Running scared? The swift and relentless nature of the Bush administration's attacks on its former counterintelligence chief, Richard Clarke, suggests two things, writes The Guardian: "his story may be largely true, and the Bush administration is terrified that the American people will believe it." Plus: "Richard Clarke KOs the Bushies."

With allies like these... Aljazeera.net reports that Israel fabricated the story of a 14-year old Palestinian would-be suicide bomber that made the cover of The New York Times yesterday. And the US just shot down a UN resolution that would've censured Israel for its illegal assassination of Hamas leader Yassin (on grounds that it's too "one-sided"), despite nearly universal condemnation heaped on Sharon from as far away as Venezuela and Japan to the UN's own Kofi Annan.

Caribbean Chaos: The 15-country Caribbean Community is urging the UN to open an investigation into allegations that the US kidnapped Haiti's democratically elected president, then made it look like a coup. And, now that Jean-Bertrand Aristide is back in the hemisphere, an irate Condi Rice is threatening Jamaica for giving him a temporary home. The Caribbean Community is also considering rejecting the US-backed government in Haiti.

Chomskyblog: Noam Chomsky has just launched a new blog at ZNet, Turning the Tide, and Doc Searles writes about the "technically clueful" Bush blog.

Condi's priorities: John Nichols wonders why Condi Rice doesn't have time to testify publicly before the 9/11 commission yet she can cozy up with Rupert Murdoch during secretive sessions with Fox execs?

Free Culture, free: Stanford law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig is offering his newest book, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity as a free PDF.