"Venezuela's Oligarchy Imports Soldiers
Because It Cannot Recruit Them At Home"

Marta Harnecker

If anything has become clear following the discovery of
an incursion of a significantly large paramilitary group
into the country, it is that the 'anti-Bolivarian and
anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north'
have not been able to recruit Venezuelan soldiers for
their subversive objectives and 'have been forced to
recruit them in another country,' as expressed President
Chavez in front of tens of thousands of people, who
gathered in Caracas this past Sunday, May 16th, to
demonstrate their rejection of paramilitary activity and
to express their support for peace.

"How Fascism Starts"

Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate

AUSTIN, Texas — It's pretty easy to get to the point where
you don't want to hear any more about Abu Ghraib prison and
what went on there. But there are some really good reasons
why Americans should take a look at why this happened.

I suspect the division here is not between liberals and
conservatives (except for a few inane comments made by some
trying to be flippant), but between those who are following
the story closely and those who are not. I particularly
recommend both Sy Hersh's follow-up piece in the current
issue of The New Yorker and the investigative piece in the
current issue of Newsweek. What seems to me more important
than the "Oh ugh" factor is just how easy it is for standards
of law and behavior of slip into bestiality.

Chalabi Aide is Suspected Iranian Spy

Knut Royce, Newsday

WASHINGTON — The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that a
U.S.-funded arm of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress has been
used for years by Iranian intelligence to pass disinformation to the
United States and to collect highly sensitive American secrets,
according to intelligence sources.

"Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States through
Chalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Program
information to provoke the United States into getting rid of Saddam
Hussein," said an intelligence source Friday who was briefed on the
Defense Intelligence Agency's conclusions, which were based on a
review of thousands of internal documents.

"Ground Zero Funds Often Drifted Uptown:

Money Also Went to Luxury Apartments"

Michael Powell and Michelle Garcia, Washington Post

NEW YORK — Six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress approved an $8 billion program to repair this city's damaged office towers, build apartment buildings and finance the rebirth of the financial district.

But two years later, city records show that much of the money, dubbed Liberty Bonds, has gone to developers of prime real estate in midtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and to builders of luxury housing