Tales of Abuse, Forced Confessions in Guantanamo Testimonies (USATODAY.com) Posted 5/30/2005 10:20 PM

LONDON (AP) — One Guantanamo prisoner told a military panel that American troops beat him so badly he wets his pants now. Another detainee claimed U.S. troops stripped prisoners in Afghanistan and intimidated them with dogs so they would admit to militant activity.

Tales of alleged abuse and forced confessions are among some 1,000 pages of tribunal transcripts the U.S. government released to The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — the second batch of documents the AP has received in 10 days.

The testimonies offer a glimpse into the secretive world of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 520 men from 40 countries remain held, accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Many have been held for three years.

Whether the stories are true may never be known. And it wasn't immediately clear how many abuse allegations had been logged from the tribunals or how many of them had been investigated. Dozens of complaints have surfaced from detention missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, but the government couldn't offer a breakdown Monday.

One detainee, whose name and nationality were blacked out like most others in the transcripts, said his medical problems from alleged abuse have not been taken seriously.

"Americans hit me and beat me up so badly I believe I'm sexually dysfunctional. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep with my wife or not," he said. "I can't control my urination, and sometimes I put toilet paper down there so I won't wet my pants."

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  In Rising Numbers, Lawyers Head for Guantánamo Bay (NYTimes.com) By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: May 30, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 29 - In the last few months, the small commercial air service to the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been carrying people the military authorities had hoped would never be allowed there: American lawyers.

And they have been arriving in increasing numbers, providing more than a third of about 530 remaining detainees with representation in federal court. Despite considerable obstacles and expenses, other lawyers are lining up to challenge the government's detention of people the military has called enemy combatants and possible terrorists.

A meeting earlier this month in New York City at the law firm Clifford Chance drew dozens of new volunteer lawyers who attended lectures from other lawyers who have been through the rigorous process of getting the government to allow them access to Guantánamo.

The increase in lawyers for Guantánamo detainees was set in motion last June when the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration and said the prisoners there were entitled to challenge their detentions in federal courts.

The rate at which lawyers have stepped forward for the task may be a reflection of the changing public attitudes about Guantánamo Bay and its mission.

"In the beginning, just after 9/11, we couldn't get anybody," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a group based in New York that is coordinating the assigning of lawyers to prisoners. The earliest volunteers, Mr. Ratner said, were those who regularly handled death-penalty clients and were accustomed to representing the reviled in near-hopeless cases.

But in recent months, some of the nation's largest and most prominent firms have enlisted in the effort and devoted considerable resources to it, including Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr; Clifford Chance; Covington & Burling; Dorsey & Whitney; and Allen & Overy.

"People are now eager to take this on," Mr. Ratner said. The law firms are bearing all the expenses, he said.

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  C.I.A. Expanding Terror Battle Under Guise of Charter Flights (NYTimes.com) By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: May 31, 2005

This article was reported by Scott Shane, Stephen Grey and Margot Williams and written by Mr. Shane.

SMITHFIELD, N.C. - The airplanes of Aero Contractors Ltd. take off from Johnston County Airport here, then disappear over the scrub pines and fields of tobacco and sweet potatoes. Nothing about the sleepy Southern setting hints of foreign intrigue. Nothing gives away the fact that Aero's pilots are the discreet bus drivers of the battle against terrorism, routinely sent on secret missions to Baghdad, Cairo, Tashkent and Kabul.

When the Central Intelligence Agency wants to grab a suspected member of Al Qaeda overseas and deliver him to interrogators in another country, an Aero Contractors plane often does the job. If agency experts need to fly overseas in a hurry after the capture of a prized prisoner, a plane will depart Johnston County and stop at Dulles Airport outside Washington to pick up the C.I.A. team on the way.

Aero Contractors' planes dropped C.I.A. paramilitary officers into Afghanistan in 2001; carried an American team to Karachi, Pakistan, right after the United States Consulate there was bombed in 2002; and flew from Libya to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the day before an American-held prisoner said he was questioned by Libyan intelligence agents last year, according to flight data and other records.

While posing as a private charter outfit - "aircraft rental with pilot" is the listing in Dun and Bradstreet - Aero Contractors is in fact a major domestic hub of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret air service. The company was founded in 1979 by a legendary C.I.A. officer and chief pilot for Air America, the agency's Vietnam-era air company, and it appears to be controlled by the agency, according to former employees.

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  General Defends Treatment Of Guantanamo Prisoners (WashingtonPost.com) Associated Press
Monday, May 30, 2005; Page A17

The Pentagon's top general yesterday defended the treatment of detainees at the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said the United States thinks al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi is wounded, though it is not known how badly.

Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States has done a good job of treating detainees humanely. Muslims in several countries have protested in recent weeks about allegations that a Koran was flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay as part of the interrogation of a prisoner.

The human rights group Amnesty International released a report last week calling the prison camp "the gulag of our time."

Myers called that report "absolutely irresponsible." He said the United States is doing its best to detain fighters who, if released, "would turn right around and try to slit our throats, slit our children's throats."

"This is a different kind of struggle, a different kind of war," Myers said on "Fox News Sunday."

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  Experts: White House Working on Supreme Court Justice List (USATODAY.com) Posted 5/29/2005 1:52 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has laid the groundwork to place more conservatives on the Supreme Court, scrutinizing the backgrounds and legal views of a shrinking list of candidates amid speculation that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist soon will step down.

Keenly aware that a chapter of President Bush's legacy is at stake, conservative and liberal advocacy groups are preparing for what both sides believe will be a bruising confirmation fight.

Court experts expect that Rehnquist, who is battling thyroid cancer, will leave by the end of June when the current court session concludes.

"The vacancy could come anytime after this Memorial Day weekend, we think," said Sean Rushton, director of the conservative Committee for Justice, which has close ties to the White House counsel's office.

"They have been winnowing the list down for some time now. I imagine they're down to maybe three or five — a handful anyway — who are their first choices," he said.

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  Pressure on North Korea: U.S. Stealth Jets Sent to South (NYTimes.com) By JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: May 30, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 29 - The deployment last week of 15 stealth fighters to South Korea, along with the severing of the American military's only official interaction with North Korea, appears to be part of a new push by the Bush administration to further isolate North Korea despite China's hesitation to join the effort.

The deployment, confirmed by the Pentagon on Friday after several news reports, came just after the Defense Department said Wednesday that it was suspending the search for soldiers missing in action since the Korean War.

The search was the Pentagon's only mission inside North Korea and its only formal contact with the country's military. The Pentagon said it acted to ensure American troops' safety in the "uncertain environment created by North Korea's unwillingness to participate in the six-party talks," as a spokesman put it, referring to the lack of negotiations on the North's nuclear arms program over 11 months.

Although senior Pentagon officials say the F-117 stealth fighters are part of preparation for a long-planned training exercise, the show of force comes at a delicate moment both militarily and politically. China, South Korea and some experts in the United States have urged the administration to make a more specific offer to North Korea, laying out what it would get in return for giving up its nuclear arms program. Administration officials, however, have suggested in recent interviews that they are headed toward taking a hard line, cracking down on the North's exports of missiles, drugs and counterfeit currency.

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  Ending the Gerrymander Wars (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: May 30, 2005

Congressional redistricting has become a blood sport. Texas kicked off a new era in 2003 when it redrew its lines for a second time after the 2000 census to give the Republicans five more seats. Now, there could be similar midcensus redistricting in several other states. In these partisan machinations, voters are the losers. The new lines eliminate contested elections, and contribute to the bitterly divisive atmosphere in Washington. A new bill in Congress calls for national standards for drawing Congressional districts. It would vastly improve the functioning of our ailing democracy.

Gerrymandering has always been part of American politics, but it has reached disturbing new lows. Party operatives now use powerful computers to draw lines that guarantee their party as many seats as possible. The longstanding tradition that Congressional districts are redrawn only once every 10 years was obliterated in Texas in 2003, when Tom DeLay pushed through a partisan "re-redistricting." Democrats are now talking about doing the same thing in states they control, such as Illinois, New Mexico and Louisiana.

Partisan redistricting puts the interests of political parties ahead of the voters. The parties want districts they know they can win, and they have done a good job of creating them. In the last election, there were only a handful of competitive Congressional races; most races were decided by landslides.

