New York Times (NYT)

"Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production. [more]

"The public anger has dented Mr. Putin's ratings and rattled his government ministers, who responded slowly and confusedly to the first wave of protests over pensions before retreating in part on changes that the Kremlin had pushed through a pliant Parliament last summer. Mr. Putin's appointees have attributed the demonstrations to a disgruntled few, incited by agitators, but the protests show little sign of dissipating. A coalition of political, social, environmental and labor organizations has called new rallies across the country for Saturday, including two in Moscow." [more]

"The Bush administration has turned Guantánamo into a place that is devoid of due process and the rule of law. It's a place where human beings can be imprisoned for life without being charged or tried, without ever seeing a lawyer, and without having their cases reviewed by a court. Congress and the courts should be uprooting this evil practice, but freedom and justice in the United States are on a post-9/11 downhill slide." [more]

"Last Thursday morning, Natalia Dimitruk, an interpreter for the deaf on the Ukraine's official state UT-1 television, disregarded the anchor's report on Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich's 'victory' and, in her small inset on the screen, began to sign something else altogether." [more]

"A senior Western diplomat in Kiev, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the political situation, portrayed the Ukrainian leadership as being at an impasse, stung by public and diplomatic reaction, and unsure of how to react to the growing protests." [more]

"Like so many conflicts in West Africa, the one in Ivory Coast is in large part a contest for the country's most valuable asset: the land on which cocoa is grown. Making it particularly entrenched are issues that were never fully resolved at independence: Who is a citizen of Ivory Coast, who can rule, who can own land?" [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]

"In a report to be released Monday, Amnesty International said the sexual attacks in Darfur amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. But it said it did not have sufficient evidence to show that the Janjaweed, as the government-backed militias are known, have carried out genocide in Darfur, as some critics of Sudan's government maintain." [more]

"A resolution granting a year's exemption had passed the council the past two years, but this year the attempt to renew it ran into difficulties because of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq and a strong statement of opposition from Secretary General Kofi Annan." [more]

"If Washington scrapped the subsidies, Brazil estimated, American cotton exports would fall 41 percent and production would drop 29 percent. That, in turn, would lead to a 12.6 percent increase in world cotton prices, helping struggling cotton farmers from Brazil to West Africa." [more]

"The United States launched many more failed airstrikes on a far broader array of senior Iraqi leaders during the early days of the war last year than has previously been acknowledged, and some caused significant civilian casualties, according to senior military and intelligence officials." [more]

"So Mr. Sanchez, in late 2000, was sent back for another week in a grim detention center in Lower Manhattan, severed from his family and livelihood, because his fingerprints had been mistakenly placed on the official record of another man. / Remarkably, this was not the first time Mr. Sanchez had paid for that mistake. He had been arrested three times for Mr. Rosario's crimes, and ultimately spent a total of two months in custody and was threatened with deportation before the mistake was traced and resolved in 2002." [more]

People who get their news by skimming the front page, or by watching TV, must be feeling confused by the sudden change in Mr. Bush's character. For more than two years after 9/11, he was a straight shooter, all moral clarity and righteousness... [more]

In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge. [more]

Colonel Erez "argued that Israel's decision to use ground troops, rather than simply bomb the neighborhood from the air, showed its concern for Palestinian civilians and 'maintaining our moral posture.' Several wounded Palestinians interviewed in the last 24 hours said they were shot by snipers when they stepped out into the street. Noting the curfew, Colonel Erez said, 'Someone who exits is obviously someone who is looking for trouble' and was therefore 'a legitimate target.' " [more]

"The Americans in the photographs are not enacting hatred; hatred can coexist with respect, however strained. What they display, instead, is contempt: their victims are merely objects." [more]

City Hall may want to declare Manhattan to be a no-free-speech zone for convention week, but critics have a right to gather in the same borough as the conventioneers they are protesting. [more]

"When the United States invaded Iraq a year ago, one of its chief concerns was preventing a civil war between Shiite Muslims, who make up a majority in the country, and Sunni Muslims, who held all the power under Saddam Hussein. Now the fear is that the growing uprising against the occupation is forging a new and previously unheard of level of cooperation between the two groups — and the common cause is killing Americans." [more]

An accountant in Long Beach, Calif., is leading a violent and bloody campaign to overthrow the government of Cambodia. Why doesn't the U.S. government seem to care? [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]

Matrix, a controversial program intended to find criminals and terrorists, appears to be withering under its critics' attacks. [more]

"'The trap is sprung,' said a senior American administration official speaking from Washington, saying that the Libyan resolution sets a precedent for future I.A.E.A. resolutions on Iran. 'It makes it very hard not to at some point address Iran's breaches by referring them to the Security Council,' he said." [more]

"Seven of the 15 candidates hoping to succeed Peter Fitzgerald, a millionaire who is not seeking a second term, fall in the millionaire range. Four are Republicans and three are Democrats." [more]

"The Treasury Department has warned publishers they may face grave legal consequences for editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy." [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]

"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]

"What this wall is really doing is taking Palestinian lands. It is also ... helping turn Palestinian communities into dungeons, next to which the bantustans of South Africa look like symbols of freedom, sovereignty and self-determination." [more]

Eight new books assess the effects of the 9/11 attacks on American freedom and privacy. [more]

Welcoming Tunisia's president, Zine el-Abidine ben Ali, to the White House makes America's promotion of Arab democracy ring hollow. [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]

"Political parties are using enormous databases to learn everything about you so they can tailor their pitches for candidates just for you. Are campaigning and voting becoming just marketing and consumption?" [more]

"For the wounded veterans of the Iraq war, the battles now are with sleeping and waking, and the close-in fighting is with intimates and one's self." [more]

"A subpoena compelling Drake University to provide information about an antiwar forum on its campus on Nov. 15 was also withdrawn, as was an earlier court order that barred Drake officials from speaking publicly about the case." [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]

"The attacks came just as Kurdish leaders were embroiled in negotiations over how much independence the Kurdish region would be allowed and how the two leading Kurdish parties, whose offices were bombed during holiday receptions, would share power. The deaths of important officials could change the balance of political viewpoints in each party." [more]

"When the State of Maryland hired a computer security firm to test its new machines, these paid hackers had little trouble casting multiple votes and taking over the machines' vote-recording mechanisms. The Maryland study shows convincingly that more security is needed for electronic voting, starting with voter-verified paper trails." [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]

A report presented to the Maryland state legislature indicated that Diebold voting systems, which have been purchased by many states, are not tamper-proof. [more]

"Almost as he spoke ... police were raiding Internet cafes in Phnom Penh, confiscating equipment for making Internet telephone calls. The cafes charged as little as 5 cents a minute to call the United States, far below the government-mandated minimum of 96 cents for phone calls using conventional technology." [more]

"The question of whether the students were within their rights to post the [politically embarassing] memos was essentially moot: thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, their speech could be silenced without the benefit of actual lawsuits, public hearings, judges or other niceties of due process." [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]

"American soldiers on Monday night killed an Iraqi man and a boy and wounded four others in a car that was driving behind their convoy after a roadside bomb went off nearby, said witnesses, a police official and relatives of the family in the car." [more]

"Can the lessons of history help defeat the insurgency in Iraq? Dodging bullets, taking prisoners and trying to win hearts and minds." [more]

"Tariffs were suspended, a new banking code was adopted, a 15 percent cap was placed on all future taxes, and foreign investors can now own Iraqi companies fully with no requirements for reinvesting profits back into the country." [more]

The Bush Administration has reluctantly granted autonomy to the Kurdish region within the transitional Iraq government. Saddam's influence in Kurdish Iraq was limited in the 1990s — the Kurds were able to set up a functioning government that helped administer what sparse aid made it through the UN sanctions. Kurdish autonomy will also greatly trouble their northern neighbor because of the conflict that the Turkish government had with Kurdish separatists in the 1990s. [more]

"[Karzai's] opponents want Parliament to control the printing of money, the creation of a constitutional court, three vice presidents rather than one, a ban on top officials holding dual citizenship or having a foreign spouse, more power devolved to provincial councils, and for Uzbek and Turkmen language rights in their ethnic regions." [more]

"Guantánamo's inmates are among the least significant of any detainees captured since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to several American counterterrorism experts. The C.I.A. has not sent any of the highest-ranking Qaeda leaders it has captured to the base, officials said." [more]

"There's strong evidence that Saddam Hussein's arrest is irrelevant, and Osama bin Laden is using Iraq as a smoke screen." [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]

"Federal authorities do not have a clear understanding of how terrorists move their financial assets and are still struggling to prevent the flow of money to terror groups." [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]

"The court also upheld two other pillars of the law: a ban on the solicitation of soft money by federal candidates, and a prohibition against political advertisements by special interest groups in the weeks just before an election." [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]

Despite the raid's failure, "the American military is pressing ahead with its objectives ... announcing Monday that it had 2,000 soldiers out on its biggest operation ever against elements of the Taliban and Al Qaeda across a wide swath of the country." [more]

" 'You have to understand the Arab mind,' Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. 'The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face.' " [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 abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the F.B.I. to harass and discredit Hoover's political enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on F.B.I. investigations of political activities. Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney General John Ashcroft issued guidelines giving agents authority to attend political rallies, mosques and any event 'open to the public.' " [more]

"A report issued yesterday by the House Committee on Government Reform gave the fullest accounting to date of the F.B.I.'s use of murderers as informants in Boston for three decades and its protection of them even to the point of allowing innocent men to be sentenced to death." [more]

"These growing attacks against American forces have two clear goals: inflict casualties and force a reaction that alienates the local population. Both are being achieved, as the quick-response raids by coalition troops to seize those behind the attacks fuel Iraqi alienation." [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]

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

"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]

"Signs of a movement to Iraq have also been detected in Europe. Jean-Louis Bruguière, France's top investigative judge on terrorism, said dozens of poor and middle-class Muslim men had left France for Iraq since the summer. He said some of them appeared to have been inspired by exhortations of Qaeda leaders, even if they were not trained by Al Qaeda." [more]

