contributions

By Ian Williams
This week Republican Senator John McCain showed an unusual nuance in United States politics. He supported his party’s president, sort of, even as he dealt him one of the deadliest subtle put-downs in recent US history.
He called on the George W Bush campaign to condemn the recent anti-Kerry TV ads questioning the Democratic contender’s Vietnam War record, saying, "I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air (…)

by Gaby Hinsliff and Martin Bright
The Home Secretary has warned that American-style openness over the al-Qaeda threat risked exposing politicians to ’ridicule’, and dismissed calls for him to supply more details to the British public as ’arrant nonsense’.
In a startling sideswipe at the White House - which put troops around what it said were new targets in New York last week, only for it to emerge that the intelligence underpinning the supposed threat was years old - David Blunkett says (…)

By John Byrne
In yet another stunning indictment of President George W. Bush’s failure to complete his required military service, a senior Reagan defense official confirmed that Bush should have been placed on active duty when he failed to find a Guard unit to serve with after tranferring to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Business school.
When asked if Bush should have been put on active duty when he failed to find another unit to train with, Korb said, "Yes."
The Air Force has (…)

by David Edwards
Reporting For Duty
The statistics of death in Baghdad are now "beyond shame", Robert Fisk writes in the Independent. In the first three weeks of July there were 506 violent deaths in Baghdad alone: "Even the Iraqi officials here shake their heads in disbelief". (Fisk, ’Baghdad is a city that reeks with the stench of the dead’, The Independent, July 28, 2004 http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles423.htm#FullStory )
Before last year’s invasion, Baghdad’s morgue investigated (…)

By Mike Lee
L A N D S T U H L, Germany - It looks like that opening scene from the TV comedy M*A*S*H. But Hawkeye and Pierce, Radar, and Clinger don’t exist here.
These are real doctors and nurses at the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, facing horrors seldom seen by the American public - already over 12,000 battlefield casualties from Iraq.
Their patients speak with tension in their faces. Not even the pain killers can stop all of the throbbing of their injuries. I am amazed that (…)

raq Issues Arrest Warrant for Ex-Governing Council Member, Head of Iraq’s Special Tribunal
Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Chalabi, a former governing council member, on counterfeiting charges and another for Salem Chalabi, the head of Iraq’s special tribunal, on murder charges, Iraq’s chief investigating judge said Sunday.
The warrant was a new sign of the fall of Ahmad Chalabi from the centers of power. Chalabi, a longtime exile opposition leader, had been a favorite of (…)

by Bob Nichols
Radioactive, poison gas made from uranium was recommended to the American Military in 1943 during World War II by atom bomb builders working on the Manhattan Project run by Gen Leslie Groves.
Sixty-one years later deadly, radioactive, poisonous, weaponized uranium oxide gas plays a vital role in implementing the "Total Worldwide Domination Plan" as practiced by the NeoCons and President Bush. It is entitled "Rebuilding America’s Defenses" and was written in September 2000 (…)

By Luke Baker
Baghdad - Iraq’s government reluctantly reinstated the death penalty for crimes including murder, kidnapping and drug running on Sunday, saying the move was a necessity and would last until stability was restored.
Minister of State Adnan al-Janabi said the measure was effective immediately, but there was confusion about whether it could be applied retroactively, casting doubt on whether Saddam Hussein could be put to death if found guilty of crimes.
"This is the most (…)

The US invasion of Iraq was a "tremendous gift" to Osama bin Laden and a major setback in the struggle against al-Qaeda, according to a CIA terrorism expert, who has written a scathing account of the conduct of the US "war on terror."
The author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror" blasted the efforts of successive US governments and the US intelligence community in fighting what he describes as a global Islamic insurgency.
Anonymous, as he is known, painted a (…)

Three months before the 1972 presidential election, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger huddled in the Oval Office to discuss when and how to get out of Vietnam.
Despite a massive bombing campaign during the spring and summer in North Vietnam, the Republican president had concluded that US-backed "South Vietnam probably can never even survive anyway".
"We also have to realise, Henry, that winning an election is terribly important," Mr Nixon told his national security adviser.
"It’s (…)