Why I wrote 'David vs. Goliath'

-- Russia Delays Ratifying Nuclear Treaty With U.S. By Sharon LaFraniere; March 18, 2003; Washington Post

-- Carter says warlike stance hurting America's reputation; Associated Press/Athens Banner-Herald; February 22, 2003

-- Iraq 'first battle of a wider US war' by Richard Norton-Taylor; May 20, 2003; The Guardian

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world - a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully"

-- Hunter S Thompson

-- The honest outlaw by Paul Theroux; May 17, 2003; The Guardian

"I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers"

-- Kurt Vonnegut

-- Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@ By Joel Bleifuss; 1.27.03;In These Times

"neoconservatives in and around the Bush administration are beginning to aggressively push a chilling agenda for a generalized war against much of the Arab and Islamic worlds"

-- The Misadventures of Neoconservatives by Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish; commondreams.org; October 20, 2003; previously published April 15, 2003 by the Chicago Tribune

-- Citizens in Muslim countries fear attack by U.S., poll says

-- Chomsky Says US Foreign Policy Amounts to International Terrorism by Satya Sivaraman; October 20, 2003; commondreams.org; previously published February 4, 2002 by the Inter Press Service

-- Nelson Mandela says U.S. wants a holocaust; Associated Press/Bell Globemedia Inc.; Jan. 30 2003

-- Mandela: U.S. wants holocaust - Jan. 30, 2003; CNN

-- U.S. Diplomats Decry `Military Coup'

-- 'For a country that likes to talk about peace, it sure doesn't practise it much'

"Rebuilding America's Defenses (RAD)" is a policy document published by a neoconservative Washington think tank called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Its pages have been compared to Hitler's Mein Kampf in that they outline an aggressive military plan for U.S. world domination during the coming century"

-- 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' and the Project for the New American Century by Bette Stockbauer; June 18, 2003; antiwar.com

-- President Bush against the world; The Globe and Mail

-- THE ROGUE STATE by JOHN PILGER; 20 October 2003; mirror.com

-- The arrogance of the Bush Doctrine By Robert Scheer; Salon; Sept. 25, 2002

-- It's Empire Versus Democracy By Tom Hayden, AlterNet; September 10, 2002

-- West Point Honors Grad Says: Bush is a Threat to World Peace by DAVID WIGGINS; September 25, 2002

-- The US will be legislator, judge and executioner by Richard Norton-Taylor; November 18, 2002; The Guardian

-- Adrian Hamilton: It is wrong to be judge, jury and executioner; UK Independent; 06 November 2002

-- 'The United States of America has gone mad'; Times Online [second URL: The United States of America Has Gone Mad by John le Carré; October 20, 2003; commondreams.org; previously published January 15, 2003 by the Times/UK

Even Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca itself (one of the most revered locales in Islam) appears to be under threat of future US pressures or even military action and occupation, according to various sources.

With the US blatantly supporting Israel (which possesses an armory of weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein can only dream about) and its control of Palestine and Jerusalem (a city considered holy by Christians, Jews, and Moslems alike) and possibly threatening the control of Mecca, as well as already effectively seizing the oil wealth of Iraq in 2003, and perhaps going after the oil of Iran and Saudi Arabia sometime after that, and treating its own Moslem citizens and many innocent Moslem travelers much harsher and crueler than others in many cases, what could the average Moslem citizen of the world be expected to think?

-- Is This a Way to Ease Muslim Fears? By Reena K. Singh; Dec. 24; ABC News [AUTHOR'S NOTE: ABC and certain other publishers neglect to put permanent date stamps on their articles; in this case, 2003 is given as the year in a copyright notice, but the actual year of first publication appears to be 2002, as I revisited this page 10-20-03 to see the Dec. 24 mark. END NOTE]

-- Thousands of Middle Eastern, Muslim immigrants face deadline to register under security program by SANDRA MARQUEZ; San Francisco Gate; January 10, 2003

-- Registration Stirs Panic, Worry (washingtonpost.com) By Dan Eggen and Nurith C. Aizenman; January 10, 2003; Page A01

-- Rights activist blasts US bias against Muslims

-- Indians too will have to register -DAWN - Top Stories; 21 January, 2003 "By Our Correspondent"

