Politics

Non-Constitutional Debates

Constitution Party Presidential Candidate Says: Kerry-Bush 'Debate' Will Be 'Phony War' When It Comes to Obeying the Constitution

PASADENA, Md. -- The following statement has been issued by Constitution Party Presidential candidate Michael Anthony Peroutka whose running mate is Dr. Chuck Baldwin:

The oath to be taken by the President of these United States on first entering office is specified in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

But when President Bush and John Kerry "debate" in Miami neither man will challenge anything the other has advocated or done on the grounds that what they have advocated or done is un-Constitutional. Why not? Because both men favor numerous actions that are un-Constitutional. For example, and this list is by no means comprehensive:

• Both men are supporters of the war in Iraq which is un-Constitutional because it is not a declared war, as our Constitution requires.



• Both men have advocated nothing to overturn Roe v. Wade, the blatantly un-Constitutional Supreme Court decision which made "legal" the killing of tens of millions of innocent, unborn babies by abortion.



• Both men favor a massive Federal involvement in education for which there is no Constitutional authority.



• Both men favor some kind of campaign finance "reform" which restricts free speech and is therefore un-Constitutional.



• Both men favor some kind of "gun control" which violates the Second Amendment.



• Both men favor some kind of Medicare "reform" for which there is no Constitutional authority.



• Both men favor a Federal minimum wage law which is un-Constitutional.

During World War II, there was a time period when there were no major military operations in continental Europe despite the fact that the great powers in Europe had declared war on one another. This phase has been called "The Phony War."

And so it is with Mr. Bush and Senator Kerry. Though both men are, supposedly, at odds on a number of issues, they are not fighting -- and will not fight in any of their "debates" -- about whether what they stand for is Constitutional. Thus, on this crucial issue, any war they are thought to be fighting is phony.

If elected President, I will take my oath to God seriously. I will strive to eradicate from the law books any and all laws that are un-Constitutional and I will fight unceasingly to prevent all future un-Constitutional laws.

(Press Release)

You Can Rule Out Spontaneity in the Debates
Voters tuning in to the first 2004 presidential debate Thursday may be expecting a freewheeling give-and-take between the candidates, but the occasion will actually be one of the most carefully structured events of the campaign. The rules for the three presidential debates were negotiated between representatives of Sen. John F. Kerry and President Bush in a 32-page memorandum of understanding, and they leave little room for spontaneity. They specify, among other things, that the candidates cannot pose questions directly to each other and that the moderators must use specific language when cutting off long-winded answers.

Far graver than Vietnam

Most senior US military officers now believe the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster on an unprecedented scale
'Bring them on!" President Bush challenged the early Iraqi insurgency in July of last year. Since then, 812 American soldiers have been killed and 6,290 wounded, according to the Pentagon. Almost every day, in campaign speeches, Bush speaks with bravado about how he is "winning" in Iraq. "Our strategy is succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard convention on Tuesday. But, according to the US military's leading strategists and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already lost.

'Insurgents' Are Mostly Home-Grown Iraqis, U.S. Military Says

WASHINGTON -- The insistence by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and many U.S. officials that foreign fighters are streaming into Iraq to battle American troops runs counter to the U.S. military's own assessment that the Iraqi insurgency remains primarily a home-grown problem. According to U.S. military officers said loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime — who have swelled their ranks in recent months as ordinary Iraqis bristle at the U.S. military presence in Iraq — represent the far greater threat to the country's fragile 3-month-old government. "They say these guys are flowing across [the border] and fomenting all this violence. We don't think so," said a senior military official in Baghdad. "What's the main threat? It's internal."

Not Enough Troops to Keep Pace, Study Says

The military doesn’t have enough people for its current pace of missions, according to an independent study commissioned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But Rumsfeld said he won’t immediately act on the panel’s recommendations. As violence grows in Iraq, Rumsfeld also took exception to suggestions that he and other U.S. officials are portraying the troubled country in an overly positive light.

Dissenting Soldier Could Get 20 Years

An Army Reserve staff sergeant who last week wrote a critical analysis of the United States' prospects in Iraq now faces possible disciplinary action for disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are bought and the officer is found guilty, he could face 20 years in prison. It would be the first such disloyalty prosecution since the Vietnam War. The essay that sparked the military investigation is titled "Why We Cannot Win" and was posted Sept. 20 on the conservative antiwar Web site LewRockwell.com. Written by Al Lorentz, a non-commissioned officer from Texas with nearly 20 years in the Army who is serving in Iraq, the essay offers a bleak assessment of America's chances for success in Iraq.

The President's Comedy Routine

President George Bush's denial of the reality of Iraq is beginning to sound like a stand-up comedy routine... Whether the president is actually in denial or is misleading the public for partisan purposes, I will leave to your judgment. It would be less dangerous if he were engaged in deliberate deception. That, at least, is a sign of sanity.

Truckers say it's not safe out there

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, during his visit to Washington last week, said that all but three of Iraq's 18 provinces are safe. But Iraqi truckers who traverse the country's desolate highways tell a different story. Most of Iraq's countryside -- outside the three northern provinces under the control of Kurdish militias since 1991 -- has become a lawless no-man's land, they say, where criminals rob and kill with impunity.

Iraqi City on Edge of Chaos

U.S. troops have tried to win over residents in Ramadi, but a surge in abductions and killings is threatening to create another Fallouja.
RAMADI, Iraq — Insurgents are killing and kidnapping government officials, police and Iraqi national guard members in an apparent campaign to destabilize this city, the capital of Sunni Muslim-dominated Al Anbar province west of Baghdad. The rash of attacks threatens to eliminate the interim Iraqi government's control over Ramadi, notwithstanding the presence just outside the city of thousands of U.S. Marines and Army soldiers who back the government's authority.

Bush administration completes get-tough plan for Syria

The Bush administration has drafted contingency plans for bringing military and economic pressure against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Officials said the administration has determined that diplomacy has failed to resolve U.S. concerns that Syria has been working to destabilize the interim government in Iraq. They said the Assad regime has been harboring senior operatives of Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, regarded as the most lethal insurgent in Iraq, aides to Saddam Hussein as well as Iraqi nuclear scientists as part of a Syrian policy coordinated with Iran.

North Korea makes more nukes

UNITED NATIONS -- North Korea says it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia. Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula “is snowballing,” Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon provided details Tuesday of the nuclear deterrent he said North Korea has developed for self-defense.

The Neocon Godfather

Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire
Leo Strauss (1899–1973), the Jewish German-born émigré who taught political theory at the University of Chicago for over three decades, has been a topic of particular interest in recent years, ever since people began to discover the influence his disciples wielded within the present Bush administration, not to mention the administrations of Bush I and Reagan. The University of Pennsylvania’s Anne Norton, herself educated by disciples of Strauss at the University of Chicago, is in a particularly advantageous position to describe the Straussian phenomenon. What we discover in Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire is a tightly knit scholarly network, fascinated with power and its exercise and today committed to a foreign policy program that seems far more revolutionary than conservative.

N.Y. Times Sues Ashcroft in Leak Probe

NEW YORK -- The New York Times sued Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday, seeking to block the Justice Department from obtaining records of telephone calls between two veteran journalists and their confidential sources. The lawsuit said the Justice Department was "on the verge" of getting records as part of a probe aimed at learning the identity of government employees who may have provided information to the newspaper. It asked a judge to intervene.

Two sentenced to death for USS Cole bombing

SAN'A, Yemen -- A Yemeni judge sentenced two men to death and four others to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years Wednesday for orchestrating the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, an attack blamed on Osama bin Laden’s terror network. Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location, and Jamal al-Badawi, a 35-year-old Yemeni, were both sentenced to death for plotting, preparing and involvement in the bombing, which killed 17 U.S. sailors as their destroyer refueled in the southern Yemeni port of Aden.

'American Taliban' Seeks Reduced Sentence

SAN FRANCISCO -- The attorney for American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh wants his client's 20-year prison sentence commuted, citing the nation's heightened anxiety when the plea deal was made in 2002 and the fact that another U.S. citizen captured on an Afghanistan battlefield may soon be released. James Brosnahan, Lindh's lawyer, made the request Monday and argued that Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he is not a terrorist and that he never fought against U.S. troops. Brosnahan also said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi, another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is being released after being held for three years as an enemy combatant. "Comparable conduct should be treated in comparable ways in terms of sentencing," Brosnahan said at a news conference.

Nader Supporters Lose Supreme Court Appeal

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a last-ditch bid to put Ralph Nader on Oregon's election ballot. Nader supporters had asked the court last week to block Oregon from printing ballots without his name. The court declined, although Justice Stephen Breyer noted he supported the stay.

Supreme Court Takes Up Okla. Voting Case

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide if political parties can open their primaries to all voters, in a constitutional challenge to Oklahoma's voting system. Oklahoma has a semi-closed primary arrangement, in which political parties may allow only their own members and voters registered as independents to cast ballots.

Martha Stewart Headed for W.Virginia Prison-Source

NEW YORK -- Homemaking icon Martha Stewart will serve her five-month jail sentence for lying about a suspicious stock sale at a minimum security prison in West Virginia, a source close to the case said Wednesday. Stewart, who is due to report for her sentence by 2 p.m. EDT on Oct 8., had asked the judge to recommend a prison in Danbury, Connecticut, close to her home.

Strong Earthquake Strikes Central Calif.

PARKFIELD, Calif. -- A strong earthquake struck Central California on Tuesday that was felt from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The quake, which struck at 10:15 a.m. PDT, had a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 and was centered 7 miles southeast of Parkfield, the town known as California's earthquake capital, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The area is 21 miles northeast of Paso Robles, scene of an earthquake that killed two people in December.

Fla. Residents Wait on Half-Mile Food Line

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- People lined up for more than a half-mile for food and water, while others searched in vain for generators in the sweltering heat Monday as Florida residents began cleaning up all over again, demoralized by the fourth hurricane in six weeks to batter the state. Hurricane Jeanne, with slashing winds reaching 120 mph, claimed at least six lives in Florida over the weekend as it plowed through virtually the same area that was bashed by Hurricane Frances earlier this month. Together, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne have generated the biggest relief effort ever undertaken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Bush on Monday asked Congress for more than $7.1 billion to help Florida and other Southeastern states recover. The unprecedented relief effort includes more than 5,000 FEMA workers spread over 15 states. Nearly 3,800 National Guardsmen were providing security, directing traffic, distributing supplies and keeping gas lines orderly. In Florida alone, relief workers have handed out at least 16 million meals, 9 million gallons of water and nearly 59 million pounds of ice over the course of the four storms, state officials said.

Government payouts hits $326.7 million

Government payouts to hurricane victims in Florida rose by more than $100 million in the last week to $326.7 million. That's not including damage from Hurricane Jeanne, which crossed the Florida peninsula Sunday. "We're still getting back up and running," said Doug Welty, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Orlando. The $326.7 million is as of 8 a.m. Saturday.

