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CINDY SHEEHAN’S decision to camp outside Bush’s ranch until he agrees to meet with her has brought new energy and focus to what had been a fairly invisible antiwar movement. As the Washington Post reported, “Sheehan’s case has echoed as her grievances merged with what polls show is growing dissatisfaction with the war.”
The timing of her vigil couldn’t have been better chosen.
As the resistance continues unchecked in Iraq, and we approach another false turning point-this time, a new (…)

Havana, (AIN) Cuba maintains the offer of medical aid to the victims of hurricaneKatrina, repeated Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Fidel explained that Cuba was not offering money, but saving lives, and even though the American authorities have not answered Cuba’s action of solidarity, the Cuban doctors are ready to help the people of that country and any other country that needs it.
The Cuban president attended, Monday, the national graduation of 1,905 doctors from medical (…)

By William Fisher
During 2004, the Bush Administration issued more secret court orders, spent $148 creating new classified documents for every $1 spent releasing old ones, invoked the ‘state secrets’ privilege in court cases more frequently than ever before, and received 25 per cent more requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
These are among the findings of a new “Secrecy Report Card” prepared by
OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of organizations dedicated to (…)

By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Bush administration official was arrested Monday on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to court documents and government officials.
David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian (…)

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Susan Schmidt
The Bush administration’s top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff’s activities in Washington.
The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. (…)

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq’s defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country’s army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons.
The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.
"It is possibly one of the (…)

By Georges Duncan
Cubanow.- Half a century later, the texts and words of Jean Paul Sartre, the scandalous French intellectual, are once again being read as if they had never before been read, and his figure is being reconsidered as if it had been hidden and waiting for better times.
Recently, in connection with his 100 th anniversary, philosophers and writers, critically searched out files of one of the most lucid and controversial thinkers of the last century.
For some, Sartre was the (…)

Caracas, Sep 19 (Prensa Latina) The governing Bloque de Cambio (Bloc of Change) formalized the socialist nature of the National Assembly as polls closed for Venezuelan parliamentary elections on Monday.
President Hugo Chavez referred to the strategic importance of the legislature to start strengthening the process "toward socialism" by 2006.
Chavez fully trusts in the overwhelming support of most Venezuelans supporting the social policy effective since 1999 to improve the distribution of (…)

Havana, Sep 19 (PL) President Fidel Castro affirmed Monday that Cuba is on the way to reduce infant mortality here to less than four per thousand births and to increase the life expectancy of her people.
We are going to be the first Latin American country to reach this figure, even better than that of Canada, the statesman pointed out during the graduation ceremony for more than 1,903 physicians from the country’s medical schools.
In addition, he said, this will take place in half the (…)

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
The Iraqi deep south where the British Army is based has always had a potential for violence. On the whole the British forces have been far more careful not to provoke local feuds than their US counterparts further north.
The price from the British point of view - though probably there was no alternative to paying it - was to leave much authority in the hands of local political parties and militias, particularly those successful in the election in January. (…)