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| Taking a Closer Look at the Stories Ignored by the Corporate Media |
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Archive for the Month of August, 2005.
Viewing ALL NEWS articles 1 through 75 of 509.
- In a lawsuit filed in federal court here in December, a former CIA officer, whose name remains secret, said that an informant told him that Iraq's uranium enrichment program had ended years earlier, and that centrifuge components from the scuttled program were available for examination and even purchase. The officer, an employee at the agency for more than 20 years, including several years in a clandestine unit assigned to gather intelligence related to illicit weapons, was fired in 2004 for not going along with the government propaganda that Saddam had nukes. - Plane "accidents" are America's and Britain's preferred method for disposing of unwanted leaders, especially in Africa. - A man who has held a four-year anti-war protest outside Parliament, has won a legal battle to continue his vigil. - It’s all part of plan to drive average people bonkers and extract their consent for the imposition of a draconian police state, for nothing builds fascist character—the neocons over here like to call it “stomach,” i.e., no hesitation to kill large numbers of brown-skin people in far away lands and no girly-man guilt after the fact—like a “boot stamping on a human face—for ever,” as Orwell presciently summed up. - Former Education Minister Shulamit Aloni blasts ‘megalomaniac’ Prime Minister Sharon in interview with Arab-Israeli newspaper, says he should face justice. Aloni also charges Israel a racist state that commits war crimes - A Technical Report published by BlackBoxVoting.org (4 Jul 2005) details
multiple critical security vulnerabilities in the Diebold Optical Scan
voting equipment that was used to tally approximately 25 million votes in
the 2004 US election.
- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported a 32 percent increase in second-quarter profits as it reaped the benefits of soaring oil and natural gas prices.
- The more I'm reading about Judy Miller and her actions leading up to and during the early days of the war, and then through the unfolding Plame-Rove-Libby-Gonzalez-Card scandal, the more I’m struck by the special access and relationships she enjoyed with many of the key players in the Iraq debacle (which, at the end of the day, is really what Plamegate is all about). - Bush has thrown the U.S. government deeply into the red by combining a massive trillion dollar tax cut for the rich with stupendous imperial "defense" expenditures sold to the populace on a shifting set of false pretenses that merged the imperial occupation of Iraq (a key Bush II project from day one) with something called "a war on terrorism." Boldly linking his twin imperatives of Empire and Inequality, Bush has used fear and deception to cover the gaping disconnect between (a) his claim that we are all united in a war for our shared survival and (b) his stupendous giveaways to the privileged few. - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again warned he could take action against Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq if U.S. forces did not stop the rebels infiltrating across the border into Turkey. - Reviewing these events, 3 key facts about the London attacks seem eerily similar to 9/11 - Cable news is known for its bias toward conflict and sensationalism. There's nothing that gets viewers to tune in more than exaggerated reports of the latest near-attack by a shark -- or, for that matter, a hurricane. And the most intrepid cable newshands can sneak the message of fear into otherwise seemingly innocuous bits of programming. - The president of Venezuela charged the United States with 'meddling with the internal affairs' of Bolivia, denied U.S. charges that Venezuela and Cuba were doing so, and criticized Great Britain for 'snatching' the Malvinas [Falklands] from Argentina during its 500-year 'imperialist assault.' - Farmers in Colombia, a key U.S. ally in South America, think U.S. negotiators ask too much and give too little. - British MP (member of parliament) George Galloway told Al Bawaba on Wednesday that the Americans are losing the war in Iraq as he also warned that the forerunners of a civil war are peeking in on Lebanon. - Israel would launch a massive ground operation if Palestinian militants fire on Israeli soldiers and settlers during next month's Gaza pullout, the deputy defense minister said Sunday. - "One thing is for certain -- Iraq will never be a truly sovereign nation as long as there is substantial oil under its sands. The U.S. military will remain in Iraq in permanent bases until the Age of Oil is over." - The sudden appearance south of Rosh Ha'ayin of a massive army "supply base," built by the U.S. army engineering corps for the IDF with Arab workers, has raised eyebrows and suspicions about the real purpose and intended users of the massive facility. - Critics say the fears raised by the Pentagon are being used as a justification for the military to conduct wider, more intrusive surveillance on American citizens. - In the fall of 2001, a librarian at the University of Oklahoma in Norman (OU) told me that she was present when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted an interview about the fact that an airline ticket for a 9/11 hijacker was purchased from a computer terminal at that school’s library.
