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Washington: Editors at The Washington Post have acknowledged that they underplayed stories questioning President George Bush’s claims of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the months before the US invasion of Iraq.
In a story published in yesterday’s issue, the Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote that editors resisted stories that questioned whether Mr Bush had evidence that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
The assistant managing editor Bob Woodward said in the story: (…)

By JUAN FORERO
ARACAS, Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez said Thursday that victory in the referendum on his rule on Sunday was inevitable, as his adversaries mounted large rallies to marshal momentum in a last-ditch effort to end his presidency.
"I’m sure, God willing, that on Sunday night the Venezuelan people will be celebrating," Mr. Chávez said in a news conference, referring to the masses who support his leftist government. "It’s absolutely impossible for a surprise to occur."
The (…)

By Gail Appleson
NEW YORK - The U.S. government has less than two weeks to start giving civil rights groups documents about the torture of prisoners held by U.S. forces at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities, a federal judge ordered on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein expressed impatience with the government and said prosecutors must start handing over certain papers identified by the American Civil Liberties Union by Aug. 23 unless they can show the documents (…)

by Eyal Press
At last month’s Democratic convention, few words were uttered more frequently than the one that seems to roll most easily off the tongue of George W. Bush: faith. "Let me say it plainly," announced John Kerry in his acceptance speech. "In this campaign, we welcome people of faith." John Edwards thanked his parents, Wallace and Bobbie, for instilling in him an appreciation of "faith" from an early age. Barack Obama declared that Kerry "understands the ideals of community, (…)

by Jimmy Breslin
I went up to Central Park yesterday for one last reporting on its size and sturdiness for any rally, but lightning suddenly turned the sky orange, and low to the ground, too, and then the heavy thunder-rain drove me out of the place. The rain was the entire story anyway. By the time it got through soaking these acres and acres of green, the great lawns were as strong as railroad tracks.
All the more reason that the mayor, "Stay Off the Grass Bloomberg," looks sillier by (…)

by Selma James
Increasing numbers of people, especially the young, seem disconnected from an electoral process which, they feel, does not represent them. This is part of a general cynicism about every aspect of public life.
Venezuela has many problems, but this is not one of them. Its big trouble - but also its great possibility - is that it has oil; it is the fifth largest exporter. The US depends on it and thus wants control over it. But the Venezuelan government needs the oil revenue, (…)

by Ward Reilly
While our president rushed us into an unnecessary war, many people around our nation worked to expose the truth about what was to come in Iraq—citizens of great character,and a deep love of our nation. It is a long, long list of citizens, some that have risked their careers, and even their lives, in order to tell the truth about the Bush Administration’s catastrophic rush into war in the Middle East. Real Heroes.
Thank you, Scott Ritter—the weapons inspector who knew there (…)

No Sex, Please, We’re Republicans Right now, to be sexually attuned and kinky is to be part of the anti-Bush revolution. Vive la résistance!
By Mark Morford
Oh my shining well-lubricated God but it’s a darn fine time to be a sensually aware and libidinously curious and sexually active person in America.
It’s true. Just look. Look at all the right-wing sexual rigidity and born-again religious screeching and hateful conservative homophobia spewing around the country right now. Can’t you (…)

by Alan Bock
The battle for Najaf, at least at the military level, is inconclusive as I write, and the ultimate political implications will probably take weeks or months to sort out, though it is virtually certain that one result will be better recruiting prospects for militants, insurgents, jihadists and the like. The nomination of Porter Goss to head the CIA suggests that whatever faint hope one might have had for significant reform is the stuff of fleeting dreams, but plenty of people (…)

By Erich Marquardt
As the U.S. military swarms the Iraqi city of Najaf, a vital decision must be made about whether it is willing to kill Shi’a leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr, whose private militia is known as the Mehdi Army, has been a jagged thorn in the side of the U.S.-led occupation. Al-Sadr’s influence among the Shi’a community, and his control of thousands of weapon-toting militia, has made him a power force to contend with, a situation that is endangering Washington’s attempts to (…)