NEWS and PROPAGANDA

US 'supports borderline terrorists against Iran'
*************************
"The United States is promoting terrorism behind [Iran's] western frontiers... They [the US government] directly finance operations and organize terrorist movements to undermine the Islamic Republic," Ayatollah Khamenei said on Tuesday.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=95222&sectionid=351020101



Obama's Animal Farm
Bigger, Bloodier Wars Equal Peace and Justice
******************************
"The Deltas are psychos. You have to be a certified psychopath to join the Delta Force", a US Army colonel from Fort Bragg once told me back in the 1980's. Now President Obama has elevated the most notorious of the psychopaths, General Stanley McChrystal, to head the US and NATO military command in Afghanistan. McChrystal's rise to leadership is marked by his central role in directing special operations teams engaged in extrajudicial assassinations, systematic torture, bombing of civilian communities and search and destroy missions.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22642.htm



Brazil president arrives in Beijing
*******************
One item expected to come up in talks is a proposal by the Brazilian president for China and Brazil to conduct bilateral trade through each nation's currency, cutting out the US dollar as an intermediary.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/05/200951841033800562.html



Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
********************************************************
Jeremy Scahill reports the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, including gang-beating them, breaking their bones, gouging their eyes and dousing them with chemicals. This force, officially known as the Immediate Reaction Force, has been labeled the "Extreme Repression Force" by Guantanamo prisoners, and human rights lawyers call their actions illegal.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54388&hd=&size=1&l=e



U.S. Contractors Fired at Kabul Car
********************
Four U.S. contractors affiliated with the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide fired on an approaching civilian vehicle in Kabul this month, wounding at least two Afghan civilians, according to the company and the U.S. military.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124239900599924043.html#mod=rss_US_News



Israel Preparing for Attack Again?
***************
The four-day military drills, which will end on Thursday, were aimed at testing the Israeli squadron's airborne assault operations, infiltration attempts and special forces missions.
Political analysts say the newly-staged military drills are a harbinger of another Israeli bombing mission on Gaza.

http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2009/05/israel-preparing-for-attack-again.html



The Netanyahu government approves construction of new settlement
*****************************
The new settlement plan was seen by several Palestinian and international officials as a clear Israeli message to the US administration that the country does not intend to halt the construction and expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/05/netanyahu-government-approves.html



Ethiopia denies reports troops in Somalia
******************
"This is a totally fabricated story. We have no plans to go into any of Somalia's territory," Wahade Belay, spokesman for Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry, told Reuters in Addis Ababa.
Citing witnesses in the area, all the main Somali language websites and radio stations were on Tuesday running stories saying there had been an Ethiopian incursion.

http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLJ094558._CH_.2400

ON FREEDOM(part8)

I live in a world where worship and slavery has been in a struggle with freedom and responsibility for the moral conscious of free beings for centuries. The avoidance of freedom and responsibility has been a tragic banality, with ever more elaborate fictions continuously introduced. The individual is supposed to adapt and belong. Verily, the theories provided to the new minds of this world are made to oppress. Self-consciousness is triggered through inadequacy and embarrassment. Trying something new has become declaring something to be, subject to hypocrisy and ridicule. Free beings just trying anything without approval and acceptance, is deluded and dangerous. What do genetic codes, evolutionary theories, and gods have to do with freedom? What does race, nationality, and mankind have to do with free beings? It is all very clever determinations for those wanting to be slaves, and those wanting to be obeyed and worshiped. From the tenured professor at a university, to an emperor of a continent, free beings have been participating in mutual oppression of the moral conscious for quite a long time.

WAR, RESISTANCE, and PROPAGANDA

Heroic Resistance of 75 Year old Iraqi
****************
HEYET in its statement said: “The duty to fight against the invaders is national, legal and humane responsibility.

http://www.heyetnet.org/eng/amsinews/4405-heroic-resistance-of-75-years-old-iraqi.html


Turkish president should stand trial- court/NTV
******************
As president, Gul enjoys immunity.
'It is the rule in the Turkish Republic's constitution and laws that everyone should stand trial,' the court said in its ruling.
Gul's office was not immediately available for comment.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/06-turkish-president-should-stand-trial-court-ntv-rs-02