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  Too Few, Yet Too Many (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 30, 2005

One of the more bizarre aspects of the Iraq war has been President Bush's repeated insistence that his generals tell him they have enough troops. Even more bizarrely, it may be true - I mean, that his generals tell him that they have enough troops, not that they actually have enough. An article in yesterday's Baltimore Sun explains why.

The article tells the tale of John Riggs, a former Army commander, who "publicly contradicted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld by arguing that the Army was overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan" - then abruptly found himself forced into retirement at a reduced rank, which normally only happens as a result of a major scandal.

The truth, of course, is that there aren't nearly enough troops. "Basically, we've got all the toys, but not enough boys," a Marine major in Anbar Province told The Los Angeles Times.

Yet it's also true, in a different sense, that we have too many troops in Iraq.

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  Analysis: Path Cleared for Rehnquist's Retirement (USATODAY.com) Posted 5/28/2005 7:43 PM Updated 5/28/2005 7:56 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist may feel freer to step down with the Senate judicial standoff muted and the Supreme Court weeks away from the end of its term.

A compromise forged by centrist senators on Monday averted a showdown over President Bush's judge nominees and the Senate's filibuster rules.

While the deal won't stop Democratic senators from trying to block the next Supreme Court nominee, and was tested with Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador, it temporarily eased tensions over judicial confirmations.

"There's just no better time for Rehnquist to leave than now, from a political standpoint," said John McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University who worked in the administration of Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush.

Rehnquist, 80, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last fall, but he has released few details about his illness and no clues about his future plans.

A departure makes sense now, McGinnis said, because Republicans risk losing Senate seats in elections next year. In addition, he said, Bush's victory over Democrat John Kerry last fall eased friction over the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling that tipped the 2000 election to Bush.

Rehnquist, a Republican, sided with Bush in the 2000 case. If he steps down, he can expect the White House to choose a conservative successor.

"Rehnquist probably feels it's about as good of a time to retire as any," said Joel Grossman, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. Rehnquist and other justices were likely following with interest developments in the Senate debate over judicial confirmations, he said.

On Monday, Justice John Paul Stevens used an Oklahoma elections case to raise concerns about party politics. Stevens, at 85 the oldest justice, noted "bitter partisanship that has already poisoned some of those bodies that once provided inspiring examples of courteous adversary debate and deliberation." It was an apparent reference to the Senate.

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  Judicial Takings and Givings (WashingtonPost.com) EDITORIAL

Saturday, May 28, 2005; Page A24

THE SUPREME COURT'S decision this week in the case of Lingle v. Chevron didn't make big news. No surprise: The unanimous decision dealt with a technical-sounding question of property rights. But Lingle is important, because in it the court unambiguously repudiated a dangerous doctrine it had articulated in 1980, a doctrine with horrid implications for environmental and other regulatory enforcement.

The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment bans governmental seizure of private property without just compensation. Traditionally, this stricture was understood to ban only the physical expropriation of land or other things of value. But starting in the 1920s, the court expanded the concept to include certain regulatory actions that so devalue a person's property as to render it worthless. The idea of a "regulatory takings" makes sense at the extremes, but limiting it has proven tricky. Government actions often diminish property values, after all, so a broad regulatory takings principle could have the effect of forcing governments to pay people to get them to comply with the law. Precisely for this reason, the doctrine has become a favorite of libertarian legal theorists interested in using the courts to restrain the regulatory state.

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  Bin Laden Planning an 'Islamic State' (TheAge.com.au) By Amman, Jordan
May 25, 2005 - 12:57PM

An alleged militant on trial for a terror conspiracy targeting the US and Israeli embassies claimed today that terror masterminds Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will soon set up a Muslim caliphate state.

Abed al-Tahawi made the statement in brief remarks to reporters before the military court convened to hear the prosecution sum up its case in his trial.

"Although they accuse them of being terrorists, the heroes Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will come back to the scene soon to set up an Islamic caliphate state," he said.

Al-Tahawi, 50, and 15 other men -- including one at large who is being tried in absentia -- are charged with conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks and possessing automatic rifles. If convicted on both counts, the defendants could face the death penalty.

Saudi-born bin Laden has long advocated the creation of a caliphate, where Islam would be the source of the law and the state ruled by a religious leader, known as the caliph -- a title taken by the successors of the prophet Muhammad.

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  The Death Spiral of the Volunteer Army (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: May 29, 2005

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likes to talk about transforming America's military. But the main transformation he may leave behind is a catastrophic falloff in recruitment for the country's vital ground fighting forces: the Army and the Marine Corps. The recruitment chain that has given the United States highly qualified, highly skilled and highly motivated ground forces for the three decades since the government abandoned the draft has started to break down.

This is astonishing, even allowing for the administration's failure to prepare Americans honestly for how long and difficult the occupation of Iraq would be. There are over 60 million American men and women between 18 and 35, the age group sought by Army recruiters. Getting the 80,000 or so new volunteers the Army needs to enlist each year ought not to be such a daunting challenge. There are obvious attractions to joining the world's most powerful, prestigious and best-equipped ground fighting forces, and in so doing qualifying for valuable benefits like college tuition aid.

But Army recruitment is now regularly falling short of the necessary targets. Recruiters are having even more trouble persuading people to sign up for Army National Guard and Reserve units. The Marine Corps has been missing its much smaller monthly quotas as well. Unless there is a sharp change later this year, both forces will soon start feeling the pinch as too few trainees are processed to meet both forces' operational needs.

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  Running Out of Bubbles (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 27, 2005

Remember the stock market bubble? With everything that's happened since 2000, it feels like ancient history. But a few pessimists, notably Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, argue that we have not yet paid the price for our past excesses.

I've never fully accepted that view. But looking at the housing market, I'm starting to reconsider.

In July 2001, Paul McCulley, an economist at Pimco, the giant bond fund, predicted that the Federal Reserve would simply replace one bubble with another. "There is room," he wrote, "for the Fed to create a bubble in housing prices, if necessary, to sustain American hedonism. And I think the Fed has the will to do so, even though political correctness would demand that Mr. Greenspan deny any such thing."

As Mr. McCulley predicted, interest rate cuts led to soaring home prices, which led in turn not just to a construction boom but to high consumer spending, because homeowners used mortgage refinancing to go deeper into debt. All of this created jobs to make up for those lost when the stock bubble burst.

Now the question is what can replace the housing bubble.

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  China Makes Its Move (WashingtonPost.com) By Richard Holbrooke
Friday, May 27, 2005; Page A27

"The storm center of the world has shifted . . . to China," Secretary of State John Hay said in 1899. "Whoever understands that mighty Empire . . . has a key to world politics for the next five hundred years."

Well, everything is different and nothing has changed since Hay announced the famous Open Door policy, which demanded American commercial access in China equal to that of other major nations. A century of Sino-American ups and downs -- with far more of the latter -- followed, but today, in very different ways, the United States still seeks an open door; the secretary of the Treasury and an enraged Congress are hammering China to revalue its currency to give U.S. companies a better chance to compete with the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Arguments over the exchange rate are a small part of what goes on these days between the two most important nations in the world. Washington and Beijing have several vital common interests, notably in the war against terrorism and the desire for strategic stability in the Pacific and South Asia. And the two nations are still making an effort to work together; on the American side, responsibility for what Washington calls "the global dialogue" is primarily in the hands of Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who is planning a visit to Beijing soon.

But although both sides officially deny it, Sino-American ties are slowly fraying while other issues take up the attention of senior American officials. Beyond the never-ending Taiwan issue and Washington's concern over China's growing military muscle, two huge factors put the relationship under constant pressure: first, substantially different attitudes toward the rights of people to express themselves freely and, second, the massive trade imbalance.

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  Democrats Extend Debate On Bolton (WashingtonPost.com) By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 27, 2005; Page A01

Senate Democrats refused to end debate on John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador yesterday, extending the contentious issue into next month and angering Republicans only three days after many had heralded a bipartisan breakthrough on judicial nominees.

Some Republicans expressed confidence that they can confirm Bolton eventually, but yesterday's action seemed to stun party leaders and undermine talk of a newfound comity stemming from Monday's brokered deal on judges.

"The honeymoon is over," Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) said sharply as he left the floor moments after senators voted 56 to 42 in favor of ending debate on Bolton's nomination. The vote fell four short of the 60 needed to halt a filibuster and move to a confirmation vote, which would require only a simple majority in the 100-member chamber.

All the Republicans present voted to end debate, but they were joined by only three Democrats: Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.). Congress is in recess next week, and the Senate will resume the Bolton debate in early June.

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  'American Gulag' (WashingtonPost.com) EDITORIAL

Thursday, May 26, 2005; Page A26

IT'S ALWAYS SAD when a solid, trustworthy institution loses its bearings and joins in the partisan fracas that nowadays passes for political discourse. It's particularly sad when the institution is Amnesty International, which for more than 40 years has been a tough, single-minded defender of political prisoners around the world and a scourge of left- and right-wing dictators alike. True, Amnesty continues to keep track of the world's political prisoners, as it has always done, and its reports remain a vital source of human rights information. But lately the organization has tended to save its most vitriolic condemnations not for the world's dictators but for the United States.

That vitriol reached a new level this week when, at a news conference held to mark the publication of Amnesty's annual report, the organization's secretary general, Irene Khan, called the U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the "gulag of our times." In her written introduction to the report, Ms. Khan also mentioned only two countries at length: Sudan and the United States, the "unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power," which "thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights."

Like Amnesty, we, too, have written extensively about U.S. prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. We have done so not only because the phenomenon is disturbing in its own right but also because it gives undemocratic regimes around the world an excuse to justify their own use of torture and indefinite detention and because it damages the U.S. government's ability to promote human rights.

But we draw the line at the use of the word "gulag" or at the implication that the United States has somehow become the modern equivalent of Stalin's Soviet Union. Guantanamo Bay is an ad hoc creation, designed to contain captured enemy combatants in wartime. Abuses there -- including new evidence of desecrating the Koran -- have been investigated and discussed by the FBI, the press and, to a still limited extent, the military. The Soviet gulag, by contrast, was a massive forced labor complex consisting of thousands of concentration camps and hundreds of exile villages through which more than 20 million people passed during Stalin's lifetime and whose existence was not acknowledged until after his death. Its modern equivalent is not Guantanamo Bay, but the prisons of Cuba, where Amnesty itself says a new generation of prisoners of conscience reside; or the labor camps of North Korea, which were set up on Stalinist lines; or China's laogai , the true size of which isn't even known; or, until recently, the prisons of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

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  Amnesty International Takes Aim at United States in Annual Human Rights Report (CommonDreams.org) "Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time." --Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan

By Paisley Dodds
Associated Press
Published May 25, 2005

LONDON -- Amnesty International branded the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a human rights failure Wednesday, releasing a 308-page report that offers stinging criticism of the United States and its detention centers around the world.

"Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time," Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan said as the London-based group launched its annual report. Amnesty International called for the camp to be closed.


Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time.

Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan
The annual report accused the United States of shirking its responsibility to set the bar for human rights protections and said Washington has instead created a new lexicon for abuse and torture.

"Attempts to dilute the absolute ban on torture through new policies and quasi-management speak, such as 'environmental manipulation, stress positions and sensory manipulation,' was one of the most damaging assaults on global values."

Some 540 prisoners from about 40 countries are currently being held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More than 200 others have been released, though some are now jailed in their countries; many have been held for three years without charge.

The U.S. government says it continues to be a leader in human rights

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  The Center Holds (WashingtonPost.com) EDITORIAL

Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page A16

THERE IS NO guarantee that the cease-fire in the judicial nominating wars negotiated by 14 U.S. senators and announced last night will stick. How could there be? But the agreement by seven Republicans and seven Democrats, with Virginia's John W. Warner (R) playing a leading role, nonetheless is a great achievement. It is a demonstration, in an era of increasingly bitter partisanship, of what can still be accomplished through negotiation and the proffer of a modicum of trust across the aisle. Interest groups on both sides railed against compromise and threatened its architects; Senate leaders of both parties and the president did more to obstruct a deal than to facilitate it. The 14 senators nonetheless managed to put principle above self-protection.

"The first question that most of the media are going to ask us: Who won and who lost?" said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the 14. "The Senate won, and the country won."

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  Weapons in Space (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: May 24, 2005

The Air Force is pressing hard to develop defensive and offensive space weapons without adequately considering the potential adverse consequences. At this point, it is not clear whether Air Force aspirations for these weapons are mostly technological fantasy or have some real hope of success. It is certainly true that the Air Force wants to achieve and maintain military superiority in space. "We haven't reached the point of strafing and bombing from space," an Air Force official said last year. "Nonetheless, we are thinking about those possibilities."

Already, the Air Force has spent billions of dollars on its effort to develop space weapons, with little public discussion. Now, as an article by Tim Weiner of The Times revealed last Wednesday, the Air Force is seeking a presidential directive that could strengthen military uses of space.

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  Congress Won't Stop 10-Year Cisneros Probe (WashingtonPost.com) Associated Press
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page A05

Congress has refused to halt spending on a decade-old investigation of Henry Cisneros, former secretary of housing and urban development, despite Democratic senators' attempt to stop it.

A Senate provision that would have ended spending on the probe next month was killed during closed-door negotiations on a broader bill paying for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.).

The bill for the Cisneros investigation had reached nearly $21 million at the end of September. Independent counsel David Barrett said much of the spending goes to overhead costs, such as rent, which is required by law to ensure the independence of his probe.

"Even waste has a constituency," said Dorgan, who sponsored the measure to end the spending.

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  A Last-Minute Deal on Judicial Nominees (WashingtonPost.com) Senators Agree On Votes for 3; 2 Could Still Face Filibusters

By Charles Babington and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page A01

Fourteen Republican and Democratic senators broke with their party leaders last night to avert a showdown vote over judicial nominees, agreeing to votes on some of President Bush's nominees while preserving the right to filibuster others in "extraordinary circumstances."

The dramatic announcement caught Senate leaders by surprise and came on the eve of a scheduled vote to ban filibusters of judicial nominees, the "nuclear option" that has dominated Senate discussions for weeks. The deal clears the way for prompt confirmation of three appellate court nominees -- Priscilla R. Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William H. Pryor Jr.

Democratic leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) called the pact "a significant victory for our country." But Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said "it has some good news, and it has some disappointing news."

Frist, who was under pressure from conservative groups and colleagues to ban judicial filibusters, said that each of Bush's judicial nominees deserves an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor and that the agreement "falls short of that principle." But he and Reid had no choice but to accept the agreement's outline.

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  Rehnquist Visits Health Unit At U.S. Capitol (WashingtonPost.com) Associated Press
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page A06

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was wheeled into the U.S. Capitol health unit yesterday, a reminder of the stakes of the filibuster compromise being negotiated at the same time across the building in the Senate.

Rehnquist, 80, did not speak as he was led through the building by a security guard and trailed by another carrying his walking cane.


It was not immediately clear why Rehnquist went to the Capitol. Reporters' calls to officials at the Supreme Court and the Capitol were not immediately returned.

The chief justice has been treated for thyroid cancer and was absent from the bench between October and March, triggering speculation that he may announce his retirement at the end of the court's session next month. A vacancy would allow President Bush to make his first appointment to the high court.

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  US Military to Build Four Giant New Bases in Iraq (Guardian.co.uk) Michael Howard in Baghdad
Monday May 23, 2005
The Guardian

US military commanders are planning to pull back their troops from Iraq's towns and cities and redeploy them in four giant bases in a strategy they say is a prelude to eventual withdrawal.

The plan, details of which emerged at the weekend, also foresees a transfer to Iraqi command of more than 100 bases that have been occupied by US-led multinational forces since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

However, the decision to in vest in the bases, which will require the construction of more permanent structures such as blast-proof barracks and offices, is seen by some as a sign that the US expects to keep a permanent presence in Iraq.

Politicians opposed to a long-term US presence on Iraqi soil questioned the plan.

(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US military to build four giant new bases in Iraq)  ¶ 22:38 0 comments

  Patterns of Abuse (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: May 23, 2005

President Bush said the other day that the world should see his administration's handling of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison as a model of transparency and accountability. He said those responsible were being systematically punished, regardless of rank. It made for a nice Oval Office photo-op on a Friday morning. Unfortunately, none of it is true.

The administration has provided nothing remotely like a full and honest accounting of the extent of the abuses at American prison camps in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It has withheld internal reports and stonewalled external inquiries, while clinging to the fiction that the abuse was confined to isolated acts, like the sadistic behavior of one night crew in one cellblock at Abu Ghraib. The administration has prevented any serious investigation of policy makers at the White House, the Justice Department and the Pentagon by orchestrating official probes so that none could come even close to the central question of how the prison policies were formulated and how they led to the abuses.

