Tuesday April 14th 2009

Forget Star Wars. It’s Back To Colonial Warfare - Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates finally put an end to this debate. Gate’s newly announced defense budget makes clear that America’s military future lies in what the Pentagon calls, "expeditionary warfare" or "counterinsurgency operations." These, it is clear, will take place mostly in the Muslim world. - The British, less given to euphemisms than Americans, used to call their distant operations against unruly natives, "colonial warfare" or "little wars."

Neoconned Again - Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."After successive elections unseated the Republican majority and sent John McCain to defeat, neoconservatism seemed like a spent force. Francis Fukuyama wrote wistfully about life “After Neoconservatism” in 2006. Ian Buruma described the McCain campaign as the neocons’ “last stand” and harrumphed that they “will not be missed.”

Czar [Stooge, Bagman, AIPAC Lackey] Obama - Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The president's incredibly imperialist wielding of executive power. -- President Barack Obama's claim to czarlike powers in a perpetual global war against international terrorism has been blunted by a judicial appointee of former President George W. Bush. Last week, in the case Fadi al Maqaleh, United States District Judge John D. Bates denied that President Obama could make suspected "enemy combatants" disappear into the Bagram Theater Internment Facility at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan without an opportunity for exoneration. (While President Obama has abandoned the term enemy combatant for Guantanamo Bay detainees, he has retained the label for detainees held elsewhere.)"

The differing views of the "rule of law" in Spain and the U.S. - Article also posted at ICH
A quote...."Scott Horton reports this morning that, in Spain, "prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates [John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Doug Feith and William Haynes] over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo."  Spain not only has the right under the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture to prosecute foreign officials for torturing its citizens, but it -- like the U.S. -- has the affirmative obligation to do so. (Indeed, the Bush administration itself insisted just last year that the U.S. the right to criminally prosecute foreign officials for ordering acts of torture even in the absence of an accusation that any of the victims were American)."

Chill the Champagne - The Bush Six to Be Indicted - posted at ICH
A quote...."April 14, 2009 "Daily Beast" -- Spanish prosecutors will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales and five high-ranking Bush administration officials for sanctioning torture at Guantánamo. - Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo, several reliable sources close to the investigation have told The Daily Beast. Their decision is expected to be announced on Tuesday before the Spanish central criminal court, the Audencia Nacional, in Madrid. But the decision is likely to raise concerns with the human-rights community on other points: They will seek to have the case referred to a different judge."

War with Iraq and Afghanistan, Rhetoric for War with Iran - PDF 42 pages
Data Base - A quote...."Here's a nice summary of recent years of wrongdoing. - Written by Carl Herman."
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US troops 'might stay in N Iraq'
In the past several years there have been thousands of articles about troop withdrawals, draw-downs, pull backs, and partial pull outs from Iraq....every single one of them have been absolutely wrong.  On the other hand for the past several years there have also been thousands of articles about troop increases, surges, re-branding combat troops as “advisors” and endless extensions of the "pull-out" date from Iraq...and every single one of those articles has been absolutely right.  Everyone out there got the point....yet? – mpg -- A quote...."US combat troops may stay in northern Iraq after a deadline for them to pull back by the end of June has passed, the top US commander in the area has said."

Scott Horton Interviews Dahr Jamail
Must Listen - Audio Interview - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Dahr Jamail, writer for Foreign Policy in Focus, discusses the Iraqi government’s unwillingness to incorporate Sunni “Awakening Councils” into the regular army, the walled-off autonomous conclaves within Baghdad, the decimation of Iraq’s health care system and forty years of U.S. meddling in Iraqi affairs."

Iraq war: Gordon Brown aims to delay inquiry report until after [Britain's] election
A quote...."Gordon Brown will announce by the autumn a "long" inquiry into the Iraq war, indicating that the potentially embarrassing report will be delayed until well after the general election expected next year."

Murky origins of Iraq attacks stir foreboding
A quote...."BAGHDAD, April 14 (Reuters) - A series of bombings and clashes between Sunni militias and Shi'ite-led government forces have stirred a sense of foreboding in Iraq ahead of a national election and the withdrawal of U.S. troops. -- Violence in Iraq remains sharply down on past years, when most attacks were blamed on al Qaeda or Shi'ite militias, but uncertainty about the origins of the recent violence has led to an incendiary mix of conspiracy theories and accusations." -- Try the "True Axis of Evil" - The Saudi Royals, Israel and the US-NRE. - mpg

Iraqi General Filing Suit to Close Newspaper and TV Channel Over Alleged Misquotes
A quote...."BAGHDAD — The Iraqi military put local journalists on notice on Monday that their organizations could be shut down for misquoting officials, while the Iraqi government accused the news media of deliberately seeking to promote sectarian strife."

Mossad, CIA hatch Egypt's anti-Hezbollah plot - link posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."Egypt has been collaborating with Israeli and US intelligence agencies in their latest conspiracy against Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. - Citing Philippe Vasset, editor of Intelligence Online daily, Haaretz reported Tuesday that the Egyptian security forces have been operating entirely on the basis of intelligence "provided to them by several foreign intelligence services" in their latest move against the Lebanese movement."

Tehran urges UNSC to condemn Israeli threats to strike Iran''s nuclear sites - link posted at ICH
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (KUNA) -- Tehran on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to react to Israel's continuous "insolent threats" to conduct a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, warning that it will act in self-defense if attacked."

Gulf war jitters
War Alert - A quote...."Gulf Cooperation Council members -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman -- are getting ready for what many now assume will be retaliation from Iran following Israeli bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities later this year. - Up and down the Persian Gulf, Patriot missile batteries have been quietly deployed around key oil installations. The Patriot system is designed to detect, target and then hit incoming missiles that may be no more than 10 to 20 feet long and flying at three to five times the speed of sound. Iran has hundreds of missiles and rockets."

Frontline Video - Pakistan: Children of the Taliban
Must View Video - A quote...."Correspondent Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is traveling across her fractured homeland to investigate the rising popularity of a new Pakistani branch of the Taliban, now threatening the major cities, blowing up girls’ schools and declaring war on the Pakistani state. - Her journey begins at a rehabilitation center in Peshawar, where she talks with many young victims caught in the crossfire of this war."

US senator given aid rebuff by Pakistan
A quote...."A US Senator, on a visit to Pakistan, has been told by his hosts that they will not accept conditions being put on aid programs. - Meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Senator John Kerry was told that aid with strings attached would fail to generate goodwill in Pakistan."

12 more Nato trailers torched
A quote...."PESHAWAR: Twelve trailers, loaded with supplies for the Nato forces in Afghanistan, were set on fire while a driver was shot dead and two cleaners injured when armed men attacked two parking lots on the Ring Road near Hazarkhwani here in the wee hours of Sunday. It was learnt that around 50 men, armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers, attacked the Asim Terminal after overpowering watchman Fazal Akbar around 1:45 am. The assailants, according to eyewitnesses, thrashed the watchman for guarding “goods being sent for the US forces in Afghanistan”. Later, the attackers fired a rocket and set on fire four trailers as well as the guard’s cabin. Continuing their operation without any fear or haste, the armed men then broke into the nearby Pak-Kabul Terminal. “The attackers overpowered around 10 men present there, searched their clothes and deprived them of cash and valuables,” an eyewitness said. They fired another rocket there and set on fire eight more trailers parked in the terminal. The two-room office was also torched. The fire was extinguished after an hour-long effort."

Eurasia: US Geostrategic Plans at Risk - Instability in Georgia. A rocky beachhead
Must Read - A quote...."The bloom has officially faded on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s 2003 rose revolution. The 13 opposition parties in this nation of 4.7 million are united and determined, and began their latest series of demonstrations 9 April, when as many as 100,000 demonstrated in Tbilisi, capturing the nation’s mood of frustration and, increasingly, contempt for their oversize, fanatically pro-American president. They have vowed to persist with a campaign of civil disobedience until he resigns. -- Saakashvili’s allies are abandoning him in droves, with former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze one of the protesters. Arrests last month of members of her Democratic Movement for a United Georgia, accused of seeking to overthrow the government by force, burned any remaining bridges for her. Reflecting the broad sentiment, she said Saakashvili lost all credibility as president when he launched war against Russia last August and that any negotiations would be only over the transition of power. Former prime minister Zurab Noghaideli’s Movement for a Just Georgia organised a protest in his hometown of Batumi."

War, Oil and Gas Pipelines: Turkey is Washington’s Geopolitical Pivot
Must Read - A quote...."If Ankara decides to collaborate more closely with Russia, Georgia's position is precarious and Azerbaijan's natural gas pipeline route to Europe, the so-called Nabucco Pipeline, is blocked. If it cooperates with the United States and manages to reach a stable treaty with Armenia under US auspices, the Russian position in the Caucasus is weakened and an alternative route for natural gas to Europe opens up, decreasing Russian leverage against Europe. - For Washington the key to bringing Germany into closer cooperation with the US is to weaken German dependence on Russian energy flows. Twice in the past three winters Washington has covertly incited its hand-picked President in Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko to arrange an arbitrary cut off of Russian gas flows to Germany and other EU destinations. The only purpose of the actions was to convince EU governments that Russia was not a reliable energy partner. Now, with the Obama visit to Ankara, Washington is attempting to win Turkish support for its troubled Nabucco alternative gas pipeline through Turkey from Azerbaijan which would theoretically at least lessen EU dependence on Russian gas."

Germany Bans Cultivation of GM Corn
A quote...."Germany has banned the cultivation of GM corn, claiming that MON 810 is dangerous for the environment. But that argument might not stand up in court and Berlin could face fines totalling millions of euros if American multinational Monsanto decides to challenge the prohibition on its seed."

Corn, Soy Yields Gain Little From Genetic Engineering: Study
A quote...."WASHINGTON - The use of genetically engineered corn and soybeans in the United States for more than a decade has had little impact on crop yields despite claims that they could ease looming food shortages, a study released on Tuesday concluded. - "A hard-nosed assessment of this expensive technology's achievements to date gives little confidence that it will play a major role in helping the world feed itself in the forseeable future," said the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. - The study evaluated the effect on corn and soybean crop yields of genetically engineered varieties commercialized in the United States over the past 13 years, examining peer-reviewed academic studies that date back to the early 1990s. - "Based on that record, we conclude that GE (genetic engineering) has done little to increase overall crop yields," it said." -- Hah! It figures, we're all gonna have shruken you-know-whats and die of cancer at the age of thirty for absolutely nothing at all except GM's profits. - mpg
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"'Lucky Larry' still makes a killing on the 9/11 terror attacks: Dream job: $21.5M - to do nothing at all --Port Authority paying Larry Silverstein $21.5 million but has yet to seek 'development' tips 14 Apr 2009 The Port Authority is paying Larry Silverstein $21.5 million to develop the Freedom Tower - even though he has absolutely no role in building the 1,776-foot icon, the Daily News has learned. More than two years after the builder lost control of the planned 102-story tower at Ground Zero, he is collecting $500,000 monthly "development fees" - and the checks will keep flowing until mid-2010, documents show. The giveaway - $15.25 million so far and an additional $6.25 million in the pipeline - is costing bridge and tunnel commuters the equivalent of 2.7 million George Washington Bridge tolls or 12.3 million PATH fares." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG -- For more on "Lucky Larry" see....9/11 - WTC7

9/11 Commission Counsel: Government Agreed to Lie About 9/11
Special Note - A quote...."The senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission - John Farmer - says that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11, echoing the assertions of fellow 9/11 Commission members who concluded that the Pentagon were engaged in deliberate deception about their response to the attack. Farmer served as Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (officially known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States), and is also a former New Jersey Attorney General. Farmer’s book about his experiences working for the Commission is entitled The Ground Truth: The Story Behind America’s Defense on 9/11, and is set to be released in September. The book unveils how “the public had been seriously misled about what occurred during the morning of the attacks,” and Farmer himself states that “at some level of the government, at some point in time…there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.” Only the very naive would dispute that an agreement not to tell the truth is an agreement to lie. Farmer’s contention is that the government agreed to create a phony official version of events to cover-up the real story behind 9/11." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - NORAD & 9/11 - Commission
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The futility of “peace talks” with Israel
A quote...."Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, whose term in office officially expired in January but remained at the helm of the Ramallah regime in order to spite off Hamas, reportedly has phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to wish him a happy holiday. The courtesy call, as described by Abbas’s office, has been interpreted by observers in occupied Palestine as a preliminary sign of flirting between the fascist-minded Netanyahu and the beleaguered PLO leader."

Ten organizations launch int'l campaign in solidarity with Gaza fishermen
A quote...."GAZA, (PIC)-- Ten civil and humanitarian institutions in cooperation with the Palestinian international campaign to break the siege said Monday that they embarked on preparing an international campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian fishermen to pressure all official parties around the world into stopping Israeli violations in Gaza waters."

Why? - Viva Palestina letter to Charities Commission from George Galloway
A quote...." I have been travelling for many weeks in North Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and North America. I have returned to a London address I seldom visit to find a blizzard of correspondence from you. Your correspondence, when read together, as I have just done, seems to represent a wildly disproportionate and inappropriate reaction to our recent delivery of aid to the suffering Palestinians in Gaza, and must raise the question: Why?"
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China versus America: 'Great Game' for Global Order?
Must Read - A quote...."The G20 summit in London ended with an optimistic note. But the final communique was a compromised document between the forces to preserve the basic architecture of the existing financial order and the forces to replace it with a new one: the first led by the Anglo-American partnership and the second by the BRICs with the support of the non-participating developing world. The Franco-German coalition took the intermediary position. "

Chop Shop Economics and Stealth Zionism
Must Read - A quote...."Causing $64 trillion of liquidity to vanish from the world financial system and then manipulating the US government to reward the perpetrators with bailout money requires the presence of the “right people” in government, academia, and finance industries." -- also posted at AmericanEveryman

Analyst: Wells Fargo to Show $120 Billion in Stress Test Losses
KBW, a firm specializing in bank stocks, expects Wells Fargo to show $120 billion in "stress test losses", meaning losses under the assumption of a supposed worst case of recession through the first quarter of 2010 and unemployment reaching 12%. Note that the 12% figure (according to Bloomberg) was included in the analyst's report;. This differs from the scenarios originally announced (did I miss some revisions?):

Goldman CFO Viniar "Mystified" by Probes into Relationship with AIG
Contains Audio - A quote...."I suppose I should take anything said by Goldman in general, and its CFO David Viniar, with a fistful of salt. This is the man who during the October-November meltdown, attributed the poor performance to the fact that they were seeing "25 sigma events, several days in a row." -- For more on this issue see....AIG, Goldman Sachs, Paulson And Buffet

Obama Maintains His Perfect Batting Average for Appointing Failed Insiders to Key Economic Posts
A quote...."Other than Paul Volcker, who Obama has already sidelined (and I know not everyone likes Volcker), all of his economic advisors have been insiders who directly helped to create the current economic crisis."
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U.S. producer price index falls in March - Deflation indication #1
A quote...."U.S. producer prices dropped by 1.2 per cent in March, driven by falling gasoline prices, according to numbers released Tuesday. - The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics said the national producer price index fell for the first time in 2009 after rising in both January and February. If you count the price level from the preceding March, the unadjusted PPI fell by a greater amount, 3.5 per cent."

Core PPI Finally Gives - Deflation indication #2
A quote...."Of more interest in our opinion is that the core rate in PPI finally dipped to zero. It had held up stubbornly in the face of clearly weak demand in the industrial sector. It was up 0.4% in January and 0.2% in February. The core rate is likely to continue to be weak in coming months."

U.S. Retail Sales Unexpectedly Drop as Jobs Evaporate (Update2) - Deflation indication #3
A quote...." April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in March as soaring job losses forced consumers to pull back. - The 1.1 percent decrease followed a 0.3 percent gain in February that was stronger than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Auto dealers, electronics stores and restaurants led the decline."

America’s 20% Unemployment Rate - Article also posted at ICH - Deflation indication #4
A quote...."Measuring unemployment is an art that can result in widely varied rates. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Government uses a method that excludes millions of Americans seeking employment. This lower rate is used to prove that America’s economic system is superior to those in Europe. Their higher unemployment rates are blamed on unions and socialism, which guarantee workers health care and paid vacations. The implication is that while many American workers lack such benefits, at least they have jobs. This argument is faulty since unemployment is measured differently."

U.S. business inventories fall 1.3% in February - Deflation indication #5 (if due to business cutbacks) - mpg
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Inventories held by U.S. businesses on shelves and backlots fell 1.3 percent in February, marking the sixth straight monthly decline, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. - The 1.3 percent drop in business inventories matched the January decline and close to the 1.2 percent fall that economists had expected. - The sixth consecutive decline is the longest stretch since the country's businesses cut their stockpiles for 15 straight months ending in April 2002, a period that covered the last recession." -- The last "recession" had fifteen months of inventory decline, this one has had only six months so far. - mpg

Perhaps we should all cover the numbers again.  At the height of the '82 recession this country's official unemployment rate reached almost 12%, there were over eight hundred bank failures and the housing market declined for about two, to two and a half years during the slump. -- So far during this "recession" the country has experienced an unemployment rate of just 8.5%, only fifty to sixty (official) bank failures and about a year and a half worth of housing decline.  Given the deflation indications shown above, and this nation's prior economic record, it appears the economy has now entered a "liquidity trap" or a severe recession, or even possible depression, which will not bottom out for another one to two years. 

In otherwords there is a lot more economic contraction to come. - mpg
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Indians line up for Tata car
A quote...."Car buyers in India have been desperate to own the world's least expensive vehicle, the Nano, which went on sale last week, but will not be delivered until July. After taxes, the base model of the car will cost about US$2,200. Tata Motors, which produces the Nano, has billed it the 'People's Car.'"

Monday April 13th 2009

Embedded Bellwether: The Paper of Record Prepares the Public for More Slaughter
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Noam Chomsky, among others, has noted how faithfully and thoroughly the corporate American media advances the agenda of the state, achieving a near Pravda-like degree of servitude without any need for the kind of overt, direct control once practiced by Pravda's Soviet masters. This is done, in large part, unconsciously; that is, most of the practitioners (and all of the owners) of the corporate media share the same assumptions and values of the nation's ruling elite. They don't have to be told to believe what the elite believe; they believe it already."

An emerging progressive consensus on Obama's executive power and secrecy abuses - Article also @ ICH
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."In the last week alone, the Obama DOJ (a) attempted to shield Bush's illegal spying programs from judicial review by (yet again) invoking the very "state secrets" argument that Democrats spent years condemning and by inventing a brand new "sovereign immunity" claim that not even the Bush administration espoused, and (b) argued that individuals abducted outside of Afghanistan by the U.S. and then "rendered" to and imprisoned in Bagram have no rights of any kind -- not even to have a hearing to contest the accusations against them -- even if they are not Afghans and were captured far away from any "battlefield."  These were merely the latest -- and among the most disturbing -- in a string of episodes in which the Obama administration has explicitly claimed to possess the very presidential powers that Bush critics spent years condemning as radical, lawless and authoritarian." -- also posted at CommonDreams

We must confront the torturers who acted in our name Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...." Let's see, a U.S. court successfully convicted the son of the brutal former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, of torturing his father's political opponents. But we're going to leave it to a Spanish judge to go after our own Torquemadas?"

A Little Rebellion Against Tyranny - link posted at ICH
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."(SALEM, Ore.) - The imminent indictment in Spanish courts of former officials of the Bush Administration is being applauded by civil and human rights organizations and legal scholars. The popular wave of support for indictment of Bush officials may lead to Bush himself."

CIA Videos Predated Bush Legal Memo
A quote...."The CIA began videotaping interrogations of two alleged “high value” terrorist detainees in April 2002, four months before Bush administration attorneys issued a memo clearing the way for CIA interrogators to use “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the Justice Department disclosed in court documents."

Obama Administration Endorses Continued Spying on Americans - Justice Department Moves to Squash NSA Spying Suits -- Special Note - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Since fatuously declaring his to be a "change" administration, President Barack Obama has quickly donned the blood-spattered mantle of state secrecy and executive privilege worn by the Bush regime. -- On Friday April 3, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss one of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) landmark lawsuits against illegal spying by the National Security Agency (NSA)."
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Iraq in Fragments
A quote...."Having recently returned from Iraq, I experienced living in Baghdad where people were dying violent deaths on a daily basis. Nearly every day of the month I spent there saw a car bomb attack somewhere in the capital city. Nearly every day the so-called Green Zone was mortared. Every day there were kidnappings. On good days there were four hours of electricity on the national grid, in a country now into its seventh year of being occupied by the U.S. military, and where there are now over 200,000 private contractors." -- Just another fun loving joy-joy feel-good day in the US-NRE's never ending, now world famous, version of it’s very own "freedom and democracy".  Brought to you by that group of adventure capitalists known as the “true axis of evil" whose members consist of the Saudi Royal Family, Israel and of course the US-NRE itself with the usual helpful assist from the United Kingdom. Anybody else out there want some of this good'ol fashioned "Freedom and Democracy"?  If you do, please feel free to contact any native Native American tribe (that’s still alive) for additional references on the subject, they'll be happy to give you a good idea of how the process really works. – mpg

Dhar Jamail: No Coincidences in Iraq
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Following George W. Bush's example of keeping war funding off the books, President Barack Obama is seeking $83.4 billion in additional "emergency" funding for the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which, if approved, would bring the 2009 funding to around $150 billion and the overall costs of the two wars to nearly $1 trillion. - Obama was a harsh critic of the Bush administration tactic of avoiding placing the costs of both occupations in the overall military budget, yet now he is doing the same." -- also posted at WarInIraq

US vying to 'hand-pick' Afghan president 14 Apr 2009 Washington is using its political clout to influence the outcome of the upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan, a report says. The US embassy in Kabul has urged Afghanistan's leading presidential hopefuls to withdraw from the race in favor of Ali Ahmad Jalali candidate that is preferred by Washington, reported Pakistan's Ummat daily. In return, US official have promised to guarantee key positions for the three candidates -- which include finance minister Ashraf Ghani, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and political activist Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi -- in the next Afghan government." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG

Officials: NATO Strike Kills Six Civilians in Afghanistan - Kunar Province Attack Also Wounded 16, Mostly Children -- A quote...."Provincial officials say a NATO air strike carried out in the Kunar Province overnight has killed six civilians, including two children, and wounded 16 others, most of them also children. The attack destroyed three homes in the restive province, and a three year old girl and 10 year old boy were among those killed." -- also posted at AntiWar

Don't Flash the Yellow Light -- Mixed Messages from Washington Could Lead to Catastrophe in Iran
War Alert - Special Note - Mixed messages?  Who's kidding who?  Obama and his Neocon fellow travelers have been following the PNAC/AIPAC Protocols since day one, this artfully arranged political figleaf of a "disagreement" is just for show, they're most definitely going to attack Iran....the only question is when. – mpg -- A quote...."JERUSALEM -- Israel has been steadily ratcheting up pressure on the United States concerning the grave threat allegedly posed by Iran, which seems poised to master the nuclear fuel cycle, and thus the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. The new Israeli prime minister, Likud Party hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned President Barack Obama that if Washington does not quickly find a way to shut down Iran's nuclear program, Israel will." -- also posted at CommonDreams

Pakistan falling into Taliban hands
A quote...."Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari approves Taliban rule in the Swat valley while the country's army surrenders the restive valley to militants. Zardari's spokeswoman, Farahnaz Ispahani, confirmed that the president signed the regulation on Monday night. This is while Pakistani lawmakers had passed a unanimous resolution early on Monday morning urging for the presidents signature. The parliament passed the measure without debate as the radical insurgents had warned lawmakers against opposing the deal." -- also posted at WarInIraq

Kazakhstan: Military hardware bought from Israel flawed
A quote...." Kazakhstan's security service accused the defense ministry of buying defective military hardware from Israel on Monday, in a rare public spat exposing long-running tensions among the security elite."

'Hezbollah's legitimacy growing in the West'
A quote...."Hezbollah says Western states should stop their support of Israel stating that the resistance movement has been enjoying increased legitimacy. - "In recent years, the Western perception of Hezbollah has changed. Even governments have started to look for reasons to communicate and have relations with Hezbollah ... This indicates that the Islamic resistance has convinced the West it is a popular, authentic and important movement that cannot be ignored," Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said on Monday in an interview with the Los Angeles Times."

Georgia protests enter fifth day
A quote...."Thousands of opposition supporters in Georgia have begun a fifth day of protests, calling on President Mikhail Saakashvili to step down." -- also posted at WarInIraq

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Fact-Finding Mission "Shocked" - link posted at ICH
A quote...."THE HAGUE, Apr 10 (IPS) - A delegation of seven British Labour members of parliament and 10 trade union leaders from the U.S., Canada and Britain said they were in a "state of shock" over what they heard during a week-long fact-finding mission to Colombia."
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Israel’s Racist in Chief -- Article also posted at ICH
A quote...."It was unthinkable, when I was based as a correspondent in Jerusalem two decades ago, that an Israeli politician who openly advocated ethnically cleansing the Palestinians from Israeli-controlled territory, as well as forcing Arabs in Israel to take loyalty oaths or be forcibly relocated to the West Bank, could sit on the Cabinet. The racist tirades of Jewish proto-fascists like Meir Kahane stood outside the law, were vigorously condemned by most Israelis and were prosecuted accordingly. Kahane’s repugnant  Kach Party, labeled by the United States, Canada and the European Union as a terrorist organization, was outlawed by the Israeli government in 1988 for inciting racism. " -- also posted at AmericanEveryman

Key Dutch party: Sanctions against Israel if it thwarts peace
A quote...."The Netherlands must impose economic sanctions against Israel if the new government in Jerusalem thwarts the peace process with the Palestinians, the Dutch Labor party said last week. - Members of Labor, which is a member of government as the country's second largest party, said they intended to write a manifesto on the matter to the foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, from the centrist ruling CDA party, who is largely seen as a staunch supporter of Israel." -- also posted at WarInIraq

Israeli settlers storm al-Aqsa Mosque
A quote...."In another act of hostility against the Palestinians, scores of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque's courtyard in occupied al-Quds. - Eyewitnesses said the illegal settlers led by radical leaders forced their way into the Haram al-Sharif (Holy Sanctuary) courtyard, but Israeli police did not try to stop them. - Police officers later on attacked Palestinian worshipers and arrested one when they tried to apparently stop the extremist settlers from causing damage inside the courtyard. - According to reports, police also harassed other worshipers who were conducting their midday prayers at the Mosque in al-Quds (Jerusalem)."
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Gordon Brown's plan to introduce compulsory community service would be included in Labour's next general election manifesto -- Wow, exactly like Obama's plan. - mpg -- A quote...."Gordon Brown has vowed to make every young person do 50 hours of voluntary work by the time they reach the age of 19. The Prime Minister said a pledge to introduce compulsory community service would be included in Labour's next general election manifesto." -- For more on this sort of issue see....White Man's Burden - 12-20-06 - mpg

Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists
A quote...."A Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment equates gun owners with violent terrorists and states that radical extremists are “stockpiling” weapons in fear of an Obama administration gun ban. This newly uncovered document is just the latest in a long sordid line of training manuals in which the federal government characterizes millions of American citizens as potentially violent terrorists who are a threat to law enforcement."

