One of the greatest wonders of civilisation, and probably the world's most ancient structure - the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq - has been vandalised by American soldiers and airmen, according to aid workers in the area.

They claim that US forces have spray-painted the remains with graffiti and stolen kiln-baked bricks made millennia ago. As a result, the US military has put the archaeological treasure, which dates back 6,000 years, off-limits to its own troops. Any violations will be punishable in military courts.

A new legal brief filed by the U.S. Justice Department would roll back twenty years of judicial rulings for victims of human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch warned today.

Hours before images of jubilant Iraqis toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein made their way around the globe last month, Afghan women's rights activist Tahmeena Faryal took the podium at California Institute of Technology's Baxter Hall to tell an audience what has happened in Afghanistan since the cameras stopped rolling there. Her message: Although the Taliban has been driven from power, Afghan women still suffer under fundamentalist persecution--and the United States has not kept its promise of liberation.

Last January, an FBI agent entered a branch of the St. Louis Public Library and requested a list of all the sign-up sheets showing names of people who used library computers on Dec. 28, 2002. Even though the FBI agent did not have a warrant or subpoena, the library quickly surrendered the list of all users. The FBI acted because someone phoned in a tip that they “smelled something strange” about a library patron of Middle Eastern descent.

Welcome to America under the Patriot Act. One person claims to “smell something,” and the feds can round up everyone’s records. From books you check out to credit card purchases, money transfers to medications, your activities are now subject to federal surveillance. Uncle Sam now has a blank check to search and pry—all in the name of security.

Last October, then House Majority Leader Dick Armey branded our own Justice Department “the biggest threat to personal liberty in the country.” And while that characterization of a Republican Justice Department makes many conservatives cringe, the DOJ has been working overtime to expand its power —and the biggest danger may be yet to come.

When John Ashcroft was in the U.S. Senate, he was a leader in the fight to protect Americans’ privacy. In an August 1997 op-ed, Ashcroft declared, “This is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications.” His early days as attorney general showed a keen appreciation for the Bill of Rights’ constraints. That changed on 9/11. ...

People supported the war and continue supporting this president because it's the choice requiring the least thought, risk and personal commitment. It requires only the willingness not to seek information. Why bother studying issues and motives, sorting out truths from lies, and weighing the financial, human and hidden costs of our government's plans and policies? It's easier not to, really.

One vote of confidence for our president covers all our bases. We don't have to think after that. And let's face it, it's a heck of a deal. All we have to do, as citizens loyal to our president, is go to church, watch televised news, shop, keep the grill hot and, if we're so inclined, keep an eye out for people who don't look like us congregating in public.

Our president and his posse will keep us safe and put a few tax dollars bucks back in our pockets. Sweet!

One could understand Americans swallowing all this if Bush had upheld his end of the bargain in any tangible, substantive way. Instead, the threat of terrorism is every bit as alive, if not more so, since September 11, 2001. Meanwhile, in the wake of the 2001 tax cuts, not one major corporation or industry (other than the defense industry) has added jobs.

By choosing not to arm themselves with information, people are ducking their heads and swinging at whatever comes near. That instinct means protecting Bush on the home front.

Supporters regard him with a soft spot reserved for a wayward brother or son - he's beleaguered, misunderstood, picked on by a liberal public, a downhome fella, really a nice guy once you get to know him. They've closed ranks and huddled around one of their own, treating red, white and blue as the colors of a sports team. Bush supporters are anchored to ideology as if it's religion. Their beliefs are unassailable and absolute, and any criticisms of Bush are swipes at their faith.

In February, the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) released its Economic Report of the President, which contradicted claims by President Bush and other top administration officials on the revenue effects of tax cuts and the relationship between federal budget deficits and interest rates. Now, President Bush is again being contradicted by CEA and his nominee for chairman of the council, N. Gregory Mankiw, on the date a recession began in 2001, the revenue effects of tax cuts and the number of jobs that would be created by his tax cut package.

