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Date: 6-10 JULY 2006 |
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Date: 10 July 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 2544 The War in Iraq Costs === By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS The US is the new Rome—there is no legitimate power but us. Any other power is a potential threat to our interests and must be eliminated before it gets any independent ideas. The US, however, is far more dangerous than Rome. Rome saw its world as the Mediterranean and, for a while, Northern Europe, but the US thinks the whole world is its oyster. === By Mike Whitney Bush is dreaming if he thinks that he can patch things together by throwing a bone to the resistance. What good does amnesty do when the country is in rubble and an American stooge is running the government from the Green Zone? This just forces the resistance to stiffen their resolve and continue the struggle. There’s really no other option. === By Geoff Rutledge I was sent to this far away land, half a boy half a man. 4 Minute Video === By Stephen Lendman It was learned that Felipe Calderon’s brother-in-law Diego Hildebrando Zavala wrote the vote-counting software, and it’s already been hacked. This new discovery is especially disturbing as whoever controls the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) computer systems can manipulate the vote process, control which votes get counted, which ones don’t, and what the final vote tally will be. === Two bombs blasted Baghdad’s Talbiya district, a stronghold of Shi’ite militia fighters, killing 12 people and wounding 62, police said. === The gunmen killed all six passengers, including a woman, and the driver before setting the bus on fire in the Amariyah neighborhood of western Baghdad, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said === Iraq’s Islamic Party claimed Saturday that the Iraqi police murdered a Muslim cleric on a security checkpoint in southern Iraq. === Iraq’s prime minister pleaded for Iraqis to “unite as brothers” on Monday as a fresh spasm of violence gripped Baghdad, where 60 people were killed at the weekend in a dramatic escalation of sectarian bloodletting. === Mahdi army blamed for Baghdad street slaughter === Some 200 sacked policemen from a province where Iraqi forces will take over security from British troops this month stormed the governor’s office on Monday, beating people with hoses and stabbing them with knives. === Documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday showed the rape victim was a minor aged just 14, and not over 20 as U.S. officials say. Abeer’s sister Hadeel was just six when she died of “several gunshot wounds”. === Let this be a lesson to all the cannon fodder out there: don’t get above your raising, don’t emulate your betters. Law is for the lowly, not the great and good. === Well, well, well. The Ministry of Truth has now scrubbed out Green’s photo. If you access the cached version of the article you can still see it. === Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the human rights minister said on Monday, as the military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis. === In case you missed it: Iraq: Free Fire Zones: 2 Minute Video: Former US Marine Rob Serra spoke in CT in 2004. He had taken part in the invasion of Iraq the year before and he tells what first turned him against the war. === This video is rapidly becoming a “defining” song for the peace movement. War Is Not A Game is written by combat veteran, emergency room physician, and congressional candidate Dr. Bill Durston. === It’s a lot worse over here [in Iraq] than is reported. The administration does a great job of managing the news. === AN INQUIRY into the shooting of Iraq’s trade minister’s bodyguards by Australian troops has been reopened by the Defence Force after complaints from the Iraqi Government. === A U.S. warplane bombed a militant hide-out in a raid by Afghan and coalition forces that killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan on Monday, coalition officials said. === Hundreds of Canadian and Afghan soldiers raided Taliban strongholds throughout southern orchards yesterday, sparking fighting that killed at least 15 militants and one Canadian === Firefights between anti-government militants and law enforcing agencies left two militants dead and 11 others, including two police, injured in the south and southeast Afghanistan on Sunday night, === One Palestinian was killed in another IDF attack in the Karni crossing and several others wounded. === It’s a direct hit by the second missile fired by the excellent Israel Air Force pilot, and it comes right into the dining room through the ceiling. Fatma, three months pregnant, is killed on the spot by the shrapnel that hits her spine. Her brother, Dr. Ahmed, is also killed. His daughter-in-law miscarries her child, the little girl Farah is moderately injured and the baby of the family, Khaled, is critically injured in the head. A puddle of blood collects on the floor. == He said in the north of Gaza Israeli forces had shot and destroyed rooftop water tanks and mains, while in the south more than 1,000 people had been forced to leave their homes. Rafah had no electricity because the army would not allow the UN to fix a minor fault, while the rest of Gaza had electricity for six hours a day. === For the first time since 1967, Israel is preventing the entry of Palestinians with foreign citizenship, most of them Americans. === There was no reason to suspect anything but an error. After all, throughout their 30 years together this was the drill: Every three months, a day or two before the Israeli tourist visa in her American passport was set to expire, she would go away for a few days – to Jordan, sometimes Cyprus or Egypt, then return with a new visa for another three months. === The “apartheid Israel state” is worse than the apartheid that was conducted in South Africa, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha said on Monday. He said Palestinians were being attacked with heavy machinery and tanks used in war, which had never happened in South Africa. === “I am confident that the international community, headed by President