Bear Left!

Fact of the Week

**Fact of the Week**
The newly-formed Information Awareness Office (IAO) at the Pentagon, like any newly-formed Pentagon office, needed a spiffy new logo. The brain trust at IAO figured that a good logo would combine global scope with a distinctly American flavor, plus a motto in Latin. In theory, this is all good. But in theory, theory and practice are the same. The actual logo will make the tinfoil-hat crowd go nuts. The actual logo features a stylized reverse of the Great Seal of the United States (you know, the pyramid with the eye over it from the back of the American $1 bill), with a beam of light from the eye on the Great Seal shining on much of Europe and Africa. The Latin motto on the logo reads: scientia est potentia, intended to read "knowledge is power." Even the Latin leaves something to be desired. The Chambers- Murray Latin-English Dictionary, a standard reference work, defines potentia as "political power, esp[ecially] unofficial or unconstititional power." Perhaps the IAO Latin brain trust should try declining the word potestas. And who is head of that brain trust? Why, it's John Poindexter. Yes, the same John Poindexter who was the brains behind the Iran-Contra affair. Sources: Information Awareness Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Cryptogon weblog, 19 July 2002.

**This week's columns**
True Patriotism Paul Corrigan True patriots include those, like Daniel Ellsberg, who tell political truths even when they are unpopular.	The Big Lie Tim Francis-Wright In Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson had one Big Lie. In Iraq, George Bush has at least three.

Red Pepper news on Iraq.
No Rush to War: a collection of articles from The Nation.
Target: Iraq from GlobalSecurity.org.
Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iraq WMD Dossier from the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Iraq dossier presented to Parliament by Tony Blair.
New York Times op-ed ad signed by 33 international relations scholars (HTML version of the ad).
More, alas, likely to come.

War Plans Under Fire as Even Bush Heartland Talks Peace: Critics of a war on Iraq include the national head of George Bush's church (Ed Vuillamy, The Observer).
The Gildered Age Goes Bust: More people have been or will be affected by the telecom epidemic than any other economic accident of the last 25 years (Nomi Prins, Left Business Observer).
Judge Orders White House Papers' Release: For a second time, a judge has ordered release of documents from Dick Cheney's energy task force (Neely Tucker, Washington Post).
Satrap? You Can Say That Again: For Australians, being a satrapy is not a bed of roses, but is downright dangerous (Terry Lane, The Age).
FDA Action on Drug Ads Declining: Drug companies are advertising more and more, but the FDA is policing their ads less and less (Alice Dembner, Boston Globe).
Bush Seeks to Cut Back on Raise for S.E.C.'s Corporate Cleanup: Despite a bevy of corporate governance scandals, the Bush administration wants to underfund the SEC budget by some 27 percent (Stephen Labaton, New York Times).
I'm With Ashcroft: The gun lobby could sacrifice a few liberties in the face of real terror in and around Washington (Michaelangelo Signorile, New York Press).
South Dakota Voter Fraud Fraud: Allegations of Democratic voter fraud in South Dakota are fraudulent themselves (Joshua Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo.com).

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