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Truthout.org headlines: 'Here are the Christians', Cindy Sheehan, more...

These are a few of today's headlines from Truthout.org:

William Fisher | Here Are the Christians!
William Fisher writes: "If religious extremism doesn't really represent the views of most Christians, the more progressive forces within Christianity - and Judaism and Islam - need to become as unified and aggressive and determined as those who have sadly become the public faces of these great faiths by hijacking. They need to do more to organize nationally, to raise substantial funds, and to be much more proactively media savvy."


The New York Times | The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein
The New York Times writes: "Toppling Saddam Hussein did not automatically create a new and better Iraq. Executing him won't either."

Defense Secretary Is Wary of Adding More Iraq Troops
With President Bush leaning toward sending more soldiers to pacify Iraq, his defense secretary is privately opposing the buildup.

Cindy Sheehan to Ramp Up "Peace Surge" After Arrest Thursday
"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan was arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch. Sheehan said she plans to become more "confrontational" and that it's time to "ramp up" peace efforts with a "peace surge." The five protesters, including Dede Miller, Gerry Fonsecca, Carl Rising-Moore and Jeri Reed, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a roadway. The group is expected to be bonded out of the McLennan County Jail today.

Medea Benjamin | Let's Toast to Ten Good Things About 2006
Medea Benjamin writes: "As we close this year on the low of a devastating conflict in Iraq and a president contemplating sending yet more troops to fight and die in an unwinnable war, let us not forget that it was a year of many positive gains for the progressive movement. Here are just ten ..."

Return of Warlords as Somali Capital Is Captured
Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies were wresting back control over Mogadishu as Islamist fighters, surrounded and outgunned, fled in convoy early in the morning towards the southern port city of Kismayo.

Ed Pilkington | The "Untouchables" of US Science
Ed Pilkington writes, "George Bush issued a presidential decree banning the use of federal funds for research on new human embryonic stem cell lines.... Dr. Eggan and his team were able to carry on their work only because Harvard was committed to it and wealthy enough to fund it privately. But overnight, the ban turned them into the equivalent of dogs suspected of carrying rabies. Everything they did or touched, from high-tech equipment down to paperclips and the electricity used in the building, had to be quarantined from federally funded labs around them."

VIDEO | Army Targets Truthout for Subpoenas in Watada Case
In a case that cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment, a US Army prosecutor has indicated he intends to subpoena Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash, a Truthout reporter, and two of the nonprofit news organization's regular contributors, to authenticate news reports they produced and edited earlier this year that quoted an Army officer criticizing President Bush and the White House's rationale for the Iraq War.

posted by Annamarie at 11:38 PM