Where do messages from OBL, Zawahri come from?

Ever wonder how the government gets access to audio and video tapes from the likes of terrorist masterminds like Ossama Bin Laden or Ayman El Zawahri? Turns out that they pay a couple of third-rate privately owned, US-based counter-terrorist organizations to provide them with a constant stream of terrorist propaganda from popular Islamic evil-doers.

The unique access these two groups have to these terrorist 'releases' is nothing short of remarkable. It's almost as if they have an exclusive license to market the world's most popular foes.

And boy are they hard at work for their clients - whoever they are.

[The pace of messages] has increased dramatically this year - with four audiotapes from bin Laden and seven audios and videos by his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Hours after Friday's message appeared, an advertisement on the same Islamic Web site said bin Laden would issue another tape directed to "the Islamic nation in general and the mujahedeen in Iraq and Somalia in particular." A similar announcement proceeded bin Laden's message Friday by about 24 hours.

The advertisement banner was signed by As-Sahab, the production branch that releases al-Qaida videos, and had an old picture of bin Laden. The teaser was first reported by the SITE Institute and the IntelCenter, two U.S.-based independent groups that provide counter-terrorism information to the U.S. government and media.

The IntelCenter said the promised message was expected within 36 hours.

How would they know???

For the past 13 years, offerings from IntelCenter and its sister company, Tempest Publishing, have been designed to assist professionals in furthering this goal. All of our products are designed to achieve real results for the operator, analyst or first responder.

Our focus as a company is on studying terrorist groups and other threat actors and disseminating that information in a timely manner to those who can act on it. We look at capabilities and intentions, warnings and indicators, operational characteristics and a wide variety of other points in order to better understand how to interdict terrorist operations and reduce the likelihood of future attacks.

For the past 13 years? Where were they on 9/11?

Their "products" are not cheap either. According to their "sales catalog"...

GOVERNMENT (MILITARY, INTELLIGENCE, FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT)
TERRORISM THREAT INTEL PACKAGE
US$3,175 per user per year [!!!]
This package is designed to enhance your situational awareness of the current terrorism threat environment. Feeds will provide detailed information on incidents around the world, information on new threats and tactics and much more.

Information will be provided to you on the wireless device of your choice, through email and through database access over the Internet. You will receive both Alert and Current Intelligence feeds as well as access to the full IntelCenter Database (ICD) for any research work you need to perform on various groups, individuals, incidents or other developments. Information will range from non-sensitive to law enforcement sensitive. Two hours of phone consultation is also included.

Phone consultation???

The US government, which has billions of dollars at its disposal for intelligence operations around the world needs desk help from a private subcontractor that appears to be nothing more than a highly automated one man show that operates two companies from one PO Box and sells cheesy over-priced merchandise on its website??? WTF?

And what about the other group, SITE Institute ("The Search for International Terrorist Entitities")? What are they about?

The SITE Institute works regularly with and provides important and often unique information to journalists, law firms pursuing civil litigation, major corporations, law enforcement, U.S. Congress, and numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury Department, Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS), the FBI, Customs, and the Department of Justice.

What kind of "unique" information? Who are these people???

Rita Katz, Director and co-founder of the SITE Institute, has studied, tracked, and analyzed international terrorists and their financial operations for more than six years.

Since well before September 11, she has personally briefed government officials, including former terrorism czar Richard Clarke and his staff in the White House, as well as investigators in the Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Homeland Security on the financing and recruitment networks of the terrorist movement. Many of her leads have prompted the government to investigate and take legal action against individuals and organizations suspected of ties to terrorism.

Before founding the SITE Institute in 2002, Ms. Katz served as Research Director of the Investigative Project in Washington, DC. Born in Iraq and a graduate of the Middle Eastern Studies program at Tel Aviv University, Katz speaks both Arabic and Hebrew with native fluency.

Ms. Katz is the author of TERRORIST HUNTER: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America (HarperCollins, 2003). Her commentary on terrorism issues frequently appears in prominent media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, 60 Minutes, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal.

Josh Devon, Senior Analyst and co-founder of the SITE Institute, focuses on the research and analysis of the global terrorist network. He has consulted on terrorism-related investigations for several government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. Mr. Devon has published numerous articles on terrorism, including the extensive use of the Internet by terrorist groups and their followers worldwide. He appears regularly in the media. [So?]

Mr. Devon has a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently pursuing an advanced degree in International Relations, concentrating in Middle East Studies, at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

That's it? Two people run SITE and one guy runs IntelCenter? And our government and media are getting all their terrorist intelligence from them? Is this some kind of sick joke?

Evangelical pilgrims cheer Israel on at Gaza border

Strumming guitars and banging bongos, Christian pilgrims journeyed to Israel's dusty border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday to offer support to Israeli troops participating in the military action.

Apparently, Palestinians do not pose the existential threat that Israelis want us to believe they do. Otherwise, these people wouldn't be flocking to the Gaza border from all over the world to sing kumbaya with their Israeli war brethren.

About 25 people, wearing white T-shirts that said "Your God is my God," waved Israeli flags and sang religious songs.

They must think that their God is different from the God Palestinians pray to. I thought these people called themselves monotheistic. I guess that's only in theory.

Hundreds of troops milled about in the distance alongside tanks and armored vehicles, seemingly oblivious to the group.

The group had planned to visit Israel long before this week's invasion. But after the military operation was launched, the pilgrims decided to show their support. Members came from the U.S., Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Sweden, France and Germany.

What? No Palestinian Christians?

"We are here to support Israel, and we are here to tell it we support you, we pray for you and we want to bless Israel," said Leena Eronen of Finland.

I was under the impression that blessing was God's job.

Many evangelical groups support Israel, believing that Jewish sovereignty over the region is part of biblical prophecy.

And they are not willing to wait. They intend to bring it on.

No agency left intact - NASA's demise under Bush

A 30-year NASA veteran and one of the agency`s top shuttle engineers has reportedly angrily resigned only five days before Saturday`s Discovery launch.

* * *

Unidentified sources at NASA told ABC News Camarda has been feuding with Wayne Hale, the manager of NASA`s space shuttle program, and NASA Administrator Mike Griffin about treatment Camarda`s engineers received when they raised concerns about the upcoming Discovery launch. Some engineers believe more substantial changes need to be made.

Something tells me now is not a good time to be flying on that shuttle.

In a Tuesday email to his colleagues at Johnson, ABC News said Camarda reaffirmed his disappointment with NASA officials.

'I cannot accept the methods I believe are being used by this Center to select future leaders,' he wrote. 'I have always based my decisions on facts, data and good solid analysis. I cannot be a party to rumor, innuendo, gossip and-or manipulation to make or break someone`s career and-or good name.'

I guess he can forget about politics then.

One of the commentators after the article says it best.

President Bush has used the spoils system to replace meritorious public officials with politcal hacks and unqualified cronies. This time-honored, yet lethal approach to governance has resulted in the Katrina debacle and the administration-wide culture of incompetence has entangled the nation in an unwinnable war in Iraq which was predicated upon false pretexts and unfounded assumptions.

It is no surprise that Bush's congenital propensity for fostering corruption and incompetence has affected NASA as well.

They ought to strap Junior Bush to the problematic fuel tank when Discovery blasts off - he could ride that baby into space Slim Pickens style - Yeeeehaaawww!!

Poof!

Sounds good to me! I've got a great windbreaker that he can use for the ride.

Israel's attack against Gaza pre-planned

Amid sonic booms that shattered windows, Israeli planes hit the three bridges and Apache helicopters targeted all six of the transformers at the power plant - an attack Israeli officials said was necessary to make any transfer of Gilad more difficult.

"Nobody understands the logic," Rafik Maliha, the plant's manager, said as firefighters worked to keep down smoke that still rose hours after the attacks. "They want to keep people in the dark so kidnappers don't move? What's the relationship?"

He added: "If there is no electricity, THERE IS NO WATER. It is more than collective punishment."

Both Palestinian and Israeli officials said the plant, built by Norway and run by oil subsidized by the European Union, provided 42 percent of the power to Gaza's 1.3 million residents, and now Gaza is completely dependent on Israel for its power.

Maliha said it would take as long as a year to replace the transformers, at a cost of more than $1 million each.

If Israel's reasoning sounds illogical, it's because it's just an excuse - a pretext to implement a pre-planned effort to decimate whatever's left of Gaza and leave Palestinians entirely dependent on Israelis.

"I don't believe at this point we'll be able to save Gilad Shalit, but we have to go in anyway," says Eliraz - conscripted troops can only give their first names.

Yvgeny, from the elite Givati Brigade, nods. "They'll know next time that they can't just go and kidnap our soldiers and expect to get away with it."

Israel's goal in Gaza is to make Palestinians uncomfort- able enough to think twice about committing more kidnappings, or in the language floating around the camp here, to teach them a lesson.

The real question is what lesson will the world learn from this fiasco?

Iraqi gov't directs insurgents to e-mail surrender

In a sign of the e-times, Iraq's prime minister has set up an e-mail account to communicate with insurgents.

No attachments, please.

Nouri al-Maliki had the address flashed during a broadcast Sunday night on state-run al-Iraqiya television. It was advertised as an address to which insurgents could write and be assured confidentiality.

Yeah, right.

Al-Maliki unveiled his national reconciliation plan earlier in the day, calling on insurgents to lay down their arms and offering a limited amnesty for fighters who had not committed terrorist acts or killings.

They keep saying that. But, how are they supposed to know who did and did not commit terrorist acts and killings? Are they going to institute an honor system?

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker and close associate of President Jalal Talabani, confirmed al-Maliki set up an e-mail account but did not have details about how many electronic messages had been received.

But Iraqi presidential security adviser Wafiq al-Samaraie said the response so far had been low, with just two messages reportedly arriving Wednesday.

The government did not repeat the address after the initial broadcast to prevent it from being flooded with junk mail.

What a joke.

Employers cut retiree healthcare, stick gov't w/ bill

Many Americans don't realize that when employers collect "subsidies" in order to provide health "benefits" to their employees, in effect, employees are paying for those so-called benefits themselves.

Most U.S. employers are planning to further scale back health benefits offered to retirees, as companies struggle with the upward march in the cost of medical care and weigh increased contributions from government's Medicare program, a survey found.

Ninety-five percent of the mostly Fortune 500 companies polled expect to further restrict their retiree health plans over the next five years, and 14 percent plan to stop providing coverage entirely, the survey of 163 companies by benefits consultants Watson Wyatt found.

Unbelievable. Between price gouging and tax breaks, money has been filling up their coffers like never before - yet they still can't get enough.

Employers have been exiting the retiree health business for a decade-and-a-half, amid rapid inflation in the cost of health care and increasing mobility of workers.

Don't you just love the euphemism? When workers get fired these days, more often than not they can no longer find full-time positions but must settle for temporary work, MINUS benefits. It is this disappearing job security that the MSM characterizes as "increased mobility."

[Some] feared the pace would quicken amid recent changes that boost benefits provided by Medicare, the government's health insurance program for the nation's 43 million elderly and disabled people.

"There is definitely more change in the air now that Medicare Part D has come into play . . . "The willingness to eliminate the benefit is clearly increasing."

Changes in the Medicare program include adding prescription drug benefits, known as Medicare Part D. Experts feared that with a richer government benefit, employers would be more likely to stop offering coverage.

About a third of U.S. employers offered current workers retiree coverage in 2005, down from about two-thirds in 1988, according to a recent study by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

According to Standard & Poor's, plans for retiree benefits at S&P 500 companies, excluding pensions, were underfunded by $321 billion, meaning promises to retirees are only 22 percent funded.

They're not only cutting benefits, they don't even fund the ones they promise!

About three-quarters of U.S. companies polled are accepting a Medicare subsidy from the government intended to keep employers in the business of helping workers defray health costs when they retire.

But most are skimming the benefits they do offer. A quarter of employers are tightening eligibility for current workers, and a similar amount are offering more expensive plans.

About 40 percent of employers said they believed the best way to solve their retiree health cost problem is to exit it altogether, although most continued to offer benefits because of practical considerations, the study found.

The same amount, about 40 percent, said taking the government subsidy is the best way to keep costs down.

Of course it's the best way to keep costs down! They get the best of both worlds. Employees don't know the difference! Employers get the credit - government pays (i.e., taxpayers, a.k.a., employees)!

Jareb said it showed that even though companies might think exiting the business would help with costs, most are unlikely to do it at this point.

"In essence the numbers indicate that -- whether due to employee relations, benefits philosophy or collective bargaining -- exiting retiree heath is not a viable option for the majority of employers" the study said.

In other words, they would cut employee benefits in a heartbeat if it improved their bottomline.

Earth to working America - neither corporate America nor our government gives a flying sh*t about US. It's time to let them know that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.

4,765 Palestinians for 6 Israelis - that's some exchange rate

I'm sure Palestinians are thrilled that they can save so many of their fellow lives by sparing just one Israeli life. Nevertheless, the implication of this sharp disparity in value to Israelis of Palestinian lives as compared to Israeli lives is very disturbing. Indeed, it encapsulates all that is wrong with this conflict and with Israel's position.

Israel's concern for captive soldiers has been called its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Soldiers know they won't be left behind in the field, but on the other hand, the emotional outpouring can prompt the government to bend its principle of refusing to negotiate with kidnappers.

The results are sometimes wildly disproportionate.

In January 2004, Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon agreed to exchange one Israeli civilian and the bodies of three abducted soldiers for 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, one Libyan and one German. Fifty-nine Lebanese and the remains of Hezbollah guerrillas were included in the deal.

Israel freed 4,765 Palestinian prisoners in 1983 in exchange for six soldiers held by the Fatah movement, then led by Yasser Arafat.

And in 1985, Israel released 1,150 Arab prisoners, almost all of them Palestinians, in exchange for three soldiers captured by Lebanese guerrillas in 1982. The deal came under harsh criticism at the time, intensifying when the freed prisoners played key roles in a Palestinian uprising that began in 1987.

* * *

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said. "All the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days."

Palestinians said they were confused by Israel's refusal to negotiate an exchange.

Palestinian prisoners are no less "precious" than Lebanese prisoners, said Nihaya Armelad, a 31-year-old mother of five who lives in the southern town of Rafah, which would likely be the front line of any Israeli ground assault.

"They have to exchange him for (Palestinian) prisoners," Armelad said. "They haven't seen their children in years. We are (humans) just like the Israelis."

Since the abduction, prisoners' relatives have marched through Gaza's streets demanding their family members be released in exchange for his freedom.

Sanaa Hirz, 44, said she was willing to weather attacks from Israel if it would bring the release of her husband, a Fatah activist who has been in prison for 22 years.[!!!]

"Gazans are used to missiles, assassinations, artillery. Every day there is death. Death is a natural thing," she said. "Let it come ... it is better with honor."

The last time an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinians was 12 years ago when Hamas militants kidnapped Cpl. Nachshon Waxman and demanded a prisoner release. Waxman was killed in a botched rescue operation.

Palestinian pollster Nader Said said the current abduction has given the Palestinians a "temporary sense of self esteem" and hope. But with the Israeli incursion into Gaza, they will be faced with a new reality that will "transform any small victory into a big loss," he said.

* * *

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared publicly that Israel would not negotiate or release Palestinian prisoners, rejecting demands by the Shalit's captors. But Cabinet minister Rafi Eitan, who served for decades in Israel's intelligence services, said anything is possible.

"In the Middle East you have to be able to change your skin, to go from one extreme to the other, from A to Z, within a second," he told Army Radio. "If you are able to do this, you can win. If you can't do this, you should go home."

In other words, they can be trusted about as far as they can be thrown. When was the last time you threw a nation state?

Americans Can't Win - caught between a corrupt gov't and a corrupt MSM

I knew there was something fishy about our corporate-owned media ratting out our corporate-owned government. It's simply a matter of which corporate interests hang in the balance. In the end, working Americans lose, no matter who they support in this financial surveillance fiasco.

According to the reports in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, the financial tracking program was part of an aggressive post-Sept. 11 effort to gather intelligence, tapping into the world's largest financial communication network for information on bank transfers.

The network — run by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT — carries up to 12.7 million messages a day. Those messages typically include names and account numbers of bank customers — private citizens and HUGE CORPORATIONS ALIKE — that are sending or receiving funds.

That's where the buck stops folks. The NYT doesn't care about us OR our privacy. They care about corporate freedom to engage in unfettered shady financial transactions without ANYONE - especially the corporate competition - getting a heads up through government surveillance.

And to that end, our corporate-owned media hopes to enlist the help of freedom loving Americans under the guise of protecting our constitutional rights, when really, they're concerned about their economic privileges.

We're in a no win situation. If we fight the surveillance, the corporations backed by the media stand to gain, and if we don't fight it, the corporations backed by the government prevail.

Working Americans are caught in the middle, like a hapless and hopeless nationwide ping-pong ball - one way or another, we go where they want us to go.

We need dramatic change in America. What are you guys doing on the 4th of July?

re: kidnapped Israeli soldier - who on earth enlisted this boy?

He looks like a pre-teen Bill Gates. His "kidnappers" must have taken him out of pity. The 19yr old doesn't look like he can defend himself, let alone someone else. Who on earth enlisted this guy in the IDF? He should have gone to summer camp, not boot camp.

But now that he's gotten himself taken prisoner, which is to be expected as a soldier, Israel is crying bloody foul and plans on raising Gaza to secure his return rather than release Palestinian women and children held prisoner in Israeli jails.

Why can't Israelis just admit they were out-foxed and negotiate to save lives? If they release Palestinian women and children, Gilad can then go home to his family, from whose side he should have never left. BUT, NOOOO. Israel must always come out on top.

A LARGE-SCALE military clash loomed in Gaza last night as Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, rejected demands to negotiate for the release of a captive soldier and his army prepared an operation to free the man.

Gaza militants who seized Corporal Gilad Shalit after a raid on Sunday had demanded the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails in return for information about his whereabouts.

Mr Olmert quickly responded: “The question of freeing prisoners is in no way on the Israeli government agenda. There will be no negotiations, no bargaining, no agreements.”

He was speaking as Israel massed tanks on the border and said that the country was prepared to assassinate senior Palestinians, including the leaders of Hamas, the ruling party. An incursion to free the soldier would be by far the largest move into Gaza since the Israeli withdrawal a year ago.

So, Israelis are prepared to assassinate an indefinite number of Palestinian leaders in cold blood in retribution for their taking ONE teenage Israeli soldier prisoner and trying to bargain for the release of Palestinian women and children. Sounds equitable - if you're Israeli. To the rest of us, though, it sounds like an extreme position taken by a government that thinks that its people's lives are worth more than the lives of anyone else.

“I gave the orders to our military commanders to prepare the army for a broad and ongoing military operation to strike the terrorist leaders and all those involved,” Mr Olmert said. “Let it be clear: we will reach everyone, no matter where they are, and they know it. There will be immunity for no one.”

* * *

“We expect Mahmoud Abbas to exert his authority,” Mr Gillerman told The Times. “He has the means and military capability to ensure the soldier’s safe return. Leaders in the region and the world realise this is a watershed. It’s the last chance for President Abbas to show he’s in charge.”

One 19yr old soldier who should have never been in the military to begin with is taken prisoner and his return is "watershed." Meanwhile, the slaughter of 14 Palestinian civilians in less than 2 weeks is "to be expected." Apparently, Palestinians disagree.

“Gaza is surrounded by Israeli troops. Daily in Gaza there are massacres and murders and assassinations, so it is not easy to tell people you have to be be patient and polite. You expect a kind of reaction sometimes,” he told The Times. He also complained of international double standards: ignoring thousands of Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails but protesting at the capture of one Israeli.

* * *

Ahmed Attiyah, whose house is overlooked by an Israeli watchtower in Kerem Shalom, said that Gaza was so ground down by Israeli air attacks and border closures that it had nothing to lose by hitting back. “We were under Israeli threat any time, from their rockets and from their shelling,” he said. “We had no safety, so why not retaliate?” In a nearby hospital Baha Mehedin said that Palestinians wanted peace but were not prepared to sell their rights. “Hamas did something against soldiers, not citizens and not civilians, so I think everyone supports this,” the 56-year-old English teacher said.

Sounds reasonable to me. But according to Israelis, Palestinians must either roll over and play dead or prepare to die.

How to fight the terrorists!

Citisucks saw the comment "The only way to get rid of them(terrorists) is to get to the root of the problem".

Citisucks replied: "Then why are the troops in Iraq verses the White House, Citigroup Headquarters, or Walmart Headquarters?"

But then again if you are a rich white male you are allowed to be a terrorist.

Congresscritter who seeks to prosecute NYT may be next in line

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee called Sunday for criminal prosecution of The New York Times, saying its report Friday on government surveillance of confidential banking records "compromised America's anti-terrorist policies."

Look who's calling the kettle black. Those who stand in glass houses should not throw stones. He should be more concerned about himself and his comrades being held accountable for leading this country into an unjust war based on demonstrable LIES.

This is by no means a general defense of the New York Times or other mainstream media outlets that have repeatedly let the American public down through their constant publication of both government and corporate lies.

However, it is beyond absurd that a cowardly little pipsqueak from Congress, after voting from the safety of his armchair to keep our troops indefinitely in an unjust war in Iraq, thinks he has any standing to criticize the NYT for actually doing something RIGHT - exposing this administration's unconstitutional conduct.

Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., accused the newspaper of compromising national security when it exposed a Treasury Department program that attempts to track terrorist financing by secretly monitoring worldwide money transfers. The program, instituted after the Sept. 11 attacks, bypasses safeguards put in place to prevent government abuse.

Similar reports were published the same day by other media outlets.

"By disclosing this in time of war, they have compromised America's anti-terrorist policies," said King, referring to New York Times reporters and editors.

"Nobody elected The New York Times to do anything. And The New York Times is putting its own arrogant, elitist, left-wing agenda before the interests of the American people," King said.

What a joke. First, the same can be said about YOU, considering that (1) very few Americans vote to begin with, and (2) thanks to Diebold, it doesn't matter who votes!

Second, Congress regularly puts its own arrogant, elitist, political (read corporate) agenda before the interests of the American people. So, what's new? The NYT is simply putting one elitist agenda before another.

Calling the report "absolutely disgraceful," King said he would call on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to begin a criminal investigation of the newspaper.

And I call on the American people to tar and feather everyone in Congress and this administration for taking our nation to war under false pretenses and causing the deaths of thousands of young American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

The Bush administration pressed The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times to refrain from publishing their reports, but editors at each newspaper concluded that it was in the public interest to go forward.

"One of the most hotly debated issues in the country right now is the conduct of the war on terror," said Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet on Sunday. "It is our job to publish what we know about the government's role, to offer the public what it needs to know to participate in that debate."

It's a little late for THAT, isn't it? Where were you when America was being led into this war based on LIES?

Oh yeah! You were helping them DISSEMINATE the LIES!

Senators from both parties declined to join the Long Island congressman's call for an investigation.

"We have seen the newspapers in this country act as effective watchdogs," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the same program.

"I think it's premature to call for a prosecution of The New York Times, just like I think it's premature to say that the administration is entirely correct."

I think it's long over due that the American people hold both the media and their elected representatives to account for the piss-poor job they've been doing over the past thirty years.

And it is never too soon to point out that this administration has been demonstrably incompetent in every single measure it has and hasn't taken both domestic and foreign since the minute they were appointed to office by our judiciary.

On CNN's Late Edition, Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., D-Del., said that although he would have preferred The New York Times not publish the information, "the truth of the matter is, they've uncovered an awful lot of things that the government has been doing that (don't) make sense as well."

No, Senator. While there are an isolated few reporters in the mainstream media that are still doing admirable journalistic work. By far, the bulk of the heavy lifting these days is done by BLOGGERS.

Both senators cited Thomas Jefferson's maxim: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

If it were up to me, we would start from scratch. Very limited federal government. Strong local representative governments. NO mainstream media. Just bloggers and a FREE internet.

AND of course, the most important thing a NEW, INTEREST-FREE, MONETARY SYSTEM -- minus the Federal Reserve.

It Ain’t Just Bu$h: Part 5 of 100 of Part A: Why they all must go!

So we will go alphabetically by state. I’m not going to waste my time my listing “party” affiliations. Please though if you don’t know their “party” go ahead and try to guess it. I can promise it will be a challenging game. I’m not even going to base this on their voting records, I’m just going to base this on crap posted on their website. If you are student doing research, please I’m begging you help educate your teacher and use this info. By the way these posts are based on the your Senutor's actually websites.

Arizona 1: John Kyl (aka K(ill)y(a)l so long as your female, non-white, and or poor)

5. The recommended reading list. Reading is not a good thing if you are reading lies. Here is the first book on his list: A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. You've got to be fucking kidding me. Let's see the book begins with the lie that Columbus discovered America and ends with a self explanatory lie. The native americans discovered america, but even you don't consider non-white people people, it is a known fact that Columbus isn't even the first European to discover America. It ends with another lie that there is a war on terra verses the true war on dissent, poor people (formerly known as the middle class) and non-white people.

4. Hating non-white people, this nutjob and lowest life form also suggest an article about how Amnesty International is not credible, an obvious attempt by this murderer to make sure his corporate terrorist friends get to continue to murder the non-white people these racists hate.

3. I'm scared to see what brainwashing the student center offers. Dare I look? I looked and now I am puking-and if this shithole was here I would puke all over him. The first link is the to military academies. So this yellow corporate terrorist can recruite poor (formerly middle class) to fight the war against the poor and further increase the rich poor divide, while sitting around in his armchair and driving around in an SUV making everyone less safe including himself.

2. Lest you think that is the end of this nutjob corporate terrorists attack on children, there is a children's recommended reading list. The first book on it is a book of virtues. Somehow I get the feeling they are nutjob virtues. But perhaps if they are not, the children can teach this dumbass nutjob corporate terrorist some virtues.

1. I really don't want to learn more about Senutor Kill-Yal (his white corporate terrorist friends will be spared though). Oh, great the asshole has introduced legislation to make the 2001 and 2003 tax gifts to his corporate terrorist friends and his own corporate terrorist fat ass permanent. But maybe perhaps this will hasten the revolution, if idiot america is actually alive and hasn't all straved to death or died of lack of health care by the time they are finally ready to fight the revolution and overthrow jackasses like Kill-Yal.



Power to the Green Party and Independent Progressives. Get the Democratic-Republican idiots out of office.

Buffet donates $30 billion to the Gateses’ “Charity”

Like Bill and Melinda really need it.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is donating a total of $37 billion -- most of his personal fortune -- to a foundation started by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and to several family foundations, making it the largest-ever individual charitable gift in the United States.

Buffett, 75, is the chief executive of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa). He is worth an estimated $44 billion, according to Forbes magazine, making him the second-richest man behind Gates, who is worth about $50 billion.

The $37 billion comprises about 85 percent of Buffett's fortune.

Something tells me this has more to do with taxes than charity.

In a letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Buffett, 75, said he will set aside 10 million shares of Berkshire class B common stock (BRKb) for the foundation.

Based on the stock's per-share price of $3071.01 [!!!] as of Friday, the total amount for the Gates foundation comes to about $30 billion.

The amount is the largest commitment to a philanthropic cause ever made by one person in the United States, said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

"Even if you look at what (John D.) Rockefeller and (Andrew) Carnegie gave historically -- even if you do it in today's numbers, it doesn't come close to that," she said.

In a letter to the Gateses, Buffett wrote that "You have committed yourselves to a few extraordinarily important but underfunded issues, a policy that I believe offers the highest probability of your achieving goals of great consequence."

"We are awed by our friend Warren Buffett's decision to use his fortune to address the world's most challenging inequities, and we are humbled that he has chosen to direct a large portion of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," the Gateses said in a statement on the foundation's Web site.

And what exactly do Bill and Melinda do with the fortune they sucked out of humanity through exorbitant royalties on their monopoly software or with the fortunes they continue to bleed out of borrowers by charging interest on the pristine "principal" that constitutes their "charitable" foundation?

They buy up all the intellectual property they can get their grubby little hands on and exploit young unsuspecting brilliant minds to churn out more.

And we're supposed to hail Bill and Warren, the former an extortionist and the latter a speculator, for their pretentious philanthropy?

If Bill and Melinda cared one iota about anyone but themselves they wouldn't be charging the world an arm and a leg for the use of technology that COULD NOT HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED but for the grace of God and the hard work of thousands of people over thousands of years.

The benefits of human progress and technology shouldn't be hoarded by a handful of individuals through the power of courts and police states.

What do Dubya and Saddam have in common?

They're both delusional megalomaniacs who think that the world would fall apart without them.

Saddam Hussein believes the United States will have to seek his help to quell the bloody insurgency in Iraq and open the way for U.S. forces to withdraw, his chief lawyer said Sunday.

* * *

"He's their last resort. They're going to knock at his door eventually," the lawyer said. Saddam is "the only person who can stop the resistance against the U.S. troops."

There is no indication U.S. officials have considered seeking his help.

Ah, but it's well known that they already have.

[Saddam's lawyer] quoted Saddam as saying:

"These puppets in the Iraqi government that the Americans brought to power are helpless. They can't protect themselves or the Iraqi people. The Americans will certainly come to me, to Saddam Hussein's legitimate leadership and to the Iraqi Baath Party, to rescue them from their huge quandary."

Although he would not say exactly what Saddam might ask in return for helping, al-Dulaimi said it would not necessarily involve being reinstated as president of Iraq - a nation he ruled brutally and plunged into three devastating wars.

The lawyer suggested, though, that Saddam might be willing to negotiate such help by making the verdict in his trial a bargaining chip.

In other words, the scoundrel wants to save his grubby little neck from the noose. And like a typical politician, no lie is too grand to accomplish his goals.

Saddam predicted Iraq would "flourish within five years," saying that was the time that would be needed for reconstruction that would transform the country into the envy of the region, the lawyer said.

* * *

"The ongoing trial and verdict, which are already decided by Washington, are expected to result in the death penalty," he said.

"The death penalty is political blackmail to pressure President Saddam to help the American forces out of their predicament in Iraq and to rescue it from the mess it created there."

But, unparalleled economic recovery is not all the former dictator promised to deliver.

Al-Dulaimi said Washington also should look to Saddam as the only person who can stop the growing influence of Iran and radical Shiite Muslims in the region.

Pointing to Saddam's 1980-88 war with Iran - a conflict in which the United States and others backed Iraq - he said Saddam served as a counterbalance to Iranian power.

The Bush administration should recognize the "hard reality" that the U.S. invasion of Iraq delivered the mostly secular Arab nation into the hands of Shiites strongly sympathetic to their larger Iranian neighbor, the lawyer said.

"Iran is the enemy of Arabs, Islam and the United States, and the only person who can stand in the face of Iran is Saddam Hussein," he said.

You have to hand it to Saddam, he knows how to capitalize on neocon thirst for Iranian blood. The man will do anything to stay alive.

And no doubt, Dubya will do anything to get what he and his neocon buddies want in the Middle East.

Zarqawi's death marks bloody downturn for US in Iraq

Instead of marking the beginning of the end of the insurgency in Iraq, Zarqawi's "death" whether staged or authentic, appears to have marked a turning point for the worse from which the US will not recover.

The new Iraqi government and its American patrons should have been basking in the glow of a two-week blitz of ["good news."]

* * *

But insurgents have counterattacked, scuffing the sheen of progress.

By week's end al-Maliki's government was forced to declare a state of emergency and shoo its citizens off Baghdad's streets with two hours notice after the tenacious insurgency took the offensive Friday along Haifa Street, just blocks from Iraq's seat of government.

Two days earlier, one of the defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants was kidnapped from his home by men wearing Interior Ministry uniforms and flashing genuine-looking credentials. He was found slain in Sadr City, Baghdad's Shiite Slum - the third defense attorney to be murdered since the trial started.

On Tuesday, the bodies of two captured American soldiers were recovered - beheaded and surrounded by booby traps. And al-Zarqawi's successor, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, said he conducted the brutal slayings.

At least 14 other U.S. soldiers or Marines died in combat or insurgent bombings in a particularly bloody week for the military.

So much for the deadly blow that was allegedly dealt to Al Qaeda by Zarqawi's "death." Iraq is disintegrating.

Armchair warriors in the White House and in Congress continue to argue that in theory "staying the course" is better than "cutting and running." Meanwhile, in fact, our soldiers are dying by the dozen each week, not to mention dozens of innocent Iraqis.

When will this madness end? How many young lives must be obliterated before working Americans realize that this war is being fought so that a tiny minority of the world's population can live like kings?

Send US Senators to patrol Iraq on foot

It's a dangerous proposition for our delicate Senators. But it's the only way to get the cowardly weasels to reverse their vote to keep American troops in Iraq.

A bomb killed a U.S. soldier on a foot patrol Saturday south of Baghdad, the military said, after a particularly deadly week for U.S. forces in Iraq.

The soldier with the Multi-National Division in Baghdad died at about 7:20 a.m. Saturday due to injuries "suffered from a bomb explosion while on a dismounted patrol south of Baghdad," the military said.

What a terrible way to die. They haven't announced his name yet, but thousands of families must be holding their breath, hoping that their son, brother, father, or husband was somewhere else at the moment that unlucky soldier lost his life.

The military also announced the deaths of two other soldiers from the same division Friday.

One soldier was killed in a roadside bomb about 2:45 a.m. Friday in the capital, according to a statement. The attack occurred hours before clashes broke out on a volatile street near the heavily guarded Green Zone, prompting the Iraqi government to impose a curfew.

Another soldier from the same division died in a "non-combat incident" at about 5 p.m. Friday, the military said, adding the incident was under investigation.

* * *

Fifteen U.S. servicemembers have died or been found dead in Iraq this week.

Meanwhile, our Senators were acting out in Congress - some playing armchair warriors, others pretending to oppose the war when indeed they voted 96-0 to support it.

Both measures were offered as amendments to a largely noncontroversial $571 billion defense bill that passed 96-0 later in the day.

This kind of play acting won't end until each of these beaurocratic bozos, adept at prevaricating and smiling for the camera, is forced to put his or her own life and the lives of their children where their vote is.

Israelis secretly arm Iraqis, Iran gets blamed

The United States accused Iran Thursday of being a major destabilizing force in Iraq, accusing Tehran of training and arming insurgent groups and using "surrogates" to carry out terrorist strikes.

"It's decidedy unhelpful," the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

However . . .

Casey said that he had NO EVIDENCE of Iranians actually in Iraq directing attacks against Iraqis or US forces, but said that he assumed elements in Tehran were guiding the process.

I wonder why he assumes it's Iran?

"We are quite confident that the Iranians . . . are providing weapons, IED technology and training to Shi'a extremist groups in Iraq" [he said].

"They are using surrogates to conduct terrorist operations in Iraq both against us and against the Iraqi people," he said.

Improvised Explosive Devices like road-side bombs are among the most commonly used methods to attack US forces in Iraq.

Isn't it possible that some OTHER nation might be secretly arming Iraqis?

Israel is one of the world's leading weapons exporters. Deals must be cleared through the Defense Ministry, but in past years there have been a number of cases of ex-army officers negotiating deals on their own, or taking on military training missions in foreign countries without approval.

In December, an investigative report by another daily, Yediot Ahronot, alleged that a number of private Israeli companies won contracts to provide security services to the Kurdish government in Iraq. The report said Israelis who had served in elite military combat units were teaching anti-terrorism methods to the Kurds.

At the time the Defense Ministry said, "we haven't allowed Israelis to work in Iraq, and each activity, if performed, was a private initiative, without our authorization, and is under the responsibility of the employers and the employees involved."

* * *

The Haaretz daily said Thursday that an Israeli businessman living in the United States and a Swiss firm operating in Israel, are suspected of selling security equipment and training courses to Kurds in northern Iraq.

Reaction was not immediately available from the Kurdish government.

So, if they're arming Kurds, who's to say they're not arming others in Iraq?

To those who blame me for unfairly scrutinizing Israeli conduct - explain this one, please.

US can't even keep its puppets in line

Not even Karzai the Klown is prepared to sit idly while "coalition" forces target and kill every military age male in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday criticized the U.S.-led coalition's strategy for fighting terrorism, saying the current approach of hunting down militants is killing an "unacceptable" number of Afghans.

* * *

"It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying," Karzai complained. "In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land."

Most of those killed in the latest coalition offensive have been Taliban insurgents.

"I strongly believe ... that we must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation," Karzai said.

Yesterday, Afghan and coalition forces raided a "known" Taliban compound, killing eight militants. Six others were captured.

It's important to learn the age and gender of the six captured 'others'.

The US had better change its strategy. By attacking every Afghani male who may have the means or the motive to fight back, they are giving thousands of other Afghanis a motive to fight back, too.

More Greenwash Bullshit From Citibank

Aka: Fake Green watch.

Watch out for World Resource Institute, they are claiming to be something they are not. Yes, these assclowns, have paired up with corporate terrorists Citigroup to produce fake environemntal proganda.

The report goes on to discuss 12 companies that will benefit from global warming. How convientant because the corporate terrorists at Citigroup are huge environmental destructivists and by stuffing World Resources Institutes g-strings they get to pretend like they aren't. In exchange for the report corporate terrorist Fred Wellington, senior financial analyst with WRI's capital markets research team, out right lies and whores for Citigroup praising them for their role in helping the environment.

But wait a second, does this sound like an environmentaly friendly terrorist cell (aka company)to you
Here is the truth about Citigroup and their Environmental Destruction:

According to http://www.innercitypress.org/citi.html:

“Remember Citigroup’s loud claims to have become environmental? Well, last week it was reported that Citigroup will arrange a $10 billion loan to OAO Gazprom to finance the state-owned gas producer's purchase of a controlling stake in OAO Sibneft. Citigroup spokeswoman Lindsey Deans in London declined to comment. Typical.(www.innercitypress.org)”.

This is from the Sept. 19th update. Now let’s go back a few weeks to the week of August 22nd.

“Two of Citigroup’s far flung purchases last week -- a move on oil company, Inchon Oil Refinery Co., in South Korea (how’s that for environmental standards?) and, a department store with a subsidiary called Parasito.com. Yes, parasite -- that’s Citigroup(www.innercitypress.org)”

Citigroup is no stranger to environmental destruction. Only a few years ago Rain Forest Action Network had an anti-Citigroup campaign going. On April 15 2003 Rainforest Action Network declared the campaign off when Citigroup made a bunch of (false) promises to become a leader in environmental standards. Now not even two and a half years later Citigroup is back to its old games and fucking over the environment.

It gets even better (3 more articles and fine examples of Citibank's environmental destruction:
Funding of big time environmental destruction
Money for (Murdering) Trees
Do these people ever stop funding environmental destruction!

Any questions left on who is really profitting from environmental destruction?

Boycott Greenbiz the corporate terrorist site publishing this bullshit, boycott World Resources Institute-as their pairing with corporate terrorist Shitigroup shows where they real stand, and most of all boycott the corporate terrorists at Citigroup (bank, cards, etc).

Slain Marine: 'Mom, everywhere we turn, we face death'

So much for being greeted with flowers by Iraqis. The only 'people' who want our soldiers in Iraq are multinational corporations.

McCaffreys mother, Nadia, told NBC11 News that she had a hunch something wasn't right when the military initially told her -- two years ago -- that her son was killed during an ambush while on patrol.

"He said, 'Mom, everywhere we turn, we face death and there's a bounty on our head,’" said Nadia McCaffrey.

"It just didn't add up and I know inside that I have to find the truth because Patrick was for peace and justice," said McCaffrey.

* * *

Despite the revelation that her son was killed by people he worked with, she says she has forgiven his killers.

"You know, it's an interesting thing because I'm not angry at the Iraqis," said McCaffrey. “I understand the situation. My son did not approve being there."

He was not alone. The only people who approve do it from the safety and comfort of an armchair.

Bush freaks out over abysmal EU poll numbers; invokes 9/11

If you can't take the heat, stop fanning the flames.

Although diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe have improved significantly since the rift over the Iraq war in 2003, Bush remains widely unpopular in Europe. A recent poll found that many Europeans consider the United States a threat to global stability.

"That's absurd," Bush snapped when asked, in general terms, about the poll results.

His irritation grew when an Austrian reporter read him some specific poll numbers.

"Look, people didn't agree with my decision on Iraq, and I understand that.

For Europe, September the 11th was a moment; for us, it was a change of thinking," he said, as his jaw muscles twitched in irritation . . .

He doesn't give a flying sh*t . . .

"People can say what they want to say. But leadership requires making hard choices based upon principle."

Nevermind that Bush wouldn't know a principle if it hit him in the nose, Schuessel crouched down to pay his respects to Boy blunder, so-called leader of the free world.

Schuessel jumped to his guest's defense, invoking memories of World War II and America's post-war help for Europe to rebuild. He warned Europeans that they should not be "naive" about the threat of terrorism.

"Don't forget, I was born in 1945. ... I will never forget that America fed us," Schuessel said. "I think it's grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, other countries."

Now, THAT'S what I call absurd.

Defending Saddam: EXTREMELY Bad for your health

I know attorneys are not always likeable. But, this is a little extreme.

One of Saddam Hussein's lawyers was abducted from his home and later found shot to death Wednesday, becoming the third member of the defence team killed since the former Iraqi leader's trial began eight months ago.

Khamis al-Obeidi, who represented Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim in the trial, was abducted at about 7 a.m. local time by men wearing police uniforms, court and police officials said.

He was shot dead and his body was later found on the street near Sadr City.

When assassins want to hide their identities, they know how to do it. These guys wanted the world to know (or think) that the killers are the same ones doing all the so-called ethnic cleansing.

Unlike some of other members on the defence team, al-Obeidi continued to live in Baghdad during the trial, even after two other defence lawyers were killed.

"Whatever will be will be," he told Reuters last year.

Hmmm . . .

"Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be."

And now he's dead. Alfred Hitchock couldn't have come up with a scarier ending.

Saddam must be in panic mode.

Qui Bono?

Bush tells North Korea ‘Don’t shoot – or I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll . . . ’

. . . vacation in Crawford.'

Americans better get a clue because while we're busy working for a living, our government is busy spending our hard earned money on defective 'defense' products.

When you pay for a product that goes by the name of 'defense shield', you're entitled to receive a shield that DEFENDS. But, apparently Bush and his cronies haven't figured that out yet.

As the Bush administration warns North Korea not to test a long-range missile, the U.S. missile-defense system remains a patchy and unproven shield, government studies and outside experts say.

President Bush ordered the Pentagon to start fielding prototype anti-missile rockets in 2004 to have at least some chance of destroying an intercontinental missile heading for the USA. Although there are 10 of those interceptors on bases in Alaska and California, their hurried deployment prevented complete testing and contributed to technical glitches and manufacturing problems, congressional investigators reported this year.

Unbelievable. First, Boy blunder asks for an over-priced system that has only "some chance" of defending the nation. Then - after 2 whole years - handsomely paid experts blame "hurried deployment" for their failure to produce a working product.

"Our system is still developing," Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said Tuesday. "It's a limited missile-defense system right now."

It's limited, alright! – It doesn't work!

Ruff and other Defense Department officials would not confirm reports by The Washington Times and Reuters that the missile-defense system had been switched to operational mode. "It's not like we can press a button and go on alert," spokesman Lt. Col. Brian Maka said.

What were we thinking? Aggressors must wait until our government and its contractors get their sh*t together.

The Pentagon now spends about $8 billion a year [!!!] toward development of a network of systems designed to destroy enemy missiles, particularly those from Iran and North Korea. One of the most developed parts of that system is the handful of ground-based missile interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The interceptor rockets are meant to boost a "kill vehicle" into space, where its own sensors and ground-based radars would guide it to smash into an oncoming missile at 15,000 mph. The last successful test of the idea was in 2002.

Those interceptors have never been fully tested under real-world conditions, and the past two tests fizzled when the interceptors failed to launch.

Umm, WHAT exactly did they test in 2002 and under what "conditions," if not real-world?

Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, the Missile Defense Agency's commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April that he was confident the interceptors still provided "an initial defensive capability" despite the manufacturing problems blamed for the aborted tests. He said he had suspended testing and reviewed the program because of the failures.

"I believe we are back on track, but we will pause again if necessary," Obering said.

How pathetic. If by "initial defense capability" he means the deterrent effect that accompanies merely having the capability to defend ourselves, then he can rest assured that after this report, even that is gone.

Americans should sue the government under the Uniform Commercial Code for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability.

Philip Coyle, a longtime critic of the missile-defense program, said there's no firm evidence the interceptors would work against a North Korean missile.

If North Korea test-fires a missile to the south, it would be out of range of the system anyway, said Coyle, a former director of weapons testing for the Pentagon.

"Suppose North Korea launches a missile and the MDA tried to shoot it down, and like in some of the recent tests, it failed," Coyle said. "It would be totally embarrassing. It would cause a huge uproar in Congress."

What a moron! Thousands might be killed, but all he cares about is the national embarassment and the uproar in Congress??? Who gives a sh*t about Congress. They're mostly cowardly traitors who run for the hills at the first sound of alarm.

The ground-based missile-defense component was over budget by more than $365 million last year and delivered fewer interceptors than planned without proof they would work, according to a review by the Government Accountability Office this year. Inadequate oversight could have allowed some shoddy parts to be installed in the interceptors, the report said.

The story of our life. One government f*ckup after another.

Rep. Duncan Huner, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, says a limited anti-missile capability is better than none at all. The California Republican said the system is worth the billions spent.

SOLD! to the Republican with the brown nose!

"We're going to have to be able to stop an incoming ballistic missile," Hunter said. "That's a truth that liberals are going to have to accept."

The TRUTH is that it doesn't work, you moron. Even Democrats know that the only good defense shield is a defense shield that works.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat on the Armed Services panel, dismissed Hunter's statement. "We want something that works," she said.

So, essentially, when Bush warns North Korea not to shoot, the only thing that backs it up is his Texas swagger.

What a joke.

Too bad the only people laughing are bankers and defense manufacturers.

Ever get the feeling you're being had?

Why is it that every time something disturbing happens that involves our troops, the military finds 'good news' to offer the media.

A key al-Qaida in Iraq leader described as the group's "religious emir" was killed in a U.S. airstrike hours before two American soldiers went missing and in the same area, the military said Tuesday.

Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, and two foreign fighters were killed as they tried to flee in a vehicle near the town of Youssifiyah, in the so-called Sunni "Triangle of Death."

U.S. coalition forces had been tracking al-Mashhadani for some time, American military spokesman William Caldwell said in announcing his death. He said al-Mashhadani was an Iraqi, 35 to 37 years old, and that one of the men killed with him was an al-Qaida cell leader identified as Abu Tariq.

The three men were killed just hours before an insurgent attack on a traffic checkpoint near Youssifiyah, by a Euphrates River canal. One U.S. soldier was killed in the attack and two were reported missing afterward.

Why didn't they announce this when the incident happened?

Two bodies believed to be those of the missing men - Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were recovered in the same area.

Good way to reassure families that their loved ones died for a just cause. The worst part about it is that there's almost no way to verify the military's report. But, based on past performance alone, we can be almost certain that part or all of the account is fabricated.

Caldwell said the Iraqi militant played a key religious and recruiting role in the group. The spokesman said Mansour was linked to the senior leadership, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man the U.S. military has identified as al-Zarqawi's replacement.

Mansour "reportedly served as a right-hand man of Zarqawi's, and also served as a liaison between al-Qaida in Iraq and the various tribes in the Youssifiyah area, as well as playing a key role in their media operations," Caldwell said.

Citing intelligence sources, Caldwell also said Mansour was responsible for the shooting down of a coalition aircraft this spring.

But, there was a time that the military didn't think this guy was so important - so much so that they let him go.

The U.S. military captured Mansour in July 2004 because of his ties to the militant groups Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna, but released him because he was not deemed an important terror figure at the time, the spokesman said.

The militant joined al-Qaida in Iraq sometime in the fall of 2004, Caldwell said. He displayed photos that purportedly showed Mansour with a mustache before his death and with a battered face and one eye closed after he was killed. Another photo identified Mansour as a masked figure sitting on the floor with al-Zarqawi.

A document seized from an al-Qaida hideout and released by National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie that portrayed the Iraqi insurgency as being in "bleak" shape was directly linked to Mansour, Caldwell said.

Surprise, surprise. This made-for-tv saga just keeps getting better with each passing day.

Israel, Israel, Israel, Kill, Kill, Kill - that's all I ever read online

Could it be because that's all Israel ever does?

A car was hit in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and one Palestinian child was killed, Palestinian witnesses said.

Note the passive structure of the statement. Israel didn't fire a missile at the car, the car was hit by it, and Israel didn't kill the child, the child was simply killed as if the car and the child were respectively hit and killed spontaneously. But, dead is dead - no matter how you describe it - and so is state-sponsored murder.

The strike targeted a car carrying Palestinian militants in the Jebaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, said the witnesses, adding that 11 people including seven children were also injured in the attack.

There was no immediate comment from Israel concerning the incident.

Israel has recently stepped up airstrikes against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip in a bid to prevent rocket attacks against the Jewish state.

Ghee, these preventative measures sound awfully familiar.

--------------------------------
UPDATE: Israel killed, not one, but three children with this airstrike.

Israel killed three Palestinian children, two of them siblings, in an air strike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after its defence minister pledged to step up military action against cross-border rocket salvoes.

Witnesses said aircraft fired at least one missile at a car carrying al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants in Gaza City. The occupants managed to leap free but a 7-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother nearby were killed, as was a 16-year-old.

Nine bystanders, most of them minors, were wounded.

They must be proud.

BIG Slide Begins: World's Biggest Bond Fund leads the way

Attention all bond investors: In May, Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund, cut holdings of U.S. Treasury securities and agency debt to their lowest levels in four years as the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates at a 16th consecutive policy meeting.

Gross, chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, reduced his Total Return Fund's holdings of Treasury bonds and securities sold by government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for a seventh straight month. Holdings of U.S. debt dropped to 6 percent in May, the fund's lowest amount since April 2002, from 7 percent in April, according to Pimco's Web site.

What does this mean? First, it means that prospects are looking grim in the real estate market. Second, PIMCO decided that it isn't prudent to hold on to Treasury debt now at such low rates when alternatively they can (1) bleed people who need cash, and in the meantime (2) wait until Treasury yields are sky high before sticking it to the government, a.k.a. taxpayers.

Rising interest rates have pushed Gross to move his holdings away from Treasury holdings and other long-term government debt and into cash and its equivalents. He raised the fund's holdings of cash and securities with a maturity of less than one year for a sixth straight month to 34 percent in May from 32 percent in April.

He also cut holdings of mortgage-backed securities to 56 percent in May from 57 percent in April. Mortgage bonds pay interest from a pool of mortgages.

And no one wants to be left holding that worthless bag of debt. The mortgage-backed bond market is imploding.

Life is going to get increasingly harder for average Americans who must either labor over every dollar they need to survive, or borrow it at interest.

Israel saves whales, but kills Palestinians with impunity

Forgive me for failing to see the virtue in jumping to the rescue of world whalery while continuing to kill Palestinians with impunity.

The tide hasn't ebbed at the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis, but Israel has already made a splash in keeping whales safe.

Israel cast ballots against the three Japanese-initiated measures voted on so far at the meeting, which began Friday and will continue until Tuesday, helping to defeat all of them in tight votes.

One of the defeated measures would have permitted a commercial moratorium exemption allowing countries to hunt 150 Minke and 150 Byrde whales in their own territorial waters. . .

"The main thing about the IWC is it's extremely polarized and every vote counts," said Merav Datan, Greenpeace International's political adviser for the Mediterranean and Middle East.

That makes for very effective PR. You think I'm being cynical? I don't think so.

Esther Efrat, the head of the treaty division at the Foreign Ministry, is representing Israel at the meeting. Since Israel joined the IWC only two weeks ago at the invitation of the US, Efrat had to cram to learn all the necessary information before leaving.

Spectacular timing. Always poised to take advantage of a good opportunity.

"We consulted the United States, Japan and Australia to find their agendas," said an official in the treaty department. "The secretary of the IWC was also very helpful with information."

The IWC, an international organization dedicated to managing whaling and protecting the world's largest mammals, has banned whaling for all but scientific purposes since 1986. Japan and Iceland have used this provision to continue killing whales, selling the meat after conducting scientific tests.

Let me get this straight. Corporations can torture and kill whales to study them for commercial exploitation (most likley Big Agri and Big Pharma), but others can't hunt whale in their OWN territory in order to EAT? Sounds inequitable. So, what's new?

Japan has brought in small Pacific island countries to the IWC to help sway the majority to its favor.

* * *

Israel has joined other anti-whaling countries in voting against any changes to the IWC's restrictions on whaling.

"We have laws protecting wildlife and since whales are part of wildlife, this influences how we vote," said the treaty department official.

We also have laws protecting people. But, apparently THAT does not phase you.

If Saddam gets death for killing 148, what's the going rate for starting WWIII based on lies?

Concluding his remarks, al-Moussawi asked for the death penalty against Saddam, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former senior regime member. "They were spreading corruption on earth … and even the trees was not save [sic] from their oppression," he said.

"Well done," Saddam muttered sarcastically.

What a spectacle. The hopelessly corrupt prosecuting the demonstrably arrogant.

They best be careful, though. They're setting themselves up with this precedent. If Saddam gets death for killing 148, then Bush and Co. have much to fear for their crimes.

Fannie Mae's about to get its *ss kicked

America’s Fannie has been spanked with $400 million in fines, only the beginnings of turning inside out the entire ponzi scheme of American real estate finance.

Criticism levied at the mortgage finance giant after an $11 billion accounting scandal is fair and remains ongoing into the far foreseeable future as the onion is peeled away by Congressional investigators and greater public scrutiny. By the time real honest accounting is done, Fannie will be trading in the pennies.

I don't have time for detailed excerpts and commentary, but this article is a must read.

The proverbial sh*t is about to the hit the real estate fan.

As usual, NY’ers last to know about plot to kill them

A reported plot by al-Qaida terrorists to kill thousands of New Yorkers by spreading cyanide gas in the subway underscores the folly of a Homeland Security Department cutback of funds for major cities, a Democratic lawmaker said Sunday.

NO. It underscores the folly of a flawed foreign policy that has made Americans less safe now than ever before.

And when were these bozos going to tell us about this so-called terror plot, anyway? Over the loud speaker while we're trapped in a subway car???

If it wasn't for Ron Suskind's new book, we would have heard about these warnings just like we did those they received prior to 9/11 - in RETROSPECT.

The cyanide plot is described in a new book, "The One Percent Doctrine," by author Ron Suskind and excerpted in the current issue of Time magazine.

According to the book, U.S. intelligence agencies learned the scheme involved the use of a crude but effective device made of Mason jars that would release the deadly gas through several subway cars, but was called off, 45 days before it was set to occur, by Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

This reads more like a Hollywood script than a terror alert.

And marvel at the timing. Ron Suskind couldn't have asked for a better marketing campaign than what appears to be a confirmation that its contents are based in reality and not just a figment of his imagination.

"This is just more evidence that what Homeland Security did to us was terribly misguided and just wrong," Sen. Charles Schumer said. "It shows that New York is the prime target, and shows the importance of prior intelligence and of manpower."

No, Chuck. It shows the importance of minding our own business and putting an end to US imperialist adventures.

New York lawmakers, and state and municipal officials, have pledged efforts to reverse a recent decision by the federal agency to cut New York's federal anti-terror allocations by 40 percent, some $83 million less than the $207 million it received in 2005.

OH, I see!!! He doesn't care about what happens to us scruffy New Yorkers who travel to and from work every day on those God-forsaken subways. All he cares about is the Federal funds - that come out of our pockets through taxes and inflation, and provide sweetheart contracts for his Democratic supporters.

Schumer, a leading proponent in Congress of tighter security measures for the nation's ports and transportation systems, quoted security authorities, "both federal and local," as saying the al-Qaida plan to spread deadly gas in the subways in 2003 was considered a valid threat.

"It came from a serious source. It was never corroborated, but it was certainly enough to be taken seriously, and law enforcement, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force, worked together, taking all the precautions," Schumer said in a telephone interview.

He said he could not vouch for all details outlined in the book but "the basic thrust of the story seems to be true. There were only inklings about it at the time."

If Ron Suskind knew about it early enough to include in his book - which must have been planned at least a year ago - WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW??? After all, WE ARE the targets!!!

Paul Browne, a New York Police Department spokesman, said Saturday that authorities had known about the planned attack. "We were aware of the plot and took appropriate precaution," he said.

Inquiring minds want to know what, pray tell, are 'appropriate precautions'?

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the bureau would have no comment on the excerpted material, and on Sunday's CBS' "Face the Nation," White House press secretary spokesman Tony Snow said: "I don't want to confirm or deny this particular story."

What a scam. Like Mike Rivero said the other day, if these guys said that the sun was shining, we would have to look for ourselves to make sure.

The book says U.S. officials had discovered plans for the device in the computer of a Bahraini arrested in February 2003, and were able to build a working model.

Shown the model, the author says, President Bush ordered government alerts, and when reports said al-Zawahiri had canceled the plan, Bush worried that something worse _"more destructive and more disruptive than 9/11" - might be coming, according to Suskind.

Does this ring a bell for anyone, because I don't remember hearing about this in February '03. Maybe I was just too busy with first year law school??? Send a link if you find relevant information.

An informant revealed the cyanide plot after becoming unhappy with al-Qaida's leadership, linking the plot to the terrorist group's top agent in Saudi Arabia, according to the book. The agent was later killed in a shootout with Saudi authorities.

How convenient.

The plan to attack the subway was one of at least four that were exposed or reported in the past decade.

In July 1997, police acting on a tip from an Egyptian immigrant wounded and captured two men, both of Palestinian background, in a plot to suicide-bomb Brooklyn's busy Atlantic Avenue subway station. One drew a life sentence, the other was convicted of having a fake immigration card.

Huh? Atlantic avenue? Palestinians? This is the first I've heard of this. Any links are appreciated.

Last October, police flooded subways with extra security after receiving intelligence reports of a suspected bomb plot using baby carriages. Although news organizations later suggested the information was a hoax, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was credible enough to merit taking action and alerting the public.

Baby carriages??? What complete and utter nonsense. They must think that we're braindead if they expect us to believe that sh*t.

In May, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted a 23-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Shahawar Matin Siraj, of plotting to bomb a Manhattan subway station.

To increase subway security, more than 1,000 surveillance cameras are now in use, with 2,000 more planned by 2008 if the funds are available to install them. The recent cuts by Homeland Security may force a freeze on other city surveillance camera plans, Kelly has said.

WE WANT NAMES. WHAT SECURITY COMPANY IS PROVIDING NYC WITH SURVEILLANCE???

Over the protests of some civil rights advocates, police subject passengers to random searches of bags and backpacks. Until means are developed for detecting chemical, biological or nuclear substances, Schumer said, "intelligence is the only way of finding out ahead of time if a threat exists."

You don't need "intelligence." Anybody with half a brain can tell you that "a threat" exists.

Thanks to an unjust invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan more people hate America now than ever before in the history of this nation. The fact that Schumer hasn't figured that out is evidence that he is operating with less than half a brain.

I hate those anti-freedom of speech people...and by the way i just deleted your comment!

On the topic of the previous post Democrats-yes the hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me!

The hyprocracy of the Democrats never ceases to shock me. You see the same Democrap who cited "freedom of speech" as the reason that we should support the racist Danish cartoons also wrote this to me:

Here is the comment I received:
........................................................................
"If you continue on speaking about "SUV liberals" and "corporate terrorists" in every post, I will have to delete your comments.

While we agree that Daily Kos has major problems, I ask that you actually come up with an original idea for once.".
.................................................................................
I would hope this would not be considered an original idea but I will try it anyway: STOP BEING A HYPOCRITE!!!. If you love freedom of speech so much then don't delete people's comments who disagree with your narrow MSM brainwashed mind. If you don't want children to die for oil, than stop driving around in your SUV with a Kerry Sticker on it. Stop sitting around in your armchair while other peoples children commit murders for you in the "war on dissent". If you are going to be a racist than don't be a chicken!@#$%^ about it and try to call your racism "freedom of speech". This just gives all the corporate terrorists who truly hate freedom of speech ammo to point out to the masses that those who claim to love freedom of speech are truly hyprocrites.

WARNING: This post may not be suitable for minors or morons who support this war.

I'm sick and tired of the useless pieces of sh*t in Congress who wage war from the comfort of their elected seats. As an American citizen I demand that they put their goddamned bodies where their vote is.

Forty-two Democrats voted with Republicans in the 256-153 final tally on a resolution that equated the conflict in Iraq with the war on terrorism and vowed to ''complete the mission'' and to resist any ''arbitrary date for withdrawal.''

A majority of the Democrats who voted for the resolution were from conservative Southern congressional districts or swing districts that have voted Republican in the past. South Florida's congressional delegation voted along party lines.

This is a flagrant exercise in armchair hypocrisy. Those who voted for American troops to stay indefinitely in Iraq, or any other foreign land for that matter, ought to be forced to pack their sh*t together and head for the front lines, with absolutely NO exceptions. We'll see how fast those spineless pieces of political manure vote then.

But the House also acted in the wake of positive news from Iraq for the Bush administration, including last week's killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leading al Qaeda figure in Iraq, and the completion of the Iraqi Cabinet after five months of bickering. Republicans returned to that theme time and again.

That is for the bloody morons who thought that dropping two five-hundred-pound bombs followed by Bush's 7:30am photo-op was anything other than a cynical PR stunt that served as a pretext for rejecting any call to withdraw troops.

The opportunistic rhetoric streaming out of Congress is nothing short of APALLING.

''The effort and savagery of the insurgents and their sponsors only underscores our progress and the importance of this effort in the global war on terror,'' said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. "Retreat is not an option in Iraq.''

* * *

Republican leaders made no attempt to hide their motives or their efforts to exploit Democratic divisions.

The National Republican Senatorial Campaign accused Reps. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Harold Ford, D-Tenn., of voting to ''cut and run in Iraq.'' Back home, both Brown and Ford are running for the Senate.

"The American public deserves to hear how their elected leaders will respond to international terrorism and those enemies who seek to destroy our American way of life -- will we fight or will we retreat," Boehner said.

The American public deserves to have elected leaders who either put up, or shut up. If you're not ready to sport a rifle and head for the desert, then keep your flippin' mouth shut.

Iraq's limited role in terrorism, however, mushroomed only after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein while unprepared to halt looting and growing strife between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Anyone with half-a-brain KNOWS that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq has made both US and the world MUCH MORE DANGEROUS.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either being paid to say so or is saying it from the comfort and safety of an armchair.

US holds emergency meeting to contain Somali debacle

After sustaining sharp criticism for their support of Somali warlords who have been terrorizing the population for over a decade, the US tried to save face by calling an emergency meeting in NY to declare their willingness to work with Islamist victors, provided - ironically - that "they are not tied to terrorism."

'We recognize that there are no easy answers and seek to ensure that our engagement can adapt to the constantly changing dynamics inside Somalia,' the International Somalia Contact Group said in a statement.

The group includes the United States, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Tanzania and the European Union, while the United Nations and African Union are involved as observers.

Isn't that special. The subject is the future of an African nation and the African Union merely 'observes' while the US and Europeans pontificate.

'To address the challenges, the international community must support the consolidation of representative and effective governance in Somalia, capable of addressing the needs of the Somali people as well as common international objectives,' the statement said.

The United States sought an international meeting last week after the coalition of Islamic groups took control of Mogadishu. The goal is to explore ways to stabilize Somalia and build governing institutions.

Somalia has suffered continuing conflict since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. In the years since, international efforts - including military intervention led by the United States - have failed to restore order.

Although there are concerns about the success of the Islamists in Somalia, Washington has not ruled out dealing with those groups as long as they are not tied to terrorism.

'Our principle is that we want to work with individuals and groups who have an interest in fighting terrorism, fighting the presence of foreign terrorists on Somali soil,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington before the meeting.

This administration never ceases to amaze me. They only capitulate when they are forced to and when they do, it's in the most duplicitous manner possible.

Israelis caught red-handed in Lebanon

It appears that Palestinians are not safe from Israelis - no matter where they are.

Lebanon accused Israel on Thursday of using an aircraft last month to detonate a car bomb that killed two officials of a Palestinian militant group in south Lebanon.

The government has decided to complain to the U.N. Security Council about Israeli attacks in Lebanon, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said following a Cabinet meeting where Defense Minister Elias Murr reported on the car bombing.

The May 26 car bomb killed Mahmoud Majzoub, a senior Islamic Jihad official, and his brother as they walked out of their home in the southern city of Sidon. Both were Lebanese citizens.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokesman denied any Israeli involvement.

Surprise, surprise.

Earlier Thursday, Murr told reporters at his office that the state's investigation had found an aircraft was looking out for the Majzoubs via a camera on the ground.

"The bomb was detonated from this aircraft," he said.

On Saturday, the Lebanese army said it had arrested Mahmoud Rafeh, 59, a retired police officer, on suspicion of killing the Majzoubs. Rafeh "had links to Israeli intelligence," the army said in a statement.

Murr said the suspect had received "bags filled with explosives" delivered by Israeli sea-borne commandos north of Beirut.

On Tuesday, the army said Rafeh had confessed to killing the Majzoub brothers . . . officials of the militant Hezbollah group in 1999 and 2003, and . . . the son of Ahmed Jibril, leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in 2002.

Wow. This guy was pretty active. I wonder if he had anything to do with Rafik Harriri's assassination (which is still under investigation).

Murr told reporters Rafeh's group was the most dangerous to be discovered in Lebanon in 30 years.

Lebanon has detained many people on charges of spying for Israel. The country considers itself at war with its southern neighbor and bans its citizens from having any contact with the Jewish state.

It doesn't seem to matter to Israel whether or not they are at war with a nation. The US is supposed to be Israel's greatest ally, but that doesn't stop them from spying on us.

Gitmo families reject suicide claim, demand autopsy

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than the outrageous statement the US released after their deaths, it appears that the Gitmo "suicide" scandal may be far from over. Families of at least two of the deceased detainees reject the claim that they committed suicide and have demanded their bodies be returned for autopsy and burial.

Family members of a Saudi inmate found dead at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba said Thursday they want his body back for an autopsy because they do not believe U.S. claims that he committed suicide.

In a phone interview [from the] ultraconservative province of Al-Qasim, the sister of Mani Shaman Turki al-Habradi al-Utaybi said she would never believe her brother had taken his own life.

"He was an extremely devout Muslim who would never, never, never commit suicide," Manyia Shaman Turki al-Habradi al-Utaybi said.

This occurred to me when I first heard the report, but absent evidence that they were devout Muslims, I did not assume they would adhere to the Islamic prohibition against suicide, partly because I assumed that the bodies would be immediately returned to their families and that any discrepency in the cause of death would easily be spotted.

Believe it or not, I never imagined that the Bush administration would be stupid enough to lie. Go figure.

The U.S. Defense Department said al-Utaybi, Yasser Talal al-Zahrani of Saudi Arabia and Ali Abdullah Ahmed of Yemen hanged themselves in their cells early Saturday, using nooses made from sheets and clothing.

Ahmed's parents told The Associated Press Wednesday that they too want their son's body flown home for burial, and that they considered him a martyr killed by the United States.

"I respect and love the friendly American people, but they should know more what (President) Bush is doing against the Muslims," Mohammed Abdullah al-Aslami said at his home in Yemen.

* * *

Al-Utaybi's sister accused the U.S. of killing her brother.

"I strongly assure to you that the Americans are behind his death," she said. "We lived together for a long time, and I know that he is someone with strong faith," she added. Suicide is prohibited under Islam.

She also called for the U.S. to send his body back to Saudi Arabia for an autopsy and proper burial.

"I hope that they bring his body back (to Saudi Arabia) so I can see him for the first time in five years, and to be buried in the land of Islam," al-Utaybi said.

She shouldn't have to "hope" that her brother's body is returned. It should be returned as a matter of right.

Detaining them while they're alive is one thing, but what does the US want with their dead bodies???

US sanctions Chinese companies out of spite

It's no coincidence that during Ahmedinejad's latest trip to China for an SCO meeting the US imposed sanctions on four Chinese companies for "supplying Iran with missile-related parts and items that could contribute to weapons of mass destruction."

Not surprisingly, China did not hesitate to express its displeasure.

China lashed out at the United States for freezing the U.S. assets of four Chinese companies and not allowing them to conduct transactions with Americans.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu says Washington imposed the sanctions without showing evidence of wrongdoing.

"The U.S. wrong practice severely undermines our non- proliferation cooperation and will not benefit the development of bilateral relations," she said. "We require the U.S. side to change their practice and abandon completely the wrong practice of sanction and pressure."

So, the US - an avowed champion of globalization and human rights - not only detains suspects without charge or trial, it sanctions foreign companies without showing evidence of wrongdoing. To make matters worse, it couldn't be more clear that they did it out of spite.

This week, Iran's president is in China for meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which has indicated it will invite Iran to formally join the group of Central Asian nations, Russia, and China.

U.S. officials have criticized the SCO invitation to Iran. Last week Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was strange for an organization that is supposed to fight terrorism to invite, what he called, one of the leading "terrorist nations" to its meeting.

Let's not forget that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

This latest development will not help to further US interests in the international arena. If anything, it may trigger a string of economic retaliation by disaffected countries.

Ford's $9.2B Move from Michigan to Mexico

Pretty soon Americans - not Mexicans - will be sneaking across the border in search of employment.

Ford Motor Co., which is slashing jobs and closing plants in the United States as it seeks to return its North American operations to profitability, is preparing to invest up to $9.2 billion in Mexico [between 2006-2012] t0 leverage its low operating costs there, a Michigan newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Oakland Press, a Detroit-area newspaper, said the investment was detailed in a confidential, 28-page document turned over to it by a Ford employee.

* * *

Ford spokesman Oscar Suris declined to comment on the report, calling it "speculative."

The newspaper said a second source familiar with Ford operations vouched for the authenticity of the document, "which suggested the automaker's investment could potentially create up to 150,000 jobs in Mexico within the next decade."

"The Way Forward - Mexico (offers an) opportunity to further leverage Ford of Mexico cost advantage and location to reduce corporate fixed costs," the confidential document said.

"We will leverage our global scale like never before and Mexico is a key partner as we're targeting lower fixed costs, better quality and speed to deliver our Way Forward plans," the document said.

* * *

Under Ford's restructuring plan, which is dubbed Way Forward and was first announced in January, the automaker plans to close 14 plants and cut up to 30,000 hourly workers in North America.

* * *

The document also indicated that Ford expects to increase its purchases of Mexican-made components by 300 percent, while suppliers could increase their investment by $3.6 billion.

Ford, which is hoping to attract incentives from the Mexican government, also said it was prepared to shift some professional engineering and purchasing jobs to Ford of Mexico as part of the expansion plan, according to the document.

Just in case you white collar workers thought you were immune to downsizing.

[Ford officials] also were considering making the announcement before Mexican voters pick a new president on July 2, because it might help boost Felipe Calderon, the conservative ruling party candidate.

Calderon is locked in a very tight race with leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The documents suggest postponing any announcement would reduce risk of confrontation with the new government should Calderon lose in July, the Oakland Press said.

Crafty little boogers. They want to benefit both politically AND economically from the move.

Earth to Americans - there's a message here, for those who can see beyond their nose.

It's up to Americans to show Ford and their corporate ilk that we won't stand for their sh*t anymore. Corporate status in America is a privilege, not a right. To keep it, you must earn it. We MUST take our nation and our lives back from corpocracy.

“Rocket fire from Gaza rarely causes casualties...”

But, that doesn't stop Israelis from using disproportionate and deadly force in response.

Peretz, the Israeli defense minister who reportedly delayed a major air offensive so Palestinians could curb the rockets, said all restraints were now off.

"We will act with all our might and use all our means against any group that acts against us," said Peretz, whose hometown, Sderot, comes under frequent rocket attack.

This is notwithstanding the fact that . . .

Rocket fire from Gaza rarely causes casualties, but it disrupts life in the southern Israeli towns where the projectiles fall.

* * *

At midday Tuesday, the Israeli military said more than 100 rockets had been launched at Israel since Friday.

It said the cell it targeted Tuesday intended to launch Katyusha rockets, which have a longer range than the homemade ones militants usually fire.

As usual, our job is to believe whatever they tell us, not to question it. Even if this is true, given Friday's massacre, it hardly seems surprising.

And in response to these pesky rockets, Israelis rain wholesale death upon Palestinians.

Abbas accused Israel of trying to "wipe out the Palestinian people."

* * *

A weeping Hekmat Mughrabi, her veil soaked with blood, said her 30-year-old son, Ashraf, and another 13-year-old relative died. The young man, hearing the explosion of the first missile outside his home, ran to the door to calm children who had been on the roof making paper kites.

"He was shouting to the kids, 'Don't be afraid, don't be afraid,'" and hadn't even finished his sentence when the second missile hit, she said. "My son died in my arms."

This is why people condemn Israelis, not because they're Jewish, but because they are belligerent. There is no justification for this disproportionate brutality.

Blair rejects Olmert’s West Bank “plan”

Even phony Tony has more sense than to publicly back a plan that is as illegal under international law as it is immoral.

Tony Blair refused yesterday to endorse publicly the plan by the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, for a partial withdrawal from the West Bank.

In his first meeting with Mr Blair since succeeding Ariel Sharon, Mr Olmert outlined his proposal for the closure of some of the more remote Jewish settlements in the West Bank while annexing three major settlement blocs. The Israeli prime minister told a Downing Street press conference that the proposed unilateral withdrawal in the West Bank, following on from the pullout from Gaza last year, was "generous" and would leave the Palestinians with 90% of the West Bank.

Mr Blair insisted the only way forward for Israel was not unilateral action but to embark on negotiations with the Palestinians to end the conflict. "I do not want to go down any other path than a negotiated settlement," Mr Blair said.

He did not deviate from the longterm position that Israel should return to its 1967 borders and hand over the West Bank in its entirety to the Palestinians to form their own state.

Somehow, I don't think Israelis appreciate the snub.

But true to form, Blair gave himself political leeway to endorse the plan should Israelis choose to play hardball.

Mr Blair offered one concession to Mr Olmert. He left open a door to Mr Olmert's plan when he said that if negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians failed to make progress, the status quo was not an option. He warned the international community that if it did not do enough to make negotiations work, he expected the Israelis to act unilaterally. "We, the international community, have got a choice," Mr Blair said. "We either put our best effort into making sure that negotiated settlement becomes a reality, or we are going to face a different reality."

The concession is partly because Mr Blair does not want to alienate the Israeli government. With his tenure as premier nearing its end, Mr Blair is keen to play an active role in trying to rekindle Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, according to western diplomats in Israel. Mr Olmert hinted that if negotiations made progress, there might be a role for Mr Blair.

Don't hold your breath, though. It could be a while.

Israelis deny Gaza slaughter, offer ludicrous alternative

There's only one thing worse than blowing innocent beachgoers to smithereens over the holidays - lying through your teeth about it.

ISRAEL denied responsibility yesterday for the explosion on a Gaza beach last week that killed eight Palestinian holidaymakers, but failed to offer an alternative explanation for the tragedy.

Speaking shortly after another airstrike left 11 Palestinians dead, including two children, Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defence Minister, said: “The accumulating evidence proves that (Friday’s) incident was not due to Israeli forces.”

Flanked by Dan Halutz, the Chief of Staff and Major General Meir Kalifi, Mr Peretz was presenting the results of the official inquest into last Friday’s carnage on the beach.

After showing slides and detailing Israel’s version of the timings, Major General Kalifi, who led the investigation, said that the blast took place between 4.54pm and 4.57pm, a few minutes after Israeli artillery finished firing.

WOW - a few minute differential. Can they possibly offer a weaker alibi? God knows they try.

He also said that the size and shape of the blast crater, according to aerial photography, was not consistent with Israel’s 155mm artillery, and that shrapnel recovered from Palestinian victims in Israeli hospitals cleared Israel: “The probability that one Israeli shell hit at this point is close to nothing.

One military official suggested that the most likely cause was a Hamas beach mine, planted to foil Israeli commandos.

Come on! Are they serious? "Foil Israeli commandos" on a public beach frequented by Palestinian families? What a load of crap! And I'm not alone in my scepticism.

[S]ceptics noted that the Israeli team did not visit the site. They also pointed out that a mine would have had to remain intact for hours on a beach trampled by Palestinian holidaymakers, only to explode after Israel began shelling the area.

Numerous onlookers said that the fatal shell was the third in a series of about five, the first two landing just north of the picnic site and prompting the Ghalia family and other bathers to begin packing up.

The Times found two other identical fresh craters nearby, roughly where the witnesses indicated.

After carrying out an independent inspection, Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst with Human Rights Watch, [said] that he was “quite certain” that the Israeli findings were wrong.

Mr Garlasco, a former Pentagon official and specialist in battle damage assessment, produced shrapnel that he recovered from the beach marked “55MM”.

“It is highly likely that it was an artillery-delivered 155mm shell,” he said.

Mines tended to cause lower body injuries, whereas most of the victims suffered head and upper torso wounds, he added.

“We have to look at all the possibilities, but all the evidence points to a 155mm shell fired by the Israelis as what killed the Palestinians on the beach.”

Basically, all evidence points to Israel, yet Israel denies it. The USS Liberty comes to mind.

Hamas also poured scorn on the new Israeli version. “This is an Israeli lie and an attempt to escape moral responsibility for the massacre of a completely innocent family,” Khalid Abu Hilal, a spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian Interior Ministry, said.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, reacted with puzzlement last night to the Israeli explanation. “To find a mine on the beach is rather odd,” he said.

Israel ought to reformulate its PR strategy. They're not doing themselves any favors by offering brazen lies to cover up brutal atrocities.

It Ain’t Just Bu$h: Part 4 of 100 of Part A: Why they all must go!

So we will go alphabetically by state. I’m not going to waste my time my listing “party” affiliations. Please though if you don’t know their “party” go ahead and try to guess it. I can promise it will be a challenging game. I’m not even going to base this on their voting records, I’m just going to base this on crap posted on their website. If you are student doing research, please I’m begging you help educate your teacher and use this info. By the way these posts are based on the your Senutor's actually websites.
Alaska 2: Ted Stevens
5. Ew-You can't even get past the front page without seeing a picture of the trophy wife w/the old and nasty senutor. Please tell me these people don't actually do it!
4. Oh and to show you how much he cares about wildlife in Alaska, the picture is of old nutjob and the blond trophy at the National Zoo in Washington D.C., showing how much he really appreciates that Alaska wildlife.
3. Oh wait here it is in his bio about his views on Alaska wildlife-his favorite hobby is murdering fish-I disagree I believe this rich white terrorists favorite hobby is murdering non-white people-his second favorite is murdering the fish.
2. He says you can write to him, but you are suppossed to address it too The Horrorable Ted Stevens-Oh wait my bad that is honorable, after all there is a lot of honor in buying a trophy wife.
1. I'd tell you something about his issues (instead of his trophy wife)except I can't seem to find any on the site, only links to what are supposed to tell you about the issues and allow you to search for them (no thanks I'll just vote Green Party if you can't even admit to what you stand for).

Power to the Green Party and Independent Progressives. Get the Democratic-Republican idiots out of office.

Dear Citisucks,

(Snarky-Humor Time)(If you know it to the tune of the second part of Nobody Likes You, From Homecoming, from the American Idiot CD my Green Day)

Oh Green Party member why can't you see
I drive the shit out of my SUV
I don't really care how many non-white children get buried
And it's okay as long as it has a sticker saying John Kerry

I shop at Walmart
And I drive a SUV that takes more gas than all the worlds farts.
I charge it on my credit card.
And I like it when non-white people get feathered and tarred.

And by the way all I have to is vote
so I'm the greatest you all better @&*$&! note.

"So get off of my case" (line from Green Day).

-Democrap

Israelis continue to slaughter children unabated

Israelis are relentless. It's hard to comprehend what goes through their minds as they fire into a crowd of civilians based on suspicions that one of them "may" be on his way to fire a rocket. Then they have the audacity to complain when Palestinians strike back.

An Israeli air strike today against a car carrying militants in Gaza City killed nine Palestinians including two schoolchildren.

The Israeli military said the militants were on a mission to launch Katyusha rockets at southern Israel.

Of course, we're supposed to take their word for it.

Palestinian witnesses said several missiles were fired, and one of them hit the car. A second missile came two minutes after an initial one, after a crowd had begun to gather around the scene of the attack, witnesses said.

This is incomprehensible. They either knew or should have known that a crowd would gather after the first strike, yet they deliberately fired a second time into the gathering crowd. Truly unbelievable. Words cannot describe their brutal and callous disregard for human life.

Seven of the Palestinians killed were civilians, hospital officials said, and Islamic Jihad said the other two belonged to the ranks of its militant group. One of them was Hamoud Wadiya, Islamic Jihad’s top rocket launcher. The group identified the other militant as Shawki Sayklia.

Among the dead were two members of the same family, a father and son.

Also killed were three medical employees on their way to tend to the wounded from an earlier explosion.

“What happened today is a brutal massacre committed against innocent civilians and fighters from our group,” said Kader Abib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza speaking to protesters outside a hospital morgue.

“The Zionist enemy insists on shedding Palestinian blood and we insist on going ahead with our Jihad and resistance. God willing the resistance groups ... will have a harsh response. All options are open for us.”

The Israeli army said the militants were on their way to fire Katyusha rockets at Israel, which IF TRUE could explain why stopping them was such a high priority. Katyushas have a longer range than the home-made rockets usually fired by Gaza militants, and have only recently appeared in the coastal strip.

The operative phrase here is IF TRUE. And since they obliterated all the evidence, we will likely never know.

Thirty-two Palestinians were injured in the strike, three of them seriously. Doctors at Gaza’s Shifa hospital found it difficult to work with the large number of casualties, and some were being treated on the bloodied floor.

At the scene of the air strike, scores of people surrounded a mangled yellow van that had been hit by a missile, its interior covered in twisted metal and the upholstery ripped off the foam seats. A man wailed beside the van as his peers propped him up by the arms. A white slipper lay in a pool of blood on the ground.

Ambulances screamed towards Shifa Hospital carrying dead and wounded. One medical worker yelled out “he’s dead” as teams removed a victim from the ambulance. At the hospital, the injured writhed in pain as medical teams bandaged wounds. Three blood-covered bodies lay on the hospital floor.

At the hospital’s morgue, where the bodies were taken, angry women shouted, “Death to Israel, Death to the occupation!”

Outside the morgue, an Islamic Jihad militant fired his rifle in a show of anger. Other gunmen vowed revenge. One went inside the morgue, put his hands on one of the dead bodies, and then smeared their blood on his rifle. Angry crowds burned tyres near the site where one Israeli missile hit.

How could it be otherwise?

I can't imagine how America would respond if Canada or Mexico decided to lay claim to some of our territory and proceed to massacre American children on a daily basis. What would you do?

16 rate hikes, going on 17 - and no outrage

Beyond all the media hype about free speech and democracy, the right to bear arms and pray to your own God, and the sanctity of property, Americans are really just another sorry example in human history of a people sheepishly herded from one place to another, never questioning the source or nature of their sustenance - or lack thereof - until the time comes for their slaughter.

The dollar rose to a one-month high as currency traders consider Fed rate increase.

Traders are expecting the [Fed] to increase the interest rate for the 17th consecutive time when the US Central Bank meets this month in an effort to stave off inflation, which added to the dollars rally against the euro this month.

The dollar traded at .7929 euros in early afternoon trading in New York while stocks fell in anticipation of the Fed's rate increase.

* * *

The 10-year US treasury bond yield rose 0.04 percent to 4.985%.

The dollar is more "attractive" to investors because with it they can collect more interest as the fascist Fed increases the discount rate yet again, all in the bogus name of "fighting inflation."

THE resulting so-called "increased yield" is extracted (by extortion) directly from the hides of every single working American - male, female, mother, father, grandparent. Even teenagers must work to help their families "make ends meet" in an economy where interest payments regularly balloon.

These are the hallmarks, not of a republic of free men, but of a kingdom of slaves.

It's time for Americans to scrap this interest based system of debt and demand an interest-free monetary system - where people must WORK to earn money - NOT sit back and collect it.

UAW Chief leads rank and file to slaughter

Instead of conveying a determination to put a stop to the slaughter of working class Americans in the auto industry, the President of the UAW resigned himself and the over 600,000 workers he represents to a position of economic servitude and corporate boot-licking.

Ron Gettelfinger, head of the United Auto Workers, told his rank and file yesterday that the shrinking union faces the toughest challenges in its history and that members must adjust to the economic realities of the beleaguered U.S. auto industry and embrace innovative solutions.

The message, delivered in a wide-ranging speech at the opening of the union's four-day convention in Las Vegas, avoided bashing of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., which plan to close or downsize two dozen plants and cut 60,000 union jobs in the next few years as they try to regain their financial footing and turn a profit.

Instead, Gettelfinger recognized the plight of the two largest U.S. automakers in an increasingly competitive climate where their market share, with DaimlerChrysler AG included, has dropped 16 points, to 58 percent, over the past decade. The credit ratings for GM and Ford have been reduced to "junk" status.

"Like it or not, these challenges aren't the kind that can be ridden out," said Gettelfinger, who is expected to win a second four-year term as the UAW's president Wednesday. "They demand new and farsighted solutions and we must be an integral part of developing those solutions."

And he'll be the first to start by bending over. What a sell-out and a loser.

“When the UAW built a golf course we knew right then and there that organizing had entered the twenty-first century,” said a greenskeeper [on condition of anonymity].

Ron Gettelfinger was not available for comment but sources close to the corporation’s beloved say Ronnie has been planning this feat since his days as a summer ranch hand. The work gave him saddle sores but long hot days on horse back instilled in him an appreciation for desk jobs.

It was at the Rollover Ranch that Ron met the man who would influence him for the rest of his life, Steve “Bob” Miller, a turnaround specialist with a stunning pirouette and a graceful side saddle style that charmed the shit out of a lot of bulls.

The two men were both studying accounting and working summers on the ranch when they rubbed their match heads together. Sparks flew and the rest is fodder for the long barrel. So it comes as no surprise that years later the two should meet again — this time riding herd on the rank and file.

In a way, rank and file autoworkers are just like our poor soldiers, out in the front-lines laying their lives down for these bastards and getting nothing in return but an early retirement/grave.

It's not going to stop until Americans Just say NO! to corporate wars and economic slavery.

China ‘not OK’ with joint statement on Iran

[China's] reluctance reflected the East-West divide among the six world powers that just two weeks ago appeared to be in agreement about how to engage Iran over enrichment and to persuade it to give up technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.

Emphasis on "appeared to be." Administration officials are, after all, masters of deception.

"China is not OK and Russia might follow" Beijing's lead in opposing the joint statement, said a diplomat accredited to the meeting, [on condition of anonymity].

Another diplomat said China appeared to be feeling pressure from the Nonaligned Movement, which last month emphatically backed Iran in its nuclear standoff with the West.

Russia's stance was less clear. But Moscow for months has hindered attempts by the United States and its European allies to turn up the heat on Iran in the U.N. Security Council.

* * *

[S]igns of discord Monday reflected continuing differences despite the public show of unity.

One diplomat said Britain, France and Germany - the three European nations participating in the six-nation Iran package - were modifying a draft statement on Iran hoping to secure Moscow's and Beijing's backing on a final version.

Other diplomats spoke of more potential divisions. China, Russia and possibly Germany might push to allow Iran some tightly controlled small-scale enrichment rather than see talks founder.

Russia and China also might balk at enforcing selective U.N. sanctions on Iranian officials and activities.

But of course, the US won't settle for anything less than a green light for military action.

Chief U.S. delegate Gregory L. Schulte called on Iran to respond positively to the offer for talks - and suspend enrichment . . .

"The next decision needs to be taken not in Vienna but in Tehran," Schulte told reporters.

* * *

[But, when] asked if Iran would suspend enrichment for the sake of negotiations, spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham repeated the government line that enrichment is Iran's "obvious right."

You can see where that's going - NOWHERE. Just where the US wants it to go.

US reports Zarqawi wounded in leg (number 3 or 4)

Col. Steve Jones, command surgeon for Multinational Forces, said DNA tests done by the FBI positively identified al-Zarqawi.

The cause of death was listed as "primary blast injury of the lung," with blast waves from the two bombs causing bruising and bleeding of the organs. Al-Zarqawi suffered multiple bruises, scratches and deep head wounds, and Jones found no evidence he had been beaten or shot. X-rays also showed a fracture of his right lower leg.

Exactly how many legs does this guy have???

According to U.S. intelligence, Zarqawi had a leg amputated in Baghdad. Except that most sources now believe Zarqawi is equipped with two working legs. As Newsweek colorfully put in in early 2004, "The stark fact is that we don’t even know for sure how many legs Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has, let alone whether the Jordanian terrorist, purportedly tied to al Qaeda, is really behind the latest outrages in Iraq."

That's not all.

Al-Zarqawi was overweight, a medical examiner said, but Caldwell declined to provide other personal characteristics.

We're supposed to believe that Zarqawi, who's been consistently on the run for the past three years, managed to gain an inordinate amount of weight. Come on.

And why won't they provide further personal characteristics? Got something to hide?

He also would not say whether any drugs were found in the militant's body; officials said toxicology results would be released later.

Right after November elections.

Not if, but when Google becomes Pay-to-Play

Whether it's 'Big Banks', 'Big Oil', or 'Big Pharma', a handful of mega corporations control the technologies and resources without which modern day Americans would find themselves living in the stone ages, like many of their sub-Saharan-African counterparts.

In this context, if 'Big Com' defeats Net Neutrality, which in our corporate-legislative environment is a given, internet-goers will be facing a fee for every search they conduct on search engines like Yahoo and Google.

Should the likes of AT&T and Verizon Communications have their way, any network owner would be able to, say, create a kind of commuter lane to guarantee a speedy delivery to customers.

That would mean a new expense for the likes of Google, Yahoo, AOL and other Internet firms, which will surely pay up in order to remain competitive.

Eventually, the expense could become so burdensome, the folks in Mountain View, Calif., and elsewhere would be forced to pass on some, or all, of it to customers.

* * *

[A] day could come when the Google bill goes in the mail, or you'll be Googling per hour at wireless Internet hot spots, and cable operators add $5-a-month unlimited Googling to their steeply discounted quintuple play of services.

* * *

For argument's sake, say Google has to pay Comcast a penny a search. That translates to a fee, just to Comcast, of about $5 million a month. There are a dozen or so major Internet providers in the United States alone, and scores, if not hundreds, worldwide.

So the price of a speedy Internet delivery in the United States for Google and Yahoo, the two major search engines, would amount to an annual fee in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That's a burden, even for these two revenue machines.

This is how fiefdoms are made. Charge working people a PREMIUM for access to MONOPOLIZED products or services that if available freely would level the economic playing field and eliminate social divisions.

The premium doesn't go to production, or maintainence, or even to research and development - all of which would be legitimate and necessary costs. NO. This fee, or royalty, or interest payment, goes to pay the privileged few a bonus for granting us peasants the privilege of using the monopoly that our government bestows on them only by virtue of the authority vested in them by US.

Corporate borrowing spree screws Joe Public

The borrowing binge for U.S. companies has hit a record pace this year, and Wall Street should thank foreign investors for absorbing the glut of new debt issues.

Unreal. Foreign investors collect billions in interest, sucking the lifeblood out of corporations privileged to sell equities to the American public, and equity markets are supposed to thank them for screwing us over.

Companies have issued about $300 billion in bonds in 2006, up 30 percent from the same period last year, according to credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's Corp.

Normally, the flood of underwriting into the $8 trillion corporate bond market would have caused yields to rise and would have slowed the amount of equity raised by cash-hungry companies to a crawl.

But, there is nothing "normal" about our economy.

Bondbuyers demand their "ROI" risk-free. And in a cash-strapped environment where the rising cost of doing business and the increased cost of borrowing eats into corporate profits, "investors" prefer to collect interest than risk being on the receiving end of anemic or, worse yet, non-existent dividends.

Enter private foreign investors, who snapped up $69.8 billion of U.S. corporate bonds in March, the second-highest amount since February's $90.5 million, according to the Treasury Department.

Many of these investors are coming from countries flush with spoils from a lofty oil market, and they are looking for any place safe to stash their cash.

"Historically, foreigners haven't liked equity purchases because they don't like risk," said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's.

Of course! Who needs equity when you can collect a ton of interest?

But, not everybody is so stupid that their corporations sell out- RISK-FREE - to moneylenders, or in this case, intellectual property lenders.

Israelis generally prefer agreements in which the licensor takes equity with the licensee.

But, alas. Here in the land of the free, moneylenders are at liberty to rape businesses for all they're worth.

"Their money goes into bonds disproportionately. The big switch in the past year is almost all private money is going into the market."

Wyss said nobody is able to track the biggest foreign, private investors, but he said most of the buying has been in Zurich, Switzerland, and London: two financial centers known to be favored by Middle Eastern investors.

Their all time favorite - whenever money, oil, or terrorism is involved - blame it on the Arabs.

This strategy has led to a tightening of spreads between Treasuries and corporate bonds, indicating strong demand.

What are spreads? That takes us to the carry trade, an industry in which parasites make money by exploiting the bloodsucking activities of other parasites. But, that's another post for another day.

For now, know that increased corporate borrowing can only be BAD NEWS for equity investors - higher interest expenses means lower dividends - that's IF they get anything at all.

Mechanics pressured to put defective planes in air

Be very worried before getting on a plane because airlines REALLY don't give a sh*t whether their planes can fly - as long as their profits do.

Mechanics with Air Canada's main regional airline say they regularly feel pressured to cut corners and to put planes in the air with defects that could compromise public safety.

* * *

A dozen maintenance engineers with Air Canada Jazz, all of whom work at the company's Toronto operation, say economic demands to keep planes flying often outweigh safety decisions they would like to make. Four of them have taken the unusual step of publicly stating their concerns.

In other words, they have a conscience. Ghee, that is unusual.

"The pressure to get a plane out is unbelievable," says Jazz mechanic Grant Anastas. "I don't get a sense that management wants to get a plane out safely. It's just, `Get it out.' Nobody wants to get hit with a delay."

The airline, which was the subject of a highly critical Transport Canada audit in 2003, denies the allegations and says safety is a top priority.

"Jazz never compromises safety," the company said in a written response. "While on-time performance is definitely a goal at Jazz, we never sacrifice safety in order to achieve an on-time flight departure."

Jazz is the country's second largest airline (next to Air Canada) and one of the world's largest regional carriers. It carries nearly 6 million people a year on a fleet of 136 planes that fly to 80 North American cities. The airline was created in 2002 with the merging of AirBC, Air Nova, Air Ontario and Canadian Regional.

HOLY cow! That's some merger! Where's antitrust law when you need it?

The Jazz mechanics who spoke with reporters say they fight to keep planes with mechanical defects on the ground by refusing to sign the aircraft out for service. But they say that in many cases their superiors simply find other mechanics to sign out the planes — or sign it out themselves — to avoid costly flight delays or cancellations.

"It's sad to say, but I'm nervous flying on my own airline," says Ronald Anstey, a crew chief at the airline's Toronto hangar. "I have had supervisors ask me to sign out damage that is out-of-limits, been repaired incorrectly (or) repaired illegally. When I refuse, I get looked upon as being a troublemaker ... I feel that management is more concerned with on-time performance than delivering a safe aircraft to the gate."

The explosive allegations raise disturbing questions about the safety of Canada's highly competitive air industry. An ongoing investigation into aviation safety by the Toronto Star, Hamilton Spectator and The Record of Waterloo Region has found a system straining to keep pace with increasingly crowded skies. More than 80,000 passengers have been put at risk during the past five years when airplanes came dangerously close together in Canadian skies. Meanwhile, mechanical problems and alleged violations of air regulations are on the rise.

Ah, but who really cares anyway? Passengers won't know the difference until it's too late. And when an "accident" happens, insurance "pays for it" (and subsequently raises rates). Isn't money all that matters, anyway?

In one dramatic incident in 2002, a three-foot-long piece of the leading edge of the wing of a Jazz Dash 8 fell off on takeoff in Toronto. The crew noticed a vibration of the flight controls and returned. In an investigation report, the Transportation Safety Board attributed the incident to sloppy maintenance.

Jazz mechanics say it could have caused a crash.

"It was a small piece that shot off. If it was a larger one, that aircraft would have disappeared," said Gianni Ballestrin, 34, a maintenance engineer at Jazz for seven years. "They would have lost total control of the aircraft. They wouldn't have survived it."

"They put the screws in the top, but they never put screws in the bottom," says Anastas. "Then (a supervisor) pulled the guy that was doing the job ... to do another job. ... They pulled him off and he never went back to finish."

The TSB probe found that a mechanic working on the job was called away by a supervisor before finishing.

"Before the apprentice (mechanic) was able to do much more than cut the sealant on the right wing leading edge, he was re-tasked to the ramp," the report reads.

The TSB also found that another mechanic on the job "felt rushed when it was obvious that the task would not be completed before the end of his shift," that the responsibilities of crew chief "are not well documented and no formal training is provided," and that the company "did not have a specific procedure for communicating the status of work at the shift turnover."

The report also found the company's ratio of experienced to inexperienced mechanics was "undesirably low."

Jazz conducted an internal investigation into the incident and found "a number of deficiencies," which led to changes in procedure, says the TSB report. The company says the accident was not a result of rushed mechanics failing to do the job carefully.

We give them plenty of time to complete their tasks. They're just lazy and stupid - just like all you uppity readers that need to put your faith in the dollar, shut up, pay up, and fly.

Dave Avella, another Jazz mechanic who has been with the company for nine years, acknowledges that keeping the planes in the air causes extreme pressures.

"In the aircraft maintenance environment there is a lot of stress and duress. The pressures of on-time performance sometimes cloud the objective of the aircraft maintenance engineers' quality and attention to detail," he says. "There are certain things we'd like to address but we can't because we don't have time to do it and/or the company doesn't want to keep that airplane down."

That, he says, can put brutal pressure on the mechanics: "The endless 12-hour night shifts, not seeing their families for days on end, the physical attributes of working night and day rotations, the chemicals ... the list goes on."

A Transport Canada audit of the airline in 2003 found "the focus of the maintenance and operations departments was compromised to the extent that several of the most basic regulatory and quality control tasks had deteriorated."

Jazz spokeswoman Debra Williams says those issues were all corrected following the audit.

"It was three years ago. There has been significant change since then. We worked with Transport Canada to address all of those items."

Oh yeah?

But Jazz was again forced to make changes to its maintenance practices after a September 2004 incident in which pilots at the controls of a Dash 8 on a Kingston-to-Toronto run had difficulty controlling the plane.

About 30 seconds after takeoff, the captain declared an emergency later found to be related to loose nuts in the plane's pitch control system that fell off.

While the plane eventually landed safely, a TSB investigation found deficiencies in Jazz's mechanical procedures, including inadequate inspection of work that failed to reveal the nuts were not tightened. The airline's flight-crew training was also criticized for not adequately preparing pilots for such a failure.

* * *

In addition to Anastas, Anstey, Avella and Ballestrin, eight other Jazz mechanics spoke on the condition their names not be used. They fear repercussions if Jazz knew who they were. The four who spoke on the record have similar concerns but feel public safety is more important than any disciplinary action they may face.

Several mechanics agreed that, on average, a Jazz plane leaves Pearson once a week with mechanical deficiencies that are in contravention of Canadian regulations. They say they have lodged verbal complaints with Transport Canada inspectors, but say they've seen little evidence of action from the regulator.

"I'd be very surprised if that were the normal case," says Merlin Preuss, head of civil aviation with Transport Canada. "If specific complaints were brought to my attention they would certainly be investigated."

Among the most serious allegations is that rubber O-rings — used as seals in various mechanical parts of aircraft — are reused, even though once used they are often misshapen and won't fit properly again.

"The maintenance manual standard practice is you never reuse an O-ring, ever," a mechanic said. "You put a new one (in) it because when it seals, it seals appropriately," said another.

"But at Jazz, if you don't have an O-ring, don't worry about it. Clean it, reuse it in the same place.

"Their idea is we have a $30 million aircraft that's going to fly 75 people from Toronto to Houston and it's grounded for a $50 ring. `Just put it back. Put it back.' I say, `No, get the part.' ... But they pressure us."

Jazz denies the allegations.

"We follow established standard operational procedures and manufacturers' standards in everything we do, including the replacement of disposable parts."

I don't know what you people are complaining about. Aren't people disposable too?

Anstey, who has been with Jazz for eight years, says there is an ongoing problem with resources and skills that undermine safety.

"My company doesn't want to spend the money needed on proper tools or parts. We have people working that have never received any specific aircraft training," he says. "Most of the time their work goes unsupervised, due to the amount of work needed nightly to maintain a fleet of aging aircraft."

Of the 750 non-management mechanics that work for Jazz, 16 per cent are unlicensed apprentices who work under the supervision of licensed mechanics, the company says.

Fatigue in Jazz's Toronto maintenance crew is another problem, says Anstey.

Most of the work on aircraft happens between 11 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., he says.

"I have worked midnight shifts for over eight years, and no matter how hard you fight, you're exhausted at 4 a.m. Imagine having a worker that is falling asleep who is replacing an engine. It is very easy to forget a bolt here, connect a cannon plug there. . ... Lack of sleep, stress and other distractions has caused a lot of mishaps that the flying public never see."

The company says night shifts are standard for mechanics in the airline industry and that their employees receive "adequate rest between shifts. In fact, Jazz's policy concerning maintenance crew rest exceeds Transport Canada's regulatory requirements."

One mechanic said the regional jets Jazz flies often have door seal problems.

Such a problem in June 2003 was so extreme that daylight could be seen through a crack and a curtain was pulled through the door. An emergency landing followed.

According to the mechanic: "We had one (recently) that was all cracked, all damaged and I called it in and they basically said, `Well, we'll see if we can just get this flight because it will be overnighting in Toronto.' I fought them on it. I didn't let it go."

The mechanic said that silicone is often used for a temporary repair: "When time is tight, one quick fix the airline uses is to seal it up with silicone."

It's not known if the June 2003 incident was related to that practice.

In its statement, Jazz says its mechanics "utilize repair sealant for temporary repair of door seals as recommended by the manufacturer's Repair Engineer Order, or REO," adding that the company will "never compromise safety to accommodate on-time performance."

Mechanics such as Ballestrin say they now think twice when they step on an airplane.

"Before I got into aviation I used to get on an aircraft and not think anything about it. Knowing what I know now every time I get on I look around. ... It's just not a good feeling anymore when I have to fly."

He says his seven years in the industry has left him disillusioned.

"It's all about the money. Sadly that's why safety is second. They'll always tell you `safety first' because that's what the public want to hear. It's on-time performance first, safety second."

Think about THAT next time you board a plane. And remember, the trade off is THEIR money - YOUR life.

US outdoes Israel in response to Guantanamo

Israel once stood unrivaled in the audacity of its statements following its cruel and inhumane treatment of Palestinians. But, the US has truly outdone them with its response to three suicides at Guantanamo.

A MILITARY investigation into the suicides of three inmates at Guantanamo Bay was under way yesterday as American officials sought to counter international condemnation over the deaths, dismissing them as a “PR stunt” aimed at discrediting the US.

It can get neither more appalling nor more absurd than this. It appears that Americans have sold their souls and can no longer redeem them.

The suicides by hanging of the three men, two Saudis and one Yemeni, on Saturday sparked renewed calls from foreign governments and human rights groups for the military facility to be closed or moved.

About 465 foreign nationals are being held there without charge, some for almost four years. Yesterday, however, Colleen Graffy, a senior State Department official, dismissed the suicides as a “good PR move to draw attention” and “a tactic to further the jihadi cause”.

The camp commander described the men as dangerous extremists would go to any lengths to become martyrs. “They are smart, they are creative, they are committed,” Rear Admiral Harry Harris said. “This was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”

“Asymmetrical warfare” is a military term to describe how a much weaker opponent may adopt unorthodox tactics to defeat a conventionally stronger enemy. [Up to and including suicide by hanging.] Since September 11, 2001, the term has been adopted by neoconservatives to describe what they see as an unfair fight between terrorists and an America hobbled by international conventions.

Hobbled by international conventions??? Bush and his cronies don't even let common decency deter them, let alone international conventions.

The deaths have come as a huge embarrassment for the Bush Administration amid mounting calls for the facility’s closure and ahead of a potentially fateful Supreme Court decision this month. Human rights groups denounced yesterday the officials’ remarks as callous. “These people are despairing because they are being held lawlessly,” Kenneth Roth, of Human Rights Watch, said. “There’s no end in sight. They are not being charged and convicted for any crime.”

The deaths of the three men, who hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, are the first suicides at the facility.

Dozens of other attempts, from hanging to overdosing, have been thwarted by military medics.

Suicide attempts at Guantanamo began shortly after the facility opened in January 2002. In late 2003 officials began to reclassify many suicide attempts as “manipulative, self- injurious” behaviour intended to bring pressure on the authorities, but acknowledged that those classifications were not made after any formal evaluation.

All three men had participated in hunger strikes to protest against conditions. Lawyers for inmates had previously predicted that the harsh measures would push prisoners towards radical steps.

Depending on how "harsh" the measures were, the families of these men might attempt to bring civil suits against the US government under the Alien Tort Act.

Officials said that shortly before the suicides, rumours had been circulating around the block that the facility would be closed if three inmates were to take their lives.

MILITARY CAMP

• 23 inmates have tried to kill themselves on 41 occasions, says the military

• 29 suicide attempts were by hanging [the US was on notice]
  

• The camp opened in January 2002 after the US invaded Afghanistan # There are about 465 prisoners from 40 countries

• Ten have been charged but none has been tried

• Nearly 300 have been returned to their countries

• A report that the Koran had been desecrated provoked worldwide riots

• Several prisoners have been on a hunger strike on and off since last August

Pulverizing a hundred Zarqawis will not make this nightmare go away for the Bush administration. The administration is what it claims to protect us against. Their so-called "war on terror" is more like a reign of terror.

“I saw my sister and her head was gone.”

Nothing Israel says can begin to explain why this carnage took place.

"We were just playing in the sea. I know how to swim and we had all joined hands in a circle and were swimming and playing."

She goes on to describe the explosions that hit the family as they gathered their possessions and waited by a sandy beach road for a taxi to take them home.

"The first missile didn't hit me," she said. "I was only hit afterwards."

* * *

As far as Hadil Ghalia's brother Ayham, 20, can remember, the shell came from the sea.

* * *

"While we were on the beach we heard Israel launching missiles elsewhere, so we gathered our things and called the taxi," he said. "Suddenly the missile just landed right on us.

"My father was beside me, and his stomach was cut wide open and his guts were spilling out. I thought only he was hit, and I was calling to him but he did not answer.

"Then I looked around and saw the others. Some had their arms hanging off. I saw my sister and her head was gone," he said, referring to 15-year-old Elham, who was decapitated in the blast. Another sister, Reham, 16, is recovering in hospital where she has had both arms amputated.

It sounds like a horror movie. But, this is life in Gaza.

Despite his grief, Ayham talks without rancour about Israel, and says he hopes that Palestinians and Israelis "can sit together and come to peace".

Unfortunately, these are not the acts of a nation that wants peace.

This cannot go on much longer.

New FFTF 14 Min Trailer

Freedom to Fascism Movie

Scene from ‘Zarqawi killed’ - TAKE TWO

Not satisfied with the lukewarm response to the first take, the administration added some drama and gave it a second whirl.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could barely speak, but he struggled and tried to get away from American soldiers as he lay dying on a stretcher in the ruins of his hideout.

The U.S. forces recognized his face, and knew they had the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Initially, the U.S. military had said al-Zarqawi was killed outright.

But, Friday new details emerged of his final moments.

* * *

On Wednesday, the U.S. military tracked him to a house northwest of Baghdad, and blew it up with two 500-pound bombs.

Al-Zarqawi somehow managed to survive the impact of the bombs, weapons so powerful they tore a huge crater in the date palm forest where the house was nestled just outside the town of Baqouba.

Just like 'somehow' the steel beams of the twin towers melted, and 'somehow' their entire concrete structures vaporized, and 'somehow' building 7, although never hit by a plane, spontaneously collapsed into its footprint.

Iraqi police reached the scene first, and found the 39-year-old al-Zarqawi alive.

"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said Friday of the Jordanian-born terrorist's last words.

Iraqi police pulled him from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious, and tried to provide medical treatment, the spokesman said.

"He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military," Caldwell told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Baghdad.

Al-Zarqawi "attempted to, sort of, turn away off the stretcher," he said. "Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike."

What a crock of sh*t. Who's the moron who came up with this stuff?

So much blood covered al-Zarqawi's body that U.S. forces cleaned him up before taking photographs. "Despite the fact that this person actually had no regard for human life, we were not going to treat him in the same manner," Caldwell said.

You dropped two 500lb bombs on him. Is that supposed to be civil?

The airstrike killed two other men and three women who were in the house, but only al-Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser have been positively identified, he said.

Let me get this straight. Five other people were mangled so badly that they could not be positively identified, yet Zarqawi, who was apparently drenched in blood, was not only identifiable, but alive, conscious, aware, and able to attempt escape?

Who do they think they're kidding?

Caldwell also said experts told him it is not unheard of for people to survive a blast of that magnitude.

"There are cases when people, in fact, can survive even an attack like that on a building structure. Obviously, the other five in the building did not, but he did for some reason," Caldwell said.

He said he did not know if al-Zarqawi was inside or outside the house when the bombs struck.

"Well, what we had found, as with anything, first reports are not always fully accurate as we continue the debriefings [and as we make up our minds as to how far we can take the lies]. But we were not aware yesterday that, in fact, Zarqawi was alive when U.S. forces arrived on the site," Caldwell said.

His recounting of the aftermath of the airstrike could not be independently verified. The Iraqi government confirmed only that Iraqi forces were first on the scene, followed by the Americans.

An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said he saw Caldwell's news briefing but could neither confirm nor deny that al-Zarqawi briefly survived the blast.

"Well, I think it's clear: The Americans said he was seriously wounded and he died," the aide said.

What's the matter? You don't believe them?

Zarqawi's kin to bury full color glossy

Al-Zarqawi's brother, Sayel al-Khalayleh, said "I and all members of our family want him (Al-Zarqawi) to be buried in his hometown of Zarqa."

They're going to have to settle for a life-size glossy - Bush's PR kit doesn't come with a body. And it's just as well . . .

[Jordan] vowed the terror leader who killed Jordanians in a triple hotel bombing would never "stain" the country's soil.

It's likely never to be an issue since the US has no body to return - only full color glossies.

The U.S. military in Baghdad had no immediate comment on where al-Zarqawi's body is or whether it would be returned to his family for burial.

If they had a body, they would have returned it by now.

There is a precedent for returning the bodies of major figures to their families in the Iraq conflict. The military returned the bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons, Odai and Qusai, to their relatives after they were killed in a gunbattle with U.S. forces in 2003. The brothers were buried in Saddam's home region of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

I'd like to see the administration slither its way out of this one.

Israelis bomb crowded Gaza beach, kills children

Even children playing on a beach are open game for Israelis. Unbelievable.

Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 10 Palestinians on Friday, including seven people on a crowded Gaza beach, the highest Palestinian death toll in a single day since December 2004, Palestinian officials said.

Among those killed on the beach were three children, including an infant, a 3-year-old and a 10-year-old, who were playing at the time, witnesses said.

About 20 people were injured by the shelling, which Palestinian sources said came from Israeli ships. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it "a bloody massacre".

The Israeli army initially said its ships had fired shells at militants who launched rockets against the Jewish state after Israel's killing of a top militant who also served as a senior security chief appointed by the Hamas-led government.

But army spokesman Jacob Dallal said later that the shells were neither fired by Israeli naval ships nor the air force. "We are checking if it was artillery," he said.

Army chief Dan Halutz ordered an investigation into the deaths on the beach and halted the shelling, Dallal said.

Dallal said the army does not know "for certainty" if the shells were fired by Israel, and he said the military "deeply regretted" any civilian deaths.

What a load of crap. How can you 'halt the shelling,' yet not know 'for certain' if Israelis fired the shells?

Palestinians can't even let their children enjoy the few beaches they have access to without fear of them being killed by Israeli fire. Abominable.

___________
UPDATE: The US released a statement regarding the incident that is certain to further infuriate the Arab world against America - if that's at all possible.

"We've seen the news reports about this," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

"Let me just state what we have said before: that Israel has a right to defend itself," the spokesman said.

From beach-goers???

"We also at the same time encourage Israel to ... consider the consequences of its actions."

For example, the negative public relations impact - not just on Israel - but on the US.

McCormack ought to emigrate to Israel and join the IDF.

Pentagon forgets to give villagers script on Zarqawi

"Zarqawi. Zarqawi. Zarqawi. That's all we hear about. Zarqawi was not here. This home belonged to displaced people," said a village resident, holding up a teddy bear and a child's knapsack buried in the destruction.

Someone at the Pentagon should have filled local residents in on the PR stunt. Startled villagers didn't know what to make of US claims that the infamous Zarqawi lived, and was killed (yet again), among them.

Standing on rubble left by the U.S. air raid that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqis in the village of Hibhib expressed disbelief on Thursday that the al Qaeda leader had been living among them.

"I don't know anything about Abu Musab or anyone else being here," said a teenager who declined to give his name, inspecting blankets amid crushed concrete.

"The Americans have a habit of bombing places and then claiming Zarqawi or others were there."

* * *

Hibhib, about 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, is typical of the rural Iraqi villages where U.S. troops hunt Sunni Arab insurgents and al Qaeda militants.

Located in Diyala, one of the country's most dangerous provinces, it is a tiny place with one road surrounded by date palm orchards and streams.

Not three. Not two. But, only ONE road. This was no mega city, where you barely know your next door neighbor let alone the guy up the street. If Zarqawi - a man with a 25 MILLION DOLLAR bounty on his head - had been there, they would know.

Zarqawi is said to have moved to Diyala as part of a strategy of constantly moving around to evade U.S. and Iraqi forces. The province is a volatile mix of majority Shi'ites and Arab Sunnis and Kurds that has suffered some of the grisliest violence.

But Hibhib seems worlds away from the insurgent and sectarian bloodshed pushing Iraq toward civil war.

That may be why residents seemed so surprised by news that an al Qaeda leader who had a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head was in their midst.

People in a nearby cluster of houses said they had no idea who was living in the pulverized home.

"All we know is there was someone named Sayed Yassin there. How can it be possible that Zarqawi was there?" asked one.

That's easy. It can't.

___________
Thanks, Looking Glass News and Damien, for links.

Bush's televised gloating over Zarqawi backfires

No sooner did boy blunder invoke the memory of victims allegedly beheaded by Zarqawi than WaPo quoted Michael Berg, the father of one of the victims as saying that he felt no sense of relief at the killing of Zarqawi and that only "the end of the war and getting rid of George Bush" would give him satisfaction.

So much for Bush's photo-op.

Berg, who is running as a Green Party candidate, has repeatedly blamed President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his son's death.

* * *

Zarqawi's organization took responsibility for the execution of Nick Berg, 26, in May 2004. The video was published with a caption saying: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."

Not very creative.

When an Islamist Web site showed the video of a man severing Berg's head, the CIA said Zarqawi was probably the one wielding the knife.

And they should know.

The father said he was not convinced that Zarqawi's organization was responsible for his son's killing, as stated by the U.S. government. "I have been lied to by my own government," he said.

We've ALL been lied to by our own government. And this is neither the first time, nor the biggest lie.

‘Big Oil’ brakes supply to maintain gas prices

Oil prices slipped towards 70 dollars on Thursday, adding to sharp losses the previous day after government data showed rising crude and fuel inventories in the world's top oil consumer, the United States.

But, don't assume this translates into a corresponding drop in gas prices.

Crude supplies rose 1.1 million barrels last week in the US on LOWER refinery output, the Energy Information Administration said, compared to analyst forecasts of a decline. This took stocks 4.2 percent above this time last year.

"The crude build -- due to unexpectedly high imports -- was a surprise," said JPMorgan. "Gasoline demand eased as anticipated...this put demand on a year-on-year basis up an anemic 0.7 percent."

Too bad imports are steady.

The agreement to keep crude production steady, reached Thursday by OPEC oil ministers meeting in Caracas, will do little to ease prices

* * *

"Stock levels are on the high side, gasoline stocks are on the low side, and the market looks as though it's balanced," said Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's oil minister.

* * *

Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah made clear that "at [$70 a barrel], OPEC won't cut production."

While high oil prices mean big profits for oil producers in the near term, the longer-term risk is that they could cause a drop-off in economic growth and spur the development of alternative energy sources.

Most OPEC members "don't want to send any signals to the market that there's a floor at $70," said Yasser Elguindi, senior managing director at Medley Global Advisors.

The cartel could face a more difficult decision in the second half of the year if inventories continue to build and global economic growth slows, said Michael Lynch, president of Winchester, Mass.-based Strategic Energy and Economic Research.

"That can really accelerate weakening prices," he said.

Which is happening now, though they blame it on Zarqawi as they do everything else.

As soon as gasoline demand started to wane because of high prices at the pump (coupled with relentless interest rate hikes), Big Oil reduced refinery output in order to limit gasoline price drops. This led to an 'unexpected' increase in crude supplies and subsequent drop in crude prices - which of course benefits traders.

The increase in crude supplies is "a surprise" because under ordinary competitive market forces, the larger crude supply could be utilized to compete for a greater share of a gasoline market whose demand is in large part limited by consumer ability to pay.

But, ours is no ordinary competitive market. Ours is an oligopoly, where Big Oil sets the price and our job is to pay.

Marines in Haditha “totally tweaked out on speed”

The US is so screwed. Not only are eyewitnesses recounting more grisly details of the massacre in Haditha but reports are emerging of rampant drug and alcohol abuse among the marines involved.

Thaer al-Hadithi, a member and spokesman for the Hammurabi human rights association, a Sunni Muslim group, recounted with the help of a satellite map when and where Iraqi civilians cowered and sometimes died.

* * *

Al-Hadithi, 42, said he had been visiting his family in Haditha in western Iraq for a Muslim holiday when he was awakened on the morning of Nov. 19 by an explosion that he later learned to be a roadside bomb that hit a U.S. convoy of four Humvees, killing one Marine.

* * *

Al-Hadithi offered new details on how that might have happened. He said the roadside bombing took place on a road about 100-150 yards from his family home.

"There was an eerie silence after the explosion," he said in Hammurabi's Baghdad offices.

"Then, we started to hear noises, soldiers shouting, that grew louder and louder," said al-Hadithi, who spoke with a map of the town he downloaded from the Internet.

The first gunshots were heard at around 7:30 a.m., he said, when the Marines moved into the family home of Abdul-Hamid Hassan Ali, a blind and elderly man in failing health. The house is just south of the spot where the roadside bomb went off, al-Hadithi said.

Later, the Marines moved next door to the house of Younis Salem Rsayef and his family.

"There was intense gunfire and I could see a fire at the Rsayef home," said al-Hadithi, who watched from a window at his family home.

One of the 24 bodies taken to Haditha's main hospital late on Nov. 19 was charred, according to Walid Abdul-Hameed al-Obeidi, the hospital director. That was believed to be one of Rsayef's sons, who witnesses said was burned to death after a grenade was thrown into his room.

Ali and his wife Khamisa Toamah Ali were killed along with three of their sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson, according to witnesses, hospital officials and human rights workers.

In the second home, eight people were killed: Rsayef, his wife, her sister and five children.

"You could tell that someone was killed by the gunfire and then the wailing and screaming of women seconds after the Americans left the house," said al-Hadithi.

He said the Marines stormed the house of Ayed Ahmed, the closest to al-Hadithi's own home, at about 10:30 a.m. There, he said, four brothers, all of fighting age, were ordered inside a closet and shot dead. Everyone else was spared, al-Hadithi said.

This alone is enough to recruit legions upon legions of men and women alike, from any faith or national origin, against the war criminals responsible for this barbaric, cowardly act.

At about the same time, a man who stepped out of his nearby house to see what was happening at Ayed Ahmed's home was shot and wounded, according to al-Hadithi. Aws Fahmi, 43, was left to bleed on the street for about two hours before a female neighbor dragged him to safety, al-Hadithi told the AP.

Fahmi's family was not able to take him to a hospital until two days later, al-Hadithi said.

Although the shooting stopped, the security sweep, he said, lasted until about 4:30 p.m. and the Marines did not leave the town.

Al-Hadithi said the Marines imposed a three-day closure on Haditha. They allowed relatives to go to the hospital the day after the killings to collect the bodies and bury them following negotiations with the Americans by the head of the local council, Imad Jawad Hamza. Only close relatives took part in the funeral, said al-Hadithi.

* * *

Al-Hadithi's account is generally consistent with the sequence of events given to the AP last week by a lawyer for relatives of victims.

* * *

Both men watched from windows at their homes. Al-Hadithi said he had a clear view of two of the houses where killings allegedly took place. Khaled Salem Rsayef, the lawyer, said he could see the site of the roadside bomb as well as the first house stormed by the Marines.

Rsayef has said he learned from conversations with relatives that the shooting was carried out by three or four Marines while about 20 more waited outside. Al-Hadithi said it was difficult to ascertain the number of those involved.

However, he pointed out that since the shootings were not simultaneous, it's possible they were the work of one group of Marines.

Meanwhile, the wife of a marine admitted that the unit involved in Haditha was out of control.

The wife of the unnamed staff sergeant claimed there had been a "total breakdown" in the unit's discipline after it was pulled out of Falluja in early 2005.

"There were problems in Kilo company with drugs, alcohol, hazing [violent initiation games], you name it," she said. "I think it's more than possible that these guys were totally tweaked out on speed or something when they shot those civilians in Haditha."

Look out for an insanity plea.

The Newsweek account described a gung-ho battalion that had staged a chariot race, complete with captured horses, togas and heavy metal music, before the battle for Falluja in late 2004.

The marines were given loose rules of engagement in the vicious urban warfare that followed.

"If you see someone with a cellphone," said one of the commanders was quoted as saying, half-jokingly, "put a bullet in their fucking head".

Unfortunately, it appears more than likely that eyewitness accounts of Haditha are accurate despite initial denials.

About a month after the killings, al-Hadithi said, a Marine major refused a request by the victims' families to offer a formal apology, arguing that the Iraqis were killed in the roadside bombing or caught in crossfire between the Marines and insurgents.

The officer, whose name al-Hadithi said he could not remember, also warned them that the next time a roadside bomb hits a Marine convoy in Haditha he would order an airstrike to level anything within 500 yards.

* * *

Al-Mashhadani, Hammurabi's chairman, who lectures on economics at Baghdad's al-Mustansiriyah University, said the organization was publicizing the Haditha incident to make sure it's not repeated.

"At the same time, we want the victims' families to receive a fair compensation," he said.


Iman Walid Abdul-Hameed, a young girl who said she was in the house when the Haditha shootings occurred, said her brother and several other relatives had been killed and she demanded revenge. "We want the Americans to be hurt just like us," she told the cameraman.

I am sure she is not alone. Americans MUST do something to stop this madness or we will soon find ourselves in the eye of a very nasty storm of revenge.

Zarqawi killed - WANTED: new mascot for War on Terror

How will the US ever find a replacement on such short notice?

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, has been killed north of Baghdad, Iraq's prime minister said Thursday.

Just in time to distract from the ongoing carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Haditha scandal, and the Council of Europe's report on CIA renditions. Even traders managed to captalize on his demise as an excuse to drive down prices in crude oil.

Thankful for respite from the daily barrage of attacks against his administration and eager to gloat over the death of an arch enemy, Bush delivered a prepared statement at 7:30am to revel in Zarqawi's timely demise.

But, now that he's officially dead, who will the US find to replace the all-purpose Zarqawi?

[E]vidence suggests that Zarqawi was part of a Pentagon disinformation campaign launched in 2003. which was initially intended to justify the US led invasion of Iraq. This central role of Zarqawi as an instrument of war propaganda was recently confirmed by leaked military documents revealed by the Washington Post.

The Pentagon had set up a "Zarqawi program." Military documents confirm that the role of Zarqawi had been deliberately "magnified" with a view to galvanizing public support for the US-UK led "war on terrorism":

"The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work..." (WP. 10 April 2006)

An internal document produced by U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, states that "the Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." (WP, op cit). (For further details see Pentagon PSYOP: "Terror Mastermind" Abu Musab Al Zarqawi is "Incompetent" - by Michel Chossudovsky - 2006-05-15)

To be continued . . .

Bush, Blair thumb their noses at Council of Europe

Swiss Senator Dick Marty, the same guy who implied that the US engaged in “gangster tactics,” followed up his earlier findings with a report that accuses European countries of helping the CIA ship detainees to secret prisons to be tortured. But, in classic form, Bush and Blair among others dismissed the report as lacking solid evidence.

"While the states of the Old World have dealt with these threats primarily by means of existing institutions and legal systems, the United States appears to have made a fundamentally different choice: . . . it decided to develop new legal concepts.

"This legal approach is utterly alien to the European tradition and sensibility, and is clearly contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

* * *

[The US] therefore built not only Guantanamo Bay, but a series of "black sites", or secret prisons around the world. In these black sites, senior al-Qaeda suspects were held and interrogated, sometimes by so-called "enhanced" methods.

For the Bush administration, authority for this came from a congressional resolution passed on 14 September 2001.

How on earth could they put together a resolution in three days flat UNLESS they had advanced notice?

Under this resolution "the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001... in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."

Specific authority for the CIA to act as it saw best against al-Qaeda was then given by President Bush in a "presidential finding" on 17 September 2001.

* * *

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stated that her country does not engage in torture or hand over prisoners to those who do.

* * *

[Nevertheless,] the British government among others [argues] that the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism is so grave that there has to be a reconsideration of the balance of liberties.

[According to this view,] the individual had to be protected against governments. But now the individual ability to wage war on societies is so great that individuals have to be restricted.

In his report, [Marty rejects this, stating: “compiling] so-called "black lists" of individuals and companies suspected of maintaining connections with organisations considered terrorist and the application of the associated sanctions clearly breach every principle of the fundamental right to a fair trial: no specific charges, no right to be heard, no right of appeal, no established procedure for removing one's name from the list."

[But] Dan Fried, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs [insists otherwise]:

"We are attempting to keep our people safe; we are attempting to fight dangerous terrorist groups who are active and who mean what they say about destroying us. We are trying to do so in a way consistent with our values and our international legal obligations.

"Doing all of those things in practice is not easy, partly because - as we've discovered as we've gotten into it - the struggle we are in does not fit neatly either into the criminal legal framework, or neatly into the law of war framework."

You would think that its failure to “fit neatly” into either framework would signal to Mr. Fried that the practice is unprecedented and indeed unacceptable in civilized affairs. But, apparently he is unfamiliar with basic inductive reasoning. Instead, he throws common sense to the wind and relegates himself to the use of faulty logic as a means to his nefarious ends.

Meanwhile, the latest report has been dismissed not only as old news, but also as unsubstantiated and inconclusive.

The inquiry, by Europe’s human rights watchdog, offers a plausible account of the US programme of “extraordinary renditions”. But it lacks solid proof that the 14 governments it names actually helped the US in what it theatrically calls the global “spider’s web”.

Its main contribution — new details of flight logs — is suggestive but inconclusive.

* * *

Tony Blair told Parliament yesterday that “we have said all we have to say on this. The report adds nothing new.”

[BUT,] Andrew Tyrie, Conservative chairman of the parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, said that there was now a “huge amount of circumstantial evidence” of a British role, adding: “We are a democracy. The truth is going to come out. For the Prime Minister just to say, ‘Oh, I’m not going to say any more,’ isn’t going to wash.”

So, rather than express indignation at the unpalatable nature of the accusations, Bush and Blair dismiss the report based on a smug awareness that the council lacks authority to demand discovery from countries suspected to have helped the CIA.

The BBC said evidence in the report is largely circumstantial, and proving many of the allegations, such as the existence of so-called "black sites", is beyond the council's powers.

"I don't see any new solid facts in it," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "There seem to be a lot of allegations but no real facts behind it."

A classic case of "catch me if you can."

US-born Israeli soldier found dead

It's funny - you never hear of Israeli citizens emigrating to enlist in the US military. But, that's another story.

An Israeli soldier who recently emigrated from the United States was found dead in a West Bank mosque Tuesday, where he apparently committed suicide after shooting at the walls of the empty building with his M-16 assault rifle.

The army identified the soldier as Israel Reyman, 28, and said he immigrated to Israel about two months ago.

A spokeswoman said the fact that his weapon was found beside him indicated he may have killed himself, but "all options are being examined."

She would not give any other details, including his hometown, saying the incident was under investigation.

Residents of the northern West Bank village of Akabeh said they heard several shots from the mosque early Tuesday, and soldiers found the man's body inside shortly afterward. One witness said the shots damaged the mosque's pulpit, and Israeli forces imposed a curfew on the site while they carried out repairs.

Israeli TV reports said Reyman had complained of personal problems during training and had no known links with any Israeli political group, apparently ruling out a nationalist motive for the mosque shooting.

Was it suicide? Or, was he just enraged and stupid - unwittingly killing himself by ricocheting bullets, when he only meant to vandalize?

US f*cks up yet again in Somalia

Apparently, the brutal desecration of the bodies of 18 of our soldiers in '93 wasn't bad enough for the US. Instead of trying them for war crimes, the Bush administration gives financial support to the same warlords who dragged the dead bodies of American soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, all in the name of fighting "Islamists." And now, "Islamists" have taken Mogadishu, not because they're brutal, but because they've restored a semblance of law and order not seen in Somalia since warlords took over in '91.

If the Islamists' claim is confirmed it would be the first time that control of the entire city had been wrested from Somalia's warlords since they ousted the former president, Mohammed Siad Barre, in 1991.

Aljazeera.net: What kind of support, if any, does the United States provide to the ARPCT?

Baldo: We know that some of the warlords are receiving support from Washington in the form of payments that allow them to buy weapons.

The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism [ARPCT] took arms against the Islamist militia in February, probably after having increased its military capacity thanks to Washington.

The US has neither affirmed nor denied it; officials say they are in partnership with people that help in their war on terrorism.

Some US officials have tried to point out the dangers of such an alliance, but they were hushed up.

Aljazeera.net: Could you elaborate on the dangers that this alliance poses?

Baldo: First of all, it has fuelled the fighting between the ARPCT and the Islamic courts since last February that has killed hundreds of civilians caught in the crossfire. Washington has shown a total disregard for the humanitarian cost of this battle.

So, what's new? Freedom and democracy at the expense of life and human dignity.

Second, Somalia is becoming unstable again [Somalia has been plagued by intermittent civil war since 1977], the [Islamic] courts are getting stronger.

Some residents actually support them because they've restored a semblance of order and now they've captured Mogadishu.

Somalia is not traditionally a breeding ground for radical Islamism but follows a more moderate type of Islam, like in the rest of [Muslim] Africa.

Aljazeera.net: What were the Americans hoping to achieve?

Baldo: Washington and intelligence in the area believe that people responsible for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and for the 2002 attack on a tourist hotel and Israeli plane in Kenya, were carried out by terrorists that used Somalia as a transit point and safe haven, especially after the fall of Afghanistan [to US-led forces in the winter of 2001].

Some of those radical elements have ties with the Islamic courts.

By defeating the courts, Washington was hoping to discourage the terrorists from using Somalia as a hiding ground and keep dangerous individuals on the run.

But, as we know, the end result is the just the opposite of that. The courts seem to be winning.

Moreover, the US may have violated a UN embargo by supporting the warlords. A UN investigation is under way.

So, what? By now, you must have realized that the UN is only relevant when it does what the US tells it to do.

The US is interested in immediate results and has failed. It also didn't hesitate to ally itself with the some of the warlords that killed 18 American troops in Mogadishu in 1993.

Aljazeera.net: Is it fair to describe the fighting in Somalia as a proxy war between Washington and radical Islamists?

Baldo: Not only that. This is also a proxy war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Eritrea supports the Islamic courts while Ethiopia co-operates with Washington.

The courts are traditionally funded by business communities locally because the application of the Sharia [Islamic law] had brought back a semblance of order.

That's right. Islamic law, the same one that is so reviled in the mainstream media, actually works to establish order. But, you won't hear that on either Fox News or on CNN.

Part of the fighting is also about economic turfs: who controls the trade routes, ports and airports. It's not purely ideological and there is a definite exploitation of September 11 in local politics.

It's always about money, and September 11 was simply a catalyst for the economic changes that they've been planning for decades now.

And what's so special about Somalia? According to the CIA factbook . . .

Natural resources: uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves . . .

Geography - note: strategic location on Horn of Africa along southern approaches to Bab el Mandeb and route through Red Sea and Suez Canal

Somalia is simply part of a masterplan to control the world's natural resources and it doesn't matter how many dead people get dragged through the streets or hung from poles - as long as it's not THEM.

commencement

Don't ask. Be thankful you weren't there to hear the names of over 480 graduating students. No one told me that the hardest part of law school would be the excruciatingly long commencement.

666

My mind and my time have been occupied for a number of days now with lots of odds and ends in preparation for transition from school to work (which I'm still looking for) and the Bar exam.

There's been a lot going on in the world, as I'm sure you are all aware, thanks to MR at WRH and all the great bloggers who diligently keep us informed.

Just wanted to share the fact that my graduation ceremony is tomorrow, 6/6/06 - whatever that means. I pray that it will be uneventful.

Did the US ‘help’ Garcia win Peru’s election?

It's hard to believe that Garcia won Peru's presidential election after being pegged as a long-shot just a few weeks ago. Indeed, it reminds me of another president whose unlikely re-election left the world reeling not too long ago. Perhaps the two victories have more in common than meets the eye.

Alan García won the presidency of Peru on Sunday, official figures showed, making an improbable comeback from a presidential term in the 1980s that even his backers admit was disastrous, exile in the 1990s and an electoral defeat five years ago.

García, a moderate leftist, won 55 percent of the vote to defeat retired Lt. Col. Ollanta Humala, an ultra-nationalist leftist, who had 45 percent, with 77 percent of the vote counted Sunday. Three exit polls showed García winning by about the same margin.

''García was the least bad of two bad choices,'' Javier Osorio, a bank employee, said at his polling station, in a sentiment shared by many. "I just hope he's changed."

Sunday's results have important implications beyond this Alaska-sized country with 27 million people, as Garcia didn't hesitate to address in his first postelection remarks Sunday night.

García said Peruvians had sent an overwhelming message to Venezuela's Hugo Chávez that they had rejected the "strategy of expansion of a militaristic, retrograde model that he has tried to impose in South America."

But, exactly whose message was it that they sent?

Chávez had backed Humala in the fervent hope that Peru would join Cuba and Bolivia in a Venezuelan-led socialist and populist bloc that opposes market friendly policies supported by the United States and Brazil. García has neither endorsed nor rejected a free-trade agreement negotiated with Washington but awaiting congressional approval.

Chávez took the unusual step of publicly endorsing Humala, as had Bolivia's new president, Evo Morales. Brazil, the United States and Chile quietly favored García.

"Most indications are that García will steer a middle course, which will likely calm any jitters the international financial and investment community might have about Peru,'' David Scott Palmer, a Boston University international relations professor who has been coming to Peru since 1962, said by telephone.

"For U.S. officials, the result will bring a collective sigh of relief. It means they will have one less challenge they have to deal with in the region."

I'll bet, considering where each candidate stands on the most important issues, the Bush administration and its banking and oil cronies stood to lose a lot if Humala was elected.

Garcia, 57, a social democrat, wants to maintain free-market policies, but focus more on social issues, and says he has learned from the mistakes of his 1985-1990 administration, which led Peru to economic ruin.

Humala, 43, had pledged that if elected he would redistribute the country's wealth and nationalize the key mining sector.

Now, at least, they can rest assured that Peru will not follow in the footsteps of Bolivia and Venezuela. I wonder how much they paid for that assurance?

If they did have something to do with Garcia's victory, they had better be prepared for a fight from Humala.

Lloyd Axworthy, head of the Organisation of American States' observer mission in Peru, told the FT that the nationalist "has warned us directly that he could take street action in response to the perception of fraud".

Citibank-Always Screwing People Over, Always!

Came across this online. One more person dumbs these corporate terrorists!

"They pulled their crap on me twice in the last year. Switching payment due dates and jacking my interest rate and applying fees just for the hell of it all. I have been using their services for over 10 years and I am now being repaid by asinine customer service practices that are nearly criminal. That's enough for me. I don't carry a balance so there is nothing to penalize. Citibank can now kiss my pasty white working man's behind. That card is gooonnneeeee".

Always good to hear that people are canceling their cards with these corporate theives and terrorists.

Ralph Nadar (aka A true progressive who says no to the credit card terrorists).

Yup, you read that correct! Unlike the Credit Card "liberals" in Congress Ralph Nadar does not own a credit card, nor will he ever according to an address he gave at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

This is in stark opposition to both the rethugs and democults in Congress who will do whatever it takes to please their corporate terrorist friends the banking terrorists. On one site collecting donations for the democult (I can't remember which one or whose) they actually stated they prefered you to pay by credit card. What??? Does this sound like a party of change to you??? Our preference is for you to support the banking terrorists! Of course was ask you to support the banking terrorists for your own good (WTF). Oh, and of course they state it is more conveintant for them: I bet it is particularly when the banking terrorists slip some money back into your rep or senutors g-string.

Back to Ralph Nadar, my friends you have someone leading my example. Someone truly interested in us and not the banking terrorists. Good luck finding that in the 1 party system.

Technology ELIMINATES jobs, not vice-versa

I don't know how many times I've heard politicians insist that technology will increase and improve jobs in America, blah, blah, blah.

That popular fantasy cannot be further from the truth. The only people who benefit from any increased productivity that accompanies new technologies are BANKS and their pet corporations who already bleed working Americans dry at every turn.

A check-processing operation at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City will close with the Fed’s move to a new headquarters, eliminating 93 jobs . . . as part of several changes throughout the Federal Reserve system to deal with a shrinking number of checks to process. Payments are increasingly being made electronically through debit and credit cards and electronic presentation of checks.

[A] spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve in [Kansas City] said employees might be able to find other jobs at the Kansas City Fed or at Fed banks in St. Louis and Denver that are gaining work.

“If we can absorb them in other areas and they’re qualified, we will,” Raley said.

If not, there's always McDonald's and a few motels that need their latrines cleaned - that is, on a part-time basis, of course.

In total, 280 employees throughout the Fed system, including 16 in Omaha, Neb., will lose work as a result of the changes.

And it's only going to get worse as long as blood-sucking leaches control our monetary system.

Another pariah that must not be overlooked is the United States patent system. If not for our patent system, technology would be freely available and would NOT ONLY decrease the need for labor, BUT ALSO decrease the cost of living.

BUT, NOOOO. Thanks to patents, Americans MUST pay more for technology, while technology REDUCES the opportunities by which Americans can earn the money to pay for it.

Americans must realize that along with a fraudulent monetary system, the patent system is THE reason why the fruits of technology and industry inure to the benefit of a small slither of humanity.

IT MUST STOP or the majority of the world's population will be reduced to abject poverty slaving under the high-tech whip of financial overlords.

In the meantime, anyone who tells you that unemployment in America is not a problem is a LIAR.

Iraq rejects US probe, but CAN they launch their own?

Investigations over incidents like Ishaqi and Haditha mark the beginning of the end of this occupation.

Iraq's PM is in the unenviable position of having to bow down before a military superpower bent on controlling his nation's oil, and satisfy an increasingly and justifiably indignant Iraqi population, enraged at the senseless and brutal killing of its people.

Iraq vowed on Saturday to press on with its own probe into the deaths of civilians in a U.S. raid on the town of Ishaqi, rejecting the U.S. military's exoneration of its forces.

Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the government would also demand an apology from the United States and compensation for the victims in several cases, including the alleged massacre in the town of Haditha last year.

"We have from more than one source that the Ishaqi killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. More than one child was killed. This report was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed," he told Reuters.

What was the US thinking when it released what is essentially a rubber-stamp approval of the previous report?

The U.S. military had issued a statement about Ishaqi saying allegations that U.S. troops "executed a family ... and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false".

It said troops had been fired on as they raided a house to arrest an al Qaeda suspect. They returned fire and called in air support, which destroyed the building, killing one militant and resulting in "up to nine collateral deaths". [!!!]

The military had previously said one guerrilla, two women and a child were killed in the March 15 raid in Ishaqi, 60 miles (100 km) north of Baghdad.

But, neither the previous report nor the latest approval could persuade Iraqis.

It has repeatedly pledged to punish any soldier found guilty of atrocities in Iraq, but the decision to clear the troops in Ishaqi fuelled deep mistrust among ordinary Iraqis three years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Police in Ishaqi say five children, four women and two men were shot in the head, and that the bodies, with HANDS BOUND, were dumped in one room before the house was blown up.

If the victim's hands were bound, then there is NO WAY that the US account is true. The Bush administration and Iraq's PM are up sh*t's creek without a paddle.

Maliki, who took office two weeks ago at the helm of a U.S- backed national unity government, is battling a widespread public perception that U.S. troops can shoot and kill with impunity and Iraqi leaders are too weak to do anything about it.

"Ishaqi is just another reason why we shouldn't trust the Americans," said Abdullah Hussein, an engineer in Baghdad.

"FIRST they lied about the weapons of mass destruction, THEN there was the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and NOW it's clear to the world they were guilty in Haditha," he told Reuters.

A tribal leader in Ishaqi said it was clear that U.S. forces were above the law in Iraq.

"We expect the American soldiers to commit any crime to control this country," added Sarhan Jasim, 55.

Human Rights Minister Wijdan Michael said her ministry would send a fact-finding commission to Ishaqi in the next few days.

* * *

White House spokesman Tony Snow said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, met Maliki in Baghdad on Friday and promised to give him all the evidence and materials from the Haditha probe.

The question is, what are Iraqis going to do with it?

At the start of the occupation, the Bush administration made it a point to ensure immunity for coalition forces from Iraq prosecution.

The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government, U.S. officials said.

* * *

Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."

It's unclear whether, under current law, the Iraqi government has authority to hold US troops accountable. Even if they do, it would be difficult - if not impossible - under the circumstances for them to assert that authority.

Nevertheless, given the widespread dissatisfaction with US "probes" into civilian deaths by US troops AND the region's history vis-a-vis US military immunity, it would be equally difficult for Iraq's government to refrain from asserting its sovereign authority.

The issue of immunity for U.S. troops is among the most contentious in the Islamic world, where it has galvanized public opinion against the United States in the past.

A similar grant of immunity to U.S. troops in Iran during the Johnson administration in the 1960s led to the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who used the issue to charge that the shah had sold out the Iranian people.

"Our honor has been trampled underfoot; the dignity of Iran has been destroyed," Khomeini said in a famous 1964 speech that led to his detention and then expulsion from Iran. The measure "reduced the Iranian people to a level lower than that of an American dog."

Ironically, Khomeini went into exile in Iraq, where he spent 12 years in Najaf -- the Shiite holy city that is now home to Sistani and his followers and where Iraqis still remember the flap that led the shah to deport a cleric who later led Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Clearly, the issue of immunity for US troops is a fireball that threatens to set the entire region aflame.

In the statement about Ishaqi, Major General William Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman, said the investigation showed that the ground commander "operated in accordance with the rules of engagement governing our combat forces in Iraq."

[BUT] One man in the town, 40-year-old Obeid Kamil, said on Friday that U.S. soldiers had a "licence to kill" Iraqi civilians.

"Their action is always to open fire and kill people, which is proof that they are afraid," he said.

I'd say that's a pretty astute assessment coming from a simple Iraqi.

These incidents are the beginning of the end of this occupation.

they can kill, but they can’t hide

For many of us, it's been clear for some time now that US troops have been indiscriminately killing Iraqi civilians. Thankfully, the myriad crimes have now made front page news and the soldiers who committed them - and their commander in chief - will no longer be able to hide from the images of their defenseless victims, or from the world.

The video aired on Friday shows footage of a March 15 US military raid in the village of Ishaqi, about 80km north of Baghdad.

The US military had said four people died when the military attacked a house suspected of holding an al-Qaeda operative. The house was destroyed.

But footage shot by a news cameraman at the time shows at least five children dead.

'They wanted to hide the evidence'

The video also shows at least one adult male and four young children with obvious entry wounds to the head. One child has an obvious entry wound to the side caused by a bullet.

Locals said there were 11 total dead. They said they were killed by US troops before the house was levelled.

The video includes a man saying there were "children were stuck in the room, alone and surrounded.

"After they handcuffed them they shot them dead. Later they struck the house with their planes. They wanted to hide the evidence. Even a six-month-old infant was killed. Even the cows were killed."

Other video shows the bodies of three children in the back of a pickup truck that took them to the hospital in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's former hometown.

On Thursday, the US military's major general William Caldwell said "about three or four" inquiries were being carried out.

* * *

A man was shot in Hamandiya, near Baghdad, in April. The Iraqi was reportedly dragged from his home and killed by U.S. military personnel.

The Los Angeles Times and NBC News said troops may have planted an AK-47 and shovel near the body to make it appear the man was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb.

Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman could face murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges as early as Friday, according to a defense attorney.

And those are the ones we know about. How many more remain hidden in the graves of silent victims?

_______________
UPDATE:

The results of a US probe into the incident in Ishaqi cleared US troops of any wrongdoing.

On the Ishaqi incident, military officials described a night-time raid aimed at finding a specific guerrilla, who then fled the building but was later caught. Another guerrilla who fired from the building was killed in the raid, they said.

"The forces, upon arrival, began taking direct fire from the building. As the enemy fire persisted, the ground force commander appropriately reacted by incrementally escalating the use of force from small arms fire to rotary wing aviation, and then to close air support, ultimately eliminating the threat," Caldwell said.

"Allegations that the troops executed a family living in this safe house, and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false," Caldwell said.

But . . .

A senior Iraqi police officer said autopsies showed each had been shot in the head.

Pretty remarkable coincidence for all the victims to have been shot in the head from outside the house.

Television footage showed the bodies in the Tikrit morgue. Their wounds were not clear, but one infant had a gaping head wound.

Describing that day, Ibrahim Khalaf told Reuters Television U.S. troops attacked his brother Faez's house before raiding his own home. Death certificates from the hospital where the victims were taken said they died of gunshot wounds.

"They started shooting in the air before entering the house. This process lasted for about 20 minutes and after that they entered the house and started shooting inside it," he said.

Given the fact that the investigative report from Haditha turned out to be a coverup, it is not far-fetched to suspect that this one might be too.

Scotland Yard shoots first, asks questions later

A statement released by Scotland Yard regarding this morning's "London Terror" raid "proves" not only that they are clueless, but that they verify intelligence by conducting armed raids of residences at un-Godly hours of the morning and shooting at startled inhabitants.

This morning, shortly before 4am, the Metropolitan Police executed a search warrant at a house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, East London. The warrant had been issued for the search of those premises under the authority of the Terrorism Act 2000.

WOW. This was passed even before 9/11. They were prepared beforehand.

This operation was planned in response to specific intelligence. As always, our overriding concern is for the safety of the public. Because of the very specific nature of the intelligence, we planned an operation that was designed to mitigate any threat to the public either from firearms or from hazardous substances.

Like the kind of intelligence that led to the Iraq invasion?

Some officers were armed, and others equipped with protective clothing. In planning the operation we worked closely with other agencies including the Security Service, the Health Protection Agency, the London Ambulance Service and Fire Brigade, and the London Borough of Newham.

You will appreciate that I am not in a position to discuss details of the intelligence with you. However, what I can tell you is that the intelligence was such that it demanded an intensive investigation and response.

Notice how no one is ever in the position to discuss the "details of intelligence" until of course it's thoroughly discredited by obvious facts.

The purpose of the investigation, after ensuring public safety, is to prove or disprove the intelligence that we have received. This is always difficult, and sometimes the only way to do so is to mount an operation such as that which we carried out this morning.

So, the public is supposed to accept the fact that in order to verify intelligence, police must conduct armed raids of their residences at ridiculous hours in the morning.

During the course of the operation, a 23-year-old man who was in the premises received a gunshot wound. The circumstances of this are being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and it would therefore be inappropriate for me to make any further comment about this.

He "received" a gunshot wound? They make it sound like it was delivered anonymously by mail.

And he probably "received it" for being shocked and outraged at the invasion of his privacy by a fleet of armed men at 4 in the morning. How would you react?

I can tell you that the injured man has been taken to the Royal London Hospital where he has received treatment. He has also been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of Terrorism.

Adding insult to injury, they arrested him to give the appearance that they shot at him legitimately.

Another man, aged 20, who was in the premises at the time of the operation has also been arrested under the Terrorism Act, and is being held at Paddington Green Police Station.

The only other witness must also be isolated from the public.

The investigation, to prove or disprove the intelligence that prompted the operation, continues. As always this will be thorough, and one part of it will be a painstaking search of the premises in Landsdown Road. This has started, but may take some time, in all probability several days to complete.

Good PR takes time. Your patience is appreciated as much as it is mandatory.

“Core Warrior Values” training for US troops after Haditha

U.S. military commanders in Iraq on Thursday ordered ethics training for combat troops, after accusations that Marines murdered unarmed civilians in an Iraqi town last year.

The training over the next 30 days in "core warrior values" would highlight "the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield," a statement said.

The fact that the US is implementing this training after the Haditha massacre implies that (1) inadequate training was provided prior to combat; AND (2) commanding officers are NOT, as they claim, confident that 99.9% of troops know how to conduct themselves according to the rules of war.

Sun curries favor with Wall Street, cuts 5000 jobs

Computer server maker Sun Microsystems Inc., whose revenue has declined four years in a row, said Wednesday it planned to cut 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in an effort to return to consistent profitability.

The cuts, which will reduce Sun's 37,500-person work force by [11] to 13 per cent over the next six months, will cost Santa Clara-based Sun from $340 million to $500 million US over the next several quarters, the company said.

Are all these costs in severance pay? Hell no. Much of it pays for early lease terminations.

Sun executives expect the plan, which also includes selling real estate and exiting leases, to save the company from $480 million to $590 million, once it is fully implemented sometime around June of next year.

So, what happened to the stunning Sun, once a Wall Street darling?

[The company] has struggled since the dot-com bubble burst in late 2000. Servers that run processors based on Intel Corp. designs and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows or the free Linux operating systems have grown increasingly powerful, often performing the same jobs at a fraction of the cost of Sun products.

Investors have driven down Sun shares from a high of about $64 in September of 2000 to a range of about $3.50 to $5 over the past year.

Holy crap! You better believe it wasn't small investors doing the driving.

So, why is it that Sun fell out of favor with big Wall Street firms?

Some analysts have criticized Sun's management for not cutting costs more dramatically.

* * *

Despite losing money every year since 2001, [former CEO, Scott] McNealy had resisted making further cuts in Sun's workforce and research and development.

He also unnerved Wall Street when he stopped predicting financial results after missing earlier projections.

* * *

[In contrast,] It took just five weeks on the job for Sun Microsystems Inc. Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz to decide he had too many employees.

Now, you know what it takes to please Wall Street.

And that's not all.

[Sun] also said on Wednesday that its board of directors voted to eliminate its shareholders rights plan, known as a poison pill plan, which makes a takeover plan harder by imposing extra costs.

Schwartz is priming Sun for a Wall Street takeover.

Wakeup America. There's a war going on and the enemy is within.

The TRUTH about Ethanol: good for drunks, not cars

Recently, a number of politicians have been extolling the virtues of ethanol as an alternative energy source. But, by now you might have realized that when politicians advocate a policy change, constituents should run for the hills.

[T]he average retail price of E-85 ethanol fuel has risen faster than gasoline over the past year, and now costs nearly as much with the subsidies included [51 cents on every gallon of ethanol pumped].

And since a gallon of ethanol has only about two-thirds the btu-equivalent energy of a gallon of gasoline, the effective price of ethanol, despite the subsidies, is really about $4/gallon.

The biggest beneficiary of the subsidies is Archer Daniels Midland, which makes almost 40% of all ethanol fuel used in the United States, and a big chunk of that used in Brazil as well.

The underlying reality is far worse than the price. No matter how subsidized, production of enough corn to reach the three CEOs' [Ford, GM, and Chrysler] theatrical goal of 25% of transportation fueled by ethanol, would require planting 12-13% of the land area of the United States in corn, 270 million acres or .45 million square miles of cornfields.

These sad facts are known . . .

• corn ethanol, switchgrass ethanol, and wood ethanol consume 29%, 45%, and 57% respectively more btu's of fossil-fuel energy in their production, than they produce when they're burned as fuel [.]

• substituting ethanol for one gallon of gasoline from "imported oil," costs the nation $7.24. So much for "independence."

And who's pushing this national conversion to Ethanol?

The organized groups outside government pushing hard for what Bill Ford senselessly called "the big-number game-changing ethanol play for this country," are a very strange new kind of "hybrid."

On one side are a pack of war-mongering neo-conservative in the Set America Free Coalition—Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, James Woolsey, Meyrav Wurmser and others straight out of meetings planning regime change throughout the Mideast and Asia.

But these neo-cons' major go-ethanol manifesto is signed by a group called the Apollo Energy Alliance, consisting of friends of Al Gore and George Soros, and various "progressive Democrats" and unionists.

The common father of this strange alliance is the George Shultz who created the George W. Bush Administration; Shultz's Rocky Mountain Institute with Amory Lovins, like Shultz's Committee on the Present Danger, began promoting the ethanol fraud as a way to attack the nations of the Middle East.

Sounds just like the kind of people whose advice we shouldn't take - if we value our lives.

The ethanol part of the "flex-fuel" package is 100% fakery, along with related proposals to burn various products of "atholes."

By contrast, the hydrogen-fuel proposals, including some work by the major automakers, are potentially revolutionary for engine propulsion. But the best prospects for producing hydrogen efficiently involve, again, using the high heats from nuclear power plants to crack hydrogen out of ammonia or related stocks.

* * *

The third element of "flex-fuel," electric-diesel hybrid engines, while obviously not fakery, changes nothing in the collapse of the U.S. auto sector, but a few more miles per gallon in a somewhat more expensive car.

The fundamental problem is real wages and unemployment, as the House Democrats reminded Bill Ford.

Overall U.S. auto sales are falling, this year toward the 16-16.5 million units characteristic of almost a decade ago. The sales drop is concentrated in—the upper Midwest region, where U.S. autos and auto parts are made! Fewer cars and light trucks are being bought by those Americans most inclined by loyalty to buy U.S.-made vehicles.

Car sales are shifting toward corporate and rental fleets and toward the wealthy. The three Cornball Brothers are kicking their own sales in the head by their layoffs and plant shutdowns and the shutdowns radiating from their effect.

Neither hybrids nor fuel mixes are going to revive sales in the teeth of continued globalization. The capacity is unutilized, by 50% or more. It is up to Congress to use it or lose it. American industry's most versatile remaining machine tool capabilities are fast disappearing now.

In short, the ethanol bandwagon is nothing but another corporate-sponsored neo-con scam that merely takes the nation down a different road to the same grisly economic demise.

As one United Auto Workers union leader in a southern state succinctly put it recently, "the only thing you can run on ethanol, is an old drunk."

Dubya might be interested, but to US ethanol is useless.