As Firearm Sales Surge, Democrats Drop Assault Weapons Ban
A quote...."As firearms sales in the United States hit new highs, the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are squelching talk of a renewal of the assault weapons ban passed by Congress that lapsed in 2004, saying they don't want a distraction from their agenda and don't have the votes in Congress." -- also posted at RogueGov

"U.S. mainstream media isn’t interested in finding the truth"
Special Note - Some quotes...." The mainstream U.S. media isn’t helping in the search for truth, says Luke Rudkowski from the social justice movement 'We Are Change'."  ---  Q: What are the hard questions?
A: We go up to members… we shake their hands and we ask them what happens when you meet with the world's elites and banking media corporations and governments all around the world in secret… I literally had people shaking my hand and as soon as I stopped asking the question this person just walks away from me in silence. You see shock on his face, and he walks away without even talking to me… and these people are going to tell me that they don't establish policy? -- And we get many important things on record… Our confrontation with senator Joe Biden went all over the internet. Because we asked what he was doing with the financer of Mohamed Atta before 9/11, after 9/11, and even on the day of 9/11, when he met with Pakistani chief of the ISA Mahmood Ahmed who financed Mohamed Atta, and wired 100,000 dollars to him. We asked him why were you meeting with the financer of Mohamed Atta?"

Don't Miss Richard gage in Montreal - April 18!
Event Alert - A quote...."The lecture (in English) will be chaired by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, a world renowned scholar, researcher, writer, and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization. -- Richard Gage, member of the American Institute of Architects, has been a practicing architect for 20 years and has worked on most types of building construction, including numerous fire-proofed steel-framed buildings. In March 2006, he founded Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth."
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Inconvenient Debt - Alt - (YouTube - 3 min 58 sec - January 29, 2009) - posted at ICH
Video - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The amount of U.S. dollars in circulation is skyrocketing. What does it mean for you? Watch then share this video!"

Sunday April 12th 2009

Obama and habeas corpus -- then and now
Special Note - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."It was once the case under the Bush administration that the U.S. would abduct people from around the world, accuse them of being Terrorists, ship them to Guantanamo, and then keep them there for as long as we wanted without offering them any real due process to contest the accusations against them.  That due-process-denying framework was legalized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.  Many Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- claimed they were vehemently opposed to this denial of due process for detainees, and on June 12, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Boumediene v. Bush, ruled that the denial of habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo detainees was unconstitutional and that all Guantanamo detainees have the right to a full hearing in which they can contest the accusations against them." -- also posted at CommonDreams

Not Just State Secrets: Obama Continuing Bush's Stonewalling On Gitmo Cases, Lawyer Claims
Special Note - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Yesterday we told you about the Obama Justice Department's invocation of a sweeping state secrets privilege in a warrantless wiretapping case. But that may not be the only area in which the new administration's war on terror tactics recall the worst excesses of the Bush years."

Fujimori’s Lesson for Bush
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."If President Bush and Vice-President Cheney think that time is on their side with respect to crimes committed by their administration, this week’s criminal conviction of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori should put those thoughts to rest. Returning to Peru in the hope of returning to power, Fujimori was instead put on trial and convicted of “crimes against humanity,” including the killing of 25 people by military death squad."

Torturer-In-Chief
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."Former President George W. Bush may be indicted for torture. -- Far fetched?  Not anymore. -- In March Baltasar Garzón, a Spanish judge, asked prosecutors to determine whether there is enough evidence to charge six former members of the Bush administration with torturing prisoners.  Should they be indicted as now seems likely it will be hard to argue that their superiors up to and including the former President himself should not be indicted as well."
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The Art of the Scam - Wall Street and the Pentagon
A quote...."Bill Moyers conducted a fantastic interview with Professor Bill Black, a specialist in securities fraud, on April 3 (Listen to the podcast here) and read Moyers' analysis of this interview in CounterPunch. I found the interview fascinating, because the scam in the banking industry is so similar to the scam in the Pentagon, only the scale of the fraud perpetrated by the bankers made the milcrats in the Pentagon look like pikers. -- At the heart of both scams is the deliberate corruption of information on such a vast scale that it overwhelms the mind of the educated layman to make sense out of it."

An Iraqi City Divided by Walls, by Sect, By Bitterness
A quote...."SAMARRA, Iraq -- Fifteen feet tall, half a mile long, the walls wind like a concrete ribbon through the heart of this scarred holy city, the cradle of Iraq's sectarian war. Shiite pilgrims flow alongside them toward the shattered al-Askari mosque, a symbol of a resuscitating Iraq. Shiite national security forces -- and not a single local Sunni policeman -- patrol the area."

INTERVIEW-Iraq Sunni anti-Qaeda leader eyes Shi'ite alliance
A quote...."RAMADI, Iraq, April 12 (Reuters) - A senior leader in a Sunni Arab movement founded to combat al Qaeda in Iraq is edging away from the military activity of the past, towards a once unthinkable alliance with the country's Shi'ite prime minister."

Egypt joins Israel in anti-Hezbollah campaign
A quote...."Egypt is mulling over building a case against Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in line with an Israeli campaign launched against the movement. -- Egyptian lawmakers and legal experts have called for an arrest warrant for the Lebanese movement's leader, accusing him of "encouraging terror activities in an attempt to destabilize the [Egyptian] state," the Saudi-based Al Arabiya television network reported Sunday. "

Obama threatens Pakistan
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."As I listened to President Obama's address to the nation and his wartime rhetoric, I held my breath. He didn't speak softly. His tone was harsh and threatening. He carried a big stick. That was quite obvious. The spontaneous reaction of all those present was that Obama had learned nothing from history and was not going to change course in Afghanistan or Pakistan. As they say, it was deja vu all over again. What he said was no different from what George W Bush had been saying for years."

Scott Horton Interviews Mark Almond
Audio Interview - A quote...."Mark Almond, Lecturer in Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford, discusses the discontent about elections in Moldova, the devastation wreaked by neoliberal economics, the encroachment of NATO recruitment on former soviet states, political instability in Georgia and Kosovo and the bureaucratic inertia in NATO that seeks continual expansion."

Russia test-fires intercontinental missile
A quote...."MOSCOW, April 10 (Reuters) - Russia successfully test-fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday as part of checks needed to extend its service life for up to 22 years, Russian media reported."
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Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger's site
Censorship Alert -- A quote...."Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices." -- also posted at DProgram

New bird flu cases suggest the danger of pandemic is rising --Infections in Egypt raise scientists' fears that virus will be spread by humans 12 Apr 2009 Bird flu is becoming less deadly --but scientists fear that this is the very thing that could make the [H5N1] virus more able to cause a pandemic that would kill hundreds of millions of people. This paradox, emerging from Egypt, threatens to increase the disease's ability to spread from person to person by helping it achieve the crucial mutation in the virus which could turn it into the greatest plague to hit Britain since the Black Death. [See: Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004.] -- Paragraph quoted from CLG

"Ian Tomlinson: three-year wait for G20 death verdict --Family of the newspaper vendor who died in G20 demo face long wait for justice, say legal experts 12 Apr 2009 The family of Ian Tomlinson face a three-year wait for an inquest into his death, according to legal experts, who say that pressures on the coroners' system are "frustrating the grieving process" for victims' relatives. The claim is likely to dismay critics of the police, who have expressed concerns about how Tomlinson's death is being investigated. According to the first post-mortem examination, Tomlinson, a homeless newspaper vendor with a drink problem, died after suffering a heart attack while caught up in at last week's G20 protests after getting bashed in the skull by a sociopath." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG
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Rotten Orchard: Israeli Soldiers Testify to War Crimes - posted at PalestineChron
A quote...."On March 19th, two months after the 22-day devastation of Gaza and the slaughtering of over 1,400 Palestinians, the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz published harrowing testimonies by numerous Israeli soldiers who had participated in "Operation Cast Lead." -- The soldiers, all recent graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory program, were speaking at an open academic forum about their recent military experiences and, as Sarah Anne Minkin of Jewish Peace News reports, "confessed that they'd knowingly shot civilians to death in Gaza, that they'd intentionally vandalized Palestinian homes, and that the rules of engagement in the war - rules handed down from above - were exceptionally permissive."

