US troops 'smiled before killing'
Four US soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before shooting them, a military court has heard from a fellow soldier.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING INFO)
The United States successfully carried out a flight test of ground- based missile defense system Friday, shooting down a warhead over the Pacific Ocean and saying it now has a "good chance" to intercept long- range North Korean missiles.
The success, which came after two failed tests in December 2004 and February 2005, is expected to boost the recently stepped-up U.S. efforts to build up its missile shield since North Korea's missile launches on July 5.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest horror is the study published in the Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war. Reading about it left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it sounded like a reasonable figure. It wasn't at all surprising. On the other hand, I so wanted it to be wrong. But... who to believe? Who to believe....? American politicians... or highly reputable scientists using a reliable scientific survey technique?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloody Thursday: 332 Iraqis Killed, 315 Wounded
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book: Sept. 11 Panel Doubted Officials
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, August 4, 2006
The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception, the panel's chairmen say in a new book.
Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton also say in "Without Precedent" that their panel was too soft in questioning former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — and that the 20-month investigation may have suffered for it.
The book, a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, recounts obstacles the authors say were thrown up by the Bush administration, internal disputes over President Bush's use of the attacks as a reason for invading Iraq, and the way the final report avoided questioning whether U.S. policy in the Middle East may have contributed to the attacks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Brutal mullah gunning for foreign troops in Afghanistan
From correspondents in Kabul, Afghanistan, 09:45 AM IST
Kabul - Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the ruthless fanatic in charge of the Taliban's new campaign, is fast becoming to Afghanistan what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was to Iraq.
Just like Zarqawi, his starring role in propaganda DVDs has successfully drawn in scores of suicide bombers and thousands of fighters to the cause. And just like Zarqawi, his fondness for beheadings means his followers fear him almost as much as his enemies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brzezinski: The Beginning of the End for Israel
By Daniel M Pourkesali
08/03/06 "CASMII" --- - - What a difference 3 weeks makes. You know the warmongers are in trouble when the Sunni Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the US-backed prime minister, who until last week would not hesitate to appear in a photo-op [1] with Condoleezza Rice tells her she is not welcome in Beirut unless she demands and sees to an immediate ceasefire before thanking Hezbollah [2], a long political thorn in his side, for its sacrifices to protect Lebanon.
Bush-Blair & Company in their unison support for a barbaric Israeli onslaught on Lebanon have managed to completely turn the proverbial political table around -- on themselves that is. Their adoption of the absurd notion of Israel acting in self-defense and continued insistence that there would be no halt to the offensive unless Hezbollah fighters are driven from the border has not only strengthened Hezbollah but will prove a boon to the anti-Zionist resistance movement in Lebanon and beyond.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush Seeks Retroactive Laws to Protect Himself from War Crimes Prosecution
By Paul Craig Roberts
08/29/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- When I was a kid, John Wayne war movies gave us the message that America was the good guy, the white hat that fought the villain.
Alas, today the US and its last remaining non-coerced ally, Israel, are almost universally regarded as the bad guys over whom John Wayne would triumph. Today the US and Israel are seen throughout the world as war criminal states.
On August 23 the BBC reported that Amnesty International has brought war crimes charges against Israel for deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure as an "integral part" of Israel’s strategy in its recent invasion of Lebanon.
Israel claims that its aggression was "self-defense" to dislodge Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. Yet, Israel bombed residential communities all over Lebanon, even Christian communities in the north in which no Hezbollah could possibly have been present.
United Nations spokesman Jean Fabre reported that Israel’s attack on civilian infrastructure annihilated Lebanon’s development: "Fifteen years of work have been wiped out in a month."
Israel maintains that this massive destruction was unintended "collateral damage."
President Bush maintains that Israel has "a right to protect itself" by destroying Lebanon.
Bush blocked the attempt to stop Israel’s aggression and is, thereby, equally responsible for the war crimes. Indeed, a number of reports claim that Bush instigated the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published on Friday, August 25, 2006 by OneWorld.net
Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor
by Aaron Glantz
A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 18, 2006
Mogadishu Journal
Business and Islam: Allies Against Anarchy in Somalia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Sept. 17 — In this sandy wasteland of palm trees and wrecked seaside villas, there are warlords and then there are moneylords.
Yusuf Muhammad is a moneylord, a shipping magnate who threw his weight — and men and money — behind the Islamic militias and helped bring them to power in June.
“The cost of doing business had simply become unacceptable,” Mr. Muhammad said of the days of anarchy before the Islamists took control. “So we made a move.”
The move was initially celebrated by Mogadishu’s people who, for the first time in 15 years of unrelenting clan warfare, enjoyed a modicum of peace. But three months into the new Islamic fiefdom, things are changing. While the millionaires of Mogadishu (and at 14,000 Somali shillings to the dollar, there are quite a few) continue to bankroll the Islamists, poorer people here are increasingly ambivalent. They describe a harsh and brazen government, whose troops bullwhip women for not wearing veils and summarily execute political enemies.
