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Date: 26-31 OCTOBER 2006 |
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Date: 31 October 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 2816 Cost of America’s War in Iraq See the cost in your community === Bush The Cheerleader By Ray McGovern When President George W. Bush was asked at his news conference last Wednesday whether we are winning in Iraq, he answered, “Absolutely; we’re winning.” The disingenuousness was almost enough to provoke sympathy for the beleaguered president as he lived through another bad week with further diminished credibility. === By Aram Roston President Akaev, agreed to let the Pentagon open an air base in his country for operations in Afghanistan. === By Will Evans A four-month investigation reveals that dozens of federal judges gave contributions to President Bush and top Republicans who helped place them on the bench. === By Matt Taibbi How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts — in five easy steps . === The bodies of eight people were found, bound and gagged, in Baquba, police said. All the victims were shot in the head. === An interior ministry official said the blast targeted a wedding convoy at dusk in Ur, a mainly Shia residential district on the outskirts of Sadr city, which one day earlier was also the scene of a deadly bombing. === Two American soldiers were killed in Baghdad in two attacks on Monday, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. === Unknown gunmen abducted Tuesday more than 40 people, including tribal leaders and prominent persons from two Shiite towns in north of Baghdad, provincial police said. === The Pentagon said Monday the US force in Iraq has grown to 150,000 troops, the biggest it has been since January. === President Bush’s National Security Adviser showed up unannounced in Baghdad Monday to meet with Iraq’s Prime Minister al-Maliki — who, according to U.S. intelligence, is telling his inner circle the situation is “nearly out of control,” === U.S. troops on Tuesday abandoned checkpoints around the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on orders from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the latest in a series of moves by the Iraqi leader to assert his authority with the U.S. administration. === Infiltration of Iraqi Police Could Delay Handover of Control for Years, U.S. Trainers Suggest === The government was supported by 298 MPs and opposed by 273. Twelve Labour MPs rebelled. === ‘It’s a very modest motion before the house – a call for a committee of inquiry comprising seven members of the privy council. It therefore speaks volumes that the government is opposing this attempt at the mildest of scrutiny into its conduct up to and including the outbreak of the disastrous war on Iraq. === There are three British private security guards to every British soldier in Iraq, the charity War on Want said yesterday === The U.S. Air Force is asking the Pentagon’s leadership for a staggering $50 billion in emergency funding for fiscal 2007 — an amount equal to nearly half its annual budget, defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said on Tuesday. === In a memo obtained by the Associated Press, Dorrance Smith, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said new teams of people will “develop messages” for the 24-hour news cycle and “correct the record.” === A second day of large-scale clashes in southern occupied Afghanistan ended with one NATO death and 55 dead insurgents, officials said. === Royal Marine occupation forces are believed to have killed up to 10 Taliban fighters yesterday following a brief but ferocious battle in southern Afghanistan. === The deaths took to five the number of occupation force soldiers killed since the weekend in a series of engagements — some of them the most intense in weeks — that have left nearly 140 rebels dead. === Asia Times Online contacts on the spot are convinced that the raid was undertaken by North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. Recently, Islamabad agreed with NATO that it could conduct operations in Pakistan from across the border in Afghanistan. === Regardless of what we are told by the dictatorial regime in Islamabad, local people know the truth. The innocents who died in this attack belong to them. Local people do not believe in the government charade and CNN stories when they have their innocent relatives and little children lying before them in pieces. === Pro-Taliban tribesmen on Tuesday threatened the Pakistani government of suicide attacks on Pakistani forces and pledged to execute anyone found spying for the US military. === “It is regrettable that the press has again been banned from covering a controversial military operation,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This lack of transparency is arousing suspicion about the facts of this air strike” === As many as 20,000 people protested Tuesday in Khar, the main town in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal Bajur district, claiming innocent students and teachers were killed in the attack. They chanted: ‘’God is Great!’’ ‘’Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!’’ and ‘’Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor!’’ === The Bush administration has undertaken efforts to arm and train the Presidential Guard of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in order to prepare it for a potential violent confrontation with Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip. === Poverty and desperation have gripped Palestinians as their economy has been strangled by international sanctions against the Hamas- led government and Israel’s decision to withhold, in violation of the Paris Protocol, $54 million in monthly tax revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority. Government employees have gone unpaid for seven months. === Israel appears sure that increasing aggression against the Palestinians will lead them to internal collapse whereas it is more certain to lead to a new national uprising, reports Khaled Amayreh === United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon say IAF overflights violate Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in August. === Lieberman has called for the transfer of land and populations to create homogenous Jewish and Palestinian states, and for the execution of Israeli Arab MPs who have had dealings with the ruling Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, which Israel considers a terrorist organisation. === Israel’s Labor Party decided to stay in the coalition government despite the recent inclusion of a right-wing faction. === A lone Labour minister has resigned in protest at the inclusion of the right-wing politician Avigdor Lieberman in the coalition cabinet of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. === U.S. Diplomat: Iran Bigger Threat Than North Korea: A senior U.S. diplomat on Tuesday described Iran as more dangerous than North Korea and said that besides developing a nuclear weapon, the Islamic state was undermining regional stability. === National Security Advisor Igor Ivanov said Tuesday Russia has no evidence that the Iranian nuclear program has military purposes. === The U.S. and Chinese governments announced Tuesday that North Korea agreed to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, a surprise diplomatic breakthrough that comes only three weeks after the communist regime conducted its first known atomic test. === Authoritative analysis of the devastating impacts of a nuclear attack on Iran === Iran, Venezuela and Syria have formed a consortium to construct an oil refinery in Syria. === This could also turn out to be the first case of the United States handing Israel a world jihad suspect who is not linked to Palestinian terror or Hezbollah. === AUGUSTO PINOCHET, the 90-year-old former dictator of Chile, was branded a “grave danger to society” as he was placed under house arrest in Santiago yesterday by the judge investigating his role in cases of torture and kidnapping during his time in power. === The author’s premise is that al-Qaeda has consistently intervened in American domestic politics where necessary in order to ensure that America stays in Iraq. Whenever America seems like it might withdraw, he writes, Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri pops up to remind Americans that if they do then al-Qaeda will triumph in their wake—thus goading them to remain. === US President George W. Bush charged on Monday that “terrorists win and America loses” if Opposition Democrats win in the November 7 legislative elections dominated by the unpopular Iraq war. === KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket. === Fraudulent voter registration charges were filed this week by prosecutors who said Democrats were unwittingly signed up as Republicans === The GOP has thrown Ohio’s entire process of voting and vote counting into serious disarray. The mess is perfectly designed to suppress voter turnout, make election monitoring and a recount impossible, and allow the Republican Party to emerge with a victory despite overwhelming evidence the electorate wants exactly the opposite. === There’s a big elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about—and I’m not talking about the Republican Party. It’s the gusher of money flowing to Democrats from K Street lobbyists. And it is worrisome that so few progressives want to talk about this openly. === Paulson re-activates secretive support team to prevent markets meltdown Judging by their body language, the US authorities believe the roaring bull market this autumn is just a suckers’ rally before the inevitable storm hits. === The Interior Department has dropped claims that the Chevron Corporation systematically underpaid the government for natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, a decision that could allow energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties. === Topped off by the record results released Friday by Chevron, five of the world’s largest oil companies produced a combined net income of $31.6 billion during the three months ended in September. === An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible For Excessive Spending === I have been and will continue to be accused of hating America and lacking gratitude for the benefits of being born in this nation. To this accusation I can only call on the wisdom of the great American writer Mark Twain who stated that “We should be loyal to our country at all times and to our government when it deserves it.” === Date: 30 October 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 2813 