The Dolphin and the Dabura - Gazan Waters, 1st September, 2008
Video - A quote....""On the 1st September 2008, the first day of Ramadan, several volunteers with the Free Gaza Movement and the International Solidarity Movement accompanied a small fleet of seven fishing vessels from Gaza City port. - The fishermen exercised their right to fish in Gazan territorial waters, providing them with a livelihood and providing food for the besieged people of Gaza. The fishing fleet reached approximately nine miles offshore and began trawling along the Gazan coast, well within international limits. Usually the Israeli Navy prevents Gazan fishing vessels from accessing beyond six miles and in many cases only three miles, by attacking the boats, sometimes lethally, or by arresting the fishermen."

More than 150,000 Gazans still without tap water
A quote...."GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Over 150,000 Palestinians in Gaza (around 10 percent of the population) are struggling without tap water as a result of the damage caused to wells, pipes and waste water facilities during the recent 22-day Israeli offensive that ended on 18 January."

In Gaza, farming under fire
A quote...."KHAN YOUNIS, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - "They're always shooting at us. Every day they shoot at us," says Alaa Samour, 19, pulling aside his shirt to show a scar on his shoulder. Samour said he was shot on 28 December last year by Israeli soldiers positioned along the border fence near New Abassan village, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip."

Israeli forces arrest a German national and an Italian national in At-Tuwani
A quote...."A German national and an Italian national were taken by Israeli forces while accompanying farmers at 11am. Both individuals have been taken to the police station at Kyrat Arba. Palestinian farmers in At-Tuwani rely on the presence of International and Israeli human rights workers to mitigate violence from settlers."
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The High Priests of Deception
A quote...."Bernanke, Geithner and Summers are the high priests of high-leverage speculative finance. They pretend that they can stop the worldwide depression with their oracular powers, and that the financial plague is not that bad. But the facts say otherwise...."

The Great Geithner Coverup - Alt - (YouTube - 7 min 12 sec - April 09, 2009
An analysis of the Bill Moyer's interview with William K Black. -- A quote...."Economist William K. Black of the University of Missouri appeared in an interview on PBS last week with Bill Moyers. He pulls no punches in spelling out who is really responsible for our current economic disaster, and why our own Treasury Secretary is leading the charge to keep the truth covered up." -- For more on this issue see....Enforcing the Rules -- Too Little, Too Late - 02-27-09 - mpg -- For the entire Bill Moyer's interview see below....

Bill Moyers Interviews William K Black
Video Interview - The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout" -- ||  Transcript  ||  Podcast Mp3  || -- posted 04-03-09

Fed Said to Order Banks to Stay Mum on ‘Stress Test’ Results
A quote...."19 of the nation's largest banks have been told by the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep quiet on the results of economic 'stress tests' that regulators are conducting to judge the banks' financial preparedness." -- also posted at RawStory & BLN

Banks Fail in Colorado, North Carolina
A quote...."Regulators shut down two banks Friday, bringing the total number of bank and thrift failures during 2009 to 23. For the third time in less than a month, the FDIC apparently was unable to find a buyer for one of the failed institutions."

North Carolina, Colorado Banks Shut as 2009 Failures Reach 23
Related Article - A quote...."April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Banks in Colorado and North Carolina were shut as rising unemployment and a loss of jobs shrinks household wealth in the deepest recession in a quarter century, pushing the toll of U.S. bank failures to 23 this year." -- also posted at DProgram

China foreign exchange reserves at $1.954 trillion - Let's just call it two trilion shall we? - mpg
A quote...."BEIJING -China's central bank said Saturday that its foreign exchange reserves rose 16 percent year-on-year to $1.9537 trillion by the end of March."

Saturday April 11th 2009

Hope Abandoned: Obama Protects and Promotes CIA Torture Mavens
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."It was obvious from the moment that Barack Obama appointed Leon Panetta to head the CIA that there was going to be no serious investigation -- much less prosecution -- of the high crimes of torture committed by the agency at the order of the Bush White House. Panetta, a Clinton retread (who actually began his career in the Nixon administration), has always been a bland, feckless, obedient servant of the Establishment; he has no outside power base, no pull, no heft, no popularity -- nothing that would enable him to grab hold of the CIA with both hands and clean that fetid, blood-encrusted house. And of course, it was precisely this kind of powerless figure that Barack Obama wanted in the post." - also posted at CounterPunch

The Warren Report - "Liquidate the Banks; Fire the Executives!"
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...." April 10, 2009 "ICH" -- On Tuesday, a congressional panel headed by ex-Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren released a report on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's handling of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Warren was appointed to lead the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) in November by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. From the opening paragraph on, the Warren report makes clear that Congress is frustrated with Geithner's so-called "Financial Rescue Plan" and doesn't have the foggiest idea of what he is trying to do. Here are the first few lines of "Assessing Treasury's Strategy: Six Months of TARP":'"
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Cost of Iraq war will surpass Vietnam's by year's end
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Reporting from Washington -- The amount of U.S. money spent on the Iraq war will surpass the cost of Vietnam by the end of the year, making it the second most expensive military conflict in American history, behind World War II, according to Pentagon figures provided Friday." -- And the really amusing thing is that the occupation of Iraq is just beginning and the costs for it will NOT decline substantially. - mpg

'Fallujah never leaves my mind'
A quote....""What you saw on your TV sets at home reflects only ten per cent of the reality. Also, if you watch those pictures at home, you can change the channel. But we were in the middle. We smell. We feel, see, and touch everything. We could touch the bodies, but we couldn't change the channel. We were the channel."

Arrests Deepen Iraqi Sunnis’ Bitterness
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Members of the Sunni Awakening Councils, the former insurgents who switched sides to help bring calm to Iraq, are increasingly being besieged from all sides. -- Thirteen members were killed by a suicide bomber while they gathered to collect their pay south of Baghdad on Saturday, in the latest of a string of attacks against Awakening members in recent weeks. Some of the Sunnis also worry that the Shiite-led government has begun singling out the councils’ leaders for arrest while their chief patron, the American military, slowly abandons them."

Lawsuit: Firms sold poison gas ingredients to Iraq
A quote...."HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Three companies illegally sold materials to Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s for making chemical weapons that were used to carry out attacks against thousands of Iraqi Kurds and ultimately caused scores of chronic ailments, according to a federal lawsuit."

Al-Maliki in Moscow seeks closer relations with Russia
A quote...." Moscow - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin requested greater investment by Russian firms in Iraq. According to the Interfax news agency, Putin agreed to help in the building of a 'strong and independent Iraq.'" -- Oh certainly, espically that "independent" part. - mpg
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Ten Nato supply containers torched in Peshawar
This is the key of course, if the militants keep attacking the supply lines, the occupation and colonization of Afghanistan will become increasingly difficult, if not completely impossible. - mpg -- A quote...."PESHAWAR: Unknown militants have, yet another time, carried out rocket attack on Nato supply terminal which erupted fire engulfing terminal, located on Ring Road here early on Sunday, Geo news reported."
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Iran says it controls entire nuclear fuel cycle
A quote...."Iran now controls the entire cycle for producing nuclear fuel with the opening of a new facility to produce uranium fuel pellets, the Iranian president said Saturday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the speech two days after the inauguration of the facility which produces uranium oxide pellets for a planned 40-megawatt heavy-water nuclear reactor near the town of Arak, central Iran."

Return to What Negotiations?
A quote...."The European Union’s Germany, France and United Kingdom, in association with the United States, China and Russia, (the so-called E3+3) have reportedly recently offered Iran "a range of economic and political incentives" to "return to negotiations," this time without U.S. insistence on "preconditions." -- "What negotiations?"

Lavrov: Ties with US on good track, Russia won't increase pressure on Iran
A quote...."Lavrov said that Russia and the US are going "in the right direction," but added that Moscow wouldn't discuss any trade-offs. He said that the Kremlin had no intention of raising pressure on Iran."

Spiegel Interview with Iranian President Ahmadinejad
Interview -- A quote...."'We Are Neither Obstinate nor Gullible' -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke with SPIEGEL about what he expects from US President Barack Obama, why America's new Afghanistan strategy is wrong and why Iran should have a spot on the UN Security Council." -- also posted at ICH
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Georgia's thorny 'rose revolution'
Special Note - A quote...."The opposition in Georgia is launching mass protests in an attempt to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili."

Georgian ombudsman urges police to react to acts of terrorism against opposition supporters
Related Article - A quote...."Georgian ombudsman Sozar Subari urges law enforcement agencies to immediately react to the acts of terrorism against the opposition supporters. -- Ombudsman's statement came after 'Why' youth movement activists Lasha Kopaliani, Irakli Khukhuneishvili, Natiya Archvadze and others appealed Ombudsman's Office on April 9 claiming that masked men in three Jeep cars blocked their way when they were returning from the demonstration in Rustaveli Avenue and beat them. Unmasked men said they will be punished more severely if they join the demonstration again."

