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A group of retired US diplomats and generals has condemned the foreign policy of the Bush administration as ideological and callously indifferent. Members of the 26-strong group of Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change demanded a major rethink in an open letter published in Washington.
"I think we will in time come to be very ashamed of this period in history," said one, Chas Freeman.
Another, Gen Merrill McPeak, talked of the "terrible disaster" in Iraq.
"Because [of] the (…)

There is a growing sense that Americans have become victims of September 11 in a way that has blinkered their democratic instincts.
So now the hard questions are being put in a pre-September 11 context. Would Americans ordinarily tolerate a president who lies and exaggerates? A leader who uses fear to manipulate his people to his own ends? A president whose staff blow the deep cover of a CIA agent as political payback? A president whose Administration channels billions of dollars to (…)

Paul Wolfowitz eulogized the fallen Shiite leader as an Iraqi Abraham Lincoln. But his group seems more intent on making Iraq conform to the principles of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
By Mary Jacoby
June 16, 2004 | Last September, Paul Wolfowitz was the special guest at a memorial service in Arlington, Va., for an influential Shiite cleric killed in a car bombing in Najaf, Iraq. The deputy defense secretary hailed Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim as a "true Iraqi patriot," and he quoted from (…)

Louis Nevaer, Pacific News Service
If José Miguel Pizarro has his way, he will recruit 30,000 Chileans as mercenaries to protect American companies under Pentagon contract to rebuild Iraq. And undoubtedly, within those ranks will be former members of death squads that tortured and murdered civilians when dictatorships ruled in Latin America.
"There is no comparison with what they can earn in the active military or working in civilian jobs, and what we offer," José Miguel Pizarro, Chile’s (…)

LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
More than 400 legal scholars from across the country urged Congress Wednesday to consider impeaching President Bush and any high-level administration officials who approved the Iraqi prisoner abuses.
In a letter released by two Harvard Law School professors, scholars asked Congress to identify everyone who should be held accountable for the torture at Abu Ghraib prison, and determine what sanctions are appropriate. The sanctions, they said, could (…)

Arabic News.com
Muhammad al-Rashdan, the lawyer of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said that he had received a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross confirming that Saddam Hussein — who is held by the American forces — has painful wounds in various parts of his body.
Al-Rashdan explained in a press statement that the report he had received two days earlier in Amman confirms that Saddam Hussein is hit by several wounds in his body on January 21, this year. (…)

Andrew Buncombe, The Independent
President George Bush, 1 May 2003: The liberation of Iraq removed... an ally of al-Qa’ida
Vice-President Cheney, 22 January 2004: There’s overwhelming evidence... of a connection between al-Qa’ida and Iraq
Donald Rumsfeld, 14 November 2002: Within a week, or a month, Saddam could give his WMD to al-Qa’ida
Condoleezza Rice, 17 September 200: Saddam was a danger in the region where the 9/11 threat emerged
The Bush administration’s credibility was (…)

Ahmed Janabi, Aljazeera.net
The wife of imprisoned Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has ended a long battle between lawyers who want to defend her husband if he is put on trial.
In an exclusive interview with Aljazeera, Sajida Khair Allah, wife and cousin of Saddam Hussein revealed she had signed an official power of attorney authorising a group of 20 lawyers the right to defend her husband.
Saddam’s three daughters Raghd, Rana, and Hala had authorised their mother to select the defence (…)

PRATAP CHATTERJEE, pchatterjee@igc.org, www.corpwatch.org/article.phpid=11350
Program director for CorpWatch, Chatterjee is the author of the recent articles "Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract" and "Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq." He said today: "Occupation authorities in Iraq have awarded a $293 million contract effectively creating the world’s largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer ... who has been investigated for (…)

by Michael Schwartz After weeks of contentious negotiation, the UN Security Council unanimously passed the fifth version of a U.S.-Great Britain resolution designed to confer legitimacy on the newly formed Iraqi interim administration, and declaring that its June 30th launch would involve a transfer of "full sovereignty." However, the notion of "Iraqi sovereignty" can’t be anything but a fiction, not only during the interim administration, but well past the projected December, 2005 date (…)