Antiwar.com

Saturday at the Westin Diplomat hotel outside Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Democratic Party finalized its platform for the upcoming Democratic National Convention to be held in Boston later this month. Progressives and peace lovers – mostly Kucinich and Dean supporters – didn’t get much at all. Not only does the platform not call for the … Continue reading “Democrats Drop Antiwar Pretensions”

A former speechwriter for President Richard Nixon thinks his old boss made a mistake when he ended the military draft in the early 1970s during the war in Vietnam. Noel Koch reports that Nixon himself came to believe he erred and “[urged] that the draft be restored.” Well, that’s too bad. My only reason for … Continue reading “The Draft Is Fascist”

After 9/11, the word of the president was supposedly the only protection that the rights and liberties of the American people needed. After 9/11, President Bush granted himself unlimited, unchecked power over anyone in the world suspected of being a terrorist. The Supreme Court, in a series of rulings on June 28, 2004, trimmed that … Continue reading “Torture as Due Process”

Senate Iraq Report Said to Skirt White House Use of Intelligence American principles (truth, justice, responsibility) anyone? It’s been quite a while since anything I’ve read on Antiwar.com has gotten me riled up. But today, two articles really bothered me. First, it appears the 9/11 commission has agreed not to focus on the misinterpretations of … Continue reading “Backtalk July 11, 2004”

Iraq is suffering an acute economic crisis marked by widespread poverty, catastrophic levels of unemployment and deteriorating work conditions for those fortunate enough to have jobs. Yet according to reports by international labor and human rights groups, a series of policies enacted by U.S. administrators and large Western contractors, who promised to bring economic recovery, … Continue reading “Iraq’s Economic Woes Fuel Resentment”

In what civil liberties advocates call the most massive database surveillance program in U.S. history, the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, continues to compile billions of records on law-abiding citizens and receive federal funding, despite public outcry and suspicion. A Florida-based company, Seisint, Inc., created the database shortly after the terror attacks of Sept. … Continue reading “Welcome to the Matrix”

Mohammed ElBaradei – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency – was in Israel last week. Pakistan next week? Or maybe India? Or North Korea? All in pursuit of a nuke-free world. But getting rid of nukes is not ElBaradei’s job. True, the IAEA was assigned the collateral duty of Safeguards “inspectorate” by Article … Continue reading “ElBaradei’s Clintonian Mission”

LONDON – The ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that the "security wall" Israel is building in the West Bank is illegal marks a major victory for Palestinians. The ruling is not binding. Officially it is termed only an "advisory opinion" offered by the court. Israeli officials briefing media while the … Continue reading “Palestinian Win Rises Higher Than Israeli Wall”

I love the sharp tongue of the British. A former legal adviser to the British Foreign Office has said George Bush’s war on terrorism is “legal nonsense” and confers no more power on the United States to detain people than the war against obesity. That’s true. The British lady, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, is quite correct, too, … Continue reading “Legal Nonsense”

A U.S. Army counterintelligence agent who accused fellow National Guardsmen of abusing Iraqi detainees says that his own commander coerced an Army psychiatrist into diagnosing him as “delusional.” According to Sergeant Greg Ford, his commanding officer confronted psychiatrist Angelina Madera, a captain with the 30th Medical Support Element, after she had initially assessed Ford to … Continue reading “Army Whistleblower Says Superiors Hid Torture”