Tuesday April 1st 2008 - links page

Tomgram: Howard Zinn, The End of Empire?  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174913/howard_zinn_the_end_of_empire_
A quote...."In Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at home, the position of the globe's "sole superpower" is visibly fraying. The country that was once proclaimed an "empire lite" has proven increasingly light-headed. The country once hailed as a power greater than that of imperial Rome or imperial Britain, a dominating force beyond anything ever seen on the planet, now can't seem to make a move in its own interest that isn't a disaster. The Iraq government's recent offensive in Basra is but the latest example with -- we can be sure -- more to come."
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Bankrupt And Audacious - posted at Counter Currents  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/
  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/ulrich010408.htm
A quote...."How can a morally bankrupt nation induce the world to punish a law-abiding state and by so doing, violate not only international law, that of the nonproliferation treaty (NPT), but the Geneva Conventions? Sanctions are warfare. It cost Iraq over half a million innocent lives, a genocide, in preparation for the ‘shock and awe’ that was to come. America and her co-conspirators violated all Geneva Conventions when the sanctions were imposed – lives were snatched -“collateral damage” they called it. This rogue state, America, in violation of all laws, God’s and man’s, is dictating to the world, demanding that all countries join it in its march towards more infamy – total moral bankruptcy, to claim yet more lives."
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Understanding U.S. Global Policies a Must for Understanding U.S. Domestic policies
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_michael__080331_understand_u_s__glob.htm
A quote...."We cannot expect corporations to have a social conscience when capitalism’s economics compels them to either PROFIT or BUST. It’s the SYSTEM , not the corporations, that causes our high cost of living while our wages remain unable to keep up without going into debt. No social conscience in the economic system of capitalism. We can do better, as is comprehensively explained at.…http://www.peopleforanewsociety.org/
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Opposition To Treasury's Blueprint Gains Steam  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=55966
A quote...."Senior Treasury officials identified three immediate targets yesterday for their plan to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory structure, including streamlining the approval process for securities that contributed to the crisis now roiling Wall Street. But their hopes for a few quick changes are running into mounting opposition from interest groups and officials elsewhere in the Bush administration."  --  Now why would officials within the Bush administration be apposed to this plan? Paulson's proposal is simply following in the footsteps of what the Bush administration has already done to the entire Federal Government, massive concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals with little or no regulation or legal oversight.  Let's all remember these quotes and actions....."I'm the decider" (Bush), the signing statements, Homeland Security, the "Geneva Conventions are quaint" (Gonzales), "stop throwing the constitution in my face" (Bush), "I'm the war president" (Bush), retroactive immunity for war crimes, retroactive immunity for the Telecoms, no more Habeas Corpus, no more FISA act, "we don't do torture" (Goss), and the list goes on and on and on. Basically, regarding Paulson's proposal, no regulations, laws or agreements will be honored, power will be vested in his hands, and he'll become the "financial decider" --  How could any Bush official possibly complain about that? - mpg
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If We Go To War With Iran, Who Will You Blame?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_william__080401_if_we_go_to_war_with.htm
War Warning - A quote...."Who will be blamed if Bush and Cheney suddenly strike Iran, as the Russian Intelligence Services and other sources are are implying? The knee-jerk reaction will be to blame Bush and Cheney, who are to blame, however we must remember that it takes more than two men to start a war! Who is it that is enabling these warmongers to endanger every citizen in the United States? The elements of corporate America and the military that support another war have to be considered, but ultimately, they can only pull-off another attack if the public is largely unaware of their plans. It’s time to be realistic and place the blame squarely where it belongs, on America’s Mainstream News Media!"
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Israel conducts War Games directed against Iran and Syria  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8513
War Warning - A quote...."TEL AVIV — Israel plans to conduct its largest exercise ever to set contingencies for massive missile attacks by Iran and Syria. The government has been preparing for a five-day exercise in April that would simulate conventional and nonconventional missile strikes from Iran, Lebanon and Syria. Officials said the exercise would test emergency response as well as evacuation of cities struck by enemy missiles."
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UN Chief Warned of Plot to Provoke Dispute over Iranian Islands  ---  http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0804018745155237.htm
War Update - A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- A political geography professor has warned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon of a renewed plot to provoke a dispute on behalf of the UAE over Iranian islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa."
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Don't Work For The NSA - (YouTube - 1 min 52 sec -  Added:  December 27, 2006)  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxm7-yM7l1s&feature=related
From the history file - A quote...."In this scene from "Good Will Hunting", Will describes why he wouldn't work for the NSA." -- For a transcript click here.
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/aprescientfictitiousinterview-trnscpt-miramax-goodwillhntg-061606
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“Iraq Has Really Become Somalia…A Collection of Different Militias”—Back from Baghdad, Journalist Nir Rosen Paints a Picture of a Broken Iraq
  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/1/iraq_has_become_somaliaa_collection_of
-- A quote...."Independent journalist Nir Rosen joins us in our firehouse studio soon after returning from three months in Iraq, his latest visit since moving to Baghdad to cover the US invasion in 2003. “It’s been propagated by the right and accepted by the left in the US that the surge, which is really an escalation of troops […] by 30,000 soldiers, somehow brought peace to Iraq,” Rosen says. “This is just an absolute lie. Violence has subsided somewhat in Baghdad, that’s true, but it’s not the result of the increase in American troops directly. It’s the result of a few other factors.” [includes rush transcript]"
Real Video Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/april/video/dnB20080401a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=10:42
Real Audio Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/april/audio/dn20080401.ra&proto=rtsp&start=10:42
MP3 Download  ||  ---  http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0401-1.mp3
More…  ||  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/1/stream
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Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Tuesday round-up - 7 articles - [ Day 8 ]

Why al-Maliki attacked Basra  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/04/01/basra/
A quote...."April 1, 2008 | Why did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attack the Mahdi army in Basra last week? -- Despite the cease-fire called Sunday by Shiite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the millions-strong Sadr Movement, last week's battles between the Mahdi army and the Iraqi army revealed the continued weakness and instability of al-Maliki's government." -- Of all the afflictions Iraq must suffer, it must now suffer Maliki, a diseased pustule on the face of that tortured land, a sickly little lap dog that resembles a man but is the kept pet of his lord and master, Dick Cheney.  Maliki has given up all pretensions of trying to bring democracy to Iraq and has sold his soul so he can cravenly cling to power and to the pants leg of his master.  His actions have already resulted in the deaths of over five hundred Iraqis, and he intends to kill many, many more.  God rot him. - mpg
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Badr, Sadr, let's call the whole thing off  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42659&s1=h1
A quote...."I haven't seen a compelling explanation yet for why Prime Minister al-Maliki and his scircle thought a frontal assault on the Mahdi Army was a particularly good idea at this time, but it's easy to see why everybody (including al-Sadr) was quick to back away from the precipice -- simply put, the mess they had before was a lot preferable to the one they were getting into."
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Surge Success Runs Into Sadr  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/ips/akhavi.php?articleid=12619
A quote...."As the fifth year of U.S. discontent came and went, presidential candidates jousted with each other about how best to assuage the fears of ordinary citizens over a war that – in nearly all estimates – has gone terribly wrong."
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McCain: 'Surprised'; Fighting Subsides in Baghdad, Basra; Analysts: Sadr Strengthened  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/04/mccain-surprised.html
A quote...."John McCain said he was surprised that Nuri al-Maliki would abruptly launch an operation against Basra. It seems to me that there are only two possibilities here. - Either McCain really did not know and did not anticipate the trouble in Basra, in which case he does not know much about Iraq and isn't better qualified to deal with it than anyone else. - Or, he and Cheney helped put al-Maliki up to the whole thing while he was there, and now is petrified that someone will hang the fiasco around his neck." -- *Juan Cole"
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Who won the battle of Basra?  ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1265&thisview=item
Video - A quote...."Pepe Escobar: Iran is sufficiently powerful to broker a ceasefire deal"
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American embassy to move into a secret place  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/160678
A quote...."With this morning attack on the Green Zone claimed by the “Muslimeen Army” = part of Jihad and Reform Front Sunni resistance group, contrary to the American claims saying “Mahdi Army”, the group also claims all the attacks at the last three days, al-Arab reported that the American ambassador gave his instruction to the embassy staff since Saturday to move the embassy into a “secret place” at the west of Baghdad."
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Sadr loyalists warn of end to cease-fire  ---  http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/itsonlyfair/latimes0201.html
A quote...."BAGHDAD -- Loyalists of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr today accused government forces of breaching a cease-fire with continued raids in the southern city of Basra and threatened a "return to conflict." -- The warning came just a day after Basra and Baghdad felt the full effect of the cease-fire, which Sadr called late Sunday following five days of clashes between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces."

END -- Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Tuesday round-up - [ Day 8 ]
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Senator Arlen Specter Agrees Able Danger Cover-up and Confirms Anthrax Not Work of al Qaeda  ---  http://911blogger.com/node/14656
Video - Special Note - A quote...."Questions posed by members of Philly 9/11 Truth to Senator Arlen Specter about the pre-9/11 military intelligence program Able Danger and the post-9/11 anthrax attacks were responded to with a fair degree of candidacy"
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Air Traffic Controllers Do Track Planes Even with Transponders Off
  ---  http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/air-traffic-controllers-do-track-planes.html
A quote...."Before 9/11, no transponder had ever become inactive, and so the military and FAA didn't have any experience on how to track planes with their transponders off. Right?"
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Congress, the Bush Adminstration and Continuity of Government Planning--The Showdown  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=2008040182600233
A quote...."In August 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the House that he and the rest of his Committee had been barred from reviewing parts of National Security Presidential Directive 51, the White House supersecret plans to implement so-called "Continuity of Government" in the event of a mass terror attack or natural disaster. (1)"
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Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers'  ---  http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/report-recruit.html
A quote...."A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers." -- For more on this issue see....Fake Intel  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206
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U.S. fails to halt Emirates' dangerous trade  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/01/mideast/uae.php
A quote...."WASHINGTON: Roadside bombings of American troops in Iraq were occurring with bloody regularity when military investigators made a disturbing discovery: American-made computer circuits sold to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates had turned up in the bomb detonators. -- OH MY GAWD, take a look at this!!  Iran is shipping bomb equipment to Iraq, this is going to be on every single TV channel in America, Fox (Faux) News is going to show this 24/7, all day, every day.  Every single conservative pundit will righteously blast this out over the air waves, the perfidy of these “towel heads”, oh the humanities, oh the tragedies.....say what??  They were shipped from the UAE??  Well, we'll just have to blame it on Iran and the Shi'a anyway

