Bloggers under attack?

British Ministry Of Truth Wants To Prosecute American Bloggers
If our Government doesn't like your news you may be a criminal, Next things to be banned on planes may be newspapers
Steve Watson / Infowars | August 31 2006
The decision made by the New York Times to block British readers from seeing an article detailing the liquid terror plot suspects has raised vital questions regarding freedom of information in this country and within cyberspace. The New York Times said on Tuesday it had blocked British Internet readers from seeing a story detailing elements of the investigation into a suspected plot to blow up airliners between Britain and the United States. However, this raises the question, what action could be taken against anyone else in America who posts details of the information on their own blog or website? Well it turns out that you could be prosecuted by the redcoat government.
This means that should anyone in the alternative media in America post the New York Times story online for all to see then they could face criminal proceedings. The official reason the story was banned is because it may influence jurors and prevent suspects receiving a "fair trial."
The story reportedly raised questions over the authenticity of the entire plot and suggested that an attempt to blow up the airliners was not as imminent as authorities had suggested.
Any juror in this case that would be influenced by such information would no doubt also be influenced by the furor that the government has made out the alleged plot and its own milking to death of it in an attempt to fear-monger the British public into total subservience and acquiescence.
Whilst many people in this country seem to be scared to death and accepting of whatever the authorities tell them is going to happen, many more seem to have finally woken up and are able to see straight through the mist of lies and spin, doubting that any plot ever existed in the first place.

A Guardian/ICM poll last week revealed that just 20% of British voters believe the government is telling the truth about the threat to bomb transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives - meaning 80% of the country do not trust Blair and the war on terror agenda.
This means that it's OK for the government to make public whatever information it sees fit and influence the trials of the suspects as well as shaping public opinion, but for anyone else to do so, either in the UK or in other countries, is a criminal offence.

Depleted Uranium -- Weapons to die for

Today, more than 15 states have introduced a depleted uranium bill, and Louisiana and Connecticut have passed theirs. It has created a nightmare for the federal government and put the Pentagon in permanent PR counterspin as well as exposed 15 years of official coverup under three Presidents and corruption in Congress. It is time for citizens and state elected officials to pass depleted uranium bills which will help all soldiers by putting pressure on the federal government.
But hey, the folks making these weapons are raking in money hand over fist...

Hawaii Legislature Takes Steps to End War

The Hawaii State Senate has passed a resolution "CALLING UPON THE GOVERNOR OF HAWAII TO TAKE STEPS TO WITHDRAW THE HAWAII ARMY AND AIR NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS FROM IRAQ."

Terror case against U.S. citizen not so easily proven
Now the case against Jose Padilla, 35, is shrinking under the scrutiny of U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. Last week, she threw out the first count in the indictment -- that Padilla and two other Muslim men "conspired to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country ... to advance violent jihad." She found that it repeated charges in other counts that alleged that they agreed to support terrorists overseas -- a violation of the Constitution.

So what was presented as an open-and-shut terrorism case is proving much harder to prosecute, legal experts say.
"This is not as clear-cut a case, certainly not as clear-cut as the attorney general made it out to be back in November," Vladeck said. "You have to wonder how strong their case is if there is this much trouble at the outset."

California To Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The state of California has announced a landmark deal that will impose this country's first broad limits on emissions of greenhouse gases. The measure would target power plants, oil refineries and cement factories to reduce California's emissions by one-quarter over the next fourteen years. Democratic lawmakers and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger struck the deal over the objections of the Bush administration and local business leaders. California currently accounts for two percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Drought shrinks Big Muddy

The drought that is causing the Mississippi to dwindle started in the spring of 2005 and hasn't loosened its grip. It's bad enough that the dry conditions are hurting his yields of soybeans, corn and cotton. But now low water is beginning to affect the fragile transportation system relied upon by farmers and factories in America's heartland.

US military leaders planning $20m public relations effort
President Bush To Launch New PR Campaign Against Democratic Critics
President Bush is in Utah today where he is expected to launch a new public relations blitz in defense of the Iraq war. The Washington Post reports the President's speech will be the first of many accusing Democrats of aiming to appease terrorists and cut off funding for troops on the battlefield. Under questioning from reporters, White House officials were unable to cite one major Democrat who has proposed cutting off funds to US troops. On Wednesday, President Bush insisted his new speeches are not political, saying: "I seriously hope people wouldn't politicize these issues that I'm going to talk about." His comments come one day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likened critics of the war in Iraq to those who tried to appease Nazi Germany during the 1930s. He was speaking to the American Legion veterans group in Salt Lake City – the same group the President will address today.
Preaching to the choir.

Olbermann blasts Rumsfeld's speech on "fascism"
Keith had some very choice words about Rumsfeld’s "fascism" comments tonight. Watch it, save it and share it.
Video - WMV Video - QT

"It demands the deep analysis - and the sober contemplation - of every American. For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence - indeed, the loyalty - of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land; worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants - our employees - with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration's track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.
Dissent and disagreement with government is the life's blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as "his" troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq. It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile… it is right - and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.
Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to flu vaccine shortages, to the entire "Fog of Fear" which continues to envelope this nation - he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies, have - inadvertently or intentionally - profited and benefited, both personally, and politically. And yet he can stand up in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emperor’s New Clothes. In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused… the United States of America?
And about Mr. Rumsfeld's other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that - though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.
This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed."

From Wayne Madsen Report:
A little history for Rumsfeld: It was your boss's grandfather who not only appeased Hitler and the Nazis but funded them. The SS Hindenburg made it a point of flying over Wall Street as a token of thanks to Prescott Bush and his fellow pro-Nazi supporters. And the American Legion, before which Rumsfeld made his "Nazi" remarks, was part of the 1933 Wall Street coup plans to overthrow Franklin Roosevelt. The American Legion should have long ago lost its congressional charter.

Taxpayers pay for Bush's campaign travel

Bankrolled almost entirely by taxpayers, President Bush is roaming far and wide on Air Force One to help Republicans retain control of Congress and capture statehouse contests in high-stakes midterm elections.

Soldiers Die, CEOs Prosper

While Army privates died overseas earning $25,000 a year, David Brooks, the disgraced former CEO of body-armor maker DHB, made $192 million in stock sales in 2004. He staged a reported $10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter. The 2005 pay package for Halliburton CEO David Lesar, head of the firm that most symbolizes the occupation's waste, overcharges, and ghost charges on no-bid contracts, was $26 million, according to the report's analysis of federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
"Those examples take the cake, especially because it's all related to their government contracts, which is money straight out of the taxpayer's pocket," Leondar-Wright said.

Logan, 3, and Justin Holbrook, 14, rode to dinner with the life-size cutout of their father, Lieutenant Colonel Randall Holbrook, a Maine National Guardsman from Hermon, Maine.

Guard families cope in two dimensions
Welcome to the "Flat Daddy" and "Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.
"It's a novel approach," said John Goheen, spokesman for the National Guard Association of the United States, a Washington-based lobbying group. "It's to remind the kids that this guy and this woman is still part of your life, that this is what they look like, and this is how big they are."
Truly pathetic. They will need $20 million in PR if this is the way they deal with issues.

William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security

Rumsfeld's Enemy: It's Us
Rumsfeld stated there could be no appeasing the enemy and any "any moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere."
The "who" Rumsfeld is talking about is himself.
Either Rumsfeld has delivered one of the most important speeches of the modern era, or he's gone crazy. I think the latter, not just because I think the secretary is wrong on his intellectual characterization of terrorism, and not just because he is wrong about the media and its intentions, and not because he is so pugnacious, or because he has been wrong so many times before. Rumsfeld is so wrong about America. His use of World War II history and the spector of fascism and appeasement, and his argument about moral weakness or even treason in any who oppose him, is not only polarizing but ineffective in provoking debate and discussion about the proper course this country must take to "fight" terrorism.
If I were the conspiratorial type, I'd say Rumsfeld was a particular menace to America because in his view of a monolithic and totalitarian terrorist enemy, and in his analysis of the weakness of American society, he can only come to the messianic conclusion that he indeed needs to takeover the country in order to save it.
"Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America -- not the enemy -- is the real source of the world’s troubles?," Rumsfeld asked yesterday.
This has got an easy answer: World troubles? Rumsfeld is the source of troubles much closer to home.

US Tenders New Contract For Monitoring Iraq War Coverage
The Washington Post is reporting the Pentagon has tendered a new twenty-million dollar contract to promote more "positive" news coverage of the Iraq war. (i.e. Propaganda) The contract calls on bidders to monitor and analyze news coverage in the US and international media. The stories would be analyzed for their tone and attitude towards US military operations and used as part of a program to provide "public relations products" that would improve coverage of the military. A public relations industry source said the Pentagon has been "overwhelmed" by news stories that have differed from how the military originally wanted them transmitted.
Good.

Army intelligence analyst who questions official 9-11 story is honorable patriot

A U.S. Army sergeant, Iraq War veteran, Purple Heart recipient and intelligence analyst has been accused of sending an e-mail containing "messages disloyal to the United States."
The reason for this accusation? He wrote that circumstances surrounding the 9-11 attacks raise questions about the official story, according to published reports.

From Hype To Hysteria: Fox News Selling Preemptive War Against Iran

Today Fox has aired multiple segments featuring pundits who claim that a U.S. military attack on Iran is both essential and imminent. Fox anchors repeatedly parrot these arguments.

Iran Faces UN Deadline Today
Iran faces a United Nations Security Council deadline today to stop enriching uranium. At the UN Wednesday, US Ambassador John Bolton warned the US will seek sanctions if Iran fails to comply.
The New York Times is reporting the push for sanctions may be hampered by a new report today from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report says Tehran has made only slow progress in uranium enrichment and doesn't have the capability to produce uranium for nuclear weapons. Iran continues to insist its nuclear program is peaceful and should be dealt with as part of comprehensive negotiations. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke earlier today on a visit to Japan.

• Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi: "We are confident about the peaceful nature of our programme. If there is also goodwill and sincerity on the other side, we are sure we can reach a good solution and good conclusion through negotiations. We hope we can start negotiations as soon as possible."

Pentagon Believes Iran Up To 8 Years From Nuclear Weapons
The Washington Times is reporting the Pentagon is drafting war plans under the assumption Iran is five to eight years away from being able to build its first nuclear weapon. Defense sources say the time-frame gives the Bush administration additional leeway to decide on whether to launch military strikes.

Painted Ceiling In A Smoking Area

RadioShack Lays Off Employees Via E-Mail

FORT WORTH, Texas - RadioShack Corp. followed through on its announced plans to cut about 400 jobs, but the electronics retailer has been forced on the defensive about its method of notifying laid-off employees by e-mail. Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters received an e-mail Tuesday morning telling them they were being dismissed immediately.

The Painful Lessons Of Hurricane Katrina
Katrina was another example of what FEMA does best - deliberately sabotages a crisis and leaves people for dead. Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's memorable emotional plea on Meet the Press went right to the heart of what FEMA were doing.

"We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel."
Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines."

The statements sent spewing from the frothing mouths of the Neo-Cons again betrayed the fact that they were completely devoid of any rational human feelings or grip on reality.
Barbara Bush said the victims were better off after the hurricane than they were before it.
Tom Delay said being forcibly detained in prison camp facilities was kind of fun.
Glenn Beck, the talk show host, said that hurricane victims were scumbags and saying he hated the 9/11 families.
Michael Chertoff called Louisiana a city.
Dick Cheney said the hurricane victims were thankful for what the federal government had done to them.

Lebanon To Compensate Residents For Damaged Homes
In Lebanon, Prime Minister Foud Siniora said Wednesday his government will no longer deal with Israel directly and would be the last to sign a peace deal with it because of the recent invasion. Siniora also announced his government will pay $33,000 dollars to Lebanese whose homes were destroyed by Israeli attacks. Siniora says some 130,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed in the thirty-four day war.
Just imagine how great the progress in New Orleans could have been if our government had proceeded the same way.

Gaza siege causing major health crisis

Gaza hospitals are facing a crisis because of a western and Israeli economic boycott, and an Israeli military offensive. The United Nations has warned of an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation.
"The siege and closure imposed by Israel have hindered medical aid from Jordan, Qatar, the Red Cross and the EU from reaching us," said Dr Ma'awiya Hasanein, general manager of the emergency section in the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.

Annan: Ending Israeli Occupation Key to Mideast Peace
Kofi Annan was in the West Bank Wednesday for meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. At a joint news conference, Annan said ending Israel's occupation of Palestinian land is the key to peace in the Middle East.

• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: "The suffering of the Palestinian people must not be forgotten as we strive to bring peace to Lebanon. President Abbas and I fully agree that an end to the occupation and creation of the Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel is the key to solving the problems of this troubled region."

Israel leaves behind 100,000 unexploded bombs
UN: Israel Dropped 90% of Cluster Bombs in War’s Final Hours
The top humanitarian official at the United Nations has lashed out at Israel for unleashing a deluge of cluster bombs in the final hours of its invasion of Lebanon. The official, UN Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, says the cluster bombs have affected large residential and farming areas and could be on the ground for years.

• UN Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland: "Colleagues in the UN Mine Action Co-Ordination Centre have undertaken assessments of nearly 85% of bombed areas in South Lebanon have identified 359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many as 100,000 unexploded bomblets. What's shocking and I would say to me completely immoral is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution, when we really knew there would be an end of this."

LBJ Night Before JFK Assassination:
"Those SOB's Will Never Embarrass Me Again"
"It was a political crime for political power," said former LBJ mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown as she highlighted how people who were set to testify against Johnson for indictment proceedings, related to illegal kickbacks Johnson was receiving from agriculture programs before the assassination, were mysteriously set-up in homosexual scandals or found dead having allegedly shot themselves five times in the head.

The Most Revealing Wink Of The 20th Century: Congressman Albert Thomas winks back at a quickly-smiling LBJ as he is being sworn in to be the next President of the United States on Air Force One while the grief-stricken Jackie Kennedy stands next to him.

INTERVIEW with veteran CIA analyst Ray McGovern by Dahr Jamal
Part 1
The bottom line here, in my view, is that both the US and the Israelis are in perilous circumstances now. That they will be run out of the Middle East in the next couple of years. That is exaggerating, but my point is that their policies are failed policies.
...These policy-makers are so naïve, they have no concept of what this will do to the Chinese, or even the Russians. The Chinese have long term oil deals with Iran. They're not about to as they would put it, "sit idly by" and watch us do this to Iran. They have all kinds of potential to hurt us and to hurt us very badly. And they will, if we start to attack Iran.
...Not only that, but if you're worried about the price of gasoline, you might want to invest in the company that's building new meters for the pumps because they are going to have to add another digit. It's not going to be nine dollars a gallon anymore; it's going to be ten dollars a gallon.
Part 2
We'll be involved in a major war in the Persian Gulf with a country that has done us no wrong, has posed no threat to us - but has in Israeli eyes caused a possible longer-term threat - a country that has incredible oil resources which the Chinese desperately need, which the Indians desperately need. And we'll have a major world conflagration there, because I'm sure the Iranians will - I'm sure - do the kinds of things that will put the world economy back several steps, drive up the price of gasoline to over $10 a gallon, and cause all manner of trouble to our troops in Iraq.

NY Times blocks article to UK readers

NY Times Blocks Article to U.K. Web Readers
The New York Times' website is blocking British readers from a news article detailing the investigation into the recent airline terror plot, turning its Internet ad-targeting technology into a means of complying with U.K. laws.
"We had clear legal advice that publication in the U.K. might run afoul of their law," Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty said Tuesday. "It's a country that doesn't have the First Amendment, but it does have the free press. We felt we should respect their country's law."
Visitors who click on a link to the article, published Monday, instead got a notice explaining that British law "prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial." The blocked article reveals evidence authorities have in the alleged plot to use liquid explosives to down U.S. airliners over the Atlantic. The Times site already targets ads based on a visitor's location, but McNulty said this was the first time the technology was used in an editorial capacity. The Times also blocked U.K. access to an audio summary of the top Times stories, which included the article in question.
Scary, very scary.

Operation "Clean-Up" in Oaxaca
Following the CIA's "Psychological Operations" Manual for the Nicaraguan Contras, the State Government Has Unleashed a Bloody Counterinsurgency Strategy to Eliminate the Social Movement.

Bush Admin Funneling Millions Into Chavez Opposition Groups
The Bush administration is facing new accusations its seeking regime change in Venezuela. Documents obtained by the Associated Press show the US Agency for International Development [ USAID] has given more than twenty six million dollars to opponents of President Hugo Chavez in the last four years. USAID released copies of more than one hundred contracts with the groups -- but hid the names of about half of them. Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said: "This indicates there is a great deal of money, a great deal of concern to oust or neutralise Chavez. The US is waging diplomatic warfare against Venezuela."

Behind the plan to bomb Iran
The fact that the military-industrial complex, or merchants of arms and wars, flourishes on war and militarism is largely self-evident. Arms industries and powerful beneficiaries of war dividends need an atmosphere of war and international convulsion to maintain continued increases in the Pentagon budget and justify their lion's share of the public money. Viewed in this light, unilateral or "preemptive" wars abroad can easily been seen as reflections of domestic fights over national resources and tax dollars.



Iran President Challenges Bush To Debate, Defends Nuclear Enrichment
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued a new challenge to President Bush – a televised debate. On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said he would like to debate Bush about "world affairs" and the ways to solve them. Healso defended Iran's right to nuclear energy.

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Peaceful nuclear energy is the right of the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation has chosen that based upon international regulations, it wants to use it and no one can stop it."

Ahmadinejad''s comments come ahead of the UN’s deadline Thursday for Iran to suspend nuclear enrichment. The Security Council has threatened sanctions if Tehran fails to comply.
Margaret Warner on "The News Hour" gave commentary on this speech, describing Ahmadinejad's smile while he was speaking: "Some would say his smile was devilish, others would say it was fiendish." This is "news"??? Demonizing a head of state making a rational argument???????????

Cheney won't rule out terror strike
Washington : Warning that another terror strike against the United States cannot be ruled out, Vice-President Dick Cheney has said the recent court ruling to end a terrorism-related telephone tapping programme was "just dead-wrong.''

He won't rule out "terrorists" perpetrating it? Which "terrorists"? Who profits from fear?

Blogosphere Unites in Pursuit of Masked Senator
Just before the August recess, the Senate was set to vote on a bill introduced by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would create a public, searchable database of all federal grants and contracts. Envisioned as a Google-like website, it would provide free, immediate access the information, which can be alarmingly difficult to obtain.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed the measure July 27th, and S.2590 seemed to be speeding on its way to full Senate passage when, in the dark of night, an unknown Senator placed a "secret hold" on the bill. According to Senate courtesies, the bill will never come to a vote as long as the hold continues.

Downward Mobility
If you’re still harboring the notion that the economy is 'good,' prepare to be disabused.

US data show one in eight Americans in poverty

Conspiracists Allege U.S. Seizing Vast S. American Reservoir
Conspiracy theorists fear the United States is secretly taking control of South America's largest underground reservoir of fresh water. The accusations are clouding international efforts to develop the Guarani Aquifer. And the rumors come at a time when water may be joining oil as one of the world's most fought-over commodities.
Perhaps they're just "investigative reporters"? Why does the aquifer need to be "developed" (read "drained") for irrigation, like we are draining the aquifers beneath the United States? Destroying the rain forest turns the land into deserts... just like destroying the plains created the "dust bowl".

US Government Restricting Research Libraries

Unpaid Katrina tab has Guard hurting
The Oregon National Guard says it's in bad financial shape because the federal government and Louisiana have not paid the $2.7 million they owe the Guard for relief and law enforcement work last year after Hurricane Katrina.

Israeli forces launch strikes in Gaza
Troops also flattened crops, destroyed greenhouses and chicken coops and uprooted dozens of trees on Wednesday, residents said. The army had no comment on the report about the destruction. In recent years, troops have routinely destroyed farming areas and orchards in the Gaza Strip, citing the need to deprive gunmen and rocket squads of cover.

Olmert firm on Lebanon blockade
Who's giving him the right to make ANY decisions regarding Lebanon?

Annan: Israel is Greatest Violator of Cease-Fire
United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan told Defense Minister Amir Peretz during a meeting between the two on Tuesday evening that Israel is responsible for most violations of the UN-brokered cease-fire in southern Lebanon.

Israeli Settlers assaulting American citizens
State Department warns of security problems for Americans, others in Gaza; says 'citizens of Western nations, including Americans, involved in pro-Palestinian volunteer efforts were assaulted and injured in Occupied Territories by Israeli settlers and harassed by Israeli army'

How to photograph street marches
I'm constantly amazed at the lack of good photo coverage of demonstrations on the web. My own photo essays on Sydney demonstrations have been, to my astonishment, much admired and widely praised – particularly by Americans.

Pay No Attention to The Soldier Saying the Government is Lying about 9-11

Doubt about official version of 9/11 widespread

With the fifth anniversary of Sept 11 on the way, there will undoubtedly be a flood of television specials, terror-alert updates, and newspaper editorials. Yet a sizable portion of the public will likely remain dubious of the authorized version of 9/11.

GOP candidate says 9/11 attacks were a hoax

A Republican candidate for this area’s congressional seat said Wednesday that the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In an editorial board interview with The Telegraph on Wednesday, the candidate, Mary Maxwell, said the U.S. government had a role in killing nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, so it could make Americans hate Arabs and allow the military to bomb Muslim nations such as Iraq. She said the Sept. 11 attacks were meant "to soften us up . . . to make us more willing to have more stringent laws here, which are totally against the Bill of Rights . . . to make us particularly focus on Arabs and Muslims . . . and those strange persons who spend all their time creating little bombs," giving Americans a reason "to hate them and fear them and, therefore, bomb them in Iraq for other reasons."
She said this strategy "would be normal" for governments, citing her belief that the British government – and not the Germany military – sank the Lusitania ocean liner in 1915. The deaths of Americans on the cruise liner helped galvanize U.S. support to enter World War I, and benefited England, she said.

Media Gatekeeper Reviews 9-11 Cover Up Book
It was nice to see, at first, a review in Saturday's Globe and Mail of Barrie Zwicker's Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11.
"Now I have little trouble believing it possible that plutocrats of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld axis of ego are orchestrating things for their own benefit and that of their Fortune 500 cronies. Or that the war in Iraq is based on an unsavoury stew of misconceptions, stupidity, wishful thinking and deceit. But what I do have great difficulty believing is that the "perpetrators" are intelligent enough and, I suppose, quite evil enough, not only to concoct such a grand strategy, but to carry it off so deviously that only Zwicker and his allies can discern its true nature."
Who do this rabble think they are, questioning the official "conspiracy theory"? Even though I agree they might be right....

UNH provost says no students complained about prof's 9-11 views
But University System Chancellor Stephen Reno said the board of trustees still may ask for a formal review.

Charlie Sheen Making 9/11 Conspiracy Movie?
So, who do you go to when you're a 9/11 hero full of conspiracy theories against the government? Charlie Sheen of course. Rodriguez is reportedly talking to Sheen and Esai Morales about funding a project to bring his story to theaters. He says that Charlie's on board, and told him he'd "be honored" to turn his story into a movie. Writer David Marconi is reportedly already part of the project.

New website focuses on anti-war candidates!
The purpose of this site is to show clearly to voters where their candidates stand on the Bush Administration's "War on Terror." Our goal is to ensure that the issue is not sidelined again in upcoming elections.

Jonathan Tasini, Anti-war candidate for Senate, New York
Official website.

• The Iraq War: Jonathan's Position
• Extend Medicare to Everyone
• New Rules for The Economy
• Impeachment
• Marriage Equality
• Social Security: A Great American Success Story
• Women's Rights / The Right to Choose
• A New Energy Future
• Climate Change
• Death Penalty
• Election Reform
• The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• Education
  

The Washington Times Weighs In
What else would one expect from a newspaper that suggests the execution of journalists?

Rumsfeld: Iraq critics morally confused
In a toughly worded speech to the American Legion's national convention in Salt Lake City, Rumsfeld compared the current period to the 1930s, when the world failed to act against the growing menace of the Nazi movement.
He's right -- he's just got the "bad guys" mixed up.

The CIA Leak Case: On Bob Novak, The Washington Post, and the Winds of War
The New York Times is reporting former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has admitted he was the White Source source who outed former CIA operative Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak three years ago. This according to a lawyer involved in the case and several of Armitage's associates.
With the latest "news" on this case, several points should be clearly understood at the outset. First, Dick Armitage's role was widely and publicly discussed as early as March, and second, Dick Armitage clearly screwed up but was NOT the original source of the leak. While he does share moral culpability, the driving force behind the leak came from the neocon and partisan wings of the White House.
But, like Scooter Libby, Armitage makes a convenient "fall guy".

Ex-CPB Chair Accused of New Ethics Violations
More trouble for former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair Kenneth Tomlinson. The State Department has concluded Tomlinson committed several ethics violations in his current position chairing the board that overseas most US broadcasts to foreign countries. According to investigators, Tomlinson gave a friend $250,000 in taxpayer funded-contracts, overbilled the government for his time and used federal employees for his personal business. Among that personal business: running a stable of thoroughbred horses he named after leaders from Afghanistan, including President Hamid Karzai. This is only the latest scandal for the former Reader's Digest editor and long-time Republican. Tomlinson was forced out of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last year after it was revealed he improperly tried to promote conservatives in the organization and monitored programs he accused of having a liberal bias.

Don't Keep Secrets on Cell Phone
Selling your old phone once you upgrade to a fancier model can be like handing over your diaries. All sorts of sensitive information pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.

Monsanto Buys 'Terminator' Seeds Company
Relations between Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land and the USDA, on closer scrutiny, show the deep and dark side of the much-heralded genetic revolution in agriculture. It proves deep-held suspicions that the Gene Revolution is not about 'solving the world hunger problem' as its advocates claim. It's about handing over control of the seeds for mankind's basic food supply—rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, even fruit, vegetables and cotton—to privately owned corporations.

Nations scour for wheat as drought shrivels supply
From Australia to Argentina, erratic weather is slashing wheat crops of the major producers, which is threatening to push up prices to multi-year highs and making it difficult for countries to replenish stocks.
"It is going to be a year of tight supplies," said Mark Samson, vice president for South Asia of the U.S Wheat Associates. "And with expectations of high world prices, more hedge funds are increasingly paying attention to this market." The interest of investment funds in grains is growing and helping to push up prices. The Deutsche Bank Fund now allocates 22.5 percent of its investment funds to wheat and corn trading.

Anniversary of National shame

New Orleans Marks First Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
New Orleans is marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. A series of vigils are being held to remember the more than fifteen hundred victims who died when the storm breached levees and submerged eighty percent of the city. On Monday, Bush gave a speech in Biloxi, Mississipi. The President emphasized his number of visits to the Gulf Coast.

• President Bush: "Since the days of heroism and bravery, the Gulf Coast has begun one of the largest rebuilding efforts in our nation's history. This is my 11th visit, since the storm hit. You know each visit, you see progress. I was struck by the beauty of the beaches. The beaches were pretty rough after the storm, as you know. Today, they're pristine, and they're beautiful. They reflect a hopeful future, as far as I'm concerned."

The New York Times:
Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit

Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass.

NICE......



Meanwhile, the man who became the face of the Bush administration’s highly criticized response to the crisis took the occasion of Katrina’s one-year mark to lash out at his former superiors in the White House. Former FEMA Director Michael Brown spoke to reporters in Washington.

• Former FEMA Director Michael Brown: "No, we're not prepared. Now I do believe that one of the most fascinating things I've heard the last couple of days is that Secretary Chertoff came out and made this statement - something to the effect that we must start doing catastrophic planning. It's going to take us years to do that. I find it fascinating that I've been saying that since 2003, and now in 2006 they're saying we've got to do this planning. So my hope is that they're actually doing it. If they are, that means we're on the path to being prepared. If they're not, then shame on the administration and we need to slap them around and make certain that we start doing that kind of planning and preparation."

On the anniversary of Katrina: why Hezbollah does what Bush wouldn't

The Katrina dossier undoubtedly needs updating, but looking through it, it stands up well as an account of the racist, barbaric criminality of the Bush administration, the local Democratic establishment, the police and practically every relevant institution of the American state.
Far from being merely incompetence or cruel indifference during a natural disaster, it was a shocking crime perpetrated on the poor. Not merely underfunding and poor planning: they had a plan, but it didn't include helping the poor. Not merely neglect, but the conscious blockading of the city, the refusal of aid, and the eventual imposition of martial law. Not merely the inability to house 'refugees', but the deliberate use of the situation to impose a plan for turning New Orleans into a Disneyland for rich yuppies.

One Year After Katrina, New Orleans Public Housing Projects Remain Closed
New Orleans activists and residents have condemned the federal government's refusal to re-open the city's public housing projects and point out that while tourist areas are being developed, affordable housing is not being built. Many of those who have been unable to return home are poor and African American.
The public housing units have been sealed with metal doors and windows at a huge cost to keep people out. Many of them experienced no flooding at all. The residents were not allowed to return home, but bused out of town by FEMA.



'Lebanon will be rebuilt before New Orleans is'

The folks at Brasscheck predict that Hizbullah, the so-called 'terrorist' organization will rebuild Lebanon before the Federal government coughs up the relief funds to rebuild New Orleans.

New Orleans Judge Slated to Release Prisoners Citing Breakdown in Criminal Justice System
New Orleans judge Arthur Hunter has pledged to begin releasing prisoners today whose cases have been delayed since Hurricane Katrina. Many prisoners jailed in New Orleans for over a year haven't talked to a lawyer or had a day in court. Some have yet to be charged with a crime.


Breach of Faith: Times-Picayune Editor Jed Horne on 'Neoconservative' Ray Nagin and 'Federal Oppression' in the South
Jed Horne, an editor at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and author of "Breach of Faith" says, "Louisiana is part of the old south...The mayor is a Democrat but could probably be called a neoconservative. He's as much a believer in the kind of free market, less-is-more approach to government as Karl Rove, one of his mentors."

