contributions

Rock’s conscience awakens for the first time in 30 years and Bush is the alarm clock
By Torcuil Crichton
For the first time since the Vietnam war the protest song is back. But this time it’s personal. Whereas protest songs of the Vietnam era were broadly anti-war in their message, the new batch of political tunes rising up the American Billboard chart are focused directly on Iraq and aimed at getting George Bush out of office.
"For better or worse, Bush has stirred up a lot of vitriol (…)

A number of serving defence force officers shared the concerns of a group of 43 former defence chiefs and diplomats who wanted a return to truth in government, retired defence chief General Peter Gration said today.
Mr Gration, who headed the Australian Defence Force from 1987 to 1993, said he and the other signatories believed Australia joined the invasion of Iraq on the basis of false assumptions and deception of the Australian people.
"I can tell you that number of serving offices do (…)

By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - The scandal surrounding the torture and abuse by U.S. soldiers of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and in other theatres of the Bush administration’s ’’war against terrorism’’ is producing unexpected aftershocks in the legal, medical and reporting professions.
The most active and aroused is the legal profession. Disciplinary actions in several state bar associations are reportedly being launched against government lawyers who prepared memoranda that (…)

U.S. Mass Murder in Iraq Will Not Defeat the Resistance
As U.S. fighter jets and attack helicopters bomb and strafe densely populated neighborhoods in the holy city of Najaf, and kill and round-up the citizens of Sadr City, the poorest neighborhood in Baghdad, it has become crystal clear that the capacity of the occupation forces to launch a high tech campaign of murder and destruction has utterly failed to defeat the resistance in Iraq.
Bush’s and Kerry’s Dilemma in Iraq
Iraq is (…)

by MATT GOURAS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The last time the Vietnam War loomed so large in a presidential election, it was 1972 and American soldiers were still fighting an elusive enemy in Southeast Asia. But the war has taken center stage again as both parties seek the support of Vietnam veterans - turning to them as the emerging elder statesmen among American war veterans.
At a conference this past week, on the 40th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Vietnam Veterans of America (…)

A now-disputed account of a North Vietnamese attack on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin led President Lyndon B. Johnson to escalate America’s involvement in Vietnam, a chain of events drawing comparisons on its 40th anniversary to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Johnson told Americans that communist torpedo boats fired on U.S. destroyers on Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, 1964. Following that, Congress voted almost unanimously on Aug. 7 to give Johnson approval to step up U.S. involvement in (…)

by Sibel Edmonds
Thomas Kean, Chairman National Committee on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States 301 7th Street, SW Room 5125 Washington, D.C. 20407
Dear Chairman Kean:
It has been almost three years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, during which time we have been placed under a constant threat of terror and asked to exercise vigilance in our daily lives. Your commission was created by law to investigate "facts and circumstances related to the terrorist attacks of September (…)

Forty-three eminent former defence chiefs and diplomats called for more honesty in government, saying they were concerned Australia joined the war on Iraq on the basis of false assumptions and deceptions.
In a public statement released Sunday, they said Australians must be able to believe they were being told the truth on matters as grave as sending troops to war.
But Prime Minister John Howard rejected suggestions that Australia went to war on the basis of lies.
"I’ve always (…)

Aljazeera has vowed to continue its Iraq coverage despite the one-month closure of its Baghdad office announced by the Iraqi interim government on Saturday.
In a statement Aljazeera expressed regret for the unjustified move, and said it was contrary to pledges made by the Iraqi Government to start a new era of free speech and openness.
Aljazeera made it clear in the statement they hold the Iraqi authorities responsible for the safety of Aljazeera staff in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. (…)

By By Josh White The Washington Post
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - One of the few heroes to emerge out of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal testified Friday that he anonymously reported members of his military police unit to investigators and turned over a series of disturbing photographs because he wanted to put an end to the abuse of detainees at the facility in Iraq.
Sgt. Joseph Darby said he agonized over whether to go to authorities with disturbing digital photographs that captured his friends and (…)