaign to convince ourselves otherwise, Americans remain stubbornly uninterested in foreign affairs. This condition may improve slightly in instances of frequent exposure (In addition to being our fifth most popular enemy, Israel places fourth among our allies), but it is, by all evidence, chronic." [more]

"Washington's souring relations with Germany reflect how far the US has gone in using the pain of last September as justification for a single-minded dismissal of criticism." [more]

"With some American allies forcefully reaffirming their support for the United States' campaign to persuade the United Nations to bear down on the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, differences with other influential nations emerged sharply today." [more]

"Authorities in Singapore announced today the arrests of 21 men they identified as members of an extremist Islamic organization that spans Southeast Asia, strengthening evidence gathered by American investigators that the group was preparing attacks on American targets." [more]

"For leftists like me who had long considered Chomsky as our own beacon of moral clarity, it is hard to say which development is more catastrophic: the fact that Chomsky-bashing has become a major political pastime, or the fact that Chomsky has become so very difficult to defend." [more]

"The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.'" [more]

"America probably has the military might to do the job alone, but Americans usually prefer to be seen as acting out of right, not just might. That won't happen unless the administration pays more attention to the views of allies and the United Nations. What's more, a solo, 'preventive' war, conducted in defiance of world opinion, would be a dangerous precedent." [more]

"In the heat of the dispute over Iraq strategy, South Asia has now become a sideshow. And it is in Iraq that George Bush may be about to make his biggest mistake and to unleash a generation-long plague of anti-Americanism that may make the present epidemic look like a time of rude good health." [more]

"Civil liberties were rapidly becoming the domestic collateral damage of the war on terrorism. It almost could be said they died without a fight, except for a brave but ineffective handful of stragglers in their progressive enclaves." [more]

"It was the fourth successive quarter in which Saudi funds were repatriated and marks a substantial increase since the 11 September attacks, the resulting crackdown on the Islamic financial systems and the lawsuits threatening to freeze assets. . But the shift also coincides with the global stock market slump and turbulent oil prices." [more]

"In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the world expressed its sympathy and solidarity with America. One year later, the Bush administration's illogic and arrogance have pumped new life into anti-Americanism." [more]

"What is the purpose of poking an American finger in the eye of just about every country in the world? What does the administration hope to gain by emphasizing unilateral options, from declaring war without Congress to telling other nations to sign up or get out of the way? Does such bullying ever pay off in politics, domestic or international? In a democracy, voters want to participate. In a community of nations, governments want to participate. The issue isn't whether or not to fight terrorism -- a new poll of Europeans and American released last week showed strong support for military action against terrorists. But the same poll showed equally strong sentiment that any such action should be taken in concert with allies, and with the support of the United Nations." [more]

"The US president, George Bush, tried to win over sceptical UN heavyweights today when he telephoned the presidents of China, Russia and France in a bid to temper their opposition to bombing Baghdad." [more]

"In a country where freedom of the press and freedom of speech have always been fiercely guarded rights, post 9/11, Americans — including many journalists — seemed to defer to the perceived wisdom of government as we barreled into a war with Afghanistan, a country with none of its own citizens in the driver's seat on any of the hijacked planes." [more]

"George Bush has moved to distance himself from his vice-president after it was revealed that a sabre-rattling speech on Iraq by Dick Cheney was made without clearing key points with the White House." [more]

" 'We are really appalled by any country, whether a superpower or a small country, that goes outside the U.N. and attacks independent countries,' Mandela said ... 'No country should be allowed to take the law into their own hands.' " [more]

"There remains the danger from ruthless, God-driven, suicidal terrorism. But a parallel danger arises from the way the US has chosen to respond, which increasingly rejects the globe and focuses on the nation." [more]

"Today, Washington's main message to the world seems to be, Take dictation. But truly effective leaders do not work by diktat, even during wars. Previous presidents offered a compelling countervision that inspired the world to their cause. Faced with what seemed to be the breakdown of Western civilization in World War I, Woodrow Wilson declared his plans to build a new world of democracy and open markets in the 'common interest of mankind.' Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan all may have disdained Wilson's excesses of idealism, but they fought World War II and the Cold War along distinctly Wilsonian lines when confronting alternative world views." [more]

"'U.S. troops? No, I don't think that would be wise at all. We are looking after any foreign elements in Pakistan. We have deployed a part of our army and the frontier force for this purpose and the United States knows what we are doing.'" [more]

"Nearly a year after the start of America's war on terrorism, that war faces the real risk of being hijacked by foreign governments with repressive agendas. Instead of leading a democratic coalition, the United States faces the risk of dangerous isolation. The Bush administration's definition of the challenge that America confronts has been cast largely in semireligious terms. The public has been told repeatedly that terrorism is 'evil,' which it undoubtedly is, and that 'evildoers' are responsible for it, which doubtless they are. But beyond these justifiable condemnations, there is a historical void. It is as if terrorism is suspended in outer space as an abstract phenomenon, with ruthless terrorists acting under some Satanic inspiration unrelated to any specific motivation." [more]

"As the Bush administration ratchets up its verbal war against Iraq, the rest of the world is talking back ó in statements that contain more skepticism and disapproval than support and that are often determined by domestic politics, economic problems, distrust of the United States and concerns about international law." [more]

"If the United States attacks Iraq, Germany will withdraw its specialized unit designed to respond to nuclear, chemical and biological warfare from Kuwait, the German defense minister said in an interview published today." [more]

"Talks had become bogged down in any case because of bitter political in-fighting in Iran, tough terms demanded by Tehran, and political uncertainty after the United States included Iran on an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea." [more]

"In calling for a "war against terrorism" of indefinite duration and uncertain scope, he made a dangerously unlimited bid for the extraordinary authority and heightened deference that presidents enjoy only in wartime. Although "war" was the right term for the conflict that unfolded in Afghanistan, it doesn't describe most of what's required to stop terrorism in the future, and the risk of using the term is that it provides a rationale for restricting civil liberties and treating disagreement as disloyalty." [more]

"It is necessary to hold a national dialogue on the future of our ties with the United States because we are getting repeated signals from Washington that they no longer see our relations in the same way," read a recent editorial in the ultra-conservative Riyadh daily newspaper. [more]

"'The other thing most Americans haven't understood fully is the reason that India joined the anti-terror war. Much of it from the (ruling) BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is because of anti-Muslim feelings,' Embree, professor emeritus at Columbia University, New York, maintained. 'I am sure the BJP welcomed Americans because they saw it (the US war against terrorism) not as a war against terrorists, but as a war against Muslim terrorists seen in the light of Kashmir.'" [more]

"It is absurd for the United States to demand democracy and respect for human rights only when it applies to others," Bernal said. [more]

"Doomed by the incoherence of a foreign policy defined largely by biblical notions of the struggle between good and evil, the Bush administration thrashes about in its hunt for the devil. Sadly, all that has produced are shopworn enemies that were once our surrogates in battles we would rather forget." [more]

