THE MONTHLY SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN NEWS

March 2006



THIS MONTH’S TOPICS:



SOTT Editorials and Features

What Can You Do?
We get many emails from readers asking what they can do. They see the dire situation facing the United States and feel helpless. Many say that before finding our site, they wondered if they were crazy or if they were the only one that saw what was happening to their country. If you have benefited from our work, then there is likely to be someone else out there who could, too. But how do we reach them?

Asleep at the wheel: Our leaders snooze while our government speeds out of control!
"I just had the worst nightmare!" said a friend. My friend looked wild-eyed and ghastly. "Take a deep breath, calm down and spill."
"I was in this taxi and we were driving up this really steep hill and then suddenly the car began rolling backwards and I looked over at the driver and he was ASLEEP!" So. What did you do? "I grabbed the wheel and jammed my foot on the brake petal but the brakes didn't work!"

Did You Just Hear Something?
Stephen Pizzo:

Is something happening? After nearly six years of hoping something would happen, I am resisting the temptation to accept that suddenly something really is happening. But the signs are coming in strong suddenly. It's getting harder for me to deny it. Something is afoot. Something long overdue.

America's Tarnished Image
The broadcast of new images of torture by the American army at the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and the publication February 16 of a report by five independent U.N. experts on conditions at the Guantanamo camp have tarnished the West's image a bit more in the Arab world - which was already suffering from the cartoon affair. It has also discredited the United States in matters of democracy.

Let Freedom Ring!
Let us consider repossession of what is ours! This is a call to action. It is addressed to every American who can read, most especially Veterans of any sort. We can and must now consider the option of relieving the regime of George Walker Bush of his command. This includes ALL of his associates. We cannot, and MUST not let this situation degenerate any further.

Negroponte: Iraqi Balkanization on Schedule
Another Day In The Empire

John Negroponte, Henry Kissinger understudy and death squad ambassador to Honduras, has admitted the Straussian neocon and Jabotinsky Likudite plan to break “all Arab states into smaller units” is on schedule (a plan going back at least to Moshe Sharett, the second Israeli PM, according to Livia Rokach, daughter of Israel Rokach, Minister of the Interior in the Sharett government), thus implementing “balkanization and vassalization,” as Rokach described it in her book, Israel’s Sacred Terrorism and detailed in Oded Yinon’s A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties.

Some Days are Harder Than Others...
About a week ago I wrote on my Blog that after four and a half years of reading news stories that scare the hell out of me and everyone else I know, I would be quite content to just have things back the way they were before 911 - you know, some good news, some bad news, a little give, a little take, and plenty of activity moving us toward global peace and justice.That was our world then. Remember?Today we are in a world where "Endless War" is our lot, and like beasts of burden, we are expected to take this on our backs, and not complain. Our masters have made the mess we are in and we are supposed to be willing to just go in and kill other people whose masters have made the mess they are in and not ask questions.I'm sorry to be so unobliging, but my children and my children's children will have to live in whatever world we leave them and for that reason, I am highly motivated to speak out and continue to do so until there is no more breath left in me. But some days it is particularly hard. Today was one of them.

The Abuser's Ploy: A Means for Dominion and Downfall
Reprised from Information Clearing House 02/21/04
As citizens become aware of the dilemma the United States faces, they may find themselves wondering what happened to the "land of the free and the home of the brave." It seems incredible that a few rogue politicians could reek such havoc on the democratic traditions of a liberty loving nation such as ours.

The S.O.B. Has to Go--Yeah, But Which One?
Exclusive to Strike-the-Root
“Neighbor, how stands the Union ?” ~ Stephen Vincent Benet (The Devil and Daniel Webster)
The liveliest writers live on the Net. The best and brightest American essayists flourish not on the printed page, neither in polite college presses nor pulp newsprint but where free thought meets the free form use of the English language. Only on the Net. Yes, the liveliest literary minds now master their sword strokes on the Internet. They slice through the bland “newspeak,” severing a thousand pen strokes of turgid prose in the process, reducing the regurgitated “op-eds” of scores of dull, syndicated pundits with a few deft slashes.

America the Pitiful
Calling our form of government a democratic republic does not make it so. We are what we do. By now it should be abundantly clear that most Americans are incapable of recognizing real democracy—because they have never been subjected to one. Perhaps no culture on earth is more materialistic or delusional than ours.


Smokescreens, Snowjobs and Long Knives
There's been a buzz on the net for the past few days that maybe, finally, Bush is going to get his comeuppance. Cunningham has been sentenced to hard time, Katharine Harris, the "President Maker", is tainted by a related bribery scandal, Bush has been shown to be a liar (yet again) in public via the Katrina video conference expose, and most of all, the "uproar" over the Dubai Buy. Don't kid yourselves: they're blowing smoke and snowing you.

Pipes: Mass Murdering Muslims a Good Thing
Once again, the Islamophobe Daniel Pipes reveals the Straussian neocon mindset, disregarding the teaching of his guru, Leo Strauss, who advised Machiavellian deception when dealing with the dumbed-down masses. "Fixing Iraq is neither the coalition's responsibility nor its burden," Pipes told New York Sun on February 28. "Civil war in Iraq … would be a humanitarian tragedy but not a strategic one," Pipes continued, allowing us commoners a glimpse of the way the Straussian neocon mind works.

How we move ever closer to becoming a totalitarian state
Sunday Observer - The Prime Minister claims to be defending liberty but a barely noticed Bill will rip the heart out of parliamentary democracy

Twilight's Last Gleaming
Who are these people? These people who line their pockets with the lives of our loved ones? These gray men who lurk in shadows and kill the sunshine of democracy? These people who wear morality like a cheap suit pilfered from the collection plate of decency? Who are these people who have turned America into their own personal ATM machine? These are the people of the lie - Republicans.

Matewan Revisited
Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war. The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another’s throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell.  The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives. Eugene Debs : 16 June 1918: The speech was given to about 1,200 people and was later used against Debs to make the case that he had violated the espionage Act. The judge sentenced Debs to ten years in pris
on

EcoEnquirer: A Waste of Cyberspace
Yesterday we received an email from a reader which was also sent to Mike Rivero of What Really Happened and Jeff Rense of Rense.com.

Newt Gingrich's Long Straussian War
Man, what a windfall for Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, and other death merchants and war profiteers. Newt Gingrich believes the "Long War with the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam" (no kidding, this is what the Straussian neocons now call their mass murdering criminal behavior, formerly known as the war on terrorism) will "last as long as 70 years." Gingrich is the former Speaker of the House, neck deep in the Straussian and neolib mire-he is both a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where Bush gets his "minds," and also plays footsies over at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Avian Flu: A Deadly Hoax
A reading of the stories in today's section on the bird flu scare will put the entire media spectacle in a different light. It is, in many ways, a microcosm of the lies and manipulations that are part and parcel of life in this world, ranging from mundane drives such as greed to the deepest of plans by the powers that be to eliminate large portions of the world's people. Let's start with the mundane element of greed.

The setup to destroy America
Failure to recognize what's really happening and who is really behind current events is going to cost us our lives, our country and our planet.
Although the thought has been in my mind for decades, it took a trailer from the controversial new Turkish movie "Valley of the Wolves" to jar my consciousness into really recognizing what is happening. America is being set up to take the fall for everything that's wrong with the world.

Straussian Shock and Awe Plan Against Iran Heats Up
Once again, Israeli Defense (Offense) Minister Shaul Mofaz has rattled his saber at Iran. Mofaz and the Israelis are upset because the United States has yet to shock and awe Iran and really the Jabotinskyites, well accustomed to invading and provoking their Arab neighbors, have no patience for the Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency, currently meeting in Vienna-they want Iran decimated now, no more excuses. "The Israeli approach is that the U.S. and the European countries should lead the issue of the Iranian nuclear programme to the table of the U.N. Security Council, asking for sanctions. And I hope the sanctions will be effective," Mofaz is quoted by Reuters. In other words, sanctions will not be good enough for Mofaz and the Israelis-nothing short of mass murder will suffice.

Satan is Resting Easy: The Power of Christ "Propels" Them
Remember, Big Brother is watching, listening and reading. In light of the illegal surveillance they are conducting at the behest of their incompetent, rogue, and murderous Commander-in-Chief, I am dedicating this essay to the NSA. To George Bush, Dick Cheney, Daniel Pipes, and their soulless war-mongering compadres, I proudly admit that I support the Palestinians (and their democratically elected Hamas leaders) in their struggle against their brutal Israeli oppressors. In fact, consider me a member of the so-called Fifth Column identified by Pipes. I abhor virtually all of the foreign and domestic policies the Machiavellian disciples of Strauss have implemented through wielding their ill-gotten power and influence. However, the United States is as much my country as it is theirs. I fully intend to remain here and work persistently against them by continuing to tenaciously pursue human rights and social justice for humanity, not simply for a select few in the United States and Israel.


False News More Damaging Than No News At All
BBC News' 'On This Day' report for today carries the following flashback story to this day in 1990:

Iraq Invasion: A Straussian Mistake?
In Stuart Rosenberg's classic film, Cool Hand Luke, Strother Martin, playing the Captain of Road Prison 36, tells Luke Jackson, played by Paul Newman: "What we have here is… failure to communicate." As I read the news this morning, I am reminded of the film and this memorable line. Rupert Cornwell, writing for the Independent, tells us "the neo-conservatives who sold the United States on this disastrous war are starting to utter three small words. We were wrong." Cornwell cites the examples of William Buckley, Andrew Sullivan (described as "an influential commentator and blogmeister"), the "patrician conservative columnist" George Will, Francis Fukuyama, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the disgusting William Kristol, all who apparently have second thoughts about the invasion and occupation of Iraq.


Governments, Conspiracies and You
There are approximately 6 billion of us on this planet, the lives and fortunes of whom are directed in various ways by a relatively small group of elected, or unelected, individuals who together make up what is called 'government'.

Iran Shock & Awe Spin Moves into Hyperdrive
It is interesting to follow the corporate media’s take on Iran’s response to threats of military action, most recently amplified by John Bolton and Dick Cheney in speeches delivered to the primary constituency of the United States government, AIPAC. Iran’s “President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s [comments about retaliating if his country is attacked] came as Tehran struck an increasingly threatening tone, with the top Iranian delegate to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency warning a day earlier that the United States will face ‘harm and pain’ if the Security Council becomes involved,” according to ABC News.

Cheney's Got a Gun: Part 2
One of the most amazing things about this case is that even if we accept without question the tale told by Cheney and Armstrong - if we accept that this 'accident' occurred exactly as we have been told it happened - it is perfectly obvious that the consensus media opinion that there was no misconduct or negligence is simply untrue. By his own account, Cheney was hunting by vehicle, a decidedly unsafe, and unethical, practice. By his own account, he was out in a three-man hunting party. By his own account, he made no effort to ascertain the whereabouts of anyone else in his party before firing away. By his own account, he was firing at a bird that would have had to have been flying ridiculously low. By his own account, he swung his gun far beyond "the mid-point" to take his shot. By his own account, he had been drinking that day (undoubtedly far more than he has admitted to). By his own account, he was hunting in flat terrain with a party that included a hostess, two other hunters, several guides and outriders (scouts on horseback), a medical team, and a Secret Service team -- and yet he swung his gun around blindly a full 180º to take a shot at an alleged bird that was supposedly flying just a few feet off the ground.

Cheney's Got a Gun: Part 3
It's hard not to notice, by the way, that two alleged members of the hunting party just happen to have the same last name as the police constable who determined in record time that "this in fact is an accident." Small world, isn't it? It's also hard not to notice that the name of another member of the party contains the names of two of the handful of towns that make up Kenedy County, Texas: Armstrong and Sarita. One wonders if Kenedy County is little more than the Armstrong family's private fiefdom. Perhaps this is a good time to take a quick look at some Armstrong family history.


The 'Why' Of The War On Terror
With American troops sinking ever further into the "Iraq quagmire", Bush's job approval ratings hitting new lows and a growing list of respectable officials using the word dictatorship in reference to the White House,

Rove Vows Forever War
Karl Rove, the Donald Segretti understudy of dirty tricks and political sabotage, told the gathered at a Republican fundraiser at Bowling Green State University the administration will not pull American troops out of Iraq until victory is won, the Associated Press reports. It should be obvious the United States will never achieve "victory" in Iraq and the situation grows more dismal with each passing day, but the neocons and their operatives create their own reality and we are here to follow along. Rove is not simply preaching to the faithful in Ohio, and his avowal of "victory" in Iraq is basically a rhetorical device. Karl Rove is telling us what the neocons have in mind-a generational conflict, a Thirty Years' War, perpetual war for perpetual death merchant profit. Bush's neocons, followers of the fascist Strauss and Schmitt ideology, fully intend to not only reshape the Middle East, but American society as well.


The weight of demons - 9/11 hoax, phony Iraq war, poison media propaganda wind up justifying torture
We need to take the blame — now.
How many more lies do we need to hear that cost thousands of lives and take away our Constitutional rights? How much more poison do we need to have shoved down our throats by official government agencies? How many more friends do we need to see killed by government functionaries doing business as rabid dogs?
How few of us have looked into that deep dark place in ourselves and seen the connection that travels from the sweetest part of our own souls — you know, that stuff we give our families — to the little girl lying dead in the street in Baghdad. And a thousand other dusty towns turned bloody by the shadow that lurks in the hollow of our own wallets.
And don't forget the big new wall that circles the heart of Jerusalem with its shadow of fear, and spreads its crippled cancer into the minds of every human on this planet through toxic electronic fantasies better known as mass media. Already firmly constructed in your own mind from a lifetime of American public schools, that same wall is being constructed in your own town — in New Orleans, for instance, in a thousand places on this planet, at this moment. The war for human freedom is definitely on.

Iran Blame Game: More Bush Lies
Another Day In The Empire In an effort to stem increasingly vociferous criticism, Bush’s neocon handlers have provided him with a new script, basically the old script with new fantastic accusations.


Oh What a Lovely War
I thought I'd share an email that is apparently doing the rounds among all right-thinking Patriotic Americans (i.e. not pinko Commie, Islamo-liberal-terrorists).

DynCorp May Replace Cops in St. Bernard Parish
It's a good thing I don't live in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.If I did, I’d refuse to accept the authority of DynCorp, the renta-cop and mercenary corporation that may soon replace the police in the storm-ravaged parish.

The Politics of Language, Escalation or "Retaliation" - Israeli Attacks on Palestinians
It is commonplace to read each day in the most prestigious newspapers (Financial Times, New York Times, London Times, Washington Post) of Israeli "retaliation". The reportage frequently mentions a Palestinian attack on an Israeli colonial settlement in the West Bank or urban population center in Israel. The action and reaction always is located in a limited time frame. Palestinian action is always the initial moment and the Israeli military attack is always described as a response or "retaliatory" and therefore, presumably a form of defensive action, "justifiable".

Kenya, John Kerry, Diamonds and Mossad
Now and again, a story pops up that reminds us that, even in the more liberal mainstream press, nothing is ever as it seems and real investigative jounalism simply doesn't exist (if it ever did)...

The Devil Rides Out
She-devil Condolezza Rice is currently on a PR trip to OZ. Speaking to students at the University of Sydney's Conservatorium of Music, Condi waxed duplicitous on how "Iraqis will triumph" and that "we will win in Iraq but we must be patient with these people".

US Military Murders Eleven Members of an Iraqi Family - Five Children Four Women and Two Men
Major Ali Ahmed of the Ishaqi police said U.S. forces had landed on the roof of the house in the early hours and shot the 11 occupants, including the five children. "After they left the house they blew it up," he said. Another policeman, Major Farouq Hussein, said all the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head.

Is Another 9/11 in the Works?
If you were being whipped in one fight, would you start a second fight with a bigger and stronger person? That’s what Bush is doing.

Who made this plan?
Ugly Americans, Dancing Israelis and the crown are endlessly making war on the whole world.
Americans aren't the good guys anymore. Hollow TV pitchmen still insist our boys are dying for their country, but more and more people know that those lives are being wasted on corporate profits, deliberately squandered for somebody's twisted big score scheme. And you know who's making the money. The very pervs who are orchestrating all these wars. Repeat after me: Carlyle Group.

Trust Us
Something fundamental about who we are as a nation is dribbling away, it seems, without alarm or even debate. We torture prisoners - it's out in the open, a done deal. We're fighting an unnecessary war that, well, yes, was launched on a lie, but too late now; we're in, we can't get out. And our neighbor's phone is being tapped. But the worry that trumps all others is the state of this proud, imperfect democracy. We may be surrendering our power to change the national direction or demand that government be responsive to us. My fellow Americans, our voting machines don't work, at least not all the time. The mechanism of our democracy is in chaos, and almost everyone is going along with it.

The Two Americas
Have you ever noticed that America is schizophrenic-of two minds, two ideals, two ideologies that contradict? How much American rhetoric doesn't match up with American actions? Notice how there are so many laws in what's sold to the world as the "land of the free?" Speaking of that slogan, it's ironic how many dictators we support as "allies", isn't it?

Robert Fisk Backs Up Signs of the Times
Regular readers of this site will be aware of the fact that, for about 4 years, we have been repeatedly trying to convince as many people as would listen that the "war on terror" is bogus...

Three Years...
It has been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of Iraq's independence. Three years of occupation and bloodshed.
Spring should be about renewal and rebirth. For Iraqis, spring has been about reliving painful memories and preparing for future disasters. In many ways, this year is like 2003 prior to the war when we were stocking up on fuel, water, food and first aid supplies and medications. We're doing it again this year but now we don't discuss what we're stocking up for. Bombs and B-52's are so much easier to face than other possibilities. I don't think anyone imagined three years ago that things could be quite this bad today. The last few weeks have been ridden with tension. I'm so tired of it all- we're all tired.

Where's the Resistance Here on the Home Front?
Three years into the war in Iraq and now about two out of three Americans are against it, as against about one out of fifty elected politicians. In Iraq 2,315 Americans have died, and 17,100 wounded, many of them with limbs lost, some facing a lifetime in a wheel chair. Of the tens of thousands who have returned from combat to army bases or civilian life here, around 2.5 per cent are suffering from severe post traumatic stress syndrome, powder kegs, a menace to themselves and their families. There will be psychic as well as physical wreckage across America for years to come.


Some Things Never Change
According to Reuters, British Prime Minister Tony Blair will call today (Tuesday) for a global, interventionist approach to confront terrorism head on...

More Evidence Neocons Are Destroying Bill of Rights
Another Day in the Empire
I don't know how much more evidence we need to demonstrate there is a plot underway to dismantle the Bill of Rights. Now we learn that soon after "the dark days" of nine eleven, "lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack," according to US News & World Report. "Meeting in the FBI's state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects–also without court approval," that is to say in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous
"LewRockwell" -- -- On March 17 William Rivers Pitt wrote that Bush is "deranged, disconnected, and dangerous." In his March 20 Cleveland speech, Bush proved Pitt right.

Iraqi Police
At 230 of 15/3/2006, according to the telegram (report) of the Ishaqi police directorate, American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Ishaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including 5 children, 4 women and 2 men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals (map coordinates 098702).


Armageddon Anyone? The Truth Behind The War On Terror
When will it stop? Of all the questions I would like answered, this one is the most pressing. How much longer are we meant to endure the incessant lies from government and media about the nature of what is happening in our world?...

Haditha and My Lai: Same Killer Dynamic
Kurt Nimmo In late November, 1969, Time, Life and Newsweek magazines reported extensively on the My Lai massacre, the premeditated murder of 500 civilians in the Quang Ngai Province of South Vietnam. In early 1970, as a young antiwar activist, I remember how this single event more than any other contributed significantly to turning millions of fence-sitting Americans against Nixon's illegal war and subsequently swelled the ranks of the antiwar movement.

War Making 101 - A User's Manual
I've lived through seven decades and can remember the late 1930s before WW II began. In fact, I began my formal education in kindergarten within days of when Hitler sent his Wehrmacht across the Polish border in an act of illegal aggression and began that near six year horror. I was too young to understand it then, and I can barely remember that fateful "first Pearl Harbor" on December 7, 1941. Franklin Roosevelt wanted in on that fight and did all he could to goad the Japanese to attack us. He knew with enough prodding they would, and when it came, we knew about when and where it would happen. We were ready to mobilize and join the battle, we did it, and nothing's been the same since.

Democratizing the World: One Torture Victim at a Time
Analysis of the Long, Repulsive History of the United States Inflicting Torture on Its "Suspected Enemies" (in Conjunction with a Review of A Question of Torture by Alfred W. McCoy)

God Forgive America
Instead of "God Bless America," we should put "God Forgive America" bumperstickers on our cars. Americans, as participants in horrendous war crimes, should ask for forgiveness. America is a killer nation-not only do we kill Iraqis and Afghans, but we are in the process of killing ourselves.

U.S. Military Murders 11 Iraqi Civilans (WARNING: Graphic Photos)
Uruknet - On the afternoon of March 14, Fayiz Harrat, 27 years, and his sister Fayiza, 35 years, were together in their home. Both were teachers in the only school in al-Siffa village near Samara...

Journalists blackmailed by Israeli embassy
Albawaba Recent reports claim that Israel's embassy in Mauritania is operating under directives from the Israeli secret security agency, the Mossad, in an attempt to recruit Mauritanian agents to work for Israel using blackmail and other threats.

Quote Of The Week
Speaking on CNN's 'Late Edition' Republican Senator and apologist for the phony war on terror, Pat Roberts discussed the NSA warrantless wiretapping

The US Gulag Prison System - The Shame Of The Nation and Crime Against Humanity
No, not the one you think, outrageous as it is. I'm referring to the US prison system that's with no exaggeration about as shockingly abusive as the gulag abroad. It qualifies for that label by its size alone - more than 2.1 million as of June, 2004 and growing larger by about 900 new inmates every week. Blacks (mostly poor and disadvantaged) especially are affected. While they make up just 12.3% of the population, they account for half the prison population, and their numbers there have grown fivefold in the last 25 years. Hispanics (also poor) account for another 15%.

Children of Abraham: Death in the Desert
What happened in the village of Abu Sif (Isahaqi), north of Baghdad, on Ides of March? The murk of war – the natural blur of unbuckled event, and its artificial augmentation by professional massagers – shrouds the details of the actual operation. But here is what we know.

Moussaoui - Mind Programmed Patsy
Zacarias Moussaoui has been in US custody for almost 5 years, yet only recently have US authorities seen fit to drag him out into the spotlight in the hope of manifesting their one and only 9/11 conviction and convincing the world of the truth of the official version of the 9/11 event.

Stunning Zacarias Moussaoui into Submission?
NBC news reporter Pete Williams speculates that the feds have rigged a defiant Zacarias Moussaoui with a stun belt, an "electro-shock" device, apparently part of a growing "shock technology" arsenal used by torturers in South Africa, China, and Lebanon. "Amnesty International is extremely concerned about the introduction by the prison authorities in the United States of America of a remote controlled electro-shock stun belt for use on prisoners in chain gangs, judicial hearings and transportation," the human rights organization declared in 1996. "Officers can use it to psychologically threaten a prisoner, and it appears designed to humiliate and degrade a prisoner… Data from other electro-shock weapons indicate that the high pulse 50,000 volt shocks lasting eight seconds at a time could result in longer term physical and mental injuries."


Anti-Semitism: Words have a meaning
Al Beck is a Swiss architect with a distant Syrian heritage. The reflection he sent to me on the use of the word "anti-Semitism" is very original and deserves to be shared. Silvia Cattori.

Denial; It's not just a river in Egypt
A lot of rubbish has been written lately about "religious faith". The fact is, there's a force that's more powerful than faith; the power of denial. America is drowning in denial. Most people would rather keep their heads stuck in the sand than face the disaster right before their eyes.  Congress just voted to spend another $92 billion for a war that nobody wants and, yet, we don't hear a whimper of protest from the people. They've raised the national debt to a whopping $9 trillion, every penny of which will be paid off by our children and their children's children. They'll be indentured servants until the end of time. Do the American people care? No way; a few soothing bromides from our doltish president and they're lulled back to sleep.


War as an Entertaining Sport
The U.S. is so often involved in armed conflicts, war is beginning to be seen as a sports event. For many Americans, starting with George W. Bush, the former owner of a baseball team, a war is a bit like a baseball or football game; the aim of this game is simply to be the strongest and to win. In doing so, the people are entertained and the media are occupied with subject matter to fill their pages and airtime. In the U.S., war is part of the entertainment industry.

Neocon Forever War Plan Creeps Forward
If you believe the line towed by the corporate media, a line manufactured in the deep recesses of the Pentagon, the United States stumbled into Iraq based on "intelligence failures." According to Vernon Loeb of the Washington Post, former CIA analyst and PNAC conspirator Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing under the pen name Edward G. Shirley, tells us the CIA has "grown intellectually dishonest" and the intelligence the agency produced is "often nearly worthless." Because of this, the neocons created the Office of Special Plans (OSP), managed by the Leo Strauss scholar Abram Shulsky, and offered up their own "intelligence," mostly gleaned from the overactive imagination of the convicted embezzler Ahmed Chalabi and the so-called "Iraqi chemical engineer" (and the brother of a top lieutenant of Chalabi) colorfully nicknamed Curveball. It is important to note that Chalabi's lies and fabrications were used by Shulsky's OSP-and subsequently fed to an eager shill, New York Times columnist Judith Miller, for wide dissemination-because a key tenet of the Straussian philosophy is the necessity of deception.

The War Prayer
By Mark Twain
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at the briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pasters preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half-dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Podcast: A conversation with Jean-Pierre Petit
Astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit learned to fly at 12, was scuba diving in the waters off Marseille long before it became a tourist sport, and was invited to study for a year at Princeton -- where he managed to get sent back to France after his first day for spending his lunch hour exploring the restricted and top secret areas dedicated to secret US military research. Whether it was his breach of security or his declaration to the director that the project wouldn't work that got him thrown out is left to speculation.

Israel Plans More Palestinian Suicide Attacks
The Israeli government claims that it is "expecting more Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade suicide attacks in the coming weeks", and with the Israeli government's uncanny ability to predict 'Palestinian suicide attacks', trumped only by Palestinian militant's ability to provide them...

Could Strange Seattle Killing Spree Be Connected To "Manchurian Candidate" Psy Ops Government Program?
Kyle Huff, 28, gunned down six with a Bushmaster rifle and then killed himself at a home on Capitol Hill after spray painting "NOW" on the doorstep. As the old saying goes, death comes in "threes" but last week the number changed to nine, as a rash of strange killings with undertones of "government psy ops hits" hidden between the lines hit news stands across the country...

The War Drums Are Getting Louder And Sounding A Clear Message
The way things are today, why on earth would the "big fool lunatics in charge" in Washington ever want another war or maybe two of them. Already they're "waist deep in the Big Muddy" in two out-of-control debacles in the Middle East and Central Asia, and the country is leaching multi-billions we don't have to pay for them. Despite this hopeless chaos, it looks almost certain we're now headed for a new one against another Middle East 4-letter country beginning with the letter "I", and may try to "double our displeasure" by including a "fracas in Caracas." I just learned about an "Operation Bilbao" which appears to be blueprint to overthrow the Chavez government and likely includes in it targeted assassinations starting with the guy in charge.

Bush's Insane and Criminal War against Iraq
George W. Bush was planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' in that country, even before he took power in January 2001. It was Bush's plan for the U.S. to take military control of the Middle East Gulf region, whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq. In fact, presidential candidate Bush Jr. saw the political benefits of attacking Iraq as early as 1999, as has been confirmed by Bush's biographer, Mickey Herskowitz.

Utterly Laughable Comment Of The Week
You're gonna love this one. It really doesn't get any more tragi-comedic than this...


Signs Under Attack! abovetopsecret.com EXPOSED!!!

Some of you may have noticed that Signs of the Times was down three times today. This was a result of threats by abovetopsecret.com's attorney to our website host. It seems that abovetopsecret.com finally could no longer stand the negative attention they were getting from our exposure of them as a probable CoIntelPro operation, initially in the form of Joe Quinn's article:

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 - and Neither Did a Boeing 757

which was an analysis of the "catherder" article on abovetopsecret.com which essentially was support for Bush and the Neocon's conspiracy theory about the events of September 11.

After removing this "offending material", we published the letter from abovetopsecret.com's attorney on our forum. Within FIVE minutes, the Signs page was taken down again by the website host. When we called our server to ask "what now," we were informed that abovetopsecret.com's attorney had called again and was claiming that in the five minutes the forum posting was up, he had already received death threats because we had published his name and location! (which, incidentally, is freely available on the web.) We were forced to remove that information also, but you can read it here. It seems that abovetopsecret.com's attorney is also well-versed in the tactics of CoIntelPro.

As anyone who is familiar with copyright law knows, our rebuttal of the 'Catherder' article is perfectly legal under standard copyright law. However, abovetopsecret.com, like Bush and the Neocons, make up their own laws and enforce them with intimidation and bogus threats from their 'hired-gun' attorney. As Laura has chronicled on her blog, abovetopsecret.com's urgent demands that we remove this article because it was a violation of their "creative commons" copyright was absurd and simply evidence of their position as an active cointelpro/psy-ops propagator on the internet. It isn't copyrights that abovetopsecret.com is concerned about, it is google bombing and running psy-ops. And now, they have proven it.

This action also is highly suggestive of the idea that the Pentagon issue is a LOT more sensitive than anyone has thus far suspected! Do take note of THAT!

We hope that everyone who reads this will spread this information far and wide because these people are covert Bush supporters, Cyber Nazi Brown Shirts.

Don't worry, there will be lots more information on this matter available soon and we will keep our readers updated. Check back regularly, and it will help a LOT if you can find some spare change to put in the legal defense kitty.

Thanks from the SOTT Team.


Signs of the Times Attacked by Abovetopsecret.com Psy-ops!
Signs of the Times is one of the very few news and information portals on the web that remains uncorrupted in any way and is staffed by a group of people who are dedicated to one thing - bringing the Truth to the general public. We are able to do this because we rely solely on support from our readers and our own hard work: book sales.
As many of our readers are probably aware, we had a little "to do" with a gang we consider to be agents of Pentagon psy-ops - abovetopsecret.com and friends - last night. We were up until 3 a.m. dealing with the backlash from this situation...

Abovetopsecret.com, Project Serpo Psy-ops, and the Pentagon's Flying Fish
For the last few years, this website, has sought, in all honesty, to present the daily news as truthfully as possible. Signs of the Times is one of the very few news and information portals on the web that remains uncorrupted in any way and is staffed by a small group of people who are dedicated to one thing - bringing the Truth to the general public. We are able to do this because we rely solely on support from our readers and our own hard work: book sales. You may not necessarily agree with our take on events but I would hope that you agree that alternative media is now essential to the preservation of our basic freedoms.





Glimpses Of Truth

U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006
Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay "as long as they are needed"

The Troops Want to End Iraq Occupation in 2006

A recent Zogby poll of 944 US soldiers in Iraq reported that 72% thought all troops should withdraw this year. The views of the troops differ markedly from those of their commander-in-chief, and the administration; only 23% wanted to "stay-the-course". The troops views, however, concur with those of the foreign policy establishment, e.g., General William Odom, former national security advisors Brent Scowcroft, Zbignew Brezinski, and see HERE

The Soldiers Speak. Will President Bush Listen?

When President Bush held a public meeting with troops by satellite last fall, they were miraculously upbeat. And all along, unrepentant hawks (most of whom have never been to Iraq) have insisted that journalists are misreporting Iraq and that most soldiers are gung-ho about their mission. Hogwash! A new poll to be released today shows that U.S. soldiers overwhelmingly want out of Iraq... and soon.

TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE BY STORM - Stop Genocide, Torture and Occupation
Multi-Day Event, Beginning March 15, come when you can and stay as long as you can - we are taking over the White House until they leave.
Wednesday, March 15th 2006 12:00 AM
Washington, DC USA

U.N. SOS - We need your help to end the reign of international criminals. It is our duty and the duty of the United Nations to rescue the people of the world from the U.S. dictators. Murder for occupation and theft of land is illegal. Murder of journalists is criminal. Remove the traitors who have stolen the U.S. budget and used it to commit international crimes against humanity.

 
Signs Comment: The only way action like this would work would be if literally millions of people responded. And they would not only have to "storm the White House," they would first have to weaken its defenses by engaging in a long siege of boycotting the news media that do not report the facts, and the corporations that support the Neocons. It would take a couple of months of consistent, hard pressure to make it work. And so far, there are not enough citizens awakened yet. They need to suffer more before they wake up and you can be sure that the Neocons will see to THAT!

Ike Saw It Coming
Early in the documentary film "Why We Fight," Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York City police officer whose son was killed in the World Trade Center attack, describes his personal feelings in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. "Somebody had to pay for this," he says. "Somebody had to pay for 9/11. ... I wanna see their bodies stacked up for what they did. For taking my son." Lost in the agony of his grief, Mr. Sekzer wanted revenge. He wanted the government to go after the bad guys, and when the government said the bad guys were in Iraq, he didn't argue.

Signs Comment: Indeed, the Pathocrats have no illusions about their fate should they be fully exposed to the public. That is why there is no crime they will not commit to prevent that.

The S.O.B. has to go

Bonnie Erbe, a columnist whose work I respect, writes elsewhere on this web site today that President George W. Bush should be impeached for his many high crimes against the Constitution of the United States.

Thousands of Indians Protest Bush Visit
Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting "Death to Bush!" rallied Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by President Bush.

Ann Coulter cancels appearance after Republican Complaints

Chris Meyer immediately bought 10 more tickets to the Kent County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner -- once he heard commentator Ann Coulter backed out of her March 16 commitment as keynote speaker.
Meyer, a Grand Rapids attorney and Republican candidate for state House, protested Coulter's scheduled appearance by telling supporters on his campaign Web site he planned to leave the event after dinner and before Coulter's speech. But now that GOP officials are hunting for a replacement, Meyer said he can feel comfortable going full tilt at the party's biggest fundraiser of the year.


Troops Widely Reject Bush's Iraq Strategy as Civilian War Support Hits New Low
Three out of four U.S. soldiers in Iraq reject their commander in chief's strategy to keep them there, according to a unique poll that on Tuesday became the latest survey to evoke an increasingly isolated White House.


Where Are the Good Americans?
Anyone who sees the photographs of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps must wonder how human beings could ever have allowed such things to happen. They must wonder how people of good will could have stood by while their government committed atrocities in their name. In the wake of that nightmarish era, people often asked, "Where were the good Germans?" After the publication of the long-suppressed pictures of Abu Ghraib victims and the United Nations finding that torture and abuse are still taking place at the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, America has fashioned its own nightmare. We now must ask ourselves, "Where are the good Americans?"

Level of Bush administration incompetence is truly chilling
The administration's competence problem is already at the yadda, yadda, yadda stage. They were supposed to protect us from terrorist attack, they said Iraq would be a cakewalk, that we only needed 50,000 troops. They failed to plan for the occupation or Hurricane Katrina or the prescription drug plan. Yadda.
But when you look at the details of what incompetence means, it becomes both chilling and really, really expensive. The Army announced this week it has decided to reimburse Halliburton for nearly all of the disputed costs in the more than $250 million in charges the Pentagon's own auditors had identified as excessive or unjustified.


Have Depleted Uranium, Will Travel
The Lone Star Iconoclast
(George W. Bush's Hometown Newspaper)
When The Iconoclast learned of a study conducted by Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan that suggests that depleted uranium radiation had traveled from Iraq to Great Britain during "shock and awe," we knew it was time to more fully explore the implications. We decided to "lay it all on the table," as best we could by interviewing noted scientists and people in the know about radiation, those who have become medical casualties, those who have gone through the military system, and those who possess an upper tier knowledge of radiation in general. This is clear: the day that depleted uranium was introduced into the arsenal of doom was quite literally the day the earth stood still, with scientists worldwide uniting to voice concern that genocide had found a home on our planet. At the other extreme, militarists hailed the nuclear substance as their newest advantage in maximizing destruction. It became a trump card with the ability to destroy the masses, even those yet unborn.

The Human Right to a Nuclear Free World - A Plea from a Nobel Peace Prize Winner
By MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE:  I believe one of the most hopeful trends in the world today is the interconnectedness of the Human Family. Technology has made us interconnected, and trade and the movement of people have made us interdependent. Even in the last 10 years, the world has changed, and the next 20 years will bring changes that none of us can imagine. But we human beings can shape the world to a great extent. I am very hopeful for the future because I believe we are often capable of good choices, we are resilient even in the face of great disasters, and we are creative. The massive people's movement around the world should give us all hope. But governments must start listening and acting on what their people are saying, and particularly on such burning issues as nuclear weapons and war.

The following caught my eye today as I was gathering articles for the Signs page:
McEwan on the afterlife
P.Z.Myers
Pharyngula
Seed sent me a copy of this book, What We Believe but Cannot Prove : Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty, and I've been browsing. It's a collection of short essays (sometimes very short) on assumptions held by individual thinkers without solid evidence. It's thought-provoking, even where I think the writer is a dingbat (Ray Kurzweil) or blithering banalities (Kevin Kelly). I rather liked Brian Goodwin's essay on the fallacy of the nature-nurture problem, but so far, my favorite is one by the author Ian McEwan:
The British Government: Long-Time Sponsor of Islamic Terror
You want the news behind the news? You want to know just how far from reality the official truth is? Consider the following story from today's UK Guardian:


Bush, Chavez, and Hitler
U.S. officials become angry and indignant when someone compares the Bush administration's policies to those of the Hitler regime. Even government officials at the local level get upset over the comparison, as reflected by the public schoolteacher who is under investigation for comparing Bush's policies to those of Hitler in his classroom.

TEACHER WHO COMPARED BUSH TO HITLER REINSTATED...
An Aurora social studies teacher accused of giving a biased lecture that sparked national debate over academic freedom was reinstated Friday after assuring administrators he would give balanced viewpoints in all classroom discussions. Jay Bennish will return Monday to his teaching duties at Overland High School, less than two weeks after Cherry Creek School District administrators placed the 28-year-old on paid administrative leave. Speaking after a meeting with administrators Friday, Bennish said that he was "excited to be back in the classroom" and that he would continue to use his job as a way to "encourage democratic values in our society" and to "promote social justice, just as I have always attempted to do."
 
Signs Comment: Notice that the psychopathic little coward that started the whole thing isn't going back to school... That suggests that a lot more people supported the teacher than the snitch...

The Value of George Orwell

 George Orwell remains a valuable writer, though he died in 1950. He was a man who was an active participant in his times, and since the new century appears to be going down the same road as the last one, we can still learn from him.
His essay "Politics and the English Language" ought to be read by every journalist and by everyone who reads journalists or listens to the babble on television.

"Politics and the English Language"
By George Orwell
Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

Bush, Lies, and Videotape
If George W. Bush were a character in a novel or a play, last week might have been the turning point in the narrative. He was shown on film being explicitly warned, just hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, that the levees in New Orleans were vulnerable.


The conservative bubble
One of the reasons the conservative movement has morphed into a pathological political religion is that it has managed to largely cut itself off from the real world by insulating itself from any kind of criticism whatsoever.

A Veteran's Letter to the President: "I Return Enclosed the Symbols of My Years of Service"
Joseph DuRocher was for 20 years the elected Public Defender of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, covering Orange and Osceola counties. Since retirement, he's been writing and teaching law at the University of Central Florida and the Barry University School of Law. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, serving as a Naval Aviator in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. On Monday, Mr. DuRocher returned his Lieutenant's shoulder bars and Navy wings to President Bush, and enclosed the following letter.

Why is America so Hated By So Many?
An interview with John Perkins author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Mr. Perkins reveals the dark underside of American economic polices and how they impact the poorest nations and the indigenous peoples of the world. His book points out how these policies negatively impact us all in ways that will have far reaching influences in international relationships and world economic stability. He discusses what an economic hit man is – their ongoing work and how they perpetrate their crimes against humanity. Mr. Perkins was an economic hit man for 10 years operating all over the world on behalf of the corporatocracy (a coalition of government, banks and corporations). He tells his personnel story of being an economic hit man, how he was sent into third world countries to pressure leaders to except huge loans that resulted in the sacrifice of health, education and jobs for their people due to the overwhelming burden of the debt. The powers of persuasion used by the ECH included everything from political bribery to assassination. He shares his growing realization of the insidious harm these actions were causing and his reasons for leaving the field. Mr. Perkins is now head of Dream Change an organization dedicated to promoting sustainable living.

Who Is Responsible For This Terror - Al-Qaida?

1. 30 million people die of hunger each year

2. 800 million suffer from malnutrition

3. 500 million live in comfort

4. 5.5 billion live in conditions of want

5. 30 000 people die of hunger daily and it's 100 000 people if we include the deaths due to malnutrition (hunger)-related diseases
6. The three richest people in the world have a fortune superior to the total sum of the gross domestic products of the 49 poorest countries-a quarter of the countries in the world.

7. Of the 4.5 billion people in developing countries almost one-third of them have no access to drinking water, and one-fifth of the children don't take in enough calories or proteins

8. Three billion people - half of the planet live on less than $2 a day.

9. Since 1989, the end of the Cold war, there were 70 new wars.

10. The sum total of the wealth of the 15 richest people in the world is greater than the GNP of all the sub-Saharan African countries

11. In1960, the world's richest 20 percent earned more than 30 times as much as the poorest 20 percent.
At present, the earnings of the richest group are 82 times higher than those of the poor.

12. According to the United Nations, the wealth of the world's 225 richest individuals-less than 4 percent of the world's private wealth-would be enough to give everyone in the world access to basic needs (food, drinking water, education, health care).

13. There are more than 1 billion unemployed people around the world.

14. Three hundred million children are exploited in unprecedented conditions of brutality.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of horrors in our world in the 21 first century.

What are we, we who live in the "prosperous" and "democratic" countries, in the "civilized" (white) world doing about it? What have we done about it? What are we going to do about it? Start a war on misery?

To satisfy the basic sanitary and nutritional needs of all the people living in conditions of want, it would cost a sum equal to the amount of money spent in one year on perfumes in the United States and the European Union, and less than what they spend on ice cream.

New world relationships
THE prospect that Europe and Asia might move toward greater independence has troubled US planners since World War II. The concerns have only risen as the 'tripolar order' - Europe, North America and Asia - has continued to evolve. Every day, Latin America, too, is becoming more independent. Now Asia and the Americas are strengthening their ties while the reigning superpower, the odd man out, consumes itself in misadventures in the Middle East.

Sandra Day O'Connor: Dictatorship is the danger

Linking the words "America" and "dictatorship" is a daily staple of leftwing blogs, which thrive on the idea that Bush administration policies since 9/11 are taking the country ever closer to totalitarian rule. Liberal fears that democracy is endangered by Republicans in Congress are so widespread, so endemic to the jittery political climate in the US, that they hardly bear repeating. It'll surprise no one to learn that another voice was added to the chorus last Thursday, warning that recent attacks on the American judiciary were putting the democratic fabric in jeopardy and were the first steps down the treacherous path to dictatorship. What is surprising - more than that, electrifying - is that the voice belonged to Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired a few weeks ago from the supreme court. O'Connor is a Republican and a Reagan nominee. Regarded as the "swing vote" on the court, she swung the presidential election to George Bush in 2000.

Video: Hiroshima - Where Denial Meets Reality
Flash Presentation
The Lies - The Deaths - The Future? Click here to watch the video.

Democracy: What A Concept
Finally, there's a dandy way to abolish the Electoral College and elect the president by popular vote.

Strategery trumps principle
You can get a good look at just what's wrong with the Democratic Party by perusing Joan Vennochi's latest offering, which takes Russ Feingold to task for his proposed censure of President Bush:

Podhoretz said Democrats calling Bush "incompetent" would turn off voters, ignored polls that say many voters already think Bush is "incompetent"

New York Post columnist John Podhoretz described Democrats' use of the term "incompetent" to describe President Bush as "an act of political cowardice," adding, "voters can smell that kind of cowardice a mile off." But a poll by the Pew Research Center reported that "incompetent" was the most frequently cited one-word description for Bush, and that, overall, negative impressions of Bush -- measured by respondents' selection of words such as "incompetent," "idiot" or "liar" to describe Bush -- outweighed positive ones, 48 percent to 28 percent.

Bring the Sixties Out of the Closet
We need to resurrect the good '60s -- a time when acting, despite being messy and imperfect, made a lot of good things happen.

Time for a New Dictionary
Looks like it's time for a new dictionary. The hardcover copy of The American Heritage Dictionary, a copy which my mother gave me as I left for college in 1982, now has such disgusting dirt stains on the edge of the pages from my persistent flipping through it that two conclusions jump to mind. First, either my logophilia knows no bounds or, second, I should wash my hands more often. For the last 24 years my hardcover AHD has served me well. I have looked up the word "Manichaeism" so many times that I finally highlighted it in yellow magic marker. While I can recite its definition verbatim, my limited intellect prevents me from actually understanding its proper definition, let alone correct usage. I can turn to "steatopygia" with my eyes closed after it appeared on a dorm mate's "Word of the Day" calendar and became a secret word among us sophomoric sophomores. But although I trusted my hardcover AHD to get me through all of life's major vocabulary crises, little did I know that it had misinformed on the definition of the simple word "again."

Veteran: War based on greed
Delta Force founder finds Bush deaf to Iraq criticism
Harsh criticism of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq is nothing new, but this critic has the counter-terrorism credentials and military connections to bolster his assertions. Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major and founding member of the elite Delta Force commando unit, charged Monday that the president's policy is based on cultural arrogance and corporate greed rather than sound military strategy. "I understand the people who are doing this and where they're coming from," the veteran said. "Delusional ideology is a big factor, and there's a huge amount of venal corporate activity. Halliburton and other companies are making so much money that they don't want to see it changed."


Why Do Some Dictators Escape Justice?
The spotlight of international justice has shone on Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic to hold them accountable for alleged war crimes.

But many are asking: What about Suharto in Indonesia, Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Charles Taylor of Liberia? Indonesia's ailing dictator for 32 years is widely believed responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people yet he lives freely in a wealthy residential district of Jakarta.

Signs Comment: Ask Bush.


George Bush is LAUGHING at you if you aren't speaking out for CENSURE
ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/censure.php
Why does George Bush feel he can just laugh off the laws passed by Congress and even the Constitution itself? He did it AGAIN by attaching a so-called signing statement to the renewal of the Patriot Act, reserving the right to DISREGARD even the minimal reporting requirements that Congress had the temerity to impose. Who is going to challenge him? He's not just laughing at the legislature. If you do not speak out now, he is laughing at YOU. He is laughing at you because you complain about the fact that nobody in Congress has any backbone, and yet when someone DOES stand up you do nothing to speak out and support them, and to encourage others to do the same. He is laughing at you because a million mostly NON-citizens got off their butts over the weekend and killed HR 4437 in the Judiciary Committee literally overnight, the same Judiciary Committee that will be considering his censure this very Friday. And yet most of you continue to do nothing. Yes, George Bush is laughing at you.

Ball In The Supreme's Court

The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard arguments in what will almost certainly be one of the landmark cases of the past fifty years. Their decision will determine whether the Supreme Court will continue to assert its authority to review and check the executive's power to detain and try individuals caught up in the "war on terror."




Bush And His Cronies

GOP Unease Spreads to Security Issues
The first heading on the issues page of Rep. Mark Foley's Web site brags that he is "one of President Bush's strongest supporters in Congress." The Florida Republican voted for the president's legislation 90 percent of the time, according to the Web site, "the 3rd highest ranking among the Florida delegation."

Senator Feinstein's War Profiteering
It happens all the time. If the antiwar movement takes on the Democrats for their bitter shortcomings, a few liberals are bound to criticize us for not hounding Bush instead. It doesn't even have to be an election year to get the progressives fired up. They just don't seem to get it. "How can you attack the Democrats when we have such a bulletproof administration ruling the roost in Washington?" somebody recently e-mailed me. "Don't you have something better to do than write this trash?!"

Let history judge

Stung by growing criticism of his Iraq policy which has manifested itself in all-time low public opinion ratings, President Bush last month embarked on a tour in which he delivered five speeches outlining his "Plan for Victory" in Iraq, as well as offering a defense of his decision to invade Iraq. "It is true that much of the intelligence [used to justify the invasion] turned out to be wrong", Mr. Bush said in the fourth of these speeches. "As President, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."

Can states limit what candidates spend?

The role of money in elections is one of the most volatile fault lines in American politics. Liberals generally favor limits on how much gets raised for campaigns. Many conservatives want few if any restrictions. Tuesday, the US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about a Vermont law that goes a step further than limits on campaign contributions. It also restricts how much candidates can spend.

Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer

Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago say Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

For the sake of the world's poor, we must keep the wealthy at home

At last the battlelines have been drawn, and the first major fight over climate change is about to begin. All over the country, a coalition of homeowners and anarchists, of Nimbys and internationalists, is mustering to fight the greatest future cause of global warming: the growth of aviation. Not all these people care about the biosphere. Some are concerned merely that their homes are due to be bulldozed, or that, living under the new flight paths, they will never get a good night's sleep again. But anyone who has joined a broad-based coalition understands the power of this compound of idealism and dogged self-interest.

Why Scooter Libby is Toast and Rove will provide the butter: And why no one connected with John Fund can get life insurance

Scooter Libby made a mistake. He thought he was a NeoCon Insider. It was a natural mistake for him to have made, his business cards, the perks, the deference, the salary, and the access to power, all spell out Insider using the usual formula for such. But he was wrong and will now find himself tossed off the back of the Sleigh of State into the gaping maws of righteous indignation, there to serve his ultimate purpose, scapegoat and distraction. The NeoCons waste nothing, not even their hapless tools, that is their environmental policy.

GOP thinks exposing their ethical violations is unethical

Speaking of GOP corruption which we seem to do an awful lot of these days....we've finally learned what the GOP thinks is unethical: reporting on the GOP ethics violations. From The Hill:
The House Republicans’ campaign operation is charging that a recently released Democratic report on Republican corruption violated ethics rules.

The 103-page report, “America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption,” was compiled by the Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee and released by the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), last week.

The report reiterates repeats many of Democrats’ long-held concerns about Republicans’ actions on healthcare, energy, the environment, homeland security and Hurricane Katrina.
Congresswoman Slaughter did a post on the report over at DailyKos when she released the report last week. The full report is available in a pdf version here.

Lobbyist Turns Senator but Twists Same Arms
It might be said that Senator John Thune went through the revolving door - backward.
 
Signs Comment: From AmericaBlog:

South Dakota's Senator John Thune, who was elected with the aid of male prostitute Jeff Gannon, has provided yet another example of just how ethically bankrupt the GOPers on the hill can be. It sures seems like he has a lot in common with his infamous campaign operative

Conyers used staff as personal servants
Three former aides to U.S. Rep. John Conyers say the lawmaker used them as baby sitters and personal servants while they were supposed to be working in his Michigan offices.

Former Congressman Cunningham Gets Eight + years
Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who collected $2.4 million in homes, yachts, antique furnishings and other bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress, was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison, the longest term meted out to a congressman in decades.
Cunningham, who resigned from Congress in disgrace last year, was spared the 10-year maximum by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns but was immediately taken into custody. He also was ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution for back taxes and forfeit $1.85 million in valuables he received.

President Maker Katherine Harris Caught Up in Cunningham Bribery Scandal

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris said Thursday she did not knowingly do anything wrong in her associations with a defense contractor who prosecutors say illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign in 2004.
Questions about the donations have arisen as Harris, the former Florida secretary of state who oversaw the 2000 presidential election recount, tries to unseat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. The donations were described in a plea agreement last Friday, when Mitchell Wade, the former president of MZM Inc., pleaded guilty to bribing U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in exchange for assistance in getting $150 million in Defense Department contracts for his company.

Trickle Down Republican Corruption; Poll Results show right wing corruption exists at all levels

It's clear that, at the top, the Republican Party, led by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Frist, Denny Hastert, and until recently, Tom DeLay, has been thoroughly corrupt. It's clear that the rank and file Republican members of congress have been rubberstamping the crooked, unconstitutional, anti-democratic moves of their leaders, deferring ethics rules, attempting to pass laws that make the Bush team's lawbreaking legal.

'Trial' of Bush prompts meeting - Parsippany school officials to discuss classroom project

Top school officials will huddle privately this morning to discuss a classroom war crimes "trial"of President Bush at Parsippany High School that suddenly is drawing national attention.
The school board's president, Robert Perlett, said the 8:30 a.m. meeting was called by mutual agreement on Thursday as the uproar surrounding the mock tribunal escalated on the Internet and talk radio.

'Frauds-R-Us' - The Bush Family Saga
By William Bowles
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you have to focus on" – GW Bush
"You have to look at the entire Bush Family in this context -- as if the family ran a corporation called 'Frauds-R-Us,'
George Jr.'s specialty was insurance and security fraud.
Jeb's specialty was oil and gas fraud.
Neil's specialty was real estate fraud.
Prescott's specialty was banking fraud.
And George Sr.'s specialty? All of the above." -- Lt. Cmdr. Al Martin, US Navy,(Ret)
"While opportunism isn't new in U.S. politics, never did so many in one family extract so many dollars from taxpayers as when George Bush senior was president a decade ago" -- David E. Scheim, author of Contract on America.
"What you've got with Bush [George senior] is absolutely the largest number of siblings and children involved in what looks like a never-ending hustle." -- Republican pundit Kevin Philips
"Texas businessmen [are] not crooks, "they just have an over-developed sense of the extenuating circumstance."" -- Molly Ivins

A very enlightening read.

Party Hacks

Two weeks ago, an obscure, unelected, Republican-appointed official in California decided the future of the world. That future -- at least for the next several years -- will be an accelerating nightmare of war, corruption, repression, atrocity and terror. That's because the loyal apparatchik has, with the stroke of a pen, guaranteed the perpetuation of the Bush faction in power in 2008 and beyond.

Newsday: The bungling Bush presidency is falling apart
An old acquaintance in Washington - a former member of Republican administrations whose foreign policy views are decidedly hard-line - recently had this to say to a friend about the Bush administration: This might be the most inept administration in American history. Considering some of the bozos who have served in the White House - James Buchanan and Warren Harding are two names that come to mind - that is a breathtaking statement. Considering the stakes involved with the United States, the most powerful nation in the world, it is also frightening.

BLAIR EVEN LESS POPULAR THAN BUSH

George Bush isn't the only world leader whose popularity is in the toilet. According to an Angus Reid Global Scan report, the American President's 34 percent rating is actually better than that of his British counterpart. They cite an Ipsos-MORI poll that shows only 28 percent of the respondents considered Prime Minister Tony Blair's performance satisfactory. This represents a drop of nine points since the last poll in November. The story notes that Blair has announced he will be retiring at the end of his third term, but it cites Labour Party leader Dennis Healey as advising him to step down sooner, and allow his expected successor Gordon Brown to assume the position. "I think Tony's showing he is losing his grip, and the sooner Gordon takes over the better," Healey reportedly said. The next election must be held on or before Jun. 3, 2010, and the prime minister may dissolve Parliament and call an early ballot at his discretion.

Corrupt Congress: Broken system facilitated Cunningham's graft

IT is tempting, and certainly convenient, for his former colleagues in Congress, to dismiss Randy Duke Cunningham as an aberration. He is, in a sense, as prosecutors told the judge who is to sentence Cunningham this week, the California Republican engaged in unparalleled corruption. The ordinary lawmaker can't be bought for the price of an antique armoire - or, in Cunningham's case, nine armoires, six Persian carpets, three antique oak doors, two candelabras and a china hutch.

Corruption in Real Time: Lawmakers Embrace Lobbyist Cash

Capitol Hill is abuzz these days with talk about keeping lobbyists at a distance. But when it comes to the political cash they can generate, interest in keeping them near remains strong.
This weekend, Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) is hosting a $5,000-per-person gathering - which invitations said would feature golf, fishing, snorkeling and "much, much more" - in the Florida Keys. McKeon anticipated that many of the guests would be lobbyists. Also this weekend, lobbyists are among those at "Winterfest '06," where supporters of Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) can ski and snowmobile at the exclusive Yellowstone Club in his home state.

Senator wants to ban 'fast lane' for Web

Network operators would be barred from blocking or degrading Internet connections and favoring those of companies that pay for peppier access, according to a Senate bill introduced Thursday. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said his measure will foster "equal treatment" for all Internet content and dispel worries that telecommunications providers will play favorites in the future. Because Wyden's proposal represents the most aggressive legislative attempt to dictate what kind of Internet services are permissible or not, it's likely to provoke a political spat between proponents of so-called "network neutrality" and the traditionally influential telecommunications industry. Executives at Verizon Communications, BellSouth and the newly merged AT&T and SBC Communications have recently talked about the desirability of a two-tiered Internet in which some services--especially video--would be favored over others.

Corruption in Neocon-land: Top CIA Official Under Investigation - No. 3 Official at CIA Is Subject of Investigation Related to Bribery Probe

A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned. The CIA inspector general has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials.

Corruption: Katharine Harris in Hiding - linked to finance scandal

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, linked to a campaign finance scandal, is turning away even routine requests to provide funding for special interests.

Harris has taken pride in going after these earmarks - so-called pork barrel spending - but on Thursday she stayed away from meetings with special interests, including executives from Florida's university system. Among the reasons for her absence was a meeting with top-gun campaign finance lawyer Ben Ginsberg, whom she hired as a "precaution," Harris spokeswoman Kara Borie said.

Empty Promises Dept: UK, US to withdraw Iraq forces by early '07: papers
The United States and Britain are planning to pull all their troops out of Iraq by the spring of 2007, two British newspapers reported in their Sunday editions, quoting unnamed senior defense ministry sources. The Sunday Telegraph said the planned pull-out followed an acceptance by the two governments that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq was now a large obstacle to securing peace. "The British government is understood to be the driving force behind the withdrawal plan but all 24 coalition members are likely to welcome the move, given the growing international unpopularity of the war," the Telegraph said.

Signs Comment: Don't be fooled! It's easy to make promises designed to allay the concerns of an agitated populace when all the while you are planning to further terrorize them so that they will support more war mongering further on.

Blair under fire for evoking God in Iraq war decision
Tony Blair triggered strong reactions from parents of soldiers killed in Iraq and the political opposition, after the British prime minister evoked God in his decision to go to war.
Details emerged Friday of Blair's interview on an ITV1 television talk show where he said God and history would judge his action in joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.


Tony, Don't wait for God. We will judge you
God will judge Tony Blair on the Iraq war. Or so the Prime Minister told Michael Parkinson. Think back to another television appearance, this time last year. On that occasion, Mr Blair faced a studio of women and a different ombudsman. History would deliver its verdict on him, he said. His audience denounced his war, but he was certain that no tribunal, divine or temporal, would ever find his judgment wanting. This time, as the third anniversary of the start of war approaches, Mr Blair sounded less sure. Wishful thinking, maybe, but he looked to me like a man haunted, at last, by what he had unleashed. If Mr Blair is finally realising his catastrophic error, that shift is partly down to the mothers, wives and partners who have never stopped pointing out the folly of this conflict.

God: I've lost faith in Blair
All the signs are that the Almighty is unhappy about efforts to implicate Him in the attack on Iraq A high-level leak has revealed that God is "furious" at Tony Blair's attempts to implicate him in the bombing of Iraq. Sources close to the archangel Gabriel report him as describing the Almighty as "hopping mad ... with sanctimonious yet unscrupulous politicians claiming He would condone their bestial activities when He has no way of going public Himself, owing to the MMW agreement" (a reference to the long-established Moving in Mysterious Ways concordat).


Enough of the D.C. Dems
Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don't know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Chertoff Has 'Few Days Left,' Sources Say - or maybe not?
In the aftermath of the public revelation of the presidential "teleconference" and mounting criticism of the performance of Michael Chertoff, Administration sources told HUMAN EVENTS today that the secretary of Homeland Security has "only a few days left" in the Bush Cabinet. As one source acquainted with the former federal prosecutor and U.S. appellate judge said under promise of anonymity, "They will give [Chertoff] a little time so it won't hurt his reputation too much, but he's probably got only a few days left."

Bush says his beliefs unshaken by poor poll numbers

Down in public opinion polls, President George W. Bush said on Friday he realizes he has made some unpopular decisions but that it "comes with the territory" and he will stand by his beliefs.
"I know some would like me to change, but you can't be a good decision-maker if you're trying to please people. You've got to stand on what you believe, that's what you've got to do, if you're going to make decisions that are solid and sound," he said.

Chickenhawk: Bush Goes on Offensive To Explain War Strategy - Speeches to Combat Public Pessimism

President Bush plans to begin a series of speeches next week again explaining the administration's strategy for winning the war in Iraq, as the White House returns to a familiar tactic to allay growing public pessimism about the war that has helped keep the president's approval rating near its historic low. After previewing the upcoming speech in his radio address today, the president is scheduled to make remarks on the war at George Washington University on Monday. The appearance, which will be followed weekly by as many as four other speeches, marks the start of the White House's latest effort to convince skeptical Americans that it has a coherent plan for victory as the war nears its third anniversary later this month.

Senior White House Staff May Be Wearing Down
Andrew H. Card Jr. wakes at 4:20 in the morning, shows up at the White House an hour or so later, convenes his senior staff at 7:30 and then proceeds to a blur of other meetings that do not let up until long after the sun sets. He gets home at 9 or 10 at night and sometimes fields phone calls until 11 p.m. Then he gets up and does it all over again. Of all the reasons that President Bush is in trouble these days, not to be overlooked are inadequate REM cycles. Like chief of staff Card, many of the president's top aides have been by his side nonstop for more than five years, not including the first campaign, recount and transition. This is a White House, according to insiders, that is physically and emotionally exhausted, battered by scandal and drained by political setbacks.
 
Signs Comment: We can think of a place where these crooks could get the rest they deserve for many years to come.

Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.

UAE turns back on dollar in foreign reserves shake-up
The United Arab Emirates is planning to switch 10pc of its foreign reserves from dollars to euros in the first sign of fall-out from Washington's snub to Dubai Ports World last week. Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, the governor of UAE's central bank, said the plan was designed to achieve a better balance in the $19.1bn reserves of the oil-rich Gulf federation, almost entirely held in dollars.

Bush Reaffirms Ties With Leading Neocons

If the medium is the message, then U.S. President George W. Bush's choice of forum to launch a new public campaign to defend his beleaguered Iraq policy should be troubling to those, particularly in Europe, who had hoped that his administration was moving toward a more evenhanded stance in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The staunchly neoconservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), one of the most hawkish groups on the "war on terror" since it was created two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon, has often taken strident positions against Arab and European allies whose cooperation has been sought by the administration itself.

The Right's Man - John McCain
It's time for some straight talk about John McCain. He isn't a moderate. He's much less of a maverick than you'd think. And he isn't the straight talker he claims to be. Mr. McCain's reputation as a moderate may be based on his former opposition to the Bush tax cuts. In 2001 he declared, "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us."

With Friends Like These
Senator John Warner (R-Va.) has the unexpected problem of a foreign state-owned company taking over operations at U.S. ports all figured out. The dour, self-righteous chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee announced from the Senate floor on March 9 that Dubai Ports World (DPW), one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), "has decided to transfer fully U.S. operation of P&O Ports North America to a United States entity."

Newspaper's former boss drawn into Plame row
THE former executive editor of The Washington Post Ben Bradlee is quoted in Vanity Fair magazine as saying that Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, was probably the source who revealed CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the paper's assistant managing editor, Bob Woodward. In an article to be published in the magazine this week Mr Bradlee is quoted as saying: "That Armitage is the likely source is a fair assumption."

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

OZ PM denies lying about kickbacks

PRIME Minister John Howard has denied lying to the Australian people about his Government's knowledge that kickbacks had been paid to Saddam Hussein. Mr Howard failed to explain why the nation's top spy agencies never passed on the explosive intelligence about Australian companies breaking United Nations sanctions in Iraq as long as eight years ago.

GOP gives only lip service to fiscal discipline - Senate approves billions in election-year deficit spending
For two days they marched past the huge marble fountain and upstairs to the terra cotta and creamy gold splendor of the grand ballroom at the historic Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. There, flanked by the flags of more than two dozen states, four U.S. senators who hope to carry the Republican banner in the 2008 presidential election pledged allegiance to one of the GOP's most revered principles: fiscal responsibility -- never spend taxpayers' money you don't have.


Animal Farm: House GOP leader well traveled - Boehner has spent nearly six months on privately funded trips since 2000
House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio), who rose to power in the wake of a congressional lobbying scandal, spent the equivalent of nearly six months on privately funded trips over the past six years, according to a new study by a nonpartisan research group. The Center for Public Integrity said that Boehner accepted 42 privately sponsored trips from January 2000 to December 2005. That put him on the road to other countries and "golfing hotspots," often with his wife, Debbie, for about half a year, "only nine days of which he listed as being 'at personal expense,' " the center said.

Congressmen get in fight, spew racial epithets
Congressional debate about immigration has gotten ugly, according to Thursday's edition of Roll Call. Excerpts from the Roll Call story follow...

Report: McKinney Punches Cop
According to sources on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) punched a Capitol police officer on Wednesday afternoon after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector. Members of Congress are not required to pass through metal detectors.
Sources say that the officer was at a position in the Longworth House Office Building, and neither recognized McKinney, nor saw her credentials as she went around the metal detector. The officer called out, "Ma'am, Ma'am," and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm. Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest. According to the Drudge Report, the entire incident is on tape. Drudge continues, "The cop is pressing charges, and the USCP (United States Capitol Police) are waiting until Congress adjourns to arrest her, a source claims." No charges have been filed. Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider says that senior officials have been made aware of the incident and are investigating. An unconfirmed statement attributed to McKinney has been released on the Internet, where she allegedly claims to have been harassed by Capitol Hill Police.
The statement's writer says that she has been harassed by white police officers she says do not recognize her due to her recently changed hairstyle. "Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers," the statement says. The writer details the incident, saying, "I was rushing to my meeting when a white police officer yelled to me. He approached me, bodyblocked me, physically touching me. I used my arm to get him off of me. I told him not to touch me several times. He asked for my ID and I showed it to him. He then let me go and I proceeded to my meeting and I assume that the Police Officer resumed his duties. I have counseled with the Sergeant-at-Arms and Acting Assistant Chief Thompson several times before and counseled with them again on today's incident. I offered also to counsel with the offending police officer."


The star-spangled fantasyland of the fake and home of the bogus - US politicians aim for rugged, macho images because insecure voters want to feel that real men are in charge

In America, the excitement about Dick Cheney's shooting accident is over. There are no more talkshow debates about why he took so long to make a statement, and no more news reports about his 78-year-old victim. Even the delicious contrast between the vicepresident's bravery in the face of small birds and the deferments he took to keep from going to Vietnam no longer raises eyebrows. Yet the shrewdest comment I heard on the incident was rarely touched on. What did the vice-president think he was doing, inquired a serious hunter? Real men got up early and went into the countryside hunting wild quail alone with their dog. Going in groups to a farm to shoot specially bred birds was for sissies. It wasn't Cheney's involvement in masculine pursuits that was noteworthy; it was that the mode of masculinity on show was bogus.

Bush still sees no reason to apologise
If anyone was looking for even the slightest hint of second thoughts from those led the US into Iraq, they would have been sorely disappointed on the third anniversary of a war that is eating into America's soul and that may well reshape its political landscape. More sacrifice would be required, but "our goal is nothing less than complete victory", President George Bush declared in his weekly radio address yesterday. Ignore the doom-mongering, Dick Cheney urged his countrymen on CBS's Face the Nation programme. This was no civil war; rather the insurgents had reached "a stage of desperation". On both the security and political fronts, Iraq was showing "major progress".

Man Overboard - Manliness and the Bush Administration

I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.
"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.

This misadventure has alienated most of the world from Bush

Since going to war, the president has managed to make himself almost as unpopular with US voters as he is with Iraqis
Shortly before the first Gulf war the recently retired chairman of the United States joint chiefs of staff, Admiral William Crowe, went for lunch with his successor, Colin Powell. In words that resonate today, Crowe warned Powell that "a war in the Middle East - killing thousands of Arabs for whatever noble purpose - would set back the US in the region for a long time. And that was to say nothing of the Americans who might die".
But despite his own misgivings, Crowe clearly believed military intervention was likely in the interests of presidential prestige. "It takes two things to be a great president," he told Powell. "First you have to have a war. All the great presidents have had their wars. Two you have to find a war where you are attacked."

Secret loans: Blair was warned but gave the go ahead
TONY Blair's intimate involvement in sanctioning the loans which have rocked his government is exposed today, after one of his closest confidantes confirmed that he "knew exactly what was going on" and was aware of the risks from the start. A senior member of the Prime Minister's inner circle gave a remarkable insight into the angst and confusion within the party's fundraising operation as it prepared for the 2005 election. Blair last week accepted responsibility for the hugely controversial £14m in loans, which did not have to be declared in public. It emerged last week that at least three of the lenders had subsequently been nominated for peerages by the party.

Do-Nothing Congress - 97 days of work for $165,200 while the majority of Americans go down the tubes.

The House of Representatives is on track this year to be in session for fewer days than the Congress Harry Truman labeled as "do-nothing" during his 1948 re-election campaign.
Members of Congress are taking an entire week off for St. Patrick's Day. It's the latest scheduling innovation to give members more time to meet with constituents.


Blair wants battle of ideas with terrorists
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday will call for a global, interventionist approach to confront terrorism head on and win a battle over values and ideas.
"This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization," Blair will say in a speech this afternoon, according to extracts released by his official spokesman.


Those Lies, Again
In a nationally televised press conference, George W. Bush repeated some of his favorite lies about the Iraq War, including the canard that he was forced to invade because Saddam Hussein blocked the work of United Nations weapons inspectors in 2003.

Bush Actually Takes a Question from Helen Thomas, Gives Nonsensical Response

Helen Thomas, who in January grumbled that President Bush was a "coward" for not calling on her at a press conference, today was granted a question for the first time in several years. The doyenne of the White House press corps, who once called Bush the worst president in U.S. history, seized her chance with gusto, essentially debating Bush instead of questioning him. Here's the transcript:

McCain Takes on DeLay Accomplice - cozying up to the Republican establishment,
There have been a number of signs lately that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), eyeing 2008, is cozying up to the Republican establishment, but this just might be the surest one yet.

Bush uncle benefits from war spending
As President Bush embarks on a new effort to shore up public support for the war in Iraq, an uncle of the chief executive is collecting $2.7 million in cash and stock from the recent sale of a company that profited from the war.


Whiny child will be an adult Tory, says study

Depending on your political predilections, you have double reason to be worried if you find your school-age child tends to be the whiny, sit-at-the-back-of-the-class kind. You had better get the child's confidence level up a notch or you may have a future conservative in your nest.

Slavish Republican lawmakers roll (bend) over for Bush
Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, thinks President Bush broke the law with his secret program to eavesdrop on Americans, and he wants Congress to censure Mr. Bush. He's right about the lawbreaking but wrong to think censure is the answer. That might give Americans the impression that Congress is something more than a supine slave of partisan interests. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, presented with the censure resolution, practically trampled each other to prove their slobbering devotion to the president. Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia assailed the proposal as "the worst type of political grandstanding." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee accused Mr. Feingold of giving hope and encouragement to al-Qaida: "The signal that it sends, that there is in any way a lack of support for our commander in chief who is leading us with a bold vision in a way that is making our homeland safer, is wrong."


Rice faces anti-war protests on British visit
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will face protests against the Iraq war when British counterpart Jack Straw takes her on a tour of his northern English constituency on Saturday, organizers said.
Rice, repaying an October visit by Straw to her home state of Alabama, will speak in the former cotton town of Blackburn before viewing an industrial site and meeting religious leaders, including representatives of the 20 percent Muslim population. A spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition, which has helped organize large anti-war protests in London, said Rice would also be greeted by protests in Liverpool on Friday. "Everywhere she goes during her trip, we will be there to protest," said a coalition spokeswoman said. Britain, the United States' chief ally in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has about 8,500 troops stationed largely in the south of the country. The war has become increasingly unpopular here and there is public pressure for withdrawal of British forces.

Blair: anti-Americanism is madness
Tony Blair today described anti-Americanism across Europe as "madness", although admitted the US could be a "difficult friend to have". In a speech in the Australian parliament overshadowed by his remarks about making a "mistake" in announcing his retirement early, the prime minister paid tribute to the Australians for joining in the "global struggle" against terror, likening it to their joining the war against the Nazis.
Mr Blair told the Australian House of Representatives: "I do not always agree with the US. Sometimes they can be difficult friends to have.
"But the strain of, frankly, anti-American feeling in parts of European and world politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in. "The danger with America today is not that they are too much involved. The danger is they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage. We need them involved. We want them engaged."

Signs Comment: What can we say but... speak for yourself Tony, you obsequious little boot-licker.

Andrew Card Resigns as White House Chief of Staff
Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten Will Step in For Card on April 14
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. announced his resignation this morning after nearly 5 1/2 years as President Bush's top aide. Bush said Card will be replaced by Joshua B. Bolten, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Card will serve until April 14 to provide a transition period. The move could presage broader staff changes as Bolten takes over an operation hobbled by political problems heading into a crucial midterm election season.


Bolton Presses for New Method of Calculating Dues at the U.N.
John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, will outline a proposal for fundamental changes in calculating United Nations dues on Wednesday that he said would address Congressional concerns that "the United States doesn't get value for money."

Signs Comment: This proposal is another of Bolton's steps to destroy the UN. He and his partners in Washington don't want to be bound by international law. They are the Mafia don, and they don't have to answer to anyone. Power? They'll just invade someone else and let everyone know who's boss. They would love to get other countries to pay for the UN because they have no use for it. The propaganda against the UN in the US is so thick that many Americans think it is the UN, and not their own country, that is the greatest danger facing the world. When they think of One World Government, or the New World Order, they believe it will be the UN that will be the instrument of such a system, not realising that their own country has been imposing such a system for decades.

'Lighten up' and trust your Chancellor, Clinton tells UK
Gordon Brown's ambition to be the next Prime Minister has been boosted by Bill Clinton, who praised his handling of the British economy after both men crossed a union picket line to attend a conference at the Guildhall in London. The former US President told his British audience to "lighten up" because, whatever their criticisms of Labour, the UK is better governed than America. He even joked about the Blair-Brown rivalry, saying both men deserve equal respect.

White House Watch: Sacking Rumsfeld is among the options for fresh thinking

There's a shift in some of the behind-the-scenes griping over recent missteps in the administration, especially over the war in Iraq. Some senior Republicans are beginning to think that firing people on the White House staff won't make much difference in improving management and outreach and may actually make matters worse by creating turmoil in the West Wing at a very sensitive time. Another factor working against dismissals is that White House insiders don't want to deprive President Bush of valued confidants, whose loyalty and company he prizes. What makes more sense, they say, is to have Bush force Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld out of his job. That would encourage the Pentagon brass to reconsider the current policies in Iraq and elsewhere and might encourage fresh thinking. Republicans point out that Condoleezza Rice's taking over the State Department has led to new thinking and energy there. This has apparently encouraged Bush to heed the recommendations of his secretary of state more than he accepted the thinking of Colin Powell, Rice's predecessor, who tangled often with Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Democrats Pledge to 'Eliminate' Osama
Congressional Democrats promise to "eliminate" Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in an election-year national security policy statement. In the position paper to be announced Wednesday, Democrats say they will double the number of special forces and add more spies, which they suggest will increase the chances of finding al-Qaida's elusive leader. They do not set a deadline for when all of the 132,000 American troops now in Iraq should be withdrawn.

Signs Comment:
The Democratic party's new slogan: "Vote Democrat - We're just as bad as the Republicans"

Congressman Denies He Got Deal on House
Rep. Jim Ryun on Wednesday denied allegations by Democrats that he received a "sweet real estate deal" when he purchased a town house from
a nonprofit group with connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Kansas Republican bought the historic Capitol Hill town house for $410,000 on Dec. 15, 2000. That was $19,000 less than the U.S. Family Network paid for the home about two years earlier, in January 1999, despite a sharp rise in local real estate values during that time. He denies receiving any favorable treatment in the purchase. He declined to be interviewed but said in a written statement that he paid "fair market value" for the home.

Ex-lobbyist Abramoff gets 6 years
Fraud in Florida casino deal will send him to federal prison
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist at the center of a Washington corruption scandal, was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for fraud in the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line. U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck sentenced Abramoff and a former business partner to five years and 10 months in prison and ordered them to pay restitution of more than $21 million. The sentences were the minimum under their plea agreement in the case.


Signs Comment: Well, the Abramoff saga serves as a nice distraction from Bush's poor approval ratings, doesn't it?

Senate panel set to consider bid to censure Bush
Former White House counsel John Dean, who helped push President Richard Nixon from office during the Watergate scandal three decades ago, heads to Capitol Hill on Friday to back an uphill attempt to censure President George W. Bush. Dean, author of a book about Bush titled "Worse than Watergate," was to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of a resolution to rebuke Bush for a domestic spying program introduced secretly after the September 11 attacks. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, introduced the resolution earlier this month. He argues that the program, which allows eavesdropping on international telephone calls and e-mails involving Americans when one party is suspected of links with terrorism, violates the law because it is conducted without court warrants. Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, contends there are no grounds for censure, but has agreed to hold the hearing to debate the matter. "I think that there's absolutely no merit in it, and that the hearing will expose it because of the president's broad (constitutional) authority," Specter said.

Signs Comment: So there are no grounds for censure because of Bush's "broad (constitutional) authority". In that case, is there ANYTHING that Bush cannot do and get away with? It seems that "broad (constitutional) authority" is just another way of saying "absolute power", i.e. America is now a dictatorship.

Insulating Bush

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews.

George Bush -- The Contemporary Benedict Arnold of the Proto-Fascist Republican Triad

Don't look for any scholarly footnotes here. This is my personal account of what I believe to be happening to our beloved America because of the cruel scams now being perpetrated against the nation. We are in a financial and freedom death struggle with a narcissistic triad of no more political, religious and financial manipulators than could be carried aboard one Boeing 747 on a single flight. These greedy schemers include the three hundred-fifty or so ruthless financial abusers who currently control ninety percent of American wealth. They are ruthless abusers who are constantly running scams to keep the last few crumbs from falling from their sumptuous tables into middle class hands. Because they wanted power to dominate us, the aristocracy used their propaganda machine to trick us into electing president an inept Texan who would have peaked selling used cars in Midland, had he not been a highly privileged and artfully born again Bush scion. The elite also created the near psychopathic reactionary Republican coalition in order to maintain their domination of society at our expense. Of course the aristocracy now ravaging the America Republic from within the White House and the Congress neither bloody their own hands nor do the heavy lifting in their assault on America.

If You Don't Mind, Why Don't You Mind?

A favorite line of song, penned by the Canadian band The Magnetic Fields, poses the question: If you don't mind, why don't you mind? Where is your sense of indignation? To anyone who isn't yet appalled by the extent of the disaster that is the Bush presidency, I could not think of how better to ask it: Why don't you mind? Not a day goes by without some new disclosure, some new bit of headline evidence that the Bush presidency is the most catastrophic presidency in the history of our great country. The consequences of this fact will effect not only yours and my personal future and fortunes, but those of our children and theirs. Where is your sense of indignation?

War Pimp Cheney: 'I'm a real party animal'

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney scored points as a stand-up comedian, telling a radio and television correspondents' gathering: "I'm a real party animal."

Google Goes K Street

The web giant has gone to great lengths to keep the internet open to all, but by teaming up with Republican lobbyists, it's politics as usual.

House Candidate Draws Fire for Web Photo
A congressional candidate is under fire for a Web site photo that purported to show a peaceful Baghdad neighborhood but was actually taken in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey.
"We took this photo of Baghdad while we were in Iraq," the accompanying caption on Howard Kaloogian's Web site read. "Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be." Internet bloggers began questioning the photo earlier this week because none of the signs was in Arabic and billboards were advertising Western products.





The Economy

Signs Economic Commentary
Record low approval ratings for the U.S. president G. Bush, while continually downplayed by the mainstream U.S. media, who never refer to him as "the phenomenally unpopular president" or "the widely despised George Bush" even though that is true, cannot be hid from international investors. Nor can the U.S. media hide the disastrous news coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan from the savvy international banking and investment community. They are even having a hard time hiding it from the United States public.


Signs Economic Commentary
March 13, 2006
A good week for the U.S. imperial economy, if the numbers are any indication. Gold and oil fell sharply and the dollar rose. But the interests of the owners and managers of the imperial economy and those of the average person in the United States have diverged. Unemployment was up last month, though the media focused on the fact that the jobs numbers for February exceeded expectations. Notice how much space the following Bloomberg article devotes to positive spin and how little space is given to the negative numbers (bolded).

Signs Economic Commentary
March 20, 2006
Oil was up in dollar terms but still less than it was two weeks ago ($63.67/bl.). Gold is also lower than it was two weeks ago ($567.20/oz.). Why do market levels seem so normal when the underlying economic foundation seems so unstable? Could it be that military spending will take over the role of demand stimulant from consumer spending? Could it be that "the economy" will continue to look healthy while the average person sinks into servitude? While U.S. consumers are getting squeezed between lower wages and rising cost of debt and basic goods, deficit military spending is going through the roof...

Signs Economic Commentary
March 27, 2006
Oil prices rose last week, not surprising given the news out of the Middle East. According to Greg Palast, that is no accident: "Yes, Bush went in for the oil -- not to get MORE of Iraq's oil, but to prevent Iraq producing TOO MUCH of it."


Silver storms above $11/oz, gold price rebounds
March 29, 2006
The price of silver shot to a 22-year high above $11 per ounce on Wednesday, as funds continued a recent buying spree on excitement over a proposed U.S. silver-backed security, trading sources said. Gold raced to a seven-week peak on spillover interest from silver and other supportive factors, with the price holding just shy of last month's 25 year peak near $575 an ounce.

Bush's 'fine' economy sees millions go hungry
But the most alarming news was in the growing number of people in Bush's fine economy who are hungry. The Second Harvest report, using figures compiled before hurricanes Katrina and Rita, showed that 25 million Americans had been forced to get food from the organisation's network of food banks, soup kitchens and shelters in 2005, up 9 per cent from 2001. The hungry included 9 million children (aged under 18) and 3 million elderly people. The trend is reflected in data collected last year by the US Department of Agriculture, which found that more than 38 million Americans lived in hungry or "food insecure" households -- an increase of 5 million since 2000.

Bush: U.S. Citizens Should Welcome Competition (Outsourcing of American Jobs)
President Bush urged Americans worried about a U.S. job drift to India and other countries to welcome, not fear, competition with this rapidly growing nation of 1 billion.
"The classic opportunity for our American farmers and entrepreneurs and small businesses to understand is there is a 300 million-person market of middle class citizens here in India," Bush said Friday during a discussion with young entrepreneurs at a business school here, "and that if we can make a product they want, that it becomes viable."

Govt. Eyes Error That Cost U.S. Billions - Deliberate?
In 1995, Congress exempted deep-water oil from royalty payments to spur development. But a price threshold was included in leases issued in 1996 and 1997 and again in leases sold in each year since 2000 that reinstates the royalties if market prices reach a certain level. For some reason the language "was inadvertently dropped" from an addendum attached to more than 1,100 leases the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service issued for 1998 and 1999, Walter Cruickshank, the agency's deputy director, told a House Government Reform subcommittee Wednesday. He said officials have not been able to determine who made the change, although he said it had to have been a human act, not a computer glitch.

Midwest Oil fined for selling gas too cheaply - The state imposed a $140,000 penalty for what it called "willful, continuing, and egregious" violations of the price law.
The Minnesota Commerce Department on Thursday announced plans to fine a gas station chain $140,000 for repeatedly selling gas below the state's legal minimum price.

When $8.18 Trillion Isn't Enough - America is Bankrupt

Yesterday, Treasury officials told Senate aides that without an increase in the nation's $8.18 trillion debt limit, the government "would default on obligations for the first time in history sometime during the week of March 20." The Senate will have to take up the issue soon since "federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher and shake the economy." The debt limit increase to around $9 trillion would be the fourth increase in five years. "I don't think the leadership wants to have any debate on this, and I think the reason is pretty clear," Finance Committee ranking member Max Baucus (D-MT) told CongressDaily. "It's embarrassing." To avoid an extended debate, the leadership is set to vote on the issue as close to the March 17 recess as possible.

When You Can't Obscure the News, Buy It - How the Economic News is Spun

Readers ask me to reconcile the jobs and debt data that I report to them with the positive economic outlook and good news that comes to them from regular news sources. Some readers are being snide, but most are sincere. I am pleased to provide the explanation. First, let me give my reassurances that the numbers I report to you come straight from official US government statistics. I do not massage the numbers or rework them in any way. I cannot assure you that the numbers are perfectly reported to, and collected by, the government, but they are the only numbers we have.

Buffett loses faith in US
The Truth Will Set You Free
Warren Buffett, sometimes thought of as America's greatest capitalist, said he was buying stocks of companies that do business elsewhere . . .
I wonder how much Buffett knows that we don't.

Bush's Insane Plan Would Raise Deficit by $1.2 Trillion, Budget Office Says

President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday.
The nonpartisan budget office said that Mr. Bush's tax-cutting proposals would cost about $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years and that his proposals to partly privatize Social Security would cost about $312 billion during that period.

Concerns mount over higher rates on student loans

The Republican-led Congress and President Bush are facing growing anger on college campuses as students and their parents prepare to pay higher borrowing costs because of new changes to federal student loan programs.
Congress narrowly passed a deficit-reduction bill last month that cut $12 billion from student loan programs, which was signed by the president. The new law will slash subsidies to lenders and raise interest rates on loans taken out by parents. Lawmakers already had approved a steep increase in interest rates for Stafford loans, used by nearly 10 million students each year. Both rate increases take effect July 1. Jessica Pierce, a senior at UC Santa Cruz who has Stafford loans, said she was outraged by the changes approved by Congress. "They're trying to balance the budget on the backs of students," said Pierce, who chairs the university's student union assembly.

Bush Proposes Significant Medicare Cuts - Republican Opposition

Rep. John M. McHugh (R-NY) is collecting the support of his Republican colleagues in an effort to oppose significant cuts to Medicare proposed last month by President Bush. The fiscal year 2007 budget plan proposes to reduce Medicare spending by a total of $36 billion over five years.


Bush budget plan rattling Congress - Nervous lawmakers are shrinking from the tough pruning amid an election year and a forced hike in the national debt ceiling.

President Bush's budget blueprint for next year is nearing its first tests on Capitol Hill, and it's clear the plan has many hurdles to overcome.

Nervous lawmakers are flinching from spending cuts proposed by Bush, and as his GOP allies draft plans to implement the budget, election-year politics are driving their decisions. The first item to be tossed overboard is likely to be Bush's proposal for $36 billion in savings from the politically sacrosanct Medicare program for the elderly.

Lott on Low-Income Heating Pleas: "I thought we were having global warming."

How cruel and indifferent is Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi? With a bipartisan alliance that included Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed and moderate Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine arguing passionately in favor of badly-needed emergency funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Lott took to the microphone to give his take on providing warm homes to the elderly and disabled.
"What is it we are not going to give people for free? Is there any limit? Is there any limit to the amount of money?" asked Lott, adding snidely "I thought we were having global warming."


Physicists Predict Stock Market Crashes
On Monday, October 19, 1987 – infamously known as "black Monday" – the Dow fell 508 points, or 22.9%, marking the largest crash in history. Using an analytical approach similar to the one applied to explore heart rate, physicists have discovered some unusual events preceding the crash. These findings may help economists in risk analysis and in predicting inevitable future crashes.

Housing Slowdown Ripples Through Economy
The five-year housing boom is indeed over, judging from growing statistical evidence and the performance of some of the nation's leading builders, and the slowdown is already rippling through the economy.
In the last week, the Commerce Department reported that January sales of new single-family homes fell 5 percent _ the fourth decline in seven months _ and the backlog of unsold new homes hit a record. And the National Association of Realtors said used home sales slipped 2.8 percent in January, the fourth straight drop and 5 percent below January 2005.

A Nation Polarized Between Rich and Poor - America's Bleak Jobs Future

On February 20 Forbes.com told its readers with a straight face that "the American job-generation machine rolls on. The economy will create 19 million new payroll jobs in the decade to 2014." Forbes took its information from the 10-year jobs projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, released last December. If the job growth of the past half-decade is a guide, the forecast of 19 million new jobs is optimistic, to say the least. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll jobs data, from January 2001 - January 2006 the US economy created 1,054,000 net new private sector jobs and 1,039,000 net new government jobs for a total five-year figure of 2,093,000. How does the US Department of Labor get from 2 million jobs in five years to 19 million in ten years? I cannot answer that question. However, the jobs record for the past five years tells a clear story.

Throwing Consumers to the Wolves

A federal bankruptcy judge says the new bankruptcy law is good for one thing: allowing creditors to make more money off the backs of debt-ridden consumers.

Housing Slowdown Ripples Through Economy

The five-year housing boom is indeed over, judging from growing statistical evidence and the performance of some of the nation's leading builders, and the slowdown is already rippling through the economy.

Treasury Dept. Moves to Avoid Debt Limit

Treasury Secretary John Snow notified Congress on Monday that the administration has now taken "all prudent and legal actions," including tapping certain government retirement funds, to keep from hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit.
In a letter to Congress, Snow urged lawmakers to pass a new debt ceiling immediately to avoid the nation's first-ever default on its obligations.

US gasoline, diesel fuel retail prices soar: gov't

U.S. drivers saw gasoline prices soar an average 7.7 cents a gallon over the last week, while truckers paid the most for diesel fuel since November, the government said on Monday. The national price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped to $2.33 a gallon, up 33 cents from a year ago and the highest level in a month based on the federal Energy Information Administration's survey of service stations. The price increases in many cities were much higher, skyrocketing more than 19 cents a gallon in just one week in Chicago and more than 16 cents in Cleveland.

Cunningham's Corruption Connections

On Friday, former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) was sentenced to 8 years and 4 months in federal prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for lucrative defense contracts, among other crimes. It was the longest sentence ever meted out to a congressman. While it's the last we'll hear from Cunningham for some time, the larger scandal is just beginning to unfold. The same defense contractors who were playing Cunningham with cash and favors were working other members of Congress and top administration officials. Once all the facts are on the table, the Abramoff scandal may pale in comparison.

Bush asks Congress for 'line-item veto' power
President George W. Bush, who has never vetoed legislation, asked the U.S. Congress on Monday to give him a line-item veto that would allow him to propose canceling specific spending projects. But the proposal faces hurdles because an earlier version that Congress passed under former President Bill Clinton was rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
 
Signs Comment: And the similarities with Nazi Germany just keep mounting up.

Just work harder, Italian PM tells poor
As a comforter of the poor, Silvio Berlusconi has secured a place for himself somewhere between Marie Antoinette and Norman Tebbitt. Asked by a television interviewer what his government could do to help a worker on €1,500 (£1,000) a month, Italy's richest citizen blithely replied: "The answer of Berlusconi the businessman is: 'Try to earn more by getting on with things.'" His response yesterday drew horrified condemnation from his centre-left opponents, but succeeded once again in diverting attention towards Italy's media-savvy prime minister as he battles to retain power. Campaigning is underway for a general election on April 9 and 10.

Former Enron CFO Implicates Old Bosses

Andrew S. Fastow, the government's star witness in the Enron Corp. trial, took the stand Tuesday and testified that he concocted a massive fraud in face-to-face meetings with the company's chief executive, who both sanctioned the deals and asked him to "get me as much juice as you can."


Consumer confidence suffers further slide

Optimism of both consumers and the companies that serve them slumped last month, according to a pair of reports today that highlight the role business services are playing in propping up the UK economy. Consumer confidence fell in February, the ninth drop in the past year, Nationwide building society said. Households' assessment of their current situation fell to its lowest level since the survey began in May 2004.

Workers' optimism is on the rise

While economists are growing increasingly concerned about the state of the economy, American workers are about as optimistic as they've ever been. A survey released this morning by the human resources and staffing firm Hudson found that employee confidence is on the rise. The Hudson Employment Index, which gauges workforce sentiment by surveying U.S. workers by telephone, rose from a reading of 102.6 in January to 108.2 last month. According to Hudson, this was among the highest readings on record.

Palestinian link could cost Rogers $1.7bn New York deal

One of Britain's leading architects, Richard Rogers, is battling to save his $1.7bn (£971m) redesign of a New York convention centre, after his connections to a pro-Palestinian protest group outraged politicians and Jewish organisations. Lord Rogers, the architect behind the Welsh Assembly building and the Millennium Dome, was summoned to meet the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation yesterday. The company wants him to explain his involvement in Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, revealed in The Independent last month. He hosted a meeting of the group at his London headquarters, at which architects considered calling for a boycott of Israel's construction industry in protest at the building of the separation barrier in the Occupied Territories.

37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty
Americans have always believed that hard work will bring rewards, but vast numbers now cannot meet their bills even with two or three jobs. More than one in 10 citizens live below the poverty line, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening. The flickering television in Candy Lumpkins's trailer blared out The Bold and the Beautiful. It was a fantasy daytime soap vision of American life with little relevance to the reality of this impoverished corner of Kentucky. The Lumpkins live at the definition of the back of beyond, in a hollow at the top of a valley at the end of a long and muddy dirt road. It is strewn with litter. Packs of stray dogs prowl around, barking at strangers. There is no telephone and since their pump broke two weeks ago Candy has collected water from nearby springs. Oblivious to it all, her five-year-old daughter Amy runs barefoot on a wooden porch frozen by a midwinter chill.

Reich: U.S. headed for 'day of reckoning'

The United States is headed for a "day of reckoning" as oil prices and the budget deficit remain high, consumers keep spending and not saving, wages remain stagnant, housing prices rise and the working population ages, warned Robert Reich, former Department of Labor secretary in the Clinton administration.
"The American economy is going to have to inevitably make a structural adjustment (with regard to lack of consumer savings and the budget deficit), or the entire world is going to suffer," Reich, an economist who is currently a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, said during a keynote at the IDC Directions conference here.

Everyday Low Vices

Why should we hate Wal-Mart? One glance at the company's reliance on low wages, low-quality goods and anti-union policies gives plenty of reasons.

Study warns of affordable US apartment shortage

The United States is rapidly losing apartments to demolition, and rent on available units is rising, pinching consumers struggling with home affordability, according to a new study released on Wednesday.
The report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies found evidence of growing disparities between low- and higher-income renters in getting apartments. "We are taking one step forward and two steps back as gentrification in some neighborhoods and continued deterioration in others leads to the removal of vitally needed lower-cost rental housing," Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center, said in a statement.

Passage Urged for $91B War Spending Bill

Top military and foreign affairs leaders are making a rare joint appearance on Capitol Hill to urge swift passage of an $91 billion emergency spending bill they say is critical to continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The bill's future has been threatened by a move in the House to block a Dubai-owned company from taking control of some U.S. port operations. President Bush has said he would veto the bill if such a proposal was included.

See Dick Loot

Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) have been making hay in the burning Iraqi sun for years now. It is, of course, no coincidence that the man sitting as vice president played a key role with his influence in obtaining the lion's share of contracts in Iraq for the company he was CEO of prior to his self-appointed position. Yet none of this is news. What is news, however, is that the ties that bind Cheney to Halliburton also link him to groups with even broader interests in the Middle East, which are causing civilians on the ground there, as well as in the US, to pay the price.

by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch
February 12th, 2006
A controversial Kuwait-based construction firm accused of exploiting employees and coercing low-paid laborers to work in war-torn Iraq is now building the new $592-million U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Once completed, the compound will likely be the biggest, most fortified diplomatic compound in the world. Some 900 workers live and work for First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (FKTC) on the construction site of the massive project. Undoubtedly, they have been largely pulled from ranks of low-paid laborers flooding into Iraq from Asia's poorest countries to work under U.S. military and reconstruction projects.

Challenging the mighty dollar

It's becoming increasingly obvious that there is a looming crisis brewing over Iran. The true 'whys' and 'what's' of the issue, however, are clouded to the American public due to our modern press and to the nature of the underlying stakes involved. What people read is that there is a growing threat of a nuclear Iran that will threaten the safety of the West. Yet, that's essentially all that is said or written on the issue. However, to critically thinking people who turn to the internet and to foreign press for their news, the brewing crisis most likely has to do with intricate issues involving our incessant dependencies, not just on oil for our transportation and industrial needs, but more importantly for the means by which our modern economic system operates in the US, UK and much of the rest of the industrialized western world (strong hint: It's not a truly "free market").

Oil Heart Attack - As goes Iraq, so may go the developed world.

The February 27th Wild West-style dawn shootout at an Al Qaeda redoubt in East Riyadh was an appropriately dramatic coda to what was arguably the most significant terrorist act since 9/11. While the amount of blood spilled at Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq refinery was small -- two guards killed, eight workers wounded -- and the amount of oil spilled even less, the strike was at least as significant as the 2003 and 2004 public transit attacks in Madrid and London. This is because the foiled attack poked large holes into two theories often floated out by the Saudis and optimistic oil analysts to assuage concerns over infrastructure security in the world's "Central Bank of Oil."

Syria switches to euro amid confrontation with US
Syria has switched all of the state's foreign currency transactions to euros from dollars amid a political confrontation with the United States, the head of state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria said on Monday. "This is a precaution. We are talking about billions of dollars," Duraid Durgham told Reuters.

Signs Comment: Portent of impending U.S. economic collapse?

Investment Needs To Double To Meet UN Goals On Water

Global investment in clean water and sanitation has to nearly double from present levels in order to meet the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals in these areas, a study issued here Wednesday said.

New EU Waste Rules May Turn Poor Countries Into Dumps

Czech Environment Minister Libor Ambrozek will protest in Brussels Thursday against proposed changes in EU rules which he fears will lead to poorer EU countries being used as waste dumping grounds by their richer neighbours, ministry spokeswoman Karolina Sulova said Wednesday.


US has 727,304 homeless people nationwide

"The United States dubs the world's richest country, however, it maintains the highest poverty rate among developed countries," the report says, given a study of eight advanced countries by London School of Economics in 2005, which found that the United States had the worst social inequality.

U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops, Poll Shows

Consumer confidence dropped in early March as people fretted about the economy's performance and their own financial fate in the months ahead.
The RBC CASH Index, based on results from the international polling firm Ipsos, showed confidence at 86.2 in early March. That was down considerably from February's reading of 96.1 - a 16-month high.


World box office dipped 7.9 pct to 23 billion dollars last year : study
Hollywood movie ticket sales around the world dropped by 7.9 percent last year to 23 billion dollars, with the US box office accounting for nearly 40 percent of the haul, a study showed. Movie ticket receipts in North America dipped by six percent in 2005 to nine billion dollars, according to a study by the ratings statistics firm Nielsen Entertainment/NRG that comes as movie-goers increasingly stay out of cinemas.

Gates fortune hits 50 billion dollars as megawealth spreads
Bill Gates gained ground at the top of the megarich rankings as the world's wealthiest people added 400 billion dollars to their net worth, according to Forbes magazine's annual list. The number of people whose wealth reached 10 figures stood at a record 793, an increase of 102 from the previous year, with Microsoft founder Gates in first place for the 12th straight year.

Signs Comment: Wow! More billionaires! The economy MUST be doing wonderfully then, right?

Illegal Workers: the Con's Secret Weapon - Why Bush & Co. like a cheap and illegal labor force
Conservatives are all atwitter about illegal immigrants. Some want to give them amnesty. Others want to reinstitute the old Bracero program. Others want to build a wall around America, like the communists did around East Berlin. Some advocate all of the above. But none will tell Americans the truth about why we have eleven million illegal aliens in this nation now (when it was fewer than 2 million when Reagan came into office), why they're staying, or why they keep coming. In a word, it's "jobs." In conservative lexicon, it's "cheap labor to increase corporate profits."

Pol Tax

Mayors across the country increasingly see smokers as God's gift to spendthrift governments. They steal from them accordingly. This is especially true of New York's Michael Bloomberg, whose ambitions along these lines match his outsized city. Let other places diddle around with ten-cent tobacco taxes, as does Hueytown, Alabama, or even a buck (Washington, DC); New York is bigger than that. Mike wants to boost its already-staggering tax on cigarettes by a whopping 50 cents. This will push the price of a pack past $8, with Leviathan grabbing $3.50 of that. New Yorkers will then suffer the dubious distinction of paying the highest tobacco tax nationwide: even Chicago steals only $3.05 per pack.

AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER BACK ONLINE

ONE OF THE BEST INTERNET NEWS SERVICES, the Agribusiness Examiner, is back online after several months of computer problems. Al Krebs, the editor, covers one of the most neglected news topics in America: how we get what we eat. Here are a few of his catch-up items:

Feds Order U.S. Banks to Sever Syria Ties
Acting to crack down on terrorist financing, the Treasury Department on Thursday ordered all commercial banks in the United States to end their relationships with two Syrian banks.
The order covers the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria and its subsidiary, the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank. The department said that all U.S. banks must close any accounts they have with the two banks.


Lawmakers: Wal-Mart threatens US payment system
A group of lawmakers on Friday said an industrial bank owned by Wal-Mart (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest retailer, could threaten the stability of the U.S. financial system and drive community banks out of business.
In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters, a group of more than 30 Congress members asked the bank regulator to reject Wal-Mart's application to open a bank in Utah. "Wal-Mart's plan, to have its bank process hundreds of billions in transactions for its own stores, could threaten the stability of the nation's payments system," the lawmakers wrote.

The Fed Officially Kicks Off the Next Recession

It is official. A recession is coming. How do I know? Because this week new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave an official warning to bankers about commercial real estate loans. That is always the kickoff to a recession. It is the starter's gun, the national anthem before a ballgame, the opening hymn at a church service. Here is how it works. The Fed has three official tools to control the money supply: Setting reserve requirements (telling banks how much of their deposits they cannot lend. The higher the reserve requirements, the less loans, the less money creation by the economy). The second tool is open market operations. Here they set the amount of money in the system by buying or selling securities. Third is setting the discount rate, the rate of interest banks must pay to borrow money at the Fed. Theoretically, the higher the rate, the less money banks will borrow, the less they have to lend, and the less money that is created by the banking system.

Senate permits national debt to grow to $9 trillion
The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes. The bill passed by a 52-48 vote. The increase to $9 trillion represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.

Signs Comment: $9 TRILLION dollars! The spending spree cannot go on forever. One of these days, it will end - and when it does, it will be the average American who will suffer the most. You can take that to the bank.

Retail figures cast doubt on consumer rebound
UK retail sales showed a modest rise in February, but this followed a much sharper drop than previously reported, official figures showed today.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said total sales volume increased by 0.5% last month, following a 1.6% fall in January instead of the 1.3% originally reported. Today's report - with the caveat that monthly figures can be volatile - will cast doubt on Bank of England hopes of a consumer rebound later in the year that will keep economic growth on track, analysts said.

Congressman writes White House: Did President knowingly sign law that didn't pass?

Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) has alleged in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card that President Bush signed a version of the Budget Reconciliation Act that, in effect, did not pass the House of Representatives. Further, Waxman says there is reason to believe that the Speaker of the House called President Bush before he signed the law, and alerted him that the version he was about to sign differed from the one that actually passed the House. If true, this would put the President in willful violation of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. Under Fire for Labor Rights Abuses
The United States, a self-styled promoter of human rights and global democracy, has come under heavy fire for "serious violations" of labor rights in its own backyard.
Many categories of workers in the United States -- including government employees, independent contractors, and agricultural and domestic workers -- are excluded from the Labor Relations Act that provides for freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). More than 25 million private civilian workers and 6.9 million federal, state and local government employees do not have the right to negotiate their wages, working hours and employment terms, according to the study. For those workers that do have the right to organize, the report points out, there is insufficient legal protection against anti-union discrimination.

Workers can't trade holidays for pay, EU rules

British workers will no longer be able to be paid for unused holiday entitlement, the EU ruled today. European judges said the so-called "rolled-up holiday pay" system breached the EU's working time directive, which guarantees employees a minimum four weeks' holiday a year. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg was ruling in a case brought by a group of British shift workers demanding the right to payment during their holidays instead of notional extra hourly pay instead.

Oprah Exposes America's Dirty Little Secret: 37 million Americans live in grinding poverty
When Hurricane Katrina blew across the Gulf Coast, it also blew the lid off America's dirty little secret. For years, the poor people in the United States have been virtually invisible. But now there is no denying the truth-37 million Americans live in poverty. Oprah drove 70 miles from her home in Chicago to the township of Pembroke, Illinois, to see the reality firsthand.

Externalizing the Cost of War
It must seem odd to the world that while our nation is coming apart at the seams, and every last shred of decency is being severed from the cloth of conscience, all we can do is watch American Idol and Survivor. According to author Mike Green (The Whole Truth about the U.S. War on Terror), there are one hundred and ninety-two recognized nations on earth, and the U.S. has troops stationed in one hundred and thirty-five of them. In total, we have in excess of four hundred thousand troops occupying a substantial majority of the world. The nation with the second largest number of troops deployed is Great Britain with thirty-five thousand, followed by France with twenty-three thousand. Apparently, bringing democracy to the world requires an extensive presence and lots of weapons. If only that were what this is about. It is really about hegemony, domination, global empire.

Former Top Bush Aide Accused of Md. Thefts - Refund Scam Netted Grifter $5,000, Police Say

Claude A. Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested this week in Montgomery County for allegedly swindling Target and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said. Allen, 45, of Gaithersburg, has been released on his own recognizance and is awaiting trial on two charges, felony theft scheme and theft over $500, said Lt. Eric Burnett, a police spokesman. Each charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Despite Another $67 Billion, Our Army is Broke and Badly Depleted

This morning I spoke at a gathering of the National Newspaper Association regarding my strategy to redeploy our troops from Iraq on a scheduled timetable as soon as practicable. Iraq continues to be mischaracterized by the President as the center for the Global War on Terrorism. It is estimated that there are less than 1,000 Al Qaeda in Iraq. What is happening in Iraq is a civil war. It is Iraqis killing Iraqis and our troops are also targets.

Senate gives Bush his defense budget request
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday agreed to give President George W. Bush the money he wanted for the Pentagon next year and narrowly defeated a measure that could have scuttled permanent extensions of his tax cuts. The Senate was trying to wrap up work by Friday on a nearly $2.8-trillion budget blueprint for fiscal 2007, which starts on October 1. While the budget bill is nonbinding, it does influence lawmakers' decisions later in the year on federal spending.
 
Signs Comment: Ah yes, the pathetic, obsequious Senate, is there no limit to the extent they will prostitute themselves to the Bush government?
How interesting that this year's Pentagon budget blueprint is am unimaginable $2.8 TRILLION. That figure is very close to the $2.6 TRILLION that the Pentagon was unable to account for back in 2001, just before the 9/11 attacks. In this DOD Testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Rumsfeld dropped that bombshell and then laughed about it. So where did that $2.6 Trillion go? And what will be done with this year's $2.8 trillion? Interesting questions that will probably never be answered.

Bill Gives Bush $92B for Wars, Hurricanes
President Bush gets much of what he requested in a $92 billion House measure for wars and hurricane cleanup,
despite a newfound willingness by GOP leaders to challenge the president. The bill the House is expected to approve Thursday would bring the overall price tag for Iraq and Afghanistan operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to nearly $400 billion and total Hurricane Katrina-related spending to more than $100 billion.

