Common Dreams

The number of Iraqi civilians who met violent deaths in the two years after the US-led invasion was today put at 24,865 by an independent research team.

War Radicalized Most, Probes Find

An Open Letter to Executive Director Gerald Wheeler and the National Science Teachers Association

We cannot end terrorism by using the methods of terrorism to bomb and kill Iraqis, to occupy Iraq, to support the terrorist occupation of the Palestinians, and to hold the world hostage with our nuclear weapons. By John Dear

It's time for the British and other Europeans to seriously ponder why the United States does the exact opposite of what needs to be done on virtually every global-policy front, including casting its dark shadow at Gleneagles this week on hopes for a solid G8 action plan on global warming.

If a select international group of architects and engineers warned that a house already showing cracks and leaks was in danger of collapse, the residents would logically adopt immediate measures to prevent the imminent disaster. By Marcela Valente

A popular Texas bumper sticker reads: "The only mad cow in America is Oprah." Not anymore with the USDA announcing that the first home-grown case of mad cow to be discovered is a Texas beef cow. by John Stauber

The George W. Bush administration's policies on indefinite detention and "extraordinary rendition" are coming under heavy fire from a number of institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, and members of the U.S. Congress itself. By Haider Rizvi

The so-called 'firewall feed ban' to prevent cattle from contracting the disease in the United States is a joke, and more like pouring gasoline on a fire. By John Stauber

An international furor is brewing over a Japanese plan to kill humpback and fin whales inside a sanctuary for whales. But the United States has been surprisingly quiet -- too quiet. By Tami Drake

I am mindful of what William Temple meant when he said that a person whose life is given to a purpose big enough "to claim the allegiance of all his faculties and rich enough to exercise them is the nearest approach in human experience to the realization of eternity." By Bill Moyers

The Bush dam is beginning to crumble. The dam that defied opposition to the Iraq War. The dam that kept Republicans from coming to their senses on Social Security. The dam that held back critics of the USA Patriot Act. It's no longer holding. By Matthew Rothschild

For the history books, mark down June 2005 as the moment the US movement against the occupation of Iraq got its second wind. By Medea Benjamin

bThe secret British memo of 2002 that reported that President Bush was determined to go to war against Iraq months earlier than he publicly acknowledged will get its first official hearing on Thursday - sort of. By Ruby L. Bailey

bA new leaked document on the current stage of negotiations on the G8 position on climate change shows a further retreat from consensus on many fronts. By Sanjay Suri

The president of Gold Star Families for Peace, a mother who lost a son in Iraq, criticized the United States' "illegal and unjust war" yesterday during an interfaith rally in Lexington. By Frank E. Lockwood

Timid and fearful Democrats are trembling on national television as they beg Dr. Dean to stop pointing out the hypocricy and misinformation efforts of Republicans in office and Conservatives in the media. By Thom Hartmann

The US government's elaborate cover-up of mad cow dangers in the United States has begun to unravel. By John Stauber

The Downing Street Memo proves that invasion of Iraq wasn't the 'last resort' but Bush's intent all along, leading to cooked intelligence and other impeachable offenses; Greens note bipartisan and media complicity in overlooking evidence of deceit, urge public protest.

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations. By Jeff Cohen

When historians look back over the last 25 years, one of the great crimes they will identify is the Third World debt crisis. By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

The Uzbek government's lethal crackdown against protesters last month amounted to a ''massacre'' that the leadership is trying to cover up, a leading human rights watchdog said Tuesday. By Abid Aslam

Class? In America? Two of our country's most elite newspapers are each publishing a series of ground-breaking articles about the changing nature of social class in America. By Jennifer Ladd and Felice Yeskel

Ulysses finally returning home, beating up on the suitors who'd fouled up his estate then sending them to hell (literally), and reclaiming Penelope by firing his arrow through 12 axes as only he could. By Pierre Tristam

The world's multilateral institutions -- which preside over the political and economic destinies of more than six billion people -- have come under heavy fire at a meeting of 350-plus representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) here. By Thalif Deen

Complaints by inmates in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba emerged early. In 2003, the Pentagon set a sensitivity policy after trouble at Guantanamo. By Richard A. Serrano and John Daniszewski

Over 250 protesters outside the Halliburton shareholder meeting in Houston today, far outnumbering the sprinkling of shareholders who attended the company's annual meeting at the Four Seasons hotel.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury.

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.

The Americans were bombing whole villages and saying they were only after the foreigners. An AK-47 can't distinguish between a terrorist and a tribesman, so how could a missile or tank? By Hannah Allam and Mohammed al Dulaimy