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Date: 27-31 JULY 2006 |
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Date: 31 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 2578 The War in Iraq Costs === Lebanon: Rescue workers retrieve another 28 bodies Civilians, aid groups take advantage of 24-hour window in Lebanon By News Agencies Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh put the number of unrecovered bodies at 200, which would take the death toll to 750 in Lebanon. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed. === By Robert Fisk They wrote the names of the dead children on their plastic shrouds. “Mehdi Hashem, aged seven – Qana,” was written in felt pen on the bag in which the little boy’s body lay. “Hussein al-Mohamed, aged 12 – Qana’,’ “Abbas al-Shalhoub, aged one – Qana.’’ And when the Lebanese soldier went to pick up Abbas’s little body, it bounced on his shoulder as the boy might have done on his father’s shoulder on Saturday. === By Uri Avnery George Bush and his vassal, Tony Blair, are no statesmen. They are war criminals. They claim to be pious Christians. They are the physical manifestation of the devil himself. === By Jonathan Cook To the Lebanese, and most in the Arab world, the United Nations now symbolises everything that is corrupt about the international community and its “conscience”. The world body, it has become clearer by the day, is a mere plaything of the United States and, by default, of Israel too. === Washington’s partners in this hypocritical war on terror are given free rein to wreak their own brutal, illegal violence By David Clark Despite Israel’s protestations that it is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties, it is clear that its military strategy is aimed at maximising the suffering of the Lebanese people as a whole. This was declared quite openly on day one of the campaign, when Israel’s chief of staff, General Dan Halutz, promised to “turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years”, and confirmed again yesterday with the horrific slaughter at Qana. C === Gunmen killed at least 23 Iraqis Sunday on a highway south of Baghdad, commandeering three minibuses and herding their occupants into nearby palm groves where they were lined up and shot, according to police and a witness.The ambush occurred about 10 miles south of Baghdad, where === Gunmen ordered four policemen and a lawyer out of their car and beheaded them near the northern town of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, said police Col. Burhan Tayeb. === Gunmen dressed in Iraqi police uniforms have abducted 25 people in a commercial district in central Baghdad, BBC reported. === Key Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have united to call on President Bush to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of the year, citing an overtaxed military, billions of dollars spent and ongoing sectarian violence. === A former US soldier accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl compared killing people in Iraq to “squashing an ant,” in an interview with a reporter about a month before the attack. === The U.S. Central Command has a team that reads blogs and responds to what it considers inaccuracies about the war. === Raging sectarian violence has pushed up the number of refugees in Iraq by 20,000 in the last 10 days alone, the migration ministry said on Monday. === CNN will surely remind us today that it is Day 19 of the Israel-Hezbollah war – now branded as Crisis in the Middle East – but you won’t catch anyone saying it’s Day 1,229 of the war in Iraq. === `Islamic nations will not forgive the entities that hinder a cease-fire,’’ al-Sistani said, in a clear reference to the United States. === Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic success in arranging a 48 hour halt to Israeli air strikes contains two loopholes so large that it is having virtually no effect === Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, hours after agreeing to temporarily halt air raids. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese soldier when it hit a car it believed was carrying a senior Hezbollah official, the Israeli army said. === Senior government source: Despite IAF curbs, there is no cease-fire === Israel rejected mounting international pressure on Monday to end its war against Hizbollah and launched a new incursion into Lebanon despite halting most air raids for 48 hours. === U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said he opposed calling for a truce, as requested by Annan in an impassioned plea to an emergency council meeting he called after the strike on Qana === The Lebanese army opened fire on Israeli helicopters trying to land near a town in the Bekaa valley, preventing them from setting down, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said. === Muhammad Qassim Shalhoub, a slim 38-year-old construction worker, emerged with a broken hand and minor injuries, but lost his wife, five children and 45 members of his extended family. === Robert Fisk Reports From Lebanon on the Israeli Bombing of Qana : What’s going on in southern Lebanon is an outrage. It’s an atrocity. The idea that more than 600 civilians must die because three Israeli soldiers were killed and two were captured on the border by the Hezbollah on July 12, my 60th birthday — I’ve spent 30 years of my life watching this, this filth now, you know — is outrageous. Real audio === Hezbollah has no air force or air defences. So the Israeli air force — one of the best in the world — has been able to drop a constant barrage of bombs for the past two weeks on Lebanon, where civilians are essentially defenceless. === Captain Amir Paster was sentenced on Sunday night to 28 days in a military prison for refusing to take part in the fighting in Lebanon. Paster, 28, arrived at his base after being drafted and told his soldiers that he refused to take part in operations that harm innocent civilians. === “The massacre committed by Israel in Qana this morning shows the barbarity of this aggressive entity. It constitutes state terrorism committed in front of the eyes and ears of the world,” Assad said in remarks carried by state news agency SANA. === Jordanian MPs call for return of Jordanian ambassador to Israel: The memo called on “the Jordanian government to live up to its historical responsibility,” and to immediately discharge the Israeli ambassador from Amman. === Egypt’s Mubarak warns entire Mideast peace process could