be just

Almost Half Of New Veterans Seek Disability Compensation : pAbout 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking compensation for service-related injuries — more than double the 21 percent of veterans who filed such claims after the first Gulf War, according to an AP investigation. And new veterans are claiming an average of eight or nine [...]/p

EXCLUSIVE: From Hopeful Immigrant to FBI Informant - the Inside Story of the Other Abu Zubaidah

Report: Israel Killed 55 Civilians in Occupied Territories in 2012 -- News from Antiwar.com The annual Amnesty International report on human rights has once again faulted the Israeli government for its regular use of excessive force against Palestinian civilians, and put the overall death toll at 55 civilians, including 11 children. Three other civilians were killed by settlers in the past year. The report also touches on Israel’s “administrative detention” policy, which keeps over 300 Palestinians in prison indefinitely without any charges or trial. Palestinians in Israeli custody are also subject to regular torture. It goes on to criticize Israeli restrictions on Palestinian civilian freedom of movement, noting that in the West Bank the military often keeps farmers away from their own land. Israel’s blockade and harsh restrictions on imports and exports has also exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The report also slammed the Palestinian Authority for violat...

Saudi signs $3 bn deal with Britain RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has signed a $3 billion deal with Britain to buy trainer jets for the Gulf kingdom's air force, SPA state news agency said on Wednesday.   The agreement includes the provision of simulators, ground and training equipment and spare parts, SPA reported, quoting a Saudi defence ministry official.   The official said the new jets would help qualify Saudi pilots "to use fourth-generation jet fighters in full professionalism and efficiency."   British arms manufacturer BAE Systems said that following the agreement between the two countries, it had been awarded a contract equivalent to 1.6 billion pounds ($2.54 billion) "to support the future aircrew training requirements of the Royal Saudi Air Force."   "The contract includes the supply of 22 new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft, 55 Pilatus PC-21 aircraft and other aircrew training equipment, as well as an initial support package including the ...

No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable   : Information Clearing House No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable By Dave Llindorff May 23, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”

Osama bin Laden's Goal to bankrupt America is Working   : Information Clearing House Osama bin Laden's Goal to Bankrupt America is Working By Albert Foster May 22, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Michael Scheuer who was the head of the CIA get bin Laden team under Bill Clinton said bin Laden’s goal was to bankrupt America and thus destroy its influence in the world. With the help of Washington politicians he is well on the way to having met his goal. The national debt was $5.8 trillion on 9/10/2001. Today it is $15.7+ trillion and rapidly rising…almost $10 trillion in just 10 1/2 years. Not a bad start toward bankruptcy if you ask me. The escalation of our debt was totally irresponsible, is unsustainable, and will lead to the downfall of the United States if we do not get it under control very soon. It was not bin Laden who ran up this debt. He just accelerated the process. Americans should be really agitated about this, but they are either ignorant o...

War Pay  : The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget   : Information Clearing House War Pay The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget By Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer May 22, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.  

"No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit We broadcast from Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history. On Sunday, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as members of Afghans for Peace, led a peace march of thousands of people. Iraq Veterans Against the War held a ceremony where nearly 50 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them down the street in the direction of the NATO summit. We hear the soldiers’ voices as they return their medals one by one from the stage. "I’m here to return my Global War on Terror Service Medal in solidarity with the people of Iraq and the people of Afghanistan," said Jason Hurd, a former combat medic who spent 10 years in the U.S. Army. "I am deeply sorry for the destruction that we have caused in those countries and around the globe." [includes rush transcript]

Reports: Hunger Strike Ends for Most Palestinians -- News from Antiwar.com Reports from Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officials familiar with the deal say that the vast majority of Palestinian hunger strikers have signed off on an agreement to end the strike, after promising to end solitary confinement and allow family visits for detainees.

State Dept. Poised to Remove Iranian Terror Group From Terror List -- News from Antiwar.com One of the founding members of the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the Iran-based cult the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK) is almost certain to be delisted in the next 60 days, in a move that is likely to dramatically increase tensions between the US and Iran.

