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Date: 1-6 June 2006 |
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Date: 6 June 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 Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2476 The War in Iraq Costs === Afghanistan’s Second Intifada : By Mike Whitney The Taliban have reclaimed southern Afghanistan, reconstruction has been miniscule, and there’s been no attempt to establish security beyond the capital of Kabul. Afghanistan continues to languish in grinding poverty with less clean water and electricity than before the war. It is a failed narco-state with 99% of the countryside under the iron-grip of the regional warlords and drug-kingpins. === Noam Chomsky on Latin America’s Move Towards “Independence and Integration” The U.S. in the past has had two fundamental mechanisms for controlling Latin America: one is violence, the other is economic strangulation. They’re both weakening. === By Charles Sullivan Any economic system based upon greed rather than the public good and the ruthless exploitation of nature is not only wrong, it is a prescription for disaster. === Police found nine severed heads in the al-Hadid district in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police sources said. === The victim, identified by Knight Ridder as Hashim Ibrahim Awad, was dragged from his home and shot by Marines, who placed a shovel and AK-47 next to him to make it appear he was an insurgent. === New Evidence Undermines U.S. Iraq Claims: Iraqi Anger Builds Amid New Details of Civilian Deaths and Clearing of U.S. Forces at Ishaqi === A military court Tuesday cleared three British soldiers of killing an Iraqi teenager who drowned after allegedly being forced into a canal. === Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki today said he will order the release of 2,500 prisoners against whom there is no clear evidence. === Military commanders in the field in Iraq admit in private reports to the Pentagon the war “is lost” and that the U.S. military is unable to stem the mounting violence killing 1,000 Iraqi civilians a month. === According to people working and living in the area, around 15 police cars pulled up to the area and uniformed men began pulling civilians off the streets and from cars, throwing bags over their heads and herding them into the cars. Anyone who tried to object was either beaten or pulled into a car. === The amount of time devoted to Iraq on the three biggest television networks’ weeknight newscasts has dropped by nearly 60 percent from 2003 to the first four months of 2006, according to the independent Tyndall Report tracking service. === The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has 78 open investigations into fraud and corruption in the Coalition Provisional Authority === Robert Fisk penetrates the world of the Palestinian ‘martyrs’ flooding over the border to fuel the insurgency === Loach’s film about the Irish independence war is being rubbished because it tells the other side of the occupation story === President Bush has not fired any of the architects of the Iraq war. In fact, a review of the key planners of the conflict reveals that they have been rewarded – not blamed – for their incompetence === A Fort Lewis soldier is poised to become the first U.S. military officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq, his supporters said Monday. === Thank you LT for standing up for international, US and military law by refusing to deploy to Iraq in support of the ongoing illegal war and occupation. === After years of ardent support for the Iraq war, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) could become that conflict’s first big political casualty in a Democratic primary race fueled by rising anti-war anger. === The 2006 mid-term elections are just five months away. In the Senate, close to three-dozen seats are up for grabs, while all 435 seats are open in the House. Democrats hope growing public discontent with the Bush administration will help them win control of Congress from the Republicans. === Five Afghan police shot dead seven fellow officers as they slept, before defecting to join Taliban guerrillas fighting in southern Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Monday. === Suspected Taliban rebels stormed a highway police checkpost in southern Afghanistan on Monday and killed five policemen, abducted four others and stole weapons, police said. === At least four people have died in a bomb attack in a mosque in the Afghan province of Ghazni, officials say. === A roadside bomb killed two U.S. coalition soldiers and wounded two others in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to Afghan officials in the Nangahar province. === Security think-tank: state of war is gripping southern Afghanistan as Taleban fighters win public support and it will spread unless newly deployed British troops regain control, a security think-tank warned on Tuesday. === “There is a status of forces agreement and U.S. retains criminal jurisdiction for acts committed by military personnel in Afghanistan,” he said. === Iran has said it will consider the proposals, but officials have also said Iran will not give up uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear power stations === === The US is increasingly left with fewer options. In fact, the options, within Washington’s policy framework, have narrowed down to two: one, get used to the possibility that a nuclear Iran might well emerge, or, second, resort to a military strike that might set Iran’s nuclear program back for a while. === Even if Rice is serious about the latest U.S. offer to Iran, even if Iran responds seriously, and even if America’s strategic position in the region continues to weaken (as is likely), the latest diplomatic initiative