Bush White House to be subpoenaed by wiretap lawyers
Two attorneys representing claimants in a lawsuit over wiretapping by the National Security Agency will subpoena the White House today.

Court told votes don't have to be counted, certified
A motion to dismiss a congressional election challenge in California took on national implications last week when defense attorneys argued that no court has jurisdiction to intervene in an election after Congress has sworn in a member.

Shocking election-theft testimony
Computer programmer Clinton Eugene Curtis testifies under oath before the U.S. House Judiciary Members in Ohio (back in 2004). A partial transcript:

Are there computer programs that can be used to secretly fix elections?
Yes.
How do you know that to be the case?
Because in October of 2000, I wrote a prototype for Congressman Tom Feeney [R-FL]...
It would rig an election?
It would flip the vote, 51-49. Whoever you wanted it to go to and whichever race you wanted to win.
And would that program that you designed, be something that elections officials... could detect?
They'd never see it.

Russia refuses to fight terrorism with intercontinental ballistic missiles
The USA is ready to consider the issue of imposing sanctions against Russian defense enterprises. Russia in its turn is not ready to support USA's suggestion to use non-nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles against terrorists.

George Galloway: "You Don't Give a Damn!"
My Hero!!

The Big Lie About 'Islamic Fascism'
The term "Islamofascist" is utterly without meaning, but packed with emotional explosives. It is a propaganda creation worthy Dr. Goebbles, and the latest expression of the big lie technique being used by neocons in Washington's propaganda war against its enemies in the Muslim World.

Today's 'Islamic Fascists' Were Yesterday's Friends
In a nutshell, the wars over state, territory, and politics that defined the Cold War era have given way to cosmic battles between "good" and "evil" – between a West apparently keen to defend secular, democratic values and its twisted opponents who prefer the idea of autocratic Islam. This simplistic view of the new geopolitical landscape is deeply problematic. It overlooks the key role that the West played in nurturing radical Islamist groups, precisely as a means of isolating and undermining secular movements that were judged by Western governments to be too uppity or dangerous. Over the past 80 years and more – from Egypt to Afghanistan to Palestine – powerful governments in the West and their allies in the Middle East helped to create radical Islamic sects as a bulwark against secular nationalist parties or pan-Arabism.

With Kazakh's Visit, Bush Priorities Clash
Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev's upcoming visit, according to analysts and officials, offers a case study in the competing priorities of the Bush administration at a time when the president has vowed to fight for democracy and against corruption around the globe. Nazarbayev has banned opposition parties, intimidated the press and profited from his post, according to the U.S. government. But he also sits atop massive oil reserves that have helped open doors in Washington.

Iran's President Wants Debate With Bush

British ambassador explains troop movement near Iraq-Iran border

The new British ambassador to Iraq said on Sunday that British troops taking up position near Iraq's border with Iran aren't preparing for military action against Iran, but were getting to crack down on weapons smuggling between the two countries.

Cheney can't scare me anymore

A recent analysis of President Bush's popularity poll numbers startled me. It noted, with apparent surprise, that Bush's approval rating didn't rise noticeably after the announcement that the British had foiled a terrorist plot to destroy 10 transatlantic passenger jets in flight from England to America. I wondered, "Was it supposed to rise?''

The Cheney Presidency
George W. Bush has been faulted in some quarters for taking an extended vacation while the Middle East festers. It doesn't much matter; the man running the country is Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney Chooses Chief Propagator of False Iraq-9/11 Link To Be Official Biographer
Hayes is not a historian. What are his qualifications? He’s a journalist who has cultivated close ties within the White House and has become the go-to source for insiders seeking to peddle false claims on Iraq. Here are some highlights of Hayes' record.

At least 100 die as militia force Iraqi troops out of town
At least 100 people were killed across Iraq yesterday in a day of intense gun battles and suicide bombings, contradicting US military claims that the security situation in the war-torn nation was improving.


Rumsfeld defends Iraq
He argues the ongoing debate could give "the enemy the false impression that Americans cannot stomach a tough fight. We must work hard to keep a "Blame America First" mentality from undermining our efforts in another long war against a determined enemy."

Rumsfeld on Iraq War Critics:
'Quitters' Who 'Blame America First' & 'Cannot Stomach A Tough Fight'
Hitler said much the same thing to Germans who questioned if marching into Poland was really in Germany's long term best interests.

Rumsfeld: Terrorists Manipulating Media
"What bothers me the most is how clever the enemy is," he continued, launching an extensive broadside at Islamic extremist groups which he said are trying to undermine Western support for the war on terror. "They are actively manipulating the media in this country" by, for example, falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. "They can lie with impunity," he said, while U.S. troops are held to a high standard of conduct.
And you, Secretary Rumsfeld, have never lied with impunity; except, of course, to lie us into the war in Iraq. And you're trying to do the same thing now with Iran. So Secretary Rumsfeld, who's the 'terrorist' now? Is it people who don't particularly like the fact we've invaded their country, and are trying to get their country back, or is it those in Washington who back a foreign policy (if one can possibly call it 'policy') that generates loathing for the US world-wide?

Two Iraqi units have refused deployment
Members of two Iraqi military units have refused orders to deploy to heavily contested areas, a top U.S. military general said. But the apparent mutinies have been limited to just two units, according to Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Assistance Group, the force of 3,000 coaltion military and police trainers fanned out across Iraq.

Iraqi Soldiers Refuse Deployment Alongside US Troops
United Press International is reporting at least two new Iraqi military units have refused to go into battle. Just last week, about 100 Iraqi soldiers refused to be deployed alongside US troops in Baghdad in a mission called Operation Together Forward. Another group of Iraqi troops has refused orders to fight alongside the US in Ramadi.

Jimmy Carter Criticizes Blair Over Support For Bush
British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s continued support for the Bush administration is coming under criticism from former President Jimmy Carter. In an interview with the London Daily Telegraph, Carter said he’s disappointed Blair did not stand up to President Bush over the invasion of Iraq.

"My own personal opinion is that the Iraqi people are not better off as a result of the invasion and people in America and Great Britain are not safer… It's a shameful and pitiful state of affairs and I hold [Tony Blair] to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient."

Mexico court backs election
Mexico's top electoral court threw out allegations of massive fraud in last month's presidential election on Monday, handing almost certain victory to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon.
The court stopped short of formally naming Calderon the winner, but reported only marginal changes after examining the results of a partial recount and throwing out more than 230,000 ballots because of voting irregularities.

UN Humanitarian Chief: Darfur Nears New Humanitarian Disaster
The UN’s top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, says Darfur is on the brink of a new humanitarian disaster threatening massive loss of life. Egeland went on to call for increased humanitarian aid and a stronger peacekeeping force for Darfur. His comments come as Amnesty International warns the Sudanese military is engaged in a massive build-up of troops in preparation for a new offensive against Darfurian rebel groups.





PLEASE CALL OR WRITE: No court-martial for Lt. Watada!

NSA Wiretapping Whistleblowers Found Dead
Is someone murdering people who know too much about NSA wiretapping overseas? Two whistleblowers, one in Italy, one in Greece, uncovered a secret bugging system installed in cell phones around the world. Both met with untimely ends. The resultant scandals have received little press in the United States, despite the profound implications for American critics of the Bush administration. Last month, Italian telecommunications security expert Adamo Bove either leapt or was pushed from a freeway overpass; he left no note and had no history of depression. Last year (March, 2005), Greek telecommunications expert Costas Tsalikidis met with a similarly enigmatic end. Both had uncovered American attempts to eavesdrop on government officials, anti-war activists, and private businessmen.


SFC DONALD BUSWELL (left) received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained on the battlefields of Iraq.
Under Fire! U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Targeted For Suggesting New Independent 9/11 Investigation
Doubting Official 9/11 Story Is 'Disloyal To The United States'
SFC Buswell wrote: "We must demand a new independent investigation into 911 and look at all options of that day, and all plausabilities [sic], even the most incredulous theories must be examined."
Buswell's commanding officer, Colonel Luke Green, drafted a letter assigning Major Edwin Escobar to the investigation. According to sources, Colonel Green has asserted that SFC Buswell failed to obey Army regulations when he used his government issued email account to send what have been termed as messages disloyal to the United States with the intent of stirring up disloyalty, in a manner that brings discredit upon the United States Army.

Lynch calls teacher's theories crazy as UNH stands behind 9/11 professor
University of New Hampshire administrators are standing behind a tenured professor who has publicly theorized that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, even as Gov. John Lynch condemned his remarks.

The "Live Free or Die" State?
"University of New Hampshire administrators are standing behind a tenured professor who has publicly theorized that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, even as Gov. John Lynch condemned his remarks.

Northern Great Plains falls into Dust Bowl conditions
The New York Times is set to report on Tuesday that severe drought is sending much of the northern Great Plains into conditions that farmers and ranchers say are comparable to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Ranchers are turning to desperate expedients. Withered sunflower plants, normally raised for seeds and oil, are being fed to livestock. Cattle are being hauled hundreds of miles to healtheir feedlots, despite soaring fuel costs. Water is being poured in to refill natural watering holes that have gone dry. The governor of South Dakota even issued a proclamation declaring a week to pray for rain. Despite these efforts, many ranchers are being forced to sell their herds and get out of the business. At one livestock market, 37,000 cattle were sold this summer, compared with 7,000 last year.

U.N. chief criticizes Israel, Hezbollah
Annan was booed by residents as he toured the devastated Dahiyeh neighborhood in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut. He was greeted by giant posters with photographs of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and one that had a caricature of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with vampire's teeth and blood dripping from the mouth.

Gaza hit hard by Israel offensive
The UN's World Food Programme warned that Gaza was facing a rapidly escalating crisis as a result of Israel's two-month-old offensive there.
"Industries which were once the backbone of Gaza's economy and food system, such as the agriculture and fishing industries, are suffocated by the current situation and risk losing all viability," said Arnold Vercken, the local WFP director.
The crisis has left 70 per cent of Gaza's population lacking food and forced the WFP to increase the number of citizens receiving aid to 220,000 from 160,000, the WFP said.

'Defense demands could set standard of living back 20 years'
Defense officials are seeking NIS 30 billion, mostly in fiscal 2007 and 2008, for resupplying, reacquiring weapons systems damaged during the war and preparing for the next war based on the lessons of recent hostilities, including developing new arms. The defense establishment is working under the assumption the Israel Defense Forces needs to be prepared quickly.
However, according to a senior defense establishment official, cabinet compliance to the demand would subjugate the entire civilian establishment to military demands and constitute a mortal blow to civil budgets, including infrastructure and education.
This is for Israel. How far will our standards of living be set back by "defense demands"?

Israel Arrests Another Hamas MP
Meanwhile, Israel has confirmed the arrest of another elected Palestinian member of Parliament. About twenty army vehicles surrounded the home of Hamas MP Mahmoud Mesleh Sunday near Ramallah. Dozens of Hamas officials and government members have been arrested over the past two months.

Olmert Rejects Independent Probe of Lebanon War
In Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered an inquiry into the handling of the war on Lebanon. But he’s refused to allow the independent investigation demanded by growing critics within the government and military. The announcement came hours after government investigators accused Olmert of making a series of questionable political appointments when he served as Trade and Industry minister.

Stalin and the Ukranian Massacre
For Jews and Armenians, the genocides their people suffered are vivid, living memories that influence their daily lives. Yet today, on the 70th anniversary of the destruction of a quarter of Ukraine's population, this titanic crime has almost vanished into history's black hole.

Guilty plea in Iraq money laundering scheme

Guilty plea in kickback scheme
A former U.S. Army Reserve officer admitted Friday that he steered millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts in exchange for jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors. Bruce D. Hopfengardner, 46, of Fredericksburg, Va., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud. Hopfengardner served as a special adviser to the U.S.-led occupation forces, recommending funding for projects on law enforcement facilities in Iraq.

He admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen with businesses in Romania, Robert J. Stein Jr., a former Defense Department contract official, and others to create a corrupt bidding process that included the theft of $2 million in reconstruction money.
Hopfengardner is the first military officer to plead guilty in the conspiracy. Bloom and Stein already have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the scheme.
Hopfengardner's role was to recommend that the Coalition Provisional Authority fund projects to demolish the Ba'ath Party headquarters, rebuild a police academy and construct various other facilities.
Bloom, who controlled companies in Iraq and Romania, bid on projects using dummy corporations and Stein ensured that one of the firms was awarded the contract, according to court documents. The businessman allegedly showered Hopfengardner and Stein with cash, cars, premium airline seats, jewelry, alcohol and even sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.
As part of the plea agreement, Hopfengardner surrendered a car, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, camera equipment, a Breitling watch valued at $5,700 and a computer. He also agreed to forfeit $144,500, prosecutors said.

Former Burns Finance Official Accused of Fraud
Montana officials have accused a recently-departed fundraising chief for Sen. Conrad Burns' (R-MT) re-election campaign with securities fraud, according to a press release.


Protection Racket: Judicial Cover for Crony Contractors
They say that America's increasingly right-wing courts are bent on halting the forward march of civil rights, but that's a typical liberal canard. Why, just last week, a federal judge - appointed by Ronald Reagan, no less - issued a bold ruling that offers shield and succor to a small, despised minority on the fringes of American society. War profiteers.
In a little-noticed decision unsealed on August 18, US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III overturned a $10 million fraud verdict against Custer Battles LLC, one of the many crony conquistadors who gorged on the vast porkfest known as "Iraqi reconstruction" during the high and palmy days of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Ellis's judgment effectively provides blanket immunity for the many politically-wired gorgers who made off with almost $9 billion in "unaccounted-for" taxpayer money during the CPA's misrule of Iraq from April 2003 to June 2004 - one of the greatest heists in world history.
Why will the mammoth fraudsters go free? Because of the iron illogic behind the decision. Although the CPA was created, funded, staffed and directly controlled by the US government, Ellis declared it was not, in fact, an entity of the US government. Therefore, Custer Battles - and by extension any other accused grafter from the CPA's golden age - cannot be sued under the federal False Claims Act for defrauding the US government. For even if massive fraud was committed - and Ellis, who also presided over Custer Battles's jury trial in May, clearly indicated that it was - the "victim" no longer exists: the CPA has dissolved into air, into thin air, like the "baseless fabric" of Prospero's vision in The Tempest. So, case dismissed - and the blood money stays safely in corporate coffers.
As the New York Times notes, the Custer Battles case was meant to be the first of many Iraqi fraud trials based on the False Claims Act, a law allowing allows "whistleblowers" in companies defrauding the government to take their firms to court and share a percentage of the award with the feds. Now these upcoming cases - including a second trial against Custer Battles - are almost certainly dead in the water. The courageous efforts of insiders who lost their jobs - and in some cases risked their lives - to uncover the truth about the Bush gang's epic plundering in Iraq will all be for naught.
That's quite a legacy for a small company few have ever heard of. After all, next to prize war-porkers like Halliburton, Bechtel and General Dynamics, Custer Battles is just a tiny sausage sizzling in the huge vat of government grease. But the firm's case is a paradigm of the entire misbegotten enterprise in Iraq: raw greed masquerading as a noble cause in a deliberately concocted atmosphere of lawlessness, violence, subterfuge - and the convenient unaccountability fomented by the bloody chaos of war.
In a ruling issued just days before the Custer Battles kibosh, Ellis dug up a long-abandoned World War I-era law to give Bush carte blanche to prosecute journalists for publishing leaks of classified information. (No "Pentagon Papers" emerging from the Iraq War, then.)
In May, he threw out a civil suit against the CIA filed by Khalid al-Masri, a German citizen who had been seized in Macedonia for "driving while Arab," renditioned to Afghanistan, tortured for months, then dumped on a dirt road in Albania and, like Isakson, told to find his own way home. Ellis agreed with administration lawyers that such a trial would "endanger national security" - establishing a convenient "state-secrets" precedent for quashing any further attempts to rectify the depredations of Bush's Terror War.

War Widow To Bush: "You're Here To Serve The People. And The People Are Not Being Served With This War."

Protesters Intrude on Bush's Trip to Maine
President Bush came to his parent's century-old summer home on the Maine coast for a little relaxation, a distant cousin's wedding and some family time. He got all that, along with a boisterous reminder nearly on his bucolic doorstep of the unpopularity of his Iraq policies.An Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month found that only about one-third of Americans support Bush's handling of Iraq.

1993 World Trade Center bombing evidence suppressed by chief federal prosecutors in case -- Patrick J. Fitzgerald and Michael Chertoff
U.S. federal prosecutors suppressed critical evidence in trial of 1993 World Trade Center bombers. According to U.S. intelligence sources, the FBI and Justice Department sat on volumes of translations of Arabic telephone intercepts gathered before the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center from U.S.- and Sudan-based Muslim militants who once worked for U.S. intelligence in the mujaheddin war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The critical intelligence, which demonstrated a link between the CIA and "Afghan Arab" muhajeddin forces, including those loyal to Osama bin Laden, was never introduced into the trial of the Brooklyn- and Jersey City-based based cell that included the blind Egyptian cleric Shaikh Omar Abdul Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, and Eyad Ismail.
Ironically, the two men responsible for the failure to present the surveillance intelligence on the 1993 World Trade Center bombers to the juries and grand juries hearing the charges -- the main federal prosecutors for New York City and New Jersey in the bombing case -- were Patrick J. Fitzgerald and Michael Chertoff, respectively. According to an FBI source, the chief FBI investigator against Al Qaeda in the 1990s, the late John O'Neill, was upset that the much of the telephone surveillance of the bombers was never introduced as evidence and remained un-translated and classified.

Professor's 9/11 theories outrage NH leaders
A tenured professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire believes an "elite" group within the federal government orchestrated the September 11th attacks on America. William Woodward has already raised that possibility in his classroom and later this year hopes to teach a class that would explore Sept. 11th "in psychological terms -- terms like belief, conspiracy, fear, truth, courage, group dynamics." He may not get the chance. Several state leaders yesterday criticized Woodward for bringing the radical theories into the classroom.
"In my view, there are limitations to academic freedom and freedom of speech," said U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

Washington Post Doesn't Answer Why No Bin Laden 9/11 Indictment
A Washington Post article today attempts to refute and dismiss questions as to why the FBI's most wanted page for Osama bin Laden includes no apportion of blame for 9/11 - yet the Post fails to answer why there has been no formal indictment of bin Laden five years after 9/11 when it only took three months to charge him with the 1998 embassy bombings.

Conspiracy Nuts And 9/11
I have some friends who are conspiracy nuts. They believe, for example, that on 9/11 some clown named Osama bin Laden picked up his cell phone in a cave in Afghanistan and directed 19 Muslims, none of them professional pilots, to hijack four airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, thereby bringing down three steel-skeleton skyscrapers, the only time in world history that has ever happened. A humdinger of a conspiracy, that one. My conspiracy nut friends know it's true because they have it on good authority -- George Bush told them so.
You can get tangled up in conflicting expert opinion. But the opinions that allow for this kind of collapse are so tortured that they defy reason, logic, and common sense. And even then, they are defeated by the simple fact that all three buildings -- the two hit by planes and the one that wasn't -- fell at near freefall speed, impossible for a pancaking building. Each floor would be slowed as it hit the one below, appreciably lengthening the building collapse. Then you have the minor but vexing problem, of course, that each building fell so perfectly within its own footprint. The only way the buildings could have fallen the way they did was through controlled demolition. In short, they were blown up.
Read some books about 9/11. The corporate media refuses to review books that challenge the official line, but you can find them in bookstores. Try Towers of Deception; The Media Cover up of 9/11 by Barrie Zwicker. There are a dozen major websites that are seeking the truth about 9/11. Look at them, study the evidence, and demand that your congressman and senators do something. They won't, of course, but we have to start somewhere.

The 9/11 Chronicles: Destroying a Crime Scene
by Bill Hare
Scott Forbes was an employee of Fiduciary Trust, a firm located on floors 90 and 94-97 of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Forbes reported that over the weekend of September 8-9, 2001, floors 50 and above of the South Tower experienced a power down, meaning that all electrical currents were shut off for about 36 hours. Because there was no electric power above the fiftieth floor there were also no security cameras or security locks. There were many outside engineering personnel, however, coming and going in and out of the tower all weekend.
Forbes lived near the World Trade Center in Jersey City. When he viewed the conflagration of 9/11 from his home he immediately related it to the events of the previous weekend. Anyone seeking further information concerning Forbes and his observations can do so on the Web at http://www.serendipity.li/wot/forb es01.htm ).
To tamper with a crime scene is a felony. Whenever an act of arson occurs police representatives would be expected to arrive to quickly service and seal off the area. As anyone schooled in criminal justice realizes, it is imperative to preserve crime scenes intact to assist further investigation and potential criminal prosecution.
In the case of 9/11, we had a series of explosions at the most famous symbol of American capitalism, the World Trade Center. So what was trained prosecutor Giuliani's response, the same Giuliani who was U.S. Attorney for the district embracing New York City, the nation's largest metropolis? Giuliani brought in Controlled Demolition, the same highly suspect firm which had completed the destruction of the Murtagh Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, disposing of all evidence in the process. The contract that was let just 11 days after 9/11 empowered Controlled Demolition to recycle the steel of the World Trade Center.
As 9/11 official verdict critic Webster Tarpley noted, "Guiliani has not had a word to say about this in his memoirs. The city accepted rock-bottom prices for the steel; the priority was to make it disappear fast." The steel was transported quickly to China, ending any opportunity to run any tests in connection with ascertaining how the 9/11 explosions may have occurred.
Meanwhile a nifty political dodge occurred whereby Giuliani and loyal neocon spear carriers such as John Lehman, a 9/11 Commission member and a former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, pursued a divide and conquer strategy by pitting police and fire department authorities against each other. The divide and conquer strategy was designed to get the Cheney-Bush Administration off the hook and prompt the citizenry to look elsewhere rather than follow the evidence.

A careful killer -- Slayer of Rudy Giuliani's ex-aide took keys, phone, laptop
Detectives investigating the grisly slaying of a former press aide to Mayor Rudy Giuliani have discovered that the murderer took the victim's keys, cell phone and laptop computer, law enforcement sources said yesterday.
Hmmmmmmmmm........

Congressional Election Nullified – Nobody Noticed
It appears the US media overlooked one of the great political stories of the year. In what is becoming something of a pattern, here’s a brief chronology...
We’re clearly at the point where members of the ruling party are making up rules post hoc to justify whatever actions they wish to take. We are also at a point where there is little if any opposition to this. The House is silent. With the exception of local and national voting rights activists and Chairman Dean, the opposing party is silent. The Defendants literally argue that the Courts are powerless to stop them (without jurisdiction). Friday will reveal whether the courts are powerless to stop this abuse of power and premature termination of elections. Will Judge Yuri Hoffman carry on the emerging tradition of silence, or will he take us back to the courage and integrity shown by Judge John Sirica, a Republican appointee, who made history by demanding the truth from the Watergate burglars?



The Liquid Bomb Hoax: The Larger Implications
Clearly the decision to cook up the phony bomb plot was not motivated by economic interests, but domestic political reasons. The Blair administration, already highly unpopular for supporting Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was under attack for his unconditional support for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, his refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire and his unstinting support for Bush’s servility to US Zionist lobbies. Even within the Labor party over a hundred backbenchers were speaking out against his policies, while even junior cabinet ministers such as Prescott stated that Boss Bush’s foreign policy smelled of the barnyard. Bush was not yet cornered by his colleagues in the same way as Blair, but unpopularity was threatening to lead his Republican party to congressional defeat and possible loss of a majority of seats.


Those opposed to nuclear annihilation are appeasers and guilty of "handwringing"
Williams points out that we could easily "annihilate" Iran or Syria with nuclear weapons launched from submarines. He then claims that the Great Generation of World War II would have done so already, but laments the tragic fact that we are deterred from doing this by what he calls the "handwringing about the innocent lives lost, so-called collateral damage"

"Today's Americans are vastly different from those of my generation who fought the life-and-death struggle of World War II. Any attempt to annihilate our Middle East enemies would create all sorts of handwringing about the innocent lives lost, so-called collateral damage. Such an argument would have fallen on deaf ears during World War II when we firebombed cities in Germany and Japan. The loss of lives through saturation bombing far exceeded those lost through the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

It's plainly time to add pre-emptive nuclear annihilation of entire countries to the list of policies (along with the use of torture as an interrogation tool, rendition, laweless detention of U.S. citizens, and presidential law-breaking) which are so self-evidently contrary to the defining values of our country that they used to be taboo even to advocate, but are now commonly accepted policies among many mainstream pundits, including those who most ardently support the current president.

Bill for depleted- uranium screening passes California Senate
Recognizing the Armed Forces’ extensive use of depleted uranium in both munitions and armor since the first Gulf War and the health risks associated with it — including lung and kidney damage, cancer and genetic mutations — the bill extends screenings to all service members who were in an area where depleted uranium was known to be used or that was designated as a combat zone by the U.S. president after 1990.
If I were a vet living in California, I would want to know the names of the 13 state Assembly members who voted against this, and why.

Executive order 12803
This is the full text of Executive order 12803, signed by George Bush Sr. in 1992, which authorized the selling off of infrastructure to private parties. Read it all the way through. The last official act of any government is to loot the nation.

Experts warn U.S. is coming apart at the seams
A pipeline shuts down in Alaska. Equipment failures disrupt air travel in Los Angeles. Electricity runs short at a spy agency in Maryland. None of these recent events resulted from a natural disaster or terrorist attack, but they may as well have, some homeland security experts say. They worry that too little attention is paid to how fast the country's basic operating systems are deteriorating.

America's infrastructure fire sale
But it is a process that is rapidly erasing the concept of national sovereignty. Is it smart to allow America's crucial infrastructure to be controlled, if not owned, by foreign companies?

Kenneth Orski reports that one of these toll projects in Stockholm has been used as a demonstration project to show that pricing can be an effective way to decrease automobile use and force public transit use. Are we empowering these public/private partnerships to make and enforce public policy? Are we removing elected officials from responsibility and accountability for infrastructure? Are we building a trap that will ultimately subject American citizens to the whims of the global elite? Are we making a big mistake, selling American infrastructure to the highest international bidder?

Central Bank: Russians Dump Dollar For Ruble In 1st Half
Russians abandoned the dollar at an unprecedented rate in the first half of this year, the news agency RIA Novosti reported Central Bank deputy chairman Alexei Ulyukayev as saying Friday.Ulyukayev told a press conference - to which foreign press weren't invited - that dollar assets held by the population had fallen by $5.1 billion in the first half of this year - three times the rate seen in the corresponding period in 2005.


Senator puts 'secret hold' on bill to open federal records
In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver. An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.
The measure had been unanimously passed in a voice vote last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It was on the fast track for floor action before Congress recessed Aug. 4 when someone put a hold on the measure. Now the bill is in political limbo. Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote.
The secret hold has prompted conservative and liberal government watchdog groups to band together to "smoke out" the senator responsible.
"It really is a mystery, not only who did it, but what the rationale could possibly be and why they would go to the mat on this," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a new Washington-based nonprofit devoted to helping the public understand Congress through the Internet. "There is no conceivable, rational explanation for killing this legislation unless they have something to hide."


"Folks, We Are Being Set Up Again!"
Here is what the professionals are saying about the Republican-dominated Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy report on Iran that slams US intelligence professionals for poor intelligence on Iran: The report demonstrates that these Republicans have poor intelligence . . . on Iran. What follows is summaries of things I've seen from other experts but I can't identify them without permission. Nor do the Republican congressmen know anything special about Iran's nuclear energy program. They certainly know much less than the CIA agents who work on it full time, some of whom know Persian and have actually done . . . intelligence work.

U.S. built major Iranian nuclear facility
As the U.S. and other countries wrestle with Iran's refusal this week to curb its nuclear capabilities, an examination of the Tehran facility sheds light on the degree to which the United States has been complicit in Iran developing those capabilities.

Ahmadinejad: We are Not a Threat to Any Country, Including Israel
Both the US and Israel have vast nuclear arsenals. Neither nation is a victim. Neither nation is defenseless. Both nations in fact have long histories of invading other countries on flimsy pretexts.

Israeli general plots war with Iran
"Israel is becoming extremely concerned now with what they see as Iran's delaying tactics," said Israeli Iran analyst Meir Javedanfar. "[The planners] think negotiations are going nowhere, and Iran is becoming a major danger for Israel. Now they are getting ready for living with a nuclear Iran or letting the military take care of it." Officially, Israel stresses that it does not want to take the lead in tackling Iran and that a massive campaign of air strikes would be best led by the United States, which has forces in Iraq that are much closer to Iranian targets.

Why Bush will Choose War Against Iran
Like many people, I find it extremely difficult to believe that President Bush could actually do anything so crazy as to launch a military attack against Iran, and that even if he wanted to, the Congress, the Pentagon, and the American public would ever countenance such action.It makes me nervous when my president truly believes he is carrying out the will of God.

Chad expels oil firms
CHAD'S President Idriss Deby Itno today ordered the foreign oil firms ChevronTexaco and Petronas to leave the country from tomorrow for non-payment of taxes, national radio reported.

ANTIWAR CANDIDATE: Ron Paul / Texas
The 14th Congressional District has been changed considerably by federal redistricting. Effective for the 2004 Elections, the 14th District includes 10 counties: Aransas, Brazoria (except the city of Pearland), Calhoun, Chambers, the western half of Fort Bend, the eastern half of Galveston, Jackson, Matagorda, Victoria, and Wharton

Bush's backdoor draft another sign of strain
Last week, the president authorized the Marine Corps to recall as many as 2,500 inactive reserves at a time to reinforce the 138,000 troops in Iraq, and also those in Afghanistan. About 14,000 inactive Army reservists already have gotten the involuntary call-up notice. As recently as two months ago, Pentagon leaders were talking about drawing down U.S. forces and beginning to turn over control to the Iraqi army. Like so many other of the administration's plans for the Iraq War, reducing the U.S. military presence hasn't gone anything like it was supposed to go.



