EMPIRE

Truthout: The Third Stage of American Empire By William Rivers Pitt

There have been three stages of American empire
since the creation of
this nation. Each has fed the other, and each has been
established and
fortified by war. More importantly, each has been fortified by the vast profits
derived by the few in the making of war. The first two stages did not
collapse, so much as they were absorbed by the next iteration, carrying
over all circumstances and attendant difficulties. We exist today within the
third stage of empire, one that is sick at the core.

LEBANON/SYRIA

Backed into a corner and weaker than ever, but don't underestimate Bashar Assad : The sons of famous men often struggle to make their mark. And Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, is struggling more than most as he contemplates the loss of Lebanon and his country's increasing international isolation.

Syria to blame in Israel blast, U.S. declares:: White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "We do have firm evidence that the bombing in Tel Aviv was not only authorized by Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus, but that Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus participated in the planning."

Israel Welcomes Lebanese Uprising: Israel's foreign minister is hoping for peace with Lebanon in the wake of popular protests in Beirut demanding that Syria leave after decades of occupation, while others warn that a Syrian exit could destabilize the country.

Blair Warns Syria the World Is Watching : British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Syria that the world is watching its actions closely, adding to diplomatic pressure on Damascus as Washington steps up calls for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon.

Bush Orders Syria Out of Lebanon : The world, Bush said, "is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."

Syria puts timetable on pullout: UNDER intense US pressure, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has committed his country to pulling its troops out of neighbouring Lebanon within "the next few months".

Lebanon's Hariri Killed To Make a 'Clean Break'? : The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, in Beirut on Feb. 14, was a carefully planned and executed act, geared to trigger a chain reaction of events in the region, that would conform with the long-standing policy of the neo-conservative junta running Washington.

ISRAEL VS. SYRIA

Al-Jazeera: US Gives Israel 'Go-Ahead'To Strike Syria

Bush's administration gave Israel the go-ahead to attack Syria in retaliation to Tel Aviv bombing that took place last weekend, killing 5 Israelis, the Hebrew daily 'Yediot Ahronot' reported.

Also, the U.S. didn't ask Tel Aviv to exercise self restraint, as in past cases vis-à-vis the Palestinian commando raids, the newspaper added.

'Yediot Ahronot', moreover, said that the Israeli ambassador to Washington discussed with a senior U.S. official intelligence information obtained by the Israeli intelligence service claiming that Jihad Resistance Movement had masterminded the Tel Aviv blast from inside Damascus

"If Syria is to blame for the bombing because Israel says it was planned in Damascus what about attacks planned in the West?"

ISLAM

Al-Jazeera: Why The West Lost The Ideological War Vs Muslims

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." - Samuel P. Huntington

During his visit to Europe, George Bush emphasised to his European hosts that spreading freedom and democracy was the only way of defeating terrorism in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world. His remarks echo a familiar tenet of his presidency - freedom triumphing over terrorism.

But, by coining the struggle as freedom versus terrorism, the Bush administration has avoided answering some pertinent questions like - What is terrorism? Who are the terrorists? Who is the enemy in the eyes of Bush and his acolytes the neo-conservatives?

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MISSILE SHIELD

Toronto Star: Standing up to U.S. will gain us respect abroad

It's now clear how the Bush administration sees things: Canadian sovereignty exists only at its pleasure. If we do what Washington wants, we retain our sovereignty. If we don't, all bets are off.This is what U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci clarified last week in his angered response to Paul Martin's announcement that Canada won't join the U.S. missile defence scheme. Cellucci noted that Washington would simply deploy its anti-missile system over Canadian airspace anyway, and expressed puzzlement over Canada's decision to "in effect, give up its sovereignty."No doubt the Soviets felt similar puzzlement as they rolled into Czechoslovakia in 1968. What's with these crazy Czechs? Don't they get it? All they have to do is co-operate with Moscow and they can retain their "sovereignty."

HAITI

Independent: Death of a democracy

Gangs of killers roam freely, rape is systematic and the poor eat mud to survive. In Port-au-Prince, Andrew Buncombe finds a people crushed by the dark hand of US foreign policy

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PALESTINE

ifamericansknew.org: US-Israel-Palestine Statistics


1,046 Israelis and 3,590 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000.



7,126 Israelis and 28,497 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000.



0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 4,170 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since September 29, 2000.