will fail. And this failure will bring closer the prospect of a military confrontation with Iran for which the Pentagon is already planning. === Consumers wouldn’t suffer undue hardships in the event Iran disrupts Persian Gulf oil supplies because the Bush administration has a plan ‘’if push were to come to shove,’’ a Cabinet officer said Tuesday. === According to the Fars report, the board of directors of the International Bourse Co., which is charged with establishing the bourse, will review the final draft of the articles of association of the Iranian bourse this week. === Many analysts suggest that Saddam Hussein’s switch from the dollar to the euro for oil trading was one of the core reasons for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Now Iran, the 2nd largest OPEC producer, is getting ready to open a new oil bourse that will trade in euros. And Venezuela is said to be actively discussing the same move. === Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave the governing Hamas party on Tuesday three more days to accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel, threatening to bring the issue to a national referendum. === Palestinian Authority chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is pushing the internal Palestinian situation towards a dangerous and unnecessary crisis. He has called a referendum supposedly to gain public endorsement for a document written by Hamas and Fatah members held in Israeli jails which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in all the territories occupied in 1967. === The government is reeling from a financial embargo imposed by the US, Canada, Israel and the EU, rendering it unable to pay the salaries of 165,000 civil servants and public employees, although the government says it will soon pay those wages. === sraeli army generals have been calling for massive raids and operations in the West Bank in a bid to destroy militants infrastructure there before Israel’s further pullout from the region, Israel’s Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. === The most disturbing resolution must be number 6/18, from the World labour Zionist movement (which is presumably linked to Israel’s Labour party, and therefore of considerable significance), which “calls upon the nations of the world to act aggressively and immediately to remove the Iranian threat”. === LEADING Syrian opposition figures, led by the country’s former Vice-President, gathered in London yesterday for a two-day conference to plot the overthrow of the Baathist regime of President Assad === CBS News: U.S. Officials Believe Recent Incidents Point To An Imminent Threat === Senior counter-terrorism officials now believe that the intelligence that led to the raid on a family house last Friday in a search for a chemical device about to be used to attack Britain was wrong, the Guardian has learned. === Snipers, leg irons, selected evidence, police brass — all calculated to sway the public, lawyers and security experts say === There is no shadowy but powerful network waging a terrorist war against the West: the whole thing is a fantasy. === He said four of the 18 hunger strikers were being force-fed. === A lawyer for alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla is asking a judge to throw out key evidence, saying the warrant for his arrest was based on statements from one source who claims he was tortured and another who was heavily medicated. === Venezuela is to build Latin America’s first Kalashnikov factory under a deal with Russia that has stoked fears in Washington about the oil-rich country’s arms procurement plans. === Ecuadorian Energy and Mines Minister Ivan Rodriguez has annoucned that from July Ecuadorian crude will be refined in Venezuela. === The administration censors internal probe of lawbreaking by the Oval Office and the NSA === Members of Congress and their aides took free trips worth nearly $50 million paid for by corporations, trade associations and other private groups between January 2000 and June 2005, according to a study released by the Center for Public Integrity === U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz accepted free trips to China from a Houston-based husband-and-wife business team convicted recently in an illegal immigration scheme involving Chinese nationals. === Two organizations that have provided free trips to hundreds of federal judges received large contributions from tobacco, oil and other corporate interests === Democrats and representatives of voter-registration groups accused Secretary of State Ken Blackwell on Monday of trying to rig this November’s election by publishing draconian new rules governing the activities of people who register voters. === BBC Video Report: For the first time on British television, a senior banking executive reveals how high street banks deliberately target their customers and push borrowing. === The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares “America is a Christian nation” and affirms that “God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom… === A Channel 4 News investigation, Paul Moyer looks into why some say the government is manipulating the weather. === 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: 5 June 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 Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2475 The War in Iraq Costs === By Mike Whitney The persistent slaughter in Iraq is not just the work of right wing fanatics and neocons, but of the information-managers who pumped their lies through the public air-waves and made the war a fati accompli. They’ve played a central role in decimating Iraqi society and putting America on the fast-track to ruin. === Iraqi women and children massacred by American marines. How did it happen? SPECIAL REPORT BY NEIL