"Many of the same demonstrators gathered here months ago to urge the White House not to go to war in Iraq. The demonstrators reassembled here in the shadow of the Washington Monument because they said they wanted to let the president know that they remained deeply opposed to the American military's continued presence in Iraq." [more]

"At the tender age of six months, the war in Iraq is not remotely a Vietnam. But from the way the administration tries to manage the news against all reality, even that irrevocable reality encased in flag-draped coffins, you can only wonder if it might yet persuade the audience at home that we're mired in another Tet after all." [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]

"President Bush told the Congress of this former American colony on Saturday that Iraq, like the Philippines, could be transformed into a vibrant democracy. He also pledged his help in remaking the troubled and sometimes mutinous Philippine military into a force for fighting terrorism." [more]

"The campaign against Damascus is rooted in the accusation that two groups labeled terrorist organizations by the United States and Israel, among others — Hamas and Islamic Jihad — are orchestrating suicide bombings from here. Few analysts expect that the elimination of their representatives here would do much to dent such operations." [more]

A spokesperson "said that it was intolerable that the complex was used as 'an investigation center, not a detention center.' He said the International Red Cross was making the unusual statements because of a lack of action." [more]

"Portable missiles were fired at incoming planes [in Iraq] several times in recent weeks, one senior official said. Most of those incidents have not been reported to the public." [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]

"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]

"Prosecutors argued that Mr. Moussaoui has no right to question witnesses held overseas as enemy combatants. Court-appointed lawyers for Mr. Moussaoui had argued, and the judge agreed, that the prisoners might be able to offer testimony showing that he had no part in the conspiracy." [more]

"Mr. Sharon on Monday expressed his support for building a barrier around the settlement, Ariel, which is about 15 miles inside the West Bank. The measure appears set to win cabinet approval at a session on Wednesday." [more]

"An internal assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that most of the information provided by Iraqi defectors who were made available by the Iraqi National Congress was of little or no value." [more]

"The auditors said that nationwide, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tended not to issue formal citations and to minimize the significance of problems it found if the problems did not cause actual damage." [more]

"The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders." [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]

" 'We refuse to participate in air force attacks on civilian populations,' said the letter, which was sent to the head of the air force, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz. 'We refuse to continue harming innocent civilians.' " [more]

"Electronic voting machine technology used nationwide is 'at high risk of compromise' because of software flaws that could make them vulnerable to computer hackers and voting fraud." [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]

The vice prime minister's remarks "amounted to the most explicit description of options Israel is considering for dealing with Mr. Arafat since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government decided 'in principle' to remove him, leaving the timing and type of action deliberately vague." [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]

"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]

"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]

"When the Patriot Act raced through Congress after Sept. 11, critics warned that it was an unprecedented expansion of the government's right to spy on ordinary Americans. The more people have learned about the law, the greater the calls have been for overhauling it." [more]

"Today, with the tremendous controversy over the administration's pre-war assertions, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the archive that produced Iraq's 12,500 pages of claims that comprise the most detailed record of Iraq's weapons programs." [more]

"It is a movement that is more diverse, yet less integrated. It is desirous of new blood, yet often out of touch with younger people. It is embracing new political causes, yet fighting to maintain its political influence. And many of the issues on the current agenda are far more subtle and complex, less easy to package, than the right to register to vote without fear of injury or death." [more]

"America has created ... precisely the situation the Bush administration has described as a breeding ground for terrorists: a state unable to control its borders or provide for its citizens' rudimentary needs." [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]

"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]

"Up to 50 people were wounded in the blast, and body parts were scattered around the rubble, a witness said. The witness added that he had seen bodies being dragged out of the rubble, and American soldiers sent to the scene pulling sheets over the faces of others lying on the ground." [more]

"Public opinion surveys both in Israel and Palestine consistently show that a clear majority on both sides endorses the cease-fire, supports the road map to peace and favors the idea of a two-state solution, Israel next to Palestine." [more]

"A pipeline supplying much of Baghdad's water was blown up this weekend, a huge new fire was set off along an oil pipeline, and a mortar attack on a prison left 6 Iraqis dead and 59 wounded." [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]

"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 fuel shortages in southern Iraq have led to problems far more dire than gasoline lines. According to a report issued Wednesday by the Agency for International Development, the shortages 'are threatening security and some humanitarian operations.' They 'are endangering hospital patients' in hospitals that depend on generators, the agency said, adding that 'cold storage for medicines and vaccination programs are also affected.' " [more]

"Two years ago, the bar association rejected changes to its model code of conduct to permit lawyers more latitude in disclosing client confidences to prevent fraud. But the association seems to be more open to the idea now that the government may impose more stringent responsibilities on the profession." [more]

"The lawyer for a Pakistani man who has been detained in Manhattan since March as a material witness said he expected his client to be indicted on charges of providing support to a terrorist conspiracy whose goal included obtaining chemical weapons." [more]

"The blast at the Marriott illustrated what had been known for months: that Jemaah Islamiyah, a group intent on achieving an Islamic state in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, consisted of many independent cells, each with the capacity to mount attacks." [more]

"The lawsuit comes after months of increasingly sharp political debate in Washington and around the country over the act. In May, Democrats beat back a move to extend the law past 2005, and last week, the House voted to scale back a 'sneak and peak' provision in the law." [more]

"The president and his advisers obviously still believe that the constant repetition of several simplistic points will hypnotize the American people into forgetting the original question." [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]

"Most of the administration's critics predicted that Washington would win the war but botch the peace, and so far they have turned out to be disturbingly prescient. Everything about the American plan, including the size and composition of occupying military forces, was misconceived." [more]

"The best chance at killing or capture may have been deep in the past. Below the white peaks of the Spin Ghar near the Pakistani line, Osama bin Laden was spotted. The American high command believed this was it but didn't want to put its soldiers in severe danger; didn't want British special forces to claim the war's greatest prize; and couldn't compel Pakistan to close off the frontier." [more]

"It is perhaps instructive to look back on that earlier effort by the leading Western power to remake the Middle East as the American occupation of Iraq appears increasingly beset." [more]

"The department acknowledged that its decision could force a federal judge to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Moussaoui. Officials have said for months that if the indictment were dismissed, his prosecution would almost certainly be moved to a military tribunal." [more]

"The Pentagon has seen the fatal flaw of hitching itself to volatile groups like the Islamists who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and, more recently, the Iraqi exile groups who had no popular base at home. It seems dangerously myopic that the U.S. is even considering resurrecting the Rajavis and their army of Stepford wives." [more]

"Senior officials in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government say they no longer believe weapons of mass destruction will be uncovered in Iraq, British news organizations reported today." [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]

"[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]

"A surreal society has emerged at the tip of Cuba in which rules are the only common language and prisoners and guards alike feel marooned." [more]

"The State Department's intelligence division is disputing the Central Intelligence Agency's conclusion that mysterious trailers found in Iraq were for making biological weapons." [more]

"The United States isn't perceived as a cultivator of democracy in Iraq. It is seen as a military occupier that supports democracy and free speech when they serve its interest, but suppresses both when they don't." [more]

"An American soldier was killed and another was wounded today in a drive-by shooting in central Baghdad, the latest in a series of assaults on the United States military." [more]

"Afghans and Pakistanis who were detained for many months by the American military at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba before being released without charges are describing the conditions as so desperate that some captives tried to kill themselves." [more]

"For nearly three weeks, hundreds of villagers who live in the shadow of the high earthen berm and barbed wire fences that surrounded the labyrinth of the Iraqi nuclear program here bathed in and ingested water laced with radioactive contaminants from the barrels." [more]

"More than 13,000 of the Arab and Muslim men who came forward earlier this year to register with immigration authorities — roughly 16 percent of the total — may now face deportation, government officials say." [more]

"American and British intelligence analysts with direct access to the evidence are disputing claims that the mysterious trailers found in Iraq were for making deadly germs. In interviews over the last week, they said the mobile units were more likely intended for other purposes and charged that the evaluation process had been damaged by a rush to judgment." [more]

" 'It is not enough to be with us in the war on terrorism, but you have to trumpet it,' explained an American official in Southeast Asia. Washington would prefer that leaders behave like President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, who has publicly pledged her allegiance to the United States in the campaign against terrorism." [more]

"Only 5 members of the 23-member Senate committee offered any support for the commission; most of the rest, Democrats and Republicans alike, expressed deep dissatisfaction with at least some aspect of the new rules. While a majority of the Democrats on the committee criticized most of the package adopted by the commission, elements of it were also challenged by such Republicans as Ted Stevens, Conrad Burns, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia J. Snowe and Trent Lott." [more]

"It was vital after the terrorism of Sept. 11 that the nation protect itself, arresting and investigating those who might have had a role. But it was equally vital that it avoid doing things we would later regret, like failing to grant detainees due process or abusing them either mentally and physically. Sadly, such caution was not exercised, according to a frank and blistering report by the inspector general of the Justice Department." [more]

"As expected, the commission said a single company could now own television stations that reach 45 percent of American households, up from 35 percent. The major networks wanted the cap eliminated entirely." [more]

"The stereotype that terrorists are driven to extremes by economic deprivation may never have held anywhere, least of all in the Middle East. New research by Claude Berrebi, a graduate student at Princeton, has found that 13 percent of Palestinian suicide bombers are from impoverished families, while about a third of the Palestinian population is in poverty. A remarkable 57 percent of suicide bombers have some education beyond high school, compared with just 15 percent of the population of comparable age." [more]

"The failure so far to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the prime justification for an immediate invasion, or definitive links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda has raised serious questions about the quality of American intelligence and even dark hints that the data may have been manipulated to support a pre-emptive war." [more]

"The F.B.I. has opened an internal ethics investigation to determine whether its agents abused their authority by secretly seizing from a news organization documents on international terrorism." [more]