-- Men from Five More Nations to Register in U.S. (washingtonpost.com)

"By detaining hundreds of the foreign Muslims it lured into West Coast offices, the agency succeeded only in harming U.S. security"

-- The INS Hurts Uncle Sam Most of All By Alex Salkever; Businessweek; JANUARY 23, 2003

-- 'Airline passengers detained for speaking foreign language'; CNN

-- Brookings Scholar Is Detained by INS (washingtonpost.com) By George Lardner Jr.; January 30, 2003; Page A01

-- 2,000 Pakistanis in US flee to Canada

-- Islam vs. Christianity in a Holy War? By Leela Jacinto; Jan. 15; ABC News [another ABC report with no permanent year date stamp]

-- Judge Is Angered by U.S. Stance in Case of 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect; New York Times

-- Robert Fisk: This looming war isn't about chemical warheads or human rights it's about oil; UK Independent; 18 January 2003

-- Washington's Oil War; January 8, 2003; motherjones.com

-- Official: US oil at the heart of Iraq crisis By Neil Mackay; 06 October 2002; Sunday Herald

-- Powell: US will develop Iraqi oil

-- U.S. considers seizing revenues to pay for occupation, source says

-- Planning underway to manage Iraqi oil

-- The real goal is the seizure of Saudi oil by Mo Mowlam; September 5, 2002; The Guardian

"...the US is stitching up the world's oil supplies"

-- Why Blair is an appeaser by George Monbiot; November 5, 2002; The Guardian

-- All Bush Wants is Iraqi Oil, Says Mandela; commondreams.org; October 20, 2003; previously published January 30, 2003 by the Independent

-- Armageddon fiction grips the US By Justin Webb; BBC; 19 January, 2003

-- America's Messianic War Cult by Matthew Hogan; The Ethical Spectacle, Oct 2002

-- Pope Speaks of Clash of Civilizations

-- Pushing the Apocalypse by Zach Abend; Salt Lake City Weekly; February 27, 2003

-- 'Biblical imagery nothing new for U.S. presidents But Bush critics say he's gone to [sic] far with `good vs. evil''

-- Bush and God; February 24, 2003; motherjones.com

-- When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy By Paul S. Boyer, AlterNet; February 20, 2003

-- Islam vs. Christianity in a Holy War? By Leela Jacinto; Jan. 15; ABC News [another ABC report with no permanent year date stamp]

-- Conflicts over religion showing a steady increase in the workplace

"Privately, Bush even talked of being chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment" [the hours following the terrorist acts of 9-11-01]

-- Michael Duffy, Time magazine

"Bush’s religious beliefs are emerging as a central influence to his policies and politics....For Bush....who reads his Bible every morning, faith extends beyond the national catharsis of the moment. By his own admission, his religious views shape much of who he is and, by extension, experts say, some of his most important decision-making."

-- Francine Kiefer, Christian Science Monitor

-- Chosen By God To Lead America By Rick Friedman & Stewart Nusbaumer; War, Politics, Culture; Intervention magazine; found on or about 10-10-02

"Bush believes he's on a mission from God...sees himself as the divine sword of retribution..."

"...Bush believes he was personally called by God to lead America. Tim Russert and former NYC Mayor Giuliani discussed this on "Meet the Press" last year...."

"...Bush...now operates with an absolute sense of supreme authority without qualification and without limitation. He stands poised to unleash American might full force against anyone who would dare to defy him..."

"...Some among Bush's trusted White House staff fear what they are seeing and where Bush is taking us..."

"...Bush's...sense of divine purpose scare some of his closest advisors....Even top officials from his father's administration fear the worst, and former President Bush is among them..."

-- White House Insiders: Bush is 'Out of Control' By Mike Hersh; Sep 5, 2002

"Bush starts every day on his knees in prayer. He reads the Bible each morning and studies a Bible lesson daily."

"Religion infuses Bush's policies..."

