American State News

Latest News

October 1-31, 2004: Thomas Friedman on the Bush administration's "addiction to 9/11." Ron Suskind discovers he belongs to the "reality-based community." "The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters," a survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at The University of Maryland. Turns for the worse in Iraq. Endorsements.

September 1-30, 2004: Michael Kinsley on "the ownership society." Dick Cheney on the hidden economic success of eBay sellers. Bill Moyers on the state of journalism. The Bush platform and its unfunded price tag. Republican issue-framing and message control. Seymour Hersh on the Iraq war.

August 1-31, 2004: A collection of evidence that failing to find banned weapons in Iraq was no surprise. Meanwhile, sovereignty transfer means Iraq falls off the TV screen. Homeland Security outs al Qaeda mole. Republican voting and suicide positively correlate.

July 1-31, 2004: World Court rules against Israel's security fence. Senate intelligence report released. Justice department considers how to delay November election. White House blocks middle-class taxcuts, fearing bipartisan support. Americans' incomes dropped in 2001 and 2002 -- first two-year drop since World War Two. GOP urges absentee voting for safety's sake in Florida. Twenty-seven criminal investigations underway into Iraq reconstruction contracting. Ron Reagan on George Bush.

June 26-30, 2004: Richard Clarke: Invading Iraq was "an enormous mistake." Iraqi opposition intensifies attacks. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 opens. U.S. transfers political authority to new interim Iraqi government. Supreme Court affirms detainees' right to due process. "Embedded patriots" in the Bush administration orchestrate ever bigger leaks to the press. Bill Clinton's autobiography released.

June 1-25, 2004: Bush's erratic and paranoid behavior. David Kay calls further attempts to find banned weapons in Iraq "delusional." Ronald Reagan dies. Justice Department memos argued the legality of prisoner abuse. Abu Ghraib investigation headed for top ranks. State Department report alleging a decline in terrorist attacks is debunked. The 9/11 Commission reports no relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda; Bush administration responds by asserting a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Al Gore on American democracy and the Bush administration. Medicare drug benefits to be distributed to lucky by lottery.

May 10-31, 2004: Kurt Vonnegut on the war and oil. The current predicament as an opportunity to press Israel in Gaza. The Nick Berg decapitation. The Army Times: Abu Ghraib "a failure of leadership at the highest levels." A survey of the United States's secret prisons. Lakhdar Brahimi and the U.N.'s role in Iraq. Defense Department, up to Rumsfeld, endorsed prisoner abuse. One in 75 men in the United States are in prison.

May 1-9, 2004: Never mind, Britain: It's only the United States that tortured Iraqi prisoners. Bush's unfitness for office on his own terms. The Medicare cost projection scandal. Iraq as monetarist experimentation case. Torture, torture, torture. U.S. runs out of military options in Iraq, especially concerning withdrawal of troops. Realization that Iraq invasion is a catastrophe grows.

April 19-30, 2004: Fallujah standoff continues. Bob Woodward's book published. Dana Milbank on White House secrecy. Peter Galbraith on how to get out of Iraq. March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC. Bush administration quietly shifts resources to nuclear weapons production. Patriot Act challenge cannot be revealed . . . under provisions of the Patriot Act. Photographs of American torture of Iraqi prisoners surface; Amnesty International charges that such practices are not uncommon.

April 15-18, 2004: Al Qaeda will vote for Bush. Fallujah and Najaf dig in as Iraqi opposition solidifies across former cleavages. CPA tolerates Iranian diplomatic role in Iraq crisis. 9/11 Commission looks closely at August, 2001: George Tenet denies briefing the president during his vacation, then adjusts his testimony. US turns to UN special envoy for Iraq governance plan. Coalition not preventing nuclear looting in Iraq. Did the US already try to plant banned weapons? Bush capitulates to Sharon plan for West Bank; Sharon assassinates Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin.

April 9-14, 2004: Iraq struggles show joint Shiite/Sunni resistance efforts growing in Fallujah, Najaf, Kut, Baghdad, and elsewhere. Members of the Governing Council begin to defect. US military deaths and injuries rise sharply. Shaky Fallujah cease-fire established. More 9/11 Commission hearings: Maintaining classification of the 8/6/01 Presidential Daily Briefing, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States," becomes untenable, and the document is released. Bush claims the document was "not specific enough" to goad him to action, then gives a press conference in which he cannot identify a single error in his conduct of the war in Iraq ("you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.") Another emerging mistake -- John Negroponte to replace Paul Bremer? Analysts suggest the US is near its "last chance" to get its Iraq policy right.