US bill links military aid to A Q Khan
******************
If adopted, it will place Pakistan in a very uncomfortable position. To qualify for US military assistance, Pakistan will have to produce Dr. A.Q. Khan before American interrogators. Islamabad will also have to pledge to monitor all future activities of the nuclear scientist who is seen as a hero at home but as a villain in the West.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/11-us-bill-links-military-aid-to-a-q-khan--02


Record bombs dropped in Afghanistan in April
********************
Air Force, Navy and other coalition warplanes dropped a record number of bombs in Afghanistan during April, Air Forces Central figures show.
In the past month, warplanes released 438 bombs, the most ever.
April also marked the fourth consecutive month that the number of bombs dropped rose.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/05/airforce_april_airstrike_050409w/


Time to stop US barbarism in Middle East and Afghanistan
**************************
According to Muriel Kane, "Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal will be taking over command of US forces in Afghanistan, pending Senate approval." McChrystal headed the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that previously reported to Dick Cheney, with no congressional oversight.
Kane notes: "Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently described the JSOC as an "executive assassination wing" controlled for many years by the office of former Vice-President Dick Cheney."
Jeremy Scahill says: "Pentagon officials are spinning another cover-up," following the bombing that killed up to 130 people in Afghanistan. He also reports: "...as many as 2,000 [Afghans] poured into the streets of the provincial capital, chanting ‘Death to America’.”
Disgustingly, the Pentagon attempted to blame the Taliban for the murders, saying that they had done the killing with grenades.

http://www.redress.cc/americas/pjballes20090517


Arab world has no problem with Iran: Amr Moussa
*********************
“We do not regard Iran as the main issue. Actually, the Arab world does not have any problem with Iran… The main problem and major threat to the region and Arabs is Israel’s nuclear activity,” he said during a meeting on the Middle East peace process in Shuneh, Jordan.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=194813

NEWS and PROPAGANDA

In imperialist 'surge,' Washington pushes Pakistan into war
*************************
The reason Pakistan’s government had opted for negotiations, and not open confrontation was the difficulty of winning a sustained battle in the tribal area. The rugged terrain in the mountainous area with few roads makes the conditions unfavorable for Pakistan’s military. Additionally, while the fighters in the tribal region are highly motivated, the motivation of Pakistan’s military forces is suspect.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54315&hd=&size=1&l=e



Make Internet safe for everyone: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
***********************
“The theme of this year’s observance is "Protecting Children in Cyberspace”. Children and young people are among the most prolific users of the Internet and mobile devices. As they surf through cyberspace seeking information and entertainment and building social networks, they are also among the most vulnerable to exploitation. Without safeguards, their precious lives are at grave risk in the vicious world of cybercriminals and paedophiles that prey on easy targets.

http://www.irna.ir/En/View/FullStory/?NewsId=491066&idLanguage=3



Hezbollah capable of ruling Lebanon if wins election
*************************
A tight race is expected between the opposition led by Hezbollah and the Western-backed majority, who Nasrallah accused of being behind the country's sectarian problems.
“We Hezbollah have always rejected the division of Lebanon and we shall always maintain this,” he said.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=194715



Leftists, nationalists confront each other in downtown Kiev
*****************************
The first all-Ukraine social-nationalist congress is scheduled to be held there on Saturday.
The Communist Party blamed the revival of neo-fascism on the president “whose regime from its very first day has been seeking to rehabilitate and impose fascism”.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13946331


Two Emirates companies to pump gas to Nabucco from N.Iraq
**************************
The Western-backed Nabucco pipeline aims to lessen Europe's dependence on Russian gas and is opposed by Moscow. Until now, the $10 billion pipeline project had plenty of willing buyers in Europe but little gas to sell.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11669320.asp?gid=237



Swat is just the start: Zardari
****************
Pakistani army claims to have killed more than 750 militants over the past two weeks, a report from Amnesty International claimed that 700,000 people remain trapped in Swat. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 987,000 displaced people registered in the last two weeks, on top of 500,000 who fled fighting last summer.
“We need to develop our capability and we need much more support,” said Zardari. “We need much, much more than the $1 billion [military aid] we’ve been getting, which is nothing. We’ve got 150,000 troops in [the tribal areas] - just the movement of that number would cost $1 billion.”

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/17-May-2009/Swat-is-just-the-start-Zardari

ON FREEDOM(part7)

'I have a box. Only I can know of it's contents.' Is this the genesis of communication? This metaphor leads thinking into a cage. Possession, ownership, what is mine in this world. Generation after generation, seem to easily know what freedom is and discontinues any thoughts on the subject. Their high values wrapped around 'things'. Enchanted to the point of illusion. Possessing things become their sole inspiration to imagine. They begin to enjoy the cage, while immediately forgetting that they had built it. Free beings revere adapting. They create metaphysical constructs where 'freedom' becomes interchangeable with 'control'. 'I have a box, and I will use language to describe the contents', deforms language. Language becomes a game filled with secrets, lies, laws, possessions, and oppression. What can I do? What can I imagine?, becomes, What do I have? What can I get? How do I stop?

NEWS and PROPAGANDA

Barack Obama, Murderer and War Criminal-in-Chief
***********************
We can now see unequivocally and in full, bloody daylight the nature of the "change" that Obama has brought to the operations of Empire. Obama will alter nothing in those operations, except to expand them and make them still more murderous. But because Obama has been heralded as the exponent of "hope" and "change," and because the majority of Americans exhibit an endless capacity for crediting the most meaningless of slogans, many people will continue to struggle to convince themselves that somehow things might have been worse had he not been elected.

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/05/barack-obama-murderer-and-war-criminal.html


US drone attack kills more Pakistanis
***********************
At least 15 Pakistani people have been killed as a US drone fired missiles into alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in near Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Several persons were trapped under the debris of the seminary building after the attack. US spy planes were still hovering over the region creating panic and fear among the residents.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=94924&sectionid=351020401


North Korea: New Europe?
***********************
South Korea thinks its Stalinist neighbour should receive aid from the London-based lender, set up in 1991 to help former communist countries make the transition to market economies.

http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope/2009/05/16/north-korea-new-europe/


Nigerian military says 200 militants killed in Delta State
***********************
WARRI, Nigeria, May 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 200 militants have been killed in the recent clash with the Nigerian military in the oil rich southeast Delta State.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/16/content_11381986.htm

US drone strike kills 25 in Mir Ali
**********************
The official put the death toll at 25, raising the figure from 10 militants who were reported killed earlier on Saturday.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=77837


Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
**************************
“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?_r=3


Israel Real Threat-Not Iran
****************************
The Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has slammed Israel's deliberate attempt to portray Iran as a threat to the region. "There is a line in Israel saying that Iran is a danger to the region. This is absurd and unacceptable", Erekat said at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in Jordan.

http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2009/05/israel-real-threat-not-iran.html


Torture/Abuse Photos Ridiculed by Rush, Kept From View by Obama, Posted on The BRAD BLOG
******************************
These are said to be among the photos of prisoner abuse/torture whose release Obama has determined to block. Some of them were obtained, and posted several years ago, by The Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7151

NEWS and PROPAGANDA

Pentagon Preparing For War With The Enemy
*******************
"My flight in the backseat of a Lancer [MiG-21] is a good opportunity to look at different aircraft and it's a real privilege and an honor. I want to see what they see from their cockpit, and view a new angle of understanding against our adversaries."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13614

A Nation of Freedom or a Nation of Soldiers?
*******************
It’s a bad sign of how far off track the Obama presidency has gone that some of the most far right Republican politicians in Congress are thanking President Obama for continuing George W. Bush’s attacks against the Constitution. One such noxious thank you came yesterday from U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Blackburn congratulated Obama on his decision to resist a Freedom of Information Act petition, and refuse to reveal photographs that show acts of barbaric torture by the American government.

http://irregulartimes.com/


On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 19/2009 (07 - 13 May 2009)
**********************************
Five Palestinian civilians, including two children and one woman, were wounded by IOF gunfire
IOF conducted 15 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF arrested 12 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, and four in the Gaza Strip IOF arrested the mother of an allegedly wanted Palestinian. IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world. IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested five Palestinian civilians, including a child and a girl. IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian civilians and their property. At least 110 donums[1] were annexed to "Burkan" settlement in the northern West Bank.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54276&hd=&size=1&l=e


So Long Since Dreaming Made Sense
********************
There had been the Reagan Revolution and the enshrinement of greed, rapaciousness, and materialism as the state religion. There had been the beginnings in 1991 of the long war to gain control of the planets oil supplies. There had been the period of the most "Republican" Democrat ever to occupy the White House, a man so vapid and devoid of character that he sought nothing of his office beyond his own sexual gratification. There had been the eight years of the most utter hopelessness and despair as the United States of America moved as close to fascism and the end of constitutional government as it has ever been.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22613.htm


Mission Accomplished
********************
President Barack Obama appears to be endorsing the Bush administration’s larger mission — to turn the American presidency into an elected monarchy. By refusing to enforce the laws against torture, he not only violated his oath of office; he joined George W. Bush in declaring that CIA operatives can commit crimes with impunity, provided that a government lawyer gives them a permission slip.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/mission-accomplished/


Scared Somalis running out of food as battles rage
***************************************
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Hundreds of foreigners fighting alongside Somali Islamic insurgents have driven this week's fierce battles against government forces, which have killed more than 100 people, the U.N. envoy to Somalia said Friday. Concern that the government might fall is mounting.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_SOMALIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-05-15-12-21-54

Pakistan Pounds Swat, Over One Million Refugees Registered
********************************
The bad news doesn’t stop there. Another 500,000 IDPs are waiting to be formally registered. On top of that, another million civilians are trapped inside the Swat Valley because of the military’s curfew.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/14/over-one-million-refugees-from-swat-valley-registered/


Sri Lanka rejects cease-fire pleas
**********************************
"We are not going to succumb to international pressure to stop the offensive," said Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena. "In Pakistan and Afghanistan there are similar conflicts but no one is asking them to have a peace agreement or a cease-fire," Abeywardena said.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11651533.asp?gid=237

ON FREEDOM(part6)

Empathy is a profound way of maintaining continual awareness and understanding of freedom. I am free. The other beings I live with in this world are also free. By understanding freedom, I understand others. Empathy begins the moral and ethical conduct of interacting with the other free beings of this world. It is quite deceptive to think of empathy, and from there perhaps moral conduct, as a reciprocal contract of necessity. It is more like introducing thought and reasoning into the world. Empathy has no affinity with the bargaining and profit scheme of 'the golden rule', or the revenge/reward scenario of 'what comes around, goes around'. I have empathy for the plight of other free beings without assuming or hoping other free beings will reward me for it.

PROPAGANDA, HYPOCRISY, and NEWS

US blames Taliban for phosphorous weapons
*******************
The US military spokesman Col. Gren Julian said that the military did not use white phosphorus in the battle, adding that "if it was used at all it had to be the insurgents."

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=94417&sectionid=351020403


Soldier homicide 'shocks' Obama
*******************
"My heart goes out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this horrible tragedy," AFP quoted his Monday statement as saying.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=94400&sectionid=3510203


Three Worst Reasons to Delay Putting Cheney in Prison
********************
On Sunday, Cheney said: "The fact of the matter is that these [torture] techniques that we're talking about are used on our own people. In the SERE program that in effect trains our people with respect to capture and evasion and so forth, and escape, a lot of them go through these same exact procedures." If this were true, participants in the SERE program would be kidnapped and tortured by people willing to kill them. They would be waterboarded believing they might be drowned. This would be done upwards of 100 times. They would be hung by their wrists, beaten, electroshocked, deprived of sleep, stripped naked and exposed to cold, attacked by dogs, slammed against walls, kept in isolation, and in many cases killed, in many other cases driven insane.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13567


US to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent
****************
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates. Budget office figures released Monday would add $89 billion to the 2009 red ink - increasing it to more than four times last year's all-time high as the government hands out billions more than expected for people who have lost jobs and takes in less tax revenue from people and companies making less money.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_BUDGET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-05-11-21-10-57


Pakistan: 700 Militants Killed in Past Four Days Thousands More to Die, According to Zardari
**************
The final number will doubtlessly rise, as President Asif Ali Zardari estimated around 3,000 members of the assorted factions in the valley, while the army has said it is more like 4,000 to 5,000. Whatever the case, Malik reiterated the promise of President Zardari that all of them would be killed in the end.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54176&hd=&size=1&l=e


Prisoner Who Tied Iraq to Al-Qaeda Found Dead in Libyan Jail
******************************
"This news resolves, in the grimmest way possible," Worthington writes, "questions that have long been asked about the whereabouts of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, perhaps the most famous of 'America's Disappeared' - prisoners seized in the 'War on Terror,' who were rendered not to Guantánamo but to secret prisons run by the CIA or to the custody of governments in third countries - often their own - where, it was presumed, they would never be seen or heard from again."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7133


Eight killed in US drone strike in S. Waziristan
**********************
At least eight persons have been killed in US spy plane missile strike in South Waziristan tribal region on Tuesday. A foreign news agency has confirmed the missile strike in the region in which eight persons have been killed. A US spy plane fired missiles over a target in South Waziristan’s western mountainous terrain of Sarakhora on Tuesday morning.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/12-May-2009/Eight-killed-in-US-drone-strike-in-S-Waziristan


Pelosi, Impediment to Torture Investigation? Pelosi, Resign.
***********************
Information continues to dribble out regarding Nancy Pelosi’s early knowledge that the U.S. Government under George W. Bush was torturing the people it had indefinitely detained without charge. Over the weekend, after Nancy Pelosi issued excuses embarrassingly based on her ignorance of law, poor leadership or credulity, Republican members of Congress issued ominous references to documents they say will prove the Speaker of the House knew quite a lot about the waterboarding torture being used by the Bush administration and was even “involved in policy formulation.”

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2009/05/11/pelosi-impediment-to-torture-investigation-pelosi-resign/


Iraqi parliament asks government to forego water deals with Turkey
************************
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s parliament on Tuesday called on the government to forego partnership agreements with Turkey, Syria and Iran unless they affirm Iraq’s right to a bigger share of water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Iraq is suffering from a major drought. The effects have worsened because of poor water management and dams that block the flow of the two rivers - the country’s main water source.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11633612.asp?gid=237


The Bomb Iran Faction
*********************
There is clearly a faction of the power elite that is, and has for some years been pressing, for a U.S. military attack on Iran. It is not advocating a war, at least openly, or an occupation of that vast nation; rather, it is advocating an operation similar in concept to the Israeli attack on Iraq’s French-built Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981. In a word, it is both advocating an Israeli-like action and justifying it explicitly as one on behalf of Israel.

http://www.counterpunch.org/

ON FREEDOM(part5)

How does one identify oneself with property? What is a self but an imaginary figure that owns a body? When the expression, "My person" is uttered, the floodgates open. It is a subtle expression introducing ownership. This is a common linguistic problem that can be blamed for all manner of
possession. A linguistic problem it remains, for existence is prior to language. Language is a way to communicate to the other free beings in this world. At it's inception, language reaches toward others. But we are not language, we create language to communicate to others. Language could have only been created as an expression of thought, an expression of empathy.

NEWS and PROPAGANDA

Was Nuremberg a temporary convenience?
***********************
Paul J. Balles calls on the Obama administration to bring to justice the sadistic, supremacist psychopaths who seemed to take delight in torturing their illegally-held prisoners at Guantanamo and those who authorized them to practise their depravity. Marjorie Cohn writes: “The memos justify 10 techniques, including banging heads into walls 30 times in a row, repeated facial and abdominal slapping, dietary manipulation, and dousing with cold water as low as 41 degrees.” She adds: They allow shackling in a standing position for 180 hours, sleep deprivation for 11 days, confinement of people in small dark boxes with insects for hours and waterboarding to create the perception they are drowning. Moreover, the memos permit many of these techniques to be used in combination for a 30-day period. They find that none of these techniques constitutes torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

http://www.redress.cc/americas/pjballes20090507


What good is America? The dead can’t give an opinion
**************
There’s a good question: “What does the USA contribute to the world?” Let’s leave aside the US delusion that it brings democracy and freedom to a benighted world. Americans like doing one thing and they do it a lot: they like creating dead foreigners and travel all over the world to do it.

http://www.redress.cc/americas/cking20090506


Obama Uses The Israeli Defense – “Human Shields”
*********************
I’m not sure, but I don’t think even BushCo stooped this low. I suppose we now see even more of Zionist Rahm’s influence on Obama. An Israeli code of ethics in war and truth is emerging from the Obama White House. “A joint U.S.-Afghan investigation confirmed that an unspecified number of civilians died in a southern Afghan battle, but the initial findings released Saturday appeared to blame Taliban militants who used locals as “human shields.”

http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/obama-uses-the-israeli-defense-human-shields/


