IRAN

Herald Sun: Iran denies non-Muslim badge plan

AUSTRALIA, the US and Canada lost little time in blasting Iran for a report, quickly denied, that Tehran may force non-Muslims to wear coloured badges in public.

While acknowledging they had no details beyond a report in a Canadian newspaper, the three countries went on the offensive in separate statements, with Washington and Ottawa evoking the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

"If you did have such an occurrence, whether it was in Iran or elsewhere, it would certainly be despicable," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "I think it has clear echoes of Germany under Hitler."

*HOAX*

CONGO

Independent: Congo's tragedy: the war the world forgot

In a country the size of Western Europe, a war rages that has lasted eight years and cost four million lives. Rival militias inflict appalling suffering on the civilian population, and what passes for political leadership is powerless to stop it. This is Congo, and the reason for the conflict - control of minerals essential to the electronic gadgetry on which the developed world depends - is what makes our blindness to the horror doubly shaming.

"a must read"

USA - OIL

Tom Paine: Oil Diplomacy
by Robert Dreyfuss

Nothing the Bush administration ever does is about oil. It didn’t invade Iraq because that country might have more oil than Saudi Arabia. It isn’t threatening Iran because Iran has a tenth of the world’s oil and one-sixth of its natural gas. And the United States isn’t cozying up to autocrats in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan because the Caspian Sea is a mini-Persian Gulf in the middle of Central Asia, either

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

ICH: The High Cost of Democratic Elections in Palestine

"In my village, starvation and for real," says the woman in halting English. The overseas connection makes her voice sound faint and almost ethereal. In front of me is a glass of cold lemonade. Across the table is a tin of homemade pastries.

The woman I am talking with lives in the village of Davreh, five kilometers outside Ramallah. "But it takes an hour to travel from here to Ramallah, because of the checkpoints," she explains.

This woman, (let's call her Dina, which is not her real name) should not be facing starvation. Until recently her family owned considerable land. Fertile land. Dina's mother raised and educated eleven children by farming this land.

"Our land is equal to our soul." Dina says. "It has been in our family for over one hundred and fifty years. My mother refused to sell even one meter of our land. She told us, take care of our land. Don't sell it, even if you have to beg for money. And they took it for free."

"They" is Israel.

ISRAEL

Independent: 'Racist' marriage law upheld by Israel

Israel's High Court has narrowly upheld a law denying Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza married to Israeli citizens the right to live in the country with their spouses.

The judges voted by six to five not to cancel a four-year-old amendment to the Citizenship Law which outlaws "family unification" in Israel between Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel.

ONLINE VIDEO

ICH:The Corporation

"This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit.

After viewing this film, it becomes all too evident that these large corporations have too much power, whose mandate is not the common good of the people, and who will go to any lengths, legally and otherwise, in the pursuit of profit and the bottom line. Reviewer: C. Middleton (Australia)"



Download Windows Media File - Download Real Video File

This video is available to purchase here

IRAQ

Counterpunch: Looting By Another Name

The Corporate Takeover of Iraq's Economy

"a must read"

FASCISM IN ISRAEL

Haaretz: Condemning and discriminating

Avigdor Lieberman didn't exist, then Ehud Olmert, Amir Peretz and an entire battalion of politicians would have had to make him up. Lieberman's big mouth gives them pearls of wisdom. He emits a bunch of nonsense regarding Arab Knesset members, flavors his comments with a bit of Holocaust, everyone seriously condemns him and continues to screw the Arabs.


Ynet: Arab MK: Israel world's most racist state

Israeli Arab Knesset members slam results of Israel Democracy Institute's survey showing 62 percent of Israelis want to encourage Arab emigration; MK el-Sana: Israel became world's most racist country

PROPAGANDA WATCH

Daily Times: Israel will hit Iran in the next few months: Israeli official

WASHINGTON: Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in the next “month or two or three,” an Israeli official has been quoted here as saying.

WPHerald: Israeli official: Iran to have nukes by 2010

EL AVIV, Israel -- The head of Israeli military intelligence predicted Tuesday that Iran will produce nuclear bombs within four years.

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, testifying before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that Iran is "still at the stage of grams" when they need to produce 25 kilograms -- 55 pounds -- of enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, Ha'aretz reported. But he said that Iran has secret projects underway at its nuclear facility at Natanz.

A LETTER TO MR. BUSH

ICH: Full Text : The President of Iran's Letter To President Bush

Translated by "Le Monde"

Mr George Bush,

President of the United States of America.....

"I don't think he actually sounds like the new "hitler""

TECH

Wired: The RFID Hacking Underground

They can steal your smartcard, lift your passport, jack your car, even clone the chip in your arm. And you won't feel a thing. 5 tales from the RFID-hacking underground.

IRAQ: SALVADOR OPTION

ICH: The Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq
by John Pilger

The American public is being prepared. If the attack on Iran does come, there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no truth.

Now that al-Zarqawi has been replaced by "sectarian violence" and "civil war", the big news is the attacks by Sunnis on Shia mosques and bazaars. The real news, which is not reported in the CNN "mainstream", is that the Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq. This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration.

IRAN

ICH: Bush’s hand in the Terror War
by Mike Whitney

"....There is no civil war in Iraq; it’s all been fabricated to split the country apart. The violence we see is emanating in waves from its ultimate point of origin…1600 Pennsylvania Ave; the epicenter of global terrorism. Fisk’s article just punctuates that point."

IRAQ

Independent: Robert Fisk: Seen through a Syrian lens, 'unknown Americans' are provoking civil war in Iraq

The Americans, my interlocutor suspected, are trying to provoke an Iraqi civil war so that Sunni Muslim insurgents spend their energies killing their Shia co-religionists rather than soldiers of the Western occupation forces. "I swear to you that we have very good information," my source says, finger stabbing the air in front of him

IRAN

Dar Al-Hayat: Power Makes Men Mad
by Scott Ritter

The current 'crisis' regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions is nothing more than a facilitator for war.

IRAN

New York Times: U.S. and Europe Draft U.N. Resolution on Iran

The United States, Britain and France have drafted a binding Security Council resolution requiring Iran to stop key nuclear activities, but Russia and China are already resisting, officials involved in the negotiations said today.

The Americans and the Europeans want to move swiftly against Iran, and to that end, the resolution will be introduced in New York on Wednesday or Thursday, according to R. Nicolas Burns, the under secretary of state who has led American diplomatic efforts concerning Iran.

PR WATCH

wsj.com: HOLY PRODUCT PLACEMENT, BATMAN!