"any country that doesn't go along with us will be paying a very heavy price"

-- U.S. on diplomatic warpath; Feb. 23, 2003; Associated Press/The Globe and Mail

-- Bush's Dollar Diplomacy By Stan Crock, Lee Walczak, Paul Magnusson, Rose Brady, John Rossant, Neal Sandler, Susan Postlewaite, and bureau reports; FEBRUARY 28, 2003; Businessweek

"[Rumsfeld puts]...Germany in one category with Cuba and Libya in remarks this week that have outraged many Germans"

-- Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with German ARD TV: Sabine Christiansen Show; February 07, 2003; DoD News

"It's hard to insult people and enlist them as allies at the same time"

-- Diplomatic Riffs by Charley Reese; February 17, 2003; King Features Syndicate, Inc.

-- U.S. Lawmakers Weigh Actions to Punish France, Germany (washingtonpost.com) By Jim VandeHei; February 12, 2003; Page A16

-- US to punish German 'treachery' by Peter Beaumont, David Rose, and Paul Beaver; February 16, 2003; The Observer

"...Blair was given a list of the things that would befall Britain from military subsidies and equipment, to a reduction of value in the dollar versus the pound, which would destroy England's exportability. And Blair was basically told get in line, stand up and salute or "here's your last cigarette, Tony."..."

-- Greg Palast

-- BuzzFlash asks Greg Palast: "What the Heck is Going on With Tony Blair?"; February 11, 2003; buzzflash.com

-- White House Secrecy Shows Contempt for Public; Oct. 14, 2002; Dan Gillmor's eJournal

"In a democracy, its important to know what the government is doing"

-- attorney Diane Campbell

-- Cornell University ordered to release documents under FOI Law; The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; Nov 20, 2002

-- Bush's Bent on Secrecy Is Dangerous to Democracy; Newsday

-- Cheney's War On The Public's Right To Know by Arianna Huffington; ariannaonline.com; February 27, 2002

-- The Bush Administration’s Secrecy Policy: A Call to Action to Protect Democratic Values ; 10/25/2002; OMB Watch

-- Cheney's Winning Formula -- Secrecy Plus Fear Equals A Pliant Public by Jill Rachel Jacobs; tompaine.com; May 21 2002

-- MORE THAN JUST HIS LOCATION REMAINS UNDISCLOSED: Why Dick Cheney's Secrecy Scheme For Pre-9/11 Information Makes No Sense By JOHN W. DEAN; May. 24, 2002; FindLaw's Writ

-- Bush View of Secrecy Is Stirring Frustration (washingtonpost.com) By Ellen Nakashima; March 3, 2002; Page A04

-- For Bush, secrecy is a matter of loyalty By Laurence McQuillan; USA TODAY Page 1A; 2002 [found on or about 3-20-02]

-- Why the Secrecy Shield? By Philip E. Coyle III; washingtonpost.com ; June 11, 2002; Page A25

-- Fear Drives the Making of a Secret Government

-- Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret (washingtonpost.com) By Barton Gellman and Susan Schmidt; March 1, 2002; Page A01

-- Plan Was Formed in Utmost Secrecy (washingtonpost.com) By Dana Milbank; June 7, 2002; Page A01

"Haddad Case Forces Rare Glimpse of Secret U.S. Campaign"

-- In Michigan, Anti-Terrorism Effort Goes PublicBy Dan Eggen and Kari Lydersen; Washington Post; May 6, 2002; Page A03

"Anger in NYC Over Nuclear Threat Kept Secret"

-- 'Right to Know' By Brian Ross; ABC News; March 4, 2002

-- White House, Pentagon livid about leakers By Alexis Simendinger, National Journal; October 26, 2001

-- HHS Seeks Science Advice to Match Bush Views (washingtonpost.com) By Rick Weiss; September 17, 2002; Page A01

-- Science and Secrets Technology Review

-- There's a lot Cheney feels we don't need to know by Gene Collier; May 22, 2002; post-gazette

-- They've Got a Secret -- Lots, Actually By Dana Milbank; Washington Post; May 21, 2002; Page A15

-- Justice Dept. Balks at Effort to Study Antiterror Powers; New York Times

-- 'judge believes he was misled by the government'; Newsday

-- CNN chief claims US media 'censored' war

-- US Takes Censorship Lessons from China: SF Indymediaby Micah Cavaleri; December 18, 2002

-- Government takes troubling control of too many need-to-know decisions; November 20, 2002; Detroit Free Press

