Monday February 25th 2008 - links page

Sunday February 24th 2008 - links page

Saturday February 23rd 2008 - links page

Friday February 22nd 2008 - links page

Causes and Consequences of Our Foreign Policy in the Middle East and What It Means for Americans
  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski200.html
Must read - A quote...."The following is the text of a speech given at Virginia Tech on February 12, 2008. -- I want to thank the Libertarians at Virginia Tech, the Political Science Club and the Institute for Humane Studies for the kind invitation to speak to you tonight." -- Anybody got the video of this speech? - mpg
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The Year of the Insurgents - Barack Obama, Ron Paul, and the new politics of protest - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12403
A quote...."Back in December, I said this election year would be characterized by the collapse of the alleged "front-runners" – i.e. presidential candidates favored by the pundits and the Beltway know-it-alls – and so it has come to pass. Barack Obama has upended the supposedly inevitable Hillary, and the GOP electorate, too, has humbled those formerly exalted as "major" candidates. What explains this inversion of expectations, as I put it last year, is the rise of a new politics in this country:"
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Many Blacks Worry About Obama's Safety  ---  http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003714423
A quote...."For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of bright new hopes. -- They watch with wonder as Barack Obama moves ever closer to becoming America's first black president. And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe?"  --  They will NOT kill him because he's "black"....they'll kill him if he doesn't do what the MIOC elites tell him to do - more wars and more Empire. - mpg
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Secret Service Leaves Obama at Risk / Raises Grave Concerns -- http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__080222_secret_service_leave.htm
A quote...."The U.S. Secret Service ordered Dallas police not to screen for weapons an hour before a recent Dallas Obama rally not only putting Barack at unnecessary risk but raising grave concerns about his safety ~ as his populist movement continues to gain momentum:"

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Rigged Gitmo Trials Prove 9/11 Official Story Wrong  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/022208_rigged_trials.htm
Special Note - A quote...."Four prosecutors In the Guantánamo Bay case assert that the trials are rigged and that convictions are already assured despite the fact that there is scant evidence to link Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his cohorts with 9/11, proving that the official story is a fable and the real perpetrators are being protected."

And so the 9/11 cover-up continues, this time with the direct cooperation of the US military.

Perhaps it should be made clear to US Military personnel at Gitmo what they're attempting to do....faking or destroying evidence, coercing false testimony through torture, and conducting a "show trial" is not just "getting a couple of ‘towel headed’ 'sand-nigg--s killed'" i.e. murder, what it is, and let's be utterly blunt about this.....what they'd be doing is making themselves an accessory after the fact in the murder of almost 3,000 Americans, they would be making themselves direct participants in its attempted cover-up, they would be participants after the fact in the terror attack that took place on 9/11.