"Product placement has become commonplace in movies and TV shows.
Now it's coming to comic books -- in part because the industry's two
giants, DC and Marvel, are promoting some of their titles as places
to reach one of Madison Avenue's most elusive audiences: guys in
their 20s," reports Brian Steinberg. DC Comics' new miniseries,
called "Rush City," will have "visible promotional support from
General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac." The series' hero will drive a
Pontiac Solstice. Marvel Entertainment "has begun putting the
'swoosh' logo from Nike Inc. in the scenes of some of its titles,
such as 'New X-Men.' So far, the emblem has appeared on a car door
and on a character's T-shirt." Marvel also signed a deal with
DaimlerChrysler, in which the new Dodge Caliber may be featured in
their comic books' cityscapes, "on billboards, T-shirts or signs
over the next four to eight months."

found via: PR WATCH

MEDIA WATCH

Editor and Publisher: THE MEDIA WAR AND JOURNALIST THOUGHT CRIMES

"When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Rush
Limbaugh's talk radio show" recently, he made several remarks "on
the subject of press coverage in Iraq" that have mostly escaped
notice, writes Editor and Publisher. Rumsfeld said that "the
terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have
media committees. They are actively out there trying to manipulate
the press in the United States. ... They're much better at
(laughing) managing those kinds of things than we are." He also
said, "There have been far fewer journalists who have stepped up to
become embedded" with military units in Iraq. One reporter told
Rumsfeld that the perception was that embedded journalists "were
really part of the problem." Rumsfeld commented, "I think that's an
inexcusable thought."

found via: PR Watch

ISRAEL

ICH: Least we forget

In the last two and a half weeks (since the previous suicide bombing) Israeli forces have killed at least 26 Palestinians -- at least 5 of them children -- and injured 161 Palestinian men, women and children. A college student lost her right eye today after being shot by an Israeli sniper last week.

There have been 369 raids by Israeli forces, mostly into the West Bank. Gaza has undergone sustained shelling by Israeli forces and continued closures, resulting in increasing lack of food and medical supplies. According to UN reports, between March 30 and April 12th, Israeli forces launched 2300 artillery and tank shells and 34 missiles into Gaza.

Since the current Palestinian uprising against Israeli military occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land began in fall 2000, approximately 3,863 Palestinians and 1,084 Israelis and have been killed. Among these have been approximately 720 Palestinian children and 124 Israeli children.

IRAN: PROPAGANDA WATCH

Foreign Correpondent: Countdown Over Iran
by Eric Margolis

NEW YORK – It’s both fascinating and dismaying watching the manufactured `crisis’ over Iran reach new intensity each week.

Iran poses no real military threat to anyone, but listening to the Bush Administration or the US media one would think that that Tehran was about to unleash a nuclear holocaust on the world.

What we are seeing is a rerun of the administration’s massive propaganda offensive that led to the invasion of Iraq. There is also no doubt that the Bush Administration has been planning a major air war against Iraq.

The highly respected American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh even claims the Bush Administration is considering the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.

IRAQ: CIVIL WAR

Truth Out: The Ongoing War on Truth in Iraq
by Dahr Jamail

On Monday, April 17, my sources in Baghdad reported fierce fighting in the al-Adhamiya neighborhood of the capital city, as well as fighting in the al-Dora neighborhood. One source, who lives in the predominantly Sunni area of Adhamiya, had been telling me the situation was disintegrating for days leading up to this. There had been clashes every day for four days leading up to yesterday's huge clash there, with sporadic fighting between Sunni resistance fighters and members of the two largest Shia militias. The armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Badr Organization, and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army have been launching ongoing attacks against fighters in the neighborhood. There is a shorter version of this description.

Civil war.


Reuters: Baghdad street battle smacks of open civil war

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Snipers held rooftop positions as masked Sunni Arab insurgents said they were gearing up for another open street battle with pro-government Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad's Adhamiya district on Tuesday.

The Arab Sunni stronghold is still feeling ripples from overnight clashes on Monday that appeared to be the closest yet to all-out sectarian fighting.

A U.S. military spokesman said 50 insurgents attacked Iraqi forces in the middle of the night in a seven-hour battle that killed five rebels and wounded an Iraqi soldier. "which seems not to be true if Dahr Jamails sources got it right"

PROPAGANDA

ICH: Zarqawi; the Pentagon’s ongoing war of deception
by Mike Whitney

In more than 3 years of war, there has never been a positive citing of alleged terror mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi. This has led many to believe that he is merely a creation of Pentagon propagandists working with their agents in the western press. Colonel Derek Harvey strengthened those suspicions last week when he admitted in a Washington Post article that the military intentionally “enlarged Zarqawi’s caricature” to create the impression that the ongoing struggle against occupation was really a fight against terrorism. But, that is not the case. As Harvey notes, “The long term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but former regime types and their friends”.

IRAN

ICH: The US, Iran and the End of the International Order

As the IAEA has repeatedly acknowledged, Iran is not in violation of any of her legal obligations as a signatory to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In fact, Iran has allowed far more intrusive international inspections of her nuclear facilities than required by the NPT. Iran remains the only country to have done so

IRAN

New York Times: Bombs That Would Backfire
By RICHARD CLARKE and STEVEN SIMON

WHITE HOUSE spokesmen have played down press reports that the Pentagon has accelerated planning to bomb Iran. We would like to believe that the administration is not intent on starting another war, because a conflict with Iran could be even more damaging to our interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. A brief look at history shows why.

These contingencies seem familiar to us because we faced a similar situation as National Security Council staff members in the mid-1990's. American frustrations with Iran were growing, and in early 1996 the House speaker, Newt Gingrich, publicly called for the overthrow of the Iranian government. He and the C.I.A. put together an $18 million package to undertake it.

The Iranian legislature responded with a $20 million initiative for its intelligence organizations to counter American influence in the region.

...Iran has forces at its command that are far superior to anything Al Qaeda was ever able to field. The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah has a global reach, and has served in the past as an instrument of Iran

IRAQ

SeattlePI: Situation in Iraq could not be worse
by Patrick Cockburn

have been covering the war in Iraq ever since it began three years ago and I have never seen the situation so grim. More than a week ago, I was in the northern city of Mosul, protected by 3,000 Kurdish soldiers, but even so it was considered too dangerous to send out patrols in daytime. It is safer at night because of a curfew.