For more on this issue see....Fake Intel - IED's & EFP's  --- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#IEDS__EFPS  ---  Our illustrious presstitutes just keep right on lying, nothing stops them, nothing ever will, no matter how many times they've been proven wrong.
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More than 2.77 million Iraqis internally displaced: UN  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42664&s1=h1
A quote...."The number of internally displaced Iraqis rose to more than 2.77 million people by the end of March, some five years after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday."
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Blood Harvest: The Terror War Bears Horrific Fruit in Somalia  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1472/135/
A quote...."The New York Times made one of its periodic jaunts to Somalia this week, painting a hellish picture of the fruits of the Bush Administration's third Terror War "regime change" operation. -- To be sure, reporter Jeffrey Gettleman glosses over the larger context and immediate causes of Somalia's deterioration into foreign occupation, brutal civil war and the world's worst humanitarian disaster. The deep and bloody American involvement is only lightly glanced at;"
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Washington rules out negotiation with the Taliban  ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1259&thisview=item
Video - A quote...."Musharraf swears in new cabinet, Pak government wants to negotiate with Taliban forces"
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RIGHTS-COLOMBIA:  Paramilitarism Alive and Well  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41817
A quote...."BOGOTA, Apr 1 (IPS) - "If their slogan was land, dignity and peace, this time it will be terror, murder and hell," said a threat sent to human rights defenders and trade unionists who took part in a Mar. 6 march in homage to the victims of Colombia’s far-right paramilitary groups."
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US, Germany clash over NATO expansion plan  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/nato-a02.shtml
A quote...."In a provocative gesture on the eve of the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, US President George W. Bush flew to Kiev and appeared with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to press for the former Soviet republic’s admittance into NATO."
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Russia's parliament approves restrictions on foreign investment  ---  http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080402/102784228.html
A quote...."MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament approved on Wednesday a bill restricting foreign investors' access to key sectors of the Russian economy."
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No more cheap gas for Ukraine  ---  http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080401/102728337.html
A quote...."MOSCOW. (Igor Tomberg for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President George W. Bush, who visited Kiev Monday before attending the NATO summit in Bucharest, said in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt that Ukraine and Georgia should be given a "clear prospect" of joining NATO."
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"Georgia's NATO membership will be a heavy burden on its relations with Russia"  ---  http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080401/102650825.html
A quote...."Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Georgia Vyacheslav Kovalenko told RIA Novosti about the future of Russian-Georgian relations, Russia's peacekeeping mission in the conflict areas, and potential consequences of Georgia's NATO entry."
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Russia opposed to Kosovo full membership in UN-Lavrov  ---  http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12539740&PageNum=0
A quote...."MOSCOW, April 2 (Itar-Tass) - Russia cannot accept Kosovo’s full membership in the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a hearing in the State Duma lower house of parliament on Wednesday."
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Inside Story - The Schengen Agreement - 31 Mar 08 - Part 1  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHf0IuwWVcs
Inside Story - The Schengen Agreement - 31 Mar 08 - Part 2  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t68rDdkD5JA
(YouTube - pt1 7 min / pt2 15 min -  Added:  April 01, 2008)
A quote...."As nine Eastern European countries end border checks, Inside Story examines the Schengen agreement and asks what the negative repercussions of increasingly free trade and movement in Europe may be."
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EXCLUSIVE...Bush's Law: Eric Lichtblau on Exposing the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping Program and How the White House Pressured the New York Times to Kill the Story  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/1/exclusivebushs_law_eric_lichtblau_on_exposing
 -- A quote...."In a national broadcast exclusive, we speak with New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau about his new book, Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice. Lichtblau won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program in December 2005. He reveals the inside story of the New York Times’s decision to delay publication of the story for more than a year after intense lobbying from the White House. [includes rush transcript]"
Real Video Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/april/video/dnB20080401a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=27:53
Real Audio Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/april/audio/dn20080401.ra&proto=rtsp&start=27:53
MP3 Download  ||  ---  http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0401-1.mp3
More…  ||  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/1/stream
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Pentagon releases memo on harsh tactics  ---  http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Pentagon_releases_memo_on_harsh_tac_04012008.html
A quote...."The Pentagon on Tuesday made public a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects, saying that President Bush's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture."
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Navy demonstrates world’s most powerful rail gun  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/160669
Some quotes...."DAHLGREN — The Navy’s Office of Naval Research successfully conducted a record-setting firing of an electromagnetic rail gun at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Jan. 31." -- "Rail gun technology uses high power electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to propel a projectile farther and faster than any preceding gun. At full capability, the rail gun will be able to fire a projectile more than 200 miles at a muzzle velocity of Mach 7 and impacting its target at Mach 5. In contrast, the Navy’s premiere gun, the Mark 45 five-inch gun, has a range of nearly 20 miles. The high velocity projectile will destroy its targets due to its kinetic energy rather than with conventional explosives."
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U.S. stocks cheer Lehman's ability to raise capital - DOW up 391 - NASDAQ up 83 - S&P up 47
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-stock-rally-fuels-dow/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7BDE1BA545%2DFAA2%2D4C02%2D8B05%2D7CD49AD82CF4%7D&dist=MostReadHome
A quote...."Last update: 4:47 p.m. EDT April 1, 2008  --  NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Tuesday celebrated the start of a new quarter, rallying as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s equity offer drew a warm reception, fueling the Dow to its 8th-biggest point jump ever. -- For more on this issue see....What Ben Bernanke Said - 03-18-08 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/whatbenbernankesaid-blog-mpg-031808
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Treas. details key role in Bear Stearns bailout - Agency involved in all aspects of transaction, signed off on Fed move
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/treasury-forced-detail-extensive-role/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B79C94AFF%2DEC37%2D44AC%2DA93C%2D721E276B8495%7D
Special Note - A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)-- The Bush administration's efforts to subtly distance itself from the bailout of Bear Stearns Cos. ended Tuesday as documents were released detailing the extensive role played by Treasury Department officials."
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Fannie Mae takes another step to ease capital need
  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0120969020080401?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
Special Note - A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae, the largest provider of funding for U.S. residential mortgages, has extended forbearances for troubled homeowners in a move the company expects to ease stress on its capital.  --  The move allows temporary suspensions or reduced payments by borrowers for up to six months, up from four months, said Jason Allnutt, a vice president for credit loss management for Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in Dallas."
See also....Fannie, Freddie surplus capital requirement cut  --- http://www.businessrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=5899
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Manipulations of Capital  ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040108G.shtml
A quote...."Let's begin with what serves as the devastating background to the drama being played out on financial markets in the United States first of all (but not only!). Every time the Fed lowers its interest rates, it weakens the dollar still further. Unlike his predecessor (and intercessor) Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke relies entirely on a cynical calculation. American monetary authorities' room for maneuver only appears as large as it does because they've transferred their main responsibility onto other people: safeguarding the dollar."
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Only the money is cheap  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD02Dj02.html
A quote...." The Bear Stearns bailout and the associated calls for further Federal intervention in the mortgage market have highlighted once again an eternal economic truth: in an era of excessively cheap money, only the money is cheap. Everything else - assets, business ethics, economic stability, support for free markets - becomes either horrendously expensive or wholly unobtainable."
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Sub-prime crisis costs top Swiss bank 37 billion US dollars  ---  http://mercopress.handsoft.com.uy/vernoticia.do?id=13039&formato=HTML
A quote...."Swiss financial giant UBS has reported that its write-downs as a result of the sub-prime crisis have more than doubled to about 37 billion US dollars. It is the largest write-down by any bank since the credit crunch began."
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IMF: U.S. Economy Will Go Into Recession In 2008  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=6088
A quote...."The International Monetary Fund will next week forecast that the US economy will go into recession this year, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, citing an upcoming report."
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U.S. Retailer Group Cuts Sales Estimate Second Time (Update4)  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aaLEY1Szb3fc&refer=us
A quote...."April 1 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. retailer group cut its March sales estimate for a second time as shoppers concerned about job security and the worst housing slump in a quarter century cut apparel spending."
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Double-digit declines rattle top automakers
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/double-digit-declines-rattle-top-automakers/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=391B7B0D-60C8-48FF-B02E-064FB257F47D&dist=SecEditorsPicks
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday all handed in double-digit percentage declines in March U.S. sales, capping a first quarter in which the industry struggled through a brutal sales environment."
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Construction Spending Falls in February  ---  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/01/national/w070150D92.DTL&feed=rss.business
A quote...."(04-01) 07:32 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Construction spending fell again in February as home building tumbled for a record 24th straight month."
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US manufacturing contracts again in March - ISM  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7428244
A quote...."NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. factory activity contracted for a second straight month in March, according to a report on Tuesday that also renewed worries about inflation...."
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Inflation climbs to a 13-year high in the British manufacturing sector
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/inflation-climbs-to-a-13year-high-in-the-british-manufacturing-sector-803550.html
A quote...."Inflation in the UK's manufacturing sector has risen to its highest since 1995, according to the monthly purchasing managers index, produced by the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)."
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Japanese bank lending lifted by global turmoil
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/subprime-leads-leap-japan-banks/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B84D652DD-8B57-4292-9F05-4C43ECC5D6DB%7D
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Japanese banks' outstanding overseas loans surged to an eight-year high as of Feb. 29, with money-market turmoil triggered by the U.S. subprime-loan crisis boosting financing activities, according to a published report."
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Lobbyists Try to Keep Milk Information From Consumers  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/01/8029/
A quote...."Missouri lawmakers are about to consider House Bill 2283, which would ban milk labels that inform consumers that their dairy products are free of artificial growth hormones. That’s a remarkable turn of events, and it bucks a well-established national trend toward more information in food labeling, not less."  --  Why is Missouri going backward while the rest of the country goes forward on consumer information labels? The answer is St. Louis-based Monsanto Company, the biotech giant that markets recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH or rbST), a genetically engineered drug used to increase milk production in cows." -- Monsanto is evil, pure and simple. - mpg
see also....GMO and Morgellons Disease  ---  http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/gmo-and-morgellons-disease/
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Monday March 31st 3008 - links page

Can You Say "PIN-O-CHET"?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=55846
A quote...."Can You Say "PIN-O-CHET"? Those Three Syllables Should Be a Sacred Mantra for Patriots; Tear Up that Check to PBS, Make It Out to Alternate Media Instead -- Three recent developments, largely ignored by news media pundits and political power brokers, offer fragile but encouraging signs of renewal and progress toward the restoration of the rule of law in the USA. Furthermore, those involved in alternative media and the progressive blogosphere should derive a great degree of personal satisfaction from these fragile and encouraging signs."
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Should We Fight for South Ossetia?  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=12612
A quote...."Crunch time is coming [in Iraq]. And what is President Bush doing? -- He is flying to Bucharest, Romania, to persuade Europe to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, which means a U.S. commitment to treat any Russian attack on Kiev or Tbilisi like an attack on Kansas or Texas."
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Those who control oil and water will control the world  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/30/fossilfuels.water
A quote...."History may not repeat itself, but, as Mark Twain observed, it can sometimes rhyme. The crises and conflicts of the past recur, recognisably similar even when altered by new conditions. At present, a race for the world's resources is underway that resembles the Great Game that was played in the decades leading up to the First World War. Now, as then, the most coveted prize is oil and the risk is that as the contest heats up it will not always be peaceful. But this is no simple rerun of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there are powerful new players and it is not only oil that is at stake." -- Check out the comments - mpg -- Also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19652.htm
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The Power Elite Playbook, Beating the Oil War Drums: Part XII  ---  http://muckrakerreport.com/id62.html
A quote...."March 17, 2008 -- Oil greed generates war! International banksters, in London and New York, had quickly recognized that control of petroleum was essential to power and profit. After Britain’s Rothschild-orchestrated depression of 1873 (coincided with the U.S. stock market crash of September 18, 1873), a growing divergence existed “between the depressed economy of the British Empire and the emerging industrial economies of Continental Europe,” especially the very proficient German Reich. [i] Crashes, depressions, recessions, deflations or inflations (elastic dollars) are all contrived cash manipulations that allow the banksters to subtly seize public and private resources at fire-sale prices."
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The Decline And Coming Fall Of US Hegemony  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19656.htm
A quote...." 31/03/06 "ICH" -- - When I went back to Ankara in late 1992 to head the Indian Embassy, many of my friends from the Turkish Foreign Office from my 1969-73 tenure as First Secretary, were going out as ambassadors to newly independent states in Central Asia and the Baltic, following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Looking at the creation of so many new missions, a cheeky young Turkish diplomat in the Foreign Ministry said rather mischievously than hopefully, that only if United States of America broke up into 50 independent states, could he ever hope to head like them a Turkish Embassy, in north America. Turkish diplomats trace their traditions and archives to six centuries of Ottoman rule over an empire from which more than two dozen nations have emerged."
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Bush forced into embarrassing crow-eating  ---  http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23457512-5014046,00.html
A quote...."GEORGE W.Bush's first appearance with Kevin Rudd as Australian Prime Minister was almost embarrassing to watch as the US President ate political dirt and performed tortuous linguistic contortions in the name of the alliance."  --  Reading this article was immensely enjoyable. - mpg
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Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Monday round-up - 13 articles - [ Day 7 ]

