Slaughter and Spin in the Battle for NajafI. Rashomon in Babylon
It has been cast as a ferocious battle against a mighty opponent: a fanatical "apocalyptic cult" storming the holy city of Najaf with hundreds of warriors led by a self-proclaimed Islamic Messiah, their frenzy quelled only at the last moment by a massive intervention of American firepower. But as with so much else in the blood-soaked annals of the Bush Administration's disastrous Babylonian Conques... (more)
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Emergencies: The Breeding Ground of TyrannyWhen the New York Times recently reported that the Bush administration was routinely tracking international and domestic financial transactions, the president said he was doing these things under emergency powers granted to him by Congress. While many commentators have openly questioned the legality of Bush’s actions, there are deeper questions to be asked than simply “Is this legal?”
Indeed, as feder... (more)
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It Can't Happen Here? It Has Happened HereOur fellow citizens have been led hoodwinked from their principles by a most extraordinary combination of circumstances. But the band is removed, and they now see for themselves." ~ Thomas Jefferson
Today’s citizens, lately aware of the crimes of those who rule them from the White House, have removed the band (the blindfold) from their eyes. The huge majority of average Americans are dead set against "the surge" in Iraq, seeing ... (more)
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Olbermann Links Hearst and the Maine, Iraq and MurdochOlbermann to tie Rupert Murdoch to William Randolph Hearst and the Spanish American War. With video.
Olbermann began a segment on his MSNBC show "Countdown" Wednesday (February 7, 2007) with the story of Hearst sending illustrator Frederic Remington to Cuba after the explosion of the USS Maine. When Remington could not find any fighting to illustrate, Hearst sent a telegram back telling him just to supply the pictures and Hearst would supply the war.
... (more)
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GOP revives ISP-tracking legislationAll Internet service providers would need to track their customers' online activities to aid police in future investigations under legislation introduced Tuesday as part of a Republican "law and order agenda."
Employees of any Internet provider who fail to store that information face fines and prison terms of up to one year, the bill says. The U.S. Justice Department could order the companies to store those records forever.
Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republ... (more)
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Senator to propose surveillance of illegal imagesA forthcoming bill in the U.S. Senate lays the groundwork for a national database of illegal images that Internet service providers would use to automatically flag and report suspicious content to police.
The proposal, which Sen. John McCain is planning to introduce on Wednesday, also would require ISPs and perhaps some Web sites to alert the government of any illegal images of real or "cartoon" minors. Failure to do would be punished by criminal penalties including fines of up to... (more)
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Prison sentences for picking wild flowers under EU green laws Dumping hazardous waste, polluting protected areas and collecting wild flowers would all be punishable by jail and hefty fines under new plans for EU-wide 'green crimes'.
The drive by Brussels to extend its lawmaking powers into criminal areas was revealed by the leak of a draft directive listing a string of offences.
Company directors could be disqualified and firms forced to clean up if negligence is proved.
The nine offe... (more)
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War Taxes and Death in Bushzarro WorldAs an example just how out of touch our corporate whores and flaming warmongers are, consider Joseph Lieberman.
“I think we have to start thinking about a war on terrorism tax,” Lieberman said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Bush’s defense budget. “I mean, people keep saying we’re not asking a sacrifice of anybody but our military in this war and some civilians who are working on it,” reports Reuters.
... (more)
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Israel’s double nuclear standard is no standard at allThis is old history, but given the standard of public ignorance (SPI) it’s worth repeating. Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu defied his own government while he worked as a nuclear technician at Dimona, Israel’s secret nuclear installation from 1976 to 1985.
As DemocracyNow tells us “he worked there at a time when Israel insisted it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapon... (more)
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Media Fearmongering Links Letter Bomber to Big Brother Critics, Tax ProtestersA third UK company that oversees Big Brother tracking and taxation policies has been targeted in a letter bombing campaign that has only succeeded in demonizing privacy and personal freedom advocates, while also wiping Tony Blair's cash for honors scandal off the front pages. British media outlets are busy trying to link the letter bomber to anti-surveillance and tax protest groups.
For years we have been predicting that attacks on Big Brother institutions ... (more)
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Ground Zero EMT: We Were Told Building 7 Was to Be "Pulled"A New Jersey EMT has gone public on how emergency workers were told that Building 7 was going to be "pulled," before a 20 second demolition countdown broadcast over radio preceded its collapse. The ground zero rescue worker also blows the whistle on how he witnessed multiple underground support columns of the WTC towers that had been severed before the buildings imploded.
