contributions

TESTIMONY FROM: Pablo Paredes, Monica Benderman, Howard Zinn, Dr. Salam Ismael, Jo Wilding, Justin Alexander, Monique Dols, Dahr Jamail, Bill Davis
TWO MEN are being put on trial by the military this week because they answered their consciences.
Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman refused to accept the lies they were told about the U.S. war on Iraq. Refused to accept the racist dehumanization of the Iraqi people. Refused to participate in the violence of the most lethal military machine in (…)

Tony Blair has been taking quite a beating lately in the United Kingdom. Despite having just won a third term as prime minister, his party has been dealt a severe blow, resulting in the loss of nearly 100 seats in Parliament. Responsible for this setback is the recent leak of a top-secret U.K. internal government memo, which recorded the minutes of a meeting between British Prime Minister Blair and other key figures in British intelligence and military outfits, and the very embarrassing (…)

KABUL — The biggest anti-US protests since the fall of the Taliban spread across Afghanistan on May 12, as unrest sparked by alleged abuse of the Koran at the US jail in Guantanamo Bay left three more people dead.
Seven people have been killed and at least 76 injured during three days of violent demonstrations, all of them in clashes with security forces and police in conservative towns east of the capital Kabul.
Angry Afghans shouting "Death to America" poured onto the streets of Kabul (…)

Indignation Grows in U.S. Over British Prewar Documents # Critics of Bush call them proof that he and Blair never saw diplomacy as an option with Hussein.
By John Daniszewski, Times Staff Writer
LONDON - Reports in the British press this month based on documents indicating that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair had conditionally agreed by July 2002 to invade Iraq appear to have blown over quickly in Britain.
But in the United States, where the reports at first received scant (…)

Bush Mendacity Will Shock Historians Bill Gallagher May 10, 2005 Detroit - When historians write about our times, they’ll shake their heads and wonder how so many people could believe so many lies for so long. They might actually write two parallel books - one describing the cascading lies and deceptions George W. Bush and the Republicans sold and the other telling the truth. We’re told, in effect, that trampling on civil liberties and eroding freedom are a sure way to protect us from (…)

HABAN, Iraq, May 11 — The explosion enveloped the armored vehicle in flames, sending orange balls of fire bubbling above the trees along the Euphrates River near the Syrian border.
Marines in surrounding vehicles threw open their hatches and took off running across the plowed fields, toward the already blackening metal of the destroyed vehicle. Shouting, they pulled to safety those they could, as the flames ignited the bullets, mortar rounds, flares and grenades inside, rocketing them into (…)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Eighty-nine Democratic members of the U.S. Congress last week sent President George W. Bush a letter asking for explanation of a secret British memo that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed" to support the Iraq war in mid-2002.
The timing of the memo was well before the president brought the issue to Congress for approval.
The Times of London newspaper published the memo — actually minutes of a high-level meeting on Iraq held July 23, 2002 — on May 1. (…)

Byron York has treated me fairly and without rancor, and I am grateful for that. Certainly I am more in his wheelhouse than mine, and I’m honored that he saw fit to engage me in this little set-to we’ve conducted since Monday. I fired a lead right, Rep. John Conyers shouted encouragement from my corner, then York delivered a hook to the body. I shot back an uppercut, then he loaded up a right hand and attempted to bring an end to the discussion.
Byron York’s most recent refutation of my (…)

WASHINGTON - Funny thing about America and Great Britain. I once thought their people cared about the credibility - and accountability of their leaders - especially when it comes to war and peace. But now I note with regret that the voters in both nations have other priorities.
We’re talking about the fact that the leaders of both nations chose to invade Iraq for flimsy reasons that were deliberately drummed up to convince their people that a third-world country was a threat to them. (…)

Are we going to stand idly by as more sovereign countries are attacked? This farce has nothing to do with getting rid of nuclear weapons in the Middle East or else the US would shut down the billions of dollars of aid that Israel receives. Money that is funneled into its massive chemical, biological and nuclear arsenal, which is turning Israel into a dominant superpower. Their military & political might remains unchecked. They are in firm control of the world’s remaining superpower, the (…)