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First of three articles
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD — The American occupation of Iraq will formally end this month having failed to fulfill many of its goals and stated promises intended to transform the country into a stable democracy, according to a detailed examination drawing upon interviews with senior U.S. and Iraqi officials and internal documents of the occupation authority.
The ambitious, 15-month undertaking stumbled because of a series of (…)

The Olympic torch came to the United Nations for the first time and the world body sent it on its global journey with an appeal for a halt to all fighting during the summer games and a silent prayer for lasting peace.
At dusk on Saturday, near the end of a daylong journey through New York City, 18-year-old Toni Jones whose life has been deeply affected by conflict carried the torch into the United Nations complex and handed it to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who lit a cauldron to keep the (…)

By Mark Forbes
Canberra
Australia was party to spying on the United Nations, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to assist the lobbying campaign for launching the war against Iraq.
Intelligence community sources confirmed that the Howard Government received details of the UN bugging, in response to revelations to be published in a book by a senior Australian intelligence analyst turned whistleblower, Andrew Wilkie.
The book, which has been vetted by the Attorney-General’s (…)

By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 3-month-old Iraqi baby who prompted an outpouring of sympathy around the world after he was photographed lying emaciated in an undersupplied Iraqi hospital has died, doctors said Saturday.
Ali Mohammed Jabbar — affectionately known as Baby Ali — died of septicemia, a bacterial blood infection easily treated if more advanced medical care had been available, said Dr. Haidar Hadi of Baghdad’s General Teaching Hospital for (…)

The Decline of the Empire!
We all know some centuries ago there were great fighters for freedom and great fighters for tyrannical rule over subjects. The British lied to William Wallace as they always do thru time and for that little spec of an island they sure raise hell. They lied to India, Africa and of course got caught in a lie with early America. They lied to the Chinese and just about everyone else. The British are really cowardly clowns that worship an old lady called the queen who (…)

By Kirsten Anderberg, www.kirstenanderberg.com
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld seemed really irritated at all the questions asked of him recently, on June 17, 2004, during his press conference at the Pentagon. Not only was he agitated, but he took time out to lecture the press, as if he was a paternalistic figure qualified to give advice about integrity. It was laughable. I am sure it was very hard for the journalists present to not burst out laughing, I was laughing out loud watching (…)

The officer who oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad testified that he was under intense “pressure” from the White House, Pentagon and CIA last fall to get better information from detainees, pressure that he said included a visit to the prison by an aide to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, in a sworn statement to Army investigators obtained by USA Today said he was told last September that White House staffers wanted to “pull the (…)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Louisiana, which like many Southern states still has racial-separation laws on its books, moved this week to repeal measures enshrining segregated schools 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) outlawed them.
The state legislature gave final passage to a repeal bill on Monday and sent it to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who is expected to sign it.
"I thought it was important that we tried to get past that and for our state to move forward," said Rep. (…)

Let’s hope Moqtada al-Sadr stands in the elections
Jonathan Steele in Baghdad
The Guardian
With less than two weeks until the much-vaunted transfer of power from the Americans to an Iraqi government, a few hints of independence have emerged from the men Washington approved.
Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer, the civil engineer and tribal leader who is to be the new president, contradicted George Bush’s suggestion that the notorious prison of Abu Ghraib be torn down. It is not that the (…)

"We Have Got To Bring Corporate America To Its Knees" - Harry Belafonte on Racism, Poverty, John Kerry, War and Resistance
Today we hear the words of legendary actor, singer, activist and humanitarian, Harry Belafonte.
The son of Caribbean-born immigrants, Harry Belafonte grew up on the streets of Harlem and Jamaica. He dropped out of high school at the age of 17 to enlist in the Navy. After serving in World War II he returned to New York and began a successful acting and singing career. (…)