Saturday

TNR Online | July Surprise? (print): "according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that 'it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any High Value Target] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July'--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. "
Asia Times - Asia's most trusted news source: "social psychologist Erich Fromm had written on 'socially patterned defects' that enabled large groups of people to adjust themselves comfortably to a system that, humanly speaking, is 'fundamentally at odds with our basic existential and human needs'. Burston observed that this resulted in 'deficiencies, or traits, or attitudes which don't generate internal conflict when, in fact, they should"
MSNBC - As rationales for war erode, issue of blame looms large: "The larger question is whether voters will blame the White House for these two massive mistakes."
Bush's War-Era Records Damaged (washingtonpost.com): "The payroll summaries destroyed were for the first quarter of 1969 and the third quarter of 1972." But none of the 13 intervening quarters?

Friday

WILLKOMMEN BEI REPORT MAINZ
Irak: US-Soldaten sollen inhaftierte Kinder misshandelt haben
Over 100 children at Abu Ghraib. German TV and "Der Spiegel" broke this story last Sunday, and it still hasn't made the English-language press. Video and transcript.
IPA News Release: 9-11 FBI Whistleblower: "Ashcroft Denying 9-11 FBI Whistleblower Day in Court"
Survey: Public Wants Press to Fully Describe Sources in Science Stories

Yahoo! News - Rights Groups Accuse Pentagon of Subverting Court Ruling on Guantanamo Detainees
The Smoking Gun: Archive Ken Lay informs George Bush about Enron's plans to pipe gas across Afghanistan.
Bush Again Turns Down Invitation to Address NAACP Convention (washingtonpost.com): "The president's decision means he will be the first sitting president since Warren G. Harding not to address the NAACP. A White House spokeswoman said Bush had a scheduling conflict, but would not specify the conflict with the six-day convention."
Foreign Policy: Imperial Amnesia
Yahoo! News - Times: Bush Military Service Files Were Destroyed
U.S. Cuts Number of Delegates to World AIDS Meeting (washingtonpost.com): "The decision to cut attendance [by three-fourths] was reached long after many government scientists had made plans to attend the conference, which is held every two years....

Almost nobody was willing to speak on the record because of fears of retaliation....The NIH released details of the cutbacks only in response to a Freedom of Information Act request....

HHS officials [also] tried to cancel a $250,000 CDC grant to the conference for scholarships for Third World AIDS researchers, said a person familiar with agency. When told the money could not be reclaimed, Thompson's office stipulated it go only to scientists in the countries getting aid under the [U.S.] program....

A CDC official [said,] 'This is clearly the result of the booing of Secretary Thompson in Barcelona, which he took quite personally.'"