Émission de radio L'Autre Monde

Émission de radio L'Autre Monde

mercredi 29 avril 2009

L'Autre Monde 30 avril 2009: 100e émission!!! Spécial de 2 heures

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L'Autre Monde 30 avril 2009: 100e émission!!! Spécial de 2 heures



Pour écouter, ou pour télécharger, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:

L'Autre Monde 30 avril 2009

60 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM


Diffusion en direct : Jeudi à 10:00h
Animation : François Marginean
Archives d'émission


Émission du 30 avril 2009:

- Tour du monde de l'actualité avec la chronique des nouvelles internationales ainsi que du 9/11;

- Dossier du Moyen-Orient: Israël, Irak, Gaza, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan et plus!

- Il sera aussi question d'informations importantes sur l'économie.

Soyez au rendez-vous les jeudis à 11h sur les ondes de CHOQ FM!


***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:








Tour du monde LNI:


Canada may offer $6B to auto giants: report


BoC says it will move in new, unconventional direction

Economy damaged - Bank of Canada sets stage for dramatic intervention

Module body

OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada set the stage for direct intervention in the financial markets through purchases of government and corporate bonds Thursday, announcing that Canada's capacity to produce has taken a big hit during a severe recession.

The central bank's long-awaited policy statement on so-called quantitative and credit easing contained no specific commitment to move into the uncharted waters, but says it may need to if conditions continue to deteriorate.

The recession is much more severe and will last longer than it previously thought, the bank's governing council said in its April monetary report.

Having cut the overnight rate from 4.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent in the past 16 months - and pledging it will keep it there for the next year - the bank says it has shot its last bullet in trying to infuse live into credit markets and spark growth.

The recession is deeper and will last longer than it thought only a few months ago, and massive efforts by world governments to jump-start their economies have produced modest results so far.

It has already suffered the worst setback in economic activity since the Second World War and potential for growth going forward is now more muted.


The Pulitzer-winning investigation that dare not be uttered on TV

The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Barstow uncovered. Here is how the Pulitzer Committee described Barstow's exposés:

Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.


Chicago Tribune cuts 11 percent of newsroom jobs


Port Authority of NY/NJ: Records For Reported WTC Renovation Work Destroyed On 9/11

Turner Construction, who supervised the 2000 demolition of the Seattle Kingdome, participated in the post-9/11 Ground Zero clean-up and performed extensive renovations within the World Trade Center towers just prior to 9/11, was in fact performing unspecified renovation work throughout the WTC complex until the very morning of September 11, 2001. The Port Authority of NY/NJ now claims that records describing such work or other projects were destroyed on September 11, 2001. A December 2000 WTC property assessment described required renovation work to be completed within one year, upon steel columns within elevator shafts of both WTC towers that was immediately pending or already underway.


Big Bro’s Cybersecurity Act: A means to shut down the Internet

The net-net of all this is to create a net to bag the Internet, right now the only alternative media this country has. I forget who said, “in the process of protecting liberty, do not further steps to destroy it.” You get the drift. You’re netting out, if this bill goes through, with all news being carried by the not so trustworthy so-called MSM corporate networks; radio and print controlled by profit-making newswires and television by the Towers of Babel, the likes of General Electric.


HR20-New Mother’s Mandated Mental Health Test-JUST PASSED HOUSE!

A sweeping government policy for all new births in the United States has just passed the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate. The Mother’s Act, if passed, will mandate that all new mothers be screened by means of a list of subjective questions that will determine if each mother is mentally fit to take their newborn home from the hospital. Just imagine that after your child is born, you are told that you can’t take them home since a multiple choice questionnaire wasn’t answered correctly. Just imagine being told that the only way you can take your child home is if you or your spouse goes into treatment or on anti-depressants which we know causes psychosis, delusions, and even homicidal thoughts. It just doesn’t make sense.


Bolivian president Morales links US embassy to alleged assassination attempt

President Evo Morales has said that an alleged assassination plot against him by Balkan mercenaries and an Irishman may have been backed by the US embassy in the Bolivian capital La Paz.

Police commandos shot dead three men last week in a hotel room in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, which was said to be the base for a conspiracy to wipe out government leaders and stage a coup.


NASA Spacecraft Detects Buried Glaciers on Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet.


Top Democrats Complicit In Torture Cover-Up

We now know why top Democrats are protecting Bush administration officials from facing an inquiry into the illegal torture program - because several of them were actually complicit in giving their approval for such methods to be used.

Webmaster's Commentary:

At what point do we admit that the government of the United States is no longer one that we can in good moral conscience support and obey?


Cops can now 'take all your stuff'

To the surprise of at least one legal expert, the Supreme Court of Canada last week unanimously gave the provinces incredible powers to seize assets allegedly connected to crime.

For a country that has gained the reputation, whether deserved or not, of protecting the rights of the accused over the rights of victims, it's quite an about-face.

J’aimerais attirer votre attention sur quelques décisions judiciaires très importantes rendues au cours des dernières semaines et qui démontrent dans quelle direction s’en vont le Québec et le Canada.

Voici comment la dictature s’installe mes amis, subtilement et graduellement…

1) Cour Suprême du Canada, avril 2009, jugement unanime :

La police peut fouiller dans vos poubelles, sur votre propriété, et se servir des éléments recueillis durant cette fouille pour obtenir un mandat de perquisition de votre domicile, le tout, sans que ceci ne constitue une atteinte à votre droit à la vie privée.

Selon la Cour Suprême du Canada, les poubelles à l’extérieur de la maison, auquel un passant (incluant les policiers) peut accéder fait partie du domaine public et le fiat de lasser les poubelles dehors constitue une renonciation au droit à la vie privée (garanti par la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/04/09/supreme-court-garbage-privacy.html

2) Cour Suprême du Canada, avril 2009, jugement unanime :

La Cour Suprême du Canada a reconnu la validité d’une loi provinciale qui permet aux agents chargés de l’application de la loi de saisir et faire vendre vos biens, si les agents croient que vos biens constituent un produit de la criminalité, et ce, sur la base d’une preuve prépondérante (plutôt que hors de tout doute raisonnable) et peu importe que vous soyez ou non trouvé coupable d’une infraction criminelle (aucun jugement sur le fond).

http://www.canada.com/news/court+upholds+provincial+right+seize+property/1506505/story.html

3) Cour Supérieure du Québec, 20 avril 2009

Dans son jugement, le juge Jean-François de Grandpré de la Cour Supérieure du Québec écrit :

”un journaliste qui transmet une information obtenue grâce à un bris de confidentialité commet une faute”.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/opinions/chroniqueurs/yves-boisvert/200904/19/01-848219-feu-le-journalisme-denquete.php

Je vous laisses le soin de lire l’article. Pour une fois que je suis d’accord avec Yves Boisvert.

l’armée US est maintenant autorisée à venir au Canada pour aider à ”rétablir l’ordre” si requis et le budget de la défense nationale canadienne est à un niveau jamais vu (voir la stratégie Le Canada d’abord - Canada First… 500 milliards $ budgeté au cours des 20 prochaines années pour les dépenses militaires, soit plus que tout le déficit accumulé du Canada sur une période de plus de 35 ans, jusqu’à octobre 2008).


Canada must bring Guantanamo inmate home: court

A Canadian federal court on Thursday ordered the government to demand that the United States send home as soon as possible a young Canadian held in the US military jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.



