Map

The FAQs

Culled from the Web

Alternatives
• A Widow's Plea for Nonviolence. Amber Amundson, who lost her husband in the Pentagon attack, asks the US not to go to war in his name.
• Left Behind: An Interview with RAWA's Sahir Saba. In a March 29, 2001 interview with InTheseTimes, Saba explains why RAWA still fiercely opposes the interim government we're propping up--and why this war has not materially improved the lives of Afghan women.
• To Be Anti-Bush Is Not Anti-American Scroll to the bottom for news on what Global Exchange is up to.
  Afghan Women Demand Role in Post-Taliban Administration Here's a novel idea...if you're really interested in helping Afghanistan's women, why not think about putting them into power?
  
• Robert Jensen and Rahul Mahajan on why now's a good time not to rally behind the President.
  
• Robert Jensen's answer to "But we have to do something!"
  
• Saying Goodbye to Patriotism Another great piece by Robert Jensen about realizing that we're citizens of the world and not just America.
  Incidentally, Jensen is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and has been publicly attacked by its president, Larry Faulkner, for publishing his views on this topic. If you like peace, justice, and/or academic freedom, do let Larry know how you feel about that.
• Jon Carroll on the limitations of our current administration's approach to the "new war."
• Evil Evildoers of Evil Mark Morford takes aim at the Manichean Good vs. Evil rhetoric in which the War On Terrorism is steeped.

  Big War, Big Oil, Big Buisness

• A Matter of Life, Death...and Oil The Guardian runs us through the evidence behind the "blood-for-oil" explanation of the war one more time. Includes handy bios of Bush administration officials' interests in the oil industry.
• The Price of Oil?...War Ritt Goldstein of Counterpunch shows us that, much like my Republican brother, the administration and the military freely admit that we're about to commit mass murder in order to keep oil prices low.
• With A Friend Like This... Nick Cohen advances a new take on the oil story: the oil interest is just a pretext that the U.S. uses in order to prevent any other oil-interested nation from developing into a world power.
• Oil Is the Reason... In hopes of stopping Tony Blair's government from supporting a U.S. war with Iraq, Adrian Hamilton of the Independent explains one more time why it's the oil, stupid.
• Taleban in Texas for Talks On Oil Pipeline A 1997 piece from the BBC archives. Back then, we were willing to deal with the Taliban as long as they made it easier for us to get to oil.
• Missing The Oil Story Nina Burleigh on the role Big Oil is playing in the War On Terrorism, and how strangely silent the mainstream media is being about it.
• Caspian Oil And Gas and the Afghanistan Pipeline Connection A yet more in-depth analysis of the oil question, with special reference to the involvement of Halliburton, the oil company that owns Dick Cheney.
• Public Health or Public Relations? The New York Times stops licking boot long enough to report that Bush is caving to the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to the war on bioterrorism.
• Questionable Ties Wayne Madsen of In These Times on Bush's financial involvement with some of the same people who fund Bin Ladin.

  Bin Ladin

• U.S. Goes Soft on Iraqi Link To Al-Qaeda The Australian paper The Age reports that despite Bush's big talk in the State of the Union, the intelligence community is having a hard time trumping up convincing evidence of an Iraqi-Al Qaeda connection.
• A War That Can't Be Won Seumas Milne of the Guardian reports on what Al-Qaeda and the new puppet regime in Afghanistan have been up to while Dubya has gotten our entire country fixated on Saddam "At Least We Know Where To Find Him" Hussein.
• Naming Names, Or Not The Washington Post joins the chorus of "What ever happened to Osama?"
• Osama Who? Arianna Huffington on the Bush team's desperate attempts to make us forget all about the AWOL Evil One.
• Has Bin Ladin Been Forgotten? So are we looking for Bin Ladin, or what? Brendan O'Neill of Cursor.org walks us through the many, many different positions that the Bush administration has taken on the Bin Ladin question since September 11.
• U.S. Dropped Leaflets Show Bin Ladin in Western Clothes Rumsfeld openly admits that we're doctoring photos and printing lies in an effort to smear Bin Ladin. Asked whether this might hurt our credibility, he goes, "Duh...I dunno."
• America Backed Off Bin Ladins The Times of India reports on a BBC news program that claims that the FBI was told not to pursue the Bin Ladin family because of their financial connections to the Bushes.
• BBC piece on Osama Bin Ladin, which mentions in passing that the CIA trained Bin Ladin, back when they thought he might be useful to them.
• Taking the Bait Doug Ireland of In These Times argues that by attacking Afghanistan, we've just "handed Bin Ladin a major victory."
• The French paper Le Figaro is reporting that a CIA agent actually met Bin Ladin in July 2001.
• A BBC interview with a Pakistani diplomat who says the Bush administration told him before September 11 that they were already planning an attack on the Taliban.
• Robert Scheer on Bush's $43 million gift to the Taliban to support their anti-opium crackdown.

