MPG'S DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER  ON THE "GREAT GAME"

@ www.reficultnias.org
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Editor's note : From now on each daily blog will have several items culled from the past called  "9/11 - From The History File" : It's for those who didn't know, and also for those who forgot....or are trying to forget.

Editor's note - War Update, War Alert, War Warning and Red War Warning - refer to articles regarding the upcoming war with Iran.  In the order they appear as shown above, they  represent less serious to more serious possible threats of war. - mpg
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Bastille Day Weekend Edition  -  Quotes posted at CounterPunch  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/

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Summit in Kennebunkport   ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18008.htm
Must Read - A quote...." 07/12/07 "ICH" -- -- -Presidents Bush and Putin concluded their brief summit in Kennebunkport, Maine without resolving any of the main issues. Bush seeks Putin’s help to pressure Iran into giving up its nuclear enrichment program and Putin wants Bush to abandon his plans to deploy the US Missile Defense System in Czechoslovakia and Poland. No progress was made on either topic."

Putin Makes Good On Threats, Pulls Russia Out of Arms Treaty - posted at - BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2682497,00.html
Related article :

Bush to Putin at Kennebunkport -You don't give us your oil and gas, we break'a your face, we break'a your country.
Putin to Bush - F-ck you and your  PNAC'ing Neocon cronies.

We all have our limits....Putin has reached his. - mpg
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The Bush Family and their 50 Year War Against the USA [and everybody else]
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_melody_c_070713_the_bush_family_and_.htm
A quote...."Bush.  That's the only name you need to know -- Bush.  The same Bush family who are strongly allied with the UK Tory government and its most staunch right-wing.  You may remember our country's history with Tories.  -  King George the younger's swagger and smirk say it all.   This C student, this wash-out at everything he has ever tried,  this trust fund barnacle and unashamed beneficiary of nepotism, knows he's better than we are in the eyes of these people.  He is merely displaying his primate tendencies, but he can ignore that because he doesn't believe in that silly evolution stuff."  -  That's because he never evolved, he's still a chimp - mpg

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Impeachment Panel - Part I | PBS - (PBS- Win Media/QT - 071507 24m 16s)
  ---  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/video_popups/pop_vid_impeachment1-1.html
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Impeachment Panel - Part II | PBS - (PBS - Win Media/QT  071507 17m 28s)
  ---  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/video_popups/pop_vid_impeachment1-2.html
Must View - A quote...."TOUGH TALK ON IMPEACHMENT BILL MOYERS JOURNAL explores the talk of impeachment with Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, and THE NATION's John Nichols, author of THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT"

Panel Demands Records on Tillman's Death  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=38626
A quote...."The White House and Defense Department have turned over nearly 10,000 pages of papers  mostly press clippings  but the White House cited "executive branch confidentiality interests" in refusing to provide other documents." - bold/italics by website author

Earth to Bush: "The Chaos in Iraq You Now Decry was Caused By You!"  ---  http://www.walter-c-uhler.com/Reviews/earth.html
Must Read - A quote...."Having watched our pathetic president's July 12th news conference concerning the "Initial Benchmark Assessment Report," I felt the urge to applaud Helen Thomas for verbally assaulting George W. Bush for the war criminal and mass murderer that he is. God bless her for asking: "Mr. President, you started this war, this war of your choosing, and you can end it alone, today, at this point…Don't you accept - don't you understand, we brought the Al Qaida into Iraq?"

Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds See Bush 'Surge' as a Failure  ---  http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/morenews.php?id=2473
A quote...."President Bush may be trying to rally support for his strategy in Iraq, but his efforts are not faring well with the American public, according to the latest NEWSWEEK Poll. Nearly two thirds of Americans believe that the president's troop “surge” has been a failure, poll respondents said." - bold/italics by website author

Fighting rages across Iraq as Bush claims military “progress”  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/iraq-j14.shtml
A quote...."President Bush’s attempts last Thursday to justify the open-ending US occupation of Iraq by claiming that his “surge” strategy is making progress bear no relation to reality. What is taking place is the same inconclusive war of attrition against a hostile population that the US military has been waging for four years to secure its domination over the country and its resources. More American soldiers and more aggressive operations have simply resulted in more casualties, more detentions and a deepening of the atmosphere of fear and loathing towards the US presence."

UK prepares to cut troop numbers in Iraq  ---  http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,2126853,00.html
A quote...."British forces in Iraq are preparing to withdraw their remaining troops to the airport base in Basra in the south of the country in August, handing over control of the last province they control to Iraqi forces.  -  If their most optimistic forecasts are realised, only 1,500 British troops will remain in the country by the end of the year, defence officials told The Observer this weekend."

Whoever said it was lonely at the top sure knew what he was talking about, especially if you're describing a moronic sociopathic stupid vessel of evil
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/theemptyvessel-blog-mpg-092006  ---   like our great "decider". - mpg
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Iraq PM: Country Can Manage Without US ‘Any Time They Want’  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/14/2518/
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave “any time they want,” though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training."

Robert Fisk: TE Lawrence had it right about Iraq  ---  http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2768261.ece
Some quotes...."'Back in 1929, Lawrence of Arabia wrote the entry for "Guerrilla" in the 14th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It is a chilling read - and here I thank one of my favourite readers, Peter Metcalfe of Stevenage, for sending me TE's remarkable article - because it contains so ghastly a message to the American armies in Iraq.

And...."It [the rebels] must have a friendly population, not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements to the enemy. Rebellions can be made by 2 per cent active in a striking force, and 98 per cent passively sympathetic ... Granted mobility, security ... time, and doctrine ... victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and spirit struggle quite in vain."
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Out of Iraq and Into Iran?  ---  http://justworldnews.org/archives/002578.html
War Warning - A quote...."Pressure at long last is mounting
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301314.html?hpid=topnews  ---  across the U.S. political spectrum and heartland  --  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071302017.html  ---  for either a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, or a dramatic pull-back from the front-lines. You'd think the neocons and their congressional supplicants and the Christian-Likudist "Amen Chorus" would be chastened, hesitant, or dispirited. To the contrary, they're launching a full-court press for a major military blitz against Iran.

