Sometimes I forget that burnout applies to me too. After nearly two months straight of chasing stories, it was obviously time for a break. Unlike home though, one can't go take in a movie, take a jog or even a casual stroll. Walking around anywhere in Baghdad, being a...
Bush Doctrine Breeds Terror and Tyranny
Bush administration policies in the war on terrorism mutated the global threat, mobilizing anti-U.S. sentiment. The crisis in Iraq, coupled with radical shifts in U.S. policy in the Middle East and elsewhere, gave extremists a new focus, allowing radical groups to...
Lying or Confused?
I confess I'm not sure if President Bush lied or is just confused when he said in his recent speech that "full sovereignty" was to be handed over to an Iraqi government on June 30. Full sovereignty would mean that the Iraqi government could tell us to get out...
Republicans Can’t Handle the Truth
I used to marvel at James Carville and Paul Begala. Despite the parade of scandals during the Clinton administration eight years of lies, deceit and power abuses they never got tired of defending the indefensible. Now I stand in amazement at Rush...
ISP Fights PATRIOT Act
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) yesterday released more information about the heavily censored legal challenge it is bringing against the government's use of a controversial provision of the USA PATRIOT Act that allows the FBI to obtain from businesses...
Pundits, Heal Thyselves!
Suppose your doctor misdiagnoses your condition he tells you that six months hence you'll be stone-cold dead, pushing up the daisies. As it turns out, however, you did not have leukemia after all, but were only suffering from Lyme disease. Would you not...
Only a Lull Before Another Storm
JERUSALEM, (IPS) - The Israeli attack on Rafah in the Gaza Strip did not come in a political and military vacuum. The Israeli army's "operation rainbow" is now only "paused" and all indications are that the struggle that has continued between Israel and the...
Karpinski Was ‘Set Up,’ but Sanchez Takes the Fall
Less than two weeks after Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez abruptly removed Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski from her command of Abu Ghraib prison, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's chief deputy, convened a meeting at which certain legal issues emerging at the prison were...
‘There Are So Many People the Americans Have Shot’
Seventeen year-old Amir is crying during much of the interview. "We were coming home from work, and were shot so many times," he says with deep anguish and frustration. "Walid told me to leave the car because he was hurt and needed help." The man he speaks of, Walid...
$226 Million in Govt Ads Helped Pave the Way for War
"To ultimately be the victor in the war against terrorism, we need all Americans to be engaged." DHS Secretary, Tom Ridge Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge found this exhortation so fine, he used it in two of the radio and television ads that...