MACKAY CIVILIANS who spent time at the Haditha Dam base of the Third Battalion of the First Marines describe the place as something out of Apocalypse Now or Lord Of The Flies. It was “feral” one said. Soldiers didn’t wash. They had abandoned regulation billets and had built make-shift, primitive huts bearing skull-and-crossbone signs. C === The Abominations of War By Cindy Sheehan This is the most difficult article that I have ever had to write, but I have to write it anyway, unfortunately. === Climate chaos: Bush’s climate of fear A Must watch BBC Documentary A US government whistleblower tells Panorama how scientific reports about global warming have been systematically changed and suppressed. === May saw highest death toll since invasion began in 2003 === Most of the corpses had gunshot wounds, while others showed marks of burns or electrocution. === Gunmen killed 21 people many of them high school students after dragging them off buses northeast of Baghdad, officials said. Four Sunni Arabs were spared and the dead were all Shiites or Kurds. === Sixteen people were killed in clashes between local police and guards of a Sunni mosque in the center of Iraq’s southern city of Basra on late Saturday night, a police source said on Sunday. === In Kirkuk, three Iraqi civilians were killed in three separate incidents in the northern Kirkuk city besides the kidnapping of a nine-years-old child close to the city, a police source told Kuna. === Iraqi Police in Mosul announced Sunday that six of its members were killed in attack by unknown militants. === A U.S. artillery round landed in an inhabited area of Iraq on Friday and police said afterwards that two civilians were killed and four were wounded in a blast, the U.S. military said on Sunday. === The attackers – dressed in police uniforms – stormed the stations, in the centre of the capital, abducting drivers and passengers preparing to travel out of Iraq. === New evidence may suggest cover-ups in two separate incidents at the center of a simmering scandal over Iraqi civilian deaths at the hands of American forces. === American veterans of the war in Iraq have described a culture of casual violence, revenge and prejudice against Iraqi civilians that has made the killing of innocent bystanders a common occurrence. === The marine unit involved in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November had suffered a “total breakdown” in discipline and had drug and alcohol problems, according to the wife of one of the battalion’s staff sergeants. === The fish rots from the head down. The thought comes to mind as this misbegotten conflict in Iraq – embarked upon by President Bush on the basis of at best false information, at worst downright lies – moves well into its fourth year. === The organisers of Military Families Against the War, set up by the parents of dead armed forces personnel last year, say their movement is supported by hundreds of service families and that more than 100 families and veterans are actively involved. === Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer writes about mistakes and shortcomings in Washington’s Middle East policies. Gloomy predictions about the Iraq war, he writes, have been surpassed by reality. === Historical account of the relationship between America and Saddam Hussein. Reveals the complicity of America in Saddam’s atrocities. Forty years of secrets, incomprehension and incompetence led to the occupation of Iraq === Four policemen and 18 Taliban militants were killed during a fierce battle in the Mianeshen district of the restive Kandahar province, Provincial Governor Asadullah Khalid said Sunday. === BRITISH soldiers have killed five suspected Taleban fighters in an operation in Afghanistan’s troubled Helmand province. === Eighty-nine detainees are now on a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. === The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that bans “humiliating and degrading treatment,” according to military officials === Q: Which country was responsible for a car bomb which killed 80 civilians in Beirut in 1985? === Supreme Iranian Leader, Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei, verbally attacked the US on Sunday, saying the US government was falsely claiming the world is unanimous against Iran’s nuclear program === Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, said on Sunday that if the United States makes a “wrong move” towards Iran, energy flows in the region would be endangered. === The US media presented only a snippet from the speech of Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei of Iran on Sunday, in which he threatened to damage oil supplies to the West if the US militarily attacked Iran === Iran is also a big refined oil importer with 40 percent of its 75 million liter gasoline consumption per day coming from other countries. === A report published in the Nigerian newspaper Wednesday said that the U.S. Navy was patrolling the Gulf of Guinea, home to Nigeria’s biggest oil field, Bonga Project, to prevent the field from being targeted “by terrorists and other maritime criminals.” === History shows that no amount of oppression is going to stop the inevitable from happening. It happened in Iran, it is happening in Nepal, and if Saudis are not careful, it can happen in Saudi Arabia. === For more than thirty years it has been Israel’s policy to assassinate or otherwise eliminate popular Palestinian leaders who were independent and had wide trust of the people, while seeking to construct a subservient leadership with whom it could negotiate “peace” on Israel’s terms. === For a textbook example of why we are hated, consider Gaza and the West Bank. There, a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been imposed on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free