March 27-April 8, 2004: Bush administration refuses to consider sworn public testimony to the 9/11 by Condoleeza Rice, but quickly caves -- and also agrees to more than an hour of private Bush testimony as long as Dick Cheney is there to hold his hand. FBI translator Sibel Edmonds alleges that the agency had evidence of suicide hijacking preparations before 9/11. Four military contractor employees are killed and their bodies mutilated in Fallujah; contractors fill in for U.S. military in initial hours of escalating violence there before massive casualties begin. Bush administration initially denies that Shiites have joined Sunnis in a new, broader resistance to the occupation. Retired military leaders denounce Bush administration's Star Wars plans. U.S. editors of Iranian manuscripts breathe a sigh of relief. Hans Blix thinks Iraq was better off under Saddam.

March 22-26, 2004: Richard Clarke week: 60 Minutes interview, release of Against All Enemies, testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Republicans launch smear campaign against him, but it's treated skeptically. Meanwhile, Sharon government assassinates Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, David Kay calls on Bush to acknowledge WMD mistakes, and an April 2001 report resurfaces that indicates the Bush administration then considered focusing on al Qaeda "a mistake."

March 9-21, 2004: New scandal: Medicare director ordered prescription drug benefit cost estimates withheld from Congress as it considered Medicare reform. AWOL: Pentagon has been blocking FOIA requests for additional Bush military records since mid-February. Two hundred die in Madrid train bombings; Aznar government falls to Socialists condemning Spain's Iraq coalition participation. Health and Human Services is caught distributing Medicare propaganda videos disguised as journalism. Iraq on the Record: House Democrats assemble database of administration misstatements. Compendia of GOP AND administration scandals. Anniversary protests against the Iraq war. Bush, Blair go to UN again.

March 1-8, 2004: Aristide deposed in Haiti, claims the US forced him out. Congressional Black Caucus, John Kerry, others condemn Bush administration's Haiti policy and call for investigation. Iraq violence intensifies as insurgent tactics evolve; Governing Council Shi'ites balk at signing interim constitution. Super Tuesday: Kerry wraps up Democratic nomination and faces Republican ad barrage. Senate investigation reports on Republican aides' lifting of Democratic documents. Plame grand jury subpoenas Air Force One phone records.

February 14-29, 2004: AWOL decelerates, (but there's a $10,000 bounty for evidence of Alabama service). Bush gives Pryor a recess appointment. Schwartzenegger envisions marriage riots. Bush endorses constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Creative labor avoids the United States. Don't edit Iranian manuscripts!

February 9-13, 2004: AWOL. Plame leak grand jury questions administration officials. Rumsfeld can't remember British dossier's "45 minute" claim. Iraq police, military targets bombed. Gay marriages in San Francisco. AWOL, AWOL, AWOL.

February 1-8, 2004: Bush administration knew as early as May 2003 that banned weapons were unlikely to be found in Iraq. Bush names "independent" intelligence review panel with no subpoena power to report after the elections. AWOL issue intensifies; Bush appears on Meet the Press. Omissions and misrepresentations in the administration's 2005 budget widely observed.

January 2004: Last WMD claims undermined as US reduces effort to hunt for weapons; David Kay resigns and asserts no weapons will be found. CEIP report documents administration misrepresentations of intelligence. Paul O'Neill describes planning for Iraq war from the first days of the Bush administration. Pressure for an independent investigation of Iraq intelligence and its use by warmakers intensifies. Shi'i demand Iraq elections before transfer of power, Sunni demand US withdrawal before elections, and Kurds dismiss US proposals for their partial autonomy. CBO: Nearly half trillion deficit for 2004; tax revenue as proportion of national income lowest since 1950.

December 2003: Gingrich flogs Bush's Iraq policy. As Bush administration excludes skeptical states from reconstruction contracts, international monetary assistance pledges fail to materialize. Campaign finance law survives Supreme Court review. Halliburton, charged with war profiteering, secures $222 million in new contracts. Saddam Hussein captured. The post-911 landscape of American political prisons.

November 16-30, 2003: Administration: International control of Iraq reconstruction is now OK. Richard Perle acknowledges illegality of Iraq invasion. Bush's environmental policy. Exit strategies crumble as the "war after the war" intensifies.

November 1-15, 2003: Chorus of complaints about Iraq policy. Helicopter downings. Cut and run plans: Bush administration proposes to forego elections prior to constitution-writing. Hussein sought a diplomatic solution prior to the war. $87 billion for Iraq reconstruction. Military voters' antipathy to the Bush administration. The 2004 Republican convention as a tax-exempt charity.

October 16-31, 2003: UN passes limited Iraq reconstruction resolution. Occupation unguided by prewar predictions of resistance. Seymour Hersh on Cheney's intelligence "stovepipe." 9/11 panel threatens to subpoena missing White House documents; Senate Democrats threaten an independent investigation of prewar intelligence lies. Iraq violence rises; Bush say's that's "progress." An estimated 15,000 Iraqis died in initial weeks of the war.

