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A US military investigation has recommended disciplinary action against several of its officers for the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops.
Brigadier General Janice Karpinski is among seven officers being investigated following claims that soldiers under their command mistreated detainees.
The officers have already been suspended from duty.
A US TV channel showed pictures of US soldiers humiliating naked hooded prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu (…)

May 1st, International Workers’ Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States, Canada, and South Africa. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day’s work from and after May 1, 1886. (…)

This Saturday, May 1st, 2004, they will be serveral demonstrations: In Nazareth, Paulus Street, at 10:30 the Jewish-Arab May Day demonstration by Hadash (the Equality and Peace Front - Communist Party of Israel). For more information: info@maki.org.il In Tel-Aviv, Rabin Square, at 15:30 the Youth Demonstration: The Youth Movement of the Histadrut (HaNoar HaOved VeAlomed), Hashomer Hatzair, The Youth Communist Alliance (Banki) and others. For more information: info@hadash.org.il In (…)

The Guardian (UK)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1203156,00.html
Sharon’s separation scheme is doomed to fail once it becomes clear what it means
By Meron Benvenisti
When George Bush referred to Ariel Sharon’s unilateral separation plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip as a historic event, he wasn’t exaggerating - even if it is not clear that he grasped the implications of his words for the future of the Jewish state. Nor did the Palestinians err when they compared his (…)

The antiwar movement that has lent Kerry and his party this energy and this backbone faces a dilemma, too. On the one hand, it needs Kerry to win, even though he refuses to repent his vote to authorize the war. On the other hand, neither the movement nor Kerry can afford to let the antiwar energies that were and remain a principal source of their hopes and his die down. The movement must persist, independent of Kerry and keeping him or making him honest, yet not opposing him. If truth (…)

A push to get troops home
Families press U.S. over longer duties
By Bill Glauber Tribune staff reporter
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0404250374apr25,1,5525447.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed
FREEPORT, Ill. — A determined band of Illinois families is appealing to the Pentagon to bring home the 333rd MP National Guard Company, a unit that was headed to the U.S. before being ordered back to Iraq.
The unit’s citizen-soldiers—activated in February 2003 and (…)

courtesy of http://www.uruknet.info/?p=2207
by Ronald Bruce St. John
At the end of the Persian Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush, flanked by then Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, proudly proclaimed we’d finally licked the "Vietnam syndrome." Is it any wonder then that President George W. Bush, surrounded by the same advisors, refuses to recognize that Iraq increasingly resembles that traumatic Asian conflict? In mid-April 2004, (…)

By GILA SVIRSKY
I just spoke to Molly Malekar on her way to Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, and here is what she reported:
"We were about 60 women, only women: roughly 1/3 Israeli, 1/3 Palestinian, and 1/3 internationals. We gathered at Bidu to protest the construction of the wall in this village. It was a quiet march, with women carrying signs and walking toward the area where soldiers were guarding the construction of the fence. At a distance of about 10 meters (30 feet) from (…)

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=2198
ROBERT BURNS (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON - Changing gears in the face of an emboldened insurgency in Iraq, the Army is asking for additional tanks or other heavy armored vehicles to improve protection for soldiers.
The request reflects a recognition by military commanders that they must adapt as the insurgency evolves. With at least 115 deaths, this has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces since they invaded 13 months ago; troops are killed and (…)

The European Social Forum will be held in London in October 2004. This will be a festival of hope and opposition. We wish to create, as an integral part of the forum, a vibrant, dynamic festival of resistance that truly reflects the cultural diversity of the social movements in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.
As part of the ESF Cultural Launch on May 8th there will be a Culture and creatives’ assembly. An open meeting place for "creative" reflective thinking, discussion of ideas, (…)