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“I come to bury Caesar not to praise him”
Tony Blair paraphrased Mark Anthony’s words at this year’s TUC saying he had come to “praise Warwick not to bury it.” He was referring to the agreement reached between union and Labour leaders at Warwick castle over certain minor reforms in relation to pensions and workers’ rights. Are these meagre promises the height of ambition for Labour’s third term in office? No, this is nowhere near enough.
As we write this article Blair is (…)

U.S. President George W. Bush was warned in two intelligence reports before he invaded Iraq that his war could produce a chaotic guerrilla conflict involving terrorists. Yet, critics say, Mr. Bush didn’t use the information to alter his policy or plan for escalating bloodshed that’s threatening chances for democratic elections in Iraq in January. A senior U.S. intelligence official was also quoted this week as saying Mr. Bush disregarded high-level warnings that a war could (…)

By Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three dozen eminent pediatricians and social workers attacked the Bush administration on Wednesday for policies they said leave too many children without health insurance.
The doctors, including some well-known authors of manuals for parents and professionals, said they were taking the unusual step because they were worried about the state of U.S. health care.
"The Bush administration’s policies are moving us away from effective and longstanding (…)

An Army officer in Iraq who wrote a highly critical article on the administration’s conduct of the war is being investigated for disloyalty — if charged and convicted, he could get 20 years.
by Eric Boehlert
An Army Reserve staff sergeant who last week wrote a critical analysis of the United States’ prospects in Iraq now faces possible disciplinary action for disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are bought and the officer is found guilty, he could face 20 years in prison. It would (…)

by Richard L Smith
CRAWFORD - Military veterans came to President Bush’s adopted hometown Tuesday to speak against the administration’s Iraq policies.
Three veterans’ groups opposed to the war as well as a Republican group supporting Sen. John Kerry for president were represented at a sparsely attended news conference at the Crawford Peace House. The former service members say Bush is misleading the public about Iraq and drew comparisons with the Vietnam War.
"It’s just a sad reality (…)

by Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON - Angered by President Bush’s policy in Iraq, a group of military families whose relatives died there is targeting the president in new television ads to be aired ahead of the Nov. 2 election.
"I think the American people need to know that we have been betrayed in this rush to war," said Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey is among the more than 1,000 U.S. troops who died in the war.
Sheehan is joining a small group of military families in Washington on Wednesday (…)

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Let’s face it: Whatever happens in Thursday’s debate, cable news will proclaim President Bush the winner. This will reflect the political bias so evident during the party conventions. It will also reflect the undoubted fact that Bush does a pretty good Clint Eastwood imitation.
But what will print media do? Let’s hope it isn’t what they did four years ago.
Interviews with focus groups after the first 2000 debate gave Al Gore a slight edge. Post-debate analysis should (…)

Struggling bureau has more than 120,000 hours of wire-tapped conversations awaiting analysis
Julian Borger in Washington
More than 120,000 hours of wiretapped conversations between terrorist suspects and sympathisers since the September 11 attacks have not been translated because of the FBI’s lack of linguists, according to an official report.
The report, by the justice department’s inspector-general, also found that many sensitive intercepts have been wiped automatically from the (…)

"Children, Ardent for Some Desperate Glory"
by ROBERT FISK
We are now in the greatest crisis since the last greatest crisis. That’s how we run the Iraq war—or the Second Iraq War as Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara would now have us believe. Hostages are paraded in orange tracksuits to remind us of Guantanamo Bay. Kidnappers demand the release of women held prisoner by the Americans. Abu Ghraib is what they are talking about. Abu Ghraib? Anyone remember Abu Ghraib? Remember those dirty little (…)

Bush official was warned of trouble brewing in oil-rich state
by David Leigh, David Pallister and Jamie Wilson
Links have been discovered between senior American military officials and the failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea that has left Sir Mark Thatcher facing trial in South Africa.
Theresa Whelan, a member of the Bush administration in charge of African affairs at the Pentagon, twice met a London-based businessman, Greg Wales, in Washington before the coup attempt. Mr Wales has (…)