Oil shortage threatens military
A grim view of the nation's energy future, and its implications for the military, emerges in a just released report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "The days of inexpensive, convenient, abundant energy sources are quickly drawing to a close," says the report, titled "Energy Trends and Their Implications for U.S. Army Installations." It concludes that at the current rate of consumption and production decline, the lifetime of proven domestic oil reserves is only 3.4 years. It projects the lifetime of proven worldwide oil reserves at 41 years, but with declining availability, noting that Saudi Arabia – home to the bulk of those reserves – has not increased production in three years.

Speed voting: House flies through $91.9 billion spending bill
By unanimous consent, the House Thursday used two-minute vote times to get through an emergency spending bill, according to Roll Call.

Chalmers Johnson on Our Fading Republic
A Tomdispatch Interview with Chalmers Johnson(Part 2)
Tomdispatch: You were discussing the lunacy of the 2007 Pentagon budget…
Chalmers Johnson:What I don't understand is that the current defense budget and the recent Quadrennial Defense Review (which has no strategy in it at all) are just continuations of everything we did before. Make sure that the couple of hundred military golf courses around the world are well groomed, that the Lear jets are ready to fly the admirals and generals to the Armed Forces ski resort in Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps or the military's two luxury hotels in downtown Seoul and Tokyo.
What I can't explain is what has happened to Congress. Is it just that they're corrupt? That's certainly part of it. I'm sitting here in California's 50th district. This past December, our congressman Randy Cunningham confessed to the largest single bribery case in the history of the U.S. Congress: $2.4 million in trinkets -- a Rolls Royce, some French antiques -- went to him, thanks to his ability as a member of the military subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to add things secretly to the budget. He was doing this for pals of his running small companies. He was adding things even the Department of Defense said it didn't want.

Snow warns Congress: US government's cash running out
Treasury Secretary John Snow urged Congress to set aside partisan bickering and raise the US national debt ceiling this week, or face a disastrous cash crunch for the federal government. In a speech here to a conference of regional bankers, Snow said it would be inconceivable for Congress not to pass legislation on the debt limit before it heads into a recess at the end of this week. "I am urging members of Congress in the strongest possible terms to resist coupling an increase in the debt ceiling with other issues," Snow said.

Hunger For Justice

Last Wednesday evening, the House Appropriations Committee voted to throw another $67,000,000,000 at the murderous work in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The killing will proceed as planned, with no congressional intervention, although chances are you heard absolutely zip about the 67 Billion Dollar Question, thanks to the Guardians of Reality who insured the news from that hearing was the Dubai Port deal, not the unimaginable sum of our money Congress voted for war, nor the voices raised against it.

Peak Oil Propaganda: Saudi Arabia: the sands run out

Last month's foiled attack on a Saudi Arabian oil installation demonstrated yet again the world's extreme vulnerability to any check on oil supplies. But what if the Saudi oilfields are running lower on untapped supplies than the kingdom, and the West, have estimated?

Nigeria Earns $2.9bn from Oil in Jan

Buoyed by high prices in the international crude market, Nigeria earned $2.92 billion (N376.7 billion) from oil in January this year, representing about 64 percent of the total foreign inflow of $4.58bn netted by the country during the month. The Federal Government has also begun a massive deployment of troops in the troubled oil-rich city of Warri, suggesting that negotiations between the government and the Niger Delta militants, holding three foreign oil workers hostage in the creeks, may have broken down.

Nigeria's militants highlight woes amid wealth

This is the Niger Delta, the heart of Africa's biggest oil producer. But despite the billions of dollars in oil wealth, this region - about 70,000 square kilometres - is home to some of the world's poorest people. Most of the fishermen in these creeks live in the same huts and use the same bark nets that their fathers did. More than 60 per cent of Nigeria's 128 million inhabitants scrape by, earning less than $1 a day, with no hope of employment or education. In many places, the frustration with a government ranked by Transparency International as the third most corrupt in the world has spilled over into violence.

Arab central banks move assets out of dollar

Middle Eastern anger over the decision by the US to block a Dubai company from buying five of its ports hit the dollar yesterday as a number of central banks said they were considering switching reserves into euros. The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the US move as "discrimination". Separately, Syria responded to US sanctions against two of its banks by confirming plans to use euros instead of dollars for its external transactions. The remarks combined to knock the dollar, which fell against the euro, pound and yen yesterday as analysts warned other central banks might follow suit.

EU Warns of Sanctions on U.S. Goods

The European Union advised the World Trade Organization on Tuesday that it would reintroduce trade sanctions against the United States in two months unless Washington complies with a WTO ruling condemning tax breaks for U.S. companies operating overseas.
The 25-nation EU said, however, that it is still offering the United States ways to end the long-standing dispute without having to incur sanctions on lists of targeted products, including everything from textiles and foodstuffs to automotive parts and steel.

UAE turns back on dollar in foreign reserves shake-up

The United Arab Emirates is planning to switch 10pc of its foreign reserves from dollars to euros in the first sign of fall-out from Washington's snub to Dubai Ports World last week. Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, the governor of UAE's central bank, said the plan was designed to achieve a better balance in the $19.1bn reserves of the oil-rich Gulf federation, almost entirely held in dollars.

Launch of Iranian oil trading hits wall - Oil exchange unlikely to begin till at least midyear
As the nuclear standoff pitting Iran against the West continues, some conspiracy theorists are more focused on another plan that the Middle Eastern nation is pursuing. But they are jumping the gun if they still figure Iran is within days of launching a new international oil exchange that would sell its own and other Middle Eastern oil producers' black gold in euros rather than U.S. dollars -- and which, the theory goes, could ultimately torpedo the greenback and the U.S. economy.

Investors flee Iceland banks as economy heads towards forecast 'hard landing'

Iceland's banks were pummelled yesterday as the Nordic economy lurched into its third week of crisis, flashing an ominous early-warning signal for markets worldwide.

Saudi prince pledges £1.6bn to halt plunge in stock market

The Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the world's richest men, intervened yesterday to stem the plunge in the value of the country's stock exchange. Stock markets across the Gulf region have suffered sharp losses this week amid a deepening crisis of confidence after a three-year bull market.

Anger over British firms' Iraq profits

Tony Blair has been challenged over the "scandal" of vast profits being made by British firms with reconstruction contracts in Iraq. The Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn attacked the Prime Minister after The Independent revealed that British businesses have profited by at least £1.1bn since Saddam Hussein was ousted three years ago. Top earners include the construction firm Amec and the security company Aegis. Heasked: "Does he not think it is time to set a date for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, to end the occupation and end the growing scandal of the huge profits being made by British and American companies from reconstruction and that the continued presence represents more of a problem than a solution?"
Mr Blair said Britain should continue to support Iraq's efforts to achieve a stable democracy.

Global Economic Hegemony: A New Kind of Warfare?

An Interview with Dr Krassimir Petrov,Ph.D (Teaches Macroeconomics, International Finance & Econometrics at the American University in Bulgaria).

To bleed and to die
Social change of the kind that is needed in this country has always been precipitated by organized labor. Part of the problem we face as a nation is the decline of strong labor unions. Labor has often been the driving force behind social justice movements in America. Without a strong labor presence social justice will be a very difficult proposition.

UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar
A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros.

U.S. War Spending to Rise 44% to $9.8 Bln a Month

U.S. military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan will average 44 percent more in the current fiscal year than in fiscal 2005, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said. Spending will rise to $9.8 billion a month from the $6.8 billion a month the Pentagon said it spent last year, the research service said. The group's March 10 report cites ''substantial'' expenses to replace or repair damaged weapons, aircraft, vehicles, radios and spare parts.

US$: Forget Iran, the problem's at home

Of all the things that could wreck the US dollar - and there are many - the projected Tehran oil bourse, which is tentatively scheduled to open on March 20 to trade Iran's crude and other petroleum products in euros rather than US dollars, is probably not among them. The much greater threat to the US currency is the US current account deficit, which ballooned to 7% of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2005. The announcement drove the euro up to 1.202 against the US dollar as skittish traders renewed their concerns about the world's fiat currency

Those Corporate Homewreckers - It's just not possible to be a responsible parent or spouse if your work leaves you with barely enough time to shower.

I was in the Atlanta airport recently, cruising a bookstore, when this catchy title leaped out at me: Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports. Since the author is National Review Washington editor and Fox News pundit Kate O'Beirne, I indulged my vanity and looked up my own name in the index. There I was, right up front on page 4, credited with ruining our families. If O'Beirne had done a little more research, she might have found me responsible for wrecking our military and schools, as well. But I can't complain: Destroying the family is a hefty accomplishment all by itself.

Creating a Moral Economy- To revive progressive ideals, we first need to dispel the empty rhetoric of market fundamentalism.

Market fundamentalism has ruled the country for close to 25 years. It has produced weak economic performance, corporate crime waves, government corruption and a coarsening of the culture. But the amazing thing is that efforts to hold the market fundamentalists accountable have gained so little traction.

Does the Gulf of Mexico Hold as Much Oil as Saudi Arabia?

Mexico's giant Cantarell oil field, in the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan, was supposedly discovered in 1976 after a fisherman named Cantarell reported an oil seep in the Campeche Bay. Last week, Mexico announced finding another giant oil field off Veracruz, the Noxal, estimated to hold more than 10 billion barrels of oil.

The US Budget and the Damage Done
The 2006 budget clipped the wings of many organizations that provide basic services to the poor. Bush's 2007 budget could ground them permanently.

UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar

A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros.
The United Arab Emirates said it was considering moving one-tenth of its dollar reserves to the euro, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the decision by the United States to force Dubai Ports World to transfer its ownership to a 'US entity,' the UK Independent reported.
"Is it protectionism or discrimination? Is it okay for US companies to buy everywhere but it is not okay for other companies to buy the US?" said Hamad Saud Al Sayyari, the governor of the Saudi Arabian monetary authority. The head of the United Arab Emirates central bank, Sultan Nasser Al Suweidi, said the bank was considering converting 10 per cent of its reserves from dollars to euros. "They are contravening their own principles," said Al Suweidi. "Investors are going to take this into consideration (and) will look at investment opportunities through new binoculars." The Commercial Bank of Syria has already switched the state's foreign currency transactions from dollars to euros, Duraid Durgham head of the state-owned bank said. The decision by the bank of Syria follows the announcement by the White House calling on all US financial institutions to end correspondent accounts with Syria due to money-laundering concerns. Syria's Finance Minister Mohammad Al Hussein said: "Syria affirms that this decision and its timing are fundamentally political."-Khaleej Times Online


Investors flock to Indian stocks
India may lag behind China economically, but the reverse holds true for their stock markets. India's has soared to a record high this week, driven by foreign investors pouring billions into the market.
Figures show the stock market here is up 200 percent over the past five years, compared with 65 percent in China and 11 percent in the US.

Italian Co. Designs Jeans for Muslims

They're high around the waist, wide around the leg and have lots of pockets for holding watches, bracelets, glasses and other knickknacks.
A new line of jeans designed by a small company in northern Italy caters to Muslims seeking to stay comfortable while they pray. "As far as we know we're the first, at least in Italy," said Luca Corradi, who designed Al Quds jeans.

AMERICA'S APPETITE FOR OIL WILL HAVE TO BE CURBED
Conservatives have denounced the thriller "Syriana," a film that explores the Machiavellian politics of Mideast oil. Pundit Charles Krauthammer, for example, says the movie exports "the most vicious and pernicious mendacities about America to a receptive world."

Signs Comment: Oil is the "back-up" reason that has been prepared and promulgated by Mike Ruppert to excuse the Neocons for their bad behavior. The truth is more hideous: Iraq was invaded purely and simply to commit genocide on behalf of Israel.

Holding the energy card, Putin calls for broader trade with China

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on China to broaden bilateral trade, saying excessive focus by Beijing on securing Russia's abundant natural resources could trigger "instabilities".
"Despite significant advances in Russian-Chinese links, it must be recognized openly that we still have here more than a few serious problems," Putin said in a speech to a business forum with Chinese President Hu Jintao sitting alongside him on stage. "Chief among them are unfavourable structural changes in Russian-Chinese trade and the 'raw materials' character of Russian exports to China."


IRS plans to allow preparers to sell data
Critics said the proposed regulation could lead to a loss of privacy for clients.
The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers. The change is raising alarm among consumer and privacy-rights advocates. It was included in a set of proposed rules that the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."


Rabobank urges global central banks to prevent possible dollar plunge

Economists at Rabobank have called on the world's central banks to undertake action to prevent the US dollar from plunging against the euro and other currencies.


Historic Union Deal Will Pare Down GM
General Motors Corp.'s offer of buyouts to tens of thousands of older, high-wage factory workers yesterday is the latest effort to transform an outmoded U.S. auto giant besieged by more nimble global rivals.

Credit derivatives rocked by loss at GM finance arm
The discovery of huge hidden losses at General Motors's finance arm have raised fresh fears of bankruptcy at the world's biggest carmaker, sending tremors through the credit derivatives markets. The struggling group asked for a filing delay after admitting to an extra $2bn (£1.1bn) in accounting errors at its finance arm GMAC, raising total losses last year to $10.6bn. The news triggered a sharp spike in the cost of default insurance on GMAC's bonds, rising 75 basis points overnight.

GM to cut engineering staff in US, Europe: report
General Motors Corp. will announce job cuts at its engineering operations in the United States and Europe next week, the Detroit Free Press reported on Thursday.
The newspaper quoted unidentified engineers and a GM executive in reporting that the coming job cuts would be announced on Tuesday. It was not clear how many white-collar positions would be eliminated, the newspaper said. A GM representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

Trusting the Marketplace
Confronting critics of the Bush administration's economic record, Treasury Secretary John Snow said the widening gap between high-paid and low-paid Americans reflects a labor market efficiently rewarding more productive people . . . Mr. Snow said the same phenominon explains why compensation for corporate chief executives has climbed so sharply.

"In an aggregate sense, it reflects the marginal productivity of CEOs. Do I trust the market for CEOs to work efficiently? Yes. Until we can find a better way to compensate CEOs, I'm going to trust the marketplace."

Wall Street Journal
Snow Defends President's Handling of Economy
March 20, 2006

EU's 'big three' in crisis, says third way guru
France, Germany and Italy are facing an economic crisis with worrying levels of unemployment, Tony Blair's intellectual guru has declared on the eve of an EU summit which starts in Brussels this afternoon.

EU markets row overshadows summit
A dispute over economic barriers in Europe is set to dominate a summit of EU leaders starting on Thursday.

US-China trade war looms
Senators' protectionist anger over $200bn trade gap puts pressure on Beijing and risks damaging future strategic relations. American senators could vote this week to slap tariffs of 27.5 per cent on all Chinese goods, amid a rising clamour of protectionist anger on Capitol Hill. The sponsors of the so-called Schumer-Graham Bill were in Beijing last week - Chuck Schumer's first official trip overseas in 25 years - to press home the message that China's cheap currency gives it an unfair advantage over the Americans. Schumer, a Democrat who represents New York, and his Republican co-sponsor, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have been promised a vote on the measure by the end of March.

Workers On The Slag Heap Of History

Today, in America, the richest country on earth, the gates of many towns welcome visitors with abandoned factories. And the communities these factories flank tell you more about what's really destroying America than any Wall Street analyst or Washington policy wonk ever could. Since leaving the Philadelphia area, I've learned firsthand that these Anytown, USAs are everywhere - not just on the East Coast. One of them can be found by driving north through the shimmering cattle pastures on Montana Route 12, right near where I now live. There, you'll be welcomed to East Helena by two defunct gray smokestacks rising from giant black mounds of what looks like spent coffee grounds, but is in reality industrial slag.

Credit investors ponder GM-sized hole in universe
 Like the elephant in the living room, the decline of General Motors is a problem that investors don't want to think about but can't ignore.

The world's largest automaker, whose debt is close to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Belgium, lost more than $10 billion last year and is facing a bankruptcy that would reap devastation in the financial markets. GM's share price has halved in the past year, while its $100 billion of bonds have been cut to junk, confronting investors with the prospect of never getting their money back. Others in the highly-leveraged derivatives market face incalculable losses should a bankruptcy occur.

Fed raises interest rates for 15th time
In their first meeting under new chief Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve officials lifted a key U.S. interest rate on Tuesday a 15th straight time and said further moves may be needed to keep inflation at bay.


US living on borrowed time - and money

In 1987, Yale historian Paul Kennedy published The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, in which he argued that "military overstretch" - where conquering nations engaged in more foreign military adventures than their economic resources could support - led to the eventual decline and fall of empires. So far, the US attempt at dominion that commenced in 2001 has not been threatened in this manner because, in essence, the nation has been able to borrow the costs simultaneously to maintain both its new empire and its avaricious middle-class consumerist lifestyle. But the times, they are a-changing. Buried deep in the arcanum of some recently released economic statistics are indications that the world is tiring of its role as America's charge card.

Pillaging the Treasury and the Constitution: Bush is No Conservative

President Bush passes himself off as a conservative Republican and a born-again Christian. These are disguises behind which Bush hides. Would a Christian invade another country on false pretenses, kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and show no remorse or inclination to cease the aggression? Long-time Republican policy-wonk Bruce Bartlett recently published a book, Impostor, in which he proves that President Bush is no economic conservative, having broken all records in spending taxpayers' money and running up public debt.

Senators push for $3.8 bln in farm disaster aid

Farm-state senators made a new push on Wednesday for Congress to pass $3.8 billion in disaster aid to U.S. farmers and ranchers impacted by hurricane, drought and flood losses last year.


Arab Stock Market Tumbles; But Who Knows It?

Think people in the Emirates don't stage street demonstrations? Think again. On March 8, hundreds of protestors gathered in front of the Kuwait City stock exchange. They weren't anti-globalization protesters, but stockholders who had seen their net worth plummet over the preceding month, culminating the previous day when the market fell 400 points. It didn't get any better. On March 14, the Kuwaiti investor-demonstrators hit the streets again, this time marching on the parliament demanding the government take action to stop the slide. The market had just registered its largest one-day loss and closed at a six-month low. Still it didn't stop. Two weeks later, on March 26, after analysts had begun expressing a positive outlook, the Kuwaiti exchange cascaded again, shedding 239.8 points. According to press reports, the Kuwait protesters accused the big money traders on the exchange of manipulating the market for various financial and political motives. A member of parliament, Abdulwahid Al-Awadi said, "someone is playing with the stock market in an attempt to monopolize it." However it soon became clear that the crisis was not limited to the Emirate of Kuwait. That same day, in the United Arab Emirates, the market plunged to its lowest level in 11 months and observers began referring to the fall as "Black Tuesday." The stock markets fell 11.7 percent in Dubai and 4.74 percent in Saudi Arabia.

U.S. demands set back Russia's WTO bid - Putin

President Vladimir Putin vented his frustration on Wednesday at the slow progress of Russia's talks to join the World Trade Organization, saying new demands put by the United States had set the process back.


Economy Grows at 1.7 Percent Pace
The economy hit a soft patch in the final quarter of 2005, growing at an annual rate of just 1.7 percent, an ominous statistic but for fresher readings that suggest America's business health has improved and is mostly sound. While the latest figure for gross domestic product in the October-to-December period was indeed anemic and marked the worst performance in three years, the new reading actually turned out to be slightly better than the 1.6 percent growth rate estimated a month ago, according to the Commerce Department's report released Thursday.

Signs Comment: Well, golly! As long as the economy continues to beat analysts expectations, we have nothing to worry about - right?

Nasdaq hits 5-year high

U.S. stocks staged a broad rebound on Wednesday, with gains in Google Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. leading a rally in tech shares that drove the Nasdaq to a five-year high.
All major industry sectors rose on the day. Blue chips got a lift from Boeing Co., which received a $2 billion jet order, and from a brokerage upgrade of manufacturer 3M Co. Boeing's shares glided to a record during the day. Wednesday's gains helped the market recover from losses that came after the Fed voted to increase interest rates and hinted more may be needed to stem inflation.

U.S. bonds dive after decision on rates

Prices on U.S. Treasury notes plunged on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the 15th straight time and signaled that further increases lay ahead. Fed policy makers lifted their target rate, as economists had forecast, by a quarter-percentage point to 4.75 percent, the highest since March 2001.

GM Begins Firing Salaried Workers at About 30 U.S. Locations

General Motors Corp., struggling with $10.6 billion in losses last year, started firing hundreds of its U.S. salaried employees at about 30 U.S. locations, part of a North American restructuring plan. Today's firings are the first of cuts that will continue throughout the year and are part of GM's plan to reduce its U.S. salaried and contract workforce by about 7 percent this year, GM spokesman Robert Herta said. The firings will include employees in most areas of the company and the workers will get severance payments and outplacement assistance, he said.

Illegal Workers: the Cons' Secret Weapon

Conservatives are all atwitter about illegal immigrants. Some want to give them amnesty. Others want to reinstitute the old Bracero program. Others want to build a wall around America, like the communists did around East Berlin. Some advocate all of the above.

Americans at "tipping point" about energy: poll

Americans are nearly as worried about their country's dependence on foreign energy sources as they are about the war in Iraq, a poll released by the magazine Foreign Affairs showed on Thursday.
Almost half of the 1,000 Americans surveyed for the Public Agenda Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index gave U.S. policymakers a failing grade in weaning the country from foreign oil. Nearly 90 percent said the lack of energy independence jeopardizes national security.

Join the Reserve Bank of Australia and Property Masters' Dots

The big and successful private property investors are cottoning on [becoming divestors]...
It's the job of the RBA to talk common sense and warn of disasters in the hope the Martin Place [Sydney's equivalent to Wall Street] mandarins scare some of the populace into avoiding irrational exuberance. They were at it again yesterday in warning financial markets of their myopia in pricing risk during this long, golden summer of investment.

Inflation worries trouble investors

The government revised its estimate of U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2005. Uncle Sam now believes the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent, not 1.6 percent as was previously thought. Despite the seemingly good news, this morning's announcement was actually viewed as worrisome-not welcome-on Wall Street.

Delphi to Ask Court to Void Union Deals

Auto parts supplier Delphi Corp. said it will ask a federal bankruptcy court on Friday to void its labor contracts as part of a controversial restructuring that calls for layoffs of up to 8,500 salaried workers and the sale or closure of 21 of its 29 U.S. plants.
The moves carry huge risks: It may lead to a strike by unionized workers at Delphi that could cripple the U.S. auto industry and push General Motors Corp., its former parent and largest customer, closer to Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

US debt clock running out of time, space

Tick, 20,000 dollars, tock, another 20,000 dollars.
So rapid is the rise of the US national debt, that the last four digits of a giant digital signboard counting the moving total near New York's Times Square move in seemingly random increments as they struggle to keep pace. The national debt clock, as it is known, is a big clock. A spot-check last week showed a readout of 8.3 trillion -- or more precisely 8,310,200,545,702 -- dollars ... and counting. But it's not big enough. Sometime in the next two years, the total amount of US government borrowing is going to break through the 10-trillion-dollar mark and, lacking space for the extra digit such a figure would require, the clock is in danger of running itself into obsolescence. The clock's owner, real estate developer Douglas Durst, knew such a problem could arise but hadn't counted on it so soon. "We really expected it to be quite some time," Durst told AFP. "But now, with the pace of debt growth only increasing, we're looking at maybe two years and certainly before President (George W.) Bush leaves office in 2009."

Privatizing the Apocalypse

Every now and then, amid all the grim stories in our world, you run across one that rings a special bell for you. Frida Berrigan's today is that for me. In fact, consider this week at Tomdispatch as a discordant hymn to the privatization disasters of the Bush administration. Michael Schwartz began it with his account of how the draconian economic privatization program Bush administration officials enacted on prostrate Iraq in 2003 led directly to the catastrophe of the moment in that country. We know as well that, under this administration, the Pentagon has been on its own privatization binge, turning what were once essential military activities over to Halliburton, its subsidiary KBR, and other private firms in a wholesale fashion.

New Fuel Standards for U.S. Autos Not a Hit in the 'Green' Room
With energy independence and global warming on the minds of a lot of Americans right now, it should come as no surprise that President Bush has just ordered automakers to produce light trucks and SUVs that get better fuel mileage. After all, better mileage equals less dependence on oil and fewer carbon dioxide emissions, which are a major cause of global climate change. But, as with so many things, the devil is in the details. Environmentalists and consumer groups, for two, are generally not impressed with the new standards. Indeed, "weak" seems to neatly sum up their overall assessment.

French Government pulls happy financial news out of hat

French unemployment is falling, growth is rising and overspending is finally under control, the finance minister said Friday hours before President Jacques Chirac was to address the nation on a crisis over jobs for young people.
On the hot issue of unemployment, which has led to weeks of sometimes violent protests, Thierry Breton predicted that 200,000 jobs would be created and that the jobless rate would drop below 9 percent by the end of the year.





U.S. Foreign Policy Including Iraq And Iran

Mottaki: Iranians not to give up right to uranium enrichment

Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Tuesday that Iranian officials will never compromise Iran's rights for uranium enrichment.

MEK Terrorist Blames Iran for Askariyah Bombing

In an effort to steer blame for the Samarra mosque bombing in the preferred direction, the Straussian neocon puppet masters have trotted out Maryam Rajavi, billed as president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political front of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), who points an accusatory finger at Iran. "Mrs. Rajavi strongly condemned Iranian regime's meddling in Iraq and described the Samarra bombing, planned attacks on Sunni mosques, killing of religious leaders, political figures, journalists and others as part of a war that the ruling mullahs in Iran have initiated in Iraq against its people," a propaganda release posted on the NCRI "Foreign Affairs Committee" website states. "She said the Iranian regime's motives for inciting such violence is quite clear as the mullahs failed to achieve their ominous goals in Iraq following the elections in that country. She reminded that a front of Iraqi democratic forces is shaping up at the moment which is aware of the threats of fundamentalism posed by Tehran. She emphasized that a national unity government in Iraq does not serve the interest of religious fascism ruling neighboring Iran," the statement continued.

Iran, Russia gather for high-stakes nuclear talks

Iranian and Russian negotiators gathered for high-stakes talks on a compromise plan designed to ease global fears that Tehran is trying to build nuclear arms, with time fast running out for a deal.


Mubarak says warns US against hitting Iran

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had advised the United States against attacking Iran, predicting that Tehran would react through its influence over Shi'ite Muslim communities in Arab countries in the Gulf.

U.S. plan to divide Iran - Marines produce road map to ethnic strife Washington bankrolls separatist groups

The US and Britain have torn apart Iraq and now they want to do the same to Iran. The US military has been studying ethnic and religious tensions in Iran as part of its preparations for war. The study was commissioned by the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA), which specialises in producing intelligence for low ranking soldiers. This suggests that plans for war are advanced.

Iran promises Hamas USD 250 million

The London-based Arabic-language newspaper el-Hayat reported Tuesday that Tehran promised Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal it would transfer USD 250 million to the Palestinian Authority as compensation for the freezing of American aid to the Palestinians.

Why India Should Choose Iran, Not the US

Dr Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and one of the leading technical nuclear experts in the United States, believes that even if India gets everything it wants under the US-India civilian nuclear agreement signed by President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18, it would still be only a tiny fraction of the oil and gas it could obtain from Iran to meet India's growing energy needs. It is not, Dr Makhijani argues, therefore worth jeopardizing India's relationship with Iran by voting with the United States against Tehran at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Russia, Iran make new bid to break nuclear impasse

Iranian nuclear negotiators arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a fresh attempt to reach a compromise that might defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its atomic program.


IAEA says NO evidence of Iranian n-weapons plan
As the countdown for a crucial meeting on Iran on March 6 gets under way, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revealed that it has not found any evidence that Teheran had diverted material towards making atomic weapons.
In its report which has been circulated to its 35 board members, the IAEA said that its three years of investigations had not shown "any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices", the Associated Press reported.

Iran Says U.S. Sabotaging Nuke Deal

Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Thursday insisted that bilateral talks should continue on a Russian offer to enrich uranium for Iran and warned that handing over the nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council - as the United States has demanded - would kill Moscow's initiative. "America is lying, trying to destroy the Russian proposal," Ali Larijani said at a news conference. "The Americans' insistence on handing over the Iranian nuclear dossier to the U.N. Security Council means the destruction of the Russian proposal."

The wrong way to fix Iran

THE BUSH administration quietly orchestrated a major shift in U.S. policy toward Iran this month, requesting $85 million from Congress to help bring about regime change in Tehran. Washington is now seeking not just to contain Tehran's nuclear ambitions but also to topple the Iranian government. The war in Iraq has made all too clear the high cost of using military force to attain regime change. Accordingly, the administration is taking a page from Eastern Europe, where the United States used radio broadcasts and direct assistance to opposition groups to help undermine authoritarian governments and promote democracy. Administration officials explicitly cited Poland's Solidarity movement as a model.

Iran claims Israel has over 200 nuclear warheads

Teheran has information suggesting that Israel's nuclear arsenal exceeds 200 warheads. "Israel's nuclear potential exceeds 200 warheads. The U.S., meanwhile, is pursuing a policy aimed at distracting attention from this problem," Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani told the press in Moscow on Thursday.

No deal at last-minute Iran-EU nuclear talks

European Union powers and Iran failed to strike a deal in last-ditch talks on Tehran's suspect nuclear program ahead of a crucial UN meeting that could open the way to punitive action.


Would Iranian Nukes Only Kill Jews?
Will Iran's nukes only kill Jews? That's the question Palestinians should be asking themselves. Because the answer is no. There is no way to make a nuclear bomb that just kills Jews. There is no way to "wipe Israel off the map," as Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sworn to do in a nuclear armageddon, without wiping out the Palestinians, as well.

IDF Boasts: Arrow can block 'any Iranian missile'

Israel's Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile system is capable of intercepting and destroying any Iranian missiles, even were they to carry nuclear warheads, a high-ranking IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. While Iran is Israel's most serious strategic and existential threat, the country, he said confidently, was sufficiently protected by the Arrow, which plays a major role in maintaining Israel's protective envelope. "We will shoot all of [Iran's missiles] down," he told the Post. "The Arrow knows how to intercept the Shihab missile." Just last year that wasn't the case.

Use Diplomacy on Iran Case, Say Americans

Many adults in the United States think military action against Iran is unwarranted at this point, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 55 per cent of respondents believe Iran is a threat that can be contained with diplomacy now, and 19 per cent say the country is not a menace to the U.S.

The Monolith Crumbles: Reality and Revisionism in Iran

It is a well-known fact – except among the American media, the American government, and about 98.7 percent of the American people – that Iran is not a monolithic state where sheep-like masses bray with a single voice in chorus with their demented leaders, but is, on the contrary, a complex society where many conflicting opinions on matters political, religious, social, historical, etc., contend with each other in open debate.
True, it does have a government dominated by repressive clerics, who exercise the kind of veto power over secular law that George W. Bush's vaunted "base" dreams of seeing established in the United States; but Iran is far more open than, say, Saudi Arabia or China, just to name two countries where the Bush Family and friends have long engorged their bellies through insider connections with the ruling cliques.


Bolton: World Must Confront Iran
The U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations on Sunday told an influential pro-Israel lobbying group there is an urgent need to confront
Iran's "clear and unrelenting drive" for a nuclear weapons program. John Bolton, speaking before a crowd of 4,500 gathered for an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, said that a failure by the U.N. Security Council to address Iran would "do lasting damage to the credibility of the council."

War Pimp Bolton Rides AGain

New York. In case Iran doesn't give up its ambitions in sphere of nuclear energy the country should face painful consequences and the USA will be able to use all means in order to counteract the threat coming from the Islamic republic, the US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton announced today, cited by Reuters agency. Bolton has mentioned that he was considering as untimely the imposing of sanctions on Iran by the UN Security Council and that Washington was preparing defensive measures for counteraction of Iranian nuclear threat.

War Pimping: Nato may help US airstrikes on Iran
WHEN Major-General Axel Tüttelmann, the head of Nato's Airborne Early Warning and Control Force, showed off an Awacs early warning surveillance plane in Israel a fortnight ago, he caused a flurry of concern back at headquarters in Brussels. It was not his demonstration that raised eyebrows, but what he said about Nato's possible involvement in any future military strike against Iran. "We would be the first to be called up if the Nato council decided we should be," he said. Nato would prefer the emphasis to remain on the "if", but Tüttelmann's comments revealed that the military alliance could play a supporting role if America launches airstrikes against Iranian nuclear targets.

New US focus on Destroying - uh - "promoting democracy" in Iran
The US State Department has created an office dedicated to Iran to reflect the Bush administration's new focus on promoting democracy in the Islamic republic, officials said on Thursday. Establishment of the Office of Iran Affairs follows the request to Congress made by Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, last month for an additional $75m this year to spend on influencing democratic change in Iran. The proposed spending has already triggered an internal struggle over who will control the $50m designated for a new Farsi-language television station.

Cheney daughter leads 'cold war' on mullahs
THE war in Iraq is her father's business but Elizabeth Cheney, the American vice-president's daughter, has been given responsibility for bringing about a different type of regime change in Iran. Cheney, a 39-year-old mother of four, is a senior official in the State Department, which has often been regarded as hostile territory by Dick Cheney's White House team. Nonetheless father and daughter agree it would be better for the mullahs' regime to collapse from within than to be ousted by force.

Signs Comment: Iran has no WMD capability, the IAEA established this late last year. Everything that we are being told about the nuclear threat from Iran is a lie.

Surprise! Helmut Kohl agrees with Ahmadinejad on Holocaust
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl reportedly told Iranian businessmen in Germany that he agreed with statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a "myth", the semi-official Jomhouri Islami reported on Monday.

Iran and Qaeda benefit from US in Iraq: congressman
The U.S. presence in Iraq is hurting the worldwide war on terrorism and benefits only Iran and al Qaeda, U.S. Rep. John Murtha said on Sunday.

"The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran and al-Qaeda," Murtha said on CBS's "Face the Nation" political talk show. "And I talked to a top-level commander the other day and he said China wants us there also. Why? Because we're depleting our resources ... our troop resources and our fiscal resources.


Iran will stand by rights in case of UN referral or sanctions
Supreme National Security Council Secretary General Ali Larijani said here on Sunday that referral of Iran's nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council would not prevent the Islamic Republic from conducting nuclear research and achieving development.
"It would be very outrageous for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the Security Council for its research work," he told reporters at a press conference. If the nuclear dossier is referred to the UN, Iran will reduce its cooperation with the IAEA and start uranium enrichment, Larijani stated.

Risen sez: CIA used A-bomb plan as bait - gave flawed design to Iran

Iran and EU officials failed yesterday to resolve a standoff over Iran's nuclear work before a United Nations atomic watchdog meeting Monday that may lead to Security Council action. In his book, State of War, James Risen includes the startling claim that the U.S. actually handed Tehran the blueprints for an atomic bomb in 2000. The CIA scheme was to introduce intentional flaws in the design plans that would delay or derail Iranian work. The following excerpt shows the poorly conceived plan and its easily identified flaws. Risen is the reporter who revealed a secret domestic U.S. wiretapping surveillance program exists in the United States.

Iran refuses to stop nuclear work
Iran will continue its controversial nuclear research programme no matter what action the UN takes against it, one of its top officials has said.

US, Russia reject Iran compromise

The United States and Russia have ruled out an Iranian proposal to allow Tehran to run its own small-scale uranium enrichment programme.

Iranian bombshell?

Bush Administration officials are readying a new intelligence briefing for council members on Tehran's weapons programs. It will rely mainly on circumstantial evidence, much of it from documents found on a laptop purportedly purloined from an Iranian nuclear engineer and obtained by the CIA in 2004. U.S. officials insist the material is strong but concede they have no smoking gun.

UN to start hearing Iran case next week
The Iran nuclear crisis will be brought to the UN Security Council next week, a top US official said. "Iran has not met the conditions at the IAEA," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations. "We will therefore start a new phase of diplomacy -- action by the UN Security council starting next week."

Signs Comment: Well, after all, the Bush gang DOES have a schedule to keep!

Iran will be stopped, Cheney vows to Israeli lobbyists
Vice President Dick Cheney has vowed unshakeable solidarity with Israel, and condemned the new Palestinian government. Cheney made it clear Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, described the Iranian regime as "irresponsible," and warned the United States had "all options on the table."

Signs Comment: Notice that AIPAC members had lobbying appointments with 400 Senators and Representatives from both parties who happened to be in attendance. Of course, we suspect that the only lobbying being done was for the AIPAC delegates to remind the members of the Senate and Congress that they were still in possession of those photos, videotapes and confidential data that the Senators and Representatives would prefer the media never hears about.

U.S. endorsed Iranian plans to build massive nuclear energy industry

In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford signed a directive that granted Iran the opportunity to purchase U.S. built reprocessing equipment and facilities designed to extract plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel.

Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain'
Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program. But the United States and its European allies said Iran's nuclear intransigence left the world no choice but to ask for Security Council action. The council could impose economic and political sanctions on Iran.

Signs Comment: So let's see if we have this straight: the US threatens Iran with "harm and pain" because Bush claims Iran is developing nuclear weapons. There is no evidence to support Bush's claim, just like there was no real evidence that Saddam had WMD's before or after the invasion of Iraq. When Iran declares that it will retaliate against a US attack, its comments are splashed all over the mainstream US media as "proof" that Iran is evil. Did we miss something?

Iran Boosts Gulf Presence With Locally Made Submarine

Iran's armed forces have deployed a new locally-built submarine in Gulf waters, state television reported Tuesday. The vessel is named the Nahang, meaning whale, and was "built by specialists in the Iranian defence ministry and has the capability to carry multipurpose weapons for different missions", Rear Admiral Sajjad Kouchaki said.

Drumbeat sounds familiar
US fears about Iranian nukes, discussed in Vienna yesterday, are hardly the whole story. Washington is compiling a dossier of grievances against Tehran similar in scope and seriousness to the pre-war charge-sheet against Iraq.

Signs Comment: And we all know how authentic the Iraq dossier was, don't we? Seriously, how much longer are we going to take this BS?

Report: Israelis in Iran Hunting Nukes
An Israeli special operations team is working undercover in Iran, according to a report Sunday in a British newspaper. The soldiers are on a mission to prevent the Iranians from succeeding in their bid to develop a nuclear weapon. They are involved in locating uranium enrichment facilities in Iran, according to the British Sunday Times, and are currently based in neighboring northern Iraq. The United States is supporting the move, says the paper.

Signs Comment: The Israelis are in Iran hunting for intelligence that they can twist and distort and use to justify ethnically cleansing the Middle East of its Arab population.

Israeli pilot recalls smashing a rival's nuclear ambitions
Lt. Col. Zeev Raz tightened his grip on the controls of his F-16 and nosed the fighter jet into a dive. He patiently locked his bombsights on the dome of Iraq's nuclear reactor. The setting sun, at Raz's back, illuminated the reactor as if by spotlight. Raz flipped a switch with his index finger and released two 2,000-pound bombs. Seven other Israeli fighter jets flying with him did the same. In one bold action on June 7, 1981, Israel's military had left the Osiraq nuclear reactor near Baghdad in smoldering ruins and dealt a blow to Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions.

Signs Comment: WOW! It's just like a movie! Are you excited now about the impending attack on Iran?!

US demands drastic action as Iran nuclear row escalates
The US called for extraordinary action to get to the bottom of Iran's nuclear programme yesterday as Tehran and Washington moved into confrontational mode in the long-running dispute. The American ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Greg Schulte, called for "special inspections" by the UN nuclear teams in Iran, in effect giving them carte blanche in their detective work, at the Vienna meeting of the IAEA board that is reporting Iran to the UN security council. The mechanism has been used only once before, unsuccessfully, in North Korea 13 years ago.

Israel will have to act on Iran if UN can't

If the U.N. Security Council is incapable of taking action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself, Israel's defense minister said on Wednesday.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was asked whether Israel was ready to use military action if the Security Council proved unable to act against what Israel and the West believe is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program. "My answer to this question is that the state of Israel has the right give all the security that is needed to the people in Israel. We have to defend ourselves," Mofaz told Reuters after a meeting with his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung.

Russia and West Split on Iran Nuclear Issue
A serious rift emerged Monday when Russia split with the United States and Europe over Iran's nuclear program after the Russians floated a last-minute proposal to allow Iran to make small quantities of nuclear fuel, according to European officials.
The reports of the proposal prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to call Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and according to an administration official who was briefed on the conversation, "she said the United States cannot support this."

Bush's bumpy road to Iran

The Bush administration was hoping for a "green light" from the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, but things fell apart at the last minute. Iran mobilized an "eleventh hour" diplomacy-coup and promised not to pursue "industrial-scale" enrichment for two years. The announcement took IAEA-chief Muhammad ElBaradei by surprise and left him looking for ways to revive negotiations rather than issuing a critical report to the UN Security Council.

Washington splits over best policy to halt Iran's nuclear plan

Visiting MPs were astonished by a lack of consensus on the eve of the crucial nuclear meeting

Iran call for nuclear-free region
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the Middle East to be free of nuclear weapons. Speaking after talks with Kuwaiti leaders, Mr Ahmadinejad said nuclear weapons were a threat to stability. He said Iran was a good neighbour, and reiterated that its nuclear programme was for peaceful, civilian purposes.

Israeli Says Arrow Missile Can Hit Iranian Shihab Missiles

Senior Israeli defense officials are publicly proclaiming the reliability of their Arrow anti-ballistic missile interceptor in what appears to be a clear deterrence warning to Iran not to try and launch any nuclear missile strike against the Jewish state. The Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile system is capable of intercepting and destroying any Iranian missiles, even were they to carry nuclear warheads, a high-ranking Israel Defense Forces officer told The Jerusalem Post.

Iran's military prepared to defend against attacks

Iran's Defence Minister vowed on Wednesday that the country's armed forces were prepared for any foreign military aggression.
"The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are ready to defend the country from any threats by the enemies", Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said while in the western city of Khorramshahr, the official state news agency reported. Separately, Iran, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would make the West regret trying to prevent it from acquiring nuclear capabilities. "Everyone must accept and respect the Iranian nation's desire to obtain peaceful nuclear technology", Ahmadinejad said at a rally in Khorramabad. "If anyone shows aggression to the Iranian nation's rights, Iran will wipe the dark stain of regret on their foreheads".

US Cannot Use Gansi Base for Iran'
Kyrgyzstan Minister of Foreign Affairs Alikbek Ceksenkulov said the United States can not use Gansi Military Base for a possible attack on Iran. It would be a violation of the mutual covenant between the two countries if the US decides to use the Gansi Air Base, close to Manas Airport in Bishkek, against Iran. The base was built to suppress terror in Afghanistan, Ceksenkulov told BBC Monday, adding that the base should not pose a threat to any Asian countries, including Iran. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev also told Russian "Komersant" last week that America could only use Gansi for Afghanistan, not for Iran. The President reminded the US access period would only be extended depending on the stability of Afghanistan.

Logic out the window at the White House
The biggest pitfall in predicting the behavior of radical groups like the inner circle of the Bush administration is that you keep telling yourself that they would never actually do whatever it is they're talking about. Surely they must realize that acting like that would cause a disaster. Then they go right ahead and do it.

War Whore Rice: Iran is major challenge to peace
The US may face "no greater" challenge from any country than Iran, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said today. Ms Rice made the comments at a congressional hearing in Washington shortly after Iran's president vowed that there would be no retreat over its nuclear ambitions. Ms Rice, who is pushing the UN security council to start taking action against Iran that could lead to sanctions, also accused Tehran of meddling in Iraq. 

White House Linked to Mitch Wade Iran Group?

Yesterday at TPM we noted the fact that in April 2004 Mitchell Wade -- the guy who paid off Duke Cunningham for help bagging contracts -- registered as the 'registered agent' for an outfit called the "Iranian Democratization Foundation."
That was on April 5th, 2004.
Now, during 2004, the Federal Procurement Data System lists 444 procurement contracts for the Executive Office of the President (that's the official name for what we colloquially refer to as 'the White House'). Most of those contracts are what you'd expect for a large office complex -- computer services, shipping, office supplies, etc.

US congressmen press for Iran sanctions bill

Key US congressmen on Wednesday said that they would push forward with legislation imposing mandatory sanctions on foreign firms working in Iran, despite administration concerns that the bill could split the international coalition against Iran's nuclear programme.
As the United States and its allies prepared to take Iran's case to the UN Security Council – which could eventually consider penalties on Tehran – some lawmakers complained that Washington needs to be more aggressive in confronting the "threat" posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology.

Steamroller Bolton at the U.N.

Watching John Bolton bulldoze the United Nations is mesmerizing. In a matter of months, he's savaged the system that distributes power more equitably and transformed the institution into a fiefdom for western elites and American corporations. Under the banner of "reform", the blustery Bolton has coerced a number of changes that will forever alter the composition of the UN; removing the institution's last vestiges of international legitimacy.

de la déontologie
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations granted a visit, albeit short 22 minutes exactly, to the foreign press corps in New York. John Bolton has never been really fond of journalists. Though today he had a few reasons to rejoice.

Signs Comment: Bolton suggesting that Iran should be held to honouring signed international agreements is about as hypocritical as it comes. The Bush administration has flouted and ignored international agreements with an in yer face attitude that is flagrant.

Goal on Iran is political, not punitive says France

France is looking for a political solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions rather than seeking to punish Tehran, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on French radio on Friday.
"Our goal is political, not at all punitive," he told RTL radio when asked whether France backed U.S. demands that the U.N. Security Council consider sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Congress of Arab parties voices support for Iran's nuclear right

The fourth session of the General Conference of Arab Parties here Tuesday voiced support for Iran's right to acquire peaceful nuclear technology.
Secretary-General of the Congress of Arab Parties Abdul Aziz al-Seyyed told reporters at a press conference held at the end of the three-day session that Iran was being targeted by big powers because it was a regional power with policies that did not please these powers.

Ambassador says Iran ready for uranium enrichment in Turkey

Iran is prepared to agree to the enrichment of uranium for its civilian nuclear program and subsequent recycling of spent nuclear fuel in Turkish territory, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported Thursday.
"Both countries have commitments under international agreements they are determined to comply with. We plan to discuss some proposals for uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel processing in the future," the Iranian ambassador to Turkey, Firuz Devletabadi, was quoted as saying. Devletabadi explained that all issues were being discussed within the framework of efforts for enhancing security in the region and that "the Iranian nuclear program does not have a military dimension," the report said.


War Whore US Beefs Up Iran Dossier
George W Bush's explanation of his volte-face over a proposed Iran-India gas pipeline project appeared slightly disingenuous. "Our beef with Iran is not the pipeline," the United States president said recently after withdrawing previous objections and giving the go-ahead to Washington's new friends in Delhi. "Our beef with Iran is the fact that they want to develop a nuclear weapon." But US fears about Iranian nukes are hardly the whole story. Washington is compiling a dossier of grievances against Tehran similar in scope and seriousness to the pre-war charge-sheet against Iraq. Other complaints include Iranian meddling in Iraq, support for Hamas in Palestine and Hizbullah in Lebanon, and human rights abuses.

War Pimping US congressmen press for Iran sanctions bill

Key US congressmen on Wednesday said that they would push forward with legislation imposing mandatory sanctions on foreign firms working in Iran, despite administration concerns that the bill could split the international coalition against Iran's nuclear programme.
As the United States and its allies prepared to take Iran's case to the UN Security Council – which could eventually consider penalties on Tehran – some lawmakers complained that Washington needs to be more aggressive in confronting the "threat" posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology.

War Pimp Israel sez 'US not doing enough to stop Iran'

The United States has until now not done enough to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a senior Defense Ministry official has told The Jerusalem Post while expressing hope that Wednesday's referral of the Iranian issue to the United Nations Security Council would prove to be effective. "America needs to get its act together," the official said. "Until now the US administration has just been talking tough but the time has come for the Americans to begin to take tough action."

War Whore Bush: Iran 'grave' security concern

U.S. President Bush called Iran an ''issue of grave national security concern'' during a press conference to a national newspapers group.

War Pimp Ex-Israel Military Chief:West Can Cripple Iran Nuclear Program

A retired Israeli military chief said Friday that Western nations and Israel have the ability to launch a military strike that will set back Iran's nuclear program for many years.
Israel TV reported Thursday that Moshe Yaalon, who retired in June after a 37- year military career, told an audience in Washington that Israel has the capacity to carry out a military strike against Iran by itself.


As Syria's Influence in Lebanon Wanes, Iran Moves In
Nearly a year ago, not long after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, who was twice prime minister of Lebanon, Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, unleashing a wave of patriotism here that prompted many to say that the Lebanese might finally be able to take control of their destiny.
But the intensity of the moment and the rush of emotions eclipsed at least one important and largely unanswerable question: With Syria gone, or at least its troops gone, who would fill the power vacuum? At the time, Iran did not appear to be the answer. But that is what is happening, according to government officials, political leaders and political analysts here.


Signs Comment: Gosh darn! Wouldn't you know it! Those dreaded Iranians are moving into the vacuum in Lebanon! Is there anypone with a neuron left firing in the US who can see through the patent manipulation of this article? A year ago, it was Syria. Now, they're gunning for Iran. Sheesh.

Bush campaign against Iran's religious leaders - Wash Post
The Bush administration intends to mount a campaign against Tehran's religious leaders in its efforts to build international pressure against Iran's nuclear program, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
Board members of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, who met two weeks ago with President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, told the Post they had the impression that the administration had shifted to a more robust policy against the Tehran government.


U.S. State Dept. Names Iran Among Worst Violators
Releasing the latest edition of its annual human rights "Country Reports", the U.S. State Department Wednesday named Iran and China as among the world's "most systematic human rights violators" in 2005, along with North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Belarus. In a 16-page introduction, the report also singled out the human rights performances of Syria, Sudan, Nepal, Russia and Venezuela as particularly problematic through the year, even as it praised what it called "major progress" in Iraq, as well as advances in Afghanistan, Colombia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Burundi and Liberia. "In Iraq 2005 was a year of major progress for democracy, democratic rights and freedom," according to the introduction, citing the "steady growth of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other civil society associations that promote human rights", as well as the holding of two elections and one constitutional plebiscite.

Signs Comment: Excuse us, but the extent of the "cojones" required for the U.S. government to release this report citing Iran and China as among the world's "most systematic human rights violators" in 2005, is shocking even to us.

War Pimp: Nuclear expert: Too late to stop Iran
A former top UN and US arms inspector on Iraq has said it may be too late to stop a nuclear-weapons determined Iran, noting that there is no consensus on taking military action against Tehran. "I'm afraid that we probably are past the point where there is any meaningful alternative other than military action to stop the Iranians if they are determined to go ahead. And I don't see that as a possibility," David Kay, who led the US search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq following the 2003 invasion, said on Sunday.

War Pimp McCain: If Iran Gets Nukes, U.S. 'In Trouble'

Where Iran is concerned, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, believes President Bush was right in keeping military leverage on the table and considering U.N. sanctions. "Iran may be the greatest single threat to America since the end of the Cold War,"McCain told an audience at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn. "If the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, then my friends, we are in trouble." As far as Iraq, McCain called for more training, the formation of a government and economic development, and he stated that the United States needs to pursue positive relationships in the Arab world.

War Pimp: Iran builds a secret underground complex as nuclear tensions rise

Iran's leaders have built a secret underground emergency command centre in Teheran as they prepare for a confrontation with the West over their illicit nuclear programme, the Sunday Telegraph has been told. The complex of rooms and offices beneath the Abbas Abad district in the north of the capital is designed to serve as a bolthole and headquarters for the country's rulers as military tensions mount.

Reuters/CBS
28 May 03
The Baghdad bunker which the United States said it bombed on the opening night of the Iraq war in a bid to kill Saddam Hussein never existed.

The network quoted a U.S. Army colonel in charge of inspecting key sites in Baghdad as saying no trace of a bunker or of bodies had been found at the site on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital, known as Dora Farms. "When we came out here, the primary thing they were looking for was an underground facility, or bodies, forensics, and basically, what they saw was giant holes created. No underground facilities, no bodies," Col. Tim Madere said.

CBS, saying it was the first news organization to visit the site, reported that the CIA had searched it once and Col. Madere had searched it twice as part of efforts to find traces of DNA that could indicate if Saddam or his sons had been killed or wounded. The network said the main palace in the compound remained standing despite the surrounding destruction. It quoted Madere as saying anyone who had been in the building could have survived the raid.

Shortly after the attack, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters: "There's no question but that the strike on that leadership headquarters was successful. We have photographs of what took place. The question is, what was in there?"

The United States effectively acknowledged that the March 20 raid failed to kill Saddam when it launched a second air attack aimed at the Iraqi president on April 7. The fate of Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay is still unclear. Rumsfeld said earlier this month, "If you don't have evidence he's dead, you've probably got to assume he's alive."

Israeli plan to attack Iranian nuclear reactors

The Israeli media was dominated by one story on Friday - comments made by Israel's former military chief of staff concerning Iran's nuclear programme. Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, Moshe Ya'alon suggested that Israel is well-equipped to attack Iran and has the means to defend itself against possible missile attack.
He went into some detail about Israeli options, but did stress that first the world must try economic and diplomatic channels to pressure Teheran into not producing nuclear weapons. Such comments are highly irregular from senior Israeli figures. The story was broken by Israel's Channel 1 television, whose reporter happened to attend the address. Apparently Ya'alon was fully aware a journalist was present when he made his address. Israel has a contingency and integrated plan for a crushing military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The revelation by a retired Israeli general has set off a political storm. Moshe Ya'alon added that Israel has the ability to launch a pre-emptive strike that could set back Iran's nuclear programme for years. He said that a single attack would not be sufficient, and that Israel was not limited to air strikes, a possible reference to submarine-fired missiles.

Anti-Israel rabbis support Iran

Members of an orthodox Jewish sect have met top Iranian officials in Tehran to show support for the Iranian president's call for the destruction of Israel, reports say. Leading rabbis of Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist group of ultra-Orthodox Jews who consider the existence of Israel an abomination, met with Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's Vice President, the top-selling Yediot Aharonot reported. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Jewish state "must be wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska - comments that have provoked anger in the West and condemnation from the UN Security Council. Rabbi Dovid Weiss, the group's spokesman, was quoted as supporting Ahmadinejad's call during an interview on Iranian television last week.

Bush blames Iran for some bombs in Iraq
He told an audience in Washington that his administration has proof that Iran is producing lethal, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that have been found in Iraq. "Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran," the president said.

Signs Comment:
A blatant lie? Seems like it...

US general says no proof Iran behind Iraq arms
The United States does not have proof that Iran's government is responsible for the presence of Iranian weapons and military personnel in Iraq, the top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.

Signs Comment: So with no evidence of a Iran having Nuclear weapons and no evidence of Iranian interference in Iraq, what reason is there to attack Iran? Well, you see, that's there thing, there is no reason, other than Israel wants to be top dog in the Middle East, and Israel is willing to make the sacrifice of thousands of Iranian and US military lives to achieve that goal.

Activists in Iran say U.S. strategy hurts their work
Prominent activists inside Iran say President Bush's plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote democracy here is the kind of help they don't need.


Iran: Where do we go from here?
The Bush administration has run into a rock wall at the Security Council. Neither Russia nor China will agree to any resolution that condemns Iran for "noncompliance" with its treaty obligations. In fact, there is general agreement that Iran has not violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) so the point is moot. This eliminates any chance that punitive action will be taken against Iran or that sanctions will be applied. So why did the Bush administration take the case this far if they knew that there was no possibility for consensus on the main issue? The administration knew from the beginning that the world body would not support sanctions or military action. The intention was simply to increase suspicion about Iran's nuclear programs and mobilize public support for a war. In fact, the United States is not at all concerned with Iran's nuclear programs. It is merely a hoax that is being used to conceal Washington's war plans.

China, Russia Blocking U.S. Bid to Pressure Iran

China and Russia are blocking agreement on a U.S.-backed statement by the United Nations Security Council that Iran must suspend uranium enrichment activities, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. Envoys from China, France, Russia, the U.K. and U.S., the council's five permanent members, ended a third round of talks today on a draft statement that also asks the UN's nuclear watchdog agency to report on Iran's response to the suspension demand. Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow in New York. ``We've been trying to get this issue into the Security Council for close to four years and other countries, including other permanent members, haven't had that view, so it's no surprise that different views remain,'' Bolton told reporters at the UN.

US proposes global civilian nuclear partnership
US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman proposed a new global "partnership" overseen by the UN nuclear watchdog to improve access to civilian nuclear power in developing countries.
"We have the choice of a game of catch up or to initiate a more secure approach to the world. The program is at a very early stage but the initial consultations with France, Russia, China are encouraging," Bodman said at a press conference ahead of a Group of Eight energy meeting he is attending in Moscow. The partnership would be overseen by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, he said.


US tags Iran as biggest threat

Making no apologies for the war in Iraq
, the United States reaffirmed a right to preemptive military action and vowed to confront threats like North Korea and especially Iran. "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," the White House said in a 49-page blueprint called the "National Security Stategy" of the United States, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

UN-Iran discussion mirrors Iraq debate
Some experts warn that the US may act independently if the UN Security Council takes too long on Iran. UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. – As the United Nations Security Council wrestles with how to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, discussion at UN headquarters is at times as much about the council's effectiveness and America's role in the international community as it is about Iran. Sound vaguely familiar?

An Iran option the US prefers to ignore
After a week of internal wrangling culminating in a mini-split, with China and Russia unwilling to forge a united front with the other three permanent members of the UN Security Council on a strongly worded statement on Iran, the latter are proceeding anyway. The US, France and the United Kingdom have submitted a draft text that, while it calls on Iran to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolutions, reeks of legal nihilism.

Iran and Bird Flu: The Perfect Casus Belli?
The casus belli against Iran is about to be unveiled. You may call it the modern equivalent of Pearl Harbor, and it has already occurred without you even noticing. Iran is attacking us with air-delivered weapons of mass destruction, and we have no choice but to respond in kind. Unless we act immediately, the next wave of Iran's deadly chirping missiles will be launched in the next few weeks from the Iranian wetlands toward their targets in Scandinavia and Alaska, and from there will extend their deadly effect, killing millions throughout the Western world.

US Monitoring Israel's Iran Options

The Pentagon is looking into the possibility of Israel launching a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. In the past months there were several working-level discussions trying to map out the possible scenarios for such an attack, according to administration sources who were briefed on these meetings.

Bush ready to initiate 'regime change' for the mullahs
After five years of indecision and internal disputes the Bush administration has started a new, more vigorous phase in trying to undermine the ruling mullahs of Iran. The phrase "regime change" is seen as too loaded to use in public but in effect that is what the administration is hoping to do, according to officials in Washington. Buoyed up by achieving its initial goal of dragging Teheran before the United Nations Security Council, which is to debate Iran this week, officials are now promoting several measures reminiscent of the American approach towards Moscow in the Cold War.

War Pimping: US restates strike-first policy, warns Iran

Making no apologies for the war in Iraq, the United States reaffirmed its strike-first policy of preemption and warned that Iran may pose the biggest threat to US national security. "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," the White House said in a 49-page blueprint called "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America." The report drew up a balance sheet of what it called US President George W. Bush's foreign policy successes and remaining "challenges" like bloody violence in Iraq and tense standoffs over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

War Pimping: Bush blames Iran for some bombs in Iraq
Iran has been supplying explosives to those intent on wreaking violence in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday. He told an audience in Washington that his administration has proof that Iran is producing lethal, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that have been found in Iraq.
"Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran," the president said.


Signs Comment: Yeah, right. And there are WMDs in Iraq. Hey, Georgie! Since you believe this stuff, did you know there is oceanfront property in Arizona?? Sure is. I own a big lot right on the beach... wanna buy it?

China, Russia Blocking U.S. Bid to Pressure Iran

China and Russia are blocking agreement on a U.S.-backed statement by the United Nations Security Council that Iran must suspend uranium enrichment activities, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. Envoys from China, France, Russia, the U.K. and U.S., the council's five permanent members, ended a third round of talks today on a draft statement that also asks the UN's nuclear watchdog agency to report on Iran's response to the suspension demand. Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow in New York.

Russia and China remain at odds with U.S., Britain and France over Iran statement
UNITED NATIONS - Russia and China remained at odds Tuesday with the United States, Britain and France over a U.N. Security Council statement on Iran's nuclear program, which the three Western nations contend is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. The five permanent veto-wielding council members met for more than 90 minutes but didn't resolve differences on a proposed British-French draft that would demand Iran halt all uranium enrichment and call for a report within weeks on Iran's progress in answering questions about its nuclear program.

Activists in Iran say U.S. strategy hurts their work
Prominent activists inside Iran say President Bush's plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote democracy here is the kind of help they don't need.
In a case that advocates fear is directly linked to Bush's announcement, the government has jailed two Iranians who traveled outside the country to attend what was billed as workshops on human rights. Two others who attended were interrogated for three days.

Iran: Where do we go from here?
The Bush administration has run into a rock wall at the Security Council. Neither Russia nor China will agree to any resolution that condemns Iran for "noncompliance" with its treaty obligations. In fact, there is general agreement that Iran has not violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) so the point is moot. This eliminates any chance that punitive action will be taken against Iran or that sanctions will be applied. So why did the Bush administration take the case this far if they knew that there was no possibility for consensus on the main issue?

Nuclear Bunker Buster Bombs against Iran: This Way Lies Madness
The latest information I have had from the followers of Bush is that he has demanded and received permission to use nuclear "bunker busters" in Iran in a preemptive strike. As a nuclear veteran (Operation Redwing, Bikini, 1956) I can affirm that this is absolute madness. The "bunker buster" is a cute sounding name for a nuclear horror. Air bursts are horrible enough, doing incredible destruction through heat, shock and high initial radiation. The fallout from an air burst is registered around the world. A surface or subsurface burst is even deadlier and more long lasting.

New War Dangers: Iran, the U.S. and Nukes in the Middle East
* Escalating rhetoric, continued losses in Iraq, Bush's political problems, and an ideologically-driven pursuit of power make the possibility of a U.S. military attack on Iran - however reckless and however dangerous its consequences - a frighteningly real possibility.
* Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has not violated the Treaty. While there appear to be unresolved issues regarding full transparency, its nuclear program, including enriching uranium, is perfectly legal under NPT requirements for non-nuclear weapons states.
* Iran does not have nuclear weapons; even if it is trying to build a nuclear weapons program, it could not produce weapons for five to ten years or more.
* There is a dangerous, unmonitored and provocative nuclear arsenal in the Middle East; it belongs to Israel, not Iran. U.S. hypocrisy and double standards in nuclear policy, accepting Israel's unacknowledged nuclear arsenal and rewarding India's nuclear weapons status while threatening war against Iran and denying its own obligations under the NPT, has undermined Washington's claimed commitment to non-proliferation.
* U.S. officials claim they are not considering an invasion of Iraq but "only" surgical air strikes against known nuclear facilities; they have not explained what their military response will be when Iran retaliates, whether against U.S. troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region, against U.S. oil tankers in near-by shipping lanes, or against Israel.
* Global suspicions remain regarding U.S. claims because of Washington's lies leading to the invasion of Iraq, but international conditions regarding Iran are significantly different; many governments appear more willing to consider Iran a "threat."
* The only solution to the crisis is to move towards a nuclear weapons-free, or even weapons of mass destruction-free zone across the entire Middle East.

America's nuclear hypocrisy undermines its stance on Iran
Even as he was telling Iran not to produce nuclear weapons, President Bush was urging Congress to pay for a new nuclear weapon designed to destroy underground military facilities. Although the nuclear "bunker-buster" is still on the drawing board, Iran can be expected to charge the United States with atomic hypocrisy during the current war of words.

War Pimp US accuses Iran of "unhelpful activities" in Iraq

U.S. officials in Iraq accused Iran again on Friday of meddling in its neighbor's internal affairs, saying the Islamic Republic was carrying out "unhelpful activities" there.
The charge came a day after Iran said it accepted a proposal by a leading Iraqi Shi'ite leader to open a dialogue with the United States on Iraq. A U.S. embassy statement said Washington was "concerned about unhelpful Iranian activities in Iraq. These concerns are well known and we have talked about them."

China requires IAEA report on Iran at Security Council

China on Friday offered a plan to ask the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to report to the UN Security Council on Iran's compliance. China backed by Russia have argued that the IAEA chief should first report to his 35-nation board, which would diminish the role of the UN Security Council.

Do You Feel Safe With This Man's Finger on the Button? The Bush Doctrine of Nuclear Preemption

As our ears prick to the drumbeat of Bush v. Iran, a highly respected researcher from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) warns that Washington is edging toward a policy of nuclear preemption, and Teheran knows it. Although the post 9/11 doctrine of USA military strategy known as "Global Strike" is often promoted as a post nuclear plan, Hans M. Kristensen finds documentary evidence that a "nuclear option" is included.

Iran links Britain to shooting of 21 officials
Iran accused Britain of trying to stir religious and ethnic unrest in its eastern border region yesterday after armed rebels ambushed a party of government officials and killed 21. Police said the victims, who included security officials, were ordered out of their vehicles and shot in cold blood. The fleet of cars was then set ablaze. Seven others, including the governor of the provincial capital, Zahidan, were wounded in Thursday night's incident, which happened after gunmen, disguised in military uniforms, set up a roadblock to intercept the convoy as it travelled along a remote spot in the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Signs Comment: Everyone needs to understand that this has been the modus operandi of Britain, the U.S., Israel and most other western intelligence agencies for many years, yet the US, Britain, and most specifically Israel lead the field in such illegal and immoral acts. Behind the facade of the spreading of freedom and democracy, America, Israel and Britain are currently engaged in a criminal and covert war of aggression against Iran.

Iran to invest one billion dollars in Iraq's industrial sector
Iran appears prepared to give a helping hand to its erstwhile foe Iraq by investing about one billion dollars in Iraq's ravaged industrial sector.
A team of Iranian experts is expected to visit Baghdad in the coming weeks to identify business opportunities. Iran's Exports Promotion Bank has already earmarked some 400 million dollars for the first projects to materialise under the plan.

Britain breaks with the US over Iran
Britain has told the United States that it will not take part in any armed action against Iran's nuclear sites, according to diplomatic sources in London. Already facing huge public criticism for his participation in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair is seeking to distance himself from America's belligerent rhetoric towards Iran.
Blair knows he would probably not survive the political storm if Britain joined in an attack on Iran. The concern in Whitehall, however, is that the Bush administration, egged on by Israel and its powerful friends in the United States, risks developing an unstoppable momentum towards war a war in which Britain clearly wants no part.


War Pimping: Iran set to step up enrichment
IRAN is about to run a 164-centrifuge cascade to enrich uranium, a step that would increase urgency for UN action on Teheran's nuclear program, diplomats said.

Iran: Time To Leak - Where are the whistleblowers about Iran?

It is exactly three years since the United States and Great Britain invaded Iraq, and a little over three years since Martin Bright and his colleagues at the London Observer quietly tested the veracity of an e-mail passed to them anonymously, whilst I nervously waited to see if the e-mail I leaked would appear in a newspaper. All this for the purpose of slowing down, if not derailing, a war that many felt was being rushed into by gung-ho politicians Bush and Blair.

FBI weaving web in Pak to launch attack on Iran

In order to accomplish its evil designs against Iran United States of America has established Federal Bureau of Intelligence office in Pakistan.

FBI is working in Islamabad for last one and half year. The FBI agents are working as Finger Print Staff at Inspector General of Police Islamabad Office under the guise of Immigration Wing, Weekly Pulse reports.

Who is the rogue state really?

A brief history of Iran since 16th century
Iran is one of the few countries in the world that has never become a colony of any of the imperialist powers. However, during the reign of Kajar dynasty from 1795 to 1925, Iran plunged into a deep cri-sis, and to some extent, colonial powers dominated Iran both economically and politically thanks to inept and corrupt monarchs.


Will Iran Help Bush Preserve His Republican Majority?
Could it be that 'Axis of Evil' Iran holds the electoral fortunes of the U.S. Republican Party and the fate of Iraq in the palm of its hands? According to this analysis from Lebanon's leading Arab-Language newspaper Annahar, Iran may be willing to help pull the White House's coals out of the Iraqi fire … for a price.

America's options for Iran

As the nuclear standoff between the US and Iran escalates, American leaders would do well to look at the range of options that exist for them. The options consist of sanctions, military strikes, and a change in policy. Sanctions and military strikes

Iran Leader OKs Talks With U.S. on Iraq

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that he approves of talks between U.S. and Iranian officials on Iraq, but warned that the United States must not try to "bully" Iran.
It was the first confirmation that Khamenei, who holds final say on all state matters in Iran, is in favor of the talks. His comments came hours after President Bush spoke in favor of such a meeting, saying American officials would show Iran "what's right or wrong in their activities inside of Iraq."

Between Iran and Israel, try a bomb for a bomb

There is widespread international agreement that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons is an alarming prospect. But very little attention is paid to the most obvious reason why: There already is a Middle Eastern nuclear power, Israel, insistent on preserving its monopoly. So the crisis has been foreseeable for decades; it would be automatically triggered by the emergence of a second nuclear power, friendly or unfriendly to the West. Iran is the unfriendliest possible, encouraging a widespread assumption that it alone is responsible for creating the crisis - and settling it. But is it?

China Repeats Agreement with Russia on Iran
China said on Thursday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin left Beijing, that Beijing and Moscow are in accord on Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday criticized a draft U.N. Security Council statement aimed at pressuring Iran to stop enriching uranium, despite a new offer of amendments by Western powers. [...] A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, said President Hu Jintao and Putin discussed Iran during Putin's two-day visit. "China and Russia exchanged views and both sides agreed the Iran nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomatic means," Qin told reporters.


US: No final deal reached over Iran's nuclear issue
The United States said on Thursday that it has failed so far to reach an agreement on Iran'snuclear issue with other parties but insisted that it is moving "in the right direction."


Iran denounces US accusation as lie to undermine Islam

A top Iranian cleric on Friday denounced the US accusation over Iran's nuclear program as a lie to undermine the world of Islam, saying that the Iranians will never "keep silent," the official IRNA news agency reported.


Give Iran The Bomb:
The United States gives India, already a nuclear power, greater nuclear capability, but threatens war, death, the destruction of Iran's oil supply, and a world wide financial catastrophe if Iran dares to want the same thing.

No more stalling on Iran: Rice

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, displaying impatience with slow UN talks on Iran's nuclear activities, warned "there can't be any stalling" in dealing with the potential threat.
"There is no time for delay in taking on this issue," Rice said of the discussions on a draft UN Security Council statement on Iran that have been snagged by objections from Russia and China.

Iraq's Militia Problem: Go Blame Iran

If you listen to PNAC conspirator and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, more “Iraqis are dying from the militia violence than from the terrorists.” However, this time last year the CIA’s National Intelligence Council informed us Iraq was a training ground “for the next generation of ‘professionalized’ terrorists,” as the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Post, characterized the situation.

Most Iranians not anti-Semitic

The extremist Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and recently denied the Holocaust, thus propelling the militant mullahs of Iran to the pinnacle of anti-Semitism. In the midst of Ahmadinejad's unwarranted statements, however, it is the average Iranian who suffers yet another blow. While the ugly hatred of a self-elected group of Iranian leaders is exposed, where does this leave the Iranian people? For the majority of Iranians, whose opinions convey unswerving opposition to the militant regime, it may be an opportunity for them to set themselves apart. Early anti-Semitism in Europe resulted in the expulsion of Jews from Spain and other countries; the latest hatred led to the annihilation of 6 million innocent lives during World War II. In Iran, however, anti-Semitism came about as an essential import of early Arab invaders who pillaged Iranian cities. Their reliance on harsh enactments of Islamic law in order to discriminate against and degrade Iranian Jews, in addition to the majority Zoroastrian population, was an attempt to force religious conversion. To this day, remnants of those treatments, largely excised by the late shah of Iran, survive as insults. These insults are derogatory terms implying "unclean" in Farsi. They exist in the language of the ignorant and the vengeful, and take form in the anti-Semitic policies of Ahmadinejad's government. But to say that this ignorance spreads to the whole of the Iranian population both is false and an inadequate analysis of the Iranian psyche.

Straw: Iran Will Not Be Another Iraq
Military action against Iran is neither appropriate nor conceivable, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted Tuesday. Speaking in London as he launched a Foreign Office white paper outlining Britain's international strategy for the coming decade, Straw moved to allay fears that the current stand-off would lead to "another Iraq."

Signs Comment: Yeah, yeah... And Saddam had WMD's and Gulf War II wouldn't become another Vietnam...

Security Council 'very close' to accord on Iran statement: diplomats
Key Security Council members said they were "very close" to agreeing a watered-down statement urging
Iran to come clean on its nuclear program and presented a new draft to other members. After a series of informal discussions involving the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- participants reported considerable progress and voiced hope that a new draft could be adopted by the full 15-member body Wednesday.

New U.N. Draft on Iran Softens Condemnation

European and American diplomats circulated a new draft statement to the Security Council on Tuesday evening that weakens language condemning Iran's nuclear program but still calls on Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment activities, which the West believes are intended to make weapons.

U.N. Security Council passes nuclear demands for Iran
The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a statement Wednesday demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed earlier on a statement demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, setting the stage for the first action by the powerful body over fears that Tehran wants a nuclear weapon. The text gives Iran 30 days to cooperate with the IAEA and suspend its uranium enrichment, according to U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.

Neo-con cabal blocked 2003 nuclear talks
The George W Bush administration failed to enter into negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program in May 2003 because neo-conservatives who advocated destabilization and regime change were able to block any serious diplomatic engagement with Tehran, according to former administration officials. The same neo-conservative veto power also prevented the administration from adopting any official policy statement on Iran, those same officials said. Lawrence Wilkerson, then chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell, said the failure to adopt a formal Iran policy in 2002-03 was the result of obstruction by a "secret cabal" of neo-conservatives in the administration, led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"The secret cabal got what it wanted: no negotiations with Tehran," Wilkerson wrote in an e-mail to Inter Press Service (IPS).


Signs Comment: And some people still try to tell us that this "war on terror" has not been in the planning for a very long time. But of course, we will soon be treated to a shocking revelation about Iran that means that the US will be "forced" to go to war...again... The real question is, how stupid are you? As stupid as your leaders think you are?...

Iran In NeoCon CrossHairs

Air Strikes by Israel would draw U.S. into another war. What would happen if Israeli warhawks launched an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities? This week, American Free Press takes a look at a new study by an international terrorism expert, which warns that bombing the Persian country would likely drag the United States into a drawnout and bloody clash of civilizations. AFP predicted it almost a year ago, but are neo-cons that crazy? A new study by an international terrorism expert warns that a military attack launched by the Israelis on Iran's nuclear facilities would certainly escalate to involve the United States, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Persian Gulf states. In its early stages, it would result in many thousands of civilian and military casualties.

Iran Defiantly Rejects New U.N. Demands

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Thursday the "international community is united" in the dispute over its nuclear program, but a Tehran envoy defiantly rejected a U.N. call to reimpose a freeze on uranium enrichment.


US presses for longer-term measures on Iran
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called a newly adopted UN statement on Iran a first step and urged world powers to consider longer-term measures to thwart Tehran's suspected nuclear arms ambitions.

Signs Comment: In other words, the US has plans for Iran.

Iran To Stage Massive Gulf Military Maneuver

Thousands of Iranian troops will on Friday start a week-long military maneuver in the Gulf to ready armed forces for warding off "threats", a senior commander announced on state television.
The commander of the navy of Revolutionary Guards Corps, Rear Admiral Mostafa Safari, did not specify the nature of the threat although the maneuver comes amid increasing tensions with the West over Tehran's nuclear programme.
"The Revolutionary Guards Corps navy and air force in collaboration with (Iran's regular) army, navy, (the volunteer militia) Basij, and the Iranian police will start a maneuver from 31 March until 6 April in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman," he said.

Tehran Announces Successful Test of Stealth Missile

Iran successfully tested a missile devised in Iran and capable of escaping detection by radar, announced the aviation head of the Revolutionary Guard on Friday.
"Today, a remarkable objective of the defense forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran was attained with the successful firing of a new missile with a higher technological and tactical capability than those produced to date", underlined General Hossein Salami on state television.

Russia has warned it will not support any attempts to use force to resolve the stand-off over Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "exclusively political methods should be used".

Iran rejects call to halt enrichment
Iran refused Thursday to comply with a UN Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment, defying a call by major world powers to curb its nuclear program or face isolation. Iran struck the defiant stance as foreign ministers of the Security Council's permanent members plus Germany met in Berlin to chart their next moves in the standoff.

Fool Me Twice
I used to think that the Bush administration wasn't seriously considering a military strike on Iran, because it would only accelerate Iran's nuclear program. But what we're seeing and hearing on Iran today seems awfully familiar. That may be because some U.S. officials have already decided they want to hit Iran hard.

Signs Comment: This guy is living in a dream-world if he thinks any of his proposals for openness and putting the information on the table will ever happen under this administration. It is the most secretive in history, keeping everything under lock and key.

Cirincione just doesn't get the depth of the problem. Does it occur to him that fomenting strife between Sunni and Shi'ite in Iraq and promoting the idea that Iran is behind the Shi'ites could have been the strategy to justify war on Iran? How much of what has passed for "civil war" in Iraq has been the work of false flag operations meant to create that impression?

Iraq has been a set-up from the beginning. Yes, part of the story is that the oil dons in the Bush administration wanted to get their hands on Iraq's oil fields. But the other part of the story is that Irasel has had as its strategic obective for over twenty years the dismemberment of the Arab world. Chaos in the Middle East is their goal.

Growing Threat Seen In Afghan Insurgency
The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress yesterday that the insurgency in Afghanistan is growing and will increase this spring, presenting a greater threat to the central government's expansion of authority "than at any point since late 2001."

Hypocrisy Dept: Bush hails Afghanistan's democracy, vows Bin Laden will be captured

US President George W. Bush hailed Afghanistan's young democracy and vowed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice as he made his surprise first visit to the country since the fall of the Taliban.


BS Dept: Bush Confident Bin Laden Will Be Captured

President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, vowed Wednesday to stand by this emerging democracy despite a resurgence of violence, saying "the United States is not cut and run."

After Afghanistan trip, Bush unlikely to see US troops in Iraq

President George W. Bush regularly reminds Americans that he is the "commander in chief", but nobody expects to see him with US troops in Iraq any time soon.


Outlook worsens in Afghanistan
 Fighting between U.S. forces and suspected Taliban rebels on Tuesday killed one American service member and wounded two others in southern Afghanistan, as military officials in Washington and Afghanistan said insurgent attacks rose sharply last year and are likely to worsen in 2006.


More Torture in Occupied Afghanistan

"In one of the great deceptive maneuvers in U.S. history," Bob Herbert wrote recently, "the military-industrial complex (with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as chairman and C.E.O., respectively) took its eye off the real enemy in Afghanistan and launched the pointless but far more remunerative war in Iraq." Herbert, one of the New York Times' better pundits, ought to know better than to point to Afghanistan as the right fight at the right time. But he's not the only Pollyanna of America's other dirty war.


Growing Threat Seen In Afghan Insurgency - DIA Chief Cites Surging Violence in Homeland
The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress yesterday that the insurgency in Afghanistan is growing and will increase this spring, presenting a greater threat to the central government's expansion of authority "than at any point since late 2001." "Despite significant progress on the political front, the Taliban-dominated insurgency remains a capable and resilient threat," Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples said in a statement presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee at its annual hearing on national security threats.

US military expects violent Afghan spring: admiral

U.S. forces in Afghanistan expect violent clashes with al Qaeda-linked insurgents in coming months before security improves later in the year, a senior military officer said on Thursday.
Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, U.S. Central Command director for plans and policy, told a congressional hearing an upsurge in violence could stem from U.S. and NATO forces extending their reach into parts of Afghanistan where the insurgent presence is greater.

Relatives of dead soldier question Canada's role in Afghanistan

The mother and aunt of a Newfoundland soldier who was killed in Afghanistan are calling on the federal government to reconsider Canada's role there. Cpl. Jamie Murphy died in a suicide bomb attack near Kabul in January 2004. Two years later, Murphy's mother says his death still haunts her. "I think about every second of every day," said Alice Murphy, who lives in Conception Harbour, N.L. She said memories of her son's death are revived whenever she hears of new casualties. "It is really hard to know that there's other guys and families in the same situation that we're in, and we are still in it, and it will never go away. Never."

Taliban chief vows "unimaginable" violence
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed a ferocious offensive against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, saying on Thursday they would soon face unimaginable violence.
An insurgency that has killed more than 1,500 people since the start of last year has intensified in recent months with a wave of suicide bombings, including at least 12 this year. Ten U.S. troops have been killed in combat this year and U.S. commanders have said they expect violence to increase in coming months as the weather warms, snow on mountain passes melts, and Afghanistan's traditional fighting season begins. "With the arrival of the warm weather, we will make the ground so hot for the invaders it will be unimaginable for them," Omar said in his message, read by Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif over the telephone from an undisclosed location.


Bush Troubled by Afghan Convert's Case
President Bush said Wednesday that he is "deeply troubled" that an Afghan man is being tried for converting to Christianity. Abdul Rahman, 41, faces a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago. He has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under this country's Islamic laws. Bush said in a speech that a young democracy is growing in Afghanistan, but he's concerned about the case.

Afghan judiciary says won't bow to convert pressure
Afghanistan's judiciary will not bow to outside pressure over the fate of a man who faces the death penalty for converting to Christianity, a judge dealing with the case said on Thursday.


Battle at Afghan Military Base Kills 14
Militants attacked a coalition forces base in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, sparking a battle that killed two foreign soldiers and at least 12 rebels, the U.S. military said. At least one of the soldiers was American.
Four foreign troops and an Afghan soldier were wounded in the battle in Helmand province, the military said in a statement. The region is a hotbed of insurgency and center of the booming drugs trade in Afghanistan.

Taliban say Afghan offensive is on, 22 dead

Insurgents in Afghanistan attacked a military base on Wednesday and an American, a Canadian and at least 12 militants were killed as a Taliban spokesman said a spring offensive had begun.
The Taliban said their fighters attacked the foreign forces in the southern province of Helmand.


Suicide attacker dies, 7 Afghans hurt in blast
Afghanistan - A suicide car-bomber was killed in Afghanistan on Thursday when his explosives went off prematurely as he approached a Canadian military convoy, police said.
None of the Canadians was wounded but seven passers-by were hurt in the car-bomb blast in the center of the southern city of Kandahar, police said. The violence came a day after one of the biggest battles in the past year between U.S.-led forces and Taliban insurgents.

Saddam Asks: 'Where Is the Crime?'
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein speaks at his trial in Baghdad Wednesday March 1, 2006. Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial for torture, illegal arrests and the killing of nearly 150 people from Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the town. Saddam Hussein told his judges Wednesday that he ordered the trial of Shiites who were eventually executed in the 1980s and that he ordered the confiscation of their lands, but insisted that doing so was not a crime.

Iraqi PM insists Turkey visit 'legal'
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari brushed aside President Jalal Talabani's criticism of his one-day visit to Turkey, arguing that the trip was in order with the law.


Spy Chief: Iraq May Spark Regional Fight

A civil war in
Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region's rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment Tuesday.

Bush in Denial - Sez Iraq not heading toward civil war

President George W. Bush, hit by polls showing America's support for the Iraq war at an all-time low, denied on Tuesday Iraq was sliding into civil war, despite the worst sectarian strife since a U.S. invasion.


US seeks funds to build prisons in Iraq

The U.S. State Department is winding down its $20 billion reconstruction program in Iraq and the only new rebuilding money in its latest budget request is for prisons, officials said on Tuesday.


A Daily Look at Military Deaths in Iraq - 2,294 (official count) (AP)

As of Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006, at least 2,294 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,800 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.


A Look at Deadliest Days in Iraq in 2006

The deadliest days in Iraq in 2006


Germany suspects US "smear" over Iraq
U.S. media reports that German intelligence agents helped the American-led invasion of Iraq were a smear tactic against Berlin as a European power firmly opposed to the war, leading German politicians said on Tuesday.

Hypocrite and Liar Bush: Iraq has choice between 'chaos or unity'

US President George W. Bush downplayed fears of civil war in Iraq, but said the war-torn country must choose between "chaos or unity" after one week of sectarian violence left hundreds dead.


Saddam trial reveals 'pardon' of two Dujail accused
The trial of Saddam Hussein took a new twist as prosecutors produced a letter purportedly showing the former Iraqi dictator spared the lives of two Shiites accused over an assassination bid.


NeoCon allies desert Bush over Iraq
These are the right-wing intellectuals who demanded George Bush invade Iraq. Now they admit they got it wrong. Are you listening, Mr President?

Syria opposition says US funding counterproductive

 Syria's liberal opposition has said it will not accept money from a U.S. offer to fund democratic groups in the country, saying that its credibility would be damaged if it took the cash.


Iraq: A solution to nothing

As the United States and Iraq approach the third anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it might do all Americans well to take some time out and reflect on how we got where we are, as well as where we are going in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole. Gone forever is any talk of song and flowers, economic recoveries paid for by Iraqi oil, or a blooming democracy in the cradle of civilization. The state of affairs between the Bush administration and the newly elected government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari is strained, to say the least, with the United States threatening to cut off aid to Iraq, and Iraq telling the United States to "butt out."

Caught in the Crossfire

The events of the last week have created considerable uncertainty among Iraq-watchers about what is actually taking place on the ground. It is increasingly difficult to know who is generating the violence and why. Particularly puzzling, is trying to identify the motives behind the destruction of the Golden Dome Mosque and the massive reprisals which occurred with such astonishing speed that they seemed to be pre-arranged. Were they?

Is this war worth the price? - Look closely at the face of collateral damage in Iraq before you answer

Pittsburghers were captivated this week by the 7-year-old Iraqi boy who arrived here for reconstructive facial surgery at Children's Hospital, having been badly disfigured in an American bombing raid in 2004. On a shoestring budget, the American group No More Victims arranged for his medical care, got visas for the child and his father, paid their expenses in Jordan until the documents came through, and is still trying to raise the cash to cover the travel. A Massachusetts philanthropist kicked in $50,000 for the hospital bill. A single mom in Banksville has taken father and son into her home during their stay. It's a story that bores right through peoples' defenses without regard to politics, position on the war, religious beliefs or lack thereof (the family is Muslim; the U.S. Army veteran who spent six weeks in Jordan working on their visas is an atheist; the host family is Catholic; the philanthropist is Jewish).

The "Shock and Awe" Photo Gallery
If you want "God's View" of what George Bush and the Neocons are doing, look. But brace yourself for a broken heart - if you have one. The March For Justice is dedicating its "Shock and Awe Gallery" as an authentic historical documentation and evidence of the U.S./British Crime of the Century. As attacks on freedom and the free have become characteristic of contemporary America, we advise and encourage all those who support Truth and Justice, to save our material and to make the utmost use of it, as its intended objective is revealing facts and reality. Should our voice be silenced, we pray that our efforts will contribute to the awakening of the human conscience, yearning for a world of Justice and Peace. To all of the heroes who visited our site, who responded with disagreement or with agreement*, and who care for truth and a world without killing, tyranny or oppression, we remain eternally grateful, for they are the hope for all of us and a sign of good things to come.

Pentagon dismisses US troop poll

THE Pentagon has dismissed a poll's finding that 72 per cent of United States troops in Iraq believe the US should pull out within a year or less.
"It shouldn't surprise anybody that a deployed soldier would rather be at home than deployed, even when they believe what they are doing is important and vital work," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

More Iraq Vets Seek Mental Health Care

Thirty-five percent of Iraq veterans received mental health care during their first year home, according to a new Pentagon study. In addition, 12 percent of the more than 222,000 returning Army soldiers and Marines in the study were diagnosed with a mental problem.

Former US troops rail against war

"I joined up the day after September 11, 2001. I saw action in Falluja and Baghdad. My mortar platoon dropped numerous rounds on the town of Samawa during the start of the invasion. I don't know how many innocents I killed with my mortar rounds. "I was so disgusted by the war that, after we came home in January 2004, I filed for conscientious objector status and received that status in December 2004. I'm a Christian. What was I doing holding a gun to another human being?"

Troops' families call Blair a 'coward'

FAMILIES of service personnel killed in Iraq today called Tony Blair a "coward" for refusing to meet them to discuss their campaign for troops to be withdrawn.

A Daily Look at Military Deaths in Iraq - 2,295

As of Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at least 2,295 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,800 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Iraq study warned of civil war - White House, Military Dismissed '03 Analysis

U.S. intelligence agencies repeatedly warned the White House beginning more than two years ago that the insurgency in Iraq had deep local roots, was likely to worsen and could lead to civil war, according to former senior intelligence officials who helped craft the reports.


Explosions kills more than 20 in Baghdad; Sunni group blasts government for ongoing violence

Violence raged unabated in Iraq on Wednesday as bomb attacks killed at least 26 people in Baghdad and mortar rounds fell on homes in a nearby town.


Eight killed as violence rages in Baghdad
Iraq braced for another day of violence on Thursday as attacks in Baghdad killed at least eight. A bus blast in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City killed five people and wounded eight, police said, while earlier that morning a bomb at a market killed three.


At least 21 killed in Iraq rebel attacks
A string of rebel attacks across Iraq left at least 21 dead and scores wounded in renewed violence after key political groups opposed incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's selection as the next premier.


Turkey says US troops must stay in Iraq

Turkey's foreign minister said on Thursday U.S. troops should not quit neighboring Iraq prematurely, but denied media reports suggesting he feared such a withdrawal might help Iran stir up militancy in the region.


Military mulls whether Iraq troop cut possible in face of increasing violence in Iraq
A spike in violence in Iraq that has heightened worries about civil war has the Pentagon discussing the wisdom of further cutting American forces there, defense officials said on Wednesday.


Evictions May Foreshadow Iraq Civil War
The sectarian cleansing that drove 68-year-old Abbas al-Saiedi from his home may be as alarming a sign of a country on the brink of civil war as the killings that have swept Iraq in the past week.


In Western Iraq, News Travels Slowly

News travels slowly to American troops deployed in the desert plains of western Iraq. Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine convulsed the country in religious violence, word hadn't reached U.S. Marines some 160 miles away.


Iraqi Factions Oppose New al-Jaafari Term

Leaders of Sunni, Kurdish and a secular political party decided Wednesday to ask the Shiite alliance to withdraw its nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for another term, political officials said.


Ex-Official: Iraq Abuses As Bad Now as Under Saddam
Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former U.N. human rights chief in Iraq said Thursday.

Iraqis want Saddam trial over after admission
For many in Iraq, Saddam Hussein has now acknowledged responsibility in his trial and the time has come to wind up a process only serving to feed tensions in the violence-wracked country.


Hussein admits responsibility, not guilt
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, after days of withering testimony about his involvement in the killings of 148 residents of a small farming town, decided he'd had enough.


Saddam Claims He Had Right to Order Trials (AP)
Saddam Hussein said in a defiant courtroom confession Wednesday that he ordered the trial of 148 Shiites who were later executed, and arranged for the flattening of their palm groves and farms. But he insisted he had the right to do so because they were suspected of trying to kill him.

At least 33 killed in Iraq rebel attacks

Insurgent attacks across Iraq killed at least 33 people and wounded scores more in renewed violence as the US military said it had captured 61 rebels linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq's frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.


Ten Iraqi Factory Workers Gunned Down
Iraqi security forces in bulletproof vests took to the streets in the bloodied capital Friday to enforce a daytime ban on private vehicles in an effort to blunt a surge of sectarian violence that has pushed Iraq to the edge of civil war.


Inquiry urged into warning of Iraq shrine bomb
Iraqi politicians demanded an inquiry on Wednesday into why the government did not act on a warning about a plan to bomb a Shi'ite shrine, an attack that has brought the country to the brink of civil war. Government and political sources told Reuters the minister for national security sent a report to the government two weeks before last Wednesday's demolition of the Golden Mosque in Samarra saying security had been breached around the shrine. But the government ignored it, they said.

Saddam trial hits turning point after dramatic evidence

The trial of Saddam Hussein has reached a turning point after this week's dramatic hearings, with prosecutors seeking to build up documentary evidence in a bid to prove that the toppled Iraqi dictator took personal revenge on a village after escaping assassination there.


Iraq: Sunnis, Kurds unite to oppose Shiite premier

A political conflict threatened to further exacerbate Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divisions Thursday as Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders issued a letter demanding that the leading Shiite Muslim coalition withdraw its nomination of interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the next government.


Kurds, Sunnis Attempting to Dump Jaafari
The Kurds and the Americans, who are spear-heading this effort to sideline Jaafari, don't appear to have considered another possible outcome, which is a hung parliament, leading to new elections and extending the period of political gridlock as security deteriorates further.

U.S. strategy in Iraq: No, it's not Vietnam. This one's a civil war

All sides in today's Iraq debate share a common but unspoken assumption: the way to succeed in Iraq is to refight the Vietnam War, but the right way this time. Official strategy mirrors the Nixon administration playbook: win hearts and minds while handing the fighting over to the locals.

The antiwar movement thinks we have already lost Iraqi hearts and minds and should thus get out. Prowar critics argue that we should use late-war Vietnam territorial defense tactics, not early-war Vietnam offensive methods. But while the debate is Vietnam redux, the war is not. Vietnam was a Maoist "people's war," Iraq is a communal civil war with very different dynamics, and civil wars demand very different strategies than Maoist wars.

What Bush Was Told About Iraq

Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources.

Terrorist growth overtakes U.S. efforts
Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, outpacing U.S. efforts to crush the threat, said Brig. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the Pentagon's deputy director for the war on terrorism. "We are not killing them faster than they are being created," Gen. Caslen told a gathering at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday, warning that the war could take decades to resolve.
 
Signs Comment: These people are ignorant of history. Anyone familiar with the facts knows that there will never be an end to "terrorists" under Pathocratic regimes until literally everyone is dead. Won't be any fun for them to have all that power, but no one to have power over...

Lethal 'flying gunships' returning to Iraq - Armed airplanes used in Vietnam War secretly moved to Iraqi base
The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes - the lethal "flying gunships" of the Vietnam War - to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned. An AP reporter saw the first of the turboprop-driven aircraft after it landed at the airfield this week. Four are expected. The Iraq-based special forces command controlling the AC-130s, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, said it would have no comment on the deployment. But the plan's general outline was confirmed by other Air Force officers, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject.
 
Signs Comment: Obviously, the situation in Iraq is much worse than the administration is letting on. But then, again, one wonders if that was not intended? After all, these flying warships don't deploy precision weapons, they destroy everything and everybody. If there are no Iraqis left when they are done, then obviously the U.S. and Israel can just move in and take over. Of course, it is also possible that this is just a preparation for war against Iran also.

Insurgent sniper shoots dead US soldier north of Baghdad
Insurgent snipers gunned down a U.S. soldier in Dhuluiyah town of northern Iraq on Sunday, witnesses said. "A sniper shot dead a U.S. soldier in the Sorah intersection in central Dhuluiyah town while the U.S. troops were near an Iraqi army checkpoint at the site," a witness told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attack prompted U.S. troops to open fire randomly, wounding three civilians and damaging four cars and several shops, the witness added. U.S. soldiers backed by helicopters immediately searched the surrounding buildings and orchards, detaining some suspected civilians before they pulled out of the town, the witnesses said. Dhuluiyah, some 100 km north of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of insurgency against the U.S. troops since the invasion in 2003.

Military denies withdrawal plan

The U.S. military in Iraq said on Sunday media reports that America and Britain planned to pull all troops out of Iraq by spring 2007 were "completely false," reiterating that there was no timetable for withdrawal. Two British newspapers reported on Sunday that the pull-out plan followed an acceptance by the two governments that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq was now an obstacle to securing peace. But a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq reiterated previous statements by U.S. and Iraqi officials that foreign troops would be gradually withdrawn from the country once Iraqi security forces were capable of guaranteeing security.

Europe And America At Odds On Terrror Threat
Europeans and Americans are supposed to be fighting shoulder to shoulder in the so-called war on terror. But how can they beat their common enemy when they have such radically different interpretations of the scale of the threat posed by Jihadi terrorism and the nature of the response needed to defeat it? This question was left lingering at the end of two recent conferences in Brussels on international terrorism -- one organized by the Royal Institute for International Relations in Belgium and the other by the Italian International Affairs Institute, in association with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The USS Ronald Reagan deployed in the Persian Gulf

The U.S. Navy has deployed its latest aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet said the USS Ronald Reagan has been deployed for maritime security operations in the Gulf region. The nuclear-powered surface vessel headed a carrier group that contains a guided missile cruiser, two destroyers and support ships. The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was assigned to patrol the Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean, Middle East Newsline reported. "Our past nine months of training have been in preparation to support our troops on the ground in Iraq and carry out maritime security operations," Carrier Strike Group Seven Commander Rear Adm. Michael Miller said.

Iraq's Crisis of Scarred Psyches
More than 25 years after Saddam Hussein's rise to power ushered in a period of virtually uninterrupted trauma -- three wars, crippling economic sanctions and now a violent insurgency -- the psychological damage to many Iraqis is only now being assessed, psychiatrists and government officials here say.
Even as a grim, though incomplete, picture of the population's mental health has emerged in recent studies, so too has the realization that the country's health care system is ill-equipped to deal with what are likely millions of potential psychiatric patients with conditions born of the hardship of recent years.

Iraqi forces probe general's "strange" killing
The Iraqi army is investigating how a gunman managed to kill a senior Iraqi general in an attack that has fueled concern about the new, U.S.-trained Iraq military's cohesion in the face of brewing sectarian conflict.
"It is a very strange incident and raises many questions," an official in the Defense Ministry press service said on Tuesday after the commander of all Iraqi troops in Baghdad died from a bullet to the head while in a patrol convoy on Monday.

Noam Chomsky Interview
If George Bush were to be judged by the standards of the Nuremberg Tribunals, he'd be hanged. So too, mind you, would every single American President since the end of the second world war, including Jimmy Carter. The suggestion comes from perhaps the most feted liberal intellectual in the world - the American linguist Noam Chomsky. His latest attack on the way his country behaves in the world is called Hegemony or Survival, America's Quest for Global Dominance. Jeremy Paxman met him at the British Museum, where they talked in the Assyrian Galleries. He asked him whether he was suggesting there was nothing new in the so-called Bush Doctrine.

Hundreds of Iraqi academics and professionals assassinated by death squads
Hundreds of Iraqi academics and professionals have been assassinated since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to a petition to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions from the European peace group BRussells [sic] Tribunal on Iraq. The petition has been signed by Nobel Prize winners Harold Pinter, J. M. Coetzee, José Saramago, and Dario Fo, as well as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Cornel West, and Tony Benn. A Green party member of the European Parliament from Britain, Caroline Lucas, has called for support for the investigation.

Iraqi leadership crisis grows
Pushing the legal deadline to the limit, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Monday declared that Iraq's new parliament will convene for the first time on March 12.
But an event that was expected to bring a glimmer of hope - and the formation of a US-backed unity government - is instead being overshadowed by a perfect political storm. While Iraq's leaders are battling over the post of prime minister, sectarian bloodshed has left more than 500 dead over the past two weeks. Party militias are exerting more control over the streets, and Iraqis are fed up with a weak government and collapsing services.

Expert on Iraq: 'We're In a Civil War' - U.S. Officials Deny Violence Has Risen to That Level, but ABC News Analysts See a 'Serious Lack of Realism'
As Pentagon generals offered optimistic assessments that the sectarian violence in Iraq had dissipated this weekend, other military experts told ABC News that Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq already are engaged in a civil war, and that the Iraqi government and U.S. military had better accept that fact and adapt accordingly.
"We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest. "It's our failure to understand reality that has caused us to be late throughout this experience of the last three years in Iraq," added Nash, who is an ABC News consultant.

Sen. Tom Harkin calls for pullout, says Iraq is now 'quagmire'

Sen. Tom Harkin said in Iowa Friday that Iraq has deteriorated into "civil war," declaring it no longer manageable by U.S. forces. Harkin's comments make the Iowa Democrat among the first members of Congress to declare publicly that Iraq had slipped into war between Muslim factions. They come as polls show President Bush's approval at managing the situation at an all-time low. "I'm firmly convinced now, after all this time, that it really is a civil war," Harkin said.

Tracing the Trail of Torture
Torture is usually defined as "infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion," or as "excruciating physical or mental pain, agony." No civilized society can accept laws which justify the use of torture. So it's not surprising that Ali Abbas was astonished to discover Americans willing to inflict such humiliating and inhumane treatment on him while he was in their custody in Abu Ghraib. "They cannot be human beings and do these things," was the way he put it. He concluded: "This, what happened to me, could happen to anybody in Iraq." Unfortunately, what happened to him can now conceivably happen to anyone, anywhere in the world, according to George Bush. One of the last things Abbas said as our interview ended was: "Saddam Hussein was a cruel enemy to us. Once I made it to Abu Ghraib though, I wished I had been killed by him rather than being alive with the Americans. Even now, after this journey of torture and suffering, what else can I think?"

Under-reporting of British casualties in Iraq: Analysis published in the Lancet

The highly renowned medical research journal, The Lancet, has published an analysis of government under-reporting of British casualties in the Iraq war. The research, conducted by a Professor Sheila Bird of the MRC Biostatistics Unit at Cambridge, illustrates that casualty figures are almost certain to be much higher than stated by John Reid, the Minister of Defence, and argues that the failure to properly count UK military casualties in Iraq must end.

Most Americans see Iraq civil war as likely: poll
Eight in 10 Americans believe that recent sectarian violence in Iraq has made civil war likely, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Monday.
 
Signs Comment: We really enjoyed this one. The American public now has an 'opinion' that is being presented as in some way soverign or independent of the daily spoon-feeding that they receive from the mainstream media. Someone please tell us how "the american public" can know anything about the reality of what is happening in Iraq other than that which the media and their government tells them?

US envoy to Iraq: 'We have opened the Pandora's box'
The US ambassador to Baghdad conceded yesterday that the Iraq invasion had opened a Pandora's box of sectarian conflicts which could lead to a regional war and the rise of religious extremists who "would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play". Zalmay Khalilzad broke with the Bush administration's generally upbeat orthodoxy to present a stark profile of a volatile situation in danger of sliding into chaos.

Signs Comment: If things are bad in Iraq, it's Iran's fault! The psychopath always blames the victim.

US envoy delivers blunt view of Iraq's future
America's ambassador in Baghdad has grimly acknowledged that the US invasion of Iraq three years ago had opened a "Pandora's box" that could see the country descend into full-scale civil war. That point had not yet been reached, Zalmay Khalilzad, the envoy, told the Los Angeles Times yesterday. But "the potential is there." All it might take, he warned, was an incident similar to last month's bombing of the Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Samarra, that unleashed a wave of sectarian killings.

U.S. faces latest trouble with Iraqi forces: Loyalty
BAGHDAD For much of the war in Iraq, U.S. military commanders have said their most important mission here was to prepare Iraqi security forces to take over the fight against the Sunni- led insurgency. But with the threat of full-scale sectarian strife looming larger, they are suddenly grappling with the possibility that they have been arming one side in a prospective civil war.

Signs Comment: Well! That must come as a real shock to the American, Israeli and British governments. After all, civil war in Iraq was the LAST thing they wanted, wasn't it? I guess it just a matter of bad luck, eh?

8,000 desert during Iraq war
At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman.


Another Iraq story gets debunked

In November 2001, just two months after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, two high-profile U.S. journalists Chris Hedges of the New York Times and Christopher Buchanan of PBS' "Frontline" were ushered to a meeting in a Beirut hotel with a man identified as Jamal al-Ghurairy, an Iraqi lieutenant general who had fled Saddam Hussein.
The high-ranking Iraqi military officer claimed he had witnessed terrorist training camps in Iraq where Islamic militants learned how to hijack airplanes. About 40 foreign nationals were based there at any given time, he said. "We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States," he told the journalists at the meeting arranged by the Iraqi National Congress.


Sowing the Seeds of Delusion
It's the same sappy, frolicsome folktale – over and over. Soldier gets sent off to fight the Empire's war. Soldier gets his limbs blown off. Soldier, however, feels he did the righteous thing – he fought for freedom! Soldier has a great attitude. Soldier is legless but happy. So it's all okay! The CNN interviewer is happy. We all should be happy. Or so we are all told by the dullard media heads.

Khalilzad meets al-Hakim
Informed Comment  Reuters reports several bombs and attacks in Baghdad, as well as in Baqubah, Khalis, Kirkuk and elsewhere, leaving over a dozen dead. Significant items include the assassination of 3 members of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Militia in Baqubah; the blowing up of a Sunni shrine in Tikrit; and a mortar attack on the offices in Baghdad of the National Dialogue Council (Sunni Arab neo-Baathists). [NDC leader Salih Mutlak said last summer that you couldn't find a better party for Iraq than the Baath).

Eighteen bodies found in Iraq bus
The bodies of 18 men who had been shot or strangled have been found in a minibus in western Baghdad, police and officials say.

Psychopathy in Action: US report blames weak Iraq rule for abuses

The US State Department on Wednesday released a damning report on the state of human rights and the security situation in Iraq, describing a weak and corrupt government with little control over its own murderous security forces in the face of a powerful insurgency. Contained within the department's annual global human rights report, the 50-page section on Iraq represented the Bush administration's most detailed public assessment of the gravity of the crisis.

Ex-Iraq ambassador predicts civil war
A former Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations has said his country was headed for civil war and blamed the occupation forces for the sectarian violence. In an interview with CNN, Mohamed Aldouri, Saddam Hussein's representative at the world body, said the occupation forces were acting as a magnet for extremists bent on preventing Iraq from developing into a full democracy. "I think the occupation plays on the sectarianism problems of Iraq right now," Aldouri said on Wednesday from the United Arab Emirates, where he has been living since the fall of Saddam.

ASSESSING IRAQ - "The Country Has Already Collapsed"
With sectarian violence on the rise and a stable government nowhere in sight, things are not going well for Iraq at the moment. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Iraq expert Marina Ottaway about chances for government legitimacy, how to establish stability in Iraq and why the police force in Iraq is a fiction.

Carter Urges Troop Withdrawal From Iraq
Former President Jimmy Carter criticized the war in Iraq on Wednesday, urging a troop drawdown as the United States enters its fourth year of conflict in Iraq. "It was a completely unnecessary war. It was an unjust war," said Carter, the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "It was initiated on the basis of false pretenses. All of those are true, but we can't just pre-emptively withdraw." He urged the Bush administration to bring home as many troops as possible within the next 12 months.

You Call This Progress?
Despite Rumsfeld's public rationalizing, Iraq is in a deep pile of poop.
 
Signs Comment: Hey, Molly. Just when has the media been right on this? Were they right when they allowed Colin Powell to get up and lie in front of the world community and they said nothing? Were they right when they promoted the idea tht Saddam had WMDs? Were they right when they ignored the real story of 9/11, that it was carried out by Israel with neocon complicity? Just where the hell have the media been right in the five years of the Bush Reich? When they ignored the story of election fraud in 2000 and 2004? Are they right every time they let Bush and his cronies tell the most blatant lies this side of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia and say nothing? What do they put in the water US journalists drink? Wake up, woman, or you're gonna be toast.

"Stop or I'll Shoot! We're Here to Help You!"

Bitter or with no particular emotion, American soldiers returning from Iraq publish their first testimonial books. At the end of the invasion of Iraq, Captain Nathaniel Fick [1] and his Marines enter Muwaffiqiya, a village south of Baghdad, without encountering any resistance. They advance slowly. They are nervous. They've just been warned by radio that fedayin are operating in the area and preparing suicide attacks. They establish a road block to allow the rest of the convoy to advance when a car comes up at an intersection. "Vehicle ahead. Blue car. Three or four passengers," shouts a soldier. "Roger. Ascending force. Don't let it pass!" cries an officer. They proceed to a warning round, then open fire. The car leaves the road, then stops. The driver lies across the steering wheel, his tunic stained with blood.

'They tried to attach themselves to his virtue; then they wiped their feet with him.'--Mary Tillman

Mary Tillman has been a model of patience and fortitude as she doggedly pursues the facts concerning her son Pat's death in Afghanistan two years ago. In that spirit, she welcomed as positive the news that the Pentagon's inspector general has asked the Army to launch an investigation into whether criminal negligence was involved in the "friendly fire" incident that resulted in the death of her football-star son who turned soldier.

At last, the warmongers are prepared to face the facts and admit they were wrong

It has taken more than three years, tens of thousands of Iraqi and American lives, and $200bn (£115bn) of treasure - all to achieve a chaos verging on open civil war. But, finally, the neo-conservatives who sold the United States on this disastrous war are starting to utter three small words. We were wrong.

Academics become casualties of Iraq War
Gunmen have killed some 182 Iraqi university professors and academics since the U.S. invasion in early 2003 and a group representing Iraqi academia said on Thursday the killings constituted a war crime. Another 85 senior academics have been kidnapped or survived assassination attempts, according to the Association of University Lecturers in Iraq. The attacks have led to an exodus of Iraqi academics who are vital to educating and rebuilding the war-damaged country. "What is going on in Iraq against these professors is a real war crime," said Dr Isam Kadhem Al-Rawi, head of the association and Professor in Earth Sciences at the University of Baghdad.
 
Signs Comment: This is typical "Hitlerian" policy. It bespeaks the plan to create a civil war, to commit genocide, and then to move in and take over the country and its resources. Such was planned for Poland by Hitler:
The transformation of Poland into a German province was to be carried out over a short period of twenty-five or thirty years. Hence, no mercy was to be shown to this population. And, to guarantee the success of this fast despoliation, the intelligentsia was to be liquidated. "It sounds cruel, " Hitler reportedly told Hans Frank, "but such is the law of life."
I was tortured, says Australian held in Iraq
A SYDNEY man, Ahmed Jamal, imprisoned in northern Iraq for 18 months without charge has told Australian officials he was tortured. Mr Jamal was finally visited by Australia's consul-general in Iraq, Alan Elliott, on February 27 and found in a distressed state. He said he had been badly mistreated by his captors after his arrest. His condition was relayed to his father, Mahmoud, and his lawyer, Stephen Kenny, by a consular official based in Canberra, Alex Fraser.

Abu Ghraib, symbol of America's shame, to close within three months - 4,500 inmates to be moved to other jails

Abu Ghraib, the prison which will be forever linked with images of Iraqi detainees stripped naked and humiliated by their American jailors, is to be closed, US military officials said yesterday. The sprawling, low-slung prison in the western suburbs of Baghdad, a torture chamber under Saddam Hussein that gained even more notoriety with the photographs of abuse committed by US troops, is likely to close within three months.
Its 4,500 inmates will be transferred to other jails in Iraq - including Camp Cropper, the facility at the Baghdad airport where Saddam is being held. Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, the spokesman for US detention operations in Iraq, told Reuters news agency: "No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this within the next two to three months." He said the handover would take place in phases, beginning with the training of Iraqi prison guards.

Video: Turkey Shoot At Abu Ghraib - Tales of Murder and Torture
The latest chapter in reporter Olivia Rousset's Abu Ghraib revelations. Three weeks ago on Dateline, Olivia revealed new evidence of horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib. On a recent trip to the US, Olivia managed to track down two former Abu Ghraib guards - one who served time for committing abuses against Iraqi detainees and another who witnessed those shocking events. It's no small irony that both of these former US military policemen now see themselves as being among the victims of Abu Ghraib. Here's Olivia's story. And, as you would expect with this sort of report, be warned - some of what you're about to see is not exactly pretty and could even offend. Transcript below.

Dateline: Janis Karpinski Interview
All this build-up of gruesome detail about events at Abu Ghraib raises, of course, the ultimate question - who bears the responsibility for what went on there? How far up the chain of command do we need to go? The commander of the US military police at Abu Ghraib at the time of the torture and abuse was Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski. It was part of her overall responsibility for 16 prisons in Iraq, but following the photo scandal, and a subsequent army inquiry, Janis Karpinski was relieved of her command and demoted. She's since left the US military and written a book, in which she claims that far from stopping with her, the buck goes all the way to the top - to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and maybe even the White House. Earlier today, George Negus spoke with now citizen Janis Karpinski, via satellite from Savannah, Georgia. Transcript below.

Human rights in Iraq

The U.S. State Department has just issued its Human Rights report for 2005 and its filled with the usual nonsense. We all know what they have to say about countries they don't like - Cuba, Venezuela, etc. But it's what they have to say about Iraq that is absolutely beyond hysterical.

Iraq executes 13 insurgents

Iraq hanged 13 insurgents Thursday, marking the first time militants have been executed in the country since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly three years ago, the government said.
The Cabinet announcement listed the name of only one of those hanged, Shukair Farid, a former policeman in the northern city of Mosul, who allegedly confessed that he had worked with Syrian foreign fighters to enlist fellow Iraqis to carry out assassinations against police and civilians.


Iraqi Shi'ite cleric calls U.S., Britain and Israel a 'Triad of Evil'
In a television interview Friday night, radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr described the United States, Israel and Britain as a "Triad of Evil".
Speaking on state-run Iraqiya television, the anti-American al-Sadr also said last month's attack on a Shi'ite shrine in the central city of Samarra was carried "in collusion with the occupiers and the Zionist Entity of Israel," meaning for the U.S. and Israel. Hundreds of Iraqis died in the subsequent sectarian violence, much of which Sunni Muslims said was the work of al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army.

Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq?

Every Reason Put Forward Has Been Proven False
March 20 is the third anniversary of the Bush regime's invasion of Iraq. US military casualties to date are approximately 20,000 killed, wounded, maimed, and disabled. Iraqi civilian casualties number in the tens of thousands. Iraq's infrastructure is in ruins. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed. Fallujah, a city of 300,000 people had 36,000 of its 50,000 homes destroyed by the US military.

The War Dividend: The British companies making a fortune out of conflict-riven Iraq

British businesses have profited by at least £1.1bn since coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago, the first comprehensive investigation into UK corporate investment in Iraq has found. The company roll-call of post-war profiteers includes some of the best known names in Britain's boardrooms as well many who would prefer to remain anonymous. They come from private security services, banks, PR consultancies, urban planning consortiums, oil companies, architects offices and energy advisory bodies.

Biden: Troops Should Come Home in Summer

The U.S. should pull troops from Iraq after this summer if the political conditions in the country do not improve, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday.
Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is aiming for the 2008 presidential race, said the Iraqis must have a constitution that unites fighting factions of the society or "it's game over."


Explosion rocks market in Shiite slum, killing at least 39
A suicide bomber and a car bomb ripped apart a market Sunday in a Shiite slum in Baghdad, killing at least 39 people and wounding more than 100. The carnage came shortly after Iraqi politicians decided to convene parliament three days earlier than planned, suggesting some progress in efforts to form a unity government. The death toll in Sadr City was sure to rise as residents, many firing Kalashnikov rifles into the air, raced to and fro to collect charred corpses from among burning vehicles and shops.

Signs Comment: Iraqis, Shia and Sunni alike, want to live in peace with each other as they have done for many generations, yet the American, British and Israeli governments will not allow them do so and are determined to force them to fight and kill each other.

Attacks on Shiite slum in Baghdad threatens to re-ignite sectarian strife
The guarded words of hope had barely been spoken on one side of the Tigris River on Sunday before being drowned out by the thunder and terror of new bombings on the other.
The late-afternoon bloodbath - at least 44 dead and 200 wounded - at marketplaces in Sadr City, Baghdad's teeming Shiite slum, threatened to re-ignite Sunni-Shiite violence that shook Iraq for days after a holy site was bombed last month.

SAS soldier quits Army in disgust at 'illegal' American tactics in Iraq - Refuses to fight alongside Americans
An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces. After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.

After four years, Iraq withdrawal elusive

Words like "victory" and "mission accomplished" aren't heard much anymore as the United States enters its fourth year of war in Iraq.
The slogans now are "political process" and handing over "battle space" to Iraq's new army so that the Iraqis themselves can carry the fight to the insurgents and build their promised democracy. All those plans are now under review in light of another ominous phrase - "civil war" - that has crept into the debate since the wave of sectarian violence set off by a Feb. 22 bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Samarra.

Old War Whores: Haig says U.S. repeating Vietnam mistake - Former Nixon adviser thinks forces in Iraq hamstrung by politicians
Former Nixon adviser Alexander Haig said military leaders in Iraq are repeating a mistake made in Vietnam by not applying the full force of the military to win the war. "Every asset of the nation must be applied to the conflict to bring about a quick and successful outcome, or don't do it," Haig said. "We're in the midst of another struggle where it appears to me we haven't learned very much." The comments by Haig, also a Secretary of State under President Reagan, came Saturday at a conference at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum examining the Vietnam War and the American Presidency.

Iraq: The reckoning - What have we achieved three years on from Shock and Awe?

President George Bush is about to embark on one of the toughest campaigns of his second term. Tomorrow, with the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq looming, he will make the first of a series of speeches to convince the American public, a sceptical world - and perhaps even himself - that things are going the right way in Iraq. Signalling the start of this public relations offensive, Mr Bush said on Friday that Iraq had stepped back from "the abyss" of civil war. That is debatable - in the eyes of many Iraqis, civil war has already begun - but it shows how far expectations have sunk since the invasion was launched with such swaggering confidence 36 months ago. Far from creating a stable, democratic and prosperous Iraq, whose benign influence would spread to the rest of the Middle East, the United States and its faithful ally, Britain, have created what Foreign Office minister Kim Howells yesterday called "a mess".

Four men found hanged in Baghdad slum

POLICE found four hanged men dangling from electricity pylons in a Baghdad Shiite slum, hours after car bombs and mortars shells ripped through teeming market streets, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 200. The grim scene underscored fears yesterday's bloody assault on a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr would plunge Iraq into another frenzy of sectarian killing.

Shia cleric blames US forces for Sunday massacre

Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held the US forces responsible on Monday for the bombings in Sadr city, one of the poorest districts of Baghdad, that claimed over 40 lives.
"I hold the occupying forces responsible for orchestrating this event," Muqtada told a press conference in Najaf. He said terrorists carried out the bombing "under US air cover" arguing that the halt of telephone connections before the incident was proof of the cooperation between the terrorists and the occupier to "destabilise the security of this Shia region.

Death squads found inside Iraqi government

Senior Iraqi officials on Sunday confirmed for the first time that death squads composed of government employees had operated illegally from inside two government ministries.
"The death squads that we have captured are in the Defense and Interior ministries," Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said during a joint news conference with the minister of Defense. "There are people who have infiltrated the army and the interior."

Iraq's president warns of civil war after bombings

Iraq's president pressed political parties on Monday to accelerate efforts to form a broad government to arrest a slide into civil war after bomb blasts in a Baghdad Shi'ite slum killed 52 people.
A government of national unity encompassing Kurds, Shi'ites and Sunnis is widely seen as the best way to bring stability to the country, but three months after elections political leaders are deadlocked over who should lead it. "The terrorists, infidels and Saddam Hussein's followers are seeking to spread the spirit of separation and exploiting gaps left by any delay in the political process," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement.

Troops from Iraq suffer the 'Vietnam effect' - Returning Home to Face a Hostile Public

BRITISH veterans of the Iraq war are suffering a "Vietnam effect" after returning home to face a hostile public, according to one of Britain's foremost experts on post-traumatic stress disorder. Dr Chris Freeman says the increasingly unpopular decision of the government to ignore public opinion and go to war has placed an additional burden on servicemen. Freeman, who has treated nearly 20 Scottish veterans at his Edinburgh clinic, said: "Gulf War Two has changed society's attitude to soldiers. It has become our Vietnam. There have been no heroes in this war. Two-thirds of this country didn't want [Iraq] to happen and that has a massive effect on the men who come home."

Top commanders approved use of dogs at Abu Ghraib

When Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith faces a court-martial today on charges that he used his military working dog to harass and threaten detainees, one of the prime examples of that alleged misconduct will be a photograph of Smith holding the dog just inches from the face of a detainee. It is one of the notorious images to emerge from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Although officials characterized the other detainees who appeared in the photographs as common criminals and rioters, the detainee seen cowering before the dog was different.

Friendly Fire: Another Crack UK Soldier Quits the Illegal War

Here's an important story that for some strange reason is not on the network news or splashed across the front pages of America's leading newspapers:

SAS soldier quits Army in disgust at 'illegal' American tactics in Iraq.
Excerpts, from the Daily Telegraph: An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces. After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.

How Do We Fix the Mess In Iraq?

This is an interesting question, and many people in and out of the American government are asking it. In October of last year, Army General William Odom said "The invasion of Iraq was the "greatest strategic disaster in United States history." He said the invasion had alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists." Vietnam veteran John Murtha said last month: "we're not only not winning, we're spreading hatred towards the United States. Eighty percent of the people in Iraq want us out of there. Forty-seven percent of the people in Iraq say it's justified to kill Americans. Eighty percent of the people in the periphery of Iraq say that we'll be better off. Once we get out of there, it will be more stable in Iraq. "

Electricity Hits Three-Year Low in Iraq
Electricity output has dipped to its lowest point in three years in Iraq, where the desert sun is rising toward another broiling summer and U.S. engineers are winding down their rebuilding of the crippled power grid. The Iraqis, in fact, may have to turn to neighboring Iran to help bail them out of their energy crisis - if not this summer, then in years to come. The overstressed network is producing less than half the electricity needed to meet Iraq's exploding demand. American experts are working hard to shore up the system's weaknesses as 100-degree-plus temperatures approach beginning as early as May, driving up usage of air conditioning, electric fans and refrigeration.

Signs Comment: Ah yes, "Freedom and Democracy", don't ya just love it?!

Of Lies and Men - Did Bush Lie Us into the Iraq War?
People who defend Bush's rush to war - first demanding inspections, then demanding the inspectors leave Iraq to make way for the massive terror bombing and invasion - deny Bush lied about Iraq. I watched Rep. Dana Dana Rohrbacher, R-CA claim that Bush didn't lie about anything at a House International Relations Committee session. Bush lied several times about Iraq with the intent of inflaming the public in support of his plans to attack Iraq.

US postwar Iraq strategy a mess, Blair was told
Senior British diplomatic and military staff gave Tony Blair explicit warnings three years ago that the US was disastrously mishandling the occupation of Iraq, according to leaked memos. John Sawers, Mr Blair's envoy in Baghdad in the aftermath of the invasion, sent a series of confidential memos to Downing Street in May and June 2003 cataloguing US failures. With unusual frankness, he described the US postwar administration, led by the retired general Jay Garner, as "an unbelievable mess" and said "Garner and his top team of 60-year-old retired generals" were "well-meaning but out of their depth". That assessment is reinforced by Major General Albert Whitley, the most senior British officer with the US land forces. Gen Whitley, in another memo later that summer, expressed alarm that the US-British coalition was in danger of losing the peace. "We may have been seduced into something we might be inclined to regret. Is strategic failure a possibility? The answer has to be 'yes'," he concluded.

Signs Comment: It would appear that all those involved in the Iraq invasion knew long ago that such an invasion would lead to a destruction of Iraqi society and infrastructure and the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, yet rather than letting this stop them it seems that their reaction was to simply subvert this truth and present it as completely the opposite - that an invasion of Iraq would bring "freedom and democracy" to the Iraqi people. Raving Psychopaths anyone?

Saddam never planned insurgency: US military study
Ousted president Saddam Hussein did not plan the insurgency in Iraq because he thought the United States would never invade the country, a US military history has concluded. Even with US armored columns 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Baghdad about to make their final push, Saddam apparently believed the war was going Iraq's way, according to the history, called "The Iraqi Perspectives Project." "As far as can be determined from the interviews and records reviewed so far, there were no national plans to embark on a guerrilla war in the event of military defeat," it said. "Nor did the regime appear to cobble together such plans as its world crumbled around it," it said. "Buoyed by his earlier conviction that the Americans would never dare enter Baghdad, Saddam hoped to the very last minute that he could stay in power," it said. Excerpts of the partially de-classified study for the US Joint Forces Command are being published in the May/June edition of Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations. The study was written by Kevin Woods, James Lacey and Williamson Murray. The history, an attempt to reconstruct the war from the Iraqi perspective, drew on interviews with dozens of captured senior Iraqi leaders and politicians and hundreds of thousands of official Iraqi documents. It concluded, as others have, that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, but that he maintained ambiguity on the issue for fear that otherwise Israel might be encouraged to attack Iraq.

Signs Comment: So it seems that even the "evil Saddam" could not fathom the depths of depravity that the minds of people like Sharon, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Blair, Wolfowitz and the rest of the Zionist Neocons are capable of. The claim made by the abovementioned US military study that Saddam was expecting to hang on to power until the very last minute is contradicted by press reports leading up to the illegal Iraq invasion:

Flashback: Iraqi Commander Swears he saw USAF fly Saddam out of Baghdad
Bill Dash
Alamo Christian Ministries Online
10/16/2003
Film will soon be made public of an Iraqi Army officer describing how he saw a US Air Force transport fly Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad. The explosive eyewitness testimony was shot by independent filmmaker Patrick Dillon, who recently returned from a risky one-man odyssey in Iraq. In the film, the officer, who told Dillon that he commanded a special combat unit during the battle for Baghdad airport and whose identity is temporarily being withheld, explains in detail how he watched as the Iraqi dictator and members of his inner circle were evacuated from Iraq's capital by what he emphatically insists were United States Air Force cargo planes. [...] Dillon says his film lends major support to what many have believed for years: that Saddam was little more than an american tool, a stage-managed "evildoer", just one in a long line of useful villains bought and paid for by the United States in order to better manipulate international politics and commerce. [...]
See this link for more on the fantastical farce that was the capture and trial of "Saddam Hussein".

Saddam Only Ever Dreamt About WMDs
A major new report extracted in Foreign Affairs confirms that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 Iraq war began. The report also documents Saddam's remarkable incompetence and unreality as his almost quarter century-long tyranny collapsed around him. The report, entitled "Saddam's Delusions: The View from the Inside," was produced by the Pentagon's Iraq's Perspectives Project and written by Kevin Woods, James Lacey and Williamson Murray. It was commissioned by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, or USJFCOM, and it is based on previously inaccessible primary sources, Foreign Affairs magazine said. Extracts from the report are being published in an 8,500 word article in the May-June issue of Foreign Affairs.
 
Signs Comment: Given the current trial of "Saddam", the truly important information in this report is the admission by US officials that the real Saddam never had any WMD's - and therefore Bush's case for war was a lie - and that the administration's assertions that Saddam was behind the insurgency are completely false.

Blame rests on a bad idea, no matter how much spin lays it elsewhere

The US and its allies are trapped in Iraq with little hope of a dignified way out, writes Hugh White. WHEN he sent our forces to help invade Iraq, John Howard was sure they would not be there long: months, not years, he said. Last week his new Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, was visiting the troops still in Iraq three years after the invasion. And he made it clear he expected them to stay a lot longer. I'm sure Nelson is right. So how and why was Howard so wrong? The conventional view is that a brilliantly successful invasion was followed by a hopelessly ill-planned and mismanaged occupation. The US-led forces didn't stop the looting after Saddam Hussein fell, they didn't restore power and water, they didn't crack down early and hard on the insurgency, they didn't have enough troops in the country. If only these errors had been avoided, Iraq would now be well on the way to stability and democracy, and our troops would be safely on their way home, the argument goes. I don't buy it.
The failure in Iraq is not a failure of execution; it's a failure of conception. The occupation and political reconstruction of Iraq was not a good idea badly implemented. It was a bad idea that no amount of administrative skill, political savvy, cultural sensitivity or military firepower could have made work.

Lessons of Iraq War start with U.S. history

On the third anniversary of President Bush's Iraq debacle, it's important to consider why the administration so easily fooled so many people into supporting the war. I believe there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture. One is an absence of historical perspective. The other is an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. If we don't know history, then we are ready meat for carnivorous politicians and the intellectuals and journalists who supply the carving knives. But if we know some history, if we know how many times presidents have lied to us, we will not be fooled again. President Polk lied to the nation about the reason for going to war with Mexico in 1846. It wasn't that Mexico "shed American blood upon the American soil" but that Polk, and the slave-owning aristocracy, coveted half of Mexico.

Iraq: Permanent US Colony
Why does the Bush Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year history? Why do these bases in Iraq resemble self-contained cities as much as military outposts? Why are we hearing such ludicrous and outrageous statements from the highest ranking military general in the United States, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, who when asked how things were going in Iraq on March 9th in an interview on "Meet the Press" said, "I'd say they're going well. I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at." I wonder if there is a training school, or at least talking point memos for
these Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because Pace's predecessor, Gen. Richard Myers, told Senator John McCain last September that "In a sense, things are going well [in Iraq]."
General Pace also praised the Iraqi military, saying, "Now there are over 100 [Iraqi] battalions in the field."
Wow! General Pace must have waved his magic wand and materialized all these 99 new Iraqi battalions that are diligently keeping things safe and secure in occupied Iraq. Because according to the top US general in Iraq, General George Casey, not long ago there was only one Iraqi battalion (about 500-600 soldiers) capable of fighting on its own in Iraq. During a late-September 2005 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Casey acknowledged that the Pentagon estimate of three Iraqi battalions last June had shrunk to one in September. That is less than six months ago.

US says launches biggest air assault in Iraq
The U.S. military said on Thursday it launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to root out insurgents near a town where recent violence raised fears of civil war. Announced with media fanfare just hours after Iraq's parliament held a brief first meeting that did nothing to end a political stalemate over forming a government, the U.S. military said 50 aircraft were taking part in the raids north of Baghdad.

Signs Comment: How exactly did we go from:
<>"Look, everything's fine in Iraq. There isn't going to be any civil war. The country is perfectly safe and stable!"
To:
"Hit 'em with everything we've got!" ??
As with most other U.S. military "offensives", innocent civilians will pay the heaviest price for being an Iraqi in an Iraqi town when trigger-happy U.S. military grunts come knocking on doors.

Iraqis Say 11 People Killed in U.S. Raid
U.S. forces flattened a house during a raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, killing 11 people - mostly women and children, while insurgent attacks elsewhere left five dead, police and relatives said.

American arrested with weapons in Iraq

An American described as a security contractor has been arrested by police in a northern Iraqi town with weapons in his car, said a provincial official.
Abdullah Jebara, the Deputy Governor of Salahaddin province, told Reuters the man was arrested in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Monday. The Joint Coordination Center between the U.S. and Iraqi military in Tikrit said the man it described as a security contractor working for a private company, possessed explosives which were found in his car. It said he was arrested on Tuesday.

Baghdad lockdown as new parliament sworn in

Three months after elections, Iraq's new parliament was sworn in Thursday with parties still deadlocked over the next government, vehicles banned from Baghdad's streets to prevent car bombings and the country under the shadow of a feared civil war.
But the long-awaited first session had hardly begun when it was indefinitely adjourned for lack of agreement on a permanent speaker for the legislature. The whole business lasted slightly more than 30 minutes, just long enough for the members to pledge to "preserve the independence and the sovereignty of Iraq and to take care of the interests of its people."

Lessons of Iraq War Start With US History

On the third anniversary of President Bush's Iraq debacle, it's important to consider why the administration so easily fooled so many people into supporting the war. I believe there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture. One is an absence of historical perspective. The other is an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism.

US Postwar Iraq Strategy a Mess, Blair Was Told

Senior British diplomatic and military staff gave Tony Blair explicit warnings three years ago that the US was disastrously mishandling the occupation of Iraq, according to leaked memos. John Sawers, Mr Blair's envoy in Baghdad in the aftermath of the invasion, sent a series of confidential memos to Downing Street in May and June 2003 cataloguing US failures. With unusual frankness, he described the US postwar administration, led by the retired general Jay Garner, as "an unbelievable mess" and said "Garner and his top team of 60-year-old retired generals" were "well-meaning but out of their depth".

Ordinary Iraqi families getting ready to fight - They're stockpiling weapons, food and fuel

In the past week, President Bush has tried to assure Americans that Iraq has stepped back from the brink of civil war. "Iraqis have shown the world they want a future of freedom and peace," he told the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Monday. Few Iraqis, however, share Bush's view that the crisis has been averted. They are readying themselves for the worst, fleeing likely flash points, stockpiling weapons and basic foodstuffs, barricading their neighborhoods, and drawing lines in the sand delineating Sunni and Shiite territory.

Iraqis escape ruined country

With the cold Mosul winter winds lashing against his reddened face, Kathim Raad* embraced his wife and promised they would meet again once he resettled in Jordan. He took one last look at the family home where he had been brought up, his two sons shyly clutching to their mother's robes. As the taxi drove southward to the border with Jordan, the civil engineer who wanted to pursue a musical career finally allowed himself to weep. The US military was weeks away from launching Operation Iraqi Freedom, but Raad was not convinced that a post-invasion Iraq would herald an era of civil liberties and economic prosperity. "I knew the whole country would descend into chaos," he said as we sipped traditional Iraqi tea in his Amman apartment last September. "I refused to raise my family, my two sons, in the despair most of us knew was coming."

Electricity Hits Three-Year Low in Iraq

Electricity output has dipped to its lowest point in three years in Iraq, where the desert sun is rising toward another broiling summer and U.S. engineers are winding down their rebuilding of the crippled power grid.
The Iraqis, in fact, may have to turn to neighboring Iran to help bail them out of their energy crisis - if not this summer, then in years to come.

Video Purports To Show Iraqi Children Playing With Body Of U.S. Soldier
The children climb down into the crater left by an explosion and start picking up scraps of twisted metal. "Allah is great!" they shout before the camera hones in to show what one boy is holding: torn fabric, the colour of the camouflage fatigues worn by US troops. The next scene shows the same children holding aloft a human leg, shreds of the same camouflage fabric hang from it and the foot is clad in a military-style boot. The children trample the leg and kick it around in the dust.

Terrorists or Resistance Fighters: America's Dilemma in Iraq

"Hitler's decisions had ceased to have anything in common with the principles of strategy and operations as they were recognized for generations past. They were the product of a violent nature following its impulses, which recognized no limits to possibility and which made its wish-dreams the father of its acts."--Gen. Franz Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, 1944. In his latest book, "Hegemony or Survival," Noam Chomsky raises provocative questions about America's role in the world, and not just in our current crisis in the reign of Bush II. Ever since World War II America has assumed the role of the world's super power, particularly so after the fall of the Soviet Union.

One critical question he raises is the difference between terrorism and resistance.

By Scott Ritter
Aljazeera
According to press accounts, the Pentagon is considering the organisation, training and equipping of so-called death squads, teams of Iraqi assassins who would be used to infiltrate and eliminate the leadership of the Iraqi resistance. Called the Salvador Option, in reference to similar US-backed death squads that terrorised the population of El Salvador during the 1980s, the proposed plan actually has as its roots the Phoenix assassination programme undertaken during the Vietnam war, where American-led assassins killed thousands of known or suspected Vietcong collaborators.

Iraqi PM offers to step down

Iraq's Shia prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said today he was willing to withdraw his nomination to stay in the job if this was what his people wanted. He made the comments at a news conference shortly after Iraq's parliament met for the first time since the landmark national elections three months ago. Mr Jaafari is under growing pressure from Sunnis, Kurds, some Shias and some secular politicians to step down and parliament opened today with political factions still deadlocked over the make-up of a new government.

U-S to send more troops into Iraq

Military officials say about 700 more American soldiers are heading into Iraq to provide extra security during a religious holiday.

Three officers confirm the move. The force augmentation comes amid a spike in religious violence. The armored unit may spend as little as 30 days in Iraq. The move contrasts with the Bush administration's stated goal of substantially cutting U-S forces in Iraq this year. One officer says the First Armored Division battalion is expected to move in within the next few days. Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

Accepting Reality: America Lost the War in Iraq

America has lost the war in Iraq. The chance for victory vanished long ago with the hearts, minds, arms, legs and lives of the Iraqi people. The insurgence hasn't won; rather the American government never obtained the formula to win. America, led by war-bent hawks (Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz) entered this war with many interests. Among them, the control of a major supply of Mideast oil, military bases, reconstruction contracts for cronies (i.e. Halliburton and Bechtel), a new ally/puppet in the region, securing Israeli dominance, showcasing new products for the arms community, and the greater concept of making Baghdad a haven for US corporate expansion (thereby planting a McDonalds and Starbucks on every street corner). In this excess of interests, the US neglected a major factor in the equation-the Iraqi people. Every time another suicide bomber enters the marketplace, Iraqis are reminded of the utter failure and incompetence of the US government. Nonetheless, those war-bent hawks couldn't pass up the idea of a cheap war coupled with a swift victory. What they didn't realize (or refused to listen to) was that after decades of heartbreak and struggle under Saddam Hussein, the last thing Iraqis needed was to get "liberated" for an era of struggle under US occupation.

US 'may want to keep Iraq bases'

The United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect oil supplies, the army general overseeing US operations in Iraq has said. While the Bush administration has downplayed prospects for permanent US bases in Iraq, General John Abizaid told a House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday he could not rule that out.

Trapped in Iraq - The US and its allies are trapped in Iraq with little hope of a dignified way out

WHEN he sent our forces to help invade Iraq, John Howard was sure they would not be there long: months, not years, he said. Last week his new Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, was visiting the troops still in Iraq three years after the invasion. And he made it clear he expected them to stay a lot longer. I'm sure Nelson is right. So how and why was Howard so wrong?

RAF doctor refused a third tour of duty in 'illegal' war
AN RAF medical officer who refused to return to Iraq for a third tour "honestly" believed that the British military campaign was illegal, a court martial hearing was told yesterday. Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, who is facing five charges of failing to comply with a lawful order, decided that it was his duty to disobey the order, his lawyer said during a pre-trial hearing at Aldershot, Hampshire.

Saddam Hussein: 'I am still the head of state'
Saddam Hussein insisted today that he was still Iraq's president and called on Iraqis to stop fighting each other and rise up against US and British troops as he gave evidence for the first time at his trial. Despite the judge repeatedly shouting at him to stop, the deposed leader insisted on reading from a prepared text. "Let the [Iraqi] people unite and resist the invaders and their backers. Don't fight among yourselves," Saddam said, praising the insurgency. "In my eyes, you are the resistance to the American invasion." With Saddam taking little notice of attempts to curtail his speech, the chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, told journalists to leave the chamber and the session continued in secret. The video and audio broadcast of the trial was also cut off.

Bush Marks Anniversary, Never Says 'War'
President Bush marked the anniversary of the
Iraq war Sunday by touting the efforts to build democracy there and avoiding any mention of the daily violence that rages three years after he ordered an invasion. The president didn't utter the word "war." "We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq," the president assured a public that is increasingly skeptical that he has a plan to end the fighting after the deaths of more than 2,300 U.S. troops.

US troops to stay in Iraq for a few more years: commander

On the third anniversary of the Iraq war, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Sunday that U.S. troops will likely remain there for a few more years though the number will be reduced.


How Operation Swarmer Fizzled: Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing

Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters and three Iraqi government officials right into the middle of Operation Swarmer. Iraqi soldiers in newly painted humvees, green and red Iraqi flags stenciled on the tailgates, had just finished searching the farm populated by a half-dozen skinny cows and a woman kneading freshly risen dough and slapping it to the walls of a mud oven.

IRAQ: AL-SADR FORMS SHADOW GOVERNMENT IN BAGHDAD STRONGHOLD

A Kurdish source in Baghdad has told a Kurdish national daily that the Mahdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, " has set up a shadow government in Sadr City in the centre of Baghdad". The source told the Aso daily: "this group was tasked with carrying out the affairs of the city in the place of the Iraqi government and institutions." The source explained that the Mahdi Army, accused of kidnappings and sectarian killings, has transformed the rundown Sadr city into an independent district with its security forces and its own courts which do not only judge local residents but also Shiites from other areas of the capital.

Brzezinski calls for Iraq pull out

One of America's most respected elder national security statesmen called for a full pull-out from Iraq Thursday. Delivering the keynote address at the Center for American Progress' "Iraq; Next Steps for U.S. Policy," Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security advisor for President Jimmy Carter, said that "within a year we should be able to complete a course of disengagement" and withdraw from Iraq. Brzezinski cited several reasons for withdrawal, among them the "prohibitively expensive" cost of the war and the fact that American leadership and legitimacy has been severely undermined by the insurgency and damaged credibility.

Saddam Hussein turns the tables at US-run show trial

The farcical trial of Saddam Hussein staged by the Bush administration and its Iraqi puppets was thrown into chaos when the deposed Iraqi president took the witness stand Wednesday. He used his intervention not to answer the charges laid against him in the court-whose legitimacy he has rejected from the beginning-but to speak directly to the Iraqi people, urging an end to sectarian bloodshed and a continuation of armed resistance to the US occupation of their country. "My conscience tells me that the great people of Iraq have nothing to do with these strange and horrid acts, the bombing of the shrine of Imam Ali al-Hadi and Hassan al-Askari ... which led to the burning of mosques in Baghdad, which are the houses of God, and the burning of other mosques in other cities of Iraq," Hussein said.

Cobra II - The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

Almost three years to the day after the war started, a new book titled "Cobra II" details the inside story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The book is written by Michael Gordon, chief military correspondent for The New York Times, and retired Marine general Bernard Trainor.
Transcript below.

Video: The 50 Billion Dollar Robbery - Three years after the start of the Iraq war, where has the 50 billion dollars of reconstruction money gone?"

Following the Iraq war, billions of dollars of Iraq's money was directed to American companies to rebuild the country. But much of it remains unaccounted for, and Peter Marshall has been investigating startling allegations of post war profiteering.

The time for accounting - The case against the Iraq war and occupation has been entirely vindicated. It must be brought to an end

Tony Blair's announcement that he will henceforward account only to God for the Iraq war makes perfect sense. Every secular reason he has concocted for the catastrophe has turned out to be the reverse of the truth: there were no weapons of mass destruction, we are less safe from terrorism, the Iraqi people themselves do not want us in their country. No more of his excuses for this epic man-made disaster stand an earthly chance of being believed.

Father who took up Iraq machine gun to avenge dead son is ready to go home

It's been six months since a grieving Georgia father headed to Iraq to avenge his soldier son's death. And Joe Johnson is ready to come home.

Johnson went to Iraq after his 22-year-old son was killed in a roadside bombing. He says there were a lot of reasons for getting back in the military -- a sense of duty among them. Johnson admits he does not "really have love for Muslim people." And he says he'd be lying if didn't admit wanting some revenge for his son, Justin. Now, after spending time manning a Humvee's gun, Johnson says he "shouldn't even have come." Johnson says he doesn't want to kill innocent people and won't be upset if he returns to Georgia without any blood on his hands.  Johnson's batallion is due to return home in mid-May. Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

Quiet disapproval in US marks war's anniversary

On the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, the US capital's historic protest venues were surprisingly serene on Sunday. Outside the White House tourists had their pictures taken next to a cardboard cut-out of the president, families enjoyed the sun on the Mall and several bored-looking policemen stood guard outside the vice-president's DC home. Not a placard in sight or a chant to be heard. Americans may have turned decisively against the war in Iraq in recent months, but their change of heart has been largely expressed quietly to pollsters rather than in loud public protests. The micro-protests that have taken place around the third anniversary – including a few hundred who gathered to hear anti-war speeches in the affluent DC neighbourhood of Dupont Circle – pale by comparison with the monster demonstrations against the Vietnam war. A clue to this curiously low-key response may be found in the bustling shopping centres. Despite the mounting cost of the war in Iraq, the economic consequences have remained relatively contained. There have been no signs of a decline in consumer confidence and no uptick in inflation.

Fewer Protest Iraq War's 3rd Anniversary
Protesters marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war made their voices heard around the world, with the largest marches in London, Portland and Chicago, though in numbers that were often lower than in previous years. About 10,000 anti-war protesters in Portland took nearly an hour to pass through downtown streets Sunday, some carrying signs that said "Impeach the Evildoer." "It is time now for you to take back your country," said Steven DeFord, whose son, Oregon National Guard Sgt. David Johnson, 37, was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb in 2004.

Iraq embroiled in 'civil war,' says former PM Allawi

Ayad Allawi, the former interim prime minister of Iraq, says the increasing sectarian attacks across his country can only be described as a "civil war." "We are losing each day an average of 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," Allawi told BBC television on Sunday, on the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The farcical end of the American dream - The US press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war

It is a bright winter morning and I am sipping my first coffee of the day in Los Angeles. My eye moves like a radar beam over the front page of the Los Angeles Times for the word that dominates the minds of all Middle East correspondents: Iraq. In post-invasion, post-Judith Miller mode, the American press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war. So the story beneath the headline "In a Battle of Wits, Iraq's Insurgency Mastermind Stays a Step Ahead of US" deserves to be read. Or does it?

Saddam Was Trying to Capture Zarqawi?

The Bush administration repeatedly made the presence in Iraq of Abu Musab Zarqawi a pretext for invading the country and overthrowing Saddam Hussein. They implied that he was a client of Saddam and that Saddam had arranged for hospital care for him. Newly released documents from the captured Iraqi archives show that Saddam had put out an APB for Zarqawi and was trying to have him arrested as a danger to the Baath regime!

Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools - The Mission Was Indeed Accomplished
Get off it. All the carping, belly-aching and complaining about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq, from both the Left and now the Right, is just dead wrong. On the third anniversary of the tanks rolling over Iraq's border, most of the 59 million Homer Simpsons who voted for Bush are beginning to doubt if his mission was accomplished. But don't kid yourself -- Bush and his co-conspirator, Dick Cheney, accomplished exactly what they set out to do. In case you've forgotten what their real mission was, let me remind you of White House spokesman Ari Fleisher's original announcement, three years ago, launching of what he called,

Operation Iraqi Liberation. -- O.I.L.

Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details

In the period before the Iraq war, the CIA and the Bush administration erroneously believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding major programs for weapons of mass destruction. Now NBC News has learned that for a short time the CIA had contact with a secret source at the highest levels within Saddam Hussein's government, who gave them information far more accurate than what they believed. It is a spy story that has never been told before, and raises new questions about prewar intelligence.

Top Ten Catastrophes of the Third Year of American Iraq

The American war against Iraq began on March 20, 2003, so today is the third anniversary. The Himalyan mistakes of the American administration of the country in its first two years have by now been much analyzed -- the punitive steps against even low-level Baath Party members, the firing of tens of thousands of Sunni Arabs, the dissolution of the army, the permitting of looting on a vast scale, the failure to understand tribal honor, the failure to get a handle on the early guerrilla war, the failure to understand Shiite Islam, the torture at Abu Ghraib, the failure to get services on line, the destruction of Fallujah, the ill-timed and ill-advised attempt to "kill or capture" Muqtada al-Sadr, the adoption of an election system that allowed the almost complete exclusion of the Sunni Arabs, etc., etc.

U.S. Companies Profited As Iraqi Children Died - 'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills'

At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone?

Killing Women and Children: The "My Lai Phase" Of The Iraq War

What goes through George Bush's mind when he sees the dead bodies of Iraqi women and children loaded on the back of a pickup truck like garbage? Is there ever a flicker of remorse; a split-second when he fully grasps the magnitude of the horror he has created?

Did Marines Commit Crime in Iraq Civilian Deaths? Prompted by Video and Magazine, Military Investigates Incident in Which 15 Iraqis Died, Including Children

A bloody videotape shot by a local Iraqi journalism student has prompted the Pentagon to launch a criminal investigation into an incident that left at least 15 Iraqi civilians dead in the city of Haditha. The details of what happened four months ago in Haditha are just now coming to light with the release of the videotape by an Iraqi organization called Hammurabi Human Rights.

One Morning in Haditha- U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge?

The incident seemed like so many others from this war, the kind of tragedy that has become numbingly routine amid the daily reports of violence in Iraq. On the morning of Nov. 19, 2005, a roadside bomb struck a humvee carrying Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, on a road near Haditha, a restive town in western Iraq. The bomb killed Lance Corporal Miguel (T.J.) Terrazas, 20, from El Paso, Texas. The next day a Marine communiqué from Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi reported that Terrazas and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed by the blast and that "gunmen attacked the convoy with small-arms fire," prompting the Marines to return fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding one other. The Marines from Kilo Company held a memorial service for Terrazas at their camp in Haditha. They wrote messages like "T.J., you were a great friend. I'm going to miss seeing you around" on smooth stones and piled them in a funeral mound. And the war moved on.

Iraqi police say U.S. troops executed 11, including baby

Iraqi police have accused U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The villagers were killed after U.S. troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house, the document said.

Death squads on the prowl in a nation paralysed by fear
Iraq is a country paralysed by fear. It is at its worst in Baghdad. Sectarian killings are commonplace. In the three days after the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra on 22 February, some 1,300 people, mostly Sunni, were picked up on the street or dragged from their cars and murdered. The dead bodies of four suspected suicide bombers were left dangling from a pylon in the Sadr City slum. The scale of the violence is such that most of it is unreported. Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister, said yesterday that scores were dying every day. "It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," he said. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Signs Comment: Probability is that the "death squads" are American hired mercenaries or MOSSAD gangs just killing as many people as they can get away with while blaming it on "insurgents."

Gunmen storm Iraqi police station

Suspected insurgents killed at least 17 police officers and freed 33 prisoners during a daybreak attack on a police station in Iraq on Tuesday, police said.

10 bodies found in Baghdad, including 13-year-old girl

Iraqi authorities today reported finding 10 more bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the capital Baghdad, one of them that of a 13-year-old girl. The 10 bodies were the latest gruesome discoveries tied to the underground sectarian war being conducted by Shiite and Sunni Muslims as they settle scores in the chaos that grips the Iraqi capital. As many as 700 people have been killed in sectarian violence since the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra and the subsequent series of car bombings and mortar attacks in the Sadr City slum on March 12.  Baghdadis voiced anger today when asked about their lives as the war entered its fourth year. "Since US-led troops) came into Iraq, we get nothing," said Ali Zeidan. "Three years have passed by for the Iraqi people and they are still suffering psychologically ... and economically."

Kadhafi says Saddam still legitimate Iraqi leader, government illegal
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq's legal president and the current government illegitimate as it was elected under an occupation regime.
In an interview with the Italian Sky TG24 television channel, he slammed the practice of sending in troops to get rid of heads of state, saying that by that theory he could be next. Kadhafi said that "Saddam Hussein cannot be tried because he is a prisoner of war and under the Geneva Convention should be released at the end of hostilities.


Bush still believes victory possible in Iraq
U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday denied claims that Iraq has slipped into civil war, but he warned that American soldiers in Iraq face "more tough fighting ahead."

Signs Comment: Bush sounds like an eight year old talking in the school yard to his chums. Unfortunately, real people are dying because this dry drunk and his cronies have been able to steal two presidential elections and kill 3,000 people to get their agenda moving.

Bush Defends Decisions on Iraq War
President Bush said Tuesday the decision about when to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq will fall to future presidents and Iraqi leaders, suggesting that U.S. involvement will continue at least through 2008.
Acknowledging the public's growing unease with the war - and election-year skittishness among fellow Republicans - the president nonetheless vowed to keep U.S. soldiers in the fight. "If I didn't believe we could succeed, I wouldn't be there. I wouldn't put those kids there," Bush declared. He also stood by embattled Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. "I don't believe he should resign. He's done a fine job. Every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy," he said.

Elaborate U.S. bases raise long-term questions

EDITOR'S NOTE - This report is based on interviews with U.S. military engineers and others before and during the writer's two weeks as an embedded reporter at major U.S. bases in Iraq. BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq - The concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a "heli-park" as good as any back in the States. At another giant base, al-Asad in Iraq's western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads. At a third hub down south, Tallil, they're planning a new mess hall, one that will seat 6,000 hungry airmen and soldiers for chow. Are the Americans here to stay? Air Force mechanic Josh Remy is sure of it as he looks around Balad.

Bush suggests US troops will still be in Iraq into 2009

President George W. Bush hinted at a years-long US deployment in Iraq, saying that future US presidents and Iraqi governments would decide when the last US soldiers leave that war-torn country.


Abu Ghraib Dog Handler Found Guilty

A jury found an Army dog handler guilty Tuesday of abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison by terrifying them with a military dog, allegedly for his own amusement.
Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, was found guilty of six of 13 counts.

Northern Iraq Ruled by Force and Fear

The weekly news magazine, Time, wrote two parties ruling the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq restrict freedoms and the democratic process. The magazine focusing on the region reported corruption and repression prevail in the region ruled by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The two parties' despotic tendencies repress their opponents, it was underlined, and that the KDP and PUK rule the region by "force and fear."

Files show Sadam's frustration over WMD hunt
Exasperated, besieged by global pressure, Saddam Hussein and top aides searched for ways in the 1990s to prove to the world they had given up banned weapons, according to newly-released documents. "We don't have anything hidden!" a frustrated Iraqi president interjected at one meeting, transcripts show. At another, in 1996, he wondered whether United Nations inspectors would "roam Iraq for 50 years" in a pointless hunt for weapons of mass destruction. "When is this going to end?" he asked.
 
Signs Comment: This is yet more evidence that the American government knew for a fact that Saddam had no WMDs, yet they deliberately and consciously LIED to the world in order to justify and invasion of Iraq. When are people going to wake up to the fact that the American government is the primary source of terrorism in the world today?

US book on Iraq war takes aim at Rumsfeld
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld comes under fire for his handling of the invasion of
Iraq and its bloody aftermath in a new book by a retired general and a New York Times reporter. The book, "COBRA II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq", accuses Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, who commanded US troops at the war's outset, of adopting an overly optimistic plan that ignored the threat of insurgency and the political landscape of Iraq.


Audio: Colonel Larry Wilkerson Condemns US 'Ineptitude'
Within 24 months, we're going to have to withdraw from Iraq, whether the situation there, politically, economically and so forth, is adequate or not because we've stretched our ground forces to the point of breaking. We have officers who are leaving the Army and the Marine Corps now because they don't want to do a third and possibly a fourth tour in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Change of heartland
On the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, many Indianians are no longer strongly behind the war

Iraqis Detail Deadly U.S. Marine Raid:
Shortly after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine in a western Iraqi town, American troops went into nearby houses and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old-girl, residents say.

The march of folly, that has led to a bloodbath - The Iraq War: Three Years On

It is the march of folly. In 1914, the British, French, and Germans though they would be home by Christmas. On the 9th of April 2003, corporal David Breeze of the 3rd Battalion, 4th US Marine Regiment - the very first American to enter Baghdad - borrowed my satellite phone to call his home in Michigan. "Hi you guys, I'm in Baghdad," he told his mother. "I'm ringing to say 'Hi, I love you. I'm doing fine. I love you guys.' The war will be over in a few days. I'll see you all soon."

'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills'

At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone? Callum Macrae and Ali Fadhil on one of the greatest financial scandals of all time

US Blasted For Creating Terrorism Quagmire On Anniversary Of Iraq War

Asian newspapers Monday took the United States to task on the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, with one commentator saying it had created the ideal environment for terrorism to fester. "Three years into the Iraq war, and with no end in sight, it looks as if the United States, in creating a quagmire for itself in the Middle East, has also created the ideal environment in which the terrorism bacillus can fester, and then infect the whole world," said the Sydney Morning Herald.

Video The Aftermath Of A Massacre

This is the account of a nine year old survivor. " watched them shoot my grandfather First in the chest then in the head, then they killed my granny."

US targets Iraqi deaths "misinformation"
The U.S. military hit back on Wednesday at what it called a "pattern of misinformation" following Iraqi police accusations that its troops shot dead a family of 11 in their home last week.


Desire to 'Serve My Country' Cited by Volunteers for Duty in Iraq
Almost 1,000 members of the U.S. Foreign Service have volunteered for duty in Iraq since 2003. The Foreign Service Journal, the magazine of the American Foreign Service Association, recently surveyed active-duty Foreign Service officers (FSOs) about their tour there. Fifty-seven who replied served or currently serve in Iraq either at the embassy in Baghdad or elsewhere in the country. Here are some of their responses, as excerpted from an article in the March issue by Shawn Dorman, titled "Iraq Service and Beyond."

Civil War? What Civil War? Cole in Salon

Readers have repeatedly asked me for a criterion by which we might fairly objectively decide if Iraq is in a Civil War (contrary to Bush's and Rumsfeld's denials). I have attempted such an argument at Salon.com. Excerpt:

3 Western Aid Workers in Iraq Rescued in Military Operation
Three Western peace workers who were held hostage in Iraq for four months were freed in a military operation today, two weeks after their American colleague was killed in captivity. The three men - James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both from Canada; and Norman Kember, 74, of Britain - had been kidnapped last November along with the American man, Tom Fox, in Baghdad.

Signs Comment: And it only took FOUR MONTHS to free them!

Iraq war veteran wins her first political battle

Tammy Duckworth will vie for a House seat in the fall. She prevailed Tuesday in Illinois's Democratic primary.

White House downplays Bush remark on Iraq troop pullout
The White House downplayed President George W. Bush's suggestion that US troops would still be in Iraq when his term ends in January 2009. [...] "The question was ... when will there be zero or no American troops in Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "So he was referring to that specific question." The president did not mean that a strong military presence would be remain nearly six years after the US-led invasion, but merely was addressing a theoretical question about when the troops will be withdrawn, McClellan told reporters. [...]

Signs Comment: Riiiight. So the question was when will there be no troops in Iraq, and Bush's "theoretical" answer of 2009 was supposed to mean that troops will be gone by next month - which means they will still be gone in 2009. Now do you understand? Ya know, these political leaders have such complex minds that it is often difficult for us, the little people, to understand what they are saying...

Pace Wants Review of Iraq Media Program
The top U.S. military commander called Thursday for a formal

Pentagon review of the policies that led to defense officials paying the Iraqi media to place favorable stories in their newspapers.

Bush uncle benefits from war spending
As President Bush embarks on a new effort to shore up public support for the war in Iraq, an uncle of the chief executive is collecting $2.7 million in cash and stock from the recent sale of a company that profited from the war.


Iraqi civilian deaths shrouded in secrecy
Recent figures from the campaign group Iraq Body Count put the minimum number of civilians killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion three years ago at between 33,710 and 37,832.

Benchmarks: US Iraq casualties stay high
As Iraq teeters on -- or over -- the brink of civil war the pressure is not easing on the hard-pressed U.S. ground forces there.
Over the past month, the average rate at which U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq has significantly fallen, the but the rates at which they are being wounded have dramatically increased.


Sunni mosque blast kills 5 in northern Iraq

A roadside bomb exploded outside a Sunni mosque in northern Iraq on Friday, killing five and wounding 18, a local police source told Xinhua.


Harsh reality: Bush administration's own grim Iraq assessment

Repeated suggestions by the White House and friendly commentators that the news media's selective displays of terrorist attacks in Iraq are warping American public opinion seem to belie several unclassified assessments of the situation produced by the U.S. government itself. In fact, just two weeks ago the Bush administration publicly released a detailed report stating that "even a highly selective" inventory of the terrorist attacks inside Iraq "could scarcely reflect the broad dimension of the violence" there.

Saddam's FM unveiled as double spy for French, CIA

Saddam Hussein's last foreign minister was a paid spy for French intelligence, which later turned him over to the CIA for information about Iraq's secret weapon programs, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Iraqi residents say bodies in video from US raid

A video of civilians who may have been killed by U.S. Marines in an Iraqi town in November showed residents describing a rampage by U.S. soldiers that left a trail of bullet-riddled bodies and destruction.
A copy of the video, given to Reuters by Iraq's Hammurabi Organization for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy, showed corpses lined up at the Haditha morgue. The chief doctor at Haditha's hospital, Waleed al-Obaidi, said the victims had bullet wounds in the head and chest. Most residents interviewed by Reuters in Haditha on Tuesday echoed accusations by residents in the video that U.S. Marines attacked houses after their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb. They said the Marines opened fire on houses. "I saw a soldier standing outside a house and he opened fire on the house," said one resident, who did not want to be identified.

Children Continue To Be Main Victims Of U.S. Occupation
One of the most tragic consequenes of the Iraq war has been its effect on children. The war continues to claim them among its main victims, while the health of the majority of the population also continues to deteriorate. In the 1980s, Iraq had one of the best health care systems in the region. Following the 2003 invasion by the coalition forces, an ongoing cycle of insurgent violence and occupation forces' counter-attacks have significantly damaged the basic health infrastructure in the country. As a result, Iraq's health system cannot respond to the most basic health needs of the population.


US soldiers kill 22 in attack on Baghdad mosque
US forces killed 22 people and wounded eight at a mosque in east Baghdad in an incident likely to lead to increased tensions with the Shia community. Police said the US troops had retaliated after coming under fire. Videotape showed a heap of male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of the Imam's living quarters in what was said to be the Al Mustafa mosque. There were 5.56mm shell casings on the floor, which is the type of ammunition used by US soldiers. A weeping man in white Arab robes is shown stepping among the bodies. Police Lt Hassan said some of the casualties were at the office Dawa, the party of the Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Haidar al-Obaidi, a senior Dawa official, said: "The lives of Iraqis are not cheap. If the American blood is valuable to them, the Iraqi blood is valuable to us."

U.S. soldiers kill two civilians at check point at Al-Ratba:
Ahmed al-Kobaisy, a doctor at al-Ratba hospital said the three victims were shot at when their car approached the site of a US army base on the road. They were admitted to the hospital after which two of them died of their wounds.

Soldier who killed Iraqi girl in 2004 discharged; no criminal charges filed
The Army has discharged without criminal charges a Schofield Barracks soldier who was involved in the 2004 killing of a 13-year-old girl and wounding of her sister and mother in Iraq.

US Military faces Iraqi accusations on deadly night raid
The US military insisted Monday Iraqi special forces carried out a raid on an insurgent hide-out that killed over a dozen people, rejecting accusations American troops had launched a deadly attack on civilians in a mosque. Amid a swirl of conflicting versions of the events late Sunday, the US military said Iraqi special forces raided a meeting hall in northeast Baghdad being used by an insurgent cell and killed 16 people and detained 18 others. Iraqi television on Sunday night showed pictures of blood spattered corpses inside what they called the Mustafa mosque. Many of the dead were elderly and their identity proclaimed them to be members of prominent political parties. The Imam Ali hospital, in nearby Sadr City, reported 17 dead and five wounded in an incident that risks further inflaming sectarian tensions in Iraq.

Hired guns unaccountable
About 6,000 non-Iraqi security contractors are operating in Iraq. During nine months in 2004-05, contractors reported firing into 61 civilian vehicles; no one was ever prosecuted. Security analysts say it is likely that such incidents are vastly underreported. Security contractors supporting the U.S. effort in Iraq regularly shoot into civilian cars with little accountability, according to a News & Observer analysis of more than 400 reports contractors filed with the government. In the documents, which cover nine months of the three-year-old war, contractors reported shooting into 61 vehicles they believed were threatening them. In just seven cases were Iraqis clearly attacking -- showing guns, shooting at contractors or detonating explosives.

Bush: U.S. troops will still be in Iraq after my presidency ends in 2009

President George W. Bush said in a press conference on March 21, 2006 that U.S. troops will still be in Iraq after his presidency ends in 2009. Asked when all U.S. forces would finally pull out of Iraq, Bush told a White House news conference: "That will be decided by future Presidents and future governments of Iraq." Bush's term ends in January 2009. The silence from Congress in reaction to this pledge was deafening. While the President was pledging occupation until 2009, polls are showing that opposition to the war is growing. The latest CBS poll on Iraq showed that 70% think the occupation is not worth the costs. Even 42%, of Republican voters feel that way as do 90% of Democrats and 72% of Independent voters. This is consistent with a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll which found that only 37% of Americans believe the invasion of Iraq was worth it, 54% believe we should withdraw within a year, and only 22% believe the U.S. is sure to win (down from 79% in 2003). Another poll conducted by ICR Research for VotersForPeace may make incumbents who have supported the war even more nervous. This poll found that a near majority of voters are ready to pledge to vote against candidates who continue to support the war. If the Iraq occupation continues to go poorly there could be a strong reaction at the polls in November.

Iraq recruitment centre blast kills 40

At least 40 people are reported killed and 20 others wounded when a
suicide bomber blew himself up among candidates waiting at an army recruitment centre in northwest Iraq. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said the explosion occurred on Monday at an Iraqi army centre called Tamarat, located near the town of Tal Afar, which is close to the restive city of Mosul.

Signs Comment: You want to know the truth of this and so many other alleged "suicide bombings" in Iraq and in other countries in the Middle East? On May 11 2005, an Iraqi man named Imad Khadduri posted a "warning to car drivers" on www.albasrah.net. The report contained some alarming information:

"A few days ago, an American manned check point confiscated the driver license of a driver and told him to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license. The next day, the driver did visit the camp and he was allowed in the camp with his car. He was admitted to a room for an interrogation that lasted half an hour. At the end of the session, the American interrogator told him: 'OK, there is nothing against you, but you do know that Iraq is now sovereign and is in charge of its own affairs. Hence, we have forwarded your papers and license to al-Kadhimia police station for processing. Therefore, go there with this clearance to reclaim your license. At the police station, ask for Lt. Hussain Mohammed, who is waiting for you now. Go there now quickly, before he leaves his shift work'.

The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors.


In an incident that appeared to corroborate the idea that US and British forces were involved in covert bomb attacks on Iraqi civilians, in September 2005 two British SAS agents were arrested driving a car full of explosives. The men had been shooting at Iraqi civilians and wore full Arab dress.

Bush's Requests for Iraqi Base Funding Mean US Troops Will Be There For Decades
Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of American troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request hundreds of millions of dollars for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent sites for U.S. forces.
Questions on Capitol Hill about the future of the bases have been prompted by the new emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last week with $67.6 billion in funding for the war effort, including the base money. Although the House approved the measure, lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon explain its plans for the bases, and they unanimously passed a provision blocking the use of funds for base agreements with the Iraqi government.

Elaborate American air bases worry Iraqis
The chief Air Force engineer here, Lt. Col. Scott Hoover, is also overseeing two crucial projects to add to Balad's longevity: equipping the two runways with new permanent lighting, and replacing a weak 3,500-foot section of one runway. Once that's fixed, "we're good for as long as we need to run it," Hoover said. Ten years? he was asked. "I'd say so."

Iraq on its own to rebuild, U.S. says
The head of the U.S.-led program to rebuild Iraq said Thursday that the Iraqi government can no longer count on U.S. funds and must rely on its own revenues and other foreign aid, particularly from Persian Gulf nations.
"The Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital budget investment," Daniel Speckhard, director of the U.S. Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, said.

60 Minutes joins the propaganda war
Two weeks ago, CBS 60 Minutes ran a segment called "Tal Afar: Al Qaida's Town". The story focused on an Iraqi city on the Syrian border that was allegedly "taken over by Al Qaida" and turned into a terrorist "base to train insurgents and launch attacks around Iraq". (60 Minute's transcript) According to"America's most popular news magazine", the city of 200,000 was controlled by a few hundred "terrorists" who kept the townspeople imprisoned in their own homes until American forces invaded the city and set them free.

Bush Proposed Assassinating Hussein to Provoke War With Iraq: Memo
In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.
But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

Mired in Diplo-Gobbledygook

President Bush, who's been touting his Iraq policy across the country this week, "is at his best when he's answering real and difficult questions from a cross section of Americans," White House communications director Nicolle Wallace said a few days ago.

Neurotic-in-Chief: Bush's "Change of Course"

George Bush's recent admission that our occupation of Iraq will extend beyond his presidency passed with hardly a ripple in American public opinion. Uh oh.


Bush told Blair determined to invade Iraq without UN resolution or WMD
US President George W. Bush made clear to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in January 2003 that he was determined to invade Iraq without a UN resolution and even if UN arms inspectors failed to find weapons of mass destruction in the country, The New York Times reported.

Signs Comment: Gee, do you think the Bush gang is also determined to take care of Iran no matter what?

Iraq minister says US, Iraqi troops killed 37 civilians in cold blood
Iraq's security minister, a Shi'ite political ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, accused U.S. and Iraqi troops on Monday of killing 37 unarmed people in an attack on a mosque complex a day earlier. "At evening prayers, American soldiers accompanied by Iraqi troops raided the Mustafa mosque and killed 37 people," Abd al-Karim al-Enzi, minister of state for national security, said. "They were all unarmed. Nobody fired a single shot at them (the troops). They went in, tied up the people and shot them all. They did not leave any wounded behind," he told Reuters. Shi'ite politicians had earlier said 20 people were killed at the mosque. The U.S. military's account of Sunday evening's incident said Iraqi special forces with U.S. advisers killed 16 "insurgents", arrested 15 people and freed an Iraqi hostage. The military denied entering any mosque.

Baghdad governor says suspends cooperation with US

Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said on Monday he would suspend all cooperation with U.S. forces until an independent investigation is launched into the killing of 20 Shi'ites in a mosque. "Today we decided to stop all political and service cooperation with the U.S. forces until a legal committee is formed to investigate this incident," he told reporters, adding that the inquiry panel should include the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi defence ministry but not the U.S. military.

Did American Marines murder 23 Iraqi civilians?

The US military deny accusations of massive over-reaction when attacked. But video evidence from one incident has led the official story to unravel. US military investigators are examining allegations that Marines shot unarmed Iraqis, then claimed they were "enemy fighters", The Independent on Sunday has learned. In the same incident, eyewitnesses say, one man bled to death over a period of hours as soldiers ignored his pleas for help. American military officials in Iraq have already admitted that 15 civilians who died in the incident in the western town of Haditha last November were killed by Marines, and not by a roadside bomb, as had previously been claimed. The only victim of the remotely triggered bomb, it is now conceded, was a 20-year-old Marine, Lance-Corporal Miguel Terrazas, from El Paso, Texas.

The Logic of Withdrawal

We find ourselves in a remarkable situation today. Despite a massive propaganda campaign in support of the occupation of Iraq, a clear majority of people in the United States now believes the invasion was not worth the consequences and should never have been undertaken.

The Final Say
U.S. President George Bush again reassured Americans last week they were winning the war in Iraq. Please, Mr. President, no more "mission accomplished," no more victories. Your debacle in Iraq recalls King Phyrrus' famous lament, "One more such victory and we are ruined." The Bush administration invaded Iraq for two key reasons: 1) To seize Iraq's vast oil reserves and turn Iraq into a base to dominate the Mideast; 2) To destroy one of Israel's two main enemies (Iran being the other). Three years later, the first goal remains elusive while the second was achieved. Large parts of Iraq – once the Arab world's most developed nation – are in ruins, anarchy, or approaching civil war.

Russia expects clear answer from Iran on enrichment proposal

Iran should give a clear answer to Russia's offer to set up a uranium enrichment joint venture on Russian territory, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Tuesday.


US troops defend raid, say Iraqis faked "massacre"
U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque. "After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There's been huge misinformation," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said.

Signs Comment: The timing of this story is most curious given the recent reports (and photos) of Iraqi children murdered in their home by US forces.

Soldiers flee to Canada to avoid Iraq duty

Hundreds of deserters from the US armed forces have crossed into Canada and are now seeking political refugee status there, arguing that violations of the rules of war in Iraq by the US entitle them to asylum. A decision on a test case involving two US servicemen is due shortly and is being watched with interest by fellow servicemen on both sides of the border. At least 20 others have already applied for asylum and there are an estimated 400 in Canada out of more than 9,000 who have deserted since the conflict started in 2003.

Tapdancing Over Iraq
Connecticut Congressman Chris Shays has been a strong backer of Bush on the war. Will that support spell doom for him, and other moderate Republicans, in November?
When House Republican Chris Shays showed up last week to a meeting of the Y's Men, a group of more than 400 senior men who meet weekly in Westport, Conn., he was warmly welcomed. The man introducing Shays, who has represented this Southern Connecticut district in Congress since 1987, presented the congressman with a jacket from the group and said "We love ya, Chris." But when he stepped to the podium, Shays didn't exude the confidence of a beloved incumbent. Instead, he sounded like a man who isn't sure the goodwill he's earned over the last nearly two decades can ensure his reelection to Congress this fall. In a passionate but defensive 20-minute speech, Shays delivered, all at once, an apology for and a justification of his strong support for the war in Iraq, which, as in so many other parts of the country, is now very unpopular in Connecticut.


Signs Comment: Of course, none of the politicians will say that Bush lied. If they do, they will have to admit that they lied, as well - and that's not a move that would be conducive to getting re-elected. Furthermore, with all the spying the Bush administration has done, you can bet they have all kinds of dirt on everyone.

War Of Ideas About Justice Not Democracy

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has declared the United States is losing the "war of ideas" against radical Islam, and the findings of a leading terrorism expert suggest why.
Marc Sageman, a French forensic psychiatrist, published the groundbreaking book "Understanding Terror Networks" in 2004 based on his biographical analysis of 172 known terrorists, including the men who carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States. Sageman has expanded that study to more than 400 known terrorists, analyzing information available in trial transcripts, press accounts and academic journals. What he continues to find turns the stereotypical notion about terrorists -- that they are young, lonely, naïve, idealists corrupted by al Qaida recruiters and religious schooling -- on its head. "It's very much a war of ideas," Sageman said. But the winning ideas are not necessarily the ones the Bush administration is pushing.

Americans' call for removal of Iraqi PM threatens rift with Shias

President George W Bush has made it clear that he does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister of Iraq in a move likely to increase hostility between the US and the Shia community. Mr Bush has written to the Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shi'ite Alliance asking him to nominate somebody else for the post. " The Americans are very firm about this," said a senior official. " They don't want Jaafari at any price."

In Iraq, frontline patience wears thin
 In a middle-class neighborhood on the bank of the Tigris River, Charlie Company's 4th Platoon dismounts from their armored vehicles and starts banging on doors. They're going house to house, talking to residents, looking for information on insurgents in this city of 1.8 million.
While the soldiers' reception varies, one Christian family welcomes them with smiles. But misunderstanding quickly ensues. "Please don't take our weapon," the mother of four pleads in Arabic when US Army Staff Sgt. Josh Clevenger comes across an AK-47. "We need it to defend ourselves. It is not safe, anything can happen."

A dangerous war makes a staggering shift
With signs of organized crime, attacks on businesses, war enters new phase
Fourteen shot at a trading company. At least 90 kidnapped at other businesses. Bodies dumped nightly, bound hand and foot, some tortured. A new brand of violence - a deadly mix of organized crime and sectarian murder - is tearing at Iraq. Its origins are murky. But the savagery has turned March into a pivotal month in the three-year war - a month of gruesome news, mixed with some good. A sharp decline in American deaths appears to be the payoff for handing more duties to the Iraqi army, leaving U.S. forces less exposed to attack. At the same time, there has been the rise in the slayings of civilian Iraqis, the reasons for which are hard to find.

Signs Comment: Despite the obvious signs of false flag terrorism (just ask: Who benefits?), the mainstream US media continues to present a filtered view of reality in Iraq to the American people.

Bush's call for removal of Iraqi PM threatens rift with Shias
President George W Bush has made it clear that he does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister of Iraq in a move likely to increase hostility between the US and the Shia community.

Signs Comment: Do we need any further evidence that the American interest in Iraq has nothing to do with "democracy"?

Political uncertainty grips Iraq as talks cancelled

Political uncertainty, sparked by a dispute over control of Iraq's security apparatus, has gripped the country again after another planned meeting on forming a national unity government was cancelled.
With no let-up in the violence, political leaders are under increasing pressure to create a new government after three months of squabbling since the elections but have only held one meeting in the past four days.

Fear Up Harsh: The Iraqi Civil War in Context

The causes underlying any civil war are always complex, confused, even contradictory -- as one would expect in an outbreak of madness. But those seeking to discover some of the key precipitating factors behind Iraq's furious plunge into chaos and disintegration might find one of them in the records of an obscure Congressional committee meeting on August 10, 2004.

Australia demands Iraq shooting probe
AUSTRALIA will insist on a prompt and appropriate investigation by Iraqi authorities into the shooting dead of an Australian resident in Baghdad.
University of Baghdad Professor Kays Juma, 72, was killed by security guards who opened fire when the professor's vehicle got too close to a convoy of 4WDs ferrying private contractors, The Herald Sun reported today.


Signs Comment: What seems to be the case is that these so-called "security contractors" are behind a lot of the indescriminate killing of civilians in Iraq over the past 3 years. There is video footage of these men shooting hundreds of bullets from the backs of their jeeps into any "suspicious" car that gets too close to their convey. The above story appears to be just the latest and one of the few reported such events.

Reporter Jill Carroll Freed in Baghdad

Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll has been freed in Iraq and is healthy, a Monitor editor said Thurday.
"She was released this morning, she's talked to her father and she's fine," said David Cook, a monitor editor in Washington. He said the paper had no further details immediately and just learned of her release aboug 6:15 a.m. EST.

Finding no fault
The Pentagon has once again investigated itself! And - have a seat, get the smelling salts, hold all hats - the Pentagon has once again concluded the Pentagon did absolutely nothing wrong and will continue to do so!

Signs Comment: The above-mentioned Lincoln Group and it's founder Christian Bailey were engaged in placing false information into the Iraqi media, in much the same way that the abovetopsecret forum spreads lies and disinformation around the web. In both cases, it is very clear that this is U.S. government intelligence agency work, aka CoIntelPro.

'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'

They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of veterans of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the third anniversary of the invasion this month, a group of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

Iraq leader warns U.S. to stop interfering
In the face of growing pressure from the Bush administration for him to step down, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari of Iraq on Wednesday vigorously asserted his right to stay in office and warned the Americans against undue interference in Iraq's political process. Jaafari also defended his recent political alliance with the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, now the prime minister's most powerful backer, saying in an interview that Sadr and his thousands-strong militia were a fact of life in Iraq and needed to be accepted into mainstream politics.

Iraq Shi'ite ayatollah wants US envoy sacked

A leading Iraqi Shi'ite cleric on Friday demanded the United States sack its envoy, heading a push for a unity government, accusing him of siding with fellow Sunni Muslims in the sectarian conflict gripping the country.Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yacoubi's call at Friday prayers came as political leaders held their latest round of negotiations to form a new government, months after parliamentary elections in December, as sectarian bloodshed rises.
In a sermon read out at mosques for Friday prayers, Yacoubi said Washington had underestimated the conflict between Shi'ites and the once dominant Sunni Arab minority, which many fear threatens to trigger a civil war. "By this, they are either misled by reports, which lack objectivity and credibility, submitted to the United States by their sectarian ambassador to Iraq ... or they are denying this fact," Yacoubi said in the message, later issued as a statement. "It (the United States) should not yield to terrorist blackmail and should not be deluded or misled by spiteful sectarians. It should replace its ambassador to Iraq if it wants to protect itself from further failures."
URGENT EFFORTS
After the imam of Baghdad's Rahman mosque read that line, worshippers chanted "Allahu Akbar" -- God is Greatest.
Iraq's political leaders held their latest round of talks on forming a new government on Friday, under mounting pressure at home and from the United States to form a government of national unity to end the sectarian violence and avert civil war. Afghan-born ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the highest ranking Muslim in the U.S. administration has spearheaded urgent U.S. efforts to press politicians to agree on a government embracing Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds to avert a sectarian civil war. The Shi'ite-Sunni bloodshed has worsened dramatically since a major Shi'ite shrine in the city of Samarra was bombed on February 22, sparking a wave of violence and poisoning the political atmosphere during the crucial negotiations. Hundreds have died since and more than 30,000 people have fled their homes as Shi'ite and Sunni militias seek to cleanse their neighbourhoods. Yacoubi is the spiritual guide for the Fadhila party, one of the smaller but still influential components of the dominant Islamist Alliance bloc. He is not part of the senior clerical council around Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf. Nonetheless, Shi'ite politicians said his comments reflected widespread disenchantment among them with the ambassador. "It's a very good statement," one senior official in the Alliance, not from Fadhila, said of Yacoubi's sermon. Khalilzad, who has been in Iraq 10 months, has been criticised by Shi'ite leaders, who openly resent his championing of efforts to tempt Sunnis away from armed revolt into a coalition government. Yacoubi said: "The American ambassador and the tyrants of the Arab states are giving political support to those parties who provide political cover for the terrorists."
SAMARRA BOMBING
Alliance leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim accused Khalilzad last month of provoking the Samarra bombing by making remarks critical of "sectarian" tendencies among the Shi'ite leadership. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has also criticised U.S. "interference" this week in Iraq's political process. Jaafari's nomination to a second term by the Alliance is a major sticking point in talks with Sunnis and ethnic Kurds on a government.
Shi'ite politicians say Khalilzad has delivered messages from U.S. President George W. Bush to both Hakim and Sistani in the past week urging them to drop Jaafari, whose nomination was secured with the support of Iranian-backed cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr. U.S. diplomats deny taking sides in the issue. Khalilzad is now planning talks with Iran, Washington's old enemy in the region, to try to ease the crisis in Iraq. The United States accuses Shi'ite Iran of fomenting violence. Politicians have been debating how to form a new government since parliamentary elections in December, but appear to have made little real progress. There is also haggling over a Sunni demand for a security veto and the issue of who gets what job remains wide open.

Britain's casualties of Iraq war total 6,700, MoD says

Almost 6,700 Britons have needed hospital treatment in Iraq since the invasion three years ago - almost as many as the total number of British troops still stationed there. About 4,000 were sufficiently injured or ill to be sent home to Britain. The figures include soldiers and civilians injured in accidents or taken ill, or who have suffered psychological problems, as well as those injured in fighting. They were posted on the Ministry of Defence website yesterday, on the day that MPs dispersed for their Easter break, after months of criticism directed at the Government for refusing to give details about the "forgotten" British casualties.

Implications of India-US defence pact

The recent US-India defence pact may have serious implications for the arms race and raise strategic questions regarding relations with China. China-India-Pakistan triangular relationship is a vital factor for South Asian peace. Bangladesh's internal security situation has become worse. The Islamic extremists are conducting repeated bomb raids. The government response to deal with them is inadequate so far. If India-China relationship deteriorates due to increasing US interest in Indian affairs, Bangladesh will be in a difficult situation as to whom to support -- India or China.

Muslims protest as Bush tours southern India
US President George W. Bush met farmers and weavers in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, as Muslim protesters clashed with police and brought the business centre to a standstill.


Teen Killed in Anti-Bush Protest in India

Anger against U.S. President George W. Bush swept through parts of India on Friday as protesters burned his effigy and carried posters of Osama bin Laden, and rioting demonstrators clashed with Hindus in a northern city, leaving at least one dead.


India, Pakistan got atomic arms "legitimately" sez Bolton
The U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations John Bolton said on Wednesday the way India and Pakistan had obtained nuclear arms was legitimate, in contrast to Iran which he accused of pursuing atomic weapons in violation of its international undertakings. While Iran is seeking to conceal development of nuclear weapons under the guise of a legitimate program to generate nuclear power, Bolton said, India and Pakistan "did it legitimately."


Spinning a web for India - Underneath fuzzy talk of shared values, President Bush's real concern is to hobble a potential rival

A world away from its self-declared international war on terror, Washington has spied greater and more potent threats on the horizon. India's nuclear programme - built in isolation, from scratch, after American-imposed sanctions in the 70s - is such a threat. Not only has a poverty-stricken country, without outside help, built a nuclear industry, but its scientific establishment has also mastered the technically difficult reprocessing cycle and achieved a series of unique breakthroughs in nuclear technology. India might one day be "free" to assemble as large an atomic arsenal as possible and, even more problematic for Washington, end up with a monopoly on an energy source of the future.

Thousands of Pakistanis Protest Bush Visit
Small groups of anti-U.S. demonstrators took to the streets in some Pakistani cities Friday, chanting "Death to America!" and burning U.S. flags to protest a visit by President Bush to meet with one of his key allies in the war on terror.
 
Signs Comment: SOTT notices that the story says "small groups of demonstrators" but the story is accompanied by a photo that shows probably THOUSANDS of demonstrators... what's up with that?

Three Killed at Indian Anti-Bush Protests

Anger at President Bush swept through parts of India on Friday as protesters burned his effigy and carried posters of Osama bin Laden. Three people were killed in clashes, and 18 were injured.


Bush and the bomb

Last-ditch nuclear talks between Iran and the European Union's big three did not go well yesterday, breaking up shortly after they began in Vienna. That was not surprising since there had been an impasse in negotiations for weeks now. But it was more than just an unfortunate coincidence that the session was held a day after George Bush, visiting New Delhi, struck a landmark deal allowing India to develop peaceful nuclear energy while staying outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), the world's most important legal barrier to the spread of nuclear weapons. This smacks of double standards that will make it hard to hold the line on this issue and gives some substance to the charge, voiced by an angry President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that opposition to Iran's nuclear ambitions - which he claims are peaceful - is politically motivated. Next week this potentially disastrous confrontation is likely to move to the UN security council.

Bush in India: Another covert deal, sans brouhaha

When President Bush announced on Friday that Americans would soon be eating India's famed mangoes, he failed to explain why.

Two standards question for Bush
In diplomacy, it is often hard to achieve tangible results, especially on a three-day visit. Therefore, President Bush's South Asia tour will be viewed as a success. India and the US reached a landmark deal on civilian nuclear cooperation. More than that, the agreement marked a new bond of trust. After mutual Cold War suspicions, the US now sees India as an important ally - a partner to spread shared values of prosperity, democracy and freedom.

Bush and Indian PM seal 'historic' nuclear deal
US President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sealed what they hailed as an "historic" nuclear deal, seen as the bedrock of a new strategic partnership.


Photos: Anti-Bush rallies in India
Tens of thousands of people across India have been protesting against US President George W Bush's visit.


The Charade of Non-Proliferation
The competition to dominate the global market for uranium-enrichment and reprocessing technology has intensified in the last few months, while countries such as Russia, France and the United States, the "nuclear weapons states" (NWS), (along with Great Britain and China), vie to supply Iran and India and other countries with "peaceful purposes" nuclear technology. But how to sell and export nuclear technology to produce energy for civilian use, when everybody knows such technology has important military applications? Could there be a fundamental conflict between the economic and political interests of exporting nations? Could there also be some hypocrisy and even some bad faith on the part of a few governments? Mind you, this is not a new problem.

India Deal Makes US a Nuclear Proliferator

Campaigners for a nuclear-free South Asia are aghast at the potential nightmare that lies ahead following the nuclear technology and fuel deal announced here this week by visiting United States President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. ''This deal may have further complicated an already difficult situation in South Asia which has two rival self-declared nuclear weapon states,'' said N.D. Jayaprakash, lead campaigner for the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), which counts among its ranks well-known scientists and intellectuals. ''What is sad is that nowhere in all this did the idea that nuclear weapons are not safe in anybody's hands come up, and now, far from the disarmament debate, the clamour by other countries that they too be allowed to possess nuclear weapons has grown louder,'' he added.

Bush nukes legal and ethical constraints - How does U.S. go after Iran after sweet deal with India, asks Haroon Siddiqui
Eye-Ran. That's what the Americans call Iran - pronounced Ee-Ra'an. This is a minor matter, compared to how the U.S. is bullying Iran over its nuclear program, even while rewarding India for committing worse transgressions of international nuclear rules. All nation-states operate in their own interests, of course. But American disregard for the law, and the moral and political inconsistency of its foreign policy, has hit a new low under George W. Bush.

Welcome to the United States of Duplicity
Bush's nuclear-summit with Prime Minister Singh was rehearsed long before he teetered off to India. That explains why the media was all atwitter over Bush's severing the last frail strands of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT); the press loves to see our Crawford-strongman rummaging through international agreements like a bull in a China shop.
Bush manages nuclear issues like a schoolboy handing out party-favors; rewarding India with one deal, offering a different one to Pakistan, and then a third for Iran. This is how Bush has expanded America's traditional double-standards into "triple standards"; a new nadir in foreign policy.


Shock and Awe; the Sequel
The Bush administration has unilaterally repealed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) by demanding that Iran cease all uranium enrichment. This action overturns the central principle of the treaty which provides states with the "inalienable right" (NPT phrase) to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Two years of intrusive inspections by the UN watchdog agency (IAEA) have never produced "any evidence of nuclear weapons programs" or any diversion of nuclear material. Nevertheless, the US insists that Iran be deprived of the same right that is afforded to every other signatory of the NPT. What gives Washington the right to rescind an internationally-recognized treaty?

Hypocrite and Liar Bush Lauds Iraqis, Heads to South Asia
President Bush praised Iraqis' "defiance of the terrorists and the killers" before embarking Tuesday on a ties-strengthening visit to South Asia — the presumed hiding place of Osama bin Laden and a part of the world where the war on terror is often close at hand.

U.S., India Seal Nuclear Deal

President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh struck what both leaders called an historic agreement Thursday to provide U.S. nuclear power assistance to India in exchange for new inspections of India's civilian nuclear facilities.


Dr Strangedeal - Congress should veto George Bush's nuclear agreement with India
TEN years from now, will George Bush's determination to rewrite nuclear rules for preventing the bomb's spread be judged to have been courageously right or dangerously wrong? In striking his deal with India, allowing it to import nuclear fuel and technology despite its weapons-building, Mr Bush has not for the first time seemed readier to favour a friend than to stick to a principle. He is gambling that the future benefits of accepting a rising India in all but name as a member of the nuclear club will outweigh the shock to the global anti-proliferation regime, already under severe strain from the nuclear dealings of North Korea and Iran. His gamble is a dangerous one. Meanwhile, in his rush to accommodate India, Mr Bush is missing a chance to win wider nuclear restraint in one of the world's tougher neighbourhoods.

Bush Reignites the Arms Race

President Bush's dangerous deal to deliver nuclear technology to India makes nuclear war all the more likely.

N-bomb: 'Saudi secretly working with Pak experts'

Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, the German magazine Cicero reports in its latest edition, citing western security sources


Pakistan supplied American missiles to Taliban
US AND Nato forces are following up reports that the Taliban has received vital component parts for American shoulder-fired Stinger missiles from Pakistani officials enabling them to be used against helicopters in Afghanistan.
It is claimed that the missiles - originally supplied to the Afghan Mujaheddin by the US during the war against the Russians - have been fitted with new battery packs allegedly provided by the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, in the last four months.


Pakistani Taliban take control of unruly tribal belt
A powerful new militia dubbed "the Pakistani Taliban" has effectively seized control of swaths of the country's northern tribal areas in recent months, triggering alarm in Islamabad and marking a big setback in America's "war on terror".

Twenty-five killed as rival factions clash in Pakistan
Gunmen loyal to rival pro-Taliban clerics fought street battles in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, leaving at least 25 people dead.

The clashes erupted late Monday after supporters of a Pakistani preacher tried to knock down a house which belonged to an Afghan Islamic leader's faction, a tribal areas spokesman told AFP. The fighting with automatic weapons near the remote town of Bara in Khyber district follows about a year of tensions during which the two mullahs have used illegal private FM radio stations to criticise each other.


Pakistan Bets On Barbar Cruise Missile

Washington - Pakistan is developing its Barbar cruise missile into a cheap, reliable, strategic nuclear delivery vehicle, StrategyPage.com reported Saturday. StrategyPage.com noted that Islamabad has successfully conducted a second test of the Barbur cruise missile.

Secessionists threaten Venezuela's unity
"It's new evidence for a destabilization plan that North American imperialism, through the fascist government of George W. Bush, is carrying out in our country to torpedo and sabotage the revolutionary process." Oscar Figuera, general secretary of the Venezuelan Communist Party and a National Assembly delegate, was referring to a new secessionist movement in Zulia, the northwestern Venezuelan state where 40 percent of the nation's oil reserves are located.

Chavez blasts Bush as "donkey" and "drunkard"

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday lobbed a litany of insults at U.S. President George W. Bush ranging from "donkey" to "drunkard" in response to a White House report branding the left-wing leader a demagogue.
Chavez is one of Bush's fiercest critics and has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of seeking to oust him from the presidency of Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter and a supplier of around 15 percent of U.S. crude imports. "You are a donkey, Mr. Bush," said Chavez, speaking in English on his weekly Sunday broadcast. "You're an alcoholic Mr. Danger, or rather, you're a drunkard," Chavez said, referring to Bush by a nickname he frequently uses to describe the U.S. president.

Chavez pours oil on troubled waters - to many Americans actions speak louder than words.

There is little love lost between the presidents of the United States and Venezuela. Hugo Chavez calls George W Bush a terrorist - the US president accuses him of being a left-wing dictator. But they have one thing in common: oil. And now Hugo Chavez has come up with a way of using his oil to spread his revolution. He is offering poor Americans hundreds of thousands of gallons of cut price fuel to help them heat their homes - Venezuela's response, he says, to the events of Hurricane Katrina. So how is the US responding to this offer of help from a country viewed as a threat by President Bush?

Chavez Again Talks of a U.S. Invasion
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned that if U.S. troops were to invade any Latin American country, "revolutionaries" from across the region would join forces to battle the Americans.
Chavez's remark in a speech Monday night confirmed what many in Venezuela have long presumed: that his government would go to the aid of a close ally like Cuba in the hypothetical scenario of the U.S. sending troops.

Chavez Lashes Out at Free-Trade Pacts
Venezuela agreed Monday to sell fuel under preferential terms to an El Salvador association created by a group of leftist mayors.
Details of the amount of fuel that will be sold to the Intermunicipal Energy Association for El Salvador were not immediately available but shipments were to begin "as soon as possible," said Violeta Menjivar, mayor-elect of San Salvador.

Venezuela Wants Terrorist out of US

Caracas, Venezuela ratified this Monday its deportation demand from the US of Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind of the mid-air explosion of a Cubana airplane with 73 passengers in 1976.

Deputies' Questions Unsettle University - 'Chilling effect' is feared after a Pomona College professor is queried on his links to Venezuela.
A Pomona College professor of Latin American history said Friday that he was questioned about his Venezuela connections by two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies working for a federal task force and called the quizzing an intrusion on his academic freedom. The college's president weighed in as well, saying he feared the "chilling effect" such visits could have on academia.

US Navy prepares aircraft carrier strike group for "major training exercise"
The (US) Navy will send an aircraft carrier strike group, with four ships, a 60-plane air wing and 6,500 sailors, to Caribbean and South American waters for a major training exercise, it was announced Monday. Some defense analysts suggested that the unusual two-month-long deployment, set to begin in early April, could be interpreted as a show of force by anti-American governments in Venezuela and Cuba. The mission was sought by the US Southern Command, which has its headquarters in Miami and is responsible for all military activities in Latin America south of Mexico.

Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly and will soon meet with Venezuelan President himself Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11. Rodriguez was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the WTC, and was responsible for all stairwells within the tower. Rodriguez represented family members of 9/11 victims and testified to the 9/11 Commission that bombs were in the north tower but his statements were completely omitted from the official record.


Latin America Unchained

For decades the International Monetary Fund (IMF) served as one of the key pillars of the "Washington Consensus." Dominated by the White House, the Fund allowed successive administrations to control the economic policy of poorer countries in this hemisphere and beyond. Those nations wishing to buck a U.S. agenda of corporate globalization risked having their access to international loans cut off. The brutish IMF not only handled its own funds but also played gatekeeper for money from other creditors, such as the regional development banks. This power made the institution as hated throughout the global South as it was celebrated inside the Beltway.

Look at the latins: In resisting the abuse of US power the Middle East has a lot to learn from Latin America

Though one might hesitate to use such unfashionable terms in polite society, it remains the case that we are living in the age not only of US imperialism but of resistance to it. In The Great Transformation, a seminal work on 19th century imperialism, political economist Karl Polanyi described how the expansion of the market by imperial powers generated a "countermovement" -- or resistance. We are witnessing a modern variant of this, with the epicentre of the countermovement residing in the Middle East, above all in resistance to US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the perennial oppression of the Palestinians by US's client, Israel -- the victory of Hamas can be seen as part of this countermovement -- and, more recently, to threats against Iran.

After kicking out Cubans, U.S.-owned hotel ordered closed by Mexico City officials
City officials ordered the closure of a major U.S.-owned hotel Tuesday in Mexico City, weeks after it became the center of a diplomatic flap when U.S. Treasury Department officials ordered it to expel a delegation of Cuban officials.


Russian state-controlled TV revives allegation of secret CIA prison in Ukraine

Russian state television revived an allegation that Ukraine hosted a secret CIA prison for terrorist suspects, a move Kiev allegedly made to prove its loyalty to the United States.
The alleged prison was located in a former nuclear weapons storage base in a military garrison in the Kiev region, an investigative reporter for Rossiya television said in a broadcast late Sunday. He said the prisoners were probably transferred to Ukraine from Poland and Romania. "In the opinion of many foreign experts, Ukraine served as a buffer," the reporter, Arkady Mamontov, said. "When information about the location of secret prisons on the territory of East European states, first of all Poland, came out and the scandal started, they remembered the Ukrainian variant."

US Want Full Access to Bulgarian Military Bases
The United States demand that Bulgaria grants them unlimited access to Bulgaria's military bases and equipment, and Bulgaria does not agree.
Negotiations concerning US military bases here still haven't been concluded, Angel Naydenov, head of the Parliamentary Defence Committee explained for private Nova television. Three negotiation stages have been so far completed since October 2005, and Bulgaria is currently very close to the finish, he said.

Signs Comment: "Give us access to all of your military bases or we will unleash our band of "mulsim terrorists" to prove that you support terrorism, after which we will bomb the crap out of your country."

The failure of Hugo-bashing

IT WAS YET ANOTHER public relations coup for Venezuela: Vila Isabel, the samba club sponsored mainly by the Venezuelan government, won the parade competition in Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval last week. A float with a giant likeness of Simon Bolivar, combined with thousands of ornately costumed participants parading down the avenue, trumpeted the winning theme: Latin American unity.

U.S. Meddling in Peruvian Presidential Race?

Something smells funny about the recent denunciation of maverick Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala for alleged human rights violations. Before the accusations, Humala was riding high as the leading candidate in Peru's presidential elections. Investigations illustrate that Humala's accusers are subsidized by the US Government funded Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Washington may be interfering in this election to protect its own interests.

US to vote against new UN human rights council: report

The United States will call for a vote in the UN General Assembly on a proposed new Human Rights Council, but will then vote against the measure, The New York Times reported.
The 191-member assembly has been unable to agree on a replacement for the current UN Human Rights Commission, which is criticised for including among its 53 members notorious human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe. The United States, however, is opposed to a draft proposal for a council with 47 members that would be elected by absolute majority of the General Assembly, insisting instead on a smaller body whose members would be elected by a two-thirds majority.

US fails to quash new UN rights body
THE United Nations has voted overwhelmingly to establish a new body to promote human rights, despite strong opposition from the US. Australia was one of the 170 countries that supported the new body, the Human Rights Council, to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission. The council will meet regularly through the year, including special sessions to deal with a crisis. The old commission met only a few weeks a year.

On Australia Visit, Rice Critical of China's Military Expansion
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the foreign minister of Australia struck markedly different tones Thursday over the rising power of China, with Ms. Rice criticizing its military expansion and the Australian warning against trying to "contain" Chinese ambitions.


Rice's Warning Call To Moscow

The Secretary of State does some long distance Iran diplomacy from the road
As UN Security Council members in New York continued to try to hash out an agreement on how best to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added her own personal touch to the diplomatic wrangling half a world away. Rice interrupted her travels Wednesday morning through Indonesia and Australia to place a call to her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow. A State Department official says they discussed how best to take "firm, meaningful action" to rein in Iran, which insists it has the right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful purposes. But another knowledgeable US official goes further, asserting that Rice called Lavrov to voice concern about his government's continued opposition to a joint US-European plan to have the Security Council call on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities. The official said that Rice warned Lavrov that Russia was becoming isolated from the rest of the Security Council.

I'm living proof of democracy in action - Rice
LIFE may be tough for the world's most powerful woman but Condoleezza Rice remembers when life was even harder - when her family suffered the indignity of racial segregation in America's deep south. "My family couldn't go to a restaurant, or stay in a hotel, when I was segregated at school - I didn't have a white classmate until we moved to Denver when I was in 10th grade."

Signs Comment: Rice's 'heartfelt' stories of racism in the deep south of America simply serve to highlight her hypocrisy and inhumanity in pursuing the racist policies of the Bush government towards the Iraqi people and the Arab world in general.

Protesters Call Rice "war criminal"

To Australian protesters' cries of "war criminal" and "murderer," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her government's role in Iraq on Thursday and said patience and sacrifice were needed to finish the job.
Speaking to students at the University of Sydney's Conservatorium of Music, Rice said she understood why people found it hard to be positive about Iraq when all they saw on their television screens was violence.
"I am confident that the Iraqis will triumph, that we will win in Iraq but we must be patient with these people," said Rice, who repeatedly thanked Australia for being among the first allies to send troops to Iraq. There has been a new wave of sectarian killings in Iraq since the February 22 bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine, raising concern the country is edging closer to civil war.


Bush Restates Terror Strategy in New Document
President Bush plans to issue a new national security strategy today reaffirming his doctrine of preemptive war against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, despite the troubled experience in Iraq.

Updated Strategy Backs Iraq Strike and Cites Iran Peril

An updated version of the Bush administration's national security strategy, the first in more than three years, gives no ground on the decision to order a pre-emptive attack on Iraq in 2003, and identifies Iran as the country likely to present the single greatest future challenge to the United States.


Bush's lies

Andrew Sullivan's list of "what I got wrong about the war" is most notable, perhaps, for what he omits.Evidently, Sullivan still has no regrets about having labeled the left-wing critics who questioned Bush's invasion plans and their rationale -- you know, the people who it turned out were right -- as a treasonous "fifth column".

Russia warns US on Caspian buildup
Russia cautioned the United States on Tuesday against raising its military presence in the strategic Caspian sea region bordering Iran, saying buildup of forces from "outside" would destabilize the region, Itar-Tass news agency said.
Russia "is opposed to the presence of third-party military forces on the Caspian," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the start of a meeting among representatives of the five countries that border the sea: Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.


No Longer the "Lone" Superpower - Coming to Terms with China
I recall forty years ago, when I was a new professor working in the field of Chinese and Japanese international relations, that Edwin O. Reischauer once commented, "The great payoff from our victory of 1945 was a permanently disarmed Japan." Born in Japan and a Japanese historian at Harvard, Reischauer served as American ambassador to Tokyo in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Strange to say, since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and particularly under the administration of George W. Bush, the United States has been doing everything in its power to encourage and even accelerate Japanese rearmament.

What Did You See at the War, Jimmy?

"I don't harbor any ill feelings toward the Marine Corps. I learned valuable, intangible traits when I was in there-self-confidence, self-discipline. But in the back of my mind is that the reason they taught me these intangible traits was to turn me into a killer. And they succeeded."

The central battlefield in the global resource war
It's impossible to understand the goals of the Bush administration without looking at a map. The entire Middle East and Central Asia is referred to in military parlance as CENTCOM; the central battlefield in the global resource war. This region extends from Sudan in the south to Kazakhstan to the north; from Egypt in the west to Pakistan in the east. This is where the vast majority of the world's remaining resources lie and it will continue to be the primary area of focus for American foreign policy throughout the century.

N. Korea Suggests It Can Strike U.S. First

North Korea suggested Tuesday it had the ability to launch a pre- emptive attack on the United States, according to the North's official news agency. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the North had built atomic weapons to counter the U.S. nuclear threat.

State Dept. Warns Americans Visiting Italy
The State Department warned Americans on Wednesday to take precautions this spring when traveling in Italy, saying next month's parliamentary elections are likely to bring demonstrations in parts of the country. "Demonstrations may be large, but even peaceful demonstrations have the potential to escalate into violence," the announcement said. The department said Americans should avoid areas where crowds are expected to gather, take common sense precautions and closely follow media reports. The U.S. considers Italy to be under a heightened threat by al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists for its participation in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Signs Comment: In all sincerity, the State Department was wise to issue this warning about Americans traveling in Italy. After all, Americans these days seem to have absolutely no idea of the magnitude and scope of protests in other countries, and so they might be shocked if they were to see people so openly excercising their democratic rights. Then again, perhaps the State Department knows something we don't about Italy's upcoming elections...

American War Crimes
From my point of view, the American State has committed innumerable and grave war crimes by starting and prosecuting the Iraq War. I do not refer to crimes defined by international law or by past war crimes tribunals. I am no lawyer and neither are most Americans, but we understand what many crimes are. For my purposes here, it does not help us understand American war crimes in Iraq to subject our State's deeds in that country to an abstruse tangle of international code and interpretation. It does help us to look at what has happened from a simple commonsense point of view.

The War Lovers

The war lovers I have known in real wars have usually been harmless, except to themselves. They were attracted to Vietnam and Cambodia, where drugs were plentiful. Bosnia, with its roulette of death, was another favourite. A few would say they were there "to tell the world"; the honest ones would say they loved it. "War is fun!" one of them had scratched on his arm. He stood on a landmine.

Is War the Real National Pastime?

In his provocative documentary "Why We Fight", director Eugene Jarecki asks whether Washington's foreign policy is overly preoccupied with the idea of military supremacy, and if the military has become too important in U.S. life.

US says Nigeria must answer on missing Taylor

Nigeria faces "consequences" for the disappearance of exiled former Liberian leader Charles Taylor if he is not handed over to stand trial on war crimes charges, the United States said on Tuesday.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan would not say whether President George W. Bush would still meet with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as scheduled on Wednesday. "Right now we are looking for answers from the Nigerian government about the whereabouts of Charles Taylor," McClellan said.

Rice Gets the Cold Shoulder in Britain
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that ''by all means'' anyone who opposes U.S. foreign policy or her weekend visit to Britain should speak their mind. Demonstrators organized marches to call America's top diplomat a war criminal and human rights abuser as she joined British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on a tour of his adopted northern England working-class home. "People have the right to protest, that's what democracy is all about," Rice told reporters at a British aerospace plant. "I would say to those who wish to protest, by all means." Rice said she was not surprised by the depth of opposition in Britain, President Bush's strongest ally in Iraq, to the war and other American policies. "I've seen it in every city I've visited in the United States," Rice said. "People have strong views." Rice also said the United States was ready to send humanitarian assistance to Iran following deadly earthquakes there on Friday, but she made it clear there would be no accompanying U.S. diplomatic overture to Tehran. Straw, Rice's host for her two-day visit, said Britain would send a condolence letter to the Tehran government. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran. At a high school visited by Rice and Straw, about 200 protesters stood across the street with banners and signs, chanting "Condi Rice Go Home!" One demonstrator held a yellow hand-lettered sign that read "How Many Lives Per Gallon?"

War Whore Rice faces anti-war protests in UK

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is touring England's northwest amid high security and protests by opponents of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Anti-war demonstrations led to the cancellation of a planned visit Friday to a mosque in UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's constituency of Blackburn.

War Whore Rice admits "thousands" of errors in Iraq
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted on Friday the United States had probably made thousands of errors in Iraq but defended the overall strategy of removing Saddam Hussein.

Signs Comment: The earthquake in Iran killed, according to the most recent reports, 66 people. How many people will die when the Bush criminals begin their war on Iran? Can you say H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y?

US's Rice: US Might Back Israeli Border Plans -BBC
The U.S. may be open to backing Israel's Kadima party in plans to draw the country's borders without Palestinian input, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying on its Web site Thursday. The BBC said Rice made the statements in speaking to reporters traveling with her to Berlin for talks about Iran's nuclear development program. The BBC added that Rice said a negotiated deal with the Palestinians was preferable, but seemed unlikely after the militant group Hamas won Palestinian elections.

Signs Comment: Of course, the fact that Rice's support for the Israeli plan to declare it's borders with Palestine is support for the illegal annexation of Palestinian land appears to be of no consequence to war-whore Condi.




U.S. Domestic Policies And Creeping Totalitarianism


Minority firms getting few Katrina contracts
 Minority-owned businesses say they're paying the price for the decision by Congress and the Bush administration to waive certain rules for Hurricane Katrina recovery contracts.


Bush is still lying about Katrina

Bush tells ABC News, in an interview to be broadcast on World News Tonight, Nightline and Good Morning America, that the problem with Hurricane Katrina was that the White House didn't have enough "situational awareness" of what was happening on the ground in New Orleans:

Video Shows Bush Warned Before Katrina Hit
On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's fateful landfall, President Bush was confident. His homeland security chief appeared relaxed. And warnings of the coming destruction - breached or overrun levees, deaths at the New Orleans Superdome and overwhelming needs for post-storm rescues - were delivered in dramatic terms to all involved. All of it was captured on videotape.


Video shows Bush Katrina warning

I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees George W Bush, speaking after the disaster. Video showing President George W Bush being warned on the eve of Hurricane Katrina that the storm could breach New Orleans' flood defences has emerged.  The footage, obtained by the Associated Press, also shows Mr Bush being told of the risk to evacuees in the Superdome. It appears to contradict Mr Bush's statement four days after Katrina hit, when he said: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Critics say more could have been done sooner to evacuate the city.

ICH Exclusive: Video shows Bush, Chertoff warned before Katrina:

Watch as President Bush is briefed on the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, in this video obtained exclusively by The Associated Press. Hear what aides told him just before the storm hit the Gulf Coast.

Bush 'was warned about impact of Katrina'

President George W Bush was warned a day before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could swamp New Orleans, it was claimed last night.
Leaked video footage and transcripts of top-level briefings in the six days before the storm showed federal officials telling Mr Bush the storm could breach levees and overwhelm rescuers.

Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe

Lawmakers from both parties said Thursday a newly disclosed videotape of a pre-Katrina briefing for
President Bush and top administration officials raises new questions about government response to the storm that flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,300 people. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the video "makes it perfectly clear once again that this disaster was not out of the blue or unforeseeable. It was not only predictable, it was actually predicted. That's what made the failures in response - at the local, state and federal level - all the more outrageous."


Presidential Katrina briefing reveals levee sabotage
The Presidential Katrina briefing video leaked to Associated Press and now making the rounds hides the truth about what happened to New Orleans' levees in plain sight. The National Weather Center's Max Mayfield tell George W. Bush and Michael Brown in the video "I don't think anyone can tell you with any certainty right now that the levees will be topped, but that is a certain concern " So Bush was right when he said "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." The fear was always that a large storm surge could possibly go over the top of the levees on Lake Ponchartrain and fill the city up with water. No one (outside the black-ops community) expected that in the midst of a storm surge three feet beneath the levee tops, virtually every canal wall inside the city would crumble -- "breached" by obvious use of explosives.

Katrina: Why aren't we talking about Criminal Negligence?

"I have kind a sinking feeling in my gut right now... You know, from this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware." New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. It is clear now that Michael Chertoff and George Bush can be directly implicated in the deaths of the 1,300 Americans who died in Hurricane Katrina. The newly released video from the Associated Press proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they were adequately warned of the gravity of the approaching storm and the risks it posed to people of New Orleans. The only question now is whether the charges should be criminal negligence or manslaughter. We leave that to the attorneys.

New Orleans hospital operator has checkered past

The nation's second-largest health care company -- besieged for years by allegations of Medicare fraud and overbilling taxpayers -- now finds itself as the operator of a New Orleans hospital where some doctors and staff are under investigation for deliberately killing patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti is investigating what he calls "credible" allegations that patients at Memorial Medical Center were euthanized in the frantic days following the storm. Foti has told CNN he has "a very good case."

Bush criticizes Congress over New Orleans levees
President George W. Bush accused Congress on Wednesday of shortchanging New Orleans of about $1.5 billion in funds to rebuild levees that were breached by flood waters when Hurricane Katrina struck. "Congress heard our message about improving the levees but they shortchanged the process by about $1.5 billion dollars," Bush said in a rare attack on members of his own party as he toured the devastated city.

Signs Comment: Nice effort by Bush to pass the buck. Nothing is being said, however, about how Bush and his cabinet fiddled (or player guitar) will New Orleans was drowning.

Trailers, Vital After Storm, Now Pose Risks

In its rush to provide shelter for victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has created a pressing new Gulf Coast hazard: nearly 90,000 lightweight trailers in an area prone to flooding, tornadoes and, of course, hurricanes.


Levees may not protect all New Orleans: officials
Mayor Ray Nagin said on Thursday he is confident that $770 million of levee repairs will protect most of New Orleans this hurricane season, but officials warned another Katrina-strength storm could swamp low-lying areas again.

New Orleans to be emptied for next storm: officials
Everyone in New Orleans must evacuate the low-lying city the next time a hurricane threatens and no shelters will be offered for those who stay, officials said on Tuesday. Hoping to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when thousands struggled to survive after ignoring evacuation orders, they said planes, trains and buses would be used to move people out and the Superdome football stadium would not be open for refuge.

Signs Comment: Evacuating New Orleans will depend upon the cooperation of FEMA and Bush administration, and we all saw just how "cooperative" they were last time around. Then again, if Barbara Bush has anything to say about it, there's no way her son will allow any more of "those people" into her state.

New Orleans to Sell Flooded Buses on EBay
Starved for cash, the New Orleans school district is taking a long shot and hoping to sell its flooded, unsalvageable school buses on eBay. Some submerged to their roofs in the black flood waters, the yellow school buses were widely photographed in the days after Hurricane Katrina and have become an icon of the city's devastated school system.

Signs Comment: "It's an example of how bad the situation is that we would have to come up with this idea." Apparently so. It seems the federal government is still leaving New Orleans out in the cold.

New Orleans Health Care Still in Shambles
The city of New Orleans has only 456 staffed hospital beds, compared with 2,269 before the city was struck by Hurricane Katrina, according to government auditors who say rebuilding the health care system will be vital for bringing people back.
While emergency care is available, auditors noted that patients at two hospitals waited up to two hours to be unloaded from ambulances. They also found patients being kept and treated in the emergency room because beds weren't available elsewhere.


Katrina Evacuees Wear Out Stay in Houston
Seven months after taking in about 200,000 Louisiana residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, Houstonians aren't feeling so hospitable anymore.
Many people in the nation's fourth-largest city complain that the influx has led to more murders and gang violence, long lines at health clinics and bus stops, and fights and greater overcrowding in the schools. Some of those claims are debatable, but the sentiment is real. "We still feel sorry for them. We still want to help them, but it's to the point where enough is enough," said Torah Whitaker, 25, of Missouri City, a Houston suburb.

By E&P Staff
September 05, 2005 7:25 PM ET updated 8:00 PM
NEW YORK - Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

The former First Lady's remarks were aired this evening on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" program.

She was part of a group in Houston today at the Astrodome that included her husband and former President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son, the current president, to head fundraising efforts for the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were also present.

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Signs Comment: It seems old Babs has let the cat out of the bag. All the talk of the Bush government letting the poor people of New Orleans rot both before and after Katrina struck doesn't seem like a "conspiracy theory" anymore, does it?

'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'
They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of veterans of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the third anniversary of the invasion this month, a group of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

New Orleans Officers Indicted in Beating
Two former New Orleans police officers who were caught on videotape beating a retired teacher were indicted on felony charges that could send them to prison for years.
The officers - Robert Evangelist and Lance Schilling - were fired after the Oct. 8 beating of Robert Davis, 64, was captured on video by an Associated Press Television News crew covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Evangelist, 36, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of false imprisonment while armed with a dangerous weapon and second-degree battery. Schilling, 29, could spend five years behind bars if convicted of second-degree battery.


