Qana: water into wine, children into dust

Remember the story in the bible about Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Qana?
This is the location of a civilian massacre by the Israelis (after the declared 48 hour ceasefire) which killed 57 people with one bombing, 37 of them children.

ROBERT FISK interviewed on Democracy Now!:
"But the odd thing is the idea that for the Israeli military that somehow it's okay to kill all these children; if a missile is launched 30 or 90 feet from their house, that's okay then. We've got some film to show the missiles were launched; that's okay then. I mean, did the aircraft which dropped this bomb, a guided weapon, by the way -- they knew what they were hitting. It's a guided weapon. We know that because the computer codes have been found on the bomb fragments. Did they say, "Oh, well, then, the man who launched the missile is hiding with the children in the basement of the house we're going to hit"? Is it the case now that if you happen to live in a house next to where someone launches a missile, you are to be sentenced to death? Is that what Israel thinks the war is about?"
"I'm sitting here, for example, in my house, next to a car park. What if someone launches a missile from the car park? Am I supposed to die for that? Is that a death sentence for me? Is that how Israel wages war? If I have children in the basement, are they to die for that? And then I’m told it's my fault or it's Hezbollah's fault? You know, these are serious moral questions.
It's quite clear from listening to the IDF statement today that they believe that family deserved to die, because 90 feet away, they claim, a missile was fired. So they sentenced all those people to death. Is that what we're supposed to believe? I mean, presumably it is. I can't think of any other reason why they should say,"Well, 30 meters away a missile was fired." Well, thanks very much. So those little children's corpses in their plastic packages, all stuck together like giant candies today, this is supposed to be quite normal, this is how war is to be waged by the IDF.
The fact that when they made these comments, they went unchallenged on television, was one of the most extraordinary scenes I've seen. I got back from Tyre on a very dangerous overland journey on an open road, which was under air attack, and I got back, and just before the electricity was cut, I saw the BBC reporting what the Israelis had said, but without questioning the morality that if someone fires a missile near your home, therefore it is perfectly okay for you to die."


July 31, 2006
Mohamed Shalhoub lost his mother, his wife, their five children and a nephew in the collapse of a building in Qana where his family had been hiding. The Israeli air force carried out strikes Monday in southern Lebanon despite an agreement to halt raids for 48 hours after nearly 60 Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing.

Qana Massacre - SEE FOR YOURSELF
Qana Massacre II - July 30, 2006: Photographic Evidence of Israeli Crimes against Humanity
CNN photos corroborating this monstrous criminality.
Pictures From Qana.
This Is Israel - Qana Massacre, July 30, 2006
Analysis: A second Qana Massacre?
Israel still insists the 1996 shelling was an accident and that its forces had a legitimate militant target - a Hezbollah military unit that had fired mortars and rockets from near the Qana base.

War Is A Racket
It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the [First] World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.



The “Human Shield” LIE Exposed
The party who employs the human shield MUST assume that their adversary will hesitate to fire against those shields for fear of harming them.
Hezbollah would never use civilians as human shields because they know Israel doesn't hesitate to kill civilians.
Israel's routine AFTER-THE-FACT attempts to characterize civilian victims of their ruthless aggression as Hizbullah's "human shields" is nothing less than a diabolical effort to twist the meaning of the phrase beyond all recognition.

Anti-war Tel Aviv rally draws Jewish, Israeli Arab crowd
More than 2,500 people on Saturday attended a demonstration against the war in Lebanon, marching from Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to a rally at the Cinemateque plaza.

Bolton blocks UN call for truce
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said he opposed calling for a truce, as requested by Annan in an impassioned plea to an emergency council meeting he called after the strike on Qana, the deadliest single attack of Israel's 19-day-old war against Hizbollah militants.

Israel Halts Bombing After Deadly Strike
The spokesman, Adam Ereli, told reporters in Jerusalem that Israel would coordinate with the United Nations to provide a 24-hour period during which residents of southern Lebanon could leave area safely.

The Israel You Don't See on the News
So I ask all of the blind supporters of Israel this question: If Israeli news media clearly and openly take part in complete government censorship, how can you possibly trust them and how can you logically dismiss news and information that contradicts their claims?

British Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel policy
Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion last night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon.

Irish refused bombs sent to Scotland's Prestwick airport
BOMBS destined to be used by Israel are being flown via Scotland only because the Irish government refused to allow them to land on its soil.

White House Fears U.S. Officials Could Be Tried Under War Crimes Act
Concern is growing within the White House that top members of the administration could be tried under the 1996 War Crimes Act. The law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment. The Washington Post is reporting that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need to protect administration officials and soldiers from being tried for war crimes.

Congresswoman Woolsey Calls for Repeal of President’s Iraq War Powers
One of the most outspoken critics of the war in Iraq, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) today introduced H.R. 5875, legislation that would repeal the President’s War Powers for the Iraq War.
While the Congress authorized President Bush to wage war against Iraq in 2002, the original authorization did not anticipate an open-ended U.S. military campaign against Iraq, or the occupation that currently exists.

Capt. Blake Russell
"I remember exactly what he said: 'I'm tired of the killing, I'm tired of ordering people to kill. When I get back I want to get as far away from death as I can','' his father said. "I knew something had happened."



Audit Finds U.S. Hid Cost of Iraq Projects
The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects there and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found.

WHY WAR WITH SYRIA IS INEVITABLE
It is very difficult to see how Israel can actually avoid attacking Syria. They and their US backers have set up Syria as the proverbial monster which they now have no option but to destroy. To a certain extent the same applies to Iran though, because Syria is closer, the logistics of Israel striking Syria are a lot less complex than trying to attack Iran, something the Israelis would prefer the US to do for them.

Is Syrian Shoot-Down of Israeli Drone A Move Towards Full blown War?
Or was the drone a deliberate provocation?

U.S. set to issue passports with RFID chips
The U.S. Department of State is on track to start issuing passports with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips next week, despite warnings from some security experts that such systems could be accessed or tracked by hackers.

Proposed Law Would Allow Gov't to Indefinitely Detain U.S. Citizens
The Bush administration is proposing a new law that could allow the government to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens and bar them from access to civilian courts. The draft legislation is intended to authorize the Pentagon to try detainees by military tribunal. But some legal experts are warning that the bill would also allow the military to indefinitely detain so-called enemy combatants. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."
According to the Associated Press, the administration's proposal would toss out several legal rights common in civilian and military courts, including barring hearsay evidence, guaranteeing "speedy trials" and granting a defendant access to evidence. The proposal also would allow defendants to be barred from their own trial and likely allow the submission of coerced testimony.


2 Million Protest In Mexico City For Vote Recount
As many as 2 million people rallied in Mexico City on Sunday to call for a full recount in the country's disputed presidential election. Presidential runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to camp out in the city's streets until a recount occurs.

Live interview on Democracy Now!
Enemy Combatant: Moazzam Begg on his Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar
In February 2002, the British-born Moazzam Begg was seized by the CIA in Islamabad. No reasons were given for his arrest. He was hooded, shackled and cuffed and flown to the U.S. detention facility at Kandahar, then to Bagram airbase where he was held for approximately a year before being transferred to Guantanamo. The U.S. government labeled him an "enemy combatant." He was never charged with a crime. In all, Moazzam spent three years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. He was subjected to over three hundred interrogations as well as death threats and torture. At Bagram, he witnessed the killing of two fellow detainees. In January 2005, he was released from Guantanamo along with three other British citizens. He received no apology or compensation for his imprisonment.

And also interviewed this week on PBS' "NOW":


Video: The Prisoner
The 37-year-old husband and father of four was accused by the U.S. of having "strong, long-term ties to terrorism," an allegation he firmly denies. Although he was set free from Guantanamo last year having never been found guilty of any crime, the U.S. government is adamant that his detention was justified. As for the remaining 450 Guantanamo prisoners, Congress is working to hack out new laws for trying terrorism suspects after the Supreme Court ruled last month that international law does apply to "enemy combatants."
Begg recalls a conversation about Guantanamo prisoners that he had with a security guard at the detention camp. "One of the guards, what they said to me is that, 'Hell, if I wasn't a terrorist when I came here I would be by the time I was released because of what had been done to me.'"

New Maximum-Security Jail to Open at Guantanamo Bay
Far from winding down, the controversial US detention centre is expanding.
The controversy over the US-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is to erupt anew with confirmation by the Pentagon that a new, permanent prison will open in the Cuban enclave in the next few weeks.
Camp 6, a state-of-the-art maximum-security jail built by a Halliburton subsidiary, will be able to hold 200 prisoners. Commander Robert Durand, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said the $30 million, two-storey block was due to open at the end of September. He added: "Camp 6 is designed to improve the quality of life for the detainees and provide greater protection for the people working in the facility."

Roberts and Alito Misled Us
by Edward M. Kennedy
"The administration's tactics succeeded in turning the confirmation hearings for Roberts and Alito into a sham. Many Republican senators used their time to praise, rather than probe, the nominees. Coached by the administration, the nominees declined to answer critical questions. When pressed on issues such as civil rights and executive power, Roberts and Alito responded with earnest assurances that they would not bring an ideological agenda to the bench.
After confirmation, we saw an entirely different Roberts and Alito - both partisans ready and willing to tilt the court away from the mainstream. They voted together in 91 percent of all cases and 88 percent of non-unanimous cases - more than any other two justices.
One clear loser is the environment. In Rapanos v. United States , the court was asked to interpret the definition of wetlands under the Clean Water Act. Four justices deferred to the Army Corps of Engineers' expertise in implementing the statute. But Roberts and Alito joined an opinion that describes wetlands as "transitory puddles" and criticizes their colleagues for "giving that agency more deference than reason permits." For Roberts and Alito, protecting the environment - unlike "protecting public morality" - is clearly not a top priority."

Stop the lies about Depleted Uranium

'Definitive answer' on depleted uranium sought for troops
After years of veterans pleading for help with illnesses occurring after service in the Gulf wars, the U.S. House and Senate are calling for an immediate study of health effects of exposure to a radioactive metal used in U.S. weapons and armor.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., co-author of a Senate bill on depleted uranium that passed June 20, said other studies have been done on the subject. Those studies concluded there was no evidence that exposure to the metal caused illnesses. (Who conducted those studies?)
"It is time for a review by the Pentagon to see if there has been scientific progress that would provide a more accurate and definitive answer to possible links to adverse health," Lieberman said in a written statement to The News-Journal. "This amendment would require the Pentagon to provide that assessment." The House passed a similar bill in May, and details are being hashed out in a joint committee. If the proposal becomes law, results of the study would be submitted to Congress within one year from its effective date.

But the study comes too late for one Ormond Beach mother of an American soldier who believes exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq killed her son. In 2004, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Lori Brim's son, Army Spc. Dustin Brim, died at 22 of very aggressive cancers.
The military physicians who tried to save him said exposure to depleted uranium did not cause his diseases. But Lori Brim took the whispered advice of a social worker there and started looking into the issue.
She discovered political and medical controversies -- about whether the U.S. military should be using depleted uranium munitions and what effects exposure brings -- that have been raging since soldiers began returning home from the first Gulf War with mysterious ailments. Though that war marked the first time depleted uranium munitions had been used in combat, military sources have consistently discounted a link. Risks of exposure are minimal and abated by training, they say. (WTHF???) And, they add, because tank armor and munitions made with the extremely dense material are so effective, use of depleted uranium saves U.S. lives. Brim said she has been frustrated in her efforts to acquire medical records that might offer evidence the cancers that killed her son resulted from exposure to depleted uranium.
"I'm trying to share Dustin's voice, create awareness and make a difference," Brim said. "I believe to this day that, if soldiers and other personnel had been made aware of the risks of exposure to DU and how dangerous it is -- Dustin said he went for medical help 11 times while he was in Iraq -- somebody may have paid attention to him."
Brim said she has been unable to find a Florida legislator willing to introduce a bill similar to several passed by other states, demanding study of the issue and testing for National Guard members returning from Iraq. She also has been disappointed by attorneys unwilling to help her and other mothers she knows pursue a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of weapons she believes are polluting the Earth.
BODY MAY BE EXHUMED
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, founder and head scientist at Uranium Medical Research Centre in Toronto, Canada, said Brim could exhume her son's body to be tested for radiation exposure. "If I found DU in his bones, it could prove his sickness could have been related to DU contamination," said Durakovic in a phone interview from Washington D.C, where he also has an office. "Radiation will not decompose." Brim said that's too emotional a decision for her to make now but continues to try to obtain the medical records. Those who, like Brim, are looking for answers about depleted uranium's health effects, "are facing a multibillion-dollar industry making radioactive ammunition," Durakovic said.
Attempts to talk with some manufacturers of weapons containing depleted uranium went either unanswered or spokespeople declined interviews. The Department of Defense takes the position that depleted uranium is the best metal available for tank armor and munitions to penetrate armor on enemy vehicles. The military says that all personnel who use such equipment are adequately trained to safely handle depleted uranium. (Not to mention the fact that it's a Great way to dispose of radioactive waste from nuclear energy plants that they'd otherwise have to dispose of in containment dumps!)
Doug Rokke, a veteran of the Gulf War, who has a doctorate in technology from the University of Illinois and was charged with cleanup of depleted uranium contaminated equipment after the first Gulf War, has been outspoken about the issue. He said soldiers are not properly trained and that "medical care has been willfully denied to a majority of DU casualties who are supposed to receive care." He said he's not sure that, if the bill before the joint committee makes it to law, it would have any effect on the use of weapons or treatment of soldiers. "The directive is to continue to use uranium munitions and avoid all liability," said Rokke, 57, of Rantoul, Ill. He said he is seeking medical care for exposure to radiation from depleted uranium. "The legal requirement to provide medical care has always existed, but the military disregards that."
At Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns said her recent studies should make the issue hard to ignore. Her results -- published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at a recent Society of Toxicology conference -- established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA, and the cells mutate. She said exposure during the Gulf wars may link to increased cancers and birth defects in soldiers and in civilian survivors of exposure in the Middle East.

Audit Finds U.S. Hid Actual Cost of Iraq Projects

The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects in Iraq and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found. The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead or administrative costs, according to the audit, written by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office that reports to Congress and the Pentagon.
In March 2005, USAid asked the Iraq Reconstruction and Management Office at the United States Embassy in Baghdad for permission to downsize some projects to ease widespread financing problems. In its request, it said that it had to "to absorb greatly increased construction costs" at the Basra hospital, and that it would make a modest shift of priorities and reduce "contractor overhead" on the project. The hospital's construction budget was $50 million. By April of this year, Bechtel had told the aid agency that because of escalating costs for security and other problems, the project would actually cost $98 million to complete. But in an official report to Congress that month, the agency “was reporting the hospital project cost as $50 million,” the inspector general wrote in his report.

Memos May Link Cheney to No-Bid Iraq Contract
Several documents suggest that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may have lied publicly about the involvement of the vice president's office in awarding the contract. It will be remembered that Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995-2000.

US Bulldozes Iraqi Historic District
US occupation forces have demolished a thousand-year old historic district dating back to the First Abbasi Period (762-833 C.E.) in the city of al-Qa'im near the Iraq- Syria border, turning it into a soccer field.
The Antiquities Department announcement said that the Americans bulldozed the area into a soccer field despite the fact that it was fenced off with signs posted warning against going inside because it was a Historic Islamic Heritage District. The statement denounced the behavior of the Americans saying that the district told the story of the Abbasi era, a time of great flowering of Arab-Islamic culture. Mafkarat al-Islam noted that the US forces have destroyed seven historical sites dating back to the Abbasi era and even further back to the earliest Islamic period.

A soccer field?!? 1,000-year old historic district bulldozed for a soccer field?!? But remember, they only hate us because we are free!
Angry Beirut Protesters Storm U.N. Building
CNN International is reporting that thousands of Lebanese protesters have stormed the U. N. compound in Beirut. The crowd is growing by the minute and includes Christians as well as Muslims, all praising Hezbollah and expressing their hatred of the U. S., Israel and the U.N.
CNN reports that earlier today Israel bombed a four-story apartment building in the town of Qana killing between 36 to 51 civilians and this, in turn, impelled Lebanese who were "on the sidelines" to come out into the street. The pictures of the dead and injured are described as "horrific" because most of the victims were women and children. Even though Israel warned the civilians to leave, the CNN reporter explained that due to Israeli air strikes against civilian vehicles, the degraded roads and the lack of gas, many civilians were too afraid and/or simply unable to leave. As a result of this Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has said that his country will not engage in talks with the Israelis in light of what he calls a "war crime" against civilians.

Dodging the gallows for war crimes?

Is Bush Trying to Dodge the Gallows?

Could George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and maybe Alberto Gonzales all end up sucking poison gas? That, apparently, is a concern now being taken seriously by Attorney General Gonzales, who is quietly working with senior White House officials and friendly members of Congress to do what murderous dictators in Chile, Argentina and other bloodthirsty regimes have done as their future in office began to look uncertain: pass laws exempting them from prosecution for murder.
Gonzales knows the seriousness of this threat. As he warned the president, in a January, 25, 2002 "Memorandum to the President": "It is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges based on Section [the US War Crimes law]."
In another part of that same memo, Gonzales notes that the statute "prohibits the commission of a `war crime'" by any U.S. official, with a war crime being defined as "any grave breach of" the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War or of the Geneva Convention's Article 3. That article extends protection to combatants in other than official wars or formal armies. Gonzales, in that memo, also pointedly notes that the punishments for such violations, under U.S. law, in the event that mistreated captives die in custody, "include the death penalty."

US Shipping hazardous weapons to Israel thru Scotland
First, it was a series of CIA prisoner rendition flights that used Glasgow, Scotland's Prestwick Airport as a stopover point. Now, the United States has been caught using Prestwick to ship GBU28 "bunker buster" bombs, laser-guided bombs, and other weapons to Israel for its military attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. The arms have been transported by two chartered A310 cargo planes from the United States via Prestwick to Tel Aviv. Bush "apologized" to Tony Blair for not having the right "paperwork" prepared in advance for the hazardous arms flights through Scotland. Blair's spokesman in Washington told reporters, "President Bush did apologize for the fact that proper procedures were not followed . . . It was a gracious thing to do."
Blair overruled his own Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett by saying the arms flights would continue. Beckett had earlier condemned the flights and voice her opposition to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Blair's continuing support for Bush has earned him a severe backlash from members of his own Labor Party who had been vocal Blair supporters.
Members of the Scottish Parliament, particularly Scottish National Party members, are calling on the Scottish government to ban the U.S. flights from Scotland, a move that could result in a constitutional crisis between London and Edinburgh.
Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish Nationalists, said, "called on the Labour-Liberal Democratic Scottish Executive to step back from its role as an accessory to the escalation of violence in the Middle East by using its own transport powers to prevent such flights and get behind the overwhelming calls from the rest of the world for an immediate ceasefire to the conflict."

US planning $4.6 billion in Mideast arms sales

The announcement came two weeks after the administration said it would sell Israel its latest supply of JP-8 aviation fuel valued at up to $210,000,000 to help Israeli warplanes "keep peace and security in the region." The United States also rushed a delivery of precision-guided bombs requested by Israel after launching its airstrikes against Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon 17 days ago, The New York Times reported last week.
The law is that weapons purchased by Israel from the US must be used for "self-defense" which is why the semantics keep getting twisted around.

Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast

Israel is in violation of U.S. arms control laws for deploying U.S.-made fighter planes, combat helicopters and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon's infrastructure in the ongoing devastation of that militarily-weak country.

Israeli Planes Pound Targets in Lebanon

Israeli planes targeted bridges in southern and eastern Lebanon in new airstrikes Saturday, destroying one in a resort area on the Syrian border, as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was returning to the region to try to broker peace.

Israeli ship fires warning shot at Turkish evacuation ferry

An Israeli naval vessel fired a warning shot Monday night at a Turkish ferry en route to Beirut to pick up Australian nationals trying to flee Lebanon, said Turkish Transportation Minister Binyali Yildirim yesterday.

Participants in an anti-Israel rally protest in front of the Israeli consulate, Friday, July 28, 2006 in New York.
Mysterious wounds from Israeli shells in Gaza

Palestinians accuse Israel of using new bombs that cause burn injuries never seen before.

Israelis Rain Down Deadly DU On Lebanese Civilians

Esteemed depleted uranium expert Dr. Doug Rokke is pointing the finger at Israel for using deadly and illegal depleted uranium munitions against the Lebanese people which were sold to them by the U.S. government

Israel's 'Final Solution' to Arabs in South Lebanon
As the world stands by, either because they are in on it, too afraid to act, or simply don't care, Israel implements its 'Final Solution' to the Arabs of South Lebanon. It should be painfully clear to anyone whose been following this crisis that Israel is cleansing South Lebanon of its Arab population

Blair warns Iran, Syria of 'confrontation'

British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran and Syria that they face 'the risk of increasing confrontation' unless they reform their behavior in the Middle East.
Syria has said repeatedly that it wants to be a part of a solution to the situation in the Middle East, but neither the US nor the UK is listening to any country in that area except Israel.

Just hot air? Bush and Blair refuse to call for ceasefire

Tony Blair and George Bush defied the growing anger across the world yesterday by seeking a UN resolution that fell far short of a ceasefire to end the killing of Lebanese civilians.

Rupert Murdoch To Offer Tony Blair Senior Role In Media Empire...

The media magnate Rupert Murdoch is expected to offer Tony Blair a senior role in his News Corporation empire when he stands down as Prime Minister.
Woof-woof, good little doggie!


Struggling Lieberman faces political abyss

Now, hewing to his support for the war in Iraq, he confronts a political abyss, abandoned by all groups but the poorer, older and less educated Democrats in his state.
"The last three times I voted for him, but I will never vote for him again," Cheryl Curtiss, 52, of West Hartford, Conn., said recently of Lieberman as she waited for primary challenger Ned Lamont to speak at a campaign fundraiser. "The war is the big piece. I don't think it can be minimized. All of our tax dollars are going there. It's killing Americans. It's killing Iraqis. We went there on lies."

Russell Tice getting the Sibel Edmonds gag treatment?

NSA Whistleblower Alleges Intimidation Following Subpoena
National Security Agency whistleblower Russell Tice has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury. According to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition two FBI agents served Tice the subpoena outside his house on Wednesday.
Tice was one of the sources for the New York Times article that exposed the government's secret domestic surveillance programs. He also spoke out about the domestic wiretapping in a series of televised interviews, including on Democracy Now.

Tice is now accusing the government of trying to silence him. After being served the subpoena, he said 'This latest action by the government is designed only for one purpose: to ensure that people who witness criminal action being committed by the government are intimidated into remaining silent.'

Bush Granted EPA Secrecy Rights Amid Ground Zero Controversy
The New York Daily News is reporting in May 2002 President Bush signed a directive that granted the Environmental Protection Agency the power to classify information as secret. Critics are questioning the timing of the Bush order, saying it may be linked to the EPA’s handling of the cleanup of Ground Zero. Joel Kupferman of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project said: 'I think the rationale behind this was to not let people know what they were potentially exposed to.'

Oakland Police Spies infiltrate anti-war group
Two Oakland police officers working undercover at an anti-war protest in May 2003 got themselves elected to leadership positions in an effort to influence the demonstration, documents released Thursday show.
The department assigned the officers to join activists protesting the U.S. war in Iraq and the tactics that police had used at a demonstration a month earlier, a police official said last year in a sworn deposition.
Agents provocateurs.

Paul Wolfowitz authorized spying on anti-war groups

According to documents obtained by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network -- which works to combat the "don't ask, don't tell policy -- the database at one time contained records on protests at six schools, including Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Cruz and New York University. Such filings, called Threat and Local Observation Notices, or TALONs, were authorized in a memo by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, as a way to keep tabs on potential terrorist threats. The memo lists a number of specific reasons for which a TALON would be justified, but also allows one to be filed in response to general "suspicious activities/incidents."

Exxon-Mobil Posts Record Profit
In business news, the oil conglomerate Exxon Mobil has announced another record-breaking profit -- $10.4 billion dollars in this year’s second quarter. The total was the second biggest ever reported by a US company. In first place – Exxon’s $10.7 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of last year.

25,000 stateside troops tapped for Iraq deployment
As part of the next rotation to Iraq, 25,000 stateside troops have been tapped to deploy, and 3,500 members of an Army brigade already there have been extended by up to 120 days, the Defense Department announced Thursday.
"The extension reflects the continued commitment of the United States to the security of the Iraqi people," the news release says.

Sergeant Tells of Plot to Kill Iraqi Detainees

In a lengthy sworn statement, he said he had witnessed a deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis and a cover-up in which one soldier cut another to bolster their story. The squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked.

Shortage of troops in Iraq a grim warning'
The Bush administration's decision to move thousands of U.S. soldiers into Baghdad to quell sectarian warfare before it explodes into outright civil war underscores a problem that's hindered the American effort to rebuild Iraq from the beginning: There aren't enough troops to do the job.

Lebanese PM Blasts US Support for Lebanon Attack
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud criticized the US government's support for Israel's continued bombing.

• Lebanese President Emile Lahoud: "It was a huge disappointment. They should have called on an immediate ceasefire. Most Arab and European nations, who were silent at first, were now asking for a ceasefire. But unfortunately the United States is supporting Israel until the very end and rejected that call."

Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah

Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements. The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah's main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.

Hezbollah leader said to be hiding in Iranian Embassy

Intelligence reports indicate the leader of Hezbollah is hiding in a foreign mission in Beirut, possibly the Iranian Embassy, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

How to involve Iran in all this?

Bush Dismisses Ceasefire Calls, Blames Iran
" I -- you know, I -- I believe this; I believe that -- that, as Condi said yesterday, the Middle East is littered with, you know, agreements that just didn't work. And now's the time to address the root cause of the problem, and the root cause of the problem is terrorist groups trying to stop the advance of democracies. Hizbollah attacked Israel. I believe Hizbollah -- I know Hizbollah is connected to Iran. And now's the time for the world to confront this danger."
Booga-Booga!

Israel moves to tap into Gaza offshore gas field

Olmert beginning to lose support from Israeli people
The Israeli government has begun losing the strong support it enjoyed, from both right and left wings, especially after many soldiers were killed by Hezbollah during the fighting in Bint Jbeil.

Israel's "new Middle East"
Tanya Reinhart demonstrates that Israel's real aim in Lebanon is to establish the Litani River as its natural border. To realize this, it will first destroy Lebanon, then install a puppet regime and, finally, annex southern Lebanon.

UK peers call for Blair to be stripped of power to go to war without vote
A House of Lords committee has called for Prime Minister Tony Blair to be stripped of his power to send Britain to war.

Poland reluctant to give America sovereignty over missile base
Concerns have been raised over America's insistence that the base would be a sovereign US installation on Polish soil, and beyond the scrutiny of local legal and defence officials. "I approach the problem of extra-territoriality with reserve, I won't hide that," said the president, Lech Kaczynski.
The Warsaw newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported this week that Poland's government would be kept in the dark about the US base's operations and would not be consulted about missile launches.

Oil spill adds ecological crisis to Lebanon's agony
Along Lebanon's sandy beaches and rocky headlands runs a belt of black sludge, 10,000 to 30,000 tons of oil that spilled into the Mediterranean Sea after Israel bombed a power plant Lebanon's Environment Ministry says the oil flooded into the sea when Israeli jets hit storage tanks at the Jiyyeh plant south of Beirut on July 13 and 15, creating an ecological crisis that Lebanon's government has neither the money nor the expertise to deal with.
"We have never seen a spill like this in the history of Lebanon. It is a major catastrophe," Environment Minister Yacoub al-Sarraf told Reuters.

