 |
||
|
|
|
|
 | ||
 |
||
| ||
 |
||
| ||
 |
||
US Military in Paraguay Prepares To “Spread Dem."
Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the U.S. military is conducting secretive operations. 500 U.S. troops arrived in the country on July 1st with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which is 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia and may be utilized by the U.S. military. Officials in Paraguay claim the military operations are routine humanitarian efforts and deny that any plans are underway for a U.S. base. Yet human rights groups in the area are deeply worried. White House officials are using rhetoric about terrorist threats in the tri-border region (where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet) in order to build their case for military operations, in many ways reminiscent to the build up to the invasion of Iraq. Continued here...
Radioactive Wounds of War
Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of depleted uranium use in Iraq: Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate, Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had tested positive. Continued here...
Charmaine Neville's New Orleans Story
Horror and Heroism
The singer's five days in hell. It is just one more tale -- although one of the most horrific -- that everyone ought to ponder in considering which officials and agencies failed in their hurricane rescue and relief mission, from the top down, in a depraved disregard for life.
Continued here...
Bush Lied When Asked about Brown's Resignation
President George W. Bush lied outright to reporters in Mississippi Monday when he claimed he did not know embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown resigned. (Our ‘moral’ president lied again? Nooooo! He never stopped lying.) Continued here...
Global Warming “Past the Point of No Return”
A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Continued here...
No War but Class War!
I am not African American. Neither are most of my friends and coworkers. It may then surprise our ruling class, of both parties, that we saw our own faces, our own children, our own unburied, bloating, dead loved ones in the streets of New Orleans. Continued here...
Cuba:Education Focus Shifts fr Quantity to Quality
Universal primary education, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000, has been a reality in Cuba for so long that it essentially taken for granted, leading both parents and the authorities to shift their attention to the quality of education received by Cuban schoolchildren. Continued here...
The Fallout of a Can't-Do Presidency
The world looks on in stunned amazement, unable to understand how a once great nation has grown so indifferent not just to its poor and its minorities but even to the most rudimentary self-preservation. As a matter of social policy, the catastrophic lack of response in New Orleans is exceptional only in its scale and immediacy. When it comes to caring for our fellow countrymen, we all know that America has never ranked very high. We are, of course, the only democracy in the developed world that doesn't offer health care to its citizens as a matter of right. We rank 34th among nations in infant mortality rates, behind such rival superpowers as Cyprus, Andorra and Brunei. Continued here...
Follow the Money for the Real Story
Consumer groups and progressive congress-folks have joined in an effort to stop hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina from being further harmed by the new bankruptcy law, scheduled to take effect Oct. 17. This law was written of, by and for the consumer credit industry and is particularly onerous for the poor. The bill was passed with massive support from the Republican leadership in Congress and from a disgusting number of sellout Democrats. While it was being considered in committee earlier this year, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) offered an amendment to protect victims of natural disasters. It was defeated, without debate, on a party-line vote. Continued here...
A Warning from the Big Apple to the Big Easy
The lessons from the toxic fallout unleashed by the collapse of the World Trade Center, and the lack of proper governmental response, should serve as a lesson to the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The parallels between the two cases are eerie. Continued here...
Weldon: Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders
A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday. Continued here...
Candidate Killed: Taliban urge Afghan poll boycott
The Taliban warned the Afghan people on Friday not to take part in elections this weekend, saying they could get hurt, after gunmen believed to be from the group killed a candidate, the seventh so far. Continued here...
CIA Leak Invest. Warns Against Document Release
The Justice Department and the special counsel investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity pressed Congress to block legislation that would compel the administration to turn over documents related to the case. Continued here...
Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals
Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Continued here...
Family Planning Subtracted from MDG Equation
"The omission of a direct reference to population and family planning in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals was not an oversight, but rather a deliberate calculation," Werner Fornos, president of the Washington-based Population Institute, told IPS. He said the reasons were both religious and political – "an effort to placate voodoo evangelists and rightwing politicians in the United States". The conspicuous absence of these "vital interventions" is the result of a compromise to win the support of the George W. Bush administration in Washington and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy in the Vatican, Fornos said. Continued here...
Rep McKinney Special Order Censored?
The Senate is covering its’ see/hear/speak-no-evil head—pretending that it does not exist if they agree to fudge the historical record. This is tantamount to censorship by omission and commission by our government—by the people we elect to represent “we the people”. Are these the kind of people we want representing our interests, or have we hired them to do the work of the lobbyists? Continued here...
Lies of Omission
By Dom Stasi
In journalism, ignoring a story is tantamount to lying. A lie of omission is no less a lie. Truth is a commodity too long abused if not abandoned altogether in the mainstream American press, especially so in its treatment of the human catastrophe that is the Bush presidency. Continued here...
It's Accountability Time
Each and every one of us must ask ourselves whether are we happy with the people we have currently empowered to represent us. If the answer is no, then we must make sure that in the coming year we do everything in our power to identify those who have failed us, Republican and Democrat alike, and replace them with those who represent the will of the people, and not the will of special interests. If we fail to act, and America is once again struck by a calamity, whether it be an act of God here at home, or an act of illegitimate aggression abroad, we will have only ourselves to blame. Continued here...
Bush is the real threat
By Tony Benn
The Middle East faces a crisis that could dwarf even the dangers arising from the war in Iraq. –Now that the US president has announced that he has not ruled out an attack on Iran, if it does not abandon its nuclear programme, the Middle East faces a crisis that could dwarf even the dangers arising from the war in Iraq.
Continued here...
Soldiers, Cops Muzzle Reporters in Wake of Katrina
The fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from leaving (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history. Continued here...
Corporate Media Ignores US Hypocrisy on War Crimes
By Peter Phillips
These stories show how corporate media likes to give the impression that the US government is working diligently to root out evil doers around the world and to build democracy and freedom. This theme is part of a core ideological message in support of our recent wars on Panama, Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Governmental spin transmitted by a willing US media establishes simplistic mythologies of good vs. evil often leaving out historical context, special transnational corporate interests, and prior strategic relationships with the dreaded evil ones.
The hypocrisy of US policy and corporate media complicity is evident in the coverage of Donald Rumsfeld's stop over in Mazar-e Sharif Afghanistan December 4 to meet with regional warlord and mass killer General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his rival General Ustad Atta Mohammed. Rumsfeld was there to finalize a deal with the warlords to begin the decommissioning of their military forces in exchange for millions of dollars in international aid and increased power in the central Afghan government.
Continued here...
Students call rescue efforts disgraceful
3 Duke students saw a story about Hurricane Katrina on CNN and decided to get in their car go. Using phony press passes to gain access to the city, they were able to save 7 people who were receiving no help from the authorities, and, in a two-wheel drive Hyundai, it took them only 20 minutes to get from a National Guard checkpoint to the convention center. How is it that 3 college students were able to get into New Orleans and get people out yet the National Guard has thus far not been able to accomplish the same feat? (for a full transcript of their CNN interview visit Continued here...
Exploiting September 11th
The American people may be wising up to the deception of the Bush administration. They are grasping at straws now to regain support for the war. They are now even admitting that they need to protect the oil. Let us all hope that the people don’t buy into this charade and that we reject the latest attempt to exploit our fears. Continued here...
