CNN report survey results: Duped Public

Poll: Most think bin Laden planning another U.S. attack

As the five-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaches, nearly three-fourths of those responding to a CNN poll said they believe Osama bin Laden is planning another significant attack against the United States.

FULL STORY

[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 21 Aug 2006 - Part One]

uruknet.info اوروكنت.إنفو :: information from occupied iraq :: informazione dall'iraq occupato

The US role in Saddam’s Trial Roads to Iraq When Human Rights Watch questioned the fairness of Saddam’s trial, they kept their statement short, but for many times we heard people saying this is not an Iraqi court, it is a American court, even Saddam said it today. Still we don’t have any details about the American role in Saddam’s court. Here is the only document available from Bushra Khalil a member in the defense team explaining American role the court, I managed to get a copy of the document. "This paper never! published before"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25964 Israeli Apartheid: Segregation, Control and the Creation of Bantustans in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Bethlehem Bloggers: Voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto The question of Israel as an apartheid state has received increasing attention over the last years as Israel has continued colonial expansion in the West Bank while simultaneously attempting to diverge itself from the Palestinians. The purpose of this post is to highlight the growing systemization of apartheid in the OPT with particular referenc! e to Israel's policy of unilateral disengagement. The need for this debate is highlighted by the effective outcomes of disengagement which has already resulted in the segregation of Palestinian communities and delineation of exclusive Jewish space by means of the segregation barrier. Furthermore the creation of Palestinian enclaves or ghettos in the OPT bears a striking resemblance to the South African policies during the apartheid era which sought the establishment Bantustans as a means to facilitate segregation and to secure privileges for an ethnic minority... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25963 More Free Mazuma Sent to Small Criminal State Kurt Nimmo On the Ynet Money page, there is a photo of Israeli finance minister Abraham Hirchson, a big smile spread across his face. Hirchson is tickled because, once again, the American taxpayer, a royal chump, has come through. "The Bush administration has agreed to an Israel demand that a loan guarantee deal be extended by an additional three years, until 2011," reports Ynet. "In 2003, the United States approved a USD 9 billion aid package to Israel in the form of! loan guarantees which allow Israel to borrow money on the international market for low interest rates.".. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25957 AIPAC, the Religious Right and American Foreign Policy Rodrigue Tremblay, The New American Empire Nobody can understand what's going on politically in the United States without being aware that a political coalition of major pro-Likud groups, pro-Israel neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists is exerting a tremendously powerful influence on the American government and its policies. Over time, this large pro-Israel Lobby, spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has extende! d its comprehensive grasp over large segments of the U.S. government, including the Vice President's office, the Pentagon and the State Department, besides controlling the legislative apparatus of Congress. It is being assisted in this task by powerful allies in the two main political parties, in major corporate media and by some richly financed so-called "think-tanks", such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or the Washington Institute for Near East Policy... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25961 Sectarian clashes in Baghdad Zeyad, Healing Iraq A massive wave of sectarian violence engulfed several districts of Baghdad yesterday. The violence was sparked by news reports of sniper attacks against Shi’ite pilgrims heading to the shrine of Imam Musa Al-Kadhim in Kadhimiya to commemorate his death anniversary. When the news had spread, armed members of 'popular committees’ (militias) accompanying the pilgrims opened fire against residences in some Sunni districts surrounding Kadhimiya. Others took over Sunni m! osques in Sulaikh, Dola’I, and Palestine Street, and reprisals were reported from several areas of Baghdad. For some reason, Western news agencies have completely missed these serious developments, highly reminiscient of the confessional violence that followed the Samarra shrine attack, but both the Iraqi Al-Sharqiya and Baghdad satellite channels aired video footage of the clashes. The events were corroborated by dozens of eyewitness accounts. In the Dola’I neighbourhood, just south of Kadhimiya, gunmen occupied the Du’at Al-Islam mosque and kidnapped the Imam, Sheikh Hassan Ali Yassin, and two guards who were in the mosque. Their battered corpses were found later... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25972 Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli War Crimes Ramsey Clark On August 30, 2006 the International Action Center will launch a major campaign to require accountability by the United States and Israel for their wars of aggression and assaults on the equal sovereignty of nations, which are crimes against peace, and their war crimes which include excessive force, indiscriminate bombing, targeting civilians and civilian facilities and collective punishments of entire populations. Reparations are required for more than a thousands deaths, many thousands of injures and an estimated $10 billion for destruction of civilian facilities in Lebanon in one month alone; and thousands of deaths and injuries in Palestine since the Oslo Accords, the systematic destruction of the government of Palestine, the kidnapping of half the cabinet and the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, the assassination of leaders and indiscriminate killing of others, and the destruction of the offices of President Arafat, the Foreign Ministry and civilian facilities t! hroughout Gaza and the West Bank. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25975 Poll: Opposition to Iraq war at all-time high CNN Opposition among Americans to the war in Iraq has reached a new high, with only about a third of respondents saying they favor it, according to a poll released Monday. Just 35 percent of 1,033 adults polled say they favor the war in Iraq; 61 percent say they oppose it -- the highest opposition noted in any CNN poll since the conflict began more than three years ago. Despite the rising opposition to the war, President Bush said the U.S. will not withdraw from Iraq ! while he is president... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25973 Who Started Terrorism in the Arab-Israeli Conflict? The Angry Arab News Service Bombs in Cafes: first used by Zionists in Palestine on March 17th, 1937 in Jaffa. Bombs on Buses: first used by Zionists in Palestine Aug. 20th-Sep. 26, 1937. Bombs in Market Places: first used by Zionists on July 6th, 1938 in Haifa. Bombing of Hotels: first used by Zionists on July 22nd, 1946 in Jerusalem. Bombing of Foreign Embassies: first used by Zionists on October 1st, 1946 in Rome (against the British). Mining of Ambulances: First used by Zionists on October 31st, 1946 in Petah Tikvah... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25967 Video Bush Now Says What He Wouldn’t Say Before War: Iraq Had ‘Nothing’ To Do With 9/11 Think Progress President Bush was in the midst of explaining how the attacks of 9/11 inspired his "freedom agenda" and the attacks on Iraq until a reporter, Ken Herman of Cox News, interrupted to ask what Iraq had to do with 9/11. "Nothing," Bush defiantly answered. Watch it... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25966 Losing its Morals and Marbles: Israel’s Fight for Lebanon Remi Kanazi If Hezbollah were a military, given Western standards, it would certainly be the most moral in the world. During Israel’s five week offensive, Hezbollah killed 118 Israeli soldiers and 41 Israeli civilians (18 of which were Israeli Palestinians). Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers for every one Israeli civilian. In contrast, Israeli forces killed more than 1000 Lebanese civilians during the onslaught (more bodies are expected to be discove! red during the current period of "calm"). Robert Fisk, based in Lebanon, reported, "They are digging them [Lebanese bodies] up by the hour." Israeli forces killed 25 Lebanese civilians for every Israeli civilian killed by Hezbollah. Israel claims it killed three to four hundred Hezbollah fighters during the 33 day war. Hezbollah argues the number is much lower, but since the world maintains that Hezbollah is a "terrorist organization," Hezbollah’s figure is swiftly rejected. Supposing Israel’s numbers are accurate, the state still killed roughly three Lebanese civilians for every one Hezbollah fighter... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25962 An outlaw state: Israel breaks ceasefire, threatens to assassinate Hezbollah leader Patrick Martin Israeli forces on Saturday carried out a flagrant violation of the ceasefire along the Lebanon-Israel border, as dozens of military commandos attacked the village of Boudai, near Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. The raid was the first full-scale breach in the ceasefire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in south Lebanon which took effect on Monday, August 14. Both Lebanese and United Nations officia! ls denounced the raid. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora issued a press statement in Beirut calling the attack a "flagrant violation" of the UN ceasefire resolution, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25976 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 21 August 2006 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice ...In a dispatch posted at 1:15pm Makkah time Monday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that gangs of Shi'i sectarians, including members of the Badr Brigades and Jaysh al-Mahdi militia, at that moment were attacking the predominantly Sunni district of al-A'zamiyah. Local residents of al-A'zamiyah were battling the attacking gangs near the Ra’s al-Hawass Fu! el Station opposite the courthouse and around the cathedral Mosque of Abu Hanifah an-Nu'man and its adjoining madrasah (religious school). The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the Shi'i sectarian gangs were being backed up by puppet "Iraqi National Guards."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25974 Rove Revisited Joseph Cannon, Cannonfire Just when it seemed Rove's status in the CIA leak case had gone the way of Florida's 2000 election results and bin Laden's whereabouts, Jason Leopold provides us with an updated refresher. For those of you following this case, the only information the public has gained in the past several months, technically since Libby was indicted, has come from Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin of "my innocent client paid me in gold bricks" fame, and Robert Novak, of "publish the CIA identit! y" fame. Like we should trust either one of these guys... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25977 Interview With Ray McGovern, Part 1 Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Perspective During the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Seattle, I conducted an interview with Ray McGovern. McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). In this first installment of this short interview series for Truthout, I asked McGovern what he thought of the fact that Israel had been planning their attack on Lebanon for well over a year. Ray McGovern: The! most important thing, from our perspective, is to determine what role the US government played. It's very clear that the US government not only gave the green light to the Israelis, but actively encouraged them to do what they are doing now, and then blocked diplomatic efforts to prevent them, to halt them, or to have an immediate cease-fire. That much is clear. You can even read Charles Krauthaumer, who says precisely that: that we are proud that we not only gave the permission, but we encouraged them to do precisely what they are doing... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25958 Four US servicemen killed in Iraq Reuters The U.S. military said on Monday four U.S. servicemen had been killed in action in Iraq in the past 24 hours. Two Marines and a sailor were killed on Sunday in the western province of Anbar, where Sunni Arab insurgents are active, the military said in a statement. U.S. Navy medics serve with the Marines in the desert province... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25959 Bush Loses Lebanon at the Roulette Table Ahmed Amr, www.dissidentvoice.org On the Arab Street, the United States is getting a well-deserved share of vilification for promoting the orgy of violence that has already claimed the lives of over a thousand Lebanese civilians. That figure might be no more than a statistic in America. But, because of extensive live coverage on satellite TV, millions of Arabs now have the ability to attend the funerals of many of the victims. Every casualty is seen as an individual traged! y more so when the funerary rituals are for a child. After weeks of exposure to the mutilated lifeless bodies dug up from the wreckage of south Lebanon, Arab audiences now get to witness what the victims looked like before some anonymous Israeli assassin pulled the execution switch from an air-conditioned plane financed with American tax dollars.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25956 Pakistan's ISI assists Scotland Yard, while also supporting the terror network MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY, Global Research According to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee (July 2004 Hearings), Pakistan's Military intelligence has played a key role in developing the Islamic terror network with financial assistance provided by Saudi Arabia. (Committee on Senate Foreign Relations, Hearings, July 14, 2004). More recently, The Nixon Center (July 2005) has confirmed that the ISI still supports the main Kashmiri Islamic gr! oups including Lashkar-e-Tiaba and Jaish-e-Muhammad. Recent Indian Press reports provide concrete evidence and details regarding the ISI's links to Lashkar e Taiba, which is suspected of having played a key role in the foiled UK terror plot:. Reports suggest that LeT operational commander had meetings with ISI's top brass... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25955 Are You Proud to be an American and a Supporter of Fascism? "Confessions of an American Ex-Patriot, Revisited" Dhane Blue It all began about a year ago. I had just finished watching the morning news over a cup of coffee, and nothing felt quite right. Having dutifully pecked the cheek of my wife with a kiss, I stood beside my sporty new car with mug in hand. The engine was purring away before my drive to work, and my favorite bumper sticker caught my eye. "Proud to be an American" it read. I paused for ! a moment, reflecting upon this. For some reason it just didn’t set well, like a lunch eaten too fast. On the way to the office I was at a loss to explain, in fact, why it began to seriously irritate me. I see statements like these on countless other cars every day, and I wondered how many people think for themselves these days. Then the question arose…What are we so proud of?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25954 Scientists suspect Israeli arms used in South contain radioactive matter Mohammed Zaatari, Daily Star staff Mohammad Ali Qobeissi, a member of the National Council for Scientific Research, said on Sunday that a crater caused by an Israeli munition in Khiam contained "a high degree of unidentified radioactive materials." Qobeissi, along with Ibrahim Rashidi from the Faculty of Sciences at the Lebanese University, have inspected the crater - which is 3 meters deep and has a diameter of 10 meters - in the Jlahiyyeh ! quarter in Khiam, with a Geiger-Muller radioactivity counter and nuclear material detector. "A team from the council will test a sample from the crater in order to find out what kinds of radioactive materials it contains," Qobeisi told The Daily Star... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25953 GI Special 4H21: Comment Unnecessary - August 21, 2006 Thomas F. Barton What prompted you to enlist in the military? Well there were two things that really affected my decision to enlist. One was 9/11, and being a native New Yorker and seeing those people on that day. I didn’t know President Bush at the time. And he came on TV at one time and said, "Every man should do two years for his country." So I said, "You know what, the dude is right." There was also no direction in my life. I didn’t want to do the college thing yet, I’d just finished high school, and I didn’t know where to go. So I just checked army.com, and put in my information. It just so happens that the week the recruiter called, I was going through a life crisis, if you want to call it that. So it was good timing on his part. . . . Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25952 Bernard Lewis’ Hidden Imam Campfire Story Kurt Nimmo Be afraid, very afraid—and cash in your life insurance policy. "In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time—Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined," warns neocon doyen and "Orientalist," Bernard Lewis, in the War Street, er Wall Str! eet Journal. "Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statement was more precise." Naturally, since them Ay-rabs—er, Persians, not that most Americans can tell the difference—are crazy, hate our freedoms, and want to convert every last human on the planet to Islam—or short of that, kill 'em all—we need to make darn sure Iran does not get its hands on nukes, and also confront Ahmadinejad over his desire to build up a stockpile of nukes, never mind there is no evidence of this. But since when did the neocons ever need evidence?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25978 www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