Bush, will take the required, effective measures to stop the threat of enriching uranium, posed by Iran.” === Iran previously said it would not give a final response on Tuesday but, by repeating the comment a day before the meeting, the official undermined any prospects of a breakthrough. === There has been a marked spike in unrest in Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Balochistan, three of Iran’s provinces with a high concentration of ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Balochi minorities respectively. === The United States said Saturday it is beginning negotiations with Russia on a potentially lucrative nuclear energy accord, but made clear any deal would be conditional on Moscow’s full cooperation in US attempts to block Iranian nuclear ambitions. === Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who became the most wanted man in Russia, has been killed by the Russian security services. === An anti-war video with background music from Pearl Jam === Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North’s missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo’s proposal for sanctions against the regime. === NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has vowed not to make “even a tiny concession” to the United States and said Pyongyang was braced for “all-out war” after its missile tests, state television has warned. === Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters after a meeting with envoys from Russia, the United States, Britain, France and Japan that the resolution would have to be altered for the council to approve it. === I India’s first test-firing of a new missile designed to carry nuclear warheads across much of Asia and the Middle East was unsuccessful, the defense minister said. Although initially reported as a success by officials, the Agni III missile plunged into the Bay of Bengal short of its target === For the first time in its history, Latin America , sharply split between a tiny rich white elite and huge poverty, is moving towards a degree of independence and also a degree of integration. So the United States is terrified. === The evidence to be presented to the Federal Election Tribunal includes alleged proof of computer manipulation of results and that votes weren’t counted, his party says. === Voter support for former head of state Daniel Ortega increased last month in Nicaragua, according to a poll by Borge y Asociados. 30.1 per cent of respondents would back the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) member in this year’s presidential election === Video: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Their film records what was probably history’s shortest-lived coup d’état. It’s a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela “Washington’s biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba.” === Prisoners at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay have been subjected to “systematic physical, psychological, sexual, medical and religious abuse,” according to a report released Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights === New documents show senior Defense officials ignored the request by military commanders to clarify interrogation methods. === Report Details Recent Torture and Inhumane Treatment in Violation of U.S. Law and the Supreme Court’s Recent Hamdan Decision; === A HIGH-ranking Republican congressman has exposed what he sees as a dissident faction within the CIA that he says “intentionally undermined” the policies of US President George W Bush. === The White House possibly broke the law by keeping intelligence activities a secret from the lawmakers responsible for overseeing them, the House Intelligence Committee chairman said yesterday. === The White House kept intelligence activities secret from the lawmakers responsible for overseeing them until whistleblowers revealed the programmes, the house intelligence committee chairman said yesterday. === The Government was accused last night of hoarding information about people who pose no danger to this country, after it emerged that MI5 holds secret files on 272,000 individuals – a staggering one in 160 adults. === What do you get when you combine an ambitious IT scheme run by the government and a plan that threatens to ride roughshod over civil liberties? The answer is an unholy mess. === Victor Kittila, 55, of Eastpointe was standing near the road in Ferndale last week holding a sign that read “Honk if you want Bush Out,” according to the Daily Tribune. Kittila lost the sign after police confiscated it and placed him under arrest. === 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: 9 July 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 2543 The War in Iraq Costs === By Gwynne Dyer Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Archbishop Makarios in Cyprus, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and a dozen other national leaders emerged from prison to negotiate independence after “terrorist” organizations loyal to them had worn down the imperial forces that occupied their countries. In the era of decolonization, terrorism was a widely accepted technique for driving the occupiers out. South Africa was lucky to see so little of it, but terrorism was part of the struggle there, too. === America’s war on terror is a logical impossibility Video Leacture By Noam Chomsky The U.S. government has been, and continues to be, a major supporter of state-supported terrorism, favoring retaliatory or preemptive aggression over mediation in the world court, and avoiding accountability by excluding itself from the globally accepted definition of terrorism. === By Dahr Jamail Lovely to watch how people like Cheney, and the minions who support his ilk, conveniently forget that there was no terrorism in Iraq prior to the US invasion/occupation. And one must love his “logic.” For according to Cheney, “whether we complete the job or not in Iraq” his beloved “terrorism” will “continue” … “only it’ll get worse.” === By Paul Craig Roberts A person might think that it would be national news that Stanford University students would not allow the President of the US on campus. It happened to be a day that hundreds of prospective freshmen were on campus with their parents, many of whom joined the demonstration against Bush. I did not hear or read a word about it. === Winning the Battle for their Souls By Jason Miller America as the beacon of human rights and dignity is but a dream yet to be realized. While the dream has lain dormant, amoral opportunists have busily unleashed their nightmare on billions of human beings. And all the while they have trumpeted the many virtues of the United States as a Christian nation. === By Andrew Stephen In the murky basement of his home in Washington’s affluent Georgetown district, Andrew Stephen makes a discovery that leads him to some terrible truths about America, past and present . === At least 42 people have been killed by roving bands of masked gunmen who appeared to be targeting Sunnis in the Baghdad neighborhood of Jihad. === At least 15 people were killed and 35 were wounded today when two car bombs went off near a Shi’ite mosque in a Sunni district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. === The bodies of four people shot in the head were dumped blindfolded and handcuffed in a street in Baghdad’s southwestern Jihad district === United States military said Sunday Iraqi security forces reinforced by American forces killed nine armed men and arrested seven others in a raid operation north of the capital. === Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq’s police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings, according to confidential Iraqi government documents detailing more than 400 police corruption investigations. === The U.S. statement said the four soldiers still on active duty will face an Article 32 investigation, similar to a grand jury hearing in civilian law. The Article 32 proceeding will determine whether there is enough evidence to place them on trial. === SENIOR US marine officers failed to carry out a proper investigation into reports that troops had killed civilians in Haditha, according to Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, the second highest ranking commander in Iraq. === This administration never holds anyone in senior positions accountable for derelict performance. However, unless there is full accountability for the war crimes of Iraq – wherever the evidence leads – there is a high probability that the lessons today’s lieutenants and captains need to learn about the law of war and command leadership will never be sufficiently absorbed === President Bush would spend a quarter of the $50 billion down payment he wants for next year’s Iraq and Afghanistan war costs to replace damaged weapons and equipment, while an additional $3 billion would go to train and equip Iraqi and Afghan forces. === The effect the war in Iraq has had on motivating Muslims planning acts of violence in the UK is underlined to senior Scotland Yard officers in a private briefing document compiled by anti-terrorist specialists. === These documents clarify and support many of the claims in the book about the government’s use of intelligence gained through torture, and also reveal the extent to which the Foreign Office sought to censor the book. === HUNDREDS of Canadian and Afghani soldiers raided Taliban strongholds scattered throughout southern orchards, sparking fighting that killed at least 15 militants and one Canadian. === A roadside bomb blast killed a Peruvian soldier attached to the Spanish military Saturday and wounded four other NATO troops in western Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said. === Christina Lamb has spent 20 years covering Afghan wars and was lucky to escape with her life after a firefight 10 days ago. Afghanistan is littered with the debris of invading empires – so why do we refuse to learn from history? === 9/11 Was Preventable: CIA operative talks frankly about opportunities missed in the search for America’s Most Wanted, why he believes successive American governments have been characterised by “moral cowardice”, and how close to “Mission Impossible” the reality of being a spy really is… === THREE Palestinian family members, including a six-year-old girl, were killed yesterday in an air strike near Gaza City as Israel rejected a call by Hamas Premier Ismail Haniya for a mutual ceasefire. === The dead Palestinian was identified as Bilal Sliman Rabah, an 18-year-old supermarket clerk. Seven other Palestinians were wounded in the errant strike, including one in very serious condition. === According to an army investigation, the IDF soldier killed last week in the Gaza operation, Staff Sergeant Yehuda Bassal, was killed by friendly fire === “I wanted to hug my youngest son, who was afraid, but the soldier aimed his gun at me. ‘You want to use the telephone,’ he accused. I wanted to say something to my husband, but the soldier said ‘uskut’ (shut up),” she said in a telephone conversation. === Situation in the Gaza strip : Among the attacks perpetrated by the Israeli Army, the deliberate destruction of Gaza strip’s power station, of water supplying systems, of bridges, roads, offices of the Palestinian Authority and of other civilian infrastructures are a violation of Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War === Mr Annan said Israel had to repair the territory’s only power plant, which was damaged in an Israeli airstrike. UN agencies have said Gaza is on the brink of a public health disaster. === We are allowed to bomb anything we want and they are not allowed to launch Qassams. When they fire a Qassam at Ashkelon, that’s an “escalation of the conflict,” and when we bomb a university and a school, it’s perfectly alright. === By not challenging the Israeli narrative in any meaningful way, and dumping it on hapless viewers all around the world, the uncritical media has become a tool in the hands of Israel’s war strategists and their eternal concoctions. === Though rarely featured in US and European news coverage, Israeli critics of the Gaza attacks are speaking out loudly. Below are some of the many who prepared to speak the truth. === Internationally acclaimed author and former Peruvian presidential candidate, Mario Vargas Llosa, over the weekend slammed Israel’s “out of proportion” operation in the Gaza Strip, saying he was ashamed