-- Companies can use new Homeland Security Act to shield their misdeeds

-- Are We Protecting Secrets or Removing Safeguards? (washingtonpost.com) By Gary S. Guzy; November 24, 2002; Page B01

-- Slashdot: Science Is Hurt by Secrecy Policy Set Up by the White House; October 20 [2002 appears to be the year]

-- Keeping Secrets By Anastasia Heeger; ABC News; Sept. 18 [the original year of publication isn't necessarily stamped on ABC reports online, but the article was present on 10-20-03]

-- Ashcroft Seeks to Abuse Use of 'Secret Court'; Newsday

-- Secrets and Lies - Seventy-five little reasons to be terrified of the FISA court. By Dahlia Lithwick; August 29, 2002 ; Slate.msn.com

-- Silence About Secrecy (washingtonpost.com) By Mary McGrory; September 12, 2002; Page A23

-- US condemned for secret arrests; BBC

-- The dead and the guilty by Simon Schama; September 11, 2002; The Guardian

-- 'Homeland Secrecy'

-- Security, Not Secrecy (washingtonpost.com)

-- Secrecy Sought on Missile Defense

-- Too many secrets

-- The Secret War on Whistle-Blowers Code of Quiet by Geoffrey Gray; June 19 - 25, 2002; Village Voice

"Seeing crucial computer-science work threatened, a Princeton professor takes on Congress"

-- The Making of a Policy Gadfly By ANDREA L. FOSTER; The Chronicle of Higher Education; November 29, 2002 issue

-- Activist requests Congress to probe Sept. 11 'oddities'

-- Scientists protest research blocks; Reuters; October 21, 2002

-- The Bush Purge of Science By Frederick Sweet; Intervention Magazine; Oct. 10, 2002

-- Closed doors and the courts; Oct. 10, 2002 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct. 11, 2002)

-- 11 September analysis 'sealed'; BBC; 30 September, 2002

-- White House Drags Its Feet on Testifying at 9-11 Panel; New York Times

-- Republican Senator Says 9-11 Intelligence Probe Hindered (washingtonpost.com)

"GOP and Democratic Lawmakers Frustrated as White House Reveals Little"

-- Iraq Briefings: Don't Ask, Don't Tell (washingtonpost.com) By Jim VandeHei; September 15, 2002; Page A04

"Lawmakers Say Oversight Is Blocked"

-- Ashcroft Assailed On Policy Review By Dan Eggen; Washington Post; August 21, 2002; Page A02

"The Bush Administration has made it pretty apparent that it is obsessed with secrecy"

-- More than Just a Fun Name to Say by Brian Balta; Aug. 21, 2002; hoosierreview.com

-- Bush Seeks Secrecy For Pardon Discussions (washingtonpost.com) By George Lardner Jr.; August 27, 2002; Page A01

-- Bush Economic Forum to Exclude Critics, Officials Say (washingtonpost.com) By Mike Allen; August 9, 2002; Page A13

-- Closemouthed at Justice (washingtonpost.com); August 19, 2002; Page A12

-- 'Defense wants to reduce congress oversight'; Los Angeles Times

-- Freedom of Information Under Attack By Charles Lewis; October 23, 2003; The Center for Public Integrity

-- The Security Monster (washingtonpost.com) By Mary McGrory; July 18, 2002; Page A29

-- Bush's Mutant Cloning Report The political manipulation of Bush's bioethics council. By William Saletan; Slate.msn.com; July 16, 2002

-- Don't let homeland-security measures overwhelm the public's right to information; Newsday

-- Justice Department To Attempt Shut Down of 9/11 Evidence Friday by Tom Flocco; July 11th, 2002; Scoop Media

-- FBI 'guilty of cover-up' over anthrax suspect by NICK PETERS; 16 Jun 2002; Scotsman.com

-- Questions irk White House -- The Washington Times

-- The secrecy administration

-- Head of Sept. 11 Probe Allegedly Obstructed Danforth's Waco Inquiry (washingtonpost.com) By Richard Leiby and Dana Priest; June 22, 2002; Page A06

-- Security bill bars blowing whistle -- The Washington Times

-- Critics: Missile agency will hide data; Salon.com

-- West tries to shield companies that made a monster of Baghdad by IAN MATHER; 22 Dec 2002; Scotsman.com

-- The U.S. propaganda machine is back

-- Shhhh -- Bills Drafted in Secret BY REBECCA WALSH; THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE; December 22, 2002

The civil liberties and rights and personal privacy of American citizens had already been steadily eroded by growing police powers for decades prior to 9-11-01, to the point that innocent citizens were being increasingly harassed, injured, and even killed, with their property sometimes seized to fill government coffers, due to abuses of 'drug war' laws. Note that this severe degradation of American civil liberities did not prevent the events of 9-11-01.

