1 August 2011 — Information Clearing House

Why the West is Committed to the Murderous Rebels in Libya
By Patrick Cockburn
William Hague chose to recognise the rebel leaders at the very moment some of them may have been shooting or torturing to death their chief military commander.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28709.htm

Murder By Numbers
Fighting Back Against The CIA Drone War
By: Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
They call it “bug splat”, the splotch of blood, bones, and viscera that marks the site of a successful drone strike.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28711.htm

Former Intel Chief: Call Off The Drone War
(And Maybe the Whole War on Terror)
By Noah Shachtman
Rethink the idea of spending billions of dollars to pursue al-Qaida. Forget chasing terrorists in Yemen and Somalia, former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair says.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28708.htm

12 U.S.-related Human Rights Stories the Press is Missing
By H. Victor Condé
Our leaders preach obedience by others to rules we choose not to follow, and criticize other countries for violating treaty norms that we have not accepted to become bound by ourselves.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28713.htm

How Murdoch Ran Britain
Must Watch – Dispatches – Channel 4 Documentary
Dispatches investigates the world of the Rupert Murdoch and the influence and political power he holds in the UK.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28715.htm

The President Surrenders
By Paul Krugman
For the deal itself, will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28716.htm

Ransom Paid
By Robert Reich
The deal does not raise taxes on America’s wealthy and most fortunate – Yet it puts the nation’s most important safety nets and public investments on the chopping block.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28717.htm

Restrepo
Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
Video Documentary
The film explores the year that Junger and Hetherington spent in Afghanistan on assignment for Vanity Fair, embedded with the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (airborne).
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28710.htm

Deadly Syrian crackdown continues:
Fresh attacks reported in Deir ez-Zor, a day after 142 people reported killed in Hama and elsewhere in the country.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/20118153040657423.html

16 killed in Afghanistan:
Five NATO occupation force members were killed in Afghanistan Sunday in separate incidents, while 11 Afghans including a child were killed in a suicide car bombing in the country’s south, dpa reported.
http://en.trend.az/regions/world/afghanistan/1912494.html

12 Police, Child Killed in Southern Afghanistan Suicide Blast:
A suicide bomber in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province detonated his explosives-laden car Sunday, killing 12 police officers and a child and wounding a dozen others.
http://bit.ly/n6JFz9

11 Killed as ‘extremists’ blamed for attacks in China:
The Chinese government has claimed Muslim activists trained in Pakistan were behind weekend attacks that killed 11 civilians in the Xinjiang region.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/08/2011814195475496.html

US-led raid kills 8 Afghan policemen:
At least eight Afghan police officers have been killed and eight others left injured in a US-led airstrike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nuristan.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191774.html

US kills 4 in NW Pakistan:
The US drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in Azam Warsak, 15 kilometers west of Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan region, AFP reported on Monday.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191785.html

CIA chief in Pakistan pulls out after clashes:
The CIA station chief who oversaw the intelligence work before the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has been pulled out of Islamabad – the second time in seven months that the CIA’s top spy in Pakistan has been replaced.
http://ind.pn/nz0fcg

Benghazi: At least six Libyan rebels killed in clashes with “pro-Gaddafi” militia:
The violence broke out in the western outskirts of Benghazi when rebel forces attacked a militia that had helped some 300 Gaddafi loyalists break out of jail on Friday.
http://bit.ly/q9s0yj

Libyan rebel soldiers killed Younis:
General Abdel Fattah Younis shot dead by Islamist-linked militia within the anti-Gaddafi forces, says senior opposition minister
http://ind.pn/padABh

Govt admits Islamists may be active within Libyan rebels:
UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox told BBC Radio that the death, attributed by the British press to Al-Qaeda elements within the rebel movement, remained a mystery but that militant influence within Libya was inevitable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/30/libyan-rebel-soldiers-killed-younis

Kadhafi forces retake western village:
Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi were again in control on Monday of the village of Josh at the foot of the strategic western Nafusa mountains, AFP journalists at the scene said.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110801/wl_africa_afp/libyaconflictjosh

Libyan rebels have conceded ground since bombing began:
The regime controls around 20 per cent more territory than it did in the immediate aftermath of the uprising on 17 February.
http://ind.pn/padABh

Why the rebels will never win:
Dr. Moussa Ibrahim Libya Press Conference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fwQ_mt7vwQQ

Gadhafi speech with English subtitles Al Khoms:
The picture is now clear to all that what we have been lied to by world Media outlets 5 months ago … they gave us the impression that Gadhafi was a tyrant hated by his own people
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTa4yAqqSI8

Israeli troops kill 2 Palestinians in WB:
The shooting took place after Palestinians apparently threw stones at Israeli troops that were making arrests in the camp on the road from Ramallah to East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191765.html

Yemen air force bombs its allies in error: –
The Yemeni military admitted Sunday that its airstrikes have accidentally killed at least 11 allied tribesmen fighting Islamic extremists.
http://bit.ly/oLlAI7

Yemen: At least four soldiers killed and 21 others injured in Al Qaeda suicide bombing:
Four soldiers were killed and 21 others injured when a car bomb exploded in reinforcement troops in Al Mansoura in the southern city of Aden, the ministry of defense said Sunday.
http://www.yobserver.com/local-news/10021280.html

