Monday March 24th 2008

Sunday March 23rd 2008 - links page

5 Years Ago: Why Was Public So Misinformed on Facts Leading to War?
  ---  http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003729354
Must Read - A quote...."NEW YORK Five years ago today, as the U.S invasion of Iraq continued in its early stages, E&P published an article by Ari Berman, then an intern here, that examined the public attitudes on the eve of the war. He probed polls that found, on the most basic point, that roughly 2 out of 3 Americans backed an assault on Iraq. -- But the attitudes driving those numbers raised serious issues about a misinformed public and the media's role. He found that a startlingly high percentage falsely believed that Saddam helped plan the 9/11 attacks or Iraqi hijackers were involved that day, and that Iraqi WMD had already been found."

And the American public will believe the exact same sort of lies when the US attacks Iran.

Stupid, retarded, imbecilic, drooling morons are words that come to mind when reading this article, but they are still totally inadequate to describe most American's complete lack of mental competence regarding issues of foreign policy.  You will notice that the phrase "most American's" was used, that's because twenty to thirty percent of this nation's population were, and still are, perfectly aware that these were lies to begin with, they were  perfectly aware that 9/11 was arranged by their own government, that Iraq was not responsible for 9/11, that Iraq had no WMD's, and that Saddam did not support al Qaida in any way, shape or form.

They also happen to know which side of their bread is buttered on, and like most "true adults" they're not about to endanger their life styles, or inconvenience themselves in any way, for a bunch of Mid-East "rag heads"....or for that matter a bunch of stupid New Yorkers.  They are perfectly content to have millions of people suffer agonizing deaths as long as they don't have to see, hear or read about it.  Something the "mass-media" in this country has been perfectly well aware of for quite some time.

These "Americans" (a.k.a. Neo-Romans) KNOW how to play the "Great Game", know how to practice plausible deniability (even if it's no longer plausible) and know how to keep themselves comfortable -- and comfortably unaware.  In the end, it is all that will ever really matter to them. - mpg
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Fast and Loose With the Facts  ---  http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/fast-an-loose-with
More on this nation's hard working presstitutes. - mpg
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This is Not the First Time  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42352&s1=h1
A quote...."The scandal of Iraqi POW abuse after the illegal March 2003 invasion had the world in an uproar. However, there is a precedent that went unnoticed and underreported of brutal treatment of Iraqi POWs — the 1991 abuse of Iraqi POWs during and after Operation Desert Storm."
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EXTRA: US forces kill 30 in Baquba, media reports say  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=97704
A quote...."Baghdad (dpa) - US forces have killed 30 persons in the northern city of Baquba, including at least 15 people of one family, in separate incidents, Iraqi officials and media reports said."
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U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 4,000  ---  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23771735/
Within a few days of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion and on Easter Sunday no less. - mpg
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Barrages hit Green Zone, gunmen kill seven  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSL0157942120080323
A quote...."BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" came under repeated rocket or mortar attack on Sunday, and police said up to 17 people had been killed by rockets falling short outside the government and diplomatic compound."
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The 100 Years War  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/the-100-years-war_b_92775.html
Must Read - A quote...."In the past 24 hours, Dick Cheney has been in Baghdad, calling the Iraq War a "successful endeavor." John McCain's there too, and actually uttered those four magic words, "the surge is working," which only differs from Cheney's analysis in the scary possibility that McCain might actually believe it. Then again, maybe Cheney's pronouncement can be chalked up to youthful exuberance -- after all, he's almost 5 years younger than McCain."
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Rumours of War by William Bowles - Destabilisation is the name of the ‘game’  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=227
Must Read - A quote...."And it’s not as if the US doesn’t have an awful lot of experience of invading and occupying foreign lands, they’ve been at it for centuries. - Thus to say that the US ‘miscalculated’ or ‘didn’t think it through’ is not only laughable but an insult to our intelligence. - We can only conclude that following the occupation, the US had no intention of rebuilding Iraq and indeed as I’ve pointed out, the US is on record as saying that it’s not in the business of ‘nation-building’, so, what is the ‘Plan’?"
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Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, How to Disintegrate a City  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174909/michael_schwartz_how_to_disintegrate_a_city
A quote...."Go back two years and that word "precipice" was a commonplace in Washington as a rattled Bush administration faced a sectarian civil war in Iraq. Now, as any independent or foreign journalist would tell you (though the American press has generally been more upbeat), the Iraqis are living in that abyss, down which Sen. McCain evidently stares and sees victory. They are living in a hell, a country so thoroughly dismantled that the brave British journalist Patrick Cockburn recently claimed "Iraq" was now little more than a "geographical expression." -- EXACTLY the point, and exactly what they intended. - mpg

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The US is After Europe Too!
03-23-08
revised 03-24-08
re-revised 03-25-08 - mpg

Swiss brush aside criticism over gas contract with Iran  ---  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article3607258.ece
A quote...."A multibillion-euro Swiss contract to buy natural gas from Iran has provoked threats from Washington, protests from Jewish groups and fuelled mounting concern about Europe's energy security. -- The deal between the Zurich utility Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL) and National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) would bring gas from Iran to Europe as early as next year, the Swiss company said. -- The contract, worth between €10 billion (£7.8 billion) and €20 billion, was signed last week in Tehran in the presence of Micheline Calmy-Rey, the Swiss Foreign Minister, and President Ahmadinejad."

The Swiss at least, are beginning to get it, they’re beginning to understand that if you don’t pay the vig to the US oil companies, if you don’t give them a “piece of the action”, if you don’t ask for - or get - permission to do your deal from Don the Dickhead's Energy Task Force....than you’re not going to get any “protection”.

However the rest of the European nations better get it through their thick heads that if this “thing” the Neocons have created, keeps going the way it's going....in the very near and foreseeable future, all of Europe, not just the Swiss, will have to go hat in hand to the US and also request permission from Israel, before they’ll be “allowed” to do any type of energy deal in the Middle East ....period.

And it seems the Europeans are finally beginning to fear that something has indeed gone very wrong, they're beginning to feel the geopolitical equivalent of the hairs on the back of their collective necks stand on end.  And they will soon discover to their horror that their fears are correct.  They will discover the US isn't just trying to strangle China's access to energy resources or destroy Russia's influence among the former Soviet Republics or deny Russia's access to the Caspian Basin....they’ll discover the US IS AFTER EUROPE TOO!!
 
Hopefully the Europeans will soon realize that what's happening to the Swiss, all the threats, all the thuggish attempts at intimidation, all the endless harassment, is just a foretaste of what's to come for everyone, that it's actually going to get ten times worse for All of Europe if the US elites carry out their plan to "reduce" (a.k.a. bring "freedom and democracy" to, or  establish "full spectrum dominance" over) Iran and gain control of that country's energy resources along with those throughout the rest of the Middle East.

For those who don't know (or pretend not to know)....these ongoing US activities and intentions have been clearly laid out in several documents entitled, the Defense Planning Guidance (DPG), a Clean Break and the now infamous Project for a New American Century (PNAC), these long standing Neocon and Israeli protocols have been easily available for public review since 1992.

The fact that these elites were willing to “arrange” the deaths of almost 3,000 of their own citizens to further these protocols should give everyone an indication of just how ruthless they really are, and Europe’s eventual fate if they should achieve their objectives.

All the peoples throughout Europe should therefore WAKE-UP and start paying closer attention to the US elites' machinations, or it will be too late for them to halt the culmination of their plans, the complete subjugation and brutal occupation of the free peoples of the Middle East, a singularly catastrophic and tragic outcome that will negatively impact Europe’s access to energy resources for generations to come.

You’ve all been warned. - mpg
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Chilean Envoy to U.N. Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to Invasion  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/159944
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS — In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat."
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US deploys nuclear sub to Persian Gulf’  ---  http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=102736
War Warning - A quote...."TEHRAN: An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say. -- Egyptian officials reported that the nuclear submarine crossed the canal along with a destroyer on Friday and Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal. -- An American destroyer recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea; earlier on Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea."
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One Tick Closer: Cheney Visits Saudi Arabia; Saudis Prepare To Radiate - More on the Saudi preparations.- mpg
  ---  http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2008/03/one-tick-closer-cheney-visits-saudi.html
War Warning - A quote...."Worried Yet? Saudis Prepare for "Sudden Nuclear Hazards" After Cheney Visit -- Last Friday, Dick Cheney was in Saudi Arabia for high-level meetings with the Saudi king and his ministers. On Saturday, it was revealed that the Saudi Shura Council -- the elite group that implements the decisions of the autocratic inner circle -- is preparing "national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors...."
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'Syria sends troops to Lebanon border'  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48705&sectionid=351020203
Red War Warning - A quote...."Syria has allegedly deployed three military divisions along the borders with Lebanon amid mounting tension in the region, a report claims. -- The Israeli website DEBKA claimed Sunday that the Syrian deployment coincided with the massing of Palestinian fighters in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon. "  --  Editor's note, this is the third Red War Warning to occur in the last six months....all three warnings have occurred in the last thirty days.  The war tempo is definitely picking up. - mpg
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Hamas and Fatah agree to end standoff - Both sides sign Yemeni-sponsored deal  ---  http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/23/47344.html
A quote...."Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached a Yemeni-brokered deal on Sunday to open their first direct talks since the bloody seizure of the Gaza Strip by Hamas nine months ago."
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Israeli warning to Abbas over deal with Hamas
  ---  http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/March/middleeast_March364.xml&section=middleeast
Related Article - A quote...."JERUSALEM - A senior Israeli official on Monday warned Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas against striking a reconciliation deal with Hamas, saying it would effectively sink faltering Middle East peace talks. -- ‘Mahmud Abbas must decide whether he wants to continue negotiations with Israel or if he wants to renew an alliance with Hamas, as he cannot have both at the same time,’ the official said on condition of anonymity.
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Iran, Yemen Discuss Power Cooperation  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian deputy power minister and his visiting Yemeni counterpart in a meeting here in Tehran explored avenues for implementing an agreement held earlier by the two sides on energy cooperation."
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Iran LNG Liquefaction Deal Signed  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701040100
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has signed a Euro700 million ($1.1 billion) deal for the liquefaction segment of "Iran LNG" plant with Chinese and European consortia."
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Iran Reiterates N[uke] Stance  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701040098
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki underlined that the Islamic Republic has had no diversion in its drive to access nuclear technology and would not backtrack on its stance even one iota."
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Egypt's president visits Moscow seeking nuclear deal  ---  http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080324/102035655.html
A quote...."CAIRO, March 24 (RIA Novosti) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will arrive in Moscow on Monday on a two-day visit set to focus on Mideast conflicts and a nuclear power deal with Russia."
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Venezuelans burn Exxon 'Judas' in Easter ritual  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2329845320080324
A quote...."CARACAS, March 23 (Reuters) - In a political take on a popular Easter ritual, hundreds of Venezuelans cheered at the burning of an "Judas" effigy symbolizing oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last week lost a battle with the South American nation."
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Exxon Must Undo False Accusations Against Venezuelan Oil Company  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3292
A quote...."Mérida, March 23, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Thursday marked the deadline for ExxonMobil to undo the damage it had done to the international reputation of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA by pursuing a $12 billion freeze of PDVSA assets in early February after during international arbitration in a dispute over a nationalized Orinoco Oil Belt project. The order to come clean on false accusations against PDVSA's credibility was part of the decision by British Judge Paul Walker on Tuesday to revoke the asset freeze."
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From Bombs to Markets - The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics of Trade  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/carlsen03222008.html
A quote...."Day One: the Colombian military and police forces launched an attack on an encampment of the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in Ecuadorian territory, killing over 20 people."
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Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations - Human Rights Takes a Beating in Colombia  ---  http://counterpunch.org/isacson03212008.html
A quote...."This is not the first time that Colombian human rights defenders have received a wave of e-mail threats from people claiming to be re-armed paramilitaries. This time, however, the threats that several individuals and organizations received late last week have come after a series of murders."
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The Fed's Bailout: Whose Money Is It?  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8424
A quote...."Let’s make one thing clear. Many commentators are saying the Fed is “printing money.” Wrong! The Fed is not doing this at all. In fact the Fed should print money, because the economy, while debt-ridden, is cash-starved. The Fed or else the Treasury Department should print and distribute money to the populace by the thousands of dollars in fulfillment of a National Dividend this writer has been advocating repeatedly (see “An Emergency Program of Monetary Reform for the United States,” Global Research, April 26, 2007). They should do this instead of the piddling $600 “stimulus” rebate now in the works. -- Rather the Fed is lending money, and there’s a world of difference." -- The author is correct, up to a point.  That exact point being when, after lending trillions of dollars to these institutions....the Fed discovers they can't pay any of it back. - mpg
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America gets depressed by thoughts of 1929 revisited  ---  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article3602690.ece
A quote...."When Americans get worried about the economy, their thoughts turn to the Great Depression of the 1930s. And when an eminent US economist, Martin Feldstein, says America is possibly facing its most serious recession since the second world war, those worries are heightened. Could there be a rerun of the Great Depression?" -- Less likely, see....What Ben Bernanke Said - 03-18-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/whatbenbernankesaid-blog-mpg-031808
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Déjà vu, All Over Again  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson209.html
A quote...."The credit markets were reeling and people across the globe had lost confidence in the dollar. American tourists overseas found that many places in Europe were reluctant to exchange their dollars for European currency, and the world banking community was even more in an uproar. -- Furthermore, U.S. armed forces were bogged down in an unpopular war overseas, and the U.S. economy seemed to be moving into a recession. Foreigners holding dollars were nervous and wondering if they had been fooled into holding worthless paper. -- I am not describing the current economic scene in the United States; instead, this is a description of the crisis of August, 1971, when the U.S. dollar collapsed as the government’s currency Ponzi game ran its course...." -- More likely. - mpg
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Bernanke Deep-Sixes the Dollar to Save Wall Street  ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032008D.shtml
A quote...."In the absence of the authority and political courage required to cut to the quick, the Fed has been reduced to using expedients that - while allowing the extent of losses to remain concealed - postpone the moment of truth and compromise the dollar. To save Wall Street, Bernanke exports the crisis and stokes a global inflationary fever, risking a devastating boomerang: rejection of the dollar as the global reserve currency."  --  Ditto. - mpg
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Saudi Arabian inflation surges to 27-year high of 8.7 per cent
  ---  http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=/data/business/2008/March/business_March719.xml&section=business
A quote...."DUBAI — Annual inflation in Saudi Arabia accelerated to 8.67 per cent in February, the highest in at least 27 years, as rents and food costs surged in the world's largest oil exporter. - The Saudi central bank is constrained in the fight against inflation by the riyal's peg to the dollar."
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Gas prices hit record $3.26, diesel at $4.06
  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2329709020080323?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - The average price of a gallon of gas in the United States has risen to a record $3.26, and the cost of diesel fuel has soared to a record $4.06 a gallon, adding to pressure on consumers and the companies that deliver their goods."
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The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that Americans won't ever see
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_siv_o_ne_080323_the_world_according_.htm
A quote...."The gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years. The endless list of genetically modified seeds sold and controlled by Monsanto are putting at enormous risk age-old agricultural patterns under the presumptuous slogan of aiming at solving the huge problem of hunger in the world."
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Howard Zinn's "A People's History of American Empire" Illustrated Edition -- Just Released (Large Format Paperback)
  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/1030
Book Offer - A quote...."Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play. More than a successful book, A People’s History triggered a revolution in the way history is told, displacing the official versions with their emphasis on great men in high places to chronicle events as they were lived, from the bottom up."

Saturday March 22nd 2008 - links page

Arabs and America: Between - Confrontation and Agreement
  ---  http://watchingamerica.com/News/452/arabs-and-america-between-confrontation-and-agreement/
Must Read - Action Alert - A quote...."As I’ve already stated, a confrontation with the United States would be difficult. It would not be impossible. If Arabs collectively decide not to buy American products then the manufacturers for those products will lobby in our interest. Perhaps we would replace those boycotted goods with goods from France, or Germany, or Japan, or China, or India. Maybe Arab capitalists would be encouraged to start manufacturing locally. Then there is the Arab fortune held in American banks – a fortune estimated at around 700 billion dollars and representing a huge buttress for the American dollar. Withdrawing 10 percent of this fortune, on top of a new self-sufficiency, would be a strong indication of Arab anger. All of this would be a message to the American people to look again at their government’s distinctly anti-Arab positions."
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Out of the Arab Equation - Part I  ---  http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2008/03/out-of-equation-part-i.html
Must Read - A quote...."There is one word that has been bothering a lot these past weeks, ever since Ahmadinejad landed in the American occupied Green Zone in Baghdad. That word that keeps recurring in many articles and "analysis" is "unwittingly". -- By the way, this website editor vehemently disagrees with the author's contention that the Neocons were intending to "help" Iran. 

