Wednesday February 3rd 2010 - links page

Amid media blackout - Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber
  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/f253-f03.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."The testimony at the January 27 hearing also blows apart the line promulgated by the establishment media, which universally echoed the administration’s hackneyed phrase to explain the Flight 253 incident—a “failure to connect the dots” on the part of US intelligence agencies. This, of course, is the same phrase used in the official cover-up of the 9/11 attacks. -- Thus, in a January 2 editorial entitled “Why Didn’t They See It?” the New York Times wrote: “No doubt sorting through heaps of information and determining what is urgent or even worthy of follow-up is daunting. Still, it is incredible, and frightening, that the government cannot do at least as good a job at swiftly updating and correlating information as Google.” -- The Times itself, in a subsequent article published January 18, reported the results of its own investigation, based on interviews with senior White House and intelligence officials. The newspaper revealed more “missed clues,” including the fact that intelligence authorities learned in early November from a communications intercept of Al Qaeda followers in Yemen that a man named “Umar Farouk” had volunteered for a coming operation. Despite such evidence of an official cover-up, the Times maintained the line that the near-disaster was the result of mistakes, omissions and an inability to “connect the dots.”  - bold by website editor - also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24577.htm  ---  For more on this issue see....US-False Flag Ops - Detroit's "Lap-Bomber"  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/falseflagops-weblist-mpg-082006#LAPBOMBER
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Freedom Rider: Show Trial  ---  http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-show-trial
posted at BAR  ---  http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/wed-cover-more-stories
Must Read - A quote...."In order that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be denied even the formalities of American justice as we once knew it, the system itself must be eviscerated. “Phony concerns about security costs and whipped up fears of impending terror attacks are used to subvert the legal system that was once held up as a model for the rest of the world to follow.”
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Mossadegh and Ahmadinejad -- Iran faces almost the same dilemma as 1953  ---  http://www.iranian.com/main/2010/feb/mossadegh-and-ahmadinejad
Must Read - A quote...."There is a stark similarity between some aspects of the political atmosphere dominant over Iran today and those under Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh right before the U.S.-led coup of 1953 that resulted in the overthrow of the legitimate government of Iran and the establishment of a U.S.-puppet government of the Shah. In the period between 1951-53, the U.S. in a close collaboration with the British colonial power through their channels within Iran's military and political apparatus, particularly the Shah’s court, was able to contrive division within the ruling circle and as a result the society at large."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24585.htm
& GlobalRsrch  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17380
& DProg - http://dprogram.net/2010/02/03/us-sponsored-regime-change-in-iran-mossadegh-and-ahmadinejad-iran-faces-almost-the-same-dilemma-as-in-1953/
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The defense industry is pleased with Obama  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5541.shtml
posted at Online Journal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4869.shtml
Some quotes...."Who says the president is failing to show leadership? In one area at least, there’s no sign of flag or falter. If anything, the administration’s only becoming more forthright. Sad to say, that area is military build-up." -- "The quote of the day comes from the CEO of a military contractor-funded policy group called the Lexington Institute. Loren Thompson tells Tuesday’s New York Times, “The defense industry is pleased but bemused . . . It’s been telling itself for years that when the Democrats got control it would be bad news for weapons programs. But the spending keeps going on.” - Take that you Nobel committee! - And to think some whiners complain about Democrats suffering from a lack of direction."
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Continuing US Torture in Afghanistan  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYl6NKrmIfQ  ---  (YouTube - 9 min 48 sec - February 02, 2010)
Video - A quote...."An ever increasing number of U.S. troops are fighting for peace in Afghanistan. But an investigative journalist claims to have revealed the shocking truth about surprise night raids by American forces and secret prisons where detainees are routinely tortured. In an exclusive interview to RT, Anand Gopal says Obama’s mission in Afghanistan is not much different from Bush’s in Iraq."
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Canada Supreme Court - Omar Khadr's Rights Violated  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17389
A quote...."Montreal - The Supreme Court of Canada released its decision today in the Omar Khadr case, confirming that the constitutional rights of the young man from Toronto, protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, have been violated. The highest court in the country has not however forced the repatriation of Omar Khadr to Canada, contrary to what had been ruled by the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal a few months earlier. The judges have indeed said the government must "decide how best to respond to this judgment" because the information available to the Court was "necessarily incomplete". -- The decision's findings, however, are unequivocal. The judges conclude that the rights of Omar Khadr have been breached since his capture in Afghanistan by U.S. troops in 2002 at the age of fifteen, and they continue to be. Referring in its news release to the conduct of Canadian officials in the course of interrogations in 2003 and 2004, the Court concluded that Canada had "actively participated in a process contrary to its international human rights obligations."
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Bush and Blair did strike Iraq deal, says Welsh MP  -- And millions of people paid the price. - mpg
  ---  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/02/03/bush-and-blair-did-strike-iraq-deal-at-ranch-says-welsh-mp-91466-25748862/
Special Note - (another memo!) A quote...."A SENIOR Welsh MP said last night he knew “for certain” Tony Blair and George Bush struck a deal to invade Iraq at their notorious Crawford Ranch meeting in 2002 – a year before war was declared. - Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru’s parliamentary leader, said he had seen a confidential memo to that effect, although he would not divulge its exact contents." - bold by website editor
also posted at AftrDwngSt  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49872
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The Iraqi Oil Conundrum - Energy and Power in the Middle East  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175199/
Special Note - A quote...."How the mighty have fallen. Just a few years ago, an overconfident Bush administration expected to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, pacify the country, install a compliant client government, privatize the economy, and establish Iraq as the political and military headquarters for a dominating U.S. presence in the Middle East. These successes were, in turn, expected to pave the way for ambitious goals, enshrined in the 2001 report of Vice President Dick Cheney’s secretive task force on energy.  That report focused on exploiting Iraq’s monstrous, largely untapped energy reserves -- more than any country other than Saudi Arabia and Iran -- including the quadrupling of Iraq’s capacity to pump oil and the privatization of the production process."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/03-1
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Iraq court delays ban on hundreds of candidates -- Good for Iraq. - mpg
  ---  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/03/international/i051628S67.DTL
Special Note - A quote...."An Iraqi appeals court Wednesday suspended a ban imposed on hundreds of candidates for suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing them to run in next month's election, an official said. -- The move could temporarily defuse a major source of tension ahead of key March elections, but leaves the ultimate issue of a political blacklist unresolved. -- The list — which has more than 450 names — was widely criticized by Sunni political leaders who claimed it was being used as a political tool to marginalize them by the Shiite-led government."
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Iraq to sue US, Britain over depleted uranium bombs  ---  http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=117557&sectionid=351020201
Good for Iraq again, true costs of a clean-up like this would run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.  So they should sue the HECK out of Britain and the US-NRE for what they CASUALLY did to their country. - mpg -- A quote...."Iraq’s Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq, an Iraqi minister says. - Iraq’s Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the lawsuit will be launched based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment."
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George Galloway:  Out of Iraq, Out of Afghanistan  ---  http://www.spiderednews.com/GeorgeGalloway.htm?vid=2407458
Alt  ---   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aewzh_QxlI  ---  (YouTube - 10 min 56 sec - February 01, 2010)
Must View Video - The ever irrepressible Galloway telling it like it is. - mpg
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The open and shut case against Tony Blair  ---  http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1713/27/
A quote...."If Blair cannot give satisfactory answers to the questions below, there is only one conclusion: he should stand trial for war crimes."
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Iran sanctions talk will derail diplomacy: China
  ---  http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/04-china-iran-diplomacy-qs-05
A quote...."PARIS: Discussions amongst world powers over imposing possible sanctions on Iran will complicate the situation and might make it harder to find a diplomatic solution, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Thursday."
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Israel pushing Middle East to war: Syria's Assad  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6125PO20100203
A quote...."All the facts point that Israel is driving the region toward war, not peace," the official Syrian news agency quoted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying during a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos."
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"US picks veteran envoy....." [for Syria]  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7013725.ece
Special Note - A quote...."In a new effort to loosen the gridlock that is blocking progress towards peace in the Middle East, the US State Department has appointed one of its foremost Arabists as its new Ambassador to Syria. -- Robert Ford, whose appointment has yet to be confirmed by the Syrian Government, would be the first US Ambassador to Damascus since his predecessor was withdrawn in 2005 because of apparent Syrian involvement in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister."
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Bahrain official wary of claims about Al Qaida threats in Yemen
  ---  http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/bahrain-official-wary-of-claims-about-al-qaida-threats-in-yemen-1.577684
Hey Folks!!  This is one of the US-NRE's and Britain's "friends" talking. - mpg -- A quote...."Manama: A leading Bahraini lawmaker has expressed "tremendous concerns" that claims about Al Qaida in Yemen threats to world security would turn out to be as baseless as the ones made about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. - "Al Qaida in Yemen has been given incredibly impressive proportions which it does not deserve," Adel Al Mouawda, an MP representing Al Asala, said. - "It seems that the new dimension is being used by the US and subsequently by Britain to achieve their hegemony over the region, including regional and international waters. I am singularly afraid that the whole Al Qaida issue and threats would end up like the alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction," the Salafi leader said in a statement on Tuesday."
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Saudi Arabia vs. the Houthis: A senseless war winds down  ---  http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=213446
A quote...."It has been nearly three months since the Saudi military directly inserted itself in the conflict between Zaidi rebels and the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen’s mountainous northwest governorate of Saada. After two of its border guards were killed last November by the rebels, known as Houthis (named after their erstwhile leader, Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi) and claims made that they had crossed into Saudi territory, a massive aerial assault was unleashed." -- also posted at AlethoNews  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/saudi-arabia-vs-the-houthis-a-senseless-war-winds-down/
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China cancels 80% of Iraq debt  ---  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jtPYdjfbN0UVUnW8IwkAHTCRcOzg
A quote...."BAGHDAD — China has agreed to cancel 80 percent of the 8.5-billion-dollar debt it is owed by Iraq, the finance ministry in Baghdad said in an official statement on Tuesday. -- It said a bilateral agreement was signed in Beijing, without specifying the date, and that China's ambassador to Iraq had met officials in Baghdad to confirm the agreement. -- The statement added that the two countries entered into trade deals valued at 3.8 billion dollars in 2009."
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So, Where Is The Peace Movement?  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49861
A quote...."Our Neighbors for Peace and Justice, San Fernando Valley weekly peace vigil has been running continuously in Studio City, California, since November of 2002, which makes it one of the oldest in the Los Angeles area, if not the country. But as a vigil, it is not unique, rather one of thousands that rose up spontaneously during the lead up to the Iraq war, as average people from all walks of life came together on the local level to protest. In the process, the people at our vigil who kept coming formed bonds of friendship and camaraderie that have sustained us through thick and thin."
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[Cynthia] McKinney To Receive Munich American Peace Committee Peace Prize; Counters NATO War Meeting 2/5 & 6 in Munich; Protest Call
  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49875
Special Note - Hip Hip Hooray -- Quote of the Day...."Clearly, the MAPC gave more thought to the significance of those whose struggle for peace is based on principle . . . than did the Nobel Peace Committee that rewarded our President for war." - bold by website editor
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"Would you like a little Anthrax to go with your False-Flag?"  ---  http://careandwashingofthebrain.blogspot.com/2010/02/would-you-like-little-anthrax-to-go.html
Videos - Special Note - A quote...."List of Dead Bio Weapon Scientists and Microbiologists -- This is a list of Scientists who were involved in Bio weapon research and who's testimony would open many doors for any investigation into bio weapons used against civilization as a population reduction."
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Judge Andrew Napolitano on The Alex Jones Show – False Flag Event To Save Obama’s Presidency
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/03/video-judge-andrew-napolitano-on-the-alex-jones-show-false-flag-event-to-save-obamas-presidency/
Videos - Alt/Vid#1  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgZKLaeeO5g
Alt/Vid#2  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic7xQxWVxFc  ---  (YouTube - aprox. 10 min each - Feb. 03, 2010) -- A quote...."Alex welcomes back to the show former New Jersey Superior Court Judge and political and legal analyst for Fox News Channel, Andrew Napolitano. Judge Napolitano is the author of Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks its Own Laws, The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land, and A Nation of Sheep."
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"Expect al Qaeda attack soon: CIA  ---  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10623953  ---  [Ok, thanks for letting us know. Hey, Panetta: Can you schedule the attack in the late morning, so that I can update the CLG site in a timely fashion? I'm kind of a night owl. Thanks.] 04 Feb 2010 Al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] can be expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months, senior intelligence officials told Congress yesterday. CIA Director Leon Panetta said the terror organisation was deploying operatives to the US to carry out new attacks from inside the country, including "clean" recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts. Al Qaeda was also inspiring homegrown extremists [!] to trigger violence on their own, he said." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Beware: Miranda Rights Restricted  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/beware-miranda-rights-restricted/
A quote...."The words we hear in so many movies and television shows when someone is arrested, “Read him his Miranda rights,” no longer have meaning. These rights are dead because the courts have “interpreted” them out of existence. -- Throughout our country, if you don’t say the right words during police interrogations, your rights to remain silent and to a lawyer don’t kick in. This leads to unfettered police power when any arrestee tries to protect herself in a powerless situation when confronted by the police. And in a courtroom, all your statements are admissible against you."
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Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/time-magazine-pushes-draconian-internet-licensing-plan.html
Web Censorship Alert - A quote...."Time Magazine has enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon to back Microsoft executive Craig Mundie’s call for Internet licensing, as authorities push for a system even more stifling than in Communist China, where only people with government permission would be allowed to express free speech." - also posted at DProgram  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/03/time-magazine-pushes-draconian-internet-licensing-plan/  ---  For more on this isue see....Attempts to Control the Internet  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/attempttocontroltheinternet-weblist-mpg-053006.html
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Siddiqui convicted in US, blames Israel  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117837&sectionid=3510203
A quote...."Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui has been found guilty of trying to kill US military personnel and FBI agents in Afghanistan two years ago."
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Powell Favors Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’  ---  http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/powell-favors-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell/
Well if Powell's "pushing it", it must be a good thing hey folks?  Gives a WHOLE new meaning to the phrase "be all that you can be, join the army".  This way when they rape their little brown prisoners they can take their videos back home to Ma and Pa and make them proud.  Heck if "gay" marriage (no such thing as "gay" by the way)  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/letsbringbackpolygamy-mpg-reficultnias-082104.html  ---  gets rammed down the throats of California voters by the courts, they could even marry the little suckers (assuming they don't torture them to death first)  What a proud day it is for the New Roman Empire folks....all of you Neo-Romans (and you all know who you are) must be sooooooo happy right about now. So break out your leathers and chaps, your chains and your whips, your cattle prods and paddles, and have a gay old time of it. - mpg
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

