US, not Iran, arming Sunnis -- surprise!

US says Iran arming Sunni groups
Except that we now know it is the US that is arming the Sunnis.

US confirms it is arming Sunni insurgents, paper to report

Monday's New York Times will lead with a story by veteran Iraq correspondent John Burns revealing that the U.S. military has confirmed that it is arming Sunni insurgent factions to try to contain al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, RAW STORY has learned.

U.S. arming some Sunni groups to fight Al Qaeda

With the four-month-old "surge" in U.S. troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight Al Qaeda-linked militants who have been their allies in the past.

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies

With the agreement to arm some Sunni groups, the Americans also appear to have made a tacit recognition that earlier demands for the disarming of Shiite militia groups are politically unachievable for now given the refusal of powerful Shiite political parties to shed their armed wings. In effect, the Americans seem to have concluded that as long as the Shiites maintain their militias, Shiite leaders are in a poor position to protest the arming of Sunni groups whose activities will be under close American scrutiny.

'Military plan against Iran is ready'

Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power.

U.S. Accused of Attacking Shiite Mosque
In eastern Baghdad, local witnesses have reported U.S. warplanes fired shells and flares on houses in a largely Shiite neighborhood. Four houses were burnt in the attack. Residents also said U.S. forces raided an office of Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and shot dead four men. One eyewitness accused the U.S. troops of attacking a Shiite mosque.

• Iraqi Eyewitness: "They (U.S. troops) gathered in front of the mosque. People were praying when the U.S. soldiers opened fire on them. Some fell down, others were arrested and many were killed. The reason was unknown."

UK troops receiving 'trigger happy' drug

British troops are being prescribed with a controversial drug (dexedrine) which has been blamed for making US pilots "trigger-happy" and causing friendly fire deaths.

Turkish helicopters enter Iraq

The moves come amid a major Turkish build-up of troops and tanks on the border with northern Iraq where Ankara says the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have bases. The Turkish army's general staff has vowed to fight the separatists, calling on all Turks to work together "to resist in the face of these terrorist actions" which threaten national unity.

Iraq protests against shelling by Turkey

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said the shelling caused “huge damage” in an area between Dahuk and Arbil provinces in Iraq’s north. A ministry spokesman said the shelling took place over three hours late on Wednesday and early Thursday. “This attack caused wide fires and huge damage in the area and made citizens fearful,” the Foreign Ministry statement said, without precisely identifying the damage.

Bush ends his 'democracy tour' of small-fry nations

Until now, Bush has rarely had the chance to experience such adulation outside his own Republican party events.

Senate to Hold No-Confidence Vote on Alberto Gonzales
On Capitol Hill, the Senate is preparing to vote today on a no-confidence resolution on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales has been widely criticized for his role in the politicization of the Justice Department, the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, for authorizing warrantless domestic surveillance and for his role in justifying the use of torture. On Sunday, White House spokesperson Tony Snow said that the vote would have no effect on President Bush's confidence in Gonzales.

GOP Loyalists Often Get Immigration Judgeships
The Senate vote comes as another Justice Department scandal appears to be on the horizon. The Washington Post reports that the Bush administration has increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting immigration judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants. At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law. All of the appointments were made by Alberto Gonzales or former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Guns and Anarchy in Greensburg

Strano also claimed that Greensburg residents’ guns had been taken from them, saying, “FEMA and the police have systematically disarmed the local population, leaving the firepower squarely in control of the state.”
Because they were hit by a tornado.

Judge: Cops Can Steal Cars and Lie to Victims To Conduct a Warrantless Search

Anti-Occupation Rallies Held In Tel Aviv, D.C., London
Major rallies were held in Washington, London, Tel Aviv this weekend to protest 40 years of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In Tel Aviv, thousands of Israeli peace activists and Palestinians marched to mark the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War when Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula from Egypt. Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank have lived under Israeli military occupation ever since.

Four Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace

US, Israel launch military exercise

The US and Israeli air forces have began a week-long joint military exercise in southern parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

General who helped redraw the borders of Israel says road map to peace is a lie

Immediately after the Six Day War, 40 years ago, Shlomo Gazit was put in charge of Gaza and the West Bank. Today, the retired general is in favour of talks with Hamas, describes the road map as a "pretext" for Israel not to negotiate with the Palestinians, and thinks the idea that the US can or should veto a peace process between Jerusalem and Damascus is a "nonsense".