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  The Rumsfeld Stain (NYTimes.com) By BOB HERBERT
Published: May 23, 2005

How does Donald Rumsfeld survive as defense secretary?

Much of what has happened to the military on his watch has been catastrophic. In Iraq, more than 1,600 American troops have died and many thousands have been maimed in a war that Mr. Rumsfeld mishandled from the beginning and still has no idea how to win. The generals are telling us now that the U.S. is likely to be bogged down in Iraq for years, and there are whispers circulating about the possibility of "defeat."

Potential recruits are staying away from the armed forces in droves. Most Americans want no part of the administration's hapless venture in Iraq. A woman in Connecticut with two college-age sons said to me recently: "My boys should die in Baghdad? For what?"

Parents from coast to coast are going out of their way to dissuade their children from joining the military. Recruiters, desperate and in many cases emotionally distraught after repeatedly missing their monthly goals, began abandoning admission standards and signing up individuals who were physically, mentally or morally unfit for service.

The abuses became so widespread that the Army suspended recruiting on Friday so recruiters could spend the day being retrained in the legal and ethical standards they are supposed to maintain. The Army is going through its toughest year for recruiting since the nation went to an all-volunteer military in 1973.

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  The Yanks Are Coming (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: May 23, 2005

You would think from the way Manchester United soccer fans are carrying on about the purchase of their team by Malcolm Glazer that the royal crown jewels were on their way to Arizona to join the London Bridge. What primarily seems to annoy the Red Devils crowd is that (1.) Mr. Glazer is an American, (2.) Americans don't know beans about soccer, and (3.) he is a tycoon wringing money out of a British legend. On the face of it, the fans are not far off: Mr. Glazer is an American, Americans don't by and large know beans about soccer, and Mr. Glazer does hope to make money on Manchester.

So what? For all the legend and lore that encrust Manchester United, the days when tough local lads went out on Sunday and played for the glory of factory and city are gone. Sports teams are business, and increasingly global, and the globalized playing field has become level. ManU has more fans in Asia than in Manchester; its current roster includes all sorts of foreigners, like an American goalkeeper. And look what foreign owners can do: Chelsea, owned by the Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich, just won its first English title in 50 years.

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  America Wants Security (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 23, 2005

It was a carefully staged Norman Rockwell scene. The street was lined with American flags; a high school band played "God Bless America."

Then, under the watchful gaze of Wal-Mart's chief operating officer, Maryland's governor vetoed a bill that would have obliged large businesses to spend more on employee health care.

The news here isn't that some politicians wrap their deference to corporate interests in the flag. The news, instead, is that Maryland's State Legislature passed a pro-worker bill in the first place. In fact, the bill passed by a veto-proof majority in the Maryland Senate, and fell just short of that margin in the House.

After November's election, the victors claimed a mandate to unravel the welfare state. But the national election was about who would best defend us from gay married terrorists. At the state level, where elections were fought on bread-and-butter issues, voters sent a message that they wanted a stronger, not weaker, social safety net.

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  Dean, Feisty and Unbowed, Stands By Words on DeLay (NYTimes.com) By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: May 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 22 - Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said Sunday that Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, was likely to go to jail over ethical transgressions and called on him to step down pending the outcome of inquiries into his actions.

Dr. Dean offered a blistering review of the Republican Party - "I hate what the Republicans are doing to this country, I really do," he said - and used Mr. DeLay as an example of the "abuse of power" that he said now permeated Washington.

"This gentleman is not an ethical person, and he ought not to be leading Congress, period," Dr. Dean said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "And it is endemic of what happens in Congress when one party controls everything."

It was the first national television interview Dr. Dean has granted since he was elected chairman in February, and the appearance is part of the party's orchestrated effort to raise his profile. Reinforcing an impression suggested by his often freewheeling remarks on a 100-day nationwide tour he made when he started the job, Dr. Dean left little doubt on Sunday that he is a different party leader than his predecessors or his counterpart in the Republican Party, Ken Mehlman.

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  U.S. Official Says Hopes for Prompt China Yuan Move (Reuters.com) Sun May 22, 2005 12:33 PM ET

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A senior U.S. Treasury official said on Sunday China seemed ready for a more flexible yuan currency regime and he hoped it would act quickly.

"I think now they are technically ready, Randy Quarles, acting undersecretary of the U.S. treasury, told a news briefing when asked when he expected China to move to relax controls over its currency.

"I think with that and with the fact they've been saying for some time it is their intention and desire to have a flexible currency regime that it is something they can do now and I hope they will do promptly," he added.

Quarles was speaking at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the Serbian capital.

China has been under pressure from its main trading partners, including the United States, to modify its policy of pegging the yuan which holds it at about 8.28 per dollar and to revalue the currency.

(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com)  ¶ 22:02 0 comments

  At 87, Byrd Faces Re-election Battle of His Career (USATODAY.com) Posted 5/22/2005 6:55 PM Updated 5/22/2005 7:02 PM

SOPHIA, W.Va. (AP) — Nationally, Robert C. Byrd may wear a Republican bulls-eye — the senator atop the GOP's electoral hit list for 2006. But in Sophia, the town of 1,301 he left for Congress some 52 years ago, he is still very much the favorite son.

"He's always trying to help us out," said Shawn Stines, a 26-year-old mechanic, as he stuffed a dryer at the Sophia Laundromat. "I like him. He's a good guy."

Outside Priddy's Hardware Store, 64-year-old Frances Meredith is even more emphatic.

"I love him," Meredith said. "I dread the day when he passes away."

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  Tarnished Image Abroad Fails to Register with Americans at Home (Guardian.co.uk) By Jonathan Steele
Saturday May 21, 2005

Guardian

The US faces an uphill struggle to win a positive image for its foreign policy after the disclosures of torture and other atrocities at Bagram air base, according to senior American and international analysts.
"The Abu Ghraib pictures have become an icon of the occupation of Iraq. It's difficult to erase them from people's minds. Bagram only adds to the problem," Nadim Shehadi, acting director of Chatham House's Middle East programme, said yesterday.

The Bagram revelations - described by the New York Times as "a narrative counterpart to the images from Abu Ghraib" - are the latest in a string of episodes which started soon after President George Bush launched his so-called war on terror.

They began with pictures of hooded prisoners being flown to the US base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba in 2002. The first detainees released spoke of torture, sleep deprivation and other forms of ill-treatment.

The scandal over the US-run prison at Abu Ghraib a year later was more dramatic and shocking, both because the torture was caught on camera, but also because of the strong element of sexual humiliation. Reporters found evidence that torture was not just the action of a few soldiers, but had the consent of officers and was systematic.

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  Building a Better Spy (NYTimes.com) By RICHARD A. CLARKE
Published: May 22, 2005

Dear John:

You have been in office as the first director of national intelligence for about a month now. Wishing you were back in Baghdad? I understand. The law that created your job was filled with compromises designed to satisfy Don Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's backers in Congress. As a result, the law is, to be charitable, ambiguous about your authority over Defense Department intelligence agencies and the F.B.I.

You have always been a team player, not a rock-the-boat kind of guy. But this is your last job in government, John, so why not go for it? In fact, unless you clarify those ambiguities to make clear the director of national intelligence has real authority, you will have been a failure. Right now, America cannot afford for you to fail. So although it is against your personal style, pick some fights. And win them. Here are a few ideas on things worth fighting for.

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  Guantanamo Comes to Define U.S. to Muslims (NYTimes.com) By SOMINI SENGUPTA and SALMAN MASOOD
Published: May 21, 2005

NEW DELHI, May 20 - In one of Pakistan's most exclusive private schools for boys, the annual play this year was "Guantánamo," a docudrama based on testimonies of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, the United States naval base in Cuba.

Accusations of abuses at the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba permeate media in various countries. An image of a detainee was televised Friday on a program on Al Jazeera.
The cast was made up of students between 16 and 18 years old, each playing the role of a prisoner being held on suspicion of terrorism. To deepen their understanding of their characters, the boys pored through articles in Pakistani newspapers, studied the international press and surfed Web sites, including one that described itself as a nonsectarian Islamic human rights portal and is called cageprisoners.com.

