contributions

The war on Iraq has made moral cowards of us all
by Scott Ritter
The full scale of the human cost already paid for the war on Iraq is only now becoming clear. Last week’s estimate by investigators, using credible methodology, that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians - most of them women and children - have died since the US-led invasion is a profound moral indictment of our countries. The US and British governments quickly moved to cast doubt on the Lancet medical journal findings, citing (…)

by Farooq Sulehria
Hamid Karzai has won the election. That was hardly any surprise. However, the high turn out (69%) was a surprise indeed. And a pleasant one. With 97 percent of the votes counted, Karzai with 55 percent of the votes was an outright winner. Had any candidate not obtained a majority, the top two would have competed in a run-off election, as in France.
But none of Karzai’s 14 rivals, as was expected, posed any serious challenge. The main challenger and runner up, Younas (…)

By Andy McSmith
Stephen Hawking, Britain’s most eminent scientist, has become the latest prominent opponent of the Iraq war by agreeing to take the lead role in a ceremonial protest to coincide with the United States presidential election.
Peace protesters will gather in Trafalgar Square at 5pm on Tuesday, where they will read out the names of 5,000 Iraqi men, women and children known to have died in the conflict.
The full death toll was put last week as high as 100,000.
Playwrights (…)

by Jorge Martin
Hands Off Venezuela Campaign Jorge Martin writes: Early results of Venezuela’s regional and council elections, announced at 12.40 a.m. by the National Elections Council (CNE), confirm the predictions of yet another election victory for Chavez’ Bolivarian movement ... the ninth in just six years.
Although these results are still provisional, and in some cases they are based on just above 50% of the counted votes, they seem to indicate a clear victory for Bolivarian (…)

By Azita Ebrahimi November 2 - To the Polls! November 4 - To the Streets! PROTEST AGAINST WAR IN IRAQ on Thursday November 4! PLEASE JOIN US!
Democracy Not Disenfranchisement! Education Not Occupation! Health Care Not Warfare!
November 3 (in Atlanta Nov. 4), on the day after the presidential election, no matter what the outcome is, people from all walks of life across America are mobilizing in their communities to go beyond voting and demonstrate visions for a truly democratic (…)

By LARRY ROHTER
MONTEVIDEO, Tabaré Vázquez, a Socialist doctor running as the candidate of an opposition coalition that includes former guerrillas, narrowly triumphed Sunday in the presidential election, bringing the left to power for the first time in this South American country. The victory by the coalition, known as the Progressive-Encounter-Broad-FrontNew-Majority, whose largest faction consists of Tupamaro guerrillas turned politicians, strengthens a trend throughout the continent. (…)

by Michael Moore
Dear Friends,
This is it. ONE DAY LEFT. There are many things I’d like to say. I’ve been on the road getting out the vote for 51 straight days so I haven’t had much time to write. So I’ve put together a bunch of notes to various groups all in this one letter. Please feel free to copy and send whatever portions are appropriate to your friends and family as you spend these last 24 hours trying to convince whomever you can to show up and vote for John Kerry.
Here are my (…)

By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces battled rebels in Ramadi and pounded Falluja on Monday, but there was no sign that an all-out American-led offensive to retake the insurgent-held cities had begun on the eve of the U.S. presidential election.
Kidnappers armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades seized an American, a Nepali and two Arabs from their Saudi company’s office in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.
A spokesman said the attackers killed a guard (…)

IAEA says it warned U.S. about explosives
by OfficialWire NewsDesk
WASHINGTON, D.C. — (OfficialWire) — 10/30/04 — New evidence emerged in the United States on Friday that appears to contradict claims by George W. Bush and his administration that some 360 tons of explosives previously located in Iraq were looted before U.S. troops occupied the country. Nine days after the fall of Baghdad, on April 18, 2003, a news crew from Minneapolis-St Paul station KSTP-TV, embedded with U.S. troops (…)

by Tony Allen-Mills, Columbus, Ohio
UNRELEASED portions of a new videotape from Osama Bin Laden were being examined by American intelligence officials yesterday as election campaign strategists vowed to prevent the Al-Qaeda leader’s surprise re-emergence from disrupting the final two days of the presidential race.
The Central Intelligence Agency and other government officials were searching for signs that Bin Laden may have been seeking to trigger a terrorist attack in the hope of (…)