October 1-15, 2003: Plame scandal ignites. FBI investigation underway, but White House claims leaker's identity may be impossible to uncover ("This is a large administration") Why not use the Patriot Act? Condoleeza Rice to coordinate "Iraq Stabilization Group," sideswiping Donald Rumsfeld. Russia moves to euro pricing for oil exports. Voting technology in California and Georgia. US aims for watered-down UN resolution on Iraq, while vetoing condemnation of Israel's security wall.

September 2003: Back to the UN, but without a realistic plan. Budget deficit blossoms as a political issue -- especially with Bush's $87 billion Iraq war request. Bush and Cheney on and off again about Iraq's 9/11 role. Cheney and Halliburton war contracts. Max Cleland on Vietnam and Iraq. The Plame Affair investigation begins.

August 2003: Why we won't be leaving Iraq anytime soon (various themes on "it's our very own West Bank"). Al Gore and others on the administration's honesty. The renaming of napalm. Angling back to the United Nations.

July 21-31, 2003: Hussein brothers killed. Stephen Hadley tries to take remaining blame for The Sixteen Words, but Rice is increasingly implicated. 9/11 report released: No Iraqi links to al Qaeda. Twenty-eight pages of Saudi links to al Qaeda censored. Valerie Plame's cover blown by Bush administration officials. Occupation commander kicks out "embedded" press. The rise and fall of Poindexter's Policy Analysis Market.

July 17-21, 2003: David Kelly suicide. National Intelligence Estimate partially declassified -- but Bush, Rice didn't read it all, and "the president is not a fact-checker." Cheney's Energy Task Force discussed "foreign suitors for Iraqi oilfield contracts" in March 2001. Bombings in 2002 were invasion preparations, not "No-Fly Zone" enforcement. Niger documents are the tip of a failed-intelligence iceberg.

July 9-17, 2003: "Sixteen words": Administration panics over Yellowcakegate. Tenet tries to take the blame, though CIA had questioned Niger claims for months. Rice, Cheney conspicuous; Bush in denial. Abizaid: We're in a guerilla war. Kay: Probably no chemical weapons in Iraq. Powell: Maybe the UN can help?

June 16-July 8, 2003: GOP resists, but calls for investigation mount. Edwards on American values. Hobsbawm on American power. Bush on God.

May 22-June 15, 2003: CIA knew Niger documents were forged. One-third of Americans think banned weapons have been found. Weather-balloon trailers. GOP blocks intelligence investigation. Tax cuts for the rich. John Dean uses the "I" word. Many use the "L" word.

May 12-21, 2003: US: Never mind about WMDs. Americans: "Okay." Worry about GLODO. Goodbye, Garner. Keep the Ba'athists? Purge the Ba'athists. Bremer: Slow the political transition. Chaos organizes. Welcome back, UN inspectors.

May 1-12, 2003: Bremer in, Garner and Bodine out. WMD waffling. Halliburton in the oilfields. Radioactive looting. A Nobel for Bush and Blair?

Iraq War Links (last updated May 2003)

April 24-30, 2003: Defense vs. State. Changing the WMD story. Rumsfeld's new military geography. Garner: "Damn, we're Americans!"

April 18-24, 2003: Shiite resurgence. A thousand power vacuums bloom. Destruction of evidence. Resistance to occupation. Reconstruction confusion. Where are the WMDs?

April 11-17, 2003: Interim government: Who participates? Syria, Iran, North Korea: Who's next? Baghdad exchanged for safe passage? Looting, but not at the Oil Ministry. Keeping the world out of reconstruction.

April 5-10, 2003: Building a power vacuum. Weapons proliferation: the new imperative. Unfolding the "Road Map." How Pyrrhic the victory?

April 1-4, 2003: Bush in quarantine. Army vs. Defense. Garner gets ready in Kuwait. Britain presses for postwar UN role. Managing the news. They're Moslems!

March 26-31, 2003: "The other superpower" is furious. Iraq is only the beginning. Who lied to whom about WMDs? Garner debuts. The divided Pentagon. Global anti-Americanism. Misinformation roundup.

March 20-25, 2003: Protest, global and domestic. Prowar rallies, too -- with corporate sponsorship. What did the peace movement accomplish? Ugly pictures. Nader: Don't blame me.

March 17-20, 2003: Ultimatum. Diplomatic train wreck. US hypocrisy and Resolution 1441. The "Coalition of the Willing." Invasion. Iraq: neoconservative "pilot project"?

March 17, 2003 and earlier: The global antiwar movement. Forging the justifications for war. US media's apostasy. Who armed Iraq? "Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over."