Supreme Court Okays Arrest of All Occupants in Cars Where Unclaimed Drugs Are Found (Dec. 19, 2003)
"Better a hundred innocent people get hauled off in handcuffs than one drug law violator go free. That is the essence of the Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Maryland v. Pringle, handed down Monday." So while the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of medical marijuana users, the US Supreme Court rules in favor of further War on Some Drugs and Users-inspired shredding of our Constitutional protections.

Editorial: Why Prohibition Scares Me (Dec. 19, 2003)
"Angel Raich and Diane Monson shouldn't have to live in fear. Police shouldn't wave their guns around randomly at peaceful people. And Kenneth Walker shouldn't be dead. The war on drugs is futile and dangerous, and not a single needless killing in it can be justified. The prohibitionist system must be dismantled in full. And in the meantime, for every police killing or drug trade shootout or preventable overdose, judge guilt, cast blame, condemn the system."

PFAW Foundation Hails Appeals Court Rebuke of Bush on Enemy Combatant; Judges Cite Law Against Detaining American Citizens (Dec. 19, 2003)
"This ruling is an impressive rebuke to the president's astonishing claim that he can unilaterally decide to indefinitely imprison and suspend the constitutional rights of American citizens in the name of the 'war on terror.' More than anything, it reaffirms the absolute authority of the Constitution during this time," says this People For the American Way Foundation press release.

Court: Federal Government Cannot Prohibit Patients’ Use of Medical Marijuana (Dec. 17, 2003)
"Yesterday (Dec. 16, 2003), a federal appeals court ruled that federal drug laws prohibiting the use or cultivation of marijuana are unconstitutional when applied to medical patients in California who are using marijuana with their doctor’s approval." This could also effect 6 other states with their own medical marijuana laws within the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit.

The Truth About Private Prisons (Dec. 17, 2003)
These prisons are a bad investment in many more ways than one.

Prosecutors Not Penalized, Lawyer Says (Dec. 17, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"A lawyer who won the largest wrongful conviction settlement in the city's history said yesterday that during his investigation he uncovered dozens of cases of prosecutorial misconduct in the Bronx district attorney's office that did not result in disciplinary action."

How Saddam Happened (Dec. 17, 2003)
Did the US Help Saddam Obtain Chemical Weapons? It appears that yes indeed, we did.

Behind Closed Doors (Dec. 17, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"If 'freedom' is the word George Bush and Dick Cheney want as the hallmark of their administration, they should begin with freedom of information."

Thai war on drugs: Hollow victory (Dec. 16, 2003)
"While Thailand declared victory in its war on drugs after just 10 months on December 3, without one narcotics kingpin being arrested or killed, justice is unlikely to be so swift for the families of those murdered during the campaign."

'Our Little Secret' (Dec. 16, 2003)
"Audio tape reveals cover-up of drug bust involving a sheriff’s son already on trial for a videotaped gang bang."

Patriots and Profits (Dec. 16, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Last week there were major news stories about possible profiteering by Halliburton and other American contractors in Iraq. These stories have, inevitably and appropriately, been pushed temporarily into the background by the news of Saddam's capture. But the questions remain. In fact, the more you look into this issue, the more you worry that we have entered a new era of excess for the military-industrial complex." To top it off, Halliburton has been handed yet another contract without facing opposing bidders.

Big Unreasonable Search and Seizure Class Action Lawsuit (Dec. 16, 2003)
"The suit was filed on behalf of 107 Stratford students who allege that the defendants violated their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights which protect them from unreasonable search and seizure, and the deprivation of liberty without due process respectively. The charges stem from a drug raid which occurred at the school on November 5, 2003. The 'commando-style' raid was sanctioned by the school and produced no finding of drugs. The suit is also charging the defendants with assault, battery and false arrest."

Justices Will Hear Appeal on Cheney's Energy Panel (Dec. 16, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
Isn't Dick Cheney supposed to be working for the citizenry? Why the big secrets?

Methadone clinic plan meets resistance (Dec. 15, 2003)
"An application to open a methadone clinic in Calera - Shelby County's first - has revealed a deep schism over the use of chemicals to treat drug addiction. Opponents say methadone replaces one form of dope with another that could bring a criminal element to the community. Others call that an offensive and ignorant characterization."

Americans turn to Canada for 'illegal' drugs (Dec. 15, 2003)
"The city of Boston and the state of New Hampshire announced yesterday they will begin buying prescription drugs from Canada, jumping to the forefront of the growing but illegal movement to take advantage of lower prices across the border."

