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Abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad was covered up in a high-level conspiracy, according to the American general in charge of the prison.
Brig Gen Janice Karpinsky, who oversaw all the military prisons, claimed that there was a "conspiracy at a very senior level" to stop her finding out about the abuse.
She rejected claims that she had personally witnessed beatings and said that the cover-up could reach as high as the Pentagon or the White House.
She told the BBC Radio 4 (…)

by David Remnick
There’s a case to be made that it hardly matters how eloquent or effective John Kerry was at the Democratic National Convention last week. What matters infinitely more is that George W. Bush is the worst President the country has endured since Richard Nixon, and even mediocrity would be an improvement. Indeed, if one regards the Bush Administration’s sins of governance-its distortion of intelligence in a time of crisis, its grotesque indulgence of the rich at the expense (…)

By MIKE WHITNEY
"It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America’s power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public’s sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the (…)

6 Members of Iraq’s Security Forces Killed in Attacks; 4 U.S. Soldiers Die in Attacks, Fighting
BAGHDAD - Insurgent bombers killed four Iraqi national guardsmen, a police chief and a patrolman Tuesday in the militants’ unrelenting attacks against the country’s security forces.
Also, two U.S. soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb late Monday in Iraq’s capital, while two American Marines died of wounds received in fighting in Anbar Province west of Baghdad, the (…)

By LISA HOFFMAN The death rate of U.S. troops in Iraq in July approached two a day, a grim up-tick from a significant drop in fatalities the month before.
About a dozen of July’s 54 deaths occurred not in hostilities but from accidents and illness - a major change from June. July also brought a marked decrease in the number of National Guard and reserve casualties compared to previous months.
Military experts say one reason for the relative drop in U.S. battle deaths is the lower profile (…)

by Katrin Bennhold
PARIS The response in Europe to the latest terror threats in the United States has ranged from official calm to unofficial cynicism.
Two days after the Bush administration raised the terror alert to "orange" - one notch below top level - for five iconic financial targets in and around New York and Washington, European governments left their risk assessments unchanged.
While officials from Germany, France and Britain confirmed that they remained on high alert, as they (…)

Democratic candidate John Kerry on Monday accused President Bush of encouraging terrorist recruitment with policies that have made the world angry at the United States, a criticism that Bush dismissed as a "ridiculous notion."
On the day that Bush announced he will create a national intelligence czar and counterterrorism center to help prevent another terrorist attack, Kerry said Bush was not acting fast enough to protect Americans.
Kerry said Bush should immediately call a special (…)

by Jude Wanniski
What would a President Kerry do in Iraq that is different from what President Bush is doing? A week ago, George Will on ABC’s This Week said you can’t even get a tissue paper between the positions of Kerry and Bush. The more valid point was made yesterday on Meet the Press by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, when he argued that Kerry can rally the world to help share in reconstructing Iraq, politically and physically, (…)

Neighbors Express a Sense of Collective Injury
By Pamela Constable
BAGHDAD. Two teenage sisters picked disconsolately through the wreckage of their bedroom Monday: Barbie dolls, movie magazines and a jumble of lingerie half-buried in the dust and debris from a car bomb that had exploded in the street below their window Sunday evening.
"What am I going to wear now?" wailed Rana, 16, lifting a ruined blouse from her bed and letting it drop.
In the parlor downstairs, the girls’ father, (…)

Expected to see boost in polls, Democrat’s surge never shows
By BILL STRAUB
So where’s the bounce?
Exiting from a seemingly successful Democratic National Convention and having delivered a well-received acceptance speech, John Kerry was expected to pick up a few points in what has been an extremely close race with President Bush.
So far, the polls have offered a different take.
Four surveys have been released since the Democrats left Boston, and three show hardly any bump. One, the (…)