Undermining Bush case for war, US weapons inspector says Iraq had no WMD

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Undermining the central pillar of President George W. Bush's case for the war on Iraq, the chief US arms inspector reported that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction at the time of the 2003 US-led invasion.

In a report of more than 1,000 pages, Charles Duelfer, the head of the Iraq Survey Group, concluded that Saddam destroyed most of his chemical and biological weapons after his 1991 Gulf War defeat and that his nuclear program had "progressively decayed."

While sweeping aside the president's chief justification for launching the March 2003 war on Iraq -- that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction -- the report said the Iraqi dictator would have sought to rebuild his arsenal.

"Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq's WMD capability -- which was essentially destroyed in 1991 -- after sanctions were removed and Iraq's economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed," the report said.

Duelfer, in testimony before a Senate panel on Wednesday, said if there was any risk posed by Saddam it was years in the future, far from the immediate danger US officials insisted the Iraqi leader posed in building their case for war.

"As in the other WMD areas, Saddam sought to sustain the requisite knowledge base to restart the program eventually and ... to sustain the inherent capability to produce such weapons as circumstances permitted in the future," he said.

Duelfer said that after 15 months of searching he did not expect to find "militarily significant" weapons stocks in Iraq.

The inspector said that some small finds had been made of chemical and nerve agents dating from before 1991. Some tips were also to be followed up.

"Despite these reports and finds, I still do not expect that militarily significant WMD stocks are cached in Iraq," Duelfer told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

His report -- which included information supplied by Saddam to US interrogators -- focused on Iraq's "strategic intent."

"Saddam aspired to develop a nuclear capability -- in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks -- but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare capabilities."

The report said the Baghdad regime's main fear was neighbouring Iran, but that it "had no formal written strategy or plan for the revival of WMD after sanctions."

Bush has now had several rebukes this week of his Iraq war justification and strategy, which is a key issue in the November 2 presidential election.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday he had seen no "strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam to Al-Qaeda. Paul Bremer, the former US civilian administrator in Iraq, said there were not enough US troops to secure the country when he arrived in May 2003.

The 9/11 Commission report into the September 11, 2001 attacks has already concluded that Iraq had no part in the strikes on New York and Washington.

Senator John Kerry, the Democratic contender for the White House, has called the invasion, "the wrong war at the wrong time" because it diverted attention from the hunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Without mentioning the report, Bush on Wednesday defended his invasion order insisting there was a "real risk" that Saddam would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

"After September 11, America had to assess every potential threat in a new light," Bush told an election rally at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

"We had to take a hard look at every place where terrorists might get those weapons and one regime stood out: the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

"We knew the dictator had a history of using weapons of mass destruction, a long record of aggression and hatred for America."

Bush said: "There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks. In the world after September 11, that was a risk we could not afford to take."

The president acknowledged "strong concerns" held by some Americans about Iraq. "I respect the fact that they take this issue seriously, because it is a serious matter. I assure them we're in Iraq because I deeply believe it is necessary and right and critical to the outcome of the war on terror."

Kerry campaign strategist Mike McCurry said the report presents "a very significant commentary on the mistaken case for war presented by this administration."

"It is very troubling they could have been so wrong when it comes to something as fundamental as taking the country to war," he added.

Son of GOP President Supports Kerry

It's not "liberals" or "left-wing kooks" pointing out how lost the country is under Bush. Old time and rock-solid Republicans WHO KNOW are aghast at what George Bush has done as president while subverting the original ideals and values of the GOP. More than that they rightly fear for the country's future while believing that John Kerry represents the best chance to bring it back to its democratic roots with dignity and honor. No matter which party you support this extraordinary condemnation by John Eisenhower is a wake-up call to shake off the Rove-colored glasses. It took great bravery for Eisenhower to stand up for something greater than party loyalty to speak out about what is right for America. It's one of the most selfless acts of patriotic courage that I've witnessed in my lifetime. Eisenhower could have remained quiet about the Bush threat and lived out his last days without any rancor but instead chose a path that his father would have been proud of because he stood up as an American first, party second. --- Sam Park

Son of GOP President Supports Kerry

Wed Sep 29, 8:24 PM ET

TRAPPE, Md. - John Eisenhower, son of Republican President Eisenhower, said in a newspaper column this week that he will vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry for president on Nov. 2.

In a rare public announcement, Eisenhower said he switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent after 50 years after losing confidence in his former party. He said Kerry has demonstrated courage, competence and a concern for tackling the "widening socio-economic gap in this country."

"There are times when we must break with the past, and I believe this is one of them," Eisenhower wrote in the opinion column published Tuesday in The Union Leader of Manchester, N.H.

The column assails President Bush and the GOP for federal budget deficits, for "unilaterally" invading Iraq and for infringing on personal liberties.

The Bush campaign had no immediate comment.

Eisenhower, 82, declined to be interviewed Wednesday. His wife, Joanne Eisenhower, said by telephone from their home on Maryland's Eastern Shore that, "This is something he felt strongly about."

"The fact is that today's 'Republican' Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word 'Republican' has always been synonymous with the word 'responsibility,' which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms.

"Today's whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion," Eisenhower wrote.

Eisenhower, a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium and author, was a registered Republican for 50 years — until the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq "as a maverick," he wrote.

"Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance," he wrote.

Eisenhower scolded the Republican leadership for embracing a tax code that "heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very poor."

"Senator Kerry, in whom I am willing to place my trust, has demonstrated that he is courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with fighting the dangers associated with the widening socio-economic gap in this country," he concluded.

Bush's Hometown Newspaper Endorses Kerry

Tue Sep 28, 1:19 PM ET

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The newspaper in President Bush's adopted hometown of Crawford threw its support on Tuesday behind Bush's Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry.

The weekly Lone Star Iconoclast criticized Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and for turning budget surpluses into record deficits. The editorial also criticized Bush's proposals on Social Security and Medicare.

"The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda," the newspaper said in its editorial. "Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry."

It urged "Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country."

Bush spends many of his weekends and holidays at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.

The Iconoclast's publisher and editor-in-chief, W. Leon Smith, said the newspaper is sent to Bush's ranch each week. "But I don't know if he reads it," Smith said.

The Kerry campaign welcomed the endorsement in an email to reporters.

Crawford, Texas Newspaper Endorses Kerry

Top US musicians launch of anti-Bush music blitz

Tue Sep 28, 8:19 AM ET

SEATTLE, United States (AFP) - A coalition of top US musicians led by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt were poised to launch a two-week concert blitz aimed at persuade US voters to oust President George W. Bush.

The famed singers were due to headline Monday's concert in Seattle, the first in a manic series of "Vote for Change" concerts that will be headlined later in the tour by rock legend Bruce Springsteen.

The boss and other musical stars including REM, Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt will perform in around 36 cities in nine electoral swing states, culminating in a huge concert on October 11 in Washington DC.

The loose coalition of musical stars is launching the series of mini-tours with "a single goal through the tour: to get people to the polls on November 2 to vote for a change," according to the organisers' website.

The tour will roar through the crucial Midwestern swing states such as Ohio and Michigan where Kerry and Bush are running neck and neck before hitting the equally critical Florida on October 8.

Other musician's hitching the wagons to Kerry in the "Vote For Change" concerts are Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, John Fogerty, the E Street Band, and John Mellencamp.

Proceeds from the tour will go to America Coming Together (ACT), a voter mobilisation organisation committed to defeating Bush.

The concerts get off to their true start on October 1 in Seattle when the 55-year-old Springsteen will make his first appearance.

One of the emotive highlights of Monday's concert in Seattle was expected to be "The Boss's" rendition of his stirring anthem, "Born in the U.S.A.," which is likely to become the musicians' battlecry.

Springsteen explained to Rolling Stone magazine in an interview published last week that he felt America had been misled by the Bush administration into going to war in Iraq.

"It made me angry ... I felt we had been misled. I felt they had been fundamentally dishonest and had frightened and manipulated the American people into war," the 55-year-old legend.

President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and his policies had convinced Springsteen to break with his career-long aversion to partisan politics, he said.

"It was something that gestated over a period of time, and as events unfolded and the election got closer, it became clearer," he told the music magazine.

Flood of New Voters Signing Up

You're not seeing these newly registered voters in the polls being cited. This is going to shock the world on election day. We're going to get these new voters to the polls, vote our Democratic base, draw in independents and kick Bush's arse out of the White House door.

Tue Sep 28, 8:23 AM ET
By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

New voters are flooding local election offices with paperwork, registering in significantly higher numbers than four years ago as attention to the presidential election runs high and an array of activist groups recruit would-be voters who could prove critical come Nov. 2.

Cleveland has seen nearly twice as many new voters register so far as compared with 2000; Philadelphia is having its biggest boom in new voters in 20 years; and counties are bringing in temporary workers and employees from other agencies to help process all the new registration forms.

Nationwide figures aren't yet available, but anecdotal evidence shows an upswing in many places, often urban but some rural. Some wonder whether the new voters — some of whom sign up at the insistence of workers paid by get-out-the-vote organizations — will actually make it to the polls on Election Day, but few dispute the registration boom.

"We're swamped," said Bob Lee, who oversees voter registration in Philadelphia. "It seems like everybody and their little group is out there trying to register people."

Some examples, from interviews with state and county officials across the country:

_ New registered voters in Miami-Dade County, a crucial Florida county in 2000, grew by 65 percent through mid-September, compared with 2000.

_ New registered voters jumped nearly 150 percent in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) in Ohio, one of the most hard-fought states this year.

And that's with weeks left until registration deadlines fall, beginning in October.

Curtis Gans at the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate said a clear national picture won't emerge until more applications are processed next month. And Kay Maxwell of the League of Women Voters cautioned that some years that promise a boom in new voters turn out to be duds on Election Day. The danger is that new voters may not be as committed to showing up at the polls as longtime voters.

"Turning people out to vote is tougher than getting them to register," said Doug Lewis, who works with local election officials as head of The Election Center, a nonprofit group.

Rural areas, which trend conservative and Republican, aren't necessarily reporting the same growth as urban, more liberal and Democratic strongholds: Brazos County, Texas, hasn't beaten its 2000 numbers so far, though officials said applications are now rolling in. The state of Oklahoma, however, saw new registrations in July and August increase by 60 percent compared with four years ago.

Oklahoma officials said they had 16,000 new Republican registrations, 15,000 new Democrats and 3,500 new independents. In Oregon, where new registrations grew by 4 percent from January through Sept. 1, Democrats outregistered Republicans two-to-one.

Lewis and others say that no matter what the partisan breakdown, the registration boom is real — driven by a swarm of organizations such as Smack Down Your Vote (a professional wrestling-connected campaign), Hip-Hop Team Vote, traditional groups like the League of Women Voters; party-aligned groups such as America Coming Together, made up of deep-pocketed Democrats; and many, many more.

"There seem to be hundreds of them," Maxwell said.

The groups' focus is on states where the vote was close in 2000, but even in several states where the election isn't as competitive, officials say they are seeing new voters register in higher numbers. Officials in El Paso County, Texas, Maryland's Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and California's Los Angeles County said registration numbers are on pace to be higher than 2000.

In many jurisdictions, administrators complain that the crush of new registrations is overloading staff.

Clerks have hired extra workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Colorado. Philadelphia borrowed employees from other city agencies and started working overtime two months earlier than the usual post-Labor Day push.