election. === A British charity worker has revealed how he was threatened with death by the Israeli secret service while he was detained for three weeks without charge. === The Sudanese, some 220 men and women, say they fled massacres and religious persecution in the war-torn Darfur region and in southern Sudan. But they are not eligible for asylum here because Israel considers their country, an Arab League member, to be an “enemy state.” === Although much of the outside world’s attention to the Israel/Palestine conflict is focused on the occupation of the Palestinian territories, there is another great injustice that is often overlooked: the situation of the population of over one million Palestinians who live inside the borders of Israel and hold Israeli citizenship. === The feud between a member of the House Committee on International Relations, Betty McCollum, and the Jewish community’s main pro-Israel lobby appears to have been settled. === Islamic militia announced on Monday they had won control of Mogadishu from Somali warlords after more than three months of fighting for control of the lawless capital, residents said. === The United States has been funneling more than $100,000 a month to warlords battling Islamist militia in Somalia, according to a Somalia expert who has conferred with the groups in the country. === Bolivian President Evo Morales has launched a sweeping land reform plan by handing over about 20,000 square kilometres of state-owned land to poor Indians. === Venezuela is beefing up its troop strength along the Colombian border, negotiating with Russia to set up arms factories, and preparing for a possible invasion, the army commander said Friday. === In view of the embargo that the US administration imposed in May on the supply of armaments to Venezuela, Chavez pointed out that the delivery of the first batch of 30,000 Russian-made AK-103 submachine-guns frustrated US attempts at weakening and disarming the Venezuelan Army. === It has turned off gas supplies to Ukraine, threatened to divert Europe’s vital gas supplies and is now turning to oil. Paul Mason reports. === Curiously and quietly the United States is being out-flanked in its now-obvious strategy of controlling major oil and energy sources of the Persian Gulf, Central Asia Caspian Basin, Africa and beyond. === Soon gas will flow from nearly 100 miles out at sea, and the great rush to exploit virgin territory that is estimated to contain 25% of the world’s undiscovered petroleum resources will have begun. === Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has written a brilliant new article about the biggest political story in the history of the United States: An American politician illegitimately took the office of president by outright theft and fraud. === 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: 3 June 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 Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2474 The War in Iraq Costs === By Chris Floyd It seems that the Pentagon, that veritable fount of veracity, has probed itself for the alleged execution-style slaying of civilians in Ishaqi, and found that the operation — which left 11 civilians dead, including five children under the age of five — was in fact an exemplary feat of arms, strictly by the book. === John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Charlie Glass, and Seymour Hersh on the failure of the world’s press By Sophie McNeill === By Robert Fisk Could Haditha be just the tip of the mass grave? The corpses we have glimpsed, the grainy footage of the cadavers and the dead children; could these be just a few of many? Does the handiwork of America’s army of the slums go further? === Afghan Massacre : The Convoy of Death Video Documentary In Afghanistan, filmmaker Jamie Doran has uncovered evidence of a massacre: Taliban prisoners of war suffocated in containers, shot in the desert under the watch of American troops. Click here to view Real video === BY David Hirst Patients with chronic kidney disease dying for lack of their routine dialysis; 165,000 employees of the Palestine Authority unpaid for two and a half months; women selling jewellery for fuel or food … the “humanitarian crisis” of the West Bank and Gaza. === By Mike Whitney The great dollar sell-off has begun in earnest, although to a large extent, it is being concealed from the public. === Police found 22 bodies in different parts of Baghdad with bullet wounds and signs of torture, police said. === The Iraqi man reportedly was dragged from his home west of Baghdad and shot. === Khaled Salem Rsayef said U.S. officers accused him and other relatives of lying when they recounted the shootings in their first meeting with the military after the Nov. 19 deaths in the western town of Haditha. He did not say when they met. === A military investigation into allegations that American troops intentionally killed civilians in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared them of misconduct, the US said, even though it acknowledged the deaths of up to 13 Iraqis in March raid. === The U.S. military had issued a statement saying allegations that U.S. troops “executed a family and hid the alleged crime and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false” === Backed by US warplanes, US-led coalition and Afghan forces retook the southern town of Chori on Friday in fighting that left as many as 20 “militants” dead. === Afghan President Hamid Karzai has fired dozens of top police officials, including the Kabul police chief, days after anti-US riots raged out of control in the capital for hours. === It is an average afternoon in a suburb of Kabul — a convoy of US military trucks belts down the road. From atop a Humvee, a helmeted and heavily armed soldier gestures aggressively at a civilian