Democrats in Congress have abandoned their efforts to investigate the White House's use of questionable intelligence information about Iraq's alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, saying the issue has been "eclipsed" by President Bush's request for $87 billion from Congress to continue funding the war there.

David Helfert, a spokesman for Congressman David Obey, D-Wisconsin, who criticized the White House for relying too heavily on murky intelligence to get support for the war, said Friday that Congressional Democrats would no longer pursue hearings on the intelligence matter.

"We're past that," Helfert said, referring to the intelligence issue. "Those questions were eclipsed by the supplemental request by President Bush for $87 billion" to fund the Iraq war. "Congress if focusing on asking questions about the $87 billion, what it will be used for and whether it's worth it. It would be a good characterization to say that the intelligence questions on Iraq and how the President came to believe that it had weapons of mass destruction are no longer an issue."

Senate debate on the 2004 foreign aid bill could take place within the next week.  Included in the bill is $500 million in aid - largely military and police aid - to Colombia.  However, the Senate appears set to approve the Colombia aid portion of the bill with no debate.  More than $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars has gone to Colombia in the last three years, and there is no indication that the broad and vague goals of Plan Colombia have been met.  Drugs are just as available on U.S. streets.  Nineteen civilians are killed each day in the crossfire of violence between the paramilitaries, guerilla groups and the Colombian armed forces, up from 12 per day three years ago.  The fumigation policy aimed at destroying the coca fields has displaced farmers and left them with no economic alternative, while simply moving coca production to other countries in the region.

Action:      Contact your senators and ask them why they are not talking about Colombia policy.  Express your concerns about the policy of continued military funding for Colombia.

To send a letter to your senator log on to:

Without a hint of intended irony, the “NewsHour” on PBS concluded its Sept. 9 program with a warm interview of Henry Kissinger and then a segment about a renowned propagandist for the Nazi war machine. Kissinger talked about his latest book. Then a professor of German history talked about Leni Riefenstahl, the path-breaking documentary filmmaker who just died at age 101.

     The conversation was cozy with Kissinger, the man who served as the preeminent architect of U.S. policy during the last half-dozen years of the Vietnam War. Tossed his way by host Jim Lehrer, the questions ranged from softball to beach ball. And when the obsequious session ended, Lehrer went beyond politeness: “Dr. Kissinger, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Good luck on your book.”

     After focusing on Kissinger’s efforts during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the “NewsHour” interview last Tuesday discussed his role in the April 1975 final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. Previously, Kissinger had been the Nixon administration’s main foreign-policy man while more than 25,000 American soldiers and upwards of 500,000

Walden O'Dell wrote a letter the other day. He wrote a fund-raising letter to Ohio Republicans. And, in that letter O'Dell said that he was, "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to (President Bush) next year."   

Walden O'Dell is the Chairman of the Board of Diebold Election Systems, the second largest company in America whose business it is - to count your vote.   

O'Dell's letter should serve as a call to action for Americans, and for citizens around the world, who have surrendered their elections to technology and those who control it. American tax dollars are helping to fund a worldwide conversion from paper ballots to computer and Internet voting. The effort to promote electronic elections is being led by three international organizations: The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. IFES was founded in 1987 by the late F. Clifton White, a high-ranking Republican Party official who is credited with turning the GOP into a bastion of right wing conservatives.    

"To address the global economic crisis and to foster broad development, the WTO should be overhauled and reoriented. That was the message coming out of the Seattle WTO meetings in 1999, and it remains the message four years later." - Tom Barry, IRC program director.

While multilateral trade rules are necessary to assure predictability, resolve disputes and eliminate technical barriers, free trade is an ideology whose merits have not been proven in practice. The NAFTA experience and that of developing countries in Asia and throughout the Americas have demonstrated that for much of the poor population, trade and investment liberalization do not lead to fulfillment of development goals. These policies have led to serious environmental, economic and social problems in developing countries, and among workers and small farmers in developed countries, while the big winners have been the transnational corporations. Many of the WTOs rules and functions should be reviewed and revised, to reflect the overall goal of development and poverty alleviation rather than trade liberalization as a goal in itself.

See complete new Americas Program statement online at: