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Date: 23-30 June 2006 |
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Date: 30 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 2533 The War in Iraq Costs === The Israeli government is losing its reason By Haaretz Editorial Bombing bridges that can be circumvented both by car and on foot; seizing an airport that has been in ruins for years; destroying a power station, plunging large parts of the Gaza Strip into darkness; distributing flyers suggesting that people be concerned about their fate; a menacing flight over Bashar Assad’s palace; and arresting elected Hamas officials: The government wishes to convince us that all these actions are intended only to release the soldier Gilad Shalit. === By Mike Whitney In the minds of Ehud Olmert and the Israeli leadership, the invasion of Gaza is a “positive policy” which will “induce” vast numbers of Palestinians to leave. The humanitarian crisis they are precipitating is not seen as a disaster, but an opportunity. === By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent American intelligence agents and company officials cooperated in tracking the data trail and in monitoring security cameras installed in Western Union branches in order to see who was picking up the funds. === By César Chelala and Alejandro Garro In 2004, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton reported “increasing evidence that doctors, nurses and medics have been compliant in torture and other illegal procedures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.” The ICRC charged that US interrogators engaged the participation of medical personnel in what the committee called “a flagrant violation of medical ethics.” === By William Fisher “Many of the laws that Bush has decided to bypass or overwrite by this method involve the military, where he once again invokes the idea that as commander-in-chief he can ignore any law that seeks to regulate the military.” === Video The film is a warning about how easy it is for American democracy to be hijacked by a combination of relentless ambition and corporate millions. It makes the case that DeLay built a “custom-made Congress” that is still providing votes for his agenda. Click here to watch === By Greg Palast The use of the Venezuela’s and Mexico’s voter registry files to fight terror is not visible — but the use of the lists to manipulate elections is as obvious as the make-up on Katherine Harris’ cheeks. === Five Iraqi soldiers were killed in an assault against a checkpoint in the Jibal Hamreen area south of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk, the army said. === A U.S. Marine was killed Friday in fighting west of Baghdad, while a soldier died the day before north of the capital, the military said. === A Soldier from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team died Thursday from small arms fire in Mosul. === A soldier was killed at approximately 10:30 p.m. Thursday as a result of injuries suffered from a bomb explosion while on a dismounted combat patrol South of Baghdad. === The killings appeared to have been a “crime of opportunity,” the official said. The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols. === Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official said Friday. === Haditha, My Lai and the Media === Dhari said: “Neither the principal armed groups of resistance nor political organisations like ours have accepted this plan which ignores a timetable for the withdrawal of (foreign) troops. === Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the Royal Air Force officer jailed for refusing to go to Iraq recorded a short video message. === The United States is losing its fight against terrorism and the Iraq war is the biggest reason why, more than eight of ten American terrorism and national security experts concluded in a poll released yesterday. === Two buildings were fully destroyed in the raid and later 14 bodies of “Taliban” were recovered, said the military statement. === An Afghan passenger has been injured after soldiers from Nato-led peacekeepers fired a warning shot at a bus in Kabul after its driver ignored a warning not to overtake their convoy, security officials said. === The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit. === “Our people are patient. They can arrest leaders, assassinate leaders, but our flag will not fall,” Haniya said. === In an interview with Egypt’s leading pro-government newspaper, Al-Ahram, Mubarak said “Egyptian contacts with several Hamas leaders resulted in preliminary, positive results in the shape of a conditional agreement to hand over the soldier as soon as possible to avoid an escalation. === Palestinian militants have agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier, but Israel has not yet accepted their terms, an Egyptian newspaper quoted Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, as saying. === An Israeli “war on all fronts” drew a rare warning from Egypt on Thursday that the military escalation jeopardizes a peace treaty with Israel as the Arab League held an emergency session to discuss the crisis. === === The Palestinian power plant bombed by Israeli forces Tuesday is insured by a US government agency, and US officials say they expect American funds to be used to pay for the damage. === Israel has engaged in a long-term, multi-faceted effort to ensure the extinction of the Palestinians. Its patron and benefactor, the United States, shares equal culpability for their egregious crimes against humanity. === Those who care about the Jewish people, want to preserve it and protect it, want to see a safe and secure Israel and a safe and secure Jewish people all around the world, have to shout out now in very clear words: “Stop what you are doing, Israel, not just at the moment, but in the essence of your policies. === Israel on Friday revoked the Jerusalem residency of four Hamas legislators, including one cabinet minister, in an unprecedented punishment that takes away their right to live in the holy city and travel freely in Israel, officials said. === The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency debate Friday afternoon on the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the Palestinians said they will press for adoption of a resolution condemning Israel’s aggression and demanding a halt to all military operations. === Questioning the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern in the Dáil today he said the kidnap by Israel of some 25 democratically elected Palestinian representatives demonstrates “the true nature of Israel’s commitment to not so democratic principles.” === Rev. Jerry Falwell: God is pro-war Many present-day pacifists hold Jesus as their example for unvarying peace. But they ignore the full revelation concerning Jesus pictured in the book of Revelation 19 === The foreign ministers of the six counties that authored the proposal said they will meet to assess Tehran’s position on July 12. Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, is scheduled to hold talks with Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, on Wednesday. === Iran’s Esfahan Oil Refining Co. is planning to more than double its gasoline production to 18.5 million liters a day, the Tehran Times reported this week, in the wake of the government’s announcement that it will halt gasoline imports in September and ration the fuel. === During US President George W Bush’s administration, North Korea has gone from having enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons to having enough for as many as 13, a new study suggests. === The Bush administration has quietly notified Congress that it’s approved the sale of 18 new F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. === The Supreme Court did the nation a favor yesterday: It confirmed a basic—but contested—cornerstone of the Republic: that we have a government of laws, not of the president or the vice president’s whims. === Speaking to reporters, Swift said the ruling marked a “high water point” in American history. “It’s a return to our fundamental values.” === The case illustrates the egregious flaws that have discredited Guantánamo-style justice and which led the US supreme court to declare such trials illegal on Thursday in a major rebuke to the Bush administration. === A former commissioner testified before senators that the SEC blocked his attempts to subpoena Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack because of his political connections. === Congress on Thursday took a major step toward allowing oil and gas drilling in coastal waters that have been off limits for a quarter-century, but a battle looms in the Senate over the issue. === An amendment to require network neutrality — the idea that all content moving across the Internet would not be prioritized for delivery on the basis of fees — was defeated Wednesday in a U.S. Senate committee. === The bill is really a wholesale rewrite of the Telecommunications Act of 1934, the world’s oldest existing telecom law. It is probably the most important piece of legislation the Congress will take up this session. === This is the pension squeeze companies aren’t talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers — complaining of the costs — their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies’ financial obligations for them to balloon === 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: 29 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 2529 The War in Iraq Costs === By Associated Press Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks — including those on American troops — if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. === By JONATHAN COOK We can ignore the weeks of shelling by the Israeli army of Gaza, the firing of hundreds of missiles into the crowded Strip that have destroyed Palestinian lives and property, while spreading terror among the civilian population and deepening the psychological trauma suffered by a generation of children. === By James Vicini In a sharp rebuke of President George W. Bush’s tactics in the war on terrorism, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down as unlawful the military tribunal system set up to try Guantanamo prisoners. === News: The confrontation with Iran has very little to do with nukes—and a lot with the agenda of empire By Robert Dreyfuss President Bush may or may not order a massive aerial bombardment of Iran later this year. Or he may wait until 2007. Or he may simply escalate a risky confrontation with Iran through covert action and economic sanctions. But whatever the next act in the crisis, don’t be fooled by the assertion that the problem is Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms. === One Year After the Andijon Massacre By Ted Rall Despite the United States’ loss of an airbase and a new mutual defense treaty between Tashkent and Moscow, however, the Bush Administration continues to ply the butcher of Andijon with cash and military aid. === By Paul Craig Roberts In National Socialist Germany, by the time propaganda lost its grip, Germans were in the hands of a police state. It was too late to take corrective measures. Not even the military could correct the disastrous policies of the executive. In the end, Germany was destroyed. Does a similar fate await Americans? === On January 16, 1893, four boatloads of United States Marines armed with Gatling guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition came ashore in Honolulu, capital of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii. As the Royal Hawaiian band played a concert at the Hawaiian Hotel, 162 troops marched through the streets of Honolulu, heading for the palace. The Queen of Hawaii, Lili’uokalani, looked down from her balcony as the troops took up their positions. The following day, she surrendered at gunpoint, yielding her throne to the government of the United States. Click here to watch. === The bodies of seven men were found in the Tigris River south of Baghdad, police said. All had gunshot wounds and showed signs of torture. === A suicide bomber struck the funeral of a Shiite soldier in the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 13, police said === Issam Hamza and his son Ahmed were killed in their Baghdad home by U.S. troops who say the men ignored shouted orders during the arrest of an al Qaeda suspect. Relatives said they were simply panicked by the night-time raid. === Iraqi security officials said Iranian fighters had been captured in the fighting, in which the commander of an Iraqi quick reaction force and two soldiers were shot dead by a sniper. They did not say how the Iranians had been identified. === Fourteen Taliban rebels and one coalition soldier have been killed in fighting and a mine explosion in southern Afghanistan, the US military confirmed Thursday. === British reporter Kate Clark travels to the south-eastern district of Afghanistan. Taliban Commanders escort Clark to a old Taliban outpost where the U.S. Military claims to have killed 100 men. Clark also visits a village that has been “flattened” by bombing. Only a few residents have returned since 2002. One village remembers when the American bombers destroyed the village, “Most people were still here when the B-52's came. They didn’t give us warning. Women and children were also killed. We escaped. === The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report that through the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the government will have spent $437 billion on overseas military and foreign aid funding. That includes the latest supplemental === A Palestinian militant group said it executed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped in the West Bank. Palestinian security officials said they believed the body of Eliahu Asheri had been found in the West Bank city of Ramallah. === Israel’s seizure of Hamas MPs and cabinet ministers raises “particular