"Thus the only viable solution for the transient Iraqi authority is likely to be a collective of three leaders — one Sunni, one Shiite and one Kurd." [more]

"Congressional officials and political observers said the debate might force lawmakers to take stock of how far they were willing to sacrifice civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism." [more]

"We had a great day,' Sergeant Schrumpf said. 'We killed a lot of people.'" [more]

"After six days, American and British warplanes and warships have launched several thousand bombs and cruise missiles against Iraqi air defenses, communication centers, headquarters, Republican Guard troops and other military targets. But at least until today, Mr. Hussein was still appearing on the official television, his government was still passing orders to its field commanders, and there were no immediate signs of the mass surrenders or defections many American officials had hoped for." [more]

"With the new engagement in Iraq, the Pentagon and television news coverage are blurring the lines between movies and real life as never before, turning viewers into 24-hour couch voyeurs." [more]

"The Bush administration had conveyed the impression that the Iraqi government was shaky, that much of the army was not likely to fight and that the Iraqi people would welcome the invasion force with cheers and flowers. While some of those things may still occur, so far the people greeting American troops have been much cooler than many had hoped." [more]

"The reality of the situation on the ground in southern Iraq is so insecure that relief workers say it will take at least several days and probably weeks before aid can really start being delivered into the country." [more]

"Thousands of anti-war demonstrators, stretching across several blocks of midtown Manhattan, marched down Broadway today to voice their opposition to the ongoing war against Iraq." [more]

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

"The first signs were an air raid siren followed by antiaircraft fire and loud explosions over the city that appeared to be bombs. The antiaircraft fire appeared to be ineffective, striking at low altitude over the city." [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]

"In a speech last night, President Bush turned America's first new security strategy in 50 years into the rationale for war." [more]

"On the brink of war, both supporters and critics of United States policy on Iraq agree on the origins, at least, of the haunted relations that have brought us to this pass: America's dealings with Saddam Hussein, justifiable or not, began some two decades ago with its shadowy, expedient support of his regime in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980's." [more]

"We should outlaw the term collateral damage. Above all else, the damage done by the weapons of war is to the flesh, muscle, bone and psyches of real people, some of them children. If we're willing to inflict such terrible damage, we should acknowledge it and not hide behind euphemisms." [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]

"More than a thousand high school and college students walked out of their classrooms and gathered in Union Square Park in Manhattan at noon yesterday to protest the possible war in Iraq. The protests were part of a nationwide effort that organizers said included as many as 400 campuses." [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]

"The arrest represented a major victory in the American-led global search for pivotal leaders of Al Qaeda — the men who planned the suicide hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, as well as other terrorist acts." [more]

"Students at hundreds of high schools and colleges nationwide are planning a walkout on Wednesday to protest the Bush administration's plans for war in Iraq." [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]

"The Mall was quiet, but the switchboard on Capitol Hill was swamped today as anti-war protesters conducted what they called the first 'virtual march' on Washington." [more]

"The Army's chief of staff said today that several hundred thousand American troops could be required to provide security and public services in Iraq after a war to oust Saddam Hussein and disarm his military." [more]

"Military planners at the United States Central Command expect to rely on many kinds of information warfare — including electronic attacks on power grids, communications systems and computer networks, as well as deception and psychological operations — to break the Iraqi military's will to fight and sway Iraqi public opinion. [more]

"U.S. media outlets — operating in an environment in which anyone who questions the administration's foreign policy is accused of being unpatriotic — have taken it as their assignment to sell the war, not to present a mix of information that might call the justification for war into question." [more]

"Following the military maxim that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, the administration may feel it is better to warn the American public of these dangers in advance. 'There is a lot to keep us awake at night,' one senior administration official said." [more]

"The fracturing of the Western alliance over Iraq and the huge antiwar demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion." [more]

"At least 150,000 people marched through the city's financial district, chanted antiwar slogans and listened to John Lennon's 'Imagine' sung in Arabic." [more]

"With a new war possibly weeks or less away, the bombing stands as a reminder of the risks of civilian casualties even with such accurate firepower." [more]

"Confronting America's countdown to war, throngs of chanting, placard-waving demonstrators converged on New York and scores of cities across the United States, Europe and Asia yesterday in a global daisy chain of largely peaceful protests against the Bush administration's threatened invasion of Iraq." [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]

"Wearing skeleton suits topped with Uncle Sam paper hats, a dozen musicians, and several dozen more marchers tooting kazoos and banging plastic buckets or aluminum pots, turned this city's protest into an upbeat parade, as thousands of people high-stepped to patriotic tunes like 'You're a Grand Old Flag.' " [more]

"Armed with a kaleidoscope of hand-scrawled placards and a few choice words for Mr. Blair, hundreds of thousands of protesters braved frigid weather and descended on the heart of London today to oppose a war with Iraq in what is being described as the largest demonstration in [Britain's] history." [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]

"Although yesterday's demonstration against war was speckled with professional peace activists, leftist doctrinaires and a kaleidoscopic array of malcontents advocating the end of capitalism, imperialism, sexism and taxation, a great many of those who converged on the East Side of Manhattan were the unaligned and the unaffiliated." [more]

"Officials cannot decide that from now on marching will be limited to ethnic parades. Protests that move down the street have a symbolic power that stationary rallies do not, and delivering a message at a location like the United Nations can have far greater impact than saying the same thing in a small park." [more]

"Europeans consider North Korea a greater threat [than Iraq]. Imagine what a sense of security we all would feel if, as in Iraq, 100 inspectors were proceeding with unimpeded inspections throughout North Korea, including the president's palaces." [more]

"House and Senate negotiators have agreed that a Pentagon project intended to detect terrorists by monitoring Internet e-mail and commercial databases for health, financial and travel information cannot be used against Americans." [more]

"Antiwar demonstrators may not march past the United Nations complex on Saturday, or anywhere else in Manhattan, a federal judge ruled yesterday." The judge agreed with city police that "it could not maintain safety at a traditional, peaceful protest march, [but this] was rejected yesterday by a number of First Amendment experts who found the court's decision a bad precedent." [more]

"Analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq [and] at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's network." [more]

"All we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the story." [more]

"At least 16 people, including women and children, were killed when their bus exploded on a bridge just outside the southern city of Kandahar, in an attack that the local police attributed to the Taliban or other rebel forces." [more]

"The peace accord, brokered by France, envisions rebel groups sharing power with the government, an approach that has enraged backers of President Laurent Gbagbo." [more]

"The International Atomic Energy Agency's report that Iraq has not resumed its nuclear program has challenged one of the Bush administration's main arguments for taking military action to topple the Iraqi government." [more]

"Hundreds of Qaeda fighters and Taliban supporters are planning to intensify their attacks on Afghan territory if war breaks out in Iraq, interviews with three visitors from Pakistani tribal area indicate." [more]

"Some officials here have been frustrated by what they see as the failure of some field offices to respond aggressively enough in chasing terrorism leads ... [but] congressional officials were bothered because the survey would apparently lump all mosques in one category without distinguishing mosques that have reported extremist ties." [more]

"Forty-one American Nobel laureates in science and economics issued a declaration yesterday opposing a preventive war against Iraq without wide international support." [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]

"Saddam Hussein's top science adviser said today that he feared a United States attack might now be inevitable, regardless of what United Nations inspectors conclude about the last two months of renewed searches for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." [more]

"A security researcher has revealed a little-known vulnerability in many locks that lets a person create a copy of the master key for an entire building by starting with any key from that building." [more]

"About 1,000 people from around the country gathered shortly after noon a block north of Pennsylvania Avenue Park in full view of the northern windows of the White House. One group included many older people, some with long experience in civil disobedience. A younger and louder group joined the the older protesters." [more]

"Mr. Bush and his war cabinet would be wise to see the demonstrators as a clear sign that noticeable numbers of Americans no longer feel obliged to salute the administration's plans because of the shock of Sept. 11 and that many harbor serious doubts about his march toward war. The protesters are raising some nuanced questions in the name of patriotism about the premises, cost and aftermath of the war the president is contemplating." [more]

"Antiwar demonstrators took to the streets again today on a weekend of protests in numerous European cities, with marchers silently or loudly objecting to America's threats to use its military might against Iraq." [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]

"In a show of dissent that organizers said 'shattered the false myth of consensus,' for a war with Iraq, tens of thousands of protesters representing a diverse coalition for peace converged here today for a rally and march against the Bush administration's threatened use of military force against Saddam Hussein's regime." [more]

"Marches are still a crucial tool, and protest leaders are hoping that tens of thousands will turn out for an antiwar rally here on Saturday. But organizers are also trying to spread their message through the Internet and enlist a diverse range of allies." [more]

"The revelations about the jury's actions come at a moment of intense debate about whether trials in civilian courts are appropriate for deciding the fates of accused terrorists. The Bush administration has argued that military tribunals are a better way to try some international terrorists and to more successfully win death penalties. One administration concern involves a problem that appears to have surfaced in the bombings trial: in terror cases, jurors might feel vulnerable to reprisal, and such fears could influence their actions." [more]

"[T]his possible Iraq war is partly about oil because it is impossible to explain the Bush team's behavior otherwise. Why are they going after Saddam Hussein with the 82nd Airborne and North Korea with diplomatic kid gloves — when North Korea already has nuclear weapons, the missiles to deliver them, a record of selling dangerous weapons to anyone with cash, 100,000 U.S. troops in its missile range and a leader who is even more cruel to his own people than Saddam?" [more]

"The present course of United Nations arms inspections and building diplomatic consensus should be maintained without introducing artificial military deadlines. Force must remain a last resort. It is a dangerous delusion to think that Saddam Hussein can be quickly and simply removed by American troops without serious complications within Iraq, across the Middle East and perhaps beyond." [more]

"The class-action suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, says that immigration officials unlawfully arrested and detained the men without appropriate warrants and that it is illegal to arrest and deport people who are eligible to apply for legal status based on family relationships or employment." [more]

