contributions

The Bush White House’s attacks on one of America’s grandest newspapers mark a clear break with Republican tradition
writes Eric Boehlert
During the closing weeks of the 2000 presidential campaign, at a campaign rally, George Bush spotted a veteran political reporter and turned to Dick Cheney, standing next to him on the platform, to remark: "There’s Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times." "Oh yeah, big time," replied Cheney. Unbeknownst to them, their locker room (…)

By Katya Cengel kcengel@courier-journal.com
Forty-five minutes before he boarded a helicopter for Baghdad International Airport and a flight back to Fort Carson, Colo., Army Spc. Brian Penisten called his fiancée, Johnna Loia.
"The last words he said were, ’I love you and I’ll see you soon, Mrs. Penisten,’" remembers Loia.
Five days later, on Nov. 7, 2003, the pair planned to marry in secret in Loia’s hometown of Pueblo, Colo. Then they were going to go to Penisten’s hometown of Fort (…)

By Katya Cengel kcengel@courier-journal.com
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. - On Nov. 6, Stacey Martinez was supposed to walk down the aisle at First United Methodist Church in Frankfort. A picture of the white, floor-length wedding gown the 25-year-old was going to wear is posted on the refrigerator at her mother’s house. The reception hall, bridesmaid dresses, tuxedos and honeymoon location were all chosen. A deposit was made at the church. Martinez even has the ring; she wears it on her slender ring (…)

By Katya Cengel kcengel@courier-journal.com
More than 1,000 men and women from the U.S. military, the majority of them Army, have been killed since the war in Iraq began in March 2003. The wives and husbands, or parents, of the fallen are usually offered flags, medals and counseling.
Fiancées often aren’t even notified.
Sometimes the Army doesn’t even know they exist. Unless a soldier has made a point of listing a fiancée on an emergency data card, this loved one is officially (…)

Michael A. Schiller
There are numerous reasons why the war in Iraq has dragged out as long as it has. One of the most likely reasons has been overlooked by both lawmakers and the media. Throughout history, many corporations have exploited wars for profit. There is extensive documentation available to the public on the internet, and in libraries, which proves this. Most people know about the companies which benefit from rebuilding contracts and defense spending. Those companies are usually (…)

The agency is withholding a damning report that points at senior officials.
by Robert Scheer
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general’s office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.
"It is infuriating that a report which shows that (…)

Demonstrators call for isolation of ’apartheid Israel’
JOHANNESBURG: Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began a four-day visit to South Africa on Wednesday that pro-Palestinian groups denounced as a retreat from the struggle for equality embraced by President Thabo Mbeki’s government
Olmert, who is also trade and industry minister, is the most senior Israeli official to visit South Africa since the end of apartheid a decade ago.
He was due to sign an investment protection (…)

By Robert Parry
The assaults on Sen. John Kerry’s patriotism - first from the Swift boat ads and now from an attack-video to be aired nationally before the Nov. 2 election - look to be part of a Bush family pattern, which also was on display in 1992 when the elder George H.W. Bush instigated a smear campaign against Bill Clinton for alleged disloyalty.
In 1992, the Bush reelection plan was to disqualify Clinton with the voters by publicizing bogus allegations that Clinton had tried to (…)

by Robert Parry
Journalist Ron Suskind relates a chilling conversation he had in 2002 with a senior aide to George W. Bush, who taunted Suskind for being a person from “what we call the reality-based community.”
The Bush aide said this “reality-based community” consists of people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” Suskind nodded in agreement and muttered something favorable about the principles of the Enlightenment, only to be cut off by (…)

by Karin Goodwin
HUNDREDS of mentally ill patients who were subjected to barbaric CIA-funded brainwashing experiments by a Scottish doctor could be entitled to compensation following a landmark court ruling.
Doctor Ewan Cameron, who became one of the world’s leading psychiatrists, developed techniques used by Nazi scientists to wipe out the existing personalities of people in his care.
Cameron, who graduated from Glasgow University, was recruited by the CIA during the cold war while (…)