The phrase "illegal war on Iraq" is being bandied about a fair bit. Greenpeace, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Canadian MP Svend Robinson (NDP) and Australian Senator Andrew Bartlett (Democrat), to name but a few from a long list, use the phrase as if there is no question about this war's legal status. Is this realistic? I think not.

For openers, where did this notion spring from that war is, by default, illegal in the first place? Possibly this is based on a narrow reading of Article 2 of the UN Charter, and especially the third principle by which the UN and its members are supposed to operate, which reads:

All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

If history—especially that of the Cold War—teaches us anything, it's that peace (if we take peace to simply mean "the absence of armed conflict") and justice have an annoying tendency of being mutually exclusive.

NO CAMERAS - Weblog Entry - 03/24/2003:

The Sound of Things to Come
By MARSHALL SELLA

No one ever notices what's going on at a Radio Shack. Outside a lonely branch of the electronics store, on a government-issue San Diego day in a strip mall where no one is noticing much of anything, a bluff man with thinning, ginger hair and preternaturally white teeth is standing on the pavement, slowly waving a square metal plate toward people strolling in the distance. ''Watch that lady over there,'' he says, unable to conceal his boyish pride for the gadget in his giant hand. ''This is really cool.''

Woody Norris aims the silvery plate at his quarry. A burly brunette 200 feet away stops dead in her tracks and peers around, befuddled. She has walked straight into the noise of a Brazilian rain forest -- then out again. Even in her shopping reverie, here among the haircutters and storefront tax-preparers and dubious Middle Eastern bistros, her senses inform her that she has just stepped through a discrete column of sound, a sharply demarcated beam of unexpected sound. ''Look at that,'' Norris mutters, chuckling as the lady turns around. ''She doesn't know what hit her.''

Norris is demonstrating something called HyperSonic Sound (HSS). The aluminum plate is connected to a CD player and an odd amplifier -- actually, a very odd and very new amplifier -- that directs sound much as a laser beam directs light. Over the past few years, mainly in secret, he has shown the device to more than 300 major companies, and it has slackened a lot of jaws. In December, the editors of Popular Science magazine bestowed upon HSS its grand prize for new inventions of 2002, choosing it over the ferociously hyped Segway scooter. It is no exaggeration to say that HSS represents the first revolution in acoustics since the loudspeaker was invented 78 years ago -- and perhaps only the second since pilgrims used ''whispering tubes'' to convey their dour messages.

The Sound of Things to Come

Japanese Technology May Help Islands Reap Pacific's Waters

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

YOTO, Japan, March 22 — A number of Pacific island nations are discussing using new Japanese technology that can both desalinate seawater for drinking and produce electricity by exploiting the difference in temperatures between the surface of the sea and the depths of the ocean.

The Republic of Palau in the western Pacific is working with Saga University in southern Japan to build a system that can produce enough drinking water to meet the needs of its 20,000 residents, while producing electricity, said the country's president, Tommy Remengesau Jr.

Japanese Technology May Help Islands Reap Pacific's Waters

quoted:
===

San Francisco -- The anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco have proved to be a powerful magnet, drawing law-breaking protesters from as far south as Mexico, as far north as Washington state and as far east as Connecticut -- but only a minority from the city itself, arrest records show.

"Call them tourists with a cause," said Dewayne Tulley, a spokesman for the Police Department.

Officials provided a snapshot Monday of those arrested in the first two days of street-closing demonstrations last week following the start of the U.S.

war on Iraq.

Of the 646 processed by the Sheriff's Department Thursday and Friday, 239, or 37 percent, gave San Francisco addresses. The rest, almost two-thirds, came from out of town.

WAR ON IRAQ: The Home Front / Majority arrested don't live in S.F.

] SAN FRANCISCO -- While protesters against the War in Iraq
] attempted to jam busy downtown streets, police attired in
] fashionable riot gear have implemented a new tactic to
] stem the flow and demoralize the crowds.

Quiet Riot Police iRock Iraq Protesters With iPods.

B A G H D A D, Iraq, March 21 — Three top Iraqi leaders — including Saddam Hussein's cousin, the infamous "Chemical Ali" — are believed to have been killed in what would be a major blow to the regime's defense against the U.S.-led onslaught, CIA officials told ABCNEWS.

ABCNEWS.com : Three Key Leaders Believed Killed in Baghdad

BAGDAD GETS CHUMPED WIF CRAZY BOMBS.

NIGGAS GETTIN' BLASTED

quoted:

Yesterday I received an email from Paul Boutin of Slate, asking me to call him, to discuss whether Salam Pax is a real person. I fully understand why journalists have to be skeptical. There's a ton of liars out there, and the Internet is the perfect vehicle for con artists.

This morning I received several emails asking me the same thing: is Salam for real?

Full disclosure: I have a tendency to judge things and people immediately, and then to draw back. I immediately felt that Salam was for real. But...after that, I had my doubts. I never thought that he was a CIA front. Would the CIA have been clever enough to think up a hip dude who speaks quite good English and German?

I went though a period suspecting that he was a Mossad agent. Really. When I rejected that theory, I suspected that he was a Lebanese in London with an intimate familiarity of Baghdad, having a fine old time at my and other people's expense. I pictured him and his friends posting this stuff from London, laughing uproariously at the stupidity of those gullible Americans. I've had my doubts, so I can't blame anyone else for having them.

But over the past six or so months that we've been corresponding, my doubts have evaporated. Completely. OK, there's a chance this could be a hoax but I'm willing to look like an asshole and say that my doubts have totally evaporated.

Letter From Gotham: IS SALAM PAX REAL?

Welcome to ProtestWarrior.com, a website created to help arm the liberty-loving Silent Majority with ammo -- ammo that strikes at the intellectual solar plexus of the Left.

Encouraged by our successful crashing of the February 16th San Francisco anti-war protest, we decided it was time for the Left to put down their megaphones, peel off their bumper stickers, and listen to the people who believe in the core values of this country. It's time to start making a little noise...

ProtestWarrior.com - fighting the left... doing it right

Iraqis appear to fire banned missiles
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press

The very missiles Saddam Hussein fired at U.S. forces in Kuwait
appear to have been the same weapons he either claimed not to possess or agreed to destroy.

U.S., British and Kuwait military officials said Iraq fired at least three missiles Thursday - though they differed on how many of them were Scuds.

AP Wire | 03/20/2003 | Iraqis appear to fire banned missiles