-- frontline: drug wars: special reports: Reining in Forfeiture: Common Sense Reform in the War on Drugs by Kyla Dunn; pbs online and wgbh/frontline; found on or about 11-27-01

Michael Bradbury, the DA of Ventura County [apparently in California] stated that a police raid involving two dozen various law enforcement personnel which led to the shooting death of retiree Don Scott in 1992 was at least partly motivated by the officers' desires to seize Scott's ranch for government coffers. The police claimed they were looking for marijuana on the land but none was ever found.

-- The Looting Of America by Jarret Wollstein, found on or about 11-27-01

No other nation on Earth was known to have more people in prison in 1999 than the USA; USAmerica was spending $39 billion a year to maintain its prison population at the time.

50% of the prison population was black, although blacks made up only about 13% of the total American population then.

In 1999 the USA was jailing its population at a rate only matched or exceeded by states which used to be a part of the Soviet Union (Russia was jailing faster than the US, while Belarus and Ukraine trailed the US). Singapore was the next fastest after the Ukraine (however, the number of prisoners and rate of incarceration in places like China was unknown).

-- Soaring U.S. Inmate Population Sparks Debate By Will Dunham, Reuters/Yahoo! Politics Headlines, December 29 1999

-- U.S. Prison Population Sets New Record; 04/07/03; The Associated Press/WorldNow and KXAN

"with about 5 percent of the world's population, we have 25 percent of the prisoners"

-- Enormous prison population a reason for concern, questions By Asheville Citizen-Times; April 8, 2003

"1 in every 142 U.S. residents was in prison or jail in mid-2002"

-- U.S. Prison Population Tops 2 Million; The Associated Press/ABC News; April 7, 2003

-- A Nation Behind Bars (washingtonpost.com); April 13, 2003; Page B06

-- The United States has surpassed Russia as the nation with the highest percentage of citizens behind bars

"The rich are already rich enough to be able to end poverty."

-- Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute

"The government is claiming a virtually unlimited power to deprive people of their liberty and hold them incommunicado based only on the president’s say-so"

-- Wendy Patten, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch

-- U.S. Again Uses Enemy Combatant Label to Deny Basic Rights; June 23, 2003, and Enemy of the State; June 26, 2003; motherjones.com

"The Bush administration decides who gets due process"

-- Know Thy Enemy Combatant by Jacob Sullum; June 27, 2003; Reason Online

"So, all of us, not just aliens in America, can become the disappeared"

-- Ashcroft in Conference by Nat Hentoff; The Village Voice; June 27th, 2003

President Bush is assuming what are essentially dictatorial powers on the advice of his panicked attorney general.

-- Seizing Dictatorial Power by William Safire; www.commondreams.org; December 13, 2001 [November 15, 2001 in the New York Times)

"The Department of Justice has prevailed in every major legal battle decided so far in terrorism’s legal war"

-- Ashcroft touts court decisions; Associated Press/The Columbia Daily Tribune; June 29, 2003

-- Deficits as Far as the Eye Can See By Howard Gleckman; Businessweek; MAY 13, 2002

It appears the US legislative process failed during the recent passage of the anti-terror bill. And the nation will probably regret this failure in the long term. Apparently Congress was too fearful of another terrorist strike to adequately perform their legal duties here. Much of the bill was passed without the members even having read it.

The new law throws the judicial system and its oversight out of the loop for many critical procedures, and makes historic changes in other government processes as well. The bill seems to be overzealous in its efforts to combat terrorism, and thereby possibly creates new and unnecessary dangers to society as a byproduct.

-- A Panicky Bill (washingtonpost.com); October 26, 2001; Page A34

-- Freedom flees in terror from Sept. 11 disaster By Paul McMasters; pmcmasters@freedomforum.org; Ombudsman; First Amendment Center; 09.19.01

-- U.S. On Verge Of 'Electronic Martial Law' - Researcher By Kevin Featherly, Newsbytes; http://www.newsbytes.com; 15 Oct 2001

-- Security vs. Civil Liberties By Mike France, Heather Green, Jim Kerstetter, and Dan Carney; BusinessWeek Online; The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.; OCTOBER 1, 2001

A gargantuan new intelligence collection system is being born from recent passage of the anti-terrorism bill. The FBI's main priority will no longer be bringing criminals to justice, but rather collecting intelligence within the borders of the US. The Treasury Department will collect financial intelligence (like the banking activities of Americans), and provide it to the CIA. The CIA will also now have some say in FBI operations.

The bill looks to remove many of the safeguards put in place after Watergate against abuses of presidential power, in matters like using intelligence resources against political activists.

-- An Intelligence Giant in the Making (washingtonpost.com) By Jim McGee Washington Post; November 4, 2001; Page A04

-- Ashcroft's power grab brings Joe McCarthy to mind By JOEL CONNELLY; May 1, 2002; Seattle Post-Intelligencer

-- Court's ruling opens new chapter in government censorship

-- Republicans Rule (washingtonpost.com) By Howard Kurtz; June 30, 2003

-- Democratic Moves to Widen Intelligence Probe Defeated (washingtonpost.com) By Walter Pincus; June 27, 2003; Page A09

-- States' Fiscal Crisis Has Grown in Past 6 Months (washingtonpost.com) By Dale Russakoff; June 27, 2003; Page A02

-- US forces nations to help its citizens avoid international court By Robert Verkaik; Independent; 30 June 2003

"United States military commanders have ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, instead installing their own hand-picked mayors and administrators, many of them former Iraqi military leaders"

-- Democracy will have to wait, US tells Iraq By William Booth and Rajiv Chandrasekaran; June 30 2003; The Sydney Morning Herald

-- Memo Shows Enron Division Headed by Army Secretary Thomas White Manipulated California Electricity Market CONTACT: ÊPublic Citizen at www.citizen.org; 202-588-7742; MAY 8, 2002; ww.commondreams.org

-- Papers Show That Enron Manipulated Calif. Crisis (washingtonpost.com) By Peter Behr; May 7, 2002; Page A01

-- Docs Say Enron Was Part Of The Problem Dan Ackman; 05.07.02; Forbes magazine

-- Bush and Ken Lay Slip Slidin' Away By Sam Parry February 6, 2002; consortiumnews.com

-- Enron Conservatives by ROBERT L. BOROSAGE; COMMENT | February 4, 2002; The Nation Company, L.P.; http://www.thenation.com

-- Enron-gate by Molly Ivins - Creators Syndicate; 12.06.01; URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=12461

-- White House Aided Enron in Dispute (washingtonpost.com) By Dana Milbank and Paul Blustein; Washington Post; January 19, 2002; Page A1; Joe Stephens, James V. Grimaldi and Lucy Shackelford contributors

-- DeLay Advisers Reaped Enron Windfall By John Bresnahan and Damon Chappie; Roll Call Inc.; February 25, 2002

-- Waxman: Energy Policy Helpful to Enron By PETE YOST, Associated Press/Yahoo! News; Jan 25, 2002; US Energy policy: http://www.fe.doe.gov/general/energypolicy.shtml

-- Harold Meyerson, "Enron's Enablers," The American Prospect vol. 13 no. 3, February 11, 2002.

-- Bush 2000 Adviser Offered to Use Clout to Help Enron (washingtonpost.com) By Joe Stephens; Washington Post; February 17, 2002; Page A01; Lucy Shackelford contributor

-- NSC Aided Enron's Efforts (washingtonpost.com) By Dana Milbank and Alan Sipress; Washington Post; January 25, 2002; Page A18

-- Enron Collapse Entangles Bush Administration By Arshad Mohammed; Reuters/Yahoo!; January 10, 2002

-- Lawmakers Want Bush Away From Enron By MARCY GORDON;The Associated Press/Yahoo! Politics Headlines; January 16 2002

