Month: August 2003

An ad hoc office under US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith appears to have acted as the key base for an informal network of mostly neo-conservative political appointees that circumvented normal interagency channels to lead the push for war against Iraq. The Office of Special Plans (OSP), which worked alongside the Near East … Continue reading “Pentagon Office Home to Neo-Con Network”

This week, just as His Elevated Majesty was becoming increasingly testy about all the questioning of his feeble rationalizations for the Empire’s Middle Eastern adventure – which has turned quite sour for the troops on the ground – Washington received an unlikely morale booster. It was announced that during his late July visit to Washington, … Continue reading “The New Janissaries”

As Tony Blair waltzed out of his final press conference and off to Barbados last week, he once again sidestepped crucial questions on Iraq. Indeed, faced with the collapse of his pre-war "intelligence" on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Tony Blair is falling back on human rights abuses committed by Saddam Hussein as the new … Continue reading “Has Blair Sexed Up Saddam’s Atrocities, Too?”

The War Party fights dirty, as Howard Dean is beginning to find out. His antiwar stance has galvanized Democrats and independents sick unto death of a tame “opposition” party terrorized into silence on the vital question of war and peace. Unlike the other Democratic critics of the President, he isn’t a born-again anti-interventionist, but opposed … Continue reading “Dean vs. Loserman”

Slowly and gradually, as the death toll mounts, as the "weapons of mass destruction" continue to prove elusive, and as evidence mounts that many if not most of the certainties U.S. officials touted as evidence that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat were based on at least shaky and probably deceptive intelligence information, the American … Continue reading “Occupation: Counting the True Costs”

We are fast approaching the second anniversary of the anthrax scare: the first letter filled with the deadly spores was postmarked September 18, 2001. Almost two full years after the FBI fixed its sights on Steven J. Hatfill as a “person of interest” in the anthrax-by-mail attacks, John Ashcroft’s G-men are still persecuting Hatfill – … Continue reading “Anthrax Anniversary”

Ever since we peaceniks lost the effort to stop the war, our liberventionist friends have been telling us to look on the bright side. We should all be pleased that a dictator met justice, they say, no matter why the war was fought or what its other results may be. It is in this optimistic … Continue reading “The Autumn of the Patriarchs”

All across the world economic ministers are asking themselves "What are we to do about China?" Everybody wants to sell their goods here, but inevitably, Chinese goods break through what trade barriers are left in place in the 21st century and swamp the market, putting locals out of business and sending consumers away smiling at … Continue reading “Adjust or Fall”

In 2002, this writer went on record predicting US military action in West Africa. Rumsfeld had just said that Al-Qaeda had operations in 60 countries, and that the US maintained prerogative to go into those potentially failed states and strike blows for American values. And Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner was quoted last summer … Continue reading “Warmongers of the Congressional Black Caucus”

The long-awaited congressional report on 9/11 came with a kicker: 28 redacted pages, deemed too sensitive for the unwashed masses, which have generated more discussion than all the other 800-plus pages put together. The censored section deals with “specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the … Continue reading “What Does Bush Have to Hide?”