"My son was killed in Iraq. Last night I saw George Bush laughing about that."
--Jorge Medina, father of US Army Spc. Irving Medina, 22, KIA 14 NOV 03, Baghdad, Iraq.  Information Clearing House

“After the Americans destroyed our village and killed many of us, we also lost our houses and have nothing to eat. However, we would have endured these miseries and even accepted them, if the Americans had not sentenced us all to death.”

Bush boasts of bringing "God's gift of liberty" to millions, yet the country he rules has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Under his governership, Texas had a record high execution rate.

Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism coordinator, accuses the Bush administration of failing to recognize the al-Qaeda threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and then manipulating America into war with Iraq with dangerous consequences.
He accuses Bush of doing "a terrible job on the war against terrorism."

THE DANGERS OF FUNDAMENTALIST BELIEFS ON GEORGE BUSH AND ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.
ISLAMIC & ISRAELI FUNDAMENTALISM AND HOW THEY INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER AND WITH US POLICY

Military watchdogs are warning Canadians about the current and planned weaponization of our upper atmosphere. Scientists such as Dr. Rosalie Bertell, winner of the MacBride Peace Prize and former head of the Chernobyl and Bhopal Medical Commissions; Dr. Alfred Lambremont Webre of the Vancouver-based Institute for Cooperation in Space; and journalist Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail describe this frightening issue, and the scientists propose some peaceful solutions.

My most immediate priority," Spain's new leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declared yesterday, "will be to fight terrorism." But he and the voters who gave his party a stunning upset victory last Sunday don't believe the war in Iraq is part of that fight. And the Spanish public was also outraged by what it perceived as the Aznar government's attempt to spin last week's terrorist attack for political purposes.
The Bush administration, which baffled the world when it used an attack by Islamic fundamentalists to justify the overthrow of a brutal but secular regime, and which has been utterly ruthless in its political exploitation of 9/11, must be very, very afraid.

America under George W. Bush has become a rogue nation, an outlaw that shreds treaties and invades other countries on false pretexts, with no provocation. We refuse to come under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, lest we be judged by the same standard that applies to every other nation. We continue to consume far more than our share of the planet's dwindlng resources, and add far more than our share to the planet's carbon dioxide load, which is heating things up at a rapid rate.

TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – Over the past few days, in the wake of the bombings in Karbala and the ideological disputes that delayed the signing of Iraq’s interim constitution, there have been reports that U.S. forces have unloaded a large cargo of parts for constructing long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the southern ports of Iraq.

Busting the liars:   Karen Kwiatkowski    her Web reports
After two decades in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, now 43, knew her career as a regional analyst was coming to an end when — in the months leading up to the war in Iraq — she felt she was being “propagandized” by her own bosses.
With master’s degrees from Harvard in government and zoology and two books on Saharan Africa to her credit, she found herself transferred in the spring of 2002 to a post as a political/military desk officer at the Defense Department’s office for Near East South Asia (NESA), a policy arm of the Pentagon.

Information Clearing House
PRESIDENT ARISTIDE SAYS 'I WAS KIDNAPPED': 'TELL THE WORLD IT IS A COUP'

How much suffering would it take to compensate for the sins of humanity? There are six billion of us now, and our greed and selfishness are rapidly destroying the planet. This is especially true of Americans, as we all know.

The crisis in Haiti is another case of brazen US manipulation of a small, impoverished country. Much of the media portrayed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as an undemocratic leader who betrayed Haiti's democratic hopes and thereby lost the support of his erstwhile backers. He "stole" elections and intransigently refused to address opposition concerns. As a result he had to leave office, which he did on Sunday at the insistence of the US and France. Unfortunately, this is a very distorted view.

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's Feb. 25 testimony to the House Budget Committee provided an unintentionally candid look at the Bush administration's deliberate fiscal policy of bankrupting the federal government to justify a sweeping program of privatization.
During his February 25 testimony before the House Budget Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan generated sensational national headlines by recommending that President Bush's $1.5 trillion in tax cuts be made permanent while Social Security and Medicare benefits be dramatically cut to achieve long term deficit reduction and a balanced budget

David Horowitz whines about a lack of 'academic freedom' – and calls for government regulation of campuses to ensure 'diversity'
Is there a bigger, fatter, more egregious hypocrite on God's green earth than David Horowitz? What else can we call someone who mounts a campaign for censoring campus speech – in the name of "academic freedom"?