-- Thousands of Middle Eastern, Muslim immigrants face deadline to register under security program by SANDRA MARQUEZ; San Francisco Gate; January 10, 2003

-- Registration Stirs Panic, Worry (washingtonpost.com) By Dan Eggen and Nurith C. Aizenman; January 10, 2003; Page A01

-- Rights activist blasts US bias against Muslims

-- Indians too will have to register -DAWN - Top Stories; 21 January, 2003 By Our Correspondent

-- Men from Five More Nations to Register in U.S. (washingtonpost.com)

-- 'By detaining hundreds of the foreign Muslims it lured into West Coast offices, the agency succeeded only in harming U.S. security'; Businessweek

Nowadays merely speaking a foreign language on an airliner in US airspace can lead to you being detained by authorities.

-- Three held after airliner reported concerns; CNN; February 6, 2003

-- Brookings Scholar Is Detained by INS (washingtonpost.com) By George Lardner Jr.; January 30, 2003; Page A01

-- 2,000 Pakistanis in US flee to Canada

"Privately, the Americans admit that torture, or something very like it, is going on at Bagram air base in Afghanistan..."

-- The invisible; 26 June 2003; The Independent

The US government as of 10-21-01 had four particular prisoners that were suspected of having valuable information regarding the events of 9-11-01 and possible other terrorist attacks, but were not divulging any useful information, no matter what sort of rewards they were being offered. Officials are considering the use of drugs and various pressure tactics on the prisoners. Beyond that, they might extradite the prisoners to other countries where actual torture or threats to families are the norm. Things like torture of suspects is supposed to be illegal in the US.

There seems to be no consideration of the idea that these people (or one of them at least) may not know anything to tell investigators. Keep in mind that as the drag net widens, you or I too could find ourselves in the same predicament as these four suspects. Only we definitely would have nothing to tell. Would we be shipped to a banana republic by the FBI and tortured for our innocence?

Much of the new anti-terror laws recently rammed through Congress would make American citizens just as vulnerable to the alarming new reductions in civil liberties and rights in our system as foreigners.

-- Silence of 4 Terror Probe Suspects Poses Dilemma (washingtonpost.com) By Walter Pincus; October 21, 2001; Page A06, and other sources

As of 10-24-01 at least one apparently innocent man has died of "unknown causes" in a US jail, after being detained in the wide ranging roundup of foreign born people after the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks. The man was a 55 year old Pakistani, whom officials now say had no discernable links to the attacks, but did have an expired visa.

-- What future for the UN? by Clare Short, Former UK cabinet minister; BBC; 8 June, 2003

"The "war on terror" has made the world a more dangerous place and created divisions which make conflict more likely, says Amnesty International"

-- Warning over war on terror; BBC; 28 May, 2003

-- 'We've thrust the world into chaos, yet al-Qaida terrorizes still'

-- US troops' anguish: Killing outmatched foes By Ann Scott Tyson; April 11, 2003; The Christian Science Monitor

-- US 'mini nukes' decision alarms critics By Rupert Cornwell; 22 May 2003; Independent

-- Rumsfeld's Dr. Strangelove Keith Payne says 7,000 warheads aren't enough By Fred Kaplan; Slate.com; May 12, 2003

-- U.S. Rearms While Telling Others To Disarm by Helen Thomas; October 23, 2003; commondreams.org; previously published May 24, 2003 by Hearst Newspapers

-- WAR IN THE GULF THEY DIED IN THEIR TRENCHES CLUTCHING WHITE FLAGS by Richard Edwards; sundaymail [no date stamp]

-- US and Israel look set to embrace assassination

-- US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists by Nick Paton Walsh; May 26, 2003; The Guardian

"Torture is a form of terrorism: there are no justifications for it"

-- Editorials Fighting "terrorism" with torture by Derek Summerfield; BMJ 2003;326:773-774 (12 April)

-- Strong-arm tactics leave the world a weaker place by Martin Woollacott; May 2, 2003; The Guardian

"Weak nations will succumb to American ambition unless we insist on respecting sovereignty"

-- The power of one by Martin Jacques; May 26, 2003; The Guardian

-- War on terror leaves world in fear, says Amnesty By Kim Sengupta; 29 May 2003; Independent

-- 'Most people in this country have no idea what's about to happen to them even though their very democracy is at stake'

-- 'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...'; text of a speech by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003; CommonDreams.org; April 16, 2003

"Under Attorney General John Ashcroft, America is becoming an Orwellian state where people are locked up and no one can find out why -- least of all a compliant Congress."