of being Israel’s friend. === Enraged by Israeli aerial flight over presidential palace last week, Syrian officials threaten future provocations will not go unanswered; warn of cells willing to carry out ‘liberation war’ against Israel === Intelligence agencies, navies and air forces from at least 13 nations are quietly co-operating in a “secret war” against Pyongyang and Tehran. === North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il said his country would not budge in negotiations with the United States, adding the reclusive state was ready to meet any attack with a strong blow of its own, Yonhap reported on Sunday. === South Korea has distanced itself from a UN initiative to impose punitive sanctions on its northern neighbour, increasing pressure to find a diplomatic solution to the missile row. === Today, and for years to come, North Korea poses no missile threat to the U.S. homeland. Indeed, the world market for North Korean missiles probably tanked a bit on July 5, especially as one of Kim’s shorter-range rockets almost landed on Mother Russia. === More than 100,000 people have gathered in Mexico City to support demands for a recount after last weekend’s hotly disputed presidential election. === On May 20, 2004, US President George W Bush disclosed with great fanfare his plan to annex Cuba. The massive 450-page creation elicited a wave of criticism from around the world. === While the US government talks of “election monitoring” there are many who believe that we in the US and in Nicaragua should be monitoring the US government’s involvement in the up-coming Nicaraguan elections. === Carter criticized the U.S. government which only considers two of the five Nicaraguan presidential hopefuls as “acceptable”, and also raised the issue of another country, he did not name, which is financially supporting some of the Nicaraguan municipalities ruled by the leftist Sandinista party. === In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters. === For more than a decade, Grover G. Norquist has been at the nexus of conservative activism in Washington, becoming a Bush administration insider whose weekly strategy sessions at his Americans for Tax Reform have drawn ever-larger crowds of lawmakers, lobbyists and even White House political adviser Karl Rove. === The platform calls America a “Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian principles,” and that has drawn a frustrated reaction from Jewish groups that consider the language exclusionary. === Who they are, what they want, and why these American ayatollahs must be stopped. === George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America : It shows how we came to have a president who believes, in the words of one commentator, that “he and his country have a special relationship with God” — New York Times === Could a Republican-controlled Congress, pass a bill to protect the words ``under God’’ in the Pledge of Allegiance from court challenges? === Jonathan Miller visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first ‘unbelievers’ in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic. === Lethal doses of poison were tested on troops, says report into top secret Porton Down === In 27 cities across the United States, seriously injured accident victims could end up in a medical experiment, without their knowledge or consent. === 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: 8 July 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 2543 The War in Iraq Costs === All Iraq is Abu Ghraib By Haifa Zangana Our streets are prison corridors and our homes cells as the occupiers go about their strategic humiliation and intimidation. === By Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D. President Bush invoked the “War on Terrorism”, as a dictum of power, not reason and wisdom, to camouflage the prospective future with acts of barbarity and to dispel the notion of accountability in global affairs. Historically, people and nations pursuing this path of behavior have ended up in self-defeat and self-destruction. === Does Kim Jung Il read the newspapers? By Mike Whitney If Kim thumbed through today’s news he would have seen the limp and bloodied body of a dead Palestinian boy being rushed away from the site of Israel’s latest attack in Gaza. He would have read about the mysterious explosions that rocked Kabul overnight and the 30 or so “alleged” Taliban that were blown up in America’s scattershot carpet-bombing of southern Afghanistan. He would have seen that 24 new bodies of bound and brutalized Iraqis had been dumped at the Baghdad morgue after being abducted and tortured by the roaming death squads which control the capital. === Bo Filter Imagine thousands of people demanding that money be pulled away from the military to fund a peace-industrial complex . Imagine across the street or next door to every recruiting office is an equally funded peace office extolling the virtues of exporting bread instead of bombs. === The bodies of six Shi’ite rag collectors were found in the mainly Sunni Baghdad district of Doura, apparent victims of sectarian violence, Interior Ministry sources said. They had gunshot wounds to the head and chest. === Gunmen Saturday killed three people working in an ice cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan, police Lt. Fikrat Mohammed said. === Three Soldiers assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD) died due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province today. === US forces in Iraq have launched a series of bloody attacks on Shia militia forces in and around Baghdad, killing or wounding 30 fighters and provoking widespread anger in the Shia community. === “It is perhaps fair to say that a significant majority of Americans would like the United States to either withdraw troops from Iraq or make specific plans to do so, although there is no majority demand that troops be withdrawn immediately.” === An embedded TV producer’s frank assessment === An investigation into the cover-up of the alleged murder of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last November concludes Marine officers at every level up to and including the colonel who commanded the regiment failed to investigate