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Date: 10-13 April 2006 |
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Date: 13 April 2006 === To read this newsletter online www.informationclearinghouse.info/ RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War? As Many As 250,000 Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2366 The War in Iraq Costs === By Doyle McManus Asked whether they would support military action if Iran continued to produce material that could be used to develop nuclear weapons, 48% of the poll’s respondents, or almost half, said yes; 40% said no. === The Rise of Fascism in America By Gary Alan Scott From making Cuba safe for the United Fruit Company, to securing access to Persian Gulf oil and South Asian gas, Big Business is always ready to have the government protecting its interests. One notes again and again, however, that such security is paid for by taxpayers, while the profits go straight into the corporate coffers. === By Stewart Nusbaumer There are a lot of nations in this world where people are kooky, but only America has the military outreach to project our kookiness onto the world. That is why more than any nation state, America desperately needs a military draft. === By John Pilger People ask: can this be happening in Britain? Surely not. A centuries-old democratic constitution cannot be swept away. Basic human rights cannot be made abstract. Those who once comforted themselves that a Labour government would never commit such an epic crime in Iraq might now abandon a last delusion, that their freedom is inviolable. If they knew. === A Must Watch 3 Minute Video 02/14/06 An animated editorial by Andrew Thomas === At least 13 die in Iraq car bomb blast: A car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad Thursday killing at least 13 people === Police said they found the bodies of five men with multiple gunshot wounds in the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad. === Two Iraqi civilians were killed on Thursday by unknown gunmen in Hawijah district west of Kirkuk, northern Iraq. === He was Jamal Kamel Hassan, 36, the brother-in-law of two of Saddam’s daughters. He was “taken hostage in Iraq and his captors demanded a million dollar ransom,” a relative said. === A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at approximately 11:30 a.m. when his vehicle was struck by an improvised-explosive device southwest of Baghdad April 13 === A top Shiite lawmaker said Thursday that names of selections for top posts in the new Iraqi government must be agreed upon before parliament can meet next week, casting doubt on whether the legislature will convene as announced. === The Dead in Iraq: The lead author of the Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on February 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. === THE PRESIDENT played the scoundrel — even the best of his minions went along with the lies — and when a former ambassador dared to tell the truth, the White House initiated what Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald calls “a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson.” That is the important story line. === The time to come clean has long passed. In fact, the window of truth-telling time for you ended when the first US soldier was killed in Iraq. === Video: Iraq No Threat : Both Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s closest adviser, made clear before September 11 2001 that Saddam Hussein was no threat – to America, Europe or the Middle East. === A recently retired two-star general who just a year ago commanded a U.S. Army division in Iraq on Wednesday joined a small but growing list of former senior officers to call on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. === Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top military leader on Tuesday issued their strongest rebuttal to date of recent comments by retired generals criticizing Iraq war planning and calling on Rumsfeld to resign === TERROR mastermind Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi is a largely fictitious bogeyman invented to help an American propaganda war in Iraq, it was claimed last night. Senior US military and intelligence officers admitted they have “overstated” the importance of the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda chief. === We now know that Al Qaeda had nothing to do with the London bombings in July 2005. This is the conclusion of the British government’s official inquiry report leaked to the British press on April 9. === My country, ‘tis of thee, bittersweet land of diminishing liberty, of thee I weep. === Anti-war protesters at university block doors to building === “We chased him away from his ranch,” said Sheehan, === RAF doctor jailed over Iraq refusal : Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith – who likened the invasion of Iraq to a Nazi war crime – was convicted on five charges, including refusing to serve in Basra, by a court martial panel of five RAF officers. He will also be dismissed from the service. === Iran still appears to have a long way to go before it can actually make nukes. It enriched the uranium to 3.5 percent purity; for weapons-grade material they need to kick it up to about 80 percent and do so on an industrial scale, all of which will likely take years. === Nothing had changed to alter current estimates of when Iran might be able to make a single nuclear weapon, assuming that is its ultimate goal. The United States government has put that at 5 to 10 years, and some analysts have said it could come as late as 2020. === The technologies of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are similar, but not necessarily a stepping stone, as nuclear activities can be monitored to ensure they remain peaceful – the aim of Mohammed ElBaradei’s current visit. Iran’s breakthrough was in its civil nuclear programme; failure to differentiate paves the way for another illegitimate war in the Middle East === The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say. === U.S. long-term goals in Iran are obvious: to engineer the downfall of the current regime, establish control over Iran’s oil and gas, and use its territory as the shortest route for the U.S.