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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

WITNESS VIDEO: INSIDE STORY ON RENDITION AND TORTURE

By Jennifer Fox

"Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the 'War on Terror'" tells the stories of two men who have survived secret detention by the U.S. government.

From the Witness.org website:

Human rights groups and several public inquiries in Europe have found the U.S. government, with the complicity of numerous governments worldwide, to be engaged in the illegal practice of extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture. The U.S. government-sponsored program of renditions is an unlawful practice in which numerous persons have been illegally detained and secretly flown to third countries, where they have suffered additional human rights abuses including torture and enforced disappearance. No one knows the exact number of persons affected, due to the secrecy under which the operations are carried out.

"Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the 'War on Terror'" tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide. "Outlawed" features relevant commentary from Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.S. President George W. Bush, Michael Scheuer, the chief architect of the rendition program and former head of the Osama Bin Laden unit at the CIA, and Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State. "Outlawed" places the post-9/11 phenomenon of renditions and the "war on terrorism" in a human rights context for use on a global level in advocacy, education, and mobilization.



Outlawed places the post-9/11 phenomenon of renditions and the "war on terror" in a human rights context and calls for action end these human rights abuses. Click here to act now.

The video above contains excerpts from "Outlawed." To view the full-length video, click one of the links below. Please note that the video is 28 mins long and 91 MB and will need to be downloaded to your computer. It is available as a Real Media or Quicktime file.

~courtesy of Witness.org

Posted by Me at 6/28/2006 12:43:00 am | | Comments

SEVEN DIPSHITS IN A WAREHOUSE

The latest terror cell to wage "ground war" on America

By Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com


Just when you thought the predictability of the latest triumph in the war on terror couldn't get any more ludicrous - you're reminded that the Neo-Cons like to keep the propaganda simple and straightforward, never deviating from well-honed tactics.

In Friday's article on the Sears Tower arrests I predicted that, "One of the repeating elements to emerge from every major terror sting or forged terror alert is the use of retarded individuals as patsies, informants and go-betweens."

"Don't be surprised to learn of a connection to a retarded individual over the next few days."

So it follows that yesterday it emerged from a New York Daily News report that the alleged ringleader of the plot Batiste "needs psychiatric help," according to his own mother.



The Daily Show's John Stewart classified the Miami terror cell that were about to "wage a ground war against America," according to Gonzales as "seven dipshits in a warehouse," following a farcical press conference in which Gonzeles was cornered into admitting that they had no links to any Al-Qaeda members and had no weapons or explosives to carry out any acts of terrorism.

Today, lawyers for the defendants outlined an argument that the government had used entrapment to essentially imagine into existence a deadly Al-Qaeda terror cell that had never existed in the first place.

Posted by Me at 6/28/2006 12:03:00 am | | Comments

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

SURVEILLANCE DISCLOSURE DENOUNCED
'Disgraceful,' Says Bush of Reports


By Peter Baker,Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush offered an impassioned defense of his secret international banking surveillance program yesterday, calling it a legal and effective tool for hunting down terrorists and denouncing the media's disclosure of it as a "disgraceful" act that does "great harm" to the nation.

The president used a White House appearance with supporters of troops in Iraq to lash out at newspapers that revealed the program, which has examined hundreds of thousands of private banking records from around the world. His remarks led off a broader White House assault later amplified by Vice President Cheney and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.

"What we did was fully authorized under the law," Bush said in an angry tone as he leaned forward in his chair and wagged his finger. "And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America."

Bush denied overstepping his bounds by not seeking court or congressional approval for the program in the nearly five years since it was established following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "What we were doing was the right thing," he said. "Congress was aware of it, and we were within the law to do so."

Posted by Me at 6/27/2006 11:45:00 am | | Comments

ISRAEL IS THE MOTHER OF TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST

By Dr. Elias Akleh


Israel must renounce its state terrorism, recognize Palestinian rights to exist freely and independently in their own state, must abide by all previous political agreements it struck with the Palestinian Authority (PA), must adopt all UN resolutions, and must obey all international laws.

The state of Israel was established by Zionist terror organizations such as Irgun (or Etzel), Hagana, and Stern, who used to plant bombs in crowded Palestinian markets, cafes, shops, and buses. What was called Israeli military intelligence then had carried out a bombing campaign in Egypt in 1954, and had hijacked a Syrian civilian airliner in the same year in order to obtain hostages to trade for captured Zionist spies.

Even before the establishment of the Zionist Israeli state, all of its leaders up to the present had committed savage massacres and war crimes against innocent unarmed Palestinian civilians; starting with the massacre of Dir Yasin, Kufr Qasim, Tantura, Sabra and Shatila, Quana, Jenin, and up to the present genocidal financial and economical siege and blockade of the whole Palestinian people. The Geneva Convention defines genocide, among others, as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, including deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part".

Israeli prime ministers are the most notorious terrorists. The first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had established the Israeli state on the total destruction and obliteration of at least 500 Palestinian towns and villages. Menachem Begin, commanded the terrorist organization Irgun, praised the massacre of Dir Yasin calling it a "miracle". Begin’s Irgun had committed many terrorist attacks against Palestinian and British civilians, that led Ben Gurion to refer to the Irgun as "Jewish Nazis" and compared Begin to Hitler. Yitzhak Shamir masterminded the murder of hundreds of Palestinian and British civilians, and was responsible for the bombing of King David Hotel in Jerusalem. His Lehi terrorist gang was responsible for the assassination of the British minister in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, in Cairo in November 1944, and the assassination of UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte in September 1948.

Posted by Me at 6/27/2006 11:32:00 am | | Comments

Monday, June 26, 2006

THE EMPIRE AT BAY

Iraq – high tide of the American Imperium?

By Justin Raimondo

Sunday's headlines on Antiwar.com pretty much summed up the looming defeat of America's imperial ambitions, detailing in descending order the series of setbacks that have stunned the architects of our would-be "benevolent global hegemony" and stopped them in their tracks:










These are lean times for the War Party. Their glorious "victories" have turned to dust. Their lies are the subject of front-page coverage and grand jury indictments. Their mission, far from being "accomplished," is further from success than ever, and the administration is in full retreat. Forced to negotiate with the Iranians over Tehran's nascent nuclear program, the full-bore neocon militarism once dominant in D.C. has been replaced by the centrist sensibility of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose influence is largely credited with the new moderation. Dick Cheney and his cronies are on the outs.

Posted by Me at 6/26/2006 11:32:00 pm | | Comments

THREE IRAQ MYTHS THAT WON'T QUIT

By Scott Ritter

Election season has started, and the media won't stop telling us that Iraq is sovereign, that Zarqawi mattered, and that there were WMDs. So much for a debate about withdrawal.

It is hard sometimes to know what is real and what is fiction when it comes to the news out of Iraq. America is in its "silly season," the summer months leading up to a national election, and the media is going full speed ahead in exploiting its primacy in the news arena by substituting responsible reporting with headline-grabbing entertainment.

So, as America closes in on the end of June and the celebration of the 230th year of our nation's birth, I thought I would pen a short primer on three myths on Iraq to keep an eye out for as we "debate" the various issues pertaining to our third year of war in that country.

The myth of sovereignty Imagine the president of the United States flying to Russia, China, England, France or just about any other nation on the planet, landing at an airport on supposedly sovereign territory, being driven under heavy U.S. military protection to the U.S. Embassy, and then with some five minutes notification, summoning the highest elected official of that nation to the U.S. Embassy for a meeting. It would never happen, unless of course the nation in question is Iraq, where Iraqi sovereignty continues to be hyped as a reality when in fact it is as fictitious as any fairy tale ever penned by the Brothers Grimm. For all of the talk of a free Iraq, the fact is Iraq remains very much an occupied nation where the United States (and its ever decreasing "coalition of the willing") gets to call all the shots.