Cost of America’s War in Iraq See the cost in your community === Despite earlier reports that the missiles had been launched by Pakistani military helicopters, Pakistani intelligence sources now tell ABC News that the missiles were fired from a U.S. Predator drone plane. === By Mike Whitney Everyone in Washington already knew that doomsday was approaching. That’s the way the system was designed from the very beginning. It’s all part of the madcap scheme to “starve the beast” and transfer the nation’s wealth to a handful of western plutocrats. === This is a must listen Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh. The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change. Click to listen. === By Frank Rich The ultimate chutzpah is that Mr. Bush, the man who sold us Saddam’s imminent mushroom clouds and “Mission Accomplished,” is trivializing the chaos in Iraq as propaganda. The enemy’s “sophisticated” strategy, he said in last weekend’s radio address, is to distribute “images of violence” to television networks, Web sites and journalists to “demoralize our country.” === The U.S. fear of losing power which it doesn’t have By Abid Ullah Jan The Bush administration has been fully successful in what it wanted to achieve in Iraq. The country is occupied. Oil resources are under full control. The military threat that Iraq could pose has been fully neutralized. The country is divided. Iraqis are pitted against each other. The civil war is on and the co-opted media still limits its description to fear of a looming civil war. === By James Petras Almost without exception, Israel’s ideological soldiers have taken to the opinion columns of all the major newspapers, television and radio shows (as self-reputed Middle East experts) to promote the breaking up of Iraq into mini-states and to pursue the killing fields beyond the over 650,000 slaughtered Iraqi civilians and 3,000 dead US soldiers. === By Remi Kanazi What is happening today in the Occupied Territories isn’t politics. It is an overwhelming nightmare that plagues 3.8 million people every day. === A bomb blast ripped through a crowd of labourers in a square in Baghdad’s Shi’ite Sadr City district, killing 28 people and wounding 60, Interior Ministry sources said. === “Evidence suggests that Iraqi security forces are involved in these horrific crimes, and thus far the government has not held them accountable,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW’s Middle East division. “The Iraqi government must stop giving protection to security forces responsible for abduction, torture and murder.” === The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded. === Private security firms operating in Iraq are committing human rights abuses, a charity has claimed. === Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told President Bush that America’s ambassador in Baghdad acts like a viceroy instead of a diplomat. === Iraq is to ask the UN Security Council to renew the mandate governing the presence of US-led forces in the country for another year, said Hoshiyar Zebari, its foreign minister. === Countering Republican campaign charges that Democrats would “cut and run” from Iraq, chairman Howard Dean said the party did not believe there should be a sudden pullout of all U.S. troops. === Scott Ritter: Weapons of Mass Delusion : Ritter gives his analysis of the real reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. === As the Nuremberg Tribunal concluded after World War II: “War is essentially an evil thing … To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” === The attack on a religious school in Pakistan’s remote northwest along the Afghan border enraged thousands of tribesmen who said the victims were innocent students and teachers. === Despite earlier reports that the missiles had been launched by Pakistani military helicopters, Pakistani intelligence sources now tell ABC News that the missiles were fired from a U.S. Predator drone plane. === Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Shaukat Sultan has said that local people and foreigners were among the 80 dead in Bajaur agency operation however no Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants were among the dead. === An eyewitness said told the BBC the madrassa school was filled with local students who had resumed studies after the Muslim Eid holidays === NATO occupation forces and Afghan troops killed 70 suspected militants who attacked a military base in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded eight others, the alliance said Sunday. === Militia fighters are operating just an hour’s drive from the capital’s suburbs, confident of undermining Western support for the war === Tony Blair’s most trusted military commander yesterday branded as ‘cuckoo’ the way Britain’s overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan === According to the Palestinians, an IOF tank shot at targets in the city and one of the shells hit a private home. === THEY came through the wall using sledgehammers. With their faces daubed in camouflage paint and assault rifles and machine guns under their arms, they were a terrifying sight for the Hassan family, who huddled together in fear. There were at least 10 of the Israeli soldiers. They took the family’s blankets and bedded down. === Land confiscation and pollution threaten