Moyen-Orient:


Israël:


Nobel Laureate Accuses Israel of 'Ethnic Cleansing'

Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire on Tuesday accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" policies in annexed east Jerusalem, where the municipality plans to tear down almost 90 Arab homes.

"I believe the Israeli government is carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians here in east Jerusalem," said Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel prize for her efforts at reaching a peaceful solution to the violence in Northern Ireland.

"I believe the Israeli government policies are against international law, against human rights, against the dignity of the Palestinian people," she said at a news conference.


FLASHBACK - Olmert Reminds The World–“We, The Jewish People, Control America”

Prime Minister Olmert, in behavior similar to that of some wise guy/mob boss who has just beat the rap as a result of yanking the chain of some judge or prosecutor on his payroll, stated in plain language at the convened press conference in Ashkelon that it was he, acting on behalf of Israel, who “made the call” to Bush and brought about the US abstention of vote at the UN. In his own words, upon learning of the “unacceptable” language contained in the resolution, (no doubt obtained by spies working within the State Dept who got their grubby little hands on a pilfered copy) he dropped a dime and put in a call to Bush only to learn that the President was busy giving a speech.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Relinked in light of Lieberman's similar comments today.


Lieberman: U.S. to accept any Israeli policy decision

The Obama Administration will put forth new peace initiatives only if Israel wants it to, said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in his first comprehensive interview on foreign policy since taking office.

"Believe me, America accepts all our decisions," Lieberman told the Russian daily Moskovskiy Komosolets.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it." -- Ariel Sharon, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.


Meet Israeli Influence Peddler Haim Saban

Saban decided to buy himself a foreign policy. He has personally paid more money to politicians than any other American—$13 million since 1999, according to Portfolio—all with the avowed intent of insuring that the U.S. will support Israel no matter what Israel does.


Ideal Israeli soldiers not only killers, but thieves

The old man sat in the light of a kerosene lamp and looked bleakly ahead. His wife sat in the opposite corner, crying loudly “They soiled our sheets, haram, haram, they broke our bed, fired guns in our bed and,” the old man said, “they took all our money. The day after they left, we found a 100 shekel note in the garden, that’s all”

(Further evidence the Israelis seem intent on making living conditions so horrible for the Palestinians that the ones they do not kill outright will eventually be forced to flee their homes and farms, leaving them for the thieving Israeli settlers to take over unopposed. /SR)


Israeli study finds spike in anti-Semitic incidents during Gaza fight

An Israeli university study finds that anti-Semitic incidents in the world spiked in January, while Israel was attacking the Gaza Strip.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"It just HAD to be anti-Semitism, because nobody could ever find real reasons to complain about what Israel was doing in Gaza! And you're an anti-Semite if you don't agree!!!!"


US rejects an Israeli demand

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Thursday that his government would condition talks over Palestinian statehood on the Palestinians first recognising Israel as a Jewish state.

"Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognise Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for two peoples," a senior official in Mr Netanyahu's office quoted the new prime minister as saying. Statements from the US State Department indicated that the Obama administration regards such an Israeli condition as unacceptable, saying that the United States would continue to promote a two-state solution.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is a classic Israeli tactic, to demand that the other side give Israel what it wants before Israel decides whether or not to give the other side what it wants.

Israel demands Palestine recognize Israel's right to exist, yet refuses Palestine the very same thing, and it is this hypocrisy, this blatant double standard which lies at the heart of 60 years of unending hostility and war in the region.

Peace will come when Israel grants to others only that which it demands for itself; a right to exist.


Norwegian lawyers to accuse Israeli leaders of war crimes

Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials could face legal action in Norway over the Gaza offensive after six Norwegian lawyers said Tuesday they would accuse them of war crimes.


Israel is Changing the Rules of War

The extent of Israel’s brutality against Palestinian civilians in its 22-day pounding of the Gaza Strip is gradually surfacing. Israeli soldiers are testifying to lax rules of engagement tantamount to a license to kill. One soldier commented: "That’s what is so nice, supposedly, about Gaza: You see a person on a road, walking along a path. He doesn’t have to be with a weapon, you don’t have to identify him with anything and you can just shoot him."

What is less appreciated is how Israel is also brutalizing international law, in ways that may long outlast the demolition of Gaza.


Commander confirms Netanyahu war plans

Israel is preparing for all-out war on multiple fronts that include Iran, Syria and Lebanon, a senior military commander claims.

Israeli army Home Front Command Major General Yair Golan said Sunday that Tel Aviv is preparing for "all possible scenarios", indicating that one such scenario would be to fight a simultaneous war against Iran, Syria and Lebanon.


CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years

A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Israel was supposed to be an independent nation for the safety of the Jewish people. Yet everything Israel's government has done makes the world MORE dangerous for the Jewish people, and having cost the American taxpayer four times the entire cost of the Apollo Moon Program, Israel hardly qualifies as "Independent."

Without the billions of US dollars to prop it up, and the US nuclear arsenal to hide behind, Israel cannot survive. When the US Government falls, so too will Israel


Israeli settlers attack homes and stores in East Jerusalem

Palestinian sources reported on Wednesday that a group of extremist Jewish settlers attacked dozens of Palestinian homes and stores in East Jerusalem.

The settlers were marching in the city and chanting slogans against Arabs and Palestinians, calling for their expulsion from the Holy City.

The Israeli police did not attempt to intervene, and allowed the settlers to continue their march, which encouraged them to attack Palestinian property, local sources reported.


West Bank a Time Bomb Waiting to Explode

Suicide attacks or bombings against Israeli civilian targets within Israel's borders have over the last few years largely become a thing of the past.

However, settler attacks on Palestinians, leading to serious injuries and numerous deaths as well property destruction, have risen. Over the years these attacks have been meticulously recorded by Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem.

B'Tselem released a report last month expressing concern at a wave of attacks by Israeli security forces on Palestinian civilians this year.


Israeli high court rules in favor of further home demolitions in Jerusalemsa

Just a few days after ruling to force Palestinian homeowner Darwish Hijazi off his land to allow Israeli expansion in his home and property, the Israeli high court has issued a ruling on the cases of two more families who challenged the Israeli demolition orders placed on their homes.

The demolition orders are part of a larger Israeli settlement plan, which the Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem and the city planners have called the 'E1 Plan’, to tear down thousands of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to make way for Disney-like theme parks based on biblical themes.


Israel to raze 1,700 Palestinian homes


American citizen critically injured after being shot in the head by Israeli forces in Nilin

Webmaster's Commentary:

Had Tristan Anderson been shot in the head by a Palestinian, it would be world headlines. But because the trigger is pulled by an Israeli, the corporate media had all but ignored this incident. Indeed as I type these words, MSNBC has just finished reporting on a fist fight that broke out among the women auditioning for "America's Next Top Model."

And they wonder why their audience is coming over to the blogs....


US court: Ex-Israeli cabinet member cannot be sued

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Israel is above the law!" -- Official White Horse Souse


Israel bans medical equipments and supplies imported by the PA to enter Jerusalem

According to Abed Al-Qader there will be Six Palestinian hospitals in Jerusalem that will be effected because of the new ban; Maqased, the Islamic Hospital, Saint Joseph Hospital, Saint John Hospital, the Red Crescent Hospital and Amira Basma Clinic.


