DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER
Hijacking Catastrophe
9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire. Hijacking
Catastrophe is powerful, understated, straightforward and educational. In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence and analysis, viewers are treated to a thoughtful explanation of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administration. Real Video.http://207.44.245.159/article6895.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
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Lebanese opposition calls for uprising :
The anti-Syrian opposition, which has blamed the government and its Syrian backers for Hariri's assassination, called on Lebanese to stage a peaceful "independence uprising."http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Feb/20050219News012.asphttp://tinyurl.com/5fjbh
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
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U.S. to Syria:
Probe Hariri Killing or Face Sanctions: The United States warned Syria on Friday that it must help investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri or face the possibility of further sanctions.http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/18/us_to_syria_probe_hariri_killing_or_face_sanctions/http://tinyurl.com/5xwux
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
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In case you missed it: Lebanese premier in Kuwait:
Some Kuwaiti MPs have called the visit an insult following Lebanon's condemnation of the US-led war on Iraq which was launched from the Gulf emirate.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3001685.stm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
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In case you missed it: New Lebanese cabinet unveiled:
Observers see the changes as strengthening the influence of Damascus, and some consider it the most pro-Syrian cabinet since 1989.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2957953.stm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Bashar Assad:
The Syrian sphinx:
When Syria's young president, Bashar Assad, contemplates the forces ranged against him, he may recall that his father faced greater odds and won.http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=612466
http://tinyurl.com/589kp
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Questioned men 'happy to help':
THE 10 Lebanese Australians questioned by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) over the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister were innocent people who did nothing but support Rafiq Hariri, an Australian Lebanese community leader said today.http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12300562%255E1702,00.htmlhttp://tinyurl.com/5pkb6
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Iran preps for a possible war with U.S.:
Tehran has recently disclosed efforts to bolster and mobilize recruits in citizens' militias and making plans to engage in the type of "asymmetrical" warfare used against U.S. troops in Iraq, the Washington Times reported Saturday.http://tinyurl.com/3pvsc
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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India Closely Watching US Covert Ops In Northwest Pakistan:
RAW operatives speaking on condition of anonymity said that the Bush administration has set up a "secret shop" in the region despite unsettling China. Besides U.S. Special Forces, the CIA has also established "listening posts" in Pakistan's NWFP Areas to monitor communications.http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-blackmarket-05f.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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North Korea offers new nuke talks :
North Korea said Saturday it will return to six-party talks on its nuclear program if the United States pledges to stay out of its domestic affairs.http://tinyurl.com/3magg
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To show the reality is also a form of resistance:
Cameraman Issam Rashid Abdel Rahman found himself in trouble when he filmed protests in Iraq against the occupation. He tells Simon Assaf what happenedhttp://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=5893
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Intifada III :
The sun has barely set on the Sharm el-Sheikh summit that officially ended the Al Aqsa Intifada, and Intifada III has already erupted. Only this time, it's the settlers who are at it - Jews against Jews.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/541856.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Veteran of dirty wars wins lead US spy role :
He is tainted by his time between 1981 and 1985 in Honduras, a country that was being used as a launchpad for the illegal US-backed war waged by the contras against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Honduran military was accused of taking part in torture and extra-judicial killings.http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1417267,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Negroponte, Servant of the Empire, Rises to the Top:
If you wink at torture, if you don't mind mass slaughter, if lying is of no concern to you, you can go far in this world. Just ask John Negroponte.http://www.progressive.org/webex05/wx021805.php
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
===
Scum Also Rises: The Bloody Career of John Negroponte:
The nomination by President George Bush of John Negroponte for the new post of director of national intelligence, in charge of overseeing all the burgeoning intelligence operations of the United States, is both obscene and predictable.http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff02182005.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Poll:
War support shrinking in Texas:
Majority also believes attack on U.S. is likelyhttp://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3046886
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Papers show government authorised arms bribes :
Papers released under freedom of information laws reveal with startling frankness how the British government secretly authorised bribery on arms sales. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1417261,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Why Bush advisers fight the evidence on climate change:
For the Bush administration, global warming and climate change have so far been the great unmentionables, topics that interfered with the march towards the promised land of the perfect free market.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=612488
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Deaths by AIDS in South Africa rise by a staggering 57 percent: The increase in mortality spanned all age groups, but was most pronounced among those between ages 15 and 49, where deaths more than doubled.http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/212760_safrica19.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Feds Warned About Fake News Videos : Congressional investigators warned federal agencies this week that the promotion of government policies through video news releases meant to look like TV news stories may violate federal rules against propaganda.http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4812249,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Marines aim to secure city
From correspondents in RamadiFebruary 21, 2005
From: Reuters
US and Iraqi troops launched a large-scale operation around the rebellious city of Ramadi today, as part of a nationwide effort to restore order in the wake of last month's election.Troops from the 1st Marine expeditionary force, supported by Iraqi soldiers, set up a ring of checkpoints around the city, 110km west of Baghdad, and imposed an 8pm to 6am curfew under Operation River Blitz.
