contributions

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=513&u=/ap/20040131/ap_on_go_ot/sept_11_commission&printer=1
WASHINGTON - At a two-day hearing this week, the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks revealed U.S. authorities had numerous opportunities to stop the hijackers, including many face-to-face encounters.
The missteps included miscommunications about al-Qaida operatives dating back to the mid-1990s, hijackers who were (…)

By Scott Ritter
Tony Blair’s government is heralding the Hutton report as a victory, since it absolves it of any wrongdoing regarding the "sexing up" of intelligence about the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The Hutton report was released at the same time as the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, David Kay, testified before the US Congress that there appear to be no WMD in Iraq, and that the intelligence was "all wrong". Given this, the Hutton findings have taken on (…)

Jim Lobe, OneWorld US
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan 26 (OneWorld) — The assassination of Cambodia’s most important trade-union leader has sharply increased tensions surrounding the unsettled political situation in the Southeast Asian nation and could jeopardize Cambodian textile exports to the U.S.
Thousands of mourners turned out Sunday for the funeral of Chea Vichea, who was both the leader of Cambodia’s textile workers and a prominent political foe of the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. (…)

President Bush’s attempt to ban partial-birth abortions threatens all late-term procedures. But in my case, everyone said it was the right thing to do—even my Catholic father and Republican father-in-law.
By Gretchen Voss
The Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/01/25/my_late_term_abortion?mode=PF
1/25/2004
Way too excited to sleep on that frigid April morning, I snuggled my bloated belly up to my husband, Dave. Eighteen weeks pregnant, today we would (…)

Leak against this war - US and British officials must expose their leaders’ lies about Iraq—as I did over Vietnam — Daniel Ellsberg Tuesday January 27, 2004 - The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1132043,00.html
After 17 months observing pacification efforts in Vietnam as a state department official, I laid eyes upon an unmistakable enemy for the first time on New Year’s Day in 1967. I was walking point with three members of a company from the US army’s 25th Division, (…)

The US is now in the hands of a group of extremists
Fundamentalism has spawned an ideology of American supremacy
By George Soros
The Guardian (UK) January 26, 2004
The invasion of Iraq was the first practical application of the pernicious Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military action, and it elicited an allergic reaction worldwide - not because anyone had a good word to say about Saddam Hussein, but because we insisted on invading Iraq unilaterally without any clear evidence that he (…)

As the World Social Forum in Mumbai (Bombay) drew to a close earlier this week, the parliamentarians present adopted the following statement.
Final Declaration of Fourth World Parliamentary Forum, Mumbai, India, January 19, 2004
1. During the past three years, the regular meetings of the World Parliamentary Forum (WPF) took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This January 2004, together with the World Social Forum (WSF), for the first time it meets in Asia, in Mumbai, India, and at a time of (…)

Hindustan Times
January 24, 2004
CIA warns of possible civil war in Iraq
Press Trust of India Washington, January 23
Iraq may be on the verge of a civil war to trifurcate
the country into three states — Kurdish, Sunni and
Shia — the CIA has reportedly warned US administration
officials.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s bleak assessment was
delivered orally to Washington this week, according to
the Carnegie Foundation.
It starkly contradicts the upbeat assessment President (…)

10NBC News Rochester, NY
Where did all the Kodak jobs go?
At the end of last year Kodak had a workforce of 20,6000 hundred in Rochester. That’s down from 2002 when Kodak had 22,000 employees in Rochester. So, where did the jobs go? Most of Rochester’s job losses went overseas. Kodak says it has major manufacturing operations in 13 other countries.
At Kodak Park, you can’t help but notice the empty parking lots. Acres and acres of them. Some of the people who used to work at Kodak may (…)

AlterNet January 20, 2004
A Global Peace Movement Revival
By Tom Hayden
MUMBAI, INDIA — Natalia Ablova faces a tough challenge in her campaign against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Ablova, who looks like any friendly middle-American in her plain dress, shoulder-length hair and reading glasses, is opposing the Iraq occupation on the streets of Kyrgistan, the only Central Asian country where such protest is permitted.
"There is no chance for participatory democracy in our region," she (…)