22 December 2012 — Information Clearing House
Fact Or Fiction?
US and Russia Back Bid to Find End to Syrian War
By Alex Spillius, Damien McElroy
The United States and Russia have backed a final bid to find a political solution to Syria’s civil war, as Moscow said it was prepared to accept President Bashar al-Assad’s departure.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33418.htm
Syria: Religious Police Patrol Aleppo’s Countryside
By Basel Dayoub
Syrian rebels are deploying a religious police force to enforce new laws, such as barring women from driving and making prayer compulsory.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33409.htm
US Senate approves $211 million for Israel
By AP
Legislation tightens sanctions on Iran and authorizes nearly $480 million for US-Israeli missile defense.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33416.htm
Chuck Hagel and the Ghost of AIPAC Past
By Marsha B. Cohen
AIPAC’s rebranding of itself as “America‘s pro-Israel lobby” instead of the “Jewish lobby” is also relatively recent.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33413.htm
British Citizen Kidnapped By US Reappears in New York Court
By Alice K Ross
‘It seems the US disappeared Mahdi Hashi for the past several months and rendered him to New York. The British government also needs to explain its involvement in this case.’
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33411.htm
‘Abomination’: Rand Paul slams NDAA as bill passes US Senate
By RT
“They want the ability to hold American citizens without trial in our country.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33414.htm
The Torture Chronicle
By Philip Giraldi
The bipartisan willingness to avoid confrontation over possible war crimes makes the recently completed 6,000 page long Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture an extraordinary document. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33410.htm
Torture, Torture Everywhere
By Andy Worthington
Without accountability, the toxic virus of torture in America‘s body politic will continue to infect the whole country with its poison. It is time for the denial to end.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33417.htm
UK Acknowledges Torture: Pays Out Millions to Iraqi Victims
By Ian Cobain
British military say that more than 700 further individuals are likely to make claims next year..
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33408.htm
“Americans Kill People”:Michael Moore
Video By Democracy Now
“I really believe that even if we had better gun control laws and better mental health, that we would still be the sort of sick and twisted, violent people that we’ve been for hundreds of years, that it’s something that’s just in our craw, just in our DNA.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33405.htm
012.
By Pawnstorm
I’m no longer drone bombing wedding parties in Pakistan. I’m no longer killing the Afghani people.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33412.htm
Criminal Cowardice
Matt Taibbi: ‘Even People On Wall Street Were Blown Away By The Result’
Video
“If the law doesn’t apply equally to everybody, then you don’t really have a system of law.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33419.htm
Unemployment and Poverty in America:
012 that are Almost too Crazy to Believe…
By The Economic Collapse Blog
Most Americans still tend to doubt that we are heading into economic oblivion.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33415.htm
At least 9 killed, scores injured in Pakistan suicide bombing: Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour passed away in hospital after getting critically injured in his chest and stomach, local media quote hospital officials as saying. Bilour’s personal secretary and a police chief were also killed in the blast.
http://rt.com/news/pakistan–suicide-bombing-taliban-649/
Obama regime kills four people in Pakistan: At least four suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike on Friday afternoon in North Waziristan Agency.
High court rejects first UK challenge to CIA’s drone campaign: The case was brought by Noor Khan, a Pakistani national whose father was killed in a drone strike in March 2011. The strike, which killed over 40 people, mostly civilians who had gathered to resolve a mining dispute, is one of the bloodiest on record. Khan has also launched court action against drone strikes in Pakistan.
5 killed, dozens injured in Damascus cam bomb attack:
The district is next to the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, which was taken over by rebels this week.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/138948/
Syrian TV cameraman assassinated outside Damascus by ‘armed groups’: A cameraman working for Syrian state TV was killed in front of his house in a west Damascus neighborhood, state news agency SANA said. The assassination of yet another Syrian TV employee was reportedly carried out by an “armed terrorist group.”
http://rt.com/news/state-media-killed-syria-640/
Rebels threaten to storm 2 Syrian Christian towns: Rebels have threated to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria if residents do not “evict” government troops they say are using the towns as a base to attack nearby areas.
http://www.khou.com/news/world/184544351.html
Russia won’t try to persuade Syria’s Assad to quit: Lavrov: Russia refuses to act as an intermediary trying to talk Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into fleeing, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments released on Friday.