"Nearly two dozen cities around the country have passed resolutions urging federal authorities to respect the civil rights of local citizens when fighting terrorism. Efforts to pass similar measures are under way in more than 60 other places." [more]

"In the Pentagon research effort to detect terrorism by electronically monitoring the civilian population, the most remarkable detail may be this: Most of the pieces of the system are already in place." [more]

"My family and friends may think I'm a coward because I didn't fight. I think I'm a coward because I couldn't refuse." [more]

" 'Over here' is unprepared, undemanding, underhanded and unreal." [more]

"Immigration officers have arrested hundreds of men in the last week after they appeared voluntarily to register, with an unknown number still in custody today. An I.N.S. official in California told family members and immigration lawyers that virtually all of those still held would be released in the next 24 hours, with instructions to report back in 30 to 60 days to complete the registration process." [more]

"Mr. Powell said that Iraqi defiance could not continue, and that Iraq would be disarmed by force, if necessary. But he sought to dispel any notion that war was imminent and signaled that Saddam Hussein still had a chance — albeit a fading one — to comply peacefully." [more]

"Lines began forming before dawn today outside the downtown federal building here as hundreds of men from five Muslim countries showed up to register with immigration authorities under a sweeping national dragnet designed to identify potential terrorists." [more]

"The Bush administration has prepared a list of terrorist leaders the Central Intelligence Agency is authorized to kill, if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be minimized, senior military and intelligence officials said." [more]

"By making it possible to shift from petroleum to other primary energy sources, fuel cells could ease the threat of global warming without taking away the freedom and mobility that Americans and Europeans take for granted — and the rest of the world is determined to get for itself." [more]

"The Bush administration published a new strategy today on combatting weapons of mass destruction that included a statement, clearly directed at potential opponents like Iraq. Washington is prepared to 'respond with all our options' if such weapons are used against American troops or allies." [more]

"Even as the report was adopted, one leading lawmaker on the panel publicly dissented. Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Senate Republican on the joint panel, said today that he would issue a minority report, which he indicated would be more critical of FBI and CIA officials. Mr. Shelby complained in a television interview today, 'Some people on the committee don't want to assign the blame or accountability.' " [more]

"Bob Taylor, an economist for the World Bank, skipped lunch to join the march to the White House. He took his family to the Washington march in October carrying a sign that read, 'Average American Family Against War With Iraq.' On his way to work, Mr. Taylor said he saw a leaflet for today's rally and decided to squeeze it into his day." [more]

"The push by Washington for defectors has further pressurized the atmosphere surrounding the first week of inspections as Iraq prepares to make what the Security Council has said must be a full disclosure of its secret arms programs." [more]

"Despite concerns about the accuracy of some of the information that the F.B.I. has provided, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, which considers surveillance applications, approved all 932 requests for intelligence warrants from the Justice Department last year. Department officials said they did not expect a large increase in wiretaps and surveillance, even with the expanded authority." [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]

"Ending months of rancorous debate on the new department, the Senate approved the bill on a 90-to-9 vote that hid some misgivings many Democrats said they still harbored about President Bush's design for the agency. Only after urgent phone calls from the president and last-minute promises by Republican leaders to eliminate several special-interest business provisions did wavering moderates from both parties agree to the final vote." [more]

"While his colleagues have debated the fine points of the domestic security bill, he has been virtually alone in asking the larger question: Why is this new department suddenly so necessary? What will the largest and hastiest reorganization of the federal government in half a century do besides allow politicians to claim instant credit for fighting terrorism?" [more]

"The previously undisclosed intelligence program involves tracking thousands of Iraqi citizens and Iraqi-Americans with dual citizenship who are attending American universities or working at private corporations, and who might pose a risk in the event of a United States-led war against Iraq, officials said." [more]

"Buried in the $393 billion defense authorization bill that Congress approved this week was an obscure item that has raised concerns that the administration is gradually moving toward creating new kinds of nuclear weapons." [more]

"Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as 'a virtual, centralized grand database.' " [more]

"The House hurriedly approved a revised domestic security bill tonight to reflect a new agreement with the White House on reducing worker protections, brushing aside Democratic objections that Republican leaders had added several provisions benefiting businesses and Republican interests." [more]

"The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations said today that Baghdad had accepted the Security Council resolution demanding that weapons inspectors be allowed back into Iraq, but denied that his country had any weapons of mass destruction." [more]

"American intelligence experts were still trying to determine today whether an audiotape broadcast on Tuesday by Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network, does indeed contain the voice of Osama bin Laden praising several terror attacks around the world, including recent ones in Moscow and Bali, and threatened further bloodshed over Iraq." [more]

"President Bush has settled on a war plan for Iraq that would begin with an air campaign shorter than the one for the Persian Gulf war, senior administration officials say. It would feature swift ground actions to seize footholds in the country and strikes to cut off the leadership in Baghdad." [more]

"United Nations weapons inspectors plan to force an early test of Saddam Hussein's intentions by demanding a comprehensive list of weapons sites and checking whether it matches a list of more than 100 priority sites compiled by Western experts, Bush administration and United Nations officials say." [more]

"The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt for terrorists around the globe — including the United States." [more]

"President Bush expressed confidence today that the United Nations Security Council would pass a resolution on Friday to 'bring the civilized world together to disarm Saddam Hussein.' " [more]

"The lethal missile strike that killed a suspected leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen was carried out under broad authority that President Bush has given the C.I.A. over the past year to pursue the terror network well beyond the borders of Afghanistan, senior government officials said today." [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]

"There is still some dispute over the extent of Saddam Hussein's chemical or biological weapons, but one thing beyond dispute is that he has oil. Lots of it. Five times more proven reserves than the United States, the second biggest supply after Saudi Arabia, and more waiting to be found." [more]

"For decades, nonlethal, or humane, weapons have been discussed, developed, disavowed, seldom used and often ridiculed as oxymoronic. [Yet] have we reached the point, technologically and philosophically, where incapacitating arms might come into their own? More broadly, can there be a humane war?" [more]

"Navy pilots are conducting mock strikes against airfields, towers and other military sites in Iraq in preparation for a possible military campaign." [more]

"The Jazeera reporter, Yosri Fouda, said Mr. bin al-Shibh sat on the floor surrounded by three laptop computers and five cellphones and spent much of his time quietly 'fiddling with his laptops.'" [more]

"The 25 Labor members of the 120-seat Parliament now move into the opposition, with Mr. Ben-Eliezer as the opposition leader. Mr. Sharon is left for the moment with a minority of 55 seats. He has not only lost moderate allies but gained leftist antagonists. Where before, Labor's political interest lay in blurring its differences with Mr. Sharon, it now lies in spotlighting disagreements as the party tries to define itself as an alternative government." [more]

"Mr. Lieberman and other right-wing leaders believe that after two years of conflict with the Palestinians, Israeli voters will give them additional parliamentary seats in a new election. Mr. Lieberman is an ally of Mr. Netanyahu." [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]

"Emboldened by a weekend antiwar protest in Washington that organizers called the biggest since the days of the Vietnam War, groups opposed to military action in Iraq said they were preparing a wave of new demonstrations across the country in the next few weeks." [more]

"If President Bush orders an attack against Iraq, the Pentagon has plans to mobilize roughly as many reservists as it did during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, when about 265,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves were summoned to active duty, administration officials and military experts say." [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]

"Eli Pariser, 21, who directed international campaigns for MoveOn.org, said the Internet expanded the scope of organizing to people and places that marches can never reach. 'It's a safe and instant way of getting involved,' he said." [more]

"The terrorist network that Osama bin Laden has stealthily built up in Southeast Asia over the past decade is largely intact, intelligence officials in several countries said in interviews over the last week. It may even have become more deadly and more virulently anti-American than it was a year ago, they say." [more]

" 'The American people are saying there is another conversation to be had, and I would frame this march as a new beginning,' said the Rev. Bob Edgar, the general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ who served six terms in the House as a Pennsylvania Democrat." [more]

"No event in years has shaken Iraq like the amnesty with which President Saddam Hussein emptied Iraq's jails on Sunday. Within minutes of the broadcast at noon, a crowd began gathering outside Abu Ghraib prison, 20 miles west of Baghdad, the grimmest in a gulag that has incarcerated tens of thousands of political prisoners. Soon, the gates were forced open and the mob stormed the cellblocks, liberating as many as 10,000 captives." [more]

"The Czech president, Vaclav Havel, has quietly told the White House he has concluded that there is no evidence to confirm earlier reports that Mohamed Atta, the leader in the Sept. 11 attacks, met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague just months before the attacks on New York and Washington, according to Czech officials. " [more]

"The Afghan government won a resounding endorsement from international donors today for its budget and development plan to lift Afghanistan out of destitution and work toward self-sufficiency, positioning it well to win badly needed long-term assistance." [more]

"The blast that killed nearly 200 people on the Indonesian resort island of Bali this weekend is a different type of terrorism from what the Bush administration has campaigned against, and will open a new geographic front in that campaign, Western officials 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 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]

" 'In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power,' the Nobel citation read, 'Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development.' " [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 speed of the antiwar mobilization has struck some longtime college presidents. 'Students are engaging very, very quickly with Iraq,' said Nancy Dye, the president of Oberlin College. 'This morning I was struck by a very large sign on top of an academic building, saying, "Say No to War in Iraq." A new student organization has gotten itself together, and I don't even know if they have a name yet.' " [more]

The Senate voted overwhelmingly early this morning to authorize President Bush to use force against Iraq, joining with the House in giving him a broad mandate to act against Saddam Hussein. [more]

"The White House is developing a detailed plan, modeled on the postwar occupation of Japan, to install an American-led military government in Iraq if the United States topples Saddam Hussein, senior administration officials said today." [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]