Israel's star-spangled arsenals
Much has been made in the US media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel's weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States.
The US is the primary source of Israel's far superior arsenal. For more than 30 years, Israel had been the largest recipient of US foreign assistance, and since 1985 Jerusalem has received about US$3 billion in military and economic aid each year from Washington. US aid accounts for more than 20% of Israel's total defense budget.

Captured troops revealed data on IDF plans
Israel Defense Forces soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured near the Lebanese town of Aitaa al-Chaab, have admitted to their captors that Israel was already planning a fall invasion of Lebanon.

Israel Bombs Infrastructure, Relief Trucks, Ambulance
The destruction to Lebanese infrastructure continues. Israel bombed a field of radio and television relay stations belonging to Lebanon’s state broadcaster. In the eastern Bekaa Valley, Israeli warplanes hit three trucks carrying food to Beirut. On Wednesday, an Israeli warplane hit a truck carrying medical and food supplies donated to Lebanon by the United Arab Emirates.
Photographs have emerged showing a Lebanese ambulance was bombed earlier this week even though the vehicle was clearly marked as an emergency vehicle. The photos show the roof of the ambulance smashed and pockmarked. Robert Fisk of the London Independent wrote that Israel's missiles pierced the very centre of the red cross painted on the roof, raising speculation the pilots used the cross as a target.

Hezbollah fighters fired at least 110 rockets at Israeli border towns Thursday. No injuries were reported.
The Lebanese government says the death toll in the two weeks of Israeli bombing could be as high 600. Earlier today, at least eleven Lebanese were killed in dozens of Israeli strikes on south Lebanon. The news comes as Israel has announced a massive call-up of up to 30,000 reserve troops. Israeli military radio told south Lebanese Thursday that Israeli forces "will totally destroy any village from which missiles are fired toward Israel."
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has admitted it has been using cluster bombs. Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said Israel is shelling civilian areas with cluster bombs in violation of international law.

5 Palestinians Die in Israeli Attacks on Gaza
Israeli airstrikes continue to kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – at least five on Thursday. It was the highest single-day Palestinian death toll in two weeks. At least 149 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s month-long assault following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

"Bull's-eye": 4 U.N. Peacekeepers killed in Israel's Targeted Assassination
Israel is now planning to step up its bombing campaign in the vain hope that it will root-out and destroy the resistance. This explains why the United Nations outpost was "deliberately" leveled by an Israeli missile yesterday. Clearly, Israel wants to conceal its orgy of carnage from the watchful eyes of international community. We should expect that more banned weaponry; cluster-bombs, napalm, lasers, bunker busters and chemical weapons will be used in the next major assault on Hezbollah strongholds. Like all desperate men, Olmert believes that he can extract himself from his present dilemma by increasing the level of violence.

UN observers leave Israel-Lebanon border
Israel Rejects Joint Investigation With UN on Observer Killings
Israel has dismissed UN Secretary General Koffi Annan's call for a joint investigation into the deadly Israeli air bombing of a UN base. The UN says it wants to be part of a probe into Tuesday's strike, which killed four international observers. Speaking Thursday in New York, Dan Gillerman said, "Israel does not feel it needs any help in investigating what happened."

Israel Rules Out UN Involvement in International Force
Israel has also ruled out major UN involvement in any possible international force in Lebanon. In a speech to an Israel advocacy group Thursday, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman said Israel would only accept "an international, [professional] force, with soldiers from countries who have the training and capabilities to be effective." Speculation is growing a possible international force would include US troops.
(Iraq-style death squads?)
Harper's Magazine correspondent Ken Silverstein is reporting a highly-placed former CIA officer says the Bush Administration is considering deploying troops. According to the former officer, the proposal is meeting resistance from Pentagon officials who say the military is overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israeli Justice Minister: World Gave 'Green Light' For Continued Attack
Israeli Justice Minister, Haim Ramon is drawing controversy for claiming the indecision at this week's conference in Rome means Israel has been given 'a green light' to continue attacking Lebanon. European Union officials have rejected Ramon's statement. The talks broke down after the US and Britain blocked an international effort for an immediate ceasefire.

Detainee Abuse Charges Feared
An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.
Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

Psychologists' Group Under Fire
The American Psychological Association is under fire from some of its members and other professionals for declaring that it is permissible for psychologists to assist in military interrogations.
The unrest stems from an APA policy, issued last year, that says that while psychologists should not get involved in torture or other degrading treatment, it is ethical for them to act as consultants to interrogation and information-gathering for national security purposes. That stand troubles some members of the organization in light of the reported abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.
Salon.com is reporting is reporting six of the ten people on the APA task force that drafted the psychologists' policy have close military ties. Four of the six worked at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib or Afghanistan. Dissident APA members say those task force members have a significant conflict of interest. The news comes as APA members prepare to discuss the issue at a conference next month. More than 1300 members and outside psychologists have signed an online petition denouncing the APA's current stance.

Cindy Sheehan Buys Land in Crawford, Texas
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan is a new landowner – in Crawford, Texas. Crawford is the site of President Bush's ranch, where he refused to meet with Sheehan almost one year ago. Sheehan says her new property will be used to host anti-war activities around the President's vacation next month.
GO CINDY!!!!

Vegan diet reverses diabetes symptoms, study finds
People who ate a low-fat vegan diet, cutting out all meat and dairy, lowered their blood sugar more and lost more weight than people on a standard American Diabetes Association diet, researchers said on Thursday.
That's because the American Diabetes Assn. would go out of business if people stopped eating garbage.

Cell phone picture of police called "conspiracy"

Cell Phone Picture of Police Called Obstruction Of Justice
Man Arrested For Shooting Photo Of Police Activity
A Philadelphia family said they are outraged over the arrest of one of their family members. The family of Neftaly Cruz said police had no right to come onto their property and arrest their 21-year-old son simply because he was using his cell phone's camera. Cruz, 21, told the NBC 10 Investigators that police arrested him last Wednesday for taking a picture of police activity with his cell phone. Cruz said police told him that he broke a new law that prohibits people from taking pictures of police with cell phones.

"They threatened to charge me with conspiracy, impeding an investigation, obstruction of a investigation. … They said, 'You were impeding this investigation.' (I asked,) "By doing what?' (The officer said,) 'By taking a picture of the police officers with a camera phone,'" Cruz said.

Cruz's parents, who got him out of jail, said police told them the same thing. "He said he was taking pictures with his cell phone and that was obstructing an investigation," said Aracelis Cruz, Neftaly Cruz's mother.

The NBC 10 Investigators asked the ACLU union how they viewed the incident.

"There is no law that prevents people from taking pictures of what anybody can see on the street," said Larry Frankel of the American Civil Liberties Union. "I think it's rather scary that in this country you could actually be taken down to police headquarters for taking a picture on your cell phone of activities that are clearly visible on the street." Frankel said Cruz's civil rights might have been violated. "He was unlawfully seized, which is a violation of the 4th amendment the last time we checked," Frankel said.

Pentagon declares war on internet combat videos

The Pentagon is asking US soldiers in Iraq to stop posting private combat videos on to the internet amid fears that they could be regarded as anti-Arab. Many of the digital clips feature explosions, gunfire and even dead bodies, with the images often set to a soundtrack of rock ballads, rap or heavy metal music.

White House has draft bill on terror trials: report
The White House has drafted legislation covering trials of terror detainees that would allow hearsay evidence and let defendants be excluded from trials to protect national security, The New York Times reported in Wednesday's edition.

FBI paid key terror informants $56,000
The FBI paid almost $56,000 to two confidential informants who are key to the case against seven men accused of being involved in a terrorist plot to blow up the Sears Tower and other targets.

Retired Air Force Col: They lied to us about the war and about 9/11 itself
As other speakers have said, they knew the American people wouldn’t stand for it, and they said so in their documents, and they said, unless there’s that new Pearl Harbor. Well 9/11 did supply that. And we’ve been lied to not only about the war, but about 9/11 itself.

Lebanon detains 36 spy suspects

With the help of Hizbollah, security forces detained the informants, many of them former members of a now defunct pro-Israeli militia.

American soldiers fight in Lebanon's border

Some minutes ago, Baztab, an Iranian news site close to Revolutionary Guards, reported that America's army has lunched a joint military base with Israeli forces near Lebanese border and US soldiers now are covertly fighting against Hizbollah.

Fox News Says Hezbollah 'Certain' To Nuke Major City

Following the ceaseless bombing of Lebanon, Fox News has gone thermonuclear in its mission to drive fear into the hearts of Americans by insisting that Hezbollah's use of a nuclear device in a major US or Israeli city is inevitable and that only increased surveillance of Americans can stop it.

FOX News Deliberately Hides Fact That "Middle East Analyst" Is Apocalyptic Christian Preacher

Monday morning, July 24, 2006, in a blatant bit of "lying by omission", FOX & Friends host Mike Jerrick introduced End of Days Christian preacher and author Michael D. Evans as a "Middle East Analyst." Evans is the author of the book "The American Prophecies: Ancient Scriptures Reveal Our Nation's Future." He is also the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, whose stated objective is "... to have one million people praying daily and 100,000 houses of worship praying weekly for the peace and protection of the Jewish people."

Officials Urge Law to Allow Eavesdropping

Senior Justice Department and intelligence officials urged Congress yesterday to approve new laws to accommodate the government's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program. Arguing that the 1978 law governing surveillance of terrorists is out of step with current technology, the officials, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said they previously had not sought new legislation to avoid disclosing a key part of the operation. That is the ability to intercept foreign phone calls and e-mails no matter what their destination as they pass through telecommunications facilities inside the United States, said Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency.

House votes to block police from seizing legal guns in disasters

The House voted Tuesday to prevent law enforcement officers from confiscating legally owned guns during a national disaster or emergency.

ISRAEL WANTS NO *WITNESSES* ON THE SYRIAN BORDER! UN-POST DESTROYED!
Israel troops 'ignored' UN observers' plea
The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say.

An accident waiting to happen

So what could be the motive? It is clear that there are many in the IDF with a profound contempt for the UN and all it stands for, and who would not shed many tears at such an accident. It may also rankle that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has, in the dearth of Western reporters from much of south Lebanon, provided independent corroboration of many incidents of IDF attacks on civilians. One only has to think of the fate of the USS Liberty in 1967 for being in a position to observe what the IDF was up to.
This time, the "collateral damage" is not just four dead UN personnel.
The bombing scotches any realistic chance of a reinforced UN or multinational peacekeeping force - which it is worth remembering that Israel itself opposed until a few days ago, and which the war party in Israel sees as a potential obstacle to their attempts to emulate Ariel Sharon's disastrous invasion in 1982.

In shelter of hospital, no refuge
Elderly women, fleeing two weeks of fighting since, have wrapped their swollen, bloodied and bruised feet in gauze. Five babies have been born premature since the fighting started. There is nowhere to bathe them. In another hallway, Abeer Faris cradled in her arms her 3-day-old infant, whom she carried on foot from the besieged city of Bint Jbeil nine hours after giving birth.

US Thwarts Middle East Cease-Fire

But the participating foreign ministers could not agree on the timing of a cease-fire, with the United States standing by its position that a settlement be in place for an "enduring" peace prior to a cessation of hostilities.

Bush and chaos in the world
Contrary to previous American presidents who tried to maintain at least the appearance of neutrality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Bush chose instead to put his foot in his mouth by proclaiming his overt partiality: "We're going to correct the imbalances from the previous administration on the Mideast conflict. We're going to tilt it back toward Israel. And we're going to be consistent."

US blocks UN from condemning Israel

The United States blocked the UN Security Council on Wednesday from issuing a statement that would have condemned Israel's bombing of a UN post on the Lebanon border that killed four military observers overnight Tuesday.

Israel's Man at the UN

As international criticism of Israel mounts, President Bush has asked Congress to approve his renomination of Bolton—a longtime State Department diplomat who has over three decades sought to debilitate the United Nations and who has earned a reputation as a defender of an aggressive Israel. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) calls Bolton "one of Israel's truest friends in the world."

Rice warns Iran, Syria over ceasefire
The top US diplomat urged Iran and Syria not to "torpedo" any attempts to stop the fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces in a two-week conflict that has killed more than 400 people in Lebanon and over 50 in Israel.

The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil
Also involved in this project is a pipeline to bring water to Israel, pumping water from upstream resources of the Tigris and Euphrates river system in Anatolia. This has been a long-run strategic objective of Israel to the detriment of Syria and Iraq.

Mysterious wounds from Israeli shells in Gaza

Doctors say they have never before seen such specific burn injuries, concentrated so much on the lower body and causing such a high propensity of amputations. The health ministry has already called for an independent inquiry.

At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Habes el-Wehedi, a softly spoken senior surgeon, said medical staff were "amazed" by injuries of more than 30 percent of the wounded admitted from Maghazi.

"There were amputations of limbs. Most patients were afflicted below the waist. They had burns all over their lower limb," he said.

Dean Calls Iraqi Prime Minister Anti-Semite, Criticizes Bush For U.S. Visit

Howard Dean just showed us all where his true loyalties lie. The current Iraqi leadership has been very critical of the US, as well as Israel. Howard Dean has no comment about Iraq's criticisms of the US occupation, but hoo boy, does Howard get his knickers in a twist when Maliki comments about Israel! Hey Howard! You are not only an embarrassment, but you are wrecking a golden opportunity for the Democrats to retake Congress this fall by showing more concern for a foreign nation than for this one.

Israeli Propaganda - Never Had It So Good

Assaf Shariv, media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, boasted to the Jerusalem Post last week that Israelis have been interviewed by the foreign press four times as much as spokespeople for the Palestinians and Lebanese. Shariv cited a poll of Sky News viewers that found that 80 percent believe Israel's attacks on Lebanon were justified. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Gideon Meir, added: "We have never had it so good. The hasbara [propaganda] effort is a well-oiled machine." (Gil Hoffman, 'Israel calls up media "reserves",' Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2006)

Agonist Poll: Is Anti-Semitism...?
A Very Real Problem In America 2% (41 votes)
Somewhat of A Problem In America 1% (24 votes)
A Serious Problem In Europe 2% (49 votes)
A Term Abused By Supporters of Israel 91% (2012 votes)
None of the above 3% (73 votes)

US Orders Media Blackout On Troop Movements As Syria Prepares To Attack Israeli Forces
Translation: US Orders Media Blackout On Troop Movements As Israel Prepares To Attack Syria and make it look like Syria attacked first (which is why that pesky UN Observation Post had to be bombed).


Silence on Israel's crimes damaging UK, warns former Blair adviser
A former top foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair is urging the Prime Minister to speak out against the Zionist regimes's indiscriminate killing of civilians in Lebanon and destruction of the country's infrastructure."Unhitch us from the Bush chariot," Sir Stephen Wall told Blair, warning him that the silence was damaging Britain's reputation in the Middle East by his complicity.

Chilean, U.S. defence ministers discuss Chile's decision on UN International Criminal tribunal initiative
Defense chiefs of the United States and Chile met on Tuesday in Washington to discuss Chile's decision to ratify a United Nations initiative for the International Criminal Tribunal, according to reports.

The United States has a stated policy according to which countries that ratify the UN initiative would face sanctions unless they specifically exempt U.S. soldiers and agents. Chile recently ratified the UN-led initiative for the Tribunal.

WHAT IS THE PRICE FOR YOUR CHILD'S LIFE?

In exchange for money, a certain group of people have agreed to let your kids be killed. That group is the United States Congress. And for the last several years, many of them have been accepting money from AIPAC, a supposed lobbying group that stands exposed as a spy operation for a foreign government, in order to promote that foreign government's agenda, which includes war in the Mideast, waged against that foreign government's enemies.

'Waiting to Get Blown Up'
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."

"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader.
Anti-Americanism prompts push for "citizen diplomacy"
With anti-American sentiment at unprecedented levels around the world, Americans worried about their country's low standing are pushing a grassroots campaign to change foreign perceptions of the United States "one handshake at a time." The idea is to turn millions of Americans into "citizen diplomats" who use personal meetings with foreigners to counter the ugly image of the United States shown in a series of international public opinion polls. They show widespread negative attitudes not only toward U.S. policies but also toward the American people and, increasingly, even American products.

Rolling Stone : Iran: The Next War
A few miles away, FBI agents watched as Larry Franklin, an Iran expert and career employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, drove up to the Ritz-Carlton hotel across the Potomac from Washington.
Since 2002, he had been working in the Office of Special Plans, a crowded warren of blue cubicles on the building's fifth floor. A secretive unit responsible for long-term planning and propaganda for the invasion of Iraq, the office's staffers referred to themselves as "the cabal." They reported to Douglas Feith, the third-most-powerful official in the Defense Department, helping to concoct the fraudulent intelligence reports that were driving America to war in Iraq.

Hot button election-year issues -- don't be deceived

Great new blog from the folks at Freewayblogger.com
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/

Not in our name, not with our money

White House press release calls for Israel to hit Syria
On Meet the Press, Tim Russert points out a stunning press release from the White House Communications Office. The release, titled Setting The Record Straight, endorses an LA Times Op-Ed that calls for Israel to attack Syria.
"It's time to let the Israelis take off the gloves…. Israel needs to hit the [Syrian] Assad regime. Hard."
It's difficult to not interpret this as the White Communications Office officially endorsing an Israeli attack on Syria.

Kidnapped in Israel or Captured in Lebanon?
As Lebanon continues to be pounded by Israeli bombs and munitions, the justification for Israel's invasion is treading on very thin ice. It has become general knowledge that it was Hezbollah guerillas that first kidnapped two IDF soldiers inside Israel on July 12, prompting an immediate and violent response from the Israeli government, which insists it is acting in the interest of national defense. Israeli forces have gone on to kill over 370 innocent Lebanese civilians (compared to 34 killed on Israel's side) while displacing hundreds of thousands more. But numerous reports from international and independent media, as well as the Associated Press, raise questions about Israel's official version of the events that sparked the conflict two weeks ago.

"The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them," reported Joseph Panossian for AP on July 12. "The forces were trying to keep the soldiers' captors from moving them deeper into Lebanon, Israeli government officials said on condition of anonymity.

Democracy Now! US Broadcast Exclusive:
"Star Wars in Iraq: Is the US Using New Experimental Tactical High Energy Laser Weapons in Iraq?"
In November, a documentary from Italy’s RAI Television accusing the US of illegally white phosphorus during its attack on Fallujah. A new documentary says the US is now using experimental laser weapons against Iraqi civilians.

Israel bans reporting of use of "unique" weapons in Lebanon
Israel has issued new censorship guidelines banning reporting of the "use of unique kinds of ammunition and weaponry" in Lebanon. This comes amid reports that Israel is using chemical weapons during its bombing of civilians in Lebanon.

Human Rights Watch: Israel Dropped Cluster Bombs on Civilians in Lebanon in Violation of Geneva Conventions
Human Rights Watch says Israel is dropping cluster bombs on Lebanese residential neighborhoods in possible violation of international law.

Israel using banned cluster and vacuum bombs and white phosphorous against civilians in Lebanon
"I can see parts of bodies, lots of families..." he said, his voice rising in terror. "It's all residential, there's nothing, nothing military here."



Israeli dual/multi-use WMD and badly burnt body of young Lebanese girl with telltale signs of white phosphorous attack

GRAPHIC VIDEO - Lebanese Doctor Says 'Phosphorus Weapons' Cause Suffering
Lebanese President Accuses Israel of Using White Phosphorous Bombs in Lebanon
Independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who exposed how the U.S. used white phosphorous bombs in Iraq, says Israel is using the same tactic in Lebanon.

Aid door to Lebanon closed, U.N. agencies say
"It is enormously frustrating to be right on the back doorstep of Lebanon and ready to move in with hundreds of tonnes of aid, but the door remains closed," spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis of the refugee agency UNHCR told a news briefing.

Saudi ruler says Israel actions threaten regional war
"If the peace option fails because of Israeli arrogance, there will be no other option but war," Saudi state television quoted the king.

UN Launches Emergency Appeal For Lebanon
The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal for the international community to help the people of Lebanon. This comes as Israel's bombardment of the country enters its 14th day. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said $150 million is urgently needed. About 800,000 people have already been forced to flee their homes. 150,000 Lebanese residents have left for Syria. Food, water, fuel and medical supplies are running out in parts of the country. The UN said entire communities have been cut off from the world because Israel has systematically destroyed the country’s networks of roads and bridges.

Condoleeza Rice Dismisses Calls For Immediate Ceasefire
Rice met with top Lebanese officials in Beirut on Monday but they failed to reach an agreement. The Lebanese government rejected the offer saying they wanted a two-step process. First, an immediate ceasefire and negotiations for a prisoner swap. And then discussions to work out a solution to the situation in south Lebanon.
Palestinians have called for a general strike and "a day of rage" today to protest Condoleeza Rice's visit to the region. Palestinian activist Omar Assaf said, "She is responsible for the killing of children in Lebanon and Gaza. She, her administration, and her policies are not welcome here."

US Mideast plan 'preposterous'
A vision of a new Middle East emerging from the conflict in Lebanon as outlined by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice drew ridicule on Monday from mainstream Arab analysts and former Arab diplomats. Several of them said the United States and Israel had little if any chance of achieving their stated goals of disarming Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army or an international buffer force along the Israeli-Lebanese frontier.

US, UN give Israel green light for Lebanon slaughter
Hamas, originally a creation of the Mossad and part of an Israeli divide and conquer strategy, has in recent years achieved genuine legitimacy that has been predictably short-lived, buried by propaganda, trumped by the “terrorist” label, as given by the Council on Foriegn Relations. Similarly, Hezbollah, which has been both a resistance group as well as a provider of social services has been transformed in recent years. This legitimacy, too, has been erased.

NATO Commander: Afghanistan is "Close to Anarchy"
In Afghanistan a senior British military commander says the country is "close to anarchy. " The warning comes from Lieutenant General David Richards - the head of NATO's international security force in Afghanistan. He said feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies has been compounding problems caused by local corruption. On Monday, hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked a government building in western Afghanistan. Three police officers were killed. Seven people were wounded.

U.S. Army Officer Refuses to Return to Iraq, Saying He's "Shocked and Disgusted" at the Bush Administration's Deception
"Simply put, I am wholeheartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership."
These were the impassioned, defiant words of Army First Lt. Ehren K. Watada, 28, in a letter he sent in January "with deep regret" to his brigade commander, Col. Stephen J. Townsend, asking to be allowed to leave the army "with honor and dignity" on Constitutional grounds. The Army's charged him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with one count of missing movement, for not deploying, two counts of contempt towards officials

Report: U.S. Still Abusing Prisoners in Iraq
A new report from Human Rights Watch has determined that U.S. forces are still abusing prisoners in Iraq as part of their standard operating procedure. The report was based in part on interviews with U.S. soldiers. Soldiers reported that prisoners at one camp were regularly stripped naked and subjected to beatings, forced exercises, severe sleep deprivation and various forms of degrading and humiliating treatment.

Frist lacks votes to overcome Bolton filibuster
The Republican leadership in the Senate may lack the votes it needs to overcome a filibuster of a confirmation vote for controversial US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton. A report in today's Roll Call quotes senate aides on both sides of the aisle who believe that the Bolton vote may be difficult for the Republicans. Last year President Bush gave Bolton a recess appointment after he failed to win enough support in the Senate. Democrats are expected to fight the nomination but one of Bolton's top critics in the Republican party -- Sen. George Voinovich, of Ohio -- says he will now support him.

Government Trolls - Our Tax Dollars at Work
The government spends YOUR tax dollars to pay people to surf the net and plant messages about how wonderful the war is for everyone!

I.R.S. to Cut IRS Tax Lawyers Auditing the Super Rich
The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others. One veteran I.R.S. estate tax lawyer called the job cuts a back-door way for the White House to repeal the estate tax -- even though the Bush administration does not have the support of Congress.

Senate to Vote on Controversial Abortion Bill
The Senate is expected to vote today on a bill that would make it illegal for anyone to accompany a young woman across state lines for an abortion without notifying her parents. The bill is called the Child Custody Protection Act. Under the bill a grandparent, clergy member or relative could face criminal charges for helping a young woman get an abortion.

Jose Bove On The Failure of WTO Trade Talks
The latest round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization have failed. Analysts say this marks a serious blow to the Bush administration's international economic agenda. The French farmer and anti-corporate globalization activist, Jose Bove, hailed the news.

• Jose Bove: "I think this failure first represents the failure of a system. The World Trade Organisation has tried to integrate all human activities, including agriculture, but during the 20 years agriculture has been integrated to global trade negotiations, they failed every time because the majority of the world people refuses that agriculture be integrated as a good. The second reason of this failure is the selfishness of rich countries. The United States and European Union want to open southern countries' markets in the interests of their multinational corporations. This doesn't work anymore."

Judge backs CIA contractor, bars testimony on child abuse

A former CIA contract employee facing charges he beat a suspected insurgent in Afghanistan who later died will not be forced to rebut allegations that he was a violent man who also beat his young stepson. Prosecutors said in March they wanted Passaro's stepson, Matthew Michael Newman, 26, to testify about how Passaro beat him beginning when he was 8 years old until he was a teenager.
Federal lawyers argued that the alleged beatings would help prove that the former Green Beret knew what he was doing when he used a flashlight to beat the Afghan suspect during interrogations. Authorities said Passaro kicked and beat an Afghan suspect named Abdul Wali with his fists and a flashlight for two days before the prisoner died in a cell. Wali was being questioned about a series of rocket attacks on a remote firebase housing U.S. and Afghan troops in the mountains of Afghanistan.


EXECUTIVE ORDER 13397 - CHURCH AS GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY

As of March 7, 2006, our nation's leader signed another Executive Order, which tied the Department of Homeland Security to our leader’s "faith-based" churches. Okay, all you non-profit churches out there -- you now serve the federal government's primary spying agency. That is now your primary function.

Will Toyota make a play for GM?

Could Renault and Nissan have a competitor in their effort to form an alliance with General Motors? Top executives at Toyota Motor are mulling their own overture to GM to head off rival Nissan from forging an alliance that could help the Japanese-French car company, according to people with knowledge of the Japanese auto maker's plans.

Putin plan to shut out US oil giants

Kremlin will favour Norwegian firms to develop Barents Sea field after differences with Bush scupper Russia's bid to join WTO.

Why are Americans so angry?

Why Are Americans So Angry?
Could it be that war, vague yet persistent economic uncertainty, corruption, and the immigration problem all contribute to the anger we feel in America? Perhaps, but it’s almost as though people aren’t exactly sure why they are so uneasy. They only know that they’ve had it and aren’t going to put up with it anymore.

Iraqi Speaker Accuses U.S. Forces of Committing Butchery
Iraq's parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani accused U.S. forces in Iraq of butchery. At a UN-sponsored conference on reconciliation, Mashhadani said "Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right.” He went on to say "What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people." Mashhadani also criticized US support for the Israeli attacks against Lebanon.

Iraqis Find Rare Unity in Condemning Israel
'The enemy is the same,' a Shiite group says of the Jewish state and its main supporter, the U.S.

U.S. Soldiers Ordered to "Kill All Military Age Males"
Here in the United States, four U.S. Army soldiers accused of murdering three Iraqis have said they did so under orders to "kill all military age males." Lawyers for the soldiers say that two senior officers — a colonel and a captain — have acknowledged that they gave that order. The soldiers are accused of detaining three Iraqi men and then allowing them to be released before shooting them.
One of the soldiers claims a sergeant was upset that the Iraqi men had been captured. The sergeant reportedly said "Why did you take them prisoner? Why didn’t you kill them?"
Legal experts say an order to kill all military-age men would be clearly unlawful, and any officer giving it would be liable for any action taken.

