Christian Aid reports: "billions of dollars of oil money that has already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has effectively disappeared into a financial black hole"

Why is Bush avoiding the Australian media? Don't ask - National - smh.com.au: Denied access to Bush, "Australian media will learn of events [in Canberra] from news reports filed in the US."

Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins (washingtonpost.com): " Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets. To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases. "

News: " 'It is a tragedy that US soldiers have killed so many civilians in Baghdad. But it is really incredible that the US military does not even count these deaths....Right now soldiers feel they can pull the trigger without coming under review.'"

KR Washington Bureau | 10/17/2003 | Bush's `dream team' plagued by infighting, backstabbing: "But after nearly three years in office, Bush's dream team is beset by infighting, backstabbing and maneuvering on major foreign policy issues involving North Korea, Syria, Iran and postwar Iraq. The result has been paralysis, inconsistency and a zigzagging U.S. policy that confuses lawmakers on Capitol Hill and disturbs America's friends, allies and would-be partners.
It has hampered U.S. policies in the Middle East, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to rage, caused anxiety in Asia, where the administration's refusal to deal directly with North Korea has dismayed allies, and has seriously soured relations with some North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, say U.S. and foreign officials. "

'The Lies of George W. Bush' by David Corn: "Bush has lied his way through most serious policy matters "

Watchdog blasts US, Israel for treatment of media. 21/10/2003. ABC News Online: "Out of 164 countries surveyed by RSF, the United States ranked 31st for its respect for freedom of expression at home, and 135th for its behaviour beyond its borders."

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The new Great Game: "'I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian,' said Dick Cheney in a speech to oil industrialists in 1998."

Battle brewing over Ohio slots - newarkadvocate.com: "'What really bothers me about the whole arrangement is how patently unfair the arrangement is to the taxpayer of Ohio,' Hooke said. 'It's designed to enrich a handful of racetrack owners.' "

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Families seek truth over Israeli deaths: "The Corries had been told the report was secret until they found that the Israeli government was covertly distributing it among members of the US Congress to prevent an independent investigation. "

And He's Head of Intelligence? His dissembling gets almost comic over another one of his comments. Boykin routinely told audiences that God elevated George W. Bush to the presidency. “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him,” he would say. “I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there.” Boykin now explains that he believes God routinely decides American elections and has done the same thing for “Bill Clinton and other presidents.” This is surely the first time a conservative evangelical has argued that Clinton’s election was caused by divine intervention.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The return of Arabophobia: "'I read TE Lawrence before I came here,' a British officer was quoted in the Mail on Sunday. 'A century ago he recognised dishonesty was inherent in Arab society. Today is the same. They do nothing for love and nothing at all if they can help it.'
The attitudes of the officer, shocking though they are, only mirror those of the people who sent him to war. Scratch a neo-con and you find an Arabophobe. Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, has berated Arabs on the 'need to change their behaviour'. Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defence for policy, has talked of Israel's 'moral superiority' over its neighbours. And the veteran foreign policy hawk Richard Perle, when asked about the fears Egyptians had of the Iraq war provoking an Arab backlash, replied: 'Egyptians can barely govern their own country, we don't need advice on how to govern ours.' "