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Information Clearing House News Links Archive |
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Date: 26-30 April 2006 |
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Date: 30 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2400 The War in Iraq Costs === Turkey Refuses U.S. Request To Allow Attack On Iran From Turkish Base By YNetNews Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Sunday that his country refused a request from the United States to attack Iran from its Air Force base in Incirlik, despite the U.S. offer of a nuclear reactor, according to a report in Al Biyan. === By Mike Whitney When the bombing begins in Iran, the UN can finally board-up its doors and send the diplomats home; there’ll be no more reason to maintain the pretense. An attack on Iranian facilities will signal a period of global realignment where states either submit to the Washington axis or join the growing resistance. We are quickly moving towards Bush’s dream of a world that is divided into “us against them”. === ‘unknown Americans’ are provoking civil war in Iraq By Robert Fisk 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. === The US Has the Characteristics of A “Failed State” By Stephen Lendman Having laid out his premises, Chomsky believes the US today exhibits the very features we cite as characteristics of “failed states” – a term we use for nations seen as potential threats to our security which may require our intervention against in self-defense. === By Rev. WILLIAM A. ALBERTS The United Methodist Church should be bringing disciplinary action against President George Bush for war crimes. Evidence continues to mount that Bush, a United Methodist, deliberately used his religious faith to deceive the American people in the run-up to his administration’s pre-meditated war against non-threatening, sanctions-weakened, defenseless Iraq. === Bombs and drive-by shootings Sunday killed nine people in Iraq, and the bodies of seven Iraqi men who apparently were kidnapped and tortured were found in three areas of the capital. === The Northern Iraqi cities of Amedi and Zaho, sheltering Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, were hit with mortar attacks in “Operation Crescent.” === So far, the Turkish military was said to have penetrated 10 kilometers into Iraq in the operation against the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK === Could another front be opening in the Iraq war? Over recent weeks, some 200,000 Turkish troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, have massed along the mountainous border with Iraq. Trucks passing from Turkey, ferrying the imported goods and foodstuffs that are the lifeblood of the Kurdish economy, have slowed from 1,000 a day to just a couple of hundred. === raq has accused Iranian forces of entering Iraqi territory and shelling Kurdish rebel positions in the north. Iranian troops bombed border areas near the town of Hajj Umran before crossing into Iraq, the defence ministry in Baghdad said on Sunday. === Lodged in northern Iraq in an area flanked by NATO member Turkey and Washington’s foe Iran, elements of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have accused Teheran of attacking their encampments. === Powell, in an interview with Britain’s ITV1, says he gave the advice to now – retired General Tommy Franks, who planned the Iraq invasion, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Mr. Bush. === Moqtada al-Sadr on war, peace and occupation. === President Bush warned in his weekly radio address of tough fighting to come and “more days of sacrifice and struggle” in Iraq as April drew to a close as the deadliest month for American forces this year. === In a report to be posted on the IAEA’s Web site this week, the agency states that about 1,000 Iraqi men, women and children in a village near the former Tuwaitha nuclear research facility are living inside an area contaminated by radioactive residue and ruin. “I can only guess that a lot of the damage at Tuwaitha was from bombing,” === A senior U.S. official said on Sunday Gulf Arab states and other foreigners should help Iraq build new power stations, as U.S. investment in the electricity sector winds down after three years of reconstruction aid. === Tens of thousands of antiwar protesters marched yesterday through Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq just hours after an American soldier died in a roadside explosion in Baghdad — the 70th US fighter killed in that country this month. === Iran says it could allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resume snap inspections of its nuclear facilities, but only if the UN Security Council returns Iran’s case to the jurisdiction of the UN’s nuclear watchdog. The White House has rejected the offer. === Iran has said it was digging in for a confrontation with the West over its disputed nuclear programme, vowing that neither UN Security Council resolutions nor US military action could force a climbdown. === He said the Security Council was only likely to be able to agree on a “quite limited” range of such measures against the regime. === The Iranian deputy oil minister said Sunday he did not believe the United Nations would impose sanctions on Iran because that would boost oil prices even higher. === As the crisis escalates, Washington’s diplomatic partners will become gravely worried about their energy supplies. === The growing international crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme could trigger a catastrophic oil price spike, sending crude prices over $100 a barrel, senior Wall Street analysts are warning. === CHINA has threatened to veto any proposal to impose sanctions on Iran if it does not give up its quest for nuclear power. This will split the United Nations as it meets this week to discuss how to handle the standoff. === I believe that George Bush is a prophet. But not just any old prophet. A special kind – one whose actions bring about the very things he claims will happen, albeit without any recognition of his role in causing them to occur. He is, therefore, a self-fulfilling prophet. Let me explain. === The meeting demonstrated the difficulty the administration faces as it seeks to maintain U.S. access to oil and gas supplies from countries that may be unstable or unreliable, often because of corruption or human-rights abuses. === housands rallied in Turkey’s Black Sea coastal city of Sinop on Saturday to protest government plans to build the country’s first nuclear power plant there === Leaders in Israel and Turkey envision a network of four underwater pipelines for transporting Russian oil and natural gas, with feeder lines to Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon. === Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniya said on Sunday that his government will not appose any negotiations spearheaded by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas with any party, including Israel. === Syria began a weeklong campaign on Sunday to collect money for the Palestinians, following a visit by the Palestinian foreign minister 10 days ago. === How long is a sane man expected to sit on his hands while his enemy slaps him in the face? The Palestinian people have endured a prolonged aggression by a pariah state, and yet the world not only expects them to sit on their hands, the world blames them for it. === The Sudanese government has accepted a peace deal brokered by the African Union (AU) after talks in Nigeria, but the rebels say they still have reservations over the deal. === Bolivia’s president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday rejecting U.S.-backed free trade and promising a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation. === In a keynote address, the Bolivian leader noted it is important to free the country’s natural resources from foreign domination, assuring that his government is organized and prepared to recover those resources from the oil companies, which have caused great damage to Bolivia. === On April 28, 1965, 42,000 U.S. troops poured into the Dominican Republic to put down the beginnings of a democratic revolution in the Caribbean country. That invasion and the repression that followed continue to shape the Dominican people’s struggle for true sovereignty. === The Muslim Brotherhood, the strongest opposition force, said there was no justification for extending the law, which Hosni Mubarak, the president, last year promised to substitute with anti-terrorism legislation. === The Bush administration formally said Friday that it will try to halt a lawsuit that accuses AT&T of helping the National Security Agency spy on Americans illegally. === The Bush administration is putting pressure on the press as never before, and it is operating in a judicial climate that seems increasingly receptive to constraints on journalists. === The FBI issued thousands of subpoenas to banks, phone companies and Internet providers last year, aggressively using a power enhanced under the Patriot Act to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens, Justice Department data released late Friday showed. === It didn’t take long for the idea of forcing Internet providers to retain records of their users’ activities to gain traction in the U.S. Congress. === In the United States, the new model of corporate business has evolved toward a form of crony capitalism, in which business and government interests are often corruptly intermingled, the system resistant to reform because of the financial dependence of both major political parties on contributed money. === We began by considering four critical issues that should rank high on the agenda of those concerned with the prospects for a decent future. Two of them are literally matters of survival: nuclear war and environmental disaster. === Listen to all 10 cuts of “Living With War,” for FREE. === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === Date: 29 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2399 The War in Iraq Costs === By Juan Cole Here is its conclusion, which others will not quote for you at such length: === By Gordon Prather Under a Safeguards Agreement concluded with the International Atomic Energy Agency – as required by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons – Iran agreed to allow IAEA inspectors to “verify” that no “source or special nuclear materials” are being used in furtherance of a nuclear weapons program. During the past three years, every report Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei has made to the IAEA Board concluded that – as best he can determine – no proscribed materials have been so used. === By Dennis Morrisseau As a declared candidate for Congress here in Vermont and a former Army officer, I hereby formally state that I support the “mutineers” if they exist. And if they are so far only rumors, only ghosts, then I hope to God that real flesh and blood American soldiers will stand against war in Iran soon. It has come to that. I will support it. === How Many US Troops are Really in Iraq? How Much is the War in Iraq Costing? By WINSLOW T. WHEELER The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates its “burn rate” of monthly expenses at $6.4 billion in Iraq and $1.3 billion in Afghanistan. CRS points out that DOD did not include the cost of replacing worn out equipment and upgrades to facilities in theater. Adding those and a few other costs calculates to a monthly “burn rate” of $8.1 billion in Iraq; $1.6 billion in Afghanistan, and a total burn rate of $9.9 billion per month. === “Insurgents” killed at least six security officers and a civilian across Iraq, while on the political front US President George W. Bush hailed efforts to form a national unity government. === Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said, and 16 Iraqis were killed Saturday, six of them tortured in captivity. === An American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday, making April the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq this year. === “There’s two kinds of Iraqis here, the ones who help us and the ones who shoot us, and there’s an awful lot of them doing both,” said Staff Sgt. Jason Hoover, 26. “Yes, it’s frustrating. But we can’t just stop working with them.” === Al-Qaeda’s number-two leader has issued a video saying that hundreds of suicide bombings in Iraq have “broken the back” of the United States military === Gone are the days when he could go to a nightclub or a party with his girlfriend. “Baghdadis don’t go out any more after dusk. We are all