The Bush Administration seems intent on expanding presidential power and curtailing civil liberties. Chisun Lee notes that Congressional votes on Patriot Act II could be spun as a test of patriotism by Bush et al. (See also the extensive analysis of this act by C. William Michaels: http://baltimore.indymedia.org/feature/display/3141/index.php )

Reports from CounterPunch's diary on the U.S. war on Iraq.

“Burn, Baghdad, Burn,” was the title of Adam Brodsky’s ugly rant in the New York Post, 03/29/03. The columnist for the Rupert Murdock-owned rag took great joy in watching on his TV screen, Iraq’s capital city going up in billows of “black-orange smoke.” Brodsky justified his revenge-seeking spiel because of the 9/11 tragedy. Question: What insane asylum did this sadistic warmonger escape from?

Interesting article on the demograpic makeup of the US Military. Worth reading for statistical information alone, and imperative for anyone attempting to make claims about racial or class bias in the composition of US military forces.

According to a report on the drug situation 2002 the amount of criminal charges due to violations of SMG rose from 7805 persons in the year 1992 to 21302 persons in the year 2001 in Austria. During the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition a dramatic increase of charges was registered, almost 4000 persons more than in 1999 were arrested due to violations of SMG. One of the reasons for this increase may be a change in the law concerning the amount of heroin considered as negligible (used to be 5 grams, now 3 grams). Notable is also the extremely high amount of “first-time-arrests” of 11033 persons, many of which were simple drug users (according to the drug laws the use of drugs alone is not punishable, but some federal state courts seem unaware of this fact).

2003- The world as we know it is constricted by three international conventions: the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs from 1961 (revised 1972), the Convention on Psychotropic Substances from 1972 and the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances from 1988.

From April 6th to 13th 2003 protests will happen in Vienna, Austria, more info at http://www.u-n-o.org and http://at.indymedia.org

Al-Jazeera reports on the U.S. war on Iraq. Senior editor Faisal Bodi comments that his television station is a threat to American media control.

With loved ones in the U.S. military or in the home countries of the Middle East, Arab Americans experience unique anguish as Bush's war rages in Iraq. Mohamad Ozeir reports.