The U.S. Department of Defense is investigating at least two video clips that appear to show American soldiers in an unfavorable light during contacts with Iraqi children, according to a report in the British newspaper, the Metro.
A clip found on YouTube titled "Iraqi Kid Runs For Water" appears to show U.S. soldiers amusing themselves by watching children chase their truck in the hope the soldiers will make good on their offer of a water bottle. ... (more)
Amnesty International, the human rights group, has accused Nigerian police and soldiers of raping women and committing acts of sexual violence with near impunity.
In a scathing report on Nigeria issued on Tuesday, it also criticised the Nigerian government for failing to bring the attackers to justice.
The report alleged that police were using rape "as a means of torture to extract confessions from suspects in custody".
A deepening crisis pervades Pax Americana and with it a rising interest in fascism and the fear that it may be coming or is already here. While some observers are alarmed at the prospects of fascism, others dismiss the topic as conspiracy theory or just plain rubbish. In the most absurd recent use of the term, George W. Bush has declared America at war “with Islamic fascists seeking to destroy freedom loving societies.” It is ha... (more)
Iraq is rending itself apart. The signs of collapse are everywhere. In Baghdad, the police often pick up more than 100 tortured and mutilated bodies in a single day. Government ministries make war on each other.
A new and ominous stage in the disintegration of the Iraqi state came earlier this month when police commandos from the Shia-controlled Interior Ministry kidnapped 150 people from the Sunni-run Higher Education Ministry in the heart of Baghdad.
... (more)
It turns out the onetime CIA operative and psychopath Gulbadin Hekmatyar was right.
In a message released in both Urdu and Pashto, Hekmatyar blamed the United States for bombing a Madrassa located in a remote area of Bajaur, Pakistan, killing 84 people, virtually all teen and pre-teen boys. On the day of the massacre, Major General Shaukat Sultan said “those killed in the dawn attack were ... (more)
“People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don’t forget; they also strike back.” Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate
The central tenet of American foreign policy hasn’t changed since the early 1980s when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger summarized our involvement in th... (more)
"And what an immense mass of evil must result, and indeed does result, from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen." - Leo Tolstoy
Now that Iran looms on our horizon, here's a story that every American should know. Journalist Sandra Mackey tells it in "The Iranians," as does Daniel Yergin in "The Prize," his monumental history of oil. But the best extended version of the story that I've read is in "All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer. Although other historians have told this story as well, I suspect that the average American has never heard of Mohammad Mossadegh and Operation Ajax. To make a long story short:
At Ground Zero additional remains of that awful day, September 11, 2001, have surfaced again as recently as October 20 and 22, 2006. And we need to question why these remains appeared: by pure accident: as reminder to be fearful, or to remind us to fully investigate the crime and criminals that caused them?
Reporting on October 20, The New York Daily News wrote, “Construction workers tearing up a temporary roadway at Ground Zero yesterday made a... (more)
The unwarranted removal of passengers from a domestic air flight has triggered an investigation, a discrimination complaint and a national protest.
Flying While Muslim
On Tuesday November 21, six Muslim clerics were removed from a US Airways flight on their return from a Minneapolis meeting of 150 Imams held by the North American Imams Federation. The six--five from the Phoenix area and one from Bak... (more)
In an interview with CNBC, a vice president for a prominent London investment firm yesterday urged a move away from the dollar to the "amero," a coming North American currency, he said, that "will have a big impact on everybody's life, in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico."
Steve Previs, a vice president at Jefferies International Ltd., explained the Amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S. and Mexic... (more)
In an amazing story, that was passed over as if completely by-the-by, it was revealed over the weekend that London police and councils are considering monitoring our conversations in the street using high-powered microphones attached to CCTV cameras.
The microphones, which are already in use in the Netherlands, can pick up "aggressive tones" on the basis of 12 fac... (more)
AWB figures implicated in the Iraq wheat scandal have threatened to call Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer as a witness if they face trial, with one vowing "my QC will rip him to shreds".
With the Cole report yesterday recommending 11 former AWB executives be investigated for possible criminal offences but clearing Howard Government ministers and officials, several wheat board figures embroiled in the scandal hit out at the Coalition.
UK COPPERS HAVE DECIDED to use an extensive, Minority Report-esque criminal database to target suspected offenders before they can make their move, reports The Times.
Profilers and psychologists are working on the list of the 100 most dangerous suspected murderers and rapists before crimes have even been committed. The police gave Soham murderer Ian Huntley as an example as to the kind of fella they'd really like to keep an eye on.
AUSTIN — A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as "currency" without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday. The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.
"What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call o... (more)
Movements in the currency market are best described as a random walk: unpredictable, like a drunk staggering home. But whereas most of the time the movements are gentle, swaying like someone who has shared a decent bottle of chianti with a friend, at present they are lurching like a 16-year-old swigging a bottle of tequila. The economies of Europe, Asia and the US would all be at risk from further dollar falls.
The greenback fell close to its all-time low ag... (more)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- After a precipitous slide in the last week that caught many traders off guard, the dollar is vulnerable to further losses and may continue to weaken against major rivals heading into 2007, analysts said Tuesday.
"Sentiment for the dollar has been deteriorating steadily over recent weeks," said Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at French investment bank Calyon. The decline was not prompted by a particular pi... (more)
This is an unbelievable segment which shows how screwed up the Washington Post is. Dana Priest says that The Washington Post doesn't label the incredible amount of violence in Iraq a "civil war" because government officials won't. Am I missing something here or are they getting an Armstrong Williams check or committing "negligent journalism?"
Detectives have found traces of polonium 210 at the London offices of the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, it was revealed last night. Officers were searching 7 Down Street, Mayfair, after the discovery of the radioactive substance that killed Mr Berezovsky's friend and former employee, Alexander Litvinenko.
A uniformed officer and at least one plain clothes policeman were stationed inside the lobby of the property last night. Outside another 15 off... (more)
MANCHESTER – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the... (more)
RIGA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that the resurging violence in Iraq is not civil war, claiming that Al-Qaida is to blame for the escalating bloodshed in this war-torn country, reports reaching here said.
;"What you're seeing on TV has started last February. It was an attempt by people to foment sectarian violence," he told a news conference with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Tallinn, Estonia.
EVERYDAY transactions such as buying a store gift card or playing pokies could lead to your details being recorded on a government database under a crackdown on money laundering and terrorism.
Top law firms, privacy groups and shopping giant Westfield fear low-risk and low-value items such as gift cards, phone cards and toll road passes could be subject to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives last night.... (more)