  The Bush Doctrine

• A Foolish President Brags About Asssassination Finally, someone else as appalled as I was by Bush's little Godfather moment in this year's State of the Union address. "Oh, that guy in Yemen? You won't see HIM no more."
• Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Bush Doctrine of Pre-Emption This is FABULOUS. It historicizes, it contextualizes, it rips Bush's so-called "doctrine" a new one. Read, marvel, hit the 'forward' key a lot.
• 'Assassination' Is Four Letter Word Paul Vitello of New York Newsday on what Ari Fleischer's "price of a bullet" comment says about this administration.
• Hail Bush: A New Roman Empire. The Sydney Morning Herald talks to some historians about how, now that we have become the empire, Bush can avoid repeating the Roman Empire's mistakes.
• War Is Peace? An appalled Molly Ivins attacks Bush's "strike first" doctine the way everyone else should.
• Williams Attacks Bush's 'Cabal' In England they have a saying: When you're too rabid and conservative for the House of Lords, you're in real trouble.
• Defending Ourselves Peter Killfoyle calls on Europe and the U.N. to stop America before it kills again.
• The Unimportance of Being Colin Powell Colin Powell is the only sane man in Bush's war team; but alas, nobody's listening to him.
• Gorbachev: I Fear Bush and Blair War Plan Mikhail Gorbachev joins the international chorus of "What are you THINKING?"
• Afghans protest over U.S. Manipulation of summit influence at loya jurga What, you're surprised that other Afghans have identified Hamid "Best-Dressed" Karzai as a "U.S. stooge"?
• The Bush Doctrine Makes Nonsense of the U.N. Charter Jonathan Steele on the consequences of Bush's newly unveiled "strike first" policy.
• Policy Changes and Splits Inside Administration Add to Confusion Confused about what our policy in the Middle East actually is? So is Bush. So, for that matter, is poor Colin Powell.
• Is America Abandoning Afghanistan? Barnett Rubin points out that before going merrily off to Iraq, we might want to clean up the mess we've made in Afghanistan first.
• Why Bush Stepped In To Stop The Slaughter Because you knew it couldn't just be about protecting civilian life...Ed Vulliamy on how Bush's plans for an attack on Iraq have made him the Palestinian people's newest, wishy-washiest, most reluctant ally.
• The Moral Simplifier Molly Ivins on how utterly inadequate the Bush Doctrine is when it comes to dealing with the current crisis in Israel.
• U.S. Has Nuclear Hit List Nervewracking news from the BBC. I knew we should never have let Dubya near the button.
• Bush Is Scarier than Kim Jong-Il From Japan Today, a column about how the "axis of evil" concept is playing there.
• Pepping Up Canada's Agenda Bush's "axis of evil" speech is losing us friends in the Canadian government.
• Patten Lays Into Bush's America How the "axis of evil" speech is playing with the European Union.
• Bush Keeps the Score on Al Qaeda Bush has, honest to God, made up a scorecard with pictures of Al-Qaeda leaders so he can cross them off as they're killed. Oh yes. This is statesmanship.
• US In Replay of the 'Great Game' Leaders of central Asian nations are beginning to suspect that "Operation Enduring Freedom" is a thinly veiled excuse to establish US dominance in their backyard.
• Disaster that Lives in Triumph Natasha Walter on the consequences of extending the war without building the peace.
• Fighting The Wrong War Jonathan Steele points out that as fabulous a job as this war seems to be doing on the Taliban, our original goal was supposed to be to bring the perpetrators of Sep. 11 to justice...which does not seem to be happening.
• Bloodstained Bush After the massacres at Mazar e-Sharif, the Guardian retracts its endorsement of military action against Al-Qaida.
• Jim Lobe and Abid Aslam on the potentially disastrous foreign policy consequences of Bush's "with us or against us" rhetoric.
• Allies Are Cautious On 'Bush Doctrine' Washington Post coverage of what the "with us or against us" rhetoric is already doing to the coalition.
• The Guardian's deeply frightening analysis of the power struggle going on within Bush's administration between the relatively sane Colin Powell and the Wolfowitz crowd pushing for "Infinite War."

