Tuesday June 23rd 2009

Why America is a bank-owned state - Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."In my last column I introduced the idea that America's handling of the financial crisis, and in particular the way it has refused to deal with the banks, is more in keeping with how an "emerging" economy might behave and act. -- So this week, I will say that America has become a bank-owned state, allowing its banking oligarchs to suffocate the economy so they can survive at any price."

Why American Policy SUCKS - Article also posted at ICH
Special Note - Database - A quote...."Out of curiosity I decided to see who was spending the most on lobbying in America. And Oh My Goodness - NO WONDER our policy sucks. No wonder it's nearly impossible to pass health care reform that provides all Americans with affordable care, a global warming bill that doesn't suck, and the Employee Free Choice Act. No wonder we're in these two stupid wars. I know everyone's aware of the problems lobbying poses to our country, but good lord, if people saw the sheer magnitude of it (and the comparatively paltry amounts spent in the people's interest) they would be outraged. So here goes. Here's the list of the top 100 (ranked by amount spent on lobbying in Q109). Enjoy."

Passing Propaganda
A quote...."By Cindy Sheehan -- One day in July of 2006, I was on Hardball and the host was Norah O’Donnell who was filling in for Chris Matthews. I was her first guest that day and when she was introducing the show before the first break, she intro’d me as: THE WOMAN WHO MET WITH COMMUNIST DICTATOR, HUGO CHAVEZ. We then went to break and I told Norah: “You know Chavez is not a communist, he’s a socialist and he has been democratically elected several times, survived a CIA coup attempt and the last election was certified by Jimmy Carter.” She replied: “Yeah, we talked about that earlier, but we decided to call him a ‘communist dictator,’ anyway.” -- I was appalled, but not shocked. I was born during the day, but not yesterday and I realized a long time ago that the caca that passes for “news” is just that: caca."

Dig It
Cartoon
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On The Iranian Election....

 Iran leader extends deadline over vote complaints: ISNA
A quote...."TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agreed on Tuesday to grant the election watchdog five more days to examine complaints of fraud in the dispute presidential poll, ISNA news agency said."

Iran Extends Election Probe Amid Growing Evidence
A quote...."According to Iran’s state media, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has agreed to extend the deadline for the Guardian Council to investigate complaints about last Friday’s presidential election by an additional five days. The legal deadline to complete the investigation was Wednesday before the extension. -- The Guardian Council had reportedly asked for the extension, citing the enormous number of ambiguities and complaints regarding the vote."

Corporate Media Providing False View Of Iranian Post Election Protests
A quote...."The corporate controlled media are deliberately providing a false view of reality in their coverage on the post election protests in Iran."

Iran’s Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think
Special Note - A quote...."....who is the real power behind Iran’s rigged presidential election, which has been called an "election coup" by a Mousavi spokesman? It is widely believed that, as the commander in chief of Iran’s armed forces, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the coup leader. But the issue is more complex. -- Ever since he was appointed as the IRG’s top commander three years ago, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari has been talking about the "internal threat" to the Islamic Revolution. He has even reorganized the Guards for them to be better prepared for any uprising. Moreover, a few days before the June 12 elections, the IRG’s head of the political directorate, Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani, accused Mousavi and other reformists of trying to start a color revolution (since Mousavi had used green as the symbol of its campaign), and warned that the Guards "will suffocate it before it is even born." So the coup leaders are, in fact, the IRG’s top commanders. They represent the right wing of the second generation of Iranian revolutionaries."

Intensified crackdown mutes protests in Iran
A quote...."CAIRO – Overwhelmed by police and left with limited alternatives, Iranian demonstrators resorted Tuesday to more subtle ways of challenging the outcome of the presidential election: holding up posters, shouting from rooftops and turning on car headlights. -- But the restrained expressions of discontent appeared to be scattered as Iran's ruling clerics dealt the opposition new setbacks, making clear they have no intention of holding a new vote and setting up a special court to deal with hundreds of protesters arrested in more than a week of unrest."

Iran's Rezaei withdraws election complaints
A quote...."Presidential contender Mohsen Rezaei has withdrawn his complaints filed with the Guardian Council, the country's electoral watchdog, about the disputed presidential election."

Iran ex-monarch's son asks Israel to back rioters
A quote...."The ousted Shah of Iran Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi's son urges Israel to support post-election riots in Iran to bring down the government of Tehran."

Mousavi's untenable complaint
A quote...."CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts - I am a political scientist not a lawyer but after 8 grueling years of self representing in a civil conspiracy case against Harvard University all the way to the US Supreme Court, I have learnt how to separate hearsay from scentilla of evidence from hard evidence, which is what is needed, and plenty of that, in order to overturn a national, tightly monitored elections. -- Unfortunately, despite natural sympathy for the reformist movement in Iran, as someone who worked closely with former president Mohammad Khatami's Dialogue Among Civilizations, I am inclined to dismiss Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi's allegation of rigged elections, simply because he has not carried the burden of proffering solid evidence."
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At Least 65 Killed as US Drones Attack South Waziristan Funeral Procession -- Mourners From Early Strike Killed in Second Attack - Special Note -- Why does the US-NRE hate funeral processions and weddings? - mpg -- A quote...."On Thursday, US drones launched an attack on a compound in South Waziristan, and when locals rushed to the scene to rescue survivors, they launched more missiles at them, leaving a total of 13 dead. The timing and target of the attack were controversial, as was the tactic of luring locals in with a first strike to maximize the kill count. Today, locals were involved in a funeral procession when the US struck again."

Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists
Special Note - A quote...."WASHINGTON — Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles."

Saudi Account of Khobar Bore Telltale Signs of Fraud
Special Note - A quote...."In the last week of October 1996, the Saudi secret police, the Mabahith, gave David Williams, the FBI’s assistant special agent in charge of counter-terrorism issues, what they said were summaries of the confessions obtained from some 40 Shi’ite detainees."

Mossad-Taliban whistleblower killed in Pakistan
Special Note - A quote...."A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead. -- The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country." -- also posted at BLN & PressTV

Turkey arrests lieutenants in PKK leak probe
A quote...."Two detained Turkish lieutenants deny accusations they leaked classified information on the war against the Kurdish militant organization the PKK."