collapse : Mubarak is under domestic fire from opposition groups for his refusal to revoke Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. === What if Israel can’t win militarily? === Congressional Democrats echo Bush’s defense of Israel: While President Bush routinely faces criticism from congressional Democrats over the Iraq war and his domestic policies, there’s been little criticism over his stance on Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. === It’s impossible to talk about Congress’s relationship to Israel without highlighting AIPAC, the American Jewish community’s most important voice on the Hill. The Congressional reaction to Hezbollah’s attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Lebanon provide the latest example of why. === They said the same in 1996 until a video recorded by one of the UN soldiers was handed to The Independent veteran Robert Fisk proved that an Israeli ‘drone’ was flying low over the base. They knew it was full of refugees and still they bombed it. === A Palestinian was killed by an Israeli tank shell in the northern Gaza Strip village of Beit Hanoun on Monday, Palestinian medics said. === The soldiers were travelling to an area where ground troops have been locked in a fierce battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam when their bus was hit by a Claymore mine. === Heavy fighting over control of a water supply in northeastern Sri Lanka killed 35 Tamil rebels and seven soldiers Monday, the military said, as a rebel leader declared the island nation’s four-year-old ceasefire over. === A bomb blast intended for a provincial governor killed eight people on Monday at a mosque service. More than 30 Taliban were also killed in clashes on Sunday, most of them in southern provinces where Nato has taken command. === Afghan security forces killed six “Taliban “ fighters and captured eight Sunday during a clash in southeastern Afghanistan, a provincial official said. === Nuclear deadline for Iran: The UN Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by the end of August or face the threat of sanctions. === Ambassador Javad Zarif on Monday rejected a Security Council demand that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by the end of August or face the threat of sanctions, saying the action was without legal basis. === President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Middle East crisis had made it “clear that international organisations have become a tool in the hand of domineering powers” === French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy says Tehran is a significant, respected player in the Middle East – ‘a great country, a great people and a great civilization’ === Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community, while Chavez urged the world to rise up and defeat the U.S., state-run media in both countries reported. === President George W. Bush said on Monday he sees Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a threat to undermining democracy but not a military threat. === Venezuela will cut its oil exports to the United States if Washington takes a hostile stance toward Caracas, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez was quoted as saying by Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Sunday. === At the urging of Democrats, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put off a vote until September on whether to keep John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, committee aides said on Monday. === With their £200,000 mortgage and his £87,000 pension, the Blairs have their future to think of. And in the land of opportunity, from Pebble Beach to Bohemia Grove, the movers are just a handshake away === The left-wing candidate in Mexico’s disputed election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his backers are occupying the capital’s main square and avenues. === A congressional report released Thursday slammed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in hurricane relief and national security money on frivolous purchases and mismanagement of contracts = The panel was a who’s who of the most credentialed 9/11 skeptics ever impaneled. The fact that C-Span had agreed to film this event had the panel chomping at the bit to hit bullet point after bullet point === Date: 30 July 2006 = O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; Read it here: = === 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 2578 The War in Iraq Costs === ‘57 Slaughtered’ as Israeli air strike hits children By Kathy Gannon The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defence official at the scene. At least 10 children’s bodies had been pulled out, placed in plastic bags and loaded in ambulances, he said. === Video Report From Qana Massacre 3 Minute Video Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area. === “We want this to stop,” shouted villager Mohammed Ismail. “ May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting. They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees.” WARNING Graphic images depicting the reality and horror of Israel’s Invasion and destruction of Lebanon. Click here to continue === By Mohamed Khodr The Muslim masses silence is a betrayal to our faith, lands, resources, and brotherhood. Israel kills, America supports, and Arabs accept what they must. Not one Arab nation pulled its Ambassadors out of Israel or America, not one called for boycotts or massive protests, not one leader went to Lebanon for support, not one dares challenge America lest there be a “regime change”. === By Mike Whitney Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Burns appeared on the Sunday talk shows defending Israeli aggression as the necessary path to achieving a “durable peace”. In the Orwellian-world of Bush doublespeak, a “sustainable cease-fire” is a tacit endorsement of perennial war. === By Robert Fisk In his second weekly dispatch from the front line, veteran war reporter confesses he was so scared after one attack that he could not put pen to paper. === By Uri Avnery They have mounted a tiger, and can’t be sure of getting off without being torn to pieces. War has its own rules. Unexpected things happen and dictate the next moves. And the next moves tend to be in one direction: escalation. === By Issa Khalaf The Israeli self-image of rationality, self-confidence, restraint, pragmatism, and marshal moral superiority are delusions and myths, constructed to protect the Israeli psyche, manipulated