Nouri al-Maliki humiliated as gamble to crush Shia militias fail  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3656300.ece
Must Read - A quote...."The soldiers guarding the entrance to Sadr City were jumpy, despite a ceasefire announced by al-Mahdi Army Shia militia. And with good reason: a huge boom rolled across the militia stronghold as a roadside bomb struck a passing vehicle. American armoured vehicles sped off to the aid of stricken comrades."  --  Nouri al-Maliki has proven to the whole world that he's Cheney's lap dog....his political career is over, hopefully he'll realize this fact, resign, and leave Iraq as quickly as possible to spare his countryman any further death and destruction. - mpg
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Embarrassed US Starts to Disown Basra Operation  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=12613
Must Read - Special Note - A quote...."As it became clear last week that the Operation Knights Assault in Basra was in serious trouble, the George W. Bush administration began to claim in off-the-record statements to journalists that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had launched the operation without consulting Washington."  --  To Late!!  Everybody knows that the US, specifically Cheney, planned it .....
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=
Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=March2008&file=World_News2008033012822.xml  ---  with Maliki. - mpg
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US-backed assault on Basra ends in humiliation for Maliki government  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/iraq-a01.shtml
A quote...."Relative calm returned—at least temporarily—to the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Monday after a week of fierce fighting was ended by an Iranian-brokered ceasefire declared by the nationalist Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr."
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Iraq ruling elite needs US troops to stay in power  ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1254&thisview=item
Video - A quote...."Sabah al Nasseri: Gov. attack on Sadr movement meant to prevent their election victory"
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Truce calms Iraq, weakens prime minister  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=109305
A quote...."The peace deal between al-Sadr and Iraqi government forces — said to have been brokered in Iran — calmed the violence but left the cleric's Mahdi Army intact and Iraq's U.S.-backed prime minister politically battered and humbled within his own Shiite power base."
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ANALYSIS-Iraqi crackdown backfires, strengthens Sadrists  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=108498
A quote...."BAGHDAD, March 31 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's crackdown on militias in the southern oil port of Basra appears to have backfired, exposing the weakness of his army and strengthening his political foes ahead of elections."
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The Lessons of Basra - posted at the Nation  ---  http://www.thenation.com/itr/?o=%2Fdoc%2F20080414%2Fdreyfuss
  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080414/dreyfuss
A quote...."At the start of the military offensive launched last week into Basra by US-trained Iraqi army forces, President Bush called the action by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "a bold decision." He added: "I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq." - Also posted at CommonDreams
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/31/7996/
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Iran Brokers Call for Ceasefire; Bush reduced to Irrelevancy in Iraq; Fighting Continues
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/iran-brokers-call-for-ceasefire-bush.html
A quote...."regarding the fight between the Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army. A parliamentary delegation from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's own coalition (mainly now the Da`wa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq) defied him by going off to the holy seminary city of Qom in Iran and negotiating directly with Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr and with the leader of the Quds Brigades of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Brig. Gen. Qasim Sulaymani."
Also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19650.htm
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Iranian general played key role in Iraq cease-fire  ---  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/32055.html
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations, members of the Iraqi parliament said"
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Failure of the US Sponsored Assault: Learn The Lessons of Basra  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8502
A quote...."If it is true, that political forces in Iran did contribute to preventing the explosive conflict in Basra from careening totally out of control, then that means that prevailing attitudes and preconceptions in Washington have been shown to be totally bankrupt. If cooler heads exist in Washington, especially among the military, they must draw the lessons from the last week's events, and seek to finally introduce an element of rationality into U.S. foreign policy for the region."
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No peace in Basra despite Sadr call  ---  http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23461871-2703,00.html
A quote...."HOPES for a ceasefire in Iraq's developing Shia civil war were swiftly undermined yesterday when the Government said it would not stop attacking outlaw militia members, despite an offer from militia leaders to freeze the conflict."
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Thousands of police officers who refused to fight Sadr are given the sack  ---  http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2008-03-31/kurd.htm
A quote...."Interior Minister Jawad Boulani has ordered the dismissal of thousands of police members and officers who allegedly refused orders to take part in the fight against the militiamen of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. --  The decision covers most of the police force in the predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and also several cities in the southern Iraq including Basra where most of the recent fighting took place."
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Iraq in the Balance  ---  http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002763
A quote...."I scanned the Sunday talk shows and was amazed, even by the normally lowbrow standards of these programs, at the infantile level of discussion about Iraq. In concept, the Sunday shows offer a chance to drill down a bit deeper into the facts behind the news—to reach a level of detail that cannot be reached in the daily news broadcasts. For many decades they served that purpose, more or less. Today they have degenerated into extended opportunities for political sound bites, in which even the most idiotic statements rarely go challenged, and in the worst of which (generally on Fox), the punditry whip themselves into a cappuccino froth of distortions and idiocies."

END -- Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Monday round-up - [ Day 7 ]
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Americans Say Iraqis Unappreciative of Favors  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42621&s1=h1
A quote...."Five years crammed with devastation, destruction and vagrancy. Trees burning, and breathing the Uranium-loaded air, flowing from north to south, spreading slow death all over, not distinguishing between race, gender or religion."
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Hope Abandoned: Obama Stands Up for Murder and Plunder  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1471/135/
A quote...."Well, it doesn't really get much plainer than this, does it?" -- From AP: "Obama Aligns Foreign Policy with GOP ....
  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=106059  ---  Sen. Barack Obama said Friday he would return the country to the more "traditional" foreign policy efforts of past presidents, such as George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan."
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Winter Soldier - posted at the Nation  ---  http://www.thenation.com/itr/?o=%2Fdoc%2F20080414%2Fdreyfuss
  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/wintersoldier
A quote...."While on tank patrol through the narrow streets of Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, Pfc. Clifton Hicks was given an order. Abu Ghraib had become a "free-fire zone," Hicks was told, and no "friendlies" or civilians remained in the area. "Game on. All weapons free," his captain said. Upon that command, Hicks's unit opened a furious fusillade, firing wildly into cars, at people scurrying for cover, at anything that moved. Sent in to survey the damage, Hicks found the area littered with human and animal corpses, including women and children, but he saw no military gear or weapons of any kind near the bodies. In the aftermath of the massacre, Hicks was told that his unit had killed 700-800 "enemy combatants." But he knew the dead were not terrorists or insurgents; they were innocent Iraqis."
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Pentagon Plans Expansion Of Special Forces  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=6076
A quote...."Since the start of the Global War on Terrorism, the Pentagon has taken steps to expand the role of the United States Special Operations Command and its forces. In response, the Command has transformed its headquarters to coordinate counterterrorism activities, while the Defense Department has increased funding and the number of special operations forces positions. " -- The endlessly growing Military Industrial Complex. - mpg
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False Flag Watch: Is Iran Close to Being Attacked?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6736
A quote...."The ducks for an attack on Iran are being lined up. Time to heighten awareness and speak out forcefully against allowing another vicious war crime to be implemented in our name."
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Dangerous wheat-killing fungus detected in Iran – UN  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8484
A quote...."5 March 2008 –A dangerous new fungus with the ability to destroy entire wheat fields has been detected in Iran, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today."
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Departing Putin seeks to stop NATO gains  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=108791
A quote...."This week's NATO summit in Romania will be Vladimir Putin's last appearance at a top-level international forum before he steps down as Russian president, still pushing to halt NATO's expansion into the stomping grounds of the former Soviet Union."
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Thousands of Ukrainians rally against Bush visit, NATO bid  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20080331/102597128.html
A quote...."KIEV, March 31 (RIA Novosti) - Thousands of people gathered on Kiev's main square on Monday to protest against the U.S. president's visit, and the Ukrainian leadership's drive for NATO membership."
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Poland says no decision on U.S. missile shield yet  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20080331/102616880.html
A quote...."WARSAW, March 31 (RIA Novosti) - Poland's foreign minister denied on Monday rumors that Warsaw had decided to allow the placement of a U.S. missile interceptor base on its territory."
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Veterans - Soviets in Afghanistan - March 31 - Pt 1  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aza8LUT_pQM
Veterans - Soviets in Afghanistan - March 31 - Pt 2  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaT-LIjOwcE
Video - (YouTube - aprox 11 to 12 min each -  March 31, 2008)
A quote...."As part of its series on veterans from some of the world's most brutal and forgotten conflicts Al Jazeera travelled to Russia. -- Despite being the Soviet Union's largest military operation since the second world war, the decade-long war in Afghanistan is regarded by many as a humiliation and the Soviet 'Vietnam'. -- However many veterans are still physically and psychologically damaged by their time in Afghanistan and say they do not receive adequate support upon their return." -- Watching these videos all you'd have to do to bring them up to date is just imagine it's Americans speaking instead of the Russians. - mpg
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Holy Name 6 Face Death Threats, Need Letters of Support  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kevin_go_080331_holy_name_6_face_dea.htm
Action Alert - A quote
"Remember when this happened a week ago?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_press_re_080323_breaking_news_3a_peace.htm --- Peace Activists Stage "Die-In", Interrupt Easter Mass
In the broad context   ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kevin_go_080325_two_of_the_four_acti.htm  ---  of the antiwar movement, this was an action  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrlQF-PbxQ  ---  that greatly energized the movement to end the war in Iraq. People came together quickly to show solidarity and contribute money to bail the Holy Name 6 out of jail."
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Legal threat over UK 42-day detentions bill (Update: bill to be debated today)  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/160609
A quote...."Plans to extend the limit on detaining terror suspects without charge to 42 days could face an Equality and Human Rights Commission court challenge. -- They say plans to increase the limit from 28 days could contravene the law."
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Comcast to Stop Slowing Peer-to-Peer Traffic  ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033108C.shtml
Special Note - A quote...."Faced with pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, cable company Comcast said Thursday it will end its practice of slowing traffic to peer-to-peer sites."  -- This is a win for Net Neutrality - mpg
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Update on the Alabama blackout of 60 Minutes...  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2008/03/update-on-the-a.html
A quote...."First, if you are new to the Don Siegelman saga, see here.   ---  http://www.atlargely.com/don_siegelman/index.html  ---  Now for the news,  the Washington Independent   ---  http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/what-happened-to-the  ---  has more: -- "Last month, as 10.5 million Americans were watching a "60 Minutes" episode   ---  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml  ---  implicating the Bush administration in an alleged conspiracy to prosecute political opponents, television viewers in Huntsville, Ala., found something different: a black screen."
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Bush calls on Congress to pass key legislation  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080331/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsbushcongress_080331135014
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush called on Congress Monday to pass "vital" pending legislation, including looser domestic wire-tap rules and a free trade pact with Colombia."  -- Well of course, Bush's stash is starting to run low. - mpg
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Less regulation, More Power to the Fed  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19657.htm
Must Read - A quote...." 31/03/08 "ICH" -- -It is being billed as a “massive shakeup of US financial market regulation”, but don't be deceived. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposals for broad market reform are neither “timely” nor “thoughtful” (Reuters) In fact, its all just more of the same free market “we can police ourselves” mumbo jumbo that got us into this mess in the first place. The real objective of Paulson's so called reforms is to decapitate the SEC and increase the powers of the Federal Reserve. Same wine, different bottle. Paulson's real motive is to preempt the regulatory sledgehammer that is set to descend on the entire financial industry following the 2008 election. There's growing fear that a President Obama may tote his firehose down to Wall Street and flush out some of the debris that has collected in the market's dark corners."
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Loretta Napoleoni on “Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality”
  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/31/loretta_napoleoni_on_rogue_economics_capitalisms
A quote...."Italian economist, journalist and author Loretta Napoleoni argues that recent events on Wall Street indicate a much larger upheaval and could “signal the end of the ‘Roaring Nineties,’ nearly two decades of easy money, cheap credit, and soaring global debt.” It’s an argument Napoleoni develops in her latest book called Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality. *  ---  http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Economics-Capitalisms-New-Reality/dp/1583228241  ---  [includes rush transcript]" -- *link added by website editor.
Real Video Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/march/video/dnB20080331a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=50:24
Real Audio Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/march/audio/dn20080331.ra&proto=rtsp&start=50:24
MP3 Download  ||  ---  http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0331-1.mp3
More…  ||  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/31/stream
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Bad Times Coming  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese440.html
A quote...."People in New York and Washington who know a great deal more than I do about high finance are apparently scared. Like passengers on an airplane, when the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer get scared, it's time for us to do likewise."
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The Federal Reserve under Fire, Part Two  ---  http://dark-wraith.com/index.php?itemid=154
A quote...."President Eisenhower, in the face of the relatively mild recession of 1958, resisted the harangue of Republicans in Congress to cut taxes and, in so doing, was able to oversee a government that had several years of balanced budgets. He argued that the huge tax cuts of 1954 had been enough in the way of fiscal stimulus, and he was proud to point out that the majority of the money from that round of tax cuts had gone to people of more modest means. The fiscal discipline he imposed as chief executive officer of the United States would prove exceptional, particularly in light of the howl from his own Republican Party as it obsessively paraded its pandering wares for the low-taxes crowd of that day."
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UBS plans $19 bln write-down, capital injection
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ubs-plans-further-19-bln/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7BFB432404%2D34EC%2D415B%2D9EEA%2D5A0942D12C21%7D
A quote...."LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Swiss banking giant UBS on Tuesday revealed a further $19 billion hit from the credit crisis, doubling its write-downs so far, and said it will have to issue around 15 billion Swiss francs ($15.1 billion) in new shares to shore up its capital base." -- And the hits keep coming....two trillion more to go. - mpg

Sunday March 30th 2008 - links page

A third American war crime in the making  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3118.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."The US Congress, the US media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran. -- If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If there were a shred of integrity left in American political life, perhaps a third act of naked aggression -- a third war crime under the Nuremberg standard -- by the Bush Regime could be prevented."
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The Great American Disconnect  ---  http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13773
Must Read - A quote...."The failing economy, the decaying infrastructure, the apparent indifference that Americans seem to feel about their kid’s futures are accepted as a matter of course. The war that consumes their sons and daughters as cannon fodder is just another slap in the face that Americans have resigned themselves to. The once, good paying jobs that included health care and other benefits are gone, replaced with low paying jobs without benefits or security. Americans have had to adjust to a diminished standard of living. They’ve become jaded, cynically indifferent, and many pause to wonder what they’ve traded for a 30 year mortgage, an undependable income, and their ever growing debt."

