contributions

by Mary MacElveen
I still say that this statement is ludicrous and just plain nuts.
I am of the belief we go after those who not only attack us as a nation, but also personally. I am not of the belief of excusing horrific behavior and actions by terrorists or mere criminals in this country.
If you are guilty of a terrorist attack or any crime is that you do the time and are prepared for the consequences of your actions.
* I am however against going after the wrong people and blaming (…)

By Greg Moses
Not having Cindy Sheehan in Crawford Friday turned out okay. Her absence didn’t stop the media from crowding around a noon prayer vigil. And nobody I talked to was planning to cut short their stay on account of her absence. In fact, as usual, folks were sort of falling in love with the land and each other, wondering how many days more could they squeeze in.
Take the example of Katie Sterling of Fort Worth and her traveling companion Pam Humphrey of Burleson, Texas. In the (…)

By William Fisher
Countries that rely on ‘diplomatic assurances’ that other countries won’t torture transferred prisoners “are either engaging in wishful thinking or using the assurances as a figleaf to cover their complicity,” a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) charges.
HRW said, “There is substantial evidence that in the course of the global “war on terrorism,” an increasing number of governments have transferred, or proposed sending, alleged terrorist suspects to countries (…)

Preparations complete for Hunter S. Thompson memorial
The remarkable life of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson will be celebrated by an invitation-only crowd of his closest friends on Saturday at Owl Farm, Thompson’s 42-acre property in Woody Creek, Colorado, near Aspen. In keeping with the final farewell Thompson requested in a BBC interview, his cremated remains have been sealed with fireworks into mortar tubes that will be shot from a 153-foot-tall fiberglass replica of the author’s famous Gonzo (…)

Hypocrites and Liars By Cindy Sheehan t r u t h o u t | Letter
Saturday 20 August 2005
The media are wrong. The people who have come out to Camp Casey to help coordinate the press and events with me are not putting words in my mouth, they are taking words out of my mouth. I have been known for sometime as a person who speaks the truth and speaks it strongly. I have always called a liar a liar and a hypocrite a hypocrite. Now I am urged to use softer language to appeal to (…)

State women who have lost sons, daughters differ on her protest
By SCOTT WILLIAMS
swilliams@journalsentinel.com
All of them have lived through the same horror as Cindy Sheehan, a grieving military mom whose anti-war protest at the president’s doorstep has captured the national spotlight.
But Wisconsin mothers who have lost children in the Iraq war do not necessarily feel a kindred spirit with Sheehan - or agree with her tactics.
Most identify with the protester on at least one (…)

Solidarity vigils planned for this weekend
The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign will hold a jointly-sponsored vigil this Saturday in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan and American military families who continue to protest the war in Iraq. Although Cindy herself has temporarily suspended her protest due to a family illness, anti-war activists across the United States and Canada - including military families in Crawford, Texas - will go ahead with vigils (…)

Larry Northern, 59, of McLennan County, was charged Tuesday with Criminal Mischief Over $1,500 and under $20,000 after a pickup truck tore through a row of white crosses erected by anti-war protesters gathered near the President’s ranch in Crawford.
Bail was set at $3,000. Northern later posted bond and was released.
The crosses bear the names of U.S. military personnel who have died in the war in Iraq.
Witnesses said the driver swerved the truck in and out of the makeshift memorial (…)

In portraying Texans, visiting journalists have embraced a host of well-worn images of typical residents of the Lone Star state, ranging from self-reliant and generous farmer-ranchers to loutish, swaggering bullies with guns in pickups. Last week at the media circus surrounding Cindy Sheehan’s antiwar encampment outside Crawford, both images were in plain view.
First Larry Mattlage, a bearded homeowner, showed up inside his property line near the protesters’ site and fired several blasts (…)

The United States was "not out to destroy the Taliban," a US diplomat told the government just a year before a US-led invasion toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban government that had harboured al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
US Ambassador to Pakistan William B. Milam held a secret meeting with an unidentified senior Taliban official in September 2000 and assured him that international sanctions on the Taliban would end if bin Laden were expelled from Afghanistan, newly declassified documents (…)