President Asks For $7 Billion More In Aid

Florida Hurricanes Prompt
Largest Relief Effort Since 9/11
MIRAMAR, Fla. -- Florida's four hurricanes have prompted the largest relief effort in federal emergency management history. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director says 5,000 relief workers from 15 states are now helping Florida in the largest relief effort since Sept. 11, 2001. FEMA workers have been in the Sunshine State since Hurricane Charley hit in August. Then came Frances and Ivan, and this weekend, Jeanne. A FEMA convoy from Pembroke Pines left Monday to help treat patients in a damaged Melbourne hospital. "We have a full emergency room," worker John Caprio said of their makeshift hospital. "We have X-ray machines. Anything they can do, except for CAT scans, we can do." FEMA's relief operation in Port St. Lucie is also in high gear. Workers and volunteers were passing out tarps and ice Monday.

‘Iraq, world’s most hostile environment’

DUBAI -- The Iraqi insurgency has reached a critical new level with radical Sunni and Shi’ite groups spreading beyond their traditional bases in the world’s "most hostile environment", a security analyst said on Sunday. Paul Beat, director of International Asset Protection at London-based Control Risks Group, said the violence of recent weeks, with terrorists seizing foreign hostages from the heart of Baghdad and staging a spate of suicide bombings, marked a new stage in the conflict. "They’re launching bigger, multiple attacks. Now they use one vehicle at the entrance (to compounds) to knock out guards and then drive a second bomb through to get inside," he said.

Bush: Would Give 'Mission Accomplished' Speech Again

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday. When asked by Fox News if he still would have put on a flight suit to declare major combat operations in Iraq over, Bush replied, "Absolutely." When Bush gave his May 1 speech fewer than 150 Americans had died in the war. Since then more than 900 have died.

Lie and You Thrive

George Bush is seeking re-election as the Hero of 9/11 and as the Strong Leader against terrorism. At the recent Republican convention, speaker after speaker portrayed Bush's reaction on and shortly after 9/11 as an entitlement to extending Bush's power over the American people. Perhaps never before has a president sought a second term by endlessly hyping the catastrophic failures of his first four years in office. On both 9/11 and Iraq, the Bush campaign team long ago decided that truth is a luxury American voters can no longer afford.

Powell says situation in Iraq 'getting worse'

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says he sees the situation in Iraq "getting worse" as planned elections approach. And the top US military commander for Iraq says he expects more violence in the months ahead. His comments followed a week in which American President Geroge W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi spoke optimistically about the situation, despite the beheadings of two more Americans and the deaths of dozens of people in car bombings. In its latest report, the US military said four Marines died in separate incidents on Friday, adding to a toll that has topped 1,000 since the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Powell: U.S. forces to enter Iraqi 'no-go zones'

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. military will move into insurgent-heavy "no-go zones" in Iraq to clear the way for legitimate elections in January, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday. The Bush administration is hoping free elections will help stabilize the country and build a sense of legitimacy for the new government. But administration officials have acknowledged that continued violence in many parts of the country could make voting dangerous or perhaps even impossible in some areas.

W vows to push Iraq rebuild

Under fire from Democrats and even some GOP lawmakers about the volatile situation in Iraq, President Bush promised yesterday to fast-track spending on contracts for rebuilding. Bush also vowed in his weekly radio address to stick to the schedule and have "free national elections" in Iraq by January. Bush, who met with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last week, said $9 billion will be pushed into rebuilding contracts in the coming months.

Panel Calls U.S. Troop Size Insufficient for Demands

WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon-appointed panel of outside experts has concluded in a new study that the American military does not have sufficient forces to sustain current and anticipated stability operations, like the festering conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other missions that might arise. Portions of the study, which has not been officially released, were read into the public record on Thursday by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a leader of Democrats who want to expand the size of the military. During testimony by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his top commanders, Senator Reed said he found the study "provocative and startling."

Bush's Undeclared War Promotes Islam

Recently I received an email from someone who read an article by Rick Mathes, founder of Mission Gate Prison Ministries. In the article, Mathes exposed the belief system of Islam by getting a Muslim imam to admit that all followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of the same faith so they can go to "Heaven". The man who sent me the email stated that Christians must be aware of the tenets of Islam, and therefore should also reject the Constitution Party, which does not support the current "war" against Iraq, and should remain stalwart supporters of President George W. Bush and the Republican Party. While it is true that Christians must be educated about Islam's teachings, Christians must not be duped into believing that this current war is one waged against Islam.

Military Shuts Up Dissenting Soldier

Al Lorentz is a reserve Non-Commissioned Officer currently serving in Iraq. His blazingly clear, succinct article on Iraq has raged over the wires since it was published on LewRockwell.com. Al, in his civilian life, was an active member of the Constitution Party in the great state of Texas. He worked on a ranch, served in the reserves, and when activated, deployed to Iraq. He has something in common with our own President George W. Bush, who was also active in a political party in Texas, worked on a ranch, and did some time in the National Guard. Of course, President Bush hasn’t served in Iraq.

23 killed in Iraq violence

BAGHDAD -- At least 23 people were killed in Iraq overnight and on Sunday as US Secretary for State Colin Powell acknowledged that organising elections throughout the country in January could be difficult. US aircraft blasted Fallujah for the third time in 24 hours in a concerted effort to hit militants loyal to guerrilla chief Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Saturday night’s strike was aimed at about 10 suspected militants meeting in the city centre to plan operations, the US military said. Two hospitals in the city reported receiving eight dead and 22 wounded including women and children, while residents said many victims remained under the rubble.

The Military and the Market

There are, in truth, many reasoned defenses for a foreign policy set forth by many of our Founding Fathers, which advocates avoiding foreign entanglements. One such approach is the use of market-oriented economic reasoning – Reasoning which most conservative and pro-war "libertarians" would readily accept if it were applied to any component of the US government other than the Pentagon.

Pakistan kills suspect in Pearl slaying

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Police stepped up patrols around foreign consulates and government offices in this volatile city on Monday, fearing a backlash after Pakistani forces killed a suspected top al Qaeda operative wanted for his alleged role in the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Amjad Hussain Farooqi, also accused in two attempts on the life of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, died in a four-hour shootout Sunday at a house in the southern town of Nawabshah. Two or three other men, one of them an Islamic cleric, were arrested. Like Farooqi, they are all Pakistanis.

Why You Should Vote for Michael Peroutka

The first American Revolution had to be fought with guns and lives because they had no recourse before a tyrannical king. Our war is different. We have recourse, that is, our vote. We can affect the course of our future and regain our freedoms by participating in the system our forefathers secured with their blood.

So why vote for a new man, Michael Peroutka, running under a new party, the Constitution Party? Doesn’t a vote for George W. Bush accomplish the same thing?

The facts reveal that George W. Bush is NOT the Christian President that he is esteemed to be:

• In a recent New York Times interview with the President, President Bush admitted that even though he does read the Bible everyday, he does not necessarily believe every word he reads -- He has forsaken the very foundations!



• President Bush has done more to publicly promote Islam than any other President in our history.



• President Bush continues to promote homosexuality and abortion by continuing to appoint both pro-homosexual and pro-abortionists to positions of authority. He has even made a statement recently that suggests he might support gay marriage.



• He has done more than any other President to support and encourage placing women on the front lines.

The list goes on – please read Michael Harrison’s article entitled “No More Excuses! Why a vote for Michael Peroutka over George Bush Is Not a Wasted Vote” for an in-depth view into Bush’s record.

Terrorists Claim to Have Killed Italians

CAIRO, Egypt -- A terrorists group claimed in a Web posting Thursday that two Italian women taken hostage in Iraq had been killed, a day after another terrorists group made a similar statement. Neither claim could be immediately verified. The new posting about the purported beheadings of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta appeared on a little-known Web site and was signed by a group calling itself the Supporters of al-Zawahri. That group's name refers to Ayman al-Zawahri, a deputy of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Terrorists' Spiritual Leader Said Killed

AMMAN, Jordan -- The spiritual leader of a major terrorist group in Iraq who condoned the kidnapping and killing of hostages was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a newspaper and Islamic clerics said Wednesday. Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, 35, was killed when a missile hit the car he was traveling in on Friday in the west Baghdad suburb of Abu-Ghraib, said the clerics, who have close ties to the family. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Rules Out Iraq Women Prisoner Release

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Authorities insisted they won't give in to militants' demands to free female Iraqi prisoners despite the broadcast of a videotape that showed a tearful British hostage begging Britain to save his life. The captive, Kenneth Bigley, appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene. "I think this is possibly my last chance," he said. "I don't want to die."

Britain Says It Will Not Give in to Iraq Kidnappers

BAGHDAD -- The British and Iraqi governments said Thursday they would not bow to the demands of militants threatening to kill a British captive, despite a video message from the hostage pleading for his life. The kidnappers say they will behead Kenneth Bigley unless all Iraqi women are freed from U.S.-run jails. After a day of confusion Wednesday over whether one of two Iraqi women in U.S. custody in Iraq would be freed, the interim Iraqi government said in a statement that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was not willing to allow her release.

Beheading DVDs top seller in Baghdad

Hostage throat-slitting videos rub shoulders with pornography in the stalls of central Baghdad's infamous "thieves market", as Islamic radicals immortalise their acts of terror in grisly films like Monday's beheading of a US national. The latest video, posted on Monday night on an Islamic website, showed five masked gunmen reading out their Islamic verdict against their American captive Eugene "Jack" Armstrong and then slicing off the victim's head as he cried out in pain.

Terrorists Behead American

Video on Web site shows beheading
of man said to be American hostage
CAIRO, Egypt -- A video posted Monday on a Web site showed the beheading of a man identified as American hostage Eugene Armstrong. In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Armstrong's body had been recovered, but the official would provide no information about where or when it had been recovered. The militant group led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the slaying and said another hostage – either another American or a Briton held by the group – will be killed in 24 hours unless all Muslim women prisoners are released from U.S. military jails. (WARNING GRAPHIC MURDER: Download video Windows Media Audio/Video file)

The Average Voter is an Idiot

There is no polite way to phrase this: when it comes to politics, the average person is an idiot. Depressing evidence for this claim can be found in a recent New Yorker essay by Louis Menand, which surveys the political science literature regarding why people vote the way they do. No more than 10 percent of the population can be said to have a coherent political belief system, using even a loose definition of that term. Most peoples' political beliefs, to the extent they have any at all, suffer from a lack of what political scientists call "constraint," i.e., little or no logical connection exists between the positions they hold. For example, a large proportion of voters see no contradiction between being in favor of both lower taxes and increased government services. Even if we ignore how many people have no coherent political beliefs, or base their voting on irrational factors, the sheer ignorance of the average American should take us aback. Seventy percent of Americans can't identify their senators or their representatives. Around 30 million can't find the United States on a map.

Did N.Y. Times engineer same-sex marriage?

J. Edward Pawlick's new book, "Libel By New York Times," traces the paper's involvement in the judicial decision that rocked the nation. The attorney notes a Times subsidiary, the Boston Globe, pressed for Marshall's appointment to the state's highest court without revealing its conflict of interest.

Who Is Dan Rather?

Dan Rather Has Always Been Strange. But as the veteran CBS Evening News anchor approaches his 73rd birthday this Halloween and the sunset of his career, the lengthening shadows cast by his latest controversy have begun to expose how eccentric, megalomaniacal and devoid of ethics and judgment he for decades has been. Daniel Irvin Rather was born October 31, 1931, near Houston in Wharton, Texas. Less than two years later his grandfather John Daniel “Dan” Rather, namesake of both baby Dan and his pipeline supervisor father, died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Sniper Judge Recuses Himself Over Probe

FAIRFAX, Va. -- The judge presiding over the second prosecution of convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad has removed himself from the case after prosecutors claimed he improperly conducted his own investigation into whether Muhammad had been denied a speedy trial. Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher, in a letter to prosecutors and defense attorneys made public Tuesday, said he is removing himself from the case even though he believes he did nothing wrong.

Prosecutor Says Enron Cheated, Lied

HOUSTON -- The first criminal trial involving former Enron Corp. executives "is a case about cheating and lying" with Wall Street's help, a prosecutor said Tuesday. For Enron, the alleged sham sale of three electricity-producing barges moored off the coast of Nigeria at the end of 1999 helped the energy company appear to have met earnings targets. Prosecutors contend the defendants helped push through the deal knowing that Enron promised to find another buyer or buy back the barges by mid-2000, wiping out the legitimacy of a $12 million pretax profit the energy company booked from the deal.

Loophole Lets Pharmacies Bill Govt. Twice

PHILADELPHIA -- A regulatory loophole is allowing some pharmacy companies to bill government health programs twice for the same drugs, according to whistleblower lawsuits challenging the payments. The complaints are about a practice called "restocking," in which pharmacies resell drugs returned by hospitals or nursing homes. The medications often were for patients who had died. A majority of states allow the return of medication still sealed in its original packaging and stored in a controlled environment to prevent millions of dollars worth of expensive drugs from being destroyed needlessly. The savings, however, are not always passed along to buyers.

Twinkies, Wonder Bread Maker Seeking Bankruptcy Protection

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Interstate Bakeries Corp., the nation's largest wholesaler baker whose products include Twinkies and Wonder Bread, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Wednesday. The company also named a new chief executive. The electronic filing, made shortly after midnight with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, listed assets of $1.626 billion and liabilities of $1.321 billion.

U.S. provides $2.4m grant for RI democracy

JAKARTA -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has extended a bilateral grant of US$2.4 million to help develop democracy in Indonesia. Komara Jaya, the deputy to the top economic minister, and USAID director William Frej signed a document on the grant during a ceremony earlier in the day. The U.S. was the largest donor to the Indonesian general elections this year, extending $25 million toward the legislative and two-round presidential elections. USAID channels $160 million to Indonesia annually to help develop projects on reform, economic and energy reform, decentralization, environmental management and health care.

Cambodia's Canadia Bank signs finance agreements with IFC, USAID

PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia's Canadia Bank on Monday signed two agreements with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), aimed at strengthening the country's financial sector. Under the terms of the first agreement, IFC will provide Canadia Bank, the largest private bank in Cambodia, with a loan ofup to 5 million US dollars to support home ownership and expand its mortgage operations in Cambodia. At the same time, USAID signed the 5 million dollar Micro and Small Enterprise Development Initiative agreement with Canadia Bank. Under the terms of the agreement, USAID will provide 50 percent guarantee coverage of up to 5 million dollars on loans that Canadia Bank intends to provide to small and micro finance businesses in Cambodia.

Jordanians Behead American

Video on Web site shows beheading
of man said to be American hostage
CAIRO, Egypt -- A video posted Monday on a Web site showed the beheading of a man identified as American hostage Eugene Armstrong. The militant group led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the slaying and said another hostage – either another American or a Briton held by the group – will be killed in 24 hours unless all Muslim women prisoners are released from U.S. military jails. (WARNING GRAPHIC MURDER: Download video Windows Media Audio/Video file)

Taliban Behead Three Soldiers in Afghan

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban militants beheaded three Afghan soldiers in the troubled southern province of Zabul over the weekend in the latest pre-election violence, an official said Monday. Zabul security chief Jailani Khan said the soldiers, who were not in uniform, were traveling in a taxi from Naubahar district to the provincial capital of Qalat when they were stopped by a group of men that included two Pakistanis and an Arab. The three passengers were beheaded in an attack claimed by a breakaway faction of Afghanista's ousted Taliban militia, which has vowed to step up violence in the runup to a presidential election on Oct. 9.

Al-Qaida behead three Kurdish hostages

Militants beheaded three hostages said to be Iraqi Kurd militiamen, showing their deaths in a video posted on a Web site Sunday and denouncing Kurdish political parties for cooperating with Americans in Iraq. The bodies of the three slain hostages were found by a road outside the northern city of Mosul, said Sarkawt Hassan, security chief in the mainly Kurdish town of Sulaimaniyah. He identified them as members of the peshmerga militia of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. "They beheaded them," Hassan said.

US, Britain to increase troops in Afghanistan

LONDON -- Britain and the United States are set to increase their troop presence in Afghanistan, which faces a presidential election next month and a parliamentary election early next year, The Independent newspaper reported yesterday. The US has confirmed it will send up to 1,100 extra troops in time for the Oct 9 presidential vote.

US runs low on soldiers

With the war locked into a bloody stalemate, the veterans are wondering how the military might find replacements to fill the gaps starkly spelled out by their symbolic cemetery. For despite the Pentagon's boast that it can fight and win two conventional wars, US forces are seriously overstretched.

Effort to Train New Iraqi Army Is Facing Delays

WASHINGTON -- Three months into its new mission, the military command in charge of training and equipping Iraqi security forces has fewer than half of its permanent headquarters personnel in place, despite having one of the highest-priority roles in Iraq.

Bush to Make UN Appeal

Bush backflip in combat appeal
President George W. Bush will this week appeal to the international community he once scorned for help in Afghanistan and Iraq as he warned that violence there would worsen as their elections drew near. Mr Bush, who will speak to the United Nations General Assembly in New York late tomorrow, said in his national radio address yesterday that the world had an interest in the two countries succeeding. "Never in the history of the United Nations have we faced so many opportunities to create a safer world by building a better world," he said. Mr Bush, who will host meetings with President Karzai, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, said yesterday the US and its small band of coalition partners would "keep our commitments to the Afghan and Iraqi people" but with his own election scheduled for November 2, signs of broader international support would be welcome news.

Get US out! of the United Nations
Join with thousands of other Americans working to Get US out! of the United Nations. Take the action steps outlined on this website to carry out a proven strategy to increase your effectiveness and influence. Every individual can make a difference in the battle to preserve freedom.

A war fought far from reality

The White House insists it is winning in Iraq. Yet more and more senior analysts and former military chiefs fear an unprecedented disaster, writes Sidney Blumenthal. "Bring them on!" US President George Bush challenged the Iraqi insurgency in July last year. Since then, 812 American soldiers have been killed and 6290 wounded, according to the Pentagon. Almost every day in campaign speeches, Bush talks about how he is "winning" in Iraq. "Our strategy is succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard convention on Tuesday.

Republicans Criticize Bush 'Mistakes' on Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Leading members of President Bush's Republican Party on Sunday criticized mistakes and "incompetence" in his Iraq policy and called for an urgent ground offensive to retake insurgent sanctuaries. In appearances on news talk shows, Republican senators also urged Bush to be more open with the American public after the disclosure of a classified CIA report that gave a gloomy outlook for Iraq and raised the possibility of civil war. "The fact is, we're in deep trouble in Iraq ... and I think we're going to have to look at some recalibration of policy," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

US Says 'Clock is Ticking' for Iran

A senior U.S. official says Iran should comply with a resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and freeze all uranium-enrichment activities. A major international conference on nuclear security is in progress in Vienna.

Iran rejects UN nuclear demands

Iran has defiantly rejected calls from the UN nuclear watchdog to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities. Tehran also vowed to block snap inspections of its nuclear sites if the issue is sent to the Security Council. "Iran will not accept any obligation regarding the suspension of uranium enrichment," chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said.

Mother of slain soldier wanted to 'shoot' Bush

An Interview with Sue Niederer
Her son was told by the recruiter
he wouldn't see combat; now he's dead
Seth, 24, was in debt after he graduated from Rutgers University in 2002. He joined the army for money and skills that, he was told, would help land him a job with the CIA or FBI -- his dream jobs. "Not for patriotism," said his mother, Sue Niederer, who is now an anti-war activist. She advised her son to get the recruiter's promises in writing. When Seth asked, the recruiter told him, "Your mother wears your pants for you?" Seth, who had no training with explosives, was assigned to find enemy remote-controlled bombs. He would then call in experts to deactivate them. He was killed by a bomb in February 2004, after five months in Iraq.

Microwave gun to be used by US troops on Iraq rioters

Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting. The non-lethal weapons, which use high-powered electromagnetic beams, will be fitted to vehicles already in Iraq, which will allow the system to be introduced as early as next year. Using technology similar to that found in a conventional microwave oven, the beam rapidly heats water molecules in the skin to cause intolerable pain and a burning sensation. The armoured vehicles will be named Sheriffs once they have been modified to carry the microwave weapons, known as the Active Denial System (ADS). Col Hall said that US army and US marine corps units should receive four to six ADS equipped Sheriffs by September 2005.

John Ashcroft: Release Those Videos!

Back in late November, 2002, it was reported that Chairman Dan Burton's House Government Reform Committee investigators had discovered the possible whereabouts of video tapes and photographs of the Murrah Building before an alleged truck bomb exploded on April 19, 1995. The existence of these videos was acknowledged in the Final Report of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee. The Department of Justice under Janet Reno refused to release these videos and John Ashcroft has carried that position forward to this day, despite efforts by Congressman Dan Burton. Past efforts to get key documents and information, have been stone walled and the cover up continues under the Bush Administration.

Report: Mexico is al-Qaida route to U.S.

Al-Qaida plans to use Mexico as a key infiltration route for sending operatives into the United States, according to a Mexican newspaper. Mexican intelligence agencies have identified at least two routes for al-Qaida infiltration, the Proceso newspaper reported last week.

Dan Rather: The final days

Dan Rather thought he had a story that could bring down a president. Instead, he has ravaged what remains of the reputation of CBS News and made of himself a cartoon caricature of liberal bias.

Amendment to Let Foreign-Born Be President

WASHINGTON -- A measure has been proposed to the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow foreign-born people to be president of the United States. Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-Calif., introduced the proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday, suggesting foreign-born people who have been U.S. citizens for at least 20 years be eligible to run for president. The measure is similar to one proposed last year by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Republican Platform Ignores God, Exalts Man's "Goodness"

Millions of Christians are proud to call themselves Republicans because they are of the mistaken belief that the Republican Party represents biblical views. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Republican Party is the party of pluralism, not biblical jurisprudence, which seeks to herald the "goodness of man" rather than Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of our nation's future.

$350 Million RICO Lawsuit Filed Over Aspartame

A $350 million class action lawsuit was filed on September 15, 2004 in United States District Court in San Francisco, California, case no: C 04 3872. This class action racketeering (RICO) lawsuit was filed against the NutraSweet Corporation, American Diabetes Association, Dr. Robert H. Moser and John Does 1-50. Plaintiffs maintain that this lawsuit will prove how deadly the chemical sweetener aspartame is when consumed by humans. Contained in the lawsuit is the key role played by current Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld in helping to get aspartame pushed through the FDA. Back in the 1980s, Rumsfeld was the President and CEO of Searle who originally owned the patent on aspartame. Plaintiffs maintain that Rumsfeld used his political muscle to get aspartame approved by the FDA despite objections of many FDA health researchers and negative studies.

Showdown over Iranian nukes

NEW YORK -- It is tempting to believe that the threat of international crisis is suspended in the months preceding the U.S. presidential election. But conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions may not wait until November. This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, began a series of meetings to discuss what inspectors have and haven't found in Iran. At the meeting's opening session, Iran declared its impatience with UN inspections of its nuclear program and announced that its agreement with three European states to halt uranium enrichment would soon come to an end.

IAEA finds no 'smoking gun' in Iran

The UN nuclear watchdog says there is still no firm evidence that Tehran is secretly developing atomic weapons, as Washington asserts. "Have we seen any proof of a weapons programme (in Iran)? Have we seen undeclared (uranium) enrichment? ... Obviously until today there is none of that," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Muhammad al-Baradai told reporters before entering a closed-door session of the IAEA board of governors. Although al-Baradai's inspectors have uncovered many potentially arms-related activities in Iran, it has found no "smoking gun" to back US charges of a covert bomb programme. One of the main items on the board's agenda this week is a resolution on Iran's nuclear programme drafted by Germany, France and Britain calling for the IAEA board to make a "final determination" about Iran in November.

US Study Says a Nuclear Iran Would Aid More Terror

WASHINGTON -- Iran could acquire a nuclear bomb in the next one to four years and would become more willing to aid terrorist groups once it has an atomic capability, according to a U.S. study released on Tuesday. The study by the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center, which was partly funded by the Pentagon, said U.S. talks with Iran on the nuclear issue -- which the Bush administration opposes -- would be "self-defeating." Instead it proposed steps like pressing Israel to freeze its own atomic capability, raise the cost of Iran going nuclear and dissuade other countries from following Tehran.

Iran To Reach Nuclear Self-Sufficiency Early Next Year

U.S. urges allies to step up pressure on
Tehran; hints at possible use of force
If Iran’s atomic program is not checked, Tehran will have the capability to develop nuclear weapons early next year, Israel’s chief of military intelligence warned Sunday. "This does not mean that it will have a bomb in 2005,” MI chief Aharon Ze'evi told the Israel-Jordan Chamber of Commerce on Sunday. “It means that it will have all the means at its disposal to build a bomb," without any further outside help.

Sharon: Iran Constitutes Very Great Danger

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Iran and its nuclear ambitions represent "a very great danger" to the Jewish state but played down the prospect of a pre-emptive strike on its atomic facilities. "Iran constitutes a very great danger, due to its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and means of launching them," Sharon said in an interview with the Yediot Aharonot daily published Wednesday. ... But the head of Israel's military intelligence, General Aharon Zeevi, claimed earlier this week that Tehran could be in a position next year to develop nuclear weapons without outside help. Asked if that meant Israel needed to carry out a pre-emptive strike against Iran, similar to the one launched against Iraq's French-built Osirak reactor in 1981, Sharon said that times had changed and instead called for the threat posed by Iran to be addressed by the United Nations.

Israel tries to add to intl. pressure on Iran

LONDON -- Israel sought to ratchet up the pressure on Iran Monday by claiming its arch enemy could be in a position next year to develop nuclear weapons without outside help, as a UN watchdog scrutinized Tehran's atomic program. Accordingt to AFP, the head of Israeli military intelligence, General Aharon Zeevi, said the next six months would be crucial for Iran to position itself as a would-be nuclear power. "The next six months will determine if Iran will achieve in the spring of 2005 a non-conventional capability in the sphere of nuclear research and development," he said in remarks broadcast by public radio.

Douglas Feith: Portrait of a Neoconservative

Feith serves as the number three civilian in the George W. Bush administration's Defense Department, under Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. Undersecretary for Policy Feith previously served in the Reagan administration, starting off as Middle East specialist at the National Security Council (1981-82) and then transferring to the Defense Department where he spent two years as staff lawyer for Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle.

U.S. Asks Spain to Clarify Zapatero's Iraq Remarks

MADRID -- The United States has sought clarification from Spain of remarks by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero which suggested other countries should follow Madrid's example and pull out their troops from Iraq. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Tuesday that Washington had requested a transcript of remarks Zapatero made last week during a trip to Tunisia, in the latest sign of strained ties between the NATO allies. Zapatero expressed concern over escalating violence in Iraq, defended his decision to withdraw Spain's troops and said prospects would improve if more allies followed suit.

Wounded Numbers Still Rising as Insurgency Takes Heavy Toll

WASHINGTON -- More than 200 U.S. troops were wounded in Iraq in the past week, the Pentagon said Tuesday, and the total since the invasion was launched in March 2003 is now 7,245. Of the 219 wounded in the past week, 81 were returned to duty; the 138 others were not. The Pentagon generally reports its wounded totals each week. Fatality totals are updated daily. The number of Americans killed and wounded has grown rapidly amid an intensifying and increasingly effective insurgency. There were more wounded over the past five months about 4,000 than in the first 13 months of the war, when there were about 3,300, according to Pentagon reports.

U.S. Military Encounters New Northern Front in Tal Afar

TAL AFAR, Iraq -- The black-masked militants have been run out, quieted or killed. And residents of this remote northern city on Tuesday began trudging through checkpoints and returning home. But recent clashes here between insurgents and U.S. Army Stryker Brigade troops that uprooted 150,000 residents and left more than 70 insurgents and 40 civilians dead have opened a decisive new northern front in the war against insurgency in Iraq. The firefights, which began Sept. 4 and ended Saturday, also shed light on a shadowy network of Islamist fighters who seemingly shuttle from one battle to the next, from Fallujah to Baghdad to Tal Afar, answering the jihad call and then dissolving into the cities.

Iraqi president seeks help from NATO, EU

BRUSSELS -- Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar held talks in Brussels on how NATO and the EU can do more to help stabilize and rebuild his violence-scarred country. The 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is currently considering the expansion of a fledgling training mission already in Iraq, as agreed at a summit in Istanbul in June.

Why West is losing

Three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, America's politicians and media continue to gravely deceive the public about the so-called war on terrorism. Now the definitive book on terrorism has appeared that should be mandatory reading for every thinking person. It's called Imperial Hubris: Why The West is Losing the War on Terror. The cover simply identifies the author as "Anonymous," but he's already been widely identified in the American media as Michael Scheuer, a senior terrorism analyst for the CIA.

US intelligence knew sourcing on Iraq was suspect: Powell

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said some groups within American intelligence knew that sourcing of information used to justify the invasion of Iraq was suspect but did not inform the authorities. The US failure to find weapons of mass destruction has since embarrassed the US administration, damaged its standing around the world and led to sharp criticism of US intelligence community. Powell had said previously that the information he used as the basis for his landmark speech in the United Nations on February 5, 2003 was "not solid."

Researching the Weapons of The Future: Genetically Modified Bioweapons

Advances in nanotechnology, genetics and nuclear isomers are permitting the production of a new generation of unconventional weapons. As one of the most rapidly moving areas of scientific research today, biotechnology presents the most immediate emerging threat for weapons development.

Americans Convicted in Afghan 'Private Prison' Trial

KABUL -- Three Americans have been sentenced to up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty by an Afghan court on charges including torture, running a private prison and illegal detention. Jonathan "Jack" Idema, a former U.S. Green Beret, was arrested in July along with another ex-serviceman, Brent Bennett, and documentary film-maker Edward Caraballo.

Maryland Court Rejects Electronic-Voting Challenge

WASHINGTON -- Maryland's highest court has rejected a challenge to the state's electronic voting system and upheld a ruling that touchscreen-style voting machines provide a reasonable level of ballot security. Voting activists had sought to block the state from using the Diebold Inc. machines, or to require that each ballot be printed out as it is cast to ensure votes were recorded properly. Activists with TrueVoteMD said in their lawsuit the machines were prone to glitches and vulnerable to hackers.

Martha Stewart Wants to Go to Prison Now

NEW YORK -- Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart said on Wednesday she wants to start serving her prison sentence for lying about a suspicious stock sale as soon as possible, so she can put her "nightmare" behind her. "I want to put this nightmare behind me," said Stewart, who built a business empire on home decorating tips. "I want to reclaim my good life and good works." In a surprise announcement, Stewart -- convicted in March and sentenced to five months in jail and five months of house arrest -- said through tears she hoped to be a free woman by March so she can plant her spring garden.

Iraq Spins Out of Control

A surge in deadly violence this weekend brought the bloodiest day in Iraq in recent months; suicide bombings, mortar fire and fierce battles between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi security forces, including a firefight between an Iraqi crowd and a U.S. helicopter crew, killed dozens, leaving even more injured. Attacks against U.S. forces now average 87 per day, the worst monthly average, reports Newsweek, "since Bush's flight-suited visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003." Casualty figures keep escalating: the U.S. death toll passed 1,000 last week and over 7,000 have been wounded. Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted this weekend, "We did miscalculate the difficulty" of winning the peace in Iraq.

Islamic fighters tighten control of Falluja

Islamic militants in Iraq are strengthening their grip on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, four months after American commanders struck a ceasefire deal that was supposed to pacify the city and return it to government control, residents said yesterday. Militants have imposed religious law on communities, issuing edicts and executing those accused of spying and even stealing. US patrols no longer enter the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, and the Falluja Brigade, a government force established in May to maintain security, was disbanded this week.

Bush to Shift Iraq Funds to Boost Security

HOLLAND, Mich. -- Faced with mounting violence in Iraq, the Bush administration plans on Tuesday to propose shifting $3.46 billion from Iraqi water, power and other reconstruction projects to improve security, boost oil output and prepare for elections scheduled for January. Congressional sources briefed on the plan, which must still be approved by Congress, said it includes funding to cover the cost of forgiving 95 percent of Iraq's prewar debts to the United States. Those debts total about $4 billion. The change, which requires congressional approval, reflects a realization within the administration that without better security, long-term rebuilding is impossible. Of the more than $18 billion approved for Iraq's reconstruction, only about $1 billion has been spent so far.

Bush's Un-Constitutional War in Iraq

As the U.S. military death toll reached 1,000 in George Bush's unnecessary, un-Constitutional and enormously expensive ($200 billion plus) war in Iraq, long gone is any talk about Saddam Hussein having any Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). The only things that have been massively destroyed are the original rationales for this conflict. The old arguments for this conflict lie in rubble.

U.S. troops brace for more violence in Iraq

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A year-and-a-half after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to battle against Saddam Hussein, the United States' troubled initiative to convert Iraq into an oasis of Mideast democracy appears headed for more difficult days. A recent upsurge in attacks by anti-American insurgents, which pushed the U.S. death toll past the 1,000 mark last week, could accelerate with the approach of national elections in both the United States and Iraq, according to military analysts.

Rumsfeld mixes up US foes Saddam and Bin Laden

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mixed up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein twice in a speech about the war against terrorism. Critics accuse the Bush administration of having concentrated on going after Saddam at the expense of the hunt for bin Laden whose al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. In a speech to the National Press Club on the eve of the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Rumsfeld began by saying the world just before the attacks was not as serene as some people now suggest.

U.S. presses U.N. for tough line on Iranian nuclear program

VIENNA, Austria -- The United States lobbied its allies Monday to have Iran hauled before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program as the world body's atomic watchdog agency considered how tough a line to take in pressuring Tehran to meet its demands. On the issue of Iran's nuclear program, European powers have come closer to the U.S. position, proposing in a draft resolution that the International Atomic Energy Agency set a November deadline for Tehran to meet its demands aimed at clearing up fears it is developing weapons. It warns that failure to do so could "probably" lead to further steps — a reference to sending the issue to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions on Iran. Washington wants that "trigger mechanism" in the resolution to be stronger, in part by removing the word "probably."

U.S. signals it may not rule out attack on Iran

JERUSALEM -- A senior U.S. envoy said on Sunday the United States was determined to stop Iran getting atomic weapons, and signalled Washington would not rule out an attack if peaceful diplomacy failed to achieve this. President George W. Bush's top official on nuclear non-proliferation, Undersecretary of State John Bolton, was asked during a brief visit to Israel if the United States could consider such an attack. "President Bush is determined to try and find a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons," he said. "But we are determined that they are not going to achieve a nuclear weapons capability."

Iran Says It Won't Halt Uranium Plans

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said yesterday it would not abandon uranium enrichment, rejecting a key demand by three European powers that have threatened to intensify pressure if Tehran does not curb its nuclear program. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, aiming only to produce energy. Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for a reactor - or, at a higher level, material for nuclear weapons. Iran, which views the U.S. as an arch foe, is concerned about the American military presence in Iraq, to the west of Iran, and in Afghanistan, to the east.

Israel Claims Iran Close to Develop Nukes

Israel sought to ratchet up the pressure on Iran Monday, September 13, by claiming its arch enemy could be in a position next year to develop nuclear weapons. The warning came as the United States is working hard to round up a two-thirds majority in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting to issue an ultimatum to Iran to alley fears about its nuclear ambitions.

Iranian opposition makes allegations on Tehran

Days before the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors opened a meeting on Monday expected to be dominated by the question of whether the Security Council should be asked to consider imposing sanctions on Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions, the National Council of Resistance of Iran held a news conference in Paris claiming to have uncovered more about Tehran's nuclear activities. Israel has paid particular attention to Iran's nuclear programs, because Iran often points to Israel as its main enemy and has successfully tested a long-range missile that can reach Israel. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor before it began operating, and some have speculated it might take similar action against Iran. Meanwhile, Israel will neither confirm nor deny the widely held assumption it has nuclear weapons.

Germany completes Israel delivery of submarines

Berlin -- With it's decision to deliver to Israel two more 'Dolphin' submarines, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, while contemporaneously agreeing to comply with the policy of the nuclear powers of NATO - USA, GB and France - to put increasing pressure on Iran to prevent it from developing it's own nuclear industry, the German government is slowly giving up it's policy of putting obstacles in the way of a threatening escalation in the Middle East region.

Europeans agree to deadline for Iran to halt uranium work

BERLIN -- Iran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment - and banish suspicions it seeks nuclear arms - set the stage Sunday for confrontation before a U.N. atomic watchdog agency, with the United States lobbying to have Iran taken before the Security Council for possible sanctions. Washington appeared unlikely to get its way immediately at today's meeting in Vienna, Austria, but its stand was bolstered for the longer term after European allies agreed to set a November deadline for Iran to meet international demands to suspend uranium enrichment and clear up other concerns about its nuclear program. In a draft resolution prepared by France, Germany and Britain and made available to The Associated Press, the three European powers warned of possible "further steps" by November, the next meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors.

New! webpage: Women in Combat

by Bible-Researcher.com
Why this Page? "President Bush could end this insane policy--which began with his predecessor Bill Clinton--with one executive order. Yet he has not done it. Is it because he sees no political reason to do it? Perhaps he fears that it would even hurt him politically to do the right thing. Evidently he and other politicians of the Republican party are not willing to provoke the wrath of the radical feminists who wield such influence in the establishment media now. In any case, I want to express my deep disappointment and my utter lack of confidence in George Bush as a President. He has sent American mothers and even teenage girls to be shot at, captured, raped and killed by cruel barbarians, in a faraway and needless war. My outrage over this is such that I cannot in good conscience vote for him in the coming election."

$3 Billion Textile and Garment Exports from Communist Vietnam to the United States

The door into US market has opened to Vietnam enterprises since Vietnam – US bilateral agreement was effective 3 years ago. However, many Vietnam enterprises who are seeking opportunity to enter this market face a lot of challenges. The key export items to US are textile and garment, seafood and footwear which account for 3 billion- dollar export volume. USAID – International Development Agency forecasted that the year of 2004 will eye more modest but more steady growth in Vietnam‘s US-bound export against 2002 and 2003. This is attributed to that textile and garment sector has stable production plan relating to textile quota and non-textile export. It is predicted that export volume of textile and garment will grow 10-20%.

NAFTA Is Devastating U.S. Textile, Apparel Industry

“Free trade” has gutted a small Virginia city, an effect seen throughout America’s South.
Free traders in Congress, who have repeatedly shoved down the throats of American workers an end to restrictions on imports, have long claimed global unrestricted trade is a panacea for America’s economy. They should tell that to America’s once-giant textile industry; last year its losses—primarily to cheap foreign imports—hit $365 million. Conditions in the American textile and apparel industry are “probably worse than anything since the Great Depression,” said David Link, chief economist of the American Textile Manufactures Association. In the last decade, while Congress passed one foreign trade pact after another, 220,000 American textile jobs were lost. In the apparel industry it’s even worse: A loss of more than 400,00 jobs.In textile and apparel company towns the impact of unrestricted free trade has been devastating. Last year alone, the two industries lost 148,000 jobs and more than 100 mills were closed. ... According to the latest apparel industry statistics, since 1982 apparel imports from Mexico and the Caribbean Basin have increased more than 30 times. And, as if the loss of jobs due to NAFTA is not bad enough, by 2005, due to the penchant of American government leaders to expand trade with the nation’s long-time arch enemy, Red China, the Asian Marxist giant will have no tariffs or quotas on shipments of textiles and apparels. This means the average Chinese worker, who earns 69 cents an hour, will be producing goods undercutting anything produced in all of the Western Hemisphere.

More mill workers being thrown out of jobs
At a time when the “feel good factor” is doing the rounds, particularly in the high society, more and more textile mill workers continue to be thrown out of jobs as textile mills continue to close down at a rate of five to six every month. Of course, the Planning Commission has recently claimed that the creation of 84 lakh jobs in each of the last three years, but these unfortunate mill hands are unable to find any job whatsoever.

After the shutdown: Textile workers still without jobs
GREENSBORO -- Nearly half of the textile workers laid off in March from a Guilford Mills plant are still without jobs, a News & Record case study has found. Of those who did find work, half went right back into textiles; 40 percent took a pay cut, and more than one-third said they are dissatisfied enough with their new jobs to continue searching for better work.

US proposes pouring $3.5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funding over the next year

A senior US State Department official said that the country has proposed shifting $3.5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funding over the next year to security forces and jobs-generating projects in local communities to undercut support for insurgents, AFP reported. The shift proposed by US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte would pour at least $300 million a month into the country as it heads into crucial general elections in January that officials expect will be the focus of an intensifying showdown with insurgents. Ambassador Robin Raphel said that around half the money would go to building up Iraqi security forces and the other half to quick disbursing projects in local communities managed by US military commanders and through the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

$1.2 Million Wood-Processing, Tourism and Agriculture 'Cooperation' Between US and Sarajevo BiH Business Associations

SARAJEVO -- The U.S. Government, through U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), on Thursday will hand certificates to representatives of business associations in the sectors of wood-processing, tourism and agriculture, was announced by USAID. This two-year project, worth US$ 1.2 million, also included a component of small grants for supporting the implementation of new principles and programmes by BiH business associations and chambers of commerce.

US grants $108 million in development aid to DR Congo

KINSHASA -- The United States has granted Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) government 108 million dollars in aid for development programmes, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has said. "USAID supports programs in health, democracy and governance, rural development, education and the reintegration of former soldiers," USAID executive director Andrew Natsios told reporters late Monday during a visit to the vast central African country, struggling to emerge from five years of war.

$14.2 Million USAID fund to Globecomm Systems for the Islamic Transitional State of Afghanistan

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. -- Globecomm Systems Inc., a global provider of end-to-end satellite-based communications solutions, today announced that the Company has been awarded a second contract valued at $14.2 million from the Ministry of Communication of the Islamic Transitional State of Afghanistan (MoC). The contract is fully funded through the United States Agency for International Development and the project work is expected to begin immediately upon receipt of the USAID's direct letter of commitment. On June 1, 2004, Globecomm announced the first contract from the MoC valued at $14.7 million, bringing the combined contract values to $28.9 million. Under the terms of this contract, Globecomm will design, deliver, install and maintain a second satellite based communications network. When completed, the network will deliver voice, data, Internet and video conferencing services to 337 districts within Afghanistan, and will enable the MoC to offer broadband services to other government agencies, as well as international organizations and private commercial enterprises.

Globecomm Awarded Second Contract From Afghanistan's Ministry Of Communication

Globecomm Systems Wednesday announced that the Company has been awarded a second contract valued at $14.2 million from the Ministry of Communication of the Islamic Transitional State of Afghanistan (MoC). The contract is fully funded through the United States Agency for International Development and the project work is expected to begin immediately upon receipt of the USAID's direct letter of commitment.

CCF Receives $2.7 Million Grant for Jobs Training in Liberia

Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) has received a $2.7 million USAID grant to provide a major vocational skills training program and other interventions for returning women and children associated with fighting forces as well as to other war affected children in Liberia. With this new USAID grant, CCF will assist 3,000 women and children as part of the community reintegration and rebuilding process. Specifically, grant beneficiaries will include 750 women associated with fighting forces, 1,500 children associated with fighting forces and 750 war-affected children who were non-combatants.

New Documents Reveal that USAID Provided $2.3 Million to Venezuela's Opposition in 2003

New York -- Documents recently obtained from the U.S. Department of State under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by www.venezuelafoia.info demonstrate that more than $5 million annually during the past two years was given by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to various organizations in Venezuela, many of which are aligned with the opposition. One of the key groups collaborating with USAID is Súmate, the organization that promoted the recall referendum campaign against President Hugo Chávez and is now rejecting the results that have been certified by the most credible international observers and even by the U.S. government. Súmate, despite its numerous undemocratic positions and actions, has also been a recipient of U.S. government funds from the National Endowment for Democracy in 2003.

Cheney’s Scare Tactics

Bush and Cheney say they deserve reelection because they are fighting terrorists in Iraq so that we won’t have to fight them in America. More jargon and verbiage, despite the fact that they invaded Iraq unconstitutionally.

Saudi Charity Accused of Financing Terror

US Blacklists Al Haramain Charity
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday blacklisted an American branch of Saudi Arabia's Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, accusing the group of financing terrorist activities. The Treasury Department said investigators had found direct links between the U.S. branch of Al Haramain, headquartered in Oregon, and al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. It also accused the group of money-laundering and violating tax laws.

Nuclear threat posed by Iran worries Israel

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published yesterday that the world is not doing enough to stop Iran from developing atomic weapons and that Israel is taking measures to protect itself. Sharon told The Jerusalem Post that "there is no doubt" Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and that it is "doing it by deception and subterfuge." Israel feels especially threatened because Iran has successfully tested a long-range missile that can reach Israel, Sharon said, adding that even moderates in Iran have called for the destruction of Israel.

Iran Told to Halt Nuclear Bomb Work

Guardian News Service -- Iran has been given until November to suspend all activities linked to poduction of a nuclear bomb - a deadline that effectively marks thefailure of more than a year of negotiations between Tehran and the Europeantroika of France, Britain and Germany. Refusal by Iran to comply would produce a new Middle East crisis inwhich the issue would almost certainly be referred to the United Nations Security Council, which could opt for punitive action.

Top G-8 officials gather in Geneva to discuss nuclear tensions with Iran

GENEVA -- With pressure building to curb Iran's nuclear program, top disarmament officials from major countries gathered Thursday for two days of meetings that the United States says will focus on Tehran in the campaign to stop the spread of atomic weapons.

Iran's Extremists To Defend Nuke Site

LONDON -- An Iranian extremist group is to begin recruiting suicide squads to defend the Islamic republic's first nuclear power station in the event of an Israeli attack, a member of the group told AFP Wednesday. "We are going to have a ceremony to recruit volunteers for suicide operations and create the first suicide battalion to defend the Bushehr power station, which is the target of Israeli propaganda," a member of the Committee for the Glorification of the Martyrs of the World Islamic Movement said. The source only added that Bushehr, which is still under construction and being built with Russian help, was "a part of the interests of Iran and the Islamic world".

Iran's Nuclear Reactor Faces More Delays, Russian official says

MOSCOW -- A senior Russian nuclear official said yesterday that an atomic reactor Moscow is building for Iran, long a stumbling block in Russian-US relations, faced further delays. Diplomatic sources and specialists in Moscow have said President Vladimir Putin's growing recognition of Washington's concerns over Iran's nuclear program have pressured the Kremlin into delaying until the International Atomic Energy Agency determines that Iran's nuclear program is in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

China: US threat against Iran unlikely to develop into war for now

The United States has recently uttered a new wave of charges against Iran, which Washington had accused of being involved into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but war is unlikely on the Mideast country, at least before the November US presidential elections. The United States and Israel have long been threatening to launch preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. What happened in the past months seems to give a signal that the Bush administration may have sorted out Iran as its next target and Washington's diplomatic and political containment may turn into military operations.

U.S. bomb militants' base in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. planes bombed Sunni Muslim fighters in the volatile city of Fallujah on Wednesday, and separate roadside bombs killed two U.S. soldiers in continuing violence across Iraq, U.S. officials said. The morning air strike in Fallujah was aimed at a "command and control headquarters" where militants plotted attacks against U.S.-led forces, a military statement said. On Monday, seven Marines were killed by a car bomb outside Fallujah in the deadliest attack against American forces since April 29.

Despair in Iraq over the forgotten victims of US invasion, The most conservative figure for the number dead is 10,000 Iraqis

Iraqi officials demanded to know yesterday why so little international attention was being given to their numerous dead as the US mourned the death of 1,000 soldiers since the invasion of Iraq. "When I heard on television that the Americans had lost 1,000 military killed in Iraq, I asked myself, what about our side? What is the number of Iraqis who have died?" said Dr Amer al-Khuzaie, an Iraqi deputy health minister. The US army does not count the number of Iraqis killed since the invasion in March 2003. The most conservative figure for the number dead is 10,000 as calculated by private groups. It is rising every day. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, proudly claimed on Tuesday that US forces had, last month, killed between 1,500 and 2,500 Iraqi insurgents. He did not note an ominous trend that, for the first time, more Americans were probably killed by Shia fighters than by Sunni guerrillas. For the US, it is now a war on two fronts.

Concord Marine killed in Iraq, one month shy of homecoming

CONCORD -- For some, it takes a lifetime to find a passion. For Mick Bekowsky, it took only until he was 10 years old. It was obvious even then that this boy would follow in the footsteps of his grandfather who served in the Navy for 30 years. Just four months after graduating from Concord High School in 2001, Bekowsky joined the Marines and never looked back. On Monday, exactly one month before he was due home from his second tour of duty, Cpl. Mick Bekowsky, 21, was one of seven Marines killed in a suicide bombing near Fallujah, Iraq.

Navajo Nation member among seven Marines killed in Iraq

PHOENIX -- A 21-year-old Marine from Page, Arizona, has been killed in Iraq, less than a month before he was due to return home. Family members say Lance Corporal Quinn Keith, a member of the Navajo Nation, was one of seven Marines who died Monday in a car bombing on the outskirts of Fallujah. Family say Keith was a quiet young man who loved fishing, hunting, and wrestling. But they say he was determined to do his duty as an infantryman in the First Marine Division. Uncle Clyde Keith says Quinn was scared to be Iraq, but he knew he had to be there.

Two Utah Marines Killed in Iraq Car Bomb Attack

Two Utah Marines were among the seven killed Monday in a car-bomb attack near Fallujah, Iraq, their families said. They were Lance Cpls. Michael Allred, 22, of Hyde Park and Quinn A. Keith, 22, of Blanding. The military has not yet released the identities of the seven victims and could not confirm the families' reports.

Ohio Soldier Killed In Iraq

WASHINGTON -- A northeast Ohio soldier killed by a bomb while riding in a convoy in Iraq joined the military as a patriot with a goal of becoming an officer and earning money for college, his family said. Army Reserve Pfc. Devin Grella, 21, of Medina, died Monday of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive blew up near his convoy, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Grella, the son of Donna and Dennis Grella of Medina, was a member of the Army Reserve's 706th Transportation Company based in Mansfield. He joined the Army Reserve in December and was sent to Iraq within weeks of completing his basic training in June, according to his father.

Two Virginia Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Two soldiers from the Richmond area have died while serving in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday. Army Spc. Clarence Adams III of Varina died Tuesday, a day after his multipurpose vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, Defense Department officials said. The incident is under investigation. Also on Tuesday, Army Lt. Timothy Price of Midlothian was killed by hostile fire in Baghdad, according to Virginia Tech officials. Price, 25, was an alumnus of Tech's Corps of Cadets who was assigned to the 709th Military Police Battalion.

More Texas soldier deaths in Iraq

Three servicemen with ties to Texas died this week in Iraq. Fort Hood Wednesday announced the death of 28-year-old Specialist Clarence Adams, III of Richmond, Virginia. Post officials say Adams died Tuesday of injuries sustained Monday when his armored vehicle struck an improved explosive device in Baghdad. Adams was a combat engineer assigned to A Company of the 91st Engineer Battalion at Fort Hood. Twenty-year-old Private Ryan Michael McCauley was killed Sunday, less than three weeks after visiting family and friends in Lewisville. McCauley was on foot patrol when he was ambushed. Nineteen-year-old National Guard Specialist Tomas Garces of Weslaco was killed Monday when his convoy was attacked with a makeshift bomb. Garces was assigned to Fort Bliss.

U.S. Army Captain Claims Killing of Iraqi Was Act Of Mercy

HANAU, Germany -- A US army captain charged with murdering an Iraqi follower of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric has claimed that he shot dead the man as an act of mercy, a military hearing was told Wednesday. Captain Rogelio Maynulet, 29, is charged with murdering the man on May 21 in an incident during which US troops fired at a civilian vehicle they believed had militia men aboard near the central Iraqi town of Kufa. A witness, 1st Lieutenant Colin Cremin, confirmed that Maynulet and his men told him that the driver "had half his brain hanging out, there was nothing more that could be done for him." He confirmed that Maynulet said he had stepped back and shot the man in the base of the neck or the back of the head. "It was something he didn't want to do but it was the compassionate response, it was definitely the humane response," Cremin said.

Pentagon: Iraqis Control Key Areas

WASHINGTON -- As American military deaths in Iraq operations surpassed the 1,000 mark, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that insurgents controlled important parts of central Iraq and that it was unclear when American and Iraqi forces would be able to secure those areas. As of late Tuesday night, the Pentagon's accounting showed that 998 service members and three Defense Department civilians had been killed in Iraq operations. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference that the American strategy in retaking rebel-held strongholds hinged on training and equipping Iraqi forces to take the lead.

Rumsfeld blames Iraq on Iran

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld charged yesterday that Iran is fueling the deadly insurgency in Iraq with money and fighters. But, in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times, Mr. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the United States has limited options because other nations are "not willing" to join in pressuring Iran, which has shown behavior that Mr. Rumsfeld said is "not part of the civilized world." His assessment came on a day when the military death toll in Iraq reached 1,000 Americans since the invasion in May 2003. "I feel generally quite good about how things are going there," he said. "Needless to say, you can't feel good about it when you've lost over a thousand people."

GI death toll passes 1,000 in Iraq

Baghdad, Iraq — The death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq passed 1,000 on Tuesday, a milestone marking the continuing high cost of the war 16 months after President Bush declared an end to major combat and more than two months since the nominal return of sovereignty to Iraq. A spike in fighting with Sunni and Shiite insurgents killed eight Americans in the Baghdad area Tuesday and today, pushing the count to 1,003. The daily casualty toll has been slowly rising since major combat operations ended — it now averages more than two deaths each day. April was the deadliest month of the war, with 135 U.S. soldiers losing their lives during a broad uprising in central and southern Iraq. Fifty-four U.S. troops died in July, 66 in August, and 23 so far in September.

Second Stryker Brigade Heading To Iraq

FORT LEWIS -- With a departure ceremony today, Fort Lewis starts sending another 4,000 soldiers to Iraq for a year's deployment. The second Stryker Brigade developed at Fort Lewis will take over for the brigade that was deployed last November. Those soldiers will be coming home, turning over the vehicles for the fresh troops. The brigade is built around about 300 eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicles. They can carry as many as eleven soldiers and travel faster than 60 miles per hour.

US Marines In Iraq Recently Hit By More Deaths Than Army

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Marines suffered more deaths in Iraq last month than the Army, even though the Army had at least three times as many troops there, Pentagon casualty records show. The trend has continued this month. Eleven of the first 17 U.S. military deaths in Iraq have been Marines, including seven who perished Monday in a suicide car bombing near the city of Fallujah.

Malaria Drug Links Elite Soldier Suicides

WASHINGTON -- A startling pattern of violence and suicide by America's most elite soldiers has followed their use of a controversial anti-malaria drug, an investigation by United Press International and CNN has found. The government already warns that the drug, called Lariam, might cause long-term mental problems -- including aggression and suicide. Six Special Forces soldiers who took their lives are all believed to have taken the drug, according to the UPI-CNN investigation. The cable news network broadcast a segment on the joint investigation Tuesday.

Government growth booms under Bush

Spending increases have been dramatic under this Republican-run federal government in recent years. In fact, it's so bad that, on this particular issue, I almost long for the days of - dare I say it? - Bill Clinton. During the Clinton years, federal government expenditures increased at an annual average rate of 3.6 percent. During the first three years under Bush, spending increases have averaged 7.5 percent.

Americans are not safer after invasion of Iraq

We are beginning to realize the world would be safer and friendlier if the United States had not attacked Iraq. Now it is time we take our troops out of Iraq. Our exhausted troops seem to be doing to Iraq what Israel has done to the Palestinians for years. The insurgents are trying to tell us to end the occupation and allow them to run their own country.

Bipartisan Betrayal at the Border

Can we talk about a war other than Vietnam for a minute? Political debate is now focused on whether Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and his mates were under fire at Cam Ranh Bay and how close he was to the Cambodian border (not very) three decades ago. But there are American foot soldiers under siege right now on our own borders. And neither party is doing much of anything to arm, fund or defend them.

Why the Defection, Pat?

In a recent article, Sheldon Richman complains about our two party politics being too tied to pragmatics but then fails to suggest the obvious alternative. He talks as if Kerry and Bush are the only candidates running for president and thus falls into the trap of pragmatism himself. Pat Buchanan, once a third party candidate himself, has fallen into the same snare in his latest book by not endorsing the only true “conservative” in the race.

Stage set for showdown as U.S. Congress returns

WASHINGTON -- With the party conventions behind them, members of Congress return Tuesday for a politically charged march to Election Day that has been complicated by a call to reorganize the nation's intelligence agencies and Congress itself. House and Senate leaders are planning legislation that implements recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission report, which was issued right before Congress recessed for six weeks. Lawmakers must also dispose of a dozen required spending bills.

New Era of Big Government

The fact is, the records of these two presidents, Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, are much more alike than either man would likely feel comfortable admitting. With Bill Clinton, a record of Big Government and lack of accountability, which is precisely what we witnessed from 1993 to 2001, was pretty much what most of us expected; we got what we deserved when we elected him president. With George W. Bush, however, what we have gotten is not what we bargained for—that is if we hoped for a president committed, as Bush said he was during the 2000 campaign, to smaller and more accountable government. Has America been betrayed by President George W. Bush? In his most recent book, The Bush Betrayal, James Bovard poses and then answers this question with a resounding “yes.”

Bush Wants $3.3 Billion More for Iraq Security

Washington -- The Bush administration is preparing to seek congressional approval to divert $3.3 billion earmarked to rebuild Iraq's shattered infrastructure into programs focused mainly to establish law and order. The move comes against a backdrop of steadily deteriorating public security in the country as it approaches a crucial first round of elections set for January.

Bush Speaks, the Crowd Goes Wild

Bush’s convention speech had everything that should raise red flags for those concerned about the decline of liberty in this country. The president’s words had the worst of everything in American politics. He seemed to be trying to appeal to everyone whose main political goal is to see the government expand in one way or another. Looking at different elements in his speech, you can see how Bush is reaching out to conservatives, moderates, liberals and even some libertarians in order to be reelected. He did this by being all kinds of politicians at once. Taken together, the Bush program is a frightening one.

Car bomb kills 7 Marines

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb attack on a U.S. patrol outside the rebel-held city of Falluja on Monday killed seven American marines and three Iraqi National Guardsmen, in the deadliest single attack on U.S. forces in five months. The attack raises the official Pentagon U.S. death toll for the Iraq war to at least 988, including three civilian Department of Defense employees.

Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Separate Iraq Attacks

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi attacked U.S. troops in Baghdad's sprawling Shi'ite Sadr City slum district with rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding two, the U.S. army said. The attack followed four separate roadside bomb blasts on Monday that killed four U.S. soldiers. The deaths will raise the official Pentagon U.S. death toll to at least 993 since the start of the war in Iraq.

The Madness of Emperor George

While campaigning for reelection, President Bush declared: "Knowing what we know today, we still would have gone into Iraq." ... Most Americans are probably uncomfortable with the thought that their president might suffer from madness. ... One dictionary defines "paranoia" as "a tendency toward suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others that is based not on objective reality." Might this definition describe a man whose thinking is dominated by the worldwide presence of an "axis of evil," and who persists in the childish view that "if you’re not with us, you’re against us?" And when there is absolutely no evidence to support a war he undertook and insists on continuing, are his acts not grounded in a lack of "objective reality?"

The Retreat of Empire

When U.S. Marines were ordered to withdraw from Fallujah last April, I titled my column “Fallujah: High Tide of American Empire.” For the pullback meant that America was either unwilling to take the casualties to crush the Sunni resistance in Fallujah or unwilling to pay the price of Arab rage if they won a bloody battle. Whatever the motive of the generals in ceding Fallujah, it was a retreat. The Islamic world saw it as such. Since then, fighting in the Sunni Triangle, Sadr City, Najaf, and the Shia cities of the south has escalated.

Poll: 32% of US Young People Wouldn't Serve if Draft Were Reinstated

Polls show that among young people the prospect of a draft is a potent issue. A survey done for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation of 1,028 people found that 32 percent of young people said they wouldn't serve if the draft were reinstated, while 20 percent said they would seek deferments. Forty-three percent said they would serve.

Ethnic tensions evident in new Afghan fighting

SHINDAND, Afghanistan -- The Pashtuns say they fled persecution in their home villages, at the hands of Tajiks. The Tajiks say their homes have been raided by Pashtun fighters.

Report: Civil War Most Likely Outcome in Iraq

While America's attention was focused last week on the Republican National Convention in New York, and the world was watching the hostage tragedy unfold in the small Russian town of Beslan, the prestigious British Royal Institute of International Affairs (known as Chatham House) issued a report saying a major civil war that would destablize the entire Middle East region is the mostly likely outcome for Iraq if current conditions continue.

New Iraqi Prime Minister CIA Source

WASHINGTON -- The new Iraqi prime minister, trying to stave off attacks by anti-American militants, has a long relationship with Washington as a trusted intelligence source, former officials say. Ayad Allawi also helped British intelligence gather information about Saddam Hussein's regime during nearly three decades in exile. Once a member of Saddam's Baath Party, Allawi later formed the Iraqi National Accord to act as a conduit for defectors from, and sources in, the former Iraqi government.

Spies in Pentagon Ignored

CIA Told Top Brass of Israeli
Spooks Over Six Years Ago
Recent revelations of a year-long FBI probe into Pentagon insider Larry Franklin, a Defense Intelligence Agency official, have startled the United States, revealing evidence that a mid-level official passed classified documents about Iran to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful lobbying group in Washington.

Connect The Dots: The Latest Israeli Spy Scandal

Los Angeles -- The dots in Washington are connecting. It’s not a pretty sight. Last week, a two-year FBI investigation of alleged Israeli efforts to have American neoconservatives manipulate US Mideast policy leaked to the media. The leak, said some sources, thwarted a deeper FBI investigation into involvement by Israeli officials and sympathizers. The story is potentially a huge scandal, and dramatic evidence of a furious power struggle between neocon supporters of Israel’s far right Likud Party who dominated the Pentagon and National Security Council, and the CIA and State Department.

US turns the heat on Tehran

With Iraq's government overthrown, Washington now sounds increasingly bellicose about Iran. It is lobbying hard for Tehran to be referred to the UN Security Council for breaking agreements to stop nuclear development. It wants fellow board members from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to take action against Iran when it meets on 13 September. But after Iraq, will the rest of the world listen to the US cry of banned weapons of mass destruction? And how far would the US act alone if its cry goes unheard?

Iran Ready for Nuclear Surveillance: Spokesman

TEHRAN -- The spokesman for Iran’s cabinet said on Monday the republic was willing to show greater transparency over its nuclear programme in order to ease suspicions of bomb-making. "We are ready to accept all kinds of surveillance to remove the fears of the international community," said Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, asserting Iran’s commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its additional protocol. Iran is a signatory to the NPT and in December 2003 signed the additional protocol, which allows tougher inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Iranian parliament, now controlled by conservatives, has yet to ratify that protocol.

Four Day War

A number of analysts believe that Iran will reach a critical stage in its pursuit of nuclear capability sometime within the next few months. This is a terrifying new development, far more worrisome than the wars and uprisings that have plagued the Middle East to date.

Documents missing from Bush's National Guard file

WASHINGTON -- Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service are missing from the military records released about his service in 1972 and 1973, according to regulations and outside experts. For example, Air National Guard regulations at the time required commanders to write an investigative report for the air force when Bush missed his annual medical exam in 1972. The regulations also required commanders to confirm in writing that Bush received counselling after missing five months of drills.

Kremlin admits lying

Details withheld during hostage crisis
MOSCOW - The Russian government admitted yesterday that it lied to its people about the scale of the hostage crisis that ended with more than 300 children, parents and teachers dead in southern Russia, making an extraordinary admission through state television after days of withering criticism from citizens.

Traitorous 'Conservatives'

Israeli spies in Pentagon are heroes to the neocons
Even as the headlines were proclaiming their treason, American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) officials were feting Republicans at the GOP convention, braying that the charges are "outrageous." But what's outrageous is that so many prominent Republicans were openly consorting with an organization suspected of espionage, a claque of known fifth columnists who put the interests of a foreign country – Israel – above those of their own.

Ashcroft Nixes Arrests in Israeli Spy Probe

The neoconservative New York Sun is reporting that Attorney General John Ashcroft halted arrests in the Israeli spy case last Friday. From the Sun: "According to sources familiar with the investigation, the U.S. district attorney in charge of the probe, Paul McNulty, has ordered the FBI not to move forward with arrests that they were prepared to make last Friday when the story broke on CNN and CBS. 'He put the brakes on it in order to look at it,' a source familiar with the investigation told the Sun. 'To see what was there. Basically the FBI wanted to start making arrests and McNulty said "Woa, based on what? Let's look at this before you do anything."' . . .