-- The secret society By Tim Grieve; April 18, 2003; salon.com

-- The war on terror has made the world a more dangerous place as governments roll back human rights and whip up public fears that fuel racism

-- Clark warns UK and US about return to the law of the jungle; 04.05.2003; New Zealand News

-- Now the US wants control of space By Julian Coman; 08/06/2003; Telegraph

-- U.S. 'negation' policy in space raises concerns abroad By Loring Wirbel; EE Times; May 22, 2003

-- PENTAGON: SPACE IS FOR AMERICANS ONLY Posted by noahmax; May 27, 2003; defensetech.org

"We must dominate space"

-- Maj. Gen. Judd Blaisdell, US Air Force director of space operations and integration, Pentagon

-- Space Is The Ultimate High Ground by Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker; Air Force News/SpaceDaily; Jun 04, 2003

-- Revealed: US plan to 'own' space by Neil Mackay; 22 June 2003; Sunday Herald

-- America Goes Backward By Stanley Hoffmann; The New York Review of Books ; Volume 50, Number 10 · June 12, 2003

-- 'This is a dark time in our country, a time when there is only one truth in the government and very little tolerance for dissent'

"Most of all, what Americans can learn from the Jewish state is that unending war drains not just the economy but the national spirit"

-- Israel's Warning for the U.S. By Peter Coy; Businessweek; APRIL 21, 2003

-- 'The administration has been relentless in its efforts to expand its surveillance, both openly and secretly, of law-abiding citizens'; Fortune

"Warrantless surveillance. Secret arrests. Indefinite detention. Is this totalitarian Cuba? No, it's what the U.S. Justice Department is planning, based on legislation that Justice lawyers have been secretly drafting for months."

-- Patriot Act 11 - the sequel; Mar. 30, 2003; The Miami Herald

-- E-Legal: A Monster Surveillance Society by Eric J. Sinrod; 01-21-2003; law.com

"Growing evidence of deception by Washington"

-- Anthrax, chemicals and nerve gas: who is lying? By Andrew Gumbel; 20 April 2003; Independent Digital

-- U.S. forfeits claim to moral authority By BOB RANDOLPH; April 20, 2003; Seattle Post-Intelligencer

-- What is happening in America?

-- Ashcroft Sides with Torturers Unocal and the Crimes of Burma By JOANNE MARINER; June 7, 2003; counterpunch.org

-- Ashcroft Attacks Human Rights Law; source: Human Rights Watch; May 15, 2003; corpwatch.org

-- New Law Assists Political Intimidation by Daniel Forbes; June 15, 2003; The Nation

-- Confirmation crisis? Bush declares judicial state of emergency when only 98% of his nominations are confirmed by Ellen Goodman; Washington Post Writers Group; 05.14.03; workingforchange.com

-- Should Americans be above international law?

-- US voted out of human rights body in symbolic rebuke; NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE; Jun 13, 2003,Page 7; The Taipei Times

-- Americans losing the war on their freedoms

-- The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy; June 5, 2003; corpwatch.org

-- Ayatollah Ashcroft's law How U.S. attorney-general, a Christian evangelist with anti-Islamic views on record, is waging war on American Muslims by HAROON SIDDIQUI; Jul. 27, 2003; The Toronto Star

-- Bush and father at odds over Iraq strike

"Once 'Stormin' Norman,' Gen. Schwarzkopf Is Skeptical About U.S. Action in Iraq"

-- Desert Caution By Thomas E. Ricks; Washington Post; January 28, 2003; Page C01

-- Stormin' Norman: Don't rush into war; BBC; 29 January, 2003

-- Former Diplomat Opposes War With Iraq

-- Stormin' Norman opposes Iraq war [August 20, 2002]; The Australian

-- Scowcroft sticks to his guns By Jim Lobe; Asia Times Online; Aug 21, 2002

-- page 615, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett; 15th Edition, 1980; Little, Brown publisher