-controlled transportation of hydrocarbons from the regions of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia and China. === “To me it would be a worse crime to stay silent if telling the truth could prevent war.” === Hamas officials close to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh expect Haniyeh to announce the change in the organization’s platform in the next few days, Army Radio reported. === “The State of Israel will change the face of the region,” Olmert told the newspaper of his plan. “I will not miss this opportunity. === === Challenge AIPAC and JCRC by Holding Seder Outside Their Offices === From forcing through ID cards to the erosion of parliamentary scrutiny, a determined clique is hijacking our democracy === An aircraft carrier strike group moved into the Caribbean this week to begin two months of naval exercises: “There’s no other symbol of American power like the carrier.” === === Italy is facing the prospect of a protracted Florida-style electoral wrangle caused by Silvio Berlusconi’s refusal to accept the results of this week’s parliamentary elections. === Almost all of the state’s poorest residents will have to show proof of US citizenship to continue getting medical care by July 1, === Called by God to Help: Providing humanitarian assistance to those in need should not be made a crime, as the House bill decrees. As written, the proposed law is so broad that it would criminalize even minor acts of mercy like offering a meal or administering first aid. === AT&T is seeking the return of technical documents presented in a lawsuit that allegedly detail how the telecom giant helped the government set up a massive internet wiretap operation in its San Francisco facilities. === When Jack Abramoff’s lobbying team wanted to press Republican leaders for help with a tribal client, they minced no words. The help was deserved because Abramoff’s clients overwhelmingly donated to Republicans. === My wife pointed out the irony of marching in solidarity with workers who had rights Americans can’t imagine. Later, several Italians demanded to know why the average American worker doesn’t have health insurance, higher wages, better retirement benefits, more vacation time, and rights that Italian workers take for granted. === Mass Protests Force Government to Abandon Controversial Youth Job Law === Thirty million full-time American workers have lost their jobs since the 1980s. === The IRS has quietly proposed astounding new rules which would allow tax preparers to sell the contents of their client’s tax returns to third-party businesses === In this definitive presentation given on March 30th, 2006 at the historic Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California, Griffin deconstructs official myths, given that day. === An 82-year-old woman received a $114 ticket for taking too long to cross a street. Mayvis Coyle said she began shuffling with her cane across Foothill Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley when the light was green, but was unable to make it to the other side before it turned red. === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === Date: 12 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War? As Many As 250,000 Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2364 The War in Iraq Costs === By Pepe Escobar The ominous signs are “on the table” for all to see. The Pentagon has its Long War, the rebranded “war on terror” that Vice President Dick Cheney swears will last for decades, a replay of the war between Eastasia and Oceania in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. === Suzanne Goldenberg in Fort MacDill, Florida They are planning for a global conflict that, Washington believes, will dominate the next 20 years. The Pentagon calls it the “long war”: an integrated military, financial and diplomatic campaign against al-Qaida and its affiliates that will eventually span the globe, shaping the lives of the coming generation much as the cold war defined the baby boomers. === By Thom Hartmann Unless Democrats in Congress and the American people stand up and speak out – in the process Bush and his Republican enablers may just bring about the end of the great American experiment in democracy. === Doris “Granny D” Haddock If we Americans are split into two meaningful camps, it is not conservative versus liberal. The two camps are the politically awake and the hypnotized. === By Charles Sullivan Why are we so afraid to acknowledge that U.S. aggression is interrelated with capitalism, class privilege, war profiteering and worker abuse in every part of the world? Are we just going to sit quietly in our