U.S., Iran do Persian Gulf squeeze  ---  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-stennis11jul11,1,1466257.story?coll=la-headlines-world
War Update - A quote...."ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS — Iran and the United States remain so far apart on so many issues that they refuse to talk about them.  -  But in the cramped sea routes of the Persian Gulf, U.S. and Iranian warship sailors and fighter pilots speak to each other daily.  -  They have to. They're practically jostling one another in courteous games of surveillance, counter-surveillance and geopolitical posturing.  -  "We are operating very close to their territorial waters in a very confined space with a tremendous amount of traffic, be it the small dhows, be it the supertankers going up to the oil platforms," said U.S. Navy Capt. Sterling Gilliam Jr., commander of air operations for this nuclear-powered supercarrier and its associated ships"

Ahhhh....an "incident" would be soooooo easy to arrange.  All you'd need is one special "black op" and that would be that. - mpg
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USS Enterprise joins two other U.S. carrier groups in Persian Gulf  ---  http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2007/ss_military_07_13.asp
War Alert - ABU DHABI — The U.S. Navy has deployed its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Enterprise — the longest naval vessel in the world and which carries 66 aircraft — for Gulf operations. Officials said this marked the second deployment of the Enterprise in the Gulf in 14 months.  -  The Enterprise, which left the Gulf in November 2006, is to join the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz carrier strike groups."

See also....John C. Stennis Strike Group WESTPAC 07 Deployment & USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74)
  ---  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/batgru-74-westpac07.htm  &  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_C._Stennis_%28CVN-74%29
See also....Nimitz Strike Group WESTPAC 07 Deployment & USS Nimitz (CVN-68)
  ---  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/batgru-68-westpac07.htm & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nimitz_%28CVN-68%29
See also....Enterprise Strike Group MED 07 Deployment  & USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
  ---  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/batgru-65-med07.htm & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_%28CVN-65%29
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Cindy Sheehan: Strange Bedfellows  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1150
Must Read - A quote...."Since I announced my challenge to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi a few days ago, I have been very thrilled that issues such as impeachment and the inherent corruption of the "two" party system have been brought to the forefront of public discourse. Every interview I have done has given me the opportunity to throw the impeachment issue out there. The democratic blogosphere has predictably lined up against me and must be very frightened because they are repeating the scandalous lies of the right. Wow, the right and left are finding common ground over slandering me. I must be a uniter."

Outraged that Sen Lieberman has publicly called for bombing Iran, CODEPINK member Leslie Angeline, Arrested
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=38437
A quote...."Leslie was arrested at Sen. Lieberman's office this morning a little before 11 am while trying to get a meeting with the Senator. The senator was speaking on the floor of the Senate around the time of the arrest. Arrest happened very quickly after the group entered the office. Mother on 21st Day of Fast Implores Sen. Lieberman to Promote Diplomacy, Not War With Iran "

Protester raid cost police £111k - [that's about $222.000]  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6897656.stm
A quote...."Brian Haw, 57, has held vigil in Parliament Square for six years, using a megaphone to attack the government policy on Iraq.  -  Seventy-eight officer shifts were devoted to the overnight raid to scale back Mr Haw's encampment on 23 May 2006, Scotland Yard figures show."
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The robbery of the century  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IG14Dj01.html
A quote...."I have previously written [1] about the impending failure of US mortgage borrowers, whose failure to pay would affect not only the US economy as many of them declare bankruptcy, but also worldwide markets, as the risk has been widely sold to investors in other countries, with the bulk of the losses coming in Asia. "  -  See also....

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Musharraf’s Madrasa Muddle  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4381
Must Read - A quote...."The storming of the Red Mosque is not the victory that General Pervez Musharraf and  his supporters in Washington proclaim. Rather, it represents the abject failure of the Pakistani president’s policies. The shaky military junta seems to have few answers to the central question of containing religious extremism in the sect-ridden Pakistani society. With a growing number of citizens challenging the authoritarian system, U.S. support for Musharraf is more and more out of touch with Pakistani reality."

Beware Dick / Navy may get a Sunburn in Persian Gulf  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__070713_beware_2c_dick__2f_navy_.htm
A quote...."As Dick ( Dr Strangelove ) Cheney amasses his three carrier attack groups in the Persian Gulf ~ Iran has amassed a stockpile of the most advanced anti-ship cruise missile in the world THE SUNBURN which combines a Mach 2.1 speed (two times the speed of sound) with a flight pattern that hugs the deck and includes “violent end maneuvers” to elude enemy defenses. The missile was specifically designed to defeat the US Aegis radar defense system: Allen L Roland"

Chinese-Made Armor-Piercing Bullets Found in Iraq, Afghanistan  ---  http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/07/chinese-made-ar.html
A quote...."Is there a China connection with Iraq and Afghanistan? Yes, according to a departing senior Pentagon official, who says that the Chinese-origin armor-piercing bullets -- of particular concern to U.S. and coalition troops - have showed up in the two countries. This article, from the Financial Times, came out a few days ago, but I think was lost in the shuffle of Iraq news, so it's worth highlighting here:"

Are we Already at War?  - Have US-enabled Kurds killed 200 Iranian Troops?
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2007/07/are-we-already-at-war-have-us-enabled.html
A quote...."Since the US Senate has in its wisdom laid the groundwork for a war on Iran   --  http://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd79.html  ---  on the extremely thin grounds of an unbalanced and gullible NYT story, it is worth pondering the degree to which we are being spun once again by shadowy forces whose salaries we are paying!"

Turkey boosts troops at Iraqi border: sources
  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1377364320070713?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
A quote...."DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey's army has boosted troop levels in the restive southeast to more than 200,000, most of them stationed along the border with Iraq, security sources told Reuters on Friday."

AIPAC Gives "Kiss of Death" to Abbas
  ---  http://desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/07/aipac-gives-kiss-of-death-to-abbas.html
A quote...."'Politics breeds strange bedfellows'... there is no other way to describe this new glowing love affair between Abbas' puppet regime and AIPAC. Is this not proof that this new 'leadership' of the Palestinian people is working only in the interests of Israel, abandoning completely the desires of their own nation?"

Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You  ---  http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/03/72811/
A quote...."It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls."

An Open Letter to CNN  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/14/2521/
A quote...."Well, the week is over — and still no apology, no retraction, no correction of your glaring mistakes.  -  I bet you thought my dust-up with Wolf Blitzer was just a cool ratings coup, that you really wouldn’t have to correct the false statements you made about “Sicko.” I bet you thought I was just going to go quietly away.  -  Think again. I’m about to become your worst nightmare. ‘Cause I ain’t ever going away. Not until you set the record straight, and apologize to your viewers. “The Most Trusted Name in News?” I think it’s safe to say you can retire that slogan."
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Ms. Palfrey confirms that Mr. Burkman's business with her was escort service related - posted at - BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.margieburns.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/13/3090733.html
A quote...."Other blogs are already all over this, but to clarify a bit more -- One of Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s outgoing calls (Sunday, January 15, 2006) was placed to an Arlington, Virginia, number listed to registered lobbyist/firm John M. (Jack) Burkman & Associates, 1530 Key Boulevard #1222, Arlington VA  22209.

L.A. Archdiocese to Pay $660M for Abuse  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6780453,00.html
Related Story - A quote...."LOS ANGELES (AP) - The nation's largest Catholic archdiocese has settled its abuse cases for $660 million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press has learned."