by the state to keep alive the specter of existential terror in the Israeli public and to disguise the state’s raison d’etre, expansion and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. === Must watch 5 minute video Escape to where? === The Lebanese government asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday to put off a visit to Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike that killed more than 50 people. === Prime Minister Ehud Olmert justified the action, saying Tel Aviv had warned residents to leave and put the blame on Hezbollah for launching rockets from the area. === Israel has agreed a 48-hour suspension of air strikes over southern Lebanon to investigate the killing of more than 54 civilians on Sunday, the US says. === Hours after an Israel Air Force strike killed at least 54 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel would continue its military assault on Hezbollah targets for at least two more weeks. === U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the figure leading the strategy of changing the situation in Lebanon, not Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or Defense Minister Amir Peretz. She has so far managed to withstand international pressure in favor of a cease-fire === “I think it needs to be clear that Israel is not in a hurry to have a cease-fire before we reach a situation in which we can say that we achieved the central goals that we set down for ourselves,” Olmert said before the government’s weekly cabinet meeting. === “These bombs…Are American bombs,” Said Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari. “They call them laser-guided bombs but actually they are hatred-guided bombs, and unfortunately these bombs are made in the USA,” said. === “The massacre committed by Israel in Qana this morning shows the barbarity of this aggressive entity. It constitutes state terrorism committed in front of the eyes and ears of the world,” Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted President al-Assad as saying. === Rice, wants the international community to hold Hezbollah down while Israel punches it to death. === Hamas on Sunday vowed to carry out attacks on Israel that could include suicide bombings in response to an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana that killed over 50 civilians. === Palestinian protesters stormed the U.N. compound in Gaza City on Sunday during a protest against Israel’s bombing of a building in southern Lebanon that killed around 60 people, witnesses and U.N. staff said. === Pakistan has banned Shias from travelling to Iran after US intelligence expressed fears that they might sneak into Lebanon to join the Hezbollah to fight Israel. === The Arabs have to rely on themselves and not wait for external help otherwise they will wait for another 50 years. Perhaps Arabs should listen to what Malcolm X said in 1965: “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.” === According to US officials “whatever the outrage on the Arab streets, Washington believes it has strong behind-the-scenes support among key Arab leaders also nervous about the populist militants — with a tacit agreement that the timing is right to strike.” === One person was wounded when three missiles slammed into the last customs building at the crossing point, digging craters in the middle of the road, they said. === BOMBS destined to be used by Israel are being flown via Scotland only because the Irish government refused to allow them to land on its soil. === Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad Saturday urged countries in the world to stop using the US dollar in their international trade in order to pressure Washington to end its support for Israel’s savage attack on Lebanon. === Russia on Friday published a list of 17 groups it regards as terrorist organizations, but did not include the Palestinian militant movement Hamas or Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrilla group, both regarded as terrorists in Washington. === Police said they found 15 bodies in different parts of the capital, all bearing signs of torture and shot in the head. === Iraqi Member of Parliament Hadi Al-’Amiri, is warning of a possible military coup against the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, === The U.S. State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects in Iraq and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found. === In other violence, four more militants died when landmines they were planting on roads in southern Kandahar province exploded, an Afghan official said. === The people of Iran are entitled to produce their own nuclear fuel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, rejecting the terms of a draft U.N. resolution that demands it give up its nuclear work. === Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has invited Iran to invest in his country’s oil and gas industries during talks with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president. === Iran’s state-owned Petropars oil and gas company is investing around $4 billion in the explorations and developments of two oil fields in Venezuela, Iran’s Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said Sunday. === Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate who claims he was robbed of victory in Mexico’s contested presidential election, is preparing to lead a protest rally to press for a vote-by-vote recount. === The panel was a who’s who of the most credentialed 9/11 skeptics ever impaneled. The fact that C-Span had agreed to film this event had the panel chomping at the bit to hit bullet point after bullet point === U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill. === Far from winding down, the controversial US detention centre is expanding === The committee’s findings came after it held a two-day hearing in Geneva last week into US compliance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. === “The frustrations of modern life, and the anxieties of the age, seem to be much less significant compared to the health, financial and educational needs in other parts of the world.” === Date: 29 July 2006 = www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm === 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 2574 The War in Iraq Costs === The truth of Blair’s ‘urgent diplomacy’ Blair and his masters regard ceasefires as a weapon, a means to a political end By Robert Fisk I dropped by the hospital in Marjayoun this week to find a young girl lying in a hospital bed, swathed in bandages, her beauty scarred for ever by some familiar wounds; the telltale dark-red holes in her skin made by cluster bombs, the weapon we used in Iraq to such lethal effect and which the Israelis are now using to punish the civilians of southern Lebanon. === By Mike Whitney The Bush administration has played an integral part in the war on Lebanon. They blocked the “peace initiative” proposed by the 15-member coalition at the Rome Conference and they supplied “precision-guided weapons” during the hostilities so Israel could continue to pulverize Beirut and the cities in the south. They have been as engaged in the fighting as any combatant in the field and should not be regarded an “impartial arbiter”. === Lamentations for the Sacrificial Pawns By Jason Miller “The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price.” === By Kurt Nimmo The Lebanese, facing “the geopolitical realities” of Israeli aggression and indiscriminate murder, are not having a good time, but then they hardly matter, as became obvious the moment Rice’s plane touched down and she engaged in “discussions” with the Israelis, talks designed to do little more than provide the Israelis with more time to kill Lebanese civilians. === Blair and Bush: Killing To Go On Until We Find A Plan Watch This 6 Minute Video. Click here to view === By Anne Penketh in Gaza City A 12-year-old boy dead on a stretcher. A mother in shock and disbelief after her son was shot dead for standing on their roof. A phone rings and a voice in broken Arabic orders residents to abandon their home on pain of death. === By Siddharth Varadarajan No peace or stability can emerge in West Asia through occupation, subjugation, and the military slaughter of civilians. === The Economics of Creative Destruction By Aseem Shrivastava “The American imperium becomes a private, for profit, off — the — shelf, regime — change industry. There will be firms standing ready to fight the wars, organize the occupation that follows, rebuild the ruined infrastructure that results from the wars, recruit new governments, and manage the post — war economy. “ === Theories on Militarism, and Prospects for Transformation By Brian Bogart Few things are more crucial to our global situation today than a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental habits and recent overtly aggressive trend present in United States foreign policy. To achieve such requires a look into the long-standing tradition of creating external threats to conceal unsavory imperial operations conducted elsewhere in the world. === At least 18 Taliban fighters and four policemen have been killed in southern Afghanistan as NATO commanders announced the anti-insurgents “Operation Mountain Thrust” will end at the close of this month. === Paratroopers have killed more than 700 Taliban fighters during fierce battles in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence confirmed. == Anti occupation forces killed four U.S. Marines in action in Iraq’s restive Anbar province on Thursday, the U.S. military said. They gave no further details. === Now, 21-year-old Galen Wilson has 20 confirmed kills in four months in Iraq — and another 40 shots that probably killed anti occupation forces === In a sermon rich with bloody imagery and religious struggle, an influential Shiite cleric yesterday condemned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s trip to Washington this week as a betrayal of Islam and a humiliation to his people at the hands of U.S. and Israeli aggressors. === Sources said the woman was the mother of five of the children. The other victim was the child of neighbours. === Israeli warplanes on Saturday attacked the Masnaa area, the main road leading to the border region with Damascus, a Lebanese security sources said. === Two Indian soldiers with the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon have been wounded and their observation post damaged by an Israeli air strike. === Israel, backed by the United States, has refused to set a date for ending its war on the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that has killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, === Aid workers are finding it impossible to get medical supplies and food safely to isolated villages in southern Lebanon due to the Israeli bombardment, aid agencies said on Friday. === An international medical charity has said that Israel’s promised humanitarian aid corridors in south Lebanon are an illusion and that rockets have landed close to its teams two days in a row. === With one in five of Lebanon’s 3.8 million population homeless and hostilities continuing, WFP has launched a three-month US$8.9 million emergency operation to feed over 300,000 people, including 50,000 in Syria. === nside a well-furnished apartment in a village on the outskirts of Tyre, with shelves of books piled from floor to ceiling, a black turbaned cleric and three men sit sipping bitter coffee. By the door is a pile of Kalashnikovs and ammunition boxes; handguns are tucked into the men’s trousers. The four are Hizbullah fighters, waiting for the Israelis. === “Rice is returning to the region to try to impose her conditions on Lebanon again to serve her new Middle East project and to serve Israel,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech. === Cabinet ministers warned that Mr Blair’s refusal to stand up to Mr Bush would hasten his own exit from power. === Hizbullah wants an immediate ceasefire and is ready to swap the two abducted Israeli soldiers “in six hours” after it comes into force, according to officials from Amal, a Shia party allied to Hizbullah. === Hizbullah announced earlier in the day that it forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw from the two strategic towns of Bint Jbeil and Maroon Al-Ras. === ‘IDF may be morally justified in flattening terror strongholds’: The man who wrote the IDF code of ethics, Professor Asa Kasher, has indicated that in the current circumstances in southern Lebanon, provided the appropriate precautions are taken, it may be “morally justified” to obliterate areas with high concentrations of terrorists, even if civilian casualties result. === Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri lashed out at US-allied Arab governments on Friday for not doing enough to stop Israel’s war on his country. === Lebanese wounded turn cold shoulder on Jordan aid: Lebanese casualties are rejecting aid from Jordan in protest at what they view as