be just

AlterNet: War on Iraq: The Rip-off in Iraq: You Will Not Believe How Low the War Profiteers Have Gone : "In Iraq, private contractors are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up."

: "It is now obvious that one impetus behind the 'surge' was to accelerate the 'ethnic cleansing' of Iraq. Given the manifest failure to establish a strong central government to serve as a client state, the conquerors now find it easier to deal with separate ethnic enclaves, which can police themselves, shake out their own internal conflicts (however bloodily) and thus establish some kind of solid leadership that can cut deals and guarantee investments. Most of the measures taken during the 'surge' seem aimed precisely at ethnic cleansing: the increased support of the Iraqi government security forces -- which are largely Shiite militias -- has been matched with what some see as the lunatic policy of arming Sunni militias. "

U.S. lawmakers return from Israel pledging tougher Iran law

The Language of Force - by Uri Avnery "In these polls, the public was presented with a question that came close to the final Clinton Proposal and the Geneva Initiative: Are you for a peace that would include a Palestinian state, withdrawal from almost all occupied territories, giving up the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and dismantling most settlements? The results were very instructive. In 2002, 73 percent (seventy-three percent!) supported this solution. In the next two years, support declined, but it was still accepted by the majority. In 2005 the percentage of supporters slipped under the 50 percent line. What had changed in these years?"

IraqSlogger: MSNBC, CNBC Refuse to Run Ads Supporting War

Abu Aardvark: The insurgency's strategy in September What about the insurgency? For months now, insurgency groups have been trying to formulate some kind of public political front, but seem to be consistently frustrated by internal struggles and the fragmented nature of the insurgency itself (among the latest developments, we've got the 1920 Revolution Brigade denouncing anyone using its name while cooperating with the Americans while accusing Hamas Iraq of being the real collaborators, and the Islamic Army of Iraq indicating that it's striking a truce with al-Qaeda in Iraq). It's in that context that I wanted to draw attention to an essay published today under the title "September and a political project for the mujahideen" on the al-Haq Agency, one of the major internet outlets for the Sunni insurgency, by Abd al-Rahman al-Ruwashdi.

Recently, I picked up a book from public library. The name of the book is My Country Versus Me , in which he described his ordeal in detail. Wen Ho Lee (Chinese: 李文和; Pinyin: Lǐ Wénhé; born December 21, 1939) is a Taiwanese-born American scientist who worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and was accused of stealing secrets about the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal for the People's Republic of China (PRC) in December 1999. I have also read another memoir written by a Chinese American Muslim chaplain also persecuted by his own government because he is a Muslim and maybe even because he was also a Chinese American. James J. Yee (Chinese: 余百康 or 余优素福, also known by the Arabic name Yusuf Yee) (born c. 1968) is an American, former United States Army chaplain with the rank of captain. He is best known for being subject to an intense investigation by the United States, but all charges were later dropped. Yee, a Chinese American, was born in New Jersey ...