Month: September 2004

Jaw-dropping but true, the U.S. senate placed an expiry date on the “Brady Bill” ban on assault weapons (e.g AK-47s, Uzi’s etc). Presumably the honourable senators assumed that somehow there would be a pressing need to arm the U.S. population with people-killers in 10 years time. That expiry date is September 13th and the Republican…

According to The Australian, even the Howard government doesn’t think the Hicks trial is fair: A statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock last night said that “following our observations of the preliminary hearing, it appears that some improvements are required to ensure that understandings on procedural fairness are…

After being tipped off by a member of Voice of America, it turns out Ahmed Chalabi’s charges have been dropped, according to Al Jazeera, and the BBC.

Two sites referenced by Juan Cole provide monthly break downs of coalition casualties. The discrepencies between the two sites are explained by icasualties using confirmed numbers of those dead which have been identified, whereas globalsecurity.com uses total number of dead before they have been identified. The real stand out is the massive increase in the…

Further to my description of the Critical Mass bike rally and the police excessive arrests for traffic violations, it is increasingly evident from reports filed on Democracy Now! and through personal reports that the police are arbitrarily arresting people including NYPD approved press and bystanders in the vicinity of a protest and keeping detainees in…

The Washington Post continues to dig into the torture at Abu Ghraib, reporting a memo that General Ricardo Sanchez ordered the use of dogs, later modifying that order to use muzzled dogs only, still in contradiction of current Army manuals and the Geneva conventions. The WaPo article is detailed and refreshingly questioning in it’s investigations.