In Greenbrier County, W.Va., deputy clerk Gail White said she's never seen so many people register in her 10 years working elections, and despite extra staff she's still behind on processing new and absentee voters. "I get them all typed up, and the next thing I know, here comes another pile," she said.

The reasons seem clear — groups on all sides were energized by the close election of 2000, which proved to doubters that a handful of votes can swing an election. In 2000, 9 percent of voters, roughly 9.5 million people, said that was their first time casting a ballot, according to AP exit polls.

"It's the high-growth areas, the suburban and exurban areas in those battleground states," said Scott Stanzel of the Bush-Cheney campaign. "There are opportunities there because there are so many new residents to register."

The GOP has launched a volunteer, precinct-by-precinct effort in swing states, with separate help from a Republican-aligned group, the Progress for America Voter Fund.

Democrats, who've consistently made turnout efforts the foundation of their campaigns, are devoting huge amounts of resources, too. America Coming Together focuses solely on registering and turning out voters.

The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law has boosted efforts, too. It cut off unlimited "soft" money to the parties, diverting some of that cash to community-based groups.

In Missouri, the result is that what used to be a mostly volunteer-driven voter-registration effort by the Missouri Citizen Education Fund has blossomed into a bigger, paid-staff operation, said executive director John Hickey. Funds jumped from a few thousand dollars a year to $250,000.

Focused on poor, black neighborhoods in St. Louis, mid-Missouri and rural areas, his staff went from registering a few thousand new voters in 2000 to at least 50,000 so far this year, Hickey said. In 2000, George W. Bush won the state by less than 80,000 votes.

Heady U.S. Goals for Iraq Fall by Wayside

In Bushworld, you don't have to BE a hero you just have to be marketed like one on TV. Meanwhile, back in reality...

Mon Sep 27, 7:55 AM ET
Los Angeles Times

By Tyler Marshall Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Despite continuing violence and instability, President Bush has stuck doggedly to his central message on Iraq: There is no need to change course because the administration's plan for planting democracy in the Middle East is working.

Yet behind the unwavering public posture, there is evidence that the Bush administration has altered its approach. It has lowered its hopes for the type of democracy that can be achieved, changed course on its plans to privatize Iraq's economy and reordered its priorities by devoting more money to improving security as fast as possible.

Gone — at least for now — is the lofty ideal of Iraq serving as a free-market democratic model that would ignite the forces of change throughout the Middle East and lay the seeds of a settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said administration officials have told him privately that they have lowered their expectations. "They've definitely recalibrated their goals," he said. "One of them told me: 'When we went in there, I thought we would build American-style democracy. Hell, I'd be happy with Romanian-style democracy now.' "

"It doesn't mean you abandon" the Iraqis, Kolbe added. "It reflects what is realistic, what is doable." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld echoed that sentiment Friday, when asked what it would take for the United States to declare victory and begin to withdraw.

"Any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and U.S. forces I think would obviously be unwise because it's never been peaceful and perfect and it isn't likely to be," he said. National security advisor Condoleezza Rice this month defined success in more modest terms than the administration used in the war's early stages. "Success will be an Iraqi government that has gone through the legitimacy process of being elected and an Iraqi government that can defend itself," she said.

Many experts believe the administration will be hard-pressed even to pull that off...

Key Bush Assertions About Iraq in Dispute

By Adam Entous

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Many of President Bush (news - web sites)'s assertions about progress in Iraq (news - web sites) -- from police training and reconstruction to preparations for January elections -- are in dispute, according to internal Pentagon (news - web sites) documents, lawmakers and key congressional aides on Sunday...

Cheney Crowds Would Like More on Kitchen-Table Issues

You won't find Bush or Cheney talking about domestic issues near and dear to their main street supporters. They have done nothing worth a damn for average Americans and everything for corporate America while sticking it to the rest of the country. Even ardent Republican supporters will tell you they are disappointed in how Bush and Cheney avoid talking about the economy, jobs, health care, deficits, etc.

THE VICE PRESIDENT
By JOEL BRINKLEY

Published: September 27, 2004

ANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept 24 - For Vice President Dick Cheney's weeklong campaign swing, little was left to chance. Or so it seemed.

Campaign advance workers for each of the rallies and town hall or round-table discussions chose every participant, combing lists of Republican activists and donors.

But these advance workers could not control what Mr. Cheney said or predict that his dark message would be out of sync with what many in his ardently supportive audience wanted to hear: his stand on domestic social issues...

General: Guard Won't Meet Recruiting Goal

Thu Sep 23, 2:20 PM ET
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - The Army National Guard will fall 5,000 soldiers short of its recruiting goal this year, in part because fewer in the active-duty force are switching to part-time service, knowing how frequently Guard units are being dispatched to war zones, the Guard's top general said Thursday.

It will be the first time since 1994 that the Guard has missed its sign-up goal...


Brrr, anyone feeling a draft coming on? Must be the fall weather.

Strains Felt By Guard Unit on Eve Of War Duty

Somehow, I missed this story. Gee, I did a Google search and you can hardly find it anywhere. Wow. A whole battalion of Lieutenent Bushes!


By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 19, 2004; Page A01

FORT DIX, N.J. -- The 635 soldiers of a battalion of the South Carolina National Guard scheduled to depart Sunday for a year or more in Iraq have spent their off-duty hours under a disciplinary lockdown in their barracks for the past two weeks.

The trouble began Labor Day weekend, when 13 members of the 1st Battalion of the 178th Field Artillery Regiment went AWOL, mainly to see their families again before shipping out. Then there was an ugly confrontation between members of the battalion's Alpha and Charlie batteries -- the term artillery units use instead of "companies" -- that threatened to turn into a brawl involving three dozen soldiers, and required the base police to intervene.