Public grilling for Gordon Brown and Tony Blair in Iraq inquiry
A quote...."Gordon Brown and Tony Blair face being questioned in public over their roles in the run-up to the Iraq war after the chairman of the independent inquiry indicated that he is to summon the prime minister and his predecessor to give evidence." -- In other words this isn't gonna be another insipid US-NRE  9/11 commission styled questioning love-fest where Brown gets to sit on Blair's lap while they get tossed soft-ball questions for a "negotiated" one hour session without being under oath....no, not for these two, they're hopefully going to get GRILLED like a bunch of steaks! – mpg

US judge order Gitmo prisoner released
Classify this as unbelievable....this is what happens when the US-NRE gets its greasy hands on you.  It could happen to anyone. – mpg -- A quote...."A US federal judge has ordered a Guantanamo detainee who was reportedly tortured, imprisoned and abandoned by al Qaeda and the Taliban released. -- The US government had argued that even though Abd Al Rahim Abdul Rassak was tortured by al Qaeda as a suspected Western spy, held by the Taliban for a year and a half and then abandoned, he was still allied with his tormentors."

The Lies Told about the Saudi Hunger Striker Released from Guantánamo
A quote....."As part of a series of recent releases from Guantánamo, three Saudi prisoners were repatriated, along with Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, an Iraqi refugee, and four Uighurs who were sent to Bermuda. As I explained in a recent article, “Empty Evidence: The Stories Of The Saudis Released From Guantánamo,” all three men had been cleared for release by military review boards at Guantánamo, and, in an examination of the government’s supposed evidence against two of the men, Kahlid Saad Mohammed and Abdul Aziz al-Noofayee, I was able to demonstrate why they had been approved for release: there was, to put it bluntly, absolutely no evidence to demonstrate that either man had been involved in terrorism or any kind of militancy whatsoever."

Son of PRISP -- Obama's Classroom Spies
A quote...."As the continuities and disjunctures between the Bush and Obama administrations come into focus it becomes increasingly clear that while Obama’s domestic agenda has some identifiable breaks with Bush’s, at its core, the new administration remains committed to staying the course of American militarization. Now we have an articulate, nuanced president who supports elements of progressive domestic policies, can even comfortably say the phrase LGBT in public speeches, while funding military programs at alarming levels and continuing the Bush administration’s military and intelligence invasion of what used to be civilian life. -- The latest manifestation of this continuity came last week when Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence, announced plans to transform the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program (PRISP) from a pilot project into a permanent budget item." -- also posted at Uruknet

Peruvian government forced to repeal Amazon free trade decrees
A quote...."In the face of a mass protest movement led by the indigenous people living in the Amazon basin, the government of President Alan García and the Peruvian parliament overturned two decrees aimed at opening the vast natural resources of the Amazon jungle to exploitation. The repeal of the measures represents a severe blow to the Free Trade Agreement signed between Peru and the United States."

Report: Shell ‘co-opted Nigerian military’
A quote...."In its efforts to contain protests over its environmentally devastating operations in Nigeria, Shell Oil systematically co-opted the country’s military to suppress opposition to its operations, claims the UK’s Independent on Sunday."

DOJ: AIPAC case witness was asked to 'fake...suicide'
A quote...."Two people asked a Pentagon official cooperating with prosecutors in an investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to fake his own death to avoid testifying against two pro-Israel lobbyists charged in the case, according to the Justice Department." -- For more on this sort of issue see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US
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Palestinians fight illegal Israeli construction
Video - A quote...."Though international law considers Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal, construction companies continue to cash in on unprecedented settlement expansion. -- Now, some Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bil'in are taking matters into their own hands, by going to court to sue international construction companies."

No gourmets in Gaza: The blockade of Gaza is approaching its third year. Is hunger a legitimate way of defeating an enemy? -- A quote...."Two years after the Israeli blockade began, times remain extremely hard in Gaza. -- What’s on the menu? Not cherries, kiwi fruit, green almonds, pomegranates and chocolate – they are expressly prohibited, according to an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. So are all “delicacies”, including the honey and sesame snack halvah. However, a ban of many months on carrots and pumpkins has now been lifted. So pumpkin-stuffed ravioli could be had in Gaza today (pasta is allowed at the moment, though only since John Kerry made a protest in March)."

The necessity of cultural boycott
A quote...."If there is anything new in the never-ending sad story of Palestine it is the clear shift in public opinion in the UK. I remember coming to these isles in 1980 when supporting the Palestinian cause was confined to the left and in it to a very particular section and ideological stream. The post-Holocaust trauma and guilt complex, military and economic interests and the charade of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East all played a role in providing immunity for the State of Israel. Very few were moved, so it seems, by a state that had dispossessed half of Palestine's native population, demolished half of their villages and towns, discriminated against the minority among them who lived within its borders through an apartheid system and divided into enclaves two million and a half of them in a harsh and oppressive military occupation. -- Almost 30 years later it seems that all these filters and cataracts have been removed." -- also posted at Uruknet
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California Collapsing
A quote...."California is America’s most populous state with 38 million people. Its GDP of $1.8 trillion is the largest in the U.S. Its economy is bigger than those of Russia, Brazil, Canada, or India. -- And it’s collapsing. -- Major California counties are ground zero in the continuing mortgage meltdown: -- Los Angeles County with 5.32 percent of mortgages 90 days past due … Monterrey County, 8.02 percent … Imperial, 8.13 … San Bernadino, 8.66 … Madeira, 9.21 … San Joaquin, 9.53 … Riverside, 10.2 … Merced, 10.57 … and more! -- California’s inventory of foreclosed homes is skyrocketing. Home prices are plunging. And the impact of surging unemployment is just beginning to show up in the data." -- also posted at BLN & Rense

Insiders Exit Shares at the Fastest Pace in Two Years (Update3)
Special Note - A quote...."June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Executives at U.S. companies are taking advantage of the biggest stock-market rally in 71 years to sell their shares at the fastest pace since credit markets started to seize up two years ago. -- Insiders of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies were net sellers for 14 straight weeks as the gauge rose 36 percent, data compiled by InsiderScore.com show."

Sales of previously owned homes in U.S. fall in May
Chart - A quote...."Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. continued in May to fall below levels of a year earlier, despite lower prices and tax incentives for buyers, according to figures released by a trade group Tuesday."

U.S. Home Prices Drop 6.8 Percent in April as Foreclosures Rise
A quote...."June 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices fell 6.8 percent in April from a year earlier as rising unemployment and record foreclosures kept buyers out of the market."

World Bank cuts forecast for 2009 growth
A quote...."The World Bank said US gross domestic product (GDP) will end the year 3 percent smaller, [it'll be a lot worse than that. - mpg] Japan’s will fall by 6.8 percent, and the eurozone’s will decrease by 4.5 percent. Global trade will fall by close to 10 percent. All of these estimates represent negative revisions from projections made in March."