concerns”, the G8 group of industrialised countries said today, echoing appeals for calm from many other parts of the world. === US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in response to the arrest of some 60 senior Hamas officials that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” === The sonic boom of the fighter jet shattered windows and spooked already nervous souls just after 2.30am. === Nearly half of the Gaza Strip remains without power following Israeli air strikes that knocked out a main power station. We go to Gaza to get a report from Chris McGreal of the London Guardian. This is a must listen === Generals must sometimes send their troops into danger and death. But in elevating Corporal Shalit’s life to extreme proportions Israel has debased and endangered the Israeli state and taken another steps towards its demise. === The Egyptians say that they wish to prevent both the flight of Gazan Arabs into Egyptian territory === Says It Won’t Be Able To Respond To West’s Offer On Nukes Until August === A pilotless Iranian reconnaissance plane circled for 25 minutes over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf before returning safely to its base, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday. === Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry responded angrily to a call by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for democratic elections next year, saying it doesn’t need ``outside’’ advice. === In the guise of fighting terrorism and maintaining public order, Tony Blair’s Government has quietly and systematically taken power from Parliament and the British people. The author charts a nine-year assault on civil liberties that reveals the danger of trading freedom for security – and must have Churchill spinning in his grave === Two years ago, the court rejected Bush’s claim that he had authority to seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny them access to courts or lawyers. In this follow-up case, the justices focused solely on the issue of trials for some of the men. === The impact of today’s Supreme Court decision on military commissions goes well beyond Guantanamo. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force – issued by Congress in the days after 9/11 – is not a blank check for the administration. === A BAHRAINI detainee at Guantanamo Bay can barely stand or exercise after being subjected to painful force-feeding in an effort to make him abandon his hunger strike, his lawyers claimed yesterday. === Dr Iain Banks said it was a scandal that doctors were “becoming involved in torture practices”. === The AT&T spy rooms are “in far more locations than would be required to catch the majority of international traffic”; the configuration in the San Francisco office promiscuously sends all data into the secret room; === President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration’s true open borders policy. === The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was launched in March of 2005 as a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing. === Canada, the United States and Mexico announced the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) for North America on March 23, 2005 in Waco, Texas. === 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: 28 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 2527 The War in Iraq Costs === By Dahr Jamail Recent days have found a media feeding frenzy at the trough of the “National Reconciliation” plan by the US puppet “prime minister” of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki. This “plan” was clearly a political move orchestrated from within Pentagon and State Department circles in preparation for the upcoming November mid-term elections in the US and has effectively changed, on the ground in Iraq, approximately nothing. === Reality-based lack-of-progress report by ambassador was met with stony silence. By Paul Mulshin If the ambassador to Iraq, over whose name the memo went out, is willing to admit that the United States has managed to hand Iraq over to Islamists even more fanatical than those in Iran, then any American “victory” in Iraq will be a Pyrrhic one indeed. === Must watch 4 minute video Jon Stewart takes a look at the case known to many as “The Miami Seven.” He examines the careful and decisive evidence told to us by Alberto Gonzales. Click here to view === By Charles Sullivan If the greatness of a nation is measured by how it treats its poor rather than its military expenditure, America must rank near the bottom of the heap. The disparity between rich and poor has never been greater and it is widening at an accelerating pace. === 52 killed in Afghanistan including 2 UK soldiers: “Two civilians were killed and eight others were wounded. The Nato troops did not sustain any casualties,” local police chief Sayed Ahmad Samah said. === A coalition soldier was killed and three others were injured today when their vehicle struck a land mine in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, and Afghan and coalition forces today killed 12 “terrorists” at a “Taliban” compound, military officials reported. === A CAR bomb blew up prematurely as it approached a US military convoy in Afghanistan today in the third suicide attack on foreign troops in three days === 6 Minute Video report: Kate Clark has been talking to villagers and Taliban commanders. === The U.S. military, said it had killed a civilian” during a raid near Baquba === At least 14 members of the U.S. military have been convicted in connection with the deaths of Iraqis. Two received sentences of up to life in prison, while most others were given little or no jail time. === President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia’s special services to hunt down the killers of four Russian hostages in Iraq, the Kremlin said. === Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his peace plan will not offer amnesty for rebels who have killed US-led troops. === “Insurgents” are demanding the withdrawal of all U.S. and British forces from Iraq within two years as a condition for joining reconciliation talks, a senior Iraqi government official said Wednesday. === “It is estimated that 1.3 million individuals are displaced inside Iraq, nearly five percent of the country’s total population,” said a UNAMI statement. === THE head of the Army’s Special Investigations Branch in Iraq, involved in a huge workload, was found hanging by a bootlace in his barracks room, an inquest was told. === Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments, preparing for a major strike after Israel sent in troops and tanks and bombarded bridges and a power station. Warplanes fired missiles in northern and southern Gaza. === Israeli Destroy Bridges Power Plant In Contravention of Geneva protocol-1 – Art 52. and Art 54: Aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive. A helicopter strike