Rumsfeld’s Secret Army

"Outlandish, conspiratorial and filled with error and anonymous conjecture," said Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita the other day, and, no, he wasn't talking about the campaign of lies that preceded the invasion and conquest of Iraq, but of Seymour Hersh's New Yorker...

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The Secret of Abu Ghraib

Thank the gods for Seymour Hersh, that's all I can say. Without him, the truth about what went on at Abu Ghraib prison – and the dark forces behind it – would probably still be locked away in a safe somewhere deep in the bowels of the Pentagon. His latest...

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Abu Ghraib and the Pornography of Power

When lawmakers emerged from their private viewing of the Abu Ghraib photos – a screening arranged under conditions of high security on Capitol Hill – they were at great pains to come up with synonyms for "Ewwwwwwwww!" "Appalling," said Senate majority leader...

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Who is John Israel?

The blithering, the blathering, the pontification, and the grandstanding – that about describes the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the Abu Ghraib filth-fest. The Democrats were so hot to link Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld directly to the...

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Abu Ghraib Defendants: Pawns in a Game

The court martial of Army reservist Jeremy Sivits for his alleged role in the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is scheduled to start on May 19. The folks back home in Hyndman, Pennsylvania, however, are skeptical: "Despite the graphic photos of prisoners...

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The S&M War

The pictures just keep coming at us: the latest batch of Iraqi humiliation photos appeared this [Thursday] morning in the Washington Post, along with a story revealing that the newspaper has come into possession of "more than 1,000" images, a mix of ordinary...

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The Mystery of Abu Ghraib

George W. Bush and his media minions told us that we must battle "the terrorists" in Baghdad and Najaf so we won't have to fight them in New York and Baltimore. But should the news that the Iraq war has been transformed into something resembling a gay S&M movie...

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Antiwar.com: The Only Alternative

There isn't time to write this, which is why I'm tapping it out an hour or so into a return flight to San Francisco from New York, where I've just spoken to a group of 150 or so. And a most appreciative group it was. I was astonished to discover, however, that my...

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Depravity as ‘Liberation’

The Abu Ghraib prison was a symbol of Saddam's horrific tyranny: electrodes hanging out of the walls, floors stained with the blood of god-knows-how-many victims, bodies dangling from meat-hooks, like in some cheap Grade-B horror flick. So when the Americans came and...

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Neoconservatism Versus Libertarianism

Oh, how the neocons are squirming, and turning somersaults over Iraq, a performance the sight of which would be almost a pleasure to behold if not for the steep price of admission. New York Times columnist David Brooks' soddily defiant mea culpa – which we...

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