Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq  “1,252,595"
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
 
===
 
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar On Iraq 4,146
icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$547,571,898,643
 
See the cost in your community
nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
 
===
 
McCain’s Neocon Warmonger
 
And none dare call it treason.
 
By Patrick J. Buchanan
 
Who is Randy Scheunemann? He is the principal foreign policy adviser to John McCain and potential successor to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser to the president of the United States. But Randy Scheunemann has another identity, another role. He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20590.htm
 
===
 
US Combat Troops Out of Iraq ‘by 2011'
 
By Alastair Hayes
 
The United States to withdraw combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns by next June and from the rest of Iraq by 2011. The withdrawal of US troops to bases outside the cities, towns and villages would make the Iraqi government, whose security forces number half a million men, the predominant military power in Iraq for the first time since the US-led invasion of 2003. 
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20587.htm
 
===
 
The Saakashvili Experiment
 
By Ramzy Baroud
 
The fact is that Russia will fight to break away from the pro- US ring of former Soviet states that promise to undermine its influence in a Eurasia, and the US will do its utmost to maintain a level of tension, if not hostilities in the region, for without it neither a missile shield nor the 270 billion barrels of oil in the Caspian basin can be brought within Washington’s reach.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20592.htm
 
===
 
Under Moscow’s Wing
 
Events in Georgia have had some surprising repercussions in the Middle East, leaving Syria looking perkier than usual
 
By James Denselow
 
Israel’s involvement with the Georgian military has been somewhat overlooked in light of more blatant US support, such as the airlift of some 2,000 Georgian troops from Iraq at the start of the conflict. However Misha Glenny spotted it, writing in the New Statesman that Prime Minister Putin warned President Shimon Peres to “pull out your trainers and weapons or we will escalate our co-operation with Syria and Iran” – after which Israel dutifully complied.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20584.htm
 
===
 
Peak profts and empty pockets at the pump
 
It’s Time to Revolt Against Big Oil!
 
By Linda Averill
 
As gas climbs to $5 a gallon, the pain is evident everywhere. Buses are packed. GM is closing factories. The airlines are laying off pilots and flight attendants. Independent truckers are going bankrupt. Real wages slide down and inflation shinnies skyward.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20593.htm
 
===
 
Is Hillary Going For The Kill At The Denver Convention?

  By Alan Hart
 
According to conventional wisdom Barak Obama agreed, for the sake of party unity, that Hillary Clinton should be “put into nomination” at the Denver Convention, on the understanding that when nominated, and before the first roll call, she would release her delegates to him and urge them to vote for him. That, apparently, is how it’s supposed to happen next Tuesday evening. But is that the way it will happen?
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20596.htm
 
===
 
I Smell a Clinton Coup Brewing
 
By JB Williams
 
The fact that millions of Democrat voters were intentionally disenfranchised by their own party in the primaries leaves the chosen one the prime target of too many in-house enemies. And nobody in American politics is better at organizing, mobilizing and exploiting in-house enemies than the Clintons.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20598.htm
 
===
 
If I Were Once A Democrat Again, this is What I’d Tell Obama
 
By Timothy V. Gatto
 
The Democrats are wondering why their candidate’s numbers are slowly circling the drain. How stupid is that? Could it be that the man chosen by the mainstream corporate media and the corporate political party is behaving like a corporatist? This entire drama between the two political parties has got to be the most expensive con job that this world has ever seen.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20594.htm
 
===
 
Crunch Time
 
By Mike Whitney
 
The impending global recession has nothing to do with crafty mortgage lenders, opportunistic loan applicants, dodgy rating agencies, or crooked home appraisers. That’s like blaming Lindy England for Abu Ghraib. The source of the troubles is the Federal Reserve and monetary policies that are designed to rob people of their life savings.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20595.htm
 
===
 
‘Tossed Out Like a Dog’
 
By Gideon Levy
 
In the lawless South Hebron Hills, things are wild as usual: The settlers continue to attack shepherd children with clubs and stones, to steal their sheep and to make their lives miserable, while the Israel Police continue to abuse anyone who tries to file a complaint against the settlers.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20591.htm
 
===
 
In Case You Missed It
 
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
 
U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
 
Video – How Israel manipulates and distorts American public perceptions
 
Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how—through the use of language, framing and context—the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.
 
