It's so nice that a large majority of Americans want the US to withdraw its military from Iraq. It's like bank robbers being polled on whether they should leave the bank they just robbed. It feels so nice when 60% of them are gracious enough to express a willingness to leave the bank.

Reporting from Tehran on April 4, Reuters quotes Mohsen Hakim, whose father, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, an ally of the Maliki US puppet government in Iraq: "Tehran, by using its positive influence on the Iraqi nation, paved the way for the return of peace to Iraq and the new situation is the result of Iran's efforts."

Instead of thanking Iran and working with Iran diplomatically to restore stability to Iraq, the Bush regime intends to expand the nightmare with a military attack on Iran. Ryan Crocker was quick to dispute Hakim's report that Iran had used its influence to end the fighting in Basra. Crocker alleged that Iran had started the fighting. The absurdity of Crocker's claim is obvious as even the neocon US media reported that the fighting in Basra was started by the US and Maliki in an effort to clear out the Shi'ite al-Sadr militias. Most experts saw the attack on al-Sadr for what it was: an effort to remove a potential threat to the US supply line from Kuwait in the event of a US attack on Iran.

On April 5, 2008, the London Telegraph reported that "British officials gave warning yesterday that America's commander in Iraq will declare that Iran is waging war against the US-backed Baghdad government. A strong statement from General David Petraeus about Iran's intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian militiary facilities, according to a Whitehall assessment."

The neocon lacky Petraeus has had his script written for him by Cheney, and Petraeus together with neocon warmonger Ryan Crocker, the US governor of the Green Zone in Baghdad, will present Congress next Tuesday and Wednesday with the lies, for which the road has been well paved by neocon propagandists such as Kimberly Kagan, that "the US must recognize that Iran is engaged in a full-up proxy war against it in Iraq."

Anything The odd couple tells the Congress about the situation in Iraq should be viewed as what they are: damn lies.

Lieberman would need work very hard for many years to reach the credibility of a used Buick salesman. He is beyond shame and embarrassment, but what is beyond comprehension is why the Democratic party doesn't officially cut off all ties with this weasel.

is that the corporate media will really concentrate now on the combustible rhetoric of the Reverend Wright.

Even according to US intelligence, 80% of the detainees have not involved in terror-some are petty criminals and many have been fingered by local warlords in exchange for money, or been at the wrong place at the wrong time. According to much more reliable international sources, almost all of them have been innocent of any terror involvement. The fact that so many innocent people are tortured by US intelligence or even worse-sent to "dark" sites in oppressive countries around the world is beyond shameful. Under Bush/Cheney we have become the worst country in the world.

Adolph Eichmann's sole defense during his trial for genocide and war crimes in Israel was that he wasn't the one who planned and designed the "Final Solution", but was only an administrator who was following and obeying orders from above. The truth of course was that Eichmann was an enabler, and without enablers, genocide, torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity cannot be carried out by a government wishing to engage in them. John Yoo certainly shouldn't be singled out, because there's plenty of blame to go around in the Bush/Cheney administration, but as the architect of the legal shield for torture regime )and other war crimes), he wasn't some minor minnow-therefore the Eichmann analogy.

and educate the public that our Constitution mandates that international treaties that the US government has ratified become the supreme law of the land right here in the USA. Any war crimes that US citizens commit must be prosecuted in the US as well, not just in international courts. The legal shield that John Yoo has created in order to protect people like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld from future war crime charges is unconstitutional, invalid, null and void. This must be explained to the public.

Anywhere from 80 to 95 percent of the detainees are innocent of terrorist affiliation. Not only is the notion that combatants who don't belong to a regular army not entitled to protection under the Geneva Convention bogus, it's a claim the Nazis and the worst juntas have used with regularity. Even the Israelis, who have dealt with serious terror for over 40 years apply the Geneva Convention to terrorists they capture. Further, John Yoo is an anti-American extremist who, before he faces war crime charges, should not allowed to teach law anywhere. He bases his legal opinions on the insane notion that the US Constitution is irrelevant vis-a-vis the Commander-In-Chief. According to Yoo, the checks and balances system doesn't apply to Bush now, since Bush decided we were at war. According to Yoo, only Bush can determine the limits of his power and authority and that he's entitled, as CIC to determine, should he wish to, that there are no limits to his authority. Basically, Yoo has given Bush the legal framework to become a dictator. This is as contradictory as it gets from what the Framers had in mind, totally un-American and unconstitutional, and this man teaches law at Berkeley?!!