NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN

In case you missed it?: Will Iran Be Next?: Those who have hoped that a U.S. military victory in Iraq would somehow bring about a more peaceful world are in for a rude awakening.

Mea culpa, that's what we want : Where are the tumbrels for those who actually voted for war, dispatching other people's sons and daughters to kill and be killed on a hoax? No minister on either side of the Atlantic has lost their job over the war or the subsequent shameful conduct of the occupation.

Rep. Ron Paul: Freedom vs. Security: A False Choice: The obvious lesson of September 11th is that government cannot protect us. Self-reliance and self-defense are American virtues; trembling reliance on the illusion of government-provided security is not.

Ray McGovern : Code Red : What’s going on?: “Intelligence” is being conjured up once again to serve the political purposes of the Bush administration. Merely recall the litany of spurious claims against Iraq, all said to have been based on the “solid sources”

New Padilla Info Not Part of Court Case : Some outside lawyers were skeptical of the government's motive in releasing the information on Padilla two years after his arrest as a suspected "dirty bomber."

Jose Padilla, American Terrorist?: Declassified document details al-Qaeda soldier's U.S. bomb plots

Israel wants Iraq to pay compensation: Israel looks set to pursue a compensation claim on behalf of Jews who left Iraq over 50 years ago, despite no such similar consideration for Palestinian refugees.

Israel: Nine more Border Policemen arrested for alleged abuse : "The policemen, were arrested after the Justice Ministry's internal police investigation division were informed that the troops had made a practice of abusing, attacking, and beating Palestinians during operations to apprehend Palestinians who are in Israel without required permits,"

Like sheep to the slaughter: "If they had taken a pistol and shot us in the head, a bullet for each of us, it would have been less terrible than what they did to us. They took the bread from our mouths," says Othman Jabarin, a resident of the Jimba cave village in the South Hebron Hills.

A gift of dust and bones : Sharon's plan for a pullout owes more to demographic shifts than a belated conversion to peace-making

Mosaic: World News Reports From Middle East TV For 06/01/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. QuickTime Video.

Rick MacArthur and Scott Ritter On The Lies of Our Times: During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, the New York Times served as a conveyor belt for the propaganda of the administration, cranking out stories rife with unsubstantiated claims and outright lies.

Details Emerge on Stint by Chalabi Niece at 'NY Times' : According to the article by Jane Mayer, "two months before the invasion began, the chief correspondent for the Times, Patrick E. Tyler, who was in charge of overseeing the paper's war coverage, hired Chalabi's niece

Will the NY Times Pay For Its Crimes?: A few felons are still roaming the corridors of power at the Pentagon and the New York Times. Even the shrinking number of Americans who still believe that this Iraqi venture is a "good war" should be up in arms and demand an investigation.

Rober Fisk Interview: Transcript:. The interesting thing, when Sept 11th happened, and it was an international crime against humanity, and nobody said why!

In case you missed it?: August 6, 2002: Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies : A briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States, and recommended that U.S. officials give it an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and its financial assets invested in the United States.

Think-tank warns of anti-Islam 'time bomb': Growing Islamophobia in Britain in the wake of the September 11 attacks could lead to a dangerous backlash of riots and extremism, it was reported today.

Total Information Awareness II?: It is time for Gov. Jeb Bush and the federal government to provide solid privacy assurances to the public before continuing to use a computer database that was sold as a tool for criminal investigations but could be used as a back-door effort at data-mining for terrorist suspects.

Must do better: His poll ratings have slumped and each day brings more bad news from Iraq, but George Bush has one big advantage in the coming campaign: a ponderous, uncharismatic challenger with no clear message

Bush Thanks Veterans, Then Cuts Their Health Care: The Bush Administration announced new plans to slash veterans health care funding if it returns to power in 2005.

Enron Traders Caught On Tape: When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders celebrated

Saudi Gunmen Tricked Way to Freedom Deal -Adviser: Saudi Arabia struck a deal to free three hostage-takers in a suspected al Qaeda attack at the weekend because it feared accomplices could blow up an entire housing compound, a Saudi security adviser said Tuesday.

Costs for Iraq war eat into U.S. deficits: Even by Washington standards, the $119.4 billion that President Bush and Congress have provided for the first two years of the war in Iraq is real money.

Other things Iraq war funding can pay for: It would take 3,785 years to spend $119.4 billion at the rate of $1 per second every day.

Where Does Iraq Stand Among U.S. Wars?: In total casualties -- that is, combined dead and wounded -- the U.S. military now has suffered more in Iraq than in the Spanish-American War. The wounded tally in Iraq -- but not the death total -- has surpassed the figures for the War of 1812 and the Mexican War.

The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century: It explains why we're going to war, and why we'll keep going to war.

In case you missed it?: November 10, 2002 : A New Age of Empire in the Middle East, Courtesy of the US and UK : British Member of Parliament George Galloway says that a plan for the division of the Middle East is circulating in the corridors of power on both sides of the Atlantic. In a recent interview, Galloway asserted that ministers and eminent figures in the British government are deliberating the partition of the Middle East

Coming Soon : The Return of the Draft, a Bipartisan Production: : Barring a sudden reversal in the direction of US foreign policy, a strong bipartisan push to reinstate the draft can be expected soon after the November elections.

Pentagon can't seem to kill idea of military draft: Defense officials say they don't want it. And polls show the American public doesn't either. So why do lawmakers keep suggesting that conscription be reconsidered?

Czech troops to leave Iraq early next year: defense minister : The Defense Ministry will submit the withdrawal proposal as soon as possible to the parliament

5,000 Marines Set for Rapid Deployment: The deployment occurs in the fierce heat of summer and under an extraordinarily tight schedule, with troops expected to land in the war theater a few weeks after receiving orders.

Border security contract worth up to $10 billion awarded to Bermuda company : Accenture LLP, a technology and management consulting company, was awarded a government contract Tuesday worth up to $10 billion to develop and expand biometric technology for checking identities of foreigners visiting America.

Oil futures hit all-time high: The price for the July contract for New York's main futures prices was still up 1.92 dollars a barrel from Friday.

MI5 Raises Terror Warning To "Severe" : AL-QAEDA suicide truck bombers are planning to strike at a British military base in the next two months, according to secret intelligence reports.

Hicks, Habib to be tried in US: "Our view (the government) is that Mr Hicks and Mr Habib should be made to stand accountable for their actions before a proper authority and in this case the US military commission's established for this purpose," Mr Ruddock told parliament.

Holding Egyptian as security risk four years called cruel : Mohammad Mahjoub was arrested in June 2000 and has been held at the Toronto West Detention Centre, a jail that normally houses short-term inmates and has been dubbed Canada's Guantanamo Bay after the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

06/01/04:  Scores killed in Somali clashes: At least 31 people have been killed and about 40 others wounded amid clashes in the southern Somali town of Bulohawo, near the Kenyan border.

At Least 25 Dead in Blast at Iraqi Kurdish Party HQ: At least 25 people were killed and many wounded by an explosion which tore through the headquarters of a Kurdish party in Baghdad on Tuesday, police at the scene said.

Afghan Official Says U.S. Forces Kill Six Taliban: U.S.-led troops killed six members of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime in a raid on Tuesday in the southern province of Zabul, a provincial military official said.

Afghan Police Official Killed in Bomb Blast: Afghan authorities say a senior police official in the eastern city of Jalalabad was killed when a bomb attached to his office chair exploded.

U.S. Marine Killed in Western Iraq: A U.S. Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force has been killed in action in western Iraq, the military said Tuesday.

Profile of Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, who was appointed as Iraq's interim president. He was reported as saying that Paul Bremer, the head of the US-led occupation authority, had offered him "several posts," including ambassador to Washington, if he would pass up the presidency.

Iraq's new prime minister says troops will stay : Iraq's new prime minister is making it clear he wants troops from the U-S and other coalition countries to stay.

3rd of detainees who died were assaulted: More than a third of the prisoners who died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were shot, strangled or beaten by U.S. personnel before they died, according to death certificates and a high-ranking U.S. military official.

Let's face up to it - we are torturers too: Blair must answer fully to all the evidence of abuse by British troops

Australia: I was misled on abuse: Howard: Prime Minister John Howard says he did not mislead the public about when Australian officials became aware of allegations about the serious abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The Defence Department has revealed that its officials first learnt of the allegations last October.

Australia: The white gloves of ignorance: Once again, bureaucrats have taken the rap to protect the PM. John Howard has put on the white gloves of ignorance and blamed everyone else for not telling him about what he should have known of the Iraqi prisoner abuse.

On-the-ground-reality TV: Shocking footage of US military conduct in Iraq is available through major news services, yet the American public seldom sees what reporters see

Hawks Eating Crow : The Bush Administration has not made it easy on its supporters. David Brooks now admits that he was gripped with a "childish fantasy" about Iraq. Tucker Carlson is "ashamed" and "enraged" at himself. Tom Friedman, admitting to being "a little slow," is finally off the reservation.

E-mail 'links Cheney to Halliburton deal': The links between Dick Cheney and the Halliburton oil services company were under new scrutiny yesterday with the revelation of a Pentagon memo suggesting that the award to Halliburton of Iraq contracts was "co-ordinated" with the Vice-President's office.

In Iraq, tribal justice fills the post-war power vacuum: After his son was kidnapped by gang, father kidnaps ringleader in attempt to extort the extortionists

US hawks are forced to fly back into the House of Saud: The Bush administration and the House of Saud are being thrown back into each other's arms by the crisis in Iraq and the attacks on westerners in Saudi Arabia.

OPEC Has Already Turned to the Euro: As the dollar's rate of exchange continues to fall against the world's major currencies, there has been much speculation about the likely knock-on effect. One area receiving a lot of attention is crude oil in general, and OPEC in particular.

The spooks owe us all an apology: The Chalabi affair exposes a massive failure of intelligence. Last year he was America's most favoured Iraqi president-in-waiting. This year he's toast - and in a jam. "It's pretty clear that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," according to a ubiquitous "intelligence source" in Washington.

American contractors' role in Chalabi raid revealed: But eight armed American contractors paid by a US State Department program went on the raid, directing and encouraging the Iraqi policemen who, witnesses say, ripped out computers, turned over furniture and smashed photographs.

An empire of denial: The US is choosing to ignore the fact that it is to blame for the stifling of global democracy

The lying game: An A-Z of the Iraq war and its aftermath, focusing on misrepresentation, manipulation, and mistakes

Courting Disaster: Bush’s Real Strategy in Iraq: President Bush’s strategy in Iraq is now clear. And I don’t mean the five-point rehash of existing platitudes found in his recent “major” speech at the Army War College. I’m talking about the real, behind-the-scenes plan.

Electorate Is Wising Up to the Iraq Blunder: Despite Bush's claim again last week that occupied Iraq is "the central front in the war on terror," the grim consequences of this colonial-style adventure have finally gotten through to an electorate that understandably invested a huge amount of trust in him after 9/11.

The Choice This Year Is Between Empire and Democracy: I can say categorically that Hitler had (or at least his people believed he had) a Vision. It was a vision of a world at peace (for 1000 years, no less), a world purified of disruptive or "undesirable" people, a world united in what Hitler called "A New Christianity,"

Rumsfeld-military ties worsen : Retired officers and defence analysts say the problems have worsened during a war in which critics accuse Mr Rumsfeld's team of neglecting to provide enough troops to stabilise Iraq after ousting Saddam Hussein.

Robert Novak: U.S. is lost in Afghanistan: The handful of valiant American warriors fighting the ''other'' war in Afghanistan is not a happy band of brothers. They are undermanned and feel neglected, lack confidence in their generals and are disgusted by Afghan political leadership.

Bushido: The Way Of The Armchair Warrior: Knowledge is not important. The armchair warrior strives to attain a state beyond knowledge, a state of deep, non-knowing connection to the universe: in particular, to that portion of the universe which is rich, powerful, or related to him by blood.

Get Bush twins to enlist: President's daughters could flourish with service and show that war is everyone's responsibility

Betrayal in the Ranks: Thousands of women have been sexually assaulted in the United States military. Thousands more have been abused by their military husbands or boyfriends. And then they are victimized again. This time, the women are betrayed by the military itself.

The Fruits of Saint George : The Christian Right needs to take a long, hard look at George W. Bush and decide "What Would Jesus Do?"

Evangelicals Give U.S. Foreign Policy An Activist Tinge: Michael Horowitz was named one of the 10 most influential Christians of the year in 1997 by a Southern Baptist magazine. The only catch: He's Jewish.

In case you missed it: Ethicists Debate Morality and Foreign Policy: Most Americans reject the notion that Bush is leading the United States on a religious crusade, but many Muslims and even some Europeans see the president as "a God-driven cowboy,"

U.S.: Suspect Sought to Blow Up Buildings: The documents said al-Qaida officials were sceptical of Islam convert Padilla’s ability to set off a dirty bomb but were very interested in the apartment operation.

Paul Krugman: Dooh Nibor Economics: The Washington Post got hold of an Office of Management and Budget memo that directed federal agencies to prepare for post-election cuts in programs that George Bush has been touting on the campaign trail. These include nutrition for women, infants and children; Head Start; and homeland security.

IOF Wounds a Woman and Girl in Balata, Demolishes Houses in Qarara: Israeli occupying forces (IOF) shot and wounded late on yesterday night a Palestinian woman and a little girl in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, near Nablus City, as other IOF troops razed arable lands in the Gaza Strip town of Al-Qarara.

Turkey ’s Premier: Israel’s Assassination Policy ‘State-Sponsored Terrorism’ : Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strongly criticized yesterday the Israeli assassination policy, being adopted against Palestinian resistance members, considering such a policy a ‘state-sponsored terrorism’.

The painful lesson Israel learned about torture : "The methods of interrogation which are employed in any given regime are a faithful mirror of the character of the entire regime."

Israel has no evidence Colombian militia leader is in country : The militia leader disappeared from Colombia on February 16 after the country's militias agreed to a government demand to disband. Castano, 39, was first moved to Panama under American guard and then sent to Israel, according to the French news agency's report.

Israeli Arab rights center calls to forbid talk of transfer : Thousands of Israeli Arab citizens are suffering from increasing racism, xenophobia, incitement and violence, according to the annual Racism in Israel 2004 report released Tuesday

Creating a 'secure Israel': Several mechanisms have been advanced to link Israeli security and the invasion of Iraq. Some say that neo-conservatives do indeed want to "install" democracy in Iraq. - Leo Strauss, the father of US neo-conservatism, tells us, however, that democratic masses are susceptible to political charlatans and innately anti-Semitic

It's business as usual: On its face, President George W Bush's recent endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's land grab in the occupied territories makes little sense. It has stirred rage in the Arab world, where, according to US ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, "there exists a hatred of Americans never equaled in the region".

Kerry's support for Israel repels Arab voters: A raft of statements by Kerry lauding President George W. Bush's unequivocal support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has alienated some in a community that, though relatively small, is strategically situated in certain states expected to be closely contested in the November election.

High Court: Release report on Netanyahu fraud scandal : The High Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz must release former State Prosecutor Edna Arbel's position paper recommending that Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted for fraud and breach of trust over violations allegedly committed in the early 1990s.

For the good of U.S., as well as Iraq, President Bush should bow out: When Lyndon Johnson could have sought re-election, he decided that new leadership was needed to deal with the mess in Vietnam, so he announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election. I suggest that George W. Bush make the same decision.

Soros Admits Donating $16 Million to Defeat Bush : It amounts to the largest in-kind donation to a political candidate in American history.

The Big Money Election : For anyone who wants to reduce the role of big money in politics, the 2004 election is an object lesson in how not to solve the problem.

Clinton to rescue Kerry's campaign: The Kerry camp has decided that Mr Clinton's personal charisma is needed to bolster the appeal of Senator Kerry, who has been accused of running a lacklustre campaign and failing to take advantage of President Bush's problems in Iraq.

Six Firms Control, Exceed U.S. Oil Leases : A single New Mexico family and a dozen big oil companies, including one once headed by Commerce Secretary Don Evans, now control one-quarter of all federal lands leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States despite a law intended to prevent such concentration, federal records show.

Concerns rise over chemicals as targets: Homeland Security watchdogs call them "prepositioned weapons of mass destruction" for terrorists: huge tanks of concentrated deadly gases that the chemical industry stores near densely populated areas and that railroads bring through cities en route to somewhere else.

5,000 Hmong refugees expected: A wave of immigration unparalleled in recent history will begin late this month when the first of thousands of Hmong refugees make their way from a Buddhist

05/31/04: Bomb Kills at Least 15 in Karachi Shi'ite Mosque: A bomb killed at least 15 people at evening prayers in a Shi'ite mosque on Monday in Pakistan's southern city Karachi, where a senior cleric from the majority Sunni sect was shot dead a day earlier.

Four Afghans killed in raid by Taliban guerrillas: Taliban guerrillas riding in a fleet of vehicles shot up a government office in southern Afghanistan, killing four Afghan soldiers, an official said yesterday. One gunman also was killed.

Police officer killed in Kabul : A police officer was killed as unidentified gunmen attacked his car in the capital citylast night, a spokesman of Interior Ministry said Monday

3 Killed As Gunmen Target More Foreign Civilian Convoys: Gunmen targeting caravans of four-wheel-drive vehicles killed at least three people Sunday, and cheering bystanders doused two of the bullet-riddled SUVs with gasoline and set them ablaze, according to Iraqi police and witnesses.

Three U.S. Soldiers Die in Attacks Near Kufa, Baghdad : Three U.S. soldiers were killed in attacks near the Iraqi cities of Kufa and Baghdad, the U.S. military command said.

Baghdad car bomb kills 3: At least three people, including a woman, were killed and more than 20 wounded on Monday when at least one car bomb exploded in a western Baghdad neighbourhood.

Iraqi Leader Killed in Baghdad: Mohsen Abdel Hamid, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and Secretary General of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), has been killed on Monday in an attack in Baghdad.

More Than 200 Troops Killed in April, May: Death Toll of American Troops in Iraq for April and May Moves Past 200; More Than 2 Killed a Day

Saudi security forces 'allowed kidnappers to flee': One employee of the Oasis compound said today that a hostage heard the gunmen shouting that they would release their captives if the security forces let them go.

British oil executive was among the first to die: Victim Body was dragged behind car, reports say

New Saudi attack 'probable' : Britain's ambassador to Saudi Arabia warned today that another terrorist attack in the kingdom was "probable", as Saudi security forces continued their kingdom-wide search for the gunmen whose weekend rampage through the city of Khobar left 22 people dead

Australia warns against more attacks in Saudi Arabia: Australians were told to defer non-essential travel to Saudi Arabia and those already in the country were advised to leave if they were concerned about their security.

Crisis hits Saudi oil industry : Traders warned that oil prices were likely to rise this week in response to the latest attack in the kingdom, the second in a month. Prices have slipped in the past fortnight from a 13-year high of $41.85 a barrel, but a renewed surge is expected when markets reopen tomorrow

Saudi attacks weaken dollar's footing : In Europe, safe-haven flows out of the dollar were much in evidence although thin trading conditions given the public holiday in Britain and the US were also having an impact, analysts said.

Al-Qaeda winning: Asian analysts: The al-Qaeda network is winning the global war on terror, while Washington's use of overwhelming force against Muslim extremists is creating a sea of hatred and is strategically flawed, Asian analysts said.

Stratfor Intelligence Report: "Al Qaeda's Next Strike" : Al Qaeda likely has a number of sleeper cells still embedded in the United States, and logic dictates that Houston, Texas, is high on their target list.

Can terrorist warning sway votes?: Political analysts say almost any renewed discussion of terrorism benefits President George W. Bush because the public -- even as it questions Bush's leadership on Iraq and the economy -- still regards him as best able to deal with that threat.

Council defies US over top job choice: At a stormy governing council meeting yesterday, Mr Bremer bluntly warned members not to hold another vote on who should be the new president. If they did he would ignore it.

The Abu Ghraib Scandal Cover-Up?: Some critics say Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department is doing its best to stop potentially incriminating information from coming out, that it's deflecting Congress's inquiries and shielding higher-ups from investigation.

On Their Way To Abu Ghraib: "How could this happen?" nearly everyone asks these days. But as the U.S. now releases hundreds of men from Abu Ghraib prison, another question, "why were so many Iraqis locked up there in the first place?" is likely to become part of the debate.

Jailed - for showing dislike of US invaders: General Ryder, the army's provost marshal, reported that some Iraqis had been held for months for nothing more than expressing "displeasure or ill will" towards the US occupying forces.

America's battle to regain respect : The US has not been defeated in battle and is unlikely to be so but it can no longer impose its will on Iraq because it lacks the moral authority to do so.

Dahr Jamail : Iraq's Disintegration: For each step forward the coalition makes, two disasters occur... whether they take the form of deadly attacks on the occupying forces, more mortars blasting into the CPA, sabotage of a pipeline or powerplant, a murder, another SUV of secret service or security mercenaries taken out by an RPG, or something less obvious...

Iraqi doctors forced into exile: IRAQ's top surgeons, neurologists and other doctors are fleeing Baghdad, bullied into exile by a growing gang of kidnappers seeking hefty ransoms from the country's affluent elite.

Never mind the truth: Bush and Blair appear to think that making declarations on Iraq is enough to change the realities on the ground

Zbigniew Brzezinski : Face Reality: America's Iraq policy requires a fundamental strategic reappraisal. The present policy - justified by falsehoods, pursued with unilateral arrogance, blinded by self-delusion, and stained by sadistic excesses - cannot be corrected with a few hasty palliatives.

In case you missed it?: Zbigniew Brzezinski: A geostrategy for Eurasia : A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world's three most economically productive regions, Western Europe and East Asia. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in Eurasia would almost automatically control the Middle East and Africa.

Memorial Day Special Video: The New Documentary 'Preventive Warriors': The film examines a bold new foreign policy paper introduced by the White House in September 2002 entitled: “The National Security Strategy of the United States.” A must watch video:

Draft dilemma : They are going to reintroduce the draft in the US. But it's such a vote loser, no one wants to mention it

We Want Our Country Back: Flash presentation.

Prominent U.S. Jews, Israel blamed for start of Iraq war : Despite the significant difference between the statements of Zinni and those of Hollings, certain members of the U.S. Jewish community are beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.

In case you missed it: 9/7/2002 : Yediot Ahronot: Iraq, Jordan to be converted into one Hashimite Kingdom: The correspondent of the Israeli Yediot Ahronot for military affairs said Friday that Israeli sides were briefed on plans prepared by the hawks of the American administration on changing the face of the Arab region, including perceptions to end the ruling regime in Iraq and bringing it back to the Hashimite Kingdom.

Israel Court to Army: Protect Palestinian Civilians: Israel's top court has told the army to safeguard "the lives and dignity" of Palestinian civilians in combat operations, a ruling welcomed on Monday by human-rights groups alarmed by the bloodiest Gaza raid in years.

Lieberman presents to Russia plan to expel 'disloyal' Arabs: The plan is based on the idea of separating the populations and territories of Jews and Arabs, including Israeli Arabs. According to the plan, only those Israeli Arabs who feel a connection with the State of Israel and are completely loyal to it will be allowed to stay.

In case you missed it?: Meet The New Zionist's: The members of the Christian Coalition of America are some of the most passionate defenders of Israel in the United States. There's just one catch: they want to convert all Jews to Christianity.

In case you missed it?: Israel's Evangelical Approach : In an effort to solidify its relationship with American evangelicals, the government of Israel has launched initiatives that include expense-paid trips to the Holy Land and strategy sessions with the Christian Coalition and other conservative groups.

N. Korea Accuses U.S. of War Pretext Plot : North Korea on Monday accused the Bush administration of making up reports about the North's nuclear weapons program as a pretext for war, saying it echoed similar allegations Washington made about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion.

Experts: Job market dismal for teens this summer: Only 37 percent of teens are likely to find a summer job, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

05/30/04:

Saudi hostage crisis comes to a bloody end: Saudi forces have ended their offensive in the hostage crisis after a bloody standoff left at least 16 people dead.

Saudi Cell "Slaughtered" Italian, Swede, Japanese: Al Qaida, in a purported statement carried on an Islamist Web site, said on Sunday its militants in Saudi Arabia had "slaughtered" an Italian and a Swedish hostage in the oil city of Khobar.

Iraqi killed, 12 wounded in clashes in Najaf : An Iraqi was killed and 12 others were wounded during the past 24 hours as clashes continued in the holy city of Najaf on Sunday

Senior pro-Taliban cleric killed in Karachi: Armed men riding in two cars and a motorcycle shot and killed a senior Sunni Muslim cleric in violence-prone Karachi.

Militant Cleric's Killing Sparks Violence in Pakistan: Mass riots have erupted across Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, after the assassination of one of the country's top religious leaders.

Israeli Missiles Kill Senior Hamas Man, Two Others: Two missiles fired by an Israeli helicopter killed a high-profile Hamas militant commander on his motorcycle and two comrades in Gaza City early on Sunday, Palestinian witnesses said.

Iraq's new leader to recruit some of Saddam's soldiers: Iyad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister-designate, plans to recall four divisions of Saddam Hussein's old army to create a rapid reaction force and anti-terrorism unit to deal with the country's security crisis.

Dissent over US push for interim head: US officials and a United Nations envoy continued horse-trading with Iraqi leaders yesterday over the selection of an interim president, with many members of the country's Governing Council opposing the US and UN choice, according to Iraqi politicians and international officials

The handover that became a shambles: ten U-turns on the road to 'peace': The appointment of an interim Prime Minister who used to work for the CIA is one of a series of disastrous policy changes by the US.

Police surround Chalabi's office: Police in the central Iraqi town of Ramadi have surrounded the local office of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress and ordered it to be evacuated.

Bush was sure that Iraq’s oil reserves would be flowing again by now: ... Another big mistake

The Empire at Oil's End: Angry truckers celebrated this May Day by blocking freeways in Los Angeles and container terminals in Oakland and Stockton. With diesel fuel prices in California soaring to record levels in recent weeks, the earnings of independent container-haulers have dropped below the poverty line.

Halliburton: The Paper Trail: Did Cheney Okay a Deal?: TIME has obtained an internal Pentagon e-mail sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official—whose name was blacked out by the Pentagon—that raises questions about Cheney's arm's-length policy toward his old employer.

ABC News Poll: Majority of Republicans Say Abusing Prisoners Is Okay: Go Ahead, Try And Tell Me They Are Not The Nazis

Bush has Saddam's pistol: report: US President George W Bush has been given a pistol Saddam Hussein had with him when he was captured and now proudly shows it to selected guests

Jewish Congresswoman says Bush's Policies a Danger to Jews: The simmering debate over the role of Jewish neoconservatives in drawing America into war in Iraq erupted with new fury this week.

Senator Hollings, responds to being charged as anti-Semitic: With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country? The answer: President Bush's policy to secure Israel.

Gallery owner becomes target after showcasing painting of Iraqi prisoner abuse: After displaying a painting of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners, a San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at Abu Ghraib -- a black eye and bloodied brow delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to the art work.

`Terror lady' in U.S. custody, says Pakistan : Pakistan's Interior Ministry has claimed that Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani-American woman who was declared as a terrorist threat (to the U.S.) by the FBI, had been arrested in 2003 from Karachi and handed over to the U.S. authorities.

From the Ranks to the Street: Nearly a fourth of the America's homeless are veterans. Reasons vary, but many fail to adjust to life's randomness after the order of military service.

Dogs alerted to explosives at gate; two detained by INS: NCIS detained the two men, both Israeli citizens, and turned them over to Immigration Naturalization Service in Savannah for further disposition and deportation.

Cameras embedded in pavement markings -- used in U.S. for past three years

NHS workers trial hi-tech panic buttons: UK health service workers are to be tagged with electronic tracking devices in a pilot scheme designed to promote the safety of NHS staff who regularly work on their own, such as district nurses.

Four US soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan : "Four US service members assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan were killed in action today here in southern Afghanistan," US Central Command said in a statement.

Three Marines killed in Iraq: The U.S. military says the Marines from the First Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in Anbar province west of Baghdad. The Marines were responsible for security in a wide area from just west of Baghdad to the borders of Syria and Jordan.

Top al-Qaeda leader spells out tactics for guerrilla warfare in Saudi Arabia : A SENIOR al-Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia issued a battle plan yesterday for an urban guerrilla war in the kingdom, already reeling from recent attacks on western and security targets.

U.S. Urges Citizens to Leave Saudi After Attack: "We are reiterating our call to American citizens to depart the country in light of recent terrorist attacks," a U.S. embassy official told Reuters.

05/29/04: U.S. Forced Allawi On U.N., Iraqis: A senior State Department official told the daily, on condition of anonymity, that the U.S.-handpicked Iraqi body had merely ratified the U.S. selection in order to make it seem that the council had the final saying.

American Caligula: George W. Bush, the schizophrenic by-product of an influential American family grew up in a wealthy decadent world steeped in generations of treachery and political intrigue. 

Gov't in crisis as Netanyahu foils PM's mini-plan: Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not support any proposal that recognized the general plan and would agree only to the limited proposal to evacuate the three settlements.

Conservative Allies Take Chalabi Case to the White House: The group included Richard N. Perle, the former chairman of a Pentagon advisory group, and R. James Woolsey, director of central intelligence under President Bill Clinton.

5 Killed : Militia clashes with US as ceasefire fails: US officials said two soldiers were wounded in the latest fighting. "Their Humvee was completely destroyed and they were evacuated for treatment," a spokesman said.

Gunmen kill Kurdish politician and family north of Iraq : Gunmen killed a prominent Kurdish politician and members of his family in a drive-by shooting in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Saturday

Israeli soldier killed near Nablus: An Israeli occupation army captain has died of serious injuries sustained during clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters in the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus.

US distances itself from Iraqi PM: The UN response has been cool, speaking only of "respect" for the decision.

Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim: He is the person through whom the controversial claim was channelled that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be operational in 45 minutes.

Kurds feel betrayed once again: The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan believes that if the plight of the Kurds is ignored yet again and we are left with no say in the future of a new Iraq, the will of the Kurdish people will be too great for the Kurdish political parties to ignore, leading to a total withdrawal from any further discussions relating to the formation of any new Iraqi government. This will certainly not serve the unity of Iraq.

Iraqi Women Raped At Abu Ghraib: Report: Reports have emerged that Iraqi women held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were raped by both US and Iraqi jailers, according to human rights groups, following the reports of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops there.

The silence of the healers at Abu Ghraib: Physicians too became complicit in the moral erosion which led to the shameful events at the Abu Ghraib prison.

For Shame: What becomes of a country that loses its capacity for repulsion?

Iraq prison abuse 'widespread': According to the military documents seen by AP, at least two detainees held at other sites died of their injuries.

Intelligence agents accused in abuses: Several U.S. guards allege they witnessed military intelligence operatives encouraging the abuse of Iraqi prison inmates at four prisons other than Abu Ghraib, investigative documents show.

Guantanamo Interrogators Played Major Role at Abu Ghraib: A published report says interrogators from the U.S.- run detention camp at the Navy Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were sent to Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison late last year to train American intelligence teams.

Bagged By The U.S.: Owen Matthews goes on patrol with American soldiers in Afghanistan's 'Indian Country' and sees them capture and interrogate suspects

GI flagged for public comments about his Abu Ghraib experience: Sgt. Samuel Provance said he wasn’t surprised when Lt. Col. James Norwood summoned him to Wiesbaden on Friday, less than a week after the sergeant spoke to ABC News about his experiences at the Abu Ghraib.

Australia: PM, you're wrong: letters expose early reports of torture: Claims of multiple breaches of the Geneva conventions by US soldiers in Iraqi prisons - including prolonged shackling, forced nudity and humiliation - were dealt with by the Australian military lawyer Major George O'Kane last year, casting serious doubt on the Federal Government's version of events

Bulgaria Denies Iraq Abuse Report: The Defense Ministry denied an international news agency report that Bulgarian soldiers might have abused Iraqi prisoners.

Iranians sign up for Iraq attacks: Hundreds of protesters in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been signing up to carry out suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.

How Chalabi and the White House held the front page: The New York Times has burned its reputation on a pyre of lies about Iraq

The Manipulator: Between 1992 and the raid on Chalabi’s home, the U.S. government funnelled more than a hundred million dollars to the Iraqi National Congress. The current Bush Administration gave Chalabi’s group at least thirty-nine million dollars.

The Ahmed Chalabi Photo Gallery: Or, How to win friends and influence people

Get Ready for Kerry's War: Kerry has already made it clear that he intends to "stay the course." He will do the same thing, but better, he vows. He will do it on a grander scale. He will do a better job of pronouncing the names of the cities we bomb.

Report: Iraq being plundered : A US newspaper reports that military equipment and oil rig parts are being smuggled out of Iraq in a scale tantamount to looting.

Mosaic: World News Reports FromThe Middle East TV For 05/28/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. QuickTime Video.

What the Arab world hears when Bush speaks: As he addressed the influential pro-Israeli American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) recently, US President George W. Bush repeatedly invoked the desire for security as a common denominator between the United States and Israel. Yet not once did he recognize the Palestinians' right to self-defense.

Barbarians at the Gates: Zionism is in intensive care ­ dependent on the oxygen of support from the Jewish Diaspora and drip fed funds by the United States. Given the human and financial toll, it is legitimate to query whether the apparent purpose of Zionism today -­ to satisfy the Jewish sense of belonging and the wackier elements of the Christian Right -­ is worth the price.

Group sues over Iraq deployment: A citizens' group filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking a halt to the deployment of Japanese troops to Iraq and a withdrawal of troops currently there, saying the government is violating Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.

Keep our slaves safe: Our military is one of the last bastions of slavery in the United States. - Yes, our slaves signed up of their own free will, but most of them were as misled about their job as the rest of us were about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Poking holes in the official story of 9/11: Citizens can choose to buy the official line on the events of Sept. 11, 2001 — or they can ask questions about holes in that story as big as the crater at Ground Zero.

Tillman likely killed by friendly fire: Former pro football player Pat Tillman was "probably" killed by friendly fire as he led his team of Army Rangers up a hill during a firefight in Afghanistan last month, the U.S. Army said Saturday.

Will Bush the Beheader use terrorism to become America's Pinochet?: Attorney-General John Ashcroft is priming the public for a terrorist attack, which can only mean Bush is sharpening his blades to behead the Constitution.

U.S. agencies collect, examine personal data on Americans: Numerous federal government agencies are collecting and sifting through massive amounts of personal information, including credit reports, credit-card purchases and other financial data, posing new privacy concerns, according to the General Accounting Office

GAO Report Reveals Four Potential Government Data-Surveillance Programs, ACLU Says: According to the GAO descriptions, all four programs draw on private-sector databases, contain personally identifiable information, and appear to constitute dragnets on the general population in efforts to detect wrongdoing.

ACLU Challenge to "National Security Letter" Authority: In an extraordinary sealed case, the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the FBI’s unchecked authority to issue “National Security Letters” (NSLs), which demand sensitive customer records from Internet Service Providers and other businesses without judicial oversight

"Free Speech Zones" in the U.S.A.? I thought our entire nation was a "Free Speech Zone." I thought that is what "freedom of speech" meant in our Constitution. That we could say anything we wanted, anywhere on public property where we wanted to say it. What was I thinking? Welcome to "Free Speech, 2004, "Dubya" Bush Style."

05/28/04: 

Six allied troops killed during battle in Afghanistan: At least six allied troops were shot dead by unknown assailants in Paktia province of Afghanistan on Friday during a fierce gunbattle in the border area.

Five Killed in Clashes with U.S. Forces in Najaf: Five Iraqis were killed and 14 wounded in clashes between U.S. troops and Shi'ite militiamen in the holy city of Najaf and in nearby Kufa Friday, hospital sources said.

Two Japanese reporters 'killed' in Iraqi ambush: Two Japanese journalists have been killed today by militants who ambushed their car with rocket-propelled grenades near Baghdad, according to witnesses.

U.S. soldiers attacked during Abu Ghraib prisoner release: U.S. soldiers escorting a convoy of prisoners released from the Abu Ghraib facility briefly exchanged fire with unknown assailants today after they stopped in the middle of a highway outside the Iraqi capital.

New Iraqi PM named: Iyad Allawi, a member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council with long-time links to the CIA, has been chosen as prime minister in Iraq's interim government. "There was a meeting of the Governing Council and Dr. Allawi was unanimously chosen as prime minister," Hani Adris said on Friday.

Colin Powell declined to confirm whether Iyad Allawi will be Iraq's new prime minister: Other U.S. officials said there was no consensus yet on who would be the prime minister, the key role in a caretaker government that is expected to rule only until elections due by January 2005.

Former Iraqi intelligence officer chosen as new leader: Mr Allawi, is a relative of Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon favourite who has fallen out with Washington, but the two are not regarded as particularly close.

In case you missed it: Iraq Council Member Spends To Win Influence In Washington : -Mr Allawi, a member of Iraq's interim council with long ties to the CIA is undertaking an expensive, carefully crafted strategy to spread his views to influential Americans, an example of how those seeking power in Iraq continue to curry favor in the U.S. More on Iyad Allawi

Chalabi-gate: None Dare Call It Treason : Neocons behind bars? Sounds good to me….

US wants open-ended Iraq commitment: The US says it will oppose attempts by other members of the United Nations Security Council to set a date for coalition forces to leave Iraq.

On the threshold of failure in Iraq : Can you win in Iraq? I asked one of the key people in the Pentagon. "There's no such concept as victory in the war being waged today in Iraq," he replied. That differs from what was heard in the past in the Pentagon.

Bush-lite: Kerry Calls for More Troops to Bolster U.S. Military: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called for increasing the U.S. military by 40,000 troops, probably for a decade, in order ``to match its new missions'' in the war on terror.

Suspicion Surrounds Death of Iraqi Scientist in U.S. Custody: Dr. Qaiss Hassan, who performed the autopsy at Iraq's Forensic Medical Institute, noted in his report that Alazmirli had a massive amount of blood under his scalp.

Catch-22 revisited : The horrors of American military conduct are being documented every day. But one aspect of the leaked US report into prison abuse in Iraq has been little noticed. General Taguba, head of the investigation, painted a picture of an army which can be not only brutal, but is also riddled with incompetence.

Abuses in liberty’s name: The fight against terrorism is being carried out purportedly in defense of liberty and democracy. Unfortunately, the biggest victims of this war on terror have turned out to be liberty and democracy.

The death-dealing duo : As he never ceases to remind us, Bush is a bold, decisive leader. He wasn't about to be thwarted in his urgent crusade to sink the United States into a festering pit of depraved brutality -- the ideal condition for sustaining the power and privilege of a rapacious elite that regards itself "appointed by God"

'The American military violence must stop': A leading Iraqi politician who survived an ambush by gunmen that may have killed her son blamed American troops on Friday for spiralling violence gripping the country.

Poland denies troop abuse claims: Records of interviews by US army criminal investigation division agents, obtained by AP, include allegations that forces, including Polish personnel, had beaten prisoners before turning them over to US authorities.

Can't find Iraqis taped in arms plot, Powell says: "We can't find those guys. I don't know who those guys were. But the tapes were real tapes. We didn't make them up," Powell said in an interview

The arrest of Abu Hamza: So is he a dangerous terrorist - or just a political pawn? Downing Street was forced to correct a comment made yesterday by Mr Ashcroft, who said that if the cleric was convicted of the hostage-taking charge he could be executed.

Mosaic: World News Reports FromThe Middle East TV For 05/27/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. QuickTime Video.

Gold eyes $400 as investors shun dollar: Gold is firmly back in vogue, with analysts expecting more price gains towards $400 an ounce as a sinking dollar and security worries highlight the metal's status as a safe-haven for investors.

Israeli troops kill Palestinian farmer in Gaza: Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian farmer and wounded another woman, Palestinian medics said.

Palestinian Killed in Suicide Car Bombing in Gaza: A Palestinian militant was killed in a suicide car bombing against an Israeli convoy in an army-patrolled corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border on Friday, officials and witnesses said.

Turkish PM: Israel a 'terrorist' state: Turkey's prime minister has labelled Israel a "terrorist" state during a meeting with an Israeli minister in Ankara.

Don't give up 1967 lands, DeLay tells Israel lobby: House Majority Whip Tom DeLay suggested that Israel should not withdraw from territory captured in the 1967 war, and he equated Israel's struggle against the Palestinians with the U.S. war on terrorism.

Apocalyptic Revelations: Why do all of the professionally self- proclaimed Christians -- the ones who, like the hypocrites Jesus warned against, pray so loudly in public -- prefer the harsh first half of the Bible to the entirely Christian second book?

Briton says he was held in Israeli dungeon : A British journalist released from Israeli custody yesterday said that he had been held in a dungeon with excrement on the walls following his arrest on suspicion of espionage.

Pakistan confirms junior officers held in attempt to kill Musharraf: It was the first official confirmation that anyone from the military was implicated in the attacks

Pinochet stripped of immunity: A Chilean court stripped the country's former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, of his immunity from prosecution today, paving the way for his trial on human rights charges.

Italy warns of Bush unrest threat: Italy has warned of "serious threats" when US President George W Bush visits Rome next week.

Ashcroft's job: Scare people into voting for Bush: Enter John Ashcroft – Mr. Doom and Gloom, himself – with another of his now-familiar warnings about terrorists about to strike the United States.

Bush shifting terror alarm onto Iraq: TWO DAYS after President Bush declared Iraq "the central front in the war on terror," Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that major terrorist attacks are possible this summer -- not from Iraq but from operatives of Al Qaeda who are already inside the United States.

Some Republicans fear Iraq will color campaigns: Conn. congressman not afraid to put distance between himself, president

Govt Computer Surveillance Rings Alarm Bells: Nine months after Congress shut down a controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program, the U.S. government continues to comb private records to sniff out suspicious activity, according to a congressional report obtained by Reuters.

Report: 1 of Every 75 U.S. Men in Prison : America's inmate population grew by 2.9 percent last year, to almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail.

Absentee ballot law is a joke that isn't funny: By taking away the witness requirement, the governor and the Legislature not only made it easier for corruption to take place -- which in itself is a fairly amazing feat -- but they have also made it more difficult to catch.

Getting All Veterans to the Voting Booths: As veterans we leave the military with medals, ribbons and a national debt of gratitude for our service. However, as result of post-traumatic stress that results high rates of alcoholism, poverty and other collateral hardships, many veterans also find ourselves faced with a felony conviction.

3 Killed as soldiers fire to disperse Lebanese strikers: Soldiers fired to disperse an anti-government demonstration, killing three people and wounding eight others yesterday, security and hospital officials said.

Governing Council member's convoy ambushed near Baghdad: At least one bodyguard was killed and another critically wounded. Officials said earlier that three bodyguards were killed.

US retreats after failing to capture militia chief: United States forces agreed to withdraw from the Shia holy city of Najaf and end fighting with the militia of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. In a climbdown by the Americans, who had vowed to kill or capture Sadr, it now appears he will be allowed to remain free. His Army of Mehdi militia will also withdraw under the deal.

U.S. troop deaths in Iraq reach 800: The official death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq reached 800 on Thursday during a month that ranks as the deadliest for National Guard and reserve troops since the war began.

Military Says Oregon Guardsman Was Executed: Walters was killed by Fedayeen rebels who held him for a couple of hours before pulling him into a room separate from his fellow soldiers and shooting him twice in the back.

U.S. Will Retain Command of Its Forces in Iraq, Powell Says: Secretary of State Colin Powell says that after the transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to an interim Iraqi government U.S. Forces will work with their Iraqi counterparts but remain under U.S. command.

Rhetoric vs. Reality in Iraq: One of America's biggest problems in Iraq is its enormous credibility gap with Iraqis. Unfortunately, President Bush widened that disconnect this week by promising "full sovereignty" to an interim government on June 30.

Preventive Warriors: We play an excerpt from the new documentary "Preventive Warriors" examining how Bush has rewritten the rules of war. We hear from Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Tariq Ali and others.

U.S.: Cleric Tried to Start Terror Camp : A fiery Muslim cleric was arrested Thursday in Britain and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon. The United States will almost certainly have to rule out the death penalty to get England to hand Abu Hamza al-Masri, 47, over for trial.

Drug causing GIs permanent brain damage : Six U.S. soldiers have been diagnosed by the military with permanent brain damage from an anti-malaria drug used in Iraq and Afghanistan, and health officials must reassess its safety, a U.S. senator said.

Reserve recruiters' tactic may skirt edge of deception: Bryan Martinez thought his military service was over when he left the Army Reserves in 2000. But on Monday, the 26-year-old boat rigger from Fort Walton Beach got a phone call that threatened to shatter the life he and his wife had built together.

Some Question Florida National Guard's Recruiting Methods: Some Florida National Guard recruiters are warning inactive reservists that they risk being reactivated and sent to Iraq unless they enlist in their local Guard unit, a controversial tactic also being reported in other states trying to bolster their enlistment numbers.

National Guard's Family Assistance Centers: America’s Second Harvest today announced a new collaborative effort with the National Guard to make sure that the families of active National Guard units and families needing food assistance can find information about local hunger-relief agencies at Family Assistance Centers across the country.

Anti-war activists ordered away from school: Mills High School officials on Wednesday morning ordered an anti-war organization urging high school students to say "no" to military recruiters to leave the sidewalk in front of the school, where the group was passing out flyers to teens.

Looking the other way from Gaza destruction: The Bush administration's war in Iraq has been the perfect cover for Israel's move against the Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza.

Filmmaker Moore says he has Berg footage: The footage, of an interview with Berg, "is approximately 20 minutes long. Neither Moore nor his representatives would describe the nature or contents of the interview with Berg, who held staunch pro-war views.

05/27/04 Three Marines killed in action in western Iraq: A statement from the command said the deaths occurred in Anbar province "while conducting security and stability operations." No further details were released due to security, the statement added.

$191B for Wars: President Bush and Congress have so far provided $191 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and defensive military operations at home, and about two-thirds of the money has been spent or is owed, White House figures show.

Bush Plan Eyes Cuts for Schools, Veterans: The Bush administration has told officials who oversee federal education, domestic security, veterans and other programs to prepare preliminary 2006 budgets that would cut spending after the presidential election, according to White House documents.

UN fury over Bush attempts to install PM: The Bush administration was accused yesterday of undermining the work of the UN envoy attempting to put together an interim Iraqi government

Richard Perle: U.S. war policy 'grave error': This public criticism of U.S. policy from one of the leading advocates of the war — and a firm political ally of U.S. President George W. Bush — indicates just how much Bush's political fortunes are being damaged by post-war chaos.

The Bush orthodoxy is in shreds: At a conservative thinktank in downtown Washington, and across the Potomac at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neoconservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the US government and military?

Iraqi dissidents: Down, far from out: US friend-to-foe Ahmad Chalabi is now being blamed for Washington's poor intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. This overlooks the fact that the leading candidate for Iraq's premiership, Hussain al-Shahristani, should also shoulder some blame.

The price of empire : What began on the wings of lofty moral tones is crashing into the mountain of war’s hideous debris, much of it -- from the deaths of yet uncounted civilians and soldiers to the abuse of prisoners -- singularly immoral.

Shooting itself in the foot: Does the American neocon junta have any idea at all as to what is happening in Iraq, and to the Iraqi people? If they have any sense of what the Iraqis are going through, and what they feel

The fall of the vulcans : Iraq may spell the end of an evangelical belief in American military power. Iraq has turned into a disastrous defeat for America and Britain. All the current debate is essentially about damage limitation.

Al-Sadr army pullout from Najaf on hold: Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's offer to withdraw his troops from the holy city of Najaf is on hold until US occupation authorities agree to truce terms.

New photos show Abu Ghraib tactics: Naked Iraqis interrogated aggressively in images: In one of the photos, a U.S. soldier can be seen pressing his knee into the neck of one of the three prisoners, who have been forced to huddle together on the floor.

Rape at Abu Ghraib: Practically ignored in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal are the Iraqi female prisoners who have told their attorneys they were raped by U.S. soldiers.

In case you missed it: Bush calls for Saddam execution: "I mean, he is a torturer, a murderer, they had rape rooms. This is a disgusting tyrant who deserves justice, the ultimate justice."

Opposition Growing to U.S. Exemption on Global Court: The United States may not have enough U.N. votes to exempt American soldiers from prosecution by a new global criminal court, with China now questioning the action in view of the prison scandal in Iraq, diplomats said on Thursday

Thirty-five percent of Americans say torture is acceptable : 50% believe the U.S. government, uses torture as a matter of policy

"The Bright Side of War" : It is certainly nice to know that even though people are being killed, maimed, and made to act out scenes from porn videos, American workers in small towns are prospering making vehicles, equipment, and clothing for the troops.

Kissinger records offer parallels to war in Iraq: Transcripts reveal effort to suppress atrocities by U.S.: News had just broken of an unimaginable atrocity committed by U.S. soldiers, and the secretary of defense and the national security adviser debated whether there was any way to stop newspapers and TV news programs from showing graphic photos of the victims.

America Has Put Us All In Danger: GEORGE Bush's war on terror has caused the worst human rights abuses in 50 years, campaigners claimed yesterday.

John Pilger: Another fake: Will journalists allow Blair to get away with yet another charade? Or will they ask why Article 7 of the statute of the International Criminal Court, to which Britain is a signatory, is not being invoked? This makes clear that British and American behaviour in Iraq is categorised under "crimes against humanity", for which the ultimate responsibility lies, as ever, at the top.

Soldier left brain damaged after playing unruly prisoner at Guantánamo : A UNITED States soldier claims he was left brain damaged by a beating he received while posing as an un-cooperative prisoner at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

America's Only Decent Way Out Of Iraq:  I believe America can get out of Iraq and save face at the same time; it’s not that difficult.

Ashcroft: al Qaeda 90 percent ready to attack: Terrorists will 'Hit the United States hard'

Background information On Ashcrofts summer "suspect" list:

Al-Qaeda's strength highlights urgent need for changes in US policy: Before the United States invaded Iraq, wise heads warned that far from being a decisive blow in the US-led global "war on terror," this latest adventure would only fuel international terrorism.

Chalmers Johnson: The Sorrows of Empire Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic: Former CIA analyst and retired University of California professor Chalmers Johnson examines the concept of blowback -- the unintended costs and consequences of American imperialism and how it is connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Analysts Say U.S. Threat Warning Is Back-Covering: Stung by accusations that the Bush administration ignored key intelligence in the run-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials may now be issuing warnings to prove to Americans they are on the ball this time, say terrorism analysts on both sides of the political fence.

More “Washington whispers” about possible pre-election terrorist attack: Two pieces published in the press in recent days point to a continuing discussion within the political elite in the US about the electoral consequences of a pre-election terrorist attack. Top officials ponder how such an attack would affect the outcome of the elections.

In case you missed it?: Calculating the Politics of Catastrophe : It is the nightmarish, unpredictable event that both the Bush and Kerry campaigns obsess about in private, yet rarely discuss in public. How would another terror attack before the presidential election, even one that proves a pale shadow of Sept. 11, affect the way voters view the president or his challenger?

Terrorism now a growth industry: Unfazed, the Bush administration forges ahead with its "war on terrorism", and its master terror watch list has swollen to 5 million names. Yet the real terrorist threat has been mostly fueled by US policies.

Envoy: Iraq Scientist Doesn't Want PM Job : With only a few days left, the U.N.-led hunt for candidates to fill the 30 posts in a new interim Iraqi government heated up Wednesday, but a nuclear scientist who had been jailed by Saddam Hussein took himself out of the competition for the top job of prime minister.

The New Draft U.N. Resolution Allows for Perpetual Occupation: Fox to Guard Henhouse - Subject to Periodic Review by Fox

'From Mistake to Mistake': A leading Shiite cleric discusses Iraq, suicide bombers, U.S. elections—and why he thinks George W. Bush should see a psychiatrist

Bush administration has used 27 rationales for war in Iraq, study says: If it seems that there have been quite a few rationales for going to war in Iraq, that’s because there have been quite a few – 27, in fact, all floated between Sept. 12, 2001, and Oct. 11, 2002, according to a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Uncovering the Rationales for the War on Iraq: The Words of the Bush Administration, Congress, and the Media from September 12, 2001 to October 11, 2002”

Amnesty slams 'bankrupt' vision of US in damning report: The United States has proved "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle" in its fight against terrorism and invasion of Iraq, human rights group Amnesty International charged

Mosaic: World News Reports FromThe Middle East TV For 05/26/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East

Sarin Shells Made Before 1991 War: The 155-mm shells containing sarin gas that exploded in Iraq May 17 were manufactured before 1991, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

Bush's Iraq: almost unrecognizable : The Iraq that bleeds all over our newspapers and TV screens all day is a place of bitter, brutal divisions that go back hundreds of years and seem to be getting deeper daily. But in the country the president talked about, "Iraqis are united in a broad and deep conviction.

Bush and Sharon: The Oil Connection: On its face, President George Bush's recent endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's land grab in the occupied territories makes little sense.

How Palestine is dying in Iraq: "The more aggressive the [Iraq] attack is, the more it will help Israel against the Palestinians. The understanding would be that what is good to do in Iraq, is also good for here." Gideon Ezra, Israeli cabinet minister

Israeli troops kill Palestinian in Gaza: Israeli troops have shot dead two unarmed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in separate incidents, Palestinian witnesses and medics say.

Shin Bet arrests U.K. journalist who interviewed Vanunu : Peter Hounam, the British journalist who has been covering the Mordechai Vanunu affair for years and is considered to be one of the closest people to the nuclear-whistle blower, was arrested Wednesday evening by the Shin Bet security service. A gag order was placed on all details pertaining to the investigation.

Israel lays claim to Palestine's water : Under an agreement signed a decade ago as part of the Oslo accord, four-fifths of the West Bank's water is allocated to Israel, though the aquifers that supply it are largely replenished by water falling onto Palestinian territory.

Remarks by Al Gore: George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world. He promised to "restore honor and integrity to the White House." Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country .

Win Without War Calls for End of U.S. Occupation, Setting of Date for Withdrawal of Troops from Iraq: Fire Rumsfeld and Others, Let People of Iraq Govern Selves, Says Nation’s Largest Anti-War Coalition

Conspiracy to Commit War Crimes: President George W. Bush knew for over two years that his administration has been promoting policies that qualify as war crimes under the 1996 federal War Crimes Act, the international Third Geneva Convention, and the Torture Convention.

In case you missed it: US finds strange bedfellows in UN vote on torture: April 19, 2002 : -- PARIS - The United States has aligned itself with some of its fiercest and least democratic enemies in opposing efforts to strengthen an international treaty that outlaws torture, according to diplomatic sources.

More on Morons and War Crimes: There are two big things going on simultaneously, they are related, and they are a basis to believe that accusing the US Government's top-ranking morons of war crimes is worth the time and effort. They are:

New Transcripts Point to U.S. Role in Chile Coup: Henry Kissinger told President Richard Nixon days after the 1973 coup in Chile the United States helped create the conditions for the ouster of socialist President Salvador Allende, newly declassified transcripts showed on Wednesday.

Rights group: Genocide in Sudan : The Sudanese government is continuing a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the western region of Darfur, an international rights group has claimed.

Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005: There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election.

National Guard living in unprotected tents at Iraq base: Regular Army soldiers in Iraq sleep in fortified accommodations while National Guard troops are in unprotected tents and using filthy showers, according to e-mail messages from several North Carolina soldiers.

Countries under scrutiny: Amnesty International reports human rights abuses in the following countries in its 2004 annual report

Bush's health care scam: IF THE MESS in Iraq and the high price of oil were not crowding out other election year issues, health care would top the list. Premium costs keep increasing, out-of-pocket charges keep being shifted onto consumers, and the number of uninsured is at an all-time high.

05/26/04:  Taliban fighters killed in US raid: At least 20 suspected Taliban fighters have been killed in US air strikes in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials have said.

Nine killed in Iraq fighting: At least nine Iraqis were killed and 19 injured, mostly civilians, in fighting between US forces and fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and neighboring Kufa.

4 killed in attack on bus near Baghdad : Two Russian civilian contractors were among four people killed and another six Russian workers were wounded when their bus was attacked by unknown militiamen near Baghdad today, the Foreign Ministry said here.

Three Iraqis killed in car blast as US forces nab al Sadr brother-in-law : Three Iraqis were killed and 18 others injured, including a senior police officer, when a car bomb detonated at Balad Ruz, 75 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.

Bomb blast at Pakistan port kills two people, injures five: A parcel bomb exploded Tuesday at a checkpoint in the port area of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least two people and injuring five

US snubs Blair call for Iraqi veto on attacks: Tony Blair's call for a new Iraqi government to have a veto over coalition military operations after a hand-over of power at the end of next month was rebuffed in Washington last night.

Talk of independence but US wants to keep Iraq on a leash: Behind the rhetoric, one thing is clear: the Americans intend to retain control

Dead were civilians, Israeli army admits: The Israeli army admitted last night for the first time that at least seven of the people killed in last Wednesday's demonstration here were unarmed civilians.

100 Palestinian children killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in 2003: Amnesty International's newly-released annual report charged Wednesday that the Israeli Occupation Forces killed some 600 Palestinians, including more than 100 children, between January and December 2003.

Palestine, occupation and self-criticism: Israeli politicians have for decades been known to severely criticise their own government's heavy-handed approach to Palestine.

Through the heart: Israel's 100km 'security barrier' makes life a misery, and a two-state solution a virtual impossibility

Wider Iraqi abuse shown: Pentagon memos portray assaults: A wider range of Iraqi detainee abuses by American soldiers across the Iraq war zone is chronicled in Pentagon records obtained by The Denver Post, from electric shocks to threats of execution using gun play.

Iraq abuse insider disciplined: Unlike early reports suggesting the abuses were failings by individual soldiers, Provance said that interrogators at the prison viewed sleep deprivation, stripping inmates naked and threatening them with dogs as normal ways of dealing with "the enemy".

Robert Fisk: Follow torture trail at Abu Ghraib: The re-writing of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed

General Is Said To Have Urged Use of Dogs : A U.S. Army general dispatched by senior Pentagon officials to bolster the collection of intelligence from prisoners in Iraq last fall inspired and promoted the use of guard dogs there to frighten the Iraqis, according to sworn testimony by the top U.S. intelligence officer at the Abu Ghraib prison.

US general overseeing prisons says she was 'set up,' suspended: Karpinski said she was notified in an e-mail yesterday that she was being suspended from duty, but has not yet been given a formal explanation.

Soldiers Reprimanded for Abusing Iraqis : Four U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded for forcing Iraqi prisoners to jump in the Tigris River last year, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Welcome To The Gulag: Army kept whistle-blower in locked psychiatric ward : The Army kept a soldier whistle-blower in a locked psychiatric ward at its top medical center for nearly two weeks despite concern from some medical staff that he be released, according to medical records. The Army then charged him nearly $6,000 for the stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, billing records show.

U.S. using some Iraqis as bargaining chips: Iraqi woman says U.S. imprisoned her husband - and said he'd go free when her father surrenders

A continuing education at Abu Ghraib University: Shocking images are teaching hubristic Americans an overdue lesson: the difference between guilt and shame

'Kill 'em all: It's open season on 'military-age males' in Iraq': MAMs Are Back:

Amnesty condemns 'War on Terror': Amnesty International charged the US on Wednesday with sacrificing basic human rights in the blind pursuit of security.

Gore To Call For Resignation Of Bush Team: Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver a major foreign policy address in New York City on Wednesday, sponsored by MoveOn PAC, calling for the resignation of five members of the Bush Administration team and one member of the military command responsible for the failed policy and abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

Impeach Bush, Nader says : Bush's actions "rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors," Nader said in a speech Monday to the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan, employing the language in the U.S. Constitution that provides the grounds for removal of a president.

$4,000: This is Your Bill for the War : "At a time when civilian budgets are being cut at every level, when clinics are closing and professors at our public universities have to pay for their own photocopying because there's allegedly not enough money, it's amazing how much we're spending,"

Bush Sr.'s Iraq-Iran Secrets: Former President George H.W. Bush should sit down his son, George W. Bush, and level with him about the real history of U.S. relations with Iraq, Iran and Israel’s Likud Party – even if the father has to admit to illegal and unethical conduct in the process.

Terrorists Planning Summer Attack: U.S. officials have obtained new intelligence deemed highly credible indicating al-Qaida or other terrorists are in the United States and preparing to launch a major attack this summer, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. to Release Photos of Possible Attack Planners: The U.S. will release photos of suspected terrorists as it girds against potential al-Qaeda attacks within the U.S. in coming months, according to a government official.

Drug Smuggler Claims He May Have Snuck 9/11 Hijackers into US: An Iranian man recently convicted of drug trafficking, is also suspected of money laundering and smuggling people from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Jordan into the United States. According to federal court documents

Al-Qaeda has more than 18,000 potential terrorist around the world, think tank warns : Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaeda has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday.

Occupation made world less safe, pro-war institute says: The US and British occupation of Iraq has accelerated recruitment to the ranks of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and made the world a less safe place, according to a leading London-based think-tank.

Strategic Survey 2003/4: John Chipman, Director of the IISS, presented the highlights and some of the main arguments of the new edition of Strategic Survey

Mehdi Army Grows as Tempers Rage Over ‘Wedding Massacre’ : Men in the Sadr City area of Baghdad rushed yesterday to join the Mehdi Army, a militia force loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr. The recruitment surge followed bloody overnight fighting here that left many Iraqis dead.

“In Our Name” in Solidarity with the Iraqi People: The global peace movement who courageously opposed the invasion of Iraq should declare its solidarity with the Iraqi people in fighting a colonial occupation army, and U.S. imperialism.

Mosaic: World News Reports FromThe Middle East TV For 05/25/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East

Australia: Hear no evil, see no evil, don't look hard and cover up the mess: An Australian military lawyer in Baghdad knew as early as October about allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraqi jails and had reported it to his superiors.

Burma tells US to 'stop lecturing': Burma's military leaders have said the United States must stop lecturing them about democracy.

Classmates on trial for 'torture' of pupil: The 11 pupils, aged between 16 and 18, went on trial yesterday, facing between them a 31-page list of charges that include beating, kicking and sexually humiliating their victim, identified only as Dieter, 18.

Chalabi 'boasted of Iranian spy link' : Iraqi accused by CIA made claim in 1997, says Scott Ritter.

Here's how Iran might triumph in Iraq: My plan is working well. When I, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the ruler of Iran, launched my plan to get you Americans to do our work for us - to destroy our personal enemy, Saddam Hussein, and also to destroy our historic enemy, the country of Iraq - I could only pray that my plan would work so quickly. Our weapon of mass destruction, of course, was Ahmad Chalabi.

New York Times: we were wrong on Iraq : The New York Times today issued an extraordinary mea culpa over its coverage of Iraq, admitting it had been misled about the presence of weapons of mass destruction by sources including the controversial Iraqi leader Ahmad Chalabi.

This Made Ashcroft Gag: Details of a Florida drug case may well shed light on the claims of an FBI translator who says the agency covered up evidence warning of the 9-11 attack.

U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors: The Department of Homeland Security is on the verge of awarding the biggest contract in its young history for an elaborate system that could cost as much as $15 billion and employ a network of databases to track visitors to the United States long before they arrive.

Green Card Recruits Get a Raw Deal, Critics Say : ”It was not speculative that he felt forced to participate in war crimes,” said Todd Ensign, one of Mejia's attorneys. ”He was there for five months, seeing these things first-hand. He had a duty under international law not to return to the Gulf.”

Poland to cut Iraq troops presence early next year: minister: Poland wants to "significantly reduce" its military presence in Iraq after next January

Phony "War on Terrorism" : The so-called "War on Terrorism" is predicated on the assumption that the attack of 9/11 was a simple wanton act of baseless terror, instead of a retaliatory attack against the United States for financing 50 years of the wholesale murder of Palestinians and theft of their land.

Democrats dodge anti-war bullets: The majority of Colorado Democrats at the party's state convention over the weekend rejected a resolution to bring American soldiers home from Iraq now.

Pakistan foils US bid to recruit security men for Iraq: Pakistan has closed down two illegal recruitment facilities in Lahore and Rawalpindi allegedly being used by some US civil and military contractors to recruit Pakistani ex-servicemen for non-combatant security operations in Iraq

Kissinger tape: Nixon too drunk to take call: Five days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, with the superpowers on the brink of confrontation, President Nixon was too drunk to discuss the crisis with the British prime minister, according to newly released transcripts of tape recordings.

Federal Court OKs Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law: A federal appeals court ordered the Bush administration not to meddle with a state's assisted suicide law, ruling today that doctors in Oregon may prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients.

Nevada Nuclear tests might resume : Local and national military watchdogs say all indications are that President Bush, if re-elected, would begin testing some types of nuclear weapons before the end of the decade at the NTS, located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas and upwind of Utah.

05/25/05:  Senior Iraqi Politician Assassinated in Kirkuk: A senior politician representing Iraq's minority Turkmen population was assassinated by gunmen late on Monday as he left his office in the tense Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.

Iraqi leader says plan from U.S. falls short :The president of the Iraqi Governing Council said that a proposed U.S.-British blueprint submitted to the United Nations for a postoccupation Iraq fell short of expectations.

Iraq: No ‘Sovereignty Lite’: "There is no such thing as ‘sovereignty lite.’ If the new Iraqi government doesn’t have ultimate authority and responsibility for the security of the Iraqi people, then it is not truly sovereign."

Reuters reveals details of journalists abused in Iraq: The account of what happened to the Reuters journalist and a fellow NBC cameraman at the military camp near Fallujah makes for shocking reading and paints a picture of widespread and systematic abuse of prisoners taken by US forces in Iraq.

Ex-U.S. Marine: I Killed Civilians in Iraq: Ex-Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey talks about his time in Iraq where he admitted the U.S. treatment of Iraqi civilians is fueling the Iraqi resistance. In a recent interview he said "I felt like we were committing genocide in Iraq." Audio and transcript

Soldier claims he was beaten as part of training at Guantanamo: A former military police officer said in a television interview broadcast Monday that he was severely beaten while posing as a detainee during a January 2003 training exercise at Guantanamo Bay.

Israeli Agents Believed Involved in Abu Ghraib: It was explained that the Israelis involved have been assigned as "civilian contractors" to work with Coalition forces in interrogating Iraqi POWs.

Sanchez to get his marching orders: An article in The Washington Post on Sunday quoted a military lawyer as saying that a captain at the jail was expected to testify that General Sanchez was at the prison during some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse"

Opposition grows against U.S. demand for war crimes prosecutions exemption : The United States faces growing opposition to its request for a new exemption for American peacekeepers from international prosecution for war crimes, with human rights groups arguing that it is not only illegal but unjustified in the face of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.

'Gaps and Discrepancies': In a letter obtained by NEWSWEEK, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee questions the 'candor and accuracy' of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller's testimony about Iraqi prisoner abuse

Still wrong : Somewhere there is a ticking timebomb, about to explode and kill several thousand innocent civilians. Is it at the airport? On a crowded train? Time is running out. If you torture the suspect - cut off his fingers, beat him, or slice open his nostrils - he may "crack" and tell you where the other bomb is. So, should you prepare to maim your prisoner in the search for the truth?

America's brutal culture of unseen oppression: The maltreatment of Iraqi detainees and Muslim "terrorists" dehumanises not just those who man the cages and take the callous photos, but also the society in whose name the cages were built and the guards recruited. The moral values of governments bear directly on the reputations of all citizens.

Andy Rooney: Our Darkest Days Are Here : In the history of the world, several great civilizations that seemed immortal have deteriorated and died. I don't want to seem dramatic tonight, but I've lived a long while, and for the first time in my life, I have this faint, faraway fear that it could happen to us here in America as it happened to the Greek and Roman civilizations.

US on path of self-destruction : Americans are blind to sane advice as they are power-hungry to the core. Is America on the fast lane of losing its sole authoritarian voice and military strength? We will wait for a decade or so. The Kalachakra is smiling at emerging powers China and India.

Zinni: Criticism of Iraq war not spurred by anti-Semitism: Retired General Anthony Zinni, the Bush administration's former envoy to the Middle East, charged this week that the administration launched the war in Iraq partly for Israel's sake.

Iraqis fail to regain control of oil revenue: The latest Iraqi attempts to recover control of the country's oil revenues from the United States appear to have hit a dead end with a special delegation being rebuffed in its bid to secure UN help.

Iraqis Say U.S. Soldiers Steal During House Raids: "It's a huge problem, almost everyone has something to say about gold, money and other valuables going missing and they don't believe they'll ever get them back,"

Her Son Was Told by the Recruiter He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: Seth, who had no training with explosives, was assigned to find enemy remote-controlled bombs. He would then call in experts to deactivate them.

US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war : An urgent investigation has been launched in Washington into whether Iran played a role in manipulating the US into the Iraq war by passing on bogus intelligence through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, it emerged yesterday.

Exit Chalabi: The diplomatic art of dumping friends : The fall from grace of Ahmad Chalabi, is being described as an error of judgment belatedly corrected. But this is not an isolated incident of the United States making a mistake in its choice of overseas friend, nor of deserting him.

Did the Washington Post Create Ahmed Chalabi: When Iraqi and US agents sift through documents and computer files from Thursday’s raid of Ahmed Chalabi’s home and Iraqi National Congress office in Baghdad, it’s likely that they will find plenty of communications with the Washington Post and New York Times.

In case you missed it: Revisited - The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq: Although completely unreported by the U.S. media and government, the answer to the Iraq enigma is simple yet shocking -- it is in large part an oil currency war.

Afghanistan, the war the world forgot: Three years after the overthrow of the Taliban and George Bush's declaration of victory in the first conflict in the war on terror, Afghanistan is a nation on the edge of anarchy.

Mosaic: World News Reports FromThe Middle East TV For 05/25/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East

40 die in trail of devastation: Residents here are surveying the devastation from a week-long Israeli offensive which left more than 40 people dead and scores of homes destroyed. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that more than 1650 Rafah residents were homeless.

Uri Avnery: All This...for What?: The Rape of Rafah: What evil spirit possessed the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff to start a big military operation in a territory that the army is supposed to leave at any moment?

They must pay the price : On a day when bodies of children were being stuffed into a big refrigerator used to store potatoes, and when thousands of homeless people were fleeing for their lives, life in Israel went on as usual, as though what was happening in Rafah was not being done in the name of the country's citizens.

U.S. Congressman Lantos defends IDF raid on Rafah: A visiting U.S. Democratic legislator on Monday defended Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza.

Iraq and the Christian Zionists: To understand what is happening in the Middle East, wrote George Monbiot in The Guardian of London recently, you must first understand what is happening in the U.S., where evangelical Christians are driving President Bush's policies.

In Line for the Rapture: It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists

Oregon Lawyer Speaks Out About His Ordeal : For the first time since his arrest, Brandon Mayfield spoke of the humiliation he underwent as he sat for two weeks in jail, falsely suspected of being involved in the Spain terrorist attacks.

Fascism "can't happen here": Americans labor under the delusion that fascism "can't happen here" because of the nation's history as an open, democratic society.

Go to Hell, Bush!!! : Bush is as insane as Hitler was. Recent articles have confirmed this. Those articles reveal Bush sees himself as a great Christian warrior in Armageddon. It is evident every time he speaks about the axis of evil.

US journalists face credibility gap: How financial pressures affect journalists

Of Rats and Men: For some time, right-wing commentators have been watching troubled waters slop over the gunwale of our foundering ship of state. They are finally deserting. Their collective retreat to safety and sanity began like all nervous stampedes: just a few scurrying tails, rapidly swelling to a me-too swarm.

Case Reveals Nuts and Bolts of Nuclear Network, Officials Say: As they race to dismantle a global black market in nuclear weapons components, U.S. authorities are focusing on an unusual case: an Orthodox Jew from Israel accused of trying to sell nuclear weapons parts to a business associate in Islamic Pakistan.

UN troops buy sex from teenage refugees in Congo camp: Teenage rape victims fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being sexually exploited by the United Nations peace-keeping troops sent to the stop their suffering

More Prisons Make Inmates Pay for Stay: In some places, inmates are charged for their stay while they are still behind bars; other places bill them after they get out.

05/24/04: 32 Killed as U.S. forces storm mosque : In a major push, U.S. forces killed at least 32 backers of renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in fierce fighting in Kufa Sunday.

Four Killed in Baghdad Explosion : An explosion destroyed a civilian car with armor plating Monday near an entrance to the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition, killing four people. The British Foreign Office said two of the dead were British citizens.

1 Norwegian soldier killed, another injured in Kabul rocket attack : A rocket attack on an international peacekeepers' vehicle in the Afghan capital killed one Norwegian soldier and wounded another Sunday, Norway's Defence Ministry said.

U.S. Text on Iraq Gives Troops Control of Security : The U.S. and U.K. presented a resolution to the United Nations Security Council that, while granting Iraqis ``governing authority'' by June 30, gives U.S. military forces full control over the nation's security.

U.N. Iraq Draft Gives No Exit Date for Foreign Force: A new U.S.-British drafted U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing sovereignty for an Iraqi caretaker government approves the presence of the U.S.-led force there but sets no date for the troops to leave.

If June 30 handover goes badly, it could mean mission failure in Iraq: ``We're going to be there no matter what,'' Gen. John Abizaid, commander of American troops in the Middle East, told Congress.

'Wedding video' clouds US denials: Videotape which purports to show before-and-after footage of a wedding which Iraqis say the US bombed, killing about 40.

'I will always hate you people' : Family's fury at mystery death: Dr Izmerly's sudden death after 10 months in American custody left his family stunned. The family commissioned an independent Iraqi autopsy. Its conclusion was unambiguous: Dr Izmerly had died because of a "sudden hit to the back of his head"

Abuse Suspected in Iraqi General's Death: After stating last year that the man had died of a heart attack during interrogation, the Pentagon has ruled it a homicide.

Afghan Deaths Linked to Unit at Iraq Prison: A military intelligence unit that oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was also in charge of questioning at a detention center in Afghanistan where two prisoners died in December 2002 in incidents that are being investigated as homicides.

Some U.S. prison contractors may avoid charges: The U.S. civilian interrogators questioning prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq work not under a military contract but on one from the Department of the Interior, a bureaucratic twist that could complicate any effort to hold them criminally responsible for abuse of detainees or other offenses.

Closing in on Tenet: The Senate may deliver a harsh assesment of the CIA director. 'Another big stack of pages is causing concern over at the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is investigating abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. The report they got after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's testimony on May 7 had at least 2,000 pages missing.

Abu Ghraib is a blow to human rights across globe : The first victims of U.S. prison abuse at Abu Ghraib were Iraqis. But those who will pay a price also live in Libya and Hong Kong, Venezuela and Burma, and anywhere else human rights are in jeopardy.

Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt: Report and documentation: Revelations by Swedish TV4 in a documentary, "The broken promise", on 17 May 2004 showed that the expulsion of two men - ordered by the Cabinet - to Egypt on 18 December 2001 was carried out by hooded US agents.

Zinni on What Went Wrong: In the wake of Gen. Anthony Zinni's 60 Minutes appearance, it is worth looking in detail at his recent essay on what went wrong.

Prison Torture Scam Is Tipping Point In The Anglo- American Occupation Of Iraq: The dramatic collapse of the Bush Administration’s moral authority, as illustrated by the hideous treatment of the Iraqi detainees, coincided with the failure of its military machine to impose its will on the Sunni city of Falluja, or to capture or kill al Sadr.

Susan Sontag: What have we done? : You ask yourself how someone can grin at the sufferings and humiliation of another human being - drag a naked Iraqi man along the floor with a leash? force shackled hooded prisoners to masturbate or commit sexual acts with each other? beat prisoners to death? - people do these things to other people. Not just in Nazi concentration camps and in Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam Hussein. Americans, too, do them when they have permission.

Iraq war's costs spiral beyond 1991 Gulf War: The price of the bloodier-than-predicted war and occupation of Iraq is nearing twice that of the 1991 Gulf War, and the economic consequences are complex and far-reaching, analysts have said.

The myth of the reluctant occupier: Iraq is a strategic prize in the Arab world with huge reserves of oil. America will stay put.

Saudi Envoy: Iraq War Was 'Colonial' and About Oil : The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a colonial war and there were some in the United States who saw it as a means of getting their hands on Iraqi oil, a senior Saudi ambassador was quoted as saying Monday.

Michael Berg: Let Those Who Love Nick Berg Demand an End to War, Violence : People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son’s tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: “Don’t you blame the five men who killed him?” I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration,

The Covert Kingdom: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Texas: Tens of millions of hardworking, earnest American Christians see a war, the goal of which is complete world conquest, or put in Christian terminology, “dominion.” They will have no less than the “inevitable victory God has promised his new chosen people,”

Conquest Games: Just when Iraq gets ugly, neocons talk of taking over the world

Survey of voters in 3 states shows support of war slips: When President Bush first ordered American troops to Iraq, Janis Sanders was behind him. But a year later, with her 23-year-old soldier son expected to be sent there, Sanders has changed her mind about the military mission

Australia: Big drop in war support, despite PM's reassurances: Support for the Iraq war and occupation has plummeted, with a clear majority believing the conflict was not justified despite an address on the issue last week by the Prime Minister, John Howard.

Conservatives' anger over US line in Iraq : Conservative pundits in Denmark, once strenuous defenders of American policy in Iraq, are now openly criticizing the United States, following reports of the widespread torture and humiliation of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison.

'Its best use is as a doorstop' : Brian Whitaker explains why a book packed with sweeping generalisations about Arabs carries so much weight with both neocons and military in the US.

Thousands of Palestinians bury 23 killed in Rafah: Thousands of angry Palestinian mourners on Monday buried 23 of those killed by Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza town of Rafah during a large-scale operation carried out since last Tuesday.

A story about generals : On the face of it, this is a story about 14-year-old Mohammed Shaqfa from Block O in Rafah, whose house was destroyed by an IDF bulldozer on May 13. One of some 70 homes completely demolished in two days there.

Sudan's Darfur crisis prompts calls for world to act: The last week has brought warnings of mass starvation, reminders of widespread human rights atrocities, accusations of ceasefire violations, veiled threats of United Nations sanctions, and a call for international military action.

05/23/04 : 34 Killed In Bloody Overnight Clashes: U.S. air strikes and fighting between U.S. troops and Shi'ite militia around the Iraqi shrine city of Najaf have killed at least 34 people overnight and wounded dozens, hospital staff and the U.S. military say.

U.S. military says it killed 32 militiamen in Iraqi city of Kufa: U.S. troops battled fighters loyal to a radical Muslim cleric in his stronghold of Kufa, and at least 32 insurgents and three civilians were killed, the military and witnesses said.

Five Iraqis killed in Basra mortar attack: Five Iraqis, including two children, were killed by a mortar attack in Basra, a medic in the southern port city said.

Top General Witnessed Prison Abuse : A military lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case stated that a captain at the prison said the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq was present during some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," according to a recording of a military hearing obtained by The Washington Post.

U.S. Denies Report That General Saw Abuse: The U.S. military command on Sunday denied a report that the top U.S. general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and witnessed some of the abuse of Iraqi inmates.

Marines admit abuse at second prison : While world attention was focused on the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, two Marines were court-martialed May 14 for abusing an Iraqi prisoner with electricity, it was disclosed yesterday.

Prisoner was beaten and left to die: A military investigator has concluded that low-ranking Marines repeatedly struck two defenseless Iraqis at a makeshift prison camp last June, and one of the detainees died after he was left disabled and naked under a scorching sun.

'Spray and slay': are American troops out of control in Iraq?: 'The Independent on Sunday' has uncovered proof of US troops deliberately and indiscriminately shooting civilians. Here we examine new evidence that suggests the lawlessness in the American military was never confined to the prison camps and torture rooms but extended to the streets and homes of Iraq

Iraq: The Wedding Party Massacre: The villagers from the tiny desert community of Makr al-Deeb were fast asleep, exhausted after a day spent celebrating a wedding. By the time the bombing had stopped and the advancing GIs had finished marauding and shooting their way through the remains of the village, the Americans had killed at least 42 innocent people.

The Marine's tale: 'We killed 30 civilians in six weeks. I felt we were committing genocide': During 12 years in the US Marines, including three years putting new recruits through boot camp, Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey hardly questioned his role. But what he saw in Iraq changed that.

Ordinary Iraqis killed: 11,500 and not counting: America and Britain have not only declined to count the number of civilians killed, but have obstructed any attempts to discover the total. The Iraqi Health Ministry tried to collect data on deaths several months ago, but was ordered to stop.

Brutal interrogation in Iraq: Brutal interrogation techniques by U.S. military personnel are being investigated in connection with the deaths of at least five Iraqi prisoners in war-zone detention camps.

Skipped autopsies in Iraq revealed: Autopsies were not performed on at least five Iraqi prisoners who died of mysterious causes at Abu Ghraib prison and other detention camps, according to Pentagon records. And the lack of forensic investigations may conflict with international standards, including the Geneva Conventions, for the handling of war-detainee deaths.

In a world gone mad!:U.S. Disputed Protected Status of Iraq Inmates: Presented last fall with a detailed catalog of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, the American military responded on Dec. 24 with a confidential letter asserting that many Iraqi prisoners were not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Professor Denounced for POW Memo for Bush : Some graduating University of California law students used their commencement Saturday to denounce a professor who helped the Bush administration develop a legal framework that critics say led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

New allegations of systematic abuse of Iraqis by British troops: Evidence that soldiers of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment carried out systematic torture of Iraqi civilians under the direction of an officer is to be put before the High Court.

UK memo slams American tactics: A leaked memo from Britain's foreign ministry has blasted "heavy-handed" tactics by the US military in Iraq and soldiers' abuse of prisoners.

Iraqis lose right to sue troops over war crimes: British and American troops are to be granted immunity from prosecution in Iraq after the crucial 30 June handover, undermining claims that the new Iraqi government will have 'full sovereignty' over the state.

Noam Chomsky Interview: If George Bush were to be judged by the standards of the Nuremberg Tribunals, he'd be hanged. Video and transcript

When War is Swell: Bush's Crusades and the Carlyle Group: Amid the wreckage, there remain opportunities for profit and plunder. Halliburton and Bechtel's triumphs in Iraq have been chewed over for months. Less well chronicled is the profiteering of the Carlyle Group, a company with ties that extend directly into the Oval Office itself.

In case you missed it: Exposed: The Carlyle Group: A Must Watch Documentary. I defy you to watch this 48 minute documentary and not be outraged about the depth of corruption and deceit within the highest ranks of our government and the first family.

UK: Bush is a war criminal, Livingstone tells rally: Ken Livingstone yesterday demanded that President Bush be prosecuted for war crimes over Iraq in an outburst bound to embarrass Tony Blair.

Unit Prepares Fallen Troops for the Journey Home: Marine mortuary unit performs the difficult duty of returning comrades' remains.

Rumsfeld bans camera phones: MOBILE phones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The Business newspaper reported today.

Will Iraq's new prime minister have a country to run? : Within a matter of days, the identity of the man the allies have chosen to run Iraq after 30 June will be revealed. There are three ways that the fractured nation could go

Gen. Zinni: 'They've Screwed Up': Accusing top Pentagon officials of "dereliction of duty," retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni says staying the course in Iraq isn't a reasonable option.

Bill Clinton attacks Bush over Iraq: Bill Clinton said yesterday that the UN, not America, should be taking Iraq towards democracy, and that George Bush erred in forcing out UN weapons inspectors and going to war without UN support.

In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime: Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience: Six of the new young hires found themselves managing the country's $13 billion budget, making decisions affecting millions of Iraqis.

UK insists it will boycott trial if Saddam faces death penalty: Britain's near-total support for the United States' policy in Iraq is about to break down over the question of whether Saddam Hussein and other senior members of the Baath party should face execution.

Saudi prince says the kingdom is at a crossroads: A letter was sent to President George W. Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. The letter, "quite plainly told President Bush that we are coming to a fork in the road. We can either cross that fork together and move in one direction, or we can separate," said Faisal.

Eleven Letters Honor POW's Hidden Wound: Brother Sought Inclusion On Wall After Pilot Came Home and Killed Himself

Dozens killed in Kashmir blast: Twenty-eight people, including 19 Indian soldiers have been killed and several others injured after their bus blew up in a landmine explosion in Kashmir.

Palestinians still unable to bury Rafah dead: The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has urged Israel to give relatives permission to leave Tel al-Sultan for the burials. But so far the families have been unable to do so.

Rafah Today: "Ghosts Town." That is simply what Rafah looks like these days. Enormous destruction and devastation all around. Markets and shops are still closed in mourning, tents are spread in different parts, schools are closed, there is no food, water or medicine. Warning: Report includes graphic images

Official Compares Israeli Action to Nazi's : An Israeli Cabinet minister on Sunday said the army's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip reminded him of actions the Nazis took against his family during World War II and called for a halt to the policy of destroying homes.

Homes Destroyed, Death Toll Mounts: Where's Kerry?: Even if he turns out to be the second worst president in US history, John F. Kerry will still be better than our sitting president. At least many liberal and progressive Americans are stating as much in order to justify their support for the leading Democrat.

U.N.: 128 Palestinians killed last 30 days: "The statistics make grim reading," said U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast. "The Israeli army demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes, in breach of its obligations under international law," he said.

IDF troops raid UN office in Jenin: Israel Defense Forces troops raided the office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the West Bank town of Jenin, threatened a UN official and detained him for three hours, an UNRWA statement said Sunday.

Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers: "If we have “returned to Zion” in order to subjugate, humiliate, and dispossess its indigenous inhabitants then we have turned our backs on our religious obligations and should cooperate with this evil enterprise no longer."

Suspicious moving van prompt Kings Bay lockdown: Military officials locked down Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base for security reasons after two Israeli men were detained for questioning.

US isolated as Russia moves to back Kyoto: President George Bush's bid to stop international action to combat global warming faces failure this weekend, as he is left more isolated than ever before both at home and abroad.

Critics Galvanized by Oregon Lawyer's Case: His arrest and release in the Madrid bombings show that the U.S. ignores civil liberties in pursuit of terrorists, some legal experts say.

Bush's super fundraisers join the queue for favours: Since 1998, Bush has raised at least $296 million (£175m) in campaign contributions. It is believed up to half of that huge sum has come from just 630 people.

Working...And Poor: In today's cutthroat job market, the bottom rung is as high as most workers will ever get. But the political will to help them seems a long way off

05/22/04: Ugandan rebel attack kills 41: The attack was attributed to the Lord's Resistance Army, an eccentric Christian group with no clear objectives except to discredit Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni

5 Afghans killed; 4 from U.S. hurt: 2 policemen among the victims in clashes; meanwhile, Pakistan decries U.S. incursion.

Blast in Baghdad kills five: The blast damaged the home of Abdul-Jabbar Youssef al-Sheikhli, one of three deputy interior ministers and a member of the Shi'ite Muslim Dawa party. A ministry official, said al-Sheikhli was not seriously injured.

Military Has 8 New Death Cases in Iraq : The Pentagon said Friday the military has undertaken 33 criminal investigations of deaths of detainees held by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — eight more cases than it had reported two weeks ago.

Abu Ghraib: inmates raped, ridden like animals, and forced to eat pork: Just when it appeared the shockwaves of the scandal might be levelling off, the new details sent fresh outrage around the Arab world and further rocked the Bush administration - already floundering after a week in which US forces killed dozens of guests at a wedding party in Iraq, having mistaken them for insurgents.

US general linked to Abu Ghraib abuse : Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, head of coalition forces in Iraq, issued an order last October giving military intelligence control over almost every aspect of prison conditions at Abu Ghraib with the explicit aim of manipulating the detainees' "emotions and weaknesses"

Continuing the Cover-Up?: A witness who told ABCNEWS he believed the military was covering up the extent of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was today stripped of his security clearance and told he may face prosecution because his comments were "not in the national interest."

Elite force threatened detainees with drowning and suffocation; Rumsfeld knew about the tactics

Soldier quits over nude shower pics: A US Army captain accused of taking nude photographs of female soldiers as they showered while on duty at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has resigned to avoid a court-martial.

Iraq: The Picture Gets Worse : Two pictures put up in an internet café in Baghdad make for a vivid statement how Iraqis have come to see U.S. occupiers. One shows a woman in the United States hugging her dog. A second shows a hooded Iraqi prisoner sitting on the ground, hands tied behind his back. A soldier holds a gun to his head.

The good news about Abu Ghraib: I cannot imagine a follower of Christ looking for legal loopholes out of the Geneva Conventions. I cannot imagine a follower of Christ’s teachings using foreign aid to pressure other countries to sign agreements not to try U.S. Citizens in the International Criminal Court.

Recognize Bush's lies; show world we disagree: I look out at a world in dire need of a U.S. president who is compassionate and wise and loving and bright, and then I think of what we've got: a Yee! Ha! reactionary who has no conscience or common sense and is prone to tell lies. A man who yells "Bring it on!" to the whole wide world right before our eyes.

Is torturing war prisoners a betrayal of U.S. values?: James Inhofe, the Oklahoma senator, may still believe that the only practitioners of degradation and torture in the U.S. military were seven isolated misfits at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. However, stories suggesting something much different continue to pile up:

Video of wedding attack shows survivors sifting through debris: Fragments of musical instruments, tufts of women's hair, and a large blood stain are among the scenes in Associated Press Television News film of a destroyed house that survivors say U.S. planes bombed during a wedding party.

Can Iraq Get Any Worse?: The sad answer is, yes. After the June 30 hand-off, the lines of authority could become less clear in Iraq. There will be a caretaker government supposedly composed of non-politicos. How much leeway will the new government provide the US forces? After the recent "wedding party" attack, will these Iraqi leaders permit the US to strike at will?

US force 'risks catastrophe': Richard Lugar, right, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticised the Bush Administration and Congress for failing to take diplomatic and economic steps to deter terrorism and focusing on military force instead.

'I have not killed but, God willing, I soon will': Julius Strauss meets the Mahdi army as it takes on American forces in and around the Shia holy city of Najaf

Juan Cole: A Shiite International?: In his unwise decision to try to get Muqtada al-Sadr dead or alive and to send GIs into Shiite holy places with heavy firepower, Bush is in the process of turning the Shiite world decisively against the US and perhaps creating new centers of anti-American paramilitary action.

Over 200,000 rally against attacks on Iraq holy sites : Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims, mostly supporters of the militant Hezbollah, turned out in Beirut Friday in a massive show meant as a strong warning to the United States against attacking holy sites in Iraq.

Anti-US demonstrations shake Bahrain: Bahrain's interior minister has been sacked after police attacked protesters angry at the presence of US-led forces in Shia Muslim holy cities in Iraq.

Trucks made to drive without cargo in dangerous areas of Iraq: Twelve current and former truckers said that they risked their lives driving empty trucks while their employer, a subsidiary of Halliburton Inc., billed the government for hauling what they derisively called "sailboat fuel."

Jordan Tip Exposed Chalabi As Israeli Spy: An explosive dossier that the Jordanian monarch recently brought with him to White House sessions with President Bush detailed Mafia-style extortion rackets and secret information on U.S. military operations being passed to Iran, diplomats said. Background on Chalabi

Chalabi raid leads to civil war? : Former Pentagon official thinks 'Bremer has gone mad'

Agency: Chalabi group was front for Iran: "Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States through Chalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Program information to provoke the United States into getting rid of Saddam Hussein," said an intelligence source Friday who was briefed on the Defense Intelligence Agency's conclusions

History's Fools: In the wake of Iraq, the term "neo-conservative" may come to mean "dangerous innocence about world realities"

Israeli forces kill 3 year old Palestinian child: : Rawan Abu Zaid was shot twice in the head in her home in Rafah's Brazil neighbourhood on Saturday

West Bank Suicide Bombing Injures Four: A suicide bomber blew himself up at a West Bank army checkpoint on Saturday, injuring an Israeli soldier and three Palestinians, military sources said.

Some of the bodies were put two to a box: For some 20 minutes, ambulances with loud sirens were either reversing out the yard or trying to enter and off-load the wounded - many of them children, some unconscious, one conscious and crying

A Policy of Silence Amid Slaughter: Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza: The Western world and the U.S., champions of human rights and freedom, regularly witnessing with silence Israeli bulldozers, tanks and helicopter gunships tearing Palestinian houses and Palestinian bodies.

An old refrain that stabs the heart : The sights of Rafah are too difficult to bear - trails of refugees alongside carts laden with bedding and the meagre contents of their homes; children dragging suitcases larger than themselves; women, draped in black, kneeling in mourning on piles of rubble

Mosaic: Middle East TV News Reports For 05/21/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. Providing American viewers with rare insight into the diversity of Middle East perspectives.

Libya Withdraws from Arab Summit Over Agenda: Libya withdrew from an Arab summit in Tunis on Saturday in protest at the agenda and at the Arab League's failure to take up Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's proposal for a single Israeli-Palestinian state.

Turks question alliance with Israel after Gaza carnage: Turkish PM Erdogan leads army of critics condemning as ‘state terror’ killings of civilians in Rafah.

International Response to the Bush Declaration on the Palestinian Right to Return: Note: The following is an international response to the declaration made by President George W. Bush on vital issues regarding the Palestinian people, particularly their right to return. On May 15, 2004, this response will be sent to all members of the United Nations General Assembly and other relevant parties.

Beheading suspects 'led by Saddam's nephew' : The mystery of who killed Nick Berg, the freelance contractor beheaded on video, took a new twist last night when Iraqi police claimed they had arrested four suspects with links to Saddam Hussein's family.

Terry Jones: This week: : Tony Blair tells us that we should do everything we can to support America. And I agree. It's difficult to think of anyone who has inflicted more harm on Americans than their current president. Since he assumed the title of most powerful man in the world, 4 million Americans have lost their health insurance and 2 million jobs have disappeared. According to a CNN report, "half of all Americans are living from paycheque to paycheque - effectively one paycheque away from poverty".

Kansas soldier: Government ill-prepared to help wounded Iraq vets: Atherton was treated in hospitals in Kuwait and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. While he was learning to live with one arm, he also was trying to figure out how to get by on less money, the difference between the Army payroll and the Veterans Affairs disability payroll.

Gordon Prather: Gulf War III: American Likudniks have been "examining" the consequences to our national security of an Israeli "pre-emptive" strike against certain Iranian facilities and programs.

Frontline: The Jesus Factor: "The day he was inaugurated there were several of us who met with him at the governor's mansion," says Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "And among the things he said to us was, 'I believe that God wants me to be president." View the full program online

Perverts, Voyeurs & Peeping Toms: A short history of the Republican Party: If Republicans want to crow about morality, we normal people might even consider listening to them--if they were to become inwardly as well as outwardly moral.

Conservative leader blames gays for Iraqi prison abuse : A conservative leader has pinned blame for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the subsequent beheading of businessman Nick Berg on gays getting married and serving in the military

Russert subpoenaed in CIA leak probe: NBC News said Friday night that it would oppose a subpoena issued to Washington bureau chief Tim Russert by the federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA operative last year.

House OKs bill to let U.S. soldiers guard border: The House on Thursday passed a defense authorization bill, which includes a provision that would let U.S. troops join with U.S. Border Patrol agents in guarding the nation's borders with Canada and Mexico.

05/21/04: 18 Killed In Iraqi City Of Karbala: Much of the fighting was near the city's Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines, which U.S. forces allege are being used by militiamen as firing positions or protective cover. Mansoor said the shrines were not damaged.

Jazeera Newsman among 10 killed in Clashes in Iraq: Al Jazeera said on Friday one of its employees was killed overnight in clashes between U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The Qatar-based news network also demanded the U.S. Army conduct a full and quick investigation into the death of 38-year-old Rashid Hamid Wali.

U.S. Bombing Kills Three Afghan Civilians-Mayor: At least three Afghan civilians have been killed and several more wounded in a U.S. air attack in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost, an official said on Friday.

'US soldiers started to shoot us, one by one' : Survivors describe wedding massacre as generals refuse to apologise

One incident. Forty dead. Two stories. What really happened?: Another blanket is opened; inside are the bodies of a mother and child. The child, six or seven years old, is lying against his or her mother, as if seeking comfort. But the child has no head.

Lies about crimes: When Iraqis are blown apart in Baghdad by a car bomb, or Israelis in Haifa by a suicide bomber, these are instantly and correctly labelled as terrorist attacks. However when American helicopters or Israeli tanks cause death to innocent civilians on a similar scale, there is always an alternative version on offer.

Video From Abu Ghraib Prison : Images in this video may be disturbing because of their violent or graphic nature.

Videos Amplify Picture of Violence : The new pictures and videos go beyond the photos previously released to the public in several ways, amplifying the overt violence against detainees and displaying a variety of abusive techniques previously unseen.

Photo Gallery: Images obtained by The Washington Post reveal more about treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge : Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets.

Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees: These documents are the offical English translations of previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. : Some of the descriptions in these statements may be disturbing because of their sexually explicit or graphic nature.

'Contract interrogators hired to avoid supervision' : Several high-ranking mili-tary legal officers believe the Pentagon used private contractors to interrogate prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in a deliberate attempt to obscure aggressive practices from congressional or military oversight

Reuters Stands by Iraq Abuse Reports, Releases Timeline on Incident

New front in Iraq detainee abuse scandal?: The target is a top-secret site near Baghdad’s airport. The battlefield interrogation facility known as the “BIF” In the BIF’s six interrogation rooms, Delta Force soldiers routinely drug prisoners, hold a prisoner under water until he thinks he’s drowning, or smother them almost to suffocation.

Mosaic: World TV News Reports From The Middle East For 05/20/04: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. QuickTime Video. A Must Watch

Australia Probes Alleged U.S. Jail Abuse : Australia is investigating allegations that the United States abused two Australian terror suspects, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.

Chalabi: America's 'Best Friend' A Spy?: Senior U.S. officials told 60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl that they have evidence Chalabi has been passing highly-classified U.S. intelligence to Iran.

In case you missed it: 02/19/04: Ahmad Chalabi and His Iranian Connection: The United States is struggling over the question of how U.S. intelligence was so deeply mistaken about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. One of the points that is consistently brought up is that much of the intelligence flowed through the Iraqi National Council, an opposition group led by Ahmad Chalabi. It is now well known that Chalabi's sources were not ideal. What is less well known is the close, long-term relationship that Chalabi, a favorite of Washington's, had with Iran.

One Day, Cock Of The Walk, The Next a Feather Duster: Pentagon protege humiliated as US and Iraqi police raid Baghdad villa. "I am America's best friend in Iraq. If the coalition provisional authority finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home, you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people."

Martin and Malcolm, Chalabi and Muqtada: An informed Iraqi Shiite writes: " Chalabi is setting himself up to be Martin Luther King to Muqtada's Malcolm X. I predict he will head to Najaf soon to mediate."