That prompted a barracks inspection that uncovered alcohol, resulting in the lockdown that kept soldiers in their rooms except for drills, barred even from stepping outside for a smoke, a restriction that continued with some exceptions until Sunday's scheduled deployment.

The battalion's rough-and-tumble experience at a base just off the New Jersey Turnpike reflects many of the biggest challenges, strains and stresses confronting the Guard and Reserve soldiers increasingly relied on to fight a war 7,000 miles away.

This Guard unit was put on an accelerated training schedule -- giving the soldiers about 36 hours of leave over the past two months -- because the Army needs to get fresh troops to Iraq, and there are not enough active-duty or "regular" troops to go around. Preparation has been especially intense because the Army is short-handed on military police units, so these artillerymen are being quickly re-trained to provide desperately needed security for convoys. And to fully man the unit, scores of soldiers were pulled in from different Guard outfits, some voluntarily, some on orders.

As members of the unit looked toward their tour, some said they were angry, or reluctant to go, or both. Many more are bone-tired. Overall, some of them fear, the unit lacks strong cohesion -- the glue that holds units together in combat.

"Our morale isn't high enough for us to be away for 18 months," said Pfc. Joshua Garman, 20, who, in civilian life, works in a National Guard recruiting office. "I think a lot of guys will break down in Iraq." Asked if he is happy that he volunteered for the deployment, Garman said, "Negative. No time off? I definitely would not have volunteered."

A series of high-level decisions at the Pentagon has come together to make life tough for soldiers and commanders in this battalion and others. The decisions include the Bush administration's reluctance to sharply increase the size of the U.S. Army. Instead, the Pentagon is relying on the National Guard and Reserves, which provide 40 percent of the 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Also, the top brass has concluded that more military police are needed as security deteriorates and the violent insurgency flares in ways that were not predicted by Pentagon planners.

These soldiers will be based in northern Kuwait and will escort supply convoys into Iraq. That is some of the toughest duty on this mission, with every trip through the hot desert bringing the possibility of being hit by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire.

The drilling to prepare this artillery unit for that new role has been intense. Except for a brief spell during Labor Day weekend, soldiers have been confined to post and prevented from wearing civilian clothes when off duty. The lockdown was loosened to allow soldiers out of the barracks in off hours to go to the PX, the gym and a few other places, if they sign out and move in groups.

"There's a federal prison at Fort Dix, and a lot of us feel the people in there have more rights than we do," said Spec. Michael Chapman, 31, a construction worker from near Greenville, S.C.

Some complaints heard during interviews with the soldiers here last week centered on long hours and the disciplinary measures -- both of which the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Van McCarty, said were necessary to get the unit into shape before combat.

Sgt. Kelvin Richardson, 38, a machinist from Summerville, S.C., volunteered for this mission but says he now wishes he had not and has misgivings about the unit's readiness. Richardson is a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which he served with the 1st Cavalry Division, an active-duty "regular" unit. This battalion "doesn't come close" to that division, he said. "Active-duty, they take care of the soldiers."

Pfc. Kevin Archbald, 20, a construction worker from Fort Mill, S.C., who was transferred from another South Carolina Guard unit, also worries about his cobbled-together outfit's cohesion. "My last unit, we had a lot of people who knew each other. We were pretty close." He said he does not feel that in the 178th. Here, he said, "I think there's just a lot of frustration."
The daily headlines of surging violence in Iraq -- where U.S. forces crossed the 1,000-killed threshold last month -- were also part of the stress heard in soldiers' comments.

"I think before we deploy we should be allowed to go home and see our families for five days, because some of us might not come back," said Spec. Wendell McLeod, 40, a steelworker from Cheraw, S.C. "Morale is pretty low. . . . It's leading to fights and stuff. That's really all I got to say."


McCarty, the commander, disagrees with those assessments. Overall, he said, the unit's morale is not poor. "The soldiers all have their issues to deal with, and some have dealt with it better than others," he said in an interview in his temporary office.

The problem, he said, is that he has to play the hand dealt him -- of assembling a new unit and getting it to work together while following a training schedule that has kept them going from dawn to long after dark, seven days a week, since mid-July.

"We are not here for annual training and then go home" -- that is, the typical schedule for National Guard units in the past -- said McCarty, assistant deputy director of law enforcement for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in civilian life. "We are here to prepare to go into a combat zone."

Some military leaders like to say that the best quality of life is having one -- a view to which McCarty appears to subscribe. "It is not my objective to win a popularity contest with my soldiers," he said. "My objective is to take them out and back home safely to their families."

As for the barracks lockdown, he said, "I am not going to apologize. . . . I did what I felt was necessary."

In the past, McCarty noted, members of Guard units usually had years of service together. That has enabled Guard units to compensate somewhat, using unit cohesion -- that is, mutual understanding and trust -- to make up for having less training time together than do active-duty units. But that was not the case with this battalion. "We didn't have that degree of stabilization to start with," he said.

He also contends that his case is hardly unusual nowadays. "Other units have similar problems," he said. "Ours just make more headlines." The disciplinary measures were covered by some soldiers' hometown newspapers, perhaps because it is one of the largest mobilizations of the South Carolina Guard since Sept. 11, 2001.

Sgt. Maj. Clarence Gamble, who as the top noncommissioned officer for the battalion keeps a close eye on morale and discipline, said he does not see any big problems. "I get out and see troops every day," he said. "From my talking to the troops, morale is good right now."

Indeed, some members of the unit agree with this view. "Overall, morale's good," said Sgt. John Mahaffey. "But of course you're going to have some who, no matter if you gave them their food on a gold platter, they'd still . . . whine." A car salesman from Spartanburg, S.C., Mahaffey, 41, said he volunteered to go to Iraq and is glad he did. "I'm looking forward to it," he said. The unit is essentially ready to go, he said. "If you wait till everything's perfect, you'll never get anything accomplished."

