San Francisco Chronicle

"In the Senate hearings, lawmakers grilled Gonzales on whether it is legally permissible for U.S. personnel to engage in 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' of noncitizens detained outside of the United States. Gonzales replied that 'aliens interrogated by the United States outside the United States enjoy no substantive rights' under the U.S. Constitution or the Convention Against Torture, a treaty ratified by the Senate in 1994 that bans all interrogation methods that cause severe pain or discomfort." [more]

"Killings appear to single out anyone from senior [Ba'ath] party officials to night guards and they have sown fear among party members, forcing some to go into hiding. Iraqi police, overwhelmed by the violence that has engulfed the country in the past few months, do not have the ability to sort out the various possible motives for the killings." [more]

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

"Leaks this week indicated Congress can expect a special spending request of $60 billion to $95 billion to pay for the first six months to a year of war and its aftermath." [more]

"This war was never about your safety, or the safety of this nation, or protecting freedom. It is about strategic power bases, oil reserves and control. It is about regional supremacy first, petroleum and military supply industries second, humanitarian and domestic-security concerns, well, about 147th." [more]

"The anti-war movement is escalating into a new phase, where those opposing a U.S. attack on Iraq are being asked to cross the line they haven't yet crossed." [more]

"And indeed, many protesters came Sunday because they were actively recruited for the first time. While the total was modest compared with Sunday's overall turnout, the large number of newcomers pleased organizers, who face several challenges in organizing communities that have not turned out in large numbers for anti-war protests since the Vietnam War." [more]

"Ringing cowbells, banging temple drums, chanting, singing, dancing and waving colorful signs, puppets and placards, the marchers moved slowly up Market in a huge anti-war demonstration. While most simply walked the route, many pushed baby carriages, underscoring the argument that war would threaten the future of children most of all." [more]

"What differed from the protests of three and four decades earlier was the palpable fear that this time global annihilation is possible." [more]

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

Variations on the crowd estimates from Satuday's peace rally, "from 55,000 to 200,000, are enough to give a statistician whiplash. But even though a police spokesman Monday amended those numbers up to as many as 150,000 marchers, experts say such wild ranges are to be expected." [more]

"Never before in human history has an anti-war movement grown so fast and spread so quickly. It is even more remarkable because the war has yet to begin." [more]

"Guttentag said one of the most glaring problems was that the agency did not conduct enough outreach to explain to immigrants the intricacies of the policy." [more]

"The threat of a U.S. attack on Iraq brings unfamiliar faces into the activist crowd." [more]

"Activists of every stripe are flocking to cyberspace because of the speed and affordability of Internet communication. Ordinary citizens are swarming there, too, in search of information, dialogue and involvement. The Internet is fast becoming an integral part of grassroots politicking, not only because it's the most efficient organizing tool ever invented but also because it is 'a transforming medium capable of changing how people become engaged with politics.' " [more]

"A number of Saturday's marchers also bore placards in memory of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, the liberal Democrat who died Friday in a plane crash in Minnesota. Wellstone had voted against allowing the Bush administration to use military force in Iraq." [more]

"With a resounding congressional endorsement behind him, President Bush confronts Iraq bolstered by the near-universal consensus that Saddam Hussein poses a security menace to his neighbors and the United States." [more]

"Anti-war fever awoke over the weekend, as about 8,000 protesters in San Francisco joined brethren across the country in a rising rumble against President Bush's drive to disarm Iraq. Galvanized by Bush's push for military intervention, anti-war sentiment re-emerged Sunday into blazing sunshine and cacophony at Union Square." [more]

"A librarian who is served with a warrant must surrender records of the patron's book borrowing or Internet use and is prohibited from revealing the search to anyone — including the patron. The Justice Department has refused to tell Congress how the law is being used, saying the information is classified." [more]

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein took to the Senate floor Thursday to argue that a pre-emptive attack to oust Saddam Hussein would be positively un-American unless President Bush produces evidence linking Hussein to terrorist attacks against the United States." [more]

"The Bush administration has been surprisingly up front about its intentions of propagating falsehoods. In February, for example, the Pentagon announced a plan to create an Office of Strategic Influence to provide false news and information abroad to help manipulate public opinion and further its military objectives. Following a public outcry, the Pentagon said it would close the office — news that would have sounded more convincing had it not come from a place that just announced it was planning to spread misinformation." [more]

"The past 21 months of violence with the Palestinians have prompted American Christian evangelicals to find more reason than ever to support the Jewish state. A growing number have visited the region ó appearing on radio and talk shows, increasing their financial donations to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and even financing advertisements on Israeli television stressing their 'unwavering friendship' with Israel." [more]

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

"As fiscally strapped governments cut funding for public services, privately funded Islamist schools, clinics, hospitals and welfare agencies filled the breach, lending credence to the Islamists' claim that 'Islam is the solution!' " [more]