World-News

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0804-18.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/05/10813/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=primates
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=extinction

For The New York Times, Paul Krugman writes: "A year ago, as the outlines of the current financial crisis were just becoming clear, I suggested that this crisis, unlike a superficially similar crisis in 1998, wouldn't end quickly. It hasn't. The good news, I guess, is that we've been experiencing a sort of slow-motion meltdown, lacking in dramatic Black Fridays and such. The gradual way the crisis has unfolded has led to an angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin debate among economists about whether what we're suffering really deserves to be called a recession. Yet even a slo-mo crisis can do a lot of damage if it goes on for a year and counting."

http://www.truthout.org/article/a-slow-mo-meltdown

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The perfect storm leading to a global recession

Recent developments suggest that all G7 economies are already in recession or close to tipping into one. Other advanced economies or emerging markets (the rest of the eurozone; New Zealand, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and some Southeast European economies) are also nearing a recessionary hard landing. When they reach it, there will be a sharp slowdown in the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and other emerging markets.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080818/opinion/the-perfect-storm-leading-to-a-global-recession



Morgan Stanley Says Financial Crisis Will Last: Report

"We will likely see more insolvencies among small U.S. regional banks that have focused on mortgage business".

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26252398



Lehman Brothers in talks over sale of $40bn real estate assets

Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank, is understood to be in talks to sell its entire $40 billion (£21.5 billion) real estate portfolio in a move to stem losses incurred during one of the worst property slumps since the Great Depression.

http://tinyurl.com/6xfawn


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=real+estate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Great+Depression
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Morgan+Stanley
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lehman+Brothers
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Krugman

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=04feb590-43b6-4f92-b54b-255ce1ec32dd



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Arctic+ice

Thomas Frank writes for TomDispatch.com: "Washington is the city where the scandals happen. Every American knows this, but we also believe, if only vaguely, that the really monumental scandals are a thing of the past, that the golden age of misgovernment-for-profit ended with the cavalry charge and the robber barons, at about the same time presidents stopped wearing beards. I moved to Washington in 2003, just in time for the comeback, for the hundred-year flood. At first it was only a trickle in the basement, a little stream released accidentally by the president's friends at Enron. Before long, though, the levees were failing all over town, and the city was inundated with a muddy torrent of graft. How are we to dissect a deluge like this one? We might begin by categorizing the earmarks handed out by Congress, sorting the foolish earmarks from the costly earmarks from the earmarks made strictly on a cash basis."

http://www.truthout.org/article/follow-this-dime

For The Washington Independent, Daphne Eviatar writes: "In January of 2008, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, was electrocuted while showering in his Baghdad barracks. His death prompted last week's congressional report concluding that defense contractor KBR, (until a year ago a subsidiary of the oil services giant Halliburton) was well aware that the electrical system in Maseth's complex was faulty. An accident like this, the report found, was bound to happen. But this report also now raises a larger and thornier question about military defense contractors: can they be held legally liable for their actions - or inactions? Will anyone be held responsible for Maseth's death?"

http://www.truthout.org/article/are-contractors-above-law



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractor
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=KBR
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Halliburton
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Daphne+Eviatar

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9573


Informant: Dorothee Krien



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Burghardt

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Suskind_Bush_ordered_fake_letter_linking_0805.html


Informant: Geraldo Cienmarcos

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Book Says White House Ordered Iraq-WMD Forgery

Mike Allen reports for Politico.com: "A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein. Suskind writes in 'The Way of the World,' to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery - adamantly denied by the White House - was designed to portray a false link between Hussein's regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war. The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official 'that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.'"

http://www.truthout.org/article/book-says-white-house-ordered-iraq-wmd-forgery



Suskind Stands by White House WMD Forgery Claim

According to MSNBC.com: "Despite adamant denials by both the White House and the CIA, journalist Ron Suskind Wednesday stood by his allegation that the Bush administration concocted a fake letter purporting to show a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida as a justification for the Iraq war. 'It's all on the record,' Suskind told Meredith Vieira on TODAY. Two former CIA officers denied that they or the spy agency faked an Iraqi intelligence document, as they are quoted as saying in Suskind's book 'The Way of the World,' published Tuesday. 'I never received direction from George Tenet (CIA director at the time) or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document as outlined in Mr. Suskind's book,' said Robert Richer, the CIA's former deputy director of clandestine operations."

http://www.truthout.org/article/suskind-stands-by-white-house-wmd-forgery-claim

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New Book Claims Bush White House Used Forged Documents In Case For Iraq War

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

According to the book, the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations was responsible for fabricating the documents. The book goes on to say that the British intelligence agency MI6 recruited Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief, Tahir Abd al-Jalil al-Tikriti, and questioned him in Amman two months before the war, and then handed him over to the CIA.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20433.htm



Law Professor: Counter Terrorism Czar Told Me There Is Going To Be An i-9/11 And An i-Patriot Act

By Steve Watson

Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20440.htm



The Forged Iraqi Letter: What Just Happened?

