<january 2007>
Iran Calls for Unconditional Nuclear Talks as Deadline Passes
Iran has renewed calls for unconditional talks over its nuclear program as a UN deadline to suspend uranium enrichment expires today. On Tuesday, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Iran would be prepared to give security guarantees if offered unconditional negotiations. The Bush administration has refused to sit down with Iran until Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment. The Bush administration has dismissed the offer. [More]
Poll: 71% Oppose Troop Surge
The Bush administration’s escalation of the Iraq war drew a harsh reaction Thursday with Congress, protests, and public opinion polls all showing growing signs of opposition to sending more troops to Iraq. A new AP-Ipsos poll shows public opposition to a troop surge has reached 71 percent — ten percent more than from earlier this week. The President’s overall job approval rating is hovering around its lowest mark at just 32 percent. Protests were held in several cities, including New York, San Francisco and Boston in what peace activists called a prelude to a major rally in Washington, DC two weeks from Saturday. [More]
<december 2006>
Hamas Leader Softens Israel Stance
Hamas appeared to break new ground Wednesday over its stance on recognizing Israel. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said Hamas sees Israel as a ‘reality’ that exists. Meshal suggested formal recognition of Israel would come if Israel agreed to recognize a Palestinian state. [More]
Iraq Gov’t Drafts Law to Open Oil Fields to Private Firms
The Iraqi government has moved closer to passing a new oil law that is expected to trigger the start of massive private development of the country’s oil fields. Dow Jones Newswires obtained a copy of the draft hydrocarbon law. It recommends the government sign production sharing agreements with foreign oil companies to develop Iraq’s oil fields. An Iraqi oil ministry official said that the new law proposes allowing – for the first time – local and international companies to carry out oil exploration in Iraq. During the rule of Saddam Hussein exploration activities used to be carried out only by the government. [More]
[Why Study Group Called for Privatization]
[It's Still About Oil in Iraq]
Audit says FEMA squandering Katrina aid
The government is squandering tens of millions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina disaster aid, in some cases doling out housing payments to people living rent-free, investigators said Wednesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has recouped less than 1 percent of the $1 billion that investigators contend it squandered on fraudulent assistance, according to the Government Accountability Office. Its report shows the disaster relief agency’s struggles, one year after the deadly storm, to rush aid to those in need while also preventing abuse. [More][FEMA Ordered to Restart Katrina Payments]
[FEMA Appealing Housing Payment Order]
Bush Admin Considers Dropping Lead Regulation
The Bush administration is considering dropping a health regulation that cuts lead from gasoline. In a draft review released this week, the Environmental Protection Agency says revoking the standards could be justified because lead pollution has declined since the standards were introduced thirty years ago. Lead pollution regulation has long been regarded as one of the nation’s most important clean-air achievements. [More]
Government to Raze 4,500 New Orleans Homes
Housing officials have announced they will proceed with the demolition of more than 4,500 low-income government apartments in New Orleans. At a public hearing Thursday, dozens of residents expressed outrage. Katrina evacuees and housing advocates insist the apartments can be repaired at little cost. But the Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to raze the apartments and is working with private investors to build developments that will likely include less units and come at a higher cost. [More]
Bush Backs Away From Two Key Ideas of Panel on Iraq
President Bush moved quickly to distance himself on Thursday from the central recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, even as the panel’s co-chairmen opened an intensive lobbying effort on Capitol Hill to press Mr. Bush to adopt their report wholesale…But Mr. Bush, making his first extended comments on the study, seemed to push back against two of its most fundamental recommendations: pulling back American combat brigades from Iraq over the next 15 months, and engaging in direct talks with Iran and Syria. He said he needed to be “flexible and realistic” in making decisions about troop movements, and he set conditions for talks with Iran and Syria that neither country was likely to accept. [More]
US at Root of Effort to Topple Lebanese Government
American political leaders watched with alarm during the past week as the Hezbollah militia laid siege to the U.S.-backed Lebanese government, but few would acknowledge publicly what most analysts and politicians here say is obvious: American policy may bear much of the blame. [More]
Bush’s Program to Combat HIV Abroad Fails Countries Struggling With the Pandemic
A new report released by the Center for Public Integrity is the first of its kind to examine the policies, politics and goals of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief known as PEPFAR. The report finds that PEPFAR’s faith-based ideology – including promotion of abstinence – often trumps science. The report states that PEPFAR is, “failing to help lead the world to stop this deadly disease. Instead of empowering people we are restricting them.” [More]
<november 2006>
Pentagon is Exaggerating China’s Nuclear Capability to Justify Buying New Generation of U.S. Weapons
The U.S. military, intelligence agencies, and conservative think tanks and news organizations are exaggerating China’s nuclear weapons capability to justify developing a new generation of nuclear and conventional weapons, according to a report issued today by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). [More]
Judge Strikes Down Bush Authority to Designate Groups Terrorists
A federal judge has struck down President Bush’s authority to designate groups as terrorists. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said the president’s labeling of twenty-seven groups and individuals as “specially designated global terrorists” after 9/11 was unconstitutional. Judge Collins ruled the President’s order was vague and denied the groups the right to challenge their designations.