"Anti-Americanism is not just a hysterical judgment popular on the political fringe. It has become a principle of some committed democrats and this, unfortunately, makes a great deal of sense when it comes to the war on terrorism." [more]

"Moscow also continues to have close ties with the two other nations named by US President George W Bush as part of an ''axis of evil'' along with Iraq. It recently announced plans for increased nuclear co-operation with Iran, while the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, is to visit Russia later this month." [more]

"General MacDonald, vice chief of the Canadian defense staff, said the ideas under discussion centered on a joint unit to assess possible threats, based in Colorado Springs next to the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as Norad. As Norad addresses threats from missiles and aircraft, the proposed unit would address threats from land and sea, monitoring ship traffic, for example, and coordinating military planning." [more]

" 'We must question those who think that America is our strategic option that cannot be substituted. Those will put us in a narrow space, and their [belief] is not supported by objective justification,' the Al-Riyadh editorial said on Friday." [more]

"The Bush administration understands that Mr. Schr–der is in the middle of a hard-fought election campaign and that he is trying to shore up his support among left-wing voters, the officials said. But Washington 'is not happy at the accusation that it is not consulting with its allies' or that Mr. Bush is 'a trigger-happy Texan,' in the words of one senior American official." [more]

"[I]n an April poll for the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Washington, Europeans proved highly critical of Bush and what they label his unilateral approach to foreign policy: 85% of Germans, 80% of French, 73% of Britons and 68% of Italians said they believed that the United States is acting in its own interest in the war on terrorism." [more]

"The climate is not propitious for a major U.S. military initiative. Official opposition from Germany, Saudi Arabia and Jordan underlined the isolation of American power. A deteriorating situation in Afghanistan builds the one-war-at- a-time argument. The steadfast Republican voices of Jack Kemp and Brent Scowcroft urge restraint. So do members of Congress from both parties, with House Majority Leader Dick Armey last Thursday warning against an unprovoked attack on Iraq." [more]

"The stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel." [more]

" 'The significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons. This new type of weapons differs from previous types in that the near-Earth medium becomes at once an object of direct influence and its component.' " [more]

" 'I don't believe that America will justifiably make an unprovoked attack on another nation," he said. "It would not be consistent with what we have been as a nation or what we should be as a nation.' " [more]

"There may be a case for striking Iraq, despite the regional peril, but the U.S. has not made it. Anti-strike editorials made financial, practical and moral arguments for not following the U.S. into Iraq." [more]

"The Port Huron Statement claimed to be articulating an agenda for a generation. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of The Port Huron Statement, we ask if the manifesto's importance today is nostalgia, or if its message still rings true? Is history repeating itself? Does this generation need its own version of The Port Huron Statement to address the challenges of the 21st century?" [more]

"Mr Schr–der said Germany was a self-confident country. 'We didn't shy away from offering international solidarity in the fight against international terrorism. We did it because we were, and are, convinced that it is necessary; because we knew that the security of our partners is also our security. But we say this with equal self-confidence: we're not available for adventures, and the time of cheque book diplomacy is over once and for all.'" [more]

"The paper, prepared by Laurent Murawiec, a former adviser to the French Defence Ministry and an analyst at the US military think-tank, the Rand Corporation, was uncompromising in its recommendations. ìSaudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies,î the report, obtained by The Washington Post, states." [more]

"The US is now a threat to the rest of the world. The sensible response is non-cooperation." [more]

"A briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States, and recommended that U.S. officials give it an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and its financial assets invested in the United States." [more]

"Perhaps the most important legacy of the Port Huron Statement is the fact that it introduced the concept of participatory democracy to popular discourse and practice. It made sense of the fact that ordinary people were making history, and not waiting for parties or traditional organizations." [more]

"The consulate was closed after Pakistani authorities on Monday morning removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the heavily guarded building to normal traffic. The U.S. State Department suspended business operations at the consulate because it did not approve of the reopening." [more]

"Sometimes business intrudes on the green, and not always smoothly. Before starting his game yesterday, Mr. Bush, his driver in his left gloved hand, took time to condemn an overnight suicide bombing of a bus in Israel that killed at least nine. 'I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers,' Mr. Bush said on the first green of Cape Arundel, at 6:15 a.m. 'Thank you. Now watch this drive.'" [more]

Akiba invited Bush to Hiroshima "to confirm with his own eyes what nuclear weapons can do to human beings" and lashed out at Washington's go-it-alone stance. "America has not been given the right to impose a 'Pax Americana' and to decide the fate of the world," Akiba said. [more]

"Long before the tragic events of September 11th, the White House debated taking the fight to al-Qaeda. It didn't happen and soon it was too late. The saga of a lost chance." [more]

"Concerned that Southeast Asia's Muslim-majority nations provide fertile ground for the growth of terrorist organizations, the administration has been eager to establish closer security and intelligence ties, particularly with Malaysia and Indonesia. Yet the United States also has criticized both countries for repressing political dissent and abusing human rights." [more]

"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ó A team of Pakistani intelligence officers and diplomats went to Cuba to help interrogate Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamno Bay, Pakistani authorities said Friday." [more]

"Indonesia does not need US military assistance in its campaign against terrorism since the country's armed forces are powerful enough to carry out the task, Defence Minister Matori Abdul Jalil said today. 'America knows exactly how powerful our armed forces are,' Jalil told a press briefing before this week's visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell." [more]

"Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror. Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah." [more]

"Khatami's angry response revealed the possibility that, with its bellicose and intolerant words, the Bush administration may well achieve what 20 years of diplomacy has failed to bring about: an alliance between the beleaguered Tehran and Baghdad. Such an alliance would portend further instability in a region that contains two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves ó and frustrate the United States' aim to be the unchallenged foreign power in the region." [more]

"Mr. Powell has been bested on a number of important issues in recent months by more conservative and ideological figures in the Bush administration. Like the good soldier and loyal adviser that he is, Mr. Powell has swallowed the defeats, defended the party line and turned to the next crisis. The administration, and the nation, would be better served if Mr. Powell's views prevailed more often. The time has come when he should not be so accommodating. He might even throw a tantrum or two." [more]

"A subsidiary of a company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney has won a $9.7 million contract to build more cells for terrorist suspects at a naval base in Cuba, the Navy announced Friday." [more]

"Few in Europe's leadership seem to grasp that if the European NATO governments and public indeed object to a U.S. attack on Iraq, as they say, they can prevent it, or at least block it for many months, while accomplishing a fundamental transformation in the Middle Eastern situation to their own advantage (and possibly that of the Israelis and Arabs as well)." [more]

"On fundamental issues like the International Criminal Court, the Kyoto environmental treaty and the crisis in the Middle East, even strongly pro-American leaders like the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, are openly differing with Washington with a public bluntness that would have been unthinkable five years ago — or in the weeks after September 11." [more]

"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and an EU foreign policy team said they would continue to work with Mr Arafat, despite US attempts to marginalise the democratically elected leader." [more]