Securities seized in Chiasso still between a wall of silence and a flow of disinformation
A quote...."Neither Italian nor US authorities have officially said whether the seized US Treasury bills worth US$ 134.5 billion are real or fake. A US Treasury spokesperson said they were fakes, but acknowledged that he only saw them in a photo on the internet. For Italy’s financial police, if they are forgeries, they are practically indistinguishable from the real stuff. Both the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan have an interest in denying their authenticity." -- bold by website editor

Monday June 22nd 2009

On The Iranian Election....

Seeing Through All the Propaganda About Iran - Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."WASHINGTON – Iran’s political crisis continues to blaze. It’s still impossible to say which leaders or factions will emerge victorious, but one thing is certain: the earthquake in the Islamic Republic is shaking the Mideast and deeply confusing everyone, including the US government."

A Hard Look at the Numbers -- What Actually Happened in the Iranian Presidential Election? - Also @ ICH
Must Read - A quote...."Since the June 12 Iranian presidential elections, Iran "experts” have mushroomed like bacteria in a Petri dish. So here is a quiz for all those instant experts. Which major country has elected more presidents than any in the world since 1980? Further, which nation is the only one that held ten presidential elections within thirty years of its revolution? -- The answer to both questions, of course, is Iran. Since 1980, it has elected six presidents, while the U.S. is a close second with five, and France at three. In addition, the U.S. held four presidential elections within three decades of its revolution to Iran’s ten." -- also posted at GlobRsrch & BLN

Iran Falling To US PSYOPS?
Must Read - A quote...."On May 16, 2007, the London Daily Telegraph reported that Bush regime official John Bolton told the Telegraph that a US military attack on Iran would "be a ‘last option’ after economic sanctions and attempts to foment a popular revolution had failed." -- We are now witnessing in Tehran US "attempts to foment a popular revolution" in the guise of another CIA-orchestrated "color revolution".

Iranian Unrest: Evidence Of Western Intelligence Meddling
Must Read - A quote...."The following summary, with extensive links, highlights the major evidence that suggests western intelligence agencies are aiding in stirring up unrest inside Iran as part of a "color revolution" to foment regime change."

'Color' revolution fizzles in Iran
Must Read - A quote...."Israelis are realists par excellence. This is why it is always gainful to buttonhole an Israeli counterpart over a single-malt on the diplomatic circuit. He will invariably weave into the tapestry of the plain tale a nylon thread until then obscure to the naked eye. -- Thus, the first warning that the adventurous project to mount a "Twitter revolution" in Iran was doomed to fail had to come from the Israelis. It meshes well with the indications that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's capacity to command the seemingly explosive political situation was never really been in doubt, no matter the hype in the Western media that Tehran was on the 'knife's edge".  

Iran: Protests wane as conflict within regime continues
A quote...."The protest movement generated by charges of vote-rigging made by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other losing candidates in Iran’s June 12 election largely disappeared from the streets Monday, but the internal struggle within the Iranian regime continued."

Calm Returns to Tehran Streets. Yet Another Israel-USA-GB Sponsored Colored Revolution Kicked the Bucket!
A quote...."Compulsory Reading…on Iranian Elections " -- Cites and sources....mpg

Iran to release box-by-box vote count
A quote...."Amid claims of a 'rigged-election' by certain defeated Iranian presidential candidates, a top election official says the box-by-box details of the vote will be released. -- "During previous elections in the Islamic Republic, statistics concerning individual ballot boxes were considered confidential information … this kind of information was only available to certain officials," deputy head of the Interior Ministry's election headquarters Ali-Asghar Sharifi-Rad said Sunday. -- According to Sharifi-Rad, the Ministry had, however, decided to publish the results "box by box," to resolve ambiguities about the disputed election in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide victory, ILNA reported."

Guardian Council rules out vote nullification
A quote...."Iran's Guardian Council rules out the possibility of nullifying the country's June 12 Presidential election, saying there has been no record of any major irregularity."

Iran Clerical Rift Widens as Rafsanjani Relatives Arrested
A quote...."Former Iranian President and current chairman of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been an outspoken advocate of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s since before the election, and it is unsurprising that he and his family have taken an active role in the post-election protests. -- There was a time when Rafsanjani’s position would’ve made him and his family virtually untouchable, but as the rift between the more conservative clerics and the reformist ones continues to widen, it seems no one is immune to the potential crackdown, and several members of Rafsanjani’s family have been arrested for “provoking unrest.” -- also posted at WarInIraq

Mousavi, Defiant, Calls for More Rallies
A Juan Cole round-up on the Iranian election for Monday, June 22, 2009. - mpg
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Dexter's Legions: The "Good" Killers of the "Good" War
Must Read - A quote...."There is, I understand, a popular cable television show featuring a "good" serial killer who has been taught by a kind mentor to channel his murderous psychosis toward socially worthy ends; i.e., killing scumbags who deserve to die but have somehow escaped the law. I often wonder if this show is actually a better mirror of the national psyche than "24," the "good torture" saga that in the Bush years was often cited by top administration officials, conservative pundits -- and Supreme Court justices -- as an insightful inspiration for national security policy. -- Certainly it often seems that concept of "Dexter" has been writ large in what we are now pleased to call our "Overseas Contingency Operation" -- in preference to the old Bushist term, "War on Terror," or the admirably straightforward locution once favored by Donald Rumsfeld: "The Long War." (Couldn't we just combine the two and call it the "Long Overseas Contingency Operation" -- i.e., LOCO?) For whatever else LOCO might be -- sustained campaign of plunder and profiteering; reckless dice game for geopolitical domination; massive dose of Viagra for an ageing militarist/media elite -- it is, most assuredly, a license to kill: serially, savagely, and best of all -- the psycho-killer's dream -- without accountability." -- also posted at CounterPunch & OhBummer

Obama War™ - Attack of the [Killer] Drones - Article also posted at ICH
A quote...."Three days after his inauguration, on January 23, 2009, President Barack Obama ordered US predator drones to attack sites inside of Pakistan, reportedly killing 15 people. It was the first documented attack ordered by the new US Commander in Chief inside of Pakistan. Since that first Obama-authorized attack, the US has regularly bombed Pakistan, killing scores of civilians. The New York Times reported that the attacks were clear evidence Obama “is continuing, and in some cases extending, Bush administration policy.” In the first 99 days of 2009, more than 150 people were reportedly killed in these drone attacks. The most recent documented attack was reportedly last Thursday in Waziristan. Since 2006, the US drone strikes have killed 687 people (as of April). That amounts to about 38 deaths a month just from drone attacks." -- also posted at CommonDreams & Uruknet

Pulling the World Economy Out of Recession -- SCO and BRIC Gain Momentum
Contains Video - Special Note - A quote...."What will it be like if the a regional organization puts together three major oil producing countries such as Russia, Iran and Khazakstan and what if the member states of yet another forum hold most of the foreign exchange reserves of the world? It definitely generates front-page headlines worldwide in times of financial crisis when a summit meeting of this Shanghai Cooperation Organization happens to coincide with that of the four major emerging markets called BRIC in the same host country of an increasingly assertive world player, Russia."