Click to view
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14055.htm
 
===
 
Land and Freedom
 
By Arundhati Roy
 
For the past 60 days or so, since about the end of June, the people of Kashmir have been free. Free in the most profound sense. They have shrugged off the terror of living their lives in the gun-sights of half a million heavily armed soldiers, in the most densely militarised zone in the world.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20597.htm
 
====
 
US Occupation Forces Air Strikes Kill 76 Afghan Civilians Friday -Government:
 
An operation by international forces in western Afghanistan on Friday killed 76 civilians, mostly women and children, the Afghan interior ministry said.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20579.htm
 
====
 
Eight foreign occupation troops killed in Afghanistan:
 
In all, eight members of the NATO-led Occupation Force have been killed in Afghanistan Thursday, reports said. They include three Canadian and three Polish soldiers. The nationality of the other troops was not disclosed.
tinyurl.com/5bprvb
 
===
 
NATO forces in Afghanistan fire rockets at militants inside Pakistan:
 
NATO forces coordinating with the Pakistan military fired artillery at militants who were preparing to attack a NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base in eastern Afghanistan, ISAF said on Friday.
tinyurl.com/6nhd7c
 
===
 
Pakistani troops kill 21 militants: officials:
 
Pakistani troops Friday killed 21 militants, including two suicide attackers, in clashes near the Afghan border, a day after a bombing killed 64 people at an arms factory, officials said.
tinyurl.com/5uwzg9
 
===
 
Militants ready for Pakistan’s war:
 
It could be that the new civilian Pakistani leadership is steering the “war on terror” in the wrong direction.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20580.htm
 
====
 
Pakistan: Key party chooses Zardari for president:
 
The party of slain former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, has chosen her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, as its presidential candidate to succeed former President Pervez Musharraf.
www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2429680112
 
===
 
Russia says NATO needs its help on Afghanistan:
 
Russia’s foreign minister told NATO on Thursday that both sides benefited from joint cooperation and he pointedly raised the issue of Russian transit support for Alliance forces in Afghanistan.
tinyurl.com/6otm4p
 
====
 
U.S. refuses to hold joint naval antiterrorism drill with Russia:
 
The United States has refused to participate with Russia in NATO’s Operation Active Endeavour naval antiterrorism exercise, a source in the Russian Black Sea Fleet said Friday.
en.rian.ru/world/20080822/116215662.html
 
===
 
NATO: Russia Halts Military Cooperation:
 
Alliance spokeswoman Carmen Romero said NATO had received notification through military channels that Russia’s Defense Ministry had taken a decision “to halt international military cooperation events between Russia and NATO countries until further instructions.”
abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5626122
 
====
 
Russian troops withdraw from Gori:
 
Russian forces said they had started withdrawing from Georgia on Friday, but insisted they would keep hundreds of troops inside a buffer zone in the former Soviet republic.
english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/08/200882211851836768.html
 
===
 
Russian defense chief: Georgia pullback finished:
 
U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the United States was not satisfied.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20581.htm
 
====
 
Russia to keep control of key Georgian highway:
 
General: Russia will retain control over a key highway linking the Georgian capital to the sea even after completing a troop pullout, maps shown to journalists by a top general indicated on Friday.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20586.htm
 
===
 
Russia to keep 500 troops in Georgia buffer zone:
 
Russia intends to keep 500 troops in a security zone surrounding Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080821/wl_nm/georgia_ossetia_zone_dc_1
 
===
 
Moscow Says Some Troops to Stay Put:
 
Russian soldiers were at work digging positions outside Georgia’s main Black Sea port city of Poti on Thursday at the same time Moscow maintained that its soldiers were on schedule to pull out of the country proper by Friday.
www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/370265.htm
 
====
 
Georgia set for military action – Russian General Staff:
 
Georgia is preparing for military action in its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official warned Friday. “We have registered an increase in [Georgia’s] reconnaissance activities and preparations for armed actions in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone,” Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, told a news conference.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20583.htm
 
===
 
Russia Warns of Corpse Provocation:
 
Georgian authorities are preparing a “mass provocation” as early as Thursday, using corpses to create an impression of deaths among civilians, the military said Thursday in a statement distributed by the Kremlin.
www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/370269.htm
 
===
 
“Don’t do it”, U.S. told Georgia on eve of assault:
 
The United States warned Georgia against trying to retake rebel South Ossetia by force, including on the very eve of the August 7 attack that drew a crushing response from Russia, the U.S. envoy to NATO said on Thursday.
www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212166683.shtml
 
===
 
US Ambassador to Moscow:
 
Russia Was Justified in Responding to Georgia Attacks: The former US Ambassador to Bulgaria John Beyrle, who is already in charge of the American Embassy in Moscow, said Russia was justified in responding to the Georgian attacks on the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia.
www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=96353
 
===
 
Saakashvili asked the U.S. to send him a plane in the heat of the conflict:
 
When the news began to spread, Klimiashvili writes, the opposition started to panic. Despite their many differences, Saakashvili was maintaining control over the situation and “without him at the helm the country would sink into chaos.”
www.kp.ru/daily/24150.4/366384/
 
===
 
South Ossetia says Georgian attack caused $4 billion damage:
 
South Ossetia’s deputy speaker of parliament, Tarzan Kokoity, speaking of the destruction of local factories, said: “Today it is senseless to speak of the republic having its own industries.”
en.rian.ru/world/20080822/116214956.html
 
====
 
Poland and US toast anti-Russia pact with Georgian wine:
 
The Poles and Americans added insult to injury this week, as far as Russia was concerned. After signing a controversial deal to install an American anti-missile defence shield on Polish territory, only a few days after Russia’s short war with Georgia, the US secretary of state and her Polish counterpart sat down to dinner in Warsaw and toasted the pact with Georgian wine, it emerged yesterday.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20582.htm
 
===
 
US: ‘Very Concerned’ Over Planned Russian Weapons Sale To Syria:
 
“We have always said to the Russians that these sales should not go forward, they don’t contribute to regional stability and, again, I urge them not to go through with these sales if there is an intent to go through with them,” he told reporters.
tinyurl.com/57wfjx
 
====
 
Syria denies accepting Russian missile deployment:
 
Syria’s state news agency (SANA) said deployment of Iskander missiles, which Moscow says are capable of defying any missile defence, was not on the agenda of talks between Assad and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a Black Sea resort on Thursday. “There is no truth to media reports that Syria had agreed to deploy Iskander missiles on its territory,” SANA said.
tinyurl.com/6gye9w
 
====
 
‘We won’t place missiles in Syria’:
 
Russia has no intention of placing the advanced Iskander missile system in Syria, acting Ambassador Anatoly Yurkov told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
tinyurl.com/6zj3og
 
====
 
At least: 6 Iraqis, 1 US Marine Killed as US occupation grinds on:
 
At least six Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded in the latest attacks. An unknown number were wounded during a shooting incident in Samarra as well.
www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13341
 
===
 
Sadrists Protest New US-Iraq Pullout Deal:
 
Several thousand supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested Friday against an emerging U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, saying it would turn Iraq into a U.S. colony.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20588.htm
 
===
 
Iraqi Leaders Look To Dismantle Awakening:
 
U.S. and Iraqi military officials said orders were issued in Diyala province for the arrest of hundreds of members of the so-called Awakening movement as part of the Iraqi military’s security operations, The New York Times reported.
www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212166943.shtml
 
===
 
Diplomatic effort on Iran nukes jeopardized by U.S.-Russia crisis:
 
The crisis between the United States and Russia has led to the suspension of diplomatic efforts to draft a new resolution imposing harsher sanctions on Iran.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1014375.html
 
===
 
Israel warns activists against sailing to Gaza :
 
Israel on Friday issued a tough threat against a group of activists who hope to sail to the Gaza Strip this weekend with a delivery of humanitarian supplies, calling the mission an unacceptable “provocation” and saying “all options” were under consideration
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20585.htm
 
====
 
Poll shows Livni, Netanyahu tie in Israel election:
 
With Livni at the helm, centrist Kadima and Netanyahu’s Likud would each garner 28 seats in Israel’s 120-strong parliament, while Defence Minister Ehud Barak’s Labour Party would get 12, a poll published in the Haaretz daily showed.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LL569450.htm
 
===
 
At least 70 killed as Somali opposition group seizes port:
 
The death toll in southern Somalia has risen to 70 with scores more wounded after three days of fighting in which an armed opposition group took control of the southern port of Kismayu.
english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/08/2008822133743544949.html
 
====
 
At least 6 killed in occupied Mogadishu attacks:
 
Many of those injured had been praying in a mosque near the market when the fighting erupted.
english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/08/2008821182818536641.html
 
====
 
Collecting More Data on Foreign Travelers:
 
The Department of Homeland Security is studying how best to implement a little-noticed congressional mandate to gather, search, and store biometric data from all foreign visitors leaving the country. The objective is to collect better data on foreigners who violate the law while in the country or who overstay their visas.
english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/08/2008821182818536641.html