This apparent  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/livingnextdoortothecrazies-blog-mpg-060608  ---  help is only a temporary and indirect result of US policies to "play" all the factions in the Middle East against each other and continue their never ending trauma of "constructive instability" throughout the region until their PNAC objectives are achieved - mpg
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The American Insanity Conundrum  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto210308.htm
Must Read - Action Alert - A quote...."It just goes to show that some people will never “get it”. The Progressive Press has whipped up a cauldron of molten ire against George W. Bush’s statement that the war in Iraq was “worth it”. My God, how could he say such a thing? The Progressive Press remarks; “Doesn’t he know that almost 4,000 Americans and untold Iraqi’s have died in a quagmire? Doesn’t he realize that the cost of this war is in the trillions? Doesn’t he realize that we are no closer to victory than we were five long years ago?”
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An Election Without Meaning  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20080320223233373
A quote...."Will November 2008 bring a meaningful change to America? Will getting rid of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney without impeachment or indictment really make a difference? Will a 600 billion dollar war/defense budget be cut in half and used for desperately needed domestic spending? Will the ninety-three billion dollars profits in the private health insurance companies­­—those parasitic intermediates between you and your doctor—be used instead for full health care coverage for all? Will Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus be restored to the people? Will torture stop? Will all students in public universities be able to enroll for free? Will the US national security agencies stop mass spying on our personal communications? Will the neo-conservative agenda of total military domination of the world be reversed?"
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The Democratic Majority: Enabling a Rogue Presidency and Stonewalling the American People  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32040
A quote...."Lawless. Imperial. Rogue.  --  These labels have been attached to the Bush administration for the last three Take Back America (TBA) conferences. The annual conference hosted by the Campaign for America’s Future, does a bang up job each year highlighting the dark deeds of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. And, what better man for the job than House Judiciary Chair John Conyers. Turns out, the better man for the job may be the pre-House Judiciary Chair John Conyers."
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The woman who nearly stopped the war  ---  http://www.newstatesman.com/200803190011
Must Read - A quote...."Of all the stories told on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, there is one important episode that took place during the build-up to the conflict that has gone largely unreported. It concerns a young woman who was a witness to something so outrageous, something so contrary to the principles of diplomacy and international law, that in revealing it she believed war could be averted. That woman was Katharine Gun, a 29-year-old Mandarin translator at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham." -- Dear gentle reader, why do you think Congress, especially the Demos, gave carte blanche to the Bush administration’s prior illegal wiretaps?  Because Bush and his cronies started doing it when they first assumed office back in 2001, and they already had enough dirt to blackmail many of the Demos. - mpg
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Diplomat: U.S. ‘threatened’ countries that didn’t support Iraq war.
  ---  http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/22/diplomat-us-threatened-countries-that-didnt-support-iraq-war/
A quote...."In an upcoming book, Heraldo Muñoz, Chile’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes the efforts by the Bush administration to cajole other countries into supporting the invasion of Iraq “generated lasting ‘bitterness’ and ‘deep mistrust’ in Washington’s relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.” Muñoz describes how the “rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy” employed by the Bush administration to pressure allies for support included threats and punishment:"
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Iraq: When doing battle, seek a quick victory  ---  http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080320/101769917.html
A quote...."MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - The end of this conflict is not in sight. Intensive mine warfare is being waged on Iraqi roads. Not a single allied convoy passes without an explosion. Road mining has assumed such a scale that the U.S. Air Force is using its strategic B-1B bombers for remote mine clearance. Weapons and ammunition are freely crossing Iraq's lengthy and difficult-to-control borders, while the continued occupation is increasing the mobilization potential of the guerrilla movement."
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Scott Horton Interviews Norman Soloman  ---  http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/03/20/norman-soloman/
Audio Interview - A quote...."Norman Soloman,   ---  http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/  ---  author of....
Made Love, Got War   ---  http://www.amazon.com/Made-Love-Got-War-Encounters/dp/0977825345/antiwarbookstore  ---  and War Made Easy
 (the book   ---  http://www.amazon.com/War-Made-Easy-Presidents-Spinning/dp/047179001X/antiwarbookstore  ----  and the movie),
   ---  http://www.amazon.com/War-Made-Easy-Presidents-Spinning/dp/B00118SUHU/antiwarbookstore  ---  discusses the Military Industrial Media Complex and the role they play in deciding America’s foreign policy, the ignorance of the average reporters and politicians in DC and the need for a broad based antiwar movement."
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Only The Truth Can Burn Through The Fog  ---  http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2008/03/only-truth-can-burn-through-fog.html
A quote...."It was the first day of spring and the day after the U.S. attacked Iraq. Madison was blanketed by a fog that was as depressing as the day, and we were out of our minds with anger and despair. It was late, but we drove to the Capitol Square to join the vigil we thought would still be there. But when we arrived, candles in hand, the fogged-in Square was virtually deserted. We met a woman carrying a homemade sign. She asked if we knew where the demonstration was. We wandered around for a while, looking for other people. Way up in the one of the top floors of the Inn on the Park, drunks high on booze and war fever saw the sign, leaned out of a window, and shouted "Fuckin' liberals!" and "Go back to France!" That's what they saw, just three more cheese eating surrender monkeys."
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German Intelligence Was 'Dishonest, Unprofessional and Irresponsible'  ---  http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,542888,00.html
Interview - Spiegel interviews David Kay head of the US lead Iraq Survey Group - A quote...."David Kay was charged by the Bush administration with finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the invasion. Instead of finding weapons, though, he found what he told SPIEGEL was 'the biggest intelligence fiasco of my lifetime.'"
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Saddam’s Exile Deal Could Have Saved $6 Trillion  ---  http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/exile_deal130.html
A quote...."One month before the invasion of Iraq, Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar met with President Bush in Crawford, Tex., Feb. 22, 2003, to beg him, on behalf of European leaders, not to start a war. -- The Egyptians made a deal with Saddam Hussein to go into exile to avoid a devastating war against Iraq. Saddam wanted a payment of $1 billion and, for insurance, to keep all the information about how the neocons had supplied him with his weapons of mass destruction."
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Scott Horton Interviews Juan Cole  ---  http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/03/21/juan-cole-4/
Audio Interview - A quote...."Juan Cole,   ---  http://antiwar.com/cole/  ---  professor of history at the University of Michigan and proprietor of the influential blog Informed Comment,   ---  http://www.juancole.com/  ---  reviews the piles of lies told by the government in order to justify the occupation of Iraq over the last 5 years.
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IraqiGirl Comes of Age Under Occupation - Bush's Surge Hits Mosul  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/ross03222008.html
A quote...."The world marks the fifth year of the war in Iraq with no end in sight. Just as others in my generation could not remember a time when there was no Vietnam war, my life seems to have begun with the current massacre. What came before has been erased."
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Sunni, Shiite figures hold reconciliation conference in Diala  ---  http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/28867
A quote...."Iraqi Sunni and Shiite tribal figures held a conference to strengthen the sectarian ties in the violence-scarred province of Diala on Thursday, anti-Qaeda council spokesman said."
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Arab media warns Bush wants Iran war  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48607&sectionid=351020205
War Warning - A quote...."The Arab media has raised US-Iran confrontation alarms, saying the US has a proxy war with Iran going at the tail end of the Bush administration. - The UAE-based newspaper, Gulf News, in its Friday's editorial said that with George W. Bush in office the Washngton is effectively maintaining low intensity warfare with Iran and the potential exists to ratchet it up to more open hostilities."
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The Coming Uncertain War against Iran  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/22/7827/
War Warning - A quote...."When Admiral William J “Fox” Fallon was chosen to replace General John Abizaid as chief of US Central Command (CENTCOM) in March 2007, many analysts didn’t shy from reaching a seemingly clear-cut conclusion: the Bush administration was preparing for war with Iran and had selected the most suitable man for this job. Almost exactly a year later, as Fallon abruptly resigned over a controversial interview with Esquire magazine, we are left with a less certain analysis."
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Saudi Shura council to discuss plan for sudden radioactive hazards  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=96940
War Warning - A quote...."Riyadh (dpa) - The Saudi Shura council will secretly discuss national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors, media reports said Saturday."  --  Coming during Cheney's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, the timing of this announcement could not be more ominous - mpg
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Israeli and US officers stage four-day training exercise  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5972
War Warning - A quote...."JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Thursday that around 200 U.S. and Israeli officers had staged a computer-based battle simulation designed to improve coordination between the two countries' armed forces. -- The four-day exercise, codenamed "Juniper Falcon" was part of a standing agreement between the two strategic allies to hold regular joint training to boost "interoperability, understanding and cooperation" a military statement released on Thursday said."
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Annan Warns against Conflict with Iran  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701030086
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Thursday that military action against Iran would be "a real disaster" and said the Middle East could explode if the international community doesn't handle the many conflicts in the region very carefully."
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Iran crude exports earn $70b as production hits a record  ---  http://archive.gulfnews.com/business/Oil_and_Gas/10198979.html
A quote...."Tehran: Iran earned $70 billion from oil exports in the 12 months to March, which is the end of the Iranian year, while the country's crude production hit a new record since the revolution, the Iranian oil minister said."
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India to Start Negotiations with Iran, Pak on IPI Pipeline  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701030088
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- India will soon start negotiations with Iran and Pakistan on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. The negotiations will resume after the formation of the new government in Pakistan, said Murli Deora, New Delhi's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas."
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Conservative wins in Iran poll show sanctions are failing, say analysts  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/22/iran
A quote...."The conservative consolidation of power in Iran's parliamentary elections has shown that international sanctions are backfiring, according to liberal analysts in Tehran."  --  Interesting....this website editor has read at LEAST a thousand articles that repeatedly, over, and over, and over again, stated that US policies were established to halt Iran's (totally legal under the NPT) uranium enrichment program and were NEVER about "regime change".  Of course everyone in this country's “mass-media” lied....again....for the thousandth time. -- What a surprise.- mpg
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Exclusive: Blackwater 'Blood Money' Angers Iraqis  ---  http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4489251&page=1
A quote...."At least two Iraqi families of victims killed by Blackwater security guards in September tell ABC News they have refused compensation offered by the company."
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Militia Blues  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/militia-blues.html
Some of the militias in Iraq, being betrayed, by the Americans and their bought stooge, proceeding to get really pissed off again....as usual. - mpg
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US wants Britain to lead 'surge' in southern Iraq: report  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/159920
A quote...."British soldiers secure the site of a bomb attack east of Basra December 2007. The US plans to urge Britain to launch a "surge" in Basra to combat increasing violence in the southern Iraqi region, the Sunday Mirror newspaper reported. (AFP/File) "
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Pakistan to Talk With Militants, New Leaders Say  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/world/asia/22pstan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
A quote...."ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Faced with a sharp escalation of suicide bombings in urban areas, the leaders of Pakistan’s new coalition government say they will negotiate with the militants believed to be orchestrating the attacks, and will use military force only as a last resort."  --  MY GAWD !!  How could the Pakies do such a thing!  Don't they want the same "success" that US policies have brought to Iraq....what could they be thinking? - mpg -- For more on this issue see....It Will Happen Every Single Time   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-122407-010108#EVERY_TIME  ---  mpg
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Hezbollah: We have proof Israel killed Mughniyah  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967045.html
A quote...."Hezbollah's deputy secretary general Naim Qassem has again accused Israel of responsibility for the assassination of the organization's senior military figure, Imad Mughniyah. In a speech Friday to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, Qassem said, "We have clear proof, 100 percent, that cannot be doubted, that Israel is the head of the assassination."
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Haniiya: “Hamas accepted the Yemeni Initiative as an agenda for talks”  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42319&s1=h1
A quote...."The deposed Palestinian Prime Minister of Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyya, stated on Saturday that he hopes that the current internal Palestinian talks in Yemen would achieve successful outcomes, and added that Hamas accepted the Yemeni initiative as an agenda for talks but not as a condition that must be implemented."
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Hamas, Islamic Jihad delegation heads to Egypt  ---  http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/22/47272.html
A quote...."A joint delegation from Hamas and Islamic Jihad traveled from the Gaza Strip to Egypt on Saturday for a new round of talks on the situation in the Hamas-ruled territory, a spokesman said."
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MIDEAST:  Egypt Renews Ceasefire Attempt  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41697
A quote...."CAIRO, Mar 22 (IPS) - In the wake of a series of deadly Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip early this month, Egypt has stepped up efforts aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Palestinian resistance groups and Tel Aviv."
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Dubai, China non-oil trade surges 47pc
  ---  http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/business/2008/March/business_March696.xml&section=business
A quote...."DUBAI -Non-oil trade between Dubai and China surged 47 per cent to Dh71.2 billion ($19.4 billion) in 2007 from Dh48.4 billion ($13.2 billion) the previous year, according to Dubai World, a holding company owned by the Dubai government."
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The four ‘new sheriffs’ of Wall Street  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/803541a6-f78c-11dc-ac40-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
A quote...."The Federal Reserve and Treasury are playing a dominant day-to-day role in overseeing Wall Street following this week’s rescue of Bear Stearns, raising the prospect that the central bank might be given more permanent authority over securities firms."  --  Well Gee....why not?  the Fed's soon going to own most of them....well that's not really true.  What the Fed is going to own is most of their bad debts. - mpg
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The Ant, the Grasshopper, and the Subprime Securities  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/walker/walker30.html
A Must Read Fable - A quote....An ant laboriously tunneled into MIT and carried around calculus books of 100 times her own body weight, earning an IT degree and an MBA. Then she secured a business loan and worked on her startup corporation 16 hours a day, 24/7, all summer long. Her company made software that cured cancer, wiped out computer viruses, and walked your dog, all for $39.95 with free updates."

