IRAQ-VIETNAM
Reuters: US Dead In Iraq Exceed First Three Years Of Vietnam
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -- The U.S. death toll in Iraq has surpassed the number of American soldiers killed during the first three years of the Vietnam War, the brutal Cold War conflict that cast a shadow over U.S. affairs for more than a generation.
A Reuters analysis of Defense Department statistics showed on Thursday that the Vietnam War, which the Army says officially began on Dec. 11, 1961, produced a combined 392 fatal casualties from 1962 through 1964, when American troop levels in Indochina stood at just over 17,000.
By comparison, a roadside bomb attack that killed a soldier in Baghdad on Wednesday brought to 397 the tally of American dead in Iraq, where U.S. forces number about 130,000 troops -- the same number reached in Vietnam by October 1965.
Friday, November 21, 2003
CENSORED
projectcensored: Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003
#1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
#2: Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty
#3: US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq U.N. Report
#4: Rumsfeld's Plan to Provoke Terrorists
#5: The Effort to Make Unions Disappear
#6: Closing Access to Information Technology
#7: Treaty Busting by the United States
#8: US/British Forces Continue Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Despite Massive Evidence of Negative Health Effects
#9: In Afghanistan: Poverty, Women's Rights, and Civil Disruption Worse than Ever
#10: Africa Faces Threat of New Colonialism
projectcensored: Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003
#1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
#2: Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty
#3: US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq U.N. Report
#4: Rumsfeld's Plan to Provoke Terrorists
#5: The Effort to Make Unions Disappear
#6: Closing Access to Information Technology
#7: Treaty Busting by the United States
#8: US/British Forces Continue Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Despite Massive Evidence of Negative Health Effects
#9: In Afghanistan: Poverty, Women's Rights, and Civil Disruption Worse than Ever
#10: Africa Faces Threat of New Colonialism
IRAQ: LIES
John Pilger: John Pilger on Bush’s occupation of Iraq
They put the lie to their own propaganda
IN YOUR new documentary, you expose evidence that Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice knew that Iraq was not a threat. Can you describe this evidence?
IT’S THERE in their own words. I found some extraordinary archive footage in the middle of looking at hours of the Bush gang’s pronouncements, which I used in Breaking the Silence.
In Cairo, Egypt, on February 24, 2001, Powell said: "He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to use conventional power against his neighbors." This, of course, is the very opposite of what Bush and Blair told their respective peoples.
Powell even boasted that it was the U.S. policy of "containment" that had effectively disarmed the Iraqi dictator--again, the opposite of what Bush and Blair said time and again. On May 15, 2001, Powell went further and said that Saddam Hussein had not been able to "build his military back up or to develop weapons of mass destruction" for "the last 10 years." America, he said, had been successful in keeping him "in a box."
Two months later, Condoleezza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenseless Iraq. "Saddam does not control the northern part of his country," she said. "We aim to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
John Pilger: John Pilger on Bush’s occupation of Iraq
They put the lie to their own propaganda
IN YOUR new documentary, you expose evidence that Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice knew that Iraq was not a threat. Can you describe this evidence?
IT’S THERE in their own words. I found some extraordinary archive footage in the middle of looking at hours of the Bush gang’s pronouncements, which I used in Breaking the Silence.
In Cairo, Egypt, on February 24, 2001, Powell said: "He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to use conventional power against his neighbors." This, of course, is the very opposite of what Bush and Blair told their respective peoples.
Powell even boasted that it was the U.S. policy of "containment" that had effectively disarmed the Iraqi dictator--again, the opposite of what Bush and Blair said time and again. On May 15, 2001, Powell went further and said that Saddam Hussein had not been able to "build his military back up or to develop weapons of mass destruction" for "the last 10 years." America, he said, had been successful in keeping him "in a box."
Two months later, Condoleezza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenseless Iraq. "Saddam does not control the northern part of his country," she said. "We aim to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
Thursday, November 20, 2003
TERROR
information clearinghouse: Al-Qaeda are the US govts greatest ally
Let me start by saying that I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. I don't think Russia were involved in the JFK assassination, or that Area 51 is home to aliens. I am a rational person, who I like to believe, thinks logically.
So lets look at recent events in a logical way.
On November 20th 2003, London was gearing up for a huge protest against the visit of President Bush. The media had been hyping up the protests, as the largest protests 'ever seen against a head of State'. More people were expected to attend than had ever protested against Saddam, or Mugabe.
However, Bush seemed unnerved. He would smile when asked about the protests and he said it didn't affect him at all. I couldn't understand this. This man was being told he was the most hated man on the planet, and yet he didn't seem to mind. Almost as if he 'knew' something no-one else did.
The news of Michael Jacksons sex scandals were given 2nd rate coverage in light of the protests, which would culminate in a ceremonious 'toppling' of Bush's effigy, to replicate the staged toppling of Saddams in Baghdad.
I was thinking all the while, unless the world should end, there is no way Bush can divert the worlds media attention from this. If anything, there was nothing he could do, to avoid the British public from seeing that his war against terror was a phoney war. I was hoping the worlds media would broadcast the protests and images of the toppling effigy would be beamed throughout the world. Bush's calmness unnerved me.
It just wasn't logical.
On 20th November, I woke up expecting the news to be full of the protests. But it wasn't.
Someone had bombed the British consulate and HQ of the HSBC bank in Istanbul.
At 09:10 GMT the first blast had gone off outside the HSBC HQ, and 2 minutes later, the second bomb went off. At 09:18 GMT, news channels in Britain were stating 'Al-Qaeda has bombed the British consulate'.
I didn't understand. I watched the tv, to see how they had already figured out within 6 minutes that Al-Qaeda had done this. I searched frantically and all I could find were statements being released 'the bombings had all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda'. I wonder even now, what these 'hallmarks' are.
I was at work, and I joked to a friend, that soon an e-mail would arrive at some Arab newspaper, where Al-Qaeda would accept responsibility. By lunchtime, a Turkish newspaper had received that e-mail. To this day, Al-Qaeda hasn't accepted responsibility for 9-11, 'their crowning achievement'. The faked CIA tape of a fake Bin Ladin, gloating about 9-11, has funnily stopped being shown on tv, since it was ripped to shreds by all who saw it. Al-Qaeda hasn't owned up to any of the terrorist acts that it is blamed of. Not until the perpetrators are in custody, do any admissions come out.
The Bali bombings, the first WTC, the Karachi hotel bombings, the Kandahar hijacking, 9-11.nothing. Al-Qaeda just don't do that. They don't admit they have done anything. Well not until recently, well..not until the US bombed Afghanistan and 'destroyed Al-Qaeda's communications capability'. Not until, Al-Qaeda's network has been dismantled, and the cells under close watch, and all communications between Bin Ladin and his followers, is now being made via messenger boys on donkeys. When Khalid Sheikh was arrested, he even said that Al Qaeda was no longer using e-mails or telephones to keep in touch, as it was too risky, and the CIA had tapped everything.
So I don't understand how these messenger boys send the e-mails on their donkeys.
It just isn't logical.
Lustig, dass gleiche habe ich auch gedacht
"CHECK IT"
information clearinghouse: Al-Qaeda are the US govts greatest ally
Let me start by saying that I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. I don't think Russia were involved in the JFK assassination, or that Area 51 is home to aliens. I am a rational person, who I like to believe, thinks logically.
So lets look at recent events in a logical way.
On November 20th 2003, London was gearing up for a huge protest against the visit of President Bush. The media had been hyping up the protests, as the largest protests 'ever seen against a head of State'. More people were expected to attend than had ever protested against Saddam, or Mugabe.
However, Bush seemed unnerved. He would smile when asked about the protests and he said it didn't affect him at all. I couldn't understand this. This man was being told he was the most hated man on the planet, and yet he didn't seem to mind. Almost as if he 'knew' something no-one else did.
The news of Michael Jacksons sex scandals were given 2nd rate coverage in light of the protests, which would culminate in a ceremonious 'toppling' of Bush's effigy, to replicate the staged toppling of Saddams in Baghdad.
I was thinking all the while, unless the world should end, there is no way Bush can divert the worlds media attention from this. If anything, there was nothing he could do, to avoid the British public from seeing that his war against terror was a phoney war. I was hoping the worlds media would broadcast the protests and images of the toppling effigy would be beamed throughout the world. Bush's calmness unnerved me.
It just wasn't logical.
On 20th November, I woke up expecting the news to be full of the protests. But it wasn't.
Someone had bombed the British consulate and HQ of the HSBC bank in Istanbul.
At 09:10 GMT the first blast had gone off outside the HSBC HQ, and 2 minutes later, the second bomb went off. At 09:18 GMT, news channels in Britain were stating 'Al-Qaeda has bombed the British consulate'.
I didn't understand. I watched the tv, to see how they had already figured out within 6 minutes that Al-Qaeda had done this. I searched frantically and all I could find were statements being released 'the bombings had all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda'. I wonder even now, what these 'hallmarks' are.
I was at work, and I joked to a friend, that soon an e-mail would arrive at some Arab newspaper, where Al-Qaeda would accept responsibility. By lunchtime, a Turkish newspaper had received that e-mail. To this day, Al-Qaeda hasn't accepted responsibility for 9-11, 'their crowning achievement'. The faked CIA tape of a fake Bin Ladin, gloating about 9-11, has funnily stopped being shown on tv, since it was ripped to shreds by all who saw it. Al-Qaeda hasn't owned up to any of the terrorist acts that it is blamed of. Not until the perpetrators are in custody, do any admissions come out.
The Bali bombings, the first WTC, the Karachi hotel bombings, the Kandahar hijacking, 9-11.nothing. Al-Qaeda just don't do that. They don't admit they have done anything. Well not until recently, well..not until the US bombed Afghanistan and 'destroyed Al-Qaeda's communications capability'. Not until, Al-Qaeda's network has been dismantled, and the cells under close watch, and all communications between Bin Ladin and his followers, is now being made via messenger boys on donkeys. When Khalid Sheikh was arrested, he even said that Al Qaeda was no longer using e-mails or telephones to keep in touch, as it was too risky, and the CIA had tapped everything.
So I don't understand how these messenger boys send the e-mails on their donkeys.
It just isn't logical.
Lustig, dass gleiche habe ich auch gedacht
"CHECK IT"
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Information Clearinghouse: Attacks will continue until day the Americans leave, says Report
19 November 2003: (The Independent) As George Bush arrived in London last night, an unprecedented and bleak assessment of the deteriorating military situation in Iraq was circulating among policymakers in Washington.
