By: Patrick Martin  

As in every action of the Bush administration, personal greed and profit-gouging are an important aspect. The ransacking of Iraqi government facilities, added to the devastation caused by American bombing, is part of the process of demolishing the large state-run sector of Iraq's economy, to the benefit of American companies. Already contracts have been awarded to private American firms to provide new school books, replace looted medical equipment, even train a new Iraqi police force.

In the Orwellian language of New York Times columnist William Safire, the U.S. aim is to "introduce free enterprise and the rule of law" - by means of a criminal invasion, followed by widespread looting. This will set the stage for a much bigger theft: the privatization of Iraq's vast oil resources and their exploitation, directly or indirectly, by U.S. and British oil companies.

There is more at stake, however, than rank hypocrisy or an appetite for Iraq's oil wealth. The looting in Iraq directly serves the political interests of American imperialism in cementing its domination of the conquered country.

By: Greg Palast  

Of the thousands of bless you and f___ you messages that arrived at the Guardian papers after we broke the Florida vote swindle story in November 2000, none ruffled my editors' English reserve but one: a letter demanding we retract the article or else. It was from Carter-Ruck, a law firm with the reputation as the piranhas of England's libel bar, a favorite of foreign millionaires unhappy about their press. Their letter stated they represented Barrick Corporation - a Canadian-American gold-mining operation that employed George Bush Sr.

Barrick particularly did not like my mention of the stomach-churning evidence that Sutton Resources, a Barrick subsidiary, had buried alive as many as fifty gold miners in Tanzania in August 1996, prior to Barrick's purchase of Sutton in 1999.

What set their complaint apart from the scores of others we receive from corporations bitching and moaning about my exposes was Barrick's extraordinary demand...

By: Andrew Gumbel  

If U.S. and British forces are scratching their heads at their inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, perhaps they should talk to Scott Ritter, the United Nations weapons inspector who famously quit in 1998, after seven years on the job, and has been a controversial figure ever since.

For months, Mr Ritter has said Iraq's capability of producing or deploying chemical or biological weapons was 90-95% destroyed on his watch and was very unlikely to have been built up again under international sanctions and the constant surveillance of spy satellites and U.S. and British war planes.

Iraq's nuclear programme was dismantled at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, he said, and factories to produce chemical or biological agents deactivated shortly thereafter. Any leftover nerve agents would only have a shelf life of five years and would probably be useless by now...

By: Bob Herbert  

Somewhere George Shultz is smiling.

Last week Mr. Shultz's Bechtel Group was able to demonstrate exactly what wars are good for. The Bush administration gave it the first big Iraqi reconstruction contract, a prized $680 million deal over 18 months that puts Bechtel in the driver's seat for the long-term reconstruction of the country, which could cost $100 billion or more.

Bechtel essentially was given a license to make money. And that license was granted in a closed-door process that was restricted to a handful of politically connected American companies.

"The Baathists in Syria and Iraq really are fascist parties. They're designed after the Fascist and Communist parties of the 1930's. They look like them. They act like them. They're anti-Semitic like them. And I think that we ought to... call a spade a spade."

- Former CIA director James Woolsey, on NBC's Meet the Press, Apr. 20, 2003

By: Sheryl McCarthy  

Stolar faxed me a copy of the "demonstration debriefing form" that's being used by New York police to question anti-war protestors. The form bears the seal of the police department's intelligence division on one side, and on the other a seal I was unable to decipher, but which Stolar said reads: "New York, New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Executive Office of the President of the United States."

You tell me what war protestors have to do with drug trafficking and why the President needs to know their political views. "It's one thing to protect people from danger", Ueda told me. "It's another to protect people from dissent."

This kind of interrogation of peaceful protestors is intimidation, pure and simple...

By: Cynthia Tucker  

Many staunch Republicans would recoil at the thought that they are perceived as racist, and, indeed, most are not. Nevertheless, the party has acquired a reputation for using race as a blunt instrument in political warfare.

Among other things, the Republican Party has cynically opposed affirmative action, even modest programs such as those at the University of Michigan. At the same time, the GOP is silent on legacy, a policy that gives preference to the children of college alumni, most of whom are white. (President Bush himself benefited from legacy in winning admission to Yale.)

The GOP is also associated with political campaigns that use a virulent "Southern strategy" to tap into the resentments of whites still hostile to the civil rights movement. Gov. Sonny Perdue's unfortunate pledge to allow a vote on the Confederate battle emblem is part of that strategy.

"Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection. If it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set."

- Adlai Stevenson

By: Rich Procter  

Franklin Graham is a Christian Evangelist who has called Islam a "very wicked and evil" religion. About 9/11, he said: "It wasn't Methodists flying into those buildings, and it wasn't Lutherans. It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith." He told a British newspaper: "The true God is the God of the Bible, not the Koran."

With George Bush's blessing (pun intended), this guy is sending a bunch of his believers to convert the Iraqi people to Christianity. Graham puts it this way: "We are there to reach out to love them and save them, and as a Christian I do this in the name of Jesus Christ."

Is there some word for what Rev. Franklin is doing? Some word beyond "arrogance"? "Mega-hubris"? "Stupendo-smugness"? "Ego-Mondo-Mania"? He's about to barge into a country we've just bombed, shot up, and wrecked, and he's going to instruct these swarthy little heathens in the one true way to salvation, as practiced by their invaders (Ooops! I mean "liberators"!). Hey, this'll work! Yeah! I mean, what can go wrong? I'm sure Reverend Graham will explain it to them so they can understand it: "You camel-jockeys are just deluded! No problem! You just need to renounce that mumbo-jumbo devil cult you belong to, and join up with the one true way, as practiced by right-thinkers like myself, Jerry bin Falwell, and Pat al-Robertson."

From:  

Our Great Leader started quietly waggling his massive penis extension - I mean, the U.S. military - again last week, earning him the number one spot. Meanwhile Pat Robertson (2) has been backing Dubya up with some pertinent info on the Rapture, and the Pentagon (3) has let the horse out after blowing off the barn doors. Elsewhere, Rush Limbaugh (5) force-feeds us another helping of rank conservative hypocrisy, various evangelists (6 & 7) are spreading the good word in Iraq, and Dale Petroskey (8) steps up to the plate and takes a swing at Tim Robbins. Enjoy.

"And then came the speech: 'You are either with us or against us.' And the bombing began. And the old paradigm was restored as our leader encouraged us to show our patriotism by shopping and by volunteering to join groups that would turn in their neighbor for any suspicious behavior. In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred. Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue state."

- Tim Robbins, in his speech to the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Apr. 15, 2003

By: Stephen F. Cohen  

The Bush administration and its cheerleaders in the media are claiming that the "remarkable success" of the U.S. war in Iraq proves its opponents were "spectacularly wrong" - even, some charge, unpatriotic. Intimidated by these allegations and the demonstration of overwhelming American military power, many critics of the war are falling silent. Indeed, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, no doubt speaking for several of the party's presidential candidates, has rushed to urge that "the war... not be on the ballot in 2004."

But critics of the war have no reason to regret their views. No sensible opponent doubted that the world's most powerful military could easily crush such a lesser foe. The real issue was and remains very different: Will the Iraq war increase America's national security, as the Bush administration has always promised and now insists is already the case, or will it undermine and diminish our national security, as thoughtful critics believed?

"Stealing, if you do not already have money, is a perilous matter."

- Sociologist C. Wright Mills

Report from:  

The judge at the trial of four men accused of being members of a terror cell criticized Attorney General John Ashcroft today for praising the government's chief witness and implied that Mr. Ashcroft had violated his ban on public comments about the case.

"I believe the Attorney General is subject to the orders of this court", said Judge Gerald E. Rosen of Federal District Court.

At a news conference on Thursday in Washington, Mr. Ashcroft spoke about the Justice Department's progress against terrorism. He cited a number of plea agreements with informers, including the government's lead witness in the case here, Youssef Hmimssa.

By: Eric Alterman  

...Enhanced security measures cost the nation's cities an estimated $2.6 billion in the fifteen months after 9/11.

But as with Vietnam, "W" is AWOL and Cheney has "other priorities". They have not merely ignored "homeland" protection, they have sabotaged it. Shocking, yes. But don't take my word for it. A January Brookings Institution report explains: "President Bush vetoed several specific (and relatively cost-effective) measures proposed by Congress that would have addressed critical national vulnerabilities. As a result, the country remains more vulnerable than it should be today." A Council on Foreign Relations task force chaired by Gary Hart and Warren Rudman concurs: "America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil", it warns.

Power plants constitute obvious terrorist targets but are frequently operated by private or semiprivate corporations unwilling to pay to protect them. According to Brookings, the administration has done nothing - repeat, nothing - to help or encourage "private-sector firms - even ones that handle dangerous materials - toward improving their own security"...