  Collateral Damage

• Iraq Faces Massive U.S. Missile Barrage A CBS News report reveals our strategy for the Iraq war: totally obliterate Baghdad within the first two days, so the people and the army are too demoralized (and too dead) to fight us when we arrive. I can't figure out which is more appalling: that the Defense Department is chortling with glee over the prospect of massive civilian casualties, or that they're assuming the American public will.
• Guernica Revisited More fun with "Shock and Awe."
• U.N. Sees 500,000 Iraqi Casualties at Start of War A U.N. report estimates that 500,000 Iraqi civilians will be wounded, and hundreds of thousands more turned into refugees, once we get to work in Iraq.
• Support the establishment of the Afghan Victims Fund for civilian victims of American bombings.
• Afghanistan Raid A Mistake, U.S. Military Says National Public Radio reports that the U.S. has admitted to the citizens of Oruzgan that their raid on it, in which at least 18 people were killed, was a mistake--and paid relatives of the victims $1000 each in American cash. Now we know what an Afghan life is worth. Contains links to photos of the village, and other Afghanistan stories by the same reporter.
• The Others For those who only believe the corporate media, Howard Zinn has collected reports on Afghan civilian casualties from mainstream American media outlets.
• Bloody Evidence of US Blunder Once again, we destroy a village and incinerate, dismember, and vaporize its inhabitants based on faulty and/or deliberately misleading "intelligence."
• A Village Is Destroyed, And America Says Nothing Happened Richard Parry of the Independent investigates an air raid that destroyed an entire village. Meanwhile, the Pentagon claims it never happened.
• Cursor is maintaining a dossier on civilian deaths from American bombing in Afghanistan, with statistics and analysis.
• Not Good Enough, Mr. Rumsfeld A Washington Post piece on the Bush team's abject failure to take responsibility for civilian casualties--now, and back when they were bombing Iraq in 1991.

  Human Rights

• U.S. Threatens To Block Torture Convention The U.S. holds up a U.N. anti-torture convention because it might allow observers to monitor what we're doing to our Al-Qaeda prisoners. Could this mean that we have something to hide? Naaaaaah.
• U.S. Demands Immunity for its Peacekeepers The U.S. wants to be exempted from the new International Criminal Court. One would wonder why, except that one already knows.
• U.K.'s Afghan troops given immunity Britain criticizes us for our hypocrisy, then does the exact same thing.
• U.S. threat to Balkans Peace Force In a cynical attempt to gain immunity from the International Criminal Court, the U.S. threatens to pull the plug on the Balkans peace force.
• U.S. Gets Failing Grade On Amnesty Report Card Surprising no one, Amnesty International points out that the U.S. government has definitively become a major source and enabler of human rights violations around the globe.
• Even The Economist is disturbed by our treatment of Al-Qaeda prisoners, and suggests some alternatives.
• Thousands of POWs Held In Appalling Conditions in Afghanistan Title says it all. Includes links to other pieces about our flagrant human rights violations.
• Spare Our Blushes And Put A Sack In It Terry Jones on why we should be nervous when we see pictures of Afghan prisoners with bags over their heads.

  The Humanitarian Situation

• U.N. Given 'Peanuts' For Iraqi Cleanup The U.N. warns that it will not have the money to clean up the U.S.'s mess, and that frankly, it's not excited about being asked to do so.
• Identify Yourselves The failure of coalition forces to identify themselves as soldiers instead of noncombatants is making it harder for aid workers to do their job in Afghanistan.
• Aid Packages Ignore Starving Afghans The Guardian, in desperation, hopes by leading with a story about a father selling his 12-year-old daughter to feed his starving family, they can make the West care, this time.
• Fresh Wave of Refugees Flees New Regime It's January 21, 2002, and fire and the sword are still all the rage in southern Afghanistan.
• Refugees left in the cold at "Slaughterhouse" Camp. Inside an Afghan refugee camp, where a hundred people are dying every day.
• Global Exchange sent a women's task force to investigate the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan in December; here's their report.
• Warlords Bring New Terrors Now that the Taliban has collapsed, the warlords have come back to southern Afghanistan, where fire and the sword are once more all the rage.
• Where The Bodies Are Goev Parrish collects reports from the European and Pakistani press of civilian deaths in Afghanistan since the bombings.
• Folly of Aid and Bombs George Monbiot on why the American food air drops amount to nothing more than a cynical PR stunt.
  
• Killer Food Drops Laura Flanders argues that given the number of unidentified land mines in Afghanistan, this cynical PR stunt may actually be killing people.