Iraqi military policy is made by the United States. Its borders are controlled by the United States. Its economy is controlled largely by the United States. In fact, there simply isn't a single major indicator of actual sovereignty in Iraq today that can be said to be free of overwhelming American control. Iraqi ministers continue to be shot at by coalition forces, and Iraqi police are powerless to investigate criminal activities carried out by American troops (or their mercenary counterparts, the so-called "Private Military Contractors"). The reality of this myth is that the timeline for the departure of American troops from Iraq is being debated (and decided) in Washington, D.C., not Baghdad. Of course, as with everything in Iraq, the final vote will be made by the people of Iraq. But these votes will be cast in bullets, not ballots, and will bring with them not only the departure of American troops from Iraq, but also the demise of any Iraqi government foolish enough to align itself with a nation that violates international law by planning and waging an illegal war of aggression, and continues to conduct an increasingly brutal (and equally illegitimate) occupation.

Posted by Me at 6/26/2006 11:31:00 pm | | Comments

OPEN LETTER FROM MOTHER OF LT. EHREN WATADA, RESISTER OF ILLEGAL WAR

By Carolyn Ho

I am the mother of Lt. Ehren Watada, an officer stationed at Ft. Lewis. He is part of a Stryker brigade unit that deployed today to Iraq. Despite an unflinching commitment to his men and to democratic ideals, he chose not to accompany his men. His decision came through much soul-searching and through research and consultation with experts across disciplines, inside and outside of the military and the government.

After weighing the evidence, he came to the conclusion that he could no longer be silent while atrocities were committed in the name of democracy. He could no longer be a tool of an administration that used deception and lies to make the case for pre-emptive war.

As a member of the armed forces, sworn to uphold the US Constitution, he refuses to blindly participate in a war of aggression, an illegal war that undermines who we are as a nation and violates international law. Implicit in his oath as an officer is the duty to disobey all unlawful orders, for to carry out these orders renders him an accomplice to a criminal act. Furthermore, to order his men to participate in a war of aggression multiplies his guilt a thousandfold. His conscience will not permit him to do so. He believes that he can best serve them by taking a stand against the war. In so doing, he demonstrates that one does not relinquish the freedom to choose what is right, even in the military, and that the freedom to choose what is right transcends the allegiance to man and institutions.

As a mother, I have evolved from fearing for his safety and for his future to the realization that there is a higher purpose to all that has transpired. My son no longer stands at the crossroads. He has chosen "the road less traveled." Come what may, he is committed to staying the course.

I invite you to affirm your support of Lt. Ehren Watada on June 27th, National Day of Action. On this day, groups across the country will participate in peaceful demonstrations, prayer services, candlelight vigils, parades, leafleting, visitations to recruitment stations to provide counsel to prospective recruits, etc. Please contact your local organization for details.

For updates on news and actions regarding Lt. Watada, please check out: www.thankyoult.org or www.couragetoresist.org.

My deepest thanks,
Carolyn Ho, Ehren's Mom

Posted by Me at 6/26/2006 03:19:00 pm | | Comments

TALL STORIES: THE PLOT TO TOPPLE CHICAGO'S SEARS TOWER WAS NOT ALL THAT IT SEEMED

The plan uncovered by the FBI last week proved little more than wishful thinking. But could it be a sign of worse to come?

By Rupert Cornwell

The alarming news flashed across America's TV screens on Thursday evening: government agents had thwarted an al-Qa'ida plot, using home-grown American terrorists, to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago in a ghastly repeat of 9/11.

When the dust had settled barely 24 hours later, a rather more modest version of events had emerged. The seven young black men arrested at a warehouse in Miami and Atlanta had never been in touch with al-Qa'ida, and had no explosives. Their "plan" to destroy America's tallest building was little more than wishful thinking, expressed by one of them to an FBI informant purporting to be a member of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation.

Even the FBI admitted as much. John Pistole, the bureau's deputy director, described the plan on Friday as "aspirational rather than operational" and admitted that none of the seven (five US citizens and two Haitian immigrants) had ever featured on a terrorist watch list.

In essence, the entire case rests upon conversations between Narseal Baptiste, the apparent ringleader of the group, with the informant, who was posing as a member of al-Qa'ida but in fact belonged to the South Florida Terrorist Task Force.

At a meeting "on or about 16 December" according to the indictment made public as the men made their first court appearance in Miami, Mr Baptiste asked his contact to supply equipment including uniforms, machine guns, explosives, cars and $50,000 in cash for an "Islamic Army" that would carry out a mission "just as good or greater than 9/11".

In fact, the conspiracy seems to have extended little further than those words. By last month, it had all but fizzled out, amid squabbling among Mr Baptiste's followers. Even their religious leanings are in dispute. Neighbours say they were part of a group, called Seas of David, that mixes Christian and Islamic elements.

That did not deter the US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, from summoning a press conference in which he denounced an attempt to "wage war against America". But the threat, even he admitted, was not immediate - and those who posed it were in fact merely a few semi-unemployed men, most of them petty criminals, from Liberty City, a poor black neighbourhood close to the centre of Miami.

Posted by Me at 6/26/2006 03:06:00 pm | | Comments

MONEY-TRACKING LEAK ANGERS CHENEY

BBC NEWS



US Vice-President Dick Cheney has condemned as "offensive" US media disclosures of a secret programme that probes global financial transactions.

The government has covertly tracked thousands of international money transactions for nearly five years as part of its so-called war on terror.

Mr Cheney said leaking the programme played into the enemy's hands.

The New York Times defended its coverage, saying the information was in the public's interest.

'Solid and sound'

Speaking in Chicago, Mr Cheney said the disclosures, which went ahead despite appeals from the White House, would make it more difficult for the administration to prevent future attacks.

The operation uses a huge financial database in Belgium, known as Swift, to track private money transfers around the world.

But civil liberty groups have raised concerns that the programme, which began soon after the 9/11 attacks in the US, may infringe individual rights to privacy.

Mr Cheney said: "These are good, solid sound programmes. They are conducted in accordance with the laws of the land."

Posted by Me at 6/26/2006 02:55:00 pm | | Comments

Sunday, June 25, 2006

FBI EXPLOITS MENTALLY ILL IN "HOMEGROWN" TERRORISM EFFORT

It is now an established pattern: the government seeks out mental cases and disturbed individuals and turns them into “al-Qaeda” terrorists, or wannabe al-Qaedaites.

Narseal Batiste, “the accused ringleader of a wacky terrorist cell” in Miami, as the New York Daily News puts it, “needs psychiatric help,” according to his father, Narcisse Batiste. “He was distraught after his beloved mother, Audrey, died in 2000, relatives told The News, and the next year he left Chicago and dropped out of sight.”

From all accounts, Narseal Batiste is not an over-the-top mental case like Zacarias Moussaoui, but it appears he is vulnerable enough to be exploited by the government, determined to fabricate “homegrown” terrorists.

In fact, the government more or less admits it does not have a case against Batiste and his young adult and teenage charges.

“Even as Justice Department officials trumpeted the arrests of seven Florida men accused of planning to wage a ‘full ground war against the United States,’ they acknowledged the group did not have the means to carry out the plan,” reports Knight Ridder. “The Justice Department unveiled the arrests with an orchestrated series of news conferences in two cities, but the severity of the charges compared with the seemingly amateurish nature of the group raised concerns among civil libertarians,” who noted that the group had “no weapons, no explosives” and yet the government considers the arrests and case a “major announcement.”