prisoners now.” === Afghan troops killed 11 “Taliban militants” in separate raids while insurgents ambushed and shot dead three policemen across volatile southern Afghanistan, officials said today. === Olmert says Iran president “psychopath” : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a psychopath and anti-Semite whose declarations resemble those of Adolf Hitler, Israeli acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a newspaper interview on Saturday. === War Clouds: LET ME TELL YOU about the next war. It will start sooner than you think — sometime between now and September. And it will be precipitated by the $700-million Russian deal this week to sell Tor air defense missile systems to Iran. === The council’s three veto-wielding Western nations immediately announced plans to introduce a new Security Council resolution next week that would make Iran’s compliance with their demands mandatory. To intensify pressure, they want the resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which means it can be enforced through sanctions or military action. === China’s UN envoy Wang Guangya restated Beijing’s opposition to Western plans to invoke Chapter 7 of the UN charter to legally bind Iran to halt its uranium enrichment activities. === India on Saturday said the report presented by the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s nuclear programme should form the basis for sustained diplomacy to avoid confrontation and to promote an amicable solution. === Despite vehement denials by his attorney, who said this week that Karl Rove is neither a “target” nor in danger of being indicted in the CIA leak case, the special counsel leading the investigation has already written up charges against Rove, and a grand jury is expected to vote on whether to indict the Deputy White House Chief of Staff sometime next week, sources knowledgeable about the probe said Friday afternoon. === Some are calling it the first genocide of the 21st century, the killings of mostly black African Muslims blamed on an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed. Some 200,000 are thought to have been killed and 2,000,000 brutalized or displaced. === The 15-member U.N. Security Council, which has shown a reluctance to penalize those accused of war crimes in conflict-ridden Darfur in Sudan, unanimously adopted a resolution Friday to protect civilians in armed conflicts. === === Perhaps he could blame intimidation by the American Israeli PAC organization or a need to pander to his Jewish benefactors as he makes another run for the Presidency, but Kerry’s recent co-sponsorship of the Palestinian Compliance Act of 2006 is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that forbids collective punishment and states === This week, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and the Council for the National Interest held a press briefing on Capitol Hill to commemorate the tenth year anniversary of the Israeli attack on the UN compound in Qana, Lebanon. === Scenes Of Israeli Massacre In Qana 1996: Warning! – This video of an Israeli Massacre of Palestinian & Lebanese civilians in April of 96 is very graphic and should only be viewed by a mature audience. === Amnesty International has made public a report blasting the United States for failing to take appropriate steps to eradicate use of torture at U.S. detention sites around the world === AN Australian man allegedly tortured by British troops in Iraq is to sue the British army in the High Court in London this year. === Here is our new world of militarized greed, where America’s panic over lunatics with box-cutters has metastasized into a billion-dollar fear industry === Enron, Tyco, WorldCom… and the U.S. government? === The changing role of education in a consumerist society === The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court’s approval, the Justice Department said Friday. === The police say nobody was hurt after shots were fired Thursday into the Islamic Center of Delmarva located in Salisbury. ===
28 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2395 The War in Iraq Costs === By Chris Floyd The plan is the culmination and codification of an ad hoc array of progams and powers that Bush has doled out to Rumsfeld over the years, including a series of executive orders signed after the 2004 election that essentially turned the world into a “global free-fire zone” for the Pentagon’s secret armies and proxy foreign militias, as a top Pentagon official told The New Yorker. “We’re going to be riding with the bad boys. === By Mike Whitney Bad news continues to pile up around Don Rumsfeld like garbage at a land fill. The latest blast came from an unlikely source, The Army Times”, which conducted a poll showing that 64% of enlisted men think Rumsfeld should tender his resignation immediately. === By Patrick J. Buchanan Does President Bush have, or not have, the authority to take us to war with Iran? Because Bush and the War Party are surely behaving as though this were an executive decision alone. === Perhaps “Palestine” should be declared to include Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan By Sharif Elmusa A Palestinian state of the West Bank and Gaza is no longer on the cards, irrespective of the make-up of the coming Israeli government. Israel instead has created the strategic conditions, including a near Israeli public consensus, for the expulsion of the Palestinians from the West Bank. === By Sabrina Eaton Eighteen of America’s wealthiest families, are bankrolling efforts to permanently repeal estate taxes that would save their families a total of $71.6 billion, according to a report released Tuesday by public interest groups. === Iraqi police continued to fight insurgents in the streets of the city, 30 miles north-east of Baghdad, and witnesses saw at least two wounded police officers being carried to police vehicles for evacuation. === Iraq security adviser sees US troops gone in 2 yrs : American soldiers should be gone from Iraq by the middle of 2008 as U.S.-trained Iraqi forces take over security responsibilities, Iraq’s National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said on Friday. === The U.S. military’s lack of understanding about Iraqi culture helped create the conditions for the insurgency that U.S. forces face there, according to a military adviser who has written a new book about the insurgency. == The Iraq war has already cost the United States $320bn (£180bn), according to an authoritative new report, and even if a troop withdrawal begins this year, the conflict is set to be more expensive in real terms than the Vietnam War, a generation ago. == An Iraqi vice president warned the United States on Friday against attacking Iran. Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Shia member of the three-man Presidency Council, was asked about speculation US forces might strike to prevent Iran developing nuclear technology: === The CBS story remains very important as further evidence of the depths of the Bush administration’s deception. === US says world safer, despite 11,000 attacks in ‘05: The U.S. war on terrorism has made the world safer, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief said on Friday, despite more than 11,000 terrorist attacks worldwide last year that killed 14,600 people. === Ex-CIA analyst says US policies in Islamic world have given boost to Al-Qaeda and its leaders. === US says Iran top terror sponsor : Iran is “the most active state sponsor of terrorism”, according to the US state department’s annual report on world terrorism. === ran has failed to comply with a UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a crunch report yesterday that opens the door to possible international sanctions. === A leading U.S. senator warned Russia and China on Friday of damage to their relationship with the United States if they refused to go along with sanctions against Iran. === Washington has not ruled out using military action against Iran and insists it is seeking diplomatic solutions. But there have been claims US special forces are already in the country, and the US vice president, Dick Cheney, has said in recent weeks that defiance from Tehran would be met with “meaningful consequences”. === Israel’s Secret Nuclear Weapons Plant === Citing security concerns, Israel’s Justice Ministry this month renewed its ban on travel by Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona atomic reactor who all but blew away the country’s cherished nuclear secrecy with a 1986 newspaper interview. === With their salaries weeks overdue and savings depleted, Palestinian families are finding creative ways to survive the Hamas-led government’s deepening financial crisis. === The escrow account could be used to send payments directly to 160,000 Palestinian civil servants, thus bypassing the Hamas-led government, which is being boycotted by the international community because of its opposition to peace with Israel. === It’s no coincidence that Ariel Sharon used to call Bush the best president Israel has ever had. Why? Because they saw eye-to-eye on the threat posed by global Islamic terror. Bush gave Sharon a free hand to carry out targeted assassinations, and held a diplomatic umbrella over him in the UN Security Council. === The right of Palestinian return: Wisdom, equity and realism on Arab-Israeli issues are scarce commodities among former or serving American officials. A retired American diplomats suggests, that a key to peace-making should be Israeli recognition of the right of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven out in 1948 to return to their homes and lands in what is now Israel. === With oil prices above $70 a barrel fouling the world economy, dismay is focusing on Iraq, whose exports have slipped to their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion. === General Pervez Musharraf, facing a surge of anti-American sentiment, yesterday warned that covert US air strikes against al-Qaida inside Pakistan were an infringement of national sovereignty. === Nearly five years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s security situation continues to be dragged down by endemic corruption, roving militias, and a growing nexus between narco-warlords and remnants of the Taliban, officials and analysts say. === Canadians are spilling their blood to prop up a corrupt, vicious, and undemocratic puppet government, to facilitate the murderous Pax Americana, and to bring the world a little closer to catastrophe. === Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s use of intelligence to justify the Iraq war, told clergy members Wednesday that the United States’ use of torture on prisoners in its custody amounts to war crimes. === U.S.-educated Saudi tells tribunal he’s proud to have fought U.S. The U.S. holds about 490 detainees at Guantanamo. So far, 10 have been charged and trials could begin within months depending on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling. === “I don’t want this court,” he said in Arabic, the mild, sing-song tone of the female translator jarring with his own. “You judge and you sentence me the way you want if this is Allah’s will. A nation that is an enemy of Allah cannot be a leader.” === While US warships hold exercises in the Caribbean, Venezuela’s military will mobilise its own training exercises next week with thousands of troops practising to defend the country’s coastline, a top navy official said yesterday. === Garcia is ``corrupt’’ and a ``thief,’’ Chavez said in a televised speech in Caracas, after Garcia called Chavez a scoundrel yesterday. Garcia, who was Peru’s president between 1985 and 1990, is also the candidate of the country’s oligarchy, Chavez said. === Their arrival to Havana coincides with the first anniversary of the signing of agreements between Cuba and Venezuela for the implementation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).: The aim of the visit is to sign documents allowing Bolivia’s adherence to that integration model. === President Evo Morales jokes that Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s leftist leader – Hugo Chavez – and himself are Latin America’s new “axis of good.” Filmed during Bolivia’s Carnival, David O’Shea spent an enviable fortnight partying with South America’s new kid on the leftist block. Evo Morales === The civil war and its consequences have led to the deaths of up to 300,000 people, while the United Nations estimates that more than 2.4 million have been forced from their homes. === China has accumulated the biggest pile of currency reserves ever known in less time than it