U.S. Government

"If nothing else, the Bush administration has succeeded in making 'Should we attack Iraq?' the most-considered political question in the US today," observes PR Week.

"A secret blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001. The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff).

Nancy Snow, author of Propaganda, Inc. and the upcoming Information War: American Propaganda, Opinion Control and Free Speech Since 9/11, gives a broad-ranging interview about how the current U.S. propaganda war is playing out. "Since World War I, advertising has mixed with selling war, foreign aid, and even cultural exchanges. ... This is what the U.S. is to the world—the ultimate salesman," she says. "We appear to the world like the world's Barnum & Bailey, and remember what P.T.

"Yes, the secretary of state is a 'moderate' -- compared to the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld," Media Beat columnist Normon Solomon writes. "But that's not saying much. And history tells us, even if the press won't, that Powell does not have a record as a man of conscience. ... Instead of undermining prospects for a military conflagration, Powell's outsized prestige is a very useful asset for the war planners.