Jewish Israeli Leader: We're Nazis

There is one thing that Burg has indeed taken from Leibowitz: the comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany. But don't worry, "There is a difference between saying 'Nazi' and saying 'National Socialist.'" What a stroke of luck! Now all of Burg's readers around the world will understand that Israel is just National Socialist, and not Nazi.

Killing the Palestinians: The Final Solution

A drive through the West Bank quickly dispels any notions one might have of Israel’s beneficent intentions. There are none. The first ugly blight on the horizon are gleaming white structures clumped together on hilltops. They jut out treeless, naked and unashamed as below them the green valleys continue to gently undulate in their menacing shadows. A shimmering sliver cuts through the land or over it, every now and then brought to life by cars that speed along these highways towards Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Haifa: and below them, life barely moves at all. A looming watchtower confirms the feeling of something very wrong. Grey and threatening with cavernous windows, behind which shadows watch and aim at things that move, this is one of hundreds of such towers overseeing the mass of humanity waiting endlessly at yet another checkpoint that makes every journey torture for every Palestinian.

Controversial DePaul Professor Denied Tenure

Culminating a highly public battle, DePaul University has denied controversial assistant political science Professor Norman Finkelstein tenure. His case drew widespread interest because of the Jewish professor's blunt criticism of Jews and the state of Israel, and the attack on those views by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.

39 Missing Prisoners

The report, issued by the Council of Europe, a regional human rights body, states that "secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania." It concludes, moreover, that the interrogation methods used in these secret prisons were "tantamount to torture."

We got it wrong, says former torturer

Mr Lagouranis, who has written a recently published book about his experiences, said these techniques were developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War because they are successful in breaking a person's will and spirit. "That doesn't mean they work in terms of extracting intelligence," he said. "I didn't get actionable intelligence using the harsher methods; I got it using manipulation and lying and by promising them things I didn't deliver on."
Maybe it isn't about intelligence, but about breaking a person's will and spirit.

Seasons in Hell: Voices From the American Gulag.

The Independent has a remarkable story on Sami al-Haj, the Sudanese journalist who has been held in George W. Bush's concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay for five years. Haj has not been charged with any crime, but he is undoubtedly guilty of a grave sin in the eyes of the Bush Regime: he is a cameraman for Al Jazeera.
Haj has "continued to act like a reporter, detailing and documenting what he has seen and experienced inside Guantanamo and then passing this on to his lawyers." His eyewitness account of life inside the Bush gulag is harrowing -- and humiliating for every American in whose name the Bush Regime has perpetrated this filth.
Remarkably, during 130 separate interviews, his interrogators have questioned him very little about his alleged links to the al-Qa'ida leader or other radicals. Rather their questions have focused almost exclusively on the operation of Al Jazeera. One of his lawyers reported that Haj said he had been told by several people that he would be set free if he agreed to return to Al Jazeera and spy for them. Each time he turned them down.

Dick Cheney Becomes Ever More Impeachable

With more and more spotlights being trained upon Cheney's high crimes and misdemeanors against the U.S. Constitution, he becomes ever more impeachable—and the political excuses for failing to pursue impeachment more and more unacceptable.

Stop WW III with HR 333

Cheney is reportedly the main force behind the push to nuke Iran. In the last Republican candidate debate, 8/9 candidates favored nuking Iran. It's become the Republican party line.

Lieberman: U.S. should weigh Iran attack

Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Sunday the United States should consider a military strike against Iran because of Tehran's involvement in Iraq.

Calderón seeks "Plan Colombia" for Mexico
The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderón has issued a formal request to the US Congress for a huge increase in military aid to combat narco-gangs. The request came in a recent US-Mexico Inter-Parliamentary Meeting held in Austin, TX, and was revealed to the Mexican daily La Jornada by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), leader of the House Intelligence Committee. La Jornada called the request a "Plan Colombia" for Mexico, although without an actual US military troop presence.

Supplier Expands Beef Recall To 5.7 Million Pounds In E. Coli Scare

David Goldman, acting administrator of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, announced on Saturday that the recall would be expanded to include products with sell-by dates from April 6-April 20. The beef, sold in 11 Western states, was distributed by California-based United Food Group LLC.

And all this while the FDA is reducing - not expanding - inspections that might keep the food chain more safe in this country. If those sell-by dates are from April 6th throught April 20th, a good percentage of this meat has already made its way to consumers' freezers.

Russia's Putin Calls for WTO Alternative

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Sunday for creating an alternative to the World Trade Organization that would favor developing economies and suggested giving a greater role to regional currencies.