its failure to press for an end to Israeli air strikes in the 17-day-old war against Hizbollah. === Hezbollah pledged on Saturday to deny the United States and Israel any political gains from the war in Lebanon as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Jerusalem to discuss ways to end the 18-day-old conflict. === Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said that if Israel wants secure borders it must withdraw from the disputed Shebaa Farms area that it has occupied since 1967. === Israeli army won’t help. === Bush and Blair lay out Lebanon plan but warn Tehran : As they set out a vague plan for bringing a cessation of violence in the Israel-Lebanon conflict at a joint press conference in the White House, they repeatedly referred to the threat posed by Iran and Syria, and their links with Hizbullah. === Murdoch set to back Blair – for a place in his boardroom : Fox TV owner and media magnate Rupert Murdoch is expected to offer Tony Blair a senior role in his News Corporation empire when he stands down as Prime Minister. === The Bush administration spelled out plans yesterday to sell $4.6bn of arms to moderate Arab states, including battle tanks worth as much as $2.9bn to protect critical Saudi infrastructure. === Says Congress never authorized an occupation of Iraq === The UN Human Rights Committee has called on the United States to immediately abolish all secret detention facilities, in a report raising deep concerns about the conduct of the “war on terror”. === The YNet news website quoted an unnamed senior officer in the army’s southern command as saying the aim was to “clean” a 1km wide strip of land. === What’s it like to have your home demolished == Pakistan’s “China card” with regard to cooperation in nuclear energy worked almost at the same time as the India-US civil nuclear deal was being cleared by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. === There have been a series of reports from a number of sources that Venezuela has finalized a deal with Russian arms manufacturers for around $3 billion, which reportedly includes SU-30MK2 (Mnogafunctunali Kommercial 2-seat) long-range multi-role fighters and various Russian helicopters in an extension of an earlier 2005 helicopter deal. === Venezuela has launched a five-year reforestation project for Orinoco headwaters and tributary rivers in which more than 900 conservation committees and students from more than 100 schools will help plant 100 million trees in a 150,000-hectare area. === The nation’s estimated 12 million legal permanent residents would be subject to fingerprinting every time they re-enter the United States, under a plan the Homeland Security Department intends to announce today === Does the federal government need to know your family’s financial profile, how much aid you received and whether you took off a semester to help out at home? === The exit from Germany marks the second time in two months that Wal-Mart has pulled out of one country to focus on countries with less stringent labor laws. — such as in USA , China, South and Central America, or India. === Date: 28 July 2006 = www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm === 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 2571 The War in Iraq Costs === Video and Transcript Talks With Former US Diplomats on Israel, Prisoners and Hezbollah’s Founding. Click here to view Real Video === Video Report From South Lebanon – Warning – This video contains images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. Click here to view – Real Video == By Robert Fisk Trusting the Israeli army and air force, which are breaking the Geneva Conventions almost every day, is a dodgy business. === By Mike Whitney Clearly, Israel wants to conceal its orgy of carnage from the watchful eyes of international community. We should expect that more banned weaponry; cluster-bombs, napalm, lasers, bunker busters and chemical weapons will be used in the next major assault on Hezbollah strongholds. informationclearinghouse.info/article14248.htm === By Dahr Jamail “I am in Hezbollah because I care,” the fighter, who agreed to the interview on condition of anonymity, told me. “I care about my people, my country, and defending them from the Zionist aggression.” I jotted furiously in my note pad while sitting in the back seat of his car. We were parked not far from Dahaya, the district in southern Beirut which is being bombed by Israeli warplanes as we talk. Continue === By NEIL MacFARQUHAR With hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for 15 days, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements. === By Charley Reese You can observe three important things simultaneously in the Middle East: One, Israel’s total disregard for the lives and property of the Arab people; two, the effectiveness of the Israeli propaganda machine; and three, the utterly craven support for Israel by the U.S. government. === By ROBERT F. WORTH He said he had witnessed a deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis and a cover-up in which one soldier cut another to bolster their story. The squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked. Later, one guilt-stricken soldier complained of nightmares and “couldn’t stop talking” about what happened, Sergeant Lemus said. === Video News Reports – Warning – This video contains images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. === The Iraqi army killed nine “insurgents” and detained another 16 in different parts of Iraq during the last 24 hours, Iraqi army said in a statement. === It is unlikely, however, that some 10,000 US troops will succeed in restoring civil order, something that 50,000 Iraqi forces in the city have failed to do. Sunni now shoot at police and police commando detachments, regarding them as officially sanctioned “death squads”. === Iraq’s most influential Shiite leaders have rejected the use of US forces to stabilize Iraq’s security situation, as the Pentagon announced an increase in troops numbers. === “Most of the bodies were bound by chains so we always have to keep a cutter nearby to cut them. Most bodies were beheaded and they have a lot of holes in the head and face,” said cemetery worker Riad Ahmed. === Waves of air raids struck hill villages near the southern port of Tyre and hundreds of artillery rounds crashed across the border from Israel, killing at least 10 people including a Jordanian. === Ramon made these comments on Israeli Army radio. He was apparently not asked about the