David Hicks, good, bad or just plain stupid remains an Australian son. Democratic nations have a responsibility to protect their citizens in times of need; a number of democratic nations have already successfully repatriated their citizens from the illegal torture centre of Guantanamo Bay; however, after a period of four years the Howard government has been unable or unwilling to effect the repatriation of David Hicks. If a truly strong case against Hicks existed it surely would have been prosecuted to the full advantage of the terrorist scare campaign that Bush constantly wages on the American people. The fact that the USA is loath to give Hicks a fair and open trial, and in view of the obvious manipulative tactics utilised by corrupt U.S. ‘legal’ officers to delay proceedings, it would appear that the grounds upon which the U.S. military have based their ‘case’ are extremely flimsy and/or could attract litigation for illegal detention, torture and human rights abuses!

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports in this week's issue of the 'New Yorker' that Israeli officials visited the White House earlier this summer to get a "green light" for an attack on Lebanon. The Bush administration approved, Hersh says, in part to remove Hezbollah as a deterrent to a potential US bombing of Iran. Interview with Amy Goodman.

Consider the war in Lebanon a test scenario, a ‘dry run’ to test the international response to flagrant criminal actions. Now recall Russia’s failure to support Yugoslavia in the Balkans. Russia stalled and now Yugoslavia is no more, just a number of fragmented pseudo States overseen by NATO and the largest U.S. base of occupation in Europe, camp Bondsteel. It is well known today that the USA wouldn’t have dared if Russia had supported its traditional ally, but a drunken fool, Boris Yeltsin, was in command at the time, the rest is history.

The war in Lebanon is one month and hundreds of innocent lives old; the international community is displaying all the coherence and cohesion it did in 1939 – déjà vu! The solution today is as it should have been then – stop the invader with a confederation of nations opposed to the war. It stops! Count the nations for war, two, against the war, the rest of the world!

Three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman lost Connecticut's Democratic primary last night in one of the most closely-watched races in the country. He was defeated by Ned Lamont, a wealthy a telecommunications executive who has run largely on an antiwar platform. Lieberman has vowed to run as an independent candidate. Amy Goodman speaks with former independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

The world we live in today is characterised by States adopting the methodologies of organised crime. The traditional methods of criminal organizations have been legitimised by expropriation; no longer are deception, violence, theft, disregarding social codes/contracts the sole province of the sub-culture of organised crime they are now openly employed methods of various conservative governments around the globe – most notably, the USA, UK and Australia.

Amy Goodman interviews Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The major communication mediums of the world continue to bombard the public with images and descriptions of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict. The media works tirelessly to deliver our social consciousness. Today’s mass media maintains its status as the principal means of creating and sustaining social realities. The internet-based ‘independents’ lack real independent front-line resources and continue to rely on the mainstream for most of their information (much to their chagrin).