World-News

Cataloging our hope and missed chances

Boston Globe
by James Carroll

12/28/09

History is the mechanism by which humans learn from the past, and turn dreams of the future into action…. What is the sum total of the last year? And what do we expect of the year to come? … One year ago, America was in the grip of a collective euphoria tied to political transformation. It seems fair to say that even many who had not voted for Barack Obama felt the pull of hope that was changing how the nation was both seen, and saw itself. If that hope has not been dashed, precisely, the euphoria is certainly gone...

http://tinyurl.com/ydha7ga



Why war will take no holidays in 2010

The Nation
by Tom Engelhardt

12/23/09

Excuse the gloom in the holiday season, but I feel like we’re all locked inside a malign version of the movie Groundhog Day. You remember, the one in which the characters are forced to relive the same twenty-four hours endlessly. Put more personally, TomDispatch started in November 2001 as an e-mail to friends in response to the first moments of our latest Afghan War. More than eight years later… well, you know the story. Worse yet, the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll indicates that a startling 58 percent of Americans, otherwise in a mighty gloomy mood, support the president’s latest ’surge’ in Afghanistan, which will extend that war into the dismal future. And worse than that, in Afghanistan as in Iraq, from the point of view of official Washington, next year won’t really count for much. The crucial decisions on both wars will evidently leapfrog 2010. So, on that score, we might as well just mark the year off on our calendars now...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100111/engelhardt



We’re on a fool’s errand in Afghanistan

Las VegasReview Journal
by Vin Suprynowicz

12/27/09

Peace on earth, good will toward men. Fine sentiments. But as citizens of a republic, can we really assume we’ll be held forever blameless for the actions of our government? Barack Obama, who if he were not in office would be applying for a Community Development Block Grant to stage anti-war rallies in Chicago, just authorized sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. But it’s OK: He promises to pull them out in 18 months — soon enough to guarantee they can’t actually accomplish anything...

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/were-on-a-fools-errand-in-afghanistan-80158607.html



Of Christmas, war and peace

Human Events
by Patrick Buchanan

12/25/09

‘And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men of good will.’ Here the argument begins. Is it biblical to say, ‘Peace on earth and good will to men,’ which is inclusive but inexact? Or does that dilute and distort the meaning of ‘Peace on earth to men of good will,’ which is restrictive?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34999



Obama is failing

Ayn R. Key
by Ayn R. Key

Although Obama supporters continue to tell all doubters that it is far too early to judge whether Obama has been a successful president or not, and indicate that for the foreseeable future it will still be too early, there are indications that he has indeed become a failure in spite of all his good intentions...

http://aynrkey.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-is-failing.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Carroll
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vin+Suprynowicz
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+Buchanan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ayn+R.+Key

MSNBC

12/27/09

In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen. A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said...

http://tinyurl.com/ykqdxex



US, Yemen reviewing targets for possible strike

CNN

12/29/09

The U.S. and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets in Yemen for a potential retaliation strike, two senior U.S. officials told CNN Tuesday, in the aftermath of the botched Christmas Day attack on an airliner that al Qaeda in Yemen claims it organized. The officials asked not to be not be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. They both stressed the effort is aimed at being ready with options for the White House if President Obama orders a retaliatory strike...

http://tinyurl.com/yhmoaww



What has happened to the billions of dollars spent on aviation security?

ABC News

12/29/09

Nearly 10 years after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, questions continue to be raised on security: How should Americans feel about the tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent to beef up aviation security? And what about all those hours we’ve spent waiting on lines, taking off our shoes and surrendering our liquids and gels — have they been worth it? After the Christmas near-miss, when officials say a 23-year-old Nigerian man carrying explosives nearly succeeded in detonating himself on board a trans-Atlantic flight, many experts say Americans should be outraged...

http://tinyurl.com/ykjr6t4



Next stop: Yemen

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

12/30/09

The abortive efforts of the ‘panty-bomber’ have inspired the War Party to focus on a new front in our ongoing and seemingly permanent ‘war on terrorism’: Yemen, a godforsaken outpost of medievalism and sun-scorched desert on the northern shores of the Red Sea, is now taking center stage as al-Qaeda’s latest purported stronghold. Taking advantage of the outcry following the panty-bomber’s near-deadly escapade, the Yemeni government is calling on the US for yet more aid and assistance — in addition to the tens of millions already being pumped into that country — to fight ‘terrorism,’ and specifically al-Qaeda, which is said to have around 300 fighters hiding somewhere in Yemen’s isolated and virtually inaccessible outback...

