17/12/07

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Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq 1,138,528
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
 
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Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar On Iraq 3,894
icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War in Iraq Costs
$477,819,697,187
 
See the cost in your community
nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
 
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Iraq Does Exist
 
By Ghali Hassan
 
Iraq remains a nation of proud people struggling to liberate themselves from a murderous colonial Occupation.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18909.htm
 
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A Violent Cartography
 
Bomb After Bomb
 
By Howard Zinn
 
I am stunned by the thought that we, the “civilized” nations, have bombed cities and countrysides and islands for a hundred years. Yet, here in the United States, which is responsible for most of that, the public, as was true of me, does not understand—I mean really understand—what bombs do to people.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18910.htm
 
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Thanks, But No Thanks
 
Why a Palestinian “State” is a Punitive Construct
 
By Ahmad Samih Khalidi
 
The Palestinian state is largely a punitive construct devised by the Palestinians’ worst historical enemies: Israel and its implacable ally, the US. The intention behind the state today is to constrain Palestinian aspirations territorially, to force them to give up on their moral rights, renege on their history and submit to Israel’s diktats on fundamental issues of sovereignty.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18911.htm
 
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Perhaps It Is Time For The U.S. To Reconsider Its Partnership With Israel.
 
By Scott Ritter
 
The insidious manner in which the current Israeli government has manipulated the domestic political machinery of the United States to produce support for its policies constitutes nothing less than direct interference in the governance of a sovereign state.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18906.htm
 
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American Jews on War and Peace:
 
By James Petras
 
With the American Pro-Israel Power Configuration leading the way to savaging the Naitonal Intelligence Estimate study, released in December 2007, on the absence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, progressive Jewish opinion is silent or complicit. Worse still, progressive liberal and radical Jewish peace activists have acted as gate-keepers in the anti-war movement – prohibiting any criticism of Israel and labeling individuals or citizen activists critical of the pro-war Zionist lobby as ‘anti-Semites’
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18908.htm
 
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Staring into the Abyss
 
The Collapse Of The Modern Day Banking System
 
By Mike Whitney
 
There’s no way out. There are bound to be bankruptcies and bank runs. “Structured finance” has usurped the Fed’s authority to create new credit and handed it over to the banks. Now everyone will pay the price.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18913.htm
 
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Culling The Herd
 
By Sheila Samples
 
We’re like herds of cattle, grazing placidly, unable or unwilling to imagine that we might share the same fate as the millions throughout the Third World targeted by the elite as “bottom feeders,” contributing nothing — eating into their profit — gluttons who must be dispensed with.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18914.htm
 
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The Population Bomb Revisited
 
Two Children Per Family are Enough
 
By Joseph Schouweiler
 
The current obsession with growth, unrestrained free trade, and rapid industrialization is the modern, capitalist paradigm. Reduced populations would ultimately cut into sales of large, profit-driven enterprises. This is something corporate CEOs fear, at least in the long-term.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18912.htm
 
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African Americans Bear Brunt of Subprime Crisis
 
By Penny Hess
 
The African cemetery found under a high rise building on Wall Street is the perfect metaphor for this country: America’s wealth resting literally on the bodies of African people.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18907.htm
 
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Iraq: At least 44 killed and 34 injured in another bloody day of US occupation: :
 
In an attack in Baquba, four members of a tribal police squad were killed when gunmen attacked their offices in Sahwa district.
snipurl.com/1vfdk
 
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39 die in Qaeda-Sunni clashes:
 
At least 39 people were killed in fierce clashes between suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters and Sunni Arab villagers in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad the police said.
snipurl.com/1vfdl
 
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Turkish planes pound Kurdish villages in Iraq:
 
Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish villages deep inside northern Iraq, killing one woman and forcing hundreds of villagers to flee their homes, in the largest aerial assault by Turkey this year, Iraqi officials said.
snipurl.com/1vfdp
 
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US backed Turkish strikes:
 
THE US backed Turkish air raids on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight with intelligence and clearance to enter Iraqi airspace, Turkey’s army chief said.
snipurl.com/1vfdr
 
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Iraq protests Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq :
 
Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a memorandum of protest about the recent Turkish air strikes in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, a ministry statement said on Monday.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/17/content_7268238.htm
 