The report - contradicting many claims by the US administration - is based on briefings by Paul Bremer, the US de facto governor of Iraq; military commanders, unnamed intelligence officers and David Kay, the American who leads the hunt for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction. It says attacks on Americans by Sunni Iraqis will continue "until the day the US leaves".
The report, compiled by the prestigious Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is all the more devastating because of the unusual level of access provided to its author, Dr Anthony Cordesman, a specialist on Iraq. He concludes that US soldiers are dying because of the ideological approach of the administration, and "four years into office, the Bush national security team is not a team".
Mr Cordesman accuses the administration of preparing the ground for "a defeat by underplaying the risks, issuing provocative and jingoistic speeches, and minimising real-world costs and risks." Senior US officials were also deeply scornful of claims by administration officials that Saddam and his former aide Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri are orchestrating guerrilla attacks.
Information Clearinghouse: Attacks will continue until day the Americans leave, says Report
19 November 2003: (The Independent) As George Bush arrived in London last night, an unprecedented and bleak assessment of the deteriorating military situation in Iraq was circulating among policymakers in Washington.
The report - contradicting many claims by the US administration - is based on briefings by Paul Bremer, the US de facto governor of Iraq; military commanders, unnamed intelligence officers and David Kay, the American who leads the hunt for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction. It says attacks on Americans by Sunni Iraqis will continue "until the day the US leaves".
The report, compiled by the prestigious Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is all the more devastating because of the unusual level of access provided to its author, Dr Anthony Cordesman, a specialist on Iraq. He concludes that US soldiers are dying because of the ideological approach of the administration, and "four years into office, the Bush national security team is not a team".
Mr Cordesman accuses the administration of preparing the ground for "a defeat by underplaying the risks, issuing provocative and jingoistic speeches, and minimising real-world costs and risks." Senior US officials were also deeply scornful of claims by administration officials that Saddam and his former aide Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri are orchestrating guerrilla attacks.
IRAQ
Reuters: U.S. Tough Tactics Risk Inflaming Iraq Insurgency
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq have launched their fiercest military campaign since major combat ended in May, but experts fear the aggressive "show of force" may inflame an anti-American insurgency rather than douse it.
In the past 10 days, fighter jets have dropped 500 lb. (230 kg) bombs, satellite-guided missiles have been fired, and tanks have pounded suspected guerrilla hideouts in a display that may be spectacular but could ultimately backfire.
"I don't think this present campaign is going to produce what the Americans want, which is security on the ground for Iraqis and U.S. forces," said Phillip Mitchell of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"It's only going to ensure that the population becomes more allied with the pro-Saddam, anti-American insurgency... The risk is that these sort of actions will actually inflame hatred."
Reuters: U.S. Tough Tactics Risk Inflaming Iraq Insurgency
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq have launched their fiercest military campaign since major combat ended in May, but experts fear the aggressive "show of force" may inflame an anti-American insurgency rather than douse it.
In the past 10 days, fighter jets have dropped 500 lb. (230 kg) bombs, satellite-guided missiles have been fired, and tanks have pounded suspected guerrilla hideouts in a display that may be spectacular but could ultimately backfire.
"I don't think this present campaign is going to produce what the Americans want, which is security on the ground for Iraqis and U.S. forces," said Phillip Mitchell of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"It's only going to ensure that the population becomes more allied with the pro-Saddam, anti-American insurgency... The risk is that these sort of actions will actually inflame hatred."
ZIONISM
Zionist Organisation of America: 'It's Not Occupied Territory, It's Israel' - Tom DeLay
NEW YORK - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), the keynote speaker at the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)'s annual Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner at the New York Hilton on November 16, said at the dinner that when he recently stood on the Golan Heights and looked out across the region, "I didn't see any occupied territory, I only saw Israel."
Congressman DeLay said that "the ZOA speaks the simple truth that others are afraid to utter," and that ZOA's efforts on behalf of America-Israel relations are "indispensable." Congressman DeLay also called for "expanding military and economic relations between Israel and the United States," and said that there must be "complete economic, social and political reform" among the Palestinian Arabs.
Zionist Organisation of America: 'It's Not Occupied Territory, It's Israel' - Tom DeLay
NEW YORK - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), the keynote speaker at the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)'s annual Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner at the New York Hilton on November 16, said at the dinner that when he recently stood on the Golan Heights and looked out across the region, "I didn't see any occupied territory, I only saw Israel."
Congressman DeLay said that "the ZOA speaks the simple truth that others are afraid to utter," and that ZOA's efforts on behalf of America-Israel relations are "indispensable." Congressman DeLay also called for "expanding military and economic relations between Israel and the United States," and said that there must be "complete economic, social and political reform" among the Palestinian Arabs.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
AFP: US Soldier killed, Two Wounded In Iraq
One US soldier was killed and two wounded today when a military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb near the western Iraqi town of Ramadi, a US military spokesman said.
An improvised explosive device of the sort favoured by anti-US insurgents blew up as the convoy passed by east of the town between 2.30 and 3.30pm local time, the spokesman said.
"There was one killed in action and two wounded."
MSNBC: Blasts shake Iraq’s oil ministry
Explosions shook Iraq’s oil ministry on Friday morning, witnesses said, and thick black smoke poured from the heavily guarded compound. The attack occured minutes after at least three rockets were fired into the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in downtown Baghdad where many U.S. workers and foreign journalists are staying.
AFP: US Soldier killed, Two Wounded In Iraq
One US soldier was killed and two wounded today when a military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb near the western Iraqi town of Ramadi, a US military spokesman said.
An improvised explosive device of the sort favoured by anti-US insurgents blew up as the convoy passed by east of the town between 2.30 and 3.30pm local time, the spokesman said.
"There was one killed in action and two wounded."
MSNBC: Blasts shake Iraq’s oil ministry
Explosions shook Iraq’s oil ministry on Friday morning, witnesses said, and thick black smoke poured from the heavily guarded compound. The attack occured minutes after at least three rockets were fired into the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in downtown Baghdad where many U.S. workers and foreign journalists are staying.
UK: BUSH VISIT
Rense: London Paralyzed By Historic Peace Protest
Mood of anti-war demonstration was jubilance and celebration
Popular anger at the occupation of Iraq spilled into the heart of London on Thursday, as hundreds of thousands of people protested in what organisers said was the largest ever weekday demonstration in British history.
Police estimated the numbers marching at 110,000. But Chris Nineham, a spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition, said that 350,000 had joined the protest.
"We've shown the warmongers that far from disappearing, were still growing," he said, "and we'll stay on the streets until we win".
The anti-war MP Alice Mahon said she thought a quarter of a million had taken part. "I've lived through the Vietnam demonstrations, the protests against Thatcher and the Poll Tax," she told Aljazeera.net, "and this is one of the biggest I've ever seen."
Rense: London Paralyzed By Historic Peace Protest
Mood of anti-war demonstration was jubilance and celebration
Popular anger at the occupation of Iraq spilled into the heart of London on Thursday, as hundreds of thousands of people protested in what organisers said was the largest ever weekday demonstration in British history.
Police estimated the numbers marching at 110,000. But Chris Nineham, a spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition, said that 350,000 had joined the protest.
"We've shown the warmongers that far from disappearing, were still growing," he said, "and we'll stay on the streets until we win".
The anti-war MP Alice Mahon said she thought a quarter of a million had taken part. "I've lived through the Vietnam demonstrations, the protests against Thatcher and the Poll Tax," she told Aljazeera.net, "and this is one of the biggest I've ever seen."
UK: BUSH VISIT
Mirror: Bush Vows To Start More War
'Duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men' - George Bush in his keynote speech
George Bush yesterday vowed to start more wars for the "moral goal" of liberation.
The president said the US reserved the right to use force against tyranny.
In the only public speech of his visit, Mr Bush said he would not bow to "thugs and assassins".
Just 24 hours before today's mass anti-war rally in London, he defended invading Iraq. Mr Bush paid lip service to global anti-war feeling - then threatened military action whenever he felt like it.
He said: "There are principled objections to the use of force in every generation and I credit the good motives behind those views.
"Those in authority, however, are not judged only by good motivations. The people have given us the duty to defend them. That duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men.
"In some cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force."
"Den Spruch mit dem Schutz vor dem Chaos hat schon Goebbels gebracht. Ich danke Herrn Bush, dass er die Welt zu einem sicheren Ort macht. Es scheint ihm sehr gut zu gelingen"
Mirror: Bush Vows To Start More War
'Duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men' - George Bush in his keynote speech
George Bush yesterday vowed to start more wars for the "moral goal" of liberation.
The president said the US reserved the right to use force against tyranny.
In the only public speech of his visit, Mr Bush said he would not bow to "thugs and assassins".
Just 24 hours before today's mass anti-war rally in London, he defended invading Iraq. Mr Bush paid lip service to global anti-war feeling - then threatened military action whenever he felt like it.
He said: "There are principled objections to the use of force in every generation and I credit the good motives behind those views.
"Those in authority, however, are not judged only by good motivations. The people have given us the duty to defend them. That duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men.
"In some cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force."
"Den Spruch mit dem Schutz vor dem Chaos hat schon Goebbels gebracht. Ich danke Herrn Bush, dass er die Welt zu einem sicheren Ort macht. Es scheint ihm sehr gut zu gelingen"
TERROR IN ISTANBUL
Independent: Two explosions rock British targets in Istanbul
At least 26 people were killed and more than 400 injured in bombings of the British consulate and offices of the HSBC financial group in Istanbul today. Among those killed was the British Consul-General Roger Short.
Witnesses said suicide bombers used pickup trucks in the blasts that occurred five minutes apart, at about 11am.
In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described the attacks as "clearly appalling acts of terrorism" adding: "I'm afraid it has all the hallmarks of international terrorism practiced by al-Qa'ida."
"Der Irakkrieg zahlt sich fuer Grossbritannien nicht aus. Wovor eigentlich alle ernstzunehmenden Kommentatoren gewarnt hatten trifft ein."
Independent: Two explosions rock British targets in Istanbul
At least 26 people were killed and more than 400 injured in bombings of the British consulate and offices of the HSBC financial group in Istanbul today. Among those killed was the British Consul-General Roger Short.
Witnesses said suicide bombers used pickup trucks in the blasts that occurred five minutes apart, at about 11am.
