ICH: Weekend Edition
Tom Feeley
is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is
the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the
general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant
sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under
other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign
independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of
extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual
avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the
standard of freedom." -- John Quincy Adams - (1767-1848) 6th US
President Source: Speech before the House of Representatives, July
4, 1821; quoted in William Bonner and Pierre Lemieux (Editors), The
Idea of America (Les Belles Lettres, 2003)
=
"War itself requires no special motive but appears to be engrafted
on human nature; it passes even for something noble, to which the
love of glory impels men quite apart from any selfish urges. Thus
among the "American savages", just as much as among those of Europe
during the age of chivalry, military valor is held to be of great
worth in itself, not only during war (which is natural) but in order
that there should be war. Often war is waged only in order to show
valor; thus an inner dignity is ascribed to war itself, and even
some philosophers have praised it as an ennoblement of humanity,
forgetting the pronouncement of the Greek who said, "War is an evil
inasmuch as it produces more wicked men than it takes away." So
much for the measures nature takes to lead the human race, considered
as a class of animals, to her own end." -- Immanuel Kant - (1724-1804)
German philosopher Source: Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch,
1795
= "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every
one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve
it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are
ruined.... O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to punish
tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people!" -- Patrick
Henry - (1736-1799) US Founding Father
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Read this newsletter online http://tinyurl.com/dy6yy
=== Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq 1,104,276
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged)
In America'sWar On Iraq 3,860 http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War in Iraq Costs $467,768,661,081
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
===
The Last Dead Bull on Wall Street
By Mike Whitney
Whew! What a week for the stock market. On Wednesday the market
took a 360 point nosedive followed, two days later, by a 220 point
belly-flop. By the time it was over, the trading pits looked more
like a sausage-packing plant than the world's financial epicenter.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18708.htm
===
Meet Abu Abed: The US's New Ally Against al-Qaida
By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Baghdad
With summary beatings and imprisonments, he has the methods of a
mafia don.
But he and others like him are crucial to American strategy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18707.htm
===
Iraq: Call An Air Strike
By Pepe Escobar
The Pentagon has practically finished a base in southern Iraq less
than 10 kilometers from the border with Iran called Combat Outpost
Shocker. The Pentagon maintains this is for the US to prevent Iranian
weapons from being smuggled into Iraq. Rather, it's to control a
rash of US covert, sabotage operations across the border targeting
Iran's Khuzestan province.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18702.htm
===
Twenty Reasons against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran
By CASMII
Five years into the US-UK illegal invasion of Iraq and its consequent
catastrophe for Iraqi people, peace loving people throughout the
world are appalled by the current Iran-US standoff and its resemblance
to the run-up to the invasion of Iraq . The hawks, headed by Dick
Cheney in Washington , are now shamelessly calling for a military
attack on Iran . The same Israeli lobby which pushed for the invasion
of Iraq is now pushing for a military attack on Iran .
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18699.htm
===
Solidarity
By Charles Sullivan
We are living in extraordinarily dangerous times, when evil, rather
than justice, prevails. The schoolyard is terrorized by thugs and
punks with names like Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Robertson, Clinton,
Rockefeller, Rice, Rumsfeld, Perle, Kristol and Giuliani-pedigreed
people all.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18700.htm
===
Our Man in Islamabad
By Stephen Lendman
Pakistan remains in turmoil under martial law. Thousands have been
arrested including hundreds of lawyers, opposition politicians,
journalists and students according to independent sources although
the Interior Ministry acknowledges only 1800. In addition, pitched
battles are on the streets, and all George Bush can say is we'll
"continue to work with (Musharraf and hope) he will restore democracy
as quickly as possible."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18701.htm
===
U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers
By Spencer Ackerman
A considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is
administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani
programs. Instead, the U.S.
gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his
military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18705.htm
===
Why Israel Should Begin Talking With Hamas
By Yvonne Ridley
Hamas is dismissed as a "terrorist group sworn to Israel's destruction"
and one that "refuses to recognise Israel and wants to fight not
talk". The truth is that Israel is bent on Palestine's destruction.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18706.htm
===
Democrats Surrender on Torture
Brent Budowsky
Friday was a new low for Democrats, who surrendered the fight they
would have won and were morally obligated to make, on torture, and
for Lieberman, who attacks Democrats for being too strong, at the
exact moment of their weakest of many surrenders.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18704.htm
===
Waterboarding Republicans vs. Supporting Our Troops
By Stephen Crockett
For those Republicans (or Democrats) who defend waterboarding as
something less than torture, I have a proposal. Whenever a Bush
Administration official is called before the House or Senate to
testify, they should be waterboarded the entire time they are
testifying. The technique, according to the Bush Republicans, elicits
honest answers and does not amount to torture. According to these
Bush Republicans, waterboarding does not cause any lasting damage.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18703.htm
===
Former Top Cop Indicted on Federal Fraud, Conspiracy Charges
By Bill Van Auken
The indictment further charges Kerik with taking and failing to
report a $250,000 loan that originated with an Israeli industrialist
seeking business deals with the federal government. This was in
2003, a period in which Kerik was sitting on several government
boards and had been appointed as a senior police advisor under the
US colonial administration in Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18698.htm
===
Occupation force officers holding talks with Iraqi "insurgents" :
British officers have met with Iraqi insurgents as part of efforts
to end sectarian violence in the Middle Eastern country, a British
general said in an interview published Sunday.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/11/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Iraq-Insurgen
ts.php
===
Maliki demands U.S. hand over prisoners for execution:
Iraq's prime minister accused the U.S. military on Sunday of thwarting
attempts to execute former members of Saddam Hussein's government
and demanded they be handed over so their sentences could be carried
out.