It didn't matter that the boys at the Lahore Grammar School, an elite academy that has sent many of its graduates to study in American universities, lived in a world quite removed from that known by most prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The more they explored, the more the play resonated, the director of the school's production, Omair Rana, recalled Friday in a telephone interview. The detainees were Muslim, many were Pakistani and one had been arrested in Islamabad, the country's capital.

"It was something we all could relate to," Mr. Rana said of "Guantánamo," a play created "from spoken evidence" by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo, a Briton and a South African, that was staged in London and in New York last year. "All that seemed very relevant, very nearby - in fact, too close for comfort."

(More ... Guant�namo Comes to Define U.S. to Muslims - New York Times)  ¶ 21:55 0 comments

  The Yuan Diversion (INYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: May 21, 2005

The get-tough-on-China talk got tougher this week when Treasury Secretary John Snow announced that China risks being branded a currency manipulator - and thus subject to sanctions - unless it acts soon to increase the fixed exchange rate between its currency, the yuan, and the United States dollar. Mr. Snow was echoing American manufacturers and some members of Congress who complain that China is undervaluing the yuan to artificially depress its export prices. But his aim is only partly to prod China. By demanding action, he is also trying to defuse growing anti-Chinese sentiment, as evidenced by the Senate's threat last month to slap punitive tariffs on Chinese goods unless the yuan is revalued.

(More ... The Yuan Diversion - New York Times)  ¶ 21:49 0 comments

  The Chinese Connection (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 20, 2005

Stories about the new Treasury report condemning China's currency policy probably had most readers going, "Huh?" Frankly, this is an issue that confuses professional economists, too. But let me try to explain what's going on.

Over the last few years China, for its own reasons, has acted as an enabler both of U.S. fiscal irresponsibility and of a return to Nasdaq-style speculative mania, this time in the housing market. Now the U.S. government is finally admitting that there's a problem - but it's asserting that the problem is China's, not ours.

And there's no sign that anyone in the administration has faced up to an unpleasant reality: the U.S. economy has become dependent on low-interest loans from China and other foreign governments, and it's likely to have major problems when those loans are no longer forthcoming.

Here's how the U.S.-China economic relationship currently works:

Money is pouring into China, both because of its rapidly rising trade surplus and because of investments by Western and Japanese companies. Normally, this inflow of funds would be self-correcting: both China's trade surplus and the foreign investment pouring in would push up the value of the yuan, China's currency, making China's exports less competitive and shrinking its trade surplus.

But the Chinese government, unwilling to let that happen, has kept the yuan down by shipping the incoming funds right back out again, buying huge quantities of dollar assets - about $200 billion worth in 2004, and possibly as much as $300 billion worth this year. This is economically perverse: China, a poor country where capital is still scarce by Western standards, is lending vast sums at low interest rates to the United States.

Yet the U.S. has become dependent on this perverse behavior. Dollar purchases by China and other foreign governments have temporarily insulated the U.S. economy from the effects of huge budget deficits. This money flowing in from abroad has kept U.S. interest rates low despite the enormous government borrowing required to cover the budget deficit.

(More ... The Chinese Connection - New York Times)  ¶ 21:47 0 comments

  GOP Aides Say New Patriot Act Obliges Bush (CommonDreams.org) By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
Published Thursday, May 19, 2005

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury.

Much of the debate in Congress has concerned possibly limiting some of the powers in the anti-terrorism law passed 45 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But the measure being written by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, for quickly obtaining records, electronic data or other evidence in terrorism investigations, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters Wednesday.

Recipients could challenge the subpoenas in court and the Bush administration would have to report to Congress twice a year exactly how it was using this investigatory power, the aides said.

The administration has sought this power for two years, but so far been rebuffed by lawmakers. It is far from certain that Congress will give the administration everything it wants this year.

(More ... GOP Aides Say New Patriot Act Obliges Bush)  ¶ 14:58 0 comments

  FBI, ATF Address Domestic Terrorism (CNN.com) Officials: Extremists pose serious threat

From Terry Frieden
CNN

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Posted: 3:31 AM EDT (0731 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation, top federal law enforcement officials say.

Senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel Wednesday of their growing concern over these groups.

Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).

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  Report Calls Payments By FEMA Questionable (WashingtonPost.com) NZDEMS: So close to an election, political appointees know better than to disappoint the boss. Besides many senior civil servants at FEMA would have recalled that the political damage caused to Bush I in 1992 -- when officials fumbled the recovery following Hurricane Andrew -- was almost as devastating to him as the storm's physical damage was to South Florida. It's no wonder nobody wanted to produce the sequel.

Investigators Cite $31 Million Disbursed in Florida

By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2005; Page A25

The Federal Emergency Management Agency made $31 million in questionable payments to residents of Miami-Dade County for damage from Hurricane Frances last September even though the storm caused only minimal damage in that area of Florida, government investigators said yesterday.

More than $8 million of that amount was given to 4,300 people to rent temporary housing even though they had not asked for the money, and in many cases their homes were almost completely undamaged by the storm, according to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. The inspector general's report was made public yesterday at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

FEMA paid to replace thousands of televisions, air conditioners, beds and other furniture, as well as a number of cars, without receipts, or proof of ownership or damage, and based solely on verbal statements by the residents, sometimes made in fleeting encounters at fast-food restaurants, said the committee's chairman, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

"It was a 'pay first, ask questions later' approach," Collins said. "The inspector general's report identifies a number of significant control weaknesses that create a potential for widespread fraud, erroneous payments and wasteful practices."

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  Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War (NYTimes.com) By JOHN F. BURNS and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: May 19, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 18 - American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to come to Baghdad last weekend to consult with the new government.

In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer suggested Wednesday that American military involvement could last "many years."

Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American officer in the Middle East, said in a briefing in Washington that one problem was the disappointing progress in developing Iraqi police units cohesive enough to mount an effective challenge to insurgents and allow American forces to begin stepping back from the fighting. General Abizaid, who speaks with President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld regularly, was in Washington this week for a meeting of regional commanders.

In Baghdad, a senior officer said Wednesday in a background briefing that the 21 car bombings in Baghdad so far this month almost matched the total of 25 in all of last year.

(More ... Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War - New York Times)  ¶ 22:22 0 comments

  Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs (NYTimes.com) By TIM WEINER
Published: May 18, 2005

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.

The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space.

A senior administration official said that a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a more pacific use of space, including spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts.

Any deployment of space weapons would face financial, technological, political and diplomatic hurdles, although no treaty or law bans Washington from putting weapons in space, barring weapons of mass destruction.

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  Unwanted Ally Makes Dilemma for Bush (SMH.com.au) By Mark Coultan
Herald Correspondent in New York and agencies
May 19, 2005

Like many former Latin American allies of the US, Luis Posada Carriles has become an international embarrassment.

The man who spent 45 years trying to overthrow Fidel Castro, and who was once on the CIA's payroll, sneaked into the US six weeks ago across the Mexican border and caught a Greyhound bus to the place where he was considered a hero - the South Florida of virulently anti-Castro Cubans.

But US authorities arrested the Cuban exile, who is wanted in Venezuela for the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people nearly 30 years ago.

In Cuba, President Fidel Castro led 1 million protesters past the US diplomatic mission in Havana demanding Carriles's arrest and extradition to Venezuela.

Carriles, 77, a former US Army soldier and Bay of Pigs veteran, is seeking asylum, creating a political and moral dilemma for the US. Potentially it could be the most emotional issue in US-Cuban relations since the Elian Gonzalez affair five years ago, when a six-year-old castaway was at the centre of a tug-of-war between the two countries.

The problem for the US is that there is more publicly available evidence that Carriles is a terrorist than on most of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

(More ... Unwanted ally makes dilemma for Bush - World - smh.com.au)  ¶ 13:17 0 comments

  British MP Galloway Says 'Blew Away' U.S. Committee (Reuters.com) By Peter Griffiths
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmaker George Galloway claimed victory over a U.S. Senate committee which accused him of profiting from the Iraq oil-for-food program in a triumphant speech to supporters on Wednesday.

"We blew them away," an emotional Galloway told a rally in London after giving evidence to the panel examining how former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein used oil to reward politicians.

"From the emails and feedback we've had from all over the world it is true undoubtedly that there was a worldwide audience out there waiting for someone to speak the truth to power," he added.

The U.S. Senate committee had released documents it said showed Saddam gave Galloway the rights to export 20 million barrels of oil under the defunct humanitarian program.

