World-News

By Tom Eley

New studies reveal that the social divide between rich and poor in the US has grown much starker in the current economic crisis, and that even before it hit the country was the most unequal of the advanced economies, with great wealth and extreme poverty having become virtually hereditary conditions.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24685.htm



The Economic Elite Have Engineered an Extraordinary Coup

By David DeGraw

It has now become evident to a critical mass that the Republican and Democratic parties, along with all three branches of our government, have been bought off by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. The harsh truth is that 99 percent of the U.S. population no longer has political representation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24692.htm



The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

By Northwestrain

The wall between church and state have been breached; the Constitution is becoming a meaningless document filled with meaningless words that have no relationship to the Nation of God that the Secret Fundamentalists want for America.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24689.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=fundamentalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Constitution
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=economic+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=economic+elite
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bipartisan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Eley
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+DeGraw

Cheney Exposes Torture Conspiracy
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/parry2.html

--------

The Torture Memos Show How Illegal Wars Turn Even The Nicest People Bad

By Simon Jenkins

The deceit, the slaughter, the atrocity, the abuse of human rights. Today, Hannah Arendt's banality of evil is everywhere.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24683.htm



Cheney 'a complete supporter' of Obama Afghan effort

"I'm a complete supporter of what they are doing in Afghanistan. I think the president made the right decision to send troops in. I'm not a critic, in teems of how they're dealing with that situation," Cheney told ABC's This Week program.

http://snipurl.com/udn2i


From Information Clearing House

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Cheney Admits to War Crimes, Media Yawns, Obama Turns the Other Cheek

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "Dick Cheney is a sadist. On Sunday, in an exclusive interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC News' "This Week," Cheney proclaimed his love of torture, derided the Obama administration for outlawing the practice, and admitted that the Bush administration ordered Justice Department attorneys to fix the law around his policies."

http://www.truthout.org/cheney-admits-war-crimes-media-yawns-obama-turns-other-cheek56924

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Cheney’s response demands a special prosecutor

Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger

02/16/10

I’m no psychiatrist but it’s been said that the subconscious of people who are suffering severe guilt sometimes causes them to make inadvertent admissions of wrongdoing. That might well be why former Vice-President Dick Cheney made a startling statement at the very end of his recent interview on ABC News’ ‘This Week’...

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-02-16.asp



Dick Cheney’s taunting

Salon
by Glenn Greenwald

02/16/10

In general, people who commit felonies avoid publicly confessing to having done so, and they especially avoid mocking the authorities who fail to act. One thing Dick Cheney is not is stupid, and yet he’s doing exactly that. Indeed, he’s gradually escalated his boasting about having done so throughout the year. Why? Because he knows there will never be any repercussions, that he will never be prosecuted no matter how blatantly he admits to these serious crimes...

http://tinyurl.com/ydcrrlx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

New Report Undermines Cheney Torture Claims
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/02/23



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http://journalstar.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/article_772483b6-190d-11df-9c1c-001cc4c03286.html


From Global Network

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Pakistan: New US attack kills 3 in North Waziristan

A US drone fired a missile into a vehicle in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border killing at least three" militants" on Monday, in the second such strike in 24 hours, officials said.

http://snipurl.com/udn2v



US attack kills seven in Miramshah

Missiles from a US drone aircraft killed seven "militants" at a training compound in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday, officials said. Two missiles slammed into a building near Miramshah, the main town in NWA.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=27264



Missile that killed Afghan civilians not faulty

NATO forces in Afghanistan have resumed using a type of rocket that killed 12 civilians after concluding that the missile hit its intended target and did not veer off course, a NATO commander said on Tuesday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24729.htm



US attack kills 4 in Pakistan

The residents said the Wednesday attack targeted a house in Tapi Tolkhel village, just five kilometers from the border with the Afghan province of Khost.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24726.htm



Extrajudicial Killing: Brother of Afghan Taliban Leader Among US Kills 4 In Pakistan Attack

Four people were killed when missiles struck a house on Thursday night in the Dande Darpa Khel of North Waziristan, two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press. One of the dead was Mohammed Haqqani, the brother of Siraj Haqqani, the officials said.

