The week gone by

* The first of June was, according to Justin Huggler of the Independent, "the day the 'stooges' rebelled: first with the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council insisting their man got the presidency and, second, with the new interim government saying they wanted real power in their own country." Meanwhile, many hurdles remain for the US.

* William Rivers Pitt dissects what's going on with the Chalabi story. New revelations have emerged since this piece was written, including an allegation that Chalabi tipped off the Iranians that US intelligence had broken one of its secret communications codes. Needless to say, the formerly cozy "Chalabi alliance" between civilians in and around the Pentagon and the core of the neoconservative movement is in tatters. In the New Yorker, Jane Mayer explores what might come next for Chalabi.

* CIA director George Tenet resigned amidst much "imperial intrigue" last week. Was he spooked? Is he the fall guy? The scapegoat? Speculation continues.

* Judging from two recent polls conducted in Iraq, most Iraqis want the US military to leave immediately. And yet, as FAIR notes, American opinion-makers still demand that the US "stay the course" and prolong an unpopular "occupation for democracy."

* From the BBC: "Weapons of mass destruction do not exist in Iraq and it is 'delusional' to think they will be found, says former chief US weapons inspector David Kay."

* $119.4 billion has been spent thus far on Iraq. Obviously, this money could be used for different purposes.

* Dick Cheney's office played a crucial role in getting Halliburton contracts for Iraq, according to an email obtained by Time Magazine. Of course, Cheney's crew denies this.

* James Cusick of the Sunday Herald investigates the current predicament of global oil politics, particularly in the wake of attacks in Saudi Arabia and the instability fomented by the Iraq conflict.

* "The spring of 2004 may prove to be a turning point not only in the history of America but also in that of the world," writes Michael Lind in the Financial Times. "Until recently, Bush critics could hope the Iraq war would be an unfortunate but minor episode ahead of a long period of benevolent US global hegemony. Now that America's reputation for benevolence and irresistible power has been severely damaged, the US will be forced to settle for a far more modest role in the world than that sought by both neoliberals and neoconservatives. Whether Mr Bush is re-elected or not, his legacy is already apparent."

* In related news, Jim Lobe notes the growing pessimism about US power around the world.

* Taking a closer look at the legacy of departed "image czars" Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler, Nancy Snow probes some of the successes and failures at rebranding the United States in the wake of 9/11.

* Analysts at an Asia-Pacific Roundtable on security at Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies have concluded that Al Qaeda is winning the global "war on terror", and that the tactics being utilized to battle the threat of terrorism are making the situation worse. See also: small victories add up.

* William Greider says we need to abandon the "war on terror." I only hope other esteemed liberals come to the same conclusion, and soon.

* "Americans who think the 9/11 commission is going to answer all the crucial questions about the terrorist attacks are likely to be sorely disappointed — especially if they're interested in the secret evacuation of Saudis by plane that began just after Sept. 11," writes Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud, in a NY Times opinion piece.

* As the US military realizes the reality of over-stretch, it is taking steps to address the problem: debating the draft, screwing with reservists, and issuing additional stop-loss orders.

* If Bush is going to give more speeches on Iraq, Chalmers Johnson asks that he addresses these 12 questions.

* Jefferson Morley analyzes the disparities in media coverage of the US military assault that killed over 40 in Western Iraq two weeks ago, noting that the American media was much more willing to swallow the military's line that it did not attack a wedding party than other media around the world.

* Richard Neville asks in the Sydney Morning Herald, "Who killed Nick Berg?"

* The hits keep coming. Michael Massing, Robert Parry, Tim Rutten and Alex Cockburn weigh in on the NY Times' Iraq apology. The public editor of the Times has, too, in an effort to disperse and dilute the blame.

* E&P summarizes the key points of Franklin Foer's New York Magazine article on Judith Miller's Iraq reporting. Coincidentally, in an astonishing display of either chutzpah or ignorance, Miller returned to the Times' pages with this story.

* Get ready for the return of the "stab in the back," says Matthew Yglesias. The stage is being set for the post-Iraq blame game, with the media square in the sights of the prowarriors.

* The Washington Post reports that "Allegations of sexual assault in the U.S. Army have climbed steadily over the past five years, and the problem has been abetted by weak prevention efforts, slow investigations, inadequate field reporting and poor managerial oversight, according to internal Army data and a new report from an Army task force."

* Michael Hirsh and John Barry of Newsweek report that the Abu Ghraib scandal is being covered up and whitewashed. Additionally, the Washington Post reports that "the Army has opened investigations into at least 91 cases of possible misconduct by U.S. soldiers against detainees and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, a total not previously reported and one that points to a broader range of wrongful behavior than defense officials have acknowledged" and USA Today reports that more than 1/3 of the prisoners who have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan -- 15 out of 37 since December 2002 -- were "shot, strangled or beaten by U.S. personnel before they died."

* "How do we square the tales of American cruelty with the promise of democracy we thought we were bringing to Iraq?" asks Frank Rich in the NY Times. "One obvious way might be to acknowledge with some humility that our often proud history has always had a fault line, running from slavery to Wounded Knee to My Lai. (Read accounts of Andersonville, the Confederate-run Civil War prison at which some 13,000 died, for literal echoes of some of Abu Ghraib's inhumanity.) But there's an easier way out in 2004: blame Janet Jackson for what's gone wrong in Iraq, or if not her, then Jenna Jameson."

* Ze'ev Schiff writes in Ha'aretz that the "abuse of prisoners detained at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq proves that it matters not if the occupier declares its aim to enforce democracy or uphold human rights, or if it calls itself an 'enlightened occupation' - the degradation of prisoners is an almost unavoidable consequence of an occupation regime. In the end, the occupation will corrupt the occupiers."

* Remember John Walker Lindh? Dave Lindorff says his case is extremely relevant now, particularly considering how he was handled while in US custody.

* "Most Americans were shocked by the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison," observes Bob Herbert. But we shouldn't have been, since many prisoners in the United States are treated similiarly. Even worse, says Herbert, "Very few Americans have raised their voices in opposition to our shameful prison policies. And I'm convinced that's primarily because the inmates are viewed as less than human."

* "One out of every 11 persons in the federal and state prison systems in the US is serving a life sentence, four times the number of 'lifers' in 1984," reports Debra Watson of the WSWS.

* 248K jobs were added to the US economy in May, although the unemployment rate remained unchanged from April. Further analysis of the job figures, here.

* The Bush administration's fiscal agenda, declares Paul Krugman, "is to impose Dooh Nibor economics — Robin Hood in reverse. The end result of current policies will be a large-scale transfer of income from the middle class to the very affluent, in which about 80 percent of the population will lose and the bulk of the gains will go to people with incomes of more than $200,000 per year."

* Can terrorist warnings sway votes? Perhaps purposefully so, says Ray McGovern.

* The Washington Post reports that Bush's campaign for re-election is the most negative one in history thus far. The AP also reports that "President Bush is using Air Force One for re-election travel more heavily than any predecessor, wringing maximum political mileage from a perk of office paid for by taxpayers."

* "Once more," Charley Reece declares, "the Democratic Party is proving that it is not really a party of opposition, but rather a tweedledee to the Republican tweedledum."

* Josh Marshall outlines what John Kerry's foreign policy might look like in The Atlantic Monthly.

* The Plame leak investigation is heating up. Cheney has been questioned already by prosecutors, and Bush is conferring with private counsel in what John Dean describes as a "stunning and extraordinary development."

* Ronald Reagan has passed away. While I have no love for the man's politics, I have no desire to spit on his grave. I am, however, extremely wary of the immense project of historical engineering the American right is going to kick in to high gear now.

* Molly Ivins connects the dots between the recently unearthed Enron tapes and Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan.

* "A direct line runs from the 'segregation academies' of the post-Brown South and today’s corporate-invented school vouchers 'movement,'" contends the Black Commentator. "Both talk the same language: a 'freedom of choice' double-speak that would preserve and expand racial and economic privilege. In place of Brown, today’s voucher advocates would subsidize the 'choices' that somehow become available in an American social marketplace that has historically devalued Blacks. They would achieve this unregulated educational supermarket by liquidating the principle and promise of universal, quality public education."

* "It's always satisfying to have a pet theory supported by new data," avers John Chuckman. "A large and authoritative study, just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirms a favorite hypothesis of mine, that there is more mental illness and insanity, far more, in America than you find in other advanced societies." For Chuckman, this finding is "strangely both comforting and disturbing."

* "The number of Palestinians the IDF killed in the territories or in foiling attempted attacks in May was the highest since Operation Defensive Shield in the spring of 2002 - 111 compared to 55 in April and 79 in March," reports Arnon Regular in Ha'aretz.

* Genocide in Palestine? Paul de Rooij puts Palestinian misery in perspective.

* Jonathan Freedland contends that Ariel Sharon's recent preoccupation with a Gaza pullout is driven more by demographic pressures than a concern for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the strip.

* Dominique Vidal probes the cancer of anti-Semitism in the Arab world in Le Monde diplomatique.

* With the recall of Hugo Chavez going forward, Mark Weisbrot observes that the American media has not only failed on Iraq, but also with its reporting on the situation in Venezuela.

* The Guardian reports on efforts to assuage the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

* Here are several news stories regarding the floods which devasted Haiti and the Dominican Republic ~2 weeks ago.