Israel turns back 250 tons of truckloads of food

Israeli troops manning the land Al-Ojah checkpoint in Central Sinai sent back 13 truckloads of 250 tons of flour dispatched by the Egyptian Red Crescent to Gaza Strip on Thursday.

The official Egyptian news agency, the Middle East News Agency, quoted a source in the association as saying that the Israeli authorities have hampered dispatch of aid to the Palestinians in Gaza Strip through this checkpoint.


423 Palestinian Children Still Held by Israel

I thought it important for people to remember the children that are still alive yet being held in Israeli prisons, many un-charged. We Irish call this internment and understand it quite well having gone through the same.


Israel defies US and destroys Palestinian home

Brushing aside international criticism, Israel demolished a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem in the latest in a series of actions that critics say is racheting up tensions in the city, harming chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Wake up and smell the frying schoolkids! Israel does not WANT a two-state solution; they want it ALL!


U.S. activist Tristan Anderson 'hanging by a thread' after being injured in protest on Israel border

An American activist critically wounded by an Israeli gas canister in the West Bank is "hanging from a thread" after brain surgery Saturday, friends said.

Tristan Anderson, 38, a "tree-sitter" from Oakland, Calif., was hit in the forehead when troops shot tear gas during a protest of the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank village of Naalin.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Finally starting to get a little coverage in the US corporate media.


Tristan Anderson Deserves Medal of Freedom

Tristan–38 years old and of Oakland, California–was shot by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on March 13th while peacefully protesting against the “separation wall” deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in the Palestinian West Bank village of Bi’ilin. Israel was ordered to halt building the wall and compensate Palestinians for land illegally annexed. The wall–longer and taller than the infamous Berlin wall–zigzagged into Palestinian lands, thus preventing farmers and villagers from reaching their farms, hospitals, and schools.

Webmaster's Commentary:

According to Sasha Solanas from ISM, Tristan has had to have part of his frontal brain lobes removed to prevent swelling from killing him.


Parents of critically injured US peace activist demand justice from Israel

Tristan Anderson, 38, was hit in the forehead by a high-velocity teargas canister fired by an Israeli border policeman in the village of Nilin earlier this month. The incident came after a demonstration against Israel's West Bank barrier, which as elsewhere has cut off a large slice of the village's agricultural land.

Since last July, four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in similar demonstrations in the village.


Fighting for life: American peace activist shot by Israelis

The parents of an American peace activist publicly appealed yesterday for a full investigation into how their son was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister by Israeli security forces.


Israeli troops shut down press conference with injured American's parents; beat activists

A woman and journalist were among those beaten by Israeli troops during a press conference held by the parents of critically wounded American peace activist Tristan Anderson Monday afternoon.

Anderson had an Israeli tear-gas canister shot at his head in Ni’lin on 13 March, his skull shattered and several surgeries have left him semi-conscious in a Tel Aviv hospital. His parents arrived shortly after Tristan was hospitalized.


VIDEO MESSAGE FROM THE PARENTS OF RACHEL CORRIE


Israel planned to kill Erdogan: Report

PressTV

Turkish media sources detail information implicating the Israeli Mossad in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

An e-mail found on a personal computer belonging to one of the members of the underground Ergenekon organization exposed Mossad's role in the failed assassination efforts against Erdogan, Turkish media outlets reported on Friday.


Rabbis Spell It Out To IDF: 'KILL THE GOYIM'

Rabbis in the Israeli army told battlefield troops in January's Gaza offensive that they were fighting a 'religious war' against gentiles, it has been revealed.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Those who can be convinced to believe absurdities can be convinced to commit atrocities!


ISRAELI ARMY IS “MORAL AND IDEOLOGICAL”

NO WAY…..NO HOW!’
BUT, that seems to be the opinion of Israel’s top military officer, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. In a speech he was quoted as saying; “I tell you that this is a moral and ideological army”.

Moral and ideological army??????? Killing innocent children, women and hundreds of civilians is moral? Strange code of ethics these zionists seem to have….

Webmaster's Commentary:

And I can prove it!!!!!!


Gaza Fact-Finding Mission Report Published

"Outside the house there was an Israeli tank. It had come from the west towards the house that was facing north. It was 11.30 – 12.00. The tank was in the garden about ten meters from her, when she stopped to receive permission to leave unharmed. On her right side were the three girls; behind her was the daughter in law close to the door of the house. The soldier on the tank never replied. They were looking into each others´ eyes for 7-10 minutes, when suddenly a soldier opened fire and shot the granddaughter of the witness, Souad, in the neck and chest. She died immediately. They also shot Amal. She was hit in the chest and abdomen, and the interviewee saw her intestines come out. Amal died a little later. The daughter in law ran immediately into the house and was not hurt.


Riots break out in Arab Israeli town during ultra-nationalist Jewish march

Rising ethnic tensions were underscored in Israel today as violent clashes took place in one of Israel's biggest Arab towns between Jewish ultra-nationalists and local youths.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Ultra-nationalists?"

That rings a bell.

Where have I heard that before?

Where have I heard that before?


Israel could use ballistic missiles against Iran: report

Israel neither confirms nor denies having Jerichos, as part of an "ambiguity" policy veiling its own assumed atomic arsenal.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Note the double standard in which it is perfectly fine for Israel to conceal what weapons they have, but Iran is totally open and allows inspections and they are the bad guys!!!!!!


US Army Confirms Israeli Has Nukes

Webmaster's Commentary:

That means that all aid to Israel must stop, as it is a violation of the 1976 Symington Amendment to the Foreign Appropriations Bill of 1961.

NOT ONE DIME MORE TO ISRAEL UNTIL IT SIGNS THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY AND ALLOWS IAEA INSPECTIONS!


US Army Confirms Israeli Nukes

Officially, the United States has a policy of "ambiguity" regarding Israel's nuclear capability. Essentially, it has played a game by which it neither acknowledges nor denies that Israel is a nuclear power.

But a Defense Department study completed last year offers what may be the first time in a unclassified report that Israel is a nuclear power. On page 37 of the U.S. Joint Forces Command report, the Army includes Israel within "a growing arc of nuclear powers running from Israel in the west through an emerging Iran to Pakistan, India, and on to China, North Korea, and Russia in the east."

Webmaster's Commentary:

A reminder that under the Symington amendment t the 1961 Foreign Appropriations Bill, it is illegal for the US Government to send foreign aid to any nation developing nuclear weapons that is not a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.


Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Development Facilities

A military strike by Israel against Iranian Nuclear Facilities is possible and the optimum route would be along the Syrian-Turkish border then over a small portion of Iraq then into Iran, and back the same route. However, the number of aircraft required, refueling along the way and getting to the targets without being detected or intercepted would be complex and high risk and would lack any assurances that the overall mission will have a high success rate.


Obama to Force Israel to Allow Inspections of Dimona Nuclear Facility

That is, as soon as he gives up on life altogether and begins considering his options, which might include a dignified euthanasia, a hunting trip with Dick Cheney, announcing the abolition of the Federal Reserve, or as Haaretz has suggested, pressuring Israel to open the doors of Dimona to weapons inspectors.


U.S. official: Obama won't cut military aid to Israel

U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.

The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Webmaster's Commentary:

In other words, Obama will gladly starve Americans so that Israel is not harmed by the world financial crisis.

I want someone to explain to me what this "special relationship" with Israel really is that our government will gladly increase the suffering of the American people so that Israel is protected from the economic crisis that is causing the rest of the world to lower their expectations.