McCain presses White House nominee Kerry on Syrian no-fly zones: Minutes before the White House officially named Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as its pick to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the No. 2 member on the Senate Armed Services Committee pressed the nominee on possible U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war.
Former CIA Officials: US and Israel Behind New Batchwiper Malware Found in Iran:
US and Israel named as being behind the new data-wiping malware found in Iran Enlarge picture – US and Israel named as being behind the new data-wiping malware found in Iran
Netanyahu: What the UN says doesn’t interest me: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television interview Saturday night that he is not interested in what the UN has to say about illegal settlement construction, which intensified in the East Jerusalem area this month.
Israel: Police Backtrack on Trying ‘Settlers’ for Anti-Arab Attacks: Police arrested three “settlers” for arson, but have now backtracked and are recommending that the men not face trial at this time.
Bombing kills 4, wounds 11 in Iraq: An explosion at a shop selling CDs killed 4 people in a town northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday.
Britain: Doctor Stripped of License Over Murder of Iraqi: A British doctor was stripped of his medical license on Friday for misconduct and dishonesty over the death of an Iraqi man who was beaten and killed while in the custody of British soldiers.
UN peacekeeper opens fire on comrades in Darfur, 4 killed: UN peacekeepers killedA peacekeeper serving with the joint U.N.-African Union force in Darfur opened fire on fellow peacekeepers, killing four and injuring one, the United Nations said Friday.
Mali new prey to West imperialist quest: Op-Ed: The UN Security Council approval this week of a French-led resolution for military intervention in Africa’s vast Sahel region signaled the Western imperialist powers’ laying down a new incendiary marker.
Twenty-four killed in Mexican prison riot: The death of 24 people in the course of an escape attempt at a Mexican prison shines a light on the deterioration of Mexican society during the drug war.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/22/mexi-d22.html
72 Kidnappings In Mexico Per Day, Council for Law and Human Rights Says: An average of 72 people were kidnapped daily this year in Mexico, often times in incidents unrelated to the country’s drug war, according to a Mexican nongovernmental organization.
Zapatista rebel backers march in southern Mexico: Thousands of supporters of the leftist, indigenous Zapatista movement have marched in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to commemorate a 1997 mass killing
Two killed in supermarkets looting in Argentina: Government officials condemned the violence and deployed 400 military police to the southern city. Similar unrest broke out in the central city of Rosario and in several parts of the urban sprawl that surrounds the capital Buenos Aires early on Friday.
2 suicide bombers target telecoms facilities in north Nigeria city, causing partial blackout: Authorities blame a radical Islamist sect for twin suicide car bombings targeting two major mobile phone companies, an official said Saturday, blacking out a top operator’s network in most of Nigeria’s northern commercial hub.
British involvement results in rendition of Mahdi Hashi to the US: On 21 December 2012, the FBI released a statement that Mahdi Hashi and two others had been charged in Brooklyn, New York and face life in prison.
Protesters clash with police in Indian capital over brutal gang-rape (VIDEO, PHOTOS): Indian police fired tear gas, batons and water cannons against protesters in the capital New Delhi as thousands demanded the death penalty for five men who raped a 23-year-old student. Some of the demonstrators sustained injuries.
http://rt.com/news/india-police-rape-protest-639/
British involvement results in rendition of Mahdi Hashi to the US: On 21 December 2012, the FBI released a statement that Mahdi Hashi and two others had been charged in Brooklyn, New York and face life in prison.
Making guns in your garage: how 3D printers will revolutionise the manufacture of deadly weapons : In the very near future, someone will be killed with a gun not bought from a dealer or a dodgy bloke in a pub, but printed at home in metal and plastic with a 3D printer.
Number of US Veterans Who Die Waiting for Benefits Claims Skyrockets: Last year the agency paid $437 million in retroactive benefits to the survivors of nearly 19,500 veterans who died waiting.
Hunger and homelessness rise in the US: Homelessness and poverty is on the rise, with 84 percent of US cities reporting that requests for emergency food assistance increased in 2012. Of those seeking emergency food, 51 percent were families and 37 were employed.
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-food-percent-emergency-612/
Google starts watching what you do off the Internet too: The most powerful company on the Internet just got a whole lot creepier: a new service from Google merges offline consumer info with online intelligence, allowing advertisers to target users based on what they do at the keyboard and at the mall.
http://rt.com/usa/news/google-internet-online-offline-500/
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: 4,883
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 3,243
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,405,570,801,000
The New Dark Age 