What kills more than three million people every year? Is it "international terrorism?" Saddam Hussein? North Korean, Iranian, and Syrian governments? No. The answer is "the AIDS epidemic." Three million people have died so far in 2003 from AIDS (and we still have a month left to go!), most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Another five million more people will become infected with the HIV virus this year, according to a report from UNAIDS, the UN agency responsible for organizing the global effort to fight the disease.

Meanwhile, the US Congress has allowed George Bush to cut AIDS funding while throwing $87 billion into the black hole of Iraq. Just a fraction of that amount--about $20 billion--could work wonders for stopping the spread of AIDS, particularly in Africa, where the disease is responsible for orphaning 11 million children, leading to the breakdown and impoverishment of whole communities, and in Eastern Europe, where the rate of new HIV infections is exploding. Meanwhile, the Bush administration is doing its best to undercut efforts to manufacture generic anti-retroviral drugs or to win cheaper prices from US pharmaceutical companies. Bush has blood on his hands.--Maria Tomchick

Let's drive another handful of nails into the "foreign terrorist" coffin. On November 19, the New York Times reported that two US commanders on the ground in Iraq said that there were few foreign fighters in Iraq. The insurgency seems to be home-grown. Major General Charles H. Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division which patrols most of Iraq's border with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, said, "I want to underscore that most of the attacks on our forces are by former regime loyalists and other Iraqis, not foreign forces." He was seconded by Major General David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, which patrols the rest of Iraq's border with Syria and its borders with Turkey and Iran. Petraeus said that, since May, his men have only captured about 20 foreign fighters trying to slip into Iraq. ["Few Signs of Infiltration by Foreign Fighters in Iraq," Joel Brinkley, New York Times, 11/19/03.]

Okay, here's one more. Colonel William Mayville, who commands the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kirkuk said his men have captured "less than half a dozen" Syrians, and some of those four or five men have tribal links in Iraq. [U.S. Commander in Iraq Says Insurgency Home-Grown," Alistair Lyon, Reuters, 11/21/03.]

Clearly, George Bush would never pass a lie detector test.--M.T.

And while Bush's media teams is getting props for their cleverness regarding the Tinhorn Texan's layover at Baghdad International, nobody seems to have noticed that the White House planned the trip after a similarly-timed trip was planned by Sen. Hillary Clinton--information, due to Clinton's Secret Service detail, that the White House would have known.--Geov Parrish

A backhanded insertion of a provision into an intelligence spending bill has dramatically expanded the powers of the USA PATRIOT Act. The provision simply redefines PATRIOT's use of the terms "financial institution" and "financial transaction" to include, well, just about anyone and anything operating in the market economy--and thereby includes them in PATRIOT's expanded powers to search and seize records and property without any court order or judicial oversight. What public outcry prevented when a draft of a proposed PATRIOT II bill was leaked in January has now, in a significant measure, been achieved. Look for another of the old PATRIOT II's notions to resurface soon, too: the proposed right to strip any accused "terrorist" (with the government doing the defining and accusing) of US citizenship, thus enabling either deportation, expulsion, or Guantanamo-style indefinite "enemy combatant" detention. No constitutional muss or fuss. If they're not worried about democracy when they're exercising such powers, why should we think they'll care much about democratic process when seizing such powers in the first place?--G.P.

I've had my criticisms, but more than anything else I'm saddened by the apparent imminent death of the storefront Seattle Independent Media Center. Multiple sources have confirmed that the IMC is badly in debt (over 10k) and has defaulted on its lease and will close its doors, probably for good, before year's end. Surely the website will live on, but given the debt and the steadily growing dysfunction of the core IMC group over the last year, a new analog home seems unlikely.

IMC activists should be proud. The Third Avenue site launched the Indymedia movement. Born in WTO preparations, it proved an effective and massively popular way to circumvent mainstream media and report on mass protests (and police abuse thereof) from street level. But the Net (especially with the explosion of websites and rise of blogs) has evolved, and Indymedia's real excitement is now overseas--of the 140 or so IMCs now up and running, well over half, in over 40 countries, are outside the US. Their purpose isn't usually to reach countryfolk, but the rest of the world--in places like Bolivia, few people have computers, and AP and Reuters have a stranglehold on what the rest of the world (rarely) hears--the IMC in La Paz was an invaluable source of information during last month's insurrection that threw out the pro-American regime.

The local IMC has also, at times, been a good source of information--but its open publishing ethos has also left it a soapbox at times for inaccurate stories and unreadable anarcho-whatever rants presented as "news." That has cost it a lot of local support, as has repeated frustration among alt media activists at CORE IMCers' perceived cliqueness. And the need to pay rent for an expensive downtown storefront crippled the effort in more than the obvious ways.

All that said, Seattle has a remarkably vibrant alternative media scene, and for four years the local IMC has both benefited from and helped nurture it. The present incarnation will be missed, but, as one ex-member notes, now would be a great time for new people, unencumbered by past rifts, to take it on and rebuild it for the future.--G.P.

One last note: According to the P-I's Joel Connelly, Seattle is about to spend a secure disclosed evening with Dick "The Brains Behind the Operation" Cheney. Well, Bellevue, actually--specifically, the Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Tuesday, December 22. Let's give him a rousing, Pacific Northwest holiday welcome, shall we?--G.P.