3 March 2012 — Information Clearing House
Annihilation Hovers over Palestine, Not Israel
By Imtiaz Muqbil
As the threat of Iran‘s nuclear potential is hyped in Tel Aviv and Washington, it is the people in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem who are in real danger. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30704.htm
Obama to Iran and Israel: ‘As President of the United States, I Don’t Bluff’
By Jeffrey Goldberg
Dismissing a strategy of “containment,” the president tells me it’s “unacceptable” for the Islamic Republic to have a nuclear weapon. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30696.htm
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson on the Middle East, Proliferation
Why Israel Couldn’t Take Out Iran’s Nuclear Program
By Nancy Shoenberger
The Israelis could not mount, without going to desperate ends, a 100-plane strike, which is going to be necessary. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30698.htm
What Are Iran’s Intentions?
By Noam Chomsky
As tensions flare between Iran and the West, 120 nonaligned nations agree: the country has the right to enrich uranium. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30701.htm
Hurting, Hanging, Suffocating & Starving
The Inhumanity of Iran Threat Rhetoric
By Nima Shirazi
Iranians, over the past three decades, have been so dehumanized by Western politicians and media that talk of economic “strangulation” and “crippling” sanctions are not only routine but, at this point, mundane. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30700.htm
Planned Regime Change in Syria
By Stephen Lendman
Strategies and tactics vary. Objectives are consistent. They involve replacing independent regimes with pro-Western ones by any means, including war. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30705.htm
Why Can’t americans Have Democracy?
By Paul Craig Roberts
For Washington “democracy” is a weapon of mass destruction. When Washington brings “democracy” to a country, it means the country’s destruction, as in Libya and Iraq. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30706.htm
We Are Fighting Islamism From Ignorance, As We Did The Cold War
By Simon Jenkins
The west wasted trillions in needless conflict with the USSR. Now we are being brainwashed into confrontation with Iran. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30699.htm
Afghans Turn On Occupiers
By Eric S. Margolis
The Afghan economy under NATO’s rule is now so bad that even in Kabul, thousands are starving or dying from intense cold. Half of Afghans are unemployed and must seek work from the US-financed government. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30703.htm
Libyan Rebels Cage Black Africans in Zoo, Force Feed Them Flags
Shock Video
Libyan rebels humiliate/torture a group of black Africans. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30697.htm
Another Obama Fleecing
The Foreclosure-to-Rental Boondoggle
By Mike Whitney
This is not how honest people deal with a crisis if they genuinely have the public’s interest at heart. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30707.htm
Bank of America In Trouble?
By Matt Taibbi
For weeks now there have been ominous signs of trouble at the bank, and yesterday we heard yet another dark piece of news. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30702.htm
’55 killed’ in Pakistan violence: Twenty-two people were killed in a suicide attack targeting a mosque after Friday prayers in the Tirah valley, while at least 10 soldiers and 23 Islamist militants died in an earlier clash around 10 kilometres away (six miles). http://bit.ly/Ag20mM
CIA-led force may speed Afghan exit: If the plan were adopted, the U.S. and Afghanistan could say there are no more U.S. troops on the ground in the war-torn country because once the SEALs, Rangers and other elite units are assigned to CIA control, even temporarily, they become spies. http://fxn.ws/zRivvl
Palin Calls Afghans ‘Savages’ : We’re watching Obama with his naïve apologies to savages in Afghanistan who turn around and kill our soldiers,” she said http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73538.html
Growing the Empire:
India rejects reports of US troops on its soil: Media reports quoted top Pentagon commander Admiral Robert Willard as telling a Congressional hearing on Thursday that US special forces teams were stationed in five South Asian countries, including India and Sri Lanka. http://bit.ly/wQPxLy
Who was behind the Delhi bombing?: The bombing of an Israeli diplomat’s car in India isn’t consistent with Iranian or Hezbollah involvement. http://aje.me/y9O2fa
Seven killed in Syria suicide blast: An explosion killed seven people and wounded several others in the southern Syrian town of Deraa on Saturday, residents said, in what the Syrian government said was a suicide car bomb attack. http://www.tradearabia.com/news/INTNEWS_213507.html
Syrian army, rebels clash near border with Jordan, activists say:
‘Two soldiers from the regime troops have been killed in the clashes that are going on in Daraa,’ Haithem al-Omari, a Syrian activist based in the area, told dpa. http://bit.ly/zOSb6j
Qatar crosses the Syrian Rubicon: £63m to buy weapons for the rebels: A milestone has been reached in the conflict and, just as with the Libyan uprising last year, Doha is backing regime change http://bit.ly/A3Yb5M
Red Cross Denied Access to Besieged Homs: “The ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent did not enter Baba Amr [Hom’s neighborhood] today,” ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters, adding that medics continued negotiations with Syrian authorities “in order to enter and help as many people as possible.” http://en.rian.ru/world/20120303/171706767.html
Engineering Consent For An Attack On Iran :
Israeli PM says world shouldn’t fall into ‘trap’ of renewed nuclear talks with Iran: Netanyahu also urged the international community to impose demands on Iran, including the dismantling of a key uranium enrichment facility and the shipment of all enriched uranium out of the Islamic Republic. http://wapo.st/w7yTEc
U.S. has military plan should Iran conflict erupt, says air force chief: According to Bloomberg, Pentagon officials say U.S. prepared options to provide aerial refueling for IDF planes, as well as plans to attack Iranian military bases. http://bit.ly/ADD9cj
Ex-Netanyahu aide slams debate on attacking Iran: Uzi Arad said Saturday that the Israeli military dominates the debate about options vis-a-vis Iran. He told Israel TV’s Channel 2 this means not all alternatives to an attack are being considered. http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_20095192
Iran crisis eases pressure on Israel: A day before Benjamin Netanyahu meets the US President Barack Obama in Washington, the Israeli prime minister has already accomplished one thing – putting Iran at the top of the agenda instead of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks http://bit.ly/zxdIAu
Blast kills 3 at Yemen army base: Two militants drove a car packed with explosives into a Yemeni army base in the south of the country on Saturday, killing themselves and a soldier, the Defence Ministry said. http://bit.ly/yXL82G
US Boots On The Ground: :
U.S. Security Team Attacked in Yemen: A gunman opened fire on a U.S. security team as it trained Yemeni soldiers in the south of the country, the Pentagon and a security official said on Friday, both denying reports from an Islamist group that a CIA officer was killed in the assault. http://trib.in/zMrsYB
UN Panel: Both Sides Committed War Crimes in Libya: It says the human rights abuses by by UN supported former rebels are continuing. http://abcn.ws/xXfndg
Tunisia closes border crossing with Libya: Libyan militant groups attacked Tunisian trade convoys. The attacks, which started last night on the Libyan side of the borders and lasted until this morning, targeted Tunisian trucks carrying goods to Libya, a security source told the Tunisian radio. http://bit.ly/wfNGro
NGO workers’ release stirs more tension in Egypt: “We cannot accept any type of foreign intervention in Egypt’s affairs,” Katatni said, adding “This case cannot be ended with a political decision.” http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229748.html
Russia readies for Putin’s Kremlin return: Victory seems certain for current prime minister, despite wave of protests, economic problems and tension with the West. http://aje.me/wqJ8x5
Putin Biography Chronicles Rise Of A ‘Street Thug’: Over the years, Putin has created an image of himself as a “street thug,” she says, and has made systematic efforts to dismantle the country’s democracy and independent media. http://n.pr/zItWR2
Posthumous prosecution:
Russia Plans to Retry Dead Lawyer in Tax Case:
The police in Russia plan to resubmit for trial a tax evasion case in which the primary defendant died in detention more than two years ago, his former employer said Tuesday. http://nyti.ms/wIdEGG
Florida House passes ‘anti-Sharia’ bill despite protests:
A proposal critics say targets Islam passed the Florida House Thursday despite heated opposition from two Jewish Democratic lawmakers who called the bill unnecessary and discriminatory. http://bit.ly/w8QQhC
Supporters pack hearing for Lynne Stewart: They were there to show support for an appeal to reduce the 10-year prison sentence Stewart began serving two years ago. Her supporters were so numerous that many could not even get into the courtroom. http://www.workers.org/2012/us/lynne_stewart_0308/
Big Brother: Watching over you: New technology is allowing businesses as well as government to read the contents of our internet exchanges. Internet service providers stand to gain from this access until there is legal control over the export of surveillance equipment http://mondediplo.com/2012/03/16internet
Moody’s downgrades Greece to lowest level: The credit agency becomes the second in one week to downgrade the country’s rating even after announced debt-swap deal. http://aje.me/z89Vqx
Europe’s Unemployment Crisis: Video – The rate is 23.3% in Spain, almost 21% in Greece, 15% in Portugal, also 15% in Ireland and almost 7.5% in Germany. It means close to 17 million people were out of work in the first month of 2012, and that’s on paper. http://bit.ly/w8vXaz
When is Foreclosure Theft?
When the Mortgage is Recorded at MERS: As I’ve said many times, whenever you criticize the banks you get pushback from their employees and lawyers handling their home thefts (whoops I meant “foreclosures”).
Cost Of War
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: 4,801
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 2,908
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,308,282,940,908 http://www.costofwar.com/
The New Dark Age 