"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has issued a stern warning to his staff about the dangers of leaking military secrets to the media — in an internal memo disclosed to the media." [more]

"The president said by the grace of Almighty Allah the armed forces had the capacity to not only defend every inch of the motherland but also to strike a telling blow to anyone who dared to challenge the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country." [more]

"Three months before Pakistani elections, many expect the US to effectively support military rule no matter how elections go. In light of this public suspicion, Pakistan could be vulnerable to new terrorist attacks. In Karachi and Islamabad, where four terrorist attacks against Westerners have taken place in the past four months, security has become especially tight." [more]

"Under increasing domestic political pressure for a tough response to a deadly attack Saturday night in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian government renewed its call today for the United States to declare Pakistan a terrorist state for failing to dismantle a 'terrorist infrastructure' inside its borders." [more]

"More than 5 million soldiers were let go all over the world between 1987-1994, according to Henry Sanchez of Rutgers University. Professional soldiers, suddenly unemployed in a hostile civilian environment, resorted to mercenariship." [more]

"U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte introduced the new draft at the end of a daylong open council meeting, at which the United States faced intense criticism from nearly 40 countries for seeking permanent immunity for American peacekeepers. Only India, which also opposes the court, was somewhat sympathetic to the U.S. position." [more]

"The trial was conducted by Pakistan's special anti-terrorist courts, which were set up several years ago to speed up prosecutions by requiring cases to be heard and concluded within a limited period. The convictions from these special courts usually are overturned during the appeals process, where the superior courts hold open trials and examine the prosecution's case more intensely." [more]

"Never before have the traditionally independent military and law enforcement organizations worked so much in concert, sharing information and expertise as Al Qaeda tries to reconstitute itself in Pakistan. The cooperation goes far beyond joint efforts in the past to fight the flow of drugs. Pakistan has become a laboratory for how American power could be used to combat terror. Similar, if smaller, American operations appear to be unfolding in the Philippines and Yemen." [more]

" 'Should the I.C.C. eventually seek to detain any American, the United States would regard this as illegitimate ó and it would have serious consequences,' he warned. 'No nation should underestimate our commitment to protect our citizens.'" [more]

"Afghanistan's Pashtuns, the country's dominant ethnic group, say they are beginning to lose faith in President Hamid Karzai and to fear that the U.S. military campaign here is working against them." [more]

"But hawk interpretations are wrong and will only contribute to the United Statesí decline, transforming a gradual descent into a much more rapid and turbulent fall. Specifically, hawk approaches will fail for military, economic, and ideological reasons." [more]

"Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, said it was an 'entirely sensible decision' for Mr O'Brien to go to the Middle East. He added: 'For all his many faults and failures, Yasser Arafat is still the leader of the Palestinian people. No reasonable prospect for peace in the Middle East exists without his engagement.' " [more]

"I would argue that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. In fact, if patriotism means being true to the principles for which your country is supposed to stand, then certainly the right to dissent is one of those principles. And if we're exercising that right to dissent, it's a patriotic act." [more]

"Documents obtained by WBUR show that one of the September 11th hijackers flew to Amsterdam, Oslo, and Cairo in the months prior to the hijackings. The documents are among the evidence that federal prosecutors have tried to prevent from being handed over to a New Hampshire widow in her lawsuit against United Airlines." [more]

Chomsky analyzes the moral problematic of fighting terrorism for U.S. leaders because of the less than stellar human rights records that the U.S. and its client states have. An insightful analysis of U.S. media coverage of the war on terrorism relates the U.S. political and intellectual culture to this crusade. [more]

"The Bush administration's war against terrorism is destined to be morally unsatisfying because, if the phrase is taken at face value, it flies in the face of the multifaceted way most people really think about right and wrong. Framing U.S. foreign policy around the proposition that terrorism can be defined and must be opposed, moreover, may well run counter to American national interests. Around the world, the United States now finds itself caught between the policies it needs to adopt and the language it is using to describe them." [more]

"Washington ... needs to be concerned about the level of resentment that an aggressive unilateral course would engender among its major allies. After all, it is influence, not power, that is ultimately most valuable. The further one looks beyond the immediate short term, the clearer become the many issues — the environment, disease, migration, and the stability of the global economy, to name a few — that the United States cannot solve on its own. Such issues entail repeated dealings with many partners over many years. Straining relationships now will lead only to a more challenging policy environment later on." [more]

"Why the many Islams cannot be simplified." [more]

"The fresh questioning of the war on terrorism is also a phenomenon of the Democratic left. But if I have learned anything in four decades of covering politics, it is to pay heed when you hear the same questions — in almost the same phrases — popping up in different parts of the country." [more]

"In an exclusive statement to the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am issued on Friday, the Russian official said that Iraq had committed to the UN resolutions and responded to the UN demands. A matter which makes it imperative not to direct a military strike against it." [more]

" 'It's bizarre beyond belief,' said Ibrahim Hooper of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. 'It would suggest to us an "Israelization" of American politics. 'What message is sent when our legislators begin tying our national security to a foreign country engaged in a brutal occupation? Is it Israel and America against the rest of the world?' Mr. Hooper asked." [more]

"The delegation made up of interior and foreign ministry officials had been waiting for weeks for permission to visit the Guantanamo base where the American military is keeping more than 500 suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation and Taleban." [more]

"Eventually, customs officials hope to extend the system to the 20 ports around the world that send the largest volume of cargo to the United States. Those 20 ports, said the customs spokesman, Dean Boyd, jointly account for almost 70 percent of the 5.7 million containers shipped by sea to the United States each year." [more]

"The departure of retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing, who also has been an outspoken hawk in administration debates about how to deal with Saddam Hussein, raised questions among security experts about both the administration's plans to improve homeland security through a massive government reorganization and the direction of its policy on Iraq." [more]

"Two separate military reports blame two American F-16 pilots for the deaths of four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, but the reports don't explain why one pilot ignored a direct order and attacked. Parallel Canadian and U.S. inquiries said Friday the pilots broke the rules and are directly responsible for the four deaths and eight injuries in the so-called friendly fire incident in April." [more]

" 'We must take the battle to the enemy and where necessary pre-empt grave threats to our country before they materialize,' Cheney told several hundred people in Charlotte, N.C. 'The only path to safety is the path of action. The United States of America will act, and we will defeat the enemies of freedom,' he said." [more]

"The American proposals, introduced by Richard Williamson, its ambasssador to the UN for political affairs, offer two options. The first would include all UN missions ... 'that current and former officials and personnel from a contributing state ... shall enjoy, except in the territory of the contributing state, immunity from arrest, detention and prosecution with respect to all acts arising out of such operations and that this immunity shall continue after termination of their participation for all such acts'. The second draft resolution makes the same proposals, but restricts it to the force for Bosnia." [more]

" 'No person should be immune from prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,' the head of the Coalition for the ICC, William Pace, said in the open letter to the security council. 'The US proposal would send a very dangerous signal that peacekeepers are above the law if they commit one of (these) grave crimes,' he said." [more]