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Our Learned Helplessness  ---  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/152054-Our-Learned-Helplessness
A quote...."Yes, V is right. There is something terribly wrong with this country - and this could be referring to almost any country on the globe, since Pathocracy has taken global control. It actually makes sense for psychopaths to act as they do as such is their nature. But what about the rest of us? How is it that "fear got the best of us", and why is it that a paralyzing fear descends upon us when we consider resisting? Why is it that thoughts of "them" coming for us and locking us away, overshadow our truest human desires for Freedom, Love, Truth?"
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He Stood on Top of the Mound
03-30-08
mpg

VIDEO: Bush booed as he throws inaugural pitch at Nationals home opener  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=6063
Video - A quote...."President Bush met with a mixed reception this evening as he threw the 2008 inaugural pitch at the new Nationals Park, built for the Washington Nationals baseball team."

It was really fun to hear the announcer try to ameliorate the boooos Bush was receiving by reminding the audience how Bush didn't just go up to the front of the mound like other presidents, no, instead he stood on top just like he did after September 11 2001, isn't that sooooo sweet?  The mass-media...always plugging for the man who wasn't legally elected in the last two elections and whose entire family and most of his "friends" are heavily implicated in what can only be described as a highly suspicious and prejudicial chain of events leading up to 9/11.

Remember this is the man who dragged his feet for a whole year and who was forced to set up the commission by the families of the 9/11 victims. This is the man that refused to testify under oath, refused to testify for more than one hour and refused to testify without being accompaynied by Dick Cheney.

This is the man who refused to extend the commission’s mandate to investigates 9/11 or even give additional funding for the commission to continue its investigation.....to quote "Bush's obstruction of the investigation began coming into focus last March when Time Magazine reported that the White House brushed off a request made by the 9-11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, the Republican former governor of New Jersey, to boost his budget by $11 million."  and  “The panel has until the end of May 2004 to complete its work, but it will spend the $3 million it was originally allotted by around August 2003" - (they eventually, after kicking and screaming, got a total of 15 million)

MY GAWD!!  Three whole million dollars!!!   Think of that America!!  What a terrible burden that would have been for this country to have spent one penny more??  WOW !!!  This editor had absolutely no idea it was that much.  Jesus Christ you mean they wasted a whole three million dollars on the 9/11 investigation....what's this country coming too??

For GOD’S sake the whole bloody freaking war based on Bush’s constant repetition of 9/11 only cost three million dollars....or is this editor missing a few zeros?

To every true American out there, think about just how dumb that announcer made this entire country look, think about just how stupid we appear to the entire world.

Think about it.

Ohhhhh, Ahhaaaa.....he stood on top of the mound, that’s the important thing. - mpg
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9/11 - From The History File...Bush Stonewalled 9/11 Commission from the Beginning
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Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Sunday round-up - ten articles  [ Day 6 ]

Al-Sadr pulls fighters off streets  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
A quote...."BAGHDAD - In a possible turning point in the recent upsurge in violence, Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Shiite militiamen off the streets Sunday but called on the government to stop its raids against his followers."
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Sadrists and Iraqi government reached an agreement in Basra…update…Mahdi Army keeps the arms  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42573&s1=h1
A quote...."Press conference on Iraqi TV right now by the Sadrists, they insist that Mahdi Army still keeps its arms and will not turn over the weapons to the government. [when he said this TV cuts the broadcast] -- The Iraqi government sent a delegation [from Badr Brigade, Al-Adib and Al-Amri] to Qom - Iran to negotiate Al-Sadr before the truce declaration, notice the Al-Sadr demands are the same and the government accepted them. [even before the violence started their demands are to stop the raids, to end the arrests of the Sadrists]."
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Profile: The Mahdi Army  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/361C19D2-2910-45E8-BD3D-8660E6E14465.htm
A quote...."The Mahdi Army is an armed group loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shia leader from a dynasty of revered clerics persecuted under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former president."
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War with Iran May Have Begun with Offensive in Iraq  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bhwhite_080328_war_with_iran_may_ha.htm
Must Read - Special Note - War Warning - A quote...." The United States military offensive against Iran may have begun with a swiftly escalating series of operations directed against the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia led by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which had been observing a six month old cease-fire."
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U.S. says special forces fight in Basra  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL30612974
A quote...."BAGHDAD, March 30 (Reuters) - The United States confirmed on Sunday that U.S. special forces units were operating alongside Iraqi government troops in Basra, where the government is battling militants loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr."
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Iraqi Shia fighters refuse to surrender arms - 30 March 08 - (YuTb - 2 min 28 sec -  Added:  March 30, 2008)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcWG-hJbSNo
Must View - Video - A quote...."Officials have indefinitely extended a curfew on the capital Baghdad that was due to expire on Sunday. - Battles are still raging in several areas of the country and US and British troops are playing an increasing role in helping Iraqi security forces with their offensive against militias. - James Bays reports from Baghdad."
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Shiite Militias Cling to Swaths of Basra and Stage Raids  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/world/middleeast/30iraq.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Shiite militiamen in Basra openly controlled wide swaths of the city on Saturday and staged increasingly bold raids on Iraqi government forces sent five days ago to wrest control from the gunmen, witnesses said, as Iraqi political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault."
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Iran urges end to Iraq fighting, says helps U.S.  ---  http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32752620080329?sp=true
A quote...."TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran called on Saturday for an end to fighting between Iraqi government forces and Shi'ite Muslim militants to remove any "pretext" for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq. - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, launched a crackdown against the Mehdi Army militia in the southern Iraqi city of Basra this week. Fighting has spread and exposed a deep rift within Iraq's majority Shi'ites."
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Iranians help reach Iraq cease-fire  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42596&s1=h1
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Iranian officials helped broker a cease-fire agreement Sunday between Iraq's government and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, according to Iraqi lawmakers."
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Debunking Muqtada Al-Sadr  ---  http://arabwomannews.blogspot.com/2008/03/debunkinig-muqtada-al-sadr.html
A quote...."I am not pleased at all with the English version of the Muqtada interview on English Al-Jazeerah. It is short, inaccurate, and doesn't give the English speaking reader the full picture. -- However -- I did watch the 60 mn interview in Arabic on that same channel. I watched it after having dinner -- not a very good idea. My stomach is still churning ever since..."  --  From a Sunni Arab perspective, posted as a reminder to everyone that Muqtada al-Sadr has a lot more work to do on his community outreach program for the Sunnis in Iraq. - mpg

END - Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Sunday round-up - [ Day 6 ]
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Russia challenges US in the Islamic world  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JC29Ag01.html
A quote...."When US President George W Bush named Karachi-born Pakistani American Sada Cumber as the first US envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the White House announcement of February 27 almost passed off as pork-barrel politics on the part of a lame-duck administration. Cumber is a Texan entrepreneur - and so was Bush. "
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Arab peace offer 'under review'  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1ED838AE-B8F3-4605-B269-A2712635022E.htm
A quote...."Arab leaders meeting in Damascus have said that they will review a peace offer extended to Israel in 2002 unless it changes its behaviour. - The warning was made on Sunday at the end a two-day Arab summit marred by divisions over the political crisis in Lebanon."
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Gaddafi Calls for Strong Arab Alliance with Iran  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701110222
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged fellow Arab leaders on Saturday to form a strong alliance with Iran, stressing that such a move would best serve the interests of the Arab world."
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Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan Sign Agreement to Build Rail Line  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701110210
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- Heads of railways of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan signed a trilateral memorandum on mutual understanding on Saturday on the conditions for building the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara rail line, which is part of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)."
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US demands to see Swiss-Iran contract  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=107787
A quote...."The U.S. has demanded to see a Swiss contract for natural gas supplies from Iran to see whether it violates an American sanctions law against Tehran, the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland said Sunday."  -- For more on this issue see....The US is After Europe Too! - 03-23-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theusisaftereuropetoo-blog-mpg-032308
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Hamas chief invites Abbas to Gaza for talks  ---  http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/31/47666.html
A quote...."Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal invited Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to Gaza for unconditional talks on the two factions' divisions, in a television interview Monday."
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Syria says ready in case of US military action  ---  http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/03/30/syria_says_ready_in_case_of_us_military_action/afp/
A quote...."DAMASCUS (AFP) Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Sunday that Damascus was prepared for all scenarios in its worsening relationship with Washington, including the use of US military force."
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Colombian Troops Kill Farmers, Pass Off Bodies as Rebels’  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/30/7973/
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO, Colombia — All Cruz Elena González saw when the soldiers came past her house was a corpse, wrapped in a tarp and strapped to a mule. A guerrilla killed in combat, soldiers muttered, as they trudged past her meek home in this town in northwestern Colombia."
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Telecom Immunity: Playing the "9/11 Card" ... Again  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8486
A quote....The Bush administration, never known for its veracity on any issue, once again is playing the "9/11 card" in an desperate attempt to continue violating the Fourth Amendment rights of the American people."
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Police Arrest Anti-War Protester, 80, At Mall  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/30/7974/
A quote...."An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War."
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Pakistan warned of possible 'economic collapse' - 30 Mar 08- (YouTube - 2 min 29 sec -  Added:  March 30, 2008)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2khzxQI4c60
Video - A quote...."Pakistan appears to be enjoying economic prosperity and hopes of political stability. The Karachi stock exchange has enjoyed record gains. - However, the World Bank warns that the country could be on the verge of economic collapse. - The Bank says the new government needs to act quickly to counter sustained global economic pressure. - And, as Kamal Hyder reports, many Pakistanis are already feeling the squeeze."  --  Pakistan should decouple itself from the dollar, kick the US "advisors" (bringers of death and destruction) out of their country, fulfill their energy needs from Iran, start trading with Iran, Russia, China, and (gasp!) India.  If they did these things their problems might be reduced to a more manageable level.  If they continue to be the Neocon's PNAC'ing go-fer boy in Central Asia, they'll soon wind up looking like Iraq or Afghanistan. - mpg
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[Indian] Inflation shock, Tata Motors' ratings in focus
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/inflation-shock-tata-motors-ratings/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B6DD29937%2D8FBF%2D46D5%2D86E2%2D35D9FD4D916E%7D
A quote...."HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Investors in interest rate-sensitive sectors such as automobile, financial services and real-estate firms are unlikely to breathe easy this week as India's inflation threatens to run out of control, dashing earlier hopes that the monetary policy could be eased some time this year to lift slowing economic growth."
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Your number's up  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC29Dj01.html
A quote...."It was no big surprise that Total Fed Credit was up a whopping US$9.6 billion last week as the Fed continued creating money and credit to bail out its nasty little friends on Wall Street to prevent the boom, that resulted from decades of the Federal Reserve stupidly creating too much money and credit, from turning into the bust that is, alas, inevitable. - And to help fund it all, the Fed's account, known as "US Government Securities owned outright", was down by $32.2 billion last week! Wow! This is about 5% of the bonds it owns! In one shot!
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Nationalization and dislocation  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC26Dj02.html
A quote...."As long-time readers are all too familiar, I have been a persistent critic of government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs - notably mortgage finance agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These behemoths of historic credit excess - instigators of the mortgage finance and housing bubbles - liquidity backstops for the ballooning leveraged speculating community - and instrumental agents for an unparalleled misallocation of financial and economic resources - are proving themselves the Freddie Krueger of systemic distortions and policy failures. "
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Investors pull $100bn out of equity funds  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bbf4554a-fe87-11dc-9e04-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
A quote...."Investors worldwide pulled close to $100bn (€63.3bn) out of equity funds in the first three months of this year – a record shift that accelerates a longer-term trend away from US and western European stock markets. - Equity funds suffered outflows of $98bn in the quarter ending March 28, according to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, which tracks retail and institutional flows. The funds had inflows of $19bn during the same period last year and inflows of $49bn in the same period for 2006."
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Paulson's regulation plan won't fix current economic crisis  ---  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/32050.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson makes public on Monday a new blueprint for regulation of the turbulent financial markets, one that has plenty to do with the future and little to fix what ails the economy right now."
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Third of [Britains] financial services firms to cut jobs as profits fall
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/third-of-financial-services-firms-to-cut-jobs-as-profits-fall-802755.html
A quote...."Britain's financial services companies have been so seriously affected by the credit crunch that job numbers and profitability are now falling at their fastest rate for five years, a survey from the CBI and PricewaterhouseCoopers will say today."
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Credit crunch puts hurt on U.K. borrowers, lenders
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/credit-crunch-puts-hurt-uk/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B3EE74AD0%2D4B1C%2D43C0%2D8CBC%2DF18E74AFEA5F%7D
A quote...."LONDON (MarketWatch) - In the United Kingdom, pain from the global credit crunch is beginning to be felt beyond the big financial institutions of the City of London and Canary Wharf, as mortgage rates rise and banks tighten lending standards."
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Filing: Countrywide CEO to get $10M  ---  http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Filing_Countrywide_CEO_to_get_10M_03292008.html
A quote...."Countrywide Financial Corp.'s chief executive and president will receive a combined $19 million in stock next week as part of the company's pending takeover by Bank of America Corp., according to a regulatory filing."