You wouldn’t catch me dead in Iraq
Scores of American troops are deserting — even from the front line in Iraq. But where have they gone? And why isn’t the US Army after them? They are the US troops in Iraq to whom the American administration prefers not to draw attention. They are the deserters – those who have gone Awol from their units and not returned, risking imprisonment and opprobrium. The Pentagon says that a total of 40,000 troops have deserted their posts (not simply those serving in Iraq) since the year 2000.

Top Hurricane Expert Says Officials Threatened His Job Over Pre-Katrina Warnings
On the eve of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, investigative journalist Greg Palast reports that a top hurricane expert says government officials threatened his job over his warnings about the impending disaster.
"Funny thing about the murderously failed plan for the evacuation of New Orleans: no one can find it. That's right. It's missing. Maybe it got wet and sank in the flood. Whatever: no one can find it. That's real bad. Here's the key thing about a successful emergency evacuation plan: you have to have copies of it. Lots of copies -- in fire houses and in hospitals and in the hands of every first responder. Secret evacuation plans don't work."
Who is New Orleans Being Rebuilt For? City Demographics Radically Altered With Many Black Residents Still Unable to Return
A year after Hurricane Katrina hit, only about half of New Orleans' population of 450,000 has returned. Many of those unable to come back are poor and African-American, drastically altering the demographics of a city that used to be two-thirds black.

Bush 'palace' shielded from Iraqi storm
The plans are a state secret, so just where the Starbucks and Krispy Kreme stores will be is a mystery. But as the concrete hulks of a huge 21-building complex rise from the ashes of Saddam's Baghdad, Washington is sending a clear message to Iraqis: "We're here to stay."

Report: Most Iraqi Deaths Unpunished in US Military
In other Iraq news, a major review by the Washington Post has concluded most US service members charged in the killings of Iraqi civilians have either been acquitted, convicted of minor offenses or given light punishments. Just over three dozen US troops have been accused in the deaths of twenty Iraqis since the US invaded Iraq three years ago – despite the deaths of an unknown thousands of Iraqis at the hands of US forces. Just twelve troops have served time in prison.

Key U.S. legislator says will block aid to Lebanon
A key U.S. legislator, Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives' International Relations Committee. said in Israel on Sunday he would block aid President George W. Bush promised Lebanon and free the funds only when Beirut agreed to the deployment of international troops on the border with Syria. Lantos said he was putting a legislative hold on Bush's proposal to provide $230 million in aid for Lebanon in the aftermath of the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas

U.S. military urged to tighten use, export of cluster bombs
New York Times on Saturday urged American military to tighten the use and export of cluster bombs, noting the "insidious" weapon should never be used in populated areas.

Rumsfeld: Troops' families have no reason to be mad
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised the work Saturday of members of an Army brigade whose one-year tour in Iraq was extended just as they prepared to return home, and said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry with him.
Rumsfeld said he would make no promises that the full brigade would be back home by the holidays. "I'd love to be Santa Claus. I'm not," he told reporters during the flight to Fairbanks. "I wish I had a magic wand and the power to say yes. I don't," he said. "I will do everything in the world I can do to see that they are not extended beyond the 120 days."

Reuters Calls For Independent Inquiry Into US Killing of Journalist
Reuters news agency is calling on the US military to investigate the killing of television sound technician Waleed Khaled. The 35-year old Khaled died one year ago today. He was working for Reuters in Iraq when US troops shot him in the face and chest. U.S. soldiers were heard joking around when Waleed Khaled's family came to the scene of the shooting. An independent inquiry by a former British military investigator has concluded the shooting was unlawful. The Pentagon has also been criticized for claiming it lost crucial video footage taken by Khaled’s passenger after he was shot.

US troops Shell Ramadi Mosque
Iraqis in the city of Ramadi are expressing outrage over a US attack on a mosque Friday that left at least three people dead and twenty-two injured. The mosque suffered major damage to its dome and minaret. The Pentagon says it was responding to fire coming from inside.

As US Workers Increase Productivity, Real Wages See Decline
Here in the United States, new figures show increasing economic growth has not led to a rise in real wages for American workers. The New York Times reports the median hourly wage has declined by two percent in the last three years. Economists say the drop is unprecedented because overall productivity has risen over the same period of time. Wages and salaries now account for the lowest share of the US economy in over half a century. Corporate profits have reached their highest share over the same period.

Report: White House Limiting Input From Opponents of "Secret Evidence"
There is new controversy over the Bush administration’s illegal military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. The Boston Globe is reporting the White House is limiting input from career military lawyers who say detainees should have the right to see the evidence used against them. The administration has been forced to re-draft its rules for military commissions after the Supreme Court ruled they were illegal in June. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has assured Congress the administration will consult with military legal experts. But in several meetings over the last two months, the issue of secret evidence has been discussed on just one occasion.

Richard Armitage Leaked Plame's Identity
This news on the CIA leak case – a new book has identified former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as the White House source who outed former CIA operative Valerie Plame. The authors, journalists Michael Isikoff of Newsweek and David Corn of the Nation, cite three government sources who say Armitage outed Plame to columnist Robert Novak and journalist Bob Woodward in July of 2003. Armitage apparently admitted his action as early as three months later to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. Plame is apparently considering bringing Armitage to court for leaking her identity to the press.

Evolutionary Biology Absent From List of Federal Study Grants
New York Times is reporting evolutionary biology is no longer listed as an acceptable field of study for low-income recipients of federal study grants. The omission would mean students studying evolutionary biology could not receive federal money without declaring another major. That is causing concern among scientists who say their field is under attack from opponents of evolutionary theory. A government spokesperson said the omission was unintentional and will be corrected.

Nuremberg Prosecutor: Bush, Hussein Should Be Tried For War Crimes
A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said President Bush should be tried for war crimes. Benjamin Ferencz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers involved in the killings of more than one million people, told OneWorld.Net both President Bush and Saddam Hussein should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars -- Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his invasion of Iraq thirteen years later.


Israeli President Moshe Katsav and George W. Bush
Mainstream news silent on Israeli President Katsav rape allegations
When it comes to coverage of the Middle East, global satellite news networks -- from a European vantage point -- remain silent on any uncomfortable news from Israel. Israeli police have twice questioned President Moshe Katsav over charges that he raped a former employee. Two female members of the Knesset, both from the governing Kadima-Labor coalition, have called for Katsav to resign. European and Israeli papers are covering the unfolding scandal but CNN and the BBC remain silent on the subject.
Katsav's alleged female victim, referred to as "A" by police, said the President engaged in improper "sexual contact" with her while she worked at the Beit Hansassi presidential residence. Two other female employees at Beit Hanassi have also come forward to complain about improper sexual behavior towards them by the President. Although Katsav is claiming that A is blackmailing him, the scandal has expanded to charges that Katsav issued presidential pardons in return for bribes. On Sunday, Israeli Attorney General Haim Ramon resigned after the Israeli Attorney General indicted him for sexually harassing a female employee in his office. Again, the global satellite news media remained silent on the subject.

Harper Gov't. Popularity Plummets Over Israel Support
Stephen Harper's decision to support Israel in the current Middle East crisis appears out of step with the majority of Canadians, according to a new poll. The survey finds that a majority of Canadians want their government to be neutral on the conflict and that Mr. Harper has tilted away from the traditional Canadian position. Moreover, they believe that the Conservative government is taking its cues from U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Death of The Internet?
Major telecommunications companies are spending millions lobbying the U.S. congress to make the Internet into a private network.

Another miserable milestone for Bush's war
America's (and Britain's) disastrous war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the US involvement in the Second World War. Yes, this conflict has outlasted a war that ended with total victory over Nazi Germany. Hitler declared war on the US on 11 December 1941. Exactly 1,244 days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered. The US invaded Iraq on 19 March 2003, and this weekend it is 1,267 days later, with no end in sight.

THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation. We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.

Al-Eiman University has a cure for AIDS

In 20 AIDS cases Al-Zandani said the virus had vanished completely without any side effects. He called the UN, which "spends enormous amounts of money to fight the disease," to send "its senior scientists to see [the university's] findings".

NYC Officials Knew Air Quality Area Was Not Safe Post 9/11

NYC Officials Knew Air Quality Area Was Not Safe Post 9/11
The Daily News has revealed that less than a month after 9/11, a top city Health Department official blasted an order from City Hall to reopen several blocks near Ground Zero. In an internal memo, the official warned in October 2001 that air quality for asbestos at those locations was not yet suitable for re-occupancy.
"The Mayor's Office is under pressure from building owners and business owners in the red zone to open more of the city to reoccupancy," wrote Associate Health Commissioner Kelly McKinney in his startling Oct. 6, 2001, memo. At the time, McKinney was in charge of the city's environmental hazards program. His memo reveals sharp disagreements between health officials and other Giuliani administration aides over how to handle environmental contamination after 9/11. The memo was obtained under a Freedom of Information request by the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project.In the five days before Sept. 17, 2001, the day most downtown office workers were allowed by federal and city officials to return to work, DEP tested 38 air samples for asbestos on the streets around the Trade Center site. Of those same 38 tests DEP conducted in the days after 9/11, 18 test filters were so clogged they couldn't even be read under the TEM method. That left only 20 valid test results and eight of them, or 40%, revealed dangerous levels of asbestos in the air. The highest was found on Sept. 12 at Spruce and Gold Sts., seven blocks from Ground Zero. On the same day, a level of 123 fibers was found in another test at Centre and Chambers Sts. - right between City Hall and the Municipal Building. Yet neither of those results has ever been reported by the DEP to the public. The city never disclosed it even conducted tests at those locations.
No wonder that Cate Jenkins, a veteran asbestos scientist at the federal Environmental Protection Agency who reviewed the DEP's test results, accused the city and her own agency of lying to the public.


Female Citadel cadets report assaults
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Almost 20 percent of the female cadets at The Citadel last spring reported being sexually assaulted since enrolling at the state military college, according to results of a survey released by the school Wednesday. About 4 percent of the male cadets also reported being sexually assaulted since joining the formerly all-male school, according to the results of the survey.
"Some wonder why I would release information that reflects negatively on the college," said the school's president, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Rosa. "My reason is simple: In order for us to address these issues, we must discuss them openly."
Rosa previously was superintendent of the Air Force Academy in the wake of a sexual assault scandal that found female cadets feared they would be disciplined if they reported rapes.
Most of the reported incidents occurred in the barracks or elsewhere on campus, and most often the perpetrator was another cadet. Some of the female cadets reported being subjected to more than one sexual assault. Sixty-eight percent of the women also reported one or more incidents of sexual harassment at the school.


Hizbollah's reconstruction of Lebanon is winning the loyalty of disaffected Shia
By Robert Fisk
The Independent
Hizbollah has trumped both the UN army and the Lebanese government by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the wreckage of southern Lebanon and Beirut's destroyed southern suburbs. Its massive new reconstruction effort - free of charge to all those Lebanese whose homes were destroyed or damaged in Israel's ferocious five-week assault on the country - has won the loyalty of even the most disaffected members of the Shia community in Lebanon.
Hizbollah has made it clear that it has no intention of disarming under the UN Security Council's 1701 ceasefire resolution and yesterday afternoon, Major-General Alain Pellegrini, the commander of the UN Interim Force in southern Lebanon personally confirmed to me at his headquarters in Naqoura that "the Israelis can't ask us to disarm Hizbollah". Describing the ceasefire as "very fragile" and "very dangerous", he stated that disarming Hizbollah "is not written in the mandate".
But for now Hizbollah has already won the war for "hearts and minds". Most householders in the south are receiving a minimum initial compensation payment of $12,000, either for new furniture or to cover their family's rent while Hizbollah construction gangs rebuild their homes. The money is being paid in cash - almost all in crisp new $100 bills - to up to 15,000 families across Lebanon whose property was blitzed by the Israelis, a bill of $180m which is going to rise far higher when reconstruction and other compensation is paid.
Wow, imagine if FEMA had done that for New Orleans residents!
In Beirut's southern suburbs which have been destroyed or badly damaged in 35 days of Israeli bombing, 500,000 residents - most of them Shia - lost their homes. But money is being poured in. For example, one Shia owning four floors of an apartment block, Hussein Selim, has already received $42,000 in cash for his possessions and lost furniture. And Hizbollah has pledged to rebuild the entire municipal area from its own funds.

Curbing Unlawful Surveillance: It Takes Two (Branches)
What Judge Taylor's opinion shows most convincingly, however, is that Congress and the judiciary must act together if there are to be meaningful curbs on presidential overreaching. A problem for the nation, however, is that, if the President defies FISA, there is nothing Congress can do to protect its handiwork short of impeachment. Unless courts become involved to enforce FISA's constraints, a rogue executive can ignore the law. This is precisely why the executive has tried so hard to dodge judicial review through procedural hurdles. The government hoped it could escape judicial review because potential plaintiffs could not get the information they need to mount a lawsuit.
In addition, the government sought to invoke the so-called state secrets privilege, which protects the government from having to divulge military or national security secrets to the detriment of the United States. Judge Taylor observed, however, that the government, through the personal statements of President Bush, had already offered public affirmation of the facts that gave rise to the plaintiffs' case.
Things now stand just where they should. A lower court has stood up to the executive, relying on Congress's appropriate determination of the right balance between surveillance and oversight in the foreign intelligence context. Now, it's up to Congress to keep its backbone intact, while higher courts review – and, one hopes, affirm – Judge Taylor's order.

Bush closes door on open access
Despite the Bush administration's dismal record on privacy, there is still one area of privacy that it zealously safeguards -- its own.
The number of documents that have been listed as "secret" jumped from 9 million in 2001 to 16 million in 2004. Moreover, this same administration has granted the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Health and Human Services Department the power to classify any of their documents as "secret."
In that same period, thousands of unclassified documents have been purged from government Web sites and the National Archives. In 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft instructed federal agencies to "resist" Freedom of Information Act requests whenever they could find legal grounds to do so.

Where Bush's Arrogance Has Taken Us
An illegal war, a long list of eroded rights, and a country run by and for the benefit of corporate campaign donors -- all courtesy of the imperial presidency.
By Jim Hightower
During his gubernatorial days in Texas, George W let slip a one-sentence thought that unintentionally gave us a peek into his political soul. In hindsight, it should've been loudly broadcast all across our land so people could have absorbed it, contemplated its portent and roundly rejected the guy's bid for the presidency. On May 21, 1999, reacting to some satirical criticism of him, Bush snapped: "There ought to be limits to freedom."
Here, we are pleased to give you a sense of the enormity of what Bush & Company are doing under the cloak of war and executive privilege.

Take this Job and Ship It -- How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America

"Free trade" is just jingoism. It means nothing. Free trade is just a mantra created by the multi-national corporations and their friends in politics to describe an opportunity to ship American jobs overseas. Trade agreement after trade agreement is unfair to our country. ... we have to create rules that are fair, rules that lift us up rather than push us down.
-- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D - North Dakota)

A Little Poverty Never Hurt Anybody
by Jason Miller
Earth's ruling oligarchs and plutocrats have created and perpetuated a socioeconomic dynamic in which the destitute have little or no access to education, basic healthcare, decent employment, or even basic necessities.
To gain some perspective on the extent of human suffering, avarice, and depravity associated with the gross imbalance in wealth and power, weigh these facts:

1. More than half of the 6.5 billion human souls populating Earth subsist on less than $2 per day. 790 million of the deeply impoverished suffer from chronic malnutrition (while 65% of US Americans are overweight).
2. 20% of the human race does not have access to clean water and 31% of the world’s population has no electricity.
3. Combining the gross domestic products of the 48 poorest nations (representing 25% of global population) yields a figure that is less than the wealth of the three richest people in the world.
4. ''Developed nations" account for 80% of the world's consumption and 20% of the world's population.
5. The wealth gap between the richest and poorest countries went from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 72 to 1 in 1992.
6. Corporations account for over half of the 100 wealthiest entities in the world.
7. And most tragically: "According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they 'die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.' That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year."

Professor G. William Domhoff of the University of California at Santa Cruz wrote in 2001:
"In terms of types of financial wealth, the top 1 percent of households have 44.1% of all privately held stock, 58.0% of financial securities, and 57.3% of business equity. The top 10% have 85% to 90% of stock, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America."
In 2003, the average worker in the United States was netting $517.00 per week. How much were CEO’s taking home at that time? A mere $155,000. 52 times per year. That is a staggering 301 to 1 differential. In 1982 the ratio of CEO to average worker pay was “a mere” 42 to 1. From 1990 to 2003 US corporate profits rose 128%.
To further appreciate the obscene avarice of the world’s plutocracy, consider that the average garment worker in Bangladesh earned 13 cents per hour in 2004. The "10% of the people who own the United States" and their counter-parts in nations around the globe are doing very well thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of the remaining 6 billion or so human beings on the planet.
To manufacture the many instruments of peace which prove how free we are, the United States relies on 737 defense contractors, sometimes known as the military-industrial complex.
Of those 737 contractors, a mere five have received government contracts totaling $284 billion over the last six years. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics do quite well at the public trough. Halliburton has also fared nicely since former CEO Dick Cheney took office and helped lie the United States into the Iraqi Occupation.
A collective populist movement is slowly evolving. It is only a matter of time before humanity's oppressed put aside their religious, racial, and nationalist differences to unite against their common enemy. When six billion people act in unison against a few million, there will indeed be a new world order.


A corporate takeover of American borders
The Customs and Border Protection's Expedited Removal Program has contracted with Halliburton to oversee the expansion of the federal government's capacity to detain immigrants. Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, has proposed deploying private "Ellis Island Centers" in foreign countries for the purpose of recruiting and managing guest workers.
Privatization, a neoliberal trend begun in the 1970s, means policy is driven by profit-seeking. During the early 1980s, the federal government began experimenting with incarcerating people for profit, using immigrant detention as its canary in the coal mine. In 1984, the Corrections Corporation of America, the private-incarceration leader, cut its first deal with the federal government to operate Immigration and Naturalization Service detention centers in Houston and Laredo, Texas. Since then, private incarceration has become a boom industry as well as a lightning rod for credible human-rights abuse litigation.

U.S.-Mexico border control is also being privatized. After more than a decade of border militarization with "Operation Gatekeeper" and "Operation Hold the Line," the deployment of the National Guard and plans for 700 miles of fencing, in May the government solicited bids from military contractors Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Ericsson and Northrop Grumman for a multibillion-dollar contract to build a "virtual fence" of unmanned aerial vehicles, ground surveillance satellites and motion-detection video equipment along the border. With final awarding of the Secure Border Initiative Network set for September, the arrival of military contractors at the border is imminent.
Add Blackwater Inc., a private security firm that has run mercenaries in Iraq and New Orleans, and is negotiating a contract to train U.S. Border Patrol officers, and you get a virtual fence that has guns for hire welcoming newcomers at ports of entry. Military contractors and private mercenaries as immigration policymakers represent a foreboding prospect for any democracy.

Finally, guest-worker policies would provide additional opportunities for the security-industrial complex at the border. With CCA, Blackwater, Lockheed Martin and others as gatekeepers, guest workers would come face to face with law-and-order activities twice removed from public scrutiny.
The looming presence of "virtual" technologies, mercenaries and military contractors as front-line defenders for U.S. sovereignty is cause for alarm well beyond the potential for individual human rights violations. It suggests this country's "deciders" are less interested in physical border fences that would harm trade and impede the flow of cheap labor than in securing a system of "virtual fence" and paramilitary strategies that would facilitate wholesale control over migrants in the name of profit.

Prison Camps in the US--for whom?
Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.

Interesting Astrological Phenomenon:
Thursday 8/24 is also fraught with significance as Saturn and Neptune form the first of their three oppositions over the next 10 months.
When they met in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square. Thirty-five years ago, in 1971-72, during their previous opposition, the Watergate scandal began and the Vietnam War protests took hold. Neptunian fallacies and illusions dissolve when faced by Saturn's limitations.

Do you think the Bush administration misled Americans on the Iraq war?

Online Poll: Do you think the Bush administration misled Americans on the Iraq war?
Live Vote CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO VOTE

	Do you think the Bush administration misled Americans on the Iraq war? * 32999 responses
	Yes - As Sen. John McCain said, statements like "mission accomplished" underestimated the task ahead. 86%
	No - The administration has always made clear the challenges facing the military in Iraq. 13%
	I don't know or don't care. 1%

New Poll: 61% Of Americans Oppose War
A new CNN poll has found opposition to the war in Iraq has reached a new high. 61 percent of Americans say they oppose it. Just 35 percent favor the war.

President Bush's letter authorizing the use of force in Iraq
Only a few days ago, President Bush made the statement that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, and that nobody in his administration had made that claim. Yet here in his letter of March 19th, 2003, specific reference is made to 9-11 in activating the Congressional Authorization for the use of force in Iraq.



Bush Caught Red-Handed in Al Qaeda/Iraq Deception.
Unlike Bush, the Video Clips Don't Lie
Let's hope the polls and the pundits are right, that the November midterm elections will be a referendum on Bush and his failed war.

Bush faces revolt on Iraq
US President George W. Bush has defiantly reaffirmed his "stay-the-course" message on Iraq, even as some of the unpopular war's strongest defenders have turned critical ahead of key November elections.

Connecticut Groups Push to Remove Lieberman From Ballot

Critics of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's independent run to keep his job attacked on two fronts Monday, with one group asking an elections official to throw him out of the Democratic Party and a former rival calling on state officials to keep his name off the November ballot.

Only 20% Of Britons Believe Blair On Terror Threats
A figure that is both telling and foreboding - that only one fifth of British citizens believe the Blair government is telling the truth on terror alerts - increases the chances of a staged attack to reinforce the notion that Islamo-Fascism is a real danger and not the invention of a ruthless Neo-Fascist government that has all but abolished freedom in the United Kingdom. A Guardian/ICM poll today reveals that just 20% of British voters believe the government is telling the truth about the threat to bomb transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives - meaning 80% of the country do not trust Blair and the war on terror agenda. Blair's re-election itself was carried with a majority of just 33% and since only half of the country actually voted, that means only just above a quarter of British citizens actively support their government.

Was British terror plot a load of crap?
Liquid explosives very difficult to make; Orange Alert a political move?
DUH!!!!


US sues Maine officials for probe on Verizon, NSA
The U.S. government sued Maine officials on Tuesday to block their demand that Verizon disclose whether it gave the government's spying program access to its customer data, documents showed.
"The defendant state officers' attempts to obtain such information are invalid under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and are preempted by the United States Constitution and various federal statutes," the lawsuit said.



Big Agriculture, Oil and Tobacco Will Kill You For a Profit
Since Reagan's election, our government has catered to the needs of corporations that refuse to accept the destructive consequences of their actions. Here's an example...(in the late '80's) it had been apparent for some twenty-five or thirty years that insecticides and herbicides were contaminating the landscape and the water supply, killing off wildlife, destroying fertility in males and females of all species, and causing disease in the farmers themselves and their families. The common sense solution to this increasing problem would have been to acknowledge the destructive power of these unnatural chemicals, and to have shifted American agriculture away from their use.
The ag companies, however, preferred to remake the ecosystem so that farmers would use more chemicals rather than fewer.
If chemicals are killing us and our world, we stop manufacturing the chemicals, unless we are insanely greedy and demonically possessed by the idea that every single element of life, every seed and bit of DNA can and must be owned by someone. Here's what the big ag companies want to do -- they want to own and contaminate the entire gene pool of all the world's food resources for their own profit and without the knowledge or input of anyone who will actually be eating the food or living in the world they create. So far, the French and the Japanese and some other nations are standing firm, but the US government, our government, your government, is trying to enforce the will of the big ag companies.

EU to act Wednesday on tainted US biotech rice
EU authorities plan to act this week to ensure that an unauthorised biotech rice detected in the United States does not enter the bloc's food chain, an official at the European Commission said on Tuesday.
"We are hoping to adopt tomorrow measures that will ensure that this GM (genetically modified) rice will not reach consumers," the official told Reuters, declining to elaborate.
The European Commission was notified late on Aug. 18 by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns of trace amounts of unauthorised biotech rice detected in long-grain samples that were targeted for commercial use.
What are YOU eating?

The quiet Bristol company that sells bombs to Israel

Israeli President Moshe Katsav questioned in rape case; police term evidence 'dramatic'
Moshe Katsav is facing possible rape charges following claims by a former employee that he coerced her into sexual acts. However, the probe soon moved on to investigating two complaints made by A. against Katsav: that he forced her to have sex with him by threatening to fire her if she refused, and that there were improprieties in his process of granting pardons to prisoners.
According to the Basic Law on the President, the Knesset may oust the president if "he is unfit to serve due to behavior unbecoming to his position as president of the state."

Landmines and Unexploded Ordinances: Israel's Legacy in Southern Lebanon
Steve Goose, executive director of Human Right Watch's Arms Division discusses the leftover landmines in southern Lebanon from Israel's 18 year-occupation, new landmine legislation in Washington, the threat to civilians of unexploded cluster bombs and where it all fits into the framework of international law.

The war that keeps on killing

Israel has broken the ceasefire once again, killing four Lebanese children and wounding 21 in the last few days. What, you haven't read about it? That's because these deaths were caused by weapons fired before the ceasefire went into effect: cluster bombs.
Special Democracy Now! Report from Southern Lebanon: Ana Nogueira Investigates the Lasting Dangers of Unexploded Israeli Cluster Bombs
Israel dropped thousands of cluster bombs on at least 170 villages in southern Lebanon during its month-long war against Hezbollah. The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians. At least eight people have been killed and 25 wounded from the unexploded ordinances. Democracy Now!'s Ana Nogueira files a report from southern Lebanon.

Israel Suspends Review of Lebanon War

Israel committed war crimes
Amnesty International has said that there is evidence that Israel's attacks on civilian infrastructure during the recent war in Lebanon constitute war crimes.

Israel accused of war crimes in Lebanon
Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Israel of war crimes, saying it broke international law by deliberately destroying Lebanon's civilian infrastructure during its recent war with Hezbollah guerrillas.


Rationality and Israeli violence
As we witness the unfolding spectacle of ferocious, indiscriminate violence, destruction, and brutality in Gaza and Lebanon, it's difficult to resist the conclusion that there is something terribly wrong with the Israeli state and society. It's as though all moral and psychological constraints and boundaries have been breached, deviancy normalised.
80 Military Recruiters Disciplined for Sexual Misconduct Over the Past Year
The Associated Press has revealed that more than 80 military recruiters have been disciplined over the past year for sexual misconduct. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams. We speak with Martha Mendoza, the Pulitzer prize-winning AP reporter who exposed the story.
CLICK TO LISTEN TO OR READ INTERVIEW

Iraqi Gov’t To Investigate Rape & Murder of 14-Year-Old Girl
The Iraqi government has decided it will establish its own commission to investigate the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl by US soldiers. On March 12, soldiers broke into the home of the teenager, Abeer al-Janabi. According to military records, a U.S. soldier named Steven Green, herded Abeer's mother, father, and five-year old sister into a room and shot them dead with an AK-47 rifle. Green and another soldier then raped Abeer, shot her, and set her body on fire in an apparent effort to cover up the crime.
The Iraqi government investigation is going ahead despite U.S.-imposed rules that prevent the Iraqi government from prosecuting crimes committed by U.S. service members.



Bush OKs involuntary Marine recall

Though the initial recall is for 2,500 troops, there is no cap on how many could be called up in the future.

Marines to issue involuntary call-ups
The U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday it has been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty, primarily because of a shortage of volunteers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to 2,500 Marines will be brought back at any one time, but there is no cap on the total number of Marines who may be forced back into service in the coming years as the military battles the war on terror. The call-ups will begin in the next several months. There are about 59,000 Marines in the IRR, but the Corps has decided to exempt from the call-up those who are either in their first year or last year of the reserve status. As a result, the pool of available Marines is about 35,000.


Katrina rhetoric fails to calm growing storm
The harrowing scenes, reminiscent of a third world camp, exposed an urban, black underclass that appeared to have been abandoned – literally and metaphorically – by the wealthiest nation on earth. For a brief period, the US was shamed into a national debate about its racial and economic divisions. President George W. Bush acknowledged the "deep, persistent poverty" experienced by many blacks and blamed it on "a history of racial discrimination that cut off generations from the opportunity of America." "We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action," he said. But 12 months later, the business-as-usual atmosphere at the refurbished convention centre demonstrates how quickly the issue of social justice has fallen off the national agenda.

23 August: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition



The Brilliantly Profitable Timing of the Alaska Oil Pipeline Shutdown
Why shut the pipe now? The timing of a sudden inspection and fix of a decade-long problem has a suspicious smell. A precipitous shutdown in mid-summer, in the middle of Middle East war(s), is guaranteed to raise prices and reap monster profits for BP.
Courageous government inspectors and pipeline workers were screaming about corrosion all through the pipeline. I say ''courageous" because BP, which owns 46% of the pipe and is supposed to manage the system, had a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of those who warn of pipeline problems.
In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had complained of conditions at the pipe's tanker facility. BP tapped his phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP’s acts were "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."
"ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM" was an in-depth look at the Enron disaster and one of the points the film makers kept hammering was how "The Crooked 'E'" deliberately created shortages in everything it sold to run up the prices. Is BP playing the Enron game?

Pipeline crisis 'could halve flow of oil'

The price of crude oil could hit $300 a barrel if BP's pipeline corrosion crisis in Alaska turns out to be an endemic problem for the industry, according to the leading oil industry analyst Matthew Simmons. Mr Simmons, a US-based industry commentator and financier, said BP's discovery of unexpectedly severe corrosion in its pipelines at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, could just be the tip of the iceberg. He described the sudden emergence of the issue as the "Pearl Harbour Day" for energy. He said that if drastic remedial work was required to fix or rebuild pipelines across the world, the flow of crude oil could halve, sending prices soaring.