They would be committing treason. - mpg
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Guantanamo Bay ex-prosecutor to testify for Hamdan defense --- http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/guantanamo-bay-ex-prosecutor-to-testify.php
Related article - A quote...."[JURIST] Former Guantanamo Bay chief military prosecutor Col. Morris Davis [official profile, PDF] told AP Thursday that he has agreed to appear as a defense witness in the military commission trial of Guantanamo detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive]. In October 2007, Davis resigned [JURIST report; JURIST op-ed] from his position at Guantanamo Bay, saying that politics were interfering with the prosecutions process."
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FBI Says Barbara Olsen Did Not Call Ted Olsen. Bush Solicitor General Lied
  ---  http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/16764/FBI_Says_Barbara_Olsen_Did_Not_Call_Ted_Olsen_Bush_Solicitor_General_Lied
Special Note - A quote...."Another day, another fabrication in the "official" 9/11 narrative  --  Personally, I thought it was odd at the time that a man would decide to hold a press conference minutes after hearing of his own wife’s death, when it happened on 9/11. If my own wife had just died, the last thing I’d want to do would be to talk to anyone, let alone call a press conference. It didn’t “smell” right.  --  Now we know why it didn’t smell right. It was a lie. The FBI has reported that no such call between Barbara Olsen and Ted Olsen ever took place on 9/11/2001."
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Hands Off Pakistan  ---  http://www.fff.org/comment/com0801a.asp
From the History File - A quote....“The assassination of Benazir Bhutto was not an attack on this brave woman alone; it was an attack upon democracy, freedom and the United States.” This statement by Asa Hutchinson, former undersecretary of homeland security, was typical of the reaction of the American political and media establishments."
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Limited options for US in Pakistan  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JB23Df03.html
A quote...."The George W Bush administration lost no time reiterating its support of President Pervez Musharraf following the February 18 parliamentary elections. There is bipartisan consensus in Washington that in the given circumstances, the United States has very little leeway other than depending on Musharraf and the Pakistani military."
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Uncertainty on terror's 'central front'  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JB22Df02.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON - Forty-eight hours after Pakistani voters overwhelmingly repudiated the Bush administration's "man in Islamabad", President Pervez Musharraf, Washington seemed uncertain about whether the election results marked a setback to US strategic interests or an advance."
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Iraq: US occupation faces crisis of its own making  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/iraq-f21.shtml
A quote...."The much-touted successes of the Bush administration’s deployment of 30,000 American additional troops to Iraq last year rest on unstable and rapidly eroding foundations. The unstated fear in the Pentagon debate over how many American troops can be withdrawn this year is that the policies associated with the surge have created potential triggers for a return to wide-spread resistance."
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British troops executed 20 captives in southern Iraq, say lawyers  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/22/military.iraq
A quote...."British troops may have executed up to 20 captives in southern Iraq in 2004, human rights lawyers claimed today. -- A dossier of evidence from men taken captive after a gun battle near the Iraqi town of Majat-al-Kabir in May 2004 also suggested soldiers tortured and mutilated captives."  --  What's wrong with the Brits?  If they'd done it the good'ol American way, using our vaunted
 "El Salvador Option",   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/usdeathsquads-weblist-cmplt-111406  ---  they could have gotten the Iraqis to do all those bad things for them.  As Mr. Reficul would say....it's so much more "satisfying" when you can make people do it to their own.  - mpg
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Shami Chakrabarti: The excuse that America didn't tell us doesn't wash
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/shami-chakrabarti-the-excuse-that-america-didnt-tell-us-doesnt-wash-785597.html
A quote...."Nearly three years and three foreign secretaries on from Liberty's first call for an investigation into UK involvement in extraordinary rendition flights, the Government has admitted that US rendition flights did stop on UK territory."
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Official apology after CIA 'torture' jets used UK base
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/official-apology-after-cia-torture-jets-used-uk-base-785596.html
A quote...."A British territory in the Indian Ocean was used for American "torture" flights, despite categorical denials of Britain's involvement from both Tony Blair and Jack Straw, the Government admitted yesterday."
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Much to be sorry for  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/22/ciarendition.foreignpolicy
A quote...."The allegations could not have been much more serious. The official reassurances could hardly have been more authoritative; nor could they have been more emphatically repeated. Jack Straw, the then foreign secretary, was the first senior minister to make them. At the end of 2005 he told MPs that no cases had been discovered in which British territory or airspace had been used by the United States to transport prisoners between jurisdictions where torture or other illegal forms of detention or treatment might be practised on them. A few weeks later Mr Straw repeated his assurance that no such "renditions" had happened under the Bush administration. Early last year Tony Blair added his weight to the accumulating denials. The US had not rendered any individual through the UK or its overseas territories in the period since 9/11, the then prime minister told the intelligence and security committee. The committee duly accepted these high-level assurances." -- Guess what....the "officials" lied again, just as they did about Iraq's WMDs, just as they continue to do about their ongoing occupations and their plans for additional wars, and just as they did with 9/11.  They are congenital, unrepentant, unredeemed, serial liars....and so is the mass-media which has for seven straight uninterrupted years repeated their lies. - mpg
