contributions

By Ray Bennett
A Ken Loach film about the British in Ireland always has the potential for controversy, but his historical drama "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is unlikely to inflame passions on either side.
Atmospheric but pedestrian, it is a retelling of the classic tragedy of all civil wars, from the U.S. to Vietnam to England, where brother is pitched against brother.
The film looks handsomely authentic, and the familiar characters are engaging, but the story is predictable and (…)

by Matthew Rothschild At West Point’s graduation ceremony, President Bush gave a none too subtle hint that the United States will be waging war in the Middle East for years and years to come. And not just in Iraq.
“So long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place where terrorists foment resentment and threaten American security,” he said. He added, a few sentences later, “The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future (…)

"May Day, I Repeat, May Day," Say Vets!
Cathy Garger
In small towns throughout America there’s a new flurry of concerned activity from grassroots organizers of a most un-likely type. It might even be fair to say that this latest, most determined and focused group is nothing at all like the socialists, hippies, yippies, and liberal rebels from our country’s last major radical movement.
Even if we consider that many of these worried dissenters are the exact same age as protestors from (…)

(you may remember the tune: We’ll Meet Again) I’ll see you again don’t know where, don’t know when but I know they’ll kick us out some sunny day. Keep hoping, dear it’s been only three years Bush’s "freedom"s getting close that’s what they say. Will you please say hello tell my pals not to go them them this war is wrong They’ll be happy to know when I hear the bombs blow I’ll be singing this song: We’ll meet again when the priest says "amen" but at last we’ll meet again yes, I know (…)

The Threat of Depleted Uranium Exposure - It’s Real, Deadly and Covered up by the Pentagon and VA - by Stephen Lendman
The Pentagon must surely believe the old but very foolish saying that what you don’t know won’t hurt you. To prove it they nearly always go to great lengths to conceal what they do know so we won’t find out. That’s especially true when what they know is bad news or hazardous to our health or that of our troops. That’s certainly the case regarding the real and deadly (…)

By Michael Evans
NEARLY 3,000 British soldiers have gone absent without leave every year since the start of the Iraq war, with more than 1,000 of them still missing, according to Ministry of Defence figures.
The numbers evading capture by the Royal Military Police have risen sharply since the invasion of Iraq, giving rise to allegations that an increasing number of soldiers might be trying to avoid further tours to the conflict zone.
The MoD denied there was any evidence that soldiers (…)

More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted since the start of the Iraq war, the BBC has learned.
Figures for those still missing are 86 from 2001, 118 from 2002, 134 from 2003, 229 from 2004, 377 from 2005, and 189 for this year so far.
The news comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel from refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country.
The MoD insists "absent without leave" figures have remained constant.
A Ministry of (…)

by William Fisher Anticipating that the U.S. federal government would invoke the so-called "state secrets" privilege to block any lawsuit calling for the disclosure of details about allegations that phone companies shared customer records with the government’s biggest spy agency, a major civil rights group has embarked on an alternate course.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed complaints in more than 20 individual states demanding that their utility commissions and (…)

Commentary Meanwhile, back at the White House ...
David Rossie Commentary
"Oh, dear, George, they convicted Ken."
"Ken who?"
"Ken Lay. It’s all over today’s papers."
"You know I don’t read newspapers."
"I know, but Ken was your friend. You used to call him Kenny Boy, remember?
"Never heard of him."
"What do you mean you never heard of him? He raised all that money for you when you were running for governor and in 2000 when you ran for president. And he flew us to (…)

How many laws must Bush break until someone steps up to the plate? Oh sure, we have had many good speakers on the subject-Russ Feinstein, Cindy Sheehan, John Murtha, Al Gore and others in command of the truth, as well as American gumption.
We have protestors; thousands of them show up in Washington D.C. before the war, and again Sept 24, 2006. There were millions protesting worldwide all of them protesting the war in Iraq. Unprecedented numbers of military families are protesting this (…)