be just

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.