Saturday March 29th 2008 - links page

Year Six of the Occupation  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ken_meye_080327_year_six_of_the_occu.htm
Must Read - A quote...."Year six of the occupation began inauspiciously with a suicide bombing on Wall Street which killed 56 people. The initial exuberance occasioned by the relative ease of the Alien's invasion of the United States had through five years of violence, chaos, and destruction turned high hopes into near universal despair (those Aliens responsible for the invasion still expressed optimistic assessments whenever engaging in on-site inspections of their handiwork)."  --  This is not a work of fiction, for all you'd have to do to make it reality is just change a few names. - mpg
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The Mystery of American Foreign Policy  ---  http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12596
A quote...." Why are we propping up the pro-Iranian Maliki faction in Iraq? -- The recent increase in fighting around Basra, which is rapidly spreading to Baghdad, has the punditariat in a lather. Their sacred Surge has turned into a mere splurge – of resources, lives, and misplaced hope. Well, I could have told you that, and, indeed, I did. But never mind the chattering classes, their delusions of American omnipotence, and my own unfortunate penchant for self-congratulation. What's really fascinating about this story is how it underscores the central mystery of our Iraq war policy: why in the name of all that's holy are we supporting the pro-Iranian parties and factions in the Iraqi government, whilst Our Glorious Leader is coupling Tehran and al-Qaeda as "twin" evils to be fought and defeated in Iraq?"

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Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Saturday round-up - twelve articles - [ Day 5 ]

Iraqi soldiers rehearsed crackdown
  ---  http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=
  ---  Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=March2008&file=World_News2008033012822.xml
Must Read - Special Note - A quote...."BASRA, Iraq • Iraqi soldiers dash across a Basra street towards a multi-storey building as masked men fire off volleys of gunshots. No one gets hit, no one gets wounded and -- nobody dies. -- That is because it was just a rehearsal for the real thing now unfolding daily in the southern oil hub...."  --  Maliki, the US and the British have been planning this whole thing for months.  There was Moqtada al-Sadr still agreeing to the cease fire just a couple of weeks ago and yet he was being set-up the whole time by the US and Britain....he had to have known. - mpg
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Iraq government envoy rebuffed by Sadr  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32325
A quote...."BAGHDAD - After failing to break the resistance of Shiite militias in the five-day siege of oil rich Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki sent a top general to hold talks with his Shiite rival, Muqtada al Sadr, Saturday night only to be rebuffed by the firebrand cleric, an Iraqi official close to the negotiations said."
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Sadr urges support for 'resistance'  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C1DD07D8-51C6-43D8-A696-3AE0A86E4290.htm
A quote...."Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader, has called on Arab countries to support his militia's battle against "US occupation", with clashes between Shia groups and Iraqi government troops entering their fifth day." -- To comment goto to ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19636.htm
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Al-Sadr calls for support of Arab states - 29 Mar 08 - (YouTube - 1 min 53 sec -  Added:  March 29, 2008)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a4s458mDMs
Video - Interview - A quote...."Ihe battle for control of southern Iraq is continuing for a fifth day. - In one of the latest offensives, eight people died, including two women and a child, in an air raid. - Meanwhile a witness in Baghdad has told Al Jazeera he saw up to 40 Iraqi army and police surrendering their weapons to supporters of the Mahdi Army. - Its leader, Muqtada Al-Sadr, is calling on Arab nations to support his fight against US forces in Iraq. - James Bays reports from Baghdad." -- To comment goto to ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19637.htm
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US warplanes widen airstrikes in Iraq - Iraq: US Widens Bombing in Basra; Some 40 Iraqi Police Officers Surrender Arms to Militants
  ---  http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/US_warplanes_widen_airstrikes_in_Ir_03292008.html
A quote...."U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, British officials said. - Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said U.S. jets dropped the two bombs on a militia position in Qarmat Ali shortly before 12:30 p.m."
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Sadr orders militia to reject PM's call to surrender arms  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080329/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_080329133800
A quote...."NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday ordered his followers to reject Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call to surrender their arms as clashes with troops raged for a fifth straight day."
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Five Things You Need to Know to Understand the Latest Violence in Iraq  ---  http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80580/?page=entire
A quote...."Heavy fighting has spread across Shia-dominated enclaves in Iraq over the past two days. The U.S.-backed regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered 50,000 Iraqi troops to "crack down" -- with coalition air support -- on Shiite militias in the oil-rich and strategically important city of Basra, U.S. forces have surrounded Baghdad's Sadr City and fighting has been reported in the southern cities of Kut, Diwaniya, Karbala and Hilla. Basra's main bridge and an oil pipeline connecting it to Amara were destroyed Wednesday. Six cities are under curfew, and acts of civil disobedience have shut down dozens of neighborhoods across the country. Civilian casualties have reportedly overwhelmed poorly equipped medical centers in Baghdad and Basra."
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Police Mutiny, Refuse to attack Sadrists; Clashes continue in Basra; Sadrists open New fronts throughout Shiite South
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/police-mutiny-refuse-to-attack-sadrists.html
A quote...."Friday between Iraqi government forces and the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and the provinces of the middle Euphrates and the south, causing hundreds of casualties, including among women, children and the elderly. The fighting also did damage to Iraq's infrastructure, as well as to oil facilities and pipelines, damage that might run into the billions of dollars. -- The US got drawn [eagerly lept] into the fighting on Friday. US planes bombed alleged Mahdi Army positions both in Basra and in Sadr City in Baghdad (as well as in Kadhimiya)....."
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Update on the Civil War Surge in Iraq  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1470/135/
A quote...."Yesterday we saw the complete unravelling of the lie that the assault on Basra is strictly an all-Iraqi operation, with the Baghdad government imposing its authority on "criminal gangs" in the port city. American warplanes joined in the attack yesterday,   ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/29/iraq.usa  ---  dive-bombing residential areas. Nor were these U.S. operations confined to Basra; American planes struck several cities throughout the country, with a heavy concentration in the Sadr City quadrants of Baghdad. (For more, see the earlier post, Operation Permanent Presence: The Civil War "Surge" in Iraq.)"
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1467/135/
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The sieges of Basra and Sadr City: another US war crime in Iraq  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/basr-m29.shtml
A quote...."US fighter planes and helicopter gunships struck the southern Iraqi city of Basra and the teaming slums of Baghdad’s Sadr City with bombs and missiles Friday as the offensive launched by Iraqi puppet troops against the Mahdi Army, the Shia militia loyal to Muqtada al Sadr, faltered badly."
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Under siege in Baghdad's Mahdi army stronghold  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/30/iraq2
A quote...."The gunfire built to a steady rhythm. American soldiers in a Stryker armoured vehicle fired from one end of the block. At the other end, two groups of Shia militiamen pounded back with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. US helicopters circled above in the blue afternoon sky."
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Iraq: New restrictions on US Embassy - US State Department Tightens Restrictions on Embassy in Baghdad Amid Rocket Attacks
  ---  http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Iraq_New_restrictions_on_US_Embassy_03292008.html
A quote...."The U.S. State Department on Saturday tightened restrictions on embassy staff in Baghdad, ordering all employees to sleep inside reinforced structures and to use only armored vehicles when traveling in the Green Zone due to incoming rocket fire."

END -- Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Saturday round-up - [ Day 5 ]
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Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border  ---  http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070327/62697703.html
Red War Warning - A quote...."MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday. -- "The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched." -- To comment goto to ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19640.htm  ---  This is the fifth Red War Warning in the last thirty days - mpg
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Saudi Newspaper: Prepare for radioactive fallout from US nuclear attack on Iran
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_richard__080328_saudi_newspaper_3a__pr.htm
Red War Warning - A quote...."The Saudi government is now preparing plans to deal with "any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards" that may arise from an attack on Iran's nuclear reactors.  This was reported by a top Saudi newspaper, Okaz, and relayed by a leading German news service, DPA -- one day after Dick Cheney paid a visit to the kingdom. " - This is the sixth Red War Warning in the last thirty days - mpg
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Murdering Iranians  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19641.htm
Red War Warning - A quote...." 29/03/08 "Lew Rockwell" -- - Terrible rumors from Russia continue to swirl around the Middle East that the Cheney-Bush junta has decided to bomb Iran on April 4th or 6th, targeting not only nuclear-power research facilities but ships, planes, antiaircraft installations, and the Iranian pentagon. Apparently the nuclear-power reactor being built by Russian companies will be spared, but not much else." -- This is the seventh Red War Warning  in the last thirty days - mpg
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'Your Turn Is Next,' -- Gadhafi warns Arab leaders after US toppling of Saddam  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19638.htm
A quote...." 29/03/08 "AP" -- - DAMASCUS, Syria: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi poured contempt on fellow Arab leaders at a summit Saturday and warned that they might be overthrown like former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. -- Gadhafi's rambling, off-the-cuff speech to the opening of the Arab summit both bewildered and brought reluctant smiles to the faces of the other leaders."
For more on this issue see....The Black Bull died today  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16019.htm
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AFGHANISTAN:  Disappointed With Karzai, NATO  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41768
A quote...."KABUL, Mar 28 (IPS) - The Shahr-e-now park in the centre of Kabul has seen better days. "It used to be really beautiful," Kabul resident Torialay says, "back during the early-90s. But after the Mujahiddin war (a civil war between warlords and commanders in the mid-90s that destroyed much of the city) it has never been restored."
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ANP gets in touch with local Taliban  ---  http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/30/top2.htm
A quote...."PESHAWAR, March 29: The Awami National Party and the local Taliban have formally made contacts to negotiate peace and find a solution to the growing militancy in the NWFP and tribal areas. -- The ANP has already expressed its desire of bringing all hostile quarters to the negotiating table to work out a lasting solution to the war-like situation along the Durand Line and in some settled districts of the province. The local Taliban had welcomed the ANP’s move, sources told Dawn."
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The Decriminalization of Corporate Crime  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080329_kutler_march_29_in_the_wake_of_deregulation/
A quote...."With our economic and financial crises deepening, government insiders reportedly are debating whether we need to restore some regulation—or not. Given the state of things, we can expect further woes and no regulation. - Why have regulation when JPMorgan can gobble up Bear Stearns for peanuts, with the backstage encouragement and acquiescence of the Federal Reserve Board?"
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When They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03292008.html
A quote...."America's tragedy is that we have three neoliberals left in the presidential race, at a time when, as Martin Wolf correctly pointed out in Wednesday's Financial Times, neoliberalism has collapsed. The bailout by the Fed of Bear Stearns sounded the death knell for 30 years of deregulation."