living rooms before the television’s tiny light while the world burns? It appears so. === Part 4 – Windows Media Video This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self. The Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their policies to people’s inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learnt to do with products. === By Aziz Huq Can a U.S. citizen be locked up for three-plus years without access to a court or opportunity to challenge the government’s reasons for detention? Today, the answer in America is a provisional “yes.” And last week the government took one important step toward cementing this “yes” into a permanent power. === 3 U.S. Soldiers Among 51 Killed In Latest Violence: A car bomb exploded outside a Shi’ite mosque in the northern Iraqi town of Howaydir, killing at least 23 people and wounding 50, police said. === Romano Prodi, the leader of the Union coalition, which won the latest elections in Italy, said on Wednesday that he will withdraw the Italian troops from Iraq when he takes office, claiming there was no justification for the US-led invasion of the Arab country. === The defeat of Silvio Berlusconi has left Tony Blair isolated in Europe as the last political leader supporting the war in Iraq. === Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, an alarming number of the country’s leading academics have been killed. A human rights organisation puts the number at about a thousand and has a documented list of 105 cases. These professors, it says, were not random casualties – they were assassinated. === “The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era,” Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children’s Hospital, pointed out. “Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them.” === “We Think the Price Is Worth It”: Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it? Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it === “We have found the weapons of mass destruction,” Bush trumpeted. – But even as Mr Bush spoke, US intelligence officials had evidence that it was not true. A mission to Iraq – not made public until now – had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before Mr Bush’s statement. === What Happens When You Remain Silent?: Sixty-four summers ago, when Hitler fabricated Polish provocations in his attempt to justify Germany’s invasion of Poland, there was not a peep out of senior German officials. === As the Russian foreign minister correctly reminds us, there is a lot about the manufactured crisis over Iran that is déjà vu : the axis of evil again, attempts to tie Iran to Al Qaeda, accusations about WMD, U.S. government efforts to play footsie with Iranian exiles, and bluster about demanding action by the United Nations or else. === Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says `: `Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days,’’ Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow. === Iran’s announcement that it has successfully enriched uranium should worry not just israel but the entire world, the Israeli military’s chief of staff said today. === One month after the publication by two of the most influential international relations scholars in the United States of a highly controversial essay on the so-called “Israel Lobby”, their thesis that the lobby exercises “unmatched power” in Washington is being tested by rapidly rising tensions with Iran === “The number of deaths could exceed a million, and the number of people with increased cancer risks could exceed 10 million,” === On April 2, the Daily Telegraph, favored mouthpiece for the British military, ran a story about British meetings and evaluations of U.S. plans to attack Iran; anonymous officials said that a strike on Iran was “inevitable” if it did not comply with demands to freeze uranium enrichment. === We speak with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh about his latest article in the New Yorker that the Bush administration has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. === Reportedly, U.S. carrier-based aircraft in the Persian Gulf are already simulating bombing runs on Iran. And President Bush has restated his doctrine of pre-emptive strikes and preventive war in the new National Security Strategy released recently. === The US and Britain are goading Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, while Blair’s jihadist rhetoric is inciting a fourth crusade === Kissinger certainly carries water for the Bush administration when he lends respectability to schools of thought advocating preventive war or regime change to counter “the emergence of nuclear weapons powers,” such as Iran. === As fake as his codpiece was, so was his “cakewalk” of an invasion. Over 2000 thousand dead soldiers, billions of wasted dollars, thousands of maimed young people, innocent Iraqis dead by the hundreds of thousands, still no consistent electricity or clean water in their country, later, and this swaggering imbecile of a “leaker in chief” has the nerve to be trying to sell all of us on a new war in Iran. === Every step of the way, his career has been marked by mendacity, duplicity, smirking chatter and deadly ideological blindness === “Obviously very positive and it’s another step along the road of getting David British citizenship and hopefully getting David out of Guantanamo Bay,” he said. === The PKK uses the Northern Iraq bases to attack Turkey’s southeastern