contributions

By John Catalinotto, New York
A series of events in early December signaled a major shift in political consciousness within the U.S. Armed Forces. Together they struck fear in the hearts of the general staff.
A sailor, a soldier, a Marine, and two National Guard soldiers committed acts of courage. They killed no Iraqis, nor did they rescue wounded comrades under fire. This kind of courage took a different form for each GI, from refusing to kill to confronting the unpopular secretary of (…)

Hollywood has joined the war. Universal Pictures announced on Thursday that it is to make The Battle for Fallujah. To prove it is serious, it has enlisted Indiana Jones himself, actor Harrison Ford, to help defeat the insurgency.
The film — Hollywood’s first foray into the second Iraq conflict — is due to go into production next year and will be based on a yet-to-be-finished book, No True Glory: The Battle for Fallujah by Bing West, a former marine, politician and now war correspondent. (…)

David Leigh, David Pallister and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The British arms firm BAE yesterday refused to comment on documents showing mysterious payments linked to UK weapons purchases by General Augusto Pinochet.
Sums of up to $5m (£2.57m) are listed in Gen Pinochet’s bank records obtained by a Senate investigation in Washington.
Some appear to be linked to arms purchases he agreed to make from Royal Ordnance, a BAE subsidiary.
At one point, Gen Pinochet obtained £1m, which (…)

Dolly Wilson’s father proudly served in the Second World War and her husband in Vietnam. But her children will not join the military if she has any say in it.
"We don’t want our kids to go into no war for nothing," said Mrs Wilson, snatching a cigarette with colleagues outside her Washington office.
"Bush has two daughters. Let them go over and fight," she added, to a chorus of "That’s not our war" from the others.
James Golladay served in the US coastguard, but would discourage his (…)

U.S. President George W. Bush’s bold, uncompromising leadership and his clear-cut election victory made him Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2004, its managing editor said Sunday.
Time chose Bush "for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years," Jim Kelly wrote in the magazine. (…)

Lead editorial from Cleveland Plain Dealer NewsElites progamming efforts to ’tenderize’ the populace with insidious perception management & reality control campaign. The 4-man team piously SPEWS deceptive, ignorant, crude reasoning in a blatant, though, pathetic attempt to marginalize and ridicule the inteGRITy of Americans valiantly Defending the Vote & Free, Fair and Honest Elections. What do you expect from the Oligarch’s wayward misinformation ministers? but to, in blind denial, (…)

A.N.S.W.E.R. leaders on C-Span 1 at 1 pm ET today to report on Jan. 20 CounterInaugural protests
Leaders from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and others involved in the January 20 Counter-Inaugural Protest in Washington DC will be holding a press conference at 1 pm ET today (December 17). The press conference will be broadcast live on C-Span 1. Please check the C-Span website for when the press conference will be rebroadcast today and during this weekend. It is called "Inaugural Parade Protests (…)

If Ukrainians Can Demonstrate in the Streets Over a Stolen Election, So Can We by Rob Kall
http://baltimorechronicle.com/121704Kall.shtml
Doesn’t our country deserve the same protest, the same raising of voices that the people of the Ukraine felt their country deserved? I’ve been feeling a bit of a disappointed malaise and dejection the last few days as the realization that the theft of the election is going pretty much unprotested has sunken in, that the 55 million Americans who voted (…)

Slovak Paper Mill Workers Victimised for Organising a New Trade Union Latest News from Ruzomberok. Central Slovakia
The Neusiedler Corporation, a division of Mondi and Anglo-American plc, is continuing to use repressive measures against the organisers and supporters of a new workers union in the Slovak paper mill, SCP Mondi Business Paper Ruzomberok. On November 8th, 2004 over 120 workers came out after the morning shift to protest against the sackings and intimidation by management of the (…)

A Detroit congressman asked the FBI on Wednesday to investigate an Ohio election worker’s concern that presidential election results could have been altered when a software company employee worked on machines before a ballot recount.
The company, TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc., provides vote-counting software used in 41 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Rep. John Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the FBI office in Cincinnati and Hocking County (…)