IDF’s practice of blowing up the cars full of civilians fleeing south Lebanon. === Look at this logic: since Israel has asked civilians to leave, any that disobeyed have forfeited their status as civilians. === The analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah “hiding within the civilian population” clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don’t know what they’re talking about. Hezbollah doesn’t trust the civilian population and has worked very hard to evacuate as much of it as possible from the battlefield. === The word “indiscriminate” is inherently inseparable from “bombing.” The claim that bombs can strike their targets with pinpoint precision is one of the greatest marketing scams ever perpetuated on the American public. So why the hell do we keep using them? === The Israelis have claimed the attack was an accident. But Irish peacekeepers and journalists who have been in south Lebanon over the past three decades can be forgiven for being sceptical about that claim. === The United Nations will remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israel-Lebanon border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday. === 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah’s fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah’s resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis. === “The Israelis are radicalising Lebanon, even liberal democrats like me. I took part in last year’s demonstrations against Syria. I was a critic of Hizbullah. Now I cannot help but support Hizbullah’s fighters who are defending our country.” What about Hizbullah’s rocket attacks on Haifa? “It’s right,” she replied. “It’s not only Lebanese who should have to suffer. Are human rights available only to Israelis? === The rhetoric about “terrorism” has mesmerized those who parrot it, blinding them to the fact that Hezbollah and Hamas are deeply rooted popular movements that have developed as a response to occupation—of the West Bank and Gaza for nearly forty years, and of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000. === Iran and groups like Hizbullah will emerge stronger from the rubble of Beirut, while the old regimes of the Arab League will be rendered impotent. === How much longer will the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers be allowed to justify the kidnapping of the entire nation of Lebanon? === The US president and British prime minister have agreed to send a UN multinational force to support the Lebanese government. === Israel’s ambassador to the UN ruled out Thursday major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation. === Blair must speak out on Lebanon. We can’t leave the United States to set our moral compass === The White House has dismissed UK concerns about the use of Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, by US planes carrying bombs to Israel. === ‘Iran and Syria have a choice. And they may think that they can avoid this choice; in fact, they can’t,’ Blair said after talks at the White House with US President George Bush. === A House of Lords committee has called for Prime Minister Tony Blair to be stripped of his power to send Britain to war === An Israeli sniper shot and killed Anas Zomlot, from the “Block 2" area in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, early on Friday morning as he was standing on his family’s balcony. === 22 Palestinians are killed and 67 injured in the last 36 hours === An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts. === The fate of the corrupted neoliberal model may be what’s now at stake. That model is already unraveling in Latin America where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is proving his alternate Bolivarian participatory democracy is overwhelmingly popular and working. It’s based on a government serving the people by providing essential social services, especially to the poor and desperate ones most in need of it. === While the world was focused on the tragic events taking place in Lebanon and northern Israel, something very disturbing happened in South America last week. === After 2+ Years in Prison, Hunger Strike === The UK, China, France, Russia, US and Germany have come closer to agreeing a resolution on Iran’s nuclear programme to put to the UN Security Council. === he reactor, which reportedly will be capable of producing enough plutonium for as many as 50 bombs each year, was brought to light on Sunday by independent analysts who spotted the partially completed plant in commercial-satellite photos. === Under the deal, the US will sell India nuclear fuel and technology for civilian purposes, in exchange for India putting most of its reactors under international safeguards. But a former head of Indian intelligence has said publicly the deal will allow India to produce 50 more nuclear warheads a year than it can now, by freeing up existing uranium reserves for military use. === Local politicians, police chiefs and judges are being assassinated, and schools are being closed due to intimidation or being burned to the ground, as Alastair Leithead reports. === A savage regional conflict in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 60,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. === New Zealand troops who served in the Vietnam War suffered significant genetic damage from exposure to Agent Orange, a study suggests. === The U.S. caucus plans to join with the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus and caucuses in other legislatures to “support Israel’s right to live in peace within safe and secure borders,” === Ned Lamont, a Greenwich, Conn., businessman who holds a slight lead in the polls over Lieberman, told the Forward that he supports Israel’s current operations in Gaza and Lebanon, and that he disagreed with the European Union’s declaration that criticized Israel’s actions as a “disproportionate” response. === “I believe almost every Republican will be supporting” Bolton in the Senate, and “you’re going to have a surprising number of Democrats supporting him because of his record” of “courage, intelligence and eloquence,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America === This was written in May of 2005. I think it is a good reminder of how the Democrats are complicit in Israel’s crimes. — JF === The State Department officials on Wednesday said that the United States has extended a waiver that avoids imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia. The waiver comes two years after