|
Information Clearing House News Links Archives |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date: 12-15 NOVEMBER 2006 |
|
|
|
|
|
Date: 15 November 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 2859 The War in Iraq Costs See the cost in your community === Conflict in the Middle East is Mission Implausible By By Robert Fisk The UN troops claim they are in Lebanon to protect the Shia. The Shia think they’re there to protect Israel from Hizbollah. Is this because the peacekeepers are really a Nato army in disguise? === By Scott Ritter The political astuteness of the decision by President Bush to replace Rumsfeld with Gates has escaped notice by many Democrats, who seem inclined simply to gloat over the demise of their archenemy. == By Chris Floyd Little Bush’s suddenly conceived internal Iraq policy review is just another salvo in this ongoing struggle. The Cheney militarists will certainly not give up without a fight, even after the “Gray Hawk Down” disaster of Rumsfeld’s resignation. Bush Junior will certainly not keep swallowing Daddy’s cod liver oil without throwing a fit now and then. === By Michael Gaddy The inboxes at my email sites are constantly bombarded with pictures and articles designed to pull at my heartstrings and make me believe there are troops in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting for our freedoms. === By Ray McGovern Ret. Gen. John Keane of the “Military Senior Adviser Panel” takes a different tack. He recommends that 40,000 additional U.S. troops be sent to secure Baghdad. And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., too, continues to press for sending more troops to Iraq as the only way to “salvage” the situation. === Exposed: The reality of U.S. occupation Of Iraq This Is A Must Watch – Channel 4 Video Investigation This shocking film investigates the links between the death squads and high-ranking Shia politicians. It reveals how the Shia militia that these politicians control have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and even entire government ministeries. It investigates how these units are closely linked to the death squads, indeed they often are the death squads. And the killers act with impunity — there’s little investigation into their activities. Click to view === By Sibel Edmonds Foreign influence, that most baneful foe of our republican government, has its tentacles entrenched in almost all major decision making and policy producing bodies of the U.S. government machine. It does so not secretly, since its self-serving activities are advocated and legitimized by highly positioned parties that reap the benefits that come in the form of financial gain and positions of power. === By Peter Rost After blowing the whistle on fraud, 90 percent of the whistleblowers were fired or demoted, 27 percent faced lawsuits, 26 percent had to seek psychiatric or physical care, 25 percent suffered alcohol abuse, 17 percent lost their homes, 15 percent got divorced, 10 percent attempted suicide, and 8 percent were bankrupted. But in spite of all this, only 16 percent said that they wouldn’t blow the whistle again. === Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English, the new international news channel from the Qatar-based television network, has begun broadcasting in English from its main studios in Doha. Click here to view === By Richard Gott The recent explosion of indigenous protest in Latin America, culminating in the election this year of Evo Morales, an Aymara indian, as president of Bolivia, has highlighted the precarious position of the white-settler elite that has dominated the continent for so many centuries. === 6 U.S. occupation force soldiers among those killed as violence rages across Iraq. === The top U.S. commander in the Middle East warned Congress Wednesday against setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying it would impede commanders in managing U.S. and Iraqi forces. === The indictment accuses Green and others of raping the girl and burning her body to conceal their crimes. It also alleges that Green and four others stationed at a nearby checkpoint killed the girl’s father, mother and 6-year-old sister. === Her name doesn’t show on any official list of American military deaths in the Iraq war, by hostile or non-hostile fire, who died in that country or in hospitals in Europe or back home in the USA. But Iraq killed her just as certainly. === Tehran can sit back and watch its tormentors sweat. But the US and Britain must start from diplomatic ground zero === Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has said she opposes the idea of including Iran and Syria in talks to curb the violence in Iraq. === The United States or other countries will one day be forced to consider pre-emptive action if Iran and North Korea continue to seek nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. government official said on Tuesday. === Worried about Gates’ views on Iran: Israel backers hope he toes Bush line : President Bush’s nomination of Robert Gates as defense secretary has anxious pro-Israel and Israeli leaders looking East, trying to gauge whether Gates’ past conciliatory noises on Iran herald a change in U.S. policy. === Bush will not hesitate to use force in Iran: Israeli ambassador: Ayalon said that a US military operation against Tehran would differ substantially from its invasion of Iraq in 2003. === Olmert: Israel will challenge Iran : Israel “will not shy away from challenging Iran’s development of nuclear weapons,” Ehud Olmert told the annual gathering of the North American Jewish federation system. === Bolton: Reluctance To Impose Iran Sanctions Misguided : U.S. ambassador John Bolton Wednesday warned reluctance to impose sanctions on Iran to preserve bilateral trade was misguided. === Chinese Foreign Ministry Office declared here Wednesday that China always supports solving Iran’s nuclear issue through negotiation. === It said in a statement that the plutonium contamination which has been pointed in report of IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei last October had been discussed several times with the agency in the past three years and it is not something new. === U.N. says Iran sought Somali uranium: Iran attempted to swap weapons for use by Islamic radicals in Somalia for uranium, the U.N. Security Council was told Wednesday. === There were also doubts about the U.N. panel’s findings that Iran shipped arms to the Islamic militants in return for access to uranium mines in the hometown of the top Islamic leader. === Iran has signed a 450-million-dollar deal with German electronic giant Siemens to build 150 trains, Iran’s Ambassador to Germany Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh told IRNA on Tuesday. === A rocket fired from Gaza killed a 58-year-old woman in an Israeli border town on Wednesday, prompting Israel to warn Palestinian militants they would “pay a heavy price.” === The emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, on Wednesday criticized the West for boycotting the Hamas government, saying that Palestinians are being punished for practicing democracy. === The management of the Beit Hanun hospital decided to dig a well in the hospital’s yard. By Saturday, laborers and bulldozers were already on the job. That is how the hospital is readying itself for the next invasion by the Israeli army. === President Pervez Musharraf has said that the US-led coalition forces were ‘failing’ to curb the Taliban in Afghanistan and that they would “keep failing” if they pursued their current policies. === Increasing numbers of Afghan women are committing suicide by setting fire to themselves to escape difficult lives, according to NGOs based in the country. === UN forces surround house of president’s rival. Armed groups in capital urge return to fighting === Al Jazeera English, the new international news channel from the Qatar-based television network, has begun broadcasting in English from its main studios in Doha. === Martín Sanchez, Venezuela’s consul general in Chicago, on “The Struggle for Self-Determination in Venezuela;” and Joel Geier, Associate Editor of the International Socialist Review, on “Resisting US Empire” === “Confusion about whether such a presidential order existed certainly led to the torture and abuse scandal that embarrassed America. With a new Congress and renewed subpoena power, we now need to look up the chain of command.” === THE CIA has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including one signed by the US President, George Bush, that it used as guidelines in the interrogation and imprisonment of terrorist suspects. === The Bush administration asked a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Dick Cheney and others for alleged involvement in disclosing her employment as a clandestine CIA operative. === “Be On The Lookout For Any Statements From The Iraqi Insurgents…Thrilled At The Prospect Of A Dem Controlled Congress”… === Date: 14 November 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 2853 The War in Iraq Costs See the cost in your community === Baghdad: The New Saigon? By Patrick J. Buchanan As the Democrats have now captured Congress, they assume co-responsibility for the retreat from Mesopotamia. Which is as it should be. === By Ray McGovern Ret. Gen. John Keane of the “Military Senior Adviser Panel” takes a different tack. He recommends that 40,000 additional U.S. troops be sent to secure Baghdad. And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., too, continues to press for sending more troops to Iraq as the only way to “salvage” the situation. === Exposed: The reality of U.S. occupation Of Iraq This Is A Must Watch – Channel 4 Video Investigation This shocking film investigates the links between the death squads and high-ranking Shia politicians. It reveals how the Shia militia that these politicians control have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and even entire government ministeries. It investigates how these units are closely linked to the death squads, indeed they often are the death squads. And the killers act with impunity — there’s little investigation into their activities. Click to view === By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich Without a doubt, in the very near future, Americans will wake up with a jolt and realize that they have paid the heftiest price of all. Their White House can no longer make a decision without Israel’s blessing. They will recognize that gone with the lives of their sons and daughters, is their reputation, and they have become a nation both morally and fiscally bankrupt only to enable the growth of an unstoppable fiend in the Middle East. === By Matt Apuzzo The Bush administration said Monday that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have no right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts and that lawsuits by hundreds of detainees should be dismissed. === Terrorists trying to blend in with Mexican culture A News Channel 5 Investigation A News Channel 5 Investigation investigation reveals what the feds don’t want you to know. Suspected terrorists are hiding inside the U.S. and they got here by sneaking across the Mexican border. === Police found 11 bodies with gunshot wounds in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, police said === A doctor at Ramadi’s main hospital, said 35 bodies had been brought in and that he believed others had not been retrieved because access was limited by continuing military operations. === Chanting slogans in support of a radical, anti-American, Shi’ite cleric, mourners carried coffins on Tuesday through a Baghdad district where Iraqi officials said U.S. forces killed six people in an overnight raid. === Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American (occupation) cleric President Bush once dismissed as the head of a “band of thugs,” has emerged as one of the most powerful forces in Iraq, commanding a large militia and a growing political organization. === The US president has renewed his objection to any timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq after discussing the situation there with a bipartisan commission. === What chance Baker’s Iraq Study Group coming up with something original? Don’t hold your breath === Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday that the premature exit of the United States from Iraq will be seen as a victory for international terrorists and added that “Iraq will become a haven for terrorists”. === SPIEGEL spoke to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to find out. A widely respected foreign policy expert, Haass warns that the Middle East could become dangerous for years to come. === An interview with Iraq’s health minister === The cut-and-run stage hasn’t yet arrived. But it’s close. === Prosecutors and witnesses in earlier hearings say the soldiers dragged Awad from his home and shot him before covering up the killing to make it look as if he was an Iraqi insurgent planting roadside bombs. === Iran’s president said on Tuesday he was ready to talk to the United States if there was a change of attitude in Washington, which faces pressure to deal directly with Tehran to help ease violence in neighbouring Iraq. === Prime Minister Ehud Olmert drew fire from Democratic Party members Monday by publicly praising the war in Iraq. === Eighteen dead civilians were found scattered in one field. Ten civilians were found dead in a ditch. Three more lay nearby, according to the senior NATO official, who declined to say how many women and children perished. === A legal panel in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province has ruled out any militant link to a religious school that was bombed last month, leaving 82 people dead, media reports said Tuesday. === Taliban spokesman Muhammad Hanif said that an explosives laden van driven by one of their fighters was hit with a US military tank, completely destroying it and killing four soldiers on board at Shindand region in Herat province. === International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday. === Iran nearing ‘point of no return’: “ Iran denies the Holocaust and seeks the weapons to perpetrate one. If the promise of ‘Never Again’ supersedes the price of oil then the time for international indifference and hesitation in the face of the Iranian threat has long passed,” the Israeli Foreign Minister said === Blair tells US panel Iran is ‘strategic threat’ to the region : Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Iraq Study Group that Iran was a ‘strategic threat’ to the Middle East that had to be confronted with the choice of helping to secure peace ‘or face isolation’, his spokesman said. === Netanyahu: Iran Preparing Another Holocaust: “It’s 1938, and Iran is Germany,” Netanyahu said, “and Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs.” === According to recent reports received by Western intelligence agencies, the Iranians are training senior al-Qa’eda operatives in Teheran to take over the organisation when bin Laden is no longer leader. === Iranians Training Qaeda Terrorists to Attack Our GIs: The Iranian government has been providing a safe haven for fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terror group since they were forced to flee Afghanistan in late 2001. === The neo-conservatives (neocons) who gave us the “cakewalk” prediction for Iraq before the war are now plugging “a walk in the park” in Iran — i.e., a U.S. bombing campaign to consign the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions to oblivion, or at least to retard the advent of an Iranian bomb for a few years === “We will carry out our foreign currency transactions with currencies other than the dollar and our use of the dollar will reach a minimum level,” Economy Minister Davoud Danesh Jafari was quoted as saying by student news agency ISNA. === President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to commission some 60,000 centrifuges to meet the country’s requirements in peaceful use of nuclear technology. === President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted Tuesday that Iran will soon have mastered the production of nuclear fuel, but conceded the country was far from producing enough fuel to power its Russian-built reactor. === resident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that two major technological achievements of the government will be made public during the Ten-Day Dawn (February 1-11) this year. === President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that he will soon send a message to the American nation. === The Israel Defense Forces on Monday denied claims by an Israeli human rights organization that the shooting death of two Palestinian militants near the West Bank town of Jenin last week was an “execution.” === Deploring the action as “unacceptable” and saying that while Israel has a right to self defense, it “should not be disproportionate or in contradiction to international humanitarian law.” === The iSRAELI prime minister also claimed that President Bush did not pressure him to moderate the Israel Defense Forces’ military activity in the Gaza Strip === They say that confession is good for the stricken soul. So here’s mine: I voted for a war criminal. My intentions were sound. I wanted a better life for the Israelis who had it the worst. I wanted a better life for the Palestinians, who had it worse than anyone. === A future Palestinian national unity government will not agree to demands that it recognise Israel, the ruling Hamas faction has said. === According to new evidence released by the FBI on Monday, Jonathan Pollard not only passed classified information on to Israel, but also to Pakistan and Australia. === Even if Russia and China had been willing to endorse robust sanctions, it is unlikely that such measures would convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons or dismantle its nuclear facilities. Sanctions have a poor record of getting regimes to abandon high-priority policies, and North Korea’s nuclear program clearly falls in that category. === Documents from the informal EU summit in Lahti, Finland, last month — together with other top-secret papers — were found in a bin outside the Spanish foreign affairs ministry in Madrid last week, according to Spain’s El Pais. === Video: The Corporation : This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit. === Some U.S. investors and retirees in the Central American nation fear president-elect Daniel Ortega, but others are more worried about how President Bush will respond to the stunning election victory === The complaint requests that the German Federal Prosecutor open an investigation – and ultimately, a criminal prosecution – looking into the responsibility of high-ranking U.S. officials for authorizing war crimes in the name of the so-called “War on Terror === Abuses carried out under the CIA’s secret programme of extraordinary rendition are to be investigated by one of the Senate’s most powerful committees, it emerged today. === Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees. === The current version of the Military Commissions redefines an “unlawful enemy combatant” (UEC) so broadly that it could include anyone who organizes a march against the war in Iraq. === n late April last year, while I was out at the hair salon, my husband phoned to tell me that two Department of Homeland Security agents had arrived at my home in Santa Barbara, Calif., to serve me with a subpoena. === Padilla’s lawyers last month asked a federal judge to dismiss the terror support charges against him based on their allegations that he suffered from ``outrageous government conduct’’ while in military custody for more than 1,300 days. === Ohio’s 2006 vote count now includes a higher percentage of uncounted ballots than in 2004, and a statistically impossible swing to the Republicans === Nearly three quarters of all bird species in northeast Australia and more than a third in Europe could become extinct unless efforts to stop global warming are stepped up, a report says. === Date: 13 November 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 2850 The War in Iraq Costs See the cost in your community === Are Democrats Turning A Blind Eye to Civil Liberty? Paul Craig Roberts Democrats are anxious to get on with their agendas and have shown no recognition that the first order of business is to repeal the legislation that permits torture, warrantless detention and domestic spying. === By Rick Banales We must remind these people that until we have the 900-year-old