Turks Massing on Iraq Border
July 24, 2006: It appears Turkey is preparing to conduct a larger anti-PKK operation in northern Iraq. The Turkish government told the US that: "Turkey will decide (not the US) if Turkish troops enter Iraq in force." Turkish intelligence consistently reports that from 4000 to 5000 PKK guerrillas are operating from bases inside northern Iraq.

Are FEMA trailers 'toxic tin cans'?
For nearly a year now, the ubiquitous FEMA trailer has sheltered tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. But there is growing concern that even as it staved off the elements, it was exposing its inhabitants to a toxic gas that could pose both immediate and long-term health risks. The gas is formaldehyde, the airborne form of a chemical used in a wide variety of products, including composite wood and plywood panels in the thousands of travel trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency purchased after Katrina to house hurricane victims. It also is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Diebold Bombshell
Even more shockingly, we learned recently that Diebold and the State of Maryland had been aware of these vulnerabilities for at least two years. They were documented in analysis, commissioned by Maryland and conducted by RABA Technologies, published in January 2004. For over two years, Diebold has chosen not to fix the security holes, and Maryland has chosen not to alert other states or national officials about these problems. Basically, Diebold included a "back door" in its software, allowing anyone to change or modify the software. There are no technical safeguards in place to ensure that only authorized people can make changes.

Bush told to plan for Chavez oil shock

Richard Lugar, chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, has urged the Bush administration to adopt specific "contingency plans" for a potential disruption to oil supplies from Venezuela. In a letter sent to Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, last Friday, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, Mr Lugar warned the US that it needed to "abandon" reliance on a "passive approach" to energy diplomacy.

Pictures from Tel Aviv antiwar protest 7/22
International protests against the Israeli war on Lebanon continued over the weekend – including in Israel. More than 2,500 rallied on Saturday in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile the Israeli press has reported Israel has begun building news detention centers to jail anyone captured in Lebanon. Israel is already imprisoning about 11,000 Palestinians.

Cheerleading Israel does not an American foreign policy make
The goal here is merely to start thinking about the idea that whatever Israel accomplishes in Lebanon (and we still do not know the actual aim), it might not be completely and unquestionably in the United States' best interests.

US Complicit in Destruction of Lebanon - by Paul Craig Roberts
There never was any doubt of the Bush regime's complicity in Israel's naked aggression against the Lebanese civilian population. Bush has protected Israel from world condemnation. Bush has blocked those who attempted to bring a stop to Israel's bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, and now Bush rushes more bombs for Israel to drop on Lebanon.

Bush orders humanitarian aid to Lebanon

President Bush has ordered helicopters and ships to Lebanon to provide humanitarian aid, but he still opposes an immediate cease-fire that could give relief from a 13-day-old Israeli bombing campaign.

Olmert tells Cabinet he expects campaign to 'take a very long time'
Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the current Israeli offensive against Lebanon would "last a very long time," as he addressed a Cabinet meeting Sunday. According to a senior Israeli government official, Olmert said: "The diplomatic process will not come at the expense of destroying infrastructures of terror and this process will take a very long time."

Dershowitz and Grades of Human Beings

Alan "Torture is OK" Dershowitz is annoyed that the Israelis have been accused of killing innocent civilians. He is now arguing that there are degrees of "civilianity." He wonders how many innocent civilians killed by Israel in Lebanon would still be innocent if we could make finer distinctions.

Fleeing civilian vehicles hit by Israeli missiles
With an expression of utmost calm on her blood-masked face, the woman allowed herself to be gently lowered from the minibus into the waiting arms of two Lebanese Red Cross volunteers. The rescue workers had extracted her through a jagged hole in the roof of the crumpled bus, created by a missile fired minutes earlier by an Israeli helicopter that had blasted the vehicle off the road. Left behind in the vehicle, slumped over each other and soaked in blood, were the bodies of three people.

Hey, but fleeing civilians are much easier to hit when they're out in the open, right? And of course, they're fleeing because the Israeli leaflets told them to get out of town immediately, right? It's kind of like a shooting gallery for Israeli soldiers, no matter if they're innocent of any connection with Hizbullah, isn't it?

Fox News analyst compares Israelis to Nazis
"Saying the Israelis pulled out of Lebanon is like saying the Nazis pulled out of Moscow," he said. "They invaded Lebanon. They invaded Gaza. They take homes and then they give them back. And they expect some type of great recognition."

THE TWO ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED IN LEBANON
"Lebanese police said that the two soldiers were arrested as they entered the town of Aitaa al-Chaab inside the Lebanese border."

Report: Israel Drew Up Plans to Attack Lebanon Over a Year Ago
Meanwhile the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting Israel’s attack on Lebanon is based on well-developed plans. More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail. In his talks, the officer described a three-week campaign which involved ground troops being sent in during the third week.

Bush's Plan for "Serial War" revealed by General Wesley Clark
"[The] Five-year campaign plan [includes]... a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan" (Pentagon official quoted by General Wesley Clark)

American Bar Association denounces Bush's signing statements
The largest lawyers group in the country is warning that President Bush is undermining the constitution by claiming he has the authority to ignore laws passed by Congress. A new report by the American Bar Association criticizes the president's use of what are known as signing statements. Since he took office President Bush has issued over 750 signing statements – more than any president ever.
ABA President Michael Greco said "We will be close to a constitutional crisis if this issue, the president's use of signing statements, is left unchecked."
Bush has used signing statements to challenge laws including a congressional ban on torture, a request for data on the USA Patriot Act, whistle-blower protections and the banning of U.S. troops fighting in Colombia.

Cheney behind turn toward dictatorship
The United States is currently caught up in a new campaign for a military dictatorship rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time of great danger, the President has unlimited powers. If he cites national security, he can do whatever he wants -- ignore Congress, disobey laws, disregard the courts, override the Constitution's Bill of Rights, -- without being subject to any review. Separation of powers no longer exists under this view. The President need not consult Congress or the courts, only the vice president, the attorney general and God.

UK Govt Sources Confirm War With Iran Is On
"... will go to war with Iran before the end of the year."

Israel to get U.S. "bunker buster" bombs - report
The National Academy of Sciences estimates that the explosion will shoot some 300,000 tons of radioactive debris up to 15 miles into the air. The total number of casualties will vary but could exceed one million, depending on weather, wind velocity and the blast’s proximity to towns and cities.

U.S. Rushes to Send More Bombs to Israel
The United States is helping to restock Israel’s military arsenal. The New York Times reports the Bush administration has agreed to send a rush delivery of satellite and laser-guided bombs to Israel. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Israeli officials believe they have approval from the United States to keep attacking Lebanon for at least another week. However Britain has broken ranks with Washington.

UK Foreign Minister Criticizes Israel’s Military Tactics
Britain’s Foreign Office Minister, Kim Howells publicly criticized Israel's military tactics and urged the United States to 'understand' the price being paid by ordinary Lebanese civilians. Meanwhile Syria and Saudi Arabia have offered to help secure peace plans.

Why I believe David Kelly's death may have been murder, by MP
"But I have gone over in my mind the two conversations we had and he certainly did not betray to me any impression that he was anything other than tired. He certainly did not convey to me that he was feeling depressed and absolutely nothing that would have alerted me to the fact that he may have been considering suicide."

Amnesty: Jordan Torturing Suspects on Behalf of U.S.
A new report from Amnesty International says security agents in Jordan are torturing suspects on behalf of the United States in hopes of forcing confessions. Amnesty investigators had identified about 10 suspected cases of men subjected to rendition from U.S. custody to interrogation centers in Jordan, a close U.S. ally in the Middle East. Amnesty described Jordan as a central hub in a global complex of secret detention centers operated by the U.S.

U.S. Won't Push for Immediate Cease-Fire
White House officials said President Bush remains opposed to an immediate cease-fire to stop violence in the Middle East, despite personal pleas from ally Saudi Arabia that he help stop the bloodshed. Saudi King Abdullah beseeched Bush to intervene in Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the death toll is approaching 400 after less than two weeks of bombing. Abdullah's request was hand-delivered to Bush by Saudi officials who requested a meeting Sunday at the White House.

How do you spell "democracy"?

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION: A Primer

for Alberto, Torquemada, the snake,
is for Barbara, “Let them eat cake“.
is for Condi, who whines about Putin,
is for Dick, got drunk and went shootin’.
for the egg roll that kept out the gays,
for Fallujah, we slaughtered away,
global warming, ignored at our peril,
Haliburton, stealing lock, stock and barrel.
for Iraq, with Iran soon to follow,
for a justice even wingnuts couldn’t swallow.
is for Karl, treasonous lout,
for Bin Laden, still hiding out.
is for Michael, GQ while folks died,
for the napalm, they drop it with pride.
for Big Oil, pulling the strings,
Ask the Pentagon, nukes are great things.
for the quotes, leave us scratching our heads,
for the rapture cult, policing our beds.
Social Security, which they’re still trying to kill,
for the twins, hope they’re both on the pill.
uranium (depleted), cold nu-cle-ar war,
for our veterans, kicked out the door.
for miserable failure, as most of us know,
for Camp X-Ray, where the disappeared go.
for the yellowcake, not even real,
Zogby says “Nix the chimp at the wheel“.

VANITY FAIR discovers LOOSE CHANGE
One of the first American officials to publicly acknowledge conspiracy theories in connection with 9/11 was President George Bush, who on November 10, 2001, in a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations, said, "Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September 11."
Yet according to a May 2006 Zogby poll, 42 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government and the 9/11 commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks," and that "there has been a cover-up."
Consider another Zogby poll from August 2004, which found that 63 percent of New Yorkers under 30 believe some U.S. leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act."
For those who can't find information about the alleged cover-up on the nightly news, there is Loose Change, a documentary about 9/11 conspiracy theories which just might be the first Internet blockbuster. Since it appeared on the Web in April 2005, the 80-minute film has been climbing up and down Google Video's "Top 100," rising to No. 1 this May, with at least 10 million viewings.

• What, for example, were the explosions some witnesses heard after the towers were hit by planes? Why was the site of the collapse not treated as a crime scene, and why was the debris shipped off as waste to several foreign countries?
• Why were the black boxes from American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 never found, when the passport of one of Flight 11's alleged hijackers, Satam Al Suqami, turned up unscathed a few blocks from the World Trade Center?
• How did American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, disappear into a 20-foot hole, leaving no trace of its 124-foot wingspan on the building? And what's with all the forewarnings that the government ignored?

For the past three months, 20,000 people a day have been clicking on to the official Loose Change Web site, http://www.loosechange911.com more than 50,000 have placed orders for the DVD since its release.
Loose Change also delves into the question of why the United States' elaborate air-defense system failed to thwart the September 11 attacks. The 9/11 Commission Report says "there was no one to blame." The film points to a 20-page instruction from June 1, 2001, issued by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which reassigned the authority for aircraft interceptions and shoot-downs to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Titled "Aircraft Piracy (Hijacking) and Destruction of Derelict Airborne Objects," the instruction states that henceforth "the NMCC [National Military Command Center] will … forward requests for DOD assistance to the Secretary of Defense for approval."
Neither the president nor the vice president is mentioned in the new directive as being part of the chain of command. By military protocol, the authority belonged to Rumsfeld, who later claimed he was "out of the loop."
"Are you sort of suggesting that [9/11] worked in the favor of the Bush administration?," Mick O'Regan asks Hunter S. Thompson in Loose Change.
"Oh, absolutely. Absolutely," Thompson says. "You sort of wonder when something happens like this, well, who stands to benefit? Who had the opportunity and the motive?"


Bush administration sells off public forests to energy companies
Working with the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bush administration is moving ahead with plans to sell public national forest land to big oil and gas companies, as well as private timber firms. The White House plans to sell over 300,000 acres of publicly owned land, generating $800 million. The states hardest hit will be California (85,500 acres), Idaho (26,200 acres), Colorado (21,500 acres) and Missouri (21,500 acres). The administration is justifying these sales by claiming that they will generate funds to continue the Secure Rural Schools program, which is scheduled to run out of money in September.
In reality, the Bush administration is plundering publicly owned lands on behalf of big business and the land sales will do nothing to seriously alleviate the mounting economic hardships faced by rural America.
A recent Bureau of Land Management auction in Colorado has left little doubt that the land sales will have a devastating impact on communities as well as the environment. Over $11.8 million was raised by the BLM from the sale of 135,000 acres of public land to energy companies in the state.
Of the land sold, nearly 17,000 acres are located in the watersheds crucial for the cities of Grand Junction and Palisade. Grand Junction, a city of 45,000 residents, attempted to buy the watersheds essential to its clean drinking water, but was outbid by an offer of $900,000 for the land by a private bidding company, the employer of which, as of now, is unknown.
While American working people are increasingly squeezed financially, with record oil and gas prices around the country a major contributing factor, a handful of energy conglomerates continue to report record profits. The government has not collected any increase in taxes on this surge of profits.
Last year's $60 billion in oil and gas extracted from publicly owned lands should have provided the government with an additional $700 million in taxes. However, carefully crafted federal regulations, or flat-out negligence, have allowed these companies to report lower sales profits to the Interior Department than it did to its stockholders.

The big loser is the American population, who allegedly own the energy resources on these public lands. All profits from oil, natural gas or minerals extracted from these lands are supposed to be regulated and taxed so that the US Treasury can collect compensation for lease of the land. These royalties typically range from 12 percent to 16 percent, when they are actually collected. However, the New York Times reported that natural gas corporations have yet to provide a credible explanation as to why—given that the price of natural gas nearly doubled from 2001 to 2005—they are paying fewer royalties today then they were in 2001. If both oil and natural gas royalties are combined, the $8 billion paid in 2001 is the same as in 2005. Oil and gas companies have unequivocally denied any wrongdoing.
As a further safeguard to big business interests on federal lands, Bush has appointed Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as the secretary of the interior -- the cabinet officer responsible for managing national parks, public lands and waters, and conserving natural resources. Kempthorne has long served big corporations at the expense of environmental and public interests.
Opposing the Idaho governor's appointment, a spokesman for the National Resources Defense Council said, "President Bush could not have made a more anti-environmental choice for his new secretary of the interior. Dirk Kempthorne surely will continue this administration's 'drill first, ask questions later' approach to public land stewardship."
A statement by the NRDC noted that during Kempthorne's first four-and-a-half years in office, the state's air got dirtier, more rivers were polluted, fewer polluters were inspected, and toxic emissions increased, ('Ex-EPA Foe Now In Line to Lead It,' Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2003). Kempthorne cut the state's environmental services budget three times in two years. Kempthorne is expected to fill the shoes of retiring Secretary Gale Norton [another servant of corporate interests] all too well. As interior secretary he plans to oversee the Bush administration's push for more oil and gas drilling from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska's North Slope.

Mad cow disease testing to decrease

"If you do testing of 100 percent of your animals, any ones that test positive never go into the food chain," said Michael Hansen of Consumers Union. "That's in part why they do it in Europe, because they've seen animals that look perfectly fine, and they catch them just before they go to slaughter."

Federal Court Rejects White House Bid to Dismiss Wiretap Suit
A federal judge has rejected the Bush administration’s attempt to dismiss a major lawsuit over its secret domestic spy program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing AT&T over its alleged involvement in the surveillance of US citizens. The Bush administration had argued the case could expose state secrets and jeopardize the war on terror. But U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the case is unlikely to reveal much new information since the spying has already received extensive public attention. The ruling could have a major impact on dozens of pending cases against telecom companies and the US government.

Who will defend US from Israel?’ The Israeli Spy-Ring and 9/11

"Jack Abramoff… Let me tell you something. He's a guy, he's an orthodox Jew running what is a corrupt lobby, this in no way reinforces negative stereotypes that people may have had towards, let's say, Jews." – Jon Stewart on Larry King Live

IDF: Mossad “has significantly infiltrated Hizbullah
So, Israel sends some troops to the Israel/Lebaonon border (or over it, according to some reports). Mossad agents operating inside Hezbollah grab those soldiers. Instant pretext for invasion.

U.S. Arming of Israel:
How U.S. Weapons Manufacturers Profit From Middle East Conflict
Much has been made of the Syrian and Iranian origin of weaponry used by Hezbollah but there has been little discussion of where Israel's weapons come from. A new report by the World Policy Institute examines how the United States provides billions of dollars of military aid to Israel each year and how their current arsenal is composed of U.S made equipment.

The Most Dangerous Alliance in the World
Embarrassing. Shameful. A travesty. Those kinds of words begin to describe the alliance between the United States and Israel. Here are a few more: Government criminality. High-tech terror. Mass murder from the skies. The kind of premeditated action that the U.S. representative in Nuremberg at the International Conference on Military Trials -- Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson -- was talking about on August 12, 1945, when he declared that 'no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy.'

Thousands Protest Lebanon Invasion in Latin America, Asia, Israel
Demonstrations against the attack on Lebanon continue world-wide. On Thursday, more than 2,000 people marched in Venezuela. An estimated 10,000 people took to the streets of Madrid. Other demonstrations were held in Mexico, El Salvador, Malaysia and Indonesia. Meanwhile in Israel, a group of Israeli peace activists held a demonstration in the city of Haifa.

• Demonstrator Edna Zaretzy-Toledano: "This is a group of people who oppose the war because the oppose shelling civilians. They oppose war as a first means to solve conflicts."

CONFIRMATION: ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE INSIDE LEBANON WHEN CAPTURED

In the afternoon, the scene changed in the streets of southern Lebanon, which was the target of 32 Israeli raids that mainly targeted areas near the area where the two soldiers were captured in Aita al Chaab, close to the border with Israel.
"In a deliberated way, Tsahal sent a commando in the Lebanese back-country to Aita Al Chaab. It was attacked by Hezbollah, making two prisoners. Israel then pretends to be attacked, and attacks Lebanon."

According to the Lebanese police force, the two soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory, in the area of Aïta Al-Chaab close to the border, whereas Israeli television indicated that they had been captured in Israeli territory.

"The Fuhrer felt obliged to strike back only after Polish troops had crossed the German border at several places. The German fight is a defensive fight. We fight because we were forced to fight by the insults and demands against us, because of the brutal suppression of ethnic Germans in Poland, and because of the open announcements that they would do everything in their power to strangle National Socialist Germany through military or economic means." -- Die Wehrmacht (1939, Nr. 19, p. 2)

Israel Warns 300,000 Lebanese To Flee Homes As Bombing Continues
Israel is warning some 300,000 Lebanese to abandon their homes as it edges towards a full-on ground invasion of southern Lebanon. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting thousands of Israeli troops are already operating inside the Lebanese border. The Israel Defense Forces is preparing to call up thousands of reserve troops. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr told the Arabic television network Al Jazeera Thursday Lebanon would resist an Israeli attack.
At least thirty Lebanese were killed Thursday. The Lebanese death toll stands at around 320 -- almost all civilians. Earlier today, Israeli warplanes attacked Lebanon’s main highway to Syria. Several passenger buses were set on fire but no casualties were reported. The World Food Program says damage to roads and bridges has almost completely disrupted the food supply chain, hurting large numbers of the estimated 500,000 people displaced by the attack. The situation in the southern Lebanese village of Tyre is getting worse by the day. The Los Angeles Times reports: 'Civil structure appears to have broken down almost completely. Ambulances haven't been able to operate. The dead are rotting in the rubble of smashed homes. Food and clean drinking water are running out.'
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told Al Jazeera Thursday the two captured Israeli soldiers will be freed only as part of a prisoner exchange through indirect negotiations. Nasrallah also denied Israel’s claim it had struck a meeting of top Hezbollah leaders late Wednesday.

Lebanon crisis reveals an Anti-Jewish Israeli State
Members of the Israeli government including Prime Minister Olmert refer to themselves as Jews, who are champions of the Jewish State of Israel as Mr. Bush refers to himself as a "Christian" champion. However, the current crisis in Lebanon has nothing substantively to do with either Judaism or Christianity.
Judaism teaches you're either part of the problem or you're part of the solution. Being a bystander is not an option. Therefore, any Jew who turns a blind eye to the apparent unethical conduct of a self-professed "Jewish State" shares the responsibility in the "Crimes against Humanity" that are being mischievously perpetrated in the name of Judaism.
The same could and should be said for Christianity.

House Votes to Back Lebanon Invasion
The US government continues to back Israel’s actions. On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting the attack on Lebanon. The final vote was 410 to 8. The Senate unanimously passed a similar measure earlier this week.
These are the legislators that will be replaced by the American people in November.


Grim proof ordinary folk are dying in the killing zone
PARKED outside the small general hospital in Tyre is a badly refrigerated lorry container in which are stacked the bodies of 91 Lebanese civilians, 55 of them children.

France acuses US of blocking Mideast truce
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has accused the United States of blocking a United Nations call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.

With focus on Lebanon, Israelis keep hitting Gaza

World Sick Of US Media's Double Standard
As of noon July 19, 800,000 people had participated in CNN's Quick Vote, with the result that 55 percent oppose Israel's attack on Lebanon. This result is despite the fact that U.S. television reporting explains the news from the Israeli perspective.

Spain denies anti-Semitism in criticizing Israel
Anti-Zionism is not the same thing as Anti-Semitism.

Poll: Lamont Leads Lieberman in Connecticut
In Connecticut, a new poll shows Ned Lamont is holding a razor thin lead over Senator Joe Lieberman ahead of next month’s Democratic primary. Lieberman has vowed to run as an independent in the event of a loss. The same poll shows Lieberman would retain his Senate seat in a three way race along with Lamont and the Republican challenger. But Lamont would win the Senate seat in a two-person race against a Republican opponent.
Go Lamont.

RFK Jr. Blows the Whistle on Diebold
On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a "qui tam" lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were "unhackable." Kennedy claims to have witnesses "centrally located, deep within the corporations," who will confirm that company officials withheld their knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability and security of EVMs in order to procure government contracts. Since going into service, many of these machines have been linked to allegations of election fraud.

In the wake of alleged vote count inconsistencies and the "hanging chad" debacle of 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. HAVA appropriated $3 billion to replace voting equipment and make other improvements in election administration. Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Sequoia Systems secured the lion's share of nearly half that sum in contracts to purchase EVMs. All 50 states have received funds and many are hurriedly spending it on replacing lever and punch card machines in time for November.
According to the Election Assistance Commission, more than 61 percent of votes in the 2004 presidential election were cast and/or tallied by EVMs. Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, estimates that the figure will jump to 80 percent by November, which will see elections for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

Wanta Plan - Fed Blocks $4.5 Trillion Due US Treasury

The corrupt Federal Reserve Board is now standing in the way of $1.575 trillion in repatriated offshore funds earmarked for the U.S. Treasury in what is now being called in worldwide financial circles as the "Wanta Plan". An agreement was reached June 12 between U.S. authorities and Wanta, the legal trustor of more than 27.5 trillion in lost or stolen U.S. assets from the Cold War era, to return 4.5 trillion of the looted money by the Bush and Clinton crime families, less money for taxes and other related expenses. Wanta, jailed illegally for over a decade, began trying to recover the money when released on house arrest more than a year ago. The settlement reached on June 12 precludes him from trying to recover any more of the stolen money, which some financial observers estimate to be more than 70 trillion while calling it the biggest bank heist in the history of the world.

Las Vegas Outlaws Feeding Homeless in Public Parks
Vegas Makes It Crime To Feed Homeless People
And in Las Vegas, city council members have established a new punishable offense -- feeding the homeless. On Wednesday, the Las Vegas City Council voted to outlaw the presence of mobile soup kitchens in public parks. Anyone caught serving food to the homeless will be subject to a misdemeanor charge. City officials say they’ve enacted the law because soup kitchens have kept people away from visiting public spaces. The American Civil Liberties Union has harshly criticized the measure, calling it both unconstitutional and unenforceable. But Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said the law will be enforceable because: 'Certain truths are self-evident. You know who’s homeless.'
"So, the only people who get to eat are those who have enough money? Those who get (government) assistance can't eat at your picnic?" asked ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I've heard of some rather strange and extreme measures from other cities. I've never heard of something like this. It's mind-boggling."

FEMA muzzling Louisiana trailer-park residents
Residents of trailer parks set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house hurricane victims in Louisiana aren't allowed to talk to the press without an official escort, The Baton Rouge Advocate reported.
FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Rodi wouldn't say whether the security guards' actions complied with FEMA policy, saying the matter was being reviewed. But she confirmed that FEMA does not allow the news media to speak alone to residents in their trailers.
Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said FEMA's refusal to allow trailer-park residents to invite news media into their homes unescorted was unconstitutional.
Wonder what FEMA is worried about the residents telling the news media?

"Mass Punishment on a Whole People"

Robert Fisk in Beirut: Israeli Assault on Lebanon Inflicting "Mass Punishment on a Whole People"
The Israeli attack on Lebanon has entered its second week and the death toll now stands at about 300, nearly all Lebanese civilians. We go to Beirut to speak with Robert Fisk, chief Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. Fisk discusses the assault on Lebanon, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the role of Syria and Iran in the crisis, embedded reporters in the Israeli military and more. [includes rush transcript]

Protests Across U.S. and Around the World Call for End to Israel Bombardment of Lebanon
Protests were held around the world yesterday in response to Israel's assault on Lebanon and Palestine. From San Francisco to Cairo, Montreal to Rome, tens of thousands took to the streets to call for an end to Israeli aggression in the Middle East.

From The Lebanese People To The So Called “Civilized” West

Rep. Kucinich to introduce Resolution Calling on Bush to Push for Cease-Fire
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will introduce a resolution in Congress on Wednesday that calls on President Bush to appeal to all sides for a cessation of hostilities in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict and to commit the United States to multi-party negotiations. Also, at bottom, read the speech that Rep. Kucinich delivered on the House floor on Tuesday that warned of 'mutually assured destruction' if saner heads do not soon prevail in the Middle East.

"The Insane Brutality of the State of Israel"

Words fail; ordinary terms are inadequate to describe the horrors Israel daily perpetrates, and has perpetrated for years, against the Palestinians. The tragedy of Gaza has been described a hundred times over, as have the tragedies of 1948, of Qibya, of Sabra and Shatila, of Jenin -- 60 years of atrocity perpetrated in the name of Judaism. But the horror generally falls on deaf ears in most of Israel, in the U.S. political arena, in the mainstream U.S. media. Those who are horrified -- and there are many -- cannot penetrate the shield of impassivity that protects the political and media elite in Israel, even more so in the U.S., and increasingly now in Canada and Europe, from seeing, from caring.

Fox News analyst compares Israelis to Nazis
Fox News military analyst Maj. Bob Bevelacqua, a former Green Beret, appearing tonight on "The O'Reilly Factor," compared Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza with Nazi actions in Russia during World War II. Bevelacqua, a long-time Fox News contributor, said the Israelis were unwilling to compromise in their conflict with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. He denied that the Israelis willingly evacuated from Gaza and Lebanon.
"Saying the Israelis pulled out of Lebanon is like saying the Nazis pulled out of Moscow," he said. "They invaded Lebanon. They invaded Gaza. They take homes and then they give them back. And they expect some type of great recognition. They (the Israelis) lack the word compromise. They refuse to sit down and negotiate."
His resume also says he has a 17-year history of worldwide military experience, including combat in the Gulf War, riot control in Los Angeles, a peacekeeping mission in Haiti, security assistance missions in West African countries and numerous anti-drug missions on the U.S. border with Mexico.

As the world looks elsewhere, death toll rises in Gaza
Israeli Tanks Move Into Gaza Refugee Camp

Israeli tanks moved into the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza early Wednesday under cover of machine gun fire from troops, the latest incursion in its three-week military push in the seaside territory.