provinces. === IN LATE 1969 one of the most shameful episodes in the history of decolonisation took place on Australia’s northern doorstep. In a so-called “Act of Free Choice”— thereafter recalled as “The Act of No Choice” — the 1 million people of the then territory of West New Guinea were traded from one foreign master to another. === The government of President Evo Morales ratified Monday its refusal to sign agreements with the International Monetary Fund or a free trade treaty with the US. === Out of Latin America a spate of alliances and changes have started happening with Venezuela leading the foray with their Bolivarian revolution asserting the right of nations to develop their economies independent of the diktat of the policies of the US-led IMF and World Bank. === One of the great privileges of power is the right to attack others for doing --- or allegedly doing exactly what you do without anybody who matters calling you on your hypocrisy. === The Hamas-led Palestinian government is willing to recognise Israel if the latter withdraws fully from West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip === Minister defends daily barrage bill of £125,000: Palestinian girl 15th to be killed in Gaza since Frida === Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation are imprisoned in a thicket of physical, corporeal barriers of all types and sizes (checkpoints, roadblocks, blockades, fences, walls, steel gates, roads prohibited to traffic, dirt embankments, concrete cubes) and by a frequently updated assortment of bans and limitations. === British Member of Parliament (Labour) Gerald Kaufman is calling for sanctions against Israel if Jerusalem does not turn over the soldiers responsible for the deaths of James Miller and Tom Hurndall, killed in Gaza in 2003. === Mike Davis on the History of the Car Bomb === George Washington was the Father of His Country. George W. Bush could be the Destroyer of His Country. To preserve our freedoms, America must return to the ideology upon which the United States was founded, and Americans must demand that our elected leaders adhere to those ideals. === Why didn’t President Bush just come out and say that he was the leaker? Instead, when this leak first became public, the president said that anyone in his administration involved in the leak would be fired. Is he going to fire himself now? === n the name of fighting stateless terrorism, George W. Bush is looming as the American Caesar running roughshod over the civil liberties of the American people who have turned against him in ever larger majorities. === Company Finds Clinton Useful: A month after Corning’s political action committee gave $10,000 to her re-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton announced legislation that would provide hundreds of millions in federal aid to reduce diesel pollution, using, among other things, technology pioneered by Corning. === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === 11 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America’s War? As Many As 250,000 Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2360 The War in Iraq Costs === ‘Our childhood is killed in Iraq. It is killed’ By Joan Chittister, OSB The overall cost of the war in Iraq for the United States is already being estimated at at least a trillion dollars. But so far not a penny of it is specified for the children. Neither theirs nor ours. === The first step for turnaround is to bring troops home By Ramzy Baroud The world is changing, yet the U.S. government refuses to abandon its old ways: militaristic, self-defeating and overbearing. Indeed, the U.S. must remold, not only its policies in the Middle East, but also its hegemonic policies throughout the world. === By Cindy Sheehan Does anyone who is attacking me know how Casey was brought home from Iraq? We picked him up in the United loading dock in a cardboard box and he was off-loaded into a hearse without one honor guard. === “Director Toshikuni DOI exposes the side of the U.S. war in Iraq that Americans do not see or hear in mainstream media.” Ten days after the siege of Falluja was lifted, Toshikuni Doi, a Japanese independent journalist, went into Falluja. His documentary, investigates the causes of, conditions during, and damages from the siege. Warning === At least 55 people were killed and some 100 injured when a bomb exploded in a religious gathering in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Tuesday evening, according to Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. === Police reported the discovery of the bodies of 11 men aged between 20 and 30 in Mussayeb city, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad. === A car bomb that exploded near a Baghdad restaurant frequented by police killed at least five people on Tuesday, including three policemen === Three Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers died after a roadside bomb exploded near the vehicle they were riding in north of Baghdad today, military officials reported. === The bodies of four Iraqi soldiers who had been beheaded were found in Jurf al-Sahkar, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. In the capital, a bomb attack on a small bus killed three people and wounded four in Sadr City, === The bodies of two Iraqi civilians were also found in the city, police reports said. === Three civilians were killed in clashes between Interior Ministry forces and insurgents on the main road of the former rebel stronghold of Falluja west of Baghdad on Monday (April 10) Interior Ministry sources said. === Gunmen waving their weapons out the windows of unmarked cars are the most distinct sign of what it’s like to live without a government. They’ve been roaming the streets freely in the four months since Iraqis elected a Parliament. === Shiite politicians failed Tuesday to resolve the deadlock over their candidate for prime minister, which is blocking formation of a new government. A bomb exploded on a minibus in a Shiite area, killing three people and underscoring Iraq’s grave security crisis. === Doctors in Anbar governorate, particularly those in the city of Ramadi some 100km west of the capital, are urging the government to tackle the issue of the lack of medicines and essential surgical materials available in local hospitals. === A cruel and bloody civil war has started in Iraq, a country that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to free from fear and establish democracy. I have been visiting Iraq since 1978, but for the first time, I am becoming convinced that the country will not survive. === Sheikh Hasan al-Zarqani, foreign spokesperson for the Sadr Tendency === A nation blind to their disgrace === This is just the very beginning, the first, faint echoes of the coming whirlwind of blowback that will hit the United States and Britain as a result of the monstrous and murderous folly in Iraq. === With the Gallup Poll showing 51 percent of Americans want all U.S. troops out of Iraq by year’s end, John Kerry has made his move. === One of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and among the most important, is to look honestly in the mirror. If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of “failed states” right at home. === According to a report commissioned by the Department of Energy, the peaking of conventional oil “… will cause protracted economic hardships in the United States and the world. It is a problem unlike any yet faced by a modern industrial society.” === Attacks attributed to Taliban insurgents killed eight people in Afghanistan, officials said Monday. Four of the dead were doctors working in a remote province. === A rocket attack killed at least seven children and wounded more than 30 other people at a school in eastern Afghanistan. === The president said that Iran has completed production of the nuclear fuel cycle on laboratory scale and produced enriched uranium with the purity needed for a nuclear power station on April 9, this year. === The White House has labelled Iran’s declaration that it has joined the club of nuclear countries as “moving in the wrong direction” and threatened UN talks. === Iran’s nuclear chief, Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said Tuesday Iran has produced 110 metric tons of uranium gas, the feedstock for enrichment. === Iran is the eighth state in the world to acquire the technology for enriching low-grade uranium, he said, adding that the his country has the technology to enrich uranium at a 3.5 percent proportion. === No one need be surprised that when the Pentagon looked at military ways of dealing with Iran one idea it considered was a tactical nuclear attack. The surprise, according to the New Yorker magazine’s veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, is that when the US joint chiefs of staff later sought to cross it off their list the White House insisted on keeping it there. === Presence of U.S. bombers in England seen as advance signals === THE Pentagon has secret plans for a “remote control” blitz on Iran if it does not comply with demands to curb its nuclear programme. === Asked whether Tel Aviv is considering the use of military force for stopping Tehran’s development of nuclear warheads, he said, Israel would not wait until Iran develops nuclear weapons that might be used against it. === There are warnings that the US military will attack Iran, not so much because of its development of missiles and nuclear weapons, but because a switch to the euro would somehow cause a major fall of the US dollar. === It is irrelevant what Iran is trying to do…whether it is trying to develop nuclear weapons or if it is planning to open a new bourse to sell oil in euros which would undermine the dollar. === “But he wouldn’t do that.” That sentiment is what made it possible for President Bush to stampede America into the Iraq war and to fend off hard questions about the reasons for that war until after the 2004 election. Many people just didn’t want to believe that an American president would deliberately mislead the nation on matters of war and peace. === Saudi Arabia, fearing that US military action against Iran would wreak further havoc in the region, has asked Russia to block any bid by Washington to secure UN cover for an attack, a Russian diplomat said on Tuesday. === French President Chirac will probably turn out to be right. The deal he cut with the Indians is better “because it is not subject to the hazards of the American Congress.” === “Yesterday the Israeli military fired a shell that hit the house of the Ghiben family in the town of Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip. Hadil, a seven-year old girl, was killed, and twelve people were injured, including Hadil’s pregnant mother Sfia Ghiben, who was seriously injured,” a human rights organizations said today. === Israeli gunboats shelled a Palestinian police position in northern Gaza on Tuesday === Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip is designed to bring the Palestinian people to their knees, the prime minister of the new Hamas-led government, Ismail Haniya, said on Tuesday. === With the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip still closed, a senior official of the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees warned that the clock is ticking toward a dangerous lack of basic food. === The Palestinian Ministry of Health slammed the Israeli decision to ban the entry of medication to the Gaza Strip, and the American and the European Union decision to halt all aid to the Palestinian people. === Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the committee’s operations director, told reporters in Geneva that due to bans over exit and entries to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the economy in Palestine land continues to worsen everyday === MK-designate Dr. Hanna Swaid (Hadash) leveled sharp criticism at state policy Monday at a conference on national planning. Swaid told Haaretz that Israel wants its Arab citizens to emigrate, saying no other conclusion is possible from examining policy. === France has denied visas to two Hamas members of the Palestinian legislature invited to talks at the headquarters of Europe’s leading human rights organization, the Council of Europe said Monday. === A U.K. coroner said on Monday that he would recommend that the British attorney general seek legal action over the deaths of two pro-Palestinian activists killed by Israel Defense Forces fire in 2003. === The attorney general was last night called on to seek war crimes charges against five Israeli officers after an inquest jury found that a soldier under their command intentionally killed a British peace activist in Gaza. === Lobbyists’ Prosecutors Pointing to Spy Case: Federal prosecutors have reached back 60 years to a case involving a convicted Soviet spy as a precedent for indicting two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving and transmitting national defense information. === Report for UN calls the practice akin to `torture’ === The Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir: === A Glimpse into the Mind of a Terrorist === The records show that Republican campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 – as the jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down. === Cynthia McKinney is a friend of mine. Until the day I die she will be a friend of mine. More than that, she will be a role model and an inspiration that I don’t ever expect to be equaled, let alone surpassed. === Russia’s foreign trade surplus reached $11.99 billion in February, a 54.9% year-on-year increase, the Central Bank said Monday. === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === Date: 10 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2352 The War in Iraq Costs === By Charles Sullivan It is up to the people of this country to not only drive out the Bush regime but also the system that made his rise to power possible. If we do the former without also accomplishing the latter, the cancer will return because it is inherent in the system. Nothing meaningful will have been accomplished. The names will change but not the result. We have to go all the way or not at all. === Now Featuring The Halabja Show By Gajendra Singh Of course there are no trials of US leadership and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in spite of illegal invasion of Iraq, proven crimes and violation of almost all international conventions and treaties and even laws at home. === “Director Toshikuni DOI exposes the side of the U.S. war in Iraq that Americans do not see or hear in mainstream media.” Ten days after the siege of Falluja was lifted, Toshikuni Doi, a Japanese independent journalist, went into Falluja. His documentary, investigates the causes of, conditions during, and damages from the siege. Warning === Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty. Part III Of IV – There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed American corporations realised that self was not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner desires of the new self. Windows media === Preserving its Right to Murder, Exploit, Torture, and Impoverish with Impunity By Jason Miller I suspect many of the ardent supporters of the American Empire truly believe that they are preserving and spreading noble principles like freedom, democracy, equality, and human rights. There is no shortage of propaganda to convince them of this “fact”. === Real Audio A public talk with Robert Fisk Introduced by Noam Chomsky Click here to listen === Three civilians were killed in clashes between Interior Ministry forces and insurgents on the main road of the former rebel stronghold of Falluja west of Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said === According to military officials, the incident occurred while the soldiers were conducting a foot patrol in the northern Iraq city. === The men were described as “German agents” and will be killed if people are not released from the “occupation prisons”. === Kurdish and Sunni figures accuse him of failing to stop the wave of sectarian violence that has left hundreds dead since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February. === Why has he joined the ranks of those calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Jaafari === The US still mistakes national resistance for terrorism === Despite a long-standing commitment to disarm and disband sectarian militias, the Iraqi government has quietly dropped plans to take action — at least until a new Cabinet can be appointed and get working. === IRAQI pilots who flew in Saddam Hussein’s air force are being targeted by armed militias in an apparent witch-hunt against veterans who fought in the war against Iran two decades ago. === Critics blast government’s decision to slash subsidies in face of mounting deprivation === “We needed to be able to pick up the trash, restore power and get the people working again.” Instead, oil production remains below prewar levels; electricity is available for just 10 hours a day in the sweltering desert climate; 30 percent of the population is without drinkable water; 60 percent are unemployed. === In the middle of methodically recalling the day his brother’s family was killed, Yaseen’s monotone voice and stream of tears suddenly stopped. He looked up, paused and pleaded: ‘’Please don’t let me say anything that will get me killed by the Americans. My family can’t handle any more.’’ === Death Of A General: In this time of war, how far should a soldier go when interrogating a prisoner? Is torture OK? What if the prisoner knew where Saddam Hussein was hiding? What if the prisoner knew how to stop the attacks on our troops? How far is too far? === Iraqis arrested by US-led forces have been vanishing into a “black hole,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s human rights envoy told a Sunday newspaper. === Dreamland provides an unflinchingly candid portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. A tense and grimly humorous study of the soldiers unfolds as they patrol an environment of low-intensity conflict creeping steadily towards catastrophe. === The war in Iraq arrives on America’s shores by gurney. More than 16,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded. Each injury ripples through lives with its own pattern and force. And as two soldiers and their families are discovering, the war will be with them forever. === The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. === TWO employees of the Niger embassy in Rome were responsible for the forgery of a notorious set of documents used to help justify the Iraq war, an official investigation has allegedly found. === President George W. Bush acknowledged on Monday he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics. === A military insider sounds off against the war and the “zealots” who pushed it === “The opportunity cost of burning other people’s houses in foreign countries is that you can’t build houses in your own country,” he said. === Australian Wheat Board pumped $300 million into Saddam’s slush fund: === Armed rebels have killed two army officers, and shot a top cleric in troubled Sistan-Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran, a press report said. === SAS Spy On Iran Agents: BRITISH Special Forces are tracking up to 40 Iranian agents who have slipped over the border into southern Iraq. === Time is running out. Diplomatic moves are at a standstill because of the reluctance from Russia and China to impose sanctions against Iran, which has important support from developing countries where nuclear power is seen as a legitimate right. === Anthony Zinni, a retired general and former head of US Central Command, told CNN on Sunday that a pre-emptive strike on Iran would be extremely risky === Israel pressuring U.S. over Iran attack: Israeli officials who visited Washington recently gave the Americans an urgent message regarding Iran: The Islamic Republic was closer to developing a nuclear bomb than Washington realizes, and the moment of decision is approaching quickly === “Israel Should Not Be on the Forefront of a War Against Iran”: In an exclusive interview with TIME, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister warns about the threat from Iran, praises President Bush and vows to press ahead with West Bank withdrawals === President Bush says Iranians are behind the more lethal IEDs, the roadside bombs killing our troops in Iraq. Rumsfeld warns the Iranian Revolutionary Guard may now be in Iraq. Cheney says Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. McCain says, “the military option is on the table.” And Israel is getting impatient. === ISRAEL’S acting Prime Minister has declared that the Jewish state will cut all ties with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, brand it a hostile power, and rule out negotiations with the President, Mahmoud Abbas === Hamas said it considered Israel’s severing of contacts with the new Palestinian government “a declaration of war” and President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Jewish state of breaking international law. === Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) stated, “Israel should be ashamed, imprisoning hundreds of Palestinian children when their only crime is yearning to live honorably like Israeli children and all the children of the world.” === “It is worrisome that we now see that both Israel and the Palestinian side are turning inward and disregarding the need to negotiate with one another,” Stoere told Norwegian radio. === Maroof Rawashdeh stopped going to work for the Palestinian Authority when the money ran out to pay his bus fare. He has no idea when he might get another paycheck