future of ancient farming community === German Defense Ministry says another incident occurred on Thursday, involved German navy helicopter, Israeli F-16 fighters. Bild am Sonntag newspaper reports Israeli planes had ‘dangerously badgered’ helicopter === Israel may be forced to reverse a controversial policy of expelling Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza after a vigorous protest from America. === IT SEEMS that we Israelis are always in need of something to be afraid of. When we open our eyes in the morning, we must see the danger-of-the-day. Otherwise, what is there to get up for? Perhaps it’s not the public that is to blame, but the politicians who use fear as a means of control. === “We are not looking for tension but any action that aims to limit us will receive an appropriate and firm response from the Iranian people,” said Ahmadinejad during a gathering in Pishva in Tehran province. === The controversy over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program has obscured one point in particular: There need not be a crisis. A solution to the situation is possible and eminently within reach. === London’s Metropolitan Police has confirmed to The Sunday Times that it was investigating a complaint filed by two Iranian exiles that they were unlawfully imprisoned and tortured by the Khatami regime. === Video: Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.: The Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer report on Israel. === THE secrets of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent are feared stolen, the Sunday Express can reveal. It is claimed they disappeared from a high-security base in the US. === CIA expert Ron Suskind accuses Washington of “running like a headless chicken” in its war against al-Qaida. He reserves special criticism for the CIA’s torture methods, which he argues are unproductive. === An al-Qaeda strategist has warned Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or face terrorist attacks similar to 9/11, Madrid and the London transit bombings. === Three people were killed and 24 wounded in near-simultaneous truck bomb attacks on two Algerian police stations, police said on Monday, in what witnesses called the most elaborate assault by Islamist rebels in several years. === Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won a landslide second term in power last night, a month after being forced into a run-off by allegations of corruption. === Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, has been put under house arrest for crimes including torture, murder and kidnapping in the years that followed his 1973 coup, a judge has said. === Daniel Ortega is a hair’s breadth from regaining power in Nicaragua and staging one of Latin America’s most remarkable political comebacks, according to new opinion polls. === John Pilger Video: Nicaragua – A Nations Right To Survive: In 1979, the Sandinistas won a popular revolution in Nicaragua, putting an end to decades of the corrupt US-backed Somoza dictatorship. In this film, Pilger describes the achievements of the Sandinistas and their “threat of a good example”. === Nowhere is the effect of global warming more dangerous than in Somalia, where the worst drought in 40 years is affecting the lives of 1.8 million people. === Landmark report reveals apocalyptic cost of global warming === The UK prime minister urges swift action as a report warns climate change could shrink the global economy by 20%. === “This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids,” the comptroller general of the United States warns a packed hall at Austin’s historic Driskill Hotel. “We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed.” === I believe that any intelligent person who reads the evidence will come to the same conclusion. But one will never be able to prove it to an absolute certainty because the votes were never counted in Ohio as the result of an illegal effort by public officials to derail the recount. === William Frey, a founder of “Republicans for Humility,” explains why he and other conservative Republicans are upset with the direction of the Bush administration and the GOP-controlled Congress: === Guilty until proven innocent now seems to be the watchword of a government that increasingly treats its law-abiding citizens with absolute contempt === Date: 28 October 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 2811 Cost of America’s War in Iraq See the cost in your community === The Way Out Of War By George S. McGovern and William R. Polk A blueprint for leaving iraq now We should find a way to express our condolences for the large number of Iraqis incarcerated, tortured, incapacitated, or killed in recent years. This may seem a difficult gesture to many Americans. It may strike them as weak, or as a slur on our patriotism. Americans do not like to admit that they have done wrong. === Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on Lebanon By Robert Fisk Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians? === Six Iraqis, including three women and two children, were killed in Ramadi on Saturday in what police and a hospital doctor said was a dawn airstrike. === A vicious battle between Iraqi police and insurgents north of Baghdad left at least 24 officers, 18 rebels and one civilian dead, the US military said yesterday. === Six