Agricultural inspection stations turning up illegal drugs and stolen goods (Dec. 15, 2003)
"The stations are primarily set up to check agriculture products coming in and out of the state for pests and disease."

High Court to Hear White House Arguments on Cheney Group (Dec. 15, 2003-Free NYTimes registration required)
"The United States Supreme Court said today that it would hear arguments from the Bush administration about why it should not be required to turn over information about Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force."

Afghan poppy production doubles (Dec. 15, 2003)
"Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan doubled between 2002 and 2003 to a level 36 times higher than in the last year of rule by the Taliban, according to White House figures released Friday."

Pentagon Alleges Iraq Rip-off (Dec. 15, 2003)
With press attention suddenly focused on the capture of US-lackey Saddam Hussein, one must not forget that Halliburton has been accused by the US Pentagon of ripping of US taxpayers to the tune of 60-plus million bucks.

Criticism of Electronic Voting Machines’ Security is Mounting (Dec. 15, 2003)
How does one go about reforming the anti-drug laws, or even simply vote into office honest representatives, if one cannot be sure the machines tally the vote accurately?

Keeping Secrets (Dec. 15, 2003)
"For the past three years, the Bush administration has quietly but efficiently dropped a shroud of secrecy across many critical operations of the federal government--cloaking its own affairs from scrutiny and removing from the public domain important information on health, safety, and environmental matters."

NYC Cigarette Tax Hike Leads to Black Market Violence (Dec. 13, 2003)
"New York City's black market cigarette business turned violent this week, with two people killed and two others shot in separate attacks linked to turf wars over prime sales locations, the New York Post reported Wednesday. The violence comes amidst a surge in cigarette bootlegging since the city increased its cigarette tax from 8 cents per pack to $1.50 per pack in June of last year -- a whopping 1,900% increase."

Newsbrief: Bolivian Government Shifts Away from "Zero Coca" (Dec. 13, 2003)
"Two members of the government of Bolivian President Carlos Mesa signaled this week that his administration would shift the emphasis of its anti-drug policy from forced eradication of "excess" coca to efforts to block the arrival of precursor chemicals into the country and finished cocaine out."

Fallout Continues in Goose Creek, South Carolina, High School Drug Raid (Dec. 13, 2003)
"It just keeps getting worse for the perpetrators of the now notorious drug raid at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina, last month. A class action lawsuit was filed December 5, another lawsuit will be filed Monday, and the county prosecutor has handed his investigation of possible police misconduct in the case to state officials for possible prosecution."

Steve Kubby IS a Refugee (Dec. 13, 2003)
"One of this week's pieces of bad news was the denial by an official of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board of Steve Kubby's request for asylum."

U.S. Sees Evidence of Overcharging in Iraq Contract (Dec, 12 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"A Pentagon investigation has found evidence that a subsidiary of the politically connected Halliburton Company overcharged the government by as much as $61 million for fuel delivered to Iraq under huge no-bid reconstruction contracts, senior military officials said Thursday."

Go Easy on Ganja Users, Says Report (Dec. 12, 2003)
"Called ganja in Jamaica, mention of marijuana, or cannabis, tends to conjure up images of hedonistic tourists smoking ”weed” with easy-going Jamaicans.. The reality for thousands of Jamaicans has been far different, however."

'We can implant entirely false memories' (Dec. 12, 2003)
"You were abducted by aliens, you saw Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, and then you went up in a balloon. Didn't you? Laura Spinney on our remembrance of things past."

British Warning on Antidepressant Use for Youth (Dec. 11, 2003-free NYTimes registration required)
"In a letter sent to doctors and other health professionals, the government regulators said a review of data on the safety and effectiveness of the drugs, known as S.S.R.I.'s, indicated that their benefits did not outweigh their potential risks."

The privatisation of war (Dec. 11, 2003)
"The private sector is so firmly embedded in combat, occupation and peacekeeping duties that the phenomenon may have reached the point of no return: the US military would struggle to wage war without it."

Criminalizing Motherhood (Dec. 11, 2003)
"Regina McKnight is doing twelve years in prison for a stillbirth, carving out a dangerous intersection between the drug war and the antichoice movement. In the eyes of the South Carolina Attorney General's office, McKnight committed murder."