I was in Lebanon at the start of the civil war in 1975. Baghdad today resembles Beirut then. People are being murdered solely because of their religious identity

IRAN: COUNTDOWN TO WAR

Telegraph: Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'

The Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iran, to prevent it acquiring its own atomic warheads, claims an investigative writer with high-level Pentagon and intelligence contacts.


Washington Post: U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran

The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S. officials and independent analysts.
No attack appears likely in the short term, and many specialists inside and outside the U.S. government harbor serious doubts about whether an armed response would be effective. But administration officials are preparing for it as a possible option and using the threat "to convince them this is more and more serious," as a senior official put it.

IRAN: COUNTDOWN TO WAR

The New Yorker: THE IRAN PLANS
by Seymour M. Hersh

"He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.” "you can bet ..they iranians will greet them with flowers like the iraqis did"

“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”

The lack of reliable intelligence leaves military planners, given the goal of totally destroying the sites, little choice but to consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

"a must read"

ECONOMY

Spiegel:Trillion Dollar War

"The War Is Bad for the Economy"Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, 63, discusses the true $1 trillion cost of the Iraq conflict, its impact on the oil market and the questions of whether the West can afford to impose sanctions on Iran.

1984

LinuxElectrons.com: AT&T Sends ALL Internet
Traffic To NSA Says EFF

"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."

IRAN: COUNTDOWN TO WAR

Antiwar.com:War Against Iran, April 2006 by Jorge Hirsch
Biological Threat and Executive Order 13292

History repeats itself, but always with new twists. We are back to the good old days when a Declaration of War preceded the start of a war. Such declaration occurred on March 16th, 2006. Reversing the old order, we are now in the "Sitzkrieg", to be followed shortly by an aerial "Blitzkrieg" in the coming days.

USA: WAR ON THE INTERNET

Sunay Herald: America's war on the web

While the US remains committed to hunting down al-Qaeda operatives, it is now taking the battle to new fronts. Deep within the Pentagon, technologies are being deployed to wage the war on terror on the internet, in newspapers and even through mobile phones. I

n 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, [PDF] commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday Herald.

Next, the Pentagon focuses on electronic warfare, saying it must be elevated to the heart of US military war planning. It will “provide maximum control of the electromagnetic spectrum, denying, degrading, disrupting or destroying the full spectrum of communications equipment … it is increasingly important that our forces dominate the electromagnetic spectrum with attack capabilities”. Put simply, this means US forces having the power to knock out any or all forms of telecommunications on the planet.

IRAN: COUNTDOWN TO WAR

Telegraph: Government in secret talks about strike against Iran

The Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran.

A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on Iran.

It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is "inevitable" if Teheran's leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme.

IRAQ WAR

ICH: Leaked memo details US, UK war talks
"Online Video"

TONY JONES: New evidence has emerged which appears to show that the United States and the British governments were set to invade Iraq, regardless of whether a second UN resolution was carried and even if international arms inspections failed.

New evidence has emerged which appears to show that the United States and the British governments were set to invade Iraq, regardless of whether a second UN resolution was carried and even if international arms inspections failed. In a leaked memo of a meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair, the US President also suggests an unmanned aircraft painted in UN colours might be flown over Iraq in the hope it would be shot down and provide a trigger for war

IRAQ: US DEATH SQUADS

Chris Floyd: Fear Up Harsh: The Iraqi Civil War in Context

The causes underlying any civil war are always complex, confused, even contradictory -- as one would expect in an outbreak of madness. But those seeking to discover some of the key precipitating factors behind Iraq's furious plunge into chaos and disintegration might find one of them in the records of an obscure Congressional committee meeting on August 10, 2004.

(...) In a long session larded with the usual rhetorical posturing, mutual backscratching with the committee's rubberstamp Republican majority - and a couple of polite queries from the timid Democratic minority - Wolfowitz announced the Pentagon's plan to give money, arms and training to a network of local militias in trouble spots around the world. These irregular forces - "not just armies," Wolfowitz emphasized - would be used to "counter terrorism and insurgencies," provide greater internal security" in regions of American interest and "deny sanctuary" to America's designated enemies, according to Pentagon transcripts of the testimony.

IRAQ: SOUVEREIGN

Independent: Bush's call for removal of Iraqi PM threatens rift with Shias
by Patrick Cockburn

President George W Bush has made it clear that he does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister of Iraq in a move likely to increase hostility between the US and the Shia community.

Mr Bush has written to the Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shi'ite Alliance asking him to nominate somebody else for the post. " The Americans are very firm about this," said a senior official. " They don't want Jaafari at any price."

Friction between the Americans and the Shia, who make up 60 per cent of Iraq's 27 million population, escalated sharply after at least 16 Shi'ites were killed in the al-Mustafa mosque by Iraqi and American Special Forces on Sunday night. Many Shia believe that the US was shocked by, and is not ready to accept, the success of the Shia Alliance in the election on 15 December.

ONLINE VIDEO

ICH: We are Sorry

Former US soldiers on the personal cost of war in Iraq.

We have a powerful film this evening. We follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience.

This is a must watch - Newsnight - BBC - Broadcast O3/29/06

CLICK here to Download

You may need to update / download Free Real Player to view this video

ISRAEL

Haaretz: One Racist Nation
by Gideon Levy

Contrary to appearances, the elections this week are important, because they will expose the true face of Israeli society and its hidden ambitions. More than 100 elected candidates will be sent to the Knesset on the basis of one ticket - the racism ticket.

If we used to think that every two Israelis have three opinions, now it will be evident that nearly every Israeli has one opinion - racism.

Elections 2006 will make this much clearer than ever before

ISRAEL: ELECTIONS

Independent: Olmert and Kadima win victory in Israeli poll

Israeli voters delivered Ariel Sharon's successor, Ehud Olmert, a decisive mandate to go ahead with his declared plan to withdraw up to 80,000 settlers from the West Bank and draw up new borders with the Palestinians.
While the vote for Mr Olmert's own party, Kadima, was significantly lower than its strategists had hoped, at 28 seats, it emerged as easily the biggest single party with the capacity to build a coalition which can carry through his plans.

FRANCE: PROTESTS

donga.com: Protests Bring France to Standstill

A general strike took more than half of metros and trains in Paris out of service yesterday, causing huge rush hour traffic jams. Only two-thirds of France’s TGV high-speed trains were operational as well.
With many universities and high schools in France already affected by the unrest, teachers also joined Tuesday’s demonstration, along with opposition groups including France’s Socialist and Communist parties.
Students announced that following Tuesday’s strikes and demonstrations by unions and student organizations, they would block main streets and train stations on March 30.

Independent: 'Three million' march against French law

In the biggest anti-government protests for at least a decade, more than 200,000 people marched through the streets of Paris to protest against controversial new employment contracts for the young.
Union leaders claimed that yesterday's demonstrations throughout France attracted more than three million people, which would make them the largest protests for almost half a century.
Scattered violence erupted on the edges of the Paris march. There were also running battles at the end in the Place de la République between police and multi-racial gangs of teenagers from deprived suburbs. But police and union security teams - and heavy downpours of rain - prevented the kind of widespread robberies, beatings and pitched battles seen at the end of a march last Thursday.

GLOBAL WARMING

Time: Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point

Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever... More And More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities... By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point

- No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.

IRAQ: US MASSACRES

Reuters: US forces kill 18 Iraqis in Baghdad, medics say

At least 18 Iraqis were killed on Sunday after U.S. troops clashed with a Shi'ite militia, medics and police said.

Police said the clashes erupted after the Mehdi Army militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr tried to stop U.S. troops from entering a mosque.

A medic said 18 bodies were found around the mosque.

A senior aide to Sadr accused U.S. troops of killing more than 20 unarmed worshippers during evening prayers at a Sadr mosque in east Baghdad.

Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji told Reuters the dead were not militiamen and had been unarmed: "The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers ... They tied them up and shot them."

Times: Iraqis killed by US troops ‘on rampage’

THE villagers of Abu Sifa near the Iraqi town of Balad had become used to the sound of explosions at night as American forces searched the area for suspected insurgents. But one night two weeks ago Issa Harat Khalaf heard a different sound that chilled him to the bone.

ONLINE VIDEO

ICH: Iraq's Missing Billions

Dispatches/GuardianFilms

Dr Ali Fadhil, a 29 year old Iraqi doctor, investigates what has happened to billions of dollars worth of Iraqi money which was put into the care of the US led coalition to be spent for the benefit of Iraqi people on the reconstruction of their country. He uncovers a shocking story of fraud, incompetence and corruption, unscrupulous foreign contractors who made millions from dodgy contracts, and literally billions of dollars which cannot be properly accounted for

Click to Download

DU

ICH: Depleted Uranium For Dummies

Everything you need to know about depleted uranium. Every day our troops remain in Iraq increases the chances that they will come home sick, produce children with birth defects, and die prematurely.

IRAQ: ASSAULT ON SAMARRA

Knight Ridder: Peace elusive in Iraqi city of Samarra

SAMARRA, Iraq - The gunfight by the Tigris River was over. It was time to retrieve the bodies.
Staff Sgt. Cortez Powell looked at the shredded jaw of a dead man whom he'd shot in the face when insurgents ambushed an American patrol in a blind of reeds. Powell's M4 assault rifle had jammed, so he'd grabbed the pump-action shotgun that he kept slung over his shoulders and pulled the trigger.

Five other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division scrambled down, pulled two of the insurgents' bodies from the reeds and dragged them through the mud.

"Strap those motherf-----s to the hood like a deer," said Staff Sgt. James Robinson, 25, of Hughes, Ark.

The soldiers heaved the two bodies onto the hood of a Humvee and tied them down with a cord. The dead insurgents' legs and arms flapped in the air as the Humvee rumbled along.

Iraqi families stood in front of the surrounding houses. They watched the corpses ride by and glared at the American soldiers.

ONLINE VIDEO

ICH: The Road to Guantanamo

How three young men from the UK, ended up in the world's most notorious prison.

Every American Should Be Required To Watch This Video

This movie shows the sadism and stupidity of the US and British soldiers. The guards behave with the same cruelty you expect to see from SS officers in lurid second world war movies. It takes a moment or two to realize that these events reflect the reality of those held in Americas notorious gulag.

Click here to view Real Video

found via www.inforamtionclearinghouse.info

PROPAGANDA WATCH

New York Times: No Breach Seen in Work in Iraq on Propaganda

The New York Times reports that the U.S. military's review of a PR firm's covert propaganda program in Iraq, led by Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, has been completed but not made public. According to military officials, "The findings are narrow in focus, and conclude
that the Lincoln Group committed no legal violations because its actions in paying to place American [information operations troops]-written articles without attribution were not expressly prohibited by its contract or military rules." The report "did not deal deeply" with such issues as how the small, young, well-connected firm received large government contracts, or whether its work was effective. It also did not address how, "in a modern information world connected by satellite television and the Internet, misleading information and lies could easily migrate into American news outlets." The Lincoln Group's Iraq work, on "a contract estimated at several million dollars," remains "fully in effect." The firm continues to bid for U.S. government contracts.

found via PR-Watch

IRAQ

Independent: The march of folly, that has led to a bloodbath
The Iraq War: Three Years On
by Robert Fisk

Even today the occupation powers tell awesome lies. Democracy is taking hold when the "Iraqi" government controls only a few acres of Baghdad greensward. The insurgency is being crushed when 40,000 armed Iraqis are ripping into the greatest army on Earth; freedom is taking hold when thousands of Iraqis are dying each month. "Operation Swarmer" is now supposedly targeting those who want a civil war in Iraq. Some of the men who are trying to provoke civil war however, work for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, and are paid, ultimately, by us.

IRAQ

Zaman: 'Northern Iraq Ruled by Force and Fear'

The weekly news magazine, Time, wrote two parties ruling the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq restrict freedoms and the democratic process.
The magazine focusing on the region reported corruption and repression prevail in the region ruled by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The two parties' despotic tendencies repress their opponents, it was underlined, and that the KDP and PUK rule the region by "force and fear."

MEDIA

IfAmericansKnew.org: AP Erases Video Of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy


"The trend toward secrecy is the greatest threat to democracy."
- Associated Press CEO, in a speech about the importance of openness"The official response is we decline to respond."
- Associated Press Director of Media Relations, replying to questions about AP


In the midst of journalism's "Sunshine Week"--during which the Associated Press and other news organizations are valiantly proclaiming the public's "right to know"--AP insists on conducting its own activities in the dark, and refuses to answer even the simplest questions about its system of international news reporting.

Most of all, it refuses to explain why it erased footage of an Israeli soldier intentionally shooting a Palestinian boy.

INTERNET

Fon: What is FON?

FON is a WiFi revolution. Our objective: to build a Wifi world. Our method: to permit all users to synchronize their access points into one: FON. Pay for connection at home; connect anywhere. Join the FON movement!

BIO DIESEL

George Monibot: Biodiesel - Worse Than Fossil Fuel
The Most Carbon-Intensive Fuel On Earth

Over the past two years I have made an uncomfortable discovery. Like most environmentalists, I have been as blind to the constraints affecting our energy supply as my opponents have been to climate change. I now realise that I have entertained a belief in magic.

USA

The Independent: The farcical end of the American dream
by Robert Fisk

The US press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war

One of them records the trial of since-released British prisoner Feroz Abbasi, in which Mr Abbasi vainly pleads with his judge, a US air force colonel, to reveal the evidence against him, something he says he has a right to hear under international law.

And here is what the American colonel replied: "Mr Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I do not care about international law. I do not want to hear the words international law. We are not concerned about international law."

IRAQ

Baghdad Burning: God protect us from the fourth year

Baghdad. - It has been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of Iraq’s independence. Three years of occupation and bloodshed.

Spring should be about renewal and rebirth. For Iraqis, spring has been about reliving painful memories and preparing for future disasters. In many ways, this year is like 2003 prior to the war when we were stocking up on fuel, water, food and first aid supplies and medications. We're doing it again this year but now we don't discuss what we're stocking up for. Bombs and B-52's are so much easier to face than other possibilities.

I don’t think anyone imagined three years ago that things could be quite this bad today. The last few weeks have been ridden with tension. I’m so tired of it all- we’re all tired.

IRAQ

Baghdad Burning: God protect us from the fourth year

Baghdad. - It has been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of Iraq’s independence. Three years of occupation and bloodshed.

Spring should be about renewal and rebirth. For Iraqis, spring has been about reliving painful memories and preparing for future disasters. In many ways, this year is like 2003 prior to the war when we were stocking up on fuel, water, food and first aid supplies and medications. We're doing it again this year but now we don't discuss what we're stocking up for. Bombs and B-52's are so much easier to face than other possibilities.

I don’t think anyone imagined three years ago that things could be quite this bad today. The last few weeks have been ridden with tension. I’m so tired of it all- we’re all tired.

IRAQ

Guardian: Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools
by Greg Palast

The Mission Was Indeed Accomplished

Get off it. All the carping, belly-aching and complaining about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq, from both the Left and now the Right, is just dead wrong.

On the third anniversary of the tanks rolling over Iraq's border, most of the 59 million Homer Simpsons who voted for Bush are beginning to doubt if his mission was accomplished.

But don't kid yourself -- Bush and his co-conspirator, Dick Cheney, accomplished exactly what they set out to do. In case you've forgotten what their real mission was, let me remind you of White House spokesman Ari Fleisher's original announcement, three years ago, launching of what he called,

"Operation

Iraqi

Liberation."

O.I.L. How droll of them, how cute. Then, Karl Rove made the giggling boys in the White House change it to "OIF" -- Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the 101st Airborne wasn't sent to Basra to get its hands on Iraq's OIF.

IRAQ: MASSACRE

Knight Ridder: Iraqi police say U.S. troops executed 11, including baby

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi police have accused U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The villagers were killed after U.S. troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house, the document said.

IRAQ: MASSACRE

Time: One Morning in Haditha

U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A TIME exclusive

"The military has classified the 15 victims in the first two houses as noncombatants. It considers the four men killed in the fourth house, as well as four youths killed by the Marines near the site of the roadside bombing, as enemy fighters."

IRAQ

ICH: Killing Women and Children: The “My Lai Phase” Of The Iraq War

What goes through George Bush’s mind when he sees the dead bodies of Iraqi women and children loaded on the back of a pickup truck like garbage?

Is there ever a flicker of remorse; a split-second when he fully grasps the magnitude of the horror he has created?

March 15 was another defining moment in America’s downward moral-spiral in Iraq. Eleven members of an Iraqi family were killed in a wanton act of slaughter executed by American occupiers. Photos taken at the scene show the lifeless bodies of young children, barely old enough to walk, lying motionless in the back of a flatbed truck while their fathers moan inconsolably at their side.

IRAQ: ONLINE VIDEO

BBC: The 50 Billion Dollar Robbery:

Three years after the start of the Iraq war, where has the 50 billion dollars of reconstruction money gone?"

Following the Iraq war, billions of dollars of Iraq's money was directed to American companies to rebuild the country.

But much of it remains unaccounted for, and Peter Marshall has been investigating startling allegations of post war profiteering.

Broadcast BBC - 03/15/06

IRAQ: WHERE'S THE MONEY?

Guardian: U.S. Companies Profited As Iraqi Children Died

'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills'

At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone? Callum Macrae and Ali Fadhil on one of the greatest financial scandals of all time

ISRAEL LOBBY

London Review of Books: The Israel Lobby

For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

COPYRIGHT

Freedom to Tinker: RIAA Says Future DRM Might “Threaten Critical Infrastructure and Potentially Endanger Lives”

In light of the Sony-BMG CD incident, Alex and I asked the Copyright Office for an exemption allowing users to remove from their computers certain DRM software that causes security and privacy harm. The CCIA and Open Source and Industry Association made an even simpler request for an exemption for DRM systems that “employ access control measures which threaten critical infrastructure and potentially endanger lives.” Who could oppose that?
The BSA, RIAA, MPAA, and friends — that’s who

BECOME A REPUBLICAN

Thefrown.com: Become a Republican

Flash Animation

IRAN

Asia Times: In the heart of Pipelineistan by Pepe Escobar

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki may have captured all the headlines when he announced that Iran would not use the oil weapon in the event it was slapped with sanctions by the UN Security Council. But in the world of Pipelineistan, the nuclear row waged by the US, the EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany), the United Nations and Iran is just a detail.

IRAQ: PULL PUT

UPI: Brzezinski calls for Iraq pull out

One of America's most respected elder national security statesmen called for a full pull-out from Iraq Thursday.

Delivering the keynote address at the Center for American Progress' "Iraq; Next Steps for U.S. Policy," Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security advisor for President Jimmy Carter, said that "within a year we should be able to complete a course of disengagement" and withdraw from Iraq.

IRAQ: MASSACRE

Reuters: US raid on home killed 11 family members

Eleven members of an Iraqi family were killed in a U.S. raid on Wednesday, police and witnesses said

Major Ali Ahmed of the Ishaqi police said U.S. forces had landed on the roof of the house in the early hours and shot the 11 occupants, including the five children."After they left the house they blew it up," he said.

Another policeman, Colonel Farouq Hussein, said autopsies had been carried out at Tikrit hospital and found "all the victims had gunshot wounds to the head".The bodies, their hands bound, had been dumped in one room before the house was destroyed, Hussein said. Police had found spent American-issue cartridges in the rubble."It's a clear and perfect crime without any doubt," he said.