principle of Habeas Corpus returned in this country – whole, undiluted, for citizen and non-citizen alike, we really do not live in America. === We the People are Setting the Table Now By Cindy Sheehan We the people put the Democrats back into power because we want to see a change in this country and a rejection of politics as usual. We want politics as unusual. We want to see the issue of impeachment and a speedy and safe withdrawal of our troops from Iraq de-politicized and brought into the realm of “right and wrong” where these issues belong, not “right and left.” === By Mike Whitney Even after being forced to resign in utter disgrace, he still shows no sign of doubting his abilities as a military genius. His ego remains as impervious to criticism as tempered steel. === Saddam Finale By Said K. Aburish What is good for America in Iraq is not necessarily good for Iraq. Controlling Iraq and using its strategic position, oil and status within the Arab-Muslim worlds is part of America’s plans and the weaker Iraq is through religious and ethnic divisions the easier it is to control. === U.S.-led occupation troops killed eight suspected “insurgents,” believed to be linked to members of an al Qaeda cell in Iraq. === The bombing occurred shortly after midday in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, police Lt. Ali Muhsin said. === The civil reconstruction of Iraq will cost at least $100 billion, U.S. officials in Baghdad told Iraqi contractors who are vying for some of the work. === The reports said there was no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction during Saddam Hussein’s rule — one of the main reasons behind the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. === Video: Message of the Iraqi Resistance to the American People: Propaganda or disinformation? You decide. === AWB paid $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime between 1999 and 2003, most of which went through Alia, disguised as trucking fees. === Two trucks carrying “militants” destroyed in eastern province, official says === More than 3,700 people have died so far this year – about 1,000 of them civilians. The report also highlights corruption and says that alienation among the Afghan people is hampering those fighting the insurgency. === The insurgency’s high level of sophistication has aroused suspicions that Pakistan has quietly reactivated its old alliance through its powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). === The owners of these mansions “are commanders, ministers. It makes me angry. These people use everything that isn’t theirs and they ruin the houses of the poor people to build their homes,” said Mohammed. === Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has passed a bill setting up a Taleban-style department under a cleric to enforce Islamic morality. === The rival Fatah and Hamas movements on Monday agreed on a candidate for prime minister of their emerging coalition government, turning to a U.S.-educated professor to end months of infighting and help lift a painful international aid boycott. === The light filtered in through the cloud of dust, and she saw his blanket was covered by fragments of broken glass. She pulled it off and found him shaking. “You weren’t hit,” she said, urging him to run and join her other children, May, Rami and Fadi, who fled with her downstairs. === Hundreds of Israeli peace activists, joined by three foreign Nobel laureates, asked the nation’s high court to rule against targeted assassinations carried out by the army in the Palestinian territories, saying the attacks were killing civilians. === Screw the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead === Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of a majority of its own citizens—and honors its own previous commitments—by accepting its legal borders. === The two-state solution remains attractive and comforting in its apparent simplicity and finality. But in reality, it has proved unattainable because neither Palestinians nor Israelis are willing to give up enough of the country that they love. === The wall being constructed on the West Bank by the Israeli government is twenty-five feet high. Studded with guard towers and armaments, and encrusted with high-tech sensors, the wall cuts across the land, separating Palestinians from their own farms, their own neighbors, and from the Israeli settlements which have sprung up rapidly as a result of lavish subsidies from the Israeli government. === ‘Israel must prepare for full-scale war’ “ The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defense agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” another official said. === President Bush says the world must speak with one voice about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and that Tehran should realize its continued defiance will lead to sanctions === President Bush, responding to concerns Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought to the White House, called on Monday for worldwide isolation of Iran until it “gives up its nuclear ambitions.” === The United States reiterated on Monday that it will not hold