20 July 2011 — Information Clearing House

Is NATO Arming the Libyan “Rebels”?
By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
How do the Americans feel about their President supporting terrorists who have connections to Al-Qaeda?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28630.htm

Neoconservative Says Killing Libyan’s Will Save US Pride
Why is Obama Giving Libya to the Russians?-Bolton
By John R. Bolton
NATO, once committed, must prevail by force of arms, as it still could with a modest demonstration of American leadership.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28631.htm

1 Million Dead in Iraq?
6 Reasons the Media Hide the True Human Toll of War — And Why We Let Them
By John Tirman
Most Americans turn a blind eye to the violent acts being carried out in their name.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28632.htm

Phone Hacking Crisis Shows News Corp Is No Ordinary News Company
By Jay Rosen
Rupert Murdoch’s news organisations are not in the news business. What they crave is influence.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28634.htm

Uncle Sam’s and John Bull’s Crimes Dwarf Murdoch’s Eavesdropping
By Sherwood Ross
As eavesdroppers go, Rupert Murdoch, the moral force behind Fox News, is an amateur.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28636.htm

Watch: Israeli Officer Points Loaded Gun at Unarmed Palestinian
By B’Tselem
YouTube video uploaded by B’Tselem shows an IDF officer cocking his gun and pointing it at a Palestinian man.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28633.htm

The Arts of Life They Changed Into The Arts Of Death
Bachmann, Palin, Robertson and the limits of logic
By Phil Rockstroh
Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Pat Robertson et al., these late empire zealots of shopping mall, militarism, and heterosexual hegemony, harbor a comic, yet mortifying vision of the conditions they believe would bring rebirth and renewal to the nation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28635.htm

The Great Global Debt Depression
It’s All Greek To Me
By Andrew Gavin Marshall
Is Greece simply a case of a country full of lazy people who spent beyond their means and are now paying for their own decadence? Or, is there something much larger at stake?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28637.htm

Irish Prime Minister Attacks Vatican
By Henry McDonald
Enda Kenny says Cloyne report on child sex abuse by priests highlights dysfunction and elitism in Rome.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28638.htm

The US Love Affair With Drones
By Ted Rall
A war strategy built around drone attacks is not only unethical, but will hurt US interests in the long run.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28629.htm

Drone Attacks Are Wrong And Cowardly, Regardless
By Ethan Casey
I think it’s important for Pakistanis, who are on the receiving end of the humiliation and much worse that drone attacks inflict, to hear an American say it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28628.htm

Sorry, Soldiers, I Don’t Thank You For Your Service.
By Laurence M. Vance
It is without question that Americans are in love with the military. Even worse, though, is that their love is unqualified, unconditional, unrelenting, and unending.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28627.htm

Murdoch Empire Sinking Beneath The Sands
By George Galloway
Since becoming prime minister just fifteen months ago, Cameron has had 26 meetings with Murdoch’s executives. Cameron’s wife was likely the only person to get more meetings with the PM than Murdoch’s executives.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28626.htm

It’s Do or Die-time for Rupert Murdoch
By Mike Whitney
“Rupert Murdoch has been operating what amounts to a private intelligence service.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28625.htm

10 Questions The MPs Will Not Ask Murdoch
By Robin Beste
What was it about the relationship with Murdoch that made Tony Blair feel it was appropriate to take a phone call from a newspaper proprietor just hours prior to – ordering the country’s armed forces to war?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28624.htm

Debt Fears Lead to US Downgrade
By Michael Mackenzie in New York
Egan-Jones has become the first US rating agency to downgrade the country’s sovereign credit rating from triple A to double A plus as it focuses on the rapid rise in outstanding debt over the past five years.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28622.htm

Phone Hacking: Murdoch Paid US Anti-bribery Law Lobbyists
By Ed Pilkington
Rupert Murdoch donated $1m to a pro-business lobby in the US months before the group launched a high-profile campaign to alter the anti-bribery law.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28623.htm

Tender Explosive Kisses Of Democracy
Declaration of Thingamajig
Satire – By Mark Fiore
Barack Obama holds forth on the legality of various conflict thingamajigs. Take a closer look at Libya, Yemen and Pakistan.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28621.htm

14 militants killed in 2 incidents in Pakistan’s tribal region:
Pakistani security forces killed 10 militants in the northwestern tribal region of Kurram Agency during a clash with militants. In another incident, a roadside bomb killed four suspected militants, including a son of a Taliban commander, and injured three others in South Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7445660.html