You think the term "related story" was a mistake gentle reader??  Think again. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase.... "children can be so expensive" doesn’t it? - mpg
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FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve ... - (Google - 58 min 53 sec - Dec 5, 2006)
  ---  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531&hl=en
Must View - A quote...."Find out why some feel the Federal Reserve System is a "bunch of organized crooks" and others feel its practices "are in violation of the U.S. Constitution." Discover why experts agree the Fed is a banking cartel that benefits mainly bankers, their clients in need of easy money and a Congress that would rather increase the National Debt than raise taxes."

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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A Model Economy Proves The Statistical Bias of Capitalism
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_whi_070713_a_model_economy_prov.htm
A quote...."Have you ever wondered why a few people end up owning and controlling the vast majority of a society’s wealth, or why aristocracies inevitably develop in practically every culture, past or present? Have you pondered the egregious wealth inequality in the US where the top 1% owns the wealth equivalent of the bottom 95% combined? "

Milk Costs Surge Due to Corn - posted at - BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11980712
A quote...."Several factors are creating a sort of "perfect storm" for milk prices this summer. Americans are drinking more milk. Add to that, droughts in major milk-producing countries like Australia.  -  But another key factor is the demand for ethanol, according to Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation. Ethanol is increasingly being used as an alternative fuel for gasoline."
Friday July 13th 2007 - links page
Bill Clinton : First Necon President  ---  http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=143
Must Read - A quote...."Bill Clinton seems to get blamed by this Neocon administration for many things, but most of all for “losing bin Laden.” The ugly truth is that, in this case, they are probably right. Clinton’s team probably had good information on Osama’s whereabouts most of the time, since they were playing on the same team for most of Clinton’s two terms. It is becoming clear from the accumulating evidence that Bill Clinton resurrected Ronald Reagan’s Afghan strategy of using Islamist guerillas as his own covert foreign policy in Europe and other intransigent hot spots that seemed to be immune to normal diplomacy. Clinton’s foolish toying with Islamist killers is probably the spark that ignited the international jihad against America."

Misreading Iraq, Again  ---   http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/071307.html
A quote...."George W. Bush and his neoconservative supporters are hailing some signs of cooperation between Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders and U.S. forces in rooting out al-Qaeda extremists in Anbar Province as proof that Bush’s military occupation of Iraq is finally working and should not be ended by Congress."  -  "But the Anbar evidence could be read almost exactly the opposite way: that it is the growing belief among Sunnis that the American occupation is nearing its end that has caused some of them to view the U.S. military as a lesser evil and position themselves for what they perceive as the next phase of the conflict"

Won't they feel foolish as the US stays in Iraq for another twenty years? - mpg
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Iraqi Unions Fight the New Oil Law  ---  http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3261/iraqi_unions_fight_the_new_oil_law/
A quote...."“It doesn’t serve the interests of the Iraqi people,” says Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Basra-based Southern Oil Company Union and the Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers’ Unions. Umara recently toured the United States, advocating both national control of Iraqi oil assets and immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."  -  See also....

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Turkey: US Arms End Up in Kurdish Hands  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6773516,00.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) - Turkey's ambassador to Washington said Wednesday that U.S. weapons have been turning up in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey."

Kurdistan: Dangerous Passage - Turkey embraces 'hot pursuit' in northern Iraq.  ---  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12555396/site/newsweek/
A quote...."May 8, 2006 issue - Could another front be opening in the Iraq war? Over recent weeks, some 200,000 Turkish troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, have massed along the mountainous border with Iraq."

PKK Introduces Use of IEDs Against Turkish Targets  ---  http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373498
A quote...."The casualties suffered since the beginning of June in Turkey's military operations against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members in its southeast region provide a disturbing illustration of the spread of technology and techniques among terrorist groups."

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'Tell the Americans it's Their Turn to Do More' - posted at America's Pub Int Agncy  ---  http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml
  ---  http://www.watchingamerica.com/thenationpk000052.shtml
A quote...."Aggressive military action against extremists' has cost Pakistan's security forces dearly … Pakistan has suffered immensely due to its blind cooperation with the so-called 'war on terror."

Let's make it quite clear to anyone reading this blog.  American policy considerations in Pakistan are as follows - The Pushton tribes and the Taliban are bad because they're an insurgency that will prevent US control of the Afghanistan "corridor" for access and pipeline routes to the Caspian basin.  al-Qaeda is good because they offer no threat to the US's strategic assets and always provide good grist for the Neocon’s slaughter machine. - mpg
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Iran Asks Japan to Pay Yen for Oil, Start Immediately  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3762
War Warning - A quote...."Iran asked Japanese refiners to switch to the yen to pay for all crude oil purchases, after Iran's central bank said it's cutting holdings of the U.S. dollar. -  Iran wants yen-based transactions ``for any/all of your forthcoming Iranian crude oil liftings,'' according to a letter sent to Japanese refiners that was signed by Ali A. Arshi, general manager of crude oil marketing and exports in Tehran at the National Iranian Oil Co. The request is for all shipments ``effective immediately,'' according to the letter, dated July 10 and obtained by Bloomberg News."

Why is this a War Warning? - Because it's exactly what Saddam ---  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Iraq/Iraq_dollar_vs_euro.html  ---
did  ---  http://www.thinkandask.com/news/thedollar.html  ---   before   --- http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html  ---   the US bombed the heck out of Iraq. - mpg

Iran Agrees to UN Nuclear Inspection  ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071307C.shtml
War Warning - A quote...."   U.N. nuclear inspectors banned earlier this year by Iran from visiting a heavy water reactor will now be allowed to inspect it before the end of July, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday  -    In a further sign of compromise, the IAEA said the country also agreed to answer questions on past experiments that the international community fears could be linked to a weapons program."

Why is this a War Warning? -  Because it's exactly what Saddam did (to no avail) before the US bombed the heck out of Iraq. - mpg
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U.S. Treasury Holds Disaster Drill in Tampa Bay  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3759
War Warning - A quote...."The language of the press release states that the purpose of the exercise was to test the ability of financial institutions, federal and state regulators, state and local government officials and state and local first responders to quickly get to their feet after any disaster. This is open ended and indicates that this could have been a drill to prepare for any number of disasters from terrorism to a natural disaster or an economic collapse but the main focus clearly revolves around the financial community. The question is why the focus around the financial community?"

Ron Paul: U.S. In "Great Danger" Of Staged Terror  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/130707greatdanger.htm
War Alert  - A quote...."Presidential candidate Ron Paul says the U.S. is in "great danger" of a staged terror attack or a Gulf of Tonkin style provocation while also warning that a major collapse of the American economy is on the horizon and could be precipitated by the bombing of Iran and the closure of the Persian Gulf."

