The New Dark Age

1 July, 2011 — Information Clearing House

US Refuses to Vacate Pakistan Base
By REUTERS
The United States is rejecting demands from Pakistani officials that American personnel abandon a military base used by the CIA to stage drone strikes against suspected militants, U.S. officials told Reuters.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28448.htm

U.S. Counter-terrorism Strategy to Rely on “Surgical Strikes”, Unmanned Drones
By Ken Dilanian
“Al Qaeda seeks to bleed us financially by drawing us into long, costly wars that also inflame anti-American sentiment,” John Brennan, President Obama’s counter-terrorism advisor, said in a speech Wednesday unveiling the new strategy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28443.htm

Obama’s Counterterrorism is Backfiring
By RT
President Obama has unveiled new strategies for American counterterrorism, but to some experts the commander in chief is only making matters worse.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28443.htm

What America Stands for in Libya
By Cynthia McKinney
Targeted assassination is not within the scope of the United Nations Security Council Resolution and targeted assassination is against U.S. law, international law, international humanitarian law, and international human rights law. Targeted assassination is also a crime.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28441.htm

The Business Of America Is War
By Stephen Lendman
America’s business is war, pillaging one nation after another for wealth, power, and dominance, while homeland needs go begging.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28446.htm

Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed U.S. Ship
By Stephen Zunes
Perhaps the Obama administration hopes that giving a green light to an Israeli attack on the U.S. ship and other vessels in the flotilla will serve as a warning.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28439.htm

Senator Wants US-Israeli Op Against Flotilla
By Bryant Jordan
A U.S. senator wants U.S. special operations forces to help Israel halt a Gaza-bound international aid flotilla that includes a vessel carrying a number of American veterans, one of whom is a Sailor who served aboard the USS Liberty, the ship that Israel infamously attacked in 1967.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28436.htm

Slave to Israel
By Philip Giraldi
That a US senator goes to Israel to genuflect and kiss the Netanyahu ring is not that surprising.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28437.htm

A Message for Israel and Evangelicals
Genesis Isn’t A Policy Guide
By Walter Rodgers
With a dogmatic loyalty to Israel born out of a literal interpretation of the Bible, is the American Christian Right the new Jewish lobby in US politics? Mixing religion and statecraft isn’t just dangerous and unwise. It’s sacrilegious.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28435.htm

Demystifying 9/11: Israel and the Tactics Of Mistake
By Dr. Alan Sabrosky
“I am also absolutely certain as a strategic analyst that 9/11 itself, from which all else flows, was a classic Mossad-orchestrated operation. But Mossad did not do it alone.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28438.htm

Priests, Plots … and Hugo Chávez
By Hugh O’Shaughnessy
WikiLeaks cables have revealed that Catholic bishops played a key role in 2002’s abortive military coup in Venezuela.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28442.htm

Observations On The Day
By Paul Craig Roberts
The fusion of corporate and government interests in the US today is more complete than in Fascist Italy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28445.htm

Satire
Republicans: Trillions Could Be Cut from Budget if We Eliminate Empathy
By Andy Borowitz
“The current budget is bursting at the seams with pet projects that reek of empathy,” Rep. Cantor said. “As a nation, we can no longer afford to spend money on people’s basic survival needs like a bunch of drunken sailors.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28444.htm

Pakistan: Forty “militants” killed in Mohmand operation:
Pakistani troops backed by jets and helicopter gunships have killed 40 militants in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the past three days, a military commander said Thursday.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/30/forty-militants-killed-in-mohmand-operation.html

About time:
Pakistan tells US military to leave ‘drone’ attack base:
Pakistan told the United States to leave a remote desert air base reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone attacks, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar was quoted by state media as saying Wednesday.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/29/pakistan-tells-us-military-to-leave-drone-attack-base.html

30 soldiers, 10 al-Qaida militants killed in battles in south Yemen:
Death toll among Yemeni government forces targeted by two car bombs earlier Wednesday in Zinjibar city of the southern province of Abyan rose to 30, an official of the Interior Ministry told Xinhua.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7425939.html

Yemen air raid kills civilians amid fierce clashes:
A Yemeni airstrike killed four civilians and wounded 12 near the militant-held southern city of Zinjibar Wednesday as fighting on the ground left 16 soldiers and at least two militants dead.
http://bit.ly/iFnoYs

Yemen president has asked for transfer of power talks, foreign minister says:
Yemen’s president, has instructed his deputy to hold talks with political opponents on a deal to transfer power and end the nation’s spiraling political crisis, his foreign minister said Wednesday. The opposition, wary after numerous pledges, dismissed the announcement.
http://bit.ly/lh4U54

US military says 3 American occupation force troops killed in Iraq:
A statement issued Thursday says the troops were killed Wednesday but gives no other details, and the names of the dead are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-military-says-3-american-troops-killed-iraq-061906260.html

Iraq: Attacks by Government-Backed Thugs Chill Protests:
Iraqi authorities should order a prompt and impartial inquiry into the role of state security forces in attacks by pro-government gangs against peaceful demonstrators in Baghdad on June 10, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/06/30/iraq-attacks-government-backed-thugs-chill-protests

Cost Of Wars In Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan To Reach $3.7 Trillion:
Report (VIDEO): Even just paying the interest on the United States’ war debt will be a large endeavor, according to the report, at a time when the country is set to exceed its current debt limit of $14.29 trillion. The government has already paid about $185 billion in interest on war spending, and could accrue another $1 trillion — an amount not included in the $3.7 trillion estimate — in interest by 2020, according to the report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/cost-of-war-iraq-afghanistan_n_887084.html