  Iraq

• U.S. Fears More Terrorism After Iraq So how come this is only being reported on in Australia?
• U.S. Chooses Saddam's Successor Yay! We've found our puppet!
• U.K. Troops 'prepare for occupation' The BBC reports that British commanders are being told to count on occupying Iraq for at least 3 years after the war is over.
• Desert Caution OK...Norman Schwarzkopf has come out against Bush's Iraq war. Yes, that's "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf. What quantum reality are we living in again?
• The Blix Report And the survey says...if Saddam Hussein has chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, well, we can't find 'em.
• U.S. Claim On Iraqi Nuclear Program Is Called Into Question The Washington Post reports that those aluminum tubes we heard so much about are basically just aluminum tubes, despite Team Bush's attempt to represent them as a smoking gun.
• Quarrels, Deals, and Coups The Guardian provides a handy little timeline charting outside interest in Iraq's oilfields, going back to 1918.
• War On Iraq? Not So Fast. MoveOn.org's page of links to articles critical of the war on Iraq.
• War, Whatever The Daily Mirror reports that Richard Perle is now saying that even if U.N. inspectors find no evidence that Saddam Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction, we'll still invade Iraq.
• Veterans Against Iraq War Veterans organizing against war in Iraq.
• Detailed Analysis of October 7 Speech by Bush on Iraq The Institute for Public Accuracy gets a bunch of experts to do an in-depth and devastating MST3K of Bush's Iraq speech. This is definitely the place to send people who believe his bullshit.
• Forseeing a Bloody Siege in Baghdad Barry Posen on how this Gulf War could be reeeeeeeally different from the last Gulf War.
• Medical Consequences of War on Iraq Helen Caldicott on the effects of the depleted-uranium weapons we used in the Gulf War and would be using in Gulf War II.
• The Spoils of War James Ridgeway on who benefits from a war against Iraq.
• Inspection as Invasion George Monbiot argues that the U.S. has been actively trying to avoid a resolution of the Iraq situation, as Saddam Hussein is just too valuable an enemy to lose.
• Bush Has New Rationale For Iraq Move As thousands of Americans protest the coming war, Bush trumps up a new bullshit reason for it.
• Byrd Attacks Cost of Possible Iraq War Senator Byrd, all by himself, is trying to drag the Democratic Party back to the light. Go Senator Byrd. I wish I could vote for you.
• Agency Disavows Report on Iraq Arms Dubya says a 1998 IAEA report proves that Saddam Hussein might already have nuclear weapons. The IAEA says they never said any such thing.
• No more Mr. Nice Guy Nelson Mandela steps up to the plate and condemns the war on Iraq for what it is. Go Mandela.
• Gore: Bush's Iraq War Makes World More Dangerous Two years too late, Al Gore grasps the obvious.
• Saddam's Concsessions Will Never Be Enough For The U.S. Simon Tisdall of the Guardian on what happens now that Hussein has called our bluff and agreed to U.N. weapons inspections.
• Bush's Iraq Fixation: UN Speech unravels a dangerous course for America. Someone at the Daytona Beach News-Journal has figured out what Bush was really doing in that Sep. 12 UN speech.
• I Hear America Sinking James Ridgeway reflects on Bush's September 12, 2002 speech at the UN.
• Gulf War Lite Why the various justifications given for the war on Iraq are horsehockey, and what the real motivations might be.
• Lawmakers Want Bush To Seek Congressional Approval before Attacking Iraq Isn't it a little scary that they have to ask him for this?
• Making Enemies Make Friends Good news! Our foreign policy has prompted Iran and Iraq to start leaguing together against their common enemy. Oh joy.
• Bush Gives CIA the Green Light to Kill Saddam Hussein Dubya puts out a hit on another world leader. Are you a president or the Godfather, pal? Make up your mind!
• U.S. Turf Wars Betray the Iraqis While calling on the Iraqi people to spontaneously overthrow Hussein, Dubya's administration is trying to shut down the only viable democratic alternative to Hussein's regime. Why ask why?
• Spies in Iranian Skies Well, Dubya never has been too clear on the difference between Iraq and Iran.
• Cheney Tour Lays Ground for Military Strike On IraqStill gearing up for escalation, despite our failure to stabilize Afghanistan.
• Secret US Plan for Iraq War Dunno how secret it is; the talking heads have been paving the way since September 12. The real news, I guess, is that Dubya's determination to avenge his father's humiliation is already pissing off our allies.
• Americans Want A War On Iraq And We Can't Stop Them. I know how you feel, dude; I can't stop us either.