the U.S. put Saudi Arabia on a watch list, warning its Middle East ally it could put sanctions on the oil exporter if it did not expand religious freedom. === No doubt every well-wadded, White House-connected televangelist justifying aggressive war, pimping for tax cuts and frothing with preternatural anxiety about homosexuals thinks he’s walking in the footsteps of the backwoods preacher from Galilee. === Doubts about children’s future and concerns about wars weigh heavily === Two Oakland police officers working undercover at an anti-war protest in May 2003 got themselves elected to leadership positions in an effort to influence the demonstration, documents released Thursday show. === Date: 27 July 2006 = = www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm === 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 2570 The War in Iraq Costs === By Aljazeera Israel has said it has received implicit “authorization” from international powers to continue its attacks in Lebanon. === By Robert Fisk Is it possible – is it conceivable – that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon? === Q & A With Uri Avnery On the 15th day of the war, Hizbullah is functioning and fighting. That by itself will go down in the annals of the Arab peoples as a shining victory. When a featherweight boxer faces a heavyweight and is still standing in the 15th round – that is a victory, whatever the final outcome. === Eisenhower ended the Suez war in 1956, and America could do it now By Adrian Hamilton: If Bush, with Blair in support, prefers not rein in Israel, it isn’t because he doesn’t see the means. It’s because he doesn’t want to. The question the public should be asking is “why not? === By Michel Chossudovsky Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World’s largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets? === Must watch 4 minute video report BBC Report From TYRE, Lebanon. Click here to view === Must watch 4 Minute Video Member of parliament George Galloway. Click here to view === By Agence France Presse China, home of one of the dead soldiers of the UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), had originally demanded a condemnation of the attack. But the United States would not accept any criticism of its ally, Israel, diplomats said. === By BRIAN SKOLOFF Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an “anti-Semite” for failing to denounce Hezbollah for its attacks against Israel. === By John S. Hatch It’s hard to imagine how a proud nation could surrender its soul without so much as a whimper. Does it matter that crimes can be proven against America’s leaders? How is it so easy to devolve from Christianity to snarling dogs and sodomy committed against young imprisoned boys, to massacres and murders, the use of white phosphorous and depleted uranium. === Satire Israel Attacks US By Jerry Ghinelli The government of Israel today launched a massive air assault on suspected terrorist targets along coastal cities of the United States of America. Termed operation Just Reward II, hundreds of Israeli fighter jets streamed across the Atlantic in precise formation and fired surgical air strikes at alleged terrorist strongholds in the heavy Muslim populations of Jersey City and North Bergen, New Jersey. === By David Orchard Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated: “Israel’s response, under the circumstances, has been measured.” He announced that it was “too early” to call for a ceasefire. These words, in essence, signalled a green light from Canada for the bombing to continue. === By Sidney Blumenthal The delusional US mindset that made the Iraq war a disaster has resurfaced in Lebanon. === By Noam Chomsky A prevailing truth was expressed by US President John Adams two centuries ago: “Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.” That is the deep root of the combination of savagery and self-righteousness that infects the imperial mentality — and in some measure, every structure of authority and domination. === Hospitals had so far received 401 bodies of victims of the Israeli attacks. “On top of those victims, there are 150 to 200 bodies still under the rubble. We have not been able to pull them out because the areas they died in are still under fire,” Khalifeh told Reuters. === Israel’s two-front conflict saw its heaviest day of fighting on Wednesday, killing nine Israeli soldiers, dozens of Hezbollah fighters and at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza. === Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under attack by political opponents over his Middle East policy, said yesterday he will seek explanations from the United Nations and the Israeli government about the “terrible tragedy” that killed a Canadian peacekeeper in Lebanon. === Jerusalem attempted to fend off the rebukes following the deaths of the four UN observers, who came from Austria, Canada, Finland and China. === Bush cites Iran’s role in Lebanon conflict: President Bush declined Thursday to criticize Israel’s tactics in its continuing offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and gave a sharp condemnation of Iran’s role in the bloody fighting. === Much has been made in the US media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel’s weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States. === Outside the hospital, men were nailing shut around 70 coffins for just some of the scores of innocent civilians killed in the previous nine days’ bombardment. Among them were the small coffins of 20 children. === Jewish associations have begun to react against the Israeli offensive into Lebanon. Head of the Union of Belgian Jewish Progressives (UPJB) Dr. Jacques Ravedovitch stated that Israel is committing war crimes in Lebanon. === Israel’s twin wars, one in Lebanon and the other in the Gaza Strip, are a disaster, not only for their civilian victims but also Israel itself, as well as for the United States, and the chief cheerleader for both, Stephen Harper. === It is not important how long this war will last and what will be its results – the fact that a few thousand fighters have withstood the Israeli army for 11 days and more, has already been imprinted in the consciousness of hundred of millions of Arabs and Muslims. === As the conflict with Hizbullah in Lebanon escalates by the day, the question of Syria’s involvement in the conflict becomes increasingly more relevant. === From mass targeting of mobile phones with voice and text messages to old-fashioned