9/11 Was an Inside Job

911 Mainstream Media

Blogged with Flock

9/11 Truth: Alleged Hijackers Were Assets Of U.S. Government

Bloglines - Peter Lance on KGO 810 AM tonight

Able Danger Blog Able Danger was a small, military intelligence unit under Special Operations Command. It was created as a result of a directive in September 1999 to develop a campaign against transnational terrorism, specifically al-Qaida. According to claims made by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and confirmed by others, Able Danger had identified the 9/11 attack leader, Mohamed Atta, and the three other lead 9/11 hijackers as possible members of an al Qaeda cell operating in the United States by early 2000.

Peter Lance on KGO 810 AM tonight By TopDog08 Via 1115.org: If you are on the west coast, Lance will be on KGO 810 AM tonight at 7 PM PDT with everyone’s favorite Libertarian Gene Burns. They should have audio on their site if you can’t get the signal. UPDATE: Lance was on for the full three hours. He cited hundreds of facts and references from memory and covered a lot of material. One thing that caught my ear was new evidence, apparently related to the Kahane murder from 1991 which relates to a store near the Al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn. Apparently, Lance has learned three of the 9/11 hijackers obtained fake IDs at the same place ten years later, in 2001. Obviously, if the FBI had staked the place out, they might have disrupted the plot, considering that I believe the same hijackers were also on their terror watch lists. He mentioned Rory O'Connor and Scott Malone, to include their work on the subject. In a strange twist at the end, it almost sounded to me like Ali Mohammed's wife - who Lance said lives in the Bay Area - called in using the name Lydia and made a veiled threat, asking if he feared being killed. Anyway, it was a very interesting interview. I will check if I can get audio.

new articles on APFN

Sounds and smells familiar/aka 911 — Keystone State, Mon Aug 21 00:51
National Prayer — Keystone State, Mon Aug 21 01:14
TD and U.N.--full of shit — archers, Mon Aug 21 08:07
Bush 911 had nothing to do with Iraq — Keystone State, Mon Aug 21 13:38
Oy, Enough Already[NUNC PRO TUNC/QUI TAM]-Corrected Version — Camilo H. Tapia, Mon Aug 21 15:36
Feds Probe "Fake News" at 77 Stations — Mediaweek, Mon Aug 21 18:10
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! Know Your Bank Dick: The Federal Res — OrlandoMary, Mon Aug 21 18:13
Presidents fear one thing: — The Gemstone File: A Memoir, Mon Aug 21 18:27
The CIA-Contra-Crack Connection, 10 Years Later — L.A. TIMES, Mon Aug 21 18:56
Spychips in Passports May be Just the Start — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Mon Aug 21 19:08
Hillary Gets Ready to Run — SLAP HILLARY....THIS IS FUN!, Mon Aug 21 22:28
Re: Feds Probe "Fake News" at 77 Stations — Stephanie Caruana, Mon Aug 21 23:10
U.S. Won't Leave Iraq While He Is President - — Bush Tells Press, Mon Aug 21 23:41
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Today's Topic: Is Iran Really Willing to Negotiate?
by
Gather Editorial Team
August 22, 2006 09:20 PM EDT
tags: iran, uranium, international atomic energy inspectors, gather editorial, un, topic of the day, todays topic, politics, nuclear power
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Gather member Christopher Leavitt posted his thoughts on Iran's decision not to allow International Atomic Energy Inspectors to inspect a uranium enrichment facility (Iran Turns Away IAEA Inspectors - Nuke Treaty In Danger ).A day later, Iran presented its decision to engage in negotiations regarding their nuclear ambitions (Iran Delivers Decision on Nuclear Incentives Package ).

Do you think Iran will back down? Are they playing the odds that the UN would rather negotiate than prove that Iran is building nuclear weapons? What would you expect to see in an agreement between Iran and the West?