Does Israel have a nuclear weapon hidden in DC? Because short of that, I just don't get why our entire government grovels before Tel Aviv.

I just do not get it.

Continuity and Change

As a reward for killing 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza blitzkrieg, ignoring U.S. demands to stop the building of "settlements" on the West Bank, and vigorous efforts to breach our security and steal highly classified information via its Washington fifth column, Tel Aviv has been reassured by President Barack Obama that $30 billion in aid will not be cut. World financial crisis? Impending US bankruptcy? Obama's newfound sense of fiscal responsibility? Put it out of your mind. All it takes is one phone call from Chuck Schumer, a tête-à-tête with Nancy Pelosi, and an editorial or two in the Washington Post, and – poof! – "change" turns into continuity. Obama will keep Bush's promise, and you can take that to the bank.


HOMELESS CHILDREN IN AMERICA

Webmaster's Commentary:

A nation whose children sleep in alleys and eat out of trash dumpsters is a nation which should NOT be sending a single dime of tax money to a foreign government ... Mr. President.

America needs leaders who put America first, second, and third.


'1000% rise in Jew attacks on Palestinians'

A research by an Arab human rights group shows a ten-fold increase in Jewish attacks on the Arab population in Israel over the last year.

Webmaster's Commentary:

... not including the attack on Gaza.


Settlers uproot trees from Palestinian lands in Hebron

The sources added, "The settlers are still assaulting the residents of Khirbet Safa, where they uprooted hundreds of grapes and almonds from lands owned by the Thalgi and Quqas families."


The Rise of the Machine

An article in yesterday’s Financial Times reported some interesting (if characteristically deluded) perspectives from the Israeli right in its closing paragraphs. International condemnation of Israel’s latest atrocities has apparently been blamed on the ‘Palestinian PR Machine’. At first I thought this ’machine’ was as subtle and obscure as other figments of the neocon/Likudnik imagination. However, readers should be aware that according to a security source of mine it is indeed as powerful and frightful as these bizarre statements suggest and furthermore it can be launched within 45 minutes. Its existence is also confirmed by Emanuele Ottolenghi of St Antony’s College, Oxford (oh yes and the American Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Institute).

So it’s no laughing matter. In fact it’s so powerful that it requires an even greater propaganda assault than Israel has already launched (in retaliation naturally). According to the Financial Times:

To counter these forces and repair Israel’s standing, one rightwing commentator this week went so far as to call for an Israeli ministry for PR. Adi Mintz said the ministry should be fitted out with “many dozens of video teams, editors and producers that would generate materials and immediately distribute them to all media outlets”. Israel’s message, he added, should be heard not just in America, but also “on television screens in Romania and China”.


IDF soldiers ordered to shoot at Gaza rescuers, note says

"Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue," was handwritten in Hebrew on a sheet of paper found in one of the Palestinian homes the Israel Defense Forces took over during Operation Cast Lead. A reservist officer who did not take part in the Gaza offensive believes that the note is part of orders a low-level commander wrote before giving his soldiers their daily briefing.


"Israel must see that there are consequences to its actions"

Israel prides itself on being part of "the family of nations" (the phrase is used in its Declaration of Independence), so the sense that it's excluded from that "family" (a dubious image, I believe!) would have immense symbolic power. Israel thrives on the sense that its crimes have no consequences for it: BDS attempts to show that, yes, they DO have consequences, even if only on a symbolic level.


SCREAMS OF ANTI SEMITISM THROUGHOUT THE BLOGESPHERE

Pat Oliphant, syndicated editorial cartoonist, created a cartoon the other day that has Zionists everywhere screaming their usual accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’. Bravo, Pat, for being one of the few main stream media cartoonists to make a critical statement about the Israeli government’s over kill in Gaza. Anyone who dares criticize Israel is automatically labeled an anti-Semite so the charge has little meaning any longer.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Defending Israel from criticism by screaming "You only hate the Jews" is like defending Nazis from criticism by screaming "You only hate Germans!"


DEVOURING JERUSALEM

Khalid Amayreh plots the ever more aggressive tactics Israel is adopting in its efforts to Judaise occupied East Jerusalem.


NETANYAHU’S FIG LEAF

Israel has demolished as many as 20,000 Arab homes under a variety of pretexts since it occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967. The Israeli government is also planning to destroy hundreds of homes in occupied East Jerusalem in what one Palestinian leader has described as “a decapitation of Arab demographic presence” in the city. The Palestinian Authority still hopes to make Jerusalem the capital of a prospective Palestinian state.


Please tell me, where is Israel headed?

Benjamin Netanyahu is in the final stages of putting together Israel’s next government, which will be opposed to a two-state solution. Most importantly, the new prime minister and his Likud Party are firmly against a Palestinian state. The Labor Party, which will be part of the governing coalition and which has been identified with the two-state solution for the past two decades, did not insist that Likud support that policy as a condition for joining the government. Its leader, Ehud Barak, merely asked for and got a vague statement saying that Israel was committed to promoting regional peace. Avigdor Lieberman, who heads Yisrael Beiteinu, the other major party in the ruling coalition, is not likely to push to give the Palestinians a viable state of their own.


Israel still not providing maps of cluster bombing

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said that Israel has to provide detailed maps indicating the location of cluster bombs in south Lebanon. He pointed that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have requested from Israel to provide such detailed maps more than once.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Look, just walk around; you'll find them!" -- Tel Aviv


Israel will not cooperate with UN Gaza inquiry

Israel does not plan to cooperate with a U.N. agency's investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli troops and Hamas militants during fighting in Gaza, an Israeli government official said on Wednesday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Didn't we bomb the crap out of Iraq for defying the United Nations?????


Israeli police violently prevent cultural festival in occupied East Jerusalem, several arrested

Israeli police violently disbanded an event held in conjunction with the Jerusalem Capital of Arab Culture festival in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied East Jerusalem.


Economic Boycott of Israel Works: 21% of Israeli Exporters Affected

21% of Israeli exporters have been directly affected by the boycott movement since the beginning of 2009. So reports today (29 March) The Marker, a Hebrew-language economic newspaper.


Israel’s Water Wars

The stated rationale for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon was nonsense. Ostensibly, Israel invaded Lebanon because Hizb’allah captured two IDF soldiers that violated the Lebanese border.1 Later reports in Western media were changed so that Hizb’allah was entering Israel in an unprovoked attack; this is the generally understood scenario in the West, though it conflicts with the original reports and Lebanese police.


Israeli Occupation Places Baby under House Arrest

In an arbitrary act that is probably the first of its kind in human history, the Israeli occupation forces placed one-year-old baby Fahd Shuqeir under house arrest for two years simply for being born in Damascus.

The baby was born to parents from Majdal Shams who were studying in Damascus University, and upon their return to their hometown with their firstborn son, they were informed by the occupation forces of the decision to place the baby under house arrest.

"The Israeli occupation forces' excuse is that the baby is a terrorist because he was born in Damascus"

Webmaster's Commentary:

I would like to hope that the knuckleheads who came up with this decision realize that they have just become the absolute laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the world, and have truly demonstrated - in the immortal words of the American comedian Ron White - you can't fix stupid!


Obvious hate crime hoaxes appearing all across America

Webmaster's Commentary:

And we know it is a hoax for this simple reason. It is Israel and her supporters that try to blur the line between Israel's crimes and all of the world's Jewish people. It is Israel and her supporters that try to defect just criticism of Israel by creating an illusion of victimhood against all Jews everywhere.

In the vast majority of cases where the actual perpetrators have been caught for these so-called anti-Semitic attacks, the perpetrators turn out to be pro-Israel Jews. There is no reason to assume that the proportions are not the same for the cases where the perpetrators are never identified.

Some examples include the "anti-Semitic" attack on the synagogue in Venezuela during Operation Cast Lead that resulted in the arrest of security people who worked for the synagogue.

Then there was the professor at Claremont College who painted her own care with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Passau police chief Alois Mannichl’s claim that he was stabbed by a neo-Nazi turned out to be a hoax; the wound the result of a domestic dispute.

Reform Rabbi Gabriel Farhi faked a stabbing attack on himself.

Olga Abramovich, 49, sprayed anti-Semitic grafitti on 20 different sites in Brooklyn. Olga is Jewish.

Morton Downey Jr. claimed to have been attacked in a San Francisco airport restroom by "Skinheads". Police dismissed the report as a cheap publicity stunt.

A 23 year old woman in France who claimed thugs ripped her clothing and painted swastikas on her belly later admitted she made the whole thing up.

A Jewish student at George Washington University complained that "someone" was painting swastikas on her door. A police surveillance camera caught the girl painting the swastikas herself.

And so forth.

Right now Israel is trying to erase the memories of CAST LEAD from the popular consciousness and to recover their former status as the world's permanent victim to be pitied, supported, and never EVER criticized.

So, it was predictable that we would see a sudden flurry of these hoaxes appear.



Gaza:


After 3 months of anguish - 21yr old succumbs to wounds from Israeli Phosphorus Attack

On 29 March, Ghada Abu Halima died in an Egyptian hospital from injuries she suffered when struck by white phosphorous on January 4. Phosporus cannot be put out. It must be dug out. It can burn for weeks in the human body. It penetrates deeply and can cause heart and liver damage.

On 29 March, ten weeks after giving her testimony to B'Tselem, Ghada Abu Halima died in an Egyptian hospital from injuries she suffered when struck by the white phosphorous.


Revealed: British arms used in Gaza conflict

British arms were used by Israel during recent operations in Gaza, the foreign secretary has admitted.

The revelation is acutely embarrassing for David Miliband, who assured the Commons this was not the case during the fighting at the turn of the year.


PATIENTS CONTINUE TO DIE BECAUSE OF ISRAELI SIEGE ON GAZA

Siege on the Gaza Strip is still chasing Palestinians to death. A Palestinian man in his mid fifties died an hour ago due to inability of getting the needed medication and treatment.

Nai’m El Ejla, 58, turned severely sick directly after the war on Gaza. Doctors in Gaza failed to diagnose his case which was vague until the death.

He was stuck on the border with Egypt many times. He tried to travel to Israel for treatment but failed to.


Signs of worsening malnutrition among Gazan children

Rising poverty, unemployment and food insecurity in Gaza, compounded by the recent 23-day Israeli offensive, have increased the threat of child malnutrition, say UN agencies, health ministry officials and healthcare NGOs in Gaza.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Israel starves children.

And collective punishment is a war crime.



Iran:


Obama resumes Iran threat rhetoric

President Barack Obama vows not to shelve the controversial US missile plans until an "Iranian missile threat" is eliminated.

Webmaster's Commentary:

What threat, Mr. Obama?

Iran has not attacked or invaded another country in 200 years.

The United States can hardly make that same claim. WE are constantly attacking and invading other countries, usually on the basis of lies and fabrications, as we saw in Iraq. and for all the effort to transform Iran's nuclear power station into a cause for alarm, one and only one nation has actually used nuclear weapons of mass destruction against the civilians or another country and that nation is the United States.

Nor can Israel claim to be innocent. Israel has attacked its neighbors repeatedly, most recently on the day you were elected when Israel broke the cease fire with Gaza and initiated operation Cast Lead.

We the people of the world know what you are doing, Mr. Obama. The United States has committed war crimes. It has lied to start wars. You flopped at the G20 and the dollar is in decline. NATO told you to clean up the mess in Afghanistan yourself. The United States is an empire in decline. and you hope (in vain) that if you can maintain the illusion of enemies all around that the American people will continue to support you out of blind fear.

Fat chance.

Our eyes are opened.


Iran’s Push Into Nicaragua: Why Is No One Concerned?

The press, quite rightly, has swarmed like migrating wildebeest all over the the Islamic Republic of Iran’s burgeoning economic and diplomatic ties to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and, to a certain degree, Iran’s spread to other anti-U.S. countries in South America, such as Bolivia. But with the exception of my own coverage, there’s been hardly a peep about the fact that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad planted the Iranian flag so far north in Nicaragua as soon as the time-tested American nemesis Daniel Ortega took office in January 2007. In fact, Ahmadinejad considered Ortega’s ascension so important that he was in Nicaragua to attend the inauguration.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Yes! Of course! Why didn't we all see this before! Those other countries in the western hemisphere don;t hate us because of the endless stream of puppet rulers we installed to exploit their people, such as Pinochet and Batista, and they don;t hate us because we are constantly overthrowing their elected leaders like Allende and Chavez, oh no, no, no, no, nononononononono, it's all IRAN'S fault! IRAN is poisoning those people's minds against the wonderful and lovable United States of America!!!!

Yep, gotta bitch slap IRAN for this, for SURE!!!!!


Petraeus Says Israel Might Choose to Attack Iran

Israel might choose to attack Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said today.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Notice how we seem to be getting prepared for a reality that an Israeli strike against Iran is pretty darned inevitable, no matter the usage of language here stating "...Israel might choose to attack Iran...."

Apparently, Petraeus has become yet another of Israel's acquisitions, to be telling these boldfaced lies to congress. I wonder how much that cost - or how he got compromised. Even he understands (or should, if he has any modicum of intelligence, or some science advisers who can break it down for him) that the level to which Iran is enriching its uranium is completely consistent with enrichment for a power plant, not a weapons factory.


Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will

" In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.” '

Webmaster's Commentary:

No, Prime Minister, this is not what is happening with Iran; It is, however, what is happening with Israel.


Early signs: Netanyahu seeking to shake things up

As the new Netanyahu government gets rolling, the early signs are that there will be significant changes in foreign policy. The Likud leader has strongly signaled that he intends to be more proactive in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat and has withdrawn his predecessor's commitments to a two-state solution with the Palestinians and a pullback from the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria.

He sees a nuclear bomb in the hands of radical Islamists dedicated to Israel's destruction as an existential threat and speaks in terms of preventing a second Holocaust.

Obviously, Netanyahu would prefer the Americans to do the job themselves.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to Bibi Netanyahu: if you believe that Iran is such a threat, go ahead, have the IDF take it out themselves.

The US has enough on its plate without creating a situation where our soldiers in Iraq and other places would be absolute sitting ducks when Iran counter-attacks, thank you very much.

And by the way, Bibi, what is Russia, Iran's 7th largest trading partner, going to do if you attack Iran?

Chew on that one for a while before you do anything profoundly stupid, would you?!?



Irak:


Clinton Pledges to Keep Troops in Iraq if Violence Escalates

“These are tragic and terrible events,” Clinton conceded, “but they do not reflect any diversion from the security progress that has been made.” At the same time, the primary reason for the visit was to reassure Iraq’s leaders that if the violence continues to worsen, the Obama Administration will back off its already neutered pullout plan.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Translation: we're not leaving, possibly ever.


