Compiled by MediaChannel
By Donald Macintyre, The Independent
Doctors in Gaza are reporting what they say are unexplained injuries among the dead and wounded in operations by the Israeli military, which have killed more than 200 Palestinians in the past nine weeks.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is considering whether there is a case for an investigation into the injuries amid suspicions by the medics that the injuries were inflicted by what they claim may have been unidentified "non-conventional" weapons. More...
Nationalism, Not Islam, Motivates Most Suicide Terrorists
By Gary Olson, The Morning Call
In his recent book, ''DYING TO WIN: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,'' University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape has provided an indispensable public service by collecting data from all 315 suicide terrorist campaigns from 1980 to 2003, involving 462 individuals. His overall finding: The major objective of 95 percent of suicide attacks is to expel foreign military forces from territory that the terrorists perceive as their homeland. There is little connection with Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world religions. The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism and it's ''mainly a response to foreign occupation.'' More...
Kurds Threaten Succession
Reuters --
The leader of Iraq's ethnic Kurds brandished the threat of secession on Sunday as a row with the Baghdad government over the flying of the Iraqi national flag exposed an increasingly bitter rift. After the Kurdish regional government banned the use of the Iraqi flag on public buildings, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued a blunt statement demanding use of the national tricolour and implying that the Kurds' own banner was illegitimate. More...
Sistani Admits Situation is Beyond His Control
By Gethin Chamberlain and Aqeel Hussein, The Telegraph
The most influential moderate Shia leader in Iraq has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers, admitting that there is nothing he can do to prevent the country sliding towards civil war. More...
By Blaine Harden, Washington Post -- In the Pinedale, Wyo., field office of the BLM, which oversees one of the most productive and profitable gas fields on public land in the West, there is often "no evaluation, analysis or compiling" of data tracking the environmental consequences of drilling, according to the document, which was written in May and which BLM officials confirm is genuine. More...
Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremburg Prosecutor.
Aaron Glanz, OneWorld -- A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferencz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.
By Chuck McCutcheon, Newhouse News Service -- A pipeline shuts down in Alaska. Equipment failures disrupt air travel in Los Angeles. Electricity runs short at a spy agency in Maryland. "When I see events like these, I become concerned that we've lost focus on the core operational functionality of the nation's infrastructure and are becoming a fragile nation, which is just as bad — if not worse — as being an insecure nation," said Christian Beckner, a Washington analyst who runs the respected Web site Homeland Security Watch (www.christianbeckner.com).
'Fixing' Iran Intelligence
More and More it appears that the pattern of manipulation and misuse of intelligence that served the Bush administration in the drive to start a war with Iraq is being repeated today for its neighbor Iran. Recently we reported on TomPaine.com one facet of the repetition—that Congress, not the president, has had to ask for National Intelligence Estimates that would shed light on a key foreign policy issue on the front burner in the Bush White House.
Study: Millions wasted in Katrina contracts
Washington, MSNBC -- The government awarded 70 percent of its contracts for Hurricane Katrina work without full competition, wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the process, says a House study released Thursday by Democrats. The report, a comprehensive overview of government audits on Katrina contracting, found that out of $10.6 billion in contracts awarded after the storm last year, more than $7.4 billion were handed out with limited or no competitive bidding.
Bush Administration Shields Self from Possible War Crime Charges
By Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers -- Bush administration officials are drafting amendments to the 1996 War Crimes Act to immunize political appointees, CIA officials and former military personnel from criminal prosecution for humiliating or degrading treatment of prisoners of war. The War Crimes Act makes it a felony to violate the Geneva Conventions. Those treaties govern military conduct in wartime and were ratified in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II.
US interventions have boosted Iran, says report
Guardian Unlimited -- The US-led "war on terror" has bolstered Iran's power and influence in the Middle East, especially over its neighbour and former enemy Iraq, a thinktank said today. A report published by Chatham House said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had removed Iran's main rival regimes in the region. Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and its invasion of Lebanon had also put Iran "in a position of considerable strength" in the Middle East, said the thinktank.