on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness. === It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population === According to international law, the people of a country, occupied by a foreign power, has the full right to fight for their liberation. The Palestinian people, inhabitants of the territories, Israel has conquered and is occupying by military means since June 1967, too have this briefed right. === Israeli warplanes buzzed the seaside home of Syria’s president and bombed Hamas targets in Gaza on Wednesday to pressure Palestinian militants to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier. === Air defenses fired on Israeli warplanes that entered Syrian airspace early Wednesday and forced them to flee, state TV said as Mideast tensions escalated over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants. === For Walid al-Houdaly, 46, the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants offers the opportunity that his wife and their 18-month-old child will be freed from prison. === Israel will not allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to leave the Gaza Strip, part of the closure clamped on the territory after the abduction of an Israeli soldier, military officials said today. === A preliminary investigation into an attack Sunday on an Israel Defense Forces post has found that the IDF had widely deployed along the Israel-Gaza border following warnings that Palestinian militants were aiming to use a tunnel to abduct a soldier. === Hamas says it has not agreed to recognise Israel despite a political deal reached with Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. === World Jewish Congress meets in Berlin on Iran : “Iran is a danger for the whole world,” WJC chairman Israel Singer told reporters after a one-day meeting of the US-based organisation. === Maurice Motamed has one of the loneliest jobs in the Middle East. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his controversial Holocaust statements, the sole Jewish MP in Iran’s 290-member Majlis (parliament) felt he had no option but to confront him. === Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said that Iran is concentrating its security efforts on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, and the threat posed by Israel. === Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium for power generation provided there is close monitoring by U.N. inspectors to ensure it is not trying to develop atomic weapons, Germany’s defense minister said on Wednesday. === A Republican lawmaker, however, said the deal ‘knifed’ the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and called it a sad day for efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. === More than a dozen European governments yesterday came under severe pressure to own up to their secret services’ role in handing over suspected terrorists to US intelligence === A civil liberties group has asked governments around the world, including Australia, to block the release of confidential financial records to US authorities tracking terrorist funding. === The personal data of thousands of Irish citizens that have sent or received money transfers to and from the US has been covertly logged by US anti-terrorist agencies. === Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has ordered a probe into whether a Brussels-based banking consortium broke the law when it provided US anti-terror authorities with confidential information about international money transfers. === In his letter to John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, Roberts wrote that “we have been unable to persuade the media to act responsibly and to protect the means by which we protect this nation.” === Declaring that “loose lips” kill Americans, a top Congressional Republican leader said on Wednesday the House of Representatives will debate a resolution condemning the U.S. media for exposing details of secret intelligence programs. === The recent “controversy” over the New York Times report on the Regime’s surveillance of bank records is, as Greenwald astutely notes, based entirely on outright falsehoods. It is also being deliberately stoked by the White House, whose lies about the non-existent “damage” the NYT story has done to national security are exposed here — by their own words === Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has re-ignited a war of words with Peruvian President-elect Alan Garcia by calling him a “lap dog” of the United States and said bilateral relations with Peru cannot be fixed. === In the jungles of southern Peru, these so-called “uncontacted tribes” face an unprecedented threat from illegal loggers who are increasingly moving into remote areas in search of rare mahogany trees. === The price of copper, Chile’s main source of foreign exchange, has rocketed to $3 to $4 a pound in the past year, from as low as 60 cents in 2001. The high copper price has added billions of dollars of new wealth to a country that is now the richest in Latin America. === The purported quote was seized upon by right-wing pundits, who claimed that Murtha had put “all Americans in danger” and was “in the thrall” of anti-American activists. === A key plank of the government’s anti-terrorism laws has been dealt a blow by the High Court. === A year on from 7/7, wild rumours are circulating about who planted the bombs and why. Some people even claim this picture of the four bombers was faked === Neocon ideologues are being given free rein by the media to rewrite the history of Britain’s empire and whitewash its crimes === Vets for Freedom is a very interesting organization. I call it a Republican front group. It might be more accurate to call it a Republican-financed, pro-war group geared toward helping the Republicans keep control of Congress and the Senate this November === They were accused of receiving money from prominent GOP donor Tom Noe, then contributing it to President Bush’s re-election campaign in their own names in an alleged scheme by Noe to skirt laws limiting individual contributions to $2,000. === The number, representing nearly a third of GM’s 113,000 hourly workers, is significantly higher than the company had expected. As a result, GM, which intends to close 12 plants by 2008 to pare costs and become more competitive, will reach its goal of eliminating 30,000 jobs two years ahead of schedule === 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: 27 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 2524 The War in Iraq Costs === An American soldier convicted in the fatal shooting of a handcuffed Iraqi cow herder in 2004 was freed from a military prison in Oklahoma on Friday, more than a year before his sentence was up === By Laura Rozen News: In which a neoconservative jack-of-all-trades, a pair of Pentagon hawks, and an Iranian exile with a knack for tall tales try to outflank the CIA and conjure a coup in Tehran. === By Sheila Samples Okies love America, they love their born-again idiot president, and they are proud to be blind and brazen