Sidney Blumenthal

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140248/USA2.GIF" align=left>The Democrats surprised themselves by their ability to raise tens of millions, inspire hundreds of thousands of activists, and present themselves as unified around a centrist position. Expectations were not dashed. Former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal reflects on how the Bush campaign overcame the surge in support for the Democratic party.

At a conservative think tank in downtown Washington, and across the Potomac at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neo-conservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the US government and military?

It was "unacceptable" and "un-American", but was it torture? "My impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture," said Donald Rumsfeld, the United States Secretary of Defence on Tuesday. George W. Bush has created what is in effect a gulag. It stretches from prisons in Afghanistan to Iraq, from Guantanamo to secret CIA prisons around the world.

"I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things," Bush told Bob Woodward in <i>Bush at War</i>. "That’s the interesting thing about being president." George W Bush’s latest abuse of power fails to rouse the Washington newshounds, reports Sidney Blumenthal, senior adviser to Bill Clinton.