Iraqis, including three women and two children, have been killed in a US air strike in the city of Ramadi in western Iraq, a doctor said. === OCTOBER became the deadliest month for US soldiers in Iraq in nearly two years with the announcement of the death of a US Marine in the western Anbar province. === The Iraqi prime minister sharply criticized U.S. policy during a private meeting with the U.S. ambassador Friday, pointing to American failure to either reduce violence or give his government authority over security matters. === Interview: An expert on Shi’ite politics explains why Maliki feels let down by the U.S. ? and why Iran should be seen as an ally, not an oponent, in the effort to stabilize Iraq?, === Mr Mutaira said that if one of the detainees had fallen asleep, he would be woken and asked to repeat his footballer nickname. “If we were not able to recite our respective nickname we would be kicked and beaten. === An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC. === Robot vehicles are increasingly taking a role on the battlefield – but their deployment raises moral and philosophical as well as technical questions === A roadside blast struck a pickup truck in southern Afghanistan Friday, killing 14 villagers who were traveling to a provincial capital for holiday celebrations, an official said. === NATO-led troops are not doing enough to protect civilians during military operations in Afghanistan, and the deaths of noncombatants are turning the population against the Western alliance, Human Rights Watch said. === Appeals to Nato nations with troops stationed in less hostile regions of Afghanistan, such as Germany, Turkey and France, have become increasingly vociferous in recent weeks with Nato commanders stating that they are 2,500 men short of the force they require. === The Turkish Defense Ministry released a written statement saying Turkish troops would not operate beyond Kabul and serve in different tasks other than their specified mission. === If the Israelis or the Americans want to avoid accusations, at the very least, of a cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products, they need to explain what was in that bomb and why it was there. === Egypt has beefed up security along its border with the Gaza Strip after an Israeli daily said that Israel might bomb tunnels used for smuggling weapons into the Palestinian territories. === The trip from Ramallah, in the West Bank, to Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem is a 15-minute drive on open roads. But it took Salama nine hours to get past a series of Israeli checkpoints meant to keep people like him — men aged under 45 and women less than 35 — out of Jerusalem. === President George W. Bush said the international community must “double our effort” to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons after reports that Tehran had stepped up sensitive atomic work. === Ships from the United States and five other countries will interdict a British vessel in the Persian Gulf on Monday in a mock interception of dangerous weapons technology, an exercise the U.S. expects nearby Iran to notice. === SOUTH Korean military officials fear the North may be making preparations for a second nuclear test. They claim to have observed activities today at the original testing site. === Nine people, mostly protesters, have been killed in a conflict that began in Oaxaca state five months ago, when striking teachers and leftist activists occupied much of the state capital, a popular tourist destination. === [T]he US has had two major weapons for controlling Latin America for a long time. One of them is economic controls, the other is military force. They have both been used continually. Both of them are weakening and it’s a very serious problem for US planners === Washington’s new anti-terrorism law could end up violating international treaties protecting detainees, with some provisions denying suspects the right to a fair trial, a key UN rights expert said today. === Screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the starting points for the Sept. 11 hijackers, failed 20 of 22 security tests conducted by undercover U.S. agents last week, missing concealed bombs and guns at checkpoints throughout the major air hub’s three terminals, according to federal security officials. === Date: 27 October 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 2810 Cost of America’s War in Iraq See the cost in your community === Fiasco Then, Fiasco Now: Why Baghdad Will Keep Burning By Tom Engelhardt The neocons and other top Bush officials were dazzled by American military power. They believed that, as the leaders of the planet’s only “hyperpower,” its last imperial superpower, its New Rome, they could do just about anything. Now, having attacked two weak countries, one among the poorest on the planet, and finding that they can achieve nothing they want, they — and others in Washington — are sitting around desperately dreaming up further hopeless solutions to the Iraqi catastrophe. === By Maher Arar We now know that my story is not a unique one. Over the past two years we have heard from many other people who were, who have been kidnapped, unlawfully detained, tortured and eventually released without being charged with any crime in any country. === By Patrick Seale The killing continues