  Israel

• The Anne Franks of Palestine
• U.S. Hawks Deliver Victory to Sharon in Battle over Arafat Bush's declaration that Arafat is not a legitimate leader, and what that means (and doesn't mean).
• The Solution Is The Problem Noam Chomsky on the U.S. role in the "peace process" and what we need to understand before we can be any use over there.
• UN Struggles To Salvage Mission To Enter Jenin Surprise, surprise, the Israeli government doesn't want anyone investigating the Jenin Incident.
• Gaza Braces for Sharon To Send In Tanks Robert Fisk on how Palestinians in Gaza are battening down for the second phase of Sharon's offensive.
• Israel: The generals' grand design Great piece by Tanya Reinhart that puts Sharon's current offensive in its political and historical context. If you don't know jack about Israel, start here.
• No End in Sight Paul Rogers on the prospect of permanent war--in Israel, and in Afghanistan.
• Israel Buries the Bodies, But Cannot Hide The Evidence The Independent reports that despite Israeli attempts at a cover-up, the stench of death is thick in the air around Jenin.
• Life Under Siege Allegra Pacheco on life in the occupied territories after Sharon's offensive.
• An Alternative to Sharon's Policies An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz calls on the Labor party to break with Sharon's government and give Israelis an alternative to permanent war.
• Who Runs the US-Israeli Alliance? Robert Fisk of the Independent on how Bush's own policies have left him in no position to get Israel to stop the carnage.
• Robert Fisk on the propaganda war now being waged around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Jewish Voice For Peace reports that more and more Israelis are questioning Sharon's policies. Here's a petition signed by members of the Israeli Defense Forces refusing to serve in the occupied territories on the grounds that occupying these territories does not help defend Israel.
• Israel's Conscience Even Israelis are starting to realize that Sharon is a huge part of the problem.
• The Man Who Would Testify Against Sharon Is Blown Up A Lebanese leader is conveniently assassinated just before he was scheduled to testify against Sharon in a war crimes investigation.

  The Media, My God, The Media

• Accuracy.org has done a great breakdown of George II's 2003 State of the Union Address.
• Newspaper Editorials Turn Against War Title is a little too optimistic, but it does appear that our newspapers are licking slightly less boot these days.
• A good piece I found on Democratic Underground about this administration's habit of lying to the press. Don't miss the collection of links at the end that will take you to other articles documenting the many, many times that someone on Team Bush has been busted for misleading, manpiulating, or outright lying to the press about Iraq.
• npr.orgy An online column about why and how NPR has gone over to the dark side.
• The "five Arab men" that we were all supposed to be in mortal fear of over the holidays turn out not to exist. The FBI, Dubya, and the media split the blame for this one.
• Officials: No Hard Evidence in Nerve Gas ReportThe Washington Post loudly claims that Iraq is selling nerve gas to Al Qaeda; administration officials quietly point out that they don't actually have any evidence of this.
• War Without Death In 1991, the military was under orders from Bush I to make it look like we weren't actually killing anyone. Under Dick Cheney's watchful eye, the media helped. This excellent piece suggests that we can expect more of the same--lots more--from Gulf War II: The Sequel.
• For Bush, Facts Are Malleable Finally, someone calls Bush on his "malleable facts" (or, as nonbootlickers might put it, outright lies).
• Homeland Insecurity Why the media continues to play along, despite the decreasing credibility of Dubya's mouthpieces.
• The Minutes Waltz and a Skeptical Press Corps The Washington Post reports that the Enron debacle is making the press more critical of Dubya's regime in general.
• Funny Man Ed Asner is now in a Serious Line of Work Ed Asner is not a reporter, but he used to play one on TV. Now, he argues, you can't tell the difference.
• Fear and Learning in America Robert Fisk argues that actual public opinion in America is significantly diverging from the consensus manufactured in American newspapers. We can hope.
• Pentagon Readies Efforts To Sway Sentiments Abroad The New York Times reports that the Pentagon has set up a new agency that will be in charge of spreading completely made-up news stories in an effort to drum up US support abroad. I'm not kidding. When you click here NYT site will ask you to register, but it's free, and when you're done it'll go right to the link.
• War Coverage Takes a Negative Turn The Washington Post reports that American journalists are belatedly realizing that all is not as the Pentagon says it is.
• Media Whores Online helps ordinary Americans keep tabs on the shameless panderings of our corporate media.
• The Guardian has put together a fabulous devil's dictionary of terms now commonly found in war propaganda, excuse me, media coverage of Operation Enduring Freedom.
• Pat Holt's critique of mainstream media coverage. Contains embedded links to good pieces from the alternative press.
• Bryan Keefer of Spinsanity on how pundits who criticize American foreign policy are being attacked by their fellow-pundits.
• Unlike most mainstream pundits, Maureen Dowd has the huevos to indict Bush's spinmeisters for exploiting the tragedy.

  Protest!

• On Iraq, Chorus of Criticism is Loud But Not Clear The Washington Post reports on the growing number of people even within Dubya's "base" who think this is a really, really bad idea.
• War Protests Grow Women's groups, religious organizations and regular folks are coming out against war with Iraq.

  January 18, 2003--Washington, D.C.

