U.S. moves to dismiss charges in terror case
Prosecutors have agreed with Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyers that all charges against the terrorism defendant should be dismissed but only to hasten an appeal that challenges his right to question fellow al-Qaida prisoners. In a written motion made public Thursday, the government also asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to issue a stay, an order that would keep the charges in place during the appeal.

The hunt for weapons of mass destruction yields - nothing
An intensive six-month search of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction has failed to discover a single trace of an illegal arsenal, according to accounts of a report circulating in Washington and London. The interim report, compiled by the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group (ISG) of 1,400 weapons experts and support staff, will instead focus on Saddam Hussein's capacity and intentions to build banned weapons.

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2002 Congressional Candidates

Stage Zero -The Moral Development Of George W. Bush
"...people progress in their moral reasoning (i.e., in their bases for ethical behavior) through a series of levels... The first is "the Preconventional Level," where one usually finds oneself in elementary school. The first stage of this level is where George, I believe, makes his home. It's called: Stage Zero." If George wasn't driving the world down the road to extinction with his wars, his environmentally disastrous choices and world alienating policies--"Look at me, ma, no hands" he says while sitting behind the wheel of our children's future--I'd think he was almost fascinating. Fascinating the way one who is steeped in myriad psychological issues is. I'm a psychotherapist. And, having never seen George in therapy, despite my open invitation, it would be unethical for me to make an official diagnosis of him. So, I won't. But, I can kick some thoughts around.

Venezuela's Chavez Blasts U.S. Over 'Terrorist' Plot
President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday Venezuelan "terrorists" plotting to kill him were training in the United States, and he told the U.S. and Spanish governments to stop meddling in his country's affairs.

How to ruin a great army? See Donald Rumsfeld
Armies are fragile institutions, and for all their might, easily broken. It took the better part of 20 years to rebuild the Army from the wreckage of Vietnam. With the hard work of a generation of young officers, blooded in Vietnam and determined that the mistake would never be repeated, a new Army rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of the old, now perhaps the finest Army in history. In just over three years, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and his civilian aides have done just about everything they could to destroy that Army.

White House Faces Crunch Time on 9/11 Files
Two weeks and counting. After that, the independent commission investigating the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, says it is going to blow the whistle. Again. "We spend a long time on negotiating on access," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, the 9/11 commission co-chairman. "And we have laid down a marker here in which we indicate that we need this information in two weeks' time. So we are approaching a crunch point, I believe."

Amnesty International report denounces US treatment of war prisoners
A recent report by Amnesty International (AI) warns that the Bush administration is repudiating basic democratic rights and undermining the entire post-World War II system of international humanitarian law. The 60-page document, which exposes US torture of those captured in the “war on terror”, is entitled The threat of a bad example: undermining international standards. It details the US government’s treatment of foreign war prisoners held without charge and denied access to their families and legal counsel for almost two years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Bagram US Air Base, Afghanistan.

ENGINEERS ARE BAFFLED OVER THE COLLAPSE OF 7 WTC: "STEEL MEMBERS HAVE BEEN PARTLY EVAPORATED"
The combination of an uncontrolled fire and the structural damage might have been able to bring the building down, some engineers said. But that would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to have been partly evaporated in extraordinarily high temperatures, Dr. Barnett said.

The Terror Enigma: Israel and the September 11 Connection
“Remember 9/11!” is the rallying cry of the War Party; what we are remembering, however, is a half-truth. It is time to draw the curtain on the largely ignored prehistory of September 11. Although Bush-administration officials deny that they had even a hint of what was to come, government agencies were literally awash with warnings from the intelligence services of other nations—including the British, the French, the Germans, the Russians, the Argentines, the Israelis, the Egyptians, the Moroccans, and the Jordanians. The Israelis had warned us in August 2001, when they sent a delegation to Washington, handed over a list of 19 individuals in the United States whom they believed to be planning terrorist activities, and issued a nonspecific warning that a major terrorist attack was afoot. Yet there are indications that the Mossad knew about Muhammad Atta and his gang long before they let U.S. law enforcement in on the secret. In the months before September 11, the Mossad had launched a major covert operation in the United States, involving hundreds of agents who not only kept a close watch on the terrorists but may have effectively blinded U.S. antiterrorism investigators to the activities of Al Qaeda in the United States. The evidence can be found in the U.S. government’s own documents, leaked by its own employees, and in its public pronouncements before the decision was made to quash this story at any cost.

Pentagon's call to mercenaries
Private companies like Northbridge Services do jobs governments can't or won't extend to. The Pentagon has given $300bn of contracts to companies like these over the past decade alone. "Private armies put the skills at a higher level," says Tom Patire, President of the International Training Commission. "They also learn to use limited resources. Governmentally, whoever hires these people doesn't have to put up with all the costs. "It's a flat fee, there are no medical expenses. There's no insurance. They hire them for a job. When the job's over, they let them go." The industry grew from providing bodyguards for celebrities. Now it's more than that. Mercenaries are training to do the kind of work the US Government can't afford to have its own soldiers doing. And in a couple of weeks some of them will be shipping out to places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Powell Tries to Explain 2001 Remarks on Iraq
Secretary of State Colin Powell tried on Thursday to explain away remarks on Iraq dating back to the beginning of the Bush administration, before the United States decided to invade Iraq. Speaking in Cairo in February 2001, on his first Middle East trip, Powell said that Iraq had not developed "any significant capacity" in weapons of mass destruction and was not able to attack his neighbors with conventional weapons.

Lautenberg: Report Weakens Cheney Denial
A report by the Congressional Research Service undermines Vice President Dick Cheney's denial of a continuing relationship with Halliburton Co., the energy company he once led, Sen. Frank Lautenberg said Thursday. The report says a public official's unexercised stock options and deferred salary fall within the definition of ``retained ties'' to his former company.

Pentagon office creating surveillance system to close
House and Senate negotiators have decided to close a Pentagon office that was developing a vast computerized terrorism surveillance system and to bar spending that would allow those high-tech spying tools to be used against Americans on U.S. soil.

THE FAILURE TO DEFEND THE SKIES ON 9/11

Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq
What follows are just the most outrageous and significant of the dozens of outright lies uttered by Bush and his top officials over the past year in what amounts to a systematic campaign to scare the bejeezus out of everybody:

Israeli Air Force Pilots in Reserves: We Refuse to Attack in the Territories
Pilots in Reserves and Air Crew sent the following letter today to Air Force Commander, Dan Halutz: "We are opposed to carrying out attack orders that are illegal and immoral of the type the State of Israel has been conducting in the territories."

Israeli missiles seized from house in Delhi
Delhi Police today recovered three Israeli air-to-surface non-explosive “missiles” from a house in South Delhi being illegally stored by a transporter.

The Edward Said Archive
"The vast majority of our people are now thoroughly sick of the misfortunes that have befallen us . . . On the other hand, I have never met a Palestinian who is tired enough of being a Palestinian to give up entirely." Dr. Edward Said.