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Dumb and Hateful: The Consequences of US Islamophobia      :   Information Clearing House: ICH Consider the case of Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin. While still on active duty in 2002, this highly decorated Army officer spoke in uniform at a series of some 30 church gatherings during which he offered his own response to President Bush’s famous question: “Why do they hate us?” The general’s perspective differed markedly from his commander-in-chief’s: “The answer to that is because we're a Christian nation. We are hated because we are a nation of believers.” On another such occasion, the general recalled his encounter with a Somali warlord who claimed to enjoy Allah’s protection. The warlord was deluding himself, Boykin declared, and was sure to get his comeuppance: “I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.” As a Christian nation, Boykin insisted, the United States would succ...

On outskirts of Kabul, 'Warlordistan' may be glimpse of Afghan future - News - Stripes “He’s a murderer, he’s a thief and he has two more years of ruling out there,” one high-ranking police commander said of Gul, saying he hopes the people will choose a new member of parliament when Gul’s term is up. Gul and Mohammadi have steadfastly denied the accusations.

Study: ‘Counterproductive’ Drone War ‘Terrorizes’ Civilians in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com A new report by researchers at the Stanford and NYU schools of law has found that the drone program is “terrorizing” the people of Pakistan and that it is having “counterproductive” effects.

New Mexico church pulled offer to host Palestine conference due to pro-Israel group’s “interfaith bullying” On Friday, I wrote about the bullying and smear tactics of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico and its director Sam Sokolove, against the upcoming Friends of Sabeel-North America conference in Albuquerque on September 28-29 – tactics that I had experienced personally before a previous visit to New Mexico two years ago.

US to Take Iran Anti-Regime Group Off Terrorism List by Jim Lobe -- Antiwar.com In a move certain to ratchet up already-high tensions with Iran, the administration of President Barack Obama will remove a militant anti-regime group from the State Department’s terrorism list, U.S. officials told reporters here Friday. The decision, which is expected to be formally announced before Oct. 1, the deadline set earlier this year by a federal court to make a determination, was in the process of being transmitted in a classified report to Congress, according to the Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. The decision came several days after some 680 members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), or People’s Mojahedin, were transferred from their long-time home at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq close to the Iranian to a former U.S. base in at Baghdad’s airport in compliance with Washington’s demands that the group move. The transfer leaves only 200 militants at Camp Ashraf out of the roughly 3,20...

Hidden Camera Video: Romney on Iran, Israel-Palestine « Antiwar.com Blog A hidden camera that caught Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraising dinner has grabbed a lot of media attention today. Network news is focusing primarily on a single portion of the candid-camera speech in which Romney derides “47 percent” of the population who doesn’t pay income taxes and therefore will automatically vote for Obama. This should be really effective at grabbing that 5 percent of swing voters, Ol’ Mitt. Truthfully, this is one of the most poorly run campaigns I’ve seen in a long time.

Details emerge of US role in Sabra-Shatila massacre:       Information Clearing House: ICH Details Emerge of US Role in Sabra-Shatila Massacre By Al-Akhbar September 17, 2012 "Al-Akhbar" --  Israel duped the United Stated into believing that “thousands of terrorists” remained in west Beirut following the expulsion of Palestinian fighters 30 years ago, providing cover for the 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, according to recently declassified Israeli documents. The documents include verbatim transcripts of meetings between US and Israeli officials before and during the three-day massacre led by the right-wing Lebanese Christian Phalange militia that left roughly 2,000 people dead, mostly children, women and elderly men. “[The transcripts] reveal that the Israelis misled American diplomats about events in Beirut and bullied them into accepting the spurious claim that thousands of “terrorists” were in the camps,” The New York Tim...

Information Clearing House: ICH Robert Fisk was one of the first journalists to be present at the scene of the horrific murders in Lebanon, September 17th, 1982. He has published a number of different books and currently writes columns for The Independent newspaper. The following is extracted from his book, "Pity the Nation."

Karzai Slams NATO After Airstrike Kills Eight Women -- News from Antiwar.com Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement “strongly condemning” the overnight air strike in Laghman Province, in which NATO warplanes attacked a group of women gathering firewood on the outskirts of a village, killing eight and wounding several others.

Libya Warned US Three Days Before Consulate Attack -- News from Antiwar.com Despite US officials angrily condemning reports last week that the Benghazi consulate attack, which killed the US ambassador, came with advanced warning, another Libyan security official came forward today to confirm that he gave the US a specific warning about security three days before the attack.

Commentary: When War Correspondents Take Sides | The National Interest An opponent of U.S. intervention in World War I, the isolationist senator from California Hiram Johnson lamented once that, “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” Indeed, as British author Philip Knightley demonstrated in his The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as a Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Kosovo, Johnson’s warning was right: war correspondents sometimes spread lies for governments and others with a stake in the outcome of the war.

Syrian Rebels Execute Captured Soldiers in Aleppo -- News from Antiwar.com Syrian rebels have executed at least 20 Syrian soldiers, according to a new video released by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-rebel outlet. The video showed blindfolded soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs executed over the weekend in eastern Aleppo.

Sleeping With the Devil: How U.S. and Saudi Backing of Al Qaeda Led to 9/11:       Information Clearing House: ICH Preface:   The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan – Lt. General William Odom - noted: Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world. Odom also said: By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.

5 Countries the U.S. Is Royally Screwing Over      Information Clearing House: ICH 5 Countries the U.S. Is Royally Screwing Over From the drug war to the war on terror, the United States is wreaking havoc around the globe. By Alex Kane September 08, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - American history is littered with examples of military intervention and political meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. There was the US-backed overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected leader in 1953; the 1954 coup in Guatemala engineered by the Central Intelligence Agency; US funding of brutal “dirty wars” against leftists throughout Latin America in the 1970s; and much more. The post-9/11 era is no different, though the methods of warfare have changed. US military intervention in countries like Yemen have destabilized nations and killed innocent civilians in the name of the “war on terror.” The current crop of undeclared wars the US is waging is having a delete...

Information Clearing House: ICH September 09, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - -  Canada is more colony than sovereign state. Canadians perhaps wonder when it'll grow up, act like an adult, and regain its rightful independence.  They're also worried about a country junior partnering with imperial America, Israel, and other rogue NATO allies.  A previous article said the following: On September 7, Foreign Minister John Baird said Canada closed its Tehran embassy. It expelled Iranian diplomats in Ottawa. They have five days to leave. He claimed a nonexistent Iranian threat. He took a page from AIPAC's playbook. He bogusly called Tehran the gravest threat to global security. He accused Iran of "providing increasing military assistance to the Assad regime." He ignored Washington's war Syria. He said nothing about Canada's role. 

Despite New Denials by Rumsfeld, Evidence Shows US Military Used Waterboarding-Style Torture

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a major new report detailing how the Bush Administration and other allied governments tortured and imprisoned opponents of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The prisoners were then rendered to Gaddafi’s own prisons where many of them were tortured. According to a HRW press release, the 154-page report, “Delivered into Enemy Hands: US-Led Abuse and Rendition of Opponents to Gaddafi’s Libya,” is based on documents discovered by Human Rights Watch on September 3, 2011 in the offices of Libya’s former intelligence chief, Musa Kusa, after Tripoli fell to rebel forces last year.

"You want to kill him but he’s crying": More Israeli soldiers' confessions of crimes against children In 2007, Israeli soldiers arrested 13-year-old Majid Jaradat for throwing stones during a demonstration in Sair village, near Hebron. Majed spoke about the violence of his arrest and detention in a  video produced by Israeli rights organization B’tselem.

IAEA Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity by Gareth Porter -- Antiwar.com The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report made public Thursday reveals that Iran has actually reduced the amount of 20-percent enriched uranium available for any possible “breakout” to weapons grade enrichment over the last three months rather than increasing it.

Tutu urges trial for Blair and Bush over Iraq - Europe - Al Jazeera English Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for British ex-prime minister Tony Blair and former US president George W Bush to face trial in The Hague for their role in the Iraq war.

   The Real Convention Is On Romney Yacht      :    Information Clearing House: ICH August 30, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -  One of the reasons this Republican convention has been so deathly dull is that the real action isn't at the convention. It's at Cracker Bay. That's the name of the yacht that the Romney team just hosted 50 partiers, including some of his top donors. This was one of about a dozen events outside of the convention where they had private meetings with donors giving more than $1 million dollars to his campaign. Over $1 million a piece. Now, where do you think the real policy gets made? You think Mitt Romney gives a damn what a delegate thinks? The only delegates that matter were on that yacht. They call this group the "Victory Council." This is made of people who are literally millionaires and billionaires and who dictate what Mitt Romney's positions will be. He's a legendary flip-flopper, but if you want to ...

China, Egypt back Palestine's statehood     :    Information Clearing House: ICH China, Egypt Back Palestine's Statehood By Xinhua . BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- China and Egypt have reaffirmed their support for an independent State of Palestine, according to a joint press communique issued here on Thursday. The independent state should have full sovereignty established on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, said the communique, which also backed Palestine's participation in the United Nations and other international organizations. The document was released after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's three-day state visit to China concluded early on Thursday morning. It said China and Egypt support the international community in intensifying efforts to promote dialogues to finally solve the "Palestine question" through peaceful talks in a comprehensive and justified way. China has spoken highly of Egypt's contr...

BBC Rachel Corrie coverage omits facts, lets lies go unchallenged Tuesday 28 August was an extraordinary day for the BBC, even by its own low standards of reporting on Palestine. This was the day an Israeli court absolved the State of Israel of any responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli armored bulldozer in Gaza in 2003. BBC Radio 4’s World at One program ran a seven-minute segment on the court’s decision, including an interview with Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev.