In the US War Of Terror, the next target may be Syria. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on October 3 that US officials have been in talks with Israeli government officials about a possible successor for Syria's President Assad. The next day, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the press that he's expecting the US to push for regime change in Syria soon. Said Mofaz: "[The US} will take actions against Syria, beginning with economic sanctions and moving on to others, that will make it clear to the Syrians that their policies do not comply with UN decisions, the US's new world order, or the prohibition of sovereign states to support terrorism." This came in the same week that Iraq's Interior Minister told reporters that Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is sending some of his trained foreign terrorists back to their home countries to stage suicide bombings and other attacks. In other words, the US War in Iraq is supporting terrorism.

Ironically, Haaretz reports: "Israel would prefer to have a weakened Assad, vulnerable to international pressure, remain in power, and is unenthusiastic about the possibility of regime change in Syria." Of course, that won't stop the Bush administration from pursuing the overthrow of Assad. Bush only has to threaten a cut off of US taxpayer dollars to Israel and they'll fall in line. --Maria Tomchick. Sources: "US officials eyeing possible Assad successors," Aluf Benn, Haaretz, 10/3/05 and "Mofaz: US pressure on Syria could topple Assad regime," Haaretz, 10/4/05, http://www.haaretz.com.

In the debate over whether the war in Iraq had any effect on the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, the British newspaper The Independent had the final say. It reported on October 3 that Donald Rumsfeld's office commissioned a secret, internal "independent and critical review" of what went wrong with the relief effort. The Independent got their hands on a copy of the report. The conclusions: 1) the Bush administration diverted funds from flood control, 2) the relief effort would have gone much faster if Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard troops hadn't been tied up in Iraq, and 3) a local general was so worried about getting his troops ready for combat in Iraq that he refused to let them off base to help in the relief effort (many had to go AWOL or sneak off the base instead). The US press should be clamoring for a copy of this report, but so far not a peep.--M.T.

Just like with the Vietnam War, the War in Iraq has seen a lot more atrocities by US troops than will ever come to light in the US press or the memoirs and history books written years later. One memoir that has yet to see print in English is "Kill! Kill! Kill!" written by Jimmy Massey and Natasha Saulnier, which was recently published in France, the only place Massey could find a publisher. Massey, a staff sergeant for 12 years in the US Marines, served three months in Iraq in early 2003 before being honorably discharged with post-traumatic stress syndrome. In charge of a platoon in the 3rd Batallion of Regimental Combat Team 7, Massey witnessed the murder of more than 30 civilians by troops under his command. In one incident, his Marines shot and killed 9 Iraqi demonstrators; Massey himself fired about 12 shots at the unarmed demonstrators carrying banners that read "Go Home." The level of censorship in the US is so high that, unless you read French, you'll never have access to this important book.--M.T.