"A sudden appetite for war with Iraq seems to have consumed the Bush administration and Congress. The debate that began in the Senate last week is centered not on the fundamental and monumental questions of whether and why the United States should go to war with Iraq, but rather on the mechanics of how best to wordsmith the president's use-of-force resolution in order to give him virtually unchecked authority to commit the nation's military to an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation." [more]

Bringing the United States a step closer to the possibility of war, the House voted 296 to 133 this afternoon to give President Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq. Earlier in the day, the Senate voted, 75 to 25, to limit debate on the resolution, meaning a vote could come as early as this evening or by early Friday. [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]

"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]

"Acknowledging a much wider testing of toxic weapons on its forces, the Defense Department says it used chemical warfare and live biological agents during cold-war-era military exercises on American soil, as well as in Canada and Britain, according to previously secret documents cleared for release to Congress on Wednesday." [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]

" 'Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist action,' the deputy C.I.A. director, John McLaughlin, continued. He noted that Mr. Hussein could use either conventional terrorism or a weapon of mass destruction as 'his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him.' " [more]

"Those old enough to know said that yesterday's Central Park rally to protest a United States invasion of Iraq drew a larger crowd than similar gatherings in the early 1960's by those who did not want the United States to get further involved in Vietnam." Includes a picture of Why War? activist Mary Harrison in the foreground holding a sign reading "I Love Peace." [more]

"The timing of the war, he acknowledged, was bad. The value of his stock portfolio has plummeted. 'But you can't really have wars when they are convenient,' he said." [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]

"Prosecutors did not say that any of the six had been able to make contact with Qaeda or Taliban members, nor has any evidence emerged to suggest that they were preparing to attack any American targets." [more]

"Iraq and the United Nations agreed today that inspectors would be given unfettered access to a range of sites, including sensitive areas like the Defense Ministry and the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard." [more]

"A third ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, said in June that it did not anticipate changing ratings on any commercial real estate loans because of a lack of terrorism insurance, since it was virtually impossible to calculate the risks of another attack." [more]

"Democratic congressmen who are visiting Iraq this week stirred up anger among some Republicans when they questioned the reasons President Bush has used to justify possible military action against Iraq." [more]

"Iraq is a war of choice, not a war of no choice, and it is a war of choice that will require a lot of nation-building if it is to produce a more peaceful Iraq. If the Bush team can enlist the backing of the U.N. and key allies, there is a real chance that such an operation can be successful. If the U.S. can't do that, it should keep Saddam in his box through deterrence and wait for a better strategic environment. Because launching a war of choice in Iraq, with an ambivalent U.S. public and no allies, could make for a frustrating, dangerous and endless Day 3." [more]

"For most American dissidents, opposition to the war on terrorism involves a nod to the loss of innocent American life, a tendentious comparison with the loss of innocent Afghan life, a playing down of the danger posed by Al Qaeda and an exaggeration of the Justice Department's domestic security abuses (which don't need exaggerating). Stewart is more intellectually honest than this." [more]

"Mobilizing for a possible attack on Iraq, American commanders have taken many steps to prepare and deploy their forces, Defense Department and military officials say. But the early steps have been calculated not to interfere with the Bush administration's campaign to build diplomatic and political support for taking action." [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]

"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]

"As Congress confronts the prospect of war, it should consider some constitutional fundamentals. The Bush administration would have us believe that international law contains only ambiguous or advisory requirements. In fact, the United Nations Charter was ratified as a treaty by the Senate after World War II, and the Constitution explicitly makes all treaties 'the supreme law of the land.' " [more]

"Recently, I've had the chance to travel around the country and do some call-in radio shows, during which the question of Iraq has come up often. And here's what I can report from a totally unscientific sample: Don't believe the polls that a majority of Americans favor a military strike against Iraq. It's just not true." [more]

"The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, better known by the acronym Unmovic, was created in December 1999. It inherited the mandate of the United Nations Special Commission, known as Unscom, which the Security Council inaugurated at the close of the Persian Gulf war in 1991 to disarm Iraq of chemical and biological weapons and missiles with a range of more than about 100 miles, and to ensure that Iraq not reacquire such weapons." [more]

"Ý'We have seen since the president's speech a rallying of support for his approach, and a coalescence around the idea that the UN must act, and it must act against more than a decade of Iraq's flouting of the will of the international community,' an official said, referring to President George W. Bush's address at the United Nations on Thursday. But another official added: 'Frankly, we haven't seen the comments in any detail yet. It's for the Saudis to explain, and we can't go into it too much just yet.'Ý" [more]

"Just over a year ago, President Vicente Fox of Mexico visited Washington to press forward with a deal he and President Bush were hatching on immigration reform. Today, that deal is all but dead." [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]

"Saddam Hussein, prior to an American attack, might well go after Israel with the chemical or biological weapons that Mr. Bush says Iraq possesses. Israel, if it survives, will retaliate, perhaps even with nuclear weapons. Just over the horizon lies Pakistan, a Muslim country armed with nuclear weapons and permeated by extremists. Pervez Musharraf, its president, has joined America's war on terrorism but he is unlikely to survive politically should there be a nuclear attack by an American ally on Iraq's Muslims. Islamists, overthrowing him, would take control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal; lacking the ability to launch missiles that would reach Israel, they would turn on India, their more proximate enemy. A nuclear attack would set off global chaos." [more]

"Mr. Cheney and Ms. Rice both said the administration would prefer a Congressional vote on Iraq before Congress adjourned for the midterm elections this fall. The vice president sharply disputed any suggestion that the White House's timing was driven by politics." [more]

"Judge Keith wrote an opinion, handed down last Monday by a three-judge panel in Cincinnati, that clarified and reaffirmed some crucially important democratic principles that have been in danger of being discarded since the terrorist attacks last Sept. 11. The opinion was a reflection of true patriotism, a 21st-century echo of a pair of comments made by John Adams nearly two centuries ago. 'Liberty,' said Adams, 'cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.' " [more]

"What are we to make of the policy chasm that has apparently opened up between President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H. W. Bush?" [more]

"Commanders in the American military's most elite Special Operations unit are contending that their troops should be freed from the fruitless hunt in Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden, military and intelligence officials say. " [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]

"I was dubious at first. But now I think Dick Cheney has it right. Making the case for going to war in the Middle East to war veterans on Monday, the US Vice-President said that 'our goal would be . . . a government that is democratic and pluralistic, a nation where the human rights of every ethnic and religious group are recognised and protected'." [more]

"But this time Mr. Hussein's goal is not so much to hold ground as to hold power. That means that Iraq can be expected to use the threat of urban warfare to try to deter the United States from attacking in the first place and to raise the political costs if Washington decides to press ahead with an invasion." [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]

"The tape was among about 250 that Nic Robertson, a CNN reporter, was taken to 10 days ago, 60 of which he brought out of Afghanistan with him. Experts say the collection is the largest known assembly of videotapes ever made by Al Qaeda of its activities ó a library that was collected, cataloged and stored by unknown individuals, apparently to document the history of Al Qaeda." [more]

"The Pentagon has hired two giant cargo ships to carry armored vehicles and helicopters, among other war matÈriel, and eight additional cargo ships capable of carrying ammunition, tanks and ambulances. The Air Force is stockpiling weapons, ammunition and spare parts, including airplane engines, at depots in the Persian Gulf region and in the United States. Arsenals of Air Force and Navy precision-guided weapons, which proved devastating in Afghanistan, should be fully replenished by autumn, military officials said." [more]

"He reported that Iraq had used chemical weapons to cinch its victory, one former D.I.A. official said. Colonel Francona saw zones marked off for chemical contamination, and containers for the drug atropine scattered around, indicating that Iraqi soldiers had taken injections to protect themselves from the effects of gas that might blow back over their positions. (Colonel Francona could not be reached for comment.)" [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]

"These senior Republicans include former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security adviser. All say they favor the eventual removal of Saddam Hussein, but some say they are concerned that Mr. Bush is proceeding in a way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in the Middle East, and harming long-term American interests. They add that the administration has not shown that Iraq poses an urgent threat to the United States." [more]

"[The House Judiciary Committee] asked about "roving" surveillance; lists of calls to and from telephone numbers; demands for bookstore, library and newspaper records; and subpoenas under the amended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act served on Americans or permanent residents. Some simpler questions, about Immigration and Naturalization Service employees the Canadian border, were answered." [more]

"Proposals now being discussed by Mr. Rumsfeld and senior military officers could ultimately lead Special Operations units to get more deeply involved in long-term covert operations [against Al Qaeda] in countries where the United States is not at open war and, in some cases, where the local government is not informed of their presence." [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]

"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]

"The government's effort has produced few if any law enforcement coups. Most of the detainees have since been released or deported, with fewer than 200 still being held. But it has provoked a sprawling legal battle, now being waged in federal courthouses around the country, that experts say has begun to redefine the delicate balance between individual liberties and national security." [more]

"As pacifists and pastors in the Church of the Brethren, Phil and Louise Baldwin Rieman argue that contributing funds to war is the same as killing. For 30 years they have given about 60 percent of their taxes to civil rights and peace programs, despite Internal Revenue Service threats of liens against their bank accounts, wage-garnishment letters sent to churches where they worked and government seizure of their family van." [more]

"A federal judge ruled today that the Bush administration had no right to conceal the identities of hundreds of people arrested after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and she ordered that most of their names be released within 15 days." [more]

"Mr. Rumsfeld's efforts to consolidate his hold over military intelligence ó an enormous bureaucracy that includes the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the intelligence branches of the individual military services ó carries important implications for the whole intelligence community." [more]

"An array of experts warned a Senate committee today that an invasion of Iraq would carry significant risks ranging from more terrorist attacks against American targets to higher oil prices." [more]

"Under the legislation, sponsored by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, the Justice Department would no longer have to convince a special court that a suspect was an agent of a foreign power or a member of an international terrorist organization to obtain a wiretap under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." [more]

"A preemptive military strike not authorized by the Security Council would clearly violate the UN Charter that legally binds all nations." BENJAMIN B. FERENCZ [more]