THEY HATE US BECAUSE OF OUR FREEDOMS

Salon: The Abu Ghraib files
279 photographs and 19 videos from the Army's internal investigation record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable.

Editor's note: The 10 galleries of photo and video evidence appear chronologically in the left column, followed by an additional Salon report on prosecutions for abuse and an overview of Pentagon investigations and other resources. The nine essays accompanying the photo galleries were reported and written by Michael Scherer and Mark Benjamin. Photo and video captions were compiled by Page Rockwell. Additional research, reporting and writing for "The Abu Ghraib Files" were contributed by Jeanne Carstensen, Mark Follman, Page Rockwell and Tracy Clark-Flory.

"How much does it take for the american people to wake up and realize what is done in their name. The german people claimed that they didn't see it coming...here you can see it in plain sight"

MIDDLE EAST

ABC Australia: Fisk Paints Middle East in Crisis

Robert Fisk says that in his three decades of reporting from the Middle East for British newspapers, he's never seen it more dangerous, and that he's certain another major crisis, possibly even another September 11, is coming.

IRAQ

Juan Cole: Kurds, Sunnis Attempting to Dump Jaafari

The Kurdistan Alliance and the Sunni fundamentalist Iraqi Accord Front are attempting to block Ibrahim Jaafari from becoming prime minister. The United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, has the right to nominate the PM, and an internal party vote resulted in Jaafari's victory. Jaafari is, however, unacceptable to the United States because of his close ties to Iran and his socialist tendencies (he recently expressed admiration for Noam Chomsky and wondered if Noam would come visit Baghdad). The US appears to be working with the Kurds and the Sunnis behind the scenes to make Jaafari's candidacy collapse

USA: KATRINA

AP: Bush 'was warned about impact of Katrina'

President George W Bush was warned a day before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could swamp New Orleans, it was claimed last night.Leaked video footage and transcripts of top-level briefings in the six days before the storm showed federal officials telling Mr Bush the storm could breach levees and overwhelm rescuers.

IRAQ: CIVIL WAR

ICH: Robert Fisk: Somebody is trying to provoke a civil war in Iraq

The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war?

Now the Americans will say it's Al Qaeda, it's the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads.
Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militia men who make up the death squads?

We do, the occupation authorities.

MOVIE

You can now watch the Flash Movie EPIC 2015 in german too.

An Update to George Orwells 1984

English Version

German Version

you need the Flash Player plugin to watch the Movie

The prequel to 2015 EPIC 2014 can be watched here

IMPEACH BUSH

Harpers: The Case for Impeachment

Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush

A country is not only what it does—it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates. —Kurt Tucholsky

On December 18 of last year, Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.) introduced into the House of Representatives a resolution inviting it to form “a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.”

IRAN

ICH: Iran And "The International Community

Here we go again! Now it’s Iran. Bush, again mumbling something about Iran’s being a threat to the world, the same crap as about Iraq. But this time, the west European countries (the ”traditional” allies) are at it, too.

Isn’t it strange how all these countries, the USA, Israel, England, France, Germany…with all their weapons of mass destruction, feel so easily threatened?

These idiots are the cause of nuclear proliferation. If they are so concerned about the safety of the world they should lead by example and dismantle their nuclear weapons.

IRAQ

Independent: Defeat is victory. Death is life by Robert Fisk

Everyone in the Middle East rewrites history, but never before have we had a US administration so wilfully, dishonestly and ruthlessly reinterpreting tragedy as success, defeat as victory, death as life - helped, I have to add, by the compliant American press. I'm reminded not so much of Vietnam as of the British and French commanders of the First World War who repeatedly lied about military victory over the Kaiser as they pushed hundreds of thousands of their men through the butchers' shops of the Somme, Verdun and Gallipoli. The only difference now is that we are pushing hundreds of thousands of Arabs though the butchers' shops - and don't even care.

WEAPONS

Defenstech: Air Force Plan: Hack Your Nervous System

"Controlled Effects" is one of the Air Force’s ambitious long-term challenges. It starts with better and more accurate bombs, but moves on to discuss devices that "make selected adversaries think or act according to our needs... By studying and modeling the human brain and nervous system, the ability to mentally influence or confuse personnel is also possible."

NEOCON

The Guardian: Neoconservatism has evolved into something I can no longer support
by Francis Fukuyama

As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems unlikely that history will judge the intervention or the ideas animating it kindly. More than any other group, it was the neoconservatives inside and outside the Bush administration who pushed for democratising Iraq and the Middle East. They are widely credited (or blamed) for being the decisive voices promoting regime change in Iraq, and yet it is their idealistic agenda that, in the coming months and years, will be the most directly threatened.

IRAQ: SHRINE BLAST

Mercurynews: Shiite leader cites U.S. in shrine blast

Shiite political leader said Wednesday that U.S. Zalmay Khalilzad shares some of the responsibility for the bombing of a major Shiite shrine because of his criticism of Shiite-led security forces.


Juan Cole: An apocalyptic day in Iraq
Iran Blames Bush - Sunni Shiite Clashes

Shiites came out in the thousands all over the Shiite south on Wednesday to protest the bombing of the Askariiyah shrine in Samarra.
A Sunni mosque was set afire. and a Sunni clergyman was assassinated.
The hardline Shiite Mahdi Army has come out of Sadr City and is all over Baghdad.
They are clashing with Sunnis in Basra.
Sunni leader Tariq al- Hashimi threatened reprisals for reprisal killings.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim blamed the US for holding back the Badr Corps.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani called for nonviolent street protests that he must know won't be nonviolent.
Iran is blaming Bush.The threat of terrorism and attacks on Americans just went way up.

IHT: Shiite fury explodes in Iraq; scores are killed

FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

Telegraph: Appeal Filed To LengthenIrving's Prison Sentence

Austria's state prosecutor has filed an appeal to increase the jail sentence that the British historian David Irving must serve for denying the Holocaust during a lecture tour of Austria in 1989.

Irving yesterday received a three-year prison sentence for the claims. He immediately filed an appeal to reduce his sentence, arguing that he had changed his mind after further research and now agreed that Nazi Germany had killed millions of Jews.

Guardian: David Irving Jailed For Holocaust Denial

The British revisionist historian and Nazi apologist David Irving was today sentenced to three years in prison after he admitted denying the Holocaust.

An eight-member jury at a court in Vienna convicted Irving, 68, a few hours after it began its deliberations on the first day of his trial.