driver, who can do nothing but meekly pull over and let them pass. === Rumsfeld brands Iran as leading terrorist nation: Rumsfeld, attending an annual security conference, also took aim Saturday at Russia and China for allowing Iran’s involvement in a group that he said has stated opposition to terrorism and extremists. === U.S. Studying Iran’s Retaliation Options : If cornered by the West over its nuclear program, Iran could direct Hezbollah to enlist its widespread international support network to aid in terrorist attacks, intelligence officials say. === Japan: Government eyeing financial sanctions on Iran: The government is considering imposing financial sanctions on Iran if it continues to reject demands from world powers === Video Of Press Conference: Permanent Representative of Iran, H.E. Mr. M. Javad Zarif. Real Video === If we allow the Bush administration to drag this country into a war with Iran, we should all burn our voter-registration cards and go ahead and admit that we are no longer worthy of being citizens of a self-governing republic. === How government and big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in order to manipulate the opinions of the United States populous. Windows Media === Long before Israel’s fundamentalist Christian supporters of today were on the map, the nascent Israel lobby deployed its manifold resources with consummate skill and ruthlessness.. === Have you ever thought how peaceful and prosperous we would be if our national leaders had followed the advice of George Washington in his “Farewell Address”? === British police are refusing to comment on media reports that they are looking for a “dirty” bomb after their raid on a house in east London failed to uncover a device. They have mounted a close guard over a man in hospital whom they shot during the raid. === Fierce factional fighting has erupted outside the lawless Somali capital between Islamist fighters and a secular commanders’ alliance, killing at least five people and shattering a brief lull. === Niger Delta militants abducted eight more expatriate oil workers from a rig near the Nigerian city Warri Friday – the fourth such abduction this year. === Mark Curtis is awed by journalist John Pilger and his novel Freedom Next Time === The union representing journalists in the UK and Ireland has called on its 40,000 members to boycott Yahoo in protest at the company’s reported assistance to the Chinese authorities in cracking down on pro-democracy activists. === Britain distances itself from Bush administration – Negotiators try to salvage package at UN summit === The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so. === The European Union’s highest court made the ruling that the Union should not have agreed to give the US details about airline passengers on flights to America. === 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: 2 June 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 Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2474 The War in Iraq Costs === Windows Media Video U.S. Tells Iran: Unilateral Military Action Is ‘On The Table’ Click here to watch – Transcript and video === The BBC obtains new video evidence that US troops may have deliberately killed 11 Iraqi civilians in March. The BBC has obtained disturbing pictures of the aftermath of an alleged massacre of 11 Iraqis by American troops. Iraqi police have accused US soldiers of killing the people in Ishaqi, north of Baghdad. – Click here to view – Real Media and Windows Media === BBC Video News Report Reports from Iraqi witnesses. – Click here to view – Real Media and Windows Media === By Mike Ferner I can only hope that my fellow citizens are not being told that this latest outrage tumbling out of Iraq is some isolated incident; that Herr Rumsfeld will diligently investigate it, and dispense timely justice to all guilty parties (below the rank of Lieutenant, of course). === By Joan Chittister, OSB Dinned day and night by TV replays of real life war strikes, life becomes one large unending Nintendo game for us. Reality becomes just like the software we buy so our children can shoot at digital figures who never bleed, never cry, never look us in the eye before we shoot them. === Two bombs struck in quick succession at a pet market Friday morning in central Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding 57, police said. === Unidentified armed persons attacked and killed a five-member Iraqi family in the residential area of Dura in the southern part of Baghdad, === A third set of allegations that U.S. troops have deliberately killed civilians is fueling a furor in Iraq and drawing strong condemnations from government and human rights officials. === Military officials have completed their investigation and concluded that U.S. forces followed the rules of engagement. === Corporal claims that his comrades, who were accused of killing Iraqi civilians, lost control === In his comments, al-Maliki said violence against civilians had become a “daily phenomenon” by troops in the American-led coalition who “do not respect the Iraqi people.” === As explained in a new book, Mission Rejected, the sight of U.S. troops kicking the heads of decapitated Iraqis around ‘like a soccer ball’ made Army soldier Joshua Key desert to Canada. === Details of the Haditha killings are finally emerging after months of official cover-up and heated denunciations of anyone who questioned the shifting, conflicting stories issued by the Pentagon following the November 2005 incident. === A Must Watch Flash presentation: Warning: there are graphic photographs in this movie which are not suitable for children or those of a sensitive nature. === === A US Army sergeant has been found guilty of assaulting a prisoner with his dog at Abu Ghraib prison, becoming the 11th soldier convicted