- Lindsey German, convener of the Stop the War Coalition, said the ruling meant police could now decide who was allowed to demonstrate, which was "totally unacceptable". - If one puts all this together, it is hard to escape the conclusion we just may be very close to Hubbert's peak right now and, some day, 2005 will be declared the year of peak oil. - First Torture Them, Then Rig Their Trials - African Debt, War and Imperialism are Linked - President Chavez of Venezuela enjoys an approval rating of 71.8%, according to the opposition-aligned Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis. The poll was conducted June 14 to 20 and shows a slight decline in Chavez’s popularity in other indicators, but overall his popularity is at its highest point since the honeymoon he enjoyed shortly after his first election in 1998. - While the passage of the Central America Free Trade Agreement is being hailed as a breakthrough by the government, the management of El Salvador's Diario Co Latino is less enthusiastic, complaining that no one knows what's in the treaty, or how it will benefit the average person or small business. - Phillip Jayhan is on the Bush administration "watch list" for getting too close to unraveling the U.S. government's shady dealings in 9/11. The victim of constant harassment, his personal privacy and free speech rights have been violated on a weekly basis for more than a year by government thugs who have no respect for the U.S. Constitution. - As Fox News tells it, at the very moment the British police were supposedly looking high and low for Dewsbury resident Haroon Rashid Aswat, pegged as the London bombing “mastermind,” MI-6 was quietly stowing him away for safe keeping. In fact, they were protecting him as an asset, although we should not expect Fox News to admit this “embarrassing” fact - A Chicago grand jury has indicted the President and Vice-President of the United States along with multiple high officials in the Bush administration - Corruption has devastated the Lula regime in Brazil. Every sector of Lula's "Workers Party"(PT) has been implicated in bribery, fraud, vote buying, theft of public funds, failure to report illicit campaign financing and a host of other felonious behavior, revealed almost daily between May-July 2005. All of Lula's closest and most important advisers, congressional leaders and party bosses have been forced to resign and are under congressional investigation for illegal large-scale transfers of funds into electoral campaigns, private enrichment, and financing full time functionaries. - The mainstream media has been co-opted as a propaganda organ for the Bush administration. How did this come about? - An ongoing criminal investigation in Italy has yielded copies of the minutes of meetings held at the U.S. Embassy in Rome in 1995 attended by a "Colonel Franklin" from the United States, leading Italian neo-Fascist politicians (including Deputy Prime Minister Giancarlo Fini), and Likud officials from Israel. The meetings were held to arrange for lucrative telecommunications and military contracts for Israeli companies with the U.S. government. - The Ministry of Health (MOH) declared today that 3804 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli occupation forces since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa uprising. As for, the number of the injuries, it got up to 34431. - Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops can kill you for almost any reason - and they often do. - 600 Arrests, But Only 76 Charged - According to the groundbreaking 2003 medical report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, 783,936 people in the United States die every year from conventional medicine mistakes. That's the equivalent of six jumbo jet crashes a day for an entire year. But where is the media attention for this tragedy? Where is the government support for stopping these medical mistakes before they happen? - More than 107 child prisoners, some as young as 10, are being raped and tortured by U.S. occupation forces in Iraqi jails, the Sunday Herald reported, citing witnesses. - An ex-CIA agent, who told superiors in 2001 that Iraq had abandoned part of its nuclear program, is asking the FBI to investigate allegations that the spy agency dismissed him for refusing to falsify intelligence.
- Before the start of the US-led war in Iraq in March 2003, the CIA reportedly recruited and trained a paramilitary group named the Scorpions to foment rebellion. - ...the gang’s all there—even if they’re a gaggle of tyrants and monarchs, with a handpicked puppet (Karzai) thrown in for good measure—and they are “paying respects” to an absolute monarch in an artificially created country with no recognized political parties or national elections. - CAFTA and NAFTA are not simply agreements; rather, they set up authorities that trump federal, state, and local laws and constitutions. When our elected officials signed CAFTA into law, they signed over a piece of our sovereignty. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress and only Congress the power to regulate trade. NAFTA, on the other hand, sets up a tribunal to rule on all maters of trade - Patents filed by an Israeli inventor Amit Weisman and US company Yardeni Associates of Connecticut make scary reading for nervous travellers. - Some tips - the contradiction between the Transport Police, Metronet and the National Grid. The former two declared there WAS a power surge which "caused the explosions". The latter - the National Grid, DENIED there was ever a power surge. Menezes was a contract electrician. See my point? Where did Menezes work at prior to his murder?
- In their public statements, officials within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are always claiming that researchers and scientists who conduct studies not funded by drug companies or the government are making unfounded claims about a link between thimerosal-laced vaccines and autism, and other neurological disorders, which they claim could lead to reduced vaccine coverage, resulting in preventable outbreaks of disease affecting the entire planet. I say cut the crap
- It was announced during the DC Emergency Truth Convergence that the July 22 Congressional Briefing on 9/11 sponsored by Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Rep. Raul Grijalva will be followed up by a similar event sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. - Benyam Mohammed travelled from London to Afghanistan in July 2001, but after September 11 he fled to Pakistan. He was arrested at Karachi airport on April 10 2002, and describes being flown by a US government plane to a prison in Morocco. These are extracts from his diary. - This is the strange reality of Niger's hunger crisis. There is plenty of food, but children are dying because their parents cannot afford to buy it. - Chavez, a frequent critic of the U.S. government, also said he had read reports of President George W. Bush "putting money in circulation to buy votes and to blackmail, through the so-called (U.S.) intelligence agencies, to approve an initiative which is perverse." - With Long Sojourn at Ranch, President on His Way to Surpassing Reagan's Total
- The George W. Bush administration may soon resume production of antipersonnel land mines in a move that is at odds with both the international community and previous U.S. policy on the weapons, says a leading human rights organization. In December of this year, the Pentagon will decide whether or not to begin producing a new type of antipersonnel land mine called a ”Spider”. The first of these mines would then be scheduled to roll out in early 2007.
- The US is increasingly viewed as a "culture-free zone" inhabited by arrogant and unfriendly people, according to study of 25 countries' brand reputations.
- It appears as if doctors have become something of a rarity in occupied Iraq whose medical system has been left in tatters since the US-led invasion and its ensuing violence. - Two Yemeni men claim they were held in secret, underground US jails for more than 18 months without being charged, Amnesty International has said. - The Respect MP accused the UK and America of "raping" Baghdad and said the US was losing the war. - Ever since the Pentagon increased its covert northern African operations -- through programs known as the Pan Sahel Initiative and its replacement Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has used his virtual parallel intelligence and paramiltary force, known variably as the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), Task Force 121, and Titrant Ranger, to engage in congressionally-unsupervised operations in the Saharan region. - A NEWLY-established British army anti-terror special forces unit was involved in the operation in which an innocent Brazilian man was shot dead in London last month, a report said overnight.
- In keeping with the fish story of villainous terrorists—who are, the corporate media tells us, nothing but wicked nihilists and depraved serial murderers—every so often we need to be reminded (lest we forget) that the minions of Osama and al-Zarqawi are still out there plotting mass murder and malicious carnage against the Good and Righteous, i.e., citizens of the Best Damn Country in the World.
- Interrogated General's Sleeping-Bag Death, CIA's Use of Secret Iraqi Squad Are Among Details - Inmate Larry Lawton says at three inmates have died due to improper medical attention. He has sent letters to numerous U.S. Senators without a response and is filing legal charges against prison authorities for his own medical condition being ignored by authorities. - If his lies had led to a military intervention in this country [Cuba], we would probably be witnessing his nomination for something like the vice presidency of the empire, instead of his designation to a diplomatic post. - U.S. Attorney's Office Says 'No Comment,' Refusing To Confirm Or Deny Alleged Indictments - The International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represents the heads of police departments in the United States and across the world, has issued new guidelines saying that officers who confront a suicide bomber should shoot the suspect in the head. - The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado today released new documents that it says confirm that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) is inappropriately treating people who engage in peaceful protest as potential terrorists. - Britain's MP George Galloway's visit to the United States in May and his appearance before a Senate committee, was the last gasp of political fresh air that we Americans have had. Since then, we've continued to be gagged by the cancerous smog of lies and disinformation, belching from the smoke stacks of an industrialized corporate media, fueled by feted government propaganda.
- NBC News and other corporate media broadcast a Pentagon-inspired story on the Aug. 4 evening news broadcasts suggesting that the recent bombings of U.S. armored personnel carriers were accomplished with the use of deadly armored-piercing "shaped charges" from Iran and possibly, Syria. - No doubt the big-wig editors at the Washington Post and the New York Times pull down good salaries. However, when it comes to investigating stories they are no better or apparently qualified than first year journalism majors at a third-rate community college. -
The Polish government has officially apologized for the widespread and in cases irreparable damage caused to ancient Babylon by its troops.
- You are on the verge of the abyss any time you dare wander the streets as trigger happy Iraqi guards and U.S. troops rarely miss their targets. - Work on the contract would be completed by June 30, 2009... - According to reports from Iraq and from a Web Site run by the Iraqi guerillas, U.S. forces have said that water, electricity, welfare, and other basic services will be returned to residents of Ramadi if – and only if – residents provide information on the bases and whereabouts of Iraqi resistance fighters. - The struggles to stop drug abuse and terrorism have striking similarities. They have both abjectly failed to achieve their publicly stated goals, and they have both brought tremendous profits to the United States. - According to Brian Harring, a computer data specialist...of the 158,000 US Military shipped to Iraq, 34,000 have either deserted, were killed or seriously wounded. DoD lists currently being quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 dead, over 23,000 seriously wounded and a large number of suicides, forced hospitalization for ongoing drug usage and sales, murder of Iraqi civilians and fellow soldiers, rapes and courts martial. - The Army provides its recruiters with efficient and thorough training manuals on all aspects of their job, including one titled, "The School Recruiting Program Handbook" (USAREC Pamphlet 350-13). - A coalition of 14 media organizations and public interest groups organized by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in U.S. District Court in New York urging the release of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos... - Uganda's president has said the helicopter crash that killed Sudanese First Vice-President John Garang may not have been an accident.
Pages for August, 2005
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