Iraq War Began Six Years Ago Today

Webmaster's Commentary:

See THE ILLUSTRATED WAR PRAYER


Bush officials reportedly pushed interrogators to link Saddam, al-Qaida

The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al-Qaida and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Such information would have provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.

Webmaster's Commentary:

So, like with the WMDs, people were tortured for information that simply did not exist.


US Air Strikes in Iraq Kill Mostly Women, Children

In a report to be published in tomorrow’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers have concluded that air strikes by US-led coalition forces have killed mostly women and children. 39 percent were children, while 46 percent were women.

Interestingly enough, though the high-tech weaponry used by the invading forces killed a disproportionately large number of (presumably mostly non-combatant) women and children, it showed that among victims of suicide bombings only 12 percent were children.


Who is killed by U.S. airstrikes in Iraq

NEW YORK - A new study says the vast majority of identifiable Iraqi victims of US-led air strikes have been women and children, a report published on Thursday said.

According to the group Iraq Body Count, Iraqi women and children amounted to 85 percent of victims of known gender or age.

The study covered a sample of more than 60,000 deaths over a five-year period since the 2003 invasion.

Analysis carried out for the IBC found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women.


Sixth anniversary of Baghdad’s fall marked by huge anti-American protests.

Webmaster's Commentary:

You were expecting flowers?


Bromwich: Who talks about the 4,700,000 Iraqi refugees?

David Bromwich has a fabulous post on ways that aristocracy perpetuates itself--Larry Summers's payday. And he offers this comment on James North's piece on Mahmood Mamdani's Darfur book, posted here yesterday:

The report confirms a suspicion about the way the legitimate cause of Darfur has sometimes served to distract attention from the catastrophe of Iraq. The distinction between the unpleasantness of responsibility and the pleasantness of philanthropy is exact and pertinent. There are 4,700,000 Iraqi refugees, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. What is the U.S. policy of assistance to Iraqi refugees whose lives were torn apart by the American bombing and occupation? Do we even have such a policy?


Baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion

Baghdad's water network was due to be upgraded in 1984, but Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran instead. Then he invaded Kuwait . The U.S. bombing campaign that forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait damaged the water system and cut the resources needed to fix it.

A decade of international economic sanctions impoverished Iraq , and the water got worse. The U.S.-led invasion six years ago led to wide looting of offices and the abandonment of purification systems.

*OL: Wehehhell , that just makes me prouder 'n shit . Think I'll dig out the old plastic flag , and hitch it up to the car antenna , and go for a ride around town , and celebrate the big sixth anneversary


Iraqi protesters call for US exit

Thousands of people loyal to an Iraqi Shia leader have gathered in Baghdad to protest against the US' continued presence in the country, six years to the day after the capital fell to American troops.


Obama's obscene remarks in Iraq

It is hard to know where to begin on Obama's remarks in Iraq yesterday during a visit described unnecessarily by our press as a "surprise" since that is the only sort of visit a US President can make to Iraq. What is more appalling? The casual obscenity of a US President calling upon a nation that the US has been beating, brutalizing, and raping (that is when not using like a pawn in geo political games) for decades to "take responsibility for itself" or the fact that he has absolutely no idea of how much like a criminal sociopath he sounds when making such remarks?


Back to the old-new “three-regions” argument

The U.S. still considers the possibility of dividing Iraq into three regions, the Kurds in northern Iraq, the Sunnis in the center and the Shiite in the South.

Which means that the U.S. authorities unaware of the consequences, because such a division could cause political problems with neighboring countries.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"But it will make Israel happy, and that is all that matters!" -- Official White Horse Souse


Gen. Odierno: US May Ignore Iraq Deadline Because of al-Qaeda

In yet another sign that the Obama Administration’s “pullout” timeline for Iraq is not set in stone, General Ray Odierno told The Times today that US combat troops may remain in Iraq’s cities beyond the June 30 deadline mandated by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). He pointed to increased trouble from al-Qaeda as the justification

Webmaster's Commentary:

Whoever actually believed that the phased US withdrawal in June 09 was actually going to happen, tangibly, was dreaming.

Thinking people understand that the US military needed an excuse (any excuse, obviously) to delay their departure, perhaps indefinitely.

Because in looking at how much the US has invested in military infrastructure in Iraq, we don't see much evidence that the largest US-built and controlled bases are going away quickly, or will actually be given over to Iraqi control.

As reported in

http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm

"Balad Air Base is among the world's busiest airports - in 2006 it was reported as second only to London's Heathrow Airport2. Bases like Balad are large enough to house internal bus lines, motorcycle and car dealerships, shopping malls, and even traffic- jammed roads3. The U.S. embassy in Iraq - the largest embassy in the world - approximates the size of the Vatican and runs its own electrical, power, and sewage plants. As former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Edward Peck said, "The embassy is going to have a thousand people hunkered behind sandbags. I don't know how you conduct diplomacy in that way."


Ethnic Kurds file class action in Baltimore against chemical makers

Five survivors of the 1988 poison gas attacks of ethnic Kurds in Iraq have filed a class action lawsuit in Maryland claiming three American companies and the government of Iraq violated the Geneva Convention by using mustard and nerve gasses to kill tens of thousands of people.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the lawsuit says the companies supplied the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the chemical precursors and compounds needed to make the poison gases used in the six-month long “Operation Anfal.”


Blast at Shiite Shrine Sets Off Sectarian Fury in Iraq

A powerful bomb shattered the golden dome at one of Iraq's most revered Shiite shrines on Wednesday morning, setting off a day of sectarian fury in which mobs formed across Iraq to chant for revenge and attacked dozens of Sunni mosques.

Webmaster's Commentary:

So, who WANTS Iraq broken up into smaller pieces?

THAT is the bomber!


Iraq shoe thrower's jail term cut



Pakistan:


Hillary Clinton warns of 'existential threat' in Pakistan

- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned in unusually bleak terms Wednesday that Pakistan's fragile government is facing an "existential threat" from Islamic militants who are now operating within a few hours of the capital.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Can we invade them now? Can we? Huh? Can we?"


'US drone' in deadly Pakistan raid

At least 10 people have been killed in an air raid by a suspected US drone on a village in northwest Pakistan, local officials say.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that two missiles struck a compound in the Orakzai region west of Peshawar, on Wednesday.


Filling the Skies With Assassins

Soon enough, a single pilot may be capable of handling not one but perhaps three drones, and drone armaments will undoubtedly grow progressively more powerful and “precise.” In the meantime, BAE Systems already has a drone four years into development, the Taranis, that should someday be “completely autonomous”; that is, it theoretically will do without human pilots. Initial trials of a prototype are scheduled for 2010.


Thousands flee bomb attacks by US drones

AMERICAN drone attacks on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are causing a massive humanitarian emergency, Pakistani officials claimed after a new attack yesterday killed 13 people.

The dead and injured included foreign militants, but women and children were also killed when two missiles hit a house in the village of Data Khel, near the Afghan border, according to local officials.

As many as 1m people have fled their homes in the Tribal Areas to escape attacks by the unmanned spy planes as well as bombings by the Pakistani army. In Bajaur agency entire villages have been flattened by Pakistani troops under growing American pressure to act against Al-Qaeda militants, who have made the area their base.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Neither the Pakistanis nor the Afghans hate us "because we are free"; they hate us because we are killing and maiming their kids, their wives, their friends and families, and their grandparents.... indiscriminately.