Gamble defended the lockdown that followed the fighting. "I think that what we did at the time was something that we needed to do to make sure that we had command and control of the battalion," he said. He added, "I don't think it was a detriment to morale, because it was short-lived."

He also says that unit cohesion is developing. "We knew it was going to take some time to develop the chemistry. And it's working."

As for volunteers who say they now regret it, "I think when our deployment is over, people will have different opinions."

Gamble, who at age 51 is a 33-year veteran of the Guard, said he is not worried about putting an already stressed unit into the cauldron of Iraq duty. "I haven't ever been deployed before, myself," he said. But, he concluded, "I feel like this unit will handle this well. Once we get in-country and get into missions, I think the stress will level off."

Feds: Cigarette Makers Lied for 50 Years

When Bush entered the White House he DUMPED ON this case claiming there were "too many lawsuits going on." Any president that will shill for the tobacco industry will also lie about the war in Iraq. Doh! That's what happened! Watch for some sweetheart deal worked out for cigarette makers on this.

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cigarette makers lied about the dangers of smoking for 50 years, the U.S. government said on Tuesday as its $280 billion case against the industry went to trial.

Reuters Photo

In opening arguments in the biggest and most ambitious racketeering case in history, the government said a 1953 meeting of tobacco industry executives at New York's Plaza Hotel was the starting point for a conspiracy designed to cast doubt on links between cancer and cigarettes.

"This case is about a 50-year pattern of misrepresentation, half-truths and lies," U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) attorney Frank Marine told a federal court...

Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election

The leadership of the GOP are THE top supporters of this kind of anti-American, anti-Constitution and anti-DEMOCRACY denial of an American citizen's greatest right, the right to vote.

By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.

The largest category of those legally disenfranchised consists of almost 5 million former felons who have served prison sentences and been deprived of the right to vote under laws that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century and were aimed at preventing black Americans from voting.

But millions of other votes in the 2000 presidential election were lost due to clerical and administrative errors while civil rights organizations have cataloged numerous tactics aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. Polls consistently find that black Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

"There are individuals and officials who are actively trying to stop people from voting who they think will vote against their party and that nearly always means stopping black people from voting Democratic," said Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Commission on Human Rights.

Vicky Beasley, a field officer for People for the American Way, listed some of the ways voters have been "discouraged" from voting

Dozens Indicted in Texas PAC Probe

He's a tinpot dictator from Texas named Tom DeLay.

By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN, Texas - A grand jury handed up 32 indictments for an alleged scheme to make illegal campaign contributions through a political action committee associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay...

3 DeLay Workers Indicted in Texas

Corruption. Thy name is DeLay.

By Sylvia Moreno, Washington Post Staff Writer

AUSTIN, Sept. 21 -- Three top political aides to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) were indicted Tuesday on charges of illegally raising political funds from corporations in 2002, much of which was funneled into the Republican takeover of the Texas legislature...

Texans Still at Odds Over Bush's Legal Reforms

Lose your right to consumer protections under Bush's next four years. Bush plans to make it impossible for you to sue a business that wrongs you.

By David G. Savage L.A. Times Staff Writer

BELLAIRE, Texas — On his first day as governor of Texas, George W. Bush declared that limiting lawsuits was an "emergency issue" for his state.

"We must put a stop to the frivolous and junk lawsuits which clog our courts," he said in January 1995, a popular line he has repeated often since then.

Getting rid of "frivolous" suits — or even defining them — proved difficult, but the new governor won limits on how much money could be awarded in the biggest cases. For example, punitive damages were capped at twice the amount of a victim's loss.

But the legal-reform movement Bush launched in Texas has gone far beyond questions of monetary awards. Among other things, it has led to limits on the right to sue in the first place.

"Texas has gone from one of the most friendly states for consumer protection to one of the most anti-consumer states," said University of Houston law professor Richard M. Alderman, an expert on consumer rights. "It all began in 1995. Bush oversaw a significant retreat for consumer protection, and it was all done under the guise of attacking 'frivolous' lawsuits."

The impact has been felt by home buyers such as Mary and Keith Cohn, whose elegant new residence in this well-off Houston suburb came with a leaky roof that led to rotting and moldy wallboard throughout the structure. After their daughters became ill, the Cohns moved out. The repairs ultimately cost more than $300,000.

To their astonishment and dismay, they learned that when the builder refused to repair most of the damage, they could not sue him for redress. Instead, they could pursue private arbitration, a process they considered stacked against them.

"This is the largest purchase of your life," said Mary Cohn, "but you have zero consumer protection."

Since leaving Texas for Washington, Bush has continued to voice his disdain for "frivolous and junk lawsuits," although his administration has pushed only two relatively modest changes so far: capping noneconomic damages in medical malpractice claims and funneling class-action lawsuits into federal courts. Democrats in the Senate have stalled both proposals.

But Bush served notice at this summer's Republican National Convention that if reelected, he plans to make "tort reform" a key part of his second-term agenda. In the president's view, lawsuits raise costs for businesses, doctors and ultimately consumers. He says there are better ways to protect the public against shoddy products and services.

Bush's legacy in Texas, supporters here say, was the reining in of a civil justice system that was out of control.

"This state was known for egregious abuses of the legal system," said Ken Hoagland, a spokesman for Texans for Lawsuit Reform. "It was entrepreneurial law. The trial lawyers would find a moneymaking cause and then go recruit some plaintiffs. But since 1995, we've really changed the landscape."

To hear critics tell it, however, Bush-style legal reform is bad news for consumers.

Until the mid-1990s, Texas had one of the nation's strongest consumer-protection laws. Known as the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, it allowed cheated consumers to sue and take their claims before a jury. The targets of these suits ranged widely: car dealers, health clubs, home-repair contractors, promoters of get-rich-quick and weight-loss schemes, even marketers of fake sports memorabilia.

In legal changes, some begun under Bush and others that occurred after he became president, the pro-business Texas Legislature and state Supreme Court made it harder for consumers to sue and win damages. One industry after another — including real estate brokers, architects and engineers — won protections against being sued.

No industry was more effective in protecting its interests than the politically powerful homebuilders.

Even before Bush became governor, the builders won passage of the Residential Construction Liability Act, which gave them the "right to repair" defects before homeowners could sue. But a series of amendments under Bush, and more since his tenure, tilted the law heavily toward builders, critics say.

In practice, the "right to repair" became the "right to delay" without penalty, according to aggrieved buyers. Later amendments made it harder for homeowners to prove that damage was caused by the original construction. If the builder was shown to be at fault, the law limited how much money could be awarded.

At the same time, builders began adding arbitration clauses to their contracts so that unhappy homeowners were forced to take their complaints before a privately hired arbitrator, rather than a judge and jury. As of last year, inspectors chosen by an industry-dominated panel determined the facts on which the arbitration was decided.

None of the legal changes was promoted as a means to shortchange consumers. Rather, industry lobbyists said it was better for both buyers and sellers if disputes were resolved quickly and without costly lawsuits.

Developers and home contractors say juries cannot be trusted to fairly resolve these disputes between a builder and a buyer.

"The last place you want to go is the civil court system. The facts don't matter to a jury," said Bobby Bowling IV, a builder from El Paso and president of the Texas Assn. of Builders. "In court, the plaintiff's lawyer makes it rich versus poor. It's about the redistribution of wealth."

Bowling said he and other builders were convinced that private arbitration was the best way to settle disputes.

"It's been a great system for me. I had a woman who had about 60 things she wanted fixed. I finally said, 'Let's go to arbitration,' " he said. "It cost about $10,000 to take care of it all. And it was done in 30 to 60 days. There's nothing like that in the civil justice system."

But consumer advocates say that closing the courthouse door to buyers removes a strong incentive for builders to do right by their customers.

"Having a legal remedy does two things," said Reggie James, director of Consumers Union in Austin. "It gives an individual a right to be compensated. And it is a deterrent for business in the future.

"And businesses respond to that. By the late 1990s, the builders here didn't have to worry about the risk of liability."

When Mary Cohn and her family moved out of their still-new home, she said, her builder offered $8,000 to repair the roof. That did not begin to cover the cost of replacing the moldy wallboard.

After concluding that the arbitration process was stacked against the buyer and would cost them several thousand dollars, the Cohns hired a lawyer and tried to sue the builder.

"They got screwed big-time. They paid three-quarters of a million dollars for a house that they couldn't live in," said Jim Moriarty, their lawyer. "This was as obvious a case of a construction defect you will ever see."

However, a succession of judges threw out their claim, saying their only choice was to take their dispute before a privately hired arbitrator.

In the end, a generous interpretation of their homeowners insurance policy paid most of the $300,000-plus repair cost. But the Cohns say they paid $35,000 in upfront deductibles.

The Cohns almost got their wish to go to court. While the repair work was underway, they put a bright orange sign in front of their home that urged others to "Think Twice" before hiring their builder. When they refused to take down the sign, he sued them for slander.

"I couldn't believe it. I couldn't sue my builder, but he could sue me," Mary Cohn said.

A judge eventually dismissed the lawsuit, citing the Cohns' right to free speech.

The new climate for Texas home buyers has spawned a vigorous and well-organized consumer movement that is calling on the Legislature to enact a "home lemon law."

It has also focused attention on arbitration, the business community's preferred alternative to going to court. The practice has become widespread, partly in response to criticism of costly lawsuits and what sometimes appear to be outlandish damage verdicts.

But courts are divided on whether unwitting consumers can sign away their right to sue, which is enshrined in the U.S. — and Texas — constitutions.

In California, for example, some judges have refused to enforce arbitration agreements because the pacts are tilted against the consumer. Others have ruled that the buyer has no choice but to go to arbitration.

The Texas Supreme Court and its nine elected justices, all Republicans, have consistently sided with builders in upholding arbitration clauses.

"There is no place in the country like Texas. The Texas courts have rejected the notion that something could be unfair to consumers," said Paul Bland, an attorney for Trial Lawyers for Public Justice in Washington.

Arbitration is often surprisingly costly, especially for consumers, as trial lawyers like to point out. Several Texas homeowners who had extensive mold damage said they were shocked to learn they would have to pay as much as $14,000 to take their claims to arbitration — the cost of paying for the arbitrator and construction experts.

If a consumer sues in court, a trial lawyer will usually take the case for free and cover the cost of hiring experts and investigating the defendant through "discovery" ordered by the court. If the consumer wins the lawsuit, the lawyer's fee is a percentage of the monetary verdict, often one-third of the total.

"Arbitration is a scam. We pay taxes for judges and juries and a courthouse, but we can't use them," said John Cobarruvias, a software engineer for NASA (news - web sites) in Houston who became a homeowner activist after he had to pay $20,000 to repair defective windows in his new home. "The builders are afraid of juries."

Texas homebuilders are big contributors to Republican political campaigns.

In the 2002 election cycle, Bob Perry and his wife, Doylene, the owners of Houston-based Perry Homes, gave $4.2 million to Texas candidates and their political action committees, including $905,000 to the Texas Republican Party.

Dubbed by the Dallas Morning News the "most influential man in Texas you have never met," the reclusive Perry gave three times more money to state politicians than anyone else in 2001-02.

