be just

New Iraqi Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatization

Al Jazeera English - News : "Al Jazeera's David Chater reports on how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came to Teaneck, New Jersey this week." At an orthodox synagogue they were selling the message "invest in Israel's future - strengthen the settlements". The project is aimed at getting American Jews to fill the financial gap left after the Israeli government decided to eliminate subsidies for building on the West Bank by encouraging them to purchase second homes in one of the many existing illegal settlements. Ten settlements deep inside the occupied Palestinian territory are being promoted at the fair. 'Ideological investment' Investors are assured that according to Israeli law there is no possibility of their ownership rights being violated. No mention is made of the fact that all of the settlements are illegal under international law. The settlements breach the Geneva Conventions and Security Council resolutions 446, 465 and 471, which require...

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer U.S. blasted for treatment of detainees - Yahoo! News : "UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. human rights chief expressed concern Wednesday at recent U.S. legislative and judicial actions that she said leave hundreds of detainees without any way to challenge their indefinite imprisonment. " Louise Arbour referred to the Military Commissions Act approved by Congress last year and last month's federal appeals court ruling that Guantanamo Bay detainees cannot use the U.S. court system to challenge their detention. The case is likely to go to the Supreme Court. Arbour was critical of the ruling, calling on the judicial system to "rise to its long-standing reputation as a guardian of fundamental human rights and civil liberties and provide the protection to all that are under the authority, control, and therefore in my view jurisdiction of the United States." Twice before, the Supreme Court issued ruling giving Guantanamo detainees ...

Troubles for the Iraq Oil Deal -- Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007 -- Page 1 -- TIME

Hezbollah Signals It's Open to Talks With United States - April 11, 2005 - The New York Sun WASHINGTON - A Hezbollah political leader told a delegation of former European and American officials last month that the Bush administration approached the organization for talks following September 11, 2001, and that the group would be open to new discussions.......................

Hypocrisy in the Middle East

Rohingya people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - US's Iraq oil grab is a done deal : "'By 2010 we will need [a further] 50 million barrels a day. The Middle East, with two-thirds of the oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize lies.' - US Vice President Dick Cheney, then Halliburton chief executive officer, London, autumn 1999 "

Evidence against Muslim charity appears fabricated

The Daily Star - Politics - Egypt takes militant Iraqi TV channel off air : "CAIRO: An Iraqi satellite television channel that has angered the US and Iraqi governments for broadcasting anti-US and anti-Shiite news reports has been taken off the air by the Egyptian government, the press reported on Sunday. 'The Iraqi Al-Zawraa satellite channel on NileSat 101 was cut off after it repeatedly interfered with the transmission of several other channels,' the state-owned Al-Gomhuriyah newspaper reported. It said several channels had been experiencing transmission problems that were traced to Al-Zawraa. The channel was initially disconnected on Thursday and the problems stopped immediately. Subsequent efforts to reconnect the channel resulted in further interference. US and Iraqi authorities have repeatedly asked for the channel, owned by Sunni Iraqi politician Mishan al-Juburi, to be taken off the air for what they describe as broadcasts that 'incite' violence. Much of t...

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 02/23/2007 | Rape charge supported by strong evidence, Sunni official says

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Foreign devils in the Iranian mountains

Vive le Canada - Pakistan Fed Up With U.S. And Allies On Afghanistan : "PESHAWAR–Those who invaded Iraq claiming it had weapons of mass destruction and have been blaming Iran and Syria for the murderous mess in Iraq, are also the same people now blaming Pakistan for the mess in Afghanistan. ".........

America's Alliance With bin Laden- by Justin Raimondo

The New Yorker : fact : content : "A STRATEGIC SHIFT In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. ".............

Welfare state growing despite overhauls - Yahoo! News : "By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 26, 4:49 AM ET" WASHINGTON - The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid. The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, including Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits, are bursting with new enrollees. The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Nearly one in six people rely on some form of public assistance, a larger share than at any time since the government started measuring two decades ago. Critics of the welfare overhaul say the numbers offer fresh evidence that few former recipients have become self-sufficient, even though millions have moved from welfare to work. They say the vast majority have been forced into low-paying jobs without benefits...

Al Jazeera English - Europe

Apartheid Looks Like This - by Jonathan Cook

Google reinstated Uruknet.info as a news source.THANKS! :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - it

Humans, chimps split 4 million years ago: study | Science | Reuters : "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new study, certain to be controversial, maintains that chimpanzees and humans split from a common ancestor just 4 million years ago -- a much shorter time than current estimates of 5 million to 7 million years ago. The researchers compared the DNA of chimpanzees, humans and our next-closest ancestor, the gorilla, as well as orangutans. They used a well-known type of calculation that had not been previously applied to genetics to come up with their own 'molecular clock' estimate of when humans became uniquely human."

Post 9/11, Islam flourishes among blacks | U.S. | Reuters : "ATLANTA (Reuters) - Islam is growing fast among African Americans, who are undeterred by increased scrutiny of Muslims in the United States since the September 11 attacks, according to imams and experts. Converts within the black community say they are attracted to the disciplines of prayer, the emphasis within Islam on submission to God and the religion's affinity with people who are oppressed. Some blacks are also suspicious of U.S. government warnings about the emergence of new enemies since the 2001 attacks because of memories of how the establishment demonized civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X."

The myth of Muslim support for terror | csmonitor.com : "WASHINGTON - Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria. The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that 'bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians' are 'never justified,' while 24 percent believe these attacks are 'often or sometimes justified.' Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are 'never justified'; in Pakistan,...

US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran | International News | News | Telegraph : "In a move that reflects Washington's growing concern with the failure of diplomatic initiatives, CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran's border regions. The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime. In the past year there has been a wave"

ABC News: U.S. developing contingency plan to bomb Iran: report

Baghdad Burning : "Maliki's Reaction... As expected, Al Maliki is claiming the rape allegations are all lies. Apparently, his people simply asked the officers if they raped Sabrine Al Janabi and they said no. I'm so glad that's been cleared up.Maliki's Reaction... As expected, Al Maliki is claiming the rape allegations are all lies. Apparently, his people simply asked the officers if they raped Sabrine Al Janabi and they said no. I'm so glad that's been cleared up."

Free Iraq: Iraqi woman stabs American soldier in her home .. عراقية تطعن جندي إحتلال

Americans don’t care about the death of Muslims and Arabs. There are an estimated millions of Iraqis made refuges, Killed, and wounded not to mention the hardship they are in, in day to day life. The callousness on the part of Americans is what I expect from the society I lived in for the last seventeen years. Americans unaware of Iraqi death toll

Canada rules indefinite detention wrong - Yahoo! News : "OTTAWA - Canada's Supreme Court struck down the government's right to detain foreign terrorism suspects indefinitely and without trial, ruling Friday that the system violates the country's bill of rights. "

Arabs say Israel is not just for Jews : "NAZARETH, ISRAEL — A broadly representative elite of Israel's Arab minority has rejected the idea of Israel as a Jewish state and demanded a partnership in governing the country to ensure that Arab citizens get equal treatment and more control over their communities. In a manifesto that is stirring anger and soul-searching among Jews, Arab leaders have declared that Israel's 1.4 million Arab citizens are an indigenous group with collective rights, not just individual rights. The document argues that Arabs are entitled to share power in a binational state and block policies that discriminate against them."....................

Let me remind you Whiteman’s lie, when British announces the withdrawal of their troops incrementally, Whiteman said the situation is improved, yet America is deploying more troops to Iraq. I am LOL! IS THE SITUATION IMPROVED? MAKE UP YOUR MIND WHITEMAN (AND YOUR SLAVES)!

Iraqi Police Commit Rape – ­Armed, Trained, and Funded by the US - by Yifat Susskind : "The international news media is flooded with images of a woman in a pink headscarf recounting a shattering experience of rape by members of the Iraqi National Police. Most of the coverage has focused on her taboo-breaking decision to speak publicly about the assault, but has ignored the context for understanding­and combating­sexual violence by Iraqi security forces." .......... *Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-based Violence and the US War in Iraq will be available at www.MADRE.org after March 6, 2007. For more information about the report, please contact MADRE at madre@madre.org or 212.627.0444.

A bloody murderer and rapist will be eligible for parole in 10 years! That is American justice! If anyone waiting justice from American Justice System (the same to other countries) you better think about it.

We already know Iraqi women are getting raped by American trained puppet squad stands to destroy the Iraqi resistance (only Sunni Arab is fighting for Iraq) not only through ethnic cleansing but also through rape which has devastating effect psychologically effect. Now just now some American newspapers start to getting it! Police said to admit to Sunni's rape A n Iraqi police official in the northeastern city of Tal Afar said yesterday that a military officer and three soldiers had admitted to raping a Sunni woman and recording the act with a cell phone camera. The four soldiers told an investigative committee convened by the Iraqi Army that they sexually assaulted the woman nearly two weeks ago, according to Gen. Najem Abdullah, an Iraqi police spokesman in Tal Afar. The soldiers' admission follows another Sunni woman's assertion this week that she had been raped in Baghdad by members of Iraq's predominately Shiite security forces. Iraq's Kurdish president and its ...

Cleric in alleged CIA kidnap speaks - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com : "ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - An Egyptian cleric, speaking publicly for the first time, said Thursday that Egyptian officials tortured him in prison after he was kidnapped in Italy — allegedly by CIA agents — and sent here for interrogation."

U.S. hunted al-Qaida from Ethiopia - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com : "MSNBC News Services Updated: 1 hour, 48 minutes ago ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - An Ethiopian official denied Friday a report in the New York Times that U.S. troops used Ethiopia as a staging ground for attacks against al-Qaida leaders in Somalia last month."...........................

AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK#48358#48358#48358#48358#48358 First, it shows how little nuance there is in our discourse about Iraq. These, after all, are Sunni militiamen – the bad guys; the bitter dead-enders; the Saddamists and the violent extremists who hate democracy. But while there are Sunni groups that fit that description, these guys seem to be (and obviously I can’t tell for sure) a bunch of family men trying to protect their homes (the Adhamiya district has been a fat target for Shiite death squads). video

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Clinton To Anti-War Voters: Bring It On : "Clinton invites voters to turn elsewhere for an anti-war presidential candidate, and they will oblige. "

AlterNet: Hillary’s Calculations Add Up to War : "Clinton refuses to admit her mistakes about Iraq and proceeds to make the same ones with Iran. "

People talk about Americans without a health care coverage whose number is 46 million and growing. As sad as it sounds I have a feeling millions of people like me who have some type of coverage (partial) but not enough for us to go see a doctor when we’re feeling sick. I still forking a payment just for two visitation to doctor’s office!

Iraqis are short of electricity, clean water, safety, security; now, they are running short of food. Does the rape of Iraq by a Whiteman coming to conclusion? We know Whiteman is ready to wipe off Muslims from the face of the earth, what we don’t know is how he is going about doing it.

AlterNet: MediaCulture: The Lies They Tell: How to Stop the Fox Propaganda Machine As presidential aspirants announce their candidacies in an already mind-numbing procession, the "Sliming Bowl" is well under way. No candidate has been smeared more than Barack Obama, and no smearer more relentless than Fox News, as the short video (right) by Brave New Films demonstrates. "Sliming" is the rabid, rapid, media barrage of persistently repeated lies and innuendo mastered by the right-wing media machine, which aims to tar candidates with negative associations before their campaigns get rolling. Or alternatively, to bruise them enough so that they will suffer under the burden of damaged goods as they try to gain footing. ...................

Geometry meets arts in Islamic tiles - Yahoo! News

Rageh Inside Iran

Report: Refugees Raise Prices in Syria: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance : "AP Report: Refugees Raise Prices in Syria Wednesday February 21, 1:38 pm ET By Albert Aji, Associated Press Writer Report: Iraqi Refugees Raise Prices in Syria, Overcrowd Schools DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The influx of Iraqi refugees is triggering a sharp rise in prices of housing and goods and is overcrowding schools in Syria, a state-run newspaper warned on Wednesday."..............

Al Jazeera English - Central/S. Asia : "Al Jazeera has uncovered evidence that Taliban fighters are now in effective control of large parts of a key province in southwest Afghanistan, despite recent claims by Nato that their bases had been destroyed. James Bays spent three days with the Taliban in Helmand and found that the group is running schools and medical facilities, and is travelling armed and unchallenged by Nato-led forces. Here is his report"

Is Washington Being Sidelined on the Middle East? - by Leon Hadar : "But while America's Arab allies, members of the European Union (EU), and Russia have welcomed the Saudi-brokered deal, Bush administration officials have expressed wariness and have given it the diplomatic cold shoulder. In fact, the lack of diplomatic progress during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to the Middle East was a direct result of Washington's refusal to back negotiations between Israel and a Palestinian government that includes Hamas. ".....................

Old Europe and the Mullahs - by Philip Giraldi There has been a noticeable shift in the rhetoric emanating from the proponents of war with Iran, almost certainly due to the perception that armed conflict with Tehran will not be as easy a sell as was Iraq. The shift is most marked within the Bush Administration itself, where daily attacks on Iran that started with the State of the Union message on January 10th have largely disappeared and where both civilian and military government spokesmen have even begun contradicting each other on the level of threat posed by Tehran. The neocons at The Weekly Standard .............

Spy leaves egg on U.S. faces

Special Relationship

Soldier Who Chose Jail Over Iraq Goes Home - by Aaron Glantz

Scholars for 9/11 Truth; Why Doubt 9/11?

Rosa Brooks: Students, Beware Professor Osama - Los Angeles Times

Rogue Nation

Reuters AlertNet - Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former US army general

Rants and Rambles: Political Correctness the Israeli Way

Pakistan: Hello al-Qaeda, goodbye America

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Purported spokesman for an Iraqi insurgent group offers negotiations with the United States The Associated Press Published: October 5, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq A purported spokesman for a Sunni insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, offered to open negotiations with the Americans in an audiotape aired by Al-Jazeera television on Thursday. The tape was said to be from Ibrahim al-Shimmari, whose name has appeared in past statements by the group, which has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings against civilians and attacks on U.S. troops. The tape's authenticity could not be independently confirmed. "We are prepared for any negotiations, whether secret or public, on the condition only that they are sincere. We have no objection to mediators with international credentials, and it is possible to exchange letters," the speaker in the tape said. Al-Shimmari has offered such negotiations in past statements. He did not elaborate on the goal of any talks. T...

US Guantanamo ruling 'shocking'From correspondents in London February 21, 2007 07:14am AMNESTY International has criticised a decision by the US appeals court preventing foreign terror suspects from challenging their detentions at Guantanamo Bay in the US legal system. The London-based human rights group said today that it "deeply regrets" the decision that the federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear any habeas corpus appeals from so-called "enemy combatants" at the camp in Cuba. "The right of all detainees to challenge the lawfulness of their detention is among the most fundamental principles of international law," Amnesty's US researcher Rob Freer said. "That any legislature or any judge anywhere should contenance such stripping of this basic protection against arbitrary detention, secret custody, torture and other ill-treatment is shocking and must be challenged." Amnesty said that of the nearly 400 detainees still held at the U...

