Tuesday
Monday
MSNBC - Exclusive: Cheney and the "Raw" Intelligence: (December 15) "A memo written by a top Washington lobbyist for the controversial Iraqi National Congress raises new questions about the role Vice President Dick Cheney's office played in the run-up to the war in Iraq."
FT.com Home Asia: "Dick Cheney, US vice-president, 'waged a guerrilla war' against attempts by Tony Blair, the British prime minister, to secure United Nations backing for the invasion of Iraq."
Some Iraq Analysts Felt Pressure From Cheney Visits (washingtonpost.com): (June 5) "Vice President Cheney and his most senior aide made multiple trips to the CIA over the past year to question analysts studying Iraq's weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives, according to senior intelligence officials. "
TrueMajority Got broadband? Ben uses cookies to illustrate Kucinich's plans for reducing defense spending to pay for social programs like food, health care & education.
Mmmmmmm, cookies.
Mmmmmmm, cookies.
Sunday
US releases Al-Jazeera cameraman in Iraq. 26/01/2004. ABC News Online: "Suhaib al-Samarrai was released from a detention camp at Baghdad's notorious Abu Gharib prison after coalition officials 'found nothing against him'.
Mr Balout said Mr Samarrai was detained by US forces on November 18"
Mr Balout said Mr Samarrai was detained by US forces on November 18"
Iraq's WMD: the big lie? - [Sunday Herald] The key points the intelligence community now wants placing on the record are:
Firstly, there was a problem with Iraq, particularly over the interpretation of the WMD issue. Many said they had been openly sceptical about the presence of WMD in Iraq for years. There was a systematic failure, they believe, in the way intelligence was interpreted. This was because they were under pressure to provide the government with what it wanted, namely that Iraq possessed WMD and that it posed a clear and present danger.
Secondly, they say intelligence was “cherry-picked” about Iraq: that damning intelligence against Iraq was selectively chosen, whilst intelligence assessments, which might have worked against the build-up to war, were sidelined. The government was looking for anything that would cast Iraq in a negative light.
Thirdly, they claim that a political agenda had crept into the work of the intelligence community and they found themselves in the position of taking orders from politicians. When asked if direct lies were told to the British public, the answer was that the intelligence they supplied was one- sided and produced on demand to politicians.
Firstly, there was a problem with Iraq, particularly over the interpretation of the WMD issue. Many said they had been openly sceptical about the presence of WMD in Iraq for years. There was a systematic failure, they believe, in the way intelligence was interpreted. This was because they were under pressure to provide the government with what it wanted, namely that Iraq possessed WMD and that it posed a clear and present danger.
Secondly, they say intelligence was “cherry-picked” about Iraq: that damning intelligence against Iraq was selectively chosen, whilst intelligence assessments, which might have worked against the build-up to war, were sidelined. The government was looking for anything that would cast Iraq in a negative light.
Thirdly, they claim that a political agenda had crept into the work of the intelligence community and they found themselves in the position of taking orders from politicians. When asked if direct lies were told to the British public, the answer was that the intelligence they supplied was one- sided and produced on demand to politicians.
Saturday
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Of course the White House fears free elections in Iraq: "Got that? Iraqi sovereignty will be established by appointees appointing appointees to select appointees to select appointees. Add the fact that Bremer was appointed to his post by President Bush and Bush to his by the US Supreme Court, and you have the glorious new democratic tradition of the appointocracy: rule by an appointee's appointee's appointees' appointees' appointees' selectees. "
In Iraq, a Matter of Livelihood and Death (washingtonpost.com): "Residents said that although some Muslims are employed at U.S. bases, most low-wage workers hired by several European contractors in Baghdad are Christian. "
Tauzin Expected to Leave House for Trade Group : "Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) is close to a decision to leave Congress to head the pharmaceutical industry's trade association..., sources in Washington and California said yesterday.
Tauzin...was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.
PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given to anyone at a trade association," a source said. ...
Tauzin would not be the first key public official involved in the Medicare legislation to leave for the private sector. In December, Thomas A. Scully, an author of the bill, resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to join an Atlanta law firm that represents drugmakers, hospitals and other health-care businesses. "
Tauzin...was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.
PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given to anyone at a trade association," a source said. ...