Who is behind Moldova's Twitter Revolution?
Special Note - A quote....""A lot of what we [National Endowment for Democracy] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." -Allen Weinstein -- It seems that those who anticipated the end of color revolutions have been proven wrong. So far, color revolutions have succeeded in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. On the other hand, they have failed in Belarus, Uzbekistan and Myanmar. Their common denominator is a wave of protests and sometimes riots whose purpose is to overthrow a local government, often held during electoral times or shortly afterwards. It has not gone unnoticed that the so called color revolutions have been backed (and engineered?) by enthusiastic western supporters including NGO's, diplomats, businessmen, governmental institutions and heads of state. In those countries where such political mobilizations have prevailed, pro-Western leaders have been enthroned as a result thereof. If one pays close attention to a map, it is impossible not to wonder if it is simply a coincidence that color revolutions have erupted in countries close to Russian and Chinese borders. It has to be pointed out that no color revolution has ever occurred in any country whose government is staunchly pro-Western."

Moldova requests EU investigation following riots
Related Article - A quote...."Moldova's President has asked the EU to investigate the cause of this week's post-election riots in the capital, Chisinau. Hundreds were injured when demonstrators stormed the parliament and president's office following victory by the country's ruling Communist party in parliamentary elections. Moldova's Constitutional Court is set to consider a recount of the results. The opposition, which organised the protests, claims the national vote was rigged, although the Central Election Committee has confirmed the results and international observers declared the elections were fair. The opposition is promising a fresh round of protests on Sunday."
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A Timeline of CIA Atrocities
Special Note - A quote...."The following timeline describes just a few of the hundreds of atrocities and crimes committed by the CIA. (1) -- CIA operations follow the same recurring script. First, American business interests abroad are threatened by a popular or democratically elected leader. The people support their leader because he intends to conduct land reform, strengthen unions, redistribute wealth, nationalize foreign-owned industry, and regulate business to protect workers, consumers and the environment. So, on behalf of American business, and often with their help, the CIA mobilizes the opposition. First it identifies right-wing groups within the country (usually the military), and offers them a deal: “We’ll put you in power if you maintain a favorable business climate for us.” The Agency then hires, trains and works with them to overthrow the existing government (usually a democracy). It uses every trick in the book: propaganda, stuffed ballot boxes, purchased elections, extortion, blackmail, sexual intrigue, false stories about opponents in the local media, infiltration and disruption of opposing political parties, kidnapping, beating, torture, intimidation, economic sabotage, death squads and even assassination."

Scott Horton Interviews Glenn Greenwald
Audio Interview - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional lawyer and current Salon.com blogger, discusses the nefarious origin of the state secrets privilege, the ways in which Obama has exceeded the Bush administration on secrecy invocations, the fight over releasing the few remaining Bush torture memos and the Obama administration’s foot-dragging over prosecuting Bush-era crimes."
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U.S. shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion
Must Read - (For the outrage) - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."A week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 20-foot containers of munitions, each weighing 14,000 tonnes, to Israel. In the dying days of the Bush administration, and a week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign, followed by a land invasion of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 containers of munitions to Israel." - Looks like Obama likes to burn little babies alive...heh? - mpg -- For more on this entire issue see....

Obama's Solution For Ending The Israeli Onslaught in Gaza Was To Bribe Israel With More Smart Bombs  - Alt - Video - (View for the outrage) - Obama™ Update - (YouTube - 1 min 48 sec - March 30, 2009) -- A quote...."CNN interviews Symour Hersh -- Obama's Solution For Ending The Israeli Onslaught in Gaza Was To Bribe Israel With More Smart Bombs Make note he was trying to get it done before his inauguration, I wonder why that was?" - posted 04-02-09 -- For more on this issue see...Israel Pauses (Politely) for the Emperor's Coronation - 01-16-09 - mpg & Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08


Israeli settlers attack a Palestine Ambulance in Hebron old city
A quote...."A group of Israeli settlers attacked on Saturday afternoon a Palestine Ambulance in Hebron old city in the southern part of the West Bank. The ambulance belongs to the Red Crescent Society, the largest ambulance service in the Palestinian territories, witnesses and medics operating the ambulance said that the car sustained damage."

Report: “437 children killed, 1872 injured in Israel’s offensive”
A quote...."Ministry of Social Affairs in the Gaza Strip reported that the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip left 1500 children orphans, in addition to killing 437 children and wounding 1500 others."

Holocaust survivor abused by Israeli security
Video - A quote...."“Because you are a terrorist.” - They strip-searched a holocaust survivor and called her… a terrorist.  All for simply empathizing with the plight of Palestinians…"
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Obama and the Banks By Joseph Halevi
A quote...."If we take a look at the recent self-described progressive US presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton), we will notice that their progressiveness invariably fades away, not even intentionally.  That is because the beast compels them to align themselves with its own reality.  Carter, who campaigned against the wage stagnation of the Nixon-Ford years, collapsed in the face of the anti-inflationary policy inaugurated by the Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker in 1979.  That policy opened the door to the financialization of the economy and the weakening of the labor market on which the Reagan presidency rested.  Bill Clinton’s capitulation came with the abandonment of the health care reform and the deregulation of both communications and banking rules.  The very people who implemented the latter are at the heart of the Obama administration.  They are the proconsuls of the beast.  For instance, Larry Summers, when he was in the Clinton administration, opposed all calls to regulate the trafficking of financial derivatives.  Today Summers and Geithner are getting Obama to capitulate on the issue of capitalization of the banks in crisis."

The Economic Crisis: No, this will not be a Normal Cyclical Recovery
A quote...."Philip Tetlock, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, spent two decades tracking 82,000 predictions made by 284 experts. His findings, reported in his book,  “Expert Political Judgment,” are that, on average, the expert's predictions were only bit better than random guessing would have been. He writes, “It made virtually no difference whether participants had doctorates, whether they were economists, political scientists, journalists or historians, whether they had policy experience or access to classified information, or whether they had logged many or few years of experience.” The only consistent attribute was fame, and the relationship was inverse. The more famous experts made worse predictions than the unknown forecasters did. Dean Baker."

Banks aren't reselling many foreclosed homes - This is happening nation wide. It also happened in '82. - mpg
Market Alert - Special Note - A quote...."A vast "shadow inventory" of foreclosed homes that banks are holding off the market could wreak havoc with the already battered real estate sector, industry observers say. - Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down."

Friday April 10th 2009

Getting a Death Grip on Memory
Must Read - A quote...."A headline in the New York Times announced a few days ago: "Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory." This news ran above the fold on the front page. "Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain," the article began. Readers quickly learned that it's starting to happen: "Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory..." -- Big deal. American media outlets have been pulling off such feats for a long time."

Light at the End of the Tunnel? Wrong! -- The Decade of Darkness
Must Read - A quote...."It's been 21 months since two Bear Stearns hedge funds defaulted, setting off a series of events which have led to the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression. No one expected the financial earthquake to shake this hard or ripple this fast. The failure at Bear triggered a shock in the secondary market where mortgage loans are repackaged into securities and sold to investors. That market is now completely paralyzed cutting off 40 percent of funding for consumer and business loans and thrusting the broader economy into a deep recession. Banks and financial institutions have been forced to curtail their off-balance sheet operations and build their reserves which have ballooned from $45 billion to nearly $700 billion in the last 6 months alone. Like millions of homeowners who have seen their home equity vanish and their retirement savings slashed in half, the banks are hunkering down, hoping they can outlast the deflationary hurricane ahead."

The Emperor's new clothes: Mr Change's recent European trip
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Do you remember Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about the Emperor's new clothes? - After spending dazzling fortunes on a new set of exquisite clothes, made by the world's finest tailors, the emperor decided to parade through the streets of his capital, dressed in his new outfit. In fact, his tailors had fooled him and used the money they received for anything but the promised delicate materials. They just pretended to be cutting, sewing and adjusting imaginary fabrics. Thus the emperor went on parade stark naked, with the entire court pretending to admire his clothes. The populace was stunned to see their respected ruler in the buff, but nobody dared to admit what he was seeing. Except for this little boy who exclaimed the emperor went around naked. Only then did the crowd dare to say that, indeed, it was seeing a crowned, but naked man, instead of their emperor dressed in full sartorial splendor."