‘I’m here to understand what you mean by Taliban’
*****************
In Pakistan, I’m here to understand what they mean by this term. When we say we must fight the Taliban or must defeat them, what does it mean? I’m here to understand what you mean when you say Taliban. Do you mean a militant? Do you mean an ideology? Exactly what is it that is being fought? That needs to be clarified.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/arundhati-roy-sal-02


Afghans see signs U.S. military used white phosphorus
************************
Allegations that white phosphorus or another chemical may have been used threatens to deepen the controversy over what Afghan officials say could be the worst case of civilian deaths since the 2001 U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban regime. The incident in Farah drew the condemnation of Karzai who called for an end to airstrikes.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=194273

CRIMES and PROPAGANDA

After US Strikes, Afghans Describe
"Tractor Trailers Full of Pieces of Human Bodies"
****************
It also bears remembering that the US track record of thoroughly "investigating" US massacres is pathetic. The UN said there was convincing evidence that last year's US attack on the village of Azizabad in western Afghanistan killed 90 civilians, but the military only acknowledged 30 civilian deaths.
Jessica Barry, a spokesperson for the ICRC said, "With more troops coming in, there is a risk that civilians will be more and more vulnerable."

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22578.htm


Comment to the article above...
**********
Of course, the USA could never inflict a civilian casualty.
Of course, it is the Taliban (or whatever the "enemy" of the day happens to be.
How can anyone question our motives ? Aren't we god's people ?
Like the nursery rhyme says about little girls. "We are made of sugar, spice, and everything nice". Why can't those Afghans (Iraqis - Iranians - Palestinians - Cubans - Venezuelans etc etc etc) see this.
The USA is sick, sick, sick. As a people, we have no shame. It has always been thus, and will always be so.
Marie Kelly | 05.09.09 - 4:54 pm |

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22578.htm


US Drone Kills at Least 10 in South Waziristan
Locals Report as Many as 45 May Be Dead in Latest Strike
**********************
Officials admit, however, that the toll is likely to rise, and local residents say the building hit - the village high school, had a large number of people in it at the time. They are claiming that as many as 45 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/09/us-drone-kills-at-least-10-in-south-waziristan/


Senate Will Move on Hate Crimes Bill; Critics Claim Bill Simply Unnecessary
*******************
“In addition to posing a litany of constitutional problems, today’s legislation alarmingly overturns the cornerstone of equality in our justice system by placing a higher value on one life over another,” said Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) on the House floor. “In no way could I support a bill that more harshly punishes criminals who kill a homosexual, transvestite or transsexual than criminals who kill a police officer, a member of the military, a child, or a senior citizen.”

http://americanfreepress.net/html/hate_crimes_bill_177.html

ON FREEDOM(part4)

Free beings cannot expect consistent or reliable conduct from others, simply because everyone is free to choose.
The illusion of being secure in a world of free beings has moved from deflective thinking, to artificially induced forgetfulness. Government, religion, and continuous fear have given rise to oppression, slavery, and first-strike mentality. Group thinking is prevalent throughout this life, as free beings fantasize about being secure. It is all so confusing, that one has to admit to years and years of adjustment to what has merely always been the case.

WAR and PROPAGANDA

Exodus from NW Pakistan
************************
ISTANBUL - Pakistan warplanes continued to pound Taliban hideouts in the troubled Swat Valley Friday where the government sent fresh troops with orders to "eliminate" extremists as hundreds of thousands fled in terror and other trapped residents appealed for a pause in the fighting so they could escape.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11612070.asp


U.S. drone fires missiles into Pakistan
*******************
"At least four missiles were fired near Sarorogha village but we have no reports where they struck or if there are any casualties," said an intelligence official in the region on the Afghan border.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5480N120090509


Civilians hit as Pakistan army battles Taliban
********************
MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) -- Doctors rushed to treat an influx of wounded Pakistani civilians Saturday as thousands of troops backed by bomb-dropping warplanes sought to purge Taliban militants from a northwestern valley. A suspected U.S. missile strike killed nine people, mostly foreigners, in another militant stronghold near the Afghan border, officials said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-05-09-06-40-57


Pakistan: Now or Never?
*******************
Foreign Policy Journal quotes U.S. Congressman Ron Paul as criticising the Obama administration for continuing the drone missile attacks first started under President George W. Bush. “We are bombing a sovereign country,” it quotes him as saying. “Where do we get the authority to do that? Did the Pakistani government give us written permission? Did the Congress give us written permission to expand the war and start bombing in Pakistan?” he asked.

http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2009/05/08/pakistan-from-refugee-exodus-to-high-tech-drones/


Afghanistan: NATO Should ‘Come Clean’ on White Phosphorus Release Report on Attack in Which Child Burned
**********************
"White phosphorus causes horrendous burns and should not be used in civilian areas," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "NATO should immediately make public the results of its investigation into this incident."

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54085&hd=&size=1&l=e


UN probes Gaza crimes despite Israel fury
*******************
Israeli Gaza war crimes include the use of deadly white phosphorus shells in densely populated civilian areas. While Tel Aviv initially denied using the controversial weapon, mounting evidence later forced officials to admit having employed the shells.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=94097&sectionid=351020202


Angry Iraqis demand death for brutal US soldier
***********************
MAHMUDIYA, Iraq: Relatives of an Iraqi girl who was raped and killed along with her family by a US soldier urged that he be given the death penalty on Friday. Private 1st Class Steven Green was convicted in a Kentucky court on Thursday of raping Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14,and killing her and her family in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad, in 2006. He faces a possible death sentence.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=176618


Imran asks Brown to rein in British ‘terrorists’
************************
In an open letter sent to Mr. Brown on Thursday, which was also sent to the Tehran Times, Imran Khan wrote: “I want to urgently bring to your attention the activities of a British citizen, Mr. Altaf Hussain who was granted this status after he fled from Pakistan as a fugitive from justice. At the time of his arrival in London, he was facing 234 registered criminal cases against him, including 44 murder charges and 18 torture charges.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=194071

ON FREEDOM(part3)

Free beings have been corrupted with illusions. Reinforcement of illusions is done through the language of acceptance. We ask others, what it is they believe in? We ask them to believe in something. We ask them to stop doubting, stop investigating, stop being free. We say to each other to accept and believe, to forget that you are free. To lie about being free as if it were something to be embarrassed about.

NEWS and PROPAGANDA

Villagers list 147 dead in Afghan strike
**********************
KABUL (Reuters) - Residents of two villages hit earlier this week by U.S. air strikes have prepared lists with the names of 147 people killed in the attacks, the deputy governor of the province where the strikes took place said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5471NL20090508
______________________________________________________

On regret
******************
Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "apologized" for US airstrikes that may have killed as many as 130 people in Afghanistan, NBC News is reporting that the US military is preparing to blame the deaths of several Afghan families—that were reportedly killed in US bombing raids this week in Farah Province—on Taliban fighters.
Hillary Clinton has expressed "deep regret" that American jets bombed two villages in western Afghanistan
...of course, clinton and obama want to create more such occasions for regret given their desire to place more american troops on afghan soil,

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m54063&hd=&size=1&l=e
___________________________________________

China voices concern over growing US influence
************************
Talking to reporters during a visit to the Islamabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Chinese envoy said the ‘outside influence’ was growing in the region.
‘These are issues of serious concern for China,’ he said, adding that China was concerned over the US policies and the presence of a large number of foreign troops in the region.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/12-china-voices-concern-over-growing-us-influence--bi--09
_______________________________________________

Lavrov: Tehran-Moscow cooperation in conformity with regulations
***********************
According to the Minister, the issue of supply of weapons by Russia to Iran, in particular, air defense systems, was touched upon during his meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was held a few hours before the press briefing.

http://www.irna.ir/En/View/FullStory/?NewsId=475370&IdLanguage=3
______________________________________________________

Report: U.S. denies Israeli access to F-35 computer system
****************************
According to the report, the Americans are concerned that by allowing Israel to independently repair the computers, the Israel Air Force (IAF) will get its hands on the classified technology used to make the plane.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/08/content_11337054.htm
_____________________________________________________

Germany: Lieberman visit disappoints MPs
****************
During talks with members of the German parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Thursday Lieberman also said the peace process had been little more than a waste of money.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.0.3292909295
_____________________________________________________

Calls persist in U.S. for prosecution of "torture memo" authors
******************************
The authors -- Jay Bybee, now a federal judge; John Yoo, now a law professor; and Steven Bradbury, who has left the Justice Department -- defined "torture" as brutality causing organ failure and death.
Democrats countered that torture includes any type of pain or suffering inflicted to obtain intelligence or a confession. Many of them seek to punish the three attorneys for legally sanctioning practices that defy international norms on the treatment of prisoners.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/08/content_11335664.htm
______________________________________________________