Galloway defiantly rejected the evidence and condemned the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in an unusually robust performance before a Senate committee.

He returned to a hero's welcome from supporters at a rally in central London and appeared close to tears as he made his way through a scrum of photographers.

(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com)  ¶ 13:14 0 comments

  Women at War (WashingtonPost.com) Wednesday, May 18, 2005; Page A16

THE HOUSE ARMED Services Committee is expected today to take up the emotional issue of women in combat. Given the large numbers of servicewomen risking their lives in Iraq, in a war with no front lines, this debate has a certain detachment from reality. President Bush has said that his position on the subject is clear -- "No women in combat" -- but such an edict isn't simple to apply. Though theoretically banned from combat, women in today's military routinely find themselves in combat situations. As one female sergeant leading a search team that guards the gates of Baghdad's Green Zone told The Post's Ann Scott Tyson, "If he said no women in combat, then why are there women here in Iraq?"

(More ... Women at War)  ¶ 13:11 0 comments

  Risk vs. Pork (WashingtonPost.com) Tuesday, May 17, 2005; Page A20

WHAT, EXACTLY, are federal "first responder" grants supposed to do? Are they intended to give extra financial help to firefighters and police officers who work in places where the risk of a terrorist attack is highest? Or are they meant to spread federal pork evenly around the country? The former answer is obviously the right one, but over the past three years, Congress hasn't always behaved as if that were so. On the contrary, thanks to rules that have mandated a minimum amount of spending in each state, Wyoming has so far enjoyed the highest per capita homeland security funding. That's because the rules, until now, have called for every state -- no matter what its location, population, size or significance to terrorists -- to receive 0.75 percent of the funding. This has meant that more than a third of homeland security funds were distributed automatically, before any risk analysis was done.

(More ... Risk vs. Pork)  ¶ 13:10 0 comments

  The Deserters: AWOL Crisis Hits the US Forces (Independent.co.uk) As the death toll of troops mounts in Iraq and Afghanistan, America's military recruiting figures have plummeted to an all-time low. Thousands of US servicemen and women are now refusing to serve their country. Andrew Buncombe reports

16 May 2005

Sergeant Kevin Benderman cannot shake the images from his head. There are bombed villages and desperate people. There are dogs eating corpses thrown into a mass grave. And most unremitting of all, there is the image of a young Iraqi girl, no more than eight or nine, one arm severely burnt and blistered, and the sound of her screams.

Last January, these memories became too much for this veteran of the war in Iraq. Informed his unit was about to return, he told his commanders he wanted out and applied to be considered a conscientious objector. The Army refused and charged him with desertion. Last week, his case - which carries a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment - started before a military judge at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

"If I am sincere in what I say and there's consequences because of my actions, I am prepared to stand up and take it," Sgt Benderman said. "If I have to go to prison because I don't want to kill anybody, so be it."

The case of Sgt Benderman and those of others like him has focused attention on the thousands of US troops who have gone Awol (Absent Without Leave) since the start of President George Bush's so-called war on terror. The most recent Pentagon figures suggest there are 5,133 troops missing from duty. Of these 2,376 are sought by the Army, 1,410 by the Navy, 1,297 by the Marines and 50 by the Air Force. Some have been missing for decades.

But campaigners say the true figure could be far higher. Staff who run a volunteer hotline to help desperate soldiers and recruits who want to get out, say the number of calls has increased by 50 per cent since 9/11. Last year alone, the GI Rights Hotline took more than 30,000 calls. At present, the hotline gets 3,000 calls a month and the volunteers say that by the time a soldier or recruit dials the help-line they have almost always made up their mind to get out by one means or another.

"People are calling us because there is a real problem," said Robert Dove, a Quaker who works in the Boston office of the American Friends Service Committee, one of several volunteer groups that have operated the hotline since 1995. "We do not profess to be lawyers or therapists but we do provide both types of support."

(More ... Independent News)  ¶ 19:33 0 comments

  Staying What Course? (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 16, 2005

Is there any point, now that November's election is behind us, in revisiting the history of the Iraq war? Yes: any path out of the quagmire will be blocked by people who call their opponents weak on national security, and portray themselves as tough guys who will keep America safe. So it's important to understand how the tough guys made America weak.

There has been notably little U.S. coverage of the "Downing Street memo" - actually the minutes of a British prime minister's meeting on July 23, 2002, during which officials reported on talks with the Bush administration about Iraq. But the memo, which was leaked to The Times of London during the British election campaign, confirms what apologists for the war have always denied: the Bush administration cooked up a case for a war it wanted.

Here's a sample: "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and W.M.D. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

(You can read the whole thing at www.downingstreetmemo.com.)

Why did the administration want to invade Iraq, when, as the memo noted, "the case was thin" and Saddam's "W.M.D. capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran"? Iraq was perceived as a soft target; a quick victory there, its domestic political advantages aside, could serve as a demonstration of American military might, one that would shock and awe the world.

But the Iraq war has, instead, demonstrated the limits of American power, and emboldened our potential enemies. Why should Kim Jong Il fear us, when we can't even secure the road from Baghdad to the airport?

At this point, the echoes of Vietnam are unmistakable. Reports from the recent offensive near the Syrian border sound just like those from a 1960's search-and-destroy mission, body count and all. Stories filed by reporters actually with the troops suggest that the insurgents, forewarned, mostly melted away, accepting battle only where and when they chose.

Meanwhile, America's strategic position is steadily deteriorating.

(More ... Staying What Course? - New York Times)  ¶ 21:10 0 comments

  DeLay: Democrats Have 'No Class' (CNN.com) Speaks at $250-a-plate gala in his honor

Thursday, May 12, 2005 Posted: 10:48 PM EDT (0248 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, facing an audience of conservative well-wishers who reject as politically motivated the ethics questions that have dogged him for months, on Thursday night fired back at Democrats by calling them members of a party with no ideas and "no class."

The Texas congressman's supporters -- among them a dozen conservative organizations -- staged a high-profile show of support by throwing a $250-a-plate gala in his honor that brought nearly 900 people to the Capital Hilton. The money will be used to pay for the event, organizers said.

When he took the stage after other speakers had hailed him for his leadership in the Republican Party and the House, DeLay made only a passing reference to the problems that have sparked calls for an ethics probe, joking that one speaker had told reporters about a foreign trip they didn't know about.

Instead, DeLay told the crowd that as Republicans helped Americans find jobs and helped the country recover from the September 11 terrorist attacks, Democrats offered the country nothing.

"No ideas. No leadership. No agenda. And, just in the last week, we can now add to that list, no class," DeLay said, a reference to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's remark to school children that President Bush was "a loser." Reid later apologized to Bush adviser Karl Rove.

(More ... CNN.com - DeLay: Democrats have 'no class' - May 12, 2005)  ¶ 08:12 0 comments

  Boxer's Hold Another Hitch in Bolton Vote (SFGate.com) Senator seeks access to papers, calls White House uncooperative

Edward Epstein
Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, May 14, 2005

Washington -- Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has erected a roadblock against John Bolton, President Bush's embattled nominee for U.N. ambassador, in a fight with the administration over access to documents.

Boxer said Friday she would lift her hold on the nomination if the administration provided the additional information she was seeking. Boxer took her action to slow Bolton's nomination after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday sent Bolton's name to the full Senate without a recommendation.

The move by Boxer is the latest twist in a nomination battle that has become increasingly bitter. Democrats say Bolton -- a State Department official who has long been an outspoken critic of the United Nations -- is arrogant and undiplomatic and has tried to force intelligence analysts to twist their findings to suit his preconceived conclusions. Republican supporters say Bolton is just what the United States needs at the U.N., a diplomat who will force changes in an organization hamstrung by waste, corruption and an inability to take decisive action.

"I said at the committee meeting that I was going to do everything I could to get the information I've asked for, and I did,'' Boxer said Friday in an interview. "It's a way to bring attention to this matter.''

Boxer's move, which the Republican Senate majority could overturn by getting 51 votes in favor of a motion to proceed despite her hold, could further raise the partisan temperature in a body already fighting over Republican efforts to curb the Democratic minority's power to filibuster Bush's judicial nominees.

