The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "it is becoming harder for the Pentagon to rely on an all-volunteer military force to handle White House foreign policy initiatives. Many soldiers in the military originally enlisted during times of relative peace and did not expect to be deployed for months at a time in the Middle East, let alone being placed in a country that is sending home body bags and stretchers on a consistent basis."

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Guantanamo Bay: a global experiment in inhumanity: "Worldwide, the experiment is becoming the norm. It has been estimated that at least 15,000 people are being held without trial under the justification of the 'war on terrorism'. They include more than 3,000 detained in Iraq after the war, of whom at least 1,000 are still in detention; an estimated further 1,000 to 3,000 detained at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan; and an unknown number being held on the British territory of Diego Garcia....It is of grave concern that the example being set by the US and the UK is being used to legitimise repression internationally on an ever-increasing scale. From China, which has imprisoned up to 100 Chinese Muslims without trial, to Uzbekistan (up to 1,000), Yemen (200), Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, India and Indonesia, this alarming lead is being eagerly followed. In Israel and Chechnya, there would be far more people in prison without trial had not the authorities there taken matters one step further and authorised extra-judicial killings. They were safe in the knowledge that the US government boasted last year of killing alleged al-Qaida members in Yemen."

Bias Issue Faces Judge in Monsanto Case: "A federal judge now presiding over a price-fixing case involving the Monsanto Company did not disclose to the parties in the case that in 1997 and 1998 he was listed as a lawyer representing Monsanto in a case that covered some of the same issues, according to lawyers and court documents."

Cover story: Top Secret: "In what may be one of Washington’s best-kept secrets, the volume of federal government information deemed confidential is three times larger today than just five years ago....Aftergood is suing the CIA, seeking information on the amount of government spending on intelligence. He doesn't want the details, just the overall budget figure. His request for information on the agency's 1947 budget was denied. The CIA argues that release of even half-century-old information will lead to a "slippery slope," said Aftergood, "and the next thing you know the names of our agents in Baghdad will be in the newspaper."

The Miami Herald | 12/03/2000 | IF THE VOTE WERE FLAWLESS... Gore would have had the edge in glitch-free Florida balloting, based on a Herald analysis

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Muddying the world's conscience: "In June, USAid, the body that coordinates funding for US overseas aid, ordered US NGOs to identify themselves more clearly as part of the US operation or lose their funding. A USAid coordinator, Andrew Natosis, said US NGOs should consider themselves 'an arm of the US government'....The choices are beginning to look stark for NGOs providing humanitarian relief in 'war on terror' conflicts - either act as sub-contractors for the superpower or pull out. "

PINR - Current U.S. Troop Levels in Iraq Are Unsustainable: "A report released by the Congressional Budget Office recognized...that the active Army would be unable to maintain current troop levels in Iraq 'beyond about March 2004 if it chose not to keep individual units deployed to Iraq for longer than one year without relief.' Indeed, the Pentagon will now be relying on reserve soldiers for combat missions rather than for their traditional combat support roles."

Farm-Raised Salmon Linked to Pollutants : "The study illustrates the different approaches to health advisories by the different agencies. While the EPA only considers human health risks, the FDA is required by law to consider a range of factors, including the economic impacts of its standards on the food production system."

Uncharitable Care: How Hospitals Are Gouging and Even Arresting the Uninsured

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination - A BuzzFlash Interview

Local briefs - newarkadvocate.com: "Orange alert costing Ohio taxpayers COLUMBUS (AP) -- The state has spent more than $210,000 over the past three weeks on security costs related to the nation's orange terror alert. "

Yahoo! News - Boondocks

Greg Weiher: the Bush Administration's Ongoing Intelligence Problem: "People of this suspicious bent suggest that the administration's grip on power depends on the perpetuation of fear of terrorism. No terrorist threat, no 'George Bush, Warrior Bureaucrat!'
Remember jet-pilot George, posing on the deck of a nearly-beached aircraft carrier in front of that 'Mission Accomplished' banner? Remember Thanksgiving-surprise George, parading through a Baghdad mess hall with a fake turkey? Is it possible that we're now being presented with orange-alert George, guardian of the skyways?"

KR Washington Bureau | 01/06/2004 | Underdog Kucinich campaigns philosophy: `anything is possible'

News: "How the war machine is driving the US economy
Military Keynsianism might get Bush re-elected, but it is starting to worry economists"

Prosecutors Say Bills Were Inflated For Anti-Drug Ads (washingtonpost.com): "'Parents: The Anti-Drug' says [one of the high-profile ads]. The American taxpayers footed the multimillion-dollar tab for the entire campaign, and now federal prosecutors in Manhattan are alleging that two top executives at the ad agency deliberately padded bills for some of the earliest ads. "

Bush in 30 Seconds

Yahoo! News - Iraq's Arsenal of Ambitions: "But investigators have found no support for the two main fears expressed in London and Washington before the war: that Iraq had a hidden arsenal of old weapons and built advanced programs for new ones. In public statements and unauthorized interviews, investigators said they have discovered no work on former germ-warfare agents such as anthrax, and no work on a new designer pathogen -- combining pox virus and snake venom -- that led U.S. scientists on a highly classified hunt for several months. The investigators assess that Iraq did not, as charged in London and Washington, resume production of its most lethal nerve agent, VX, or learn to make it last longer in storage. And they have found the former nuclear weapons program, described as a 'grave and gathering danger' by President Bush (news - web sites) and a 'mortal threat' by Vice President Cheney, in much the same shattered state left by U.N. inspectors in the 1990s."

Iraq's Arsenal of Ambitions (washingtonpost.com): "'91 Gulf War Crippled Baghdad's Ability to Build Nonconventional Weapons " Dog bites man.

washingtonpost.com: The Relatively Charmed Life Of Neil Bush

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "If we've learned anything in this past decade, it's that the right-wing scandal machine will find a way to smear anyone, and that a lot of the media will play along."

The Sunday Herald - Scotland's award-winning independent newspaper: "For a story that three weeks ago gripped the world's imagination, it has now all but dropped off the radar. "