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/12/29/next-stop-yemen/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

CIA present in Yemen since 2008: Report

Mohamed al-Anisi had told the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz that the Yemeni forces were cooperating with the US military on attacks against al-Qaeda camps.

http://blog.js-kit.com/2009/12/09/haloscan-is-getting-upgraded-to-echo/



Senator Lieberman calls for 'preemptive' attack on Yemen

"Iraq was yesterday's war," Lieberman explained. "Afghanistan is today's war. If we don't act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow's war. That's the danger we face."

http://rawstory.com/2009/12/senator-lieberman-calls-attack-yemen/



The NEXT War?

Warmongers, like Lieberman - clearly believe that merely dropping bombs on people is effective.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/45581.html



Obama Takes 'War on Terror' to Yemen

By Simon Tisdall

Barack Obama's steely vow to hunt down all those responsible for the attempted bombing of an American airliner on Christmas Day has left a crucial question unanswered: whether it was his personal order to US military forces to attack two suspected al-Qaida bases in Yemen with cruise missiles on 17 December that triggered a "revenge" terrorist operation against the Northwest Airlines plane one week later.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24277.htm



Attack Yemen?

By Congressman Ron Paul

"It's time the American people woke up and started realizing that there's a bit of propaganda going on and quite possibly this incident will not only undermine our personal liberties but will also accelerate our intervention and the violence occurring in the Middle East"...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24279.htm



Cause and Effect in the 'Terror War'

By Glenn Greenwald

If you count our occupation of Iraq, our twice-escalated war in Afghanistan, our rapidly escalating bombing campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen, and various forms of covert war involvement in Somalia, one could reasonably say that we're fighting five different wars in Muslim countries.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24283.htm



Detroit Airliner Terror Incident

A Convenience Theory

By Grant Lawrence

I am not one that sees conspiracies everywhere, but I do like a good Convenience Theory. Like the one that is coming together out of the botched terror attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner in Detroit just as it was arriving.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24285.htm



US, Yemen gear up for flight 253 "retaliatory" strike

Washington and Sana'a are reviewing targets for a possible retaliation strike on Yemeni soil in the wake of a failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, which al-Qaeda in Yemen claims to have organized.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114979&sectionid=351020206



The Strange Case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

The closer one looks at the available evidence surrounding the strange case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the more sinister alleged "intelligence failures" become. As this story unfolds it is becoming abundantly clear that U.S. security officials had far more information on the would-be lap bomber than we've been told.

http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2010/01/strange-case-of-umar-farouk.html



British intelligence warned US about Abdulmutallab in 2008

British government on Monday claimed the country's intelligence agencies had given the United States information about the failed Nigerian plane bomber long before his attempted attack on Christmas day.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2010010513193446



The Man In Orange

My wife Lori and I were passengers and innocent victims of Northwest Flight 253 (Flight 253). - What I would like to emphasize in this article is that not only did we almost lose our lives in the air, but we also almost lost our lives after our plane landed. Let me explain.

http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/latest-story-by-kurt-haskell.html


From Information Clearing House

--------

Authorities Quietly Reverse Underwear Bomber Official Story

Eyewitness Kurt Haskell's description of accomplice vindicated after weeks of denial

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, January 28, 2010

Authorities have quietly reversed the official story behind the Christmas Day underwear bomber attack and acknowledged that an accomplice was involved, despite weeks of denial and derision of eyewitness Kurt Haskell’s description of a sharp-dressed man who helped Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab board Flight 253 in Amsterdam.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/authorities-quietly-reverse-underwear-bomber-official-story.html

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Obama ignores AQAP statement that NW 253 attack was riposte to US killing of civilians in Yemen
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9269/

Civilians killed in US strike on Yemen systematically omitted from media narratives
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9273/

UPI reports suspicions NW 253 episode intended as PR to promote US's Yemen campaign
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9276/

US all too eager to back vile government in Yemen to attack overblown threat
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9277/