Generals: Bush Policies Undermine National Security
By Aaron Glantz, OneWorld.net
SAN FRANCISCO - Twenty-one former generals and high ranking national security officials have called on United States President George W. Bush to reverse course and embrace a new area of negotiation with Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. In a letter released Thursday, the group told reporters Bush's 'hard line' policies have undermined national security and made America less safe.
Of particular concern for the generals was increased saber rattling between Washington and Tehran over the development of an Iranian nuclear program.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Calls Bush Admin 'Crap'
London, The Independent
The Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon.
Federal Court Declares Domestic Spying Program
Unconstitutional
New York, (ACLU Press Release) -- In a sharp rebuke to the Bush administration, a federal court today ruled that the National Security Agency cannot continue to
monitor the phone calls and e-mails of millions of Americans without
warrants. The decision comes in a landmark case brought by the American
Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan.
The ACLU will hold a teleconference today at 1:00 EST to discuss the
ruling with the attorneys who argued the case and clients, including
prominent journalists and scholars.
"Today's ruling is a landmark victory against the abuse of power that
has become the hallmark of the Bush administration," said Anthony D.
Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Government spying on innocent
Americans without any kind of warrant and without Congressional
approval runs counter to the very foundations of our democracy. We hope
that Congress follows the lead of the court and demands that the
president adhere to the rule of law."
Today's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor agreed
with the ACLU that the NSA program violates Americans' rights to free
speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments of the
Constitution, and runs counter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA) passed by Congress in 1978.
Iraq PM Criticizes U.S.-Led Attack
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's prime minister sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack Monday on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, breaking with his American partners on security tactics as the United States launches a major operation to secure the capital.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he was "very angered and pained" by the operation, warning that it could undermine his efforts toward national reconciliation.
Iraq's Shi'ites Going Their Own Way
By Mohammed A Salih, Arbil, Iraq (Asian Times Online)
--
Amid failed moves for a peace deal between the Iraqi government and insurgents through a national-reconciliation plan, the Shi'ite majority is pushing ahead to create a federal region for themselves in the country's south. "The prime minister's reconciliation project has failed, and so far no major insurgency group has endorsed it," Kurdish member of parliament Abdullah Aliawayi said.
By Daniel Howden, (The Independent) -- Mass protests have erupted across much of the Muslim world against the war in Lebanon, prompting louder and more desperate calls for a ceasefire from governments fearful of a popular backlash.
Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who leads the world's most populous Muslim nation, said: "This war must stop now, or it will radicalise the Muslim world, even those of us who are moderate today. It is just one step from there to a clash of civilisations."
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Shiites gathered in Iraq’s capital Friday for a pro-Hezbollah rally.
Dressed in white shrouds — a symbol of their willingness to die — the demonstrators waved Hezbollah’s yellow flags and chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”
Hezbollah Offers Ceasefire, Makes Threat
BEIRUT (AP) - Hezbollah's leader on Thursday threatened to send rockets into Tel Aviv if Beirut proper was attacked, but offered a ceasefire in the air war, pledging to halt rocket attacks if Israel stops air strikes.
"You attack our cities, villages, civilians and our capital. We will react. Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages, civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement or city," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a taped television speech.
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan's king warned the United States and Israel Thursday that the fighting in Lebanon has weakened moderates across the Mideast.
Even if Hezbollah is destroyed, the hostility toward Israel is so high that another such group could pop up in Syria, Egypt, Iraq--or even his own country, King Abdullah II was quoted as saying in published reports.
Journalists Release Guantanamo Bay Report
Peshawar, Afghanistan (IPS) -- Titled 'Da Guantanamo Maatai Zawlanai' (Broken Chains of Guantanamo), the volume describes the extreme physical and mental torture to which the inmates -- mostly suspected Taliban and their allies who were picked up from Afghanistan or Pakistan -- were subjected to.
