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IMF Downgrades US Economic Forecast


Russia Times
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:40 UTC

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange a day after Hurricane Irene swept through the area on August 29, 2011 in New York City (Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP)

If fear from the Fed that the economy was crumbling wasn't enough to raise a scare on Wall Street last week, now the IMF is also saying that the outlook on America isn't what it should be.

International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Largade said on Sunday that the United States needs a "credible" plan to keep the economy in check. Lagarde's comment, delivered at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, came only two days after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke revealed that the road to economic recovery was "much less robust" than the Federal Reserve has hoped for.

Speaking in Wyoming, Lagarde said that lawmakers need to push for economic growth, but a failure to act accordingly to debt dilemmas in the future would cause the country to lose credibility. "Who will believe that commitments to cut spending can survive a lengthy stagnation with prolonged unemployment and social dissatisfaction?" asked Lagarde.

The unemployment rate in the United States has been at or above 9.0 percent since April of this year.
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Black Cat

US:Ranger's Widow Expelled from Rumsfeld Book Signing

Jordan Schrader
The News Tribune
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:27 UTC
Image
© Coffee Strong
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld begins to sign a copy of his book for Jorge Gonzalez while Ashley Joppa-Hagemann looks on. Gonzalez and Joppa-Hagemann were later escorted from the event Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Two people were removed from a Donald Rumsfeld book signing Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including the Yelm widow of an Army Ranger who blames the military for her husband's suicide.

Security officers for the former secretary of defense escorted Ashley Joppa-Hagemann out by the arm, she said Saturday. She and Jorge Gonzalez, the executive director of Coffee Strong, a Lakewood-based anti-war group, confronted Rumsfeld as he promoted his memoir, "Known and Unknown."

According to an account posted on Coffee Strong's website: "Mrs. Joppa-Hagemann introduced herself by handing a copy of her husband's funeral program to Rumsfeld, and telling him that her husband had joined the military because he believed the lies told by Rumsfeld during his tenure with the Bush administration."

Joppa-Hagemann complained about Rumsfeld's response Friday to her account of Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and his death at age 25. Hagemann belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.
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War Whore

Ex-Bush Official Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: "I am Willing to Testify" If Dick Cheney is Put on Trial


Democracy Now!
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:41 UTC
As former Vice President Dick Cheney publishes his long-awaited memoir, we speak to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. "This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will 'Pinochet' Dick Cheney," says Wilkerson, alluding to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested for war crimes. Wilkerson also calls for George W. Bush and Cheney to be held accountable for their crimes in office. "I'd be willing to testify, and I'd be willing to take any punishment I'm due," Wilkerson said. We also speak to Salon.com political and legal blogger Glenn Greenwald about his recent article on Cheney, "The Fruits of Elite Immunity." "Dick Cheney goes around the country profiting off of this sleazy, sensationalistic, self-serving book, basically profiting from his crimes, and at the same time normalizing the idea that these kind of policies...are perfectly legitimate choices to make. And I think that's the really damaging legacy from all of this," says Greenwald.

AMY GOODMAN: Today marks the official launch of one of most anticipated memoirs of any top Bush administration official. I'm talking about former Vice President Dick Cheney's 576-page memoir, In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir. Cheney has begun a publicity blitz to promote his new book, with a string of TV appearances scheduled on Fox News Channel, as well as C-SPAN and the major networks. He appeared on The Today Show this morning. This is an excerpt of his pre-taped interview with Jamie Gangel that aired last night on NBC News Dateline
.
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Attention

Russia Disagrees with Western Resolution on Syria


The Voice of Russia
Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:53 UTC
Image
© EPA
Vitaly Churkin.
The draft resolution of the UN Security Council on Syria submitted by the USA and the EU lacks objectivity, declared Russia's permanent representative in the UN Vitaly Churkin in his interview for the Russia Today TV channel.

He said that a resolution stipulating only measures of pressure on President Bashar al-Assad may instigate radical oppositional forces in Syria to start activities against the government. The document does not mention the necessity of a dialogue between the opposition and authorities.

"Russia will not accept the aims which the West is trying to achieve by way of this resolution," Churkin said in conclusion.

Earlier a diplomatic source in New York reported that Russia has prepared its own version of a draft resolution of the UN Security Council on Syria.
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Question

UK: The Lockerbie Bomber I Know

John Ashton
The Guardian
Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:59 UTC
Image
© AFP/Getty Images
Megrahi is greeted on his return to Libya in August 2009.
Two years ago Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was controversially released on the grounds he was about to die. But this shadowy figure has survived to become a pawn in the Libyan conflict. John Ashton, who has long believed in his innocence, describes the man behind the myth.