Now You See It … One of Bagdad’s iconic monuments, erected by Saddam Hussein, is being dismantled by the government. Why some Iraqis are not amused.

A court is above the law around the world. In America that can’t be expected to be different. Justice is only from God . Court rules against Guantanamo detainees

The War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling, according to the largest survey of Muslims ever to be conducted. Seven per cent believe that the events of 9/11 were “completely justified”. In Saudi Arabia, 79 per cent had an “unfavourable view” of the US. read more

Today Nuri fired a man working for Sunni endowment for calling an obvious rape to be investigated in international level. Iraq’s shame never ends. BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday fired a top Sunni official who had called for an international investigation into the rape allegations leveled by a Sunni Arab woman against three members of the Shiite-dominated security forces. A statement by al-Maliki's office gave no reason in announcing the dismissal of Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the Sunni Endowments. Al-Samaraie, whose organization cares for Sunni mosques and shrines in Iraq, had joined other prominent Sunnis in criticizing the government's handling of the case.

An Ethiopian man here in Omaha, NE attacked in his store: robbed, assaulted, tied up and his convenient store set on fire while he was in his store. The owner Kassahun Goshime was given ample time to take care of his business before. At least once at his residency and his store haters and jealous evils spray painted hate messages. At one place it is painted “go home nigger.” I don’t like to blame the victim here but if you see the local news clip ; no one but the Jewish organization ADL was acting as outraged person instead of the victims lawyer or Ethiopian Community here in Omaha. Besides why didn’t Kassahun took step to protect himself and his family when he had known that he and his family were targeted long before this attempt murder against him took place? Ethiopians are not united here in Omaha or a few other cities I have lived. Some even go as far as sabotaging one another rather than growing together in a country where you have much more chances than you came from. This hate ...

Rape Accusation Reinforces Fears in a Divided Iraq - New York Times : "A nurse who said she treated the woman after the attack said that she saw signs of sexual and physical assault. The woman, according to the nurse, could identify one of her attackers because he was not wearing a mask, as were the others, and could identify a second attacker by a mark on his genitals. The nurse would speak only on the condition of anonymity because she feared that Shiite militiamen would kill her for speaking out. The nurse said she was also wanted by the authorities, who believed the clinic she works at was used by insurgents. She said the clinic was simply for Sunnis in the Amil neighborhood who were too afraid to the visit the Shiite-run hospital. "

Al Jazeera English - Central/S. Asia : "Indian police have released images of two men believed to have left a Pakistan-bound train before two bombs exploded on Monday, starting a fire that killed 68 people. The images were released on Tuesday and Sharad Kumar, police inspector-general, said: 'Around 11:30pm, these people got down and the blasts happened 15 minutes later.' Speaking in Panipat, he said one of the men was around 35 or 36 years old, plumpish and dark, with a moustache."

U.S. health care spending seen doubling in 10 years | U.S. | Reuters : "By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spending on prescription drugs, hospital care and other health services is expected to double to $4.1 trillion over the next decade, up from $2.1 trillion in 2006, a government report released on Wednesday found. Despite relative stability in recent years, nearly 20 cents of every dollar spent in 10 years will go toward health care, National Health Statistics Group economists said in their projections looking at 2006 to 2016. Last year's health spending should make up about 16 cents for every dollar spent, they wrote in the journal Health Affairs." Lead author John Poisal told reporters a major factor was an aging population as the "leading edge of the baby boom generation becomes eligible for Medicare," the nation's insurance program for those age 65 and older. Greater spending for prescription medications is expected to fuel much of the incre...

AP Wire | 02/20/2007 | Hopes for peace fading in Somalia : "MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalis fled their violent capital by the hundreds on Tuesday, in cars and on foot, pulling carts heaped with belongings in a desperate attempt to leave an onslaught of mortar and rocket attacks behind them. Government forces and Ethiopian troops exchanged heavy fire overnight with insurgents, leaving 15 dead and 45 injured in the heaviest fighting this year in Mogadishu. Among those killed were a 4-year-old boy and a pregnant woman. A 12-year-old girl lost both her legs, doctors said. 'We cannot keep our children in this violent situation,' said Yonis Nor, who left the capital with his eight children and hundreds of other families. 'I am scared.' Mogadishu's escalating violence threatens to plunge Somalia back into the years of anarchy and chaos that dogged the nation after 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, igniting a 16-year conflict. Numerous attempts at...

Hopes for Peace Fading in Somalia - MSNBC Wire Services - MSNBC.com : "MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalis fled their violent capital by the hundreds on Tuesday, in cars and on foot, pulling carts heaped with belongings in a desperate attempt to leave an onslaught of mortar and rocket attacks behind them."

