Bush’s Twisted Idea of ‘Safer’

President Bush gave a speech on Tuesday in which he made specific claims about how the United States is safer as a result of his military action. I dispute assertions about particular Middle Eastern or South Asian countries. Bush: "The world is changing for the better...

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Decision in the Balkans

It appears that the fate of the American Empire will not be decided in Iraq, however strange that may sound. Body counts, rising costs and intelligence revelations keep showing that Iraq is an obvious fiasco; it would be more than easy to campaign on that point and...

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Plenty of Blood, No Foul

Key intelligence used to justify war with Iraq has now been shown to be unreliable, concludes Lord Butler in the British government's report about the misinformation that caused a pointless war. Nevertheless, says Lord Butler, there is no one to blame for the...

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China Taking Advantage of War on Terror

The reported execution of an alleged Uighur "separatist" in China's Xinjiang province is adding to concern by human rights groups that Beijing is taking advantage of the ongoing "war on terrorism" to crack down on the predominantly Muslim indigenous population in its...

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Palestinians Run Into Another Wall

This other wall is not so visible as the controversial "security barrier" Israel is building around itself, but it is as real. It divides thousands of Palestinians from one another, and it does not look like it is going to come down. The name of this wall is The...

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CIA: From Bad to Worse?

Blame the CIA. That's a political agenda that has found bipartisan support in Congress. Both the right and the left saw the departure of CIA chief George Tenet as a first step toward improving U.S. intelligence capabilities. This month two bipartisan committees –...

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The Cult of Power

With almost 900 Americans dead, thousands horribly wounded, and talk of canceling a national election that is taking place in the shadow of terrorism, one has to ask: how did we get here? Seymour Hersh, speaking at the American Civil Liberties Union conference on July...

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Wrongful Death and Everything After

BAGHDAD - Allawi Kathem Abed sat waiting patiently in the Iraqi assistance center in the capital last Saturday, confident things would be solved soon. He had come from the town of Abu Ghraib to Baghdad with a death certificate, a list of stolen property, and an oral...

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Government Attempts End-Run on Detainee Rights

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that suspects imprisoned during the so-called "war on terrorism" could use the American legal system to challenge their detention, lawyers for prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center are moving forward with...

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Quandary Over Saddam’s Defense

DUBAI - The rumor mill has been hard at work since Saddam Hussein first appeared before an Iraqi investigative judge after his December capture. The questions, now, are who will defend the former Iraqi president and will he get a fair trail under the new government....

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