  • Thousands Oppose A Rush To War The Washington Post once again underestimates us at "tens of thousands," but the article does admit this was the biggest anti-war demonstration in D.C. since the Vietnam era, and that it was bigger than the October 26 march.
  • International ANSWER goes to the other extreme and claims 500,000, which is probably wrong. However, they have some good pictures, including one where you can see how much of the mall we filled up.
  • An independent estimate of the numbers, given along with the guy's calculations. He puts the turnout at 170,000. Seems plausible enough to me, but WTF do I know.
  • Protesters Cap a Weekend of Action With Defiant Rally In View Of The White House About a thousand brave souls hung out until Sunday to get arrested demonstrating in front of the White House.
  • Advance coverage of the march and rally in Newsday.

    San Francisco, CA

  • Huge Protests For Peace Thank you, San Francisco Chronicle. Good photos.
  October 26, 2002--Washington, D.C.
  • Read my eyewitness account at Democratic Underground!
  • Watch the march on C-Span!
  • See pictures of the rally and march at the International A.N.S.W.E.R. site.

  • After reporting the march as "hundreds" on Saturday, this Sunday piece from the Washington Post finally approaches accuracy.
  • The New York Times on the effects of the weekend's protests
  • And CNN.com deigns to notice us!
  • The Black World Today on the "new blood" in the protest movement.
  • This piece from the Boulder Daily Camera has some interesting comments on how the Iraq issue plays in the polls.
  • Surprisingly non-bootlicking piece on MSNBC.com.
  • People Magazine is, naturally, focused on Susan Sarandon's speech.
  • The Washington Times says we were "noisy, peaceful."
  • Coverage in the Yale Daily News, the mainstream newspaper of Dubya's alma mater and mine...
  • The newspaper for Ohio University has a piece on how even nice normal midwestern types are protesting this war.

  October 26, 2002--Other American Cities
  • San Francsico, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Austin, TX
  • Portland, ME

  October 6, 2002
  • U.S. Groups Protest Iraq War Plans On October 6, 2002, thousands of Americans marched in cities across the country to protest the war. But if it weren't for the British press, you'd never know it.
  • Rallies Change Italy on Iraq?On October 5, 2002, 1.5 million Italians protested against their government's support of America's war. One hopes it gave the Italian government pause.
  • Anti-War Protests Get Louder in California "Life has become one big anti-war rally," at least for those lucky Californians.

  Strange Bedfellows

• Pentagon Adviser: France No Longer An Ally. Richard Perle is now talking about "containing" France. I...sometimes, you know, words just fail you.
• U.S. Fails To Sway Allies On Iraq ...partly because one of the U.N. weapons inspectors has declared that some of the "evidence" Bush cited in that state of the union speech was, well, a load of bullshit.
• To Some in Europe, The Major Problem is Bush the Cowboy Yes, some in America feel the same way...long piece from the NYT on why our traditional European allies are turning on us.
• A Relationship That Is Now--Your Country, Right Or Wrong And we're losing England too, maybe. That's our George: Master Diplomat.
• NATO's Allies in Eastern Europe Line Up To Offer Services To US But not to worry! We can still bribe the former Soviet Bloc into supporting us. Or, as one Romanian editorial puts it, "Romania does not want to go to war against Iraq, but it will do what America says."
• Saudi's Address Linked to Terror New evidence that the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. has been linked to the 9/11 terrorists. Plans to invade Saudia Arabia and effect 'regime change' have yet to materialize.
• Raped Woman to be Jailed, Lashed In another fine example of Saudi justice, a woman is sentenced to being flogged for having been raped by her brother in law. The court actually acknowledges that she was in fact raped, but they're punishing her anyway for having violated the rule against sex with in-laws.
• Saudi Arabia: Three Men Executed for Homosexual Acts On January 4, 2002, three men were beheaded in Saudi Arabia for "homosexual acts." Strangely, our leaders have nothing to say about this conduct on the part of one of our major allies.
• Human Rights Watch offers some disturbing facts about the Northern Alliance to which we are cozying up.