We Won, You Lost  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/clifford130707.htm
Must Read - A quote...."You can’t blame us that you lost. We’re winners. The end justifies the means, just ask Dick Cheney. And you made it so easy. Who could’ve believed intelligent people would accept the boondoggle that installed a pathological twit of criminal pedigree as President of the United States of America? The vote fraud was so obvious, not even counting W’s brother Jeb, governor of Florida, guaranteeing Florida would go to his brother. It was all so crooked the Supreme Court had to intervene and screw it in all the way. Verifiable evidence of massive fraud, but spectators swallowed it. Sure, quite a few people voted for W that first e-fraud cycle, probably at least half as many as tried to vote for Gore. And their willingness to accept the fraud because their twit got the nod was just that much more loss. The second coming of W was even more amazing, loss squared. With our electronic voting machines, and electoral Rove-a-lution, we own the vote count. Like Joseph Stalin said: "It’s not the people who vote that count; it’s the people who count the votes." Maybe you’ve heard about old "Uncle Joe" on the History Channel?"
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9/11 - From The History File...Unocal and the Afghanistan pipeline
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Pot, Meet Kettle: 'NYT' Hits Bush For Al-Qaeda Claims -- After Public Editor Blamed Paper
  ---  http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003611373
A quote...."In a remarkable column today, Clark Hoyt, the newly arrived public editor at The New York Times, charges that the Times in recent weeks has too often gone along with the new drive by the White House and the military to blame insurgent attacks on al-Qaeda. The column arrives on the same day the paper calls for a U.S. pullout in Iraq.  -  E&P and other news outlets last week had noted the same tendency in the Times in the reporting of Michael R. Gordon and others. A top Times editor admits to Hoyt that the paper's reporting in this regard has become "sloppy."

Website That Predicted London Bombs an Intelligence Agency Front  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/020707agencyfront.htm
A quote...."The website in question, Al Hesbah, has been attacked by other similar jihadist Internet forums for being a tool of intelligence agencies to monitor and entrap Islamic extremists."

One of the now recently retired Rumsfeld's P2OG ops. at work. - mpg
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PERU: Escalating Conflicts Put Pres. García on the Spot  ---  http://www.coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=1977
A quote...."LIMA, Jul 12 (IPS) - Three people dead, several injured, and fire at an airport: the results of a wave of protests in Peru, regarded as the worst social crisis since Alan García became president nearly one year ago. Thousands of teachers, workers and peasant farmers continued the mobilisation Thursday."

Chavez thanks OAS for not intervening in the RCTV case  ---  http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=10737&formato=HTML
A quote...."Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez thanked all Organization of American States, (OAS) country members for not supporting a United States proposal to “intervene” regarding the non license renewal for Radio Caracas Television, one of the country?s main opposition television stations."

Poor Calamity Condi, sure hope she doesn't have another snit fit. ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/riceslittlesnitfit-blog-mpg-060507 - mpg
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Fine Dining  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese376.html
A Quote...."Some years ago, I had occasion to have dinner as the guest of the minister of defense in Switzerland. It was the one and only time I ever experienced the fancy life we often see in the movies.  -  The dinner was held in a 300-year-old mansion in Berne. There was one servant for every two guests, and we were served one of those many-course meals on fine china and silver. Then we retired to the library for cigars and brandy."

Argentine Supreme Court revokes pardon of former military chief
  ---  http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/news/article_1329805.php/Argentine_Supreme_Court_revokes_pardon_of_former_military_chief
A quote...." Buenos Aires - Argentina's Supreme Court on Friday revoked the pardon granted to a former high-ranking military officer over human rights abuses during the country's last dictatorship.  -  The Buenos Aires court ruled a pardon granted in 1989 by former Argentine president Carlos Menem to General Santiago Omar Riveros, now 83, was unconstitutional.  -  The decision could pave the way for the lifting of other pardons, Argentine media reported, including that given to former military ruler Jorge Videla who led a coup on March 24, 1976."

To the Bushists, their bootlicking lackeys and their enablers in the US who’ve committed similar crimes, it doesn't matter how much you think you still control events in the here and now, you should all ask yourselves where you'll be ten, twenty, or thirty years from now.

Ask yourselves if you think this government and the American people will have the same tolerance for torture and murder as they currently have, ask yourselves if you think your victims will ever forget what you've done?

Ask yourselves if that knock on your door ten or twenty years from now is the pizza man....or justice long delayed, finally catching up to you. - mpg
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The Mainstream Media’s Michael Moore Inferiority Complex  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/13/2508/
A quote...."In a world full of political provocateurs and public hotheads, why is it that only Michael Moore triggers the media’s all-too-absent obsession with factual accuracy? Because he scares them."

Michael Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann  - (YouTube -  9 min 40 sec - Added: July 12, 2007)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-XQ8nfnye4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eprogressivedailybeacon%2Ecom%2F
This is fun. - mpg

Killing the Constitution: How I Became a Radical Twenty Years Ago Today
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/13/2510/
A quote...."Many think they now see through the Democrats’ complicity with the Bush administration’s illegal wars and unconstitutional actions. If they think this is new, they don’t know that half of it.  -  Exactly twenty years ago today, on July 13, 1987, I witnessed the Democratic Party establishment covering up — and therefore helping — the subversion of the U.S. Constitution. It was actually on national TV, but few seemed to care."

FBI lied to get ISPs to turn over data  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/130707_a_lied.htm
A quote...."THE FBI'S counter terrorism unit sent a large number of fake emergency letters to phone companies, asking them to turn over phone records immediately."

Selectees Clinton, Edwards Plot Against Kucinich, Obama  ---  http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=924
A quote...."It makes perfect sense, of course. “Following a debate during Thursday’s Democratic candidates forum at the NAACP convention, news agency microphones picked up comments by Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards as they discussed limiting future debates to only ’serious’ candidates,” reports Newsroom America. “We should try to have a more serious and smaller group,” suggested Edwards. “We’ve got to cut the number,” Hillary responded. “They’re not serious.”

DC Madam Sex Scandal Jokes  ---  http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/sexandpolitics/a/dcmadamsex.htm?nl=1
A quote....""Family values conservative Republican Senator from Louisiana David Vitter admitted he has had sex with prostitutes. Apparently years ago this Senator Vitter guy had been seeing one of the DC Madam's escorts. You think the Senator's embarrassed? How about the hooker? Now the whole world knows she had sex with a politician, eww." --Jay Leno

I like this one. - mpg
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Bush's Russian Invasion  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_kel_070712_bush_s_russian_invas.htm
A quote...."Well we aren’t really invading Russia, at least not this week. The point is that Bush’s invasion of Iraq bears a striking resemblance to Hitler and Napoleon’s invasions of Russia, with the potential for similar disastrous results."

