contributions

The Final Statement of the Jury of Conscience by
Rabab Abdulhadi, Sinan Antoon, Dennis Brutus, Hamid Dabashi, Bhairavi Desai, Eve Ensler, Jenny Green, Lisa Hajjar, Motarilavoa Hilda Lini, Elias Khoury, Ibrahim Ramey, Kiyoko McCrae, Robert van Lierop
Preamble
The war against Iraq has posed one of the most challenging, frustrating and explosive international crisis in recent memory.
The World Tribunal on Iraq sitting in session at Cooper Union in New York City on May 8 th 2004 and (…)

How the controversial construction giant manipulates media
By A.C. Thompson
The Bechtel Group, the massive San Francisco-based construction and engineering firm, has played a leading role in some of the most controversial construction projects in modern history: California’s San Onofre nuclear reactor, Boston’s budget-busting "Big Dig," the failed attempt to rebuild and privatize Bolivia’s water system, the ongoing corporate takeover of London’s subway system - and now a large chunk of (…)

A shipment of film reels arriving for the Cannes Film Festivals, has been briefly blocked by showbusiness workers currently striking in France. Around 100 artists and technicians stood in front of the gate at a warehouse in Garges-les-Gonesse, Paris, where the reels were delivered.
The workers have been on strike since last summer in protest at reforms which cut their benefits.
They have threatened to protest at the festival, which begins on Wednesday.
Previously, France’s 100,000 (…)

By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer
Deep divisions are emerging at the top of the U.S. military over the course of the occupation of Iraq with some senior officers beginning to say that the United States faces the prospect of casualties for years without achieving its goal of establishing a free and democratic Iraq.
Their major worry is that the United States is prevailing militarily but failing to win the support of the Iraqi people. That view is far from universal, but it (…)

By Ethan Wallison
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), a lead critic of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq, introduced eight articles of impeachment Thursday against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld amid Congressional outrage over the Pentagon’s handling of charges of prison abuse by U.S. soldiers.
"I think that this rises to the point that it’s a high crime and misdemeanor if he disappointed the president, kept information from the Congress and kept this information from the American (…)

By Jerome Socolovsky - WeNews correspondent
womensenewstoday@womensenews.org
MADRID(WOMENSENEWS)—Spain’s new prime minister is internationally best known for his decision last month to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq, which drew the ire of the Bush administration.
But domestically, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is attracting attention for making female empowerment a top priority.
Newsstands abound with pictures of Zapatero surrounded by colorfully dressed female (…)

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,634638,00.html
Military Personnel: Don’t Read This! How a Pentagon email sought to contain the prison abuse scandal By VIVIENNE WALT / BAGHDAD
Document: The Pentagon Email
Saturday, May. 08, 2004 It’s not exactly every day that the Pentagon warns military personnel to stay away from Fox News. But that’s exactly what some hopeful soul at the Department of Defense instructed, in a memo intended to forbid Pentagon staff reading a copy of the (…)

Currently Employed SCI-Green Prison Guard Supervised Torture of Prisoners in Iraq; PA Officials Covering up his PA Record
On Wednesday, May 5, the New York Times published a story about Americans who were directly involved in the disgusting human rights abuses that have taken place in the Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad. Disturbingly, there is a direct link between Abu Ghraib Prison and the State Correctional Institution at Greene (SCI-Greene), a super-maximum security prison in (…)

by Ernesto
We publish the integral version of the report on the tortures in the Iraqis jails prepared in the month of February 2004 from the U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.
In this 53-page secret report, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba authored the investigative report about abuses of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison at the hands of American soldiers says an investigation found a disturbing pattern of sadistic, blatant, wanton criminal abuses. The report was completed in February (…)

Local Struggles Continue for Rights, Resources, Justice
by Sandra Cuffe
The police had caught wind of the special activities that were being planned in the twin towns of La Esperanza and Intibucá, department of Intibucá, in southwestern Honduras. A few officers slept inside the building of the Departmental Direction of Education in order to halt any protest or occupation that might take place there on April 26, 2004.
They underestimated the organizational capacity of the convergence (…)