Friday March 28th 2008 - links page

Thursday March 27th 2008 - links page

Truth In War Is Always Subversive.  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19616.htm
Must Read - A quote...." 27/03/08 "ICH" -- -- I would stroll past the Hotel Royale in Saigon and look up at the corner balcony on the first floor and see him there, camera resting on his arm. A greeting in Welsh might drift down. Or his take-off of an insane American colonel we both knew. What was he doing? Best to be patient; but this had gone on for days."
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Where Matters Stand  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer169.html
Must Read - A quote...."We live at a time in which collective insanity has become the norm by which human behavior is to be judged. The willingness of men and women to commit their thinking, their lives, their material wealth, and the lives of their children and grandchildren to wars, genocides, torture, police-state brutalities, and the destruction of economies, reflects the danger in all forms of collective identity. To the union of fifty states with which we are familiar, has been added another: the state of non compos mentis, in which most Americans have taken up residence."
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Bush and Bin Laden's virtual war  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JC28Ak04.html
Must Read - A quote...."To contemplate a prewar map of Baghdad - as I do the one before me, with sectarian neighborhoods traced out in blue and red and yellow - is to look back on a lost Baghdad, a Baghdad of our dreams. My map of 2003 is colored mostly a rather neutral yellow, indicating the "mixed" neighborhoods of the city, predominant just five years ago. -- To take up a contemporary map after this is to be confronted by a riot of bright color: Shi'ite blue has moved in irrevocably from the east of the Tigris River; Sunni red has fled before it, as Shi'ite militias pushed the Sunnis inexorably west toward Abu Ghraib and Anbar province, and nearly out of the capital itself. And everywhere, it seems, the pale yellow of those mixed neighborhoods is gone, obliterated in the months and years of sectarian war.  --  a.k.a . The PNAC & DPG protocols, the "Shock Doctrine", P2OG & the "El Salvador Option"...by any other name it means death and destruction wherever America (the New Roman Empire) goes. - mpg
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Pakistan's new leaders tell US: We are no longer your killing field  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/27/7916/
Must Read - A quote...."The Bush administration is scrambling to engage with Pakistan's new rulers as power flows from its strong ally, President Pervez Musharraf, to a powerful civilian government buoyed by anti-American sentiment. - Top diplomats John Negroponte and Richard Boucher travelled to a mountain fortress near the Afghan border yesterday as part of a hastily announced visit that has received a tepid reception. - On Tuesday, senior coalition partner Nawaz Sharif gave the visiting Americans a public scolding for using Pakistan as a "killing field" and relying too much on Musharraf."  --  Check out the comments, they're outstanding !! -- The Pakistanis are aware of what the Neo-Romans are capable of, and they don't want any part of it. -- For more on this issue see....It Will Happen Every Single Time  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-122407-010108#EVERY_TIME
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This is not our war: New Pakistani leadership tells US  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_abdus_sa_080325_this_is_not_our_war_3a.htm
Related article - A quote...."Alarmed at the expected shift towards a negotiated and peaceful handling of the problem of militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, two senior US officials arrived in Islamabad on March 24, hours after Makhdoom Yusuf Raza Gilani was chosen Prime Minister by the newly elected parliament."
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Critics upset over US visit to Pakistan  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=103184
Related article - A quote...."Anger intensified in Pakistan on Thursday over the timing of a visit by two U.S. envoys who landed even before foes of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf could name a new Cabinet. -- Newspaper editorials decried the visit as American "meddling" and said it was ill-timed. Protesters in at least three cities burned U.S. flags and waved banners demanding the envoys go home."
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Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Thursday round-up - 4 articles - [Day 3]

Newspaper: Dick Cheney gave the orders for Basra campaign  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/160286
Special Note - A quote...."Maliki’s government busy trying to save face by issuing a dead line for Mahdi fighters, but the reality is another way around it is Al-Sadr asks AL-Maliki to leave the city, Maliki was saved by the American helicopters when the fighters surrounded his resident in Basra, Al-Qabas reported about the main problem faced the government in this bad presentation that forced Maliki to use his relatives with extra forces came from Karbala: "  --  Maliki has betrayed the people of Iraq.  This is the most heavily armed population in the world and Maliki let the Turks bomb the Kurds, he allowed all of the savage ethnic cleansing against the Sunnis to go forward with American connivance, he's now attacked a political faction in Iraq that represents the majority of the Shi'a population....He’s managed to alienate just about everybody and he launched this most recent attack against his own people at the request of Dick Cheney....publicly, openly and in front of the whole Muslim community. --  Maliki is not long for this world.
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Stalled assault on Basra exposes the Iraqi government's shaky authority
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/stalled-assault-on-basra-exposes-the-iraqi-governments-shaky-authority-801776.html
Related article - A quote...."The Iraqi army's offensive against the Shia militia of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra is failing to make significant headway despite a pledge by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to fight "to the end". -- His end is what he meant.  By ordering this attack at Cheney's request, Maliki became Cheney's lap dog.  No one in Iraq will ever again trust Maliki to represent the interest's of the Iraqi people, he's finished and his political career is over. - mpg
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Iraqi demonstrators call for Maliki's resignation  ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1234&thisview=item
Video - Related video - A quote...."Mounting anger focuses on Prime Minister al-Maliki as fighting spreads across sections of Iraq"
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War on the Mehdi Army - Basra Erupts  ---  http://counterpunch.org/patrick03272008.html
War Warning - Special Note - Related article - A quote...."The US has been eager for the central government to regain control of Basra, which sits on top of Iraq's oil reserves and is also close to the American army's main supply line that runs west of the city up the main highway from Kuwait to Baghdad." -- underline by website editor -- If the US (i.e. Cheney) is worried about the supply lines leading to Baghdad this would mean two things - 1) This attack is a possible prelude to an assault on Iran, as such this article has been classified as a War Warning - 2) Maliki has not only betrayed his own people, he's betrayed any agreement he had with the Iranians not to participate in an attack against them. - mpg

END -- Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Thursday round-up - [Day 3]
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Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran  ---  http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13722
War Warning - A quote...."It is happening. The plans for the Bush administration to begin mass murder of the Iranian people have been put in motion. The plot was stalled temporarily by the National Intelligence Estimate report released last fall, a report which said that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Bush and Cheney were thrown off their game, but not by much and not for long. They were inconvenienced but ultimately took the small set back in stride because they both knew they had nothing to worry about."
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Cheney talks Iran in Israel; U.S. strike seen as remote  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=6005
Red War Warning - A quote...."JERUSALEM (JTA) -- With U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Israel this week talking about Iran, the big question was whether President Bush would be willing to use military force in the waning days of his presidency to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. - The answer from most Israeli intelligence analysts: not likely. - They say the chances of a U.S. military strike against Iran or its nuclear installations -- whether out of Bush's view of a strategic imperative or conviction that no one else will do the job -- are remote."  -- Why is this article a Red War Warning?  Given the two articles listed above the one shown here, along with Cheney's direct involvement in "arranging" prior wars, the Israel's intelligences service well known reputation to be less than fourth coming with the facts, and in cases of national security to be down right duplicitous and misleading....what else could this article be classified as? --  Please note: this is the fourth Red War Warning in less than thirty days. - mpg
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Clashes kill 44 in Iraq's Kut  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=49167&sectionid=351020201
A quote...."At least forty four people have been killed in clashes between Iraqi and US forces, and armed groups in the central Iraqi city of Kut."
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Oil tops USD 107 on Iraq pipeline blast  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=49217&sectionid=3510213
A quote...."Crude jumps above USD 107 a barrel after saboteurs blow up one of Iraq's two main export pipelines in the southern oil port of Basra."
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US Document Confirms Iraq Dungeon [a.k.a. Maliki's Prison]  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032708a.html
A quote...."A classified memo written by the top U.S. military officer in western Iraq reveals that a prison in downtown Fallujah is so overcrowded and dirty that it does not even meet basic “minimal levels of hygiene for human beings.”
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Thursday: 222 Iraqis, 1 US Soldier, 3 US Contractors Killed; 338 Iraqis Wounded  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12591
A quote...."Although the fighting continues in Basra, followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad instead took to the streets in mostly peaceful protests. The cleric himself has asked for peace talks, but the prime minister is refusing. At least 222 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 338 more were wounded in various incidents across Iraq."
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Baghdad's Green Zone attacked for 4th day this week  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/160255
A quote...."Apparent Rockets Hammer Green Zone for Fourth Day This Week -- A helicopter flies past a column of smoke coming out of the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government offices in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2008. Shiite militants are continuing to hammer the U.S-protected Green Zone with rockets and mortars for the fifth day this week. (Dusan Vranic/AP Photo)The Associated Press BAGHDAD Mar 27, 2008 (AP)"
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Modern US Presidents Acting Like "Thugs"  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8463
A quote...."President George W. Bush is “the biggest thug” ever to occupy the White House, writes historian Michael Parenti, adding that most post-World War II U.S. presidents have also acted like “thugs.” -- His “thug” list includes Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Conspicuously absent from his list are Republican Dwight Eisenhower and Democrat Jimmy Carter. -- What the thugs have in common, Parenti says, is their dedication “to a U.S. global interventionist policy” and support for “gargantuan, bloated, criminally wasteful military budgets” to execute those interventions."
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Fast and Loose With the Facts - How Two Leading Journalists Played the Public to Help Bush Sell His War
  ---  http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/fast-an-loose-with
A quote...."The danger," said President George W. Bush on Sept. 25, 2002, "is that Al Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam's madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world." He proceeded to build on a lie that finally died last week -- but only after nearly 4,000 U.S. troops and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis did as well. "The war on terror," Bush said, "you can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror."
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The Lies in Your Head, More Powerful than All Facts  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2008/03/lies-in-your-head-more-powerful-than.html
A quote...."Michael Ledeen offers yet another of his many posts lauding the reports by Michael Yon, embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, and joyously greeting the news of impending victory that Yon provides the war propagandists, year after bloody year after carnage-drenched year. Ledeen, of course, is one of the most sickeningly awful of the war lovers, and let us never forget the Ledeen Doctrine: "Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."
For more on this see....Effective Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg  --  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407
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Another U.S. Soldier Suicide in Iraq -- Or Was It Murder?  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/another-us-soldier-suic_b_92956.html
A quote...."Musack's friends and family say he had become upset by an incident he never fully described, beyond saying he had made someone angry. According to the report, his girlfriend, Melissa Martin, said he called her in mid-October and said, "Honey, I am being set up." At Musack's funeral, Martin said he had made her make a promise. that "if he did not come home, we would all keep doing what we were doing." -- According to the report, Musack's aunt, DeeAnna Newlin, said he had said he saw a little girl killed. Family members are exploring options to get the Army to reopen the investigation." - bold/italics by website editor
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West Bank farmers struggle under occupation - 27 March 08 - (YouTube - 3 min 20 sec - March 27, 2008)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IRTDOrTOH4
Video - A quote...."Palestinian olive tree owners in the occupied West Bank continue to suffer from the presence of Israeli settlers. - Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reports on one family in Turmos Ayya who recently lost their olive crop."
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Chavez hails Brazilian proposal on S American defense council  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/27/content_7867455.htm
Special Note - A quote...."RIO DE JANEIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Wednesday hailed Brazil's proposal to create a South American defense council, suggesting it could serve as a South Atlantic version of NATO. -- Chavez said he regarded the proposal as "extraordinary" when he arrived in Recife, the capital city of northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, for a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva." -- For more on this issue see....White Man's Burden - 12-20-06 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/whitemansburden-blog-mpg-122006
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Talk to Jazeera - Evo Morales - 28 March - Pt1  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOdPP1ruHdk
Talk to Jazeera - Evo Morales - 28 March - Pt2  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zibjQzJizU
(YouTube - aprox 11 min each - March 27, 2008)
Video - A quote...."Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, talks exclusively to Al Jazeera's Latin America editor Lucia Newman about his country's relat Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, talks exclusively to Al Jazeera's Latin America editor Lucia Newman about his country's relations with the US and his good friend Hugo Chavez"
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Venezuela and Brazil Strengthen Cooperation via Refinery and 7 Other Agreements  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3307
A quote...."Mérida, March 27, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed eight bilateral cooperation accords in the areas of energy, education, and agriculture Wednesday, including a preliminary agreement for the new José Inacio Abreu e Lima oil refinery, a joint project of the two countries in the Brazilian city of Recife."
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New Latin American - Defeat for Bush  ---  http://watchingamerica.com/News/528/new-latin-american-defeat-for-bush/
A quote...."The Rio Group cry for Latin American independence and brotherhood resounded, and prevailed, this past March 17 through the walls of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., capital of the decadent empire. The United States’ pressure melted like butter in front of the Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Secretaries, who reiterated in the bowels of the monster and in the face of their representatives, the pronouncement against the aggression to Ecuador, agreed on in Santo Domingo."
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Uzbekistan formalizes return to post-Soviet security group CSTO  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20080328/102429152.html
A quote...."TASHKENT, March 28 (RIA Novosti) - Uzbekistan's parliament has ratified a document formally restoring the Central Asian state's membership in the post-Soviet Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)."
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Russia and Japan form nuclear alliance  ---  http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080327/102358400.html
A quote...."MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - Paris is in shock: nuclear giants Atomenergoprom and Toshiba have decided to form an alliance in civilian nuclear power operations, including power plant construction and fuel production."
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Time for the west to practise what it preaches  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2ac4fde8-ca72-11dc-a960-000077b07658.html
A quote...."When it comes to China and Africa, the European Union and the US want to have their cake and eat it. In an echo of its past colonial rivalries, European leaders and donor organisations have expressed concerns that African nations are throwing their doors open too wide to Chinese investors and to exploitation by their Asian partners. -- But if opening up more free markets is a goal that the west prizes – and extols as a path to progress – why is Europe fretting about China’s growing economic role in Africa? The expansion of free markets has indeed been a boon to Africa. But as I tell my friends in the west, China is doing a much better job than western capitalists of responding to market demands in Africa."
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Developer (Silverstein) Sues to Win $12.3 Billion in 9/11 Attack  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20080327103858433
A quote...."Larry A. Silverstein, who has won nearly $4.6 billion in insurance payments to cover his losses and help him rebuild at the World Trade Center site, is seeking $12.3 billion in damages from airlines and airport security companies for the 9/11 attack. -- Mr. Silverstein, the developer of ground zero, sought the damages, whose amount was not previously known, in a claim filed in 2004, that says the airlines and airport security companies failed to prevent terrorists from hijacking the planes used to destroy the buildings. -- His case was consolidated last week with similar, earlier lawsuits brought by families of some victims of the attack and by other property owners. But in seeking $12.3 billion, he is by far the biggest claimant in the litigation." -- Hats off to Lucky Larry, he's going to show everyone that crime pays, and pays big! - mpg
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The 9/11 Stand Down in 2 Minutes  ---  http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/norad-stand-down-in-2-minutes.html
A quote...."NORAD, responsible for intercepting errant aircraft over the U.S., has a standard operating procedure for scrambling planes for interception which takes less than 15 minutes -- They did this successfully (on time) 129 times in 2000 and and 67 times between September 2000 and June 2001."
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CIA role claim in Kennedy killing  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/6169006.stm
A quote...."New video and photographic evidence that puts three senior CIA operatives at the scene of Robert Kennedy's assassination has been brought to light. - The evidence was shown in a report by Shane O'Sullivan, broadcast on BBC Newsnight. - It reveals that the operatives and four unidentified associates were at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles in the moments before and after the shooting on 5 June, 1968."
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'Denied in Full': Federal Judges Grill CIA Lawyers on JFK Secrets  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jefferson-morley/denied-in-full-federal_b_69414.html
A quote...."Lawyers for the Central Intelligence Agency faced pointed questions in a federal court hearing Monday morning about the agency's efforts to block disclosure of long-secret records about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy."
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Court Orders Release of Ex-Governor From Prison
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/us/27cnd-alabama.html?_r=1&ex=1364356800&en=b0a8874fb500bc7a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
A quote...."MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The former governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman, was ordered Thursday to be released from prison on bond by a federal appeals court, pending his broader appeal in a bribery conviction last June."
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Interview with Joseph Stiglitz  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5106
Interview - Carmela Cruz of FPIF interviews Joseph Stiglitz for - A quote...."Joseph Stiglitz was born in Indiana in 1943. He currently teaches at Columbia University, where he is chair of the university's Committee on Global Thought. During Bill Clinton's administration, he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers then later its chairman from 1993-97. He then became chief economist and senior vice-president of the World Bank from 1997-2000."
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Bailout For The MBAs  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19620.htm
A quote...." 27/03/08 "ICH" -- - So. It's out in the open. -- On Sunday, February 23, the New York Times reported on a confidential memo being circulated around Congress, by the global banks with the most to lose in this mess of their own making. It was a proposal for a public bailout of private investment houses, who are worried for their survival amid the massive subprime losses and credit crisis already roiling Wall Street."
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The Little Administration That Couldn't - Rebuilding the American Economy, Bush-style  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174911/the_fate_of_the_bear_market
A quote...."No one was prepared for the storm when it hit. The levees meant to protect us had long since been breached and key officials had already left town. The well-to-do were assured of rescue, but for everyone else trapped inside the Superdome in a fast-flooding region, there was no evacuation plan in sight. The Bush administration, of course, claimed that it was in control and the President was already assuring his key officials that they were doing a heck of a job. -- No, I'm not talking about post-Katrina New Orleans. That was so then. I'm talking about the housing and credit crunches, as well as the Bear Stearns bailout, that have given the term "bear market" new meaning."
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GDP unrevised at 0.6% in fourth quarter
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/gdp-unrevised-06-weakest-us/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B3B6DDF46%2D888D%2D49CA%2DB53C%2D0183A4614A02%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy downshifted abruptly in the fourth quarter, growing at a 0.6% annual rate, the slowest pace since late 2002, the Commerce Department estimated Thursday."
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Dubai set to sustain 11pc GDP growth
  ---  http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/business/2008/March/business_March865.xml&section=business
A quote...."DUBAI - Dubai’s real gross domestic product (GDP), which surged to a record Dh198 billion in 2007, is predicted to sustain an average growth rate of 11 per cent for the next eight years. - The main driver of  this remarkable growth  - outpacing the average growth rate forecast for the GCC - will be the non-oil sector, growing at a spectacular pace."
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Primary dealers borrow $37 billion from Fed  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/primary-dealers-borrow-37-billion/story.aspx?
guid=%7B0244ABB5%2D461E%2D459D%2D9019%2D39DA524339CD%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Investment banks and broker dealers borrowed more than $30 billion a day from the Federal Reserve's discount window this past week, but showed only tepid interest in a separate 28-day lending facility from the Fed that got under way on Thursday."
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Grain Prices Soar Globally Leading To Food Riots  ---  http://www.thought-criminal.org/article/node/1437
A quote...."Bangkok, Thailand - -  Rice farmers here are staying awake in shifts at night to guard their fields from thieves. In Peru, shortages of wheat flour are prompting the military to make bread with potato flour, a native crop. In Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso food riots have broken out in the past week."

Wednesday March 26th 2008 - links page

Darkness at Noon: Fatal Ignorance Puts Iraq on the Cross  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1466/135/#comments
Must Read - A quote...."From the very beginning, the brutality, ruin and deceit of the American aggression in Iraq has been compounded by an unshakeable ignorance. This deadly cloud of unknowing has enveloped the entire chain of command, from the witless president who didn't know the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam to the troops on the ground who believed – as they were no doubt drilled to believe – that the invasion was "payback for 9/11," a righteous war of self-defense against a terrorist nation that had attacked America."
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A Very Great Evil  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff199.html
A quote...."Led by rulers blind to justice and deaf to history, arrogant and self-righteous, anxious for fame, indifferent to violence and willfully ignorant, a selfish and malleable American people, aroused by fear and steeped in obedience, sent their uniformed and armed sons and daughters into a strange and ancient land to conquer and root out its political leaders, defeat its forces, and remake that distant and foreign nation in its own image. Unfamiliar names like Mosul and Fallujah, crossed and re-crossed by the peoples of ancient civilizations for thousands of years before Americans birthed a nation and empire, became bloody headlines of mass destruction, death, desolation, and disruption."
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Dr. Hamilton and Mr. Hyde  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032608c.html
A quote...."Consortium News Editor’s Note: Whenever the Republicans have a touchy national-security scandal to put to rest, their favorite Democratic investigator is Lee Hamilton. Over the years, Hamilton has developed a reputation as a very reasonable fellow who knows how far he can go without ruffling too many important feathers."
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Few Big Lies: Not Handling Iraq Truth  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032608b.html
A quote...."With the Iraq War entering its sixth year and the U.S. death toll now surpassing 4,000, it has become fashionable – and rather convenient – to claim that no one prior to the invasion five years ago could have foreseen what a bloody disaster the war would turn out to be."
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What can and cannot be spoken on television  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/26/iraq_debate/index.html
Must View - Video - A quote...."I'm going to re-post the segment I posted yesterday, from Charlie Rose's fifth anniversary Iraq show, because I want to encourage as many people as possible to watch it. If I could recommend one article or segment for Americans to read or watch regarding the current Iraq debate, it would be this interview -- the entire interview -- with Sinan Antoon and Ali Fadhil, an Iraqi professor and journalist, respectively, currently living in the U.S.:"
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Frontline's Fall From Grace
03-26-08
mpg

Frontline: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/26/7907/
A quote...."Frontline’s “Bush’s War” on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players’ trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing, and limitless incompetence of the occupation."

Frontline's "Bush's War": A Total Failure, Propaganda, and White-Wash http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jibbguy_080326_frontline_s__22bush_s_.htm
A quote...."The recent PBS two-night offering of Frontline was utterly depressing to watch. Not for its subject matter; but for the constant reminders that PBS and Frontline, formerly the last bastion of free speech on U.S. mainstream media, has sadly become just another corporate and Bush regime mouthpiece. The documentary was little more than a Bush propaganda piece that lied, dissembled, diverted, and ignored its way through this crucial subject for the entire excruciatingly painful four and half hours."

Regarding the two articles shown above.

Frontline's "Bush's War" was a complete, total and unmitigated disaster.  The producers should hang their heads in shame and seriously contemplate a life long career producing game shows or Fox's faux-news. .  .  It was like watching a really bad episode of survivor, (not that this editor ever would), with even less style.  A series of unconnected political machinations and what appeared to be a set of random tactical decisions in Iraq.

Only one forty minute section was done with any competence or clarity at all, and as such was a vivid demonstration of why the rest of the show was basically incomprehensible. It was the section of the show were the producers discussed how the "intel" on Iraq's alleged WMD's was cooked, cherry-picked, distorted, created, manufactured, or as Cheney would have it..."fixed around the policy", and they placed the entire blame for the fiasco squarely on Cheney's shoulders, which would have been impossible not to do since for the first time in this nation's history, we had a sitting Vice President running over to the CIA practically every day haranguing the employees to "find proof of WMDs" and if they didn't, statements like "obviously it's there, why can't you find it", "what's wrong with you", or "why are you so incompetent",  would be pelted on their collective heads.  To have someone like Cheney verbally pressure an employee like this day after day after day.....might very well tend to distort that employee’s judgment.

In this particular example the shows producers presented their viewers with the Means (Cheney's intimidation of CIA employees), the Motive (he wanted to start a war with Iraq) and the Opportunity (regular visits to the CIA along with pressuring and manipulating people like Bush and Condi (real easy) and Tenent and Powell (somewhat more of a challenge).  In other words the producers connected the dots....what is also known as a plot.

But that was it.  The rest of the show was like watching a bad soap opera, a series of disconnected characters, without any past, any motivation, or any clue.  It's as if a cop walked into a bar after a gunfight and didn't ask if the victims knew each other, were in business together, what their prior history was with each other or the shooters, did any of them own the bar, what weapons were used, any prior criminal records, did the crime match any previous MOs, where did the shooters get the weapons, was there any gain to anybody, were any of the victims insured, etc. etc. etc.