In my research I came across this extraordinary documentation of the laws enacted over the years in the US, that curtail, discourage or punish dissent or protest against the official line. It seems quite clear that America is forfeiting it's reputation as home of the brave and the free, and becoming more of a theocratic dynasty or plutocracy. Or a Fascist state - American style.

"The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance" and "Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty" are listed as Project Censored's most underreported stories for 2002-2003. The New York Times runs an editorial on black box voting, drawing widespread attention to the possibility of rigged elections in 2004.
Given our recent history, if freedom were to be undermined, how would we know for sure?

Recently I wrote a piece giving the pros and cons for the invasion of Iraq, declaring myself on the pro side at the time. No sooner had I sent that email I had a quite powerful insight into what could also be going on, something I had been observing for a while, yet hoping against hope that it was not true. Instead of swinging back to the other pole and polarising with a new point of view, I choose to observe from the centre now and try to ask the right questions. In reflection I wondered whether my original piece and the many of those who agreed with me on it was a justification for simply a lack of being informed, or feeling that one had to take a stand one way or the other, based upon what scant information we may have had at our disposal.

This DU-PLICITY article shows how the US and UK have lied about the long-lingering killing properties, about 4.5 billion years, of the radioactive Depleted Uranium weapons. Both countries have used them Iraq and in 5 previous conflicts.

.......The Conference called for the abolition of all uranium weapons and confirmed acceptance of the United Nations Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights finding, that Depleted Uranium weapons are illegal. Accordingly, the Hamburg officially called for the abolition of the use of and halt to the proliferation of these weapons.
The Hamburg Conference concluded: “The evidence from scientists, medical professionals and legal experts at this conference is clear: DU is causing significant health effects worldwide... is illegal under existing International Law and Conventions” The Conference also called for the cessation of the manufacture testing, or use of these weapons. This was the final and unanimous agreement of Conference.

The takeover of America by George W. Bush and that gang gathered with him at the Capital, with hardly a word of protest from the people, remains a surprise and a shock to a lot of clear thinkers.
That this man could seize the office by judicial order after losing the popular vote, use executive order to release American industry from a volume of anti-pollution measures, and lead us to war against Iraq without provocation, should have stirred the wrath of the masses. It didn't happen.            ...Read more

*...hired guns and conservative think tanks...are engaged in a campaign to suppress science (in a manner) that is arguably unmatched in the Western world since the Inquisition."

The fear campaign aimed at Iraq was precisely timed for the kickoff of the midterm election campaign of 2002.
A brilliant paper by Al Gore, lengthy but very lucid

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is planning to put the first weapons in space despite broad international opposition, budget papers sent to Congress on Monday showed.
Bush's spending plans for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 include an unspecified sum for developing and testing "advanced, lightweight, space-based (missile) interceptor components," the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said.In its budget overview, the agency said it was seeking $47 million to start "technology development" of such weapons and others that could be phased into a multi-layered U.S. missile shield starting in January 2012.       Reuters News Service

   *ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
 Momentum is building across the globe for the Global Day of Action against War and Occupation on March 20, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing and invasion of Iraq.

Ralph Nader says that Rep. John Conyers is going to be filing a request for impeachment. Is the Impeach Bush movement gathering steam?
Just 2 comments on this article:
1. On March 11, 2003 we already had our "academic debate" among about 40+ lawyers before Cong. Conyers on the merits of impeachment, with Clark and I presenting the case for impeachment. No one disagreed with us on the merits of impeachment. Basically, the opponents argued on grounds of political expedience: it would hurt the Democrats in 2004.
2. There is now in existence a second, revised draft Bill of Impeachment that we debated on March 11, 2003. Obviously, it will have to be updated. See my Destroying World Order (Clarity Press: 2004) for more details. Fab.

Following on the heels of the military invasion of Iraq, another invasion began: a corporate invasion by Halliburton, Bechtel, and other U.S. companies that were awarded millions in “reconstruction” contracts. Nine months into the occupation, Iraqi schools are still in disrepair, electricity is intermittent, and the water is not safe to drink. On February 24, protest the corporations that are making millions in Iraq, and speak out for Iraqi workers’ rights and self-determination.
• Find the war profiteers in your community
• Calendar of February 24 events

So many Americans do see what is happening and they do care
Click here and then go to "Campaigns"
http://www.basetree.com/photos/sets/photography28.html
Stop Bechtel and the Corporate Invasion of Iraq.