Five Facts That Put America to Shame: Information Clearing House Five Facts That Put America to Shame By Paul Buchheit May 14, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These words, from poet Emma Lazarus, were inscribed on the Statue of Liberty over 100 years ago. Today the golden door has a lock on it, paid for with record profits from the health care, education, and financial industries.

Chomsky: The Palestinian Hunger Strike & Occupy Wall Street       : Information Clearing House The Palestinian Hunger Strike & Occupy Wall Street By Noam Chomsky Occupy Wall Street "Has Created Something That Didn’t Really Exist" in U.S. — Solidarity

Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards        : Information Clearing House Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards By Pepe Escobar May 14, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --  Life is a golden gift from Allah if you're a certified member of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can torture, kill, repress and demonize their own subjects - in full confidence the "master" will let you get away with it. Just as the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty in power in Bahrain is vowing, publicly, to keep arresting, tear-gassing, raiding their homes, confiscating their jobs and forcing pro-democracy protesters to live in non-stop fear, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is being hosted in Washington by the Barack Obama administration. Prince Salman - who Bahraini propaganda sells as a "moderate" - showed up at the US State Department s...

Why the U.S. Can’t Compete Educationally A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford The United States cannot follow the Finnish model to emerge from second class world educational status, because the Finnish system is based on social equality and esteem for the teaching profession. Here, “teachers are relentless hounded and degraded, made the scapegoats of society’s inequalities by sharing low scores with their students, whose families and communities are cut off from America’s wealth.” To compete, America must be radically transformed.

Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class? If some racist made an inappropriate remark about the First Lady or her children our national "civil rights leaders" Obama fans all of them, would be all over that. But standing up for ordinary black children is something our leaders just don't do much any more.  When was the last time you heard Sharpton, Jealous or any of that tribe inveigh against school closings and the creeping privatization of our schools?   Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?

Nasrallah says Syria risks becoming like Iraq - Middle East - Al Jazeera English Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has accused the US, Israel and some Arab states of stoking "terrorism" in Syria during a speech broadcast to thousands of his supporters in southern Beirut. "Who wants the destruction of Syria? America and Israel and some Arab countries," said Nasrallah, whose Shia movement is close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. "They want to destroy Syria because it is the main ally of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine." Condemning deadly twin blasts that killed dozens and injured hundreds of people in Damascus on Thursday, Nasrallah criticised the Syrian opposition over its accusation that Assad’s forces were behind the attacks. The explosions, the Hezbollah chief added, were proof that Syria risks descending into an abyss similar to Iraq. "The Syrian people are at a crossroads," Nasralla...

Noam Chomsky: Cuba, The Drug War, And The Isolation Of The U.S. Cuba, The Drug War, And The Isolation Of The U.S. By Noam Chomsky May 11, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war, and the isolation of the United States. A headline in the Jamaica Observer read, “Summit shows how much Yanqui influence had waned.” The story reports that “the big items on the agenda were the lucrative and destructive drug trade and how the countries of the entire region could meet while excluding one country – Cuba.” The meetings ended with no agreement because of U.S. opposition on those items – a drug-decriminalization policy and the Cuba ban. Continued U.S. obstructionism may well lead to the displacement of the Organization of American States by the newly-formed Community of Latin American...

: Information Clearing House Home   Sign up for our FREE Daily Email Newsletter The US Military's 'Anti-Islam Classes' How widespread is the use of anti-Islamic material in the US military? Video Inside Story - Al Jazeera May 13, 2012  -- Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive material of a course taught on a US military base implying that Hamas has influenced the US government at the highest levels. The course is called "Understanding the Threat to America." And in it are hundreds of slides that claim to link the Muslim Civil Liberties Advocacy Organisation (CAIR) and other American Muslim groups to the Palestinian group Hamas. It was taught to senior military officers at a base in the state of Virginia.   The US military is conducting a review of all material taught to its officers after the website Wired.com exposed another course teaching anti-Islam material. One of the slides presented by Army Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley says the m...

Saudi Arabia beheads woman for 'sorcery' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English A Saudi woman has been beheaded after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned in the conservative Gulf kingdom, the country's interior ministry said. Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was executed on Monday in the northern province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery", the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA, Saudi Arabia's state news agency. The ministry gave no further details of the charges for which the woman was convicted. London-based newspaper al-Hayat quoted a member of the Saudi religious police as saying Nasser was in her 60s. The official claimed she had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses. According to the report, she apparently charged up to $800 a session. Amnesty International said the beheading brought the number of executions in the kingdom to 73 this year. Another woman w...