Editorial from:  

...Mr. Bush's successful prosecution of the war in Iraq does not mean that Americans must now fall in line behind his misguided domestic agenda. On almost every front, it is a disaster, a national train wreck that must be headed off for the country's well-being.

From the beginning, the key to Mr. Bush's domestic vision has been massive tax cuts, which Republican ideologues see both as a reward to the well-heeled, and a key to starving the government of money that might be spent on programs like health care or housing. Conservatives once viewed deficits as the height of bad fiscal policy. Now, they embrace them. There is no danger that a government swimming in red ink will come up with new programs to protect the environment, to extend health care for the poor, or provide affordable housing to the homeless. No matter how much the President says he wants to improve education, the deficit is an all-purpose excuse to avoid helping public school districts overcome crippling cuts imposed by local governments that are teetering on insolvency.

By: John Chuckman  

Despite Bush's incoherent blubbering, Iraq has never had dealings with al Qaeda. There is no evidence for this notion whatsoever. Of course, now that the U.S. has invaded the country, and it is fighting for its life, anything becomes possible. Besides, if relations with al Qaeda were a sound cause for war, there were far better candidates.

Al Qaeda was in good part a creation of Pakistan's intelligence service wishing to manipulate affairs in Afghanistan. But, no, Pakistan is not expected to be attacked any time soon. Instead, it is America's ally in fighting terror, having been granted numerous bounties and forgiveness of past behavior.

You could make a crude case for attacking Saudi Arabia, certainly no cruder than some of the actual arguments we hear from Washington. Fourteen of the 9/11 desperados were Saudis. But, no, while Saudi Arabia has been called some names in Washington and intimidated into changing some of its practices in making charitable donations, it is under no threat.

"Inflation hurts the people economies should reward the most, those who simply get up and go to work every day obeying the law... there is no substitute for putting the people of the nation in the driver's seat... there is no way that one group of people, sitting atop a society, can make decisions which suffice to guarantee the best possible life for all of the people who live in that society."

- Bill Clinton, speaking to the "future leaders of Belarus" (Academy of Sciences, Minsk, Belarus, Jan. 15, 1994)

By: John Liechty  

Sooner or later, unless I miss my bet, Gulf War II will enter some version of a gloating aftermath, and Newsweek/Time will release a Special Victory Issue, as it did to commemorate the "end" of Gulf War I. I remember that Victory Issue well - I read how we'd "kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all", how our victory was "almost biblical", and how George Bush in triumph was an avatar of "Joshua". I remember the somber paragraph mourning the nearly 60,000 Americans who died over a nine year period in Vietnam, placed a few crowing paragraphs away from the information that 100,000 plus Iraqis had been killed in 100 hours of Desert Storm. (And some people have the audacity to suggest that we proceed as if an American life were worth more than that of a mere human being!) A dozen years and another Bush later, it's happening all over again. Shock and Awe will likely be succeeded by Crow and Gloat, at least in that circle of hell encompassing FOX News at its center.

By: David Antoon  

Defying world opinion and a majority in the United Nations, we have marched off to war again. Colin Powell, the Army major who did the initial investigation and whitewash of the My Lai massacre, presented to the United Nations a student's dissertation (as an intelligence report) and a forged document as proof of the need to go to war. President Bush, who conveniently disappeared from his Guard Unit when the Air Force began mandatory drug screening, has now launched a war to create a "New World Order", under the guise of removing weapons of mass destruction, or regime change, or democratization - all debunked by the CIA. Our government is "dissing" France because of their disagreement with our policies and determination to stop an unnecessary war. This administration conveniently forgets to mention that we owe a large debt to France for our national independence.

My journey, one that has taken me full circle from dutiful warrior to questioning and concerned patriot, was made with a great deal of thought and pain. Thus, it is with anguish that I watch as we are bombarded daily with the images and discussions of war, along with accompanying background music. All of the attendant hoopla and iconography trivializes this tragedy, making it look like a sporting event. President Bush and his circle of hawkish advisors promote war like cheerleaders at a football game. It is understandable why those relatively few in Washington who know first hand the experiences of war wish to avoid it. Unfortunately, they are too few, and the people in power, who have never experienced those horrors, promote war with reckless naiveté.

By: Jeff Rosenzweig  

At its best, American patriotism revels in community, a commonality founded on tolerance and diversity. At its worst, it is reduced to unthinking slogans like "my country, right or wrong". Those inclined to the latter view invariably resort to impugning the patriotism of liberals. It's easier than making a reasoned argument, after all. Just as many fools believe Iraq had something to do with the destruction of the Twin Towers, many believe that liberals cannot be patriots. They are mistaken on both counts.

Leftist patriots believe that if your country is wrong, you make it right. If your government commits barbaric acts, you dissent. If your government trumps up a war of aggression on a rationale of untruths and spurious connections between unrelated evils, you protest. If your government lies to you, you object. If your country's actions debase the ideals on which it was founded, you burn with the kind of shame and anger that prompts you to take down your flag.

By: Julian Borger and Nicholas Watt  

A wave of lawlessness across the country illustrated the potential for the unravelling situation to turn a successful military campaign into postwar disaster in a matter of days as a result of the total collapse of government services.

"From what we have seen in the reports, it appears there is no functioning government in Iraq at the moment", the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said. "We have also seen scenes of looting, and obviously law and order must be a major concern."

By: Howard Dean  

Too much is at stake. We have taken decades of consensus on the conduct of foreign policy - bipartisan consensus in the United States and consensus among our allies in the world community - and turned it on its head. It could well take decades to repair the damage this President and his cohort of right-wing ideological advisors have done to our standing in the international community.

Theirs is a radical view of our role in the world. The President who campaigned on a platform of a humble foreign policy has instead begun implementing a foreign policy characterized by dominance, arrogance, and intimidation. The tidal wave of support and goodwill that engulfed us after the tragedy of 9/11 has dried up and been replaced by undercurrents of distrust, skepticism, and hostility by many who had been among our closest allies.

This President shamelessly divides us from one another. He divides us by race - as he did when he claimed that the University of Michigan uses quotas in its law school admissions. He divides us by class by rewarding his campaign donors with enormous tax cuts while the rest of us are deprived of affordable health care, prescription drugs for our seniors, and good schools for our kids. He divides us by gender by seeking to restrict reproductive choice for women. He divides us by sexual orientation by appointing reactionary judges to the bench, and as he did in Texas by refusing to sign the Hate Crimes bill if it included gay or lesbian Americans as potential victims.

By: Martin Matheny  

Proponents of the Bush plan would argue that a plan based on this theory is a long-term policy investment, and it is probable that the legacy of a full implementation of supply-side economic theory would not be known for generations. True enough, but can our economy wait years before it returns to an acceptable level of employment? Can we wait a few generations for the markets to return to Clinton-era levels of production and investor confidence?

Of course not. Supply-side economics, while an interesting theory, is just that, a theory. Our economy needs a solution now, and fortunately there are many options available. Of course, none of them appeal to the White House, since they tend to leave wealthy corporate and private donors out in the cold, while providing assistance to the citizens who really need it, namely the other 99% of us.

So what have the team of Bush-league economists given us exactly? A new round of tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporate behemoths, based on a theory that hasn't been proven, that probably won't work in our economy, and even if it does, won't show any effects until well after most of us are broke and homeless. The time has come for new solutions to our economic crisis. Americans are tired of the same old song.

By: Ron Grossman  

Mesmerized by photos and footage from Iraq, we could easily forget that George W. Bush has been pressing his fight on a second front as well.

A quieter war, it has largely dropped off our television screens. Network anchormen aren't embedded with White House staffers. They don't race around in olive-drab Humvees as presidential advisers mop up isolated pockets of congressional resistance to the administration's home-front campaign.

Still, if Bush wins this battle, he will have set back the clock of American politics to 1933. Already perplexed by his go-it-alone foreign policy, our residual friends and allies in Europe will be further confused by that U-turn.

Editorial from:  

...Filibustering Judge Owen's confirmation would send the Bush administration two important messages: the President must stop packing the courts with ideologues, and he must show more respect for the Senate's role.

At Judge Owen's confirmation hearings, it was abundantly clear that she is far to the right of most Americans and that her ideology drives her decisions. On the Texas Supreme Court, she argued in one case that a minor seeking an abortion could be required to prove that she was aware of the religious objections to abortion. Judge Owen has also consistently ruled against workers, accident victims, and victims of discrimination.

It is not by chance that the Senate is being asked to confirm someone with these views. The White House has culled the legal profession to find nominees with aggressive conservative agendas. It is asking Senators to approve, along with Judge Owen, Carolyn Kuhl, who was a strong supporter of maintaining the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University, which discriminated against blacks; Jeffrey Sutton, a lawyer who has severely set back the rights of the disabled; and James Leon Holmes, who has compared abortion to the Holocaust.

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