takes to train a doctor. To cajole China into resolving this syndrome by allowing the yuan to rise meaningfully, the IMF talked of the dollar needing to fall against Asian surplus currencies rather than just the people’s yuan === American Airlines Could Have Saved That Flight; Instead They Tried to Keep the Hijackings Secret === The U.S. Defense Department has stepped up efforts since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to gather intelligence within U.S. borders, aimed at both protecting military facilities and keeping an eye out for any threat on American soil, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. === Chevron Corp.’s first-quarter profit soared 49 percent to $4 billion, joining the procession of U.S. oil companies to report colossal earnings as lawmakers consider ways to pacify motorists agitated about rising gas prices. === President Bush said Friday that taxing enormous oil industry profits is not the way to calm Americans’ anxieties about pain at the gas pump, and that his “inclination and instincts” are that major oil companies are not intentionally overcharging drivers. === === Six years ago, an experimental drug from the US called M4N was injected into cancer patients in India without being properly tested on animals first. === A Senate inquiry into the government’s Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration anew Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation’s disaster response agency. But with a new hurricane season just weeks away, senators conceded that few if any of their proposals could become reality in time. === Medicare’s new prescription-drug program has increased out-of-pocket costs for about one in five participants, causing some to risk their health by reducing or eliminating medications. === Reports of falling sales and investors stuck with properties they can’t sell are just the beginning. Property owners should worry; so should their lenders. === Evangelical Christians have been preaching politics in Ohio ahead of Tuesday’s gubernatorial primaries and face accusations of using the church as a vehicle for political advocacy. === Had Neil Young released a song titled Let’s Impeach the President three years ago, he would have been exiled to the fringes of American music: just ask the Dixie Chicks. === Listen to the album === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === Date: 27 April 2006 === Read this newsletter online www.informationclearinghouse.info/ RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2392 The War in Iraq Costs === By Sidney Blumenthal The president doesn’t care that he is reviled. He is a martyr, and someday all will see his glory. Meanwhile, he’s got Karl doing his dirty work. === Robert Fisk: United States of Israel? By Robert Fisk When two of America’s most distinguished academics dared to suggest that US foreign policy was being driven by a powerful ‘Israel Lobby’ whose influence was incompatible with their nation’s own interests, they knew they would face allegations of anti-Semitism. === By Cindy Sheehan God help anyone who speaks out against the anti-American Bush regime that condones torture and use of chemical weapons of mass destruction. God help anyone who refuses to be silenced in the face of our government that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity. === By Alister Bull America may still think of itself as the land of opportunity, but the chances of living a rags-to-riches life are a lot lower than elsewhere in the world, according to a new study published on Wednesday. === At least 141 Iraqis have been killed in insurgency- or sectarian-related violence since al-Maliki was tapped as prime minister Saturday and asked to form a new government. === At least 11 people, including two civilians, were killed when hundreds of insurgents attacked several police checkpoints in Baquba 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad on Thursday, police said. === === Attack on Italian Convoy in Iraq Kills 4 : A bomb blast rocked an Italian convoy on a road in southern Iraq on Thursday, killing four people – three Italian soldiers and one from Romania, the Defense Ministry said. === The sister of Tariq al-Hashemi, Iraq’s recently-appointed Vice President, was shot dead by gunmen today less than two weeks after the Sunni politician lost his brother to a similar attack. === When gunmen killed a sister of an Iraqi vice president on Thursday, it grabbed world headlines. A few streets away, however, another slaying, typical of hundreds in Baghdad in recent weeks, went all but unnoticed === More than 90 women become widows each day due to continuing violence countrywide, according to government officials and non-governmental organisations devoted to women’s issues. === Al-Maliki told reporters after the meeting that Sistani advised formation a national unity government. He added that a strong Iraq is needed in order to face challenges. === The shocking account of Tyler Drumheller, former top CIA spy in Europe, aired Sunday on ‘60 Minutes.’ So why isn’t anyone talking about it? === An incursion into northern Iraq by military units of the Turkish Special Forces was reported Wednesday by a Turkish daily. === Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Turkish leaders on Tuesday that the United States would step up efforts to stop the infiltration of Kurdish insurgents from Iraq into Turkey, but she warned the Turkish government not to send troops into Iraq to do the job. === Kurdish rebels killed two Turkish soldiers and injured a third in a grenade attack Wednesday on a military outpost, the Anatolia news agency reported, raising the number of Turkish troops killed this year to at least 17. More than 40 Kurdish guerrillas have also been killed in the same period in a series of clashes. === The armies of Turkey and Iran are getting ready for showdown with the PKK. About 230,000 Turkish soldiers have been massing along the border with southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) since April 2. === Violence is on the rise in southeastern Turkey as the Kurdistan Worker’s Party increases its guerilla activity. The government in Ankara is worried about a Kurdish intifada. === Israeli intelligence chief says Iran has missiles that can hit Europe : Iran has received its first batch