inaccurate and conflicting reports of how the civilians were killed. === The yearly cost of unemployment benefits for disabled military personnel has ballooned to $3 billion. Is the U.S. prepared for the oncoming wave of Iraq war vets? === According to witnesses, a six-year-old girl was among the dead. === A SIX-year-old Palestinian girl, her elder brother and her mother were killed. Thirty-nine Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza === Two Palestinians including a policeman were killed by the Israeli army tank fire in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City, according to the sources. === The 1949 Geneva Conventions state, in article 54 of their additional protocol: “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited”. It is also “prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”. === “We will not negotiate with hostage-takers,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.: Haniyeh is also demanding the release of eight Hamas cabinet ministers detained by Israel. === A Call By Jews In Britain. PDF === It is tragic to witness the transformation of a victim into the worst perpetrator of that which he suffered from in the past. But this is what is unfolding before our eyes. === Hold Israel to account for its killing of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. === US-led forces in Afghanistan say they have killed 10 suspected Taleban militants in the south of the country. === A member of the Afghan parliament Friday accused the American-led coalition of opening fire on his family as they traveled by car in one of the most troubled provinces of southern Afghanistan, killing his brother-in-law and wounding five others, including his wife and two of his children. === Military police said Friday that a Canadian soldier who shot and killed an Afghan civilian at a checkpoint in Kandahar acted lawfully and will not face charges. === The UK, Defence Secretary, Des Browne, has said that the presence of British forces in Afghanistan has “energised” the Taliban. === Osama Bin Laden is ill and invisible, but five years after September 11, 2001, his al-Qaeda movement has become the fulcrum of a global, Islamic resistance against the United States. === Amid tensions over North Korean nuclear tests, the United States has dispatched a top-of-the-line guided missile destroyer to Japan. === Testimony by an Algerian national caught up in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme, held for 16 months in secret prisons and later released without charge, has revealed how he was chained by the wrists and ankles and left hanging from the roof of a torture chamber for hours on end. === One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals === It’s hard to know what to make of the FBI’s reported disruption of a plot to blow up the Holland Tunnel. But the timing of the leak — and its intended political impact — is indisputable. === An FBI informant urged seven terror suspects to target FBI offices throughout the country – including one in New York – and even helped the men scout the buildings, law enforcement sources told the Daily News yesterday. === California Man Revealed as al Qaeda Leader: For the first time, a former Orange County, Calif. teenage rock music fan has revealed his role as a top al Qaeda leader. === Is the United States winning the war on terror? Not according to more than 100 of America’s top foreign-policy hands. They see a national security apparatus in disrepair and a government that is failing to protect the public from the next attack. === The charges against Mr Altimimi relate to the possession of articles for the purposes of terrorism, === The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, === Americans can no longer be shocked by the discovery that information directly affecting their personal freedom is withheld from news media to protect persons with governmental influence. But it still comes as a shocking revelation that in 1933 there was an actual attempt to make a fascist puppet of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. === Just say that schools were to have the compulsory subject of ‘civics’ .. including such as history, geography and political systems. And just say that, in order to be able to vote for anyone, you would have had to have passed some leaving exam … if you were going to have the right to vote in future. === Russia will revoke all obligations it has assumed during negotiations on joining the World Trade Organization if it cannot reach agreement with the United States on its WTO bid, President Vladimir Putin said === Two radio news services funded by the US government that broadcast across Russia and were often critical of the Kremlin have been largely taken off the air. === 30 organizations want to protest against US president George W. Bush’s policies during his visit to Germany in July. Under the motto “Not welcome, Mr. President”, the organizer expects demonstrators from all over Germany. === Over 1500 people attended this 4 day Socialism 2006 conference in New York, held at Columbia University. See coverage with transcripts at Socialist Worker. We present audio coverage of the Saturday night rally and panels === There is evidence that left-leaning voters have been scrubbed from key electoral lists in Latin America === President of Waterkeeper Alliance and professor of environmental law, Pace University – Interview begins at 37:25 into the program === Voting Machines Whistle Blower Testimony === 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: 7 July 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 2540 The War in Iraq Costs See the cost in your community === Cheney really wants U.S. dictator : The United States is caught up in a new campaign for a military dictatorship — rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time of great danger, the president has unlimited powers as commander in chief. === By Reuters The vast majority of Israelis believe the Jewish state should assassinate leaders of the governing Palestinian movement Hamas in response to the crisis in Gaza, a newspaper poll published on Friday showed. === By Paul Craig Roberts Gentle reader, consider what it means when our government