19 September, 2010 — Information Clearing House

Israeli Company Hired by State Government
to Spy on Pennsylvanians and Other Americans
By Dave Lindorff
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, along with a number of local police departments in the state, have been employing a private Israeli security company with strong links to Mossad and the Israeli Defense Force.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26399.htm

The “Obscenity” of Comparing Americans to “Killers and Terrorists”
By Glenn Greenwald
The nature of tribalism is that one always thinks their side is better and the other side worse, and that comparisons between the two sides (or even equal application of standards to each) is deeply unfair and offensive (”moral relativism”).
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26397.htm

Reality Check: Iran is Not a Nuclear Threat
By Scott Horton
Forget the neoconservative hype. The facts show Iran is not and has not been a nuclear threat to either the United States or Israel.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26388.htm

Poll: Vast Majority Opposes Attack on Iran
By Daniel Tencer
Two-thirds want US to be neutral in Israeli-Palestinian conflict – Americans increasingly accept torture, survey finds.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26395.htm

American Public Opinion and the Special Relationship With Israel
By John Mearsheimer
There is no question that the United States has a relationship with Israel that has no parallel in modern history. Washington gives Israel consistent, almost unconditional diplomatic backing and more foreign aid than any other country. In other words, Israel gets this aid even when it does things that the United States opposes, like building settlements.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26391.htm

Some Killing More ‘Moral’ Than Other
By Mel Frykberg
Controversy is building up over a 91-year-old man, his 17-year-old grandson and a 20-year-old neighbour, all farmers, who were killed by Israeli shelling and gunfire as they tried to tend their land 700 metres from northern Gaza’s border with Israel.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26396.htm

Jewish Groups Denounce ‘Museum of Tolerance’
Builder Simon Wiesenthal Center for Support of Islamophobia
By Alex Kane
A coalition of four Jewish groups, backed by a wide array of peace and justice organizations, held a demonstration Sept. 16 outside the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in New York, denouncing the organization’s opposition to the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26392.htm

Chavez Wants a Break From U.S. Meddling.
Can You Blame Him?  
By Mike Whitney
Most people know that Iran, Russia and Venezuela all have vast oil reserves. And, they also know that Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are on Washington’s “enemies list”.  So, why is it so hard for them to connect the dots?
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26398.htm

Suffocating the Poor: A Modern Parable
By Johann Hari
I want to tell you the story of how our governments have been torturing and tormenting an island in the Caribbean – but it is a much bigger story than that. It’s a parable explaining one of the main reasons how and why, across the world, the poor are kept poor, so the rich can be kept rich.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26390.htm

20 Signs That The Economic Collapse Has Already Begun
For One Out Of Every Seven Americans
By Economic Collapse Blog
For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else.  Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don’t feel it.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26394.htm

Tea With Frankenstein: Please, No Masturbation
By David Michael Green
Just when you thought you’d reached the ground floor in the well of American self-destruction, you find out once again that that pit is absolutely bottomless.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26389.htm

Report: Los Angeles spent $70 million in stimulus funds to create 8 jobs
By John Cook
A new piece of evidence has emerged in the debate over the effectiveness of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, and it’s not good for Democrats.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26393.htm

US-led strike kills 70 in Afghanistan:
A US airstrike has reportedly left 70 people dead in southeastern Afghanistan as the war-ravaged country votes to elect a new parliament.
www.presstv.ir/detail/142983.html

Afghanistan Elections Marred by Deadly Attacks:
A Taliban attack near a polling station in northern Afghanistan today killed seven people as the country votes in parliamentary elections.
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/18/afghanistan-elections-marred-deadly-attacks

Three NATO occupation troops killed in Afghanistan:
Three foreign occupation troops have been killed in Afghanistan – two in a bombing in the south, and another soldier in an insurgent attack in the country’s north, NATO said on Sunday
bit.ly/9KNrIR

One third of Afghans vote in parliamentary polls – election commission:
A total of 92 percent of polling stations were reportedly open on Saturday across the country. The rest remained closed for security reasons.
en.rian.ru/world/20100918/160637672.html

Afghans scrub fingers clean to cast extra votes:
One voting station in the capital Kabul, suspected frauds included three middle-aged women who turned up to vote with the registration cards of women half their age. Three more had real voting cards but couldn’t give the names printed on them.
bit.ly/99dwZq

14 Mauritania Troops, Militants Killed in Mali Fighting:
It is not clear if the deadly assaults are linked to the kidnapping of five French nationals and two Africans in Niger.
bit.ly/clmF39

Three killed as police open fire on crowd in Indian Kashmir:
At least 100 people have so far been killed in the three-month old anti-India protests.
www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201009/3015742.htm?=

Car Bombs In Baghdad, Fallujah Kill At Least 36:
Three car bombs tore through Baghdad and the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah Sunday, killing at least 36 people. The blasts in the capital were so powerful they sheared the sides off buildings and left streets choked with chunks of rubble.
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129977721

Iraq: Civilian shot down by gunmen fire in Mosul:
A civilian man was killed by gunmen fire in eastern Mosul city on Saturday, a source from Ninewa police said.
en.aswataliraq.info/?p=136920

Iraqi soldier killed in twin bombing in Baghdad:
An Iraqi soldier was killed and 11 people were wounded in an overnight double bomb explosions which struck the Iraqi army in a Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source and a witness said on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
en.trend.az/regions/met/iraq/1752821.html

Allawi may be president in deal with Kurds:
A deal is in the works where the Iraqi vice president would become prime minister in a power-sharing deal with a secular leader and Kurds, a party leader has said.
gulftoday.ae/portal/3bb9a1c7-36bb-4c96-a049-79488a6e158a.aspx

Israel’s FM rejects freeze extension:
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected international calls for extending Tel Aviv’s partial settlement freeze in the occupied Palestinian territories.
www.presstv.ir/detail/143041.html

Mideast officials fly to US as talks crisis looms:
Top Israeli and Palestinian officials on Sunday headed for the United States where they were expected to seek ways to break a deadlock over settlements which is threatening to sabotage “peace” talks.
rawstory.com/news/afp/Mideast_officials_fly_to_US_as_talk_09192010.html

‘Largest flotilla yet’ en-route to Gaza:
Ships from Britain, Morocco, Qatar to rendezvous in Syria, sail toward el-Arish Port in northern Sinai Peninsula; activists plan to enter Gaza through Rafah Crossing, deliver humanitarian aid
www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3955854,00.html

Ahmadinejad arrives in New York:
The Iranian leader is scheduled to deliver a speech at the 65th UN General Assembly session at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
www.presstv.ir/detail/143036.html

Jail sentence for Iran activist:
Shiva Nazar Ahari sentenced to six years in prison for plotting crimes against state and waging war against God..
english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/2010918161829135229.html

Stranger than fiction?
Couple Accused of Passing Nuclear Arms Secrets:
A physicist and his wife, who both once worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, were arrested Friday and charged with a criminal conspiracy to help Venezuela build an atom bomb.
www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/us/18scientist.html?_r=2&hp

Gaza-bound Syrian aid ship sets sail:
The wave of aid ships hoping to dock in Gaza follows an Israeli raid on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters on 31 May, during which Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals.
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315815

Pakistan: Water wars leaves 102 dead:
A police official says fighting between two tribes on the Pakistani side of the Afghanistan border has left 102 people dead over the last two weeks.
bit.ly/caKrFq

Tribes in Kenya Wage Water War:
The water wars in Kenya are some of the world’s first skirmishes due to climate change
towardfreedom.com/africa/2104-tribes-in-kenya-wage-water-war

Farmers’ apocalypse: the globalisation of food supply:
Last week the US-based Monsanto secured a 20 per cent minority interest in Western Australia’s InterGrain and launched an advocacy and “education” campaign to promote the benefits of genetic modification to consumers.
www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s3007571.htm#

“In the Face of This Truth”:
It’s time to talk honestly about collapse-no matter how others may respond. We live in the midst of multiple crises?-economic and political, cultural and ecological-posing a significant threat to human existence at the level we have become accustomed to.
www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/in-the-face-of-this-truth

Bomb-Plot Informant Testifies FBI Sent Him to Terrorist Camp in Pakistan:
The confidential informant at the center of the case against four men accused of plotting to bomb New York City synagogues testified that the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent him to Pakistan in 2008 to attend a terrorist training camp.
bit.ly/drmyGH

Gingrich blasts Democratic establishment at annual summit:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich repeatedly brought social conservatives to their feet Saturday with an impassioned address in which he warned that America faces a dual threat from the Democratic establishment on the one hand and Islamic terrorists on the other.
bit.ly/97xKlY

From the sublime to the ridiculous:
Palin Opens Up About Possible 2012 Run, Says She’s Willing to ‘Give It a Shot’:
Sarah Palin may be edging closer to a 2012 presidential run, telling Fox News “I would give it a shot” if the American people think she’s “the one.”
www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/17/palin-opens-possible-run-says-shed-shot/

4 More banks close as U.S. bank failures reaches 124 this year.:
Three bank failures in Georgia and one in Ohio has brought 2010’s tally to 124, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Frida
www.marketwatch.com/story/years-tally-of-us-bank-failures-reaches-124-2010-09-17

Americans’ Net Worth Falls Along With Stocks:
U.S. households saw their wealth decline in the second quarter despite their efforts to save more money, underscoring the economy’s struggle to recover from the recession
bit.ly/d8btzj

Record number of US homes seized by banks:
More US homes were repossessed by banks in August-more than 95,000-than in any other month in history, according to realtytrac.com, a real estate marketplace. The company expects 1.2 million bank repossessions this year, a level 12 times higher than in 2005, when there were only 100,000.
www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/econ-s18.shtml

Wall Street Banks Committing Widespread Mortgage Foreclosure Fraud:
A Florida state-court judge, in a rare ruling, said a major national bank perpetrated a “fraud” in a foreclosure lawsuit, raising questions about how banks are attempting to claim homes from borrowers in default.
bit.ly/cRLNKs

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq “1,366,350″
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’s War On Iraq:  4,739
icasualties.org/oif/
Number Of  International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 2,085

Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
$1,082,362,669,636
www.costofwar.com/

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