If not for the “confidential government informant” inserted in their midst, who convinced them to pledge allegiance to the cartoonish “al-Qaeda,” there would be no case.

Posted by Me at 6/25/2006 07:23:00 pm | | Comments

LEGACY OF TREASON
DEPLETED URANIUM AND THE POISONING OF HUMANITY



By Alok O'Brien

DOWNLOAD A .PDF FILE OF THIS ARTICLE

In recent years I have become aware of the issue of depleted uranium (DU) and its use by the US Military in Iraq in 1991 and again in the current Iraq war. The photos of birth deformities and stories of suffering resulting from DU shocked me, reminding me of the Agent Orange victims of America's Vietnam war. Then I watched David Bradbury and Peter Scott's new film, Blowin' in the Wind . Its content shocked and appalled me, and spurred me into researching and writing this article. It is undoubtedly by far the most significant issue on the planet today, and yet the mainstream media stays quiet.

Published March 06 issue byronchild magazine

Republished Living Now magazine, May 06

treason n 1 betrayal of one's sovereign or country. 2 any treachery or betrayal. treasonable adj treasonous adj

Depleted uranium (DU) is what is left after raw uranium has been enriched to the highly radioactive isotope U-235 used for weapons and power generation. For every ton of U-235 produced, there are seven tons of DU. Estimates vary, but it seems that currently the US alone has in excess of five million tons of stockpiles of DU. This has no commercial use beyond its use as a radiation shield in medical devices, and for adding to concrete to form radiation containing bunkers. However, this requires an insignificant quantity of the DU produced each year.

The half-life of DU is 4.5 billion years, so storing it safely and indefinitely is cost prohibitive. To remedy the situation, the US Department of Energy has made it freely available to the Pentagon and US armaments and armour manufacturers, and it has been used in weapons exported to 29 countries. It is simply cheaper to make it into weapons than store it.

It is widely accepted that DU itself is fairly stable, as the dangerous alpha particles which it emits cannot pass through more than a couple of centimetres of air. The problems arise when DU is in contact with water or is used in weaponry and explodes. (See the photo above — the sparks are DU that is on fire and exploding.) It then creates a vapourised, radioactive gas comprising of tiny nano-particles. The microscopic particles in this vapour are then littered, depending upon prevailing winds, up to 100 kms around (estimates on this vary — with some sources citing up to 1000 kms), where they fall on crops, water, or just on the ground to be picked up by the next gust of wind or by car tyres. Later, when this gas enters the atmosphere, it can spread worldwide.

The nanoparticles of DU enter the body, from the air, from landing on clothing or skin and from food or water. These nanoparticles penetrate all protective clothing and masks, and once it comes in contact with the body it immediately disperses and begins to alter DNA. As it is not soluble it cannot be excreted from the body. Uranium is a toxic chemical element, just like lead, mercury, cadmium and chromium.

Posted by Me at 6/25/2006 06:52:00 pm | | Comments

Friday, June 23, 2006

WHERE WERE THE CORE VALUES TO BEGIN WITH?

By Laurie Stone, Online Journal Contributing Writer

Can this war get any more disturbing?

Now, in the wake of stories where U.S. marines massacred entire families of Iraqis, including babies, women, and the elderly, our soldiers are being taught "core values." Never mind that we invaded this country three years ago with our bombs and missiles and guns. Never mind that we kicked down people’s doors at 3:00 a.m., terrorizing families, hauling off fathers and sons (yet to be proven as bad guys) into prison to languish with no legal process. Never mind that we’ve tortured and maimed civilians, destroyed cities and mosques with no regard to anything in our path. Now we’re going to teach our young 'uns some values.

Sorry, but I think we’re a little late. We should have thought about values before we invaded and occupied a country that had done nothing to us. A country that had no dealings with 9/11. A country minding its own business before we decided we didn’t like its leader and the fact that he was standing on a lot of oil. We should have thought about that before we got us into this blood soaked mess that only gets worse by the day.

Beyond the immeasurable shame and sadness I feel over those murdered Iraqis, is the despair I feel over our own children. Is this what we’re raising? Are these really our sons and daughters? Is this the fruit of our educational, national, and spiritual culture? I know some people will say its a few bad apples, we’ll get rid of them, and all will be fine, but I disagree. It goes deeper than that. Too many people were cheering them on to war, not having been to war themselves. Too much of the media were willing to put profit first, not questioning what our government was doing and why. For all our constant crowing over what a wonderful, awesome nation we are, we appear to be raising our children to blindly march off to murder innocent people of other nations. Is that really what we stand for?

I have to believe most of our soldiers are good souls, who didn’t go over there as savages, but as gullible young people, all too malleable, all too willing to believe their commanders. And it’s ironic, if this war is so noble, so worth the sacrifice, as our leaders constantly remind us, why are none of them sending their children or grandchildren? And for that matter, why did none of them go to war back when it was their turn?

Posted by Me at 6/23/2006 11:55:00 am | | Comments

OF COUNTRY AND TRUTH

by Anthony Wade, OpEdNews.com

You are starting to hear the GOP echo chamber scream louder as we careen toward the midterm elections. With each passing day there is a crystallizing of the republican talking points Karl Rove wants to sell the American people this fall. If you are a republican, you want to "bring the troops home with the honor of completing the mission" and favor "victory." If you are a democrat, you want to "cut and run" and favor "tucking tail and giving up." None of this is true mind you, but then again, most of what Karl Rove has sold to the American people has never been true and so many have bought it anyway.

Why the panic? A glance at the approval ratings tells the story. President Bush has an approval rating hovering around 30% and while he cannot run again, the American people have finally caught on to the fact that Bush = GOP Rubber Stamp Congresspersons. Add to that the fact that the approval rating for the GOP Congress is now at 25% and you have Karl Rove’s worst nightmare. You should not be disillusioned America. What is at stake this November is the future of the republic on which we stand. It is not just about the specter of impeachment. It is the threat of the power to properly investigate and subpoena. If the GOP loses control of either house what will happen could devastate the Republican Party. The truth may finally come out. The truth about the Downing Street Memos which prove that George Bush lied this country into a war that has claimed at least 2,500 American lives and possibly over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. The truth about the Office of Special Plans which Bush used to create intelligence favorable to his pre-determined plan of invasion. The truth about how many soldiers have really died in this war and why their flag draped coffins cannot be seen. The truth about torture as policy. The truth about Valerie Plame and her illegal outing as a covert CIA operative. The truth about the massive election fraud perpetrated against the will of the American people by the Republican Party in 2004. The truth about the NSA illegal spying scandal. The truth about the smoking gun mushroom cloud and the WMD that never existed to begin with. And maybe, just maybe, the truth about 911.

There are other truths at stake this November as well. Placing real scientists back at the EPA might lead to the truth about global warming. Placing real economists, not republican hacks back in the government might lead to the truth about slanted tax cuts that do not spur the economy. Possibly the truth about the slow death of the American worker and the plight of healthcare in this country could come out. What about the truth about how many children are being left behind? One can only dream that the truth about the dangers of media consolidation could also be revealed and corrected. The truth about Diebold, the Cheney secret energy task force and Jeff Gannon might come to light. There are so many truths buried over the past six years that they cannot be properly represented in just one article. But they are all out there and they shake the Republican Party to its very core.

That is when they are at their most dangerous because there are people in power who will do anything they can to ensure that power is not lost or threatened by a little thing such as the truth.