Chavez welcomes new ALBA members
A quote...."The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expressed his support for the accession of new member states to the regional ALBA bloc, describing it as an important event."

"Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order:"
Book Review - A quote...."[The book] discusses America's grand strategy, first revealed in the 1998 US Space Command document - Vision for 2020. Later released in 2000 as DOD Joint Vision 2020, it called for "full spectrum dominance" over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary, including with nuclear weapons preemptively. -- Other means as well, including propaganda, NGOs and Color Revolutions for regime change, expanding NATO eastward, and "a vast array of psychological and economic warfare techniques" as part of a "Revolution in Military Affairs" discussed below."
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CIA Agent: "Government Officials Like Cheney Are Not To Be Trusted When They Assert Something Without The Support Of Incontrovertible Evidence" -- Special Note - Former senior CIA Agent Philip Giraldi writes...."

"If there has been any "lesson learned" from the past eight years it is that government officials like Cheney are not to be trusted when they assert something without the support of incontrovertible evidence."

"While Giraldi's article was about torture, his point applies to 9/11 as well. -- Instead of "incontrovertible evidence" for Cheney's version of 9/11, the 9/11 Commissioners themselves now doubt the "official" 9/11 story...."
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Illuminating Thomas Friedman
A quote...."My quarrel is not with why Friedman is in "a unique position to interpret the world for American readers." That is plain enough: he writes for NYT, arguably the world’s most influential newspaper. But does he provide "the most trenchant, pithy and illuminating perspective" on foreign affairs, on Islam and the Middle East? I have the greatest difficulty with the third adjective. What does his commentary best illuminate: his subject or the biases that he brings to his commentary?" -- also posted at AtheoNews

More [Israeli] settlement units, no buyers - What a darn shame. - mpg
A quote...."The Israeli TV aired a report on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and revealed that while world leaders might believe Israel had stopped the construction of settlements, more units are being built with no buyers in sight." -- also posted at AtheoNews & WarInIraq

Abbas Orders Hamas Prisoner Release
A quote...."Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has ordered the release of prisoners affiliated to Hamas in the West Bank. Azam al-Ahmad, the head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the order would take effect in the coming days. He did not mention how many prisoners would be freed."

Nonviolent resistance in the south Hebron hills
Special Note - A quote...."A couple of months ago I had the great pleasure of watching Palestinians successfully graze their sheep near Avigail settlement, on land where they are regularly attacked and harassed. The joy I felt in watching my friends and partners grazing their sheep on their ancestral lands was overwhelming. Sitting on the hill and eating lunch together felt like having a party."

Free Gaza News Press Conference
Contains Video - A quote...."Two of the organizers, Huwaida Arraf and Greta Berlin, as well as the Honorable Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia, held a press conference yesterday in Doha, Qatar. All three called on the world to recognize Palestinian human and civil rightsrights that have been denied for 61 years. -- In three days, the Free Gaza movement sails 240 miles from Cyprus to Gaza, its eighth mission to break Israels draconian siege on 1.5 million Palestinians there."
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Obama's (Latest) Surrender to Wall Street -- How the Financial Reform Plan Protects the Status Quo
A quote...."In reaching across the aisle for Republican support – and no doubt future campaign contributions from the financial sector Pres. Obama is morphing into Joe Lieberman. There also is a touch of Boris Yeltsin in his sponsorship of a financial “reform” ominously similar to what advisor Larry Summers backed in Russia – relinquishing government power to a banking elite. The Financial Regulatory Reform proposal promotes Wall Street’s “product,” debt creation, at the expense of the economy at large, and lets financial chieftains continue to self-regulate the debt industry – and to keep scot-free all their gains from the past decade’s worth of fraudulent lending." -- also posted at OhBummer

Unemployment crisis grips US states
A quote...."The unemployment rate increased in 48 of 50 states and Washington, DC, in May, according to US Department of Labor statistics. For the year as a whole, the jobless rate has increased in every state, and in eight states it is now at its highest level since 1976, when monthly state-level statistics were first issued by the federal government. The national jobless rate in May rose to 9.4 percent."

Numbers On Welfare See Sharp Increase
A quote...."Twenty-three of the 30 largest states, which account for more than 88% of the nation's total population, see welfare caseloads above year-ago levels, according to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Conference of State Legislatures. As more people run out of unemployment compensation, many are turning to welfare as a stopgap."

As the US Goes Broke... Who’s Laughing at Peter Schiff Now?
A quote...."When Peter Schiff was making the rounds on U.S. cable news shows in 2007, warning about the collapse of the housing market, anchors and fellow guests literally laughed in his face when he launched into his gloomy predictions. That kind of meltdown could never happen, they said. The economy was on rock-solid ground. In those rosier economic days, Schiff, the president of Darien, Conn.’s Euro Pacific Capital, was repeatedly cast as a successful broker who’d gone off the deep end. -- These days, a vindicated Schiff is back on the talk show circuit with an even darker message. The current recession, he argues, is only the beginning of a larger economic restructuring."

Japan Considering Taxing Cash; “Nominal Rates of -4% Might be Closer to What is Required to Rescue the Economy from Another Deflationary Spiral” -- A quote...."Japanese people will just buy more gold and park their speculative yen back in the carry trade pachinko parlor (this may already be happening). Why wouldn’t they? If holding cash means a guaranteed loss of 4% a year, that’s a pretty good incentive to gamble. -- Bonus points to the state for the totalitarian surveillance grid side benefit of this."

Sunday June 21st 2009

The Eurasian Pipeline Calculus
Must Read - A quote...."Calculus has two main variants—derivative and integral. The Eurasian energy pipeline geopolitics between Turkey Washington and Moscow today has elements of both. It is highly derivative in that the major actors across Central Asia from China, Russia to Turkey are very much engaged in a derived power game which has less to do with any specific state and more to do with maintaining Superpower hegemony for Washington. Integral as the de facto motion of various pipeline projects now underway or in discussion across Eurasia hold the potential to integrate the economic space of Eurasia in a way that poses a fundamental challenge to Washington’s projection of Full Spectrum Dominance over the greatest land mass on earth."