===
Kurdish Rebels Have Crossed into Iran to Avoid Turkish Offensive:
:
Thousands of Kurdish guerrillas have crossed the border into Iran
to escape a threatened Turkish offensive against their mountain
redoubts in northern Iraq, a former rebel leader said.
http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=10837
===
Robert Fisk: Holocaust denial in the White House :
The Turks say the Armenians died in a 'civil war', and Bush goes
along with their lies http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3146418.ece
===
Iraqi fighters 'grilled for evidence on Iran':
Interrogator says US military seeks evidence incriminating Tehran
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2208997,00.html
===
Manufacturing Consent For War With Iran:
U.S. military says finding more Iranian arms in Iraq:
The quantity of Iranian bomb-making components being found in Iraq
is increasing despite a fall in attacks and 20 Iranian-trained
agents are still operating south of Baghdad, a top U.S. general
said on Sunday http://snipurl.com/1thqj
===
Chinese FM due in Tehran on Tuesday :
Tehran. China's Foreign Minister Yan Jiechi will visit Tehran on
Tuesday for talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Iran's
controversial nuclear programme, the foreign ministry said here
Sunday.
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n126822
===
Iran, Pakistan reach gas pipeline deal :
Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build a multi-billion-dollar
pipeline to transport natural gas between the two countries, Iranian
state television reported Saturday.
http://www.adn.com/24hour/world/story/3738106p-13207833c.html
===
Rice Praises Musharraf Vote Vow,Denies US Set On Iran War:
Interviewed on ABC television, Rice said the planned election and
Musharraf's latest pledge to quit as army chief were a "positive
element."
===
Musharraf Refuses to Give Date for Ending Rule by Decree :
The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, defiantly refused
Sunday to give a date for the end of the de facto martial law that
he imposed on the country more than a week ago and suggested that
it would continue indefinitely, including during parliamentary
elections in early January.
===
Pakistan Nuclear Security Questioned:
"We can't say with absolute certainty that we know where they all
are," said a former U.S. official who closely tracked the security
upgrades. If an attempt were made by the United States to seize the
weapons to prevent their loss, "it could be very messy," the official
said.
===
Six elders, one foreign occupation force soldier, killed in Afghan
unrest: -
A US-led coalition soldier died of injuries he suffered in battle
and six Afghan elders were gunned down Sunday to end one of the
bloodiest weeks in years in insurgency-hit Afghanistan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071111/wl_afp/afghanistanunrest
===
Three policeman killed :
The latest violence came a day after the U.S. military announced
that six of its troops were killed in eastern Nuristan province -
the most lethal attack in a year that has been the deadliest for
American forces since the 2001 invasion.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20071111-0425-afghanistan.html
===
'I feared I'd end up dead in the woods like Dr Kelly:
Jill Dekker, a bio-defence expert based in Brussels, has reported
a string of sinister incidents - including the parking of a hearse
outside her house - after making a speech critical of British and
American policy in the Middle East.
===
Dennis Kucinich: 2008 Defense Authorization Bill authorizes use of
US military for domestic purposes:
Representative Dennis Kucinich reported this during an interview
with WINZ Miami radio station this morning. He is reading through
this bill and for the first time last evening, noticed this language
that has been inserted into the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/seafan/1531
===
LAPD defends Muslim mapping effort:
The LAPD's plan to map Muslim communities in an effort to identify
potential hotbeds of extremism departs from the way law enforcement
has dealt with local anti-terrorism since 9/11 and prompted widespread
skepticism Friday.
===
Intel official: Expect less privacy:
As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top
intelligence official says it is time that people in the United
States changed their definition of privacy.
===
In case you missed it:
Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?:
The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy http://snipurl.com/1thqv
===
Sinking with the dollar :
Plans to establish a common GCC currency by 2010 have apparently
been put on hold because of one serious problem facing the economies
of the region: the pegging to the US dollar.