Voices - Compassionate Oppression: Subjugating Your Inferiors with a Human Touch An Open Letter to Ehud Olmert : "Ehud Olmert, Office of the Prime Minister, 3 Kaplan St. Hakiyra, Jerusalem 91919 Dear Ehud, My hearty congratulations to you and your fellow Zionists! You sure know how to contain those infernal camel jockeys infesting your Holy Land. A man can’t help but admire your fierce determination to keep that pack of maggots from maturing into a full blown infestation of flies"

Baghdad Sniper Gains Legendary Status : "Snipers targeting U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and in other Iraqi cities garnered attention on jihadi forums in early 2005. It was not until November 2005, however, that these shootings received extensive press coverage when U.S. forces announced a reward for any information leading to the arrest of the 'Baghdad sniper,' who U.S. forces had nicknamed 'Juba.' Thereafter, the Islamic Army of Iraq released two video clips, supposedly shot by a camera mounted on a sniper rifle, showing the shooting of U.S. troops patrolling the streets of Baghdad. The video clips were then uploaded to the internet. The video footage became famous once it was aired on al-Zawraa television, a network run by Mishan al-Jabouri, a former member of Iraq's parliament and leader of the Arab Front for Reconciliation and Liberation, who fled to Syria due to corruption charges leveled against him (http://majdah.maktoob.com/vb/, December 4, 2006)."

Three Explanations for al-Qaeda's Lack of a CBRN Attack : "The evidence of al-Qaeda's interest in conducting a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons appears compelling. As early as 1998, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared the acquisition of CBRN weapons a 'religious duty' for Muslims [1]. He followed up in 2003 by asking for and receiving a fatwa from Saudi Sheikh Nasir bin Hamid al-Fahd that condoned the use of CBRN weapons by Muslims against infidels [2]. Combined with the multitude of warnings from al-Qaeda associates that a CBRN attack against the West is not only forthcoming but also long overdue, the Muslim 'duty to warn' has been firmly established. In al-Qaeda's opinion, no further justification is needed and no additional warnings are required [3]." read more

POTENTIAL GAS CUSTOMERS LINE UP TO WELCOME NEW TURKMEN LEADER - Eurasia Daily Monitor : "By John C.k. Daly Friday, February 16, 2007 Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov was inaugurated as Turkmenistan’s new president at the Ruhiyev palace in Ashgabat on February 14. Reporters noted that 2,487 members of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council) and foreign guests, including heads of states and governments from 30 countries, attended the ceremony. The Russian delegation was led by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, accompanied by Gazprom head Alexei Miller, while Turkey was represented by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkmenistan.ru, February 14). Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan), Viktor Yushchenko (Ukraine), Emomali Rakhmonov (Tajikistan), Mikheil Saakashvili (Georgia), Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan), and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran) also were present. Other guests included parliamentary leaders Tegran Torosyan (Armenia), Vladimir Konoplev (Belarus), and Erkin Halilov (Uzbekistan), ...

ei: Settlers abuse Ra'fat 'Askar, 16, imprison him and beat him

ei: Arab couple refused residency in exclusively Jewish town

Democrats Must Prevent Bin Laden From Defeating George Bush - The Smirking Chimp : "Osama Bin Laden is on the brink of a major strategic victory over George W. Bush caused by the arrogance, ignorance, and partisanship of an Administration that does nothing except escalate its mistakes. In the greatest dereliction of duty in the history of American commanders in chief, George W. Bush failed to provide the reinforcements to kill Bin Laden at Tora Bora. He allowed Bin Laden to escape, in order to invade Iraq, in violation of the unamimous advice of American commanders. Bin Laden has maneuvered Bush into a series of miscalculations. Bin Laden wanted the United States bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq. Mission accomplished. Bin Laden wanted to turn Iraq into a giant recruitment and training operation for a new generation of terrorists. Mission accomplished."

Italian Women Lead Grassroots Campaign Against US Military Base - The Smirking Chimp

Gulf Daily News By mandeep singh manama: A maid and her sponsor were being questioned last night after she claimed her employer physically assaulted her. Ethiopian Mareshet Agme Beti, 22, was brought to the Budaiya police station by members of the Migrant Workers' Protection Society (MWPS). She alleged she was so badly beaten by her sponsor, an Arab national, that she attempted suicide on at least three occasions. The sponsor denied the allegations and claimed all the wounds on the maid's body were self-inflicted. The maid had never been treated badly, he said. The sponsor further claimed that the maid, who had come to Bahrain barely 10 weeks ago, had been acting strangely for the last few weeks and tried to kill herself. The maid said she ran away late yesterday after her sponsor asked her to "go away". She went to a British neighbour who called the MWPS. An MWPS official said "we will try and ensure she does not undergo any more distress".

