Mother Jones

President Bush's May 2003 announcement aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that "major combat operations" had ended in Iraq has been replayed endlessly. What is less well remembered is just what the president claimed the United States had accomplished. "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001," he declared. The defeat of Saddam Hussein, he told the American people, was "a crucial advance in the campaign against terror." In fact,… more

When President Bush unveiled his plans for a hydrogen-powered car in his State of the Union address in January, he proposed $1.2 billion in spending to develop a revolutionary automobile that will be "pollution-free." The new vehicle, he declared, will rely on "a simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen" to power a car "producing only water, not exhaust fumes." Within 20 years, the president vowed, fuel-cell cars will "make our air significantly cleaner, and our country much less dependent… more

You can buy a plastic-bound copy of the Venezuelan Constitution for 60 cents, a leather-clad copy for $3, a coffee-table edition for $5. Not that you really need a copy of your own, since someone standing near you on the subway in Caracas will have one in his pocket. Or you can always listen to one of the ongoing debates at a downtown park. "Look at this article," someone will shout, and a half dozen people will flip through the… more

Bill Roche was so close to his dream job. An overachieving police officer in a Bay Area suburb, Roche had made detective while still in his 20s. Confident that his law-enforcement resume was sufficiently impressive after seven years on the force, he applied to become a U.S. Secret Service agent in 1997. Throughout the yearlong selection process, his interviewers lauded him as an excellent candidate. But before he could earn his earpiece and Ray-Bans, there was one last detail to… more

The full-page ads that Siebel Systems began running in Beltway publications like Government Executive last January were certainly eye-catching. "Who Are the Mohammed Attas of Tomorrow?" the headline asked, accompanied by a grainy surveillance photo of the September 11 hijacker passing unhindered through airport security in Portland, Maine. The copy pitched the software giant's new data-sharing product, Siebel Solutions for Homeland Security, as a tool for officials seeking to combat terrorism: "With Siebel, they can better monitor, analyze, and share… more

Word of the hidden epidemic began spreading in the spring of 2001. Local newscasts around the country reported that as many as 10 million Americans suffered from an unrecognized disease. Viewers were urged to watch for the symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, nausea, diarrhea, and sweating, among others. Many of the segments featured sound bites from Sonja Burkett, a patient who'd finally received treatment after two years trapped at home by the illness, and from Dr.… more

With America on full alert for the foreseeable future, interest in biometric scanners -- devices that verify a person's identity by measuring unique features such as nasal curvature, iris patterns, or hand shape -- has been booming. But civil liberties watchdogs, privacy advocates, and even some security gurus warn that the devices are less effective than advertised and that the personal data they generate could easily be misused.

Currently, biometric tools are primarily marketed as "smart locks" to prevent trespassers from… more

Early last December, as the postelection fracas neared its end, the conservative Progress and Freedom Foundation hosted a one-day Washington conference on the future of communications. The event drew a Who's Who of telecom lobbyists, elite members of prestigious K Street firms that represent companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Viacom, The top draw was a keynote speech by Michael K. Powell, a member of the Federal Communications Commission who was widely expected to become the agency's next chairman.

The high-powered… more

Media executives and TV addicts alike have been celebrating the advent of interactive television, like TiVo and Microsoft's UltimateTV. But the technology has the potential of… more

Financial woes dogged Stewart Wilson throughout the summer of 1996. A Naval petty officer in Jacksonville, Florida, Wilson was in the midst of a costly… more