contributions

On the occasion of the recall referendum to be held on 15 August, a delegation of parliamentarians from 7 European countries arrived in Venezuela this week. The parliamentarians taking part in this delegation have strongly opposed the several undemocratic attempts by the opposition to overthrow President Hugo Chavez and to put an end to the effort of the progressive sectors and the Venezuelan government to build a more just and democratic society. In Caracas the European (…)

By JOEL BRINKLEY
WASHINGTON - April 21 was an unusually violent day in Iraq; 68 people died in a car bombing in Basra, among them 23 children. As the news went from bad to worse, President Bush took a tough line, vowing to a group of journalists, "We’re not going to cut and run while I’m in the Oval Office."
On the same day, deep within the turgid pages of the Federal Register, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation that would forbid the public release (…)

An Arab news channel said Sunday Iraqi police have urged journalists and media representatives to leave the southern Iraqi city of Najaf.
The Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite channel said Iraqi the warning indicated preparation for a wide scale raid on Najaf, which has seen 10 days of armed conflict between Iraqi and U.S. forces and the Shiite al-Mehdi militia, led by Moqtada al-Sadr.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said Saturday his government intends to resume (…)

Peter Goss, the man picked by President Bush to head the CIA, was having breakfast with former ISI chief Gen Mahmud Ahmad as the Sept 11 attacks unfolded, says information released by US intelligence officials.
Mr Goss, when asked to comment on the meeting, said he was not discussing Osama bin Laden or terrorism with Gen Mahmud Ahmed, but India-Pakistan relations. Mr Goss, a Republican congressman and former CIA case officer, has headed the House Intelligence Committee for the last seven (…)

by Roland Denis
The referendum, as we had thought, will constitute a fabulous scenario for thedeployment of an extraordinary potential of movilization, organization, debate, andof liberation, to a certain degree, of several points of popular organization that for along time had been trapped by the bureaucracy introduced by government- supporting political parties; the organized or disorganized spontaneity with whichthe patrols, the local commands as well as the defense preparation have (…)

14 August 2004
The presidential campaign of John Kerry has in the two brief weeks since the Democratic convention descended from political bankruptcy into outright farce.
Kerry and his advisors have managed to paint themselves into a political corner that on first impression would have seemed unimaginable. Bush has the Democratic challenger on the defensive-on the war in Iraq.
This unelected government, deemed by millions of Americans to be illegitimate, has been caught out using (…)

Published on Friday, August 13, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times Rumsfeld and Bush Failed Us on Sept. 11 by Gail Sheehy
Donald Rumsfeld, one of the chief opponents of investing real power over purse and personnel in a new national intelligence chief, told the 9/11 commission that an intelligence czar would do the nation "a great disservice." It is fair to ask what kind of service Rumsfeld provided on the day the nation was under catastrophic attack.
"Two planes hitting the twin towers did (…)

By Jonathan Brown
Peter Mahoney found it hard to settle into normal life after returning from the war in Iraq. Last week, he put on his Territorial Army uniform for one last time, his head freshly shaved, and returned to the home that he had, until five weeks earlier, shared with his wife and four children.
Attaching a hosepipe to the exhaust of the family car, parked in the garage of their home in Botcherby, a small estate on the outskirts of Carlisle, he started the engine.
His (…)

by Matt Bojanovic
In April 2004, in Fallujah, hundreds were being buried in backyards and soccer fields. In Baghdad, thousands were lining up to give blood and money for Fallujah; there was rage at what was generally viewed as the collective punishment of that city, and even the usually compliant Iraqi authorities were beginning to raise objections. At that point, some Iraqi insurgents had a novel idea: they would grab the attention of public opinion in the West by detaining soft (…)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Authorities have halted oil export flows from the main pipeline in southern Iraq after intelligence showed a rebel militia could strike infrastructure, an oil official said Saturday.
The shutdown kept loadings at southern oil terminals at half their normal level, undermining the government’s effort to raise revenue as oil prices hit record highs, partly in response to the instability in Iraq.
"The situation in Basra is bad. Management ordered the pipeline shut late (…)