in the scandal that President George W Bush called the biggest mistake of the US war in Iraq. === No Bravery: A nation blind to their disgrace. Flash presentation. === Documentary filmmaker Roel van Broekhoven crossed the United States to visit wounded Iraq veterans === How Invading Iraq Has Set Back Democracy In the Middle East === President Hamid Karzai on Thursday condemned the use of gunfire by U.S. troops to suppress Afghans angered by a traffic accident involving a military truck that sparked the worst riots in the capital since the fall of the Taliban. === The insurgent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are exerting severe pressure on US and UK forces – and there is more to come, according to a leading British security expert. === Taliban fighters have killed at least a dozen Afghan police and abducted up to 40 others in two separate attacks in the south of the country. === THREE civilian men riding a motorbike were killed Friday when a suspected suicide car bomb exploded outside Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan, police said. === A picture is worth a thousand words – simply contrast photos of how the U.S. military is portrayed with Afghan children. === Prosecutors said Corsetti was dubbed the “King of Torture” and “The Monster” while working at an American detention facility at Bagram Air Field in 2002 and 2003. === Two suicide attackers detonated an explosives-laden car amid a military convoy on a strategic road in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing four soldiers and wounding seven, officials said. === In Iraq a Predator fires its missile: An RAF unit based in the Nevada desert is conducting highly secret operations against Iraqi insurgents and Afghan guerrillas using unmanned, powerfully armed American Predator aircraft. === More Guantanamo Bay detainees have joined a hunger strike, raising the total to 89, the US military says. === President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that Iran will proceed with its civil nuclear program in accordance with rules set by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. === “We are against the use of force in any circumstances,” Putin said. “As for sanctions, it is too early to talk about that yet. It is necessary to conduct a thorough discussion with the Iranian leadership.” === Russia and China can opt out but will not block U.N. sanctions that may be imposed on Iran if it refuses to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme, a diplomat from the European Union told Reuters on Friday. === Rice warns Iran it doesn’t have much time: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Iran will not have much time to respond to an international offer of rewards aimed at halting its uranium enrichment. === As Iranian response is awaited – another US nuke warning: In a BBC interview earlier, US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte warned that Iran could have a nuclear bomb between 2010 and 2015, ‘which is a cause of great concern.’ === Ask anyone in Washington, London or Tel Aviv if they can cite any phrase uttered by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the chances are high they will say he wants Israel “wiped off the map”. === Selective Memri : Brian Whitaker investigates whether the ‘independent’ media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems === It’s simply just the latest ploy and example of US deceit designed to solidify support among its European allies as well as try to convince the Chinese and Russians to come aboard. === Former CIA analyst and Presidential advisor Ray McGovern, fears that staged terror attacks across Europe and the US are probable in order to justify the Bush administration’s plan to launch a military strike against Iran, which he thinks will take place in June or July. === From Vice President Cheney to the new Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, so many of the Iran-Contra era scoundrels returned to the political stage these last years for a grim second bow and, perhaps not so strangely, similar results — though this time not on the relatively parochial stage of Central America, but in the oil heartlands of our planet. === Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair: Windows Media Video -Coverup exposes several of the most disturbing chapters in the history of U.S. covert foreign policy. It presents a tale of politics, drugs, hostages, weapons, assassinations, covert operations and the ultimate plan to suspend the U.S.Constitution. Runtime 22 Minutes === Russia has begun works in the Syrian port of Tartus seeking to built a full-scale naval base for the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, currently based in Ukraine’s Sevastopol, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday === Venezuela supports the idea of selling oil in euros instead of U.S. dollars, a proposal also supported by fellow OPEC member Iran, the country’s oil minister said === George W. Bush has come out with harsh words for the governments of Bolivia and Venzeuela.