Spy chief warns of civil liberties sacrifice
Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5 director-general - “The world has changed and there needs to be a debate on whether some erosion of what we all value may be necessary to improve the chances of our citizens not being blown apart as they go about their daily lives,” she said. Continued here...
Blackwater ops, coming to a theater near you.
The use of the term “CONUS” indicates the emotionless apathetic efficiency of mercenaries compared to the more classical “patriotic” soldier. I suspect we will be hearing a lot more from Blackwater, their scope of operations seem unlimited and they operate without any form of oversight or official authority. Looks like they all get 007 cars with no number plates in Iraq, to go with their $350 a day paycheck in New Orleans. Continued here...
Looting By Any Other Name
The Profit-Driven War
We had a war because there are powerful interests in our country that are geared toward making money from war. How? Let us count the ways.
Continued here...
'My Pet Goat' -- The Sequel
This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit. While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall failure of leadership in this week’s hurricane's disaster, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty. (The cure is impeachment.) Continued here...
US Forces Active in Philippines
The US military has been providing anti-terrorist training and weapons to Philippine troops. It also has conducted covert surveillance missions across Mindanao, military officials said. Continued here...
India: For Rural Women Self-help Is Best
Tackling issues like female illiteracy became easy once the women in this remote village on the Tibetan border in picturesque Uttaranchal state decided that they were closely linked to the shiftlessness of the men folk coupled with their ruinous drinking habits. Continued here...
Canada probes 1960s Agent Orange tests
In the 1960s, at the request of the United States military, Agents Orange and Purple—very toxic and lethal herbicides used in the Vietnam War—were tested on a wooded area in CFB Gagetown, a Canadian military base located in the province of New Brunswick This project was top secret until the 1980s, and only recently has the Canadian government conceded that “soldiers, civilian contractors and local residents may have been exposed to the agents and as a result may have suffered health problems.” An investigation has now been launched to determine how many have been affected by the testing. Continued here...
Bombs rattle Bangladeshi cities
More than 100 small bombs shook Bangladesh on Wednesday as a series of near-simultaneous attacks killed two people, injured at least 125 and sparked widespread panic, police and news reports said. Continued here...
Secrets of the morgue - Baghdad's body count
July was the bloodiest month in Baghdad’s modern history – in all, 1,100 bodies were brought to the city’s mortuary; executed for the most part, eviscerated, stabbed, bludgeoned, tortured to death. The figure is secret. We are not supposed to know that the Iraqi capital’s death toll last month was only 700 short of the total American fatalities in Iraq since April of 2003. Continued here...
Bolivia: Indigenous Lands Turn to Desert
Forty-five percent of Bolivian territory is undergoing a relentless process of desertification, with agricultural, forestry and infrastructure losses valued at more than 500 million dollars a year – and it is taking a particular toll on the indigenous communities of the high plains. Continued here...
New Abuse Photos Could Spark Riots, US Gen. Warns
In response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and a number of medical and veterans groups demanding release of 87 new videos and photographs depicting detainee abuse at the now infamous prison, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said the release would result in ”riots, violence and attacks by insurgents.” He believes the release of the photos would ”incite public opinion in the Muslim world and put the lives of American soldiers and officials at risk,” according to documents unsealed in federal court in New York. Continued here...
Blaming the Antiwar Messengers
They called Martin Luther King Jr. a demagogue – The surge of antiwar voices in U.S. media this month has coincided with new lows in public approval for what pollsters call President Bush’s “handling” of the Iraq war. After more than two years of a military occupation that was supposed to be a breeze after a cakewalk into Baghdad, the war has become a clear PR loser. But an unpopular war can continue for a long time—and one big reason is that the military-industrial-media complex often finds ways to blunt the effectiveness of its most prominent opponents. Continued here...
Get Ready for World War III
Bush can ignore the American public, because the Democrats, have completely collapsed as an opposition party. – Israel’s Likud government is Bush’s last remaining ally in his war against "Islamic terrorism." Israel, which is loaded with nuclear weapons and is not a signatory to the nuclear pacts, is the accuser against Iran, asserting that Iran’s nuclear energy program is just a veil behind which to produce weapons. Continued here...
Israeli Spy Affair: US analyst plead not guilty
A Pentagon analyst and two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense information. Continued here...
Secrets of The Federal Reserve - Real Audio
A compelling and telling synopsis of the biggest scam ever devised by the ultra wealthy to enslave every citizen and ultimately bankrupt the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, it is called the Federal Reserve System. There is nothing Federal about it and there are no reserves. It is time to get educated about the single most important issue facing this Republic. You will find the renowned economist Eustace Mullins’ findings about our banking system and money scam staggering. A must listen presentation! Continued here...
Iran and China discuss defense cooperation
Commander of the Ground Forces of the Iranian Army, Brigadier General Nasser Mohammadi Far – “Our mutual enemies possess advanced military technology, and undoubtedly they would rely on this technology in any possible future wars. Therefore, it seems necessary that both Iran and China upgrade their defense and military technology.” Continued here...
Psychological trauma widespread in Iraq
One of Iraq’s top psychiatrists says that more than two years of war, occupation and insurgency have turned the country into possibly the most psychologically damaged place in the world. Continued here...
The Wal-Mart Thought Police
As you have probably heard, the “everyday low prices” at these concrete boxes of utopian consumption have tremendous costs for our environment, our workers, our wages, our communities, and the public coffers. But they also come at the expense of free speech and artistic expression, as the corporation targets items that often include progressive criticism of conservative values. Continued here...
Grim Iraq reality dawns for Bush
The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to US officials. America no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society where most people are free from serious security or economic challenges. Continued here...
Gunning for College
What should you have to sacrifice to get a college education in the United States? Isn’t it hard enough to get good grades and high SAT scores? Should you have to risk your life as well? As back-to-school season gears up, a lot of American high schools evidently don’t think so. A growing number of parents and high schools are taking steps to limit military recruiters’ access to students. Continued here...
Al-Qaeda, a Secret Service Operation?
Turkish intelligence specialists agree that there is no such organization as al-Qaeda. Rather, Al-Qaeda is the name of a secret service operation. Continued here...
U.S. Troops in Azerbaijan?
Whatever the outcome of Rumsfeld’s upcoming visit to Baku, the geopolitical battle between the United States and Russia in the South Caucasus and Azerbaijan’s struggle to accommodate both will continue to intensify. The main question is whether or not the Azerbaijani government will be able to balance the interests of both states effectively or will simply favor one power over the other. The second choice would involve some geopolitical risks and would have critical consequences for the future of Azerbaijan. Continued here...
UK warns of third terror attack on London
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke has warned terrorists could be planning a third attack on London. Continued here...
Petrodollar Warfare
Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse
Contemporary warfare has traditionally involved underlying conflicts regarding economics and resources. Today these intertwined conflicts also involve international currencies, and thus increased complexity. Current geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran extend beyond the publicly stated concerns regarding Iran's nuclear intentions, and likely include a proposed Iranian "petroeuro" system for oil trade. Similar to the Iraq war, military operations against Iran relate to the macroeconomics of 'petrodollar recycling' and the unpublicized but real challenge to U.S. dollar supremacy from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. Continued here...
