"The Other Prisoners"

Luke Harding, London Guardian

Most of the coverage of abuse at Abu Ghraib has focused on male detainees. But what of the five women held in the jail, and the scores elsewhere in Iraq?

The scandal at Abu Ghraib prison was first exposed not by a digital photograph but by a letter. In December 2003, a woman prisoner inside the jail west of Baghdad managed to smuggle out a note. Its contents were so shocking that, at first, Amal Kadham Swadi and the other Iraqi women lawyers who had been trying to gain access to the US jail found them hard to believe.

"How Fascism Starts"

Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate

AUSTIN, Texas — It's pretty easy to get to the point where
you don't want to hear any more about Abu Ghraib prison and
what went on there. But there are some really good reasons
why Americans should take a look at why this happened.

I suspect the division here is not between liberals and
conservatives (except for a few inane comments made by some
trying to be flippant), but between those who are following
the story closely and those who are not. I particularly
recommend both Sy Hersh's follow-up piece in the current
issue of The New Yorker and the investigative piece in the
current issue of Newsweek. What seems to me more important
than the "Oh ugh" factor is just how easy it is for standards
of law and behavior of slip into bestiality.

Iraq's Rebel Cleric Sees Surge in Popularity

Roula Khalaf, Financial Times

An Iraqi poll to be released next week shows a surge in the
popularity of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical young Shia cleric fighting
coalition forces, and suggests nearly nine out of 10 Iraqis see US
troops as occupiers and not liberators or peacekeepers.

The poll was conducted by the one-year-old Iraq Center for Research
and Strategic Studies, which is considered reliable enough for the
US-led Coalition Provisional Authority to have submitted questions to
be included in the study.

Chalabi Aide is Suspected Iranian Spy

Knut Royce, Newsday

WASHINGTON — The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that a
U.S.-funded arm of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress has been
used for years by Iranian intelligence to pass disinformation to the
United States and to collect highly sensitive American secrets,
according to intelligence sources.

"Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States through
Chalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Program
information to provoke the United States into getting rid of Saddam
Hussein," said an intelligence source Friday who was briefed on the
Defense Intelligence Agency's conclusions, which were based on a
review of thousands of internal documents.

Melvin J. Lasky, Cultural Cold Warrior, Dies at 84

Richard Bernstein, New York Times

BERLIN, May 20 — Melvin J. Lasky, the editor of two major intellectual journals and a man at the vortex of the debates and controversies thrown up by the cold war, died Wednesday at his home in Berlin. He was 84.

The cause was heart failure, Marc Svetov, his secretary, said.

Probably no person was more associated than Mr. Lasky with the term cultural cold warrior. In a career that spanned several decades, during which he lived in London, Paris and Berlin, he edited the monthly magazine Encounter, which was not only one of Europe's leading literary and political journals but also a major force in articulating the point of view best summed up by the phrase liberal anti-Communism.

"Ground Zero Funds Often Drifted Uptown:

Money Also Went to Luxury Apartments"

Michael Powell and Michelle Garcia, Washington Post

NEW YORK — Six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress approved an $8 billion program to repair this city's damaged office towers, build apartment buildings and finance the rebirth of the financial district.

But two years later, city records show that much of the money, dubbed Liberty Bonds, has gone to developers of prime real estate in midtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and to builders of luxury housing

Long Island Anarchist Acquitted In Environmental Terror Trial

(1010 WINS Radio)

(CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y.) A Long Island man alleged to be the local leader
of an environmental terror group has been
acquitted of conspiracy, arson and other charges following a
weeklong trial in federal court.

Connor Cash, 22, of Sound Beach, had been charged with conspiracy,
arson, and aiding terrorism for a December 2000 fire that
damaged five homes under construction in Mount Sinai. He was also
accused in an unsuccessful scheme to burn down a Center
Moriches duck farm and free the animals from alleged mistreatment.

More, Harsher American Savagery on Display in New Prison Photos

New, harsher photos of American savagery from Abu Ghraib prison have been made public this morning.

"US Soldiers Started to Shoot Us, One by One"

Rory McCarthy, The Guardian

Survivors describe wedding massacre as generals refuse to apologise

The wedding feast was finished and the women had just led the young
bride and groom away to their marriage tent for the night when Haleema
Shihab heard the first sounds of the fighter jets screeching through the
sky above.

"Military Analyst Describes Abuse of 16-year-old in Iraq Prison"

Mike Dorning, Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON (KRT) — A military intelligence analyst who recently completed duty at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said Wednesday that the 16-year-old son of a detainee there was abused by U.S. soldiers in order to break his father's resistance to interrogators.

The analyst said the teenager was stripped naked, thrown in the back of an open truck, driven around in the cold night air, splattered with mud and then presented to his father at Abu Ghraib, the prison at the center of the ongoing scandal over abuse of Iraqi detainees.

Upon seeing his frail and frightened son, the prisoner broke down and cried and told interrogators he would tell them whatever they wanted, the analyst said.