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INTERVIEW-EU assembly must reopen "rendition" inquiry  ---  http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22894411.htm
Related article - A quote...."ROME, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The European Parliament must reopen its inquiry into secret CIA transfers of terrorism suspects in Europe after Britain's admission that the United States used its territory in the so-called renditions, an EU lawmaker said."
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UK 'suppressed' mention of Israeli nuclear arsenal in Iraq arms dossier  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5683
A quote...."LONDON: An early draft of a pre-war British weapons dossier on Iraq included concerns over Israel's nuclear capability, but the government fought to suppress the reference before publication, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. The daily said the Foreign Office convinced a tribunal to keep secret the handwritten mention of Israel in the margin of the dossier, which was drawn up to support the decision to go  to war in Iraq." - italics/underline by website editor.
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More On IAEA Iran Report  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2008/02/more-on-iaea-ir.html
A quote...."Andy Grotto at The Arms Control Wonk   ---  http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1800/the-iaea-report-on-iran  ---  has kindly provided a link to a PDF copy of the IAEA report.   ---  http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/IAEA_Iran_Report_22Feb2008.pdf  ---  Andy's take is worth a read, as are the comments to his post."
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Gorbachev: US is also targetting Russia - To put it bluntly, the US elites are targeting everybody. - mpg
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8151
A quote...."BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Wednesday that he viewed a U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense shield in Central Europe as targeting Russia, not Iran. - "(On Tuesday) Milos Zeman, the former Czech prime minister, said, ‘What kind of Iran threat do you see? This is a system that is being created against Russia,'" Gorbachev said. "I don't think Zeman is alone in seeing this. We see this as well as he sees it."
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Militarizing Africa (Again)  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4997
Must Read - A quote...."In February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would create a new military command for Africa, to be known as the Africa Command or AFRICOM, to protect U.S. national security interests on the African continent. Previously, control over U.S. military operations in Africa was divided between three different commands: European Command, which oversaw North Africa and most of sub-Saharan Africa; Central Command, which had responsibility for Egypt and the Horn of Africa; and Pacific Command, which administered the Indian Ocean and Madagascar."
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The Enduring Trap in Iraq  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5000
A quote...."A showdown is brewing between Republicans and Democrats over the Iraq War once again. The Bush administration is stirring the pot once again by negotiating an agreement with the "sovereign" Iraqi government to place U.S. military troops and bases permanently on Iraqi soil despite strong objections from many Democrats."  --  Oh the Demo part of the DemoRepubs "object" alright, they stand around wringing their hands in outright agitation all the while making pitiful mewling noises.  Whether they or Obama (if elected) will ever actually do anything about this country's Military Industrial Complex is a completely different story. - mpg
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PJB: Does Balkanization Beckon Anew?  ---  http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=951
A quote...."When the Great War comes, said old Bismarck, it will come out of “some damn fool thing in the Balkans.” - On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip shot the archduke and heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, setting in motion the train of events that led to the first world war."
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Why Bush visit poses a threat to African nations  ---  http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5951&Itemid=5848
A quote...."February 19, 2008: I wish I had the power to stop George Bush from coming. The hassles of hosting a US president are bad enough. They take over your whole country. They make our normally inefficient states go into over-drive and our egregious First Ladies and their husbands go into overkill to show their hospitality."
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With Fidel Castro gone, U.S. hawks will look north  ---  http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/305035
A quote...."Fidel Castro's resignation will probably not cause any abrupt change in Cuba.  --  But it could prompt the Bush administration to seek new ways to apply pressure for change – including by pushing Canada to abandon its long-standing policy of diplomatic and economic engagement with the socialist island-state."
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Turkish troops enter the north Iraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/157198
A quote...."Turkish television channel NTV reportedly said that as many as 10,000 soldiers have crossed the border into Iraq." -- And the US will do absolutely nothing of course, unless there's the slightest hint that Turkey may stay....for the oil.  If that happens the US elites will go completely out of their collective minds. - mpg
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In Case You Missed These Stories  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/021108a.html
A quote...."Editor’s Note: One shortcoming in our effort to publish more and more articles is that some special stories fly by without getting the attention they deserve. So, periodically, we’ll publish this “in case you missed it” feature with links to stories that we feel fall into this category." -- Some of these weren't posted, check them out. - mpg
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Extreme Capitalism: Commodities Trading in Human Organs  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_wayne_ma_080222_extreme_capitalism_3a_.htm
A quote...."In what may be the first time this editor has ever supported anything advanced by a member of the Bush administration, Samuel Crowe, a senior policy analyst with the President's Council on Bioethics, stressing that he was speaking for himself, said "humans cannot be sold and traded" and any suggestion that human parts could be commodities "degrades human society."