London bombings: the truth emerges
Surprise, surprise, there is no major “terror-network” behind the 07/07 bombings or the behind the 21/07 attacks. There are no “hallmarks of an al-Qaeda-related attack” as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw once claimed and there is no al-Qaeda “mastermind” behind the plot. Continued here...
How Senate Chmn Roberts Fixed Intelligence on Iraq
One reason among many that the US Senate and Congress have been unable or unwilling to fight the Bush administration on Iraq is that the Republican leadership, chairs of key committees, and so forth, are actively blocking meaningful investigations. No senator better represents this trend than Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas. The following article examines in detail his role in covering up evidence and obstructing investigations into the so-called WMD intelligence that ultimately lead to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Continued here...
Privatizing the Drug War inside the U.S.
So the DEA is actually considering privatizing parts of the ‘war on drugs’. My bet is on Halliburton for the contracts, seeing as they have so much experience with drug shipment anyway. While at face value this seems rather innocent and almost not worth mention, the ramifications of private firms becoming involved with federal law enforcement are staggering. Recent months have witnessed stories exposing private companies and organizations for digging up personal data and even ‘intelligence’ on American citizens and turning it over to the Federal Government. What happens if the checkpoints, house raids and other enforcement techniques now being used to persecute the American people are privatized? There will be even less recourse for those of us who’s lives have been interrupted and even derailed because of the CIA’s wish for slush funds. Ramifications past the drug war are also staggering. What if private companies are ‘contracted’ to check out your library card records, or to execute a search warrant? Will corporations be deputized into traffic enforcement? Even if you’re the most anti-drug tight-ass on the planet, this could potentially have serious consequences for you too. We should all be worried by this. Read carefully in the coming months…. Continued here...
Bolivians Struggle for Democracy
The recent crisis that forced the resignation of Bolivia’s second president in less than two years stems from a much deeper problem that is plaguing the entire Latin American region: namely, what is best for the people and who decides? Bolivians have watched as their politicians courted Enron and other corrupt foreign corporations, and allowed them to take ownership of the country’s most valuable resource – natural gas. As the world’s energy giants were logging record profits, the people of Bolivia were becoming poorer, hungrier and more desperate.
Continued here...
Iran is not trying for an A-Bomb
The UN nuclear watchdog is preparing to publish evidence that Iran is not engaged in a nuclear weapons programme, undermining a warning of possible military action from President George Bush. Continued here...
Election Fraud Continues in the US
New Data Shows Widespread Vote Manipulations in 2004 – New research compiled by Dr. Dennis Loo with the University of Cal Poly Pomona now shows that extensive manipulation of non-paper-trail voting machines occurred in several states during the 2004 election. The facts are as follows: In 2004 Bush far exceeded the 85% of registered Florida Republican votes that he got in 2000, receiving more than 100% of the registered Republican votes in 47 out of 67 Florida counties, 200% of registered Republicans in 15 counties, and over 300% of registered Republicans in 4 counties. Bush managed these remarkable outcomes despite the fact that his share of the crossover votes by registered Democrats in Florida did not increase over 2000, and he lost ground among registered Independents, dropping 15 points. We also know that Bush "won" Ohio by 51-48%, but statewide results were not matched by the court-supervised hand count of the 147,400 absentee and provisional ballots in which Kerry received 54.46% of the vote. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio the number of recorded votes was more than 93,000 greater than the number of registered voters. Continued here...
Judge Fines Voices in the Wilderness $20K
Today, the judiciary branch of the U.S. government upheld a $20,000 fine against Voices in the Wilderness for bringing medicine to Iraqi citizens. The judge agrees in essence that it was lawful and proper for the U.S. government to deny needed drugs and medical supplies to Iraq’s most vulnerable citizens, despite the evidence that several hundred thousand innocent children were dying because of brutal economic sanctions. Continued here...
Ultimate Goal of Corporations in America
Gaining Control of Universities
If you were to find colleges and universities in the USA talking to students about the hazards of war, that would be a rare exception. US big corporations, particularly those linked with the war industry are trying to portray the fighting of wars as a sign or “patriotism and bravery!”
Continued here...
What's the Best Way to “Support Our Troops”?
“Support our troops” is a stealth and deceptive slogan. It’s the slogan de jour of demagogues and those that deny that it’s the duty of Americans to question their government especially when it is lying to them. It’s a way of depoliticizing the war and personalizing a crusade. The Defense Department, military recruiters, veterans groups and right-wing media outlets use this patriotically correct mantra shamelessly in a change the subject maneuver for sympathy, and to bait critics and bolster misguided patriotism. Continued here...
Chavez makes US oil export threat
He described recent US government actions as “aggressive” in a speech at a youth festival in Caracas. As a result, Venezuelan oil “instead of going to the United States, could go elsewhere,” he said. Venezuela exports about 1.3 million barrels a day to the US and is the world’s fifth largest oil producer. Continued here...
From permafrost to permatan, Alaska basks in heat
If Americans are clamoring to beat the heat this summer, they had better not do the obvious and travel to Alaska. For the second summer in a row, the glacier state has been baking under sweltering skies, stirring anxieties about global warming and its impact on the polar region. August is meant to be a scorcher in Dallas but not in Fairbanks, where temperatures yesterday were in the mid-80s Fahrenheit (high 20s Celsius). The weather has been clear and hot over almost all of Alaska for the past week, due to an intense high pressure dome that is reluctant to move on. Continued here...
Contractors, military in 'bidding war'
The U.S. military has hired private companies at a cost approaching $1 billion to help dispose of Saddam Hussein's arsenal in Iraq. That spending has created fierce competition for specialized workers that's draining the military's ranks of explosives experts. Experienced military explosives specialists can earn $250,000 a year or more working for the private companies. In the military, an enlisted man with 10 years' experience can make more than $46,000. The better pay from private companies has led troops to sign on with contractors when their service ends and has aggravated tensions between military and civilian workers in Iraq. Continued here...
US-led emissions pact seen as Kyoto rival
The USA are leading an effort to undermine the Kyoto Protocol by making a new agreement called the “Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate” which emphasizes the voluntary use of clean technology and has no legally binding emission targets. The US and Australia have the largest per-capita Carbon Dioxide emissions in the world and have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol because they claim it would be damaging to their economies. Latest estimates predict that by 2100, the temperature may have increased by up to 10ºC which would have a devastating effect on all life on Earth. Continued here...
1 Million Iraqis say "US Out"!
The people of Iraq don’t want us there. The people of Iraq never wanted us there. They were and are glad to be rid of Saddam, but not at the price they have been forced to pay under US and coalition occupation. The country is in chaos, and the occupation is the cause. It certainly isn’t the solution. Though it appears unlikely, it’s time to bring our boys and girls home. But it has been that time for a long time now. Continued here...