believes other countries have no right to their own interests unless they coincide with US interests. It means that we are the tyrant country. We cannot be the tyrant country without being perceived as the tyrant country. Consequently, the rest of the world unites against us. === By Mike Whitney All the pompous victory speeches and blather about “dead-enders and terrorists” was just more empty rhetoric. The real strategy is to conceal America’s ignominious defeat while keeping a couple of well-placed bases in the Iraqi oil fields. == By Stephen Lendman What do these presidential elections all have in common: Mexico, 1988, US, 2000, US, 2004, Colombia and Peru, 2006 and the just concluded Mexican election on July 2? In each case, the outcome was “arranged” and known in advance before voters went to the polls. === Video – The Plot To Overthrow FDR When Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the Presidency in 1932, many Americans looked to his bold New Deal plans as the way out of the dark days of the Depression. But a powerful group of financiers and industrialists saw his economic policies as a threat. Click here to watch === Iraqi soldiers captured a militant leader, and up to 40 “enemy fighters” were killed or wounded today in a gun battle in eastern Baghdad, the US military said. === At least 30 people were also killed or wounded in deadly clashes in Baghdad’s Shiite slum district of Sadr City between Shiite militiamen and US-Iraqi forces who claimed to have captured a leading insurgent there === At least nine people were killed in fighting Friday between Shiite militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City, security and medical sources said. === Police director of Alqdiya and Kirkuk districts Brigadier Sarhad Qader said police patrol vehicles first discovered two unidentified bodies in Ryadh area and later discovered four other dead bodies in the same area. === Everyone, male or female, in the Bush Regime should be charged with Ungentlemanly Conduct which is Article 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). === A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed “large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists” to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization. === Seven Palestinians were killed as Israel pressed on with its bloody offensive in Gaza and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on the international community to halt the deadly assault. === Palestinian medical and security sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Friday that Israeli soldiers stepped-up their military assaults in the Gaza Strip and killed three residents, a fourth resident died of wounds sustained on Thursday in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. === Bloodstained bodies could be seen huddled together as the wounded frantically carried other victims covered in blood through the streets. === “He (Seyam) called on all Palestinian security and military services to participate in the moral, national and religious duty to defend our people … and to confront this incursion and cowardly Zionist aggression.” === === An Israeli minister said Israel was prepared to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the freedom of an Israeli soldier held captive for almost two weeks. === Olmert’s smashing of Gaza reveals his greatest fear: A viable Palestinian government he’d have to negotiate with. === Concerned over the “deteriorating humanitarian conditions” of the Palestinian people, India and 28 other countries have demanded an end to military action by Israel in the occupied areas and sought immediate release of arrested Palestinian ministers and members of Palestinian Legislative Council === Jewish organizations are making one last lobbying push as members of both chambers of Congress are set to meet in a conference committee to reconcile two versions of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. === A Texas preacher is coming to Capitol Hill later this month with a present for the Jews: some 2,000 heartland Americans lobbying for Israel. === Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has warned that continued Israeli strikes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can lead to an “explosion” in the Islamic world that would target Israel and its supporters in the West. === German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung’s suggestion that Iran should be allowed to carry out a limited enrichment program – has exposed a fundamental crack in the facade of unity among the six countries that have given Iran a proposal aimed at halting all its enrichment activities. === North Korea’s long-range Taepodong-2 missile travelled for about 7 minutes after liftoff before it plunged into the East Sea, a top South Korean military officer said Thursday. === Russia’s foreign minister on Thursday warned against threatening North Korea with sanctions after its missile tests, saying this would provoke a hostile response. === North Korea considers sanctions against it as a declaration of war, its deputy ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency late on Friday. === The North Korean government promised Thursday to “continue with missile launch drills” and threatened to “take stronger physical actions” against anyone who tried to stop the missile tests. === China on Friday said it will not join unanimity when the Security Council votes in the near future on a draft resolution condemning North Korea for test-firing six missiles === North Korea threatened Japan on Friday for imposing sanctions after it test-fired missiles this week, while the United States struggled to get a unified diplomatic response to the launchings. === Members of the affected families and witnesses told the private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that 15 civilians, including women and children, perished in the bombing by coalition aircraft. Earlier, the coalition forces had claimed that 35 Taliban fighters were killed in the air strike on a “known Taliban compound” === Militants attacked a coalition convoy in Helmand province’s Baghran Valley on Thursday, killing a coalition soldier and wounding another, said spokesman