"The 'inside-out' approach, as some call this Baghdad-first option, would capitalize on the American military's ability to strike over long distances, maneuvering forces to envelop a large target. Those advocating that plan say it reflects a strong desire to find a strategy that would not require a full quarter-million American troops, yet hits hard enough to succeed. One important aim would be to disrupt Iraq's ability to order the use of weapons of mass destruction." [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]

"The Special Forces aren't social workers. They are an imperial detachment, advancing American power and interests in Central Asia. Call it peacekeeping or nation-building, call it what you like — imperial policing is what is going on in Mazar. In fact, America's entire war on terror is an exercise in imperialism. This may come as a shock to Americans, who don't like to think of their country as an empire. But what else can you call America's legions of soldiers, spooks and Special Forces straddling the globe?" [more]

"The Democrats did achieve one unexpected victory. At the last minute, party leaders brought up a motion that would forbid the department to contract with companies that establish an offshore headquarters to evade American taxes. The proposal usually fails when Democrats bring it up in other contexts, but tonight it picked up enough Republican votes to pass. Once it became clear that it would pass, scores of Republicans changed their votes to join the bandwagon, and the measure was approved 318 to 110." [more]

"Senator Leahy seemed unsatisfied, saying 'The program would enlist thousands, even millions, of civilians as TIPS informants to report their suspicions to the Justice Department.' Referring to a World War I program, he added, 'We did this back in the early part of the last century, and under a guise of being vigilant, we ended up being vigilantes.' " [more]

"A text identified as the planned cease-fire announcement that was published today in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, promised an end by Tanzim to 'all attacks on innocent men, women, and children who are noncombatants.' It is unlikely that any unilateral cease-fire would have applied to Israeli soldiers and or to settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied during the 1967 war. The announcement said, however, that Tanzim would continue to oppose 'the occupation of the Israeli Army of the West Bank.' " [more]

"Some Defense Ministry commandos, who have been responsible for the president's security since his arrival in the capital in December, admitted that they were unhappy about the takeover by Americans because it would make the president appear even more in the American pocket. 'Whose president will he be if he is not guarded by Afghan soldiers?' one commando asked." [more]

"The evidence suggests that many civilians have been killed by airstrikes hitting precisely the target they were aimed at. The civilians died, the evidence suggests, because they were were made targets by mistake, or because in eagerness to kill Qaeda and Taliban fighters, Americans did not carefully differentiate between civilians and military targets." [more]

"The Americans have also been confined by a second set of mandates. They may return fire only if fired upon, which so far has happened just once. Even more explicitly, the Americans cannot pursue Abu Sayyaf after engagement has been made." [more]

" 'I see this as a war crime; I see this as a crime against humanity,' said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat. 'It's a very alarming development.' B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, issued a statement saying that 'punishment of innocent persons will constitute an unerasable moral blight on the State of Israel' and that the policy would violate the Geneva Convention against both collective punishment and deportation." [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]

"The four-star general in charge of defending the United States against attack said he would favor changes in existing law to give greater domestic powers to the military to protect the country against terrorist strikes. The Bush administration has directed lawyers in the Departments of Justice and Defense to review the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and any other laws that sharply restrict the military's ability to participate in domestic law enforcement. Any changes would be subject to Congressional approval." [more]

"The Bush administration's broad new proposal for domestic security, to be made public on Tuesday, calls for sweeping changes that include the creation of a top-secret plan to protect the nation's critical infrastructure and a review of the law that could allow the military to operate more aggressively within the United States." [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]

"Since the United States military campaign began in Afghanistan, the unmanned spy plane has gone from a bit player to a starring role in Pentagon planning. Rather than the handful of 'autonomous vehicles,' or A.V.'s, that snooped on Al Qaeda hideouts, commanders are envisioning wars involving vast robotic fleets on the ground, in the air and on the seas ó swarms of drones that will not just find their foes, but fight them, too." [more]

"One problem with this prejudice (as with Osama bin Laden's) is that it blinds the bigots to any understanding of what they deride. If Islam were really just the caricature that it is often reduced to, then how would it be so appealing as to become the world's fastest-growing religion?" [more]

"Their concerns are so deep that the Kurds have set aside political differences among themselves to speak with a common voice on the possibility of American action against Mr. Hussein." [more]

"Women and children lay dead and wounded in and around one big house where they had been gathered for an engagement party, torn apart by cannon fire from the American attack plane, an AC-130 gunship. Survivors said they were gathering up the bodies, picking up limbs and body parts from the streets and adjoining orchard, and carrying the wounded to the village mosque, when the soldiers arrived." [more]

"None of the countries identified in the document as possible staging areas have been formally consulted about playing such a role, officials said, underscoring the preliminary nature of the planning. Yet the concept for such a plan is now highly evolved and is apparently working its way through military channels." [more]

"It has been muffled by Israel's latest military offensive, but a debate is under way among Palestinians over whether suicide bombing is in their self-interest." [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 decision covered one narrow aspect of a case that poses numerous constitutional questions about the reach of the president's authority over the rights of an American citizen in a time of war. Those questions include whether an American citizen who is accused by the president of being an enemy combatant has a right to a lawyer and whether the United States may detain that person indefinitely without charging him with a crime." [more]

"Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Lesotho have already declared national disasters, and Mozambique and Swaziland are also struggling. Four million more people are expected to need emergency aid in the next few months as this season's meager harvest runs out, the United Nations says." [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]

"Mr. Padilla, an American citizen, has been sucked into a procedural black hole in which he no longer has any legal rights. If left unchecked, this contempt for the law and due process could pose more of a threat to our way of life than Al Qaeda." [more]

"Mr. Padilla, who is accused of planning to explode a radioactive device, is an American citizen. He has been in custody since May 8 but has not been charged with a crime. He is, instead, being held as an 'enemy combatant.' " [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]

"This week, General Musharraf summoned Kashmiri leaders to his office to reassure them that he was not walking away from the Kashmiri cause, a deeply felt issue for many Pakistanis. One of the Kashmiri leaders who attended that meeting said the president appeared concerned about the possibility of a takeover by fundamentalists. 'It will be difficult for him to survive,' said Altaf Qadri, leader of the All Party Hurriat Conference, which represents 23 Kashmiri groups." [more]

"If these were Muslims who were forming militias and exchanging tips for making nerve gas, then we'd toss them in prison in an instant. But we're distracted by our own stereotypes, searching for Muslim terrorists in the Philippine jungle and the Detroit suburbs and forgetting that there are blond, blue-eyed mad bombers as well. We're making precisely the mistake that the Saudis did a few years ago: dismissing familiar violent fanatics as kooks." [more]

"Declaring that the Sept. 11 attacks had made the flaws in American immigration procedures "starkly clear," Attorney General John Ashcroft proposed new regulations today requiring tens of thousands of Muslim and Middle Eastern visa holders to register with the government and be fingerprinted." [more]

" 'There is a real cost to the openness of a free political society if every discussion group needs to be concerned that the F.B.I. is listening in on its public discussions or attending its public meetings.' " [more]

"Asked by Tim Russert last Sunday if the kind of noise that our intelligence is picking up from Al Qaeda this spring is 'similar' to the noise prior to Sept. 11, Vice President Cheney answered, 'Sure.' If that's the case, it's clear that Ari Fleischer's reassurance to the press in February that Al Qaeda has been 'severely disrupted and severely hampered' is now inoperative." [more]

"Nearly eight months after the first bombs fell on Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan, the effort to stamp out other potential safe havens is like putting mercury back in a thermometer. While bringing stability to Afghanistan is proving tough, hot spots are popping up elsewhere. Some were predictable; others, like Georgia, are surprises. To keep its message to the American public simple, the Bush administration has lumped all of these places into a pot with Osama bin Laden and the Qaeda network. But many indigenous anti-American movements are growing because of the war on terror." [more]

"[T]oday Padsha Khan Zadran did what he has done for the last several months: laughed at Hamid Karzai and his interim government in Kabul. 'Mr. Karzai has some problem with his mind,' Mr. Zadran said this afternoon, as a smug grin spread across his leathery face. 'He is nothing. He is a common man.' " [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]

"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]

"[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]

" 'There were absolutely no such allegations made or questions raised,' Mr. Carter said at a biological research center before an audience that included President Fidel Castro of Cuba and numerous scientists. 'I asked them myself on more than one occasion if there was any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information with any country on earth that could be used for terrorist purposes. And the answer from our experts on intelligence was no.' [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]

"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]

"Their mission is to hunt relatively small numbers of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who have dispersed to avoid detection. In some ways, it is more like what the United States Army tried to do in the middle of the Vietnam War than it is like the last seven months in Afghanistan. The operation also carries considerable risks: of suffering American casualties, of mistakenly attacking the wrong people, of being misled by faulty intelligence and of inflaming local hostility to foreigners on Afghan soil." [more]

"The two Congressional resolutions were non-binding, but they put the legislative branch of the American government on record as backing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military steps, even as President Bush was calling on Israel to end its 'occupation' of several Palestinian towns and calling on Yasir Arafat to show more leadership." [more]

"The Bush administration, in developing a potential approach for toppling President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is concentrating its attention on a major air campaign and ground invasion, with initial estimates contemplating the use of 70,000 to 250,000 troops." [more]

"Air Force officials here estimate they have already pumped more than $13 million in cash into Kyrgyzstan's economy. A single takeoff or landing can cost as much as $7,000 in fees paid to the government. The base has spent millions of dollars on everything from gravel and jet fuel to televisions, computers, cell phones and even guided tours." [more]

"President Bush, at his ranch in Texas, said he was not surprised that Congress wanted to take a strong stand in support of Israel. But he said, 'I also hope Congress recognizes we've got interests in the area as well beyond Israel ó that we have good relationships with the Saudis and Jordanians and the Egyptians, and our foreign policy is aimed to do that.' " [more]