Rolling on the River: It will be 10 more years before New Orleans is safe
I'm back from my incredible journey through the bayous of Louisiana with the American Indian Movement's Sacred Run. We did a lot of walking, a lot of running and a lot of roofing. Roofing? Yep. There are still thousands of soggy roofs in the Mississippi delta area. New Orleans' Ninth Ward alone is a roofer's dream. This area is the only place I know where the phrase "I'm going to give you shingles" causes people's faces to light up.
Today our intrepid little band of walkers and runners set off from the Superdome, heading east toward Poplarville, MS via New Orleans' tragic Ninth Ward. Me and my son Joe had driven through the Ninth Ward yesterday and we knew what they would see. Our walkers will be trudging through acre after acre, block after block and mile after mile of "abandoned" homes. There are NO people there. It looks like a ghost town.

Bush Says He Still Supports Ports Deal
President Bush said Tuesday he remains supportive of a United Arab Emirates-based company's takeover of some U.S. port operations, even though a new, more intensive investigation of the deal's potential security risks has yet to begin. Bush is the final arbiter of that second review. Yet, he said after an Oval Office meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that "my position hasn't changed" on support for transferring control of management of some major U.S. port facilities from a British company to Dubai-owned DP World.

Port Deal Backstory: UAE gave $1 million to Bush library

A sheik from the United Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station. The UAE owns Dubai Port Co., which is taking operations from London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which operates six U.S. ports. A political uproar has ensued over the deal, which the White House approved without congressional oversight.

Ports: All 'Bout a Dealer Named Bout

This is a dream setup for any arms or dope dealer, and that's exactly what the United Arab Emirates is all about. The ties between its top officials and royal family with the Taliban and Al Qaeda go back at least a decade.

Will Americans Avoid Dubai Port Blunder?

In this op-ed article from L'Orient Le Jour, Lebanese political analyst Christian Melville explains why Americans are so rabidly against a deal involving America's ports and an Arab port operator, and warns of the consequences for the U.S. and its 'allies' if the deal doesn't go through.

Top Bush Aides have Ties to Arab Port Firm

The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.
One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port. Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet. The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.


British court ruling due over controversial ports deal
A crunch ruling from London's High Court is expected on whether to allow a takeover bid for British ports and ferries operator P&O by Dubai Ports World.


US ports deal review to widen probes: NY Times
The deeper review promised by the Bush administration of a Dubai company's plan to take over some terminal operations at U.S. ports will include inspections at the ports, employee background checks and an examination of the United Arab Emirates' terrorism-fighting efforts, The New York Times reported on Saturday.


By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily
27 Feb 06
Investors from the United Arab Emirates helped fund the $23 million Neil Bush raised for Ignite!, the learning systems company that holds lucrative No Child Left Behind Act contracts in Florida and Texas. The "Cow" is an Ignite! portable computer designed to work in a classroom, providing interactive instruction aimed at improving students' scores on standardized tests. If you loved Billy Carter and "Billy Beer," you're certain to love Neil Bush and the "Ignite! Cow."

Is Carlyle Group at heart of Dubai Ports World deal?

What does Dubai Ports World have in common with CSX, Treasury Secretary John Snow, and the Bush Family? The Carlyle Group is the answer currently gaining ground on the Internet. What once seemed the propaganda ramblings of none other than "Fahrenheit 911's" Michael Moore may end up becoming the subject of the Senate's upcoming investigation into what Washington insiders are beginning to call the "Dubai Debacle." As reported in the Guardian as early as 2001, Bush '41 and '43 have been connected to the Carlyle Group in various ways resulting in substantial compensation to the Bush family from Carlyle Group investments.

The Israeli, Dubai, Chertoff connection -- its just the tip of the Russian-Israeli mafia and "Al Qaeda" iceberg

Michael Brown, the former head of FEMA, deserves credit for blowing the whistle on the "agenda" of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. For years, a handful of prosecutors, FBI agents, and investigative journalists have stressed the connections between Russian-Israeli mafia tycoons, weapons and diamond smugglers, and terrorist networks associated with "Al Qaeda" and affiliated organizations. Yet, it is the much-maligned Brown, a one-time GOP operative and "golden boy," who has taken the initiative to call for Chertoff's firing and a complete overhaul of the Homeland Security Department. Even in these strange times, this is an amazing turn of events and begs the question of what Brown knows about Chertoff and his connections to Dubai and covering up terrorist investigations.

Bye-Bye Dubai?
In what could be a last-ditch effort to salvage its deal to operate East and Gulf Coast ports in the U.S., DP World told Congress that it would agree to transfer control to a "U.S. entity," which could simply mean a subsidiary of the Dubai operation.


Arab ally senses Bush no longer has control
The decision by the United Arab Emirates on Thursday to order state-controlled Dubai Ports World to end its control over US port facilities marks the lowest point yet in the relationship between President George W. Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress. Mr Bush had warned repeatedly that blocking the deal would send a dangerously discriminatory message to the world. He threatened repeatedly to veto any congressional legislation. But with his public approval ratings at record lows and his Republican party abandoning him, one of the US's closest allies in the Arab world concluded that he was no longer in control in Washington.

Signs Comment: The strange thing is that Americans have flooded their representatives with calls and letters about a great many issues in the past, and the reps barely even noticed. This time, they are claiming that they are doing the will of the people in fighting against the ports deal. So, the question is, why have they started to "listen" now? And is Bush REALLY so weak? After all, he just got the Patriot Act renewed despite widespread opposition amongst the American people...

U.S. House panel votes to block Dubai ports deal
A House of Representatives committee on Wednesday voted to block the Bush administration's plan for allowing a Dubai company to manage six U.S. ports.
By a vote of 62-2, the House Appropriations Committee approved the amendment to stop the state-owned United Arab Emirates company Dubai Ports World from managing terminals at the American ports. The legislation, which could be voted on by the full House next week, was attached to an emergency spending bill providing more funds for the war in Iraq and rebuilding southern states hit last year by hurricanes.


Dubai threat to hit back
Dubai is threatening retaliation against American strategic and commercial interests if Washington blocks its $6.8 billion takeover of operations at several U.S. ports. As the House Appropriations Committee yesterday marked up legislation to kill Dubai Ports World's acquisition of Britain's Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O), the emirate let it be known that it is preparing to hit back hard if necessary. A source close to the deal said members of Dubai's royal family are furious at the hostility both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have shown toward the deal.

Report suggests Al Qaeda has infiltrated the United Arab Emirates government, as early as 2002
New evidence has emerged that key agencies of the United Arab Emirates may have been infiltrated by al-Qaeda. In May or June of 2002, al Qaeda officials wrote a letter to the UAE government claiming the emirates were "well aware" of the infiltration. The letter, translated by the United States Government, is publicly available on the website of the West Point Combating Terrorism Center. ... The existence of the al-Qaeda letter – known officially as AFGP-2002-603856 – was first reported in a little noticed column by Scripps Howard. So there you have it. Bush did no review whatsoever for the Dubai ports deal, just like he did no review in picking Harriet Miers for the support court, did no review in picking whats-his-name for the Homeland Security job (remember, Bernie Kerik), just like he does everything. Bush thinks he knows better than the rest of us, than his own staff, than the experts, so he just plods ahead and screws everything up. Exept now his screw ups are literally risking our lives. How much longer can this presidency be allowed to continue?

Second UAE Company Confirms U.S. Probe
A second United Arab Emirates company, Dubai International Capital LLC, confirmed Thursday that the U.S. has launched a national security investigation into one of its acquisitions.


How Bush has stayed away from soldiers' funerals
More than 2,290 US troops have been killed in Iraq. President George Bush has attended none of the funerals - for which he is often criticised by the families of those who have died.

SYRIANA AND THE SHIFTING WINDS: Bush, lies & videotape

When cornered, a stupid leader retreats into platitudes and make believe. He becomes easy to mock. At this moment in history, the whole world is laughing at Bush, but it's no longer so funny. Rage, pain, explosions and fire are melting cities, killing children. No-one knows who's doing what to whom anymore, or why. The lingua franca of today's leadership is The Lie. Brief a President about an imminent hurricane, and he will later say he was never warned. Broadcast the tape of the briefing and his minders will dispute its relevance. In the age of knowledge, the king is ignorant.

Bush is done for - You don't recover from 34%.
It's over. Bush's house of cards has just come crumbling down. We suspected it might just be a matter of time, but now it's officially over!
No one recovers from a 34% approval rating. I'll tell you why -- because even the most inept politician realizes you run away from a 34, not towards it. The entire United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, have no choice but to run from this President -- as fast as they possibly can (ironically, some of the Democrats will be the slowest to leave this sinking ship -- and Lieberman will be the very last one on board).

 
Signs Comment: Oh, Cenk! Don't you get it? It's NEVER over for a dictator! Not until they put his cold, dead body in the ground.

By Nat Parry
Consortium News
February 23, 2006
Not that George W. Bush needs much encouragement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a new target for the administration's domestic operations -- Fifth Columnists, supposedly disloyal Americans who sympathize and collaborate with the enemy.

"The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements," Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6.

GOP Unease Spreads to Security Issues
The first heading on the issues page of Rep. Mark Foley's Web site brags that he is "one of President Bush's strongest supporters in Congress." The Florida Republican voted for the president's legislation 90 percent of the time, according to the Web site, "the 3rd highest ranking among the Florida delegation." Now the Florida delegation's third-strongest Bush supporter is on the front lines of the Republican revolt against the president on the deal to turn over key operations at six U.S. ports to a United Arab Emirates company. Republicans who once marched in lock step behind their president on national security are increasingly willing to challenge him in an area considered his political strength.

Republicans are openly distancing themselves from Bush
This is great news. They're starting to fall apart. Mostly because of the bad poll numbers for Bush, which are in turn due to George Bush simply not being up to the job as president AND the public now fully realizing that fact. I've said before that George Bush didn't win either presidential election, in 2000 or 2004. And no, I'm not talking about his stealing the election. I'm talking about the fact that far from receiving a mandate, most Americans didn't vote FOR Bush, they voted, rather, against Gore (to some degree) and against Kerry (to a large degree).
 
Signs Comment: John in DC is dreaming if he thinks there is any chance of getting anyone in Congress who can do anything. He didn't even really get the fact that Bush was not elected not because anyone was voting against Gore or Kerry, but rather because it's not who votes, it's who counts the votes that decides who gets elected.

One third US troops back from Iraq need mental help: study
One third of US troops returning from Iraq have needed at least one mental health consultation and one in five have been diagnosed with combat-induced psychological problems, a US study reported.

Dubai Ports deal broke law, Sen. Shelby says
Government officials broke the law when they agreed to let a United Arab Emirates-owned company operate terminals at major American ports without doing a more extended review of the national security implications, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby said Thursday.

Cindy Sheehan Arrested After U.N. March

Cindy Sheehan, who drew international attention when she camped outside President Bush's ranch to protest the
Iraq war, was arrested Monday along with three other women during a demonstration demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The march to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations by about a dozen U.S. and Iraqi anti-war activists followed a news conference at U.N. headquarters, where Iraqi women described daily killings and ambulance bombings as part of the escalating violence that keeps women in their homes.

A Tame End to Patriot Act Debate

For a legislative fight that has stretched on for months, pitting the House against the Senate and the White House against members of the president's party, the battle to renew the USA Patriot Act will likely end very quietly this week. Between three post office renamings and a measure to clamp down on the counterfeiting of manufactured goods, the House will give its final assent today on the Patriot Act's reauthorization. Republican leaders are so confident in its passage that they have scheduled the vote on the fast-track "suspension calendar," where approval takes the vote of two-thirds of the House. Just after they pass the Patriot Act, House members will vote to support the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week.

Tillman's death in '04 to be focus of criminal probe

The Army is opening a criminal investigation into the friendly-fire death of ex-NFL player Pat Tillman to probe whether negligent homicide charges should be brought against members of his Ranger unit who killed him in Afghanistan nearly two years ago, according to defense officials.
Pentagon officials notified Tillman's family Friday that a Defense Department inspector general's review of the case had determined there is enough evidence to warrant a fresh look, after initial investigations that were characterized by secrecy, mishandling of evidence and delays reporting crucial facts.

Wall Street Journal: Impeachment Proves Risky Political Issue

Some Democratic Activists Push Removing Bush From Office, But Mainstream Steers Clear. If Democratic candidate Tony Trupiano wins a Michigan House seat this fall, he pledges that one of his first acts will be to introduce articles of impeachment against President Bush. That has earned Mr. Trupiano the endorsement of ImpeachPAC, a group of Democratic activists seeking to remove Mr. Bush from office. ImpeachPAC's Web site lists 14 candidates offering similar commitments, which are reminiscent of the Republican drive to oust former President Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But Mr. Trupiano's pledge hasn't much impressed Democratic Party leaders, who are keeping their distance from impeachment talk. They remember how the effort boomeranged on Republicans in the 1998 midterm elections, when Mr. Clinton's adversaries expected to gain House seats but lost ground instead.

More blacks deciding not to serve
War. College. A better job. The answers are as numerous as the number of young black people who are deciding against a military career.

Defense Department statistics show that the number of black active-duty enlisted personnel has declined 14 percent since 2000. The decrease is particularly acute among the troops most active in the Middle East: The number of black enlisted soldiers has dropped by 19 percent and the number of black enlisted Marines has fallen by 26 percent in the same period.


State after State Repudiates Bush

George W. Bush's admission that he expects to leave the Iraq War mess behind for his successor to clean up underscores why he is facing a historic collapse in polls across the country, with tracking surveys now showing him with net negatives exceeding 20 percentage points in more than half the states.

Guards Fault Homeland Security Protection
Guards at the Department of Homeland Security say the agency mishandled a potential anthrax attack on its headquarters, one of several incidents that led two senators to request an investigation of the agency's own security. The private guards complained that inadequate training led to confusion in handling bomb and biological threats and failure to stop test vehicles that were sent to checkpoints with improper identification.

Justices side with military recruiters

Military officials might have to run a bigger gantlet of protesters as they search for recruits on America's university campuses. But they no longer have to worry that they'll be shut out altogether because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy related to gay members of the armed forces.

Patriot Act renewal gives Bush a victory
The House voted to renew the USA Patriot Act on Tuesday night, extending a centerpiece of the war on terrorism after months of political combat. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation before 16 provisions of the 2001 law expire Friday. The vote was 280-138 under special rules that required a two-thirds majority. Indiana's congressional delegation voted along party lines, with the Democrats voting no and Republicans voting yes. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., did not vote. The passage marked a political victory for the president. Bush's approval ratings have suffered in recent months after revelations that he had authorized secret, warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

Signs Comment: Funny how, all the while Bush is described as being in political trouble, he continues to succeed in getting his way in Congress. The appointment of two reactionary, fundamentalist Christians to the Supreme Court, the Patriot Act, Bush gets what he wants in the things that are important.

Bush's empty political piggy bank
When George W. Bush was first re-elected, he told the American people that he had an awful lot of political capital and that he intended to spend it. And, in a way, he tried–with Social Security reform, a plan that fell flat on its face. Sixteen months later, that political piggy bank is busted. That's because an unpopular war in Iraq has driven the president's approval ratings to an all-time low.

Signs Comment: The author of this piece writes as if the political system actually has a chance to right itself. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth - just look at the huge numbers of Republicans and Democrats who voted through the renewal of the Patriot Act. Any real change will only happen if the people stand up for themselves. Until that happens, it doesn't matter one bit if Bush's "political piggy bank" is full or empty.

Vermont Towns Endorse Move to Impeach Bush
In five Vermont communities, a centuries-old tradition of residents gathering in town halls to conduct local business became a vehicle to send a message to Washington: Impeach the president. An impeachment article, approved by a paper ballot 121-29 in Newfane Tuesday, calls on Vermont's lone member of the U.S. House, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against President Bush, alleging he misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.

Signs Comment: "Just because we disagree with them"???!!!  How about because they are inveterate liars who have torn up the consitution, instituted torture as standard operating procedure, and organized the 9/11 attacks on their own country to justify a perrenial "war on terror"!

Good night and get lost! Chris Matthews exhumes McCarthy
One of our favorite titles for a CD is NPR's "Driveway Moments" -- referring to stories so good you won't leave the car even when you've reached where you're going. We'd like to release a CD of some of the things we hear from time to time on conservative talk radio -- we'd call it "Drive Off the Road and Into a Ditch Moments."

Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
That question is asked throughout our lives.
By people who are interviewing us for a job.
By courts seeking jurors.
By Little League officials screening coaches.
For background checks of all kinds.
People want to know.

One third US troops back from Iraq need mental help: study
One third of US troops returning from Iraq have needed at least one mental health consultation and one in five have been diagnosed with combat-induced psychological problems, a US study reported.

Foreign owners tied to US fleet - Reliability during crisis questioned - Lack of American Owned Vessels
Three-fourths of the cargo ships in a special fleet carrying vital supplies to US military forces are owned by foreign companies, raising concerns about the lack of American-owned vessels to help the Pentagon in a global crisis, according to government records reviewed by the Globe.


Firm Blames Lightning for Sago Mine Blast
Within hours of the Jan. 2 explosion at the Sago Mine that trapped and killed 12 men, some already believed lightning was the likely cause. Powerful bolts had peppered nearby Buckhannon that morning, some striking close to the underground coal mine where two 13-man crews were just starting the day shift. Two-and-a-half months later, the mine's owner said Tuesday it has evidence to prove the theory. Although it cannot fully explain how, International Coal Group Inc. officials said they believe electricity from above found some conduit into the earth, sparking methane gas that had accumulated in a worked-out, sealed-off chamber.

Signs Comment: Well, it's nice to see that a scientific approach is being taken in explaining the cause of the mine blast. "Yeah, it was lightning, which, uh, somehow made it through the ground and ignited some, uh... methane gas? Yup, that's it..."

By VICKI SMITH
3 Jan 2006
AP
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - A coal mine explosion that may have been sparked by lightning trapped 13 miners 260 feet below ground Monday, and rescuers went in to find them after waiting almost 12 agonizing hours for dangerous gases to clear.

AP
Tue Jan 10, 10:11 PM ET
PIKEVILLE, Ky. - Part of the roof collapsed Tuesday at a coal mine in eastern Kentucky, killing one miner, a state official said.

Signs Comment: And don't forget the other mine accident that happened just a few days ago in West Virginia...

By LAWRENCE MESSINA
Associated Press Writer
January 20, 2006
MELVILLE, W.Va. - Rescue teams searched Friday for two miners who were unable to escape after a fire broke out in an underground coal mine. Nineteen miners were able to flee the blaze, state officials said. The fire started Thursday evening on a conveyor belt at the Alma No. 1 Mine operated by Massey Energy subsidiary Aracoma Coal, about 60 miles southwest of Charleston, officials said.

Signs Comment: Another mine accident?

By Amran Abocar
Reuters
January 30, 2006
TORONTO - A group of Canadian miners, trapped by a fire in a potash mine for 24 hours in central Canada, were finally brought to the surface after the mine was cleared of fire and smoke, a mine official said on Monday. The fire, which broke out at 3 a.m. Central Standard Time early on Sunday at the mine in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, had forced 70 miners to rush to safety in emergency refuge rooms.
 
Signs Comment: Another mine accident...
MetroNews
02/01/2006
Charleston, WEST VIRGINIA - The deaths of two coal miners in separate incidents in Boone County Wednesday is prompting Governor Joe Manchin to call for an immediate mine safety stand down at mines throughout West Virginia.

Flashback: Mexican coal mine explosion traps 65 workers
AFP
Sun Feb 19, 4:55 PM ET
MEXICO CITY - At least 65 miners were trapped inside a coal mine after an explosion in northern Mexico, authorities said, describing the situation as "critical."

Man Votes for Himself, Machine Flips Vote to Opponent!
And on Election Day Cook charged that the voting machines malfunctioned in several precincts, including his own precinct at Skyview Recreation Center. When Cook tried to vote for himself, the machine defaulted to a vote for Taylor. A precinct worker finally moved Cook to a different booth. Later in the day, Cook said he had other reports of voting machines malfunctioning in similar ways.

Vote spike blamed on program snafu - Adds 100 K Phantom Votes

An undetected computer glitch in Tarrant County led to inflated election returns in Tuesday's primaries but did not alter the outcome of any local race, elections and county officials said Wednesday. The error caused Tarrant County to report as many as 100,000 votes in both primaries that never were cast, dropping the local turnout from a possible record high of about 158,103 voters to about 58,000.

Giant immigration bill seeks to double H1-B visas - Giving US Citizens Jobs Away
US Congress is likely to take up a giant immigration bill this month, which recommends nearly doubling the number of H-1B skilled-worker temporary visas to 115,000. The measures include not just increasing the number of visas but also add an option of raising the cap 20 per cent more each year.

US Senate candidate says Homosexuals Should be Executed: Elton John, Mary Cheney included

Last week, the press reported that Merrill Keiser, a Democratic candidate United States Senate from Ohio, believes that homosexuality should be punishable by death. Kaiser's opposition for the Democratic nomination is US Rep. Sherrod Brown. PageOneQ has obtained a portion of an audio interview in which Keiser says that singer/performer Elton John should be put to death and insinuates that the same should happen to Mary Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Richard B. Cheney. The Edge Show, a growing podcast with over 4,000 weekly listeners, conducted the interview. Here is the transcript of the portion of the show in which Kaiser speaks of superstar and out gay man Elton John.

Pro-Israel Activists Block Travel Reform

Jewish organizations played a leading role in defeating the effort, launched in response to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, to ban privately funded trips for members of Congress.
Advocates of lobbying reform and many members of Congress stepped up their push for a ban on travel paid for by private individuals and organizations after Abramoff - who organized junkets for many lawmakers - pleaded guilty in January to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy. With lawmakers fearing a public backlash over the Abramoff scandal, many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle were lining up behind legislation that would outlaw privately funded trips and place severe restrictions on gifts and meals from lobbyists.


The bodies are piling up
"More fighting and sacrifice will be required to achieve this victory, and for some, the temptation to retreat and abandon our commitments is strong." -- George Bush, Radio Address, March 18, 2006
On March 19, 2003, George Bush "shocked and awed" the world by his premature, if not wholly, unnecessary invasion of Iraq. I can remember that night when he came on to tell us that he had begun his war crimes against Iraq in earnest. I was sitting on my couch sobbing for the innocent people of Iraq and for our children who had been put in harm's way by their careless commander in chief.

America's Blinders

Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled? The question is important because it might help us understand why Americans-members of the media as well as the ordinary citizen-rushed to declare their support as the President was sending troops halfway around the world to Iraq.

Decline and fall- Kevin Phillips, no lefty, says that America -- addicted to oil, strangled by debt and maniacally religious -- is headed for doom.

In 1984, the renowned historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Barbara Tuchman published "The March of Folly," a book about how, over and over again, great powers undermine and sabotage themselves. She documented the perverse self-destructiveness of empires that clung to deceptive ideologies in the face of contrary evidence, that spent carelessly and profligately, and that obstinately refused to change course even when impending disaster was obvious to those willing to see it. Such recurrent self- deception, she wrote, "is epitomized in a historian's statement about Philip II of Spain, the surpassing wooden- head of all sovereigns: 'No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.'"

Why the war is a waste

Three years after the invasion of Iraq, the only positive result of this war that the Bush administration can claim is the removal of Saddam Hussein, who had been our man in the Middle East, from power. Otherwise, the Iraqi people are worse off than before, and so are we. Several reports indicate that at the invasion's third anniversary more than 250,000 Iraqis have died from violence or the breakdown of basic health care and other infrastructure. Poverty, childhood malnutrition, inflation and unemployment are skyrocketing. Academics and other professionals have left the country after being targeted for murder or kidnapping, draining Iraq of resources to rebuild the nation.

Baker's Latest Assignment; tell Bush we lost

The cracks and fissures are finally beginning to appear in Fortress Bush. The AP is reporting that Congress quietly appointed an "Iraq Study Group" headed by James A. Baker to "assess the Bush administration's policies in Iraq and political and economic developments in the troubled country". In other words, Baker has been picked to tell Bush that the war is over; we lost. The group was voted into being with little fanfare to spare the White House any unnecessary embarrassment, but the message is clear; the adults are finally stepping in. The war has been so appallingly mismanaged that jittery American elites are forcing themselves back into the policy-making apparatus.

How to spot a baby conservative - Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ...

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals. The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding. But the new results are worth a look.

Cold Warrior in a Strange Land A Tomdispatch Interview with Chalmers Johnson (Part 1)

As he and his wife Sheila drive me through downtown San Diego in the glare of mid-day, he suddenly exclaims, "Look at that structure!" I glance over and just across the blue expanse of the harbor is an enormous aircraft carrier. "It's the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan," he says, "the newest carrier in the fleet. It's a floating Chernobyl and it sits a proverbial six inches off the bottom with two huge atomic reactors. You make a wrong move and there goes the country's seventh largest city."

Anger at Bin Laden niece's reality TV show
The news that Osama bin Laden's niece is to star in a US reality TV show has provoked fury from families of some of those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Chertoff Calls for Chemical Plant Security

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called for government regulation of chemical plant security on Tuesday but said the industry should come up with its own protective measures, to be verified by private auditors. Speaking at a forum hosted by the chemical industry, Chertoff said Congress needs to quickly give his department regulatory authority to bolster facilities that are attractive targets for terrorists. But he said federal regulations must be flexible to prevent harsh burdens on business.

Matthews: "How can you not trust" Bush?
Summary: During a discussion about President Bush's recent public relations campaign to rally support for the war in Iraq, Chris Matthews said: "How can you not trust a man who says, 'I won't be able to win this war in my presidency; I'm leaving it up to other presidents in the future'?"

Card's Departure Seen as a Sign President Hears Words of Critics
A few weeks ago, President Bush's spokesman dismissed talk of an impending staff change as "inside Washington babble." White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.'s resignation yesterday suggests that Bush was listening.

Signs Comment: Yeah, right!

Why the White House Shakeup Really Isn't
The replacement of chief of staff Andrew Card with Josh Bolten is the comfort food of staff changes
After making a four-minute statement in the Rose Garden this morning, President Bush wended his way through the Cabinet members arrayed behind him as a television correspondent bellowed, with various others joining in: "Mr. President, did you feel pressure to make staff changes?" The President was grinning noticeably as he ducked back into the Oval Office, as if to say: Let 'em holler! The replacement of Bush's first chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., with budget director Joshua B. Bolten may foster a badly needed sense of renewal and produce headlines about a shakeup. But this is the comfort food of staff changes - the replacement of a longtime family loyalist with someone who has been one of this President's insiders since the Austin days.

Not Quite What We Had in Mind

For months now, people have been urging President Bush to shake up his inner circle and bring in fresh air. Perhaps in response, the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., resigned yesterday. Mr. Bush opened the window - and in climbed his budget director, Joshua Bolten, who used to be Mr. Card's deputy.

Man Found Guilty of Plotting to Kill Bush
An American Muslim convicted of joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush was sentenced to 30 years behind bars by a judge who compared him to "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum - a life sentence - for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church. Authorities said Abu Ali went to Saudi Arabia in 2002 out of hatred for the United States. The Saudis arrested him in June 2003 as he was taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina.

Signs Comment: The comparison to Lindh is most interesting. See next article...

By Frank Lindh
AlterNet
January 24, 2006
After years of almost total silence on his son's arrest and imprisonment, Frank Lindh sets the record straight about the 'American Taliban.'

Editor's Note: The public has heard little about John Walker Lindh since the media frenzy over his capture in the winter of 2001. On January 19, John's father Frank Lindh delivered an address at The Commonwealth Club of California. Lindh explained that he and his family have avoided the press for nearly four years; he now wants the public to understand the truth about his son, who he says didn't stand a chance of getting a fair trial in the emotional days following 9/11. Immediately characterized as a "terrorist" by the press and politicians, Lindh faced a jury in Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Pentagon. The trial date scheduled by the judge was the anniversary of 9/11. Initially facing 11 criminal counts -- most relating to terrorism -- the only charge that John Lindh was found guilty of was violating economic sanctions by supporting the Taliban government, for which the 20-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The following is excerpted from Frank Lindh's speech.

Signs Comment:
"...[T]he mistreatment and the imprisonment of John Lindh was... based purely on an emotional response to the 9/11 attacks, and not on an objective assessment of John's case."
That statement sums up the Bush administration's handling of the entire War on Terror pretty nicely, doesn't it?

Army Bans Use of Privately Bought Armor
Soldiers will no longer be allowed to wear body armor other than the protective gear issued by the military, Army officials said Thursday, the latest twist in a running battle over the equipment the Pentagon gives its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US immigration debate intensifies

Thousands of people in the US city of Milwaukee have protested against plans to criminalise undocumented workers.

US Students Rally On Streets, Downtown Freeways
Mayor Meets With Students To Discuss Immigration Bill
LOS ANGELES -- More than 36,000 students from throughout Los Angeles County skipped classes and marched through streets and on various freeways Monday to protest an immigration bill being debated in Congress. More than 1,000 students waving Mexican, El Salvadoran, Guatemalan and American flags began gathering on the south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall just after 9 a.m., but crowds finally dispersed by 6 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Paul Vernon said. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Chief William Bratton and Los Angeles Unified School District officials urged students to return to class Tuesday morning, when schools will be on lockdown.

That racism thang
Max Blumenthal has an excellent piece up at The Nation regarding how conservatives have co-opted so much of the longtime white supremacist agenda that now the extremist right is looking for new ways to attract followers:

1965 Voting Rights Law Set to Expire

On what would become known as "Bloody Sunday," voting rights marchers in March 1965 reached the highest point on the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Selma, Ala., and saw a blue sea of uniforms awaiting them at the end of the bridge.
Television would show images of Alabama state troopers armed with guns, night sticks, bull whips and tear gas severely beating marchers. Days later, President Lyndon Johnson promised to bring Congress an effective voting rights bill, and that August he signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, considered one of the most significant laws in the nation's history. Now, more than four decades later, sections of the act are set to expire.

US deserter 'shocked by abuses'

A US soldier who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq says he was shocked by alleged atrocities committed by the American military.




Spying On Americans

Terra, Terra, Terra - Cry `terra` and let loose the dogs of war.
Never before has one word, or its relentless repetition, done so much for one man as the word `terror' (`terra` in Texanese) has for this Texan from Crawford that now resides in the White House. No other single word, it seems, is so much responsible for Bush`s continued fame among certain naive American quarters. Whether it is the external or internal policies of this administration, the word terra remains the cornerstone of all its past, present and future plans of action. Be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Katrina, domestic elections, passing of sham legislation, the Guantanamo Gulag, the discovery of torture dungeons or the scandal of spying on own citizens, no crisis has ever been strong enough to withstand the magic mantra of terra, terra, terra.

The Pentagon Archipelago

When I read the passage below from Moazzam Begg's account of his years in Bush's Terror War prisons, I had a strange feeling of dislocation: it was as if 30 years had suddenly fallen away and I was back in high school, reading Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago in stunned disbelief at the hideous cruelty inflicted on the prisoners -- deliberately, as a carefully calculated instrument of state policy. And all of it done in the name of national security, of course, to protect the nation against "terrorists" and "traitors."

NYT sues Pentagon over domestic spying

The New York Times sued the U.S. Defense Department on Monday demanding that it hand over documents about the National Security Agency's domestic spying program. The Times wants a list of documents including all internal memos and e-mails about the program of monitoring phone calls without court approval. It also seeks the names of the people or groups identified by it.

Republicans struggle to find ways to make domestic spying legal

A group of Republican senators failed to reach an agreement Tuesday on legislation that would write the Bush administration's controversial eavesdropping program into law.

More pushback from Hill on eavesdropping

Washington is immersed in a furious debate over the legality of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program - and the argument's outcome may affect the balance of power in the US government for decades to come.


What ever happened to the NSA spying furor?

When the New York Times revealed late last year that the Bush administration was conducting a surveillance program to listen in on American citizens' conversations with suspected al Qaida operatives, it sparked a furor.


Gonzales Seeks to Clarify Testimony on Spying - Extent of Eavesdropping May Go Beyond NSA Work
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appeared to suggest yesterday that the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance operations may extend beyond the outlines that the president acknowledged in mid-December. In a letter yesterday to senators in which he asked to clarify his Feb. 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales also seemed to imply that the administration's original legal justification for the program was not as clear-cut as he indicated three weeks ago.

Domestic spying more widespread than thought

Government surveillance of private individuals is more pervasive and detailed than previously thought. Investigative reporter Wayne Madsen tells us that the National Security Agency (NSA), at the center of the wiretap scandal, has expanded its surveillance of journalists that the administration claims have received classified information.

NSA's Hunt for Terrorists Scrutinizes Thousands of Americans, but Most Are Later Cleared
Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use.

Imagine a world of no more privacy."
We speak with Liz McIntyre, author of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID" that examines radio frequency identification - a technology that uses tiny computer chips to track items at distance. Major corporations are working right now to install RFIDs on all consumer products.

Details Emerge in Latest Plame Emails
The White House confirmed Tuesday that it recently turned over to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald 250 pages of emails from the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney related to covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence. The emails were not submitted three years ago when then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales ordered White House staffers to turn over all documents that contained any reference to Valerie and Joseph Wilson. Gonzales's directive in October 2003 came 12 hours after he was told by the Justice Department that it was launching an investigation to find out who leaked Plame Wilson's undercover CIA status to reporters in what appeared to be an attempt to discredit and silence her husband from speaking out against the administration's rationale for war. Gonzales spent two weeks with other White House attorneys screening emails and other documents his office received before turning them over to Justice Department investigators. News of the 250 pages of emails was revealed to Libby's attorneys during a court hearing Friday.

More LIES Dept: Administration Revives Dispute Over Eavesdropping Authority
In a new defense of its warrantless eavesdropping program, the Bush administration yesterday reopened a dispute about whether it tried and failed to obtain direct congressional authority for use of the president's war-making powers on U.S. territory.

White House Aims at Damage Control - Sources, Reporters Could Be Prosecuted

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws. In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.

Bush declares war on freedom of the press

Using many of the questionable surveillance and monitoring techniques that brought both questions and criticism to his administration, President George W. Bush has launched a war against reporters who write stories unfavorable to his actions and is planning to prosecute journalists to make examples of them in his "war on terrorism."

Senator ties Guard to spy plan - MEMOS SUGGEST NATIONWIDE EFFORT

A special California National Guard unit that was disbanded last year amid suspicion it was engaged in domestic spying may have been part of a nationwide effort to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens, a state senator charged Tuesday. Internal National Guard documents seem to suggest, according to Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove, that Guard units in nine other states may have had similar spying initiatives when California's unit became public last summer.

'Specific' Info on NSA Eavesdropping?

A new lawsuit may have what other cases don't: official records about those under surveillance.  Ashland, Oregon – Of all the lawsuits seeking to halt the National Security Agency's program to eavesdrop on certain Americans' electronic communications, a new one filed last week in Oregon may provide the federal courts with the most detailed glimpse yet into the clandestine counterterrorism effort. The biggest challenge for such cases – which have also been filed in New York, Michigan, and California – is that plaintiffs don't have access to records of highly classified government surveillance activities and therefore can't be sure they were personally subjected to covert phone- tapping or e-mail reading by the US government. The Oregon suit may manage to leap over that imposing legal hurdle. Lawyers and their clients apparently have seen phone logs and other top-secret records inadvertently provided, and then hastily recovered, by government officials.

GOP senators propose NSA spying bill
Four Senate Republicans have proposed a bill to provide what one called "very rigorous oversight" of President Bush's controversial no-warrant domestic surveillance program while also giving it the force of law. Sens. Mike DeWine of Ohio, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, all members of the Intelligence Committee, introduced the bill late Tuesday afternoon in an effort to address criticism of the program and reach a compromise. The White House is "OK with this approach," a spokesperson said.

Signs Comment: Of course the White House was "OK with this approach". The panel rejected a full investigation of the spying program, and the Patriot Act has been renewed. In other words, Bush got everything he wanted - again. And now it looks like the Neocon/Zionist cabal is gearing up for a no holds barred attack on Iran. Why would the White House be worried??

Senate panel rejects bid for NSA inquiry
Senate Republicans on Tuesday agreed to expand oversight of President George W. Bush's domestic spying program but rejected Democratic pressure for a broad inquiry into eavesdropping on U.S. citizens.


NSA Tech Tracks Down Web Surfers
DefenseTech
The NSA already knows how to find out where you're surfing from. Now, it wants to share its secret with online advertisers. There are a couple of services that can match Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses to physical locations. But the technique isn't exactly iron-clad. Routing traffic through a server in some other country, for example, can throw these programs off the trail.

FBI admits many spying violations - Justice's inspector general investigates problems administering Patriot Act
The FBI reported more than 100 apparent violations to an intelligence oversight board over the past two years, including cases in which agents tapped the wrong telephone, intercepted the wrong e-mails or continued to listen to conversations after a warrant had expired, according to a report issued Wednesday.


Why Data Mining Won't Stop Terror
In the post-9/11 world, there's much focus on connecting the dots. Many believe data mining is the crystal ball that will enable us to uncover future terrorist plots. But even in the most wildly optimistic projections, data mining isn't tenable for that purpose. We're not trading privacy for security; we're giving up privacy and getting no security in return.

Signs Comment: This report simply provides more evidence that the security measures that have been put in place since 9/11 have nothing to do with catching terrorists and everything to do with tightening the government's control on every aspect of civilian and political life.

Pentagon admits errors in spying on protesters
The Department of Defense admitted in a letter obtained by NBC News on Thursday that it had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators to a database of possible domestic terrorist threats. The letter followed an NBC report focusing on the Defense Department's Threat and Local Observation Notice, or TALON, report. Acting Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Roger W. Rogalski's letter came in reply to a memo from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who had demanded answers about the process of identifying domestic protesters as suspicious and removing their names when they are wrongly listed. "The recent review of the TALON Reporting System ... identified a small number of reports that did not meet the TALON reporting criteria. Those reports dealt with domestic anti-military protests or demonstrations potentially impacting DoD facilities or personnel," Rogalski wrote on Wednesday.

Watch What You Say - How the telephone company listens in on your calls and what they tell the government.

Two months after the New York Times revealed that the Bush Administration ordered the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless surveillance of American citizens, only three corporations--AT&T, Sprint and MCI--have been identified by the media as cooperating. If the reports in the Times and other newspapers are true, these companies have allowed the NSA to intercept thousands of telephone calls, fax messages and e-mails without warrants from a special oversight court established by Congress under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Some companies, according to the same reports, have given the NSA a direct hookup to their huge databases of communications records. The NSA, using the same supercomputers that analyze foreign communications, sifts through this data for key words and phrases that could indicate communication to or from suspected terrorists or terrorist sympathizers and then tracks those individuals and their ever-widening circle of associates. "This is the US version of Echelon," says Albert Gidari, a prominent telecommunications attorney in Seattle, referring to a massive eavesdropping program run by the NSA and its English-speaking counterparts that created a huge controversy in Europe in the late 1990s.

G.O.P. Senators Say Accord Is Set on Wiretapping

Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.


Illegal Spying, Spineless Congress: Oversight by Capitulation

Despite a dip in his opinion polls, George W. Bush's transformation of the United States into an authoritarian society continues apace, with new "compromises" with Congress actually consolidating his claims to virtually unlimited executive power. Bush's latest success came as part of a supposed "concession" to Congress that would grant two new Republican-controlled seven-member subcommittees narrow oversight of Bush's warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

Big Brother Is Listening
The NSA has the ability to eavesdrop on your communications, landlines, cell phones, e-mails, BlackBerry messages, Internet searches, and more?with ease. What happens when the technology of espionage outstrips the law?s ability to protect ordinary citizens from it?

GOP senators introduce eavesdropping bill
Four Republican senators introduced a bill Thursday that they hope will end the furor over President Bush's surveillance program by writing it into law.
One of the bill's chief sponsors, Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio, said the bill requires the president to go to court as soon as possible to get approval for wiretapping and other forms of monitoring. "It does not ... give the president a blank check," DeWine said, while authorizing "a limited, but necessary, program." The proposal came under immediate criticism from advocacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

FBI, police spying is rising, groups allege
Inside the Time's UP! office on Houston Street in Manhattan, pictures of people taking part in an environmental protest line an old refrigerator. In one, a man with short hair and a chiseled physique is talking on his cellphone. In another, a large man wields a video camera.
The people at Time's UP!, an environmental activist group, suspect these men are not protesters at all, but rather plainclothes police officers. "We say these people are spying, and they're definitely being assisted by the police if they're not police themselves," says Bill DiPaola, director of Time's UP!


Judges Back Bill Examining Domestic Spying
Five federal judges gave a boost Tuesday to legislation that would bring court scrutiny to the Bush administration's domestic spying program.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the judges reacted favorably to his proposal that would require the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to conduct regular reviews of the four-year-old program.

Fairfax Co. Takes Part in Unusual Wastewater Experiment

FAIRFAX, Va. - Fairfax County is taking part in an unusual White House drug study. Wastewater from communities throughout the Potomac River Basin is being tested for the urinary byproducts of cocaine. "Apparently, they're able to ascertain how many people may be using illicit drugs, in this case cocaine, with such studies," Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly tells WTOP.

Pardoning the Pentagon

The Pentagon has investigated its own habit of paying people to lie -- and, lo and behold, it found itself not guilty.




Police State and Propaganda

U.S. Opposes U.N.'s Planned Rights Panel - Exclusion of Abusive Nations Sought
The Bush administration will oppose a U.N.-backed resolution calling for the creation of a council to expose the world's worst human rights abusers, John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday. Bolton said that a draft charter presented Thursday by the U.N. General Assembly president, Jan Eliasson, was not tough enough to ensure that nations that abuse human rights would be barred from joining the council. He said he was under instructions from Washington to reopen negotiations on the text or postpone deliberations on a new rights body for several months.
 
Signs Comment: The United States has NO place on such a council. Talk about "dismal human rights records!"

SOTT is Rendered Speechless at the gall: Bush chides Belarus on human rights ahead of vote

President George W. Bush showed U.S. displeasure on Monday with the Belarus government's human rights record by meeting at the White House with two women whose husbands disappeared in the former Soviet republic.
"This meeting ... is intended to underscore our concern about the Belarussian government's conduct leading up to the election, harassment of civil society and the political opposition and failure to investigate seriously the cases of the disappeared," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

A chilling threat in freedom's land

"The enemies of freedom will be defeated." - President George W. Bush, 2005"
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo, 1971"
The following happened in the United States of America on Feb. 9 of this year. The scene is the Little Falls branch of the Montgomery County Public Library in Bethesda, Md. Business is going on as usual when two men in uniform stride into the main reading room and call for attention. Then they make an announcement: It is forbidden to use the library's computers to view Internet pornography.

Patriot Act headed for renewal despite misgivings

Months overdue in a midterm election year, the USA Patriot Act renewal cleared a final hurdle in the Senate Tuesday on its way to President Bush's desk. But the bill's sponsor said he is unsatisfied with the measure's privacy protections and far from done tinkering with the centerpiece of Bush's war on terrorism.

Intel pros say Bush is lying about foiling 2002 terror attack

Outraged intelligence professionals say President George W. Bush is "cheapening" and "politicizing" their work with claims the United States foiled a planned terrorist attack against Los Angeles in 2002.

Bush is done for - You don't recover from 34%.
It's over. Bush's house of cards has just come crumbling down. We suspected it might just be a matter of time, but now it's officially over!
No one recovers from a 34% approval rating. I'll tell you why -- because even the most inept politician realizes you run away from a 34, not towards it. The entire United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, have no choice but to run from this President -- as fast as they possibly can (ironically, some of the Democrats will be the slowest to leave this sinking ship -- and Lieberman will be the very last one on board).

 
Signs Comment: Oh, Cenk! Don't you get it? It's NEVER over for a dictator! Not until they put his cold, dead body in the ground.

By Nat Parry
Consortium News
February 23, 2006
Not that George W. Bush needs much encouragement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a new target for the administration's domestic operations -- Fifth Columnists, supposedly disloyal Americans who sympathize and collaborate with the enemy. "The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements," Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6.

War on Terrorism – The Real Criminals Remain at Large
"The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning."-- CIA Intelligence Report for President Bush, July, 2001 (60 Days Prior to 9/11)

Signs Comment: Yes, they are at large... right in the White House and Knesset.

Patriot Act E-Mail Searches Apply to Non-Terrorists, Judges Say
Two federal judges in Florida have upheld the authority of individual courts to use the Patriot Act to order searches anywhere in the country for e-mails and computer data in all types of criminal investigations, overruling a magistrate who found that Congress limited such expanded jurisdiction to cases involving terrorism.

Saudi Group Alleges Wiretapping by U.S.
Documents cited in federal court by a defunct Islamic charity may provide the first detailed evidence of U.S. residents being spied upon by President Bush's secret eavesdropping program, according to the organization's lawsuit and a source familiar with the case.

An attack on voters' rights - I was elected mayor by the people of London and only they should have the power to remove me
At least one thing can be said about my possible suspension from office, which was put on hold by the high court yesterday: people from across the political spectrum have come to the defence of the basic democratic principle that those elected by the people should only be removed by the voters. Last week, an adjudication tribunal found that some of my comments to an Evening Standard journalist had been "unnecessarily insensitive" and "offensive". But those are not grounds for overturning the decision of the voters of London. As far as I am aware, there is no law against "unnecessary insensitivity" or even "offensiveness" to journalists questioning you as you try to go home.

Senate Advances Patriot Act Renewal
The Senate on Wednesday agreed to add to the Patriot Act new curbs on the government's power to pry into private records, moving President Bush's antiterror law a step closer to renewal before key provisions expire next week.
But even as it progressed on a 95-4 vote, some Democrats complained that the limits would be virtually meaningless in practice and sought to add even stronger privacy protections. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., refused to allow more tinkering, pointing out that renewal of the 2001 law is already months overdue.

Police state USA and Big Brother's most cool tool
Senate Minority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) calls this Congress the "most corrupt" in history.1 U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) often uses the term "police state" to describe our national state of affairs. George Bush is making the most expansive claims to unbridled power since America's War for Independence, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).2 Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who proved Bush lied to launch us into war with Iraq, says "fascist forces have seized control of the levers of power."3 Americans are being told that their Republic has become a fascist police state-they just need ears to hear. In a fascist police state, the dictator secures his power with support from private corporations which are given special privileges and, thus, benefit from doing business with dictators. Continuously bribed by 28,000 corporate lobbyists in D.C.,4 Congress is doing its part to build a fascist state in America.

Truth Suppression: Teacher suspended for "anti-Bush Rant"
An Overland High School teacher who criticized President Bush, capitalism and U.S. foreign policy during his geography class was placed on administrative leave Wednesday afternoon after a student who recorded the session went public with the tape. In the 20-minute recording, made on an MP3 player, teacher Jay Bennish described capitalism as a system "at odds with human rights." He also said there were "eerie similarities" between what Bush said during his Jan. 28 State of the Union address and "things that Adolf Hitler used to say." The United States was "probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth," Bennish also said on the tape.

Signs Comment: We hope readers will join us in emailing the journalist who wrote this article and the newspaper and reminding them that this teacher has been suspended for speaking the truth. Her email address: krouse@denverpost.com

Propaganda Document: Al-Qaida Encourages Oil Attacks
Al-Qaida has encouraged its followers to attack oil pipelines and facilities in Muslim countries but not wells, according to a document posted on a Web site by the group that targeted the world's largest oil-processing complex in Saudi Arabia.


A Global Infrastructure for Mass Surveillance

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out...without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. --H. L. Mencken
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it. --Woodrow Wilson


Archivist Urges U.S. to Reopen Classified Files
After complaints from historians, the National Archives directed intelligence agencies on Thursday to stop removing previously declassified historical documents from public access and urged them to return to the shelves as quickly as possible many of the records they had already pulled.

Democrats move to force port vote, decry Emirates' boycott of Israel

Democrats plan to force a vote on the Dubai ports deal through a procedural measure in the House Thursday. The move is expected to fail.  However, a broad coalition of Democrats in the House are collecting signatures for a letter to President Bush decrying the United Arab Emirates funding of Hamas and its boycott against Israel. That letter -- which RAW STORY has learned has already been signed by the Democrats' campaign chair in the House -- Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) is making the rounds now. The letter follows. Current signatories include Democratic Reps. Ackerman, Berkley, Bishop (NY), Cardoza, Crowley, DeLauro, Emanuel, Engel, Gene Green, Hastings (FL), Higgins, Holt, Lantos, Levin, Lowey, Maloney, McNulty, George Miller, Nadler, Pallone, Rothman, Sanders, Towns, Visclosky, Wasserman Schultz, Watson, Waxman and Wexler.

Republican Will Try to Squash Ports Deal
One of the most prominent House Republicans on military issues said Thursday he would try to scuttle a Dubai-based company's effort to manage U.S. ports as lawmakers' complaints about the Bush administration's handling of the issue continued to spread. "Dubai cannot be trusted," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and normally one of the administration's most trusted allies. He called the United Arab Emirates "a bazaar for terrorist nations" and asserted that the United States should not permit DP World to take over significant operations at six U.S. ports. "I intend to do everything I can to kill the deal," Hunter said.
 
Signs Comment: Rebellion? Somebody finally waking up?

Dubai company holds off closing controversial ports deal

The Dubai company taking over a British firm that manages key US ports said it would hold off finalizing the deal until next week.


Hating Arabs - Arab-haters target Dubai port company

In a repeat of the calculated insults to the Arab world coming fast and furious these days, Democratic politicians, including putative presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, are raising a ruckus over a deal in which Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, a U.K. company that manages the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia, would be acquired by Dubai Ports World, a Dubai-based international company that manages port facilities from London to Okinawa. Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bill Frist, have been quick to jump on the Arab-bashing bandwagon; Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama was the first to raise the "security" issue, ahead of even Hillary and the clueless Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who wants all "foreign-owned" companies barred from managing U.S. ports. (This presumably includes U.K.-based companies such as Peninsular, and others, which together dominate the international shipping and maritime industry.)

Senate approves Patriot Act renewal

The US Senate [official website] has approved a long-term renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act [PDF text; JURIST news archive] by a vote of 89-10 [roll call vote]. The vote was expected [JURIST report] after the Senate approved amendments to the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 [bill summary] which incorporate additional civil liberties protections: allowing recipients of Section 215 subpoenas for information in terror investigations to be able to challenge the accompanying gag order; eliminating a requirement that people who receive National Security Letters (NSL) [sample text, PDF; ACLU backgrounder] must provide the FBI the names of lawyers consulted about the NSL; and clarifying current law to ensure that libraries functioning in their traditional roles would not be subject to NSLs.

Scum-sucking traitors to their country

The next time some loudmouth partisan puke Democrat gets in my face and starts yapping about how much better things would be if his party were running the government in Washington, I'm going to pull out the vote tally sheet for the USA Patriot Act in Thursday's Senate session and ram it down his lying throat.

Democrats and Republicans sell out to pass Patriot Act

Republicans marched in lockstep while all but nine Democrats and one independent caved and voted to reauthorrize the rights-robbing USA Patriot Act Thursday, giving President George W. Bush the power he craves to ride roughshod over the Constitution.
Those who sided with Bush included Democratic leader Harry Reid and every Republican member of the Senate, ending months of wrangling over renewal of the law that civil libertrarians call a major threat to freedom in this country.


Bush Flummoxes Kafka, Orwell
Even Kafka and Orwell, masters at dissecting the cruel absurdities of totalitarian state power, might be at a loss for words in the face of George W. Bush's latest legal and rhetorical formulations on torture. Bush, of course, insists that the United States does not torture despite extensive evidence that detainees in the Iraq War and the War on Terror have been subjected to simulated drowning by "water-boarding," beatings to death, suffocations, coffin-like confinements, painful stress positions, naked exposure to heat and cold, anal rape, sleep deprivation, dog bites, and psychological ploys involving sexual and religious humiliation.

FEMA tickets Hurricane Victim who lost everythign for TEE shirt criticizing Administration
Ridiculing the Federal Emergency Management Agency is high art in the Gulf Coast areas where Hurricane Katrina hit last year. Many parade floats in New Orleans' Mardi Gras were decorated in themes that skewered the relief agency. George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman's Association, has been selling anti-FEMA T-shirts since last fall, a reflection of his frustration with the federal government's response to the storm that left him homeless and unemployed. But on Feb. 1, when he handed a shirt to a fellow Katrina victim as he was picking up canned goods at a charity's relief tent, Barisich found himself in trouble with the government. He was cited by a group of Homeland Security officials for selling a T-shirt on federal property - in this case, near a FEMA center in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Chalmette, La. Barisich, 49, says he didn't sell the shirt, which said: "Flooded by Katrina! Forgotten by FEMA! What's Next, Mr. Bush?" He says he gave it away.

Transparent Hatchet Jobs - The Attacks on Beyond Chutzpah

The Winter 2006 issue of Middle East Journal ran a scathing review by Professor Marc Saperstein of my book Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history. Saperstein alleged that my book was a "prolonged diatribe," replete with "outrageous ad hominem attacks" and written in the "rhetorical style of the arrogant academic pit bull."

Propaganda! How we duped the West, by Iran's nuclear negotiator
The man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic programme. Comment: Amazing, isn't it? Why is it that the Iranians seem determined to provide America and Israel with the plausible justification to attack Iran? Where does the reports such as this one really come from? Can anyone verify that this report is accurate? Did Hassan Rowhani actually say what he is reported to have said? Sadly, given the fact that the job of the mainstream media is to simply repeat American, British and Israeli government propaganda, we will probably never know. What we do know however is that, over the past four years, we the public have been treated to a continuous stream of lies from the mouths of Bush Blair and Sharon and their lackeys.

Token Opposition: Ten Against Patriot Act Reauthorization
When Senator Russ Feingold opposed the original version of the Patriot Act in 2001, the Wisconsin Democrat was alone in his defense of the Constitution. This year, as Feingold led the frustrating fight to block reauthorization of the Patriot Act in a form that continues to threaten basic liberties, he left no doubt that he was entirely willing to stand alone once more. To colleagues who suggested that it was appropriate to trade a little liberty for the White House's promise of more security in the war on terror, the senator declared: "Without freedom, we are not America. If we don't preserve our liberties, we cannot win this war, no matter how many terrorists we capture or kill."

U.S. Isolated in Opposing Plan for a New U.N. Rights Council

The United States has found itself isolated in its opposition to a proposal to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission, and its pledge to vote against adoption of the plan has thrown the United Nations into turmoil.
Many delegations say they share the American misgivings about the proposal but fear that postponing or renegotiating it - the two options put forward by John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador - would doom the effort to produce a more credible rights body.

Bush may be history, but sadly his work will outlast him

How many Americans does it take to build a memorial to 9/11? Apparently 2367 and counting. That's the number of US servicemen who have died in Iraq in the four and a half years that Ground Zero in lower Manhattan has not been developed. There is still just a large hole, surrounded by street-traders selling lurid images of the attacks. The victims groups have argued with the developers who've fallen out with the architects and the city council who have had issues with the firemen. It's a mess. You don't want to go there, Except, of course, that everyone does. It is the world's number one destination for "dark tourism".

Thousands of Federal Trials Kept Secret

Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years. Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.
An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government.

Please smile while under the boot

The self-righteous arrogance with which the West feigns shock at Muslim reactions to humiliation reveals how deeply the colonial attitude runs in the Occident. Not only have the whites been guilty of being on the offensive, but by some skilful manoeuvres, they have managed to control the responses of the blacks to the provocation. Not only have they kicked the black, but they have also told him how to react to the kick... He is now beginning to show signs that it is his right and duty to respond to the kick in the way he sees fit." -- Steve Biko, freedom fighter against Apartheid, killed while under police arrest.

Bull in the China Shop

The mood across the Mideast could not be grimmer. Criss-crossing the region and meeting with politicians, intelligence officials and businessmen reveals a pervasive feeling events are fast spinning out of control. The destruction of a key Shia shrine in Samarra last week brought Iraq to the edge of all-out civil war. Some security officials here believe rogue Shia government troops blew up the mosque to steal the gold encrusting its dome. This criminal act provoked a Shia/Sunni bloodbath that left at least 1,300 dead.

The New World Order Story

As we struggle to put the events of and following 9-11-2001 into the most complete perspective, we're hampered by having to find a way through the minefields of "conspiracy theory" accusations. There are so many parts to consider, it's almost impossible to argue from any one event. If we argue that the Bush administration was complicit in the attacks of 9-11 - that they intentionally murdered 3,000 Americans in order to further their imperialistic agenda abroad and their transformation of America into a command-and-control plutocracy here at home - a hundred others will pick holes in individual pieces of the 9-11 conspiracy theory, and derail the argument rather than clarifying or advancing it. It's like trying to pick up Jell-O without the bowl. Nor can this ever be a merely intellectual game. Suggesting that our own leaders orchestrated the murders of 9-11 - while proposing Arab Muslims as perhaps no more than the fictional enemy toward which they hope to direct American scorn and fury - this idea evokes deep and powerful resentment and resistance, whether it is true or not.

Foreign Company Runs Indianapolis Airport; Responsible For Law Enforcement
Indianapolis International Airport, a facility that serves more than 8 million passengers every year, is operated by a foreign-owned company. And the company has stated contractual obligations at the airport -- which include law enforcement!

Signs Comment: The contract was extended for another three years, which takes it through 2008.

Wasn't Jesus A Liberal?

Liberalism has been under assault for years now. The battering of this grand political philosophy has altered the contemporary definition of liberal to the point that Conservatives use it as a profane word. They use it to paint a political opponent as anti-God and anti-American. It has gotten to the point that moderate and liberal Christians are afraid to be open about their political leanings. Sadly, it even affects their conscience and choices as they enter the voting booth. This is particularly troubling to me as a Christian evangelical minister who loves America. Liberalism as defined by Webster's Third New International Dictionary: "a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of man, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for tolerance and freedom for the individual from arbitrary authority in all spheres of life…"

UK: How we move ever closer to becoming a totalitarian state
The Prime Minister claims to be defending liberty but a barely noticed Bill will rip the heart out of parliamentary democracy

World in peril, Chomsky tells overflow crowd

There are dire consequences to the current direction of the U.S. foreign policy, said Noam Chomsky in a speech Saturday at Binghamton University.
Among those consequences, he said, is a nuclear Armageddon. "Under the current U.S. policies, a nuclear exchange is inevitable," the 77-year-old MIT professor said in his presentation, "Imminent Crises: Paths Toward Solutions." He spoke to an over-capacity crowd in BU's Osterhout Concert Theater. Chomsky cited nuclear proliferation and environmental collapse as the two greatest crises that "literally threaten survival."

The Power of Nightmares: WMD Terrorism

Terrorist "capabilities" to use weapons of mass destruction are "more limited" than those of states like North Korea and Iran, but the threat of terrorist attack with WMD is "more likely" than an attack by any state, top U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday. Despite this broad assertion, U.S. officials offer only that there is the "possibility" of a future terrorist attack with WMD. They present no evidence that there is any actual terrorist capability, not a single example of terrorists receiving assistance from WMD states to develop their own capabilities nor do they offer any intelligence indicators that terrorists are making headway towards achieving any WMD capability.

America the Anesthetized

The new Zogby poll gauging the opinions of American troops in Iraq has drawn attention mostly because it finds that 72 percent believe the United States should withdraw in a year or less and only 23 percent favor George W. Bush's plan to "stay the course." But the poll also illustrates the power of propaganda. Shockingly, 85 percent of the troops questioned believe they are fighting in Iraq "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks" – one of the key Iraq War myths built by Bush's frequent juxtaposition of references to Osama bin-Laden and Saddam Hussein.
This subliminal message has stuck with the vast majority of U.S. troops even though Bush eventually acknowledged publicly that there is no evidence linking Saddam to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The Hiroshima Cover-Up

A story that the U.S. government hoped would never see the light of day finally has been published, 60 years after it was spiked by military censors. The discovery of reporter George Weller's firsthand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombing on Japan.

Crisis And Disintegration Of The Arroyo Fascist Regime In The Philippines

Ang sagot sa dahas ay dahas, kapag bingi sa katwiran."[The answer to force is force if the other party is deaf to reason.] – JOSE RIZAL, national hero of the Philippines The end of the Arroyo fascist regime is fast approaching. It is bound to implode in one big catastrophic upheaval that will unleash violence and murderous abuses symptomatic of the decay of the bankrupt neocolonial system. Or it will exit peacefully if disciplined mass mobilization in the Metro Manila area and elsewhere can prevent the regime's deployment of whatever armed elements it can use to postpone its ruin. To be sure, U.S. intervention-military and diplomatic-will try to save its lackeys, or sacrifice them for a new set of servants who will do Washington's bidding-U.S.-tutored military officers and unscrupulous business technocrats tied to transnational financial-corporate interests. Either way, there is no escape from the intensifying crisis of a moribund clientelist system ridden with irresolvable contradictions.

Coup prevented in Belarus - KGB

The Belarusian state security service (KGB) said Wednesday that it had forestalled a coup planned by the opposition, to take place on March 19-20.
KGB Chairman Stepan Sukhorenko said the opposition had intended to gather several thousands of people in the national capital Minsk after the announcement of presidential election results, and to blow up an explosive device during the rally.

Venezuela aims for biggest military reserve in Americas

Around 500,000 Venezuelans will start a four-month military training programme today to turn them into members of the country's territorial guard. They are the first group of a total of 2m Venezuelan civilians who have so far signed up to become armed reservists. By the summer of 2007, Venezuela is likely to have the largest military reserve in the Americas, which is expected to be almost double the size of that in the United States.

Another Iraq story gets debunked

In November 2001, just two months after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, two high-profile U.S. journalists Chris Hedges of the New York Times and Christopher Buchanan of PBS' "Frontline" were ushered to a meeting in a Beirut hotel with a man identified as Jamal al-Ghurairy, an Iraqi lieutenant general who had fled Saddam Hussein.
The high-ranking Iraqi military officer claimed he had witnessed terrorist training camps in Iraq where Islamic militants learned how to hijack airplanes. About 40 foreign nationals were based there at any given time, he said. "We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States," he told the journalists at the meeting arranged by the Iraqi National Congress.


Sowing the Seeds of Delusion
It's the same sappy, frolicsome folktale – over and over. Soldier gets sent off to fight the Empire's war. Soldier gets his limbs blown off. Soldier, however, feels he did the righteous thing – he fought for freedom! Soldier has a great attitude. Soldier is legless but happy. So it's all okay! The CNN interviewer is happy. We all should be happy. Or so we are all told by the dullard media heads.

Propaganda! Iranian Revolutionary Guard Infiltrating Iraq Rumsfeld
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran Tuesday of sending Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces into Iraq, and warned Tehran it was "an error in judgement. They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq, and we know it, and it is something that they will look back on as having been an error in judgement." Pressed to elaborate, Rumsfeld said the Iranians were putting "Quds force-type people," or Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, into Iraq.

Signs Comment: So, according to Rumsfeld, if there is civil war in Iraq, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the US occupation. It is because Saddam had a repressive regime and the Iranians are stoking the flames.

Trouble is, there will be people who believe, and a compliant media that does nothing to show what a pack of lies it is. Think of how outrageous these lies are. Yet the psychopath can lie like he breathes, as naturally as possible. Until people are willing to stand up for the truth and demand an end to the lies, until people's lives are affected more directly - that is, until their lives fall apart - nothing will change.

Rummy, Cheney, and much of the rest of the Bush gang have a long history of inventing threats to further their imperialist goals. See the following article...

By Thom Hartmann
Common Dreams
13 Feb 06
Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are at it again.
Last week, Rumsfeld told the press we should be preparing for "the Long War," saying of the war this administration has stirred up with its attack on Iraq that, "Just as the Cold War lasted a long time, this war is something that is not going to go away."  The last time Rumsfeld talked like this was in the 1970s, in response to the danger of peace presented by Richard Nixon.

Scarborough: NJ high school "slandering the commander in chief at a time of war"
Summary: In a discussion about a class project at a New Jersey high school involving the mock trial of President Bush for war crimes, Joe Scarborough said: "This isn't about free speech. This is about slandering the commander in chief at a time of war."

NSA Tech Tracks Down Web Surfers
DefenseTech
The NSA already knows how to find out where you're surfing from. Now, it wants to share its secret with online advertisers. There are a couple of services that can match Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses to physical locations. But the technique isn't exactly iron-clad. Routing traffic through a server in some other country, for example, can throw these programs off the trail.

State department highlights its own human rights failings
The US State Department issued its annual report detailing human rights shortcomings around the world yesterday - and for the first time referred to its own failings in that field. As usual, the study focuses on foreign countries, highlighting a familiar list of transgressors, headed by North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, and Burma as well as China, where harassment and harsh treatment of people seen as threats to the government increased in 2005. But after massive international criticism of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and other secret CIA-run detention centres, and the US practice of "extraordinary rendition" of terror suspects, the State Department has had little choice but to turn the spotlight - however briefly - closer to home.
 
Signs Comment: Given the countless reports of torture and spying employed by the Bush Regime, the State Department's "criticism" is severely muted.

The Biggest Problem We've Got Is People Don't Study Imaginary History
Here's Donald Rumsfeld being interviewed last Friday:
PLUM TV: [How] are people going to change the way they're thinking about this war, and to change the public perception?

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: I think the biggest problem we've got in the country is people don't study history any more. People who go to school in high schools and colleges, they tend to study current events and call it history.

There's never been a popular war...Franklin Roosevelt was one of the most hated people in the country and he was President of the United States. He was Commander in Chief. He did a terrific job.
So, during World War II, "Franklin Roosevelt was one of the most hated people in the country"? Maybe some history would come in handy here.

FREE SPEECH ON THE RUN IN THE WEST
Law professor Eugene Volokh calls it "censorship envy." Muslims in Europe want the same sort of censorship that many nations now offer to other aggrieved groups. By law, 11 European nations can punish anyone who publicly denies the Holocaust. That's why the strange British historian David Irving is going to prison. Ken Livingstone, the madcap mayor of London, was suspended for four weeks for calling a Jewish reporter a Nazi. A Swedish pastor endured a long and harrowing prosecution for a sermon criticizing homosexuality, finally beating the rap in Sweden's Supreme Court.

US found guilty of violating Shoshone human rights

Bernice Lalo says the Shoshone Nation is being "threatened by extinction." But a landmark decision Friday by a UN committee is causing some Western Shoshone's to have hope. The United States was urged to "freeze", "desist" and "stop" actions being taken or threatened to be taken against the Western Shoshone Peoples of the Western Shoshone Nation, in a Friday decision by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The U.S. has until July 15, 2006 to provide the UN committee with information on the action it had taken.

O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts
Newly retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took on conservative Republican critics of the courts in a speech Thursday. She told an audience at Georgetown University that Republican proposals, and their sometimes uncivil tone, pose a danger to the independence of the judiciary, and the freedoms of all Americans.

Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship
Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary. In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges. Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

Dictatorship is the danger

A Reagan-appointed supreme court justice voices her fears over attacks on US democracy. Linking the words "America" and "dictatorship" is a daily staple of leftwing blogs, which thrive on the idea that Bush administration policies since 9/11 are taking the country ever closer to totalitarian rule. Liberal fears that democracy is endangered by Republicans in Congress are so widespread, so endemic to the jittery political climate in the US, that they hardly bear repeating. It'll surprise no one to learn that another voice was added to the chorus last Thursday, warning that recent attacks on the American judiciary were putting the democratic fabric in jeopardy and were the first steps down the treacherous path to dictatorship.

BUSH WANTS RELIGIONS TO HAVE ROLE IN HIS POLICE STATE

Here's a US Presidential Order (13397) to 'expand opportunities for faith-based and other community organizations and to strengthen their capacity to better meet America's social and community needs' [in homeland security]. First and foremost DHS is tasked with creating a 'Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives'. This center is supposed to be in effect no less than 45 days from the issuance of the prez order. So look for the new org on April 20th or somewhere thereabout. . . Snip from the text of the order:

American Bar Association-accuses President Bush, of violating both the Constitution and federal law.
American Bar Association
02/13/06
Full text American Bar Association Task Force Report
Adopted By The House Of Delegates
RESOLVED, that the American Bar Association calls upon the President to abide by the limitations which the Constitution imposes on a president under our system of checks and balances and respect the essential roles of the Congress and the judicial branch in ensuring that our national security is protected in a manner consistent with constitutional guarantees

There Are Criminals, and Then There Are CRIMINALS

As I lie here in bed recuperating from the injuries that I received from a federal agent and the NYPD in front of the US Mission to the UN (USUN) the other day, I have had time to reflect on the experience, the state of our union and its descent into a fascist state. When the four of us. Missy Beattie, Rev. Patricia Ackerman, Medea Benjamin, and I, were arrested the other day, I was singled out for federal police brutality. The other three ladies were picked up, noth gingerly, though, and I was dragged across the pavement and treated very, very roughly-having both arms wrenched out from beneath me. I looked to my doctor as if I had been beaten. My daughter, Janey, asked if I had been resisting arrest, I told her if one considers going into a fetal position and saying, "Please don't hurt me anymore!" resisting, then I guess I was.

FBI Grills Professor Over Support for Venezuela

A Pomona College professor who is an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Venezuela was questioned on March 7th by two agents from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in what he calls an act of intimidation. The detectives visited Miguel Tinker-Salas during his office hours at about 2:40 or 2:45 pm Wednesday. They questioned him for about 20 minutes in his office at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. The detectives identified themselves but their names are being withheld at the request of the FBI.

More news but less depth in US media: study

A study of U.S. news media concludes that consumers have more places than ever to get their news but fewer stories are being covered and with less depth. The Project for Excellence in Journalism made the observations in its annual State of the News Media report, which analyzes coverage in U.S. papers, television broadcasts and websites. The study was released Sunday.

Lap Dogs of the Press
Of all the unhappy trends I have witnessed - conservative swings on television networks, dwindling newspaper circulation, the jailing of reporters and "spin" - nothing is more troubling to me than the obsequious press during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. They lapped up everything the Pentagon and White House could dish out - no questions asked.
 
Signs Comment: Yeah. Sure. They fell down on the job. And none of them are touching the Motherlode, that of 9/11 - not even Helen Thomas and the gatekeepers at The Nation. Getting a little antsy is what passes for hardhitting journalism today. It is good that Helen Thomas has the courage to confront McClellan on the generous "invitation" offered to US troops to serve as protection while the US and its cronies ransack the two countries and kill its people. But what about looking behind the smokescreen? What about lifting the veil on the crime that set it all off?

Plame's identity, if truly a secret, was thinly veiled
The question of whether Valerie Plame's employment by the Central Intelligence Agency was a secret is the key issue in the two-year investigation to determine if someone broke the law by leaking her CIA affiliation to the news media. Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald contends that Plame's friends "had no idea she had another life." But Plame's secret life could be easily penetrated with the right computer sleuthing and an understanding of how the CIA's covert employees work.

Signs Comment: The Bush protection racket is going into work to defend Libby et al from prosecution. Given that the CIA is a legalized version of the mob, we don't have any particular qualms about an agent being outed. What is curious in this case is that Plame, as the story suggests, had official links with the Agency that could be uncovered easily. Which makes it interesting that she was the one chosen to be outed, and it fits into Citizen Spook's hypothesis that Wilson and Plame were in on it from the start.

Mommy and Daddy

Politics is the way we work out our collective national psychology -- if you believe in such a thing (and I do). American politics have fallen into a gothic family melodrama, and the theme is the same one being played out on the micro level all over the country: failed parenting. The Republicans have made themselves into the Daddy Party and the Democrats have become Mommy and both are failing.

The Crime of Being a Muslim Charity
The Treasury Department is playing target practice with American Muslim charities. On Feb. 19 Treasury seized the assets and froze the operations of KindHearts, a Toledo-based humanitarian organization, acting on the dubious allegation that it is financing terrorism. Someone from Treasury once told us, "There are folks here who look at you guys like notches on their belts . . . just waiting to take the next one out."

Justice Department looks at lawyers
The Justice Department is investigating its lawyers' conduct in sending terrorism suspects to jail when there was insufficient evidence to charge them with a crime.

FBI Spied on Pittsburgh Pacifists, Papers Show
FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the Iraq war, part of an "unprecedented campaign" to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.
FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice at anti-war demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.

Web search blows CIA spooks' cover

Personal details of thousands of CIA staff can be found online, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. The information, which includes details of undercover operatives and 'secret' CIA facilities, can be purchased using internet services that search publicly available government information.

Biometric Data Keeps Captured Terrorists Behind Bars

A high-tech Defense Department identification system has linked some captured terrorists to previous crimes and prevented their release from overseas detention facilities, senior defense officials said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing here March 10.
"I understand that the (defense) department is collecting biometric information from individuals detained in Iraq and for forensic investigations of (improvised explosive device) attacks," Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the SASC's emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee, said to Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland security.

Muslim students condemn UK newspaper spy ploy

The umbrella organization of Muslim student groups Tuesday condemned a British weekly newspaper for reportedly offering cash to students to spy on Islamic Society meetings. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in the UK and Eire said that the action of the Mail on Sunday will do nothing to help alleviate the concerns of Muslim students. "This comes at a time when Muslim students are already feeling threatened on university campuses, having been banned from wearing the veil at Imperial College, London, and from forming an Islamic Society at Matthew Boulton College, Birmingham," Fosis said. In a recent expose, the newspaper was caught offering student reporters at the London Student Newspaper cash in return for infiltrating Islamic Society meetings in an attempt to report claims of Islamic radicals being active on campuses.

U.S. Exclusive: Moazzam Begg Describes Abuse at Bagram and Guantanamo and Witnessing the Killing of Two Fellow Detainees
[...] former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg was imprisoned for three years without charge by the United States at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and Guanatanmo Bay in Cuba.

Trial by spin machine

The innocence of British Muslims released from Guantánamo is a story no official wants told. The coincidental release of Michael Winterbottom's prize-winning film about the young men from Tipton, Road to Guantánamo, and Moazzam Begg's book, Enemy Combatant, predictably brought the US and British spin machines into full swing last week - so that anyone reading the book or seeing the film would have got the idea that these men may have been badly treated, but they certainly were not innocent. Last week the Daily Telegraph flagged an exclusive on its front page. "Begg told FBI he trained with al-Qaeda," was the headline over a full-page article by Con Coughlin, the paper's security correspondent, using an FBI report which, as Begg's book explains, was written by two FBI agents. After Begg had been tortured, threatened with death, offered a job undercover by the CIA, and come to believe he would never see his family again, he signed the "confession", confident that it was so illiterate and inconsistent that no court of law would accept it as having been written by an educated man such as himself. Coughlin had a copy of the book from the publishers, so - assuming he read it - knew all this as he prepared his piece, which has so damaged Begg.

Iran and Bird Flu: The Perfect Casus Belli?
The casus belli against Iran is about to be unveiled. You may call it the modern equivalent of Pearl Harbor, and it has already occurred without you even noticing. Iran is attacking us with air-delivered weapons of mass destruction, and we have no choice but to respond in kind. Unless we act immediately, the next wave of Iran's deadly chirping missiles will be launched in the next few weeks from the Iranian wetlands toward their targets in Scandinavia and Alaska, and from there will extend their deadly effect, killing millions throughout the Western world.

Hotel U.S.A.- Concentration Camps
The government's plans for an 'immigration emergency' include relocation and detention centers -- courtesy of Kellogg, Brown and Root. Some time between now and 2010, the U.S. government expects some uninvited guests -- a massive influx of undocumented immigrants. In preparation for their arrival, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) backed the National Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which mandates 40,000 new beds and barracks for foreign-born refugees at four undisclosed locations over the next five years.

Is the Pentagon building U.S.-based prison camps for Muslim immigrants? Evidence points to the possibility.

Signs Comment: Not only Muslims, just as the camps in Nazi Germany were not used exclusively for Jews. Dissidents formed a large segment of the population...

The elite effort to subvert democracy
Elite control to subvert democracy is quite explicit when one sees the great rift between public policy and public opinion. A Pew Research Center poll showed that Americans believed the U.S. should mind its own business internationally. Three of four American troops serving in Iraq agreed, saying they should withdraw and end the war in Iraq, according to a Zogby-Le Moyne College poll surveyed by face-to-face interviews with soldiers. Unfortunately, public opinion does not guide domestic or foreign policy and we won't be leaving Iraq anytime soon. The vice president said that the "War on Terror" is a "war which will not end in our lifetimes."

By Abid Ullah Jan
5 Jan 98
In his book "The Road to Serfdom," Friedrich Hayek warned Americans in 1944 that despite their military war against Nazis, they were travelling the philosophical and economic road to that the Nazis were travelling. The Americans ignored that warning. Now along the Americans we are left with the consequences that are coming home to roost in the nineties: a government of omnipotent size and power using its power to kill innocent, peaceful citizens at home and abroad. Today, the number of its victims is in the millions. But at the end of this road lie the deadly bombing and concentration camps for the multitudes.

Flashback: Machiavellian Realism and U.S. Foreign Policy: Means and Ends
By Howard Zinn, 1991
from the Zinn Reader
While teaching courses in political theory at Boston University, and fascinated by the figure of Machiavelli, I came across the remarkable volume by Ralph Roeder, The Man of the Rennaisance, with its brilliant portraits of the dissident Savonarola and the toady Machiavelli. At the same time I noted the respect with which Machiavelli was treated by people on all parts of the political spectrum. The Vietnam War led many people, including myself, to look more closely at the history of United States foreign policy, and to me there was a distinct Machiavellian thread running through that history. This essay appeared in my book Declarations of Independence (HarperCollins,1991).

US general says no proof Iran behind Iraq arms
The top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday the United States does not have proof that Iran's government is responsible for Iranians smuggling weapons and military personnel into Iraq.
President George W. Bush said on Monday components from Iran were being used in powerful roadside bombs used in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel had been inside Iraq. Asked whether the United States has proof that Iran's government was behind these developments, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing, "I do not, sir."

Ritter: We Went To War Based On A Lie
Former United Nation's weapons inspector Scott Ritter told several hundred people at the University of Colorado Wednesday night that the war in Iraq was based on a lie.
"The foundation of our involvement in Iraq is as corrupt as you can possibly imagine," Ritter said. "We went to war on a lie." He compared himself to the detective character Columbo. Ritter said he thought it was his job to uncover the truth in Iraq and find weapons of mass destruction during the 1990s. "So when you hear that 'we believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,' I'm here to tell you right now the CIA knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Half of Americans Say Bush Misled on WMD's

Many adults in the United States remain sceptical of their government's justification to launch the coalition effort in Iraq, according to a poll by Gallup released by CNN and USA Today. 51 per cent of respondents believe the Bush administration deliberately misled the American public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein's regime was launched in March 2003. At least 2,311 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 17,100 troops have been wounded in action.."

Shut Down the Prisons and Shut Up the Warmongers

Remember those big headlines last week about Abu Ghraib? According to the media splash, the US was preparing to close those notorious chambers within three months. That would mean by June 2006. Well, guess what? Those stories were just another piece of disinformation.

The U.S. Gulag Prison System - The shame of a nation and a crime against humanity
No, not the one you think, outrageous as it is.? I'm referring to the US prison system that's with no exaggeration about as shockingly abusive as the gulag abroad.? It qualifies for that label by its size alone - more than 2.1 million as of June, 2004 and growing larger by about 900 new inmates every week.? Blacks (mostly poor and disadvantaged) especially are affected.? While they make up just 12.3% of the population, they account for half the prison population, and their numbers there have grown fivefold in the last 25 years.? Hispanics (also poor) account for another 15%.

200,000 (probably innocent) people are listed in terror suspect database

Police and other government workers in the U.S. have come in contact with terrorists or people suspected of foreign terror ties more than 6,000 times in the past 28 months, the director of the federal Terrorist Screening Center said Tuesday.
The encounters in traffic stops, applications for permits and other situations have resulted in fewer than 60 arrests, said Donna Bucella, whose agency maintains a list of 200,000 people known or suspected to be terrorists. The list contains an additional 150,000 records that have only partial names, Bucella said.


Pink Slips Abound for Prosecutors and Therapists: Humanity Suffers the Savagery of the American Empire's Post 9/11 Worldview
Karl Rove, the mastermind of Bush II's ascension to America's seat of power, is a man of great distinction. Despite his decidedly porcine features, Mr. Rove's Machiavellian lust for power, narcissistic lack of empathy, sycophantic devotion to the Bush crime family, deceitful nature, and conniving mind coalesce to leave the Prince looking like a pauper.

The End Of Civilization

Now, if you are the government (and I don't mean Tom "I am the federal government" DeLay), and your experts tell you that civilization as we know it is doomed, what do you do? Well, for starters, you do not tell your population of sheeple. That would precipitate panic and result in premature doom, which would consume the government along with everything else. Above all, government seeks to survive, so you would maintain the facade of normalcy for the benefit of your population while you use what time you have left to prepare, as quietly as possible, for the inescapable future.

Poll: 46% of Americans favor plan to censure - 42% favor Impeachment

A new poll finds that a plurality of Americans favor plans to censure President George W. Bush, while a surprising 42% favor moves to actually impeach the President. A poll taken March 15, 2006 by American Research Group found that among all adults, 46% favor Senator Russ Feingold's (D-WI) plan to censure President George W. Bush, while just 44% are opposed. Approval of the plan grows slightly when the sample is narrowed to voters, up to 48% in favor of the Senate censuring the sitting president. Even more shocking is that just 57% of Republicans are opposed to the move, with 14% still undecided and 29% actually in favor. Fully 70% of Democrats want to see Bush censured. More surprising still: The poll found fully 43% of voters in favor of actually impeaching the President, with just 50% of voters opposed. While only 18% of Republicans surveyed wanted to see Bush impeached, 61% of Democrats and 47% of Independents reported they wanted to see the House move ahead with the Conyers (D-MI) resolution. The poll, taken March 13-15, had a 3% margin of error.

Embargoes on global arms trade have been total failure, says UN

All United Nations arms embargoes have been breached with impunity, with only a handful of the weapons traffickers responsible for the trade in death ever facing prosecution, according to a report. Despite the UN naming hundreds of companies - including those in Britain - for allegedly violating embargoes imposed on countries engaged in bloody conflicts and repression, the system for bringing them to book has abjectly failed.

Animal Farm: Former top U.S. general gets $200,000-a-year board gig

Recently retired Gen. Richard Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who led the Pentagon into war with Iraq, hasn't stayed out of work long. Better_myers . Northrop Grumman, one of the nation's largest and best-known defense firms, announced Wednesday that Myers, an Air Force veteran and former fighter pilot, has joined its board of directors.

The Matthews Speaking Fee Controversy

UPDATE: On Thursday, we were contacted by MSNBC President Rick Kaplan who elaborated the blanket denial ("Totally untrue… totally") he provided to ThinkProgress pre-publication. According to Kaplan, while these groups may have paid fees for Matthews to speak, the fees did not go to Matthews directly, but to a charity of Matthews's choosing. Kaplan added that NBC policy prohibited anchors from personally accepting speaking fees and anyone who did so "would risk being fired."

For folly, billions; for survival, pennies - Bush bankrupts the nation paying for a needless war -- while cutting budgets that could protect us against catastrophes like bird flu.

Lavishing billions on war (and war profiteers) while shortchanging health is right-wing idiocy at its worst and most destructive -- and we may soon pay an intolerably high price for it.

NYC cops used covert tactics, 'proactive arrests' at protests
In five internal reports made public Thursday as part of a lawsuit, New York City police commanders candidly discuss how they had successfully used "proactive arrests," covert surveillance and psychological tactics at political demonstrations in 2002, and recommend those approaches be employed at future gatherings. Among the most effective strategies, one police captain wrote, was the seizure of demonstrators on 5th Avenue who were described as "obviously potential rioters."

A Collapsing Presidency - Will it take the country down with it?

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that President Bush's support among the American people has fallen to 33 percent. Even more devastatingly, the survey finds that people's most frequently used one-word description of President Bush is "incompetent." The chief chaplain for the New York City Corrections Department told a Tucson audience that "the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House." Two years ago when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was suppressing demonstrations at the Republican National Convention, the chief chaplain would have been fired for his remarks, but not today. Abroad among peoples who formerly looked to America for leadership, American atrocities in Iraq have created sympathy and support for the Iraqi resistance.

Consequences of a War State
War consists of killing people and destroying property. That's all there is to war. Any honest soldier will tell you the same thing: His job is to kill people and destroy property. That's true of all branches of the service. The difficult question is, When is a nation justified in making the decision to kill other people and destroy their property? I think the rule is the same as it is for individuals. You are justified in killing only in defense of your own life or the lives of others for whom you are responsible.

Living in Illusion: A Powerful New Voting Block Emerges - The Anti-War Movement Becoming a Political Force That Cannot Be Ignored

A new national poll shows that a near majority of voters either strongly or somewhat agree with a pledge not to vote for pro-war candidates. This makes the anti-war movement's potential impact on elections larger than pro-gun, anti-abortion, or anti-gay marriage voters. Politicians will have to pay heed to this new political force.

The Letter of the Law - The White House says spying on terror suspects without court approval is ok. What about physical searches?
In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval.

Bombs and Butchers - "Where Do We Get Such Men?"

The question posed in our title rings historical and true, and nine out of ten readers might surmise it refers to the Marines at Khe Sanh, or perhaps the boys of Pointe du Hoc, or possibly the lost battalion almost 90 summers ago in the fields of France. But it is artifice, a quote from a movie based on James Michener's novel, The Bridges of Toko-ri. It rings true because we think it ought to be true: because it tidies up the sordid and disjointed reality of violence in the name of a cause. This process is behind the confidence trick of how the state mystifies and glorifies its underhanded acts. In war, we are supposed to think of Audie Murphy, or Alvin York, or Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain as typical exemplars. We should indeed think of such men, and honor their deeds. But due diligence requires we think of other men, whose acts in the name of the state, the state that acts in your name, were more important--meaning more consequential for our history.

Polls show public want Australian troops out of Iraq

A new opinion poll out today suggests that almost two thirds of people in this country want Australian troops to leave Iraq within the next couple months.
The research, by public affairs firm Hawker Britton, was conducted at the same time that Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was announcing that Australian soldiers would remain with the US-led Coalition well into next year. And today the Federal Labor Party has said that Australia's "open commitment" is unwise and that the troops should be brought home. Labor's Defence Spokesman Robert McClelland has been speaking to reporter Gillian Bradford about the survey.

The Letter of the Law - The White House says spying on terror suspects without court approval is ok. What about physical searches?
In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval.

Orwell's Internal Revenue Service
The IRS's proposed rule change will allow tax preparers to sell -- uh, 'safeguard' -- your data.

Mysterious Photographers of Nothing- Life in the Shadows of the Empire

"It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."
--Sandra Day O'Connor, March 9, 2006

I help publish a small, nonprofit, independent newspaper in western North Carolina called the Asheville Global Report. We print under-reported news that casts an often-critical eye on the doings of our government at home and abroad, in the hope that our fellow citizens will find the inspiration and motivation to hold our government accountable. In doing so, our explicitly nonpartisan goal has always been to fulfill the traditional role of the press in a democratic society.

Bush staffers ejected 3 at speech - Because of anti-Bush Bumper Stickers
A White House staff member was responsible for asking three people to leave President Bush's town-hall meeting in Denver a year ago, a U.S. Secret Service agent said during an internal investigation of the event. The Secret Service was investigating the complaints of the three people, who said they were ousted from the Bush event last March because their car's bumper sticker criticized his foreign policy.

Pulled over in Kansas? Get ready to show your license, registration - and fingerprints

If you are stopped by police in Kansas, don't be surprised if the officer pulls out a little black box and takes your fingerprints.

N.Y.C.'s crime fight to get more eyes

New Yorkers, get ready for your closeup. The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city - and pushing to safeguard lower Manhattan with a "ring of steel" that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day, authorities revealed yesterday.

Signs Comment: "It is far from clear that cameras deter crime." They sure didn't prevent a nice false flag operation in London, did they??


Roberts Dissent Reveals Strain Beneath Court's Placid Surface

A Supreme Court decision on Wednesday in an uncelebrated criminal case did more than resolve a dispute over whether the police can search a home without a warrant when one occupant gives consent but another objects.


New mental health detention plans

Plans to extend powers of compulsory detention to mental health patients deemed a risk to themselves or others have been unveiled by ministers

The Measure of Meritocracy
Lani Guinier became a household name in 1993 when Bill Clinton appointed her to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and then, under pressure from conservatives, withdrew her nomination without a confirmation hearing. Guinier is currently the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard University where, in 1998, she became the first black woman to be tenured at the law school. Her latest book, "Meritocracy Inc.: How Wealth Became Merit, Class Became Race, and College Education Became a Gift from the Poor to the Rich," will be published in 2007. This past summer, she offered a glimpse of her upcoming book.

The Patriot Act and Attention Deficit Democracy

The American political system failed when Congress and the media recently rolled over in favor of extending the most onerous provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Despite stark evidence of both the law's abuses and widespread popular opposition, Bush got a rubber-stamp extension of a law that has come to symbolize boundless government intrusions since 9/11.

The Untied States of America

Author Juan Enriquez warns that the most fundamental myths that hold America together are in jeopardy.

California Town Is Latest Site Of U.S. Terrorism Prosecution

Naseem Khan blended right into the Pakistani community when he moved to this quiet farming area south of Sacramento. An immigrant who spoke Pashto and Urdu, he had lived there briefly once before, made friends easily and attended the local mosque.
Today, Khan's anonymity is long gone. The convenience store clerk-turned-FBI informant is the star prosecution witness in the trial of Umer and Hamid Hayat, a father and son accused, respectively, of supporting terrorism and lying about it to the government.


Clinton vows to block bill criminalizing illegal immigrants
Invoking Biblical themes, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton joined immigration advocates Wednesday to vow and block legislation seeking to criminalize undocumented immigrants.
Clinton, a potential 2008 presidential candidate and relative latecomer to the immigration debate, made her remarks as the Senate prepares to take up the matter next week. Clinton renewed her pledge to oppose a bill passed in December by the House that would make unlawful presence in the United States - currently a civil offense - a felony. The Senate is set to consider a version of that legislation, as well as several other bills seeking to address the seemingly intractable issue of immigration reform. Surrounded by a multicultural coalition of New York immigration advocates, Clinton blasted the House bill as "mean-spirited" and said it flew in the face of Republicans' stated support for faith and values. "It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," Clinton said, "because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."

Scientist discovers that evolution is missing from Arkansas classrooms.
In the fall of 2004, I received an e-mail from an old friend back in Arkansas, where I was raised. She was concerned about a problem her father was having at work. "Bob" is a geologist and a teacher at a science education institution that serves several Arkansas public school districts. My friend did not know the details of Bob's problem, only that it had to do with geology education. This was enough to arouse my interest, so I invited Bob to tell me about what was going on. He responded with an e-mail. Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the "e-word" (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word "adaptation" but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term "natural selection." Bob feared that not being able to use evolutionary terms and ideas to answer his students' questions would lead to reinforcement of their misconceptions.

FBI, police spying is rising, groups allege:

The ACLU has filed Freedom of Information requests for more than 150 groups and individuals.

By Geoff Metcalf
WorldNetDaily.com
CNN employed active duty U.S. Army psychological operations personnel last year, WorldNetDaily has confirmed through several sources at Fort Bragg and elsewhere. Maj. Thomas Collins, U.S. Information Service has confirmed that "psyops" (psychological operations) personnel, soldiers and officers, have worked in the CNN headquarters in Atlanta. The lend/lease exercise was part of an Army program called "Training With Industry." According to Collins, the soldiers and officers, "... worked as regular employees of CNN. Conceivably, they would have worked on stories during the Kosovo war. They helped in the production of news."  When asked if the introduction of military personnel into a civilian news organization was standard operating procedure, one source said, "That question is above my pay grade ... but I hope so. It's what we do."

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement:

When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.

Homeland security group to meet away from public eye

A new advisory committee in the Homeland Security Department is free to disregard a law designed to keep meetings open and proceedings public, according to a departmental notice. The newly created Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council is charged with sharing information aimed at protecting the nation's infrastructure, cybercomponents included. Michael Chertoff, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary, cited security reasons when he signed off on exempting the council from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or FACA.

Murder of Virginia Doctor Raises Concern At Police Tactics

The recent killing of an unarmed Virginia doctor has raised concerns about what some say is an explosion in the use of military-style police Swat teams in the United States. Armed with assault rifles, stun grenades - even armoured personnel carriers - units once used only in highly volatile situations are increasingly being deployed on more routine police missions. Dr Salvatore Culosi Jr had come out of his townhouse to meet an undercover policeman when he was shot through the chest by a Special Weapons and Tactics force. It was about 2135 on a chilly January evening. The 37-year-old optometrist was unarmed, he had no history of violence and displayed no threatening behaviour.

Death in the Afternoon

I have purloined the title from Hemingway, but that has nothing to do with him or bullfighting. It does have to do with America and its penchant for using a gun to solve every problem. In case you missed it a teenager was shot and killed in Union Township, Ohio when he made the mistake of walking across a neighbour's lawn last Sunday afternoon. The man who owns the lawn used a .410 shotgun. Witnesses said he fired two shots. The first one brought the young man down, at which point the shooter walked calmly up to his victim and fired the second blast at short range. He then went inside his house and called the cops. Startled? Probably not if you're reading this south of the Canadian border. The article I read went on to list some truly frightening statistics. Frightening, that is, for us normally law-abiding, non-gun-packing, easily scared Northern folk who don't have a Constitution that enshrines the right to arm yourself to the teeth and turn the Bible's admonishment to Love Thy Neighbour into Slay Thy Neighbour.

Surveillance for the Common Man: A Global Infrastructure for Mass Surveillance

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato
Today's news is made up in large part by media hysteria in which the media can enhance their ratings or readership by choosing some random subject with a plethora of potential "talking heads" without doing any substantive research into newsworthy topics. An example of one of today's media subjects is the mass hysteria generated by president (sic) Bush's admission that he authorized illegal wiretaps of American citizens inside the United States. On the surface, this appears to be a subject of concern; and certainly it is a subject of Constitutional concern. However, this invasion of American privacy is certainly not a "first". In fact, this spying on Americans is so common as to hardly be deserving of special mention. The only thing unique about today's "news" is that a whistleblower opened today's government's activities to public scrutiny. But even the Rush Limbaugh's of the airwaves know virtually nothing of the subject of global mass surveillance and certainly have no interest in assigning their research "experts" to exploring a subject that would jeopardize their propaganda role in the eyes of their "dear leader". Even for the very few with the time, fortitude and interest in the subject of legal and illegal surveillance of the global community by cooperating governments, the subject has been made very, very difficult to penetrate by the cloak of secrecy constructed by the consortium of governments involved.

Sending mentally ill soldiers back to Iraq
Reckless disregard for soldiers' welfare and for Iraqi lives. As the US military has difficulties recruiting and retaining soldiers for its never-ending war of occupation in Iraq, the armed services are resorting to increasingly desperate means of coping. The Stop-Loss option in soldiers’ contracts has allowed soldiers to be kept in uniform months or years after their term of service has expired. The National Guard has been sent overseas to a previously unprecedented extent. And military standards have been lowered, so that drug or alcohol abuse, pregnancy, and poor fitness no longer necessarily lead to dismissal of new recruits.

Boy, 8, accused of sexual harassment

Lorain school officials this week executed an "emergency removal" of an 8-year-old boy who they say sexually harassed a girl in gym class.
The boy's mother, Tammy Barth, said yesterday her son was playing in gym on Tuesday when a girl student said he and two other boys may have grabbed her buttocks.

Woman Ticketed For 'Bushit' Bumpersticker

Wow! I was driving in Atlanta (DeKalb County) and I got pulled over by the police. Imagine my utter surprise when the cop told me I had a "lewd decal" on my bumper!

Propaganda! 'Dirty Bombs' Crossed U.S. Borders in Test
Undercover investigators slipped radioactive material - enough to make two small "dirty bombs" - across U.S. borders in Texas and Washington state in a test last year of security at American points of entry.
Radiation alarms at the unidentified sites detected the small amounts of cesium-137, a nuclear material used in industrial gauges. But U.S. customs agents permitted the investigators to enter the United States because they were tricked with counterfeit documents.


US Administration Denies Visa To Award Winning Palestinian human rights advocate
RFK Memorial calls on members of the media and human rights community to ask State Department officials how this could happen

Bush's War of Nerve

He said it on March 24, and March 22 -- and on March 16. And March 9. Oh, and March 13. Did I mention March 21? (He said it four times that day.) He said it March 28. And an "unnamed official" said it on March 29.
He said it at a press conference.
He said it after a cabinet meeting. He said it in Wheeling, West Virginia. He said it at the "Mike Sodrel for Congress and Indiana Victory 2006 Reception." He said it at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner. He said it at the Georgia Republican Party President's Day dinner. (The "unnamed official" said -- well, the reporter who gave him cover wouldn't say where he said it.) In all these comfortable, safe, even plush locations, he said it. But he didn't demonstrate it. What was he talking about? "Nerve."

Pentagon block on move for safer water
The Pentagon stalled efforts to clean water supplies contaminated by a carcinogenic chemical despite evidence that it posed a significant health risk to millions of people, it was reported yesterday. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated the solvent, trichloroethylene, extensively used on military bases, after significant quantities were found in water supplies. In its report, published in 2001, the EPA found it to be 40 times more likely to cause cancer than had been previously thought, and recommended tough safety standards to limit public exposure. There was also evidence the chemical played a role in birth defects.

Signs Comment: Ah yes, this must be the "compassionate conservatism" that they talk about.

U.S. firm offers 'private armies' for low-intensity conflicts

A leading U.S. security firm has offered to provide forces for any counter-insurgency mission around the world.
J. Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA told the Special Operations Forces Exhibition (Sofex-2006), that his company could supply private soldiers to any country. Black, a former U.S. State Department counter-terrorism coordinator, said Blackwater has been marketing the concept of private armies for low-intensity conflicts. "About a year ago, we realized we could do it," Black said.

Army relaxes tattoo rules to attract recruits
The U.S. Army, which missed its recruiting goal last year, has relaxed its policy banning certain types of tattoos in a bid to attract new soldiers who otherwise would have been barred from serving. The Army will now allow new recruits and all its current soldiers to have tattoos on their hands and back of their necks as long as they are not "extremist, indecent, sexist or racist," Army officials said on Wednesday.

Signs Comment: Recruiting problem? What recruiting problem??

Brain drain hits Homeland Security

The Homeland Security Department is losing top managers and rank-and-file employees in a brain drain that could affect morale and the nation's safety, according to members of Congress and labor experts.
Homeland Security is "hemorrhaging on the front lines and higher up," says New York University professor Paul Light, an expert on the federal workforce. The turnover comes amid renewed threats of terrorism and as the department readies itself for another hurricane season.

Primary voting-machine troubles raise concerns for '06

Problems using voting machines in the Texas and Illinois primaries this month have reinforced fears that the 2006 elections may be beset with glitches.
"There's a lot of evidence that some of those fears are coming to pass," says Doug Chapin, president of Electionline.org, a non-partisan group that studies elections. "The theory that new technology results in error seems to be borne out early in the process."


Propaganda! Finding no fault
The Pentagon has once again investigated itself! And - have a seat, get the smelling salts, hold all hats - the Pentagon has once again concluded the Pentagon did absolutely nothing wrong and will continue to do so!

Signs Comment: The above-mentioned Lincoln Group and it's founder Christian Bailey were engaged in placing false information into the Iraqi media, in much the same way that the abovetopsecret forum spreads lies and disinformation around the web. In both cases, it is very clear that this is U.S. government intelligence agency work, aka CoIntelPro.

House Candidate Draws Fire for Web Photo
A congressional candidate is under fire for a Web site photo that purported to show a peaceful Baghdad neighborhood but was actually taken in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey.
"We took this photo of Baghdad while we were in Iraq," the accompanying caption on Howard Kaloogian's Web site read. "Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be." Internet bloggers began questioning the photo earlier this week because none of the signs was in Arabic and billboards were advertising Western products.





Rising Anarchy/Psychopathy

Car bomb kills 23 amid Iraq sectarian bloodshed
At least 23 people were killed in Baghdad car bomb attack a day after a spate of bombings in Iraq left 64 dead amid renewed fears of intercommunal bloodshed.


Violence Continues in Iraq; 26 Killed

Violence raged unabated in
Iraq on Wednesday as bomb attacks killed at least 26 people in Baghdad and mortar rounds fell on homes in a nearby town.

Iraq Sunni clerics blame Shi'ites, US for violence

Iraq's main Sunni Muslim religious organization, accusing the Shi'ite-led government and U.S. forces of involvement in attacks by Shi'ite militiamen, called on Wednesday on the community to protect its mosques.

Bomber Kills U.S. Diplomat in Pakistan
A suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying an American diplomat in Pakistan's largest city, killing four people - including the diplomat - ahead of President Bush's visit to Pakistan.


High school in turmoil over teacher's remarks
Controversy over a high school teacher's comparison of President Bush to Adolf Hitler erupted into a day of turmoil Thursday - with a student protest, a threatened lawsuit and dueling talk shows.
At the center of the storm was Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish, whose lecture in a world geography class last month also included harsh words about capitalism, U.S. foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq. At one point in a 21- minute, 40-second recording of the lecture, Bennish called America "probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth."

Students Protest After Teacher Suspended for Bush-Hitler Comments

A Colorado school is in upheaval following the suspension of a teacher who was recorded comparing President Bush's rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler. More than 100 students at Overland High School in Aurora, Colo., walked out of class this morning to protest the decision to put geography teacher Jay Bennish on administrative leave.

TEACHER WHO COMPARED BUSH TO HITLER REINSTATED...
An Aurora social studies teacher accused of giving a biased lecture that sparked national debate over academic freedom was reinstated Friday after assuring administrators he would give balanced viewpoints in all classroom discussions. Jay Bennish will return Monday to his teaching duties at Overland High School, less than two weeks after Cherry Creek School District administrators placed the 28-year-old on paid administrative leave. Speaking after a meeting with administrators Friday, Bennish said that he was "excited to be back in the classroom" and that he would continue to use his job as a way to "encourage democratic values in our society" and to "promote social justice, just as I have always attempted to do."
 
Signs Comment: Notice that the psychopathic little coward that started the whole thing isn't going back to school... That suggests that a lot more people supported the teacher than the snitch...

Bush goes on 'trial' in Morris - Parsippany students confront issues of terrorism and war

President Bush is being tried for "crimes against civilian populations" and "inhumane treatment of prisoners" at Parsippany High School, with students arguing both sides before a five-teacher "international court of justice." The panel's verdict could come as soon as Friday.
Teacher Joseph Kyle said the "hearing"-- he preferred that term to trial -- opened on Monday in a senior advanced placement government class. The school's principal said he signed off in advance on the subject matter.


Banned and Gagged
By Rose Aguilar, AlterNet. Posted March 8, 2006.
South Dakota's extreme abortion ban is in perfect accord with what the United States has been doing internationally all along.

Tennessee senate wades into abortion fight
The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn't guarantee a woman's right to an abortion.
The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.

Dominos Pizza Founder Planning Unconstitutional Catholic Town
If Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

Running From Roe
South Dakota's extreme new law is making even Republicans squirm; now is the time for Democrats to reclaim the abortion debate.

Miss. House Advances Bill to Ban Abortion
Gov. Haley Barbour said Wednesday he would probably sign a bill under consideration in the state House that would ban most abortions in Mississippi. The measure, which passed the House Public Health Committee on Tuesday, would allow abortion only to save a woman's life. It would make no exception in cases of rape or incest.

South Dakota's All Out Ban on Abortion - The Charge to Overturn Roe Has Begun
South Dakota legislators are taking aim at women's right to choose abortion--and they'll be satisfied with nothing less than total destruction. In the most sweeping anti-abortion measure in 10 years, the state's Senate and House voted last week for legislation that will ban virtually all abortions. Under the bill--which states that "life begins at the time of conception"--a doctor would face a minimum of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for performing an abortion, unless it's necessary to save the woman's life.

Cruise in birth control
TOM Cruise's pregnant fiancée Katie Holmes will be reminded to keep her vow of silence during birth - by signs plastered around their home.
This is as evil as the Yahwist's circumcision on the 8th day.

Signs Comment: I agree that screaming and yelling ought to be minimized, but no talking for 7 days? The time of primary bonding? Guaranteed to create a characteropath. The most important thing for a child is to hear the sounds of the mother's voice right away... So it is with all of nature... that is what bonds... For more on the negative effects of circumcision, see The Wave. Between the followers of Yahweh and the Scientologists, they have the creation of characteropaths down to a very sick science.

Amnesty International: US Taser Deaths Up
The number of people who have died in the U.S. after being shocked by police stun guns is growing rapidly, Amnesty International says in a report that catalogs 156 in the past five years.
Deaths after the use of Taser stun guns have risen from three in 2001 to 61 last year, the international human rights group said. Fourteen have died so far this year, it said, citing police and autopsy reports as well as press accounts.

You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Buys You

Grave robbers are back. Unlike the ghouls of the 1800's who were caked in mud and slithered about cloaked in the dark of night today's ghouls wear Armani and Rolex watches and prance about in the hollowed halls of modern day morgues, the finest universities, the best hospitals, and mortuary offices everywhere. Unlike yesterday's loathsome stealers of bodies nowadays they are more likely the neighborhood mortician or hospital administrator or university professor.

A Very Proud Marine Mom
I've written a lot of columns about Mr. Bush's War on Iraq-first, trying to prevent it; then trying to end it. Along the way, I've been called anti-American, uninformed, stupid, a liar, an idiot, a moron, a commie, and a few things I won't repeat. It has been suggested that I leave America, and I have been accused of delighting in the death of Americans in Iraq. Comments like these don't bother me, but the escalating violence in Iraq and the complete lack of progress in bringing the troops home is disheartening. I had begun to think, "What's the use?"-but then I got a letter from LuAnne. She described herself as "A Very Proud Marine Mom", and she wrote to thank me for writing a column she found posted on a Marine-support website. After exchanging emails, and with her permission; I would like to share some of LuAnne's feelings:

Mein Country - Unforgivable

If any business was run like the government of the United States it would have been out of business long ago. No business could run as a deficit without its board uprising and firing the lot that ran the business. No business would permit blatant false statements and assurances that all was well without serious repercussions. Furthermore, no customer would continue to buy products or services from a business that had a history of poor quality, or poor workmanship, or awful customer service, or a business that was reportedly running in the red and continued to do so.

Radioactive Tank No. 9 comes limping home

Across the plains of Kansas, destroyed, radioactive Abrams tanks, perched on railroad flatcars, rolled towards an uncertain future. Only one thing was certain. They would be radioactive forever. This would be their everlasting death mask. The Pentagon deceptively calls it "depleted uranium."

US records serious rights abuses in Iraq
Three years after U.S. forces invaded Iraq in part to stop human rights violations, a U.S. report said on Wednesday the country was again racked by abuses ranging from arbitrary killings and arrests to torture. In its annual report detailing human rights abuses worldwide, the State Department said in 2005 reports increased of killings by the Iraqi government or its agents and members of sectarian militias dominated many police units. The report did not list any abuses committed by the United States, which has come under strong international criticism for its treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and at a U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Signs Comment: Not only did the report not list any abuses by American forces, it did not mention the fact that agents of the American government are carrying out false flag terror operations in Iraq, including the bombing of shrines and the mass murder of Iraqi civilians.

23 Bodies Found Around Baghdad; Many of Them Handcuffed and Strangled; U.S. Soldier Killed

A U.S. military patrol and Iraqi police discovered 23 bodies many of them handcuffed and strangled in various parts of Baghdad, authorities said Wednesday, while bombings, gunfire and other violence claimed at least seven other lives. Among the reported deaths was a U.S. soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday near the northwestern city of Tal Afar. Four other soldiers were wounded in the attack, the military said.

50 security firm workers kidnapped in Iraq
Gunmen in Interior Ministry commando uniforms stormed the offices of a private security company and kidnapped as many as 50 employees today, while U.S. and Iraqi patrols reported the discovery of 24 shot or garroted bodies in the capital.
Iraq's Shiite vice president, meanwhile, signed a presidential decree calling parliament into session, breaking a major logjam that had delayed the creation of a unity government that U.S. officials hope can curb the unrelenting violence so their forces can start going home in the summer.

Bombs explode on Spanish roads after ETA warning
Two bombs exploded near highways in northern Spain on Thursday after a warning that five devices had been planted by Basque separatists ETA, who have stepped up their violent campaign for independence in recent weeks.
Authorities said the explosions were quite small and there were no reports of injuries.

China hits back at US criticism

Washington said in its annual rights report that China was one of the world's "most systematic" offenders. In return Beijing urged the US to "look squarely" at its own problems, such as a high murder rate and jail population. While China often rejects US criticism of its rights record, this exchange is especially sensitive due to President Hu Jintao's visit to the US next month.

Democracy for breakfast - Twenty years after perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev says the US needs a dose of Russian medicine
Twenty years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev unveiled perestroika and with it the beginning of the end of the cold war, forcing what was then the world's second superpower to take stock of the gap between its grand designs and crumbling infrastructure. But as his 75th birthday passes, "Gorby" has a clear message for his former Iron Curtain adversary. "America needs its own perestroika", he said, suggesting it is the United States that now needs radical reforms and self assessment. "The United States has not found its role after it became the only superpower. Until it gets rid of the victor's complex, it will make more mistakes. The younger Bush made a big error in Iraq."

Islamophobia worse in America now than after 9/11, survey finds - Analysts blame politicians and media coverage
More than half of Americans believe there are more violent extremists within Islam than in any other religion and that the faith encourages violence against non-Muslims, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll yesterday. Negative feelings towards Islam are much more pronounced now than in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 terror attacks, the survey found. A majority, 58%, of those interviewed now believe that Islam has more violent followers than any other religion. The poll of 1,000 was conducted by phone last week and has a three-point error margin. Since January 2002 the proportion of those who believe mainstream Islam promotes violence against non-believers has risen from 14% to 32%.

Egypt tortures for the US, so why not on its own account?
The story of Maajid Nawaz, Ian Nisbet and Reza Pankhurst, the three British Muslims who travelled to Egypt with their families, their detention there, their trial and their release now, almost four years later, encapsulates several elements in the "east-west" or "war on terror" story. Media coverage in the UK has focused on the men's Britishness and whether the British government did enough to help them. As usual, events outside the western hemisphere are presented as though in a void. So here's a pencilling in of the local background.

The Secret War Against The Defenseless People Of West Papua

In 1993, I and four others travelled clandestinely across East Timor to gather evidence of the genocide committed by the Indonesian dictatorship. Such was the depth of silence about this tiny country that the only map I could find before I set out was one with blank spaces stamped "Relief Data Incomplete". Yet few places had been as defiled and abused by murderous forces. Not even Pol Pot had succeeded in despatching, proportionally, as many people as the Indonesian tyrant Suharto had done in collusion with the "international community".

Japan's domestic abuse cases rise - domestic violence was not a crime until October 2001

The number of reported cases of domestic violence in Japan soared to a record high last year - a sign that victims are overcoming cultural taboos that once forced them to stay silent, campaigners say. Police received 16,888 complaints of incidents of abuse, a 17% increase on 2005. The national police agency said this included 87 murders and attempted murders, an increase of 16%.

China's Looming Shadow

Chinese influence is increasing in Latin America and Africa, a phenomenon that could have substantial bearing on America's foreign policy on these regions, say analysts. "America's influence could be seriously eroded," while Chinese influence will only increase, said Stephen Johnson, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Ex-teacher surrenders, frees hostages at French school
A former teacher surrendered Thursday after holding 23 students and teachers hostage at gunpoint in a French high school for several hours.
Intense negotiations led to the standoff being resolved peacefully, police said.

French students revive spirit of 68 - De Villepin refuses to bow to youth pressure

From behind the makeshift barricade of tables, desks and chairs that sealed off the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, a 21-year-old philosophy student crawled out and made his way down to the wall of riot police that kept watch outside one of France's most prestigious faculties yesterday. Florian had been up all night leading angry philosophical debates among the 150 students holding the first "occupation" of the Sorbonne since student protesters took over the building in Paris's Latin Quarter in 1968. On that occasion, it was Vietnam, Algeria and the antiquated rules of their superiors that spurred students to action. These days, it is something far closer to home: unemployment and a hugely controversial government measure to try to combat it.

France backs down on flat-fee plan for file-sharing

France has cut a controversial clause from its copyright bill that would have allowed unlimited file-sharing for a flat monthly fee. The clause, introduced during a poorly attended Christmas week debate on the bill, was withdrawn on Monday and then reintroduced Wednesday evening in debate on a bill to amend France's copyright laws.

Bush's Approval Rating Falls to New Low - fewer Americans consider Bush likable, honest, strong and dependable
More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency. Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq - the bloody hot spot upon which Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February. "Obviously, it's the winter of our discontent," said Rep. Tom Cole (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla.

Americans take their ringside seats for the great conservative crack-up

Nothing loosens the ties of loyalty like the prospect of losing power. After a brief and tepid recovery at the start of the year, President Bush's approval ratings are back in the 30s. Almost two thirds of Americans think their country is on the wrong track. Republicans in Congress are about as popular as Asian ducks on a chicken farm.

Soldiers Back From Iraq, Unable to Get Help They Need
Eugene Simpson doesn't like to complain. Paralyzed in a bomb attack in Iraq, his initial care was excellent, but ever since then he has felt adrift.

"There are thousands of soldiers in worse condition than I am, and they're OK," he said. "They're making it." Getting to the nearest Veterans Administration hospital that can best treat his paralysis means a three-hour roundtrip, and the VA isn't paying for therapists closer to home. So he does without.

House votes to dump state food safety laws

The House approved a bill Wednesday night that would wipe out state laws on safety labeling of food, overriding tough rules passed by California voters two decades ago that require food producers to warn consumers about cancer-causing ingredients.
The vote was a victory for the food industry, which has lobbied for years for national standards for food labeling and contributed millions of dollars to lawmakers' campaigns. But consumer groups and state regulators warned that the bill would undo more than 200 state laws, including California's landmark Proposition 65, that protect public health.

'Washington Post' To Cut 80 Newsroom Jobs, Sources Say
The Washington Post plans to cut at least 80 newsroom jobs through attrition and buyouts, according to sources at the paper who said editors began giving staffers the bad news on Thursday in meetings and continued today. "My understanding is that the editors and managing editors brought this up with other issues of downsizing, but with no layoffs," said one source in the metro staff, which got first word of the news in a meeting Thursday. "It looks like through attrition and buyouts."

Bush Jokes are No longer Funny
There was time when Bush jokes and cartoons were funny. I still maintain a large collection of them myself. But it's difficult to look at them now or those in the papers. It would be like a decent German citizen looking at Hitler cartoons in the Berlin newspapers in 1945, if such were allowed, as Germany was turned into rubble day by day.

Typical political arrogance - George W. Bush has managed to make us miss Bill Clinton.

Saw this bumper sticker while driving to Richmond Thursday:  I prefer a President who only screws interns
Yep. George W. Bush has managed to make us miss Bill Clinton. New polls show Dubya's job approval and personal ratings in the dumpster. His own party revolted against him in the "lets give our ports to the Arabs" deal and we're heading into another hurricane season while still trying to clean up his mess from the last one. As a reporter is said to have asked another President's wife: "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"


Decadent Elite Laugh At Torture During Gridiron Club Dinner - Russert dresses in drag, sings 'rendition' song
The mainstream press is having a hearty chuckle about the capers and the chicanery witnessed at the annual Gridiron Club dinner, a get-together of media and government elites. The highlight was an "amusing" rendition of a torture song by a dragged-up Tim Russert. I for one don't find it funny that a bunch of war criminals and their sycophantic collaborators are cackling and patting each other on the back about the 'hilarious shortcomings' of the administration. Ahhh isn't Cheney cute for shooting a man in the face? Isn't it rollicking that those kids got raped and those Abu Ghraib prisoners were tortured to death?

Republican contenders agree: Let's cut spending - Starting With Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - So We Can Buy More Bombs

 As prospective Republican presidential candidates search for themes to distinguish their prospective campaigns, and distance themselves from the embattled incumbent in the White House, they appear to be in agreement on one central issue for 2008: Curbing the U.S. government spending that has soared under President George W. Bush.
For two days before an audience of Southern Republicans here, the party's potential candidates for 2008 called for cutting or slowing government spending across the board and retooling bedrock entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - that have become a drain on the Treasury.

The U.S. has run amok; former CIA analyst

Corruption has run amok in intelligence circles and the president should be impeached, a former CIA analyst says.
Also, he said, the United States is undergoing a constitutional crisis. "I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture," wrote Ray McGovern in a recent letter as he returned his Intelligence Commendation Award medallion to Congressman Pete Hoekstra, R-MI, and Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

By Laurence Zuckerman
New York Times
18 Mar 02
Many people remember reading George Orwell's "Animal Farm" in high school or college, with its chilling finale in which the farm animals looked back and forth at the tyrannical pigs and the exploitative human farmers but found it "impossible to say which was which." That ending was altered in the 1955 animated version, which removed the humans, leaving only the nasty pigs. Another example of Hollywood butchering great literature? Yes, but in this case the film's secret producer was the Central Intelligence Agency.

Flashback: Zbigniew Brzezinski How the US provoked the Soviet Union into invading Afghanistan
First Published: Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76
Translated from the French by William Blum
Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [From the Shadows], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan six months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct? Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, closely guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Video: The Secret Government - Part I - Bill Moyers, documents U.S. support of terrorist regimes and the brutality of Americas foreign policy.
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Must Watch.

Video: Harper's Magazine Panel on Case Bush Impeachment
Broadcast 03/02/06 C-Span
Harper's Magazine hosts a panel "Is There a Case for Impeachment?", discussing President Bush and his policies. Forum speakers include Lewis H. Lapham, Editor of Harper's Magazine; Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Ranking Member of U.S. House Judiciary Committee; and Michael Ratner, President of Center for Constitutional Rights.

Pa. seizes paper's computer hard disks
- The Attorney General's Office says they may show evidence of a felony: unauthorized use of a restricted Web site. "This is horrifying, an editor's worst nightmare," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington. "For the government to actually physically have those hard drives from a newsroom is amazing. I'm just flabbergasted to hear of this."

Preview of 'Vanity Fair' Article on Plamegate: Too Much of Nothing?

Actually, the only jolt for some readers will come nearly halfway through when they read that the writer of the piece, Marie Brenner, is a good friend of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller-and even helped organize a farewell dinner for her just before she went to jail last year. The article, no surprise, is sympathetic to Miller, and Robert Novak, too, and against prosecutors going after information gained by journalists.
With so little really new in the article, one thing that jumps out is the impact of blogs-principally The Huffington Post--on the Miller case.


U.S. terror hunt targets animal activists

Kevin Kjonaas set up a website with details about businesses that use animals for research information, and now he and five other activists have been convicted of inciting terrorism "This is just the starting gun," says David Martosko, research director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, an organization funded by the U.S. restaurant industry and a fierce opponent of animal rights. He says the government should move against more mainstream organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or the Humane Society of the United States, which he calls "the farm teams for the eco-terror problem." Curiously, for a case with such serious implications, none of those convicted in Trenton is alleged to have carried out any of the substantive crimes laid out in the indictment - from property damage to intimidation.

Injured by Cops: Sheehan Cancels Trip to Europe
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan has canceled a trip to Paris and other European cities because of injuries she allegedly sustained a week ago while being arrested in New York, organizers said Monday.
"We had to cancel Cindy's trip because her doctor said she was not fit to travel," said Elsa Rassbach, of American Voices Abroad, one of the groups that organized the trip. She cited an arm injury and possible concussion.

Nigeria: The Next Quagmire?

If U.S. troops go to Africa, it won't be for a humanitarian intervention; it will be to protect American oil interests in the troubled Niger Delta.

N.Korea army threatens pre-emptive attack
North Korea has the right to launch a pre-emptive attack against U.S.-backed South Korean forces because the two Koreas are technically still at war, the communist state's official media said on Tuesday.
The comments came as North Korea shows its displeasure with annual joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises, which Pyongyang has said are a preparation for an invasion of its territory.


Study in Psychopathy: Detectives 'spent decades as killers for the Mafia', court is told
Two highly decorated former police detectives led double lives of heinous betrayal and corruption for decades, selling information to one of New York's most dangerous crime families and abetting no fewer than eight grizzly underworld murders, prosecutors told a packed courtroom in Brooklyn yesterday. The allegations came in the opening statements of the long-awaited trial of Louis Eppolito, 57, and Stephen Caracappa, 64, who were arrested last March. Already being billed as the most sensational police corruption case to be heard in the city for years, four books about it are in the works and rights have been sold for at least one Hollywood film - and that's even before the verdicts are in.

The Happy People Speak Out - My Night at the Oscars

The wedge issue that has split America in half like a jackhammered lemon is not race, nor class, nor religion. It is not political affiliation. It is a fundamental disagreement about the very nature of reality. For one half of America (a half comprised of approximately twenty percent of its citizens, mostly white, comprised of the very wealthy and clinical sociopaths, two groups that are largely interchangeable), everything is wonderful. We're skull-fucking the darkies and Jesus H. Christ is on his way. For the rest of us, for whom the Savior is not coming, for whom the preservation of the natural order on Earth is important, for whom such abstractions as peace and justice act as tangible safeguards, things kinda suck. It has come down to the Real World versus the Happy People. It is with no relish I confess to membership in the much-maligned reality-based half of this equation.

San Diego NCAA arena evacuated on bomb scare
Police evacuated a San Diego college arena on Thursday, hours before a first-round NCAA championship basketball game, after a bomb-sniffing dog signaled a potential problem at a hot dog stand.

Signs Comment: My god, those dastardly terrorists are using hotdogs as bombs!!

Three die in Denny's shooting

A man opened fire with a pair of handguns at a central California Denny's restaurant at lunchtime on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding two others before apparently taking his own life, police said.


Violence erupts in French student protests

French police used teargas when violence erupted as students turned up the heat on Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin over a jobs law on Thursday, while his government struggled to defuse the crisis.
A kiosk was set on fire and some students threw stones at police at the end of a rally in Paris by several thousand university and high school students. Protests across France have gathered in momentum since hundreds of thousands of protesters turned out on March 7 against the law, which critics say reduces job protection for young people. The protests have been largely peaceful so far.

France braced for student protest

Tens of thousands of French students are expected to take to the streets across France to protest against a controversial new labour law.

Papua mine protesters hack police to death

A mob demanding the closure of the world's largest gold mine today hacked three policemen and a passing air force officer to death, according to Indonesian police in Papua. Two nearby hospitals reported at least 19 people were injured, many with gunshot wounds, in the violent protests against the mine run by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, an American company.

Lebanese forces stifle anti-US protest

Thousands of Lebanese security forces mobilised outside the US embassy to block a demonstration against "American-British collusion" with Israel in a prison raid in Jericho earlier this week.

Greek general strike shuts down country

Greek private and public sector unions launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday in protest against government economic reforms, shutting down most of the country and crippling transport.
Thousands of workers took to the streets as unions staged large rallies in several cities and accused the government, half-way through its four-year term, of penalising workers unfairly with a series of unpopular reforms.


China told to explain military build-up - Condolizzard Pot Calls Kettle Black
America has warned China to come clean on why it is boosting its military, as Condoleezza Rice began her first visit to Australia as US Secretary of State. A meeting with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer marked the start of her three-day visit which will include ministerial-level security talks between the US, Australia and Japan. Before she left the US, the world's most powerful woman indicated the growing influence of China would be a key focus of her talks. And on Thursday she made it clear the US had serious concerns about China's military build-up, highlighted by a 14 per cent increase in its defence budget.

Man Dies in 3rd Shooting at Calif. Denny's
A gunman opened fire at a Denny's restaurant, killing one man and seriously wounding another, police said.
It was the third fatal shooting in as many days at a Denny's in Southern California.


Police: Man Killed Boy For Walking Across Yard
An Ohio man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn has been charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard.
A 911 tape recorded 66-year-old Charles Martin as saying, "I just killed a kid." Martin also told a dispatcher, "I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up."

Death raises concern at police tactics
The recent killing of an unarmed Virginia doctor has raised concerns about what some say is an explosion in the use of military-style police Swat teams in the United States. Armed with assault rifles, stun grenades - even armoured personnel carriers - units once used only in highly volatile situations are increasingly being deployed on more routine police missions. Dr Salvatore Culosi Jr had come out of his townhouse to meet an undercover policeman when he was shot through the chest by a Special Weapons and Tactics force.

Signs Comment:
"The problem is that when you talk about the war on this and the war on that, and police officers see themselves as soldiers, then the civilian becomes the enemy."
And that is exactly what is happening. See the comments in the article text.

Explosion rocks chemistry school in France
A large explosion at a chemistry school in eastern France has killed one person and injured another, news services reported. Fire officials told the Associated Press that the blast, which ignited a fire, occurred on Friday in the city of Mulhouse, near the border with Germany, on the ground floor of the Superior National School of Chemistry.

Even as government prepares to talk, violence rocks Paris

Violence erupted in central Paris again Thursday as rioters took over a protest march over a controversial labour law, hurling rocks and bottles at police and lighting cars and shops ablaze.

L.A. Investigating Alleged Patient Dumping

Authorities are examining a surveillance tape that shows an elderly woman wandering Skid Row in a hospital gown and slippers as they investigate the practice of hospitals and police agencies dumping homeless people downtown.
Carol Ann Reyes, 63, of Gardena, was taken from a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower on Monday to the downtown area known as Skid Row, authorities said. A surveillance camera outside the Union Rescue Mission showed Reyes walking from the direction of a taxi that had just driven away. She wandered the street for about three minutes before a mission staff member brought her inside. City officials have been looking into the alleged dumping of homeless people in Skid Row, a ramshackle area downtown.

Murder-Suicide Shocks Seattle Community

Aaron Kyle Huff lived with his twin brother and delivered pizzas since he moved to Seattle from Montana. An apartment manager said Huff and his brother were ideal tenants, calling them "twin teddy bears." Others who knew him expressed shock when they learned he was suspected of opening fire in a house full of partygoers dressed like zombies in dark clothing and pale makeup, killing six of them and injuring two. He then turned the gun on himself.


US gunman massacres six partygoers

An all-night party in America turned into a scene of mass murder when a gunman shot dead six young revellers before turning the gun on himself. Partygoers - some with faces painted and hair dyed for the occasion - ran for their lives from a rented house in a Seattle suburb. One staggered out of the house with a bullet wound, pursued by a man dressed in black who was carrying a sawn-off shotgun. When a police officer standing in the street told the gunman to put the weapon down, the attacker put the barrel in his mouth and fired. He had also been carrying a handgun and ammunition.

Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike)
Has Latin America ever had such a unifying figure? At political rallies, his visage is held aloft as a beacon to regional independence and self-determination. He's helped forge new trade partnerships to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. And his leadership has fanned a gale-force electoral trend that's sweeping the hemisphere to topple one pro-Washington government after the next. Who is this grand inductor of Latin American leftism? Venezuelan fireball Hugo Chavez? Blue-collar Brazilian Lula Ignacio da Silva? Bolivia's coca-farmer-cum-president, Evo Morales? ¡Epa! It's George W. Bush, the accidental revolutionary.

America's Debt Wish

Late on the evening of March 16th, the Senate passed a record $2.8 trillion budget and increased our national debt limit to a tad below $9 trillion. You may ask what difference it makes that our national debt is trillions of dollars and each citizen's share is $27,981? It makes a lot of difference in terms of the operation of the US government. More importantly, it says a lot about the American psyche.

Seattle killer "clearly intent on homicidal mayhem": police

The 28-year-old man, who killed six young people at a house party over the weekend before turning the gun on himself, was "clearly intent on doing homicidal mayhem," Seattle Deputy Police Chief Clark Kimerer said Monday.


PENN HAS TORTURE DOLL

Hollywood activist SEAN PENN has a plastic doll of conservative US columnist ANN COULTER that he likes to abuse when angry. The Oscar-winner actor has hated Coulter ever since she blacklisted his director father LEO PENN in her book TREASON. And he takes out his frustrations with Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit, on the Barble-like doll. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Penn reveals, "We violate her. There are cigarette burns in some funny places. She's a pure snake-oil salesman. She doesn't believe a word she says."

Ky. Boy, 13, Charged With Threatening Bush
A 13-year-old boy who authorities originally said threatened President Bush actually made the threat against a school, not the president, police said. Police Capt. Linny Cloyd said Tuesday that the teen was being investigated for making threats against Bush, the city of Florence and a school in e-mails sent to the mayor. Bush is scheduled to travel to nearby Cincinnati next week. On Wednesday, Cloyd told the Cincinnati Enquirer the student did not make a direct threat against Bush. Instead, the teen is charged with terroristic threatening for the alleged threat against the school, Cloyd said Wednesday.

TSA Screeners Plead Guilty to Theft
Two security screeners at the Honolulu International Airport pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of yen from the luggage of Japanese tourists. Christopher J. Cadorna, 25, and Benny S. Arcano, 27, admitted being among a group of Transportation Security Administration screeners who stole at least $20,000 from international travelers, prosecutors said. Comment: Great. So now the TSA employees - who are in effect spying on Americans in the name of the "war on terror" - will themselves be spied upon by Big Brother.


Explosive Devices Found in Minn. Home
More than 110 explosive devices and more than 20 pounds of highly explosive materials in a Frost home, in what authorities say was part of a large bomb-making operation. The Faribault County Sheriff's Office said the home was searched as authorities investigated explosions that happened in Albert Lea and other areas in recent days.

Army Bans Use of Privately Bought Armor
Soldiers will no longer be allowed to wear body armor other than the protective gear issued by the military, Army officials said Thursday, the latest twist in a running battle over the equipment the Pentagon gives its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trial opens of youth accused of burning girl alive
A 22 year-old French man went on trial in the Paris suburb of Creteil Friday accused of burning a teenage girl to death in a crime that became an emblem of the sufferings of young women in poor French neighbourhoods.
Prosecutors say that in October 2002 Jamal Derrar doused 17 year-old Sohane Benziane with petrol at the foot of a tower-block in Vitry-sur-Seine, southeast of Paris, and set her on fire. She died two hours later in hospital.





Media Matters and Mind Control

Authors claim Brown 'stole' Da Vinci Code plot
Some might say it is a court case worthy of its subject matter: impenetrable, verging on the farcical and wrapped up in the minutiae of Christian theology. Amid the appropriately neo-gothic setting of the High Court in London, two British-based writers yesterday claimed that The Da Vinci Code, the loosely historical murder mystery, plagiarises a book they published more than 20 years earlier. The two, who specialise in historical conjecture, claim that its author, Dan Brown, cannibalised their text, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, to give his book plausibility and to save himself "time and effort" in independent research.

Kenyan police raid media group following controversial report
Heavily-armed Kenyan police stormed the headquarters of the country's second biggest media group, shutting down its television station and smashing its printing press, following a report President Mwai Kibaki held secret talks with a political opponent, employees said.


Archivist Urges U.S. to Reopen Classified Files
After complaints from historians, the National Archives directed intelligence agencies on Thursday to stop removing previously declassified historical documents from public access and urged them to return to the shelves as quickly as possible many of the records they had already pulled.


'Wash Post' Cites 'Pressure' on Iraq Death Count
A day after reporting a shockingly high death toll in the current sectarian violence -- 1,300, or about four times the official figure -- The Washington Post returned to the subject today. On Tuesday, most other news outlets, including The Associated Press and Knight Ridder, questioned the Post's number, which it had obtained at the Baghdad morgue.


Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars - An Introduction Programming Manual
Operations Research Technical Manual
TW-SW7905.1
SOTT is not certain of the true provenance of this document but it is an interesting read. Says at the beginning: "It is patently impossible to discuss social engineering or the automation of a society, i.e., the engineering of social automation systems (silent weapons) on a national or worldwide scale without implying extensive objectives of social control and destruction of human life, i.e., slavery and genocide. "This manual is in itself an analog declaration of intent. Such a writing must be secured from public scrutiny. Otherwise, it might be recognized as a technically formal declaration of domestic war. Furthermore, whenever any person or group of persons in a position of great power and without full knowledge and consent of the public, uses such knowledge and methodologies for economic conquest - it must be understood that a state of domestic warfare exists between said person or group of persons and the public. "The solution of today's problems requires an approach which is ruthlessly candid, with no agonizing over religious, moral or cultural values. You have qualified for this project because of your ability to look at human society with cold objectivity, and yet analyze and discuss your observations and conclusions with others of similar intellectual capacity without the loss of discretion or humility. Such virtues are exercised in your own best interest. Do not deviate from them. "

Hacks And Spooks - Close Encounters Of A Strange Kind - the links between journalists and the intelligence services

While it might be difficult to identify precisely the impact of the spooks (variously represented in the press as "intelligence", "security", "Whitehall" or "Home Office" sources) on mainstream politics and media, from the limited evidence it looks to be enormous.

CENTCOM Eyes Blogs to Shape Opinion - Admitting COINTELPRO?

In a bid to find new ways to influence public opinion about U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a small media affairs team in Tampa has burrowed into the mushrooming cyber world of blogs and persuaded hundreds of Web sites -- which then link to thousands of other sites -- to post content prepared by military public affairs officials.

Flashback! Rumsfeld sez:today's weapons of war are e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and blogs

The United States lags dangerously behind al Qaeda and other enemies in getting out information in the digital media age and must update its old-fashioned methods, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday.
Modernization is crucial to winning the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide who are bombarded with negative images of the West, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations. The Pentagon chief said today's weapons of war included e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and Web logs, or blogs.

The Secret Cause of Flame Wars

"Don't work too hard," wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic? I think I know (sarcastic), but I'm probably wrong.
According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

U.S. Intel and MOSSAD - uh make that Al Qaeda - Plotting 'Big Bang'

U.S. officials tell CBS News that intelligence has picked up reports that al Qaeda in Iraq is planning what one source calls the "Big Bang," a spectacular terrorist attack in Iraq against either a single high-profile target or multiple targets simultaneously. Last week's mosque bombing in city of Samarra that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war was the work of terrorists, some U.S. officials have theorized. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi seems to be betting that another big bang would push the country over the brink, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin. The bomb in one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims set off violence all across the country that left hundreds dead.

O'Reilly threatens caller

Keith Olbermann's unapologetic digs at disingenuous and media personalities is really beginning to wind Bill O'Reilly up. After Olbermann named him the Worst Person in the World for the second night in a row, O'Reilly began a petition to replace Olbermann. Olbermann responded and the duel is on... Mike Stark decided to add a bit of gas to the fire by calling O'Reilly and mentioning Olbermann's name... O'Reilly promptly cut him off and proceeded to tell him that "we have your phone number by the way" and that he should expect a visit to his door from the local authorities so that "you will be held accountable. Believe it." According to Stark: "It didn't get broadcast - Bill dumped it. This sound comes from the Bill O'Reilly premium membership I just paid for. (I vomited in my mouth as I hit the 'Finalize Order' button). Listen to it [HERE].

EX-CNN ANCHOR BROWN: "THE NEWS IN THIS COUNTRY IS A BUSINESS"

Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown has suggested that television viewers are responsible for the deterioration of broadcast news as much as the TV networks themselves. "In the perfect democracy that I believe TV news is, it's not enough to say you want serious news, you have to watch it," he told an audience in Medford, OR this week. As reported by the Medford Mail Tribune, Brown, speaking to a First Amendment forum, noted that while CNN was spending a fortune covering the 2004 tsunami, Fox News was channeling its resources into the missing teenager Natalee Holloway. The contest, he noted, was won hands down by Fox. The result, he suggested, was not lost on his former employer, CNN. "The news in this country is a business," he said. "You might not like to think of it that way, but it is." He suggested that television, instead of being diverted by scores of late-breaking trivial stories, ought to focus on the 6-10 "really important stories" that occur each day.

FBI WHISTLEBLOWER SIBEL EDMONDS IS READY TO TALK! - 'Gag Ordered' Former Translator Seeks to Tell Congress and the American People What She Knows
Online Petition Launched Calling on Congress to Hold Joint Public Hearings by the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to Finally Allow the Truth of Her Allegations to be Told... She's fought her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the very same day that the façade cracked on the front of the building and a chunk of marble -- just above an allegorical statue representing "Order" and just below the words "Equal Justice" -- came crashing to the ground. The highest court in the land refused to hear her case.

Signs Comment: Don't hold your breath people. With Alito on the court, there's not a chance of a snowball in Hell of overturning that gag order. Sibel's just gonna have to spill the beans illegally and take the consequences of a Fascist government determined to stifle her.

Military to continue to pay Iraqi media to Propagandize (LIE)
The U.S. military will continue to pay Iraqi media to publish reports favorable to American forces following an investigation into the controversial practice, the top U.S. general in Iraq said on Friday. Army Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces there, told reporters in a teleconference from Iraq that the investigation by a Navy admiral ordered by Casey "found that we were operating within our authorities and responsibilities."

Bill to Make Anonymous Internet Posts Illegal - Cure for Libel, Slander and Defamation
ASSEMBLY, No. 1327
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
212th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2006 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman PETER J. BIONDI
District 16 (Morris and Somerset)
SYNOPSIS
Makes certain operators of interactive computer services and Internet service providers liable to persons injured by false or defamatory messages posted on public forum websites.


Hollywood's dirty little secret
It's the scripts that pay a high price when Hollywood goes into battle. Brian Courtis looks at one of the movie world's murkier truths. Well, we've known the rules. We've known them since Errol Flynn liberated Burma without any help from British, Australian or New Zealand forces. Churchill and a few Diggers may have been upset, but the fact is when it comes to Hollywood only the good guys win and, since we're playing with their toys, those good guys must inevitably be Americans. Never let the absurdities of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster. They really do not want to discuss this, of course, in Tinseltown. They still see only their heroes and our villains. And they continue to win everything alone. Remember Steven Spielberg's D-Day spectacular Saving Private Ryan? Someone simply forgot that 72,000 British and Canadian troops were also involved. And if Hollywood is to be believed, it was the Americans who captured the Enigma coding machine from a German submarine; never mind that the Brits were there and accomplished that six months before the Yanks entered the war. Not everything has been quite so eagerly promoted. We hear less, for instance, about the effects of the powerful relationship that has grown over the years between the Pentagon and the Hollywood studios, a partnership that not only can save millions of dollars for filmmakers and produce fine recruiting propaganda for Washington, but can twist history and reality to produce the ultimate in international spin.

France debates legalising Internet downloads
The French government and MPs prepared to do battle Tuesday over a digital copyright bill that could clear the way for the legal downloading of music and movie files from the Internet. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's centre-right government is trying to block MPs from voting to give such permission to Internet users, who would pay a small extra monthly fee to their Internet service provider for the right.

Political bloggers may get federal protection
Bloggers would be largely immunized from hundreds of pages of confusing federal regulations dealing with election laws, according to a bill approved by a House of Representatives panel on Thursday. Democrats had blocked an earlier effort last November to enact the legislation, which would amend federal campaign finance laws to give Internet publishers many of the same freedoms that newspapers and magazines currently enjoy.

The Most Powerful Weapon In The World - Strategic Communication Laboratories and the war for your mind
In a world where the perception is the reality, all countries need to have the capability to manage their own perceptual alignment – otherwise someone else will. We live in a global village, which is reliant on communication and perception. Every country needs the tools to be part of that game. A direct quote from the website of Strategic Communication Laboratories, a London based company that offers "the most powerful weapon in the world", the ability to manage every aspect of a conflict from one operation centre. Take a look around their website and witness sickening quote after quote explaining how their vision is to allow the total control of citizens by their government or their military, to keep it that way, and to facilitate conflicts with and the takeover of other countries and the execution of total control over their citizens. The idea put across by SCL is that if you can control the perceptions people have of reality, then you can control reality itself.

War Pimps and Whores: The 48 Hour Media-blitz for War with Iran
Bush, Cheney, Bolton, Rice, Rumsfeld, Burns, Congress, and Israel. Whoa! That's quite a line-up. All in the last 48 hours! Was it spontaneous or a calculated public-relations campaign?

Media Whore Bill O'Reilly: Blowing Iran "off the face of the earth ... would be the sane thing to do"

On his radio program, Bill O'Reilly stated: "You know in a sane world, every country would unite against Iran and blow it off the face of the Earth. That would be the sane thing to do."

Reuters Claims US Military to Blame for Killing of Reporters - Not Reported in US Media
Reuters, Associate Press (AP), and UPI (United Press International) are the three main English language newswire services used by almost all major media outlets. You will often see them credited in newspapers under the headlines of national and international stories. The global managing editor of Reuters just recently stated that "the US military is entirely to blame for the deaths of three of its employees in Iraq." Though the major Australian newspapers have all reported this huge news, not surprisingly the US press hasn't touched it. The below article is from Australia's ABC network (see link below). Please help to build a better world by spreading this important information.

More news but less depth in US media: study
A study of U.S. news media concludes that consumers have more places than ever to get their news but fewer stories are being covered and with less depth. The Project for Excellence in Journalism made the observations in its annual State of the News Media report, which analyzes coverage in U.S. papers, television broadcasts and websites. The study was released Sunday.

Lap Dogs of the Press
Of all the unhappy trends I have witnessed - conservative swings on television networks, dwindling newspaper circulation, the jailing of reporters and "spin" - nothing is more troubling to me than the obsequious press during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. They lapped up everything the Pentagon and White House could dish out - no questions asked.
 
Signs Comment: Yeah. Sure. They fell down on the job. And none of them are touching the Motherlode, that of 9/11 - not even Helen Thomas and the gatekeepers at The Nation. Getting a little antsy is what passes for hardhitting journalism today. It is good that Helen Thomas has the courage to confront McClellan on the generous "invitation" offered to US troops to serve as protection while the US and its cronies ransack the two countries and kill its people. But what about looking behind the smokescreen? What about lifting the veil on the crime that set it all off?

Plame's identity, if truly a secret, was thinly veiled
The question of whether Valerie Plame's employment by the Central Intelligence Agency was a secret is the key issue in the two-year investigation to determine if someone broke the law by leaking her CIA affiliation to the news media. Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald contends that Plame's friends "had no idea she had another life." But Plame's secret life could be easily penetrated with the right computer sleuthing and an understanding of how the CIA's covert employees work.

Signs Comment: The Bush protection racket is going into work to defend Libby et al from prosecution. Given that the CIA is a legalized version of the mob, we don't have any particular qualms about an agent being outed. What is curious in this case is that Plame, as the story suggests, had official links with the Agency that could be uncovered easily. Which makes it interesting that she was the one chosen to be outed, and it fits into Citizen Spook's hypothesis that Wilson and Plame were in on it from the start.

Mommy and Daddy

Politics is the way we work out our collective national psychology -- if you believe in such a thing (and I do). American politics have fallen into a gothic family melodrama, and the theme is the same one being played out on the micro level all over the country: failed parenting. The Republicans have made themselves into the Daddy Party and the Democrats have become Mommy and both are failing.

The U.S. has run amok; former CIA analyst
Corruption has run amok in intelligence circles and the president should be impeached, a former CIA analyst says.
Also, he said, the United States is undergoing a constitutional crisis. "I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture," wrote Ray McGovern in a recent letter as he returned his Intelligence Commendation Award medallion to Congressman Pete Hoekstra, R-MI, and Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

By Laurence Zuckerman
New York Times
18 Mar 02
Many people remember reading George Orwell's "Animal Farm" in high school or college, with its chilling finale in which the farm animals looked back and forth at the tyrannical pigs and the exploitative human farmers but found it "impossible to say which was which." That ending was altered in the 1955 animated version, which removed the humans, leaving only the nasty pigs. Another example of Hollywood butchering great literature? Yes, but in this case the film's secret producer was the Central Intelligence Agency.

Flashback: Zbigniew Brzezinski How the US provoked the Soviet Union into invading Afghanistan
First Published: Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76
Translated from the French by William Blum
Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [From the Shadows], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan six months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct? Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, closely guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Video: The Secret Government - Part I - Bill Moyers, documents U.S. support of terrorist regimes and the brutality of Americas foreign policy.
Hosted ad Information Clearing House
Must Watch.

Video: Harper's Magazine Panel on Case Bush Impeachment
Broadcast 03/02/06 C-Span
Harper's Magazine hosts a panel "Is There a Case for Impeachment?", discussing President Bush and his policies. Forum speakers include Lewis H. Lapham, Editor of Harper's Magazine; Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Ranking Member of U.S. House Judiciary Committee; and Michael Ratner, President of Center for Constitutional Rights.

Pa. seizes paper's computer hard disks
- The Attorney General's Office says they may show evidence of a felony: unauthorized use of a restricted Web site. "This is horrifying, an editor's worst nightmare," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington. "For the government to actually physically have those hard drives from a newsroom is amazing. I'm just flabbergasted to hear of this."

Preview of 'Vanity Fair' Article on Plamegate: Too Much of Nothing?

Actually, the only jolt for some readers will come nearly halfway through when they read that the writer of the piece, Marie Brenner, is a good friend of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller-and even helped organize a farewell dinner for her just before she went to jail last year. The article, no surprise, is sympathetic to Miller, and Robert Novak, too, and against prosecutors going after information gained by journalists.
With so little really new in the article, one thing that jumps out is the impact of blogs-principally The Huffington Post--on the Miller case.


Censorship of the Worst Kind - The Second Death of Rachel Corrie
I am urging the Royal Court Theatre to sue the New York Theatre Workshop for the cancellation of the production of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie". Not because I donated money for this production, which the Royal Court have been fundraising for--a target of 50,000 pounds, underwritten by Alan Rickman. This is censorship of the worst kind. More awful even than that.It is black-listing a dead girl and her diaries.A very brave and exceptional girl who all citizens, whatever their faith or nationality, should be proud and grateful for her existence. They couldn't silence her voice while she lived, so she was killed. Her voice began to speak again as Alan Rickman read her diaries, and Megan Dodds became Rachel Corrie.Now the New York Theatre Workshop have silenced that dear voice.

McClatchy to buy Knight-Ridder for $4.5 billion
The sale process underlined the difficulty of newspaper publishers fending off competition from Internet news sources, diminishing margins and a series of circulation scandals.

French plan would open iTunes to other devices
France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer Inc to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker's popular iPod player. Under a draft law expected to be voted in parliament on Thursday, consumers would be able to legally use software that converts digital content into any format. It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management -- the codes that protect music, films and other content -- if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another, said Christian Vanneste, Rapporteur, a senior parliamentarian who helps guide law in France.

Trial by spin machine
The innocence of British Muslims released from Guantánamo is a story no official wants told. The coincidental release of Michael Winterbottom's prize-winning film about the young men from Tipton, Road to Guantánamo, and Moazzam Begg's book, Enemy Combatant, predictably brought the US and British spin machines into full swing last week - so that anyone reading the book or seeing the film would have got the idea that these men may have been badly treated, but they certainly were not innocent. Last week the Daily Telegraph flagged an exclusive on its front page. "Begg told FBI he trained with al-Qaeda," was the headline over a full-page article by Con Coughlin, the paper's security correspondent, using an FBI report which, as Begg's book explains, was written by two FBI agents. After Begg had been tortured, threatened with death, offered a job undercover by the CIA, and come to believe he would never see his family again, he signed the "confession", confident that it was so illiterate and inconsistent that no court of law would accept it as having been written by an educated man such as himself. Coughlin had a copy of the book from the publishers, so - assuming he read it - knew all this as he prepared his piece, which has so damaged Begg.

Muslim students condemn UK newspaper spy ploy
The umbrella organization of Muslim student groups Tuesday condemned a British weekly newspaper for reportedly offering cash to students to spy on Islamic Society meetings. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in the UK and Eire said that the action of the Mail on Sunday will do nothing to help alleviate the concerns of Muslim students. "This comes at a time when Muslim students are already feeling threatened on university campuses, having been banned from wearing the veil at Imperial College, London, and from forming an Islamic Society at Matthew Boulton College, Birmingham," Fosis said. In a recent expose, the newspaper was caught offering student reporters at the London Student Newspaper cash in return for infiltrating Islamic Society meetings in an attempt to report claims of Islamic radicals being active on campuses.

Top Iraq war correspondents discuss risking their lives to tell a truth that few want to hear - or believe
"I have lost all faith in the media," says the National Guardsman narrating "The War Tapes," the first war documentary to be filmed entirely by soldiers. A portion of the as-yet-unreleased film about the Iraq war was screened for a UC Berkeley audience last night (March 13) as part of a forum titled "Iraq: Reports from the Frontlines," introduced by San Francisco Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein. That soldier's sentiment was the backdrop for the discussion that followed among five influential journalists who have reported extensively on the Iraq war - and judging by occasional bitterness-tinged heckling, more than a few audience members shared the soldier's viewpoint.


MySpace Is The Trojan Horse Of Internet Censorship- Media elite's last gasp effort to save crumbling empire

MySpace isn't cool, it isn't hip and it isn't trendy. It represents a cyber trojan horse and the media elite's last gasp effort to reclaim control of the Internet and sink it with a stranglehold of regulation, control and censorship. Since Rupert Murdoch's $580 Million acquisition of MySpace in July 2005, it has come from total obscurity to now being the 8th most visited website in the world, receiving half as many page hits as Google, despite the fact that on first appearance it looks like a 5-year-old's picture scrap and scribble book.

Internet means end for media barons, says Murdoch - Power 'moving from the old elite to bloggers'

Rupert Murdoch last night sounded the death knell for the era of the media baron, comparing today's internet pioneers with explorers such as Christopher Columbus and John Cabot and hailing the arrival of a "second great age of discovery". The News Corp media magnate nurtures a long-held distaste for "the establishment" but last night confided to one of the few clubs to which he does belong - The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers - that he may be among the last of a dying breed. "Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry - the editors, the chief executives and, let's face it, the proprietors," said Mr Murdoch, having flown into London from New York after celebrating his 75th birthday on Saturday.

Uncle Chutzpah and His Willing Executioners on the Dire Iran Threat: With Twelve Principles of War Propaganda in Ongoing Service

Back at the time of a major Bush-1 "drug war" in 1989, Hodding Carter pointed out that with increasing attention to the newly declared "crisis" by the administration and media, the public's estimate of the importance of the drug problem rose spectacularly. "Today's big news is the drug war. The president says so, so television says so, newspapers and magazines say so, and the public says so." Today's big news is the possibility that Iran, the Little Satan, might some day acquire a nuclear weapon: the administration says so, the media say so, and now three times as many people regard Iran as the U.S.'s greatest menace than four months ago and 47 percent of the public agrees that Iran should be bombed if needed to prevent its acquiring any nuclear weapon capability.

Muslim students condemn UK newspaper spy ploy

In a recent expose, the newspaper was caught offering student reporters at the London Student Newspaper cash in return for infiltrating Islamic Society meetings in an attempt to report claims of Islamic radicals being active on campuses.

The farcical end of the American dream - The US press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war
It is a bright winter morning and I am sipping my first coffee of the day in Los Angeles. My eye moves like a radar beam over the front page of the Los Angeles Times for the word that dominates the minds of all Middle East correspondents: Iraq. In post-invasion, post-Judith Miller mode, the American press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war. So the story beneath the headline "In a Battle of Wits, Iraq's Insurgency Mastermind Stays a Step Ahead of US" deserves to be read. Or does it?

AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy
We discovered that an AP cameraman had filmed the entire incident. This cameraman had then followed what apparently is the usual routine.
"The trend toward secrecy is the greatest threat to democracy." - Associated Press CEO, in a speech about the importance of openness "The official response is we decline to respond." - Associated Press Director of Media Relations, replying to questions about AP


Media Avoids Covering Vote on Permanent Bases
Something is happening in Iraq that most Americans have never heard about, but many Americans think the war is being fought for: the United States is building what look like permanent military bases. Something happened in Congress last Thursday that most Americans have not heard about. A number of Congress Members, led by Barbara Lee and Tom Allen, proposed an amendment to the latest giant spending bill for the war, an amendment forbidding the United States to establish permanent bases in Iraq.

Daytime TV tied to poorer mental scores in elderly
Older women who say talk shows and soap operas are their favorite TV programs tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive skills, researchers reported Monday. That doesn't mean that daytime television is a brain drain, they say, since it's not clear that there's a direct relationship between the two.

Signs Comment: Yeah, by all means, don't stop watching television! Getting away from all the mindless entertainment and news media brainwashing might actually allow you to think for yourself, and that could be dangerous!

Instasmear indeed
Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns and Money catches Glenn Reynolds indulging in yet another easy smear:

Apple says proposed French law smacks of piracy
Apple Computer Inc. said on Tuesday a proposed French law that would force Apple to make sure that songs bought on its iTunes music store can work on any portable player would result in "state-sponsored piracy."

Signs Comment:
"The new legislation would require that online music retailers provide the digital rights management software that protects copyright material to allow the conversion of music in one format to another."
If the music is converted from Apple's digital rights management (DRM) format to the DRM format of another non-iPod MP3 player, then what's the big deal??

Patently Ridiculous
Something has gone very wrong with the United States patent system.
Americans think of the granting of patents as a benevolent process that lets inventors enjoy the fruits of their hard work and innovations. But times have changed. The definition of what is patentable has slowly evolved to include business practices and broad ideas. The fact that the Smucker's company went to court over patents on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches might have provoked chuckles. But it became a symbol of a system gone awry.

Signs Comment: In a pathocracy, this is the norm. The corruption of basic institutions is part of the process. The patent foolishness is in complete harmony with everything else that is going on in that country. See Laura's article "Official Culture" for more details.

Pace Wants Review of Iraq Media Program
The top U.S. military commander called Thursday for a formal

Pentagon review of the policies that led to defense officials paying the Iraqi media to place favorable stories in their newspapers.

Nature mag cooked Wikipedia study
Nature magazine has some tough questions to answer after it let its Wikipedia fetish get the better of its responsibilities to reporting science. The Encyclopedia Britannica has published a devastating response to Nature's December comparison of Wikipedia and Britannica, and accuses the journal of misrepresenting its own evidence. Where the evidence didn't fit, says Britannica, Nature's news team just made it up. Britannica has called on the journal to repudiate the report, which was put together by its news team. [...]

Journalists blackmailed by Israeli embassy
Albawaba Recent reports claim that Israel's embassy in Mauritania is operating under directives from the Israeli secret security agency, the Mossad, in an attempt to recruit Mauritanian agents to work for Israel using blackmail and other threats.


Iraqi civilian deaths shrouded in secrecy
Recent figures from the campaign group Iraq Body Count put the minimum number of civilians killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion three years ago at between 33,710 and 37,832.

60 Minutes joins the propaganda war
Two weeks ago, CBS 60 Minutes ran a segment called "Tal Afar: Al Qaida's Town". The story focused on an Iraqi city on the Syrian border that was allegedly "taken over by Al Qaida" and turned into a terrorist "base to train insurgents and launch attacks around Iraq". (60 Minute's transcript) According to"America's most popular news magazine", the city of 200,000 was controlled by a few hundred "terrorists" who kept the townspeople imprisoned in their own homes until American forces invaded the city and set them free.

O'Reilly, others smear veteran journalist Helen Thomas over exchange with Bush
Summary: After the contentious exchange between Hearst Newspapers columnist Helen Thomas and President Bush during Bush's March 21 press conference, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and several other conservative commentators rushed to attack Thomas. O'Reilly accused her of "hat[ing] Bush and try[ing] to undermine everything he does," and even suggesting that if he were Bush, he "would have laid her out." Several other conservative media figures -- including Jonah Goldberg, Fred Barnes, Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson -- have followed suit, sometimes with highly personal attacks.

Off the Record, Bush Makes Media Inroads

As he defends his Iraq policy with a public campaign of speeches and a recent news conference, President Bush also has been waging a private campaign that has included off-the-record sessions with White House reporters, sources said yesterday. One gathering, which took place Thursday in the White House residence, was an unusual gesture by Bush, who has agreed to comparatively few lengthy exchanges with reporters during his five years in office. Bush has said publicly that he needs to convince Americans that the U.S. mission in Iraq is on a path to victory, despite what he called a news media focus on daily violence.

Iraq War Coverage - CNN Responds
Your critique of CNN's war coverage indicates that you, reader, are on the 'fringe.'

Bush was not set on going to war: White House

The White House denied a New York Times report that President George W. Bush was determined to invade Iraq by late January 2003, two months before he did so. [...]
Asked Monday if the memo showed Bush was determined to go to war, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "that's not an accurate assessment," although he did not deny the existence of the memo.

Charlie Sheen's Statement to the London Guardian
Challenges Press to Stop Slinging Mud, Confront The Science
Charlie Sheen felt compelled to respond to one of many hit-pieces against him, a column written for the London Guardian and carried by British commonwealth newspapers worldwide. Sheen sent his statement to The Australian newspaper. This is his full statement minus a phone number to his manager so that the paper could confirm its authenticity. This is a direct challenge for them to debate the facts.

Sheen Challenge to Media

I dare you to print this email in it's entirety ...

The mere fact that you did a cut and paste job of the slanderous and idiotic Marine Hyde London Journal piece, speaks volumes about your credibility as a major media entity.

Like so many other mainstream outlets, domestically and abroad, no attention whatsoever is given to the questions I raise or the evidence that stimulated those very questions.

Instead, low-brow idiotic hit pieces are spewed forth in an effort to sway the readers' opinion of the messenger while blatantly disregarding any of the potentially valuable content of the story. It's transparent sandbox propaganda as dated and cheap as the paper it's printed on.

Do a little research on Building Seven. Building Seven lives at the epicenter of my entire debate. Prove yourself worthy of genuine investigative journalism. Look at the video evidence.

Observe the same data I have. Submit a formal request to the Pentagon or the DOD to release video PROOF that flight 77 did exactly as they claim. You will be stonewalled. You will be dismissed unconditionally. If there is nothing to hide - why are they hiding it?

To avoid any confusion - I reiterate:

Building Seven - Pentagon video documentation.

If any portion, or portions of this text is any way deleted or manipulated, you will only confirm what myself and countless others have suspected all along: Media complicity with no interest in the truth.

A CNN poll at the time of this writing currently sits at 84 percent IN SUPPORT of my views.

Say what you must about me - it means nothing.

Yet, if you continue to overlook the hard questions and physical evidence regarding 9/11 - you only confirm what so many of us "Conspiracy Idiots"! have suspected all along - The Official Report is, at best, an insulting work of FICTION.

Respectfully,
Charlie Sheen

Truth Seeping Through Media After Ten Months

It's March 27th, my son's due date, but it looks like he may be late being born. Maybe he's heard what it's like out here. I may have had C-Span a little loud during Bush's last press conference. Wesley has spent the past nine months preparing to enter the world. I've spent the past ten months trying to get the US media to admit that Bush blatantly lied to them and they in turn to us.

When computers do the news, hoaxes slip in
When a New Jersey teenager decided to create a fictional story about being hired by one of the Internet's largest companies, he knew just where to spread the news - with the unwitting help of the company itself. Earlier this month, Thomas Vendetta submitted his fake press release about being hired by Google to Google News, a popular site that automatically trolls 4,500 sources for their latest posts. Sure enough, the release appeared on the world's most popular website for news.

Reporter Jill Carroll Freed in Baghdad
Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll has been freed in Iraq and is healthy, a Monitor editor said Thurday.
"She was released this morning, she's talked to her father and she's fine," said David Cook, a monitor editor in Washington. He said the paper had no further details immediately and just learned of her release aboug 6:15 a.m. EST.


It's The Media, Stupid
There is little disagreement on the indispensable role of the media in influencing political debate and narrative, thus shaping public discourse.
Among progressives, liberals and most political minorities in the United States and Europe, there is an equal consensus regarding the troubling alliance that is bringing warmongering politicians, ideologues, religious zealots and media moguls together. They alone possess the capabilities to sway the public in any way they wish, or so it seems; they stack a nation's priorities in the way they find most fit; they concoct wars and justify them when they go awry. In short, they manipulate democracy by manipulating the public, using whatever means necessary: fear, misinformation and all the familiar rest.


Justice Department Subpoenas Reach Far Beyond Google
In its effort to uphold the Child Online Protection Act, the U.S. Department of Justice is leaving no stone unturned. In addition to America Online, MSN, and Google, the government has demanded information from at least 34 Internet service providers, search companies, and security software firms, InformationWeek learned through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Blair lectured by pupils at Islamic school
Tony Blair was warned the presence of British troops in Iraq was fuelling terrorism when he met moderate Muslim leaders on his visit to Indonesia. The Prime Minister's plans to build bridges as he visited the most populous Muslim nation suffered when he was confronted about Iraq. After talks in Jakarta, Din Syamsuddin, head of the 30 million-strong Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-biggest Muslim group, said the Islamic representatives told Mr Blair: "The British Government must pull its troops out of Iraq because Iraq's occupation will only stimulate radicalism, extremism and terrorism." Azyumardi Azra, an Islamic scholar, said he told the Prime Minister "his foreign policies were not making the world any safer".

Signs Comment: 13 and 17-year olds have more sense and compassion than Blair. So much for our wonderful "leaders".

House Candidate Draws Fire for Web Photo
A congressional candidate is under fire for a Web site photo that purported to show a peaceful Baghdad neighborhood but was actually taken in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey.
"We took this photo of Baghdad while we were in Iraq," the accompanying caption on Howard Kaloogian's Web site read. "Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be." Internet bloggers began questioning the photo earlier this week because none of the signs was in Arabic and billboards were advertising Western products.





911 And Beyond


Experts Call for Release of 9/11 Evidence
A society of experts and scholars has now joined with Judicial Watch in calling for release of videos that are being held by the Department of Defense, which are essential to understanding events at the Pentagon that transpired on September 11, 2001. Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which is dedicated to exposing falsehoods and establishing truths about the events of 9/11, has gone beyond Judicial Watch by calling for the release of other films and evidence that, its officers maintain, are essential to understanding 9/11.


Moussaoui's lies led to 9/11 deaths: prosecutor
Federal prosecutors argued on Monday that even though September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was in jail during the attacks he should be executed because his lies led to the deaths of 3,000 people.

Signs Comment: Taking the figure of 3,000 killed in the 9/11 attacks; if Massaoui is executed, the new total for people murdered by the U.S. government as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks will be 3,001. Of course, if we include indirect murders, we are somewhere in the 300,000's. For the full story on what really happened on September 11th 2001, see laura Knight-Jadczyk's book: 9/11:The Ultimate Truth

Knee-Jerk Liars: The Legend of United Flight 93
NEW YORK--On the first anniversary of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge delivered a speech at the site of the disaster in western Pennsylvania. "Faced with the most frightening circumstances one could possibly imagine," he told grieving relatives of the passengers and crewmembers aboard the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11, "they met the challenge like citizen soldiers, like Americans." He recited the now-familiar story of passengers learning by phone about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, deciding to fight back and breaking into the cockpit--a heroic act that led to their own deaths while sparing countless others in Washington.

Signs Comment: And what if the reason Flight 93 was shot down was to cover up the fact that there were no "Arab terrorists" on the flight?

Pakistan weekly spills 9/11 beans
The Pakistan foreign office had paid tens of thousands of dollars to lobbyists in the US to get anti-Pakistan references dropped from the 9/11 inquiry commission report, The Friday Times has claimed.
The Pakistani weekly said its story is based on disclosures made by foreign service officials to the Public Accounts Committee at a secret meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday. It claimed that some of the commission members were also bribed to prevent them from including damaging information about Pakistan.


9/11 Commission Members Accepted Bribes To Skew Report Details

The Pakistan foreign office had paid tens of thousands of dollars to lobbyists in the US to get anti-Pakistan references dropped from the 9/11 inquiry commission report, The Friday Times has claimed.
The Pakistani weekly said its story is based on disclosures made by foreign service officials to the Public Accounts Committee at a secret meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday. It claimed that some of the commission members were also bribed to prevent them from including damaging information about Pakistan. The magazine said the PAC grilled officials in the presence of foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and special secretary Sher Afghan on the money paid to lobbyists. "The disclosure sheds doubt on the integrity and honesty of the members of the 9/11 inquiry commission and, above all, the authenticity of the information in their final report," it said.


Ex-State Department Security Officer Charges Pre-9/11 Cover-Up
A former State Department security officer has given CounterPunch a detailed memoir and documents that point to very curious conduct by the CIA, Secret Service and FBI in the Philippines following warnings of an assassination bid on President Clinton during his November 12/13, 1994 visit to Manila. The bid was organized by the 1993 WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef, at the direction of, and with financial support from, Osama bin Laden (who was indicted for the plot by a federal grand jury in August 1998).
 
Signs Comment: We're not sure where CounterPunch wants to take this piece. They have been one of the hardy gatekeepers on the left preventing any serious look at what happened on 9/11, considering, in true Chomsky style, that talk of US involvement, or, heaven forbid, Israeli involvement, is "conspiracy theory". This starlting blindness to the elephant in the room has condemned the left in the US to irrelevancy. Their ideological blinders and social conditioning have turned them into useful idiots of the pathocrats.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth - A Boeing 757 did not hit the Pentagon
by Michael Meyer, Mechanical Engineer
To the members of the Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven:
I would like to give you my input as to the events on September 11, and why it is a physically provable fact that some of the damage done to the Pentagon could not have occurred from a Boeing 757 impact, and therefore the 9/11 Commission report is not complete and arguably a cover-up. I will not speculate about what may have been covered up, I will only speak from my professional opinion. But I will explain why I do not believe the Pentagon was hit by a Boeing 757.


Of Lies and Men - Did Bush Lie Us into the Iraq War?
People who defend Bush's rush to war - first demanding inspections, then demanding the inspectors leave Iraq to make way for the massive terror bombing and invasion - deny Bush lied about Iraq. I watched Rep. Dana Dana Rohrbacher, R-CA claim that Bush didn't lie about anything at a House International Relations Committee session. Bush lied several times about Iraq with the intent of inflaming the public in support of his plans to attack Iraq.

Video: 9/11 - BYU Professor Steven E Jones WTC Lecture UVSC
BYU Physics professor and founder of Scholars For 9/11 Truth Steven E Jones presents his presentation on the collapse of WTC Buildings 1,2, and 7 on 9/11. A very informative and scientific presentation that raises serious questions about the official account of the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers and Building 7. Presenter: Steven E Jones

9/11 emergency calls to be released
New York City will release partial recordings and transcripts this week of emergency calls made from the twin towers of the World Trade Centre by victims of the September 11, 2001 attack.

Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly and will soon meet with Venezuelan President himself Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11. Rodriguez was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the WTC, and was responsible for all stairwells within the tower. Rodriguez represented family members of 9/11 victims and testified to the 9/11 Commission that bombs were in the north tower but his statements were completely omitted from the official record.

Witness Ties Moussaoui To 'Dream' Terror Plot
Zacarias Moussaoui stroked his beard. He scratched his chin. Finally, he asked the question that everyone in the federal courtroom yesterday had waited much of the day to hear. "You said you met someone by the name of John, correct?" Moussaoui asked the witness.

Signs Comment: How convenient the US finally has a real, evil, Arab "terrorist" on trial. Even one as incompetent as Moussaoui.

Moussaoui has been in US custody now since 2001. That's plenty of time for the brainwashing and mind control techniques so dear to US intelligence to have completely replaced the original Moussaoui. His mother has said "That is not my son".

At the moment, Moussaoui is the only, somewhat tangible connection with Osama. Soemwhat because it is hard to say whether he actually met with bin Laden or whether it is a convenient game being played. Even if he did meet with the Great Evil One, it is clear he wa a patsy in a Mossad-led game of cat and mouse where twenty men are being falsely accused to an operation so vast that it could not have been carried out by Osama.

After all, are Arab "terrorists" so ensconced in the US security establishment that they could have ordered the NORAD defences to stand down that morning?

No, it is terrorists from another country that have that kind of influence: Israel.

Moussaoui's mother claims he was drugged

The mother of Zacarias Moussaoui saw him in court Tuesday for the first time in years and claimed that he had been drugged.
Aicha el-Wafi traveled from France to attend her son's death penalty hearing, where prosecutors are arguing that Moussaoui, a confessed Al-Qaeda conspirator, should be put to death for his role in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. "That is not Zacary," said Aicha el-Wafi, 59, speaking in French during a break in her son's sentencing trial on Tuesday. "He is too calm. He doesn't even budge."


Judge Warns Prosecutors in Moussaoui Trial
The judge in the death-penalty trial of confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui warned prosecutors Thursday that they were moving their case into shaky legal territory. "I must warn the government it is treading on delicate legal ground here," U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said at the conclusion of the day's testimony, after the jury had left the courtroom. "I don't know of any case where a failure to act is sufficient for the death penalty as a matter of law."

Judge deals blow in Moussaoui trial
In a sharp blow to the U.S. government's only case connected to the September 11 hijackings, a federal judge on Tuesday said sentencing for Zacarias Moussaoui could go ahead but without critical aviation-related testimony and evidence. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema had considered throwing out the death penalty case after discovering that a government lawyer had improperly shared information with witnesses.

Signs Comment: What's the problem? The guy's Muslim and he looks a little scary in that photo, so he obviously guilty!

By John Leyden
Friday 11th June 2004
First Amendment defence wins through

A US jury yesterday cleared a Saudi graduate student of running websites that allegedly fostered terrorism.

Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, a computer science student at the University of Idaho, was accused of running websites used to recruit terrorists, raise money and spread inflammatory rhetoric. The Islamic Assembly of North America websites were used by Al-Hussayen to run religious edicts defending suicide bombing and to solicit money for the militant Palestinian group Hamas, prosecutors alleged. The defence said Al-Hussayen was only a volunteer webmaster.

Al-Hussayen was charged with three terrorism-related charges as well as immigration and visa fraud offences. The closely-watched case was seen as a test of the newly-enacted Patriot Act.

But during the seven-week case the prosecution failed to convince a jury that Al-Hussayen had used his technical expertise to support terrorist activity. After seven days of deliberation, the jury found him not guilty of the three terrorism-related charges and three immigration offences. The jury failed to reach a verdict on a further eight counts of immigration and visa fraud. A mistrial was declared on those charges, which may become the subject of a second court case.

Prosecutors Seek to Revive Moussaoui Case

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Fighting for the death penalty in a 9/11 sentencing trial, prosecutors are beseeching a federal judge to reconsider her decision to exclude half the government's case against confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. They acknowledge their only hope of obtaining the death penalty for the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent is to persuade U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema she punished the government too harshly for tampering with trial witnesses and lying to defense attorneys.

U.S. Tries to Salvage Unraveling 9/11 Trial

Prosecutors in Zacarias Moussaoui case ask that ban on aviation security witnesses be lifted, or 'there's no point for us to go forward.'  WASHINGTON - All week long, government lawyer Carla J. Martin badgered them. She sent them 100-plus-page court transcripts. She harried them with e-mails criticizing prosecutors and fretting about the government's image. She called them at home. By Friday, Lynne A. Osmus had had enough. As a top security official at the Federal Aviation Administration - and soon to be a key prosecution witness in the death penalty trial of admitted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui - she did not like being used to further the lawyer's interest in making the FAA look good at the expense of telling the truth in a capital murder case. "I didn't want to have secret discussions with her," she said. Osmus showed the e-mails to prosecutors, to dramatic effect.

FBI Agent Slams Bush Government at Moussaoui Trial

The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 testified Monday he
spent almost four weeks trying to warn U.S. officials about the radical Islamic student pilot but "criminal negligence" by superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop the 9/11 attacks.


September 11 trial halted amid witness coaching claims
The death penalty trial of a confessed al-Qaeda conspirator was unexpectedly halted today by a judge who criticised Government lawyers for violating Zacarias Moussaoui's constitutional rights by coaching witnesses. Leonie Brinkema, the federal judge hearing the case, said: "In all the years I've been on the bench, I have never seen such an egregious violation of a rule on witnesses." Her intervention represents a humiliating set-back for the US administration which has spent more than four years trying to bring someone to justice for the September 11 attacks on America.

New Versions of Moussaoui's Role Emerge
The jury that will determine whether Zacarias Moussaoui lives or dies must decide whether to believe Moussaoui himself, who says he planned to fly a plane into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, or the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who says Moussaoui had nothing to do with them.
Moussaoui's testimony Monday at his death-penalty trial that he was part of the 9/11 plot along with shoe-bomber Richard Reid came as a shock since he previously had denied any role in the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. As soon as Moussaoui finished testifying, the jury was read statements from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Sept. 11 mastermind now in U.S. custody, who said Moussaoui was to have been used in a second wave of attacks completely disconnected from Sept. 11.

Signs Comment: Gosh, Moussaoui is one confused guy. His story keeps on changing about as often as the Bush gang changes reasons for the occupation of Iraq.

Moussaoui Offered to Implicate Himself
Zacarias Moussaoui wanted to be a witness for the prosecution -- and against himself.

US officials charged with lying in botched 2003 terrorism trial

Two federal officials were charged with lying under oath and hiding evidence to win a conviction against four Moroccan men accused of running a Detroit "sleeper cell" in the days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The charges highlight the zealousness with which investigators have pursued potential terrorists, critics said.


No Evidence al-Qaida Planned Madrid Attacks
"The intelligence official said authorities had never imagined a group of petty drug traffickers were capable of planning such a massive attack.
"Had we been told a day before (the bombing) that this is what was going on, we would have dismissed it," he said.


Signs Comment: The fact is that a group of petty drug traffickers were NOT capable of carrying out the Madrid Train Bombing, hence, they DID NOT carry out the train bombing. The most obvious culprit in the bombing was the Israeli Mossad.

Important for 9/11 Research: Brain Blindness
We all know that seeing something emotional can distract us, but researchers say that it might even blind us... not in our eyes, but in our brains. This ScienCentral news video explains.
Driving Blind

It's hard not to look when you pass an accident on the road, but doing so can be dangerous. Vanderbilt University psychologist David Zald says "emotional" images - like car accidents, a gruesome murder scene, or a bit of pornography - can briefly blind us to everything else around us, limiting our senses and potentially putting us at risk. "Something that's emotional not only captures our attention, but it does it to such an extent that it's blocking information that comes in after. We're no longer even looking at that image," says Zald.


Hey, Grandma! THE TRUTH ABOUT SEPTEMBER 11
EXACTLY what happened on September 11, 2001 in New York is still is a mystery. Investigators say that they are just waiting for the Bush administration to fall to demand the declassification of documents that would reveal the truth about what happened that day.

The Changing Face of Terror
Ever since the attacks on 9-11 we have heard one slogan reiterated more frequently than any other, "Everything changed on September 11".
The phrase has become the motto for transforming America according to the policy objectives of the men in power. In fact, the criminal conduct of government officials and their wars of aggression have all been causally brushed aside by invoking their keynote defense, "Everything changed"! September 11 has been the most abused and manipulated public relations scam in history. It is trotted out in every presidential speech, every executive press conference, and every appearance by an administration official. It is routinely used to undermine the rule of law and to vindicate the despotic powers of the president.


Bush Puts America on Death Row
Hardened cynics often accuse President George W. Bush of ruthlessly exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 to advance his pre-set agenda of killing a whole heap of foreigners. This is, of course, a calumnious slander against the Dear Leader's noble ambitions. For as he clearly demonstrated last week, Bush is also exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 to advance his pre-set agenda to kill a whole heap of Americans as well. In yet another of those momentous degradations of public morality that go unremarked by the ever-vigilant watchdogs of the national media, Bush slipped a measure into the revamped "Patriot (sic) Act" he signed last week that will allow him to expedite the death penalty process across the land, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

The real meaning of 9/11
The events of 9/11/2001 were horrific for those who died and for those who experienced the day. Because it all happened at once, was televised, and occurred in the media capital of the world, it has also been taken as a turning point in world history. It was not that important.

Actor Charlie Sheen Questions Official 9/11 Story
Actor Charlie Sheen has joined a growing army of other highly credible public figures in questioning the official story of 9/11 and calling for a new independent investigation of the attack and the circumstances surrounding it. Over the past two years, scores of highly regarded individuals have gone public to express their serious doubts about 9/11. These include former presidential advisor and CIA analyst Ray McGovern, the father of Reaganomics and former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, BYU physics Professor Steven Jones, former German defense minister Andreas von Buelow, former MI5 officer David Shayler, former Blair cabinet member Michael Meacher, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds and many more.

Damage Control: The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll - A new generation of conspiracy theorists is at work on a secret history of New York's most terrible day.
1. 11/22 and 9/11
They keep telling us 9/11 changed everything. But even in this Photoshopped age of unreliable narrators, much remains the same. The assassination of President John Kennedy, the Crime of the Last Century, occurred in plain sight, in front of thousands-yet exactly what happened remains in dispute. The Warren Commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald, fellow traveler of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, shot Kennedy with a cheap Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. The commission found that Oswald, who two days later would be murdered by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, acted alone.

Pentagon hired contractor to advise on collecting information on churches, mosques, other U.S. sites - Plans for Fake Terrorist Attacks?
A Pentagon intelligence agency that kept files on American anti-war activists hired one of the contractors who bribed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., to help it collect data on houses of worship, schools, power plants and other locations in the United States. MZM Inc., headed by Mitchell Wade, also received three contracts totaling more than $250,000 to provide unspecified "intelligence services" to the White House, according to documents obtained by Knight Ridder. The White House didn't respond to an inquiry about what those intelligence services entailed.

Signs Comment: And what do they want this "intell" for? Why do they want "latitudes and longitudes?" Why, for targeted bombing, of course! After all, if you are going to fake terrorist attacks, might as well make them count for your side while you are at it!

83% of CNN Pollsters Agree With Charlie Sheen On 9/11
Despite the best efforts of the now whimpering attack poodles of the mainstream media, an online CNN poll shows that over four-fifths, or 82 per cent, agree with actor Charlie Sheen that the U.S. government covered up the real events of the 9/11 attacks. Every establishment media mouthpiece aside from CNN tried to hang Sheen on his own words but it simply didn't work because those same questions are firing the synapses in the heads of millions upon millions of other taxpaying American citizens. We are now in the majority and the cynics are beginning to feel the breeze of fear as they desperately cling to ignorant dogmas spoon fed to them by an empire in descent, while in the back of their mind and in their soul knowing that they have sided with the wrong team and the wrong side of history. As of Friday morning you can still vote in the poll and I encourage you to do so by clicking here. A.J. Hammer and CNN Showbiz Tonight need to be given their due as the only mainstream television news show to give balanced coverage of serious 9/11 questions.

Charlie Sheen's Statement to the London Guardian

Challenges Press to Stop Slinging Mud, Confront The Science
Charlie Sheen felt compelled to respond to one of many hit-pieces against him, a column written for the London Guardian and carried by British commonwealth newspapers worldwide. Sheen sent his statement to The Australian newspaper. This is his full statement minus a phone number to his manager so that the paper could confirm its authenticity. This is a direct challenge for them to debate the facts.

Sheen Challenge to Media

I dare you to print this email in it's entirety ...

The mere fact that you did a cut and paste job of the slanderous and idiotic Marine Hyde London Journal piece, speaks volumes about your credibility as a major media entity.

Like so many other mainstream outlets, domestically and abroad, no attention whatsoever is given to the questions I raise or the evidence that stimulated those very questions.

Instead, low-brow idiotic hit pieces are spewed forth in an effort to sway the readers' opinion of the messenger while blatantly disregarding any of the potentially valuable content of the story. It's transparent sandbox propaganda as dated and cheap as the paper it's printed on.

Do a little research on Building Seven. Building Seven lives at the epicenter of my entire debate. Prove yourself worthy of genuine investigative journalism. Look at the video evidence.

Observe the same data I have. Submit a formal request to the Pentagon or the DOD to release video PROOF that flight 77 did exactly as they claim. You will be stonewalled. You will be dismissed unconditionally. If there is nothing to hide - why are they hiding it?

To avoid any confusion - I reiterate:

Building Seven - Pentagon video documentation.

If any portion, or portions of this text is any way deleted or manipulated, you will only confirm what myself and countless others have suspected all along: Media complicity with no interest in the truth.

A CNN poll at the time of this writing currently sits at 84 percent IN SUPPORT of my views.

Say what you must about me - it means nothing.

Yet, if you continue to overlook the hard questions and physical evidence regarding 9/11 - you only confirm what so many of us "Conspiracy Idiots"! have suspected all along - The Official Report is, at best, an insulting work of FICTION.

Respectfully,
Charlie Sheen

Actor & Director Ed Asner Shares 9/11 Concerns

Award winning director, producer and actor Ed Asner is the latest high profile public figure to voice his support for Charlie Sheen's stance on 9/11 and share his own concerns about 9/11, the war in Iraq and the Neo-Cons. Speaking to The Alex Jones Show Asner, best known for his Emmy-winning role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, echoed Charlie Sheen's sentiments in stating, "I became suspicious of 9/11 on the day it happened." "I will always be that suspect of it and challenge it and challenge various points of it," said Asner. Asner agreed that the official story of 9/11 and the Kean Commission investigation was a fable and a fraud. "I do not buy it and I would challenge it, I know all of these points....the standing down," said Asner.


Terrorism victims seek redress from museums
In two lawsuits with implications for museum collections across the nation, a group of Americans is suing Iran, hoping to seize antiquities to satisfy a judgment against Tehran for allegedly sponsoring a deadly terrorist attack.

The Great Charade
As the West prepares for an assault on Iraq, John Pilger argues that 'war on terror' is a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist ... America itself. It is 10 months since 11 September, and still the great charade plays on. Having appropriated our shocked response to that momentous day, the rulers of the world have since ground our language into a paean of cliches and lies about the 'war on terrorism' - when the most enduring menace, and source of terror, is them.

The Iraq War in Context: A Strategy Paper Calling for the Immediate Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid. From Dick and Lynn Cheney's 2003 Christmas card [1] "The United States will not hesitate to strike preemptively against enemies, and will never again allow its military supremacy to be challenged." The National Security Strategy of the United States of America [2] Our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model for the world. President George W. Bush [3] The United States needs to lose the war in Iraq as soon as possible. Even more urgently, the whole world needs the United States to lose the war in Iraq…What is at stake now is the way we run the world for the next generation or more, and really bad things will happen if we get it wrong.  Gwynne Dyer[4] We had to create a false rational for going in [to Iraq] to get public support. The books were cooked, in my mind. The intelligence was not there. I testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee one month before the war, and Senator Lugar asked me: "General Zinni, do you feel the threat from Saddam Hussein is imminent?" I said: "No, not at all. It was not an imminent threat. Not even close. Not grave, gathering, imminent, serious, severe, mildly upsetting, none of those." General Anthony Zinni, USMC (Retired)[5]

More Human Remains Found Near WTC Site
Construction workers cleaning toxic waste from a vacant skyscraper near the World Trade Center site have found more bone fragments and human remains, officials said Tuesday.
The city medical examiner's office plans to extract DNA from the latest remains to be recovered from the former Deutsche Bank building and try to match it against a database of the 2,749 people killed at the trade center on Sept. 11, 2001, said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.


George Galloway : Surfing in the sewer
Behind the 'fake sheikh' lies a murky world of dodgy websites and untraceable companies - and, of course, Rupert Murdoch.

Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!

Anyone still care about the heap of disturbing, unsolved questions surrounding Our Great Tragedy?




New World Order

Armed forces are put on standby to tackle threat of wars over water
Across the world, they are coming: the water wars. From Israel to India, from Turkey to Botswana, arguments are going on over disputed water supplies that may soon burst into open conflict. Yesterday, Britain's Defence Secretary, John Reid, pointed to the factor hastening the violent collision between a rising world population and a shrinking world water resource: global warming. In a grim first intervention in the climate-change debate, the Defence Secretary issued a bleak forecast that violence and political conflict would become more likely in the next 20 to 30 years as climate change turned land into desert, melted ice fields and poisoned water supplies.

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer
From the 22 Feb Signs of the Times

· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

Flashback! Key findings of the Pentagon
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer
· Future wars will be fought over the issue of survival rather than religion, ideology or national honour.

· By 2007 violent storms smash coastal barriers rendering large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable. Cities like The Hague are abandoned. In California the delta island levees in the Sacramento river area are breached, disrupting the aqueduct system transporting water from north to south.

· Between 2010 and 2020 Europe is hardest hit by climatic change with an average annual temperature drop of 6F. Climate in Britain becomes colder and drier as weather patterns begin to resemble Siberia.

Article continues
· Deaths from war and famine run into the millions until the planet's population is reduced by such an extent the Earth can cope.

· Riots and internal conflict tear apart India, South Africa and Indonesia.

· Access to water becomes a major battleground. The Nile, Danube and Amazon are all mentioned as being high risk.

· A 'significant drop' in the planet's ability to sustain its present population will become apparent over the next 20 years.

· Rich areas like the US and Europe would become 'virtual fortresses' to prevent millions of migrants from entering after being forced from land drowned by sea-level rise or no longer able to grow crops. Waves of boatpeople pose significant problems.

· Nuclear arms proliferation is inevitable. Japan, South Korea, and Germany develop nuclear-weapons capabilities, as do Iran, Egypt and North Korea. Israel, China, India and Pakistan also are poised to use the bomb.

· By 2010 the US and Europe will experience a third more days with peak temperatures above 90F. Climate becomes an 'economic nuisance' as storms, droughts and hot spells create havoc for farmers.

· More than 400m people in subtropical regions at grave risk.

· Europe will face huge internal struggles as it copes with massive numbers of migrants washing up on its shores. Immigrants from Scandinavia seek warmer climes to the south. Southern Europe is beleaguered by refugees from hard-hit countries in Africa.

· Mega-droughts affect the world's major breadbaskets, including America's Midwest, where strong winds bring soil loss.

· China's huge population and food demand make it particularly vulnerable. Bangladesh becomes nearly uninhabitable because of a rising sea level, which contaminates the inland water supplies.

Flashback! The Marshall Plan - The Pentagon's Yoda
February 2003
By Douglas McGray
Wired Magazine
For 40 years, the man Pentagon insiders call Yoda has foreseen the future of war - from battlefield bots rolling off radar-proof ships to GIs popping performance pills. And that was before the war on terror.

Andrew Marshall, the Pentagon's 81-year-old futurist-in-chief, fiddles with his security badge, squints, looks away, smiles, and finally speaks in a voice that sounds like Gene Hackman trying not to wake anybody. Known as Yoda in defense circles, Marshall doesn't need to shout to be heard. Named director of the Office of Net Assessment by Richard Nixon and reappointed by every president since, the DOD's most elusive official has become one of its most influential. Today, Marshall - along with his star protégés Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - is drafting President Bush's plan to upgrade the military. Supporters believe the force he envisions will be faster and more lethal; critics say it relies on unproven technology. As US troops gathered overseas, Marshall sat for a rare interview.

Signs Comment: Notice the above comment about "demonstration of awesome effects". Did Marshall mean actual explosions in the sky or merely "special effects", projections of explosions? If he was alluding to a technology that could produce something akin to a holographic display, we wonder could this technology perhaps be used domestically as well as against a foreign power? Could it be used to produce effects other than explosions? Other types of visual effects, like "visions" of some sort...
Paul Brown and Mark Oliver
Friday January 9, 2004
The Guardian
Climate change is a more serious threat to the world than terrorism, David King, the government's chief scientist, writes in an article in today's Science magazine, attacking governments for doing too little to combat global warming. He singles out the United States for "refusing to countenance any remedial action now or in the future" to curb its own greenhouse gases, which are 20% of the world's total, even though it has only 4% of the population.

Flashback! Too hot to handle - Jim Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist
By Bill McKibben
February 5, 2006
JIM HANSEN, the director of NASA'S Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is a dangerous man. Not a brash man or a rebel-I remember interviewing him many years ago, and when I asked him what he did to relax, he replied, "mow my lawn." He's spent his whole career on the NASA payroll, but never looked up at the beckoning stars, at least professionally. Instead, from a floor of offices above Tom's Diner, of ''Seinfeld" fame, on New York's Upper West Side, he's fixed an unwavering gaze on our home planet and the narrow envelope of atmosphere that surrounds it.

The New World Order Story
As we struggle to put the events of and following 9-11-2001 into the most complete perspective, we're hampered by having to find a way through the minefields of "conspiracy theory" accusations. There are so many parts to consider, it's almost impossible to argue from any one event. If we argue that the Bush administration was complicit in the attacks of 9-11 - that they intentionally murdered 3,000 Americans in order to further their imperialistic agenda abroad and their transformation of America into a command-and-control plutocracy here at home - a hundred others will pick holes in individual pieces of the 9-11 conspiracy theory, and derail the argument rather than clarifying or advancing it. It's like trying to pick up Jell-O without the bowl. Nor can this ever be a merely intellectual game. Suggesting that our own leaders orchestrated the murders of 9-11 - while proposing Arab Muslims as perhaps no more than the fictional enemy toward which they hope to direct American scorn and fury - this idea evokes deep and powerful resentment and resistance, whether it is true or not.

Tokyo approves plan to fingerprint, photograph foreign visitors

Japan's government has approved a controversial plan to fingerprint and photograph most foreign visitors in a bid to tighten security and prevent extremist attacks.

France to start issuing biometric passports
France is to start issuing biometric passports April 17, the state printing company said Monday, raising the prospect of an end to a dispute that has caused a bottle-neck for citizens travelling to the United States.

Human medical experimentation in modern times
How immigrants, poor people, minorities and children are modern-day guinea pigs for Big Pharma (part one)
"The concentration camps were used as a huge laboratory for human experimentation," says Wolfgang Eckhart, professor of Historical Medicine at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. During the Holocaust, Bayer, Hoechst, BASF and other German pharmaceutical and chemical companies combined into a powerful cartel known as Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft (IG Farben). As well as manufacturing everything from the deadly gas used to kill Holocaust victims, the gasoline used to move war vehicles and the explosives used to bomb enemies and conquer Europe, IG Farben was also trying its best to put a large number of highly profitable new drugs on the market and used concentration camp prisoners as human guinea pigs to do so. Now, over 60 years after the Holocaust, we'd all like to think that society is above such cruelty, but in reality, human experimentation is still a common practice in modern medicine. Big Pharma operates by many of the same rules and motives as IG Farben did, and the test subjects are still the most vulnerable members of society -- the poor, immigrants, minority groups and children.

Constant Conflict - US Army War College Quarterly

A look behind the philosophy and practice of Americas push for domination of the worlds economy and culture. There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing.

Response to article "Constant Conflict"

The aim of the US is clearly stated in the first paragraph - that is, to subject cultures and civilizations to American economic and cultural supremacy, and to persevere until they have overrun the entire planet. Maj. Peters then kindly demonstrates for us how this aim is to be realised.

NSA Tech Tracks Down Web Surfers
DefenseTech
The NSA already knows how to find out where you're surfing from. Now, it wants to share its secret with online advertisers. There are a couple of services that can match Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses to physical locations. But the technique isn't exactly iron-clad. Routing traffic through a server in some other country, for example, can throw these programs off the trail.

Video: The Secret Government - Part I - Bill Moyers, documents U.S. support of terrorist regimes and the brutality of Americas foreign policy.
Hosted ad Information Clearing House
Must Watch.

N.Korea army threatens pre-emptive attack
North Korea has the right to launch a pre-emptive attack against U.S.-backed South Korean forces because the two Koreas are technically still at war, the communist state's official media said on Tuesday.
The comments came as North Korea shows its displeasure with annual joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises, which Pyongyang has said are a preparation for an invasion of its territory.


Why Milosevic Was Murdered- Tinpot dictator blew the whistle on the New World Order
Slobodan Milosevic was a distasteful man with authoritarian Communist ideals. But the reasons for his obvious murder revolve around his evergreen willingness to blow the whistle on the global criminal masterminds who had made the mistake of giving 'Slobo' a speaking platform in the first place. Just two days after Milosevic's death the evidence indicating murder has poured in. - Milosevic wrote a letter one day before his death claiming he was being poisoned to death in jail. The lawyer who advised Milosevic during his trial, Azdenko Tomanovic (pictured below) , showed journalists a handwritten letter in which Milosevic wrote: "They would like to poison me. I'm seriously concerned and worried." - Blood tests show that Milosevic's body contained a drug that rendered his usual medication for high blood pressure and his heart condition ineffective, causing the heart attack that led to his death.

U.S. says worldwide child porn ring used Web
U.S. and Canadian law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they had cracked an international pornography ring that featured live molestations of children streamed over the Internet. Twenty-seven people from nine U.S. states and Canada, Australia and Britain have been charged with possession, receipt, distribution and manufacture of child pornography, and all but one have been arrested, according to U.S. federal authorities and Canadian police. One of those arrested has been held since January, while others were arrested as recently as Tuesday. The one who remains at large is considered a fugitive, officials said.
 
Signs Comment: Don't miss our podcast "Sexual Exploitation as Control System".

Child porn ring called the worst imaginable
FOUR Australian men are among 29 people arrested for alleged involvement in what the US Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, called "the worst imaginable forms of child pornography". Internet videos of live molestation were included in thousands of images of child abuse, involving victims as young as 18 months, allegedly revealed in an undercover investigation of a private internet chat room used in the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Britain. The Australian arrests included a 30-year-old Lake Macquarie man, a 56-year-old man from Mill Park, in Melbourne, and a 22-year-old man from Stafford, in Brisbane. A fourth man, a 38-year-old from Ashgrove, in Brisbane, was arrested yesterday. An Australian Federal Police agent, Peter Drennan, above, said all Australian charges related to an international peer-to-peer network involving the swapping of child abuse images over the internet.

Investigators Search NASA HQ in Child Porn Probe
Federal investigators searched the office and home of a Washington, D.C.-based NASA program executive suspected trading child pornography, the Smoking Gun website reported Friday. According to the Smoking Gun report, investigators seized a portable laptop computer, hard drive and compact discs from the office of James Robinson, a program executive with NASA's In-Space Propulsion wing of the Mission and Systems Management division who authored a 2004 report on propulsion methods such as solar sails, ion engines and aerocapture for space exploration missions. The Smoking Gun also posted an affidavit for the search, which reportedly found illegal images and videos on Robinson's office and home computers. Robinson, 42, has not been arrested, the report stated. NASA's inspector general opened its own investigation of Robinson after being contacted by postal investigators. The space agency used a "skin-tone filtering system" to determine whether Robinson was viewing child pornography, the affidavit stated. Click here for the Smoking Gun report.


Workers can't trade holidays for pay, EU rules

British workers will no longer be able to be paid for unused holiday entitlement, the EU ruled today. European judges said the so-called "rolled-up holiday pay" system breached the EU's working time directive, which guarantees employees a minimum four weeks' holiday a year. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg was ruling in a case brought by a group of British shift workers demanding the right to payment during their holidays instead of notional extra hourly pay instead.

The Letter of the Law - The White House says spying on terror suspects without court approval is ok. What about physical searches?
In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval.

Pentagon hired contractor to advise on collecting information on churches, mosques, other U.S. sites - Plans for Fake Terrorist Attacks?
A Pentagon intelligence agency that kept files on American anti-war activists hired one of the contractors who bribed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., to help it collect data on houses of worship, schools, power plants and other locations in the United States. MZM Inc., headed by Mitchell Wade, also received three contracts totaling more than $250,000 to provide unspecified "intelligence services" to the White House, according to documents obtained by Knight Ridder. The White House didn't respond to an inquiry about what those intelligence services entailed.

Signs Comment:
And what do they want this "intell" for? Why do they want "latitudes and longitudes?" Why, for targeted bombing, of course! After all, if you are going to fake terrorist attacks, might as well make them count for your side while you are at it!

US planning bases across Middle East, Central Asia

The United States is planning to build at least six bases across the Middle East and Central Asia in the next 10 years for "deep storage" of munitions and equipment
to prepare for regional war contingencies. According to William M Arkin, author of more than 10 books on military affairs, and a former US army intelligence analyst and nuclear weapons expert during the Cold War, the plan came to attention this month through contracting documents that call for the continued storage of everything from packaged meals ready to eat (MREs) to missiles in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, as well as the establishment of two new storage hubs, one in a classified Middle Eastern country "west" of Saudi Arabia and the other in a yet to be decided "Central Asian state."


US Administration Denies Visa To Award Winning Palestinian human rights advocate
RFK Memorial calls on members of the media and human rights community to ask State Department officials how this could happen

Russian Communist leader sees U.S. behind bird flu outbreak
Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov has blamed the United States for the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu, in a number of European countries, including Russia. "The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has yet died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries. This makes one seriously wonder why," Zyuganov said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday. Zyuganov said that he has good knowledge of war gases as he dealt with them during his army service. "I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he said. Asked to be more precise as to whether he believes the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov answered positively. "I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here," he said.

Signs Comment: But of course, he's a commie, so no need to give his claims any credit at all, he obviously has an agenda...then again, who doesn't have an agenda these days. Question is, could there be someone with an agenda to kill off a large percentage of the human race?
Flashback! Ethnic Weapons For Ethnic Cleansing
Greg Bishop
March 2000

[T]his "theoretical possibility" was recognized over 25 years ago, if not before. It was originally brought to the attention of potential customers with the publication of an article in the Military Review of November 1970.

This journal for command-level military personnel was published by the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The feature, entitled "Ethnic Weapons," authored by Carl A. Larson, outlines the history, desirability, and possibilities of engineered biological pathogens which would affect only those races which historically have no natural defense against certain "enzyme inhibitors."

Larson is listed as head of the "Department of Human Genetics at the Institute of Genetics, Lund, Sweden" as well as a licensed physician. The Hippocratic oath was apparently not administered in Sweden when Larson received his accreditation.

Larson explains that many of the chemical activities and functions within the human body are caused by the interactions of enzymes. One of the more significant activities enabled by enzyme chemical reactions are the contraction and relaxation of muscle tissue. If the activities of these enzymes are blocked, the victim will be paralyzed, even to the point of death by asphyxiation.

Not coincidentally, the enzyme-blocking action of compounds called organophosphates were discovered in Germany in the 1930s when experimental insecticides killed the people unlucky enough to have used them. This discovery led to the mass production of a substance named "Trilon," later used to impressive effect in the extermination of groups of people the Nazis considered little more than insects. This substance and others of similar makeup became known as "nerve gas.

Flashback! Israel planning 'ethnic' bomb as Saddam caves in
The London Times
November 15 1998

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources. The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks.

A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of Semitic origin. But he added: "They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people."

Flashback! Microbiologists With Link to Race-Based Weapon Turning Up Dead
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Gordon Thomas

Dr. David Kelly-the biological warfare weapons specialist at the heart of the continuing political crisis for the British government-had links to three other top microbiologists whose deaths have left unanswered questions.

The 59-year-old British scientist was involved with ultra secret work at Israel's Institute for Biological Re search. Israeli sources claim Kelly met institute scientists several times in London in the past two years....



Israel, Palestine and Zionism

World owes Israel USD 23 billion
Country's external debt stands at USD 75.5 billion; rise in loans to foreign countries due to improvements in economy. The debt of foreign countries to Israel stands at USD 23 billion, almost double last year's debt of USD 12 billion, Bank of Israel data revealed. According to the Bank's statistics, the Israeli economy, which until recently only borrowed money from states abroad, has since 2002 turned into a lender as well, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.

A Conservative Total for U.S. Aid to Israel: $91 Billion-and Counting

The common figure given for U.S. aid to Israel is $3 billion per year-$1.2 billion in economic aid and $1.8 billion in military aid. As impressive as this figure is, however, since it represents about one-sixth of total U.S. foreign aid, the true figure is even more remarkable. It is difficult, however, to arrive at an exact number. Much of the money the U.S. gives Israel is buried in the budgets of other government agencies, primarily the Defense Department (DOD). Other subsidies come in a form that isn't easily quantifiable, such as the early disbursement of aid, which allows Israel to gain (and the U.S. taxpayer to lose) the interest on the unspent money.

Sub fleet chief: We can hit targets overseas

In exclusive interview with Ynet, commander of army's most advanced, secret war machine fleet says submarines may be used in missions abroad; there's no room for women in unit, he states

London mayor's suspension frozen

A London judge Tuesday froze the four-week suspension of London Mayor Ken Livingstone so it can be appealed. Livingstone was suspended for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard. He says the remark was blown out of proportion.

Walk in each other's shoes

Only through dialogue can Britain's Christian and Jewish religious leaders deal with our differences. We Jews are a thundering nuisance. Our persistence has always been a problem for Christianity, but we've really excelled ourselves over the last 60 years. Though Auschwitz was liberated back in 1944, a Christian still can't speak to a Jew without having the Holocaust waved reproachfully in their face. Criticise the state of Israel and the poor innocent is accused of anti-semitism. And Israel itself, positioned as it is right where the tectonic plates of the post-Christian West and the Muslim world meet, is clearly an anachronistic obstacle to global peace. We are the party-poopers who won't move on.

Rice Returns From Middle East Empty-Handed

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, Condoleezza Rice's recent trip to the Middle East was a failure for American diplomacy, as the U.S. Secretary of State encountered united Arab opposition to Washington's plans to isolate the Hamas-led government in Palestine.

'Mossad, CIA Responsible for Samarra Blast'

Iran's leaders say that Americans and Israelis were the only people to benefit from the attacks on the Samarra Mosque's Golden Dome. How did they benefit? According to this article from Iran's Tehran Times, the 'occupation forces' benefit because the resulting Muslim disunity will 'provoke civil war in Muslim countries,' prolonging America's presence in Iraq.

Israeli Activist Wants Christians Represented in Israel's Parliament - Author Hopes 'Bible Bloc Party' Will Bring Believers Into Knesset

A conservative Israeli activist notes that, thanks to immigration, the Christian population of Israel has grown to a politically significant percentage. That is why he wants to form a new political party to place Christian representatives in Israel's Parliament, the Knesset.

Dubai Ports World Boycotts Israel
From this morning’s Jerusalem Post:
The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Signs Comment: Last time we checked, boycotting Israel could be might be illegal... or certainly not in line with the usual Neocon policies.

Israel Kills Top Jihad Leader, Arrests Hamas MPs
An Israeli air strike killed Wednesday, March 1, the military leader of the Islamic Jihad, as Israeli troops detained two Hamas MPs in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).
Khaled Al-Dahduh, the overall leader of the Al-Quds Brigades who is also known by his nom-de-guerre Abu Al-Walid, was killed instantly when the vehicle in which he was traveling exploded in a ball of flames in Gaza City, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Witnesses and Palestinian security sources confirmed to AFP that Dahduh was killed in an Israel air strike carried out by an unmanned drone but the occupation army insisted it was not behind the blast.

Made in Israel: A nation of beggars

It is not the Palestinians who should be welcoming the European Union's decision to hastily donate another $142 million before the Hamas government is formed. It is Israel that ought to be pleased that the Western states will continue compensating the Palestinians for the economic decline that is a product of the Israeli occupation. For it is not natural disasters that have transformed the Palestinians into a nation that lives on handouts from the world; it is Israel's accelerating colonialist process. One facet of this is the continued takeover of Palestinian lands (whether "private" or public lands, it is the same thing), expansion of construction only for Jews, and de facto annexation by Israel of extensive tracts of Palestinian territory, while simultaneously breaking up the West Bank into enclaves and enclosures for Palestinians.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie: Surely Americans will not put up with this censorship?

The decision by a New York theatre to cave in to pressure over our play shows how the scope for free debate has narrowed

Censorship!
Israelis ask Oscars to drop suicide bomb film
A group of Israelis who lost children to Palestinian suicide bombings appealed on Wednesday to organizers of next week's Academy Awards to disqualify a film exploring the reasoning behind such attacks. The bereaved parents said they had gathered more than 32,000 signatures on a petition against the nomination in the best foreign film category of "Paradise Now," a drama about two West Bank friends recruited to blow themselves up in Tel Aviv. The controversial film was made by an Israeli Arab director and actors working with a Palestinian crew and locations. The producer was a Jewish Israeli and the funding was European.

Abramoff pushed plan to drill for oil in Israel - Established firm with two Russians

 Lobbyist Jack Abramoff worked with Russian partners to establish a company that envisioned a high-risk plan to drill for oil in Israel, which he hoped would bring him riches and reshape the Middle East, according to documents and his former lobbying partners.


If Cartoonists Have it, David Irving has a right to free speech, too

The timing of Austria's conviction and imprisonment of David Irving for denying the Holocaust could not have been worse. Coming after the deaths of at least 30 people in Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria and other Islamic countries during protests against cartoons ridiculing Muhammad, the Irving verdict makes a mockery of the claim that in democratic countries freedom of expression is a basic right. We cannot consistently hold that cartoonists have a right to mock religious figures but that it should be a criminal offense to deny the Holocaust. I believe that we should stand behind freedom of speech. And that means that David Irving should be freed.

Plague of Locusts Dept: Israeli Defense Minister sez Israel will take 20% of remaining Palestinian land
"When we talk about Israel's permanent or future borders it includes the Jordan Valley, Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion, Ariel, Kedumim-Karnei Shomron and Rehan-Shaked", said Israeli Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz in a speech this week in Jerusalem. The areas he mentioned comprise 20% of the West Bank, home to 3.5 million Palestinians, many of them refugees from what is now Israel.

Palestinians will lose essential services, says UN

Essential services such as medical treatment, water, sewage and security will be cut by stoppages in donor aid and tax payments to the Palestinian Authority ordered in the wake of Hamas's election victory, a UN report warns. Israel has halted its monthly remittance of $60m (£34.3m) in duties it collects on behalf of the PA but the report calls into question its contention that humanitarian aid to the Palestinians can be sustained if the ministries in a Hamas-dominated Authority are bypassed.

Israeli 'ruler-in-waiting' plans to starve Hamas

She is already being spoken of as an Israeli leader in waiting. Today the Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni brings to London the campaign to destabilise the incoming Hamas Palestinian government by starving it of cash. Israel's policy - described by a spokesman as putting "the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger" - has left London feeling squeamish. Tony Blair and Jack Straw will today undoubtedly show solidarity with Israel, saying Britain is not in the business of funding terrorists. But in private there is anguish that the policy will bring malnutrition to innocent Palestinians and punish them for taking part in a democratic election. The Palestinians are completely dependent on foreign aid for their survival and Israel's campaign to put 3.6 million people on starvation rations is foreboding.

Moscow and Pretoria welcome Hamas

US efforts to isolate Hamas has been dealt a double blow, with South Africa saying it will meet Hamas leaders and the Palestinian resistance group set to make an official visit to Russia. Hamas embarks on a quest for international legitimacy on Friday with an official visit to Russia, marking its first talks with a major power involved in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. But while it deals a blow to US-led efforts to isolate Hamas since it swept Palestinian elections in late January, Russia's mediation is seen by some in the West as a chance to talk the movement into renouncing violence and recognising Israel.

Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes
In five years' time, how many Jews will be living in France? Two years ago, a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey called Sebastien Selam was heading off to work from his parents' apartment when he was jumped in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel. Selam's throat was slit twice, to the point of near-decapitation; his face was ripped off with a fork; and his eyes were gouged out. Adel climbed the stairs of the apartment house dripping blood and yelling, "I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven." Is that an gripping story? You'd think so. Particularly when, in the same city, on the same night, a Jewish woman was brutally murdered in the presence of her daughter by another Muslim. You've got the making of a mini-trend there, and the media love trends. Yet no major French newspaper carried the story.
 
Signs Comment: Indeed, there is a growing anti-Jewish sentiment around the world. The question is: why? Could it have anything to do with the "facts on the ground"? That the United States and Israel are literally creating this anti-Jewish sentiment with their war-mongering, their genocide, torture, suppression of free speech, draconian legislation, and so on? We say repeatedly that the U.S. and Israel have sown the wind...

Iran claims Israel has over 200 nuclear warheads
Teheran has information suggesting that Israel's nuclear arsenal exceeds 200 warheads. "Israel's nuclear potential exceeds 200 warheads. The U.S., meanwhile, is pursuing a policy aimed at distracting attention from this problem," Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani told the press in Moscow on Thursday.

Hamas says recognition of Israel not on agenda
Palestinian election winner Hamas will not recognize Israel despite pressure from Russia to do so during talks in Moscow, a senior leader of the Islamic militant group said on Saturday.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas's deputy political leader, told Reuters in an interview that recognizing Israel would negate all Palestinian rights and therefore was out of the question.

A SENIOR member of Israel's Kadima Party suggests assassination of Palestinian Authority prime minister

Avi Dichter, a former Shin Bet chief tipped as the next defence minister if Kadima wins the March 28 elections in Israel, said that Ismail Haniyeh should not consider himself "immune" once he takes over the Palestinian Authority government. "In my eyes, he remains a man of terror, no matter what post he serves in," Dichter told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "If there is a terror attack to which Israel decides to respond with a preventive measure, then Haniyeh would be a legitimate target because Hamas cannot carry out a terror attack without Haniyeh's authorisation."

Ismail Haniyeh: From Refugee Camp to Prime Minister's Office

"Politics," said Shakespeare in The Tempest, "makes strange bedfellows," and few alliances are stranger or more unexpected than those within the present Palestinian government. Last month's elections saw the ruling Fateh Party solidly defeated by the Hamas "change and reform" slate, leaving Palestinian President Abbas of Fateh heading a Hamas-dominated Parliament. Having long branded the Hamas movement as terrorists, Israel and the West are issuing almost predictable threats about refusing to work with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. But stranger still, however, is the situation within occupied Palestine where former political prisoners and pariahs now occupy the halls of power with the same men who not so long ago were their jailers. When Hamas's armed wing was mounting military resistance, the Fatah security services, in an effort to appease Israel, frequently arrested and tortured some of the same men who will now lead the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Russia says Hamas prepared to extend ceasefire - Ball in Israel's Court

Palestinian election winner Hamas told Russia on Friday it was prepared to continue to abide by a ceasefire agreed last year if Israel does not use force, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Hamas confirmed its readiness not to leave the agreement on the ceasefire adopted in March 2005 on the understanding that Israel will also refrain from violent actions," the ministry said in a statement after Russian officials held talks with Hamas leaders in Moscow. A Hamas leader in Moscow, Ezzat El-Resheq, said the Islamic militant group would look positively on an extension of the ceasefire, but only if Israel "ended its aggression, assassinations and arrests and freed Palestinian prisoners". "The ball is now in Israel's court," he told Reuters. Israel says it takes military action to prevent attacks by Palestinian militants.

Chechen rebels blast Hamas over Russia visit

Chechnya's rebels slammed Hamas on Friday, saying leaders of the Palestinian group had given their blessing to the "murder of the Chechen people" by meeting top Russian officials.
The Islamist militant group, which swept to victory in Palestinian elections in January, visited Moscow in a bid to win support from a major foreign power since it is shunned as a terrorist group by Israel and Washington. Chechen separatist leaders said the group had sold out its principles, and showed itself as hungry for power as corrupt officials who governed the Palestinians before.

Let Israel Choose... Two States or One?

The coming weeks offer an unparalleled opportunity to leapfrog over the long comatose "peace process" and actually achieve peace in the Holy Land. All that is needed is some clear, constructive and original thinking on the part of the new Palestinian leadership. Demonized though it may be in the West, Hamas won the recent Palestinian elections not simply because it was perceived as clean but also because it was perceived, justifiably, as competent and coherent. It is capable of such thinking. As its first order of business after forming the new Palestinian government, Hamas should publicly announce its support for the Arab League's Beirut Declaration of March 2002, by which all Arab states (including Palestine) offered Israel permanent peace and normal diplomatic and economic relations in return for Israel's compliance with international law by returning to its internationally recognized, pre-1967 borders. (Not incidentally, such an announcement would destroy the "destruction of Israel" excuse for current Israeli and Western plans to overturn the results of Palestine's democratic elections and to bring the Palestinian people to their knees through economic privation.)

Break Down That Wall

Every time when I am in Bil'in and other places in occupied Palestine, I can't help thinking what a paradise this country would be if there were peace, peace based on justice and mutual respect.

Israeli Military exports to China back on track

The Defense Ministry began reissuing export permits for China a few months ago, Defense Minister Director-General Yaakov (Kobi) Toren told reporters yesterday. Toren said the permits, which were issued in coordination with the United States, allow Israeli companies to negotiate with Chinese companies over the sale of Israeli military products. He added that the Defense Ministry had halted military exports to China following a crisis in Israeli relations with the U.S. over Israel Aircraft Industries' selling its Phalcon early-warning system to China. "We renewed the issues of permits to Israeli companies wishing to do business in China," Toren said. "The companies come to us and we use our judgment, with or without consulting with the United States," he continued.

Palestinian teen killed in raid
Israeli troops have shot and killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded a second person during an early morning raid in the West Bank city of Nablus. Amer Basyuni, 15, was shot in the neck while standing on the roof of his home when soldiers opened fire during the raid on the Ein Beit Elma camp in Nablus on Friday, witnesses said. They say he had gone up on the roof to see what was going on.

Jewish plot to kill Bevin in London
JEWISH terrorists plotted to assassinate Ernest Bevin, the foreign secretary, in 1946, as part of their campaign to establish the state of Israel, newly declassified intelligence files have shown. The plan was devised by Irgun, the insurgent group led by Menachem Begin, who went on to become a Nobel peace prize winner and prime minister of Israel. Begin, whom MI6 believed was backed by the Soviet Union, planned to send five terrorist cells to Britain to carry out bombings and assassinations that would "beat the dog in his own kennel". The Jewish insurgents aimed to force British occupying forces out of Palestine, enabling the founding of the Jewish state. Details of the plot are included in MI5 files released at the National Archives in Kew, London.C

Signs Comment:
Lord Bethell might say that:
Zionists would be very angry if you compared these people with terrorists now, that Irgun were the grandfathers of today's ruling politicians, or that they would say they were at war with the British and behaved well, fighting under Marquess of Queensberry rules. They would say that they didn't target civilians
but the fact remains that Zionists of the 1940's engaged in terrorist bombings that targetted civilians and they are the forefathers of today's Zionists who have not only carried on the tradition but taken it to inordinate extremes. Reference Israeli Zionist involvement in the 9/11 attacks for example. In concept, there is no different between the 1946 Israeli terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel and the September 11th attacks in New York. Both were carried out by Zionists so as to enable them to push forward their agenda of a radical reshaping of the Middle East. The ultimate truth however, is that this agenda will most likely result in the destruction of a large percentage of the all Semites in the modern-day Middle East.