now Hamas has taken over a government that has no cash === Israel’s Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that his government would boycott foreign diplomats who meet with members of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government. === Israel’s racists and fascists courted by mainstream politicians === ANYONE who criticises Israel is likely, sooner or later, to be accused of being anti-Semitic. For several years I have worked with the Edinburgh Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a group of Jews, Christians, Muslims and others who try to do their bit to make life better for the people of Palestine. === It is the duty of everyone, and particularly of Jews with a conscience and a sense of justice to speak out against the falsifications of history by the Zionist lobby, and the dangerous misconceptions it has led the West to accept === Lebanese authorities have arrested nine men suspected of planning to assassinate the head of the Shi’ite Muslim Hizbollah group, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, security officials said on Monday. === Unidentified gunmen killed five Afghan health workers at a remote clinic in the northwestern province of Badghis, the provincial governor said on Monday. === An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier was killed when a suicide car bomber attacked troops in Afghanistan’s south-eastern province of Patika, police said Monday. === Those who arrogantly insist on recruiting the Enlightenment may not understand what they are arguing for === Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, looks to have narrowly lost the country’s general election to a leftwing coalition led by the former European commission president Romano Prodi according to exit polls released immediately after voting ended today. === Federal court papers in Miami say the FBI learned of a North American network supporting Islamic extremists worldwide after the 1993 arrest of a charismatic blind sheik in New York. === The United States is backing a new coalition of Somali militants fighting Islamic extremists for control of the lawless nation’s capital, a U.S. official said, as both sides prepared for a battle that could explode in widespread violence. === Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns summoned Venezuela’s ambassador to the State Department. Burns told the Venezuelan diplomat that his country was in violation of an international treaty that requires the host countries to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats. === Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. ambassador was “provoking the Venezuelan people” and threatened Sunday to expel the American diplomat, whose convoy was chased by pro-government protesters on motorcycles. === The head of the U.N. mission’s human rights unit in Haiti accused judicial officials and the U.S.-backed interim government on Thursday of illegally detaining most of the 4,000 people behind bars in the country. === Lawyers for a suicidal detainee held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, believe that their client tried to kill himself again by slashing his throat sometime over the past few weeks but say U.S. government officials have refused to answer any questions about his condition. === More than 2.1 million people are in jail in the US at any one time; that is about one in 140 Americans, or as many people as live in Namibia, or nearly five Luxembourgs – and it is a number that continues to rise. === Video: Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons: Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq? === McCain’s political record is not entirely pristine. He was a member of the so-called Keating Five — five senators linked to Charles Keating in the savings and loan scandals in 1991 === In general, I’m against kicking ‘em when they’re down — unless really awful people are involved. I figured Tom DeLay is so awful that plenty of people would gang up on him, so I could pass. === A Brigham Young University physicist said he now believes an incendiary substance called thermite, bolstered by sulfur, was used to generate exceptionally hot fires at the World Trade Center on 9/11, causing the structural steel to fail and the buildings to collapse. === Five admirals, Carlyle Group and Rand take over: Research on population control, preventing future births, is now being carried out secretly by biotech companies. === Atlanta police estimated at least 50,000 people, many in white T-shirts and waving American flags, joined a two-mile march from a largely immigrant neighborhood Monday morning. === The War On Immigrants: The scenario I paint is a gloomy one in which the situation is grave, the stakes are immense and the time is short. It’s a battle to save the republic and our sacred Constitutional rights. I’m desperately trying to sound the alarm against an out-of-control imperial state engaged in a permanent war abroad for empire along with a “second front” at home against all working people === Activists Paint Grim Picture of Struggling City === Americans are relying on borrowed money to maintain our standard of living. A major crash is coming unless we take action now. === Listen to the radio documentary or read the transcript. === === This web site represents the effort of one person. I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === |
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