contributions

By Paul Rockwell Sacramento Bee (California) http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/9316830p-10241546c.html "We forget what war is about, what it does to those who wage it and those who suffer from it. Those who hate war the most, I have often found, are veterans who know it." - Chris Hedges, New York Times reporter and author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" For nearly 12 years, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey was a hard-core, some say gung-ho, Marine. For three years he trained (…)

For Immediate Release Contact: Mike Zmolek 301-802-6886 (cell) or 888-363-2927 (o) Peace Advocates to Assess Iraq ‘Quagmire’ at Indiana Peace Gathering Memorial Day Weekend "From Humanitarian Disaster to Quagmire, the Failure of the ‘War on Terror’" the Fifth National Grassroots Organizing Conference on Iraq On Friday, May 28th, peace advocates from across the United States will meet on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington to confer on how citizens and organizations (…)

from the May 28, 2004 edition ABU GHRAIB: A soldier speaks with a female detainee May 8. The fallout of detention can be severe for women, whose reputation can be easily destroyed. JOHN MOORE/AP For Iraqi women, Abu Ghraib’s taint Photos - even if fake - spark rumors that hit family honor
By Annia Ciezadlo | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
BAGHDAD - The pictures would horrify anyone: hooded US soldiers raping and torturing naked Iraqi women at gunpoint. But for (…)

The recent reports of the torture of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib military prison near Baghdad, while shocking, are part of a larger pattern of abuse and torture at the hands of US soldiers, mercenaries and intelligence agents around the world. In fact, U.S. Army intelligence manuals advocating torture techniques and how to circumvent laws on due process, arrest and detention were used for at least a decade to train Latin American soldiers at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, (…)

Dear Sisters and Brothers
As you may know the next European Social Forum (ESF) is being planned for London this October 14-17. Previous ESFs in Florence (2002) and Paris (2003) brought together 60,000 movement, community, trade union activists and other people from across Europe and the world, and were an opportunity for those of us in grassroots, independent networks to get together, in some cases meeting for the first time. At the Paris ESF, a Women?s Day took place the day before the (…)

by Labor Research Association (LRA Economic Notes)
http://www.laborresearch.org/story2.php/355
Although bargaining conditions are still difficult, the current surge in corporate profits provides more favorable conditions for wage gains than workers have seen for several years, and better conditions than they may see in 2005.
U.S. corporate profits pushed past $1 trillion for the first time in 2003. Last year, profits grew 18.3 percent, topping 2002’s 17.4 percent increase. For the (…)

By R. Jeffrey Smith
A U.S. Army general dispatched by senior Pentagon officials to bolster the collection of intelligence from prisoners in Iraq last fall inspired and promoted the use of guard dogs there to frighten the Iraqis, according to sworn testimony by the top U.S. intelligence officer at the Abu Ghraib prison.
According to the officer, Col. Thomas Pappas, the idea came from Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who at the time commanded the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (…)

The Diplomat who quit over Nixon’s Invasion of Cambodia asks Americans on the front lines of Foreign Service to resign from the "Worst Regime by far in the History of the Republic."
by Roger Morris
Dear Trustees:
I am respectfully addressing you by your proper if little-used title. The women and men of our diplomatic corps and intelligence community are genuine trustees. With intellect and sensibility, character and courage, you represent America to the world. Equally important, you (…)

Mark Solomon
Plummeting polls reveal that nearly two-thirds of the public now believe that the US is in an Iraq quagmire. Bush’s job rating has dropped to new lows; a tenacious Iraqi resistance is growing; the Abu Ghraib prison scandal has obliterated Bush’s last ditch rationale (bringing human rights to Iraq) for going to war; a movement to bring regime change at home in November is gaining momentum.
In the face of all that, Bush and his advisors have "rediscovered" the UN and have (…)

War criminals New York Times, May 23, 2004: In recent public statements, Bush administration officials have said that the Geneva Conventions were "fully applicable" in Iraq.
Newsday, May 25, 2004: In a little-noticed development amid Iraq’s prison abuse scandal, the U.S. military is holding dozens of Iraqis as bargaining chips to put pressure on their wanted relatives to surrender, according to human rights groups. These detainees are not accused of any crimes, and experts say their (…)