contributions

MOSCOW, July 1 (Xinhuanet) — China and Russia here Friday issued a joint statement on a new world order in the 21st century, setting forth their common stand on major international issues, such as UN reforms, globalization, North-South cooperation, and world economy and trade.
The statement was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao after their talks.
During their talks, the two leaders discussed ways to further enhance the strategic (…)

What Iraq needs is a Walter Cronkite
President Bush went on the air this week to pretend again that things are OK in Iraq. Shades of President Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam nearly 40 years ago.
The most important similarity between Iraq and Vietnam is that both Democratic and Republican presidents lied to us in wartime. To refresh your memory, here’s how we got out of the Vietnam quagmire:
• Walter Cronkite, CBS-TV news anchor known as "the most trusted man in America," after a combat (…)

Friday, July 1, 2005 A July 4th note from Greg Palast’s journal
I was in the drug store today out here in Podunk. Some old guy in front of me was picking up his little paper bag of prescription medicine. The lady behind the counter handed him a credit card slip and said, "I’m sorry."
She was sorry because the bill was over $1,200. The old man stared at the charge card receipt and stared at it some more. Hesitating, he signed, then said, "I hope I die before I have to pay for the next (…)

The jury of conscience has just released it’s recommendations after the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq came to its conclusion. I’ll post the news story I wrote on this later, which will provide more details.
I will add now, as a preface to a letter I received just now from an Iraqi who asked me to pass it on to the American people, that the jury made the following recommendations:
“The recommendations made by the jury included the demand for an immediate, unconditional (…)

On June 24, Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for the news agency Knight Ridder, was killed by a single bullet to the head as he approached a checkpoint that had been thrown up near his home in western Baghdad by US and Iraqi troops. It is believed that the shot was fired by an American sniper. According to eyewitnesses, no warning shots were fired.
The US military has announced it is conducting an investigation into Salihee’s killing. Knight Ridder has already declared, (…)

Commentator Hal C. points out that:
"Jeffrey Goldberg is the guy who almost single-handedly created the Halabja poison gas story into its present form. His was the story that Bush made famous. (Halabja appears to have been caught in the crossfire of two armies using gas in the Iran/Iraq war and was unintentional collateral damage in an obscene war)."
The Goldberg story is called "The Great Terror". Hal C. refers to Jude Wanniski’s "Memo on the Margin" on the subject. Wanniski has been (…)

National Guard Terrorist Unit Reportedly Targeted Mother’s Day Peace Rally
SAN FRANCISCO — Following revelations that an intelligence unit recently spied on a peace rally organized by families of slain American soldiers, the American Civil Liberties Union today called on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to take immediate steps to stop the California National Guard from spying on people who engage in peaceful protest. The ACLU also filed a California Public Records Act request with both the (…)

A group of MPs declared their intention to bring a motion of impeachment against the Prime Minister for High Crimes and Misdemeanours in relation to the invasion of Iraq. The charges are based on evidence presented in a report commissioned by Adam Price MP entitled A Case to Answer .
The report which is co-authored by academics Glen Rangwala and Dan Plesch presents evidence that the Prime Minister deliberately distorted the intelligence assessments available to him in order to deceive the (…)

Halliburton Hearing Unearths New Abuse
Every morning 120 trucks line up at the Kuwait-Iraq border to deliver gasoline from Kuwaiti refineries. The drivers, mostly poor South Asian men from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, must cross at dawn because if they wait too long, the managers from Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Texas-based Halliburton, who operate the border post during the day, will subject them to rigorous checks that effectively shut down the deliveries.
"The (…)

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO?
By Peter Fredson
July 1, 2005
The Price of Gasoline? Should we worry about it?
The National Deficit? Should we worry about it?
Those awful Weapons of Mass Destruction that Saddam had “imminently” poised to nuke the U.S. and destroy whole cities? Should we worry about them?
Compassionate Conservatism? Should we worry about it?
The Senate as a branch of the Oval Office? Should we worry about it?
The extreme partisanship of Congress, with overt bullying, (…)