"There is a strong, sometimes hubristic, sense that America has the opportunities, obligations and threats associated in the past with empires: that it can set the rules that govern international relations, while at times operating outside them itself; but also that ultimately it alone can enforce those rules, a role which makes it the prime target of anyone who dislikes them." [more]

"That Bush's interventionism and arrogance in addressing Palestinian and Arab concerns will further complicate American-Arab relations already strained by the administration's pro-Israel bias, is a concern raised by many commentators. The speech is also expected to fuel anti-American sentiments in the Arab and Muslim world. And despite a display of flexibility, the implied references to a number of Arab leaders will not pass unnoticed." [more]

"For all British and U.S. leaders' grand pronouncements of solidarity in the face of terrorism, the 'true friendship' between Bush and Blair seems to be in short supply — at least between U.S. forces and Royal Marines in the hills of east Afghanistan. Indeed, while politicians at home talk about standing 'shoulder to shoulder,' their forces on the ground can barely see eye to eye." [more]

"Syria's support for the Lebanese Hizbullah organization has brought hostile scrutiny from the US. In his Mideast policy speech delivered Monday, President Bush demanded that Syria 'must choose the right side in the war on terror by closing terrorist camps and expelling terrorist organizations.' In this climate, neutralizing US and Israeli allies in the region is a priority for Damascus. And that includes Turkey, which agreed in 1997 to a military alliance with Israel, Syria's archenemy." [more]

"Mr Bush's call for a new Palestinian leadership was rejected not only by the Palestinian Authority but by a wide range of world leaders. Kofi Annan, secretary general of the UN, warned last night that President Bush's call for the removal of Mr Arafat could backfire if a more hardline leader was elected. The former US senator George Mitchell, who tried last year to broker a Middle East peace deal, expressed similar worries that Islamic Jihad or Hamas could take over from the PLO leader." [more]

"Setbacks for the textile industry, including the temporary laying off of tens of thousands of workers last winter, are contributing to resentment of the United States among many young Pakistanis, while mullahs at radical local mosques have been playing on anger over job losses in their sermons. The American stance on textiles is increasing political pressure on the government of Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has aligned himself with the United States in its campaign against terrorism." [more]

"According to a secret government report revealed last week by the New York Times, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan not only 'failed to diminish the threat to the United States,' but actually complicated the U.S. counter-terrorism campaign by dispersing its radical foes across the Muslim world." [more]

"Washington will stop supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations unless Americans taking part are given immunity from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court, scheduled to begin its work July 1. The United States has refused to endorse it — arguing its citizens may face politically motivated prosecution." [more]

"A U.S. official said if American personnel were not protected there would 'no longer be U.S. peacekeepers.' No one in the 15-member council agreed with the American stance on the court, the world's first permanent tribunal to try the most heinous crimes ó genocide, war crimes and systematic, gross human rights abuses." [more]

"The debriefing is an extraordinary example of the way Sept. 11 has redefined U.S. engagement with regimes it once vilified. Syria remains on a State Department list of regimes that sponsor terrorism." [more]

"The Bush administration rivals the Nixon White House when it comes to secrecy and unchecked power, with John Ashcroft as our modern-day John Mitchell." [more]

"Because the intelligence men of the United States are not going to beat their real enemies like this. Theirs is a mission impossible, because they will not be allowed to do what any crime-fighting organization does to ensures success—to search for a motive for the crime. They are not going to be allowed to ask the 'why' question. Only the "who" and "how"." [more]

"German justice authorities have received a U.S. request for information in the Moussaoui case, but point out that it is against German law to extradite suspects to countries with the death penalty or supply evidence that could incriminate someone facing execution. At a news conference, Schroeder rejected the idea that this policy undermines his pledge of "unrestricted solidarity" with the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks." [more]

"Japan's official pacifism is more than a simple policy. Since the country's defeat in World War II with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ó the only time atomic weapons have been used in a conflict ó it has been an integral element of the national identity. The three non-nuclear principles ó never to own, produce or allow nuclear weapons on Japanese territory ó were overwhelmingly ratified in a parliamentary vote in 1971, reflecting the strong national consensus on the issue. The principles supplement the explicitly pacifist Constitution, which does not refer directly to nuclear weapons." [more]

" 'It's nearly impossible to find a country in the world where anti-Americanism is not present,' said Shlapentokh, who spoke during a recent seminar at RAND. 'Few ideologies in any region can be so emotionally strong, attractive, and can carry so much weight with so many people as anti-Americanism.' He argued that the anti-Americanism of today could compete in ferocity with the anti-Communism of the 1960s and 1970s." [more]

"In light of the handling of the Moussaoui matter last summer, Sens. Charles Schumer and Jon Kyl also Wednesday proposed making it easier for the federal government to eavesdrop on potential terrorists, saying that if the FBI had been able to listen in on Moussaoui, it might have been able to prevent the attacks. Kyl is on both the Senate intelligence committee and the judiciary panel." [more]

"At least one F-16 pilot complained that requirements for crew rest were not being observed and that many of the pilots were overtired. The pilot was told, however, that further questions about crew rest would not be looked on favourably by the wing command. Instead, pilots were advised to speak to a flight surgeon about so-called 'go/no pills' — amphetamines used to help stay awake on long missions, and sedatives to help sleep." [more]

"We must uncover terror cells in 60 or more countries, using every tool of finance, intelligence and law enforcement. Along with our friends and allies, we must oppose proliferation and confront regimes that sponsor terror, as each case requires. Some nations need military training to fight terror, and we'll provide it. Other nations oppose terror, but tolerate the hatred that leads to terror — and that must change. (Applause.) We will send diplomats where they are needed, and we will send you, our soldiers, where you're needed. (Applause.)" [more]

"In the wake of Sept. 11, Gallup International conducted polls in 37 countries, and found that the majority of people in 34 of them preferred bringing terrorist suspects to trial rather than a U.S. military reprisal. The three exceptions were the U.S., Israel and India." [more]

"Throughout the Bush family's decades of public life, the American press has gone out of its way to overlook one historical fact — that through Union Banking Corporation, Prescott Bush and his father-in-law, George Herbert Walker, along with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, financed Adolf Hitler before and during World War II." [more]

"We can ignore it if we like, and therefore lead to further terrorist attacks, or we can try to understand. The United States has done some very good things in the world, and that does not change the fact that the World Court was quite correct in condemning the United States as an international terrorist state." [more]

"Senior Bush administration officials said neither Mr. Ashcroft nor Mr. Mueller briefed President Bush and his national security staff until recently about the Phoenix memorandum. Nor did they tell Congressional leaders." [more]

"U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, setting up a showdown with the White House, said on Tuesday he would push for an independent commission to investigate events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States." [more]

"Shouting 'Yankee go home', about 20,000 protesters marched peacefully in Berlin against U.S. policies today on the eve of a visit by President Bush that officials fear may widen a transatlantic rift rather than close it." [more]

"George Bush received specific warnings in the weeks before 11 September that an attack inside the United States was being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, US government sources said yesterday." [more]