"I wish that I was the one who was killed and not him," said Ahmed, 17, standing on his roof, where his brother, Muhammad, 22, was struck in the chest by a sniper's bullet early on Monday morning. Ahmed's words were interrupted by new explosions. "My brother didn't run with militant groups. He used to fix washing machines. He was a smart thinker and a believer," he said.

U.S. Senate Unanimously Votes to Back Israel
On Capitol Hill, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution endorsing Israel's military attack and condemning Hezbollah as well as Iran and Syria. The House is expected to approve a similar resolution. Last night Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman declared "today, we are all Israelis" during a speech to the organization Christians United for Israel.

Bolton: No More Equivalence Between Casualties in Lebanon & Israel
At the United Nations, US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from what he called "malicious terrorist acts". He maintained that Israel has only been acting in self defense.
So, are we to suppose that those slaughtered as 'civilian casualities' resulting from state-approved 'beneficent' terrorist acts are somehow less dead?

Energized Neocons Say Israel's Fight Is Washington's
Above all, according to the neoconservatives, the U.S. position in the region is now inextricably tied to the success or failure of Israel's military campaign.

Israel an American Value?
The plan for our current conquest of the Middle East was developed by high ranking persons in the US who consistently demonstrate their loyalty to Israel at the expense of American interests and lives including The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, John Bolton. Douglas Feith, William Perle and Paul Wolfowitz. Commonly they and Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and others are referred to as the neocons. Conservative they are not. They are Trotskyites.
The plan drafted in 1998 for the Israeli government, which required another Pearl Harbor event to motivate Americans to support a Middle East makeover for Israel and includes regime change in Iraq first, then Iran, Syria, Lebanon and other Middle East countries.
George Washington, our first President warned of this. He called it a "Passionate attachment for a foreign nation". President Dwight Eisenhower also warned us of the dangers associated with making decisions based upon military conquest and profit. He called it "the military industrial complex", an interest group of which President Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group, Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton and the Israeli government strongly support.
Though Israel accounts for less than 1/2% of the world population, it supplies 10% of all weapons internationally.
Israel requires conflict to survive in the US subsidized lifestyle it has become accustomed to.
MORE ON THE WAR PROFITEERS

6000 Iraqi civilians killed in last two months - UN
The United Nations has determined that about 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the months of May and June making it the deadliest period of the war. This means an average of 100 Iraqis are dying every day. The UN figures are based on data from the Baghdad morgue and the Health Ministry.

IRAN: LEFTIST WEBSITE CLAIMS U.S. PLANES FLEW OVER TEHRAN
Tehran, 19 July (AKI) - The Farsi-language leftist website Peyknet has claimed in an unconfirmed report that US aircrafts flew over Tehran at dawn on Tuesday, citing anonymous Western sources. Edited by former members of the Iranian Communist party, the online paper alleged that the Iranian government kept the news a secret so as not to alarm the population. The website also quoted the same unnamed sources as claiming that some European embassies were studying plans to evacuate their citizens from Tehran in case of a US attack.

Pentagon Papers Author Daniel Ellsberg Says Government May Have Carried Out 9/11
Predicts Bush Regime Will Stage Terrorist Attack to Provide Pretext for Iran, Syria Invasion, And Justify Internment Camps for American People
By Kevin Smith & Alex Jones

Daniel Ellsberg is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national firestorm in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, the US military's account of activities during the Vietnam War, to The New York Times.
The release awakened the American people to a systematic program of organized deception carried out by the Pentagon against the population to continue the Vietnam War.
Daniel Ellsberg, speaking on air to GCN radio host Jack Blood, stated his concerns that criminal elements of the US government were psychologically capable to have carried out 9/11. He warned that within days after a US military strike on Iran that Bush's handlers would probably stage some type of terror attack in the West to legitimize the new war.
Ellsberg went on to state that another major Reichstag-like state-sponsored attack would be followed by a martial law scenario which might include detention camps for American dissenters. Ellsberg said that he worked with individuals at the highest levels of government who staged war provocations several times to whip up pro-war sentiment in the US.
Daniel Ellsberg now joins the ranks of hundreds of prominent engineers, physicists, economists, military officers, pilots, high-level intelligence analysts, and cabinet ministers who are exposing the 9/11 hoax.


Yemenis chant slogans against Israel's attack on Gaza and Lebanon during a protest in the capital Sanaa July 19, 2006. Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of the capital Sanaa on Wednesday to condemn Israel's "barbaric" attacks against Lebanon and the Palestinians. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Beirut

It's Time to Stand Against Israel
What does it take to see that Israel is a global menace the United States should not support? Israel has launched two wars in less than 30 days, one against the Palestinians, the other against Lebanon. Throughout their aggression, which has seen destruction in the tens of millions of dollars (to say nothing of the incalculable human cost that continues to rise), the Western world has done everything it can to legitimize said violence. American politicians loudly proclaim that we stand united behind Israel while magazines such as Time paint the Middle East as a curiosity. "Why do they fight?" they ask while ignoring the patently obvious answers: They're on someone else's land. And they want more of it.

The Untermensch Syndrome: Israel's Moral Decay

The labeling as anti-Semitic of anyone critical of the state of Israel's policies in the continued destruction of Palestinian identity, and now Lebanese society and infrastructure, and the increasing domination into American foreign policy no longer has the sting of threat or intimidation it once mastered. For too long this masquerade has been used to silence those opposing anything Israel, shouted at anyone disseminating truth and seeking justice. Like the boy who cried wolf, this charade has lost its power or hypnotic control, and today only serves to breed more anger and resentment against the apologists and smear mongers protecting the cancerous tentacles of Zionism and the crimes against humanity it spawns.

Israel Bombs Milk, Pharmaceutical Factories, Aid Convoys, Church
The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon continues to worsen. At least 500,000 people have been displaced from their homes. Scores of roads and bridges have been hit making it hard to transport food or humanitarian aid. Recent Israeli strikes have targeted the country’s largest milk factory, a major food factory and two pharmaceutical plants. Earlier bombs hit water processing plants, power plants and grain silos. On Tuesday a convoy of two trucks carrying medical supplies donated by the United Arab Emirates was hit. The trucks were destroyed and both drivers died. The Israeli military has denied targeting the factories or aid trucks.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Siniora accused Israel of committing massacres against Lebanese civilians and working to destroy everything that allows the country to stay alive. Another Lebanese cabinet minister accused Israel of waging a war to inflict famine in Lebanon. The Beirut Bar Association has begun discussing plans to file a complaint with the United Nations against Israel for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Horrifying: Israeli kids write messages on bombs
Israeli girls write messages on a shell at a heavy artillery position near Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, next to the Lebanese border, Monday, July 17, 2006.(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
-- Oscar Hammerstein III, from "South Pacific"

Heavy fighting in Colombia forces thousands of civilians to flee
Intense fighting between the army and leftist guerrillas in western Colombia has forced thousands of civilians from their homes and trapped several Indian communities who are unable to reach safety, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Blair Quashes Public Release of Bush Terror Plot Evidence!
The public must be prevented from learning the contents of a conversation between Tony Blair and President George Bush about the conduct of the war in Iraq - crucial evidence in a forthcoming official secrets trial - an Old Bailey judge ruled yesterday.

Cover-Up Exposed?
Amid all the other news yesterday, the attorney general's startling revelation that President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation into the administration's controversial secret domestic spying programs hasn't gotten the attention it deserves.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales revealed on Tuesday that it was President Bush himself who blocked Justice Department lawyers from investigating the legality of the administration's secret domestic surveillance program. The National Journal reported that Gonzales's statement stunned some senior Justice Department officials, who were led to believe that Gonzales made the decision. Bush blocked the Justice Department investigation of the National Security Agency program by denying necessary security clearances to investigators from the department’s ethics unit.

Ex-Time Editor to Join Carlyle Group
In media news the former editor of Time Magazine, Norman Pearlstine, is set to become a senior advisor to the Carlyle Group. The investment company is reportedly stepping up its ownership of media companies. It is part of a consortium that recently bought VNU, owner of Nielsen Media Research and Hollywood Reporter.

Ralph Reed Loses in Georgia Primary
In Georgia, Ralph Reed, political crony of convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has failed in his attempt to become the state’s lieutenant governor. The former head of the Christian Coalition lost Tuesday's Republican primary to a little known state senator named Casey Cagle.
Bye-bye, Ralph!

Angela Merkel to Bush: "Hands off me, please."

The Ugly Truth: Our President is an Imbecile
You know it, I know it and the American people know it. But everyone is afraid to say it. They say it privately, but people are afraid of saying it publicly because you will be branded as a liberal, elite, intellectual snob. But believe me, you don't have to be an intellectual to see how painfully stupid our president is.

The camera is focused elsewhere and it is not clear whom Bush is talking to, but possibly Chinese President Hu Jintao, a guest at the summit.
Bush: "Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home? This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get home. How long does it take you to get home?"
Reply is inaudible.
Bush: "Eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country."
At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the conversation.
Bush: "It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia's big and so is China."

Russia's big and so is China??????? This guys sounds like a third grader. Do you know anyone who would have a conversation like this with their neighbor, let alone a business associate, let alone a world leader? Can anyone now credibly claim that Bush is secretly working on a master plan behind the scenes and that he's just playing cowboy for the cameras? If someone is this ignorant, they're usually embarrassed and try not to talk much. But this guy is so dumb he has no idea how dumb he is.
Unfortunately, right now we are in the position of being pitied by the rest of the world. We have third grader for a President. And worse yet, the Vice President has him convinced he is the second coming of Winston Churchill. Scared yet?

Former Ambassador Leo Wanta Getting 1.2 Trillion Of Stolen U.S. Funds Back To Treasury

Despite the Bush and Clinton crime families' efforts to rip-off the country of more than 27.5 trillion, Wanta has recovered more than 1.2 trillion. He further thanked the Arctic Beacon for being one of the only news outlets to believe his story as the mainstream media remains hush-hush.

Photos from Lebanon

Putin Dismisses Bush's Call For Russia to Follow Iraqi Model of "Democracy"
Leaders of the world's industrialized nations gathered for the annual G8 meeting in Moscow this weekend. On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Bush gave a joint news conference that highlighted their differences over Israel's actions in Lebanon, the state of Russian democracy and Iraq.
Click for link to audio Segment of Bush being laughed at.

---

	Israel Bombardment of Lebanon Enters Sixth Day, Hezbollah Strikes Haifa Israel's bombardment of Lebanon has entered its sixth day and the Lebanese death toll has now topped 150: almost all of them civilians. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is continuing to fire rockets at northern Israel. On Sunday, a missile hit Haifa, Israel's third largest city. The Israeli death toll since now stands at around 24.

Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind Israel's Offensive on Lebanon As Israeli warplanes continue to bomb Lebanon and Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel we get context on the crisis with two analysts: As'ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese professor of political science at California State University and Chris Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and the former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times.

Should United States diplomats attempt to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and its neighbours? Or should the United States stay out of it?
Stay out of it 55
Attempt to negotiate a ceasefire 41%
Not sure 4%

Should the United States military get involved? Or should the United States military stay out of it?
Get involved 11%
Stay out of it 84%
Not sure 5%

Photos you will not see on US TV


I have just received these pictures from Hanady Salman, an editor at As-Safir, with this message:

"Dear friends and colleagues ,
You will all have to excuse me for sending this. It's pictures of the bodies of babies killed by the israelis in South lebanon. They are all burnt. I need your help. I am almost certain these pictures won't be published in the West, although they are associated press pictures. I need your help exposing them if you can. The problem is these are people who were asked to leave
their village , Ter Hafra , this morning , within two hours , or else. ... So those who were able to flee went to the closer UN base where they were asked to leave. I think that after the Qana massacres in 1996 when civilians were bombed after they took chelter in UN headquarters , the UN does not want to be responssible for the lives of civilians.A FEW MINUTES AGO , the Israeli asked the people of Al Bustan village in the south to evacuate their homes. I am afraid massacares will keep happening as long as Israeli actions are uncheked. Please help us if you can.
Hanady Salman"

Compromise and Corruption

Edwards and Spratt call on DCCC to pull down web video
Democratic Reps. Chet Edwards (Texas) and John Spratt (S.C.) have called on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to pull down a controversial web video that uses images of flag-draped coffins and a grave of a fallen soldier. The two Democrats sent letters to DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Illinois) asking him to remove the video, America Needs a New Direction from its website after Republicans accused Democrats of trying to gain politically from the pictures. Emanuel urged political supporters in a fundraising e-mail sent Tuesday to view the video on the DCCC's website. (Clicking on the link, I found that they have already taken it down and replaced it with a spot about Congressmen giving themselves a pay raise and refusing to raise the minimum wage).
"I would not have included the clip showing the flag-draped caskets or the clip showing a soldier standing at the grave of a fallen comrade," Spratt wrote Thursday in his letter to Emanuel. "I strongly recommend that you pull this ad and delete both of these clips before running it again."
But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) defended the video yesterday and pointed out that President Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove has spoken about how the GOP needs to capitalize politically on the war. "I don't know why they are making an issue of this except that, again, it speaks truth to power about what is happening in Iraq," she said.
The video has raised new questions about how the Iraq war can be discussed in the November elections.
Hey, the Republicans should take responsibility for the death of the war rather than just collecting profits from it. America DOES need a new direction, away from DEATH.


'Israel Has Reached the End of the Road'

Israel continues to engage in daily massacres, cowardly assaults on civilians, in response to attacks on legitimate military targets. Although Israel attempts to instill terror in its neighbors and in its occupied population, its gig is up. Israel has lost its ability to terrify, said Ali Abunimeh in a radio interview. It can no longer impose its will by sheer brute force. It worked for sixty plus years, but the genie is out of the bottle now, he maintains. Israel has reached the end of the road.

When Torture Isn't Good Enough

Yes, there's nothing like the threat of having your daughter or wife raped by American soldiers to loosen one's tongue. Why, I'd say anything they wanted me to say, I'd sign any confession put before me, if my wife or daughter was in the hands of foreign troops who had occupied my country. It might not bear any relation to reality, but at that point I could care less. Protecting my child or wife would be all that I cared about.

US outsources war to Filipinos
Filipinos are taking up work at US-run facilities in Iraq, dodging an official Philippines travel and employment ban on the war-torn country and providing the US military and its affiliated contractors the cheap, English-speaking manpower it is having increasing difficulty recruiting at home.
The deployments to Iraq represent an illicit spin on the Philippines' global outsourcing phenomenon, where more than 8 million Filipinos have left home for higher paying jobs abroad. The Philippine government has demonstrated a waning verve in enforcing the ban.
An estimated 3,000 out of the total 7,000 Filipinos now serving at four US military-run camps in Iraq are undocumented workers, according to Philippine labor officials. Comparatively high wages have been a push factor: Filipinos in Iraq earn monthly salaries from the US military and its affiliated business interests ranging between $600 to $1,000 excluding special allowances, according to the labor official.
Filipinos already were a massive presence in the Middle East, and have historically shown extraordinary staying power in the region when faced with violent conflict. When the first Gulf War erupted between Iraq and the US in 1991, there were nearly 100,000 OFWs working in a wide array of jobs in Kuwait. When Iraqi forces first invaded the oil-rich sultanate in 1990, despite offers of free repatriation by the Philippine government, only a few of the workers took up the offer to leave their jobs and fly home.
Philippine labor officials estimate that there are currently about 1.5 million OFWs in the Middle East - many of whom are willing to work amid grave security risks rather than face the dismal labor market back home. An estimated 11% of the Philippine's in-country labor force is currently unemployed, and that rate is steadily rising due to an explosive population growth rate. Last year an estimated 8 million OFWs pumped nearly $12 billion of remittances into the Philippine economy.
Philippine-based labor groups contend that the US and Philippine governments are covertly using OFWs to advance American interests in Iraq. While Philippine labor officials openly admit that many OFWs stole into Iraq after the ban was imposed and now work openly at US-run military facilities, they do not have hard evidence to confirm that US government or wayward Philippine officials are behind the illegal deployment of workers. The US Embassy in Manila declined to comment on the allegations. A Philippine labor official wouldn't address the specific allegations, but admitted that US "employers" in Iraq still "favor" Filipinos because of their English-speaking abilities and long experience in the region. Former Philippine Labor Secretary Patricia Sto Tomas said many Filipinos evade immigration authorities by using secret passage points in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan. The Philippine government has a standing agreement with all of these countries to block OFWs from traveling or crossing into Iraq.
In March 2002, local recruitment firm Anglo-European Services, which is known to have ties with Kellogg Brown & Root, a division of the Halliburton Company that has won massive troop support contracts in Iraq, sent 250 Filipino construction workers to build additional detention cells for US-held terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The recruitment was kept under wraps by both the US and Philippine governments, which apparently agreed that all worker travel documents and recruitment requirements would be expedited in just a few hours by US embassy officials. According to people familiar with the situation, the Guantanamo-bound Filipino workers were allegedly slipped out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport without passing through standard immigration procedures and left Manila onboard a chartered flight to Cuba.

Bush 'will be given more power to eavesdrop' in bill

The dispute over the Bush administration's secret eavesdropping of US citizens has reignited after it emerged the White House had brokered a deal with Congress that critics say gives it even greater flexibility to monitor phone calls electronically.

Putin rejects Bush's Iraq democracy model

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a suggestion from U.S. President George W. Bush that his country should emulate democracy in Iraq.
"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same," Bush said.
Is Bush insane, delusional, or just more completely stupid than anyone on this planet could have possibly imagined?

Warmonger in the Pulpit

Berrigan, a WWII U.S. Army veteran, a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry, saw protests "as prophetic acts," based on the Biblical injunction of beating swords into plowshares. Rev. Graham, who brought his type of religious crusades to Baltimore before, in 1949 and 1981, on the other hand, has been in league with the warmongers. He comforted, cozied up to, and covered for them. And, as a result, Rev. Graham regularly got his invitations to the White House, along with photo ops, too, on the lawn or in the Oval office, with whomever was the president at that moment. All of it was very nice, indeed. Rev. Graham was giving these presidents' warmongering policies his imprimatur, while the gutsy Berrigan was doing hard time in a federal prison hole for saying "no" to them.

Attention Deficit Americans Are Being Misled to War

A terrible thing is happening, and not enough Americans are aware to be able to do anything about it. Zionists in Israel and in the Bush administration are leading America into war with Iran, Syria, Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. The consequences for America, Israel and the Middle East will be disastrous, but as long as Washington is in thrall to Zionist paranoia, nothing can be done about it. Bush made this clear on July 14 when he rejected the plea from Lebanon’s prime minister to pressure Israel to stop its attack on Lebanon.
It all started on July 12 when Israeli troops were ambushed on Lebanon's side of the border with Israel.


Guantanamo general to head Nato
A US army general who oversees the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has been chosen as Nato's next military head. General Bantz Craddock, chief of US Southern Command, has been picked to be Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. The choice of Gen Craddock, who succeeds retiring General James Jones, needs approval by the US Senate. Gen Craddock has normally defended the controversial camp against criticism, although he has ordered investigations into some claims of abuse of suspects. In one case, he blocked attempts to get a Guantanamo commander reprimanded over abuse claims, insisting the officer had done nothing wrong. Nato announced in Brussels that Gen Craddock had been chosen to replace Gen Jones, who was the first Marine to hold the post.
"The Nato Defence Planning Committee, which takes this decision, agreed but also expressed to General Jones, in the name of Nato governments, their gratitude for his distinguished service," the alliance said in a statement. Gen Craddock, who led US forces in Kosovo in 1998, was chief military assistant to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld between 2002 and 2004 before taking over the running of US military operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. (School of the Americas?) Under Nato tradition, the alliance's military commander comes from the US and its top civilian leader from Europe.

A Beautiful Friendship?

Thanks to the work of the lobby and its allies, Israel gets more direct foreign aid -- about $3 billion a year -- than any other nation. There's a file cabinet somewhere in the State Department full of memoranda of understanding on military, diplomatic and economic affairs. Israel gets treated like a NATO member when it comes to military matters and like Canada or Mexico when it comes to free trade. There's an annual calendar full of meetings of joint strategic task forces and other collaborative sessions. And there's a presidential pledge, re-avowed by Bush in the East Room, that the United States will come to Israel's aid in the event of attack.

US plans $280million dollar jet fuel sale to Israel
Watch Israel turn around and ask Congress for more of YOUR money to pay for it.

FBI Target Turns Informant In Liberty City 7 Case

CBS-4 News has learned a person targeted by the FBI early on in the investigation into the so-called Liberty City Seven had a falling out with the group and became a government informant weeks before the feds made arrests in the case. Court records obtained by CBS4's Brian Andrews say Master G.J.G. Atheea, a "Moses" like figure who wears dark glasses and carries a wooden staff, was accused ring leader Narseal Batiste's spiritual guide. After a falling out with the group, Atheea became an FBI informant.

G.J.G. Atheea was a target of the FBI before becoming an informant for them.
The FBI originally picked Atheea on wiretaps saying he was joining forces with Batiste in his mission to create a Moorish nation. In his conversations with Atheea, Batiste once again brought up the topic of the Princess cruise ship that caught on fire earlier this year. In that recorded conversation, Atheea responded, “That ain’t nothing compared to what divine father got laid up for us,” suggesting he may have known about Batiste’s plans to blow up the Sears tower.

Narseal Batiste is the alleged ringleader of the group.
By April 27th, Atheea had gone to the FBI with the news of the possible terrorist threat to the US. He told agents how Batiste had formed an alliance with an "Arabian Mafia" to provide weapons and other sources for a terror attack on the US. On May 16th, the FBI sent Atheea to meet with Batiste. During that meeting, Batiste told Atheea that he never said that he had acquired weapons from the mafia, but that he was told they could provide any resources he needed to complete his mission.
It sounds like a clear case of entrapment.

Steven Green granted a "moral waiver" to join Army

Accused G.I. Was Troubled Long Before Iraq
On the last day of January 2005, Steven D. Green, the former Army private accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdering her family, sat in a Texas jail on alcohol-possession charges, an unemployed 19-year-old high school dropout who had just racked up his third misdemeanor conviction. Days later, Mr. Green enlisted in a soldier-strapped Army, and was later assigned to a star-crossed unit to serve on an especially murderous patch of earth. He arrived at the very moment that the Army was increasing by nearly half the rate at which it granted what it calls "moral waivers" to potential recruits. The change opened the ranks to more people like Mr. Green, those with minor criminal records and weak educational backgrounds.
In Mr. Green's case, his problems were emerging by junior high school, say people who knew him then. Mr. Green's Army waiver allowed a troubled young man into the heart of a war that bore little resemblance to its original declared purposes, but which continued to need thousands of fresh recruits.
"He was always, like, in trouble, doing something in school," said Mr. Godfrey, 21, an emergency medical technician. "He was always getting into a fight or saying something mean to a teacher. Something weird. It was just out of place. Gradewise and stuff, I don't know if he did good or bad. But he did not mix well with other people. He was basically mad, or something like that."
"He was disruptive in his house. I don’t know if he killed small cats or anything, but that’s the kind of kid he was. His mom had a lot of issues."
Another schoolmate, Danielle Mundine, said Mr. Green used drugs at an unusually young age for Seabrook. “I think he did drugs and drank in junior high school,” Ms. Mundine, 19, said. “He did have some friends.”

In a photograph released by the Army on Dec. 9, Private Green can be seen laden with gear and aiming a weapon at a lock at an abandoned house.
Steven Green lasted only another four months in the Army, but it was a grim, violent and chaotic stretch. Seventeen battalion members were killed, two of them mutilated after being kidnapped; of those killed, eight belonged to Mr. Green’s Bravo Company of about 110 soldiers. Even the modest quarters taken over the Bravo Company, an abandoned potato warehouse, burned to the ground in an accidental fire, destroying letters, video players, and the small personal tokens the soldiers had slipped into their war gear.
The share of Army recruits who received “moral waivers” for criminal records increased last year and through the first half of 2006 by 15 percent from 10 percent or 11 percent before the war, according to statistics released this week. (According to the Pentagon, the number of waivers in 2001 totaled 7,640. The figure increased to 11,018 in 2005, and for the first six months of this fiscal year totaled 5,636.)


Female Soldiers Treated 'Lower Than Dirt'
The case of Suzanne Swift reveals that women deployed in the Middle East are facing rape, abuse and sexual harassment -- from their own comrades-in-arms. She says that when she was in Iraq and she got into a vehicle with a sergeant, he immediately talked about having sex with her. Even back at Fort Lewis at the base, when she showed up and asked where she should report for duty, she said another sergeant said, "In my bed, naked."

US may have kidnapped families of Iraqi detainees
A story in today's edition of Salon suggests that the kidnapping method may have been used systematically in the course of intelligence gathering through interrogations in the Iraq war. Salon has obtained Army documents that show several cases where U.S. forces abducted terror suspects' families. After he was thrown in prison, Cpl. Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader at Abu Ghraib, told investigators the military routinely kidnapped family members to force suspects to turn themselves in.

The Story of The $14.5 Million Healthcare Centers In Iraq
Government audits turned up more than $1 billion in questionable costs. Whistle-blowers told how the company charged $45 per case of soda, double-billed on meals and allowed troops to bathe in contaminated water.

U.S. Senate votes for FEMA's demise
The U.S. Senate has voted to abolish the embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency and replace it with a retooled new agency.
Just in time for hurricane season!

Bastille Day history
On July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille immediately took on a great historical dimension; it was proof that power no longer resided in the King as God's representative, but in the people, in accordance with the theories developed by their philosophers of the eighteenth century. Within two days the Revolution could not be reversed. For all citizens of France, the storming of the Bastille came to symbolize liberty, democracy in the struggle against oppression.

In Politics, Nothing Happens By Accident
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." --
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Outed CIA Officer Sues Cheney, White House Aides
Former CIA operative Valerie Plame has filed suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, presidential aide Karl Rove and Cheney’s former chief of staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. Libby is the only administration official to have been charged in connection with the case. He faces trial in January. Prosecutors told Rove's lawyer last month he will not face charges.
The suit says: "As their chief method of punishment, the White House officials destroyed (Plame's) cover by revealing her classified employment with the CIA to reporters." The White House "embarked on an anonymous 'whispering campaign' designed to discredit ... (the Wilsons) and to deter other critics from speaking out."
I can hardly wait to see what the 'discovery' portion of this lawsuit unearths.

Wife of Al-Jazeera Journalist Files Lawsuit Against Bush, Rumsfeld
Dima Tahboub, the widow of Tareq Ayyoub, has announced she is suing the White House and the Pentagon for $30,000,000 over her husband’s death. Ayyoub, a 35-year-old Palestinian who lived in Jordan, had traveled to Baghdad to report the war for Al-Jazeera five days before he was killed when US bombing shattered their bureau in Baghdad.

Noam Chomsky: U.S.-Backed Israeli Policies Pursuing "End of Palestine"; Hezbollah Capture of Israeli Soldiers "Very Irresponsible Act" That Could Lead To "Extreme Disaster"
Israel has intensified its attacks on Lebanon as warplanes launched fresh strikes on Beirut airport, communication networks, Lebanese roads and a power plant. Meanwhile, the US has vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution condemning Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip. MIT professor Noam Chomsky says the US and Israel are punishing Palestinians for electing Hamas, and says Hezbollah's capture of Israeli soldiers subjects Lebanese "to terror and possible extreme disaster" from Israeli strikes.
Israel Tells Condi Rice to "Back Off"
Just in case you forgot who is in charge.

John Bolton Vetoes UN Security Council Resolution on Gaza Attack
Meanwhile Thursday, John Bolton vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding Israel end its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Diplomats criticized the Bush administration because the resolution's sponsors had also included language calling for the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and an end to rocket attacks on Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinians said the international community is abandoning them. The US has now cast eight of the last nine vetoes at the United Nations Security Council. Seven of those were on resolutions dealing with the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Iraqi Parliament speaker accuses 'Jews'
The speaker of parliament Thursday accused "Jews" of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their "agents" in power.