Bloglines - Ralph Peters: Ethnic Cleansing as Benefaction

Another Day in the Empire

Ralph Peters: Ethnic Cleansing as Benefaction By Administrator on Uncategorized According to Ralph Peters, writing for the Armed Forces Journal, there is a “dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works,” never mind this technique, offered by Peters as a panacea for ethnic division in the Middle East, falls under the definitions for genocide or crimes against humanity. “While the Middle East has far more problems than dysfunctional borders alone—from cultural stagnation through scandalous inequality to deadly religious extremism—the greatest taboo in striving to understand the region’s comprehensive failure isn’t Islam but the awful-but-sacrosanct international boundaries worshipped by our own diplomats.” In order to address this “scandalous inequality” and realize “a more peaceful Middle East,” Peters proposes “borders re-imagined,” that is to say the forced migration of millions of people. Said like a retired Lieutenant Colonel given to writing fiction. Peters’ fictional “characters are often presented as military mavericks who have the clairvoyance and courage to tackle problems others can’t or won’t,” according to a Wikipedia write-up. “His novels progressed from futuristic scenarios involving the Red Army to contemporary terrorism and failed state issues.” If not for British and French colonialism, culminating in the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement to partition the Middle East, and the plot to hand a religiously charged bit of real estate over to conniving European Zionists, chances are good things would be different, even less culturally stagnate and rife with inequality, the defeated Ottoman Empire not withstanding. Indeed, ethnic division was a determined policy from the outset in Syria and Lebanon, as the French set up “protectorates” where little protection was required prior to their intervention. Meanwhile, the British set about finding corrupt kings to rule over Iraq (Faisal bin Husayn) and Transjordan (Abdullah I), a chunk of desert adjoined to Palestine under the British Mandate, formerly autonomous territories under the Ottoman millet system. In Arabia, the Brits set up a protectorate, ruled by the austere Wahhabi Ibn Saud. Naturally, the French and British did not consult the natives. All of this brazen colonialism, with its attendant racism and impudent exploitation, led to pan-Arab nationalism, which gained momentum under Gamal Abdel Nasser. As Nasserism was a form of cultural nationalism, revolutionary and vaguely socialist, sprawling from the Middle East to northern Africa, it was regarded as an ominous threat, and was studiously undermined at every turn, eventually resulting in the political emergence of pan-Islamism. For instance, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, collaborating with British and later U.S. intelligence, challenged the secular government of the Wafd Party and, later, Nasser’s government. Even later, in Palestine, Hamas evolved from cells of the Muslim Brotherhood, and this was supported by Israel as “a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO,” according to a former senior CIA official cited by Richard Sale of UPI. “In a region where only the worst aspects of nationalism ever took hold and where the most debased aspects of religion threaten to dominate a disappointed faith, the U.S., its allies and, above all, our armed forces can look for crises without end,” writes Peters, conveniently omitting the fact Arab nationalism was undermined and poisoned at every turn (one case of poisoning, supported by the CIA, arose in Iraq and produced Saddam Hussein). Likewise, Britain and the United States supported and nurtured “the most debased aspects of religion,” resulting in the Taliban, Frankenstein products incubated in CIA-ISI run Pakistani madrasahs. Naturally, Ralph Peters rolls national liberation movements, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, into his witch’s brew of debased religion. Mr. Peters offers what can only be described as an Oded Yinon inspired plan for ethnic cleansing and reshaping borders in the Middle East. In order to understand how Peters would reshape borders, see this map. Yinon, at one time attached to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, wrote an article, published in the World Zionist Organization’s periodical Kivunim in 1982, calling “for Israel to bring about the dissolution and fragmentation of the Arab states into a mosaic of ethnic groupings,” as Stephen J. Sniegoski summarizes. Israeli foreign policy expert Yehoshafat Harkabi critiqued the war/expulsion scenario—”Israeli intentions to impose a Pax Israelica on the Middle East, to dominate the Arab countries and treat them harshly”—in his very significant work, Israel’s Fateful Hour, published in 1988. Writing from a realist perspective, Harkabi believed that Israel did not have the power to achieve this goal, given the strength of the Arab states, the large Palestinian population involved, and the vehement opposition of world opinion. Harkabi hoped that ‘the failed Israeli attempt to impose a new order in the weakest Arab state—Lebanon—will disabuse people of similar ambitions in other territories.’8 Left unconsidered by Harkabi was the possibility that the United States would act as Israel’s proxy to achieve this goal. Ralph Peters, however, does not propose dominating Arab countries and treating them harshly, as his Israeli counterparts obviously have done and would continue to do, that is if they were not confronted with a new and troublesome reality in the presence of Hezbollah, a dedicated, robust, and asymmetrical opponent, an inspirational template for all Arab resistance to come. Peters would have us believe his plan, including the “dirty little secret” of ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity, will be accomplished with the good of Arab and Muslim people in mind, whereas the Israelis do not bother with such translucent sugarcoating. At the end of the day, it is arrogance, hubris, and indeed racism that drives the ethnic cleansers and border redrawers. It is not the wish to benevolently hand down “democracy” to benighted Arabs and Muslims, but a continuation of imperialism, albeit gussied up in modern vestment. Comments

Bloglines - Neolib Vultures Perch Over Lebanon

Another Day in the Empire

Neolib Vultures Perch Over Lebanon By Administrator on Uncategorized It is a classical case of adding insult to injury—or maybe usury and theft to injury. “Upcoming donor meetings to raise funds for rebuilding war-damaged Lebanon could be an opening for Western lenders to look for fresh commitments from Beirut to resume politically difficult economic reforms,” reports Reuters. “Western lenders are signaling they are willing to help with overall economic support if Lebanon agrees to adopt reforms, possibly seeking an International Monetary Fund program as a signal of its commitment to reform and to frame how donor money could be best used.” Of course, we know what “reforms” means in the context of the IMF and World Bank “help,” the latter now headed up by the neocon Paul Wolfowitz—it means Structural Adjustment Policies, of SAPs, requiring nations to reduce spending on things such as health care, education, and other social programs in order to ensure debt repayment and economic restructuring. “Debt is an efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples’ raw materials and infrastructure on the cheapest possible terms,” writes Susan George. It results in, as David C. Korten explains, a “race to the bottom.” In rural areas, for instance the south of Lebanon, which took the brunt of the Israeli invasion, “75% of families whose primary provider works in agriculture are poor, and 40% of these are extremely poor. Two thirds of the extremely poor—around 165,000—live in rural areas and represent more than a quarter of the population in these areas,” explains Antoine Haddad for the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. “Lebanon’s experience in the last three decades shows that the improvement in the standard of living generally follows economic growth,” a situation that will become impossible if the ruling elite of Lebanon, primarily Christian and Sunni Muslim, accept IMF-World Bank loan sharking and extraction schemes. As the Daily Star, a Lebanese newspaper, reported on October 21, 2003, “Lebanon’s poverty rate is among the highest in Western Asia, while its middle class is facing a serious threat of extinction,” a prospect greatly exacerbated by the Israeli invasion. Prior to Israel’s mass murder rampage, Lebanon’s national debt stood at over 40 billion dollars, largely owed to the banksters and the IMF and World Bank, and economic “restructuring,” in the form of privatization and dismantling the country’s social sector was well underway. Of course, the pressure to “liberalize” (as in “neoliberalize”) further will be a temptation, as large sections of the country are in ruin, thanks to Israel, using U.S. supplied weapons. “Before the recent fighting that killed 1,181 people and destroyed vital infrastructure, the IMF had warned of a potential Lebanon debt crisis. Its annual review of the Lebanese economy, issued in May, said it needed more than the expanding Middle Eastern funding and investments and without policy changes the debt ratio could rise steadily to over 210 percent of gross domestic product by 2011.” “Some analysts question, however, why Lebanon would bow to Western pressures when the Arab world is willing to provide help without conditions attached,” Reuters continues. “Saudi Arabia already has pledged $1 billion for the war reconstruction effort, and Kuwait says it will donate $300 million. The United States on Monday announced $230 million in humanitarian, reconstruction and security assistance.” In short, Lebanon may be in a position, unlike more than a few countries in South America and Africa, to resist the banksters and their neoliberal schemes to further impoverish the country and steal everything not nailed down. “Samir Makdisi, a former Lebanese economy and trade minister and director of the Institute of Financial Economics at the American University of Beirut, noted that irrespective of who assists Lebanon, the government requires domestic consensus for any of its plans,” Reuters concludes. “Remember, Hizbollah is represented in the cabinet and in Parliament, and in Lebanon mutual agreements among the main players are normally sought on main issues.” Of course, this is yet another reason, in addition to Israeli demands, to get rid of Hezbollah. Jason Kenney, a Canadian version of an American neocon, may compare Hezbollah to the Nazis, a silly and mindless comparison at best, however nothing the Americans or the Israelis do will get rid of Hezbollah, especially now with Israel threatening to re-invade. If the Lebanese, at least the Shia, around 40 percent of the population, know anything it is that Hezbollah stands between them and decimation and humiliation at the hands of the Israelis, who have long coveted the southern part of their country. Hezbollah may, as well, fend off the international banksters, perched over the smoldering ruins of Lebanon like a gaggle of hungry vultures. Comments

Was George Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group Involved In 9/11?