warriors in God’s Very Own Army. Together, they and Bush are proudly in lockstep — insanely marching to Zion… === A Documentary Film By John Pilger Pilger uncovers the shocking complicity of the US and Great Britain governments in the East Timor genocide – the same governments who were willing to go to war with Saddam Hussein for his invasion of Kuwait, but who stood aside as Indonesia broke the exact same UN regulations to rape and pillage East Timor using Western arms. Click here to watch Windows Media Real Video Here === The death toll from a bomb strapped to parked motorcycle in the Shi’ite village of Khairnabat, near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, climbed to 18, police said. === At least 57 people were killed in attacks and 10 students kidnapped from their hostel in Baghdad yesterday, one day after the prime minister unveiled a peace plan aimed at easing the violence. === Kurdish MP says at least seven armed groups demand US troop pullout from Iraq to lay down arms. === A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. Half of those surveyed would like all U.S. forces out within 12 months. === Al Qaeda’s strategic vision involves challenging the United States and its allies overseas using small- to medium-scale attacks, according to an online book available on extremist websites that has become the seminal jihadi textbook === “Every day dozens of innocent people are dying, and now diplomats are geting killed, too. The responsibility for what is going on in Iraq lies upon those who sought mass destruction weapons here, but found nothing,” she said. === Watch the testimony. Then judge for yourself whether this administration’s machinations descended to the utterly condemnable. === An American soldier convicted in the fatal shooting of a handcuffed Iraqi cow herder in 2004 was freed from a military prison in Oklahoma on Friday, more than a year before his sentence was up === The U.S. military will not punish a Marine who performed an obscenity-laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday. === Recently founded in Oakland, Calif., Courage to Resist is one of several organizations around the country trying to stop the Iraq war by focusing on those ordered to wage it. === Refusing to Kill is Not a Crime: “I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.” – U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada === American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa === The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press. === A security company headed by a former U.S. State Department official said Monday it will oversee the $300 million construction of a large international airport in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. === Two soldiers have been killed in a battle with Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan while two civilians died in a suicide blast aimed at a German patrol in the north. === Seven Pak troops killed in suicide attack in tribal belt: At lease seven Pakistani security personnel were killed and more than 20 injured in a suicide car bomb blast on Monday, in the restive North Waziristan Agency. === A Palestinian fighter loyal to Hamas, the ruling Islamic resistance group, has been killed and five civilians have been wounded after a vehicle exploded in Gaza City, according to medical and local security sources. === The rival Hamas and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel, a top Palestinian official said Tuesday after weeks of acrimonious negotiations meant to lift crippling international aid sanctions. === The United States on Tuesday reacted cautiously to the Palestinian Hamas groups recognition of Israel to exist, saying it will await the formal version of the announcement. === Israeli troops are amassed on the border of the Gaza Strip as Palestinian militants continue to hold an Israeli soldier captured on Sunday === A Palestinian militant leader today said a captured Israeli soldier was being held in a “secure place,” and he claimed that his group also seized a Jewish settler in the West Bank. === “The occupation will not get any information about the missing soldier, except after committing to first immediately release all women prisoners from Israeli prisoners,” the three groups said in a statement. “Secondly, (we demand) the immediate release of all children under 18 years,” they added. === The Israelis, and their Hard Right Zionist supporters in the U.S., should be put on notice that a day of justice is coming. === This eye-opening documentary exposes the Israel’s colonization policy and follows the timeline, size, population of the “settlements,” and their impact on the peace process. === The United States cannot denounce Iran’s nuclear program while accepting Israel’s possession of nuclear bombs, the head of the Arab League said on Tuesday. === Khamenei said Iran was ready to ease international concerns over its disputed atomic drive, he said “negotiations with the United States are of no use for us. We have no need for such negotiations.” === Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the latest in a long line of American bogeymen: Libya’s Colonel Gadafy, Panama’s Manuel Noriega, Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden, to name a few. === In an apparent reference to the long-running controversy around Iran’s nuclear program, Putin told a meeting in the Foreign Ministry: “We do not intend to join any form of ultimatum that lead to a dead-end and strike a blow against the authority of the UN Security Council.” === The European Union’s top justice official on Tuesday acknowledged that terror suspects have been transferred to U.S. intelligence agents on European territory. === The European Union today urged all nations to sign a global anti-torture convention, calling the practice “cruel, inhuman and degrading” not only to victims but to perpetrators. === As new reports detail further abuse by the U.S. military of its prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a behind-the-scenes battle is being fought between the U.S. departments of state and defence about whether a key section of the Geneva Conventions should be included in new rules governing Army interrogation techniques === Fourteen detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia, the Department of Defense announced in a June 24 press release. === THE father of Australian terror suspect David Hicks says Britain has used a flimsy technicality to refuse to lobby for his son’s release from Guantanamo Bay. === Details have emerged about Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles’ CIA links 40 years ago in South Florida. One revelation: his tie to the agency’s Miami bureau. === The United States has confirmed it has been monitoring international financial transactions, including those in and out of Switzerland, for almost five years. === First Data Corp., the world’s largest processor of credit-card transactions and wire transfers, gave the FBI