U.S. Now In Control Of Iraq Multi-Billion $$ "Oil For Food" Program CPA, headed by U.S. envoy Paul Bremer, will get $7-10B per year

FTAA: Worse Than NAFTA, Worse Than WTO Bush administration deals open Latin America to unprecedented exploitation (news feature below)

For the first time in television history, a network has cancelled a broadcast under political pressure. But "historical inaccuracies" probably weren't the true cause of the furor -- it was what the film reminded viewers about the true, shameful, Reagan legacy

Bush Appears To Hit Panic Button After Latest Bad News In Iraq Leak of pessimistic CIA report, more attacks, lead to urgent summit with Bremer

Escalation Of Military Force In Iraq Will Backfire, Experts Say "I don't know what the hell they are thinking," says a ranking U.S. officer

CIA Report From Iraq Nothing But Bad News Growing numbers of Iraqis believe that the occupation can be defeated

Iraq Chaos Puts U.S.-Chosen Council Failures In Spotlight "It is not 24 people, it's almost 24 different ideologies"

U.S. Hasn't Accounted For $4 Billion In Seized Iraq Cash
Charges that assets going to contracts with U.S. corporations

Bush Mideast "Freedom Strategy" Gets Poor Reviews Arab nations see call for democracy as hypocritical while U.S. military occupation of Iraq

U.S. To Block World Bank Aid To Iran Washington neo-cons see a weakened Iran as less a "threat"

Immigrant Workers Facing Health Problems From Ground Zero Cleanup
Some told to remove face masks to keep co-workers from requesting them

Neo-Cons Snipe At Rumsfeld Over Iraq Failures "Long, hard slog" memo seen as subverting the grand Bush Doctrine

Dissolving Iraq Army Was #1 U.S. Mistake
12 percent of the population now without careers, resents U.S.

FTAA: WORSE THAN NAFTA, WORSE THAN WTO

Hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police in Miami to protest FTAA negotiations As negotiators met in Miami to discuss the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Bush administration worked behind closed doors to strike individual deals with South and Central American nations that were even worse than proposals for the trade pact. Fearing a re-run of the defeat two months ago in Cancun, when developing countries successfully banded together and blocked the rich nations, the U.S. took a more aggressive and threatening approach to isolate its critics with separate deals, which will give U.S. and Canadian corporations full access to the economies of poor nations without guarantees on protecting the environment, workers' rights or national social programs. Practices that Washington says discourage trade -- including hygiene regulations -- would not be allowed. But the worst part may be rules that would setback advances made in improving access to low-cost medicines. Even the WTO had recognized the right of poor countries to import inexpensive generic medicines, but the U.S. now wants to revoke those safeguards (BACKGROUND on "FTAA") FTAA: POLICE VIOLENCE IN THE MIAMI STREETS FTAA Talks Quit Abruptly, Avoids Another Summit Stalemate FTAA Talks A Matter Of Life And Death, Doctors Warn Critics of FTAA Given Just 90 Minutes To Present Arguments Florida Oranges Just One Industry FTAA May Destroy U.S. Strikes Side Deals At FTAA Talks FTAA Ignores Harm To Women From Previous Trade Pacts U.S. Plans To Squeeze FTAA Opponents Delegates, Protesters Converge On Miami For FTAA Summit

WTO Struggles To Regroup After Cancun Summit Disaster U.S. and other trade powers showing no interest in renewing discussions

NAFTA Created Decade Of Disaster For Mexico, Two Studies Find
Poverty has skyrocketed, leading to illegal immigration to U.S.

Muslims Snub White House Ramadan Dinner
"It seems that the only time this administration wants to meet with us is for photo opportunities"

Iranian Peace Prize Winner Challenges Western Feminists
Feminism from within Islam, not in confrontation to it

Confrontation Imminent Over California Immigrant Driver License
Schwarzenegger under pressure from advisors, right-wing
Last-Minute Dirty Trick By Schwarzenegger Campaign
Spread story that smeared woman making sex assault charge

Bush Cronies Hit $8 Billion Jackpot In Iraq, Afghanistan All big donors to Bush presidential campaign

U.S. Shuts Out Local Companies From Contracts, Iraqis Say Halliburton, Bechtel said to only be giving lucrative deals to select group of Iraqi contractors

Baghdad Schools Become Latest Battleground
Children fear attacks because security not a priority

IRAQ COALITION CRUMBLING AS MORE NATIONS SAY NO

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld gets a handshake from Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi but no troops. The anxious-looking woman in the background is presumably a translator With Iraq rocked by increasing violence against U.S.-led occupation forces, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld called for allies to supply "a lot of troops" for duty in Iraq. But the only good news was that South Korea agreed to send up to 3,000 soldiers, and that 178 Filipino soldiers, policemen and social and health workers are on their way to Iraq, as well as 128 Portugese soldiers. Japan won't send any peacekeeping forces until possibly sometime next year, and the hoped-for 10,000 troops from Turkey, won't be going at all (BACKGROUND on "Coalition of the Willing") Sorry, No Troops For Iraq, Japan Says Sorry, No Troops For Iraq, Turkey Says Portugal Sending 128 Soldiers To Iraq Philippines Will Pull Soldiers Out Of Iraq If Endangered

Kofi Annan Walks Tightrope Between Bush And Rest Of World Trying to protect UN as White House seeks to undermine it

Private Armies Growing In Iraq, Afghanistan
Sign that U.S.-British alliance getting stretched thin

Terrorism-Expert Industry Booming Members of Pentagon's Defense Policy Board profit from moonlight consulting

Bush Has Polarized U.S, Study Finds
Greatest division between Demos and Repubs in 15 years

Bush Crowd Steps Up Political Pressure To Reject Global Warming Accord
Bush Admin follows oil companies lead in vigorously denying climate change

EPA even won't prosecute companies that have already been found in violation of the law

Israeli Human Rights Abuses Worst In 35 Years, UN Panel Finds Israel says human rights treaties don't apply to occupied territories

One Meal A Day For Most Palestinians, UN Reports
Area is "on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe," UN says

One In Five Israelis Now Living In Poverty Warnings that nation would face civil war without welfare benefits

Israel Courts Block Unions From General Strike
Government wants to seize pension funds amid economic crisis

Israel Assassination Retaliation Leads To Dead Civilians
Missle strikes in heart of crowded refugee camp

Bush Lets Clean Air Act Violators Off the Hook
"The White House's policy is to coddle the big polluters, and the public be damned"

Is Bush Moving Away From Hard-Right Cheney "Iron Triangle?"
Taking Pentagon control away from Iraq crisis policy, softened language towards "Axis of Evil" nations