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Why the Mainstream Media Never Saw It Coming  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north607.html
Must Read - A quote...."Do a search on Google: "No recession in 2008"  --  This article is typical: "Wall Street Gurus Say No Recession in 2008."  --  Now do a search for: recession in 2008"  --  There are 200 times more hits. But when you click on half a dozen, you will find that they, too, report that opinion in 2007 was that there will be no recession in 2008. The words "avoid" and "not" predominate.  --  You can find one repeated article: Goldman Sachs predicted a recession in 2008 . . . in January, 2008. That's very late in the process. But it is significant.  --  This month, the number of forecasts of a recession in 2008 is increasing, but it is nowhere near a majority status."  - italics by website editor.
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Florida Schools, California Convert Auction-Rate Debt (Update5)  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=awCJRyi5ngcQ&refer=us
A quote...."Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- California, Florida schools and the owner of John F. Kennedy International Airport joined a growing list of municipal borrowers exiting the U.S. auction-rate bond market as record failures push taxpayer costs higher."
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Mass. foreclosures rise 128% in January  ---  http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2008/02/mass_foreclosur_8.html
A quote...."“It might have seemed like 2007 was one of the worst years for foreclosures in Massachusetts, but the rising number of petitions to foreclose suggest that 2008, at least until midyear, won’t be much better,” Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive of the Warren Group, said in a statement."
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No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos - Readings in the Age of Empire  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=12400
Book Review - "No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos"   ---  http://www.amazon.com/No-End-Sight-Iraqs-Descent/dp/158648608X/antiwarbookstore  ---  Charles H. Ferguson - PublicAffairs, 2008 - 640 pp. - A quote...."As is typical in Washington, the administration has solved the crisis in Iraq by redefining success. No longer is the goal a liberal, multi-ethnic nation ready to lead the rest of the Middle East towards democracy, enlightenment, and the American Way. Now the objective is preserving a nominal country in which the various sectarian groups minimize violence by living apart and ignoring the inefficient, ineffective, corrupt, and largely irrelevant central government. A situation that in 2003 would have been considered a grotesque failure is now treated as victory, a product of the far-sighted "surge," advanced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is ready to initiate as many new wars as necessary to continue promoting democracy, enlightenment, and the American Way. Bombs Away!"
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Thursday February 21st 2008 - links page