"Open societies are safer places to be." [more]

"Afghanistan's remote terrain, a tight-lipped military and the deployment of spin prevent a real assessment of British operations: Charting the progress of British forces in pursuit of al-Qaeda in southern Afghanistan." [more]

"Issuing an alert based on such information to intelligence and law enforcement agencies and airlines might have caused people to respond differently. For years, airline pilots had been told not to resist hijackers in most circumstances, in the hope that negotiating with them stood the best chance of preventing loss of life. It would have made sense to revise this approach once we began to realize that we were confronting a new type of terrorist." [more]

"Europe's External Relations Commissioner arrives in Islamabad early next week with a clear message for President Pervez Musharraf: stamp down harder on terrorism and keep Pakistan on track for democracy." [more]

" 'The president said "axis of evil" and it was amazing what happened after that in terms of the criticism that came our way,' Mr Powell argued. 'The president came up with a clever way of capturing them all and guess what ó the North Koreans now want to talk to us. The Iraqis are trying to pretend that they're behaving better.' " [more]

"Eight months after Sept. 11, it is becoming increasingly apparent that various arms of the US government had pieces of information that, if put together, might have provided sketchy advance warning of the terrorist strikes to come." [more]

"The very fact that something was on paper before the eyes of the President has changed the dynamic, at a watershed political moment. The shooting war against al-Qa'ida is winding down, and the trail of Osama bin Laden has gone cold. Meanwhile the mid-term elections in November, in which control of both Houses is at stake, grow steadily nearer." [more]

"Dan Rather, one of the most respected and well-known broadcasters in the United States said last night that the mood of extreme patriotism engulfing the country since 11 September had stopped the media asking difficult questions of America's leaders. He said he was personally guilty of self-censorship." [more]

"The aura of invincibility that President Bush has enjoyed since Sept. 11 received a sharp jolt with the revelation that he had been told that Osama bin Laden's followers might try to hijack American airplanes." [more]

"All four episodes took place within a few weeks of each other last summer. But poor communication, disjointed coordination among intelligence agencies and questionable attention to counter-terrorism operations may have hindered the ability of any one individual or agency to determine their collective significance, experts said." [more]

"The public can and should be trusted with information, including information that might be alarming. The warnings of terrorist plots timed to the Millennium celebrations are a case in point. People were told of the possibility, no one panicked, security was tightened. At least one apparent plot was stopped." [more]

"Exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal report warned the executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government building." [more]

"Pakistani police this morning unearthed what appeared to be the remains of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal correspondent kidnapped in January and shown dead in a videotape delivered almost a month later." [more]

"A draft letter to [the] House Judiciary Committee Chairman ... formally requesting hearings on the Bush administration's knowledge prior to Sept. 11 of possible terror attacks." [more]

"IndustrialisedÝcountries are ganging up against the United States in an escalating trade war that threatens to trigger a chain reaction of protectionism, setting back the goal of free trade and open markets worldwide." [more]

"For people like Condi Rice to suggest they had never considered this possibility of suicide hijackings is either a bald-faced lieóor a more scathing indictment of our anti-terrorism establishment than any memo the president actually did see." [more]

"The long-hidden warnings, given to George W. Bush, of possible Al Qaeda hijackings last summer suggests less a 'finest hour' than a return of LBJís 'credibility gap.' " [more]

"I used to ask myself what I could have done to save Eddie. Now I realize: I was asking the wrong person." [more]

"U.S. intelligence agencies had indications for months and even years before September 11 that terrorists were planning attacks with aircraft." [more]

"White House spokesman Ari Fleischer confirmed that Bush had been told about the possibility of hijackings but he declined to say what had been revealed during his intelligence briefings." [more]

"[L]awmakers [have] called for a deeper investigation into why American intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had failed to put together individual pieces of evidence that, in retrospect, now seem to suggest what was coming." [more]

"The Bush administration notified congressional leaders in August of 'an increased level of threats on domestic targets by al Qaeda' but said nothing about hijackings, Capitol Hill sources said today." [more]

"The revelation has put the White House on the defensive to explain why stricter security measures were not taken and why the public was not informed." [more]

"he White House said on Thursday it warned U.S. airlines that it had received general threats of hijackings last year before the Sept. 11 attacks." [more]

"Democrats led angry calls on Thursday for President Bush to hand over a top-secret CIA briefing and an FBI memo that warned of potential hijackings by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks." [more]

"President Bush had received general, nonspecific information during a vacation briefing at his ranch Aug. 6 that bin Laden's group was considering hijackings, and he never considered making the information public, said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice." [more]

"President Bush was expected to sign detailed plans for a worldwide war against al-Qaida two days before Sept. 11 but did not have the chance before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington." [more]

"Two months after [Cynthia] McKinney was subjected to one of the most withering attacks ever directed at a sitting member of Congress, a lot of people who official Washington treats with respect are echoing her call 'for transparency and a thorough investigation.' " [more]

"[Bush] admits to having known in general what was going to happen. Terrorists were slipping into the country. They were studying at American flight schools. They intended to hijack planes. They were financed by Osama bin Laden. Knowing all of this, Bush still left us totally undefended." [more]

"FBI Director Robert Mueller is seeking to address some of the flaws exposed by the Sept. 11 attacks by creating a new terrorism-fighting team in Washington that will oversee all U.S. terrorism investigations worldwide, officials say." [more]

" 'I felt it was my duty to spend as long a time as possible to brief him on the facts directly and without an intermediary.' " [more]

"Last week, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee added $3.2 billion in items to the $70.2 billion procurement part of the 2003 defense budget. 'I would have liked to have added more,' subcommittee Chairman Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters." [more]

"It is not immediately clear how a new gym in Texas, a harbor cleanup in California, or raising a Civil War-era ironclad in Virginia do much to advance that war. [Sen. John] McCain has demanded investigations of [a particular] Boeing deal. 'This is clearly war profiteering,' he says. 'It is obscene.' " [more]

"White House chief of staff Andrew Card has assigned a small team to study possible alternativesóranging from eliminating the post altogether to transforming it into a separate cabinet-level department with Ridge in charge. 'Everything is on the table,' said one Bush staffer." [more]

"Precise details of the new accord were not immediately available, but it generally calls for both sides to reduce their arsenals of nuclear warheads from the current levels of about 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200." [more]

"FBI agentís notes pointed to possible World Trade Center attack." [more]

"[S]peaking privately, Pakistani officials disclosed the military leaders concluded that no operation would be launched in the volatile border region ó known as the Tribal Areas ó without more specific intelligence that the Pakistani government deemed credible. Even then, they decided, U.S. military involvement in the area should be kept to a minimum. A small number of U.S. Special Forces are already operating along the Pakistani side of the border, and covert U.S. patrols have crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan." [more]