http://snipurl.com/ufkm7



US attack kills 8 in Pakistan

A US drone aircraft fires three missiles into northwest Pakistan, killing at least eight people in a tribal district near the Afghan border.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119394&sectionid=351020401



Buying the right to murder Pakistani citizens

US transfers $ 349.3 million to Pakistan from coalition support fund

The Coalition Support Fund covers payments for money Pakistan spends in support of the ongoing international operations in Afghanistan.With the latest transfer of funds, claims for dues up to December 2008 have been cleared, sources said.

http://snipurl.com/ui5gv



Four killed in Pakistan after rocket lands on house

A mother and three children were killed in the blast and three others in the house at the time were also injured.

http://snipurl.com/ui5gy



Extrajudicial Killing: US kills nine suspected militants in Pakistan

Nine suspected militants from Punjab were killed in a US drone attack on a house in Peerano Killay near Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, on Wednesday, official and tribal sources said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=27490


From Information Clearing House

--------

Pakistan: US drone strike kills four

Agence France-Presse

02/16/10

A US drone strike killed at least four Islamist insurgents Wednesday at a compound close to the Afghan border in Pakistan’s militant-infested tribal belt, security officials said. The attack was the third since Sunday in North Waziristan district, a stronghold of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Haqqani network known for staging attacks across the border on US and NATO troops fighting the Taliban...

http://tinyurl.com/y8rmwhq



Some policies don’t change

In These Times
by Leonard C. Goodman

02/23/10

Obama has changed the rhetoric of the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, he has not changed the destructive policies that continue to make us less safe and that increase the likelihood of future terror attacks. Like Bush, Obama claims the right to perpetually detain any person deemed to be a threat without interference from the courts. Obama is simultaneously carrying on the Bush policy of incinerating any person deemed a threat by drone or air-strike...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5546/some_policies_dont_change/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/15-0



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The debt limit was increased from $12.4 trillion to keep the U.S. from going into default. Obama signed the bill privately Friday at the White House.

http://snipurl.com/ud1we



Credit Suisse Declares the U.S. a Riskier Investment Than Indonesia

Countries ranked less likely to default include corruptocracy Kazakhstan, less-than-reform-minded Indonesia, the debt-ridden Philippines and violence-ridden Colombia.

http://snipurl.com/ud1wh



US banks facing $1.4tn crisis over commercial property loans

America's fragile high street banks are bracing themselves for a fresh financial crunch as a wave of commercial property mortgages go sour on offices, shops and factories, causing losses of up to $300bn (£192bn) hitting nearly 3,000 small- and medium-sized financial institutions.

http://snipurl.com/ud1wk



Foreclosure numbers may foretell delinquency surge

The number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in January increased 15 percent from the same month last year, and a surge in cash-strapped homeowners who've fallen behind on mortgages could be on the way.

http://www.startribune.com/business/84070102.html



The Coming Foreclosure and Commercial Real Estate Storms

There's near-universal agreement that principal reduction is the key, but we are left with lame programs, like this one announced yesterday by CitiMortgage. The so-called "strategic non-foreclosure" continues the "extend and pretend" policy that bank lenders have pursued over the past year.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/11/business/econwatch/entry6198016.shtml


From Information Clearing House

--------

Pay-go redux: Can Obama rein in federal spending?

Christian Science Monitor

02/13/10

Days after presenting a budget that will create a record $1.56 trillion deficit this year, President Obama vowed Saturday to comb through future budgets line by line to forestall growing deficits that began under his predecessor, George W. Bush. Legislation signed by Obama on Friday raises the federal debt ceiling from $12.4 trillion to $14.3 trillion but aims to rein in runaway federal spending by bringing back the ‘pay-go’ rules of the 1990s — forcing lawmakers and the president to offset new spending with equal cuts elsewhere. … Critics say Obama is being partisan if not disingenuous in talking about budget discipline even as he and the Democratic Congress just lifted the debt ceiling — ostensibly to save the economy — further beholding the nation to China, its chief lender...