"Mr. Bush affirmed his support for Israel today, but he said the Israelis 'understand my position,' adding, 'I've been very clear, and there has been some progress, but it's now time to quit it altogether.' " [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]

"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]

"Uncertain about how they will be able to prosecute many of the nearly 300 prisoners detained at a naval base in Cuba, Bush administration officials are considering a new legal doctrine that would allow prisoners to be brought before military tribunals without specific evidence that they engaged in war crimes." [more]

"General Rosa said he did not believe there had been any contact with Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters since the operation began on late Monday. It is being carried out in Paktia Province, near the Pakistani border, in the area of Gardez and Khost, he said." [more]

"One of the problems of conducting the sort of broad, global war on terror that Mr. Bush envisions is that terrorism is not so much a system of belief as a situational, shifting set of means to achieve some larger goal. It has been used over the last two centuries by radical groups of both the left and right, in developing countries and advanced democracies, if only recently on such a large, efficient scale." [more]

"As the Egyptian cabinet acted, a sixth day of demonstrations at Cairo University and on other campuses pitted students demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, Gideon Ben-Ami, against riot police armed with tear gas and water cannons. At Benha University, in the Nile Delta city of Tukh, 15,000 students marched and held prayers for Palestinian victims of violence. About 6,000 students at an Islamic college in Cairo, the Azhar University, joined in a chant that asked, "Where is the Arab army?" Members of a lawyers union rushed into downtown streets in Cairo, but was pushed back by a cordon of police." [more]

"Confronting the toughest diplomatic challenge of its 15 months in office, the Bush administration is struggling to forge an effective Middle East policy as escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence and the rush of events rapidly shift the ground beneath it." [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]

"Calling Yasir Arafat 'the enemy of the entire free world,' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared Israel on Sunday to be in a war. He spoke after a suicide bomber blew himself apart in a restaurant in the seaside city of Haifa, killing at least 14 other people, while Israel was tightening its ring of tanks and rifles around the Palestinian leader." [more]

"The raid in Faisalabad and a parallel raid in Lahore, Pakistan, appear to be the first time that American intelligence and law enforcement officials had teamed up with foreign operatives and conducted a raid in a foreign country as part of the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism." [more]

" 'Listen to me,' he said, pointing his finger and switching from Pashtu to English. 'There was a time, when Russia was in power, we liked Americans.' Indeed, when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, men from the tribal areas joined the guerrilla army that was backed by the United States. 'Now we hate Americans. Under our tribal rules, we designate an enemy. America is now the enemy.' " [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]

"Documents obtained by The New York Times tell a rich inside story of the network of radical Islamic groups that Osama bin Laden helped assemble in Afghanistan." [more]

"In January, a team from Physicians for Human Rights, which is based in Boston, found an epidemic of dysentery and jaundice, the latter indicative, the group said, of hepatitis A. The group said the conditions at Jowzjan were in "grave violation of international standards for the treatment of prisoners" and called on the United States to ensure that conditions improve." [more]

"As for the American operation, some participants lauded it for effectively encircling the foe, while others said the Taliban had more or less come and gone as they pleased, visiting villagers in nearby towns. As American officials continued to speak about a vast number of well- appointed caves that served as enemy fortresses, General Haider [one of the two main Afghan commanders] called this notion "propaganda" and said he knew of only five or six caverns, none very big." [more]

"President Bush declared today that the United States was willing to train and provide military aid to 'governments everywhere' in the fight against terrorism and for what he made clear would be battles beyond Afghanistan." [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]

"Unlike much of the arms-control discussions in recent years, this dispute is not over the number of weapons the United States needs; it is over the more fundamental issue of the circumstances in which they might be used." [more]

"Attacks on Asian-Americans, particularly Pakistani and Indian immigrants, increased greatly in the United States in the weeks after Sept. 11, a report by an advocacy group says." [more]

" 'Their first instinct is not to tell people things,' Mr. Elmendorf said. 'They're not the first White House to be like that, but they're certainly more excessively secretive than I remember the Clinton White House being, or even Bush I.' " [more]

"Afghan allies never arrived and [US] troops became the pointed end of the spear engaging adversaries in the first 18 hours of combat." [more]

"Outlining a broad overhaul of American nuclear policy, a secret Pentagon report calls for developing new nuclear weapons that would be better suited for striking targets. Critics responded by complaining that the Bush administration was not only pushing for the development of new types of nuclear weapons, but broadening the circumstances in which they might be used." [more]

"Even though a pre-emptive, limited nuclear strike might be contemplated in an unexpected emergency, it would probably be a last resort. Otherwise, anyone considering such a strike would be open to scorn as some sort of latter-day Dr. Strangelove embracing the bomb." [more]

"Wounded Americans lie side by side with Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters at this old Soviet airfield." [more]

"Since the gradual demise of the Soviet Union, certain scholars of combat had been arguing that the great lumbering military machine constructed for the cold war was stubbornly ill suited to the new threats of a disorderly world and slow to exploit the new technologies of the information age. As they watched American airliners explode into American landmarks, and then monitored the subsequent rout of the Taliban, the reformers could barely contain the urge to gloat: this is the sort of threat we were warning you about." [more]

"Mr. Aslam described the transaction: the boys' father had offered to give up his sons so long as they were kept well fed. 'But I know about human rights,' said the restaurant owner. 'I knew I was obligated to pay him something.'
The compensation settled upon was 400,000 Afghanis per month ó about $5 at the time of the deal. 'After two years, I stop paying and the boys are mine forever,' Mr. Aslam said happily, presenting the situation as something as benevolent as an adoption.
He asked the youngsters to sit at his side. He requested a smile. They complied." [more]

"As the fierce battle persisted for a sixth day, the Defense Ministry in Kabul announced the infusion of soldiers, in effect doubling Afghanistan's commitment to the campaign. Near dusk, a caravan of tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled down the main road south of the capital toward Paktia Province and the high-elevation combat." [more]

"The Pashtuns of northern Afghanistan are fleeing their villages by the thousands now, telling tales of murder and rape and robbery, and leaving behind empty towns and grazing grounds just beginning to shimmer with the first grass of spring." [more]

" 'We'll put what is needed to do the job' in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at a regular news briefing. The current American military strength there is 5,200 to 5,300 troops, said Gen. Tommy R. Franks, who runs the day-to-day operations in Afghanistan as head of the United States Central Command." [more]

" 'If the Palestinians are not being beaten, there will be no negotiations,' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters at Parliament. 'The aim is to increase the number of losses on the other side. Only after they've been battered will we be able to conduct talks.' " [more]

"It seems likely that the American victory will not come easily and that the bitter mountain battle will not mark the end of the war." [more]

"During the December battle at Tora Bora, the American military relied heavily on the combination of its Afghan allies and small teams of Special Operations forces to prevent its foe from escaping. The strategy avoided American casualties but hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters, possibly including Osama bin Laden, got away. "In contrast, the new American-led offensive south of Gardez is markedly different. In the two days of combat, Afghan forces are carrying out most of the fighting on the ground. But in addition to the Afghan and Special Operations forces, hundreds of regular Army troops have also been sent into the fray." [more]

"Frustrated by their inability to identify a vast majority of captured fighters of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, federal authorities are proposing to create a DNA databank of terrorism suspects by analyzing blood samples from thousands of detainees being held in Afghanistan and Cuba, government officials said." [more]

"In mounting a major military offensive near Gardez, the Pentagon's aim is to wipe out the last major pocket of Al Qaeda resistance in Afghanistan. One of the most important battles of the war, it seems, did not begin until most Americans concluded that the war was essentially over." [more]

Renewed fighting and bombing campaigns are focused on the mountains southeast of Zormat. A graphic by The New York Times. [more]

"America needs more than just a military legacy in the Islamic world. The United States should not end its involvement short of reconstruction; any partial solution would pose a serious threat to the Karzai government. If it or its successor falls, even the American military success story will be in doubt." [more]

"The Pentagon appeared increasingly likely today to eliminate a new office intended to influence public opinion and policy makers overseas, as both President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld distanced themselves from the operation. Proposals from the new agency, the Office of Strategic Influence, have caused an uproar in Congress and elsewhere in the government." [more]

"The leader of Afghanistan's interim government, Hamid Karzai, visited Tehran today and appealed to Iran and the United States to put aside their differences and help build his war-ravaged country." [more]

"A day after we learned that the military's Office of Strategic Influence wanted to plant fake stories in the overseas press, we read in Variety that the Pentagon is teaming with Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of 'Top Gun,' 'Black Hawk Down,' 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Coyote Ugly,' and Bertram van Munster, of 'Cops,' to make a TV docudrama about the war on terrorism." [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]

"The world got a chilling demonstration Thursday of why Afghanistan urgently needs an expanded international peacekeeping force. The country's aviation minister, Abdul Rahman, was beaten to death at the Kabul airport, allegedly by rivals within the government." [more]

"Afghanistan's volatile post-Taliban politics took a grim turn today when Hamid Karzai, chairman of the interim government, said the killing Thursday of one of his ministers was carried out by other senior government officials, including the intelligence chief." [more]

"Ý'Tell me why our homes were destroyed and 55 people ó even little children ó are dead?' asked an angry young man named Gul Nabi, standing in December among the 15 obliterated houses of a village named Madoo. 'There were no Arabs here," he said, referring to Al Qaeda fighters. 'There were only farmers who lived a good life and prayed to Allah for peace.'Ý" [more]

"We've been had. This new deployment of troops isn't really about fighting international terrorism, as the Bush administration insists (and perhaps believes, which may be worse). Anyone who comes here to the jungles of Basilan, home to the Abu Sayyaf movement that we're supposed to destroy, discovers pretty quickly that Abu Sayyaf isn't a militant Islamic terror group. It's simply a gang of about 60 brutal thugs." [more]