Israelis petition to stop suicide bombing film from winning an Oscar
One of the few charges that hasn't been levelled against Paradise Now, the Palestinian-directed film up for the best foreign film Oscar tomorrow night, is that it's boring. From the opening sequence in which Suha, a young woman returning from exile abroad, confronts the relentless, hostile stare of the Israeli soldier going through her bag at the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus, to the last scene when the screen goes blank rather than show the suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv bus which drives the story, the film grips just like the thriller that its director, Hany Abu-Assad, intended it to be. Many of the scenes, some haunting, some darkly tragi-comic, linger in the memory: the moment when Said meets his handler from the unnamed militant faction and is told that the bombing mission is on for the next day; the release that spreads across Khaled's face when he believes they have aborted the mission; the laughing Israeli soldiers in the bus in closing sequence.

Signs Comment: It would appear that the Israeli lobby in the U.S. have, once again, got their way. Paradise Now did not win an Oscar for best foreign film. Yay Democracy!

Daniel Pipes believes that civil war in Iraq will serve coalition interests

SOTT has been saying for some time that all the bombings and civil unrest in Iraq have very likely been due to "coalition covert ops." In these two pieces below, one an article and the other an interview, we get a view inside the mind of a psychopath, Daniel Pipes. Pipes reveals for us the true intentions of the Neocons. Of course, he attempts to maintain the tissue of lies, that the Neocons really wanted a "free and democratic Iraq," and suggests, disingenuously that the Administration is not "thinking this way", i.e. that civil war in Iraq is a good thing. But it is clear that the Neocons ARE thinking this way and doing everything they can to make sure that it happens.

Rickman slams 'censorship' of play about US Gaza activist

A New York theatre company has put off plans to stage a play about an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza because of the current "political climate" - a decision the play's British director, Alan Rickman, denounced yesterday as "censorship". James Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, said it had never formally announced it would be staging the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, but it had been considering staging it in March. "In our pre-production planning and our talking around and listening in our communities in New York, what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon's illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situation," Mr Nicola said. "We found that our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict, that we didn't want to take."

Pro-Israel Lobbying Group Roiled by Prosecution of Two Ex-Officials
The annual gathering of the nation's top pro-Israel lobbying group, which starts here on Sunday, will be addressed by Vice President Dick Cheney and United Nations Ambassador John R. Bolton. Politicians are lined up to warn of the threat from Iran and Hamas. Workshops will offer advice on winning the legislative game on Capitol Hill. But the official program omits a topic likely to be a major theme of corridor chatter: the explosive Justice Department prosecution of two former officials of the group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, that is ticking toward an April trial date.
 
Signs Comment: Lots of beating around the Bush (no pun) in this article, lots of skirting the issue. Israeli Zionist influences are more of less in complete control of US foreign policy, and any part of domestic policy that influences foreign policy. The 9/11 attacks constituted the final Israeli Zionist takeover of the U.S. government. AIPAC is but the 'PR man', the public face, of this covert coup. The Franklin spying case was simply a 'limited hangout' to create the impression that there is still some checks on the extent of Israel's control of the U.S. In reality, as can be seen from the fact that AIPAC and Israeli control of the U.S. has never been stronger, there are no such checks. America's military capability is now Israel's military capability, to do with as the Zionists wish. At the top level, 'Israeli interests' are planning a major war in the Middle East that will end with the annihilation of all Semitic peoples therein.
And the Great Game goes on - Russia's gambit of genius in talking to Hamas
Uri Avnery describes President Vladimir Putin's decision to talk to Hamas as a "gambit of genius" that has put Russia back on the political map of the Middle East. He argues that, while the USA and Europe have consigned themselves to a self-imposed straightjacket by ostrasizing Hamas, "Putin used the sharp scalpel of unemotional logic and made the first move", creating an opportunity to break the political deadlock and, "above all else ... announcing that Russia is back in the Great Game".

US lawyers attack Israeli security agent "thugs"

A confession extracted by torture at the hands of Israeli security "thugs" should not be allowed in an American court, lawyers for a Palestinian immigrant accused of funneling money to Hamas said on Friday. U.S. prosecutors said the man, Mohammed Salah, was a liar who had information known only to high-level Hamas figures before he made the 1993 confession in question and there was no evidence to support his claims of torture.

Publish it not...the Middle East Cover-Up: Foreword

No alien polity has so successfully penetrated the British government and British institutions during the past ninety years as the Zionist movement and its manifestation as the state of Israel. From the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, in which the British Foreign Secretary said his government "view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," (before Britain had taken possession of Palestine from the Ottomans), through the twenty-six year history of Zionist exploitation of the British Mandate at Arab (and British) expense, to Britain's scuttle from Palestine in 1948 and the creation of Israel and the catastrophe for the Palestinians, and up to present-day connivance by the United Kingdom government with America's unremitting political and media support for Israel and its daily violation of international laws and conventions on Palestinian lands, the Zionists have manipulated British systems as expertly as maestros, here a massive major chord, there a minor refrain, the audience, for the most part, spellbound.

Fatah walks out of parliament

Fatah legislators have walked out of the first working session of the Hamas-led Palestinian parliament after the Islamic group took initial steps to revoke powers the previous legislature granted the Palestinian president.

Olmert Planning Further Unilateral Pullout

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to withdraw from more West Bank settlements immediately after forming Israel's next government and to set Israel's final borders within four years if it wins upcoming elections, a top political ally said Sunday in the most explicit statement yet of Olmert's plans. Border-setting is the key agenda of the Israeli leader's Kadima Party, which holds a commanding lead ahead of the March 28 parliamentary vote. Olmert has said that should negotiation efforts fail, he would draw Israel's borders unilaterally, continuing a process started over the summer when the Israelis evacuated the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements.


Ilan Pappe on the Israel-Palestine conflict
Last October, when Prof. Ilan Pappe was visiting the SF Bay Area, he was interviewed by Steve Zeltzer for his Labor Video Project cable TV program. This is the audio for the 57 minute program in which Pappe talks about the history of Zionism, the Palestinian Nakba, Israeli-Palestinian labor relations, the need for a one state solution, divestment, and the support of the Israeli public for the Iraq war. You can download or listen to the program by clicking on http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16276 and scroll down to the bottom right hand corner of the page.

Condoleezard Lies Again

A State Department-commissioned poll taken days before January's Palestinian elections warned U.S. policymakers that the militant Islamic group Hamas was in a position to win.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after the election that they had no advance indication of a major Hamas triumph.

The Democratic Republic of Hamas

Imagine someone grabbed you by the throat, threw you on the ground, and began pummeling you in the head and chest. Would you be inclined to address him serenely saying, "Yes, I recognize your right to exist"? Of course not. The first thing you would try to do is free yourself from his clutches and get back on your feet. How different is this from the dispute between Israel and the newly-elected Hamas? Occupation is a form of violence directed at people to prevent them from controlling their own destiny. It is very similar to a vicious mugging where one party completely dominates the other. It is an attack on the fundamental principles of statehood, sovereignty and self-determination.

Hamas throws a hardball - before negotiations can occur, Israel must recognise Palestine

...it seems amply clear that Israel views the election of Hamas by a majority of Palestinians as a clear political challenge. Hamas has been arguing loudly -- and convincingly -- of late that it is wrong to demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel while not demanding that Israel recognise Palestine, ie a Palestinian state within the internationally recognised 1967 borders. Hamas is also asking the international community to pressure Israel to define its physical borders before considering the issue of recognition.

And the Great Game goes on - Russia's gambit of genius in talking to Hamas

Uri Avnery describes President Vladimir Putin's decision to talk to Hamas as a "gambit of genius" that has put Russia back on the political map of the Middle East. He argues that, while the USA and Europe have consigned themselves to a self-imposed straightjacket by ostrasizing Hamas, "Putin used the sharp scalpel of unemotional logic and made the first move", creating an opportunity to break the political deadlock and, "above all else ... announcing that Russia is back in the Great Game".

Fisk Paints a Middle East in crisis
One of the Middle East's most experienced observers is warning today that we should prepare for another major catastrophe in the region.

Robert Fisk says that in his three decades of reporting from the Middle East for British newspapers, he's never seen it more dangerous, and that he's certain another major crisis, possibly even another September 11, is coming. The veteran war reporter also says he remains baffled by just who is trying to generate civil war in Iraq. Robert Fisk is in Australia this week to promote his latest book, The Great War for Civilization, and he joined me in The World Today studio a short time ago. Now, you've been a bit of an optimist about Iraq and civil war, but do you think what's going on now is already civil war?

War Pimp Alert! US envoy hints at strike to stop Iran

The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, has told British MPs that military action could bring Iran's nuclear programme to a halt if all diplomatic efforts fail. The warning came ahead of a meeting today of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which will forward a report on Iran's nuclear activities to the UN security council.

Amid AIPAC's Big Show, Straight Talk With a Noticeable Silence

Words are seldom minced at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. During a luncheon speech yesterday at the convention center, Daniel Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, shouted a barnyard obscenity involving a bull when he dismissed the theory that Iran and Hamas might soften their anti-Israel views. The audience gave Gillerman a standing ovation.

War Pimp Bolton warns Iran of 'painful consequences'

Iran faces "tangible and painful consequences" if it continues its nuclear activities and the United States will use "all tools at our disposal" to stop this threat, a senior U.S. official said Sunday, ahead of a crucial international meeting on Iran.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, speaking at a convention of Jewish-Americans, said it is too soon for the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran but other countries are talking about doing so and Washington is "beefing up defensive measures to cope with the Iranian nuclear threat." Monday's meeting of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency governing board is expected to take stock of Iran's continued defiance of U.S. and European demands to end sensitive weapons-related uranium enrichment activity and then hand the case over to the security council.

Israel: Hamas leaders not immune

Palestinian PM-designate Ismail Haniya will not be immune from assassination if Hamas renews attacks on Israel, the Israeli defence minister has said.

Israel blasts car carrying Palestinian militants; 3 militants, bystander killed - Eight people, including a child, were wounded
Israeli aircraft on Monday fired a missile into a car carrying Islamic Jihad militants, killing three and a teenage bystander, Palestinian doctors said.
Eight people, including a child, were wounded, doctors said. A spokesman for the militant group, who gave his name as Abu Dajana, vowed to get even. "God willing we are going to get revenge for the honourable blood shed today," Abu Dajana told reporters outside a morgue at the Shifa hospital in Gaza.

Israel airstrike kills 5
An Israeli air strike killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three other people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including an eight-year-old boy, Palestinian medics and witnesses said. The Israeli army confirmed the strike on a car carrying the two militants, which came on the eve of formal campaigning for Israel's elections on March 28 and after interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to use an "iron fist" against militants.
"The war on terror will be conducted in full strength as it is being conducted, in every corner, in every place in the Gaza Strip and everywhere else," Olmert said in an recorded interview aired on Monday on a talk show on Israel's Channel 2 television.

Signs Comment: Notice the title of this article which is supposed to be reporting the wanton murder by Israel of three innocent Palestinians including an 8 year old child. Notice that Israel did not murder 3 three civilians, one of whom was an 8 year old boy, but rather "killed 3 other people". This is the kind of subtle twisting of reality that allows such brutal state-sponsored murder to continue unchallenged.

Hamas revokes Abbas's wider powers

Hamas legislators voted on Monday to revoke all decisions made by the previous Palestinian parliament at its final session last month, including laws that gave President Mahmoud Abbas wider powers to appoint some judges.

Senior aide to Mahmoud Abbas accuses Hamas of coup attempt
A senior Palestinian official accused Hamas lawmakers on Monday of attempting to oust Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by nullifying a parliamentary decision that gave the Palestinian president wider powers. "We see this as a coup attempt to change the regime and they [Hamas] have to seriously reconsider their decisions," said Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, a senior aide to Abbas. Meanwhile, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal said Monday that the group's recent visit to Moscow marked the end of its international isolation.

Defiling the Grave of an American Hero: The Censoring of Rachel Corrie

After all the outcry concerning the intolerance of the Islamic world in their impassioned response to the degrading cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammed, where is the outrage in response to the silencing of Rachel Corrie by the New York Theater Workshop? Is there a double standard in western values of free speech? You bet there is. The hypocrisy runs so deep that the vast majority of Americans does not know who Rachel Corrie is and, thanks to the self-imposed gag rule of cultural and media institutions, they never will.

Condi's Promises of Gaza trade Fall Flat
Scant progress has been made implementing a deal brokered last year by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to boost the flow of goods into and out of Gaza after Israel's withdrawal, the World Bank said. "Very little has been implemented and the system that exists today is virtually unchanged," the international lending agency said in the report, which was expected to be released on Monday. Under the November 15 agreement announced by Rice and touted by Washington as a rare breakthrough in Middle East diplomacy, Israel agreed to allow 150 commercial trucks to pass daily through Gaza's Karni crossing with Israel by December 31, 2005. That number would rise to 400 by the end of 2006. But the World Bank said Karni crossing data suggested that there had been "no sustained improvement" in the movement of goods across Karni before or after Israel's pullout, completed last September.

Signs Comment: Like their Israeli masters, members of the Bush administration care nothing for the suffering of the Palestinians and are moved to initiate hollow 'peace deals' in order to hide from the world their contempt for the Palestinians.

Chirac Opposes Sanctions Against Hamas Government

French President Jacques Chirac says he is opposed to any international sanctions against a Palestinian government formed by the militant group Hamas. Speaking to reporters Monday on the final day of a visit to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Chirac said he was aware of calls for cutting off aid to a Hamas-led government because of the group's refusal to renounce violence against Israel. But he said imposing sanctions would mostly hurt the Palestinian people.

Wolfensohn: Aid to PA Must Continue

ames Wolfensohn, international envoy to the Middle East, said Monday that Western aid to Palestinians must continue but could bypass a Hamas-led government unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel, AP reported.

Wolfensohn, who represents the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers, the US, UN, European Union and Russia, said cutting off aid to the Palestinians would lead to a humanitarian disaster.

Accusations of anti-semitic chic are poisonous intellectual thuggery

Attempts to brand the left as anti-Jewish because of its support of Palestinian rights only make it harder to tackle genuine racism. If the past few weeks have demonstrated anything, it is the frequency with which allegations of anti-semitism surface in modern political debate. Ken  Livingstone, the Church of England and the Guardian (over articles comparing Israel and apartheid) are the most recent to find themselves in the firing line. This is the backdrop against which an unofficial parliamentary inquiry on anti-semitism under former Foreign Office minister Denis McShane concludes its hearings in Westminster today.

Hamas terms Israel's death threat to Haneya as terrorism
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Tuesday that Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's targeted killing threat to Palestinian prime minister-designate Ismail Haneya was terrorism. "Mofaz statements represent a clear and formal terrorism," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters in Gaza.

Signs Comment: Israel calls it "targeted killing". We call it murder. It is terrorism, but you'll never hear the mainsream media calling it that. No, the "terrorists" are all Muslim, never Jews or Christians. State terrorism is twisted into being somehow legitimate. Double-speak from the pathocrats. The double standard, one measure for those we promote, another for those we kill.

Visit to Russia Has Broken US-Israeli Blockade - Hamas Leader

Hamas' leader said his visit to Russia "opened the door to the entire global community," claiming in an interview published Monday that the international isolation of the militant Palestinian group was coming to an end, AP reported. Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas political chief whose three-day visit to Moscow ended Sunday, also said that "Russia's position is completely unlike that of the West" and praised Russian officials for understanding Hamas' stance.

Give Hamas Time: Chirac

French President Jacques Chirac wrapped up his three-day visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday by calling on Hamas leaders to soften their stance and reject violence. Chirac also categorically rejected sanctions against the Palestinian political group that swept elections in January.
Chirac told a news conference that he was in favor of giving time to any eventual Hamas-led government to perform and deliver. Chirac called the elections "democratic," but also called on Hamas to "recognize Israel and respect the will of the international community."

Jews Pray for the Immediate Disintegration of the Zionist Regime

The anti-Zionist Jewish movement of Neturei Karta International stated that the community of Orthodox Jews have always and will constantly pray to God for the immediate and peaceful disintegration of the Zionist Regime and the Israeli state. Neturei Karta International added, "all the Orthodox Jews world wide are upset about the recent ploys, propaganda and tensions which have been created by the West regarding the statements of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about a world free from Zionism since this is nothing more than wishing for a better world dominated by peace and calm." "This means a true hope for a peaceful life and coexistence between the Jewish and Muslim communities following the disintegration of the Zionist Regime, the same way that it was in Palestine and all throughout the world prior to the manifestation of Zionism and establishment of the Zionist Israeli state," it added. The anti-Zionist Jews stressed, "this is a dangerous deviation to pretend that the Iranian president is an anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic personality since president Ahmadinejad, in fact, restated what the late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini had frequently stated, that is, Zionism is different from Judaism and while the Zionist state of Israel must be disintegrated, the Jewish communities world wide and the religion of Judaism must be respected."

UNICEF: "Sad day for children of Gaza"

UNICEF said Monday was a sad day for the children of Gaza, after five were killed in conflict-related incidents.
In the first incident, two brothers, aged 14 and 15, were killed instantly when they were exposed to an unexploded device in a pond in Bereij, south of Gaza City. Later in the day, two brothers, aged 11 and 15, and a 14-year-old boy were killed as bystanders during an air attack. Monday's tragic incidents bring the year's death toll of Palestinian children to conflict-related violence to 11. The organization noted that yesterday's one day toll was very high at a time when overall child casualties were actually going down. UNICEF said the events of Monday starkly illustrate the how children are impacted in many ways by the conflict. In line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child all efforts should be made to protect children from violence as well as their rights to education, health and play.

Netanyahu would control more territory

Benjamin Netanyahu said he would move Israel's security barrier deeper inside the West Bank. The Likud Party leader was the third of the three candidates in Israel's March 28 elections to address this year's American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of the Kadima Party and Amir Peretz of Labor both said they would cut off a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority but would seek moderates with whom to deal, and Olmert said he was ready to unilaterally withdraw from some West Bank territory. Netanyahu suggested Israel should assume control of more territory, saying a Hamas-controlled West Bank posed dangers to Israel's population centers and to Ben-Gurion Airport. Shoulder-fired rockets "cannot and should not reach any aircraft," he said to applause Tuesday. Netanyahu also said Hamas is irredeemably opposed to Israel, and that he hoped to topple the group from power through diplomatic isolation.

Documents reveal Labor-Likud plans for West Bank

Highly confidential documents from the Ministry of Justice dating from the early 1990s, copies of which were sent to the ministers of defense, justice and housing as well as the attorney general, confirm the existence of a vast network of ties between Likud and Labor governments, and land dealers and settlers' associations, for the purpose of acquiring land in the West Bank.

U.N.: Jewish Settlers Harass Palestinians

Jewish settlers are terrorizing Palestinians with impunity, attacking children on their way to school and destroying farmers' trees and crops, a U.N. expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict said in a report.
John Dugard, a South African lawyer, called the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip last summer a positive step. But the Jewish state effectively controls Gaza through targeted killings and sonic booms from warplanes flying over the region, Dugard said in a report prepared ahead of next week's annual meeting of the 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Security guard sentenced to 6.5 years in jail for raping, molesting Palestinian women

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Oded Zecharia, a security guard from Ma'aleh Adumim, to six and a half years in prison after he was convicted of raping and molesting Palestinian women. According to the sentence, Zecharia agreed to let the woman pass into Israel despite the fact that they did not have the appropriate permits, after he had forced them to have sexual intercourse with him.

Israeli Policy of Assassination

It is official. The elected leadership of the Palestinians will become targets for assassination if there is a suicide attack in Israel and Tel Aviv decides that Hamas is responsible. No evidence will be needed. Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, has said so. This chilling threat demonstrates the contempt in which Israel and Washington hold the democratic process if the result of the election does not suit them.

Islamic Jihad threatens to target Israeli leaders

Islamic Jihad threatened on Wednesday to target Israeli leaders after a series of Israeli air strikes and raids killed key members of the Palestinian militant group.
"Leaders of the enemy should know that they personally are targets," Islamic Jihad said in a statement faxed to the Reuters office in Gaza.

Israel sets four year deadline to draw final borders

Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said the country will draw its final borders within four years without consulting the Palestinians if Hamas does not recognise the Jewish state.

Life in Prison: Israel will build wall around country if talks with Palestinians fail
Israel will determine its border with the West Bank of the Jordan River if negotiations with Palestinians fail and then it will build a wall and move all Jewish settlers to the Israeli side, acting prime minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published Friday. Olmert told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper if the Palestinians "prefer to be dragged into the axis of evil of Iran," then Israel will change the path of its wall on the West Bank by national consensus and "Israelis will not live on the other side of the barrier."
 
Signs Comment: Israeli leaders can make the most outrageous statements, and they are accepted and unquestioned by the mainstream media. Murder duely elected leaders of another nation? Fine. Build a wall to justify the illegal land grabs made over the last century. Hey, go ahead. "After all, they're only Arabs, the ones that won't allow us to print caricatures of the Prophet while we're imprisoning anyone who wants to raise questions about certain details of the holocaust. Double standars? Hell, no! We're dealing with subhumans here!"  This is what the Israeli discourse boils down to. And we let it pass. It is promoted as being sane and reasonable by other insane and unreasonable commentators on Fox News, the New York Times, and all the other shrines of free speech in the US and elsewhere. We live in a world turned upside down.

UN: Israel wall forcing Palestinians out
A UN expert has said that East Jerusalem is undergoing major changes because of a new wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods aimed at reducing the number of Palestinians in the city. John Dugard, special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a report to the UN Human Rights Commission on Wednesday that the Israeli-built separation wall was causing major humanitarian problems. "The character of East Jerusalem is undergoing a major change as a result of the construction of the wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods,"  Dugard said. "The clear purpose of the wall in the Jerusalem area is to reduce the number of Palestinians in the city by transferring them to the West Bank. "This causes major humanitarian problems: Families are separated and access to hospitals, schools and the workplace are denied."
 
Signs Comment: The phrase for what Israel is doing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is "ethnic cleansing".

Hamas: Olmert's border plan is declaration of war

Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas' political bureau, views Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to shape Israel's permanent borders as a declaration of war on the Palestinian people, the French news agency AFP reported Friday. Meshal said Olmert's plan is not a peace plan, but constitutes "unilateral moves that will allow Israel to remain in most of the West Bank through construction of the fence, leaving in its hands the settlements and Jerusalem and rejecting the right of return," according to the report. Meshal was quoted as saying that "Olmert is repeating Sharon's mistakes."

UN: Israel wall forcing Palestinians out

A UN expert has said that East Jerusalem is undergoing major changes because of a new wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods aimed at reducing the number of Palestinians in the city. John Dugard, special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a report to the UN Human Rights Commission on Wednesday that the Israeli-built separation wall was causing major humanitarian problems. "The character of East Jerusalem is undergoing a major change as a result of the construction of the wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods," Dugard said. "The clear purpose of the wall in the Jerusalem area is to reduce the number of Palestinians in the city by transferring them to the West Bank.

The two state solution, a cruel joke - a state cannot live in peace and security by denying it to others.

The interminable torment inflicted on the Palestinian people by Zionism is in the active phase of yet another disastrous historical culmination. The Palestinians' role in this karmic dialectic is as the obscenely oppressed victims who progressively lose land, life, and livelihood. 1948 represents the mega catastrophe, preceded by decades of unrelenting militant Zionist intrusion protected by the reigning colonial power of the time. 1967 was of much lesser proportions in terms of its collective consequences, but the decades since have led to that singular Zionist goal supported by the superpower of the day: dispossession of Palestine.

Israel to build controversial settlements near Jerusalem
Israeli Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday that Israel would continue to build settlements in a disputed area near Jerusalem despite U.S. pressure if his Kadima party won the March 28 general elections. "It is inconceivable that we should speak of Ma'aleh Adumim as a part of the state of Israel while leaving it as an island or an isolated enclave," said Olmert, cited by local newspaper Ha'aretz.

Signs Comment: Of course, dividing Palestine up into tiny, bite-size morsels is hardly "inconceivable". The Palestinians don't bow down to Yahweh.

Olmert said for several times that Israel would retain the major West Bank Jewish settlements, like Ariel, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim.

Signs Comment: Yeah, right. The road map. What a joke. However, it worked. It provided the smokescreen needed at the time for Israel to continue its murder campaign and its seizure of new land. Remember, any and all Israeli settlement on Palestinian land is illegal.

ISRAELI NEWS AGENCY SAYS ACTIVIST CARTOONIST PRACTICES 'ISLAMIC RACIST HATE.'

Mike Flugennock, one of the best activist cartoonists in the country (we call him DC's Daumier) has been attacked by the Israeli News Agency as an example of "Islamic racist hate and incitement to violence" because of this well-aimed shot. Since Flugennock's work has appeared from time to time in the Review and since we have always regarded him as a pretty peaceful fellow, we thought we'd better investigate. We asked him a series of hard question trying to uncover his Islamic racist hatred. The results follow.

Anti-Zionist Orthodox Rabbis visited iran

A delegation of of Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish Rabbis visited the Islamic Republic of Iran, March 2006, where they met with clerics, Imams, and Government Officials.

The Orthodox Jewish response to the criticism of the Iranian President

Orthodox Jews the world over, are saddened by the hysteria which has greeted the recent stated desire of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to see a world free of Zionism. This desire is nothing more than a yearning for a better, more peaceful world. It is a hope that with the elimination of Zionism, Jews and Muslims will live in harmony as they have throughout the ages, in Palestine and throughout the world.

UN: Israel wall forcing Palestinians out
A UN expert has said that East Jerusalem is undergoing major changes because of a new wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods aimed at reducing the number of Palestinians in the city. John Dugard, special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a report to the UN Human Rights Commission on Wednesday that the Israeli-built separation wall was causing major humanitarian problems. "The character of East Jerusalem is undergoing a major change as a result of the construction of the wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods," Dugard said. "The clear purpose of the wall in the Jerusalem area is to reduce the number of Palestinians in the city by transferring them to the West Bank. "This causes major humanitarian problems: Families are separated and access to hospitals, schools and the workplace are denied."

Signs Comment: The phrase for what Israel is doing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is "ethnic cleansing".

Int'l organizations balk at Israel's demands on seam-line workers

An Israeli demand that Palestinians working for international organizations request a permit to enter the seam-line area between the West Bank separation fence and the Green Line has generated tension between the security establishment and the international groups.

Israelis Want Aipac-Backed Bill Softened

Israeli interests in the West Bank and Gaza could be hurt by a bill being pressed by the pro-Israel lobby that would restrict American assistance to the Palestinians, several Israeli officials and representatives of international aid organizations told the Forward.


From AIPAC to Check Point - Is Check Point's problem over Sourcefire caused by a hostile Washington bureaucracy?

However, mingling in the crowded hallways of the Washington convention center that hosted the event gave one the impression that the threat of a mushroom cloud in Middle Eastern skies in the coming years bothered the thousands of participants far less than the clear and present danger to AIPAC: the pending trial of two senior officials, Steven J. Rosen, who was responsible for foreign affairs and was a strong figure in the lobby, and Keith Weissman, a former Middle East analyst.

Hamas attacks Israel border plan

A senior Hamas leader has described as a declaration of war an Israeli plan to set new borders unilaterally by annexing Palestinian land. The militant group's political leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, told the AFP news agency the plan was intended to meet only Israel's security needs.
Mr Meshaal said the plan would not bring about peace. Acting Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said he planned to set permanent borders for Israel within four years.

West Bank settlements: Wrong from the start

With Israel's national election approaching, each day's news emphasizes a clear political shift: The settlement enterprise has lost the support of Israel's mainstream voters. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the front- runner in the March 28 vote, plans to evacuate more West Bank settlements unilaterally, a top figure in his party said this week. Olmert himself announced he would stop decades of investment in infrastructure for settlements. These promises reflect a change not only in Olmert, a lifelong rightist, but in the electorate. Polls show that a strong majority supports parties ready to part with the settlements.

How Britain helped Israel make the bomb

Britain secretly sold Israel a key ingredient for its nuclear program in 1958, recently declassified documents have revealed.
Official government papers released by the British National Archives detail a deal to export 20 tons of heavy water for around $2.7 million. The ingredient was vital to plutonium production at the top secret Dimona nuclear reactor in Israel's Negev desert. The British government did not place any " peaceful use only" condition on the sale of the heavy water. It would be somewhat overzealous for us to insist on safeguards," a civil servant explained.
Ministers in then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's government were unaware of the deal, which was apparently conducted entirely by civil servants. It was also kept secret from the Americans.

Britain gave Israel plutonium, files show

Britain secretly supplied Israel with plutonium during the 1960s despite a warning from military intelligence that it could help the Israelis to develop a nuclear bomb, it was disclosed last night. The deal, made during Harold Wilson's Labour government, is revealed in classified documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and obtained by BBC2's Newsnight programme. The documents also show how Britain made hundreds of shipments to Israel of material which could have helped in its nuclear weapons programme, including compounds of uranium, lithium, beryllium and tritium, as well as heavy water.

Fatah official accuses Hamas of contacting U.S., Israel
Azzam al-Ahmed, spokesman of the Fatah movement in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), on Monday accused the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of contacting the United States and Israel.


Fatah faces US cut off if it join Hamas government

The Bush administration intends to curtail contacts with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction if it joins a Hamas-led government, Western diplomatic sources said on Monday.
The warning came as senior Fatah officials held talks in Gaza with Hamas over whether to join the government being formed by the Islamic militant group, which beat Fatah in January elections. Fatah has so far said it has no intention of joining the government unless Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, changes its political program, but talks continue.

Daniel Pipes Finds Comfort in Muslims Killing Muslims

One of the abiding myths about the War on Iraq is that the neocons were too stupid to realize that they would confront an unrelenting, indigenous resistance to their occupation of Iraq. Unwittingly, the story line goes, they led the U.S. into a conflict which has now produced a civil war. But this simply does not fit the facts. The neocons clearly anticipated such an outcome before they launched their war as Stephen Zunes documents in Antiwar.com: "Top analysts in the CIA and State Department, as well as large numbers of Middle East experts, warned that a U.S. invasion of Iraq could result in a violent ethnic and sectarian conflict. Even some of the war's intellectual architects acknowledged as much: In a 1997 paper, prior to becoming major figures in the Bush foreign policy team, David Wurmser, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith predicted that a post-Saddam Iraq would likely be "ripped apart" by sectarianism and other cleavages but called on the United States to "expedite" such a collapse anyway."

Ami Ayalon: 'I've killed more Arabs than anyone'
Ami Ayalon, who is running on Labor ticket in upcoming elections, tells Sunday Times 'I killed many Arabs, probably more than Hamas fighters killed Jews, and more than anybody else, but all in order to secure Israeli lives'; adds that 'seventy percent of those who voted for Hamas were not Hamas believers but voted against the corruption in the Palestinian Authority. Former Shin Bet Chief Ami Ayalon said in a recent interview with the London-based Sunday Times "I killed many Arabs, probably more than Hamas fighters killed Jews, and more than anybody else, but all in order to secure Israeli lives."

Seven Palestinians, including five children killed this week

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that Israeli soldiers killed seven residents of the Gaza Strip, five of whom were children. Of the five children who were killed this week, three were killed during an extra-judicial execution gone wrong. The Israeli military also wounded eighteen civilians, including eight children in the reported period.

Palestinian Child's finger cut off during Israeli investigation

Qassam Abu Baker, 16, from Yabad village, near the West Bank city of Jenin, lost his finger during investigation in Israeli detention center of Salem.

Israeli Settlers attack Palestinian farmers; injure four, including one child

A group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked several Palestinian residents of Sosia, located near the West Bank city of Yatta, south of Hebron, on Monday morning. The Palestine News Network reported that the attack was carried out during a voluntary work session conducted by the Israeli organization Rabbis for Human Rights, who were planting olive trees in solidarity with the Palestinian farmers and cave dwellers of the area. Four of the residents were injured by the Israeli settlers, who beat the Palestinians badly. The injured were identified as A'lya Salamah Al Nawaj'a,66, Sameeha Ali Nawaj'a 31, and Jamal Ismaiel Al Nawaj'a, 22. The fourth injured Palestinian is a ten year old child who has not yet been identified. The Israeli army made no attempt to stop the settlers from attacking the Palestinians, although they were present at the scene. After the attack, the Army declared the area a military zone and pushed the remaining Palestinians and their Israeli supporters off their land. The army then barred the Palestinian residents from returning to their farmlands.

Raising Yousuf: a diary of a mother under occupation

This blog is about raising my son Yousuf in the occupied Gaza Strip while working as a journalist, and everything that entails from potty training to border crossings. Together, we endure a lot, and the personal becomes political. This is our story.

Why is peace a dirty word in Israel?

Uri Avnery asks why the word "peace" is not mentioned by any of the main political parties in the Israeli election campaign. His answer is that "the huge majority of Israeli Jews do not believe in peace". Instead, they want "a Jewish State, with as large a Jewish majority as possible" and with borders that are unilaterally fixed, "without speaking with those Palestinians".

More Pro-Israel Than Israel

In a letter to the editor of The New York Times last week, retired Israeli general Shlomo Gazit could not have been more clear: "This is not the time for politicians from your country or ours to offer knee-jerk counterproductive declarations or legislation to cater to their electorates." Gazit is not your run-of-the-mill retired general. He was Israel's first coordinator of government operations in the Palestinian territories and served afterward as head of military intelligence. And he says: This is not a time for posturing. This is a time to "wait and see what unfolds within the Hamas-led Palestinian government."

Seek Justice, Only Justice - AIPAC consists almost exclusively of Zionists

Seek Justice, Only Justice - AIPAC consists almost exclusively of Zionists, activists whose behavior is actually disapproved by the majority of U.S. Jews. Because of the gross, longstanding bias in U.S. policy in the Middle East, the world teeters on the precipice of widening conflict focused -- sadly, unnecessarily, dangerously -- on religion: Christendom versus Islam. Those are strong words, frightening words, but they are the truth.
Since I found myself in the thicket of Middle East politics nearly forty years ago, I have done little else than seek justice for Arabs deeply aggrieved by our policy bias. This pro-justice endeavor is motivated mainly by my deep concern for America. At 84, I sometimes feel old enough to have heard God's command to Moses, as recorded in Deuteronomy: "Seek justice, only justice." That command is my watchword. Despite the efforts of many brave people to bring about a just reform, the bias continues -- more flagrant and costly each year. The peril confronts all Americans. No one can escape.

Netanyahu: We need to fight Hamas - Israeli rightwing

Likud, the right-wing party trailing ahead of a March 28 Israeli election, has rejected any Palestinian state led by Hamas.
Hamas, which won elections in January, unveiled a proposed government programme on Saturday that did not renounce its commitment to destroying Israel but said recognition of it was "a decision for the Palestinian people". Speaking to the Yediot Aharonot daily, which on Sunday published an outline of the Likud campaign platform, party leader and former premier Benjamin Netanyahu asked: "Should I be talking about concessions when the Hamas government is in power? At the moment there is nothing to be done and we need to fight Hamas. Our platform will be revised according to circumstances."

British Council offices set ablaze as Israel raids Jericho jail

Palestinian protestors set fire to the British Council offices in Gaza city today, after Britain was accused of colluding in an Israeli raid on a jail. The angry demonstrators, chanting "death to the Americans, death to the British", set the Council office ablaze and stormed the EU Commission office. The protests came after Israeli forces smashed their way into a prison in Jericho, following the withdrawal of British and American monitors from their posts.

Israel declares state of maximum alert

Israeli security bodies were put Sunday on maximum alert on reports of receiving 59 warnings on plans by Palestinian fighters to carry out attacks within Israel.
The Israeli police declared that it deployed thousands of policemen in the city centers and near the west bank borders, where it also boosted its presence along the main roads to prevent the infiltration of Palestinians. The Israeli Maariv daily reported on its website that the Shin Bet (Israel Internal Security Service) affirmed that preparation have been taken to abort any possible Palestinian attack. A siege was impose on the Palestinian lands on Saturday night ahead of the Israel Purim festival, where Israeli claimed it received 11 warnings on possible Palestinians attacks against Israeli targets. The Israeli security body declared that it arrested last week in Tulkarem a Palestinian identified as Osama abu Zeina, who was accused of plotting an attack in Israel.

Israel avoids wrangling with Straw
Israel will not make an issue over British Foreign Minister Jack Straw's statement last week that after the world deals with Iran's nuclear "threat," it will deal with Israel's. Straw gave a lengthy television interview in Britain Thursday, following the decision to send Iran's nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. When asked about a "double standard" regarding Iran, Straw replied: "I want a nuclear-free Middle East. It's the policy of her majesty's government. We've been working to achieve that. We have ensured over the last few years that two of the four countries [in the Middle East] which posed a nuclear threat, Libya and Iraq, have had their nuclear weapons removed," he said.

Palestinian militants threaten Britain, US over Jericho

Palestinian militants warned all British and US nationals to leave the territories "immediately" Tuesday after three British monitors withdrew from a West Bank prison minutes before an Israeli raid.
"We call on all British and US nationals to leave the Palestinian territories immediately on pain of unprecedented consequences," said a statement issued by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza City.

Recognising Israel 'is up to the [Palestinian] people'

Hamas's draft government programme has left the question of recognising Israel to the Palestinian people - leaving the door open for a possible referendum. Hamas published a draft of its government programme on its website on Saturday. The fifth article in the programme says: "The question of recognising Israel is not the jurisdiction of one faction, nor the government, but a decision for the Palestinian people."

Audio: Rabbi Goldstein gives a historic overview of Zionism.

"...The Muslims people basically got involved in the fight against zionism when it started effecting them on a political bases which is 1917 for the Palestinians or afterwards for some of the other Arab countries, We [religious Jews] were in this fight from the 1890 roughly... As soon as it was founded [zionism], it was condemned - Jews came out and said this is atheistic, this is idol worship..."

Israel captures jailed Palestinians
Six Palestinian fighters inside a West Bank prison in Jericho have surrendered to Israeli forces, almost 10 hours after Israeli troops laid siege to the compound. Among those who surrendered was Ahmad Saadat, leader of a PLO faction and mastermind of the 2001 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister, the Israeli military announced on Tuesday. The main targets of the raid were Saadat and four accomplices in the killing of Rehavam Zeevi, the Israeli tourism minister in 2001. In addition, Israeli forces seized Fuad Shubaki, the mastermind of an "illegal" weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority several years ago. Israel's West Bank commander, Major-General Yair Naveh, said 15 others were also arrested. Earlier, Israeli troops took control of the prison compound in an operation to arrest jailed Palestinian resistance leaders. Gunfire rang out and explosions rocked the area as Israeli forces launched their raid on Tuesday. Bulldozers pulled down the compound as Israeli troops called through loudspeakers on Ahmad Saadat, the leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and his comrades to surrender. Saadat and three other PFLP members have been jailed in Jericho, a prison under US and British supervision, since August 2002 after his faction claimed the killing of Zeevi the Israeli minister.

Signs Comment: Note that the prison was under British and US control. It is indeed very interesting (if that is the correct term) that Israel (and the US and Britain) can feel justified in ordering the arrest of a Palestinian leader for murdering an Israeli leader yet the Israeli politicians that have given the green light to the assassination of Palestinian leaders (and civilians) over the years feel they are should not suffer the same fate. Behind this line of thinking is that Palestinian leaders are terrorists who will not live peacefully with Israel and want its destruction, yet we see that the fact suggest that the oppostite is true - it is Israel that wants to wipe Palestine from the face of the earth and is committed to never negotiating any peace settlement with Palestinians. At the heart of this is enedmic racism within the Israeli elite, a racism which is shared by members of the British and American elite.

Israel Vows to Keep Large West Bank Settlement Blocs
Israel's acting prime minister on Tuesday vowed to include a large West Bank settlement in his plan to unilaterally draw Israel's border with Palestinians. The comments come just two weeks before Israelis vote in general elections on March 28. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told residents of the settlement of Ariel that he plans to include the settlement town inside Israel, as part of his plan to draw Israel's final borders with the Palestinians by 2010.

Signs Comment: The fact that this act amounts to a crime against humanity and is in direction contravention to several international laws and conventions seems to be insignificant, both for the Israeli government and the international community. Where will it all lead? Wait and see, but it is not going to be pretty and will surely involve the massacreing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Israel had advance word monitors would leave jail
Israel received advance word from the United States that foreign monitors were preparing to withdraw from a West Bank prison which Israeli forces raided on Tuesday to seize Palestinian militants, U.S. officials said.


Three remaining foreign hostages in Gaza freed
Three remaining foreign hostages kidnapped during a wave of violence in the Gaza Strip were freed on Wednesday, Palestinian militants said.
Militants angered at an Israeli raid on a West Bank jail seized the two French nationals and a South Korean on Tuesday. The three, all journalists, were among nine foreigners snatched in Gaza and the West Bank. The others were freed shortly after their capture.


Signs Comment: But how can this be?! Don't all terrorists chop the heads of their hostages, especially if those hostages could in some way be beneficial to the terrorits? Maybe Palestinian militants are not terrorits after all, and maybe the real terrorists have US and Israeli flags tattooed on their arms.  

The United States said it was not part of any plot. But U.S. officials told Reuters Washington had given Israel a copy of a March 8 letter it sent to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas saying monitors could be withdrawn at once unless security conditions were met.

Palestinians grind to halt, three foreigners kidnapped
The Palestinian territories ground to a halt under a general strike to protest against an Israeli army raid of a West Bank prison, as the authorities braced for further violence.
Three foreign journalists remained hostages of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine for the second day in the Gaza Strip, as thousands of Israeli troops deployed on high alert for possible revenge attacks. Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas was en route home after cutting short a tour of key European cities to manage the crisis sparked by Israel's capture of PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat and five other wanted militants in Jericho.

Israel/Occupied Territories: Palestinian prisoners at risk of being killed by Israeli forces

Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the safety of Palestinian detainees in Jericho Prison. The prison is currently surrounded by Israeli forces who have threatened to kill detainees who refuse to surrender to them. The detainees most at risk are Ahmad Saadat, leader of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and four other Palestinians who have been detained at Jericho Prison since 2002 despite a court decision ordering their release. While detained under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Ahmad Saadat and his four co-detainees have been held under the supervision of guards provided by the UK and US in accordance with an agreement reached between these states and Israel and the PA. They, together with a sixth Palestinian detainee, Fuad Shubaki, wanted by Israel on charges of smuggling weapons, are the principal targets of today's Israeli military action and are particularly at risk of being killed by Israeli forces.

Arab League head accuses UK, US in Jericho raid
Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Tuesday Israel had coordinated its attempt to capture a jailed Palestinian militant with Britain and the United States, who withdrew monitors from the West Bank jail ahead of the raid. "Clearly, there is some sort of coordination," he told Al Jazeera television by phone. "This (withdrawal of U.S. and British monitors) raises obvious question marks." Moussa said he was in touch with Arab and international leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, to "bring a swift and complete end to this dangerous and strange (Israeli) intervention". "This is a dangerous indicator about Israel's future policies," he added. Israeli forces blasted their way into the West Bank prison to try to seize Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), storming in after U.S. and British monitors withdrew

Signs Comment: So what was the real raeson for the deadly fiasco at the Jericho jail?...

Election provocation in Jericho to exacerbate the conflict.

At this moment in Jericho, the main elections gimmick of the Kadima Party and its leader Ehud Olmert is taking place with hundreds of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian prisoners drafted to serve as extras. This gimmick, designed to draw extreme right votes in the March 28 elections, shows Kadima as an adventurist and irresponsible party in whose hands it is dangerous to entrust the helm of state" says Gush Shalom (The Israeli Peace Bloc). In cooperation with the governments of the US and Britain, whose removal of their observers from the Jericho Prison proves them utterly incapable of any mediation role between Israelis and Palestinians, PM Olmert and Defence Minister Mofaz are carrying out a provocation which will only exacerbate the conflict and hatred. Theirs will be the full responsibility for bloodshed of Israelis and Palestinians, in the course of the Jericho provocation itself and in the cycle of retaliation upon retaliation which may follow. It should be noted that the people which the army was sent to Jericho to capture or kill are marked out because, when taking revenge for the targeted killing of their own leader, they did not kill innocent civilians. They selected Rehav'am Ze'evi, a general turned politician who was the foremost of Israeli racists and who built a political career upon crude hate propaganda. A targeted killing…"

Gunbattle erupts in Jenin, Israelis shot in W.Bank
Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen fought each other in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, hours after gunmen shot and wounded two Israeli motorists near a Jewish settlement.
The spike in violence followed the army's capture of six Palestinian militants in a West Bank prison raid on Tuesday. The captives included a faction leader accused of ordering the 2001 assassination of a far-right Israeli cabinet minister.


U.S. may veto bid for UN condemnation of Israeli jail siege
The threat of a U.S. veto hovers over planned closed-door deliberations Wednesday over Qatar's bid for a UN Security Council to condemn Israel's Jericho jail siege and its capture of the killers of former cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi. A draft statement by Qatari Ambassador Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, representing Arab nations, would have condemned "Israel's violent incursion" in besieging the Jericho jail, and would have demanded that Israel return the prisoners it seized "and to return the situation to that which existed prior to the Israeli military attack." Security forces went on high alert Tuesday fearing Palestinian reprisal attacks after Israel Defense Forces troops laid siege to the Jericho prison and arrested six wanted inmates.

Israel Vows to Keep Large West Bank Settlement Blocs

Israel's acting prime minister on Tuesday vowed to include a large West Bank settlement in his plan to unilaterally draw Israel's border with Palestinians. The comments come just two weeks before Israelis vote in general elections on March 28. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told residents of the settlement of Ariel that he plans to include the settlement town inside Israel, as part of his plan to draw Israel's final borders with the Palestinians by 2010.

UK govt urges British to leave Palestinian territories after Israel raid

The British foreign ministry has urged all British nationals who do not have proper security to leave the Palestinian territories amid rising tension in the region.
"We urge all British nationals who do not have adequate and continuous professional close security protection to leave the Occupied Territories," said a statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Arab League head accuses UK, US in Jericho raid

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Tuesday Israel had coordinated its attempt to capture a jailed Palestinian militant with Britain and the United States, who withdrew monitors from the West Bank jail ahead of the raid.
"Clearly, there is some sort of coordination," he told Al Jazeera television by phone. "This (withdrawal of U.S. and British monitors) raises obvious question marks." Moussa said he was in touch with Arab and international leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, to "bring a swift and complete end to this dangerous and strange (Israeli) intervention". "This is a dangerous indicator about Israel's future policies," he added. Israeli forces blasted their way into the West Bank prison to try to seize Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), storming in after U.S. and British monitors withdrew.

Israel had advance word monitors would leave jail
Israel received advance word from the United States that foreign monitors were preparing to withdraw from a West Bank prison which Israeli forces raided on Tuesday to seize Palestinian militants, U.S. officials said. Militants and the Arab League have accused the United States and Britain of colluding with Israel by withdrawing the monitors from the Jericho prison to clear the way for the capture of Ahmed Saadat and five other militants jailed there.

U.S. urges UAE to end its boycott of Israel
The Bush administration said yesterday it is pressing the United Arab Emirates to drop its economic boycott of Israel -- a major sticking point in the proposed takeover of key U.S. ports by a UAE-owned firm. A joint U.S. agency team traveled to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom last month to discuss the boycott, and a senior Commerce Department official will press Dubai again during a visit this month, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. "The United States wants to see the boycott against Israel dropped completely by everybody, and that's our position," he said.

We warned of prison attack, says Israel - UK and US told what to expect if they pulled out - Angry Palestinians allege collusion in 'crime'

Days before Israel's military assault on Jericho prison it warned Britain and America that it would seize Palestinians held there under an international agreement for killing an Israeli cabinet minister if the two countries withdrew their monitors. Dov Weisglass, the most influential of the Israeli prime minister's advisers, told Britain and the US last week that it would be better for international supervision at the prison to continue. But he said that if they carried through a threat to pull out British and American monitors because of "security concerns" then Israel would act to bring the wanted men to justice.

Abbas condemns Israel raid as unforgivable crime

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday condemned Israel's raid on a West Bank prison and seizure of a militant leader as a crime that would not be forgiven.


Hamas threatens to abduct soldiers, PFLP vows retaliation

Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, announced that it will abduct Israeli soldiers in retaliation to the arrest of, Ahmad Sa'adat, Secretary General of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, (PFLP). The PFLP military wing launched the "Red Arrow" operations in retaliation to the arrest. Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Fathi Hammad, stated that the movement will retaliate to the arrest, and military operation in Jericho, against Sa'adat, who is also a newly elected member of the PLC.

Palestinian Human Rights Activists and Journalists Asserts Israel and US are Above Law

Palestinian journalists and human rights activist refuted what was mentioned in the US annual report released on March 8, 2006. The US report told that Israel is not one of the countries that violate human rights laws.


Israel/Occupied Territories: Palestinian prisoners at risk of being killed by Israeli forces

Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the safety of Palestinian detainees in Jericho Prison. The prison is currently surrounded by Israeli forces who have threatened to kill detainees who refuse to surrender to them. The detainees most at risk are Ahmad Saadat, leader of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and four other Palestinians who have been detained at Jericho Prison since 2002 despite a court decision ordering their release.

Israel starts work on new settlement
The Israeli government has begun to develop facilities for what eventually could be the largest settlement project in the West Bank since 1967.
On Monday, Israeli officials confirmed that Israel was building a police headquarters and "other facilities" in what it calls the E-1 area, extending from East Jerusalem to the settlement of Maali Adomim, the largest in the West Bank. In addition to 3550 settler units, the planned development would include a road network, six hotels and a park. Non-Jews would not be allowed to live or buy land in the settlement.

 
Signs Comment: Notice "Non-Jews would not be allowed to live or buy land in the settlement." Now, can you imagine what would happen if, anywhere in the world, it was declared that Jews were not welcome? The double standard is nauseating.

'Israel subjected US detainees to traumas'

Americans have repeatedly suffered physical and psychological trauma while detained by Israeli security forces, a US court was told Tuesday during a hearing about the alleged torture of a man accused of funnelling money to Hamas.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent told the court that he questioned a US consular official responsible for helping Americans arrested in Israel during the course of his investigation into Chicago resident Mohammad Salah. "He said based on his experience he had seen arrestees who had suffered from physical or emotional trauma," said Edward Priestad. A number of US citizens had shown consular officials marks that they said resulted from spending hours handcuffed to a small chair that tilted forward because its front legs were shorter than the back legs, Priestad said.

American Lives Do Not Count

The third anniversary of American peace activist Rachel Corrie's murder by a Caterpillar Bulldozer driver under the direction of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrives. Nearly three years to the day, our US government has failed to intervene or even censure Israel on behalf of her and her family. Our government has failed to investigate, follow-up or actively pursue justice for Corrie and other American citizens killed by Israeli military forces. Unfortunately, this lack of regard constitutes the norm, not the exception. If this sounds strange, that a nation would abandon its own for the vanity of another nation, stranger still is the truth. When it comes to Israel, American lives do not count.
What has the US Government done about these murdered and wounded Americans? With one exception, nothing.

Packed Finkelstein talk draws 'real outrage'

The suffering of Jewish people during the Holocaust is really no different than apartheid in Africa or the slaughtering of Native Americans by European settlers, Norman Finkelstein told a standing-room-only crowd at the Veterans Memorial Building on Wednesday night. Finkelstein, the son of two Holocaust survivors who teaches political science at DePaul University in Chicago, spoke about his views of the "fabricated, concocted, illegitimate" Israeli-Arab conflict, while outside at least 150 members of the local Jewish community quietly protested the event.

Probe: IDF Soldier likely killed by friendly fire

An initial IDF probe into the killing of an IDF soldier in Jenin on Thursday morning has ruled that Staff Sergeant Ido Shapira, 20, was killed by friendly fire. Investigators said there is no conclusive evidence that Shapira was killed by Palestinian gunmen.

Pro-Israel Activists Block Travel Reform
Jewish organizations played a leading role in defeating the effort, launched in response to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, to ban privately funded trips for members of Congress.
Advocates of lobbying reform and many members of Congress stepped up their push for a ban on travel paid for by private individuals and organizations after Abramoff - who organized junkets for many lawmakers - pleaded guilty in January to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy. With lawmakers fearing a public backlash over the Abramoff scandal, many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle were lining up behind legislation that would outlaw privately funded trips and place severe restrictions on gifts and meals from lobbyists.


Bush Repeats US Would Use Military To Protect Israel
President George W. Bush on Wednesday reiterated the U.S.'s commitment to using its military to defend Israel from Iran, if necessary. "I made it clear, and I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel," Bush said during a question and answer session after a speech in Cleveland. "And at any rate, our objective is to solve this issue diplomatically." Bush said Iran's statements advocating the destruction of Israel represent a " serious threat." "That's a threat. A serious threat. It's a threat to world peace. It's a threat in essence to a strong alliance," he said.

The American Political Market and the 51st State
People outside the United States have a hard time understanding why the U.S. government treats thestate of Israel better than most of the 50 American states. Over the last decade, the U.S. government has transfered some $100 billion to Israel, with nearly no conditions attached, while Israeli citizens do not pay any taxes in the United States. Why such generosity, while the state of Louisiana, after the hurricane Katrina, had all the trouble in the world receiving aid from Washington?

The Israel Lobby

For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

Jimmy Carter sez: It's not too late for lasting peace in the Middle East
For more than a quarter of a century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the US and the international community. Israel's occupation of Palestine has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land - regardless of whether Palestinians had no formal government, one headed by Yasser Arafat, or one with Mahmoud Abbas as president and Hamas controlling the parliament and the cabinet.

Signs Comment: A better idea is for Palestine to be given their stolen country back and to then decide if they want to accept the Israeli refugees from WW II IF there is room for them...

Palestinians losers in Mideast water war - Israel Monopolizes 75% of Palestinian Water

Israel's vast separation barrier slices Nazlet Isa off from one of the richest water sources in the arid northern West Bank where the fight for water is a fight for survival.
Israel is believed to monopolise around 75 percent of Palestinian water resources in a region where rainfall is infrequent and water a strategic asset.

Food runs low in Gaza after Israel closes key crossing

A "PUNITIVE" shortage of basic foodstuffs in Gaza overshadowed a meeting last night in which the Hamas movement was due to present its cabinet list to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president. Bread supplies in Gaza were running out yesterday because of Israel's closure of the Karni crossing, through which imports and exports flow to and from the crowded coastal enclave, according to UN officials and Gaza residents. Israel said the closure was due to security reasons. Sugar and oil were also reported to be in short supply. Palestinians claim the closure for a total of 46 days this year - more than three times as many as last year - is a "collective punishment" following Hamas's victory in the January legislative elections.

Baruch Marzel: IDF must assassinate left-wing activist Uri Avnery

National Jewish Front leader Baruch Marzel, now campaigning for the March 28 Knesset election, said Monday the leaders of the Kadima party are "traitors" and "criminals" and called on the Israel Defense Forces to assassinate the far-left leader of the Gush Shalom movement Uri Avnery.

"To Hell With All of You"- The Power of Saying No

As the new Hamas government is sworn into power in the Palestinian Authority, we might ask: What would bring a people, the most secular of Arab populations with little history of religious fundamentalism, to vote Hamas? Mere protest at Fatah ineffectualness in negotiations and internal corruption doesn't go far enough. While warning Hamas that their vote did not constitute a mandate for imposing an Iran-like theocracy on Palestine, the Palestinians took the only option left to a powerless people when all other avenues of redress have been closed to them: non-cooperation.

Pro-Israel lobby in U.S. under attack.
Two of America's top scholars have published a searing attack on the role and power of Washington's pro-Israel lobby in a British journal, warning that its "decisive" role in fomenting the Iraq war is now being repeated with the threat of action against Iran. And they say that the Lobby is so strong that they doubt their article would be accepted in any U.S.-based publication.
Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, author of "The Tragedy of Great Power Politics" and Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kenney School, and author of "Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy," are leading figures American in academic life. They claim that the Israel lobby has distorted American policy and operates against American interests, that it has organized the funneling of more than $140 billion dollars to Israel and "has a stranglehold" on the U.S. Congress, and its ability to raise large campaign funds gives its vast influence over Republican and Democratic administrations, while its role in Washington think tanks on the Middle East dominates the policy debate.

Why Orthodox Jews are opposed to the Zionist "State"
Jews United Against Zionism
The People of Israel oppose the so-called "State of Israel" for four reasons:

Anti-Israel rabbis vow Hamas support

A group of anti-Zionist rabbis has visited the Palestinian parliament to pledge their support for the prospective Hamas-led government. The rabbis from the small ultra-Orthodox movement Neturei Karta, which this month sent a delegation to Iran, travelled to the West Bank town of Ram Allah to express their support for the Islamic group.

Israel accuses West Bank Palestinians of al-Qaida link

Israel linked West Bank Palestinians with the al-Qaida network for the first time today when a military court charged two youths with receiving funds from the jihad group to carry out a co-ordinated double bombing in Jerusalem. The Palestinians, from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, met with al-Qaida operatives in Jordan, arranged for secret email communication, opened a bank account and received 3,000 Jordanian dinars (€3,470) from al-Qaida to carry out the Jerusalem attack, according to the indictment, released yesterday.

Israel kills Palestinian militant

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank town of Jericho.

Israel barrier 'hurting farmers'

A UN report into the humanitarian impact of Israel's West Bank barrier says it has caused widespread losses to Palestinian farmers.

Hamas leader says won't renounce "armed resistance"

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said on Wednesday the Palestinian militant group will continue to fight Israel and told the United States that its Middle East policy would fuel terrorism. "Israel cannot have stability with occupation. It has to choose. This is the message Israel should understand," he told Reuters in an interview in Abu Dhabi.

Palestinians 'in al-Qaeda plot'

An Israeli military tribunal has charged two West Bank Palestinians with plotting bomb attacks for al-Qaeda.

Poll: 68% of Jews would refuse to live in same building as an Arab
Sixty-eight percent of Israeli Jews would refuse to live in the same apartment building as an Israeli Arab, according to the results of an annual poll released Wednesday by the Center for the Struggle Against Racism.

Israel/Occupied Territories: Legal concern/ incommunicado detention: Hundreds of detainees

The Israeli government is seeking to rush a new law through parliament before the forthcoming elections on 28 March, which would empower the General Security Service (GSS) to detain anyone classified as a non-resident of Israel without access to legal counsel for up to 50 days after arrest. The law would also deny such detainees the right to attend court hearings held to consider the extension of their detention. Amnesty International is concerned that permitting detainees to be cut off from the outside world for this length of time would increase their risk of being tortured or ill-treated.

Two killed near Gaza border fence

Two Palestinian militants have been killed by the Israeli army near the Kissufim checkpoint on the boundary between Gaza and Israel, officials say.

Congratulations and Well-Wishes to Hamas from Neturei Karta International, Diaspora

With the help of the Almighty
Asaloom Aleikem
We are Neturei Karta International, representatives of the Torah abiding Jews throughout the world who stand true in their Torah observance and stand strong in their opposition to Zionism and the state of "Israel". As you may well know, we Torah Jews, have always stood in complete solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Orthodox Jewish response to the criticism of the Iranian President

With the help of the Almighty.
Orthodox Jews the world over, are saddened by the hysteria which has greeted the recent stated desire of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to see a world free of Zionism. This desire is nothing more than a yearning for a better, more peaceful world. It is a hope that with the elimination of Zionism, Jews and Muslims will live in harmony as they have throughout the ages, in Palestine and throughout the world.


Journalists blackmailed by Israeli embassy
Albawaba Recent reports claim that Israel's embassy in Mauritania is operating under directives from the Israeli secret security agency, the Mossad, in an attempt to recruit Mauritanian agents to work for Israel using blackmail and other threats.


In Dark Times, Blame the Jews
On the face of it, there's little that's new in the provocative research paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," published online last week by two leading political scientists, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Their underlying thesis, that Israel's advocates have pressured America into an unjustified and damaging alliance with Israel, has been around for decades, flogged with little success by generations of Israel's detractors. Their more immediate argument, that Israel and its allies manipulated America into war with Iraq, has been simmering at the edges of the debate since before the invasion. By now it's part of our national background noise.

Signs Comment: Forward is an important newspaper in the US Jewish community. We are posting their articles today on the "Jewish Lobby" question so that our readers can better understand the mindset. In this article, the editors decry discussion of "Jewish Lobby" as a manifestation of an age-old "blame the Jews" rhetoric. The author of the following article, again from Forward, gives examples of one instance where the Jewish Lobby did have influence.

Pro-Israel Activists Block Travel Reform
Jewish organizations played a leading role in defeating the effort, launched in response to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, to ban privately funded trips for members of Congress.

Harvard School Distances Itself from Dean's Paper On Israels Influnce On American Foreign Policy
The changes appear to be a sign that the university is distancing itself from the document in the face of a furor from faculty members, Jewish leaders, and a congressman who say it fails to meet academic standards and promotes anti-Semitic myths.

Signs Comment: Harvard is beating a hasty retreat, but there is no Jewish lobby, right?
The paper, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," was written by the Kennedy School's Stephen Walt and a political science professor and the codirector of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, John Mearsheimer, and published by the Kennedy School. In the 83-page "working paper," the professors allege that a vast network of journalists, think tanks, lobbyists, and largely Jewish officials have seized the foreign policy debate and manipulated America to invade Iraq. Components of or influenced by the purported network include major publications, "Christian evangelicals," top-ranking officials in the Bush administration, and scholars at prominent think tanks. The paper has won praise from Islamist groups and white supremacist and anti-Semite David Duke. It also has drawn sharp criticism from prominent Harvard faculty, including Kennedy School lecturer Marvin Kalb, literature professor Ruth Wisse, and law professor Alan Dershowitz; Harvard students, and Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat of New York. Many critics have called for Harvard to withdraw the paper until it can be brought up to acceptable standards of scholarship, alleging that the document is riddled with factual inaccuracies and suffers from bias and faulty research.

Scholars' Attack on Pro-Israel Lobby Met With Silence
In the face of one of the harshest reports on the pro-Israel lobby to emerge from academia, Jewish organizations are holding fire in order to avoid generating publicity for their critics.
Officials at Jewish organizations are furious over "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," a new paper by John Mearsheimer, a top international relations theorists based at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In their report - versions of which appear on the Kennedy School Web site and in the March 26 issue of the London Review of Books - the scholars depict "the Israel lobby" as a "loose coalition" of politicians, media outlets, research institutions, Jewish groups and Evangelical Christians that steers America's Middle East policy in directions beneficial to Israel, even if it requires harming American interests.

Blaming the lobby

Unless the Jewish lobby loosens its grip on Washington's foreign policy, the US should expect a change in its standing among Arabs.

U.S. security officials train with the pros Israelis demonstrate tools, tactics in fight against terrorism
A young Israeli firefighter tore the shirt off his back and insisted San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White take it home as a memento of a biochemical terror training drill she had just observed.
"I read about you on the Internet," said the Israeli, still breathless after spending an hour inside an orange biochemical protection suit under the blazing sun during a mock chemical attack on a school. "You're the first woman fire chief in San Francisco. You're my hero!"

One Racist Nation

Contrary to appearances, the elections this week are important, because they will expose the true face of Israeli society and its hidden ambitions. More than 100 elected candidates will be sent to the Knesset on the basis of one ticket - the racism ticket. If we used to think that every two Israelis have three opinions, now it will be evident that nearly every Israeli has one opinion - racism. Elections 2006 will make this much clearer than ever before. An absolute majority of the MKs in the 17th Knesset will hold a position based on a lie: that Israel does not have a partner for peace. An absolute majority of MKs in the next Knesset do not believe in peace, nor do they even want it - just like their voters - and worse than that, don't regard Palestinians as equal human beings. Racism has never had so many open supporters. It's the real hit of this election campaign.


By David R. Francis
Christian Science Monitor
Dec 2002
Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today's population, that is more than $5,700 per person. This is an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. For decades, his analyses of the Middle East scene have made him a frequent thorn in the side of the Israel lobby. Is U.S backing of Israel worth it? For the first time in many years, Mr. Stauffer has tallied the total cost to the US of its backing of Israel in its drawn-out, violent dispute with the Palestinians. So far, he figures, the bill adds up to more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War. And now Israel wants more.

After the rhapsody, the bitter legacy of Israel and the left

Liberals were once happy to overlook the country's crimes, seeing only a model democratic state. With the bizarre, not to say unique, events in Jericho last week - surely the first case of a jailbreak intended to keep the prisoners inside - Israel has again shown an impressive indifference to outside opinion. "The whole world is against us," says an endlessly popular Israeli song, and many Israelis would add the chant of Millwall fans: "No one likes us, we don't care."

Washing Israel's hands clean in U.S. eyes

On July 18, 2005 14 year old Ragheb al-Masri sat in the back of a taxi with his parents at the Abo Holi checkpoint. An Israeli bullet penetrated his back and cracked open his chest. His mother screamed as his body lay lifeless. Have you heard his name? I wouldn't expect that you have because CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post didn't report the killing online. If they had quoted his parents, their readers would have been able to feel their tears and envision the heartbreak. Ultimately, no Israeli soldier was arrested or even reprimanded. Every time a a human bomber strikes Israel, mass coverage of the tragedy begins instantly. Whether landing on the front page of The New York Times or taking up the headline block on CNN.com, the pain Israeli people endure is shown endlessly. Israelis do suffer. Bomb attacks are horrific. Nevertheless, Palestinian pain occurs far more frequently, and yet often overlooked by the mainstream American media. Since the uprising in September of 2000, more than 3800 Palestinians have been killed in the Occupied Territories as a result of the conflict. Most Americans are unaware of the toll because it is not properly reported. In 2004, If Americans Knew-an American organization that exposes and examines the facts of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict-reported that 808 Palestinian conflict deaths occurred while 107 Israelis conflict deaths occurred. The study, however, found that The New York Times covered Israeli deaths in the headline or the first paragraph in 159 articles-meaning in some cases they covered the same death numerous times. In contrast, The New York Times only covered about 40 percent of Palestinian deaths-334 of 808-in the headline or in the first paragraph of the articles. Nearly eight Palestinians died for every one Israeli. Disturbingly The New York Times is considered the quintessential "liberal" newspaper of the U.S.

Iran, Syria warn against Israeli nuclear threat

Iranian and Syrian officials warned Saturday against the threat posed by Israel's controversial nuclear programme. Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons. But many international experts have raised concern over the Jewish state's presence on the world's list of nuclear powers. Israel's nuclear capability could be considered the most secretive weapons of mass destruction programme in the world. Visiting Syrian First Vice President Farouq Al Shara, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that "the nuclear arms of the Quds occupier regime (Israel) and the fact that it does not join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a real threat in the Middle East", state television said. Iran, a signatory of the signed the NPT, responsible for ensuring global peaceful use of nuclear energy, has been facing mounting international pressure, headed by the United States, which claims it's using it's civilian nuclear programme as a guise for disgraceful preparations for a nuclear weapons program. Accusations that have been repetitively rejected by Tehran.

Israel pollutes and overexploits Palestinian water

"The route of the wall matches that of water resources." "With the wall, the Israelis clearly sought to commandeer water resources," says Hind Khury, a former Palestinian cabinet minister responsible for Jerusalem and now the government's representative in Paris. "Without water, there is no life. Israeli policy has always been to push Palestinians into the desert." Khury's accusations echo previous statements by several Palestinian officials and human right activists, who charge that Israel designed the route of the separation barrier to ensure that it controls water resources in the arid northern West Bank. The Palestinians also say that Israel, which claim that the barrier is needed for its security, deliberately built the "apartheid wall" to grab more of the lands they need for a future state and impose a border without waiting for a peace agreement. They charge that the route of the barrier was dictated by demographic considerations to ensure a Jewish majority in the disputed city of Jerusalem. Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed these views when he announced last month that the barrier will largely follow Israel's final borders.

New Study Criticizes Power of Israeli Lobby in Washington
And a dean at Harvard University and a professor at the University of Chicago are coming under intense criticism for publishing an academic critique of the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington.

Signs Comment: Democracy Now! is yet another of the many gatekeepers on the US left. They have this short article on the Jewish lobby paper, but cite nothing from the paper and give space to the denunciations of it by supporters of Israel. This is what passes for a progressive voice in the United States. No wonder they don't ever talk about what really happened on 9/11.

So pro-Israel that it hurts

The new John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt study of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" should serve as a wake-up call, on both sides of the ocean. The most obvious and eye-catching reflection is the fact that it is authored by two respected academics and carries the imprimatur of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

The New 'Protocols'?
The infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports to be a blueprint for a Jewish takeover of the world, is now recognized as the forgery it is most everywhere these days, except perhaps in the Arab world, As is now being reported, an 83-page "study" by a dean at Harvard and a professor at the University of Chicago, claims that the pro-Israel lobby in America has caused the United States to bend its Middle East policy in favor of Israel at the expense of its own national interest.

Signs Comment: What exactly are the so-called "factual errors" of the document? The editors of Jewish Press don't go there. They prefer to dirty the authors by comparing them to David Duke and the, wait for it, protocols of the Elders of Zion! When slander is so effective, why descend to rational argument?

A silent, crippling fear
The War in Context
The prospect of American ports being run by an Arab company ignited a firestorm in the blogosphere -- and the mainstream media and Congress. Now two of America's leading political scientists allege that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is being skewed away from U.S.

The Belfer Declaration
For those covering the effort of anti-Israel academics to demonize the Jewish state in the American academy, things don't get more dramatic than the scandal at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. It turns out that the Kennedy School's academic dean, Stephen Walt, whose shoddiness and biases in a paper he co-wrote called "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" ignited the scandal, holds a chair called the Robert and Renee Belfer professorship in international affairs. When we called Mr. Belfer to get his reaction, he clammed up tighter than a conch in a mudslide. But the skivvy around New York, where Mr. Belfer lives, is that the billionaire former Enron director, who has been generous to Jewish causes, was so infuriated and mortified by what Dean Walt was doing that he asked that Dean Walt not use the title of the Belfer professorship in promoting the article. As our Meghan Clyne reports elsewhere on the page, the Harvard and Kennedy School logos were promptly removed from the version of the paper that is posted on the university's Web site.

Signs Comment: Repeat after me: "The Jewish lobby doesn't exist. The Jewish lobby doesn't exist. The Jewish lobby doesn't exist."

Why Jews Must Speak Out on Palestine

Yesterday, I spoke at an event in New York City called Rachel's Words. Two years ago, Rachel Corrie, a human rights activist, was crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer as she tried to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist from demolition in Rafah, Gaza Strip. She was 23. A play based on her writing, "My Name is Rachel Corrie" was scheduled to open yesterday in New York City but it's debut was postponed indefinitely, in all likelihood because of the controversy it would cause in a city with such a large Jewish audience. As a Jew who lived in Israel for seven years and whose family still lives there and has deep roots going back more than 80 years, it breaks my heart that there is a refusal to grapple with an almost untouchable topic in our country: why does the United States have such a one-sided policy in the Israel-Palestine conflict? And it's the reason I agreed to speak at the event which honored Rachel's life and her beliefs. The event took place at the historic Riverside Church. I stood in the pulpit in the very same place that Dr. Martin Luther King stood almost 40 years ago. And that's where I began my remarks:

Are we finished having our children killed?'
A bullet in the head from a distance of a few meters, fired suddenly and without warning shots aimed at the wheels, which the Israel Defense Forces claims there were. This is the way undercover soldiers from the Border Police killed Akaber Zaid, an eight-and-a-half year-old, who was on her way to the doctor, according to her uncle, who was with her and was also wounded. Little Akaber was going to the doctor and he did indeed see her, but there was no longer a reason for him to do so. She had been on the way to have him remove stitches from her chin, but instead arrived dead at the same doctor's office, with her head smashed and her skull gaping. Soldiers from the Israeli Border Police's undercover unit, known by the Hebrew acronym Yamas, shot at her uncle's taxi at close range as he was parking the vehicle next to the doctor's office. All the soldiers' claims, as presented to the media by the IDF, to the effect that they had shot at the taxi's wheels in accordance with the "regulations for arresting a suspect," were nothing but lies, says the girl's uncle, who was sitting next to her. The car was sprayed from the right and from behind with bullets, which entered through its windows. The shots were fired from just a few meters away, the uncle stresses, in the light of a street lamp.

Israel's anti-Arab parties
Several parties who maintain anti-Arab platforms are running for seats in the upcoming Israeli general elections, with at least one having previously called for "relentless terror" against Palestinians. "Our party calls for cleansing the region extending from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean from the goyim (non-Jews) and thus guaranteeing a Jewish majority of no less than 90% throughout the land of Israel"
- Beny Elyaho, co-founder,the Jewish Front

New worldview shapes vote in Israel

A centrist third party leads the polls heading into Tuesday's election.
TEL AVIV – As Israelis go to the polls Tuesday to select a new parliament, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Kadima party lead the field despite staking the campaign on a provocative idea: an unconditional retreat from much of the West Bank behind a unilaterally fixed border with the Palestinians. The rise of unilateralism, underway since Ariel Sharon's exit from the Gaza strip, signals a shift away from the dominant ideologies of left and right that emerged after the 1967 Six Day War in favor of a new centrist pragmatism. After a failed peace effort in 2000 and five ensuing years of the Palestinian uprising, Israelis have concluded that neither "peace now" nor "greater Israel" are realistic.

Separation Before Peace

Israelis to vote for Sharon legacy : Kadima heads for victory by pressing on with ailing founder's plan to put separation before peace

Apartheid-ways: Bi-level highway plan for West Bank may ease roadblock ills

A prospective IDF plan provides for West Bank highways built on two levels, with Israeli motorists driving above and Palestinians below, in an effort to ease the burden of military checkpoints on Palestinians traveling in the area.

US Administration Denies Visa To Award Winning Palestinian human rights advocate

RFK Memorial calls on members of the media and human rights community to ask State Department officials how this could happen

Israel victor vows to press ahead
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared victory in the election, vowing to push ahead with plans to define Israel's final borders.
His Kadima party, founded barely four months ago by now coma-stricken Ariel Sharon, won but by less than predicted. It looks set to take 28 of the 120 seats in parliament. Likud, winner of the last election, was beaten into fifth place with just 11 seats. Palestinians urged Mr Olmert not to set Israel's borders unilaterally.

Israeli shares slide after poll

Israeli shares have fallen after acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert claimed victory in the general election.

The Israel Lobby?
I've received many requests to comment on the article by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (henceforth M-W), published in the London Review of Books, which has been circulating extensively on the internet and has elicited a storm of controversy. A few thoughts on the matter follow.

Signs Comment: Jeff Blankfort writes in response to this piece by Chomsky:
"there are far more powerful interests that have a stake in what happens in the Persian Gulf region than does AIPAC [or the Lobby generally], such as the oil companies, the arms industry and other special interests whose lobbying influence and campaign contributions far surpass that of the much-vaunted Zionist lobby and its allied donors to congressional races."
This claim can not be substantiated simply because it isn't true. In 2002, for example, Haim Saban, the Israel-American who funds the Saban Center at the Brooking Institute and is a big contributor to AIPAC, gave $12.3 million to the Democratic Party, almost as much as the $14 plus million the arms manufacturing PACs gave to both parties. In 2001, Mother Jones listed on its web site, the 400 leading contributors to the 2000 national elections. Seven of the first 10 were Jewish, as were 12 of the top 20 and 125 of the top 250. I didn't go any further. Were all these Jews supporters of Israel? To some degree it is quite likely, but, as a number of observers over the years have said, in the eyes of Congress, there is only one key issue for American Jews and that is Israel. Now, if "ME Scholar Stephen Zunes," who Chomsky quotes, or Chomsky himself, has evidence that contradicts this, let them present it. I have sent copies of this email to both of them. The rest of his comments on the Mearsheimer-Walt essay are the standard boilerplate that Chomsky has repeated in a half a dozen or more books over the years as one can tell from the age of his references. The passage of time doesn't make them any more valid. If people wish to find out more about Chomsky's position on this issue from a critical standpoint they can read an article I wrote a year ago entitled, Damage Control: Noam Chomsky and the Israel-Palestine Conflict by clicking on http://www.leftcurve.org/LC29WebPages/Chomsky.html Chomsky has not commented, at least publicly, on that article even though he received many requests to do so while acknowledging that this was the reason he elected to respond to the Mearsheimer-Walt essay.

Jeff B
Chomsky serves as an important gatekeeper on the left in the US. He is well respected by many for his lifelong work against US imperialism. And he has done much work that is seminal in analysing the workings of the system. Unfortunately, five years after 9/11, Chomsky still ignores the accumulation of evidence that points to Israeli and US involvement, and what question is more important in understanding the true character of US and Israeli relations, not to mention the deep problems confronting the entire world, than the question of 9/11? Without a proper take on that question, how can one even begin to analyse and understand what else is taking place on the planet today? It isn't possible. If you don't grok Israeli involvement in 9/11, you're dead in the water. The question of the Jewish lobby is, of course, closely connected to the question of 9/11. And Chomsky comes down on the wrong side of the issue both times.

Reactions to the Israel Vote: Israel's Political Right has Collapsed
Some observers are suggesting that the new parties and new personalities in Israeli politics have clobbered the old. I think that the bigger story is that the political right in Israel has imploded. Ariel Sharon as former head of the Likud Party, the party now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, broke apart the vertebrae of the right and shattered the paralysis that had frozen Israel into a long-term self-destructive position regarding its all-important border dispute with Palestinians.

Seven people hurt in gas blast in Israeli city

An explosion, apparently caused by a gas canister, ripped through an apartment building in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Thursday, injuring seven people, Israeli radio stations reported.


Israel's Election: Voting the Social Agenda
Behind Olmert's tepid victory are signs that Israelis are paying attention to more than the Palestinians
In Old Jerusalem, it is the Jewish custom to fold written prayers inside the cracks of the Western Wall. Last night, after exit polls in the Israeli elections gave his centrist Kadima Party a slim lead over its rivals, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wedged his prayer between the stones. Translated from Hebrew, it said: "He who prays for my brother and friend I will speak peace to you." Olmert's wish can apply to the Palestinians - and to his prospective coalition partners. With only 28 seats for Kadima in the 120-seat Knesset, Olmert's centrist party will need lots of friends, and plenty of prayers, to survive a full four-year term, political analysts say. A wobbly, Kadima-led government could end up being pulled in a dozen opposing directions by its future coalition partners.


Signs Comment:
The Kadima-lef government could end up being pulled in a dozen different directions. How convenient for the Zionists.


Result could spell end of US role in pushing for peace
THIRTY years of intense US-led diplomacy, aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, could draw to an end in the wake of yesterday's Israeli elections and the confirmation of a new militant Palestinian government.

Signs Comment: Just what Israel has been planning for so many years. We are entering the end game, millions will die. Watch it happen.

There is no Israel 'Lobby'
It brings no joy to issue a public rebuttal against a valued colleague, but there are moments that demand no less. The occasion is the publication of an essay titled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," written by two professors, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, the academic dean and my colleague at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Signs Comment: For an idea of the Jewish lobby counteracting check out this link at google.

Trial of Aipac lobbyists gets postponed one month

The trial of two former Aipac lobbyists accused of communicating national security information was pushed back a month, and will begin only on May 23rd.

An "Alliance" of Violence

A disturbing trend noticeable in Iraq for quite some time now is that each aggressive Israeli military operation in the occupied territories results in a corresponding increase in the number of attacks on US forces in Iraq. One of the first instances of this was the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March 2004 and the reaction it set off across Shia and Sunni, ultimately spiraling into the siege and devastation of Fallujah. Fallujah is but one example one may use to demonstrate how the ongoing use of heavy handed tactics by the US-Israel alliance is proving to be as suicidal as it is homicidal. US troops in Iraq and Israeli civilians in their homes can bear testimony to this, as they are the ones who bear the brunt. Not to mention the collateral damage in Iraq.

Hamas takes power

Hamas vowed to keep fighting Israel as the militant group's government began work on Thursday, ignoring Western isolation that has brought the Palestinian Authority to the brink of financial collapse.
Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal said the Islamist movement had not changed its stance now that it was in government in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. "We do not promise our people to turn Gaza into Hong Kong or Taiwan but we promise them a dignified and proud life behind the resistance in defense of their honor, their land and their pride," Meshaal said on Al Jazeera Television from Beirut. "Our battle is only against the Zionist occupation."

US cuts diplomatic ties with Hamas government

The US today banned its diplomats from having any contact with the Hamas-led cabinet as it was sworn in by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

It's The Media, Stupid

There is little disagreement on the indispensable role of the media in influencing political debate and narrative, thus shaping public discourse.
Among progressives, liberals and most political minorities in the United States and Europe, there is an equal consensus regarding the troubling alliance that is bringing warmongering politicians, ideologues, religious zealots and media moguls together. They alone possess the capabilities to sway the public in any way they wish, or so it seems; they stack a nation's priorities in the way they find most fit; they concoct wars and justify them when they go awry. In short, they manipulate democracy by manipulating the public, using whatever means necessary: fear, misinformation and all the familiar rest.


Explosion in Gaza kills key militant
A car explosion outside a Gaza mosque killed a top Palestinian militant on Friday, triggering a street gunbattle after fighters loyal to him accused Palestinian security forces of collaborating with Israel in the attack.
The Israeli army denied any involvement in the explosion, which also wounded a young boy. "It wasn't us," said an army spokeswoman. Israel has launched several recent air strikes in Gaza targeting militants.

Bomber strikes Israeli settlement

A Palestinian suicide bomber has killed himself and four Israelis by the Jewish settlement of Kedumim in the West Bank.

Paper on Israel Lobby Raises Hackles, but Fails to Gain Traction in Congress

Two weeks after two prominent political science professors published a paper that they promised would expose the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, the collective reaction so far suggests they get a D for impact.


US professors accused of being liars and bigots over essay on pro-Israeli lobby (Surprise Surprise)

An article by two prominent American professors arguing that the pro-Israel lobby exerts a dominant and damaging influence on US foreign policy has triggered a furious row, pitting allegations of anti-semitism against claims of intellectual intimidation. Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, published two versions of the essay, the Israel Lobby, in the London Review of Books and on a Harvard website. The pro-Israel lobby and its sway over American policy has always been a controversial issue, but the professors' bluntly worded polemic created a firestorm, drawing condemnation from left and right of the political spectrum. Professor Walt's fellow Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz - criticised in the article as an "apologist" for Israel - denounced the authors as "liars" and "bigots" in the university newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and compared their arguments to neo-Nazi literature. "Accusations of powerful Jews behind the scenes are part of the most dangerous traditions of modern anti-semitism," wrote two fellow academics, Jeffrey Herf and Andrei Markovits, in a letter to the London Review of Books. Critics also pointed out that the article had been praised by David Duke, a notorious American white supremacist. Prof Mearsheimer said the storm of protest proved one of its arguments - that the strength of the pro-Israel lobby stifled debate on US foreign policy. "We argued in the piece that the lobby goes to great lengths to silence criticism of Israeli policy as well as the US-Israeli relationship, and that its most effective weapon is the charge of anti-semitism," Prof Mearsheimer told The Guardian. "Thus, we expected to be called anti-semites, even though both of us are philo-semites and strongly support the existence of Israel." He added: "Huge numbers of people know this story to be true but are afraid to say it because they would punished by pro-Israeli forces."

Two Urban Jewish Democrats Eyeing 'Black Seats' in Congress

Hoping to buck daunting political and racial trends, two urban Jewish Democrats are looking to succeed black lawmakers in New York and Tennessee - and they're sparking some resentment from African Americans in the process.

Following Israel's lead, Canada cuts aid to Hamas
Canada has become the first country after Israel to cut off aid and diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority since Hamas, a group that Ottawa considers a terrorist organization, won the legislative election in January. The decision garnered praise from pro-Israeli organizations, but condemnation from an Arab group spokesman who said it will hurt Canada's ability to press a resolution to the long-standing and bloody dispute in the Middle East. It comes after weeks of suggestions by the new Conservative government that Hamas would have to change its direction for further assistance to continue.

Signs Comment: Obsequious, spineless, pathetic.

Palestinian minister off to bad start: Bolton
The new Palestinian foreign minister, Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar, got off to a bad start by slandering the United States, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said on Thursday. Zahar said a day after being sworn in as a member of the new Palestinian cabinet that America was committing "big crimes" against Arab and Islamic countries. He was responding to President George W. Bush's statement on Wednesday that the United States would not give aid to the Hamas-led government because it has expressed its desire to destroy Israel. "We obviously unequivocally reject that proposition and I would note also to Foreign Minister Zahar that casual slander is an inauspicious way to begin," Bolton said during a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

Signs Comment: What is Bolton talking about? There is nothing "slanderous" about saying that "America is committing big crimes against Arab and Islamic countries"...it's a simple FACT!

The myth of the 'honest broker': Britain and Israel

Britain's apparent complicity in Israel's military assault on Jericho prison should finally demolish an enduring myth about Britain's foreign policy. Iraq's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction was not the only line peddled by the government to justify the invasion. Another was that Britain was an 'honest broker' in the Middle East and would influence Washington to press Israel for peace with the Palestinians. Now that peace prospects look gloomier than ever following Israeli, US and EU reactions to Hamas' success in Palestinian elections, the reality of Britain's role needs to be exposed. Since the government of Ariel Sharon came to power in 2001, Britain has exported around £70 million worth of military equipment to Israel. Last year's supplies of combat aircraft technology and components for surface-to-surface missiles follow previous exports of armoured cars, machine guns, components for tanks and helicopters, leg irons, tear gas and categories covering mortars, rocket launchers and explosives.




Religious Matters

Homophobic, anti-Semitic "Christian" activists who promote hate literature are now trying to get "Desperate Housewives" thrown off the air
The radical religious right group, the American Family Association, has become the book burners of the new century. They don't simply have a gripe with a few things in our culture, a few companies, a few TV shows. They want America to be forced to live under their warped, minority view of an extremist Biblical lifestyle that doesn't even comport with the majority of mainstream American Christianity.

Italian Panel: Soviets Behind Pope Attack
An Italian parliamentary commission concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II, a theory long alleged but never proved, according to a draft report made available Thursday.

School ban on Sikh daggers not justified, says Supreme Court
A Montreal school board went too far in imposing a blanket ban on the wearing of Sikh ceremonial daggers by students, says the Supreme Court of Canada.


Spanish court looks at Tibetan genocide claims
The Christian Science Monitor - When Thubten Wangchen was 4 years old, his mother died in a Chinese work camp. She was pregnant at the time, and according to Mr. Wangchen, the Chinese were rounding up pregnant women and working them to death.

Blasphemy Dept: Blair: 'God will be my judge on Iraq'
Tony Blair has proclaimed that God will judge whether he was right to send British troops to Iraq, echoing statements from his ally George Bush.
Contradicting warnings from advisers not to mix politics and religion, the Prime Minister said that his interest in politics sprang from his Christianity and its "values and philosophy" had guided him in public life.

Signs Comment: From Adventures With Cassiopaea:
Many Psychopaths "make their living" by using charm, deceit, and manipulation to gain the confidence of their victims. Many of them can be found in white collar professions where they are aided in their evil by the fact that most people expect certain classes of people to be trustworthy because of their social or professional credentials. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, politicians, psychiatrists and psychologists, generally do not have to earn our trust because they have it by virtue of their positions. But the fact is: psychopaths are found in such lofty spheres also!

At the same time, psychopaths are good imposters. They have absolutely no hesitation about forging and brazenly using impressive credentials to adopt professional roles that bring prestige and power. They pick professions in which the requisite skills are easy to fake, the jargon is easy to learn, and the credentials are unlikely to be thoroughly checked. Psychopaths find it extremely easy to pose as financial consultants, ministers, psychological counselors and psychologists. And that's a scary thought.

Psychopaths make their way by conning people into doing things for them; obtaining money for them, prestige, power, or even standing up for them when others try to expose them. But that is their claim to fame. That's what they do. And they do it very well. What's more, the job is very easy because most people are gullible with an unshakable belief in the inherent goodness of man.

Manipulation is the key to the psychopath's conquests. Initially, the psychopath will feign false emotions to create empathy, and many of them study the tricks that can be employed by the empathy technique. Psychopaths are often able to incite pity from people because they seem like "lost souls" as Guggenbuhl-Craig writes. So the pity factor is one reason why victims often fall for these "poor" people.

Hare cites a famous case where a psychopath was "Man of the Year" and president of the Chamber of Commerce in his small town. (Remember that John Wayne Gacy was running for Jaycee President at the very time of his first murder conviction!) The man in question had claimed to have a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He ran for a position on the school board which he then planned to parlay into a position on the county commission which paid more.

At some point, a local reporter suddenly had the idea to check up on the guy - to see if his credentials were real. What the reporter found out was that the only thing that was true about this up and coming politician's "faked bio" was the place and date of birth. Everything else was fictitious. Not only was the man a complete impostor, he had a long history of antisocial behavior, fraud, impersonation, and imprisonment. His only contact with a university was a series of extension courses by mail that he took while in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. What is even more amazing is the fact that before he was a con-man, he was a "con-boy." For two decades he had dodged his way across America one step ahead of those he had hoodwinked. Along the way he had married three women and had four children, and he didn't even know what had happened to them. And now, he was on a roll! But darn that pesky reporter!

When he was exposed, he was completely unconcerned. "These trusting people will stand behind me. A good liar is a good judge of people," he said. Amazingly, he was right. Far from being outraged at the fact that they had all been completely deceived and lied to from top to bottom, the local community he had conned so completely to accrue benefits and honors to himself that he had not earned, rushed to his support!

I kid you not! And it wasn't just "token support." The local Republican party chairman wrote about him: "I assess his genuineness, integrity, and devotion to duty to rank right alongside of President Abraham Lincoln." As Hare dryly notes, this dimwit was easily swayed by words, and was blind to deeds.
Marzel to beauty queen: Don't marry a goy and 'divorce the Jewish people'
United Jewish Front leader begs local beauty queen Linor Aberjil not to marry her boyfriend, non-Jewish NBA player Sarunas Jasikevicius, and 'divorce the Jewish people'
 
Signs Comment: SOTT is speechless. Anything we might say would lead to accusations of anti-Semitism when we see exactly the reverse here...

Falwell Asserts Jews Can't Go To Heaven

The Rev. Jerry Falwell is denying an Israeli newspaper report that he believes Jews can get to heaven without becoming Christians.
Wednesday's Jerusalem Post said that two Texas clerics, the Rev. John Hagee and Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, had convinced Falwell that Jews have their own separate covenant and don't have to go through Jesus or the cross to get to heaven. But Falwell says, "Anybody who knows me knows that I believe that Christ is the way, the truth, the life, the only way to heaven." After hearing about the article, Falwell said he contacted Hagee and Scheinberg, who he says signed affidavits denying that they made the statements reported in the Jerusalem Post. Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.

Madonna eyes Israel house to await Messiah
US pop diva Madonna wants to buy a house in the Israeli town of Rosh Pina, where the ancient Jewish Kabbalah tradition expects the Messiah to appear at the end of the world. Yediot Aharonot said the owner of a 100-year-old, ramshackle five-bedroom villa overlooking the Sea of the Galilee had been recently contacted several times by representatives of the superstar with a view to selling his property.

Signs Comment: Well, so much for assuming that Madonna might have a brain...

Expert Doubts Gospel Of Judas

An expert on ancient Egyptian texts is predicting that the "Gospel of Judas'' -- a manuscript from early Christian times that's nearing release amid widespread interest from scholars -- will be a dud in terms of learning anything new about Judas.
James M. Robinson, America's leading expert on such ancient religious texts from Egypt, predicts in a new book that the text won't offer any insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus. His reason: While it's old, it's not old enough. "Does it go back to Judas? No,'' Robinson told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Exposing the Da Vinci Hoax
The record bestseller, Dan Brown's 2004 The Da Vinci Code, has renewed interest in the quest for the Holy Grail, restyling the medieval legend for a public that often gorges itself on a diet of pseudoscience, pseudo-history, and fantasy. Unfortunately, the book is largely based on obscure, forged documents that have now deceived millions.

Dan Brown grilled in Da Vinci Code copyright case
The lawyer representing two historians who accuse Dan Brown of copying their work in his best-seller "The Da Vinci Code" told a British court on Tuesday he suspected the author had lied in his evidence.
Brown, in the witness box for a second day, was forced to defend his assertion that he had not read "The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail" when he came up with the idea for his thriller.


Wasn't Jesus A Liberal?
Liberalism has been under assault for years now. The battering of this grand political philosophy has altered the contemporary definition of liberal to the point that Conservatives use it as a profane word. They use it to paint a political opponent as anti-God and anti-American. It has gotten to the point that moderate and liberal Christians are afraid to be open about their political leanings. Sadly, it even affects their conscience and choices as they enter the voting booth. This is particularly troubling to me as a Christian evangelical minister who loves America. Liberalism as defined by Webster's Third New International Dictionary: "a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of man, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for tolerance and freedom for the individual from arbitrary authority in all spheres of life…"

Blair under fire for evoking God in Iraq war decision
Tony Blair triggered strong reactions from parents of soldiers killed in Iraq and the political opposition, after the British prime minister evoked God in his decision to go to war.
Details emerged Friday of Blair's interview on an ITV1 television talk show where he said God and history would judge his action in joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.


A gospel's rocky path from Egypt's desert to print

When the Gospel of Judas first surfaced in Geneva in 1983, scholars wondered if the mysterious text could trigger a reappraisal of history's most infamous traitor. They never found out, however, because they couldn't afford the $3 million price tag on this second-century gnostic tale. Instead, the fragile pages vanished into private hands and set off on a 23-year, intercontinental journey through fist-pounding negotiations and even periods, reportedly, stuffed inside a Greek beauty's purse.

Fall of Empire: Gallup: More Than Half of Americans Reject Evolution, Back Bible
A Gallup report released today reveals that more than half of all Americans, rejecting evolution theory and scientific evidence, agree with the statement, "God created man exactly how Bible describes it." Another 31% says that man did evolve, but "God guided." Only 12% back evolution and say "God had no part."
 
Signs Comment: Well, that tells us why they believe the Bush Conspiracy Theory about 9/11 - they prefer fairy tales.

BUSH WANTS RELIGIONS TO HAVE ROLE IN HIS POLICE STATE
Here's a US Presidential Order (13397) to 'expand opportunities for faith-based and other community organizations and to strengthen their capacity to better meet America's social and community needs' [in homeland security]. First and foremost DHS is tasked with creating a 'Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives'. This center is supposed to be in effect no less than 45 days from the issuance of the prez order. So look for the new org on April 20th or somewhere thereabout. . . Snip from the text of the order:

Darwin's defender
America's answer to Richard Dawkins is a self-confessed 'bright', his term for atheists, agnostics and defenders of Darwinism, a man who has made it his crusade to confront what he sees as the pernicious influence of the religious right in the United States.

If Anyone's Satanic It's Pat Robertson - Hypocritical 'Christians' do Christianity no favors
Pat Robertson is back on the news treadmill after telling his viewers that Islam wants to take over the world and is not a religion of peace, and that radical Muslims are "satanic." Robertson's past comments underscore the fact that nobody other than Robertson himself has done more to desert so-called Christian principles. Firstly, no matter how idiotic, Robertson has a right to say whatever he likes under the 1st Amendment. This isn't a 'hate speech' issue. The issue is that Robertson is a complete hypocrite and he is aiding the downfall of Christianity in America by defaming every major tenet of the Bible.

Expert Sez: US Profited From Mohammed Cartoons Scandal

The chief producer of the Arabic service of the Russia Today TV channel, Akram Husam, discusses who could be behind the Muhammad cartoons scandal and of Russia's controversial relations with Hamas.

"He Shall Direct Thy Paths to the Weapons of Mass Destruction." The former U.N. inspector behind the "Saddam Tapes" says God revealed WMD sites to him.
William Tierney, the former United Nations weapons inspector who unveiled the so-called "Saddam Tapes" at a conference in Arlington, Virginia, Saturday, told National Review Online that God directed him to weapons sites in Iraq and that his belief in the importance of one particular site was strengthened when a friend told him that she had a vision of the site in a dream.

The Parasites of God

Let me state at the outset that I am not a Christian; nor do I have any desire to be a Christian. I have my own religious beliefs that guide my moral behavior. "Neither do I harbor any ill will toward the Christian faith or its sincere practitioners." Indeed, I have the utmost respect for them. The trouble is that in America most people cannot tell the difference between real Christians, those who do the work of God, and those who use religion as a tool for evil. In this short essay, I have some harsh truth to convey. I will endeavor to be as gentle as I can in doing so. I pray that I do not step on any innocent toes. Far too much latitude is given in professions of faith in this country. Undue weight is given to rhetoric and too little is conceded to action-how a person lives her or his life. Declarations of faith are not evidence of faith. Going to a garage does not make a person a car. Neither does going to church make one a Christian. Meeting an apostle of God, no matter which religion one ascribes to, is a memorable event. You will know when you stand in divine presence. Such meetings, however, are very rare, which suggests that the genuine article is not easily manufactured. Cheap imitations, the counterfeit, are quite common because they can be easily produced. But we should not accept imitations as the real thing.

Intact monk's corpse seen as 'sign of God'
Church authorities in Lamia, central Greece, have described the body of an Orthodox monk that has remained intact 15 years after its burial as a "sign of God" as medical experts fail to come up with a scientific explanation to the alleged phenomenon. "From the start I believed that this is a sign of God," said Bishop Nikolaos from the prefecture of Fthiotida.

Cultural Warmongers - Picking a fight with a faith 1.3 billion strong
If you wish to get along with a man, you do not insult his faith. And if you seek to persuade devout Muslims that al-Qaeda is our enemy, not Islam, you do not condone with silence insults to the faith of a billion people. Understanding this, President Bush ceased to call the war on terror a "crusade." Visiting a mosque, he removed his shoes. He has hosted White House gatherings for the breaking of the fast at the end of Ramadan. He sent Karen Hughes to the State Department to improve our dismal image in the Islamic world. He has declared more times than many of us care to recall, "Islam is a religion of peace." President Bush knows we are in a struggle for the hearts and minds of Islamic peoples, and if we are to win this struggle we must separate the Muslim monsters from the masses. For as that great American military mind Col. John Boyd defined it, strategy is the appending to oneself of as many centers of power as possible and isolating your enemy from as many centers of power as possible.

Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson calls radical Muslims 'satanic'
Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson said Monday on his live "700 Club" television program that Islam wants to take over the world and is not a religion of peace, and that radical Muslims are "satanic." After watching a news segment about radical Islam in Europe, Robertson remarked that the outpouring of rage elicited by cartoon drawings of the Prophet Mohammed "just shows the kind of people we're dealing with. These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it's motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with." Robertson also said that "the goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen whether you like it or not, is world domination."

Check Your Beliefs
Let's play a fantasy game to check on our belief in human rights. Let's suppose that in a mythical state, a governor announced a campaign to punish African-Americans for alleged violence.

Just exactly who or what is anti-Semitic?

The situation of world Jewry is much better than Israel and the major Jewish organizations would like us to think, says historian Dr. Antony Lerman, the new director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London. In his opinion, all of the talk in recent years about a new form of anti-Semitism that is camouflaged as criticism of Israel is nothing but pure drivel. True, he says, there are more instances in Europe of attacks on Jews by Muslim immigrants, but the problem can be easily resolved: as soon as Israel agrees to a "just solution to the Palestinian problem."
True, he says, the murderers of the young Jew in France last month chose their victim because "all of the Jews are wealthy," but he still doubts that this is enough to make the murder an anti-Semitic incident.

Israeli forces to step up targeted killings: Mofaz

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz instructed forces on Thursday to step up targeted killings and anti-terror operations in the West Bank.
Mofaz told a security meeting in Tel Aviv that the Jericho operation sent a clear message to the other side that Israel will not compromise when it comes to its national security principles. On Tuesday, Israeli forces raided Palestinian prison in the West Bank city of Jericho and took six wanted Palestinians to an Israeli prison. Due to intelligence indicating terror groups were planning attacks against Israel, Mofaz decided that closure imposed on the West Bank over the Purim holiday would continue until the beginning of next week. In advance of the Israeli general elections scheduled for March 28, Mofaz decided that security forces would deploy throughout [...]

Amnesty International Calls On Israel to End Settlements and Constructing Apartheid Wall

Amnesty International called on Israel to end expanding settlements and constructing the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The amnesty, in a letter sent to all the Israeli candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections said," these practices are regarded as a violation of human and international laws and that settlements and the Wall are against international law and a violation for the Palestinians' basic human rights."


Fatah stays out of Hamas cabinet
The Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has refused to join a government being formed by Hamas. Fatah spokesman Azzam al-Ahmad said weeks of talks on Hamas' political programme had failed.

Gaza is still a prison - US-brokered agreements on Gaza are as worthless as every other lie the Palestinians have been told
The media reports that the Gaza Strip is no longer under Israeli control, but two weeks ago I was blocked from entering Gaza from Egypt by Israeli agents. The day before, two French citizens were prevented from entering for a sister city project in Gaza. Israeli authorities invoked "security reasons" and false claims of links to terrorism, a typical strategy used against foreign supporters of Palestinian rights. Despite the fanfare over Israel's August "Gaza disengagement", Gaza remains a prison, with no visitors allowed.

Little 8 yr old girl killed in Israeli raid

ENIN: An eight-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead by the Israeli military in the northern West Bank last night. Iqbar Zayed was riding in a car driven by her uncle in Yamun, east of Jenin, when she was hit, Palestinian hospital sources said.

Abbas to accept Hamas cabinet lineup

The Palestinian president will accept Hamas' cabinet line-up, but will press the group to make changes to its government agenda, which calls for resistance by any means to end Israeli occupation, aides say. Nabil Abu Rudaina, spokesman for the president, said on Saturday that Mahmoud Abbas would not reject the cabinet because he believed he should give Hamas a chance to set up its government. "In my view, the president is not going to reject the Hamas government because he is not willing to block a government that will win a confidence vote in parliament," said Abu Rudaina.

Study: AIPAC works against US interests

A new study, claiming that the pro-Israel lobby in America caused the United States to skew its Middle East policy in favor of Israel, is stirring controversy in the pro and anti-Israel communities in the US. The 81-page report, written by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, argues that the pro-Israel lobby in the US managed to convince American lawmakers, officials and US public opinion to support Israel, even though this support runs counter to America's own national interests. "The overall thrust of US policy in the region is due almost entirely to US domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the 'Israel Lobby,'" the paper writes, adding that while other lobbies have tried to affect US foreign policy, "no lobby has managed to divert US foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US and Israeli interests are essentially identical."

Abbas urged to quit, scrap government

Fatah officials have asked the Palestinian president to resign, dissolve the Palestinian Authority and return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel in protest against Tel Aviv's actions. Fatah officials said on Friday the idea of scrapping the Palestinian Authority (PA) was debated for the first time on Thursday night by the Fatah central committee, which controls Mahmoud Abbas's faction.

After weeks of Israeli closure, Gaza Strip is completely out of bread

All of the bakeries in the Gaza Strip are closed. Dependent on imports of flour, the 1.2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the most crowded place on earth in terms of population to land area, are now facing an unprecedented food crisis due to Israeli closures that have prevented the import of the grain. Completely controlled by Israeli military forces, the borders of the Gaza Strip resemble prison walls and gates around this crowded and undernourished strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea. The coastlines themselves are also tightly controlled, so that in most parts of Gaza, children spend their entire lives growing up within view of the sea, but unable to access it.

The Israeli Raid in Jericho: The Background

The origins of the March 14 Israeli raid of a Palestinian prison in Jericho are rooted in another Israeli raid on a Palestinian city in 2001. On August 27 of that year, Israeli occupation forces assaulted the offices of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with a U.S.-supplied helicopter gunship and missiles. Their target was PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed instantly. The PFLP vowed to retaliate.

AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy

We discovered that an AP cameraman had filmed the entire incident. This cameraman had then followed what apparently is the usual routine.
"The trend toward secrecy is the greatest threat to democracy." - Associated Press CEO, in a speech about the importance of openness "The official response is we decline to respond." - Associated Press Director of Media Relations, replying to questions about AP

Israel's colonisation of Palestine blocking peace, says Jimmy Carter

The former US president Jimmy Carter has described Israel's "colonisation of Palestine" through expanding Jewish settlements as the single greatest obstacle to a resolution of the conflict. Mr Carter, 81, who negotiated the 1978 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, wrote in the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz yesterday that Israel's actions doom any Palestinian state to a "dismal" future and will perpetuate violence across the Middle East. "The pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonisation of Palestine," he wrote. "Israel's occupation of Palestine has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had no formalised government, one headed by Yasser Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas, or with Abbas as president and Hamas controlling the parliament and cabinet.

AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy
We discovered that an AP cameraman had filmed the entire incident. This cameraman had then followed what apparently is the usual routine.
"The trend toward secrecy is the greatest threat to democracy." - Associated Press CEO, in a speech about the importance of openness "The official response is we decline to respond." - Associated Press Director of Media Relations, replying to questions about AP


The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

US evangelicals warn Republicans

Prominent leaders from the Christian right have warned Republicans they must do more to advance conservative values ahead of the US mid-term elections. Their message to Congress, controlled by Republicans, is "must do better". Support from about a quarter of Americans who describe themselves as evangelicals was a factor in President George W Bush's two election victories. The Republicans will need to keep them onboard if they are to retain control of Congress in November.

Is this a bleeding miracle?

THE Catholic Church claims a modern-day miracle is unfolding in Rockingham. It says that a 50-year-old father of three, whose identity is being kept secret, is displaying stigmata on his hands and feet – wounds that appear to be similar to those on the crucified body of Christ. The Rev Father Finbarr Walsh told The Sunday Times this week that he had witnessed the phenomena, which lasted 24 hours and included visions of and messages from the Virgin Mary.

The Spell-Breaker - Daniel Dennett on why faith should be investigated scientifically, and why he's coming out of the closet as a nonbeliever.

Philosopher Daniel C. Dennett is accustomed to creating media firestorms. His 2003 op-ed in the New York Times launched a heated debate over the use of the term "Bright" to describe nonbelievers. His latest contribution to the discussion of belief and nonbelief, is no different: the controversial book "Breaking the Spell" has been continuously hailed and criticized in newspapers and weblogs since its release in February 2006. Dennett suggests that many religious adherents are more loyal to "faith" than to God. He spoke recently with Beliefnet about why he has taken on the role of 'village atheist,' and why, though he thinks belief in God is irrational, he thinks religion can occasionally do good.

Pentagon hired contractor to advise on collecting information on churches, mosques, other U.S. sites - Plans for Fake Terrorist Attacks?
A Pentagon intelligence agency that kept files on American anti-war activists hired one of the contractors who bribed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., to help it collect data on houses of worship, schools, power plants and other locations in the United States. MZM Inc., headed by Mitchell Wade, also received three contracts totaling more than $250,000 to provide unspecified "intelligence services" to the White House, according to documents obtained by Knight Ridder. The White House didn't respond to an inquiry about what those intelligence services entailed.

Signs Comment: And what do they want this "intell" for? Why do they want "latitudes and longitudes?" Why, for targeted bombing, of course! After all, if you are going to fake terrorist attacks, might as well make them count for your side while you are at it!

Religious fanaticism out of control

In case you're still not sure just how destructive the Bush administration has become to this country, you need to read Michael Specter's piece in the March 13 issue of the New Yorker magazine. It's enough to give you the willies. Specter documents how the Bush people have stacked the Food and Drug Administration with fanatics who regularly trump science to advance their own religious beliefs. It reads like a modern-day Galileo being persecuted by the Catholic Church because he maintained Earth was round.

Good Christian hate Did you know that the theory of evolution was cooked up -- probably by Jews -- as part of a New World conspiracy to enslave mankind? No?

The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century

Excerpt: The Bush electorate is probably 50 to 55% people who believe in Armageddon and probably more or less the same numbers who believe that the Antichrist is already on earth. AMY GOODMAN: In a minute we will be joined by Kevin Phillips here in our Firehouse studio, but first I want to turn to President Bush. On Monday, he spoke about the war in Iraq in Ohio. After his address, he took questions from the crowd. The first question addressed Phillips's book American Theocracy.

Audio: Former GOP Strategist Kevin Phillips on American Theocracy- The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century

Kevin Phillips, longtime Republican strategist and author of several books. His newest work, "American Theocracy," comes out today. A review in Sunday's New York Times said the book may be "the most alarming analysis of where we are and where we may be going to have appeared in many years."

Some thoughts about Jesus, the Church, my Country and the War

Wharton County Junior College psychologist Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. writes: Likely the most controversial individual in the history of the world is Jesus, known by many to be The Christ. And no doubt everyone, young and old, rich or poor, liberals, conservatives, those who are religious, atheists, agnostics; nearly everyone is likely to have an opinion of Jesus. One poll, celebrating the beginning of the second millennium, pointed out that Jesus Christ, more than anyone else, is responsible for how people in the Western World think.

Jerry Falwell: Jews Can't Go To Heaven Without Being Converted To Jesus Christ

"Earlier today, reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue." - Jerry Falwell
This is a statement posted on falwell.com March 1, 2006.  Jerry Falwell vehemently denied a report in the Jerusalem Post that he believes in a "dual covenant" which posits that Jews can enter the kingdom of God without undergoing a born again experience. Jerry sets things straight right away, Jews will be going straight to hell. Never mind that the founder of Christianity as well as all of the 12 apostles were Jews, they are still going to burn forever in the lake of fire. Jerry didn't waste any time denying the Jerusalem Post story, because in the fundamentalist world, being soft on Jews is almost as bad as being soft on communism. Evangelicals may publicly proclaim that Jews are "God's chosen people", but inwardly fundamentalists regard them as money-hungry Christ-killers who control Hollywood, Wall Street and the White House. But never let it be said that Jerry's god is not compassionate, Jews can still go to heaven -- if they deny their culture, religion and ethnicity. According to Jerry's insane theology, Jews can be saved, but only if they become born again Christians, and thereby turn their backs on their Jewish roots. If you hear reports that Jerry Falwell has turned over a new leaf, and is now a compassionate man of God, don't believe it; those stories are categorically untrue.


Americans Like Athiests Less Than Muslims, Gays

Atheists are America's least trusted group, according to a national survey conducted by university sociology researchers. Based on a telephone survey of more than 2,000 households and in-depth interviews with more than 140 people, researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups as "sharing their vision of American society." Americans are also least willing to let their children marry atheists. . .

Christian Zionism: The new heresy that sways America
Christian Zionism is a theology that supports a political regime based on apartheid and discrimination - yet millions of people in the US express their support for it. How dangerous is it given the US role in the Middle East?

Afghan convert 'must not escape'
Afghanistan's parliament has said a Christian who has just escaped a possible death sentence for converting from Islam must not leave the country.

Signs Comment: As we have said before, the three monotheistic religions neeed to go. They form a system of control that is leading this planet to its destruction. They feed off of each other to create false conflicts by turning off people's ability to think clearly, unimpeded by emotional belief systems. And, remember, this is going on in the country the US has been occupying since 2001.

The Conservative Hand of Hollywood
The Christian leader of megaplex Regal Cinemas is trying to shape what audiences see -- and don't see -- at the movies.

'War' on Christians Is Alleged
The "War on Christmas" has morphed into a "War on Christians." Last December, some evangelical Christian groups declared that the religious celebration of Christmas -- and even the phrase "Merry Christmas" -- was under attack by the forces of secularism.
 
Signs Comment: If only there were a war on Christianity in the US! If only there were a war against all three of the monotheistic religions and the control structures they represent. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case. Fundamentalists are warring against anyone that doesn't toe the religious line.

New Study Says Heartfelt Prayers Do NOT Help
Perhaps no amount of science can disprove the existence of a God, but at least one study, just published in the American Heart Journal, suggests that praying to Him-or Her-doesn't help.




False Flag Operations/PsyOps

Robert Fisk: Somebody is trying to provoke a civil war in Iraq.
The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war? Now the Americans will say it's Al Qaeda, it's the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militia men who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities.

The British Government: Long-Time Sponsor of Islamic Terror
You want the news behind the news? You want to know just how far from reality the official truth is? Consider the following story from today's UK Guardian:


More British Covert OPs in Iraq?
Last September, two of her majesty's loyal servants were arrested by Iraqi police (and then released to British forces) in the Southern Iraqi city of Basra. The two men were dresssed in full Arab garb driving a car full of explosives.

Flashback: British Government's Agent Provocateurs Exposed
There is a saying of sorts that, if you are going to do something, do it well, and given the serious consequences, nowhere is that more true than when you plan to engage in criminal activity.

Web search blows CIA spooks' cover
Agents' details just a fee and a click away. Personal details of thousands of CIA staff can be found online, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. The information, which includes details of undercover operatives and 'secret' CIA facilities, can be purchased using internet services that search publicly available government information. The Chicago Tribune claims to have uncovered more than 2,600 people who work for the CIA, and said that the security agency had confirmed that part of the list included details on covert agents. This list included the names of CIA operatives assigned to US embassies throughout Europe. At the CIA's request the Chicago Tribune has not published this information.

British soldiers disguised as Iraqis try to plant bomb
British soldiers disguised as Iraqis try to plant bomb by "Islamic Party" headquarters in al-Basrah, in further apparent effort to spark sectarian civil war in Iraq. The Iraqi puppet police in the southern Iraqi city of al-Basrah arrested three British soldiers disguised as Iraqis who were trying to plant explosives near the headquarters of the collaborationist so-called Islamic Party of Iraq, a Sunni party that was formed after the US occupation on the basis of the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood organization. The arrest took place on Thursday night, 9 March 2006, according to the al-Basrah correspondent for Quds Press.

Iraq recruitment centre blast kills 40
At least 40 people are reported killed and 20 others wounded when a
suicide bomber blew himself up among candidates waiting at an army recruitment centre in northwest Iraq. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said the explosion occurred on Monday at an Iraqi army centre called Tamarat, located near the town of Tal Afar, which is close to the restive city of Mosul.

Signs Comment: You want to know the truth of this and so many other alleged "suicide bombings" in Iraq and in other countries in the Middle East? On May 11 2005, an Iraqi man named Imad Khadduri posted a "warning to car drivers" on www.albasrah.net. The report contained some alarming information:
"A few days ago, an American manned check point confiscated the driver license of a driver and told him to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license. The next day, the driver did visit the camp and he was allowed in the camp with his car. He was admitted to a room for an interrogation that lasted half an hour. At the end of the session, the American interrogator told him: 'OK, there is nothing against you, but you do know that Iraq is now sovereign and is in charge of its own affairs. Hence, we have forwarded your papers and license to al-Kadhimia police station for processing. Therefore, go there with this clearance to reclaim your license. At the police station, ask for Lt. Hussain Mohammed, who is waiting for you now. Go there now quickly, before he leaves his shift work'.

The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors.
In an incident that appeared to corroborate the idea that US and British forces were involved in covert bomb attacks on Iraqi civilians, in September 2005 two British SAS agents were arrested driving a car full of explosives. The men had been shooting at Iraqi civilians and wore full Arab dress.

Russian Communist leader sees U.S. behind bird flu outbreak
Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov has blamed the United States for the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu, in a number of European countries, including Russia. "The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has yet died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries. This makes one seriously wonder why," Zyuganov said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday. Zyuganov said that he has good knowledge of war gases as he dealt with them during his army service. "I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he said. Asked to be more precise as to whether he believes the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov answered positively. "I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here," he said.

Signs Comment: But of course, he's a commie, so no need to give his claims any credit at all, he obviously has an agenda...then again, who doesn't have an agenda these days. Question is, could there be someone with an agenda to kill off a large percentage of the human race?

Flashback! Ethnic Weapons For Ethnic Cleansing
Greg Bishop
March 2000

[T]his "theoretical possibility" was recognized over 25 years ago, if not before. It was originally brought to the attention of potential customers with the publication of an article in the Military Review of November 1970.

This journal for command-level military personnel was published by the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The feature, entitled "Ethnic Weapons," authored by Carl A. Larson, outlines the history, desirability, and possibilities of engineered biological pathogens which would affect only those races which historically have no natural defense against certain "enzyme inhibitors."

Larson is listed as head of the "Department of Human Genetics at the Institute of Genetics, Lund, Sweden" as well as a licensed physician. The Hippocratic oath was apparently not administered in Sweden when Larson received his accreditation.

Larson explains that many of the chemical activities and functions within the human body are caused by the interactions of enzymes. One of the more significant activities enabled by enzyme chemical reactions are the contraction and relaxation of muscle tissue. If the activities of these enzymes are blocked, the victim will be paralyzed, even to the point of death by asphyxiation.

Not coincidentally, the enzyme-blocking action of compounds called organophosphates were discovered in Germany in the 1930s when experimental insecticides killed the people unlucky enough to have used them. This discovery led to the mass production of a substance named "Trilon," later used to impressive effect in the extermination of groups of people the Nazis considered little more than insects. This substance and others of similar makeup became known as "nerve gas.


Flashback! Israel planning 'ethnic' bomb as Saddam caves in
The London Times
November 15 1998

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources. The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks.

A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of Semitic origin. But he added: "They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people."


Flashback! Microbiologists With Link to Race-Based Weapon Turning Up Dead
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Gordon Thomas

Dr. David Kelly-the biological warfare weapons specialist at the heart of the continuing political crisis for the British government-had links to three other top microbiologists whose deaths have left unanswered questions.

The 59-year-old British scientist was involved with ultra secret work at Israel's Institute for Biological Re search. Israeli sources claim Kelly met institute scientists several times in London in the past two years....
MI5 taken off July bomber's trail
MI5 officers assigned to investigate the lead bomber in the 7 July attacks were diverted to another anti-terrorist operation, the BBC has learned.
Mohammad Sidique Khan was known to the police for suspected petty fraud. But sources have now told BBC News the security services had been so concerned about him they had planned to put him under a higher level of investigation. A parliamentary report on the 7 July suicide bombings said the security services cannot be blamed.


Signs Comment: Well OF COURSE a parliamentary report would say that the security services cannot be blamed, they HAVE to say that, otherwise the sordid truth might drop out like a dead donkey on the floor. We, however, can exaplain why "the lead bomber, who was known to police, was not fully investigated, despite being known to security officials": MI5 organised and carried out the London Bombings and needed to keep the patsys free and 'unknown' until after the bombings, because, if they were investigated and in jail before the bombings, then how could they use them as patsys...!

Israel Plans More Palestinian Suicide Attacks
The Israeli government claims that it is "expecting more Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade suicide attacks in the coming weeks", and with the Israeli government's uncanny ability to predict 'Palestinian suicide attacks', trumped only by Palestinian militant's ability to provide them...



Signs Under Attack! abovetopsecret.com EXPOSED!!!

Some of you may have noticed that Signs of the Times was down three times today. This was a result of threats by abovetopsecret.com's attorney to our website host. It seems that abovetopsecret.com finally could no longer stand the negative attention they were getting from our exposure of them as a probable CoIntelPro operation, initially in the form of Joe Quinn's article:

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 - and Neither Did a Boeing 757

which was an analysis of the "catherder" article on abovetopsecret.com which essentially was support for Bush and the Neocon's conspiracy theory about the events of September 11.

After removing this "offending material", we published the letter from abovetopsecret.com's attorney on our forum. Within FIVE minutes, the Signs page was taken down again by the website host. When we called our server to ask "what now," we were informed that abovetopsecret.com's attorney had called again and was claiming that in the five minutes the forum posting was up, he had already received death threats because we had published his name and location! (which, incidentally, is freely available on the web.) We were forced to remove that information also, but you can read it here. It seems that abovetopsecret.com's attorney is also well-versed in the tactics of CoIntelPro.

As anyone who is familiar with copyright law knows, our rebuttal of the 'Catherder' article is perfectly legal under standard copyright law. However, abovetopsecret.com, like Bush and the Neocons, make up their own laws and enforce them with intimidation and bogus threats from their 'hired-gun' attorney. As Laura has chronicled on her blog, abovetopsecret.com's urgent demands that we remove this article because it was a violation of their "creative commons" copyright was absurd and simply evidence of their position as an active cointelpro/psy-ops propagator on the internet. It isn't copyrights that abovetopsecret.com is concerned about, it is google bombing and running psy-ops. And now, they have proven it.

This action also is highly suggestive of the idea that the Pentagon issue is a LOT more sensitive than anyone has thus far suspected! Do take note of THAT!

We hope that everyone who reads this will spread this information far and wide because these people are covert Bush supporters, Cyber Nazi Brown Shirts.

Don't worry, there will be lots more information on this matter available soon and we will keep our readers updated. Check back regularly, and it will help a LOT if you can find some spare change to put in the legal defense kitty.

Thanks from the SOTT Team.

Signs of the Times Attacked by Abovetopsecret.com Psy-ops!
Signs of the Times is one of the very few news and information portals on the web that remains uncorrupted in any way and is staffed by a group of people who are dedicated to one thing - bringing the Truth to the general public. We are able to do this because we rely solely on support from our readers and our own hard work: book sales.
As many of our readers are probably aware, we had a little "to do" with a gang we consider to be agents of Pentagon psy-ops - abovetopsecret.com and friends - last night. We were up until 3 a.m. dealing with the backlash from this situation...

Abovetopsecret.com, Project Serpo Psy-ops, and the Pentagon's Flying Fish
For the last few years, this website, has sought, in all honesty, to present the daily news as truthfully as possible. Signs of the Times is one of the very few news and information portals on the web that remains uncorrupted in any way and is staffed by a small group of people who are dedicated to one thing - bringing the Truth to the general public. We are able to do this because we rely solely on support from our readers and our own hard work: book sales. You may not necessarily agree with our take on events but I would hope that you agree that alternative media is now essential to the preservation of our basic freedoms.




Death and Torture In The 4th Reich

Death of a professor
There is now a systematic campaign to assassinate Iraqis who speak out against the occupation. In a letter to a friend in Europe, Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, a Baghdad university professor in his 50s, grieved for his killed friends and colleagues. His letter concluded: "I wonder who is next!" He was. On January 28 al-Na'as drove from his office at Baghdad University. Two cars blocked his, and gunmen opened fire, killing him instantly. Al-Na'as is not the first academic to be killed in the mayhem of the "new Iraq". Hundreds of academics and scientists have met this fate since the March 2003 invasion. Baghdad universities alone have mourned the killing of over 80 members of staff. The minister of education stated recently that during 2005, 296 members of education staff were killed and 133 wounded.
 
Signs Comment: As Laura wrote in her brief history of Poland during WW II, killing the intellgentsia in any country that an imperialist power wishes to subjugate is first in the order of business:
The transformation of Poland into a German province was to be carried out over a short period of twenty-five or thirty years. Hence, no mercy was to be shown to this population. And, to guarantee the success of this fast despoliation, the intelligentsia was to be liquidated. "It sounds cruel, " Hitler reportedly told Hans Frank, "but such is the law of life."
The terrible thing about this is that so many great minds are lost to humanity and it is humanity as a whole that suffers in the long run. But Pathocrats don't think of that: they only think about power. Like germs, they don't understand that when the body dies, they too will be cast into the fire.

Exclusive: Former UN Human Rights Chief in Iraq Says US Violating Geneva Conventions, Jailing Innocent Detainees
In his first interview since returning from Iraq, John Pace, the human rights chief for the the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, reacts to the mass killings on the ground. Pace says he believes the U.S. has violated the Geneva Conventions, is fueling the violence through its raids on Iraqi homes and is holding thousands of detainees that are for the most part innocent of any crimes.

Once You've Sanctioned Torture, Anything Else is Possible
As journalist Robert C. Koehler remarked, " Maybe we should be careful about making common cause with born-again free speech advocates who never showed any tolerance for it until it became a handy club for bashing Muslims." He added, in the current atmosphere, "It's OK to torture them because they've already been dehumanized en masse. Anything could follow."

McGovern returns Medal: I Do Not Wish to Be Associated With Torture
By Ray McGovern
As a matter of conscience, I am returning the Intelligence Commendation Award medallion given me for "especially commendable service" during my 27-year career in CIA. The issue is torture, which inhabits the same category as rape and slavery - intrinsically evil. I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.

15 Arrested At White House Protesting U.S. Torture

Note: Protest organizers said that four days prior to the demonstration they sent out approximately 1000 news releases, 100 to news media outlets in the D.C. area. Reuters was the only news media outlet seen covering any part of the actions yesterday.

U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban - McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba Prison
Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison. In federal court yesterday and in legal filings, Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cannot use legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to challenge treatment that the detainee's lawyers described as "systematic torture."

More Torture in Occupied Afghanistan
"In one of the great deceptive maneuvers in U.S. history," Bob Herbert wrote recently, "the military-industrial complex (with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as chairman and C.E.O., respectively) took its eye off the real enemy in Afghanistan and launched the pointless but far more remunerative war in Iraq." Herbert, one of the New York Times' better pundits, ought to know better than to point to Afghanistan as the right fight at the right time. But he's not the only Pollyanna of America's other dirty war.


Ex-Official: Iraq Abuses Growing Worse
Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former U.N. human rights chief in Iraq said Thursday.

Innocent Clerk Beaten to death in Basra by British Troops

Baha Moussa was working as a night-shift receptionist at the Ibn al Haithan Hotel in Basra when British troops raided the premises. The 23-year-old was arrested along with other members of the hotel staff, and taken to a nearby British military base for questioning. Four days later his father identified Baha's corpse in a morgue. He had been beaten to a pulp.

Prisoners still tortured in Iraq, Amnesty alleges
LONDON The human rights group Amnesty International released a report Monday saying detainees in Iraq are still being tortured by their captors despite the attention generated by the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. The report lists allegations from former detainees who said they were beaten with plastic cables, given electric shocks and made to stand in a flooded room as an electrical current was passed through the water.

Tracing the Trail of Torture
Torture is usually defined as "infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion," or as "excruciating physical or mental pain, agony." No civilized society can accept laws which justify the use of torture. So it's not surprising that Ali Abbas was astonished to discover Americans willing to inflict such humiliating and inhumane treatment on him while he was in their custody in Abu Ghraib. "They cannot be human beings and do these things," was the way he put it. He concluded: "This, what happened to me, could happen to anybody in Iraq." Unfortunately, what happened to him can now conceivably happen to anyone, anywhere in the world, according to George Bush. One of the last things Abbas said as our interview ended was: "Saddam Hussein was a cruel enemy to us. Once I made it to Abu Ghraib though, I wished I had been killed by him rather than being alive with the Americans. Even now, after this journey of torture and suffering, what else can I think?"

No Habeas at Guantanamo? The Executive and the Dubious Tale of the DTA
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Ian Wallach, habeas counsel for several Guantanamo Bay detainees, says that the US Executive Branch may have engaged in questionable acts and disseminated inaccurate information to encourage Senate passage of provisions in the Detainee Treatment Act preventing federal judges from seeing problematic evidence on why detainees are being held...

The torture dodge: Congress must put an end to abuses at Gitmo

It's becoming clear why President Bush agreed to Sen. John McCain's legislation barring the use of torture when interrogating detainees. The president believes he can ignore the law whenever he chooses. He made that clear in a "signing statement" in which he reserved the right to interpret the torture ban in the context of his broader constitutional powers as commander in chief. In the case of the 500 detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Bush was also banking on a separate provision in the same defense authorization bill that contained the torture ban. Sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., it severely restricts the Gitmo detainees' access to U.S. courts.

Guantanamo Bay Briton was MI5 spy, court is told
THE Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been forced into an embarrassing change of heart over its refusal to press for the release of a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay after the High Court was told yesterday that he had links to MI5. Bisher al-Rawi, 37, who has lived in Britain for more than 20 years, says that he was working for British Intelligence when he was picked up by the CIA during a trip to Africa.

British agents set men up for CIA detention
TWO British residents have spent three years in Guantanamo Bay because the security agency MI5 told the CIA the men were carrying a bomb part, even though MI5 knew the item was a harmless battery charger, documents released in Britain suggest.

Abu Ghraib, symbol of America's shame, to close within three months - 4,500 inmates to be moved to other jails
Abu Ghraib, the prison which will be forever linked with images of Iraqi detainees stripped naked and humiliated by their American jailors, is to be closed, US military officials said yesterday. The sprawling, low-slung prison in the western suburbs of Baghdad, a torture chamber under Saddam Hussein that gained even more notoriety with the photographs of abuse committed by US troops, is likely to close within three months.
Its 4,500 inmates will be transferred to other jails in Iraq - including Camp Cropper, the facility at the Baghdad airport where Saddam is being held. Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, the spokesman for US detention operations in Iraq, told Reuters news agency: "No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this within the next two to three months." He said the handover would take place in phases, beginning with the training of Iraqi prison guards.

Video: Turkey Shoot At Abu Ghraib - Tales of Murder and Torture
The latest chapter in reporter Olivia Rousset's Abu Ghraib revelations. Three weeks ago on Dateline, Olivia revealed new evidence of horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib. On a recent trip to the US, Olivia managed to track down two former Abu Ghraib guards - one who served time for committing abuses against Iraqi detainees and another who witnessed those shocking events. It's no small irony that both of these former US military policemen now see themselves as being among the victims of Abu Ghraib. Here's Olivia's story. And, as you would expect with this sort of report, be warned - some of what you're about to see is not exactly pretty and could even offend. Transcript below.

I was tortured, says Australian held in Iraq
A SYDNEY man, Ahmed Jamal, imprisoned in northern Iraq for 18 months without charge has told Australian officials he was tortured. Mr Jamal was finally visited by Australia's consul-general in Iraq, Alan Elliott, on February 27 and found in a distressed state. He said he had been badly mistreated by his captors after his arrest. His condition was relayed to his father, Mahmoud, and his lawyer, Stephen Kenny, by a consular official based in Canberra, Alex Fraser.

'De-programming' of militants rapped in Australia
Australia is considering a plan to "de-programme" Islamic militants held in jail despite criticism by a rights group saying it amounted to brainwashing. Police Commissioner Mick Keelty proposed the idea, saying the technique involved using respected imams or people previously connected with militant organisations to convert extremists to more moderate views.

Using terror to fight terror
Two years ago, David Rose was the first journalist to interview the Tipton Three after their release from Guantanamo Bay. Now he applauds Michael Winterbottom's award-winning film of their ordeal - and finds out what has happened to the men since

The Torture Judge

In a startling, ominous decision-ignored by most of the press around the country-Federal District Judge David Trager, in the Eastern District of New York, has dismissed a lawsuit by a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, who, during a stopover at Kennedy Airport on the way home to Canada after vacation, was kidnapped by CIA agents.

How terror attacks changed the CIA

"Gary, your orders are to find Bin Laden and his lieutenants, kill them and bring Bin Laden's head back to the United States in a cardboard box on dry ice."

Decadent Elite Laugh At Torture During Gridiron Club Dinner - Russert dresses in drag, sings 'rendition' song
The mainstream press is having a hearty chuckle about the capers and the chicanery witnessed at the annual Gridiron Club dinner, a get-together of media and government elites. The highlight was an "amusing" rendition of a torture song by a dragged-up Tim Russert. I for one don't find it funny that a bunch of war criminals and their sycophantic collaborators are cackling and patting each other on the back about the 'hilarious shortcomings' of the administration. Ahhh isn't Cheney cute for shooting a man in the face? Isn't it rollicking that those kids got raped and those Abu Ghraib prisoners were tortured to death?

The Torture Issue Alone Is Sufficient To Justify Impeachment Of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld
...for "conspiracy to commit torture," in direct violation of existing United States law.
The exact words of the United States Code, Title 18, Sections 2340, 2340A, and 2340B are shown below. As you read these words and consider the pictures and other public evidence from Abu Ghraib and other prisons, you will see: first, that numerous United States Military personnel did commit the crime of torture (as defined below), on a systematic and widespread scale, not confined to the rogue actions of a few individuals; second, that the very highest levels of the Bush Administration, including the President himself, must have planned and/or authorized these activities, and thus are guilty of the high crime of "conspiracy to commit torture," an impeachable offense. Further, you will see that the entire chain of command - starting from the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld level, then going down through the military organizations and the CIA, down to the individual torturers - must have also been members of this conspiracy to commit torture, to the extent that they worked together to make it happen.

MI5, Camp Delta, and the story that shames Britain

Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna are among eight British residents who remain prisoners at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are jailed because British officials rendered them into the hands of the CIA in Africa, a fact that may explain why the British government refuses to intercede on their behalf. Bisher and Jamil have been wrongfully imprisoned now for more than three years. This is the story of their betrayal by the British government and their appalling treatment at the hands of the CIA and the U.S. military.

Taking prisoners to the edge of drowning 'not torture' says FO

FORCING a prisoner's head under water until they believe they are drowning does not necessarily constitute torture or abusive treatment, the Foreign Office has said. The equivocal statement has fuelled suspicions that Britain is turning a blind eye to practices by its allies that many international lawyers believe are illegal. Holding mock executions is banned in international law, yet simulated drowning is specifically intended to persuade subjects that they are about to die.

Trash Talkers: The Black Mud of Bush/Blair Propaganda

It is not enough for those gentlemen of rectitude, the oh-so-Christian Coalition of George Bush and Tony Blair, to snatch innocent people from around the world and plunge them into a black hole of torture and anguish for years on end. No, even in those rare instances where they finally spit out a victim after grinding his body and mind to bits, they cannot let him rest. They pursue him to the ends of the earth, trying to taint his reputation with slander, innuendo and black propaganda fed to willing media accomplices -- anything to muddy the waters, to keep the truth about their despicable enterprise from emerging fully into the light.

Philippines: The Killing Fields Of Asia
Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo joined the US global "War on Terrorism", the Philippines has become the site of an on-going undeclared war against peasant and union activists, progressive political dissidents and lawmakers, human rights lawyers and activists, women leaders and a wide range of print and broadcast journalists. Because of the links between the Army, the regime and the death squads, political assassinations take place in an atmosphere of absolute impunity. The vast majority of the attacks occur in the countryside and provincial towns. The reign of terror in the Philippines is of similar scope and depth as in Colombia. Unlike Colombia, the rampaging state terrorism has not drawn sufficient attention from international public opinion.

Russian state-controlled TV revives allegation of secret CIA prison in Ukraine

Russian state television revived an allegation that Ukraine hosted a secret CIA prison for terrorist suspects, a move Kiev allegedly made to prove its loyalty to the United States.
The alleged prison was located in a former nuclear weapons storage base in a military garrison in the Kiev region, an investigative reporter for Rossiya television said in a broadcast late Sunday. He said the prisoners were probably transferred to Ukraine from Poland and Romania.

The Abu Ghraib files

279 photographs and 19 videos from the Army's internal investigation record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable. Editor's note: The 10 galleries of photo and video evidence appear chronologically in the left column, followed by an additional Salon report on prosecutions for abuse and an overview of Pentagon investigations and other resources. The nine essays accompanying the photo galleries were reported and written by Michael Scherer and Mark Benjamin. Photo and video captions were compiled by Page Rockwell. Additional research, reporting and writing for "The Abu Ghraib Files" were contributed by Jeanne Carstensen, Mark Follman, Page Rockwell and Tracy Clark-Flory.

The Joy of Being Blameless

The contrast could not have been more stark, nor the message more clear. On the day that a court-martial imposed justice on a 24-year-old Army sergeant for tormenting detainees at Abu Ghraib with his dog, President Bush said once again that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose benighted policies and managerial incompetence led to the prisoner abuse scandal, was doing a "fine job" and should stay at his post.
We've seen this sorry pattern for nearly two years now, since the Abu Ghraib horrors first shocked the world: President Bush has clung to the fiction that the abuse of prisoners was just the work of a few rotten apples, despite report after report after report demonstrating that it was organized and systematic, and flowed from policies written by top officials in his administration.


Major General Geoffrey Miller: I Refuse To Answer Because I've Already Answered That Question

Major General Geoffrey Miller, the officer sent from Guantanamo Bay to Iraq to teach the MP's and intel teams at Abu Ghraib how to interrogate prisoners Gitmo-Style, has invoked his Article 31 right not to testify in the courts-martial of several dog handlers who are now being prosecuted. Shame shame General! When you join the service, you do give up quite a few civil rights, but you still have the right to remain silent, not to incriminate yourself. That right is contained in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 31 (very similar to the 5th amendment of the Constitution).

Trial by spin machine - The innocence of British Muslims released from Guantánamo is a story no official wants told

The coincidental release of Michael Winterbottom's prize-winning film about the young men from Tipton, Road to Guantánamo, and Moazzam Begg's book, Enemy Combatant, predictably brought the US and British spin machines into full swing last week - so that anyone reading the book or seeing the film would have got the idea that these men may have been badly treated, but they certainly were not innocent.

Attorneys React to Shocking Guantánamo Suicide Letter Just Declassified and Released by The U.S.

First Guantánamo Suicide Letter Declassified by U.S. Government Confirms Prior Accounts From Detainee: "Imprisoned, Tortured and Deprived" for "No Reason or Crime Committed"

Chicago court hears chilling tales of torture

In federal court in Chicago Tuesday, chilling stories about the torture of political prisoners by Israeli police. Testimony came during a hearing in the case against Muhammad Salah, who is accused of laundering money for Palestinian terrorists.

The Torture Judge - U.S. court rules our government can break international laws to keep us safe
Essentially you have a judge saying that assuming that U.S. officials sent Mr. Arar to be tortured, a judge can do nothing about it. Georgetown University law professor David Cole, New York Law Journal, February 17.

Dark Pearl
"We don't torture."-George W. Bush (Straussian 'ignoble lie') "We don't do body counts."-Gen. Tommy Franks (Straussian ignoble truth)
I don't believe in Jesus, but I'm starting to believe in the devil. What is it about neo-con, Reptile-Republican Fundamentalist Christian politicians in particular, that accounts for such breath-taking, sadistic, self-indulgent, unnecessary cruelty? How to explain it?


'War on terror' trials could allow evidence obtained through torture

US military officers, breaking with domestic and international legal precedent, said that "war on terror" military tribunals at the Guantanamo naval base could allow evidence obtained through torture. The US military officer presiding over the trial of an alleged aide to Osama bin Laden said he was not ready to rule out such evidence.

UK Minister says Guantanamo must close to save democracy
The US camp at Guantanamo Bay should be closed before it undermines the cause of democracy worldwide, a Foreign Office minister has warned. The remarks by Kim Howells yesterday coincided with one of the most direct appeals yet by a high-ranking American figure for British support over Guantanamo Bay's continued existence. The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, on a visit to London, said the that camp was lawful and necessary. Mr Howells, the minister in charge of British policy in the Middle East, warned: "Our alliance with America is based on shared values. If those shared values are seen by the rest of the world to be terribly flawed that actually undermines the cause of democracy. If Guantanamo is undermining those shared values then it should go, it should close." Mr Howells went on to claim that the US had a problem with the "time scale".

Pentagon Releases Names of Gitmo Inmates
After four years of secrecy, the Pentagon handed over documents Friday that contain the names of detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The release resulted from a victory by The Associated Press in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Bush administration had hidden the identities, home countries and other information about the men, who were accused of having links to the Taliban or al-Qaida. But a federal judge rejected administration arguments that releasing the identities would violate the detainees' privacy and could endanger them and their families. The names were scattered throughout more than 5,000 pages of transcripts of hearings at Guantanamo Bay released Friday, but no complete list was given and it was unclear how many names the documents contained. In most of the transcripts, the person speaking is identified only as "detainee." Names appear only when court officials or detainees refer to people by name.

Hypocrisy Dept: Blair Hopes Guantanamo Camp Can Close

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he hopes the Guantanamo prison camp will close, but noted the United States had opened it in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Gitmo Documents - Four Characters in Search of a Prosecutor: Miller, Boykin, Cambone and Feith

A year of stonewalling a Freedom of Information lawsuit by the Associated Press and now the Pentagon releases documents (Friday, March 3, 2006) with the names of hundreds of detainees held at Guantanamo. The more than five thousand pages give us a flavor of the eclectic--ragtag, might be a better word--mix of prisoners in the Cuban camp and the equally varied treatment they received. The British Guardian-- from a keen sense of fair play, one supposes--devotes a column to telling us that after all, yes, there were two young boys who actually had a good time of it-- said good time running to movies, books, and soccer games. That wipes the slate clean on Abu Ghraib, see? It would be interesting to know more about those two .... and about the many more boys who didn't exactly get such Eagle Scout treatment, but what we'd really like to know is why we get a breathless column devoted to this reassuring anomaly but no one sees fit to give equal time to any of the three hundred other prisoners who testify to goings on a tad less pleasant.

260 Doctors Call for End to Force-Feeding at Guantanamo

More than 260 doctors from around the world have called on the U.S. military to stop force-feeding detainees at the Guantanamo detention center who are on a hunger strike. The doctors signed a letter published Friday in the respected British medical journal "Lancet." But at the Pentagon, a spokesman says there is no plan to review what he calls the "involuntary" feeding, which he says is done only when "appropriate or medically necessary."

Pentagon mulls torture rule on Guantanamo evidence

In what would be a key change in U.S. policy, the Pentagon may formally require military prosecutors to observe a U.N. convention against torture in their use of evidence during tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Cuba Demands America Return Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay has been in America's possession since 1901, after Washington intervened in the Spanish-Cuban war. According to this op-ed article from Cuba's state-controlled Granma, the Cuban people consider the pact ceding the Bay to Washington as null and void, since it was signed 'against the will of our people.'

Blair calls for Guantanamo to close

Tony Blair joined the growing calls for the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay to be closed after he was questioned about the claims of torture by two British residents held there. Mr Blair was challenged at his regular monthly press conference at 10 Downing Street yesterday over the graphic and shocking claims by two men who lived in Britain that they were handed over to the CIA by the security service MI5 for torture in the notorious "dark prison" in Kabul, Afghanistan, before being taken to Guantanamo.

Guantanamo protest in SF halts traffic downtown, 17 arrested
Police arrested 17 protesters and pulled several others wearing orange jumpsuits from a makeshift prison cell Monday in the heart of the city's financial district.
The rally, organized by Act Against Torture, which advocates shutting down the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, marked the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq and was held outside the office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.


Democratizing the World: One Torture Victim at a Time
Analysis of the Long, Repulsive History of the United States Inflicting Torture on Its "Suspected Enemies" (in Conjunction with a Review of A Question of Torture by Alfred W. McCoy)


Bush Signs Statements to Bypass Torture Ban,
When President Bush signed a law banning torture he quietly signed a statement saying he could bypass it. Earlier this month, Bush signed the USA Patriot Act but signed a statement that said he did not consider oversight rules binding.

US deserter 'shocked by abuses'
A US soldier who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq says he was shocked by alleged atrocities committed by the American military.




Weapons Of War
 
Elite US troops get expanded intelligence role: NYT
Small teams of special operations troops are being placed in a growing number of American embassies in unstable regions of the world to gather intelligence on terrorists, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. In an article on its Web site, the newspaper said the elite troops, known as "Military Liaison Elements," also plan potential missions to "disrupt, capture or kill" the terrorists.

Signs Comment: These people are there to foment terrorism, not to stop it.

Whatever Happened to Courage?
For me, one of the most valuable lessons taught by history is that from time to time people rise up and fight back against horrible tyranny and against impossible odds. There are many examples: Shay's Rebellion, the battle of Matewan, and the battle of Blair Mountain, the Ludlow Massacre, the Haymarket Strike and, more recently, the race wars that culminated in the 1960s. Many of these struggles, conspicuously absent from our history texts, are connected to labor disputes, when workers were forced to organize and to strike for more humane working conditions, including the eight hour work day. Massive strikes have played a significant role in the economic and social history of the U.S. Thus it is no coincidence that America has the bloodiest labor history of any industrialized nation. How a people react to oppression and injustice says much about what kind of people and, indeed, what kind of nation they are. In those responses is revealed the national character.


The Baghdad Embassy Bonanza

Heaping scandal upon scandal, the Kuwait company that won the contract to build the massive U.S. Embassy stands accused of using forced labor to fulfill its contracts.

Hollywood's dirty little secret
It's the scripts that pay a high price when Hollywood goes into battle. Brian Courtis looks at one of the movie world's murkier truths. Well, we've known the rules. We've known them since Errol Flynn liberated Burma without any help from British, Australian or New Zealand forces. Churchill and a few Diggers may have been upset, but the fact is when it comes to Hollywood only the good guys win and, since we're playing with their toys, those good guys must inevitably be Americans. Never let the absurdities of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster. They really do not want to discuss this, of course, in Tinseltown. They still see only their heroes and our villains. And they continue to win everything alone. Remember Steven Spielberg's D-Day spectacular Saving Private Ryan? Someone simply forgot that 72,000 British and Canadian troops were also involved. And if Hollywood is to be believed, it was the Americans who captured the Enigma coding machine from a German submarine; never mind that the Brits were there and accomplished that six months before the Yanks entered the war. Not everything has been quite so eagerly promoted. We hear less, for instance, about the effects of the powerful relationship that has grown over the years between the Pentagon and the Hollywood studios, a partnership that not only can save millions of dollars for filmmakers and produce fine recruiting propaganda for Washington, but can twist history and reality to produce the ultimate in international spin.

PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses - A Biopsy on Imperialism; Part I: Blueprint for Imperialism
1. Blueprint for Imperialism
2. Operation Imperialism, The 'Enduring' Mission
3.Appendix: Signatories to Rebuilding America's Defenses1. BLUEPRINT FOR IMPERIALISM
A superpower does not have moral imperatives. It has strategic imperatives. Its purpose is not to sustain the lives of other people, but to sustain itself. George Monbiot, The Moral Myth, 25.11.03.
The 19th century's definitive treatise was Das Kapital (1848) by Karl Marx. The 20th century had two major expositions of principles. Adolf Hitler published Eine Abrechnung (A Reckoning) in 1925, and Die Nazionalosozialistische Bewegung (the National-Socialistic Movement) in 1926. Together, these books became known as Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In 1964, The People's Republic of China published The Little Red Book, an iconic collection of quotations from the speeches and publications of Mao Tse Tung. The 20th century ended with a blueprint for imperialism - not a book, but a website called The Project for the New American Century. "We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership.2" PNAC Statement of Principles, 3 June 1997.

The Most Powerful Weapon In The World - Strategic Communication Laboratories and the war for your mind
In a world where the perception is the reality, all countries need to have the capability to manage their own perceptual alignment – otherwise someone else will. We live in a global village, which is reliant on communication and perception. Every country needs the tools to be part of that game. A direct quote from the website of Strategic Communication Laboratories, a London based company that offers "the most powerful weapon in the world", the ability to manage every aspect of a conflict from one operation centre. Take a look around their website and witness sickening quote after quote explaining how their vision is to allow the total control of citizens by their government or their military, to keep it that way, and to facilitate conflicts with and the takeover of other countries and the execution of total control over their citizens. The idea put across by SCL is that if you can control the perceptions people have of reality, then you can control reality itself.

US Army: Peak Oil and the Army's future
"The days of inexpensive, convenient, abundant energy sources are quickly drawing to a close," according to a recently released US Army strategic report. The report posits that a peak in global oil production looks likely to be imminent, with wide reaching implications for the US Army and society in general. The report was sent to Energy Bulletin by a reader, and does not appear to be available elsewhere on the internet. However it is marked as unclassified and approved for public release. [ UPDATE: Since we wrote those words several hours ago we've been informed that a reference to the document now appears on a Google search, including a link to the full PDF on a .mil server. "Somebody must be watching you guys!" writes reader SG. Before we wrote this report we sent out copies of the abbreviated report to several associates including PeakOil.net who published it on their website. So who knows? I've updated the links to the report in this article to the location on the government servers. -AF] The report, Energy Trends and Their Implications for U.S. Army Installations (PDF – 1.2mb), was conducted by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is dated September 2005. Author Eileen Westervelt, PE, CEM, is a mechanical engineer at the Engineer Research and Development Center (US Army Corps of Engineers) in Champaign, Ill. Author Donald Fournier is a senior research specialist at the University of Illinois' Building Research Council and has worked with the Corps in the past.
Westervelt and Fournier give special credence to the work of independent energy experts, such as the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) and the Oil Depletion Analysis Center (ODAC). They seem to place very little credibility on the more optimistic oil production forecasts of the international energy agencies. They reproduce ASPO graphs and quote ASPO member Jean Laherrere on why the US Geological Survey (USGS) future oil availability estimates are clearly overly optimistic: The USGS estimate implies a five-fold increase in discovery rate and reserve addition, for which no evidence is presented. Such an improvement in performance is in fact utterly implausible, given the great technological achievements of the industry over the past twenty years, the worldwide search, and the deliberate effort to find the largest remaining prospects.
The authors warn that in order to sustain its mission, "the Army must insulate itself from the economic and logistical energy-related problems coming in the near to mid future. This requires a transition to modern, secure, and efficient energy systems, and to building technologies that are safe and environmental friendly." The best energy options they conclude are "energy efficiency and renewable sources." However, "currently, there is no viable substitute for petroleum." They do not expect that any transition will be easy: "energy consumption is indispensable to our standard of living and a necessity for the Army to carry out its mission. However, current trends are not sustainable. The impact of excessive, unsustainable energy consumption may undermine the very culture and activities it supports. There is no perfect energy source; all are used at a cost." The report includes what looks like a solid overview of the pros and cons of all major renewable and non-renewable energy options. They consider problems associated with hydrogen, shale oil, biofuels and tar sands. On nuclear energy they note that "our current throw-away nuclear cycle uses up the world reserve of low-cost uranium in about 20 years." They hold more hope for certain solar technologies and wind turbines, however, "renewables tend to be a more local or regional commodity and except for a few instances, not necessarily a global resource that is traded between nations." Overall this is surprisingly green sounding advice, and one might think out of left field for one of the most environmentally destructive and energy consuming institutions on the planet. And yet the report does not seem to be at odds with the Army's new Energy Strategy which sets out five major initiatives:

1. Eliminate energy waste in existing facilities
2. Increase energy efficiency in new construction and renovations
3. Reduce dependence on fossil fuels
4. Conserve water resources
5. Improve energy security

(See: hqda-energypolicy.pnl.gov/programs/plan.asp)
Westervelt and Fournier assert that changes must be made with urgency. However they express concerns that "we have a large and robust energy system with tremendous inertia, both from a policy perspective and a great resistance to change." In light of this, "the Army needs to present its perspective to higher authorities and be prepared to proceed regardless of the national measures that are taken." Westervelt and Fournier suggest "it is time to think strategically about energy and how the Army should respond to the global and national energy picture. A path of enlightened self-interest is encouraged." As we approach Peak Oil, what is ecologically sound and what is perceived to be to in an institution's practical benefit might tend to converge, at least in some respects - even those of an institution such as the US Army.

Signs Comment: How conincidental that the US army is now backing up the claims of people like the duplicituous Mike Ruppert, formerly of 9/11 Truth fame. If, it is true, as the report says that: "The days of inexpensive, convenient, abundant energy sources are quickly drawing to a close and that a peak in global oil production looks likely to be imminent, with wide reaching implications for the US Army and society in general."
then given that oil has always been used to control and manipulate the world's economy and population, we see no reason to believe why such a "drying up" of oil reserves would not simply be the next stage in the very same attempts at manipulation and control of the world.

A world of computers with one mind
Toshiba and MIT's Media Lab plan to launch the "GlobalMind" project, a large-scale knowledge database designed to promote advancements in the field of AI technology. Toshiba hopes to bring to computers an understanding of situations and feelings as experienced by their human users so that they can recognize, understand and respond to information in a real-life environment as people do. GlobalMind will be an extension of the OpenMind database project, which the MIT Media lab initiated in 2000; to date, it has gathered about 800,000 facts through the contributions of some 20,000 people. The aim is to teach computers these facts, more like common sense, and provide them with the same understanding that humans experience daily. "The GlobalMind project allows us to build on our relationship with Professor Minsky and the Media Lab to promote human-centric technology, one of our key R&D activities," said Dr. Mutsuhiro Arinobu, corporate VP and director of the Corporate Research & Development Center at Toshiba. "With GlobalMind, we hope to move significantly closer to realizing computers that understand the meaning of information and real-life situations, and to apply that to communication with people. This is one of the most crucial issues in AI." GlobalMind is an important step in bringing the research and information of OpenMind to different languages and cultures. This is significant because, while some cultural phenomena are universal (eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty) other behaviors experience a great deal of variety, at least in expression, across different cultures. GlobalMind will extend OpenMind to more languages, including Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, French and Spanish, with the goal of gathering common-sense facts and information from as many cultures and languages as possible.

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip
The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

Russian Communist leader sees U.S. behind bird flu outbreak
Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov has blamed the United States for the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu, in a number of European countries, including Russia. "The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has yet died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries. This makes one seriously wonder why," Zyuganov said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday. Zyuganov said that he has good knowledge of war gases as he dealt with them during his army service. "I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he said. Asked to be more precise as to whether he believes the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov answered positively. "I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here," he said.

Signs Comment: But of course, he's a commie, so no need to give his claims any credit at all, he obviously has an agenda...then again, who doesn't have an agenda these days. Question is, could there be someone with an agenda to kill off a large percentage of the human race?

Flashback! Ethnic Weapons For Ethnic Cleansing
Greg Bishop
March 2000

[T]his "theoretical possibility" was recognized over 25 years ago, if not before. It was originally brought to the attention of potential customers with the publication of an article in the Military Review of November 1970.

This journal for command-level military personnel was published by the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The feature, entitled "Ethnic Weapons," authored by Carl A. Larson, outlines the history, desirability, and possibilities of engineered biological pathogens which would affect only those races which historically have no natural defense against certain "enzyme inhibitors."

Larson is listed as head of the "Department of Human Genetics at the Institute of Genetics, Lund, Sweden" as well as a licensed physician. The Hippocratic oath was apparently not administered in Sweden when Larson received his accreditation.

Larson explains that many of the chemical activities and functions within the human body are caused by the interactions of enzymes. One of the more significant activities enabled by enzyme chemical reactions are the contraction and relaxation of muscle tissue. If the activities of these enzymes are blocked, the victim will be paralyzed, even to the point of death by asphyxiation.

Not coincidentally, the enzyme-blocking action of compounds called organophosphates were discovered in Germany in the 1930s when experimental insecticides killed the people unlucky enough to have used them. This discovery led to the mass production of a substance named "Trilon," later used to impressive effect in the extermination of groups of people the Nazis considered little more than insects. This substance and others of similar makeup became known as "nerve gas.


Flashback! Israel planning 'ethnic' bomb as Saddam caves in
The London Times
November 15 1998

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources. The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks.

A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of Semitic origin. But he added: "They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people."


Flashback! Microbiologists With Link to Race-Based Weapon Turning Up Dead
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Gordon Thomas

Dr. David Kelly-the biological warfare weapons specialist at the heart of the continuing political crisis for the British government-had links to three other top microbiologists whose deaths have left unanswered questions.

The 59-year-old British scientist was involved with ultra secret work at Israel's Institute for Biological Re search. Israeli sources claim Kelly met institute scientists several times in London in the past two years....
How the US Learned to Love the Bomb (Again)
How do you feel about a nuclear weapon that could be launched from the back of a jeep? The slightly bizarre idea of 'user-friendly' nuclear weapons. On the whole score of proliferation we're always hearing plenty about the dangers posed by the Irans and North Koreas of this world but, as we're about to see, while all that has been going on the US itself has been quietly beavering away on a program aimed at completely upgrading its nuclear arsenal, including the development of tactical weapons - mini-nukes that could be used on the battlefield.

ATK bags $38 million tank ammo order for Depleted Uranium bombs

Based on a depleted-uranium penetrator, the West Virginia-produced round is billed as the most advanced armor-piercing kinetic-energy ordnance available. "Its state-of-the-art composite sabot, propellant, and penetrator technologies give it outstanding accuracy and lethality," ATK said.

Depleted uranium: How dangerous is it?
Doug Rokke, Ph.D.
A former US military researcher tells Gay Alcorn of his crusade to expose the health risks of depleted-uranium weapons used in the Gulf wars.

Mark Gould and Jon Ungoed-Thomas
London Times
19 Feb 06
RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the "shock and awe" bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report. Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.

State to study depleted uranium
Washington would become the third state to study the effects of depleted uranium on returning National Guard troops under a budget proviso state legislators approved last week. Some veterans are worried about the effect of depleted uranium on troops returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, citing anecdotal reports from Iraq and higher cancer rates in Europe's Balkan war zones after uranium 238-enhanced munitions were used there in the early 1990s. The budget puts $150,000 toward studying the problem of exposure to radioactive materials used in munitions, as well as to set up a registry of Washington National Guard personnel who might have been exposed to hazardous materials.

Signs Comment: $150,000! They must be really concerned about the effects of DU, especially considering that the total Iraq war budget has run into the hundreds of billions of dollars...

Psych Drugs Used To Manufacture Insanity
Many experts say the wide-spread epidemic of mental health problems in the US is man-made. The case of Susan Florence is a testament to this theory of man-made insanity. While mania, psychosis, anxiety, agitation, hostility, depression, and confusion may be signs of mental illness, these same "symptoms" are referred to as side effects on the labels of the most commonly prescribed psychiatric medications used to treat mental illness. Once Susan Florence was placed on medication, whenever she experienced a side effect from one drug, her doctor simply prescribed another until she ended up in a drug-induced frenzy for which it would have been impossible to distinguish which drug, or combination thereof, was causing the adverse reactions.

3D plasma shapes created in thin air
The system is being developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tokyo, in collaboration with Burton Inc and Keio University. "We believe this technology may eventually be used in applications ranging from pyrotechnics to outdoor advertising," says a spokesman for AIST. According to Burton Inc, the technology might also be used for emergency distress signals or even temporary road signs. The display utilises an ionisation effect which occurs when a beam of laser light is focused to a point in air. The laser beam itself is invisible to the human eye but, if the intensity of the laser pulse exceeds a threshold, the air breaks down into glowing plasma that emits visible light.
 
Signs Comment: Hey! I just had a great idea. Why not use this technology to stage a UFO invasion! At the right time, the powers that be could present the 'reality' of life beyond the stars to humanity and everyone would fall down and obey our new masters from outer space. Just a thought, keep it in mind. Ya never know.

Weaponizing the Shark and Other Pentagon Dreams
We already have "stealth" aircraft, but what about a little of the stealth that only nature can provide? Navy Seals, move over -- here come the Navy sharks. According to the latest New Scientist magazine, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA, the blue-sky wing of the Pentagon, has set yet another group of American scientists loose to create the basis for future red-in-tooth-and-maw Discovery Channel programs. In this case, they are planning to put neural implants into the brains of sharks in hopes, one day, of "controlling the animal's movements, and perhaps even decoding what it is feeling." In their dreams at least, DARPA'S far-out funders hope to "exploit sharks' natural ability to glide quietly through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails. By remotely guiding the sharks' movements, they hope to transform the animals into stealth spies, perhaps capable of following vessels without being spotted."

Signs Comment: Bush reportedly remarked to Pentagon officials, "Look, all I'm asking is that we have some frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Is that so hard?!"

NSA Tech Tracks Down Web Surfers
DefenseTech
The NSA already knows how to find out where you're surfing from. Now, it wants to share its secret with online advertisers. There are a couple of services that can match Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses to physical locations. But the technique isn't exactly iron-clad. Routing traffic through a server in some other country, for example, can throw these programs off the trail.

N. Korea missiles tested are quantum leap: US general
Missiles test-fired by North Korea this week are "a quantum leap forward" from its previous weapons with greater reliability and precision, the commander of the U.S. military in South Korea said.
Speaking before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday in Washington, General B.B. Bell said North Korea was also moving ahead with the development of longer-range ballistic missiles that could hit Alaska and targets in the continental United States.

Warning to N Korea over missiles

The US has urged North Korea to honour an agreement not to conduct missile tests, after it apparently fired two short-range missiles. The US said North Korea should abide by a moratorium on missile tests which had been agreed during talks last year. The firings on Wednesday came at a time of stalemate in negotiations aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear crisis.

Six blind men in a zoo: Aviation Week's mythical Blackstar
The pages of Aviation Week were filled with breathless prose about an amazing new aircraft. According to a reporter writing for the magazine, a top secret, highly advanced high-speed aircraft was spotted in flight by multiple observers. There was no official confirmation of its existence, but it was clearly the kind of highly advanced airplane that the government would not want anybody to know about. The article was accompanied by an artist's illustration of a sleek, bizarre-looking craft. Maybe you didn't read that article. It was published in Aviation Week in December 1958 ("Soviets Flight Testing Nuclear Bomber," December 1, 1958, p. 27) and referred to the Soviet atomic-powered bomber. Aviation Week (not yet "& Space Technology") ran both an editorial and an article about the supersecret airplane.

Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake?

SPACEPLANE SHELVED?
For 16 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has investigated myriad sightings of a two-stage-to-orbit system that could place a small military spaceplane in orbit. Considerable evidence supports the existence of such a highly classified system, and top Pentagon officials have hinted that it's "out there," but iron-clad confirmation that meets AW&ST standards has remained elusive. Now facing the possibility that this innovative "Blackstar" system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we've learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into "black world" history, known to only a few insiders. U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery. It could be a victim of shrinking federal budgets strained by war costs, or it may not have met performance or operational goals.


US Anti-Crop Bioweapons Plan Advances
US House Votes to Advance Offensive Biological Weapons Plan
In an titanic fit of myopia, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill that advances a US plan to wage biological warfare against Colombia and other countries where illicit narcotics are produced. If passed by the US Senate, the bill (HR 2829) will require the US Drug Czar to quickly formulate a plan to field test biological weapons designed to eradicate illicit crops. The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) prohibits all biological warfare, including attacks on crops. The BWC has no exemptions - not for the Drug War, nor for the US Congress. The US eradication project thus violates the BWC's Article I, which prohibits development and stockpiling of biological weapons. The Sunshine Project will call upon the BWC to prevent violation of the treaty by the United States. In April, the Sunshine Project will distribute an Agent Green dossier to governments attending a preparatory meeting for the BWC's upcoming 6th Review Conference. If the US bill is signed into law, the Sunshine Project will press for multilateral action by the BWC 6th Review Conference itself, when it meets in November.


Undersea Global Strike
The Pentagon has expressed the compelling need for one or more systems that achieve precision non-nuclear strike missions promptly against "time urgent targets" globally. Here precision means hitting the target with GPS-guided (or equivalent) accuracy, say a maximum miss of ten yards. Prompt means an extremely rapid cycle from receipt of intel on a target's location to munitions arriving to obliterate said target. ("Prompt" has been formally defined as one hour, so in this context it requires a weapon flight time of barely thirty minutes, even less.) Global means exactly that: the capacity to "reach out and touch someone" -- or some thing -- anywhere on Planet Earth.

Biscuits, Anyone?
"Press Office," chirped the Defense Department voice on the phone.
"Yes, good morning. My name is Bill Fisher. I write for TruthOut. I have a couple of questions about the Biscuit Program. Would you be able to help me?"
"What are Biscuits?" said a confused voice.
"They are military shorthand for Behavioral Science Consultation Teams," said I.


UAV Market To Reach 17Bn In Five Years
The US unmanned aerial systems (UAS) market has had considerable momentum due to recent operational successes and increasing mission roles. In addition, UAS market penetration in all four military services and the commercial sectors in surveillance and weaponized capabilities are driving growth.
"On the operational side, UA systems have received praise and support across several services and ranks," remarks Senior Industry Analyst Kathy Ellwood. "Testimonies have been documented from many levels regarding the benefits of UA systems in theaters. In fact, those accolades are usually followed by the desire for the delivery of more systems."

Ballistic Missile Numbers Fall Worldwide
The number of ballistic missiles in service has dropped drastically since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, StrategyPage.com reported Monday. Since then, the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, in service has been reduced by half from about 4,000 to about 2,000.

Signs Comment: Phew! There are only 2,000 ICBMs left. We feel a lot safer now...

US to test 700-tonne explosive
The US military plans to detonate a 700 tonne explosive charge in a test called "Divine Strake" that will send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, a senior defense official said. "I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," said James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Tegnelia said the test was part of a US effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.




Science and Technology

Cold Fusion: A Heated History
Bruce Gellerman continues his investigation into the future of fusion with a look at the latest research in the field of cold fusion, the science of creating a nuclear reaction at room temperature. Most scientists call sustained cold fusion reactions impossible, but others say their experiments are producing energy.

GREEN COMET
"Comet Pojmanski (C/2006 A1) has a bright green head," says Chris Schur who took this picture yesterday at dawn from Payson, Arizona. What makes a comet green? The atmosphere of the comet--called "the coma"--contains cyanogen (CN), a poisonous gas, and diatomic carbon (C2). Both of these substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight. See for yourself. Comet Pojmanski (5th magnitude) is an easy target for backyard telescopes. Look for it left of Venus in the early morning sky: MAP

Surprise! Jupiter Has A New Red Spot
Backyard astronomers, grab your telescopes. Jupiter is growing a new red spot. The official name of the new storm is "Oval BA," but "Red Jr." might be better. It's about half the size of the famous Great Red Spot and almost exactly the same color. Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller spots collided and merged. Using Hubble and other telescopes, astronomers watched with great interest. A similar merger that happened centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Spot, a storm twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old.

By Tony Phillips
Science.NASA.gov
13 March 2003
For more than a century astronomers thought that the Great Red Spot was the biggest thing on Jupiter. Not anymore. Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed something at least as large. The Great Dark Spot. "I was totally blown away when I saw it--a dark cloud twice as big as Earth swirling around Jupiter's north pole," says Bob West, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
23 October 2003
Astronomers have spotted a strange, obvious and inexplicable black spot near the equator of Jupiter. A picture of the object was circling this planet electronically this week as researchers scratched their heads about what they'd found.

Gigantic cosmic cataclysm in Stephan's Quintet of galaxies
Space and Earth science
March 03, 2006
Recent infrared observations made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have revealed the presence of a huge intergalactic shock wave, or "sonic boom" in the middle of Stephan's Quintet, a group of galaxies which is now the scene of a gigantic cosmic cataclysm. This discovery, made by an international research team including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg, provides a local view of what might have been going on in the early universe, when vast mergers and collisions between galaxies were commonplace.

Solar Wind Whips Up Auroral Storms On Jupiter And Saturn
ARTICLE WITHDRAWN DUE TO RELEASE EMBARGO
EMBARGOED FOR 00:01 BST, TUESDAY, 4 APRIL 2006 (19:01 EDT on Monday April 3, 2006)
SpaceDaily appologizes to all concerned with this news release. It was processed in error today and released ahead of it's official release date next Tuesday. Please do not distribute any cache copies of this article.

Signs Comment: This is a rather strange story to embargo. Coincidentally, we received the following e-mail this morning from a QFS member who has family in Denmark:
I managed to reach for a phone and make contact with Denmark.
I hear that yesterday on the tv news it was reported that the folks of a village/area named Skive swamped the weather center with reports of lights which apparantly looked like the Northern Lights and which was accompanied by rather loud bangs and so forth.
As this report was being given on the tv a sign came up on the screen which read "everything is normal" (alting er normalt).
Which is strange in itself...
The explanation given was that it was aircraft and there was no need to panic...
As if the Danes have never seen or heard a plane before...
I cant find anything on the net concerning this incident...
A few days ago, also in Denmark a strange phenomena looking like a cloud of white light, a bit chemtraily looking and issuing lightning was filmed and made an appearance on the weather part of the news...
Streaks in Saturn's rings point to tiny moons
Astronomers have found oddly shaped streaks in the rings of Saturn that suggest the presence of moonlets about 100 metres across.

Fireball reported in skies over Kanto

Astronomical observatories have received a number of reports of a fireball, described as flashing orange or blue, seen in the skies over the Kanto region around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Russian Telecom Satellite Fails After Sudden Impact

The Russian Satellite Communications Company's Express-AM11 telecommunications satellite suffered a sudden failure on Wednesday. "At present, providing services via the Express-AM11 satellite is impossible," the company said in a statement.
Telemetry showed the failure, which occurred at 6:55 a.m. Moscow Time, was caused by "a sudden external impact on the spacecraft," RSCC said in a statement.


Physicists Predict Stock Market Crashes
Physics
February 24, 2006
On Monday, October 19, 1987 – infamously known as "black Monday" – the Dow fell 508 points, or 22.9%, marking the largest crash in history. Using an analytical approach similar to the one applied to explore heart rate, physicists have discovered some unusual events preceding the crash. These findings may help economists in risk analysis and in predicting inevitable future crashes.

Olive oil fed 2000 BC foundries
Olive oil was used as fuel for foundries before it became one of the glories of the Mediterranean cuisine, Italian archaeologists believe.
A team from Rome has discovered that the Mediterranean's first foundries were fuelled by olive oil and not, as previously believed, by charcoal.


Human quadrupeds discovered in Turkey
The discovery of a Turkish family that walks on all fours could aid research into the evolution of humans.
Researchers believe the five brothers and sisters, who can walk naturally only on all fours, may provide new information on how humans evolved from four-legged hominids to walk upright.


Digital Hype
As each new season brings more waves of higher-tech digital products, I often think of Mark Twain. Along with being a brilliant writer, he was also an ill-fated investor -- fascinated with the latest technical innovations, including the strides toward functional typewriters and typesetting equipment as the 19th century neared its close. Twain would have marveled at the standard PC that we take for granted now. But what would he have made of the intrusiveness of present-day media technology -- let alone its recurring content?

Biometrics unreliable, says EU privacy head
European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx criticized governments' fondness for biometrics to identify citizens and warned that greater interoperability of databases may have serious implications for people. In response to a recent communication by the European Union on the interoperability of several databases, including the Visa Information System and Eurodac, Hustinx issued an opinion calling for a better analysis of the data protection implications.

Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story
Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.

Most Human Chimp Differences Due To Gene Regulation Not Genes

The vast differences between humans and chimpanzees are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes themselves, researchers from Yale, the University of Chicago, and the Hall Institute in Parkville, Victoria, Australia, argue in the 9 March 2006 issue of the journal Nature.


Poll: Most people reject evolution theory

A Gallup Poll released Wednesday suggests about 53 percent of Americans rejects the theory of evolution as the explanation for the origin of humans.

Polish archaeologist unearths Europe's most ancient graves

Five of Europe's most ancient graves, dating back 10,000 years, have been unearthed in the village of Dwreca, central Poland.
Archaeologist Marian Marciniak found the graves on the site of ancient post-glacial dunes, the Rzeczpospolita daily reported. In them, a young woman, believed aged 18 to 21, was put to rest with a baby, a child aged 5 to 7 and another aged 7 to 11. An adult male found at the site was buried sitting upright, as if on a throne or chair.

Cassini Detects Backward Electrons On Saturn

An international research team has discovered electrons in Saturn's magetic field that are accelerating backwards - moving away from the ringed planet instead of toward it.


Astronomers Find Part-Time Pulsar

Astronomers have discovered a very strange pulsar that transmits its radio signal only part of the time. The astronomers, using the 76-meter (247-foot) Lovell radio telescope at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, found that the pulsar also seems to slow its rate of rotation by 50 percent when it is "on," compared to when it is "off."


Cosmic 'eel' preys on spiral galaxy

A giant space "eel" appears to be chasing after a spiral galaxy in this newly released image from the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile. The eel is actually a type of small, isolated cloud of gas and dust, called a cometary globule because of its resemblance to a comet. Called CG4, it lies about 1300 light years from Earth towards the constellation Puppis, at the stern of the ship of the Argonauts (a former constellation called Argo Navis).

Sandias Z Machine Exceeds Two Billion Degrees Kelvin

Sandia's Z machine has produced plasmas that exceed temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin -- hotter than the interiors of stars. The unexpectedly hot output, if its cause were understood and harnessed, could eventually mean that smaller, less costly nuclear fusion plants would produce the same amount of energy as larger plants.

Shanghai Launches Clean Electricity Scheme
Shanghai residents can for the first time buy "clean power" after solar and wind-generated electricity was this week included in the Chinese city's power grid, the firm behind the project said Wednesday. The project by Shanghai Municipal Electricity Power company is aimed at cleaning up Shanghai's polluted environment, company spokesman Yu Qinde said.

Water plumes spewing from 'ice volcano' seen on a moon of Saturn
An unusual "ice volcano" on Enceladus, one of the many moons of Saturn, appears to be spewing out plumes of water, Nasa scientists report.
The Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, has taken images of bizarre volcanic features at the moon's southern pole which could indicate bodies of liquid water on the otherwise frozen satellite.

'Mental typewriter' controlled by thought alone
A computer controlled by the power of thought alone has been demonstrated at a major trade fair in Germany. The device could provide a way for paralysed patients to operate computers, or for amputees to operate electronically controlled artificial limbs. But it also has non-medical applications, such as in the computer games and entertainment industries.
 
Signs Comment: What the users of this technology won't know is that it is two way....

How do animals migrate without getting lost?

Is it by smell, sight - or via a cosmic 'elastic band'? The tiny Arctic tern flies 14,000 miles from the Farne Islands to Australia when it is three months old. In the course of its life, a Manx shearwater will travel 5,000,000 miles. A baby turtle will cross the Atlantic and end up in the same spot off Florida 10 years later. But how do these migrating creatures navigate? Harry Marshall, producer of Paranormal Pigeons, due to be screened on Five in May, says pigeons are "the key to unlocking this mystery". They are able to return to their lofts even when they've been released in an unfamiliar location hundreds of miles away, yet scientists have failed to agree on a reason why.

Ancient Sarcophagus Unearthed in Cyprus
A 2,500-year-old sarcophagus with vivid color illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archaeologists said Monday.
Construction workers found the limestone sarcophagus last week in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, in the coastal Paphos area. The tomb, which probably belonged to an ancient warrior, had been looted during antiquity.


Warbling Whales Speak A Language All Their Own
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours.
Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published online in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, offers a new approach to studying animal communication, although the authors do not claim that humpback whale songs meet the linguistic rigor necessary for a true language.


NASA Reinstates Dawn Asteroid Mission

NASA officials announced Monday that the agency has decided to reinstate the Dawn mission, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids that had been canceled earlier this month because of technical problems and cost overruns.


Moon To Sweep Through The Pleiades

A special celestial event to watch is coming up on Saturday evening, April 1, 2006, for anyone who lives in the eastern or central part of North America. That evening, if the sky is clear, you can watch the waxing Moon eclipse, or "occult," a number of stars in the Pleiades cluster in the western sky during and after dusk.


World Prepares for Total Solar Eclipse

Tourists and scientists were gathering at spots around the world for the first total eclipse in years, a solar show that will sweep northeast from Brazil to Mongolia and blot out the sun across swathes of the world's poorest lands.
The last such eclipse in November 2003 was most visible from Antarctica, said Alex Young, a NASA scientist involved in solar research. Wednesday's eclipse will block the sun in highly populated areas, including West Africa. NASA said it won't be visible from the United States.

Cool Nanotechnology

Huge reductions in heating bills, safer surgery and the next generation of miniaturised computers are among the potential benefits of new nanotechnology developed at Leeds.
By suspending nanoparticles in water or other liquids, Professor Richard Williams and Dr Yulong Ding have created 'nanofluids' which can transfer heat up to 400% faster than other liquids. In a central heating system, nanofluids could increase efficiency without the need to use a more powerful pump, so saving energy and providing major environmental benefits.





Health and Pestilence

UN says risks unknown after German cat catches H5N1 bird flu
The World Health Organization said the threat to people is unknown but appears small after H5N1 bird flu infected a German cat, heightening fears of a future human pandemic.


German pet owners advised to take precautions after cat dies of bird flu
German officials warned cat owners yesterday not to sleep accompanied by their pets, and to keep them indoors, following confirmation that a cat has died of the H5N1 avian flu virus. The cat was found at the weekend on the Baltic island of Rügen, near to where most of Germany's 121 cases of H5N1-infected wild birds have been found. Tests carried out on the animal by scientists at Germany's Friedrich-Loeffler institute confirmed H5N1, probably from having eaten infected birds.

Officials try to hunt down source of bird flu

Illegal poultry imports may be to blame for introducing bird flu to Nigeria, officials said on Thursday, while U.S. agencies said they were struggling to plug gaps in global efforts to detect and contain the virus.


Say goodbye to cheap chicken
DISASTER is looming for Europe's poultry. The European Union has just had its first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in poultry, on a turkey farm in eastern France. It is unlikely to be the last. The virus has now been found in wild birds across Europe, and as spring migrants arrive from Africa virologists predict it could become endemic in European wild birds within two months. Though effective vaccines exist to protect domestic birds from H5N1, the EU is refusing to allow their general use. Officials say that vaccination just masks the spread of the virus, making it diffcult to monitor and contain. If this policy continues, it will mean that any bird flu outbreak within the EU will have to be handled by culling infected animals and those nearby.

Four new cases of bird flu reported in Switzerland
With the discovery of four new cases of H5 bird flu, the total number of bird flu cases in Switzerland rose to 11 on Sunday.
The latest H5 cases were all found in the northeastern region of the country, involving two ducks and a coot in canton Thurgau and another coot in canton Zurich.

Poland confirms presence of H5 bird flu virus in dead swans

Poland on Sunday confirmed the presence of the H5 bird flu virus in two dead swans, but said further tests are needed to determine whether it is the lethal H5N1.
Agriculture Minister Krzysztof Jurgiel told a press conference that further tests will be conducted in the European Union reference laboratory in Britain and the result is expected next week.

Bird flu in cats sparks WHO fears

Avian flu extended its spread across Europe as Poland confirmed on Monday that two dead swans had the virulent H5N1 virus and Austria reported that several cats had been infected.

For First Time, Flu Spreads From Birds

Three cats have tested positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in Austria's first reported case of the disease spreading to an animal other than a bird, state authorities said Monday.
The sick cats were among 170 living at an animal shelter where the disease was detected in chickens last month, authorities said. The World Health Organization called bird flu a greater global challenge than any previous infectious disease, costing global agriculture more than $10 billion and affecting the livelihoods of 300 million farmers.

H5N1 bird flu reaches Poland, experts fear pandemic
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu swept into Poland, a laboratory confirmed, as world health experts prepared for a feared mutation of the virus that could kill millions. Tests on two swans in Poland confirmed the presence of disease, which has killed at least 94 people since 2003 as it raced through Asia, then into Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "Yes, we have confirmed that it is definitely H5N1," said Poland's national Pulawy laboratory deputy director laboratory Jan Zmudzinksi.

China's latest bird flu death adds to worries for HK

China's latest human death from bird flu is causing alarm in Hong Kong because it is the first in a Chinese urban area and the victim probably caught the virus from supposedly healthy poultry, the city's health minister said on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old man fell ill after visiting a live poultry market several times to conduct research in southern Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong. He died last Thursday, the ninth person to die of bird flu in China.

Indonesian boy becomes latest suspected bird flu death
A four-year-old boy has become the sixth person in Indonesia feared to be infected with the H5N1 strain of avian flu to have died in the last eight days, health workers have said. The boy died Monday at the state-run Sayidiman Hospital in Magetan, East Java, less than 10 minutes after arriving, Sudarsih, a nurse, told AFP.

New fears as Chinese man dies of bird flu

Health officials in China were yesterday investigating a man's death from bird flu in a province where no poultry outbreaks have been reported since 2004. The development came as the World Health Organisation warned that the outbreak in poultry in recent years was unprecedented and posed a greater challenge than any previous emerging infectious disease.

Girl dies of bird flu in China, UN ups campaign

A nine-year-old girl has died of bird flu in China, state media said on Wednesday, as the United Nations stepped up efforts to battle the rapidly spreading virus.
The girl, China's 10th known death from bird flu, died on Monday night in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Bird Flu Virus May Infect One Third of World's Population - Russian Expert

One-third of the world's population might become infected with bird flu in a short period of time, Director of the Russian Academy of Science's Virology Research Institute Dmitry Lvov said, according to Interfax. "Any pandemic (flu) virus appears as a result of crossing between a human virus and a bird virus. A highly pathogenic monster emerges and it can affect up to one-third of the world's population in a short period of time," he said.

Bird flu risk to humans higher in Europe, spreading across globe

A German minister claimed that deadly bird flu was moving closer to infecting humans in Europe after two more cats died of the virus, while China reported its 10th human fatality.
And Albania became the latest European country to report an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain, as international veterinary experts warned that the United States, Canada and Australia will probably not escape the ever-spreading disease.


Bird flu scare crashes chicken prices by 60%

A day after bird flu cases were reported from Nandurbar and Dhule districts, sale of chicken and poultry products in the city witnessed a sharp drop of 60-70 per cent. Though most of the traders refused to comment on the decline, some pointed out that customers stayed away from poultry products as they were waiting for a clear picture to emerge on the situation.
Small time poultry farm owners are the worst-affected as the rates dropped from Rs 35 per kg to Rs 28 per kg. ''Traders did not pick up our stock on Saturday night as they feared that rates would crash more. Farmers are facing a huge loss now as people are not willing to buy,'' Ganesh Moze, who runs a chicken farm in Lohegaon, said.

Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?
No sooner are indictments being handed down to Scooter Libby, the Chief of Staff of the Vice President of the United States for lies and coverup of information used deliberately to suppress the fact the Bush Administration had no 'smoking gun' to prove Saddam Hussein was building a nuclear arsenal, but a new scandal is surfacing every bit as outrageous and ultimately, likely also criminal.

Avian Flu Epidemic Scare is a Hoax
"If you have been viewing the media you must have seen the scare the media and the president are seeking to orchestrate on you and the public. According to a draft of the government's plan to fight a potentially cataclysmic pandemic this new avian super-flu could kill nearly TWO MILLION Americans. But I nearly fell out of my seat in the airplane as I was flying back from a conference in Ft. Lauderdale when I read that in the BEST-case scenario, only 200,000 people might die. Then they post the frightening picture from the 1918 flu epidemic to heighten the fear. It just amazes me how they can get away with this type of reporting that is so obviously manipulated by the government and drug companies to scare you into taking the flu vaccine.

BIRD FLY? PHOOEY!
A nonexistent flu virus now tops the "worry meter" at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control. Bird flu now tops the agenda at DHHS with Secretary Tommy Thompson holding regular briefings on fighting this pandemic threat to the world as America's healthcare industry rushes to stockpile enough H5N1 vaccine to inoculate America's at risk flu population. So how many vials of bird flu vaccine will the government need to cover this pandemic threat? Maybe one. Perhaps two.

ELIMINATING BIRD FLU FEARS
10 Facts You Need to Know
The concerns about avian influenza, a.k.a. bird flu, seem to have the entire world in an uproar. More than 150 million domestic ducks and chickens have been sacrificed throughout Southeast Asia, China, Russia and Eastern Europe in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Billions of dollars are being allocated to the development of a new "pandemic" vaccine and the stockpiling of two drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, which are touted to "treat" the infection. The hysteria in the United States has risen to the point where President George Bush allocated resources toward preparing to use the military to enforce quarantines and perhaps even to enforce mandatory vaccination.

Bush's Fowl Play
In a classic case of News of the Weird, President Bush gave a press conference the other day to announce yet another central plan to deal with yet another disaster - this time an impending disaster, or so he claimed. It seems that some birds are catching a flu called Avian Influenza or, more commonly, the bird flu. It causes ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production. It can kill a chicken in two days flat. Scary.

Mass slaughter of fowl in India after bird flu outbreak reported
Wearing protective gloves and masks, health officials and farm workers slaughtered thousands of chickens in western India Sunday, a day after the country reported its first outbreak of bird flu.
Meanwhile, local officials in the Surat district near the affected area reported that a 27-year-old poultry farm owner died of bird-flu-like symptoms. However, tests had yet to confirm this. Scientists were testing several people in the area who have signs of the virus. "At this juncture we can only suspect that the cause of his death could be bird flu. But we can confirm only after his blood report comes from the laboratory," Surat district officer Vatsala Vasudev told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Expect H5N1 virus in North America soon: UN

The dangerous H5N1 form of the bird flu virus could reach North America within six to 12 months, according to the United Nations' top avian flu preparedness official.

Australia given bird flu warning

Australia, Canada and the US stand a "very high" risk of the bird flu pandemic reaching their shores, the World Organisation for Animal Health has warned.
"The probability of this strain appearing in Australia is very high. The possibility is also very high for the United States and Canada," the organisation's director-general, Bernard Vallat, told a French parliamentary commission on the disease.

Bird Flu Damages EU Economies
Bird flu is spreading its ugly wings over Western Europe, causing its first noticeable damage to national economies. Just as the average American does not want to miss out on burgers and good cut of steak, life, for many French, is incomplete without some "poulet roti" (roast chicken) or "foie gras" (duck paté).


Flu fears prompts calls for masks
PEOPLE who suspect they may have flu are being urged to wear surgical-type masks this winter, as NSW health officials try to build the public's familiarity with infection control measures that may be needed in the event of a bird flu pandemic. The Health Department's director of communicable disease, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said those who went to a GP or emergency department because they thought they might have flu should consider wearing a mask.

Russia says bird flu may hit US in autumn, mutate
The deadly bird flu virus, which has hit Asia, Europe and Africa, may spread to the United States late this year and risks mutating dangerously there, Russia's top animal and plant health inspector said on Thursday.
"We think that H5N1 (strain of bird flu virus) will reach the United States in autumn," Sergei Dankvert told Reuters. "This is very realistic. We may be almost certain this will happen after this strain is found in Great Britain, before autumn, as migrating birds will carry it to the United States from there." He said there was also an opportunity of the virus spreading by fowl migrating from Siberia's Tyumen region to Alaska and mixing there with birds flying to Canada and to other parts of the United States.


Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.

Lethal bird flu confirmed in Israeli kibbutzim; flocks to be killed
The Health Ministry confirmed on Friday that the virus responsible for the recent deaths of approximately 11,000 turkeys at the southern kibbutzim of Holit and Ein Hashlosha was indeed the H5 strain. The same strain was identified at Kibbutz Nachshon near Beit Shemesh, following an unusual amount of poultry deaths. Three people from Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, who worked at the chicken coops, were sent to Soroka Hospital under suspicion that they contracted the deadly bird flu strain. One of them, a Thai worker was held in isolation.

Avian flu confirmed in two more locations in south
The Agriculture Ministry confirmed Monday afternoon that avian flu has been detected in two more locations in Israel, bringing the number of sites at which the disease has been found to six. Suspicions that the virus had reached Kibbutz Nir Oz and Moshav Amei Oz, both in southern Israel, were raised when dead turkeys were found at both locations, and the presence of the virus was confirmed Monday.

Second Human Bird Flu Case Found in Egypt

Egypt reported its second human case of avian flu Sunday, and Israel continued its slaughter of hundreds of thousands of birds while waiting to learn if the disease had spread to poultry there.
A 30-year-old Egyptian who worked on a chicken farm in the province of Qalyoubiya was the second person infected by the virus in Egypt, the Health Ministry said Sunday.

Renowned Bird Flu Expert Warns 50% Could Die

"Society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die. And I think we have to face that possibility," Webster said. "I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role.

Blame 'Big Chicken' for Bird Flu

Chicken never has been cheaper. A whole one can be bought for little more than the price of a cup of coffee from Starbucks. But the industrial farming methods that make ever-cheaper chicken possible also may have created the lethal strain of bird flu virus, H5N1, that threatens to set off a global pandemic. According to University of Ottawa flu virologist Earl Brown, lethal bird flu is entirely man-made, first evolving in commercially produced poultry in Italy in 1878. The highly pathogenic H5N1 is descended from a strain that first appeared in Scotland in 1959.

Infected Planet- Modern human plagues like bird flu aren't the result of mysterious forces. Whether we mean to or not, we bring them on ourselves.
When Michael Crichton's first novel, "The Andromeda Strain," was published in 1969, it was scary but also strangely reassuring. If some new disease were to threaten humanity with a deadly pandemic, it seemed, the microbe responsible would come from another planet. The march of medical progress appeared to have terrestrial germs on the run. Twenty-five years later, when Laurie Garrett published her nonfiction bestseller, "The Coming Plague," people were waking up to the fact that our own abused planet is perfectly capable of spawning a steady stream of new diseases without any help from alien worlds.

Scientific jury still out on prospects of avian flu pandemic

Scientists are divided about whether sporadic cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu in humans means a global pandemic is nearing. The human health impact of H5N1 has been minimal, compared to killers like malaria and AIDS.

Bird flu virus 'now in two forms'

The H5N1 virus responsible for the current virulent strain of bird flu has evolved into two genetically distinct strains, US scientists have confirmed.

Bird flu discovered in Gaza Strip
Initial tests on dead chickens suggest the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread to the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian officials have said.

Bird flu confirmed in West Bank

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus has been found in poultry in a Jewish settlement the West Bank, the Israeli agriculture ministry has said.

Clue to slow human bird flu jump
Scientists believe they may have discovered a reason why the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus cannot yet jump easily between humans.

Bird flu hits third Indian state
Authorities in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh will slaughter 7,000 chickens after identifying a case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.
A senior official said that one sample of tests on poultry in the state's Ichapur area had tested positive.


Bird flu expected to hit West Coast by summer
California officials expect bird flu to arrive on the U.S. West Coast this summer in what could be the first sign in the United States of the deadly virus, which has already swept from Asia across Europe and down to Africa. "The H5N1 virus in birds is expected in the next couple of months in the United States," California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe told reporters on Thursday at a state bird flu pandemic preparedness meeting. Officials said the virus was likely to be carried into either the east or west coast of the United States by migrating birds starting their journeys south, either from Alaska on the Pacific Flyway, or the Atlantic Flyway on the other side of North American continent.
They said some 60,000 birds, mostly waterfowl, would begin their migration south from Alaska in mid-August, working their way down through Oregon, Washington and into California.


FDA Shields Drug Companies From Lawsuits
Last month, the FDA revealed its latest protective policy for drug companies in a statement that said people who believe they have been injured by drugs approved by the FDA should not be allowed to sue drug companies in state courts.

Big Food's Bad Idea
By Jason Mark, AlterNet. Posted March 8, 2006.
The food lobby is quietly pushing a bill that would set a single national set of food labeling rules -- and eliminate local control over food safety disclosures.

German firm says sorry as drug trial victims fight for life

A German drug company said it has apologised to the families of six men who were in hospital, two badly deformed and fighting for their lives, after a clinical trial in London went horribly wrong.
Thomas Hanke, chief scientific officer at TeGenero, also insisted that the trial to test a medicine for immunological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and certain cancers had met regulatory standards. But senior doctors told The Times newspaper that the test at a research unit operated by US company Parexel International had failed to conform to best medical practices.

Jordan confirms first cases of bird flu

Jordan has reported its first cases of bird flu after a few turkeys died on a poultry farm, but it says the deadly disease has not spread to any farm workers who came into contact with the birds. Jordan's Health Ministry announced the cases on Friday, saying tests have confirmed that the strain is H5N1. The farm is north of the capital Amman.

Russian Communist leader sees U.S. behind bird flu outbreak
Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov has blamed the United States for the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu, in a number of European countries, including Russia. "The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has yet died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries. This makes one seriously wonder why," Zyuganov said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday. Zyuganov said that he has good knowledge of war gases as he dealt with them during his army service. "I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he said. Asked to be more precise as to whether he believes the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov answered positively. "I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here," he said.

Signs Comment: But of course, he's a commie, so no need to give his claims any credit at all, he obviously has an agenda...then again, who doesn't have an agenda these days. Question is, could there be someone with an agenda to kill off a large percentage of the human race?
Flashback! Ethnic Weapons For Ethnic Cleansing
Greg Bishop
March 2000

[T]his "theoretical possibility" was recognized over 25 years ago, if not before. It was originally brought to the attention of potential customers with the publication of an article in the Military Review of November 1970.

This journal for command-level military personnel was published by the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The feature, entitled "Ethnic Weapons," authored by Carl A. Larson, outlines the history, desirability, and possibilities of engineered biological pathogens which would affect only those races which historically have no natural defense against certain "enzyme inhibitors."

Larson is listed as head of the "Department of Human Genetics at the Institute of Genetics, Lund, Sweden" as well as a licensed physician. The Hippocratic oath was apparently not administered in Sweden when Larson received his accreditation.

Larson explains that many of the chemical activities and functions within the human body are caused by the interactions of enzymes. One of the more significant activities enabled by enzyme chemical reactions are the contraction and relaxation of muscle tissue. If the activities of these enzymes are blocked, the victim will be paralyzed, even to the point of death by asphyxiation.

Not coincidentally, the enzyme-blocking action of compounds called organophosphates were discovered in Germany in the 1930s when experimental insecticides killed the people unlucky enough to have used them. This discovery led to the mass production of a substance named "Trilon," later used to impressive effect in the extermination of groups of people the Nazis considered little more than insects. This substance and others of similar makeup became known as "nerve gas.


Flashback! Israel planning 'ethnic' bomb as Saddam caves in
The London Times
November 15 1998

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources. The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks.

A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of Semitic origin. But he added: "They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people."


Flashback! Microbiologists With Link to Race-Based Weapon Turning Up Dead
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Gordon Thomas

Dr. David Kelly-the biological warfare weapons specialist at the heart of the continuing political crisis for the British government-had links to three other top microbiologists whose deaths have left unanswered questions.

The 59-year-old British scientist was involved with ultra secret work at Israel's Institute for Biological Re search. Israeli sources claim Kelly met institute scientists several times in London in the past two years....
Marital Spats Raise Risk of Heart Attack
Fighting with the one you love can leave you broken-hearted, a feeling that now appears to be more than just figurative. Marital spats and dominating behavior are related to hardening of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. Clogged arteries raise the risk of a heart attack. A study in December found wounds heal more slowly in people who fight with their spouses.

By Robin Lloyd
Special to LiveScience
posted: 26 December 2005
The legend of the hard-hearted woman has gone to our heads, and that's probably bad for everyone's health. Women with heart disease discount the severity of their problem compared to men with the exact same cardiac symptoms and conditions, new research shows. Among surveys given to 490 patients treated for a heart attack or severe chest pain at the University of Michigan between 1999 and 2002, 348 men and 142 women ranked the seriousness of their disease the same. But in fact, the women had much worse disease, took more medicines and suffered more serious symptoms and limitations on their daily lives. These results, published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Medicine, were no surprise to study co-author Kim Eagle, clinical director of the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center. "My female patients with heart disease are often more concerned about their spouses, children, and grandchildren, than they are about their own health," Eagle told LiveScience.

Study: Lifting Weights Slims Down Belly

By just lifting weights twice a week for an hour, women can battle the buildup of tummy fat that often takes hold with aging, a new study suggests. And they didn't even diet.
The study focused on intra-abdominal fat, the deep fat that wraps itself around organs and is the most unhealthy because it's linked with heart disease.

Ouch! Why Women Feel More Pain

Women feel more pain than men, studies have shown. New research reveals one reason why. Women have more nerve receptors, which causes them to feel pain more intensely than men, according to a report in the October issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. On average, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin. Men average just 17.

Why We Have Sex: It's Cleansing

Scientists have long wondered why organisms bother with sexual reproduction. It makes a whole lot more sense to just have a bunch of females that can clone themselves, which is how asexual reproduction works. Turns out sex might have evolved as a way to concentrate lots of harmful mutations into individual organisms so they could be easily weeded out by natural selection, a new computer model suggests.

Mom's Genetics Could Produce Gay Sons

The arrangement of a mother's genes could affect the sexual orientation of her son, according to a new study. The finding, detailed in the February issue of the journal Human Genetics, adds fuel to the decade-long debate about whether so-called "gay genes" might exist. The researchers examined a phenomenon called "X chromosome inactivation" in 97 mothers of gay sons and 103 mothers whose sons were not gay.

This is your life (if you are a woman)
1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women
A baby girl born in the UK is likely to live to 81 - but if she is born in Swaziland, she is likely to die at 39
70% of the 1.2 bn people living in poverty are women and children


More obese kids predicted
There will be more obese children all around the world by the end of the decade, the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity says.

Anti-Depressants Double Suicidal Thoughts And Actions In Children
Antidepressants appear to double the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions in children who take them, US regulators said in a study outlining the methodology used for a 2004 report that led to warnings on drugs including Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac and GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil. The Food and Drug Administration first presented the findings, detailed yesterday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, to an advisory panel in September 2004. The agency followed with a requirement that makers of antidepressants warn patients and doctors. The warning led to a 20 percent drop in antidepressant prescriptions for children between March 2004 and June 2005, according to Psychiatric News, the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association.


Dana Reeve death draws attention to lung cancer
The death of Dana Reeve, widow of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, has drawn new attention to a disease the kills around 19,000 Canadians every year. Reeve passed away Monday at the age of 44. She had been battling lung cancer despite never having smoked, nor having been exposed to second-hand smoke.

Stuffing Our Kids So They Can Die First
There's a global epidemic going on and we're not paying it much effective attention. By 2010 almost half the children of North and South America will be overweight. So will one in five in China and 38 percent of all children in the European Union. Nor are children in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Egypt exempt. Obesity rates in those countries are comparable to those of fully industrialized nations.

US cigarette sales drop to 55-year low
The number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 fell to the lowest level in 55 years largely due to enforcement of marketing restrictions imposed on the tobacco industry, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) said on Wednesday. According to federal tobacco tax figures, cigarettes sales slid 4.2 percent from 2004 levels in the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999, the group said in a statement.
The attorneys general said 378 billion cigarettes were sold in the United States in 2005, the lowest number since 1951.


Key to Strong Memory in Old Age: Just Believe
"Our study shows that the more you believe there are things you can do to remember information, the more likely you will be to use effort and adaptive strategies and to allocate resources effectively, and the less you will worry about forgetting," she said.

Nipple piercing may have caused fatal infection in Newfoundland 17-year-old
A 17-year-old Newfoundland girl is believed to have died from toxic shock syndrome - and the infection that killed her may have resulted from a nipple piercing, the province's chief medical examiner says. Dr. Simon Avis said in an interview from St. John's that the teenage girl, who died Thursday, had been admitted to hospital earlier this week "with medical problems that were quite complex." Her name has not been released.

The Science Of Sexual Orientation
There are few issues as hotly contested - and as poorly understood - as the question of what makes a person gay or straight. It's not only a political, social, and religious question but also a scientific question, one that might someday have an actual, provable answer. The handful of scientists who work in this under-funded and politically charged field will tell you: That answer is a long way off. But as Lesley Stahl reports, their efforts are already yielding tantalizing clues. One focus of their research is twins.

Up in Smoke: Marijuana Toasts Memory

If you can't remember the headline of this article or are already struggling to recall some of the words at the beginning of the story, try hard to recall how much pot you smoked in your youth. A new study finds those who've used a lot of marijuana have worse memories and don't think as quickly. It's not the first study to suggest pot hurts memory, but the findings are stark.

Bizarre events linked to sleeping pills in US
Strange behavior by insomniacs taking prescription drugs, ranging from binge eating to having sex while asleep, have raised safety questions about anti-insomnia medications like Sanofi-Aventis' Ambien.
Researchers in Minnesota are studying cases where insomniacs taking Ambien got up in the middle of the night, binged uncontrollably, then remembered nothing of their actions. The researchers expect to publish data shortly.

Hot pepper kills prostate cancer cells in study
Capsaicin, which makes peppers hot, can cause prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.


Naturally Fluoridated Water May Harm Teeth
The high levels of fluoride that occur naturally in some drinking water can cause tooth and bone damage and should be reduced, the National Research Council said yesterday. The study did not analyze the benefits or risks of adding fluoride to drinking water. Instead, it looked at the current maximum limit of 4 milligrams per liter. Approximately 200,000 people live in communities where that level occurs naturally in water.

Pill-Popping Society Fouling Our Water, Official Says
Birth control pills, cancer drugs and a host of other pharmaceuticals that people flush down the drain every day are showing up in our drinking water, says Gord Miller, Ontario's environmental commissioner. "We need to do a better job of keeping drugs out of lakes, rivers and drinking water," Miller told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record on Wednesday. Although the drugs are not considered a threat to human health, there is evidence that they can harm wildlife. "There is no health hazard in drinking water now that has been detected in Canada, but we have detected substances in drinking water," he said, adding that the problem is likely to get worse rather than better as the population grows. "Our society loves to pop pills," Miller said. "If you were designing the perfect pollutant it would probably look like a pill." Miller was sworn in as environmental commissioner six years ago to oversee the implementation of Ontario's Environmental Bill of Rights. He is an independent officer of Queen's Park, where he reports on government compliance with environmental rules. In his last annual report, Miller said contraceptives, painkillers, antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs and blood-pressure drugs are showing up in lakes and rivers, while anti-inflammatory and anti-cholesterol drugs and antidepressants are ending up in drinking water.

Smart Kids' Brains May Mature Later
Very smart children may seem advanced in many ways, but a new study shows they actually lag behind other kids in development of the "thinking" part of the brain.
The brain's outer mantle, or cortex, gets thicker and then thins during childhood and the teen years. The study found that in kids with superior intelligence, the cortex reaches its thickest stage a few years later than in other children. Nobody knows what causes that or how it relates to superior intelligence. But researchers said the finding does not rule out a role for environment - such as intellectual stimulation - in affecting a child's level of intelligence.


Answer to AIDS Mystery Found Behind Bars
It is one of the most puzzling mysteries of the AIDS epidemic: Why did blacks, in little more than a dozen years, become nine times as likely as whites to contract a disease once associated almost exclusively with gay white men? Two researchers say they found the answer in an unlikely place: prison.

N.C. Woman Dies of Flesh-Eating Bacteria

North Carolina health officials are investigating the death of a woman who died last week of a flesh-eating bacteria three days after accidentally jamming her hand in a wheelchair while working at a nursing home. Nursing assistant Sharron Bishop, 44, died Feb. 27. A doctor said a rare flesh-eating bacteria may have entered her body through a thumb injury and she turned from healthy to fatally ill.


Virulent new strain of tuberculosis sparks alert
A STRAIN of tuberculosis that resists almost all of the drugs used to fight it is appearing around the world, including the US, the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have warned.

Mysterious ailment in Chechnya is blamed on mass hysteria- Not everyone buys regime's explanation linking illness to effects of war on children.
Most doctors now believe the whole episode was sparked by the extreme and chronic levels of stress among children who have experienced a war with Moscow that lasted more than 10 years.

This Essay Breaks the Law
The Earth revolves around the Sun.
• The speed of light is a constant.
• Apples fall to earth because of gravity.
• Elevated blood sugar is linked to diabetes.
• Elevated uric acid is linked to gout.
• Elevated homocysteine is linked to heart disease.
• Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.
ACTUALLY, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use.

Chernobyl disaster linked to higher rate of infant mortality in Britain
The debate over the health effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Britain reopens today with research which suggests that infant deaths were higher in areas where rain fell as the plume of fallout passed overhead.




Environment/Climate Change

Pulse reveals beating heart of a supervolcano
"I DON'T think visitors appreciate that they're standing directly on top of the largest, most dynamic magmatic system on the planet," says geologist Daniel Dzurisin. While the supervolcano that is Yellowstone National Park won't be erupting any time soon, he and his colleagues have uncovered a surprising source of volcanic activity beneath tourists' feet, which was probably the reason trails had to be closed in 2003.

Global warming bubbles up from the ocean

Around 15 per cent of today's global warming is down to methane, but where does all this gas come from? Some at least could be bubbling up from an unlikely source - deep-sea volcanoes. Until now, such volcanoes were thought to be a negligible source of atmospheric methane because everyone assumed the gas would oxidise long before it reached the surface. However, research on Håkon Mosby, a mud volcano 1250 metres down in the Norwegian Sea, has overturned this assumption.

Yellowstone Volcano Grows as Geysers Reawaken
Forces brewing deep beneath Yellowstone National Park could be making one of the largest volcanoes on Earth even bigger, a new study reveals.
In the past decade, part of the volcano has risen nearly five inches, most likely due to a backup of flowing molten rock miles below the planet's crust. While the rise may not be noticeable to the casual hiker, the activity may have cracked the crust in the park's famous Norris Geyser Basin (NGB), leading to the formation of new fumaroles-holes that vent smoke and gas-and the reawakening of some of the area's geysers, including Steamboat, the largest geyser in the world. Yellowstone last erupted about 640,000 years ago, spewing 240 cubic miles of material. Despite the newly discovered activity, researchers don't expect it to erupt any time soon. Eventually, however, it could explode again as a super-volcano that would destroy life for hundreds of miles around and coat the entire country in ash.

Rock 'n Roll! Earthquake Swarm in the Virgin Islands

3.6 2006/03/03 14:36:36 19.113 -63.991 5.0 55 km ( 34 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
4.4 2006/03/03 13:09:31 19.060 -63.681 39.3 77 km ( 48 mi) ENE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
3.8 2006/03/03 10:07:34 19.160 -63.900 15.5 65 km ( 40 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
3.8 2006/03/03 09:53:32 19.257 -63.597 21.7 96 km ( 60 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
3.7 2006/03/03 03:39:31 19.122 -63.931 8.3 60 km ( 37 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
3.8 2006/03/02 23:51:35 19.147 -63.803 5.0 71 km ( 44 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
3.7 2006/03/02 23:45:36 19.139 -63.791 15.1 72 km ( 45 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
5.3 2006/03/02 23:35:44 19.358 -63.787 24.8 89 km ( 56 mi) NE of Settlement, British Virgin Islands
3.3 2006/03/02 08:25:53 19.427 -68.082 43.7 111 km ( 69 mi) NE of Higüey, Dominican Republic
3.4 2006/03/01 12:38:24 18.855 -68.701 58.2 26 km ( 16 mi) N of Higüey, Dominican Republic
3.2 2006/03/01 06:44:57 18.084 -67.878 101.2 72 km ( 45 mi) WSW of Stella, PR
3.2 2006/03/01 01:35:28 18.135 -64.249 5.0 30 km ( 19 mi) SSW of West End, British Virgin Islands

By Elaine Meinel Supkis
A mid-sized earthquake shook the Gulf of Mexico today. This is where it is geologically pretty stable. It is also right next to the huge salt domes where much of the oil and gas is being extracted. A retired geologist, Mr. Jack M. Reed, theorized there has to be a hidden tectonic plate segment in this spot and it is not only geologically active but is responsible for triggering the New Madrid Quakes. I found this after writing my article! It is just too cool. This geologist predicted correctly! From the American Association of Petroleum Geologists: The New Madrid seismic zone in Missouri has long intrigued scientists because, according to conventional geologic theory, large earthquakes clustered in a tectonically quiet region are difficult to understand. But at least one AAPG member is challenging the crowd. New Orleans independent geologist Jack M. Reed believes the origin of the earthquakes lies beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
State of emergency declared for Windward Oahu - Almost 23 inches of rain in 72 hours!
Over the 72-hour period ending at 5 a.m. today, Punaluu saw 22.84 inches of rain. Kahuku was not far behind at 12.26.

La Nina weather phenomenon is coming

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said it saw unprecedented signs pointing to a looming La Nina, a phenomenon that originates off the western coast of South America but can disrupt weather patterns in many parts of the globe. The buildup of this La Nina was so exceptionally swift and intense that it was impossible at the moment to infer what the impact would be, and how long the phenomenon would last, it warned.

Antarctica Losing Ice, Contrary to Expectations

Joining the growing list of places on this planet that are melting, Antarctica is losing some 36 cubic miles of ice every year, scientists said today.
For comparison, Los Angeles consumes roughly 1 cubic mile of fresh water a year. The south polar region holds 90 percent of Earth's ice and 70 percent of the total fresh water on the planet, so any significant pace of melting there is important and could contribute to an already rising sea.
This is the first study to indicate the total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," said Isabella Velicogna of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Melting Ice Caps Could Spell Disaster for Coastal Cities

For the first time, scientists have confirmed Earth is melting at both ends, which could have disastrous effects for coastal cities and villages.

Planet's Population Hit 6.5 Billion on February 25th, 2006

On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people.
Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S. Census Bureau points to another factoid, Robert Bernstein of the Bureau's Public Information Center advised LiveScience. Mark this on your calendar: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks.

Huge Crater Found in Egypt

Scientists have discovered a huge crater in the Saharan desert, the largest one ever found there. The crater is about 19 miles (31 kilometers) wide, more than twice as big as the next largest Saharan crater known. It utterly dwarfs Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is about three-fourths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in diameter. In fact, the newfound crater, in Egypt, was likely carved by a space rock that was itself roughly 0.75 miles wide in an event that would have been quite a shock, destroying everything for hundreds of miles. For comparison, the Chicxulub crater left by a dinosaur-killing asteroid 65 million years ago is estimated to be 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 kilometers) wide.

Global time-bomb
Tim Flannery's climatic epic on the erosion of life on Earth is an epitaph and a cause for hope. THE WEATHER MAKERS: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change by Tim Flannery Allen Lane, £20; 368pp

Decline of whales worries scientists

Strict hunting limits have not reversed drop in numbers in Alaska's Cook Inlet . In the 1970s, there were about 1,300 beluga whales in Cook Inlet, delighting locals and tourists alike. Last year, the number was estimated at just 278. Why their numbers are dwindling has scientists puzzled -- and scared.

Bulge in Central Oregon may be a volcano

Scientists studying a land bulge near Bend, Ore., think a new volcano may be forming. A group from the U.S. Geological Survey is studying the swelling in Earth's crust. It is nearly two-thirds the size of Portland, Ore. Recent eruptions at Mount St. Helens have rekindled interest in the patch of land west of Bend in Central Oregon.

FEMA Worried About New Madrid Quake Zone

Preparing for a catastrophic earthquake along the New Madrid fault is a priority, a FEMA official said Friday before a congressional field hearing on government readiness to handle natural disasters.
"New Madrid is at the top of the list," Michel Pawlowski, section chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. "It's our primary objective." Pawlowski told a congressional committee that FEMA has "significant concerns" for the potential of a catastrophic earthquake equal in magnitude to those that struck parts of the Mississippi River Valley in 1811-1812, and again in 1895. The estimated magnitude of those earthquakes is 7.5 or 8. The probability of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake is 25 percent to 50 percent over the next 50 years. Even a magnitude 7 earthquake would destroy more than 60 percent of buildings in St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., because most buildings predate building requirements aimed at resisting the shock, officials estimate. "A catastrophic earthquake in the central United States along the New Madrid Seismic Zone could pose unprecedented problems and challenges," Pawlowski said.

Study: Indian Ocean Quake 'Broke Some Of The Rules'

Regions of the Earth previously thought to be immune to giant earthquakes might actually be at high risk of experiencing them, according to a Caltech study released Wednesday.


Scores of Fish Beach Themselves in N.C.
The timing matched another oddity: the water's oxygen level, which veered from one extreme to the other. "We measured the oxygen levels in the water this morning and they were very low," said Stephanie Garrett, environmental technician with DWQ. "Then two and a half hours later, they were high."

About 70 whales found washed up on Japan beach

About 70 whales were found washed up on a beach in Ichinomiya, Chiba Prefecture, on Tuesday, but surfers and local residents cooperated in returning the mammals back to sea, a town official said. Surfers initially reported seeing several whales beached up in Ichinomiya Tuesday morning, said town spokesman Takeshi Ide. Ide said local officials later confirmed about 70 melon-headed whales had washed up on shore in the Pacific coastal town of Ichinomiya. The whales, each about 2 meter long, resemble dolphins and usually inhabit only deep water, according to another town official Mieko Ishii. Several local residents and about 50 surfers joined in the rescue and carried the whales back to the water, Ide said. It was not immediately known why such a large number of whales washed up at one time, he said.

Dozens of whales found dead after washing up on beach

About 50 whales were found dead Wednesday after they beached for a second time on a Chiba Prefecture beach, despite an earlier attempt to redirect them to the sea, an official said Wednesday. The dead whales were among a pod of about 70 melon-headed whales that had first beached themselves in Ichinomiya, Chiba Prefecture, early Tuesday morning, said Ichinomiya town official Mieko Ishii. Surfers and local residents had helped return the whales to sea, but by Wednesday morning the pod had run itself back up on the shore, Ishii said. She said about 50 whales were found dead, while the remaining 20 -- each measuring about 2 meters long -- were transported to a relatively calm fishing port and would be released into the sea at a later date. Experts would examine some of the dead mammals to determine a cause of the death, while the remaining will be buried in the town, Ishii said. The whales resemble dolphins and usually inhabit only deep water. It was not immediately known why such a large number of the whales washed up at one time, Ishii said.

Dolphins Discovered Fleeing Warming Tropical Waters

Marine researchers who have been observing the same pod of dolphins off Florida's eastern coast for three years have now, for the first time, photographed the dolphins swimming directly northward.
"These bottlenose dolphins, possibly the smartest creatures on Earth, were observed swimming directly northward", said Prof. Bonita Krillman. "Given the recently observed warming of the tropical oceans, we theorize that this pod is heading poleward in search of cooler waters".

US reports strong earthquake in Indian Ocean

A strong temblor of magnitude 6.2 hit Mid-Indian Ocean at 11:13 local time (18:13 GMT), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported on Tuesday.
The epicenter of the quake was located at 270 kilometers southeast of the Amsterdam Island, a French colony in the Indian Ocean, the USGS said in a report. The earthquake occurred 10 kilometers under the seabed, according to the report. Seismologists are monitoring this temblor,the USGS said.

Sun's next 11-year cycle could be 50 pct stronger

Sun-spawned cosmic storms that can play havoc with earthly power grids and orbiting satellites could be 50 percent stronger in the next 11-year solar cycle than in the last one, scientists said on Monday.
Using a new model that takes into account what happens under the sun's surface and data about previous solar cycles, astronomers offered a long-range forecast for solar activity that could start as soon as this year or as late as 2008. They offered no specific predictions of solar storms, but they hope to formulate early warnings that will give power companies, satellite operators and others on and around Earth a few days to prepare.

Stopping the next extinction wave

A scientific study pinpoints 20 areas in the world where animals are not at immediate risk of extinction, but where the risk is likely to arise soon.
The regions include Greenland and the Siberian tundra, Caribbean islands and parts of South East Asia.

Levees Overtop in Calif.'s Sonoma County

Cyclone alert for Indian Ocean island of Reunion

Meteorite falls in Northeast Brazil

Magnitude 4.3 Quake - SOUTHERN IRAN

Location: 27.803°N, 57.018°E
Depth: 23.9 km (14.9 miles) set by location program
Region: SOUTHERN IRAN
Distances:
100 km (62 miles) NE (46°) from Bandar-e Abbas, Iran
190 km (118 miles) NNE (23°) from Al Khasab, Oman
226 km (140 miles) SE (144°) from Sirjan, Iran
456 km (283 miles) NE (35°) from ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates

Antarctic is shrinking
The first-ever gravity survey of the entire Antarctic ice sheet, conducted using data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace), concludes the ice sheet's mass has decreased significantly from 2002 to 2005.

Magnitude 5.2 earthquake hits Gujarat


Earthquake hits Lorca


Earthquake Jolts Turkey


Two die as storms slam Southern US with Baseball-Sized Hail, Tornadoes
Storms moving across the South on Thursday brought winds strong enough to rip off roofs and blow apart barns. At least two deaths were attributed to the weather, and thousands of people lost power.