Tauzin would not be the first key public official involved in the Medicare legislation to leave for the private sector. In December, Thomas A. Scully, an author of the bill, resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to join an Atlanta law firm that represents drugmakers, hospitals and other health-care businesses. "
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Powell casts doubt on Iraq WMDs: "US Secretary of State Colin Powell has conceded that Iraq may not have possessed any stocks of weapons of mass destruction before the war last year. "
People For the American Way | Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears: "How Appellate Judges Nominated By President Bush Are Already Threatening The Rights Of Ordinary Americans"
FT.com / World / Middle East & Africa: "'If I were working for them, I'd say 'Stop it already. No one believes what you're saying any more'.'"
Friday
U.S. to Triple Logging in Sierra : "The Forest Service, which oversees 11.5 million acres of national forestland in the Sierra, signaled at the start of the Bush administration that it was unhappy with a stringent and complex set of environmental regulations adopted just before President Clinton left office.
The latest plan officially drops many of those restrictions, permitting not only the removal of far more trees but cutting ones as large as 30 inches in diameter in old-growth stands. It also loosens habitat protections for rare species such as the California spotted owl, Yosemite toad, Pacific fisher and willow flycatcher."
The latest plan officially drops many of those restrictions, permitting not only the removal of far more trees but cutting ones as large as 30 inches in diameter in old-growth stands. It also loosens habitat protections for rare species such as the California spotted owl, Yosemite toad, Pacific fisher and willow flycatcher."
Airport Security Costs Soaring : "The $3.7 million for additional LAX security since Dec. 21 represents a fraction of the $104.7 million the city has spent to tighten security at the airport since the 2001 attacks. The federal government has reimbursed about $15.6 million, or 15%, of these costs."
NJ.com: Search Former Gov. Christie Whitman was cut out of the decision-making process when President Bush bluntly rejected her efforts as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency director to reach a compromise that would allow the United States to be part of the Global Warming Treaty.
Senators Inquire of Justices' Recusal Rules : "Two Senate Democrats asked Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on Thursday what rules the justices follow in deciding whether they should remove themselves from consideration of a case before the Supreme Court. "
New Hampshire: Graveyard of Pollsters (washingtonpost.com): "The dirty little secret in New Hampshire and elsewhere is that too many of the widely reported pre-election polls cut corners or otherwise use methods that are less than gold standard. "
OCCUPATION, INC.: "War profiteers in Iraq pursue quick fixes and high profits by overcharging for shoddy work, while Iraqis protest that they could do the work better and cheaper. Welcome to the reconstruction racket."
Thursday
Missile Defense System Doubts : "The Pentagon is spending about $9 billion a year on various missile defense programs. Estimates of the final cost of the evolving system range from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars."
Missile Defense Testing May Be Inadequate : "In eight flight tests since 1999, interceptors have scored five hits. But the tests have involved a number of substitute elements, including a surrogate booster and a prototype tracking radar, while the actual parts for the planned system have remained in development. Additionally, all the tests have run on the same course, with the target missile soaring west over the Pacific Ocean from an Air Force base in California and the interceptor launching from the Marshall Islands.
The last flight test, which resulted in failure of the interceptor vehicle to separate from its booster, occurred 13 months ago. Problems with a new booster, being designed specifically for the system by Lockheed Martin Corp., prompted the Pentagon last year to suspend further intercept attempts."
Missile Defense Testing May Be Inadequate : "In eight flight tests since 1999, interceptors have scored five hits. But the tests have involved a number of substitute elements, including a surrogate booster and a prototype tracking radar, while the actual parts for the planned system have remained in development. Additionally, all the tests have run on the same course, with the target missile soaring west over the Pacific Ocean from an Air Force base in California and the interceptor launching from the Marshall Islands.
The last flight test, which resulted in failure of the interceptor vehicle to separate from its booster, occurred 13 months ago. Problems with a new booster, being designed specifically for the system by Lockheed Martin Corp., prompted the Pentagon last year to suspend further intercept attempts."
EPI Journal--Winter 2004Between June and November 2003, the economy generated 1.26 million fewer jobs than the 1.5 million jobs that the president’s Council of EconomicAdvisers told us to expect. Employers have responded to the economic downturn by suppressing the growth of, or reducing, wages and benefits. Jobs are being sent overseas, including many white-collar technical and computer-related jobs not previously at risk. In workplaces across the country, jobs are being lost from layoffs or attrition, while the remaining workforce is pressed to maintain or increase production in order to boost productivity. All this restructuring has led to a strong profit resurgence, with income growth in this recovery tilted far more toward profits and away from wages than in any other postwar recovery. The hourly wages of most workers are now rising more slowly than inflation. Moreover, job quality is declining, as the new jobs created pay 13% less than the jobs lost.
Pentagon's Online Voting Program Deemed Too Risky (TechNews.com): "A Pentagon program for Internet voting in this year's presidential election is so insecure that it could undercut the integrity of American democracy and should be stopped immediately, according to computer-security specialists who were asked to review the $22 million pilot plan intended for about 100,000 overseas voters. "
History has shown that when people have the opportunity to tamper with an election they do
History has shown that when people have the opportunity to tamper with an election they do
Wednesday
Army Reserve Chief Fears Retention Crisis (washingtonpost.com): "a 'major order culture change' is taking place in the reserve so that reservists know, upon joining, that they will be called up to active duty for between nine and 12 months every four to five years."
Well, one war every four to five years is twice as good as we're doing now.
Well, one war every four to five years is twice as good as we're doing now.
Monday
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Why the US is running scared of elections in Iraq: "Washington is trying to argue that if there are to be direct elections, the transfer of power will have to be delayed. Sistani rejects that. His supporters say the oil-for-food ration-card lists which covered the whole Iraqi population can easily be used in place of the poll cards which Washington says would take at least a year to prepare."
Yahoo! News - Libya Never Got Nuclear Plans Off Ground-Diplomats: "It would be an exaggeration to call it a program,' one Western diplomat said. "
Yahoo! News - Arms Issue Seen as Hurting U.S. Credibility Abroad: "But a range of foreign policy experts, including supporters of the war, said the long-term consequences of the administration's rhetoric could be severe overseas -- especially because the war was waged without the backing of the United Nations and was opposed by large majorities, even in countries run by leaders that supported the invasion.
'The foreign policy blow-back is pretty serious,' said Kenneth Adelman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board and a supporter of the war. He said the gaps between the administration's rhetoric and the postwar findings threaten Bush's doctrine of 'preemption,' which envisions attacking a nation because it is an imminent threat."
'The foreign policy blow-back is pretty serious,' said Kenneth Adelman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board and a supporter of the war. He said the gaps between the administration's rhetoric and the postwar findings threaten Bush's doctrine of 'preemption,' which envisions attacking a nation because it is an imminent threat."
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Artist slams Israel envoy attack: "We wanted to show that the cycle of violence and bloodshed would only stop when we understand what mechanism in a society of conflict can alter a person and reduce him to a desperate and crazed individual"
Sunday
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | US opens new front in war on terror by beefing up border controls in Sahara: "A small vanguard force arrived this week in Mauritania to pave the way for a $100m plan to bolster the security forces and border controls of Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger....West Africa is not known as a hotbed of support for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network but Washington is taking no chances in a region with strong Arab and Muslim ties."
Damage in Appalachia Trickles From Top : " 'We find legitimate ways to fight this destructive type of mining, we present our case to the courts, and in the meantime the Bush administration goes behind our backs and changes these laws.'"
Saturday
The Demonized Seed : "Among the world's major industrial democracies, only the United States still forbids hemp farming. If an American farmer were to fill a field with this drugless crop, the government would consider him a felon. For selling his harvest he would be guilty of trafficking and would face a fine of as much as $4 million and a prison sentence of 10 years to life. Provided, of course, it is his first offense.
This for a crop as harmless as rutabaga....
The DEA sometimes seems bent on fomenting confusion. Two years ago, during his brief tenure as head of the agency, Asa Hutchinson stated that "many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana." One reason many Americans do not know this is because it's not true. That's like saying beagles and collies are both parts of the same dog and that beagles cannot be produced without producing collies."
This for a crop as harmless as rutabaga....
The DEA sometimes seems bent on fomenting confusion. Two years ago, during his brief tenure as head of the agency, Asa Hutchinson stated that "many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana." One reason many Americans do not know this is because it's not true. That's like saying beagles and collies are both parts of the same dog and that beagles cannot be produced without producing collies."
News: "American commanders are seeking to reach out to [Iraqi] tribal leaders by relying on a report devised in 1918 by Britain, the country's then ruler."
Critics Say the Park Service Is Letting Religion and Politics Affect Its Policies: "The Park Service also approved selling a book at the Grand Canyon that suggests the canyon was created in six days several thousand years ago. And here at the Lincoln Memorial, an eight-minute film that shows historical events at the memorial, including demonstrations for civil rights, abortion rights and gay rights, is being revised by the Park Service to add four minutes of more politically neutral events."