De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."Challenging America will be the prime focus of extended meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia (formerly Sverdlovsk) today and tomorrow (June 15-16) for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The alliance is comprised of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. It will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions among the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China)."

BRIC countries catch up and overtake G7
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."MOSCOW. – The Russian city of Yekaterinburg on May 16 hosted the first official summit of BRIC, a group comprising four countries showing the highest rate of economic growth – Brazil, Russia, India and China."

Brazil, Russia, India and China form bloc to challenge US dominance
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."With public hugs and backslaps among its leaders, a new political bloc was formed yesterday to challenge the global dominance of the United States. -- The first summit of heads of state of the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — ended with a declaration calling for a “multipolar world order”, diplomatic code for a rejection of America’s position as the sole global superpower. -- President Medvedev of Russia went further in a statement with his fellow leaders after the summit, saying that the BRIC countries wanted to “create the conditions for a fairer world order”. He described the meeting with President Lula da Silva of Brazil, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, as “an historic event”." -- also posted at RogueGov

Medvedev urges SCO nations to use their national currencies
A quote...."Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sees it as expedient for the SCO nations to more energetically use their national currencies in payments between them and to eventually switch over to a supra-national payment instruments. As he address the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, on Tuesday, Medvedev said one of Russian foreign policy priorities was the promotion of multi-field cooperation in the SCO framework."

Destroying Indigenous Populations
A quote...."The Fort Laramie Treaty once guaranteed the Sioux Nation the right to a large area of their original land, which spanned several states and included their sacred Black Hills, where they were to have "the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the land. -- However, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, President Ulysses S. Grant told the army to look the other way in order to allow gold miners to enter the territory. After repeated violations of the exclusive rights to the land by gold prospectors and by migrant workers crossing the reservation borders, the US government seized the Black Hills land in 1877." - also posted at GlobRsrch - This is the fate that will be shared by most of the peoples of the Middle East, this time of course it will be for "black gold", also known as oil. - mpg
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Rebranding war and occupation
Interviews - Special Note - A quote...."SocialistWorker.org asked two leading voices of the antiwar movement--Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army and the Rebel Reports blog, and Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, and coauthor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People's History of the United States--about Barack Obama's record after five months in office."

Here is secrecy creep in action
A quote...."On May 13, when Obama announced he would attempt to suppress prisoner abuse photos on the ground that their release would inflame anti-American sentiment, I wrote:...."

Obama Opposes Plame-gate Release - posted at ConsortiumNews
A quote...."In another case of protecting Bush administration secrets, Barack Obama’s Justice Department is opposing the release of a transcript of Vice President Dick Cheney explaining his role in blowing the cover of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson in 2003 while the White House was seeking to discredit her husband, a critic of the Iraq invasion."

How Obama Will Outspend Reagan on Defense - The Pentagon Spigot is Wide Open - Article also posted at ICH
A quote...."On Jan. 27, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Congress, "The spigot of defense funding opened by 9/11 is closing." Right after Gates' defense budget was released on May 7, the Pentagon's comptroller, Robert Hale, confirmed to the press: "The spigot is starting to close." A closing spigot implies less money, but the new 2010 defense budget shows quite clearly that the spigot is not closing; it's stuck - full on. Not counting the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon's annual appropriations for 2009 were $514 billion. For 2010, Gates is requesting $534 billion. The flow is to increase by $20 billion." -- also posted at CounterPunch

"The Responsible Left:" Funding Obama's Expanding Wars $100 Billion a Vote - Article also posted at ICH
A quote...."The cowardly Democrats who checked their spines at the door to Congress when they voted Tuesday try to defend their flip-flop on war funding. Frankly, it is embarrassing." -- also posted at AntiWar

Secret CIA File Tests Obama's Pledge - posted at ConsortiumNews
A quote...."President Barack Obama’s promise of a more open government faces a new test this week as his administration weighs whether to release details of a May 2004 internal CIA report about the agency’s use of torture, including how at least three detainees were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq."

In stark legal turnaround, Obama now resembles Bush
A quote...."WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is morphing* into George W. Bush, as administration attorneys repeatedly adopt the executive-authority and national-security rationales that their Republican predecessors preferred." - *link added by website editor -- also posted at RogueGov

Obama whitewashes foreign policy - article also posted at ICH
A quote...."President Obama is trying to whitewash the history of U.S. foreign policy. -- In two major speeches in the last month, he has spun a fairy tale. -- At the National Archives on May 21, Obama claimed, "From Europe to the Pacific, we've been the nation that has shut down torture chambers and replaced tyranny with the rule of law." And in Cairo, Egypt, just two weeks later, Obama said, "America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. ... America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election."
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The Waning Power of Truth - posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."The limitless gullibility of the American people guarantees carte blanche to the US government’s schemes. Americans seemingly cannot put two and two together. They have already forgotten the lies about weapons of mass destruction that have resulted in the destruction of Iraq. They have forgotten Secretary of State Colin Powell’s publicly expressed remorse at the lies he told the UN. Americans blithely accept the conflation of Talliban with al Qaeda and terrorists and the new war that the Obama regime has started in Pakistan, a war that has already produced 2 million refugees. -- It can fairly be said that there is not much difference between the American public and the fictional one under Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984. The few independent voices that do exist are simply drowned out by the constant flow of disinformation."

The Four Reasons the Mainstream Media Is Worthless
A quote...."There are four reasons that the mainstream media is worthless."

Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq - Article also posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein. -- The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action. - bold/underline by website editor

Taliban defectors: US, Israel funding militants
Special Note - A quote...."Two militants' leaders who defected from notorious Taliban chief in Pakistan have revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the country."

"US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran --America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the government.25 Feb CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran's border regions. The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods terrorists in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime. In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and government officials... Funding for their separatist causes comes directly from the CIA's classified budget but is now "no great secret", according to one former high-ranking CIA official in Washington who spoke anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph. His claims were backed by Fred Burton, a former US state department counter-terrorism agent, who said: "The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran's ethnic minorities to destabilise the Iranian regime." [Let's see. If Iran 'dealt with movements that resorted to terrorist methods' against the US, the US would have declared war on Iran in what, five pico-seconds? And, LieberBush/Boner (Boehner) would be yelping for Obama's impeachment because five pico-seconds would not be quick enough. --LRP] -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror

Khalid Sheikh claims to have lied under CIA torture
A quote...."Muhammad claimed whenever he gave them information, whether true or false, he was left alone, but whenever he refused to cooperate, he was tortured." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables

Former Guantanamo Prosecutor: Prosecute Those Who Authorized Torture
A quote...."Darrel Vandeveld served as a prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions. He resigned due to ethical problems with the tribunal system, and is currently serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve. -- Vandeveld co-wrote an op-ed with the president of the ACLU calling for the prosecution of torture:"

EU Probe Creates Burden for Saakashvili
A quote...."Unpublished documents produced by the European Union commission that investigated the conflict between Georgia and Moscow assign much of the blame to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. But the Kremlin and Ossetian militias are also partly responsible."