Friday March 21st 2008 - links page

Can India save the world?
  ---  http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=b256bfa5-2b67-4cd
  ---  0-8113-224240a01d87&MatchID1=4664&TeamID1=5&TeamID2=2&MatchType1=1
  ---  &SeriesID1=1173&PrimaryID=4664&Headline=Can+India+save+the+world%3f
Must Read - A quote...."If both America and Europe lose confidence in their ability to compete, how can they remain custodians of the rules that ensure fairness and equity? To be fair, humanity should thank both first for creating the 1945 rules-based order at the end of World War II. To understand how visionary the Western founding fathers of this order were, just contrast what they did after World War II with what was done after World War I. After World War I, the world order forced Germany and Japan to go to war as they tried to expand their political and economic space. After World War II, both Germany and Japan significantly expanded their political and economic space without going to war.  --  If humanity can sustain this 1945 rules-based order, this will enable both China and India to emerge as new great powers peacefully, just as Germany and Japan did. But there are differences now. Both Germany and Japan emerged when America and Europe (including Germany) believed that an open global order would naturally benefit the West. Today, China and India are emerging at a time when the West is losing faith in an open global order. This growing lack of faith explains the strange behaviour of both America and Europe towards global governance."
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Iraq and the Virtue of Selfishness  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12558
Must Read - A quote...."What better journalistic symbol of the Beltway know-it-alls than the Washington Post? Their coverage of the Iraq debate in the run-up to invasion mirrored the uncritical assumptions and stereotyped thinking that led to our quest for "weapons of mass destruction" that didn't exist – and their commentary in many instances epitomized the hubris that led to what General William E. Odom rightly describes as the biggest military blunder in our history. Post editorialists contributed mightily to the misinformation that was deliberately spread by the administration, and their columnists were first to jump on the pro-war bandwagon, with Charles Krauthammer and the neocon brigade leading the charge. Now, as the nation observes the fifth anniversary of this avoidable catastrophe, we are subjected to yet more editorials taking opponents of this war to task: those who call for withdrawal of US forces, the editors of the Post aver, are being "unrealistic."
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Happy Anniversary, America! How Lethally Stupid Can One Country Be?  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/21/7808/
Must Read - A quote...."Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." -- *Hermann Göring*
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Iraq, Five Years In: They Really Don't Care (Updated, March 20)  ---  http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/03/iraq-five-years-in-they-really-dont.html
A quote...."Although the Idiot King treats the Afghan front of his eternal war as an afterthought, it is every bit the debacle that Iraq has become. And while Bush tries to enhance the morale of those stationed in Afghanistan by portraying that conflict as some kind of Outward Bound experience -- only with, you know, suicide bombers, and stuff -- the stolid wad of congealed evil who actually runs his administration has made it known just how little our rulers care about the views of those who bear the burdens of the wars they've inflicted on us."
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They said it wouldn't last ...  ---  http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/itsonlyfair/latimes0174.html
A quote...."Happy anniversary, War! I can hardly believe we've been together for five years now ... that's a fifth of the way to our silver anniversary! -- Traditionally, a fifth anniversary is marked with gifts of wood, symbolizing a "strong and lasting marriage." But I knew you wouldn't mind a gift of Kevlar -- I looked it up, and apparently it symbolizes "a strong and lasting insurgency." Somehow it just seemed more appropriate. -- It's sooo sweet of you to take me out to dinner for our anniversary, War. I know it's not easy getting a reservation here in Baghdad, with so many of the local restaurants destroyed by suicide bombers. But eating in the Green Zone is fine. No, really! Concrete barriers and barbed wire can be extremely romantic."
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The Crucifixion of Christ, American Style  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19583.htm
A quote...."For God so loved the world..." he returned his only begotten son to the land where he shed his grace on thee. -- Vindication for the faithful, rejoicing for the true believers, it was the second coming of Christ—and he was coming to America. Not to bring Armageddon, but to save mankind from Armageddon. --  Jesus will make his first appearance at the intersection of the streets appropriately named "Liberty" and "Church" in New York City, located at what has come to be known as "Ground Zero."
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Rachel Corrie's Case For Justice  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/saliba210308.htm
A quote...."
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UN's Assessment Of Human Rights Violations In Occupied Palestine  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman210308.htm
A quote...."John Dugard is The UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Palestine and a rare public official. In January 2008, he assessed the situation in Occupied Palestine (OPT). It was detailed, inclusive and honest. This article discusses his findings in-depth. Most of them have been widely reported, but they bear repeating nonetheless. It's because, in this instance, they're from an agency of the 192 member states world body. It's hoped that source highlights their importance and adds to their credibility."
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The day real change comes to America: afterthoughts - posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3083.shtml
A quote...."My point that neither Tweedledee nor Tweedledum, coming from the two branches of the empire, can bring “real change” to our nation -- social, political or economic -- was only mildly challenged; and there was overwhelming agreement that both Democratic and Republican politicians come from the same litter and are nursed by the same bitch (American corporate interests). What made the response interesting was the variety of information and advice received in over 800 emails . . . "
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The making of "Operation Iraqi Freedom"  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3087.shtml
A quote...."The Iraq war, which was predicated on the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), has resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,000 US troops and has cost taxpayers roughly half-a-trillion dollars."
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80,000 Angry Men. Is the US Surge collapsing?  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/mar/20/surgecollapse
Video - A quote...."In an investigation carried out by GuardianFilms for Channel 4, we uncover how thousands of Iraqis employed at $10 a day by the US to take on al-Qaida are threatening to go on strike because they say they have been used by the 'Americans to do their dirty work' and haven't been paid."  --  It's bad enough that hiring these former insurgents is just one more example of the US "playing" the various factions in Iraq against each other.  It's really bad that they've been using them as cannon fodder and paying no mind to their complaints of Shi'a repression, death squads and corruption. It's absolutely terrible to offer a wage of just ten dollars a day - but to give them guns, treat them this way....and than not pay them?  It's well understood by many that the US has helped, and is still helping, elements of al Qaeda in various indirect ways...but to actively recruit for them?  Now that's just too strange to contemplate. - mpg
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Heavy fighting erupts in Lebanon refugee camp  ---  http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/22/47266.html
A quote...."Quiet descended upon a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon on Saturday after a ceasefire between Islamic militants and fighters of the mainstream Fatah faction ended heavy clashes, a Fatah official said."

For more on the two articles shown above see....Al Qaeda - Always There for the US Elites - 03-09-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/alqaedaalwaysthere4theuselites-blog-mpg-030908
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Iraqi VP slams US-led invasion of Iraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/159732
Complete quote...."Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi rejected any agreement with America which may create some limitations for the country in near future, al-Jazeera TV Network reported Friday. - Al-Hashemi criticized the American-led invasion of Iraq and termed it as a strategic mistake. - He added that the Iraqi nation is paying for damages which have been created by America."
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Talk of a Troop Surge for Afghanistan  ---  http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2008/03/21/talk-of-a-troop-surge-for-afghanistan.html
A quote...."As the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq fades from the front pages, analysts are turning their attention to what is often called the forgotten war. Many fear that progress in Afghanistan is stalled and that the country is in need of major new measures to reinvigorate the war effort against the Taliban and other extremist factions."
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Pentagon will not send Adm. Fallon to Congress on Iraq  ---  http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32621920080321
A quote....from CLG's Breaking News and Commentary   ---  http://www.legitgov.org/  ---  "21 Mar 2008 -- Adm. William Fallon, who is resigning after a magazine reported he was challenging the White House over Iran, will not appear before Congress to discuss the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said on Friday. Only Gen. David Petraeus [Betrayus] top U.S. officer in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will go to Capitol Hill in April to update [lie to] lawmakers on the war, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell."
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Military action against Iran disastrous: Lavrov  ---  http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/21/47237.html
A quote...."Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned in Tel Aviv that using military force against Iran over its nuclear program would have a “disastrous effect”, as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the only way to resolve the impasse was dialogue."
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Bush Lies about Iran on Now-Ruz  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/bush-lies-about-iran-on-now-ruz.html
War Warning - A quote...."On Thursday, Bush lied about Iran again: "President Bush said the Iranian government has "declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people . . ." The Iranian leaders have consistently condemned nuclear weapons as inhumane and denounced them and said that they don't want them and it would be illegal in Islamic law to use them. Bush is welcome to disbelieve them, but he is not welcome to lie about what they said. He again hinted around that they might have a nuclear weapons program, for which there is no evidence and which flies in the face of the findings of his own intelligence analysts, in the National Intelligence Estimate."
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McCain's Foreign Policy Gaffe - posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3948673n?source=search_video
Video - A quote....""CBS News RAW": Speaking to reporters in Jordan, John McCain mistakenly referred to Iranian extremists as al Qaeda terrorists. McCain recanted after being corrected by Sen. Joseph Lieberman. "  --  This video clip is notable for McCain's attempt, with Lieberman's help, to lie correctly, or to put it another way, unlike Bush (see article above) McCain is at least attempting to be plausible.  From this editor's perspective the question would be, why do they even bother? - mpg
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POLITICS-US:  McCain's Gaffes Reflect Bush's Iran-Qaeda Myth  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41693
Related Article - A quote...."WASHINGTON, Mar 21 (IPS) - Sen. John McCain's confusion in recent allegations of Iranian training of al Qaeda fighters in Iraq is the result of a drumbeat of official propaganda about close Iran-al Qaeda ties that the George W. Bush administration and neoconservatives have promoted ever since early 2002."
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What is the Difference Between the Mainstream Media and Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda? -- http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6582
A quote...."In America, Truth gets slaughtered daily in the mainstream media, just like it was in Nazi Germany. The American media has always taken great umbrage in condemning the perfidy of the German people who supported the deadly war policies of Hitler, yet they whistle past the graveyard while ignoring another holocaust going on in Iraq, not to mention Afghanistan. Nowhere is this more evident than in their blackout of WINTER SOLDIER."
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How local TV embraced fake news  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=54803
A quote...."Americans' first source in news is overrun by marketing videos -- By Farhad Manjoo - Note: Here is another excerpt from my new book, "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society."  ---  (For previous excerpts, see here and here.) The book argues that new communications technologies are loosening the culture's grip on what people once called "objective reality." Here, I look at how fakery has overrun local TV news."
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Al-Arabiya and Al-Sumariya journalists attacked by prime minister's bodyguards  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/159762
A quote...."MONTREAL, March 21 /CNW Telbec/ - Bodyguards protecting Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki attacked journalists working for pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya and Iraqi TV station Al-Sumariya yesterday in Babel (110 km north of Baghdad). Al-Arabiya correspondent Fares Al-Mehdawi told Reporters Without Borders that police officers guarding the prime minister hit him and other journalists. They also smashed his camera and confiscated the footage he had filmed, he said."
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POLITICS-US:  Winter Soldiers Move Toward GI Resistance  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41692
A quote...."SILVER SPRING, Maryland, Mar 21 (IPS) - Hundreds of veterans who gathered outside Washington last weekend to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning to their communities across the country with the goal of stoking resistance to the Iraq war from inside the U.S. military."
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The Secret War Against Sweden: US and British Submarine Deception in the 1980s.  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6660
Special Note - A quote...."It is nice to denounce the practice of promoting an idea by force and coercion as radicalism when it comes to some, while preserving the right to use whatever means is most effective to spread for those who subscribe to one's own view of what the world should be like."
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The Open-ended 9/11 Questions: Part 3 of 3  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6611
Special Note - A quote...."Finally! We reach the climactic end of our series. However and like the last two, the Truther question asked here is a dud. An explanation exists for this question that's more reasonable and likely than one that calls for creating a conspiracy."
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'The Reflecting Pool' A New 9/11 Investigative Drama That Challenges The Official Version Of 9/11 Events, Released on DVD
  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20080319183203726
A quote...."A new 9/11 investigative drama that challenges the official version of 9/11 events, 'The Reflecting Pool', is now available on DVD from reflectingpoolfilm.com. 'The Reflecting Pool' follows a journalist who teams up with the father of a 9/11 victim to investigate the official version of the events. Their findings pose a disturbing question that has no easy answer: To what extent was the U.S. Government at fault for the attacks?"
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The Fine Print Of The Patriot Act  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5956
A quote...."When Congress passed the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, law-enforcement agencies hailed it as a powerful tool to help track down the confederates of Osama bin Laden. No one expected it would end up helping to snag the likes of Eliot Spitzer. The odd connection between the antiterror law and Spitzer's trysts with call girls illustrates how laws enacted for one purpose often end up being used very differently once they're on the books."
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Extrajudicial slayings on rise in Colombia - posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colombia21mar21,0,3403564.story?track=ntothtml
A quote...."GRANADA, COLOMBIA -- Street vendor Israel Rodriguez went fishing last month and never came back. Two days later, his family found his body buried in a plastic bag, classified by the Colombian army as a guerrilla fighter killed in battle."
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Four suspect CIA flights refuel at airport  ---  http://www.limerickleader.ie/shannon/Four-suspect-CIA-flights-refuel.3874652.jp
A quote...."FOUR CIA jets, two of which were identified last year in a special EU report into the practice of extraordinary rendition, have landed at Shannon Airport in recent days, leading to renewed calls for the Government to ban aircraft suspected of participating in the practice."  --  And the beatings go on. - mpg
For more on this issue see....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure.  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307
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Venezuela Slams US in UN Terrorism Debate  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3291
A quote..."Caracas, March 20, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuela's Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Aura Rodriguez de Ortiz, slammed the U.S. government's "double standard" on combating terrorism during a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, for its failure to prosecute former CIA operative and international terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles."
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OAS Rejects Colombia’s Military Incursion into Ecuador  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3284
A quote...."Caracas, March 18, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - After fourteen hours of tense debate, the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved, early this morning in Washington, a resolution ratifying the declaration of the Rio Group Summit of March 7, which rejected Colombia's military incursion into Ecuador on March 1. The incursion had killed 25 people, including Raul Reyes, second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)."
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Canadian engineer says Bush ignored advice to help Iraq - posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=e6cf2805-150a-437d-9bf3-2e736ece7985
A quote...."OTTAWA - An Ottawa telecom engineer invited by George W. Bush to join a group developing a post-invasion strategy to rebuild Iraq says he now believes the U.S. president never had any intention of heeding its advice. -- "It was optics," Ahmed Al-Hayderi said on Wednesday. "Almost everything that we advised them to do was not done, and everything we advised them not to do was done. We were ignored."
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Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam" Explains Why America is in Trouble  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8414
Book Review - A quote...."For an original view about why America is in trouble, read....
“Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam”*  ---  http://www.amazon.com/Thine-Alabaster-Cities-Lawrence-Velvel/dp/0977808912  ---  (Doukathsan Press) by award-winning author Lawrence Velvel. - If his book title, taken from the fourth stanza of the national hymn “America The Beautiful,” is intended as sarcasm, that’s only because of the author’s outrage over the injuries he has seen inflicted on the country he loves." -- * link added by website editor.
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IRAQ: Forbidden fields: Oil groups [Vultures] circle the prize [the murdered country] of [Iraq and] Iraq's vast reserves
  ---  http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14983
A quote...."Royal Dutch Shell has been quietly working with Iraq's oil ministry over the past two years, advising it on how to increase the production of two oilfields. Under an agreement struck after the 2003 invasion, no one from the company, Europe's largest oil group, has set foot in the troubled country; instead, monthly face-to-face meetings with the oil ministry have been held in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and weekly contact has been maintained by video-link."
For more on this see....War Resource 9/11  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/priorwarresource911-weblist-mpg-091106
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Plundering the Public Purse  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=55029
A quote..."As the global financial crisis unfolds, one thing is certain: The major investment and commercial banks who have wrecked our economy and financial system are now successfully sucking unlimited amounts of money from the people's Treasury to bail themselves out."
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De-pegging 'essential' to curb inflation  ---  http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=389700&news_type=Economy&lang=en&
A quote...."Dr. Abdullah Al-Saihati, chairman of Saihati Group, has called for the de-pegging of Saudi riyal from the weakening US dollar, saying it was essential to curb increasing inflation in the Kingdom."
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Only deep recession will end high oil prices
  ---  http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/business/2008/March/business_March665.xml&section=business&col=
A quote..."DUBAI — Only a deep recession leading to a slowdown in Asian growth will end high oil prices, according to the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) in its monthly oil report dated March 17."
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OECD forecasts US economy zero growth in second quarter  ---  http://mercopress.handsoft.com.uy/vernoticia.do?id=12944&formato=HTML
A quote...."United States economic growth is grinding to a halt, but the Euro zone is doing relatively well so far, according to the latest assessment from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development."

Thursday March 20th 2008 - links page

Invisible Faces... - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19566.htm
Must Read - A quote...." 19/03/08 "ICH" -- -- I had to go again to have some "paperwork" done, authenticated, officialized, approved, signed...Again the f*cking queue. One would have thought that I'd be used to it by now...Again, all of them were Iraqis. One was limping, the other holding an infant, an elderly woman so frail, I felt she was going to collapse any minute, a man perspiring carrying around 10 passports, he was trembling so much, all his papers fell dispersing themselves like white flakes on the grey, dirty, floor..."
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Death, Destruction and Reparations - What Do We Owe Iraq?  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/ross03202008.html
A quote...."What do we owe Iraq for having perverted governance into an aggregation of death squads? For corrupting public officials and leveling essential services, leaving the nation in the dark most days, contaminating the water supply, destroying the agricultural sector in the birthplace of agriculture, and aiding and abetting the looting of the cradle of civilization?" -- The term is "Neo-Romanism/Neo-Liberalism Road Kill", it's what happens to most small, weak countries that are stupid enough to do "business" with the United States. This nation has a very long and distinguished track record of doing this sort of thing to smaller, weaker, nations all over the world.  So what happened to Iraq should not come as a surprise to anyone, after all folks, would you go do business, in a dark deserted warehouse, with a guy who has already killed or robbed ten out of the last thirty people he dealt with. If you did that you'd either be really, really stupid or just plain suicidal.  Small and weak foreign nations, especially those with valuable natural resources, should form their own collective self-defense and economic organizations and keep the hell away from the US.
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Resisting the Empire  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5087
A quote...."Victories are within sight for people in a growing number of nations where communities that host U.S. foreign military bases have long fought to get rid of them."
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Will Progressives Stand With Them? Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/susskind03192008.html
A quote...."Since the US bombing of Afghanistan in 2001, the Bush Administration has resurrected the hackneyed colonial notion that its military intervention is intended to save Muslim women from their oppressive societies. As Laura Bush said, "The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women." Few Middle Eastern women believe her: the line is really intended for people in the US."
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Live!  From New York City -- the 9/11 Ballot Initiative Campaign  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=2008032081901154
Action Alert - A quote...."Fellow 9/11 truth workers, at long last there is a campaign afoot that has the potential of harnessing the energy, knowledge and zeal for justice of the entire 9/11 Truth Movement, and that is the New York City 911 Ballot Initiative Campaign. What is the 9/11 Ballot Initiative Campaign? Simply stated, it is a citizen-based effort to allow the people of New York City the opportunity to vote for “a New York City Independent Commission with Subpoena Power to Conduct a Comprehensive and Fact-Driven Investigation of All Relevant Aspects of the Tragic Events of September 11, 2001 and Issue a Report.”
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Gore Vidal Speaks Seriously Ill of the Dead  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080320_gore_vidal_speaks_seriously_ill_of_the_dead/
A quote...."I can recall that day in the 1930s when a “news” (sic) magazine appeared in Washington, D.C.; it was called Newsweek: meant to be a counterbalance to Time Magazine’s uncontrollable malice. In due course the two became sadly alike as Vincent Astor morphed into Henry Luce: Was it something in the water? I once asked Henry Luce why he called Time a news magazine when it was simply Uncle Harry’s means of venting his rage (this was 1960 or so) at liberals, and “degenerate art” like the plays of Tennessee Williams—he had no answer. At Newsweek Vincent Astor was far too stupid to answer any such complaint. Now here we are in the Newsweek of 2008, and it’s still lousy. There have been a few decent writers in between that were less nutty than today’s Newsweek hacks."  --  Actually Gore is just getting warmed up here -- he'll be talking about Buckley in a moment.... - mpg
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Italian judge clears way for CIA "rendition" trial  ---  http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/17022/Italian_judge_clears_way_for_CIA_rendition_trial
A quote...."An Italian judge on Wednesday ordered the resumption of a trial against U.S. and Italian spies accused of abducting a terrorism suspect, in a blow to efforts to halt a case that Rome says violates state secrecy rules."
For more on this see....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure.  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307
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Cell Venture into Iran Proves Skeptics Wrong  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701010070
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- When MTN secured a 49 percent stake in IranCell, which was launched in November 2006, investors were worried about the country's nuclear standoff with the West and criticized the company's move to invest in the Islamic Republic."
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Greece Backs Iran's N[uke] Stance  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701010068
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- Greece stressed the right of all states to peaceful use of nuclear technology in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."
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Belarus leader accuses EU of pandering to U.S.  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20080320/101830791.html
A quote...."MINSK, March 20 (RIA Novosti) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday he wants better ties with the European Union, but cannot accept the bloc's unquestioning obedience to the United States."
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Paul Scofield: A Man For All Seasons  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/03/paul-scofield-man-for-all-seasons.html
A quote...."The greatest Shakespearean actor "of his generation" is dead at the age of 86. For another generation, Paul Scofield would become the living embodiment of a saint --Sir Thomas More, who is known to us in the painting by Holbein and more immediately in a portrayal of him in the motion picture --A Man For All Seasons."  --  Editors note: if you pres the play button, than pause it, you'll get access to the various scenes by placing your cursor on the window. - mpg
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White House Press Secretary Perino: Americans' say in Iraq war ended in 2004
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/White_House_Press_Secretary_Perino_Americans_0320.html
A quote...."At a White House press briefing today, Press Secretary Dana Perino effectively tells veteran correspondent Helen Thomas that the American people's say in the Iraq occupation ended after the 2004 election."

First of all, he wasn't legally elected; he lost Ohio, and therefore the Electoral College, and therefore the race.  Second, since Bush and members of this administration were deeply involved with a series of highly prejudicial and suspicious chain of events that led up to and facilitated 9/11, were caught blatantly lying about every aspect of their war, have openly committed war crimes, and have deliberately shredded almost every article of this nation's constitution.....the people actually DO have a say through their elected representatives to change the outcome of the 2004 election.  They can do this through a process called impeachment.

Sadly that option was taken away from the people of this country by Nancy Pelosi’s deliberate and pre-meditated failure to fulfill her constitutional duties by invoking the articles of impeachment.  She even went one completely and totally unnecessary step further....she "took impeachment off the table" prior to the 2006 election.

The fact that Ms. Pelosi is a disgrace to this nation and a craven coward however does not take away the people's right to remove those in office who have committed high crimes and misdemeanors, especially in regards to the illegal initiation, or conduct, of a war. -- mpg
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Iran, Venezuela, and Bolivia to cooperate in television news.  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/159549
A quote...."Iran plans to set up a television network and has signed joint projects worth $1 billion with Bolivia - efforts that reflect a growing relationship between the two energy-rich nations. -- Iranian diplomat Hojatollah Soltani, who arrived last month to open an Iranian embassy in the capital, La Paz, told the La Prensa newspaper that Iran's state-run network, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), would install at least three TV channels in Bolivia."
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Russia charges Zaslavsky brothers with 'spying' after BP raids  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3591115.ece
A quote...."Two prominent members of the British Council’s alumni club have been charged with spying for foreign companies by Russia’s security service. -- Brothers Alexander and Ilya Zaslavsky are accused of collecting commercial secrets from a Russian oil company on behalf of foreign rivals in the energy market. - This one should be fun to watch. - mpg
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A war of utter folly  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/20/iraq.usa
A quote...."The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy - for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity. I can only see one gain: the end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant. Had the war not finished him he would, in all likelihood, have become another Gadafy or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world. Iraq was on its knees after a decade of sanctions."
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US grants 150 million dollars to Palestinian Authority  ---  http://www.france24.com/en/20080319-us-grants-150-million-dollars-palestinian-authority
A quote...."The United States signed an agreement on Wednesday to give 150 million dollars (95 million euros) to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank government."
For more on this see....US Sponsored Civil Wars  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussponsoredcivilwars-weblist-mpg-101107#PALESTINE
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There is no such thing as a war for free - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0320stiglitzmar20,0,86527.story
A quote...."President Bush talked about the enormous financial problems facing Social Security, saying that drastic reforms—even privatization—were needed. Well, for one-sixth of the cost of an Iraq war, one could put Social Security on firm financial footing for at least the next 50 to 75 years."  - underline by website editor --  For more on this see..... Go Build Your Neo-Roman Empire - Just Leave Us Out Of It - 10-14-07
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/gobuildyournre-mpg-blog-101407
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Five Years and Counting  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance137.html
A quote...."As of today, March 20, the debacle that is the war in Iraq has now dragged on for one two three four five years. How many more years will I have to begin an article on this date with those words? -- I really don’t know what else can be said about this war. It is immoral, aggressive, unjust, unconstitutional, unscriptural, unnecessary, wasteful, and pointless. It has made more terrorists and more enemies of the United States than Osama bin Laden could make in ten lifetimes. It was based on a mountain of lies, misrepresentations, and manipulated intelligence. It was the worst possible response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It "may well turn out to be," according to Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency, "the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history." -- As long as this war continues, there are more than years that we will be counting."
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U.S. records $738.6 billion current account deficit  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3077.shtml
A quote...."Last week, the Commerce Department reported the 2007 current account deficit was $738.6 billion, down from $811.5 billion in 2006. The deficit exceeded 5.3 percent of GDP. The fourth quarter deficit was $172.9 billion."
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The Daylight Robbery of Borrowers - The Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/toussaint03202008.html
A quote...."Since August 2007, US and European banks have constantly made headline news concerning the deep crisis they are going through and its knock-on effect on the neoliberal economic system as a whole. Asset depreciation for these banks currently stands at over 200 billion dollars. Several banking research services and seasoned economists estimate that the final damage will exceed 1,000 billion dollars ."
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A bunch of government gobbledy-gook  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC21Dj02.html
A quote...."The reason that I am surprised is that there is plenty of money being made, as the latest estimate of M3 money supply by John Williams at shadowstats.com is that the damnable Federal Reserve is creating and expanding the money supply at a rate of 16.9% a year, and beyond that it was "the highest monthly growth rate ever seen for the M3 series (the Federal Reserve's calculation of the broad money measure dates back to January 1959)."  --  What makes this so surprising is that "The prior record monthly annual growth for M3 was 16.4% in June 1971, and the inflation from excessive money creation at the time was a key factor pressuring the greenback, leading up to president [Richard] Nixon's closing the gold window and imposing wage and price controls in August of that year."
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Dealers swift to borrow from Fed under new rules  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2062835220080320
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Primary dealers borrowed more than $13.4 billion a day from the Federal Reserve in the latest week, showing brokers were swift to take advantage of new rules allowing them to obtain loans directly from the central bank."
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Fed Says Securities Firms Borrow $28.8 Bln With New Financing -- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7VHAq.o6kwU&refer=home
A quote...."March 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve, in its first extension of credit to non-banks since the Great Depression, lent $28.8 billion as of yesterday to large U.S. securities firms with financing aimed at stabilizing capital markets."
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Investment Firms Tap Fed for Billions  ---  http://www.examiner.com/a-1291058%7EInvestment_Firms_Tap_Fed_for_Billions.html
A quote...."Mar 20, 2008 1:50 PM - Separately, the Fed said it will make $75 billion of Treasury securities available to big investment firms next week. Investment houses can bid on a slice of the securities at a Fed auction next Thursday; a second is set for April 3." - bold by website editor.

OK, we've got two hundred billion dollars made available last Tuesday; we've got the Bear Stearns bailout - (who knows how much was involved with that), we've got $13.4 billion a day, $28.8 billion as of yesterday and possibly another $75 billion next week to be handed out.  Admittedly this editor is losing track of what's being doled out to whom and it's also becoming difficult to know if all these dollars should be added together or if some of these figures represent subsets of the larger amounts.

Given how things have been going however, all this cash is probably cumulative and doesn't even reflect the actual overall total. - mpg

For more on the four articles shown above see....What Ben Bernanke Said - 03-18-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/whatbenbernankesaid-blog-mpg-031808
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World trade decelerates almost to a standstill - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6d4b338-f61e-11dc-8d3d-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
A quote...."Global trade slowed almost to a standstill over the new year, threatening to shrink for the first time since the US economy went into recession in 2001. -- An indicator produced by the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, a Dutch research institute, showed that in the three months to January world trade in goods rose at annualised rate of 0.2 per cent over the previous three months."
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UPDATE 1-U.S. leading economic index falls for 5th month  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/economicNews/idUSN2039255320080320
A quote...."WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy may have stalled and could face a contraction, according to a key forecasting gauge that fell for the fifth straight month in February. -  The private Conference Board on Thursday said its Leading Economic Indicators index fell 0.3 percent, meeting analyst expectations and following a 0.4 percent drop in January, which was originally reported as a 0.1 percent decline. -
The last time the leading index "worsened" for five consecutive months was in 2001, during a major U.S. recession, the board said."
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New unemployment claims rise 6.2% last week  ---  http://www.pbn.com/stories/30276.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON – The number of U.S. workers filing first-time jobless claims rose 6.2 percent last week, according to figures released today by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration."
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Customer: Boeing 787 faces more delays  ---  http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/19/afx4795341.html
A quote...."Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of International Lease Finance Corp., a Los Angeles subsidiary of American International Group Inc. (nyse: AIG -  news  -  people ), told investors at a JP Morgan conference Tuesday that he expects the first 787 flight won't occur until the fall, and that the first delivery will be postponed to the end of the third quarter of 2009." -- This is funny, Boeing mercilessly derided  EADS's Super Jumbo A-380 when it experienced roll-out delays and practically said they'd roll their's out first, they said this well over a year ago.....maybe we should all call Boeing’s new 787 the virtual plane.  Really environmentally friendly, totally noiseless, doesn’t need any fuel and it will never crash. - mpg

Wednesday March 19th 2008 - links page

Bush keeps talking about Iraq, but no one can understand what he says
  ---  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=90085&categ_id=17
Must read - A quote...."US President George W. Bush's comments on the fifth anniversary of his war in Iraq have been completely expected - and wholly inadequate. He has accentuated the positives, which are precious few and of dubious long-term survivability, but either ignored the negatives or blamed them on the people he installed to run the country he destroyed. The American people are out hundreds of billions of dollars, on the hook for trillions more, and still their representatives in Baghdad have almost no friends outside the "Green Zone" built around gaudy palaces erected by Saddam Hussein."
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Bush’s Legacy of Failure  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080318_bushs_legacy_of_failure/
Must Read - A quote...."That idiotic “what, me worry?” look just never leaves the man’s visage. Once again, there was our president, presiding over disasters in part of his making and totally on his watch, grinning with an aplomb that suggested a serious disconnect between his worldview and existing reality. Be it in his announcement that Iraq was being secured on a day when bombs ripped through that sad land or posed between his Treasury secretary and the Federal Reserve chairman to applaud the government’s bailout of a failed bank, George Bush was the only one inexplicably smiling."
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Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/robert-fisk-the-only-lesson-we-ever-learn-is-that-we-never-learn-797816.html
Must Read - A quote...."Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster".
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There must be a reckoning for this day of infamy  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42208&s1=h1
A quote...."The Iraq catastrophe isn't down to mistakes or lack of planning, but a refusal to accept that people will resist foreign occupation"  --  Yeah but if the US is forced to acknowledge the war in Iraq is illegal and morally wrong!  We can't steal Iraqi's oil....you can't really mean that, you just can't...it's....it's so cruel!  It's so beastly to think of such a horrible thing!!  What will we do if we can't drive our SUV's? ....whaaaaguh!  whaaaguh! Sniffle, sniffle.... You are all bad, bad, men!! - mpg
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At least 200 arrested in U.S. antiwar protests  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1930128420080320
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 200 people were arrested across the United States on Wednesday as protesters marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq obstructed downtown traffic and tried to block access to government offices."
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Iran: Danger and Opportunity; Polk Guest Op-Ed  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/iran-danger-and-opportunity-polk-guest.html
Must Read - War Warning - A quote...."Cassandra and Yogi Berra are an unlikely pair, but I hear both of their voices today. Cassandra, like some of us, was cursed to be always disbelieved as she correctly predicted the future while baseballer Yogi Berra will be remembered for his penetrating insight into the flow of history, “This is like deja vu all over again."
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Cheney: Iran might be next US target  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48173&sectionid=351020104
War Warning - A quote...."A senior aide to the US Vice President has reportedly said a military option against Iran over its nuclear program is on the table again."
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NIE was never to become public'  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48197&sectionid=351020104
A quote...."Chairman of the US National Intelligence Council, says his office never wanted its report on Iran's nuclear program to become public. - The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has been criticized by the US administration as inadequate and poorly written but Thomas Fingar stands by the document's conclusion. "
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Iran celebrates Chaharshanbeh Souri  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=47987&sectionid=351020105
A quote...."Iranians celebrate the ancient Persian tradition of Last-Wednesday-of-the-Year Fireworks (Chaharshanbeh Souri) as a prelude to Nowruz."
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MIDEAST:  In Prison, Who Knows Why  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41647
A quote...."GAZA CITY, Mar 19 (IPS) - You would think the baby boy named Yousef has his life ahead of him. But who knows, with a child born to Palestinian parents from Gaza. What's more, Yousef was born in an Israeli prison."
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Hugo Chavez and the Obama/Clinton Twins  ---  http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13549
A quote...."If the next president is a Democrat, there will be no change in direction from Bush regime foreign policy. Violations of international law will continue. Outright lies will be told to the international community and to the media, and the damage done by the Bush regime will not be undone."
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Aircraft of the Future to save Russian aviation  ---  http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080319/101701975.html
A quote...."MOSCOW. (Military commentator Nikita Petrov for RIA Novosti) - "The Irkut Corporation will gradually move to building civilian, rather than military, aircraft, and its main product will be the aircraft of the future, the MS-21."
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Unsung Heroes and Alternate Voices - Some of The Best of Five Years of Iraq War Coverage
  ---  http://tomdispatch.com/post/174907/greg_mitchell_getting_it_right_on_iraq
A quote...."In the five years since the tragic U.S. intervention in Iraq began, many journalists for mainstream news outlets have certainly contributed tough and honest reporting. Too often, however, their efforts have either fallen short or been negated by a cascade of pro-war views expressed by pundits, analysts, and editorial writers at their own newspapers or broadcast/cable networks. This sorry record is detailed in my new book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq.  ---  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1402756577/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20
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AP president: US arrests journalist in Iraq to 'control' information  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/AP_President_chides_Bush_Admin_for_0319.html
A quote...."Associated Press president Tom Curley says his news organization does not buy the government's argument that one of its photographers arrested in Iraq was working on behalf of the enemy, and he alleged the US is rounding up journalists in an attempt to control information."
For more on this issue see....US - Killing the Messenger  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/uskillingthemessenger-weblist-mpg-112907
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Fight The Net  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/clifford190308.htm
A quote...."You are now accessing what our Department of Defense (DOD) considers an "enemy weapons system". The Internet in its present form is rife with "uncontrolled information", also known as free speech, therefore directly opposing the Pentagon’s goals. The main purpose of this article is not to announce new developments, but rather, to encourage reflection on DOD "progress", and where it might land us."
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What is the real death toll in Iraq? - ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/19/iraq
Special Note - A quote...."The Americans learned one lesson from Vietnam: don't count the civilian dead. As a result, no one knows how many Iraqis have been killed in the five years since the invasion. Estimates put the toll at between 100,000 and one million, and now a bitter war of numbers is raging. Jonathan Steele and Suzanne Goldenberg report"
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US-UK-Australian Iraqi Holocaust - And Iraqi Genocide  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190308.htm
A quote...."On the 5th anniversary of the illegal, war criminal, Australian, UK and US invasion of Iraq we see an ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide - post-invasion non-violent and violent excess deaths 1.7-2.2 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.6 million, and 4.5 million refugees out of a current population of about 28 million i.e. about one quarter of Iraqis DEAD or HOMELESS."
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American dead worth the cost of war? By what math?  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2008/03/american-dead-w.html
A quote...."It used to be - until this recent age - that a leader of a nation would ride out to war with his men as both a symbol of that which his military was fighting for and also as a show of his own commitment to the cause for which he was sending others to die. Even Queen Elizabeth I rode out with her small army as the Spanish Armada approached, instead of capitulating to her advisers that she should retreat to safety."
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Regarding the three articles shown above, please see the quote below. - mpg

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ExxonMobil loses Venezuela case  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8C65B60E-9948-4317-A76E-523DC52D3ABF.htm
Special Note - A quote...."US oil giant ExxonMobil has said it will keep fighting to get billions in compensation from Venezuela after a British judge ruled against it in a case stemming from the nationalisation of a joint oil project. -- For some reason, a strange inexplicable feeling of bliss settled over this editor upon viewing this article.  Go figure. - mpg  -- For more on this issue see article below....
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Exxon Mobil spent $16.9M lobbying - [bribing]  ---  http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-23905827.htm
Related article - A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) - Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Corp., the largest U.S. oil company, spent more than $16.9 million to lobby the federal government in 2007, according to a disclosure form."  -- Heck they've probably already spent more than that in legal fees for their case against Venezuela....but than again, US Representitutes come real cheap these days, they're a dime a dozen, so it might be an unfair comparison. - mpg
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Iraq to pay oil firms to boost its output  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7397775
Related article - A quote...." BAGHDAD, March 19 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government is expected to pay up to $2.5 billion to five top oil companies to increase the country's oil output by nearly a quarter, a government adviser told Reuters on Wednesday. - In what would be the biggest foreign involvement for decades, Baghdad is close to signing technical support contracts with BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total.  --  On the other hand they had the US taxpayer spend three trillion dollars (so far), almost four thousand US soldiers killed (so far) Over one million Iraqis killed, thirty thousand US soldiers injured, who knows how many Iraqis injured, five million Iraqis displaced and hundreds of billions of dollars of damage done to Iraq so ExxonMobil and a few others could get a little OIL.  Guess they came out ahead on this one....Heh?? - mpg - underlines in above four articles by website editor.
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Why Spitzer was Bushwhacked  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC20Dj04.html
A quote...."The spectacular and bizarre release of secret FBI wiretap data to the New York Times exposing the tryst of New York State governor Eliot Spitzer, the now-infamous client "No 9", with an upmarket call-girl had relatively little to do with the George W Bush administration’s pursuit of high moral standards for public servants. Spitzer was likely the target of a White House and Wall Street dirty tricks operation to silence one of the most dangerous and vocal critics of their handling of the current financial market crisis. "
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The Fed is just an Extension of the Banking Establishment; The Bear bailout proves it - ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19572.htm
A quote...." 19/03/08 "ICH" -- - One picture tells the whole story. It's a photo of five grim looking men in gray suits staring ahead blankly like they were in the dock with Saddam awaiting sentencing. Every one of them looks downcast and dejected; shoulders rounded and jaws set. This is what desperation looks like, which is why the photo was kept off the front pages of our leading newspapers."
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"Capitalism will never fail because Socialism will always bail it out."  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6638
A quote...."Ralph Nader's father is right, and his son has this conservative's vote. - The wit and wisdom of Ralph Nader's dad comes to mind with the bailout of Bear Stearns with federal money, and with the future Wall Street bailouts sure to follow. - In his essay Faith-Based Economy, Tom Piatak takes on the revolting hypocrisy of "federal efforts to prop up a financial sector in trouble as a result of its own avarice." The first paragraph:"
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The worst-case scenario - live  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC18Dj03.html
Special Note - A quote...."Undoubtedly, currency markets have begun to increasingly discount the nationalization of US credit risk - both by the Federal Reserve and our federal government. The Fed may plan on 28-day terms for its exchange of Treasuries for other "street" collateral. Yet, the way things are developing, I see little prospect anytime soon for an environment conducive to the Fed reversing course and transferring such risk back to Wall Street. Indeed, this week likely marks a key inflection point for what will soon evolve into a huge expansion of Fed holdings (and various guarantees) of US risk assets. And, at some point, the federal government will be similarly forced into accepting trillions of "financial guarantee" obligations - for mortgages, municipal debt, student loans, various "deposits" and who knows what."
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Rogers: Fed Has "Given Up" On The Dollar  ---  http://prisonplanet.com/articles/march2008/031908_given_up.htm
A quote...."Expert investor Jim Rogers has slammed the Federal Reserve for destroying the dollar in order to rescue Wall Street, calling it "outrageous" that Ben Bernanke used $230 billion of taxpayers money to bail out Bear Stearns and other banks last week, and urged people to shift their assets completely out of dollars because the Fed had "given up" on the greenback."
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An inflation reality check  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC20Dj02.html
A quote...."So what happens next? If the United States tips from mild recession into deep recession, the global deflationary implications will cancel out some of the inflationary pressures the world is facing. Global commodity prices will collapse, and prices for many goods and services will stop rising so quickly as unemployment and excess capacity grow."
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Soaring food prices anger Egyptians  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F1C804EB-0F9A-4A5A-8203-B2BCE34D735A.htm
A quote...."Rising food and oil costs have been prompted a wave of discontent across Egypt in recent weeks."
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Dollars tough to sell on streets of Amsterdam  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSL1758265520080317
A quote...."AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands."
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Venezuela's state-run oil company begins demanding payment in euros as US dollar weakens
  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/18/business/LA-FIN-Venezuela-Demanding-Euros.php
A quote...."CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's state-run oil firm is starting to demand payment in euros — a measure aimed at protecting revenues from a weakening U.S. dollar, Venezuela's oil minister said Tuesday."
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Numerous Countries Have Recently Dropped The Dollar as Their Reserve Currency
  ---  http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/numerous-countries-have-recently.html
A quote...."In the past couple of years, the following countries have stopped using the dollar as their reserve currency or have dropped their currency's peg against the dollar:"
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Big U.S auto makers plan cuts for slowdown: report  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2053452720080320
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - The big three U.S. auto makers are preparing cost cuts and other belt-tightening measures in case a slumping U.S. economy hurts sales more than expected, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday."

Tuesday March 18th 2008 - links page

How to Destroy a Country and Get Off Scot-Free  ---  http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=107960&d=18&m=3&y=2008
Must Read - A quote...."Someone once told me if you're going to tell a lie make it a whopper based on the premise the more outrageous the lie the more likely it is to be believed. At the time, I wrote off his advice as hogwash but as we see from the Iraq debacle, he was right. Five years later, the deceit continues undiminished and nobody has been held to account."
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Iraq, an American ‘Nakbah’  ---  http://tonykaron.com/2008/03/18/iraq-an-american-nakbah/
Must Read - A quote...."The Arabic world nakbah,  denoting “catastrophe” best describes what George W. Bush and his American-Taliban administration has wrought in Iraq — and, as a result, what it has meant for the United States."
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No Country for Old Men: The Reality of Iran in the Shadow of War  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1459/135/
Must Read - A quote...."They had parliamentary elections in Iran last week. It was not good news for the cause of peace. Why? Because reform candidates did unexpectedly well, while hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saw a deep split in the conservative majority, with many in his own faction rejecting his Bush-like belligerence and incompetence. This might sound like glad tidings at first glance – but it actually makes an attack more likely. It undermines the carefully crafted cartoon image of Iran as a monolithic, maniacal horde of barbarians intent on senseless destruction. If a truer picture of Iranian society is allowed to take hold, it would pose a serious threat to the agenda of the Crawford Caligula and his militarist handlers."
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The Collapse of American Power - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19556.htm
A quote...." 18/03/08 "ICH" -- -- In his famous book, The Collapse of British Power (1972), Correlli Barnett reports that in the opening days of World War II Great Britain only had enough gold and foreign exchange to finance war expenditures for a few months. The British turned to the Americans to finance their ability to wage war. Barnett writes that this dependency signaled the end of British power."
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Stop the Next My Lai  ---  http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=299630
A quote...."The New York Times saw fit to mark the fifth anniversary of the US invasion by inviting nine "experts" including not one soldier to reflect on the conduct of the war and occupation of Iraq. The Times chose to listen to Richard Perle and Robert Bremer III but not one soldier. The Times has no time for troops like Camilo Mejia or Kelly Dougherty. But the public must take the time."
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Iraq War as War Crime (Part Two)  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/031808.html
A quote...."Despite the stiffer-than-expected resistance, the U.S. military continued to blast its way toward its goal of toppling Saddam Hussein. - From the first days of the war, that violence took a heavy toll on Iraq’s civilians, though the bloody images were often sanitized from the American broadcasts so as not to dampen the war enthusiasm and depress the TV ratings."
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Afghanistan: A River Running Backward  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan03182008.html
A quote...."When historians look back on the war in Afghanistan, they may well point to last December's battle for Musa Qala, a scruffy town in the country's northern Helmand Province, as a turning point. In a war of shadows, remote ambushes, and anonymous roadside bombs, Musa Qala was an exception: a standup fight."
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Baghdad: City of Walls - Part 1 ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1171&thisview=item
& Baghdad: City of Walls - Part 2 ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1170&thisview=item
Video - Commentary - A quote...."Baghdad is more divided than ever - A short film courtesy of Guardian Films - On the fifth anniversary of the US/British-led invasion of Iraq, the Guardian's award-winning foreign correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has teamed up with ITV News to bring us a series of extraordinary films for the ITV News and guardian.co.uk. In these unprecedented films he, as an Iraqi, goes where foreign journalists can no longer go - to the heart of Baghdad's most dangerous sectarian zones. He uncovers Iraq's own killing fields where only the "killers and the killed" can visit; and he reveals the desperate truth of the trafficked children of Iraq."
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Witness - Two Schools in Nablus
Part 1   ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtziKpJi2Wk&feature=PlayList&p=6698BA1F3CDC7323&index=12
Part 2   ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FL7Xifg3d4&feature=PlayList&p=6698BA1F3CDC7323&index=13
Part 3   ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoZPNZN1gEw&feature=PlayList&p=6698BA1F3CDC7323&index=14
Part 4   ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXp7UmzfSHA&feature=PlayList&p=6698BA1F3CDC7323&index=15
(YuTb - aprox 13 min each - 01-07-08)
Video - Al Jazeera Vids - A quote...."Unpaid teachers, crowded classes and students at risk - a normal Palestinian school."

Regarding the videos shown above see....The Method - 05-07-07 - mpg -- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/themethod-blog-mpg-050707
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Merkel urges diplomacy on Iran  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=47948&sectionid=351020104
A quote...."German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pointed to diplomacy as the 'only solution' to Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program. - Merkel who is in Israel to hold talks with the high-ranking Israeli officials has expressed hope that Israel would also seek a diplomatic approach to Iran's nuclear program, Deutsche Welle reported on Monday."
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Iran-Switzerland gas deal irks US  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=47926&sectionid=351020103
A quote...."A major energy deal signed between Iran and Switzerland for delivery of Iranian gas to the European country has infuriated the US."  --  The Swiss know the truth, Iran has gas they can use, all the US has is a lot of hot air. - mpg
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'Bern does not need US permission'  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48040&sectionid=351020101
A quote...."Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey says her country does not need Washington's permission to advance its strategic interests. - "Switzerland is an independent country that has its own strategic interests to defend," Calmy-Rey said after the signing of a multibillion-dollar gas deal."  -- Wow!  A foreign official willing to defend their nation's interest against Washington's criticisms, it's good the Swiss have built all those bomb shelters,  pretty soon we'll be calling it "Freedom Cheese" instead of "Swiss Cheese". - mpg
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Bush v. Chavez: An Update  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman180308.htm
A quote...."Imagine the following - the nation Martin Luther King called "The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today" may brand democratic Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism if extremist lawmakers on the Hill get their way."
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Airbus A380: Leather, leg-room and lobster  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/ntravel219.xml
A quote...."It was beneath the arching water cannon of fire engines, and with a cargo of exuberant aviation groupies in specially made T-shirts, that the largest passenger aircraft in history taxied to a halt for the first time on British soil."
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How the GOP Will Benefit From Impending Economic Collapse  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-gop-will-benefit-from-impending.html
A quote...."Republicans benefit from the fact that recessions are class conscious, affecting worse those who can least afford them. An era of highly leveraged US economic expansion and empire is about to come crashing down and swept away. Count on the GOP to make out like bandits."
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What Ben Bernanke Said
03-18-08
mpg

Stocks surge after broker earnings, Fed rate cut
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-stock-rally-propels-dow/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B22AB7C2A%2D689A%2D478C%2D84D6%2DAD673B33358B%7D
A quote...."NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Tuesday blasted skyward, with the Dow rocketing to its fourth-largest point gain ever after earnings from Goldman Sachs Group and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. proved better than expected and a rate cut [.75%] by the Federal Reserve."  --  DOW up 420 - NASDAQ up 91 - S&P up 54

So much for the market not being happy if it didn't get its one percent rate cut (see yesterday's prognostications).  The market now appears to be making a technical "W" formation, which usually indicates a bottom with a strong rally thereafter. This may or may not happen of course.  Also despite some of this rally's breadth being attributed to some positive earnings from Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, the more pertinent question is what are these firms exposure to all that questionable debt out there.

Nevertheless it was an impressive rally and as such the stock market seems to be saying something much more fundamental than what's been printed in the newspapers so far.

If you've been reading this blog, especially all the postings regarding financial matters, you would have been under the impression that this editor believes "debt does matter" that you can't inflate or print your way out of a recession, that saving is good and spending more than what you earn is bad, that basing an entire economy's performance on speculation is not a great idea....and all sorts of other shibboleths that the market loudly proclaimed today were totally dead wrong or utterly irrelevant

What the Market and Ben Bernanke have essentially said by their collective actions these past two weeks is the following:

That Ben Bernanke has given his personal guarantee that speculation in any financial field regarding the creation of any financial instrument will be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America.

That Ben Bernanke will not allow ANY major Wall Street firm, bank or brokerage house, no matter how egregious its behavior and no matter how much it will cost the taxpayers, to fail.

That Ben Bernanke guarantees the stock market will go up, always, each and every year, no matter what.

That Ben Bernanke guarantees debt really doesn't matter, nor does inflation or dollar depreciation.

That Ben Bernanke guarantees each and every person in this country who tries to save their money, be it by buying a CD, putting it into a savings account, a money market fund, or a US treasury...that you will lose your capital through inflation and dollar depreciation.  Always.....absolutely guaranteed.  He will personally make sure that it happens.

That Ben Bernanke personally guarantees asset inflation of commercial properties and stocks no matter what happens to the economy.

That Ben Bernanke personally guarantees your wealth if you're a financial speculator - or -  you're poverty if you're not (assuming (a) you save anything at all in US dollars and (b) you don't put it into the stock market.)

Essentially the Market said today that it is perfectly OK to go out RIGHT NOW and get a fourth or fifth mortgage on your rapidly depreciating house, even if the bank charges you 15% interest and stick it into the stock market - or if you're still a "saver", to quickly run out to your bank or brokerage firm, sell those bonds or CDs and stick them into the stock market.

An important note:  None of this means the economy isn’t going to tank, that the federal, trade or consumer debt isn’t going to balloon, or that millions of people won't be out of work or lose their homes.  All it means is that it simply doesn’t matter!

Ben Bernanke has openly declared to the entire world that the term "moral hazard", does not, and will not, ever apply to the financial sector of the United States economy.

REMEMBER !!  Through their actions this is what Ben Bernanke and the stock market have stated these past two weeks and if you BELIEVE them, all of you, each and every one of you, should beg, borrow and steal every penny you have and put it into the market.

THEY SAID IT !!  Not this editor....remember that.  -  mpg
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Foreign investors veto Fed rescue  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/17/ccview117.xml
A quote...."As feared, foreign bond holders have begun to exercise a collective vote of no confidence in the devaluation policies of the US government. The Federal Reserve faces a potential veto of its rescue measures." -- Remember - it doesn't matter - mpg
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Single-family housing starts sink to 17-year low  - Building permits drop 7.8%, biggest decline in 13 years
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/single-family-housing-starts-fall-17-year/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7BE44700EA%2D7811%2D4E0D%2D8D09%2DEDD8063F26C9%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- With no end in sight to the housing bust, new construction on single-family homes dropped by 6.7% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 707,000, the lowest in 17 years, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday." -- Remember - it doesn't matter. - mpg
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U.S. February producer prices rise 0.3% - Gain is in line with expectations but core PPI rises more than forecast
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-feb-producer-prices-rise/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B810A12B8%2D87D0%2D491C%2D9000%2DE51DDAA33A7A%7D&dist=
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. producer prices rose 0.3% in February, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, as core producer prices outpaced analysts' expectations." -- Remember - it doesn't matter. - mpg
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America was conned - who will pay? - The American taxpayers obviously. - mpg - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/17/economics.useconomy
A quote...."Bear Stearns marks the moment when the global financial crisis went critical. Up until last Friday, it had been possible - just about - to believe that the worst was over and that things were about to get better. That pretence was stripped away when JP Morgan, at the behest of the Federal Reserve, stepped in when the hedge funds pulled the plug on the fifth-biggest US investment bank."  --  Remember- it doesn't matter. - mpg
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Lawyers focus on chief’s words of reassurance
  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1dab59b0-f455-11dc-aaad-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=8cd8eda0-f1d7-11dc-9b45-0000779fd2ac.html
A quote...."Angry shareholders and class action lawyers are focusing on comments made last week by senior Bear Stearns management, who reassured investors that the group was sound just two days before it was bailed out by a rival and the Federal Reserve."  -- Remember - it doesn't matter - mpg

Moscow's Sinking Ship  ---  http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/03/18/005.html
A quote...."Economist Robert Reich, who was labor secretary under U.S. President Bill Clinton, recently said a U.S. recession would have little impact on developing nations. Oil producers in the Middle East and Russia are flush with petrodollars. China has what he calls sino-dollars. Their capital spending, Reich noted approvingly, is still growing at double-digit rates. -- Investment is a good thing, but only if the goods and services it provides can recoup the value of investment. When there is overproduction, as seems to be the case now, additional investment is not only bad -- it is potentially catastrophic. When producers can't repay the money they have borrowed, they create additional problems for the financial system by slashing their prices and thus bringing down their competitors."  --  Remember - it doesn't matter - mpg