Sgt. Chris Miller. Five militants died when coalition forces returned fire, he said. === The debacle of Britain-in-Afghanistan cannot be ignored, because British troops are at risk. – They are sweltering and dying in Helmand not to prop up an embattled regime in Kabul, for which they are hopelessly undermanned, but to keep NATO alive in Europe, an unworthy mission. === Racism, the ideology that came into full flower as a justification for European conquest of most of the planet, is now headquartered in the United States – with an annex in Israel. Tel Aviv is a very active annex. === Details of 4.6 million British financial transactions are being secretly disclosed each year to American intelligence agencies, privacy campaigners say. === The Parliament voted 302 to 219, with 22 abstentions, to demand that the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the EU’s 25 member states “explain fully the extent to which they were aware of the secret agreement” between Swift, an international banking consortium, and the U.S. government. === The planning appeared to be in the early stages, and the tunnels and other transportation routes weren’t believed to have ever been at serious risk. === Two more suspects in a plot to attack a New York rail tunnel are in custody abroad, in addition to a man arrested in Lebanon, a senior FBI official said on Friday. === Republicans running on their anti-terror exploits are just plain nutty. === Over the last few months a series of revelations have confirmed what should have been obvious a long time ago: the Bush administration and the movement it leads have been engaged in an authoritarian project, an effort to remove all the checks and balances that have heretofore constrained the executive branch. === The United States is caught up in a new campaign for a military dictatorship — rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time of great danger, the president has unlimited powers as commander in chief. === The man who used to be the next vice president of the US is in trouble, and it doesn’t augur well for Hillary Cllinton. === David Hicks said he had not been told about a landmark US court ruling that cancelled his proposed military trial, his lawyer, David McLeod, said. === If Geneva Conventions and congressional approval are required for Guantanamo trials, what about the whole slew of “legal” devices that the Bush White House has manufactured for the war on terrorism? This includes warrantless eavesdropping, indefinite detention, interrogation techniques, torture, rendition and CIA black sites. === Video: British LibDem MP Norman Baker is now two months into a private, year-long investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly, the scientist who found himself under seige after apparently accusing the government of “sexing up” the case for war to a BBC journalist. === MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children’s vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States. === Mystery Meat === 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: 6 July 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 2539 The War in Iraq Costs === In Cold Blood: Iraqi Tells of Massacre at Farmhouse By Raheem Salman and J. Michael Kennedy He was the first to enter the charred farmhouse where the bodies of his relatives lay strewn about the floor, shot and bludgeoned to death. === Racism is just another poison we’re spreading in Iraq By Robert C. Koehler Atrocity damage control requires isolating such events, not just vertically (keep the blame as far down the chain of command as possible), but horizontally, so that journalists and the public at large don’t start thinking they see a pattern of barbarism in our mission to liberate Iraq. === By Dan Ellsberg If the war itself was unjust, then all the victims of our firepower were being killed without justification. That’s murder. === The Palestinians have no partner for peace. Jonathan Steele The Palestinians kill two soldiers and take one prisoner and, in response, power stations are blown up, sewage and water systems grind to a halt, bridges are destroyed, sonic booms terrify children day and night, and all this is inflicted on a hungry people who are under siege in what is effectively a huge open prison. The EU’s response? Vague expressions of “concern” and calls for “restraint. === By Alice Gray Consider this: an 8 km wide by 23 km long strip of arid land by the Mediterranean Sea containing a population of one and a half million people. This is Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, and the one of the most water poor, second only to Kuwait. Over half of the population are refugees, expelled from Israel following the 1948 and 1967 wars. === This is the new, American-driven cold war — a striking feature of our landscape, almost utterly ignored by the mainstream media – By Tom Engelhardt In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet empire, the United States was the sole military power of significance left standing. It had, as they saw it, enough excess power to ensure a Pax Americana into the distant future, in part by ensuring that no future or resurgent superpower or bloc of powers would, in any foreseeable future, arise to challenge the United States. As the President put it in an address at West Point in 2002, “America has, and intends to keep, military strengths beyond challenge.” This is a must read === By Jeff Cohen I don’t usually take the advice of rightwingers. But I did this time. After receiving inflamed email messages from dozens of angry rightists that I should get the hell out of the USA and go to Venezuela, I accepted their challenge and flew to Caracas. === Thirty-five corpses have been discovered in different areas of the Iraqi capital over the past 24 hours, most of them showing signs of torture, police reported. === A suicide bomber detonated a explosives-laden car next to two buses at a Shiite shrine in the Iraqi city of Kufa Thursday, killing at least 13 people and injuring another 40, hospital sources and eyewitnesses said. === Gunmen killed Salah Hasan, a judge, when they opened fire at his car while he was driving in southern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. === Originally