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NOTE: This article appeared in ICH web site Paul Craig Roberts 08/16/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- I received a number of intelligent responses from readers of my August 14 column, “Gullible Americans,” The letters deserve a reply. Moreover, some contain important points that should be shared with a wider audience. Pundits such as myself are not the only people who have interesting things to say. Considering the number of letters and the time it would require to respond individually, I am replying instead in this column. Most readers from whom I heard understand the difference between loyalty to country and loyalty to a government. They understand that to support a political party or a government that is destroying the US Constitution and America’s reputation in the world is, in fact, an act of treason. Therefore, I did not have to read the usual drivel about how doubting “our government” is un-American. Among the issues raised are: How could the complicity of the US...

"(AP) NEW YORK It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills — morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves. Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done."

"The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments."

FRIENDLY ISRAEL? SPYING ON THE UNITED STATES. An American engineer standing trial for spying and revealing secrets to China has also been indicted for passing secrets to Israel. The indictment filed against Noshir Gowadia, 62, a U.S. citizen of Indian origin, does not provide details to the nature of the secrets passed to Israel or to whom they were given.

THE NEWS IS FROM OCTOBER 2006. U.S. begins $42 million program to bolster Hamas opponents By Reuters The United States has quietly started a campaign projected to cost up to $42 million to bolster Hamas's political opponents ahead of possible early Palestinian elections, say officials linked to the program.

"An overwhelming majority, 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the year. Among Reserves 90% favor withdrawal compared to 83% of the National Guard, 70% of the Army, and 58% of the Marines. Moreover, about three-quarters of National Guard and Reserve units favor withdrawal within 6 months." THE NEWS WAS FROM OCTOBER 2006.

U.S. Fights Highly Trained Militants in Iraq

About 200 people have protested in Jerusalem against a decision by the Israeli health ministry to reject blood donated by Ethiopian-Israelis.

Anbar Picture Grows Clearer, and Bleaker By Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, November 28, 2006; A01 The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report that set off debate in recent months about the military's mission in Anbar province.

Americans in Denial about 9/11 By Matt Taibbi 09/14/06 "Rolling Stone" -- -- So, why did they hate us after all? We sure blew off that question nicely. As with everything else in this country, our response to 9/11 was a heroic compendium of idiocy, cowardice, callow flag-waving, weepy sentimentality (coupled with an apparently bottomless capacity for self-pity), sloth, laziness and partisan ignorance. We dealt with 9/11 in many ways. We instantly dubbed everyone who died in the accident a hero and commissioned many millions (billions?) in mawkish elegiac art. We created a whole therapy industry to deal with our 9/11-related grief, made a few claustrophobic two-star Hollywood movies about the bombings, read Lisa Beamer's book and bought that DVD narrated by Rudy, watched Law and Order entertainments about sensational murders committed that morning and left for Jerry Orbach to solve, made bushels of quasi-religious references to "hallowed ground." We made many car...

By John Tirman, AlterNet. Posted August 12, 2006. "The foiled bomb plot in the UK offers us and the Bush administration some pointers about the true nature of terrorism and its causes. What we now know about the London-based plot to destroy ten civilian airplanes points to six conclusions. First, what stopped this plot was law enforcement. Law enforcement. Not a military invasion of Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, or Iraq. Old-fashioned surveillance, development of human sources, putting pieces together, and cooperation with foreign police and intelligence services."

How Prescription Drugs Are Poisoning Our Waters By Elizabeth Royte, OnEarth Magazine Posted on October 23, 2006, Printed on January 28, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/story/43242/ "Norman Leonard moved to Heritage Village, a sprawling retirement community in western Connecticut, 11 years ago. Its green-gabled condominiums and Capes were well maintained, and the landscapers hadn't skimped on the rhododendrons. A retired CPA, Leonard considers himself, at age 80, to be in pretty decent shape: He plays platform tennis on the grounds and hikes often in nearby forests and reserves. But still, he takes five different drugs a day to manage his blood pressure, acid reflux, and high cholesterol. Heritage Village is home to about 4,000 residents with similar medical profiles, who take an average of six drugs a day." ............When residents of Heritage Village and two other nearby retirement communities flush their toilets, wastewater laced with traces of prescription drugs rushes ...

Al-Jazeera and the Truth by Charley Reese "The British Broadcasting Corp. had a man watch the first day's broadcast (it's being distributed in Europe) and gave it a rave review: accurate, but grim. Since American politicians have involved us so deeply in the Middle East, the American public is entitled to see the truth of what's going on over there. The public can't get that from American television, which sanitizes its reports. Al-Jazeera shows you the grim reality. When the Israelis kill children, they show you the bodies and the weeping mothers. They show you all the ugly truth about Israeli and American policies and actions in the Middle East. They show you what war looks like."

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2006 US army 'seized Iraqi homes' A leading Iraqi lawyer has accused the US army of throwing 211 families, including his, out of their homes. Rabah al-Alwan, 36, head of the Union of Lawyers in al-Anbar governorate in western Iraq, said that the US army has occupied his family's house and those of with dozens of other families in al-Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar governorate.

"When people and nations live in darkness, they lose sense of direction. In an information age, knowledge–driven global culture of reason, ignorance is no longer a requisite to learn from the living history. The previous Empires knew their geography and limits, but the newly articulated American Empire in its infancy, is challenging to the limits of the Laws of God and appears obsessed with “fear” of being replaced by the new emerging nations of Asia and South America. President Bush invoked the “War on Terrorism”, as a dictum of power, not reason and wisdom, to camouflage the prospective future with acts of barbarity and to dispel the notion of accountability in global affairs. Historically, people and nations pursuing this path of behavior have ended up in self-defeat and self-destruction. The 9/11 attacks and religious doctrines have no common ground. Hourly paid intellectuals turned guardian of approved truth, allege that Islam breeds terrorism. The Western mass media complem...

in case you missed it. Srebrenica is a bosnian town where 7000 Muslim male picked out by the Serbs and massacred in front of the UN peace keeping forces. Srebrenica Divides Serbs

news from last year. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels

"Nobody can understand what's going on politically in the United States without being aware that a political coalition of major pro-Likud groups, pro-Israel neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists is exerting a tremendously powerful influence on the American government and its policies"

A blueprint for leaving Iraq now SPEECH OF HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN OF MASSACHUSETTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 "Staying in Iraq not an option. Many Americans who were among the most eager to invade Iraq now urge that we find a way out. These Americans include not only civilian ``strategists'' and other ``hawks'' but also senior military commanders and, perhaps most fervently, combat soldiers. Even some of those Iraqis regarded by our senior officials as the most pro-American are determined now to see American military personnel leave their country. Polls show that as few as 2 percent of Iraqis consider Americans to be liberators. This is the reality of the situation in Iraq. We must acknowledge the Iraqis' right to ask us to leave, and we should set a firm date by which to do so."

September 20, 2004 From the Streets of Little Beirut Glen Yeadon As more documents concerning 9-11 surfaces , it is becoming increasing clear the top officials in the Bush administration were at least complicit if not an active participants in the attacks. There is enough evidence now to bind George W. Bush, big oil companies and 9-11 into a trinity of evil. By allowing the 9-11 attacks to take place unhindered Bush and all of his top advisers are guilty of the mass murder of over 3000 innocent people

A Jewish Hitler? The rise of Avigdor Lieberman "Lieberman's views are notoriously racist, and his rhetoric is invariably violent. He called for the execution of Israeli Arab members of the Knesset who met with Hamas or didn't celebrate Israel's Independence Day. His party, Yisrael Beytenu ("Israel is our Home"), accuses Israeli Arabs of "dual loyalty" on account of their ethnicity, and advocates the complete separation of the Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine – in effect, forced transfer. Lieberman and his followers vehemently oppose the peace process, support the militant settlement movement, and are proud partisans of ethnic cleansing."