"British officials are privately criticising what they consider a lack of understanding by the US administration of the need to engage in social and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan. 'The Americans seem to be operating like Swat squads, with one thought in their heads: "Let's go in and kill those 'ragheads'", as they call the enemy,' one UK military source said. The sources say official UK and US briefings have understated the civilian deaths caused by US bombing as well as the human rights violations committed by Afghans claiming the support of the US." [more]

"Mr. Obey, after demonstrating that some committee members did not know the court would be located in The Hague, asked if Mr. DeLay understood that under the rescue provision, 'We would be sending our troops to invade the Netherlands.' Mr. DeLay said he did not consider that a serious question." [more]

"No one stands in the way as Congress laces post-Sept. 11 defense bills with pork." [more]

"The 'unsigning' of the treaty, which is expected to be announced on Monday, will be a decisive rejection by the White House of the concept of a permanent tribunal designed to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes, the New York Times reported." [more]

"European leaders differ sharply with the Bush administration on the Middle East, believing that U.S. policy has been too sympathetic to the Israelis. The Europeans have challenged the administration's willingness to mount a military campaign against Iraq and its seeming inclination to use military force to deal with other threats as well. They are battling the Bush administration on steel tariffs in a dispute that threatens to become a full-blown trade war. And they complain that America no longer consults Europe first on global security issues, as it did during the Cold War." [more]

"Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told President Bush bluntly today that the United States must temper its support for Israel or face grave consequences throughout the Arab world, Saudi officials said." [more]

"On Saturday, thousands of American citizens gathered in Washington, DC to challenge the open-ended war the United States is now waging. They are right to do so, and the broader American public would do well to listen." [more]

"As [Cathy] Meals was marching, she 'turned around to see all these people. It was pretty great. The vibe was good. High sprits and peaceful.' " 'There is really no way to describe what it felt like to look forward and back in the march and see so many people,' White said." [more]

"Never again will the Palestinians wonder if they have friends in the United States. This march and others like it around the country have proven to them that they do. Furthermore, the tremendous diversity of philosophiesópolitical and religiousóamongst the people who participated (and those that were there in spirit) showed the world that Washington's war on the world is not popular here either." [more]

"Anti-war efforts on college campuses seem to be a merge point for organizations involved with civil rights, economic justice and environmentalism. But these coalitions lean so far left that some students cannot identify with them." [more]

"Tens of thousands gather in the nation's capital, with attention focused on the Middle East conflict." [more]

"At first glance, the morning seemed like a depressing case study in that old left affliction: the narcissism of small differences. Why not ... hold one big rally and march? Organizers of the student coalition cited many reasons for their desire to maintain independence from ANSWER, which is closely related to the Workers World Party, including the coalition's politics and its undemocratic structure, as well as its reputation for taking credit for work done by other groups and other bad behavior." [more]

"District of Columbia police officials estimated that 75,000 people from across the country joined four permitted protest marches in Washington Saturday, while San Francisco police estimated that close to 15,000 people took part in what local officials identified as one of the largest peace rallies that city has seen in years. Thousands more joined demonstrations in Seattle, Houston, Boston, Salt Lake City and other communities." [more]

"Eager to make their presence felt and their voices heard in the nation's capital as never before, Arab and Muslim families marched and chanted for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, overwhelming the messages of those with other causes in a peaceful day of downtown rallies and marches." [more]

"A chorus of protesters hit the streets of Washington Saturday, rallying peacefully and colorfully for a range of causes under the watchful eyes of police." [more]

"Not all the groups were in perfect agreement. When Black Panthers chanting 'jihad' and 'holy war' hoisted a Palestinian flag next to a picture of Osama bin Laden, a Palestinian activist urged them to take the flag down." [more]

"Demonstrators from around the country stood on the Ellipse behind the White House and demanded that President Bush and Congress stop supporting Israel with money and political clout." [more]

"Tens of thousands of Arab-Americans blended with demonstrators against the military campaign in Afghanistan and those criticizing international financial institutions during protests today in Washington." [more]

"In one of the largest Bay Area protests in recent years, at least 20,000 people marched through San Francisco yesterday in opposition to U.S. policy in the Mideast, transforming 2 miles of city streets into a sea of red, green, black and white Palestinian flags." [more]

"We gather here today and we speak with one voice. And let us remember, that one person can make a ripple. One ripple can make a movement. One movement can make a voice. And one voice can make mighty change." [more]

" 'This decision has been made taking into account the public concern of Congressman Javier Diez Canseco, with whom we share the view that we do not want a foreign military base in Peru,' [Foreign Minister Diego] Garcia Sayan said." [more]

"District police officials said the crowds were larger than they had anticipated, and put their numbers at about 75,000. Organizers of a Palestinian-rights rally at the Ellipse south of the White House said the gathering was the largest demonstration for Palestine in U.S. history." [more]

"Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Washington to protest against Israel's military actions in the West Bank, the United States' war on terror and globalisation." [more]

"Chanting, singing and beating drums, tens of thousands of protesters converged on the U.S. capital on Saturday to demonstrate against the U.S.-led war on terror, Israeli military actions in the West Bank and globalisation." [more]

"In a city abloom with dogwoods, tulips and azaleas and packed with tourists in shorts and T-shirts, the protesters have promised there will be noise ó but no violence ó as thousands voice their assorted grievances." [more]

"But even those who support the war effort can smell a monumental snafu. Our troops were on a routine training exercise. They were bombed by a pilot who was convinced he was taking fire from the enemy. What was he doing there? How come no one back in air control told him they were good guys? Who failed to pass along the information? How could there be such a fatal breakdown in communications?" [more]

"Canadian troops were at a former al-Qaida training camp now used daily by coalition forces for live-fire exercises when they were mistakenly bombed Thursday by a U.S. jet fighter, leaving four dead and eight injured. They were the first Canadian Forces personnel killed in a combat zone since the Korean War 50 years ago." [more]

"'The financial situation of the armed forces is desperate. The military is so massively underfunded that there must be consequences ... We're living from hand-to-mouth,' Bernhard Gertz, chairman of the German Armed Forces Association, told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has hailed a new postñCold War era of German international involvement in which Germany offers soldiers, not just funds, to peacekeeping efforts and readies its troops for a European rapid reaction force." [more]

"A confluence of events ó part happenstance, part strategy ó- led several activist groups to link their plans, their people and their marches. Now, violence in the Middle East ó and U.S. support of Israel ó has moved to the forefront, yet still comfortably tucked under the anti-oppression umbrella." [more]

"A magnet for violence-scarred protests, international finance meetings are attracting thousands of demonstrators to Washington next weekend on issues ranging from the war against terrorism to the Mideast conflict." [more]

"Britain is one of a number of countries singled out for making cuts in defence spending at the expense of the capabilities needed to take on the terrorists. The Ministry of Defence is at present struggling with a budget that is estimated to be £500 million under-funded, with the shortfall expected to rise to £1.5 billion by the financial year 2007-8." [more]

"Shadow Defence Secretary Bernard Jenkin said Mr Hoon's admission that British forces were stretched was 'a graphic admission that Britain's military commitments are not matched to capabilities and resources, which is what we have been saying.' He said Mr Hoon's announcement that British commitments in Afghanistan will extend beyond six months showed 'he has no control over the commitments the Prime Minister keeps making.' " [more]

