Disruptions abound during Bush inauguration

An 800-strong march heads towards Bush's inaugural parade route. The march was one of many demonstrations against the swearing-in of George W. Bush for his second term as president.

Photo by Mary Giovanniello

In a magnificent show of resistance, President George W. Bush and his supporters met their match as 20,000+ protesters converged in Washington, DC on Jan. 20 during the president’s second inauguration. Some demonstrators were solemn as they symbolically turned their back on Bush as his limo passed. Some were more fiery as they marched by the thousands, chanting slogans against the war, seemingly unfazed by the unprecedented amount of police and military. Some took a tone of humor by heckling Republican passers-by and engaging in street theater. Some protesters were more militant, taking advantage of their numbers and charging the fence separating the public from president’s parade route, while others smashed windows and spray-painted corporate buildings. All of the demonstrators traveled from every corner of the nation to express their disgust with the Bush administration’s policies abroad and at home.

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Rumsfeld ‘has secret spy force’

By Tim Reid

Washington, DC, Jan. 24 - Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defense Secretary, has created his own secret global spy force that has been operating in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than two years without the knowledge of the US Congress, according to classified documents published yesterday.

The previously undisclosed unit, named the Strategic Support Branch, was reportedly set up by Rumsfeld after the Sept. 11 terror attacks to bypass the CIA’s traditional role of intelligence gathering and give him wide, secret and unilateral authority over his own spy operations abroad.

The spying operation, made up of Pentagon special forces units working alongside military interrogators and linguists, is charged with conducting secret missions in friendly and unfriendly countries where conventional war is a distant prospect. It is a role usually undertaken by the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.

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Species disappearing 100 times faster than ever before

Species are being lost globally at a rate 100 times faster than the average rate during the Earth’s history, a panel of prestigious scientists today warned an international convention gathered at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) headquarters in Paris. They said tens of thousands of other species are already committed to future extinction because of the recent worldwide loss of their habitats.

To halt and reverse the “alarming rate of extinction of living species and destruction of their ecosystems,” more than 1,000 researchers, political leaders and representatives of the private sector opened a five day conference this morning. The meeting is being held under the patronage of French President Jacques Chirac and Koïchiro Matsuura, the director-general of UNESCO.

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US military resorting to collective punishment

By Dahr Jamail

Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 18 (IPS) ? The US military is resorting to collective punishment tactics in Iraq similar to those used by Israeli troops in the occupied territories of Palestine, residents say.

Military bulldozers have mown down palm groves in the rural al-Dora farming area on the outskirts of Baghdad, residents say. Electricity has been cut, the local fuel station destroyed and the access road blocked.

The US action comes after resistance fighters attacked soldiers from this area several weeks back.

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