contributions

By CHARLES SHEEHAN WAMPUM, Pa. – At a racetrack north of Pittsburgh, the air is thick with the smell of burning rubber and overheated brake pads. Cars hit speeds of 100 mph, then execute 180-degree, sliding turns.
But the drivers squealing around the BeaveRun Motorsports Complex aren’t risking lives in the name of speed – instead, they are speeding to save lives, teaching people leaving for Iraq the skills they may need while driving in a war zone.
As government agencies and private (…)

Thousands of Ukrainian protesters on Tuesday demanded the government bring troops back saying politicians had no right to spill the blood of others for their own gain.
SyriaTimes
summary: Thousands of Ukrainian protesters on Tuesday demanded the government bring troops back saying politicians had no right to spill the blood of others for their own gain. ‏ ‏ ‏
About 2,000 Communists holding red flags and 5,000 Orthodox believers, who carried icons, swarmed the central independence (…)

by Dahr Jamail
The evening of the 21st found me at a CPA-approved demonstration of Shia men in support of the recent U.S airstrike of Fallujah. Remember, demonstrations in Iraq now must obtain permission from the CPA, otherwise risk being broken up by the military, which has so often led to making casualties of unarmed demonstrators during the occupation.
These CPA-sponsored demonstrations also tend to have U.S. helicopters providing air support for them, which tends to be a giveaway as (…)

By Jonathan Turley
The scandal over the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib appears to be subsiding in Washington. In a ritual as old as the republic, scapegoats have been offered up by the administration and accepted by the Congress. For the military, however, the message and true meaning of the scandal could not be more clear: no more pictures.
The federal government, and particularly the military, has long understood the impact of photographs. Pictures represent a dangerous element in a (…)

by Justin Raimondo
The victors in the Iraq war are now moving rapidly to consolidate their gains, and carry out the second phrase of their operation. No, I don’t mean the June 30 American handover of pseudo-"sovereignty" to a puppet regime, but the ongoing invasion of Kurdistan by Israeli operatives trying to spark a war of secession. Thanks – once again – to the indispensable Seymour Hersh, the truth about what is happening in Iraq – and why – is coming out, as the real victors help (…)

The captive Iraqi tells his family to ‘say hello to everyone’—and his lawyer claims that the former dictator’s human rights are being violated in jail Jailed Saddam: Family members are distressed that only one of his letters has been delivered
By Rod Nordland
Military censors have blacked out nine of the 14 lines. But in what remains of his letter, Saddam Hussein assures his family that “my spirit and my morale, they are high, thanks to greatness of God.”
The message—apparently the (…)

by Jim Lobe
The willingness of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to show greater deference to the United Nations and international law will be severely tested this week as it tries to persuade the Security Council to extend its exemption of U.S. troops serving in peacekeeping operations from the jurisdiction the new International Criminal Court (ICC) for another year.
To prevail, Washington must secure at least nine votes from the 15-member Council, but indications so (…)

Raed Jarrar, Director of Iraq Survey http://civilians.info/iraq/
a note from the director of the survey
I was the country director of the first (and maybe only) door-to-door civilian casualties survey. Marla Ruzika was my American partner, the fund raiser, and the general director of CIVIC. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the chance to publish the final results until now.
I decided to publish my copy of the final results of the Iraqi civilian casualties in Baghdad and the south of (…)

Nation’s largest union adopts tough antiwar stand without dissent. Opposition To Current US Iraq Policy
Our nation faces growing domestic challenges - unemployment, declining wages and benefits, deunionization of the workforce, reduced public services, crumbling health care and educational systems, cuts in veterans benefits, escalating public debt, and decreased economic, social and personal security. Massive military spending, combined with tax cuts for the rich, is creating massive (…)

The rush to privatize water is underway across the world. In the new documentary Thirst , filmmakers Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow set out to explore the consequences.
There are untold profits to be made from controlling the simplest and most vital ingredient of our survival: water.
The only question, from a profit standpoint, is why it has taken this long.
"You can’t do anything without water," says Alan Snitow, co-producer and co-director of Thirst, a groundbreaking and provocative (…)