[More]
ACLU Calls for Investigation Into New Pentagon Spy Files
The American Civil Liberties Union today released new Pentagon documents showing that counterterrorism resources were used to monitor American groups opposed to the war in Iraq and military recruitment. The ACLU is calling on Congress to investigate the widespread surveillance of political and religious groups by the Defense Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. [More]
New Jersey gay marriage bans proposed
New Jersey activists who oppose gay marriage called yesterday for a state constitutional amendment to declare that only one man and one woman can wed – but said they support expanding rights for nontraditional couples. Last month, the state supreme court gave the legislature 6 months to either allow homosexual couples to marry, or create civil unions that give them the same legal benefits. The proposal has been sponsored several times in the past, but has always died in the Democrat-controlled legislature. [More]
Robert Gates Advocated for Bombing of Nicaragua in 1984
Newly declassified government documents reveal that President Bush’s pick to become the new Secretary of Defense – Robert Gates – advocated for President Reagan to bomb Nicaragua in 1984 in an effort to topple the Sandinista government. At the time Gates was deputy director of the CIA. In a memo to CIA Director William Casey, Gates wrote that the United States should do everything in its power short of invasion to bring down the Sandinista government. Gates has also been closely linked to the Iran-Contra scandal and the secret arming of Saddam Hussein. Nomination hearings for Gates are scheduled to begin on Dec. 5. [More] [Gates armed Saddam?]
Chicago war protester’s fiery suicide provokes questions
Anti-war protester Malachi Ritscher set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire near a downtown Chicago highway this Nov. 3. “If I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world,” he wrote in his suicide note. But it took 5 days for the county medical examiner to identify the charred-beyond-recognition corpse and it wasn’t until a reporter for the alternative weekly Chicago Reader pieced the facts together that word began to spread. War protesters are now hailing him as a martyr. [More]
Democrats say no liberal agenda in next U.S. Congress
Congressional Democratic leaders Barney Frank, John Dingell and Charles Rangel say they want to pass popular legislation blocked by Republicans but avoid the more controversial items on the liberal agenda, let alone progressive ideas. Frank mentioned raising the minimum wage and providing cheaper drug coverage and housing, but Frank and Rengel say they will back down from even their personal pet agendas, which were easier to push when their party was out of power. Politicians point to Pres. Bush’s veto power as a source of their trepidation. [More]
Al-Jazeera in the No-Fluff Zone of Eye-Opening Network News
To watch al-Jazeera up close — to really watch it, rather than catch eight-second snippets of snidely filtered stereotype by “our” own networks — is to see the rest of the world as it sees us, and from the street up. It’s not a window on the world. That’s the Travel Channel. It’s the languages of the world, in English. Not surprisingly, America is turning a deaf ear. The only way to see the channel is to spring for a $6-a-month Internet subscription. Good enough, but still. Cable and satellite providers won’t touch al-Jazeera. Censorship? Worse: Ignorance. [More]
Israel Orders Gay Marriage Recognition
In a landmark ruling, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the government Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad.The lone dissenter on the seven-judge panel was an observant Jew, highlighting the controversy the decision immediately touched off among ultra-Orthodox Jews and other conservative groups in Israel. [More]
Military Documents Hold Tips on Antiwar Activities
An antiterrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks against military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations, newly disclosed documents show…The head of the office that runs the military database, which is known as Talon, said Monday that material on antiwar protests should not have been collected in the first place. [More]
IDF admits targeting civilian areas with cluster bombs
For the first time Monday, the IDF admitted targeting populated areas with cluster munitions. In a statement released by the IDF Spokesman’s Office, “the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population.” [More]
Dems Unlikely to Block Gates Nomination
Democrats have begun lining up behind Gates, indicating they are inclined to vote for him if he meets two general criteria: He agrees a new approach in Iraq is needed and demonstrates he will hold sufficient political clout at the White House. [More]
It’s Not the Democrats Who are Divided
The laughing while Baghdad burns intransigence of the White House makes your blood run cold. The day after Mr. Snow ridiculed alternative policies for Iraq, six American soldiers were killed. It was on that day as well that militia assailants stormed the education ministry in Baghdad in broad daylight, effortlessly carrying out a mass abduction of as many as 150 government officials in some 15 minutes…Yet here was what Mr. Snow had to say about the war in this same press briefing: “We are winning, but on the other hand, we have not won” and “Our commitment is to get to the point where we achieve victory.” If that’s the specificity the White House offers to counter the Democrats’ “nonspecific” ideas about Iraq, bring back Donald Rumsfeld. [More]
Rangel to Introduce Legislation Renewing Military Draft
New York Democrat Charles Rangel, the incoming chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, says he believes mandatory conscription would deter politicians from launching wars. “There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq… [if] members of Congress and the administration thought their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way.” [More]
Guantanamo hearings ’shams,’ lawyers find
The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were “enemy combatants,” a study to be released today has found. [More]
CIA Analysis Finds Iran Not Developing Nuclear Weapons
A classifed draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter has said. [More]
Evidence Congressional Elections Hacked
The numbers tell us there absolutely was hacking going on, just not enough to overcome the size of the actual turnout. The tide turned so much in the last few weeks before the election. It looks for all the world that they’d already figured out the percentage they needed to rig, when the programming of the vote rigging software was distributed weeks before the election, and it wasn’t enough. [More]
Falling in Line with Israel
The election of a Democratic majority in the House and Senate is unlikely to result in any serious challenge to the Bush administration’s support for Israeli attacks against the civilian populations of its Arab neighbors and the Israeli government’s ongoing violations of international humanitarian law. [More]
Al Qaida Planted Info to Encourage Iraq Invasion
It is known that under interrogation, Libi misled Washington. His claims were seized on by George Bush, vice-president, Dick Cheney, and Colin Powell, secretary of state, in his address to the security council in February, 2003, which argued the case for a pre-emptive war against Iraq. [More]