Secret Memo—Send to Be Tortured
A Pentagon spokesman said the Defense Department does not engage in renditions, but officials have confirmed that 65 detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo for further detention or prosecution by foreign governments, including 29 to Pakistan, seven to Russia, five to Morocco and four to Saudi Arabia—countries the State Department criticizes for practicing torture. Continued here...
When They Knew
A source familiar with the memo says neither Powell nor Armitage spoke to the White House about it until after July 6. John McLaughlin, then deputy head of the CIA, confirms that the White House asked about the Wilson trip, but can’t remember exactly when. One thing he’s sure of, says McLaughlin, who has been interviewed by prosecutors, is that “we looked into it and found the facts of it, and passed it on.” Continued here...
Many GIs to Have Pay Immediately Reduced
A five-year-old Department of Defense policy that allowed military service members to retain higher housing allowances even when they moved to cheaper neighborhoods will be abruptly changed tomorrow, in many cases without the affected families being notified ahead of time. For example, a service member with family members in San Diego currently drawing the basic housing allowance (BAH) for living off-base will now draw the allowance for living on Camp Pendleton, and stands to lose $422 a month. Continued here...
War on Terror, Rest in Peace
The "War on Terror" is no more. It has been replaced by the "global struggle against violent extremism.” The phrase "War on Terror" was chosen with care. "War" is a crucial term. It evokes a war frame, and with it, the idea that the nation is under military attack -- an attack that can only be defended militarily, by use of armies, planes, bombs, and so on. The war frame includes special war powers for the president, who becomes commander in chief. It evokes unquestioned patriotism, and the idea that lack of support for the war effort is treasonous. It forces Congress to give unlimited powers to the President, lest detractors be called unpatriotic. And the war frame includes an end to the war -- winning the war, mission accomplished! Continued here...
Where is the Hirsch Report?
Over the past few months controversy has raged over the timing of Peak Oil – the moment when global oil production will reach its all-time maximum and begin its inevitable descent. Oil optimists say the event won’t occur for twenty years or more, and that market forces will result in an imperceptible transition to alternative forms of energy. “The Stone Age didn’t end for lack of stones,” say the optimists, “and the Petroleum Age won’t end because we run out of oil” – but because we find something better and cheaper with which to fuel our society. Pessimists point out that global oil discoveries have been plummeting for decades and that supply and demand are now closely matched (hence the run-up in oil prices over the past few months); moreover, there simply isn’t an alternative energy source available that can take oil’s place in the near term. They say we may be at peak now, and that the consequences will be staggering. Continued here...
Halliburton announces 284% increase in war profits
Halliburton announced on Friday that its KBR division, responsible for carrying out Pentagon contracts, experienced a 284 percent increase in operating profits during the second quarter of this year. Continued here...
Former Bush official gets chipped
Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson has joined the board of directors of Applied Digital Solutions – maker of the VeriChip implantable RFID tag – and will now promote the product by having one injected into his arm. Proponents of the technology (mostly those with a financial stake in the product) cheer the benefits of tracking kids, pets and senile adults as well as the ability of the chip to store medical and credit information. Detractors cite a host of concerns ranging from medical issues to the possibility of mandatory chipping in a system of global geoslavery. Continued here...
Airwaves Off-Limits to New Propaganda Tsar
Alvin Snyder, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Centre on Public Diplomacy, says international broadcasting channels are protected by a ‘firewall’ to keep them independent from government influence. Even informed Americans are kept in the dark about how our tax dollars are used to promote U.S. interests through international broadcasting. “Another reason Congress ought to lift the ban on domestic dissemination of U.S. broadcasts abroad—to better inform themselves,” Snyder told IPS. Continued here...
The Coup Against Democracy in Slow Motion
While some proponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) see the agreement as a means for the U.S. to compete in world market trade, watchdog groups like the “Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch” see CAFTA as an expansion of the failure of NAFTA and a license to those who are willing to compete against the U.S., on unfair terms and then sell us those same goods. Continued here...
The Iraqi Resistance Is Prepared For Ten Year War
Salah al Mukhtar, for years he has been one of the most pugnacious public voices in Iraq during the government of the Baath party. He had worked at the Iraqi mission to the United Nations, then, in the years 1990-1991, at the Arab League as assistant to the Secretary General holding responsibility for Information. In the years 1993-1998 he headed the main Iraqi daily, al Gumhouriya. From 1999 he was Iraqi Ambassador to India and in 2003 to Vietnam. Salah al Mukhtar, 61, lives currently in Yemen, but underscores that his stay is a “temporary” one, as he is convinced that one day he will return to Iraq and that it will be to an Iraq governed again by Baath. Arabmonitor obtained a thorough interview with al Mukhtar, one of the top-ranking personalities among the Iraqi émigré community. Continued here...
U.S.: Civil War Spectre Spurs New Iraq Exit Plans
Growing pessimism about averting civil war in Iraq, as well as mounting concerns that the U.S. military presence there may itself be fuelling the insurgency and Islamist extremism worldwide, has spurred a spate of new calls for the United States to withdraw its 140,000 troops sooner rather than later. Continued here...
Condoleezza Rice at the Center of Plame Scandal
She alone among senior officials was knowing and complicitous at every successive stage of the great half-baked yellow cake fraud. Continued here...
US Openly Supports Iranian Terrorist
The U.S. Government is now openly supporting the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, an Iranian resistance movement designated as terrorist organization by the US State Department. Continued here...
Feds move swiftly to exploit 7/7
Subway riders in New York and Washington are now subject to random searches, because they might have bombs. Forget that a suicide bomber would only detonate his payload upon being approached by a policeman, and take out whatever number of hapless innocents might be near him in these crowded venues. Continued here...
MI5 Sought to Recruit al-Qaida Leader
Surprise, surprise. But I wonder if this is the real reason they sought to “recruit” him. We must remember that it was the CIA, and their European colleagues and counterparts, who originally assisted in the creation of al Qaeda as a Mujahadeen holy warrior group against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Continued here...
Target Iran
U.S.-backed groups organize regime change in Iran – Like the color-coded terror alert system, the Technicolor Velvet Invasions blink warning. Despite receiving an ugly bruise in Uzbekistan, the CIA and its NGO (non-governmental organization) regime change industry hope to stage another cardboard coup in Iran. But it could be a Black & Blue Revolution. Citing a ‘mission accomplished’ in Iraq, President Bush told 25,000 soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas; “The establishment of a free Iraq is a watershed event in the global democratic revolution. That success is sending a message from Beirut to Tehran.” Continued here...
Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images
A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of “rape and murder.” No wonder Rumsfeld commented then, “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse.” Yesterday, news emerged that lawyers for the Pentagon had refused to cooperate with a federal judge’s order to release dozens of unseen photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Saturday. The photos were among thousands turned over by the key “whistleblower” in the scandal, Specialist Joseph M. Darby. Just a few that were released to the press sparked the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal last year, and the video images are said to be even more shocking. Continued here...
Probe of leak shifts to perjury, obstruction
According to lawyers familiar with the case, investigators are comparing statements to federal authorities by two top White House aides, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby, with testimony from reporters who have acknowledged talking to the officials. Continued here...