Here are a few examples of what the producers managed to squeeze into "Bush's War". They mentioned the escape from Tora Bora, and it was totally vague, non-descriptive and didn't even display a map, nor did they try to attribute a cause for the escape.  They mentioned the tunnels in Tora Bora, but they didn't mention those tunnels were built by the Bin Laden Group (yes THAT bin Laden) with massive financial and logistical support from the US's CIA, Saudi Royal Family, and Pakistan's ISI.

They never mentioned the Kunduz airlift, an operation where the US allowed the Pakistanis to fly thousands of Taliban and al Qaida out of Afghanistan's city of Kunduz, which at that time had been totally surrounded by the Northern Alliance.  They NEVER EVER mentioned PNAC or the DPG, and the fact that these documents have predicated almost all of this administration’s actions up to the present moment.

They did mention that the US was trying to prevent Iraq's civil war, a most curious statement since the US is currently supporting civil wars in Gaza (Fatah against Hamas), Lebanon (various factions against Hezbollah), Iran (PKK, MEK, Baluchistan separatists, Kurdistan separatists, Iranian separatists against Iran) Iraq (SIIC - at various times - against the Sunni insurgents and the Mahdi army), Pakistan (elements of the Army and ISI against other elements of the Army, ISI, the Pashtons and Taliban) and many other similar situations throughout the world.

They never mentioned the OIL (they never do), more specifically Cheney's energy task force, meetings held by Cheney with the major oil executives and the maps divvying up Iraq PRIOR to 9/11, much less before the start of the Iraq war.

They mentioned Zelikow, but they didn't mention he was Chairman of the 9/11 commission, was practically a life long bosom buddy of Condi and that they even wrote a book together. Nor flying over a 120 Saudi Royal and bin Laden family members out of the country within forty eight hours after 9/11. Nor the various long term relationships that these architects of the Iraq war had with each other, Big Oil, the Saudi Royals, the bin Ladens, Pakistan’s ISI or the members of the Project for a New American Century.  Nor the vast profits after 9/11 these people made from their investments in the defense and oil industries.  Nor the corruption in Iraq.  Nor Cheney’s connections to Halliburton or the fact that he personally shepherded many of their no-bid contracts through the DOD. Nor did they mention US cooperation with Iraqi death squads, the massive ongoing aerial campaign, the complete destruction of Iraq's infrastructure, the deliberate targeting of journalists in Iraq by American forces.

They even failed to mention the very first NSC meeting held by the Bush administration on Jan 30th 2001, a meeting which had as its entire topic of discussion, a preemptive strike against Baghdad, this meeting mind you took place a full eight months PRIOR to the attack on 9/11.

This is only a partial list, possibly just two to three percent of the total stories (or dots) they should have featured, and connected, but didn't.  The show was a pathetic disgrace and does not qualify as a documentary or as journalism....or even as a good soap opera.

Now that's truly pitiful. – mpg
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Iraq, then the world, Bush hoped  ---  http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/16/1082055652370.html
From the history file - April 17, 2004 - A quote...."This week George Bush came closer to telling the truth about the invasion of Iraq than at any time in his presidency. -- It is extraordinary that, a year after invading a foreign country unprovoked, the US leader had still not answered straightforwardly the big question overhanging the whole enterprise - why?"
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Cheney's and Maliki's new war in Iraq - Wednesday round-up - Day 2 - mpg

Sadr calls on Maliki to leave Basra  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=49039&sectionid=351020201
A quote...."Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has asked Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to leave Basra, calling for negotiations in the southern port city."
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Iraqi Army’s Assault on Militias in Basra Stalls
  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?_r=1&ex=1364270400&
 ---  en=898291b9d9f69889&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
A quote...."BAGHDAD — An assault by thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police officers to regain control of the southern port city of Basra stalled Wednesday as Shiite militiamen in the Mahdi Army fought daylong hit-and-run battles and refused to withdraw from the neighborhoods that form their base of power there."
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Why did US green light Iraq gov attack in Basra?  ---  http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1223&thisview=item
Must View - Video - A quote...."Pepe Escobar: The Battle of Basra rages on"
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Inside Story - Iraq's militias - 26 Mar 08 - Pt. 1  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDfIK7etW9k&feature=user
Inside Story - Iraq's militias - 26 Mar 08 - Pt. 2  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1xO6fmpe54
(YouTube - aprox. 9 to 12 min -  Added:  March 27, 2008)
Must View - Video - More on the recent battles. - mpg
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Palestinians rally in Gaza and Hebron calling for national reconcilliation  ---  http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m42457&s1=h1
A quote...."Hebron – Gaza – Ma'an – Tens of thousands of Palestinians staged rallies in Gaza City and the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday calling for national reconciliation between bitter political rivals Fatah and Hamas."
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Iran threatens legal action over UN sanctions  ---  http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/27/47499.html
A quote...."Says Tehran - critics can't prove the nukes claims" - As Cheney would say....So? - mpg
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India to sign oil, gas deals with Iran  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=49118&sectionid=351020102
A quote...."India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp hopes to sign deals with Iran to develop huge oil and gas fields in Iran at a meeting planned for next month."
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China Likely to Join Iran-Pakistan Gas Deal  ---  http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8701070164
A quote...." TEHRAN (FNA)- China is ready to join the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline if India drops out of the 7.4 billion dollar project, Pakistani sources have said."
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Letter from Venezuela's Communications Minister to the Washington Post  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3303
A quote...."Over the past several years, we have informed you of our concerns regarding the hostile, distorted and inaccurate coverage of Venezuela in your newspaper, and particularly on the Editorial Page."
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U.K.: 'Teachers to ban armed forces from clasrooms'  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8447
A quote...."Teachers vowed yesterday to stop military recruitment campaigns in schools that promote pro-war "propaganda". -- The National Union of Teachers voted to back staff who resist armed forces publicity drives and urged "education for peace" to be embedded in the curriculum."
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Government-Funded Investigators Accused Of WTC Cover-Up  ---  http://prisonplanet.com/articles/march2008/032608_wtc_coverup.htm
A quote...."The American Society of Civil Engineers - an organization that was funded by FEMA to investigate the collapse of the twin towers on 9/11 - has been accused of engaging in a cover-up to protect the government, with critics charging the organization falsified conclusions that skyscrapers could not withstand getting hit by airplanes."
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Did the Government Entrap the 9/11 Hijackers?  ---  http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/did-us-and-allied-intelligence-agents.html#comments
Special Note - A quote...."We've all seen it on television. The defense attorney argues his client was "entrapped". That is, that it wasn't the defendant's idea to commit the crime, but that the police planted the idea and urged him to do it."
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Bush to terrorism victims: go Cheney yourselves, again...  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2008/03/bush-to-terrori.html
Special Note - A quote...."My god this horror does not end, but at least the Bush administration finally admits fully where its collective loyalties are (emphasis mine):"
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New evidence suggests second shooter killed RFK  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Scientists_Multiple_shooters_in_RFK_assassination_0326.html
A quote...."Forty years after Democratic rising star Robert F. Kennedy was killed at a Los Angeles hotel during his presidential run, new evidence suggests the man serving a life sentence for his murder did not fire the shots that killed the charismatic senator."
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The Shape of US Populism, Part 3  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JC27Dj03.html
A quote...."The United States entered the 20th century with impressive concrete achievements in political and economic reform derived from the ideological ferment of the final two decades of the 19th century. Still it has failed to this day to address, much less resolve, several of the fundamental contradictions and problems that have plagued the young nation from the very beginning."
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An Uncomfortable Spotlight in Davos  ---  http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14916
A quote...."The CEOs of three-quarters of the world's 100 largest companies have just completed an uncomfortable weekend at the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos, while their companies' share prices nosedived on global stock markets, amid concern that the U.S. economy was staggering towards recession."
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QinetiQ Goes Kinetic: Top Rumsfeld Aide Wins Contracts From Spy Office He Set Up  ---  http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14898
A quote...."A Pentagon office that claims to monitor terrorist threats to U.S. military bases in North America -- and was once reprimanded by the U.S. Congress for spying on antiwar activists -- has just awarded a multi-million dollar contract to a company that employs one of Donald Rumsfeld’s former aides. That aide, Stephen Cambone, helped create the very office that issued the contract."
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Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton  ---  http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14963
A quote...."The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity funds, may soon acquire the $2 billion government contracting business of consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the biggest suppliers of technology and personnel to the U.S. government’s spy agencies. Carlyle manages more than $75 billion in assets and has bought and sold a long string of military contractors since the early 1990s. But in recent years it has significantly reduced its investments in that industry. If it goes ahead with the widely reported plan to buy Booz Allen, it will re-emerge as the owner of one of America’s largest private intelligence armies."
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Ecuador's Yasuni Park: Oil Exploration or Nature Protection?  ---  http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14982
A quote...."Manuela Omari Ima, a Waorani woman from the Ecuadorian Amazon, was born in the Yasuni National Park, a 2.5 million acre primary tropical rainforest at the intersection of the Andes, the Amazon and the Equator. That intersection is also the heart of a struggle between two plans: one for oil exploration and another that would permanently protect one of the most biologically diverse regions of the planet."
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The Economy: US and the World  ---  http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/17-03-2008/104530-economy_usa_world-0
Must Read - A quote...."But this time it is different. When a recession starts, the government has a few tools at its disposal to deal with the economic downturn: Interest rate, the budget and war. It reduces interest rates to stimulate economic growth. It can also start large infrastructure projects such road building, constructing bridges etc, to reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy (deficit-spending). There is another sure way of kick starting the economy and that is WAR. Wars are good for businesses and reduce unemployment and stimulate (for US) important parts of the economy.  --  However, all three tools have been already used prior to the recent recession. US has huge trade deficit and is involved in two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq). It has also reduced its tax revenues by giving huge tax-cuts to the rich. Large trade deficit, low tax revenue, tremendous debt, wars and low interest rates make it extremely difficult for the government to do much to help the economy."
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Bank of England's Mervyn King refuses to follow US Fed rate cuts  ---  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article3624591.ece
A quote...."Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, has ruled out following the US Federal Reserve in making "aggressive" cuts to interest rates to stabilise the fragile economy."
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New home sales fall for fourth straight month; at 13-year low in February  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/27/america/Economy.php
A quote...."WASHINGTON: Sales of new homes fell in February for the fourth straight month, pushing activity down to a 13-year low. While the rate of decline has slowed, the worst slump in more than two decades has not run its course, analysts said."
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Demand for durable goods falls 1.7% in Feb. - Machinery orders plunge record 13.3%; core cap goods down 2.6%
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/demand-durable-goods-falls-17/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B69A51560-772D-4418-9BCA-C4CD5695DFF2%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Demand for machinery and other capital goods sank in February, driving orders for durable goods down 1.7%, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. - The unexpected decline in orders for big-ticket items marked the second straight monthly drop, an indication that domestic demand is weakening faster than exports can grow."

Tuesday March 25th 2008 - links page

The 911 Mystery Plane
  ---  http://www.rense.com/general76/missing.htm

New Details About The 9/11 Mystery Jet Plane
  ---  http://www.huliq.com/34171/new-details-about-the-9-11-mystery-jet-plane
The White Jet E-4B filmed near the WH at Washington - (YuTb 3m11s 082507)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFNY8r_lrIs
CNN: New details on 9/11 mystery plane over D.C.
  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/130907_b_plane.htm
War Games: The Key to a 9/11 USAF Stand Down
  ---  http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/usaf_911.html
PROMIS Connections to Cheney Control of 9/11 Attacks Confirmed
  ---  http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/012005_ptech_pt1.shtml
911 Commission - Trans. Sec Norman Mineta Testimony - (YuTb 3m54s 022006)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfdOwt2v3Y
Mineta testimony on Cheney stand down/shoot down censored
  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2005/270705testimonycensored.htm
NORAD Tapes Only Intensify Implausibility Of 9/11 Official Story
  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/020806tapesintensify.htm
9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes
  ---  http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/63/21542
The 9/11 USAF Stand Down
  ---  http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/911stand.html
9/11 War Games by the US military & CIA
  ---  http://www.oilempire.us/wargames.html