Sydney Morning Herald

"What I believe is ... likely to be done to Falluja will be a war crime and crime against humanity, morally indefensible by any civilized standard or for that matter, by the Statute of the International Criminal Court (to which, conveniently, neither the US nor Iraqi Government adheres)." [more]

"The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when the Interior Minister said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. Allawi said that they deserved worse than death - but then he pulled the pistol from his belt and started shooting them." [more]

"Allawi will fight a different war to Washington's. The US refused to listen last year, when he counselled against disbanding Saddam's army, a move that sent 500,000 angry gunmen into the community and denied the country an army to fight them. ... Ominously, he is restructuring security and intelligence in the image of what Saddam had." [more]

A look at the Iraqis who hated Saddam, but who hate the Americans more. [more]

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

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

"So, Yasser Arafat is the man responsible for the killing of Israeli civilians. Kill him, and the killing of Israeli civilians will stop. If only it were that simple. Terrorism must be met by forceful preventive measures, but it cannot be ended by responding with force alone, or wild threats." [more]

"Despite Washington's public obsession with Saudi terrorists, this bombing proves yet again that South East Asia is a major front in the war against terrorism." [more]

Pentagon officials have provided options for war on Iraq bypassing Turkey, and speculation is growing that strikes could be launched as early as the middle of next week. [more]

"Thousands of Australian high school students will take to the streets in an anti-war protest today, in what could be one of the largest student demonstrations since the Vietnam War." [more]

"As marcher Jackie Woods had said earlier: 'Who knows if it will achieve anything?' She had to march, though, like the 250,000 others. 'I feel like it's out of control and this is the only way I can express how I feel.' " [more]

"Iran is also a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and has rejected claims that it is trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction. It says that nuclear plants are needed to help increase its electricity generation. 'We are ready to accept inspectors to check our [nuclear] activities in order to reveal the lies told by others,' Mr Khatami said on Sunday." [more]

"Israel has seriously disrupted United States planning for war with Iraq by incensing Arabs with its new humiliation of Yasser Arafat and defiantly vowing to respond militarily to any Baghdad attack on its soil." [more]

"Almost six in 10 - 57 per cent - said they were in support of a US invasion of Iraq with ground troops, while 36 per cent of respondents opposed such an action. When asked whether they would favour a ground war if it were to produce "significant" US casualties, support plummeted to 40 per cent and opposition rose to 51 per cent." [more]

"From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal. They included executive orders providing for suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the president and FEMA." [more]

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

"A young Sydney man falsely linked to al-Qaeda was just a 'normal Aussie kid' caught in the US with a fake ID, his lawyer said today. Adam John Hart, 20, was arrested at a military tourist site in Texas on July 11 and has remained in a Houston jail since, despite being granted bail." [more]

"The United States Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is pushing a series of sweeping proposals that will weaken congressional supervision of the Pentagon and give the military more freedom to manage itself." [more]

"Highlighting the scope of the surveillance network, TIPS volunteers are being recruited primarily from among those whose work provides access to homes, businesses or transport systems. Letter carriers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those named as targeted recruits. A pilot program is scheduled to start next month in 10 cities, with 1 million informants participating in the first stage." [more]

"The European Union's special envoy to Afghanistan has called for urgent action by Afghan authorities to end the plight of more than 2000 starving Taliban supporters being held prisoner in conditions he compared to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz." [more]

"However, fears were growing that the attempt to mediate in the bloody conflict was serving only to undermine Mr Bush's authority in the region. Mr Powell, seen as a moderating influence in the Administration, has often served as a lightning rod for conservative dissatisfaction." [more]

"The US-led forces will have increasing difficulty in convincing that Afghan people they have been liberated if civilian deaths mount. Yet US commanders concede stepped-up enemy strikes are expected as the snows thaw." [more]

"Alarm bells rang when Edmund Capon was offered some exquisite ancient Buddhist sculptures earlier this week. The director of the Art Gallery of [New South Wales] feared the sculptures might have been looted from Afghanistan, possibly from the Kabul museum." [more]

"The United States has strong indications Somalia is linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, but the next stage of America's anti-terrorism assault may not involve military action, America's top general said Friday. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, refused to say whether Somalia was a U.S. target as the United States considers expanding its war beyond Afghanistan. But he told The Associated Press the next phase could be diplomatic or involve heavy intelligence gathering." [more]

"In an apparent change of tactics, Pentagon officials said teams of soldiers and CIA officers in the area had been ordered to try to capture bin Laden and his lieutenants, rather than kill them. The Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, confirmed that the US wanted to detain and interrogate the al-Qaeda leadership to strengthen its hand in breaking up the movement's global terrorist network." [more]

"Several officials said bin Laden's claims that most of the hijackers did not know one another or even know the game plan until the final hours indicates al-Qaeda enforces strict need-to-know operational security. That makes early detection extremely difficult." [more]

"The 11-day siege of Kunduz last night appeared to be moving towards a violent and chaotic end, with fears growing of a humanitarian disaster for the city's trapped 300,000 civilians." [more]

The author has "a sense of utter hopelessness for a nation that seems to be a perennial victim of horror" after witnessing human rights abuses by both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance [more]