In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described the attacks as "clearly appalling acts of terrorism" adding: "I'm afraid it has all the hallmarks of international terrorism practiced by al-Qa'ida."
"Der Irakkrieg zahlt sich fuer Grossbritannien nicht aus. Wovor eigentlich alle ernstzunehmenden Kommentatoren gewarnt hatten trifft ein."
IRAQ
islamonline: French Diplomat Criticizes 'Brutal' US Army In Iraq
BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the U.S. forces pursued for the third consecutive day their get-tough tactics against Iraqi resistance fighters, a French politician described on Tuesday, November 18, the U.S. army as "brutal", saying that such more aggressive operations would do little to end mounting anti-U.S. attacks.
"These are just the type of operations which encourage people to think they are dealing with a brutal army of occupation," Francois Gere, director of France's Institute for Diplomacy and Defense, told the BBC News Online.
"These are operations of the 'search and destroy' type which are very spectacular and designed primarily to occupy television airtime for the U.S. public back home.
"This is like using sledgehammers to swat flies. This is not how you fight guerrillas," he added.
Gere's statements came as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov further criticized the "excessive" tendency of the United States to use military force, saying that the level of violence in Iraq showed Moscow was right to oppose the U.S.-led invasion.
islamonline: French Diplomat Criticizes 'Brutal' US Army In Iraq
BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the U.S. forces pursued for the third consecutive day their get-tough tactics against Iraqi resistance fighters, a French politician described on Tuesday, November 18, the U.S. army as "brutal", saying that such more aggressive operations would do little to end mounting anti-U.S. attacks.
"These are just the type of operations which encourage people to think they are dealing with a brutal army of occupation," Francois Gere, director of France's Institute for Diplomacy and Defense, told the BBC News Online.
"These are operations of the 'search and destroy' type which are very spectacular and designed primarily to occupy television airtime for the U.S. public back home.
"This is like using sledgehammers to swat flies. This is not how you fight guerrillas," he added.
Gere's statements came as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov further criticized the "excessive" tendency of the United States to use military force, saying that the level of violence in Iraq showed Moscow was right to oppose the U.S.-led invasion.
ISRAEL
Independent: Israelis Leave Their 'Promised Land' by Justin Juggler
Forced Out By A Battered Economy And Years Of Violence
Ms Max and her family are part of a growing phenomenon that has the Israeli political establishment worried. New figures from the Immigration and Absorption Ministry stunned the establishment. Those figures show 760,000 Israeli citizens now live abroad. The ministry says its figures are an informal estimate, based on research by Israeli embassies around the world.
Even so, for a country of just 6,600,000, it is a large number. But the big surprise was the growth in the number of Israelis living abroad: in 2000, it was 550,000. That increase has undoubtedly been fuelled by the suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinian militants over the past three years, and by the severe recession into which the Israeli economy has been plunged.
The results of a recent study by Israeli academics unnerved even the right-wing supporters of Mr Sharon. The study found that by the year 2020, in just 17 years, Palestinians will be the majority in the whole area of Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. That raises the possibility of the Israeli right's worst nightmare: that Palestinians might stop demanding a state of their own and start asking for the vote. That could spell the end of Israel's identity as a Jewish state, something most Israelis want to keep.
The Jewish Week: Jewish Leaders Worried About 'One-State' Solution
When a delegation of young legal advisers to the Palestinian Authority were in Washington recently, they made their usual pitch about settlements and Israel's new security fence.
But not far from the surface was a new argument with old overtones: support for a two-state solution to the conflict is rapidly waning among Palestinians, they said. Instead, more and more are supporting the creation of a single, binational democratic state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
That idea has generated little interest in Washington, mostly because it is a blatant prescription for the quick elimination of the Jewish state.
But Jewish leaders are worried. In some quarters - including across Europe and on campuses at home - "it will be a seductive idea," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
"Sie wollen keine zwei-Staaten loesung, sie wollen keine ein-Staaten loesung, sie wollen eretz israel ganz fuer sich allein"
Independent: Israelis Leave Their 'Promised Land' by Justin Juggler
Forced Out By A Battered Economy And Years Of Violence
Ms Max and her family are part of a growing phenomenon that has the Israeli political establishment worried. New figures from the Immigration and Absorption Ministry stunned the establishment. Those figures show 760,000 Israeli citizens now live abroad. The ministry says its figures are an informal estimate, based on research by Israeli embassies around the world.
Even so, for a country of just 6,600,000, it is a large number. But the big surprise was the growth in the number of Israelis living abroad: in 2000, it was 550,000. That increase has undoubtedly been fuelled by the suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinian militants over the past three years, and by the severe recession into which the Israeli economy has been plunged.
The results of a recent study by Israeli academics unnerved even the right-wing supporters of Mr Sharon. The study found that by the year 2020, in just 17 years, Palestinians will be the majority in the whole area of Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. That raises the possibility of the Israeli right's worst nightmare: that Palestinians might stop demanding a state of their own and start asking for the vote. That could spell the end of Israel's identity as a Jewish state, something most Israelis want to keep.
The Jewish Week: Jewish Leaders Worried About 'One-State' Solution
When a delegation of young legal advisers to the Palestinian Authority were in Washington recently, they made their usual pitch about settlements and Israel's new security fence.
But not far from the surface was a new argument with old overtones: support for a two-state solution to the conflict is rapidly waning among Palestinians, they said. Instead, more and more are supporting the creation of a single, binational democratic state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
That idea has generated little interest in Washington, mostly because it is a blatant prescription for the quick elimination of the Jewish state.
But Jewish leaders are worried. In some quarters - including across Europe and on campuses at home - "it will be a seductive idea," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
"Sie wollen keine zwei-Staaten loesung, sie wollen keine ein-Staaten loesung, sie wollen eretz israel ganz fuer sich allein"
IRAQ WAR
Guardian: War Critics Astonished As US Hawk Admits Invasion Was Illegal
WASHINGTON -- International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
"interessante Idee, dass die Palaestinenser ploetzlich die Mehrheit in Israel stellen"
Guardian: War Critics Astonished As US Hawk Admits Invasion Was Illegal
WASHINGTON -- International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
"interessante Idee, dass die Palaestinenser ploetzlich die Mehrheit in Israel stellen"
IRAQI RESISTANCE
AP: Insurgency 'Not About Saddam'
SAMARA, Iraq (AP) -- A former Iraqi general who claims to be part of the insurgency against US troops says the guerilla war around this "Sunni Triangle" city is being waged by small groups fighting on their own without direction from Saddam Hussein or others.
He and two other Samara men, who said they are in separate guerilla units, insisted in interviews with The Associated Press that their fight was not aimed at returning Saddam to power. They said it was about ending the US-led occupation and restoring Iraqi rule.
"I am fighting for my country - not Saddam Hussein - to get rid of the infidels. Very few people are fighting for him. They gave up on him at the end of the war," one of the men, an unemployed electrical engineer, said
"Soviel zur Verschwoerung vom boesen Saddam der im Hintergrund die Strippen zieht"
AP: Insurgency 'Not About Saddam'
SAMARA, Iraq (AP) -- A former Iraqi general who claims to be part of the insurgency against US troops says the guerilla war around this "Sunni Triangle" city is being waged by small groups fighting on their own without direction from Saddam Hussein or others.
He and two other Samara men, who said they are in separate guerilla units, insisted in interviews with The Associated Press that their fight was not aimed at returning Saddam to power. They said it was about ending the US-led occupation and restoring Iraqi rule.
"I am fighting for my country - not Saddam Hussein - to get rid of the infidels. Very few people are fighting for him. They gave up on him at the end of the war," one of the men, an unemployed electrical engineer, said
"Soviel zur Verschwoerung vom boesen Saddam der im Hintergrund die Strippen zieht"
TERROR IN TURKY
Reuters: Blasts Hit Istanbul, 15 Dead - TV
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two blasts rocked Istanbul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and devastating both the HSBC Bank headquarters and British consulate in an apparent suicide attack Turkey called a strike against British interests.
Turkish television, quoting city health officials, said that besides the 15 killed, 320 people were injured. A caller to Turkey's semi-official Anatolian news agency claimed responsibility in the name of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, which Washington blames for September 11 U.S. attacks.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country is the United States's chief backer in the Iraqi occupation, said the strikes bore "all the hallmarks of the international terrorism operations practiced by al Qaeda and associated organizations."
The blasts, coinciding with a British visit by President Bush, were the second such strike in Muslim Turkey in five days. Turkey's interior minister said he saw a connection with weekend attacks on two Istanbul synagogues that killed 25.
"Also wenn das mal nicht die Al-Quida war. Von wo wissen das die Behoerden immer so schnell? Hatt Al-Quida eine corporate identity und die CIA Zugriff auf die Arbeitsvertraege und den Businessplan? Was wurde eigentlich aus der Geschichte beim Synagogen Bombing wo die Polizei zuerst sagte sie hätte die Terroristen auf Video. Sie haetten die Autos parkiert und dann den Ort verlassen. Am anderen Tag warens dann ploetzlich zwei Selbsmord Attentaeter die sich mit den Fahrzeugen in die Luft gejagt haben..tsss Fragen ueber Fragen, Wer will eigentlich die Europaer ueberzeugen das sie jetzt auch im Fadenkreuz stehen?"
Reuters: Blasts Hit Istanbul, 15 Dead - TV
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two blasts rocked Istanbul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and devastating both the HSBC Bank headquarters and British consulate in an apparent suicide attack Turkey called a strike against British interests.
Turkish television, quoting city health officials, said that besides the 15 killed, 320 people were injured. A caller to Turkey's semi-official Anatolian news agency claimed responsibility in the name of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, which Washington blames for September 11 U.S. attacks.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country is the United States's chief backer in the Iraqi occupation, said the strikes bore "all the hallmarks of the international terrorism operations practiced by al Qaeda and associated organizations."
The blasts, coinciding with a British visit by President Bush, were the second such strike in Muslim Turkey in five days. Turkey's interior minister said he saw a connection with weekend attacks on two Istanbul synagogues that killed 25.