A Review of Shahid Alam's "Israeli Exceptionalism" -- Zionism Laid Bare  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/christison02032010.html
Must Read - Book Review - A quote...."The essential point of M. Shahid Alam’s book, "Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism",  --- 
http://books.google.com/books?id=o_dcPQAACAAJ&dq=Israeli+Exceptionalism:+The+Destabilizing+Logic+of+Zionism%22,&cd=1  ---  [GoglBkSrch]*  ---  http://books.google.com/books?id=o_dcPQAACAAJ&sitesec=buy&source=gbs_buy_s&cad=0  ---  comes clear upon opening the book to the inscription in the frontispiece.  From the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi, the quote reads, “You have the light, but you have no humanity.  Seek humanity, for that is the goal.”  Alam, professor of economics at Northeastern University in Boston and a CounterPunch contributor, follows this with an explicit statement of his aims in the first paragraph of the preface.  Asking and answering the obvious question, “Why is an economist writing a book on the geopolitics of Zionism?” he says that he “could have written a book about the economics of Zionism, the Israeli economy, or the economy of the West Bank and Gaza, but how would any of that have helped me to understand the cold logic and the deep passions that have driven Zionism?” - *links added
also posted at AlethoNews  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/zionism-laid-bare/
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Blair: Gaza's great betrayer   ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/03/gaza-tony-blair-betrayal
No one should EVER forget "Bombs Away O-Bomb-a's" participation in this.
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/noleadershipfromobama-ohcontraire-mpg-reficultnias-122808  ---  mpg
A quote...."It's more than a year since Israel launched its immoral attack on Gaza and Palestinians are still living on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. So what has Tony Blair done to further peace in the region? Virtually nothing, argues the historian Avi Shlaim."
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This Time We Went Too Far   ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24580.htm
Alt  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amqp4NzMyrc  ---  (YouTube - 4 min 19 sec - February 01, 2010)
Video - Regarding Norman G Finkelstein's new book "This Time We Went To Far"  ---  http://orbooks.com/  ---  A quote...."For the Palestinians who live in the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, the December 2008 Israeli invasion was a nightmare of unimaginable proportions: in the 22-day-long action 1,400 Gazans were killed, several hundred on the first day alone. More than 6,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged. The cost of the destruction and disruption of economic life, in one of the worlds poorest areas, is estimated at more than $3 billion."
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Palestinian red crescent society (PRCS): We were the target of 455 Israeli attacks in 2009
  ---  http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7VYu0TMP4TgkPC6FvEK
ohnqwdNJW%2bYUA3ZbDdnLTg6gfEcHdfLjuTTVfsGYQ2tpy%2bO9DQWMiT2X2N%2b4rx8SafM92qHoPbMNcTOKucWmxxpws%3d
By the Numbers - A quote...."EL-BIREH, (PIC)-- The Palestinian red crescent society (PRCS) announced on Tuesday that its medical teams were the targets of 455 Israeli attacks in 2009 including shooting and physical assaults. -- A PRCS report said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired 15 times at its ambulance vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip killing one of the volunteers in Gaza and wounding ten others in addition to damaging 22 ambulance vehicles." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m62880&hd=&size=1&l=e
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Latest Israeli response to Gaza investigations totally inadequate
  ---  http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/latest-israeli-response-gaza-investigations-totally-inadequate-20100202
A quote...."Amnesty International -- Israel’s latest response to the UN on its investigations into alleged violations of international law by its forces in Gaza a year ago is totally inadequate, Amnesty International said today. -- Crucial questions about the conduct of attacks in which hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands were made homeless are not credibly addressed in Israel’s update to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon."
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Harvard Law student detained, deported by Israel  ---  http://www.hlrecord.org/news/harvard-law-student-detained-deported-by-israel-1.1090599
A quote...."A warm smile and easy laugh reveal Hebah Ismail’s unthreatening, gentle personality. An American citizen, this 3L of Egyptian descent works with the International Human Rights Clinic on projects related to Bedouin land rights. Hebah wears a hijab. She still does not know which of one, or combination, of these characteristics prompted the immigration personnel at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport deny her entry to Israel."
also posted at AlethoNews  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/harvard-law-student-detained-deported-by-israel/
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Israel to raze 200 Palestinian homes in E Jerusalem  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117846&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Israeli authorities plan to seal 200 Palestinians homes in East Jerusalem Al-Quds to counter what they call "discriminatory enforcement" against Israeli settlers."
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Constant Israeli attacks on graves and shrines -- "The Case of Awarta village"  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62902&hd=&size=1&l=e
Photo Gallery - A quote...."The village of Awarta, Nablus district, is known for its green plains and high hills and long history of Maqamat ( religious shrines and monuments) indicating  its ancient history and authenticity. Awarta village was on the new date of the serial attacks by colonizers on its land and people when a dozen of military vehicles accompanied by 8 bus boarded by at least 350 colonizers from several colonies moved into the village after midnight, 20 January, 2010."
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All factions meet in Gaza for talks on unity  ---  http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=259014
A quote...."Gaza – Ma'an – Representatives of all Palestinian factions met in Gaza City late Wednesday at the headquarters of the independents, Yasser Al-Wadiyeh said Thursday morning."
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It's Just Not Right  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2010/02/03/it-s-just-not-right
Must Read - A quote...."Ten years into a new century, (a mere two- hundred and thirty- four years for the U.S. of A.) using history as our guide, we have, in the last thirty years, chosen for President a B-actor, an elitist whose father’s and grandfather's patriotism was highly suspect, a morally impotent boy/man, a village idiot posing as a regular guy, and now, as we hang by a thread, we wait to see if hope floats. As if we would have learned by now that it’s pure insanity to expect a different outcome from the repetition of this four-year ritual, all these men were offered up as our choices by the latest Master's of the Universe, known as "Inc.", all powerful, all knowing: "Inc", running the world with the fanaticism of a corporate mindset."
also posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5544.shtml
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Faber Lashes Out – Again  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/faber/faber44.1.html
Must Read - A quote...."After his recent and widely disseminated quip on CNBC that “Obama makes Bush look like a genius”, Marc Faber is now offering some insights into how the US can get out of its “debt trap”. -- In his latest GloomBoomDoom market commentary, the irrepressible pundit concludes that the US has basically two choices: default on obligations  --  or  --  massively monetize US debts and reduce the debt through inflation. -- “In my opinion,” he declares, “additional massive monetization of debts is the most likely outcome”. And yet, “frantic monetization” lies at the root of the banking system’s ills, in Faber’s view (his emphasis in the following):" bold and (--) by website editor -- For more on this issue see....On Inflation, Deflation & The Fed - 08-17-09 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/oninflationdeflation&thefed-mpg-reficultnias-081709
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Global Insolvency, How will the U.S. Service its Debt?  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24584.htm
Must Read - A quote...."What we have experienced over the past several years has been an orgy of securitization and leverage not previously experienced in modern times. That was accommodated by ridiculously low Fed interest rates. These conditions along with unregulated derivative creation led us to our present state of affairs along with mammoth consumption of mortgages by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and the FHA. We were subjected to unbridled monetary and fiscal abandon. -- Such unbridled greed came close to bringing down the entire financial system, which American taxpayers have been allowed to pick up the bill for. After all this we see absolutely no regulation in sight and the SEC and the CFTC continue to protect the titans of Wall Street as government looks on in total disinterest. This, of course, omits the Executive Order borne criminality, which has turned our free markets into controlled and manipulated fascist markets. People say what can I do? You can start by throwing almost every incumbent out of office and buy pressing the Senate relentlessly to pass the bill that includes an audit and investigation of the Fed. If you do not do these things you will end up living on your knees enslaved, as will generations to follow. Too big to fail has to be stopped along with moral hazard. Limits have to be put on leverage. The world of derivatives has to be unraveled. If we do not have serious financial reform the markets will continue to self-destruct." -- also posted at GlobalRsrch   ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17378
& BLN   ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7282-0-13-13--.html
& DProgram  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/03/global-insolvency-how-will-the-us-service-its-debt-bob-chapman/
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The Crisis Is Not Over  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24576.htm
Must Read - A quote...."February 03, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Readers ask if the financial crisis is over, if the recovery is for real and, if not, what are Americans’ prospects. The short answer is that the financial crisis is not over, the recovery is not real, and the U.S. faces a far worse crisis than the financial one. Here is the situation as I understand it:" -- also posted at AlethoNews   ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/the-crisis-is-not-over/
& OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5542.shtml
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There’s No U in Recovery  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/theres-no-u-in-recovery/
Must Read - A quote...."I’m sure that you’ve seen the headlines, Ford racks up $2.7 billion in profits for the year. That’s great news, that’s wonderful news, see, the economy is turning around. Ain’t that great? That’s the headlines, good news, it’s all getting so much better now. Only how did Ford become so profitable? They did it by reducing their North American workforce by 47%. -- So good news for Ford doesn’t necessarily mean good news for the economy or for you. If Microsoft were to cut their North American employees by 50% their profits would look great for a while, but sooner or later the company would begin to suffer."
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Exposed:  Bernanke's "Skimming Operation"  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24575.htm
Must Read - A quote...."February 03, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The reappointment of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke means that the opportunity for change has passed and the reform movement is dead. It means that and that derivatives trading, off-balance sheet operations, securitization, dark pools and high frequency trading will go on much as they have before. It means that the public will continue to be gouged so that a handful of Wall Street sharpies can rake in obscene profits using complex "financial innovations" and over-leveraged debt instruments. It means that the entire system will continue to be put at risk to protect the interests of investment banks and hedge funds. It means that the subsidies, the preferential treatment, and the bailouts will continue to fuel populist rage and exacerbate deepening divisions in society. It means that the status quo has been preserved and that it's "business as usual"."
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Move Over Doctor Doom; Mohamed El-Erian Ascends To The "King Of Skeptics" Throne
  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/move-over-doctor-doom-mohamed-el-erian-ascends-king-skeptics-throne
Contains Video - Alt  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-OenWiHrZM  ---  A quote...."Earlier we presented  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article
/pimcos-el-erian-warns-about-irrational-exuberance-sees-january-sell-harbinger-things-come  ---  a Bloomberg op-ed by an increasingly pessimistic Mohamed El-Erian. For those too lazy to read it, we recommend the following 4 minute interview by Bloomberg's Tom Keene of the Pimco skeptic. In a response to what policy recommendation El-Erian would suggest, the humble ex-Havard endowment head (who sure got out when the getting was good) who prefaces his response by saying he is not smart enough to propose policy (so who is - Tim Geithner?), says America should expect a bumpy journey as the economy resets "There is no silver bullet." Those mid-term elections are looking uglier by the minute."
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Bankers defiant at Davos World Economic Forum  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f04.shtml
A quote...."Two years on from the biggest financial crisis to strike world capitalism since the 1930s, leading international bankers made clear at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that they will resist any attempts to reign in the speculative practices that have led to governments running up unprecedented levels of debt and the loss of tens of millions of jobs."
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AIG pays out $100 million in bonuses  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/aig-f04.shtml
A quote...."The giant insurance firm AIG (American International Group) paid out $100 million in year-end bonuses to traders in its financial products division on Wednesday, according to company sources. Elsewhere, it was reported that Bank of America and Morgan Stanley awarded their top personnel record or near-record pay for 2009. Bank of America paid out $4.4 billion and Morgan Stanley dispensed $14.4 billion." - For more on this issue see....Having Fun With Your Tax Dollars  ---  http://wsws.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/havingfunwithyourtaxdollars-weblist-mpg-reficultnias-110808.html
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U.S. May Lose 824,000 Jobs as Employment Data Revised: Analysis
  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aNSc0oQ0vb4M&pos=10
A quote...."Feb. 3 (Bloomberg Multimedia) -- The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time."
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No help in sight, more homeowners walk away  ---  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35210866/ns/business-the_new_york_times/
A quote...."In 2006, Benjamin Koellmann bought a condominium in Miami Beach. By his calculation, it will be about the year 2025 before he can sell his modest home for what he paid. Or maybe 2040. -- “People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?” -- He absolutely should.....it's called "capitalism", if he doesn't sell and walk away he'll be practicing "socialism"...for the banks. What's really bad about the whole deal is if he stays and pays, he'll be paying the banks twice for their highly profitable (at least for the owners)  ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/havingfunwithyourtaxdollars-weblist-mpg-reficultnias-110808.html  ---  particpation in the world's largest "derivatives ponzi" scheme.  Once by having his tax dollars go to the banks to help them out of their own self-inflicted financial hole while he and his children go deeper into debt, and once again if he continues to pay on the mortgage.  A sucker play by anybody's measure.  - mpg
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Tuesday February 2nd 2010 - links page