The 911 Skies

911 Stealth

The 911 Skies By A Restrainer If you want to be a "History Detective", an Expert in 911 studies, it is prioritary for you to do a careful analysis of the original sources to slowly track the 911 skies. You may want to see every documentary and newscast containing original footage of 911 portraying its sky. Apart of the original newscasts of the day, we, for example suggest the next documentaries that show the 911 sky (of course, there are more): 1) In Memoriam - New York City, 9/11/01 (2002), HBO Home Video, 2) PBS NOVA "Why the Towers Fell," originally broadcast on Tuesday, April 30, 2002, Also available at Amazon, 3) WTC: The First 24 Hours (9.11.2001) (Widescreen), Clamshell, NTSC, 4) PBS American Experience, NY episode eight: "New York: V8 Center Of The World", 5) CNN Tribute - America Remembers, 6) Abundant CameraPlanet clips filmed by live witnesses (including their movies "Seven Days in September" and "Witness 9.11"), 7) 9/11 - The Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition (2002) , 8) The Learning Channel documentary World Trade Center Anatomy of the Collapse 9) History Channel, A&E's "The Anatomy of September 11th" 10) 911 Eyewitness, by Rick Siegel: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3498980438587461603 "911 Eyewitness Website" (link to some samples) 11) Compilations of 911 newscasts: http://www.archive.org/download/911-Chronology-Source/911-Chronology-Source-Impact-Collection.mpg Historical/Research 9-11 video, 68 min, unedited (2001) : http://www.archive.org/details/9-11_video_off_air_VHStoDivXviaConvertX Index to multilanguage videos: http://ams.reopen911.org/video/ Etc... 12) Loose Change V. 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848 13) How the Twin Towers Collapsed, Discovery Channel (check there min. 18:00, 22:40-24:50, 33:00-34:20... ) RealPlayer 14) The Fall of the World Trade Center, Horizon - UKTV, BBC - WGBH (check there min. 13:30, 22:50, 29:18, 30:20, 31:17, 36:45...) Real Player (Transcript) 15) What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, in Words, Pictures, and Video, by CBS News, Dan Rather (narrator). 16) The World Trade Center: Rise And Fall Of An American Icon. The History Channel. Etc., etc. And, if you are compelled to, to take action according to it (like signing Dr. Jones' petition).

Report from Slate

http://www.slate.com/id/2148197

What a Moronic Presidential Press Conference!It's clear Bush doesn't understand Iraq, or Lebanon, or Gaza, or …

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, at 5:48 PM ET

George W. Bush at a press conference
Among the many flabbergasting answers that President Bush gave at his press conference on Monday, this one—about Democrats who propose pulling out of Iraq—triggered the steepest jaw drop: "I would never question the patriotism of somebody who disagrees with me. This has nothing to do with patriotism. It has everything to do with understanding the world in which we live."

Judge drops Padilla terror charge - CNN

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Judge drops Padilla terror charge - CNN CNN Judge drops Padilla terror charge CNN - 2 hours ago A federal judge in Miami has dismissed the lead terror count against Jose Padilla, the US citizen once identified as a "dirty bomb" suspect and detained for three years without charges as an "enemy combatant. One charge thrown out against suspected al-Qaida operative WWAY NewsChannel 3 all 115 related

[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 21 Aug 2006 - part two]

uruknet.info اوروكنت.إنفو :: information from occupied iraq :: informazione dall'iraq occupato