By Ron Suskind

A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20456.htm



Suskind releasing transcript of 'forgery' source

Author Ron Suskind, whose new book charges that the Bush administration ordered the CIA to forge a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence linking Iraq to al Qaeda, will now be releasing a transcript of the interview with one of his primary sources to defend himself against charges of inaccuracy.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Suskind_to_release_transcripts_of_intel_0808.html


From Information Clearing House

--------

'Way Of The World,' Fabricating A Case For War
http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/dcca8fcd8fcb6137?hl=en

RON SUSKIND: THE LIE
http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/9b18aea467131eed?hl=en

HARDBALL: RON SUSKIND INTERVIEW
http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/8832ecce119d286e?hl=en

The Forged Iraqi Letter What Just Happened?
http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/4d9ca25208abd2db?hl=en

How Tenet Betrayed the CIA on WMD in Iraq
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/10/10920/

Congress Dennis Kucinich Applauds Investigation of Claims by Suskind
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0813-07.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=counter+terrorism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kucinich
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Suskind
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nick+Juliano
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Steve+Watson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gareth+Porter

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/2/113771



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Atomstrom

Das Pentagon hat dieses Jahr bereits 10.000 Häftlinge entlassen, nachdem sie oft nur auf vagen Verdacht festgenommen und ohne Anklage und Rechtsbeistand festgehalten wurden.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/28/28456/1.html

Verdi, Transnet und der Lufthansa-Tarifabschluss.
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/28/28457/1.html

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Vergütungen: Was Gewerkschafts-Chefs wirklich verdienen

„Die Chefs der großen Gewerkschaften verraten inzwischen, was sie in ihrem Hauptberuf verdienen. Bei ihren Nebeneinkünften ist ihre Informationsfreude unterschiedlich. Klar ist eins: Arbeitnehmer-Vertreter im Aufsichtsrat müssen einen Großteil ihrer Tantiemen an die gemeinnützige Hans-Böckler-Stiftung abführen. Dies gilt für jeden, der Mitglied einer DGB-Gewerkschaft ist…“ Artikel von Eva Roth in der FR-online vom 04.08.2008 http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/wirtschaft/aktuell/1380645_Was-Gewerkschafts-Chefs-wirklich-verdienen.html

Wir fassen zusammen (nur die Gewerkschafts-Jahresgehälter): Verdi-Chef Frank Bsirske: 175.500 Euro
IG-Metall-Boss Berthold Huber: 218.000 Euro
Hubertus Schmoldt, Chef der IG BCE: 128.000 Euro
IG-Bau-Chef Klaus Wiesehügel: 127.500 Euro


Ein Stundenlohn von 5 Euro für Arbeitskräfte, die als Auspackhilfen in Supermärkten tätig sind, ist sittenwidrig niedrig.

„Die Klägerin war seit 2006 als sog. Auspackhilfe bei der Beklagten beschäftigt. Die Beklagte ist als Auftragnehmerin für den Einzelhandel tätig und ihre Arbeitnehmer führen für Einzelhandelsunternehmen in deren Räumen Auspack-, Einräum- und Kontrollarbeiten (z.B. Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum) aus. Der Arbeitsvertrag war als geringfügiges Beschäftigungsverhältnis ausgestaltet; es war eine Vergütung von 5 Euro pro Stunde vereinbart. Das Arbeitsverhältnis ist zwischenzeitlich beendet. Der Gehalts- und Lohntarifvertrag für den Einzelhandel Bremen und Bremerhaven sieht für gewerblich beschäftigte Arbeitnehmer/innen eine Mindestvergütung von zuletzt 9,70 Euro brutto vor…“ PM des LAG Bremen Nr. 8/08 v. 17.06.2008 zum Urteil LAG Bremen, Urt. v. 17.06.2008 - 1 Sa 29/08 bei arbeitsrecht.de http://www.arbeitsrecht.de/arbeitsrecht/RechtKompakt/Rechtsprechung/2008/2008_06_23_5_euro_stundenlohn_ist_sittenwidrig.php?navid=1


Aus: LabourNet, 5. August 2008

RFK Center Releases Documents Outlining US Actions to Block Life-saving Funds to Haiti

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0804-07.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Haiti

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/04/10798/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Global+Dominance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Hartung

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/04/10786/

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Defense Department Balks in Sexual Assault Hearings

Kay Steiger, RH Reality Check: "Heartbreaking stories of sexual assault perpetrated against female soldiers and military contractors, including those of Maria Lauterbach, Jamie Leigh Jones and Lavena Johnson, have shown that women in the military face risk harassment, rape and even murder."

http://www.truthout.org/article/defense-department-balks-sexual-assault-hearings



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=DoD
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jamie+Leigh+Jones
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lavena+Johnson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ann+Wright
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kay+Steiger

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/04/10795/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Johann+Hari

Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post: "Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health "credit report" drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans."