The burned out husk of Building 5 two days after 9/11. Building 5 sustained massive damage from flaming aircraft parts which ignited fires that burned for hours. In addition, the collapse of the north tower scraped down the side of 5 but its modest nine floors did not structurally collapse.

New WTC Complex Photos Highlight Bizarre Building 7 Collapse
Previously unseen photos provided to us by a fireman who was at ground zero on 9/11 highlight the implausible implosion of WTC Building 7 in comparison with buildings closer to the towers that sustained significantly more fire and debris damage yet did not collapse.



Another 9/11 Coverup in the Making?
The author of a new book about the mistakes that led to 9/11 accuses the National Geographic Channel of diluting a documentary about the book in order to protect the government.

U.S. Threatens Sanctions Against Iran Over Nuke Issue
Iran has indicated it is willing to negotiate with Western nations over its nuclear program but Tehran gave no sign that it would freeze its uranium enrichment program. Tuesday marked the deadline for Iran to respond to a series of trade incentives offered by the United States and other countries.

JUST LIKE ISRAEL!

Syria Calls for UN to Investigate Israel’s Nuke Program
Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, urged the international community to focus not on Iran’s nuclear program but Israel's.

• Bashar Jaafari: "What I know is that Israel, on a piece of land not exceeding 20,000 square kilometers, has eight nuclear centers capable of fabricating plutonium, uranium, everything necessary to fabricate nuclear bombs and everybody knows that Israel has at least 300 nuclear bombs. We should tackle what is priority first which is how to obligate Israel to join the NPT and how to put the Israeli nuclear facilities under international control, and how to stop the Israeli terrorist nuclear act in the area."

Extinction: Bye Bye, Birdie ...
and thousands of other creatures. Prominent biologists say we're on par with the five previous mass extinctions in the history of life on earth.
Species that are lost, or nearly so, are increasingly common because human activities are driving them to extinction 1,000 times faster than the normal rate, according to the just-released report, Global Biodiversity Outlook 2. The report echoes the United Nations' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published last year, and proclaims that a "sixth mass extinction" is under way, the worst loss of species since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.

Health Care: It's What Ails Us

An estimated 50 million Americans lack medical insurance, and a similar and rapidly growing number are underinsured. The uninsured are excluded from services, charged more for services, and die when medical care could save them—an estimated 18,000 die each year because they lack medical coverage. But it's not only the uninsured who suffer. Of the more than 1.5 million bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, about half are a result of medical bills; of those, three-quarters of filers had health insurance.

Michael Moore Documentary Rattles Health-Care Giants

"A review of America's health-care system should be balanced, thoughtful and well-researched to pin down what works and what needs to be improved," said Ken Johnson, senior VP for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "You won't get that from Michael Moore." Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline all advised their employees last year not to speak to Mr. Moore when he began his research for "Sicko." It is not known whether any HMOs or drug companies will appear in the film.

Defaults rise in California
Foreclosure activity in California in the second quarter jumped by 67 percent over the year-earlier period, according to figures released Monday by Foreclosures.com, a Central Valley-based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure property information.

"Dirty Bombs" used in Lebanon

Judge drops Padilla terror charge
In Florida, a U.S. federal judge has dismissed one of the main changes against Jose Padilla, the man once accused of plotting to set off a dirty bomb. US District Judge Marcia Cooke dismissed count one of the indictment: conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country. She said the allegations in that count were already covered in the indictment. Earlier this month Judge Cooke ordered prosecutors to provide more details to make their case against Padilla and two co-defendants. She said the case against Padilla appears "very light on facts."

Another frame-up starts to crumble.


Bush says: "Iraq Had 'Nothing' To Do With 9/11"
So, to sum up, we had to invade Iraq because Saddam didn’t have any WMDs and didn’t have any connection to 9/11. And his handlers reportedly cannot understand why his approval ratings remain in the toilet.

Scientists suspect Israeli arms used in South contain radioactive matter
The Daily Star of Beirut is reporting a leading Lebanese scientist has discovered a crater caused by an Israeli bomb that contains a high degree of unidentified radioactive materials. The bomb landed in the Lebanese town of Khiam. It caused a crater 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide. The National Council for Scientific Research is planning to test samples from the site.
Mohammad Ali Qobeissi, a member of the National Council for Scientific Research, said on Sunday that a crater caused by an Israeli munition in Khiam contained "a high degree of unidentified radioactive materials." He added that the Israeli weapons launched on Khiam and the neighboring areas of South Lebanon "probably contained a high level of uranium."
It's known as a "dirty bomb."

Depleted uranium used in Lebanon
Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD., former Director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project, talks about depleted uranium used in Lebanon.

Sales of US arms hit record levels
AMERICAN defence contractors are enjoying a bumper year as arms contracts won from foreign governments surge to record levels. So far this year contracts worth $21.7 billion (£11.5 billion) have been passed to the US Congress for ratification, 76 per cent more than agreed during all of 2005, when America is believed to have lost market share in the global weapons trade to Europe.

Exposed: The Carlyle Group:
Shocking documentary uncovers the subversion of America's democracy

Note: The first one minute forty seven seconds of this program is in broadcast in Dutch, The remainder is in English.

Katrina: disaster profiteers pocket millions in deals

A year after Hurricane Katrina, the reconstruction of the devastated Gulf coast is being severely hampered by waste and inefficiency overseen by "disaster profiteers" who are making million of dollars, according to a watchdog group. The group claims the inefficiency - along with the companies' political connections - follows a pattern similar to what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Makes sense -- the same corporations are profiting from both "disasters".

Ministry of Defense accused of covering up casualty rates
Defence chiefs have been accused of covering up the number of soldiers injured while fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Families of UK soldiers killed in Iraq mount political, legal challenge to Blair government Relatives of some of the 115 British soldiers killed in Iraq have announced their intention to form a new political party to contest parliamentary elections.

Pakistanis find no evidence against 'terror mastermind'

The Briton alleged to be the 'mastermind' behind the airline terror plot could be innocent of any significant involvement, sources close to the investigation claim.

UK Police Arrest 11 In Bomb Plot
In Britain eleven people have been charged in connection with an alleged terror plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.
British police official Peter Clarke: "There is evidence from surveillance carried out before the 10th of August. This includes important indeed highly significant video and audio recording. I can also tell you that since the 10th of August we have found bomb making material. There are chemicals including hydrogen peroxide, electrical components, documents and other items. We have also found a number of video recordings."
British police are holding eleven other people without charge.

NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

It's The Law, Stupid

A federal judge in Detroit ruled on Thursday that a National Security Agency program to wiretap the international communications of some Americans without a court warrant violated the Constitution, and ordered it shut down. While it was a clear victory for the American people, the message was lost on our president as he continues to display a lack of understanding for how the government is supposed to work.
Lest we forget the specifics, this case is about the clearly illegal decision of our president to monitor communications of American citizens without a court order. Moving past the fact that Bush actually denied for years that he was even engaged in this behavior only to snub his nose at the American people when he was caught, there are other problems inherent in his logic for its usage.

Bush's final gamble: giving Iraq a dictator?

An anonymous 'military affairs expert' attended a White House briefing and reported: 'Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy. Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect, but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.'

Some Conservative Pundits Losing Faith In Bush
For 10 minutes, the talk show host grilled his guests about whether "George Bush's mental weakness is damaging America's credibility at home and abroad." For 10 minutes, the caption across the bottom of the television screen read, "IS BUSH AN 'IDIOT'?"
But the host was no liberal media elitist. It was Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman turned MSNBC political pundit. And his answer to the captioned question was hardly "no." While other presidents have been called stupid, Scarborough said: "I think George Bush is in a league by himself. I don't think he has the intellectual depth as these other people."

CIA Rendition investigator , Associates are`Suicided'

Military recruiters cited for misconduct

More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams.

War Resister Lt. Watada Charged With Three Offenses
First Lt. Ehren Watada has been charged with three offenses for refusing to fight in Iraq. In June he became the first US military officer to openly oppose the war in Iraq. He was charged with Conduct Unbecoming an Officer, Missing Movement, and Contempt toward Officials.

Additional clues point to U.S. attack on Iran

Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney's office is assembling a group of neo-cons from the Pentagon, State Department, and the National Security Council to cook up intelligence and talking points that will show Iran to be an imminent nuclear threat.

Romanian Oil Firm Says Its Oil Rig Attacked, Seized by Iran

This appears to be a contract dispute.

Iran's Navy Attacks and Boards Romanian Rig in Gulf

Dick Cheney is not going to like this. Iran storms oil rig with ties to Halliburton.

The story is murky, but it seems that the Romanian company has declared a contract invalid and decided to remove the oil rig they had pumping oil in the gulf. Iran is trying to enforce the contract by keeping the rig in place. This is headed for the international court system, but expect the US to try to use this as an excuse for war.

A motive for Kelly's "suicide"?
Kelly was a British security services asset who knew about the South African nuclear weapons program. He was also aware that a neo-con disinformation story that the two South Africans tactical nukes were retrieved by weapons dealers, sent to Oman, and sold to Iran for the cannibalization of their weapons-grade uranium was false. In fact, Kelly knew that then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney was well aware of the loss and subsequent retrieval of the nuclear weapons by covert U.S. intelligence assets but failed to warn the United Nations pursuant to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as required under U.S. law.

Fox News: Iran May 'Pull Nuclear Trigger' Tomorrow

Fox News' Juliet Huddy broadcast a claim Monday (August 21, 2006) that Iran may fire a nuclear weapon as early as tomorrow, despite a lack of any evidence that Iran actually possesses one.

BOOGA-BOOGA!!!!


Democrats Stifle Antiwar Voices, Again

The Democratic Party doesn't allow dissent, and like the Republican Party, they are even willing to stifle democracy in order to ensure their ascendancy on Election Day. Here in New York the Democratic Party has willfully ignored Jonathan Tasini's popular antiwar campaign against Hillary Clinton. Tasini, unlike Lamont, is critical of the close relationship between the US and the state of Israel.

On August 21, the New York Times called on Hillary Clinton to debate Tasini, writing, "Since Mr. Tasini is running an antiwar campaign, it would be very useful for New Yorkers to have a chance to hear the two Democratic candidates debate that one issue." Hillary, of course, isn't likely to take heed, and truthfully, that's undemocratic. But that seems to be the Democratic strategy of late.

Putin hails the new economy as Russia wipes $22bn off its debts
RUSSIA has finally paid off its Soviet-era debts to the Paris Club of wealthy nations in a dramatic display of the country's new-found economic clout. The repayment of $22.5 billion (£11.9 billion) that Russia's Vnesheconombank made yesterday was the largest-ever repayment to the Paris Club of 19 creditor countries.

THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR FOOD THAT NOBODY HEARD

Did he just say that the government does not know WHERE the GE crops are planted, WHAT is being planted, and WHERE they end up?

Japan ends U.S. long-grain rice imports

Japan has suspended imports of U.S. long-grain rice following a positive test for trace amounts of a genetically modified strain not approved for human consumption, a news report said Sunday.

EU urged to ban US rice in genes row
The European Union was yesterday facing calls to ban all imports of rice from the US, after Washington conceded that traces of an unauthorised variety of genetically modified rice had entered the food and feed supply in the US. Campaigners urged the Commission to follow Japan's example. "This is a complete scandal. The biotech industry has failed once again to control its experiments and lax regulations in the US have allowed consumers worldwide to be put at risk. The European Union must immediately suspend US rice imports until consumers can be guaranteed protection from untested and illegal foods," said Adrian Bebb, a GM campaigner with Friends of the Earth.

Remarks on Mississipi River dam draw FBI’s attention

It wasn't the first time Jim Bensman of Alton has questioned the need for costly dams on the Mississippi River. But after a public hearing last month at which he urged the Army Corps of Engineers to consider removing a dam, Bensman got a telephone call from an FBI agent investigating his remarks as a possible threat.
"It is beyond belief that anyone could have construed anything I did at that meeting as a terrorist threat," said Bensman, 46, a member of environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Heartwood.

The Cult of the Offensive

Clearly, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is using the recent commando raid as a desperate attempt to salvage something from his disastrous offensive into Lebanon. Unfortunately, the unsuccessful raid, coupled with the reluctance of European nations to send their forces into southern Lebanon as peacekeepers, threatens to collapse the fragile ceasefire there.

Israeli Reservists Call For Olmert To Resign
In Israel, calls are increasing for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign over his handling of the war in Lebanon. On Monday, a group of reservist soldiers protested in Jerusalem. Israeli Reservist Sonny Katz: "The prime minister the minister of defence and the chief of staff of the military should resign because at the end of the day soldier went to fight and they did not have proper equipment and nobody knew what was the bottom line mission that these guys should I achieve and that was politics, so we blame that on the government and the leaders of the Army."

After the war: scandals rock Israel
The president is locked in a sex scandal, the justice minister is quitting over a purported stolen kiss, the prime minister is haunted by a property deal and the country's top general is under fire for stock trading. Welcome to Israel, after the war.

Israel Puts Demands on Peacekeepers
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel will not accept the presence of peacekeepers in Lebanon from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, according to officials.
Why do they get to make any demands regarding this???

Can taxation curb obesity?

Food and drinks high in sugar should be taxed just like cigarettes, say economists who believe it is the only way to combat the global crisis in obesity.

DC Envoy Says Bush Ordered Flight 93 Shot Down

Reversing all previous statements, The Washington Envoy to Canada, Paul Cellucci told his Canadian audience that a Canadian general at NORAD scrambled military jets under orders from Bush to shoot down flight 93.
"He compared the situation to one that occurred during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. He noted that it was a Canadian general at Norad who scrambled military jets under orders from Bush to shoot down a hijacked commercial aircraft headed for Washington."
Cellucci's statement thus reverses all of Washington's previous statements about Flight 93.

Nonconspiracy theorist David Ray Griffin takes aim at the official 9-11 story
As for conspiracy theories, he explains, "the official story is itself a conspiracy theory. As the accepted 'conspiracy theory' goes, a cadre of al Qaida operatives conspired to hijack four jetliners, did so undetected and were able to complete their mission with no interception or even interference from the best-prepared air force on the face of the earth."
"However," he continues, "when the official account of 9-11 is stripped of its halo and treated simply as a theory rather than an unquestionable dogma, it cannot be defended as the best theory to account for the relevant facts. When challenges to it are not treated as blasphemy, it can easily be seen to not correspond with reality."
In our own country during the early '60s, the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the command of Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer came up with a similar plan to provoke an attack on Cuba. According to NSA myth-buster James Bamford in his 2001 Random House publication Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, the Joint Chiefs called for undercover operation of terror within the United States that included plans for "innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war."

Sex Ed Changes At School With 65 Pregnant Teens

The new Canton school board program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, bringing the city school district's health curriculum in line with national standards.

Congress Poised to Unravel the Internet

Lured by huge checks handed out by the country's top lobbyists, members of Congress could soon strike a blow against Internet freedom as they seek to resolve the hot-button controversy over preserving "network neutrality." The telecommunications reform bill now moving through Congress threatens to be a major setback for those who hope that digital media can foster a more democratic society.

400 EU Troops Head to Congo As Fighting Continues
Meanwhile, 400 extra European Union troops are being flown into the Democratic Republic of Congo. The capital of Kenshasa has seen three days of clashes between forces loyal to the two men who are facing each other in a presidential runoff in October. Supporters of Jean-Pierre Bemba have accused President Joseph Kabila's guards of attacking Bemba's house.

California Minimum Wage to Increase to $8/Hour
In California, legislators have agreed to raise the state minimum wage to eight dollars an hour by January 2008. Workers will get a 75-cent increase Jan. 1 and an additional 50 cents on Jan. 1, 2008. The pay hike will affect more than one million Californians who earn the current minimum wage, six dollars and seventy five cents an hour.

2nd UK terror suspect released without charge

Another "Terror" Suspect Released, Without Charge
Reuters reports that another "terror" suspect has been released without charge. He is the second suspect held on suspicion of involvement in an alleged plot to blow-up flights bound to the US from Heathrow, to be released without charge. The man was originally arrested on Tuesday.
Explaining the release, police said in a statement: "This is not unusual and is to be expected in large and complex criminal enquiries where a number of arrests have taken place."

12-year old boy used in attempt to rescue the alleged 10 plane terror-plot's credency We had recently learnt that some of the arrested suspects in the alleged plot to blow up 10 planes over the Atlantic did not have any passports. People were beginning to ask, "how could they blow up a plane in mid-air, let alone get on it, if they did not have passports?" And right on cue, this story about a 12-year old boy appears. He managed to get on a plane without a passport before the plane's pilot "discovered" him.

Pakistani Intel Officials Question Al Qaeda Links
The Associated Press is reporting Pakistani intelligence officials are discounting the US government's claim the alleged plot was the work of Al Qaeda. According to the officials, the suspects were "too inexperienced" to carry out the plan. They said the suspects are not known to have attended training camps in Afghanistan or Pakistan. They're also believed to have learnt about making bombs by reading text books.


Terror Charge Dropped in Cell Phone Case
Ali Houssaiky and Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, both of Dearborn, Mich., headed home from jail Tuesday after prosecutors in southeast Ohio dropped the terror charges, saying they couldn't prove a terrorism link.


No Plot To Bomb Bridge, FBI Says
A day after saying it was investigating a possible plot by three men to blow up the Mackinac Bridge, federal officials now say the men have no link to terrorism and there is no plot.

Controlling the News
From our Paris and especially, our London bureaus, we know for a fact that all of this was concocted by the British MI-6 with the grateful encouragement and assistance from the U.S. Embassy in London. What we really have, are a group of young, impressionable Pakistani Muslims who were infiltrated by at least two British agents, one of whom actually was a renegade Pakistani.
This is part and parcel of the Republican pre-election strategy to take the public's growing anger at the deadly Iraqi war and shift it to vague threats of 'terror attacks' that Bush himself can take the credit for defending America against.
This is such an obvious concocted ploy that it speaks volumes towards the utter contempt the Bush/Cheney people have for the intelligence of their voters. Instead of building up a great American cheering section for the sagacity and abilities of the shoddy Administration, all this will do, once the public realizes they have been taken to the cleaners, again, will be a very negative reaction come November.


UK Judge Gives Week Reprieve To Hold Plane Plot Suspects
In Britain, a judge has ruled police have until next week to detain twenty three suspects arrested in the alleged plot to blow up ten airplanes bound for the United States. On Wednesday Home Secretary John Reid said some of the suspects would likely not be charged with major crimes, but vowed indictments for others he says were deeply involved.


Prescott lets slip that some suspects won't face serious charges
John Prescott let slip yesterday that some of the 24 people arrested last week over the alleged transatlantic terror plot will not face serious charges. The Deputy Prime Minister made the admission during talks with Labour's Muslim MPs on how best to tackle Islamic extremism. During the 90-minute meeting, Mr Prescott briefed the MPs that the police only had enough evidence to bring serious charges against some suspects but not others.

Airlines set to sue for £300m over terror losses
AIRLINES including Ryanair are considering suing the Government for up to £300 million to recover the losses incurred since extra security measures were imposed last week. They are hoping that the threat of legal action will force ministers to lift the restrictions on hand luggage, which have caused thousands of flight cancellations and delayed millions of passengers since an alleged terrorist plot was foiled.
The European Commission said that it was considering requiring all airlines flying to or from EU airports to collect detailed information on passengers and pass it to security services. A similar requirement by the US has resulted in long delays in the past week because each passenger has had to be checked and cleared before flights could depart.


Press Corps moves out of the White House
From our National Press Club sources who cover the White House: the White House Press Corps was told that its move from the White House to "temporary" quarters in the New Executive Office Building across Pennsylvania Avenue is far from temporary. The Bush White House promised that renovations to the James Brady Press Briefing Room will take nine months. However, WMR's sources who cover the White House that the press corps will remain in the New Executive Office Building for the duration of the Bush administration.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, a former talking head on Fox News, consistently arranges for his Fox friends to get exclusive stories ahead of their competitors. With the press corps now out of the White House, Fox has a tremendous advantage over other news networks.The last time the press corps was temporarily moved out of the White House was 1902.

Fox News Airs Suggestion for 'Muslim-Only' Airport Line
Next stop: Muslim-only concentration camps?

Airline advises Dumpster-diving for axed workers
Bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp. advised workers to fish in the trash for things they like or take their dates for a walk in the woods in a move to help workers facing the ax to save money. Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said some employees who received the handbook had taken issue with a couple of the items. "We agree that some of these suggestions and tips ... were a bit insensitive," Blahoski told Reuters.

Mexican riot police seal Congress
Hundreds of riot police in black body armour sealed Congress with roadblocks and a metal wall on Tuesday to keep leftist protesters away after a violent clash over Mexico's disputed presidential election.

Annan to Israel: Ask me first
If Hizb’allah breaks the ceasefire – as they already have – and shoots at Israeli citizens or population centers, territory or forces, the IDF may in most cases not respond before informing the United Nations Secretary General of the violation, and obtaining his permission to shoot back.

Poll: Olmert, Peretz Losing Support
In Israel, a new poll shows declining support for the two top Israeli leaders behind the attack on Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's approval rating has fallen to 40%, down from nearly 80% at the height of the war. Defense Minister Amir Peretz has also seen his rating fall by more than half, to below 30%.

The Lebanon Curse Strikes Again
As a shaky cease-fire goes into effect in Lebanon, Israel’s generals and politicians are furiously blaming one another for what many Israelis are calling a major political and military defeat.


Another Spy Story Suppressed to Save Israel The United States government has done it again, they’ve hidden another Jewish spy from the American public, but this time the cat's out of the bag, someone leaked the details and now we find that another Jewish American, this time a Navy Petty Officer by the name of Ariel J. Weinmann has been arrested for passing along Top Secret information related to National Security to the Israeli government.

Court backs U.S. on prosecuting 2 who received leak
Limiting citizen use of government data sets new standard
"It's a momentous ruling with radical implications," said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "A lot of people who are in the business of gathering information, such as reporters and advocates, are now going to have to grapple with the potential threat of prosecution. The dividing line has always been between leakers, who may be prosecuted, and the recipients of the leak, who have never been. Now that dividing line has been erased."

Exploding the 'terrorist' neuron bomb
What do Nelson Mandela, Michael Collins, Archbishop Makarios, Menachim Begin, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Shamir, Eamon DeValera and Jomo Kenyatta have in common, apart from having being heads of state? As everybody knows, but few remember, they were all vilified as "terrorists" by the British or American authorities.
Their use of the concept illustrates the reason for my refusal. Words like "terrorism" and "terrorist" are no longer definitions - they are evasions, often deliberate, of vital issues, no more so than in the "war on terror."
This is not merely sloppy use of vocabulary. It is precisely targeted phrasing and intended to terrorize dissent. Especially in the binary, Manichaean mindset of the US and Likudnik Israel, once a group has been labeled "terrorist" it becomes the epitome of evil and to suggest that any of their arguments have any justice makes one a terrorist supporter. Using these words shuts down the higher cerebral functions of many of the listeners.

In Western Iraq, Insurgency Is Gaining
Daily attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces are on the rise, and there is little sign of progress in persuading the population to support the national government. U.S. commanders acknowledge they are locked in struggle with insurgents for the allegiance of Iraq's youth.

US Marine Charged With Assaulting Iraqis
A US Marine officer has been charged with assaulting three Iraqi civilians. Military prosecutors say Lt. Nathan Phan beat and choked the Iraqis and placed his gun in one of the victim's mouth. The alleged incident took place in the town of Hamdania in April. Lt. Phan was the platoon leader for the troops who have been charged with the killing of an Iraqi man there, but he has not been charged in that case.

UN Warns of Worsening Darfur Crisis
UN Secretary General Koffi Annan is warning the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is worsening by the day. Half of Darfur's civilians are completely cut off from humanitarian aid. Getting to the other half is fraught with risk. Villagers are fleeing in massive numbers reporting "indiscriminate killings, rape and abduction." The situation has worsened since rebels reached a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in May. Fighting has increased between them while the Sudanese-backed militias have stepped up attacks on humanitarian workers and UN troops.

At 9:30 on August 16, 2006, Iraq takes longer than WW II

BLACKWATER to stay in Iraq fo 2 more years, DYNCORP training Sudanese Army
Mercenaries, mercenaries, everywhere. The Bush administration continues to be a dream-come-true for mercenary firms. In just a a little over a week, Blackwater USA received a $7.1 million contract for personal security detail services in Baghdad. Interestingly, the contract is due to expire on September 30, 2008.
Dyncorp received a contract to "re-train" the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/A) of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement into a "professional" fighting force. The SPLM/A is the southern Sudanese guerrilla force that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese central government in Khartoum. Neighboring Uganda already serves as a hub for U.S. mercenary and CIA activity in central and eastern Africa. Large oil reserves have been discovered in areas under the control of the SPLM

Ohio Faces Severe Electoral Problems Ahead of November Elections
A new government-commissioned report is warning of severe electoral problems in Ohio's most populous county. According to the Election Science Institute, problems in Cuyahoga County are so widespread it's unlikely they'll be fixed by November -- or even by the next presidential election. The report singles out voting machines manufactured by the company Diebold. Poll workers have had difficulty operating the machines, absentee ballots have gone uncounted, and the machine's vote totals have not added up.

Plame Lawyer Vows To Force Cheney, Rove Testimony
The lawyer for outed CIA operative Valerie Plame is vowing to force Vice President Dick Cheney, ex-chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify in Plame's civil lawsuit against them. Plame filed suit last month accusing the three of conspiring to end her career and putting her and her family at risk.


Attorney General: Terrorists are in our neighborhoods
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in Pittsburgh to address the World Affairs Council, recalled memories of Sep. 11 while referring ominously to a stateless enemy hidden in American towns.
"The most dramatic change," said Gonzales, "is the nature of the enemy our country today faces -- a stateless enemy sometimes hidden and nurtured here in our neighborhoods, taking advantage of the very laws they mock with their killing and destruction, as a shield from detection and prosecution."
Gonzales, further emphasizing the perceived domestic danger, stated, "The threat of homegrown terrorist cells may be as dangerous as groups like al Qaeda, if not more so. It is therefore essential that we continue to develop the tools we need to investigate their actions and intentions with the help of our partners, and prosecute those who travel down the road of radicalization."
Booga-booga!

Afghan opium cultivation hits a record
Thanks, Uncle Sam!

Afghan Prisoner Abuse Case Goes to Jury
Passaro, 40, is accused of beating Wali during questioning about rocket attacks on a remote base where Passaro was stationed in 2003 along with U.S. and Afghan troops. He is not charged in Wali's death. He could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison if convicted.


UK Deputy PM: Bush Admin Mideast Policy "Crap"
Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing a potential row over the reported comments of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on the Bush administration. According to the London Independent, Prescott told a gathering of Labour parliamentarians this week he believes White House policy for the Middle East is "crap." Prescott is also quoted as saying President Bush is "just a cowboy with his Stetson on." Prescott denies making the comments.

Bush Angry With Iraqis for Not Sharing His Excitement Over the Colossal Mess He's Created There
Bush is perhaps the most self-absorbed, arrogant, delusional and dangerous president in American history. His foreign policy strategies and actions will be a poly-sci case study for students for years to come. With Iraq in particular, he invaded a sovereign nation on flawed/manipulated/manufactured evidence and intelligence; toppled its leader in a campaign pompously billed as "shock and awe;" turned the country into a chaotic mess on the brink of full-scale civil war; causes over 100 Iraqis per day to be killed in mounting sectarian violence; and then has the supreme audacity to be angry that the Iraqi people aren't somehow happy and excited about all the good that he's done for them. The Iraqis, he believes, are unappreciative.

No shortage of fear
by Molly Ivins
We have nothing to fear but fear itself, especially since fear is now being fomented and manipulated for political purposes by a bunch of shameless hacks.
Who is trying to make you afraid and why? This Karl Rove tactic is getting quite threadbare, in fact, and so much so that it is getting dangerously close to comedy.
The administration has put itself in the position of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. If, God forbid, a serious terrorist conspiracy is uncovered, there will be a tendency to dismiss it as a backlash to these over-hyped "plots."
I personally have been sleeping more soundly at night knowing that Michael Chertoff is secretary of homeland security. Ever since Chertoff's agency brought us the stunning news that there are more terrorist targets in Indiana than in New York or Washington, I've realized this guy could find a terrorist plot anywhere. Watch out for the Amish -- they'll run right over you with those buggies, and they all have pitchforks, too. I hear they're connected to al-Qaida through Saddam Hussein.

ABC NEWS.com:
Authorities Warning Women Not to Wear Gel Bras As Worries of Possible Female Bombers Increase
Authorities at Scotland Yard are questioning a husband and wife, suspects in the London terror plot, about allegations that they were planning to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
Police in the U.K. have recovered baby bottles containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from a recycling center close to the homes of some of the arrested suspects.

FROM READER COMMENTS TO THIS STORY:

Don't look for a terrorist on an airplane, look for them in White House.
Forget gel bras. How about gel-filled fat suits?!?! That 300-lb guy could be a 100-lb guy wearing 200 lb of gel!! Or they could have gel surgically implanted!