Budgets, War and Blind Ambition: The Limited Minds of the American Elite
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1919-budgets-war-and-blind-ambition-the-limited-minds-of-the-american-elite.html
Must Read - A quote...."The American elite's unbounded, unquestioned, indeed unconscious sense of imperial entitlement and dominance -- based ultimately on war, the threat of war and the profit from war -- is one of the defining characteristics of our age. And if you would like to see a glaring example of this attitude in action, look no further than the front page of Tuesday's New York Times, where one David Sanger gives us his penetrating "news analysis" of the Administration's just-announced $3.8 trillion budget." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24615.htm
& CounterPunch  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd02022010.html
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Obama budget: War, debt and cuts in social services  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/budg-f02.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."The Obama administration’s budget for the 2011 fiscal year, unveiled Monday, projects massive US government deficits for the next decade, fueled by gargantuan military spending and the impact of the financial and economic crisis of American and world capitalism. The US national debt is projected to more than double over the coming decade, increasing by $8.5 trillion. -- Administration officials also revealed that for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, 2010, the federal deficit will approach $1.6 trillion, by far the largest ever, and nearly 11 percent of total US gross domestic product. This is up sharply from the $1.35 trillion estimate last week by the Congressional Budget Office."
also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62844&hd=&size=1&l=e
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Obama's Wild Weekend: A Worldwide Surge in Warmongering
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1917-obamas-wild-weekend-a-worldwide-surge-in-warmongering.html
Must Read - A quote...."Even as progressives were savoring Barack Obama's "masterful" – indeed, "brain-searing" – performance at the House Republicans' retreat last Friday, their dazzling champion was busy applying himself with renewed and reckless vigor to that most un-progressive of occupations: saber-rattling around the world.  The last few days have certainly seen a remarkable display of bellicosity by the Obama Administration, putting almost every tool in the militarist kit to use: nukes, ships, missiles, money, proxies and war-profiteering. With just a few flicks of the imperial wrist, Obama sent waves of destabilization through some of the most volatile regions on earth."
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1 Year of Obama....   Change You Still Believe In?  ---  http://revcom.us/a/191/obama-en.html
Must Read - A quote...."A little over a year ago this week, millions of people in the U.S. greeted the inauguration of Obama with hope. For years people had watched in revulsion as Bush overrode massive public opposition to launch totally unjustified war against Iraq. They watched as he occupied Afghanistan and declared that the U.S. had the right to go to war against anyone it perceived to be even possibly “threatening” it. They saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib and some heard the tales out of Guantánamo... they watched the basic rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution shredded... and they saw a country rapidly heading in a direction that revolted them
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Why Not Kill a Million for a Ratings Boost? Chimpy Did  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/why-not-kill-a-million-for-a-ratings-boost/
Must Read - A quote...."How do you think Obama should try and improve his slumping approval rating? You think he should scrap the mandatory insurance scam and support the single-payer idea that most Americans want? Do you think maybe he should stop running interference for the most criminally corrupt and undemocratic administration we ever had in this country, the Bush administration? Do you think perhaps he could actually close gitmo or try and scale back the CIA death-drone attacks on civilian populations in Pakistan? Maybe he should stop cow-towing to Wall Street and the bankers from the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and the World Bank? -- Any of those might be a good idea but neocon Daniel Pipes has an even better one; Obama should bomb Iran."
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Flashback: The 'War on Terror' was going to start in 1993  ---  http://factsnotfairies.blogspot.com/2010/02/flashback-war-on-terror-was-going-to.html
Alt  ---  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7035442042246512671#  ---  (Google Vid - 33 min 38 sec - 3 yrs ago)
Video - Special Note - A quote...."What you are about to see has been BANNED, and never to be re-aired or sold. Not even a copy of the transcripts. While the Sheeple were busy with the O.J. Simson Trials, The Cabals were planning the New World Order...  J. A. Calhoun, a Research Consultant was very lucky to record these two programs, one was on British ITN Report, and the other was ABC's Day One back in July 93." -- For more on this issue see....Effective Fed Funds Rate & Total Non-Farm Payrolls 03-24-07 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407
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Afghans call Bagram US Air Force base “Obama’s Gitmo  ---  http://rt.com/Politics/2010-02-02/afghanistan-us-troops-bagram.html
Contains Video - A quote...."A quote...."By detaining people during night raids and torturing them in Afghan field prisons, the US military officials are not battling the insurgency, but actually creating it, believes investigative journalist Anand Gopal"
also posted at PrisonPlanet  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/february2010/020210Afghans.htm
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Children Prisoners of the U.S. War of Terror --- http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/home-mainmenu-289/6119-children-prisoners-of-the-us-war-of-terror
A quote...."Many people in this country are aware of the atrocious conditions and treatment of adult prisoners in the U.S. war of terror. These prisoners have been held at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram, and other hellholes run by the U.S. But few are aware that thousands of children have also been taken by the U.S. and its allies in this war of terror."
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“America’s Secret Afghan Prisons”: Investigation Unearths New US Torture Site, Abuse Allegations in Afghanistan
  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/2/americas_secret_afghan_prisons_investigation_unearths
A quote...."A new investigation by journalist Anand Gopal reveals harrowing details about US secret prisons in Afghanistan, under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Gopal interviewed Afghans who were detained and abused at several disclosed and undisclosed sites at US and Afghan military bases across the country. He also reveals the existence of another secret prison on Bagram Air Base that even the Red Cross does not have access to. It is dubbed the Black Jail and is reportedly run by US Special Forces. [includes rush transcript]"
||  Real Video Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2010/feb/video/dnB20100202a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:10:50
||  Real Audio Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2010/feb/audio/dn20100202.ra&proto=rtsp&start=00:10:50
||  MP3 Download  ||  ---  http://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2010-0202-1.mp3
||  More…  ||  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/2/stream
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"Shock, Horror, Drama" That You Won't Read In The New York Times  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24566.htm
A quote...."February 02, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Dr Aafia Siddiqui is a bright, intelligent woman who has been through hell having being kidnapped, tortured in secret prisons, gunned down by US soldiers and renditioned to America where she is now facing attempted murder charges against those who shot her . -- Only in the cock-eyed crosshairs of George W Bush's War on Terror could this happen and I hope to God that the jurors who will go through the evidence during the next few hours, if not days, see through this rotten legacy and recognise the case for what it is ... a tissue of lies enveloped in a web of deceit."
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US terror suspects allege FBI torture  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C02%5C03%5Cstory_3-2-2010_pg7_10
A quote...."SARGODHA: Five Americans accused by Pakistan of links to Al Qaeda-linked groups pleaded their innocence on Tuesday, saying they were being “set up” and tortured by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Pakistani police. -- As they arrived for a remand hearing at a high-security court in Sargodha, one of the suspects tossed a scrap of toilet paper scrawled with writing from the window of the police van, an AFP reporter said."
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Obama seeks power to Assassinate “US Citizens” they label as terrorist
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/01/video-obama-seeks-power-to-assassinate-us-citizens-they-label-as-terrorist/
Alt  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbAKrITJFY  ---  (RTYuTb - 4m45s - Jan. 31, 2010)
RT-Video - A quote...."They want the power to assassinate US citizens the call terrorist, when they cannot even get the names right to begin with. 5 year olds on no fly list as terrorist "
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Ron Paul on Obama seeking to assassinate “US citizens” he labels as terrorist
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/01/video-obama-seeks-power-to-assassinate-us-citizens-they-label-as-terrorist/
Alt  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC33zNMARgg  ---  (YuTb 3m40s Jan. 31, 2010)
Video - A quote...."On the evening of Jan. 27, 2010, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) spoke, in Baltimore City, before a capacity audience at Loyola University Maryland."
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Pentagon Black Budget Sees Year Over Year Record Funding; Tops $56 Billion  ---  http://cryptogon.com/?p=13460
A quote...."Last year, that budget grew to more than $50 billion – ”the largest-ever sum,” according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer. A few more billion were added for wartime operations, for a total of $54 billion. This year’total would be $2 billion higher, a 3.7 percent increase." -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
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MIDEAST:  Corrupt Arab Regimes - Who is to Blame?  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50189
Must Read - A quote...."RAMALLAH, Feb 2, 2010 (IPS) - The Mideast continues to be plagued by autocratic Arab regimes where human rights, democracy and freedom of speech are a pipe dream for the average citizen. But who is to blame and what can be done to amend this situation?"
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Clare Short: Tony Blair lied and misled parliament in build-up to Iraq war  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/02/clare-short-warned-tony-blair
A quote...."Clare Short, the former international development secretary, today accused Tony Blair of lying to her and misleading parliament in the build-up to the Iraq invasion. -- Short, giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the war, also said that the 2003 conflict had put the world in greater danger of international terrorism. -- Declassified letters between Short and Blair released today show she believed that invading Iraq without a second UN resolution would be illegal and there was a significant risk of a humanitarian catastrophe. -- She told the inquiry that she had a conversation with Blair in 2002. He told her that he was not planning for war against Iraq and that the evidence has since revealed that he was not telling the truth at that point, she said."
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Taliban take on the US's surge  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LB03Df01.html
Special Note - A quote...."ISLAMABAD - At the major international conference on Afghanistan in London last Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban to take part in a loya jirga (assembly of elders) - as a start to peace talks. -- The Taliban are widely reported as having responded that first they want all of the more than 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan to leave the country by 2011. -- Asia Times Online, however, has learned from well-connected sources in Afghanistan who have been directly involved in backchannel negotiations with the Taliban that there is an important nuance to the Taliban demand. That is, the United States must put an immediate halt to its plans to send a further 30,000 troops to Afghanistan before withdrawal begins in 2011. -- In return, the Taliban would be prepared to open up a channel of dialogue with the Americans, through Saudi Arabia, while at the same time taking measures to reduce the level of hostilities in the country."
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"Ahmadinejad: West survives on sowing discord  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117696&sectionid=351020101  ---  02 Feb 2010 President Ahmadinejad warns against divisive policies that seek to destabilize the region, as reports circulate that Washington is ramping up its military hardware in the Persian Gulf,. In a Tuesday meeting with Qatar's crown prince Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Western countries have always played a destabilizing role in the region. "The Westerners cannot bear the thought of security and solidarity among regional countries," said the Iranian president. "They have survived largely by sowing discord and inciting instability in the region."[You know you're in trouble when... the President of Iran perfectly articulates your sentiments.]" -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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'Iranian weapon ends Apache copters' air supremacy'  ---  http://english.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8811131788
Weapons Tech Alert - Special Note - A quote...."A senior Iranian military official says Iran has developed a special weapon that can bring down Apache helicopters. -- Col. Nasser Arab-Beigi, the director of the self-sufficiency organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), told the Fars news agency on Tuesday that the “special weapon” can also target advanced tanks. -- He noted that the new weapon will put an end to the battlefield supremacy of the United States' Apache helicopters." -- also posted at PressTV  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117711&sectionid=351020101  ---  Obviously if Iran decides to stockpile man-portable anti-aircraft and anti-amour weapons and distribute them into Iraq and Afghanistan, or perhaps other places, in the event they’re attacked, it will make it completely impossible for the US-NRE to occupy these countries. This appears to be a warning by them to that affect.  Think of what would happen if they distributed them in Lebanon or the Gaza strip. The people in those places who are constantly being bombarded from the air would finally have the chance to actually defend themselves. - mpg
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Qatar's crown prince arrives in Iran  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117656&sectionid=351020101
A quote...."Qatar's crown prince Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani is in Tehran to discuss matters of mutual interest with Iranian officials. -- Talks on bilateral relations between the two Persian Gulf States will be high on the agenda. -- The two countries are also expected to sign agreements in several areas including military, energy and economy."
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Yemen rebels pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia  ---  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAUPUNKz9ipHIsUtERq6gVm0V_Ig
A quote...."SANAA — Yemeni Shiite rebels pledged on Tuesday not to attack neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a key condition laid down by the Sanaa government to end its nearly-six-month military campaign against them. -- "As long as no one attacks us, we would not target any party," the office of rebel leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi said in a statement posted on the rebels' website. -- It said the rebels, known also as Huthis, had already made this position clear last week when they announced a "withdrawal from Saudi territory and ending the war."
also posted at Yahoo  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100202/wl_mideast_afp/yemenunrestrebelssaudi
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Lebanon's AK-47 index may be pointing to war   ---  Who knew? Maybe someone should make a chart. - mpg
   ---  http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100203/FOREIGN/702029841/1002
Special Note - A quote...."BEIRUT // Abu Mahdi spends most of his day sitting in a plastic chair in front of a dilapidated concrete block shack on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs puffing on a water pipe and pouring coffee for a steady stream of visitors and customers that have come to examine his inventory. -- Two of his first customers on a cold winter morning are young fighters in their late teens from the militant Shiite movement Hizbollah who are enraptured with a selection of gleaming new 9mm handguns from Belgium, the United States and the Czech Republic."
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The Arab International Forum for the Support of the Resistance - Beirut Lebanon 15-17 Jan 2010 (english version)
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24571.htm
A quote...."February 02, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The conference concerning the resistance, held in Beirut from the 15th to 17th January 2010, was an overwhelming experience for me personally with its almost 10 000 delegates from all over the Arab world and a small number from Europe and the US."
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India hints at resumption of talks with Pakistan  ---  http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=97728
Full quote...."Updated at: 2255 PST, Tuesday, February 02, 2010  -- ISLAMABAD: India has hinted at resumption of composite dialogue process with Pakistan, diplomatic sources told Geo on Tuesday. -- According to diplomatic sources, India wants to resume the comprehensive talks that have been stalled after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. -- When contacted Shah Mahmood Qureshi told Geo Pakistan has always maintained that dialogue is the only way forward for both countries. -- He confirmed there were some indications from India about resumption of stalled peace talks."
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US-CHINA:  Taiwan Arms Sale Heats up Simmering Row  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50199
A quote...."WASHINGTON, Feb 2, 2010 (IPS) - Trade relations between the U.S. and China appear to be hitting a rough patch, with China publicly threatening to impose sanctions on U.S. companies participating in the arms sales to Taiwan, leading some observers to express concern over the growing war of words between Washington and Beijing."
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China mulls setting up military base in Pakistan
  ---  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-mulls-setting-up-military-base-in-Pakistan/articleshow/5510235.cms
A quote...."BEIJING: China has signaled it wants to go the US way and set up military bases in overseas locations that would possibly include Pakistan. The obvious purpose would be to exert pressure on India as well as counter US influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
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Russian-Venezuelan Joint Venture to Invest $20 bln in Oilfield  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17352
A quote...."MOSCOW -- A total of $20 billion will be invested in the development of Junin 6, a major oilfield in Venezuela's Orinoco oil belt, a Russian deputy prime minister said on Monday. Igor Sechin, who oversees the fuel and energy sector in the cabinet, put the timeframe on the implementation of the joint Russian-Venezuelan project at 40 years, adding that development work would start later this year."
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Russia launches cargo spaceship to ISS  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-02/03/c_13161529.htm
A quote...."MOSCOW, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Russia launched a cargo spaceship from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan early Wednesday, the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said. -- The Progress M-04M freighter atop a Soyuz-U carrier rocket blasted off at 06:45 a.m. Moscow time (0345 GMT), said spokesman for the Mission Control Valery Lyndin."
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Kremlin shocked as Kaliningrad stages huge anti-government protest -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/02/russia-anti-government-protest-kaliningrad
A quote...."Although opposition rallies have taken place throughout the Vladimir Putin era, the scale of the Kaliningrad protest appeared to have caught the Kremlin off guard. -- The region – the former German city of Königsberg, which was seized by Stalin during the second world war – is separated from the rest of Russia and bordered by EU member states Poland and Lithuania. -- Medvedev sent his plenipotentiary envoy, Ilya Klebanov, to Kaliningrad to investigate. Sources suggested that the Kremlin-appointed governor, Georgy Boos, was also likely to be summoned back to Moscow for a dressing down."
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I Call It Murder  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24564.htm
A quote...."By Cynthia McKinney -- February 02, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- They shot this Black man in his genitals and in his back. It sounds like a hate crime to me. How else could one describe it? -- Well, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it was self-defense. But how many times have we heard self-defense by cops used as a cop out?"
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Autopsy: FBI Agents Shot Detroit Imam 21 Times  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49844
Related Article - A quote...."In Michigan, explosive details have emerged from the long-awaited release of the autopsy report for a Detroit-area Muslim imam slain by the FBI in October. The imam, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, headed a Sunni Muslim group called the Ummah. He was shot dead during an FBI raid shortly after being indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit federal crimes. Local Muslim leaders have questioned if authorities are trying to cover up facts surrounding his death. The autopsy report was finally released Monday after a lengthy delay. It shows Abdullah died from twenty-one gunshot wounds and was found with his wrists handcuffed behind his back. House Judiciary Chair John Conyers is expected to join a coalition of civil rights and Muslim groups today to call for a Justice Department probe."
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