"Also wenn das mal nicht die Al-Quida war. Von wo wissen das die Behoerden immer so schnell? Hatt Al-Quida eine corporate identity und die CIA Zugriff auf die Arbeitsvertraege und den Businessplan? Was wurde eigentlich aus der Geschichte beim Synagogen Bombing wo die Polizei zuerst sagte sie hätte die Terroristen auf Video. Sie haetten die Autos parkiert und dann den Ort verlassen. Am anderen Tag warens dann ploetzlich zwei Selbsmord Attentaeter die sich mit den Fahrzeugen in die Luft gejagt haben..tsss Fragen ueber Fragen, Wer will eigentlich die Europaer ueberzeugen das sie jetzt auch im Fadenkreuz stehen?"
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
News.au: Banned weapon 'used in Gaza raid'
AN Arab Israeli politician has accused the Israeli military of using a "banned weapon" in a deadly raid in the Gaza Strip last month, as another deputy threatened to reveal confidential information on the attack.
Opposition MP Ahmad al-Tibi said the army had used a "secret banned weapon" in the raid and accused it of employing military censorship to stop the publication of details related to the issue.
"This concerns banned munitions whose explosion had an impact that extended over several dozen metres," he said.
Twelve Palestinians, including two wanted activists, were killed in the Israeli raid on October 20, which targeted a car in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusseirat.
"Air Force commander Dan Halutz lied in public when he said after the raid that the Air Force used Hellfire missiles that were fired by Apache helicopters. It was not Apaches that launched the banned weapon," he charged.
Meanwhile fellow member of parliament Yossi Sarid, of the left-wing Meretz party, threatened to unveil "confidential information" over the Nusseirat raid.
Sarid made his threat after Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz refused to tell him the type weapons used in the raid, during a meeting of parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee, according to the Haaretz daily
News.au: Banned weapon 'used in Gaza raid'
AN Arab Israeli politician has accused the Israeli military of using a "banned weapon" in a deadly raid in the Gaza Strip last month, as another deputy threatened to reveal confidential information on the attack.
Opposition MP Ahmad al-Tibi said the army had used a "secret banned weapon" in the raid and accused it of employing military censorship to stop the publication of details related to the issue.
"This concerns banned munitions whose explosion had an impact that extended over several dozen metres," he said.
Twelve Palestinians, including two wanted activists, were killed in the Israeli raid on October 20, which targeted a car in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusseirat.
"Air Force commander Dan Halutz lied in public when he said after the raid that the Air Force used Hellfire missiles that were fired by Apache helicopters. It was not Apaches that launched the banned weapon," he charged.
Meanwhile fellow member of parliament Yossi Sarid, of the left-wing Meretz party, threatened to unveil "confidential information" over the Nusseirat raid.
Sarid made his threat after Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz refused to tell him the type weapons used in the raid, during a meeting of parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee, according to the Haaretz daily
USA
CNN:POLL
Do you believe a comprehensive re-regulation of U.S. businesses is needed?
Yes 86% 2157 votes
No 10% 261 votes
Neutral 3% 76 votes
CNN:POLL
Do you believe a comprehensive re-regulation of U.S. businesses is needed?
Yes 86% 2157 votes
No 10% 261 votes
Neutral 3% 76 votes
COPYRIGHT
Heise: Erster P2P-Prozess in Australien endet mit Strafe zur Abschreckung
Gleichzeitig mit der Urteilsverkündigung wurde das Ergebnis einer Umfrage unter australischen Musikprofis veroeffentlicht, die das Recht auf die Privatkopie einklagen
In Australien hat der erste Prozess gegen Online-Piraterie stattgefunden. Drei junge Maenner wurden zu Gefaengnisstrafen auf Bewaehrung verurteilt, obgleich sie keine kommerziellen Interessen verfolgt haben. Gleichzeitig wurde eine Umfrage unter Musikern und anderen Musikprofis ver?ffentlicht, nach der diese zugeben, selbst Musik aus dem Internet herunterzuladen, und fordern, das Urheberrecht zu lockern
Die drei jungen Maenner aus Sydney hatten auf ihrer Website MP3/WMA Land 390 CDs und mehr als 1.800 Musikdateien zum Herunterladen angeboten. Sieben Millionen Pageviews hatte die Website erzielt.
Andererseits hat der Richter ihre Jugend berücksichtigt und anerkannt, dass sie damit keine kommerziellen Interessen verfolgt hatten, auch wenn sie der Musikindustrie einen Schaden von 60 Millionen australische Dollar (37 Millionen Euro) zugefügt haetten. Die Musikindustrie hatte gar von einem Verlust von 200 Millionen australischen Dollar (121 Millionen Euro) gesprochen
"Dieser Fall ist auch gut. Die Musikindustrie argumentiert sie haetten 121 Euro Verlust erlitten. Die Seite hatte sieben Millionen Pageviews. Das bedeutet nicht, dass sich sieben millionen Leute die Seite angesehen haben, sondern die Seite (und ihre sub-pages) wurden sieben Millionen mal aufgerufen (nur aufgerufen, keine downloads!). Das passiert bei umfangreichen Seiten mit vielen Links ziemlich schnell. Die Musikindustrie hat also durch jeden Seiten
aufruf (nicht downloads!) 17 Euro Verlust erlitten! (121mio/7mio). Kann mir das mal jemand erklaeren? Es wird also angenommen, jeder der in einen Laden geht, sei ein Ladendieb und wenn er nichts kauft muss er die Summe bezahlen die der durchschnittliche Kaeufer im Laden laesst. Komische Welt. Das Copyright ist die Hure der Konzerne. Toetet die Musikindustrie!"
Heise: Erster P2P-Prozess in Australien endet mit Strafe zur Abschreckung
Gleichzeitig mit der Urteilsverkündigung wurde das Ergebnis einer Umfrage unter australischen Musikprofis veroeffentlicht, die das Recht auf die Privatkopie einklagen
In Australien hat der erste Prozess gegen Online-Piraterie stattgefunden. Drei junge Maenner wurden zu Gefaengnisstrafen auf Bewaehrung verurteilt, obgleich sie keine kommerziellen Interessen verfolgt haben. Gleichzeitig wurde eine Umfrage unter Musikern und anderen Musikprofis ver?ffentlicht, nach der diese zugeben, selbst Musik aus dem Internet herunterzuladen, und fordern, das Urheberrecht zu lockern
Die drei jungen Maenner aus Sydney hatten auf ihrer Website MP3/WMA Land 390 CDs und mehr als 1.800 Musikdateien zum Herunterladen angeboten. Sieben Millionen Pageviews hatte die Website erzielt.
Andererseits hat der Richter ihre Jugend berücksichtigt und anerkannt, dass sie damit keine kommerziellen Interessen verfolgt hatten, auch wenn sie der Musikindustrie einen Schaden von 60 Millionen australische Dollar (37 Millionen Euro) zugefügt haetten. Die Musikindustrie hatte gar von einem Verlust von 200 Millionen australischen Dollar (121 Millionen Euro) gesprochen
"Dieser Fall ist auch gut. Die Musikindustrie argumentiert sie haetten 121 Euro Verlust erlitten. Die Seite hatte sieben Millionen Pageviews. Das bedeutet nicht, dass sich sieben millionen Leute die Seite angesehen haben, sondern die Seite (und ihre sub-pages) wurden sieben Millionen mal aufgerufen (nur aufgerufen, keine downloads!). Das passiert bei umfangreichen Seiten mit vielen Links ziemlich schnell. Die Musikindustrie hat also durch jeden Seiten
aufruf (nicht downloads!) 17 Euro Verlust erlitten! (121mio/7mio). Kann mir das mal jemand erklaeren? Es wird also angenommen, jeder der in einen Laden geht, sei ein Ladendieb und wenn er nichts kauft muss er die Summe bezahlen die der durchschnittliche Kaeufer im Laden laesst. Komische Welt. Das Copyright ist die Hure der Konzerne. Toetet die Musikindustrie!"
ECONOMY
Heise: Lizenzgebühren für jede einzelne Bohne
Mal wieder verklagt die Firma Monsanto einen Kunden
Der Sojabohnen-Farmer hat das genmanipulierte Saatgut nicht gem?? dem unterzeichneten Vertrag auf einmal ausgebracht, sondern einen Teil ein Jahr lang aufgehoben. Das haben Bauern immer getan, in Zeiten der Lizenzgebühren für jede einzelne Bohne machen sie sich jetzt damit strafbar
"Super. Genau für solche Faelle wurden Patente erfunden. Ich finde es auch gut, dass Herr Busch dritt Welt Laender zwingen will bei Monsanto genmanipuliertes Saatgut zu kaufen um "den Hunger zu bekaempfen". Dann koennen wir die Barbaren noch ein bisschen mehr ausnehmen und es ist darüberhinaus gut fuer den Shareholdervalue."
dazu aus dem Heise Forum: persönliche Freiheit stirbt durch wirtschaftliche Not pocahontas (19. November 2003 14:45)
Zuerst wurde es durch Grundbesteuerung dem Menschen unmöglich gemacht
gänzlich ohne Geld zu leben. Dann würden sämtliche Energieresourcen in die Hände weniger gespielt.
Eventuell verbleibende Wasserrechte sind Peanuts. Alternative Patente
aufgekauft. Weitere Steuerungsgesetze führen allmählich zu einer Verarmung der
Bevölkerung und Gemeinden. Gleichzeitig werden Tinkwasserresourcen (vor ein paar Jahren war
Wasser, Luft.. noch ein freies Gut)mehr und mehr in die Hände großer
Konzerne gebracht. [....] Sind erst alle Lebensnotwenigen Dinge Brot, Wasser, Energie, Arbeit
und Wissen in den Händen der Multinationalen Konzerne, gibt es keine
Freiheit mehr.
Heise: Lizenzgebühren für jede einzelne Bohne
Mal wieder verklagt die Firma Monsanto einen Kunden
Der Sojabohnen-Farmer hat das genmanipulierte Saatgut nicht gem?? dem unterzeichneten Vertrag auf einmal ausgebracht, sondern einen Teil ein Jahr lang aufgehoben. Das haben Bauern immer getan, in Zeiten der Lizenzgebühren für jede einzelne Bohne machen sie sich jetzt damit strafbar
"Super. Genau für solche Faelle wurden Patente erfunden. Ich finde es auch gut, dass Herr Busch dritt Welt Laender zwingen will bei Monsanto genmanipuliertes Saatgut zu kaufen um "den Hunger zu bekaempfen". Dann koennen wir die Barbaren noch ein bisschen mehr ausnehmen und es ist darüberhinaus gut fuer den Shareholdervalue."
dazu aus dem Heise Forum: persönliche Freiheit stirbt durch wirtschaftliche Not pocahontas (19. November 2003 14:45)
Zuerst wurde es durch Grundbesteuerung dem Menschen unmöglich gemacht
gänzlich ohne Geld zu leben. Dann würden sämtliche Energieresourcen in die Hände weniger gespielt.