Georgia-Russia war: EU blames Saakashvili
Related Article - A quote...."A majority of EU experts say the Georgian president, and not the Kremlin, ordered the first military strike against two breakaway provinces, according to the documents obtained by German news magazine Der Spiegel. The Georgian offensive into South Ossetia and Abkhazia escalated into a five-day war with Russia that the powerful neighbor won." -- For more on this issue see....American Selective Attention Deficit Disorder (ASADD) - 08-16-08 - mpg
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On The Iranian Election....

Guardian Council: Over 100% voted in 50 cities - Not even Bush and the Neocons cheated this much - mpg
Must Read - BREAKING NEWS - A quote...."Iran's Guardian Council has admitted that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of those eligible to cast ballot in those areas. -- The council's Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, who was speaking on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Channel 2 on Sunday, made the remarks in response to complaints filed by Mohsen Rezaei -- a defeated candidate in the June 12 Presidential election." - bold by website editor -- Let the Iranians handle it, the US-NRE has helped kill enough Muslims throughout the Middle East already. - mpg

Robert Fisk: Battle for the Islamic Republic
Special Note - A quote...."Now that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has placed himself shoulder to shoulder with his officially elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the very existence of the Islamic regime may now be questioned openly in a nation ever more divided between reformists and those who insist on maintaining the integrity of the 1979 revolution. Had Khamenei chosen a middle ground, some small compromises towards the countless millions – for in the election, it appears, they were indeed uncounted – who oppose Ahmadinejad, then he might have remained a neutral father-figure. Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters had religiously – in the most literal sense of the word – refused to criticise the Supreme Leader or the existence of the Islamic Republic during last week's street demonstrations."

'Hello, Pot? This is Kettle. You're Green.' --US Hypocrisy
Must Read - A quote...."The world's biggest hypocrite and meddlesome nosy parker, the United States, has outdone itself with its reaction to the post-election events in Iran. At least five glaring 'grand hypocrisy' categories have emerged, with more likely on the way. What other country -- having just endured eight years of dictatorship as the result of two stolen elections -- could actually spew outrage over... another nation's 'stolen election?' Gag me with a green chainsaw."

Do We Really Care About Democracy? #IranElection -- Article also posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."After being  victims of multiple false and propagandistic  media campaigns one would think that we would be able to read between the lines when our mainstream media sources act in lockstep with one another in marketing the agenda du jour. -- Have we already forgotten the “flowers and candy” which the gracious Iraqi people were going to greet us with?  You know, as “Liberators.” The weapons of mass destruction? The fear campaign waged against us to surrender our national treasure to a few Wall Street firms? When the mainstream media moves together in uniform, repeating the same talking points, it’s time to get suspicious, not complacent."

What If Ahmadinejad Really Won?  - posted at ConsortiumNews
Special Note - A quote...."It’s fast congealing into conventional wisdom that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole re-election through fraud and that the so-called “green revolution” of Mir-Hossein Mousavi – which was based in the country’s intelligentsia and middle class – got robbed.-- But a strong case can be made that the large turnout, which was estimated at about 85 percent, was the key to a genuine landslide for Ahmadinejad, who is viewed as a friend of more traditional Iranians from the working classes and among the rural peasants."

Experts See No ‘Smoking Gun’ for Iran Election Fraud - posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."June 18, 2009 "AFP" -- WASHINGTON -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory is disbelieved by hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have poured onto Tehran's streets in protest, but experts say hard evidence of vote rigging is elusive."

Iran Police, Militiamen Clash With Protesters
A quote...."Tehran - A huge swath of downtown Tehran erupted in fiery chaos today as helmeted security forces and pro-government militias armed with tear gas and water cannons battled stone-throwing protesters defying warnings from the country's supreme leader against further demonstrations over a disputed presidential election."

EXTRA: Moussavi: Election rigging was planned months in advance - link posted at ICH
A quote...."Tehran/Berlin - Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the presidential candidate defeated in last week's contested poll, has written a letter to Iran's Guardian Council on Saturday, saying that he believes the election was rigged in advance. In the seven-page letter, made public as clashes were going on between police and protestors in Tehran, Moussavi said "I will continue my efforts to clarify the truth on the basis of the constitution and current laws, although the violations and planning of this disgusting move had been planned in advance." -- The Guardian Council had offered to recount 10 per cent of votes randomly to prove the veracity of the poll."

Police force Iran protest off streets
A quote...."The momentum of Iran's "green revolution" - triggered by allegations of electoral theft earlier this month - appeared to stall today, as thousands of plain clothes and uniformed security officials swamped Tehran, using tear gas and water cannon on a hard core of about 3,000 demonstrators."

Iran raises death toll in clashes to at least 20
A quote...."Iranian state media reported on Sunday 13 more deaths in confrontations between protesters and security forces and the government condemned key European powers for expressing concern about the disputed presidential election."

Daughter of Rafsanjani Arrested; Death Toll for Saturday at Least 10; Khatami calls for Impartial Panel
A quote...."The death toll caused by the state's crackdown on the demonstrations in Iran on Saturday has risen to 10-13, with 100 injured."

"Iran becomes world’s biggest prison for journalists"
A quote...."Iran now has a total of 33 journalists and cyber-dissidents in its jails, while journalists who could not be located at their homes have been summoned by telephone by Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazavi." -- This is a little bit of an unfair comparison since the US-NRE has helped to kill dozens of journalists in the Middle East, instead of just arresting them like Iran. -- For more on that issue see....US - Killing the Messenger

Taking Sides in Iran - posted at ConsortiumNews
A quote...."There are lots of good reasons for wishing that the bombastic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be toppled by the political struggle playing out on the streets of Tehran, but there is still that troubling question of whether he actually won the election."

Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated "Color Revolution?" - posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."A number of commentators have expressed their idealistic belief in the purity of Mousavi, Montazeri, and the westernized youth of Terhan. The CIA destabilization plan, announced two years ago (see below) has somehow not contaminated unfolding events. -- The claim is made that Ahmadinejad stole the election, because the outcome was declared too soon after the polls closed for all the votes to have been counted. However, Mousavi declared his victory several hours before the polls closed. This is classic CIA destabilization designed to discredit a contrary outcome. It forces an early declaration of the vote. The longer the time interval between the preemptive declaration of victory and the release of the vote tally, the longer Mousavi has to create the impression that the authorities are using the time to fix the vote. It is amazing that people don’t see through this trick." -- also posted at GlobRsrch & CounterPunch
 & InfiniteUnknown & CounterCurrents

Iran: Non-Violence 101
A quote...."Peter Ackerman and Ramin Ahmadi called the revolution on January 4, 2006, in an article in the International Herald Tribune with the prophetic title "Iran's Future? Watch the Streets."

Through a Glass Darkly: Sifting Myth and Fact on Iran
A quote...."Iranian academic Ali Alizadeh points out an important fact missed by many who see nothing but sinister American manipulation behind the post-election protests in Iran: that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic policies -- touted as a possible reason that he expanded his vote total by 10 million over the last election, a bounty ostensibly harvested from the grateful rural poor -- are actually much more in line with his old nemesis, George W. Bush. As Alizadeh notes (via the Angry Arab):...."

Iran's spiritual leader backs Ahmadinejad election victory
A quote...."Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday rejected the possibility that vote rigging affected the result of the country's presidential election. -- In his sermon for Friday prayers, he dismissed the possibility of electoral fraud by the state, and said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's margin of victory, at more than 11 million votes, was too great for the election to have been stolen."
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Iraqi Oil Minister accused of mother of all sell-outs --To public fury, the country is handing over control of its fields to foreign companies 18 Jun 2009 Furious protests threaten to undermine the Iraqi government's controversial plan to give international oil companies a stake in its giant oilfields in a desperate effort to raise declining oil production and revenues. In less than two weeks, on 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain Shahristani, will award service contracts to the world's largest oil companies to develop six of Iraq's largest oil-producing fields over 20 to 25 years... Iraqis are wary of the involvement of foreign oil companies in raising production in super giant fields like Kirkuk and Bai Hassan in the north and Rumaila, Zubair and West Qurna in the south. They suspect the 2003 US invasion was ultimately aimed at securing Western control of their oil wealth. The nationalisation of the Iraqi oil industry by Saddam Hussein in 1972 remains popular and the rebellion against the service contracts has been gathering pace all this week. [Notice the US media does not cover such protests in Iraq -- only dissent in Iran. --LRP] -- Paragraph quoted from CLG

Iraqi oil director wants to scrap deals
Related Article - A quote...."BAGHDAD, June 18 (UPI) -- The state-owned South Oil Co. of Iraq called on the Iraqi oil minister to abandon plans for the end of June to open the country to foreign investors. -- Fayad al-Nema, the director of the company, said in a memo that some of the terms of the pending 20-year service contracts were identical to the work conducted currently by SOC. -- Nema had complained earlier the foreign deals would put the national economy in "chains" and "shackle" national independence for decades." - bold by website editor -- That's the idea. - mpg

Britain: For a war crimes trial over Iraq invasion
Special Note - A quote...."If Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s announcement of a new inquiry into the Iraq war was intended to bury questions over the contentious invasion, it has backfired. -- Brown announced the fresh investigation earlier this week. It will be the fifth inquiry touching on the Iraq war held since 2003. These include the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances behind the apparent suicide of leading weapons inspector David Kelly and the Butler inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the invasion. -- All of these earlier inquiries dealt only with specific questions connected to the war, not with the war itself. And all ended in a whitewash."

Rockets hit US base in Afghanistan, 2 troops dead
A quote...."A rare rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said."

Jazeera staff held for "promoting terrorism": Karzai
A quote...."Qais Azimy, a producer on the network's English-language channel, and Hameedullah Shah, a producer on its Arabic station were freed Wednesday after being held since Sunday afternoon by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS). -- The Qatar-based station has said it believed the authorities may have been upset by a broadcast last week showing what it said were Taliban fighters in the northern province of Kunduz."

Russia in Nigeria
Map - A quote...."Nigeria and Russia are doing deals in nuclear energy and in oil and gas. -- And there may be military cooperation."

Alcohol abuse by GIs soars since '03
A quote...."The rate of Army soldiers enrolled in treatment programs for alcohol dependency or abuse has nearly doubled since 2003 — a sign of the growing stress of repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Army statistics and interviews."

Pentagon Rebrands Protest as "Low-Level Terrorism"
A quote...."You have to hand it to Pentagon securocrats and their corporate cronies, they never miss an opportunity to demonize, vilify or otherwise slander domestic political dissent as "terrorism." -- The American Civil Liberties Union reported June 10 that "Anti-terrorism training materials currently being used by the Department of Defense (DoD) teach its personnel that free expression in the form of public protests should be regarded as 'low level terrorism'."

Inventory Uncovers 9,200 More Pathogens
A quote...."An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that officials wouldn't know whether dangerous toxins were missing." - also posted at BLN -- The US-NRE's elites lied about Iraq's so-called bio-weapons program for years, yet they can't even keep track of the thousands of programs they themselves have created.  Anyone out there see Steven King's "The Stand".  If people in this country don't stop all this crap it'll happen here one day. - mpg

'Something different" happening with new flu - CDC
Maybe it already has. - mpg -- A quote...."WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - The new strain of H1N1 flu is causing "something different" to happen in the United States this year -- perhaps an extended year-round flu season that disproportionately hits young people, health officials said on Thursday."

Arrested for asking a policeman for his badge number
A quote...."The Guardian has obtained this police footage of Emily Apple and Val Swain being arrested by surveillance officers after asking for their badge numbers at the Kingsnorth climate camp last year. The two women speak to Paul Lewis about their arrest, imprisonment and official complaint."

Former Scotland Yard anti-terrorist police chief calls for 7/7 inquiry
A quote...."Andy Hayman, Scotland Yard's former head of counter-terrorism, says an independent public inquiry should be held into the July 7 bombings."

Oops! Building firm blurts out secrets of hush-hush MI5 HQ
A quote...."DETAILS of one of Britain’s most sensitive spy bases have been revealed after they were posted on the internet by the company that built it. -- In a security blunder that has irritated MI5, a publicity brochure placed online contains the address and full-colour pictures of its northern operations centre. -- The building was opened amid great secrecy last year. It was used as a base for Operation Pathway, when 12 terror suspects thought to have been planning attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, were arrested. They were later released for lack of evidence."
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Hamas official: Fatah holding 750 Hamas prisoners in West Bank
A quote...."Gaza - A senior Islamic Hamas movement official estimated on Saturday that up to 750 Hamas prisoners were now being held in West Bank jails, controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces."