on a daily basis – by tank and sniper fire, by air and sea bombardment, and by undercover teams in civilian clothes sent into Arab territory to ambush and murder, an Israeli specialty perfected over the past several decades. === By The Council for the National Interest Christian Zionism, a belief that paradise for Christians can only be achieved once Jews are in control of the Holy Land, is gathering strength in the United States and forging alliances that are giving increasingly weird shape to American policy toward the Middle East. === Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine By Rammy M. Haija With nearly 10 per cent of US voters declaring themselves as Zionist or dispensationalist Christians, and another 35 per cent constituting mainstream Christianity, the Christian Zionist lobby has targeted both voting pools for its purpose of assembling a pro-Israel constituency among American voters through the promotion of biblical and dispensationalist doctrine. === Authorities imposed a vehicle ban in the northern city of Mosul after the bodies of 12 people, including four police officers === Iraq’s Prime Minister Blames U.S. For Chaos: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continued his open dispute with American officials Thursday, blaming the United States-led coalition for Iraq’s chaos and faulting its military strategy. === Iraqi PM, U.S. Envoy Back Timetable : There also was rampant speculation in Baghdad that the United States was preparing to dump al-Maliki, who was the compromise candidate for prime minister from among the dominant Shiite Muslims in parliament. His government has been in power five months. === For all previous U.S. official predictions and timetables for progress in Iraq have proven to be unfounded fantasies with no tangible connection to evolving political and security realities on the ground there. There is no indication that the latest projected “timetables” will be any different. === Though it is largely free of the sectarian wars taking place in Baghdad and its surrounding area, observers say the ethnic faultlines running through the city, which lies atop Iraq’s second-largest oilfield, make it a time bomb that could pit Kurd against Arab and draw in neighbours such as Iran and Turkey. === The T-V station says he was born in Iraq, and that his mother is appealing to the kidnappers to show him mercy as a fellow Muslim. === Republican Sen. John McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said Friday the United States should send another 20,000 troops to Iraq. === A new poll shows support for the war in Iraq is slipping among white evangelical Protestants, previously a key pillar of support for President George W. Bush’s conduct of the conflict. === It is understood the blast was caused by a mine that had been planted in the road outside the town. === Over 85 civilians including women and children were killed in Zang Abad village of Panjwayi district, 20 kilometres west of Kandahar Province Tuesday evening, said Bismillah Afghanmal, a member of Kandahar provincial council. === Two men were shot dead in al-Fara refugee camp, near the city of Jenin. Residents said the men were civilians and one had been throwing rocks at troops. === Hamas wants to “liberate the Palestinians,” not to destroy Israel, Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. === If Hamas resumes attacks deep inside Israel, the Israeli army is preparing to assassinate several Hamas leaders, particularly Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the official Israeli radio reported on Thursday. === Hamas has instructed its followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be on high alert following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are planning a coup against the Hamas government on Saturday. === Fmr. Israeli Soldier Tours U.S. to Expose Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Military === Two heavyweights of pro-Palestine intellectual activism, Khalid Amayreh and Gilad Atzmon, enter the polemic between the Spanish thinkers Santiago Alba-Rico and Raúl Sánchez-Cedillo about the State of Israel’s historical responsibility in the Middle East tragedy === What Do Ken Livingstone and a Fictional Character Named Artie Fishel Have in Common === An explosive new report claims that the federal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, has been expanded to include suspicion of meddling in affairs of the House Intelligence Committee. === Britain cites al-Qaida threat; U.S. naval forces on heightened alert === World production of crude oil may have already peaked, setting the stage for declining output that could lag demand, a top advocate of the “peak oil” theory said on Thursday. === North Korea claims the United States and South Korea are planning a nuclear war against the communist state, accusing them of devising a war plan and stocking up on the latest weapons. === The so-called Airborne Laser has been developed at a cost so far of about $3.5 billion with the aim of destroying, at the speed of light, all classes of ballistic missiles shortly after their launch. If successful in flight testing and deployed, it would become part of an emerging U.S. anti-missile shield that also includes land- and sea-based interceptor missiles. === Time and again, he claims, the U.S. backs terrorists