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Iraqi Parliament Condemns Turkish Air Strikes in Northern Iraq :
 
Iraq’s parliament has condemned Turkish air strikes on a Kurdish region in northern Iraq as a major violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-17-voa35.cfm
 
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U.S. Pentagon giving Turkey intelligence on PKK :
 
The United States has given Turkey intelligence to track Kurdish fighters hiding in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday, but he would not say whether Washington gave Ankara precise targets used in weekend raids.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17404581.htm
 
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Bolton: Bush must ‘rein in’ Rice:
 
Former American ambassador to UN slams president’s foreign policy, says Bush ‘doesn’t supervise Secretary of State Rice enough’
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3483252,00.html
 
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Iraq Sees Need for Foreign Troops for 10 Years :
 
Iraq will need foreign troops to help defend it for another 10 years, but will not accept U.S. bases indefinitely, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Iraq_
Foreign_troops/2007/12/17/57596.html
 
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Britain bows out of a five-year war it could never have won :
 
Britain handed over security in Basra province yesterday, bringing a formal end to its ill-starred attempt over almost five years to control southern Iraq.
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3258008.ece
 
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Basra residents blame UK troops :
 
More than 85% of the residents of Basra believe British troops have had a negative effect on the Iraqi province since 2003, an opinion poll suggests.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7144437.stm
 
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US Army loses another 12,000 guns and trucks:
 
The US military in Iraq has lost track of another 12,000 weapons, including more than 800 machine-guns, and everything from 2100 new electricity generators to half a dozen garbage trucks.
snipurl.com/1vfe1
 
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Manufacturing Consent For War With Iran::
 
‘Iranian threat not understood’:
 
Despite international efforts to impose sanctions on Iran, the world does not yet appreciate the gravity of the Iranian nuclear threat, and “one miss” in its assessment has the potential to alter the international community’s course of action and enable Iran to turn nuclear, Maj.-Gen. Benny Gantz, the IDF’s incoming military attaché to the United States, has told The Jerusalem Post.
snipurl.com/1vfe3
 
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Manufacturing Consent For War With Iran::
 
Bush supports Russia sending enriched uranium to Iran:
 
“If the Russians are willing to do that, which I support, then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich,” Bush said. “If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich.”
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17412367.htm
 
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White House:Russia Consulted US On Iran Uranium Shipments:
 
The White House Monday said it had known of Russian plans to start nuclear fuel deliveries to Iran and called the shipments another reason for Tehran to suspend sensitive atomic work
snipurl.com/1vfe6
 
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U.S. urges Iran to freeze atomic work after Russian nuclear deliveries :
 
The United States said on Monday that Russian nuclear supplies to Iran is another reason for Tehran to suspend its sensitive uranium enrichment.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/17/content_7269235.htm
 
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Bush ‘twisting NIE to support Iran war’:
 
Bush is now trying his best to twist and warp the published report so that it complements rather than contradicts his dire warnings about Iran, Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, says.
rinf.com/alt-news/politics/bush-twisting
-nie-to-support-iran-war/2039/
 
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Israel Plays Down Split With US on Iran:
 
Israel’s prime minister told his cabinet Sunday to tone down criticism of a U.S. intelligence report concluding that Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons program, an attempt to keep the disagreement from getting out of hand.
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iJZ9jtm0
mjZovx5YirnDlYlkJKdQD8TIQL585
 
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Occupation forces kill 20 “Taliban insurgents” in Afghanistan :
 
At least 20 Taliban insurgents were killed in a joint operation by the Afghan army and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar Sunday, police said Monday.
www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/159944.html
 
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Roadside bomb kills Afghan family of 5:
 
A husband and wife and their three young children were heading toward Uruzgan province’s capital of Tirin Kot on a motorbike to buy new clothes for the coming Muslim holiday of Eid when they were killed, said provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/17/
asia/AS-GEN-Afghan-Violence.php
 
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Afghan forces kill civilian at Kabul airport:
 
The civilian was shot after failing to heed repeated demands by troops and police to stop as he was walking on a road near the airport
snipurl.com/1vfe7
 
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Report: Three killed in Israeli attack on Gaza :
 