The move comes less than three months after a major Marines offensive against the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, just east of Ramadi, which the US military took back from insurgents after three weeks of furious fighting.
It was not clear if today's operation was a prelude to a larger offensive on Ramadi, which has essentially been in guerrilla hands for most of the past year.
The operation also comes as Iraq is in the process of trying to form a government following the January 30 election, which handed power to the country's 60 per cent Shiite majority for the first time after decades of Sunni Muslim dominance.
"Operation River Blitz is designed to target insurgents and terrorists who have attempted to destabilise the Anbar province by terrorising the populace through wanton acts of violence and intimidation," the US military said in a statement
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12319418-23109,00.html
A SYRIAN government daily accused Washington and Israel today of leading a "campaign of intimidation" against Damascus and its backers in Beirut since the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri."Ever since the assassination of Rafik Hariri, Israel and the US administration have launched a campaign of intimidation aimed at Syria and Lebanon, together with a stream of accusations which falsify reality and serve Israeli plans," said Tishrin.
Washington and Paris have called for an international investigation of Mr Hariri's killing in a massive bomb blast on February 14 that the opposition in Lebanon has blamed on Damascus and the Syrian-backed government in Beirut.
"The concepts have been distorted: in the eyes of Israel and the US administration, Syrian policy which rejects (Israeli) occupation (of Arab land) represents a terrorist policy," scoffed Tishrin.
"The brotherly relations between Syria and Lebanon that are founded on history, geography and agreements concluded by the two countries pose a threat to the region," it said http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12319416-23109,00.html
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Cops swoop down on Islamic militants
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Police raided several homes in southwestern Pakistan, arresting 15 suspected Islamic militants and seizing hand grenades that were likely to be used against Shiite Muslims during the religious festival of Ashoura, police said Saturday
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/
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Bush secretly recorded in 1998
NEW YORK (AP) - Private conversations with George W. Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana, The New York Times reported Saturday
The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush's father, beginning in 1998, when Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times said in a story posted on its Web site.
The tapes show Bush crafting a strategy for navigating the tricky political waters between Christian conservative and secular voters, repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders.
On one tape, Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not "kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
In early tapes, Bush dismisses the strength of John McCain for the nomination and expresses concern about rival Steve Forbes. He also praises John Ashcroft as a promising candidate for Supreme Court justice, attorney general or vice-president.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/02/19/936405-ap.html
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12312544%255E1702,00.html
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The mole, the US media and a White House coup
The reporter who wasn't is part of a wider press scandal, writes
Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 20, 2005
The Observer
No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.
When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.
But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.
No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.
When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.
But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1418539,00.html
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Behind the Walls of Ward 54
By Mark Benjamin Salon.com
Friday 18 February 2005
They're overmedicated, forced to talk about their mothers instead of Iraq, and have to fight for disability pay. Traumatized combat vets say the Army is failing them, and after a year following more than a dozen soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, I believe them.
Washington
Washington - Before he hanged himself with his bathrobe sash in the psychiatric ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Spc. Alexis Soto-Ramirez complained to friends about his medical treatment. Soto-Ramirez, 43, had been flown out of Iraq five months before then because of chronic back pain that became excruciating during the war. But doctors were really worried about his mind. They thought he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving with the 544th Military Police Company, a unit of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the kind of unit that saw dirty, face-to-face combat in Iraq.