"To make it clear by no way i agree with David Irvings views. But i don't like the idea that the a nation State issues beliefs about selective Historical Events. Nobody goes to jails because he denies the genocid on 3mio armenians by the Turks.
It should be possible to discuss such things openly. If you dont like his views ignore them. If you don't like cartoons about Mohammed ignore them. The Danger for Democracy does not come from the David Irvings of the World but from Democratic elected Leaders who curb our Freedoms at Home and attack helpless Countries Abroad in the name of fighting Terrorism."

IRAQ: ON SALE

Uruknet: Who Will Possess Iraq’s Oilfields?

A friend wrote recently from Occupied Iraq that with the December elections over Iraq had truly been stolen. I thought perhaps they were referring to the stamp of legitimacy elections would give Iraq’s American-approved government, but they were actually talking about the final pieces falling in to place for those who’ve long coveted Iraq’s oilfields.

The "how" begins with Iraq’s new constitution; written largely behind closed doors and with tremendous US influence, it was voted into place during October’s referendum. Cleverly, it gives the impression that Iraq’s oil will remain in the hands of its people by guaranteeing "oil and gas is the property of all the Iraqi people" and that revenues from "current fields" will be fairly distributed across the provinces. The key phrase is "current fields;" in the following section the document then requires all future exploration use "the most modern techniques of market principles and encouraging investment." The modern investment model being promoted in Iraq during these secret meetings is production sharing agreements, or PSAs.

Mostly political in nature, PSAs maintain the technicality—and just as importantly, the appearance—of keeping oil ownership in government hands, yet the majority of profits goes to private companies. These agreements are generally used in countries where oil is either hard to extract and therefore expensive, or where reserves are small enough that companies may be unwilling to invest. PSAs guarantee a high profit margin, providing an enticement to otherwise uninterested oil companies. In Iraq, where extracting oil is not technologically challenging and reserves are huge, PSAs don’t make sense—unless they are intended to benefit someone other than Iraqis.

IRAQ: NEW TORTURE PICTURES RELEASED

ICH: Horrific New Torture Pictures Released

MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

CURRENCY WAR

AP: Syria switches from dollars to euros

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria has switched the primary hard currency it uses for foreign goods and services from the U.S. dollar to the euro in a bid to make it less vulnerable to pressure from Washington.
The decree signed by Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari on Monday ordered government bodies and public-sector companies to use euros to pay for foreign transactions, including payment for exports.

IRAN: ROAD TO WAR

Oxford Research Group: IRAN:CONSEQUENCES OF A WAR

This briefing paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the likely nature of US or Israeli military action that would be intended to disable Iran’s nuclear capabilities. It outlines both the immediate consequences in terms of loss of human life, facilities and infrastructure, and also the likely Iranian responses, which would be extensive.

An attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure would signal the start of a protracted military confrontation that would probably grow to involve Iraq, Israel and Lebanon, as well as the USA and Iran. The report concludes that a military response to the current crisis in relations with Iran is a particularly dangerous option and should not be considered further. Alternative approaches must be sought, however difficult these may be.

Download printable Version (PDF)

USA: WAR ON THE INTERNET

ICH: The Pentagon’s War on the Internet

The Pentagon has developed a comprehensive strategy for taking over the internet and controlling the free flow of information. The plan appears in a recently declassified document, “The Information Operations Roadmap”, which was provided under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and revealed in an article by the BBC. The Pentagon sees the internet in terms of a military adversary that poses a vital threat to its stated mission of global domination. This explains the confrontational language in the document which speaks of “fighting the net”; implying that the internet is the equivalent of “an enemy weapons system."

USA: GUANTANAMO

Telegraph: UN inquiry demands immediate closure of Guantanamo

A United Nations inquiry has called for the immediate closure of America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre and the prosecution of officers and politicians "up to the highest level" who are accused of torturing detainees.The UN Human Rights Commission report, due to be published this week, concludes that Washington should put the 520 detainees on trial or release them.

IRAN: ROAD TO WAR

The Telegraph: '10,000 would die' in A-plant attack on Iran

A major American attack on Iran's nuclear sites would kill up to 10,000 people and lead to war in the Middle East, a report says today.Hundreds of scientists and technicians would be targets in the opening salvos as the attacks focused on eliminating further nuclear development, the Oxford Research Group says in Iran: Consequences of a War.The research coincides with reports that strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for "a last resort" strike if diplomacy fails. Plans for an assault have taken on "greater urgency" in recent months, The Sunday Telegraph said.

USA: CHENEY SHOOTS MAN

Editor and Publisher: More Questions Raised About Delay in Reporting Cheney Misfire

The more than 18-hour delay in news emerging that the Vice President of the United States had shot a man, sending him to an intensive care unit with his wounds, grew even more curious late Sunday. E&P has learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occured and called Vice President Cheney's office for confirmation.

VENEZUELA

PWW: U.S. threats to Venezuela’s revolution escalate

Aggressive maneuvers against Venezuela from the Bush government have reached new heights. Here are some indicators. That a coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was under way when opposition parties opted out of Venezuela’s December parliamentary elections was not obvious. But at the time Vice President José Vicente Rangel alleged that the U.S. Embassy was “extremely active” behind the scenes.

Rumsfeld on Feb. 2 compared Hugo Chávez to Hitler, declaring, “We’ve got Chávez in Venezuela. … He’s a person who was elected legally, just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally. ... He is working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others. It concerns me

"How many Hitlers do we have these Days? Saddam was "like Hitler", Kim Jong II "like Hitler", Ahmadinejad "like Hitler", Chavez is "like Hitler"...Can the real Hitler please stand up"

IRAN: ROAD TO WAR

Times of India: Russia confirms missile defence contract with Iran

MOSCOW: Amid the escalating crisis around Iran's nuclear programme, Russia said on Thursday that it will still arm Tehran with missiles that can secure nuclear facilities from attacks.


Reuters: ANALYSIS-U.S. shield blunts Israeli military option on Iran

JERUSALEM, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Israel has long pursued a policy of preemptive attack as its preferred form of defence.
But when it comes to tackling arch-foe Iran, that option may have been put on hold under a protective "umbrella" on offer from the United States.


Middle East Online: Iran poised to retaliate against UN referral

Iran said Wednesday it was poised to retaliate against the reporting of its disputed nuclear programme to the Security Council by kick-starting sensitive fuel work and blocking UN inspections.