"The Palestinians have a vision of peace: it is a peace based on the complete end of the occupation and a return to Israel's 1967 borders, the sharing of all Jerusalem as one open city and as the capital of two states, Palestine and Israel. It is a warm peace between two equals enjoying mutually beneficial economic and social cooperation. Despite the brutal repression of Palestinians over the last four decades, I believe when Israel sees Palestinians as equals, and not as a subjugated people upon whom it can impose its will, such a vision can come true. Indeed it must." [more]

"Our culture is such that we choose people who are responsible to the nation, not to a certain group or a certain financial contributor. If you look at the systems of other countries and you see a lot of people who are beholden to whoever put them in office, whether that's a company or a group." [more]

"Breaking with other cabinet officials, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has asked President Bush to declare that the United States is bound by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of the captives in Afghanistan and at Guant·namo Bay, Cuba, administration officials said today. Seeking a review of a presidential decision made nine days ago, when the administration determined that the captured fighters were not prisoners of war and hence not fully protected by the Geneva Conventions, Mr. Powell and his lawyers at the State Department urged Mr. Bush to affirm that the international law of war does govern the United States' treatment of all captives of the Taliban military and the terrorist network Al Qaeda." [more]

"In northwestern Afghanistan, tens of thousands of people are on the move, in search of food and greater security. Many had already endured three years of drought and the upheavals of years of war. But when the United States began bombing their country, they abandoned their villages and headed for refugee camps near the city of Herat, swelling the camps to perhaps 200,000 today. Yet the poorest and hungriest still cling to their homes, unable to afford the trip to the camps." [more]

"A political firestorm has erupted in the Philippines over the impending arrival of some 650 American soldiers dispatched to help battle an Islamic insurgency. A few senators here are even demanding the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, only a year into her term, and her vice president has said he feels uneasy about the policy." [more]

"The leaders' reluctance has left American forces with few Afghan allies in one of the most dangerous regions of the country, a former Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold that may still harbor hostile fighters and contain underground command bunkers and hideouts for staging guerrilla attacks, officials said.
'There are areas of the country where we have not been able to garner much assistance, and this is one of them,' a senior military official said." [more]

"In the first major expansion of the war on terrorism, American and Philippine military officers in Manila began preparing joint operations today against a Muslim extremist group linked to Al Qaeda in the southern Philippines. An American advance team is on the ground, and officials today created a joint command for the mission. The bulk of the 650-member American force, including 160 Special Operations troops trained in counterterrorism, is expected to be sent this month to train and advise 1,200 Philippine Army soldiers in how to destroy Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group that is holding hostages, including two Americans." [more]

"Invoking security concerns, President Bush has issued an executive order barring union representation at United States attorneys' offices and at four other agencies in the Justice Department. Although federal law bans strikes by federal employees, White House officials said Mr. Bush had issued his order out of concern that union contracts could restrict the ability of workers in the Justice Department to protect Americans and national security." [more]

"Standing with his soldiers on the second floor of Mirvais Hospital here, Nazer Jan said at least some of the six men believed to be Al Qaeda fighters trapped on the other side of a sealed doorway at the end of the corridor were still alive, despite attempts to starve them out." [more]

"Seven high-ranking officials of the vanquished Taliban government, including the justice minister who played a leading role in the Taliban's repressive laws and the destruction of the Buddha statues at Bamian, surrendered to a provincial leader and were allowed to go free on Monday, a spokesman for Afghanistan's new government said today." [more]

"America's goals in Central Asia were easily explained as Kabul and Kandahar fell, when daily Pentagon videos showed bombs homing in on caves in Tora Bora and when there was a reasonable prospect that Osama bin Laden, Mullah Muhammad Omar and their top aides would soon fall into American hands. But that was last month . . . While the president insists that his goals are unchanged — a broad war against all terrorists with a global reach — events have forced a more diffuse, complex strategy." [more]

"Pentagon officials sought today to deflate any lingering optimism that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar might be captured soon and said they would stop speculating about their whereabouts." [more]

"Now the Taliban are gone, and the city and the surrounding Nangarhar Province is run once again by warlords and guerrillas, whose enterprising rackets have almost instantly turned the place into Afghanistan's version of Shakedown Street, the land where almost everything is corrupt." [more]

"After nearly a week of scouring the area near Baghran where Mullah Omar was believed to be hiding, a team of American Special Forces and anti-Taliban Afghan troops left the region today, said officials in charge of Helmand Province, where Baghran is located.
" 'He's escaped,' said Pier Muhammad, the deputy governor of Helmand in an interview here in the provincial capital. 'No one knows where he is. People are saying he is in Baghran. But he is not in Baghran.' " [more]

"Today it may appear, from titles alone, that Hamid Karzai is the leader of Afghanistan. Actually, he is a figurehead, chosen at the behest of United States officials. Afghan delegates at the conference in Bonn that selected the government have told reporters they voted for Karzai only because American officials instructed them to. Karzai's largest following is in Washington, not Afghanistan." [more]

"Relief officials said that several days ago six trucks loaded with rice arrived from Pakistan, enough food to feed everyone now requesting assistance. But the Eastern Shura seized four of the trucks to feed its armies or the relatives of soldiers who died in the war. The seizures left little rice for the refugees." [more]

"With the British Prime Minister expected to visit the region in the next few days, Mr. Fernandes said India would wait to see whether various diplomatic efforts had succeeded in getting Pakistan to take effective action against the groups.
" 'If they should fail, then we are left with only the option that the United States exercised to deal with terrorism,' he said in an interview. Asked if he meant the military option, he said, 'That's right.' " [more]

"New York and Afghanistan, paired worlds of rubble, work and grief. To travel from one to the other ó 12 days at ground zero; three months in Central Asia and Afghanistan ó was to wander a succession of stages populated by distinct and overburdened tribes.
From afar, the escalating events, filtered through radio, television and newspapers, achieved a sort of context, with analysis and interpretation from many points of view. Up close, context usually fell away. The devastation in New York and Afghanistan, and the war that joined them, became a blur of people and impressions. No single scene can capture it, at least not according to the notebooks, or the memories tumbling out." [more]

"The Pentagon has ordered soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division to relieve the Marine Corps in southern Afghanistan, paving the way for a long- term American military presence in the country, military officials said today." [more]

"Officials with Pakistan's military intelligence agency gave figures today intended to show that India had moved 23 more army divisions with at least 150,000 additional combat troops into what Pakistan described as strike positions along the border in recent days, bringing Pakistan's estimate of India's border force to about one million. Pakistan also said that India had deployed 600 combat aircraft." [more]

"As warlords have carved out chunks of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, the lawlessness that gave rise to the strict Islamic movement in the mid-1990's has begun to spread, once again, across this country. The United States–led military campaign that began on Oct. 7 has succeeded in eradicating most of the Taliban and Al Qaeda from Afghanistan, but it has returned to power nearly all of the same warlords who had misruled the country in the days before the Taliban." [more]

"In a case that could affect thousands of immigrants detained while they fight deportation, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled yesterday that the government's mandatory detention policy was unconstitutional and that each detainee was entitled to an individualized bond hearing." [more]

"With the collapse of Al Qaeda forces in Tora Bora and the installation of a new, if shaky, government in Afghanistan, the Bush administration is putting out two messages: It's not over till it's over, and even when this first phase of the war does end, Mr. Bush plans to move quickly to other terrorist havens." [more]

"Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has lauded the region as a stable oil supplier, in a tacit comparison with the Persian Gulf states that have been viewed lately as less cooperative. The State Department is exploring the potential for post-Taliban energy projects in the region, which has more than 6 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 40 percent of its gas reserves." [more]

"As the investigation into the anthrax attacks widens to include federal laboratories and contractors, government officials have acknowledged that Army scientists in recent years have made anthrax in a powdered form that could be used as a weapon. Experts said this appeared to be the first disclosure of government production of anthrax in its most lethal form since the United States renounced biological weapons in 1969 and began destroying its germ arsenal." [more]

"Dozens of Taliban prisoners died after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces, asphyxiated in the shipping containers used to transport them to prison, witnesses say.
Faced with transporting thousands of potentially dangerous prisoners even while a prisoner uprising in the Qala Jangi fort near Mazar-i-Sharif was under way, the Northern Alliance packed many of the detained into the sealed shipping containers for the journey from Kunduz." [more]

"The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court for a broad ruling to authorize the use of secret evidence in cases in which it is trying to detain or deport immigrants it contends are in the country illegally. For national security reasons, the government argues that it should share secret evidence with only immigration judges and not with the immigrants and their lawyers." [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]

"In forceful and unyielding testimony, Attorney General John Ashcroft today defended the administration's array of antiterrorism proposals and accused some of the program's critics of aiding terrorists by providing 'ammunition to America's enemies.' " [more]

"In a revealing reversal of fortunes, food deliveries have actually dropped since the Northern Alliance took Mazar-i-Sharif, the crossroads city that could become the hub for supplies across the northern half of Afghanistan. In the past two weeks, the tonnage delivered dropped to a pace less than half of what it had been in the previous two weeks." [more]

"Faced with growing criticism over his refusal to identify people jailed since the Sept. 11 attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft today provided for the first time the names of 93 people charged with crimes arising from the government's investigation." [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]

"Over all, more than 1,200 people have been detained as part of the sweeping investigation, including men traveling the country with large amounts of cash and box cutters, and those who sought information on crop-dusters and flying lessons on large jets. But a senior law enforcement official said for the first time last week that just 10 to 15 of the detainees are suspected as Al Qaeda sympathizers, and that the government has yet to find evidence indicating that any of them had knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks or acted as accomplices. [more]

"Islam in sub-Saharan Africa, an often overlooked member of the world's Muslim community, is growing in size and influence. Statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by, and are too sensitive a topic for governments with mixed populations. But most experts agree that Islam is spreading faster than any other faith in East and West Africa." [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]

"This is an administration that will let its special interests ¡ª particularly its high-rolling campaign contributors and its noisiest theocrats of the right ¡ª have veto power over public safety, public health and economic prudence in war, it turns out, no less than in peacetime." [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]