http://www.truthout.org/article/prescription-data-used-assess-consumers



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ellen+Nakashima

Elizabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times: "From Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and more widespread, and they are showing up in places where they have rarely been seen before, scientists say. The explosion of jellyfish populations, scientists say, reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators, like tuna, sharks, and swordfish; rising sea temperatures caused in part by global warming; and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows."

http://www.truthout.org/article/stinging-tentacles-offer-hint-oceans-decline



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=overfishing

Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Democratic-led Congress appears intent on using its oversight powers to investigate the Bush administration until the day the latter packs up and walks out of the White House. Oversight hearings and reports have been as common as lobbyists on Capitol Hill since the Democrats swept the 2006 elections. In July alone, hearings covered a range of subjects including allegations of faulty wiring installed by US contractors in Iraq, possibly misleading testimony from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson, and charges that politics guided hiring of career workers in the Justice Department."

http://www.truthout.org/article/democrats-unrelenting-oversight-bush-administration



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oversight+power
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Environmental+Protection+Agency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+Johnson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Peter+Grier

Dean Baker for Truthout: "Senator McCain and the Republicans in Congress are calling Senator Obama and the Democrats environmental wimps for refusing to allow the oil industry to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, environmentally sensitive offshore areas and anywhere else they please. The Republicans are claiming that the Democrats don't care about Joe Sixpack, who now has to pay $4 a gallon for his gas. Nor do they care that most of this oil is now imported."

http://www.truthout.org/article/the-compromise-drill-anywhere-plan



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=National+Wildlife
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drilling
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dean+Baker

The first wave of Americans to default on their home mortgages appears to be cresting, but a second, far larger one is building with alarming speed.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20426.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage

Iran's non-answer highlights that Bush has run out of time to see through either deal and another with nuclear-armed India. That means the next U.S. president will have to pick up the pieces, and possibly change the terms of any deals.

http://tinyurl.com/5orqzm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=nuclear+threat

The United States and Israel have likely engaged in 'psychological warfare' rather than war preparations, commented Friedman, who also heads the US private intelligence corporation Stratfor.

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=65597&sectionid=351020101


From Information Clearing House

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A War of Self-Destruction
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/04/10790/



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Hedges

Video - Inside USA

This week Inside USA heads south for a Latin American take on the influence of the US in the region. We travel to Venzuela, Colombia and Argentina to look at the power dynamics, which have changed dramatically over the last decade. Today, in most Latin American countries - pledging allegiance to Washington DC and its institutions would be political suicide.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20431.htm

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK

"They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East," the retired senior FBI official told The News.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20419.htm

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FBI Used Aggressive Tactics in Anthrax Probe

Pete Yost, of The Associated Press, reports: "Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims. The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation. The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment."

http://www.truthout.org/article/fbi-used-aggressive-tactics-anthrax-probe



Identifying the Anthrax Killer

The New York Times writes: "The F.B.I. seems convinced that it has finally solved the long-festering case of who mailed the anthrax letters that killed five people in 2001. Yet its description of the evidence pointing to a mentally disturbed Army bioweapons expert as the sole culprit leaves us uncertain about whether investigators have pulled off a brilliant coup after a bumbling start, or are prematurely declaring victory, despite a lack of hard, incontrovertible proof."

http://www.truthout.org/article/identifying-anthrax-killer

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Anthrax mystery: the FBI/media narrative is laughable and sinister
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13262


Informant: Lew Rockwell

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Anthrax, anthrax vaccine, biological warfare
http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/cd52943b61f83639?hl=en



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Anthrax
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bruce+Ivins
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=biological+warfare
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pete+Yost
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/justin

The News

President George W Bush confronted Yusuf Raza Gilani in Washington last week with evidence of involvement by the ISI in a deadly attack on the Afghan capital and warned of retaliation if it continues.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20421.htm



US accused of backing terrorism in Pakistan

Quoting "impeccable official sources", The News reported on Tuesday that "strong evidence and circumstantial evidence of American acquiescence to terrorism inside Pakistan" was outlined by President Pervez Musharraf, army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj in separate meetings with two senior US officials in Islamabad on July 12.

http://tinyurl.com/65rspv


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gilani
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Musharraf
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan

By Press TV

The top American military officer has warned Israel against orchestrating 'USS Liberty Part II' to provoke a US-led war against Iran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20427.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mullen

By Mark Benjamin

In a confidential memo, a company tells investors consultant Randy Scheunemann can help it win Iraqi oil contracts -- because he was a "key player" in getting the U.S. to invade.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20432.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mark+Benjamin

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20428.htm



Home Truths You'll Never Read in the Press

Who's Really Running Iraq?

By PATRICK COCKBURN

The success of 'the Surge' is becoming almost received wisdom in the US. This is strange since, if the US strategy did win such an important victory, why do America generals need more soldiers, currently 147,000 of them, in Iraq than they did before 'the Surge' started?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20423.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Bruhns
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=PATRICK+COCKBURN

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/quinn5.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=banking+system
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/quinn

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster133.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=General+Motors
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bankruptcy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/decoster
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Eric+Englund

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/391.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney