Politics

GIs can be forced to wear U.N. beret

The U.S. military can force its personnel to wear the blue beret of the United Nations and serve under the world body's command, a federal judge ruled. Judge Paul Friedman upheld the military's conviction of former Army specialist Michael New, who refused to don the U.N. cap and shoulder patch and to serve in a peacekeeping mission in Macedonia nearly 10 years ago, the New York Sun reported.

5,000 More US Troops Sent to Baghdad

BAGHDAD -- An extra 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Baghdad ahead of January elections, a top US commander said Tuesday, adding that security has been stepped up at all military bases in the capital in the wake of the Mosul bombing.

Iraq's Shiite leaders disagree on whether new government should be religious or secular

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Top Shiite Muslim leaders, who are expected to wield the most power after next month's parliamentary elections, are locked in a fierce dispute over whether the new Iraq should be a constitution-based democracy or an Iranian-style state in which clerics reign supreme. Several Shiite politicians say the debate nearly caused the disintegration of a powerhouse Shiite slate assembled under the auspices of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al Sistani, Iraq's most prominent cleric. A breakdown was averted when religious parties backed by Iran agreed to expand the number of secularists and religious moderates on the slate.

US Officials: Iraq Civil War Imminent

New York, NY -- Iraq faces the prospect of civil war as Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government loses credibility and violence against U.S. forces increases, according to almost a half dozen former and serving administration officials. In last Tuesday's suicide bombing attack at a mess tent at Mosul, 22 were killed -- 18 of them Americans -- and 50 wounded. "We can't afford to keep taking that kind of hit," a Pentagon official said. "We can't afford it in terms of American public opinion, and it causes us to loose credibility with the Iraqi public."

As Violence Intensifies, US Rethinks Back-Seat Security Role

A month before the people of Iraq elect a new national assembly, the coalition military leadership is intensively debating the extent to which the largely American multinational force should involve itself in the poll. The Sunni-led insurgency has already had a profound effect on poll preparations in central and northern Iraq. In at least two provinces - Ninewa, in the northwest, and Anbar, in the central-west - coalition military sources concede the January 30 poll faces severe disruption or even cancellation due to the brutal intimidation campaign directed at the interim Iraqi Government and polling officials.

Homegrown Ansar al-Sunnah Army nearly outshines al-Qaida

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Ansar al-Sunnah Army has emerged from its roots as a little known militant group operating in northern Iraq to become the country’s deadliest terror network, capable of carrying out spectacular strikes like last week’s suicide bombing at a U.S. base and virtually eclipsing al-Qaida’s cell in the war-torn nation.

Suicide bomber kills 15

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A suicide bomber detonated his car Monday at the gate of the home of the leader of Iraq's biggest political party, killing 15 people and injuring dozens, police said. The cleric was unharmed. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's most powerful Shiite political group, was in his residence in Baghdad's Jadiriyah district when the attack occurred, said his spokesman, Haitham al-Husseini.

U.S. Soldier Killed by Roadside Bomb in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another when their patrol was attacked north of Baghdad overnight, the U.S. military said on Monday. The attack occurred in the town of Samarra, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. No further details were given.

Three US Soldiers Wounded In Mosul Ambush - Spokesman

BAGHDAD -- Three U.S. soldiers were wounded after they were ambushed in Mosul while driving as part of a U.S. military convoy, a spokesman for multinational forces said. Witnesses said that a roadside bomb detonated while the convoy of two Humvees and a supply truck were nearby. The supply truck caught fire.

Saboteur attacks gas pipeline in Iraq

An unknown assailant used a gas cylinder to blow up a gas pipeline in southern Iraq, killing himself and destroying parts of the line, an official said. The attack in Barjisiyah, southwest of Basra, took place at 0030 IST, South Oil's chief of public relations, Samir Jassim, said.

US Marines Battle Afghan Attack

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban forces set off explosions as American military convoys rumbled down two roads in southern and eastern Afghanistan, injuring one Marine and damaging a vehicle, officials said Monday.

Pakistan lays down the agenda for the US

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan, the United States' premier ally in the "war on terrorism", has laid down the agenda for the Bush administration for the next four years on what it expects in exchange for continued cooperation to hunt down al-Qaeda.

Navy SEALs Sue Associated Press Over Iraq Photos

LOS ANGELES -- Six Navy SEAL special operations commandos and the wives of two of them sued The Associated Press and one of its reporters on Tuesday for publishing photos taken from a Web site that appeared to show the SEALs abusing prisoners in Iraq. The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, said the pictures did not depict abuse and instead put the lives of the soldiers at risk by exposing their faces to the world.

Russia and China forge new military ties

In a move that foreign policy analysts see as Russia's response to a "spat" with the West over the election in Ukraine, the Guardian reported Monday Moscow has reiterated its intention to hold wars games with China in 2005. China Daily reports that although the original announcement was made by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov during a visit to China two weeks ago, the first time Western media extensively covered the story followed his statement during a cabinet meeting Monday at the Kremlin.

Russia, China Preparing Major Arms Deal

Russia plans to sell a host of new fighters and transport planes to China in 2005, arms export officials said Friday, and foreign sales of Russian weaponry could exceed $5 billion next year.

Attack Was Suicide Bombing, Not Rocket

MOSUL, Iraq -- The deadliest attack on Americans in Iraq was probably the work of a suicide bomber who evaded security on a major U.S. military base in Mosul, Washington's top general said on Wednesday. "It looks like it was an improvised explosive device worn by an attacker," General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington, ending 36 hours of confusion over what killed 18 Americans and four others in a mess tent at the Marez base at lunchtime on Tuesday. The admission, which gave credibility to a claim made by the Ansar al-Sunna militant group, has serious implications for U.S. forces as they try to secure an election at the end of January.

Bush Says Troops Were on Mission of Peace

WASHINGTON -- A somber President Bush said on Tuesday U.S. troops killed in a deadly attack in northern Iraq were on a mission of peace as the heavy death toll presented him with a fresh challenge amid dwindling U.S. support for the war. The White House blamed insurgents seeking to derail Iraq's Jan. 30 elections for the attack and said "they will be defeated."

Military: suicide bomber carried out attack; infantry sweeps through Mosul

BAGHDAD -- U.S. troops and armoured vehicles clamped down on Mosul a day after an attack on a nearby base in which 22 people were killed - almost all of them Americans. "When occupiers come to any country (they) find resistance. And this is within Iraqi resistance," Sattar Jabbar said of the attack. U.S. forces blocked Mosul's five bridges over the Tigris River that link the western and eastern sectors of the city, while hundreds of troops spread out across several neighbourhoods, conducting sweeps in eastern districts backed by Bradley fighting vehicles and armoured Humvees. Helicopter gunships clattered overhead and jets flew high above the city. At the military hospital near Mosul airfield, doctors and orderlies treated dozens of soldiers for burns, shrapnel wounds and damage to their eyes. "This is the worst we have seen in the 11 months since we have been here," said Master Sgt. David Scott, chief ward master for the hospital. It was the latest in a week of deadly strikes across Iraq that highlighted the growing power of the insurgents in the runup to the Jan. 30 national elections.

Mosul attack evidence insurgents' intel better

WASHINGTON -- The implications of the audacious suicide attack in the center of a heavily guarded U.S. military base in Mosul go beyond a failure of base security. The attack is the latest evidence that Iraqi insurgents have better intelligence about U.S. forces than U.S. forces have on the insurgents.

U.S. Marines facing more cunning insurgents in sporadic Fallujah fighting

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- American troops face sporadic but cunning resistance from insurgents as they sweep the city of Fallujah more than a month after U.S. and Iraqi forces invaded the militants' stronghold, U.S. officials said Friday. They characterized the insurgents who remain as less suicidal than those who fought the initial battle, using a newly discovered tunnel system or knocking holes in walls to move unseen and avoid American troops.

First big US contractor flees Iraq

BAGHDAD -- U.S. contractor Contrack International has pulled out of a $325 million Iraqi transportation project because of violence, a U.S. official says. The company is the first U.S. contactor to leave Iraq totally. Instability and the anti-American insurgency have delayed an $18.6 billion U.S.-funded rebuilding programme and forced more money to be diverted to security. "I confirm that Contrack has left," said Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Schnaible, a spokesman for the U.S. programme, on Wednesday. Contrack led a consortium to build roads, bridges, airport facilities and railways in Iraq.

Bush Foresees a Deeper U.S. Role in Iraq

The president warns that troop levels will not be cut next year and acknowledges that training of local forces has had mixed results.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush warned the American people Monday that the U.S. engagement in Iraq will intensify in the coming year, with the Jan. 30 election marking the "beginning of a process" toward democracy that will require higher troop levels and continue through 2005. Painting a far more sober picture of the situation in Iraq than he did during his reelection campaign, Bush acknowledged that efforts to train Iraqi security forces have had only "mixed" results and that a violent insurgency has eroded morale among Iraqis and Americans.

Soldier Who Killed Unarmed Iraqi Discharged to Face Manslaughter Charges

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. soldier was discharged from the Army for manslaughter rather than charged with murder for shooting an unarmed Iraqi prisoner last year, despite the fact that Army investigators found sufficient evidence to press the murder charge, Pentagon records released Tuesday show. The records also show that military investigators examined allegations that U.S. military dog handlers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison held a competition to see who could make Iraqi detainees urinate on themselves the fastest.

Torture reconsidered: Shock, awe and the human body

PARIS -- A historian in the future, or a moralist, is likely to deem the Bush administration's enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect of its war against terrorism.

Fallujah Gulag

The U.S. Military is facing a dilemma. The point of the Fallujah operation was to make it possible to hold elections in January. To carry out elections in Fallujah, the U.S. Military will have let Fallujah's residents return home. But what if, after they return home, they start fighting against the U.S. occupation, as they did before? According to a December 5 article by Ann Barnard in the Boston Globe, the U.S. military has devised a plan to solve this dilemma. They are going to "funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans." Then they will give each person a nametag, which they will be required to wear at all times. Presumably people not wearing nametags will be in danger of being seen as guerrilla fighters, and shot.

Rare Pneumonia Found Among U.S. Soldiers in Iraq

CHICAGO -- A rare and sometimes deadly pneumonia has hit 18 U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq, and Army medical investigators are at a loss to explain the cause, according to a study published on Tuesday. In a report appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center said two of the soldiers had died from the rare illness, called acute eosinophilic pneumonia, or AEP. No common source was found for the outbreak that occurred between March 2003 and March 2004 among the soldiers in Iraq. The study covered only that time period and there was no indication whether cases have continued to show up since then.

Soldier says duty cost him his son

FORT WORTH -- A North Texas soldier who will deploy to Iraq early next year is furious that he recently lost custody of his son because of his military obligations. John Wertz must comply with a court order and deliver his 9-year-old son to his ex-wife three days after Christmas.

Bush gives illegals 'Warm welcome'

Feds equip agents with blankets, heat packs
to help illegal aliens in cold weather
While bone-chilling winter temperatures don't deter illegal aliens from crossing the border illegally, the Bush administration is taking measures to provide what some might call a warm welcome for the lawbreakers. Border Patrol agents in Arizona are now being issued blankets and "heat packs" to help illegals suffering from the effects of cold weather. This year, according to the report, some 3 million more illegal aliens will enter the country – "enough to fill 22,000 Boeing 737-700 airliners, or 60 flights every day for a year."

Drug Gangs Crosssing U.S. Borders

Federal authorities say they have been arresting members of a notorious and violent Central American gang recently in the Yuma area among the thousands of illegal immigrants being apprehended. Joe Brigman, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma sector, said patrol agents over the past 18 months have been apprehending members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang as those deported gang members are trying to make their way to Los Angeles and possibly to the East Coast. Brigman would not say how many of those gang members have been arrested. Distinguished by their tattoos, including on their faces, the Mara Salvatrucha gang members take pride in a propensity for violence, Brigman said. The gang members are also known to act as enforcers for certain Mexican drug cartels, Brigman said.

Illegal aliens cost California billions

Illegal immigration costs the taxpayers of California — which has the highest number of illegal aliens nationwide — $10.5 billion a year for education, health care and incarceration, according to a study released yesterday.

Costs of illegal immigration should show Americans the need for reform

Our great opposition to illegal immigration should not stem from economics, but from national security. But a quick review of the monetary costs of the ultra-porous U.S.-Mexico border is indispensable. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports that the state of California--just one border-state--spends more than $10 billion on illegal aliens every year. Golden State taxpayers spend $7.7 billion on K-12 education for illegal immigrant children and their U.S.-born siblings. This can be added to the $1.4 billion spent on healthcare for illegals, and another $1.4 billion for the incarceration of illegals.

24 Dead In Attack On U.S. Base in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An explosion ripped through a mess tent at a military base in Mosul where hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down to lunch Tuesday, and officials said 24 people were killed and more than 60 wounded. A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack on a U.S. base in Iraq. "I can't hear! I can't hear!" one female soldier cried as a friend hugged her. A huge hole was blown in the roof of the tent, and puddles of blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor, Redmon reported.

Related
Women Warriors and the American Empire
A pro-military group is charging that the Army is violating the Defense Department's ban on women in land combat by collocating mixed-sex support units with war-fighting soldiers.

Schools Forward Private Information to Military Recruiters

Sybil Arum's eighth-grade granddaughter came home this week worried that she was on the verge of being drafted by the military and sent off to war. The reason for her fear was the Department of Education's annual privacy notice, which says contact information for secondary students as young as sixth-graders may be released to military recruiters unless the student, parent or legal guardian requests otherwise.

Catching the Last Flight Home

TheMemoryHole.org / Dover AFB

14 killed in Iraq attacks

SAMARRA -- Fourteen people were killed in attacks around central Iraq on Monday as insurgents ambushed those suspected of collaborating with US forces. Four men driving in a sports utility vehicle, which are often used by foreign contractors, were hit by a roadside bomb and then gunfire in Ashaki, south of the Sunni hotspot of Samarra, said Lieutenant Colonel Hamid Mohammed. The bodies, three of them thought to be foreigners, were picked up by other cars in the dead men’s convoy, he added. The US military said it had no information on the incident. Earlier, an Iraqi truck driver leaving a US military base near the town of Yethrub, north of Baghdad, was shot dead, said Lieutenant Colonel Ali Abdullah.

Iraqi Kurds Ambushed Turkish Team

Eight Turkish special team members appointed to provide security for Turkey's Baghdad Embassy were reportedly subjected to an ambush in Musul (Mosul), Northern Iraq. The fight lasted half an hour, killing two attackers and five members of the special team. Turkish officials imply that the team was ambushed by the Northern Iraqi Kurdish groups and the US forces did not provide enough security.

6 Dead in Afghan Checkpoint Firefight

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A vehicle carrying a group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a military checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight that left six dead and at least four wounded, police said Monday.

US Convoys, Bandits Sow Death on Iraqi Highways

It is almost a daily routine for Iraqi fighters to target US military convoys traveling down highways. The typical reaction by US forces in such incidents, according to eye-witnesses, is indiscriminate and massive firepower. With bullets flying in all directions, surrounding buildings, traveling cars and bystanders could easily be hit. Such a repeated scenario forced many residents to put their houses, overlooking or next to highways, for sale and move inward, opting for more security.

Oil pipeline on fire

A powerful blast caused a fire in key oil pipeline infrastructure in northern Iraq today, an Iraqi security official said. A section of a major pipeline hub near Kirkuk, with arteries to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan as well as to domestic depots and refineries, was set ablaze at 10.25pm local time (6.25am AEDT).

Iraq rebels seek US companies exit, threaten to kill hostages

DUBAI -- Militants in Iraq are threatening to kill 10 Iraqis they are holding hostage unless their US company leaves the country, according to a video tape aired by Arabic television channels on Sunday. The tape, broadcast by Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, was attributed to three Iraqi insurgent groups and showed blindfolded hostages sitting against a wall. The channels said the men were working for a US security firm but did not give its name.

Polish Special Forces Leave Iraq

POLISH special forces have ended their mission in Iraq where they took part in joint operations alongside US troops, the Polish military said today. "All the soldiers have returned to Poland having completed their mission," Polish army chiefs of staff spokesman colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski said.

The President's Grand Elusion

President Bush, an old F-102 pilot, showed at yesterday's news conference that he has not forgotten his evasive maneuvers. As he fielded questions on everything from Iranian nukes to presidential personnel, the often blunt and plainspoken president employed the full range of artful dodges. Qualifications for a director of national intelligence? "I'm going to find somebody who knows something about intelligence," Bush disclosed.

56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake

President Bush heads into his second term amid deep and growing public skepticism about the Iraq war, with a solid majority saying for the first time that the war was a mistake and most people believing that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should lose his job, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

What Is A Conservative?

Five Necessary Ingredients
The artful pretense of GOP conservatism ended on 9-11-01. With a Great Cause to trumpet, Republicans were allowed to openly embrace federal power. Not too ironically, that was when most of the established news media stopped throwing brickbats at Republicans, and started tossing posies instead.

New Jersey Supreme Court Justices

Impeach Them!
The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously voted in September to break a state law by allowing outgoing Governor James McGreevey to borrow some $2 billion to pay government salaries and benefits. The State Constitution specifically prohibits governors from borrowing money to pay for salaries and benefits of government employees. Borrowed money is to be dedicated for capital improvements only.

Conspiracy For World Government

Could It Be Any Clearer?
When did Germany under Hitler become a dictatorship? Yes, we understand that the process was gradual, that the government, like Lugosi’s Dracula, kept usurping more power from the people. But was there an incident that finally confirmed the transformation?

Schwarzenazi Suggests Republicans Move To The Left

Report: Schwarzenegger suggests
U.S. Republicans move leftward
BERLIN (AP) — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested in a German newspaper interview published Saturday that the Republican Party should move "a little to the left," a shift that he said would allow it to pick up new voters. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has taken an unorthodox approach since winning office last year — standing by a promise to toe a conservative line of fiscal matters while veering left on social issues such as gay rights and the environment.

Bush Signs Intelligence Overhaul Bill

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Friday signed the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in a half century, aiming to transform a system designed for Cold War threats so it can deal effectively with the post-Sept. 11 scourge of terrorism.

Power of spy chief still remains hazy

The new position of national intelligence director was one of the bill's most controversial aspects. Although the legislation gives the new director strong budget authority, its language is complex enough that there could be continued debate over the director's power.

Bush's economic summit

President George W. Bush's two-day economic summit was an exercise in political propaganda that attempted to hide the underlying economic problem for the administration over the next four years: The government is spending far more than it is taking in and needs to raise taxes to make up at least part of the difference.

FEC moves to help trade association PACs raise cash

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) voted to propose a new rule allowing associations to collect contributions by electronic payroll deductions from employees of member companies. Employees can funnel a portion of their checks directly into their savings accounts, for example, and would also be able to earmark cash automatically to an association’s political action committee, or PAC, under the FEC proposal.

Battle escalates over ethics

Committee probes Rep. Ney’s contacts with Jack Abramoff
Ethics committee counsel Paul Lewis would neither confirm nor deny the panel’s interest in Ney — as is the norm for the highly secretive body — but it is likely that the action amounts to an informal fact-finding mission, which in some cases leads to an official investigation.

In Bed with Terrorists

Hell-bent on regime change in Iran, some neoconservative hawks are lobbying the Bush administration to support an organization designated as a terrorist group by the State Department. "Even if you believe that a nuclear Iran is inevitable," Michael Ledeen, one of the leading Iran regime change advocates, recently wrote in National Review, "is it not infinitely better to have those atomic bombs in the hands of pro-Western Iranians, chosen by their own people, than in the grip of fanatical theocratic tyrants?"

America's Fallujan Dystopia

The American plan to "reconstruct" Fallujah appears more likely to turn the city into some kind of Orwellian mini-statelet of control. The chilling reality of what Fallujah has become is only now seeping out, as the American military continues to block almost all access to the city, whether to reporters, its former residents, or aid groups like the Red Crescent Society. The date of access keeps being postponed, partly because of ongoing fighting – only this week more air strikes were called in and fighting "in pockets" remains fierce (despite American pronouncements of success weeks ago) – and partly because of the difficulties military commanders have faced in attempting to prettify their ugly handiwork.

Westerner beheaded on Mosul street as American forces lose control of key city

Gunmen raked a car with machine-gun fire in the northern city of Mosul yesterday, killing three foreigners and their driver. They then cut off the head of one of their victims.

Bush's 'Muslim Law'

Bush to sign Muslim-specific law soon
Washington, DC -- President George W. Bush is expected this week to sign into law a bill that officially binds Washington to engage into a long-term economic and political partnership with its key Muslim allies. The bill, called the Sept. 11th Recommendations Implementation Act, was passed by Congress last week, and with Bush's signature it will become a law. The Sept. 11 Act also suggests various proposals for improving America's image in the Islamic world and for helping its Muslim allies combat internal extremism.

Schools to observe Ramadan holiday?

Muslims seeking student day off
asking board to adjust calendar
A group of Muslims in Florida is hoping school officials add at least one day off to the calendar so students can observe Islamic holidays. The Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations made its case to the Hillsborough County School Board this week, looking for Nov. 4, 2005, to be made a non-student day in honor of Eid al-Fitr, a holy day marking the end of Ramadan.

Iraq insurgency growing "more effective"

WASHINGTON -- A bold, innovative insurgency has become more effective against U.S. supply lines in Iraq and explosive attacks have slowed military operations there, a senior American general has said. "They have had a growing understanding that where they can affect us is in the logistics flow," Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters. "They have gotten more effective in using IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," Smith added at Pentagon briefing. The insurgency "has become more effective."

Bush's Gifts to Iraq

12 days of Christmas
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The holiday season offers Christians an opportunity to consider the different gifts they have brought to Iraq: Let's start with civilian deaths: "Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq," The Lancet, the respected British medical journal, reported in October. "Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths, and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths."

Pentagon: 130 Troops Punished for Abuse

SAN DIEGO -- A total of 130 American troops have been punished or charged in cases involving the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said Wednesday. More than 100 of the cases involve the Army, which has deployed the bulk of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and provides most of the guards at facilities where detainees are held. The others are Marines and Navy SEALs.

The Pattern of Discontent in US Ranks

Griping among the troops is as old as armed conflict, illustrated most memorably by cartoonist Bill Mauldin's "Willie and Joe" characters during World War II. But something more than that is happening now in Iraq with what appears to be growing resistance from the troops. Evidence includes numbers of deserters (reportedly in the thousands), resignations of reserve officers, lawsuits by those whose duty period has been involuntarily extended, and a refusal to go on dangerous missions without proper equipment. There's also been a willingness at grunt level to publicly challenge the Pentagon - as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found out recently in a trip to the war zone, where he got an earful about unarmored humvees.

'Hillbilly Armor'

Defense sees it's fallen short. The grunts already knew.
Eighteen months after Bush declared that "major combat operations" in Iraq were over—and another war began—the most powerful military machine on the planet, replenished by America's unmatched industrial power, is still sending its soldiers, reservists and National Guardsmen down dangerous roads in soft-skinned trucks and Humvees. "Gypsy racks"—steel-plated cages around the gunner—and other add-on, improvised hardware, known as "hillbilly armor." "It's Mel Gibson 'Road Warrior' stuff," says Capt. John Pinter, the battalion's maintenance officer. "We're not shooting for pretty over here."

Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics

As usual, Donald Rumsfeld was in control. At a "town hall" meeting with almost 2,000 American combat soldiers in northern Kuwait, the Secretary of Defense and his PR machine were going to give a "pep rally" to troops about to go into combat. He would prove he cared about the individual troops, that the Bush Administration supported them, and that God and country, at least 51 percent of the mortal voters, were patriots who supported George W. Bush and, thus, the war.

Gearing up for a longer war

Twenty-one months after U.S. forces entered Iraq, the Defense Department is only now coming to terms with the equipment shortages caused by the prolonged fighting there. The Pentagon has prepared an unprecedented emergency spending plan totaling nearly $100 billion, say senior defense officials and congressional budget aides. About $14 billion of that would go to repairing, replacing and upgrading an increasingly frayed arsenal.

Pentagon plans troop rotation

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne, 4th Infantry and 10th Mountain divisions will make up a significant part of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan starting next year, the Pentagon announced yesterday. The troop rotation will bring other units home. The deploying units, to arrive between mid-2005 and mid-2006, would keep about 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and another 18,000 in Afghanistan.

A Flood of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict

WASHINGTON -- The nation's hard-pressed health care system for veterans is facing a potential deluge of tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq with serious mental health problems brought on by the stress and carnage of war, veterans' advocates and military doctors say. An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans.

Gearing Up for a Draft?

There's only one way the American people will accept the reinstatement of the draft. There would have to be "a massive casualty-producing event" on American soil. That's it. There's simply no other way Bush can get the popular support needed. And, since we're able to figure that out, it's certain that White House planners-and-schemers have figured it out, too. This sets us up for some very ugly scenarios, including the possibility that we,ll be seeing more terrorist "events" sometime in the near future.

National Guard chief says units at home and abroad need $20 billion for equipment

WASHINGTON -- The National Guard needs $20 billion in vehicles, radios and other equipment over the next three years to perform all the overseas and homeland security missions it is being assigned, the chief of the Guard said Thursday. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum told reporters at the Pentagon that the Army Guard is seeking $7 billion in equipment in an emergency spending measure to pay for U.S. military operations overseas.

War funding request may hit $100 billion

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration plans to ask for between $80 billion and $100 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, rather than the $70 billion to $75 billion the White House privately told members of Congress before the election, according to Pentagon and White House officials. Administration officials said yesterday they have not concluded how much money they will request in a "supplemental" spending package that is scheduled to go to Congress in January.

Your Money In Iraq

The stark reality is that the federal government will fund the open-ended occupation of Iraq either by raising taxes, borrowing overseas, or printing more money. All three options are bad for average Americans. It’s important the American people know exactly what they will be paying for in Iraq. The $87 billion requested is such a huge sum that it seems meaningless to most of us. The details, however, will astound anyone who resents seeing their tax dollars spent overseas. The following are just some of the administration’s requests.

Property Taxes Rising Nationwide

NEW YORK -- While fuel prices may be starting to skid, there's another expense closer to home that is upsetting many Americans: rising property taxes. From Madison, Wis., to Bucks County, Pa., the local tax assessor is dipping deeper into homeowners' pockets as real estate prices rise and states share less of their tax revenue with local governments.

U.S. pours $86 mln into Iraq democracy before poll

BAGHDAD -- The United States has spent $86 million on supporting democracy in Iraq ahead of what it hopes will be the country's first free elections on Jan. 30, a U.S. official said on Monday. "USAID has provided more than $86 million to democracy NGOs and support of the Iraqi Electoral Commission," Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told a news conference in Baghdad.

Fewer Than 1% Have Registered To Vote In Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Marines cleared bodies from buildings at the scene of their biggest battle since the fall of Baghdad, securing this former insurgent stronghold for the return of thousands of civilians and upcoming elections. But six weeks before the historic vote, a U.S. official said, fewer than 1 percent of eligible Iraqis have responded to a voter-registration drive, forcing authorities to look for other ways to build up voter lists.

$85 Million Missile Defense Test Fails

WASHINGTON -- The first test in nearly two years of a multibillion-dollar U.S. anti-missile shield failed on Wednesday when the interceptor missile shut down as it prepared to launch in the central Pacific, the Pentagon said. About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile carrying a mock warhead had been successfully fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, according to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency. The aborted $85 million test appeared likely to set back plans for activation of a rudimentary bulwark against long-range ballistic missiles that could be fired by countries like North Korea.

Pakistan refuses to 'let' U.S. hunt bin Laden?

U.S. forced to abandon hunt for bin Laden
Three years after Osama bin Laden fled American bombs in his Tora Bora hideout, the search for the world's most wanted man has all but come to a halt because of Pakistan's refusal to permit cross-border raids from Afghanistan, according to CIA officials.

India reiterates opposition to F-16s sale to Pakistan

NEW DELHI -- The US sale of fighter jets to Pakistan would affect the peace process with India, the Indian defence minister said on Sunday, rejecting US arguments the planes were intended to be used against terrorists. The United States plans to sell F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan, one of its leading allies in the "war on terror" it launched after the September-11, 2001 attacks.

US to sell F-16s to Pakistan?

New Delhi -- The United States today sidestepped India's objections to the sale of arms to Pakistan. The US Ambassador to India, Mr.Robert C. Mulford, said in New Delhi that US relations with India and Pakistan are at different levels and it should not been viewed through the prisim of the other country's views. "We have a free standing bilateral relationship with Pakistan, it is a separate relationship, it has a different vision going in a different direction. It's a very different country and US takes the view that each of these relationhips is separate and has to be evaluated in terms of US interests on their own grounds," said Mulford during an interaction with the media.

Fresh Troops Tabbed for Iraq, Afghanistan Deployment

WASHINGTON, Dec. -- The Defense Department today identified fresh troop units that will deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2005 and 2006. Some of the troops will be used to maintain a force level of about 138,000 service members in Iraq, DoD spokesman Larry Di Rita said at a Pentagon news briefing.

Details of Marines Mistreating Prisoners in Iraq Are Revealed

WASHINGTON -- Marines in Iraq conducted mock executions of juvenile prisoners last year, burned and tortured other detainees with electrical shocks, and warned a Navy corpsman they would kill him if he treated any injured Iraqis, according to military documents made public Tuesday. The latest revelations of prisoner abuse cases, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the government, involved previously unknown incidents in which 11 Marines were punished for abusing detainees. Military officials indicated that they had investigated 13 other cases, but deemed them unsubstantiated. Four investigations are pending.

Rumsfeld Charged With War Crimes, Pentagon Annoyed

The Pentagon expressed concern yesterday about a "frivolous" complaint filed against Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld by a leftist group that is using a new German law that claims the right to investigate war crimes anywhere in the world. The reaction was in response to a Nov. 30 lawsuit filed in Berlin by the Center for Constitutional Rights, whose founders include liberal activist William Kunstler. The New York-based center filed the German complaint against Mr. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials on behalf of four Iraqis who, the complaint says, were abused by U.S. guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Bush Monkey Portrait Sparks Protests

NEW YORK -- A portrait of President George W. Bush using monkeys to form his image has led to the closure of a New York art exhibition over the weekend and anguished protests over freedom of expression. "Bush Monkeys," a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market's managers to close down the 60-piece show that was scheduled to stay up for the next month.

International dislike of Bush spreads to all Americans

International resentment toward President Bush has spilled over to include bad feelings about the American people -- in at least in three European countries that oppose U.S. policies in Iraq. But Americans in general remain far more popular than their president -- often by margins of 2-to-1 and higher -- according to polling done for the Associated Press in seven U.S. allies. Mr. Bush was seen unfavorably in every foreign country polled, with his highest favorable rating coming in Australia at 40 percent. But Americans as a whole were seen unfavorably only in three countries -- France, Germany and Spain.

The Neocons Haven't Won Yet

With Bush's 51 percent victory, Colin Powell's departure, and the purge at CIA, many on the Old Right seem sunk in Bunyan's Slough of Despond. They assume the neoconservatives are now free to pursue war without end. Yet, six weeks have now passed since Nov. 2, and there is as yet no conclusive evidence George Bush is looking to widen the war in Iraq or launch wars on other axis-of-evil nations.

Bodies of 14 slain men found in Mosul

Allawi says violence will increase in Iraq after January vote, accuses Syria of failing to stop insurgents infiltrating border. The bodies of 14 men killed with a single bullet to the head were found in a cemetery in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, local medical officials and an AFP journalist said.

Six found murdered in Iraq

LATIFIYAH -- Six men and women were found murdered today in Iraq's "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, residents who discovered the corpses said. "Six bodies, three men and three women, were found at around 3pm (11pm AEDT) in Mazraa," outside of Latifiyah, 40km from the capital, one witness told AFP. "All had been shot in the head, and the women also had their throats slashed," said another witness, likewise asking not to be named. The victims did not appear to be local residents, they said.

Bomb blast kills 7 at Karbala's Imam Hussein mosque, wounds 31, including al-Sistani aide

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A bomb exploded at the gate of one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines on Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding 31 others, including a top aide of Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, officials said. The bomb at Karbala's Imam Hussein Shrine came on the first day of campaigning for Iraq's Jan. 30 election, in which al-Sistani helped put together a powerful coalition of leading Shiite parties that is expected to do well in the vote. Iraq's Shiite majority is hoping to dominate the election, which some in Iraq's Sunni Arab minority have called for boycotting.

Car Bomb Kills 7 in Baghdad's Green Zone

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A suicide car bomber killed seven people when he struck a checkpoint at Baghdad's Green Zone early Tuesday, the second attack in two days at the district that houses Iraq's interim government and the U.S. Embassy, officials said. In a new development, war crimes trials against Iraq's former Baath Party leaders will begin next week, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said. He didn't say whether Saddam Hussein would be among them. In western Iraq, two U.S. Marines were killed in action, the military said Tuesday, bringing the number of Marines killed in the region over three days to 10.

Iraq Insurgents Growing 'More Effective'-US General

WASHINGTON -- A bold, innovative insurgency is becoming more effective against U.S. supply lines in Iraq and explosive attacks have slowed military operations there, a senior American general said on Wednesday. "They have had a growing understanding that where they can affect us is in the logistics flow," Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters.

Immigration’s Destruction of America’s Middle Class

Economist Paul Roberts wrote on January 21, 2003, "Will America become a Third World country in 20 years?" In the Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 2003, "But as the US economy shifted toward service jobs, factory jobs have steadily lost—in fact in just the past 39 months, some 2.8 million jobs vanished."

CIA Whistleblower Found Dead

Gary Webb, 49, the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter from the San Jose Mercury News made America hold its breath in 1996 when he showed us proof of direct CIA involvement in drug trafficking. For a few months many of us had hope. He reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head two days ago. His body was discovered at 8:20 AM Saturday as movers reportedly found a note on the door of his residence asking them not to enter but to call for paramedics.

Iraqi Christians Mull Taking Up Arms

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Leaders of the ever-dwindling Christian population in Iraq say bombings of their churches and attacks against their communities may force them to take up guns. Two more churches were bombed in Mosul last week, the latest attacks, and some Christians say Muslims are terrorizing them with the intent of ousting them and seizing their houses and belongings. Iraq is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, made up largely of ethnic Assyrians, an ancient people who speak a modern form of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. But as the turmoil increases, hundreds of Christian families are leaving each week for exile in Syria and Turkey.

Army Report Leans Toward Women In Combat

Internal Army documents advocate changing Pentagon rules on mixed-sex units in a way that critics say will risk placing female soldiers in ground-combat situations. The Nov. 29 briefing to senior Army officers at the Pentagon, presented as part of the service's sweeping transformation of its 10 war-fighting divisions, advocates scrapping the military's ban on collocation -- the deployment of mixed-sex noncombat units alongside all-male combat brigades. The briefing contained the phrase: "The way ahead: rewrite/eliminate the Army collocation policy."

10 Marines Killed in Iraq Since Sunday

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. Marines were killed in action in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province, the military said Tuesday, taking the number of Marines reported killed in the region in past three days to 10. A military statement said two Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in action Monday "while conducting security and stabilization operations" in the vast Anbar province west of Baghdad, which includes the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Murder During Gun-Control Confiscation Raise Questions on Conduct

BAGHDAD -- Members of the U.S. Army's 41st Regiment uncovered an AK-47 during a routine search in the dangerous Baghdad slum of Sadr City on Aug. 31. Finding a weapon was not unusual, but Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, said he felt danger when he saw a smirking Iraqi man in the house where the gun was found, according to the testimony of fellow soldiers. "I feel threatened," Williams declared, the soldiers recalled. The "Iraqi went for his weapon." Moments later, Williams shot the Iraqi man with two bullets to his head and chest, according to testimony last Friday. Williams's hearing, in a crowded meeting room on a military base in Baghdad, focused on one of a number of murder cases involving U.S. forces.

Pentagon Acknowledges Eight Afghan Detainee Deaths

WASHINGTON -- Eight detainees have died in American military custody in Afghanistan, more than previously reported, the Pentagon said on Monday, while a human rights group assailed a U.S. "culture of impunity" on prisoner abuse. New York-based Human Rights Watch complained in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that in most instances, the Pentagon has launched criminal probes into detainee deaths in Afghanistan only after cases get media attention, and that these probes have proceeded slowly and in excessive secrecy.

Ignoring Reality in Iraq

A recent study by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Task Force on Strategic Communications concluded that in the struggle for hearts and minds in Iraq, “American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended.” This Pentagon report flatly states that our war in Iraq actually has elevated support for radical Islamists. It goes on to conclude that our active intervention in the Middle East as a whole has greatly diminished our reputation in the region, and strengthened support for radical groups. This is similar to what the CIA predicted in an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, before the invasion took place.

Pentagon Weighs Use of Deception in a Broad Arena

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say. Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations.

China, Russia Will Hold First War Games

BEIJING -- China and Russia will hold their first joint military exercise next year, the Chinese government said Monday, as President Hu Jintao called for an expansion of the rapidly growing alliance between the former Cold War rivals. The announcement came during a visit to Beijing by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was expected to discuss expanding the Kremlin's multibillion-dollar annual arms sales to China.

Russia alerts world of new mobile nuclear missiles by 2006

Moscow revealed the first hints of its secretive new nuclear weapons priorities Friday with a top Russian general saying that a new generation of strategic missiles would soon be mobile on land -- and that this was far from the only thing that Moscow had in store.

Cuba put US on notice with Monday's massive war games

HAVANA -- Cuba's armed forces are gearing up for their biggest military exercises in almost 20 years, with hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of civilians expected to take part, officials here said Sunday. General Leonardo Andollo told reporters on Sunday that MiG-29 jets, anti-aircraft batteries were to be deployed during the weeklong exercises meant to be a warning to Washington that Cuba would vigorously defend itself against US agression.

US warns EU against resuming arms sales to China

Only occasionally do Amnesty International and the Bush administration share the same podium, but the two are in rare agreement when it comes to putting pressure on the European Union to maintain its 15-year-old arms embargo against China.

New delay for US missile defense test

WASHINGTON -- The US Missile Defense Agency has once again postponed a planned missile defense flight test, this time due to the failure of a radio transmitter at the test range site in the Pacific, a spokesman said early Monday. The agency has been trying to conduct the test, which would be the first of its kind in two years, since the middle of last week, but has already put it off three times due to bad weather at launch sites.

The Fog of War

This critically acclaimed movie by filmmaker Errol Morris examines issues of war and peace in the 20th century through the lens of one of the century’s pivotal figures. Robert S. McNamara offers his account of the century just past, as he remembers participating in it, as well as his reflections on its meaning for the 21st century. Delivered with the conviction and intensity that marked his years as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson, McNamara’s message compels us to pay attention to our own roles in the 21st century.

Retired Army colonel, 70, sent to Afghanistan

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he's 70 years old and had already retired - twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago. "My first reaction was disbelief," Caulfield said. "It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old." In fact, he was so sure it was an error that he ignored the postcards and telephone messages asking if he would be willing to volunteer for active duty to "backfill" somewhere on the East Coast, Europe or Hawaii. That would be OK, he thought. It would release active duty oral surgeons from those areas to go to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan. But then the orders came for him to go to Afghanistan.

8 Marines Killed in Iraq's Anbar Province

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Eight U.S. Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq's restive Anbar province, the military said Monday, a day after American warplanes pounded Fallujah with missiles as insurgents battled coalition forces in the city. The deaths equaled the highest number of Marines killed in a single day since a car bomb killed eight outside Fallujah on Oct. 30, which was the deadliest attack against the U.S. military in nearly six months.

Suicide Attack Kills 13 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A suicide car bomber killed 13 people Monday next to the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad housing the interim government and U.S. embassy, and eight U.S. Marines died in combat in western Iraq. The Marines were killed Sunday in separate incidents in Anbar province, a vast region in western Iraq comprising the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said on Monday.

Nomination process questioned after Kerik withdraws

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers debated White House culpability Sunday in the doomed nomination of Bernard Kerik as Homeland Security secretary, asking why the administration failed to find critical information in its vetting process before officially selecting him. Top Democrats and Republicans also mulled potential replacements to fill the critical post being vacated by outgoing Secretary Tom Ridge.

Inside the Kerik mess

Kerik and His Lawyer Scrambled To Keep Damaging
Assertions About His Past Out Of The Public Spotligt
In the 48 hours before his withdrawal as nominee for the nation's top security post, Bernard Kerik and his lawyer scrambled to keep damaging assertions about his past out of the public spotlight. A week after President George W. Bush announced the former city police commissioner as his choice for Homeland Security secretary, an array of charges and questions about Kerik's past were coming to a boil, threatening his crafted image as an American legend and portending a rougher Senate confirmation process than first predicted. On Thursday, the day before he took his name from contention, Kerik, 49, was forced to testify in a civil lawsuit about an alleged affair with a subordinate.

'Trusted' Janet Reno Aide Touted as Homeland Chief

A woman described as "a close personal friend of [former] Attorney General Janet Reno" who also seved as Reno's "most trusted adviser" has become the media's favorite candidate to replace Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, after Bernard Kerik withdrew his name from contention late Friday. Frances Fragos Townsend currently serves as the White House's homeland security adviser. Washington insiders marvel at her ability to survive the transition from the Clinton administration.

Critics lash out at UN, but Annan survives

Republicans back United Nations, Kofi
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, standing up against nipping at its heels from the right, is publicly backing Kofi Annan in his post as secretary general of the United Nations. But that doesn't mean the effort of conservatives to highlight the UN's shortcomings, both political and financial, will end any time soon. An ongoing investigation into fraud at the UN-administered Iraq oil-for-food program is expected to deliver an interim report on involvement of UN personnel in January. Add to that the growing cries of the UN's ineffectiveness - some contend it's even undermining American goals - and the climb to smoother US-UN relations only looks steeper.

If Bush Gives Amnesty This Is What Will Happen To Us

President Bush announced last January his amnesty plan for legalizing 15 million illegal aliens in this country as well as his guest worker program for matching willing workers to willing employers. What do you think happened? Illegal alien entry numbers jumped 20 percent immediately. Over 4,000 desperate Third World people crossed nightly over the 300-mile sector in Arizona alone! According to Time Magazine, September 12, 2004, "The number of illegal aliens flooding into the U.S. this year will total three million-enough to fill 22,000 Boeing 737 airliners, or 60 flights every day of the year."

Congress Passes Legislation to Limit Multilingual Highway Signs

The United States government took a stand against the possibility of enormous highway signs featuring instructions in hundreds of languages by passing legislation yesterday to maintain English as the sole language of America’s highways. The measure, passed and signed into law as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for FY2005, prohibits the government from mandating that any highway sign be posted in a language other than English.

Kerry Lawyer Seeks Ohio Ballot Inspection

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Democrat John Kerry is asking county elections officials to allow his witnesses to inspect the 92,000 ballots cast in Ohio in which no vote for president was recorded, a Kerry lawyer said Sunday night. The request is one of 11 the Kerry campaign made in a letter sent over the weekend to Ohio's 88 county boards of election, which will begin recounting presidential ballots this week.

Protesters Urge Delay for Ohio Electors

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As it has done for 200 years, Ohio's delegation to the Electoral College is to meet Monday to cast ballots for president and vice president - but this time, there are demands that the electors wait until after a recount. A demonstration was held Sunday as about 100 people gathered outside the Ohio Statehouse to protest the delegation's vote.

Bush Gives $20 Mln to Palestinians for Israeli Bills

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Wednesday approved $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to help pay its Israeli utility bills after key lawmakers objected to plans to use the money for presidential elections in January and to pay Palestinian salaries. Bush's decision to provide the money breaks with long-standing restrictions on direct U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority and is part of what the White House called a renewed push for peace.

US pledges US$20 million budget support to PA
As donors gathered in Oslo to discuss funding for the Palestinian Authority, Washington announced $20 million in direct budgetary support to the PA. It is only the second time the US has given money directly to the PA. Most US assistance is funneled to the Palestinians via NGOs.

Rumsfeld to Troops: Quit Whining

U.S. GIs Hit Rumsfeld With Hard Questions
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait -- In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment. "You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have." Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

American Combat Deaths in Iraq Hit 1,001

Wednesday, the U.S. military said the number of American combat deaths in Iraq since the start of the war rose to 1,001; the latest reported was a soldier slain by small-arms fire in Baghdad on Tuesday. The total number who have died since March 2003 is 1,278, according to an Associated Press tally.

FBI criticizes army's methods at Guantánamo

WASHINGTON -- A series of confidential memorandums from FBI officials shows that the bureau repeatedly criticized "aggressive interrogation practices" that its agents had observed being used by military personnel at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. One document among those released Monday and obtained by The Associated Press described a case in which an agent observed a female interrogator squeezing a male detainee's genitals and bending back his thumbs.

Pro-War Christians Should Come Clean

Leading up to the war in Iraq, evangelical Christians became perhaps the most enthusiastic advocates of imperium. Though politicians have often abused "Just War theory," it is still an integral part of Christian ethics when examining issues of war and peace. Thus, one must ask, was the Iraq war "just" based on the criteria of historic Just War theory?

U.S. Killed Unarmed Iraqis, War-Dodger Hearing Told

TORONTO -- A former United States marine told a refugee hearing for an American war dodger Tuesday that trigger-happy U.S. soldiers in Iraq routinely killed unarmed woman and children, and murdered other Iraqis in violation of international law. In chilling testimony intended to bolster the asylum claim of compatriot Jeremy Hinzman, former staff sergeant Jimmy Massey recounted how nervous soldiers trained to believe that all Iraqis were potential terrorists often opened fire indiscriminately.

More U.S. Soldiers Survive War Wounds

For every American soldier killed in Iraq, nine others have been wounded and survived — the highest rate of any war in U.S. history. It isn't that their injuries were less serious, a new report says. In fact, some young soldiers and Marines have had faces, arms and legs blown off and are now returning home badly maimed.

Bill Clinton Helps Launch Communist Search Engine

NEW YORK -- Former president Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc. The Chinese government, one of several large backers, has granted Accoona a 20-year exclusive partnership with the China Daily Information Co., the government agency that runs an official Chinese and English Web site.

Falwell goes beyond the pale of Godly discernment

"Blow them all away in the name of the Lord"
Call to kill terrorists 'in the name of the Lord' sparks outcry JACKSON, Tenn. -- If American troops kill Osama bin Laden, a Southern Baptist ethicist insists it should be "in the name of justice," not "in the name of the Lord" as televangelist Jerry Falwell suggests. And a prominent Texas Baptist said using God's name as motivation for killing "defames Christianity." In a televised debate on CNN, Falwell said President Bush should "blow them (the terrorists) all away in the name of the Lord."

A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame. Proverbs 12:16

Deal Reached on Intelligence Bill

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are getting ready to put the final stamp on long-awaited legislation overhauling the nation's intelligence agencies now that President Bush (news - web sites) and House Armed Services chairman Duncan Hunter have endorsed a compromise. Bush has called on Congress for months to pass legislation implementing the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations to protect the nation from terrorists. House GOP leaders have been holding up the bill because of Hunter's concerns it might interfere with the military's chain of command (not the fact that the bill is unconsituional.

Rumsfeld sees pullout from Iraq in 4 years

KUWAIT -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday that he expected American troops to withdraw from Iraq within four years but cautioned that any final decision would hinge on the progress that Iraq's civilian government and security forces made by then. Rumsfeld quickly noted that President George W. Bush had repeatedly said that American forces would stay as long as needed in Iraq.

Fears Grow As Military Thins

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's announcement last week that it will increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to 150,000 to provide more security for the Jan. 30 national election highlights a growing concern that America's armed services are dangerously overextended and possibly nearing a breaking point. The Army is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and maintaining a military presence in the Balkans, Germany, South Korea and other foreign countries with a total force of just under 500,000. It had more than 800,000 under arms when it waged the brief Persian Gulf war in 1991. "You need a bigger Army if you're going to carry out the Bush national security strategy," said Lawrence Korb, who served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.

Uncle Sam wants your kids ... now!

We'll soon have 150,000 U.S. troops stuck in the ever-expanding Iraqi quagmire. The job of finding fresh bodies to keep our units topped off falls mainly to the Army Recruiting Command. By the end of this recruiting year, the Regular Army, Reserves and Guard could fall short more than 50 percent of its projected requirement, or about 60,000 new soldiers. And according to many recruiters, quality recruits are giving way to mental midgets who have a hard time telling their left foot from their right.

US troops sue over tours in Iraq

Eight US soldiers have begun legal action in an effort to stop the US army extending their tours of duty in Iraq. With US forces stretched by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, many units have been ordered to stay on longer than originally expected. Soldiers have been kept abroad even if the date they were due to leave the army has passed.

Sailor Refuses Deployment in Protest of War

SAN DIEGO -- A Navy petty officer opposed to the war in Iraq refused to board his ship Monday as sailors and Marines deployed for the Persian Gulf. Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes, 23, said he has opposed the war since its inception. Until recently, the weapons-control technician said he did not feel he had a direct role in the war. Two weeks ago, however, he said he was involuntarily transferred to the amphibious transport USS Bonhomme Richard, which ferries Marines to Iraq. "I don't want to be a part of a ship that's taking 3,000 Marines over there, knowing a hundred or more of them won't come back," he said. "I can't sleep at night knowing that's what I do for a living."

Making a Specter of Himself

Most of us don’t remember that Arlen Specter was considering a run for the presidency in 1995. Specter ran for president because he didn’t like the “exclusionary attitudes” of Christian conservatives, especially their pro-life agenda. He believed then, like he believes now, that the Republican Party is “so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a president on the incompetent left.” Specter says he agrees with former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater: “We need to keep government out of our pocketbooks, off our backs and out of our bedrooms.” Goldwater blasted Christian activism and took a liberal line on abortion and homosexuality. One of his grandsons chose the homosexual lifestyle.

The Cult of Lincoln

The American obsession with the sixteenth President of the United States can rightly be described as a cult -- not merely a political cult, but an idolatrous religious cult wherein Abraham Lincoln is literally worshipped as a god. The cult of Lincoln was founded on 15 April 1865 when a single bullet altered what otherwise would have been his rightful place alongside history's bloodiest rulers. Up until the time of his death, Lincoln was denounced by nearly everyone in Washington, including the men of his own party and the members of his own Cabinet, as "a more unlimited despot than the world knows this side of China," "a despicable tyrant," "that original gorilla," and "a low, cunning clown."

Tribals tortured for converting to Christianity

New Delhi -- In the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, 36 tribal villagers were beaten and driven away from their homes for embracing Christianity, this according Mgr Simon Stock Palathra, Bishop of Jagdalpur, a diocese in Chhattisgarh. Speaking to AsiaNews, Bishop Palathra said that on Wednesday, December 1, “there was a Pentecostal convention in the village of Markabeda and the entire village was invited. But this enraged a local rebel group, the Naxalites”. According to the Bishop, the Naxalites are suspicious of missionary activity and make no distinction between Catholics, Protestants or Pentecostals.

US hails India, Pak for continuing 'peace' talks?

The United States has hailed India and Pakistan for continuing with peace talks and said despite differences on various issues, New Delhi and Islamabad were "trying to find a way to move forward."

Kyoto in Sight, U.N. Talks Begin in Better Climate

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- A U.N. conference on climate change opened on Monday with delegates looking for any change in U.S. opposition to the Kyoto protocol after President Bush's re-election and Russian ratification of the agreement. Russia's ratification has created the most optimistic mood in years among environmentalists.

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.

USS Arizona Memorial

National Park Service
The Memorial straddles the sunken hull of the battleship USS Arizona and commemorates the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Memorial was dedicated in 1962, and became a National Park Service area in 1980.

Lest We Forget - December 7, 1941

It has been 63 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii marked the entrance of The United States into World War II. Much has changed in the world since December 7, 1941.

OPEC Dumps the Dollar

Middle Eastern central banks
switch from dollar to euro
Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut the proportion of deposits held in dollars from 75 per cent in the third quarter of 2001 to 61.5 per cent. Middle Eastern central banks have reportedly switched reserves from dollars to euros and sterling to avoid incurring losses as the dollar has fallen and prepare for a shift away from pricing oil exports in dollars alone.

“Bush Elected, Work Done”

Millions of Evangelicals Return to Political Inaction
DAYTON, OH -- With the presidential election decided in favor of George W. Bush, millions of evangelical Christians have returned to a state of political inertia, experts say. Content that their man will be inaugurated for a second term this January, these believers are gladly disengaging from the political process for another four years. “Well, that should just about do it,” said Ryan Alcorn, scraping the W'04 bumper sticker off the rear window of his Dodge Caravan. The sense of relief was echoed two doors down, where Naomi White was throwing away three dozen unused Christian Coalition Voter’s Guides. “I’m glad it’s over, yes. Now the family can get back to doing devotions using the Bible, instead of these voter's guides.” Not everyone is relieved, however. Directors of conservative nonprofits expect a sharp decline in donations from evangelicals. Some organizations budget for it, in fact. “We basically think of evangelicals as a special Christmas that only comes during presidential election years,” said Kelly Helfer, CEO of Women For Life International. “It’s nice when it happens, but if we expected them to care about the atrocity of abortion every year—if we based our budget on that—we’d go under before you could say “Reverse Roe!”

Homeland Insecurity

The new head of the Department of Homeland Security definitely sounds like an interesting fellow. As a toddler, Bernard Kerik was abandoned by his single-parent mother. He was a high-school drop-out (who has "since earned a GED and a mail-order bachelor's degree from Empire State College"), a military policeman, a security expert for the Saudi royal family, an undercover cop in narcotics, NYC corrections commissioner, and "special policy adviser to the Iraqi interim government."

Kerik nomination is a ticking time bomb

Campaign bodyguard to Rudy Giuliani. Errand boy for the Saudi royal family. Energetic exploiter of Sept. 11th tragedy. Tough-talking publicity-hound vowing to bring law and order to Iraq - then hightailing it out of there after a disastrous 14 weeks, leaving the place far less safe than he found it. Oh, the bullet points on Bernie Kerik's real-life resume just go on and on. But is this really the guy we want standing between us and the terrorists?

Private Firms to Chase Delinquent Taxpayers

Provision allows private firms
to collect back taxes for IRS
WASHINGTON -- When Reps. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., teamed up in September to persuade the House to pass an amendment blocking the use of private companies to collect back taxes from delinquent taxpayers, it seemed the Bush administration plan might be doomed for at least a year. But in the final hours of drafting a 3,300-page spending bill last month, House and Senate negotiators eliminated Capito's and Van Hollen's handiwork, clearing the way for the Internal Revenue Service to hire commercial debt collectors. These private agents could keep as much as 25 percent of the amounts they recovered. While the Bush administration strongly supports the initiative as a way to increase revenue collections amid growing deficits, critics say it could lead to harassment of taxpayers and breaches of privacy.

Is the Bush Administration Insane?

Has President Bush lost his grip on reality? In his December 1 speech in Halifax, Nova Scotia, President Bush again declared his intention to pre-emptively attack "enemies who plot in secret and set out to murder the innocent and the unsuspecting." Freedom from terrorism, Bush declared, will come only through pre-emptive war against enemies of democracy. How does Bush know who and where these secret enemies are? How many more times will his guesses be wrong like he was about Iraq?

Old Soldiers Called Up, But A Third Haven’t Shown Up

This past week, the Pentagon has started drawing from a pool of semi-retired soldiers called the Individual Ready Reserve. It's a sign that the Army needs able, and not so able, bodies very quickly. And many of the men and women being mobilized from the Ready Reserve – approximately 5,000 this year – are not very happy about it. In fact, a third of these soldiers who’ve been called up haven’t shown up.

US Democracy: DNA testing and retina scans

Returning Fallujans will face
DNA testing and retina scans
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised. Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.

Antipathy to Militarism

The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” Obviously, the Third Amendment has little relevance today. But what is relevant for us today is the mindset that underlay the passage of that amendment – a mindset of deep antipathy toward militarism and standing armies. Our ancestors’ fierce opposition to a powerful military force was consistent with their overall philosophy that guided the formation of the Constitution and the passage of the Bill of Rights.

Eight Soldiers Plan to Sue Over Army’s Stop-Loss Policy

MORRILTON, Ark. -- The eight soldiers come from places scattered across the country, from this small town an hour northwest of Little Rock to cities in Arizona, New Jersey and New York. In Iraq and Kuwait, where they all work now, most of them hold different jobs in different units, miles apart. Most have never met. But the eight share a bond of anger: each says he has been prevented from coming home for good by an Army policy that has barred thousands of soldiers from leaving Iraq this year even though the terms of enlistment they signed up for have run out.

Putin Claims Bush Wants 'Dictatorship'

NEW DELHI -- Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized the United States on Friday, accusing it of a double-standard in fighting terrorism and questioning whether any election in Iraq can be democratic when fighting is raging in the country. "Even if dictatorship is wrapped up in a beautiful package of pseuo-democratic phraseology, it will not be in a position to solve systemic problems," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying in a speech Friday night in New Delhi.

Getting ready for Court fight

GOP and Dems prepare for knock-down
drag-out over next Supreme nominee

The public will be hit with a flood
of disinformation and propaganda
Senate Republicans are preparing to implement a sophisticated, multipronged plan to confirm President Bush’s expected nomination to replace ailing Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Well-funded liberal groups are also ramping up their efforts to block any conservative nominee. Under the Miranda plan, as soon as Bush nominated a justice, Republicans and conservatives would issue press releases pre-emptively to deflect liberal efforts to define the nominee. Conservative groups would issue their own information packets while selected Republican senators would make statements and floor speeches. On the other side of the judicial battlefield, liberal groups led by People for the American Way and the Alliance for Justice are preparing a multimillion-dollar effort to publicize the record of whomever Bush taps for the high court. Nan Aron, who heads the Alliance for Justice, said Bush should consult Democrats before making his selection. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) similarly called for consultation last year.

Senate GOP Seeks to Curtail Filibusters

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans are preparing to bring out the heavy weapons against the filibuster, a Senate tradition that has its linguistic origins in the pirates who once captured ships and held their crews for ransom. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., says "tyranny by the minority" must end and he will do whatever it takes. That includes what some call the "nuclear option" to stop Democrats from using the filibuster to block President Bush's judicial nominees.

A New Weapon in the Judges' War

THE SENATE'S COLD WAR over judicial nominations is at a crossroads. With a newly minted chamber taking office January 4, and a new minority leader already designated, the time seems ripe for a fresh start. The Republican majority wants an end to all active Democratic filibusters of appellate court nominees and the cession of such tactics in the future. Will the opposition comply?

The Source of Hitler's Success

Their war is not a war for territorial expansion, for loot and hegemony like the imperialistic wars of the past, but a holy crusade for a better world to live in.

United Nations Declares War On America

All Americans should rise up and demand the United States withdrawal from the United Nations. Any Senator or State Representative who fails to immediately support legislation should be removed from office. Any Governor of any State who advocates for Sustainable Development and attempts to follow in the stead of the United Nations should be recalled together with any other elected official who refuses to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

ACLU fulfilling communist agenda

For the past few decades, the ACLU has been on a major crusade to destroy Christianity in America, promote filth under "freedom of speech and expression," and of course, vigorously defend the homosexual culture of death. On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr., D-Fla., read a list of 45 communist goals into the Congressional Record.

Bush Using Cabinet Changes to Consolidate Power

A steady stream of high-level officials are headed for the exits as President Bush prepares for his second four-year term, and the administration is grabbing the opportunity to exert greater influence over agencies that often act independently - too independently, some say - of White House control.

Power strains GOP unity

WASHINGTON -- The 108th Congress, having failed to complete its business before the election, returned for a lame-duck session. Having failed again to complete its business, it is returning again Dec. 6. Lame-Duck Two, you might call it. You might also think this is all because of ferocious partisan strife. But partisanship has little to do with it. The trouble lies mainly within the ranks of a strengthened Republican Party. ... In the dark of night, some Republican representative (or a staffer, as one theory had it) slipped in an amendment to allow committee chairs and their staffs to inspect any income-tax returns they chose - until now, an exclusive power of the IRS.

Journalism and Patriotism

Don't Report US Atrocities, It's unpatriotic.
As all the world now knows, a U.S. Marine shot and killed an unarmed captive in a mosque in Fallujah. The incident has inflamed the Arab world like nothing since the Abu Ghraib scandals, canceling the military gains of U.S. forces in the city and damaging the Bush administration’s attempts to win “hearts and minds” in order to gain popular support for January’s scheduled elections.

U.S. Admits Torture Used to Obtain Evidence Against Terrorists

Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government concedes. Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle acknowledged at a U.S. District Court hearing Thursday.

More Troops Mean More Trouble

The Pentagon's announcement this week that it is adding 12,000 more troops to the approximately 138,000 soldiers it already has in Iraq has put an abrupt end to the fleeting sense of triumph that followed November's "victory" by U.S. Marines who regained control of Fallujah, the main Sunni rebel stronghold. While the administration sought to spin the decision as a matter of keeping the insurgents "on the run" and backing up security for elections scheduled to take place Jan. 30, most analysts have described the move as an effective admission that Washington's counter-insurgency campaign has not, in fact, been going particularly well.

Hundreds pledge willingness to carry out suicide attacks

TEHRAN, Iran, -- Some 200 masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery Thursday to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis. The ceremony was organized by the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a shadowy group that has since June been seeking volunteers for attacks in Iraq and Israel. A spokesman, Ali Mohammadi, described Thursday's group as the "first suicide commando unit," though another official has claimed members already have carried out attacks in Israel. "Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands," Mohammadi said.

Geopolitics of the Iranian Bomb

Is the 'Iranian Bomb' a Cover?
Sometimes it helps just to open an atlas and stare for a few moments. I did so this morning, checking out the Southwestern Asia map (#98) of the National Geographic Atlas of the World (a handsome volume, by the way). And what you see on the page is something simple indeed and yet I could hardly find it in a week's worth of reading our press on the Iranian nuclear uproar.

Concern Voiced Over Gonzales' Connections with La Raza

Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) spokeswoman Susan Tully says La Raza unabashedly supports rights for illegal aliens. "When you're talking about the attorney general of the United States, he would be considered the 'top cop' [for the country]," Tully explains. "And if his leanings and bias are sympathetic to illegal alien lawbreakers, that should be a huge concern to those of us who believe in law and order -- and that those laws are there for a reason."

China Tests Ballistic Missile Submarine

China's military has launched the first of a new class of ballistic missile submarines in what defense officials view as a major step forward in Beijing's strategic weapons program. The new 094-class submarine was launched in late July and when fully operational in the next year or two will be the first submarine to carry the underwater-launched version of China's new DF-31 missile, according to defense officials.

What Our Founding Fathers Knew We Have Yet To Learn

Before Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and other patriots conceived of this nation they had read Roman and Greek history. Their goal was to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of each political system, then use the best of each as a foundation for their new nation. The result is, they made us a Republic, wrote us a Constitution, and established a constitutional government unlike any other in the world. However, I cannot convince myself that that is all those great men knew and wrote about. Men of this caliber and intelligence probability knew plenty about ancient European, the Middle East, and Biblical history as well. I feel certain that they were well aware, for example, of the emergence in 634 A.D. of Islam as a religion and Mohammad its prophet, the many battles of the Crusades, and other religious upheavals of the era.

Returning to "Normal"?

Truth is, I don’t think I’ll ever see normal again. My wife, Diane and I, along with our children, have, for thirty days now, been debriefing and evaluating and planning and just simply catching up with many of the aspects of daily and family life that were “put on hold” during the last nine months or so.

November Was Deadliest Month for US in Iraq

US troops suffered their worst one-month losses in Iraq last month since the US-led invasion in March last year, according to statistics released by the US military yesterday. The number of US killed in one month rose above 100 for the second time since April of this year, with 136 personnel dead as of yesterday morning. Until then April had been the worst month, when 135 died as the insurgence flared in Fallujah and elsewhere in the so-called Sunni Triangle where US forces and their Iraqi allies lost a large measure of control.

U.S. to Expand Military Force in Iraq

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military will boost its troops in Iraq to 150,000 this month, the highest level since the war began in March 2003, in order to improve security for scheduled Jan 30. elections, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The increased total from 138,000 now in Iraq will continue until March and extend the promised year-long Iraq tours of 8,100 Army soldiers to 14 months and the seven-month tours of 2,300 Marines to nine months.

Are We Winning, Yet?

Keep an eye on the highway to the Baghdad International Airport. That's where the Bush administration's rosy rhetoric meets the road.

War toll a 'Horrific Cost'

Physician, Iraqi offer views of a conquered country
Soldiers missing limbs. Young men with massive brain injuries and severed spinal cords. Neurosurgeon Dr. Gene Bolles saw the "horrific cost" of war as he tried to patch up American soldiers injured in Iraq. When he came back to the United States in February, he switched on the news and found that Americans were obsessed with a huge breaking story: Janet Jackson's exposed breast. "I saw things that made me sick to my stomach - kids with one arm and two legs missing," said Bolles, 68, a former flight surgeon in Vietnam. "I came back and all I heard about was Janet Jackson. I said to myself, 'Is this all the American public is interested in?'"

Insurgency broken? Far from it

WASHINGTON -- A senior American commander made the mistake of telling reporters that the military offensive that eventually captured a largely depopulated and destroyed Fallujah had "broken the back of the insurgency" across Iraq. It did not, of course. It could not. What the take-down of Fallujah did accomplish was to correct, at great cost in American lives and American treasure, an American mistake made last spring when the Marines were halted as they moved to take both Fallujah and Ramadi after weeks of deadly fighting.

Sunnis Warn Of Civil War Over Timing Of Election

THE largest Sunni party in Iraq gave warning yesterday of civil war unless the January 30 elections are delayed to allow it to compete on equal terms. The Iraqi Islamic Party said that the once-powerful Sunni minority could turn against fellow Iraqis if they are left with little stake in a future National Assembly dominated by Shias and Kurds. The warning came as Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawer, the Sunni interim president, admitted that calls for a postponement were causing a growing rift between the communities, although he played down the threat of violence.

Red Cross finds cruel treatment at Guantánamo

WASHINGTON -- The International Committee of the Red Cross found "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment of detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, during inspections there last summer, and issued a formal report in July that said some interrogation tactics come close to torture, a source who has seen portions of the report said yesterday. The human-rights group decried tactics used on some detainees — including severe temperatures, loud music and other sounds, the sharing of medical information with interrogators and forced nudity — that it said violate international rules against torture adopted by the United States and other countries.

U.S. Says Guantanamo Prisoners Cannot Contest Cases

WASHINGTON -- A group of 10 Guantanamo Bay prisoners who are waging a legal battle over their detention have no constitutional right to do so, U.S. government lawyers said on Wednesday and urged a judge to dismiss their cases.

Subpoenas Issued for Officials of Pro-Israel Lobby Group

WASHINGTON -- FBI agents executed search warrants Wednesday at the headquarters of a leading pro-Israel lobby and delivered grand jury subpoenas in an ongoing probe of alleged espionage for Israel, federal officials and the lobby group said. The search and the subpoenas for four top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee indicate that the politically charged investigation remains active. No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Republicans Change Rules to Protect the Guilty

The House Republican Conference's rules change has the smell of slipshod ethics, favoritism for the few and protection for the powerful. On Nov. 17, the conference decided by a voice vote to give the House Republican Steering Committee 30 days to review a felony indictment against those who hold party leadership positions and recommend whether they continue in their post or step aside. The party rules change was prompted by the fears that Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the real power in the Republican House, may be indicted. Three of his political teammates face criminal trials for alleged campaign fundraising violations based on Texas law.

Companies in India celebrate "loss of American jobs"

In our previous article we reported how various companies in India were employed by the Republican National Committee and the Bush Re-election campaign

Economic `Armageddon' predicted

Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish. But you should hear what he's saying in private. Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity. His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.'' Roach sees a 30 percent chance of a slump soon and a 60 percent chance that ``we'll muddle through for a while and delay the eventual armageddon.'' The chance we'll get through OK: one in 10. Maybe. In a nutshell, Roach's argument is that America's record trade deficit means the dollar will keep falling. To keep foreigners buying T-bills and prevent a resulting rise in inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will be forced to raise interest rates further and faster than he wants.

Albrto Gonzales Nomination Deserves Rejection

Jesus Lopez, who immigrated legally to the United States, resents the agenda being pushed by groups like La Raza. He's also upset that a possible Attorney General like Gonzales would associate with what Lopez calls "racist organizations who want to take back the borders states through invasion, promote open borders, voting for illegal aliens, driver's licenses for illegal aliens and an official proclamation of sorts for their own culture." Lopez said he and his family had to wait their turn to legally enter the United States and they are proud to be Americans first and says organizations like La Raza don't want to promote harmony but are militant.

Judge bars Prop 200 from becoming law

TUCSON -- A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the implementation of Proposition 200, saying attorneys raised serious questions about its constitutionality and its potential conflicts with federal law. U.S. District Judge David C. Bury granted a temporary restraining order late Tuesday and set a Dec. 22 hearing on evidence for and against the anti-illegal immigration measure. His action came several hours after a prominent Hispanic organization filed a lawsuit challenging the popular initiative and less than a day before Gov. Janet Napolitano was to proclaim it law.

Recount ends in tie

According to an Associated Press report, both Rick Jore, the Constitution Party candidate, and Democrat Jeanne Windham garndered 1,559 votes. The initial count, certified in the statewide canvass last week, had Jore winning 1,559 votes to 1,557, and a tentative recount tally yesterday had Jore with just a one-vote margin of victory.

U.N. panel makes recommendations on dealing with global threats

UNITED NATIONS -- In a highly awaited report spawned by the deep divide over the war in Iraq, an international panel makes over 100 recommendations on how to deal with global threats in the 21st century, including the use of preemptive strikes, according to highlights obtained by The Associated Press. The report by the 16-member panel, to be released on Thursday, also proposes how to expand the UN Security Council to reflect modern realities.

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.

Immigration advocates fear new rule will cause spike in illegal border crossings

WASHINGTON -- A new rule to reduce the flow of asylum-seekers to Canada will lead more immigrants to try to illegally cross the U.S. border, lawyers and advocates said Monday. Starting Dec. 29, immigrants seeking asylum in the United States or Canada will have to apply to whichever country they arrived in first _ allowing Canada to turn away thousands of applicants a year who now travel north through the United States.

APPOINTMENTS

• AGRICULTURE: Dallas Tonsager will be nominated to be a member of the Farm Credit Administration Board, the White House has announced. Tonsager is currently executive director of the South Dakota Value Added Agriculture Development Center.

• ATTORNEY GENERAL: White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was nominated to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general. Gonzales was a Texas Supreme Court justice and Texas secretary of state.

• CTFC: Michael Dunn, an aide to the Senate Agriculture Committee, will be nominated to be a commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Dunn has served as undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the Department of Agriculture and has been an official at the Farm Credit Administration.

• ENERGY: Albert Konetzni Jr. will be nominated to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Konetzni retired from the Navy in July after 38 years as a nuclear submariner.

• FCC: Jonathan Adelstein will be nominated to a second term as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, the White House said. Adelstein, a former aide to Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), became a commissioner in 2002.

• MARITIME COMMISSION: Harold Creel Jr. will be nominated to serve another term as a commissioner on the Federal Maritime Commission, where he has been a commissioner since 1994, the White House has announced. He is a former senior counsel of the Merchant Marine Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee.

• NATIONAL SECURITY: Stephen Hadley has been nominated to replace Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser. Hadley has served as deputy national security adviser since 2001.

• POSTAL SERVICE: Tony Hammond will be nominated to another term as a commissioner on the Postal Rate Commission, President Bush has announced.

• PRISONS: Patricia Cushwa will be nominated to the U.S. Parole Commission, the White House said. She is currently chairwoman of the Maryland Parole Commission.

• STATE: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has been nominated to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state. Before joining the administration, Rice served as provost of Stanford University.

• EDUCATION: White House domestic-policy adviser Margaret Spellings has been nominated to succeed Rod Paige as secretary of education. Spellings was education adviser to President Bush for six years when he was governor of Texas.