direct talks with Iran, saying Tehran must first suspend sensitive nuclear activities. === Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for “good will” on all sides as President Vladimir Putin met Iran’s top nuclear negotiator for talks on Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme. === What kind of weapon leaves traces of radiation & produces such lethal & circumscribed consequences? === “If our resignation doesn’t lead to political gains then we will continue to use democratic means to overthrow this government,” said Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a senior Hizbullah politburo member. === What prompted this extraordinary crisis at a time when thousands of foreign troops are still pouring into Lebanon to secure a peace which looks ever more self-destructive by the day? === The United States believes Syria is a dangerous state whose territory is being used for the accelerated arming of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with an Israeli daily Sunday. === South Korea will not join a US-led scheme to stop and search suspicious North Korean ships, officials say === Sales of military weapons by U.S. contractors to foreign governments doubled in the past year, as countries including Pakistan, Australia and Greece stepped up purchases of armaments and the U.S. government loosened policies to allow more American weapons to be sold on the world market. === The US military’s refusal to send witnesses to inquests of British troops killed in Iraq has been criticised by the constitutional affairs minister. === The corporation is filming a programme about the alleged suspicious circumstances surrounding Kelly’s death in an Oxfordshire wood. === Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is expected to take over as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and The (Calif.) Daily Journal reports that Leahy is drafting a bill to undo portions of the new law in an effort to restore habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants. === House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) yesterday as the next House majority leader, thereby stepping into a contentious intraparty fight between Murtha and her current deputy, Maryland’s Steny H. Hoyer. === This is the story of so called rendition planes, otherwise known as torture taxis. They are civilian aircraft often owned by companies suspected of being fronts for the CIA. The planes are used to travel abroad, kidnap suspects, and take them to dark places at the ends of the earth, from which few ever return. === A machine gun that can fire 550 rounds a minute and assorted 9 mm Sten submachine guns are stored in the Washington County militia’s concrete and steel vault, according to information gathered from an interview conducted by The Morning News === Rumsfeld? – Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh! === Date: 12 November 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 2845 The War in Iraq Costs See the cost in your community === Cheney’s Revenge By Mike Whitney The establishment “old school” Republicans and country club plutocrats put-together a plan to sabotage the Cheney administration and put an end to the Iraq debacle. === By Ezekiel Jones What explains the curious decline from the high—powered Republican machine that could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in 2000, 2002 and 2004 to the broken down jalopy of 2006 that blew control of both houses of Congress? === By William Cohn Does this election vindicate the US political system as protecting our basic democratic interests? === By Uri Avnery The first revolutionary act is to call things by their true names, Rosa Luxemburg said. So how to call what happened in Beit Hanoun? === By Howard Zinn Our decent impulse, to recognize the ordeal of our veterans, has been used to obscure the fact that they died, they were crippled, for no good cause other than the power and profit of a few. Veterans Day, instead of an occasion for denouncing war, has become an occasion for bringing out the flags, the uniforms, the martial music, the patriotic speeches reeking with hypocrisy. === Four British occupation force troops were killed in the southern city of Basra. Three U.S. soldiers died on Saturday from wounds suffered in combat in the western Anbar province === At least 33 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack Sunday morning in occupied Baghdad and police fear the toll will rise. === The situation in Iraq is ``even worse than we thought,’’ with key Iraqi leaders showing no willingness to compromise to avoid increasing violence, said Leon Panetta, a member of the high-powered advisory group that will recommend new options for the war. === A week after taking control of both houses of Congress, Democrats on Sunday started talking about a plan to pull US troops from Iraq in four months from now, but the White House said the idea might be harmful to US national security. === A commission of experts appointed by President George W Bush will advise him to abandon his dream of cementing a new democratic system in Iraq and instead tackle the security crisis so that the withdrawal of American troops can begin. === As the White House begins to rethink its policy on Iraq, savage new warlords are battling for power and the country is starting to splinter === An American Army colonel, Ted Seal, was assigned to be with Chalabi and his fighters as a liaison officer, and every day he would get on the phone and report back to CENTCOM the status of Chalabi’s fighters, unvetted. A lot of them were from Iran, by the way — Iraqis who had fled to Iran. === The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation from his post as Defense Secretary, and called on Congress to investigate the gross abuse of power committed under his watch. === By nominating Robert Gates to the Pentagon, Bush Jr was reduced to asking one of his father’s closest friends to clean up the mess. What was Gates’s last job? As president of Texas A&M University, Gates hosted Poppy’s own presidential library. What was his previous claim to fame? Poppy had appointed him CIA director. === A NATO and Afghan operation that has now ended killed more than 60 “Taliban-linked rebels” over six days, a provincial governor said, adding that Chechen and Arab fighters were among the dead. === Afghanistan suffers more than 600 cases of terrorist or insurgent-related violence a month, a fourfold increase from last year, according to a report released Sunday. === Powell aide: Torture ‘guidance’ from VP: A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the “philosophical guidance” and “flexibility” that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities. === Israeli occupation troops on Sunday fired a land-to-land missile and killed a Palestinian young man north of Beit Lahia, in the Gaza Strip, while another Palestinian succumbed to serious wounds suffered in the Israeli shelling of Beit Hanun on 8/11. === The Arab League called Sunday for an international peace conference with Israel, and diplomats said the Hamas-led Palestinian government accepted. === When Hamas hinted at peace, U.S. media wouldn’t take the message === Arab foreign ministers on Sunday denounced on Sunday the U.S. veto against an Arab draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Gaza. === Israeli military commanders drastically reduced the ‘safety’ margins that separate artillery targets from the built-up civilian areas of Gaza earlier this year, despite being warned that the new policy risked increasing Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries, The Observer can reveal. === Video: Israel killed 19 civilians, including 7 children. And like in Cana, Lebanon, in August, where 28 civilians died, and after it killed 4 unarmed UN observers, it is claiming a “technical mistake” === Collective punishment is the law of the land in the occupied territories. Israel does it because Israel gets a license to do it from the great white father in Washington. Gaza has lived in darkness for an entire summer on account of the IDF’s malicious destruction of its power plants. The pitch-black nights are perfect cover for nightly raids by Israeli death squads. === List of U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel – (1972-2006) === Arab nations on Sunday decided to lift the financial blockade on Palestine following the US veto on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution on Saturday === On the Anti-Semitism of the Present Government: As the one Jewish Minister in the Government I may be allowed by my colleagues an opportunity of expressing views which may be peculiar to myself, but which I hold very strongly and which I must ask permission to express when opportunity affords. === AIPAC reached nearly every lawmaker elected in Tuesday’s mid-term congressional elections as part of its effort to educate political candidates on the value of the U.S.-Israel relationship. === Scott Ritter describes Israel’s role in shaping U.S. Foreign policy === Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: Video: How Israel manipulates and distorts American public perceptions === The United States is still only in third place worldwide for the number of Jewish legislators, after Israel and Britain. === The Council for the National Interest has just conducted a Zogby International poll that reveals that nearly a third (31 percent) of likely American voters believe in Christian Zionism, as defined as “a belief that Israel must have all of the promised land, including Jerusalem, to facilitate the second coming of the messiah.” === The main topics of discussion between Olmert and the US leaders are expected to be Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its threat to Israel as well as the Israeli-Palestinian relations. === The international community must make clear to Iran that it will “pay dearly” if it does not halt its nuclear program, Ehud Olmert said in an interview published Saturday, a day before the Israeli leader was to arrive in Washington === White House spokesman Tony Snow issued a statement saying the Islamic republic was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians as the world’s “leading state sponsor of terrorism.” It gave no specifics. === Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has