Eventuell verbleibende Wasserrechte sind Peanuts. Alternative Patente
aufgekauft. Weitere Steuerungsgesetze führen allmählich zu einer Verarmung der
Bevölkerung und Gemeinden. Gleichzeitig werden Tinkwasserresourcen (vor ein paar Jahren war
Wasser, Luft.. noch ein freies Gut)mehr und mehr in die Hände großer
Konzerne gebracht. [....] Sind erst alle Lebensnotwenigen Dinge Brot, Wasser, Energie, Arbeit
und Wissen in den Händen der Multinationalen Konzerne, gibt es keine
Freiheit mehr.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Spiegel: "Al-Qaida wirbt in Deutschland K?mpfer für Irak an"
Nach Erkenntnissen des deutschen Geheimdienstes BND beteiligen sich extremistische Islamisten aus Europa an den Anschl?gen gegen das US-Milit?r im Irak. Die Professionalit?t der Attentate weise darauf hin, dass al-Qaida inzwischen eine wichtige Rolle dabei spiele
Die "Professionalit?t der Anschlagsausführung" im Irak, die hohen Opferzahlen und die Tatsache, dass sich die Attentate gegen zivile Ziele richteten, lie?en darauf schlie?en, "dass al-Qaida aktiv ist und auch mitwirkt an den Anschl?gen", sagte der deutsche Geheimdienstchef weiter. Im Irak waren unter anderen auch der Sitz der Vereinten Nationen (Uno) und des Internationalen Komitees vom Roten Kreuz (IKRK) Ziel von Anschl?gen.
"IRAK=TERROR=AL-QAIDA=OSAMA. WAR IST PEACE, IGNORANCE IS STRENGH"
Spiegel: "Al-Qaida wirbt in Deutschland K?mpfer für Irak an"
Nach Erkenntnissen des deutschen Geheimdienstes BND beteiligen sich extremistische Islamisten aus Europa an den Anschl?gen gegen das US-Milit?r im Irak. Die Professionalit?t der Attentate weise darauf hin, dass al-Qaida inzwischen eine wichtige Rolle dabei spiele
Die "Professionalit?t der Anschlagsausführung" im Irak, die hohen Opferzahlen und die Tatsache, dass sich die Attentate gegen zivile Ziele richteten, lie?en darauf schlie?en, "dass al-Qaida aktiv ist und auch mitwirkt an den Anschl?gen", sagte der deutsche Geheimdienstchef weiter. Im Irak waren unter anderen auch der Sitz der Vereinten Nationen (Uno) und des Internationalen Komitees vom Roten Kreuz (IKRK) Ziel von Anschl?gen.
"IRAK=TERROR=AL-QAIDA=OSAMA. WAR IST PEACE, IGNORANCE IS STRENGH"
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
IRAQ
Rense: Who Do You Think Is Creating The Terrorists?
Baghdad Burning - Difficult Days...
Bericht aus Baghdad
They've been bombing houses in Tikrit and other areas! Unbelievable· I'm so angry it makes me want to break something!!!! What the hell is going on?! What do the Americans think Tikrit is?! Some sort of city of monsters or beasts? The people there are simple people. Most of them make a living off of their land and their livestock- the rest are teachers, professors and merchants- they have lives and families· Tikrit is nothing more than a bunch of low buildings and a palace that was as inaccessible to the Tikritis as it was to everyone else!
People in Al Awja suffered as much as anyone, if not more- they weren't all related to Saddam and even those who were, suffered under his direct relatives. Granted, his bodyguards and others close to him were from Tikrit, but they aren't currently in Tikrit- the majority have struck up deals with the CPA and are bargaining for their safety and the safety of their families with information. The people currently in Tikrit are just ordinary people whose homes and children are as precious to them as American homes and children are precious to Americans! This is contemptible and everyone thinks so- Sunnis and Shi'a alike are shaking their heads incredulously.
And NO- I'm not Tikriti- I'm not even from the 'triangle'- but I know simple, decent people who ARE from there and just the thought that this is being done is so outrageous it makes me want to scream. How can that ass of a president say things are getting better in Iraq when his troops have stooped to destroying homes?! Is that a sign that things are getting better? When you destroy someone's home and detain their family, why would they want to go on with life? Why wouldn't they want to lob a bomb at some 19-year-old soldier from Missouri?!
Rense: Who Do You Think Is Creating The Terrorists?
Baghdad Burning - Difficult Days...
Bericht aus Baghdad
They've been bombing houses in Tikrit and other areas! Unbelievable· I'm so angry it makes me want to break something!!!! What the hell is going on?! What do the Americans think Tikrit is?! Some sort of city of monsters or beasts? The people there are simple people. Most of them make a living off of their land and their livestock- the rest are teachers, professors and merchants- they have lives and families· Tikrit is nothing more than a bunch of low buildings and a palace that was as inaccessible to the Tikritis as it was to everyone else!
People in Al Awja suffered as much as anyone, if not more- they weren't all related to Saddam and even those who were, suffered under his direct relatives. Granted, his bodyguards and others close to him were from Tikrit, but they aren't currently in Tikrit- the majority have struck up deals with the CPA and are bargaining for their safety and the safety of their families with information. The people currently in Tikrit are just ordinary people whose homes and children are as precious to them as American homes and children are precious to Americans! This is contemptible and everyone thinks so- Sunnis and Shi'a alike are shaking their heads incredulously.
And NO- I'm not Tikriti- I'm not even from the 'triangle'- but I know simple, decent people who ARE from there and just the thought that this is being done is so outrageous it makes me want to scream. How can that ass of a president say things are getting better in Iraq when his troops have stooped to destroying homes?! Is that a sign that things are getting better? When you destroy someone's home and detain their family, why would they want to go on with life? Why wouldn't they want to lob a bomb at some 19-year-old soldier from Missouri?!
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Independent: Blame Israel, says Red Cross as it ends food aid for West Bank by Justin Juggler
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its emergency food programme in the West Bank, saying the economic collapse there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the economic needs of the Palestinians.
The move comes as the Israeli media reported that François Bellon, the Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generalsthat the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an "explosion" that could lead to "the worst ever humanitarian crisis" in the occupied territories.
Israel is concerned that other international organisations may follow the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of providing the services they currently provide - a cost that some estimates put as high as $1.1bn (£650m) a year.
The Palestinian economy has collapsed under the weight of military closures of Palestinian cities, making it impossible for Palestinians to move their produce or travel to jobs in other cities or in Israel. Last year and early this year, curfews imposed for all but a few hours a week by the Israeli army made it impossible for Palestinians to work at all.
Independent: Blame Israel, says Red Cross as it ends food aid for West Bank by Justin Juggler
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its emergency food programme in the West Bank, saying the economic collapse there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the economic needs of the Palestinians.
The move comes as the Israeli media reported that François Bellon, the Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generalsthat the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an "explosion" that could lead to "the worst ever humanitarian crisis" in the occupied territories.
Israel is concerned that other international organisations may follow the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of providing the services they currently provide - a cost that some estimates put as high as $1.1bn (£650m) a year.
The Palestinian economy has collapsed under the weight of military closures of Palestinian cities, making it impossible for Palestinians to move their produce or travel to jobs in other cities or in Israel. Last year and early this year, curfews imposed for all but a few hours a week by the Israeli army made it impossible for Palestinians to work at all.
AFGHANISTAN
Observer: Stronger and more deadly, the terror of the Taliban is back
Close to Kandahar is a little village they call the cradle of the Taliban. Now, two years after the collapse of Mullah Omar's feared regime, the fundamentalist movement is once again on the march. In this disturbing report, Jason Burke in Sangesar tracks a resurgent menace
Sweeping the tail of his black turban over a shoulder, the young priest kneels in the dust and fiddles with the bare wires connecting an ancient amplifier to a car battery. Moments later, the call to noon prayer crackles out over the small village of Sangesar, birthplace of the Taliban
Observer: Stronger and more deadly, the terror of the Taliban is back
Close to Kandahar is a little village they call the cradle of the Taliban. Now, two years after the collapse of Mullah Omar's feared regime, the fundamentalist movement is once again on the march. In this disturbing report, Jason Burke in Sangesar tracks a resurgent menace
Sweeping the tail of his black turban over a shoulder, the young priest kneels in the dust and fiddles with the bare wires connecting an ancient amplifier to a car battery. Moments later, the call to noon prayer crackles out over the small village of Sangesar, birthplace of the Taliban
PROPAGANDA WATCH
Antiwar.com: PROOF! (of spin)
Big Story: Neocons Leak Neocon Memo, Then Report On It
Today, Fox News anchors are repeatedly mentioning the blockbuster story "proving" a long-time link between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
The leak was made to a truly unbiased source, the Weekly Standard. The neocon magazine titles the article on the "leaked" memo, "Case Closed
The memo is from another unbiased source: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, one of the most hard-core neoconservatives at the Pentagon.
At one point, a Fox reporter referred to the Weekly Standard as having "close ties to the White House." You would think that they might mention that Fox and the Weekly Standard are both owned by Rupert Murdoch. Current and retired intel officers have identified the work of Feith's Office of Special Plans as a key component of the exaggerated and manipulated intelligence produced on Iraq. Feith himself has been accused of being behind previous leaks of "raw intelligence."
I wonder who "leaked" this memo to the Weekly Standard?
DOD: DoD Statement on News Reports of Al Qaeda and Iraq Connections
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.
A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Oct. 27, 2003, from Douglas J. Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the department to provide the reports from the intelligence community to which he referred in his testimony before the committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda
Antiwar.com: PROOF! (of spin)
Big Story: Neocons Leak Neocon Memo, Then Report On It
Today, Fox News anchors are repeatedly mentioning the blockbuster story "proving" a long-time link between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
The leak was made to a truly unbiased source, the Weekly Standard. The neocon magazine titles the article on the "leaked" memo, "Case Closed
The memo is from another unbiased source: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, one of the most hard-core neoconservatives at the Pentagon.
At one point, a Fox reporter referred to the Weekly Standard as having "close ties to the White House." You would think that they might mention that Fox and the Weekly Standard are both owned by Rupert Murdoch. Current and retired intel officers have identified the work of Feith's Office of Special Plans as a key component of the exaggerated and manipulated intelligence produced on Iraq. Feith himself has been accused of being behind previous leaks of "raw intelligence."