Germany grappling with violence at demonstrations - The National Berlin // The German government is considering banning some radical Muslim groups and expelling violent demonstrators from the country after several police were attacked and injured by Islamists protesting against displays of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by a far-right organisation.

A network of ultra-conservative groups is ramping up an offensive on multiple fronts to turn the American public against wind farms and Barack Obama's energy agenda. A number of rightwing organisations, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are attacking Obama for his support for solar and wind power. The American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which also has financial links to the Kochs, has drafted bills to overturn state laws promoting wind energy. Now a confidential strategy memo seen by the Guardian advises using "subversion" to build a national movement of wind farm protesters.

Unfathomable Stupidity: TSA 'Terror Baby' Crackdown :       : Information Clearing House Unfathomable Stupidity: TSA 'Terror Baby' Crackdown Video By RT Our tool time award goes to the TSA for actually detaining an eighteen month old for questioning. And given this latest incident, it's not surprising that Congress members are proposing to scale back the TSA. Senator Rand Paul's office even announced last week that it's drafting legislation to scrap the agency entirely.

Guns Or Butter?   House Votes to Cut Social Programs  : Information Clearing House May 11, 2012 "AP" -- Turning their budget knife to domestic programs to protect the Pentagon, House Republicans on Thursday approved legislation cutting food stamps, benefits for federal workers and social services programs like day care for children and Meals on Wheels for the elderly. President Barack Obama's Wall St. reform law would be rewritten under the legislation, passed on a 218-199 vote, while his controversial overhaul of the U.S. health care system would also be cut. The legislation would deny illegal immigrants child tax credits they can currently claim, while new curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits are credited with driving down Medicare and Medicaid costs. The bill, passed after a passionate, sometimes hyperbolic debate, would spare the military from a $55 billion, 10 percent automatic budget cut next year that's punishment for the failure of last year's defici...

 Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes       : Information Clearing House Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes By Yvonne Ridley May 11, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- Kuala Lumpur -- IT’S OFFICIAL - George W Bush is a war criminal. In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were today (Friday) found guilty of war crimes. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia. The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-...

  60 Minutes Producer: "The Nazis Did A Lot Of This"      : Information Clearing House He doesn't need to be interviewed by a fawning Leslie Stahl, whose report was as supine as it was selective. But at least here, you have the producer simply stating about the torture techniques embraced by Rodriguez: "The Nazis did a lot of this, the Khmer Rouge did a lot of this." So the producer realizes that he is featuring someone guilty of war crimes as bad as the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, but wants him to give his side of the story. How about - you know - arresting him first? If this were a torturer from Iran, do you think he would have been treated so deferently? A reader writes:

Sunni Extremists Ravaging Syria Created by US in 2007     : Information Clearing House Hersh's report had warned of the tragic consequences to be expected once this Sunni-front had been unleashed, namely, according to former CIA agent Robert Baer in Lebanon, " Sunni Arabs carrying out a "cataclysmic conflict." Baer warned of the need to protect Christians from a predictable onslaught by Sunni extremists - an onslaught now playing out against Syria's 10% Christian population, according to the LA Times' "Church fears 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians in Homs, Syria," (6) and more recently in USA Today's distorted, but still telling, "Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites." (7)   Christians are not the only minorities being targeted by the US-Israeli-Saudi terrorist front, but all minorities are as is secularism itself, being systematically targeted, as is the case after the NATO-backed dismemberment...

War Is A Racket He joined the Marine Corps when the Spanish American War broke out, earned the Brevette Medal during the Boxer Rebellion in China, saw action in Central America, and in France during World War I was promoted to Major General. Smedley Butler served his country for 34 years, yet he spoke against American armed intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations.

Defense Dept. Course Instructed ‘Total War’ on Muslims, Advocated ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics -- News from Antiwar.com The Defense Department taught students in the U.S. military that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims is necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists. The course material in the Joint Forces Staff College, since canceled for being “inflammatory,” instructed students that international laws protecting civilians in wartime are “no longer relevant,” and that we should apply “the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki” to Islam’s holiest cities, and bringing about “Mecca and Medina['s] destruction.” The course material advocated targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.” http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/all/1

Bad for America, Bad for Israel, Bad for the World by Rep. Ron Paul -- Antiwar.com Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, which unfortunately is another piece of one-sided and counterproductive foreign policy legislation. This bill’s real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria, and it undermines U.S. diplomatic efforts by making clear that the U.S. is not an honest broker seeking peace for the Middle East.

Are American Jews falling out of love with Israel?     : Information Clearing House Are American Jews falling out of love with Israel? Norman Finkelstein - Video - BBC HARDtalk American Presidents have long been criticised for being too in thrall to the Jewish lobby. So what happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel?

US attack kills 5 Afghan kids     : Information Clearing House May 08, 2012 "Salon" -- Yesterday, I noted several reports from Afghanistan that as many as 20 civilians were killed by two NATO airstrikes, including a mother and her five children. Today, the U.S. confirmed at least some of those claims, acknowledging and apologizing for its responsibility for the death of that family:

Top Republican Calls for Stepped-Up Interventionism in Latin America -- News from Antiwar.com The top Republican in Congress on Tuesday called for stepping up U.S. “engagement” and interventionism in Latin America in order to obstruct various bogeymen that pose no threat to America. “The best defense against an expansion of Iranian influence in Latin America – and against the destructive aspirations of international criminals in the region – is for the United States to double down on a policy of direct engagement,” U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said at the State Department. Boehner said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visits to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador in recent months “underscored the designs Iran has for expanding its influence in Latin America, and its eagerness to forge bonds with governments in the Western Hemisphere that have demonstrated a lesser interest in freedom and democracy.” If diplomatic meetings between Iran and Latin Am...

Supposed Would-Be Underwear Bomber Is CIA Informant -- News from Antiwar.com U.S. and Yemeni officials have confirmed that the supposed would-be underwear bomber at the heart of an al-Qaeda airliner plot revealed this week was actually an informant working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence all along. Members of the Obama administration spent virtually all of yesterday parading throughout major media outlets claiming their intrepid counterterrorism efforts successfully foiled a terrorist plot to blow up an American airliner. But now officials have anonymously confirmed that the plot, like so many other “successfully foiled” terror attacks, was hatched by the CIA from the start. Instead of showing that the CIA and the counterterrorism policies of the U.S. are keeping Americans safe from harm, or that al-Qaeda is making “inroads,” as former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter said, all this lauded incident shows is that the CIA can get weapons from shadow...

Former Labor Sec. Robert Reich on Clinton's Errors of Crippling Welfare to Repealing Glass-Steagall Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich critiques President Obama’s handling of the economic crisis and the Clinton administration’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a key deregulatory move that ended the separation of commercial and investment banking and is widely seen as having helped lead to the financial collapse. The Clinton administration also presided over a drastic transformation of U.S. welfare laws, throwing millions off of welfare rolls. "I went outside of the White House, walked back to my office along Constitution Avenue, expecting I would see signs. ... There are a lot of people who were concerned about that issue. But there was nobody on the streets. It was deafening. The silence was deafening," Reich says of the day Clinton signed the change into law. He notes this is when he realized, "if people who are concerned about the increasing concentration of...

U.S. Spends Far More for Health Care Than 12 Industrialized Nations, but Quality Varies      : Information Clearing House U.S. Spends Far More for Health Care Than 12 Industrialized Nations By Mary Mahon May 03, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- May 3, 2012, New York, NY—The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries yet does not provide "notably superior" care, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on health care services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much. While the U.S. performs well on breast and colorectal cancer survival rates, it has among the highest rates of potentially preventable deaths from asthma and amputations due to diabetes, and rates that are no better than average for in-hospital deaths from heart attack and stroke.