FBI Issues Homeland Suicide Bomber Warning: The FBI is warning law enforcement agencies to be on the alert for the possibility that suicide bombers may attempt to strike inside the United States.

American linked to Madrid blasts freed : An American lawyer held for alleged links to the Madrid train bombings has been freed after evidence against him was found to be false.

Michael Berg: George Bush never looked into Nick's eyes: Even more than the murderers who took my son's life, I condemn those who make policies to end lives

Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Needs to Watch the Berg Video: This man in the White House, for whom war appears to be no more real than a video game, for whom war's toll, blood and death, brings forth teenage outbursts of "Bring 'em on!"; this man does not understand the horror of war, the sick violence that is begat and unleashed.

Berg beheading: No way, say medical experts: According to both a leading surgical authority and a noted forensic expert who spoke to Asia Times Online, the video depicting the decapitation of American businessman Nicholas Berg at the hands of Muslim radicals appears to have been staged. And Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who US officials claim did the killing, was himself in all likelihood killed long before the video was made.

John Pilger Interview: "Trail of blood" : "Nothing more vividly sums up the horrific situation in Iraq than what happened on Wednesday of this week when American helicopters attacked a wedding party in the west of Iraq killing 40 mostly women and children, a massacre. How long is the world going to stand for this? When I say the world I'm talking about civilized humanity." Audio and transcript. A must listen

Chris Floyd: Global Eye: We should never lose sight of one simple fact: Deep down, these guys are nothing but cheap hoods, two-bit chiselers hustling for loot, thug-brained goons with no more grandeur about them than the meanest pack of Mafia knee-breakers. Two recent stories, both obscured by the blood and thunder of the Iraqi crack-up, illustrate this ugly truth.

A line has been crossed : Yesterday's front page describing the crimes of the US military in Iraq and the Israeli military in Palestine denote for me, late in the day, a crossing of the Rubicon. These are not "military actions", but crimes against humanity. The occupations in both cases have no basis in law. They amount to the brutal repression of civilian populations.

Violence still breeding violence: So it's a sad, sad irony that the two most dangerous believers today in war as an instrument of foreign policy are both democracies, the US and Israel. And both justify their militarism with the spurious claim that they are defending themselves, that killing saves lives - very much in the tone of George Orwell's 1984 newspeak, war is peace.

Molly Ivins: How fascism starts: It's pretty easy to get to the point where you don't want to hear any more about Abu Ghraib prison and what went on there. But there are some really good reasons why Americans should take a look at why this happened.

A call to conscience: The diplomat who quit over Nixon's invasion of Cambodia asks Americans on the front lines of foreign service to resign from the "worst regime by far in the history of the republic."

Bush: Dumb Like A Bullet: Is Dubya both a bumbling simpleton *and* a shrewd manipulator who smirked at tortures in Iraq?

Scott Ritter: Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache

Palestinian doctors despair at rising toll of children shot dead by Israeli army snipers : The tiny hole buried under Asma Mughayar's thick black hair, just above her right ear, is an illusion, according to the Israeli army. But their corpses tell a different story, as do the bodies of other children brought to Rafah's hospital and makeshift mortuaries even before yesterday's carnage

ICRC calls on Israel to respect international humanitarian law: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday urged Israel to respect the rules of international humanitarian law as its three-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip left a trail of death and destruction in the Rafah camp.

Genocide By Public Policy: "Unable to recover from the Holocaust trauma and the insecurity it caused, the Jewish people, the ultimate victim of genocide, is currently inflicting a symbolic genocide upon the Palestinian people…What is symbolic genocide?

Omar Barghouti: No More Tears: An Open Letter to the American Public: Your country is way too powerful now for anyone to have the guts to drag it to the international criminal court, where most of your leaders ought to stand trial; but if Rome is any example, I would not take solace in that transient strength. You have a clear moral, legal and political obligation to change your country's course.

Israeli court convicts resistance leader: In a classic trial of the "occupied" by the "occupier", a Tel Aviv court on Thursday convicted imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghuthi on five accounts of murder.

Reuters death 'due' to U.S. military flaws: In an extensive report on the death of cameraman Mazen Dana, Reuters said the tragedy was preventable and rejected the findings of a U.S. Army investigation that the shooting was justified.

GI: Boy mistreated to get dad to talk: A military intelligence analyst who recently completed duty at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said Wednesday that the 16-year-old son of a detainee there was abused by U.S. soldiers to break his father's resistance to interrogators.

Pentagon's Feith in the eye of another storm: Although it will take weeks, if not months, to sort out precisely who was responsible for what increasingly appears to have been the systemic abuse by US soldiers of Iraqi detainees, it should be no surprise if Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith is found to have played an important role.

George W. Bush and his millionaire supporters don't know the meaning of the word shame: If, say, the Chinese came in to rescue us--Operation American Freedom--how long would any of us, left-wing or right, put up with an occupying army teaching us Chinese-style democracy?

Italian MPs reject Iraq pull-out: Correspondents say there is growing public pressure for a withdrawal of the Italian contingent, the third largest force in the US-led coalition.

More U.S. troops will likely be required in Iraq after handover : For months, U.S. officials have warned that the insurgency in Iraq would grow deadliest as the June 30 political transition drew near. Now, they're warning the violence might get even worse once the handover is completed.

House Approves $422 Billion Defense Bill : The House voted 259-162 to delay base closings, now set for next year, by two years. Within minutes. the White House issued a statement repeating that the defense secretary would recommend the president veto any bill that ``weakens, delays or repeals'' the base closing authority.

Senate OKs $5.6B for Chemical Defense : The Senate, on a 99-0 vote, approved "Project BioShield" legislation to pay for research, production and stockpiling of vaccines and antidotes for bioterror agents. The House already has approved the legislation, and lawmakers on both sides say they hope to soon have it to President Bush for his signature.

Denied Entrance to Bush Event in Dubuque: On May 7, George W. Bush came to Dubuque to speak at the convention center. It was billed as a public event, but it was anything but. Only self-proclaimed Bush supporters could get in. Republican organizers excluded even a World War II vet and the former commander of the local American Legion chapter.

Army does about-face on call-up readiness : Thousands of recent U.S. Army veterans nationwide were told to choose by Monday a new assignment in the Army Reserve or National Guard -- meaning a potential return to active duty -- or the military would decide for them. The Army now says the order was a mistake.

A world watches our shame

Who let bin Ladens leave U.S.?: The Bush administration has refused to answer repeated requests from the Sept. 11 commission about who authorized flights of Saudi Arabian citizens, including members of Osama bin Laden’s family, from the United States immediately after the attacks of 2001.

You Can't Mock the President or Say "Balls": The Most Important Thing I Learned in School This Year

05/20/04:  5 US soldiers killed in Iraq: Attacks in central Baghdad, Samara, Miqdadiya, Al-Anbar claim lives of more US troops.

More Photos Surface: Spc. Charles Graner and Spc. Sabrina Harman posing over the body of a detainee who was allegedly beaten to death by CIA or civilian interrogators in the prison's showers. The detainee's name was Manadel al-Jamadi.

U.S. to Investigate Iraqi Inmate's Death : The Justice Department is investigating the death of an Abu Ghraib prison detainee whose body, packed in ice, is documented in photos that also show two American soldiers posing nearby with thumbs up, a U.S. official said Thursday.

Shamed: A Panorama Special reports on the scale of the abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere. Jane Corbin investigates who had command responsibility for American and British forces implicated in this scandal and asks which officers, diplomats and politicians knew what, when. Video

Brutal interrogation in Iraq: Brutal interrogation techniques by U.S. military personnel are being investigated in connection with the deaths of at least five Iraqi prisoners in war-zone detention camps, Pentagon documents obtained by The Denver Post show.

'They made us break law' : A US army infantryman who grew morally opposed to the war after six months of fierce combat in Iraq was brought before a court martial for desertion yesterday, in a case that has become a talisman for America's peace movement.

Shocking Details on Abuse of Reuters Staffers in Iraq : "It should be noted that the bulk of their mistreatment -- including their humiliating interrogations and the mental and physical torment of the first night which all agreed was the worst part of their ordeal -- occurred several hours AFTER I had informed the 82nd Airborne Division that they were Reuters staff. I have e-mail proof of this."

The women prisoners: : The scandal at Abu Ghraib prison was first exposed not by a digital photograph but by a letter. In December 2003, a woman prisoner inside the jail west of Baghdad managed to smuggle out a note. Its contents were so shocking that, at first, Amal Kadham Swadi and the other Iraqi women lawyers who had been trying to gain access to the US jail found them hard to believe.

3 CIA cases to Justice : The CIA has sent three cases to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution against agency personnel accused of involvement in the deaths of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Justice official said.

US seeks war crimes exemption extension: The United States has circulated a draft Security Council resolution to give US peacekeeping troops another one year exemption from prosecution by the world court at The Hague.

Amnesty: International Criminal Court: Security Council renewal of unlawful Resolution 1487 providing impunity for peace-keepers would be a further set-back for international justice. : The unlawful attempt by the Security Council to give US citizens permanent impunity from international justice.

In case you missed it?: U.S. Charged With War Crimes: The Evidence File: WARNING: The video and pictures in this report contain images and descriptions, depicting the reality and horror of the U.S. - UK invasion of Iraq

Sidney Blumenthal: The religious warrior of Abu Ghraib: Saving General Boykin seemed like a strange sideshow last October. After it was revealed that the deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence had been regularly appearing at evangelical revivals preaching that the US was in a holy war as a "Christian nation" battling "Satan", the furore was quickly calmed.

Poll: US are occupiers, not liberators: Nearly nine out of 10 Iraqis see US forces as occupiers rather than liberators or peacekeepers

U.S. Troops Raid Chalabi's Headquarters in Iraq: U.S. troops raided a house used by Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi and searched his party offices in Baghdad on Thursday, piling pressure on the former Pentagon favorite now increasingly shunned by Washington.

The Truth About Ahmed Chalabi: Why the US Turned Against Their Former Golden Boy -- He was Preparing a Coup! What He Did as a Catspaw for Tehran: How He Nearly Bankrupted Jordan; the Billions He Stands to Make Out of the New Iraq

Israeli Occupation Forces kills 8 Palestinians at Rafah rally : Eight Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded yesterday afternoon when IDF tanks fired shells at a crowd of protesters in Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Four of those killed were children under 14.

Children dismembered in Israeli attack on refugees : The bloodshed sparked international outrage. But despite the outcry, Israel fired three more missiles from helicopters last night, witnesses said.

Palestinian boy killed in W. Bank : A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israel Occupation Forces fire in the Fawar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday

Home demolitions in Rafah: Welcome. My name is Mohammed, I'm a student and I live in Rafah. On this website, I present photos and reports about my home town. About our life, our community, the home demolitions, homeless families, the children in our camp.. About the tragedies that happen here every day.

US abstains, UN Security Council criticises Israel over Gaza : The Palestinians hailed the vote by the council, where the United States has frequently blocked resolutions critical of Israel, but the Israeli ambassador quickly said the measure would not halt the crackdown in the Gaza Strip.

Settler Rabbi: Killing innocent people in war is allowed if saves lives: Rabbi Dov Lior, chairman of the settler’s rabbinical council ruled that killing civilians during warfare is permitted if it will save lives.

A Remarkable Jewish Woman Speaks Out: She warns against the disintegration of Israeli society ("gross insensitivity"), and states: "I am beginning to understand why a whole nation (the Germans) was able to say: `We did not know."

Jews For Justice In The Middle East: The origin of the Palestine- Israeli conflict

Israel's assault on Rafah : I am Palestinian and I wept for Tali and her children, not because she was killed by Palestinian fighters, but because she was let down by the Israeli government that encouraged her to settle on stolen Palestinian land.

Strategic miscalculations: The neo-conservatives and Christian Right wanted to shift the balance of power decisively in the Middle East in favor of Israel, so that it could in effect impose peace terms on the Palestinians and Syria and anyone else who resisted US regional hegemony or Israel's legitimacy and territorial claims.

Democratic Senator Accused of Anti-Semitism: U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-SC) is under fire for remarks he made in an opinion column where he accused President Bush of going to war in Iraq "to secure Israel."

Apocalypse Now in the White House: Rick Perlstein of the Village Voice acquired a damning memo demonstrating the hold the looney Christian far Right has on Bush Middle East policy.

The "Gestapo office": Feith, participated in a private study by a right-wing Israeli think-tank that called for ousting Saddam Hussein as a way to transform the balance of power in the Middle East in such a way that Israel could ignore pressure to trade "land for peace" with the Palestinians or Syria.

U.S. Aircraft Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis: Associated Press Television News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were children, one of whom was decapitated.

UK: Carelessness 'defies belief' in US attack on Iraqi wedding: The slaughter in Iraq is "the last thing we need right now," said one minister last night. "It’s like a nightmare - every time you think it can't get any worse, the Americans come up with another disaster."

Mosaic TV News For 05/19/04: Daily news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. These broadcasts, watched by over 280 million people all over the Middle East, provide American viewers with rare insight into the diversity of Middle East perspectives. QuickTime Video

Terrorism begins at home: What are the root causes of terrorism, and why was the United States attacked that fateful morning? Nobody wants to truly examine these questions, the blame for September 11th falls almost solely on U.S. government policies.

The Un-Civilization: We" are the civilization of liberators and freedom and "they" are the civilization of barbarians and despots. "We" are immersed in the tempering love of Jesus Christ. "They" are crazed fundamentalists, driven insane by the martial religiosity of the prophet Muhammad

Hard lesson for U.S.: Nothing has been more disheartening than polls that show many Americans sharing two false beliefs: that Saddam Hussein participated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and that "weapons of mass destruction" have been found there. Where on earth do these people get their information? From talk radio, that’s where.

The diseases of a troubled nation: America's problems are structural. Even if Kerry replaces Bush in January 2005, America will still have one child in six living in poverty; America will still have two million people in jail; America will still have military installations in 50 countries. It's time we looked at the structure behind America's problems.

Mini Nukes: A new generation of nuclear weapons – mini nukes is being planned by America. According to the US military, they need miniature nukes in the war against terrorism.

Rudy Giuliani: Camera hog, not a hero: He was a nowhere guy until the planes hit the World Trade Center buildings. He was a failed mayor, was Rudy Giuliani. He had a commissioner named Harding stealing so obviously that at first people couldn't believe their eyes

UK: Dad speaks up to boost Bush campaign: As every high spending teenager knows, when the overdraft gets big it is best to call in Dad. And so it was that George Bush senior brought a presidential outreach project to London last night in a bid to drum up more dollars for his son's presidential re-election campaign

10 Reasons Bush Wants To Ban Moore Film: ..like it could make him lose the next election. A NEW film is sending shockwaves through the United States in general and the White House in particular - and it hasn't even been released yet.

Helen Thomas: Message To Kerry: Time To Protest War Again: One step he should take to dramatically frame his candidacy would be to make a total break with Bush's failing policy in Iraq.

White House's Medicare Videos Are Ruled Illegal: The agency said the videos were a form of "covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, broadcast by at least 40 television stations in 33 markets

Services for the elderly in a `total breakdown': The commission's 14-page review focuses on the state's weak response to elder abuse, neglect and exploitation in El Paso, where health officials videotaped a man so ignored by caseworkers that his rotting ear was covered in maggots.

Texas Executes Mentally Ill Man for Murder: The state of Texas has put a diagnosed schizophrenic to death by lethal injection for two 1992 murders

USA: Amnesty International appalled at execution of mentally ill man: Amnesty International is appalled at Governor Rick Perry's decision to allow the execution of Kelsey Patterson to go ahead in Texas.

Man ends 30 wrongful years behind bars today: A Boston man who spent 30 years in prison on a wrongful murder conviction and was once ordered to die in the electric chair is slated to walk out of court this morning into the arms of his 81-year-old mother.

A girl gave Rove a bloody nose: Mr. Rove was attracted to the kind of politician who leaves office one step ahead of the impeachment posse.

05/19/04: U.S. strike kills 40 at Iraqi wedding party: A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party early Wednesday in western Iraq, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.

33 killed in Israel's bloodiest raid in Gaza in years: Israeli media said at least 22 bodies, most of them school children, had been counted after the strike in the Rafah camp

22 Palestinians killed in Rafah raid: At least 22 Palestinians are reported killed and around 50 injured in an Israeli helicopter strike on a demonstration in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.

Israelis massacre kids: : The hospital stairs and floors were drenched in blood and staff treated the wounded on the floors after running out of beds.