Peace, and Kucinich, Gets a Chance: "'I've never been interested in politics, not since I was 16 years old with Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy,' said Ms. Kaplan, who is in her 50's. Then she saw Mr. Kucinich speak at the Best Western last winter. 'I couldn't leave. The guy moved me deeply. I knew at that moment that hope was reborn in my heart,' she said."
Portsmouth Herald Local News: Poll shows Bush in solid position: "By a whopping ratio of 60 percent to 21 percent, Americans say they would prefer to reduce the deficit by 'canceling some recent tax cuts' - the course advocated to some degree by all the Democratic presidential contenders - rather than by spending less on programs like health and education."
Friday
Reporters sans fronti�res - Iraq - United States Two murders and a lie
An investigation of the US Army's firing at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003
An investigation of the US Army's firing at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003
More Firms to End Health Benefits for Retirees (washingtonpost.com): "Twenty percent of large, private-sector U.S. employers will probably terminate health insurance benefits within the next three years for workers when they retire as medical costs continue to increase, a new study reported yesterday. Over the past year, 10 percent of companies with 1,000 or more workers eliminated health benefits for retiring workers."
U.S. Says It Will Contest WHO Plan to Fight Obesity (washingtonpost.com): "The WHO plan, which outlines strategies that nations can use to fight obesity, has been widely applauded by public health advocates but bitterly opposed by some food manufacturers and the sugar industry..."This document is fantastically important," said Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force, an independent London-based public health think tank. "It should have a big impact, unless it's sabotaged. And we know it's being sabotaged." "
Naples Daily News: Columnists: "We learn that there are no weapons of mass destruction, and the Bushes reply, 'So what?' We learn there never was a connection between Sadism Hussein and Al Qaeda, and the Bushes say, 'So what?' It matters because we need to understand how we got into the mess we're in, so we won't get ourselves into another one. "
AlterNet: The Ultimate Insider: "Now, of course, they're painting him out to be a cross between Jerry Garcia, Karl Marx and the disgruntled former employee who just shot up your local post office. Yeah, what an anti-establishment wackjob: former CEO of Alcoa, and a friend of Don Rumsfeld's since the sixties."
Thursday
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The Guardian profile: Paul O'Neill: "The archive promises to provide one of the most devastating insiders' accounts of US governmental dysfunction since the Nixon administration "
Bush Plan to Honor Dr. King Stirs Criticism: "'His administration has never supported anything to help the poor, education, or children,' said the Rev. Raphael Allen, vice president of programs at Concerned Black Clergy. 'It's all about isolationism and greed for the upper class. That's not promoting the legacy of Dr. King.'"
The Village Voice: Features: The Essay: The Dennis Kucinich Polka by Stephen Elliott: "What's so funny about peace, love, and the Dems' Great Ignored Candidate?"
Wednesday
Center for American Progress - Progress Through Action - Page: "In all these ways, we are reaping the poison fruit of our misguided and arrogant foreign policy. The Administration capitalized on the fear created by 9/11 and put a spin on the intelligence and a spin on the truth to justify a war that could well become one of the worst blunders in more than two centuries of American foreign policy. We did not have to go to war. Alternatives were working. War must be a last resort. And this war never should have happened. "
Surreal moments serving a mythological president - www.smh.com.au: "Across the room, the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was singing hymns, accompanied on the piano by the Christian fundamentalist Attorney-General, John Ashcroft.
Leafing through the CIA documents, Mr O'Neill was astonished to read plans for covert assassinations around the globe designed to remove opponents of the US Government."
Leafing through the CIA documents, Mr O'Neill was astonished to read plans for covert assassinations around the globe designed to remove opponents of the US Government."
Tuesday
Upstarts Upset the Tobacco Cart (washingtonpost.com): "Numerous states are considering or have adopted legislation aimed at increasing the price of discount cigarettes and protecting the market share of the 'Big Four' tobacco companies -- Philip Morris, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson and R.J. Reynolds. The Big Four are vowing a push this year in the Virginia General Assembly....
[S]tates such as Virginia, which is struggling with a budget deficit, have a powerful reason to go along with the Big Four: money.
In a settlement reached six years ago, major tobacco companies agreed to make annual payments to the states estimated at more than $235 billion over 25 years. Those payments are tied to the sales of the participating companies; if they lose market share, the states lose money.