Firebomb attack kills 67 aboard India-Pakistan train - Yahoo! News : "DEEWANA, India (AFP) - Sixty-seven people have burned to death after blasts ignited a fireball on a train from India to Pakistan in an attack condemned as terrorism aimed at derailing the South Asian peace process. "

Monday: 9 GIs, 82 Iraqis Killed; 19 GIs, 124 Iraqis Wounded - Antiwar.com : "Despite a security crackdown, violence continues unabated in Iraq. At least, 82 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 124 were wounded in various attacks around the country. Also, eight GIs and a National Guard member were killed in separate incidents; another 19 American soldiers were wounded in one of the attacks. At a U.S. outpost near Baghdad today, two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 others were wounded during a coordinated attack on them. Three soldiers were killed and two injured by a roadside bomb south of the capital today as well. The U.S. military also reported that a Marine was killed on Saturday, another Marine on Sunday, and a soldier died on Sunday, all three during separate combat incidents in Anbar province. Also, a National Guard member died from a non-combat related injury."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US and Israel 'back boycott plan' : "The US and Israel will not work with a new Palestinian unity government unless it recognises Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. He was speaking a day before three-way talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas"

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US 'Iran attack plans' revealed : "US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned. It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres. The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment. The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions. But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran. That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say. "

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US 'Iran attack plans' revealed : "US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned. It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres. The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment. The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions. But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran. That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say. "

Al Jazeera has reported statements by a Sunni woman that she was raped by three Shia-led police force members after she was detained over the weekend. Iraq's prime minister ordered an investigation into the allegations made by the 20-year-old married woman on Monday, but a senior Iraq police official has disputed the claim. In a statement, Nuri al-Maliki said he "has ordered that the severest punishment be meted out to everyone that's involved in the incident". The victim said the ordeal began when police raided her house early on Sunday in the Amil district of western Baghdad while her husband was away. She said the commandos accused her of cooking for Sunni fighters and took her to a police garrison where the attack occurred. "One of them put his hand on my mouth so no one outside the room could hear me," she said in an AP videotape. "I told them 'I did not know that an Iraqi could do this to another Iraqi'." She said a neighbour alerted...

No Concrete Proof Iran Nuclear Program Is Military

Nir Rosen: Anatomy of a Civil War

Nieman Watchdog > Commentary > Six brutal truths about Iraq

Does War Make Presidents Great? - by David R. Henderson : "Today is Presidents' Day in the United States. It's a holiday declared by the federal government to celebrate the birthdays of two presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. George Washington is often called 'the father of our country,' and for good reason. Without his having led soldiers in the fight for independence from the British, we might not have had a separate country as soon as we did. But Abraham Lincoln is more problematic. He is known, of course, for leading the Northern states during what has variously been called the 'Civil War,' 'the War Between the States,' and the 'War of Northern Aggression,' and, of course, for ending slavery in the United States. "

Media Matters - CNN's Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman: "[W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies' " : "CNN's Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman: '[W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies' ' On the November 14 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck interviewed Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who became the first Muslim ever elected to Congress on November 7, and asked Ellison if he could 'have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect and I play the cards up on the table.' After Ellison agreed, Beck said: 'I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' ' Beck added: 'I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans wil...

Little-known Arab group in Iran faces persecution / Ahwazis call occupation of their land a plight worse than that of Palestinians : "For decades, the Persian shahs and ayatollahs of Iran have uprooted Ahwazi Arabs from their oil-rich region in the southwest corner of the country, forcing an estimated 1.5 million people off the land where their families have lived for generations. The result, Ahwazi activists say, is the occupation of an Arab homeland in the heart of the Middle East that almost nobody knows about -- an occupation, Ahwazis contend, that has stripped Arabs of more land than is at issue in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. 'They came at me like a pack of wolves,' said Abu Tarek, who asks that his family name be withheld out of concern for his safety. Abu Tarek is a native of the region that borders Iraq, Kuwait and the Persian Gulf, once known as Arabistan after its ethnic majority but renamed Khuzestan by the Iranian government. As a campaigne...

Lie By Lie : "In this timeline, we've assembled the history of the Iraq War to create a resource we hope will help resolve open questions of the Bush era. What did our leaders know and when did they know it? And, perhaps just as important, what red flags did we miss, and how could we have missed them? This is the second installment of the timeline, with a focus on how the war was lost in the first 100 days. "

Lebanese Support Resistance Against Israel: Angus Reid Global Monitor : "- Many adults in Lebanon believe Hezbollah is right in fighting Israel, according to a poll by the Beirut Center for Research and Information. 86.9 per cent of respondents support the Lebanese-backed resistance against Israel."

Stars & Stripes: U.S. troops razing Ramadi buildings to renew security : "As part of a new campaign to rid this violent city of insurgents, U.S. Army and Marine engineers have begun leveling a quarter-mile stretch of low-rise buildings that stand directly opposite Ramadi’s long-embattled government center. The abandoned buildings have been used repeatedly by insurgents to launch attacks on Marines quartered at the government center and other outposts along the city’s main thoroughfare. By razing the buildings, soldiers with the Giessen, Germany-based 16th Engineer Battalion and Marines with the Camp Lejune, N.C.-based 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion hope to deny the enemy cover for their attacks as well as open up fields of fire for Marines defending the government center.As part of a new campaign to rid this violent city of insurgents, U.S. Army and Marine engineers have begun leveling a quarter-mile stretch of low-rise buildings that stand directly opposite Ramadi’s long-embat...