Israeli Occupation Supportive Companies to Boycott  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62852&hd=&size=1&l=e
Action Alert - Boycott, Divest and Sanction - Bacause if we don't, an entire people will die. -- A quote...."In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees." -- For more on how to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the state of Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page"  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/  ---  of this website. - mpg
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Palestinian East Jerusalem Residents Languish Beyond the Apartheid Wall
  ---  http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2010/02/palestinian-east-jerusalem-residents.html
Video - A quote...."More than 50,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem live beyond the separation barrier -- areas which are officially part of the city but cut off from its daily life. AFPTV visited the isolated suburb of Kfar Aqeb, where Palestinians are deprived of most municipal services. Duration: 01:50"
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Wanna Visit Jerusalem with a Multi-Millionaire Adulterer?  ---  http://careandwashingofthebrain.blogspot.com/search/label/9%2F11
A quote...."You're in luck! MegaBucks Hagee is taking his snake oil act to Jerusalem, why not join John as he picks up some pointers--and a few shekels in Occupied Jerusalem, March 9-10! -- Don't have some of that 'prosperity' gospel money to jet over to Apartheid Israel? No problem, get your Muslim hatred on at one of John Boy's "Night to Honor Israel." -- John can certainly do better than that other rabid Christian Zionist bible-thumper Jerry Falwell, who was given a private jet by Israel. -- When all else fails, John Boy can always pray and hope for a New World Order, led by Jesus Christ?? Will Jesus descend on a mushroom cloud or is he already in the ME, embedded with some Blackwater/Xe assassins?" -- Let's be utterly clear about this folks....these are NOT Christians, they are Armageddon Cultists who have sold themselves into slavery. - mpg
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Hamas Leader Survives Attempt on Life
  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/news.php?id=d86af2278753cbce52a149c69c8735be&mode=details#d86af2278753cbce52a149c69c8735be
A quote...."A local Hamas leader in the southern Gaza Strip has escaped an attempt on his life which damaged nearby homes and left two children wounded. -- The incident happened on Monday night when a car belonging to Yussef Sarsur exploded overnight, leaving its apparent target unscathed, AFP quoted witnesses as saying. -- The car was reportedly parked in front of the Sarsur home in the southern town of Khan Yunis when it detonated, ripping into nearby houses. -- Two children were wounded by broken glass, hospital officials said. -- No group has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion."
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Palestinian politicians face tide of persecution in Israel  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11049.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=
feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifada+%28Electronic+Intifada%29
A quote...."Leaders of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities."
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Trees Against  ---  http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1253
A quote...."Planting trees against occupation, settlement expansion and land expropriation – this is the symbolic action carried out by popular committees of resistance who joined a tree-planting action in Aboud, North-West of Ramallah, last Sunday."
also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62869&hd=&size=1&l=e
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International activists accompany Gazan farmers  ---  http://palsolidarity.org/2010/02/11156?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&
utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
A quote...."Farmers form the villages of Faraheen and Khuza’a , near Gaza’s second biggest city of Khan Younis, reported to the ISM that routine ’sweeps’ which Israelis carry out along the the border , disrupted the sowing of the wheat in the last few days available after the recent rainfall."
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Gathering to rebuild Gawi tent creates air of solidarity and support in the face of police repression and settler violence  ---  http://palsolidarity.org/2010/02/11164
A quote...."50 Israeli and international supporters gathered today in Sheikh Jarrah to help Palestinian residents rebuild the Gawi family tent after it was demolished by police earlier in the day. The event, called by neighborhood residents and ISM activists, created a sense of support, solidarity and community in the face of high tension and repression by authorities."
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Israeli jets strike southern Gaza  ---  http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258741
A quote...."Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on at least two targets in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, witnesses said and the Israeli military confirmed."
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FED GAVE Banks Access to 23.7 TRILLION DOLLARS NOT $700 Billion!
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/02/video-fed-gave-banks-access-to-23-7-trillion-dollars-not-700-billion/
Alt  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJc0PZV-Bk  ---  (YuTb - 4m41s - 01/30/10)
Video - Special Note - A quote...."The president continues to say in public that banks have almost paid America back....that is a lie!"
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Obama's Budget Has One Small, Missing Piece.... For $6.3 Trillion Dollars
  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/obamas-budget-has-one-small-missing-piece-63-trillion-dollars
A quote...."Today, to much fanfare, the administration released its ridiculous $3+ trillion budget (we say + because at that size the one thing certain is that the budget will certainly never hit the target and while we wish it would be lower, we are certain it will end up materially higher), which consists of a "short" 192-page summary section and a 1420 page appendix.  --  We are confident that not one politician will read the whole thing from cover to cover. We won't either. Not because we don't care about what's in it, but because we are much more concerned with what is not included, namely $2.8 Trillion and $1.9 Trillion of MBS guaranteed portfolios at Fannie and Freddie, and an additional $782 billion and $809 billion in company debt outstanding for the two GSEs, respectively.  --  This amounts to a total of $6.3 trillion in liabilities which should be counted toward the budget. And yet, oddly, the error-checker somehow made this rather justifiable omission: after all if we were to look at a number which written out looks as follows $6,264,000,000,000.00, we would also probably just avoid it - it is somewhat difficult to hide a number that big even in the 1,420 pages of the budget's appendix. That's ok, we are here to remind them about the omission, and also to remind Mr. Orszag, who himself, in that long ago 2008, espoused that these companies should be put on the Federal Budget. "
also posted at PrisonPlanet  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/obamas-budget-has-one-small-missing-piece-for-6-3-trillion-dollars.html
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The Next Leg Of The Housing Crisis In Five Simple Charts  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/next-leg-housing-crisis-five-simple-charts
Charts - A quote...."Everything that the government has done so far, with a few minor detours, has been almost exclusively focused on maintaining home prices high, by tweaking either the supply or the demand side of the housing equation. As the bulk of consumer net wealth is concentrated in the housing sector, and a wealthy and confident consumer, much more so than the banking system, is critical to the recovery of America's economy, the Administration will do everything in its power to achieve its goal of artificially manipulating the housing market, thereby not causing an incremental loss of wealth to those still stuck with overpriced houses, while the real intersection of actual supply and demand curves would indicate a materially lower equilibrium price." - bold by website editor
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MSM: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/02/msm-backdoor-taxes-to-hit-middle-class/
(Reuters) – The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families."
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ABC Consumer Index Drops To Lowest Reading Since Fall, Divergence From UMich Propaganda Reading At Record  ---
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/abc-consumer-index-drops-lowest-reading-fall-divergence-umich-propaganda-reading-record  ---  Chart - A quote...."The most recent ABC Confidence index came in at -49, just five points higher than the all time low of -54 set last January and is now at the lowest level since last fall. The prior week reading was -48, and the consensus for this week was -45, implying a substantial miss from expectations. The persistent deterioration in this index is increasingly at odds with other consumer readings...."
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US trade union membership at lowest level in more than a century  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/unio-f03.shtml
A quote...."Union membership in the United States fell another 10 percent in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the number of workers belonging to unions falling 771,000 to 15.3 million. Overall, the percentage of union members continued to fall to 12.3 percent, from 12.4 percent in 2008. -- The decline was in large part due to the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs last year due to the economic recession. This is, however, part of a decades-long trend, which has seen the percentage of private sector workers in unions fall to 7.2 percent last year, the lowest level since 1901."
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Greece "Discovers" $40 Billion Of Previously Unknown Debt, CDS Gaps
  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greece-discovers-40-billion-previously-unknown-debt-cds-tightening-reverses
A quote...."It appears not even one day can pass without some new and improved indication of Greece's economic collapse. The latest comes from website Kathimerini.gr which discloses that the recently appointed "Committee on the Reliability Of Statistics" has uncovered $40 billion of previously hidden debt (one wonders when America will get a comparable commission: no question we are in dire need of one)"
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Monday February 1st 2010 - links page

Iran’s Neoliberal Green Revolution is Over – Send in the Dogs of War
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/irans-neoliberal-green-revolution-is-over-send-in-the-dogs-of-war/
Must Read - War Warning - A quote...."There’s a good article on WSWS  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/iran-f01.shtml  ---  about a new development within the leadership of Iran’s neoliberal PR campaign aka the ”Green Revolution”. The big three are playing kiss and make up with the legitimate leadership of Iran. Curious timing, wouldn’t you say? This past October, 5  Republican Guard leaders and 37 others were killed by a suicide bomber in southern Iran. The attack has been claimed by the Jundallah terrorists in Iran who are working for “regime change”. Robert Baer gives us a little insight into Jundallah." -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - MEK-PKK-Others
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306#MEK-PKK-OTHERS
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An Ugly Week For The Human Race And Other Living Things  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24543.htm
Must Read - A quote...."January 31, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- You could almost feel bad for Barack Nothingburger, having to deliver the exquisitely badly timed State of the Union address to the world this week. He, his signature legislative initiative, and his presidency itself were already toast, but he still had to walk in the room and pretend otherwise. -- There could hardly have been a worse week for it. The days preceding his speech just brought one disaster after another for the president. -- But, since he has decided to be part of the problem, while masquerading as its solution, who cares? As long as he continues to adhere to that position, I'd just as soon see his presidency wrecked and his name humiliated anyhow. Considering that treason is a capital offense, I'd say the guy is getting off easy anyhow."
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War spending surges in President Obama's budget  ---  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32272.html#ixzz0eG1QPNRG
Those Neo-Roman Empires are just so Gawd-darned expensive ain't they folks?  So for all you Neo-Romans out there who perchance might be reading this blog....anytime you want this country to go back to being just a plain old "nation state", you know, the one they used to call the USofA, and give up your vain glorious and extremely expensive dreams of empire, you be this website editor's guest....anytime you want to go back to the way it was before that false-flag event you folks arranged called 9/11,  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/reficultniass911central-mpg-reficultnias-
weblist-100409.html  ---  you just let everyone else know....OK?  - mpg -- A quote...."President Barack Obama’s new budget, to be released Monday, forecasts two consecutive years of near $160 billion in war funding, far more than he hoped when elected and only modestly less than the last years of the Bush Administration. -- In 2011 alone, the revised numbers are triple what the president included in his spending plan a year ago. And the strain shows itself in new deficit projections, already hobbled by lagging revenues due to the weak economy." - bold by website editor
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24552.htm
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UPDATE 1-Obama seeks record $708 bln in 2011 defense budget  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0120383520100201?type=marketsNews
A quote...."WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2011...."
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Blair’s Monstrous Consistency  ---  http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2010/01/30/blairs-monstrous-consistency/
Special Note - A quote..."One of the reasons why I keep revisiting the illegality and immorality of the intervention in Kosovo long after most people have forgotten about it is precisely because so many opponents of the Iraq war don’t want to acknowledge that Kosovo was every bit as unjustifiable and wrong as Iraq was. By endorsing the war in Kosovo even now, as Obama did again in Oslo, many opponents of the Iraq war have opened themselves up to the attack that Iraq hawks were using from the beginning. If someone pointed out that invading Iraq would violate international law and not have U.N. sanction, the hawks would throw the precedent of Kosovo in his face. Unless he was a principled progressive or antiwar conservative, the opponent of the invasion was always at a loss to respond. If invading Iraq was based on phony or exaggerated intelligence about WMDs, Kosovo was based on lies about preventing genocide and protecting human rights. Unless you are among the fairly small percentage that opposed both, the odds are that you are outraged over invading Iraq in inverse proportion to how outraged you were over bombing Serbia."
also posted at AlethoNews  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/blair%E2%80%99s-monstrous-consistency/
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Call for Blair to face trial in Scotland  ---  http://news.scotsman.com/news/Call-for-Blair-to-face.6029526.jp
A quote...."TONY Blair should be tried in a Scottish court for his decision to take the country to war in Iraq, according to a group of SNP MSPs.-- The Crown Office, which leads prosecutions, is examining their arguments following the former prime minister's appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry last week, in which he expressed "no regrets" over deposing Saddam Hussein." -- also posted at AlethoNews
  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/call-for-blair-to-face-trial-in-scotland/
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Corporations are not people and money is not speech
  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/corporations-are-not-people-and-money-is-not-speech/
A quote...."In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned century-old restrictions on corporate spending in elections under the guise of protecting First Amendment free speech rights. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said, “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” This argument of the majority decision rests on the notions that corporations are covered by the same free speech protections as individual citizens and that campaign donations or financing are the same as speech." -- also posted at DProgram  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/01/corporations-are-not-people-and-money-is-not-speech/
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Welcoming the Taliban with Open Arms: Defectors and Deception in Afghanistan  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/valentine4.1.1.html
A quote...."This billion dollar buyout may, indeed, seem a bizarre reversal of fortunes, but only if one believes the U.S. genuinely wants reconciliation with the Taliban. In reality, defectors programs like the one proposed for Afghanistan are an essential part of the traditional U.S. pacification policy. For example, the so-called Chieu Hoi "Open Arms" program is touted by military historians as having produced positive results throughout the Vietnam War by offering "clemency to insurgents." -- Make no mistake about it: this too is propaganda. Defector "amnesty" or "clemency" or "open arms" programs are aggressive CIA intelligence operations and have nothing to do with." -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24557.htm
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US kills baby, 4 other civilians in Afghanistan  ---  http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=115158
A quote...."Baku – APA. US forces have killed at least five people, including a baby, during a night raid which they say has been aimed at targeting militants in central Afghanistan. APA reports quoting Al Jazeera. -- Afghan officials say the foreign forces killed the civilians in an attack on a village house in Uruzgan province on Saturday night. -- US-led forces in the war-weary country claim the casualties occurred when the joint forces came under fire from several locations as they approached a compound in the region." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62833&hd=&size=1&l=e
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US frame-up of Aafia Siddiqui begins to unravel - Pakistani victim of rendition and torture  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/sidd-f01.shtml
A quote...."Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui went on trial in a federal courtroom in New York City on January 19, charged with the attempted murder of US personnel in Afghanistan’s Ghazni Province in 2008. The case against Dr. Siddiqui, 37, is rapidly unraveling due to lack of evidence and discordant testimony from witnesses." -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24547.htm
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Israeli soldiers abduct Lebanese teen shepherd from south  ---  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=111311
A quote...."BEIRUT: Lebanon has lodged a complaint against Israel to the United Nations Security Council to protest the kidnapping of a citizen in South Lebanon by an Israeli patrol Sunday afternoon. Israeli troops abducted a Lebanese boy in South Lebanon on Sunday, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. The 17-year old shepherd, Rabih Zahra, was tending a flock of sheep near Kfar Shouba when he was abducted. According to NNA, Zahra is being detained at the Zebdine military compound."
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The Vancouver False Flag Red Warning & Red War Warning
(to be updated when needed)
02-01-10
mpg

Iran’s Neoliberal Green Revolution is Over – Send in the Dogs of War
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/irans-neoliberal-green-revolution-is-over-send-in-the-dogs-of-war/
Must Read - War Warning - A quote...."There’s a good article on WSWS  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/iran-f01.shtml  ---  about a new development within the leadership of Iran’s neoliberal PR campaign aka the ”Green Revolution”. The big three are playing kiss and make up with the legitimate leadership of Iran. Curious timing, wouldn’t you say? This past October, 5  Republican Guard leaders and 37 others were killed by a suicide bomber in southern Iran. The attack has been claimed by the Jundallah terrorists in Iran who are working for “regime change”. Robert Baer gives us a little insight into Jundallah." -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - MEK-PKK-Others
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306#MEK-PKK-OTHERS
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Strengthening US 'Defense' In - Gulf A Step To War  ---  http://www.rense.com/general89/rewf.htm
War Warning - A quote...."An article in the New York Times by David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt states: "The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf." It continues that this move "appears to be part of a coordinated administration strategy to increase pressure on Iran." Since there is about a zero chance that Iran would dare to launch a first strike on the US or its Arab allies, the US would only need to strengthen its missile defenses in order to deal with an Iranian counterattack after the US had first bombed Iran. This is a very dangerous development. It will likely cause Iran, in expectation of a possible attack, to increase its defenses. The US will then claim that Iran is threatening its neighbors and increase its military force even more. The mutual increases in military forces will mean a spiraling arms race."
also posted at DProgram  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/02/01/strengthening-us-defense-in-gulf-a-step-to-war/
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U.S. missile test mimicking Iran strike fails  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100201/ts_nm/us_arms_usa_iran
War Warning - Related Article - A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. attempt to shoot down a ballistic missile mimicking an attack from Iran failed after a malfunction in a radar built by Raytheon Co, the Defense Department said. -- The abortive test over the Pacific Ocean coincided with a Pentagon report that Iran had expanded its ballistic missile capabilities and posed a "significant" threat to U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East region."
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Secret CIA-Mossad meeting, preparation for new war?  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117579&sectionid=351020202
War Warning - A quote...."A secret meeting between the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon Panetta and Israeli officials has reportedly centered on Iran's nuclear program. -- In a secret flying visit to Israel on Thursday, the head of the CIA reportedly discussed Iran's nuclear issue in a sit-down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Mossad Chief Meir Dagan."
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For more on this issue see also....

US accelerating missile defenses in Gulf: report -- War Warning - posted 01-31-10
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_accelerating_missile_defenses_in_01302010.html
U.S. speeds up arms buildup with Gulf allies -- War Warning - posted 01-31-10
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/u-s-speeds-up-arms-buildup-with-gulf-allies/
US beefs up military presence off Iranian shores -- War Warning - posted 01-31-10
  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117487&sectionid=351020104
Clinton Threatens China With Isolation Over Iran Sanctions -- War Warning - posted 01-31-10
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/29/clinton-threatens-china-with-isolation-over-iran-sanctions/
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Could Vancouver 2010 be the next 9/11? (UPDATED 9:00AM EST 1-31-10)
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/01/25/could-vancouver-2010-could-be-the-next-911/
False Flag Red Warning - (per the article's author) & War Warning - possible related article  -- A quote...."I now believe I have reasonable grounds to suspect there could be a “false flag” operation carried out somewhere in the Vancouver area during the Olympics in Canada. Yes, this is purely speculation, but I feel the mention of it is justified in the interest of our national security to keep an eye on potentially dangerous overlapping occurrences. The games will take place in Vancouver and Whistler from Feb. 12th until Feb. 28th. Below, I have compiled the following suspicious activity and coincidences by searching and analyzing the news from various media sources and by speaking with my own contacts."
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Stephen Harper Suspends Canadian Parliament Till After The Olympics -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiuurvBxkU4 -- (YuTb - 4m56s - Dec 31, 2009)
Video - Possible Related Article - A quote...."December 30, 2009 CBC The National"
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PM shuts down Parliament until March  ---  http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2009/12/30/parliament-prorogation-harper.html
Possible Related Article - A quote...."By the time Parliament resumes, Harper would have had time to ask Jean to name five new senators, which would give the Conservatives a majority on the newly formed Senate committees and greater control for passing their own legislation." - bold by website editor
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Harper poised to announce 5 new Senators, giving Tories a plurality
  ---  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/harper-poised-to-announce-5-new-senators-giving-tories-a-plurality/article1448626/
Possible Related Article - A quote...."Prime Minister Stephen Harper will pad the five vacancies in the Senate today with Conservative appointees, tilting the balance of power towards his party and gaining an upper hand in upcoming legislative battles. -- Given that Parliament is prorogued, Senate committees will have to be reconfigured at the start of the new session in March, at which point the Tories will have more seats and be more likely to win key votes." -- bold by website editor
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At this point, given the articles shown above, this website editor will have to concur with the author's "Red False Flag Warning" regarding his article "Could Vancouver 2010 be the next 9/11?"

Also, all the articles taken together should be considered as a "Red War Warning" regarding the future outbreak of hostilities against Iran.  This "Red War Warning" will remain in effect until March 15th 2010 and the entire matter will be closely monitored.

Should a false-flag attack be attempted at any time during this period, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of his government should be considered as the prime suspects.  Should the Prime minister use any terrorist incident that takes place during, or soon after his well-timed prorogation of Parliament, in an  attempt take over the Canadian government, he should be considered a traitor and appropriate steps should be taken against him and members of his party.

Any US-NRE security personnel involved in this activity should be considered as accessories before or after the fact depending on the circumstances and should be treated as any other terrorist under the law.  They should be handed over to the responsible Canadian authorities as quickly as possible.

Any news service, Canadian or US-NRE, that spreads false or misleading information as they did regarding the recent "Flight 253 incident"  ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/falseflagops-weblist-mpg-082006#LAPBOMBER  ---  should be considered as an accessory after the fact regarding any attack and held accountable. - mpg

Given the gravity of the information shown above the following steps should be taken immediately to protect yourself and your families for anyone living in, or those intending to visit, the Vancouver area and all investors worldwide.

1. Do not attend the Olympics
2. If you live in Vancouver, take a vacation....somewhere else.
3. Watch everything the Harper government does very closely at least until March 15th 2010.
4. Find out if any "enabling legislation" has been secretly written by Harper's party during the last twelve months.
5. Find out if Harper or any of his cronies own any property in Vancouver, and monitor it closely.
6. Find out what Harper's actual relationships are with Israel or any Israeli owned companies or lobbies.
7. Monitor any Israeli consulates or companies located in Vancouver.
8. Monitor any known Mossad agents, fronts or assets in Vancouver.
9. Watch the short interest on all of the World's exchanges. Specifically for any companies based in Vancouver.
10. Watch the price of crude, any upward spike till March 15th would indicate a possible attack.
11. If a Vancouver resident, pay close attention to any of the US-NRE's security services in your city.
12. Obama may be a target of these services (his usefulness to them has already expired) so don't attend anything he does.
13. Sell your Canadain and US-NRE stocks and bonds immediately.

