Dissent Mag

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Write

Focus on Al-Qaeda Now Diminishing

12/04/08 “Washington Post” — – -Last week’s violence in Basra and Baghdad has convinced the Bush administration that actions by Iran, and not al-Qaeda, are the primary threat inside Iraq, and has sparked a broad reassessment of policy in the region, according to senior U.S. officials.

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Published on Sunday, April 13, 2008 by The Nation
by John Nichols
The Constitution of the United States is absolutely clear when it comes to matters of torture.

Amendment 8 specifically states that,”Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Acts of torture are by definition and common understanding — certainly at the time of the drafting of the nation’s essential document and arguably even in this less-enlightened era — cruel and unusual punishments

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April 14, 2008; Page A14

Awakening from their long slumber, the G-7 finance ministers have finally admitted that a global run on the dollar is a bad idea. The currency markets will no doubt begin testing immediately to see if they mean it.

At their weekend meetings in Washington, the G-7 ministers dropped their long neglect of the dollar and noted that “Since our last meeting, there have been at times sharp fluctuations in major currencies, and we are concerned about their possible implications for economic and financial stability. We continue to monitor exchange rates closely, and cooperate as appropriate.” Translation: We don’t want the dollar to keep falling, and speculators might get burned if they bet on further dollar declines.

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April 14, 2008

Exactly as the British press predicted, last week’s congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Green Zone administrator Ryan Crocker set the propaganda stage for a Bush regime attack on Iran. On April 10 Robert H. Reid of AP News reported: “The top U.S. commander has shifted the focus from al-Qaeda to Iranian-backed ’special groups’ as the main threat. … The shift was articulated by Gen. Petraeus who told Congress that ‘unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq.’”

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By Robert Parry, Consortium News. Posted April 14, 2008.

We’re already dangerously close to that reality.

Though little discussed on the campaign trail, a crucial issue to be decided in November is whether the United States will return to its traditions as a constitutional Republic respecting “unalienable” human rights or whether it will finish a transformation into a frightened nation governed by an all-powerful President who can do whatever he wants during the open-ended “war on terror.”

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