Official rebuttals to eyewitness challenges to NW 253 narrative leave unanswered questions
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9280/

NW 253 eyewitness charges cover-up of Abdulmutallab accomplice, 2nd passenger arrest
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9292/

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Christmas Kamikaze
http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers117.html

Some Things We Learned in 2009
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis174.html

Lieberman: Next Stop on the War on Terror Express: Yemen
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/rayfield1.1.1.html

The Old False-Flag Trick?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w123.html

--------

Aborted Bombing Puts Yemen in the Limelight
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/29-4



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lieberman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Yemen
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Somalia
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dropping+bombs
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=intelligence+failure
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Special+Operation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=counterterror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=preemptive+attack
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dropping+bombs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+deaths
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=propaganda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=false+flag
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=underwear
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mutallab
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/akers
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/margolis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/rayfield
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Simon+Tisdall
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Lobe
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/grigg-w

Kirk Nielsen, Miller-McCune: "Did America slip into a semiliterate, polarized, pre-fascist state over the past decade or so, allowing greedy oligarchs and corporate elites to run the government? Two books I recently read offer reasonably persuasive evidence and arguments that the country did, and a third suggests that dictatorial mindsets could besiege Americans, with an assist from the Internet, if they don't come to their more deliberative senses."

http://www.truthout.org/1227091



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=fascis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oligarch
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=corporate+elite
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kirk+Nielsen

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/26-1



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sarah+Lazare

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/27-1

Neither Wars Nor Drones
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/01-2



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=airstrike
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drone
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Marwan+Bishara

US Promises Unlimited Financial Assistance to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/25-0

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Just a Four-Letter Word?

Dean Baker, Truthout: "The TARP, along with the much larger lending programs from the Federal Reserve Board and the FDIC, succeeded in preventing the financial system from collapsing. The banks are now back on their feet, with near-record profits and near-record bonuses for the executives who are so skilled in getting public money. The largest banks have now repaid their TARP money, with many smaller banks anxious to follow suit in order to avoid troubling questions about how they have used their taxpayer dollars. The major exception to the happy picture in the financial sector is the plight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

http://www.truthout.org/1228092

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Fannie and Freddie get bailed out again

The Free Liberal

by Fred E. Foldvary

12/31/09

The US President’s administration announced on 24 December 2009 a holiday gift to American landowners. The government removed the cap it set on subsidies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed enterprises that buy mortgages from banks and other originators. The removal of the cap before 2010 avoided the embarrassment of needing Congressional approval. This policy move can be understood if one recognizes the main aim of government policy since the beginning of American history. The main purpose of the US government is to subsidize land values for the big players...

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003964.html



The biggest financial deception of the decade

01/06/10

Freedom's Phoenix
by Jeff Clark

Enron? Bear Stearns? Bernie Madoff? They’re all big stories about big losses and have hurt a lot of employees and investors. But none come close to getting my vote for the decade’s most dastardly deception …

http://tinyurl.com/ybho2el


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Bernie Madoff, Free at Last

"F--- my victims," he said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. "I carried them for twenty years, and now I'm doing 150 years."

http://nymag.com/news/crimelaw/66468/index2.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernanke
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+system
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=FDIC
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bonus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=TARP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fannie+Mae
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Freddie+Mac
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Enron
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bear+Stearns
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernie+Madoff
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+deception
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Zachary+A.+Goldfarb
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dean+Baker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fred+E.+Foldvary

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/767.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bush+legacy

Indische Ermittler untersuchen mögliche weitere Verbindungen David Headleys zu Geheimdiensten.

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/8/146810

Woodstock's Dirty Secret

By LAURIE KIRBY

Today, Made-In-Woodstock components fly F-15s and F-16s and Apache attack helicopters over Iraq, rumble through Afghanistan in Bradley tanks, fire warheads from rocket launchers, and prowl the oceans in nuclear submarines.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24268.htm



Something's Not Right Here

By Bill Moyers - Mat Taibbi - Robert Kuttner

Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist. This is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog market.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24269.htm

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A Joy of the Season
http://www.lewrockwell.com/katz/katz28.1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+economy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=LAURIE+KIRBY
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moyers
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mat+Taibbi
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Kuttner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/katz