Poll: Six in 10 Americans expect new world war
Some question whether that war has arrived, with fighting dragging on in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism. Continued here...
Training manl's reveal CIA methods of '80s torture
A newly declassified CIA training manual details torture methods used against suspected subversives in Central America during the 1980s, refuting claims by the agency that no such methods were taught there. Continued here...
McKinney reopens 9/11
Revisiting the issue that helped spur her ouster from Congress three years ago, Rep. Cynthia McKinney led a Capitol Hill hearing Friday on whether the Bush administration was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Continued here...
The Project for the New American Century
The People versus the Powerful is the oldest story in human history. At no point in history have the Powerful wielded so much control. At no point in history has the active and informed involvement of the People, all of them, been more absolutely required. Continued here...
The Iran War Buildup
There is no evidence that President Bush has already made the decision to attack Iran if Tehran proceeds with uranium-enrichment activities viewed in Washington as precursors to the manufacture of nuclear munitions. Top Administration officials are known to have argued in favor of military action if Tehran goes ahead with these plans--a step considered more likely with the recent election of arch-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's president--but Bush, so far as is known, has not yet made up his mind in the matter. One thing does appear certain, however: Bush has given the Defense Department approval to develop scenarios for such an attack and to undertake various preliminary actions. As was the case in 2002 regarding Iraq, the building blocks for an attack in Iran are beginning to be put into place. Continued here...
Shot Man Not Connected To Bombing
A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was unconnected to the incidents, police have confirmed. Three devices found after the failed bombings were the same size and weight as those used in the suicide attacks of 7 July, which killed scores. The fourth was smaller, apparently contained in a plastic box. The same chemicals appear to have been used. They targeted Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd’s Bush stations and a bus in Hackney. Continued here...
Iraq: This is now an un-winnable conflict
As he completes another tour of duty in the chaos of Iraq, award-winning reporter Patrick Cockburn charts how Bush and Blair's “winnable war” turned into a mess that is inspiring a worldwide insurgency. Continued here...
London: Suspect Bomber Shot Dead
Eyewitnesses said a group of 10-15 police officers chased the young Asian man onto a train and then drilled five shots into him at pointblank range. Continued here...
"Al-Qaeda" claims latest London bombings
"Our strikes in the heart of the British infidel capital are nothing more than a message to all European governments that we shall not relent until all infidel forces quit Iraq," the group known as the Brigades of Abu Hafs al-Masri said. Continued here...
London: Another Casualty of the War on Terror
By Bill Blum: How can you stop subway and bus bombs? Check every passenger throughout the day, every day, forever? X-ray all bags and backpacks at Times Square during the rush hour? Whether we like it or not, we must admit that Terror is a message and we better learn to listen to it with as un-indoctrinated a mind as we can summon from our depths. Continued here...
Patriot Act: How Did Your US Representative Vote?
Find out how your US Representative voted on renewing the Patriot Act by clicking the link. Continued here...
Bush to keep control of internet's central puters
The Bush administration has decided to retain control over the principal computers which control internet traffic in a move likely to prompt global opposition, it was claimed yesterday. Continued here...
Hiroshima bomb may have carried hidden agenda
A lecture/debate was held on Thursday discussing the evidence showing that the end of WWII was not the motive for Hiroshima. Truman agreed at a meeting three days before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that Japan was “looking for peace” and was told by his military advisers that there was no military need to use the bomb. Continued here...
Police to Check Bags on NYC Subways
I guess it’s totally unsurprising that this is happening. Just part of what we’re supposed to accept as part of the War on Terror. Still, you’d think that people would be a bit less willing to accept something so flagrantly unconstitutional. Apparently, Western civilization is poised to take over the world, or die trying – taking everyone with it. Look for Andrew Morris’ quote near the end of this article for a dose of sanity. Continued here...
Experts offer pessimistic outlooks on Iraq
During more than seven hours of testimony this week, a Senate committee heard that Iraq is in a low-grade civil war, that there are no additional U.S. or allied troops to help. Continued here...
Guantanamo Inmates Declare Hunger Strike
They went on strike three days ago, spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Some have already begun eating again, he said. The spokesman said he did not know why they went on strike and said the health of the striking detainees is being monitored. The Pentagon’s version of this incident contrasted somewhat from the accounts of two Afghans released from the facility for terrorist suspects earlier this week, who claimed that more than about 180 Afghans were on a hunger strike to protest alleged mistreatment. Continued here...
Scientists worried by riot control ray gun
In an attempt to create a “less lethal” form of riot control, military agencies have created a 95-gigahertz microwave beam designed to give extreme discomfort through heat and intolerable pain. Contrary to its scheduled release in Iraq for 2006, the Active Denial System weapon continues to contain many inconclusive and possibly lethal questions. Continued here...
House approves renewal of Patriot Act
Library provision still intact, but FBI director now needs to approve any attempt by FBI to obtain records. Does that really even make a difference? The justification is that there is no reason to make these “sunset” provisions that restrict the government’s power because no abuses have been recorded. More like, no abuses have been found. Continued here...
Bombs hit London two weeks after deadly blasts
Four small bombs hit London's bus and underground train network on Thursday, without causing major casualties, exactly two weeks after bombers killed more than 50 people in the capital. Continued here...
Chavez Named Chairman of Andean Community
Mr. Chavez will serve as chairman of the Andean Community for a term of one year. He succeeds Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo as the head of the community. The group is made up of the nations of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and other Latin American nations also attended the summit. Continued here...
Nobel Laureate Urges Africans to Rise Up
Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist, spoke at an annual lecture in honor of former South African president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who turned 87 on Monday. She challenged Africans to rise to the challenges facing the world’s poorest continent – not wait for handouts. Continued here...
Draft Iraqi charter backs Islamic law
A working draft of a chapter of the new Iraq constitution has language that gives a strong role to Islamic law and could be used to curb women’s rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance. If it holds, the shift away from the more secular and equitable language of the interim constitution would represent a victory for Shiite clerics and religious politicians, who now wield enormous power and had chafed at the influence exercised by the Americans over that earlier document. Continued here...
Now America accuses Iran of complicity in 9/11
The all-party report by the 9/11 Commission, set up by Congress in 2002, will state that Iran, not Iraq, fostered relations with the al-Qaeda network in the years leading up to the world’s most devastating terrorist attack. According to testimony received by the commission – based on information from prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and about 100 electronic intercepts by the National Security Agency – an alliance of convenience was established between the Shia Muslim Iranian leadership and the Sunni terrorist organization, well before September 11, 2001. Continued here...
China build up could mean threat to U.S.
The Pentagon released Tuesday the long-awaited annual Chinese military power report, painting a picture of a nation bent on building up its military and learning the technological lessons of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Continued here...
Uncle Sam wants you – even if you’re 42 years old
The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service. Continued here...
UK plans global extremists list
He said the database would list "unacceptable behavior" such as radical preaching, websites and writing articles intended to foment terrorism. Continued here...
Italy Seeks Arrest of 6 CIA Agents in Abduction
Italian prosecutors today sought arrest warrants for six more people they say are U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operatives who helped kidnap an Egyptian Muslim preacher from a Milan street more than two years ago. Continued here...
Ray Mc Govern: The Hand of Cheney
We warned President George W. Bush that the Iraq-seeking-uranium-in-Niger forgery was "a microcosm of a mischievous nexus of overarching problems" in his White House. We cited the remarks of then-presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer earlier that week, which set the tone for what has followed-right up to today. Continued here...
U.S. Criticized on Iraq Rebuilding
They said the United States' $18.4-billion effort had fallen short of restoring essential services such as power, water and sanitation. The criticism reflected a growing belief in Iraq and elsewhere that the Bush administration had bungled the reconstruction by giving billions to private corporations to tackle major infrastructure projects. Continued here...
Congresman Tancredo: No apology
He believes bombing of Muslim holy sites has been discussed. Continued here...
Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defence
Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers. Continued here...
Democracy Now Interview With Seymour Hersh
Hersh's article cites unidentified former military and intelligence officials who said the administration had gone ahead with covert election activities in Iraq that "were conducted by retired CIA officers and other nongovernment personnel, and used funds that were not necessarily appropriated by Congress." Continued here...
British troops charged with war crimes
Three British servicemen are facing a court martial after being charged with the war crime of inhuman treatment of detainees in Iraq. The three are the first British troops to be charged with a war crime under the terms of the International Criminal Court Act 2001. One of those charged under the Act, Corporal Donald Payne, 34, also faces an allegation of manslaughter. They are among 11 servicemen charged. Continued here...
Depleted Uranium: States Take Action
Louisiana recently passed legislation giving all returning veterans the right to get a best practices health screening test for exposure to depleted uranium. Interviewed here is Bob Smith, one of the activists that helped make this bill possible. He is with the Louisiana Activist Network, a member of Veterans for Peace and the Viet Nam Veterans Against the War. Continued here...
Bush's Pick: Meet John Roberts
Thanks to our friends at Oil Empire for forwarding this timely and informative introduction to the man President Bush is nominating to the Supreme Court. John Roberts “joined the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson in 1986, and then went into President George H.W. Bush’s administration, arguing cases before the Supreme Court as Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr’s principal deputy. He was nominated to the D.C. Circuit in 1992, but the appointment died when Bill Clinton succeeded Bush as president. Roberts returned to Hogan & Hartson, where he headed the firm’s appellate practice and frequently argued before the Supreme Court. President Bush nominated him to the D.C. Circuit two years ago,” The Washington Post reports. In a 1991 abortion case, then attorney Roberts argued “we continue to believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled.” In his confirmation hearing for the appellate court he said that he wasn’t expressing his opinion, but was merely representing his client’s interests. Continued here...
Bolivians Struggle for Democracy
The recent crisis that forced the resignation of Bolivia’s second president in less than two years stems from a much deeper problem that is plaguing the entire Latin American region: namely, what is best for the people and who decides? Continued here...
Anger in China Rises over Threat to Environment
The riots in Xinchang are a part of a rising tide of discontent in China, with the number of mass protests like these skyrocketing to 74,000 incidents last year from about 10,000 a decade earlier, according to government figures. The details have varied from incident to incident, but the recent protests all share a common foundation of accumulated anger over the failure of China’s political system to respond to legitimate grievances and defiance of the local authorities, who are often seen as corrupt. Continued here...
Children among 14 Dead in Chechnya Attack
The attackers set the trap by firing at a corpse left in a stolen police jeep to make the Interior Ministry troops believe a gun attack was taking place and get them to go to the scene, said the head of the Chechen Security Council, Rudnik Dudayev. President Vladimir Putin told a Cabinet meeting the “latest tragic events’’ showed the need to quickly increase security in the troubled Caucasus region, where violence from Chechnya is increasingly spilling over into neighboring southern provinces. Continued here...
Welcome to America's prisons
When the Abu-Ghraib abuse scandal broke out last summer, those of us on the ‘outside’ were shocked to discover that prisoners of war were being tortured by American and Coalition troops. But for any of the 1.5 million people who are unfortunate enough to be incarcerated in the United States, it wasn’t much of a surprise. Deborah Davies describes in detail the horrific experiences that many prisoners face on a daily basis and how those who have lost loved ones to torture are seeking retribution. For those who can’t believe that it could happen here in America, this should be an eye opener. Continued here...
More Expensive Driver’s Licenses Coming
Governors warned Monday that states and consumers would bear much of the burden for a terrorism-driven push to turn licenses into a national ID card. Continued here...
Karl Rove's Nondisclosure Agreement
A fact sheet released by Rep. Waxman explains that the nondisclosure agreement signed by Karl Rove prohibited Mr. Rove from confirming the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Wilson to reporters. Continued here...
Russian-Chinese joint military exercises
About 3,000 Russian troops (from the Air Force, Airborne Forces, and Navy) and 5,000 Chinese troops will be involved in the exercises. Continued here...
Brazil Signs $600-Million Oil Contract with China
Brazil's government owned Petrobras announced Monday, July 18, the signing of a contract for the export to China of 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil adding that it expects sales of petroleum products to reach US$ 1 billion annually in five years. Continued here...
Gore Plugs His Current Passion
Former vice president discusses his new cable network geared to the 'Internet generation.' Continued here...
FBI Says It Has Files on Rights Groups
The FBI has thousands of pages of records in its files relating to the monitoring of civil rights, environmental and similar advocacy groups, the Justice Department acknowledges. The American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace, are suing for the release of the documents. The organizations contend that the material will show that they have been subjected to scrutiny by FBI task forces set up to combat terrorism. Continued here...
Congressman says bomb Mecca if US attacked
A Republican congressman said in a radio interview aired by a Florida station that if a multiple-city attack happened in the United States in the next 90 days, as predicted by an Israeli expert, and was found to be the work of extremist Muslims, then “we should take out their holy sites.” Continued here...
Grand Jury told how Rove leaked CIA information
With the headlines flooded by information (and speculation) surrounding the horrible events that took place in London, the spotlight has left Rove and his scandalous acts. We shouldn’t be too quick to turn our eyes away, even if often times it is a blind eye we’re turning. Continued here...
Reporter: Rove was first source on CIA leak
Does this qualify as a scandal? I don’t know. It seems the law is always blurred when it’s applied to the elite, as if they’re coated in teflon, whereas lower class poor folk pay outlandish prices for trivial acts. I know not what to say. Continued here...
Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq’s election?
Seymour Hersh reports in this week’s New Yorker magazine that the Bush administration secretly meddled in the recent Iraqi elections in an effort to bluster the chances of pro-American candidates. The covert aid went ahead despite objections from members of Congress. Hersh reports, “The main advocate for channelling aid to preferred parties was Thomas Warrick, a senior adviser on Iraq for the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, who was backed, in this debate, by his superiors and by the National Security Council. Warrick’s plan involved using forty million dollars that had been appropriated for the election to covertly provide cell phones, vehicles, radios, security, administrative help, and cash to the parties the Administration favored.”
The possibly ilegal covert operation harkens back to the Iran-Contra scandal, in which our current president’s father and a team of operatives secretly aided the Contras in their attempt to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. The covert aid went against the wishes of Congress, which had voted to suspend aid to the Contras after allegations of human rights abuses emerged. Continued here...