Finding Bin Laden: The Truth Behind the Official Story       : Information Clearing House Finding Bin Laden: The Truth Behind the Official Story By Gareth Porter May 03, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- A few days after US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a "senior intelligence official" briefing reporters on the materials seized from bin Laden's compound said the materials revealed that bin Laden had, "continued to direct even tactical details of the group's management." Bin Laden was, "not just a strategic thinker for the group," said the official. "He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions." The official called the bin Laden compound, "an active command and control center." The senior intelligence official triumphantly called the discovery of bin Laden's hideout, "the greatest intelligence success perhaps of a generation," an...

United Methodists Call for Boycott of “products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories” | BDSmovement.net United Methodists Call for Boycott of “products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories” http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/united-methodists-call-for-boycott-of-products-made-by-israeli-companies-operating-in-occupied-palestinian-territories-8999 Adopting the “Kairos Palestine” document, Methodists Elevate Palestinian Rights and Israel Divestment to Mainstream Prominence “Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.” –Gandhi Occupied Palestine, 3 May 2012 – The General Conference of the United Methodist Church decided yesterday to call for an explicit boycott of all Israeli companies “operating in the occupied Palestinian territories,” knowing that this constitutes the absolute majority of Israeli corporations. This and the overwh...

What Obama Knows      : Information Clearing House What Obama Knows By Fidel Castro May 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- The most demolishing article I have seen nowadays about Latin America was written by Renán Vega Cantor, full professor at the National Pedagogical University of Bogotá, which was published three days ago by the website ‘Rebelión’ under the title Rebelión’ under the title “Ecos de la Cumbre de las Américas” (Echoes of the Summit of the Americas). It is a brief article and I should make no summary.  Those who specialize on the subject can look it up at the aforementioned website.

Broken Spring?       : Information Clearing House This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries. The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions. These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.

May Day – Mayday      : Information Clearing House May 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- The history of May 1 as a workers’ holiday is intimately tied to the generations-long movement for the eight-hour day, to immigrant workers, to police brutality and repression of the labour movement, and to the long tradition of American anarchism.

We Japanese Americans Must Not Forget Our Wartime Internment     : Information Clearing House We Japanese Americans Must Not Forget Our Wartime Internment The degrading treatment of Japanese American families like mine is the theme of my new musical, Allegiance By George Takei May 01, 2012 "The Guardian" --  Seventy years ago, US soldiers bearing bayoneted rifles came marching up to the front door of our family's home in Los Angeles, ordering us out. Our crime was looking like the people who had bombed Pearl Harbor a few months before. I'll never forget that day, nor the tears streaming down my mother's face as we were forcibly removed, herded off like animals, to a nearby race track. There, for weeks, we would live in a filthy horse stable while our "permanent" relocation camp was being constructed thousands of miles away in Arkansas, in a place called Rohwer.

George Monbiot: Empire of Capital         : Information Clearing House The conviction of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, is said to have sent an unequivocal message to current leaders: that great office confers no immunity. In fact it sent two messages: if you run a small, weak nation, you may be subject to the full force of international law. If you run a powerful nation, you have nothing to fear. While anyone with an interest in human rights should welcome the verdict, it reminds us that no one has faced legal consequences for launching the illegal war against Iraq. This fits the Nuremberg Tribunal’s definition of a “crime of aggression”, which it called “the supreme international crime”(1). The charges on which, in an impartial system, George Bush, Tony Blair and their associates should have been investigated are far graver than those for which Taylor was found guilty.

Israeli Military Shrugs Off 2009 Killing of Gaza Family, Closes Probe -- News from Antiwar.com The Israeli military has today announced that it is closing its investigation of the January 2009 killing of 21 members of a single family in the Gaza Strip, saying that “no legal steps” will be taken against those responsible for the deaths.

US Military Underreporting Fighting Between Afghan and NATO Troops -- News from Antiwar.com The U.S. military is concealing the frequency of incidents in which Afghan soldiers open fire on American and other NATO troops, according to the Associated Press. Afghan and American soldiers have increasingly got into gun battles with each other, a signal of how much of a failure is one of the primary missions in the war in Afghanistan: training Afghan forces. American and NATO troops are frequently killed or injured in these clashes, but the Army only reports them some of the time. “The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or other foreign soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform,” the Associated Press reports. But “it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also doesn’t report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.” In 2011, 35 NATO troops were killed by their Afgha...