DhafirTrial

By ELAINE CASSEL Counterpunch 3/8/07

Last week, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled that American citizen Jose Padilla, who is now facing terrorism charges in Miami, Florida, is competent to stand trial.

In spite of the troubling legal and moral aspects of this case (more…)

Too many of us have done too little to stop the crimes of this White House. We are waking up but what took us so long?

Rebecca Solnit The Guardian 3/14/07

Was I a good American? How good an American was I? Did I do what I could to resist the takeover of my country and the brutalisation of my fellow human beings? (more…)

John Pilger reports on new revelations that torturers in America’s ‘war on terror’ were directed personally by the US secretary of defence. He argues that the historical antedote to such barbarity is the new exuberant democracy movement in Latin America.

By John Pilger ICH 3/14/07

In Andrew Cockburn’s new book, Rumsfeld, the gap between rampant power and its faraway victims is closed (more…)

And No One Notices

By Tom Engelhardt Tomdispatch.com 2/14/07

Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Perhaps two years ago, an “informal” meeting of “veterans” of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal — holding positions in the Bush administration — was convened by Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. Discussed were the “lessons learned” from that labyrinthine, secret, and illegal arms-for-money-for-arms deal involving the Israelis, the Iranians, the Saudis (more…)

By MARJORIE COHN Counterpunch 3/12/07

Last year, Republican Senator Arlen Specter slipped a clause into the reauthorized USA Patriot Act that allows Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate confirmation. (more…)