Medical pot backers plan vigils to mourn activist
Steve McWilliams, 51, was a medical marijuana user, and activist. He committed suicide last Monday – his birthday.
Vigils and protests are planned in at least 15 cities across the country on Tuesday, July 19th, to commemorate Steve’s life and to continue the fight against the U.S. government’s persecution (and prosecution) of the sick and dying.
The nationwide remembrance will kickoff at City Hall in San Diego, where Steve’s most courageous act of civil disobedience first took place.
Mr. President, members of Congress, judges of the Supreme Court – are you listening?
You better be. Continued here...
Top Aides Reportedly Set Sights on Wilson
Rove and Cheney chief of staff were intent on discrediting CIA agent's husband, prosecutors have been told.
Top aides to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were intensely focused on discrediting former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV in the days after he wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times suggesting the administration manipulated intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq, federal investigators have been told. Continued here...
Fighting Fascism Then, and Now
By John Pilger
It is a warning about sinister power behind democratic facades that uses the battle cries of democracy. It is a warning about messianic politicians, apparently touched by God, and about appeasement and truth. And it is about moral courage: about speaking out, breaking a silence. Continued here...
Casualaty Of War: The U.S. Economy
"Osama (bin Laden) doesn't have to win; he will just bleed us to death," said Michael Scheuer, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA who led the pursuit of bin Laden..." Continued here...
Economic Injustice: America's New Leading Export
Here in America, we are living one of the biggest lies perpetrated in human history, and if our ruling plutocracy has its way, the rest of the world will one day enjoy the pleasant fiction that they live in a nation of justice and economic opportunity Continued here...
Africa Needs Justice Not Charity
For Africa to escape the nightmare in which it has been plunged by centuries of slavery, colonialism and imperialist exploitation requires a new, just and equal system of international economic relations.
Western governments deliberately confuse the symptoms of African poverty with its causes in order to obscure a fundamental feature of the world capitalist system: that the advanced industrialized countries continue to derive much of their great wealth from the extreme exploitation of the vast majority of the world’s population, who reside in the Third World, and the plunder of their natural resources. Continued here...
Pentagon hawk admits Iraq doubts
The outgoing Pentagon number three, Douglas Feith has admitted holding doubts over key areas of US military policy in Iraq. Continued here...
Italy sets date to pull troops out of Iraq
Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday confirmed that he would start pulling his country's troops out of Iraq within two months. Continued here...
Galloway speaks on the bombings
Many of those caught up in the events were my constituents, heading to work in the City and the west end. I spent four hours or so this morning at the Royal London hospital in my constituency where the medical staff are toiling, without a break, to deal with the casualties who are being brought in in their scores—perhaps, by now, in their hundreds. Continued here...
Bush and Blair’s "Prime Evil"
UK Presidency proposes that all ID cards have biometrics - everyone to be fingerprinted. Continued here...
TreasonGate: It's Not Just Karl Rove
Ted Rall: Since Karl Rove surfaced last week as the White House official who probably unmasked a covert CIA agent, new developments appear to confirm that the deputy chief of staff and chief Bush political strategist has committed treason Continued here...
Mr. Rove And The Access Of Evil
Greg Palast: Mr. Rove And The Access Of Evil - Tells Us Your "Source" Judy
The only thing more evil, small-minded and treasonous than the Bush Administration's jailing Judith Miller for a crime the Bush Administration committed, is Judith Miller covering up her Bush Administration "source. Continued here...
Coverup: The Number of US Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Calculations are even more difficult when it comes to the wounded, which US authorities number at more than 12,600, and medical discharges—those maimed or suffering from physical and mental injuries—about whom only partial reports can be obtained. In this category, large discrepancies in counts have been publicized by news outlets such as the national German Press Agency (DPA), which ran a story reporting on US Army documents putting the number of US soldiers with war-related mental ailments at 100,000. Continued here...
They were suicide bombers-and they were British
Police said the bombers made a rendezvous somewhere outside London last Thursday morning, travelled together to King’s Cross Thameslink station wearing large military-style rucksacks containing 10lb high-explosive bombs and split up to attack their assigned targets. Three of the attackers were said to be from the Leeds area and were identified locally as British-born men. Continued here...
Oil Fuels Suriname-Guyana Border Clash
A few decades later, the discovery of vast off-shore oil reserves in the contested territorial waters has fulfilled Lachmon’s warning. International corporations-lured by the prospect of an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil-are vying for drilling rights and pushing a centuries’ old simmer to the boiling point of open war. Even old sayings have changed. In Suriname it used to be told that “a close neighbor is worth more than a far-flung friend.” Now the favored proverb has become: “If things go wrong, your best friend and neighbor may become your biggest foe.” Continued here...
Paper: CIA "outing" might fall short of crime
Raining on the parade of millions of Democrats and other anti-Rove activists, USA Today’s Mark Memmott notes that Joe Wilson’s own book may contain details about his family life that renders the case against whomever leaked his wife’s name moot. Memmott notes that the law against unmasking the identities of U.S. spies says a “covert agent” must have been on an overseas assignment “within the last five years.” The assignment also must be long-term, not a short trip or temporary post, two experts on the law say. Wilson’s book makes numerous references to the couple’s life in Washington over the six years up to July 2003. Continued here...
Scrutiny of PBS Chief Tomlinson Intensifies
Some of the poorly conceived projects of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) chief Kenneth Tomlinson, such as the hiring of former Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Patricia Harrison as CPB President and hiring Republican consultants to monitor PBS Public Affairs shows for “political bias” are apparently coming home to roost in the form of several investigations by the CPB Inspector General. Continued here...
Scientists raise the alarm about ocean health
Another sign that things are not well in the earth’s marine ecosystems – once again, the likely culprit is warming waters. Animals higher in the food chain dying off in drastically large number suggests a decrease in food at some level, a situation with dire impacts to not only the region’s ecosystem but also the health of the entire planet. As one expert puts it lightly – “If this continues, we will have a food chain that is basically impoverished from the very lowest levels.” Continued here...
An Army of (No) One
A comprehensive view on all the initiatives being deployed by the Pentagon and related companies and agencies to increase the numbers of needed cannon fodder for the glory of the empire. As numbers decline, more creativity and zeal has to be put into the effort. How long can they keep up this marketing battle, before a draft is needed and reinstated? Continued here...
Jackson Easily Trumps Darfur on Nightly News
U.S. broadcast media are failing to provide even minimal coverage of the ongoing crisis—some say genocide—in Darfur, Sudan, according to a new report, which concludes that media fixation with celebrity. The findings are based on a compilation by the authoritative Tyndall Report of the three major network nightly news programs in 2004 and in June 2005, and on a tabulation of news programs on the three major cable news networks, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, are not entirely surprising given the declining foreign news budgets of major media and the their increasing conflation of news and entertainment, or “infotainment.” Continued here...
128,000 Iraqi civilian casualties
An Iraqi humanitarian organization is reporting that 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion began in March 2003. Continued here...