Stop Pointing Guns at Our Kids (Dec. 10, 2003)
"No parent wants their teenager to use drugs. We should understand, however, that teenage experimentation is not surprising in a country that aggressively advertises alcohol and anti-depressants on prime time TV, rendering these and other kinds of drugs a part of American culture...Despite universal school-based prevention programs, anti-drug ads, intolerance of illegal drugs, and a "lock 'em up" attitude, national surveys indicated that teenage use of alcohol and other drugs was increasing."

Scans show the brain has a 'funnybone' (Dec. 9, 2003- Free Dallas Morning News registration required)
"Heard the one about the scientist and the brain scan? A new study shows that humor tickles some of the same brain regions as cocaine."

The Medicare fraud and the decay of American democracy (Dec. 9, 2003)
"The long-term aim of Bush and the Republicans is to bankrupt Medicare, end all government regulation and control over the drug, insurance and health care industries and create a two-tier health care system: a privately-owned and operated system for the wealthy elite and upper-middle-class, and a bargain-basement system for the rest of the population."

An End Run Around Miranda (Dec. 9, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"The Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case that could greatly undermine Miranda warnings, among the best known of all constitutional protections. Not long ago, opponents of Miranda v. Arizona had hopes of overturning it, but the Supreme Court reaffirmed the ruling in 2000. Now the justices are considering interrogation tactics that sneak around it. If Miranda is to retain its vitality, the court must reject these underhanded tactics."

Man on Death Row 24 Years Seems to Gain Before Justices (Dec. 9, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"'So the prosecution can lie and conceal, and the defense still has the burden to discover the evidence?' Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked in a tone of incredulity." The prosecution is alleging that it was the defense team's responsibility to find out the prosecutors had lied and report that, rather than the prosecution's responsibility to come clean about their own lies. This is but one of the weird ways of finding justice in the Land of the Free.

Grass not always greener on the other side (Dec. 9, 2003)
'In the first judgment of its kind, panel chair Paulah Dauns rejected a refugee bid from Steve Kubby, a heavy user of marijuana for medical reasons, who claimed he faces persecution in the United States for his high-profile advocacy of the drug." This judge seems a bit heartless as the US authorities Kubby has been targeted by have been doing everything in their power to shut him up for good.

The US military: A creeping civilian mission (Dec. 9, 2003)
"They did so notably in the 1980s in the Ronald Reagan era when the US military was dragged kicking and screaming into counter-drug operations. Ironically, then defense secretary Caspar Weinberger wrote in 1985, 'Reliance on military forces to accomplish civilian tasks is detrimental to both military readiness and the democratic process.'"

Has the opium myth gone up in smoke? (Dec. 8, 2003)
"Understandably, the opium trade has been called 'the most long-continued and systematic international crime of modern times' perpetrated by the West on a vulnerable Asian nation. But what exactly was the effect of this supposedly pernicious substance?"

Cold pills latest drug trend among teens, officials warn (Dec. 8, 2003)
Teenagers are getting high, oh my!

Heroin top drug threat in region (Dec. 8, 2003)
Heroin's ascendance to the state's top drug threat was first confirmed for the Valley News Dispatch in September 2002 by National Drug Intelligence Center staff and put into print in the center's latest state drug assessment available at the center's Web site.

Toxic Immunity (Dec. 8, 2003)
Remember: Growing marijuana is bad, but spewing toxic pollution into the environment is good.

Informant's Slaying Becomes Part of Inquiry Into Police Corruption (Dec. 8, 2003-Free NYTimes registration required)
"The day before an on-duty detective and a retired detective were videotaped robbing a drug courier of $169,000, one of their informants was found shot to death in a car in the Bronx, law enforcement officials say. Now, the police and prosecutors are looking into whether the detective, Julio C. Vasquez, and his former partner in the Police Department's Narcotics Division, Thomas Rachko, had anything to do with that slaying last month, the officials said."

New York's Federal Judges Protest Sentencing Procedures (Dec. 8, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Judge Thomas C. Platt of Federal District Court in Brooklyn was so reluctant to follow the sentencing procedures that an appellate panel unanimously removed him from a routine drug case, saying that his decisions were 'improperly affected' by his 'annoyance' with the sentencing guidelines and with the United States attorney's office."

Man cited for defying demand for DNA sample (Dec. 8, 2003)
Freedom fighter, heroic pot smuggler and all around target of the state Ed Forchion is at it again, telling the state he is not at all apprciative of their changing the rules as they go along, screwing him royally as they do so. Go Ed!

