Think twice about throwing away your old cell phone. In addition to polluting landfills, compact electronic devices contain a substance called coltan. Coltan is a fusion of two minerals: Columbite and Tantalite, refined into a heat resistant powder that holds a high electrical charge. It's widely used to control current flows inside miniature circuit boards in laptops, cell phones, and other mini electronic devices.

Coltan, however, is also one of the main minerals currently being extracted and stolen by rebel guerrillas from the eastern region of The Congo. Along with conflict diamonds and cobalt, coltan has fueled the world's bloodiest war. Since 1998, when fighting first broke out in The Congo, three million people have died from combat, ethnic purges, disease, and starvation brought on by the upheavals of the Congo War. Diamonds we can shun, choosing to wear something else on our fingers, but coltan is so integral to our high-tech, western lifestyle that it's impossible to boycott. The only solution: the West must get more involved in a diplomatic, peaceful end to this disastrous war. That means you, George W. And you, Rummy. And especially you, Colin and Condi.--Maria Tomchick

This morning I woke up to read a news report that 15 US troops were killed in Iraq last night when their helicopter was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile. The troops were headed for a little R&R, not suspecting that they'd die before they had a chance to relax. My god. This past week has put to shame George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Paul Bremer, who all still insist that the security situation in Iraq is improving. Wire service reports from the Associated Press and Reuters, and British press reports, too, tell a vastly different story: nightly mortar attacks on US bases, surface-to-air missiles fired every night at planes landing at the Baghdad International Airport, and 35 or more attacks on US troops every day in the Baghdad area alone. Now this.

The Washington Post has a unique section on its website that I urge everyone to visit. It's called "Faces of the Fallen," and the link is www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm. When you click on the link, you'll see photos pop up of the troops who've died in Iraq, along with captions that include their names, ages, rank, division, and how they died. It's a stunning, overwhelming list. For me, the "how they died" part has the most impact, because it provides a bigger picture that looks very much like--yes, I'm going to say it--the Vietnam War: the vast majority of US troops have died in ambushes: from sniper fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and roadside bombs. That's not combat; that's slaughter. Now, if only there were a comparable website, with photos, of the Iraqi civilians who've died in this insane war, we'd have several million people marching in the streets and writing their Congresspeople, not just several thousand.--M.T.

The other myth our incompetent leaders want us to believe (in addition to "the security situation is improving") is the lie that foreign terrorists are responsible for the vast majority of attacks in Iraq. Commanders on the ground in Iraq tell a very different story from Paul Bremer and George Bush. Brigadier General Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the First Armored Division in Baghdad told reporters this week, "We have not seen any infusion of foreign fighters in Baghdad." This was a direct contradiction of what Paul Bremer said on the TV show "Face The Nation" on the very same day.

While Bremer was lying to the American people on live TV, Major General Raymond Odierno, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division based in the Sunni Triangle, told the French Press Agency, "What I found is Iraqis do not like people from other countries fooling in Iraqi business." He didn't draw the obvious connection and link this observation to US troops occupying Iraq, but he did continue on the topic of other foreign fighters in Iraq: "They don't like Iranians here, they don't like Syrians. They really like their own people being involved in this." He went on to say that only a few foreigners have been captured: "A couple from Syria, some Wahhabists from other countries--but that's really been it. We have not seen a large influx of foreign fighters thus far." Then he drove another stake through the heart of this Bush administration myth: "...we have seen no specific information that's linking coordination between foreign fighters and the former regime loyalists."

So, who do we believe: the propaganda hacks in Bremer's office and in Washington DC, our president who never reads the newspaper, or the troops on the ground in Iraq? You decide.--M.T. [Sources: "Bombers in Iraq Target Red Cross and 4 Police Stations," Dexter Filkins and Raymond Bonner, The New York Times, 10/27/03, and "Commander discounts significance of foreign fighters in Iraq attacks," Agence France Presse, 10/27/03].

I was just watching the Early Show on CBS and all of a sudden on comes Greg Nickels, mayor of Seattle, saying he likes shopping at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, and he likes watching CBS Early Show in the morning...

WHAT THE HELL?

Doesn't Nickels have some WORK to do instead of promoting himself and CBS on national TV? --Kirsten Anderberg

I was riding Metro buses in Seattle today, the #48, minding my own business, when I began to feel like someone was looking down my shirt! Weird, I know, but that's how I felt. I looked around, no one was in the back of the bus with me. I looked up, and saw this round mirror ball attached to the ceiling of the bus. There were three of these things, positioned on the ceiling from the middle to the back of the bus. They had black bands as a base, and then this mirror dome.

The mirror looks exactly like a two-way mirror looks, that weird dark thing you can kind of see through. I stood up and examined it. Sure enough, there was a lens about the size of the back end of a ballpoint pen behind the mirror. It was a spy camera.

I asked the Metro bus driver how long the hidden cameras had been there. She said a year. I asked why they were there. She said "For security." I said "Wouldn't cameras out in the open deter crime more than hidden cameras?" She rolled her eyes and sighed. I got off the bus. Homeland Security is not making me feel safe. It is making me feel terrorized by my own government.

All down Aurora Avenue in Seattle, signs on the street say the area is being filmed by police and is under surveillance for drugs and prostitution. So I'm filmed standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus on Aurora. Then I got on a #358 bus. And sure enough, two more of these dome spy cameras were on that bus. So today, just going to the University District and back I was spied on at least four times.

I wonder how much money Metro employees or cops are paid to watch these films that could be looking down shirts, up skirts, treating themselves to voyeurism on kids making out in the back. Big Brother is here, on the street, at the bus stop, on the bus.

My suggestion is we all get broken cameras and take pictures of the cameras on buses regularly, as performance art, to raise public awareness, and also to drive whoever is watching the footage crazy. Spies usually hate to be spied on.--K.A.

Normally we don't plug fund drives or commercial businesses in this space, but this is an idea so simple and useful it's worth contributing to and worth imitating by other progressive businesses and by activist groups looking to make a difference. For the month of November, Funky Jane's Consignment, located in the West Seattle Junction, is collecting warm provisions and funds to help support those suffering adverse conditions on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation in South Dakota. Bring by your good quality used clothing, or funds to purchase same, and the results will go straight to the res this winter. Bravo to Funky Jane's and to the organizers making this happen.--Geov Parrish