I wonder who "leaked" this memo to the Weekly Standard?
DOD: DoD Statement on News Reports of Al Qaeda and Iraq Connections
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.
A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Oct. 27, 2003, from Douglas J. Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the department to provide the reports from the intelligence community to which he referred in his testimony before the committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda
ISRAEL
Washington Post: Ex-Security Chiefs Turn on Sharon
Government Policies 'Create Hatred,' Israeli Newspaper Is Told
Four former chiefs of Israel's powerful domestic security service said in an interview published Friday that the government's actions and policies during the three-year-old Palestinian uprising have gravely damaged the country and its people.
The four, who variously headed the Shin Bet security agency from 1980 to 2000 under governments that spanned the political spectrum, said that Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, that the government should recognize that no peace agreement can be reached without the involvement of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and that it must stop what one called the immoral treatment of Palestinians.
"We must once and for all admit that there is another side, that it has feelings and that it is suffering, and that we are behaving disgracefully," said Avraham Shalom, who headed the security service from 1980 until 1986. "Yes, there is no other word for it: disgracefully. . . . We have turned into a people of petty fighters using the wrong tools."
"CHECK IT"
Washington Post: Ex-Security Chiefs Turn on Sharon
Government Policies 'Create Hatred,' Israeli Newspaper Is Told
Four former chiefs of Israel's powerful domestic security service said in an interview published Friday that the government's actions and policies during the three-year-old Palestinian uprising have gravely damaged the country and its people.
The four, who variously headed the Shin Bet security agency from 1980 to 2000 under governments that spanned the political spectrum, said that Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, that the government should recognize that no peace agreement can be reached without the involvement of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and that it must stop what one called the immoral treatment of Palestinians.
"We must once and for all admit that there is another side, that it has feelings and that it is suffering, and that we are behaving disgracefully," said Avraham Shalom, who headed the security service from 1980 until 1986. "Yes, there is no other word for it: disgracefully. . . . We have turned into a people of petty fighters using the wrong tools."
"CHECK IT"
BUSH
Mirror: Bush: Clap Me Or No EU Speech
GEORGE Bush pulled out of a speech to the European Parliament when MEPs
wouldn't guarantee a standing ovation.
Senior White House officials said the President would only go to
Strasbourg
to talk about Iraq if he had a stage-managed welcome. A source close
to
negotiations said last night: "President Bush agreed to a speech but
insisted he get a standing ovation like at the State of the Union
address.
Mirror: Bush: Clap Me Or No EU Speech
GEORGE Bush pulled out of a speech to the European Parliament when MEPs
wouldn't guarantee a standing ovation.
Senior White House officials said the President would only go to
Strasbourg
to talk about Iraq if he had a stage-managed welcome. A source close
to
negotiations said last night: "President Bush agreed to a speech but
insisted he get a standing ovation like at the State of the Union
address.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Yahoo: Rash of incidents hit Iraq's pipeline network
Two northern Iraqi pipelines went ablaze in northern Iraq (news - web sites), following an explosion and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack, as a fire struck a natural gas pipeline in the same area, official US and Iraqi sources said
A fire erupted in an oil pipeline 25 kilometers (12 miles) north of Kirkuk after a group of unknown gunmen fired RPGs, said the head of the Iraq's northern oil company, Aidin Mohammed Hassan.
He said the fire began at 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) and was still ongoing.
Earlier that day, a blast on a pipeline forced Iraq's largest oil refinery in Baiji to shut down electricity for two days.
Yahoo: Rash of incidents hit Iraq's pipeline network
Two northern Iraqi pipelines went ablaze in northern Iraq (news - web sites), following an explosion and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack, as a fire struck a natural gas pipeline in the same area, official US and Iraqi sources said
A fire erupted in an oil pipeline 25 kilometers (12 miles) north of Kirkuk after a group of unknown gunmen fired RPGs, said the head of the Iraq's northern oil company, Aidin Mohammed Hassan.
He said the fire began at 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) and was still ongoing.
Earlier that day, a blast on a pipeline forced Iraq's largest oil refinery in Baiji to shut down electricity for two days.
IRAQ
Spiegel: "Wir weichen nicht vor Mörderbanden zurück"
Alliierte unter sich: George W. Bush und Tony Blair haben in London erneut den amerikanisch-britischen Feldzug gegen Saddam verteidigt. Bestätigt fühlt sich der US-Präsident durch die jüngsten Anschläge in Istanbul und Bagdad. "Diese Terroristen würden, wenn sie Massenvernichtungswaffen bekämen, Millionen töten."
"Das Böse steht direkt vor uns", sagte Bush in der zentralen Rede seines viertägigen Staatsbesuchs in Großbritannien. "Wer dies nicht wahrhaben will, verstärkt nur die Gefahr."
Auch der britische Premierminister Tony Blair sagte, Saddam Hussein sei "eine Bedrohung für die Region und die ganze Welt" gewesen
"Bushs Rethorik ist lachhaft. Er als Oberterrorist laesst bereits tausende leute toeten. Er gibt sich aber alle Mühe den legitimen Wiederstand der Iraker mit dem boesen Osama gleichzusetzten. Und dann werden Bush und Blair nicht muede den Irak als Gefahr für die Welt hinzustellen. Werden Luegen wahrer wenn man sie staendig wiederholt?Saddam war das "Boese" uhhhh da kriegt man ja Angst. Was ist Bush? Das Gute, dass die Dunkelheit mit dem Licht von Atombomben verdrängt? Ich denke er hat noch immer Kokain und Aklohol Backflashs
Spiegel: "Wir weichen nicht vor Mörderbanden zurück"
Alliierte unter sich: George W. Bush und Tony Blair haben in London erneut den amerikanisch-britischen Feldzug gegen Saddam verteidigt. Bestätigt fühlt sich der US-Präsident durch die jüngsten Anschläge in Istanbul und Bagdad. "Diese Terroristen würden, wenn sie Massenvernichtungswaffen bekämen, Millionen töten."
"Das Böse steht direkt vor uns", sagte Bush in der zentralen Rede seines viertägigen Staatsbesuchs in Großbritannien. "Wer dies nicht wahrhaben will, verstärkt nur die Gefahr."
Auch der britische Premierminister Tony Blair sagte, Saddam Hussein sei "eine Bedrohung für die Region und die ganze Welt" gewesen
"Bushs Rethorik ist lachhaft. Er als Oberterrorist laesst bereits tausende leute toeten. Er gibt sich aber alle Mühe den legitimen Wiederstand der Iraker mit dem boesen Osama gleichzusetzten. Und dann werden Bush und Blair nicht muede den Irak als Gefahr für die Welt hinzustellen. Werden Luegen wahrer wenn man sie staendig wiederholt?Saddam war das "Boese" uhhhh da kriegt man ja Angst. Was ist Bush? Das Gute, dass die Dunkelheit mit dem Licht von Atombomben verdrängt? Ich denke er hat noch immer Kokain und Aklohol Backflashs
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
STREETART
FESTIVAL ACCES(S)
à Pau - Anciens locaux de la CPAM (Palais des Pyrénées)
29 Novembre au 6 décembre
Vernissage le 29 novembre à 15h.
Interventions en ville d'El Tono
Installation de Stak
Affichage : Above, Alexone, Bo 130 & Microbo, Captain Rouget, C.A.T., Eko, Freaklüb, G, Flying Fortress, Jive, Middle Classes, OPT, Starsky, Stirb, Supakitch & Koralie...
Projection : Abbominevole, Ahoy, Beefree, Bild, Cheba, Fahrenheit451, Jetpac, Kway Krew, Mkan, More$$$, Nano4814, Ponk, Santy, Senor B, SickBoy, Stirb, The Plug...
FESTIVAL ACCES(S)
à Pau - Anciens locaux de la CPAM (Palais des Pyrénées)
29 Novembre au 6 décembre
Vernissage le 29 novembre à 15h.
Interventions en ville d'El Tono
Installation de Stak
Affichage : Above, Alexone, Bo 130 & Microbo, Captain Rouget, C.A.T., Eko, Freaklüb, G, Flying Fortress, Jive, Middle Classes, OPT, Starsky, Stirb, Supakitch & Koralie...
Projection : Abbominevole, Ahoy, Beefree, Bild, Cheba, Fahrenheit451, Jetpac, Kway Krew, Mkan, More$$$, Nano4814, Ponk, Santy, Senor B, SickBoy, Stirb, The Plug...
UK: BUSH VISIT
ITV: US upside-down flag protest at Palace
A grandmother from Hull has scaled the gates of Buckingham Palace in protest at George Bush's visit.
The protester, Lindis Percy, a member of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, campaigns against US military bases in Britain.
She pinned an inverted Stars and Stripes flag to the railings, with a message on it that reads: "Elizabeth Windsor and Co - He's not welcome here."
Following the security breach, police cordoned off the area in front of the palace around the Queen Victoria Monument, and an ambulance was at the scene.
ITV: US upside-down flag protest at Palace
A grandmother from Hull has scaled the gates of Buckingham Palace in protest at George Bush's visit.
The protester, Lindis Percy, a member of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, campaigns against US military bases in Britain.
She pinned an inverted Stars and Stripes flag to the railings, with a message on it that reads: "Elizabeth Windsor and Co - He's not welcome here."
Following the security breach, police cordoned off the area in front of the palace around the Queen Victoria Monument, and an ambulance was at the scene.
IRAQ OCCUPATION
Independent: Americans Turn Tikrit Into Iraq's Own West Bank
It is the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but transported to Iraq. A town is imprisoned by razor wire. The entrance is guarded by soldiers, protected by sand bags, concrete barricades and a machine-gun nest.
Only those people with an identification card issued by the occupation authorities are allowed in or, more importantly, out.
"Hey, this is just like Gaza, isn't it?" a fiery-eyed young Iraqi policeman shouted at us from behind the chest-high, three-layer wire coils which separate his home from the rest of the surrounding dead-flat Iraqi landscape, Sunni Triangle heartland. "We're not happy. Not happy!"
This is Awja, the wealthy enclave outside Tikrit where Saddam Hussein grew up. It has long been a centre of pro-Saddam, anti-American sentiments, home to the ousted dictator's closest tribesmen, his cronies and his relatives. The United States military says it is also the source of persistent violent insurgency.