  The War At Home

• Homeland Security Office Drowning in Acronyms Don't worry, folks; government bureaucracy is going to save us from Big Brother.
• Good news, everyone!Americans may be held as 'enemy combatants,' appeals court rules
• ACLU Calls Immigrant Registration Program Pretext For Mass Detention Because, when immigration authorities detained over 700 Muslim and Arab men who had voluntarily shown up to register, they pretty much proved that's what it is.
• Oakland Becomes 19th City To Pass Resolution Against Anti-Civil Rights Measure A growing number of U.S. city councils are declaring themselves USA-PATRIOT-Act-Free zones.
• (Leave) No Child Unrecruited The Bush administration puts pressure on high schools to release confidential student contact information to military recruiters.
• Resistance Rising! Across the country and on both sides of the partisan divide, people are starting to organize to protect the Constitution from Ashcroft.
• Big Brother is Back If you can stand wading through the ads, this Newsweek piece shows that even the great straight mainstream is waking up to the dangers involved in the new Total Information Awareness initiative.
• Total(itarian) Information Awareness Molly Ivins on our onging transition from democracy to fascist state.
• Keep America Safe And Free The ACLU unveils its new anti-Ashcroft offensive. Woohoo! Go there for details on how to help.
• Terror Suspect's Request Keeps Witness in Jail for Over a Year In the latest twist in the Moussaoui case, one Mukkram Ali plumbs the Kafkaesque depths of our new legal nightmare.
• No-Fly Blacklist Snares Political Activists Federal agencies refuse to take responsibility for a blacklist that is supposed to keep terrorists off planes, but is being used to harass activists.
• Campus Watch The Guardian reports on a website dedicated to identifying and harrassing professors who speak out against the Bush administration's policies.
• University Orders Student Group to Remove Online Link to a Rebel Group's Web Site The University of California at San Diego is cracking down on the Che Cafe, citing the USA-Patriot Act.
• Profiling charged on 'Nightmare' Flight During a now-notorious incident on a Delta flight, former U.S. Army major Dr. Bob Rajcoomar was arrested by some crazed air marshals, presumably for being willfully and persistently an Indian-American. May his lawsuit prosper.
• Court Jousters: A Small Cartel of Conservative Lawyers Rewrites the American Rule Village Voice piece on the key players behind all these new anti-civil-liberties laws the administration is cooking up.
• Kiss My Posse Comitatus Mark Morford on how Dubya wants to get rid of the posse comitatus act (which prevents the government from using the U.S. Army to do domestic policing).
• John Ashcroft: Minister of Fear CBS News.com takes a swipe at John Ashcroft. Could it be they are tiring of the taste of boot?
• U.S. Planning To Recruit One in 24 Americans As Citizen Spies A Sydney Morning Herald piece on the infamous Terrorist Information and Protection System (TIPS).
• Security Bill Bars Blowing Whistle Not only does Bush want to create a 'Department of Homeland Security' (What's next, the Ministry of Fear?), he wants it to be exempt from whistleblower protection laws.
• Civil Wrongs Law professor Patricia Williams on why we should all be very, very afraid of what Dubya is doing to due process in this country.
• Students at Ohio State's graduation were threatened with expulsion if they protested at the ceremony. Here's an eyewitness account from the Democratic Underground message boards.
• But He's Our Wacko Molly Ivins on why the Bush regime allows John Ashcroft to continue trampling the constitution into the dirt.
• The Permanent War Campaign Steve Kettman of Mother Jones on how Operation Enduring Freedom could finally kill off participatory democracy in this country.
• No More Mr. Scrupulous Guy While America was on high alert, John Poindexter, one of the masterminds behind the Iran-Contra scandal, was quietly sleazed into office as head of the new Information Awareness Office, which they might as well just call Information Retrieval and be done with it.
• For a 'Pearl Harbor' Inquiry Democratic Senator Robert Toricelli suggests that before writing Bush a blank check for defense and intelligence spending, we should find out why defense and intelligence spending failed to prevent September 11.
• Deportee Sweep Will Start With Mideast Focus It's not that it surprises me, I just can't believe they admit it.
• The Day Ashcroft Censored the Freedom of Information Act Ashcroft instructs the Department of Justice to obstruct and otherwise frustrate FOIA requests, thus making it impossible for us all to find out what the FBI has got on us.
• National Emergencies give Prez Too Much Power Harley Sorenson points out the obvious; but hey, someone's gotta do it.
• The ACLU gives us a breakdown of what the "anti-terrorism" package will do to our civil liberties.
  
• Bootlicking lackeys though they may be, even CNN is nervous about proposed "anti-terrorism" legislation.

  Writers Speak Out

• Recently, Laura Bush canceled a Feb. 12 poetry symposium after learning that some of the guests planned to speak out against the war. Poets Against the War are organizing a massive poet protest for February 12. Go to the site and submit a poem to be presented to Laura Bush.
• When Will We Resist? Edward Said wonders how long the Arab world can be expected to just sit there and take what Team Bush is dishing out.
• A Letter From America Advice for America from Foreign Policy Therapist. By playwright and actor Wallace "Vizzini" Shawn.
• The Algebra of Infinite Justice Arundhati Roy, author of The God Of Small Things, on the role the US government has played in creating Bin Ladin, the Taliban, and the Afghanistan we're about to destroy.
• Brutality Smeared in Peanut Butter An even angrier Arundhati Roy shows us that as painful as it is for us to listen to our own leaders, it's far, far more painful for people who can't fantasize about voting them out.
• Edward Said's analysis of this mess.
• Under the Nuclear Shadow Arundhati Roy moves from anger to despair as Operation Enduring Freedom pushes India and Pakistan closer to nuclear war.
• Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist, on anti-American sentiment in the Third World, and what we could do about it.
• Yes, This is About Islam Salman Rushdie's Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.
• No Glory In Unjust War On The Weak Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, writes a regular column for the L.A. Times which is always worth reading.
• Navratilova Says the U.S. Can Be As repressive as Czechoslovakia OK, she's not a writer...but she's a lesbian icon!