Posted by Me at 6/23/2006 11:12:00 am | | Comments

Thursday, June 22, 2006

WAR CRIMES AND WORLD DOMINATION

By Schuyler Ebbets, thepeoplesvoice.org



Some have said that the World Trade Center was intentionally destroyed, and over 3000 people were murdered to create a Pearl Harbor stile event to justify the Iraq war. People are free in America to speculate if they want, but we don't have to speculate about the mass murder of some three hundred thousand people in Iraq. It is obvious that America is stealing their oil and privatizing every aspect of the peoples lives. Iraq has been turned into one giant Bush, Cheney, Halliburton, Bechtel, "free market zone', just another name for total corporate enslavement.

The Bush regime has broken virtually every one of the Geneva Conventions. They have committed crimes for which there are not yet laws written. Crimes against the earth and the environment. His father before him was the first to use depleted uranium weapons, but the son, Dubya, has far exceeded the senior Bush, by spreading over 1000 metric tons of the deadly U238-isotope, America’s nuclear waste, over Iraq and Afghanistan, making childhood leukemia and spontaneous abortions commonplace, dooming the people of both countries to endless suffering and premature death. According to a UN Sub Commission report, cancer in Iraq has increased 1000%, and deformities 600%. Depleted Uranium has rendered Iraqi lands infertile, entered the food chain, and contaminated the ground water. With a half-life of 4.5 billion years the Uranium 238 dropped on Iraq and Afganistan by Bush and his father have rendered much of the two countries permanently unfit for human habitation.

Depleted uranium bombs are piroplastic in nature, which means the substance ignites on impact. When it burns it actually changes at a molecular level, loosing its solid form as it instantly turns in to a fine dust. It migrates into the ground water and is taken up into the air and blown by the wind. Although the dust is most concentrated in Europe and areas near the Iraq occupation, some of the deadly airborne depleted uranium reaches the upper atmosphere and is circulated by the jet stream and distributed over the entire surface of the earth. The use of depleted uranium weaponry by the United States, which defies all international treaties, will slowly annihilate all species on the planet including the human species, and yet this regime continues to contaminate the atmosphere with depleted uranium with full knowledge of its destructive potential.

On June 17, 2006 Austrian right-wing populist Joerg Haider, who is part of Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's government coalition, called President Bush a war criminal. Haider said in an interview with Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse: "He is a war criminal. He brought about the war against Iraq deliberately, with lies and falsehoods, The Iraqi population is suffering terribly. Bush took the risk of an enormous number of victims."

When was the last time an American president was openly called a 'war criminal'? It had never happened before this regime took over, but it has since become a common occurrence for Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney to be called war criminals by members of the world community.

Posted by Me at 6/22/2006 03:56:00 pm | | Comments

TERRORISM MYTH: MUSLIMS LOOK FOR RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM

By Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

"Information Clearing House" -- -- The “War on Terrorism” is flourishing business for the corporate world - a 21st century fantasy on its own, where facts live in denials and predetermined dogmas cover all aspects of Muslims and Islam. When facts are not available, the mainstream media would construct dark illusions to assert the corporate-political agenda to encroach human rights, freedom and dignity. The media games are not played by any definable rules. After the 9/11 attacks in the US, the sole victims are Muslims and Islamic civilization and nobody else. The recent arrests of the17 youngsters in Toronto, including five underage boys are a clear case in point. Immediately after their arrests, the synchronized statement issued by the new Canadian PM could be conveniently compared to the words of President Bush in thought and spirit. The media quickly eluded to the crimes unknown and unsubstantiated and identified them “ Muslim Terrorists.” As if Muslims were born in the eye of storm and the religion of Islam was the basis of this ephemeral judgment. If the individuals or ethnic groups other than Muslims were involved, the mass media would not have jumped to such hasty and irrelevant ethnically biased conclusions. The reasoning could be that Muslim communities lack political presence or affiliation with an influential political party. Facts are the foundation of truth, and truth and justice are inseparable. Facts are pertinent to reach fair conclusion. End cannot be assumed to play with the facts and be based on dogmas to explain the facts of human life. In a systematic modern society, are there any ethical values and professional standards to be followed by the journalists in North America and Europe? Is there any accountability mechanism for those whose overwhelming motives poison the public perceptions and carve-up malicious propaganda against Muslims and Islam?

Stewart Nusbaumer (“Terror to Empire”: 07/2003), asked the same question, “ can American stop this madness?” And added: “The Bush Administration hawks are lumping together all kinds of reasons and excuses under the rubric of terrorism and exploiting the horror of 9/11 for political and corporate gain - the war against terrorism has become, in fact, a war for empire.”

Posted by Me at 6/22/2006 03:23:00 pm | | Comments

KICKING OPEN THE GATES OF HELL

By Mike Whitney

“We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions we would make for them if we evacuate.” Zalmay Khalizad “Baghdad-memo leaked to Washington Post”

"Information Clearing House" -- --- The prospect of an American defeat in Iraq grows greater with every passing day. A memo which was leaked to the Washington Post depicts a situation on the ground which is steadily deteriorating into chaos. The memo, which was written by Iraqi ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, contrasts dramatically with the confident “happy talk” of high-ranking officials in the Bush administration. It offers a bleak “insiders-view” of a society that is progressively crumbling from the nonstop violence and lack of security.

President Bush’s surprise appearance in Baghdad was supposed to shore up support for the flagging mission in Iraq, but according to the memo, even the Green Zone, that one safe-haven in an ocean of resistance, could come under attack in the very near future.

Clearly, if the militia violence and infighting increase much more, American troops will be forced to withdraw quicker than planned. In practical terms, the country is already ungovernable and the newly-elected regime is merely a face to show-off to the anxious American public.

Posted by Me at 6/22/2006 03:17:00 pm | | Comments

IT'S TIME TO BREAK UP THE MEDIA

By Mike Whitney



The media is a fully-integrated part of the state power-structure. In its practical application, it is more valuable than the military. There are definite drawbacks to using force, whereas, propaganda and public relations tend to be less disruptive to the normal flow of business.

The media’s primary objective is to shape public opinion in a way that elicits support for the corporate agenda. Public TV and the internet pose the biggest threats to that process. They both provide divergent sources of information which eschew the business-friendly filtering process. This explains why the Bush administration installed political appointees at PBS. Their job was to sabotage programs like Bill Moyer’s NOW and the weekly documentary series Frontline. Investigative journalism is a danger to private interests, creating the likelihood that the public will focus more attention on the shadowy activities of big business.

The ultimate goal of any privately owned information-system is to assert complete control over the news-cycle so that events can be arranged in a way that serves the needs of business. The public must be prevented from seeing the conjugal relationship between the state and industry. To achieve this, the media must appear to function independently and speak with many different voices when, in fact, it simply reiterates the same message from numerous vantage points. A simple Google search of any headline story will confirm the truth of this. There is no diversity of opinion in mainstream news. It is regimented and uniform.

Posted by Me at 6/22/2006 03:02:00 pm | | Comments

IRAQ: US MAY BE ASKED TO LEAVE

Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor

THE level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation.

"The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence."

Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted.

And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

Posted by Me at 6/22/2006 12:31:00 am | | Comments

BIG SURPRISES AT BILDERBERG

James P. Tucker Jr, American Free Press

Bilderberg expects interest rates to rise and many Americans to lose their
homes in the months ahead. Meanwhile, they hope they can pressure President Bush to refrain from an all-out invasion of Iran while maintaining oil prices at their current record-high levels of about $70 a barrel.

Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, predicted rising interest rates and difficulties for families that have obtained adjustable rate mortgages, or “variable” interest rates. Many are likely to lose their homes as rising home mortgage rates add hundreds of dollars to their monthly payments, he said. While most listened solemnly and some expressed concern, one was heard to say, “stupid Americans deserve their fate.”

Many Americans, especially young families, have been buying expensive homes at low but “variable” interest rates. Others have been paying just the interest owed on their homes and not the principal. They are the most vulnerable, Geithner said. Some have paid little or nothing down. Some institutions “lend” buyers the down payment.

When home construction peaks and prices start downward, many will find they owe more on their home than it is worth in the marketplace. They will also find their mortgage—even “interest-only” payments—are unaffordable.
The banks will get the homes back and sell them again.

Again, the term “stupid Americans” was heard among clucks of sympathy or silent indifference. According to one source, no concern was expressed by Allan Hubbard, assistant to President Bush for economic policy.

European Bilderbergers said they would have no part in an invasion of Iran, something Bush says is an “option on the table.” Although NATO is helping by adding 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, expect no help if Iran is invaded, they said. “We will not help you fight a war for Israel,” one said.

Posted by Me at 6/22/2006 12:22:00 am | | Comments

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The Ugly Truth About Everyday Life In Baghdad (by the US ambassador)
CONFIDENTIAL MEMO
FROM: US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Baghdad
TO: Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
SUBJECT: SNAPSHOTS FROM THE OFFICE
SENSITIVE

1. Iraqi staff in the Public Affairs sector have complained that Islamist and Militia groups have been negatively affecting daily routine. Harassment over proper dress and habits is increasingly persuasive. They also report power cuts and fuel prices have diminished their quality of life.

Women's Rights

2. Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shia who favors Western clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her Baghdad neighbourhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. She said some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.

3. Another, a Sunni, said people in her neighbourhood are harassing women and telling them to cover up and stop using cell phones. She said the taxi driver who brings her every day to the green zone has told her he cannot let her ride unless she wears a headcover. A female in the PAS cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

4. The women say they cannot identify the groups pressuring them. The cautions come from other women, sometimes from men who could be Sunni or Shia, but appear conservative. Some ministries, notably the Sadrist controlled Ministry of Transportation, have been forcing females to wear the hijab at work.

Dress Code For All?

5. Staff members have reported it is now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public; they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts. People who wear jeans in public have come under attack.

Evictions

6. One colleague beseeched us to help a neighbor who was uprooted in May from her home of 30 years, on the pretense of application of some long-disused law. The woman, who is a Fayli Kurd, says she has nowhere to go, but the courts give them no recourse to this new assertion of power. Such uprootings may be response by new Shia government authorities to similar actions against Arabs by Kurds in other parts of Iraq. (NOTE: An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militias are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq.)

Power Cuts and Fuel Shortages a Drain on Society

7. Temperatures in Baghdad have already reached 115 degrees. Employees all confirm that, by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without. By early June, the situation had improved slightly. In Hal al-Shaab, power has recently improved from one in six to one in three hours. Other staff report similar variances. Central Baghdad neighborhood Bab al-Nu'atham has had no city power for over a month. Areas near hospitals, political party headquarters and the green zone have the best supply. One staff member reported a friend lives in a building that houses the new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day.

8. All employees supplement city power with service contracted with neighborhood generator hookups that they pay for monthly. One employee pays 7500 Iraqi dinars (ID) per ampere to get 10 amperes per month (75,000 ID = $50/month). For this, her family gets eight hours of power per day, with service ending at 2am.

9. Fuel queues. One employee told us that he had spent 12 hours on his day off waiting to get gas. Another staff member confirmed that shortages were so dire, prices on the black market in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 ID per liter (the official, subsidized price is 250 ID)

Kidnappings, and Threats of Worse

10. One employee informed us that his brother-in-law had been kidnapped. The man was eventually released but this caused enormous emotional distress to his family. One employee, a Sunni Kurd, received an indirect threat on her life in April. She took extended leave, and by May, relocated abroad with her family.

Posted by Me at 6/21/2006 12:34:00 am | | Comments

Cheney Now Says He Didn't Anticipate The Insurgency's Strength

Crooks & Liars.com





On June 20, 2005 (a year ago)-Dick Cheney said that the insurgency was in it's last throes. He was talking to the National Press Club today and said:

Q: Do you think that you underestimated the insurgency's strength?

Cheney: I think so, umm I guess, the uh, if I look back on it now. I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered....

He blamed Saddam's harsh regime for his miscalculation, but when no WMD's were found, many used that as a reason for invading Iraq. And then we have this:

In 1992 Dick Cheney said this after the first Gulf War:

"And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth?" Cheney said then in response to a question.

"And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."

Developing...

Posted by Me at 6/21/2006 12:09:00 am | | Comments

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Scientific Analysis Proves Towers Brought Down By Incendiaries
Steven Jones' analysis on WTC steel about to be released

Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet.com



Scientific analysis on WTC steel debris undertaken by BYU Professor Steven Jones proves that the twin towers were demolished by means of incendiary devices and the release of the conclusive evidence is imminent.

The material that was first brought into question on the back of photos and video clips of the twin towers showing a dripping molten substance and floating white ash can now be confirmed as being thermate, combining thermite which is used as an incendiary device to bring down structures and sulfur, which cuts through steel quicker and leaves a yellow residue.

Pools of molten yellow metal were also found underneath both towers and Building 7 subsequent to the collapses.

"The evidence points directly to controlled demolition which means an inside job brought these World Trade Center buildings down," Jones told radio host Alex Jones in a video interview.

Jones says that, "using advanced techniques we're finding out what's in these samples - we're finding iron, sulphur, potassium and manganese - these are characteristic of a variation of thermite which is used to cut through steel very rapidly, it's called thermate."

"In order to have thermite in these buildings in this way, to help bring the buildings down, that means that thermite had to be planted in the buildings which of course implies directly and inside job - someone had to have access into the buildings," said Jones.

Posted by Me at 6/20/2006 11:59:00 pm | | Comments

Israel Can No Longer Rely On The Support Of Europe's Jews

The feeling is growing that Jewish honour and heritage have been more convincingly preserved in the diaspora

By Max Hastings, The Guardian

Whatever the outcome of the current Palestinian chaos, meaningful negotiations with Israel seem unlikely. The most plausible scenario is that Ehud Olmert will proceed unilaterally to draw new boundaries for his country, which will absorb significant Palestinian land, and institutionalise such dominance of the West Bank as to make a Palestinian state unworkable.

If this is the future, it is likely to yield fruits as bitter for Israelis as for Palestinians. The world, far from becoming more willing to acquiesce in Israel's expansion, is becoming less so. The generation of European non-Jews for whom the Holocaust is a seminal memory is dying. With them perishes much vicarious guilt.

Younger Europeans, not to mention the rest of the world, are more sceptical about Israel's territorial claims. They are less susceptible to moral arguments about redress for past horrors, which have underpinned Israeli actions for almost 60 years. We may hope that it will never become respectable to be anti-semitic. However, Israel is discovering that it can no longer frighten non-Jews out of opposing its policies merely by accusing them of anti-semitism.

Posted by Me at 6/20/2006 11:54:00 pm | | Comments

The Assassins
From character assassination to physical assassination, the Lobby and its agents ruthlessly pursue their agenda

By Justin Raimondo

When John J. Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and the heavyweight of the realist school of international affairs, and Stephen M. Walt, former dean of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, published their now famous essay on "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," the outcry from all the usual suspects was stupendous. After all, the professors had unapologetically said what everyone knows to be true: that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is geared to Israeli and not American interests. It is a case of altruism sui generis.