One has to wonder if the ramp up in the creation of more instability in the region is by design, rather than by accident, to accomplish other geopolitical agendas.


60 drone hits kill 14 al-Qaeda men, 687 civilians

Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides perishing 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Of course, logically, what this is causing is an ever increasing radicalization of those where were not anti-American before, coupled with a massive internal displacement of families on the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan to try to get away from the bombings.

Unless the American plan in Pakistan is a total destabilization of the population and the current government, the Pentagon (again) deserves the world's booby prize for the worst possible outcome of unintended consequences in a military campaign.


Women, children among eight killed in new type of U.S.drone strike

WANA: As many as eight people, including women and children were killed and several others injured in the suspected US drone attack on Gangi Khel area of Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency on Sunday morning, locals said.

However, the political administration and other sources denied reports of any loss of lives in the attack, saying no causality happened in the attack but the attack "hit an explosive laden vehicle" [gasoline?] parked inside a house.

According to details, the suspected US drones kept flying over the area the whole night and caused panic in the area but on Sunday’s morning it fired two missiles at a house in Gangi Khel area, damaging two explosive laden vehicles parked in the house, however, no casualty was reported.


Death By the Numbers: Pakistan Counts the Toll of the Bush-Obama Drone War

Pakistan is the latest target of the Terror Warriors; the progressive, anti-war, last-best-hope-for-world-peace Barack Obama has made it his special project to lay some heavy hurt on the Pakistanis, escalating the drone bombing campaign initiated by his much-emulated predecessor, George Widowmaker Bush. Indeed, the Obama administration is mulling expanding their expansion of the drone war into Pakistan's troubled -- but oil-rich -- southern province of Baluchistan. One begins to suspect that the progressive humanitarians in the White House have been drawing on the beserker fantasies of General Ralph Peters for strategic guidance on the "Af-Pak" front.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder if a complete destabilization of Pakistan is the goal, to be used as the US's justification for having to "...rush in and save this nuclear armed country from itself."


'US drone attack' claims 4 in Pakistan

Washington has stepped up its missile strikes inside Pakistan since last year, claiming the operations are aimed at countering Taliban and Al Qaeda militants operating in the country.

The raids have killed scores of civilians.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Since Pakistan has never given permission for these violations of their airspace, these are acts of war by the US Government.


Zardari: 'Give us the drones and we will take out the militants ourselves'

Pakistan's president has called on America to provide his country with an arsenal of drones and missiles to target militants blamed for a wave of violence rather than carrying out independent operations that violate the nation's sovereignty.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to Asif Zardari: I wouldn't hold my breath on that if I were you.

The US military and political leadership has made the decision that Pakistan is to be the next large battleground in this alleged "war on terror", and no such thing as Pakistani national sovereignty will get in their way.


U.S. Weighs Taliban Strike Into Pakistan

President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.


Barack Obama offers new strategy to tame Pakistan

More than seven years after America declared war on the Taleban, Afghanistan still stands on the brink of disaster, President Obama declared yesterday as he unveiled a new regional strategy to win the war in South Asia. An additional 21,000 US troops will be sent to Afghanistan and civilian aid to neighbouring Pakistan will be trebled, Mr Obama said in a speech that showed his desire to take full US ownership of the deepening conflict.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Taking Ownership" is how we got into this mess, and it is NOT what Obama promised while campaigning!

Obama promised an end to these wars started with lies. Clearly, Obama himself was lying.


U.S. cagey on possible Pakistan strikes

Obama administration officials are being cagey about whether U.S. forces should directly engage terrorists operating in northwestern Pakistan, analysts said.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This has nothing to do with terrorists. This is about a Vietnam style expansion of the war in Afghanistan into a wider regional conflict. This is definitely about blocking Russian access to the Middle East through Pakistan, and once the new war gets really cranked up, expect "terrorists" to restart the war in Russian Georgia to block that land route as well in preparation for the major attack on Iran.

Of course, the same people who are planning this new war also planned the first Georgian war and Cast Lead, so things may not work out as they are on paper, but who cares? Money will be taken from you and given to the weapons makers, hundreds of thousands will die, the leaders will pin medals on their chests and build statues to their vanity, so all must be well!


The ‘New’ Strategy - Did Obama Expand the War Into Pakistan?

While promising “A New Way Forward” (not so coincidentally the working title of the 2007 escalation in Iraq), it seems that all roads lead to Pakistan. The government will be getting billions in new aid, the US is committing itself to fight militants in the area (above and beyond the repeated drone attacks). They’re not even ruling out sending ground troops.

So Afghanistan has its new strategy, which is its old strategy with more guys. But maybe the real story here is that President Obama has made the equivalent of a de facto declaration of war against Pakistan’s border regions.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"CHANGE"?!?!?!?


Obama: Yup, We're at War in Pakistan

Perhaps you were wondering whether or not the U.S. was really at war in Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan. Well, President Obama just put those questions to rest.

With everyone from Hillary Clinton to Robert Gates to General David Petraeus at his side, Obama announced this morning "a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan." Not Afghanistan, with an occasional cross-border drone strike. Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Yee-HAAA, we got something to blame the poverty on while we loot the rest of the nation!!!" -- Official White Horse Souse


The ‘New’ Strategy - Did Obama Expand the War Into Pakistan?

When President Barack Obama unveiled his “comprehensive, new strategy” for the war in Afghanistan it struck many how decidedly old most of the strategy looked. A vague justification for throwing more money and troops at the seemingly endless war, bundled with posturing about how vital the war’s success ultimately would be.

But is that the whole story? Was the much-heralded new strategy just about polishing up the same old escalation in Afghanistan and selling it as a change? Perhaps the real novelty in this plan takes place outside of Afghanistan, in neighboring Pakistan.


Obama vows no pursuit by US troops into Pakistan

Webmaster's Commentary:

Yeah, and we were told that our troops in Vietnam were not pursuing into Cambodia, too!


What happened to Obama's Campaign Promise of Peace?

President Obama was elected with an overwhelming mandate for peace. He promised to withdraw troops from Iraq, to close Guantanamo, and to end the practices of torture, domestic spying and detention without trial. He decried the dictatorial arrogation of power that Bush had claimed as President.

Once in office, Obama retained Robert Gates as Defense Secretary, despite the fact that Gates is an outspoken Middle East hawk, (Gates was also involved in the Iran/Contra scandal of the 1980s, and is linked to election theft in 2002 and 2004.)


Sources: Pentagon seeks $3B for Pakistan military

Webmaster's Commentary:

A billion here, a billion there...

Better throw a little something extra into that 1040 this year. It's the patriotic thing to do!!!


Aid with strings useless, Gilani tells US

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday once again told the United States that aid with strings attached would fail to generate the desired goodwill and meaningful results.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Translation: any aid that comes to the current government here will never get to the people it was intended to help.

There will be no accountability, no transparency; and that's precisely the way the current government of Pakistan wants to keep things going.


‘No’ to joint operation in tribal areas

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected on Tuesday a US proposal for joint operations in the tribal areas against terrorism and militancy, as differences of opinion between the two countries over various aspects of the war on terror came out into the open for the first time.