In a letter to Loose Change producer Dylan Avery, the individual who wishes t... (more)
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Watada Court-Martial Ends in MistrialFort Lewis, Washington - The court-martial of First Lt. Ehren Watada, a commissioned US Army officer who refused deployment to Iraq on the basis that he believed the war was illegal, has ended in a mistrial, a military court judge ruled Wednesday.
In a stunning defeat for military prosecutors, Lt. Col. John Head, the military judge presiding over Watada's court-martial, said he had no choice but to declare a mistrial because military prosecutors and Watada's defense attorney c... (more)
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Criminal code raises fear over EU powersFor eurosceptics, the European Court of Justice ruling in September 2005 was like giving a child a loaded gun. It opened the way for the European Union to designate a new class of pan-European crimes, and how they should be punished.
In Britain there was an outcry. In future decisions taken in Brussels could be applied to the British courts, denying parliament the right to determine what constituted a crime and levels of sentencing.
Concerns g... (more)
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Communist Lawmaker Accuses Putin of Provoking Clash in Beslan SchoolA Russian opposition lawmaker on Monday accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering special forces to fire grenades at the Beslan school tragedy in 2004, the Associated Press reported.
On September 1, 2004 the school was seized by militants with over 1,000 students, parents and teachers hostage, the fire prompted the chaotic climax of the three-day ordeal that led to the deaths of 334 people, more than half of them children.
Prosecutors say t... (more)
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No 10 chief denies cover-up to fool police in cash for honours investigationWhitehall's most senior civil servant yesterday publicly denied that there had been any cover-up within Downing Street to thwart the police in the cash for honours investigation.
Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, also dismissed reports that Downing Street had operated a second secret email system for confidential messages about the award of peerages.
Challenged about the level of co-operation as he gave evidence to the Commons public administration committee... (more)
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Ex-terror plot suspect speaks out A man freed after he was arrested over an alleged plot to kidnap a UK Muslim soldier has criticised the police investigation.
Abu Bakr, who works in the Maktabah bookshop, targeted in anti-terror raids in Birmingham, also told BBC News the UK was "a police state for Muslims".
But Tory leader David Cameron said anti-terror laws applied to everyone.
Mr Bakr, one of nine men arrested in raids, was released without charge along with another man.
... (more)
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No 10 rejects police state claim Tony Blair has rejected claims that the UK is a "police state for Muslims" as "categorically wrong".
Abu Bakr, who was arrested, questioned and then released without charge over an alleged kidnap plot, made the remarks on BBC Two's Newsnight.
But the prime minister's official spokesman said anyone arrested in a police state would not have been freed and allowed to appear on television.
He said: "It is a gross caricature of t... (more)
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Story of Israeli spy in Toronto 'nonsense,' Israel saysIsraeli officials are denying a report of an Israeli spy operating in Toronto, calling the claim a "complete and utter fabrication."
Both the Israeli public security minister and Israeli's ambassador to Canada said Tuesday that the allegations against Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar are not true.
El-Attar, who is a dual citizen of Egypt and Canada, was arrested in January in Cairo and charged with spying. Egyptian authorities claim he moved to Canada in 2003 to spy o... (more)
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Litvinenko was a traitor, ex-FSB boss claimAlexander Litvinenko's former boss in the Russian security services has condemned the murdered former spy as a "traitor".
Alexander Gusak, once head of the FSB, the successor to the KGB, said that Mr Litvinenko would have been executed in the Soviet era for betraying undercover Russian agents to the British.
And he revealed that at least one of the betrayed agents came to him offering to kill Mr Litvinenko in revenge.
"One of them d... (more)
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Cost of troop buildup not in budgetWASHINGTON — The Bush administration's $142-billion war budget for next year leaves out money for the planned troop buildup in Iraq, a strong indication that the Pentagon views the increase as a short-term tactic to stem the escalating violence in Baghdad.
But Defense officials could not provide assurances Monday that the troop level would fall back again by next year, and acknowledged they may be forced to return to Congress for more money to pay for the extra forces if sec... (more)
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The Great Dollar Crash of '07“Whatever future developments may prove to be, my best guess is that the US will continue to maintain a façade of Constitutional government and drift along until financial bankruptcy overtakes it.” Chalmers Johnson, “Empire V. Democracy: Why Nemesis is at our Door” Every time a US Dollar is traded, a check is issued on an account that is overdrawn by $8.6 trillion. (That is the present size of the national debt) It is, without question, the ... (more)
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Hagel: White House Originally Wanted 2002 Iraq War Resolution to Cover Entire Middle EastThe Bush administration has taken a series of steps in recent weeks that appear to be setting the stage for a military confrontation with Iran. Congressional leaders have been raising red flags. “I’d like to be clear,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said last week. “The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional aut... (more)
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