warned Tehran will not hesitate to retaliate with a crushing blow if Israel attacks its nuclear sites. === Iran, Venezuela and Russia are flush with petroleum money, a buffer allowing them to challenge perceived American dominance. === THE CIA manipulated the Lock erbie trial and lied about the strength of the prosecution case to get a result that was politically convenient for America, according to a former US State Department lawyer. === Undercover American agents are staging secret ‘sting’ operations in Britain against criminal and terrorist suspects they want to extradite to the US. === The Government last week cravenly surrendered control of the independence of our criminal justice system to the United States. === We express our solidarity with all people in Britain of the Muslim faith, affirm their right to dress as they please and live their lives in peace and security. === British spies are watching 1,600 people in 200 cells believed to be plotting terrorist acts in Britain or overseas, according to the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency. === It said the scheme was hatched by the “Government of Free Vietnam,” a Garden Grove, California, organization that the Vietnamese government considers a terrorist group. === Golden State Terrorists: What do Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, the Philippines, Iraq, and Garden Grove and Long Beach, California have in common? They all appear to be harboring terrorists of one stripe or another === Noshir Gowadia, one of the lead engineers on the B-2 project, was originally indicted in November 2005 for allegedly selling information about the B-2 to China; the new indictment charges that his lust for money went even further as he shopped U.S. defense secrets to individuals in Israel, Germany and Switzerland, as well China. === Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Social Security Administration’s vast databases of personal information have become a resource for federal investigators === The growth in global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels over the past five years was four times greater than for the preceding 10 years, according to a study that exposes critical flaws in the attempts to avert damaging climate change. === NEWS FOR 11/11/06 === Here come the odious excuses By Robert Fisk The philosophers behind the bloodbath in Iraq are now washing their hands. === US vetoes UN draft condemning Israel’s killing of civilians By Gerard Aziakou The United States vetoed an Arab-sponsored draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would have condemned Israel’s deadly attack in the Gaza Strip, calling the text “unbalanced” and “biased.” === Beit Hanoun Massacre, Nov 8, 2006 Here are just some of the victims of Israel’s attack on Palestinian civilians. The U.S. has vetoed a UN resolution condemning the the attack. === Video Investigation How the Israeli lobby uses intimidation to prevent academic freedom in the U.S. Video and Transcript === By Glenn Greenwald In an effort to gain Mr. Padilla’s “dependency and trust,” he was tortured for nearly the entire three years and eight months of his unlawful detention. The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and, ultimately, the loss of will to live. === Police found five bodies, including a woman, bearing signs of torture and bullet wounds, in different parts of Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said. === How easily we in the West can now afford to chortle at the petty defiant antics of Saddam Hussein as he struts his final hours on the Baghdad courtroom stage. === The United States vetoed an Arab-sponsored draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would have condemned Israel’s deadly attack in the Gaza Strip, calling the text “unbalanced” and “biased.” === The Hamas-led Palestinian government said on Saturday that the United States’ veto of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s attack that killed 19 Palestinians showed the US backed Israel’s action. === Prime minister says he’ll resign, let new government form === Hamas, a government under siege, backed by most Palestinians, is losing its grip on power; the Palestinian economy is in complete tatters; factionalism and chaos are taking hold to the point that iniquitous civil war predictions are becoming part of mainstream life in Gaza. === One of the reasons Israel is rarely an issue in House and Senate campaigns is that Congress only considers one significant piece of legislation relating to Israel every year. That is the Israel aid package, which is itself part of the overall foreign aid bill. === The head of the security service has given a stark warning that her organisation is tracking 30 UK terror plots and 1,600 individuals. How safe do you feel? === Though Democrats’ gains on Tuesday were hard fought, they still pulled one big punch during the campaign. Party leaders chose to refrain from publicly uttering any “i” words — investigation, immunity, and above all, impeachment — and to dismiss those who did, for fear of somehow galvanizing disaffected GOP voters. ===
|
|
|
|