Restarting the 34 Day War Mike Whitney Israel is in a state of post-war trauma. Its 34 day pounding of Lebanon achieved none of the stated goals and has left the public furious at the incompetence of the Olmert government. 118 soldiers were killed in the conflict and Israel’s celebrated "power of deterrents" has been smashed to smithereens. Nothing was gained. In the north, industry was brought to a complete standstill while the local people were shunted off to fallout shelters for weeks on end. What for? Hezbol! lah hasn’t been "disarmed" and the 2 captured Israeli soldiers haven’t been returned. The whole travesty was a dead loss. The war ended as abruptly as it started. It was suddenly called off when Olmert couldn't bear the rising death-toll, a fact that was not lost on Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah said from the very beginning that the only way to beat Israel was by "killing soldiers and destroying weapons". Olmert’s retreat just proves that that Nasrallah was right.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25993 Terror Against Nature American-Palestinian New Generation Emboldened by its uncriticised destruction of Gaza's electricity power plant in the first days of the assualt on Gaza, Israel almost immediately attacked Lebanese infrastructure including the airport, bridges, roads, powerplants, and unbelievably, oceanside power station oil storage tanks in Jiyeh, about 19 miles south of Beirut on July 13-15, 2006. The intentional targeting of oil storage tanks and the implicit understanding of the devastation that the re! leased heavy fuel oil would inflict on the Mediterranean coast is entirely consistent with brazen statements by the Israeli throughout the war, boasting that they would set Lebanon back to pre-electricity days... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25981 "I Was a Propaganda Intern in Iraq" - Fmr. Lincoln Group Intern Describes Paying Iraqi Press to Plant Pro-American Articles Secretly Written by U.S. Military Democracy Now! ...Well, I arrived in Baghdad airport and was taken to a villa in the Green Zone via Camp Victory. After about a week of twiddling my thumbs and not really doing a lot, I became rather impatient and emailed people back in D.C., saying, you know, "What am I doing here? I thought I was going to be doing some work." And within a day or two, I was! taken to lunch by another employee, and he explained to me in detail what exactly it was the Lincoln Group was doing. And I was going to take over his position, because he was going on holiday, so -- on vacation, I should say. And what he was doing was receiving English-written articles by soldiers in a certain unit inside Camp Victory, the major U.S. base just south of Baghdad. He was choosing which of those articles would be published in Iraqi newspapers. He was sending them to Iraqi employees, getting them translated into Arabic, getting them okayed by the command back at Camp Victory and then having other Iraqi employees run them down to Iraqi newspapers, where they would pay editors, sub-editors, commissioning editors to run them as news stories in the Iraqi newspapers. And that was the role, you know, after about a week or ten days of me being there, that I took over... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25988 GI Special 4H21B: Prisoner Needs Your Action Now - August 21, 2006 Thomas F. Barton Stanley Howard, Organizer Of Prisoners Against The War, Needs Your Help NOW During the fall of 2005, acting inside Statesville Prison in Joliet, Illinois, Stanley Howard brought together a group of inmates to found Prisoners Against The War, the first such organization in U.S. history. [The original announcement is reproduced inside.] This is an appeal to bring pressure to get him out of prison. In September his case goes before the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who has the power to order his release. The deadline for getting in the petition and letters is on Sept. 21. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25990 Hezbollah Singes Samson's Locks K Gajendra Singh Writing in 'Foreign Policy In Focus' , Prof Stephen Zunes said " The Bush administration and an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Congress have gone on record defending Israel's assault on Lebanon's civilian infrastructure as a means of attacking Hezbollah "terrorists." Unlike the major Palestinian Islamist groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah forces haven't killed any Israeli civilians for more than a decade. Indeed, a 2002 Congressional Research Service r! eport noted, in its analysis of Hezbollah, that "no major terrorist attacks have been attributed to it since 1994." The most recent State Department report on international terrorism also fails to note any acts of terrorism by Hezbollah since that time except for unsubstantiated claims that a Hezbollah member was a participant in a June 1996 attack on the U.S. Air Force dormitory at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25987 Bush: 'We're not leaving so long as I'm president' RAW STORY US President George W. Bush has announced that the United States will not be leaving Iraq during his presidency, RAW STORY has learned. "Either you say, 'Yes it’s important we stay there and get it done,' or we leave," Bush argued. "We’re not leaving so long as I’m the president. That would be a huge mistake." At a news conference today, Bush also conceded that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25984 Ralph Peters: Ethnic Cleansing as Benefaction Kurt Nimmo According to Ralph Peters, writing for the Armed Forces Journal, there is a "dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works," never mind this technique, offered by Peters as a panacea for ethnic division in the Middle East, falls under the definitions for genocide or crimes against humanity. "While the Middle East has far more problems than dysfunctional borders alone—from cultural stagnation through scandalous inequality to deadly ! religious extremism—the greatest taboo in striving to understand the region’s comprehensive failure isn’t Islam but the awful-but-sacrosanct international boundaries worshipped by our own diplomats." In order to address this "scandalous inequality" and realize "a more peaceful Middle East," Peters proposes "borders re-imagined," that is to say the forced migration of millions of people... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25983 The war that keeps on killing Eli Stephens, Left I on the News Israel has broken the ceasefire once again, killing four Lebanese children and wounding 21 in the last few days. What, you haven't read about it? That's because these deaths were caused by weapons fired before the ceasefire went into effect: cluster bombs. According to the U.N., these weapons, not illegal per se but illegal when fired into urban areas as they were, were fired largely in the last few days of the war, as (and these are my words, not the! U.N.'s) Israel lashed out in vengeance to kill as many Lebanese as possible before it was forced to stop its deadly assault, at least temporarily... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25982 Fade to Black: Another Terror Plot Unravels Chris Floyd Pakistanis find no evidence against 'terror mastermind’ From the Daily Mail: Rashid Rauf, whose detention in Pakistan was the trigger for the arrest of 23 suspects in Britain, has been accused of taking orders from Al Qaeda’s 'No3’ in Afghanistan and sending money back to the UK to allow the alleged bombers to buy plane tickets. But after two weeks of interrogation, an inch-by-inch search of his house and analysis of his home computer, offic! ials are now saying that his extradition is 'a way down the track’ if it happens at all. It comes amid wider suspicions that the plot may not have been as serious, or as far advanced, as the authorities initially claimed. Analysts suspect Pakistani authorities exaggerated Rauf’s role to appear 'tough on terrorism’ and impress Britain and America. A spokesman for Pakistan’s Interior Ministry last night admitted that 'extradition at this time is not under consideration’. Wow, who would have thought it? You mean there might be less than meets the eye about the Great London Bomb Plot, when George W. Bush singlehandedly foiled the imminent death of thousands of people by using his super-president powers of warrantless wiretapping?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25979 www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.