Suddenly, I'm an 'Islamic Fascist' - by Jonathan Cook

A vicious monster rises in Iraq's sectarian war  'the Shia Zarqawi' | International News | News | Telegraph

The Bush Administration's Torture of U.S. Citizen Jose Padilla by Glenn Greenwald : "The Bush administration's May, 2002 lawless detention of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla – on U.S. soil – was, as I recounted in my book, the first incident which really prompted me to begin concluding that things were going terribly awry in our country. The administration declared Padilla an 'enemy combatant,' put him in a military prison, and refused to charge him with any crime or even allow him access to a lawyer or anyone else. He stayed in a black hole, kept by his own government, for the next three-a-half-years with no charges of any kind ever asserted against him and with the administration insisting on the right to detain him (and any other American citizen) indefinitely – all based solely on the secret, unchallengeable say-so of the President that he was an 'enemy combatant.' "

Jail warning did not deter BHP's Iraq oil deal : "PRESIDENT CHAVEZ DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 20, 2006 'Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'' [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] 'It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United St...

israelinsider: Views: Israel: Divorce America, Marry Russia : "There used to be a time when Israel had no other 'superpower partner' to align herself with other than the US. Today, that is not the case. Although few Israelis realize it, Israel has strategic options that it didn't have 15 years ago. In many respects, Russia is a much more suitable partner for Israel than the US. If Israel switched her alliance to be more politically and economically friendly with Russia -- and less dependent on the US -- Russia might be less inclined to support the regimes in Iran and Syria. This will strengthen Russia and enable Israel to find more common ground with its neighbours. The moment Israel aligns herself away from the US towards Russia -- American influence in our region will diminish. Today, Israel pays a heavy price for its close alliance with the US. Israel is perceived as 'America's sidekick' rather than an independent nation which serves its own interests. D...

Israel: a State built on lies

Islamic Fascism? : "By Ismael Hossein-zadeh 11/03/06 'Information Clearing House' -- -- President George W. Bush and the neoconservative handlers of his administration have added a new bogeyman to their long and evolving list of enemies: 'Islamic fascism,' also called 'Islamofascism.' This wonton flinging of the word 'fascism' in reference to radical movements and leaders of the Muslim world, however, is not only inaccurate and oxymoronic, but it is, indeed, also ironic. Of course, it is also offensive and inflammatory and, therefore, detrimental to international understanding and stability. Fascism is a specific category or concept of statecraft that is based on specific social and historical developments or phenomena. It cannot be conjured up by magic or portrayed by capricious definitions. It arises under conditions of an advanced industrialized economy, that is, under particular historical circumstances. It is a product of big business that is b...

Iraq: Resistance to Occupation Not Just for Fighters - by Dahr Jamail : "Iraq: Resistance to Occupation Not Just for Fighters by Dahr Jamail With Ali al-Fadhily KHALDIYA, Iraq - The bomb went off just outside the school as the IPS correspondent stood speaking to children and teachers within. The headmaster smiled. 'You will hear many of these every day if you stay here another day or two,' he said. 'The resistance will not stop until the last American leaves.' "

Infoshop News - Staticide, Not Civil War in Iraq : "Calling the tragedy in Iraq a 'civil war' is not only inaccurate. It is morally indefensible, laying the blame for the horrific violence and the destruction of a country and a society upon the victims of an illegal, aggressive war. It allows pundits like Thomas Friedman to claim that the country has been dysfunctional for a millenium, ignoring a long historical context of international support for Iraq's brutal dictator, debilitating and murderous sanctions by the United Nations, and a catastrophic and unprovoked US-led invasion of a sovereign state. More important, if Americans believe that Iraq is in 'civil war,' liberals would argue that the United States must remain in order to prevent an even worse outbreak of violence"

For Eminent Sunni, Lessons in Weakness - washingtonpost.com : "By Ernesto Londono Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 10, 2007; A01 BAGHDAD, Feb. 9 -- Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam Z. al-Zobaee's cousin has been in government custody for eight months. He hasn't been charged, Zobaee said, and the formal inquiries he himself has made to have the oil engineer released, or at least get the case before a judge, have been rebuffed. 'He was detained because they looked at him like he didn't belong here,' Zobaee said during a recent interview in his spacious office in the fortified Green Zone. 'He has been in detention for eight months -- and I am a deputy prime minister.'"

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Schwartz on Surging into Catastrophe in Iraq

Ex-aide says Rice misled U.S. Congress on Iran - Yahoo! News WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice misled the U.S. Congress when she said last week that she had not seen a 2003 Iranian proposal for talks with the United States, a former senior government official said on Wednesday. Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was headed by Rice, likened the proposal to the 1972 U.S. opening to China. He said he was confident it was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but "the administration rejected the overture." Speaking at a conference on Capitol Hill, Leverett said "this was a serious proposal, a serious effort" by Iran to lay out a comprehensive agenda for U.S.-Iranian rapprochement. "The Bush administration up to and including Secretary Rice is misleading Congress and the American public about the Iran proposal," he said. American war criminals and terrorist leaders and their slaves (condo...

US to take in 7,000 Iraqi refugees - Yahoo! News WASHINGTON (AFP) - "The United States plans to take in some 7,000 Iraqi refugees by October, more than a tenfold increase in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers admitted since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a senior US official said." After rape of their country, the rapists are going to admit 7000 refugees amongst millions of refugees. When George talks to his daughters in dinner table he will tell them, “these ungrateful Iraqi terrorists have to be admitted here in the U.S, because …….”

World Chechnya Day | Home

Limit Muslim migration, Australia warned - National - smh.com.au : "Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence. 'Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved.'" Zionist fascists claim where Muslims are a majority they resort to violence. This type of Islamophobic statement let terrorists led by George Bush and Israeli leaders in general to work in weakening of Muslims wherever they are to some degree of success. Even killing them; confiscating their property; taking their land by force settling (in Palestine) Zionist fascists in their place not enough. The terrorists also spend billions of dollars to rape Muslim lands and victimizing them to show Zionism and Whiteman’s supe...

Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans In the room, he said, stood three American guards carrying the type of electric stun devices that Mr. Ani and other detainees said had been used on them for infractions as minor as speaking out of turn. “Even the translator told me to sign the first answer,” said Mr. Ani, who gave a copy of his form to The New York Times. “I asked him what happens if I sign the second one, and he raised his hands,” as if to say, Who knows? “I thought if I don’t sign the first one I am not going to get out of this place.”

Human rights abuse rife in Saudi Arabia, watchdog says http://www.usatoday.com/ Among its other findings: * Women have no right to act on their own behalf and are subject to the control of male guardians, even for everyday activities. Guardians can restrict rights to employment, education and freedom of movement. * Prisoners at al-Ha'ir prison south of Riyadh reported physical abuse and said they remained locked up long after their sentences expired. * Abuse of the country's 9 million foreign workers is rampant. Workers go unpaid for months or years, despite working long hours at times with no days off. Physical and sexual abuse was found to be commonplace, as were incidents of forced labor and human trafficking.

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by Cenk Uygur | Feb 18 2007 - 10:24am | permalink article tools: email | print | read more Cenk Uygur In the 2006 election the American people made it clear that they wanted out of Iraq. They replaced 36 Republicans with Democrats in the House and the Senate, and they didn't remove a single Democrat. Yes, there were other factors, but overall, the message was a resounding 36-0 drubbing. The Democrats are right, let's get out of Iraq. It's not working. So, what did President Bush do? He decided to put more troops in. Genius. I'll tell you why. Because we're no longer discussing withdrawal, instead we're debating escalation. The Bush people changed the playing field by coming over the top of the Democrats. They moved the discussion from one where they were playing defense to one where they are playing offense.........

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/02/warped-priorities.html#links

Juan Cole said, "The report also says that Secretary of State Condi Rice was told on her surprise visit to Baghdad that the Mahdi Army of young nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has decided to cooperate with the security plan and that East Baghdad (Sadr City) is quiet. Why, the al-Maliki government asked, should resources be devoted to an area that is not a problem? This explanation aimed at excusing the sole concentration of the security plan on Sunni Arab areas in West Baghdad." What is the point Juan Cole trying to make? Sadir City is almost always quiet except occasional car bombs by hidden hands which brought by American rape of Iraq. Whether or not Nuri (the puppet Prime Minister) asked the invaders to go in or not into Sadir City it makes no different. We are told repeatedly Moqtada instructed his murderous anti Sunni militia to lie low: not to go in to Sunni areas murdering civilians or expelling them from their home. Is Juan Cole thought the Sadir militia will confr...

Opinion Afif Safieh | Fri. Feb 16, 2007 I know of no way to measure suffering, no mechanism to quantify pain. All I know is that we Palestinians are not children of a lesser God. Had I been a Jew or a Gypsy, I would consider the Holocaust to be the most atrocious event in history. Had I been a Native American, it would be the arrival of the European settlers and the subsequent near-total extermination of the indigenous population. Had I been an African American, it would be slavery in previous centuries and apartheid in the last. Had I been an Armenian, it would be the Turkish massacre. I happen to be a Palestinian, and for Palestinians the most atrocious event in history is what we call the Nakba, the catastrophe. Humanity should consider all the above as morally unacceptable, all as politically inadmissible. Lest I be misunderstood, I am not comparing the Nakba to the Holocaust. Each catastrophe stands on its own, and I do not like to indulge in comparative martyrology or a hierarchy...

American preparations for invading Iran are complete By Dan Plesch 02/16/07 " New Statesman " -- - American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day. They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons. British military sources told the New Statesman, on condition of anonymity, that "the US military switched its whole focus to Iran" as soon as Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Baghdad. It continued this strategy, even though it had American infantry bogged down in fighting the insurgency in Iraq. The US army, navy, air force and marines have all prepared battle plans and spent four years building bases and training for "Operation Iranian Freedom". Admiral Fallon, the new head of US Central Command, has inherited computerised plans under the name TIRANNT (Theatre Iran Near...