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Iraq 'suicide' bomb toll revealed: 12,000 innocents blown to pieces since 2003

Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:32 UTC
Image
© Mohammed Jalil/EPA
Iraq has seen countless suicide bomb attacks like this one in Baghdad in 2010, which have cost thousands of civilians their lives. Those responsible for these vile crimes are probably military intelligence personnel of the US, UK and Israel.
Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed 12,000 civilians and 200 coalition soldiers since war began, study finds

Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed at least 12,000 civilians and 200 coalition soldiers, according to a study.

The research paper, by Dr Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks of King's College London, the London-based Iraq Body Count and others, describes suicide bombs in Iraq as "a major public health problem", killing significantly more civilians than soldiers. It is published as part of a Lancet series on the health consequences of 9/11.

Among the reasons for the high civilian death toll is the difficulty of getting victims to hospital quickly enough for emergency treatment. The study finds children are more likely to die than adults if they are injured in a suicide bombing.

Comment: Suicide Bombings - A Favourite US Counter-Insurgency Tactic

The Myth Of The Palestinian Suicide Bomber

British Government's Agent Provocateurs Exposed!

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Star of David

UN Sides with Israel Against Its Victims, Flotilla Massacre Report Whitewashes Strangulation of Gaza

Chris McGreal
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:26 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Humanitarian activists from many countries, wearing life jackets, hold a news conference on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, before they were gunned down by Israeli butchers. The UN apparently doesn't give a damn about human rights.
Report backs Israel's right to defend itself but says assault on pro-Palestinian flotilla was 'excessive and unreasonable'

A United Nations investigation has backed Israel's naval blockade of Gaza as legal but said its military assault on a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists last year, in which nine Turks were killed, was "excessive and unreasonable".

The report notes that Israel has not satisfactorily explained how it is that most of the dead were shot multiple times, including in the back, and at close range. But it also said the organisers of the flotilla acted "recklessly" in attempting to breach the blockade.

The report is expected to be released on Friday after months of delay because of a dispute between Israel and Turkey over its contents and Ankara's demand for an apology from Israel for the deaths of its citizens.
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War Whore

Sarkozy Hopes Libya Can Boost France's Reputation - As Well As His Own

Angelique Chrisafis
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:44 UTC
Image
© Reuters
The French president intends France to succeed in Libya where the US failed in Iraq

Libya is Nicolas Sarkozy's date with history. Behind the scenes of the Paris conference on Tripoli's future, the president was said to be revelling in his new French nickname, "Sarkozy the Libyan". In France, the intervention has been dubbed "Sarkozy's war", delighting him. By taking a leading role, the deeply unpopular leader hopes with one swoop to save the badly tarnished image of French policy in the Arab world, prove that France matters on the global stage and save his re-election battle for 2012.

Elysée observers say not since the cold war has a French leader made an international conflict such a personal obsession, poring over maps and plans, having the last word on arming rebel fighters. Many sensed a personal battle against his one-time friend turned enemy, Colonel Gaddafi. Sarkozy was desperate to undo the ill-effects of a disastrous state visit to Paris in 2007 in which Gaddafi made Sarkozy look ridiculous. The two men both claimed to have key insight into each others' personality - deeming each other utterly "mad". Privately, Sarkozy vowed to force Gaddafi "to his knees". But publicly, he hoped to rescue an election promise which had become utterly discredited: that France would be a global human rights defender, "on the side of the oppressed". He cited the massacres of Srebrenica or Rwanda as examples of what he wanted to avoid by protecting the Libyan people.
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Cult

It's The Oil, Stupid: Anglo-Saxon Oil Cartel (and France) Conspired to Carve Up Libya's Oil Pie BEFORE Invasion

Julian Borger & Terry Macalister
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:55 UTC
Image
© Veterans Today
Rebel leaders dismiss suggestions that firm promises have been made, but supportive countries look set to benefit

The starting pistol has been fired on bids by Britain and other western powers to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya when France said it was "fair and logical" for its companies to benefit.

Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, planted his flag in the sand as the Guardian was told that BP was already holding private talks with members of Libya's interim government.

Libya is a vital energy producer, and BP had previously committed itself to spending more than $1bn on exploration plans under Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Shell was also becoming active before the civil war broke out, as was Total of France, but the conflict over the past few months has brought the country's existing oil production of 1.6m barrels a day - 2% of the world's total - to a halt.
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War Whore

It's The Oil, Stupid: British Government Admits Designs on Libyan Oil Precede Invasion

Polly Curtis & Terry Macalister
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:52 UTC
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"So we arm the rebels and direct them to do our bidding... et voila!" 'Development' Minister Alan Duncan is the delighted psychopath on the right.
International development minister took part in meetings between officials and firm for which he had acted as a consultant

The government has admitted that the international development minister, Alan Duncan, took part in meetings between officials operating a Whitehall cell to control the Libyan oil market and Vitol - a company for which Duncan has previously acted as a consultant.