of North Korean-made surface-to-surface missiles that put European countries within firing range, Israel’s military intelligence chief said in an interview published Thursday. === Iran will pursue uranium enrichment in defiance of outside pressure, its president said on Thursday, a day before the U.N. nuclear watchdog delivers a verdict on whether Tehran has met U.N. Security Council demands. === As the deadline set by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to halt uranium enrichment descends upon Iran, the already narrow window of opportunity to resolve the crisis over Tehran’s nuclear programme diplomatically may soon slam shut. === It states that weapons of mass destruction-related sanctions against Iran remain in effect until Iran has verified that it is dismantling its WMD programs. It requires that sanctions be imposed on any person who exports or supplies to Iran goods or technology that help Iran obtain WMDs. === President Ahmedinejad is now threatened with assassination by Israeli-sponsored state terrorists. The threat against a democratically elected head of state passed without condemnation in Western capitals. === Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said, “Our position is clear and well-known. We are against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and this applies to Iran, but we believe that Iran must have an opportunity to develop advanced technologies and the nuclear power industry for civil purposes,” === China gave no sign it was ready to line up behind Western powers seeking sanctions against Iran on Thursday, the day before a key U.N. report on Tehran’s nuclear activities, but analysts said it was unlikely to block their way. === Pentagon apparently looks for an optimal size of a ‘bunker buster’ === Suspicions of an oil-for-nukes deal with Pakistan === Two images changed my life when I visited the Peace Museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 2000, on my first trip to Japan. I had worked as a geoscientist in two U.S. Nuclear weapons labs – Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Lawrence Livermore National Lab – but I never knew what a nuclear weapon really was, nor the horrific effects of radiation on the environment and biological systems. Now I know. === Depleted uranium (DU) is steadily taking down our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s time for the soldiers to follow the lead of their commanders in order to end the war. === We shouldn’t allow them to go out and die in a cause that’s not worthy of the sacrifice. I just think it’s a cop-out to say that we have to have a draft before America cares. America should care without a draft === The American public is being lulled into a false sense of insecurity. And insecurity, constructed or real, is what gives those in power – our purported protectors – their self-righteous aura of indispensability. === Thousands of Bulgarians demonstrated Thursday against a deal to allow U.S. troops to use military facilities in the country. === Israel has launched an air strike in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding two others, medics said === An MP representing the governing Palestinian movement Hamas was arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. === Tens of millions of dollars in desperately needed aid for the Palestinians is stuck in Arab banks that won’t release it for fear of US retribution, the Palestinian finance minister acknowledged === Once again, the geniuses who run United States foreign policy have transformed a glorious opportunity to gain an ally into total disaster. Rejected by the West whose democratic game it played and won, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has been shoved into the arms of America’s enemies === Sweden is boycotting an international air force exercise in Italy next month due to the fact that Israel’s Air Force will take part. It has also decided to grant entry visas to Hamas members. === Israel’s ambassador to Norway, Miryam Shomrat says it would harm Israel’s relations with Norway if Hamas representatives will meet Norwegian authorities next month. === Decision on funding highlights on-going hypocrisy of EU in relation to illegal occupation of Palestine === I’ve started a petition drive for college and university teachers to defend John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from baseless charges of anti-Semitism. === A Pakistani Taliban leader vowed on Thursday to wage an unrelenting holy war against U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan from his stronghold in Pakistan’s tribal lands. === Two years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, new research shows that abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Guantánamo Bay has been widespread, and that the United States has taken only limited steps to investigate and punish implicated personnel. === A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, held without charge for more than four years, has tried to kill himself a dozen times in an attempt to escape the misery and isolation of his incarceration. === The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, underscoring lawmakers’ concerns about the Iraq war’s progress, said yesterday that he may invite testimony from retired generals who have called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. === The order called for the assets to be blocked of anyone linked to the Hariri killing – or to “terrorist acts” in Lebanon in which Syria is implicated. === Reports said around 2,000 people in Belbari in south-eastern Nepal had been protesting at the death of a woman allegedly raped and shot by soldiers === Taming the Maoists and bringing them inside the political system is the highest priority in Nepal, where the peasants are so downtrodden and desperate that a radically anti-urban, anti-foreign, anti-intellectual revolution like the one that devastated Cambodia thirty years ago is a real possibility. === Government stops bombings but rebels say they will retaliate if attacked again. === The evidence points to one conclusion: the Bushes regard terrorism ? defined as killing civilians for a political reason ? as justified in cases when their interests match those of the terrorists. === AS AUXILIARY bishop of San Salvador, Gregorio