and spreads conflict in order to guarantee the wealth of a tiny minority. === Bolivia froze discussions on its likely candidacy to the United Nations Security Council -a possibility Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez hinted on Tuesday. === “We are starting from scratch now,” said Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Maduro during a break from meetings with Arab, Africa, Latin American and Asian groups to lobby for support for Venezuela during the next round of balloting on Tuesday. === A judge has ordered the arrest of Chile’s former military leader, Augusto Pinochet, over crimes committed at a detention centre, sources say. === President Bush has admitted that the CIA is running a secret detention programme for what he termed “al Qaeda leaders”. Newsnight’s Peter Marshall has been investigating the men in CIA custody, many of whom are unaccounted for. === THE US has refused to investigate allegations David Hicks was sexually abused while in American custody, documents reveal. And the Australian Government has not sought to have its officials independently investigate the sexual abuse claims or other allegations of mistreatment raised by Mr Hicks, his family and his lawyers. === The jury selection process in the terrorism trial of alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla will begin next month with an unusually large group of 3,000 Miami-area residents, a judge said Thursday. === OF all the dreadful novelties to which we have accustomed ourselves after Sept. 10, 2001, none is more grotesque than our continuing national debate over torture’s moral and legal legitimacy. === The Torture Election The Congressional campaign of 2006 slouches toward election day through a grotesque landscape of torture and excuses for torture, scabrous messages from a Congressman to young boys, a Congressional cover-up of the same, murder and countermurder every day in Iraq (a heart-stopping 655,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion, according to a Johns Hopkins study), and nuclear fallout from North Korea === The United States is holding some fourteen thousand persons in prisons around the world. === If you think the conviction of Ken Lay means that George Bush is serious about going after corporate bad guys, think again. === The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year: === Big Brothers’ data bases: === Date: 26 October 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 2809 Cost of America’s War in Iraq See the cost in your community === By Pepe Escobar Iraq is not simply a US electoral issue. It’s a human tragedy of biblical proportions. Hence the urge at this point to situate the tragedy in a historical context. === By Saad Sayeed “What I write causes extreme anger for the very simple reason that I use the U.S. government’s official definition of terrorism from the official U.S. code of laws. If you use that definition, it follows very quickly that the U.S. is the leading terrorist state and a major sponsor of terrorism and since that conclusion is unacceptable, it arouses furious anger.” === Storytellers of the American Narrative By Manuel Valenzuela The role of the fascist media is to protect the fascists, to smear those exposing truths, to ignore movements seeking truth to criminality, to enable the activities of the Bush cabal and to grant life to the manipulative mechanisms of the state. Its role is to keep the masses obedient, ignorant and subservient to the state. === By Paul Craig Roberts When people no longer understand that civil liberties are more important than political agendas, they have lost sight of the belief system that protects them. === By Jason Miller A mere swish of the pen by a conscienceless swine effectively transferred absolute power into the hands of a relative handful of rich and powerful individuals and corporations. === By William A. Cook By yoking itself to the Zionist cause, the eradication of the Palestinians and the theft of their land, the U.S. President and the Congress have ensured a continuing supply of “terrorists” for years to come. === By Stephen Lendman The Lobby’s influence is broad and deep enough to include officials at the highest levels of government, the business community, academia, the clergy (especially the dominant Christian fundamentalists/Christian Zionists) and the mass media. === In a statement released on Thursday, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it “is very concerned by reports that a great number of civilians may have died during the conduct of military operations” in Nangawat village. === British soldiers landed in helicopters, arrested a suspect and flew away. But they left six dead in one family, including three young girls, and partially demolished the mosque. === Watch the full interview between the BBC’s David Loyn and members of the Taleban in the Helmand province of Afghanistan === Breaking The Silence: A hard hitting special report into the “war on terror” Award winning journalist John Pilger === Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police convoy in Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing eight policemen, including the commander. At least 50 other policemen were reported missing. === Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out at the United States on Wednesday, saying his popularly elected government would not bend to U.S.