A longtime friend and ally of Karl Rove, President Bush (news - web sites)'s political strategist, Perry also gave most of the money that funded this summer's ad campaign by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacking the military record of Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry.

As a homebuilder, Perry had plenty of allies in winning a business-friendly state government. The group that has given the most money to Texas politicians — other than the two parties — is Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

The group gave $1.98 million to Texas candidates in the 2002 election, which saw Republicans win a clean sweep of the governor's office, Legislature and Supreme Court.

The Legislature didn't give a hearing to the consumer-backed home lemon law last year.

Instead, lawmakers passed another bill drafted by the homebuilders. It says homeowners must take their complaint to a new state commission — whose nine-member board is dominated by builders and lacks any consumer representative — before they consider going to arbitration.

The commission chooses the inspectors who will determine the "factual" basis on which arbitration will be based.

This "neutral" evaluation can lead to a speedy resolution and "avoid time-consuming lawsuits," the commission says.

Consumer advocates are skeptical. "This commission was created by the builders for the builders. They didn't want our input. It has nothing to do with consumer protection," Cobarruvias said.

Indeed, the new brochure says: "Attention Builders and Remodelers! The Texas Residential Construction Commission serves you, your business and your industry."

Bush Dismisses Gloomy CIA Report on Iraq

Bush dismissed early reports on Al Qaeda and terrorists (while vacationing for a month on his ranch right before 9/11). He twisted other CIA intelligence to go to war in Iraq. America can't afford having such an intellectually challenged president who is led by the nose by idealoges in areas of leadership that is out of his league.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites), determined to put an optimistic face on deadly turmoil in Iraq (news - web sites), said on Tuesday that the CIA (news - web sites) was just guessing when it said the country was in danger of slipping into civil war.

"The CIA laid out several scenarios. It said that life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be better. And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like," Bush told reporters during a picture-taking session with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) assailed Bush's judgment, asking a rally in Orlando: "Ladies and gentlemen, does that make you feel safer? Does that give you confidence that this president knows what he's talking about?

"This is the president of the United States today standing in New York City where he was answering questions about Iraq and his speech to the United Nations (news - web sites)," Kerry told thousands of supporters in a basketball arena. "And this what the president of the United States of America -- in the midst of a war at a moment of danger -- said."

Bush and Allawi met for 45 minutes on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The CIA, which has been blamed for spectacular intelligence lapses involving the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and prewar Iraqi weapons capabilities, gave Bush a report last July that presented a bleak outlook for Iraq.

The classified document, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, predicted three possible scenarios ranging from a tenuous stability to political fragmentation and civil war.

But Bush said he was confident Iraq would emerge as a peaceful democratic nation because of the determination of the Iraqi people to build a free society.

He said he expected Allawi's visit to the United States would help convince Americans not to be discouraged by disturbing news reports from the country.

"The Iraqi citizens are defying the pessimistic predictions," Bush said.

"The American people have seen horrible scenes on our TV screens. And the prime minister will be able to say to them that in spite of the sacrifices being made, in spite of the fact that Iraqis are dying, and U.S. troops are dying as well, that there is a will among the Iraqi people to succeed."

Allawi told reporters his interim government and its U.S.-led allies were winning against the insurgents but that progress was being ignored by media coverage.

In October 2002, a National Intelligence Estimate argued that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and helped the administration justify its decision to go to war. No large stockpiles of such weapons have been found.

Republican Senator Says He May Not Support Bush

Mon Sep 20, 7:56 PM ET

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Republican moderate from Rhode Island, said on Monday he might not vote for President Bush in the Nov. 2 election.

Chafee stressed, however, that he has no plans to bolt his party, and that if he does not back Bush he will write in the name of another Republican.

His spokesman Stephen Hourahan said afterward that if Chafee does write in a name it would be that of Bush's father, former President Bush.

"I'll look at my options," Chafee said in a brief interview on Capitol Hill after discussing his indecision about the current president earlier in the day with reporters in his home state.

Asked if he might not vote for the president, Chafee said: "That's accurate." His office said this has been his position for months, though it has gotten little, if any, attention in Washington.

"There is no secret that on some very important issues I have difference with the current administration," Chafee said, listing abortion rights, the environment and war in Iraq.

"Like all Americans we are looking for some answers to key questions in the weeks ahead," Chafee said. "You wait until November 2 and make your choices."

On the other side of the aisle in the Senate, Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia has long backed Bush over his own party's nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Chafee's comments on Monday drew mixed reaction from fellow senators.

"It's unfortunate," said Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican.

"He is a gutsy and principled guy," said Sen. Thomas Carper, a Delaware Democrat. "He marches to his own drummer."

"He is a good fiscal conservative," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said with a chuckle.

"What I like about him is that he can be a Republican senator and at the same time say he is unsure about a Republican president," Graham said. "He is a breath of fresh air in politics."

Kerry blasts Iraq invasion as 'historic' failure

Mon Sep 20, 4:34 PM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - Democratic presidential contender John Kerry accused President George W. Bush of creating a "crisis of historic proportions" as infighting over Iraq (news - web sites) dominated the US election campaign.

Kerry's strongest attack yet on Bush's action in Iraq came one day ahead of the US president's address to the UN General Assembly where he was again expected to seek to justify the March 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

The Massachusetts senator called for a national debate on Iraq and the war on terror...

Republicans Criticize Bush 'Mistakes' on Iraq

Sun Sep 19, 1:12 PM ET

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading members of President Bush's Republican Party on Sunday criticized mistakes and "incompetence" in his Iraq policy and called for an urgent ground offensive to retake insurgent sanctuaries.

