World-News

FRED KAPLAN

Send Him Back to the Bunker!

slate.com — Why does anyone still listen to what Dick Cheney has to say? The back-to-back speeches by President Barack Obama and the former vice president could have been an opportunity to weigh competing arguments, examine their premises, and chart an agenda for a serious debate. Obama's speech did exactly that. Cheney, on the other hand, built a case on straw men, red herrings, and lies.

http://ga3.org/ct/id20pgF1G4TI/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fred+Kaplan

Matthew Weaver and Agencies, The Guardian UK: "The buildup of US troops in Afghanistan could force more Taliban fighters into neighbouring Pakistan, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff conceded last night. Admiral Mike Mullen told the US Senate's foreign relations committee: 'We can't deny that our success may only push them [the Taliban] deeper into Pakistan.'"

http://www.truthout.org/052209D?n



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Mullen
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matthew+Weaver

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/05/22

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Facts and Myths about Obama's Preventive Detention Proposal

By Glenn Greenwald

In the wake of Obama's speech yesterday, there are vast numbers of new converts who now support indefinite "preventive detention." It thus seems constructive to have as dispassionate and fact-based discussion as possible of the implications of "preventive detention" and Obama's related detention proposals (military commissions).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22688.htm



Indefinite Detention? Shame on you... President Obama

By Rachel Maddow

Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22690.htm



Obama Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some

President Obama acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/21/AR2009052104045_pf.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=indefinite+detention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+commissions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald

Saarbrücker Zeitung (Abonnement) - Saarland, Germany

Die Grünen-Fraktion im Landtag appelliert an die Kommunen, die Errichtung von Mobilfunk-Masten in Wohngebieten zu verhindern. Die Fraktion setzt dabei auf ...

http://www.sol.de/2982071

Swanson: Obama allowing Cheney
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3756



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Swanson

The American Conservative
by Kelley Vlahos

05/20/09

In the end, Obama could not ‘transcend’ — as was promised, endlessly — post-9/11 politics as usual in Washington, which is all about fear and manipulation, convincing everyone that there is a missing hijacker behind every bush on Mayberry Street. And repeating a lie enough to make it the truth. Which is exactly what Republicans did to cow Obama and his weak sister Democrats on the Hill this week — by repeating the word ‘terrorist’ at every chance regarding the Gitmo detainees, even when they know it doesn’t legally apply to even half of them. We know at this point that out of the 240 detainees currently on the island, 60 were cleared of any wrongdoing by the last administration and are just languishing there in a sort of limbo and 80 others have yet to be tried in whatever court the administration finally settles on. According to Sec. Def. Bob Gates, that leaves 50 to 100, who cannot be charged with terrorism but won’t be released because they are supposedly too much of a risk. That leaves how many convicted ‘terrorists?’ Three...

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/05/20/stop-calling-them-terrorists/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Gates
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gitmo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=terrorist
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kelley+Vlahos

Independent Institute
by DW MacKenzie

05/20/09

In a recent interview Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted that Federal Reserve monetary policy ‘was too loose for too long.’ Geithner’s remark has been met with much enthusiasm. Is this not a major concession on his part? Has Geithner not laid the blame for the 2008 crisis squarely at the Fed’s doorstep? Some of us claim that Geithner has admitted to an Austrian explanation for the 2008 crisis. If true, this would be a major concession on Geithner’s part. Such a concession would run contrary to the policies that Mr. Geithner is supposed to implement as Treasury Secretary to President Obama...

http://independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2504


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Geithner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Treasury
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=monetary+policy

Robert Reich's Blog
by Robert B. Reich

05/19/09

America now has a full-blown industrial policy. But it’s an odd one — a combination of lemon socialism and taxpayer-financed regulation. Consider GM and Chrysler. To what purpose are our taxpayer dollars being put as we bail them out? Apparently only to help them survive, even as pale shadows of their former selves. Steve Rattner, the Administration’s auto expert, explained last month that the government was ‘making an investment decision. We’re not running these auto companies. We are helping them restructure and reposition themselves for the future.’ Which raises the question: Why bother at all, if a huge portion of their employees and those of their dealers and suppliers are losing their jobs?

http://tinyurl.com/ovem4p


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=General+Motors
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chrysler
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=automaker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Reich+Blog

MSNBC

05/21/09

The security firm formerly known as Blackwater armed some of its workers in Afghanistan despite U.S. military documents that prohibited them from carrying guns, said two former contractors who were fired after they were involved in a fatal shooting in the country. Justin Cannon and Steven McClain said Thursday that they frequently asked superiors why the company distributed the AK-47 assault rifles without Department of Defense authorization...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30875844/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractor

Die Veränderung, die US-Präsident Obama mit der geplanten Schließung des Lagers demonstrieren wollte, bleibt mehr und mehr in der Realpolitik hängen.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/30/30371/1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama

http://lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w94.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taser
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/grigg

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance172.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/vance

Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "Yes, Stanley McChrystal is the general from the dark side (and proud of it). So the recent sacking of Afghan commander Gen. David McKiernan after less than a year in the field and McChrystal's appointment as the man to run the Afghan War seems to signal that the Obama administration is going for broke. It's heading straight into what, in the Vietnam era, was known as 'the big muddy.'"

http://www.truthout.org/052109T?n



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Af-Pak
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt

Sarah Lazare, Truthout: "'I felt like I was being robbed of everything,' Matthew Dobbs said over the phone from his home in Houston, Texas. 'I had visions of military police banging down my door and dragging me back to war.' Dobbs, a 26-year-old former soldier who served a tour in Afghanistan from 2003-2004, was recounting a story that has become familiar in the ongoing Global War on Terror. It is the story of a soldier who, after serving a tour overseas and being discharged from active duty, received involuntary orders to redeploy to Iraq or Afghanistan years later."

http://www.truthout.org/052109R?n

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Just one more thing, soldier

Common Dreams
by Sarah Lazare

05/25/09

Dobbs, a 26 year-old former soldier who served a tour in Afghanistan from 2003-2004, was recounting a story that has become familiar in the ongoing Global War on Terror. It is the story of a soldier who, after serving a tour overseas and being discharged from Active Duty, received involuntary orders to re-deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan years later. Dobbs was not a victim of stop-loss, the policy of involuntarily extending a GI’s term of service, sometimes after multiple tours in combat zones. This practice has recently garnered widespread negative attention and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates claims that it will be phased out. Rather, Dobbs was a victim of reactivation orders from the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR), a lesser-publicized form of involuntary service that has been fueling troop supply for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/25-4


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Global+War+on+Terror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sarah+Lazare