The Americans, accompanied by selected journalists and cameramen, have been conducting dozens of operations in the past few days, mounting house-to-house raids, and firing off several 500lb satellite-guided missiles in an effort to show the world and the guerrillas that they are now getting tough.
"CHECK IT"
Independent: Americans Turn Tikrit Into Iraq's Own West Bank
It is the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but transported to Iraq. A town is imprisoned by razor wire. The entrance is guarded by soldiers, protected by sand bags, concrete barricades and a machine-gun nest.
Only those people with an identification card issued by the occupation authorities are allowed in or, more importantly, out.
"Hey, this is just like Gaza, isn't it?" a fiery-eyed young Iraqi policeman shouted at us from behind the chest-high, three-layer wire coils which separate his home from the rest of the surrounding dead-flat Iraqi landscape, Sunni Triangle heartland. "We're not happy. Not happy!"
This is Awja, the wealthy enclave outside Tikrit where Saddam Hussein grew up. It has long been a centre of pro-Saddam, anti-American sentiments, home to the ousted dictator's closest tribesmen, his cronies and his relatives. The United States military says it is also the source of persistent violent insurgency.
The Americans, accompanied by selected journalists and cameramen, have been conducting dozens of operations in the past few days, mounting house-to-house raids, and firing off several 500lb satellite-guided missiles in an effort to show the world and the guerrillas that they are now getting tough.
"CHECK IT"
UK: BUSH VISIT
Independent: Bush Is 'Greatest Threat To Life On The Planet'
Says The Mayor Of London
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen".
His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London tonight, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends.
Although he made his many differences with the Government on a range of issues clear, he reserved his strongest comments for the American President in an interview with The Ecologist magazine.
Mr Livingstone, who is holding a "peace party" for anti-war groups in City Hall tomorrow, added: "I don't formally recognise George Bush because he was not officially elected. So we are organising an alternative reception for everybody who is not George Bush."
He said he supported stronger links between European Union countries only because he wanted to see a powerful bloc emerge to rival the United States. "The American agenda is sweeping everything before it, and although it's not perfect, the EU is better on environmental issues. It's a less rapacious form of capitalism."
Independent: Bush Is 'Greatest Threat To Life On The Planet'
Says The Mayor Of London
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen".
His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London tonight, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends.
Although he made his many differences with the Government on a range of issues clear, he reserved his strongest comments for the American President in an interview with The Ecologist magazine.
Mr Livingstone, who is holding a "peace party" for anti-war groups in City Hall tomorrow, added: "I don't formally recognise George Bush because he was not officially elected. So we are organising an alternative reception for everybody who is not George Bush."
He said he supported stronger links between European Union countries only because he wanted to see a powerful bloc emerge to rival the United States. "The American agenda is sweeping everything before it, and although it's not perfect, the EU is better on environmental issues. It's a less rapacious form of capitalism."
Monday, November 17, 2003
TURKY: ISTANBUL BLASTS
Islamonline: 'Foreign Powers' Behind Istanbul Blasts - Experts
ISTANBUL (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -- Foreign powers might be behind the deadly blasts that ripped through two synagogues in Istanbul on Saturday, November 15, killing at least 23 people and injuring 300 others, Turkish intelligence experts and journalists said on Sunday, November 16, ruling out that they were the work of underground organizations in Turkey.
Maher Kenaq, a former director at the Turkish intelligence service, told the Turkish daily Milliyet Gazette that the attacks were planned by foreign intelligence services to pressure the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP).
But other experts said the blasts bear the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda network.
Dr. Mansour Aq John, professor of international relations, and researcher Aytanoush Altin, a specialist in religious affairs and evangelism, said there is a clear resemblance between them and other attacks worldwide claimed by Osam bin Laden's group
Islamonline: 'Foreign Powers' Behind Istanbul Blasts - Experts
ISTANBUL (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -- Foreign powers might be behind the deadly blasts that ripped through two synagogues in Istanbul on Saturday, November 15, killing at least 23 people and injuring 300 others, Turkish intelligence experts and journalists said on Sunday, November 16, ruling out that they were the work of underground organizations in Turkey.
Maher Kenaq, a former director at the Turkish intelligence service, told the Turkish daily Milliyet Gazette that the attacks were planned by foreign intelligence services to pressure the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP).
But other experts said the blasts bear the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda network.
Dr. Mansour Aq John, professor of international relations, and researcher Aytanoush Altin, a specialist in religious affairs and evangelism, said there is a clear resemblance between them and other attacks worldwide claimed by Osam bin Laden's group
ROAD TO ARMAGGEDDON
Joevialls: Russia Ready to Vaporize the Jewish State
Part 2: Vladimir Putin hammers the final nail into Israel’s coffin
“The revolutionaries did not spend all of their time listening to the pitiful screams of the
dying Savak torturers, but sent teams down to the oil terminals to permanently shut the
gate valves on Israel’s free oil supply – for ever. The reaction in Tel Aviv was delayed,
not unlike a crowd of junkies slowly awaking from an opiate-induced trance.”
Click Here to Return to Part One
When Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in Russia and his Yukos oil assets seized, the process represented far more than simple payback against the most powerful Zionist Jew in Moscow. At a single stroke, President Vladimir Putin ensured future Russian national security, consolidated several former republics of the old Soviet Union, and most important of all, eternally blocked Israel’s attempts to use “free” Yukos oil to drive its engines of war across the entire Middle East.
Within hours of Khodorkovsky’s arrest in Siberia, his principal Yukos lieutenants fled Russia for Israel, whining in Tel Aviv about “expedited Israeli citizenship rights”, and offering officials of the Jewish State unlimited quantities of Russian crude oil if they were guaranteed swift sanctuary. In their desperation to save themselves, the Yukos lieutenants accidentally lifted the veil on a top-secret Israeli big-bore oil pipeline network.
joevialls: Part One
Rense: Who is Joe Vialls
Joevialls: Russia Ready to Vaporize the Jewish State
Part 2: Vladimir Putin hammers the final nail into Israel’s coffin
“The revolutionaries did not spend all of their time listening to the pitiful screams of the
dying Savak torturers, but sent teams down to the oil terminals to permanently shut the
gate valves on Israel’s free oil supply – for ever. The reaction in Tel Aviv was delayed,
not unlike a crowd of junkies slowly awaking from an opiate-induced trance.”
Click Here to Return to Part One
When Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in Russia and his Yukos oil assets seized, the process represented far more than simple payback against the most powerful Zionist Jew in Moscow. At a single stroke, President Vladimir Putin ensured future Russian national security, consolidated several former republics of the old Soviet Union, and most important of all, eternally blocked Israel’s attempts to use “free” Yukos oil to drive its engines of war across the entire Middle East.
Within hours of Khodorkovsky’s arrest in Siberia, his principal Yukos lieutenants fled Russia for Israel, whining in Tel Aviv about “expedited Israeli citizenship rights”, and offering officials of the Jewish State unlimited quantities of Russian crude oil if they were guaranteed swift sanctuary. In their desperation to save themselves, the Yukos lieutenants accidentally lifted the veil on a top-secret Israeli big-bore oil pipeline network.
joevialls: Part One
Rense: Who is Joe Vialls
IRAQ
Spiegel: Der Emissär des Präsidenten
Geheime Unterlagen aus den frühen achtziger Jahren erzählen eine bizarre Geschichte: Saddam Hussein und Donald Rumsfeld arbeiteten Hand in Hand.
Er gilt als Washingtons Staatsfeind Nummer eins - Saddam Hussein, der geschasste Despot aus dem Zweistromland, den die Supermacht per Steckbrief jagen lässt und lieber tot als lebendig von ihrer Suchliste streichen würde. Doch ausgerechnet einer der ranghöchsten Jäger, Pentagon-Chef Donald Rumsfeld, gehört zu jenen, die einst alles daransetzten, den Baath-Putschisten zu einem Machtfaktor im Nahen Osten aufzubauen.
Spiegel: Der Emissär des Präsidenten
Geheime Unterlagen aus den frühen achtziger Jahren erzählen eine bizarre Geschichte: Saddam Hussein und Donald Rumsfeld arbeiteten Hand in Hand.
Er gilt als Washingtons Staatsfeind Nummer eins - Saddam Hussein, der geschasste Despot aus dem Zweistromland, den die Supermacht per Steckbrief jagen lässt und lieber tot als lebendig von ihrer Suchliste streichen würde. Doch ausgerechnet einer der ranghöchsten Jäger, Pentagon-Chef Donald Rumsfeld, gehört zu jenen, die einst alles daransetzten, den Baath-Putschisten zu einem Machtfaktor im Nahen Osten aufzubauen.
IRAQ
informationclearinghouse: Invasion as Marketing Problem: The Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy By NOAM CHOMSKY
11/14/03: Establishment critics of the war on Iraq restricted their comments regarding the attack to the administration arguments they took to be seriously intended: disarmament, deterrence, and links to terrorism.
They scarcely made reference to liberation, democratization of the Middle East, and other matters that would render irrelevant the weapons inspections and indeed everything that took place at the Security Council or within governmental domains.
The reason, perhaps, is that they recognized that lofty rhetoric is the obligatory accompaniment of virtually any resort to force and therefore carries no information. The rhetoric is doubly hard to take seriously in the light of the display of contempt for democracy that accompanied it, not to speak of the past record and current practices.
"CHECK IT"
informationclearinghouse: Invasion as Marketing Problem: The Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy By NOAM CHOMSKY
11/14/03: Establishment critics of the war on Iraq restricted their comments regarding the attack to the administration arguments they took to be seriously intended: disarmament, deterrence, and links to terrorism.
They scarcely made reference to liberation, democratization of the Middle East, and other matters that would render irrelevant the weapons inspections and indeed everything that took place at the Security Council or within governmental domains.
The reason, perhaps, is that they recognized that lofty rhetoric is the obligatory accompaniment of virtually any resort to force and therefore carries no information. The rhetoric is doubly hard to take seriously in the light of the display of contempt for democracy that accompanied it, not to speak of the past record and current practices.