Good Things Happening in Venezuela
The author after a recent visit: “President Hugo Chavez, proved to be an educated, articulate, remarkably well-informed and well-read individual. He manifests a sincere dedication to effecting some salutary changes for the great mass of his people, a person who in every aspect seems worthy of the decent and peaceful democratic revolution he is leading. Millions of his compatriots correctly perceive him as being the only president who has ever paid attention to the nation’s poorest areas. No wonder he is the target of calumny and coup from the upper echelons in his own country and from ruling circles up north.” Continued here...
Bush renews linking Iraq war to 9/11
After the London bombings, the White House has embarked on a new effort to link the war in Iraq with the war on terrorism, beginning with a speech by President Bush yesterday saying it is vital to fight terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and "across the world, so we do not have to face them here at home." Continued here...
The Horror In London
When we kill them in droves, some of them will strike back.
By Eric Margolis
We are horrified that anyone would attack innocent civilians packed in subway cars. But the extremists and fanatics who do so say they are exacting revenge for the 500,000 Iraqi civilians who died, (confirmed by the UN), from the ten year US-British embargo of Iraq. For the criminal destruction in 1991 of Iraq’s water and sewage treatment plants that cause massive cholera and typhoid. Or for the occupation of Iraq and destruction of the city of Falluja that killed tens of thousands more civilians, and, of course, for Palestine. Continued here...
The Logic of Suicide Terrorism
It’s the occupation, not the fundamentalism
By Scott McConnell
Scott McConnell caught up with Associate Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, whose book on suicide terrorism, Dying to Win, is beginning to receive wide notice. Pape has found that the most common American perceptions about who the terrorists are and what motivates them are off by a wide margin. - A conversation with the man who knows more about suicide terrorists than any other American. Continued here...
Iraq Support Caused London Attack, Say Americans
Many adults in the United States believe London was targeted by terrorists because of Britain’s participation in the coalition effort, according to a flash poll by Gallup Continued here...
Al-Qaeda ordered attacks on Europe on May 29
The Islamist extremist group Al-Qaeda ordered attacks on Europe in a May 29 Internet message that the Spanish secret service forwarded to their British counterparts at the weekend, a Spanish newspaper reported. Continued here...
Bomber Died In Tube Blast
It is "highly likely" one of the Tube attackers died in the strikes on the Underground network - but Sky News has been told all the men were probably suicide bombers. Continued here...
Why Iraq Has Made Us Less Safe
Sir Ivor Roberts, Britain's Ambassador to Italy, declared last September that the "best recruiting sergeant for al-Qaeda" was none other than the U.S. President, George W. Bush. Continued here...
Why London, Why Now?
As I write this, the reports are still coming in on the extent of the casualties from the London subway bombings. The latest AP report says 40 have been killed and 1,000 wounded. There can be no justification for such an attack, which must be condemned and the perpetrators must brought to (British) justice. My condolences go out to the people of London and I can only hope that my friends and former colleagues there are safe.
That said, now is the time for progressives to lead and not just wait for Bush. It is imperative that the narrative that emerges from the devastation in London is not one that plays into the hands of Al Qaeda or into the hands of the neocons, as happened after 9/11. Continued here...
Saudis warn of shortfall as oil hits $61
Oil prices hit new record highs above $61 a barrel on Thursday, driven by short-term supply fears as the first hurricane of the season threatened crude production and refinery operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
But private warnings also point to a worsening long-term outllook, with Saudi officials saying that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will be unable to meet projected western demand in 10 to 15 years. Continued here...
Chavez's US-funded rivals in the dock
A Venezuelan opposition figure who was received by US President George Bush is to go on trial with three colleagues accused of conspiring to change the government using US funds.
Judge Norma Sandoval ruled on Thursday that Maria Corina Machado and three other members of her Sumate group – which helped organise a referendum against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nearly a year ago – are being charged with “conspiracy to change Venezuela’s republican system”. Continued here...
Galloway: Bombings price of Iraq
While the UK newspapers, the Conservatives or even the Liberal Democrats do not dare to raise their voices against the Blair government, George Galloway does. And he does it in crystal clear terms: the bombings had not come out of the “clear blue sky” – the background was the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, photographs of abuses by US troops at Abu Ghraib prison and the continuing confinement of people by America at Guantanamo. Continued here...
Attack in London
LONDON - At least 33 people were killed when three explosions ripped through London subway trains Thursday and an undetermined number were killed in a fourth explosion on a bus, officials said in what Prime Minister Tony Blair described as a "barbaric" terrorist attack.
Article hosted by www.msnbc.msn.com Continued here...
US at War with Iran - Continued - A MUST LISTEN!!
THIS IS A MUST LISTEN!!!
"We declared a war on terror and those who practice terror," said Ritter. "Are we going to declare war on ourselves?"
On June 23, 2005, Scott Ritter spoke to 110 people at a fundraiser for Traprock Peace Center at the Woolman Hill Meeting House. Before the presentation, Ritter met with 30 people over dinner at Woolman Hill. Hear his presentation and the question and answers, complete and unabridged. Sunny Miller moderated the event, introducing Ritter and reading questions from the audience.
This portion is audio of questions from Ritter's audience.
Ritter unwittingly answers exactly why the Neither Party is the answer to our country's problems and the reason for NP's existence.
Audio hosted by www.traprockpeace.org Continued here...
US at War with Iran
"We declared a war on terror and those who practice terror," said Ritter. "Are we going to declare war on ourselves?"
On June 23, 2005, Scott Ritter spoke to 110 people at a fundraiser for Traprock Peace Center at the Woolman Hill Meeting House. Before the presentation, Ritter met with 30 people over dinner at Woolman Hill. Hear his presentation and the question and answers, complete and unabridged. Sunny Miller moderated the event, introducing Ritter and reading questions from the audience.
Audio hosted by www.traprockpeace.org Continued here...
Democratic Meeting on Downing Street Memos
Congressman Conyers had the guts to launch an investigation into the release of the Downing Street Memos and the implications of the "fixing of the facts around the policy" with regards to going to war with Iraq.
How far will it go? Hopefully all the way to IMPEACHMENT of the president and all of his cronies. Check out the video of the initial investigation.
Video hosted by www.cspan.org Continued here...
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners
By Paul Craig Roberts
If Germans were complicit, how can Americans avoid the charge of complicity in Bush's crimes against Iraq when Americans are in possession of such damning facts and have the power of impeachment? Why do Americans tolerate a liar and a war criminal as their president?
Article hosted by www.informationclearinghouse.info Continued here...
The Downing Street Memo Comes To Washington
Conyers Blasts "Deafening Sound of Silence"
An interview with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) who is convening a public hearing tomorrow in Washington on the so-called Downing Street Memo and other newly released documents that he says show the Bush administration's "efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence." We also speak with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
Real Audio hosted by www.informationclearinghouse.info Continued here...
Iraq-Israel oil pipeline 'to reopen'
06/21/03: (The Guardian) Israel's finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, predicted yesterday that the British-era oil pipeline from Iraq's northern oilfields through Jordan to the Israeli port city of Haifa would be reopened.
Article hosted by www.informationclearinghouse.info Continued here...