Pakistan: Four soldiers killed in Afghan shelling:
Four Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers were killed when several rounds of artillery and mortar shells fired from across the border in Afghanistan fell in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan Agency on Tuesday.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?241699

Drones: The fallout:
Putting aside for a while the question of whatever Sovereignty we are left with, the bigger issue relates to the effectiveness of these drone strikes which in essence are creating more targets to deal with instead of limiting them.
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=104227

U.S. threatens Pakistan over access to bin Laden’s wives:
The United States is threatening to cut off aid to Pakistan unless it is given access to the wives of Osama bin Laden.
http://bit.ly/oMB3yT

2 Taliban, 3 police killed in fighting in Afghan Kandahar province:
Three policemen including a police officer and two Taliban insurgents were killed on Wednesday when gun fighting broke out in Kandahar city
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7446449.html

Suicide Bomber Kills 4 Civilians, Wounds 11 Others in Mazar-e-Sharif:
At least 4 Afghan civilians were killed and 11 others were wounded in a suicide attack in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs said.
http://bit.ly/r6Fb3G

3 US occupation force members killed in Afghanistan:
Three members of the Pennsylvania National Guard have been killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11201/1161661-100.stm

Stupid is as stupid does:
CIA trains covert units of Afghans :
Covert forces of CIA-trained Afghan paramilitaries are being built up to continue the US-led war on the Taliban as thousands of US troops prepare to leave the country.
http://ind.pn/rdsy6b

Afghanistan named as second most corrupt country in the world:
CORRUPTION HAS permeated every layer of Afghan society in the past 10 years, affecting everyday lives and sullying the highest levels of government.
http://bit.ly/ni9NeI

13 killed in clashes in Syria’s Homs: activist:
Al-Watan newspaper said the recent violent acts which Homs has passed through were an “imported sectarian grudge instigated by foreign parties,” adding the army redeployed in many areas to put an end to “violent acts among residents that have erupted when terrorist groups kidnapped three young men and mutilated their bodies.”
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7445939.html

Assad to offer presidential election as Homs death toll rises:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to deliver a new speech on the situation in the country. It will be his fourth public address since the protests against his regime started in mid-March. According to sources close to the embattled leader he is going to introduce several “surprises”.
http://bit.ly/nnc6o0

Army troops shell al-Qaida targets in S Yemen’s Abyan, 9 killed:
Units of the army troops carried out a heavy shelling targeting several al-Qaida hideouts on Tuesday, killing 9 members of the terrorist group and wounding dozens of others in Yemen’s southern volatile province of Abyan
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7445941.html

Libyan troops kill 8 rebels:
Mohammed Idris, a doctor at the hospital in the nearby city of Ajdabiya, said eight rebels were killed and dozens wounded Tuesday. That raised to at least 34 rebels killed in five days of fighting, according to Idris.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/libyan-troops-kill-8-rebels-1.1102719

We’re in our home, Gaddafi says:
“This war was imposed on us, and our only choice is to fight – men, women and children – with all our weapons to liberate [the rebel strongholds] of Benghazi, Misrata and Al-Jabal Al-Gharbi [the Nafusa mountains southwest of the capital].
http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Were-in-our-home-Gaddafi-says-20110720

Venezuela’s Chavez urges Libyan leader to resist:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday sent a message of support to embattled Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, urging him to resist and calling on European nations to worry about their own domestic issues.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1141038/1/.html

Venezuela tops world oil reserves:
Venezuela surpassed Saudi Arabia in oil reserves, OPEC reported. But analysts say the quality of those reserves is an issue.
http://bit.ly/pAuZrt

‘Iran downs US spy drone near N-site’:
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has shot down a US spy drone which was flying over the central Iranian province of Qom, a lawmaker says.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/189873.html

Iran may deploy warships in Atlantic:
The Iranian navy plans on deploying warships to the Atlantic Ocean as part of a programme to ply international waters, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari said in statements published Tuesday.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110719/wl_mideast_afp/iranmilitarynavyatlantic

War is a racket:
Did U.S. firm use bribery to land fuel contract for U.S. forces in Iraq?:
A lawsuit in Florida has cracked open a rare window into the cloistered world of high-level war contracting, as a billionaire oilman defends himself against allegations that his company paid off Jordanian government officials to control supply lines of fuel to U.S. forces in Iraq.
http://on.msnbc.com/rdSlgh

Jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti calls for mass rallies to back UN statehood bid:
Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned for the murder of Israelis during the Second Intifada, says UN move part of a new strategy that will open door to ‘peaceful, popular resistance’.
http://bit.ly/qW69If

Report: Israeli killed in New Zealand earthquake was Mossad agent:
Local media reports Ofer Mizrahi, killed in the Christchurch earthquake in February, was part of a team trying to infiltrate sensitive computer systems.
http://bit.ly/oazcSH

Arab League slams seizure of Gaza-bound ship:
“I call upon the international community, as represented by the Security Council, to take a decisive stance on this act of piracy,” al-Araby added.
http://presstv.com/detail/189890.html

Israel’s boycott ban meets swift resistance:
The Israeli parliament passed a law Monday banning boycotts against the state and its settlements, a move critics call an unconstitutional assault on democratic values.
http://bit.ly/rpjFIA

UK media ignore Murdoch role in Iraq war: One may ask which one is more guilty?
The Murdoch’s corporation or the other British media which are deliberately turning a close eye to his roles in recent wars?
http://www.presstv.com/detail/189505.html

Former Fox News Producer Claims The Network’s “Brain Room” Led To Hacking:
A former producer with Fox News claimed in a lengthy essay gaining new traction this week that the conservative television station has a “Brain Room” in its New York headquarters, which enables employees to view private telephone records with ease.
http://read.bi/q5vL1P

UN declares famine in parts of Somalia:
United Nations says 3.7 million people ‘now in crisis’ and more than 10 million affected by worst drought in decades.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/2011720756724143.html

Ortega proposes referrendum to demand US damages for support of Contras during civil war:
Ortega says U.S. support for the “Contras” that fought against his Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza caused $17 billion in damages.
http://wapo.st/ozYOwI

Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants:
Congressional investigators probing the controversial “Fast and Furious” anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cartel-guns-20110717,0,6972222.story

Portugal’s Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho discovers ‘colossal’ budget hole:
Portugal’s new leader Pedro Passos Coelho has told the nation to brace for further austerity measures after his government discovered a “colossal” €2bn (£1.7bn) hole in the public accounts.
http://tgr.ph/nTLkRZ

Experts: US Economic System Near ‘Collapse’:
“I think that all the talk about default is really an admission that the United States is running a gigantic Ponzi scheme,” said Peter Schiff, CEO of Conn.-based brokerage Euro Pacific Capital.
http://www.newsmax.com/US/debtlimit-FreedomFest-Schiff-economy/2011/07/18/id/403996

Moody’s eyes rating cuts for 5 US states:
Moody’s said on Tuesday that Maryland, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia were put on review for their high federal employment levels and Medicaid exposure
http://on.ft.com/onjXtH

S&P warns that chance of downgrading U.S. credit rating is 50 percent:
All three major credit rating agencies have now threatened the United States’ coveted status as the world’s most secure economy. Its AAA rating identifies U.S. Treasury bonds as one of the world’s safest investments – and has helped the nation borrow at extraordinarily cheap rates.
http://wapo.st/nERknc

Fitch: ‘AAA’ rating in jeopardy:
The warning from Fitch Ratings comes after Moody’s and S&P warned last week that they would lower the U.S. rating from the top mark of AAA if the country is unable to repay its debts next month.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59273.html

Bank of America set to declare bankruptcy?
Report Bank Will Need $50 Billion More In Capital Cushion
http://bit.ly/pLKGYx

Moody’s Suggests US Eliminates Debt Ceiling:
Ratings agency Moody’s on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43790768

HOME EQUITY NIGHTMARE: Second Liens, Second Wave Of Losses For Big Banks:
Georgetown Law professor Adam Levitin did not mince words in his appearance before Congress in January, stating bluntly that JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank Of America and Wells Fargo are all insolvent
http://bit.ly/qnRnBq

Ralph Nader’s Solution to Debt Crisis:
End Corporate Welfare and Corporate Tax Loopholes
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/ralph_naders_solution_to_debt_crisis

Why Americans can’t afford to eat healthy:
The real reason Big Macs are cheaper than more nutritious alternatives? Government subsidies
http://www.salon.com/news/david_sirota/2011/07/15/vegetable_price_politics/index.html

Law enforcement to begin iPhone iris scans amid privacy concerns:
Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company’s already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/us-crime-identification-iris-idUSTRE76J4A120110720

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq “1,455,590”

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’s War On Iraq: 4,791
http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 2,604

Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,223,443,741,904
http://www.costofwar.com/