http://tinyurl.com/yfkefs8


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=debt
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It's a convenient argument for both governments, but the Binyam Mohamed ruling will not harm UK-US intelligence co-operation.

http://snipurl.com/ud1vi



Moazzam Begg: 'British intelligence were there at every stage of my detention'

British Muslim held at Guantánamo Bay says Binyam Mohamed revelations are no surprise considering his own experience.

http://snipurl.com/ud1vl



UK Government attempts to keep torture case secret

Holding case taken by former Guantánamo detainees behind closed doors would set 'very dangerous precedent', says lawyer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/08/rendition-torture-case-secret



British forces accused of torture and murder as inquiry opens

The long-awaited public inquiry into the alleged torture and murder of up to 20 Iraqis by British troops in Iraq gets under way on Tuesday.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/87676


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=state+secret
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Binyam+Mohamed
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moazzam+Begg

By Helen Thomas

President Barack Obama does have a foreign policy. It's called war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24673.htm



Obama's Secret Prisons In Afghanistan Endanger Us All

By Johann Hari

He was elected in part to drag us out of this trap. Instead, he's dragging us further in.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24674.htm



What Do Empires Do?

By Michael Parenti

Empires are enormously profitable for the dominant economic interests of the imperial nation but enormously costly to the people of the colonized country. In addition to suffering the pillage of their lands and natural resources, the people of these targeted countries are frequently killed in large numbers by the intruders.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24678.htm



The Goal of Modern Propaganda: Mythocracy

By Cindy Sheehan

During my campaign against House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, in 2008, it became so clear to me that the only relevant division in this nation, indeed world, is a class division. I know I have been late to this game and analysis, but remember less than six years ago my entire world was my family and this suburban intellectually challenged sinkhole.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24676.htm



The Monopolization of America

By Russell Mokhiber

One single multinational corporation dominates the world supply of eyeglass stores. One dominates the milk supply. Barry Lynn goes down the list of industries. And he finds a similar story across the board.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24680.htm



"Born Again American"

Video

"Born Again American is ... proof that when people come together with a common cause and passion, they can achieve great things."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24681.htm



The Retrogression

New Phase, Not Just Another Recession

By Ismael Hossein-zadeh

Political theatrics within the ruling circles over "how to create jobs" should not mask the fact that delays in job creation are deliberate: they are designed to further subdue American workers and bring down their wages and benefits in line with those of workers in countries that compete with the U.S. in global workers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24670.htm



It Is Too Late To Prevent The Collapse Of The G-7: Greece Is Irrelevant, We Are All Now Insolvent

By Tyler Durden

For Greece, with on and off balance sheet liabilities at over 800%, it's game over. For the Eurozone, with the same ratio at about 500%, it is also game over. For the US, at 500%+, it is, you guessed it (sorry Joseph Stiglitz), game over, but since we have the printers, it will simply take a little longer.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24675.htm



Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

By David Michael Green

Barack Obama and his congressional co-conspirators in cowardice will soon be toast, the victims - both directly through their own inadequacies and indirectly through their unwillingness to counter attacks upon them by the most destructive elements of American politics - of their own failings of character.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24679.htm

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Obama's 'Transformational' Presidency? Nowhere in Sight
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/13-0

--------

Obama Breaks Yet Another Key Campaign Promise

Administration to "rule by decree" in face of mounting populist opposition to big government agenda

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, February 15, 2010

In the face of rapidly growing populist anger, the Obama administration has signaled that it will fall back on a form of power well known to all successful dictators – rule by decree – and that Obama will use the very instrument he campaigned against to ram through the new world order agenda – Executive Orders, and lots of them.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-breaks-yet-another-key-campaign-promise.html

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Democracy and the Threat of Authoritarianism: Politics Beyond Barack Obama

Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "With the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, there was a widespread feeling among large sections of the American public and its intellectuals that the moment and threat of authoritarianism had passed. And, yet, there are many troubling signs that, in spite of the election of Obama, authoritarian policies not only continue to unfold unabated within his administration, but continue outside of his power to control them."

