Good News: England's Supreme Court Strikes Down Blairs Fear Tactics

In a tremendous victory for the people living in the United Kingdom, Britain's highest court of appeal ruled the government cannot detain people in jail indefinitely without a trial. This means England won't be able to hold people in secret jails any longer. Hopefully, courts in the United States will reach a similar conclusion and decide in favor of the rule of law and against government-sponsored fear...

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2575

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Law lords condemn Blunkett's terror measures

'The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these' - Lord Hoffmann - in yesterday's judgment

http://207.44.245.159/article7500.htm


HOUSE OF LORDS: OPINIONS OF THE LORDS OF APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT IN THE CAUSE

Read the judgment. pdf format
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/ukterror121604opn.pdf


UK Keeps Terror Suspects in Jail, Despite Judgement

The Law Lord judges ruled 8-1 in favor of the men whose imprisonment under draconian anti-terror laws, some for as long as three years, has become a cause celebre for rights activists who call their predicament "Britain's Guantanamo Bay."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20041216/wl_nm/security_britain_dc
http://snipurl.com/bfzq


US guards abused me, claims Guantanamo Briton

A Manchester man released from Guantanamo Bay told Europe’s top human rights body today he was beaten, shackled, kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of “systematic abuse” while in American custody.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/12/17/story180921.html


From Information Clearing House

A Flood of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict

The hidden cost of war: "Because about one million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 100,000." The final toll for the physical and mental combat wounds among Iraq War and Afghanistan War veterans may be devastating, and they could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2573

Some Marines Mentally Ill After Iraq, Documents Show

The psychological cost of the U.S. - Iraq War are growing, according to the article below. "U.S. Navy documents released Tuesday provided detailed accounts of Marines suffering from deep psychiatric problems after serving in Iraq. The portraits of the psychologically damaged troops were painted in documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act petition."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2568

Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf said yesterday he was "angry" at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's response to a soldier who complained he and his fellow grunts in Iraq lack sufficient armor plating. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam War hero, reiterated that he has "no confidence" in the Pentagon boss.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2567



Rummy Back on the Rocks?

Despite being asked by President George W Bush to stay in his post, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld appears to be in growing political trouble, and not just because of his cavalier reply last week to a question posed by a member of the Tennessee National Guard in Kuwait about the lack of armoured vehicles to protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2566


Senator Lott: Replace Rumsfeld

Here's another vote of "no confidence" in U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "U.S. Senator Trent Lott doesn't believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign immediately, but he does think Rumsfeld should be replaced sometime in the next year. 'I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld,' Lott, R-Mississippi, told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. 'I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers.'"

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2578

Life in Liberated Baghdad

Jude Wanniski on the blog Riverbend, and the young woman who writes it: http://www.lewrockwell.com/wanniski/wanniski42.html

Miles Woolley on what it's like to be a soldier on December 25th:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/woolley/woolley10.html

Domination and Death

H. Arthur Scott Trask on the Macedonian and American world empires:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/trask7.html

Journalist Michael Ware is the Baghdad Bureau Chief for Time Magazine. He was embedded in Fallujah during the recent US offensive earlier this month, and has covered the war in Iraq since February 2003. He joins us today with his perspective on the situation in Iraq. Real Audio...

http://207.44.245.159/article7484.htm