Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq “1,284,105"
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar On Iraq 4,209
icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$578,798,970,130
See the cost in your community
nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
Revoking Israel’s UN Membership
By Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson
The 1976 Nobel peace prize laureate, Mairead McGuire from Ireland, recently suggested a popular movement demanding that the UN revoke Israel’s membership. The international community now needs to put tangible pressure on Israel in order to stop its war crimes.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21440.htm
Who Originated the ‘Nuclear Umbrella for Israel’ Proposal?
By National Review Online
That would be Charles Krauthammer. When he proposed it, liberals declared this idea was evidence that Krauthammer is insane. When Hillary Clinton echoed the proposal, Keith Olbermann said it was “far further to the right than John McCain.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21439.htm
Britain Leaves Iraq in Shame.
The US Won’t Go So Quietly
By Seumas Milne
Obama was elected on the back of revulsion at Bush’s war, but greater pressure will be needed to force a full withdrawal.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21437.htm
It’s All Spelled Out in Unpublicized Agreement
Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq
By PATRICK COCKBURN
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed after eight months of rancorous negotiations, is categorical and unconditional. America’s bid to act as the world’s only super-power and to establish quasi-colonial control of Iraq, an attempt which began with the invasion of 2003, has ended in failure.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21444.htm
U.S. Keeps Silent as Afghan Ally Removes War Crime Evidence
By Tom Lasseter
Seven years ago, a convoy of container trucks rumbled across northern Afghanistan loaded with a human cargo of suspected Taliban and al Qaida members who’d surrendered to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord and a key U.S. ally in ousting the Taliban regime.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21446.htm
In case you missed it:
Afghan Massacre : The Convoy of Death
Video
In Afghanistan, filmmaker Jamie Doran has uncovered evidence of a massacre: Taliban prisoners of war suffocated in containers, shot in the desert under the watch of American troops.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20740.htm
Atrocity Unlimited
US Seeks to Turn Somalia into Global Free-Fire Zone
By Chris Floyd
Not content with destroying the only vestige of stability that Somalia had known for almost two decades by arming, backing and participating in a brutal “regime change” invasion by Ethiopia, the Bush Administration now wants to turn the ravaged land into an international “free fire zone,”
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21442.htm
Senate Report ties Rumsfeld to Abu Ghraib Abuse Torture
By David Morga
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to portions of a report released on Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21445.htm
Top Democrat Urges “Continuity” for CIA, DNI and Interrogation Policies
By Glenn Greenwald
The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat [Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas] said Tuesday he has recommended that President-elect Barack Obama keep the country’s current national intelligence director and CIA chief in place for some time to ensure continuity in U.S. intelligence programs during the transition to a new administration. . . .
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21436.htm
Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?
By Ray McGovern
You’ve got to hand it to them. Torture aficionados at the White House and CIA have conned key congressional leaders into insisting not only that torture-lite would be a swell idea, but advocating also that the overseers of torture be kept on.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21435.htm
Obama Will Not Prosecute Bush And Cheney
By Joseph A. Lopisi
Along the same lines as his predecessors, President Obama will deal with the current financial crisis by pointing his finger at everyone except the real culprit, the Federal Reserve Bank, the U. S. executive and legislative branches and their partners in crime, the Wall Street financial institutions.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21438.htm
Beware Of Obama’s Groundhog Day
By John Pilger
President Obama is the latest manager of an ideological machine that transcends electoral power. Asked what his supporters would do when reality intruded, Stephen Walt, an Obama adviser, said: “They have nowhere else to go.”
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21441.htm
On the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights.
We Celebrate 60 Years of Failure
By Cindy Sheehan
Human rights have been converted from a noble goal into an instrument of foreign policy used by rich and powerful nations against the poorest and weakest people of the world.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21443.htm
Suicide bomber kills 55 in Iraq:
A SUICIDE bomber struck a crowded restaurant in northern Iraq yesterday where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders to discuss long-standing ethnic tensions, killing at least 55 people, police said.
www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=384205&type=World
Struggle For Kabul: The Taliban Advance:
Within a year, the Taliban’s permanent presence in the country has increased by a startling 18%.
www.icosgroup.net/modules/reports/struggle_for_kabul
US general warns British forces are in Afghanistan stalemate:
British forces are locked in a stalemate against the Taliban and need tens of thousands of reinforcements to win, America’s top general in Afghanistan said yesterday.
tinyurl.com/6rrqur
West paying Taliban protection money:
Taleban tax: allied supply convoys pay their enemies for safe passage
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5327683.ece
US attack kills 6 in Pakistan:
The identities of those killed in the attack Thursday was not immediately known, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. “At present, local Taliban have surrounded the destroyed house, and they are not letting anybody get close to it,” said one of the officials.
tinyurl.com/6ggwy8
Pakistan detains Mumbai ‘plotter’:
The founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India has blamed for last month’s attacks on Mumbai in which more than 170 people died, has been detained by authorities in Pakistan.