British lawmakers' expense claims revealed
**********************
LONDON (AP) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed thousands of pounds for a cleaner while other ministers claimed for gardeners, beds and television sets, a newspaper revealed Friday, a disclosure certain to fuel public outrage over lawmaker excess.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_LAWMAKER_EXPENSES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-05-08-07-11-35

ON FREEDOM (part2)

I live in a country where free beings have confused freedom with rights. Free beings have spoken and written about how free this country is. They now speak of how freedom is being taken away from them. Others cannot take away ones freedom. I can act as though I am not free. It is acting, it is lying. Freedom is something I have been born into and may endeavor to understand within the short period of my existence. Forgetting this and lying about this occurs, often.

DISCOVERIES?

^^^^^^^^^^^

No time limit for US in Afghanistan
********************
Pelosi told reporters. "The legislation that will come before the committee this week and the Congress next week has no timeline or anything like that."
"How long will it take?" Pelosi said. "I don't know, but it is essential to our security that we fight terrorism there."

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=93847&sectionid=3510203
_______________________________________________________________

Israel would inform, not ask US before hitting Iran
*******************
“Whether or not Israel got the green light from Washington to attack Iran is almost immaterial, as everybody in the region would believe that the US was complicit,” said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. One US diplomat envisaged Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak telephoning Pentagon chief Robert Gates, unannounced, “to give a heads-up and explain” once the mission were under way.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\07\story_7-5-2009_pg20_4
_________________________________________________________________________________

Georgia war games strain NATO-Russia relations
**************************
The exercises indicate that NATO will continue to support Georgia, to which the alliance has promised eventual membership, Litovkin said. He said the exercises also sent Moscow the message that NATO had no interest in its opinions.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/07/content_11325890.htm
__________________________________________________________________

Hobbits 'are a separate species'
*************************
The team, which discovered the tiny remains in Liang Bua cave on Flores, contends that the population belongs to the species Homo floresiensis - separate from our own grouping Homo sapiens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8036396.stm

ON FREEDOM (part 1)

What and how I post follows a simple strategy: Perhaps I am free. I can freely imagine anything and any situation, as long as I am informed. I try to get away and be alone, to contemplate the whole idea of being free. Being around people, at first, had limited the idea of freedom. Then I started to realize that the limits of freedom were being chosen by me, in order to get, or maintain getting, what I want. But, realizing this, was to be aware that I am free.
A good example of a limit that I choose, is choosing to live. Schopenhauer said that I am subservient to the will to live. An involuntary volition, to maintain life. Others have added an instinct to survive. I don't agree. I don't agree with the many examples these people cite in nature when reacting to an immediate transgression is an example of this will or instinct to live. Because I want pain to stop does not mean that I'm fighting for survival. I have seen a film of a man, who has lit himself on fire, and while overwhelmed with flames, and skin dissolving from his limbs, he continues to try to kneel, and keep his hands together in some expression of prayer. He chose to do this. A wolf , who's leg is trapped, chews his leg off. The wolf chooses to get away from the trap. I can't infer some involuntary will or instinct to live.
In a world where everyone is free, there are illusions, but none are necessary. The world has always been filled with free beings.

[Full text] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the Durban Review Conference, Geneva 2009 http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1216692965976424186

THE SPEECH OF TRUTH

On April 20th, 2009, the sitting president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stood up before a world conference in Geneva, amid heckling, applause, and tense anticipation and proceeded to give what is now known as "The Speech of Truth". In a world where statesmen use such platforms for blatant propaganda and banal, meaningless rhetoric, people around the world have been reduced to listening to mere horoscopes and having to interpret familiar lies from governments officials around the world as subtle diplomacy. But on this fine day in April something new happened, something entirely unexpected and never heard in the "free" countries of the world...the truth. So shocking was this to the western delegates, that they immediately walked out, in tandem, almost covering their ears lest they be offended by sounds they only hear uttered in private amongst each other in their secret clubs and meetings. It was the rarest of rare moments, and if you missed it, then you missed what free speech can do to clowns dressed in suits who only know of one singular reaction to such abusive noise...EXIT!

[Full text] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the Durban Review Conference, Geneva 2009 http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1216692965976424186