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The Iraqi informant’s German handlers say they had told U.S. officials that his information was ’not proven,’ and were shocked when President Bush and Colin L. Powell used it in key prewar speeches. By Bob Drogin and John Goetz Special to The Times
November 20, 2005
BERLIN - The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his (…)

Delahunt, Chávez help broker deal
By Michael Levenson and Susan Milligan, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff
A subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to local charities and 45,000 low-income families in Massachusetts next month under a deal arranged by US Representative William D. Delahunt, a local nonprofit energy corporation, and Venezuela’s president, White House critic Hugo Chávez.
The approximately $9 million (…)

By Jonathan Franklin
SANTIAGO, Chile (WOMENSENEWS)—To many Chileans the idea of quotas for female cabinet members is just the latest in a stunning turn of political events in this usually staid, conservative nation of 15 million.
"Fifty percent of my cabinet will be women," Chilean presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet promised a crowd of supporters last week. "We are going to set a standard for Latin America."
Chileans lived, and too many died, under a dictatorship from 1973 to (…)

Faced with US torture, killing and collective punishment of civilians, support for the Iraqi resistance is growing
by Haifa Zangana
The photograph of an elderly Iraqi carrying the burned body of a child at Falluja, widely shown during the chemical weapons controversy of recent days, is almost a copy of an earlier one that Iraqis remember - from Halabja in March 1988. Both children were victims of chemical weapons: the first killed by a dictator who had no respect for democracy and human (…)

by Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith
Americans disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq by nearly two to one, according to a new Gallop poll. A majority want US troops withdrawn from Iraq within twelve months—a higher proportion than wanted to withdraw from Vietnam in the summer of 1970. Catering to public sentiment, on November 15 the Senate voted 79 to 19 for a Republican resolution saying 2006 should be a year of "significant transition" for US withdrawal (…)

by Dave Zirin
The presidency of George W. Bush is collapsing under the weight of its own incompetence. The polls speak for themselves—only 35 percent of us approve of his job performance. Fifty-six percent—including one in four Republicans—say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, and more than half believe Bush intentionally misled the country to bring the United States into war. The response from the White House has been grimly predictable: Admit no mistakes and spin, slash or burn (…)

by Tim Rutten
Whatever impact the scandal surrounding the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity ultimately has on the Bush administration, it continues to spread through the Washington press corps like a toxic plume.
As it does, it discredits not only individual reporters and damages their news organizations but also an entire style of reporting that has come to dominate the way Americans are informed - or misinformed - concerning their government’s conduct.
This week’s (…)

WASHINGTON - November 21 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich sent the following letter to Tom Davis, Chairman of the House Government Reform Committee:
Dear Chairman Davis:
I am requesting that the Government Reform Committee hold a hearing on the war in Iraq and specifically the role that Vice President Richard Cheney, and his staff, played in leading this nation to war.
We now know that the Vice President, and his aides, were at the forefront of the Administration planning and execution (…)

Blaming Islam Is Dishonest Michael Coren November 19, 2005 Last week I wrote that the riots in France were more about the culture of 50 Cent than bin Laden and that to blame the violence solely on Islam was a gross misreading of the situation.
The neo-con web world had a fit, reminding me that when it comes to abuse and stupidity the right and the left are similarly gifted. In fact, neo-conservatives increasingly resemble the left in their simplistic and formulaic analyses and responses (…)

Murtha Speaks Truth To Bush’s Lies By Bill Gallagher November 22, 2005 Detroit - Privately, President George W. Bush is having a political panic attack as he retreats to his cocoon, seeking comfort from his nannies. Babs, his mommy, wife Laura, Condi Rice and Karen Hughes serve as his ladies in waiting, assuring our courageous leader that the boo-boos he gets on his head will get better and those bad boys criticizing his war are just meanies who don’t like him. Vice President Dick (…)