"One has only to look at the performance of these same definers of 'patriotism' as blind obedience when Bill Clinton was struggling to fight a war. When the Clinton administration was trying to track and kill Osama bin Laden, Republicans gratuitously dismissed the entire effort as an attempt to change the subject from the all-important Monica Lewinsky." [more]

"The Russian Federal Security Service has thwarted a CIA attempt at getting access to defense and arms trade secrets with CIS member nations." [more]

""I'm very proud of our forces; they are very capable of taking actions against intruders into our country," General Musharraf said. As for suggestions that American forces might eventually need to mount "hot-pursuit" raids into Pakistan, he added: "I don't think that doing this is in the coalition's interest, or in Pakistan's interest."" [more]

"This is the Pentagon report issued today describing investigations into 10 cases of friendly fire, civilian casualties, and property damage inflicted over the past six months during the war in Afghanistan." [more]

"The linkage of Iraq, Iran and North Korea made no sense to [Europeans], and subsequent assurances that Bush had no immediate intention to take military action against the last two simply heightened fears that he planned to bomb or invade Iraq." [more]

"The former commander of Nato forces in Europe fears that America, Britain and their allies could become embroiled in an unwinnable guerrilla war in Afghanistan." [more]

"Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia mostly are about oil." [more]

"This was the most deadly attack in which American civilians were killed since Sept. 11. There has been a surge of sectarian killings of Shia doctors in recent weeks in Karachi, Pakistan, long know as a city with considerable crime and violence. The American journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi in January and then killed." [more]

"The top Democrat and Republican on a key Senate panel asked President Bush on Friday for a meeting to explain their demand his homeland defense chief testify on his budget needs, amid complaints in both parties the White House is disregarding Congress." [more]

" 'There is no justification for the Congress not to be kept fully aware, on behalf of the American people, with respect to the programs, the plans, the priorities of the Office of Homeland Security,' " Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said. [more]

"Framed by the flags of scores of nations that have supported Bush's initial strikes against terror, Bush began a public campaign to persuade . . . nations ó many of them skeptical or hostile to the idea ó to stay with him as he moves forward with plans to replace the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Uzbekistan is drifting toward an anti-American stance, if one understands 'American' as implying democracy, human rights and the struggle against state-sponsored terror. After Sept. 11, [the Uzbek leader] reversed his amnesty for some political prisoners who had originally been scheduled for release." [more]

"The United States pulled 400 frontline troops out of the mountain assault on al Qaeda fighters Sunday, turning the battle over mainly to B-52 bombers and a divided Afghan force." [more]

"After five months during which some of the Bush administration's most willing international partners griped about being left on the sidelines of the Afghan war, at least seven U.S. allies are contributing troops to this week's U.S. offensive in eastern Afghanistan, elevating their profile in a war managed by the Pentagon." [more]

"A democracy at war remains a democracy, which means the conduct of the war is a legitimate topic of responsible discussion and debate." [more]

"The U.S. installation [in Pakistan] has become the secret hub for Special Forces commando raids, covert CIA operations and a host of other activities aimed at rooting out Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and developing intelligence to thwart future terrorist attacks against the United States." [more]

"Chideya stressed the dire need for Americans to escape its isolationist tendencies so that they may become more fully conscious of current events, not only within the country, but also throughout the globe. 'Nine-eleven made us realize that if we donít pay attention, they will make us pay attention,' she said." [more]

"The planes have been flying since Saturday on their 'first operational mission' in the area and two missions were underway Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand Bon, a French air force spokesman based in Kyrgyzstan, said." [more]

"Britain would be prepared to back the United States in military action against Iraq under "the right conditions", Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said yesterday." [more]

"Thousands of protesters today staged a march and rally in central London to call for a halt to the bombing in Afghanistan and the threat to other countries such as Iraq. Police estimated that around 7,500 demonstrators had gathered by the time the march reached Trafalgar Square, although organisers of the protest said 20,000 people attended." [more]

"Most Muslims — 77 percent — say that U.S. actions in Afghanistan are 'morally unjustifiable' while 53 percent had an unfavorable view of the United States, according to a poll of nearly 10,000 people in nine Muslim nations." The United States had only a 5 percent approval rating in Pakistan, one of its closest allies in the "war on terrorism." [more]

"The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, publicly embarrassed Tony Blair today with an appeal from the doorstep of No 10 for the US not to attack Iraq." [more]

"The mother of a 22-year-old British man detained in Guantanamo Bay today called on the US government to release her son, as lawyers for Britons held in Cuba said they would sue the UK government in the high court for aiding and abetting their 'unlawful detention.' " [more]

"The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries, military officials said." [more]

"By threatening war against Iran, Iraq and North Korea in his now-famous "Axis of Evil" address, the president painted himself into a corner. Either Bush now goes to war against one of these regimes, or he will be humiliated and exposed as a bellicose bluff." [more]

"Cheney said that the administration intended a multifaceted approach against terror with some of it 'visible and public' like the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan and some of it not. 'Other aspects of it may never see the light of day — probably shouldn't,' Cheney said. 'You're clearly going to have to deal in the shadows to some extent on some of these areas.' " [more]

"The brilliance of the Permanent War Campaign is that as long as the United States appears to be on the move against foreign adversaries, the question of whether any action is actually taken becomes of secondary interest." [more]

"Britain revealed its increasing irritation with America over the war against terrorism yesterday when senior Government sources said that hawkish elements in the White House were using 'unnecessarily belligerent' language." [more]

President Pervez Musharraf criticized President Bush's remarks about declaring Iran and Iraq as axis of evil. "The extensive US military presence here should end as soon as events in Afghanistan permit," he said. [more]

"Chris Patten, the EU commissioner in charge of Europe's international relations, has launched a scathing attack on American foreign policy — accusing the Bush administration of a dangerously 'absolutist and simplistic' stance towards the rest of the world." [more]

New government-sponsored ads "promote the twisted reasoning that, since drug profits have found their way into the pockets of terrorists, any young Americans who use drugs are therefore guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy." [more]

"[I]t turns out that a modern war may require the troops to know enough about alien cultures, at a minimum, to avoid offensive behavior. So as war becomes more complicated, so does preparation for it. Cultural sensitivity needs to be added to the already-crowded basic-training curriculum." [more]

"A parade of European security officials expressed alarm today about what they considered an aggressive, go-it-alone stance staked out by President Bush in his State of the Union address last week, especially his warning that the United States was prepared to take preemptive action against Iraq or other countries that provide terrorists with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons." [more]

"Russia laid bare its differences with the United States over the war on terrorism on Sunday, challenging President Bush's attack on the 'axis of evil' and accusing the West of double standards." [more]

"President Bush's warning to the "evil axis'' of Iran, Iraq and North Korea has raised questions and anxiety at home and abroad. Just what was Mr. Bush signaling when he used the term during his State of the Union address?" [more]

