by Anthony Lewis

BOSTON -- It is the broadest move in American history to sweep aside constitutional protections. Yet President Bush's order creating military tribunals to try those suspected of links to terrorism has aroused little public uproar. Why? Because, I am convinced, people do not understand the order's dangerous breadth — and its defenders have done their best to conceal its true character.

The order is described as if it is aimed only at Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. A former deputy attorney general, George J. Terwilliger III, said the masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks "don't deserve constitutional protection."

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by Doug Heller

When the stock of energy giant Enron fell to 36 cents per share this week from a high of $84 this year, the market finally accepted the reality that the company--a middleman whose main business was not producing or delivering power but trading it--was never really needed. Investors, who unlike Enron executives, didn't sell until too late lost their retirement savings and children's college tuition to the illusion.

Enron workers sacrificed their retirement plans, which were locked up in Enron stock that was frozen by Enron executives after they sold off their own shares.

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War or No War Hopes of the growth of a new multilateralism are exaggerated If US Won't Protect POWs, Who Will?
by Martin Woollacott

There is in America a sense of distance from other nations, and of difference from them, which has been long remarked and debated. When the rightwing commentator Robert Kagan recently mocked a government official for seeming to suggest that America might consult the international community over the fate of Osama bin Laden, should Bin Laden be captured, he showed this at its most extreme. For some Americans, the phrase "the international community" is an overly complimentary label for a diverse gang of opponents, wreckers, freeloaders, passengers and difficult allies. Even the most liberal will sometimes slip into language which unconsciously puts the US on one side and the rest of the world on the other.

The idea that America was becoming more willful and less ready to consult and compromise was widespread even before Clinton left office. It became commonplace after Bush took over. Some commentators were particularly concerned about what they saw as a growing divide between the US and Europe. Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, wrote that the two were becoming dangerously estranged.

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Grab Clauses Put Forth at the Last Minute in Qatar Could Jeopardize the World's Clean, Safe Water
by Maude Barlow

In a world preoccupied with terrorism and war, there was little coverage of the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting earlier this month in Doha, Qatar. What coverage there was, often in newspaper business pages, recounted that after tense negotiations around such issues as antidumping and agriculture subsidies, the now 144 member countries of the WTO had agreed to a new round of trade talks.

What didn't get reported is that in the last-minute wrangling over other issues, the European Union inserted a clause into the final text that puts our fresh water at risk, promotes the privatization of the world's water resources and endangers international environmental treaties.

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by Bill C. Davis

George and the Pope agree about the sanctity of human life. Both claimto be loyal to the teachings of Jesus. Sure, they’ve had theirdisagreements in the past. The Pope asked George to spare the life ofKarla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who was, like George, bornagain. But her rebirth didn’t have the same pedigree as George’s and thethen governor had to refuse the Pope. But he did say this was not Texasjustice it was God’s. Hopefully that eased the Pope’s concerns aboutcapital punishment in general. As George so often says in reference topeople who don’t agree with him, “I’ll explain to him….” I’ll explain tothem….” The implication of course is that they don’t get it and with theright amount of patience he will be able to delineate all thecomplexities that will shed light on what they are not grasping.

Will George explain Mazar-i-sharif? Will the Pope and George and BillyGraham Jr. stand in the middle of the blood-soaked fortress and proclaimthe sanctity of human life? As the reports from foreign press come in,which contradicts earlier reports that the sight of a British journalistset off the “riot”, we are now learning that a CIA agent from Alabamawas interrogating a group of Taliban prisoners. He apparently asked oneprisoner, “What are you doing in Afghanistan?” A question that a morecollected and less vulnerable person might have responded to by puttingthe question back to the interrogator. Instead the question itself, orthe question in the context of other questions, or the face of the agent– or the tone – or just the entire angst of the moment lit the fuse.Clearly the situation was like a bomb that could have been defused orignited. It seems as though the CIA agent, however unwittingly, ignitedthe bomb. What was he looking for? Information? A defector? Was hehoping that one of these desperate and defeated men would divulge thewhereabouts of the mastermind of all our troubles – Osama? From thepictures it looked as of it was a shooting gallery. Human beingspulverized with overwhelming firepower. This is a war for civilizationafter all and when you’re fighting for civilization itself no firepowercan be spared.

Stories and convoluted explanations will cover any hint of atrocity.

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by Marty Jezer

One of the more telling events of the post-September 11th period was the recent election in Nicaragua. With the media focused on Afghanistan, it was virtually ignored in the American press. My sources for this commentary are British newspapers, especially The Guardian, and the Agence France-Presse.

The major presidential contestants were Enrique Bolanos, backed by the Nicaraguan business community and the Bush Administration, and ex-president Daniel Ortega, leader of the left-wing Sandinista movement. For reasons of personal scandal, Ortega was a tarnished candidate who might have lost even a fair election. But the U.S. Administration wasn’t taking any chances. It intervened in Nicaraguan politics to assure Bolanos’ victory.

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by Polly Toynbee

Tomorrow a nationwide Stop Esso protest will picket over 300 Esso petrol stations across the country. Organized by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, thousands will be out on the forecourts intent on inflicting lasting damage on Esso's brand image. Esso is the ugliest oil bully, most vigorous in undermining the Kyoto agreement, and the fiercest advocate of keeping the US out of it.

As the biggest oil donor to George Bush's election campaign, its $11m annual lobbying budget has purchased vast "scientific evidence" to deny that climate change is caused by fossil fuel burning. At the intergovernmental panel on climate change meeting last month, Esso was the only company in the world lobbying for the removal of any reference to the human causes of global warming.

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by Phil Howard

With little fanfare, on November 13, grocery chain Trader Joe's announcedplans to remove genetically engineered ingredients from its private labelproducts.

This is not insignificant news, as 85 percent of the products sold by TraderJoe's are emblazoned with the store name. It also brings the fast-growingcompany into a small group of grocery chains, including Wild Oats and WholeFoods Market, which have made similar pledges.

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We Too Are Responsible for the Massacre at Qala-i-Jhangi Fort
by Isabel Hilton

We know how it ended, the prisoners' revolt in Abdul Rashid Dostam's Qala-i-Jhangi fort. Yesterday journalists were allowed in close enough to see the grotesque litter of dismembered bodies. But there were other things Dostam did not want them to inspect: a field, for instance, in which the bodies of some 50 Taliban fighters lay, their hands tied behind their backs.

The smooth account of how this prisoners' revolt began has some murky passages. The 15-day siege of Kunduz had ended with touching scenes. The blood bath that had been flagged up had been avoided. The prisoners - reports vary between 300 and 600 - were taken to Dostam's fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif, trusting, apparently, to Dostam's guarantees. So cordial were the arrangements that two truckloads of men widely considered to be the world's most dangerous prisoners were not even searched for weapons. On Saturday evening, after a Chechen prisoner detonated a hand grenade, Dostam, apparently, did not react.

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