• Caught in the Backlash, a report generated by the ACLU of Northern California, documents the stories of individuals whose lives have been affected by the Sep. 11 backlash.
• Washington Post piece on anti-Arab retaliation in NYC immediately after the bombing.
  
• St. Petersburg Times on pilots who are refusing to allow Arab-American passengers on their flights.
  
• Seattle Times coverage of racist violence there, including a foiled attempt to burn down a mosque.
  
• Chicago Direct Action Network maintains a list of hate crimes committed against Arabs and others since September 11.
  
• Hatewatch monitors all kinds of hate crime, from anti-Arab attacks to Fred Phelps's plan to picket the funeral of the gay pilot of one of the hijacked planes.

Contests

• The Lick Your Own Damn Boots Award Nominations for the 2002 LYDOBA are now open! Submit your nominees here.
• Spot The Newspeak What's your favorite Orwellianism? Submit words or phrases you've seen in the news lately that give you that warm fuzzy "oh my God I'm living in 1984" feeling.
• Operation Accurate Name: What should Operation Enduring Freedom really be "code" named? Send suggestions and I'll post the good ones.

• Alternet.org, home of many articles which attack many key issues now being completely and willfully ignored by the bootlicking lackeys in the mainstream media.
• Buzzflash.com--Another alternative to the same bootlicking lackeys.
• Common Dreams, a source of news for the progressive community, "progressive" meaning "fed up with the pap normally fed to us by our politicians and their bootlicking media lackeys."
• Counterpunch.org a "bi-weekly muckraking newsletter" dedicated to covering "the stories that the [bootlicking lackeys of the] corporate press never print".
• Cursor, a site dedicated to dissecting the bootlicking lackeyhood of the mainstream media, and providing non-bootlicking alternatives.
• The Guardian, a British paper which does much better coverage of the US than our own bootlicking media lackeys.
• Indymedia.org, the internet's answer to corporate journalism. The bootlicking lackeys in our national media aren't covering the peace movement, but these folks are.
• Infinite Jest Because unlike other bootlicking lackeys, some of us realize that this administration is nothing but a parody of itself. Be sure to check out the trading cards; they're hilarious, and yet chilling.
• InTheseTimes.Com--Dedicated to opposing "the triumph of market values over human values," unlike some other bootlicking lackeys I could mention.
• The Middle East Times, which has in-depth news and analysis our own bootlicking lackeys don't know enough to produce.
• The Nation, which is chock full of commentary and analysis of this event, none of it written by bootlicking lackeys.
• PacificNews.Org, where you can read analysis by people who actually know something about the Muslim world, unlike the talking heads found in the Rolodex files of our media's bootlicking lackeys.
• Salon.com--They make you pay for most of the good stuff now, like Tom Gutting's piece on how he was fired from his newspaper for failing to be a bootlicking lackey.
• The San Francisco Chronicle--Dunno if they count as mainstream journalism, but they're definitely not bootlicking lackeys.
• Sojourners Magazine, a Christian publication dedicated to actually achieving peace and justice, unlike some other Christians we could mention who are really just the bootlicking lackeys of patriarchal capitalism.
• TomPaine.com, no more a bootlicking lackey than its namesake was.
• WorkingForChange--Working Assets Long Distance's site. The title says it all, just like the phrase "bootlicking lackey" says it all about the mainstream press.
• Zmag, the magazine of ZNet. You want Chomsky, they got Chomsky. No bootlicking lackeys need apply.

Why do I call the fine, brave men and women of our mainstream media bootlicking lackeys? Cause I've been to the Newseum.

Suggestions for Further Reading

• War Plan Iraq by Milan Rai
• War On Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know. By William Rivers Pitt. Go see the site, just for fun. This isn't just a book; it's a cottage industry.

  Yes, Virginia, There Is A Peace Movement

  Links to other sites trying to promote peaceful alternatives:

  • The Warlog Another American compulsively collecting stories that document our shame--in this case, from the mainstream media. Better him than me.
  • Butterfly Blinks, run by an American in Paris with much more sophisticated web skills than mine.
  • Grover Furr's collection of online sources that put the attack in the context of American foreign policy. Includes direct links to good pieces from the British press.
  • Stop The War Another lone homepage taking a stand against global insanity.

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