contributions

By Mark Metherell and Tom Allard
A majority of Australians say President George Bush was wrong to criticise Labor’s pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq by Christmas and the nation is evenly split on whether the relationship with the US is too close, a Herald Poll has found.
In the poll taken last weekend, after Mr Bush and other senior figures in his Administration publicly savaged the stance by the Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, on Iraq as "disastrous", 56 per cent of those surveyed, (…)

Caracas, Venezuela. Jun 17, 2004 (Venezuelanalysis.com).- As the August 15 recall referendum on President Chavez’s mandate approaches, pro-government sectors have complained to Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) about the disparity in the number of voting centers between working-class and wealthier neighborhoods.
During a press conference last Tuesday, Jorge Rodriguez, member of the board of directors of the CNE, expressed his "indignation due to the absolutely lack of democracy, (…)

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
WASHINGTON, June 20 - The Bush administration, which cut off its share of financing two years ago to the United Nations agency handling population control, is seeking to isolate the agency from groups that work with it in China and elsewhere, United Nations officials and diplomats say.
Pressed by opponents of abortion, the administration withdrew its support from a major international conference on health issues this month and has privately warned other groups, (…)

by Zillah Eisenstein
The New York Times reports that there have been new releases of prisoners formerly held at Abu Ghraib. The photo shows a young man, age 17, being embraced by his mother and sisters. His body completely slumps into their protective arms. He is two years younger than my daughter. I am heartsick wondering if he will ever recover from his horror.
Muslim men are described as sexually humiliated at Abu Ghraib. And white women of the working class are used to "pussy whip" (…)

His new book, others, also highlight intelligence, administration failures in war on terror.
by Tom Regan
In the past few months several books have been published that attack the US intelligence community, and the White House, for their alleged mistakes and misstatements about Iraq and the war on terror. Most of these books, the Guardian reports, have been written by "embittered" former officials.
But now, the newspaper reports, a senior US intelligence official is "about to publish a (…)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader selected longtime Green Party activist Peter Camejo to be his running mate on Monday, a move sure to boost his chances of winning the Green Party’s endorsement this week and its access to ballot lines in 22 states and the District of Columbia.
Camejo, an investment adviser from Folsom, Calif., had been one of two leading contenders for the Green Party’s presidential nomination.
The announcement came in advance of the Green (…)

It’s not too hard to get your vote lost — if some politicians want it to be lost
by Greg Palast
In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them — half of the rejected ballots — were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate.
This year, it could get worse.
These ugly racial (…)

The moral imperative that underpinned the invasion has proved false.
As the only Anglican bishop to have endorsed the Australian Government’s case for war, I now concede that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. It did not pose a threat to either its neighbours or the United States and its allies. It did not host or give material support to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
But did Australia and the Defence Force really believe Iraq had WMD and would use them to support (…)

The Final Answer Will Be Given by the Tanks Colombia’s new border brigade and the Venezuelan referendum by Justin Podur
A few months ago, the commander of the Venezuelan Army, Raul Baduel, described something that worried him (1). Colombia had just purchased 46 AMX-30 battle tanks from Spain. The media claimed the tanks were to fight drug trafficking, but that hardly seemed plausible. Baduel suspected that the tanks were going to end up on the Venezuelan border.
This deployment (…)

We appeal for the release of the Korean national KIM Seon Il
Today the Korean people were overcome with shock at the news the Korean KIM Seon Il has been kidnapped in Iraq. His seizure and the threat against the life of this private citizen is already a source of unspeakable sadness for his family and the Korean people. This sadness and shock is the same for the many Koreans who have opposed the United States’ unjust invasion and the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq. The Korean people (…)