Opposition to American Oil Grab Is Unifying Iraqis  ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071207S.shtml
A quote...."U.S. President Bush may be right: Iraq's oil law, although highly controversial, could be a "benchmark for reconciliation."  -  When Iraq's council of ministers last week suddenly approved the law, critics of various stripes united in opposition. Shiite and Sunni political parties alike denounced it, vowed to defeat it, even threatened to ensure Parliament can't take it up. It is seen by some as weakening the central government and giving too much to foreign companies."

Iraqi Deaths Due to US Invasion  ---  http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
A quote...."The number is shocking and sobering.  -  It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on the only scientifically valid study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003."

Abusing Iraqi Civilians  --- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18006.htm
A quote...." 07/10/07 "The New York Times" --With no end yet in sight for the long dark night of the Iraq war, The Nation magazine is coming out this week with an article that goes into great and disturbing detail about the brutal treatment of Iraqi civilians by some U.S. soldiers and marines. "

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges
Must Read - A quote...."Over the past several months The Nation has interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians. These combat veterans, some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars, and many of whom have come to oppose the occupation, gave vivid, on-the-record accounts. They described a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts."

The Language of Dead Bodies  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/12/2437/
A quote...."I’ve been cutting trees. The woods on the north side of my house is thick with gray trunks of dead fir and spruce. Neither old nor particularly large, these trees have been dead and dying for some time, killed by acid rain or spruce bud worm or something complex and harder to diagnose."
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Down in the Flood: The Senate's Blank Check for War on Iran
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/Articles/Down_in_the_Flood%
  ---  3A_The_Senate%27s_Blank_Check_for_War_on_Iran/#jc_allComments
Must Read - Red War Warning - A quote...."As you may know -- unless you rely on the corporate media for your news, of course -- yesterday the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that Iran was committing acts of war against the United States: a 97-0 vote to give George W. Bush a clear and unmistakable casus belli for attacking Iran whenever Dick Cheney tells him to."  - bold/italics by website author  Note : this is the first Red War Warning that's been posted

The March to War: Détente in the Middle East or "Calm before the Storm?"
  ----  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6281
War Warning - A quote...."Despite the discussions of détente in the Middle East, the peril of war is still a real menace that threatens to proliferate globally. The dialogue taking place between the U.S., the E.U., Russia, Syria, and Iran seems to be merely a transient point in the timeline of the Middle East and Central Asia. The ongoing international discussions focused on the Middle East are part of an instant in time and history that will come to pass. Attached to these discussions are the fate of the Middle East, or so it may seem. With certainty, only time will tell what will unfold in the Middle East and become recorded in the annals of history."

Intel Report: al-Qaida Takes Aim at US  ----  http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6776219,00.html
War Warning - A quote...."The draft National Intelligence Estimate is expected to paint an ever-more-worrisome portrait of al-Qaida's ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks, even as Bush administration officials say the U.S. is safer nearly six years into the war on terror"

Republicans and the Coming Terror Attacks  ----  http://farleft.blogspot.com/2007/07/republicans-and-coming-terror-attacks.html
War Warning - A quote...."Evidently all this talk of coming terrorist attacks is just a Republican strategy. According to Capitol Hill Blue, a secret memo that was leaked in 2005 "suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and 'restore his image as a leader of the American people.""  ***

GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party's decline
  ----  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2005/121105newterror.htm
War Warning - A quote...."A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people." ***

*** Website author's note : Capital Hill Blue removed the article because.... "As a result of an internal review by our staff, doubts were raised about the original source for the material used in this article."

Edwards Statement On President Bush Remarks On Iraq  ----  http://johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/2007012-bush-iraq/
War Warning - A quote...."he president claimed that the same people attacking U.S. troops today are the ones who perpetrated 9/11. It must be nice to live in a world where your actions have no consequences. There was no group called Al Qaeda in Iraq before the president's disastrous mismanagement of the war gave them a foothold, a fact the president flagrantly ignores. After being discredited again and again, the president is still trying to link Iraq and 9/11 - a rationale for the war that virtually everyone except Dick Cheney has now recognized was false."

Regarding the constant mention of al-Qaida in the articles shown above see....


Sheehan: Distinct Chance Of Staged Attack, Martial Law
  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/120707distinctchance.htm
War Warning - A quote....""I definitely think that is a distinct possibility, that there will be some kind of attack whether it's manufactured or real....I think it's really possible that these people will do that - why would he [Bush] put in that presidential directive if he didn't need to use it - I think it's really really frightening," Sheehan told The Alex Jones Show."

German TV: Kurds Used to Attack Iran  ---  http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=921
War Update - A quote...."Last month, as the corporate media mulched over renewed Pentagon claims Iran is providing deadly IEDs to Iraqi “insurgents,” German television reported the Maoist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK), has “killed over 200 Iranians,” a handful by way of IED, according to a PKK terrorist quoted by German ARD television (original in German)."

Tell the Media to Stop Lying About Iraq and al-Qaeda
  ---  http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/more.php?page=opinion&id=1604
A quote...."If by some small miracle someone missed it, the Bush administration and America's corporate-owned media are desperately trying to convince the people of the United States, that al Qaeda and not Sunni insurgents and Shiia militias is the primary force opposing Mister Bush's occupation of Iraq. That is a blatant lie. All the National Intelligence Estimates, including the one released this week, have consistently found 'foreign fighters' to account for only two and six percent of all forces in Iraq."
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9/11 - From The History File...9/11 - Bank Buys Broker for CONCEALED DEMOLITION
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Code Pink: Those Pesky Peaceniks  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/12/2469/
A quote...."WASHINGTON — When a lawmaker’s office is stormed, a hearing is disrupted or a protester is handcuffed on Capitol Hill these days, it’s a safe bet the activist being hauled away will be female and wearing pink.  -   CodePink  ---  http://www.codepink4peace.org/  ---  a group spawned by Bay Area peace activists, has become the vibrantly hued public face of the anti-war movement in Washington. Launched in 2002 to oppose the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, the female activists are gaining new attention as a thorn in the side of Democrats, urging the new leaders of Congress to move faster to end the war.

Pelosi's Sinking Fortunes  ---  http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/070507Lindorff.shtml
A quote...."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took power in the House of Representatives in January on a wave of public enthusiasm and hopes that Congress would finally start holding the president to account.  -  Not quite six months out, it's becoming apparent to Democrats who were looking to her for leadership that she's not about leading an opposition party; she's about posturing and hoping for better days in 2008, but not much else."

Regarding the article shown above, see also....Constitution vs. Failed Impeachment: Is it Worth it?  ---  http://wurstwisdom.com/?p=57
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Barbara Boxer: Impeachment "Should Be On The Table. This Is As Close As We've Ever Come To A Dictatorship"
  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24602
A quote...."Here's Barbara Boxer on the Ed Schultz Show yesterday. Though she wimped out a bit at the end, she was mostly strong on the necessity of considering impeachment."

Kucinich: Impeaching Cheney first step to restoring the rule of law
  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24629
A quote...."Speaking at the NAACP sponsored candidates forum in Detroit today, presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney."

White House invokes broad executive privilege claims to block congressional testimony
  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/exec-j13.shtml
A quote...."Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers refused on Thursday to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the Bush administration’s decision to fire a group of US attorneys last year. In justifying her decision to ignore a congressional subpoena, Miers cited a Justice Department opinion released this week that asserts broad and unprecedented claims of executive privilege."

House Panel Clears Way for Contempt Proceedings Against Miers
  ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071207R.shtml
A quote...." A House panel cleared the way Thursday for contempt proceedings against former White House counsel Harriet Miers after she obeyed President Bush and skipped a hearing on the firings of federal prosecutors.  -   Addressing the empty chair where Miers had been subpoenaed to testify, Rep. Linda Sanchez ruled out of order Bush's executive privilege claim that his former advisers are immune from being summoned before Congress.  -  The House Judiciary subcommittee that Sanchez chairs voted 7-5 to sustain her ruling. If an agreement with the White House is not reached, the full Judiciary Committee could convene hearings and vote on whether to hold Miers, Bush's longtime friend and former Supreme Court nominee, in contempt. Ultimately, the full House would have to vote on any contempt citation"

Guards steal $282 million from a bank in Baghdad  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/12/africa/12iraq.php
A quote...."BAGHDAD: In an astonishing heist, guards at a bank here made off with more than a quarter-billion dollars on Wednesday, according to an official at the Interior Ministry."

El Salvador’s Anti-terrorism Law Claims Victims  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/12/2467/
A quote...."Recently, that process of healing has been put to the test due to the jailing of 14 local and national activists arrested July 2 during protests in and around the small colonial city of Suchitoto. Dozens of social movement organizations coalesced in Suchitoto due to plans by Salvadoran president Antonio Saca to unveil there his administration’s new “National Decentralization Policy.” Many local activists view that policy as a thinly veiled plan to privatize water resources. Among the 14 protesters arrested were four staff members from the Association of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES) who were intercepted and forcibly removed from their vehicle. - bold/italics by website author

It’s What Bush Craves!  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski186.html
Must Read - A quote...."We observe the modern American political theme – global democracy, global freedom, global security, global planning – from afar, as if on a big screen, framed and shaped for our consumption, neat.  -  Americans watch and wonder. George W. Bush speechwriters, neoconservatives and the odd state-worshipping evangelical – or do I repeat myself – nod encouragingly in our direction, in Paris Hilton-style and say, "Do you love it?"  -  Sadly, overwhelmingly, we do not."

The author's right, we haven't become the New Roman Empire, nor the New Syndicate....we've become the Idiot State. - mpg
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Sheehan's Rebellion   ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11269
Must Read - A quote...."I see that Cindy Sheehan is announcing a possible run against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Sheehan's angry that Pelosi has consistently resisted defunding the Iraq war and has staunchly stood against the impeach-Bush-and-Cheney tide sweeping the Democratic/antiwar netroots. Yet it seems, also, that she has had an ideological awakening:"

Democrats, White House agree: Iraq war will rage on regardless of Senate debate
  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/iraq-j12.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."The two weeks of official debate over the war in Iraq which began Tuesday in the US Senate will do nothing to stop the ongoing bloodbath. The Bush administration will continue with the military escalation that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis since January, as well as more than 600 US troops. The congressional Democrats will continue their “antiwar” posturing, while doing nothing that could actually affect the course of events."

World Wealth Report: a census of the global oligarchy
  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/weal-j12.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."As the London-based Financial Times pointed out, the UNWIs do better than HNWIs largely thanks to high-risk, high-return investments. It quoted Nick Tucker, head of Merrill Lynch’s private client group in the UK and Ireland, as noting, “Ultra-high net worth individuals are very aggressive investors. If things are good, they will do better than the high net worth individuals, who are more cautious.”

There's no risk!!  Most of the HNWIs and UNWI's reside in the US. and got our government to print vast sums of money for their little splurge.  They're all "in" on the "game plan".  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407  ---   Start a war, pump the money supply like crazy, ride it up for four, five or six years....sell into the top, create another excuse for war - than start it all over again.

They've been doing it that way since World War II. – mpg
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Special Treatment for Uncle Sam?
  ---  http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,493605,00.html
Must Read - A quote...."This camouflaging of an illegal kidnapping as a rescue flight was no isolated incident. SPIEGEL has obtained complete lists of the flight plans of secret CIA flights in German airspace, which reveal 390 takeoffs and landings of CIA aircraft at airports in Germany between 2002 and 2006. The documents also show that mis-identifying the flights was part of a system designed to dodge compliance with complicated approval regulations." - bold/italics by website author

You see, we had it all wrong.  The US's thugs and gofers for this nation's elites are actually "rescuing" people when they snatch them off the streets, torture and kill them. Just as they’re actually bringing "freedom and democracy" to all the countries throughout the world (or at least the ones endowed with lots of oil) when they bomb them to smithereens.

How could we have been so mistaken....they’re actually kind and caring people after all.

Anybody else out there want to be "rescued", anybody else out there want some "freedom and democracy" anybody else out there want the US's "protection" or "help"  No?  Well if you don't avail yourselves of our elite’s gracious offer something really awful might happen to your country….our elites won't be able to "help" you.

Now wouldn't that be a terrible shame? -  mpg

See also....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure - 02-03-07 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307
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Bush’s Pakistan Paradox  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070710_bushs_pakistan_paradox/
A quote...."As Iraq continues to disintegrate, and our top generals and in-country ambassador predict that U.S. troops will need to die there for decades in order to prevent a full-scale regional blood bath, it is important to recall the reasons why we got into this mess. The marker of what will go down in history as “Bush’s folly” is that this idiot of a president invaded a country that had absolutely nothing to do with terrorist attacks on the United States or WMD threats to America while coddling the military junta in Pakistan, which was guilty on both counts.  -  (For newspaper editors inclined to strike my reference in this syndicated column to our “idiot president” as excessively pejorative, I refer them to one definition of idiot in Webster’s New Riverside University Dictionary: “being unable to guard against common dangers and being incapable of learning connected speech.")" - bold/italics by website author

This is not an "accident" of US policy

See the Kunduz Airlift.................The Getaway

See also "The Great Escape"......CIA Commander In Tora Bora Admits US Allowed Osama Bin Laden To Escape
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Saving Al Qaeda: Collective Punishment and Curious Policy in the "Surge"
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/Articles/Saving_Al_Qaeda%3A_Collective_Punishment_and_Curious_Policy_in_the_%22Surge%22/
A quote...."Administration's hideously named military offensive in Iraq's Diyala province ("Arrowhead Ripper" -- there's a real hearts-and-minds moniker for you) is having the same effect we've seen in all the other many pushes and surges and crackdowns during the botched conquest: killing innocent people, alienating the locals, strengthening the insurgency -- and allowing the ostensible targets of the operation to escape long before the action begins."

Operation Arrowhead Becomes Fountainhead of Anger
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/Articles/Saving_Al_Qaeda%3A_Collective_Punishment_and_Curious_Policy_in_the_%22Surge%22/
Related article - A quote...."BAQUBA - Ongoing U.S. military operations in Diyala province have brought normal life to an end and fueled support for the national resistance.  -  Baquba, 30 mi. northeast of Baghdad, and capital city of the volatile Diyala province, has born the brunt of violence during the U.S. military Operation Arrowhead Ripper.  -  Conflicting reports are on offer on the number of houses destroyed and numbers of civilians killed, but everyone agrees that the destruction is vast and the casualties numerous."

20 Rockets, Mortar Shells, Hit Green Zone; Kill 3
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/greenzoneattack-jc-cached-071107
A quote...."On Tuesday, guerrillas launched some 20 katyusha rockets and mortar shells into the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, killing 3 persons, including a US soldier, and wounding 25 persons.  -  The Green Zone was originally supposed to be the safe place in Iraq, with the area outside it (everything else) called the "Red Zone." The US Embassy in Baghdad appears to have forgotten what the phrase "Green Zone" means, since a spokesman there told the LAT, "There's fire into the Green Zone virtually every day, so I can't draw any conclusions about the security situation based on that . . ."

Homeland Security chief warns of 'increased risk’
  ---  http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/chi-070710chertoff,0,4168207.story
War Warning - A quote...."Fearing complacency among the American people over possible terror threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Chicago Tuesday that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer.  -  "I believe we are entering a period this summer of increased risk," Chertoff told the Chicago Tribune's editorial board in an unusually blunt and frank assessment of America's terror threat level."

Another heads up to our super rich....they're coming thick and fast right now. - mpg

For more on Mr. "I never met a terrorist I didn't like" Chertoff see....Vote for Us or there WILL be another Attack - 06-05-06 - mpg
   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/voteforusortherewillbeanotherattack-essay-mpg-060706
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Exclusive: Two More Defense Contractors Exposed!  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3740
A quote...."According to an article published by the Los Angeles Times back on July 4th, 2007, there are now more contractors in Iraq than US soldiers. The article states that more than 180,000 civilians -- including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis -- are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense Department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Including the recent troop surge, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq."

Calling for Paper Ballots, Kucinich Reiterates Dropped Support of Holt Election Reform Bill
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=38388
A quote...."Charging that Congressman Rush Holt's (D-NJ) Election Reform bill (HR 811)  ---  http://www.bradblog.com/Holt  ---  "does not address the concerns that Americans have, to do something about electronic voting," Ohio's Rep. Dennis Kucinich reiterated his withdrawal of support for the controversial legislation last Friday."

Fear and Trembling in Washington, D.C.
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_wayne_ma_070711_fear_and_trembling_i.htm
A quote...."Pamela Martin & Associates escorts counted some of Washington's wealthiest and most elite among their clientele according to individuals and places WMR has matched to the agency's phone records from 1994 to 2000."

15 Congress Members for Impeachment
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_sw_070711_15_congress_members_.htm
A quote...."Congressman Sam Farr (D., Calif.) is the latest member of Congress to respond to intense pressure from his constituents and co-sponsor H Res 333, articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. "

Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=38398
A quote...."As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.  -  Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act." - bold/italics by wegsite author

Gee, what a surprise, maybe as Calamity Condi is so fond of saying, "he just forgot"....the half dozen reports he read.

Was Gonzales under oath - is this perjury - does anybody care? - mpg
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Food is growing out of consumers' reach  ---  http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_6337093
A quote...."The U.S. Department of Agriculture, at the start of the year, had forecast a 2.5 percent jump in food prices for 2007. By May it had raised the bar to 4 percent, with a very sharp 17 percent jump forecast for eggs.  -  Through May, food and beverage inflation ran at 3.9 percent year-over-year, compared to overall inflation of 2.7 percent."
Now the U.S. military is assassinating Iraqi peace workers
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kathlyn__070709_now_the_u_s__militar.htm
Must Read - A quote...."At 3 a.m. on the 4th of July, U.S. military forces and Iraqi national guards opened fire with a barrage of bullets and grenades on the Baghdad home of Abdel-Hussein Saddam. The severely wounded Abdel-Hussein was taken away and his 18-year-old daughter was left alone, injured and bleeding on the floor. Abdel-Hussein’s beaten body turned up at the Yarmouk Hospital morgue on July 6.  -  The murder of Abdel-Hussein was the most devastating of four attacks by the U.S. military on the Iraq Freedom Congress in the past 10 months. The IFC is an organization comprised primarily of trade unionists, community leaders, and women’s and children’s rights workers who are determined to look after their own. IFC’s goals are to salvage the lives of as many Iraqis as possible, and to end the occupation and sectarian fighting. Its slogan: "No Shiite… No Sunni… Ours is Human Identity.”

US Middle East Wars: Social Opposition and Political Impotence  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17985.htm
Must Read - A quote...."07/08/07 "ICH" ---Everywhere I visit from Copenhagen to Istanbul, Patagonia to Mexico City, journalists and academics, trade unionists and businesspeople, as well as ordinary citizens, inevitably ask me why the US public tolerates the killing of over a million Iraqis over the last two decades, and thousands of Afghans since 2001?

Check out the comments, including this link  ---  http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/official_culture.htm  ---  that was posted. - mpg
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Bone Dance:A Late Ephiphany at the New York Times
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/Articles/Bone_Dance%3AA_Late_Ephiphany_at_the_New_York_Times/
A quote...."This is the sound of a very large bone, lodged for a very long time, being hocked up at last:...."


"Only four years -- and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies -- too late, of course. And it might have been nice if the Times editorialists had noted the very large part their own paper played in what they now call -- they now call -- "this unnecessary invasion."
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"Accidents" of War - The Time Has Come for an Honest Discussion of Air Power
  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174817/carnage_from_the_air_and_the_washington_consensus
Must Read - A quote...."In the past, when such civilian slaughters were reported, often days or even weeks after the initial military account of the battle, what followed also had a pattern to it. The first responses from the U.S. military would be outright denials (undoubtedly on the assumption that, without reporters present, the accounts of Afghan peasants or Iraqi slum dwellers would carry little weight). Normally, given the competing he says/she says frame for the reports and the inability of journalists to make it to the scene of the reputed slaughter, sooner or later the story would simply fade away."

see also....
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Lessons From the U.S. Stance Towards Iran  ---  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/lessons-from-the-us-stance-towards-iran/
A quote...."Prior to the military invasion of Iraq in 2003, the government and media, for whatever various motives, had engaged in a propaganda campaign that effectively deceived the American people on a massive scale. The propaganda continues to this day, such as the implausible denial that there ever was such a campaign and the fabricated myth that there was an “intelligence failure” leading up to the war. But the propaganda isn’t limited to Iraq. Iran has become a major focus of U.S. propaganda efforts. That this state of affairs continues demonstrates the failure of the American people to learn the most obvious lessons from the course of events that led us to be in Iraq in the first place."

Regarding the article shown above and for any of the bull you might read later on in our nation's mass-faux-media, understand this - I.E.D.s & E.F.P.s can be made by anybody. A five year old could make them.  All you need is a plastic ring (like a PVC pipe) a screw on bottom, some squibs, some high explosives and concave copper sheet for the top....that's it - mpg

For the truth about I.E.D.s & E.F.P.s see........In Iraq, anyone can make a bomb
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Reservist Sues Army Over Fifth Deployment  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3720
A quote...."PORT ST. LUCIE - An army reservist from Port St. Lucie plans to sue the military after being ordered to report for a fifth deployment.  -  In the days after the attacks on September 11th, 26-year old Erik Botta signed up to serve. After a tour in Afghanistan and three in Iraq, he said enough is enough."

Argentina's Struggle to Restore the Rule of Law   ---  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070907H.shtml
Some quotes....."La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina - The trial of a former Argentine military chaplain accused of crimes against humanity began on Thursday under heavy security. The trial may be a tipping point for Argentina's long-awaited reconciliation process after their seven year 'dirty war.'"  -  "Von Wernich's case is just the second to proceed to oral trial since the Supreme Court overtured a series of amnesty laws from the late 80s - enacted in response to significant military pressure - that shielded prosecution of most crimes committed during the dictatorship. It is the first case ever to proceed against a member of the Catholic church, which is widely suspected of having supported the military government."

Dybbuks of the State  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/rossi/rossi15.html
A quote...."Most everyone is privy to a family secret. Sometimes you may be tempted to think that you know about the family secrets of others. But the truth of the matter is that most times people tend to chatter on about second-rate peccadilloes in families, while the truly disturbing matters are left unspoken. Should the subject matter arise, it becomes the proverbial elephant in the living room that no one dare admit exists. Oddly enough, these secrets tend to get blurted on occasion and for no apparent reason."

A moment of truth for Pakistan  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IG10Df04.html
A quote...."KARACHI - Six days into the offensive against the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf was on Monday desperately searching for a way to contain the damage from the bloody confrontation.  -  Unrest over the clashes between armed students (and possibly foreign militants) inside the mosque and government forces has spread to Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the semi-autonomous tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan."

Speaker Pelosi, You Are Part of the Problem
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_james_br_070709_speaker_pelosi_2c_you_.htm
A quote...."We noticed yesterday online and again this morning in the local newspaper that Cindy Sheehan will, as an independent, challenge the Congressional seat of Nancy Pelosi out in San Francisco.  If this is the way it has to work, so be it.  Speaker Pelosi is outside the Constitution by declaring impeachment to be off the table.  No one, not even the nurturing first femme Speaker can put aside essential features of our Constitution.  Let me be plain, it is OUR Constitution, not Nancy Pelosi's or Rahm Emanuel's or Steny Hoyer's."

Republican Dissenters Won’t Dissuade Bush on Iraq  ---  http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx070607
A quote...."Even as Bush keeps losing fans among Republicans in the Senate, don’t bet that’s going to change his mind on Iraq.  -  This man gives stubbornness a bad name.  -  He’s said in the past that he’s going to stay on course even if the only people supporting him are Laura and Barney.  -  And I’m not even sure they’re still on board."

The Napping President  ---  http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8601
A quote...."I read somewhere that while George W. Bush was governor of Texas he was prone to leave his office in the early afternoon. He was not the most energetic governor and retains a well-known penchant for naps even when surrounded by troubling news."
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9/11 - From The History File...White House Accused of Thwarting 9/11 Commission
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Report: Wars Costing $12 Billion a Month  ---  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070709/D8Q97VI00.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) - The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say."

Texas: Where Every Fascist Worth his Swastika Owns Himself a Politician Like Bush
  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2007/07/texas-where-every-fascist-worth-his.html
A quote...."Texas barely resembles the state it once was. Under Bush, it became a sleazy auction where would-be Bushes sell out the rule of law and the people. Columnist Joseph Galloway asks: "Why is it that the Bush administration, in its dying throes, looks remarkably more like an organized crime ring than one of the arms of the American government?" I have a simple explanation. The GOP looks and acts like a criminal conspiracy because it is one. It looks like a crime syndicate because it's cheaper to buy a politician than it is to obey the law. They proved it all in Texas."

Should corporate mercenaries guard Texas' border? Meet DynCorp
  ---  http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2007/07/should-mercenaries-guard-texas-border.html
A quote...."South Texas Chisme points  ---  http://stxc.blogspot.com/2007/07/do-you-want-blackwater-types-patroling.html  ---  to a McAllen Monitor article about a private defense contractor that hopes to supply mercenaries to supplement the US Border Patrol ("Proposals could put contractors on the border,"   --- 
http://www.themonitor.com/news/border_3585___article.html/patrol_agents.html  ---  July 7) on the Mexican border. In a proposal to Congress last month, the Monitor reported:"

Iraqi FM: Turkey Massing 140,000 Troops  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6767275,00.html
A quote...."BAGHDAD (AP) - Turkey has massed 140,000 soldiers on its border with northern Iraq, Iraq's foreign minister said Monday, calling the neighboring country's fears of Kurdish rebels based there ``legitimate'' but better resolved through negotiation."

Despite warnings, oil usage expected to increase  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/09/business/oil.php
A quote...."PARIS: Despite four years of high prices and increasingly dire warnings about climate change, a new report Monday predicted that world oil demand would rise faster than previously expected over the next five years while production slips, threatening a supply crunch."

Woman Arrested for Not Watering Lawn  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=38331
A quote...."A widow and grandma spent the morning in jail, arrested for refusing to give a policeman her name when he tried writing her a ticket for failing to water her yard. The woman hasn't watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violates an Orem zoning ordinance."