from Babylon, in central Iraq, Hassan was living in Baghdad, where he leaves behind a new wife who is pregnant with their first child. === Slovakia’s new government on Wednesday confirmed it would pull its troops out of Iraq but pledged to undertake a smooth transition to protect stabilization efforts there. === Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for a review of the blanket immunity enjoyed by foreign troops following new allegations of violence against civilians by US soldiers. === Iraqi PM: Iraq’s prime minister urged the U.S. military on Thursday to keep “reckless” troops from serving in Iraq in order to prevent abuses like the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and her family by U.S. soldiers in March. === If Iraqis cheer and taunt the U.S. Marines in a war zone when such attacks occur, they are showing clearly that they are the enemy. They should not be surprised and indignant to be treated like the enemy. === Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri al-Yawm has quoted Mamduh Ismail as saying he met al-Muhajir, also known as Sharif Hazaa, or Abu Ayub al-Masri, in Tura prison in Cairo, where he has been held for seven years. === A committee investigating corruption in Iraq says it has reached unprecedented levels and those responsible are nearly untouchable. === “I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign.” === Seventeen Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed Thursday as Israel thrust deep into Gaza in its largest and deadliest operation in months, reoccupying areas evacuated 10 months ago. === A UN body has condemned Israeli action in Gaza and called for the release of Palestinians captured during the offensive. === According to the resolution, which was adopted by a vote of 29 in favour to 11 against with 5 abstentions, the Council will send its Special Rapporteur on the situation, John Dugard, to the area, while demanding Israel end its military operations, saying they are having a “detrimental impact” on the “already deteriorating humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people.” === Palestinians in Gaza were being subjected to “collective punishment” because of the actions of militants, said Jews for Justice for Palestinians. === Anti-Semitism is an overused claim when the intention is to deflect thoughtful criticism of Zionism and Israeli policies. When the questioning of inequitable policies is so discredited, then the honorable memory of those who suffered in the past is tarnished. === Russian armed forces: North Korea launched a total of 10 missiles, the head of Russia’s General Staff was quoted as saying on Wednesday, but he could not confirm how many of them were intercontinental weapons. === North Korea has threatened to use force against any country that tries to stop it testing more missiles. === Former top Clinton administration officials William J. Perry and Ashton B. Carter hit the jackpot with a suggestion, endorsed by former Vice President Walter Mondale, that the U.S. bomb the launch site. === The US media would have us forget that a threatening new environment was inaugurated by Washington in September, 2002, with a major doctrinal shift announced in its National Security Strategy to a more aggressive policy of pre-emption against merely suspected or potential adversaries. When the US invaded Iraq, the unpredictable Dear Leader predictably asked: “Am I next?” === When forced to confront the mess she has made of our foreign policy, do you suppose Condi Rice views the interrelated messes, individually, or collectively? Take the U.S.-India-Iran-Pakistan-Russia mess. === Since the early 1990s Washington has simultaneously conducted, under Democrats and Republicans, two fundamentally different policies toward post-Soviet Russia—one decorative and outwardly reassuring, the other real and exceedingly reckless. A must read === Oil prices will soar to well over $100 a barrel and stay high as part of a sustained commodities bull run that has another 15 years to run, U.S. celebrity investor Jim Rogers told Reuters in an interview. === What would happen if the world were to start running out of oil? Windows and Real meadia – Runtime 12 minutes === You’ve taken a potshot at a target that I happen to know a good deal about and have been closely involved with for a few years—the efforts by a growing number of analysts to forecast the arrival, and prepare the world for the consequences, of Peak Oil. === Dick Cheney has been spending a lot of time in the huge Central Asian republic, so much so that its windswept steppes have become his new Secret Undisclosed Location. === Two Sukhoi SU-30MK fighters sent from Russia roared overhead as troops, tanks and vehicles filed past Chavez and his counterparts from Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay who were visiting for a summit of the Mercosur trade bloc. === On Memorial Day, Americans supposedly recall their deaths in war. How many of them thought about the deaths imposed by the United States not only in dubious wars like Vietnam and Iraq, where millions died, but in the covert CIA wars, like the one Nixon and Kissinger waged on 9/11? 9/11/73, that is! === Defense attorneys claimed they received a call from a U.S. government representative who said that if the government is ordered to respond to a defense motion and the defense does not withdraw the motion, the government would disclose the motion’s contents to the prosecution trial team. === The Deceptive Amicus Brief They Filed in the Guantanamo Detainee Case === The legal mind behind the White House’s war on terror. === “What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq,” he says in the video. === Confidential papers show that the BBC allowed Britain’s domestic security agency, MI5, to investigate the backgrounds and political affiliations of thousands of its employees, including newsreaders, reporters and continuity announcers === Money transfer agencies have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, company officials said. === This web site represents the effort of one person. I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === |
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