A copy of Soto-Ramirez's medical records, reviewed by Salon, show that a octor who treated him in Puerto Rico upon his return from Iraq believed his mental problems were probably caused by the war and that his future was in the Army's hands. "Clearly, the psychiatric symptoms are combat related," a clinical psychologist at Roosevelt Roads Naval Hospital wrote on Nov. 24, 2003. The entry says, "Outcome will depend on adequacy and appropriateness of treatment." Doctors in Puerto Rico sent Soto-Ramirez to Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., to get the best care the Army had to offer. There, he was put in Ward 54, Walter Reed's "lockdown," or inpatient psychiatric ward, where the most troubled patients are supposed to have constant supervision.
But less than a month after leaving Puerto Rico, on Jan. 12, 2004, Soto-Ramirez was found dead, hanging in Ward 54. Army buddies who visited him in the days before his death said Soto-Ramirez was increasingly angry and despondent. "He was real upset with the treatment he was getting," said René Negron, a former Walter Reed psychiatric patient and a friend of Soto-Ramirez's. "He said: 'These people are giving me the runaround...These people think I'm crazy, and I'm not crazy, Negron. I'm getting more crazy being up here.'
"Those people in Ward 54 were responsible for him. Their responsibility was to have a 24-hour watch on him," Negron said in a telephone interview from his home in Puerto Rico. While Soto-Ramirez's death was by his own hand, Negron and other soldiers say the hospital shares the blame.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021805D.shtml
A STORY TO READ TIME AND AGAIN
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WAR WOUNDS
An overseas report from a U.S. military hospital in Germany about how the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has treated more than 20,000 service members wounded from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
VIDEO
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june05/wounded_2-15.html
DEFINITELY HAS TO BE
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Australia to take up new Iraq role20feb05
AUSTRALIA had never ruled out sending more troops to Iraq, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today.Senator Hill said now was not the time to consider winding down Australia's commitment to the strife-torn country, following the first democratic elections in decades.
Australia is about to take its most senior role in the conflict, taking command of the naval force at the northern end of the Gulf, protecting oil rigs and deterring smugglers.
"We've never ruled out more troops but they are decisions that government takes in the circumstances of our ongoing evaluation," Senator Hill said on ABC TV's Insiders program.
"For the moment, we are going to take over command of the naval force at the northern end of the Gulf. This will be at a higher level of command than we've ever held before so that's a contribution of reinforcement in a way.
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12312477%255E1702,00.html
9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire. Hijacking
Catastrophe is powerful, understated, straightforward and educational. In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence and analysis, viewers are treated to a thoughtful explanation of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administration. Real Video.http://207.44.245.159/article6895.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Lebanese opposition calls for uprising :
The anti-Syrian opposition, which has blamed the government and its Syrian backers for Hariri's assassination, called on Lebanese to stage a peaceful "independence uprising."http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Feb/20050219News012.asphttp://tinyurl.com/5fjbh
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
U.S. to Syria:
Probe Hariri Killing or Face Sanctions: The United States warned Syria on Friday that it must help investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri or face the possibility of further sanctions.http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/18/us_to_syria_probe_hariri_killing_or_face_sanctions/http://tinyurl.com/5xwux
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
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In case you missed it: Lebanese premier in Kuwait:
Some Kuwaiti MPs have called the visit an insult following Lebanon's condemnation of the US-led war on Iraq which was launched from the Gulf emirate.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3001685.stm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In case you missed it: New Lebanese cabinet unveiled:
Observers see the changes as strengthening the influence of Damascus, and some consider it the most pro-Syrian cabinet since 1989.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2957953.stm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Bashar Assad:
The Syrian sphinx:
When Syria's young president, Bashar Assad, contemplates the forces ranged against him, he may recall that his father faced greater odds and won.http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=612466
http://tinyurl.com/589kp
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Questioned men 'happy to help':
THE 10 Lebanese Australians questioned by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) over the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister were innocent people who did nothing but support Rafiq Hariri, an Australian Lebanese community leader said today.http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12300562%255E1702,00.htmlhttp://tinyurl.com/5pkb6
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Iran preps for a possible war with U.S.:
Tehran has recently disclosed efforts to bolster and mobilize recruits in citizens' militias and making plans to engage in the type of "asymmetrical" warfare used against U.S. troops in Iraq, the Washington Times reported Saturday.http://tinyurl.com/3pvsc
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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India Closely Watching US Covert Ops In Northwest Pakistan:
