by Robert Fisk

"Air campaign"? "Coalition forces"? "War on terror"? How much longer must we go on enduring these lies? There is no "campaign" – merely an air bombardment of the poorest and most broken country in the world by the world's richest and most sophisticated nation. No MIGs have taken to the skies to do battle with the American B-52s or F-18s. The only ammunition soaring into the air over Kabul comes from Russian anti-aircraft guns manufactured around 1943.

Coalition? Hands up who's seen the Luftwaffe in the skies over Kandahar, or the Italian air force or the French air force over Herat. Or even the Pakistani air force. The Americans are bombing Afghanistan with a few British missiles thrown in. "Coalition" indeed.

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by Laura Flanders

They have the destructive power of an atomic bomb, but they can barely make a dent in U.S. news coverage. I'm talking about the 15,000-pound bombs the United States is using against Afghanistan this week. The so-called Daisy Cutters, named BLU-82, are the world's biggest non-nuclear device.

In many places, the development received a 10-second mention on the evening news, five or six items down in the program lineup. Newscasters broadcast video footage of an enormous black dust cloud rising above an Afghan mountain range, accompanied by the assurances of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the "stepped up" assaults would hasten the collapse of the Taliban regime.

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by Allison Brewer

'A heightened sense of awareness" -- those words have been echoing through my head since the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks in New York and Washington. But it wasn't the first time. In 1994, we opened Dr. Henry Morgentaler's Fredericton abortion clinic. Over the next five years that heightened sense of awareness became part of who I was. Words like "anthrax" were striking terror in my heart back when antichoice terrorists were making their mark on the consciousness of every abortion-clinic worker on the continent.

Terrorism is not a foreign concept to the thousands of women and men who put themselves at risk daily to ensure a woman's right to choose. Abortion clinics were the target of terrorist activity long before anyone had heard of Timothy McVeigh or Osama bin Laden.

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by Reggie Rivers

Were you aware that the attorney general of the United States now has the power to arrest someone without probable cause, hold that person without presenting evidence, and ultimately give that person a life sentence without ever having a trial?

That's the power Congress has given to the attorney general, which is stunning because I've always believed that the United States was a nation where due process could not be voided.

With this legislation, we've put a rule on the books that puts us on the level of evil, repressive dictators who rule by arbitrary and capricious whim and who lock people up on the authority of a king with no opportunity to challenge the order.

Is the attorney general the new king of the United States?

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by Frida Berrigan

The United States' new relationship with the former Soviet republic ofUzbekistan once again raises questions about what sort of alliances theBush administration will build to fight the war against terrorism.Uzbekistan has granted the U.S. access to its airfields for what itinsists are "humanitarian" and "search and rescue" missions, butadamantly denies (in the face of evidence to the contrary) that U.S.troops, including Special Operations Forces, are on the ground.

In a special article on The Nation magazine's website, author DilipHiro relates a Uzbeki military officer's most up-to-date definitions for"humanitarian and "search and rescue." "If it means you have to take out half a dozen Taliban positions to'rescue' your colleagues, then that is what you have got to do.... Itcould be considered 'humanitarian' to remove Taliban forces from avalley filled with civilians in need of food and medical supplies."

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by Michelle Ciarrocca

The consolidation of the U.S. defense industry during the 1990's leftthe jet fighter building business to primarily two companies: LockheedMartin and Boeing. Analysts have warned that the recent decision toaward Lockheed Martin a $19 billion contract for the next phase ofdevelopment in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program could mean thatonly one fighter jet company remains. "The loss could theoretically putBoeing out of the fighter business once [Boeing's] F-18 is completed,"said Christopher Mecray, aerospace analyst at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown.Boeing is also hurting from a sharp decline in orders of its' commercialjet unit. Since early September Boeing stocks have dropped 30%. As aresult, Boeing is preparing to layoff up to 30,000 workers by mid-2002.

But Boeing may still have a role in the JSF program, especially iflegislators from Missouri have anything to say about it. In Boeing'scorner are Senators Christopher Bond and Jean Carnahan, who havesuggested offering legislation to require the military to splitproduction and set up two production lines, one in Fort Worth and one inSt. Louis to keep Boeing in the fighter business. "This debate should beabout what is best for the nation, not Texas, Missouri or any onecompany," Bond said.

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by Mark Steel

A subtle change took place in the war coalition's strategy this week, when the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw referred to Osama bin Laden not as "evil" but "psychotic and paranoid". So maybe they're planning to sort it out by getting him to see a shrink. He could lie on a couch listing the reasons why he imagines someone might be out to get him, and the psychiatrist could say "Hmm, I don't think cluster bombs are the real issue here, Osama."

However, if he said a triangular ink blot reminded him of his mother, it wouldn't mean he was mad because ALL women in Afghanistan look like that.

How can you be paranoid when the President of the United States has announced he wants you dead or alive? Perhaps he's claiming 30 daisy-cutter bombs are landing an hour, when in fact there are only 25. But Straw isn't on his own with this analysis, as French President Jacques Chirac and George Bush have both used the same words this week. Coincidence? Or are they synchronizing their insults? The trouble is they've already used all the good ones up. Next week they'll be saying: "He stinks, he does. Like a polecat, apparently."

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by Naomi Klein

What do you call someone who believes so firmly in the promise of salvation through a set of rigid rules that he is willing to risk his own life to spread those rules?

A religious fanatic? A holy warrior? How about a U.S. trade negotiator?

On Friday, the World Trade Organization begins its meeting in Doha, Qatar. According to U.S. security briefings, there is reason to believe that al-Qaeda, which has plenty of fans in the Persian Gulf state, has managed to get some of its operatives into the country, including an explosives specialist. Some terrorists may even have infiltrated the Qatari military.

Given these threats, you might think that the United States and the WTO would have canceled the meeting. But not these true believers.

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