In 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by Congressman John Conyers on the subject of the "Downing Street Memo," Ray McGovern uttered the following truth: he testified that "the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel, and military bases craved by administration neocons" so that "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." McGovern went on to testify truthfully that "Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."

The routine condemnations of McGovern could be heard from all of the sources inside the U.S. political structure that has at its base finance from pro-Israel sources; that included from Dr. Howard Dean who was Chair of the Democratic National Committee at the time. This finance nexus has been thoroughly identified by Dr. James Petras, for those who want to do further reading.

Condemnations, however, do not disprove McGovern's statement, but point, instead, to the political untouchability of the topic. However, if one wants to truly understand the formulation of U.S. foreign and military policies, one must carefully consider McGovern's testimony.

"People are really defiant" in the face of savage NATO bombing raids on Tripoli, the Libyan capital, says former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. "Every night the people gather" at Bab al-Azizia, Moammar Gaddifi's residential compound, for dancing and singing -- "like a block party." McKinney, who only days ago returned from a trip to Libya, is leading another delegation to the besieged country this week. "The question is: Will the American people hold their government accountable for the war crimes that are being committed against an African country," says the former Green Party presidential candidate. NATO's attack on Libya "is a humanitarian disaster."

While serving on the House International Relations Committee from 1993 to 2003, it became clear to me that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was an anachronism. Founded in 1945 at the end of World War II, NATO was founded by the United States in response to the Soviet Union's survival as a Communist state. NATO was the U.S. insurance policy that capitalist ownership and domination of European, Asian, and African economies would continue. This also would ensure the survival of the then-extant global apartheid.

NATO is a collective security pact wherein member states pledge that an attack upon one is an attack against all. Therefore, should the Soviet Union have attacked any European Member State, the United States military shield would be activated. The Soviet Response was the Warsaw Pact that maintained a "cordon sanitaire" around the Russian Heartland should NATO ever attack. Thus, the world was broken into blocs which gave rise to the "Cold War."

Avowed "Cold Warriors" of today still view the world in these terms and, unfortunately, cannot move past Communist China and an amputated Soviet Empire as enemy states of the U.S. whose moves any where on the planet are to be contested. The collapse of the Soviet Union provided an accelerated opportunity to exert U.S. hegemony in an area of previous Russian influence. Africa and the Eurasian landmass containing former Soviet satellite states and Afghanistan and Pakistan along with the many other "stans" of the region, have always factored prominently in the theories of "containment" or "rollback" guiding U.S. policy up to today.

In this edition of Face to Face, Marzieh Hashemi interviews Cynthia McKinney; Former US Congresswoman and former presidential candidate for Green Party.

A former U.S. congresswoman slammed U.S. policy on Libyan state TV late Saturday and stressed the "last thing we need to do is spend money on death, destruction and war."

The station is fiercely loyal to Moammar Gadhafi and her interview was spliced with what appeared to be rallies in support of the embattled Libyan leader.

"I think that it's very important that people understand what is happening here. And it's important that people all over the world see the truth. And that is why I am here ... to understand the truth," former Rep. Cynthia McKinney said during a live interview.

She said she was invited to Libya by the "nongovernmental organization for fact-finding," adding that she intends to bring more people to the country soon so that "they too can understand."

NATO warplanes have been pounding military targets since March after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution to protect civilians by any means necessary as Gadhafi's forces try to quash a nearly three-month revolt against the leader's roughly 42 years of rule.

Gadhafi's government has repeatedly urged the international community to send fact-finding teams to Libya to report what's happening on the ground.

An air strike by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan killed at least nine civilians, NATO and Afghan officials said on Sunday, and many of the victims were children.

It was one of the deadliest foreign assaults on civilians in Afghanistan in months.

The mistaken killing of civilians by foreign forces, usually during air strikes or night-time raids, is a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers.

It has complicated efforts to win support from ordinary Afghans for an increasingly unpopular war.

The commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southwestern Afghanistan apologized for the deaths of nine civilians, saying troops had unwittingly targeted a home because insurgents were using it as a base.

"Unfortunately, the compound the insurgents purposefully occupied was later discovered to house innocent civilians," Major General John Toolan said in a statement.

"While I know there is no price on human life we will ensure that we make amends with the families in accordance with Afghan culture," he added.

The governor of Helmand province, where the air strike was called in, said the bomb killed 14 civilians, two of them women and the remainder children. Bereaved relatives brought the bodies of young children to the provincial capital to protest.

ISAF did not give the ages of the civilians it said died.

The Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair is sending seismic waves throughout France. The self-imposed cone of silence in the French media is leading to a lot of soul-searching and self-questioning.

Already, another minister has been accused of sexual harrassment and forced to resign, perhaps the first time we can remember of a sex scandal adversely affecting a French politician's career.

But an even more stunning situation is the media firestorm surrounding Luc Ferry, a philosopher and former government heavyweight.

On a live evening talk-show, when asked about whether politician sex scandals are hush-hushed, Luc Ferry said that, as government minister, he was told of another, former government minister who was caught in Morocco in an orgy with "little boys," and that the affair was hushed up. He was told, Ferry says, by "authorities at the highest level of the State, including the prime minister."

Price negotiations had balked last year when Berlin, beset by budgetary constraints, would not sell the submarine with the deep discount provided for the first three vessels of the Dolphin fleet.

Israel has finalized the purchase of a sixth submarine from Germany, with payment to be spread over several years, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

The proposed expansion of the diesel-powered Dolphin submarine fleet, considered Israel's vanguard against foes like Iran, had been held up by wrangling with Berlin over the $500 million to $700 million price tag.

A provision to ban lighting up at cigar and tobacco shops has been snuffed out of a Senate bill targeting exemptions to the state's 1994 workplace smoking ban.

Senate Bill 575, by Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, would add sites such as hotel and motel lobbies and banquet rooms, warehouse facilities, employee break rooms and small and owner-operated businesses to the list of smoke-free zones.

The measure originally targeted cigar and tobacco retailers and lounges. But DeSaulnier decided to cut that provision from the bill this week after facing stiff opposition from shop owners and stogie lovers, including an international trade association based in Georgia, which argued such a ban would unfairly hurt their business and undermine their ability to serve their customers who come to the sites to smoke.

Paris - The French prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation Wednesday after a former government minister alleged that another ex-minister had participated in an orgy with young boys in Morocco.

Former Education Minister Luc Ferry will likely be questioned after alleging during a television show that another minister was caught at an orgy in Marrakech, a judicial official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity since she wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

The preliminary investigation is aimed at seeking more precise information from Ferry, the official said.

In France, a preliminary investigation is conducted to see if a case should be pursued.