News For August 24, 2010

Statement: Afghan Resistance
Regarding Petraeus’s Latest Remarks

By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi

It is incredible how Patraeus could claim such a sizeable victory at a stage where his soldiers in Sangin cannot abandon their bases by road out of fear and are forced to leave by helicopters at night. Continue

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There Are No Heroes In Illegal And Immoral Wars

By Robert Jensen

Until we can tell the truth about U.S. foreign policy, and how the military is used to advance that policy in illegal and immoral ways, we will remain easy marks for the politicians and their propagandists. Continue

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US Military 'Overwhelmed' by Mental Health Problems of Soldiers

By Gregg Zoroya

About every fourth soldier here, where 48,000 troops and their families are based, has been in counseling during the past year, according to the service's medical statistics. And the number of soldiers seeking help for combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems keeps increasing. Continue

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Welcome To America
Man Mistaken for Muslim Harassed at NY Anti-Mosque Rally

Video

An African-American man who was mistakenly thought to be Muslim was harassed at an anti-mosque rally yesterday in New York City. Continue

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Four Reasons Why Americans Should Oppose Zionism

By Steven Salaita

Zionism, by virtue of its exclusionary outlook and ethnocentric model of citizenship, is on its own a purveyor of fundamental violence. Continue

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Housing Holocaust:
Existing Home Sales Plunge, Market Follows
        
By Mike Whitney:

Today's bleak housing numbers are not the result of a "cyclical downturn", but of a crime perpetrated on the American people. There must accountability. Someone's gotta pay! Continue

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Stock Market Crash Omen Confirmed
Hindenburg Omen Tripped Again

By Steven Russolillo

The Omen has been behind every market crash since 1987, but significant stock-market declines have followed only 25% of the time. So there’s a high likelihood that the Omen could be nothing more than a false signal. Continue

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Noam Chomsky: Power Hunger Tempered by Self-deception

Video

Professor Noam Chomsky explaining the 2008 bubble, democracy and neo-liberalism / corporatism i.e. the economic / monetary system, from an american perspective. Continue

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Enough of the Myth of American Morality
Awakening the Global Slave

By Bill Noxid

It's Time for Americans to stop making false proclamations about this Country that only demonstrate their ignorance and unwillingness to face what happened yesterday, much less the historical truth of the United States. Continue

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Banks Siding Against the Customer in Fraud Cases

By Naomi Wolf

I was stunned by what seemed from the emails to be a systemic practice. Why would a bank want to perpetuate bank fraud rather than fight it? Continue

