contributions

Kerry needs stronger stance on Iraq
It’s the war, stupid. And if John Kerry is to win the presidential election, he is going to have to take a much more aggressive stance against it.
The conventional wisdom is that the economy and health care have more clout as electoral issues than does Iraq. They will be powerful, but I suspect that concerns about homeland security, the global war on terrorism and Iraq are going to play a greater role on Election Day than polls and pundits predict. (…)

By Patricia Wilson
CANONSBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry on Monday called the invasion of Iraq "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time" and said his goal was to withdraw U.S. troops in a first White House term.
Under pressure from some Democrats to change the subject from national security — regarded by many as President Bush’s strength — Kerry tried to focus on the economy and other domestic issues at a neighborhood meeting in Canonsburg, but (…)

by Jon Henley in Paris
Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital’s chic 16th arrondissement.
Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris’s most intriguing recent discoveries.
"We have no idea whatsoever," a police spokesman said.
"There were two swastikas painted on the ceiling, but also celtic crosses and several stars of David, so we don’t think it’s (…)

By Eric Silver in Jerusalem and Sa’id Ghazali in Gaza
Thousands of Palestinians marched in angry protest yesterday to the funerals of 14 Hamas militants killed overnight on Monday when Israeli helicopters rocketed a training field in Shadaiyeh, one of the most crowded and impoverished districts of Gaza City.
It was the bloodiest carnage in Gaza since May, when 31 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers died in a week of heavy fighting.
Doctors at Shifa hospital had difficulty identifying (…)

Appeal for the Liberation of Simona Pari, Simona Torretta, Ra’ad Ali Abdul-Aziz and Mahnaz Bassam from the Italian Peace Movement.
by A Bridge to Baghdad
We, the Italian peace movement, we who are the brothers and sisters of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, peaceworkers in Iraq, ask those who are holding them and their two Iraqi co-workers, Ra’ad Ali Abdul-Aziz and Mahnaz Bassam, to release them immediately. We beg you to consider the untold damage your actions are inflicting on the (…)

by DALE MAHARIDGE
Working meant sparks and steel dust when I was a child. My father labored by day in a factory sharpening the milling tools that cut and form metal; after dinner he descended into our basement and a battery of machines, doing the same work as a side business. At age 12 I began grinding steel. I was on track to make this my living. Then I began writing and left blue-collar life. But I couldn’t really leave it behind.
I was there for the steel-mill shutdowns in the late (…)

by Nora Castañeda
Dear Sisters and Friends,
We are proud to host Nora Castañeda, President of the Women’s Development Bank of Venezuela, on her first speaking tour of the United States in January/February 2004. Her tour is co-ordinated by the Bolivarian Circle of the Global Women’s Strike with the support of the Venezuelan Embassy, and sponsored by Pacifica Radio’s KPFK, KPFA, and WBAI, and actors Danny Glover and Ed Asner. We are writing to ask if your office or facility is interested (…)

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
President Bush likes to zing John Kerry for his more infelicitous pronouncements, like his votes for and against a certain appropriations bill. But this is a perilous path for a malaprop-prone president.
Indeed, as both men showed on Monday, this line of attack might best be described as mutually assured deconstruction. Mr. Kerry stepped boldly into the verbal minefield early, arriving at a front-porch session with supporters in Canonsburg, Pa., near Pittsburgh. (…)

Beslan was barbaric - so has been Russia’s reign of terror in Chechnya
by Ahmed Zakaev
The bloody denouement to the Beslan tragedy was barbaric: no other word will suffice. There could never be any justification for terrorists who we are told shot fleeing hostages in the back - nor for those who died at the hands of the ill-judged Spetsnaz operation. I have been asked many times about Chechen involvement in this appalling bloodbath. Of course there can be no denying the direct link (…)

To the Children of BESLAN, Russia:
On behalf of the People of The United States of America we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the ones lost in this terrible tragedy. No one including children should have to suffer for the ignorance of men.
Dr. Judah Ben-Hur