By Renato Redentor Constantino

Competing legacies of a single day. Infamous and immaculate: the bequests of the twenty fourth of May.

On the 24th of May 2004 issue of The Weekly Standard, the neocon wellspring of imperial wet dreams, chicken hawk editor general William Kristol asks a Bush administration reeling from the Abu Ghraib Prison body blow: "Are you a man or a mouse? Squeak up." At the White House, officials tuned in to Kristol’s crystal-clear prose stiffen their spines and responded, "We will not be cowed. We’re staying the course!" Along with Richard Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and other Bush administration stalwarts, Kristol was a signatory to the Project New American Century document issued in 1998 calling for America to invade Iraq.

By John Catalinotto

New York

Thirteen international jurors at a session of the World Tribunal o­n Iraq (WTI) held here at Cooper Union May 8 found the U.S. government guilty of war crimes. Their decision followed a full day of presentations establishing both the existence of a body of law defining these war crimes and dramatic eyewitness accounts demonstrating U.S. guilt.

A year ago anti-war activists worldwide began to discuss holding the WTI, basing it o­n the Bertrand Russell Tribunal o­n Vietnam held in 1967.

Turkish activists organized a meeting in the fall of 2003 in Istanbul, which began to set an international framework for holding hearings of people's tribunals.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO FROM THE IRAQ SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN-PHILIPPINES

4 June 2004

Your Excellency:

Assuming the presidency of the United Nations Security Council is a proud and momentous occasion for the Philippines. But it is also an immense responsibility and a rare opportunity for our country to influence the course of events in the world today. As Filipinos, we share in relishing this moment and, as citizens of the international community, we welcome this duty to make difficult decisions affecting global peace and security. As we fulfill our role, let us bear in mind that our actions in the Security Council should not just represent the will and voice of the Filipino people, but likewise of the entire international community.