RAW operatives speaking on condition of anonymity said that the Bush administration has set up a "secret shop" in the region despite unsettling China. Besides U.S. Special Forces, the CIA has also established "listening posts" in Pakistan's NWFP Areas to monitor communications.http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-blackmarket-05f.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
North Korea offers new nuke talks :
North Korea said Saturday it will return to six-party talks on its nuclear program if the United States pledges to stay out of its domestic affairs.http://tinyurl.com/3magg
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To show the reality is also a form of resistance:
Cameraman Issam Rashid Abdel Rahman found himself in trouble when he filmed protests in Iraq against the occupation. He tells Simon Assaf what happenedhttp://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=5893
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Intifada III :
The sun has barely set on the Sharm el-Sheikh summit that officially ended the Al Aqsa Intifada, and Intifada III has already erupted. Only this time, it's the settlers who are at it - Jews against Jews.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/541856.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Veteran of dirty wars wins lead US spy role :
He is tainted by his time between 1981 and 1985 in Honduras, a country that was being used as a launchpad for the illegal US-backed war waged by the contras against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Honduran military was accused of taking part in torture and extra-judicial killings.http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1417267,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Negroponte, Servant of the Empire, Rises to the Top:
If you wink at torture, if you don't mind mass slaughter, if lying is of no concern to you, you can go far in this world. Just ask John Negroponte.http://www.progressive.org/webex05/wx021805.php
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
===
Scum Also Rises: The Bloody Career of John Negroponte:
The nomination by President George Bush of John Negroponte for the new post of director of national intelligence, in charge of overseeing all the burgeoning intelligence operations of the United States, is both obscene and predictable.http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff02182005.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Poll:
War support shrinking in Texas:
Majority also believes attack on U.S. is likelyhttp://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3046886
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Papers show government authorised arms bribes :
Papers released under freedom of information laws reveal with startling frankness how the British government secretly authorised bribery on arms sales. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1417261,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Why Bush advisers fight the evidence on climate change:
For the Bush administration, global warming and climate change have so far been the great unmentionables, topics that interfered with the march towards the promised land of the perfect free market.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=612488
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Deaths by AIDS in South Africa rise by a staggering 57 percent: The increase in mortality spanned all age groups, but was most pronounced among those between ages 15 and 49, where deaths more than doubled.http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/212760_safrica19.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Feds Warned About Fake News Videos : Congressional investigators warned federal agencies this week that the promotion of government policies through video news releases meant to look like TV news stories may violate federal rules against propaganda.http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4812249,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
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Marines aim to secure city
From correspondents in RamadiFebruary 21, 2005
From: Reuters
US and Iraqi troops launched a large-scale operation around the rebellious city of Ramadi today, as part of a nationwide effort to restore order in the wake of last month's election.Troops from the 1st Marine expeditionary force, supported by Iraqi soldiers, set up a ring of checkpoints around the city, 110km west of Baghdad, and imposed an 8pm to 6am curfew under Operation River Blitz.
The move comes less than three months after a major Marines offensive against the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, just east of Ramadi, which the US military took back from insurgents after three weeks of furious fighting.
It was not clear if today's operation was a prelude to a larger offensive on Ramadi, which has essentially been in guerrilla hands for most of the past year.
The operation also comes as Iraq is in the process of trying to form a government following the January 30 election, which handed power to the country's 60 per cent Shiite majority for the first time after decades of Sunni Muslim dominance.
"Operation River Blitz is designed to target insurgents and terrorists who have attempted to destabilise the Anbar province by terrorising the populace through wanton acts of violence and intimidation," the US military said in a statement
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12319418-23109,00.html
A SYRIAN government daily accused Washington and Israel today of leading a "campaign of intimidation" against Damascus and its backers in Beirut since the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri."Ever since the assassination of Rafik Hariri, Israel and the US administration have launched a campaign of intimidation aimed at Syria and Lebanon, together with a stream of accusations which falsify reality and serve Israeli plans," said Tishrin.
Washington and Paris have called for an international investigation of Mr Hariri's killing in a massive bomb blast on February 14 that the opposition in Lebanon has blamed on Damascus and the Syrian-backed government in Beirut.
"The concepts have been distorted: in the eyes of Israel and the US administration, Syrian policy which rejects (Israeli) occupation (of Arab land) represents a terrorist policy," scoffed Tishrin.