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LEBANON

AP: Lebanese Government Resigns

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami announced the resignation of his pro-Syrian government Monday, two weeks after the assassination of his predecessor, Rafik Hariri, triggered protests in the streets and calls for Syria to withdraw its thousands of troops.

``I am keen that the government will not be a hurdle in front of those who want the good for this country. I declare the resignation of the government that I had the honor to head. May God preserve Lebanon,'' Karami said

KILLING JOURNALIST

Truthout: Dead Messengers

How the U.S. Military Threatens Journalists

"Journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians within the meaning of Article 50, paragraph 1. . . . They shall be protected as such under the Conventions and this Protocol. . . ." Additional Protocol I (1977) of the 1949 Geneva Conventions

"There's nothing sacrosanct about a hotel with a bunch of journalists in it." Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), The Washington Post, April 9, 2003.

1984

Commondreams: The Language Police

you need any more confirmation that America is the numero uno propaganda nation, look no further than the GOP language meistro Frank Luntz, who has produced a memorandum of “The 14 Words Never to Use.” Thanks to the Internet and the blogosphere, we mere mortals can get our grubby mitts on what the conservative elite persuader Luntz is doing to scrub our brains free of individual thoughts.

IRAQ: SELL OUT

Alternet: The Handover That Wasn't

Before his departure, CPA chief Paul Bremer issued 100 Orders to dramatically restructure Iraq's economy to fit free-market ideals. And no Iraqi, including future elected officials, can undo them.

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CHOMSKY

Counterpunch: Nuclear Terror at Home by Noam Chomsky

If you can imagine some rational observers from Mars looking at this curious species down here, I don't think they'd put very high odds on survival--another generation or two. In fact, it's kind of miraculous that we've come along this far.
The world has come extremely close to total destruction just in recent years from nuclear war. New Mexico plays an important role in this. There's case after case where a nuclear war was prevented almost by a miracle. And the threat is increasing as a consequence of policies that the administration is very consciously pursuing.

ISRAEL VS. SYRIA

Internet Herald Tribune: Israel blames Syria for bombing

Israeli defense officials on Saturday blamed Syria and a Palestinian militant group based there for a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub — threatening to shatter an informal truce with the Palestinians — and Israel warned it may attack Syria in retaliation. Syria denied the charges, saying the offices of Islamic Jihad, the militant group that claimed responsibility for the suicide strike, have been closed. Israel has attacked Syrian targets in the past and will do so again if it deems necessary, a senior Israeli defense official said Sunday. Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said an attack will ‘‘send a message to (Syrian President Bashar) Assad’’ that he must clamp down on Islamic groups based in Damascus, his capital city. Israel’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz blamed Syria for the suicide bombing Friday in a Tel Aviv nightclub. Four Israelis were killed and dozens of others were wounded in the bombing. But Mofaz stopped short of threatening to attack Syria.

ONLINE VIDEO

ICH: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of TrillionsWe speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.

USA: ECONOMY

The Australien: US Budget Deficits RiskCrash

Peter Costello's closest adviser fears the US is heading for a devastating financial crash that could ravage Australia's economic growth.

As the Reserve Bank considers raising interest rates at its board meeting next Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry likened the flood of money pouring into the US to support its budget and current account deficits to the stockmarket's dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.

Were it suddenly to stop, there would be shockwaves felt throughout the world's economies.

MEDIA WATCH: QUOTES

Rense: They Spoke The Truth

"In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interests, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world (think this might have carried through to other forms as communications expanded, such as TV etc? Hmmmm, could be ) and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the United States.

These 12 men worked the problem ( Problem? What problem? Whose got a problem? JP Morgan and "interests"? Hmmmm ) out by selecting 179 newspapers, and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those necessary for the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interest of the ( ...citizens? Nope! The US? No, not even our country BUT the ) PURCHASERS. ( emphasis mine. Well, all for freedom of the press. Wonder why the founders thought that was so important anyway. But who cares about those guys, they are just a bunch of outdated old fogies anyway, right? )

This contract is in existence at the present time, and it accounts for the news columns of the daily press of the country."

--Congressional Record of 1917, page 2949.


"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history in America, as an independent press You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the street looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my' paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

--John Swinton, former chief of staff, The New York Times, in a 1953 speech before the New York Press Club


"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promise of discretion for almost forty years... It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto determination practiced in past centuries."