'We need to guarantee a continuing flow of revenue that we use to help balance Virginia's budget and pay for health care and economic development in the tobacco-dependent regions,' said Sen. Charles R. Hawkins (R-Pittsylvania), who plans to introduce legislation targeting the independents. "
[S]tates such as Virginia, which is struggling with a budget deficit, have a powerful reason to go along with the Big Four: money.
In a settlement reached six years ago, major tobacco companies agreed to make annual payments to the states estimated at more than $235 billion over 25 years. Those payments are tied to the sales of the participating companies; if they lose market share, the states lose money.
'We need to guarantee a continuing flow of revenue that we use to help balance Virginia's budget and pay for health care and economic development in the tobacco-dependent regions,' said Sen. Charles R. Hawkins (R-Pittsylvania), who plans to introduce legislation targeting the independents. "
STLtoday.com - Printer friendly - White House seeks control on health, safety: "It goes beyond just having the White House involved in picking industry favorites to evaluate government science.
Under this proposal, the carefully crafted process used by the government to notify the public of an imminent danger is going to first have to be signed off by someone weighing the political hazards."
Under this proposal, the carefully crafted process used by the government to notify the public of an imminent danger is going to first have to be signed off by someone weighing the political hazards."
County balks at voting screens: "But a recent state review of the top four touch-screen companies found security gaps in every system. Burke said he expects it to take at least three months for the companies to plug those holes and for the state to certify the fixes. "
Fairfax Voting Machines A 'Failure' (washingtonpost.com): "New touch-screen voting machines used in Fairfax County's local elections in November were a 'failure,' and county electoral officials were unprepared to deal with the equipment's problems, according to a county GOP committee report released yesterday. "
Monday
Open Door Policy: From that bastion of the liberal media, The American Conservative. "There were several shared prerequisites to get on the Neoconservative List of Major Despicable People, and in spite of the rhetoric hurled against these enemies of the state, most really weren't Rodents of Unusual Size. Most, in fact, were retired from a branch of the military with a star or two or four on their shoulders. All could and did rationally argue the many illogical points in the neoconservative strategy of offensive democracy--guys like Brent Scowcroft, Barry McCaffrey, Anthony Zinni, and Colin Powell."
Herald.com - Your Miami Everything Guide: "Speaking on behalf of your devoted radio listeners, most of us never suspected that you were ripped to the gills. You always made perfect sense to us."
Study Published by Army Criticizes War on Terror's Scope (washingtonpost.com): "A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an 'unnecessary' war in Iraq and pursuing an 'unrealistic' quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat."
Sunday
American Journalism Review News Blackout - The FCC was getting ready to loosen the rules limiting media concentration. A grassroots movement had sprung up to derail the plan. But you wouldn’t have learned much about the controversy from many news outlets owned by the big conglomerates that were eager to cash in.
How to Lose Your Job in Talk Radio: "It seems to me that when there is reason to go to war, it should be self-evident. The Secretary of State should not need to convince a skeptical world with satellite photos of a couple of Toyota pickups and a dumpster."
Cost of War "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953
AlterNet: The Killer Among Us: "[T]housands of Americans may already be dying because of Mad Cow disease every year....At Yale, out of a series of 46 patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's, six were proven to have CJD at autopsy. In another study of brain biopsies, out of a dozen patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's according to established criteria, three of them were actually dying from CJD. An informal survey of neuropathologists registered a suspicion that CJD accounts for 2-12% of all dementias in general. Two autopsy studies showed a CJD rate among dementia deaths of about 3%. A third study, at the University of Pennsylvania, showed that 5% of patients diagnosed with dementia had CJD. Although only a few hundred cases of sporadic CJD are officially reported in the U.S. annually, hundreds of thousands of Americans die with dementia every year. Thousands of these deaths may actually be from CJD caused by eating infected meat. "
Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | The 40-day prisoner: "'When I get home,' a sergeant [guarding the prison camp] told Mohamed, 'I will never again vote for George Bush.'"
Saturday
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."
Friday
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."
Thursday
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."
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. "
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?"
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?"
Wednesday
News: "How the war machine is driving the US economy
Military Keynsianism might get Bush re-elected, but it is starting to worry economists"
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. "
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.
Sunday
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. "
Saturday
Friday
Le Monde.fr : Emoi en Israël après le tir essuyé par un pacifisteNot reported in English: along with the Israeli veteran who was seriously wounded when Israeli troops used live fire against protestors on the other side of the Wall, an American woman was also shot.
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