contributions

By PAUL KRUGMAN
On Sunday, a celebrating crowd gathered around a burning U.S. armored vehicle. Then a helicopter opened fire; a child and a journalist for an Arabic TV news channel were among those killed. Later, the channel repeatedly showed the journalist doubling over and screaming, "I’m dying; I’m dying."
Such scenes, which enlarge the ranks of our enemies by making America look both weak and brutal, are inevitable in the guerrilla war President Bush got us into. Osama bin Laden must (…)

America’s Hearts of Darkness
Will a Documentary About John Kerry have Any Effect on the Upcoming US Election?
by Liam Lacey
One of the most anticipated political documentaries of the fall, director George Butler’s Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, has its world premiere this evening at the Toronto International Film Festival. The occasion will launch a campaign that will see it released in U.S. theatres on Oct. 1, the day after the first presidential debate, as the election (…)

By William Rivers Pitt
This is the comforting fiction: Osama bin Laden is a monster who sprang whole from the fetid mire. He had no childhood, no influences, no education, no experiences to form his view of the world. He did not exist, and then he did, a vessel into which the universe poured the essence of evil. It is a simple, straightforward story of a man who hates freedom and kills for the pure joy of feeling innocent blood drip from his fingers.
This is the fairy tale by which (…)

by COLIN FREEMAN
TWO months ago, amid the kind of secrecy more normally associated with Saddam’s illicit arms deals, the US authorities in Baghdad formally handed over power to the fledgling Iraqi government.
The ceremony, amid the formidable security of the Green Zone, was done two days ahead of schedule in a bid to wrongfoot insurgents - for whom, it was claimed, it would provide the key rallying moment for a final, last-gasp offensive.
Today, with both Ayad Allawi’s new government (…)

By John Kerin and Brad Norington
A SPECIAL Air Service team last night flew out for Iraq as part of a contingency plan to rescue hostages should a claim that two Australian security guards have been kidnapped by terrorists be substantiated.
And an Australian Federal Police team, specially trained for a hostage crisis in the Middle East, was on standby to negotiate with the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army.
The terrorists claimed on Monday night they would kill the two (…)

by Steven Lee Myers
He hopes to unite country to fight terror; critics assail move as ’back to the U.S.S.R.’ MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin ordered a sweeping overhaul of Russia’s political system Monday in what he called an effort to unite the country against terrorism. If enacted, as expected, his proposals would strengthen the Kremlin’s already pervasive control of the legislative branch and regional governments.
Putin, meeting in special session with cabinet ministers and regional (…)

Baghdad witnessed one of its bloodiest days in months when a bomb went off outside its main police headquarters, killing 47 people.
More than 100 people were also wounded in the Tuesday morning blast - the most lethal in Iraq for two months.
Shrapnel tore the crowded district in Haifa Street, littering body parts everywhere and leaving pools of blood on the pavement.
Officials said the blast targeted aspiring recruits queuing up for jobs with the Iraqi police.
“More than 200 people (…)

By: Ted Lang
Increasingly, evidence continues to mount against our own government. Parts of what were formerly viewed as disjointed, confusing and disconnected pieces of a puzzle are beginning to fall into place. The Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal was bad enough, but the Bush administration’s cover-up is much worse. The same can be said for the 9-11 Commission that never really addressed how it was possible for our skies to be so vulnerable on that day. We are to believe that nary a jet (…)

by Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
A plume of grey smoke billowed above Fallujah yesterday as the US military claimed they were making precision air strikes against insurgents in the city and local doctors said that civilians were being killed and wounded.
The US army said its warplanes had bombed houses because it had intelligence about the presence of fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom the US sees as the guiding hand behind many attacks on its forces.
Dr Adel Khamis of the (…)

by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
On Sunday, 13 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in Baghdad when US helicopters fired on a crowd of unarmed civilians. G2 columnist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who was injured in the attack, describes the scene of carnage - and reveals just how lucky he was to walk away
It started with a phone call early on Sunday morning: "Big pile of smoke over Haifa Street." Still half asleep I put on my jeans, cursing those insurgents who do their stuff in the early morning. What if I (…)