"The brotherly relations between Syria and Lebanon that are founded on history, geography and agreements concluded by the two countries pose a threat to the region," it said http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12319416-23109,00.html
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Cops swoop down on Islamic militants
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Police raided several homes in southwestern Pakistan, arresting 15 suspected Islamic militants and seizing hand grenades that were likely to be used against Shiite Muslims during the religious festival of Ashoura, police said Saturday
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/
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Bush secretly recorded in 1998
NEW YORK (AP) - Private conversations with George W. Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana, The New York Times reported Saturday
The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush's father, beginning in 1998, when Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times said in a story posted on its Web site.
The tapes show Bush crafting a strategy for navigating the tricky political waters between Christian conservative and secular voters, repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders.
On one tape, Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not "kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
In early tapes, Bush dismisses the strength of John McCain for the nomination and expresses concern about rival Steve Forbes. He also praises John Ashcroft as a promising candidate for Supreme Court justice, attorney general or vice-president.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/02/19/936405-ap.html
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12312544%255E1702,00.html
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The mole, the US media and a White House coup
The reporter who wasn't is part of a wider press scandal, writes
Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 20, 2005
The Observer
No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.
When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.
But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.
No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.
When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.
But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1418539,00.html
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Behind the Walls of Ward 54
By Mark Benjamin Salon.com
Friday 18 February 2005
They're overmedicated, forced to talk about their mothers instead of Iraq, and have to fight for disability pay. Traumatized combat vets say the Army is failing them, and after a year following more than a dozen soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, I believe them.
Washington
Washington - Before he hanged himself with his bathrobe sash in the psychiatric ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Spc. Alexis Soto-Ramirez complained to friends about his medical treatment. Soto-Ramirez, 43, had been flown out of Iraq five months before then because of chronic back pain that became excruciating during the war. But doctors were really worried about his mind. They thought he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving with the 544th Military Police Company, a unit of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the kind of unit that saw dirty, face-to-face combat in Iraq.
A copy of Soto-Ramirez's medical records, reviewed by Salon, show that a octor who treated him in Puerto Rico upon his return from Iraq believed his mental problems were probably caused by the war and that his future was in the Army's hands. "Clearly, the psychiatric symptoms are combat related," a clinical psychologist at Roosevelt Roads Naval Hospital wrote on Nov. 24, 2003. The entry says, "Outcome will depend on adequacy and appropriateness of treatment." Doctors in Puerto Rico sent Soto-Ramirez to Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., to get the best care the Army had to offer. There, he was put in Ward 54, Walter Reed's "lockdown," or inpatient psychiatric ward, where the most troubled patients are supposed to have constant supervision.
But less than a month after leaving Puerto Rico, on Jan. 12, 2004, Soto-Ramirez was found dead, hanging in Ward 54. Army buddies who visited him in the days before his death said Soto-Ramirez was increasingly angry and despondent. "He was real upset with the treatment he was getting," said René Negron, a former Walter Reed psychiatric patient and a friend of Soto-Ramirez's. "He said: 'These people are giving me the runaround...These people think I'm crazy, and I'm not crazy, Negron. I'm getting more crazy being up here.'
"Those people in Ward 54 were responsible for him. Their responsibility was to have a 24-hour watch on him," Negron said in a telephone interview from his home in Puerto Rico. While Soto-Ramirez's death was by his own hand, Negron and other soldiers say the hospital shares the blame.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021805D.shtml
A STORY TO READ TIME AND AGAIN
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WAR WOUNDS
An overseas report from a U.S. military hospital in Germany about how the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has treated more than 20,000 service members wounded from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
VIDEO
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june05/wounded_2-15.html
DEFINITELY HAS TO BE
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Australia to take up new Iraq role20feb05
AUSTRALIA had never ruled out sending more troops to Iraq, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today.Senator Hill said now was not the time to consider winding down Australia's commitment to the strife-torn country, following the first democratic elections in decades.
Australia is about to take its most senior role in the conflict, taking command of the naval force at the northern end of the Gulf, protecting oil rigs and deterring smugglers.
"We've never ruled out more troops but they are decisions that government takes in the circumstances of our ongoing evaluation," Senator Hill said on ABC TV's Insiders program.
"For the moment, we are going to take over command of the naval force at the northern end of the Gulf. This will be at a higher level of command than we've ever held before so that's a contribution of reinforcement in a way.
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12312477%255E1702,00.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 11:58 AM
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