The doomsday scenario was laid out by Gen. Tommy Franks, the recently retired head of CentCom, in of all places the December edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine.
"What is the worst thing that can happen in our country?" Franks asked rhetorically. "Two steps. The first step would be a nexus between weapons of mass destruction . . . and terrorism." The second step would be "the western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."     St. Petersburg Times

This Presidents’ Day weekend, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation presents perspectives from past and present US presidents, as well as from candidates running in this year’s election. Despite calls from past Presidents, nuclear weapons have assumed a far more central role in US security policy. As the past presidential statements make clear, it is patriotic to the country and the world to oppose policies of nuclear annihilation and to call for US leadership toward ending the nuclear weapons threat to humanity and all life. In this election year, we encourage you to examine what candidates have to say about nuclear weapons policy. As a US citizen, you have the power to voice your concerns and challenge nuclear policy decisions.

Get out the dip and chips, pull up a chair and let the show trial begin!

In January 2003 thousands of us from across the world gathered in Porto Alegre in Brazil and declared--reiterated--that "Another World Is Possible." A few thousand miles north, in Washington, George W. Bush and his aides were thinking the same thing.
Our project was the World Social Forum. Theirs--to further what many call the Project for the New American Century.

With the collapse of the edifice of lies used to justify the war in Iraq, the entire US political establishment has rallied around a new lie concocted to conceal the old ones—namely, the assertion that an “intelligence failure” is to blame for the false pre-war claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Late last year, a special Mother Jones investigation detailed how, only weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation to war.

The Iraq War, New War Plans and Nuclear Doctrines
New Zealand's Nuclear-Free laws are under attack as being irrelevant, and a cold war relic. It's claimed that as the cold war is over, and U.S. has disarmed nuclear warships, N.Z. should rescind its Nuclear-Free laws.

With such pressing needs on Earth, it is unconscionable for the White House to consider planning expensive adventures to the moon and Mars. President Bush's proposal would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to complete, saddling future administrations and the next generation with the costs and preventing other more worthwhile projects from being funded.

We must not give up on the media - we must not assume that the media's shameless promotion of George Bush is immutable - for if the corporate media continues its present course and repeats its performance of 2000, Bush has a lock on the election.

LONDON - A strong case arguing the illegality of the invasion of Iraq will be handed soon to the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The report prepared by eight leading international lawyers and professors of law drawn from four countries makes a strong case against the illegality of the way British and U.S. troops fought the war.    Inter Press Service

The reconstruction of Iraq has begun.
Not the reconstruction of vital public services such as water, electricity or public security,
but rather the radical reconstruction of its entire economy.

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon insider, concludes her observations on the run-up to the Iraq war in this last of a three-part series

President Bush's plan to expand the exploration of space parallels U.S. efforts to control the heavens for military, economic and strategic gain.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld long has pushed for technology that could be used to attack or defend orbiting satellites as well as a costly program, heavily reliant on space-based sensors, to thwart incoming warheads.

From Inside the Pentagon

• Iraq WMD was not an immediate threat
• Inspections were working
• Intelligence failed and was misrepresented
• Terrorist connection missing
• Post-war WMD search ignored key resources
• War was not the best – or only – option

Mordor is a land of slagheaps and weapons factories, ruled by an all-seeing Eye that enforces his will through terror and slaughter. Sound familiar? Will our children become orcs or slaves?

The US Treasury Department has called for an investigation into whether a former Bush government member leaked secret documents in his new book.
In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterise as evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
Paul O'Neill

Connecting the Dots to Iraq

Although the following article was published in April 2003, there is much that is relevant today including addresses of all US TV networks and executives. The section on lies about the Iraq war, told by the Bush Admin, and their neo-conservative origins and their validity today, although it is 8 months later it is very important. The US public is still not being told the truth by the mass media, who still faithfully report Administration lies. Thus the majority of the US public is still deceived and believe the Bush Administration.

The doomsday scenario was laid out by Gen. Tommy Franks, the recently retired head of CentCom, in of all places the December edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine.
"What is the worst thing that can happen in our country?" Franks asked rhetorically. "Two steps. The first step would be a nexus between weapons of mass destruction . . . and terrorism." The second step would be "the western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the impoverishment of Russia leaving the United States as the world's "only superpower" or "hyperpower," we are getting to the point, if we are not there already, where only the United States has the capability to launch an offensive first-strike strategic nuclear weapons attack upon any adversary. For that precise reason, deploying the so-called "national missile defense" (NMD) has become a critical objective of the Bush Jr. administration.