english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/12/20081211165936763523.html
India demands Pakistan hand over 40 wanted ‘terrorists’:
“We have given them lists of 40 persons not one, not 20… and we have also pointed out that their denial is not going to resolve the issue,” Mr Mukherjee said during a parliamentary debate on the Mumbai attack.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5323757.ece
Pak Says No Evidence Forthcoming From India:
Pakistan has said that India is yet to share evidence of the involvment of its nationals in the Mumbai attacks despite repeated requests, media reports said.
tinyurl.com/5jzzg3
India-Pakistan situation is dangerous, says Rice:
The United States has said that although there is ‘no bellicose talk’ from either India or Pakistan in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Mumbai, the situation is ‘obviously dangerous and Islamabad [Images] needs to act forcefully’.
tinyurl.com/5w5bh9
IAEA Chief Describes Iran’s N. Program as “Legal”:
“Iranians are working under a legal framework. They have permitted the international (atomic energy) agency to monitor their imported materials,” ElBaradei said in a telephone interview with the London-based Al Hayat newspaper on Wednesday.
english.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8709210721
Analysts Urge Obama Not to Delay Action on Talks With Iran:
In light of the Iranian presidential election coming in mid-2009 and the U.S. distaste for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President-elect Barack Obama is being advised to avoid any communication with Tehran until after Iranians vote next June.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45072
Obama told to put an end to pro-Israel policies:
“The disastrous US policies during the Bush era cannot go on. It is not in the interest of the US to continue with those policies,” said Usamah Abu Khalid, spokesman for Hamas’s Political Bureau in Damascus.
www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10266525.html
Israel: Livni tells Arab Israelis’ to look somewhere else:
Livni said yesterday that for Israel to remain a Jewish and democratic state, it must be one of two distinct national entities. She says Israeli Arabs must find their national solution “elsewhere.”
ionglobaltrends.blogspot.com/2008/12/israel-livni-tells-arab-israelis-to.html
Iran Summons Envoy after Sarkozy Handshake Refusal:
Iran has recalled its ambassador to France several days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to shake hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/157344
At least 150 killed in massacre in Congo town: rights group:
At least 150 civilians were massacred in a Democratic Republic of Congo town last month, Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday which strongly criticised UN peacekeepers.
tinyurl.com/5nxa72
Civilians killed in Somalia clashes:
At least six civilians have been killed and dozens wounded in Mogadishu in clashes between Ethiopian-backed government forces and opposition fighters.
tinyurl.com/6g4a74
Less Freedom in Older Democracies:
The older the democracy, the less there seems to be now of freedom of expression and right to information, according to a new study by the London-based group Article 19.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45080
Prosecutor removed from Cheney case:
A judge removed a South Texas prosecutor from cases related to Vice President Dick Cheney, a state senator and a private prison group Wednesday, calling the district attorney biased and ordering Texas Rangers to escort him to his office so he could hand over case files.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6157833.html
Senate Rejects Auto Industry Bailout After Talks Fail :
“I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow,” Majority Leader Harry Reid said before the vote in Washington. “It’s not going to be a pleasant sight.”
tinyurl.com/5sp8b2
Victory For Chicago Workers: Reach Deal, End Sit-In:
Jubilant workers, cheering and chanting “Yes We Can,” celebrated outside a Chicago factory after approving a $1.75 million agreement to end their six-day sit-in, which had become a nationwide symbol of the plight of labor.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/10/national/main4661818.shtml
Video: Chicago Workers End Sit-in at Shuttered Factory
tinyurl.com/54uwb
Bank of America Plans to Reduce Work Force by 35,000:
Bank of America expects to have a final plan early in 2009 and estimates it will project the reduction of approximately 30,000 to 35,000 positions over the next three years. A final number will not be determined until early 2009.
tinyurl.com/6qwakh
Foreclosure Storm Will Hit U.S. in ‘09 Amid Job Loss:
U.S. foreclosure filings climbed 28 percent in November from a year earlier and a brewing “storm” of new defaults and job losses may force 1 million homeowners from their properties next year, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
tinyurl.com/57m88t
Ohio sheriff orders deputies not to evict:
A sheriff in southwest Ohio has ordered deputies to ignore eviction orders when people have nowhere else to live.
tinyurl.com/5f444f
Weekly jobless claims jump to 26-year high:
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits surged to a 26-year high last week, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, as a deepening recession forced employers to cut back on hirings.
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081211/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_jobless
Retail sales post big drop in November:
U.S. retail sales excluding autos posted their biggest monthly drop in five years in November, as consumers, spooked by a deepening recession, pared spending for a third straight month, a private report released on Thursday showed.
www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE4BA0W820081211
“Nasty Recession” for U.S. to Include Four Quarters of Declining GDP:
In its fourth quarterly report of 2008, the UCLA Anderson Forecast predicts that the current recession inflicting the national economy will feature four quarters of negative growth (followed by very tepid growth rates) and rising unemployment rates that last through 2010.
tinyurl.com/67ytoc
A tattered safety net for US unemployed: :
As a rising number of Americans sign up for unemployment benefits, many of the state-funded trusts that pay them are on the decline. At least 12 of them are on the brink of insolvency. In 20 other states, the funds have lost value, even before the big job losses of the past two months.
news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081211/ts_csm/asafetynet
Report: Recession has 43 states facing financial trouble:
Map highlights 43 states said to be facing budget shortfalls
tinyurl.com/56rtzq