Retired Brass Call for Independent Torture Probe

Adding their voice to a steadily growing clamor, eight retired generals and admirals have called on President George W. Bush to appoint a bipartisan, independent commission to conduct a comprehensive investigation of U.S. detention and interrogation practices in Iraq,...

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Italian Sympathy for Iraqi Resistance Dwindles

ROME - Without being exactly encouraging, the Italian peace movement had been sympathetic toward the resistance in Iraq. Not any more. The Stop the War coalition, which brings together several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is still calling for...

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A Plea for the Abducted

This afternoon I learned that my friends, Raad and Simona, were abducted (along with another Iraqi and another Italian) from their Bridges to Baghdad office in Baghdad. This did not come as quite the shock it might have because recently Raad had emailed our mutual...

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Terrorism Is the Price of Empire

Pat Buchanan spoke with Bill Maher on Sept. 3 about Iraq and the "War on Terror." The following is a transcript from Real Time With Bill Maher. MAHER: First of all, if Osama bin Laden was captured and killed today, it would have the same effect on terrorism...

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UN Chief Seeks 30,000 More Troops for Peacekeeping

UNITED NATIONS - As the United Nations gets ready for the opening of the 59th session of the General Assembly next week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the 191 member states to provide more than 30,000 troops for an anticipated surge in demand for peacekeeping...

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Judge to Question Pinochet

SANTIAGO - Just a few days before the 31st anniversary of Chile's Sept. 11, 1973 coup d'etat led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator will be questioned by a judge in connection with the forced disappearance of opponents during his 1973-1990 regime. Pinochet...

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Backtalk, September 8, 2004

Eugene Koontz's backtalkEugene Koontz misses the point. Most people don't pay close attention to the details of state policy because we're biologically designed for a way of life in which all the major decisions affecting our lives are made in small primate social...

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Pollardites in the Pentagon?

In 1987, Jonathan Pollard, U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was imprisoned for life for selling a roomful of U.S. secret documents to Israel. Tel Aviv refused to return them. At the Clinton-Netanyahu summit at Wye River, Pollard became a subject of contention....

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Sadr City Peace Talks Fall Apart

BAGHDAD - The new outbreak of violence in Baghdad has shattered ceasefire talks between Shia militants and the Iraqi government. Following a successful if fragile ceasefire in the holy city Najaf, it was hoped that talks in the impoverished Sadr City of Baghdad would...

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A Shabby and Sinister Case for War

Anyone following the Larry Franklin Pentagon spy story is keenly aware of the solidarity binding neoconservatives, AIPAC, Israel's right-wing Likud Party, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the war drums neocons are beating against Iran. By this time, only the willfully...

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