Very British approach to the business of cannabis (Dec. 8, 2003)
"Business Profile: Geoffrey Guy believes his company is close to success in creating a legal drug from an illegal one."

Chong Family Values (Dec. 7, 2003)
"To Ashcroft and other Puritan Republicans, Tommy Chong’s prosecution is merely another skirmish in their implacable war against the 20th century. In this climate it becomes almost pointless to talk about the drug-war hypocrisy of a White House whose mortgage is owned by pharmaceutical monopolies. Or of the reverential treatment given the Oxy-popping Rush Limbaugh by neo-McCarthyites like Bill O’Reilly, who lyingly told a Jay Leno audience that Tommy Chong had been arrested 18 times."

The Drugs-and-Terror Ad Campaign (Dec. 7, 2003)
According to an evaluation of the ads completed last November by the firm Westat Inc. and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, there were 'no statistically significant ... improvements in beliefs and attitudes about marijuana use between 2000 and the first half of 2002' attributable to the multi-million-dollar ad campaign.

J. Edgar Hoover Back at the 'New' FBI (Dec. 7, 2003)
"Will somebody in the elite Washington press corps ask George W. Bush if he's heard about the fifth freedom in the First Amendment, 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble'?"

The Other War (Dec. 6, 2003)
"While the world keeps its attention on the wars in the Middle East, there is another war being fought against a different kind of 'enemy' here in the United States. It is a war that is perpetuated by a long history of cultural myths and unfounded popular prejudices, but nonetheless millions of Americans have been arrested and prosecuted as accomplices of the enemy in this war. That enemy is the marijuana plant."

Family files lawsuit in Rainbow death (Dec. 6, 2003)
"Authorities say 28-year-old Rolland Rohm signed his own death warrant when he pointed a gun at an armored vehicle full of police officers. Rohm's family says the authorities are blatantly lying."

Infant killed in accident remembered in new law (Dec. 6, 2003)
"Waukesha couple pushed for measure to punish drugged drivers."

Heroin and Hashem (Dec. 6, 2003)
"A woman's powerful first-person account of a spiraling life of drugs, religion, and the long and winding road to recovery."

Secretary of Defense Aims to Privatize the U.S. Military (Dec. 6, 2003)
"It's hard to gauge the full effect of Rummy's outsourcing, but one estimate puts gross revenues of renting private armies at $100 billion a year. That compares with the total defense budget of around $400 billion."

Dems Want Inquiry into Reports of Medicare Bribe (Dec. 6, 2003)
"Democrats and a legal watchdog group have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate allegations that Republicans offered a House member $100,000 in contributions for his son's election campaign if he would vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit passed by Congress last month."

Pot Toking British Columbia getting Healthier (Dec. 6, 2003)
"What's it like living in pot-friendly British Columbia? Well, aside from everyone being a lot friendlier and easy going, people in the home of "BC Bud" are getting healthier as well. Just look at the latest stats from British Columbia's provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall...."

Returned to Life (Dec. 6, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Mr. Protess is a professor at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in Chicago. In those instances when he and his students have "gotten lucky," they have provided a powerful corrective to an insufficiently recognized evil in our society: the conviction, incarceration and sometimes the sentencing to death of people who are innocent."

Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith? Stop Protecting Him, Congressman (Dec. 6, 2003)
"So, Congressman. Enough with the guessing games. Who tried to bribe you?"

Rumsfeld splits Pentagon office for providing false news to foreign journalists (Dec. 6, 2003)
"The military has long engaged in information warfare against hostile nations, but the ill-fated Office of Strategic Influence proposed to broaden that mission into a strategic "perception management" campaign in allied nations in the Middle East, Asia and even Europe. That would have given the office a role traditionally carried out by civilians."

Limbaugh search warrants made public (Dec. 6, 2003)
"Criminal investigators are searching doctors' offices for evidence that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was "doctor shopping" for controlled substances, according to search warrants filed in the clerk's office of the Palm Beach County, Florida, State Attorney's office...Black said the four doctors whose offices were searched had 'treated Rush Limbaugh for serious medical conditions and the pain resulting from them.'" Will Rush finally speak out against this stupid, evil War, as the Limbaugh Investigation Intensifies?

The Chemical Industry's Bhopal Legacy (Dec. 6, 2003)
"If we woke up one morning and learned that this chemical invasion was the work of foreign terrorists, the federal government would be completely mobilized to defend our citizens from this chemical warfare threat. But because the perpetrators are some of President Bush's most generous contributors and ardent collaborators, we are left defenseless as a nation against this chemical security threat."