Settlers torch tent with Palestinians inside near Hebron
A quote...."Hebron – Ma’an – Three Palestinians from a small hamlet near Yatta, south of Hebron, on Sunday narrowly escaped death after Israeli settlers set fire to a tent while they were inside. -- Local residents told Ma’an that Israeli settlers from the nearby Susia settlement, which sits on Palestinian land, set fire to a large tent used as a meeting hall for the small village." -- also posted at WarInIraq

A Colonizing Project Built On Lies
A quote...."Excerpt from Challenging the New Orientalism -- The Holocaust capital placed Israel beyond critique. First, Israel was equated with Jews. Second, Jews were equated with survivors of the Holocaust. Once these equations were established, Israel became the object of all the natural sympathy that belonged to the Holocaust survivors. As the haven, the last refuge of the world's super victims, Israel was now above reproach. It followed that anyone that dared to call Israel to account could only be an anti-Semite. This was a powerful tactic. -- Among other things this meant that there could be no Palestinian victims. It was logically impossible for Palestinians to be victims of Israelis. The Israelis, as victims of the Holocaust were super victims, perennial victims. Given this, how could Israelis victimize anyone? All the talk of Palestinian suffering must be slander, the product of Arab anti-Semitism, which they borrowed from the Nazis. In the court of Western opinion, the Palestinians didn't have a prayer."
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Obama's False Financial Reform
Must Read - A quote...."The most disturbing thing about Barack Obama's call for financial reform was the way in which the president falsified our predicament. He tried to make it sound as though everyone was implicated in the financial breakdown and therefore no one was really to blame. "A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street," Obama explained. "And a regulatory system basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis--the Great Depression--was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy." -- That is not what happened, to put it charitably. Unlike some other presidents, Obama is much too intelligent not to know this. The regulatory system was not overwhelmed by historic forces. It was systematically gutted and dismantled by the government in Washington at the behest of the banking interests. If Obama wants details, he can consult his economic advisors--Summers-Geithner--who participated directly as accomplices in unwinding the prudential rules and regulations. Cheers were led by the Federal Reserve with heavy lifting by both political parties."

The Retreat of the Shadow Lenders, Why Deflation and not Inflation is the Order of the Day
A quote...."While contrarians are screaming “hyperinflation!”, the money supply is actually shrinking. This is because most money today comes into existence as bank loans, and lending has shrunk substantially. That means the Fed needs to “monetize” debt just to fill the breach."

Treasury to Auction $104 Billion In Debt Next Week, a Record - link posted at ICH
A quote...."The Treasury announced Thursday a record $104 billion worth of bond auctions for next week, part of its herculean efforts to finance a rescue of the world's largest economy. -- The sales will exceed the previous record of $101 billion set in auctions that took place in the last week of April and consist of two-year, five-year and seven-year securities. That record was matched by another $101 billion week in May."

Fed Buying Treasuries; China Selling Treasuries
A quote...."The Federal Reserve is buying Treasuries maturing May 2016 through May 2019 on Wednesday, the New York Federal Reserve said on its Website. -- The purchase, which started at 10.16 a.m. (1416 GMT) and ends at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), is part of the U.S. central bank’s emergency effort to keep long-term interest rates low. -- The Fed said in March it would buy up to $300 billion in U.S. government bonds over six months." -- also posted at BLN

Bankster Bailouts Of 2008/9 Exceed Over 200 Years Of Major Government Spending
Chart - A quote...."The amount of US taxpayer money committed to bailouts over the last 12 months by far exceeds the combined cost of major historical events dating back over 200 years. -- The combined amount spent, lent, consumed, borrowed, printed, guaranteed, assumed or otherwise committed to bailouts by the government from March 2008 to March 2009 amounts to some $15 TRILLION." -- bold/underline by website editor

Goldman to make record bonus payout
A quote...."Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms." -- For more on this issue see....Having Fun With Your Tax Dollars

The next major move in the stock market will be DOWN
War Alert -- A quote...."The next major move in the stock market will be down. We are seeing the last vestiges of a rally similar to what we saw in 1931. The rally we expected at 6600 up to 8500 will end as soon as all the financial institutions that need to sell what stock is necessary to bolster their balance sheets. Our guess is the rally has been aided in a big way by short covering and the participation of the US government. Those who believe the SEC has stopped naked short selling are sadly mistaken. Markets weaken during the summer as volume dries up during the vacation season. In addition, second quarter earnings will be very disappointing, especially in the financial segment. Unemployment continues to worsen and capacity utilization is at its lowest level in years. Banks continue to cut credit lines and not lend nearly as much as they did before. Citigroup’s earnings should turn down again. They won’t have another $2.7 billion gain or another $400 million mark-to-market fictitious gain. Absent those gains they would have lost $2.8 billion." -- For why this article is categorized as a "war alert" and for this website editor's standard caution on predicting market actions, see...Standard Disclaimer and the Ten Year Cycle

Moody's warning on California debt stuns state
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California, which is struggling to close a $24.3 billion budget gap, faces the prospect of a "multi-notch" downgrade in its credit rating if the state's legislature fails to act quickly to produce a budget, Moody's Investors Service warned on Friday. -- Moody's decision to place California's general obligation debt on alert for a possible "multi-notch" downgrade stunned state officials." - bold by website editor

Kansas bank is 40th failure of 2009
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Anthony, Kan.-based First National Bank of Anthony became the third bank seized by regulators Friday, marking the 40th bank failure of 2009, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation."

Standard & Poor's Cuts Ratings On 22 Banks - link posted at ICH
A quote...."(RTTNews) - Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's lowered its ratings and revised its outlooks on 22 U.S. banks on Wednesday, citing concerns that operating conditions will be less favorable than they were in the past due to volatile financial markets during credit cycles and tighter regulatory supervision."

Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge - link posted at ICH
What the @#$? - mpg -- A quote...." June 17 (Bloomberg) -- It’s a plot better suited for a John Le Carre novel. -- Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear." -- bold/underline by website editor

100,000 people a month made redundant as jobless rate soars to 13-year high - link posted at ICH
A quote...."In a grim milestone for Labour, the jobless total has reached the highest since late 1996, just before it came to power. -- Official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that 302,000 people were made redundant in the three months to April, 36,000 more than in the previous quarter and the most since records began in 1995."

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Sunday June 7th 2009 -- to -- Saturday June 20th 2009

May post some stuff from time to time, but this website will most likely be inactive for awhile,
in the meantime enjoy all the weblists and websites at.....Reficultnias

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061709-062309 - links page

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