''There was a ten-month-old infant and a 125-year-old Afghan among the prisoners,'' Muslim Dost, 45, and his co-author and brother Badar-uz-Zaman, 37, told IPS during an interview on the weekend.
By Aziz Huq (TomPaine.com) --
Today in the Senate Judiciary Committee the Bush administration will unveil proposed new legislation to respond to the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. A final version of this legislation remained concealed right up to the day before the Senate hearing. Most American residents would be shocked to hear that the military has power to lock them up without an opportunity to prove their innocence before an independent judge...
(Times/WaPo Watch) -- Recent selections from the Times' coverage of the war on Lebanon include "Up to 7,000 Israeli Troops Push Into Lebanon" (whatever you do, don't say "invade") and "Bush Sticks to Call for Lasting Mideast Peace" (this is what you say about the president who refuses to call for a ceasefire, I guess.) That story comes complete with a subhead characterizing the Lebanese war as a "Broader Global Struggle," a phrase lifted straight from Bush's "War on Terror" media playbook.
9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon
(Washington Post) -- Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.
Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response to the hijackings, these sources said.
WASHINGTON DC (Radio Free Asia) —A well-known Tibetan writer whose blogs have now been closed by the Chinese authorities vowed Tuesday to keep speaking out and raising awareness in China of Tibetan culture.
“Though my blogs are shut down, they cannot stop my speech and my writing,” Woeser said during an 80-minute call-in program on RFA’s Tibetan service. She joined the program by phone from her home in Beijing.
(BBC News) -- The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has expressed its "grave concern" about oil pollution in Lebanese coastal waters.
An oil slick caused by Israeli bombing of the Jiyyeh power station now covers 80km (50 miles) of coast.
Local environmental groups describe the slick as an "environmental disaster".
Almost as much oil may have entered the water as during the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker incident in Alaska, which led to widespread ecological damage.
The UN and other international organisations are assisting the Lebanese government as it attempts to contain thousands of tonnes of oil.
"What we have here is equivalent to a tanker sinking"
Homeland Security: $34 Billion in Mishandled Contracts
WASHINTON DC (The Los Angeles Times) -- Contract spending by the Department of Homeland Security has surged by billions of dollars since the agency's creation in 2003, but contracts have been plagued by large-scale waste, abuse and mismanagement, according to a bipartisan congressional report.
Police Caught Spying on Political Protests--Again.
Oakland, Ca (San Francisco Chronicle) -- Two Oakland police officers working undercover at an anti-war protest in May 2003 got themselves elected to leadership positions in an effort to influence the demonstration, documents released Thursday show.
Another Deadly Summer? 52,000 Killed by Heat Wave of '03
Earth Policy Institute -- Following meteorologists’ warnings that this summer could be another scorcher, European public health officials and politicians are revisiting the devastating heat wave of 2003. All in all, more than 52,000 Europeans died from heat in the summer of 2003, making the heat wave one of the deadliest climate-related disasters in Western history.
600 Congolese Children Dying Per Day
LONDON (AP) - More than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo and even more are displaced, sexually abused or swept into the camps of combatant groups, a UNICEF report said Monday.
US Air Marshalls: Innocent Passengers Targeted to Meet Quotas
DENVER (ABC Channel 7 News)-- You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny. "Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal
Thousands of Israelis Rally against War
TEL AVIV (YNet News)- Thousands of left-wing activists, including many Arab citizens, marched Saturday evening from the Rabin Square to the Cinematheque plaza in Tel Aviv in protest of the fighting in Lebanon. The protestors held up signs with slogans against the war and called for an immediate ceasefire.
The Register --In a meeting that will go down in internet history, the United States government last night conceded that it can no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet. However, assistant commerce secretary John Kneuer, the US official in charge of such matters, also made clear that the US was still determined to keep control of the net's root zone file - at least in the medium-term.
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