First it's mascara, now it's gel bras? Are you kidding me?!? If this is the way it's going to be from now on, the terrorists have already won the "war." This country should not be reacting to every terrorist plot or scare - we should be on the offense.
Strip naked and prepare for cavity search!!!
I can see this new rule triggering a new wave of patriotic young male volunteers willing to risk all to protect the country in the dangerous game of breast inspection.
Didn't you guys see Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged me? :) WHAT ABOUT SALINE FILLED BREAST IMPLANTS!!!??? What if the fluid was replaced ... kinda taking the Austin Powers Fembot concept to another level...
What's next ladies, we can't be on our periods when we get on a plane cos they'll be banning sanitary pads and tampons, you just watch.
REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER
This is just ridiculous! If you can fashion a weapon out of the materials in your bra then let's face it - anything can become a weapon. This stuff is going to kill the airline industry for good and worsen our economy.
Are we checking the guys to see if they are wearing gel jock straps? This is absolutely ridiculous. Soon we will all be flying naked.
I know... it's amusing and funny. Gel bras, of all things. But one little, laughable, step at a time we embrace the "comfort" of a nice, secure, police state. Our phones, purchases, browser searches, and e-mails are monitored AND now you can't wear gel bras. It's just a funny little step...
Wake up America. The govt knew since 1994 that binary liquid bombs were a possibility and there were no liquid restrictions for 12 years. Why? Because you are being played and conditioned. Wake up. Next your speech will be limited. Then you will be searched for liquids at police state check lanes. Speak out now.
There is now way such restrictions will ever make you safe. If you ban gel bras they can use gel breast implants. If you strip search everyone, including all cavities, gel packets could be surgically implanted. The only solution - work for justice, so that disenfranchised people do not choose this option. Or as Benjamin Franklin said " Those who would trade liberty for a little security deserve neither"
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TERRORIST PEOPLE LEARN YOUR STUFF THIS IS INSANE MADNESS
in january, i was forced to remove my nipple piercings before boarding a flight in denver. even though i was being inspected by a female, the guard refused me the option of showing the piercings, despite the fact that there was an empty examination room. i was told to remove them or i would be removed from the airport. i eventually complied. once the jewelry was out, they did not even inspect it. the entire experience was extremely violating and pointless.
Like so many other facts presented by the authorities, here's one that just doesn't ring true. Why would terrorists trying to discard evidence--peroxide-filled baby bottles with fake bottoms--bother to be environmentally conscious and put them in recycling bins, which must be sorted by hand for processing? That makes no sense! If I were throwing away evidence to hide it, I'd place it in a refuse container with a bag that would be tied up and never opened again. These little details really make me wonder whether we are being spun by two governments that are desperate for some good terror news to keep their electorates in line.
These draconian security measures are meant to enslave us - and no, I don't buy "this is for your own good" BS. What's next? Micro-chips "for our own good?" Whoa. It's too late for America to wake up. Go back to sleep. It's all over except the crying - which will come soon enough.
Where's Osama? 5 yrs and what has this administration done to make us safer? NOTHING!!!! Wake up and think America, we are being manipulated into fear. Shame on Bush!!!
Call us the American Middle East where a couple of gangs run our policy about everything from how to dress to how to talk. Anyone remember the Boston Tea Party?? You know when the taxpayers actually got together and fought for ...freedom? Not shackled by fear.

"People are definitely sceptical"

BUYING CAKES BEFORE ARREST
The 22-year-old brother of Rashid Rauf who is being quizzed in Pakistan, was captured on CCTV ordering cakes and buns for his family's bakery business. The film was taken as police prepared to swoop on him and 22 others they believe may have been involved in the plot to blow up jets over America. But Mohammed Nazam who owns the shop where he was filmed insisted the picture shows he is innocent.

'People are definitely sceptical'
London Guardian / Patrick Barkham | August 15 2006
When the government announced last Thursday that it had foiled a massive terror plot, broadcasters and newspapers were barraged with a wave of sceptical views from listeners and readers.
It was not in horror or panic that thousands of ordinary people contacted the BBC or posted points on the Guardian's Comment is Free website in the hours after last week's terror plot. The mood of many seemed to be one of profound caution, even scepticism, over the allegations of a murderous scheme in which 50 people would try to bring down up to 20 planes between Britain and America.
Stopping at the motorway services just north of Luton, John Jeffreys is unsure whether he trusts the government's line. "It's difficult to know. A lot of these terror alerts seem to coincide with an announcement about ID cards for instance. This time there obviously was some sort of plot but we don't know how significant it was. I don't trust the government at all. There's no doubt that Blair lied about the weapons of mass destruction before Iraq."
"It's propaganda, isn't it?" chips in his mate, Mick Perrone, 31. "It gets the whole nation on alert."

The UK Terror plot: what's really going on?
by Craig Murray
None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.
We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why? I think the answer to that is plain. Both in desperate domestic political trouble, they longed for "Another 9/11". The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled.



I bet you it will turn out to be a hoax
Azzam Tamimi / London Guardian | August 15 2006
Despite all the revelations about the latest 'terror plot', politicians and security chiefs got it wrong before and are likely to have got it wrong now too.
I think we've seen enough over the past five years or so not to trust politicians and the security agencies any more when they claim a plot of some sort has been foiled. They told us nothing but untruth about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and about the alleged link between the regime of the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and al-Qaeda. They misled the public over the de Menezes affair and then over the Forest Gate fiasco.
I have a feeling that all the Muslims detained in connection with the recent police operation to foil and alleged plot are innocent and will soon be proven so. I also suspect that the entire episode has been deemed, despite its enormous cost, to be of utility to a government that is increasingly out of touch with reality and seriously short of public support and sympathy.
One wonders who the real fascists today are. What about those who send their troops to destroy entire nations in Afghanistan and Iraq and who supply the Israelis with the most lethal weaponry ever known to humanity to kill and maim thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian men, women and children?

De Menezes Gun Cop To Train Sky Marshals
ONE of the officers who shot Tube blunder man Jean Charles de Menezes is to train new British sky marshals. The decision to have the detective involved in last year's tragedy at Stockwell, South London, as their instructor will spark fury in some quarters.



TSA Concept Video Shows Future RFID-Enabled Airport
RFID-laced passports may be just the start of an Orwellian airport experience, warn privacy advocates and authors Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre as the nation braces for a rollout of the controversial technology in passports this week. They point to a U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) concept video created by CompEx Inc. that shows how citizens can be tracked and monitored throughout an airport terminal -- without their knowledge or consent.



Report: Bush Frustrated, Puzzled By Lack of Iraqi Support
The New York Times is reporting President Bush has privately expressed frustration about the progress of the war in Iraq and the lack of public support for the US occupation. Citing participants in Monday's gathering at the White House, the New York Times says "the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd."

When all else fails, GOP dials 9/11
It's an even-numbered year, and we're getting near Labor Day. So, it was predictable that the Bush administration and Republicans would exploit the foiled terrorism plot in the United Kingdom to save their political hides.
The campaign began Wednesday, one day after Sen. Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut. Knowing of the upcoming arrests in Britain, Vice President Dick Cheney began the demagoguery. He accused Democrats of wishing for a return to "sort of the pre-9/11 mind-set in terms of how we deal with the world we live in."
It's bunk, of course, but Iraq-9/11 worked in 2002 - when Republicans gained control of the Senate - and in 2004 - when President Bush was reelected. This year, especially, it's all the GOP has. The president's poll numbers can't break 40 percent. Ratings for Congress in general and Republicans in particular are in the dumper. Analysts compare the political conditions with those in 1994, when 52 seats shifted in the House and Republicans took control.
If you're a Republican, you're scared. So, you try to scare the country.



Plame lawyer plans to force Cheney, Rove testimony

A lawyer plans to use a legal precedent that allowed President Bill Clinton to be sued while in office to force Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify in a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband.
The civil lawsuit accuses them and others of conspiring to publicly identify Plame as a CIA agent to punish her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for writing in an op-ed piece that the Bush administration twisted intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Bush & Co.: Desperate Desperados
They're firing the huge guns now in hopes of frightening away their enemies -- and making themselves feel less scared as well.
Many of those who voted against Lieberman in Connecticut were moderates, some of whom even supported Bush in previous elections. A national poll the other day showed that nearly one in five of those who voted for Bush in 2004 now say they'll vote for a Democrat in November.


Some 600 Japanese soldiers are deployed in southern Iraq

Suicides trouble Japanese military
The suicides of four returning ex-servicemen of Japan's military deployment in Iraq are raising alarms within the armed services and the country at large. The latest deaths add to the alarming rate of suicide within the 253,000-strong Ground Self Defence Force , where 94 soldiers committed suicide in the fiscal year 2004, 75 in 2003, and 78 in 2002. This is almost double the national average in a country renowned for its suicide problem, with 24 per 100,000 people committing suicide every year - compared with America's 10 per 100,000.

THE SCIENCE OF CREATING KILLERS
In World War II, when U.S. soldiers got a clear shot at the enemy, only about 1 in 5 actually fired, according to research by Army historian Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall. At the moment of truth, they just couldn't kill.
The reality is that the brains of human beings -- unless they fall within the demographic sliver we call psychopaths -- are hardwired not to kill other humans. That's why military training camps, police academies and even some self-defense pros are constantly searching for more effective methods of suppressing the human revulsion to taking human life -- virtually rewiring the brain to react first in certain situations with an automatic response to kill.
What that reconditioning requires, and the psychological toll it ultimately takes on the killers, make up the taboo scientific inquiry sometimes known as "killology."
What are we lowering ourselves to?

Corporate war machine gathers speed
Evidence shows that business or economic beneficiaries of war, who do not have to face direct combat and death, tend to be more jingoistic than professional military personnel who will have to face the horrors of warfare. Furthermore, military professionals tend to care more about the outcome of a war and "military honor" than civilian leaders, who often represent some powerful economic interests that benefit from the business of war. Calling such business and/or ideologically driven warmongers "civilian militarists", military historian Alfred Vagts points to a number of historical instances of how civilian militarists' eagerness to use military force for their nefarious interests often led "to an intensification of the horrors of warfare"

The Zionist dream has become a nightmare
If Israel can exist only by destroying the neighborhood, then it's time to declare it a failed state. The Zionist dream has turned into a nightmare and is not viable. If the future holds more of the same, then the time has come to reconsider the whole project.


Never Trust a Man with a Comb-Over
He actually thinks we don't notice that he is bald all the way to the back of his skull. He thinks that, somehow, we will believe he has a normal head of hair. Really, now - would you buy a used car from this man? Seriously - think about it. Someone who thinks he can delude you with something as obvious as a comb-over? He could persuade himself that you might be deceived by anything he said or did, don't you think?
Coincidentally, the man with the comb-over pictured above happens to be Ehud Olmert, Israel's current Prime Minister and architect of the genocidal frenzy that has been taking place in both Palestine and Lebanon. Past Israeli Prime Ministers have included self-confessed assassins (Begin) and mass murderers (Sharon) who thought themselves fit to mingle in amongst normal, decent people. That such men are selected to lead should tell you a great deal about Israel.
Just last week, for the first time, facts disputing the official 9/11 story were broadcast nationally, again and again, in the form of a taped, two-hour panel discussion on C-SPAN. This was a momentous event that garnered a good deal of attention - much more than C-SPAN anticipated, which is why it rebroadcast the program a total of five times during the week, prompting increased discussion in many quarters throughout America. Just coincidence, of course, that such a program got such attention just prior to unveiling of the "liquid bomber" plot.
Nor is C-SPAN the only one suddenly to be disclosing what really happened during 9/11. The official cover-up story about 9/11 fast is unraveling. America's largest church, the Presbyterian Church, just published a book discussing governmental responsibility for 9/11. Yesterday, former CIA official Bill Christison went public with the allegation that "significant parts of the 'official story' put out by the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission are false." The timing of all this is just coincidental, of course.

9/11 Investigative Journalist Harassed and Beaten by Undercover Cops

I was harassed, beaten, and shocked with a Tazer-like gun in my front yard before my wife and children, and then abused for 6 hours by the ADL-trained local police. I have every reason to believe it is because of my journalistic investigation into 9/11. I have been threatened before in my career as a journalist, but this is the first time I have been intentionally beaten and abused – by the cops.

'Here's one we bombed earlier'
Where Israel's failure to achieve a military victory leaves the US airforce proposals (already opposed by the US army, Hersh says) is an interesting question. Bombing Lebanon's roads and runways did not turn the Christian and Sunni Arab Lebanese against Hizbullah. Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state in the first Bush term, tells Hersh this should warn military planners off bombing Iran.

Bush calls for sealing of Syria's borders
United States President George W. Bush late yesterday reiterated earlier statements that he believes Iran and Syria are responsible for the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, before calling for the sealing of Syria's borders.



New Spike Lee film documents Katrina devastation
Filmmaker Spike Lee usually says what he thinks and lets the chips fall where they may. But he grew shy the other day, telling reporters that his latest work must speak for itself.
That may be because his four-hour film "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," about how Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, is as much an indictment as it is a documentary. He lets a hundred voices of displaced, disoriented, rightfully bitter New Orleans residents do the talking for him.
In a review of the film, Newsweek said, "the result is arguably the most essential work of his 20-year career."


Judge rules policy excluded flood damage

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that an insurance company's policies do not cover damage from flood waters or storm surge in a decision that could affect hundreds of upcoming cases related to property damage from Hurricane Katrina.
Senter's ruling could set a precedent for hundreds of other court challenges to the insurance industry for denying billions of dollars in claims after the Aug. 29 hurricane ravaged the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Feds Probe "Fake News" at 77 Stations
Federal regulators are asking scores of broadcasters whether they failed to tell viewers about the sponsors behind corporate video releases presented as news, a practice criticized by watchdog groups who say showing "fake news" is an illegal breach of trust with local communities.
The Federal Communications Commission has sent letters to nearly eighty television broadcasters asking whether they have properly identified video news releases, or VNRs, before putting them on air. Stations face up to a $32,500 fine for failing to properly label VNRs. The FCC sent the letters to seventy-seven stations identified in a study released in April by the Center for Media and Democracy. The stations are scattered throughout 30 states and are affiliated with all of four major networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. And many of the stations are owned by some of the country's largest media companies including Clear Channel, News Corp, Viacom, the Tribune Company and Sinclair Broadcast. Companies funding the video news releases include General Motors, Intel and Pfizer.
In a statement, FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, said: "The public has a legal right to know who seeks to persuade them so they can make up their own minds about the credibility of the information presented. Shoddy practices make it difficult for viewers to tell the difference between news and propaganda."

EPA concealed Ground Zero toxic danger to New Yorkers

New Yorkers sickened by Ground Zero poisons EPA concealed
On order of the White House, the US Environmental Protection Agency concealed atmospheric dangers around Ground Zero. Tens of thousands of persons will die a slow, agonizing death.
The White House manipulated the reports of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the air quality in the environment of Ground Zero after the attacks and thus exposed all the relief workers, residents and employees in south Manhattan to extreme health risks. In the meantime, 15,000 already show symptoms of this sickness. The first persons have already died. According to some estimates, 30,000 to 50,000 persons may have been affected.
Just think about it for a moment: Mr. Larry Silverstein took over two asbestos-contaminated skyscrapers in the middle of New York City for 99 years that were conveniently detonated by terrorists two months later. Instead of having to pay hundreds of millions for asbestos removal, he received several billion dollars in insurance settlements with which he can build new office towers from the treasuries of German and Swiss re-insurance companies. This whole thing is at least very strange.



Why the Terror Plots Are False
There are strong reasons to believe that Muslims are not responsible for the recently unveiled terror plots both in Toronto and London. To understand the reasons why these plots are false, one has to begin with himself and think from inside out. I would begin with myself as a Muslim, who shares the beliefs that are attributed to the alleged terrorists, but does not feel compelled to even think about murdering innocent civilians.
When people in the position of Bush and Blair are determined to change a way of life of 1.5 billion people, and regard lying and killing thousands of people as "collateral damage" for this cause, cooking up a couple of fake terror plots are the most benign acts on their part for a great cause.
There are hidden forces, most probably the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Israel and Pakistan, who coordinate and carry out these terrorist operations to pin the blame on Muslims. This idea of inflicting mass civilian casualties has more in common with modem European revolutionaries than it does with anything in medieval times or in Islam. The architects of the false terror plots must stop their adventures before these blow up in their faces, when no one in the East and the West will believe any word from them.


Bush's Political Survival Depends on Terror Threats

The president is trying for the third time to make terrorism his big campaign issue -- are Americans going to finally snap out of it?


Prince Charles: A longtime Rupert Murdoch/Tony Blair target. Charles' back channel talks with anti-Blair plotters were monitored by Murdoch eavesdroppers, triggering phony liquid bomber plot.

The "Liquid bomb" plot a smokescreen for a counter-coup in Britain?
by Wayne Madsen

There is an increasing body of evidence on both sides of the Atlantic that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has engaged in a pattern of news manufacturing and illegal activities to hype the "liquid bomb" aviation threat and influence political developments. As WMR reported on Aug. 11, the move that prompted Murdoch, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and George W. Bush to stage a phony terror threat -- namely, the attempted political coup against Blair by members of his own Cabinet and Labor Party -- was based on a Murdoch-approved illegal wiretap by his London-based News of the World royals editor that hacked into the voice and text cell phone messages of three members of Prince Charles' staff.

Olbermann: The Nexus of Politics and Terror

From Crooks & Liars.com

Keith runs down the timeline from 2002 until the latest UK plot regarding the politicization of terror. Remember when Tom Ridge explained how the administration signaled terror alerts that he didn’t think should have been used?

Liquid Bombing the Constitution

"Chertoff made clear his belief that wider authority could thwart future attacks at a time when Congress is reviewing the proper scope of the Bush administration's executive powers for its warrantless eavesdropping program and military tribunals for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," the Associated Press continues. "Congress is now reviewing some of the programs after lawmakers questioned the legality of the warrantless eavesdropping program and the Supreme Court ruled in June that the tribunals defied international law and had not been authorized by Congress."

photos from FREEWAYBLOGGER.com

Sy Hersh: Cheney Helped Plan Israel's Attack on Hezbollah

WE THE PEOPLE do not pay Dick Cheney a salary so that he can go off and work for OTHER nations to plan their wars. His job is to take care of the United States of America, and that means fix the roads and bridges, and keep our hospitals and schools open and up-to-date. Dick is moonlighting and on these grounds alone deserves to be fired.


FALSE FLAG ATTACKS
FALSE FLAG NEWS

If you want the roots of terror, try here
By Robert Fisk

And I'm sure it's quite by chance that the lads in blue chose yesterday - with anger at Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara's shameful failure over Lebanon at its peak - to save the world. After all, it's scarcely three years since the other great Terror Plot had British armoured vehicles surrounding Heathrow on the very day - again quite by chance, of course - that hundreds of thousands of Britons were demonstrating against Lord Blair's intended invasion of Iraq.
I would, frankly, love to have Paul Stephenson out in Beirut to counter a little terror in my part of the world... It's one thing to sound off about the alleged iniquities of alleged suspects of an alleged plot to create alleged terror - quite another to deal with the causes of that terror and to do so in the face of great danger.

Cheney orchestrated Israel's losing war
Following briefings from top Israeli military officials, Cheney approved plans for an air war against Lebanon as a preliminary move to disarm Hizbullah in advance of America's broader military objective - to launch an air war against Iran. Had the US launched its war against Iran without Olmert's intervention in Lebanon, Hizbullah would have been free to attack Israel. Cheney's plan was designed to disarm Hizbullah, but it was based on what now appears to have been a false assumption - that Israel would win their war in Lebanon.

Ceasefire broken in less than four hours

A spokesman for the Israeli Army said soldiers had shot and killed a Hezbollah militant. The spokesman said the soldiers opened fire at a group of militants who approached a patrol about 11am.

Governors Resist Shifting Authority Over National Guard
In an unusual act of bipartisan and regional unanimity, 51 governors have joined to voice their strong opposition to legislation to let the president federalize National Guard troops in a disaster without local authorities' consent. In a letter to Congressional leaders last week, the governors detailed their argument that the measure, drawn up after Hurricane Katrina and tucked into a military authorization bill that the House recently passed, would undermine their authority and autonomy.

Israel's verdict: We lost the war
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was obliged to admit "shortcomings" in the 34-day-old conflict in Lebanon yesterday as he launched what may prove a protracted fight for his own political survival. Mr Olmert's admission in a stormy Knesset session came in the face of devastating poll figures showing a majority of the Israeli public believes none or only a very small part of the goals of the war had been achieved.

No evidence Iran active in Iraq: US general

There is no evidence the Iranian government is stirring trouble in Iraq, a U.S. general said on Monday, playing down suggestions that Tehran will retaliate for U.S. backing of Israel's war on Hizbollah.

Analysis: U.S. Army faces FCS shambles
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's cyber-dream for the U.S. Army has become a cyber nightmare. Instead, the U.S. Army today remains becalmed in Iraq, stuck in the middle of a low intensity guerrilla war it has been unable to tame. And that war is now morphing into a no-holds-barred civil war. Meanwhile, U.S. military preparedness, retired generals and respected military analysts warn, is now lower than it was in the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War -- when Rumsfeld was U.S. defense secretary for the first time.



DC's 'Open secret': Rumsfeld wants to quit Iraq

It is an "open secret" in Washington US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "wants to extricate himself from Iraq" but President George W. Bush "remains resolute," thus the US hangs on, a US investigative reporter has written.

Over 1,000 Iraqi Police Officers Resign in Fallujah
The Los Angeles Times is reporting over one thousand police officers in Fallujah have left their jobs after receiving death threats. The mass resignation occurred after pamphlets were distributed in the city reading "We will kill all the policemen infidels whether or not they quit or are still in their jobs." The size of Fallujah's police force has shrunk from two thousand to just about one hundred.

At AIDS Conference, Bill Gates Criticizes Abstinence Policy
In Toronto, at the 16th International Aids Conference, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has criticized the Bush administration’s push for abstinence policies. Gates said the "ABC" program promoting abstinence, being faithful and using a condom has saved many lives. But Gates said the power to prevent HIV must be put in the hands of women. He said abstinence is often not an option for poor women and girls; being faithful will not protect a woman whose partner is not faithful. And he said that using condoms is not a decision that a woman can make by herself. Gates said "A woman should never need her partner's permission to save her own life."

New York Times Admits Holding NSA Story Until After 2004 Election
The New York Times has publicly admitted that it decided not to publish its groundbreaking expose on the Bush administration's secret domestic surveillance program until after the presidential 2004 election. The paper's Executive Editor Bill Keller said "the climactic discussion about whether to publish was right on the eve of the election." The paper decided not to run the story until this past December. When the story finally ran on December 16, 2005, the paper admitted that it had delayed publication for a year after concerns were raised by senior administration officials. But at the time the paper did not reveal the story had been held from before the 2004 election.
That's why I won't be renewing my subscription.


"Intelligent design doesn't equate religion with science. It is based on scientific premise."

Labor Department Official Poses As ‘Conservative Analyst’ On Fox News, PBS
PBS Pays Gov't Official To Appear as Commentator
A Bush administration official is coming under criticism for regularly appearing as a commentator on Fox News and PBS without revealing her government position. The official, Karen Czarnecki, serves as deputy assistant secretary at the Labor Department. She is paid to be a commentator on the PBS show To the Contrary. Instead of being identified as a Bush administration official, she is described as a "conservative analyst." On Fox News, Czarnecki has been described as a "conservative strategist." The Washington Post reports her television role has been cleared by career ethics staff at the Labor Department.

Karen Czarnecki (r.) and Elaine Chao (l.): Labor Department's Fox News relationship is a walking, talking conflict of interest.

Military recruiting violations rise by 50%: GAO
Allegations of wrongdoing by U.S. military recruiters jumped by 50 percent from 2004 to 2005, and criminal violations such as sexual harassment and falsifying documents more than doubled, a congressional agency said on Monday. The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative agency, said the full extent of violations by military recruiters is unknown because the Defense Department does not have an oversight system. The Government Accountability Office launched its investigation of recruiters after an Army recruiter in Houston threatened to arrest a young man if he didn't drop by the recruiting station. Last week two recruiters in Oregon were disciplined after they tried to sign up an autistic teenager from Portland.


Which Politicians & Pundits served in the Military?

Did Cheney Go Too Far?

By insinuating that the sizeable majority of American voters who oppose the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy, Vice President Cheney on Wednesday may have crossed the line that separates legitimate political discourse from hysteria.

GOP Candidates Urged to Portray Opponents as Being Soft on Terror
Republican Congressional candidates are being urged to portray their Democratic opponents as being soft on fighting terror. On Friday the National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a memo that read "In the days to come, you should move to question your opponent's commitment to the defeat of terror, and in turn, create a definitive contrast on the issue."
The memo came just a day after Vice President Dick Cheney said Ned Lamont's victory in the Connecticut Democratic primary over Senator Joseph Lieberman might encourage 'Al Qaeda types.' On CNN, anchor Chuck Roberts suggested Lamont was the 'Al Qaeda candidate.'
Lieberman, himself, warned that Lamont's victory could be viewed as a victory for terrorists. He said, "If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."
Get a clue, Joe. That attitude is why you were rejected by Connecticut voters.

Larry Beinhart: Republicans are bad on National Security. America is the only nation on the planet that kindly informs bombers, hijackers and berserkers the days on which they wont be monitored. You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to get a jump on George Bush’s team.

The Israelis assert that the slaughter of Lebanon is in the self defense of Zionism. As a progressive Jew, I want nothing to do with that brutal and unjust ideology.
- Carl Messineo

30,000 protesters fill the streets around the White House

More then 30,000 demonstrators filled the streets around the White House today chanting, 'Stop the US-Israeli war against Lebanon and Palestine.'

Israel, Defeated

Take a look at Resolution 1701: it is quite a lengthy document, which goes well beyond the call for a cease-fire and lays the groundwork for a comprehensive solution to the current crisis in the Middle East – one in which Israel gains not an inch. If implemented – and that, of course, is the key – it endorses the seven-point program of the Lebanese government, first put forward at the international conference of July 26. This means a mutual exchange of prisoners – not only the two Israeli soldiers, but the many Lebanese still being held by the Israelis – and the return of the disputed Shebaa Farms enclave to Lebanon.

NYPD Proposes New Rules to Curtail Protests
In New York, the police department has proposed a new series of regulations that would criminalize many protests in the city. The NYPD wants the city to require that police permits be required for any gathering of 35 or more people on the city's streets. Currently groups can hold relatively small protests, such as picket lines or vigils, without a permit as long as there is no sound system. In addition the NYPD wants to make it illegal for bikers to ride in groups of more than 20 people without a police permit. Also the police wants the power to arrest any group of two or more pedestrians or cyclists who violate any traffic law, rule or regulation. Under the proposed rules, the police could arrest a couple for parading without a permit if they jaywalked. A public hearing has been scheduled for August 23.

NYC Official Proposes Requiring Nightclubs Videotape Patrons
In a separate initiative, the Speaker of the City Council in New York has proposed that the city's nightclubs be required to install security cameras at their entrances and exits. The proposal has been widely criticized by New York's gay community. One longtime gay activist said the idea smacks of Big Brother.

World's worst internet laws sneaking through the Senate

The treaty requires that the U.S. government help enforce other countries' "cybercrime" laws - even if the act being prosecuted is not illegal in the United States. That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments. American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdiction's requests to log their users’ behavior without due process, or compensation.

Gunmen kidnap Fox News journalists in Gaza: witness

Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists working for the Fox News Channel in Gaza on Monday, a witness and the U.S. television network said.

Really? When I saw the FOX News coverage they said the gunmen were unknown and nobody had yet to claim responsibility.

Nobel winner supported biological warfare as form of population control
Top-secret files recently declassified from the National Archives of Australia, despite government opposition, has revealed that Sir Macfarlane Burnet, one of the fathers of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering. advocated using biological weapons against Indonesia and other "overpopulated" countries of South-East Asia. Australia's The Age reports that world-famous microbiologist Sir Burnet recommended in a secret report for the Australian Defence Department in 1947 that biological and chemical weapons should be developed to target food crops and spread infectious diseases.

Gel on a Plane

Graphic from Undeniable Liberalism blog

TSA eases some carry-on baggage rules
As the U.S. government continues to adjust the list of things that airline passengers can carry, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff reassured Americans that things would only go so far. The Transportation Security Administration announced new rules Sunday giving airline passengers permission to carry up to 4 ounces of liquid nonprescription medicine. TSA had previously banned all liquid medications.
In other measures, TSA said it would let flyers carry treatments for low blood sugar, including glucose gel for diabetics; solid lipstick; and baby food. On Saturday, the TSA added mascara to the list of banned items, which includes baby teethers containing gel or liquid, children's toys containing gel and gel candles. Chertoff said the government was putting "less emphasis on the nail clippers and the nail scissors" and more on training additional screeners "specifically to look for modern-type detonation equipment that might be concealed in baggage."
He said a ban on carry-on luggage was "unlikely at this point."
Baby teethers containing gel? Nail clippers? Mascara? Puh-leeeeze!!!!!! What a joke!!!!


Graphic from Undeniable Liberalism blog

Parliament, British Muslims Warn Blair Over Middle East Policies
In Britain, a group of prominent British Muslims--including members of Parliament--have sent an open letter to Tony Blair criticizing his policies in the Middle East. The letter read, "The debacle of Iraq and the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all." The letter was sent two days after the British government announced that it had foiled an alleged plot by a group of British-born Muslims to down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

British Media must stay silent on suspects
The Government issued a stern warning to the media not to put the probe into the alleged terror plot at risk by publishing information about suspects.
In a joint statement, Home Secretary John Reid and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith called for "considerable restraint" to avoid prejudicing any future trials.
You have to wonder why the British government is so nervous about this. What might the British press find and publish that might absolutely tear the government's story to shreds?

Graphic from Undeniable Liberalism blog

Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests
Some of the suspected terrorists didn’t have passports, British officials say.
Meanwhile NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects of the alleged plot. A senior British official said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The British official suggested the attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. Some did not even have passports.
The British official said the Americans also argued over the timing of the arrest of suspected ringleader Rashid Rauf in Pakistan, warning that if he was not taken into custody immediately, the U.S. would "render" him or pressure the Pakistani government to arrest him. British security was concerned that Rauf be taken into custody "in circumstances where there was due process," according to the official, so that he could be tried in British courts. Ultimately, this official says, Rauf was arrested over the objections of the British.

Bush says British terror threat may not be over

"As you know, President Bush is on a 10-day vacation. Congress is on a month vacation - and Joe Lieberman is on a permanent vacation." --Jay Leno

Bird Flu Pandemic May Not Develop
But we made the bird flu vaccine makers rich, so it's not all bad!