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/business/10166475.html
===
NEWS FOR 11/10/07
===
Iraq: Saturday: At least 59 killed in another bloody day of US
occupation:
At least 17 people were killed in clashes between al Qaeda and a
rival Sunni Arab insurgent group, the Islamic Army, in two villages
east of Samarra http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=11890
===
U.S. soldier found not guilty of Iraq murders:
A U.S. solider has been acquitted of three murder charges after
investigations into the unlawful killings of three Iraqis earlier
this year, the U.S.
military said on Saturday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10652850.htm
===
How the US armed the Iraq resistance:
Billions of dollars in arms were handed over:
Activities at that armory and other warehouses help explain how the
American military lost track of some 190,000 pistols and automatic
rifles supplied by the United States to Iraq's security forces in
2004 and 2005, as auditors discovered in the past year.
===
Ambush by Insurgents Kills 6 U.S. occupation forces and 3 Afghan
Soldiers :
Muhammad Dawood Nadim, deputy police chief of Nuristan Province.
Colonel Acceta said the troops were on foot returning from a meeting
with village elders. Eight American soldiers and 11 Afghan soldiers
were wounded in the attack, NATO said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/world/asia/11afghan.html
===
Suicide bomber kills 5 in Afghanistan: ministry:
A suicide bomber killed five civilians in southern Afghanistan on
Sunday, the Afghan Defence Ministry said.
===
Dutch occupation force soldier killed by roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan:
Cpl. Ronald Groen, 21, was one of three men on patrol in an armoured
car when it drove over an improvised explosive device, Gen. Dick
Berlijn told reporters in The Hague.
===
Musharraf gives Pakistan's military courts the power to try civilians
:
Pakistan's military ruler has amended a law to give army courts
sweeping powers to try civilians on charges ranging from treason
to inciting public unrest, officials said Sunday, as the country's
opposition leader prepared to stage a massive, 300-kilometer protest
march.
===
Pakistan expels 3 reporters from British newspaper:
Three reporters from Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper have been
ordered to leave Pakistan in the next 72 hours for an editorial the
paper ran that used an expletive in an allusion about President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, an official said Saturday.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/10/asia/AS-GEN-Pakistan-Journalists-Ex
pelled.php
===
Former Pakistan PM Bhutto addresses protest :
Pakistan's former premier Benazir Bhutto addressed a protest by
journalists against emergency rule, a day after the government
stopped her from holding her own rally, an AFP reporter said Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071110/ts_afp/pakistanpoliticsbhuttoprotest
===
Pakistan's Bhutto plots defiance as Musharraf gets US support: :
Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto laid plans Sunday for the
biggest protest yet against Pervez Musharraf's state of emergency
as the nation's political crisis entered a second week.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/310875/1/.html
===
Pakistanis' anger at Musharraf extends to U.S.:
Washington is perceived as propping up an autocratic leader and
ignoring the people's desire for democracy. Many want it to stop
its 'interference.'
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/mayfaire/latimes67.htm
===
Iran, Pakistan Reach Gas Pipeline Deal :
Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build a multi-billion-dollar
pipeline to transport natural gas between the two countries, Iranian
state television reported Saturday.
===
UK paper: Dimona defenses on high alert:
The defensive missile shield around Israel's nuclear facility at
Dimona was placed on red alert 30 times last week out of concern
over a possible Syrian air strike, the Sunday Times has reported.
===
Hamas warns Israel against military action:
A Hamas representative has warned Israeli officials that if they
decide to send military forces into the Gaza Strip, they would face
terrible surprises.
===
US to purchase $700m worth of arms from Israel:
Weapons and technological systems to be acquired from Jewish state's
defense industries include navigation and attack sensor system for
combat aircraft, UAV and advanced pilot helmets
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3469677,00.html
===
Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise:
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes
the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
===
Spanish King Tells Chavez to ``Shut Up'' :
Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister,
``is a fascist,'' Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American
summit in Santiago, Chile. ``Fascists are not human. A snake is
more human.''
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7067803,00.html
===
Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth:
High oil prices are fueling one of the biggest transfers of wealth
in history.
Oil consumers are paying $4 billion to $5 billion more for crude
oil every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than
$2 trillion into the coffers of oil companies and oil-producing
nations this year alone.
===
Blair accused of 'gold-digging' :
Tony Blair has been accused of "gold-digging" and "money-sucking"
after he reportedly charged #240,000 for giving a speech in China.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7086474.stm
===
House Dem defends leadership decision to quash impeachment:
A House Democratic leader defended the party's decision not to
pursue the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, saying an
effort to oust the man who is among the most vocal pushing for war
with Iran is "not even in the top 10" of voters' priorities and
would benefit Republicans at the polls next year.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/House_Dem_defends_leadership_decision_to_1109.h
tml
===
Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders:
One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses
based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and
how much money was saved.
===
Let Us Work Towards Peace & Joy
Tom Feeley