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Eye 1

Bush ducks Swiss trip over torture complaint


Raw Story
Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:14 UTC
pardon our torture
© Unknown

Geneva- Former U.S. President George W. Bush, under fire from human rights group over allegations of ordering torture, has canceled a visit to Switzerland where he was to address a Jewish charity gala.

Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.

Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say, and several human rights groups signaled that they were poised to take further legal action this week.
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Wolf

UK: State Multiculturalism Has Failed, Says David Cameron


BBC News
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:55 UTC
david cameron
© AP Photo/Sang Tan
David Cameron has criticised "state multiculturalism" in his first speech as prime minister on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism.

At a security conference in Munich, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism.

He also signalled a tougher stance on groups promoting Islamist extremism.

The speech angered some Muslim groups, while others queried its timing amid an English Defence League rally in the UK.

As Mr Cameron outlined his vision, he suggested there would be greater scrutiny of some Muslim groups which get public money but do little to tackle extremism.

Ministers should refuse to share platforms or engage with such groups, which should be denied access to public funds and barred from spreading their message in universities and prisons, he argued.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the prime minister said.
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Play

Egyptian Military Tries to Create Buffer Zone

Christiane Amanpour
ABC News
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:00 UTC
A little while ago in Tahrir Square a rumor swept through the crowd that President Hosni Mubarak had resigned.

The people went crazy, shouting, "he resigned, he resigned." The Square erupted in a kind of euphoria for 30 seconds. But it quickly became clear the rumor was not true and the crowd is once again calm.

This was the day the anti-government protesters had called "The Day of Departure." Those calling upon President Mubarak to resign immediately had hoped this would be the day.

But yesterday in my exclusive interview with him, President Mubarak told me he had no intention of leaving Egypt.

"I would never run away," he said, "I will die on this soil." So far it seems he is sticking with his resolve.

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Eagle

WikiLeaks Cables: US Agrees to Tell Russia Britain's Nuclear Secrets

M. Moore, G. Rayner & C. Hope
The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 04:25 UTC
Image
© Tam MacDonald
HMS Vanguard is Britain's lead Trident-armed submarine. The US, under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the missiles it gives Britain.
The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain's nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.

Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain's policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called "special relationship", which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by The Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today.
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Eye 2

Rumsfeld: I should have quit after Abu Ghraib


The Raw Story
Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:06 UTC
Donald Rumsfeld
© unknown
Donald Rumsfeld
Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld says in a new memoir that his biggest regret was not stepping down after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, US media reported Thursday.

In his book, Rumsfeld -- a lightning rod for criticism during his long tenure at the Pentagon -- defends his handling of the Iraq war and makes no apologies for his major policy decisions, according to advance copies obtained by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

But he said he should have forced then president George W. Bush to accept his resignation over the revelations of abuse by US military guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"Abu Ghraib and its follow-on effects, including the continued drum-beat of 'torture' maintained by partisan critics of the war and the president, became a damaging distraction," Rumsfeld writes.

"More than anything else I have failed to do, and even amid my pride in the many important things we did accomplish, I regret that I did not leave at that point."
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War Whore

Rumsfeld: Bush ordered invasion of Iraq war just 15 days after 9/11


Press TV
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:58 UTC
Image
Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says in his memoirs that ex-President George W. Bush ordered the Iraq war just two weeks after September 11.

In his autobiography scheduled to be released on February 8, Rumsfeld writes that 15 days after 9/11, when Pentagon's focus was on Afghan war, Bush called him to his office and ordered a review plans for Iraq war.

"Two weeks after the worst terror attacks in our nation's history, those of us in the Department of Defense were full occupied," but Bush called for a "creative" option for invading Iraq, The Huffington Post reported on Thursday.

However, Rumsfeld says Iraq war has been worth the costs and offers no apology for the way he handled the conflict.

He says if former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime was not ousted, the Middle East would be "far more perilous than it is today."
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Bandaid

Mubarak Resigns...As Head of National 'Democratic' Party


Press TV
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:20 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
Out-of favor Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his son Gemal have stepped down from the positions they held in the ruling party as anti-government protests intensify.

Hosni Mubarak resigned as the head of National Democratic Party (NDP) along with the party's secretary general Safwat el-Sherif on Saturday, DPA reported. Moreover, Gemal stepped down from a position he held in the party.

Hossam Badrawi, a member of the Upper Chamber of the Egyptian Parliament, is expected to take over as secretary general, state media reported.

The developments come as millions of people gathered in Cairo's Liberation Square for the 12th straight day, calling on Mubarak to immediately step down.

Egyptians also continued massive anti-government rallies on Saturday across major cities of the country. Large rallies were also held in other cities including Alexandria and Suez.
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Vader

Obama resists calls to cut military aid to Mubarak regime

Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:07 UTC
Image
© Jim Young/Reuters
Hosni Mubarak with Barack Obama in 2009. The White House sees Egypt's military as the key to removing its beleaguered president.
White House says suspension of $1.3bn in annual aid to Egypt would undermine push towards a post-Mubarak system

The Obama administration today resisted calls to cut its massive military aid to Egypt and is instead working behind the scenes with the commanders of the country's armed forces on how to oust President Hosni Mubarak.

The White House sees the Egyptian military as the key to removing Mubarak, regarded as a necessary first step towards implementing substantive political and economic reforms. Cutting aid would risk alienating them.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and other senior Pentagon figures have been in regular contact with their Egyptian counterparts all week.

Mullen, in an interview with ABC television today, said the US should wait to see what happens next before suspending aid, which amounts to more than $1.3bn (£800m) a year.
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Dollar

Mubarak Family Fortune Could Reach $70 Billion

Phillip Inman
The Guardian, UK
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:04 UTC
Image
© Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images
Gamal and Hosni Mubarak are reported to have built up huge fortunes, including properties in London.
Egyptian president has cash in British and Swiss banks plus UK and US property

President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast.

After 30 years as president and many more as a senior military official, Mubarak has had access to investment deals that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels.

According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.
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Bad Guys

BP, Vodafone, British Gas and British banks play crucial role supporting Mubarak regime

# Terry Macalister & Richard Wachman
The Guardian
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:58 UTC
Firms such as BP criticised for being too close to government of president Hosni Mubarak

Image
© Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
An anti-government demonstrator in Tahrir Square wears a hat made from a newspaper carrying an advert for Vodafone. Vodafone has flown 25 people and their families back to the UK in recent days.
British companies are flying out staff and halting operations as the civil disorder escalates in Egypt but they have also found themselves under verbal attack for being too close to the government of president Hosni Mubarak.

BP has also been accused of working "hand in glove with dictatorship" while Vodafone is under fire for bowing to presidential pressure to shut the mobile telephone network down.

BP, which has sunk $14bn into oil operations and is hoping to double production there, said "hundreds" of employees or their dependents were being evacuated from Cairo and some drilling operations had been halted.

BG, formerly part of British Gas, said it had closed its Cairo office and flown home all non-essential expatriate staff from Egypt, but its production of liquefied natural gas goes on.
      Read More...
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