A group composed of widows of 9/11 victims are demanding the release of a key CIA report.
"The report, prepared by the CIA's inspector general, is the only major 9/11 government review that has still not been made publicly available," Michael Isikoff reported in January. "When it was completed in August 2005, Newsweek and other publications reported that it contained sharp criticisms of former CIA direc... (more)
A young reader argues that the media still doesn't get it:
I'm a passionate Ron Paul supporter, as are very many people approximately my age. I don't have a landline telephone, I’m not a registered Republican and I get practically all of my news from “alternative” resources (such as your blog). People like me are not on the pollsters’ radar. As some in the political analysis field have begun to suspect, traditional polling methods are blind to technology
Linda Pelzman appreciates the beauty of the outdoor world, sometimes pulling her children into the yard to gaze at a full moon or peer into a dense fog. An educator and founder of a summer camp, she only wishes her enthusiasm was fully shared.
On a recent nature walk near her home in Gaithersburg, her younger son, 6, was unimpressed, pleading, "I just want to go back to civilization." Her older son, at 13, has made it clear he prefers PlayStation.
More than 200,000 women had abortions last year - the highest number ever, new figures show today.
The number of abortions rose by almost four per cent in 2006 compared with the previous year as terminations become easier to obtain.
A total of 201,173 abortions were carried out in England and Wales last year and almost 4,000 of them were for girls under 16, the legal age of consent for sex.
"Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do."
"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology.... Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called 'education.' Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part.... It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade ... (more)
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it." ~ George Santayana
On May 9, 2007, with little attention from the snoozing media, George W. Bush issued a "presidential directive" that allows him to assume control of the federal government following a "catastrophic emergency."
Although the directive doesn't specifically identify the types of emergencies that would qualify ... (more)
"It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral."
General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Press Club, February 17, 2006.
"They will be held accountable for the decisions they make. So they should in fact not obey the illegal and immoral orders to use weapons of mass destruction."
The American people’s response to President Bush’s “war on terror” should be … terror. The administration, sometimes with Congress’s complicity:
is preparing for a 50-year stay in Iraq, complete with 14 military bases and an embassy larger than the Vatican. (Can there be a better recruiting program for al Qaeda?)
has abolished habeas corpus, the principle that for centuries has protected people from arbitrary confineme
In a Saturday interview with CNN's Late Edition, veteran New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh revealed new details about the coverup of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. His new piece in the magazine can be read here.
"The notion... that our leader, Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense and his aides, they all went and testified in May after the stories about Abu Ghraib became public that 'oh my God... (more)
What's an Iraqi life worth? How about an Iraqi car?
For the U.S. military in Iraq, it may be roughly the same.
A report released late last month by the Government Accountability Office examines the practices and rules guiding condolence payments that the U.S. military can distribute to families of Iraqi civilians killed "as a result of U.S. and coalition forces' actions during combat." These voluntary payments -- known as "solatia" payments -- can also cover injurie... (more)
TURBO, Colombia - The men of Uraba began to disappear in 1996 just about the time El Aleman showed up.
His real name was Fredy Rendon, though the campesinos knew him only as "the German" because in this region of mostly dark-skinned farmers, he looked more like a northern European.
There was no mystery about his job: Rendon was one of the top commanders of an illegal paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC. At the head of an army of 1,... (more)
An interesting addition is being made to Area 51. A new hangar that is almost twice the size of Hangar 18 is being constructed at the top secret testing facility for experimental aircraft ("Large New Hangar at Area 51," no pagination). The construction is located SE of the South Ramp and is an estimated size of 200x500 feet and roughly 100 feet tall (no pagination). Although the sides of the structure are unfinished, a huge hangar door is visible from the side... (more)
Eurosceptics have been branded "terrorists" just days before Tony Blair prepares to fly to Brussels to smuggle in the new EU constitution by the back door.
Critics of the EU’s secret plans to bring back the failed European constitution by stealth at this week’s summit were blasted by the Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano.
The Italian head of state told a news conference in Siena last week that "those who are anti EU are terr... (more)
THE White House today insisted that President George W. Bush learned about abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison from media reports, refuting a former top general's assertion that Mr Bush likely knew about the scandal before it broke.
"The President said over three years ago that he first saw the pictures of the abuse on television," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel in Crawford, Texas, where Mr Bush is spending the weekend at his ranch.
Fairfax County middle school student Hal Beaulieu hopped up from his lunch table one day a few months ago, sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office.
Among his crimes: hugging.
All touching -- not only fighting or inappropriate touching -- is against the rules at Kilmer Middle School in Vienna. Hand-holding, handshakes and high-fives? Banned. The rule has been conveyed to students this way: "NO PH... (more)
Muslim Scholars Association has said in an online statement that US forces bombed a Sunni mosque in Baquba, killing five Iraqis.
The association which is headed by Harith al-Dhari indicated that a US tank destroyed the Abdullah Ibn Mubarak mosque in Baquba, 60 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, on Sunday.
The attack, according to the statement has left five Iraqis dead, DPA reported.
The incident came a day after a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle again... (more)
UNITED NATIONS, June 16 — The search for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction appears close to an official conclusion, several years after their absence became a foregone one.
The United States and Britain have circulated a new proposal to the members of the United Nations Security Council to “terminate immediately the mandates” of the weapons inspectors. Staff meetings on the latest proposal have already taken place, and officials say that the perm... (more)
Infowars reporter Luke Rudkowski from wearechange.org has released video taken at the recent Democratic debates in New Hampshire showing his team confronting leading Democrats ... (more)
White House officials including Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove may have violated the Presidential Records Act by destroying emails relating to the decision to go to war in Iraq, making it the most serious breach of the 30-year history of the law, according to an interim report released by House Oversight Committee.
The investigators found that the number of White House officials given Republican National ... (more)
C.H.A.N.G.E confronts Hillary Clinton in New York City and is immediately manhandled out of the building for calling her "queen Hillary" before asking her a question.
Randall Weaver, the symbol of everything the government hopes to avoid with convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown, offered advice to the fugitives and warnings to federal agents at the Browns' fortified home Monday afternoon.
Weaver's wife and son and a deputy U.S. marshal were killed during the infamous Ruby Ridge shootout with federal agents in Idaho in 1992. He visited the Browns' hilltop home on Monday to raise the specter of the botched federal raid and lend his name to t... (more)
"The bottom line is: Show us the law, we will pay what you ask," Ed Brown said. "They can't do it, folks."
