contributions

by Elizabeth de la Vega
Legally, there are no significant differences between the investor fraud perpetrated by Enron CEO Ken Lay and the prewar intelligence fraud perpetrated by George W. Bush. Both involved persons in authority who used half-truths and recklessly false statements to manipulate people who trusted them. There is, however, a practical difference: The presidential fraud is wider in scope and far graver in its consequences than the Enron fraud. Yet thus far the public seems (…)

By David Pilling in Tokyo
US / japanTokyo and Washington have agreed to cut the number of US marines stationed in Japan by 7,000 as part of wide-ranging plans under which Japan’s self-defence forces will play a bigger role in defending the country.
The agreement, signed in Washington on Saturday, followed intense negotiations last week to wrap up ponderous discussions over the locations and functions of US bases. Failure to agree on details, part of the US’s global strategy to reduce the (…)

Of all the scribbled sentences that have converged to create the Valerie Plame affair, the most remarkable, in literary terms, may belong to Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s recently deposed chief of staff. “Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work-and life,” he wrote in a jailhouse note to Judith Miller. Meant as a waiver of confidentiality, the letter touched off the sort of fevered exegesis (…)

12th november 2005
European demonstration of Sound Systems in Strasbourg
Meet at 14:00 (13:00 GMT) in PLace de la Republique in the center of Strasbourg
We demand the right to exist,
We demand the end of systematic and unjustified repression against us,
We demand the condemnation of countries such as the Tcheck republic for brutally repressing our organised events for no justifiable reason,
We demand the right to be treated as socio-cultural performers; because our events are (…)

The Bush regime told lies to get support for its pre-emptive war against a country that posed no threat to our borders. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced a “Resolution of Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes, notes, e-mails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).”
“This group, comprised of the president and vice president’s top aides, was critical in selling the administration’s case for war,” Kucinich said. “We now know (…)

But Says the Blame "Goes All the Way to The Top”
Karpinski, the highest-ranking officer demoted in connection with the torture scandal, speaks out about what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison. She discusses: How the military hid "ghost detainees" from the International Red Cross in violation of international law; Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller calling for the Gitmoization of Abu Ghraib and for prisoners to be "treated like dogs"; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s secret memos on interrogation (…)

By Ann Talbot
Events following the publication of the United Nations report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri confirm that the investigation was never more than a pretext for aggressive US and British action against Syria.
While there remain sharp differences within the US administration and between the major powers, the thrust of US and British policy goes further than the economic sanctions it is initially proposing and towards military action against (…)

MPACUK comment: You will read a lot in the next few days and weeks in the British press about how Iran should be "wiped off the map" by the west for President Ahmadinejad comments. Now two wrongs don’t make a right but there is massive hypocrisy in the indignation shown by the world toward Iran.
Please read below what leaders of Israel have said in the past about Palestinians and Arabs. There is also an interview below with Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli leader which vividly shows the (…)

By Greg Moses
Whip lashed by serial collisions of imperial power, dissident movements in the USA brace for the next shocking thing. We have been hijacked into a crashing invasion of Iraq, slammed around by evasive maneuvers in New Orleans, and now along the borderlands of the Southwest USA, signs warn that a highway of accommodation is about to end, dumping us head-on into deserts of aggression upon Latin American peoples.
Into each new crisis, empire roars forward, pumping high octane (…)

Why did Scooter lie - and so badly?
by Justin Raimondo
"It’s not over."
Out of Fitzgerald’s hour-long press conference, these three words had the most resonance. Before we get into that, however, let’s look at the man who has come out from behind the screen of this very closely-held investigation.
Fitzgerald’s debut at the press conference put on display a character who might have been imagined by a novelist. He seems to embody the principle of justice: the clear concise nature of (…)