"CHECK IT"
MIDDLE EAST: ROAD TO ARMAGGEDDON
MiddleEast.org: Sharon's Top Aide 'Sure World War III Is Coming'
"Where the CIA goes, the Mossad goes as well. Israeli and American interests have come together in the dominance of the Central Asian region and therefore, so have liberal ideology, the Beltway set, neo-conservatism, Ivy League eggheads, Christian Zionism, the Rothschilds and the American media. Afghanistan through the Caspian Sea through to Georgia, Azerbaijan and into the Balkans (not to mention pipelines leading to oil-hungry China), have become one single theater of war over trillions of dollars in oil and gas wealth, incorporating every single power center in global politics. The battle against the New World Order is being decided in Moscow."
WASHINGTON - The Christian Fundamentalists, Pat Robertson in the lead, are sure they see God's hand in all this. Ironically, in their truly dangerously radical theological view, they see in today's "Jewish State" the second coming of Christ which then results in the conversion of the world's remaining Jews to Christianity! But the cynical Israelis want and need the political support, the money, and the tourists; so they play the Christian Fundamentalists for the fools and cash in.
MiddleEast.org: Sharon's Top Aide 'Sure World War III Is Coming'
"Where the CIA goes, the Mossad goes as well. Israeli and American interests have come together in the dominance of the Central Asian region and therefore, so have liberal ideology, the Beltway set, neo-conservatism, Ivy League eggheads, Christian Zionism, the Rothschilds and the American media. Afghanistan through the Caspian Sea through to Georgia, Azerbaijan and into the Balkans (not to mention pipelines leading to oil-hungry China), have become one single theater of war over trillions of dollars in oil and gas wealth, incorporating every single power center in global politics. The battle against the New World Order is being decided in Moscow."
WASHINGTON - The Christian Fundamentalists, Pat Robertson in the lead, are sure they see God's hand in all this. Ironically, in their truly dangerously radical theological view, they see in today's "Jewish State" the second coming of Christ which then results in the conversion of the world's remaining Jews to Christianity! But the cynical Israelis want and need the political support, the money, and the tourists; so they play the Christian Fundamentalists for the fools and cash in.
IRAQ
Sunday Herald: U-turn on the road to peace
By June 2004 US soldiers will be leaving Iraq, despite, or perhaps because of, mounting violence in the country. Diplomatic Editor
With a UN deadline of December 15 looming for an inclusive Iraqi plan of action President Bush’s administration has fast-tracked a new plan to transfer power to a provisional government by midsummer 2004. The decision is controversial for two reasons: it overturns the original phased withdrawal; and it abandons a promise to hand over power only after a constitution had been agreed and national elections held.
Under a new blueprint, agreed in Washington last week and confirmed to Iraqi leaders yesterday, the US will be able to claim that Iraq is no longer occupied well in advance of next November’s presidential elections.
Sunday Herald: U-turn on the road to peace
By June 2004 US soldiers will be leaving Iraq, despite, or perhaps because of, mounting violence in the country. Diplomatic Editor
With a UN deadline of December 15 looming for an inclusive Iraqi plan of action President Bush’s administration has fast-tracked a new plan to transfer power to a provisional government by midsummer 2004. The decision is controversial for two reasons: it overturns the original phased withdrawal; and it abandons a promise to hand over power only after a constitution had been agreed and national elections held.
Under a new blueprint, agreed in Washington last week and confirmed to Iraqi leaders yesterday, the US will be able to claim that Iraq is no longer occupied well in advance of next November’s presidential elections.
IRAQ
Charlstonnet: 'My Cambodian Moment': Discovering the truth in Iraq BY SEN. ERNEST F. HOLLINGS
The majority leader of the Senate, Mike Mansfield, quietly opposed the war in Vietnam for years. He had a practice of writing memos in opposition to the war to Presidents Johnson and Nixon while publicly supporting the war on the floor of the Senate. But finally, when Cambodia was invaded under President Nixon, he snapped.
Going on television, he said Vietnam was a mistake from the get-go. The next day he received a letter from an admirer who had just lost her son. She said: "I just buried my son to come home and watch you say that the Vietnam War was a mistake from the beginning. Why didn't you speak out sooner?"
We should have listened to former President "Papa" Bush, who wrote in "A World Transformed," "We should not march into Baghdad ... turning the whole Arab world against us ... assigning young soldiers ... to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war."
Charlstonnet: 'My Cambodian Moment': Discovering the truth in Iraq BY SEN. ERNEST F. HOLLINGS
The majority leader of the Senate, Mike Mansfield, quietly opposed the war in Vietnam for years. He had a practice of writing memos in opposition to the war to Presidents Johnson and Nixon while publicly supporting the war on the floor of the Senate. But finally, when Cambodia was invaded under President Nixon, he snapped.
Going on television, he said Vietnam was a mistake from the get-go. The next day he received a letter from an admirer who had just lost her son. She said: "I just buried my son to come home and watch you say that the Vietnam War was a mistake from the beginning. Why didn't you speak out sooner?"
We should have listened to former President "Papa" Bush, who wrote in "A World Transformed," "We should not march into Baghdad ... turning the whole Arab world against us ... assigning young soldiers ... to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war."
UK: BUSH VISIT
The Observer: 'Shoot-to-kill' demand by US
Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.
In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.
The issue of immunity is one of a series of extraordinary US demands turned down by Ministers and Downing Street during preparations for the Bush visit.
These included the closure of the Tube network, the use of US air force planes and helicopters and the shipping in of battlefield weaponry to use against rioters.
In return, the British authorities agreed numerous concessions, including the creation of a 'sterile zone' around the President with a series of road closures in central London and a security cordon keeping the public away from his cavalcade.
The White House initially demanded the closure of all Tube lines under parts of London to be visited during the trip. But British officials dismissed the idea that a suicide bomber could kill the President by blowing up a Tube train. Ministers are also believed to have dismissed suggestions that a 'sterile zone' around the President should be policed entirely by American special agents and military.
Demands for the US air force to patrol above London with fighter aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have also been turned down
The Observer: 'Shoot-to-kill' demand by US
Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.
In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.
The issue of immunity is one of a series of extraordinary US demands turned down by Ministers and Downing Street during preparations for the Bush visit.
These included the closure of the Tube network, the use of US air force planes and helicopters and the shipping in of battlefield weaponry to use against rioters.
In return, the British authorities agreed numerous concessions, including the creation of a 'sterile zone' around the President with a series of road closures in central London and a security cordon keeping the public away from his cavalcade.
The White House initially demanded the closure of all Tube lines under parts of London to be visited during the trip. But British officials dismissed the idea that a suicide bomber could kill the President by blowing up a Tube train. Ministers are also believed to have dismissed suggestions that a 'sterile zone' around the President should be policed entirely by American special agents and military.
Demands for the US air force to patrol above London with fighter aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have also been turned down
IRAQ MEDIA
Editor & Publisher: 30 Media Outlets Protest Treatment in Iraq
In two separate letters to the Pentagon, the press claims that U.S.
troops are harassing journalists in Iraq and sometimes confiscating equipment,
digital camera disks and videotapes. The Associated Press Managing
Editors (APME) wrote a letter of protest to Larry Di Rita, acting assistant
secretary of defense for public affairs... The harassment has deprived
'the American public of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast
stations and online news operations.'... Separately, 30 media
organizations, lead by The Associated Press, fired off their own letter
to Di Rita, saying they have 'documented numerous examples of U.S. troops
physically harassing journalists,' according to a report... The letter
was signed by representatives from CNN, ABC, The Boston Globe, Newhouse
News Service, and many others. 'It's back to the bad old days where
journalists are being treated as adversaries,' AP Washington Bureau Chief Sandy
Johnson told the Globe.
Editor & Publisher: 30 Media Outlets Protest Treatment in Iraq
In two separate letters to the Pentagon, the press claims that U.S.
troops are harassing journalists in Iraq and sometimes confiscating equipment,
digital camera disks and videotapes. The Associated Press Managing
Editors (APME) wrote a letter of protest to Larry Di Rita, acting assistant
secretary of defense for public affairs... The harassment has deprived
'the American public of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast
stations and online news operations.'... Separately, 30 media
organizations, lead by The Associated Press, fired off their own letter
to Di Rita, saying they have 'documented numerous examples of U.S. troops
physically harassing journalists,' according to a report... The letter
was signed by representatives from CNN, ABC, The Boston Globe, Newhouse
News Service, and many others. 'It's back to the bad old days where
journalists are being treated as adversaries,' AP Washington Bureau Chief Sandy
Johnson told the Globe.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
AP: 17 Soldiers Die in Iraq Copter Crash
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military said 17 soldiers were killed in the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters in the northern city of Mosul, five were injured and one remained unaccounted for.
The death toll from the two Black Hawks surpassed that of the Nov. 2 crash of a Chinook helicopter, which was shot down near Fallujah. Sixteen died in the Chinook crash.
A statement by the U.S. command said one helicopter was carrying a quick reaction force and the other ferried soldiers on a transport mission in northern Iraq.
The statement did not give the cause of the crash, although some soldiers at the scene said at least one of the Black Hawks may have been hit by ground fire. Witnesses said the two Black Hawks collided in mid-air and came down in a residential area of western Mosul.
AP: 17 Soldiers Die in Iraq Copter Crash
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military said 17 soldiers were killed in the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters in the northern city of Mosul, five were injured and one remained unaccounted for.
The death toll from the two Black Hawks surpassed that of the Nov. 2 crash of a Chinook helicopter, which was shot down near Fallujah. Sixteen died in the Chinook crash.
A statement by the U.S. command said one helicopter was carrying a quick reaction force and the other ferried soldiers on a transport mission in northern Iraq.
The statement did not give the cause of the crash, although some soldiers at the scene said at least one of the Black Hawks may have been hit by ground fire. Witnesses said the two Black Hawks collided in mid-air and came down in a residential area of western Mosul.
911
Ny Times: Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
ASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror
attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access
to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White
House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's
representatives.
The agreement, announced on Wednesday, has led to the first public
split on the commission. Two Democrats on the 10-member panel say that the
commission should have demanded full access to the intelligence
summaries, known as the President's Daily Brief, and that the White House should
not be allowed to determine what is relevant to the investigation. An
umbrella group of victims' families joined the criticism, saying the terms of
the accord should be public.
Ny Times: Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
ASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror
attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access
to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White
House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's
representatives.
The agreement, announced on Wednesday, has led to the first public
split on the commission. Two Democrats on the 10-member panel say that the
commission should have demanded full access to the intelligence
summaries, known as the President's Daily Brief, and that the White House should
not be allowed to determine what is relevant to the investigation. An
umbrella group of victims' families joined the criticism, saying the terms of
the accord should be public.
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