radio broadcasts warning of imminent attacks, Israel is deploying a range of old and new technologies in Lebanon as part of the psychological operations (”psyops”) campaign supplementing its military attacks. === Noam Chomsky in Beirut: “I think Nasrallah has a reasoned and persuasive argument that the arms should be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression, and there are plenty of background reasons for that …” === Hezbollah Signals It’s Open to Talks With United States: A Hezbollah political leader told a delegation of former European and American officials last month that the Bush administration approached the organization for talks following September 11, 2001, and that the group would be open to new discussions. === Ministers are embroiled in a row over whether British military equipment and airports are being used to assist Israeli attacks on Lebanon. === Despite a high death toll in Gaza, with 23 people killed on Wednesday alone, the world’s attention has been focused on Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been fighting Hezbollah guerrillas since July 12. === Video Israel Doesn’t Want You to See: Israeli army embarrassed by video broadcast === Israeli tank shelling kills two Palestinian sisters in Gaza Strip : Two Palestinian sisters, aged at two and nine, were killed and their mother critically wounded Wednesday evening in an Israeli tank shelling at the eastern town of Jabalya in northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and witnesses said. === === At least 21 Palestinians killed as Israeli occupation forces invade Gaza: At least 21 Palestinians were killed yesterday when the Israeli army renewed its hostilities in the Gaza Strip. About 50 tanks and armoured vehicles entered northern Gaza and began demolishing buildings and trees at dawn. Armed Palestinians attacked the forces and fighting continued all day. === – WARNING – Graphic images depicting the reality and horror of Israel’s Invasion and destruction of Gaza === The world is witnessing what could be a critical turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel is now engaged in a war that could permanently undermine the efficacy of its much-vaunted military apparatus. === === It should be stated that patience could not last forever. If the Israeli military brutality persisted with killings and destruction no one could predict the consequences and then regreat will be in vain === 60th anniversary of Zionist bombing the King David Hotel: 91 people died, among them 28 British, 41 Arabs and 17 Jews. One IZL fighter was killed inside the hotel, after the explosives had been set. === Mortars, rockets and a car bomb blasted Baghdad’s upscale Karradah district Thursday, killing at least 31 people and wounding 153, police said. === Nineteen bodies with bullet holes and showing signs of torture were found in different areas of the capital, Interior Ministry sources said. === The Pentagon extended the tours of about 3,500 US troops in Iraq for 120 days in a move that dashed hopes of a reduction in the US force this year in the face of surging sectarian violence. === I have been visiting Baghdad in peace and in war since 1978 and I have never seen this city of 6 million people so paralyzed by fear. The streets are empty in the middle of the day because Sunni and Shiite Muslims are terrified of running into a checkpoint manned by members of the other community who may kill them after a glance at their identity cards. === They plundered Iraq for fun and profit: Mike Battles — former Republican candidate for Congress in Rhode Island and Fox News war-on-terror analyst — figured he could make a quick fortune off the rebuilding of Iraq. So he and pal Scott Custer set up a contracting firm with the catchy name of Custer Battles. The company proceeded to steal a cool $50 million from American taxpayers, according to two of its former employees. === Coalition forces in Afghanistan killed three “insurgents” Thursday after an ambush in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, the U.S. military said. === Sixteen people, including two US civilians and two NATO soldiers from the Netherlands, were killed in a helicopter “crash” in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, === Amendments that aimed to put limits on India’s nuclear weapons programme, that were proposed by critics concerned the deal would harm non-proliferation goals, were rejected. === “We will honor the contract,” Ivanov said, adding that Venezuela had no restrictions on arms supplies. === The president wants Congress to permanently appoint John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N., but a year on the job shows just how bad Bolton has been. === A refugee claimant who was handed over to American officials at the border as a terror suspect the day after 9/11 says he is still trying to figure out how he was launched into a five-year nightmare in U.S. jails. === In an effort to combat Al Qaeda’s non-existent fleet of stealth fighter jets, the Air Force, following an endorsement by the taxpayer-funded Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), approved a new three-year, $11 billion contract for the F-22. === The Carlyle Group : I defy you to watch this 48 minute documentary and not be outraged about the depth of corruption and deceit within the highest ranks of our government. === Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA/RDSB) said Thursday that second-quarter earnings jumped 40% to $7.32 billion as high oil prices offset production difficulties in Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. === For the second quarter of the year, the company booked net income of $5.2 billion, or $3.09 a share, on revenue of $47.1 billion. === The increase in oil prices in world markets is inevitable because the resource is dwindling and supplies have peaked, peak oil means the end of cheap oil, and an end to economies organized around the increasing availability of cheap oil. === The vultures from the investment houses and banks have begun to position themselves to profit from the imminent business distress – a crisis they see as a matter of timing rather than principle. === ``We decided to buy property in Crawford to use until George’s resignation or impeachment, which we all hope is soon for the sake of the world,’’ – ``I can’t think of a better way to use Casey’s insurance money than for peace, and I am sure that Casey approves.’’ === |
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