Wednesday February 20th 2008 - links page

STILL UNANSWERED 9/11 MIRACLES  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__080219_still_unanswered_9_2f1.htm
Must Read - A quote...."Eventually, hopefully during our lifetime, Pandora's Box will be fully opened regarding the 9/11 cover-up and the world will reel in shock and awe ~ when the monstrous truth is known to one and all : Allen L Roland"
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Oil Profits and War: Just Coincidence?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=52496
Must Read - Graphics - A quote...."This is for all the chart junkies out there, especially the conspiracy theorists. (Remember, just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!). - Whenever the oil companies’ profits wane, an “energy conflict” emerges on cue to restore them to giddy heights:"
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See also....

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Cages of Conquest - Hear No Evil, See No Evil - posted at ICH
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19390.htm
A quote...." 20/02/08 "ICH" -- -- - Americans’ ever-enduring, catatonic sleepwalk through the Empire’s vast array of bread and circus, as always produced by the Ministry of Truth and the Department of Propaganda, better known as the corporatist media, has succeeded in the creation of an ignorant, incurious and dumbed down populace completely bereft of knowledge of what is done in its name. With no concern for or understanding of geography, cultures, history, alien societies, the outside world and of the imperial aspirations of the Empire, Americans have proved easy targets to the manipulations and deceptions of the corporatist world. Seemingly unwilling to gain knowledge of anything outside American Idol or the weekly NASCAR rat race, the soldier ants and worker bees of the Empire are content to circumvent the horrors of war and the myriad crimes against humanity committed in their name in order to maintain their beautiful minds at peace."
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The Great Global Power Shift: It's Already Here  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_glen_for_080220_the_great_global_pow.htm
A quote...." The American disinformation regime - a hermetically sealed "bubble" - convinces its citizens that the U.S. is and forever will be supreme on the planet. Ignorance may be bliss, but cannot alter the facts of rapid U.S. decline, a spiral that is the inevitable "blowback" of 60 years of undeserved, coerced, and artificially constructed dominance. The tools and traps that were designed to ensnare the planet in the U.S. corporate/military web, have instead led to American shrinkage in all things except military might. But weapons of war cannot replace a bulldozed manufacturing base, or reinvigorate a service sector whose services are increasingly unwanted, or repair a U.S.-led financial system that is terminally choked with worthless paper "instruments." The West-East, North-South shift is well underway - whether Americans know it or not."
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Tomgram: Making Iraq Disappear -- The Million Year War - How Never to Withdraw from Iraq  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174896
A quote...."Think of the top officials of the Bush administration as magicians when it comes to Iraq. Their top hats and tails may be worn and their act fraying, but it doesn't seem to matter. Their latest "abracadabra," the President's "surge strategy" of 2007, has still worked like a charm. They waved their magic wands, paid off   ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/is-the-us-really-bringing-stability-to-baghdad-782425.html  ---  and armed a bunch of former Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda terrorists (about 80,000 "concerned citizens," as the President likes to call them), and magically lowered "violence" in Iraq. Even more miraculously, they made a country that they had already turned into a cesspool and a slagheap -- its capital now has a "lake" of sewage so large   ---  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jam-lrcdXuQLtrYRSz43-tYNO7fQ  ---  that it can be viewed "as a big black spot on Google Earth" -- almost entirely disappear from view in the U.S."
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McCain's Holiday from History in Pakistan; -- Will any Old Military Dictator Do?; -- Lies about Obama
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/mccains-holiday-from-history-in.html
A quote...."Barack Obama's spectacular win in Wisconsin has the GOP frightened. The Democratic turnout was much, much better than the Republican. The Democrats and independents are energized." -- This is not just about American politics, Juan Cole covers a lot of ground in this piece. - mpg
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Disinformation flies as US raises Iran bar  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB21Ak01.html
A quote...."A new report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is about to be released and US "pre-emptive" diplomacy, aimed at preventing an IAEA "clean bill of health" that could derail Washington's effort for a new round of UN sanctions on Iran, is at full throttle - with the timely help of disinformation."
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What would it take to launch a war with Iran? - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bruceramsey/2004190453_rams20.html
A quote...."Iraq should have cured President George W. Bush of any further itch for starting a war. And yet there comes a rumble for an attack on Iran. Opposing this, the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation sends out emissaries, several of whom visited The Seattle Times."
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ElBaradei 'to declare Iran clean'  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=43957&sectionid=351020104
A quote...."Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei is to release 'a positive report' on Iran's nuclear activities. The IAEA Chief's report on Iran's nuclear program would be positive and it would rule out the possibility that Iran may running a clandestine nuclear arms program [using uranium enrichment], informed sources familiar with the UN nuclear watchdog's issues said on Wednesday."
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Nuclear energy, Iran's undeniable right  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=43936&sectionid=351020104
A quote...."The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the nation would accept no threats on the path of its peaceful nuclear activities.  --  Addressing a huge gathering of people in the southern city of Bandar Abbas Wednesday, he added that the Iranian nation has an undeniable right to access peaceful nuclear energy and has no fear of powers. The united people of Iran are determined to develop the country." --  As EVERYONE already knows, according to the NPT treaty Ahmadinejad is absolutely correct....Iran has the unalienable right to enrich uranium under the NPT. - mpg
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Al-Sadr Threatens to End Cease-Fire - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8UU3KG00
A quote...."BAGHDAD (AP) — Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr may let a six-month cease-fire expire as soon as Saturday, a move that could send his Shiite militia fighters back out on the streets and jeopardize recent security gains that have led to a sharp decline in violence."
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Risk of cholera multiplied by sewage collapse in Baghdad  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/sewe-f21.shtml
A quote...."With the northern summer approaching, fears have been voiced that the dysfunctional state of the Iraqi sewerage system will cause a major outbreak of cholera or other water-borne diseases in Iraq’s desperately poor working class districts. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration and can lead to death if untreated. The disease spreads by the ingestion of water or food that has been contaminated by the waste of infected people." -- For more on this see....Child Abuse  ---  ../cachedfiles/childabuse-cf-moscowtms-cached-062405
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Chief says Australia's combat job done. Defense Chief Says Australian Combat Troops in Iraq Should Be Withdrawn - posted at AntiWar
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=51957