-imposed benchmarks and timelines and criticizing a U.S.-Iraqi military operation in a Shiite slum in Baghdad that left at least five people dead and 20 wounded. === Iraq’s prime minister said on Thursday he could get violence under control in six months, half the time U.S. generals say they need, provided Washington gave him more weaponry and more say over his own forces. === The only real strength of the Iraqi government is the US army. In theory, it has 264,000 soldiers and police under its command. In practice they obey the orders of their communal leaders in so far as they obey anybody. === A Marine charged with murdering an Iraqi civilian last April pleaded guilty today to lesser charges of assault and obstruction of justice in a deal that spared him a possible life sentence. === Tony Blair was challenged by Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, to use new “fast track” extradition procedures with the United States to ensure that American soldiers involved in the death of the ITN journalist Terry Lloyd faced trial in Britain. === Australian troops must stay in Iraq to maintain the country’s friendship with the United States, Prime Minister John Howard says. === What is our moral responsibility as it becomes clear that our bungled occupation has sunk Iraq into chaos – and that the country is approaching all-out civil war? === Zinn continued to advocate the importance of shattering the myth of American exceptionalism. Slavery and racial segregation, Zinn added, are just two examples of America’s imperfections. === Howard Zinn – You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train : This is a must watch video === Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said. === Israel’s policy towards Palestinian prisoners is “arbitrary and disproportionate” and violates international humanitarian law by moving them out of occupied territory, an Israeli rights group said on Thursday. === Avigdor Lieberman is a bad advertisement for Israel. The latest member of Ehud Olmert’s coalition is a rightwinger who advocates a hard line against the Palestinians – and in a way that borders on the racist. === Clinton Says U.S. should Only Support Democratic Elections When Certin That The Outcome Favors U.S. / Israel === The Sept. 13 dinner took place at the home of Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, and was attended by over 120 top financial backers of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). === The original initiative for the visit was brought up by Jack Weiss, a Los Angeles City Council member who participated in a homeland security conference held by the Israeli Foreign Ministry === Does Jimmy Carter represent the Democratic Party’s view on Israel? Carter – who’s about to publish a book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestine Peace, Not Apartheid – is quoted as saying that he represents “the vast majority of the Democrats.” But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi begs to differ === The Lobby’s influence is broad and deep enough to include officials at the highest levels of government, the business community, academia, the clergy (especially the dominant Christian fundamentalists/Christian Zionists) and the mass media. === International attempts to forge a united front in the nuclear standoff with Iran today suffered a setback as Russia declared its opposition to current UN proposals === While Canadians agonize over the quagmire in Afghanistan, few people are looking at what the Harper government will do if George Bush finds a rationale for military action against Iran. === Imposing economic and political sanctions against Iran and North Korea will help democratic forces in those countries as Washington pursues its “ultimate objective” of regime change, John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Tuesday. === Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn’t regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. “It’s a no-brainer for me,” Cheney said at one point in an interview. === According to a secret report, the CIA offered to let Germany see one of its citizens, an al-Qaeda suspect being held in a Moroccan cell. But US secret agents demanded that in return, Berlin should co-operate and “avert pressure from EU” over Morocco’s human rights. === “We know more about Tom and Katie than we do about global warming,” Kennedy Jr. said. “We’re the most entertained, least informed people in the world.” === Obtaining the e-mails of Peace Action Maine and Veterans for Peace is a waste of FBI resources, and it has a chilling effect on people who want to speak out against government policies, said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the MCLU. === America’s Middle Class Has Become Globalization’s Loser: Globalization is striking back. The United States has promoted the worldwide exchange of commodities like no other nation, and the result is that their local industry has begun to be eroded. === In 2005 another 1.3 million Americans joined the ranks of the uninsured, bringing the total uninsured non-elderly population to just over 46 million. Not counting seniors eligible for Medicare, the uninsured rate reached about 18 percent. === Free Hugs Campaign. ===
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