If anyone says that – out loud, that is – the price they pay is exorbitant, and clearly Mearsheimer and Walt were and are prepared to pony up. Anyone who crosses "the Lobby," as their paper puts it, risks incurring the wrath of "the Great Silencer." This means, in plain terms, that anyone who criticizes Israel, or, more significantly, notices the Lobby's decisive influence over U.S. policymakers, risks their career, whether it be in politics, the media, or academia.

Posted by Me at 6/20/2006 11:43:00 pm | | Comments

FBI Says, It Has “No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden To 9/11”

By Ed Haas

"Muckraker Report" - June 6, 2006 – This past weekend, a thought provoking e-mail circulated through Internet news groups, and was sent to the Muckraker Report by Mr. Paul V. Sheridan (Winner of the 2005 Civil Justice Foundation Award), bringing attention to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist web page for Usama Bin Laden.[1] (See bottom of this web page for Most Wanted page) In the e-mail, the question is asked, “Why doesn’t Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted poster make any direct connection with the events of September 11, 2001?” The FBI says on its Bin Laden web page that Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. According to the FBI, these attacks killed over 200 people. The FBI concludes its reason for “wanting” Bin Laden by saying, “In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorists attacks throughout the world.”

On June 5, 2006, the Muckraker Report contacted the FBI Headquarters, (202) 324-3000, to learn why Bin Laden’s Most Wanted poster did not indicate that Usama was also wanted in connection with 9/11. The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Laden’s Most Wanted web page, Tomb said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.”

Posted by Me at 6/20/2006 12:43:00 am | | Comments

Zarqawi Successor Is A US Creation
Roads to Iraq



As I said before, Zarqawi was a myth created by the Americans, the greatest mystery about Zarqawi was the fact that the bulk of his victims were Iraqis, not Americans, strange coincidence that his agenda to divide Iraq has been similar to that of the invaders.

As Iraqi writer, Haifa Zangana said:

Even if Zarqawi did not exist they, [the US occupation] would create one, and if he died, they would make another Zarqawi to keep

Iraq under their control.

The "fine-tuned" new Zarqawi is created

We heard about US military identified Zarqawi successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as they called him, they even published his autobiography.

One problem here and it is:

Nobody in Egypt among terrorists experts, Egyptian security, not even fanatic Muslims knows such a man or such a name:

Identity of Zarqawi’s successor remains enigma

The Egyptian security services have not heard of any Egyptian by this name, but since his name has been released, we are researching and investigating the matter," a security source said.

Posted by Me at 6/20/2006 12:27:00 am | | Comments

Saturday, June 17, 2006

US Seen As A Bigger Threat To Peace Than Iran, Worldwide Poll Suggests

· Findings also show fall in support for war on terror
· Decline in America's image 'all to do with Iraq'

Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian

George Bush's six years in office have so damaged the image of the US that people worldwide see Washington as a bigger threat to world peace than Tehran, according to a global poll.
The Washington-based Pew Research Centre, in a poll of 17,000 people in 15 countries between March and May, found more people concerned about the US presence in Iraq than about Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.

The Pew Centre said: "Despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the US presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran - and in many countries much more often - as a danger to world peace."

The survey, carried out annually, shows a continued decline in support for the US since 1999. The US image for most of the 20th century has been relatively positive, being regularly identified with democracy, human rights and openness in spite of criticism from the left, which reached a height during the Vietnam war, and a residual suspicion in the Muslim world.

Posted by Me at 6/17/2006 09:44:00 pm | | Comments

Austria's Haider Says Bush Is A War Criminal

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian right-wing populist Joerg Haider called President Bush a war criminal on Saturday, days before Austria's government hosts Bush and European leaders in Vienna.

Haider, whose group is part of Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's government coalition, said Bush's meeting with his European peers on Wednesday was pointless as he did not expect the U.S. president to pay attention to what Europe had to tell him.

"He is a war criminal. He brought about the war against Iraq deliberately, with lies and falsehoods," Haider said in an interview with Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse.

"The Iraqi population is suffering terribly. Bush took the risk of an enormous number of victims," said Haider.

Maverick Haider is a personal friend of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and visited Iraq's former President Saddam Hussein shortly before the U.S.-led invasion started in 2003.

Austria's attitude toward the United States has worsened over the last three years, Die Presse reported separately, citing a Eurobarometer poll.

The poll showed 62 percent thought the United States played a negative role for world peace, up from 56 percent in the same poll in 2003, Die Presse said, and 49 percent found the U.S. role in fighting terrorism negative.

Posted by Me at 6/17/2006 09:38:00 pm | | Comments


Did Hillary Clinton Attend Bilderberg Conference?
Hotel head says she was there, coupled with high security arrival of U.S. official

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones

Did New York Senator and possible 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attend this past weekend's Bilderberg meeting in Ottawa Canada? Our inside sources coupled with what witnesses saw at the Brookestreet Hotel strongly suggest this to be the case.

On Saturday, the second day of the conference, a large cadillac style amored limousine with U.S. diplomatic plates arrived at the underground parking garage of the Brookestreet Hotel festooned by police motorcycles and added security.

This extra subterfuge was not in evidence for other attendees such as David Rockerfeller and Queen Beatrix, who arrived outside the front of the building and walked straight in.

One of our sources spoke with the head of the hotel who informed him that Hillary Clinton had arrived to attend the Bilderberg conference, confirming the rumors we had previously heard.

Clinton is a touted presidential candidate as is New York Governor Pataki, who it was reported by the New York Sun was also in attendance at Bilderberg.



Bilderberg has a proven history of acting in a kingmaker capacity. Both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair attended before becoming President and Prime Minister and the mainstream media reported that Bilderberg selected John Edwards as Kerry's running mate in 2004.

Could Clinton have attended Bilderberg on Saturday or was she elsewhere?

Clinton's official website makes no mention of any engagements across the entire weekend. New York to Canada is a short hop and back.

While Clinton's Saturday movements are ambiguous, we know where she was on on Tuesday.

She was being roundly booed by her own usually sycophantic left-leaning audience at the Campaign for America's Future conference. Clinton, a supporter of the Iraq invasion from day one, was heckled and cat-called for again publicly backing the Bush administration's reluctance to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Posted by Me at 6/17/2006 09:24:00 pm | | Comments

Israelis Hold Keys To NSA And U.S. Government Computers

By Christopher Bollyn

CRITICAL U.S. GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY COMPUTER
NETWORKS USING ISRAELI "SECURITY" SOFTWARE

The most critical computer and communication networks used by the U.S. government and military are secured by encryption software written by an Israeli "code breaker" tied to an Israeli state-run scientific institution.

The National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. intelligence agency with the mandate to protect government and military computer networks and provide secure communications for all branches of the U.S. government uses security software written by an Israeli code breaker whose home office is located at the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

A Bedford, Massachusetts-based company called RSA Security, Inc. issued a press release on March 28, 2006, which revealed that the NSA would be using its security software:

"U.S. Department of Defense Agency Selects RSA Security Encryption Software" was the headline of the company's press release which announced that the National Security Agency had selected its encryption software to be used in the agency's "classified communications project."

RSA stands for the names of the founders of the company: Ronald L. Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard M. Adleman. Adi Shamir, the lead theoretician, is an Israeli citizen and a professor at the Weizmann Institute, a scientific institution tied to the Israeli defense establishment.

"My main area of research is cryptography – making and breaking codes," Shamir's webpage at the Weizmann Institute says. "It is motivated by the explosive growth of computer networks and wireless communication. Without cryptographic protection, confidential information can be exposed to eavesdroppers, modified by hackers, or forged by criminals."