http://www.truthout.org/democracy-and-threat-authoritarianism-politics-beyond-barack-obama56890

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Obama’s fall

The Weekly Standard
by Fred Barnes

02/15/10

How the mighty have fallen! Only seven or eight months ago, President Obama and congressional Democrats were on their way to remaking America along liberal lines and positioning themselves for decades of political dominance. Their lopsided majorities in the House and Senate, plus the White House, gave them unassailable command of Washington. Today, they still have those majorities and the presidency, but they’re no longer in command. Their hopes of enacting the most ambitious agenda of liberal legislation since the days of FDR and the Depression are over. Now they’re reduced to stunts, tricks, and gambits usually associated with embattled presidents and minority parties...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-democrats


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Helen Thomas on Obama, the WH Press Corps, and More
http://act.commondreams.org/go/49?akid=9.124981.XaYMDd&t=16



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
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By Gordon Duff

The word is out: Our "invasion" that combined Afghani forces with American and British has not gone after Taliban strongholds at all but rather attacked areas controlled by Karzai opponents who were ready to negotiate a legitimate government.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24677.htm



U.S. Forces Kill Children, Other Civilians in Marjah, Afghanistan, with "Precision" Weapons

By Derrick Crowe

An errant American rocket strike on Sunday hit a compound crowded with Afghan civilians in the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province, killing at least 10 people, including 5 children, military officials said.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24684.htm



"A Night Of Killing"

Civilian Deaths Anger Iraqis

Video Report

US and Iraqi troops have been accused of killing several civilians during a military operation in Iraq's Maysan province, on the border with Iran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24693.htm



"A massacre in every sense of the word"

US troops and their proxy Iraqi security forces killed at least five people on Friday during a raid on Ali ash Sharqi, a village near the Iranian border in Maysan province, about 265 kilometres south-east of Baghdad.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/iraq-f15.shtml



Offensive in Marja Directed at US Public Opinion

By Real News

Porter: The attack on Marja is meant to prepare Americans to accept negotiations with Taliban.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24716.htm



All out for the March 20th March on Washington!

People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.

http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=M20_homepage



5 more Afghan civilians killed by NATO bombs

Twenty five people are known dead and many injured in a NATO air raid on a target in Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan. According to the local government, the fatalities include 5 civilians.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24748.htm



Taliban resistance slows coalition forces in Marja, Afghanistan

Lt. Col. Cal Worth, who commands one of two Marine battalions leading the offensive against Taliban fighters here, set off at 7 a.m. Wednesday for the return journey to his battalion headquarters from a combat outpost less than four miles away.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24782.htm



Occupation force air strike kills seven Afghan police: ministry

A NATO air strike mistakenly killed seven Afghan police and wounded two others on Thursday, hospital and government officials said, adding to strains on the alliance.

http://snipurl.com/ufkls


From Information Clearing House

--------

NATO bombs Afghan police as NYT publishes piece calling for more airstrikes
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9428/

--------

The Great Helmand PR Stunt

Fr33 Agents
by Ziggy Encaoua

NATO is calling the latest offensive in Helmand ‘Operation Moshtarak’ but really it should be called ‘The Great Helmand PR Stunt’ or ‘’The Great Helmand PR Swindle.’ It’s not like this is the first military offensive NATO has orchestrated against the Taliban in Helmand Province, and I suspect this will be no different to the previous ones. Each time the same crap occurs: it looks as if NATO forces have defeated the Taliban but all that happens is that the Taliban disperse and blend into the landscape, only to later regroup and counter with a vengeance. The problem for NATO forces is that NATO governments are now under pressure from people, taxpayers, and voters over the NATO occupation of Afghanistan. More and more people are questioning what precisely NATO is doing in Afghanistan. The real reason for ‘Operation Moshtarak’ is merely a publicity stunt to show that NATO is doing something in an attempt to defeat the Taliban...

http://www.fr33agents.com/2303/the-great-helmand-pr-stunt/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

While fighting terror on other side of world, US gov't hit at home by one of its own citizens

http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9427/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
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http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/8/147075



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