Highly-informed sources said the move followed a collective decision reached between the government and security establishment to adopt a tough posture against a barrage of attacks and criticism emanating in recent weeks from Washington, directly targeting the Pakistan army and the ISI and creating doubts about their sincerity in the war on terror and the fight against Al Qaeda and Taliban.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Pakistan is about to find out what happens when "joint operations" offers from the US get rejected.

Pakistan's government is very probably slated to morph from a "relatively friendly" government to "the enemy", faster than an avalanche with an attitude.


Pakistan could collapse within six months: US expert

Pakistan could collapse within six months in the face of the snowballing insurgency, a top expert on guerrilla warfare has said.

The dire prediction was made by David Kilcullen, a former adviser to top US military commander General David Petraeus.

Petraeus also echoed the same thought when he told a Congressional testimony last week that the insurgency could "take down" Pakistan, which is home to nuclear weapons and al-Qaida.

Webmaster's Commentary:

OK, let me get my head around this for a second.

We are looking at the potential collapse of a failing nation state, potentially within the next 6 months.

Why, then, are we looking at pouring billions into Pakistan's military?

The logic of the US approach simply boggles the mind.

Unless, that is, that the US is looking for further destabilization of Pakistan which would constitute the justification for "saving Pakistan from itself"

Pakistan may well be the next patsy in the US's exercise of military power in the region.

And don't think for one hot second that under an Obama presidency, we won't see a return to the draft, if there is some staged event concocted to galvanize the American people into demonizing yet another country, and going to war against it.

Obama and his team are desperately looking for something, anything, to deflect the anger of the American people from how badly they're doing economically toward another target.


Pakistan spies under heat in new US strategy

The United States has vowed to put the heat on Pakistan's spies in its new regional strategy, with top officials openly accusing elements in powerful intelligence agency of abetting Al-Qaeda.

President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled a plan to root out extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan by boosting troops and drastically increasing civilian personnel and aid to the region.

Webmaster's Commentary:

In other words, at a time when our economy teeters on the brink, we are spending billions propping our installed puppet regimes!


Pakistan to Get Billions From US Despite Oversight Concerns

Yet there is considerable concern at the lack of transparency for aid sent to the troubled south Asian nation, and serious questions over how much of the money thrown at Pakistan for “schools, roads and hospitals” will actually be used for those purposes and how much will be funneled to other purposes.

The decision to ratchet up Pakistan’s aid also comes just days after US officials blamed the Pakistani government, and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency in particular, for providing direct support to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Change?


Militants torch NATO trucks in Pakistan

Taliban militants in north-western Pakistan have torched eight trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan in a pre-dawn attack, police said.


Militants torch NATO supplies in Pakistan; 20 trucks reduced to ashes - Exclusive images

Militants attacked a NATO supply terminal and set fire to about 20 trucks carrying supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan on Sunday.

Militants attacked the supply depot situated at Ring Road in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot Police Station, Peshawar-- capital of North West Frontier Province.

In a pre-dawn attack the militants used rockets, petrol bombs and also resorted to firing before setting the trucks ablaze.


Pakistan ex-PM ignores 'arrest'

Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has defied an apparent house arrest order to head for a protest in Lahore.

Describing the order - denied by the government - as "illegal" he left his Lahore home urging people to join him.


Pakistan teeters on the brink of chaos

Washington and London are leaning heavily on Pakistan's squabbling political leaders as the nuclear-armed nation totters on the brink of chaos.


Pakistan clamps down on protests amid fresh fears of a military coup

Pakistan's army was put on stand-by yesterday to deal with growing demonstrations against the government, which are due to reach a climax in the capital, Islamabad, tomorrow. Divisions within President Asif Ali Zardari's administration were underlined by the abrupt resignation of a senior minister.



Afghanistan:


Recent scenes from Afghanistan

Since he took office in January, President Barack Obama has ordered an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to be deployed to Afghanistan, which will bring the full U.S. deployment there to a total of 60,000 troops, joining 39,000 coalition troops from 43 countries. The U.S. administration plans to impose benchmarks for progress on both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, who struggle with problems tied to tribal rivalries, illegal drug production and distribution, religious factions, general instability and poverty. Collected here are photographs from the past few months of the situation in Afghanistan and the lives that continue to be affected by it. (43 photos total)


CIA death squads killing with “impunity” in Afghanistan

A United Nations investigator released a preliminary report last week citing widespread civilian deaths in Afghanistan, often at the hands of unaccountable units led by the CIA or other foreign intelligence agencies.

The investigator is Philip Alston, a New York University professor serving as the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution. His report provides a partial glimpse into the illegal actions of intelligence agencies, occupying forces, and Afghan police, as they seek to repress opposition to the US-led occupation and US-backed government.

A more detailed final report will be released later this year.


U.S. military concedes Afghan civilian casualties

The people of Afghanistan do not hate us "because we are free"; they hate us because we are killing their wives, children, moms, dads, uncles, and aunts.


Defense Officials: Afghan Situation Dire, More Troops Needed

Webmaster's Commentary:

READ THIS AND THE NEXT TWO STORIES, ESPECIALLY THE ONE TWO DOWN WHERE THE US HAS APPROACHED THE TALIBAN FOR "RECONCILIATION."

THE US IS LOSING THIS WAR, JUST AS THE USSR DID.


U.S. Weighs Putting 70,000 Troops in Afghanistan


Obama's War

Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent noted last week that President Obama’s announcement of an escalation in the American presence in Afghanistan is being met with mostly silence and even some support from the most influential liberal groups who opposed the Iraq War. ... MoveOn.org declined to make any public statement about Obama’s Afghan policies in response to my queries. An official close to the group confirmed to me that MoveOn wouldn’t be saying anything in the near term. ... Nor will we hear anything from Americans United for Change, which ran $600,000 worth of TV ads against the Iraq War in the summer of 2007.

Webmaster's Commentary:

War isn't any more right just because a member of your party starts it.

Either you stand for principles, or you are just another apparatchik!

MoveOn have proven they are the latter.


US reconciliation offer lunatic idea, say Taliban

Taliban rejected on Wednesday a US offer of “honourable reconciliation” as a “lunatic idea” and said the withdrawal of foreign troops was the only way to end the war in Afghanistan.


US Used by Afghan Drug Clan to Take Out Rival

A "high-ranking member of al-Qaida" was seized during a recent US mission in Afghanistan which left five people dead. But the Americans were set up: The tip-off as to his location came from a drug clan who wanted to get rid of a rival.

The American forces were tricked by a drug clan into taking out a rival as part of an operation to seize an al-Qaida member. Now German soldiers are paying the price for the operation's civilian casualties.


Obama plans further escalation in Afghan war

The Obama White House will send another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in addition to 17,000 extra troops to counter fresh attacks against the US.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Fresh attacks against the US." Lovely phrase, like the Afghan people are just so GAUCHE to attack the United States forces that invaded their country!!!!


US opens route to Afghanistan through Russia's backyard

The road passes a shimmering green mountain pasture, then dips steeply to a new US-built bridge. Across the languid Panj river is Afghanistan and the dusty northern town of Kunduz. On this side is Tajikistan, Afghanistan's impoverished Central Asian neighbour.

It is here, at what used to be the far boundary of the Soviet empire, that the US and Nato are planning a new operation. Soon, Nato trucks loaded with non-military supplies will start rolling into Afghanistan along this northern route, avoiding Pakistan's perilous tribal areas and the ambush-prone Khyber Pass.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Non-military." Right.


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