``Let me just put it bluntly – I’m concerned about the erosion of democracy in the countries you mentioned,’ Bush said in response to a question put to him about Venezuela and Bolivia. ``I am going to continue to remind our hemisphere that respect for property rights and human rights is essential for all countries,” he added. === Egyptian police on Friday identified two armed men shot dead after attacking Israel Defense Forces troops on the Israel-Egypt border earlier in the day as Egyptian security personnel. === Israel has begun laying the foundations for a new Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank – breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its final borders. === Audio: Rabbi Goldstein gives a historic overview of Zionism.: “As soon as it was founded [zionism], it was condemned – Jews came out and said this is atheistic, this is idol worship…” === In case you missed it: The rabbi who pricks Israel’s conscience : Zionism is moral, not military, says activist convicted of blocking West Bank bulldozers === Why Orthodox Jews are opposed to the Zionist “State”: The Zionists claim that they are the saviors of Israel, but this is refuted by twelve things: === Bible and sword: US Christian Zionists discover Israel : The first lobbying effort on behalf of a Jewish state in Palestine was not organized or initiated by Jews. It occurred in 1891, when a popular fundamentalist Christian writer and lay-preacher, William E. Blackstone, organized a national campaign to appeal to the then-president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, to support the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine === Strong Democratic sentiment pushes President George W. Bush to the top of the list when American voters pick the worst U.S. President in the last 61 years. Bush is named by 34 percent of voters, followed by Richard Nixon at 17 percent === Why was Congress silent when Bush wrote his own military law to designate individuals as “enemy combatants,” and deny them due process, before sending them into limbo? === Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. === Hail To The Thief: Greg Palast: BBC Investigation Into How Voter Data Was Used To Prevent Democrats From Voting In The Last Presidential Elections. === A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan – possibly in violation of US law – to disrupt voting in the state’s African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals. === And debunking of various 9/11 conspiracy theories === 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: 1 June 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 Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2471 The War in Iraq Costs === In another town, Iraqis say US killed civilians By Reuters Iraqi army and police officers and several people who said they were witnesses and relatives of the dead said U.S. soldiers killed two women, aged 60 and 20, and a mentally handicapped man in their home on May 4 after insurgents fired on the troops. === The 10,000th Haditha. By Ted Rall Months after Time magazine reported that U.S. Marines had carried out a My Lai-style massacre of at least two dozen innocent Iraqi civilians, the average “support our troops” American is waking up and smelling the butchery. === Excerpt From BBC Documentary Newsnight follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience. As they march across America to protest, shocking interviews emerge on the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians. Click here to watch. === Video Ten-year-old Iman Walid witnessed the killing of seven members of her family in an attack by American marines last November. The interview with Iman was filmed exclusively for ITV News by Ali Hamdani,our Iraqi video diarist.. Click Here To View === By Dima Tareq Tahboub Three years last April will have passed since the killing of my husband. We spent the same number of years together, three years of happy and blessed marital and paternal life that were cut short by the dark forces of American democracy. === By Danny Schechter As events in Iraq continue to slip from bad to worse, the good news brigade is scrambling for new stories— – ‘anything, give me anything’ – to shore up what’s left of public support for a bloody war without end. === By Mike Whitney US carrier groups are already moving to the Gulf and the finishing touches are being put on the battle plans. Lt General Sam Gardiner expects that an attack will come as early as June 2006. === Politicians Lie? Say it Ain’t So! By Michael Boldin The federal government extracts over Two Trillion Dollars from us every single year. Yet, with all this unthinkable wealth, it has been incapable of reducing poverty, improving our schools, preventing 9-11, catching those who perpetrated the attacks, making health care affordable, reducing crime, and so on. Going even further, each year, it passes new laws that make it legal to pry into your life even more. === Of Faustian Bargains and Disposable Human Beings By Jason Miller While our heavily entrenched corporate elites and affluent decision-makers cut their own taxes, reduce spending on social programs, and lavish insane amounts of the working poor’s and middle class’s tax money on a military which exists to protect and expand their pecuniary interests, they offer the weakest members of our society, our homeless people, a quality of life that would repulse a sewer rat. === Several mortar bombs exploded on the southern edge of Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 43, police sources said. === Turkey has been accused of shelling villages inside in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan. === She said American troops shot and killed her husband, Rashid Abdul Hamid. They killed her father-in-law, Abdul Hamid Hassan Ali, a 77-year-old in a wheelchair, shooting him in the chest and abdomen, she said. === Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said on Thursday that the deaths of 24 Iraqis in the western town of Haditha last November, apparently at the hands of US marines, was a “terrible crime”. === The U.S. military, facing allegations that Marines killed civilians in November in western Iraq, is conducting at least three more probes into the conduct of its forces in Iraq, spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said. === Prior to this war, we were trained to be killers, not murderers. We killed combatants, not women and children. === The top U.S. general in Iraq today ordered American commanders to conduct core