RAMADI - Saad Hussein al-Alwani, the head of the Ramadi branch of the Iraqi National Congress, was kidnapped on Friday and found dead on Saturday, police said. The INC is a secular party headed by Ahmed Chalabi. What was he doing in Ramadi?

poor Ethiopian troops who invaded Somalia now couldn't sustain the occupation in just one month since they invaded Somali. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- in July 2006 50 percent of U.S. says Iraq had WMDs "Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 -- up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" in light of persistent press reports to the contrary in recent years." Shame on them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today Americans and their puppets killed 250 “insurgents.” When I read that kind of news it reminds me of Americas war against the population of the occupied in October 2006, they slaughter 85 people in Afghanistan too. “ Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) reported yester...

A lot of people in the Western World will never know why there are so many immigrants’ dies to get to Europe from West African countries. Today, I have watched on al Jazeera on a program called Witness the Malian refugees’ ordeal to go to Spain. Many dead and some made it to Spain. All that sacrifice was (for those who made it) to send remittance home to help their folks. The cameraman who witnessed and recorded this important story is an immigrant from Argentina who lives now in Spain understand why people immigrant to another countries leaving behind their roots to where they come from. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why American occupation would ends? It is for the good of almost all people; for the good of peace in the world; it is not right to occupy weak countries because they happen to have oil; it is wrong because the Middle Eastern countries will oppress their people to please America; it is wrong because it does bankrup...

"Fresh Air from WHYY, January 25, 2007 · Army Lieutenant Ehren Watada is the first American officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq on the grounds that he thinks the war is illegal. He is joined by one of his lawyers, Eric Seitz, a civillian. Watada is now being court-martialed for his refusal, and for statements he made opposing the war and the Bush administration's leadership." GO TO THE NPR PAGE TO LISTEN THE INTERVIEW

Saudi king: Spreading Shiism won't work. What does work? Spreading Wahabism? They can believe whatever they can believe but criticizing Iran for “spreading Shiism” is outrageous. The Wahabi’s are very aggressive. They are intolerant of other Muslims who don’t adhere to their brand of doctrine. I have never heard the Shiites spreading Shiism at all. If Iranians chose to do it, it is their right. People have a right to believe Wahabism, Shiism or any isms. What is the big deal? People like me don’t identify themselves to any isms. I dislike intolerance. I am not a judge nor could be anyone. Allah is the judge. No one knows who goes to heaven or hellfire. But my believe is such that intolerant people like the Wahabis are wrong; not because of what they believe in “puritanical Islam”, but because they are pointing others will go to hell unless they follow them. They support the corrupt kings and see women as unequal with men hence not even qualified to drive cars. Yet, they are procl...

At least 73 frightened Palestinians have arrived in El Waleed, at the Iraq-Syrian border, after fleeing Baghdad earlier this week following the detention and release of 30 Palestinian men on Tuesday. This is an ongoing problem. Palestinians are getting killed by Shia militias I would assume with the help of Americans and Israelis. Where could Palestinians live? Their country was taken by racists Zionists? America's war against Palestinians has been a long one. They must have been cheering from the sides while they are getting killed and driven out of their adapted country by the Shiites.

Death squad chieftains flee to beat Baghdad surge. I don’t believe this news at all. Why would the death squad leaders flee Baghdad? American troops are their friends in eliminating the Sunni population. Sadirists have the same aim as the Americans have. Besides, Isn’t Sadir City big enough to accommodate terrorist leaders who are sending peasant Shiite militias to terrorize the Sunnis? These leaders are cowardice who never faced their master rapists Americans anyways? Why fear their compatriots? The “government” of Iraq shields them, they control the security and the police forces, they have thousands of militias, they are supported by foreign sponsors like Iran and many hidden hands who like to see Iraq to cease altogether. There is no credibility to this news at all. None!

I must say, i have had the expectation there would be hundreds of thousands of protesters in Washington DC which never materialized. the New York Times reported "Tens of thousands of protesters"