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Court Tosses NSA Spy Suits, Sides with White House Over Illegal Surveillance  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24555.htm
A quote....."February 01, 2010 "Information Clearing House" --  In late January, the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General released a report that provided startling new details on illegal operations by the FBI's Communications Analysis Unit (CAU) and America's grifting telecoms. -- For years, AT&T, Verizon, MCI and others fed the Bureau phone records of journalists and citizens under the guise of America's endless, and highly profitable, "War on Terror."
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US softens stance on Japan base  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/us-softens-stance-on-japan-base/
A quote...."Washington strikes a softer tone on its controversial military base in Japan, saying is ready to negotiate the relocation of the US forces on Okinawa Island. -- US Assistant Secretary of Defense Wallace Gregson said the White House was not after an “American-imposed” solution to the months-long dispute with Tokyo. -- “Our plan is based on our alliance relationships, and if we have to go back to negotiating, we’ll go back to negotiating,” Gregson said in a Tokyo speech on Monday." - From PressTV  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117584&sectionid=351020406
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'Trafficked' Haitian children not orphans  ---  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/01/2806972.htm?section=justin
A quote...."A young girl allegedly targeted by an American church group engaged in a child trafficking operation in quake-hit Haiti says she thought she was being taken to a summer camp." -- also posted at AlethoNews
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The US game in Latin America  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/29/us-latin-america-haiti-honduras
A quote...."When I write about US foreign policy in places such as Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who find it difficult to believe that the US government would care enough about these countries to try and control or topple their governments. These are small, poor countries with little in the way of resources or markets. Why should Washington policymakers care who runs them? -- Unfortunately they do care. A lot. They care enough about Haiti to have overthrown the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide not once, but twice. The first time, in 1991, it was done covertly. We only found out after the fact that the people who led the coup were paid by the US Central Intelligence Agency.  ---  http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-02/news/mn-52438_1_house-intelligence-committee  ---  And then Emmanuel Constant, the leader of the most notorious death squad there – which killed thousands of Aristide's supporters after the coup – told CBS News that he, too, was funded by the CIA."  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/03/world/haitian-ex-paramilitary-leader-confirms-
cia-relationship.html?pagewanted=1  ---  also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24551.htm
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Arab politicians 'facing increased persecution’ in Israel
  ---  http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100202/FOREIGN/702019838/1002/foreign
A quote...."NAZARETH // Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities. -- The warning came after Said Nafaa, a Druze member of the Israeli parliament was stripped of his immunity last week, clearing the way for him to be tried for a visit to Syria three years ago."
also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62834&hd=&size=1&l=e
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

Israeli response to Goldstone admits use of white phosphorus  ---  http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258174
A quote...."Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli findings delivered to the UN in response to the Goldstone report compound allegations that white phosphorus munitions were deployed toward an UNRWA compound in Gaza during last year's devastating offensive, Israeli media reported on Monday."
also posted at AlethoNews  ---  http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/israeli-response-to-goldstone-admits-use-of-white-phosphorus/
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Israeli police who put US man in coma get off scot-free  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117627&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Israeli authorities have cleared the police of the charge of inflicting coma-inducing head injury to an American during a protest against the erection of an Israeli barrier. -- The officials claimed that there was no criminal intent on the part of the police, said The Washington Post, reporting on the follow-up to the March 2009 incident in the West Bank in which the 38-year-old Tristan Anderson was hit in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister."
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Jim Rogers Federal Reserve is worsening the depression - http://dprogram.net/2010/02/01/video-jim-rogers-federal-reserve-is-worsening-the-depression/
Alt   ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6nMHwF6Ks8  ---  (YuTb - 10m22s - Aired March 11, 2008)
Must View Video - From the History File (and a good call) - March 11th 2008 -- A quote...."CNBC: "What would be the first two things you would do if you were in Mr Ben Bernanke's seat"?  --  Jim Rogers: "I would Abolish the Federal Reserve and Resign". - "Recessions are good, they clean out the excesses, you start again from a sound foundation and then you go again". - "Spending all this money trying to prevent a recession is making it worse, and we're going to have a worse recession in the end"." -- *Jim Rogers*
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Sunday January 31st 2010 - links page

No posts. - mpg

Saturday January 30th 2010

”The Israel issue was a big, big thing at that time. In fact, I think I remember actually there may have been conversations we had with Israelis, the two of us, whilst we were there. So that was a major part of all this.”

Friday January 29th 2010 - links page

George "W" Bush: The Legacy of an American "Caligula"
  ---  http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/01/29/george-w-bush-the-legacy-of-an-american-caliguala/
Must Read - Quote of the Day - (in bold)....."Ask any American, or, in fact prettymuch anyone around the world what President Obama’s biggest failing is and they will always say the same thing.  Bush is out of prison, proof Obama is a coward or part of the same gang.  All any of us wanted was our country back.  It isn’t like there weren’t crimes any prosecutor could prove.  We spend billions trying to convict children and mental defectives we kidnap off the street of terrorism and we have a gang here, still running their mouths, running free that is responsible for the deaths of 10,000 Americans, destroying the lives of 400,000 more, killing between 1 and 2 million around the world, 98% innocent civilians, and robbing America blind." -- "Simply put, there isn’t a single terrorist act, failure of proper management or oversight, political stumble or strategic blunder done during the Bush years that didn’t generate billions in no bid contracts, oil rights, arms deals or in the backroom restructuring of the American financial system that led to the biggest world financial collapse in history.   Never in history has so much “stupid” been so very good for so very few at the cost of so many."
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Blood is His Argument: Tony Blair's Gentle Cuddling at Iraq "Inquiry"
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1915-blood-is-his-argument-tony-blairs-gentle-cuddling-at-iraq-qinquiryq.html
Must Read - A quote...."On Friday, Tony Blair appeared before the "Chilcot Inquiry," the panel of hoary, lugubrious Establishment worthies set up to "examine" -- with extreme circumspection, exquisite politeness, and all due reverence to authority -- the "origins" of Britain's involvement in the mass-murder spree known as the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The event could be summed up entirely in a single headline:  Tony Blair to a million dead Iraqis, and the grieving survivors of British soldiers: F-ck you." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62743&hd=&size=1&l=e
& Creative-i  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/2010/01/31/blood-is-his-argument-tony-blairs-gentle-cuddling-at-iraq-inquiry-by-chris-floyd/
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We've Been Neo-Conned  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul110.html
Must Read - A quote...."By Ron Paul -- The modern-day, limited-government movement has been co-opted. The conservatives have failed in their effort to shrink the size of government. There has not been, nor will there soon be, a conservative revolution in Washington. Political party control of the federal government has changed, but the inexorable growth in the size and scope of government has continued unabated. The liberal arguments for limited government in personal affairs and foreign military adventurism were never seriously considered as part of this revolution."
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American History 101: We Are Devo  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1914-american-history-101-we-are-devo-.html
Special Note - It makes you think....mpg -- A quote...."Entertain conjecture of a remarkable scenario. An American president – born at the margins of society, raised by a pacifist mother – takes office at a time of national turmoil. He inherits a deeply unpopular, highly divisive war from his predecessor and must also deal with a burgeoning, worldwide financial crisis. Yet despite the fractured, fractious political atmosphere, he doesn't dither, doesn't waffle, but immediately launches the most far-reaching program of government activism in half a century."
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The Sensible Party  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/the-sensible-party/
Special Note - A quote...."The blogs are congested as the  various “heel” or “face” worshiping  factions of the Grand Politico WWE  breathlessly debate the stated or unstated, implied or ignored, tit-for-tat of last night’s pay-per-view broadcast; the  Rhetorical One’s State of the Union Infomercial/ Monster Truck Show Extravaganza. -- Did Obama go too far to the right? Did Obama improvise a line about Iran to appease Israel? Did Judge Alito mouth something to the Great One? Did Obama omit mentioning the healthcare bill’s “pre-existing conditions clause” on purpose? Did he lie about having lobbyists in his administration? What exactly was Nancy Pelosi wiping off the edges of her mouth? Why was I watching Nancy Pelosi’s mouth? What’s wrong with me? -- All truly fascinating, time and attention consuming questions (especially the last one), which, in the end, amount to exactly “Jack” and “Squat” to the square root of “Sh-t”."
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The State of the Empire -- Not so good  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/01/28/the-state-of-the-empire/
Special Note - A quote...."The very lack of attention paid to foreign policy in the president’s peroration, at a time when we’re fighting two wars (and threatening a third), was itself a significant comment on the state of the American hegemon. In the Imperial metropolis, they’re too consumed with their own internal problems to care much about the far frontiers of the empire. This turning inward presages a radical contraction, similar in scope and origins to the one currently squeezing the life out of the US economy. -- The American sphere of influence – the structure of which is comprised an "empire of bases," in Chalmers Johnson’s phrase – has reached the outer limits of its possible expansion. We now preside over a network of 737 known US bases that rings the globe, each a possible launching pad for the projection of American military power anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. The sustainability of this project, however, has always been challenged by anti-interventionists on the right as well as the left, and today we are seeing the direst of their predictions fulfilled on a daily basis."
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The real state of the union in 2010  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j30.shtml
Special Note - A quote...."In his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, President Barack Obama avoided any direct and concrete presentation of the actual state of US society. Given the enormity of the economic crisis and its destructive impact on tens of millions of Americans, Obama’s recourse to evasions and platitudes was all the more extraordinary." -- Not really, after all....he's Obama -- he comes from a land where bullsh-t is sublime and "following the money" is considered a crime. - mpg
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Johann Hari: This corruption in Washington is smothering America's future
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-this-corruption-in-washington-is-smothering-americas-future-1882349.html
Special Note - A quote...."For more than a century, the US has slowly put some limits – too few, too feeble – on how much corporations can bribe, bully or intimidate politicians. On Tuesday, they were burned away in one whoosh. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations can suddenly run political adverts during an election campaign – and there is absolutely no limit on how many, or how much they can spend. So if you anger the investment bankers by supporting legislation to break up the too-big-to-fail banks, you will smack into a wall of 24/7 ads exposing your every flaw. If you displease oil companies by supporting legislation to deal with global warming, you will now be hit by a tsunami of advertising saying you are opposed to jobs and the American Way. If you rile the defence contractors by opposing the gargantuan war budget, you will face a smear-campaign calling you Soft on Terror."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/29-1
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Baffle Them with Bull Feathers  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/01/28/baffle-them-with-bull-feathers/
Special Note - A quote...."Much of the war mafia’s conquest of the narrative has been its success in promoting our four-star generals into five star deities.  Otherwise hard-nosed media pundits and moderators across the political spectrum turn into blubbering idolaters in the presence of a Petraeus or a Stanley McChrystal.  Congressional testimony from these guys should be X-rated: lipstick neocon Joe Lieberman and his hawkish buddies go into states of full blown estrous, and everybody else, mainly the Democrats, are afraid to ask the generals any tough questions for fear of being called a pack of limp-wristed peace pansies."
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Brian Ross spread the same falsehoods about the Khalid Sheik Mohammed interrogation  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/28/ross/
Special Note - A quote...."In The New York Times this morning, Brian Stelter documents how a widely-cited 2007 report by ABC News' Brian Ross -- amplifying the claim by former CIA agent John Kiriakou that Abu Zubaydah lasted only 30-35 seconds on the waterboard before confessing numerous Terrorist plots to the CIA -- permeated media discussions and was uncritically repeated over and over, even though we know now the claim was absolutely false, as Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times.  Below I document  (a) just how pervasive that "Zubaydah-confessed-after-30-seconds" myth became and -- more importantly -- (b) how obvious it was to real journalists that Kiriakou's claim required serious skepticism and doubt."
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CIA & Friendly Hacks Pro-Torture Propaganda  ---  http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/cia-friendly-hacks/
Special Note - A quote...."The thing is a journo is meant to be a cynical sceptical mofo but in the corporate mode they are yes men climbing the greasy pole, hence their journalism becomes the antithesis of the role we expect, yet for many people they have not twigged this dynamic. Just as they covered up their role in war pimping they happily believed what Bush regime and CIA officials fed them, to call them saps would be extremely charitable, shills is nearer the mark. And at base we have to conclude it reflected their personal beliefs and politics, they too believe in Empire Americana and the war crimes it commits to instil fear and maintain dominance. Anyway Glenn Greenwald has it all"
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CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding
  ---  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/26/cia_man_retracts_claim_on_waterboarding?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about. - Kiriakou, a 15-year veteran of the agency's intelligence analysis and operations directorates, electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture in December 2007 when he told ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito  in a much ballyhooed, exclusive interview that senior al Qaeda commando Abu Zubaydah cracked after only one application of the face cloth and water."

For more on the three articles shown above see...US Fake Intel / Propaganda - Brian Ross - Updated
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#BRIAN_ROSS
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U.S. can't confirm 'bin Laden' tape authentic  ---  http://www.911blogger.com/node/22449
Special Note - A quote...."A new audio message purportedly made by Osama bin Laden has the al-Qaeda leader claiming responsibility for the plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner last month on Christmas Day. -- The man speaking on the tape, broadcast Sunday, also vows further attacks on the United States. -- A White House adviser said he could not confirm whether the voice was actually that of bin Laden. David Axelrod told CNN's State of the Union that whatever the source, the message "contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents."
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Israel, Please, No More bin Laden Tapes, Nobody is Buying It!
  ---  http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/01/24/israel-please-no-more-bin-laden-tapes-nobody-is-buying-it/
Special Note - A quote...."The new audio tape from “Osama bin Laden” taking responsibility for the idiotic and childish incident in Detroit where moronic Nigerian armed with a useless “bomb” is simply too much.  Now using audio tapes because, supposedly, nobody in Al Qaeda got a flash drive video recorder for Christmas is even more of a joke.  Please, with the hundreds of millions our Saudi allies have given to terrorists, a video camera the size of an Ipod might have been a nice touch.   Even funnier was releasing the audio, using algorithm software probably illegally downloaded off the internet, and giving it to Al Jazeera."

For more on the two articles shown above see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US - Rita Katz
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409#RITAKATZ
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Pentagon Time -- Tick…Tick…Tick…  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175196/tomgram%3A_our_wars_are_killing_us__/
A quote...."It’s worth noting, however, that they’re not angry about everything -- and that the Washington clock, barely moving on a wide range of issues, is still ticking away when it comes to one institution.  The good citizens of Massachusetts may be against free rides and bailouts for many types, but not for everybody.  I’m speaking, of course, about the Pentagon, for which Congress has just passed a record new budget of $708 billion (with an Afghan war-fighting supplemental request of $33 billion, essentially a bail-out payment, still pending but sure to pass).  This happened without real debate, much public notice, or even a touch of anger in Washington or Massachusetts.  And keep in mind that the Pentagon’s real budget is undoubtedly close to a trillion dollars, without even including the full panoply of our national security state." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/27-3
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The CIA, Assassination, and the War on Terrorism  ---  http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0910a.asp
A quote...."While government officials have chafed against the restrictions in the Bill of Rights ever since it was adopted, they have never been able to ignore them, thanks to criminal defense attorneys and an independent federal judiciary willing to enforce such provisions ... until, that is, federal officials figured out a way to do so under the regime of George W. Bush. By simply declaring a “war on terrorism” and announcing that this federal crime would now also be treated as an act of war, the executive branch has been able to completely ignore the Bill of Rights where this particular crime — terrorism — is concerned. It would be difficult to find a more perfect and ingenious scheme for circumventing the Bill of Rights for what everyone acknowledges is a federal criminal offense."
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Historian Zinn Said “Largest Lie” Was U.S. “War On Terrorism”
  ---  http://www.puppetgov.com/2010/01/28/historian-zinn-said-largest-lie-was-u-s-war-on-terrorism/
A quote...."The “largest lie,” wrote hisorian Howard Zinn who died yesterday at age 87, is that “everything the United States does is to be pardoned because we are engaged in a ‘war on terrorism.’ -- “This ignores the fact that war is itself terrorism, that the barging into people’s homes and taking away family members and subjecting them to torture, that is terrorism, that invading and bombing other countries does not give us more security but less security.” also posted at DProgram
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2010/01/29/historian-zinn-said-%E2%80%9Clargest-lie%E2%80%9D-was-u-s-%E2%80%9Cwar-on-terrorism%E2%80%9D/
& AftrDwngSt  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49697
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An Illegal War is State-Terrorism  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24527.htm
A quote...."We were convinced that all the fissile material that could be used for any weapons purposes had been taken out of Iraq, and we knew that we had eliminated and destroyed the whole infrastructure that Iraq had built up for the enrichment of uranium.” -- *Hans Blix*, in a BBC Interview, Jan 2003
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Remember the illegal destruction of Iraq?  ---  http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/29/iraq/index.html
A quote...."British political news has been consumed for the last several weeks by a formal inquiry into the illegality   ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010
/jan/26/iraq-war-illegal-chilcot-inquiry  ---  and deceit  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/29/tony-blair-chilcot-iraq-inquiry  ---behind Tony Blair's decision to join the U.S. in invading Iraq.  Today, Blair himself is publicly testifying  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/jan/29/iraq-
war-inquiry-tonyblair  ---before the investigative commission and is being grilled about numerous false claims he made  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk
/commentisfree/2010/jan/29/tony-blair-chilcot-iraq-inquiry  ---in the run-up to the war, not only about Iraqi weapons programs (his taxi-cab-derived "45-minutes-to-launch!!" warning)  ---   http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/09/wmd  ---  and Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda, but also about secret commitments he made to join the U.S. at a time when he and Bush were still pretending that they were undecided and awaiting the outcome of the U.N. negotiations and the inspection process."
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Remembering “Suicides” in the Rotunda  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/27
A quote...."In the absence of an intact corpse, families often gather for memorial services rather than funerals. -- The families of Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani - three Guantánamo prisoners whose earlier purported suicides were declared "asymmetrical warfare" by the Bush Justice Administration - received Salah's, Mani's and Yasser's broken and lifeless bodies.  Previously the families had gathered to wake their loved ones, after authorities in their countries informed them that their sons had died in Guantánamo."
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Speech Therapy: Reality Bleeds Through the SOTU Circus
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1913-speech-therapy-reality-bleeds-through-the-sotu-circus.html
A quote...."As the overflow of pundit effluent after the State of the Union speech continues to sulfurize the political air, Glenn Greenwald brings up a background point  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2010/01/27/yemen/index.html  ---  that we have been hammering on about here  --- 
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1604-a-furnace-seald-the-wondrous-death-squads-of-the-american-elite.html  ---  for years: i.e., the fact that the President of the United States claims the arbitrary right to kill anyone on earth -- including U.S. citizens -- without charges, without trial, without warning."
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Obama’s Secret Prisons  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175197/tomgram%3A_anand_gopal%2C_afraid_of_the_dark_in_afghanistan/
A quote...."One quiet, wintry night last year in the eastern Afghan town of Khost, a young government employee named Ismatullah simply vanished.  He had last been seen in the town’s bazaar with a group of friends. Family members scoured Khost’s dust-doused streets for days. Village elders contacted Taliban commanders in the area who were wont to kidnap government workers, but they had never heard of the young man. Even the governor got involved, ordering his police to round up nettlesome criminal gangs that sometimes preyed on young bazaar-goers for ransom. -- But the hunt turned up nothing. Spring and summer came and went with no sign of Ismatullah. Then one day, long after the police and village elders had abandoned their search, a courier delivered a neat, handwritten note on Red Cross stationary to the family.  In it, Ismatullah informed them that he was in Bagram, an American prison more than 200 miles away. U.S. forces had picked him up while he was on his way home from the bazaar, the terse letter stated, and he didn’t know when he would be freed."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/28-11
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Globalised Torture Inc.  ---  http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/globalised-torture-inc/
A quote...."What the CIA and the FBI understand as an acquisition solution, however, others see as a human-rights debacle. Just as thousands of political dissidents, suspected criminals, and enemies of the state were “disappeared” from Latin America over the course of several decades of CIA-funded dirty wars, so too have hundreds of “persons of interest” around the world begun to disappear as a consequence of the global war on terror, which in many ways has become a globalized version of those earlier, regional failures of democracy."
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Blackwater's Youngest Victim  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100215/scahill
A quote...."Every detail of September 16, 2007, is burned in Mohammed Kinani's memory. Shortly after 9 am he was preparing to leave his house for work at his family's auto parts business in Baghdad when he got a call from his sister, Jenan, who asked him to pick her and her children up across town and bring them back to his home for a visit. The Kinanis are a tightknit Shiite family, and Mohammed often served as a chauffeur through Baghdad's dangerous streets to make such family gatherings possible." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/28-13
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UN Secret Detention Report Asks, “Where Are The CIA Ghost Prisoners?”  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49713
A quote...."    These sections contain valuable summaries, explaining how, in many cases, terrorism is used as a cover for secret detention policies of a political nature. However, the heart of the report is a detailed analysis of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror” policies. -- A major new report on secret detention policies around the world, conducted by four independent UN human rights experts, concludes that, “On a global scale, secret detention in connection with counter-terrorist policies remains a serious problem,” and that, “If resorted to in a widespread and systematic manner, secret detention might reach the threshold of a crime against humanity.”
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UN Asks U.S. To 'Stop Secret Detention and Abuse'  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17262
A quote...."The UN has called on U.S. and other countries to put an end to their secret detention policies and human rights abuses in their so-called global war on terrorism. It has failed, however, to demand the immediate closure of two major U.S. "public" detention centres -- Guantanamo and Bagram, where human rights have been systematically violated, reaching the threshold of 'crimes against humanity'."
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Official US policy: kill American citizens when President/Fuhrer declares them "terrorists"  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7214-0-5-5--.html
Special Note - A quote...."I had previously reported that US citizens are being tortured by our own government when the executive branch says the magic word: "terrorist." Under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), such Americans can be detained forever without legal right of habeas corpus. If those Americans are brought to trial rather than detained and tortured at the whim of the tyrants, the US government has created an unconstitutional system of judgment and execution: the President/dictator slurring the American as “terrorist” also says who the judges are to determine guilt with available penalty of execution. These three military tribunal judges are allowed to accept “secret evidence” from the government that is unavailable for the defendant to view or challenge if two other words are said: “national security.” -- We know MCA was intended for American citizens because the US government has applied it to American citizens and argued for its use rather than the US Constitution's provisions through the first two levels of federal court. The current legal standing through federal court decision is that MCA is applicable to US citizens upon the dictate of the executive branch."
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Accused Louisiana Co-Conspirator Helped Run Academic Program Funded by U.S. Intelligence  ---  http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive
/2010/01/27/accused-louisiana-co-conspirator-helped-run-academic-program-funded-by-u-s-intelligence.aspx
A quote...."One of four men arrested on Tuesday for attempting to interfere with the telephones at the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu previously worked for a U.S. intelligence-funded program to train would-be American spies, Declassified has learned. -- Between August 2007 and October 2008, Stanley Dai served as assistant director of a program called the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity Washington University, a small Catholic college in Washington D.C., according to a school official. The official, university vice president Ann Pauley, said that the program was completely funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She said the purpose of the program was to expose both undergraduates and graduate students at the university to the work of the intelligence community and to prepare them for possible careers in intelligence. As a result of the program, Pauley said, the university established a master's degree program in intelligence and security studies. She added that the government grant funding the program ended in 2008."
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Iraq snapshot - Friday, January 29, 2010  ---  http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2010/01/iraq-snapshot_29.html
A saterical analysis of recent events. - mpg -- A quote...."Friday, January 29, 2010.  Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces another death, Tony Blair -- a liar -- offers testimony on Iraq, protesters turn out calling for Blair to be tried for War Crimes, a gaggle of idiots appear on The Diane Rehm Show, and more." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62752&hd=&size=1&l=e
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Family Guy - Undecided Voters  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOh-rpvjYg  ---  (YouTube - 1 min 36 sec - September 10, 2008)
Video - A video posted at the site shown above, it's along the same lines. - mpg
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No sight of drones in NWA after ‘crash’  ---  http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=221151
Combat Tactics Alert - It appears "somebody" might know how to knock down the drones.  If true, the US-NRE's occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan will be over very shortly. - mpg -- A quote...."PESHAWAR: Following the crash of two US drones in North Waziristan in just one week, the tribesmen were surprised on Wednesday when they could not see any spy aircraft during the past two days. -- “We have not seen any US drone during the past two days, which is a surprising news for us,” remarked Haji Syed Halim, a tribesman of Danday Darpakhel village, five kms west of Miramshah, the main town of militancy-stricken North Waziristan."
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'Israel, US spread Iranophobia to divide ME states'  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117392&sectionid=351020101
A quote...."Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says the US and Israel are attempting to spread Iranophobia in the region to create division in the Middle East. -- "It is necessary to recognize that, by creating a non-realistic sense of fear and dread towards Iran, the US and Israel are seeking to expand their military bases in the region," the top Iranian official said on Friday in a visit to Kuwait."  --  Sometimes you just want to wax sarcastic when you see statements like this, but to be blunt, after thirty years of playing off the Middle Eastern states against each other and spending trillions of dollars bombing, invading, occupying and sanctioning many of them, killing millions in the process....yeah, they're gonna keep right on doing it.  It's just the way it is. - mpg
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UN says Yemen humanitarian crisis deepening   ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117372&sectionid=351020206
A case in point, wherever the US-NRE goes....mpg -- A quote...."The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warns of Yemen's ever-increasing humanitarian crisis as the war in the northern front between the army and Houthi fighters flares."
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'Attack on Hezbollah is Attack on Lebanon'
  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/news.php?id=8cb7d048d8e36bc88533d0dcdc59279f&mode=details#8cb7d048d8e36bc88533d0dcdc59279f
A quote...."Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, January 28. -- Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Thursday that Israel's threats against Hezbollah are perceived as threats against Lebanon. -- "We consider the Israeli threats on Lebanon to be a threat to the Lebanese government as a whole, rather than to one particular person," said Hariri during a joint news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Reuters reported. -- He added that in his country, "everywhere is under the authority of the Lebanese government."
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Britain`s Emerging Police State  ---  http://mathaba.net/news/?x=622737
A quote...."The Equalities Bill must be regarded as one of the most important measures in the consolidation of what can only be described as the British police state, which has been emerging since the election of Tony Blair and his ``New Labor`` allies in 1997"
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Shouldn’t need to be said, but Israelis weren’t the only ones helping in Haiti
  ---  http://www.hybridstates.com/2010/01/shouldnt-need-to-be-said-but-israelis-werent-the-only-ones-helping-in-haiti/
A quote...."One terrible consequence of Israeli (and Western) racism toward Arabs is that a number of what should be unnecessary defenses of Arab behavior must be made. I don’t want to be in the position of defending Hamas, for example, and yet the absurd caricature of that complex organization must be countered."
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"JA Abe, we've got those Goy by the Balls!"  ---  http://careandwashingofthebrain.blogspot.com/2010/01/ja-abe-weve-got-those-goy-by-balls.html
Alt(1/3)  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9lNkXiCP0I
Alt(2/3)  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I00nKsYEdPU
Alt(3/3)  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNkO0MRmd0
Must View Videos - (RT-YouTube - aprox 10 min each - January 27, 2010) -- A thousand speeches against anti-Semitism will not extinguish the flames ignited by Operation Cast Lead, flames that threaten not only Israel but the entire Jewish world. As long as Gaza is under blockade and Israel sinks into its institutionalized xenophobia, Holocaust speeches will remain hollow. As long as evil is rampant here at home, neither the world nor we will be able to accept our preaching to others, even if they deserve it." -- *Gideon Levy* in a Haaretz article
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

L-SARRAJ: Gaza’s agony  ---  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/27/gazas_agony
Special Note - A quote...."One year later, anticipation has turned to disappointment. The U.S. president's first State of the Union address coincides roughly with the anniversary of the end of Operation Cast Lead, the devastating Israeli military offensive on Gaza last winter. And yet Obama said nothing. During that assault, shuddering under ordnance dropped or fired by American-made F-16s, we Palestinians felt abandoned by the soon-to-be president. We recalled the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who maintained, "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." -- also posted at Aussies4Palestine  ---  http://australiansforpalestine.com/el-sarraj-gazas-agony
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Occupation by the numbers  ---  http://www.hybridstates.com/2010/01/occupation-by-the-numbers/
By The Numbers -- A quote...."Sometimes numbers are worth a thousand words. And if the numbers aren’t enough, the selection of maps on this website (which can be found under the Resources tab) can provide another couple thousand words worth of images."
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Humanitarianism: Prolonging the Palestinian Political Plight?  ---  http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2010/01/humanitarianism-prolonging-palestinian.html
Alt  ---  http://blip.tv/file/3140988?utm_source=aolvideo&utm_medium=aolvideo  ---  (BlipTV - 44 min 11 sec)
Video - A quote....""Dr. Ilana Feldman came to the Palestine Center in Washington DC on 27 January to give a lecture on Humanitarianism and Politics."
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54 US House Democrats call on Israel to end siege of Gaza
  ---  http://minnesotaindependent.com/54474/ellison-oberstar-and-mccollum-urge-lifting-of-gaza-blockade
Action Alert/Update - A quote...."Democratic U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, and James Oberstar sent a letter urging President Obama late last week urging him to use diplomatic pressure to resolve the blockade affecting Gaza. Spearheaded by Ellison and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., the letter acknowledges the difficult position facing Israel and notes that the blockade is strengthening Hamas. Fifty members of Congress, as well as a number of religious groups and denominations, have signed on to Ellison’s letter." -- also posted at Aussies4Palestine
  ---  http://australiansforpalestine.com/54-us-house-democrats-call-on-israel-to-end-siege-of-gaza
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Goldstone member to EI: Gaza ambulance shelled "point blank"  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11040.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&
utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifada+%28Electronic+Intifada%29
A quote...."I write concerning your report and photograph describing an attack on an ambulance by means of a "dart bomb" (Eva Bartlett, "Gaza's thin red line one year later," 22 January 2010). As a member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict led by Judge Richard Goldstone, I examined this incident and offer a more precise term and also some analyses on the nature of the attack on the ambulance in question:"
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"Together we can end this occupation"  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11041.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&
utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifada+%28Electronic+Intifada%29
Interview - A quote...."The Israeli military recently dropped hundreds of leaflets warning Palestinian residents from the village of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip not to travel within 300 meters of the border -- the distance of Israel's so-called "buffer zone." In response, local activists marched to and nonviolently demonstrated inside the "buffer zone" against the illegal action. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre recently spoke with demonstration organizer Saber Zanin."
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Israeli Tanks Target Gaza Homes, Farmlands
  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/news.php?id=8aa4ac6fe6e572d921af8ba7a6a51ada&mode=details#8aa4ac6fe6e572d921af8ba7a6a51ada
A quote...."Israeli army tanks have opened fire on houses and farmlands in the eastern parts of the Gaza Strip, according to a report by the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). -- A number of Israeli tanks invaded lands located near al-Shojayia district and fired at Palestinian farmers near the northern Gaza-Israeli borders on Thursday afternoon, reported IMEMC."
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Medics: Gaza fisherman seriously hurt by naval fire  ---  http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257596
A quote...."Gaza – Ma'an – A Palestinian fisherman was injured overnight by Israeli warships, when they opened fire on a cluster of small fishing boats of the Rafah coast before sunrise on Friday, medics said." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62729&hd=&size=1&l=e
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Gaza fishermen risk lives for survival  ---  http://imeu.net/news/article0018348.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&
utm_campaign=Feed%3A+imeu%2Fcommentary+%28IMEU%3A+News+%26+Analysis+%3A+Analysis%29
A quote...."Seventy per cent of Gaza's annual sardine catch, which is about 1,800 metric tonnes, is found outside the Israeli-imposed fishing zone, says the International Committee of the Red Cross. -- The other side of the barrier, patrolled heavily by Israeli warships, is also home to at least a dozen other varieties of fish and seafood, including octopus, shrimp, tuna and crab." - bold by website editor
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Researcher: Israel destroyed Palestinian books  ---  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841252,00.html
A quote...."Israel plundered and destroyed tens of thousands of Palestinian books in the years after the State's establishment, according to a doctoral thesis to be submitted next month by a Ben-Gurion University researcher. --  In an interview with the researcher published on al-Jazeera's website Thursday, he claimed that Israel destroyed the Palestinian books in the framework of its plan to "Judaize the country" and cut off its Arab residents from their nation and culture." - bold by websit editor
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Israeli court forces Palestinian family out of home; gives it to Jewish settlers
  ---  http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7DYhA48JncwgYK1F3e9mdjcu9ayoKWq
QOcq12M0XN1AEsP3yPct34JqypT5JRFlSWMgkR5K4heU%2fnB39zYQdtEDZFCDZbz8sBI%2ft2WjSJuHs%3d
A quote...."OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- An Israeli court in the occupied city of Jerusalem has forced Thursday a Palestinian Jerusalemite family out of their home and gave it to Israeli settlers alleging they own “half” of the house. -- The court also fined the true owners of the house, Palestinian citizen Fatima Al-Dahoodi 5,000 US dollars in addition to paying 1,750 US dollars for alleged contempt charges instead of putting her in jail."
also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62744&hd=&size=1&l=e
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Barhoum: Abbas should focus on national reconciliation not on futile negotiation
  ---  http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7it%2f9YWHn0dB6BTKEIrivAlnXakz%2bHX
5VAmOZkARHo8pbeiWnRXlU%2fufxjRGu63Cb3gQaZzMQ%2fP8mBYsrbnWSJHHDjvjkDe5DK6HQC5HYvm0%3d
A quote...."GAZA, (PIC)-- Seventy per cent of Gaza's annual sardine catch, which is about 1,800 metric tonnes, is found outside the Israeli-imposed fishing zone, says the International Committee of the Red Cross. -- The other side of the barrier, patrolled heavily by Israeli warships, is also home to at least a dozen other varieties of fish and seafood, including octopus, shrimp, tuna and crab."
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Economic Black Hole: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover
  ---  http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/economic-black-hole-20-reasons-why-the-u-s-economy-is-dying-and-is-simply-not-going-to-recover
Special Note - Charts - A quote...."Even though the U.S. financial system nearly experienced a total meltdown in late 2008, the truth is that most Americans simply have no idea what is happening to the U.S. economy.  Most people seem to think that the nasty little recession that we have just been through is almost over and that we will be experiencing another time of economic growth and prosperity very shortly.  But this time around that is not the case.  The reality is that we are being sucked into an economic black hole from which the U.S. economy will never fully recover."
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Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows:  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aaIuE.W8RAuU
A quote...." Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all. -- Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials."
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Senate permits gov't to borrow an additional $1.9T  ---  http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9DGSHEO0&show_article=1
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic-controlled Senate has muscled through a plan to allow the government to go a whopping $1.9 trillion deeper in debt. -- The party-line 60-40 vote was successful only because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown has yet to be seated. Sixty votes were required to approve the increase. The measure would lift the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion. That's about $45,000 for every American."
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Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Update: Week Of January 28 - New Record
  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/federal-reserve-balance-sheet-update-week-january-28-new-record
Chart - A quote...."The Federal Reserve's balance sheet hit a new all time record of $2.273 Trillion in assets, after a $13 billion increase in MBS and Agency purchases week over week."
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CMBS Delinquencies Surge To $42 Billion, Or 5.2% Of Total; Average Loss Severity Hits All Time High Of 52.7%
  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/cmbs-delinquencies-surge-42-billion-or-52-total-average-loss-severity-hits-all-time-high-527
Charts - A quote...."The most disturbing observation from this month's RealPoint CMBS analysis, aside from the surge in delinquencies to an all time high of $42 billion, is that the average loss severity on CMBS liquidation has just hit a record of 52.7%. That means that on average less than half the loan is recovered in liquidation. Surely, this is not the kind of news that REITs are looking for as they perch from atop 52 week highs."
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Regulators shut down banks in 5 states  ---  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Regulators-shut-down-banks-in-apf-1868747589.html?x=0
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators shut down a big bank in California on Friday, along with two banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Minnesota and Washington. That brought to 15 the number of bank failures so far in 2010 atop the 140 shuttered last year in the punishing economic climate."
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Record foreclosure filings threaten housing recovery  ---  http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2010/01/27/foreclosure-warnings-hit-record-10500/24871/
A quote...."The total of outstanding foreclosure auction notices on Orange County homes hit 10,513 at the end of December, the highest in this housing downturn, reports ForeclosureRadar.com. -- The total has more than doubled in the nine months since March, when it was 4,573."
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Foreclosures new hot spots  ---  http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/real_estate/1001/gallery.New_foreclosure_hot_spots/index.html
A quote...."The new foreclosure plague is tied more to the economy than bad mortgages. Here are 10 cities where defaults grew the fastest in 2009."
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Wages and benefits rise weak 1.5 percent in [all of] 2009
  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Wages_and_benefits_rise_weak_1.5_percent_in_2009/19236/0/8/8/Y/M.html
A quote...."Wages and benefits paid to U.S. workers posted a modest gain in the fourth quarter, ending a year in which recession-battered workers saw their compensation rise by the smallest amount on records going back more than a quarter-century." - bold by website editor
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Jobless claims, durable goods point to weak growth  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy
A quote...."WASHINGTON – Evidence that the economic rebound remains sluggish emerged from reports Thursday on new claims for unemployment aid and orders to U.S. factories."
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US economic indices and layoff announcements point to protracted slump  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/econ-j29.shtml
A quote...."A series of worse-than-expected economic reports and job cut announcements this week underscore that, despite official claims of an economic recovery, the prospects for working people in the US are likely to worsen. -- Over the past two weeks, a number of major companies have announced layoffs and job cuts for the coming year that together number in the tens of thousands."
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GDP surges 5.7% on inventory slowdown - Fastest growth in 6 years, but spending, investment still weak
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gdp-surges-57-on-inventory-slowdown-2010-01-29
Before celebrating, everyone should remember the last set of GDP numbers for Q3
  ---  http://www.businessinsider.com/gdp-revised-way-lower-much-slower-than-expectations-2009-12
initially came out at 3.5% was later revised downward to 2.8% and was finally re-revised downward to 2.2%. No doubt we can expect a similar "shrinkage" to occur for this estimate. Obviously, even re-revised downward such growth would have to be considered non-deflationary. - mpg -- A quote...."Real gross domestic product increased at a 5.7% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the final three months of the year, the best quarterly growth since late 2003, the government estimated. The economy grew 2.2% in the third quarter. A year ago, the economy fell at a 5.4% pace." -- See also article shown below....

A Skeptical Rosenberg On The GDP Number: The Inventory-Imports Dichotomy And The Productivity Paradox
  ---  http://www.zerohedge.com/article/skeptical-rosenberg-gdp-number-inventory-imports-dichotomy-and-productivity-paradox
Related Article - A quote...."It was a tad strange to have had inventories contribute half to the GDP tally, and at the same time see import growth cut in half last quarter. Normally, inventory adds are at least partly fuelled by purchases of foreign-made inputs. Not this time. Strip out inventories and the foreign trade sector, we see that domestic demand growth in the fourth quarter actually slowed to a paltry 1.7% annual rate from 2.3% in the third quarter. Some recovery. Based on some simulations we ran, demand growth with all the massive doses of fiscal and monetary stimulus should already be running in excess of a 10% annual rate. So, the real question that nobody seems to ask is why it is that underlying demand conditions are still so benign more than two years after the greatest stimulus of all time. The answer is that this epic credit collapse is a pervasive drain on spending and very likely has another five years to play out."
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UK banks downgraded by credit rating agency  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/28/uk-banks-credit-downgrade
A quote...."Britain's banking industry was downgraded by the international credit rating agency, Standard & Poor's, as a result of the country's "weak economic environment" and the banks' "high" dependence on state support. -- In its second major intervention in Britain in the past year, the agency announced that it was demoting Britain's banking industry by one tier to its Group 3 out of 10. Banks in Canada, France and Germany are in the first and second groups."
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Japan economic data mixed; deflationary pressure rises  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-data-mixed-deflationary-pressure-rises-2010-01-28
Deflation Alert - A quote...."TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Japanese economic data Friday painted a mixed picture of a country struggling to keep its nascent recovery on track, with deflationary pressure increasing, employment and spending data showing signs of improvement, and industrial output increasing but falling short of expectations."
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Thursday January 28th 2010 - links page