(More ... Boxer's hold another hitch in Bolton vote / Senator seeks access to papers, calls White House uncooperative)  ¶ 16:44 0 comments

  Enter McCain-Kennedy (WashingtonPost.com) Saturday, May 14, 2005; Page A20

IMMIGRATION legislation introduced Thursday by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) is not the first, and may not be the last, attempt to forge a realistic, comprehensive and bipartisan national immigration policy. In the last Congress, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) also tried it, and others have introduced bills containing similar elements. But there are reasons to hope that this bill will move further. The authors have struggled, with one another and with widely varying advocates, to find compromise answers to some of the more difficult immigration issues.

The bill requires new investment in border security and technology. But it also allows employers to hire foreigners under a temporary visa program if they can prove they are unable to hire American workers for the same job. Visa-holders will be able to change jobs (which the discredited bracero guest-worker programs of the past did not allow); will be able to apply to stay (eliminating a potential source of new illegal immigration), and will be issued tamper-proof identity documents (ending the use of faked Social Security numbers).

Most controversially -- but ultimately sensibly -- the bill allows illegal immigrants already here to regularize their status, but not easily; they would have to go to the end of the line, and that only after paying a hefty fine, staying employed for a prescribed period and paying back taxes. The bills' authors argue that this is not an amnesty, because it requires a recognition of wrongdoing. They also argue that establishing the temporary visa will prevent a new pool of illegal immigrants from arriving because it will become politically realistic to fine employers who continue to employ illegals. Most of all, this provision for illegal immigrants makes sense because any legislation that does not deal with the approximately 10 million illegals will ultimately result in more lawbreaking.

(More ... Enter McCain-Kennedy)  ¶ 11:09 0 comments

  Old Foes Soften to New Reactors (NYTimes.com) By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: May 15, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 14 - Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming.

Their numbers are still small, but they represent growing cracks in what had been a virtually solid wall of opposition to nuclear power among most mainstream environmental groups. In the past few months, articles in publications like Technology Review, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wired magazine have openly espoused nuclear power, angering other environmental advocates.

Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and the author of "Environmental Heresies," an article in the May issue of Technology Review, explained the shift as a direct consequence of the growing anxiety about global warming and its links to the use of fossil fuel.

"It's not that something new and important and good had happened with nuclear, it's that something new and important and bad has happened with climate change," Mr. Brand said in an interview.

For many longtime advocates of environmental causes, such talk is nothing short of betrayal. Because of safety fears that reached a peak during the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and unresolved questions of how to dispose of nuclear waste, environmentalists have waged unrelenting campaigns against plants from Shoreham on Long Island to Diablo Canyon near the California coast.

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  Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules (NYTimes.com) By ELI SANDERS
Published: May 14, 2005

SEATTLE, May 13 - Unsettled by a series of dry winters in this normally wet city, Mayor Greg Nickels has begun a nationwide effort to do something the Bush administration will not: carry out the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Mr. Nickels, a Democrat, says 131 other likeminded mayors have joined a bipartisan coalition to fight global warming on the local level, in an implicit rejection of the administration's policy.

The mayors, from cities as liberal as Los Angeles and as conservative as Hurst, Tex., represent nearly 29 million citizens in 35 states, according to Mayor Nickels's office. They are pledging to have their cities meet what would have been a binding requirement for the nation had the Bush administration not rejected the Kyoto Protocol: a reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions to levels 7 percent below those of 1990, by 2012.

On Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg brought New York City into the coalition, the latest Republican mayor to join.

(More ... Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules - New York Times)  ¶ 10:32 0 comments

  The Nelson Option (WashingtonPost.com) Thursday, May 12, 2005; Page A20

SENATE MAJORITY Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and conservative interest groups are bent on triggering the so-called nuclear option to end filibusters of judges. Democrats and allied liberal groups are no less committed to stopping several of President Bush's judges. A damaging confrontation is now inevitable unless moderate senators of both parties take a deep breath, ignore their party leaderships and reach an understanding of their own. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) is making an admirable effort to broker such a deal.

Having not generally supported the filibusters of Mr. Bush's nominees, Mr. Nelson is one of the few senators of either party who is not responsible for his party's contribution to the current mess. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), during the Clinton administration, similarly behaved honorably. Mr. Nelson's proposal is that six members of each party sign a memorandum of understanding under which the Republicans would pledge to oppose the "nuclear option" and the Democrats would pledge to support cloture on some of the seven currently filibustered nominees. They would also pledge to refrain from supporting future filibusters except under the most extraordinary circumstances.

What exactly would constitute such extreme circumstances is not entirely clear -- which is actually the point. Democratic signatories would know that their understanding of extreme circumstances might not correspond to that of the Republican signatories. A decision, in other words, by any of the six Democrats to support a future filibuster could -- if the Democratic case is not widely accepted -- cause the Republicans to consider themselves released from the deal. The deal would therefore preserve the current rules, yet it would also give Democrats genuine reason to think twice before derailing a future nominee who enjoys majority support.

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  States Challenge Pentagon on Closing National Guard Bases (USATODAY.com) Posted 5/11/2005 9:34 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — States and congressional delegations, fearful the Pentagon will target their military bases for closure, are challenging Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's claim that he can shutter Army and Air National Guard installations without a governor's consent.

Undeterred, the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to release its list of proposed closures Friday.

The list is being kept under wraps, but defense analysts say they expect more than two dozen National Guard facilities to be tapped for closure or relocation. They suspect the Air National Guard will be hit hard, given that the Pentagon wants to scale back the F-16 fighter jet and other older planes located at domestic Air Guard facilities.

At least one state, Illinois, is threatening to go to court to block Rumsfeld.

(More ... USATODAY.com - States challenge Pentagon on closing National Guard bases)  ¶ 08:44 0 comments

  Appeals Court Sides With Cheney in Task Force Lawsuit (CNN.com) Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Posted: 2:10 PM EDT (1810 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A lawsuit seeking to force Vice President Dick Cheney to reveal details about the energy policy task force he headed and the pro-industry recommendations it made was scuttled Tuesday by a federal appeals court.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously found that two private groups that sued Cheney failed to establish that the federal government had a legal duty to produce documents detailing the White House's contacts with business executives and lobbyists.

The lawsuit, filed by the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, alleged that energy industry officials effectively became members of the task force, while environmental groups and others were shut out of the meetings. It also argued that the task force was a federal advisory committee with an obligation to publicly disclose its operations.

The appeals court disagreed. "There is nothing to indicate that nonfederal employees had a right to vote on committee matters or exercise a veto over committee proposals," it said. The court ordered a lower court to dismiss the case.

(More ... CNN.com - Appeals court sides with Cheney in task force lawsuit - May 10, 2005)  ¶ 08:15 0 comments

  Women Returning to Democratic Party, Poll Finds (WashingtonPost.com) By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page A09

The gender gap is now 25 years old and, according to recent polling, it is alive and well.

A Democratic polling memo released yesterday found that women, who voted for President Bush last year in large numbers, have begun migrating back to their traditional home in the Democratic Party as the public's agenda has shifted from homeland security and terrorism to domestic concerns such as jobs and the economy.

There has long been a gender gap between the parties, with women tending to vote Democratic in disproportionate numbers. Bush all but closed that gap last year, losing the female vote to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) by three percentage points. But the memo pointed to a March survey that found women favoring Democrats when asked which party's candidates they would support if congressional elections were held today.

The memo, released by Lake Snell Perry Mermin & Associates Inc., found women picked unnamed Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans by a 13-point margin. It also found that several key groups of women who voted Republican last year are now evenly or almost evenly split between the parties. Married women are now evenly split, while white women favor Democrats by three percentage points. Kerry lost both groups by 11 points.

(More ... Women Returning to Democratic Party, Poll Finds)  ¶ 08:12 0 comments

  Increasingly Embattled, DeLay Scales Back Usual Power Plays (WashingtonPost.com) By John F. Harris and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 9, 2005; Page A01

In the euphemism favored on Capitol Hill, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is "not staff driven." Translation: He is used to doing what he wants.

It happens all the time, DeLay friends and advisers say. An aide will suggest that the leader soften his tone, or back off just a bit from some inflammatory position. As often as not, the Texas Republican will respond with a snort, suggesting that the adviser is more worried about how a decision will play inside the Beltway than how it will be perceived -- if it is noticed at all -- by the rest of the country.

For a full decade, the 58-year-old DeLay's career has prospered because he was usually right in this calculation, say legislators from both parties who have watched him in action. DeLay could be himself -- a partisan with a zeal for ideological combat, a taste for high living and intense religious conviction -- in ways that made him exceptionally powerful in Congress but not especially recognizable to the public beyond.