Palestinian officials said that at least three people were killed in Israeli airstrike south of Gaza City Monday night.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3483774,00.html
 
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Report: Gov’t won’t grant rights to Palestinians west of fence  
 
The State of Israel will not grant permanent or temporary residency to West Bank Palestinians whose homes were annexed to the Jerusalem municipal area by the separation fence, the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds reported on Sunday.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/935078.html
 
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Israel will never be recognized as a ‘Jewish state’:
 
Israel, with US support, is seeking to replace the traditional understanding of the conflict as one that can be resolved by upholding Palestinian rights with one where Israeli rights take center stage. This has serious consequences for the Palestinian people in general and the Palestinian minority in Israel in particular. Israel is not only trying to replace Palestinians on their land, but replace them as the victims of the conflict.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition
_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=87526
 
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Donors pledge $7bn to Palestinians :
 
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said on Monday that the Palestinians would receive the pledges over the next three years.
snipurl.com/1vfea
 
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Lebanon president vote postponed :
 
Lebanon’s presidential election has been postponed until December 22, according to the parliament speaker.
snipurl.com/1vfeb
 
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Russian general says missiles could target US shield: report:
 
The commander of Russia’s strategic missile forces said Monday that he would not rule out aiming intercontinental missiles at a planned US missile-defence shield in central Europe, Interfax reported.
snipurl.com/1vfec
 
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Putin to accept Russian PM post :
 
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has said that he will accept the position of prime minister if Dmitry Medvedev is elected as his successor next year.
snipurl.com/1vfed
 
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Senior Republican pledges CIA probe :
 
The leading Republican on the US House of Representatives intelligence committee has defied the Bush administration and pledged to investigate the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes.
snipurl.com/1vfef
 
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House speaker undermines Democrats’ fight against torture:
 
Few serious observers of Congress would deny that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been a disappointing leader for House Democrats. But now she appears to be something more troubling: a serious hindrance to the fight against the use of crude and objectionable torture techniques.
snipurl.com/1vfeg
 
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Scott Horton : The President’s Coming-Out Party :
 
The torture system involves the operations division of the CIA on the implementation side. They rely heavily on contractors, it seems, in torturing people.
www.harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001917
 
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The world gets the better of Bush :
 
The moment came not, as it well might have done, amid the dust and bloody debris of Iraq or the torture and state terrorism of Guantanamo Bay, but in Indonesia’s lush and lovely Island of the Gods. And, appropriately, it came over climate change – the issue on which the “toxic Texan” first showed that he was going to put his ideological instincts and oil-soaked obstinacy over the interests of the rest of the world and of future generations.
comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article3255614.ece
 
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Mexico, U.S. suffer as Rio Grande sucked dry: –
 
Julian Rosales’ farm is within a stone’s throw of one of North America’s biggest rivers, but the Mexican landowner fears he will not be able to sow his crops next year for lack of water.
snipurl.com/1vfej
 
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Ohio Elections Official Calls Machines Flawed:
 
All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the state’s top elections official has found.
snipurl.com/1vfem
 
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World food price rises set to hit consumers:
 
Global food prices were under further pressure on Monday as benchmark prices for cereals at much higher levels came into operation, making it almost inevitable that a second wave of food price inflation will hit the world’s leading economies.
snipurl.com/1vfen
 
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Triple-digit oil prices expected after 2007 records:
 
After a record-smashing year with oil peaking at $99 a barrel in 2007, a triple-digit world of crude oil awaits in the coming year, energy experts say.
snipurl.com/1vfep
 
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Credit crisis worsens :
 
Alan Greenspan says the Fed is powerless
snipurl.com/1vfes
 
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U.S. stocks drop on Greenspan comments, subprime jitters
snipurl.com/1vfet
 
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US headed for recession: Morgan Stanley:
 
The chairman of investment bank Morgan Stanley’s Asian arm, Stephen Roach, says the United States economy is headed towards recession and the rest of the world should be concerned.
snipurl.com/1vfey
 
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Cheap goods won’t keep stagflation at bay:
 
Even the threat that stagflation might be about to make a reappearance has come as a shock
www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/
dec/17/creditcrunch.globaleconomy 

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