A Plague of Bioweapons (Dec. 6, 2003)
"Welcome to the confounding, illogical and sometimes deadly space where public health and raw science meet national security and military secrecy. This shadowy world, which stretches from a college campus near you to the terror training camps of Afghanistan, from the plague towns of Tanzania to the spotless labs of Ft. Detrick, is haunted by terrors real and imagined, bogeymen employed when convenient to drum up funds, intimidate critics or squelch scandals. In short, it is a conspiracy theorist's dream."

Kissenger to Argentines on Dirty War "The Quicker You Succeed the Better" (Dec. 4, 2003)
"Newly declassified State Department documents obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act show that in October 1976, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and high ranking U.S. officials gave their full support to the Argentine military junta and urged them to hurry up and finish the 'dirty war' before the U.S. Congress cut military aid. A post-junta truth commission found that the Argentine military had 'disappeared' at least 10,000 Argentines in the so-called 'dirty war' against 'subversion' and 'terrorists' between 1976 and 1983; human rights groups in Argentina put the number at closer to 30,000."

Thai Prime Minister Declares Victory in Drug War (Dec. 3, 2003)
Using drugs is dangerous, particularly if it's speed in Thailand.

The dangers of teen marijuana use (Dec. 3, 2003)
More prohibitionist scare-mongering.

Metro's pro-pot ads get attention on Hill (Dec. 3, 2003)
"Marijuana-legalization ads posted recently in Metro buses and subway stations have prompted an Oklahoma congressman to propose legislation making it illegal for transit agencies that accept federal dollars to give advertising space to groups that advocate breaking the law."

Festive crackdown as drug-driving soars (Dec. 3, 2003)
Drugged driving cases soar in Scotland, despite prohibition.

Court Rules in Recovering Addicts Case (Dec. 3, 2003)
Druggies obviously deserve fewer rights, right? In other words, this Recovering addict loses ruling on getting job back.

Abuses of prescription drugs `demand response' from government agencies (Dec. 3, 2003)
A call for yet more War.

WTO upholds India's complaint against EU on illegal drugs war (Dec. 3, 2003)
"The EU has argued that its arrangements to combat drug production and trafficking were allowed under the WTO's 'enabling clause' which allows special and differential treatment to help developing countries. But the panel found that the regime did not provide identical favours to all developing countries."

Research on Ecstasy Is Clouded by Errors (Dec. 3, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
This is the sort of "science" that the prohibitionists base their War on Some Drugs and Users upon.

Justice Dept. joins scrutiny of police altercation in Cincinnati (Dec. 3, 2003)
Use PCP and the police may kill you. Understandable, considering past incidents in this area, the atmosphere is tense.

Use PCP And Become Another Statistic (Dec. 3, 2003)
While the editor of DrugWar.com will not argue that PCP is a dangerous drug, this article still comes across as pithy and shallow to the editor, yet another DrugWar horror tale that only forwards the prohibitionist viewpoint and completely misses the point- that under decades of prohibition policies, PCP related emergancy rooms visits are up 148 percent from 2001 to 2002, according to the author of this article, citing US federal statistics, which are not always reliable when concerning illegal drugs. So how exactly has our current strategies of waging all out war on ourselves and neighbors and families and friends helped at all?

Alleged Cannibal Says Victim Was Willing (Dec. 3, 2003)
Extremely strange but true.

Hack the Vote (Dec. 2, 2003)
"Inviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, 'I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.' No surprise there. But Walden O'Dell — who says that he wasn't talking about his business operations — happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States." It comes to light that Diebold Backs Off Legal Challenge to keep internal documents from the public which prove it knows how screwed up its voting machines are despite assurances to the contrary.

Search Engines Limit Ads for Drugs but Ease Rules on Sex (Dec. 2, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Drugs are out and sex is in, at least when it comes to advertising on Internet search engines."

Canada's View on Social Issues Is Opening Rifts With the U.S. (Dec. 2, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Recent disagreements over trade, drugs and the war in Iraq, where Canada has refused to send troops, has made the relationship more contentious and Canadians increasingly outspoken about the things that separate them from their American neighbors."

Hogtied and Abused at Fort Benning (Dec. 2, 2003)
This is an example of what we stand for in the US? Is t his what our military is "defending" when it invades foreign countries and trains foreign officers at this school?

The spy who was left out in the cold (Dec. 2, 2003)
"There may be other reasons for the Bureau's squeamishness about Lau's career becoming public: it is likely he was committing crimes as part of his undercover role, crimes the FBI would have authorized Lau to commit."

Time to Reconsider the U.S. War On Drugs? (Dec. 2, 2003)
"The U.S. war on drugs is one of the few public policy debates that rarely attracts effective and dedicated criticism...Ted Galen Carpenter, author of 'Bad Neighbor Policy,' argues that Washington’s drug policy is the worst of all solutions — and that legalization is the best of all alternatives."

BOLIVIA: Evo Morales: `After 500 years of resistance, we are retaking power' (Dec. 1, 2003)
"There is no fight against drug-trafficking, it is just a pretext. For the US government, the 'war on drugs' is just an excuse for the US to increase its power and control over other countries."

Poppy Fields and Terrorism in the New Afghanistan (Dec. 1, 2003)
"Two years ago, U.S. and coalition forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime. Today, the Afghan people have more freedom, but the country's economy is literally hooked on opiates. And it seems the Afghan poppy fields may be funding Al Qaeda terrorists."

Officials laud chief for 'terrific' year (Dec. 1, 2003)
"'I think the chief has been an extraordinary choice, and has done extraordinary things,' said Mayor Dan H. Mylott, who little more than a year ago was looking for a chief who would prosecute the war on drugs in accordance with his vision."

GOP Takes Lowest Road (Dec. 1, 2003)
"The Bush Administration seemed more preoccupied with the war on drugs than terrorism, even congratulating the Taliban for its successful drug eradication program just weeks before 9/11."

'Coyotes': Criminals to the U.S. but heroes to many immigrants (Dec. 1, 2003)
"Some experts suggest the war on smugglers may resemble the war on drugs, where new smugglers constantly emerge to fill the demand."

Every parent's nightmare (Dec. 1, 2003)
"Some defense attorneys burn out because they come to believe they are doing little more than hastening criminals back onto the street. Author Ayelet Waldman, a former federal public defender in Los Angeles, had the opposite problem: She got tired of seeing 'innocents' taking the fall in America's war on drugs."

An Apology to Younger Americans (Dec. 1, 2003)
"I apologize for any inconvenience, such as prison time, that may have occurred as a result of criminalizing the use of marijuana while keeping legal the far more dangerous drugs we enjoyed such as vodka and Marlboros. I also regret that the war on drugs helped lay the groundwork for the end of constitutional government and proved more deadly to young black urban males than serving in Vietnam was to their fathers."

Iraq: Investigation of a Disaster (Dec. 1, 2003)
"Disaster! That’s the word that comes to mind when one sees the United States, the United Kingdom, and the disparate coalition that they’ve put together in their wake get bogged down in Iraq...Far from provoking the 'democratic tsunami' in the region predicted by the Pentagon strategists, and from striking a fatal blow to the propagation of Islamic terrorism, the occupation of Iraq furnished a supplementary pretext and a new battlefield for young fanatics in love with death who dream of confronting the impious West."

Revisiting Cold War Coups and Finding Them Costly (Dec. 1, 2003)
"Several dozen scholars, including leading experts on Iran and Guatemala, gathered in Chicago this month to consider those questions. Their conclusions were grim. All agreed that both coups — the first that the C.I.A. carried out — had terrible long-term effects."

A New Kind Of Poverty (Dec. 1, 2003)
"America is a country that now sits atop the precarious latticework of myth. It is the myth that working people can support their families."

Patriot Act Author Has Concerns (Dec. 1, 2003)
"The Justice Department's war on terrorism has drawn intense scrutiny from the left and the right. Now, a chief architect of the USA Patriot Act and a former top assistant to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft are joining the fray, voicing concern about aspects of the administration's anti-terrorism policy."

Vilseck-based Army doctor sentenced in hashish case (Dec. 1, 2003)
"A Vilseck-based doctor who used drugs while in Amsterdam, then bloodily botched an attempt to give a fake urine sample to Army authorities, will go to jail for a year, a military judge decided at a court-martial Thursday."

CIA Admits Lack of Specifics on Iraqi Weapons Before Invasion (Dec. 1, 2003)
"The US Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged it 'lacked specific information" about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction when it compiled an intelligence estimate last year that served to justify the US-led invasion of Iraq.'