Syria: US-backed plan for reform leaves Bashar al-Assad in place:
The US is promoting a “roadmap” for political reforms in Syria which would transform the regime of Bashar al-Assad but leave him in place for now – despite demands for his overthrow during the country’s bloody three-month uprising.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/syria-plan-reform-bashar-al-assad

Syria Pulls Its Armed Forces From Some Contested Cities:
The Syrian military and the government’s security forces have largely withdrawn from one of the country’s largest cities as well as other areas, residents and activists said Wednesday

African concern over Libya arms drops:
African Union head says guns are falling into wrong hands after France reveals it dropped arms in rebel-held areas.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/2011629234644934286.html

Russia says arming Libyan rebels violates U.N. vote:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that arming Libyan rebels was a “crude violation” of a U.N. Security Council resolution that imposed a comprehensive arms embargo on Libya from February.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/russia-says-arming-libyan-rebels-violates-resolution-131322642.html

Spain: Libya war may be al-Qaida weapons source:
Spain’s interior minister says he and EU colleagues are worried that Libyan army weapons are being trafficked and possibly sold to al-Qaida’s affiliate in North Africa.
http://bit.ly/l4YFNz

CIA Asset: ‘Libyan Opposition is Al-Qaeda’:
President Obama has revealed a new national strategy for counterterrorism. The focus is al-Qaeda and it’s affiliates, as well as Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas on the list of enemies. Susan Lindauer, former CIA asset who covered Libya for nearly 10 years, is speaking to RT on what that exactly means.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28440.htm

War Number Five:
US extends drone strikes to Somalia:
First drone strike in Somalia reported to have wounded senior al-Shabab militants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/us-drone-strikes-somalia

The new African land grab:
Foreign investors, with the World Bank, are acquiring vast tracks of land in Africa – at the expense of local farmers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201162884240129515.html

U.S. Senate passes resolution threatening to suspend aid to Palestinians:
Resolution 185 calls on Palestinians to halt bid for unilateral recognition at UN, calls on Obama to veto September vote.
http://bit.ly/lnFHhw

Senate unanimously opposes Palestinian push for statehood (AIPAC wants you to know):
Yesterday by a unanimous vote the Senate said that the Palestinians should not seek a state in the United Nations. This as the world moves to recognize just such a move. The following note was sent out by AIPAC yesterday.
http://bit.ly/jEZ52c

AIPAC a big Kirk supporter:
What cannot be avoided is that the senator appears as a bought person, responsive to AIPAC dollars
http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x177089615/Letter-AIPAC-a-big-Kirk-supporter

A new Palestinian strategy unfolds:
Palestinians seem to be making a strategic shift in their mode of confrontation with Israel, from occasional military attacks toward a more nonviolent and political confrontation.
http://bit.ly/menATI

Indictments issued in Hariri death probe:
Lebanese media says UN-backed court has charged four Hezbollah members for 2005 killing of former prime minister
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/2011630103132763170.html

Egypt Rejects IMF Conditions:
Egypt has cancelled plans to borrow 3 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund because of conditions that violated the country’s national sovereignty and a public outcry that warned against terms that were blamed for impoverishing many Egyptians.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56304

UK teachers, civil servants strike over pensions:
Teachers and civil servants marched through the streets and picketed government buildings across Britain on Thursday in protest at planned pension reforms, launching what could be a long period of labor unrest over austerity measures.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/30/us-britain-strikes-idUSTRE75T2MF20110630

Greek parliament approves austerity programme:
Parliament passes second vote on austerity package following overnight clashes that rocked the capital.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/06/2011630144310840607.html

Default threat remains despite Greece’s austerity vote:
Greece has pulled back from the brink of collapse, but still faces the real threat of an eventual credit default that could easily plunge the euro zone into bedlam.
http://bit.ly/iuQtAo

‘Greece’s default undeclared by govt.’:
Referring to the recent austerity measures taken by the Greek government, Raffone said, “The measures that have been adopted are not to avoid the default, the default already took place, but it was not declared.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186931.html

Police Brutality In Greece:
Video

Stranger than fiction:
Cops Just Love Those Tasers:
Dayton police “mistook” a mentally handicapped teenager’s speech impediment for “disrespect,” so they Tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat him and called for backup from “upward of 20 police officers” after the boy rode his bicycle home to ask his mother for help, the boy’s mom says.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28447.htm
 
Policing the Police:
The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops: Something like OpenWatch could help solve a major problem for investigative reporting in an age when newsrooms are shrinking
http://bit.ly/mLzv2Q

5 Outrageous Examples of FBI Intimidation and Entrapment:
In the 10 years since the Sept. 11th attacks, the FBI has expanded its powers, transforming into a massive domestic spying agency.
http://bit.ly/lh3pjM

Groups Ask: “Please Protect Our Privacy from E-Verify”:
Citing a variety of privacy concerns, a broad coalition of advocacy groups from across the political spectrum including libertarians, consumer groups and privacy advocates sent letters to both the House and Senate Monday opposing a mandatory E-Verify system.
http://bit.ly/kMd7Bd

Small Acts of Resistance:
Three stories from Small Acts of Resistance from Burma, Uruguay and the UK.
http://patrickmacmanus.wordpress.com/