World War Four: Israel's Destructive Enterprise
Israel plans to pitch the entire region into war, thus drawing in the United States.
If things go off as planned, thousands of Lebanese—and Syrians, Iranians—will need die horrible deaths and hospitals, food warehouses, sanitation plants, water treatment plants, the entire civilian infrastructure will need be inoperable, reduced to flaming ruins.

Trapped in Beirut
A first-hand account of how the Israeli strikes have traumatised Beirut asks why the EU and America have done so little to help Lebanon.

Democratic Party leadership statements of support for Israel
Why would the US Congress, which supposedly exists to serve the will of the AMERICAN people, be obeying the will of Israel? Well, maybe because Israel's lobbying/spying organization, AIPAC, is PAYING THEM TO!
Harry Reid, $318,000 from pro-Israel PACs.
Nancy Pelosi, $57,000 from pro-Israel PACs.
Steny Hoyer, $92,000 from pro-Israel PACs.
Alcee Hastings, $23,000 from pro-Israel PACs.
Robert Wexler, $11,000 from pro-Israel PACs.
Get the picture? And Republicans get even more money from AIPAC. Time to replace the incumbents.

Confined Space:
Bush to appoint an anti-regulatory zealot…to run the White House Regulatory affairs Office!

The job is director of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which approves all environmental, health and safety and other government regulations. Her name is Susan Dudley, director of the regulatory studies program at George Mason University's anti-regulatory Mercatus Center. According to Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch, Dudley is "a true anti-regulatory zealot." The Mercatus Center is notorious for far-fetched justifications to kill protective regulations. They are fond of exagerating the cost of regulations and attempting to incite anti-government rebellion by describing the amount of space that the Code of Federal Regulations takes up.
I first wrote about a crazy Mercatus study that found that OSHA inspections kill workers. Like the rest of Mercatus, Dudley is known for conjuring up all kinds of reason why protective regulations are killing our country. She opposed OSHA the deceased ergonomics standard on the grounds that all employers really needed was more information and they would automatically do the right thing. Furthermore, OSHA's ergonomics standard would "discourage individual responsibility and hinder innovation into creative solutions."

Bush Admin Agrees To Conditional NSA Judicial Review
The Bush administration has agreed to allow a court review of its domestic eavesdropping program. But the review will not be unconditional. Senate Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter says Bush has approved wording for a bill that would allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court – known as FISA – to conduct only a one-time review -- not ongoing oversight. The court would be held in secret and its ruling possibly kept under wraps. An administration official told the Associated Press the White House agreed to the one-time review so long as the Senate makes it voluntary and not a requirement. The Washington Post is also reporting the deal would repeal a clause of the original FISA law that made it the exclusive statute governing such intelligence programs. Revoking the clause would appear to make the warrantless eavesdropping no longer illegal.
The deal was immediately criticized. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said: "[President Bush is] saying, if you do every single thing I tell you to do, I'll do what I should have done anyway," Leahy said.

GOP Governor of Kentucky bans access to web sites that do not parrot Republican talking points and propaganda

This is a suit for injunctive and declaratory relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Governor Ernie Fletcher, Secretary John Farris, and Secretary Robbie Rudolph, challenging their decision to block access on state computers to certain websites that the state classifies as "blogs." The state's policy selectively classifies websites as blogs because those websites contain viewpoints and content of which the state disapproves.

Blair, Facing Probe in U.K., Keeps Attention on Israel, Africa
Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose Labour Party is being investigated by U.K. police over its links to wealthy supporters, said he's keeping his attention on efforts to fight poverty in Africa and to bring peace to the Middle East.
"You only have to look at what's happening at the Middle East to see what I should be concentrating on,'' Blair told a press conference in London today when asked whether the police inquiry would overshadow his trip to St. Petersburg this weekend.
Woof-woof, bark little Poodle.

Padilla Granted Access to Classified Evidence
A federal judge has ruled Jose Padilla will be permitted to view classified documents and videotapes that summarize his statements while in custody. Padilla was only charged in November after over three years in solitary confinement on a military brig in South Carolina. At the time of his arrest in May 2002, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft accused Padilla of involvement in "a terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive 'dirty bomb.'" None of his current charges include these allegations.

U.S. beef plants opting out of Japan sales
But while 35 American beef processing plants are submitting to the inspections, thousands of other plants have opted out, deciding not to bother with exporting.
"There are a lot of guys who don't want to go through the hassle of these inspections," said Deven Scott, executive vice president of the North American Meat Processors Association.
But is US beef from those plants that opted out of inspection any better for Americans than it was for the Japanese?


Report: Reed, Abramoff Hatched 'Black Churches Insurance Program'
GQ Magazine has revealed new details of the ties between Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. According to former associates, Reed and Abramoff devised a plan they called the Black Churches Insurance Program. The plan would offer lobbying services to African-American churches. Instead of direct payment, Abramoff would arrange life-insurance polices that would have made him the beneficiary when elderly Church members passed away.
A former Reed associate said: '…It sounds like Jack approached Reed about mortgaging old black people.'
The news comes just one week before Reed faces a primary in his campaign for Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor.
Bye-bye, Ralphie Boy!

FMLN Calls For Embassy Protests Over Police Crackdown
In El Salvador, the FMLN is calling for rallies outside Salvadoran consulates in several North America cities today to protest a recent police crackdown on protesters at the University of El Salvador. Students say police opened fire at a peaceful demonstration against rising prices for transportation and food last week. They say they responded by throwing stones and were met with fire from snipers and helicopters. A gunfight broke out, leading to the deaths of three students and two police officers. Dozens more were injured.

500,000 Expected for Mexico Rally
And in Mexico, more than half a million people are expected to gather in Mexico City Sunday for a massive rally in support of Andrez Manuel Lopez Obrador’s court challenge for a full recount of the presidential vote. Tens of thousands have already set off from across the country on what organizers are calling the 'March for Democracy.' On Thursday, Lopez Obrador held a news conference in Mexico City.

• Mexican Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: "It's clear that constitutional principles were violated, that there wasn't equity, that there wasn't legality, that there wasn't independence-- all this is clear. It was filthy. However, if the votes are counted, they will show we were victorious despite all the filth."

Activists Sue to Block Electronic Voting
Computerized voting was supposed to be the cure for ballot fiascos such as the 2000 presidential election, but activist groups say it has only worsened the problem and they've gone to court across the country to ban the new machines.

House Votes To Renew Voting Rights Act
The House voted Thursday to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law was originally passed to reverse years of disenfranchisement of African Americans. The measure passed by 390 to 33. All 'no' votes came from Republicans. Southern Republicans have complained the reauthorization unfairly targets their states. They failed to add amendments that would have shortened the bill's extension period and would have stricken requirements that ballots be printed in other languages to accommodate non-English speakers.

Mayhem & Dishonor

4th Circuit Nominee Boyle: 'Missed' Appearance of Conflict of Interest in Four Cases
President Bush's nominee to an appellate judgeship acknowledged missing the appearance of a conflict of interest in four cases in which he is accused of ruling on litigants in whose companies his family held stock.

Germans locked down for Bush visit
The security concerns surrounding the World Cup pale compared with the ring of steel and firepower thrown up to protect Mr Bush in a country where 84 per cent of the population loathe him. Mr Bush is visiting Dr Merkel on the way to the G8 summit in Russia. But nothing is ever simple when the most powerful individual in the world also ranks among the most reviled.

Geneva Convention? We Thought You Said Geneva Chocolate
Daniel Dell'Orto, principal deputy general counsel at the Pentagon, said he believes the current treatment of detainees - as well as the existing tribunal process - already complies with Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
Remember, these are the detainees who are locked in cages, paraded around naked, sexually humiliated, whose religious beliefs are used to humiliate them, who are water-boarded during interrogations, whom the International Red Cross has said are tortured, and who are force-fed when they try to starve themselves to death. These are the detainees who have, for the most part, never been charged with any crimes, much less been granted fair and speedy trials, and who are being held indefinitely with no explanation or indication to them of what comes next. And this is without mentioning the secret prisons, ghosted prisoners, or rendition

Blair Adviser Arrested: Lord Levy arrest lays trail that leads all the way to Blair
In Britain, a top adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair was arrested Wednesday. The adviser, Lord Levy is also the leading fundraiser for Blair’s Labour party. Police are investigating whether Labour offered donors state honors in return for million-dollar loans.

Enron Witness Found Dead in London
In Britain, police have confirmed a man found dead in a London park Tuesday was a potential witness in the Enron fraud case.The man, Neil Coulbeck, was a former employee of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He had been interviewed by the FBI about the role of Bank of Scotland subsidiary NatWest in selling off part of its Enron unit. His death comes as Britain is locked in an internal political struggle over the extradition of three NatWest bankers to the United States. The three are being extradited under a treaty critics say is one-sided because the US has yet to ratify it.

Abramoff and 4 Others Sued by Tribe Over Casino Closing
An Indian tribe says the former superlobbyist mounted a fake religiously themed moral crusade against gambling in Texas to benefit a competing casino in Louisiana.

Mexico vote fraud caught on tape
Mexico mobilizes to protest controversial vote count
In Mexico, tens of thousands of supporters of Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador marched through Mexico City Wednesday to demand a recount of the contested presidential election. The marchers convened after setting off from electoral districts around Mexico City. Thousands more are expected to join them as they pour in from districts across the country. Lopez Obrador has called on supporters to begin assembling in advance of a major rally this Sunday.

Chavez Blasts US Cuba Plan
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has weighed in on the Bush administration’s controversial plan for intervention in Cuba. The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba released a report Monday calling on the US to spend millions of dollars supporting opponents of Fidel Castro

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: "From here, I say to the North American empire that instead of thinking about a transition plan for the Cuban revolution or for the Venezuelan revolution, they should be elaborating on a transition plan for themselves because this century the North American empire is going to end."

Study: American dream slipping away
The American dream is closer to a hallucinatory hope than a reachable reality, according to a new study presented at The Aspen Institute last week. With the cost of living rising on several fronts, the majority of Americans surveyed in the study "What Do American Voters Really Want in '06?" said they are not living the dream that the European settlers who first founded this country suggested could be realized through hard work, courage and a determination to improve one's life.


Welcome to Bush's America
Most Americans, brainwashed by government propaganda and media glorification of our own police state operators, may well be shocked that this goes on. Or perhaps think that non US citizens can and should be treated like Stalin’s own citizens or East German Stasi fodder, squeezed and threatened until they start sending in reports on their friends, family and neighbors. And of course that old Soviet favorite, spying on fellow churchgoers…


Spy or Risk Green Card: How the Bush Administration 'Recruits' Muslim Informants
The Wall Street Journal ran an article titled, "A Muslim's Choice: Turn U.S Informant or Risk Losing Visa." The report detailed the case of Yassine Ouassif. Last November Yassine's green card was taken away from him when he crossed the border from Canada. Yassine was then sent home to San Francisco and told to contact a counterterrorism agent at the FBI. The article states that the agent "made him an offer: become an informant and regularly report to the FBI on what his Muslim friends in San Francisco were saying and doing. In exchange he would get back his green card." According to Yassine, if he refused, the agent threatened to deport him back to Morocco.

IT SEEMS ISRAEL PLANNED DELIBERATE PROVOCATION OF HAMAS AND HIZBOLLAH A report in the Jerusalem Post today proves very revealing. It claims that, 'Only weeks ago, an entire reserve division was drafted in order to train for an operation such as the one the IDF is planning in response to Wednesday morning's Hizbollah attacks on IDF forces along the northern border.'
The news is revealing because it was only a little over two weeks ago that Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian fighters. One needs to ask how the Israelis knew at, or even before, he was captured that it would be taking action against Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Bush Faces Major Choice Amid Israeli Escalation
The immediate question it faces is whether to maintain its strong backing for military action by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or to engage in active diplomacy to prevent any further escalation and end the violence.
Michael Rivero: "Bush will not do anything to oppose Israel because Israel is blackmailing the US Government with 9-11."
"I want to tell you something very clear, don't worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it." Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, October 3rd, 2001, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11

Israel will start WWIII
We have to stop this here. I also said the race to Iran is with the AIPAC trial and that is in the Zionist scandals section. The US has elections coming up it which poll show the Republicans are about to be close to completely being wiped out. The Democrats are not doing much better the congressional approval rating is in the 20s. We are basically removing incumbents.

Israel is Killing Incubator Babies and the World Says That it is OK!
When Israel punishes every Palestinian person for the actions of a small percentage of Palestinian people they are being racists of the worst kind. They treat all Palestinians as if they were one person or one cooperative organization. That is racism. Practicing collective punishment on the Palestinian people is no different than if we in the U.S. placed all African Americans in prison because there are several high crime African American communities.

US Gets a 'Dose of Its Own Medicine' From China
The United States, which seeks to penalize the North Koreans for defying Washington, is frustrated because China has publicly announced its decision to veto any resolution that imposes sanctions on Pyongyang.
"What goes around, comes around," says an Asian diplomat, who points out that the United States has exercised its veto over 35 times to protect Israel from Security Council condemnation. "North Korea is perceived as China's Israel," he said. "So the U.S. is getting a bitter dose of its own medicine."
Rabbani said that for all the rhetoric about the United Nations being "a bastion of anti-Israel decision-making," the reality is quite alarming, namely that – in stark contrast to other states perpetrating systematic discrimination and widespread violence on an ethnic or religious basis – Israel enjoys total impunity when it comes to observing the UN charter or indeed any other component of international law.


Israel Launches Heaviest Bombing of Lebanon in 24 Years;
Airport Attacked, Over 40 Civilians Killed
Israel has launched its heaviest air bombing of Lebanon in twenty four-years. The attack was launched Wednesday following the capture of two soldiers by Hezbollah. Overnight raids across southern Lebanon killed up to 47 civilians, including more than 15 children. At least one hundred were wounded. More than 20 bridges were targeted in the bombings, causing heavy damage. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at the headquarters of Hezbollah's Al Manar TV station in a Beirut suburb. Israel is threatening to attack Beirut's residential neighborhoods where Hezbollah members live. The Lebanese Prime Minister has denied any knowledge of the Hezbollah operation and refuses to take responsibility for the soldiers' capture. Meanwhile, Hezbollah says the soldiers will not be returned without a deal for the release of Palestinian, Lebanese and other Arab prisoners held in Israeli jails.

ABIR HAMZA: Her face

Joseph Cannon, Cannonfire blog:
ABIR HAMZA: Her face

The United States now officially admits what we already knew: Abir Hamza, the victim of that vicious assault, was born in 1991. She was only 14 when a squad of all-American "Christian" good-old-boys killed her family, raped her, and burned her body. Not a single member of the unit shirked from this task. None of them felt guilty about what they had done to her (although they did regret the retaliatory measures against Americans).
"Our boys," raised within our suposedly enlightened "Christian" culture, considered this girl a sub-human -- a thing to be used. After all, she was Muslim.
The photo above, taken when Abir was but a toddler, is the only one we have at present.
I hope every American sees this girl's face. Are our red-state Jesusmaniacs so blinded by their anti-Muslim bigotry -- so blinded by the lies told by our war-loving president and his propagandists -- that they cannot recognise the humanity and innocence in that little girl's eyes? This war has had many victims; let her face represent those we cannot see.

Iraqi Journalist Details Family Accounts of Iraq Rape, Killings
RAHEEM SALMAN: Abu Firas Janabi told me that he heard from a very close neighbor to the victim's family, that they were murdered, they were killed. He said he rushed -- he took his wife, using his private car. He said, "When I have arrived at the house, I found the two children, who were survived." Fortunately, they were in their school, Ahmed was in the third class, primary school, and his brother was also in the first class only. He found them in front of the house, crying. Abu Firas and his wife saw that there was a white smoke coming out from the house.
First, they had a glance through the window to one of the rooms, toward the sitting room. They saw one corpse, but they could not identify whose corpse was that. And then, they were looking through the windows, the visibility was difficult for them. Later on, his wife discovered the three other corpses: the father, mother and their daughter. And separately, in another room. They tried to extinguish the fire of the corpses.
And then he went to a joint checkpoint, in which there are Iraqi and American soldiers, and told them about the incident. They came with him to the house. They took the corpses. And then he was told to report to the hospital of Mahmoudiya tomorrow morning, in order to receive the corpses.
The commander was too sad to see these people (the two boys left orphaned by the murders), and it was difficult for him to control his tears when he talked to them, was kissing them. And he said it's his responsibility to take care of those two kids. It is the responsibility of the American Army.

I do not know what it is about christian types that makes them so violent, but we need to find a way to stop this extremist Christofacsist behaviour.

Abir was killed as part of U$ "initiate civil war" operation. The US army wants to slaughter people of Iraq while blaming it on the resistance. They have been blowing up Mosque, busses and market places and blaming Sunnis and Shiites for all the killings. Their plan was to get Arabs to kill each other and they would carry the slaughter on with or without the participation of the Sunnis and Shiites.
Never before the US and Britain moved into Iraq did Sunnis and Shiites blow up each other's places of worship. Never was anyone afraid to walk on the streets of an unknown neighborhood. Never was anyone kidnapped and tortured for their brand of Islam.
It is US and Britain, and very likely Israel, who are doing the bombings and the killings. It is a purposeful act and this is not their first time doing it either. The US has done the exact thing in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Central America, Korea, and many other places. And Israel has been doing it to the Palestinians for 40 years now. It is not an isolated incident of some bad apples it is a systemic plan to kill all and get control of the land and the resource.
After all life is cheap, in the eyes of these murderers, but the resources are finite and the bastards want them.
US public is for ever responsible for the atrocities they have supported and continue to support. And they are accordingly hated across the Middle East, South and Central America, South East Asia and elsewhere.
We know too well that all empires including the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Ottoman, and the British have fallen from "grace" and the US is not an exception.

Merchants of death in Iraq
Within two minutes the doors of his home were blasted open and "a strange looking group of people" stormed inside, according to Said Walid Ahmed, a 40-year-old teacher who lives in the neighborhood.
"This force is not totally unknown to us here in Fallujah," Ahmed, who witnessed the incident from a nearby house, "They are a special force of Americans that assassinates more people than it arrests."
Ahmed described the force from the helicopters as "big men with long hair and beards, some wearing earrings, and others with little black caps on the top of their heads at the back".
"Their dogs were biting everybody, including children and women in the neighborhood," Um Amar, a 63-year-old woman who lives three houses away from Sinan told IPS. "They killed the poor boy in cold blood and arrested his little brother." She burst into tears and began to pray. Another neighbor, Jassim al-Jumaily, said Sinan's father Najim Abdul-Ilah al-Mashhadani was killed during Operation Phantom Fury in November 2004 when his house was bombed by US warplanes. The US military assault on Fallujah then destroyed most of the city and killed between 4,000 and 6,000 people, according to Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI), an Iraqi non-governmental organization based in Fallujah.
After the men had been inside the house for three hours, Jumaily and other witnesses said they heard Sinan's mother wailing, and saw the men leave with Amin, her 13-year-old son who was being beaten by the men and bitten by their dogs as he was taken away. The US forces also raided other homes in the area, Deraji said. "One of the dogs attacked a woman who tried to protect her baby. The dog bit the mother's hand." Deraji said the forces looted money and jewelry from several of the houses they raided.
IPS sent an email to Major Douglas Powell at the Combined Press Information Center for the Multi-National Force in Iraq to request comment on the incident. There was no reply. Later, IPS phoned the US military spokesperson in Baghdad to request information on the incident. The spokesman, who declined to give his name, said, "We have no information confirming this event ever took place."

Rumsfeld, in Iraq, Dismisses Withdrawal Timetable, Revoking Immunity
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in Iraq on an unannounced visit. Speaking to reporters en route from another surprise stop in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said the Iraqi government is not ready to decide on a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops. He also rejected Iraqi calls for revoking the immunity granted to US forces in Iraq. His comments came one day after Iraq’s human rights minister said he will bring the request to revoke US immunity to the United Nations.
Maybe it's not Rumsfeld's decision to make......?????

US Blocks Security Council Vote on Gaza Crisis
Meanwhile at the United Nations, the US continues to block a Security Council resolution demanding Israel's immediate withdrawal from Gaza and emergency aid to the Palestinians. The resolution also calls for the release of the Israeli soldier and an end to all rocket attacks on Israeli towns. US Ambassador John Bolton said: "Our position remains the same -- we don't see at this point any utility in council action at all."
Why is this maniac our spokesperson in the UN????????

Seven killed as Israeli shells hit family picnic on Gaza beach

'Among other things, this body would launch secret operations aimed at "stimulating reactions" among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction -- that is, for instance, prodding terrorist cells into action and exposing themselves to "quick-response" attacks by U.S. forces. '

Israel 'is using chemical ammunition'
Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza
Israelis use "unprecedented type of projectiles" on Palestinians
During the course of the Aqsa Intifada, which started in September 2000, the Israeli occupation army used a variety of internationally prohibited weapons, including shells containing depleted uranium, dart shells, which contain thousands of nail-like darts that penetrate the body, as well as gas agents affecting the nervous system. The Israeli occupation army has refused to comment on the type of weapons it uses against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel threatening to go beyond southern Lebanon - next step of 'A Clean Break' coming soon?:
Israel is threatening a heavy response following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the group Hezbollah along the Lebanon-Israel border. The soldiers were seized after Hezbollah launched rocket attacks at Israeli border posts and a nearby town. Four Israeli civilians were wounded. A reported two Lebanese civilians were killed when Israel bombed three bridges in Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is demanding the release of all Lebanese prisoners inside Israel. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting IDF officials are warning “Lebanon's clock will be turned back twenty years” unless the soldiers are returned.

Israel prepares for widespread military escalation
On the 18th day since the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, the picture has become all the more complex. From limited fighting on a single front (the Gaza Strip), the Israel Defense Forces is now approaching what might evolve into a near outright war on two fronts.
Including IRAN?

War game will focus on situation with Iran
Amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran over the future of Iran's nuclear program, the Pentagon is planning a war game in July so officials can explore options for a crisis involving Iran.

Road to victory in Iraq 'unclear,' US auditors conclude
The investigative arm of the US Congress has openly questioned if victory in Iraq can be achieved without a significant overhaul of President George W. Bush's strategy, arguing the outcome of the war was presently "unclear". The findings by the Government Accountability Office mark the first time a non-partisan US government agency publicly doubted whether the geo-strategic undertaking that Bush made the defining element of his presidency, could be successful.

Halliburton to lose exclusive Army deal
Washington Post is reporting the Pentagon is discontinuing its multi-billion dollar logistics contract with Halliburton. The decision will affect most of Halliburton's operations in Iraq. The company has come under intense scrutiny for its close ties to the Bush administration and a series of well-publicized accusations of incompetence, corruption and fraud. Government audits of Halliburton's Iraq services have found more than $1 billion in questionable costs. No company has been awarded more money in contracts from the Iraq war. Halliburton pulled in over $7 billion last year and is expected to make at least $4 billion this year.

Militarism and the Corporate Welfare State
With the U.S. occupation the Iraqi Constitution was torn asunder and replaced with a new charter that places Iraq under virtual corporate rule. Under the U.S. imposed Corporate Constitution, the Iraqis no longer have access to clean water, reliable electricity, medicine, healthcare, or higher education. Ownership of Iraq's once prosperous economy, including her extensive oil fields, was transferred from the Iraqi people to U.S. corporations. This is the democracy we have brought to Iraq, punctuated by suffering, misery, and death. When innocent blood flows so too does the money. See how the stocks of Halliburton and Bechtel rose with the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Greg Palast reports on Fraud in the Mexican Election:
GREG PALAST: July 3rd, I was in my office in London when the phone rang. It was Mexico City. I was told, 'Take a look at the Mexican papers.' The exit polls in the presidential election there showed a clear win for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left wing's candidate for president, but the official count gave the election to George Bush's ally, Felipe Calderon, of the rightwing ruling party, the PAN. Hmmm. Exit polls that don't match the official vote count. I had heard that story before. In Ohio in 2004, John Kerry led Bush in the exit polls, and in 2000, Al Gore won in the Florida exit polls. But in both cases, George Bush won in the official count.

Bush judicial nominee struggles to win Senate OK
William Haynes defended the Defense Department's detention and interrogation policies for enemy combatants that he helped draft after the September 11 attacks. An August 2002 Justice Department memo said only the most severe types of torture were not permissible under U.S. and international agreements against torture. This was later replaced with a broader definition.

Bush urges Congress to ratify military tribunals
Bush administration officials yesterday asked Congress to endorse the special military tribunals established by the president to try prisoners captured in the war on terror, but Republicans and Democrats alike balked at giving the White House quick legislative approval to a controversial system that the Supreme Court invalidated just two weeks ago.

• Republican Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter: "We are now proceeding to follow the requirements of constitutional and international law as handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States and to do it in a way which will permit us to fairly try those accused of war crimes." (Just imagine where we would be if they had done that all along....)
  

• Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy: "For years the administration violated fundamental American values, damaged our international reputation and delayed and weakened prosecution of the war on terror. Not because of any coherent and strategic view they had, but because of stubborn unilateralism and dangerous theory of unfettered executive power augmented by self-serving legal reasoning. Guantanamo bay has been such a debacle that even the President now says it should be shut down."

Novak: Rove Was Confirming Source in Plame Story
Novak: Rove confirmed Plame's identity
Columnist Robert Novak has revealed White House aide Karl Rove was a confirming source in his story outing the CIA operative Valerie Plame. Novak did not reveal who first told him of Plame's identity.
When are they going to announce that Rove is FIRED from his job??

Senate Votes To Ban Border Seizures of Canadian Prescription Drugs
In health news, the Senate voted Tuesday to ban the seizure of prescription drugs that Americans bring in from Canada. Thousands of people have turned to Canadian pharmacies to seek out cheaper alternatives to US medications. Both chambers of Congress must agree on a final version before the measure becomes law. The Bush administration and leading Republicans have opposed the effort. They argue imported Canadian drugs could be harmful and could be used to hide dangerous chemicals for terror attacks. (Isn't this ridiculous refrain becoming a little tedious????) Critics say the Bush administration is trying to protect drug industry profits.

BAYER dumps AIDS infected drugs overseas
Bayer dumped AIDS infected drugs for hemophiliacs (mostly children) in Europe, Asia, and Latin America after it was told by the FDA that it could not sell it here.

Autism, mercury, and politics
MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.

Elderly Medicare Premiums To See Double Digit Increase
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting the elderly will see another double digit rise in their Medicare premiums next year. Monthly payments are expected to reach nearly one hundred dollars. The payments could go even higher unless Congress acts to cut physician fees but it is not expected to do so.
Theirs now, yours next.

Top White House Staffers Get Raises; Min. Wage Vote Rejected
The White House has released data showing top staffers have received a raise of more than $4,000 this year. The staffers include chief strategist Karl Rove, National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, and counselor Dan Bartlett. The news comes on the same day House Republicans voted for the fifth time in two weeks against considering a proposal to raise the minimum wage. The Bush administration is also opposed to the minimum wage increase.

Molly Ivins: The Politics of Greed
Congress has voted seven times to raise its own wages since last the minimum wage budged. Of course, Congress always raises its own salary in the dark of night, hoping no one will notice. But now it does the same with the minimum wage hike, quietly killing it.
(Perhaps it should be mandated that the minimum wage is raised every time any Government official's wages are raised?) Anyone who doesn’t think this is a country where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer needs to check the numbers -- this is Bush country, where a rising tide lifts all yachts. According to the current issue of Mother Jones:

• One in four U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level income.
• Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has risen steadily. Now, 13%—37 million Americans—are officially poor.
• Bush's tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those making $1 million are saved $42,700.
• In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) compared those who point out such statistics as the one above to Adolph Hitler (surely he meant Stalin?).
• Bush has diverted $750 million to 'healthy marriages' by shifting funds from social services, mostly child care.
• Bush has proposed cutting housing programs for low-income people with disabilities by 50%.