'Spy Probe' changed into mere 'Leak Probe'

Alleged Pentagon leaks to Iraq are now subject of probe
WASHINGTON -- FBI counterintelligence agents are investigating whether several Pentagon officials leaked classified information to Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to a law enforcement official and other people familiar with the case.

Spying Now Called 'Sharing Documents' With Other Countries

FBI leak probe of Pentagon extends to Iran stance,
State Department, Pentagon differ on policy toward iran
WASHINGTON -- Pentagon civilians in the office in which analyst Larry Franklin worked lobbied for a hawkish policy toward Iran and tried to have those views inserted into a highly classified presidential document that's a focus of an FBI espionage investigation, current and former U.S. officials said. Investigators are trying to determine whether Franklin shared the document with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby, in an attempt to enlist Israeli support for their proposals. The Bush administration's bitter internal battle over how to deal with Iran — a country President Bush included in his "Axis of Evil" and that's thought to be edging closer to developing nuclear weapons — has been known for some time. But new light is being shed on it after the disclosure of the FBI investigation. Israel sees Iran as its No. 1 adversary and might have been able to influence U.S. policy-making if it had access to confidential high-level planning documents.

FBI looks at Pentagon officials in leak case

WASHINGTON -- FBI counterintelligence agents are investigating whether several Pentagon officials leaked classified information to Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to a law enforcement official and other people familiar with the case.

FBI probes Israeli lobby group

WASHINGTON -- For more than two years, the FBI has been investigating whether classified intelligence has been passed to Israel by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential U.S. lobbying group, in a probe that extends beyond the case of Pentagon employee Lawrence A. Franklin, according to senior U.S. officials and other sources.

The Ownership Society

Are you already fed up with hearing about the "Ownership Society" that Mr. Bush wants to create? Without television and the web, it took years for the phrase "New Deal" to become tiresome. But at some point, even FDR stopped using it. The "Great Society" had an even shorter shelf life and became a phrase of derision, uttered with a snarl rather than pride. "Ownership Society" was already vapid and insufferable halfway through the GOP convention, where it had been pounded flat by pundits, politicians, and media stars even before Bush himself invoked it. It is nonetheless interesting as a piece of political propaganda, and deserves a closer look.

Nuclear Agency Says Iran Making Precursor To Bomb Fuel

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog organization says Iran has begun producing a substance used in making nuclear bombs and plans by the end of this month to produce material that could make five weapons. Iran denies that it intends to make weapons and is still believed to be several years away from having the capability to turn nuclear fuel into working bombs. But a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained Wednesday by USA TODAY, says that in an initial test this spring, Iran converted as much as 77 pounds of raw uranium "yellowcake" into uranium hexafluoride - a gas that can be further refined into fuel for an electricity-producing nuclear reactor or the key ingredient in a nuclear bomb.

Shift From Traditional War Seen at Pentagon

Top Pentagon officials are considering a new, long-term strategy that shifts spending and resources away from large-scale warfare to build more agile, specialized forces for fighting guerrilla wars, confronting terrorism and handling less conventional threats, officials said yesterday. The proposal, presented two weeks ago to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others, could carry major implications for defense spending, eventually moving some funds away from ships, tanks and planes and toward troops, elite Special Operations forces and intelligence gathering. The shift has been building for some time, but the plan circulating at the Pentagon would accelerate the changes, analysts said.

Young Republicans support Iraq war, but not all are willing to join the fight

NEW YORK -- Young Republicans gathered here for their party's national convention are united in applauding the war in Iraq, supporting the U.S. troops there and calling the U.S. mission a noble cause. But there's no such unanimity when they're asked a more personal question: Would you be willing to put on the uniform and go to fight in Iraq?

Army's Decision to Drop Charges in Soldier's Death Angers Mother

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Esther Macklin still struggles to come to terms with the death of her soldier son in Iraq more than a year ago. That's because the terms keep changing, the grieving mother says. The latest twist came less than two weeks ago, when she learned the Army had dropped charges against the soldier she'd been told had caused the explosion that killed her son as he guarded a munitions dump in Ad Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. "I am furious with that. How dare they? How dare they?" Macklin said of the decision by Fort Riley, Kan., brass to halt prosecution of Spc. Benjamin Hathaway, who served with her son in the 924th Military Police Battalion.

DoD Censors Its Own 'Right to Know' Video

The Defense Department spent $70,500 to produce a Humphrey Bogart-themed video called "The People's Right to Know" to teach employees to respond to citizen requests for information. But when it came to showing the tape to the public, the Pentagon censored some of the footage. The department has since released an edited version of the tape and acknowledged the irony of censoring a video promoting government openness.

Marine Guilty of Abusing Iraqi Prisoners

CAMP PENDLETON, CA -- A Marine reservist was found guilty Thursday of dereliction of duty and the abuse of prisoners last year at a makeshift detention camp in Iraq, but cleared of assaulting a 52-year-old Iraqi man who later died there. Marine Sgt. Gary Pittman's wife cried as the military jury's verdict was read following four hours of deliberation. Pittman, wearing a khaki-and-green uniform adorned with his service ribbons, stood without reaction. Pittman, 40, a federal prison guard in New York in his civilian life, was acquitted of the most serious charge, of karate-kicking 52-year-old Nagem Hatab in the chest shortly before the Iraqi was found dead in a dusty yard at the facility known as Camp Whitehorse. An autopsy found Hatab had six broken ribs, as well as several deep bruises, and apparently died from suffocation caused by a broken bone in his throat.

Presidential Debate Group Loses Lawsuit

WASHINGTON -- The Commission on Presidential Debates may have violated federal election laws when it refused to allow any third-party presidential candidates into the debate halls to watch the 2000 presidential debates, a federal judge has ruled. In a decision issued late Thursday, US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. said the Federal Election Commission, which initially dismissed the claims in March, should open a full investigation into whether the debate commission acted in a partisan manner. But he said the FEC is under no obligation to make its findings before the first presidential debate, scheduled to take place on Sept. 30 at the University of Miami. Jason Adkins, a lawyer representing the third-party candidates, said the decision "creates a huge cloud over the legitimacy of the CPD to sponsor these upcoming debates."

Federal Court Rules Against Federal Election
Commission In Presidential Debates Case (pdf)
National Voting Rights Institute
Ruling casts “dark cloud” over the legality
of commission on presidential debates
Third-Party Candidates and Parties Charged that Corporate-Funded CPD Illegally Aids Democratic and Republican Parties
Washington, DC – A federal judge ruled yesterday against the Federal Election Commission in a third-party challenge to the Commission on Presidential Debates’ (CPD) sponsorship of the 2004 presidential and vice presidential debates scheduled to start on September 30, 2004. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., found that the evidence in the case showed that the FEC acted “contrary to law” in dismissing the complaint brought by third-party candidates and parties claiming that the CPD is a partisan organization and, therefore, ineligible under federal election law to sponsor the presidential debates. ... The seven plaintiffs include the Green Party, the Constitution Party, and Ralph Nader, each of which is a candidate or is running candidates in the 2004 presidential and vice-presidential elections. Former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The case was brought on behalf of the plaintiffs by attorney Jason Adkins, of Adkins, Kelston & Zavez, P.C., along with the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston.

Spy Probe Scans Neocon-Israel Ties

The burgeoning scandal over claims that a Pentagon official passed highly classified secrets to a Zionist lobby group appears to be part of a much broader set of FBI and Pentagon investigations of close collaboration between prominent U.S. neoconservatives and Israel dating back some 30 years.

Bigger Than Enron: Iraqi Corruption and WMD

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Alex Trebek, host of the TV game show "Jeopardy," will unveil a category labeled "scandals." After low- value questions on Watergate, Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky, behind the $1, 000 card will appear the answer "the biggest accounting scandal in U.S. history." Thinking that easy money is at hand, the fastest contestant will pose the question "What is Enron?" only to be stunned by the buzzer signaling a wrong answer. It is likely that the other stumped players will remain silent until time runs out and Trebek, symbolic grandmaster of truth and factoid, states in his faintly superior yet ever-patient voice, "Iraq, Iraq..."

White House in Fight Over Weapons Workers

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is locked in a rare election-year fight with fellow Republicans in the Senate over a troubled program for tens of thousands of weapons plant workers who got sick building nuclear bombs. The lawmakers say they don't understand why the administration is blocking a Senate-passed amendment to the defense bill that would overhaul a compensation program bogged down by delays and other problems. Many of the workers are from battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, including Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio and Washington state.

Family questions delay in word of son's death

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The father of a 20-year-old Iowa Marine killed in Iraq says the Marine Corps "grossly mishandled" the notification process by waiting three days to tell the family. Marine P-f-c Nick Skinner, was shot in the neck last Thursday near Najaf, the Iraqi holy city that had been the scene of intense fighting until a peace deal was struck Friday. Randy Skinner and his ex-wife, Laura Hamann, learned of their son's death on Sunday morning when the father of Nick Skinner's best friend called to offer condolences. That man's son was stationed in Najaf with Skinner, and had e-mailed his father on Saturday with news of Nick's death.

US wounded total in Iraq approaching 7,000

WASHINGTON -- The number of American troops wounded in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 is approaching 7,000, according to figures published Tuesday by the Pentagon. The death toll for U.S. military personnel is 975, plus three Defense Department civilians. The wounded total has approximately doubled since mid-April, when casualties and deaths mounted rapidly as the insurgency intensified. The death toll over that period has grown by about 300.

National Guard-legislators face dilemma: Give up one job?

Heavy reliance on National Guard troops and reservists in the U.S. war on terrorism is laying a novel problem on the doorstep of statehouses. Legislators and other state officials called to extended active duty must choose between serving their nation in the military or their state capitol. Nationwide, more than a dozen state legislators have been called to active duty since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and those sent overseas for long stretches are bumping up against a U.S. Defense Department policy designed to prevent active-duty military members from engaging in partisan politics.

Status of Iraqi Oil Exports Unclear

FAW, Iraq -- The status of Iraq's crucial oil exports was mired in confusion Tuesday, with government and industry officials giving contradictory statements about whether oil was flowing or whether there were even oil tankers at the main offshore terminal near Faw.

Report catalogues problems in air marshals service

Federal air marshals have slept on the job, tested positive for alcohol or drugs while on duty, lost their weapons and falsified information, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general said Monday in a scathing report on the air marshals program.

Thatcher posts bail for son

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has posted bail for her son Sir Mark, who is accused of helping to fund an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Lady Thatcher provided £167,000 to free businessman Sir Mark from house arrest in South Africa. Sir Mark could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted of involvement in an alleged plan to topple the West African nation's President Teodoro Obiang.