It's an anniversary that the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, will have long dreaded. Two years ago tomorrow MacAskill granted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, AKA "the Lockerbie bomber", compassionate release from the life sentence he was serving for the murder of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing. MacAskill had been advised that terminal cancer was likely to end the Libyan's life within the following three months: he had, in short, been "sent home to die". As Megrahi's recent appearance at a pro-Gaddafi rally reminded us, he has not stuck to the script.

The anniversary presents sections of the media with another opportunity to splutter its outrage at MacAskill's decision, and to resurrect the theory that it was driven by backroom deals rather than medical evidence. More seriously, for many of the relatives of the Lockerbie dead it adds an appalling insult to their already grievous injury.

But Megrahi's survival, and the Lockerbie case in general, now has far wider significance. For western governments struggling to justify why Libya should be singled out for enforced regime change, the issue has become a godsend. In recent weeks both Barack Obama and William Hague have tried to boost wilting public support for the war by highlighting Gaddafi's responsibility for the 1988 attack.
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Wall Street

UK: Now Banks Ring Up Their Cash-Strapped Customers to Warn Them: "Ditch Mobiles and Gym Membership or Lose Your Home"

Chris Brooke and Becky Barrow
The Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:16 UTC
  • Banks admit secret checks on 'high-risk' customers
  • About 30,000 home owners to be contacted
  • Other lenders expected to follow suit
calculator
© Alamy
'We want customers to look at their finances and change their behaviour': The banks confirmed they were identifying customers who may be struggling with other debts
Cash-strapped homeowners are being telephoned by their banks and told to cut spending on 'luxuries' - or risk losing their homes.

Every week, around 2,000 customers of Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford & Bingley are being warned to slash their outlay on mobile phones, gym memberships and even socialising, to 'prioritise' their mortgages.

In an extraordinary admission, the taxpayer-owned banks said that for the first time they were doing secret credit checks to identify high-risk customers.
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Star of David

Leaked Document: Israeli Forces Train And Arm Settlers To Attack Palestinian Protesters

Saed Bannoura
IMEMC News
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:05 UTC
Image

Israeli settlers living in violation of international law in the West Bank have been issued stun grenades and tear gas by the Israeli military, in preparation for anticipated protests by Palestinians following the UN statehood declaration later this month.

The Israeli military has codenamed the planned attack on Palestinians "Operation Summer Seeds", which sounds much like the 2006 "Operation Summer Rains" in which 40,000 sound grenades and live missiles were dropped on the Gaza Strip over the course of the summer.

According to an internal Israeli government document leaked to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Israeli troops distributed maps with red lines drawn on them around Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with instructions to soldiers that if Palestinian protesters get too close to the settlements, they should be shot in the legs.
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War Whore

US: Aide - Dick Cheney fears arrest for war crimes


United Press International
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:26 UTC
A former aide to one-time U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says former Vice President Dick Cheney fears he will be tried as a war criminal.

Image
© UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg
Demonstrators with Amnesty International call for the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the roles of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and other officials in the use of torture in U.S. counter-terrorism operations in front of the Justice Department in Washington on August 30, 2011.
Cheney's memoir, In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir, hit the bookshelves Tuesday, and piles criticisms and attacks on many colleagues during George W. Bush's administration, especially Powell, whom Cheney accused of undermining Bush.

However, Powell's chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, told ABC News Cheney "was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration" and "fears being tried as a war criminal."

On Sunday, Powell called Cheney's criticism "cheap shots" on CBS News' "Face the Nation."
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War Whore

US: Cheney Tortures History - Ray McGovern on Cheney's Memoir


Consortium News
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:23 UTC
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses former Vice President Dick Cheney's memoir and the larger question of how information is twisted in modern America.

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Stormtrooper

US stays silent on 64 Americans deaths


Press TV
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:16 UTC
Image
© File Photo
US-led forces in Afghanistan
The United States has so far stopped short of commenting on a Taliban claim that they killed scores of American forces in Afghanistan on Saturday

The Taliban claimed on Saturday that 64 US-led troops were killed in two separate attacks they launched in the southern city of Kandahar, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said on Saturday that the militants killed 36 American forces in a car bomb attack in front of the US base in Kandahar province and also 28 others were killed in another bombing near the military base.

The explosions were so powerful that rocked most of the areas in the province. Local officials confirmed that an Afghan civilian was killed and 23 others wounded in the assaults. Witnesses told the Press TV correspondent that US helicopters took the victims away right after the bombings.

With the latest deaths, Saturday has become the deadliest single day for US-led foreign forces since the war began in Afghanistan nearly a decade ago.
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