News For June 24, 2010

Is Petraeus McChrystal’s Replacement or Obama’s

By Paul Craig Roberts

The most telling aspect of the McChrystal-Obama contretemps is that it has caused no one in the US government, or media, to ask why the US is still killing women and children in Afghanistan after 9 years. The US government is prepared for everyone except itself to be tried at the War Crimes Tribunal. Continue

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Making It McChrystal Clear

By Butler Shaffer

Gen. McChrystal has discovered what so many others before him learned – from Socrates to Thomas More to Gen. Smedley Butler to Sophie Scholl to Daniel Ellsberg to Seymour Hersh to untold governmental "whistleblowers" – even, more recently to Helen Thomas – that it is dangerous to speak truth not to power, but to ordinary people. Continue

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Petraeus And The Politics Of Afghanistan

By Tom Hayden

President Obama may have saved his reputation as commander-in-chief by firing Stanley McChrystal today, but he deepened his Afghan quagmire by choosing David Petraeus as the replacement. Continue

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Offically FUBAR

By Cindy Sheehan

"If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular," a senior adviser to head of NATO ops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal (via Rolling Stone). Continue

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Things Have Never Been Worse for Israel?
Ignoring the Tsunami

By Ari Shavit

The superpower under whose patronage we shelter is becoming increasingly weak and increasingly distant, and the Middle East is becoming unstable. Continue

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Israel's Useful Idiot?

Jon Voight to Obama: You are Harming Israel and Promoting anti-Semitism

By Haaretz Service

In an open letter in The Washington Times, staunch Republican actor writes: You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel. Continue

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Connecting the Zionist Dots

By Gilad Atzmon

Why are Jews overwhelmingly over-represented in the British parliament, in British and American political pressure groups, in political fundraising and in the media? Continue

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Echelon?
WikiLeaks Founder Drops 'Mass Spying' Hint

By Andrew Fowler

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has given his strongest indication yet about the next big leak from his whistleblower organisation. Continue

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Hail To The Whistleblowers

By James Denselow

Whistleblowers like those at WikiLeaks make huge sacrifices and are a vital last resort to check the powers of government. Continue

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Wikileaks: A Publisher Of Last Resort
 "privatized censorship"
 
 Video

 Wikileaks editor interview on censorship. Continue

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War Makes Us Poor

By David R. Henderson

Far from rescuing the economy from recession or depression, needless conflicts drain capital from productive uses. Continue

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The Truth Will Out – Except, Perhaps, In The US

By Rupert Skilbeck

Human rights laws and greater transparency have improved administration of justice internationally – but not yet under the Obama administration. Continue

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The Case for a Second Round of Stimulus  

By Mike Whitney

Consumer spending is flat, home prices are set to fall, unemployment will likely edge higher, private sector credit is still contracting, capacity utilization is far below pre-crisis levels, the CPI is slipping,  and yields on US Treasuries are priced for deflation.  The government must pick up the slack or their will be a general fall in prices that will trigger more layoffs, larger deficits, and social unrest. Continue

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Pakistan: 39 "Taliban", soldier killed in Orakzai Agency: At least 39 Taliban were killed by security forces in fighting in Orakzai Agency on Wednesday.
12 "militants" killed in fresh operation in NW Pakistan: With Thursday's casualties the death toll on part of militants exceeded 600 in last one month and about two dozen security personnel have been killed in the fighting in Orakzai
10 NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan: Ten soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed Wednesday in separate incidents, a grim trend that could make June among the deadliest months since Taliban regime collapsed in late 2001
Bomb Blast Kills Seven Guards of a Private Company : Seven guards of a road construction company have been killed Wednesday in a road-side bomb blast in southwestern Afghanistan
June deadliest month for NATO troops since Afghan war and occupation began: At least 79 NATO troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, surpassing the previous record reached last August, when 76 troops were killed, according to a tally by icasualties.org
CIA hires Xe, formerly Blackwater, to guard facilities in Afghanistan, elsewhere: The revelation comes only a day after members of a federal commission investigating war-zone contractors blasted the State Department for granting Xe a new $120 million contract to guard U.S. consulates under construction in Afghanistan.
'Private Security Firms Threaten Afghan Security' : In the report, the US Congress says that the US forces in Afghanistan can pay millions of dollars for security of their logistic convoys in a week, but the money flows to the Taliban’s pocket as bribe.
McChrystal 'sacked for intelligence leak': Head of Press TV's office in Kabul, Mohammad Ruhi, says US commander General Stanley McChrystal was sacked for acknowledging NATO's connection with the executed leader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi.
Suicide bomber kills four as 11 killed in Iraq occupation: A suicide bomber killed four policemen in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Thursday, one of a series of attacks around the country that claimed a total of 11 lives, police said.
Bomber kills, injures 8 cops in Mosul: At least four policemen were killed and four more were wounded in a suicide bombing attack in western Mosul, a police source said on Thursday.
US vehicle runs over family in Ninewa: Three people from one family were killed and three others of the same family were wounded when a U.S. vehicle ran them over in the northwest of Mosul city.
Turkey, Iran boost war on Kurds in Iraq: Iran has intensified its operations against its own Kurdish separatists holed up in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq, including incursions across the rugged border.
Iran renews call for nuke-free world: Mottaki said that using the issue of such weapons as a tool to achieve political aims is the worst form of "blackmailing" and called on the international community to prevent nuclear-armed countries from accessing such weapons.
Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran: 'The U.S. will have to confront Iran or give up the Middle East': Amitai Etzioni, professor of International Relations at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., believes the only option available to contain Iran's atomic ambitions is a series of assaults on its non-nuclear facilities.
Anti-Iran Bill in House Makes Claims With No Basis in Fact: The former Director General of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, had repeatedly pointed out that there was no evidence Iran had a weapons program
Iran to reveal condition for nuclear talks: “By adopting the [anti-Iran] resolution they made their move and now its our turn,” President Ahmadinejad added.
Fact, fiction or propaganda? 'Mossad hit men targeted Erdogan': The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has failed in an attempt to assassinate Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Jordanian weekly says.
European MPs to Israel: Lift Gaza blockade completely: Israel should allow goods to be delivered to the coastal enclave by land and sea, so Palestinians can enjoy "normal living conditions," a resolution adopted by a large majority of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said.
UN urges Israel to rethink East Jerusalem demolition plans: Secretary-General calls move to raze Arab homes in Silwan 'unhelpful' and 'contrary to international law.'
Abbas: Israel must not expel Hamas politicians from Jerusalem: Jerusalem police confiscated the Israeli identity cards of the four Hamas legislators - Mohammed Abu Tir, Mohammed Totach, Khaled Abu Arafa, and Ahmed Atoun - in early June and gave them until July to leave the country.
Israel will fight for its gas fields : Lebanon parliament speaker Nabih Berri earlier this month urged his government to start exploring its offshore natural gas reserves, claiming that otherwise Israel would claim the resources.
Propaganda alert:: IDF draws up new Gaza war doctrine: Ahead of a potential new conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the IDF has drawn up plans to evacuate entire Palestinian villages and refugee camps from areas of conflict in the event of an Israeli incursion, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Army intelligence analyst allegedly carried classified U.S. combat video out on CD: Manning reportedly described how he carried the data out of the secure areas in which he worked. The following are excerpts from that transcript:
Canada apologises for 1985 bombing : "This atrocity was conceived in Canada, executed in Canada, by Canadian citizens, and its victims were themselves mostly citizens of Canada," he said.
Australia PM Rudd ousted by deputy: Julia Gillard has become Australia's first female prime minister after the ruling Labor party dumped Kevin Rudd as leader.
US to deploy drones to shore up border with Mexico: The United States plans to deploy two drone aircraft along the Texas-Mexico border as part of a new effort to stem organized crime and illegal immigration, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.
UK: Men's pension age up to 66 from 2016: Ministers will raise the possibility of extending the pension age to 70 and even older in the following decades to "reinvigorate retirement".
French strike over austerity plans: French unions have begun nationwide strikes to protest against government plans to raise the retirement age and reform state pensions, austerity measures designed to slash the public debt.