-- David Rockefeller, in an address given to Catherine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post and other media luminaries in attendance in Baden Baden, Germany at the June 1991 annual meeting of the world elite Bilderberg Group.


"We are going to impose our agenda on the coverage by dealing with issues and subjects that we choose to deal with."

-- Richard M. Cohen, former Senior Producer of CBS political news

RUSSIA

Rense: NeoCons, Israeli Lobby Declare War On Putin

America's neo-conservative elite and their collaborators in the pro-Israel lobby in Washington have fired a first shot in the opening guns of a new Cold War being launched against Russian Premier Vladimir Putin.

Although it hasn't been reported widely in the America mass media, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), two of the Israeli lobby's leading congressional stalwarts, introduced a resolution in the Senate on February 19, condemning Putin and urging President Bush to push for suspending Russia's membership in the G-8 group of industrial nations.

USA: MEDIA WATCH

Counterpunch: Do Americans Even Care?

As is often the case with AP's coverage of news having to do with Israel, there's a serious omission in its reporting on the Russia-Israel connection even when it involves oil and the United States.
The day after the State of the Union Address, two Interpol fugitives attended the "National Prayer Breakfast" held in Washington DC. The day before that, these fugitives from the law were the guests of honor at an hour-long meeting of the International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, invited by ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (Calif.)
You would think it would be hot news when wanted men being hunted by European police suddenly pop up in the US particularly on Capitol Hill and at events attended by the US president.

Who are these fugitives from the law, wanted by Interpol, who are meeting at the highest levels of the US government? And why didn't we learn of them?
Therein lies the story. These two men, it turns out, are just the tips of a colossal iceberg. And this iceberg doesn't just have 90 percent of its mass hidden under water; this iceberg is almost entirely submerged.

IRAQI RESISTANCE

JUS: Resistance Claims Many More US Dead In Fighting

Fighting erupts after US besieges ar-Ramadi, threatens population with "harsh reprisals" if Resistance does not return captured American prisoner.

US occupation forces encircled and totally sealed off the city of ar-Ramadi, 110 km west of Baghdad, at 5am Sunday morning local time. preventing all persons from entering or leaving. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in ar-Ramadi reported that the move closed the roads to Hit to the west, al-Fallujah to the east, al-Madinah as-Siyahiyah to the south, and to the north they closed access to the International Highway that runs to Samarra'.

7th Fire News: Entire US Column Wiped Out By Iraqi Resistance

A US military column was completely wiped out in fierce fighting with Resistance forces according to the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in the town of al-Mundhiriyah, near the Iranian border, east of Ba'qubah.

The correspondent, who was at the scene of the battle, wrote that a US column made up of eight vehicles came under Iraqi Resistance attack in the Jalabiyah area, known as the at-Tilal or hilly area, at 10pm Friday night. The Resistance fighters holed up in strongholds in the hills unleashed a sweeping attack on the US column, using missiles, pipe rockets, bazookas, and land mines that they had planted in the path of the American forces before their arrival.

Four US tanks, three Humvees, and one armored vehicle were destroyed in the fighting that lasted two hours, the correspondent reported. He said that US dead were in excess of 60 men. An adjutant commander of the Iraqi border guards confirmed that the entire US column was wiped out.

IRAQI RESISTANCE

Sunday Times: Iraq's Sharpshooting Rebel Legend

With elbows bandaged and knees padded for comfort, Abu Othman lay face down on a Ramadi rooftop and cradled his Russian-made sniper rifle as he waited for the tall American soldier to appear.

The soldier's habit of urinating into the street from the top of his Bradley armoured vehicle had angered Sunni Muslim inhabitants of the tree-lined suburb he patrolled. It was not the urinating as such that offended them; it was the way he exposed himself regardless of whether any women were around.

Ramadi's insurgents twice tried to take out the Bradley, first with a rocket-propelled grenade and then with a Russian C5K missile. They missed both times - and that was when they sent for Abu Othman.

It was a long, hot wait that summer's day on the rooftop and Abu Othman, 30, was glad of his headphones. He played his favourite verses from the Koran and their soothing flow cleared his mind, infusing him with a determination to see through the assignmnt, come what may. He prayed for God to deliver his target.

"Then the call came on my mobile phone, informing me that the soldier and his vehicle were finally heading my way," he said.

"The moment arrived. The Bradley stopped and the soldier stood on it ready to relieve himself. He was relaxed. He put his hand on his trousers. I took aim and fired one shot and saw him drop dead."