and CIA unfettered access to data on millions of customers shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks === The White House on Tuesday defended President Bush’s prolific use of statements that tend to limit the impact of bills he signs into law, saying they help him uphold the Constitution and defend the nation’s security. === f achieving one’s goals is the measure of a successful presidency, then George W. Bush is one of the more successful presidents in history. He has, after all, helped transfer much of the nation’s wealth into the hands of the already wealthy, which has long been a major goal of the Republican right. === Millions of angry protesters claiming vote fraud, chaos in the courts, financial markets collapsing, troops in the streets — that’s the nightmare scenario should Mexico’s July 2 presidential election have a disputed finish. === 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: 26 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 2520 The War in Iraq Costs === War is Still a Racket By Charles Sullivan The lies espoused by our so called leaders do not matter on the battlefield. They do not matter when the bodies come home in oversized cardboard boxes, hauled by fork lifts to airport curbs and deposited at the feet of grief-stricken families like a commodity. In a sense, that is what they are. === By Scott Ritter Iraqi military policy is made by the United States. Its borders are controlled by the United States. Its economy is controlled largely by the United States. In fact, there simply isn’t a single major indicator of actual sovereignty in Iraq today that can be said to be free of overwhelming American control. === By Ray McGovern The truth will out. If you fabricate, or acquiesce in the fabrication of, evidence used to “justify” launching a war of choice, you will have to live with that for the rest of your life. === By Gabriele Zamparini You could not make it up! Just a few days after Iraq Body Count’s numbers have lost any credibility (1) the Los Angeles Times published “War’s Iraqi Death Toll Tops 50,000" === By JASON MILLER Shut Up, Go Shopping, Support the War…and Nobody Gets Hurt! === Highly Recommended 60 Minute Documentary This eye-opening documentary exposes the Israel’s colonization policy and follows the timeline, size, population of the “settlements,” and their impact on the peace process. This film also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground; the annexation Wall that Israel is building in the West Bank, and its impact on the Palestinian people. Click here to watch. Windows Media & Real Video === Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Khan Bani Sa’ad, south of Baquba, and killed five Iraqi soldiers, police said. === A bomb near a crowded market killed at least 30 people in Hilla, a mainly Shi’ite town south of Baghdad on Monday, police sources said. === A U.S. Marine died of wounds suffered in combat Monday in Anbar province, the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, the military said. === The U.S. military charged a soldier with voluntary manslaughter on Sunday for shooting an unarmed Iraqi man in February, the latest of several such cases to come to light in recent weeks. === Mr. Maliki laid out the 24-point plan to the Iraqi parliament, offering an “olive branch” to some enemies of his US-backed government that will include a limited amnesty, talks with non-Al Qaeda insurgent groups, and the disbanding of party-linked militias. But he gave few details on how to implement the initiative. === A spokesperson for the 11 largest Sunni insurgent groups said they can’t accept the plan because they don’t recognize the current Iraqi government. === The tally likely is undercounted. Proportionately, it is as if 570,000 Americans were slain in three years. === The call amounted to an admission that all of the CIA’s claims Powell used in his speech about Iraqi weapons were wrong. === One and a half years after the November 2004 U.S. military assault on Fallujah, residents tell of ongoing suffering, lack of jobs, little reconstruction and continuing violence. === I don’t trust my government anymore. – The whole Bush regime can’t be trusted. And a poll showed that over 70 percent of U.S. soldiers want the U.S. to leave Iraq. === Voices of American Troops From The Battlefields Of Iraq === Acts of resistance, big and small, recognized nationally or never heard of by most, by military and civilians are all important elements of ending the illegal War, the War crime, committed by the Bush administration. People of conscience all over the country are refusing to be silent and are taking courageous steps to end the illegal War on Iraq. === A 10 minute interview with Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the war in Iraq. === After weighing the evidence, he came to the conclusion that he could no longer be silent while atrocities were committed in the name of democracy. He could no longer be a tool of an administration that used deception and lies to make the case for pre-emptive war. === It is a harrowing documentation of how the military medical profession has been corrupted by the Bush-Rumsfeld interrogation rules. === Constant Conflict: US Army War College Quarterly: There will be no peace. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing. == Israel Needs A Preemptive Nuclear Strike Against Iran : One of the best ways to ensure the world doesn’t get wobbly over Iran, is to make it understand that although Israel prefers to regard the rogue Islamic regime as an international problem, we will, if necessary, do whatever it takes to ensure our survival, including a preemptive nuclear strike. === Palestinian gunmen have attacked an Israeli army post near the Gaza Strip reportedly killing two Israelis before soldiers shot dead three militants. === Effie Eitam says the IDF must carry out a major ground offensive in Gaza, kill dozens or hundreds of terrorists, including Hamas leaders, and find the abducted soldier. === Palestinian news sources reported Sunday that Shalit was receiving medical treatment for serious wounds to his stomach and his chest. The report added that his captors were preparing to exchange him for Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli custody. === A statement faxed Monday by Palestinian groups purporting to hold an Israeli soldier demanded the release of women and children under 18 held in Israeli prisons. === “The moment when we will launch a large-scale military operation is approaching. We will not wait indefinitely, because we have no intention of being blackmailed by Hamas,” Olmert said during a speech in Jerusalem. === The officials are not taking phone calls, fearing IDF assassination attempts after Israeli government and military officials placed blame for the attack on the ruling militant group, whose armed wing took responsibility along with the Popular Resistance Committees. === The Israeli government has exploited the focus of attention on