A series of related stats—starting with the news that two out of three new jobs are in the suburbs—shows how the poor are further disadvantaged in the job hunt by lack of public or private transportation.Meanwhile, for those who have been following the collapse of the pension system, please note a series in The Wall Street Journal by Ellen Schultz taking a hard look at executive pension obligations:

• "Benefits for executives now account for a significant share of pension obligations in the United States, an average of 8 percent (of large companies). Sometimes a company's obligation for a single executive’s pension approaches $100 million. These liabilities are largely hidden, because corporations don't distinguish them from overall pension obligations in their federal financial filings. As a result, the savings that companies make by curtailing pensions of regular retirees -- which have totaled billions of dollars in recent years -- can mask a rising cost of benefits for executives."
• "Executive pensions, even when they won't be paid until years from now, drag down the earnings today. And they do so in a way that's disproportionate to their size, because they aren't funded with dedicated assets."

It seems to me that we’ve seen enough evidence over the years that the capitalist system is not going to be destroyed by an outside challenger like communism--it will be destroyed by its own internal greed. Greed is the greatest danger as we develop an increasingly winner-take-all system. And voices like The Wall Street Journal's editorial page encourage this mentality by insisting that any form of regulation is bad. But for whom?
(Obviously, for those execs with the $100 million dollar pensions!)
It is so discouraging to watch this country become less and less fair--'justice for all' seems like an embarrassingly archaic tag. Republicans have rigged the “lottery of life” in this country in ways we don't even know about yet. The new bankruptcy law is unfair, and the new college loan rules are worse. The system has been stacked so that large corporations have an inside track over small businesses in getting government contracts. We won't see the full consequences of this mean and careless legislation for years, but it starting to affect us already.

UW backs instructor from censure for 9-11 views

A part-time University of Wisconsin instructor who believes U.S. government officials orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will be allowed to teach a course on Islam, the school announced Monday.

Police Kill Mentally-Ill Man With Taser Guns
And in Wisconsin, a twenty-nine year old man was killed Sunday when police officers shocked him with a Taser gun. According to his family, the victim, Nickolos Cyrus, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia ten years ago. The killing occurred after police found him trespassing in a home under construction. They hit him with two shots when he ignored orders to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.
According to Amnesty International, one hundred and fifty people have been killed by tasers since 2001.
Shouldn't they be fighting REAL criminals?

Syd Barrett: The Madcap dead at 60

Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett dies aged 60
Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes.
The guitarist was the band's first creative force and an influential songwriter, writing their early hits. He joined Pink Floyd in 1965 but left three years later after one album. He went on to live as a recluse, with his mental deterioration blamed on drugs. Born Roger Barrett in Cambridge, he met future bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour at school. Upon joining the Pink Floyd Sound - as they were originally known - he composed See Emily Play and Arnold Layne, both from 1967, as well as most of their album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But his drug intake soon began to affect his role in the band.

At one stage, he was unhappy about appearing on Top of the Pops and walked out of a session recording in July 1967 after "freaking out".
"That really was the first sign of his complete mental breakdown," producer Richard Buskin wrote later. "He never did come back into the studio any more after that."
Gilmour was brought in to the band in February 1968 and Barrett left in April, soon starting work on the first of two solo albums. Just as Pink Floyd were about to achieve worldwide success, Barrett retreated from public life to return to Cambridge. Little was known about his whereabouts for 20 years until it became known he was living with his mother. Band members said his breakdown may have happened even if he had not used drugs - but the pressure of fame along with the substances probably acted as a catalyst.


Pentagon Grants Detainees Minimal Geneva Protections
In what would mark a major policy shift for the US government, the Pentagon has reportedly decided to give prisoners in US custody the minimal protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions.
The Financial Times is reporting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said the US would respect Common Article Three, which prohibits inhumane treatment and requires certain basic legal rights.
If confirmed, the decision would reverse the Bush administration’s policy on detainees captured in the so-called war on terror. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled the Bush administration’s military tribunals to try Guantanamo prisoners are illegal. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up the tribunals at a hearing today. The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

Lopez Obrador Releases Video of Apparent Ballot Stuffing
The campaign for Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has released preliminary video of what it says proves he was cheated out of last week's Presidential election. In a video shot in the central state of Guanajuato, the footage shows an apparent supporter of conservative candidate Felipe Calderon's National Action Party stuffing a ballot box on the day of the elections. Lopez Obrador's campaign says the footage is the first among many it has received from across Mexico.

WAYNE MADSEN:"300,000 protestors demonstrated in Mexico City's Zocalo Square yesterday against the electoral fraud in the Mexican presidential election that robbed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the presidency. The AP also continues to refer to Lopez Obrador and his supporters as "leftists," while oil industry lickspittle and fraud, Felipe Calderon, is described as "pro-market" and "conservative," and not as a proto-fascist right-winger on the payroll of the Bush-Carlyle global cartel. The corporate handbill, Time magazine, headlined Calderon's fraudulent victory as a "vote for stability."
Calderon, the Bushes, and the oil cartel will not have an easy time of it in Mexico. From Baja California to Oaxaca and from the Mexico City slums to Yucatan, the progressive forces are organizing to prevent Calderon from assuming control of Mexico. A Lopez Obrador administration that has to achieve its rightful victory by battling the storm troopers of the oligarchs will be far less likely to cooperate with an American government that is building concentration camps to detain illegal immigrants and an Israeli-style wall on the southern border with Mexico. The Aztec Gods must be smiling at this "perfect storm" that is brewing in their ancient land."

Chechen Rebel Leader Dies in Accidental Bombing
The Russian government has announced the killing of its most-wanted enemy. Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who masterminded the Beslan school siege and other major attacks, died in what appears to have been an accidental bombing. Basayev had a $10 million dollar bounty on his head. His attacks led to the deaths of more than eight hundred people.

Israel Destroys Northern Gaza Bridge, Rejects Prisoner Swap
In the Gaza Strip, Israel has destroyed a northern bridge first targeted in the initial days of its latest assault. The bridge separates northern and southern Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to insist he will not negotiate with the captors of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas has called for the release of Palestinian prisoners in return for Shalit's release. More than 55 Palestinians have been killed since the offensive began.

Ex-Intel Director Links Pinochet To Cocaine Trade
In Chile, a jailed ex-intelligence director, Manuel Contreras, has linked former dictator Augusto Pinochet to the country's cocaine trade. The Chilean newspaper La Nacion says Contreras told a judge Pinochet manufactured and trafficked cocaine during his seventeen year rule. Contreras also implicated several members of Pinochet's family. Pinochet's family denies the allegations. Pinochet has been indicted for several human rights abuses committed under his regime. He has been able to avoid most of them by convincing judges he is in poor health. He is also facing money laundering charges.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Chavez, elected president of Venezuela in 1988, is a colorful folk hero, beloved by his nation's working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides.

White House Releases Controversial Cuba Plan
The Bush administration has unveiled a controversial new plan for intervening in Cuba's political affairs. The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba has produced a report calling on the US to spend millions of dollars supporting opponents of Fidel Castro. The promised funding has been billed as "democracy promotion." Critics say it will work to undermine Cuba's government the same way the US democracy funding has destabilized democratically-elected regimes in other countries such as Haiti and Venezuela. Cuba's government has likened the new program to a declaration of war.

Bush Admin Seeks Another NSA Suit Dismissal
In Detroit, the Bush administration has asked a federal court to dismiss another lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's domestic spying. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of a group including scholars, attorneys, journalists and NGOs that regularly make phone calls or send e-mails to the Middle East. The Bush administration has also asked a federal judge to dismiss a parallel suit filed here in New York.

Video Claims Soldier Killings Revenge For Rape, Killings
Meanwhile, an al-Qaeda linked group has released a video claiming last month's abduction and murder of two US soldiers was in revenge for the rape and killings. The video shows the mutilated bodies of two soldiers, believed to be Private Kristian Menchaca and Private Thomas Tucker. The two were from the same unit as the five accused soldiers.

Pentagon Ignored Requests For Interrogation Measures Clarification
New documents shows senior Defense Department officials ignored requests from commanders in Afghanistan for clarification on which interrogation measures could be used on prisoners held by US troops. The documents were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. Some of the techniques had been authorized for exclusive use at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay. These include the use of military dogs, stress positions, sleep adjustment and environmental manipulation. When commanders failed to receive a response to their request, they took the Pentagon's silence as proof the measures had been approved.

Widow of Al Jazeera Correspondent Sues Bush Administration
The wife of slain Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayoub is bringing a lawsuit against the Bush administration for her husband’s death. On April 8, 2003, Ayoub was reporting from Al Jazeera's offices when he was killed by a US missile. An attorney for his widow, Dima Tahboub, says the case is being launched in part from the disclosure in London's Daily Mirror President Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair of his desire to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar. The Mirror cited a secret memo leaked from the British government. A recent book from investigative journalist Run Suskind bolstered the accusations based on his interviews with unnamed US intelligence officials.

Detained Iranian-American Filmmaker Sues Rumsfeld
An Iranian-American filmmaker who spent nearly two months in a US prison in Iraq has filed suit against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top military officials. Cyrus Kar was detained in May 2005 while he was riding in a taxi cab in Baghdad. Kar was never charged, denied access to an attorney and kept in solitary confinement.

The end of legal immunity?

Iraq to ask UN to end U.S. immunity after rape case
Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the human rights minister said on Monday, as the military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis. In an interview a week after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded a review of foreign troops' immunity, Wigdan Michael said work on it was now under way and a request could be ready by next month to go to the U.N. Security Council, under whose mandate U.S.-led forces are in control of Iraq.

John Dean:
Senators Kyl and Graham’s Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Scam: The Deceptive Amicus Brief They Filed in the Guantanamo Detainee Case
Senators Graham and Kyl not only misled their Senate colleagues, but also shamed their high offices by trying to deliberately mislead the U.S. Supreme Court. Their effort failed. I have not seen so blatant a ploy, or abuse of power, since Nixon's reign.
"Habeas corpus rights have been given to Guantanamo Bay detainees because the location is under control of the United States," Graham observed. He then incorrectly told his colleagues, time and again, that the United States had never before given aliens, enemy combatants, and prisoners of war the right to file a habeas corpus action. As the debate proceeded, Senator Bingaman did eventually call Graham on his misleading claim about federal courts and habeas actions.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court did not decide the jurisdictional issue until it rendered its full ruling on June 29 of this year. There, Justice Stevens concluded correctly that the Congress had not stripped the Court of jurisdiction with the DTA. The High Court has chosen to ignore the bogus brief filed by Senators Graham and Kyl, rather than reprimanding the Senators. Nevertheless, when Graham and Kyl sought to file the very same brief, a month later, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columba, Slate's Emily Bazelon reports that court "issued an unusual order rejecting" their amicus brief alone, although they accepted five others.

A Liberal Dose:
Making a Killing: Cheney and Rumsfeld are old hands at covering up war crimes
Army Reserve Brigadier General David R. Irvine (ret.):

Tiger Force is a documented account of 120 U.S. soldiers who, between May and November of 1967, rotated through an Army special operations platoon. This platoon, Tiger Force, wreaked its vengeance in the vicinity of Duc Pho and Chu Lai in South Vietnam.
Operating largely on their own and only passingly accountable to a chain of command that rarely ventured into the jungles and paddies, these soldiers ruthlessly murdered hundreds of unarmed men, women and children. One soldier cut off a baby's head with a knife. Victims' ears were regularly sliced off, collected and fashioned into necklaces which some soldiers proudly wore. Other victims were scalped. Some were tortured. Teeth were kicked out to retrieve the gold from fillings. Virtually all of the civilian deaths were reported as "Viet Cong," even though, oddly, no weapons were ever found and none were ever reported. No officer in command ever questioned this glaring disparity.
In 1974-75, Richard Cheney was a special assistant to President Ford. Ford's chief of staff was Donald Rumsfeld. The secretary of defense from 1973-75 was James Schlesinger. The case was made to disappear by these men who served presidents Nixon and Ford - probably out of considerations of politics. There were never any charges filed against the soldiers or the officers who ordered and participated in the routine killing of civilians.
The only reason the case file ever became public was that the CID officer who directed the investigation, and who later commanded the Criminal Investigation Division, kept a copy of the investigation file, and prior to his death in 2002 made provision for the file to be delivered to a reporter with the Toledo Blade.

Hoekstra: Bush hiding more unchecked spy programs

The New York Times published a letter from Republican Representative Pete Hoekstra to President Bush. Hoekstra, who is chairman of of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Bush for hiding surveillance programs from Congressional oversight. Hoekstra said that a whistleblower came to him with several more spying operations that were in danger of being abused without oversight.

"I have learned of some alleged intelligence community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of the law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies. The U.S. Congress simply should not have to play Twenty Questions to get the information that it deserves under our Constitution."

Supreme Court’s Ruling in Hamdan Means Warrantless Eavesdropping is Clearly Illegal
Ever since the Supreme Court in the Hamdan case ruled that the Bush administration’s Guantanamo Bay military commissions violate both federal law and the Geneva Conventions, the President has been paying lip service to his "willingness" to comply with that ruling. But the Court's ruling goes far beyond the limited question of whether military commissions are legal. To arrive at its decision, the Court emphatically rejected the administration’s radical theories of executive power, and in doing so, rendered entirely discredited the administration’s only defenses for eavesdropping on Americans without the warrants required by law. Actual compliance with the Court's ruling, then, compels the administration to immediately cease eavesdropping on Americans in violation of FISA. If the administration continues these programs now, then they are openly defying the Court and the law with a brazeness and contempt for the rule of law that would be unprecedented even for them.

Iraq Police Rampant With Corruption, Brutality
In other news from Iraq, the Los Angeles Times is reporting brutality and corruption continue to pervade Iraq’s police force. According to government documents, the known abuses include the rape and killing of detainees, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings. The vast majority of cases have gone unpunished. In one case, the infamous force responsible for keeping scores of detainees in the basement of an Interior Ministry compound remains intact – and works in the same building as US officials.

Ground commanders' questions about detainee treatment went unanswered
Report on Torture at Gitmo
Report on Guantanamo torture is released by Center for Constitutional Rights
The 51 page "Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba" is drawn from primary accounts given by current detainees and their American attorneys at the Guantánamo Bay prison. It catalogues conduct by U.S. officials in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which the Supreme Court recently applied to detainees in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision.

Olmert to press ahead with Gaza raids
Olmert, speaking to foreign media, said operations in Gaza to press for the soldier's release and an end to cross-border rocket attacks against Israel would continue indefinitely.
BOY DIES IN GAZA
A PALESTINIAN boy of 11 died yesterday after being shot in the chest in Israel's military operation in Gaza.
Israeli army turns on Olmert
AFTER a week of fierce fighting against Palestinian militants in Gaza, the Israeli government was last night facing growing unease within its own military over the refusal to negotiate with Hamas for the release of kidnapped soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit.
Gaza Death Toll At 43; UN Warns of Crisis
The death toll from Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza Strip has now hit forty-three. All but one are Palestinian. On Saturday, an Israeli air strike killed a mother and two her of children as they held a family barbecue in the backyard of their home. Another family member was left badly injured. United Nations aid agencies are warning Gaza is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster and say civilians are paying the price of Israel’s attack.
Then why doesn't the UN send in peacekeeping forces?
Swiss go where EU fears to tread
THANK goodness for the Swiss. Alone in Europe other than the Italians, their government has dared to condemn what the Israelis are doing to Gaza. It is collective punishment, it says. It violates the principle of proportionality. Israel has not taken the precautions required by international law to protect civilians.

US Bars Gitmo Detainees From Lawyer Memos
Tthe US government is coming under criticism for what lawyers and critics call a new assault on the rights of detainees. The military has suspended detainees’ rights to receive confidential papers from their attorneys. Prosecutors are also asking for court permission to go through thousands of pages of documents currently protected by attorney-client privilege. The government says it has evidence last month’s three suicides were part of a larger plot aided by the use of confidential lawyer-client papers and envelopes that could be exchanged without interference from guards. Defense lawyers say the government is making the allegations to hamper their ability to represent their clients. Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents hundreds of Guantanamo detainees, called the allegations "patently offensive" and "outrageous."

Report: FBI Drafts Legislation Forcing Internet Surveillance
The website CNET News.com is reporting the FBI has drafted legislation that would open the door to massive surveillance of internet users. The legislation would force Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and require manufacturers to build in “backdoor” technology into computer networks that would allow for easy eavesdropping. The surveillance would be approved under an expansion of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

Gulf war vet shoots four
David Bradley, 40, used a handgun with a silencer to avoid alerting his next victim. He crept up behind each in turn at their home, blasting them in the back of the head at close range. The ex-soldier then spent the night with the bodies before confessing to cops

Haitian Death Squad Leader Arrested in US – For Mortgage Fraud
A former leader of a Haitian death squad who now lives in New York was arrested last week for taking part in mortgage fraud. During the early 1990s, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant led the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti or FRAPH. Human rights group estimate FRAPH killed thousands of supporters of Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Constant has since admitted he was on the payroll of the CIA and has lived in New York for the last decade. Despite a deportation order, Constant has been allowed to stay in the US since he threatened to reveal the extent of his ties with the CIA. Constant is also the target of a pending lawsuit that alleges his forces gang-raped women in Haiti. On Friday, a judge set bail at $50,000 dollars over the protests of prosecutors and human rights groups.

Chemical warfare: Inside Britain's toxic house of horrors
Servicemen were deliberately subjected to lethal doses of poison in secret tests atPorton Down, an official report will admit this week. The long-delayed "historical survey" of Porton Down finds that at least five sets of trials "may not have met the ethical standards required," The Independent on Sunday has learnt.
They include one trial in which drops of a poison were placed on the skin of volunteers at a dosage level believed at the time to be fatal.

ABC News: Artificial Blood Experiment: Is Your City Participating?
Note that this ABC News Story does not mention the earlier trials of this product with the high incidence of heart attacks.

Deadly "Fake blood" tested on Human Guinea Pigs without Consent
The FDA is allowing Northfield to test its blood substitute without the consent of the trauma patients, who often are unconscious. In lieu of patient consent, the 31 medical centers testing the product are required to carry out community-awareness campaigns about the trials. Several hospitals have told community meetings that previous trials showed PolyHeme to be safe, failing to mention the 10 heart attacks in their printed materials.

Accused rapist discharged with "Anti-Social Personality Disorder"

July 6, 2006
Neighbor and eyewitness Hussein Mohammed, 33, points to the blood splattered floor and wall where he found the three killed family members of the young Iraqi girl who was allegedly raped then killed in another room in their home in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Former US Army Pfc. Steve D. Green was charged Monday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, with rape and four counts of murder. At least four other US soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation in the attack.

1,000 US Soldiers Discharged with 'Personality Disorders'
Following the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl and her family by private Steven Green who was discharged due to having an "anti-social personality disorder." Army statistics now say thousands of soldiers were discharged with the same symptoms. The US Army's surgeon general informed reporters that the disorder is not something related to combat trauma, but a lifelong condition that is pretty hard to spot during military screenings. (Suuuuuuuuuure). However soldiers with the disorder can remain on duty. (Until they get caught doing something like this)
The number of soldiers discharged for 'personality disorders' during 2001 was 805, followed by 734 in 2002, increasing to 980 during 2003 and 988 in 2004 and with an all-time high of 1,038 in 2005. Currently there are 200 mental health cases in Iraq.
(These people are now walking around in your city, folks)

The Army discharged more than 1,000 soldiers last year for personality disorders, the reason it gave for this year's discharge of a private now accused of raping a young Iraqi woman and killing her and her family. That total represents about 1.2 percent of the 83,000 soldiers given early discharges during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2005. That was a bit higher than the less than 1 percent discharged for those reasons during the 2001 fiscal year before the war in Iraq began.
Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, told reporters Friday that the disorder usually is not associated with combat trauma and may be a lifelong problem that is not always easy to identify in military screenings. He said soldiers exhibiting such traits would not be automatically discharged because many can continue to perform well. (You betcha they do).
Steven D. Green, who pleaded not guilty through his public defenders Thursday, was discharged because of an “anti-social personality disorder” according to military officials and documents. That condition is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits or violates the rights of others, such as someone who repeatedly lies, fights or breaks the law.
According to a federal affidavit, Green, 21, and other soldiers targeted a young Iraqi woman after spotting her at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. They later went to her house, raped and killed her and shot members of her family, the affidavit said. Green is being tried in federal rather than military court because he no longer is in the Army.
Kiley told Pentagon reporters that personality disorders – which are not forms of mental illness – do no necessarily exclude people from serving in the armed forces. In fact, he said that up to 4 percent to 5 percent of the soldiers have taken sleep medications or antidepressant drugs at one time or another during their combat service. Altogether, there were nearly 493,000 people in the Army during the 2005 fiscal year, compared with about 481,000 in 2001. The Army discharged 805 soldiers for personality disorders in 2001, 734 in 2002, 980 in 2003, 988 in 2004 and 1,038 in 2005. Mental disorders represented between less than 1 percent to 1.4 percent of the total early discharges for those years. The total number of early discharges ranged from about 69,000 to more than 87,000.
Soldiers can receive early discharges for a number of reasons, but most often they are for physical fitness issues. Kiley said the Army is allocating more resources that ever to combat stress and provide mental health counseling for soldiers on the battlefield. Currently, he said, there are about 200 mental health and behavioral health personnel in Iraq and 25 in Afghanistan. Many of them are assigned to different regions of the country and travel in small teams to the forward operating bases to meet with soldiers. The Army, he said, is trying to find ways to encourage soldiers to use the mental health services and overcome the perception among the military that seeking mental health counseling is a sign of weakness.
"There is something very demanding and tough about being in combat," said Kiley. (Yes, it's called butchering your fellow human beings). "And anything that would be perceived as being weak and not ready and tough carries with it some stigma."As a result, he said, the Army is trying to reach out regularly to soldiers while they are in combat, and officials are encouraging entire units to go through mental health screenings so that soldiers will feel more comfortable doing it if they see their commanders and unit leaders participating.

There was a study done after WWII to improve combat readiness and the like and they found out that approx. 76% of the soldiers wouldn't shoot their weapon while 14% had no such reservations. In other words, 14% of the soldiers were doing damn near all the killing...They later went and investigated several other wars and came to similar conclusions. That was part of the reason they changed the training regiment and included shooting at 'human' styled targets which upped that ratio into the 80% range.
That's also why they send out sniper teams in pairs as well. When another person is present, they were more likely to take out the target...

Steven D. Green, center, a 21-year-old former soldier who was discharged from the Army, is escorted by U.S. Marshalls, from the federal courthouse in Charlotte, N.C.

Charges allege that on March 12 while stationed in Mahmudiayh, Iraq, with the 101st Airborne Division, Green and three other soldiers went to a home near Traffic Control Point 1, near Mahmudiayh, to rape one of the women living there. Using an AK-47, Green allegedly shot and killed an adult male, an adult female and a female child present in the house. The charges also allege that after participating in the rape of the second adult female, Green shot and killed her.
Before going to the residence, two soldiers changed clothes and another remained in uniform, a federal affidavit states, and the group took three M-4 .223-caliber rifles and a shotgun. One of the M4s belonged to one of the soldiers and the four allegedly later returned with blood on their clothes, which they burned. Green covered his face with a brown T-shirt, according to the affidavit. When they arrived, Green allegedly went to the bedroom to keep the rest of the family there and another soldier allegedly threw a woman to the floor. After Green closed the bedroom door, another soldier reported hearing gunshots from inside the bedroom.
Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone, "I just killed them, all are dead," the affidavit showed. After the rape, a soldier said he saw Green shoot the woman two or three times, the affidavit said. When the soldiers returned to the traffic checkpoint, one soldier allegedly instructed Green to dispose of the AK-47. (Sounds like a really bright guy if the others had to clue him in to disposing of the murder weapon)

U.S. Soldier Accused of Rape and Murder Discharged for ‘Personality Disorder’
In this photo provided by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, Steven D. Green is shown in A booking mug shot at the Mecklenburg County jail in Charlotte, North Carolina, July 3, 2006.
He was discharged because of an "anti-social personality disorder," according to military officials and court documents. A psychiatric condition, anti-social personality disorder is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits or violates the rights of others. Someone with the disorder may break the law repeatedly, lie, get in fights and show a lack of remorse.

The former soldier, Steven D. Green, 21, had recently been discharged from the Army for a “personality disorder,” the prosecutors said. They said Mr. Green and other soldiers had discussed the rape in advance and carried out the crimes after drinking alcohol, leaving a checkpoint and changing from their uniforms into black clothing.

U.S. authorities ask to exhume remains of alleged Iraqi rape victim

Steven Green, accused rapist and murderer; your tax dollars at work in Iraq

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. investigators have asked Iraqi authorities to help them navigate cultural sensitivities to exhume the body of a teenager allegedly raped and murdered with her family by American soldiers, a military official said Saturday. U.S. Maj. Mark Wright said U.S. authorities are aware that Islamic tradition has strict rules governing exhumation and could require religious leaders to become involved in the investigation.
Wright, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, told The Associated Press. Muslim tradition generally frowns on exhumations, considering them desecration of the remains. However, Ahmed Taha, the uncle of the dead teen, told AP Thursday that relatives were eager to co-operate with investigators and would allow them to exhume the body of the alleged rape victim, Abeer Qassim Hamza. Based on interviews and records, the U.S. military now believes the woman who Green is accused of raping and killing was between the ages of 14 and 20, army spokesman Paul Boyce said Friday. While the military initially said she was 20, Boyce said he has seen documents that indicate she could have been about 14.
Wright said officials are also considering whether certain parts of a standard Western autopsy would be taboo in Iraq and if a religious leader or family members should be present to ensure cultural barriers are not crossed. He said U.S. military commanders in Iraq are working with the family's relatives to expedite the investigation, but that it was not immediately clear whether Iraqis or Americans would have custody of the woman's remains. U.S. officials are concerned that the alleged rape-slaying, which occurred March 12 near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, will strain relations with the new U.S.-backed government and increase calls for changes in the agreement that exempts American soldiers from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has demanded an independent investigation into the case, which followed a series of allegations that U.S. troops killed and mistreated Iraqi civilians. According to an FBI affidavit, Green and at least two others targeted the teenager and her family for a week before the attack, which wasn't revealed until witnesses came forward in late June. The soldiers drank alcohol, abandoned their checkpoint, changed clothes to avoid detection and headed to the victims' house, about 200 metres from a U.S. military checkpoint in the so-called "Triangle of Death". In the week since the allegations came to light, the military has remained tightlipped even amid growing cries by Iraqi leaders for a fair investigation.
"These crimes are against all the army values, so if you don't have any of those values, you shouldn't even call yourself a soldier," said Staff Sgt. Ahmand Brown, 28, of Flint, Mich.
But even before the rape-murder allegation surfaced, the military was investigating an incident in which three soldiers from the same battalion were killed by insurgents near Youssifiyah. Two of them apparently were abducted and slain, with their bodies mutilated. U.S. officials insist they have no evidence that the incidents are related.
Sounds like old-fashioned retribution.

Rape and murder: five more US soldiers charged

Steven Green, seen here in a March 2005 photo, is charged with killing and raping an Iraqi woman and killing her family.

The US military says it has charged five more soldiers over the rape and murder of an Iraqi woman and the killing of three of her family members. The military said the four "are charged with conspiring with former Private First Class Steven D Green to commit these crimes".
The court documents, which describe the incident, said one victim was a young girl aged about five, while the rape victim was about 25 - according to the alleged perpetrators. However, residents and local officials in Mahmuidyah dispute the age of the rape victim, saying she was only 15.
The latest abuse allegations have sparked widespread condemnation and follow a series of alleged unlawful killings of Iraqi civilians by US troops.
US marines are accused of killing 24 civilians, including 10 women and children, in the Euphrates valley town of Haditha last year after a bomb killed a comrade. The New York Times reported on Saturday that a number of senior military officers could face accusations of negligence for failing to investigate the killings more effectively.
Two US soldiers were also charged with voluntary manslaughter over the killing of an unarmed Iraqi civilian outside his home three months ago.
And this month seven marines and a sailor were charged with premeditated murder, kidnapping and other offences over the killing of a reportedly handicapped Iraqi in a wheelchair in the town of Hamdania near Baghdad in April.
The latest explosive allegations of rape and murder provoked Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for the elimination of the blanket immunity from prosecution in Iraq enjoyed so far by foreign troops. He has also demanded an independent Iraqi inquiry or a joint investigation into the killings. The case only came to light on June 20 after a "combat stress debriefing" of other members of Green's unit. Green belonged to the same unit - the 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment - as Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, who were kidnapped and whose disfigured bodies were found on June 19 south of Baghdad.

Marines' 'blind eye' to Iraq killings
WASHINGTON: Senior US marine officers failed to carry out a proper investigation into reports that troops had killed civilians in Haditha, according to Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-highest ranking commander in Iraq.
Lieutenant General Chiarelli has accused the marine officers of turning a blind eye to inconsistencies and inaccuracies in initial reports of the deaths. Twenty-four Iraqis, including women, children and an elderly man in a wheelchair, died in the incident last November. An American defence official said the general had concluded that "some officers were derelict in their duties". At the time of the killings, the marines claimed the Iraqis had died in a roadside bombing and a gunfight, but their story unravelled as reports of an alleged massacre spread.
Some marines may face charges of murder after Iraqi survivors and witnesses claimed a fire team moved from house to house, throwing in hand grenades and shooting the occupants.
American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top commander in Iraq, General William Casey, apologised to the Iraqi people last week for the rape and murder in March of an Iraqi woman, possibly as young as 14, and the killing of her father, mother and sister. The rape and murder case has inflamed Iraqis.
"Where do we start to reflect on our calamities? Shall we start with the Iraqi girl who was raped, killed, burnt and her family killed and her house burnt?" asked Sheik Ahmed Abdel Ghafour, an imam at Baghdad's Umm Qura mosque. "Is this American civilisation? Is this American liberation?"
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned last week that he may ask the US to cancel a rule that grants its troops immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

The Iraqi government called on Wednesday for an independent inquiry into the case and said foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi law should be reviewed. The Pentagon would not comment on those demands, saying an investigation was under way, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman indicated the United States has jurisdiction in the case.
Green faces the death penalty if convicted of murder. He now faces a U.S. court but could be returned to military duty and face charges as a soldier.

"'I Was a Mouthpiece for the American Military"

The producer, who asked that she not be identified by name, arrived in Tikrit soon after the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003, and was embedded with American troops for 45 days. She told me that, over the years, she has worked closely with the French army, NATO troops in the Balkans, and UN peacekeepers in covering war and conflict, but she said had never faced the sorts of restrictions imposed by the Pentagon on journalists in Iraq. "I was," she said, "a mouthpiece for the American military."

U.S. Officer Reported Ready to Plead Guilty in Bribery Case Involving Iraq Building Contracts

A senior Army Reserve officer who is a former California police chief smuggled $120,000 in stolen cash out of Iraq and accepted a sport utility vehicle in a series of bribes for helping steer construction contracts in Iraq to an American businessman, court papers filed Friday said.

Rumsfeld sued over wrongful detention

A Los Angeles filmmaker has sued US Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld and many high-ranking military officials for wrongfully imprisoning him for 55 days in Iraq last year. Kar, a US citizen and navy veteran, went to Iraq 14 months ago to make a documentary film about Cyrus the Great -- the Persian king who issued the world's first human rights charter.

Golani commander: IDF soldier likely killed in Gaza by friendly fire

At first it was believed that Bassel had been shot by a Palestinian sniper. Now, however, it appears highly likely that a Golani force in the adjacent house misidentified Bassel's force as Palestinian and opened fire on it.
Nowhere to Hide - Israelis kill 6yr old girl and her family in Gaza

The Israeli military, initially denying that any shells had been fired, later admitted a missile had missed its target in an open field and landed on a street in the Shajaya district on the outskirts of the city, near the Karni border crossing.
Israel rejects Palestinian call for truce

The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire Saturday in its violent two-week standoff with Israel, but Israel rejected the offer because it did not call for releasing a soldier held by Hamas militants.

War crimes in Gaza

The 1949 Geneva Conventions state, in article 54 of their additional protocol: "Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. "
It is also "prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population."
That means that the Israeli army's latest offensive in the occupied territories amounts to war crimes; it includes the blockade of the civilian population and their collective punishment, the bombing of Gaza's $150m power station, depriving 750,000 Palestinians of electricity in the intense summer heat, and the kidnapping on the West Bank of 64 members of the political wing of Hamas, including eight cabinet ministers and 22 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. On 5 July the Israeli government said it would expand its military operation in Gaza.

Plan to attack New York tunnels: Yet another dubious "terror plot"

How real a plot could be, in which the conspirators had not scouted the supposed targets, had not attempted to raise funds or acquire explosives, and had not formulated a plan of action, Mershon failed to explain. Further information reported in press accounts and attributed to US officials “speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing” made it clear that no real plot existed.

Landmark al Qaeda trial collapses

The trial of 19 alleged al Qaeda members had been designed to showcase how serious Yemen was in the fight against terror. But the Islamic militants, accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, were all acquitted for lack of proof, the presiding judge ruled Saturday.

Nation Breaking

A soldier discovers that training the Iraqi army is not President Bush’s priority.

Our relationships with the locals fared no better. Our line companies spent nearly every waking minute on patrol. The nightly door-kicks on residents’ homes proved excellent recruiting tools for local terrorists. I recall several occasions of having to kick in doors to take cover only to hear screaming locals.
I believed in my mission, and I wanted the Iraqis I was training to run their own country. But this wasn’t an American priority, and I left Mosul feeling that my efforts were either erased or ignored. That’s not to say that the men who died in Iraq died for nothing. They were doing their jobs. But the Bush administration disgraces their memories by stating that our only option is to prolong a losing policy.

The Columbine Massacre Unravels

John Stone, the Sheriff of Jefferson county at the time, believed there were others involved, but he was constantly blocked by an FBI agent named Dwayne Fuselier. To make matters worse, Fuselier had two sons in the Trench Coat Mafia, and the FBI saw no conflict of interest.

Leftist to Seek Recount in Mexican Election

Top aides to leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Friday for a recount of nearly half the votes cast in Sunday's presidential election and edged close to demanding that the entire vote be nullified.
Mexico: Vote Counting Software Hacked
Mexico: Calderon's brother-in-law wrote the vote-counting software, and it's already been hacked!

Activist Fatally Shot In DC
Man Who Took On Bigwigs Had Filed To Run for Mayor
A community activist who made a habit of confronting the powerful and had filed papers to run for D.C. mayor was fatally shot early yesterday in a park a block away from the city's thriving new convention center. Chris Crowder, 44, was shot multiple times and found by police next to the wheelchair he had used since 1990, when he was shot and paralyzed from the waist down on a playground in the same neighborhood. Another man was shot multiple times in the same incident and was in critical condition last night, police said, declining to release his name.
Now his Mount Vernon neighborhood is in the midst of a rapid transformation, luring developers of pricey condominiums and suburbanites itching to be close to downtown.
"He stood out because of his energy and his passion," said D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty, a leading mayoral candidate. "He was an advocate for affordable housing, more services and programs for young people. He spoke very loud. Even when he was challenging the government, he was always the type of person who would walk over and shake your hand. He really seemed concerned about the future of the city."
"He said he wanted to help the city be better," his mother, Gracie Brown, said of Crowder's mayoral bid. "He didn't have much money, but he was running."
Crowder shared an apartment with his mother on Seventh Street NW, a few blocks from the scene of the shooting. Brown rushed to the park after neighbors knocked frantically on her door. A detective told her that her son had been shot seven times, she said. Crowder had graduated from Howard University and was working his way through law school in 1990 when he was shot the first time.
Brown said her son had been unable to work because of his injuries and was receiving disability payments. She said he was always helpful with seniors in their apartment building in the 1300 block of Seventh Street.
One question bothered Fenty and others yesterday: "How does a guy in a wheelchair get shot?" the council member asked.

American Nightmare

Ex-Soldier Pleads Not Guilty to Rape, Killings of Iraqis
The former US soldier charged with raping a young Iraqi woman and killing her and three family members has pleaded not guilty. Former private Steven Green appeared in a Kentucky courtroom Thursday. Green is accused of raping and murdering Abeer Qasim Hamza, and then burning her body in an attempt to hide the crime. Hamza may have been as young as fifteen years old.
Green is also accused of murdering Hamza’s mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhsen; her father, Kasim Hamza Rasheed; and her five-year old sister Hadel. Four other soldiers are also under investigation. New details continue to emerge about the case.
Family cousin Abu Firas Janabi told the Los Angeles Times he was the first person to enter the house after the attack. Janabi says the father’s head had been “smashed into pieces” and the young sister’s arm visibly broken. He said Abeer Qasim Hamza lay naked and burned, her head smashed in "by a concrete block or a piece of iron."
And according to Janabi, the family’s two young sons returned from school to see their home on fire and their family members burning inside. Janabi also says that three days before the attack, Abeer Qasim Hamza’s mother had complained to him that US soldiers were constantly searching her house and that she believed her daughter was the target. Janabi says he suggested that the family move into a vacant home beside his but the parents insisted they’d be safe. Janabi says the family’s two sons are now with their uncle in a nearby village.
Meanwhile, the military is investigating whether the recent abduction and beheading of two US troops in a nearby town is linked to the case. The dead Privates -- Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker – were from the same military unit as Steven Green and the four other soldiers. Investigators now believe the two soldiers may have been slain as an act of revenge for the rape and killings.

CIA Kidnap Victim Reveals Ordeal in Afghan Prison
Meanwhile, an apparent victim of a CIA kidnapping has come forward to reveal the story of his abduction and torture. In an interview with the New York Times, the victim, Laid Saidi, says his ordeal began three years ago. In May of 2003, Saidi was expelled from Tanzania and handed to US agents. He was then flown to Afghanistan, where he spent sixteen months in a prison he believes was run by Americans.
Saidi says he was left chained for five days without food or clothing. He says his interrogators beat him, doused him with cold water, spat on him, gave him dirty drinking water and told him he would die at the prison. He was eventually released in August 2004 and sent to Algeria. Saidi says he was held in the same prison as Khaled el-Masri, the German citizen who tried to sue the CIA for illegally kidnapping him two and a half years ago. According to the New York Times, two Pakistani detainees held at the same Afghan prison are now being held at Guantanano Bay.

Nuking Iran Is Not Off the Table
Hersh himself unwittingly reveals the key reason why Iran will be nuked: he reports that the Air Force argued that conventional rather than nuclear bunker busters should be used against the Natanz underground facility, because they would achieve the objective "without provoking an outcry over what would be the first use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict since Nagasaki." That is the problem.


Destroying an Iraqi City to "Save" It
The city of Ramadi, epicenter of the Iraqi insurgency, has already been reduced to such ruins that constantly under-fire American forces are planning to bulldoze three blocks in the center of the city and create a mini Green Zone in an attempt to gain the upper hand on the insurgents.

Seven Questions: Covering Iraq
You can only manage the news to a certain degree. It is certainly hard to hide the fact that in the third year of this war, Iraqis are only getting electricity for about 5 to 10 percent of the day. Living conditions have gotten so much worse, violence is at an even higher tempo, and the country is on the verge of civil war. The administration has been successful to the extent that most Americans are not aware of just how dire it is and how little progress has been made. They keep talking about how the Iraqi army is doing much better and taking over responsibilities, but for the most part that’s not true.

Cheney behind turn toward dictatorship
The United States is currently caught up in a new campaign for a military dictatorship rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time of great danger, the President has unlimited powers. If he cites national security, he can do whatever he wants -- ignore Congress, disobey laws, disregard the courts, override the Constitution's Bill of Rights, -- without being subject to any review. Separation of powers no longer exists under this view. The President need not consult Congress or the courts, only the vice president, the attorney general and God.



Bush Administration Agrees to Exempt Millions from Medicaid Citizenship Law
The Bush administration has agreed to exempt millions of Medicaid recipients required by a controversial new law to prove their citizenship to continue to receive health care. The White House decision came as a federal judge was about to rule on a challenge to the law in a hearing slated for today. The new exemption will apply to seniors and people with severe disabilities. But health advocates warn millions of people, including the homeless and foster children, will likely be unable to provide the necessary documentation.

Venezuela gets backing for U.N. council seat
Venezuela got a boost for its bid for a U.N. Security Council seat after the 15-member Caribbean Community said it would not support Guatemala's U.S.-backed candidacy.



American Dream, American Nightmare
American nationalism, unlike American patriotism, is different-and dangerous. Nationalism is the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or an idea, "placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests." Nationalism is about emotion and blood. The nationalist's thoughts "always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. … Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception."
One inevitable result, wrote Orwell, is vast and dangerous miscalculation based on the assumption that nationalism makes not only right but might-and invincibility: "Political and military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties."
"In nationalist thought there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unknown," Orwell wrote, in a spooky foreshadowing of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s nationalist musings.
"A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one's own mind."

Pentagon Allowing Neo-Nazis, Extremists in Armed Forces
In military news, the Southern Poverty Law Center is warning the Pentagon’s recruiting difficulties have allowed “large numbers of violent neo-Nazis and skinheads extremists” to join the armed forces. The Center says the numbers could reach into the thousands. Pentagon investigator Scott Barfield said graffiti advocating the Aryan Nations has appeared in Baghdad. He said commanders are not taking action even after being notified of the presence of extremists or gang members amidst their ranks. Barfield added: "They don't want to make a big deal again about neo-Nazis in the military because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they'll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."

Tax dollars to fund study on restricting public data
The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests.

Man Raided By FBI, ATF, Canadian Law Enforcement After Handing Out 'Subversive' Alex Jones Material
"I read the search warrant and low and behold there's no signed affidavit," said Salada. Salada told the Sheriff that the search warrant was therefore void to which the FBI and BATF responded that the affidavit was secret and sealed by the court."Now they can make up the affidavit to match what they found if they want to," said Salada as he was told that the agents would carry out the search anyway.

2.5 Million OBRADOR Votes Found In Mexican Dumpsters!
Only about 92 percent of the preliminary tallies had been included in that count, leaving 3.3 million votes out of the count. The claim – posted with the PREP results – that 98.5 percent had been counted was knowingly false. It was intended, as has every step taken by IFE in the vote counting, to create the false impression of a clear lead by the candidate of the State, Felipe Calderón. When, on Monday, Andrés Manuel López Obrador accused the IFE of hiding 3.3 million votes, Commercial Media pundits and columnists scoffed, accused him of conspiracy theories, and continued their permanent campaign to marginalize him and his supporters. But by Tuesday afternoon, IFE suddenly “found” 2.5 million of those missing votes -- even IFE’s accounting of those 2.5 million suddenly reappeared votes shows a strong lead by – surprise, surprise – López Obrador

Watching Gaza: "The Genovese Syndrome"
Some of you won’t remember her, but many in my generation will recall the horror and shame they felt after hearing the story of how she was raped and stabbed to death on a New York City street in 1964. What shocked the nation was the fact that 37 witnesses heard Kitty’s cries but did nothing to help. Years later, social scientists, studying this disturbing passivity, termed it the “Genovese Syndrome”.

Unknown unknowns

"As we know, there are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say, we know there are some
things we do not know. But there are
also unknown unknowns, the ones we
don't know we don't know."

House Subpoenas Rumsfeld For Abu Ghraib Documents
The House Government Reform Committee has subpoenaed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to turn over documents related to the probe into abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison. The subpoena was issued following Rumsfeld’s failure to respond to an earlier request. The committee is investigating how the Pentagon handled claims of abuse at the prison. Specialist Samuel Provance, who ran a computer intelligence network at the prison, has alleged Pentagon officials ignored his attempts to provide information on the abuse and retaliated against him for speaking to the media.



Iraq Calls For Independent Inquiry Into Rape, Killings
The Iraqi government is calling for an independent inquiry into the rape of an Iraqi woman and the killing of her and three members of her family. The woman, Abeer Qasim Hamza, is believed to have been as young as fifteen years old. Former US soldier Steven Green was arrested for the crime on Monday. At least four active US troops are also under investigation.
Military officials have said little on the case but some details of the allegations were revealed in an FBI affidavit obtained by the Washington Post. According to the document, the soldiers planned the attack after noticing Abeer Qasim Hamza at a US checkpoint in the town of Mahmudiyah.
On March 12th, the soldiers disguised themselves in dark clothing and broke into her family’s home. Green then herded Hamza’s parents and young sister into a room and shot them with an AK-47 rifle. Green and another soldier then raped the woman, shot her, and set her body on fire in an apparent effort to cover up the crime.
Neighbors told investigators Abeer Qasim Hamza had expressed concerns to her mother because the soldiers had made advances towards her. The military believed insurgents carried out the attack on her family until at least two soldiers discussed it during counseling sessions following the abduction and slaying of two members of their platoon. Speaking in Kuwait Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said the case is raising questions over the immunity granted to occupying troops.

• Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki: "We believe that the immunity given to international forces is what emboldened them to commit such crimes in cold blood. This requires that such immunity should be reconsidered. We affirm that we should participate in investigating crimes committed against the Iraqi people."

Decorated Marine To Return Medal in Act of Protest
Meanwhile, a decorated Marine has announced he will return one of his six medals in protest of the Iraq war. The marine, Sgt. Matthew Bee of Akron, Ohio, says he believes President Bush has used the War on Terrorism for political purposes. Bee and other Marines will travel to Washington where they will try to return their medals to Bush or to members of Congress.

Italy Intelligence Officials Arrested Over CIA Abduction
In Italy, two high-ranking intelligence officers have been arrested on charges they helped CIA agents abduct a Muslim cleric off the streets of Milan three years ago. Mauro Mancini, the deputy head of Italy’s military intelligence service, has been jailed. His predecessor, Gustavo Pignero, is under house arrest. The arrests marked the first time Italian officials have been linked to the abduction of Hassan Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Nasr was seized as he walked from his home to a local mosque. He was taken to joint U.S.-Italian base and eventually flown to Egypt. There, Nasr says he was beaten and given electrical shocks on his genitals. He was never charged with a crime and has never appeared in a court of law. Meanwhile, prosecutors say they’ve obtained new warrants for three CIA agents and one employee of the local US air base. The new warrants bring to twenty-six the number of Americans charged in the case since last year.

Occupation: The Inconvenient Truth About Iraq
It is time to tell an inconvenient truth about Iraq: it is an occupation, not a war. In wars, armies fight to dominate land. You cannot “win” an occupation. “Cut and run” does not apply to an occupation. Occupiers have to leave; the only question is when and how.

Israel Authorizes Deeper Gaza Invasion

The planned invasion threatened to be far bloodier than Israel's week-old offensive in Gaza aimed at freeing an abducted soldier. To carve out a sufficiently wide buffer zone to protect Israeli towns from such attacks, the army might have to go into densely populated areas where it can expect fierce resistance from Palestinian militants.

White House to Chabad: Bush won’t press Israel

The Bush administration will not force Israel into unilateral concessions, top White House officials told representatives of the Lubavitch movement.

"I want to tell you something very clear, don't worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it."
Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, October 3rd, 2001, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

UN Expert: US, EU, Others Ignoring Rights Abuses By Israel
A U.N. human rights expert Wednesday criticized the U.S., E.U., Russia and the U.N. for effectively punishing the Palestinian people by ignoring countless Israeli violations of human rights, international law and other standards. John Dugard, a South African lawyer responsible for investigating alleged human rights abuses by Israel in Palestinian areas, said the U.S. and other international powers who make up the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators have done nothing to rein in Israel.



U.S. Increasing Operations in Gulf of Guinea

The U.S. military is stepping up operations in the Gulf of Guinea to enhance security in this strategic and resource-rich region, the commander of U.S. European Command's naval surface combatant warships told the Pentagon Channel. U.S. military engagement along southwestern Africa's Atlantic coast has increased exponentially, Capt. Tom Rowden, commander of Task Force 65, said during a Pentagon interview last week. It's increased from almost no activity in 2004 to 130 "ship days" in 2005 to even more planned ship days this year, he said.

Should the work of independent researchers be used to find out what happened on 9/11?
Yes. It is evident that the governmental investigations are not truthful.	1282 votes - 98 %
No. The governmental investigations are truthful.	17 votes - 1 %

More on Ken Lay's death
A doctor said the cause of death was coronary artery disease and that Lay had likely suffered a heart attack in the past. The doctor says he is awaiting further toxicology results. Lay died facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in jail over his role in one of the largest corporate frauds in US history. Six weeks ago, he was convicted on ten counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and for making false statements to banks. Four years ago Enron filed for bankruptcy after years of defrauding its own employees and investors. The bankruptcy put over 4,000 people out of work. The value of the company’s stock dropped from $90 to about 30 cents. Thousands of Enron employees lost their lifesavings.
Ken Lay and his family rank among President Bush’s biggest career financial backers. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Enron was Bush’s top career donor until 2004. But in the aftermath of the Enron scandal, the Bush administration has attempted to distance itself from Lay.
According to several analysts Lay’s death will effectively nullify his conviction because he is no longer alive to take part in his appeal. Just last week prosecutors filed a motion asking Lay to forfeit more than $40 million dollars. Lay’s estate will now likely be able to hold on to his remaining assets. However, the estate could still be brought to court in civil cases by former Enron employees.

WAYNE MADSEN:
The mortality rate among those close to various Bush criminal enterprises is extremely high. Lay's death follows by a few weeks that of Phillip Merrill, Dick Cheney's handpicked President of the Export-Import Bank who served in that capacity during a period when questionable loans were made to the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. There will undoubtedly be questions posed about the circumstances of Lay's untimely (or timely?) death. Aspen, Colorado is a vacation playground for some of Bush's most ardent (and richest) supporters and access to the town and its records (including medical examiner records) is strictly controlled.
Lay and Skilling were scheduled for sentencing on September 11 but, more significantly, according to Federal sentencing guidelines, Lay was to have submitted a sworn financial statement to Judge Sim Lake by August 1. That statement should have contained all of Lay's financial assets, including any that may have been squirreled away in off-shore accounts or other "partnerships." With Lay's death, his sworn financial statement for the Federal court will be transformed into the filing of a probate will in the Harris County, Texas Court, moving the process from the oversight of the Federal judiciary to a county court in Texas.


DAVID ADDINGTON:

the rundown from Wayne Madsen's WMR:
While many people believe Karl Rove is the most powerful and heartless White House advisers in the Bush-Cheney administration, Dick Cheney's friend, counsel, and Chief of Staff David Addington is not less influential and ruthless... After Ronald Reagan's inauguration, Addington worked in the General Counsel's office at the CIA where he helped cover up Director Bill Casey's secret and illegal role in involving the agency in the Iran-Contra scandal. Addington honed his cover-up skills at the CIA. Working with the Republican minority staff on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and becoming Republican counsel on the Iran-Contra committee, Addington ensured that details of Oliver North's and Elliott Abrams' global panhandling for the Contras remained as secretive as possible...Addington had an ideological soul mate in Dick Cheney, Ford's Chief of Staff.
When George H. W. Bush became President and appointed Cheney as Secretary of Defense, Cheney hired Addington as his personal special assistant and later as General Counsel for the Defense Department....It was Addington who was largely behind the U.S. abrogation of the Geneva Conventions in dealing with war prisoners and who oversaw the whittling away of legal impediments to the torturing of prisoners. Addington also championed the creation of a "unitary executive," an all-powerful White House, with Congress and the Courts taking a back seat...After Scooter Libby was indicted last October, Addington took his place...Addington likely interfered in the Fitzgerald Grand Jury process. The word in Washington is that Fitzgerald was told an indictment of Rove would go no where since Bush plans to place Libby's name on the next Christmas pardon list. With a pardon of Libby, Fitzgerald would have been hard pressed to bring a case against Rove or Addington's alter ego, Cheney.

Is the Plunge Protection Team Bailing Out GM?

It is now an open secret that when President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12631 on March, 18, 1988, he formed a cabal of Washington-Wall Street insiders, officially known as, the Working Group on Financial Markets, unofficially referred to as, The Plunge Protection Team. The PPT’s goal is to do whatever is necessary to keep markets operating under any conditions and to act to maintain confidence in the financial system, whatever that takes. If the group thinks something is a threat to the financial system, they will do what is necessary to reverse the situation. Hey, it’s for the good of the country (and also, usually, for the immediate good of the pocketbooks of the Wall Street insiders that circle the PPT).

Peru’s Farmers Protest US Trade Deal
In Peru, thousands of farmers took part in a country-wide protest Wednesday against a trade agreement with the United States. Police used tear gas to disperse farmers who blocked several major highways. Peru ratified the deal last week. The US Congress is expected to follow this month. Farmers say the agreement was negotiated in secret and will unfairly expose them to heavily-subsidized US products.

• Antolin Huascar, President of the National Federation of Agriculture Of Peru: "We are in the streets because of the bad negotiation of the free trade agreement. We publicly denounce the government as traitors. It is their fault we are in the streets, and this will continue. They have already betrayed us, they have already sold our natural resources, they have already sold our agriculture."

Bird Flu Kills Younger People, Copying 1918 Pandemic, WHO Says
Bird flu tends to kill younger people, mirroring the pattern of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and the risk of the virus causing a worldwide outbreak in humans remains high, a World Health Organization study said. The median age of confirmed cases of the H5N1 avian flu strain was 20 years, the WHO said in a report published today in the Weekly Epidemiological Record. The death rate among patients aged 10 to 19 years was 73 percent, the highest of any age group, it said. Overall, the fatality rate was 56 percent.
"The differences in the age-related case-fatality distribution among H5N1 cases are reminiscent of those observed during previous influenza pandemics, particularly in 1918, where case-fatality rates were higher among young adults," the study said.

Did you know that the military has scientists working to recreate the 1918 virus from old tissue samples? Or perhaps they've already succeeded?

from "Secrets of the Dead" website on "Killer Flu"
In 1983, Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger left his previous job at the National Institutes of Health to take a position at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, Maryland, to create a state-of-the-art molecular pathology laboratory. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where Taubenberger is now chief of the Division of Molecular Pathology, has been in existence for more than 140 years and houses a vast collection of preserved tissue specimens -- including, Taubenberger discovered, samples from victims of the 1918 influenza outbreak.
"At some point around 1996 it occurred to me that it would be useful to look at the 1918 flu through the lens of molecular biology... it was an outbreak that had killed tens of millions of people, and nobody knew anything about it because viruses weren't even known then to be human pathogens," he says.
Taubenberger's studies have proven to be more than "relevant." He and his colleagues are on the verge of determining the 1918 strain's entire genetic code and they've shed light on the origin of the virus and why it was so peculiarly deadly to young adults. (How useful that could be to eradicate the "enemy's" armies) As part of the work, he and his team reconstructed the genes of the virus and inserted them individually into other viruses. Taubenberger bristles at the assertion by some activist groups that recreating, at least in part, the deadly 1918 virus would be considered bioterrorism if the work were done outside of the United States.