The NSA/Central Security Service defines itself as America’s cryptologic organization, which "coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. government information systems and produce foreign signals intelligence information."

The fact that the federal intelligence agency responsible for protecting the most critical computer systems and communications networks used by all branches of the U.S. government and military is using Israeli-made encryption software should come as no surprise. The RSA press release is just the icing on the cake; the keys to the most critical computer networks in the United States have long been held in Israeli hands.

AFP inquired with the NSA about its use of Israeli-made security software for classified communications projects and asked why such outsourcing was not seen as a national security threat. Why is "America’s cryptologic organization" using Israeli encryption codes?

Posted by Me at 6/17/2006 09:20:00 pm | | Comments

In Palestine, a War on Children

by John Pilger

Arthur Miller wrote, "Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The thought that the state has lost its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied."

Miller's truth was a glimpsed reality on television on June 9 when Israeli warships fired on families picnicking on a Gaza beach, killing seven people, including three children and three generations. What that represents is a final solution, agreed by the United States and Israel, to the problem of the Palestinians. While the Israelis fire missiles at Palestinian picnickers and homes in Gaza and the West Bank, the two governments are to starve them. The victims will be mostly children.

This was approved on May 23 by the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted 361-37 to cut off aid to non-government organizations that run a lifeline to occupied Palestine. Israel is withholding Palestinian revenues and tax receipts amounting to $60 million a month. Such collective punishment, identified as a crime against humanity in the Geneva Conventions, evokes the Nazis' strangulation of the Warsaw ghetto and the American economic siege of Iraq in the 1990s. If the perpetrators have lost their minds, as Miller suggested, they appear to understand their barbarism and display their cynicism. "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet," joked Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert.

This is the price Palestinians must pay for their democratic elections in January. The majority voted for the "wrong" party, Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel, with their inimitable penchant for pot-calling-the-kettle-black, describe as terrorist. However, terrorism is not the reason for starving the Palestinians, whose prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, had reaffirmed Hamas's commitment to recognize the Jewish state, proposing only that Israel obey international law and respect the borders of 1967. Israel has refused because, with its apartheid wall under construction, its intention is clear: to take over more and more of Palestine, encircling whole villages and eventually Jerusalem.

Posted by Me at 6/17/2006 09:16:00 pm | | Comments

Tony Blair: Prime Mendacity

By Rixon Stewart

The UK has more CCTV cameras per head of population than ANY other country in the world, with about one camera for every 14 people. Ostensibly used for ‘fighting crime’, the cameras are also seen as symbolic of the ‘All-seeing-eye’, the New World Order and its need to keep potential dissidents under constant surveillance.

Despite this, Britain’s Home Office has announced plans to erect even more surveillance cameras. Now however, the cameras won’t be installed to fight crime but under the pretext of deterring traffic offenders.

Under the new plans, networks of surveillance cameras will be set up to catch speeding drivers in residential areas across the country. The cameras will be used as an alternative to speed humps which, London Transport authorities claim will help reduce pollution.

Posted by Me at 6/17/2006 09:09:00 pm | | Comments

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Terrorism Is A Tactic

By Charley Reese

Terrorism is a tactic, not an entity, and it is a tactic used by people who have a political grievance. Therefore, if you want to eliminate terrorism, you have to address the political problems that gave it birth.

President Bush has made no effort to do this. He has aggravated the situation and made it worse. He's created a virtual factory for terrorists.

I am a firm believer that what you sow you reap, and it is a bad business to sow hatred, but unfortunately it seems that our president has been seduced by the great power he commands. He thinks the military and the intelligence community can solve the problem of terrorism.

He should note carefully the situation with Israel. Since 1947, the Israelis have been trying to use force instead of diplomacy to solve the Palestinian problem. And what is that problem? The Zionists, encouraged by the British, planted a colonialist country in Palestine with no regard for the rights or wishes of the Palestinian people.

Just as the Jews used terrorism to drive the British out of Palestine, the Palestinians have been forced to resort to it, and for 59 years the Israelis have been trying to kill their way out of it. It hasn't worked. The Palestinians are still there. They kill, too. And, 100 years from now, the Palestinians will still be there, but it's not at all certain Israel will be. I tend to agree with a former head of Israeli military intelligence who said that if the Palestinians are not given their own state, Israel will be committing national suicide.

Posted by Me at 6/15/2006 01:18:00 pm | | Comments

A Tunnel Without End
The US version of the Guantánamo suicides is disgraceful. The cause of death was gross injustice

By Zachary Katznelson, The Guardian

On Friday night, three prisoners in Guantánamo Bay committed suicide. Two Saudis and one Yemeni hanged themselves. In a desperate attempt at spin, the US claims this was an act of war or a public relations exercise. The truth is quite different. Islam says it goes against God to kill yourself. So what would drive a man to take his own life, despite his religious beliefs? The answer shames the US and its allies, Britain prominently included.

The 460-plus men in Guantánamo Bay have been held for longer than four years. Only 10 have been charged with a crime. Not one has had a trial. The men are not allowed to visit or speak with family or friends. Many have suffered serious abuse. Most are held on the basis of triple and quadruple hearsay, evidence so unreliable that a criminal court would throw it out. Yet the US says it can imprison the men for the rest of their lives. Imagine yourself in this environment, told you will never have the chance to stand up in a court and present your side of the argument. What would you do if no one would listen, if you had been asking for justice for four years and had nothing in return? How hopeless would you become?

Of these three men, little is known. They were in Camp I, a maximum-security area where prisoners are denied even a roll of toilet paper. But we do not know the dead men's stories. While most of the men in Guantánamo have lawyers who fight for their right to a fair trial, these men did not. Until May, the US refused to even tell us who was in Guantánamo. But before it finally released the names of everyone there, the Bush administration secured passage of a law barring lawsuits by the prisoners held in Guantánamo. That means that at last we know the prisoners' identities, but can do nothing legally to help them. The men who committed suicide found themselves in just this legal black hole. They had no legal recourse, just the prospect of a life in prison, in isolation, with no family, no friends, nothing. They took their lives.

So what now? President Bush stated this week that he wants to close Guantánamo, that he wants to give the men trials. Well, let's have them - immediately. The US has had over four years to gather evidence against the men. Surely that is enough time to prove guilt. And now it is time to show the world the evidence.

Posted by Me at 6/15/2006 01:17:00 pm | | Comments

Cure the Disease

By Cindy Sheehan

Oftentimes when I am interviewed before a speaking engagement, the reporter will ask me what I am going to talk about. I often answer: "I have no idea, but I am excited to find out!"

I never write speeches, and I rarely even make notes. I just speak from my heart, and many times, I am even surprised by what I say.

Recently, I was speaking to a very large, warm, and enthusiastic crowd in Cincinnati. My thinking has been evolving about what I call BushCo. I started out believing that George was just a puppet (although willing) of a much larger machine that used him as badly as he was using his troops in his role as commander in chief. I still believe that.

Yet, although George is the not so clever, greedy, power-hungry string-puppet of many clever, greedy, power-hungry puppeteers, he is not the problem: he is just the symptom of a much greater problem: the corruptness of our democracy.

Posted by Me at 6/15/2006 01:10:00 pm | | Comments

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

More children killed in Iraq after US raids

By Truth About Iraqis



Look at this picture (Thanks to TODAY IN IRAQ for the heads-up) carefully. The child's skull is split in two, the white you see in the middle is the color of the jishdasha the man is wearing.

How did this child die? The US Military said a raid on Baquba resulted in the "killing of seven terrorists and two children".

Posted by Me at 6/13/2006 03:11:00 pm | | Comments

Monday, June 12, 2006

Washington Condemns First Suicides By Guantanamo Inmates As 'a PR exercise'

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington

Three prisoners at Gunatanamo Bay in Cuba - two Saudis and a Yemeni - killed themselves over the weekend - the first successful suicides at the US prison camp since it opened in 2002 and the latest incident to highlight the fierce controversy over its continued existence.

President George Bush has defended Guantanamo Bay as a necessary means of holding men who would do "grave harm to American citizens" while an increasing number of critics believe the prison's ongoing operation and the Bush administration's refusal to place the prisoners before the courts represents a stain on the nation's reputation.

The debate continued yesterday as military authorities investigated how the prisoners - Manei al-Otaibi, Yasser al-Zahrani and a third detainee whose name has not yet been made public - were able to use their clothes and sheets to hang themselves.

Posted by Me at 6/12/2006 11:05:00 am | | Comments

Neocon Prince of Darkness Sighted at Bilderberg Meeting

By Kurt Nimmo

According to Megan Gillis, writing for the Ottawa Sun, the Straussian neocon “Prince of Darkness,” Richard Perle, is in Ottawa, possibly to attend the Bilderberg Group meeting held there, along with the standard fare of neolibs and globalists, including “David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Queen Beatrix of Holland, former N.B. premier Frank McKenna and a host of other bigwigs,” as Gillis puts it. As Perle is a prime shaker and mover behind the “clash of civilizations” agenda to “reshape” the Muslim Middle East (that is to say, shock and awe it, by way of bunker-buster and depleted uranium, into submission), it makes perfect sense for him to be on the Bilderberger roster, especially now that Iran is next up on the target list.

It appears the globalists are at odds on Iran. “I think of war with Iran as the ending of America’s present role in the world. Iraq may have been a preview of that, but it’s still redeemable if we get out fast. In a war with Iran, we’ll get dragged down for 20 or 30 years. The world will condemn us. We will lose our position in the world,” Zbigniew Brzezinski told Vanity Fair earlier this year. I don’t know if Ziggy will attend the Bilderberg meeting, but chances are the Soros side of the neolib order will attempt to convince the neocons, and thus their sock puppet Bush, to not unleash the Pentagon’s fury against the Islamic nation, not that the traditional neolibs have any love for Iran or its people, but rather they likely believe Brzezinski is correct.

Posted by Me at 6/12/2006 10:53:00 am | | Comments

Terrorism In Iraq? Don't Blame Zarqawi

By Mike Whitney



George Bush is right; Iraq is "the central battlefield in the global war on terror". Regrettably, it is United States that is the main sponsor and supporter of that terror in the form of American-trained death squads. Death squad activity in Iraq now accounts for more than 1,000 casualties per month. The Baghdad morgue has become a conveyor-belt for American-generated carnage.

Up to now, the US involvement in the killing has been effectively concealed by the media. The blame for the sectarian violence has been adroitly shifted to "alleged" terrorist mastermind, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. But the evidence suggests that Zarqawi’s role and the role of foreign fighters has actually been very small and has nothing to do with the thousands of dead men who are turning up every day around Bagdad. That is the work of the death squads which operate out of the Interior Ministry.

Once again, the media is covering the facts and creating a narrative that absolves the administration of culpability. Unfortunately, most leftist web sites seem more eager to debate whether Zarqawi actually existed or not. This debate goes nowhere. What is imperative is to realize that Zarqawi has become more important to the Bush administration dead than alive. The media has taken the shadowy details of his life and shaped them into a storyline that is supposed to rewrite the history of the war in Iraq. Zarqawi is now being held responsible for everything from initiating the sectarian violence to stopping the political dialogue between Sunni leaders and the new government.

Posted by Me at 6/12/2006 10:42:00 am | | Comments

America Backs Israel's Right To Kill Children

Mark Elf, Jews sans frontieres

According the Jerusalem Post, America has issued a statement supporting Israel's latest war crime against Palestinian civilians.

    The US expressed support for Israel Friday night after apparent Israeli artillery fire caused the death of at least 12 Palestinians on a Gaza coast beach.

    State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Israel had the right to defend itself, especially while terrorists were attacking it.

    However, McCormack added that Israel must consider the results well and do what was necessary to prevent harming innocent civilians.

And if Israel doesn't "prevent harming innocent civilians?" He didn't say.

Meanwhile, according to al-Jazeera, other states responded more appropriately to the atrocity.

    France described the killings as "disproportionate" and Moscow condemned them as "unacceptable".

    Truce ended

    Ten Palestinians were killed on Friday by the Israeli military.

    Seven people, including five members of the same family, died when an Israeli artillery shell reportedly landed on a Gaza beach.
    Three Palestinians were killed as they prepared to launch a rocket attack on Israel, the Israeli army said. Palestinians said they were civilians.

    The deaths came following Israel's killing of a senior Palestinian militia member, Jamal Abu Samhadana, on Thursday.

    Hamas has said it will end its 16-month agreement not to launch attacks on Israel in response to the incidents.

Well done Israel! Now we can look forward to lots of reports of how Hamas has broken the ceasefire, rather than just their own.

Posted by Me at 6/12/2006 10:22:00 am | | Comments

Sunday, June 11, 2006

PRISONPLANET EXCLUSIVE: Full List of Bilderberg Attendees

Alex Jones travelled to Canada this weekend to document the Conference of the secretive Bilderberg group. Contacts within group and at the Brookstreet hotel leaked an exclusive full list of Bilderberg attendees to us. Click below for images of the attendees list.


Page One

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Page Five

Page Six



Posted by Me at 6/11/2006 09:02:00 pm | | Comments

THE ARCHITECTS OF WAR: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

President Bush has not fired any of the architects of the Iraq war. In fact, a review of the key planners of the conflict reveals that they have been rewarded – not blamed – for their incompetence.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ



Role In Going To War: Wolfowitz said the U.S. would be greeted as liberators, that Iraqi oil money for pay for the reconstruction, and that Gen. Eric Shinseki’s estimate that several hundred thousand troops would be needed was “wildly off the mark.” [Washington Post, 12/8/05]

Where He Is Now: Bush promoted Wolfowitz to head the World Bank in March 2005. [Washington Post, 3/17/05]

Key Quote: “We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.” [Wolfowitz, 3/27/03]

DOUGLAS FEITH



Role In Going To War: As Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Feith spearheaded two secretive groups at the Pentagon — the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans — that were instrumental in drawing up documents that explained the supposed ties between Saddam and al Qaeda. The groups were “created in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believed to be true.” Colin Powell referred to Feith’s operation as the Gestapo. In Bob Woodward’s Plan of Attack, former CentCom Commander Gen. Tommy Franks called Feith the “f***ing stupidest guy on the face of the earth.” [LAT, 1/27/05; NYT, 4/28/04; New Yorker, 5/12/03; Plan of Attack, p.281]

Where He Is Now: Feith voluntarily resigned from the Defense Department shortly after Bush’s reelection. He is co-chairman of a project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government to write an academic book on how to fight terrorism. Feith’s secretive groups at the Pentagon are under investigation by the Pentagon and the Senate Intelligence Committee for intelligence failures. [Washington Post, 1/27/05, 11/18/05; Washington Times, 3/3/06]

Key Quote: “I am not asserting to you that I know that the answer is — we did it right. What I am saying is it’s an extremely complex judgment to know whether the course that we chose with its pros and cons was more sensible.” [Washington Post, 7/13/05]

STEPHEN HADLEY

Posted by Me at 6/11/2006 08:31:00 pm | | Comments

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