Rosa Chavez wonders if the United States learned anything from its murderous meddling in his nation. === At a public rally, held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba on Tuesday, Bolivian President Evo Morales said that the initiative will allow a free-of-tariff flow of goods between the three countries. === For 25 years, Victor Murillo has grown rice on a five-acre plot in Colombia’s central farm belt. But a new trade pact with the United States threatens his livelihood, and he’s tempted to switch to a new crop: the tall, stalky coca plant that yields cocaine. === South American nations will have to choose whether they want continental unity or individual trade agreements with the United States — but not both, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said on Wednesday. === Big Oil has been pushing its pipelines into the Amazon rainforest frontier since the 1960s. Nowadays, prompted by high oil prices and militarization of the Middle East’s fossil fuels, the eastern slope of the Andes and the Amazonian jungle lowlands are being stripped, sawed, plowed, and piped into a global barrel of politically cheap fossil fuels. === With oil at $70 a barrel, Saudi Arabian society is in danger of capsizing under the weight of its own wealth === On Thursday April 20, Hazel Hill, one of the Six Nations Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) leaders on the blockade at the Douglas Creek Estates near Caledonia, told me about her beating at the hands of the Ontario Provincial Police === The U.S. is unprepared for a disaster of Hurricane Katrina’s scale, according to a Senate inquiry that lawmakers said Wednesday took a critical look at failures in responding to the storm. === Lenders began foreclosing on 323,102 mortgages, a ratio of one in 358 U.S. households, according to a report issued Monday by RealtyTrac Inc. Banks typically start foreclosing on mortgages after payments are 90 days late. === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === Date: 26 April 2006 === RSS FEED www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml News Syndication You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own website free of charge === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush’s War 2391 The War in Iraq Costs === By Dahr Jamail The responsibility of creating a situation in Iraq in which war crimes are the norm and not the exception lies squarely with the officers and commanders of the US Army, starting with the Commander in Chief, George W. Bush. === By Craig Lambert The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) currently projects past and future Iraq-related expenditures to surpass $500 billion, and even that figure severely underestimates the full outlay, according to Bilmes and Stiglitz, whose paper indicates that the war will eventually cost Americans in excess of $2 trillion. === By Mike Whitney Now that gas is topping $3 per gallon, we should consider the heavy price the American people have paid to ensure that profits continue to soar for the oil giants. === By Gene Lyons Has the White House lost its collective mind ? Do the president and his minions believe that Americans can be stampeded into another needless war to save his party from the consequences of the catastrophe in Iraq ? Is the Bush administration seriously thinking of bombing Iran for political purposes ? Of a nuclear strike ? Is it actually possible, as has been said, that George W. Bush believes himself to be on a divine, messianic mission ? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then our democracy may be sleepwalking into its worst crisis since the Civil War. === By Norma Sherry Why is it that as a human race we think killing, raping, mayhem, mutilation and butchery is an acceptable means for change? For years we’ve watched as religious disagreements waged on as wars destroying entire nations. === By James Vicini and Andy Sullivan President George W. Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, testified on Wednesday before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative’s identity, his lawyer said. === The bodies of four people bearing signs of torture and with gun shot wounds to their heads were found on Wednesday in Baghdad. === US forces in Iraq have killed 12 suspected militants and a woman in a raid and air strike on a house outside Baghdad, military officials said. === The man accused of masterminding Al Qaeda operations in Iraq has appeared on a video tape chiding George Bush and threatening Iraqis involved in the new government, which he says is an ‘agent establishment’. === Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper, and more than 30 years of reporting from the region makes him one of the most acute observers of the Arab world. He joins Lateline from Beirut to discuss the implications of the Zarqawi video. === The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation’s borders and provide the Coast Guard with new boats and helicopters. === Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan would be the highest-ranking officer to face charges in connection with abuse of prisoners at the facility. === Firing Rumsfeld won’t fix the problem. Rumsfeld is carrying out Bush policy. This Administration has sanctioned torture in the name of terror === Two retired generals and an admiral denounce his leadership — and say he’s protected by a handpicked ring of high-ranking yes men. === Today, no Washington official will yet admit it, but the U.S. has suffered a major strategic defeat in Iraq by failing to achieve its political objective of turning it into an obedient colony. The generals’ revolt reflects this unspoken fact and is clearly intended to lay blame for the Iraq fiasco where it belongs – the White House. === A week ago, it was the generals. Now it’s the colonels and majors and captains. Moreover, these officers are in uniform and have none of the security from retribution of the generals who had all already retired. === === “Saudi Sunnis are defending Iraqi Sunnis, and Saudi Shiites are defending Iraqi Shiites,” said Hassan Saffar, Saudi Arabia’s most influential Shiite cleric. “There’s a fear that it will cause a struggle here.” === Two suicide bombers struck near a multinational peacekeeping forces base in the Sinai near the