"The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) said it was "Ý'greatly concerned about the recent public vilification of asylum seekers' and urged governments to show leadership in providing accurate and up-to-date information on asylum seekers and promoting a public debate 'based on facts rather than negative stereotyping.'
The High Commissioner's statement follows two weeks of tense protests at the Woomera detention centre, including a hunger strike and threats of self-mutilation by the detainees." [more]

"By December ... when the war in Afghanistan was well under way, the share of factual coverage overall had fallen to 63 percent — a level 'lower than those seen in the middle of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal,' according to [a] study. Analysis, speculation and outright opinion picked up the slack." [more]

"President Bush is pledging anew to exclude American troops from eventual peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, but some lawmakers who used their monthlong recess to visit the war zone maintain that a long-term U.S. presence there is vital.
'There's ample support from around the world to provide troops' for peacekeeping, Bush told reporters Wednesday. 'I've made it clear that our troops will be used to fight and win war.'Ý" [more]

"Reports from Pakistan say the Musharraf regime began asking the US military to return two of the four bases — Jacobabad and Pasni — lent to it for the Afghan operation because of the tensions with India. Whether or not this was a pressure tactic to get the US to lean on India to relax its pressure is unclear, but it transpires that US generals have agreed to move their assets out of Pakistan." [more]

"It thus seems fundamental to me that we cannot have a global trading system without a global economic policy, a global health care policy, a global education policy, a global environmental policy and a global security policy.
"In effect, we have to create more opportunity for those left behind by progress, thus reducing the pool of potential terrorists by increasing the number of potential partners." [more]

"US President George W Bush has warned Iran not to destabilise Afghanistan.
He also said Washington expected Tehran to hand over any members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network who might have fled across the border from Afghanistan. His blunt comments reflect US concerns that Iran is trying to challenge the authority of the interim government in Afghanistan, and may be giving safe haven to al-Qaeda leaders fleeing US and allied military troops there." [more]

"Something must be wrong with the way the United States exercises its power. Too many people, in too many countries, see U.S. foreign policy as lacking universal principles that resonate with the rest of the world. It seems to them that an America projecting its power in pursuit of its own interests will only end up destabilizing a globalizing world." [more]

"For a brief moment, it looked as though the crime perpetrated by Osama bin Laden would persuade President Bush to rethink the defiant unilateralism his campaign had proposed as the leitmotif for American foreign policy. But the Afghan triumph seems only to encourage the simplicities of the Republican right. Its talk grows harsher and appears to scorn, even more deeply than a year ago, the complexities of global crises, not to mention the prudent generosity of outlook demanded of the sole surviving Great Power." [more]

"For more than fifty years American foreign policy has sought to prevent the emergence of other great powersóa strategy that has proved burdensome, futile, and increasingly risky. The United States will be more secure, and the world more stable, if America now chooses to pass the buck and allow other countries to take care of themselves." [more]

"Nothing is therefore more important than a revision of the concept of security as the basic principle of state politics. European and American politicians finally have to consider the catastrophic consequences of uncritical use of this figure of thought." [more]

"The latest Osama bin Laden tape is widely hailed as proof that he organised the September 11 attacks, though many papers report doubts in the Islamic world about its authenticity." [more]

"The only foreigners not sweeping into Kabul so far are those from the U.S. government. Diplomats from other key countries are in town to set up embassies, but American diplomats are conspicuously absent.
The tardiness of the American diplomats is one of several signs that Washington risks repeating its mistake of a decade ago, when it won the war against the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan and then betrayed the Afghans by walking away from them. Americans point fingers at other countries for allowing Afghanistan to become a terrorist haven, but it was Americans who abandoned the Afghans to the feuding factions whom they had armed and whose fundamentalist Islamic passions they had ignited." [more]

"Earlier this year Mr. Bush used projections of vast budget surpluses to push through a huge, 10-year tax cut. Most of that tax cut went to people with incomes of more than $200,000 per year. Now Mr. Daniels tells us that the budget — not just the budget outside Social Security, but the whole enchilada — will be in deficit through 2004. Since the administration's phony budget math ("fuzzy" just doesn't cut it at this point) gets phonier the further you go into the future, this means that we have effectively returned to a state of permanent deficit. [more]

Why War? hosted its first panel discussion on Dec. 3 with Swarthmore Professors Timothy Burke (history), Ray Hopkins (political science) and Donna Jo Napoli (linguistics). Reproduced are Prof. Hopkins' comments. [more]

"In select cases, the Bush administration is considering making concessions on both the death penalty and the use of military tribunals to gain custody of suspected terrorists held in Europe, a senior U.S. official said. It is the first indication that the United States might be willing to negotiate with other countries on how suspected terrorists will be tried." [more]

"Saudi Arabia would probably refuse to allow us to fly missions from its air bases. Iran, fearful of being next on our list of targets, would actively resist our efforts. The Arab world would take about three seconds to unite against us, [and] 'Europe would have many very, very serious questions about that,' says German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, which is how diplomats say 'Fuhgeddaboudit.' Even the ever-loyal British reject the idea." [more]

"Shane Fink had almost made it through the morning of his first day at a new job when the secretary waved him over. Just like that, he sighed, he was a corporal in the Marine Corps again." [more]

"According to both Pentagon and intelligence sources, in mid September the Project for the New American Century — a hawkish private policy group whose membership overlaps with the official Defense Policy Board — sent President Bush a letter after a two-day conference, declaring that failure to promptly remove Saddam would constitute a 'decisive surrender in the war against terrorism.' Ominously, it also held that if Syria and Iran refused to drop all support for Hezbollah, 'the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism.' " [more]

"Nearly a week after Prime Minister Tony Blair put 6,000 troops on alert to move into Afghanistan, Britain has a force of just 100 at one airport, while speculation swirls about whether the United States and the victorious northern alliance want any more." [more]

"To protect the royal family against its internal enemies, US personnel have become deeply involved in the regime's internal security apparatus. At the same time, the vast and highly conspicuous accumulation of wealth by the royal family has alienated it from the larger Saudi population and led to charges of systemic corruption." [more]

"Stung by the stubborn resilience of the Taliban, senior American and British officials are bracing themselves for a military campaign in Afghanistan that promises to be more prolonged and difficult than they had hoped as recently as early October." [more]

"Hardt and Negri argue that a new global economic regime is emerging, which they call simply 'Empire.' It is a new form of imperial power defined partly by what it is not. It is not a nation-state. It is not an aligned superpower bloc. It is an empire, in the classic sense, but has no seat like the Roman Empire. It is a distributed network, like the Internet, created by international agreements binding nations big and small into relationships that none of them fully control." [more]

This report from the Military District of Washington shows that the government did indeed consider the possibility that passenger aircraft might be used as bombs, contrary to White House assertions this past week. [more]

"Scientists, military officers, diplomats and other professionals serve on the commission. The United States included some intelligence officers, using diplomatic cover or other professional identities, to gather intelligence independently, according to the officials." [more]