UN Human Rights Council Condemns Israel
On Friday the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned Israel for violating human rights and international humanitarian law in its military operations in Lebanon. The council voted to send a high-level commission to the area to investigate the "systematic targeting and killing" of Lebanese civilians by Israel.

Israel disregarding Ceasefire
According to the Scotsman, Israel has continued her offensive into Lebanon, essencially ignoring the UN's resolution for a ceasefire.

Lebanon Seeks International Help With Rebuilding
If the ceasefire holds, Lebanon faces a daunting task of rebuilding the country. Over the past month, Israel has destroyed much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges and power plants. On Sunday, Israeli warplanes bombed power plants in Sidon and Tyre.

Photographs from SF Peace March
Thousands In DC Protest US Support For Israel
READER PHOTOS: Anti-Israel Protest, Toronto, August 12th
Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated on Saturday against Israel's attack on Lebanon. Protests were held in Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Orlando. Among the protesters in Washington was Miriam Yasmin, a Lebanese-American from New Jersey.

• Miriam Yasmin: "We all here feel that United States has given the green light to Israel to go into Lebanon without any just cause. They had a plan. The plan has been implemented and God knows where it will end and they're trying to separate the Muslims from the Christians, the Sunnis from the Shia and we are not separable. We're all together."

Nobody's victory, but in the end Israel could not defeat Hizbollah
A month of fighting, more than 1,000 dead, upwards of 800,000 Lebanese displaced and $2bn worth of damage - for what? Who wins in this bloody debacle, assuming it is coming to an end? Given the continued fighting, that is still a big assumption. Not Israel, certainly. Even while the authors of this military adventure continue to try to carve out some notion of victory to sell the Israeli public, increasingly fewer people are buying it.

Bush 'helped Israeli attack on Lebanon'
The US government was closely involved in planning the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, even before Hizbullah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross border raids in July. American and Israeli officials met in the spring, discussing plans on how to tackle Hizbullah, according to a report published yesterday.

Iraq Fuel Crisis Worsens
Baghdad is suffering its worst fuel crisis since the war began. Some analysts say the crisis is so severe that it could bring down Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.

Government Considers Allowing Drug Tests on Prisoners
The New York Times is reporting an influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government pharmaceutical companies to begin conducting tests on prison inmates. The practice was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse. Until the early 1970's, about 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested on prison inmates. But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after revelations of abuse. At the Holmesburg prison in Philadelphia, inmates were paid hundreds of dollars a month to test items as varied as dandruff treatments and dioxins. They were exposed to radioactive, hallucinogenic and carcinogenic chemicals.

Lopez Obrador Says Partial Recount Proves Vote Was Flawed
In Mexico, opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is saying that a partial recount of votes from the presidential election has shown so many errors that the top electoral court should declare him president-elect. He vowed that mass protests would continue until a ballot-by-ballot recount is conducted. On Saturday supporters of Lopez Obrador took over several major highways and stopped the government from collecting toll fees.

Ex-Gov't Official Pleads Guilty in Abramoff Bribe Case
Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, has pled guilty to accepting gifts from Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and then lying about them to avoid scrutiny. Stillwell worked in the Interior Department's insular affairs office, which handles issues with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The island government had hired Abramoff as a lobbyist.

America Retires From Moral Leadership
Respect for and application of the Geneva Conventions has now reached such a low point in US practice that the Bush administration solution is to unilaterally legislate a new set of rules. The new law would amend the War Crimes Act of 1996 by, among other things, unilaterally redefining the rules of the Geneva Conventions to exclude common US interrogation practices and to exempt US civilian officials from prosecution for violating provisions of the present Geneva Conventions or of the War Crimes Act itself.

If a Good Muslim Can't Be a Good American, Neither Can a Good Fundamentalist Christian Be One
Recently someone came up with an explanation as to why someone of the Islamic faith cannot possible be a good American. This is in response to that ignorance.

The New American Insurgency - Look Now Towards the Mirror
Now I officially HAVE seen everything. While my calendar tells me that it's 2006, it might as well be Nazi Germany in the 1930's all over again.
Newt Gingrich is calling for some new terminology for my friends and I who are non-appreciative of the current US wars. Seems that we will all be labeled as either "enemies" or part of the "insurgency." Clever way to start the civil war that divides us all quite neatly into two distinct camps, huh? That's what fascist governments have done throughout history in order to keep the people from uniting against the beast ... that is, those in control of their government.
Gingrich has apparently taken on the lead, creating a distraction away from the "root cause" of US domestic problems by taking America's eyes off the actual criminals. Instead, the Congressional war-hawks' cries have started to encourage American citizens to begin to point hateful fingers at one another.
Who would have ever thought back in the 60's that history would repeat itself and telling the truth about senseless killing, slaughter, and genocide of innocent human beings would again brand ordinary, decent people as enemies of the state?

Report: DOD sells sensitive military equipment
Government Accountability Office investigators posing as private citizens were able to buy sensitive excess military equipment from a Department of Defense logistics agency, a GAO report obtained by NBC News shows.
The equipment included two launcher mounts for shoulder-fired guided missiles, two guided missile radar test sets, ceramic body armor inserts currently used by deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft and 12 digital microcircuits used in F-14 fighter aircraft.
GAO identified at least 79 buyers of 2,669 sensitive items between November 2005 and June 2006. GAO made purchases as recently as last month and was able to purchase some new and unused items at a fraction of the cost military units currently purchase them for. The department controls what can be sold, and the logistics agency carries out the transaction. U.S. officials point out that sensitive Defense Department military surplus items have been illegally exported to China and Iran.
The investigation was a follow-up to GAO's May 2005 report that found $466 million in lost, damaged and missing excess Defense Department property from fiscal year 2002-FY 2004.

	Is depleted uranium responsible for the mysterious illnesses suffered by some veterans of the wars in Iraq?
	Yes, it's no coincidence that so many soldiers are returning home sick after working around weapons coated in this radioactive substance. 78%
	No, the military has studied depleted uranium and besides, it's unclear whether veterans even have the conditions they claim. 7.4%
	I'm not sure, the studies are inconclusive and the issue has become too clouded by politics and conspiracy theories. 14%

Gonzales Pushes Lenient Hearsay Rules

The Bush administration wants a new system for trying terror suspects to let prosecutors withhold classified evidence from the accused, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday, holding to a hard line on detainee policy despite concerns by senators and military lawyers.

In the middle ages, citing the "special nature and powers" of accused witches, the church court system changed the rules under which accused witches were tried, allowing rumor and hearsay, the presumption of guilt, and the use of torture. We now know, looking back, that all those millions of convicted witches were innocent.
Thus it may be assumed that the convictions produced by the current courts system, which allows rumor and hearsay the presumption of guilt and the use of torture, may be equally convenient and renumerative for the prosecutors and judges today, but will be viewed by history for the abominations that they are.


Bye-bye, Joe: now Hillary’s the target

The defeat of Joe Lieberman, the most hawkish senator in the Democratic party, by an anti-war political novice in a primary election in Connecticut last week was a spectacular coup for the 'netroots': the grassroots, anti-establishment, anti-war left that had mobilised opposition on the internet to the political grandee.
The same activists are now seeking to bend Senator Hillary Clinton to their anti-war side or face defeat in the Democratic presidential primaries. Her supporters are concerned that the 'jihadist' left, galvanised by the victory of East Coast millionaire Ned Lamont, are on the rise in the Democratic party, starkly affecting its national electoral prospects.

3 Texas men arraigned for buying cellphones
Police found about 1,000 cell phones in the men's minivan. Authorities have not said what they believe the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones. But the police chief in Caro, Mich., where they were arrested, said cell phones can be used as detonators, and prosecutors in a similar case in Ohio have said that TracFones are often used by terrorists because they are not traceable.
Odeh said the men were buying the phones to sell to a man in Dallas for a profit of about $5 per phone. She said they were in Michigan because so many people in the Dallas area are doing the same thing that the phones are often sold out.
Odeh said she thought her husband and her relatives were targeted because of their Arab descent. The men's families come from Jerusalem, she said. The men were stopped early Friday about 80 miles north of Detroit after purchasing 80 cell phones from a Wal-Mart. Police said they found about 1,000 phones in their minivan. The men were arrested Friday afternoon.
"All we did is buy the phones to sell and make money," Louai Othman told the magistrate. He said authorities had previously stopped the group in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Muhareb told the magistrate: "This is a misunderstanding." He said he was selling the phones to earn money to help pay for his brother's college education.
Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene told The Saginaw News in Michigan that investigators believe the men were targeting the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. He declined to say what led investigators to that belief.

72 [Brazil] Lawmakers Face Corruption Charges
Maybe it is time for a global revolution? Grab all the crooked politicians everywhere and kick them out, as a gift to future generations who wish to live in peace.

Terror Plot Cooked by Blair & Bush

Former NSA Official: Terror Plot Cooked by Blair & Bush
Wayne Madsen Report | August 11 2006
According to knowledgeable sources in the UK and other countries, the Tony Blair government, under siege by a Labor Party revolt, cleverly cooked up a new "terror" scare to avert the public's eyes away from Blair's increasing political woes.
British sources report that the reason for the delay in informing the airlines and traveling public about the liquid bomb on the American flight was to maximize the beneficial political impact for Blair and George W. Bush, both plummeting in the polls from the situations in Iraq and Lebanon.

Latest Terror Threat - More Government Foreknowledge
Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief
This week's cross-Atlantic terror alert has all the markings of an orchestrated incident to maintain public support for the ongoing US-British war on terror. White House spokesman Tony Snow admitted that President Bush had not been awakened by the dramatic news of Britain's air traffic shutdown because "Bush had been getting regular briefings on the developments for days." If they knew so far in advance, why the dramatic shut-down of trans-Atlantic air traffic inconveniencing thousands, as if they intervened just in time?
I suspect the timing of this "save" was not aimed so much as bolstering the war on terror as it was aimed at countering the growing public skepticism and anger over US and Israeli warmongering in the Middle East.

Olmert's support begins to waver as war drags on

After four weeks basking in almost unwavering public support Ehud Olmert yesterday awoke to a fusillade of criticism from the Israeli press. Opinion polls questioned the Israeli Prime Minister's handling of the Lebanon war and one front-page headline even demanded: "Olmert must go"

A poll in Haaretz newspaper found only 48 per cent of respondents to be satisfied with Mr Olmert's performance — down from 75 per cent. Only 20 per cent believe that Israel is winning the campaign. On the front line soldiers yesterday began to echo the confusion of many Israeli civilians. "I don’t know what I’m doing here," grumbled one liberal reservist.

Israel's attack on convoy a 'mistake'

Israel has admitted that it was "mistaken" in attacking a convoy of hundreds of cars carrying people fleeing the fighting in southern Lebanon.

Antiwar Wackadoos Are Winning
When the war in Iraq began in 2003, only about a quarter of Americans disapproved of President Bush's Iraq policies. But by this month, the trend had reversed, with 60% of Americans telling CNN pollsters that they oppose the war -- and savvy politicians rushing to stake out an antiwar claim before it's too late.
Opposing the war in Iraq isn't fringe anymore — it's become part of what defines ordinary Americans.

Herbert Reed, 52, a veteran of Iraq, sits at the kitchen table of his home with the medicines and medical records that he keeps with him Wednesday, May 17, 2006, in Columbia, S.C. Reed was exposed to radioactive depleted uranium while serving a few months with the 442nd Military Police out of New York.
Is an armament sickening U.S. soldiers?
There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick. He cannot function without his stupefying arsenal of medications, but they exact a high price. "I'm just a zombie walking around," he says.
Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon's arsenal of it -- thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead.
A shell coated with depleted uranium pierces a tank like a hot knife through butter, exploding on impact into a charring inferno. As tank armor, it repels artillery assaults. It also leaves behind a fine radioactive dust with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. The U.S. has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective.
Reed says he unknowingly breathed DU dust while living with his unit in Samawah, Iraq. He was med-evaced out in July 2003, nearly unable to walk because of lightning-strike pains from herniated discs in his spine. Then began a strange series of symptoms he'd never experienced in his previously healthy life. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, he ran into a buddy from his unit. And another, and another, and in the tedium of hospital life between doctor visits and the dispensing of meds, they began to talk.
"We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.' "
Then the medic from their unit showed up. He too, was suffering. That made eight sick soldiers from the 442nd Military Police, an Army National Guard unit made up of mostly cops and correctional officers from the New York area. But the medic knew something the others didn't.
Dutch marines had taken over the abandoned train depot dubbed Camp Smitty, which was surrounded by tank skeletons, unexploded ordnance and shell casings. They'd brought radiation-detection devices. The readings were so hot, the Dutch set up camp in the middle of the desert rather than live in the station ruins.
"We got on the Internet," Reed said, "and we started researching depleted uranium."
Then they contacted The New York Daily News, which paid for sophisticated urine tests available only overseas. Then they hired a lawyer. The veterans, using their positive results as evidence, have sued the U.S. Army, claiming officials knew the hazards of depleted uranium, but concealed the risks. The Department of Defense says depleted uranium is powerful and safe, and not that worrisome.
An estimated 286 tons of DU munitions were fired by the U.S. in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. An estimated 130 tons were shot toppling Saddam Hussein.
Depleted uranium can enter the human body by inhalation, the most dangerous method; by ingesting contaminated food or eating with contaminated hands; by getting dust or debris in an open wound, or by being struck by shrapnel, which often is not removed because doing so would be more dangerous than leaving it. Inhaled, it can lodge in the lungs. As with imbedded shrapnel, this is doubly dangerous -- not only are the particles themselves physically destructive, they emit radiation. Military research on mice shows that depleted uranium can enter the bloodstream and come to rest in bones, the brain, kidneys and lymph nodes. Other research in rats shows that DU can result in cancerous tumors and genetic mutations, and pass from mother to unborn child, resulting in birth defects. Iraqi doctors reported significant increases in birth defects and childhood cancers after the 1991 invasion. Iraqi authorities "found that uranium, which affected the blood cells, had a serious impact on health: The number of cases of leukemia had increased considerably, as had the incidence of fetal deformities," the U.N. reported.
Depleted uranium can also contaminate soil and water, and coat buildings with radioactive dust, which can by carried by wind and sandstorms.
In 2005, the U.N. Environmental Program identified 311 polluted sites in Iraq. Cleaning them will take at least $40 million and several years, the agency said. Nothing can start until the fighting stops.
About 30 percent of the 700,000 men and women who served in the first Gulf War still suffer a baffling array of symptoms very similar to those reported by Reed's unit. Depleted uranium has long been suspected as a possible contributor to Gulf War Syndrome, and in the mid-90s, veterans helped push the military into tracking soldiers exposed to it.

"Foiled Plot" -- political opportunism & smokescreen from real issues

Here's something I don't understand -- if Michael Chertoff is so concerned about national security, why is he giving the ingredients of bombs out on the news broadcasts??

Terror Plot: How Long Before It Turns Into BS Like Every Other Example?
Prison Planet | August 10 2006
Every single major terror alert issued by either the US, Canadian or UK governments has proven to be either a manufactured facade, an entrapment sting or an outright hoax. Recently, a supposed plan to hijack planes and fly them into London landmarks was exposed as a concoction of UK government lobbyists and news chiefs. The July 2005 London bombings were a British intelligence operation. The alleged ringleader, Mohammed Siddique Khan, was working for MI5.
Here is a compendium list of other reports where the role of governments and security agencies in manufacturing artificial terror plots is exposed - within these stories are links to even more.
Seven Morons In A Warehouse
Sears Tower: US Government Creates Another Al-Qaeda Cell
Cooked Canary Wharf Terror Plot Recycled
Canadian 'Terror Plot' Begins To Unravel
Hyped Terror Raid Proves To Be Paper Tiger
Toledo Terrorists and Government Entrapment
Twenty-Three Intel Experts Say LA Terror Plot a Sham
Bush Plays Terror Card With Bogus LA Attack Plot
NYC Subway "Plot": Just Another Fake Terror Alert
ALSO SEE: FAKE TERROR ALERTS ARCHIVE


TIME TO QUOTE CYNTHIA McKINNEY:

Ladies and gentlemen, there comes a time when people of conscience are compelled to dissent.
Bobby Kennedy said, "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."
We love our country, and that is why we dissent: because we care.
We care about the dignity of all the world's people.
We care about minimum wage workers; we care about no wage workers; we care about the homeless--too many of whom are veterans; we want a healthy future for all our children; we want our seniors to live in dignity. Our country is too rich to tolerate such poverty in our midst.
We have more to give to our people and the world than DynCorp, Halliburton, and the Carlyle Group.
We care about the air and the earth and the water. And so we reject George Bush's science lessons that distort the facts and justify policies that support drilling for oil in Alaska; exacerbate global warming; and allow more human consumption of known toxins and pollutants.
We care about the projection of US power around the world. Either we can be a force for good in the world; or we can rely on force and upset the world. Sadly, this Administration has chosen the latter.
At a time when this country has failed to train enough certified teachers to educate our children, George Bush is spending billions, nearly one trillion, dollars for war. And in a point of personal privilege right now I echo what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal; we are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls 'enemy.'" One year to the day before Dr. King was murdered, he declared that the greatest purveyor of violence in the world was his own country...
And so, before we engage in yet more war, I declare tonight that we stand with the families of our hurt soldiers and the hundreds of thousands of innocent hurt and dead Iraqis. We stand with the homeless Vietnam and Gulf War veterans. We stand with the Agent Orange victims and the 160,000 sick Gulf War veterans. We stand with the 37,000 green card soldiers, not even citizens, but willing to trade their lives for a chance to live and work in America because our foreign policy has failed to uplift their hopes and aspirations in their own countries.
Dr. King told us that in order to stop the madness we would have to match actions with words. Mario Savio before that told us that we have to put our very bodies against the wheels and the gears and the levers of the machine and we have to say to those who own it, that they must stop it, or we will stop it.

TIME FOR DEMOCRATS TO QUOTE Nixon?
"Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past."

From High Wycombe to Nazareth
Bush and Blair and their advisers know that the plan is far more important than the rage, the "red" alert levels at airports, or even planes crashing into buildings and plunging out of the sky.
And to protect that plan -- to preserve the Middle East as a giant oil pump, cheaply feeding our industries and our privileged lifestyles -- those who care about the suffering, the deaths and the wars must be silenced. Their voices must not be heard, their loyalty must be questioned, their reason must be put in doubt.


BUSH seeks political gains from foiled plot
CRAWFORD, TX -- President George W. Bush seized on a foiled London airline bomb plot to hammer unnamed critics he accused of having all but forgotten the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Weighed down by the unpopular war in Iraq, Bush and his aides have tried to shift the national political debate from that conflict to the broader and more popular global war on terrorism ahead of November 7 congressional elections.
"It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America," he said. "We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people. But obviously we still aren't completely safe." [Booga-booga!]
His remarks came a day after the White House orchestrated an exceptionally aggressive campaign to tar opposition Democrats as weak on terrorism, knowing what Democrats didn't: News of the plot could soon break. White House spokesman Tony Snow claimed the public relations offensive "was not done in anticipation. It was not said with the knowledge that this was coming." Snow said Bush first learned in detail about the plot on Friday, and received two detailed briefings on it on Saturday and Sunday, as well as had two conversations about it with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But Bush's Republicans hoped the raid would yield political gains.


BLAIR knew about "terror plot" for months
[Just waiting for an opportune time to "spring it" on the public of US & UK when they began to protest the policy towards Israeli/Lebanon conflict?]
Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot. He has known about it in general terms for months, and has spoken to President George Bush about it on a number of occasions.
No 10 was reluctant to go into details of exactly how much Mr Blair has known about the scale of the plot in the past few months. Some of the near desperate tone in Mr Blair's speeches, especially in Los Angeles, suggest he was exercised by the levels of alienation of Muslim opinion in the Middle East and Britain. British foreign policy was not perceived to be even-handed or just, he conceded, even if he offered no criticism of the invasion of Iraq or the scale of Israeli bombings in Lebanon. He seemed ... acutely aware that there had to be a new push towards solving the Palestinian problem once the Lebanese crisis was settled.
Perhaps that's why they did when he was out of the country?

NEW POLLS: Turning Point-- NO MORE WAR
Republicans determined to win in November are up against a troublesome trend — growing opposition to President Bush. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found the president's approval rating has dropped to 33 percent, matching his low in May. His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president's decline around the nation
Pollster John Zogby: This election is all about the war. This has been all about the war for years. Democrats have suspected this for a while, and Lamont’s victory this week reinforces those suspicions. Democrats have mostly failed so far to define themselves in this midterm election, but the Lamont victory may be a turning point for them. The voice of Democrats nationwide is loud and clear. This was a small state election, but the ramifications could impact races across the country this fall. One thing is clear – the Lamont win was an important development on the road to the midterm elections this November.


Bush Admin Accused of Political Opportunism in Lieberman Comments
The disclosure of the alleged plot is raising questions over the nature of the Bush administration's reaction to the primary loss of Senator Joseph Lieberman. (What Cheney, Snow and Bush said on Tuesday about Lamont's election was said with the foreknowledge that the alleged British terrorist cell was going to be arrested at some point in the near future.)
Just one day before the alleged plot was announced, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Lieberman's defeat signaled Democrats are "[raising] a white flag in the war on terror."
But a senior White House official said that the British government had not launched its raid until well after Cheney held a highly unusual conference call with reporters to attack the Democrats as weak against terrorism. Vice President Dick Cheney said Democrats believe "that somehow we can retreat behind our oceans and not be actively engaged in this conflict and be safe here at home, which clearly we know we won't be."
Critics say the White House's comments amount to political opportunism because officials were briefed on the alleged plot last week and knew it would soon be disclosed.
In an interview with Agence France Press, a Republican congressional aide addressed the alleged plot and said he’d "rather be talking about this than all of the other things that Congress hasn't done well."
"Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big," said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won't "look as appealing" under the circumstances.


Britain Names Suspects in Alleged Airline Bomb Plot;
British Muslims Skeptical, Fear Backlash
Britain has named 19 of the 24 people arrested yesterday on suspicion of plotting to blow up passenger jets flying to the United States and has frozen their assets. We go to Britain to look at why many British Muslims are skeptical of the plot and fear a backlash on their communities.
Milan Rai, co-founder of the groups Justice Not Vengeance and Voices in the Wilderness.

"Islamofascism" is a kind of handy term for demonizing one particular strand of the militant or violent forms of Islamic fundamentalism. And what the Bush administration has always been trying do is to draw on the moral legitimacy of the Second World War and trying to refer to the Axis powers and trying to raise what they are doing to the level of the fight against fascism and Nazism in the Second World War. And it's nothing of the kind.

Police to broaden phone tapping inquiry

Anti-terrorist police are investigating whether dozens of politicians, celebrities and members of the Royal family have had their mobile phone messages illegally intercepted. Detectives have enlisted the help of telephone companies as they pore over lists of numbers of prominent figures that could have been illegally tapped into.

Report: US To Deliver Israel New Cluster Munitions
The New York Times is reporting the Bush administration is set to approve an Israeli request to speed delivery of missiles armed with cluster munitions. State Department officials are reportedly trying to delay the approval amid concerns of a diplomatic fallout over likely civilian casualties. The M-26 rockets carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that explode over a wide area. Israel says it needs them to strike Hezbollah missile launchers. Cluster sales were momentarily suspended during the Reagan administration following disclosures Israel used them against civilian targets during its first invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Last month, Human Rights Watch said Israel is shelling civilian areas with US-made cluster bombs in violation of international law. According to the group, a cluster bombing of the village of Bilda killed one civilian and wounded twelve others, including seven children. US officials say Israel will likely get the rockets but will be told: to 'be careful.'


Iran Bars Advocacy Group of Nobel-Prize Winning Lawyer
In Iran, the government has announced a ban on the legal rights group headed by Nobel Peace Prize winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi. The Interior Ministry says the Centre for Defence of Human Rights is illegal because it did not apply for a proper permit. Tehran says it will now prosecute any of the group's activities. Ebadi's group has been a leading advocate for hundreds of persecuted dissidents, journalists and academics. Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division, said: "If [Shirin] Ebadi is threatened for defending human rights, then no one who works for human rights can feel safe from government prosecution."

Secrecy Ruling in AIPAC Case Could Lead to Journalist Prosecutions
A federal judge has issued a ruling civil liberties advocates say will hold major implication for freedom of speech. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled private citizens can be prosecuted if the government decides they've received or disclosed information harmful to national security. The ruling comes in the case against two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. They've been charged with passing on classified information to the Israeli government. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III rejected defense efforts to dismiss the case on the grounds their indictment infringes on their constitutional right to free speech. The two lobbyists are the first nongovernment civilians charged under the nearly 80-year old Espionage Act. If upheld, the ruling could affect reporters who've exposed scandals in national security cases, including prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.
But that wasn't National Security, it was National Shame.

Florida Police Chief Sorry For Laughing At FTAA Shooting Victim
In Florida, a police chief has apologized after he was caught on tape laughing about a demonstrator who had been shot in the head. The shooting occurred during the Miami protests against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas in November of 2003. The demonstrator, Elizabeth Ritter, was hit by police rubber bullets and struck again in the forehead as she lay on the ground. On a newly-released police training video taped the following day, Broward County Major John Brooks is seen telling cheering colleagues: "I was so pumped up about how good you guys were." Another officer is seen imitating the moment Elizabeth Ritter was shot. The officer says: “I don't know who got her but it went right through the sign and hit her smack dab in the middle of her head.” There are six pending lawsuits against the Miami police department for its conduct during the FTAA protests.

Critics: APA Anti-Torture Measure Falls Short
The American Psychological Association has passed a measure condemning the involvement of psychologists in torture. But some members say it doesn't go far enough. The measure affirms the APA's existing policy allowing psychologists to take part in military interrogations. Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, said: "There is no way for the APA to be involved in those interrogations without becoming complicit in torture." Both the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have already passed resolutions against physician involvement in prisoner interrogation.

Study: No Correlation Between Immigration Increase and Unemployment
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there is no evidence large increases in immigration have hurt job prospects for American workers. The group compared state by state immigration numbers with unemployment levels. The researchers could find no clear correlation between the two.
But there is evidence that NAFTA hurt workers in Mexico, causing the influx to the US.

Thousands Expected for DC Rally Against Lebanon War
Thousands of people are expected to converge in Washington, DC Saturday for a demonstration against US support for Israel's attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Organizers are calling the protest the largest mobilization of the Arab-American, Muslim, and U.S. peace movement in more than four years.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator Demands South Lebanon Aid Access
In an effort to break the diplomatic impasse, Russia submitted its own proposal Thursday calling for a three-day humanitarian truce. Israel rejected the proposal. Meanwhile, the United Nations' top humanitarian official is demanding immediate access for aid agencies in Southern Lebanon.
Lebanon continues to come under daily bombardment. In the suburbs of Beirut, at least eleven Lebanese civilians were killed and a dozen wounded in airstrikes earlier today. On Thursday, Israeli helicopters fired into central Beirut in an apparent attempt to knock out an antenna for Lebanese state television.
Punishment for their "biased" reporting, no doubt.

UK "terror" hoax to protect Tony Blair?

TERRORISM: BUSH SAYS NATION IS AT WAR WITH 'ISLAMIC FASCISTS'

Why Do They Want To Kill Us?

Today, George W. Bush said, "Islamo-facists are trying to use any means to kill us because they hate the freedom we all love."

Understanding Tony Blair's Desperation
In this speech, Tony Blair has finally said what he and Bush have been hiding for ages, that this war is neither about terrorism nor about regime change, but It is a war to impose western values on the Muslim world and all those Muslims who resist this notion are extremists, terrorists, radicals and must be confronted.
Those who have a stake in sustaining de facto colonization would definitely see anything fanatic that may remotely threaten their dominance and unbridled exploitation.
Blair said: "This movement resembles in many ways early revolutionary Communism. It doesn't always need structures and command centers or even explicit communication. It knows what it thinks."
This is not so. The reason for the burgeoning movements in the East and the West is that the centuries old injustices, exploitations, atrocities and genocides are no more hidden from the public.
Blair made repeated references to September 11, 2001, saying people 'seem to forget entirely that September 11 predated [both the War on Afghanistan and Iraq].'

Please read this entire article!
Terror Plot Mirrors Bojinka: Run By US Government Agent

Prison Planet | August 10 2006

Associated Press reports that the dastardly new terror plot is a re-hash of Operation Bojinka - a 1995 plot to blow up 10 Western airliners simultaneously. What they don't report is that its ringleader - Ramzi Youssef - was protected by the US government in 1992. In September of 1992 Youssef entered the US with Ahmad Ajaj. Ajaj's luggage contained documents on how to make bombs and was stuffed with fake passports and ID's. Ajaj was arrested - amazingly Youssef was released. Youssef later masterminded the WTC '93 bombing after FBI agents provided the terrorists with real explosives under cover of a supposed sting operation.
Ramzi Youssef is a US government agent and his Bojinka plot - supposedly foiled by his intelligence agency bosses - is now being used as the latest monster under the bed to scare US and UK citizens into surrendering what's left of their rights. Isn't it amazing that US government officials claimed ignorance of any Bojinka style plans before 9/11 and yet now they re-hash one for a faux terror alert. Government enforcers and frightened slaves are all hot and bothered about the latest supposed terror plot targeting UK flights inbound to the US.
Ridiculous restrictions have been slapped on travelers, with mother's having to taste baby milk before they board planes and all hand luggage, including liquid drinks, being banned.
The new alert arrives with the 9/11 truth movement on the cusp of a wave of media exposure.
Evidence of government sponsored terror and how they use the fear of terror to control society is bursting out at the seams as editorials nationwide in the US are uniform in attempting to debunk research that questions the official version of 9/11.
Statistical analysis has proven that every time Blair and Bush sag in approval ratings, a fresh terror alert gives them a bounce back up the charts. Every single major terror alert issued by either the US, Canadian or UK governments has proven to be either a manufactured facade, an entrapment sting or an outright hoax. Recently, a supposed plan to hijack planes and fly them into London landmarks was exposed as a concoction of UK government lobbyists and news chiefs. The July 2005 London bombings were a British intelligence operation. The alleged ringleader, Mohammed Siddique Khan, was working for MI5.

