contributions

by John Nelson
As U.S. politicians debate the intelligence failures that preceded the Iraq invasion as well as the war in Afghanistan, they can take little comfort that history will judge these wars charitably. Today and Monday mark 59 years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, and there is still no definitive historical judgment that this was the right thing to do.
Historians agree that Japanese military leaders surrendered (…)

by Ray McGovern
"Pre-election period…pre-election plot…pre-election threats"
These rolled off National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s lips no less than seven times yesterday on CNN’s Late Edition as she discussed the likely timing of a terrorist attack. She stayed on message.
Dr. Rice said the government had actually "picked up discussion" relating to "trying to do something in the pre-election period," and added that information on the threat came from "active multiple sources." (…)

By Renée Loth
AFTER THE Sept. 11 attacks, I put a small American flag in my front window. Some of my most liberal friends were appalled. The flag conjured up visions of jingoistic, Fox-watching rednecks, they said. Displaying it tagged me as a guns, guts, and God kind of gal, a vengeful Rambo in heels. At the very least, it meant that I was for bombing the daylights out of Afghanistan.
No, I protested. The flag is merely a symbol. It can celebrate any aspect of America we choose: freedom (…)

by Sean Gonsalves
If you’re wondering why many family members of 9/11 victims are disappointed with the final report of the 9/11 Commission, this might help in understanding that their critique of the investigative process and outcome is broader than their own sense of personal anguish.
One of the key recommendations contained in the 567-page 9/11 Commission final report is the establishment of an "intelligence czar."
Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran and now a steering group member (…)

by ANTONIA ZERBISIAS
Do not adjust your set: U.S. TV journalists are finally asking politicians the tough questions they should have been posing in the run-up to the attack on Iraq.
Trouble is, more often than not, they’re asking those questions of Democrats.
For example, two Sundays ago, which should have been a good press day for the John Kerry-John Edwards team on a post-convention high, along came another terror alert. That afternoon former Democratic presidential candidate Howard (…)

by Greg Palast
Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday? by Greg Palast
Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it’s jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote.
Or maybe it’s the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq’s. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn’t even (…)

By NORM DIXON
For at least 18 months now, Western governments have quietly stood by as the non-Arabic-speaking black farmers of the Darfur region in western Sudan have borne the brunt of a vicious ethnic-cleansing campaign carried out by state-sponsored bandits known as the janjaweed.
Refugees report that attacks on farming villages are often preceded by raids by Sudanese air force fighter-bombers and attack helicopters. The janjaweed, recruited from Arabic-speaking pastoralist tribes, (…)

by Peter Marcuse
Summary: Social Forums, modeled on the World Social Forums, are not social movements in the classic sense. They are not the organizational form through which basic social change will be achieved, or can best be pursued. But they can and do make a significant contribution to achieving such change. Some concrete suggestions are made which might enhance their effectiveness.
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A century ago, class issues seemed to be the organizing focus of progressive (…)

by Rohan Pearce
Most commentators in the Australian corporate media, whether the unashamedly hard-right terriers of the Murdoch empire or the "liberal" chihuahuas of the Fairfax press, have subjected Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11 to relentless attack.
They are not alone in doing so - they have simply joined the worldwide anti-Moore crusade of all those who have spent the past three-and-a-half years peddling the lies used to justify Washington’s "war on terror".
For the (…)

LIBYA’S Gaddafi Foundation, which negotiated the terms of a compensation deal for victims of Berlin nightclub bombing, today demanded US compensation for subsequent air strikes against the north African country.
The foundation expressed "complete satisfaction" with the deal announced today, under which Libya will compensate victims of the 1986 bombing at the La Belle discotheque frequented by US servicemen in what was then West Berlin.
But "in the same context we should not however (…)