U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recently launched a national campaign to dismiss growing criticism of the controversial USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law passed after the September 11 attacks. Speaking at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, Ashcroft said, "To abandon this tool would disconnect the dots, risk American lives and liberty, and reject Sept. 11th's lessons." The Department of Justice Patriot Act website is LifeandLiberty.gov.

"U.S. authorities have appointed a media commissioner to govern broadcasters and the press, establish training programs for journalists and plan for the establishment of a state-run radio and television network -- part of an effort to regulate Iraq's burgeoning news media while dodging allegations of heavy-handed control," the Washington Post's Daniel Williams reports. In June, the U.S. issued "guidelines" for all media outlets in Iraq, forbidding them from inciting violence or opposition to the occupation authority. "Occasionally, U.S.

New York Times reporter Judith Miller hasn't yet been able to provide any evidence since the war to support her breathless reporting about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but the "newspaper of record" has finally noticed Weapons of Mass Deception. The new book by PR Watch editors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber appears this week as #25 on the Times bestseller list for nonfiction paperbacks.