Suddenly, the old Texas brio that carried him through years of smaller controversies is on the wane. The leader recognizes -- belatedly, some GOP colleagues say -- that the latest questions about his relationships with lobbyists are a problem threatening his career and the GOP majority he helped to build and sustain since coming to the House 20 years ago. Everywhere there are signs of a politician in retreat.

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  Tom DeLay's Empire of Favors (NYTimes.com) By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: May 8, 2005

WASHINGTON — Politicians are not always the most courageous lot. The first whiff of scandal, the first taint of defeat, usually makes them run - hence the popular saying that if you want a friend in this town, get a dog.

But Republicans in the House have not run from Tom DeLay, who, like Bill Clinton before him, has defied political gravity in recent months. Three of his former aides have been indicted in an investigation of campaign fund-raising practices; a close lobbyist friend is under criminal investigation; the House ethics committee is preparing to reconsider allegations that Mr. DeLay and his staff members violated travel rules.

Rather than try to protect themselves and engineer a coup, Republican members are throwing a tribute party for him this week. President Bush is also standing firm, even taking him along on Air Force One.

Raising a simple question: Why?

(More ... Tom DeLay's Empire of Favors - New York Times)  ¶ 12:51 0 comments

  The Perfect Storm That Could Drown the Economy (NYTimes.com) By DANIEL GROSS
Published: May 8, 2005

WE seem to be living in apocalyptic times. On NBC's "Revelations," Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone seek signs of the End of Days. In the Senate, gray-haired eminences speak of the "nuclear option."

The doomsday theme is seeping into the normally circumspect world of economics. In April, Arjun Murti, a veteran analyst at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, warned that oil could "super-spike" to $105 a barrel. And increasingly, economists are prophesying that the American economy as a whole may be sailing into choppy waters.

Just look at the many obvious and worrisome portents. The government each year spends much more than it brings in, and so the nation has a large budget deficit ($412 billion in fiscal 2004, and growing). Americans also import far more goods than they export, and so the nation has record trade and current account deficits.

As consumers, Americans personally spend significantly more than they earn. Worse, some imbalances are eerily reminiscent of conditions that helped touch off recent economic crises: Mexico in 1994, Asia in 1997, Russia in 1998 and Argentina in 2002. Throw in rising interest rates, warnings of a housing bubble and the potential for higher inflation and slower growth (a k a stagflation) - and you can understand why some economic analysts may be plumbing the New Testament for inspiration.

The forces propelling and buffeting the economy are like a series of interrelated and interconnected weather systems. Could they be setting the conditions for a perfect storm - a swift series of disturbances that causes lasting damage? If so, what would it look like?

(More ... The Perfect Storm That Could Drown the Economy - New York Times)  ¶ 12:50 0 comments

  The Final Insult (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 9, 2005

Hell hath no fury like a scammer foiled. The card shark caught marking the deck, the auto dealer caught resetting a used car's odometer, is rarely contrite. On the contrary, they're usually angry, and they lash out at their intended marks, crying hypocrisy.

And so it is with those who would privatize Social Security. They didn't get away with scare tactics, or claims to offer something for nothing. Now they're accusing their opponents of coddling the rich and not caring about the poor.

Well, why not? It's no more outrageous than other arguments they've tried. Remember the claim that Social Security is bad for black people?

Before I take on this final insult to our intelligence, let me deal with a fundamental misconception: the idea that President Bush's plan would somehow protect future Social Security benefits.

If the plan really would do that, it would be worth discussing. It's possible - not certain, but possible - that 40 or 50 years from now Social Security won't have enough money coming in to pay full benefits. (If the economy grows as fast over the next 50 years as it did over the past half-century, Social Security will do just fine.) So there's a case for making small sacrifices now to avoid bigger sacrifices later.

(More ... The Final Insult - New York Times)  ¶ 08:22 0 comments

  Nature at Bay (NYTimes.com) Published: May 9, 2005

The Bush administration's efforts to capitalize on the recent discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker were bizarre. Gale Norton, the interior secretary, announced a $10 million program to enlarge the bird's habitat, proclaiming that "second chances to save wildlife once thought to be extinct are rare."

But what about first chances? The woodpecker, if it indeed has returned, is as much warning as gift. President Bush's policies suggest that he not only has failed to learn from past mistakes, but is determined to repeat them on a more destructive scale.

The obvious example is his fixation on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. This bespeaks an intellectually bankrupt energy policy and would certainly cause trouble for wildlife. Yet the Arctic is hardly the only illustration of the administration's insensitivity to wilderness values. Here are three more of recent vintage: Nature at Bay - New York Times  ¶ 08:20 0 comments

  Filibuster Fray Lifts Profile of Minister (WashingtonPost.com) Scarborough Has Network and Allies

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 8, 2005; Page A01

In his home town of Pearland, Tex., Baptist minister Rick Scarborough was tireless in promoting his conservative Christian way of thinking.

He attacked high school sex education courses, experimental medical treatments and transsexuals trying to change their gender identification. He recruited like-minded candidates to run for the local school board and city council. He crisscrossed the country to protest the ousting of Roy S. Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, for installing a Ten Commandments tablet at his courthouse. And Scarborough created a network of "Patriot Pastors" to lead evangelicals to the polls in 2004.

Now he has set his sights on bigger stakes: pushing Senate Republicans to change the rules so that Democrats cannot block President Bush's judicial nominees. The fight over the judgeships was once a largely academic argument over the constitutionality of the filibuster. But now it provides a fiery new front in the culture war. And Scarborough is emblematic of the Christian right leaders who have been drawn to the fray.

(More ... Filibuster Fray Lifts Profile of Minister)  ¶ 08:30 0 comments

  N.C. Church Kicks Out Members Who Do Not Support Bush (WashingtonPost.com) Associated Press
Sunday, May 8, 2005; Page A12

WAYNESVILLE, N.C., May 7 -- Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP.

Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who did not support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church meeting in this mountain town about 120 miles west of Charlotte. Forty others in the 400-member congregation resigned in protest.

"He's the kind of pastor who says 'Do it my way or get out,' " said Selma Morris, the former church treasurer. "He's real negative all the time."

Chandler told WLOS-TV in Asheville on Friday that the actions were not politically motivated, but on Saturday he refused to comment, citing the advice of his attorney.

During the presidential election last year, Chandler told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for the Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), should either leave the church or repent, former member Lorene Sutton said.

Some church members left after Chandler made his ultimatum in October, Morris said.

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  Americans Face Stricter ID Checks (CSMonitor.com) By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – From driver's licenses, to passports, to plane tickets, the paperwork necessary to enter and move about America may soon be subject to more restrictive rules - all in the name of homeland security.
In some cases (licenses) the paperwork may be difficult to get. In others (passports) it may have to be proffered more often. These changes, added together, may have the biggest effect on Americans' routines of any made for security's sake since the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

Some analysts say that the changes are more oriented toward controlling illegal immigration than fighting terrorism. Others argue that those two efforts are inextricably linked - and that the US has to start somewhere, given the number of undocumented people that cross the nation's borders every year.

"Unless we discourage people from entering the US, our border security problem is unsolvable," says James Jay Carafano, senior fellow for national security and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.

(More ... Americans face stricter ID checks | csmonitor.com)  ¶ 20:25 0 comments

  'US Invasion of Iraq Was a Resource War' (iol.co.za) By Melanie Gosling
Cape Times
May 3, 2005

Cape Town - With the rapid decline of global oil supplies, the United States is heading for an economic crash unlike anything since the 1930s. And the collapse of the dollar will affect every nation on earth.

This is the chilling warning from academic Richard Heinberg of the New College of California. Heinberg is in Cape Town, South Africa, this week to share his views on what governments and societies need to do to mitigate the imminent global crisis after world oil production peaks.

"It's too late to maintain a 'business as usual' attitude. What is required is to manage the change that peak oil will bring in a way that causes the fewest casualties. This must be done at an economic and geopolitical level, to fend off resource wars. The US invasion of Iraq is clearly a resource war," Heinberg said on Monday.

Global oil discovery peaked in the 1960s and oil production is likely to peak as soon as 2007. With a world economy based on fossil fuel, the economic and social consequences will be dire.

(More ... )  ¶ 22:02 0 comments