  ---  A quote...."Australia's 550 combat troops based in southern Iraq have helped to make the area more secure and should now be withdrawn, the defense chief said Wednesday. - Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told a Senate panel that planning was under way to withdraw the 550 soldiers based in Dhi Qar Province as well as 65 army trainers."
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Rigged Trials at Gitmo  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/tuttle
A quote...."Secret evidence. Denial of habeas corpus. Evidence obtained by waterboarding. Indefinite detention. The litany of complaints about the legal treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is long, disturbing and by now familiar. Nonetheless, a new wave of shock and criticism greeted the Pentagon's announcement on February 11 that it was charging six Guantánamo detainees, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with war crimes--and seeking the death penalty for all of them."
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Pakistan Victors Want Dialogue With Militants - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/asia/20pstan.html?ex=1361163600&en=
  ---  805cebe5bfa67a01&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
A quote...."ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The winners of Pakistan’s parliamentary elections said Tuesday that they would take a new approach to fighting Islamic militants by pursuing more dialogue than military confrontation, and that they would undo the crackdown on the media and restore independence to the judiciary."
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Israel fears Europe will break boycott of Hamas  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/157078
A quote...."Ran Koriel, Israel's European Union ambassador, recently warned the Foreign Ministry of a change in EU policy on Hamas, amid mounting international pressure on Israel over its handling of the situation in the Gaza Strip.  -- 
The government has recently been getting strong signals that both the U.S. and Europe are deeply frustrated by lack of progress in negotiations with the Palestinians." -- Good for the Europeans, it’s great to see them finally coming to their senses. - mpg
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Castro and the Colossus  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080219_robert_scheer_feb_20_castros_resignation/
A quote...."The resignation of Fidel Castro is more promising for the burnishing of his legacy than the mostly septuagenarian Cuban hard-liners in Miami and their fawning allies in the Bush administration would like to believe. After all, Mao Tse-tung is still honored in communist China, the fastest-growing capitalist power in the world, and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin is, at least for now, a very popular elected Russian leader."
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US warns Bolivia that growing ties to Iran could put trade deal at risk - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/20/america/LA-GEN-Bolivia-US-Iran.php
A quote...."LA PAZ, Bolivia: A U.S. congressional delegation arrived Tuesday to smooth tensions between the two countries, but warned that Bolivia's growing ties to Iran could cost it a key U.S. trade agreement." -- For more on this issue see....
We'll make them an offer they can't refuse. - 09-06-06 - mpg  ---   http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/wellmakethemanoffer-blog-mpg-090606
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Lavalin gets $597M US job in Chavez's Venezuela - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/02/20/lavalin-venezuela.html
A quote...."The government of Hugo Chavez, a populist with oil money to spend, has hired Montreal's SNC-Lavalin Group to build an irrigation system and three new towns in Venezuela's central plains at a cost of $597 million US."-- Just can't imagine why Chavez didn't give the contract to a US firm. See article above - mpg
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Morales makes good on land reform promises  ---  http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2008/02/morales-makes-good-on-land-reform.html
A quote...."SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia - One of President Evo Morales' campaign promises to indigenous peoples was to give back part of what was stolen. On Jan. 28, the Aymara president of Bolivia delivered 923,318 acres of land to some Guarani people who, for thousands of years, have resided in the regions of what are now parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. In a separate action, Bolivian officials also announced the future delivery of another 445,000 acres to 12,000 Guranis in the same area."
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U.S. shifts on Africom base plans  ---  http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/16743/U_S_shifts_on_Africom_base_plans
Special Note - A quote..."The US military has decided to keep the base of its new Africa Command in Germany for now, after only one African nation, Liberia, offered to host it." -- Looks like everybody out their knows what the US "Game Plan" is for Africa....and they don't want any part of it. - mpg
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US involved in bird flu conspiracy: Indonesia  ---  http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2167325.htm
A quote...."PETER CAVE: Indonesia’s Health Minister has suggested that the United States may be involved in a conspiracy to use the bird flu virus to develop biological weapons.  --  The extraordinary allegation is included in a new book, endorsed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which describes Indonesia’s fight to assert its ownership of its virulent strains of avian influenza." --  Don't believe it?  Type in Rumsfeld and Bird Flu on any search engine. - mpg
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Military Tribunals and You - posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/31124
A quote...."I have just returned from five days in Egypt. To me, visiting foreign countries is so enlightening as an American who grew up as parochial and nationalistic as the next. However, since my son was killed in Iraq, I have had a crash course in foreign "relations" and cultures that came with a too steep price."
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Second Restraining Order against Wikileaks - does this also ban Bank Julius Baer's private customer internet access ?
  ---  https://s.p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/ssl/wikileak/2008/02/
A quote...."Judge Jeffery S.White's approval of the first Restraining Order against WikiLeakS and the Domain Name Registrar Dynadot LLC was bad enough.  --  His second one, a Proposed Amended Temporary Restraining Order, is even wider in scope and is remarkable for several features, which seem to betray an unfamiliarity and incompetence with the Internet, which is astonishing for someone who works in the internet savvy city of San Francisco."
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US Supreme Court refuses to hear case against warrantless wiretapping  ---  http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/02/20/18480530.php
A quote...."The program, the full details of which are still not known, included domestic spying in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the US Constitution."
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Bush's Life of Constitutional Crime - Lies and Spies  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02202008.html
A quote...."President George W. Bush and his director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, are telling the American people that an unaccountable executive branch is necessary for their protection. Without the Protect America Act, Bush and McConnell claim, the executive branch will not be able to spy on terrorists, and we will all be blown up. Terrorists can only be stopped, Bush says, if Bush has the right to spy on everyone without any oversight by courts."
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Republicans Would Kill Americans for Profit  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=52495
A quote...."So let me get this straight- not passing the [Protect America] bill will kill Americans, yet the President was happy to forgo an extension to ensure big American corporations wouldn't be liable for damages due to warrantless searches. - Thus, as stated in the spectacular headline above, Republicans will allow American deaths to save big conglomerates some legal bills. - Regardless [of] your political persuasion, the argument is flawed. Kevin Drum put it perfectly......"