Four US soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before shooting them, a military court has heard from a fellow soldier.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING INFO)
The United States successfully carried out a flight test of ground- based missile defense system Friday, shooting down a warhead over the Pacific Ocean and saying it now has a "good chance" to intercept long- range North Korean missiles.
The success, which came after two failed tests in December 2004 and February 2005, is expected to boost the recently stepped-up U.S. efforts to build up its missile shield since North Korea's missile launches on July 5.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest horror is the study published in the Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war. Reading about it left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it sounded like a reasonable figure. It wasn't at all surprising. On the other hand, I so wanted it to be wrong. But... who to believe? Who to believe....? American politicians... or highly reputable scientists using a reliable scientific survey technique?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloody Thursday: 332 Iraqis Killed, 315 Wounded
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book: Sept. 11 Panel Doubted Officials
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, August 4, 2006
The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception, the panel's chairmen say in a new book.
Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton also say in "Without Precedent" that their panel was too soft in questioning former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — and that the 20-month investigation may have suffered for it.
The book, a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, recounts obstacles the authors say were thrown up by the Bush administration, internal disputes over President Bush's use of the attacks as a reason for invading Iraq, and the way the final report avoided questioning whether U.S. policy in the Middle East may have contributed to the attacks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Brutal mullah gunning for foreign troops in Afghanistan
From correspondents in Kabul, Afghanistan, 09:45 AM IST
Kabul - Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the ruthless fanatic in charge of the Taliban's new campaign, is fast becoming to Afghanistan what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was to Iraq.
Just like Zarqawi, his starring role in propaganda DVDs has successfully drawn in scores of suicide bombers and thousands of fighters to the cause. And just like Zarqawi, his fondness for beheadings means his followers fear him almost as much as his enemies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brzezinski: The Beginning of the End for Israel
By Daniel M Pourkesali
08/03/06 "CASMII" --- - - What a difference 3 weeks makes. You know the warmongers are in trouble when the Sunni Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the US-backed prime minister, who until last week would not hesitate to appear in a photo-op [1] with Condoleezza Rice tells her she is not welcome in Beirut unless she demands and sees to an immediate ceasefire before thanking Hezbollah [2], a long political thorn in his side, for its sacrifices to protect Lebanon.
Bush-Blair & Company in their unison support for a barbaric Israeli onslaught on Lebanon have managed to completely turn the proverbial political table around -- on themselves that is. Their adoption of the absurd notion of Israel acting in self-defense and continued insistence that there would be no halt to the offensive unless Hezbollah fighters are driven from the border has not only strengthened Hezbollah but will prove a boon to the anti-Zionist resistance movement in Lebanon and beyond.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush Seeks Retroactive Laws to Protect Himself from War Crimes Prosecution
By Paul Craig Roberts
08/29/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- When I was a kid, John Wayne war movies gave us the message that America was the good guy, the white hat that fought the villain.
Alas, today the US and its last remaining non-coerced ally, Israel, are almost universally regarded as the bad guys over whom John Wayne would triumph. Today the US and Israel are seen throughout the world as war criminal states.
On August 23 the BBC reported that Amnesty International has brought war crimes charges against Israel for deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure as an "integral part" of Israel’s strategy in its recent invasion of Lebanon.
Israel claims that its aggression was "self-defense" to dislodge Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. Yet, Israel bombed residential communities all over Lebanon, even Christian communities in the north in which no Hezbollah could possibly have been present.
United Nations spokesman Jean Fabre reported that Israel’s attack on civilian infrastructure annihilated Lebanon’s development: "Fifteen years of work have been wiped out in a month."
Israel maintains that this massive destruction was unintended "collateral damage."
President Bush maintains that Israel has "a right to protect itself" by destroying Lebanon.
Bush blocked the attempt to stop Israel’s aggression and is, thereby, equally responsible for the war crimes. Indeed, a number of reports claim that Bush instigated the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published on Friday, August 25, 2006 by OneWorld.net
Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor
by Aaron Glantz
A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 18, 2006
Mogadishu Journal
Business and Islam: Allies Against Anarchy in Somalia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Sept. 17 — In this sandy wasteland of palm trees and wrecked seaside villas, there are warlords and then there are moneylords.
Yusuf Muhammad is a moneylord, a shipping magnate who threw his weight — and men and money — behind the Islamic militias and helped bring them to power in June.
“The cost of doing business had simply become unacceptable,” Mr. Muhammad said of the days of anarchy before the Islamists took control. “So we made a move.”
The move was initially celebrated by Mogadishu’s people who, for the first time in 15 years of unrelenting clan warfare, enjoyed a modicum of peace. But three months into the new Islamic fiefdom, things are changing. While the millionaires of Mogadishu (and at 14,000 Somali shillings to the dollar, there are quite a few) continue to bankroll the Islamists, poorer people here are increasingly ambivalent. They describe a harsh and brazen government, whose troops bullwhip women for not wearing veils and summarily execute political enemies.
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