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8 MPs among 35 killed in Somalia: Al-Shabab vows 'massive' Somali war: Al-Shabab fighters have attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, killing at least 35 people, a day after declaring a massive war. Members of al-Shabab, disguised as government security forces, launched the attack on Tuesday at the Muna Hotel, which is known to host many Somali government officials and politicians.
29 civilians killed in Mogadishu fighting: At least 29 Somali civilians were killed in fighting between insurgents and government troops backed by African Union forces in Mogadishu, medics said Tuesday.
Pakistan: At least 32 killed in attacks over past 24 hours: In the South Waziristan town of Wana, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a seminary run by Maulana Noor Mohammad, a former MP for Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), killing the cleric and 24 others, local people said.
US Attack Kills 20 People In Pakistan: Four women and three children were also among the dead.
How Pakistan Killed Taliban Peace Talks: Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest: They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime backer.
Pakistani leader call for martial law: THE government of President Asif Ali Zardari has taken a further political battering after a leader of its largest coalition partner called for a military coup to tackle corruption and failures over the floods.
US support of Pakistan ‘strategic mistake’: Afghan: A senior Afghan official is urging the United States to re-evaluate its friendship with Pakistan, accusing the country of supporting Al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremists as it plays a double-game.
Pak rejects Afghan NSA's 'double faced' commitments against terror accusation: Addressing a regular briefing here, assistant US secretary of state for public affairs, Philip Crowley, said the White House is satisfied with efforts that Pakistan has taken to counter the threat and would continue to support that country.
Pakistan turns to IMF for help: Pakistani officials will reportedly press the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to loosen the terms of a $10 billion loan in an effort to cope with the worst floods in the country's history.
Afghanistan: Occupation forces kill 8 civilians: The district chief said that about a dozen other people, “all of them civilians,” were injured in the raids, which he said had lasted for “hours”.
2 Taliban militants, 2 Afghan soldiers killed: Afghan National Army (ANA) and NATO- led troops killed two Taliban militants and detained five other insurgents after joint forces launched two separate military operations against insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan and eastern Khost provinces on Monday, Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday, Xinhua eported.
NATO occupation force soldier killed in Afghan attack: A NATO soldier was killed Tuesday while fighting insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said, taking to 12 the number of Western troops killed in Taliban attacks in the past three days.
One killed as US troops fire shots to disperse Afghan protesters: NATO said about 300 people surrounded a patrol and attacked vehicles with rocks and iron bars outside the massive coalition air base at Bagram, in Parwan province.
U.S. to spend $100 million on Afghan bases: The Pentagon says it plans to spend $100 million on air base expansions in Afghanistan with construction efforts continuing into at least 2011.
Afghan base expansion aimed at Iran?: One of the airbases is situated just north of the Afghan capital Kabul, while another airfield and a US marine base is to be set up in the southern province of Helmand.
Yemen: 18 "Al-Qaeda" fighters killed as civilians flee city: Yemen's military have killed 18 Al-Qaeda fighters in the city of Loder since an anti-militant operation began on Friday, according to the country's interior ministry.
Seven killed in Shiite rebels attack in N. Yemen: At least seven people were killed on Monday in an attack by Yemeni Shiite rebels against pro-government tribesmen in the north of the capital Sanaa, a local councilman said.
Seven workers killed in Iraq oil refinery raid: Seven employees of the Baiji oil refinery were shot dead and some 750 million dinars (640,000 dollars) in salary payments were stolen from them, Iraqi media reported Tuesday.
Two Iraq judges killed in violence claimed by Al-Qaeda: Al-Qaeda says avenging death sentences being handed down to Sunnis in Shiite prisons.
One soldier killed in western Iraq bombings: An Iraqi soldier was killed and six people injured in two bomb explosions in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Monday, a provincial police source said.
More than 5,000 airmen will remain in Iraq: More than 10 percent of U.S. forces left in Iraq when combat operations officially end Aug. 31 will be airmen conducting close-air support, airlift and intelligence-gathering missions, and working with Iraqi security forces.
Tony Blair's new book 'is like a love letter to George Bush: The former prime minister is wheeling out his wife Cherie and their four children to publicise the book, entitled A Journey, across the Atlantic.
Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran: Odierno: Iran Funding Extremists in Iraq: The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq says Iran is fueling instability in neighboring Iraq by funding and training Shi'ite extremist groups in the country.
Israel's choice is settlements or peace, say Palestinians: "The choice of the Israeli government is settlement or peace, they cannot have both," he said at a news conference in Ramallah, the political capital of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Blackwater Pays To Avoid Punishment: State Department details Blackwater violations of U.S. laws: The alleged violations were spelled out in documents released Monday by the State Department as part of a $42 million settlement with Blackwater that will allow the company, now known as Xe Services LLC, to continue receiving U.S. government contracts.
Force-feedings At Guantánamo: The guards strap hunger striker detainees into the force-feeding chair at night.
US admits human rights shortcomings in UN report: Those areas include inhumane prison conditions, racial disparities in death penalty cases, and abuses in the immigration detention system.
Outrage at UN decision to exonerate Shell for oil pollution in Niger delta: The $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence, and concludes that the rest has come from local people illegally stealing oil and sabotaging company pipelines.
Venezuela, More Deadly Than Iraq: There have been 43,792 homicides in Venezuela since 2007, according to the violence observatory, compared with about 28,000 deaths from drug-related violence in Mexico since that country’s assault on cartels began in late 2006.
Computers that read minds are being developed by Intel: New technology could allow people to dictate letters and search the internet simply by thinking, according to researchers at Intel who are behind the project.
Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware: It looks like Apple, Inc., is exploring a new business opportunity: spyware and what we're calling "traitorware."
UK: Government urged to reveal 'true' national debt of £4.8 trillion: The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has calculated that the national debt is £4.8 trillion once state and public sector pension liabilities are included, or £78,000 for every person in the UK.
US July Existing Home Sales Plunge 27.2%: -Existing home sales plunged to their lowest level in 15 years in July as inventories soared, painting a grim picture for the housing market absent government support in a stubbornly sluggish economy.
Housing in 'Double-Dip': Economist Zandi: Home prices fell 5.1 percent in June to an annualized pace of 5.37 million homes, the weakest since March.
David Rosenberg: Prepare For Another 4-5 Million Job Cuts: Balance sheets, production, order books and staffing requirements are all rightsizing to this new semi- permanent landscape of reduced credit availability
Georgia's tax structure doesn't bring in enough money to pay for services: The report says Georgia will come up $1.5 billion to $2.1 billion short during each of the next five years. On top of this, the state is currently using $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money that runs out next July.