"'Nuff said."
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George Bush's Approval Rating Plummets to Just 19%  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_frank_j__080220_george_bush_s_approv.htm
A quote...."The latest American Research Group polling of how George W. Bush is conducting himself as President, in the eyes of the America people, is an historic, if not an abysmal low, at just 19% overall. An astounding 77% of those surveyed disapprove of Bush’s job performance. A full 79% of those sampled from February 16-19, were critical of how the President was handling the retreating economy."
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Obama Crushes Hillary in WI and HI  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_080220_obama_crushes_hillar.htm
A quote...."Obama beat Clinton by 17 percentage points in Wisconsin and 53 percentage points in Hawaii.  --  Clinton had hoped to pull off a win in Wisconsin. Instead, she lost ground on virtually every demographic, even white women, and actually lost to Obama among most major demographic groups except women."
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THE ROAD TO HYPERINFLATION, Part 3 - Inflation targeting  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JB21Dj02.html
Some quotes...."Bernanke wrote in 1983 that debt-deflation generates wide-spread bankruptcy, impairing the process of credit intermediation. The resultant credit contraction depresses aggregate demand."  --  "In a debt bubble, an escalating rate of inflation to devalue the accumulated debt is needed to sustain the bubble. Thus conventional wisdom moves toward the view that the overriding purpose of monetary policy is to keep market expectations of price inflation anchored at a relatively benign rate to ward off hyperinflation. This approach is known in policy circles as inflation targeting, on which Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is an acknowledged academic authority and for which he had been a forceful advocate before coming to the Fed." - bold/italics/underline by webstie author. -- They don't call him "helicopter Ben" for nothing. - mpg
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Data show inflation remains hot in January - Energy, food as well as many underlying core prices rise
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-retail-level-inflation-runs-hotter/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B4DA3466C%2DF37D%2D49EF%2D9DC8%2D2326516988B4%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Inflation remained hot in January even as the economy cooled, the government reported Wednesday. --  The report was especially troubling because of an increase of a host of underlying core prices, including apparel and hotel costs.  --  "This was a disturbing report that points to inflation slowly seeping more broadly into the economy. That has to be driving the inflation hawks at the Fed nuts," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors."
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Fed slashes growth forecast for US economy  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Fed_slashes_growth_forecast_for_US__02202008.html
A quote...."The Federal Reserve on Wednesday slashed its 2008 US economic growth forecast by a half percentage point, citing a housing slump, tight credit and higher oil prices."
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OECD GDP growth slips from 0.9% to 0.5% in last quarter  ---  http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=12693&formato=HTML
A quote...."Global economic growth is going to be lower than the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and many other forecasting organizations were predicting just a few months ago, OECD chief Angel Gurria said on Wednesday."
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Tuesday February 19th 2008 - links page

General Frank Kitson: Trail Blazing Fake Terrorism  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/030805faketerrorism.htm
A quote...."Ian Buckley, in an article appearing on the Truth Seeker website, makes mention of General Frank Kitson, a British officer “who first thought up the concept that was later used in the formation of Al Qaeda. He called it the ‘pseudo gang’—a state sponsored group used to advance an agenda, while discrediting the real opposition. The strategy was used in both Kenya and Northern Ireland. -- And Algeria - mpg
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GIA: Armed Islamist Groups Serving the Algerian Sécurité militaire?  ---  http://www.algeria-watch.org/en/aw/gia_sm.htm
A quote...."These groups appeared out of the blue during 1993 and their leaders were unknown within the Islamic movement. While in 1993, they conducted targeted attacks on individuals who were suspected of working with the regime, with the rise to power of Djamel Zitouni within the GIA (September 1994 - July 1996), they changed their practices and intensified their attacks on the civilian population and their threats to France. The big military offensive against the Islamists began in the summer of 1994 and at the same time, a terrorist machine was set into motion whose violent means appeared to serve the goals of those in power, particularly since many officers of the FIS (Front islamique du salut, Islamic Front for Salvation) condemned the terror. In many cases, observers questioned whether these groups were manipulated or controlled by the Algerian secret service."
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British “Pseudo-Gang” Terrorists Exposed in Basra
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050924&articleId=992
A quote...."Baghdad Dweller, writing for Uruknet, reports two British soldiers held by “Iraqi authorities” in Basra (also described as “Shiite militiamen” in the corporate media), and subsequently freed after the British stormed a police jail, were working undercover as bombers."
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The Wrong Lesson  ---  http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200507/elkins
A quote...."In an influential article that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in September of 2003, John Arquilla, a professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, urged the United States to look carefully at British imperial counterinsurgency efforts in 1950s Kenya."

It appears the only thing al Qaeda has done over the last several years is help massively inflame sectarianism in Iraq with their car bombings, terrify and kill numerous Shia and Sunni civilians, and try to impose an artificially created, foreign brand of extreme Wahhabism upon the local population thereby discrediting and disrupting any attempts at a "national" insurgency. --  They have done an outstanding job and have served their masters well, congratulations to both al Qaeda and the US military for a job well done.  It appears Iraq will soon be "pacified".  - mpg

Africa Policy Outlook 2008 - posted 02-12-08
  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4949
AFRICOM: The Recolonization of Africa by Uncle Sam - posted 02-03-08
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_wayne_ma_080103_africom_3a_the_recolon.htm
State Plans One Billion for Private Security Contractors in Africa  - posted 02-11-08
  ---  http://www.thought-criminal.org/article/node/1259
Secret contacts to speed up the building of an American military base in Morocco - posted 01-16-08
  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m40122&hd=&size=1&l=e

Head of GAO [David Walker] quits, citing censorship - posted 02-16-08  --  Guess they didn't like what he had to say. - mpg
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_french_p_080216_head_of_gao_quits_2c_c.htm

"The auction-rate securities market, a US$330 billion slice of the municipal bond sector, could disappear...."