'Airlines terror plot' disrupted


All airports have been put under the restrictions
A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.
It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft. Police are searching premises after 21 people were arrested. Home Secretary John Reid said they believed the "main players" were accounted for. High security is causing delays at all UK airports. The threat level to the UK has been raised by MI5 to critical after the arrests in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham. Critical threat level - the highest - means "an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK". Three US airlines are believed to have been targeted. The US Department of Homeland Security increased the threat level applied to US-bound commercial flights originating in the UK to "red" - the first time it has done this for flights coming in from another country.


WHY IS THIS HAPPENING IN THE UK RIGHT NOW?????
More than 100 MPs sign petition attacking PM
The extent of the Labour backbench unrest over Tony Blair's handling of the Middle East crisis is laid bare for the first time today in a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire.
More than 110 Labour MPs, including Paul Clark, the parliamentary private secretary to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, have signed the petition. That would be enough to wipe out Mr Blair's Commons majority.
Mr Blair will not face the immediate threat of a vote because the Commons has risen for the summer recess, (SEE NEXT ARTICLE) it shows that he has lost the support of almost a third of the Parliamentary Labour Party on the issue.
Cabinet ministers are ordered not to sign petitions to avoid splits in the Government. "We contacted every cabinet minister and none of them said they supported Mr Blair's position, which is pretty surprising,"said Brendan Cox, director of Crisis Action. He said the petition, available at www.ceasefiretoday.org, had been signed by more than 35,000.

MPs mount pressure for Parliament to be recalled to tackle Mid-East crisis
Labour MPs, including Jon Trickett MP (Hemsworth) and Shahid Malik (Dewsbury), are demanding the move as international leaders try to broker a peace deal. There has been criticism over the Tony Blair's handling of the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. Some senior ministers as well as back-benchers have voiced concern that the Prime Minister did not call for an immediate ceasefire. MPs now want a chance to discuss Britain's response with as many as 100 signing a letter to the Commons leader Jack Straw requesting the recall.

New Statesman - TONY BLAIR: Blood on his hands
I am told that the Israelis informed George W Bush in advance of their plans to "destroy" Hezbollah by bombing villages in southern Lebanon. The Americans duly informed the British. So Blair knew. This exposes as a fraud the debate of the past week about calling for a ceasefire. Indeed, one of the reasons why negotiations failed in Rome was British obduracy. This has been a case not of turning a blind eye and failing to halt the onslaught, but of providing active support. Blair, like Bush, had no intention of urging the Israelis to slow down their bombardment, believing somehow that this struggle was winnable.

BRITISH MP Resigns Defense Post Over Lebanon War
A Member of Parliament has resigned his position as defense advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cabinet in protest of his government’s policy in the Middle East. Jim Sheridan says he's stepping down amid concerns British airports have hosted US planes shipping arms to Israel and his government's refusal to push for a ceasefire. Sheridan's resignation comes as more than 130 British lawmakers have issued a demand to recall parliament to discuss the war on Lebanon.
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Seven UK Protesters Search U.S. Plane for Israel-Bound Weapons
In Britain, seven anti-war protesters were arrested Monday after trying to get on a plane at a British airport to search for US weapons being transported to Israel. Three people boarded a military plane. Four others were arrested at the airport. The activists were part of the anti-nuclear group Trident Ploughshares. No weapons were found by the group.

NEW AIRLINE RESTRICTIONS

Liquids are banned from carry-on luggage and cannot be taken through security checkpoints:
* Drinks -- even ones purchased at the airport
* Toothpaste
* Perfume
* Shampoo
* Hair gel
* Suntan lotion and similar items

Allowances:
Baby formula and medications are permissible but must be presented for inspection at security checkpoints.

Other traveling protocol:
* All shoes must be removed and placed on an X-ray belt for screening.
* Passengers are also asked to arrive at least two hours early to allow for additional screening.
* Passengers traveling to the UK should contact their airline for information about any extra security measures or precautions that might be required. Laptop computers, mobile phones and iPods were among items banned on British flights.

Counterintelligence officials resign -- contracts under Federal investigation

Counterintelligence Officials Resign
David A. Burtt II, director of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, the Defense Department's newest intelligence agency whose contracts based on congressional earmarks are under investigation by the Pentagon and federal prosecutors, told his staff yesterday that he and his deputy director will resign at the end of the month. Burtt, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defense for counterintelligence at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, developed the concept for CIFA.
Last March, as a result of the continuing federal investigations arising out of charges against former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, prosecutors said they were reviewing CIFA contracts that went to MZM Inc., a company run by Mitchell J. Wade, who had pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to bribe Cunningham. Cunningham, now serving an eight-year prison term, in January 2004 sought about $16.5 million to be added to the defense authorization bill for a CIFA "collaboration center." A month later, he wrote Burtt a thank-you note about the center, adding, according to prosecutors' documents: "I wish to endorse and support MZM, Inc.'s work."
One of the consultants to Burtt, when he was formulating CIFA in 2002, was retired Lt. Gen. James C. King, then an MZM senior vice president who had recently retired as director of the Pentagon-based National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
In late 2002, Cunningham, who received campaign contributions from Wade and other MZM officials, made contracts for Wade's company one of "his top priorities," according to prosecutors' documents. One result, according to prosecutors' documents, was $6 million spent for a data storage system, supposedly for CIFA, that included almost $5.4 million in profit for MZM and a subcontractor.
Following disclosures in Cunningham's case, Undersecretary of Defense Stephen A. Cambone last March ordered an internal study of how funding earmarked in defense bills led to CIFA contracts for MZM.

ABC News: Democrats Abandon Lieberman, Back Lamont
Lieberman loss offers signs of angry US electorate
Leading Democrats Back Lamont, Admin. wants to help Lieberman
Democrats are lining up behind anti-war challenger Ned Lamont following his primary win over Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. On Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and Senator John Kerry were among leading Democrats calling on party members to back Lamont. Lieberman has vowed to run as an independent. Democratic national chair Howard Dean called Lieberman’s decision: 'disrespectful of Democrats and disrespectful of the Democratic Party.'
Although support for Lieberman is dwindling, he may have at least one key political backer: the White House. According to ABC News, a source from Lieberman's campaign said President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove had delivered a message of support from the Oval Office. Rove reportedly said: "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do." Vice President Dick Cheney called Lieberman's loss "an unfortunate development" and said it would possibly encourage "Al Qaeda types." Lieberman also announced Wednesday he has fired his campaign staff.
"Al Qaeda" is now a codeword for anyone opposing the administration's policies.


Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2006 Congressional Candidates

CHENEY: Lieberman Loss ˜Disturbing" Because al Qaeda Is 'Betting They Can Break The Will of The American People'
Has Rove been guiding the Lieberman campaign all along?
Lieberman's statements from the beginning have made it clear that, in his mind, any dissent from Bush's war policy constitutes a) "weakness on national defense," b) is a clear sign that Democrats "lack national security" credibility, and c) means that Dems "have yielded to the extremists" (despite the fact that new polls reveal those "extremists" agree with 60% of all Americans about the war). Democrats are "extremist "and "weak on national security?" That's straight out of the Rove playbook.



Center for war-related brain injuries faces budget cut
Congress appears ready to slash funding for the research and treatment of brain injuries caused by bomb blasts, an injury that military scientists describe as a signature wound of the Iraq war.
"I find it basically unpardonable that Congress is not going to provide funds to take care of our soldiers and sailors who put their lives on the line for their country," says Martin Foil, a member of the center's board of directors. "It blows my imagination."

Lynch fights Congress to preserve NH control of National Guard
Gov. John Lynch said yesterday he joined governors from around the country in protesting a move in Congress that eases the access Presidents have to National Guard divisions. Lynch said language allowing the President to federalize National Guard units without a governor's consent is in the U.S. House version of the defense appropriations bill.

Poll: 60% Oppose Iraq War
Opposition to the Iraq war has reached its highest level yet. According to a new CNN/ Opinion Research poll, sixty percent of Americans oppose the US war in Iraq. A majority said they would support the withdrawal of at least some U.S. troops by the end of the year.

Iraqi PM criticises, apologises for American tactics
US attempts to control spiralling sectarian violence in Baghdad ran into immediate problems yesterday, as Iraq's Prime Minister sharply criticised American tactics and made a televised apology to the Iraqi people. Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki responded angrily to a US-led attack in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, the stronghold of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The raid left three people dead, including one child, and sparked fears of a violent response from the cleric's powerful Mehdi army militia.

Mike Wallace Interviews Iran's President
And finds him to be quite "rational."
In the interview, Ahmadinejad said of the Bush administration, "see how they talk down to my nation."
Of Ahmadinejad, Wallace said, "He's an impressive fellow, this guy. He really is. He's obviously smart as hell."Wallace said he was surprised to find that the Iranian president was still a college professor who taught a graduate-level course. "You'll find him an interesting man," he said. "I expected more of a firebrand. I don't think he has the slightest doubt about how he feels ... about the American administration and the Zionist state. He comes across as more rational than I had expected."

ABA Rebukes Bush Over Signing Statements
The American Bar Association's House of Delegates voted this week to call on the President to stop issuing signing statements, through which he claims a right to ignore or not enforce sections of bills that he signs into law. The ABA also voted to encourage Congress to pass legislation that would help put a stop to the practice. The vote comes on the heels of an ABA report last month warning that President Bush is undermining the Constitution by claiming he has the authority to ignore laws passed by Congress. President Bush has issued some 800 signing statements – more than all previous administrations combined.

Making war crimes legal
The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.
Everything Hitler did was legal under German law.

Incumbents Beware: Peace Voters Mean Business
In a post-Lieberman world, waffling on the war is no longer on the menu.

Wal Mart Agrees to Unions in China
Wal-Mart has backed down on a fight against unionization at its stores in China. The retail giant announced this week it would work with government officials to establish labor unions at all of its stores in China. The announcement comes less than two weeks after employees at one of Wal-Mart's Chinese stores established the first ever successful union in the company's history. Four other stores have followed since. Labor experts say Wal Mart agreed to allow unionization because Chinese unions are entirely government-controlled.

Starbucks Fires NYC Union Organizer
Starbucks has fired the co-founder of a union representing employees at six of its Manhattan stores. Daniel Gross, an organizer for the Starbucks Workers Union, is challenging his dismissal. Starbucks says he was fired for making a threatening remark to a co-worker. But Gross says he was only speaking up for a fellow employee who was set to be fired.
Gross told the Associated Press: "By terminating me on Saturday, Starbucks has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's an antiworker, anti union company." Starbucks had no comment on Gross' case but said it does not discourage union activity.

Did BP Purposefully Allow its Alaska Pipeline to Corrode in Order to Shut it Down and Boost Oil Prices?
North America's largest oil field remains shut down for a fourth day and it could remain shut down for several months. The oil company BP closed the oil field on Sunday after discovering what it described as "unexpectedly severe corrosion" of the oil pipeline. Questions are now being raised about whether BP purposely allowed the pipeline to become corroded.

Israel's misguided strategies
Israel seems to have two strategies at play in addition to reducing Hezbollah's ability to rain down rockets upon terrified civilians. The first is that if Lebanon can be made to feel enough pain, then it will finally rein in Hezbollah of its own accord. The choice given Lebanon is: Either you disarm Hezbollah, as the United Nations has demanded, or we will make life impossible for you.
The fault in this approach is that the Lebanese military hasn't the ability to disarm Hezbollah, and will be even less able to do so if Israel continues to attack it. More important, Israel's attacks are convincing Lebanese of all confessions that Israel is a bigger enemy and threat than Hezbollah.

Vicious fighting in Lebanon despite Israeli assault 'delay'
Israeli tanks and soldiers were caught in vicious, close fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas across southern Lebanon today, even as the Israeli Government said it was delaying a major offensive that would reach up to 20 miles inside the country. But this morning, as Israeli ministers said the operation was on hold until the weekend, pending progress in the international diplomatic effort to end the conflict, Israeli tanks were being crippled within sight of the border town of Metulla.

Israel says BBC not reporting war fairly
The Foreign Ministry is under pressure from Israeli citizens to resume its boycott of the BBC and to withdraw credentials from its reporters due to "one-sided" reports on the war in Lebanon, Israeli diplomatic officials said Wednesday.
This must be the result of them having reporters in Lebanon as well as those "embedded" with the IDF.

Lebanon Facing its Worst Environmental Disaster Ever: Oil Spill From Israeli Strike Still Untreated After One Month
Scientists are scrambling to control what is being described as the worst environmental disaster ever to hit Lebanon. An Israeli attack on a power station last month has leaked 15,000 tons of oil into the Mediterranean. The spill has gone untreated for the past four weeks.

Israeli Ambassador Grilled on Targeting of Civilians, Use of Cluster Bombs and Other War Crimes in Lebanon
Israel's ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, was questioned last Sunday in Washington DC as part of a press stakeout. Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy was there to ask the tough questions. He grilled Ayalon on Israel's targeting of civilians and use of cluster bombs in Lebanon, Israel's nuclear arsenal and its lack of adherence to United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Fox Military Analyst on Syria: ‘We Can Talk To Them When We Line Them Up and Kill Them’

FOX news hits a new low...
Fox News' "Dayside" audience laughs at the idea of Lebanese civilians dying, and one of them suggests Arabs have made up the idea of Israel bombing Lebanon.

Atrocities in Gaza, Lebanon Motivated By Talmudic Mentality
'One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.' (New York Daily News, Feb. 28, 1994, p.6)
When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s suggested on 22 June that Jewish lives were worth more than Palestinian lives, he was actually making an ideological statement of immense significance and symbolism. The remarks encapsulate the entire Zionist discourse toward non-Jews in general and Palestinians, Lebanese and other Arabs and Muslims in particular.
In fact, one can safely argue that Israel's brazenly criminal behaviors towards the Palestinian and Lebanese people have consistently been a practical embodiment of the Talmudic perception of non-Jews.
Many Orthodox rabbis consider the international conventions incriminating the deliberate killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian homes and property , such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, as 'Christian morals' not binding on Jews.
On 12 July, the right-wing Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, had this caption on its internet site: "Yesha Rabbis call for extermination of the enemy."
The report quoted the rabbinic council of Jewish settlements in the West Bank as calling on the Israeli army ''to ignore Christian morals and exterminate the enemy in the north and south." Obviously, the term "Christian morals" here refers to laws of war which prohibit the killing of innocent civilians


Israeli settlers in the West Bank shoot and kill Palestinian vegetable merchant and injure his son
As all Israeli settlements in the West Bank exist in direct contravention to international law, the crime is even more egregious.

Fuel Shortage Worsens Lebanese Humanitarian Crisis
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in south Lebanon is growing. The UN is warning many villages have been cut off from aid deliveries and are completely without food and water. The British charity Oxfam says Israel’s hold over south Lebanon has created a “logistical nightmare” in reaching the victims. Hospitals are feeling the effects of Israel’s bombing of power stations and fuel supplies. The Lebanese government is warning a fuel shortage could shut down several hospitals within days.

MP Resigns Defense Post Over Lebanon War
A Member of Parliament has resigned his position as defense advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cabinet in protest of his government’s policy in the Middle East. Jim Sheridan says he's stepping down amid concerns British airports have hosted US planes shipping arms to Israel and his government's refusal to push for a ceasefire. Sheridan's resignation comes as more than 130 British lawmakers have issued a demand to recall parliament to discuss the war on Lebanon.

Ex-Chiefs at Comverse Tied to Options Fraud
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn today charged three former top executives of Comverse Technology with criminal fraud, alleging that they manipulated the dates on stock-option grants to reap millions of dollars in additional compensation for themselves and other employees. The government alleged that Jacob Alexander, the co-founder and former chief executive of the Long Island-based communications software company, David Kreinberg, its former chief financial officer, and its former in-house lawyer and longtime corporate secretary William F. Sorin, conspired to alter the option dates. This is the same Comverse linked to Israeli spy operations inside the US on 9-11.

Options Charges
The Justice Department says Alexander wired $60 million from his own brokerage account to Israel "in an attempt to conceal the proceeds from the U.S. authorities."

Bombs In Oliver Stone World Trade Center Movie?
Though Oliver Stone publicly stated his desire to avoid the many questions surrounding the 9/11 attack and focus solely on the rescue efforts, a new clip from his upcoming movie World Trade Center seems to portray explosions and bombs within the twin towers.
Advance Review of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center"After calls for the evacuation of the towers, Port Authority Chief McCloughlin rushes to organize a team of officers to assist people who are trying to get out of the building. As the team of volunteers moves through Tower 2, one can hear the very audible sound of explosives going off all around them...more explosions, coupled with hissing sounds and then a scene from Dante's Hell — flaming boulders fall and molten steel pours on the men to their astonished horror. Once again, the rookie screams in puzzlement and frustration as to what could cause such a thing to happen... many hours later they are rocked once again as Building 7 comes crashing down near them. Here Stone shows a TV news clip, you know that frontal shot of the building that looks like an unmistakable demolition. The puzzled faces on the port Authority officers at headquarters as they view this scene on the television conveys just how incredulous the thought this event was.

8/09/2006

Sore Loser

Lieberman Defiant In Defeat
With the nation watching, Connecticut Democrats thronged to the polls in unexpectedly high numbers Tuesday to reject Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and endorse his anti-war challenger, Ned Lamont. Unofficial results showed Lamont winning 52 percent of the vote, defeating a three-term incumbent who had come to be defined by his defense of the war in Iraq despite an advertising blitz begging voters to judge him on a progressive labor and environmental record.
Lamont aides complained that the Lieberman team was trying to steal its workers by offering $150 for the day; Mr. Lamont was paying $85.

Ralph Nader on Lamont's Antiwar Win in Connecticut Primary
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph Nader, can you talk about Senator Lieberman saying, while he agreed with the Bush administration over the Iraq war, that he has taken a progressive stance on many other issues?

RALPH NADER: Senator Lieberman would have lost even bigger last night if Lamont's people actually expanded their criticism of Senator Lieberman as big business's favorite Democratic senator, not just George Bush's favorite Democratic senator.
The most aggressive, cruel and insensitive business lobby and the most powerful in Washington is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and they have enthusiastically endorsed Senator Joseph Lieberman, one of only two Democratic senators they've endorsed out of 46 Democratic senators. And they have given him the highest cumulative score in their ranking of any Democratic senator in the Northeast, and for good reason.
He has supported the U.S. Chamber of Commerce positions, not only on capital gains tax cuts, he supported NAFTA and WTO and CAFTA, which have depleted jobs here, high-paying jobs here in Connecticut. He has supported the drive to weaken the rights of injured workers and consumers and defrauded investors from having their full day in court against the perpetrators of their misery. He has supported the Exxon-Cheney energy bill, that notorious energy bill that was signed into law last year that subsidized big oil’s profiteering, weakened environmental standards in a variety of ways and made sure that there were no further advances in fuel efficiency for motor vehicles.
And then, finally, on the labor issue, he's not been outspoken on the minimum wage like Senator Kennedy. He has not pushed for labor law reform to give workers a chance to organize. He has not gone after OSHA because of its weak enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health laws. 58,000 American workers die every year, according to OSHA, from worker-related diseases and trauma. So, in many, many ways, including never challenging the military budget, never really in 18 years advancing universal health insurance.

NED LAMONT: It's time we fix George Bush's failed foreign policy. President Kennedy said it so well. As President Kennedy has said, “We never negotiate from fear, but we should never be afraid to negotiate.” As your senator, I’m going to make sure we have the strongest army on the face of this earth, but I also know that America's strongest when we work in concert with our allies, when we stay true to our values and we deal with the rest of the world with respect! With respect!

Time Warner's NY1 Bars New York Senate Candidate From TV Debate
Time Warner news station NY1 has refused to set up a debate between Senator Hillary Clinton and Democratic challenger Jonathan Tasini because Tasini hasn't spent enough money on the race. The channel requires that candidates poll at least 5% and have spent or raised $500,000. Tasini is polling at 13% but his campaign has only raised $150,000.
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DeLay to withdraw from congressional race
Dogged by scandal, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intends to withdraw as a candidate for Congress, a Republican strategist said today, a step that would allow the party to field a write-in candidate in hopes of holding his seat.












McKinney trails in primary runoff
Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia's first black congresswoman, known for her conspiracy theories that the Bush Administration had advance knowledge about the Sept. 11 attacks and the scuffle she had earlier this year with a U.S. Capitol police officer, lost a runoff election Tuesday for her district's Democratic nomination. Attorney Hank Johnson, a former DeKalb County commissioner, won the nomination with 59 percent of the vote, surpassing McKinney by more than 11,000 votes.







Nagasaki Marks 61st Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing
In Japan, the city of Nagasaki is marking the 61st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing. Over 200,000 people died in the 1945 atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

SAKUE SHIMOHIRA: [translated] Suddenly I felt a blinding flash. It was too enormous and intense to describe. Just a flash. Next, the blast blew us off. When I regained consciousness, I found my younger sister in the corner of the shelter and my nephew under the tatami mat. Auntie Matsuda, blackened all over her body, with her baby, also seared, in arms, arrived and collapsed. She had a big open wound on her throat. We gave her water. When she was drinking it, water was also streaming out of her open wound. She said, "It tasted so good. Thank you," and died. My brother, too, vomiting yellow matter and crying, "I don't want to die." And he died. Both my mother and my elder sister were found dead and seared around our house.

Forsomeevangelicals,
Mideast war stirs hope
The Rapture Index -- a popular evangelical Christian Web posting that calculates a global rise in natural disasters, war and inflation -- bills itself as "a Dow Jones industrial average of end-time activity.'' The Rapture Index this week: 158. The spike reflects many U.S. evangelicals' view that growing conflict in the Middle East signals the start of a global struggle leading to Christ's return. This is what happens when human beings' capacity for logic gets knocked out by an overwhelming desire to believe fairy tales.



Refugee camp shelled by Israel
Israeli gunboats have shelled Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, killing at least one person and wounding three others, Lebanese and Palestinian officials said. The shelling was the first time Israel attacked the camp since the fighting between the Jewish state and Hizbollah began more than four weeks ago. Israeli gunboats fired two shells. One landed in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, located on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, and the other slammed into the city's amusement park, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Israeli military said the attack on the refugee camp was an airstrike, not from the sea, and the target was the house of a Hizbollah guerrilla.
The officials said the casualties in Ein el-Hilweh were caused when the shell crashed into a location manned by the camp's Fatah militia, headed by a brigadier who used to train guerrillas in the camp. Ein el-Hilweh is the largest of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps and has witnessed years of bombings, assassinations and shootings as rival factions in the camp vie for control. The camp also is believed to be hide-out for many fugitives wanted by Lebanese authorities and is a haven militant groups. [Booga-booga!!!!]
The Lebanese army does not enter the camp but maintains positions at the camp's entrances to keep the guerrillas in check. The camp is home to about 75,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.Some 350,000 Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon that have developed over the years into shanty towns.

MPs mount pressure for Parliament to be recalled to tackle Mid-East crisis

Labour MPs, including Jon Trickett MP (Hemsworth) and Shahid Malik (Dewsbury), are demanding the move as international leaders try to broker a peace deal. There has been criticism over the Tony Blair's handling of the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. Some senior ministers as well as back-benchers have voiced concern that the Prime Minister did not call for an immediate ceasefire. MPs now want a chance to discuss Britain's response with as many as 100 signing a letter to the Commons leader Jack Straw requesting the recall. Mr Trickett said: "We are living in a 24-7 society, yet our Parliament seems so ossified that it goes into recess for 11 weeks."

Israel has shown footage of what it says are Hezbollah prisoners
Devout Muslims are not allowed to have tattoos!!!! Even the BBC puts "confession" in quotes!
Tape shows Hezbollah 'confession'
The Israeli army has released a video apparently showing a Hezbollah fighter admitting to taking part in a raid on Israel and undergoing training in Iran. On the tape, the fighter describes his role in the raid in which two Israeli soldiers were seized on 12 July, triggering the current conflict.The man identifies himself as Hussein Ali Suleiman, 22, and says he flew from Syria to Iran for training in 2003.
The videoed interrogation appears to have been heavily edited.
In the footage, Mr Suleiman appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips, and the tape was edited with some of his answers cut off in mid-sentence, AP reported.
Mossad agents??


Fmr. Israeli Air Force Captain Reports Israeli Pilots Deliberately Missing Targets Over Concerns of Civilian Casualties
Former Israeli Air Force Captain Yonatan Shapira reports at least two Israeli fighter pilots have reportedly deliberately missed bombing targets in Lebanon because they were concerned they were being ordered to bomb civilians.

Presbyterian Church publishes 9/11 conspiracy theory
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s publishing arm has released a book that says President Bush organized New York's Sept. 11 attacks. The decision by the 160-year-old Westminster John Knox Press, the trade and academic publishing imprint of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., to attribute the attacks on the World Trade Center brings into the U.S. religious mainstream a conspiracy theory long held by the world's jihadists.
In 'Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action,' author David Ray Griffin calls the United States the world's 'chief embodiment of demonic power, says he initially scoffed at 9/11 conspiracy theories.
But after investigating he concluded that the Twin Towers were brought down by controlled demolition, military personnel were given stand-down orders not to intercept hijacked flights and the 9/11 Commission, ostensibly created to uncover the truth behind the events of 9/11, 'simply ignored evidence' that the administration was involved in the attacks.
Griffin further asserts that such events such as that of 9/11 are part of a long history of 'false-flag attacks,' attacks orchestrated by governments against their own people to garner popular support for military action.
Griffin is a professor at California's Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, and a codirector of the Center for Process Studies.

Katrina's Vanishing Victims
Another missed media opportunity came when Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act, the Orwellian-named legislation that cut funding for Medicaid and other social services. The headlines focused on the bill's effect on the budget, but not on the poor. Yet as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out, the DRA not only slashed programs for the poor, it contained a provision that directly impacted poor hurricane victims: By requiring U.S. citizens seeking Medicaid to provide a birth certificate or passport or risk losing their health coverage, it risked creating even more health problems among those who'd lost key personal documents during the evacuation.
Only the New York Times & Boston Globe noted these possible ill effects of the DRA—more than two months after Bush signed it into law. The healthcare crisis among low-income families is one of several overlooked issues the media should be covering if they're serious about paying attention to poverty.


Neighbor and eyewitness Hussein Mohammed points to the charred and blood splattered floor and wall where he found the body of the young Iraqi girl who was allegedly raped, then killed along with family members in their home.

U.S. military fears outcome of Iraq rape trial
U.S. military officials fear that religious hurdles in exhuming the body of a teenager could complicate the prosecution of American soldiers accused of raping and murdering the girl - and create a political nightmare for the U.S. mission here. Given the seriousness of the allegations, U.S. officials believe a vigorous prosecution is essential and punishment should be severe if the five U.S. soldiers and one former soldier are convicted. Anything short of that would be seen by Iraqis as a cover up and could shatter remaining support for the U.S. presence here.
But the victim's male relatives have refused to allow her body to be exhumed because of objections from a Muslim cleric. Islamic law frowns on exhumations as desecration of the dead.
"Chief among our concerns is carrying out justice. But when you get town officials or an imam saying that exhuming the body doesn't jive with our cultural sensitivities, that creates a massive stumbling block," a U.S. military official in Baghdad close to the investigation said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media.
[Why is every statement anonymous?]
Without forensic evidence, prosecutors must rely heavily on statements from the suspects. Defense lawyers will doubtless claim those statements were made under duress and seek to keep them from the jury. While some evidence has been collected at the home where the assault allegedly occurred, officials say none of it confirms guilt.
A photograph of the girl's Iraqi identity card, viewed by The Associated Press in Baghdad, showed the girl was 14 at the time of the attack, with her birthdate listed as August 19, 1991.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has complained that Iraqi courts should try cases of abuse by American soldiers -- something the U.S. command strongly resists -- and last week called for a review of an agreement giving foreign troops immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
"Those who are free from being punished misbehave, and they have misbehaved a lot," al-Maliki said.
The U.S. military always has insisted it will punish soldiers who commit crimes against Iraqis. During a visit last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld underscored that position, insisting that "no one" in the U.S. force "is immune," meaning from U.S. though not Iraqi prosecution.
Does that include Rumsfeld himself???

Iraq rape trial hears of poor morale, stress
Frequent deadly attacks by insurgents sapped morale and raised combat stress in a U.S. army unit that included soldiers accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, a private testified at a military hearing Tuesday. Pte. 1st Class Justin Cross recounted the "mentally draining" living conditions of the unit in the third day of the hearing: "You're just walking a death walk," Cross told the hearing.
He said soldiers often drank Iraqi whiskey and took painkillers to relieve the stress of not knowing whether the day would be their last. One such drinking session preceded the rape and murders, the hearing was told by another witness on Monday.
Combat stress is likely to be the foundation of the defence. All are assigned to the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky. Under cross-examination by defence lawyers, Cross said the unit was "full of despair," and he himself felt he would die at a checkpoint before he could go home, adding that while on patrol, soldiers constantly feared for their lives. "I couldn't sleep mainly for fear we would be attacked," Cross said. The loss of two soldiers shot at a checkpoint "pretty much crushed the platoon."
[That is the nature of war, isn't it???]
Former private first class Steven Green was discharged from the army for a "personality disorder" after the incident and was arrested in North Carolina in June on rape and murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty in federal court and is being held without bond.
On Monday, another soldier, Pte. 1st Class Justin Watt, testified that he heard Green say, "I want to kill and hurt a lot of Iraqis." "I feared for my safety at the traffic control point. It's like this, I find out that guys in my squad, guys I trusted with my life, are allegedly responsible for one of the most brutal rapes/murders I've ever seen. And everyone has a weapon and grenades."
Army criminal investigator Benjamin Bierce testified about a sworn statement by Barker in which he confessed that he, Cortez and Green took turns raping Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, 14. Barker also claims in his testimony that Green killed Abeer, her parents and their five-year-old daughter.

VA chief blamed for Data thefts
The Senate's top Democrat says Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson should resign, calling his leadership a threat to national security after the VA lost another computer containing veterans' personal data.
"Enough is enough," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday. "Less than a month after promising to make the VA the 'gold standard' in data security, Secretary Nicholson has again presided over loss of the personal information of thousands more veterans. Unfortunately, this dangerous incompetence has become all too common in the Bush White House, and it has made America less safe."
Reid is the third Senate Democrat, joining Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Kerry of Massachusetts, who has called for Nicholson's ouster following high-profile data thefts at the government's second largest agency.


The US Military descends on Paraguay
by Ben Dangl, THE NATION
Paraguay is the fourth-largest producer of soy in the world. As this industry has expanded, an estimated 90,000 poor families have been forced off their land. Campesinos have organized protests, road blockades and land occupations against displacement and have faced subsequent repression from military and paramilitary forces. According to Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR), an Argentina-based organization that documents violence against farmers, on June 24, 2005, in Tekojoja, Paraguay, hired policemen and soy producers kicked 270 people off their land, burned down fifty-four homes, arrested 130 people and killed two.
The most recent case of this violence is the death of Serapio Villasboa Cabrera, a member of the Paraguayan Campesino Movement, whose body was found full of knife wounds May 8. According to Servicio, Paz y Justicia, an international human rights group that has a chapter in Paraguay, one method used to force farmers off their land is to spray toxic pesticides around communities until sickness forces residents to leave.
GRR said Cabrera was killed by paramilitaries connected to large landowners and soy producers, who are expanding their holdings. The paramilitaries pursue farm leaders who are organizing against the occupation of their land. Investigations demonstrate that the worst cases of repression against farmers have taken place in areas with the highest concentration of US troops. Serpaj reported that in the department of San Pedro, where five US military exercises took place, there have been eighteen farmer deaths from repression, in an area with many farmer organizations. In the department of Concepción there have been eleven deaths and three US military exercises. Near the Triple Border, where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet, there were twelve deaths and three exercises.
"The US military is advising the Paraguayan police and military about how to deal with these farmer groups... They are teaching theory as well as technical skills to Paraguayan police and military. These new forms of combat have been used internally," Orlando Castillo of Serpaj told me over the phone. "The US troops talk with the farmers and get to know their leaders and which groups, organizations, are working there, then establish the plans and actions to control the farmer movement and advise the Paraguayan military and police on how to proceed.... The numbers from our study show what this US presence is doing. US troops form part of a security plan to repress the social movement in Paraguay. A lot of repression has happened in the name of security and against 'terrorism.' "

8/08/2006

Troops drank, golfed before Iraqi killings, rape

Steven Green is alleged to have shot and killed the woman's relatives, raped the victim, then fatally shot her.
Investigator: Troops drank, golfed before Iraqi killings, rape
BAGHDAD -- U.S. soldiers accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi female drank alcohol and hit golf balls before the attack, and one of them grilled chicken wings afterward, an investigator told a U.S. military hearing Monday, citing a soldier's sworn statement.
Criminal investigator Benjamin Bierce told the hearing that he interviewed one of the accused, Spc. James P. Barker, on June 30, and recorded graphic and brutal sexual details of the alleged March 12 assault. Bierce was testifying on the second day of the hearing to determine whether five U.S. soldiers must stand trial in the rape-slaying of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killing of her parents and 5-year-old sister in the town of Mahmoudiya, one of the most violent areas in Iraq.
Barker's sworn and signed statement was submitted in evidence during the hearing. Parts were revealed during Bierce's testimony. Barker is accused along with Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, Pfc. Bryan L. Howard of rape and murder. Another soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, is accused of failing to report the attack but is not alleged to have been a direct participant.
Former Pfc. Steven D. Green was discharged from the Army for a "personality disorder" after the incident and was arrested in North Carolina in June on rape and murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty in federal court and is being held without bond.
At Monday's hearing, Pfc. Justin Watt, testified that Howard told him before the incident that Green, Cortez and Barker had planned to rape someone, and Howard was to be the lookout.
"There's nothing I've read that says what to do if your buddies have raped and murdered a family," Watt said.
According to Barker's sworn statement cited by Bierce, Green not only raped the female, but also shot her and her family members after telling his comrades repeatedly that he wanted to kill some Iraqis.
Bierce testified that on the day of the attack, Barker, Cortez, Spielman and Green had been playing cards and drinking Iraqi whiskey mixed with an energy drink. Afterward, they practiced hitting golf balls, Bierce quoted Barker as saying in his statement.
Bierce said Barker's statement made it clear that Green was very persistent about killing some Iraqis and kept bringing up the idea. At some point they decided to go to the house of the alleged victim, whom they had seen passing by their checkpoint earlier.
According to Bierce, Barker told him that when they arrived at the house, the father and the female were outside the house. Spielman grabbed her while Green seized her father and took them into the house, Bierce said, quoting Barker. Cortez and Barker also went in.
Green took the father, mother and the younger sister into the bedroom and closed the door, while the alleged victim remained in the living room with the others. Barker wrote that Cortez pushed the female to the floor, lifted her dress and tore off her underwear while she struggled, Bierce said. Cortez apparently raped her or appeared to rape her, according to Barker's statement, Bierce said.
Barker then tried to rape the female, Bierce said. Suddenly, the group heard gunshots. Green came out of the bedroom holding an AK-47 rifle and declared: '"They're all dead. I just killed them,"' Bierce said, quoting Barker's statement. Green put the gun down, then raped her while Cortez held her down; Barker claims Green picked up the AK-47 and shot her once, paused, then shot her several more times, Bierce said. Barker confirms he got a kerosene lamp and poured the fuel on her, Bierce said. The body was set on fire, but Barker does not say who did it. Barker's statement also does not say if Howard or Spielman participated in the alleged rape.
Barker's statement says he grilled chicken wings once they got back to their checkpoint, Bierce testified. A few hours later, Barker wrote, Iraqi army soldiers came to report they had found a family murdered.
Since the case became public last month, U.S. officials have said they were concerned it could strain relations with Iraq's new government if Iraqis perceive that the soldiers receive lenient treatment. They have offered assurances that the case will be pursued vigorously and that the soldiers will be punished if convicted. The case has already increased demands for changes in an agreement that exempts U.S. soldiers from prosecution in Iraqi courts. And Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has demanded an independent investigation into the case.

Jackie Mason defends Mel Gibson:
"These people who are attacking him they're all saying the same thing in Hollywood: 'I would never work with him again', these are all failures who never worked with him before, he never asked them to work with him, he don't need them, he makes a fortune and they can't get a job, and they're threatening him they're not gonna work with him!... People love burying a guy who's big."
"And this guy Foxman, this head of the ADF... he's a total fake... anybody who makes a life out of fighting racism in effect has to blow up racism in order to justify himself in his job he has. Otherwise, he'd have to go to work, otherwise he'd have to get up in the morning and get a real job!"

NY Senate Candidate Barred From TV Debate
In New York, a controversy is emerging in the race between Senator Hillary Clinton and Democratic challenger Jonathan Tasini. The local news station New York One has refused to set up a debate between the two candidates because Tasini hasn’t spent enough money on the race. The channel, which is owned by Time Warner, requires that candidates poll at least 5 percent and have spent or raised $500,000. Tasini is polling at 13 percent but his campaign has only raised $150,000.

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Connecticut Bob: Exit polling in Hamden
Lamont 22
Lieberman 13

Newt Gingrich Considers Political Opposition, American Citizens, to be an ''Insurgency''Some have expressed concern over Newt Gingrich's use of the term "insurgency", while referring to Ned Lamont supporters in Connecticut. Gingrich, of course, meant the term to be derogatory and a means of linking those that oppose Bush's war follies with terrorists. Still, Newt was correct in more ways than he fully understands and, too, revealed the Neo-Conservative agenda in a clear and yet, unintended way.

Pentagon: Every Army Division in Vietnam Committed War Crimes
The Los Angeles Times has revealed that U.S. forces committed far more massacres during the Vietnam War than has ever been publicly acknowledged. A once secret Pentagon task force determined that every army division that operated in Vietnam committed war crimes. The paper uncovered official government documents that detail 320 incidents of Vietnam war atrocities that were confirmed by army investigators.

Brutal US attack on unarmed Afghans captured by photos
Claims that US troops shot dead up to six unarmed Afghan civilians two months ago in Kabul have been given added credibility with a series of photographs offering visual evidence of military misconduct. The pictures were taken by an Afghan passer-by on 29 May in Khair Kane, a district of north Kabul. The 20 photographs appear to show a group of unarmed Afghan civilians being killed by gunfire from an American Humvee.
The Kabul pictures were taken as American vehicles fled the scene of an accident in which several Afghans were killed and injured after a US Army truck lost control and hit a number of civilian vehicles. Shot from a hillside above where the original accident took place, they show a crowd of Afghans throwing stones at the American vehicles.
A sequence of pictures show US vehicles leaving at high speed as the crowd stones them. In one sequence, a clearly unarmed Afghan man is seen with an American Humvee in the background, then as part of a group of men throwing stones towards the Americans. Two frames later his lifeless body is on the ground, having apparently been shot in the chest.

The allegations made in Kabul follow other recent incidents in which US troops are alleged to have used disproportionate or reckless force against civilians, most notably in Haditha, Iraq, on 19 November 2005 when US troops allegedly killed 15 civilians.

US troops assault Kirkuk journalists
Several journalists in Kirkuk have accused American and Iraqi security forces of assaulting them and their crews as they tried to report on the worsening security situation in the northern city. Saman Fakhri of the Iranian-owned Al-Alam satellite television station said the assaults were intended to stop journalists reporting properly on rising levels of violence in Kirkuk.

Col. David Gray defended US Army's actions in Kirkuk

Colonel David Gray, commander of the 101st Airborne brigade stationed in Kirkuk, said he was aware of "a few" assaults on journalists and expected compensation would be paid to at least one Associated Press reporter who had cameras deliberately smashed by American forces at the scene of a bombing. He insisted his troops respected press freedom and that there was no policy of interference. However Colonel Gray he said insurgents were trying to manipulate the media. [In other words, anyone telling a story other than the "official" version of events is an "insurgent]
"A free and open press is a fundamental principle of democracy, but there needs to be a balance," he said. "We have to be honest that the enemy we are fighting is very skilful at using propaganda so there is a concern among police and soldiers that there may be people filming who are not accredited journalists [read: "Imbedded"] , but in fact bad guys trying to get propaganda material."
Uh-huh.

Two brave women speak out
"We base our decision on moral issues. We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that. Not only are you an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are war mongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism. You have crossed all borders and red lines. An Arab mother cries over the death of her child very much like an American and Israeli mother."

U.S. sells surplus military hardware over the net to the highest bidder (no questions asked)
AMERICAN defence chiefs are selling millions of dollars worth of military hardware from Iraq and Afghanistan to the highest bidder over the internet. The items - which include rocket launchers and guided missile radar - can easily be used or adapted by criminals and terrorists. The US Department of Defense claims buyers on www.govliquidation.com are carefully vetted. But our investigators registered a bogus company on their website. Within minutes, our registration was accepted without question and we were sent a list of items for sale - many of which were surplus from Afghanistan and Iraq. These items included:

• Launcher mounts for anti-tank missiles.
• Full military uniforms, including hi-tech, bullet-proof body armour.
• Radar sets for guided missile systems and all-band antennae radios which can track enemy aircraft.
• Small invasion landing craft.
• Surveillance equipment, including global satellite positioning systems.
• Grenade vests, ammunition belts, James Bond-style shoulder harnesses for revolvers - and even unused medals.

And meanwhile a huge percentage of the troops are not ready for combat due to poor equipment?

(AP) Former CIA contractor David Passaro
Prosecutors Try to Block CIA Testimony
The trial of a CIA contractor accused of beating an Afghan detainee went behind closed doors Monday as prosecutors tried to prevent defense attorneys from calling CIA employees as witnesses. Even the titles of some of the potential witnesses for the trial of David Passaro are classified and can't be discussed in open court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Candelmo argued during a morning hearing.
Passaro, 40, a former Special Forces medic, is the first civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The detainee died a few days after being attacked. Passaro's attorneys have said they want to call former CIA director George Tenet and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, formerly the White House counsel, as part of a "public authority defense" - namely, that Passaro was following orders. Boyle had previously limited the defense's access to several classified documents and e-mails, including a memo from the Justice Department to the CIA that the Passaro believes described the interrogation techniques allowed by U.S. law.
The government contends soldiers saw Passaro beat detainee Abdul Wali with his hands, his feet and a flashlight in June 2003 during two days of questioning about rocket attacks on a base housing U.S. and Afghan troops. Wali later died in his cell. Passaro isn't charged with his death but with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault resulting in serious injury. If convicted, he will face up to 40 years in prison. The government is prosecuting Passaro under a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows charges against U.S. citizens for crimes committed on land or facilities designated for use by the U.S. government.

Seven UK Protesters Search U.S. Plane for Israel-Bound Weapons
In Britain, seven anti-war protesters were arrested Monday after trying to get on a plane at a British airport to search for US weapons being transported to Israel. Three people boarded a military plane. Four others were arrested at the airport. The activists were part of the anti-nuclear group Trident Ploughshares. No weapons were found by the group.

John Bolton: Dead Lebanese worth less than dead Israelis
This is just stunning in its stupidity. Bolton actually expected the French to send troops to Lebanon to intervene for Israel.

Who Violated United Nations Resolution 1559?
In fact, it is Israel which has violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, in that the resolution protects Lebanon's national sovereignty and Israel has invaded and occupied Lebanon in violation of Lebanon's national sovereignty. In addition, Resolution 1559 does not provide for genocide as a sanction in the event that this selfsame resolution is violated, nor does the resolution mandate a time schedule, nor does the resolution provide for an Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon.

Former President of Morgan Stanley Int'l:
"It's Now Considered the American War Against the Arabs...It Will Take Us Decades to Recover from What We've Done"
Calling Israel's war in Lebanon a "catastrophe," the former president of Morgan Stanley International talks about the democrats' "huge mistake" in backing the Bush administration's Israel policy. Richard Debs, who is also the Chairman Emeritus at the American University of Beirut, talks about the role that Syria, Iran, and the US media play in the crisis, and his view that "democracy has become a code word--and not a good codeword--in the Middle East.

Arab League Press UN For Changes to Resolution
On the diplomatic front, the Arab League is pressing the United Nations Security Council to make changes to a draft resolution aimed at ending the fighting. Lebanon and other Arab states opposed the U.S.-written resolution because the resolution does not require Israel to immediately pull out of Lebanon. This is the Arab League’s UN Observer Yahya Mahmassani.

• Yahya Mahmassani: "If you're talking about the respect of Lebanese sovereignty and integrity, the first thing you should do is get the Israelis out of Lebanese soil, get them to behind the blue line. This is the first prerequisite of respect for Lebanese sovereignty."

Israel widens targets to hit civilian sites
ISRAEL plans to ramp up its offensive in Lebanon by attacking the nation's strategic civilian infrastructure to make Beirut more amenable to ceasefire proposals acceptable to Jerusalem.
"We are now in a process of renewed escalation," a senior general defence staff officer said.
"We will continue hitting everything that moves in Hezbollah, but we will also hit strategic civilian infrastructure."
So now the Israelis are just referring to Lebanon as "Hezbollah"?????????

Doctoring Photographs or Censoring War Crimes?
The war lovers and child massacre apologists at Ynet News and obvious government psyop faux right wing cut-out alternative news site 'Little Green Footballs' (LGF) have taken the fact that a Reuters photographer, Adnan Hajj, blatantly "cloned" smoke in an image of an Israeli bombing in Lebanon to not-so-subtly suggest that all of Reuters images from Lebanon might be faked and therefore that we should all ignore Israeli massacres in Lebanon.

New and unknown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces
By now there are countless reports, from hospitals, witnesses, armament experts and journalists that strongly suggest that in the present offensive of Israeli forces against Lebanon and Gaza 'new weapons' are being used. Bodies with dead tissues and no apparent wounds; 'shrunken' corpses; civilians with heavy damage to lower limbs that require amputation, which is nevertheless followed by unstoppable necrosis and death; descriptions of extensive internal wounds with no trace of shrapnel, corpses blackened but not burnt, and others heavily wounded that did not bleed.
Many of these descriptions suggest the possibility that the new weapons used include 'direct energy' weapons, and chemical and/or biological agents, in a sort of macabre experiment of future warfare, where there is no respect for anything: International rules (from the Geneva Convention to the treaties on biological and chemical weapons), refugees, hospitals and the Red Cross, not to mention the people, their future, their children, the environment, which is poisoned through dissemination of Depleted Uranium and toxic substances released after oil and chemical depots are bombed.
WAR CRIMES????


Morocco: Amir Peretz charged with 'war crimes'
Three Moroccan lawyers file lawsuit against Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz over 'war crimes' committed against Lebanon and the Palestinians. The three argued that Peretz is guilty of premeditated crimes and strikes meant to harm civilians and damage national infrastructure as well as airports and seaports, in contradiction of international conventions.
"We saw it as our duty to file the lawsuit," one lawyer said. The attorneys noted that Peretz still holds Moroccan citizenship and is therefore subject to Moroccan law. They also demanded an investigation be launched against the defense minister in order to expose "all the crimes he committed against the Palestinians and against Lebanon."
"The terrorist criminal Peretz kept his Moroccan citizenship. This man's name still appears in Morocco's records," the lawsuit charges. The lawyers added that the Interpol should be tasked with bringing Peretz to justice in Morocco.
Isn't it funny how the Zionist media censorship doesn't want to emphasize the fact that the three persons, Al-Melech, Tsarfati and Asidon are brave Jews opposed to Zionist terrorism??!

Beirut oil slick devastates the Mediterranean
Israeli bombing of a Lebanese power plant has triggered the Mediterranean's worst ever environmental catastrophe, with up to 30,000 tons of heavy fuel oil spewing out into the sea and the sludge-covered bodies of dead fish littering the once pristine beaches. The marine damage in the Mediterranean, according to a spokeswoman for a UN agency that hopes to help clean up the mess once the bombing of Lebanon stops, could last for "up to a century".

Israel to Lebanese: Flee, but Stay Off Roads
Israel is now threatening to bomb all vehicles driven in Southern Lebanon. Israeli planes dropped leaflets ordering residents not to travel by car or truck. Israel has also warned residents of southern Lebanon not to go outdoors after 10 p.m.
For the first time Israel bombed the Shiyyah neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut. The strike destroyed a residential building and killed as many as 15 people. Shortly after the bombing, Democracy Now's Ana Nogueira spoke with an attorney from the Shiyyah neighborhood named Hassan Nizam.

Hassan Nizam: This area is inhabited -- all the people are civilian. They came from South Lebanon. They are leaving the danger zone area to live here. This is the first time we see the fire here in this area. No Hezbollah here and no other here. This is civilian country.

Israel Threatens to Kill UN Engineers Attempting to Rebuild Bridges
The southern Lebanese city of Tyre is now largely cut off from the rest of the world. All bridges out of the city have been destroyed. On Monday, Israel bombed a makeshift bridge that had been set up to cross the Litani River. Doctors Without Borders created a 200-yard-long human chain across the river in order to get aid into the city of Tyre. Aid workers standing in knee deep water passed more than three tons of medical supplies and gasoline across the river by hand. The Guardian newspaper is reporting Israel has also threatened to attack UN workers if they attempt to repair the bridges.

UN: Virtually No Supplies Being Brought Into Lebanon
The Washington Post's Anthony Shadid reports for many residents of Tyre the current war has been more unsettling than Lebanon's 15-year civil war, more devastating than the 1982 Israeli invasion, and more destructive than Israeli offensives against Lebanon in 1993 and 1996.

David Shearer, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator: "The situation in the country is deteriorating rapidly. Since the beginning of the war there has been virtually no supplies being brought into Lebanon with the exception of some relief supplies. That means Lebanon has been shut off from the outside world."

Thousands Protest Outside Mexico's Electoral Court
In Mexico, presidential contender Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is continuing his protests to demand a full recount in last month's presidential election. On Monday, thousands of his supporters demonstrated in front of Mexico’s electoral court. Lopez Obrador has vowed civil disobedience will intensify if a ballot-by-ballot recount is not conducted.

9/11 Commission Chairmen Admit to Whitewash
As both the Bush administration and its client government in Israel, with their invasions of Arab states in Iraq and Lebanon respectively, make the United States ever more hated in the Islamic world, a new book by the chairmen of the 9/11 Commission admits that the commission whitewashed the root cause of the 9/11 attacks – that same interventionist U.S. foreign policy.


Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps
Peter Dale Scott
BERKELEY, Calif.--A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities."
The contract calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when.
To date, some newspapers have worried that open-ended provisions in the contract could lead to cost overruns, such as have occurred with KBR in Iraq. A Homeland Security spokesperson has responded that this is a "contingency contract" and that conceivably no centers might be built. But almost no paper so far has discussed the possibility that detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law.
For those who follow covert government operations abroad and at home, the contract evoked ominous memories of Oliver North's controversial Rex-84 "readiness exercise" in 1984. This called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to round up and detain 400,000 imaginary "refugees," in the context of "uncontrolled population movements" over the Mexican border into the United States. North's activities raised civil liberties concerns in both Congress and the Justice Department. The concerns persist.
"Almost certainly this is preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters," says Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers, the U.S. military's account of its activities in Vietnam. "They've already done this on a smaller scale, with the 'special registration' detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo."
Plans for detention facilities or camps have a long history, going back to fears in the 1970s of a national uprising by black militants. As Alonzo Chardy reported in the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987, an executive order for continuity of government (COG) had been drafted in 1982 by FEMA head Louis Giuffrida. The order called for "suspension of the Constitution" and "declaration of martial law." The martial law portions of the plan were outlined in a memo by Giuffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff.
In 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 188, one of a series of directives that authorized continued planning for COG by a private parallel government.
Two books, James Mann's "Rise of the Vulcans" and James Bamford's "A Pretext for War," have revealed that in the 1980s this parallel structure, operating outside normal government channels, included the then-head of G. D. Searle and Co., Donald Rumsfeld, and then-Congressman from Wyoming Dick Cheney.
After 9/11, new martial law plans began to surface similar to those of FEMA in the 1980s. In January 2002 the Pentagon submitted a proposal for deploying troops on American streets. One month later John Brinkerhoff, the author of the 1982 FEMA memo, published an article arguing for the legality of using U.S. troops for purposes of domestic security.
Then in April 2002, Defense Dept. officials implemented a plan for domestic U.S. military operations by creating a new U.S. Northern Command (CINC-NORTHCOM) for the continental United States. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called this "the most sweeping set of changes since the unified command system was set up in 1946." The NORTHCOM commander, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced, is responsible for "homeland defense and also serves as head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).... He will command U.S. forces that operate within the United States in support of civil authorities. The command will provide civil support not only in response to attacks, but for natural disasters."
John Brinkerhoff later commented on PBS that, "The United States itself is now for the first time since the War of 1812 a theater of war. That means that we should apply, in my view, the same kind of command structure in the United States that we apply in other theaters of war."
Then in response to Hurricane Katrina in Sept. 2005, according to the Washington Post, White House senior adviser Karl Rove told the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, that she should explore legal options to impose martial law "or as close as we can get." The White House tried vigorously, but ultimately failed, to compel Gov. Blanco to yield control of the state National Guard.
Also in September, NORTHCOM conducted its highly classified Granite Shadow exercise in Washington. As William Arkin reported in the Washington Post, "Granite Shadow is yet another new Top Secret and compartmented operation related to the military's extra-legal powers regarding weapons of mass destruction. It allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control."
It is clear that the Bush administration is thinking seriously about martial law.
Many critics have alleged that FEMA's spectacular failure to respond to Katrina followed from a deliberate White House policy: of paring back FEMA, and instead strengthening the military for responses to disasters.A multimillion program for detention facilities will greatly increase NORTHCOM's ability to respond to any domestic disorders.

Scott is author of "Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). He is completing a book on "The Road to 9/11." Visit his Web site

8/07/2006

"I came over here because I wanted to kill people."

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

"I came over here because I wanted to kill people."
By Andrew Tilghman, Washington Post
Over a mess-tent dinner of turkey cutlets, the bony-faced 21-year-old private from West Texas looked right at me as he talked about killing Iraqis with casual indifference. It was February, and we were at his small patrol base about 20 miles south of Baghdad.
"The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.'" He shrugged.
"I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," he went on.
"Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.' "



At the time, the soldier's matter-of-fact manner struck me chiefly as a rare example of honesty. But the private was Steven D. Green.
The next time I saw him, in a front-page newspaper photograph five months later, he was standing outside a federal courthouse in North Carolina, where he had pled not guilty to charges of premeditated rape and murder. The brutal killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family in Mahmudiyah that he was accused of had taken place just three weeks after we talked.
When I met Green, I knew nothing about his background -- his troubled youth and family life, his apparent problems with drugs and alcohol, his petty criminal record. I just saw and heard a blunt-talking kid. Now that I know the charges against Green, his words take on an utterly different context for me. But when I met him then, his comments didn't seem nearly as chilling as they do now.
Green had been in country only four months at that point, a volunteer in a war he now saw as pointless. "I gotta be here for a year and there ain't [expletive] I can do about it," he said. "I just want to go home alive. I don't give a [expletive] about the whole Iraq thing. I don't care. See, this war is different from all the ones that our fathers and grandfathers fought. Those wars were for something. This war is for nothing."
"These guys are cool," he said, referring to the Iraqis. "But," he added with a shrug, "I wouldn't really care if all these guys got waxed."
As we talked, Green complained about his frustration with the Army brass that urged young soldiers to exercise caution even in the most terrifying and life-threatening circumstances. "We're out here getting attacked all the time and we're in trouble when somebody accidentally gets shot?" he said, referring to infantrymen like himself throughout Iraq. "We're pawns for the [expletive] politicians, for people that don't give a [expletive] about us and don't know anything about what it's like to be out here on the line."
The soldiers who fought alongside Green lived in conditions of near-constant violence -- violence committed by them, and against them. But no level of combat stress is an excuse for the kind of brutal acts Green allegedly committed. I suppose I will always look back on our conversations in Mahmudiyah and wonder: Just what did he mean?


G.I. Crime Photos May Be Evidence
On March 13, a group of American soldiers sitting at a checkpoint south of Baghdad were asked to look into a horrible crime: a 14-year-old Iraqi girl had been raped, then killed along with her family in their house nearby in Mahmudiya.The soldiers knew the house. They had been there only the day before, military prosecutors now say, committing the crime.Those soldiers, along with others from their checkpoint, walked over and took detailed forensic photographs of the charred and bullet-riddled bodies, as if it were a routine investigation of an insurgent attack, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Now, those photographs are likely to serve as evidence in the military's prosecution of the case, which opens a new chapter tomorrow when an Article 32 hearing, the rough equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, begins in Baghdad for five soldiers accused in the crime.
Many questions persist about the crime in Mahmudiya. Prosecutors initially said that only two of the accused soldiers had raped the girl, and that Steven D. Green, a private who was discharged in May after a psychiatric evaluation, was the ringleader. It now appears that at least three soldiers, including Green, raped her, according to a legal memo filed by a military magistrate. Prosecutors now believe the other two soldiers raped her first and later set fire to her dead body, said two lawyers involved in the case.
At the time, the men's squad leader and the overseeing platoon commander - both highly respected leaders - were on leave, said a sergeant in the same company as the men. He provided some details through e-mail on condition of anonymity.
"I know none of that would have happened if he was around," the sergeant said of the squad leader.

Steven D. Green on duty in Iraq, shooting the lock off of a door.

The Hiroshima Myth & more

The Hiroshima Myth
Every year during the first two weeks of August the mass news media and many politicians at the national level trot out the "patriotic" political myth that the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan in August of 1945 caused them to surrender, and thereby saved the lives of anywhere from five hundred thousand to one million American soldiers.
Opinion polls over the last fifty years show that American citizens overwhelmingly (between 80 and 90%) believe this false history which, of course, makes them feel better about killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.
The stark fact is that the Japanese leaders, both military and civilian, including the Emperor, were willing to surrender in May of 1945 if the Emperor could remain in place and not be subjected to a war crimes trial after the war. This fact became known to President Truman as early as May of 1945. Since President Truman, in effect, accepted the conditional surrender offered by the Japanese as early as May of 1945, the question is posed, "Why then were the bombs dropped?"
In a speech at the Washington Monument on October 5, 1945, Admiral Nimitz stated "The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into the war."
It was learned also that on or about July 20, 1945, General Eisenhower had urged Truman, in a personal visit, not to use the atomic bomb. Eisenhower's assessment was "It wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing . . . to use the atomic bomb, to kill and terrorize civilians, without even attempting [negotiations], was a double crime."

DEMOCRACY NOW! report:
"The War The World Ignores":
A Look at War-Devastated Congo & The Country's First Multi-Party Elections in 45 Years
The conflict in Congo has been called the world's largest forgotten war. Millions have died the start of the most recent violence in 1998, but the country has been torn apart by resource exploitation and government repression for decades. On July 30, Congo's voters went to the polls for the first time in over 45 years, but allegations have surfaced that the elections were marred by fraud and international meddling.
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Absence of America's Upper Classes From the Military

In all, about 1 percent of U.S. representatives and senators have a child in uniform. And the Capitol building is no different from other places where the leadership class in this country gathers -- no different from the boardrooms, newsrooms, ivory towers and penthouses of our nation.