Even at Advised Doses, Tylenol May Harm Liver
Still, the over-the-counter drug is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S., and some researchers have called for increased regulation to prevent overdoses.

Human 'Mad Cow' Could Cause Eventual Epidemic
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD, the human form of "mad cow disease," has a long incubation period and could cause an eventual epidemic, researchers report. Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is caused by misfolded brain proteins called prions, which cows contract through contaminated feed. Humans can catch the human form the disease, vCJD, by eating contaminated beef.
Now, researchers at University College London have determined, through the study of a similar disease, that BSE has an incubation period of more than 50 years before it actively becomes vCJD.
Patients in Papua New Guinea with a disease called kuru -- the only currently epidemic human prion disease -- were studied to determine how long the disease was dormant before symptoms appeared. Kuru occurs in Papua New Guinea society because the disease was transmitted through cannibalism -- a common cultural practice up until 1960. By comparing the birth year in relation to the cessation of cannibalism in the community, the researchers were able to assess incubation periods of the disease. Eleven participants in the kuru study had minimum incubation periods of between 34 and 41 years, the researchers calculated. They could more accurately calculate the date of infection for men, and estimated an incubation period of between 39 and 56 years, with the potential for even seven years longer.

ABOVE: Normal brain, BELOW: Alzheimer's brain

More info on the similarities between Alzheimer's and vCJD:
Alzheimer's disease is a demographic time bomb. Since 1975, the number of Americans afflicted has risen from five hundred thousand to five million; over the next fifty years, an estimated eighty to one hundred million more people worldwide will succumb to it. More than one in five women and one in six men who reach age 65 will develop dementia before they die, a study last month reported.
From autopsies of people who died in different stages of Alzheimer’s, scientists know that its first physical signs usually appear in the medial temporal lobes. These reception areas for sensory input help produce memories. Particularly hard hit is the hippocampus, a three-inch-long portion that records new memories.
From there, the protein hallmarks of Alzheimer’s - plaques, or clumps of protein fragments that form outside nerve cells, and tangles, twisted strands of a different protein that form inside cells - move up, forward and back through the brain.
In 1982, scientists knew little about the diseases that make brains die. They did not even know what made up the plaques and tangles that Alzheimer had seen under his microscope. Lee and Trojanowski would prove that tangles are made of an abnormal form of the protein tau. All of the dementias, they said, have in common misfolded proteins, that accumulate in the brain.... Even with this stain, not designed to show clumps of proteins, Forman saw his first tangles - dark, flame-shape interlopers flowing from some cell nuclei. This was typical for Alzheimer’s.

The number of people with Alzheimer's disease is expected to grow 350% nationwide as boomers age. The statistics on the state of California show 472,660 with the disease now, with that figure increasing to 827,392 in the year 2025. The numbers continue to soar after 2025 as the baby boomers age. After age 65, one in every 10 Americans has Alzheimer's disease, but after age 85 half do.
The new analysis shows a growth of 100 percent nationally by 2030, when 8 million Americans will have the disease. By mid-century, 14 million would have the disease -- an increase of 350 percent over the current 4 million Americans with the disease.

Kenneth Lay found dead

Ken Lay, founder (and looter) of Enron, found dead
Lay and his successor as Enron's chief executive officer, Jeffrey Skilling, 52, were convicted May 2 of spearheading the fraud that plunged the world's largest energy trading company into bankruptcy in December 2001. Lay and Skilling were scheduled to be sentenced in October. Lay, who was also convicted of bank fraud, was facing as much as 25 years in federal prison.
Enron's implosion from accounting fraud wiped out more than 5,000 jobs and $1 billion in employee pensions virtually overnight. Shareholders claimed more than $25 billion in losses as a result of the crime. Lay and Skilling were convicted of lying to investors about Enron's debt and losses, much of which was hidden in off-the-books partnerships.
Lay made hundreds of millions of dollars at Enron in salary and stock profits. At his trial, he said he was broke because of the drop in Enron stock value and the cost of his legal defense.
Divine retribution?

FLASHBACK: The Mysterious Death Of An Enron Exec

Ken Lay is NOT the first Enron executive to kick off suddenly.

April 10, 2002

It may be the biggest outstanding mystery in the Enron story: the death of Cliff Baxter, a former top Enron executive. He'd just agreed to testify to Congress in the Enron case. A congressional source tells CBS News that Baxter wasn't a target in the probe, he was to provide evidence against others. But on the morning of January 25th he was found in his car - shot dead.
Police were criticized for calling it a suicide before investigating, so they kept the case open. The fact that it's still open more than two months later has made the Cliff Baxter case prime fodder for murder conspiracy theories. Adding to the mystery is a letter - perhaps a suicide note - that Baxter's wife is fighting to keep private. Groups like the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation want at least part of it made public.
"I believe very strongly that Enron is mentioned in it," said Joel White, the group's attorney.
More questions are raised in police, autopsy and lab reports.
Police won't talk while the case is open, so CBS News asked two experts - independent coroner Cyril Wecht and former homicide detective Bill Wagner - to review the reports. While suicide appears likely, both experts say the documents make it impossible to discount foul play.
Asked why he couldn't rule out murder, Wagner said, "because murder can be made to look like a suicide. ... Someone who is knowledgeable about forensics can very well have the ability to stage a murder, commit a murder and stage it to look as if it was a suicide, understanding what the police are going to be looking for."
The experts found several things highly unusual. First the peculiar ammunition: not regular bullets but something called "rat-shot". (Sounds symbolic to me--Baxter was going to "rat out" his cohorts).
"This kind of ammunition cannot be easily or readily traced back to the gun from which it was fired," explained Wecht. "It's not as frequently used by people for any reason. It's not the type of ammunition one finds in guns - it has a specific purpose: shooting at snakes and rodents in order to get a distribution pattern of the small pellets contained within the nose portion of the bullet. It's not something that a person is likely to have and to use if they intended to kill themselves," said Wecht.
Other unanswered questions include mysterious wounds on one hand and unexplained shards of glass in Baxter's shirt. All reasons to look deeper to rule out murder.
But Wagner says glaring police errors may make it harder to close the books on the Baxter case. First, nobody wrapped the hands to preserve evidence. "When the body did finally arrive for the autopsy, the hands hadn't even been bagged," said Wagner.
"I'm just amazed frankly that the hands were not bagged," Wecht said.
"From what I've seen looking at the vehicle, it doesn't appear they even fingerprinted it," continued Wagner. "The police narrative is vague for this type of investigation. It's important to get a timeline of the events that took place through the course of investigation - that appears to be lacking in the original report from the crime scene. Without that, without being able to piece together what was done when, it's very difficult to understand the events that took place and how they unfolded from that report," said Wagner.
The gun and other evidence were moved before photos were taken. The body was moved as well. There's a puzzling mention of blood outside the car from someone laying Baxter on the ground.
Wagner says that only should have happened if rescuers pulled him out to revive him. But even that scenario doesn't add up - the body is back in the car when the funeral home arrives "and that's something that is not explained in the police reports," said Wagner.
"I think there were some very important things omitted from the original investigation report that should have been included in it. I would like to have known what were the first couple things the Fire Department did to treat the victim allegedly as he was sitting in the car and from that point how did they change the initial crime scene. What was moved? Did they remove the body from the vehicle? It's actually unclear how they treated the actual scene," Wagner said.
Incredibly, even though an autopsy is required by law, none was ordered. By the time that decision was reversed, Baxter's body was being processed at a funeral home. (How convenient)
The coroner says police still won't tell her exactly who handled and who saw the body before it finally reached her and won't even give her routine information.
The official finding on Baxter's death may well end up being suicide, but for now his death certificate remains unsigned. And at least one provocative question is left permanently unanswered: what, exactly, Cliff Baxter would have told investigators about the biggest corporate scandal in history.

Iraq Vet Arrested on Rape, Murder Charges
A former US soldier has been arrested on charges of raping an Iraqi woman and killing her and three members of her family. The incident took place in the town of Mahmudiyah in March.
According to prosecutors, former Private First Class Steven Green broke into the family’s home and killed the woman’s parents and young sister. Green and another soldier allegedly raped the woman, shot her, and then set her body on fire in an apparent effort to cover up the crime. The woman’s name was Abeer Qasim Hamza. The military reported her age as twenty, but locals say she was fifteen. Neighbors told investigators Abeer Qasim Hamza had expressed concerns to her mother because the soldiers had made advances towards her before. The case marks the fifth in recent weeks in which US troops have been charged with committing atrocities in Iraq. Four other active soldiers are being held pending the outcome of a military probe.

American commanders' new plan for Ramadi: 'Get rid of it'
American commanders have a new plan for Ramadi, the "epicenter of the Iraqi insurgency and the focus of a grinding struggle between American forces and the guerrillas," according to an article slated for the front page of Wednesday's New York Times: "Get rid of it."
"Now, American commanders are trying something totally new. They are going to get rid of it, planning to bulldoze about three blocks in the middle of the city and convert them into a "Green Zone," a version of the fortified and largely stable area that houses the Iraqi and American leadership in Baghdad."
Lt. Col. Stephen Neary said some of the razed land will be turned into a park.
He added: "Aesthetically it will be an improvement."
The military is engaged in a large scale operation in Ramadi that has already led to the flight of thousands of residents. According to the New York Times, one poster displayed in the local US base reads: “Be polite, be professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” Another poster refers to the name of the military unit and says: "Kilo Company: Killed more people than cancer."
Some of these people are going to come back and live in our communities.

US-led offensive in southern Afghanistan kills hundreds
Despite US claims that the operation is only targeting Taliban fighters, it is clear that ordinary villagers face bombings and hostile attacks. The Pentagon routinely describes all victims of military operations as Taliban, even if they turn out to be women and children.
Just like the "Viet Cong" in the Vietnam War.

Baghdad Killings Up 16%
Meanwhile, officials at Baghdad's central morgue say killings have sharply increased since the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. More than fifteen hundred bodies were delivered last month – a sixteen percent increase over the month before. Meanwhile, United Press International is reporting delivery of dead bodies is so high the morgue has run out of adequate space to store them. On Saturday, sixty-six people were killed and more than one hundred injured when a truck bomb hit a crowded market in Baghdad. It was the deadliest attack since Iraq’s new government took office in May.

Fox News begins push for Federal "Office of Censorship"
What's the point? They're already exercising plenty of self-cenorship.
On June 29, several Fox News media figures suggested that the U.S. government should "put up the Office of Censorship" to screen news reports to determine whether they "hurt the country" or are of "news value," in the wake of a New York Times article disclosing a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions.

NAPOLITANO: Of course, we can. We have it both ways now. We can say whatever we want and the government can't censor us and the government can still fight the war on terror. If we were to allow some office of the government to decide what journalists can say, that would be the same that the King of England imposed on newspapers in England and in the U.S. and that prompted the Revolution. It would be about the most un-American thing you can imagine. How can we fight a war to bring freedom to another country, to bring freedom of the press to another country when we're crushing freedom of the press here at home?

Widespread illegal experiment on Arabs conducted at Israeli hospital
Ravid said in response that this was "an administrative and technical screw-up" not "a moral failing." Calling the matter "an unfortunate coincidence," Ravid told Haaretz that "there had been no malice or intent to deceive." He added that the affair is "a tempest in a teacup" and insisted that "there were no forged research or forged records here."

ABC Nightline Biased Toward Israel
Gee, that's a shocker!
Since the disengagement, Israel may not have entered Gaza as you point out, but it has bombed Gaza non-stop and bombarded them with sonic booms that have caused heart attacks, miscarriages and strokes. It has also blocked its borders so that only a trickle of food and medicine could enter.

Israeli army killed 951 Palestinian children and minors since September 2000

Corporate Media Ignores War Against Palestinians
In a brazen attempt to sugar coat Israel’s flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention, specifically Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is intended to protect civilians, the corporate media continues to spin the situation in the Gaza Strip.

An Amazing Coincidence
Obviously, the producers of the "Hannity & Colmes Propaganda Hour" had not anticipated such a damning bit of irrefutable evidence to escape over "their" airwaves. The very next morning, less than twelve hours after his 9/11 testimony had been unexpectedly "exposed" to the FOX faithful, Norman Minetta resigned as Secretary of Transportation.

Limbaugh, Hannity continued to attack Murtha based on inaccurate Sun-Sentinel report
The swift-boating of Murtha continues...


Vanity Fair to report that Cunningham sought bribes days before pleading guilty
A Maryland antiques dealer who did business with convicted congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham tells Vanity Fair that Cunningham called her mere days before pleading guilty and tried to convince her to put a Victorian armoire in storage—"anywhere, he didn’t care where," he told her—as long as it was far from the government’s prying eyes.

Bachrach talks with California defense contractor Tom Casey, of Audre, Inc., who worked with Wade's mentor, contractor Brent Wilkes. And she writes about Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, Wilkes's boyhood friend who would become number three man at the C.I.A.Casey tells Bachrach that when he asked Wilkes how he got to be so friendly with Bill Lowery and other congressmen, the answer was always the same, "Honduras."
Wilkes would fly down to Central America to hang out with Foggo and various congressmen, and Casey tells Bachrach that Wilkes described sexu­al encounters between congressmen and women from Honduran villages.
Maybe they took some photos so they could "influence" the congressmen later?

Is Cheney betting on Economic Collapse?
The article is called "Cheney’s betting on bad news" and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not.

Obrador Calls For Recount in Mexico Elections
In Mexico, the party of populist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is demanding a full, vote-by-vote recount in the country’s closest-ever presidential race. A preliminary count of the votes cast in Sunday’s election gave a slim lead to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon. But federal election officials acknowledged Tuesday that more than three million ballots - or eight percent of the total - remain uncounted. In the latest tally, Calderon leads Lopez Obrador by under one percentage point, meaning the race is still too close to call.

Maoists: Bush Admin Undermining Nepal Peace Process
In Nepal, the US government is coming under criticism from Maoist rebels who accuse it of undermining the peace process. The Bush administration has said it will withhold aid if the rebels join the government without first laying down their arms.

Italians Seeking Arrest of 3 CIA Agents
Prosecutors said Wednesday they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.

Italian spy director arrested over CIA kidnap
Police have arrested a director at Italy's military intelligence agency on suspicion of helping the CIA in the alleged kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan, officials said on Wednesday.

CIA Folds Unit Searching For Osama bin Laden
In intelligence news, the CIA has admitted it has folded the unit tasked with finding Osama bin Laden and his top aides. CIA officials say they made the move because they believe Al Qaeda operations are largely carried out independently of a central command.

State Dept. Group Urges US Intervention in Cuba
The Independent of London is reporting a new report from a State Department group will urge the Bush administration to begin preparing for an intervention in the event of the death of President Fidel Castro. The group, the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, was created by President Bush three years ago. Their recommendations include creating an $80 million dollar fund to promote US initiatives in Cuba. An annex to the report lists several proposals on how the Bush administration could undermine Castro’s government. Cuban parliamentarian Ricardo Alarcon likened the report to a declaration of war.

Criminal Charges Filed Against George H.W. Bush (Sr.) in Iceland
The group accuses former President Bush for participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and crimes against internationally protected persons. It demands that former President Bush be detained by the Icelandic authorities and investigation on these charges.
George H.W. Bush is charged of initiating a war of aggression against Panama in 1989, in breach of international law and the UN Charter, constituting a crime against the peace, and of ordering the kidnapping of Panama’s President Noriega in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons. George H.W. Bush is furthermore charged for his command responsibility for the multiple war crimes committed by US forces in the Gulf War in 1991, including the policy of deliberately bombing civilian targets and the massacre of soldiers hors combat. His command responsibility for these crimes is equivalent to those of other heads of states who have been charged, indicted and convicted for international crimes, including torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. George H.W. Bush is also charged for inducing an uprising of Kurds and Shi’ites in Iraq during the Gulf War and then ordering US forces to withhold aid from those who risked the uprising, thus leaving unarmed uprising masses unprotected against Saddam Hussein’s brutal forces. By such policies, he knowingly facilitated the commission of crimes against humanity by Saddam Hussein. He is finally accused for conspiring in imposing deadly economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, with the intent to harm the well-being, health and lives of the Iraqi civilian population, with foreknowledge of the likely consequences and with the subsequent knowledge of the sanctions’ devastating consequences. Such conduct is considered to be a crime against humanity under international customary law. About one million persons are believed dead as a result of the economic sanctions, thereof half a million children below five years of age.

Happy 4th of July

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government....

Kerik admits accepting $165,000 in bribes

Kerik pleads guilty to accepting gifts in corruption probe
Former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, whose rise from beat cop to nominee for Homeland Security head was derailed by ethics questions, dodged prison Friday in a plea bargain by admitting he took $165,000 in gifts from an allegedly mobbed-up New Jersey firm.

THE HIDDEN POWER
Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration’s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share—namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it.

Imagine for a moment, that it was you in Iraq . . .
Imagine for a moment - if you're a woman (or not) - that it was you in your new living room, with your brother and/or your son, your father, and perhaps your uncle, when these armed invaders entered your home and proceeded to gang-rape you and burn your battered and violated body alive, perhaps in front of your family.

Bush's Assault on Freedom: What's to Stop Him?

Americans are going to have to decide which is the greater threat: terrorists, or the Republican Party's determination to shred American civil liberties and the separation of powers in the name of executive power and the "war on terror."

New laws to punish whistle blowers
The crackdown is aimed at preventing cases such as that of Katharine Gun, a former translator at GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, who leaked a memo showing that in the months before the Iraq war in 2003 the Americans wanted GCHQ’s help in bugging the homes and offices of UN security council members.

Bush's Sick Vision of 'Democracy'
The president believes our government should work like this: President Breaks Law, Court says President broke law, Congress vows to pass law to make President's actions illegal, President attaches signing statement indicating he will not follow law. This pantomime of a fully functioning system of checks and balances is an insult to those of us who actually believe in democracy.

Pentagon Fireworks
Everyone knows that the only nuclear weapons ever used against civilian populations came out of the American arsenal on August 6th and 9th, 1945, obliterating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everyone also knows that, since then, no power on Earth has ever used nuclear weapons against civilian populations – an absolute truth that absolutely isn't so. In fact, the vast program of nuclear testing that the U.S. undertook in the American West from the 1950s into the early 1990s has taken a terrible disease toll on "downwinders," particularly the citizens of Utah and Nevada (and wherever else fallout landed in the U.S., not to say, on the planet) as did the Russian nuclear testing program on its citizenry (as did the French program, though they were cannier and tested their bombs not outside Avignon but in the South Seas).

At Guantanamo, Dying Is Not Permitted

The prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, won a major victory this week when the Supreme Court struck down the Bush administration's planned military tribunals. But for many prisoners at the detention facility, the protests haven't stopped. Hunger strikes persist, in what Guantanamo commander Rear Adm. Harry Harris, Jr. has called "asymmetric warfare" — a means to attract attention to their increasingly controversial detention. As a result, the camp's administrators have sought to keep prisoners alive at all cost — because a prisoner's death can be a major embarrassment for the U.S. and add fuel to widespread demands for the facility to be shut down.

High Court Has Found Bush Guilty of War Crimes
Largely missed in all the coverage of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case was the establishment by the court majority that all Bush administration claims to the contrary, the Geneva Convention rules regarding captured prisoners apply to the captives taken not only in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in the so-called War on Terror.

Marine Recruiter Attacks Demonstrators
The question that this incident must raise is this: if a US Marine recruiter, while safely ensconced behind a desk in an air-conditioned office in New Haven, working in a position that plainly keeps him in the public eye, feels free to use a baseball bat to beat a protester . . . then how much restraint do we imagine that his compatriots use against Iraqis?

Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say
The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

A declaration of war
This week, the conservatives declared war. They declared war on the idea that journalists have not just the right but the obligation to hold those in power accountable for their actions. They declared war on the idea that journalists, not the government and not a political party, get to decide what appears in the press. They declared war on the idea that the public has a right to know what the government is doing in our name.

COLORADO SPRINGS AIR FORCE INSTALLATION ON HEIGHTENED ALERT
The Cheyenne Mountain Air Station And Buckley Air Force Base are among four installations in the country at the higher alert level ordered last week by then- Acting-Commander of Air Force Space Command, General Fred Klotz. Space Command would not comment on the reason for the security increase.

U.S. to pay $48 million to cover damages to Gaza power station
United States officials said they expect that U.S. funds will be used to pay for the damages caused by an Israel Air Force strike Tuesday on a Palestinian power station in the Gaza Strip.
Why not make the Israelis pay to repair damages they caused?

Pentagon Misinformation the Only Sure Thing in This War

To their credit, top Pentagon officials cautioned journalists and the public, since the Iraq war's early days, that the dissemination of misinformation would be a vital weapon in their war strategy. Needless to say, they have certainly held true to their word.

FEDS PAVE THE WAY TO TOLL AND PRIVATIZE THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS

On July 29, 2005, President Bush signed a bill which permits and promotes the charging of tolls on existing and planned interstate highways, bridges, and tunnels.

Evil Empire Seeks to Punish Autism Expert
The Council's preliminary charges include:

• Publishing "inadequately founded" research
• Failing to obtain ethical committee approval
• Obtaining funding "improperly"
• Subjecting children to "unnecessary and invasive investigations"

Wakefield was reportedly being paid to find out whether evidence existed to support potential legal action by parents who claimed their children had been hurt by the MMR vaccine.

Iraq rape & murder by troops a "crime of opportunity"

GIs may have planned Iraq rape, slayings
Investigators believe a group of U.S. soldiers suspected of raping an Iraqi woman, then killing her and three members of her family, then burning her body, plotted the attack for nearly a week, a U.S. military official said Saturday. The Americans entered the Sunni Arabs' family home, separated three males from the woman, raped her and burned her body using a flammable liquid in a cover-up attempt, a military official close to the investigation said. The three males were also slain. The soldiers had studied their victims for about a week and the attack was "totally premeditated," the official said on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. The family had just moved into the home in the insurgent-riddled area around Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad.
The suspects were from the 502nd Infantry Regiment and belonged to the same platoon as two soldiers kidnapped and killed south of Baghdad this month, another official close to the investigation said Friday. The soldiers' mutilated bodies were found June 19, three days after they were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah southwest of Baghdad. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded. The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one member of the platoon to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22.
One soldier was arrested after admitting his role in the alleged attack on the family, the official said on condition of anonymity because the case was under way. The official said the rape and killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," noting that the soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols. One of the family members they allegedly killed was a child, said a senior Army official who also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The senior official said the alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session. The official said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it. A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes and then later saw bloodstains on their clothes, the official said.

(So, if soldiers came into your town, raped a girl, then burned her body and killed her family to cover it up, what would you do to the soldiers? Cheer them as they left? Or would you grab a couple of them and make an example of them to deter future rapists? I am not saying frontier justice is the right thing to do, but the beheadings take on a whole different light when viewed as a reaction to the rape/murder.)

Beheadings related to this rape accusation??

The official told the AP the accused soldiers were from the same platoon as the two slain soldiers. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded.

So, rather than the beheadings being "insurgents" or "Al Qaeda", maybe it's just Arab justice over the rape and killing of their women.

Guardian finds Afghan witnesses US couldn't

The US government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free. The Guardian found them in three days.
Two years ago the US military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the United States, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal. As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan.

After the Supreme Court ruling Congressional Democrats join with Republicans to maintain military commissions at Guantánamo

Whether any legislation that eventually emerges simply ratifies the existing commissions and the procedures laid down by the Bush administration, or introduces modifications to make the flouting of due process less brazen, the central purpose of the effort is to circumvent the substance, if not the letter, of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Congress cannot pass a law that is itself unconstitutional, and any laws they pass making Bush's actions legal does not make them legal retroactively. This violates the "Ex Post Facto" provision of the Constitution. Congress cannot look at Bush's crimes after they are committed and vote to make them non-crimes.

Pentagon Says Ruling Won't Affect Guantanamo

The Pentagon reaffirmed the need for the Guantanamo prison even though the US Supreme Court rejected the system of military tribunals put in place to try the prisoners. Camp commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris earlier said such a ruling would not affect the running of the camp and prisoners' lawyers said it may do little to secure their freedom in the short term

Insanity Defense: Power, Paranoia and Presidential Tyranny

That the United States, once touted as the "world's greatest democracy," is now ruled by a presidential dictatorship is a fact beyond any serious dispute. Indeed, except for a bare majority on the Supreme Court -- which will disappear with the retirement or demise of the aging Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the Court's stinging rejection of Bush's kangaroo military tribunals -- the nation's political establishment seems to have accepted this revolutionary system with remarkable docility, even as its lineaments are further exposed week by week. The Bush Administration no longer bothers to hide the novel theory of government that undergirds its coup, but declares it openly, in court, in Congress, everywhere.

10,000 EPA Scientists Protest Library Closures

In an extraordinary letter of protest, representatives for 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists are asking Congress to stop the Bush administration from closing the agency's network of technical research libraries. The EPA scientists, representing more than half of the total agency workforce, contend thousands of scientific studies are being put out of reach, hindering emergency preparedness, anti-pollution enforcement and long-term research, according to the letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Blinded by Progress

With the ongoing fixation on carbon dioxide being the cause of 'possible global warming', I think we may be 'fiddling while Rome burns.' With all the talk of the dangerous build-up of CO2, nary a word is mentioned of 'waste heat,' of which every BTU of energy that we consume becomes 'waste heat.' The laws of thermodynamics say this is so, and cannot be rescinded. Eons ago, individual people discovered that fire was a source of power. The idea spread and eventually made modern civilization possible. In the more modern era, engineering as a discipline, already rooted, now flourished. But at some point, an assumption for the sake of convenience was made. This assumption was that the surroundings are an infinite heat sink. Bear in mind that for the purpose of designing, for example internal combustion engines, etc, then this assumption is perfectly valid, for a designer generally focuses only on the design of his or her particular project and not on any larger implication. The problem is that this early assumption, meant only for the purpose of designing various things that used energy, gradually grew into an assertation of fact about the larger world; a completely unquestionable tenant of modern engineering in relationship to the environment of the globe. Maybe it’s time to re-examine that assumption.

Palast - Bush Team Helps Rig Mex Presidential Election Voting
George Bush's operatives have plans to jigger with the upcoming elections. I'm not talking about the November '06 vote in the USA (though they have plans for that, too). I'm talking about the election this Sunday in Mexico for their Presidency.

Mexican ex-president ordered arrested in massacre

A judge on Friday ordered the arrest of Mexico's former President Luis Echeverria for a 1968 student massacre in a surprise move just two days before a presidential election.

Right-wing pundits in Internet ratings freefall

Many well-known right-wing media figures -- including Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly -- are losing their Internet audiences, according to an analysis of Web site ratings by IPD Group and U.S. Politics Today.

Sunday New York Times Ad: 'America and Israel: A Troubling Alliance'

Egypt warns Israel not to take peace treaty for granted

An Israeli "war on all fronts" drew a rare warning from Egypt on Thursday that the military escalation jeopardizes a peace treaty with Israel as the Arab League held an emergency session to discuss the crisis. The threat of a regional conflagration rose Wednesday after Israeli warplanes overflew a palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose country is host to several Palestinian militant groups. A defiant Syria on Thursday vowed to defend itself against Israeli attacks.

Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies

Israel last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.

ISRAEL PLANNED CAPTURE OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE ALLEGED KIDNAPPING
The detention of Hamas parliamentarians in the early hours of Thursday morning had been planned several weeks ago and received approval from Mazuz on Wednesday.