contributions

"The US commander at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner scandal says she was told to treat detainees like dogs."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3806713.stm
Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she was being made a "convenient scapegoat" for abuse ordered by others.
Top US commander for Iraq, Gen Ricardo Sanchez, should be asked what he knew about the abuse, she told BBC Radio 4’s On The Ropes programme.
One soldier has been sentenced and six others are awaiting courts martial for (…)

By Dean Baker
The Social Security shortfall is half the size of the rise in defense spending since 2000.
The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis of Social Security shows the program to be considerably stronger than has been indicated in recent reports by the Social Security trustees. The new analysis finds the program will be able to pay full scheduled benefits until 2053 ­ nearly fifty years into the future ­ with no changes whatsoever. This means Social Security is far sounder (…)

By Richard Cohen
Fortunately for Jeffrey Goldberg, he not only once lived in Israel but served in its army. Without those credentials he almost certainly would be denounced as an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew. After all, Goldberg had the consummate gall and utter chutzpah to say the obvious: Israel’s West Bank and Gaza settlements have to go.
Actually, Goldberg went even further. In nearly 16,000 words in the May 31 issue of the New Yorker, this Washington-based journalist wrote that (…)

Amid feuding and turf battles, lawyers in the White House discussed specific terror-interrogation techniques like ’water-boarding’ and ’mock burials’
By Michael Hirsh, John Barry and Daniel Klaidman
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5197853/site/newsweek
With Michael Isikoff, Mark Hosenball and Tamara Lipper in Washington
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was America’s first big trophy in the war on terror: a senior Qaeda operative captured amid the fighting in Afghanistan. What is less known (…)

The National (PNG), 16 June 04
Spicer in Iraq
Sandline mercenary fame of B’ville crisis to head private army in Baghdad
By SINCLAIRE SOLOMON
LIEUTENANT-Colonel Tim Spicer, the Sandline mercenary of the Bougainville crisis fame of 1997, has resurfaced in Baghdad, Iraq, to head what is undisputedly the biggest private army in the world. The Briton, whose Sandline mercenaries were expelled from PNG that year in a military-inspired protest led by Major General Jerry Singirok, this time (…)

Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire or America!
All left Rome open to outside invaders
There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one intertwined with the next. Many even blame the introduction of Christianity for the decline. Christianity made many Roman citizens into pacifists, making it more difficult to defend against the barbarian attackers. Also money used to build churches could have been used to maintain the empire. Although some argue that Christianity (…)

by Jenny Haines
The Battle of Algiers is a moving film about the national independence revolt in the 1950s and early 1960s in Algeria, in particular the urban revolt in Algiers in the Arab Quarter, the Casbah. The film was shot on 35mm film and has been digitally remastered for current release. The black-and-white film emphasises the dramatic action and the grainy quality illustrates with traumatising clarity the grinding poverty of the Casbah. The movie maker has a fascination (…)

To: Those informed:
Watch very closely what events will unfold in Iraq shortly after June 30, 2004. In Afghanistan the same will occur. These events will determine the fate of the Bush Administration and all other connected Departments. Watch how the groups opposed to the American Regime counterattack. Watch the response from America! Watch how the European Union and the United Nations becomes distant from the confusion.
You will then see the fine "crack" in the wall of the Empire! Watch (…)

To: Chinese People:
In America there is turmoil and confusion. The press only allows information that benefits the ones that control. Tyranny exists in America at all levels of society. High taxes, fuel, electricity, unemployment, homelessness, no health care, murder, rape, and so many other atrocities exist in America. People risk their lives to come to America only to realize that they have stepped into a black hole. If you have money then you can survive, if not then you either are sold (…)

By Staff and Wire Reports
A new book by a prominent Washington psychoanalyst says President George W. Bush is a "paranoid meglomaniac" as well as a sadist and "untreated alcoholic." The doctor’s analysis appears to confirm earlier reports the President may be emotionally unstable.
Dr. Justin Frank, writing in Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, also says the President has a ""lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) (…)