How Obama voted on war funding bills in Congress
Obama™ Update -- For the record -- A quote...."Major war-funding legislation while Barack Obama was in the Senate, and how he voted...." -- also posed at AntiWar

Dennis Ross's Iran Plan
Obama™ Update -- A quote....When Dennis Ross, a hawkish, pro-Israel adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, was elevated in February to the post of special adviser on "the Gulf and Southwest Asia"--i.e., Iran--Ross's critics hoped that his influence would be marginal. After all, unlike special envoys George Mitchell (Israel-Palestine) and Richard Holbrooke (Afghanistan-Pakistan), whose appointments were announced with fanfare, Ross's appointment was long delayed and then announced quietly, at night, in a press release." -- also posted at WarInIraq
 & ICH

How Many Democrats Will Stand Up to Obama's Bloated Military Budget and $75 Billion More in War Spending? -- Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Obama wants billions more for the Iraq/Afghanistan wars on top of a US military budget that already surpasses Bush-era spending by $21 billion. Where is the resistance?" --  also posted at CommonDreams & ICH

Rahm Emanuel's Think Tankers Enforce 'Message Discipline' Among 'Liberals'
A quote...."Over the past several weeks, independent journalists and anti-war activists have tried to shine a spotlight on how groups like the Center for American Progress and MoveOn, which portrayed themselves as anti-war during the Bush-era, are now supporting the escalation and continuation of wars because their guy is now commander-in-chief. CAP has been actively pounding the pavement in support of the escalation in Afghanistan, the rebranding of the Iraq occupation and, more recently, Obama’s bloated military budget, which the group said was “on target.” MoveOn has been silent on the escalation in Afghanistan and has devoted substantial resources to promoting a federal budget that includes a $21 billion increase in military spending from the Bush-era." - also posted at CommonDreams -- It was all a scam, they're controlling people in this country with "focus groups", "bait & switch strategies" secret polling data to find out which particular bunch of lies would go down the easiest, the usual tactics of spinning, shaping, framing, and outright propaganda, along with every other Madison Avenue technique of mass manipulation.  People are just becoming a bunch of sheep bred and led to the slaughter.  It's a real shame. – mpg

What We Do And Don't Know About US Medical Personnel and Interrogations
A quote...."This week's posting of a confidential International Committee of the Red Cross report [1] (PDF) about the treatment of 14 "high value detainees" held in secret CIA prisons has again raised a nettlesome question [2]: In exactly what ways were medical personnel [3] involved in abusive detainee interrogations?" -- also posted at CommonDreams

German MPs reject Steinmeier’s sanction against Iran
A quote...."BERLIN (IRNA) -- Lawmakers of all parties in German Parliament, except the co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD), slammed Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for planning to step up sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, the daily Der Tagesspiegel said Wednesday." -- also posted at WarInIaq

Tbilisi Takes to the Streets
A quote...." The Opposition Wants Mikheil Saakshvili out of Office in 24 Hours  --  The post-Soviet protest compass for April had been pointed firmly at Georgia for a long while, with today’s opposition protests planned some time ago. The mood in Tbilisi was said to be tense, with many people expecting a rerun of the November 7, 2007 protests that were dispersed by riot police and proved the first crack in the image of Mikheil Saakashvili as a Westernising democrat in Brussels and Washington."

The Origins of US Illegitimacy: Fatal Flaws that Sink the Warren Commission
A quote...."It might have been so simple. JFK is gunned down in Dallas. The fall guy du jour --Lee Harvey Oswald --would take the rap. The patsy was said to have fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository. One of them was said to have created injuries in both President John F. Kennedy and Texas Gov John Connally. Another --said to have killed the President --is likewise attributed to the single shooter in the famous sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository."

Internet Rankings are Massively Gamed
A quote...."Alexa is the most popular free website ranking service. It has been described as "a Nielson rating for the popularity of the website you are visiting." - With a higher Alexa rank, more people will be attracted to reading your website (on the theory that if its a popular site, it must be good), and advertisers will be more interested in paying to run ads on your site. - Those in the know have realized for some time that Alexa isn't perfectly accurate."
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A convoy of hundreds of medical and food trucks heading to Gaza soon
Action Alert - A quote...."It’s now three years since Israel imposed this tight and deadly siege on Gaza. The brutal siege is devastating every aspect of life in Gaza. Thousands of families continue to suffer, while many others are dying due to the lack of basic treatment and medical equipment. The basic infrastructure supplying water, power and sanitation is in devastation making life unbearable for the 1.5 million inhabitants, which further compounds the misery of the people. The war totally destroyed what was left from the siege. Thousands were killed and injured and thousands turned disabled."

Gaza Fact-Finding Mission Report Published
A quote...."Independent fact-finding mission of medical experts commissioned by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) published today (April 6) its special report on the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, 27.12.2008 18.01.2009. -- In their report, the experts detail 44 testimonies by civilians who came under attack and by medical staff who were prevented from evacuating the wounded. The report provides first-hand evidence regarding the broader effects of the attacks on a civilian population that was already vulnerable on the eve of the offensive."

Palestinian Nationalism
A quote...."The Palestinians need a state not just to live within borders. They need a state that all peoples claim, especially those who are dispossessed, to assure ontological security and live healthy lives."
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Archbishop says pending report to show Irish priests abused 'thousands' of children
A quote...."At a Thursday mass in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, an Irish Archbishop shocked his congregation, which included numerous priests, by exclaiming that a forthcoming investigative report will reveal that over three decades, Irish Catholic priests have abused "thousands" of children. -- "[The report] will make us and the entire church a humbler church," he said." - also posted at RogueGov -- For more on this issue see.....

Catholic church paid 436 mln dlrs for abuse cases - [in 2008]
A quote...."The US Roman Catholic church has paid out 436 million dollars in 2008 for sex abuse cases involving clergy members, according to an official report aimed at healing deep wounds of the scandal that blew up in 2002" -- "The sums paid out in settlement had fallen 29 percent compared with the record 526 million dollars paid in 2007, the report showed." -- Wow! Guess they're making real progress then, hey? This is utterly UNACCEPTABLE, this website editor isn't Catholic, so those who are can take this advice for whatever it's worth to them, but it does appear that it's high time the Catholic Church allow their priests, and in fact better yet, insists that their priests, establish families and practice what they preach and ask those priests of any other persuasion - or predilection - to kindly leave.  Just a suggestion. – mpg -- posted 03-13-09

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Tyler Durden on Quant Dynamics
Must Read - Market Tech Note - A quote...."Given that I frequently lambast credit default swaps, you might be surprised to see me sing the praises of a CDS trader. -- But Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge - whose day job was as a CDS trader - is well worth reading. Durden is sharp as a tack, has access to technical info, and has good industry contacts. --  SeekingAlpha and NakedCapitalism have started running Durden's blogs, and now even Nouriel Roubini is linking to Durden's blog entitled "The Incredibly Shrinking Market Liquidity, Or The Upcoming Black Swan Of Black Swans".

A Game of Credit Cost Smoke and Mirrors at Wells Fargo?
A quote...."Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC: 19.61 +31.70%) managed to bring some holiday cheer into financial markets Wednesday, just ahead of the Easter holiday, with its pronouncement that it expects to post a record quarterly net income of $3 billion — or 55 cents per share — when it officially reports Q1 2009 earnings later this month. But more than a few voices are already questioning the results, warning that this quarter’s big gain is more likely to be a flash in the pan than a market turning point"

Bailout Bonds?
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Are you all for Obama's economic plans? Do you think that bailing out failing companies, and throwing trillions into the national money pit, is just the ticket for stimulating the economy back to recovery?"

You Know Things Are Bad When Even Newsweek Is Slamming the Obama Administration for Caving in to the Financial Status Quo -- Obama™ Update -- Some quotes...."You know things are bad when even one of the most mainstream publications - Newsweek - is slamming the Obama administration for caving to the financial status quo, and sounding the same themes that I and other "alternative" writers have been shouting into the wind about for many months." -- "Newsweek writer Michael Hersh writes:

Major Wall Street players are digging in against fundamental changes. And while it clearly wants to install serious supervision, the Obama administration—along with other key authorities like the New York Fed—appears willing to stand back while Wall Street resurrects much of the ultracomplex global trading system that helped lead to the worst financial collapse since the Depression.

Economy
A quote...."To date I have twice been robbed of lots of money (or what seemed like lots of money). The first theft occurred overseas when I was at a dinner party. Someone must have seen me at the bank withdrawing cash, and followed me home. Later that night the same someone crawled through an unlocked window and headed straight for the bank envelope. The moral was plain (not that I mastered it) – lock your house and don’t be an ass. The latest theft occurred in my native country. I learned about it when a piece of paper arrived suggesting that my "investments" were melting like cotton candy in a squall."

The Law of Unintended Consequences
A quote...."The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in order to control the rats (which were eating the sugar cane used to make rum). It didn't work out very well - mongeese are daylight-loving creatures while rats are nocturnal - and the mongeese trashed the native species in Hawaii. -- Likewise, the U.S. government has subsidized ethanol production for years. But the Congressional Budget Office says this week that increased ethanol use is responsible for about 10 to 15 percent of the rise in food prices from 2007 to 2008, and only reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by less than 1 percent."

Thursday April 9th 2009

Obama's obscene remarks in Iraq
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."It is hard to know where to begin on Obama's remarks in Iraq yesterday during a visit described unnecessarily by our press as a "surprise" since that is the only sort of visit a US President can make to Iraq.  What is more appalling?  The casual obscenity of a US President calling upon a nation that the US has been beating, brutalizing, and raping (that is when not using like a pawn in geo political games) for decades to "take responsibility for itself" or the fact that he has absolutely no idea of how much like a criminal sociopath he sounds when making such remarks?

Keith Olbermann's Scathing Criticism of Obama's Secrecy/Immunity Claims
Obama™ Update -- A quote....April 08, "Salon" -- Several weeks ago, I noted that unlike the Right -- which turned itself into a virtual cult of uncritical reverence for George W. Bush especially during the first several years of his administration -- large numbers of Bush critics have been admirably willing to criticize Obama when he embraces the very policies that prompted so much anger and controversy during the Bush years.  Last night, Keith Olbermann -- who has undoubtedly been one of the most swooning and often-uncritical admirers of Barack Obama of anyone in the country (behavior for which I rather harshly criticized him in the past) -- devoted the first two segments of his show to emphatically lambasting Obama and Eric Holder's DOJ for the story I wrote about on Monday:  namely, the Obama administration's use of the radical Bush/Cheney state secrets doctrine and -- worse still -- a brand new claim of "sovereign immunity" to insist that courts lack the authority to decide whether the Bush administration broke the law in illegally spying on Americans."  --  For a look at the video click here -- Obama™ Update - (YouTube - 4 min 15 sec - April 07, 2009)

Hope Abandoned: Obama Protects and Promotes CIA Torture Mavens
Obama™ Update -- A quote....It was obvious from the moment that Barack Obama appointed Leon Panetta to head the CIA that there was going to be no serious investigation -- much less prosecution -- of the high crimes of torture committed by the agency at the order of the Bush White House. Panetta, a Clinton retread (who actually began his career in the Nixon administration), has always been a bland, feckless, obedient servant of the Establishment; he has no outside power base, no pull, no heft, no popularity -- nothing that would enable him to grab hold of the CIA with both hands and clean that fetid, blood-encrusted house. And of course, it was precisely this kind of powerless figure that Barack Obama wanted in the post." -- also posted at CunterPunch

America, Torture and Hypocrisy - Posted at ConsortiumNews
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The International Committee of the Red Cross’s torture report should be required reading for all Americans not just because its contents are shocking – which they are – but because it reveals that the United States is not the special nation that it often pretends to be, and won’t be as long as it chooses to look away from such crimes." -- also posted at Uruknet       

Gates's Budget Sleight of Hand - Posted at ConsortiumNews
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Defense Secretary Robert Gates has played up the cuts in Cold War weapons in his fiscal year 2010 budget, while playing down the fact that the overall military budget is about $20 billion higher."

Obama to seek $83.4 billion for Iraq, Afghan wars
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Obama to seek $83.4 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan wars as costs near $1 trillion -- President Barack Obama is seeking $83.4 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing for a war supplemental spending bill like the ones he repeatedly voted against when he was senator and George W. Bush was president."

Barack Obama uses Bush funding tactics to finance wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
A quote...."President Barack Obama has requested another $83.4 billion (£57 billion) from Congress to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, using a controversial special troop funding provision that he voted against as a senator."

Hero Blues: Liberals Line Up With Militarism
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."In her latest outing, Walsh is transported near to tears by images of the president greeting soldiers during his unannounced visit to Iraq. (Yes, even though the "surge" has been "a success beyond our wildest dreams," as Obama instructed us last year, American leaders still have to creep into the "liberated" land like a thief in the night.) In worshipful tones that one might have heard directed at the president at any point in the previous eight years from, say, National Review Online or Pajamas Media, Walsh gawps in awe at the bonding of the legions with their imperator...."

The Only Thing that has “Changed” is You…
Photo Essay - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Blame the last President, blame the other party, but never never blame the system...."

Gen. Odierno: US May Ignore Iraq Deadline Because of al-Qaeda
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."In yet another sign that the Obama Administration’s “pullout” timeline for Iraq is not set in stone, General Ray Odierno told The Times today that US combat troops may remain in Iraq’s cities beyond the June 30 deadline mandated by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). He pointed to increased trouble from al-Qaeda as the justification."

60 drone hits kill 14 al-Qaeda men, 687 civilians
Obama™ Update -- A quote....LAHORE: Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides perishing 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent."

US military admits killing mother, children
A quote,,,,KABUL (AFP) – The US military in Afghanistan admitted Thursday that four people its troops killed in a raid were not "combatants", after Afghans said they included a mother and her children, with a baby dying afterwards."

The Disappeared
A quote...."What happened to terror suspects Washington turned over to foreign governments? -- The CIA quietly moved scores of detainees out of its own "black site" prisons in recent years and turned them over to foreign governments, refusing to provide the International Red Cross any information about their treatment or whereabouts, according to a report made public this week."

U.S. military judge reinstates fired Khadr lawyer
A quote...."NEW YORK — A military judge Tuesday overruled the Pentagon in its firing of Omar Khadr's military defence lawyer — a decision that provoked more confusion in the Guantanamo Bay case. -- The move by Judge Patrick Parrish, an army colonel, effectively reinstates navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler as chief counsel for the Canadian-born terror suspect just days after Kuebler's immediate boss fired him."

We Didn’t Create a Paradise in Iraq; We Created a Hell”–Independent Journalist Nir Rosen on 6th Anniversary of US Overthrow of Saddam Hussein -- A quote...."Baghdad to mark the sixth anniversary of the fall of the city to US troops, we speak to independent journalist Nir Rosen, who is just back from Iraq. [includes rush transcript]" --   ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  || 

Iraqi protesters call for US exit
A quote...."Thousands of people loyal to an Iraqi Shia leader have gathered in Baghdad to protest against the US' continued presence in the country, six years to the day after the capital fell to American troops."

Six years on, huge protest marks Baghdad's fall
A quote...."BAGHDAD, April 9 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of followers of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr thronged Baghdad on Thursday to mark the sixth anniversary of the city's fall to U.S. troops, and to demand they leave immediately."

PJB: Why Europe Won’t Fight
Special Note - A quote...."“No one will say this publicly, but the true fact is we are all talking about our exit strategy from Afghanistan. We are getting out. It may take a couple of years, but we are all looking to get out.” -- Thus did a “senior European diplomat” confide to The New York Times during Obama’s trip to Strasbourg." -- also posted at AntiWar & ICH

Iran says running 7,000 enrichment centrifuges
A quote...."TEHRAN, April 9 (Reuters) - Iran is now running 7,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges, a senior official said on Thursday, an announcement likely to increase Western concerns about the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear plans."

Ex-CIA operative tied to Cuba bombings: jury
A quote...."MIAMI (Reuters) - A federal grand jury has accused anti-Castro Cuban exile and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles of lying to U.S. authorities about his role in bomb attacks against tourist sites in Cuba in 1997."

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Dutch TV show exonerates Osama bin Laden
A quote...."BERLIN -- A Dutch TV jury has found Osama bin Laden not guilty of the Sept. 11 attacks. -- In the conclusion Wednesday night to the show "Devil's Advocate" on Dutch public broadcaster Nederland 2, the jury of two men and three women, along with the studio audience, ruled there was no proof bin Laden was the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001"

'It felt a little bit like Dr. Strangelove.' Pentagon preps for economic warfare 09 Apr 2009 The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs -- but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis. The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG

"'Will you open fire on UK citizens' Army personnel being asked By IanPJ 02 Mar 2009 In a stunning conversation with a friend, who is a serving member of the Armed Forces, over the weekend, it was revealed that transfers to regiments and other units in the UK on home duties are being undertaken by the MOD based upon whether an individual was prepared to 'open fire' on UK citizens during civil disturbances... The fact that service personnel are actually being asked in special briefing sessions whether they would fire on their own nationals indicates that the rumours about the Army being put on standby are indeed very true." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG
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Jewish settlers rampage through West Bank village
A quote...."SAFA, West Bank (Reuters) - Dozens of Israelis from a Jewish settlement where a Palestinian killed a youth last week rampaged on Wednesday through a West Bank Arab village, smashing car windows and damaging homes, residents and medics said."

Sinn Féin leader: Gaza open-air prison
A quote...."Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish left-wing Sinn Féin, met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza Wednesday night, British news outlets reported Thursday.  "This is an open-air prison," the UK's Guardian quoted the Sinn Féin president as saying."
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Living Large and in Charge
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Not surprisingly, Lawrence Summers is convinced that he deserved every penny of the $8 million that Wall Street firms paid him last year. And why shouldn’t he be cut in on the loot from the loopholes in the toxic derivatives market that he pushed into law when he was Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary? No one has been more persistently effective in paving the way for the financial swindles that enriched the titans of finance while impoverishing the rest of the world than the man who is now the top economic adviser to President Obama."

Trade gap narrows to $26 billion as imports plunge
A quote....The weak U.S. economy has dried up demand for imported goods of all sorts, from autos to zinc. Imports are down 29% in the past year.  However, exports rose in February for the first time since July, suggesting that the first-quarter gross domestic product won't be as bad as many feared."

US ECON: February Consumer Credit Falls $7.5 Bln
A quote....Washington, April 7 - Total US consumer credit fell by $7.5 bln in February, much more than the consensus expectation of a $1.0 bln drop, although most of this decline was from a January level that the Fed revised sharply higher. The Fed said consumer credit jumped $8.1 bln in January, more than the $1.8 bln increase it first reported." - So it's been about even for the last two months. - mpg

  Wednesday April 8th 2009

No posts. - mpg

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