In appearances on news talk shows, Republican senators also urged Bush to be more open with the American public after the disclosure of a classified CIA report that gave a gloomy outlook for Iraq and raised the possibility of civil war.

"The fact is, we're in deep trouble in Iraq ... and I think we're going to have to look at some recalibration of policy," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"We made serious mistakes," said Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who has campaigned at Bush's side this year after patching up a bitter rivalry.

McCain, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," cited as mistakes the toleration of looting after the successful U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and failures to secure Iraq's borders or prevent insurgents from establishing strongholds within the country...

Grisly footage of execution of US hostage in Iraq posted on internet

Mon Sep 20, 4:01 PM ET

DUBAI (AFP) - Footage of the execution of an American hostage in Iraq (news - web sites) was posted on an Islamist website in the name of the Unity and Holy War group of suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
The grisly videotape showed five masked gunmen behead Eugene "Jack" Armstrong before placing his severed head on his back...

As Income Gap Widens, Uncertainty Spreads

Mon Sep 20, 3:12 PM ET

By Griff Witte, Washington Post Staff Writer

Scott Clark knows how to plate a circuit board for a submarine. He knows which chemicals, when mixed, will keep a cell phone ringing and which will explode. He knows how to make his little piece of a factory churn hour after hour, day after day.

But right now, as his van hurtles toward the misty silhouette of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the woods rising darkly on either side and Richmond receding behind him, all he needs to know is how to stay awake and avoid the deer.

So he guides his van along the center of the highway, one set of wheels in the right lane and the other in the left. "Gives me a chance if a deer runs in from either direction," he explains. "And at night, this is my road."

It's his road because, at 3:43 a.m. on a Wednesday, no one else wants it. Clark is nearly two hours into a workday that won't end for another 13, delivering interoffice mail around the state for four companies -- none of which offers him health care, vacation, a pension or even a promise that today's job will be there tomorrow. His meticulously laid plans to retire by his mid-fifties are dead. At 51, he's left with only a vague hope of getting off the road sometime in the next 20 years.

Until three years ago, Clark lived a fairly typical American life -- high school, marriage, house in the suburbs, three kids and steady work at the local circuit-board factory for a quarter-century. Then in 2001 the plant closed, taking his $17-an-hour job with it, and Clark found himself among a segment of workers who have learned the middle of the road is more dangerous than it used to be. If they want to keep their piece of the American dream, they're going to have to improvise.

Figuring out what the future holds for workers in his predicament -- and those who are about to be -- is key to understanding a historic shift in the U.S. workforce, a shift that has been changing the rules for a crucial part of the middle class.

This transformation is no longer just about factory workers, whose ranks have declined by 5 million in the past 25 years as manufacturing moved to countries with cheaper labor. All kinds of jobs that pay in the middle range -- Clark's $17 an hour, or about $35,000 a year, was smack in the center -- are vanishing, including computer-code crunchers, produce managers, call-center operators, travel agents and office clerks.

The jobs have had one thing in common: For people with a high school diploma and perhaps a bit of college, they can be a ticket to a modest home, health insurance, decent retirement and maybe some savings for the kids' tuition. Such jobs were a big reason America's middle class flourished in the second half of the 20th century.

Now what those jobs share is vulnerability. The people who fill them have become replaceable by machines, workers overseas or temporary employees at home who lack benefits. And when they are replaced, many don't know where to turn.

"We don't know what the next big thing will be. When the manufacturing jobs were going away, we could tell people to look for tech jobs. But now the tech jobs are moving away, too," said Lori G. Kletzer, an economics professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "What's the comparative advantage that America retains? We don't have the answer to that. It gives us a very insecure feeling."

The government doesn't specifically track how many jobs like Clark's have gone away. But other statistics more than hint at the scope of the change. For example, there are now about as many temporary, on-call or contract workers in the United States as there are members of labor unions. Another sign: Of the 2.7 million jobs lost during and after the recession in 2001, the vast majority have been restructured out of existence, according to a study by the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Bank of New York.

Each layoff or shutdown has its own immediate cause, but nearly all ultimately can be traced to two powerful forces that reinforce each other: global competition and rapid advances in technology.

Economists and politicians -- including the presidential candidates -- are locked in a vigorous debate about the job losses. Is this just another rocky stretch of the U.S. economy that, if left alone, will foster new industries generating millions of as-yet-unimagined jobs, as it has during other times of upheaval? Or is the workforce hollowing out permanently, with those in the middle forced to slide down to low-paying jobs without benefits if they can't get the education, credentials and experience to climb up to the high-paying professions?

Over the next several months, The Washington Post, in an occasional series of articles, will explore the vast changes facing middle-income workers and the consequences for businesses and society.

Some of the consequences are already evident: The ranks of the uninsured, the bankrupt and the long-term unemployed have all crept up the income scale, proving those problems aren't limited to the poor. Meanwhile, income inequality has grown. In 2001, the top 20 percent of households for the first time raked in more than half of all income, while the share earned by those in the middle was the lowest in nearly 50 years.

Within the middle class, there has been a widening divide between those in its upper reaches whose jobs provide the trappings of the good life, and those in the lower rungs whose economic fortunes are less secure.

The growing income gap corresponds to a long-term restructuring of the workforce that has carved out jobs from the center. In 1969, two categories of jobs -- blue-collar and administrative support -- together accounted for 56 percent of U.S. workers, according to an analysis by economists Frank Levy of MIT and Richard J. Murnane of Harvard. Thirty years later the share was just 39 percent.

Jobs at the low and high ends have replaced those in the middle -- the ranks of janitors and fast-food workers have expanded, but so have those of lawyers and doctors. The problem is, jobs at the low end don't support a middle-class life. And many at the high end require special skills and advanced degrees. "However you define the middle class, it's a lot harder now for high school graduates to be in it," Levy said...