Al-Qaeda head in Yemen calls for killing of Saudi rulers:;
“To the scholars … of the family of Saud … I say to you, your King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and his crown prince, his interior minister and his son Mohammed, are considered by us to be apostates and must be killed,” said Qassim al-Rimi.
http://tgr.ph/nro7hg

Saudi buys Jordan: Jordan receives 1 billion dollar grant from Saudi Arabia:
The new donation takes Saudi financial aid to Jordan to 1.4 billion dollars over the past two months.
http://bit.ly/r3EtI1

US-Iraq raid causes ‘massacre’ of civilians: –
A US-Iraqi raid north of Baghdad on Saturday killed a tribal sheikh and two of his family members, police said, as local leaders condemned what they branded a “massacre” of civilians.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=47412

The damning of Tony Blair: Iraq war deal ‘signed in blood’ by former Prime Minister:
Former PM to be held to account on Iraq in Chilcot report on war.
http://bit.ly/nWknwi

Presstitute Reeport::
Iran Helping Iraqi Insurgents…Make That Al-Qaeda:
“Iran arming Iraq insurgents” was last month’s story. Today’s papers are telling a different story; the new line being pushed by U.S. officials is that Iran is supporting Al-Qaeda.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/07/29/iran-helping-iraqi-insurgents-make-that-al-qaeda/

U.S. missile shield may be precursor for Iran attack -Russia’s envoy to NATO:
“The missile defense system is not purely a defensive system,” envoy Dmitry Rogozin said. “There are serious and authoritative experts in Russia and in other countries who fear that the creation of a European missile defense system, officially assigned the task of blocking a threat from Iran, may in fact be a pretext for preparing an attack on Iran.”
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110728/165438632.html

Must read:
Don’t Get It Twisted, We Are Already At War With Iran:
This weeks Iran launched an Oil Bourse on Kish Island. At the same time, former CIA officer and middle east expert Robert Baer stated that Israel is preparing to possibly attack on Iran in the Fall. Meanwhile, a US Drone was shot down over Iran and a senior Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated.
http://bit.ly/qjvC0v

Saudi-backed forces attack Bahrainis:
The Monday attack comes as protesters have demanded an end to the Al Khalifa regime, complaining about injustice and discrimination.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191803.html

Rain destroys starving refugees’ shelters:
Tens of thousands of famine-stricken Somali refugees were cold and drenched after torrential rains pounded their makeshift structures early yesterday in the capital, leading to appeals for aid.
http://ind.pn/orKba9

Tragedy in Horn of Africa is human-made:
Hundreds of dead bodies can be found on the roads every day; this suggests that people, particularly the young, are abandoned to their fate.
http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=252156

Egyptian tanks clearing out Tahrir Square:
Army deploys soldiers to central Cairo square to send home demonstrators on first day of Ramadan.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/2011811355629619.html

Peter King’s reckless claim of al-Shabaab’s menace to the US:
The New York congressman seeks to put the spotlight on Somali Americans as a domestic terror threat. The facts show otherwise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jul/31/al-shabaab-peter-king

Germany warns of Norway-style attacks:
A top German security official warns that the recent terror attacks in Norway could serve as a blueprint for other anti-Muslim militants across Europe.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191736.html

Europe’s Right-Wing Populists Find Allies in Israel:
Islamophobic parties in Europe have established a tight network, stretching from Italy to Finland. But recently, they have extended their feelers to Israeli conservatives, enjoying a warm reception from members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Some in Israel believe that the populists are Europe’s future.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,777175,00.html

Some Neglected Questions on the Attempted Fort Hood Attack:
Is an attack on a military installation terrorism? How about the attacks on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 – were those an act of “terrorism, ” as the U.S. government said they were?
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1107x.asp

God’s Polling Numbers Less Than Heavenly:
If you’re God, you’re probably not sweating the results of the latest national polling survey putting your approval rating at a mere 52 percent for overall job performance.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11210/1163673-153-0.stm

US wants to frame me as drug trafficker: President of Bolivia:
Evo Morales, attending the UN General Assembly in New York, believes he may be targeted by a US-cooked plot to arrest him for trafficking cocaine. RT caught up with one of world’s most extravagant heads-of-state.
http://rt.com/news/drug-plot-us-morales/

US Court Documents Claim Sinaloa “Cartel” Is Protected by US Government:
Deal Allegedly Gave Sinaloa Bosses Immunity in Exchange for Providing Info on Rival Drug Organizations
http://bit.ly/nVAtLJ

U.S. Let Guns Walk Across The Border And Into The Hands Of Brutal Mexican Drug Gangs:
Two of those guns were found at the murder scene of a U.S. border patrol agent along the Mexican border in Arizona last December.
http://read.bi/pDKPOG

Rupert Murdoch given $27M no-bid contract from state Department of Education:
More than a dozen private firms wanted to work on a project like the one the state Education Department is set to award to a Rupert Murdoch-owned company in a $27 million no-bid contract.
http://nydn.us/rg58pj

Iceland’s loud No:
The people of Iceland have now twice voted not to repay international debts incurred by banks, and bankers, for which the whole island is being held responsible. With the present turmoil in European capitals, could this be the way forward for other economies?
http://mondediplo.com/2011/08/02iceland

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:  4,792
http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

Number Of  International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 2,616

Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,228,932,699,449
http://www.costofwar.com/