values training on moral and ethical standards on the battlefield. === t’s four Memorial Days and counting since “Mission Accomplished.” We still have 132,000 American troops in Iraq. A million of our men and women have served by now, giving of themselves in tragic and extraordinary ways. Yet the insurgency is growing bolder – not fading away. === U.S. troops fired into a crowd of hundreds of stone-throwing rioters, killing at least three Afghans, as their convoy left the scene of an accident that triggered Monday’s anti-American riots, Kabul’s chief of highway police said. === American soldiers involved in a car crash in the capital Monday fired into the crowd of protesters and killed four people, according to the chief of highway police in Kabul, Gen. Amanullah Gozar, who was at the scene. === U.S. military officials acknowledged Wednesday that American troops had fired at an angry mob that surrounded the scene of a traffic accident in the Afghan capital Monday morning. Officials previously had said the troops fired only into the air. === On May 27, President George W. Bush delivered a speech at the graduation ceremonies of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the president used the occasion to review the actions he and his subordinates have taken during the past five years and to vow that “we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people and every nation.” === No More Pro-War Candidates, No More Wars of Choice === President George W. Bush frequently has been criticized for being verbally challenged, but a new rhetorical analysis of the Bush White House, based on the public record, argues that the president and his colleagues have demonstrated an impressive facility with the language. === Britain has been asked to leave Iraq by the leader it helped to install. Only arrogance or myopia can explain its refusal === Uranium as a force multiplier === An Iranian lawmaker said Wednesday that any direct talks with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program must be held without preconditions, a news agency reported. === : Will the Security Council Go Along for the Ride Again? === THE former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix, today warned against any military attempt at regime change to resolve the nuclear crises surrounding Iran and North Korea. === Mr. Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, on the final report of the Commission === The bill applies to both US citizens and non-citizens, to men and women. There does not appear to be a provision which would exempt women who are pregnant and/or caring for infants/children in a young age. === Bush is a danger to the constitution in his wartime capacity as commander in chief === Aman’s 7-year-old son Muhand was killed; Naima, his wife, 27, was killed; his mother Hanan, 46, was killed. His three and a half year old daughter Mariya is lying in the pediatric intensive care unit at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, permanently paralyzed and on a respirator. Aman is not allowed to be with her. === Unpaid security forces vandalize parliament === Channel 4 Video Report: === Israel is confronted with an elected Palestinian government which is not willing to play that game any more. Haniyeh is telling the government of Israel: From now on, you will represent the position of Israel in the negotiations, and we will represent the position of the Palestinians. === Gush Shalom calls for the immediate opening of negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian governments, with no preconditions and on the basis of stopping all violent acts on both sides. === A powerful American civil liberties group has called on US academics to boycott British lecturers who boycott Israeli universities. === In a special interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Professor Rachel Giora of Tel Aviv University gives her reasons for supporting the British boycott on Israeli academic institutions. === American Latino leaders who traveled to Israel on a Project Interchange seminar last month have joined in a statement declaring their commitment to engage in U.S. foreign policy in support of Israel. === If, on the other hand one examines the general context of USA political society, it is possible to focus on more than one particular Lobby that identifies with the Zionist State of Israel, since there are a number of others as well. Consequently the question becomes; which Lobby has the greater influence and in whose interests does it operate? === A delegation of 20 law enforcement officials, American security personnel and businessmen from Nevada traveled to Israel in May 2006 for an Anti-Defamation League homeland security mission. === Bolivian President Evo Morales said the U.S. organized teams to track down and kill him, according to a note published on the Bolivian presidential Web site. === n recent weeks, both Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuador’s president, Alfredo Palacio, have taken a page out of Venezuelan populist President Hugo Chvez’s natural resources manual. === Some AP readers are going to come away from the story with the disquieting feeling that Venezuela’s going through a major military build-up, and I guess that’s the point. === Many Russians, don’t care much for Americans these days. Like most of the rest of the world === Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. === The Texas National Guard and the Governor’s Office have been working up preliminary plans for deployment of troops to the Mexico border, and both offices are expecting the Governor to sign a Memorandum of Agreement in the very near future that would put the troop deployment into action. === 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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