In Phoenix, Even Cactuses Wilt in Clutches of Record Drought

[...]
Phoenix knows all about dry weather. It is a place where children are drilled throughout elementary school to conserve water, where hotels boast of covered parking areas not to protect from rain, but to offer a bit of shade. Grown men spread lotion all over their bodies every morning. Noses bleed. Newcomers watch in horror as their hands seem to age right in front of them.

The Coming Resource Wars

It's official: the era of resource wars is upon us. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer"-and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely." Although not unprecedented, Reid's prediction of an upsurge in resource conflict is significant both because of his senior rank and the vehemence of his remarks. "The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a significant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur," he declared. "We should see this as a warning sign."

CITY SHAKEN: Earthquake swarm similar to 1982
A SWARM of five small earthquakes buzzed and rattled into Wanganui on Saturday morning. The five all originated in the same place, 30km south west of Wanganui and off the coast approximately due west of Marton.

Magnitude 3.0 earthquake Under Lake Erie


Moderate earthquake hits off northeastern Japan coast


Strong Earthquake In Admiralty Islands


Moderate earthquake shakes northern Pakistan


Volcano in Nicaragua spews columns of gas, ash

Nicaraguan civil defense authorities on Wednesday warned residents about a volcano that has been shooting off columns of gas and ash.

The activity had ceased by Wednesday morning and there were no immediate plans to evacuate communities near the 5,725-foot San Cristobal volcano in the province of Chinandega, 60 miles west of the capital of Managua.

Windstorms Batter Kansas, Missouri


Massive wildfires scorch Texas


Climate change 'irreversible' as Arctic sea ice fails to re-form

Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter, raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted. Satellite measurements of the area of the Arctic covered by sea ice show that for every month this winter, the ice failed to return even to its long-term average rate of decline. It is the second consecutive winter that the sea ice has not managed to re-form enough to compensate for the unprecedented melting seen during the past few summers.

Scientist Reading the Leaves to Predict Violent Weather

When meteorologist Edward Lorenz set up his computer to model the weather in 1960, he had no idea what a complex problem he was taking on. After a while, he realized that any small change in the starting conditions of his program had a huge impact on the outcome of his experiment and in predicting the weather. Popularly called the butterfly effect, this aspect of chaos theory made Lorenz and others realize that predicting weather with pinpoint accuracy will never be possible. But scientists are getting closer.

100 twisters across 5 states


Tornado Season Off to Roaring Start

-Swarms of tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest, shut down the University of Kansas and damaged so much of Springfield on Monday that the mayor said "every square inch'' of town suffered some effects.


Freak Wind: 'It's a miracle no one got killed'

A freak gust of wind sent 13 utility poles crashing onto Farrington Highway yesterday, trapping motorists under live power lines but causing no serious injuries.
The huge wooden poles splintered in two about 1 p.m., some crushing cars, and fell across all four lanes of the highway in what many said looked like a hurricane scene - or a disaster movie. "This was a cross between 'War of the Worlds' and 'Earthquake,' " said Bernie Baker, contest director for the Triple Crown of Surfing who had been at the Buffalo's Big Board Surfing Classic in Makaha.

Shifting Wind Worries Texas Firefighters


Winds Ease in Texas, Slowing Wildfires

Ready or Not, Bird Flu Is Coming to America - Officials Advise Stocking Up on Provisions -- and Warn That Infected Birds Cannot Be Prevented From Flying In

In a remarkable speech over the weekend, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt recommended that Americans start storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds as the prospect of a deadly bird flu outbreak approaches the United States. Ready or not, here it comes. It is being spread much faster than first predicted from one wild flock of birds to another, an airborne delivery system that no government can stop.

Chernobyl: A poisonous legacy

Twenty years after a blast in the nuclear plant at Chernobyl spread radioactive debris across Europe, it has been revealed that 375 farms in Britain, with 200,000 sheep, are still contaminated by fallout

Burst oil pipeline causes 'catastrophe' in Alaska

A burst pipeline in Alaska's North Slope has caused the Arctic region's worst oil spill, spreading more than 250,000 gallons of crude oil over an area used by caribou herds and prompting environmentalists again to question the Bush administration's drive for more oil exploration there.

Survival Dance: How Humans Waltzed Through the Ice Age

Some people are naturally graceful on the dance floor, while others seem burdened by two inept left feet. Blame it on the Ice Age. According to new research, the ability to dance may have been a factor in survival for our prehistoric ancestors, who used their moves to bond and communicate with each other when times were tough.

Greenhouse Theory Smashed By Biggest Stone
Leicester UK - A new theory to explain global warming was revealed at a meeting at the University of Leicester and is being considered for publication in the journal "Science First Hand". The controversial theory has nothing to do with burning fossil fuels and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. According to Vladimir Shaidurov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the apparent rise in average global temperature recorded by scientists over the last hundred years or so could be due to atmospheric changes that are not connected to human emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of natural gas and oil.

Canada records a warm "un-Canadian" winter

 Canada has recorded its warmest winter in nearly six decades of record-keeping, with temperatures that a veteran forecaster said on Monday were almost "un-Canadian."
Environment Canada said temperatures averaged 3.9 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal from the end of November 2005 to the start of March 2006, and broke the previous record for the country's warmest winter by almost a full degree. "The entire country was into this balminess. This kind of benign winter, said David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist in Toronto.

Patagonian glacier collapses

A vast Patagonian glacier shed a 60-meter wall of ice with a roar during the night,
sending debris plunging into a lake in southern Argentina as hundreds of tourists struggled to watch in the dark. About 400 tourists were on hand when the Perito Moreno ice bridge collapsed, a phenomenon that has been repeated every few years. This time, cameras were unable to capture the final crack. Carlos Corvalan, supervisor at Los Glaciares National Park, said a section of ice had been showing signs it was ready to fall for three days before it gave way at 10:55 p.m.
Corvalan told the independent Diarios y Noticias news agency that many spectators had been keeping a round-the-clock vigil, sleeping in their cars at an overlook. Although it was a cloudy night with visibility obscured, he said the booming sound of cracking ice could be heard for miles.

Earthen Dam in Hawaii Bursts, Killing One


Scientists study "mushroom cloud" volcano plume
Photographs of a recent volcanic eruption in Ecuador show a plume unlike any previously documented, and hint at a newly recognized hazard.
The usual volcanic plume resembles the mushroom of an atom bomb blast, said University of Illinois Geology Professor Susan Kieffer. "But the umbrella on this plume was wavy, like the shell of a scallop."

Signs Comment: A warning to the world perhaps?

Experimental weather modification bill - fast tracking - for passage in US Senate and House of Representatives

U.S. Senate Bill 517 and U.S. House Bill 2995, a bill that would allow experimental weather modification by artificial methods and implement a national weather modification policy, does not include agriculture or public oversight, is on the "fast track" to be passed early in 2006. This bill is designed to implement experimental weather modification. The appointed Board of Directors established by this bill does not include any agricultural, water, EPA, or public representatives, and has no provisions for Congressional, State, County, or public oversight of their actions or expenditures. Weather Modification may adversely impact agricultural crops and water supplies. If the weather is changed in one state, region or county it may have severe consequences in another region, state or county. And who is going to decide the type of weather modification experimentation and who it will benefit or adversely impact?

Scientists Closely Watch Augustine Volcano


Africa's New Ocean: A Continent Splits Apart

Normally new rivers, seas and mountains are born in slow motion. The Afar Triangle near the Horn of Africa is another story. A new ocean is forming there with staggering speed -- at least by geological standards. Africa will eventually lose its horn.

New EU Project To Slash Greenhouse Gases
A huge pilot project to capture greenhouse gases and store them underground is being launched this week, aiming to slash Europe's output of harmful CO2 by 10 percent, officials said Tuesday.
The world's biggest such project, inaugurated Wednesday at Esbjerg on Denmark's western coast, will bid to capture 90 percent of carbon dioxide produced by fossil-fueled power stations like coal plants or oil refineries.

Storms expected through weekend- Kauai has six times more rain than usual for all of March

Four back-to-back storms over the last three weeks have dumped more rain on parts of the islands than they normally would have seen in months, and drenched Kauai with up to six times more rain than normal for all of March, the National Weather Service said yesterday.

Super cyclone hits northeastern Australia
A super cyclone smashed into tropical northeastern Australia, with winds of up to 290 kilometres an hour (180 mph) causing casualties and ripping homes apart, officials said.
Tropical Cyclone Larry hit land near Innisfail in the far north of Queensland state as a top category five, but had since been downgraded to a category four, the Queensland weather bureau said. It is the strongest cyclone to strike Australia in more than 30 years and was seen as potentially more dangerous than Cyclone Tracy, which devastated the northern city of Darwin in 1974, killing 71 people and leaving 20,000 homeless.

Australian Cyclone Worst in Decades


Severe Storms Develop in Texas


Ottawa Scientist Says Cosmic Rays, Not Greenhouse Gases, Cause Global Warming

With trepidation, Jan Veizer suggests the accepted view of climate change is wrong. A prominent University of Ottawa science professor says what we know about global warming is wrong -- that stars, not greenhouse gases, are changing Earth's climate. Jan Veizer says high-energy rays from distant parts of space are smashing into our atmosphere in ways that make our planet go through warm and cool cycles. The recently retired professor (he still holds a research chair and supervises grad students and postdoctoral fellows) knows that to challenge the accepted climate change theory can lead to a nasty fight. It's a politically and economically loaded topic, and as polarized as an election campaign. Yet he is speaking out -- a bit nervously -- about his published research. "Look, maybe I'm wrong," he said in an interview. "But I'm saying, at least let's look at this and discuss it. "Every" part of the theory "has its problems," Mr. Veizer adds. "But so does every other model" of how Earth's climate behaves. Cosmic rays are hitting us all the time. Hold up a penny, and one such particle will hit it, on average, once a minute. The high-energy particle from a distant star has likely been shooting through space for hundreds or thousands of years.

Worker Inspecting Volcano that Erupts Feared Dead

A young conservation worker who was checking a volcano's crater lake when it unexpectedly burst to life, spewing mounds of ash and soot, most likely died in the eruption in the remote nature reserve, a conservation official said Saturday.


Warmer Seas Creating Stronger Hurricanes, Study Confirms


Industry decries clean-air ruling
A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a clean-air regulation issued by the Bush administration that would have let many power plants, refineries and factories avoid installing costly new pollution controls when they modernize.
Ruling in favor of a coalition of states and environmental advocacy groups, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declared the "plain language" of the act required a stricter approach. The ruling by a three-judge panel was the court's second decision in less than a year in a pair of closely related cases involving the administration's interpretations of a complex section of the Clean Air Act.


Video: Superstorms And Global Warming
A new study warns more bad weather like the Australian cyclones is on the way for the rest of the world, and says global warming may be to blame.

By Foster Klug
The Associated Press
8 Feb 06
A group of 86 evangelical Christians began a campaign Wednesday that links their faith with an attempt to fight global warming. The leaders, who face opposition from some conservative evangelicals, want the U.S. government to pass legislation requiring the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The group said Christians, and the U.S. government, have a responsibility to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse. Many scientists believe these gases have intensified recent hurricanes, heat waves, disease outbreaks and droughts.

5.5 magnitude quake strikes PoK

Earthquake rocks northern Algeria


Minor eruption detected at volcano in northern Japan


Erupting NZ volcano 'still volatile'


Five Deaths Blamed on Plains Snowstorm


Rewriting The Science - there are things the White House doesn't want you to hear
As a government scientist, James Hansen is taking a risk. He says there are things the White House doesn't want you to hear but he's going to say them anyway. Hansen is arguably the world's leading researcher on global warming. He's the head of NASA's top institute studying the climate. But this imminent scientist tells correspondent Scott Pelley that the Bush administration is restricting who he can talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting the science. But he didn't hold back speaking to Pelley, telling 60 Minutes what he knows.

Spring Snow Storm Buries Ohio Valley

Radiohead Singer Turns Down Tony Blair on Climate Change Talks, Says Blair Has "No Environmental Credentials"

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke says he turned down the chance to discuss climate change with Tony Blair because the British prime minister has
"no environmental credentials." The charity Friends of the Earth, for which the singer is an ambassador, asked him to meet Blair. But Yorke said Blair had no record of championing the environment and added that dealing with the governing Labour Party's "spin doctors" made him feel ill.

Australia's Cyclone Larry Much Stronger Than Katrina

Cyclone Larry, the strongest storm to hit Australia in 30 years, smashed into the Queensland coast today with about 40 percent more force than Hurricane Katrina at landfall.

Earthquake shakes East San Francisco Bay


4.5 Earthquake Jolts Serbia


Arctic, Antarctic Melting May Raise Sea Levels Faster Than Expected

Ice sheets across both the Arctic and Antarctic could melt more quickly than expected this century, according to two studies that blend computer modeling with paleoclimate records.
The studies, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Arizona, show that Arctic summers by 2100 may be as warm as they were nearly 130,000 years ago, when sea levels eventually rose up to 20 feet (6 meters) higher than today.

UN warns of worst mass extinctions for 65m years
Humans have provoked the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65m years ago, according to a UN report that calls for unprecedented worldwide efforts to address the slide. The report paints a grim picture of life on earth, with declining numbers of plants, animals, insects and birds across the globe, and warns that the current extinction rate is up to 1,000 times faster than in the past. Some 844 animals and plants are known to have disappeared in the last 500 years.

Bulusan volcano spews ash
After being quiet for 11 years, Mount Bulusan in Sorsogon province, southeast of Manila, erupted late Tuesday night, spewing ash clouds as high as 1.5 kilometers into the sky and prompting government warnings to residents not to go near the volcano.


Minor earthquake shakes Eureka area


Light quake strikes Quebec's Far North


Magnitude 5.1 - KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND

Magnitude 5.1 (Moderate)
# Date-Time Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 03:25:26 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
# Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 3:25:26 PM

Nah. It couldn't have been a meteorite. Could it?

A loud explosion in Burnaby late last night has authorities scratching their heads.
About 11:05 the blast rattled windows and awakened neighbours near the Chaffey Burke Elementary School on Abbey Avenue. Police responded with officers and a dog but came up empty handed. All they could find was a small hole in the ground. No damage has been reported and there were no injuries.

Fewer birds spotted in UK gardens

The number of birds visiting British gardens is on the decline, according to a survey involving 470,000 people.

Ice caps melting faster than forecast
Global warming of only a couple of degrees Celsius projected by the end of this century is enough to trigger widespread melting of the massive Greenland ice cap and the partial collapse of Antarctica's ice sheets, prominent climate researchers warn in two studies published yesterday.

Greater efforts needed to save Amazon rainforests
About 40 percent of the Amazon's rainforests could be lost by 2050 unless more is done to prevent what could become one of the world's worst environmental crisis, scientists said on Wednesday.


Strong quake hits south Iran

4.6 earthquake shakes Humboldt County (California)


California fault line primed for big earthquake, experts predict

It could hit 2 million near Bay area with magnitude 6.7, more. New cracks appear in Elke DeMuynck's ceiling every few weeks, zigzagging across her living room. Month after month, year after year, she patches, paints and waits. "It definitely lets you know your house is constantly shifting," DeMuynck said. So do the gate outside that swings uselessly 21/2 inches from its latch, the bulges in the street and the geology students who make pilgrimages to her cul-de-sac.

Strong earthquake shakes Fiji islands


Broken Comet On Its Way

In 1995, Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 did something unexpected: it fell apart. For no apparent reason, the comet's nucleus split into at least three "mini-comets" flying single file through space. Astronomers watched with interest, but the view was blurry even through large telescopes. The comet was a hundred and fifty million miles away. We're about to get a much closer look. In May 2006 the fragments are going to fly past Earth closer than any comet has come in almost eighty years.

Polar Meltdown Near: Seas Could Rise 3 Feet Per Century

About 130,000 years ago, an ice age ended and there was a period of few centuries before the next one began. During this lull, Earth's temperature warmed, glaciers retreated and ice sheets melted. Sea levels rose by up to 20 feet. Scientists warn that this could happen again-and soon. But while the last great thaw was the result of a natural tilt in the Earth's axis towards the Sun, the next one will be caused by humans, some scientists argue. If global warming continues at its current pace, by 2100 Earth could be up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it is today. If steps are not taken soon to reduce greenhouse emissions, the Arctic will be as warm as it was 130,000 years ago and similar rises in sea level will occur, according to two new studies released today.

Earthquake shakes central Japan
An earthquake measuring about 6.0 magnitude on the Richter scale hit central Japan on Tuesday night, Japan Meteorological Agency reported.


Climate Change Rice Genome To The Rescue
New evidence is emerging that climate change could reduce not only the world's ability to produce food but also international efforts to cut poverty. However, the recent sequencing of the rice genome is already providing researchers with some of the tools they need to help poor rice farmers and consumers avoid the worst effects of the problem.

Signs Comment: Climate change is going to affect a lot more than just the poorest of the poor. Why else would the Pentagon be so concerned about climate change??

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer
Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

Signs Comment:
The Observer writes: "The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority." Well, maybe that is disingenuous. Maybe the leaders of the world know that this is the truth and they have all agreed to pretend to be at odds with each other so as to create wars which will eliminate millions - or billions - of "useless eaters." Or maybe Bush is setting the US up to be the "king of the mountain"? Not only can the US eliminate billions of people, they can then take all their resources for the "chosen people." It's difficult to tell what the liars do or don't know, the only thing that is certain is that it does not look good for most of humanity. And, as Dave McGowan wrote:

"Perhaps you are thinking that this type of future is not for you. You'd really prefer something a little different. That's unfortunate, because the future holds very few options". Here's Campbell again, concluding his mini version of Mein Kampf:
"Another problem is likely to be the residual opposition to population reduction from sentimentalists and/or religious extremists unable to understand that the days of plenty, when criminals and the weak could be cherished at public expense, are over. Acts of violent protest, such as are carried out today by animal rights activists and anti-abortionists, would, in the Darwinian world, attract capital punishment. Population reduction must be single-minded to succeed."So it appears as though those who fight back against the agenda will likely be summarily executed, while those who passively go with the flow stand about a 95% chance of being killed off anyway. With odds like that, I would think that fighting back might be a good idea. By any means available. And sooner rather than later."

Better do a quick re-read of Laura's two recent articles: 94% and Political Ponerology. And again we say: get a copy of The Secret History of The World and How to Get Out Alive. This ain't just an advertisement, either because you can get all the info that is in the book by reading everything on this site. But if you want to have the info available when the system locks down, and if you want it condensed and explicated clearly, get the book. Save yourself (and those you love) some time and grief in the coming "Hard Times."

New City-sized Iceberg Created Near Antarctica

A city-sized iceberg has broken off an island near Antarctica. The iceberg is about 8 miles wide and 15 miles long. It broke free of the Fimbul Ice Shelf, a large glacial ice sheet along the northwestern section of Queen Maud Land, in the eastern Weddell Sea near Antarctica.

Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point

Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever... More And More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities... By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point

Forecasts: Northeast Due for Big Hurricane

New England could be in for a big one. Meteorologists say conditions - including warmer temperatures in the Atlantic Basin and cooler temperatures in the Pacific Ocean - are ripe for the Northeast coast to be hit by a whopper of a hurricane this season.
Ken Reeves, a senior meteorologist at the AccuWeather Center in State College, Pa., said that when the Pacific is cooler, it "essentially drives the storm track further to the east in the Atlantic Ocean basin." He predicts the East Coast north of the Mid-Atlantic states could see a Category 3 hurricane, a storm that could resemble the devastating systems that hit New England between the 1930s and 1950s.


Yellowstone's sister volcano shares similar history
The explosive formation of Argentina's Vilama Calera volcano seemed to have matched Yellowstone's historic continent-blanketing blast millions of years ago.

Canadas New Government Starting From Scratch On Kyoto Protocol

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday Canada has not progressed at all on its Kyoto Protocol commitments to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and had instead moved "backwards".
"I know the environment minister has been working on this file, has been developing plans, but to be quite blunt about it, I think we're pretty well starting from scratch," Harper told reporters outside the House of Commons.

Two dead in German tornado, power cut

Two people were killed and 80,000 homes suffered power cuts when a tornado struck the northern German city of Hamburg.
The cyclone flipped three construction cranes late Monday, two of which were occupied, killing two workers and injuring two others.

Category 5 cyclone threatens Western Australia coast

A powerful cyclone with winds up to 300 kph (190 mph) menaced northern parts of Western Australia on Wednesday, less than two weeks after a storm devastated homes and crops on the other side of the country.
Some oil and gas operations and key iron ore ports closed ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Glenda in an area known as "cyclone alley" because it is regularly swept by storms at this time of year.

Earth forum hears dire warnings of environmental collapse

The cataclysmic consequences of unsustainable development pose a challenge to the world that will make the war on terror seem like an unnecessary distraction, a global environmental conference heard.
In a keynote speech opening the fourth biennial State of the Planet conference at New York's Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project, said ignorance, misplaced priorities and indifference were keeping the world firmly on a path to disaster. "Everything we think is at the core of our geopolitics -- the war on terror, Islamic fundamentalism -- have almost nothing to do with the real challenges we face on this planet," Sachs said. "They are a distraction and a misunderstanding," he added.

Blair talks of climate change revolution

A technological revolution is needed if the world is to tackle climate change, Tony Blair said yesterday. During a visit to New Zealand, the prime minister said hi-tech innovations in the private sector were vital in tackling the problems of security of energy supply and rising greenhouse gases. He also told a climate change conference in Wellington that Britain wanted to exceed its commitments under the international Kyoto agreement on climate change.

Brazil's Lula Lashes Out At Rich Nations
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva Monday castigated the wealthy and technologically advanced countries of the world for failing to live up to their responsibility in tackling poverty and environmental degradation on the planet.

Global Warming: Be Very Afraid
According to Oklahoma Sen. James M. Inhofe, the threat of global climate change is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Yet when Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer for The New Yorker, surveyed the world's leading climate scientists, she discovered an alarming unanimity to their message: The world needs to wake up, and fast.

UN Conference Calls For Alert Systems For All Disasters By 2015

A UN conference ended here on Wednesday with a call for the whole world to have early warning systems against natural disasters like the Asian tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake by 2015.
"We have to cover all countries against all hazards and risks. That is the challenge we face in the next eight and a half years," said Salvano Briceno, the head of the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

Cyclone Glenda lashes Australia

Cyclone Glenda Hits Australian Oil And Mining Region

There were no immediate reports of major damage from Cyclone Glenda, which hit the northwestern Pilbara region Thursday afternoon as a category four storm packing winds of up to 250 kilometers (150 miles) per hour.


Moderate earthquake jolts northern Japan; no reports of casualties, damage


At least 66 dead in Iran quake
At least 66 people were killed when a powerful earthquake struck western Iran, destroying whole villages and sending frightened residents fleeing from their homes, according to the latest toll.


Eastern Europe On High Alert For Floods

Authorities across eastern Europe declared flood alerts on Thursday amid fears that rivers swollen by a sudden spring thaw could spill over in a repetition of the disastrous east European inundation of 2002.
Six people in the region, including two children, were reported killed by the raging waters and a teenager was reported missing in Romania. In Eastern Slovakia, a four-year old Roma boy fell into a stream and drowned and a 61-year-old man was found drowned at Modra in the southwest, the authorities said.

Unexpected warming in Antarctica

Data from nine research stations were used in the study
Winter air temperatures over Antarctica have risen by more than 2C in the last 30 years, a new study shows. Research published in the US journal Science says the warming is seen across the whole of the continent and much of the Southern Ocean. The study questions the reliability of current climate models that fail to simulate the temperature rise. In addition, the scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) say the cause of the warming is not clear. It could be linked to increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or natural variations in Antarctica's climate system. Scientists are keen to understand the change in temperatures over the continent as the region holds enough water in its ice to raise sea levels by 60 metres.

Scientists theorize comet killed off the mammoths

The age of mystery material found in southern Alberta, which could belong to an extraterrestrial object, coincides with the great ice age die-off




Fighting Back

What Can You Do?
We get many emails from readers asking what they can do. They see the dire situation facing the United States and feel helpless. Many say that before finding our site, they wondered if they were crazy or if they were the only one that saw what was happening to their country. If you have benefited from our work, then there is likely to be someone else out there who could, too. But how do we reach them?


Where Are the Good Americans?
Anyone who sees the photographs of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps must wonder how human beings could ever have allowed such things to happen. They must wonder how people of good will could have stood by while their government committed atrocities in their name. In the wake of that nightmarish era, people often asked, "Where were the good Germans?" After the publication of the long-suppressed pictures of Abu Ghraib victims and the United Nations finding that torture and abuse are still taking place at the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, America has fashioned its own nightmare. We now must ask ourselves, "Where are the good Americans?"

McGovern returns Medal: I Do Not Wish to Be Associated With Torture
By Ray McGovern
As a matter of conscience, I am returning the Intelligence Commendation Award medallion given me for "especially commendable service" during my 27-year career in CIA. The issue is torture, which inhabits the same category as rape and slavery - intrinsically evil. I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.

Mr Blair, you sent my son to die in a war based on lies

Dear Prime Minister,
Ref: Sgt Christian Ian Hickey of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, who became 97th fatality of the Iraq conflict
As a parent yourself, you will be aware that the most precious thing we have in our lives is our children. Until four months ago, I had been blessed with two grown-up sons. I still cannot get used to speaking about one of my sons in the past tense. My youngest son Christian, 30, was a member of the armed forces; he was an exceptional character, full of fun, with great sense of humour and was a generous, caring person who brought the best in people. He was an excellent soldier, who had progressed rapidly through the ranks, and became full sergeant at the age of 29. I enclose summary from the Coldstreams' website (Shinycapstar.com) to show I am not biased as his mother.

New Poll: Iraq War Not Worth Fighting for 63% in U.S.

Many adults in the United States regret their government's decision to launch the coalition effort in Iraq, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 63 per cent of respondents think the result of the war with Iraq was not worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq. The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein's regime was launched in March 2003. At least 2,295 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 16,900 troops have been wounded in action. On Feb. 22, suspected insurgents placed two bombs inside Samarra's Shiite Golden Mosque. The event has led to several days of sectarian violence in Iraq. More than 400 people have died, and more than 180 Sunni mosques have been destroyed. 54 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq, up four points since January. In an interview broadcast on ABC on Feb. 28, U.S. president George W. Bush declared, "I don't buy (the) premise that there's going to be a civil war (in Iraq)."

U.S. invasion responsible deaths of over 250,000 civilians in Iraq
New studies make the Bush administration's "liberation" argument for a 'pre-emptive' war against Iraq seem questionable. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by U.S.-led coalition forces has been responsible for the death of at least 150,000 civilians (not including certain of Iraq), reveals a compilitation of scientific studies and corroborated eyewitness testimonies. The majority of these deaths, which are in addition those normally expected from natural causes, illness and accidents, have been among women and children, documents a well-researched study, that had been released by The Lancet Medical Journal.

Civilians Bearing Brunt of Iraq Violence

 Insurgency-related violence last year killed more than twice as many Iraqi civilians — 4,024 people — as Iraqi soldiers and police, according to government figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Daily Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
As of Thursday, March 2, 2006, at least 2,297 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,805 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.


After kicking out Cubans, U.S.-owned hotel ordered closed by Mexico City officials
City officials ordered the closure of a major U.S.-owned hotel Tuesday in Mexico City, weeks after it became the center of a diplomatic flap when U.S. Treasury Department officials ordered it to expel a delegation of Cuban officials.


High school in turmoil over teacher's remarks
Controversy over a high school teacher's comparison of President Bush to Adolf Hitler erupted into a day of turmoil Thursday - with a student protest, a threatened lawsuit and dueling talk shows.
At the center of the storm was Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish, whose lecture in a world geography class last month also included harsh words about capitalism, U.S. foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq. At one point in a 21- minute, 40-second recording of the lecture, Bennish called America "probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth."

Students Protest After Teacher Suspended for Bush-Hitler Comments

A Colorado school is in upheaval following the suspension of a teacher who was recorded comparing President Bush's rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler. More than 100 students at Overland High School in Aurora, Colo., walked out of class this morning to protest the decision to put geography teacher Jay Bennish on administrative leave.

Bush goes on 'trial' in Morris - Parsippany students confront issues of terrorism and war

President Bush is being tried for "crimes against civilian populations" and "inhumane treatment of prisoners" at Parsippany High School, with students arguing both sides before a five-teacher "international court of justice." The panel's verdict could come as soon as Friday.
Teacher Joseph Kyle said the "hearing"-- he preferred that term to trial -- opened on Monday in a senior advanced placement government class. The school's principal said he signed off in advance on the subject matter.


What to do when the emperor has no clothes
These are troubling times for all of us who love this country, as surely we all do, even the satirists. You may poke fun at your mother, but if she is belittled by others it burns your bacon. A blowhard French journalist writes a book about America that is full of arrogant stupidity, and you want to let the air out of him and mail him home flat. And then you read the paper and realize the country is led by a man who isn't paying attention, and you hope that somebody will poke him. Or put a sign on his desk that says, "Try much harder." Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life?

Shining Light into the Abyss

If one is to understand the apparently incongruent actions of the U.S. government it is imperative to view events in the proper context. Too many of us are muddled in trying to explain U.S. policy from the perspective that we are a democratic republic undivided by socioeconomic class. This is not surprising. After all, this is what we were taught from earliest childhood; and the belief has been reinforced all the way to the grave. However, the absurdity of this assertion should be obvious to any student of history. The hypocrisy of rhetoric versus the reality created by policy is simply too great to ignore, and it is growing worse every year.

Jon Stewart: America's Most Influential News Anchor?

It's not a crazy idea, West says: "Some young people trust Jon Stewart more than they do their nightly anchors." And with the changes that are coming in the news business, Jon Stewart might someday be their nightly news anchor.

Ethics Office For Hill Rejected - Don't Want NO Damn ETHICS 'Round Hyar!

A Senate committee yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to establish an independent office to oversee the enforcement of congressional ethics and lobbying laws, signaling a reluctance in Congress to beef up the enforcement of its rules on lobbying. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 11 to 5 to defeat a proposal by its chairman, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and its ranking Democrat, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), that would have created an office of public integrity to toughen enforcement and combat the loss of reputation Congress has suffered after the guilty plea in January of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Democrats joined Republicans in killing the measure.

In Denial Dept: Odds improve for Democratic takeover of Congress
A Democratic takeover of Congress, especially the House, appears possible this year despite conventional wisdom. Pundits and odds makers recently have upped the numbers of House districts they count as competitive despite a still common assumption that Congress is so carefully gerrymandered that challengers have little hope.
 
Signs Comment: Nobody seems to be getting it: there is NO chance of a fair and free election in the good ole US of A anymore.

San Francisco Resolution to Impeach Bush-Cheney Passes 7-3
On Tuesday, February 28, 2006, the City and County of San Francisco became the first large municipality to call for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney, by a 7-3 vote. Supervisors Sean Elsbernd, Michela Alioto-Pier, and Sophie Maxwell cast the dissenting votes (Sup. Jake McGoldrick was absent for the vote). Sup. Chris Daly commenced his introduction of Agenda Item 27 with "I initially thought this ... would be a noncontroversial piece of legislation. Perhaps it still is, maybe not-a-unanimous-vote piece of legislation. But if you remember when we took our oath of office we swore to uphold the Constitution."

On the dotted line: Governor signs paper-ballot bill into law
New Mexico's 33 counties will switch from a patchwork of voting methods to a single paper-ballot system under a bill signed into law Thursday by Gov. Bill Richardson. The governor, who pushed the proposal through the recent legislative session, said the system would make voting more secure and restore the public's confidence in elections. "We believe that all voices deserve to be heard, and when it comes to elections, that all votes deserve to be counted," the governor said at a signing ceremony that more resembled a campaign event.

Fourteen indicted in Appalachia election fraud probe
Fourteen individuals, including the mayor/town manager of Appalachia, a town councilman, and two law enforcement officials, were indicted by a Wise County grand jury on multiple counts stemming from an alleged conspiracy to conduct election fraud during the 2004 town elections.
The indictments show the investigation hasn't been just about pork rinds, Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee said during a press conference at the Wise County Courthouse. The investigation into allegations of voter fraud evolved from early reports of attempted vote buying before town elections that reportedly involved items like bags of pork rinds, packs of cigarettes, and six-packs of beer. While the entire affair may have been sparked by rumors of "votes being sold for pork rinds," said McAfee, "I think it would be a fair statement to say it is not about pork rinds, and never was about pork rinds."

Impeaching George W. Bush - From discussion to action - Michael Ratner and his fellow lawyers have drafted a call to impeach President Bush.

Until recently, talk of ousting President George W. Bush has proved little more than a distant rumbling. For too long, impeachment has been deemed implausible. It's not going to happen with a Republican Congress, so the argument goes. Not with the president finishing his second term, not while we're at war. But the distant rumbling is growing louder by the day, creating a resonant echo that is rapidly taking root in public discourse. "Impeach Him," reads the cover of this month's Harper's magazine. And in a public forum in New York City last week, journalists, lawyers, and political figures came together to discuss the case against our president. Since September 11th, 2001, there has been no shortage of news regarding this administration's involvement in torture, lies, secrecy and obstruction of the law. Yet, there has been little discussion in the mainstream media of holding those in power accountable for the actions so diligently catalogued by the press. It is a conspicuous vacuum that helps to explain why calls for impeachment are rapidly gaining currency.

Vermont Towns Endorse Move to Impeach Bush
In five Vermont communities, a centuries-old tradition of residents gathering in town halls to conduct local business became a vehicle to send a message to Washington: Impeach the president. An impeachment article, approved by a paper ballot 121-29 in Newfane Tuesday, calls on Vermont's lone member of the U.S. House, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against President Bush, alleging he misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.

Signs Comment: "Just because we disagree with them"???!!!  How about because they are inveterate liars who have torn up the consitution, instituted torture as standard operating procedure, and organized the 9/11 attacks on their own country to justify a perrenial "war on terror"!

Third elections worker indicted over presidential recount
The third highest ranking employee at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has been indicted on charges of mishandling ballots during the 2004 presidential election recount.
Jacqueline Maiden is the third board worker charged with six counts alleging that Ohio laws were not followed in the selection and review of ballots for the recount. The most serious charges carry a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.


Vonnegut: "George W. Bush is the syphilis president"
On a cold, cloudy night, the lines threaded all the way around the Ohio State campus. News that Kurt Vonnegut was speaking at the Ohio Union prompted these "apathetic" heartland college students to start lining up in the early afternoon. About 2,000 got in to the Ohio Union. At least that many more were turned away. It was the biggest crowd for a speaker here since Michael Moore.

30 US Reps for Bush Impeachment Inquiry - APN Interviews Conyers, Swanson, and Goodman
30 US House Representatives have signed on as sponsors or co-sponsors of H. Res 635, which would create a Select Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President Bush's impeachment, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
"There has been massive support for House Resolution 635 from a very vigorous network of grassroots activists and people committed to holding the Bush Administration accountable for its widespread abuses of power," US Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) said in a statement prepared for Atlanta Progressive News.

Join The ExxonMobil War Boycott - Buy Citgo - VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLARS

ExxonMobil has been selected for boycott because of its apparent active involvement in U.S. policy in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular, and its power to help change these policies. Campbell Soup, Carlson Companies (Radisson Hotels, TGI Friday's), Corning Inc., Metlife, Novartis, Pfizer, Verizon, Wells Fargo and Wyeth are also selected for boycott because these firms can influence ExxonMobil through board members they share in common with ExxonMobil.

The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent
The date was February 22, 1943. Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, along with their best friend, Christoph Probst, were scheduled to be executed by Nazi officials that afternoon. The prison guards were so impressed with the calm and bravery of the prisoners in the face of impending death that they violated regulations by permitting them to meet together one last time. Hans, a medical student at the University of Munich, was 24. Sophie, a student, was 21. Christoph, a medical student, was 22.

American Bar Association-accuses President Bush, of violating both the Constitution and federal law.
American Bar Association
02/13/06
Full text American Bar Association Task Force Report
Adopted By The House Of Delegates
RESOLVED, that the American Bar Association calls upon the President to abide by the limitations which the Constitution imposes on a president under our system of checks and balances and respect the essential roles of the Congress and the judicial branch in ensuring that our national security is protected in a manner consistent with constitutional guarantees


Impeachment Talk Reaches the Mainstream - From the Wall Street Journal to MSNBC, talk of impeachment is no longer on the fringe.

The groundswell for President Bush's impeachment is growing, and last week the establishment media finally took notice. The Wall Street Journal ran a story analyzing how a planned impeachment of President Bush will play out as an "election issue," including a helpful pie chart showing 51 percent of Americans support Congress in considering Bush's impeachment if he "didn't tell the truth about the reasons for the Iraq war."

Video: Feingold Will Introduce Resolution To Censure President Bush

STEPHANOPOULOS: Tomorrow in the Senate you'll introduce a resolution to censure George W. Bush. Let me show it to our viewers. It says, Resolved: that the United States Senate does hereby censure George W. Bush, President of the United States, and does condemn his unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans. That is a big step. Why are you taking it now?
FEINGOLD: It's an unusual step. It's a big step, but what the President did by consciously and intentionally violating the constitutional laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping has to be answered. There can be debate about whether the law should be changed. There can be debate about how best to fight terrorism. We all believe that there should be wiretapping in appropriate cases. But the idea that the President can just make up a law in violation of his oath of office has to be answered.

Feingold Draws Little Support for Censure

Democrats distanced themselves Monday from Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold's effort to censure President Bush over domestic spying. Vice President Dick Cheney , visiting Feingold's state, called the resolution an "outrageous proposition."
"Don't hold back," Cheney said. Asked at a press conference whether he would vote for the censure resolution, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada declined to endorse it and said he hadn't read it. Sen. Joe Lieberman , D-Conn., said he had not read it either and wasn't inclined simply to scold the president.

Russ Feingold: Censure in the Wilderness
Senator Russ Feingold is one of a handful of Congress critters brave enough to oppose the Police State Act, otherwise known as the Patriot Act, and the NSA trampling of the Fourth Amendment as well. Now Feingold has introduced a proposal to "censure President George W. Bush for ordering domestic eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without a warrant," according to Reuters. Bush deserves nothing short of impeachment, and then an orange jumpsuit, and his Straussian neocon crew should be rounded up and prosecuted for treason-but none of this will happen, not now, next week, next year, or after the next president is elected, or appointed.

"He Shall Direct Thy Paths to the Weapons of Mass Destruction." The former U.N. inspector behind the "Saddam Tapes" says God revealed WMD sites to him.

William Tierney, the former United Nations weapons inspector who unveiled the so-called "Saddam Tapes" at a conference in Arlington, Virginia, Saturday, told National Review Online that God directed him to weapons sites in Iraq and that his belief in the importance of one particular site was strengthened when a friend told him that she had a vision of the site in a dream.

Bush's Roadblock at the Security Council
Surveys were conducted months before the war on Iraq which showed that the American people would only support the conflict if there was a danger that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons. Other questions in the poll addressed the issues of humanitarian intervention, Saddam's abysmal human rights record, and the prospect that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. None of these other potential threats mattered to the American people. The only issue that gained majority support for war was whether Saddam had nukes. It's obvious now that the findings of that poll became the cornerstone of the administration's public relations strategy. Bottom line: The Bush-Cheney plans for shaping public opinion will continue to depend on bogus claims about nuclear weapons programs. This explains why the administration and their agents in the MSM are intentionally misleading the public about the true nature of Iran's nuclear program; it is the only way to elicit support for another war of aggression.

Gandhi in California- The 2006 Latino Peace Pilgrimage to End the Iraq War

Seventy-six years ago, on March 12, 1930, Mohandas Gandhi began the Salt Satyagraha, a seemingly quixotic journey of nonviolent protest against omnipotent empire, a march to the sea powered by what Gandhi called his "inner vision." Joined by thousands of ordinary Indians, Gandhi walked 400 kilometers (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat. The British then held a monopoly on salt, and Gandhi knew that the proceeds of the salt tax helped finance the forces of empire at the expense of the impoverished masses-the campesinos. When he arrived at Dandi on the Arabian Sea, Gandhi picked up a grain of salt and spoke prophetic truth to arrogant power: "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire."

Impeach Bush! Sign the Petition!
JohnConyers.com
Demand the Creation of a Congressional Special Committee to Investigate Impeachable Offenses.
This administration must be held accountable for its misdeeds. We have considerable work to do and I am going to need your help to make this effort successful. Join me in sending the message to the President, the media, and the American people that we are not going to stand for an imperial presidency any longer.

See this link to Sign


Feingold Accuses Democrats of 'Cowering'
Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold accused fellow Democrats on Tuesday of cowering rather than joining him on trying to censure President Bush over domestic spying.
"Democrats run and hide" when the administration invokes the war on terrorism, Feingold told reporters.

RAF doctor refused a third tour of duty in 'illegal' war
AN RAF medical officer who refused to return to Iraq for a third tour "honestly" believed that the British military campaign was illegal, a court martial hearing was told yesterday. Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, who is facing five charges of failing to comply with a lawful order, decided that it was his duty to disobey the order, his lawyer said during a pre-trial hearing at Aldershot, Hampshire.

Stop Bush's War
"By some estimates," according to a recent article in Foreign Affairs, "the number of Iraqis who have died as a result of the [U.S.] invasion has reached six figures - vastly more than have been killed by all international terrorists in all of history. Sanctions on Iraq probably were a necessary cause of death for an even greater number of Iraqis, most of them children."

Jessica Simpson snubs Bush

Concerned about politicising her favourite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a invitation to meet with U.S.

President George W. Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed.

Iraq War Resisters Stage 241-Mile Peace March Across U.S.-Mexico Border

On Sunday, a group of anti-war protesters set off on what will be a 241-mile march for peace across the Mexico-US border and through California. At 6:30 Sunday morning the marchers set off from Tijuana Mexico. They crossed the Mexico-US border later that day, and plan to end the march with a rally in the California city of La Paz. Yesterday we reached one of the march's key organizers, Pablo Paredes. An Iraq war resister, Paredes was a Navy petty officer who refused orders to board a ship in 2004 heading to Iraq. We reached Pablo by cell phone as the marchers were leaving a Pendleton, California recruiting station. I asked him to talk about the march and one of the other organizers, Fernando Suarez Del Solar who lost his son in Iraq in 2003.

Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy
By the time the war protesters began their march Saturday morning in Salt Lake City, only about 50 people had gathered. Their numbers had swelled to about 200 by noon - and that was with a little high-tech help from a marcher who text-messaged friends to join him. The early low turnout was discouraging to some, such as Susan Westergard of Holladay. "There's just about more policemen here than people," said the Democratic candidate for the Utah House of Representatives in District 40, nodding to the squadron of eight motorcycle officers parked alongside 400 South. "I guess the longer the war goes on, the more people accept it."

The Merton file - Dissent was once a cherished American value
In George W. Bush's America, it's hard not to sympathize with the folks at the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice. The Pittsburgh advocacy group, which spends much of its time opposing war and violence, released federal documents this week that it says proves the FBI was spying on peace activists here.

Lapham's Case for Impeachment
Harper's editor Lewis Lapham explains why he wrote his provocative essay arguing for the impeachment of George W. Bush. In November 1972 Richard Nixon won 61 percent of the popular vote, carried 49 of 50 states and won the Electoral College 520-17. Yet only three months later the Senate voted 77-0 to hold hearings investigating the Watergate break-in and its coverup -- a bit of petty theft, a campaign dirty trick that could hardly have made the difference in one of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history. A year later the House voted 414-4 that the Judiciary Committee investigate whether there were grounds for impeachment. Three articles of impeachment were eventually approved by the committee, and in August 1974 Nixon resigned before he could actually be impeached.

It's criminal - Impeachment is the only recourse that can bring a halt to the madness in Iraq, and the insanity being planned in Iran and elsewhere.
As America reaches the third anniversary of President Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq, there is for the first time the unsettling realization brought about by the clarity of acts that emerges only after the passage of time that something horrible has happened. This awakening of collective awareness on the part of the American people is reflected not only in the numerous polls which show President Bush's popularity plummeting to all-time lows, largely because of the war in Iraq, but also the collective shrug of the shoulders on the part of the one-time cheerleaders for the war in Iraq -- the mainstream American media -- when covering the hollow rhetoric of the President as he tries to rally a nation around a cause that has long since lost its allure.

Polls show public want Australian troops out of Iraq
A new opinion poll out today suggests that almost two thirds of people in this country want Australian troops to leave Iraq within the next couple months.
The research, by public affairs firm Hawker Britton, was conducted at the same time that Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was announcing that Australian soldiers would remain with the US-led Coalition well into next year. And today the Federal Labor Party has said that Australia's "open commitment" is unwise and that the troops should be brought home. Labor's Defence Spokesman Robert McClelland has been speaking to reporter Gillian Bradford about the survey.

Carlos Santana Speaks Out Against Bush
Carlos Santana quoted his old friend Jimi Hendrix in an anti-war message here Monday and said his philosophy is the antithesis of President George W. Bush's.
"I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing," the 58-year-old rock icon said. "My concept is the opposite of George W. Bush."

CALIFORNIA VOTERS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST STATE'S USE, PURCHASE OF DIEBOLD VOTING SYSTEMS!
As The BRAD BLOG broke yesterday, a lawsuit has today been filed in San Francisco Superior Court demanding that California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson follow state and federal law in regards to his recent re-certification of Diebold voting machines in the state.

Antiwar views grow, but war protests don't
The American public's reaction to the Iraq war appears to hold a paradox: As opinion goes increasingly sour, the numbers of people attending protests seem to be declining. Last weekend marked the three-year anniversary of the war's start, and according to press reports, tens of thousands of people around the world took to the streets to protest. In New York's Times Square, the number was estimated at 1,000. In Chicago, 7,000 people turned out.

Signs Comment: Perhaps if the folks organizing the anti-war protests didn't try to piggy-back all their favourite issues, issues that have nothing to do with Iraq, onto the anti-war movement, they'd attract more crowds. Not that the other issues may not be important, but they will only splinter the anti-war movement.

Bolivia: Water is a human right
Bolivia is refusing to sign an international declaration on the importance of clean water because it falls short of calling access to it a human right. The Bolivian water minister said on Monday that La Paz wanted to call supplies of clean water a human right in a document to be signed at the meeting this week.

Activist sent to Adams jail for refusing to remove shirt
A community activist was jailed Wednesday for 45 days by an Adams County judge for wearing a T-shirt in court with a photograph of executed killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams and the word "redemption." Shareef Aleem, 37, was found in contempt March 1 for wearing the shirt during his trial on charges he assaulted a police officer.

New Mexico Democrats call for Bush impeachment

The New Mexico Democratic Party is calling for President Bush's removal from office.
Party Chairman John Wertheim said Tuesday that delegates to Saturday's state party convention supported a call for the president's impeachment largely because of "perceived abuses of power and corruption in the Bush administration."

America's Blinders
Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?

Signs Comment: We think that there are one or two other ideas that are even more subversive than the idea that there are classes and class interest in the United States, but just making that point might open some people's eyes to other issues, such as 9/11 and US and Israeli involvement.  From there to an openness to ponder a question such as "Are we someone else's experiment?", we might wait awhile.

Republican congressman warns that US regime is too powerful
Imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America. The disastrous foreign policies of the US have left it more isolated than ever, and China is standing by to take over. 'Our power, then, has the grave liability of rendering our theories about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily discerned warning signs, we may ignore long-term costs that result from our actions and dismiss reverses that should lead to a re-examination of our goals and means." These are the words of Henry Hyde, chairman of the House international relations committee and a Republican congressman, in a recent speech. Hyde argues that such is the overweening power of the US that it may not hear or recognise the signals when its policy goes badly wrong, a thinly veiled reference to Iraq.

Top U.S. court being asked to curb Bush's powers

The Supreme Court of the United States was set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that may determine what limits, if any, should be placed on the wartime powers of an American president.

Towns, Cities Pass Resolutions Urging Impeachment
Brattleboro, Vermont, has joined nine other towns and cities, five state Democratic parties, and 19 local Democratic committees in passing resolutions urging the impeachment of President Bush and -- in most cases -- Vice President Cheney.

Parliament vigil man is arrested
"We're killing each other - dropping bombs on our children. Someone somewhere has to do something to stop this madness."

Blast from the past
I was reading all about Alex Baldwin's run-in with Sean Hannity last night when I got one of those little shots of deja vu all over again:

Time to Talk War Crimes
In a world where might did not make right, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their key enablers would be in shackles before a war crimes tribunal at the Hague, rather than sitting in the White House, 10 Downing Street or some other comfortable environs in Washington and London.

History is Now

George Bush again has said he'll be "judged by history." How convenient. This means that he isn't judging himself. In other words, he's sleeping great. There's no self examination. No making amends. But what exactly does it mean when someone who makes decisions of epic proportion leaves the onus of verdict to history? What is history and when does it begin? Is it there ready to evaluate soon after a decision is made, acted on, almost immediately after the results of that choice are known? Or does history wait to wield its hammer after a president is out of office? Richard Nixon received the blow before his presidency was supposed to expire. Certainly, George W. Bush should face a world jury for crimes that would have the signers of our Constitution spinning in their graves. How long do we have to wait for history to determine the failure of this man?

The Mad Hatters

In July I will be 85 if I live that long and never in my life have I felt more like Lewis Caroll's Alice as she stepped into the mirror and entered Wonderland. It is not just that the corporations stole an election and gave us a mental defective for a president. It is a population that, pro or con, accepts the absurd idea that we are at war in Iraq. Even the bloody battles in Korea against Chinese and North Korean tanks was called a "police action". The bloody attack shown to the world on television and proudly called "Shock and Awe" was done without any declaration of war. The present illegal occupation of Iraq is called a war and the moronic president is assuming all of the powers, and more, of a wartime president while Congress refuses his challenge to the Constitution. There have been other illegal incursions and undeclared wars, Vietnam for example; but at least they were fighting a well organized military organization.

How French Protesters May Get Their Way

The outcome of the high-stakes conflict will be decided in the courts
It's rare that any politician actually wants to see their landmark pieces of legislation overturned by courts, but that is the unique, unenviable position French prime minister Dominique de Villepin now finds himself in. Pressure on de Villepin to ditch a controversial labor law grew dramatically Tuesday, when nation-wide protests produced an unexpectedly high turnout of nearly three million demonstrators. In Paris alone, more than a million transport workers, civil servants, and an array of public sector employees heeded union calls to stay away from work and join demonstrating high school and college students. But ironically, the outcome in this high-drama showdown - and perhaps the survival of the de Villepin government - will be decided neither in the streets, nor in the corridors of power. Instead, the disputed law's fate will soon be determined when an independent commission issues its ruling on whether the law is even constitutional.

Big pensions strike hits UK schools, travel

Up to 1.5 million local government workers went on strike across Britain on Tuesday, closing thousands of schools and disrupting travel in a growing row over pensions.
Eleven labor unions combined to stage the 24-hour protest which they said would be the biggest strike since 1926.
They intend to make it the first in a series of demonstrations against a plan to force some public sector employees to work longer, or face a reduced pension if they retire at 60.


Euphemistically Speaking
During times of war, keeping track of the administration's euphemisms is a big part of understanding the political reality.

George Bush is LAUGHING at you if you aren't speaking out for CENSURE
ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/censure.php
Why does George Bush feel he can just laugh off the laws passed by Congress and even the Constitution itself? He did it AGAIN by attaching a so-called signing statement to the renewal of the Patriot Act, reserving the right to DISREGARD even the minimal reporting requirements that Congress had the temerity to impose. Who is going to challenge him? He's not just laughing at the legislature. If you do not speak out now, he is laughing at YOU. He is laughing at you because you complain about the fact that nobody in Congress has any backbone, and yet when someone DOES stand up you do nothing to speak out and support them, and to encourage others to do the same. He is laughing at you because a million mostly NON-citizens got off their butts over the weekend and killed HR 4437 in the Judiciary Committee literally overnight, the same Judiciary Committee that will be considering his censure this very Friday. And yet most of you continue to do nothing. Yes, George Bush is laughing at you.

'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'
They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of veterans of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the third anniversary of the invasion this month, a group of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.




World News

Australia: We Knew of Iraq, U.N. Concerns over Kickbacks
Australia's prime minister confirmed Wednesday his government knew of U.N. concerns that the country's monopoly wheat exporter might be paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime to secure lucrative contracts.


B.C.'s top cop acknowledges there may be a serial killer in northern B.C.
British Columbia's top cop acknowledges some of the killings along the so-called Highway of Tears may show signs of a serial killer, though RCMP haven't found much evidence.


Libertad? Maybe - Puerto Rican independence activists rally 'round an FBI crackdown

On September 23, 1868, a gutsy band of Puerto Rican nationalists launched a revolt against their Spanish rulers. The uprising failed within 24 hours. On September 23, 2005, FBI agents shot and killed a fugitive Puerto Rican independence leader. Now New York's independista community is hoping that anger over that death ends Puerto Rico's 100-plus years as a U.S. possession.

Serbia to be first nation charged with genocide

Serbia will come under intense international scrutiny today as it becomes the first nation to defend genocide charges, while separately facing censure for failing to surrender war crimes suspects. Belgrade will be accused at the International Court of Justice of sponsoring ethnic cleansing in the 1990s which led to the worst massacres on European soil since the Second World War. Previously, only individuals have been charged with genocide, the most serious war crime.

ECB raises rates as eurozone recovery gathers pace

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its key interest rates for the second time in three months to keep inflation in check as economic recovery in the 12-country eurozone gathers pace.


Generals from Koreas hold talks to ease tensions (Reuters)
North and South Korean generals began rare talks on Thursday on reducing military tensions and building confidence to help improve cross-border ties, a South Korean official said.


Vietnam Commutes Aussie's Death Sentence

Vietnam announced Thursday it has commuted the death sentence of a convicted Australian drug trafficker to life imprisonment after heavy lobbying by the Australian government.


Iran to meet EU envoys for last-ditch nuclear talks
Iran's top nuclear negotiator is to meet with the British, French and German foreign ministers Friday in a last-minute move ahead of possible UN action over Tehran's atomic program.


Prisoners loyal to Al-Qaeda seize police hostages in Jordan riots

Rioting inmates held Jordan prison officials hostage demanding to be united with death row convicts and to release an Iraqi would-be suicide bomber linked to Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Bomb hits Canadian convoy in Afghanistan, eight Taliban killed

A suicide car bomb wounded five coalition soldiers in southern Afghanistan while eight Taliban fighters were killed and four police wounded in a separate incident.


Dozens rescued in Italian avalanche

Dozens of people were rescued from an avalanche that swept down a mountain near Italy's border with France but at least one person is still missing, Italian media reported.


Russian stock market fever raises government fear of 'bubble'

A record-shattering expansion of the Russian stock market over more than a year may have reached a ceiling and is beginning to worry the Russian government, which said that it feared the creation of a financial bubble.


Korea's bid for truth and reconciliation

The Christian Science Monitor - Near the notorious former headquarters of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), investigators pore over a turbulent historical record - abuses of political prisoners, collaboration with Japanese occupiers, massacres of civilians in the Korean War.

US Envoy Accuses China Over Product Piracy

China is failing to do enough to prevent growing product piracy and could be forced to answer formal complaints over it in the World Trade Organization if it doesn't take more aggressive action, a U.S. trade envoy said Friday.


Party Urges Germany to Address Iraq Intel

An opposition party on Thursday warned it may trigger a parliamentary probe of German intelligence operations in the Iraq war unless the government addresses more fully a report that its spies passed Iraqi defense plans to U.S. forces.


Bolivia's Morales Accuses US of Blackmail
Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the United States of "blackmail, threats and intimidation" on Monday for withdrawing anti-terrorism funding from the poor South American country, the official news service ABI reported.
Morales, a coca farmer who once described his socialist movement as a "nightmare for the U.S.," said the U.S. military told Bolivian military chiefs last week the country was no longer seen as a suitable partner in the war on terrorism. "Because we don't accept vetoes or the change of a commander, blackmail comes from the U.S. armed forces," Morales was quoted as saying, referring to perceived U.S. interference in the Bolivian military.

Uzbek rights activist sentenced to eight years in prison

A prominent Uzbek human rights activist has been sentenced to eight years in prison for "anti-government activity"
and receiving money from Western governments to disrupt public order, rights groups and her lawyer said.

Annan seeks authority to outsource some UN services - report

UN chief Kofi Annan is to propose that some non-core UN administrative services be relocated or outsourced in a management report to be unveiled Tuesday.
"While the character of the UN and the sensitivity of some of its tasks means that a core group of functions should always be carried out by a dedicated core of international civil servants at headquarters, there are non-core functions for which other options should be seriously examined," according to an executive summary of the report.

Third blast hits Ethiopian capital

A third blast struck the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday, exploding outside the gate of a hotel and tourism training center, a Reuters witness said.
No one was injured in the blast, which damaged a small guard shack at the gate. It followed two other explosions earlier in the city. One outside a restaurant injured four people, while another in a market caused no injuries.

Tokyo approves plan to fingerprint, photograph foreign visitors

Japan's government has approved a controversial plan to fingerprint and photograph most foreign visitors in a bid to tighten security and prevent extremist attacks.

China Boosts Defense Spending Another 15 Percent

The strategic significance for Asia of the nuclear cooperation deal signed with India last week in New Delhi by U.S. President George W. Bush was underlined Saturday by the announcement that China's military budget for the coming year will rise by almost 15 percent. This is the 18th consecutive year of double-digit growth in China's defense budget, which officials from the Pentagon and from India's RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) intelligence service agree is now the second largest in the world after the U.S. defense budget of $450 billion.

Frances Thales Plans Takeover Of Australias Largest Defence Manufacturer
French defence giant Thales announced plans Saturday for a complete takeover of Australia's largest military manufacturer ADI, in a move that could raise concerns in Washington. Thales and Australian construction giant Transfield currently each own a half share in ADI, which was privatised by the Australian government in 1999 for almost 350 million dollars (260 million US).

Villepin vows not to back down as unions threaten strike over French jobs plan
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed not to back down on his contested youth jobs plan, the day after violent protests and as union leaders threatened to call a general strike.
Villepin called for giving his controversial First Employment Contract (CPE) "a chance", while adding that he "regretted" it was misunderstood.

Revolution? No thanks, say France's young protesters
Tear gas. Students clashing with police around the famed Sorbonne university in Paris. Barricades in the capital's streets. Is March 2006 proving to be May 1968 all over again?
So far, no. While comparisons between the student protests of then and now are tempting, they are also misleading.


Napoleon seeks his empire
As a growing tide of insecurity sweeps France, Nicolas Sarkozy, the maverick, right-wing politician,is as much talked about in cafes and gossip columns for his tangled private life with his 'Josephine' as his ambition to be the next President

Demonstrator still in coma, police deny responsibility
A demonstrator who was hospitalised after Saturday's disturbances in Paris over the French government's youth jobs plan remained in a coma on Tuesday, as a row broke out over how he received his injuries. Cyril Ferez, a 39 year-old member of the SUD PTT union, was trampled underfoot in a charge by police against rioters in the Place de la Nation, according to the union.

France PM says would consider changes over job law

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Tuesday there could be flexibility over a key element of a controversial youth job law by cutting the length of a trial period from 2 years.
"Social partners have the complete freedom to reduce this (trial) period in those sectors where it would be most relevant," he said in the text of a speech to deputies of his ruling UMP party. Under the law employers can fire people under 26 at any time during a two-year trial period without giving a reason but hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest, saying the law would increase job insecurity.


Most French back total ban on smoking in public places: poll

Most French people support the ideaof a total ban on smoking in public places, a government poll showed on Friday.


Thinking like the French

Michael, a sales manager in the French office of a multinational, recounts his experience with a commercial prospect: "After I laid out the benefits and attributes of our new services, I was told that these would never work. Hearing that, I left only to learn later that they were actually quite interested in what we were developing. How do you explain that? Why is it that the French seem so negative?!!!"

Commuters hit by French strikes
Commuters in France are facing major disruption after transport workers joined a nationwide strike against the controversial new youth employment law. Large parts of the country's rail, bus and air networks have been shut down, causing severe delays. More than 100 demonstrations are expected as public and private sector workers join students in calling for the government to scrap the contracts.

State Dept. Warns of Violence in France
Three days before a visit to Paris by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the State Department warned Americans of violent protests in France and advised travelers to avoid city crowds. The security alert Monday advised Americans traveling or living in France to "avoid areas where crowds are expected to gather" and use caution because of sometimes violent demonstrations in Paris and other large cities over a divisive youth jobs law. Rice will be in Paris on Thursday for talks with President Jacques Chirac on the Iranian nuclear standoff and other topics. She will only be in the city for a few hours and will not stay overnight.

Signs Comment:
Perhaps the US State Department is unaware that protests are an integral part of French culture. Then again, the trial of Moussaoui is big news in the US right now, and he just happens to be French. Coincidence? We think not.

Scuffles erupt at Paris protest

Scuffles have broken out in Paris as thousands of people protest across France against the government's controversial youth employment laws.

Unions claim three million on streets of France

A French union leader said three million people took to the streets of France against the government's youth jobs law Tuesday, describing it as a "historic" figure.

Villepin, Sarkozy diverge on solutions to CPE crisis

Tensions deepened inside France's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party Tuesday after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's methods for introducing a controversial youth jobs law were contested by his powerful number two, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Chirac presses on with labour reforms despite street protests

Despite signs of spreading youth unrest, President Jacques Chirac is expected to sign into law today the "easy hire, easy fire" jobs contract for the young which has plunged France into political and social crisis. But President Chirac - in a gamble which may backfire - is expected to call an immediate "social" conference to try to negotiate a replacement for the law that he will have just signed.

Chirac to back job law on TV

French President Jacques Chirac addresses the nation on Friday and is expected to back a youth job law that has driven millions to protest, rather than drop it and risk losing his prime minister. A top court, the Constitutional Council, on Thursday dismissed legal challenges to the CPE First Job Contract, handing the baton to the president. Parliamentary sources said they expected him to sign the law which includes the CPE before explaining his decision on television at 1:00 p.m. EST. If he signs, Chirac is likely to face more protests. If he withdraws the law, he could lose conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, a long-time ally seen as the man he would like eventually to succeed him.

Fighting in Pakistan Leaves 100 Dead

Authorities imposed a curfew in this tribal region's main town Monday as thousands of people fled a third day of clashes between Pakistani security forces and al-Qaida and Taliban supporters. An official said at least 100 militants may have been killed.
Clerics tried to mediate a cease-fire to the fighting, most of which has been in Miran Shah. Security forces conducted mop-up operations Monday after artillery and helicopter gunships targeted militant strongholds in the town. More than 100 militants might have died, based on intelligence reports and questioning of injured and arrested fighters, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. Security forces had yet to regain control of all compounds in Miran Shah, so he could not give an exact toll. Journalists were barred from the town.

Pakistan battles the forces within
Protests against the administration of President General Pervez Musharraf and against the US took off in Pakistan about a month ago in the guise of rallies denouncing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. These protests have now reached the stronghold of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan: the self-proclaimed "Islamic State of North Waziristan", a volatile tribal area on the border with Afghanistan. For the past few days this region has been the scene of fierce battles between the Pakistani armed forces and the Taliban and their supporters. This, analysts believe, is the starting point of taking the nascent Tehrik -i-Nizam- i-Mustafa movement to other areas in Pakistan, that is, to enforce the Prophet Mohammed's way of life, or sharia law, on society. Underground Islamic radical groups will surface in support of this struggle that could ultimately lead to the ousting of the Musharraf government.

Signs Comment: And what will happen if the Musharraf government falls to the Taliban? Well, obviously: Taliban with Nukes. Now that's not a very pleasant thought.

U.N. expert: Cuban dissidents suffering
A U.N. human rights expert said Tuesday the number of Cuban dissidents arrested and sentenced to long terms increased in 2005, claiming "extreme tension" with the United States had played a role in hampering freedom of expression on the island. Christine Chanet, a French jurist who is the U.N. Human Rights Commission's expert on Cuba, said in a new report that tightened U.S. sanctions have made life more difficult for Cubans in general and political opponents to President Fidel Castro in particular. "United States laws and the funding provided for building democracy in Cuba make members of the political opposition on the island appear to be sympathetic to foreign influences and provide the Cuban authorities with an opportunity to tighten repression against them," she said.

Belmarsh 'at full stretch' with Muslims on terror charges
One of Britain's highest-profile jails is at "full stretch" to deal with the number of Muslim inmates facing terrorism charges, the Chief Inspector of Prisons warned today. Anne Owers raised fears about the treatment of Muslim prisoners at Belmarsh maximum security jail in London - including the men accused of the 21 July attempted bombings.

U.S. More Intent on Blocking Chavez - Venezuela's leader seeks to rally opposition to Washington as elections near in the region.

The Bush administration is stepping up efforts to counter leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he builds opposition to U.S. influence in Latin America.
U.S. diplomats have sought in recent years to mute their conflicts with Chavez, fearing that a war of words with the flamboyant populist could raise his stature at home and abroad. But in recent months, as Chavez has sharpened his attacks - and touched American nerves by increasing ties with Iran - American officials have become more outspoken about their intention to isolate him. Signaling the shift, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress last month that the United States was actively organizing other countries to carry out an "inoculation strategy" against what it sees as meddling by Chavez.

Berlusconi faces corruption charge

Prosecutors in Milan say they have requested that Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi be indicted on charges of corruption. Berlusconi is accused of ordering the payment of at least $600,000 to British lawyer David Mills - whose indictment also was being sought - in 1997 in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony in two trials against Berlusconi. Both men deny the allegations.

UK cited for 'obsessive' anti-Semitism
It turns out that joining the EU hasn't been the only thing to draw England closer to continental Europe. For the first time since the Middle Ages, England is exhibiting classic "obsessive" anti-Semitism until now reserved for its neighbors across the channel, according to a British anti-Semitism expert. Robert Wistrich, who heads the Hebrew University's Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, pointed to recent characterizations of Jews as the cabal behind the Iraq war and anti-Israel rhetoric leading to activities such as boycotts.

Signs Comment: There's an old saying... "if the shoe fits..."

De Menezes Case: Senior officers: we knew wrong man was shot

An official inquiry into the Stockwell tube station shooting has received evidence from senior police officers raising questions about Sir Ian Blair's account of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes and its aftermath, the Guardian has learned. The commissioner of the Metropolitan police has repeatedly said that he was unaware that the victim was not a suicide bomber until 24 hours after the Brazilian was shot on July 22 2005, a day after several attempted attacks on the London transport system by terrorists. But several witnesses have told the Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry that senior officers feared within hours of the shooting that the wrong man had been killed after being mistaken for a terrorist.

Revealed: Maxwell was under investigation for war crimes - Police files cast new light on mystery of tycoon's death

Robert Maxwell was being investigated for war crimes and was to be interviewed by police just before he mysteriously drowned 15 years ago.
Revelations that Maxwell, a captain in the British Army, knew he faced a possible life sentence for murdering an unarmed German civilian in 1945 lend support to the theory that he took his own life in 1991. A Metropolitan Police file released to The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act shows that, weeks before he died, detectives had begun questioning members of Maxwell's platoon and were preparing a case for the Crown Prosecution Service. Maxwell would have been told about the inquiry and knew that, if found guilty, he would be the first Briton to be prosecuted for war crimes. The War Crimes Act 1991 was enacted just six months before Maxwell's body was found floating in the Atlantic on 5 November after disappearing from his yacht, the Lady Ghislane.

Slobodan Milosevic Found Dead in Cell

Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, who was branded "the butcher of the Balkans" and was on trial for war crimes after orchestrating a decade of bloodshed during the breakup of his country, was found dead Saturday in his prison cell. He was 64.
Milosevic, who suffered chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure, apparently died of natural causes and was found in his bed, the U.N. tribunal said, without giving an exact time of death.


Milosevic Last Letter Sent to Russian FM Says He Feared Poisoning
Slobodan Milosevic sent a letter to Russia on Friday stating he had been given the wrong drugs, his lawyer quoted by Reuters said on Sunday.
Lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic, who showed a copy of the hand-written letter to journalists at the U.N. tribunal, said the former Yugoslavia president had asked the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for help, a day before he was found dead. Tomanovic gave no further details.

Russia Does Not Trust Milosevic Autopsy Results - Foreign Minister

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia doesn't fully trust Milosevic's autopsy and wanted to send doctors to examine the body, agencies reported Monday.

Was Serbia a Practice Run for Iraq?

On March 11, the former Serbian leader and president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, died in his prison cell at the Hague, where he had been on trial for four years and one month for war crimes and genocide. The Serbian Socialist Party leader Zoran Andelkovic responded to the news of Milosevic's death with the following statement: "Slobodan Milosevic, the president of the Socialist Party of Serbia and a former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia was murdered today at the Tribunal in Hague. The decision of the Tribunal to disallow Milosevic's medical treatment at the Bakunin Institute in Moscow represents a prescribed death sentence against Milosevic. Truth and justice were on his side and this is why they have used a strategy of gradual killing of Slobodan Milsosevic. The responsibility for his death is clearly with the Hague Tribunal."

Slobo Can't Talk Any More

Slobodan Milosevic is characterized in the obituaries as the "Butcher of the Balkans." If that is the story you want to read about, please go to almost any other media outlet and read it again and again. Some are now suggesting that death is Milosevic's final revenge, that he "ended up cheating history" by dying before judgment was passed. But the world has already passed judgment on Milosevic and what is being cheated by his death is history itself.

Milosevic 'took rogue drug on purpose'

Slobodan Milosevic deliberately took a drug that neutralised the effects of his heart medicine, an expert who examined his blood has said.

Milosevic said doctors were killing him

The death of Slobodan Milosevic was shrouded in mystery and deepening controversy on Sunday night as Dutch pathologists examined his corpse and it emerged that he had claimed he was being slowly killed by doctors. Milosevic's body was removed from the detention centre at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague to The Netherlands forensic institute for a post-mortem examination and toxicological testing. On Sunday night a preliminary post-mortem report said that he had died of heart failure. His remains were to be released to his family on Monday.

UN war crimes tribunal denies request for Milosevic autopsy in Moscow
The U.N. war crimes tribunal saidon Saturday it had denied a request by Slobodan Milosevic's lawyerto have the autopsy of the former Yugoslavia president conducted in Moscow instead of The Hague.
A tribunal official also declined to comment on a claim by Milosevic's lawyer that he had been poisoned while in jail.

Lavrov: Russian Federation does not trust results of Milosevic's Autopsy
Today Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov demanded that a Russian team of medicians could conduct an additional autopsy of the corpse, a request that was already done by Milosevic's lawyers, but refused by the UN-tribunal until now: "...Russia has the right not to trust to the results of the expertise concerning the reasons of death of the ex-President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic", the head of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov stated on Monday. He reminded that Russia was ready to guarantee, that Slobodan Milosevic would return to the Hague after the treatment on the Russian territory, but International Court considered these guarantees to be insufficient. "In fact, they did not believe Russia... In the situation, when Russia was not trusted, we also have the right not to trust. We have already appealed to the tribunal with the request to let our specialists participate in the examination or, at least, let them study its results ", said the minister to journalists....

'Leprosy drug in Milosevic's blood'
Traces of a drug used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis were found in a blood sample taken in recent months from former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a news report has said. The report came hours after Milosevic's legal adviser revealed a letter the late Serb leader wrote on Friday, one day before his body was discovered in prison, alleging that he was being poisoned.

Why Milosevic Was Murdered- Tinpot dictator blew the whistle on the New World Order

Slobodan Milosevic was a distasteful man with authoritarian Communist ideals. But the reasons for his obvious murder revolve around his evergreen willingness to blow the whistle on the global criminal masterminds who had made the mistake of giving 'Slobo' a speaking platform in the first place. Just two days after Milosevic's death the evidence indicating murder has poured in. - Milosevic wrote a letter one day before his death claiming he was being poisoned to death in jail. The lawyer who advised Milosevic during his trial, Azdenko Tomanovic (pictured below) , showed journalists a handwritten letter in which Milosevic wrote: "They would like to poison me. I'm seriously concerned and worried." - Blood tests show that Milosevic's body contained a drug that rendered his usual medication for high blood pressure and his heart condition ineffective, causing the heart attack that led to his death.

Milosevic's Son Says Father Was 'Killed'

Slobodan Milosevic's son alleged Tuesday that his father had been "killed," while a U.N. war crimes tribunal official said the court had been told that the late Serb leader had regular access to unprescribed medication and alcohol smuggled into his prison cell.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the tribunal's strict confidentiality rules, told The Associated Press that the unit's prison warden had told the court that he could no longer guarantee Milosevic's health.


DPRK accuses U.S. of "fabricating misinformation" on drug trafficking
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday accused the United States of fabricating allegations of drug trafficking against it after a group of people from the east Asian country were acquitted of narcotics crimes in an Australian court.


Chavez flies the flag for change

The Venezuelan president has made changes to the nation's flag, changes foes reject as Hugo Chavez's personal whim.

China stakes its Middle East claim
Two regions have emerged as the most likely sources of great-power conflict in the 21st century. The first is the Middle East, which is the focal point for the US-led "war on terror". The region is important both as part of a global ideological struggle against Islamist extremism and in the quest for oil and gas resources. The second is Asia, as the rise of China presents competition for both intangible and material resources on the world stage.

Three Die in N.J. Plane Fireball

Three people were killed when a private twin- engine plane crashed in flames just outside the airport in Old Bridge, N.J., last night, authorities said. Two teenagers were seriously injured in the crash at 10.50 p.m. and were taken to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. "It's a pretty horrific scene," said Police Lt. Robert Weiss. It wasn't clear if the pilot had been trying to land or had just taken off as the plane circled the airport then went down in an empty field, witnesses said. The plane crashed near Raceway Park Speedway and not far from a residential area.

Russia's Refusal to Recognize Katyn Massacre Shocks Polish Leaders
Spokesman for Polish President Lech Kaczynski Maciej Lopinski has said that the Russian chief Military Prosecutor's Office failure to recognize Katyn crime victims as victims of Stalinist's repression was "shocking", the Polish PAP news agency reported. "This is all the more shocking that earlier the Russian chief military prosecutor's office maintained that the Katyn crime was not genocide but a simple homicide," Lopinski told journalists. He announced that Poland would not cease to bring the truth about Katyn to light.

Thai polls in doubt after hundreds banned
Next month's Thailand election have been thrown into doubt after hundreds of candidates were banned from standing, as the country's embattled premier said he would consider stepping aside temporarily.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called the April 2 poll early in hopes of ending weeks of political turmoil that have seen mass protests in the streets calling for his resignation. But after a boycott left nearly one-third of the candidates for parliament running unopposed, an election commission official said that about the same number had also been barred from standing.

Prodi on top in first TV election debate with Berlusconi

Former European Commission president Romano Prodi appeared the clear winner over Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in their first prime-time TV debate ahead of next month's legislative elections. As the two coalition leaders went head-to-head under the studio lights on Tuesday, commentators were generally agreed that Prodi came over as serene and confident while Berlusconi appeared to be on the defensive, flicking nervous smiles at the camera.

One dead in booby-trapped car in Paris suburb

A man was killed and another wounded when a bomb went off in a booby-trapped car that was being driven in the northern Paris suburbs, police said Wednesday.


Canada, Get Out of Afghanistan

Scattered across South Africa's windswept veldt are the forgotten graves of 266 Canadian soldiers killed from 1899–1902 fighting to impose British Imperial rule on fiercely resisting Boer farmers.
A century later, Canadian troops have again been sent to fight as auxiliaries in another remote war – this time Afghanistan. Since time immemorial, when great emperors went to war, they summoned contingents of their vassals and tributaries to their standards. So it was in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, when the U.S. decided to invade those nations and demand its allies join the so-called "war on terrorism." Under irresistible pressure from Washington to aid its highly unpopular military expeditions in either Iraq or Afghanistan, America's allies and NATO partners opted for the lesser evil, Afghanistan. That is why 2,100 Canadian troops have ended up in a nation in which Canada has absolutely no strategic, commercial, cultural or emotional interests.


Interview by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Sergei Martynov to "Los Angeles Times" Newspaper
Los Angeles Times:
I think you are already quite aware of the article that I am pursuing. We came here because, ironically, Belarus is a pretty small country, and yet we have president of my country commenting about it. Obviously, there is something bigger at stake here. Could you comment on that?
Sergei Martynov:
To answer your question I would first say that yes, Belarus is not a large country, but it is indeed an important country, which sits at a strategic crossroads in Europe. This is one of the reasons for this attention. And we I say "at a strategic crossroads", I have in mind a couple of things. First of all, if you, for example, take a ruler and apply it to the map from Berlin to Moscow, it will not go through Kiev, Riga or Vilnius, it will go through Belarus.

Interview by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Sergei Martynov to "Associated Press" News Agency
Associated Press:
So we will begin. I guess you have seen the questions already. To begin with, reading the Foreign Ministry's web-site I have seen that Belarus is emphasizing good relations with neighbouring countries. You are bordering many countries that are sceptical about Belarus' commitment to democracy and human rights. Does this scepticism of your neighbours impede your foreign policy, and what is Belarus doing to try to overcome this scepticism?
Sergei Martynov:
You are right in terms that one of the priorities of the Belarusian foreign policy is having good relationship with the neighbors. In fact we have a goal of having what we call a "belt of good neighborliness" around Belarus, and we believe that this belt is very much achieved. Yes, not many but some of our neighbors have differences with us on the subjects you mentioned. But we believe that these differences largely result from the fact that these nations are members of larger alliances, which have their common foreign policy or at least aspire to have a common foreign policy. Therefore the stance of those countries is not always what you might term an independent stance.

Belarus incumbent president wins re-election

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko won re-election in Sunday's presidential vote, the Central Election Commission said early Monday.

"Alexander Lukashenko has won the election," with 82.6 percent of the vote, Lidia Yermoshina, chairwoman of the commission, told a press conference.

Protesters defy Belarus authorities for third day of rallies against election

Temperatures plunged. Then it began snowing. But when dawn broke Tuesday in Belarus, they were still there - a few hundred determined demonstrators huddled around a dozen small tents on Minsk's central square.
The protesters are trying to mimic techniques that worked in neighbouring Ukraine, where crowds of 100,000 or more jammed the centre of the capital for weeks in December 2004, forcing a rerun of a flawed presidential election.

Eta 'announce permanent cease-fire' - report
The Basque separatist group Eta today announced a permanent cease-fire. It apparently brings a dramatic end to nearly four decades of violence in Spain that claimed more than 800 lives, Basque TV reported. The authenticity of the announcement could not immediately be verified, but Eta often uses local Basque media outlets to issue statements. The group said the cease-fire would start on Friday, and that it would be "permanent".

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams detained in US 'terror watch'

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was detained at a Washington airport yesterday after attending a meeting of Irish leaders with US President George Bush, causing him to miss a scheduled St. Patrick's Day appearance in Buffalo, a congressman said. Adams' name, and that of a travelling companion, appeared on a terror watch list at Reagan National Airport, triggering a lengthy inspection, said Congressman Brian Higgins, a New York Democrat who had invited Adams to speak at the Buffalo Irish Centre.

Smoke at nuclear power plant facility in Japan injures workers
Smoke poured out of a nuclear power plant facility in western Japan, but no radiation leakage was reported, an official said. Two workers were injured after inhaling smoke.


Argentina to open secret archives
Argentina has decided to make public all secret archives of the armed forces to help uncover human rights violations committed under military rule.

Chile Bus Crash Kills 12 American Tourists

A bus carrying cruise ship tourists plunged off a highway in northern Chile and tumbled 300 feet down a mountainside Wednesday, killing 12 Americans, U.S. and Chilean officials said.
Two other U.S. tourists and two Chileans - the driver and the tour guide - were hospitalized in serious condition, said Juan Carlos Poli, a city hall spokesman in the Pacific port city of Arica. The tourists were returning to Celebrity Cruises' ship Millennium from an excursion to Lauca National Park when the driver swerved to avoid an approaching truck on a rugged highway near Arica, 1,250 miles north of Santiago, he said.


Reheating the Cold War
Three assaults on the Kremlin within the month must be extraordinary even by Cold War standards. They prompted Anatol Lieven, a prominent American scholar on Russia, to pose a rhetorical question: "Why are we trying to reheat the Cold War?"

Somali warlords battle Islamists

Heavy fighting is continuing in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, between warlords and an armed Islamist group.

Berlusconi sees conspiracy to oust him from power
THE Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is finding the going tough as next month's election approaches. Mr Berlusconi has lost two ministers, is trailing in the polls and has performed poorly in a debate with his main challenger. One of his ministers was accused of phone-tapping political opponents, while the other flashed an anti-Islam T-shirt on TV. This minister, Roberto Calderoli, was responsible for a last-minute change in the electoral law to restore a system of proportional voting widely seen as favouring Mr Berlusconi. However, since resigning Mr Calderoli has said it is a "swinish" law.

Berlusconi Warns Against Multiculturalism

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he does not want Italy to become a multiethnic, multicultural country, drawing plaudits from a right-wing ally and criticism from center-left opponents.
Berlusconi, a conservative, faces a stiff challenge in next month's national election, with opinion polls putting him behind his opponent, former premier Romano Prodi.


Battles after Belarus' election are over: Lukashenko

Belarussian president-elect Alexander Lukashenko announced on Tuesday "all political battles after the March 19 presidential poll are over."

"At present, peace and order is ensured in Belarus after casual outbreaks of unrest that were promptly and effectively eliminated by law enforcers," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.

Bus plunge kills 25, injures 4 in southwest China

A bus plunged into a deep valley in southwest China on Tuesday, killing 25 people and injuring four, Xinhua news agency said.
The bus carrying 29 people tumbled into a valley more than 100 meters (109 yards) deep in Laodian, a town in the province of Yunnan, Xinhua said, quoting a local official. One of the injured was in a critical condition, it said. China's roads are the deadliest in the world. Traffic accidents killed almost 100,000 people last year, or 270 a day.


Peru's Humala on top in another presidential poll
Nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala, campaigning to increase state control over the economy, is leading polls ahead of Peru's presidential election on April 9, a Datum survey showed on Tuesday.


Indonesia, Britain to fight terrorism together: Blair
Britain and Indonesia have both been the victims of terrorist atrocities and must join together to fight the scourge of Islamic militancy, Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
Blair was speaking at a press conference in Jakarta after talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on a visit billed as recognising Indonesia as a moderate, democratic Muslim country that wants to engage the West.

Charles Taylor arrested but trial still months away

Liberian former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor was in custody in Sierra Leone after been arrested in Nigeria following a failed bid to escape trial for crimes against humanity.
Taylor, 58, was captured early Wednesday on Nigeria's border with Cameroon as he attempted to flee the country which had offered him exile since 2003.


Putin Stresses Russias Need For Nuclear Deterrent
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his country needed to maintain a nuclear deterrent to guarantee its security, Russian news agencies reported. "An analysis of the international situation forces Russia to view the nuclear deterrent as a fundamental necessity for security," Ria Novosti quoted Putin during a meeting about the nuclear defence industry.
"Keeping a minimum supply of nuclear warheads and maintaining our nuclear deterrent is a priority for Russia.




Quirks

'Curtain' Of 2 Million Bees Swarm Fla. House
A neighborhood in South Florida is asking for help after a swarm of more than 2 million bees was found at a nearby vacant house, according to a Local 6 News report.
An elderly man who lived inside the South Miami home died last year. And since his death, the house has deteriorated and become overrun with bees.


Texas' Blood-Sucking Monster - El Chupacabra's Popularity Has Spread to Art Exhibits, Films
In south Texas, its frightening name resurfaces in the news every few months - especially after another neighborhood pet or farm animal mysteriously dies. "El Chupacabra," they say, "is back." Parents are cautious, warning their children to stay inside at night or risk a face-to-fang encounter with the chupacabra - a red-eyed, spiky-haired, blood-sucking creature with a green-blue tint to its hide.

Signs Comment: The most dangerous blood sucking monster to come out of Texas is George W. Bush. He's worse than ten-thousand Chupacabras!

UPDATE: Peanut kiss did not kill Quebec teen: coroner
A Quebec teen with a severe peanut allergy did not die from kissing her boyfriend following his snack of peanut butter, a coroner has confirmed.
Michel Miron says the sudden death of fifteen-year-old Christina Desforges in November 2005 was not caused by a peanut butter sandwich.
The tragedy made headlines around the world. Miron would not reveal the official cause of the teenager's death because he said he hadn't yet submitted his final report and is still waiting on some test results.

Caves of mystery at Huashan
IS it simply a coincidence or do certain laws of nature lie behind the phenomenon? A new mystery has recently been uncovered on the 30 degrees Northern Latitude, following upon other great mysteries such as the pyramids, Noah's ark and the Bermuda Triangle. The new finding on this mysterious latitude is to do with the ancient Mystical Caves at Huashan, near the famous Huangshan Mountain in China's Anhui Province. Although tests on chiselled stones showed that the caves have existed for at least 1,500 years, it was only about 15 months ago that they were first discovered by a local farmer, by accident.


The Physics of Friendship
By comparing people to mobile particles randomly bouncing off each other, scientists have developed a new model for social networks. The model fits with empirical data to naturally reproduce the community structure, clustering and evolution of general acquaintances and even sexual contacts.

Blessing of Da Vinci date error
DAN BROWN got a date wrong in The Da Vinci Code. The error may well prove to his advantage. According to him the Priory of Sion, alleged keeper of the secret of Christ's wife and children, was founded in Jerusalem during the Second Crusade in the reign of Baldwin II. But according to the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, who are suing Brown for stealing their plot, the Priory was founded in 1099 during the First Crusade, and Baldwin did not ascend the throne of the ancient city until 1118.

Three cosmic enigmas, one answer

DARK energy and dark matter, two of the greatest mysteries confronting physicists, may be two sides of the same coin. A new and as yet undiscovered kind of star could explain both phenomena and, in turn, remove black holes from the lexicon of cosmology. The audacious idea comes from George Chapline, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin of Stanford University and their colleagues. Last week at the 22nd Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting in Santa Barbara, California, Chapline suggested that the objects that till now have been thought of as black holes could in fact be dead stars that form as a result of an obscure quantum phenomenon. These stars could explain both dark energy and dark matter.

Satellite Sleuth Closes in on Noah's Ark Mystery

High on Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey, there is a baffling mountainside "anomaly," a feature that one researcher claims may be something of biblical proportions. Images taken by aircraft, intelligence-gathering satellites and commercial remote-sensing spacecraft are fueling an intensive study of the intriguing oddity. But whether the anomaly is some geological quirk of nature, playful shadows, a human-made structure of some sort, or simply nothing at all-that remains to be seen.

View of Easter Island Disaster All Wrong, Researchers Say

The first settlers on Easter Island didn't arrive until 1200 AD, up to 800 years later than previously thought, a new study suggests. The revised estimate is based on new radiocarbon dating of soil samples collected from one of oldest known sites on the island, which is in the South Pacific west of Chile. The finding challenges the widely held notion that Easter Island's civilization experienced a sudden collapse after centuries of slow growth. If correct, the finding would mean that the island's irreversible deforestation and construction of its famous Moai statues began almost immediately after Polynesian settlers first set foot on the island.

'UFO sighting really took my breath away'

Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No, it was a shining silver pyramid, according to two colleagues who spotted a UFO in the skies of Putney last week. Michelle Medhat was sitting at her office desk last Wednesday morning when she glanced out of the window and spotted a glimmering silver object in the sky. "I thought what the hell is that?' There were no clouds in the sky at all and 100 per cent visibility. "The sun was hitting the object and you could see it was turning very slowly.

'Phoenix Lights' mystery still debated

Dr. Lynne Kitei doesn't know what it was, but she knows that the Phoenix Lights event of March 13, 1997, did occur, and, in her mind, remains unexplained. In addition to a string of bright lights that hung over the Valley, witnesses locally and throughout the state saw a V-shaped formation of lights. Some estimated it was the size of a football field and shimmered like black satin as it moved silently. Explanations were offered by military sources: The string of lights comprised training flares, and the large object actually was a formation of military airplanes.

Astronomer: "UFO" observed across Thailand is meteor
The recent sighting of what appears to be an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Thai central province of Ayutthaya has left witnesses scratching their heads over what exactly it might have been while some astronomer and experts thought it was something like a meteor.


Police Search New Jersey's 'Bermuda Triangle'
Authorities call it "New Jersey's Bermuda Triangle," a watery place where people disappear, never to be seen again. The description held true Wednesday after a 4 1/2-hour search of the sprawling Round Valley Reservoir failed to turn up any trace of six missing boaters and fishermen, some of whom were last seen in 1973.

Mystery animal killing sheep in McCone, Garfield counties

Ranchers in McCone and Garfield counties, as well as federal wildlife officials, are hunting a wolf or wolf hybrid that has killed 35 sheep and wounded 70 others since late December.
The attacks started near Circle more than 250 miles from the nearest known wolf territory. Five sheep were killed and 15 wounded, some of which died later. The next attack happened Jan. 10 and ended with 21 grown ewes dead and 40 injured.

Mystery "Buddha" boy goes missing

Nepali police began hunting on Saturday for a teenaged boy who some people believe is an reincarnation of Buddha after he disappeared from the site where he had been meditating for almost 10 months.
Fifteen-year-old Ram Bahadur Bamjon has not been seen since early Saturday, said Hari Krishna Khatiwada, a district official of Bara, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Kathmandu. The boy had been meditating there without food or water since May. Some of his followers are also missing. "So far we have found no trace of them," Khatiwada said. Sitting cross-legged beneath a "pipal" tree, which is sacred to Hindus, Bomjon drew more than 100,000 people to the dense forests in southeastern Nepal. But visitors were only allowed to see him from 50 meters (165 feet) away and the boy was hidden from public view at night behind a curtain drawn by his followers.

Vietnamese boy has 5 kidneys: report

A 14-year-old boy from Vietnam's northern region has become the first Vietnamese person having a total of five kidneys, local media reported Monday.


Solar eclipse no cause for rioting, Nigerians told

The Nigerian government, anxious to avoid a repeat of riots that marked a solar eclipse in 2001, warned citizens they may suffer "psychological discomfort" during a new eclipse this month but urged them not to panic.
Information Minister Frank Nweke said an eclipse five years ago caused riots in northern Borno state because people did not know why it happened. "Some people even felt some evil people in their communities were responsible for the eclipse," he said in a statement today aimed at reassuring Nigerians that the eclipse is expected to darken parts of the country on March 29. "The eclipse is not expected to have any real damaging effect, only social and psychological discomforts are envisaged," Nweke said. He did not explain what the discomforts might be.

Statues of Egyptian Goddess Unearthed

An Egyptian-German archaeological team has discovered 17 statues of Sekhmet, an ancient Egyptian goddess with the head of a lioness and the body of a woman.


The life of pi

The United States accords pi the ultimate accolade tomorrow, its own national day. Most recall it from their school days (hazily), but here Steve Connor charts its history and celebrates a number that is irrational, transcendental ... and unique

Red rain could prove that aliens have landed
The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday March 12 2006
In the article below, Dr Milton Wainwright was quoted as saying that red rain lacked DNA. Dr Wainwright has asked us to make clear that currently he has no view on whether red rain contains DNA and that it is physicist Godfrey Louis who is of that view.

There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers. Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it rained crimson, turning local people's clothes pink, burning leaves on trees and falling as scarlet sheets at some points. Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. 'If you look at these particles under a microscope, you can see they are not dust, they have a clear biological appearance.' Instead Louis decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001.


Signs Comment: Over the last few years, we have watched with interest as the powers that be via their lackey scientists and the mainstream media have slowly been prepping the public for some kind of 'revelation' about alien life, however small, on other planets in our solar system. Due to the massive evidence, which stretches back many hundreds of years, for the reality of some kind of UFO phenomenon on our planet, the very fact that we are now being subjected to a slow release of information that is obviously leading up to some kind of disclosure, makes us very suspicious about what exactly we will be told vis a vis the reality of "life out there".

Traces of alien life in Kerala rain: Report
A Kerala scientist claims that the presence of alien life may have been the cause behind the red rain that occurred in the state in 2001. Dr Godfrey Louis from the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam revealed this fact in a research paper. Dr Louis collected samples of rain and examined them and his results have the world of astrophysics very excited. "It was not desert dust, but some cell-like matter of extraterrestrial origin. It could have been due to a meteor shower," he said. What makes this finding fascinating are reports of a cell-like structure noticed during examination under an electron microscope. Dr Louis explained interplanetary seeding and how it could have led to life on earth. He also pointed out that the red rain in Kerala could be one such example of interplanetary seeding. His findings will now be published in a report in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science.

Signs Comment: If it turns out that this "red rain" actually contains some kind of off-planet life forms, that fact could not possibly be more appropriate because, Kerala, where the red rain was discovered, also just happens to be one of the two alleged places that research has revealed the descendants of biology’s Adam and Eve may still be genetically alive.
EVER since the ‘Book of Life’ that unveiled the gene numbers that make up humans was revealed by geneticists a couple of years ago, new and fascinating ‘chapters’ on the origin and future of life have been added. The latest, yet ancient, story from an Indian research institute on when and how modern humans set their foot into Asia over 100,000 years ago marks another landmark in genetic study. The years of Jurassic Park-type research by the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular that took scientists on a voyage into the tribal heartland of the Andamans, Kerala and Gujarat has led to genetic blackboxes encrypted with fine details of a voyage from Africa to Asia. The research reveals that the descendants of biology’s Adam and Eve may still be genetically alive in two tribes — one in Kerala and the other in Gujarat.
One of the scientists involved in the analysis of the red rain has suggested that it could have been the result of a close pass of a comet, which is quite possible given the significant number of space rocks that have been visiting our planet of late. Of course, there is always the other possiblity that this red rain containing some kind of "alien life form" could in fact be the result of a close pass of a UFO that just happened to be dumping the contents of their space ship's toilet. Either way, the result is the same we suppose.

Alien particles found in 'comet rain' put under microscope at Welsh university

WELSH scientists have been spearheading the hunt for alien life that may have fallen to Earth in a shower of "red rain". Astrobiologists will today continue to examine traces of matter that poured its blood-red deluge over the Indian state of Kerala for two whole months in 2001.

Creamy Pink Snow Covers Russian Region

Creamy pink snow has covered the northern regions of Russia's Maritime territory, news agencies reported Monday. For some reason, the snow that fell in the densely populated northern regions after a powerful cyclone had acquired a pink color of varying tints.

Water Discovered On Saturn Moon

The Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of liquid water spewing from geysers on Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life.
The discovery surprised scientists who are looking for signs of life in space. "If the finding is true, it means Enceladus will join a very short list of places in this solar system that could, in theory at least, support life," says CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood. "We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter's moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune's moon Triton," said Dr. John Spencer, a Cassini scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club - and one of the most exciting places in the solar system."


South Korea gets rare yellow snowfall
South Koreans were treated to a rare weather phenomenon on Monday when yellow snow fell in the capital and elsewhere across the country.

But the snow -- containing dust or sand from the desert regions of northern China -- could pose a health hazard, the country's meteorological office warned. "It's tough to say whether it's yellow sand mixed in snow or if it's snow mixed in yellow sand," a met official told Reuters. A high concentration of the dust particles prompted the weather bureau to issue a yellow dust warning for the second time in three days. South Korea frequently gets sand or dust storms, but a yellow snow storm is very rare. "I have never seen yellow snow falling before," the met official said.
The agency said the yellow snow was a health hazard and officials have warned that the pollutants in the flurries included heavy minerals.

Flashback: Creamy Pink Snow Covers Russian Region
Creamy pink snow has covered the northern regions of Russia's Maritime territory, news agencies reported Monday. For some reason, the snow that fell in the densely populated northern regions after a powerful cyclone had acquired a pink color of varying tints. Experts at the local meteorology centre said sand from neighboring Mongolia was to blame for this unusual natural phenomenon. Before it arrived in Maritime, the cyclone passed Mongolia, where sand storms had been raging in the desert. "The winds of the cyclone embraced dust particles that colored the fallouts," the experts said. February's yellow snowfall with a strong odor and an oily texture was observed on Russia's Far East island of Sakhalin. The color, odor and texture of the snow may have been a result of environmental pollution caused by the island's oil and natural gas industry. However, experts do not rule out this could be caused by volcanic activity.

NASA scientists have new mystery to solve - Some of the material brought back by Stardust probe 'kind of a shock'
NASA scientists have a new mystery to solve: How did materials formed by fire end up on the outermost reaches of the solar system, where temperatures are the coldest? The materials were contained in dust samples captured when the robotic Stardust spacecraft flew past the comet Wild 2 in 2004. A 100-pound capsule tied to a parachute returned the samples to Earth in January.

Scientists and the UFO Phenomenon

Within the world of ufology there are more than a few people who rail at "science" and "scientists", as if they were the source of all evil. This blinkered approach ignores all of the nuances within both "science", and "scientists". There is no one model, there is no one template, there is no one sterotype, that is completely accurate.

UFO photo contest wants you to fake it

Have you seen the photo of an alien spacecraft hovering over the Capitol at high noon on the first day of Session? The visitors from beyond the stars turned off their cloaking device for a split second, and some kid with a camera snapped the frame. No, it's for real, dude. Or ... probably not.

THE UFO THING Is Back! Strange-Shaped Craft Now In Hawaii - Photo

This photo was taken in Hawaii on the Big Island somewhere between south point and Kona the exact location I don't know for sure but I will ask mom later. The pic totally blew me away when I saw it. The only other place I ever seen this type of craft was at rense.com. If I had not seen it before on rense I would not have had any idea what I was looking at. Go to article link to see photo.

Columbus mystery nearly solved 500 years after death
Nearly 500 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, a team of genetic researchers are using DNA to solve two nagging mysteries: Where was the explorer really born? And where the devil are his bones?
Debate about origins and final resting place of Columbus has raged for over a century, with historians questioning the traditional theory that he hails from Genoa, Italy. Some say he was a Spanish Jew, a Greek, a Basque or Portuguese. Even the location of his remains is the subject of controversy. The Dominican Republic and Spain both stake claims as the final resting place of Columbus, who died in May, 1506.


Mystery Booms Continue To Baffle Everyone
The source of those mysterious rumblings over the weekend that caught the attention of so many continues to be a mystery, although there is a focus on a potential answer.
The focus is on F-15s at the Portland Air Base, which KATU News was originally told were on the ground, but we later learned were not. It turns out a group of F-15s were launched from the Portland International Airport Saturday night as part of three days of intensive training. Within an hour of their departure, people started hearing things and feeling some rumblings. That is when the 911 calls began. Even the commander of the F-15 squadron heard the strange noise from his home in Lake Oswego. The logical explanation seemed to be that the fighter jets set off a sonic boom, but the Air National Guard says it does not make sense that so many people, from Longview to the Oregon coast, would hear the same sonic booms at the same time. A much smaller range of 10 to 20 miles is more likely.

Professor challenges Mayan calendar opinion

The end of the world will come on Dec. 21, 2012. Or not. While some New Age authors and teachers are touting that date as an apocalypse, a Stetson University professor is challenging the reasoning behind it. At a public lecture at the Volusia County Library Center on City Island today, Robert Sitler plans to discuss "The 2012 Phenomenon: A New Age Appropriation of an Ancient Mayan Calendar," an article he wrote last month for Nova Religio, the Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Sitler, an associate professor of Spanish language and literature, has been studying and teaching Mayan culture since arriving at Stetson in 1994. He contends the Mayan calendar has long been the subject of "gross misinterpretation" on several hundred Web sites and in a continuous stream of books.

Birds Fall Mysteriously From Texas Sky

The mystery remains over why some birds fell from the sky dead Sunday evening.
We first told you about the birds Sunday night, and that some nearby residents were so worried they locked themselves inside their home. They told us they found about a dozen dead black birds littering the small community of West. We spent much of the day in West talking to police and Department of Wildlife agents, who are trying to figure out why the birds mysteriously died. Overnight, residents reported black birds falling out of the sky.

'UFO sighting really took my breath away'

Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No, it was a shining silver pyramid, according to two colleagues who spotted a UFO in the skies of Putney last week. Michelle Medhat was sitting at her office desk last Wednesday morning when she glanced out of the window and spotted a glimmering silver object in the sky. "I thought what the hell is that?' There were no clouds in the sky at all and 100 per cent visibility. "The sun was hitting the object and you could see it was turning very slowly. "I did get a feeling there was something strange about the thing," she said. Entranced, Michelle signalled to her colleague Peter Gardiner, 53, to take a look. He said: "At first I thought it was a big piece of rubbish or a clear tarpaulin sheet. "But then it glistened and it was shiny. It had a strange pattern of movement. It was a significant size, possibly the size of a roof or even a house."

Spanish doctors cut 60-kilo tumour from woman
Spanish doctors have removed a giant tumour weighing 60 kilograms (132 pounds) from a female patient at a hospital in the northern city of Cruces.

Video game therapy - a new frontier
Doctors pronounced Ethan Myers brain dead after a car accident dealt the 9-year-old a severe brain injury in 2002. After he miraculously awoke from a nearly month-long coma, doctors declared he would never again eat on his own, walk or talk. Yet, thanks partly to a video game system, Myers has caught up with his peers in school and even read a speech to a large group of students.

Signs Comment: Well, isn't that great news?! Now, if your child has ADHD, you don't have to put him on Ritalin - you can send him to Video Game Therapy!

Earth may have 'infected' Titan with life

The various meteoric slappings sustained by Earth over the millenia may have seeded other parts of the solar system with life, if calculations by Canadian scientists are to be believed. Planetary scientist Brett Gladman and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver worked out that for material to be thrown up with enough force to exit Earth's atmosphere, it would take an impact from a meteor 10 to 50km across. They reckon such impacts, which include the famous 'dinosaur-killer' that formed the Chicxulub crater, send about 600m potenitally life-bearing rock fragments into solar orbit.

Book argues prehistoric boys doodled in caves to prove themselves
R. Dale Guthrie, natural historian, sculptor and professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, sees Paleolithic art lifted from cave walls and makes a connection to 21st century walls -- the stalls of a junior high boys' bathroom.

Violence by girls uncool

Last week, five Manitoba girls attacked a teacher's aide, beating her with a flashlight. A school principal and teachers were punched and hit as they tried to intervene. Teachers and the community have been shocked by the attack. It's not the first time we've heard about girls turning violent. There was the terrible murder of Reena Virk, 14, beaten and drowned in 1997 on Vancouver Island. The attack was committed by a group that included teenaged girls.

This Essay Breaks the Law
The Earth revolves around the Sun.
• The speed of light is a constant.
• Apples fall to earth because of gravity.
• Elevated blood sugar is linked to diabetes.
• Elevated uric acid is linked to gout.
• Elevated homocysteine is linked to heart disease.
• Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.
ACTUALLY, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use.

Woman With Perfect Memory Baffles Scientists

James McGaugh is one of the world's leading experts on how the human memory system works. But these days, he admits he's stumped.

Mayan underworld proves researchers' dream

The ancient Maya once believed that Mexico's jungle sinkholes containing crystalline waters were the gateway to the underworld and the lair of a surly rain god who had to be appeased with human sacrifices.
Now, the "cenotes," deep sinkholes in limestone that have pools at the bottom, are yielding scientific discoveries including possible life-saving cancer treatments.

NASA Halts Kennedy Space Center Operations After Accidents
NASA is halting shuttle launch preparation at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after a series of recent accidents.
KSC Director Jim Kennedy stopped work on NASA's three-orbiter shuttle fleet and International Space Station (ISS) components after a small fire at the Vehicle Assembly Building, among other problems. Kennedy says, "We must stop, in their tracks, the chain of events that led me to call for this safety stand-down."
Kennedy says that the small fire "could have been catastrophic," where two fully fueled shuttle solid rocket boosters were stacked. Kennedy calls the accidents "a threat to successfully accomplishing our mission - the launching of astronauts and payloads into space." "We understand that incidents may occur, but a major mishap could result in losing the confidence of the American people." According to Kennedy, the accidents "could derail NASA's plans to complete the International Space Station and begin exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond."

Aliens gave me psychic powers

Patrick King attracted newspaper headlines when he recently predicted a huge bank robbery but he been predicting the future and telling clients secrets from their past for more than 40 years. Claire McNeilly casts her fate to the winds and meets the man who claims he was abducted by aliens at the age of five

Hotel Charging Guests By The Pound

A hotel in Germany has started charging its guests by the pound for an overnight stay, according to a Local 6 News report. The hotel owner in the town of Norden, Juergen Heckrodt, said he was continually getting overweight guests, so he decided to make them step on the scales to determine room costs.

Forgotten Cold War chamber is found in Brooklyn Bridge

When it comes to matters archaeological, New York can't compete with Egypt or Greece for buried temples or hidden tombs. So forgive the city its ripple of excitement this week when a long forgotten chamber deep inside the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge gave up its secret trove of Cold War crackers.

Rats Overrun Neighborhood In Orange County
Homeowners in an Orange County, Fla., neighborhood claim their community has been overrun by rats big enough to pick fights with small dogs, according to a Local 6 News report. Residents in the Conway Acres neighborhood in Orange County said the rats are scurrying around their neighborhood 24 hours a day. Homeowners said they have seen the rats running on power lines into homes.

Signs Comment: Well, with a rat for governor, what did they expect??

Are birds trying to tell us things?
Ryan Reynolds is a psittalinguist - a person who interprets budgie-speak. Since 1999, he has invested thousands of hours slowing down and deconstructing recordings of his beloved budgie, Victor, who died five years ago at the young age of 3, as well as other talking budgies. Victor had a vocabulary of 1,000 words, which he used in context, Reynolds says. Reynolds, founder of The Budgie Research Group, later reached out to others with talking budgies, hoping to share information. To describe their work, they coined the term psittalinguistics, from psittacidae, or the parrot family. So what are budgies saying? "This is going to sound crazy, but they talk about spiritual things: God, the afterlife, a better world for them," Reynolds says.

Whale song reveals sophisticated language skills
Humpback whales use their own syntax – or grammar – in the complex songs they sing, say researchers who have developed a mathematical technique to probe the mysteries of whale song. The team adds that whales are the only other animals beside humans to use hierarchical structure in language, in which phrases are embedded in larger, recurring themes.

Signs Comments: Sounds like the whales need to start communicating with the budgies.

Gulf 'ghost ship' search fails to unlock mystery
Customs officers have not been able to find many clues about how an unmanned ship came to be drifting in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Customs spokesman, Matt Wardell, says they boarded the abandoned tanker this morning, south-west of Weipa. Mr Wardell says they have been able to identify the 80-metre long boat as the Jian Seng, but have not discovered its nationality or port of registry. He says a broken tow-rope is hanging from its bow.

Scientists may have found 'missing link' in Ethiopia

Scientists in northeastern Ethiopia have discovered the skull of a small human ancestor that could be a missing link between the extinct Homo erectus and modern man. The hominid cranium was found in two pieces last month near the town of Gawis in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia.

Turks fear possible earthquake following upcoming solar eclipse

Residents in a small quake-prone central Turkish town have set up tents in streets and gardens in fear of a possible earthquake following the March 29 solar eclipse, a report said on Friday.
Northwestern Turkey was struck by a devastating earthquake in August 1999 that killed some 17,000 people just six days after another solar eclipse, and some believe the temblor was triggered by the phenomenon.

Crazy Cat Terrorizes Connecticut Town
Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer. "He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."