10 Killed As Israeli Occupation Forces Fire On Palestinian Protestors: Forces fired tank shells, helicopter missiles and machine-guns Wednesday on a large crowd of Palestinians demonstrating against an Israeli invasion of a neighboring refugee camp, killing at least 10 people, the majority of them children

Palestinian parliament accuses Bush of encouraging Israeli 'massacres': "These Israeli massacres against our people in Rafah and elsewhere would not be taking place without the US administration's alignment with the position of the Sharon government and President Bush's support for his policies," it said in a statement.

Palestinian Brother and sister gunned down as they collected washing: A Palestinian brother and sister, aged 13 and 16, were killed by Israeli fire in a Gaza refugee camp today as they took down the washing from a rooftop clothesline, their family said.

"One hundred and forty thousand people, 40 beds and a war. It makes you laugh," said the anaesthetist at Rafah's only hospital. "We received calls that there are dead in the streets, in the houses, in the mosques but we can't reach them," said Dr Tafesh. "Our ambulances are trapped and a target for the Israelis if they move.

Link TV: Mosaic: World News From The Middle East: Compilation of daily news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East including, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, and Iran, among others. These broadcasts, watched by over 280 million people all over the Middle East, provide American viewers with rare insight into the diversity of Middle East perspectives. Quick Time Video Report

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Western Iraqi Province: Two U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in al-Anbar province in western Iraq, Agence France- Presse reported, citing a U.S. military statement.

‘US troops allowed to mistreat Afghan POWs’: US troops in Afghanistan have written permission to use threats, dogs and the firing of mortars near prisoners to help extract information during interrogations, a German news weekly reported on Tuesday

Accused US Army deserter says he saw Iraqi prisoner mistreatment: A US Army soldier to be tried on charges of deserting from the Iraq war claimed Tuesday that he saw civilians die and Iraqi prisoners mistreated.

UK: Straw tells of 10,000 dead: As many as 10,000 Iraqis have been killed since the start of the invasion, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday. But Mr Straw said the coalition had not kept records of casualties.

Torture 101: “We’re going to ask you some questions. If you give an answer we like, we’ll let you smoke. If we don’t like the answer, we’ll burn you. The anticipation was worse than the burns.” - A CIA agent and his goon squad torturing an American nun Diana Ortiz, by burning her 75 times with a cigarette.

Torture Photos, Videos a Time-Honored CIA Tradition: Sen. John Kerry is now being attacked for having told Congress about this, truthfully, in 1971. In Kerry’s words at the time, fellow soldiers at the so-called “Winter Soldier” investigation had “told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power.” It was more customary then to kill the prisoners (who were often civilians) after they had been tortured.

Soldier sentenced to year in prison: A special court martial Wednesday sentenced Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits to a maximum penalty of one year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge for his role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case.

Where an Assassination Is Celebrated : Motorists honked in celebration in this western Iraqi town as news spread of the assassination of the president of the Iraqi Governing Council Ezzidin Salim Monday.

One Iraqi killed, seven wounded in Karbala clashes : One Iraqi was killed and seven wounded Wednesday after heavy clashes between fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and US troops broke out overnight in the holy city of Karbala, local sources said.

Fallujah: In The Hands Of Insurgents: One of the gunmen wears a suicide belt. Over tea and kebabs, they explain why they're waging their jihad.

U.S. Faces Growing Fears of Failure : The Bush administration is struggling to counter growing sentiment -- among U.S. lawmakers, Iraqis and even some of its own officials -- that the occupation of Iraq is verging on failure, forcing a top Pentagon official yesterday to concede serious mistakes over the past year.

We must withdraw : When you are in a hole, stop digging. That is the maxim that should now be applied to the war in Iraq. All of my life I have watched as Britain and America have become embroiled in conflicts, only to find that a purely military solution is rarely available.

Molly Ivins: Killing people for their own good: Time to cut our losses; time for the UN and NATO to take over Iraq. It's quite difficult to convince people you are killing them for their own good. That's our basic problem in Iraq.

Ted Rall: Fire The War Pimps: Zero Tolerance for Iraq War Pundits

Where Have We Come To? : We took a severe blow on September 11, 2001. But an often heard comment that day was to the effect -- “we can’t let this affect the way we live! If we do, then the terrorists will have won.” We have changed, in remarkable ways, since that sad day.

Israel kills another 19 Palestinians in Gaza raid: Medics say the 19 deaths overloaded Rafah Hospital's morgue and five bodies were shifted to vegetable freezers in a nearby market for preservation.

Global outrage over Israeli ‘war crimes’: “What is taking place now in Gaza is something that we have to condemn and to condemn very strongly,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said

UN envoy 'alarmed' by ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza: The top United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, said today he is alarmed by the death and destruction caused by the ongoing Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza Strip, and called on Israel to protect the civilian population.

In a world gone mad! Bush: Israel Has Right To Defend Itself: Cheered with chants of "four more years," President Bush told a Jewish audience Tuesday that Israel "has every right to defend itself from terror" and that Palestinians must renounce violence and reject failed leaders.

Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the rubble:Amnesty International Report: Executive Summary: In the past three and half years the Israeli army has carried out extensive destruction of homes and properties throughout the West Bank and Gaza which is not justified by military necessity. Some of these acts of destruction amount to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes.

Pigs At The Trough: Pres. Bush Speech at American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference. As Israeli Occupation Forces Murder Palestinians Our President Debases Himself And America In Search Of Zionists Votes And $'s. Real Video.

Hollings defends his statements on Israel: In the face of charges of anti-Semitism, U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings on Tuesday defended a newspaper column he wrote alleging President Bush went to war in Iraq to defend Israel and please American Jews.

The Jesus Landing Pad: Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move. It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see.We're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.

Serving Two Flags: Neocons, Israel and the Bush Administration : Some skeptics, noting the neo-cons’ past academic and professional associations, writings and public utterances, have suggested that their underlying agenda is the alignment of U.S. foreign and security policies with those of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli right wing.

UN mulls Israel resolution: But the measure, which diplomats said had broad support on the council, was met with a counter-proposal by the United States, which has regularly blocked council action criticising its close ally Israel.

Powell Distances Himself From President : With President Bush’s approval rating hitting record lows and worries about the U.S. occupation of Iraq growing, Secretary of State Colin Powell has been carefully distancing himself from the administration.

Defector lied to U.S. about weapons: Officials used claims to build war support : The Bush administration helped rally public and congressional support for an Iraq invasion by publicizing the claims of an Iraqi defector, although a lie-detector test indicated he was lying and U.S. intelligence agencies had rejected him as unreliable months earlier.

U.S. Cardinal Accuses Bush of Moral Failure in Iraq: A senior American cardinal in the Vatican has accused the U.S. administration of "moral failure" and deception in Iraq and warned the war had severely compromised future relations with the Arab world.

Twelve Russian Soldiers, Police, Killed in Chechnya: Chechen rebels killed eight Russian soldiers and four pro-Moscow police in a double ambush in the restive province, security officials said on Tuesday.

‘Definitely a Cover-Up’: Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abuse Scandal

Planners And Abusers Should Be Accountable: The Pentagon's SAP program allowed Geneva Convention violations in order to terrorize, humiliate, and otherwise torture prisoners of the war in Afghanistan. The primary attribute of this unconscionable and inhumane treatment is its "legitimized" authorization via secrecy in reaction to the need for national security.

Army, CIA want torture truths exposed : Efforts at the top level of the Bush administration and the civilian echelon of the Department of Defense to contain the Iraq prison torture scandal and limit the blame to a handful of enlisted soldiers and immediate senior officers have already failed: The scandal continues to metastasize by the day.

For once, it flows uphill: Abu Ghraib meets Guantanamo Bay: According to Pentagon officials, a very deliberate effort began last autumn to try to figure out why interrogators at Guantanamo Bay extracted far more useful intelligence from captives than those in Iraq.

The Stanford Prison Experiment revisited: It was one of the most controversial psychological experiments ever done. The infamous Stanford Prison Experiment took only a few days to turn 12 regular men into sadistic prison guards. In fact, the experiment was so shocking, that the leading psychologist asked it never be repeated again.

Fake Iraqi Sovereignty: The US-appointed “Iraqis” will have to ask the occupying powers to remain in Iraq to protect them from the Iraqi masses. Indeed, Secretary of State Colin Powell and his State Department “anticipate” such request. Most Iraqis consider those appointees as irrelevant traitors serving U.S. interests.

Power and vainglory: Iraq isn't another Vietnam - it's much worse. The images of abused prisoners demonstrate not just American depravity, says the philosopher John Gray, but the folly of waging war as a moral crusade

Iraqi Leaders Demand More Powers from Washington: Iraqi leaders and some of the United States' closest allies in the occupation demanded on Tuesday that Washington relinquish more powers than it intended to the Iraqi government due to regain sovereignty next month.

Iraq's 'Sovereignty' Mirage :What Washington has in mind for Iraq after June 30 doesn't resemble any traditional definition of "sovereignty," and even key administration officials are disagreeing over such basic questions as whether this "sovereign" government can order foreign troops to leave its territory.

Raiding Iraq's Piggy Bank: If the Bush administration is truly committed to the nation's sovereignty, it should let Iraqis retake control of their own oil revenues.

Fewer Iraqis Working on Reconstruction: Fewer than 25,000 Iraqis are working on projects in the U.S. reconstruction effort, tempering expectations that more than $18 billion in American spending would jump-start Iraq's economy and trigger a surge in goodwill toward the United States.

Army may send special reserves to active duty involuntarily: The U.S. Army is scraping up soldiers for duty in Iraq wherever it can find them, and that includes places and people long considered off-limits.

To the president from a father: Shame on us: FOR TWO GUYS about the same age, George W. Bush and I do not have much in common. There are, however, two realities we do share: His daughter Barbara and my son Michael both attend Yale. And neither one is about to join the United States armed forces in Iraq. Why not?

IRS May Help DOD Find Reservists : The Defense Department, strapped for troops for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, has proposed to Congress that it tap the Internal Revenue Service to locate out-of-touch reservists.

The Shame: Look, if Americans can be convinced that the President of the United States is even barely literate, they can be convinced of anything.

How India funds Bush's campaign: Until recently, there was a band of more than 100 dedicated call-center executives who were handling Bush's fundraising and vote-seeking campaign for the Republican Party from the outsourcing hubs of Noida and Gurgaon, which adjoin the national capital Delhi.

Factory Bush Touted Closes; 1,300 Ohioans Jobless: Last April, President Bush visited a Timken Company manufacturing plant in Ohio to press for passage of new tax cuts that he said would spur the economy. During the speech Bush said that "the future of this company is bright and therefore, the future of employment is bright for the families that work here"1. Less than a year after the tax cuts for the wealthy passed, that same factory is shutting down

3 government soldiers, 1 suspected Taliban, killed in battles in Afghanistan

05/18/04: 2 Civilian Foreigners Said Killed in Iraq: Gunmen opened fire Tuesday on two civilian cars believed to be carrying foreigners, killing two and wounding another, witnesses said.

Ex-Marine shot dead in Iraq: A former Royal Marine has been shot dead in Iraq while working as a private contractor.

Atrocities in Iraq: 'I killed innocent people for our government': When I talked with Massey last week, he expressed his remorse at the civilian loss of life in incidents in which he himself was involved.

Testimony Details Last Hours of Iraqi Prisoner's Life: When CIA officers brought the Iraqi detainee to Abu Ghraib prison, his head was covered with an empty sandbag and Army guards were ordered to take him directly to a shower room that served as a makeshift interrogation center at the overcrowded, shell-damaged facility outside Baghdad.

Reuters staff abused by U.S. troops in Iraq: U.S. forces beat three Iraqis working for Reuters and subjected them to sexual and religious taunts and humiliation during their detention last January in a military camp near Falluja, the three said on Tuesday.

Memos Reveal War Crimes Warnings: Could Bush administration officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so.

British Fury at US 'Kill and Kill Again' Policy - Report: The British military was said to be increasingly upset at the willingness of US troops to “kill, kill and kill again”, according to a former British officer.

Chaos in Washington: "I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass." President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001 (quoted by Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies)

David H. Hackworth: A Fish Stinks from the Head First: Members of the United States Congress – from Hillary Clinton to Roscoe Bartlett – neglected their sworn duty. Their congressional offices received written pleas from concerned soldiers or their families almost from the first atrocity through this past March, when retired Master Sgt. William Lawson blasted off 20 letters to a governor, senators and representatives

M.P.'s Received Orders to Strip Iraqi Detainees: The American officer who was in charge of interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison has told a senior Army investigator that intelligence officers sometimes instructed the military police to force Iraqi detainees to strip naked and to shackle them before questioning them.

In case you missed it?: U.S., Iraq use different techniques to interrogate: Army says calm questioning after capture works: U.S. interrogators feel little need to break the rules of the Geneva Convention, much less stoop to the painful torture that years of Hollywood cliches have forever linked to the word "interrogation."

Freed Detainees Liken Guantanamo Abuse To Abu Ghraib: "From the moment of our arrival in Guantanamo Bay (and indeed from long before) we were deliberately humiliated and degraded by methods we now read U.S. officials denying," the pair wrote in an open letter to U.S. President George W. Bush.

Linguist: Air Force investigators overzealous in Al Halabi case: U.S. Air Force investigators were overzealous in their pursuit of an airman who worked as a translator at Guantanamo Bay and is now accused of spying, according to an Arabic linguist who briefly worked on the case against Senior Airman Ahmad Al Halabi.

Sheila Samples: 'Playing the CYA game': Someone should tell Rumsfeld there are a lot of really neat games you can play with your dress pulled up over your head -- but covering your ass isn't one of them.

The dark side of America : The sickening pictures of American troops humiliating Iraqi prisoners have led inevitably to questions about the standards of treatment in the corrections system in the United States, which has grown tenfold over the last 30 years and now imprisons people at eight times the rate of France and six times the rate of Canada.

The Dark Side Of America Exists: We Must Reform Our Stateside Abu Ghraibs: These sadistic human-rights abuses inside our prisons have gone unchallenged because the voices of the progressive reformers have fallen silent in American politics, journalism, and religion, whereas they should have put a stop to these outrageous practices decades ago.

Sarin Dated From 1980's: A senior coalition source has told the BBC the round dated back to the Iran-Iraq war and coalition officials were not sure whether the fighters even knew what it contained.

We are now the problem in Iraq : I supported the war, but only our withdrawal can end insurgency

Red Cross criticism : The Secretary General of the Danish Red Cross says the government and parliament have betrayed society's most basic humanitarian principles. "It began in Afghanistan, where the United States bypassed the Geneva Conventions with the full acceptance of the Danish government"

Parsons: We Were Hoaxed By Blair: Tony Blair fooled me. He told us we were fighting for freedom, democracy and national security in Iraq. I see now that it was all a pack of lies.

Lies were fed to CIA on Iraq, Powell says : Secretary of State Colin Powell has said for the first time that he now believes that the Central Intelligence Agency was deliberately misled about evidence that Saddam Hussein was developing unconventional weapons.

Lone Ranger Bush; No Silver Bullet: The Lone Ranger is in a tight spot. In his still-short political career, he and his posse have always been able to come up with a silver bullet, usually a 30 second television spot. It might work against John Kerry in a few months. It ain't gonna do much good in Iraq.

Sovereign necessity : So what kind of sovereignty will the Iraqis regain in six weeks time, and how much difference will it really make?

In case you missed it?: William Pfaff: Were U.S. Business, Military Intrests At Heart Of Invasion?: Iraq, in 2002, with or without weapons of mass destruction, posed no direct military threat to the United States under any but the most fanciful scenarios. However it was entirely reasonable for Israel to consider it a threat.

How Canberra picked up hint to the horror: As the September 11 commission in Washington investigates why the plot was never uncovered, senior figures in Australia are puzzled that this particular piece of raw intelligence has never before come to light.

War dangers don't deter U.S. workers: Many of the KBR recruits, like Petty, are working poor. They are willing to dare the hardship of 12- to 14-hour days seven days a week, and the risk of kidnapping or worse, given the beheading of Nicholas Berg, to bring back $80,000 or $100,000 in a year.

Four arrested over US man's beheading: "We have made good progress," the source added, referring to the investigation, but declined to give any details on the identity of the four people held in detention.

Troop redeployment seen as sign of U.S. woes: Critics say the Bush administration's move to shift 3,600 soldiers from South Korea to Iraq is another sign the worsening situation in Iraq is hurting U.S. efforts to deal with real threats elsewhere in the world.

U.S. to Halt Payments to Iraqi Group Headed by a Onetime Pentagon Favorite: The United States government has decided to halt monthly $335,000 payments to the Iraqi National Congress, the group headed by Ahmad Chalabi, an official with the group said on Monday.

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