By Larry O’Hara | Fascinating fall-out recently following the publication of Ron Suskind’s new book ‘The Way of the World’ (Simon & Schuster 2008) in which he argues two things of interest. Firstly, the the US regime leant on Iraqi informer (Tahir Habbush) to help manufacture evidence there were ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ in Iraq, [...]
By Glenn Greenwald | Writing in a New York Times blog yesterday, Clinton pollster Mark Penn hails the selection of Joe Biden as “a smart and successful choice” and says this:
From Al Gore on, the role of the vice president seems to have fundamentally changed. It used to be where the winner parked the loser or [...]
The Pentagon: Some-Things-Never-Change Department
Tomgram | What a difference four and a half years makes. When I first penned “The Wild Weapons of DARPA,” in March 2004, I was a new TomDispatch writer; the war in Iraq was not yet a year old; the war in Afghanistan had been bubbling for less than two and a half [...]
By George Monbiot | In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis tells the story of the famines that sucked the guts out of India in the 1870s. The hunger began when a drought, caused by El Nino, killed the crops on the Deccan plateau. As starvation bit, the viceroy, Lord Lytton, oversaw the export [...]
Reducing drug industry influence is critical to bringing skyrocketing prescription drug and health care costs under control.
By Stephen Lendman - RINF | For the West, everything changed but stayed the same, hard-wired and in place. Things just lay dormant in the shadows during the Yeltsin years, certain to reemerge once a more resolute Russian leader took over. If not Vladimir Putin, someone else little different.
Russia is back, proud and reassertive, and [...]
By Nick Juliano | New documents from within the Bush administration and US intelligence community during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq reveal that the White House began assembling a case for war before it had compiled the intel that ostensibly formed the basis of that case.
A new report on the documents from George [...]
The Guardian | MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian.
The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism.
It [...]
By Marcus Morgan | After the worst Spanish air tragedy in 25 years on Wednesday, accident investigators have begun examining the wreckage of the plane that crashed at Madrid’s Barajas airport, killing 153 passengers. Just 19 passengers have survived the crash, 5 of whom are said to be in a critical condition, with horrific injuries. [...]
The world’s growing food crisis — which triggered riots and demonstrations in over 30 developing nations early this year — is being aggravated primarily by wastage and overconsumption.
IPS | “Obesity is a much bigger problem than undernourishment,” said Professor Jan Lundqvist of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
He pointed out that there are 850 million [...]
By Alex Lantier | US media claims about Georgian democracy notwithstanding, a key factor in US backing for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in his conflict with Russia has been the emergence of Georgia as a key transit country for oil and gas exports from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea basin.
The August 7 outbreak of [...]
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued letters of inquiry Wednesday to Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, regarding a forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks.
The Michigan Democrat also sent letters to senior former Bush intelligence officials, including Robert Richer, former CIA Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations, who [...]
(IPS) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests.
It is well known that Bush repeatedly [...]
The Guardian | It’s a novel way to take your own life. Just as Russia demonstrates what happens to former minions that annoy it, Poland agrees to host a US missile defence base. The Russians, as Poland expected, respond to this proposal by offering to turn the country into a parking lot. This proves that the [...]
The use of torture by the US Government in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001 has come under increasing criticism.
In 1863 at the height of the US civil war, president Abraham Lincoln set the principles for interrogation of prisoners with a famous instruction “military necessity does not admit [...]
Among the interesting references to 9/11 that were released before 9/11 is a passport for ‘Neo’ in blockbuster film The Matrix (released in 1999) which expires ‘11 SEP 01.’
ISLAMABAD (IPS) | Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office on Monday ending weeks of speculation over whether he would quit or face impeachment on charges of illegally seizing power by a parliament elected in February and dominated by political parties opposed to him.
Musharraf, who grabbed power in a bloodless military coup in October 1999, was [...]
CRAWFORD, Texas - The United States on Sunday accused Russia of stalling its military pullback in Georgia, but the Bush administration is not rushing to repudiate Moscow for its actions.
The White House is struggling to figure out the best way to penalize Russia. It doesn’t want to deeply damage existing cooperation on many fronts or [...]
By Kevin Carey | On November 16, 2005, Willie “Bo” Mitchell and three co-defendants — Shelton “Little Rock” Harris, Shelly “Wayne” Martin, and Shawn Earl Gardner — appeared for a hearing in the modern federal courthouse in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The four African American men were facing federal charges of racketeering, weapons possession, drug dealing, and [...]
Obama will be the president we want him to be if we mobilize support on the progressive issues and ward off the influence of entrenched interests.
By Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson | The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.
The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules [...]
guardian.co.uk | The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has signed a ceasefire pact to end hostilities in Georgia.
The deal calls for Russian troops to pull back from Georgia but also grants them limited patrols inside the country.
The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, reluctantly signed the plan yesterday while accusing the Russians of being “evil” and “21st century [...]
By Barrie Collins - Spiked | Last week, the Rwandan government published the findings of its commission of inquiry into the role France played in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It found French diplomats, military leaders and politicians – including former president François Mitterand – complicit in the genocide.
Considering that the current Rwandan leadership has vilified [...]
By Carol Rosenberg | GUANTANAMO BAY NAY BASE, Cuba — One general testified about another general at the war court Wednesday, describing a Pentagon official fast-tracking trials here as “abusive, bullying, unprofessional.”
Moreover, in testimony, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy prison camps commander, described the approach employed earlier this year by his [...]
When the Democrats retook Congress, they did not fundamentally change the lobbying rules that trade money for influence over policy.
Truthdig | In the past two decades I have had the opportunity to participate in certain experiences pertaining to my work that fall into the category of “no one will ever believe this.” I usually file these away, calling on them only when events transpire that breathe new life into these extraordinary memories. Ron Suskind, [...]
By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi | The violence followed a simmering row over the transfer of land to a Hindu organisation in the country’s sole Muslim-majority province.
Police and military personnel enforced a curfew to prevent large-scale rioting, but opened fire in the face of large crowds of stone-throwing youths, officials in the northern state’s [...]
By Lindsey German, convenor of the Stop The War Coalition |
The outbreak of war in the Caucasus over the past week has stunned the world. More fighting, more bombing, thousands dead and tens of thousands of refugees are the daily scenes on our television screens.
This is not just a “little local difficulty” between Russia and [...]
Fmr President Ford secretly advised the FBI that two members on the Warren Commission doubted the FBI’s conclusion that JFK was shot from the Book Depository according to Ford’s FBI files.
For past seven years, Israeli companies have been helping Gerogian army to preparer for war against Russia through arms deals, training of infantry units and security advice
By Arie Egozi | The fighting which broke out over the weekend between Russia and Georgia has brought Israel’s intensive involvement in the region into the limelight. This involvement [...]
Recent News