Mali Hold People's Summit To Counter G-8
In other news from Africa, about a thousand anti-corporate globalization and anti-poverty campaigners have gathered in Mali to hold a forum to counter the G8 meeting. The people's summit was aimed at tackling debt, food security and immigration problems, as well as the creation of an alternative to the World Bank.

US tech sector eyes immigration bill revival, cites worker shortage

Some critics of the H-1B visa program say it is used to depress wages in the tech sector, with the hiring of engineers from India and other Asian nations, and argue that evidence of a shortage is not entirely clear.

Vietnam Agent Orange group takes its case to United States

When Nguyen Van Quy's platoon fought in the Vietnam War battlefields of Kontum in 1972, his soldiers moved through eerie landscapes where the US defoliant Agent Orange had stripped bare the jungle. Today Quy has stomach cancer and liver and lung disease. His first child died at birth, he said, his 20-year-old son is paralysed, and his 18-year-old daughter is deaf and mute and suffers from mental retardation. Quy blames dioxin, the highly toxic chemical and known carcinogen in the herbicides of which US forces sprayed up to 80 million litres (21 million US gallons) over southern Vietnam between 1961 and 1971.

Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'

A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

U.S.: WILD BUFFALO CAPTURED; BULLS SLATED FOR SLAUGHTER

Going back on their word not to slaughter wild bison, state and federal agencies to do just that. Today they have hazed about 50 wild bison off of cattle-free National Forest land and captured them in a bison trap constructed near the West Yellowstone Airport. According to livestock officials, bulls will be transported to slaughter facilities on Monday.

When Yellowstone was commissioned by Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, it was the first wilderness to be set aside as a Natural Preserve anywhere in the world. For the first 30 years or so, it was managed as you might expect. It was left well enough alone, unmanaged, as wilderness generally is. In the dawn of the 20th century however, the park service was formed, and was assigned the task of preservation and management of the environment of Yellowstone.
Within the first ten years of their management of the park, the ecology of the park had been forever changed by the well intentioned yet incorrect assertions of the park service on how best to preserve the land. First they believed that the elk were about to become extinct, so they began the process of shooting and poisoning all of the wolves in the reserve, who were the natural predator of the elks. This resulted in an explosion of the elk population and another totally unexpected result. You see, part of the diet of the elk was in fact the trees that the beavers of the park used to make their dams, and the lack of those trees and the resulting dams threw into chaos the water management of the park. The beavers disappeared, the meadows dried up and the otters and trout vanished. Common patterns of correction, followed corrections of corrections have followed for the last century at the park. Grizzly Bears have been protected, and then killed off, wolves killed off, then brought back, etc., etc.
Park Rangers worked hard to extinguish every single fire, not realizing that fire clears away dead growth and that some of the park's flora need fire to procreate. When control burns were started to clear away the dead brush, they ran wild and devastated the park. On and on it goes, and the value of Yellowstone as an example of environmentalism long on ambition and short on science is that there is no evil corporation to blame it all on. Far from preserving Yellowstone, the park ecology was driven further and further away from what it had been by actions which seemed to make sense at press briefings, but which inevitably proved to be disasters.

Throwing In the Towel on Florida's Tire Reef
A growing number of researchers say that the tire reef off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., created to stimulate new marine growth, has become an environmental disaster. William Nuckols, project coordinator and military liaison for Coastal America, is working with the Navy to remove the tires.
This is a classic example of good intention mixing with bad science in the environmentalist movement. The theory was that old used tires could be dumped into the ocean and form the foundation for new coral reefs. It sounded good in the press briefings and the government went along with the idea, so 2 million tires went into the water off of Florida's coast. The bad news: Not only does coral not grow on tires, but the tires killed what was already down there. Worse, driven by ocean current, the tires have moved into areas where they were never intended to go and started poisoning the life there as well. CNN just reported that it is estimated it will take 2 years of diving to bring up all the tires.

China Accused of Using Child Labor to Make Olympics Merchandise
An alliance of trade unions have charged that some of the official merchandise for the 2008 Olympics in China has been made by Chinese children as young as 12 years old. The report by the Playfair Alliance also highlights alleged labor rights violations at four factories, including forced overtime, poor health and safety conditions; and workers being instructed to lie about wages and conditions to outside inspectors.

Domestic Workers March For Rights in NYC
And here in New York, domestic workers marched on Saturday to call for state lawmakers to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. This bill would set a minimum wage of $12 for caregivers, and require employers to provide health insurance or pay an additional $2 an hour. It would also guarantee days off, vacation time and other worker standards.