contributions

What a shame that Anthony Eden did not have a Butler around to explain he was not responsible for Suez
By Robin Cook
What a wonderful specimen of the British establishment is Lord Butler of Brockwell. Urbane, unflappable and understanding. He should be put on display somewhere as a prize example of our ruling classes. Possibly the Victoria and Albert Museum would provide the right grandeur and period ambiance.
There is an emotional disconnect between his measured tones and the brutal (…)

Senate Probe Cites Former U.S. Examiner
By Terence O’Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Riggs Bank courted business from former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and helped him hide millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors while he was under house arrest in Britain, according to a report by Senate investigators.
The report also says the top federal bank examiner in charge of supervising the District’s largest bank kept details about Riggs’s (…)

Act Up-Paris &Aids policy project
AIDS ORPHANS HARASSED AND SUPPORTERS DETAINED
Sarah Davis, Human Rights Watch
Allison Dinsmore 1 215 575 3369
Chloe Forette ACT UP Paris 09 121 41 02
(Bangkok) Activists at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference will present a petition to the Chinese government today demanding that officials respect the rights of people with AIDS and AIDS activists in that country. Ironically, four farmer-activists with HIV were actually detained by the (…)

by Michel Chossudovsky
Based on so-called "credible" reports, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has warned that Osama is now "planning to disrupt the November elections". A large scale attack on American soil is said to be planned by Al Qaeda during the presidential election campaign: "... Credible reporting indicates that Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic (…)

For centuries, enmity between Arabs and Persians has shaped much of the Middle East — from the Arab conquests of the 7th century to the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s.
Now, with Shiites empowered in postwar Iraq, the gloves are off again. But this time, the antagonists are the Shiite ayatollahs of Iraq, a mainly Arab country, and Iran, formerly Persia.
At stake is the leadership of the world’s estimated 170 million Shiites — and the outcome will have profound consequences not only for the (…)

by Rupert Cornwall The Bush administration plans to open up vast wilderness areas of the western US to logging, infuriating the country’s environmental movement.
Under the scheme, which could become an issue in the November election, roads will no longer be barred by federal government rules from more than 60 million acres of forest, almost all of it in Alaska and 11 other western states. With roads, the areas will automatically be open to logging and mining, unless the governor of a (…)

By Andrew Pollack
The federal government is permitting a California biotechnology company to license three experimental cancer drugs from Cuba, making an exception to the policy of tightly restricting trade with that country.
The company, CancerVax, had said late last year that it was trying to license the drugs and had been awaiting needed permission from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. That permission has been granted, and CancerVax is expected to announce (…)

By Randy Dotinga
SAN DIEGO — Not too long ago, cops used to wander around trade shows and linger at the booth of a company selling bodysuits to protect against NBC — nuclear, biological or chemical hazards. "Hope I never need that," they’d say, and move on, leaving the military to actually buy the protection.
Not anymore. "Now they say, ’I need that,’" said Bob Weaver, president of bodysuit company Lanx Fabric Systems, who’s watched law enforcement’s share of his business quadruple over (…)

A cloud over civilisation
JK Galbraith
At the end of the second world war, I was the director for overall effects of the United States strategic bombing survey - Usbus, as it was known. I led a large professional economic staff in assessment of the industrial and military effects of the bombing of Germany. The strategic bombing of German industry, transportation and cities, was gravely disappointing. Attacks on factories that made such seemingly crucial components as ball bearings, and (…)

Where’s the bold vision?
I am a Kucinich delegate to the Democratic Convention from Alaska [Representative Dennis J. Kucinich is a little-known presidential candidate from Ohio]. I became involved in Kucinich’s campaign once I learned of his strong and consistent position against the war in Iraq. I think the occupation and privatization of Iraq are the most important issues facing our nation, and I think the Democratic Party and the Kerry/Edwards ticket need to address it.
Every day the (…)