Daily Star: Iran dismisses US threat over nukes

Iran dismissed as "tough words" the United States' refusal to rule out using military force against the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear programme.
"We are not afraid of attacks by the United States or by other countries on Iran's nuclear installations because we have nothing to hide, we have no installations to produce nuclear weapons," Iranian Vice President Esfandyar Rahim Mashaee said here after meeting with his Indonesian counterpart.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week Washington would not rule out using military force against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

IRAN: ROAD TO WAR

ICH: Iran: the next war by John Pilger

Bush and Blair are gearing up for it, and they are preparing us, too - just as they did before attacking Iraq. But where is the threat?

THE END OF THE INTERNET

The Nation: The End of the Internet?

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

IRAN: ROAD TO WAR

ICH: Annexing Khuzestan; battle-plans for Iran
By Mike Whitney

In less than 24 hours the Bush administration has won impressive victories on both domestic and foreign policy fronts. At home, the far-right Federalist Society alum, Sam Alito, has overcome the feeble resistance from Democratic senators; ensuring his confirmation to the Supreme Court. Equally astonishing, the administration has coerced both Russia and China into bringing Iran before the United Nations Security Council although (as Mohamed ElBaradei says) “There’s no evidence of a nuclear weapons program.” The surprising capitulation of Russia and China has forced Iran to abandon its efforts for further negotiations; cutting off dialogue that might diffuse the volatile situation.

IRAN: OIL BOURSE

Daily Times: VIEW: Iran’s real crime?

If Iran starts its own euro-denominated oil bourse and it takes off, the US dollar — already an ailing currency due to huge deficits in the US economy — will be marginalised as the global currency. Iran is taking a calculated risk

Iran proposes to set up by March 2006 an “oil/energy bourse” for trading based on the euro, rather than the US dollar. While it may seem innocuous, this represents a grave threat to the continued global hegemony of the United States and as such its ailing economy.

IRAN

Guardian: Iran's message to the west: back off or we retaliate

Iran's foreign minister yesterday threatened immediate retaliation over a move to refer its nuclear weapons activities to the United Nations security council in comments which deepen his country's confrontation with the international community.In an interview with the Guardian - his first with western media - Manouchehr Mottaki accused the US of manufacturing the crisis and insisted there was still time to avoid a collision. But he warned that any military action by the US or Israel against Iran would have "severe consequences" and would be countered "by all means" at Iran's disposal.


AP: Text of IAEA's draft resolution on Iran

The text of the draft resolution on Iran submitted to the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday, the eve of a key meeting on the nuclear standoff with Tehran

IRAN

Asia Times: Why the West will attack Iran

Iran needs nuclear weapons, I believe, not to attack Israel, but to support imperial expansion by conventional military means.

Iran's oil exports will shrink to zero in 20 years, just at the demographic inflection point when the costs of maintaining an aged population will crush its state finances, as I reported in Demographics and Iran's imperial design (September 13, 2005).

Just outside Iran's present frontiers lie the oil resources of Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and not far away are the oil concentrations of eastern Saudi Arabia. Its neighbors are quite as alarmed as Washington about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, and privately quite happy for Washington to wipe out this capability.

PROPAGANDA WATCH: IRAN

Asia Times: Covert ops and disinformation aimed at Iran

Recent reports in the Turkish and German media of the US asking the Turkish government to support a possible attack on Iran and alerting allied countries of preparations for such an attack appear to be part of a strategy to pressure the Iranian regime rather than the result of a new policy to strike the country

IRAN: OIL BOURSE

ICH: Beating Around the Bush By the Bourse

Only the uninformed believed Bush when he said it was WMD's that made him attack, invade, occupy and massacre Iraq. Most of us thought it was to steal Iraq's oil, but we were only partly right. What totally terrorized the tyrannical Texan tycoon was when Saddam played the oil bourse card in November, 2000. When Saddam started selling Iraqi oil in euro's, he jeopardized the U.S. dollar's hegemony as the world's supreme foreign exchange transaction currency. If this brilliant idea catches on, it will trigger the total collapse of the USA economy. The oil grab is a sideshow. The main feature is the oil bourse.

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Guardian: Hamas will make a deal

If Israel withdraws from the territories it occupied in 1967, the movement will end armed resistance

A so-called expert was asked on the BBC's Arabic service last week what he thought Hamas should do now it is likely to be the government in the Palestinian territories. Hamas would have to change, he said, because the Palestinian people would want a government that recognises Israel, is willing to resume peace negotiations and will be acceptable to the United States.

If this is truly what the Palestinian people want they might as well have settled for Fatah and not elected Hamas. They gave Hamas their trust precisely because it is not what the expert was suggesting: it does not recognise the state of Israel, is not willing to pursue a humiliating peace and is more interested in being accepted by the Palestinians than by the US or anyone else.

The fact that Hamas does not, and will not, recognise the legitimacy of the state of Israel does not mean that Hamas is not capable of negotiating a peace deal that would end the bloodshed. Hamas is prepared to negotiate a settlement based on the concept of a hudnah (truce). As far as Hamas is concerned - and that is the position of the majority of Palestinians inside as well as outside Palestine - Israel has been built on land stolen from the Palestinian people.

The creation of the state was a solution to a European problem and the Palestinians are under no obligation to be the scapegoats for Europe's failure to recognise the Jews as human beings entitled to inalienable rights. Hamas, like all Palestinians, refuses to be made to pay for the criminals who perpetrated the Holocaust.

However, Israel is a reality and that is why Hamas is willing to deal with that reality in a manner that is compatible with its principles.

CURRENCY WAR

ICH: Interview With William R. Clark, Author
"Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar"

The notion that Iraq was invaded to prevent the development of weapons of mass destruction, or to combat terrorism, has long been discredited. But a growing consensus believes that Iraq's oil was surely a prime reason for US actions. However, author William Clark argues convincingly in Petrodollar Warfare that the rationale for intervening was not just for control of the oil fields, but also for control of the means by which oil is traded in global markets

IRAN

ICH: Rank Ignorance Reigns by Paul C. Roberts

In keeping with its established role as purveyor of disinformation, Fox "News" talking head Brit Hume misreported Fox’s own poll. On "Special Report" (January 26) Hume said that 51% of Americans "would now support" air strikes on Iran. What the poll found is that if diplomacy fails, 51% would support air strikes.

Can we be optimistic and assume that the American public would not regard an orchestrated failure by the Bush administration as a true diplomatic failure? Alas, we cannot expect too much from a population in thrall to disinformation.

The "evidence" that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons consists of mere assertion by members of the Bush administration and the neoconservative media. Iran says it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, and the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have found no evidence of a weapons program.