Gaza border Wednesday, just two days after terrorists exploded three bombs at a Sinai beach resort and killed 24 people === Karl Rove’s appearance before a grand jury in the CIA leak case Wednesday comes on the heels of a “target letter” sent to his attorney recently by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, signaling that the Deputy White House Chief of Staff may face imminent indictment, sources that are knowledgeable about the probe said Wednesday. === Forget bird flu, impeachment is spreading across the nation, state by state. === President Bush is risking a backlash that could injure the Jewish community — and his own cause — by repeatedly citing Israel as his top rationale for possible U.S. military conflict with Iran, Jewish leaders and Middle East analysts warned this week. === Blair warns over Iran threat : Downing Street has urged the world to take the threat posed by Iran “very seriously”, as the United Nations deadline for it to cease uranium enrichment looms. === UK: Foreign Office lawyers have formally advised Jack Straw that it would be illegal under international law for Britain to support any US-led military action against Iran. === The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Iranian Navy, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has failed to procure the platforms or weapons required to block the Straits of Hormuz, the passage for 60 percent of the world’s oil trade. === Iran vowed on Wednesday to strike at U.S. interests worldwide if it is attacked by the United States === Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said on Wednesday that the establishment of Oil Stock Exchange is in its final stage and the bourse will be launched in Iran in the next week. === Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has won no public pledge of support from Greece for punitive sanctions against Tehran, as thousands protested on the streets of Athens against her visit. === The US has said it has no plans to use Pakistani territory to launch operations in the likelihood of any decision to attack Iran === President Aliyev told the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington Wednesday that his country and Iran have an agreement that forbids aggression from either side. === Russia has delivered fresh nuclear fuel for two Indian reactors, ignoring a U.S. request for a delay until rules are formally changed to allow such transfers, American officials said in recent interviews. === Four Afghan soldiers involved in a coalition-led operation against militants have been killed by a bomb in eastern Kunar province, officials say. === Pakistani officials say pro-Taleban militants have beheaded a taxi driver in a northwestern tribal region after accusing him of being a U.S. informant. === Pentagon plans release of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay: The Pentagon plans to release nearly a third of those held at the prison for terror suspects here because they pose no threat to U.S. security === European lawmakers said Wednesday they had discovered a ``widespread regular practice’’ of human rights violations by the CIA in Europe. === The Palestinian Hamas-led government said it was debating adopting a 2002 Arab peace plan which calls for the recognition of Israel in return for a restoration of pre-1967 borders. === Aggravating the crisis, local, regional and international banks have balked at transferring Arab and Islamic donations to the Palestinian Authority, fearing sanctions by the United States which regards Hamas as a terrorist organization. === Head of the Palestinian water resources management Ahmad Al-Yaqoubi said Israel is stealing more than 80 percent of the Palestinian water and that the separation wall will give Israel the control on water resources. === In the kindergarten in the yard outside the house, the children speak all the time about the “booms” that fill their day. Booms from the sea and booms from the land. Day and night. Sometimes three per minute, sometimes three per hour. Sometimes simultaneously from the land and from the sea. === Extrajudicial killing of two Palestinians in Bethlehem === When Ruba Mahmoud Awayes left her home in the small village of Nus Jbeil, outside Nablus, for college recently, she never thought she would return home a few days later with only one eye. === One of the consistent deformities in American policy debate has been challenged by a couple of professors, and the reaction proves their point so neatly it’s almost funny. === Those people of conscience who dare to rebuke the crimes committed by the Zionists must not cower at the insidious Zionist tactic of smearing its critics as “anti-Semites.” === “He is simply appointing the best people for the job,” said Nathan Diament, who heads the Washington office of the Orthodox Union. Another Jewish activist added that he “wouldn’t read too much into it.” === When an award winning play is prevented from being staged in New York due to pressure, some might to call it intimidation, from a section of the community that has determined it has the right to determine what all New Yorkers should or should not see –we have to ask which is worse – the suppression of legitimate theatre or the lack of outrage among Americans at large? === U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless said Tuesday he estimated costs of the overall realignment at about $26 billion. Japan‘s annual defense budget is $42 billion. === There is something profoundly disturbing about the appointment of Fox News’s Tony Snow as spokesman for the White House. === The Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretaps may have backfired, with the reversal by an appellate court of a Virginia terror conviction. === The measure, proposed by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), would reduce the cost of gas by $0.184 per gallon and the cost of diesel by $0.244 per gallon. The move, aides say, will provide $100 million dollars per day in relief. === More than 40 percent of Americans making between $20,000 and $40,000 a year went without insurance for at least part of the year last year, according to a study published on Tuesday. === I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help by clicking here === |
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