the World Cup to murder more than 20 Palestinians, including children, a pregnant woman, a doctor and several paramedics. === Two U.S. coalition soldiers and 45 suspected militants have been killed in a four-hour gun battle in Afghanistan. === A US soldier has been killed fighting insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, while a suicide car bomber who targeted a military convoy wounded two civilians. === Western commanders claim they are bringing the insurgency to heel, but there is growing resentment among Afghans at the high death toll. === What will it take to persuade this government that our military deployment in Afghanistan is a disaster for Canada? === We are very selective in our mourning? === When I was a little boy, and I knew that I was being watched, I would sometimes put on a show for the hidden audience – generally by acting in ways that I thought were tough and dangerous – without ever letting on that I knew the observers were there. === The continued hostile rhetoric is clearly to signal another attempt to oust the Venezuelan leader at whatever time and by whatever means the Bush administration has in mind. Stay tuned. === The Bush administration finally took action against alleged terrorists living in plain sight in Miami, but they weren’t the right-wing Cuban terrorists implicated in actual acts of terror, such as blowing a civilian Cuban airliner out of the sky. They were seven young black men whose crime was more “aspirational than operational,” the FBI said. === The alarming news flashed across television screens in the United States on Friday: Government agents had thwarted an al Qaeda plot, using home-grown American terrorists, to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago in a ghastly repeat of September 11. === It is now an established pattern: the government seeks out mental cases and disturbed individuals and turns them into “al-Qaeda” terrorists, or wannabe al-Qaedaites. === Nobel Peace laureate Ramos-Horta, foreign minister since East Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, quit on Sunday. An aide said the resignation came after Alkatiri’s Fretilin party decided to continue backing the prime minister. === Comorans said on Wednesday they were outraged by the suspended sentence handed to French mercenary Bob Denard, who four times overthrew the Indian Ocean archipelago’s governments. === The world was horrified to learn of the holocaust which had taken place in Cambodia at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. This film exposes the hypocrisy of the Western nations . === It was perhaps inevitable that someone would compare President Bush’s extrajudicial wiretapping operations to Richard Nixon’s 1970s-era surveillance of journalists and political enemies. Both were carried out by Republican presidents; both bypassed the courts; both relied on the cooperation of U.S. telecommunications companies. === Now is the time for all good patriots to come to the aid of our government. I refer, of course, to the situation revolving around the so-called “NSA spying” on all American citizens without benefit of a “legal” warrant. === A prominent Republican congressman has called on the Bush administration to seek criminal charges against the New York Times for publishing details of a secret programme to monitor the financial transactions of thousands of Americans. === Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants: Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company’s RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16. === General Motors will on Monday disclose details of one of most dramatic corporate downsizings in US history, exceeding a key target of its turnround plan and accelerating the demise of the American car worker === New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke a tie Monday in a ruling that affirmed a state death penalty law and also revealed the court’s deep divisions over capital punishment. === For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the end of the world. Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying to hasten it. Their end game is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah. === 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: 23 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 2513 The War in Iraq Costs === By Ray McGovern This may seem a bit quaint, perhaps even obsolete, but it used to be standard procedure to require intelligence before deciding to make war. Unless you have been asleep these past several months, you know that this sequence was reversed in 2002 when the White House ordered intelligence “fixed” to justify a prior decision for war on Iraq. === The Alchemists: Turning Blood Into Gold By Chris Floyd This week an interesting story appeared in the Washington Post – buried on page 16, of course, lest anyone think it was of the slightest importance. It revealed that documentary proof has now emerged confirming the fact that in the spring of 2003, the Bush Regime – flush with its illusory “victory” in Iraq – spurned a wide-ranging peace feeler from Iran which offered “full cooperation” on every issue that the Bushists claim to be concerned about in regard to Tehran: “nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups.” === By Walter C. Uhler Called a “connoisseur of terrorism nightmares,” who possesses the personality of a “blowtorch,” Weldon likes to use props – a dummy nuclear suitcase, or a replica of a sarin gas dispenser, or a genuine Russian missile gyroscope – to bring theatricality to his Chicken Little histrionics. === By Mike Whitney US forces have surrounded Ramadi causing tens of thousands of people to flee into the countryside. The city is clearly the next domino in the Pentagon’s master-plan to decimate Iraqi society and divide the country into three small state’s === Video Documentary What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine. Click here to watch. Real Video === Least we think that America was built by the starched shirts and expensive suits featured on FOX News and CNN. This documentary will help to remind us that our freedoms and working conditions were not won by U.S. soldiers in foreign lands but through the suffering and sweat of our fathers and grand fathers in their struggle against commercial interests. Click here to watch. === By Greg Palast US Republicans are planning to change the law to stop black, Hispanic and Native American voters going to the polls in 2008. === A car bomb exploded near a petrol station in the southern Iraqi city of Basra 550 km (340 miles), killing at least 10 people and wounding 15, police sources said. === At least 25 people have been executed gangland-style in Iraq’s third-largest city this week, with residents gunned down in ones and twos and bodies found scattered throughout Mosul === The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Friday after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and opened fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops just north of the heavily fortified Green Zone. === Threatened, abused, raped and tortured: such is the fate of untold numbers of Iraqi women amid the barbarous practices of the occupation. === The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces. === There has been much talk about a withdrawal of U.S. and coalition troops from Iraq, but no defined timeline has yet been set. There is, however, an unofficial “road map” to foreign troop reductions that will eventually lead to total withdrawal of U.S. troops. === Six Democrats joined 54 Republicans in opposing it. They were Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Bill Nelson of Florida, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. === With Senator Joseph Lieberman facing an increasingly tight primary fight, pro-Israel interest groups are stepping up their support for the former vice presidential candidate. === An unusual two-page document spewed out of a fax machine at the Near East bureau of the State Department. It was a proposal from Iran for a broad dialogue with the United States, and the fax suggested everything was on the table — including full cooperation on nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups. === U.S.-led forces have killed 14 Taliban fighters in clashes during a major operation against rebels in volatile southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. === A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousof Ahmadi, contacted The Associated Press by telephone and said the Taliban killed the men because they had been spying for Afghan and coalition forces. His claim could not be immediately verified. === The latest casualties came during military operations against insurgents across eastern and southern Afghanistan, and as the fugitive second in command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called on Afghans to rise up against the foreign forces in the country. === Depleted Uranium and the Poisoning of Humanity === The ministry’s statement, carried by the official Saudi news agency, said security forces had chased seven members of a “deviant” group to a house in al-Nakheel district of Riyadh. “Deviant” is the term normally used by Saudi authorities to describe supporters of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. === It’s more than just simple dislike. A Harris Interactive/Financial Times survey released Monday found that 36 percent of Europeans view the United States as the world’s greatest threat to “global stability.” === “Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, ‘I don’t like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.’ And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted.” === A new policy on Islam: As one watches U.S. Armed Forces struggle against Sunni insurgents, Shia militias and jihadists in Iraq, and a resurgent Taliban, all invoking Allah, Victor Hugo’s words return to mind: No army is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. === Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, expressed “deep regret” for army operations that have killed 14 Palestinian civilians in Gaza in just nine days but said the lives of Israeli citizens threatened by Qassam attacks were “even more important”. === Threats against four prominent Jerusalemite Palestinian activists are but prelude to what the state of Israel has in mind for the entirety of the occupied city === Doctors for Human Rights reported that Israeli forces finally allowed Al Hilo to enter Israeli borders in order to be hospitalized, however within moments Israeli guards arrived demanding to be paid for their “services.” Al Hilo cannot afford to pay 1,700 shekels per day, which is approximately 380 USD. === Israel is cutting off Palestinians in the Jordan Valley from neighbouring villages and preventing access to vital sources of income in a bid to force them out, local villagers say. === Mexican leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has a narrow lead over his conservative rival going into the final days of the campaign, two closely-watched polls showed on Friday. === What some owners of radio and television service providers need to understand is that impunity has ended in this country.” === The fight against poverty, which calls for a multipronged effort against hunger, inequality, and social marginalisation, is a pressing issue in Latin America. But it is apparently not for the press. In Colombia, where roughly half of the population lives in poverty, the only nationwide newspaper, El Tiempo, dedicates just 0.8 percent of its coverage to the issue. === “There was no immediate threat,” Gonzales said, acknowledging the defendants never had any contact with al Qaeda and did not have any weapons. “They didn’t have the materials required.” === ANDREWS: So somebody had approached him to give him money to blow up buildings? === The sister of one was just on MSNBC saying that he deeply resented Bush spending money to drop bombs on poor people who could not defend themselves, while depriving the poor in the United States of any support. === WMD Plot Uncovered In East Texas: At least one weapon of mass destruction – a sodium cyanide bomb capable of delivering a deadly gas cloud – has been seized in the Tyler area. Investigators have seized at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and chemical agents === The U.S. government gained sweeping access to international banking records as part of a secret program to choke off financial support for terrorism, officials confirmed Thursday. === he US government has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by reviewing confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide – without the knowledge of many banks and their customers. === How America is rapidly becoming a police state === Jack Abramoff and other lobbyists redefined “access and influence” inside this Administration. Smith blows the whistle on officials described as Abramoff’s ‘point man’ inside the Department of the Interior. === House Speaker Dennis Hastert denied Thursday that he pushed for federal funding for a proposed highway in northeastern Illinois so he and his wife could reap about $1.8 million from land deals near their home in Kendall County. === While the measure falls short of the full repeal sought by President George W. Bush and business and farm groups, Republican backers said it was the best they could do in light of failed efforts to get permanent repeal through the Senate. === The proposal was for a three-step increase in the current minimum wage of $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-46, eight short of the 60 needed to pass the bill. === In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. === MEDICAL products made from human body parts stolen from funeral homes in New York have been implanted into Australians. === 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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