Author name: davidswanson

For Immediate Release: June 10, 2005

On Thursday June 16, 2005, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of House Judiciary Committee, and other Democratic Members will hold a Democratic hearing to hear testimony concerning the Downing Street Minutes and the efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.

On May 1, 2005 a Sunday London Times article disclosed the details of a classified memo, also known as the Downing Street Minutes, recounting the minutes of a July 2002 meeting of Prime Minister read more

By David Swanson, www.AfterDowningStreet.org

A teach-in on ending the Iraq War was held in Washington, D.C., on June 3, organized by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). It followed, in part, a pattern established by other teach-ins, but also took an exciting new turn.

Photo gallery:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/images/pdateachin/index.htm

The event was familiar in that the speakers argued for the speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops, and most of the audience agreed, while others insisted that read more

Media Black Out Downing Street Minutes
By David Swanson, www.afterdowningstreet.org

Aggressive followers and participants in U.S. politics often have strong opinions about the Downing Street Minutes. Most other Americans have not heard of or are not clear about what the Downing Street Minutes are.

How is this possible? Here we have the official government minutes from a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials, including a briefing by Richard Dearlove, read more

A coalition of veterans’ groups, peace groups, and political activist groups announced a campaign today to urge that the U.S. Congress launch a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.

The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

READ MORE

John Bonifaz, a Boston read more

By David Swanson

Presentation on May 24, 2005, at the Second National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth, www.policylink.org, in Philadelphia, Penn.

It is with some hesitation that I speak about communicating ideas on regional equity and smart growth to a gathering of experts on the topic. I am not an expert on regional sustainability, but I would never admit that in front of a television camera! Like anyone else, I know enough that’s worth saying, and like read more

April 28, 2005

See Photo Album on This Site

A forum held in a US House of Representatives office building on April 28 brought together leaders of the movement to withdraw US troops from Iraq, including Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, both California Democrats and Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Woolsey is the sponsor of H. Con. Res. 35, a resolution calling for the withdrawal of troops to begin immediately.
http://www.woolsey.house.gov/newsarticle.asp?RecordID=391

Woolsey read more

April 27, 2005

See Photo Album on This Site

Former Vice President Al Gore gave a lengthy speech on Wednesday on the topic of Republicans’ attempt to eliminate the right to filibuster in the Senate.

The event was organized by MoveOn.org, and MoveOn member Sarah Landon introduced Gore. Landon pointed out that Gore had worked in an administration that saw more judicial nominees blocked by Republicans than the current one has seen blocked by Democrats. We hear about activist Democratic judges, read more

A Press Conference for Theocracy
April 26, 2005

See Photo Album on This Site

Two white Republican U.S. senators and a group of largely African-American preachers held a press conference in the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday to demand a vote on the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Brown’s is one of the nominations that Democratic senators are opposing by means of the filibuster.

Because the Democrats are in the minority, even if they could discipline read more

May 11, 2004

By Martin Fishgold and David Swanson

U.S. soldiers and CIA contract professionals, with the knowledge and encouragement of their superiors, committed war crimes against Iraqi prisoners that are all too clear in the graphic images that Dan Rather and CBS executives chose to suppress for two weeks at the request of the Pentagon. There was no justification for this delay or for the argument, as made by the reactionary columnist William Safire in the May 10th New York Times, that the delay read more

Also published at BuzzFlash at http://www.buzzflash.com and at Bartcop Reader at http://www.bartcopnation.com.

May 16, 2002

Last week conservatives and liberals separately filed suit to claim that various parts of the recently passed Shays-Meehan/McCain-Feingold bribery reform legislation should be thrown out as unconstitutional. Last night (May 15) in a debate at the National Press Club over the proposition “The Government is Still for Sale,” all four participants, two arguing the read more