I recently had an email exchange with a right-winger from my local newspaper, and of course the war with Iraq came up pretty quick. But he said something in defense of George Bush that really surprised me. In defense of the attack on Iraq he said 'between Hussein and Bush, Hussein is the bad guy'.

My first response was ... So your guy is better than a third world dictator, Wow! what an accomplishment! Does he put that on his resume?

And with that in mind, I started wondering ... what would a George W. Bush resume look like exactly? Listed below is what I came up with.

If President Bush and his cabinet were not, at this very moment, still trying to censor, suppress and delay the publication of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, if there had been honest disclosure and straight stories from the beginning, perhaps all these "dark questions," as the Post puts it, would never have arisen.

The great majority of people, sickened and overwhelmed by the horror of the attacks, unquestioningly accepts the White House version. Many thousands, however, are patiently stitching together the documented evidence and noting the huge holes in the fabric of that official story.

Just ask yourself how the United States, with its vast intelligence establishment and spy power, could have been caught unawares in such a drastic state of unpreparedness on Sept. 11.

More than 50 dead in a week. Thanks for the Iraq war.

Thank you, Mr Bush and Mr Blair, for making our world safer by ridding us of the one tyrant - Saddam Hussein - who never had any connection with 11 September 2001, or with the Riyadh bombings or with the bombings in Casablanca.

George W. Bush came to Indianapolis for the picture. And in that picture, the White House wanted ordinary people. ...

That's why everyone sitting behind the president wearing a necktie was instructed to take it off.

Exhibit A is Brian Bosma. He appeared onstage in a necktie, prior to the president's arrival. When the president got there the Indiana House minority leader had an open collar. In a News 8 interview immediately following the speech, the tie was back on.

An interesting meme the Dems might want to explore is this simple correlation: while federal taxes are being cut for some, the massive increase in state and local taxes, due in part to an utter lack of federal relief and federal budget cuts for mandated programs, are hiking your taxes.

It doesn't matter if Bush cuts your federal taxes if your property and sales taxes climb, costing you hundreds of dollars more a year. Any federal refund will be more than gobbled up by local and state hikes on everything from parking tickets to hunting licenses.

Because the Bush Administration was completely uninterested in offering aid to states and localities, the states, which cannot print money, can only raise costs to cover the services that people want.

For nearly two decades the GOP has hammered the theme that lower taxes are good. The Dems have never, until recently, explained that there is a cost for this: which is lower services.

Last January, an FBI agent entered a branch of the St. Louis Public Library and requested a list of all the sign-up sheets showing names of people who used library computers on Dec. 28, 2002. Even though the FBI agent did not have a warrant or subpoena, the library quickly surrendered the list of all users. The FBI acted because someone phoned in a tip that they “smelled something strange” about a library patron of Middle Eastern descent.

Welcome to America under the Patriot Act. One person claims to “smell something,” and the feds can round up everyone’s records. From books you check out to credit card purchases, money transfers to medications, your activities are now subject to federal surveillance. Uncle Sam now has a blank check to search and pry—all in the name of security.

Last October, then House Majority Leader Dick Armey branded our own Justice Department “the biggest threat to personal liberty in the country.” And while that characterization of a Republican Justice Department makes many conservatives cringe, the DOJ has been working overtime to expand its power —and the biggest danger may be yet to come.

When John Ashcroft was in the U.S. Senate, he was a leader in the fight to protect Americans’ privacy. In an August 1997 op-ed, Ashcroft declared, “This is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications.” His early days as attorney general showed a keen appreciation for the Bill of Rights’ constraints. That changed on 9/11. ...

The success of the 9/11 hijackers was due far more to a lack of government competence than to a shortfall in government power. Yet the Bush administration has successfully suppressed investigations and revelations of federal failures, thereby permitting Ashcroft and others to portray new government powers as the key to national safety.