Although it may appear that many US citizens support the agenda of the Bush regime, there is a growing resistance to the White House imperative.

Millions of Americans marched against the war in hundreds of cities throughout the country over the weekend.

Please remember too, that many people in the US perceive George W Bush (Jr) as an illegitimate president.

We did not elect him. The Supreme Court chose him by default.

The court simply gave up, relinquishing their critical role in the 'checks and balances' of this tripartite system of government.

To many of us, Bush is the 'president select' and not the president elect.

In fact, there is a broad-based effort at this time to bring articles of impeachment against Bush, Vice-president Dick Cheney, and their minions.

While there are still many who blindly go along with the president's imperialistic agenda, I would caution readers throughout the world to remember - we are prisoners of this government, if not literally, at least in the metaphorical sense.

Many are blinded by the simplistic myth of American 'goodness' and all the media around us perpetuate the American myth.

However, some of us clearly see that we are losing the most cherished of our sovereign rights - freedoms granted by the United States Constitution have been deconstructed by the Patriot Act and the new Patriot Act 2 just passed by Congress.

We have not yet felt the full impact of this legislation but many of us realise that speaking out could bring us a great deal of trouble.

For many years I have been a prison reform activist. In the last decade, the US prison population has doubled. We have the highest rate of imprisonment in the world. We imprison two million people currently, more than Russia, more than China.

More prisons are being built throughout the nation, and indeed, throughout the world. We refer to this phenomenon as the 'prison industrial complex'.

Global corporatisation at the most draconian level, the privatisation of prisons is an issue of unprecedented concern for the whole world.

These corporate jails were begun in the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's with the assistance and leadership of many former CIA and FBI operatives.

These companies have private security forces that employ more generals (retired US military) than the Pentagon. It is estimated that as many as 600,000 soldiers are 'employed' by these firms.

Wackenhut, o­ne of the largest of the corporate prisons (recently bought out by the Danish Group 4 Falk), began as a 'security' company and broadened its business to include private prisons. Now they are training soldiers as well.

I believe that in the coming years, the Bush regime, with it's new 'homeland security' office and an unchecked ability to 'spy' o­n ordinary citizens, will seek to stem the tide of resistance by finding ways to imprison more of us who are willing to criticise and speak out against our government.

Though I write to you following a weekend of demonstrating against Bush and the impending catastrophe he is inciting, I am afraid.

I am afraid for my family, for my friends and for all the American people still willing to take a stand and say, "No war in my name'.

I say, let the leaders fight it out. Bush and Saddam should both resign - we need a 'regime change' too!