Month: August 2005

This news report in the Philadelphia Times Herald might shock the average reader, but its subject is surely familiar to longtime readers of Antiwar.com: “A memorandum sent to the 9/11 Commission, and Senate and House intelligence committees in September 2004, suggests that young Israelis who canvassed dozens of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) offices in … Continue reading “Israel and 9/11: New Report Connects the Dots”

Arms merchants from industrialized nations are increasingly finding Asia, which has replaced the Near East as the world’s top conventional-weapons market, the place to go, according to a new report [.pdf] by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Led by purchases by China and India, the world’s most populous region accounted for nearly 50 percent of … Continue reading “Asia Displaces Near East as Top Arms Importer”

Anyone interested in Iraq’s new constitution would be advised to check out the film Return to the Land of Wonders, which focuses on the crafting of Iraq’s interim constitution in the Spring of 2004. The documentary was shot by Maysoon Pachachi, the daughter of 82 year old secular businessman Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister … Continue reading “Iraq’s Hollow Sovereignty”

As the U.S. Congress prepares to vote on the final version of a reauthorized USA PATRIOT Act, a major civil rights group claims to have proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has used the law to snoop into people’s library records – a charge the FBI has vigorously denied since the Act was … Continue reading “Secrecy Shrouds PATRIOT Act Powers”

One day after the formal presentation by a majority of Iraq’s elected leaders of their proposed constitution, opinions here and in Baghdad appeared divided over whether the draft would lead to greater democracy or the virtual, if not actual, disintegration of the country. While U.S. officials predictably put the most positive spin on the charter, … Continue reading “Iraq: Democracy or Disintegration?”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050830.html

You most likely haven’t heard of a feisty woman named Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, even though you pay her salary. For over 20 years now, Greenhouse has overseen contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers. And up until last Saturday, Greenhouse was the highest-ranking civilian member of the Army Corps of Engineers. She has been demoted … Continue reading “Bunny Bugs the War Profiteers”

"By the charter that my job was given when it was set up, I have the guaranteed right to go not just to the executive editor with any misgivings I have, but directly to the publisher. On one occasion, when I thought that there was too much opinion seeping into the news pages, I went … Continue reading “NY Times Skews the News… Again”

Next week I will begin teaching a college seminar entitled "The Early American Republic," and the first subject we will tackle over the month of September is the framing of the Constitution of the United States and the struggle for ratification. By October we will study the challenges to the power of the newly created … Continue reading “A Tale of Two Constitutional Conventions: Iraq’s and Ours”

Over the weekend, a spectrum of liberal responses to Cindy Sheehan came into sharper focus. The message is often anti-Bush… but not necessarily antiwar. Frank Rich spun out his particular style of triangulation in the New York Times. While deriding President Bush’s stay-the-course stance, Rich also felt a need to disparage the most visible advocate … Continue reading “Triangulation for War”