The "Libyan oil cell" involved a group of officials working in the Foreign Office since May waging a quiet campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's regime by controlling the flow of oil in the country.

It is said to have played a discreet but crucial role in the campaign in Libya by helping to enforce the sanctions regime to prevent Gaddafi importing and exporting oil while allowing oil to reach the rebels in the east. That oil came via one company, Vitol.
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Star of David

Turkey expels Israeli diplomats after UN report

Tulay Karadeniz
Reuters
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:37 UTC
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday Israel's diplomatic presence in Turkey was being cut to second secretary level, effectively expelling Israeli diplomats in protest over an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound ship that killed nine Turks.

"Turkey-Israel diplomatic relations have been reduced to a second secretary level. All personnel above the second secretary level will return to their countries by Wednesday at the latest," Davutoglu told a news conference. Israel's ambassador Gabby Levy was currently in Israel and cancelled plans to return to Turkey on Thursday.

A long-awaited U.N. report on the raid, made public on Thursday, declared that Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, but that the Jewish state used unreasonable force.
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Control Panel

US Department of Homeland Security warns of planned Anonymous attacks

Jaikumar Vijayan
Computer World
Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:35 UTC
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Bulletin from feds highlights group's Occupy Wall Street, Operation Facebook, Project Mayhem campaigns

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today issued a somewhat unusual bulletin warning the security community about the planned activities of hacking collective Anonymous over the next few months.

The bulletin, issued by the DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), warns financial services companies especially to be on the lookout for attempts by Anonymous to "solicit ideologically dissatisfied, sympathetic employees" to their cause.

Anonymous has recently used Twitter to try and persuade dissatisfied employees within the financial sector to give them information and access. Though such attempts appear to have been largely unsuccessful so far, "unwilling coercion through embarrassment or blackmail may be a risk to personnel," the bulletin warned.
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Robot

Revealed: Fake Facebook Identity Used By Military Contractors Plotting To Hack Progressive Organizations

Lee Fang
ThinkProgress.org
Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:31 UTC
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Corporate hacker Aaron Barr draws inspiration from Maxim magazine for his fake persona army.
Earlier this year, ThinkProgress obtained 75,000 private emails from the defense contractor HBGary Federal via the hacktivist group called Anonymous. The emails led to two shocking revelations. First, that an assortment of private military firms collectively called "Team Themis" had been tapped by Bank of America to conduct a cyber war against reporters sympathetically covering the Wikileaks revelations. And second, that late in 2010, the same set of firms began work separately for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Republican-aligned corporate lobbying group, to develop a similar campaign of sabotage against progressive organizations, including the SEIU and ThinkProgress.

In presentations obtained by ThinkProgress from the e-mail dump detailing the tactics potentially used against progressives, HBGary Federal floated the idea of using "fake insider personas" to infiltrate left-leaning groups critical of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's policies. As HBGary Federal executive Aaron Barr described in several emails, his firm could work with partner companies Palantir and Berico Technologies to manipulate fake online identities, using networks like Facebook, to gain access to private information from his targets. Other presentations are more specific and describe efforts to use social media to hack computers and find vulnerabilities among even the families of people who work at organizations critical of the Chamber.
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Gear

Files show MI6, CIA ties to Libya: reports


The Sydney Morning Herald
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:26 UTC
Files found in Tripoli show strong cooperation between US and British intelligence agencies and Muammar Gaddafi's government, including shipping terror suspects to Libya for interrogation, media reports say.

The Central Intelligence Agency, under the administration of then-president George W. Bush, brought terror suspects to Libya and suggested questions Libyan interrogators should ask them, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing documents found at the headquarters of Libya's External Security agency.

Meanwhile, British daily The Independent said the secret documents also show that Britain passed details of exiled opponents to Gaddafi's spies.
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Dollar

U.S. Debt Held by Public Tops $10T for 1st Time - Up 59 Percent Under Obama

Terence P. Jeffrey
CNS News
Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Evan Vucci
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
At the close of business on Aug. 31--for the first time in the history of the country--the publicly held debt of the federal government topped $10 trillion, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department at 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

During Obama's presidency, debt held by the public has now increased by $3.71694 trillion--or almost 59 percent from the $6.3073 trillion in debt held by the public that the government owed to its creditors on Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated.

Also, according to the most recent reports available from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, approximately $6.1 trillion of that debt - or about 61 percent of it - is owned by foreign interests (led by the Chinese and the Japanese) and by the Federal Reserve.

At the close of business on Aug. 30, as reported by the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt, the federal government's debt held by the public equaled $9,990,126,772,846.86. By the close of business on Aug. 31, it was $10,024,253,354,407.07.

The Treasury divides the debt of the U.S. government into two general categories: "debt held by the public" and "intragovermental" debt.
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