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Dangerous Nuclear Plant even more dangerous than suspected May 9th By Paul Brown Republished from http://www.guardian.co.uk A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield’s Thorp reprocessing plant. The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe into a huge stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter.>>Full Story Lawyer Who Told of US Abuses at Afghan Bases Loses UN PostSun, 1 May 2005 By Warren Hoge Republished from New York Times M. Cherif Bassiouni, a professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago who was the human rights commission’s independent expert for Afghanistan, released a 21-page report last week, accusing American military forces and civilian contractors of abusing and torturing prisoners. He had been expecting a routine two-year renewal of his function, but this did not happen. He suspects U.S. lobbying as the cause Full Story >> Then They Came For The
Children. They’ve vanished into the netherworld of a Homeland Security gulag and their story has already disappeared from the headlines, but the shocking case of two 16-year-old girls from New York City arrested a month ago ought to inspire outrage among every American worthy of the name. Since the government’s reasons for the girls’ imprisonment could apply to virtually any teenager, it should also spark fear. >> Full Story Hostile Information Wednesday 27 April 2005 In this mean and meager time of pre-packaged, pre-processed, corporate-controlled infotainment that passes itself off as 'news, it is a rare and refreshing experience to see and hear a true journalist reporting the facts. I was privileged on Monday night to share a stage in Boston with Dahr Jamail, the intrepid reporter who could not stomach the biased non-news coming out of Iraq after the invasion, and went over there to see and report on what was happening himself. Jamail, an unassuming spectacled man in his mid-30s, spoke in a calm and precise manner on what he had seen while in Iraq. His words carried the weight of witness, but more devastating than what he said was what he showed the crowd. For an hour, Jamail flashed photograph after photograph from Iraq on a large screen. It is one thing to hear the truth. It is another again to see it, in slide after slide, through the eyes of a man who was there and returned to tell the tale. Full Story >> U.S.: Abu Ghraib Only the “Tip of the Iceberg” New York, April 27, 2005 Human Rights Watch— The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world, Human Rights Watch said on the eve of the April 28 anniversary of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers brutalizing prisoners at the Iraqi jail. "Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg. It’s now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over—from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don’t even know about" Reed Brody, special counsel Full Story >> Is The U.S. Vulnerable In The Persian Gulf?
By Mark H. Gaffney Sun, 17 Apr 2005 Republished from Information
Clearing House
The myth of US invincibility...
During the summer of 2002, in the run-up to President Bush’s invasion of Iraq, the US military staged the most elaborate and expensive war games ever conceived. Operation Millennium Challenge, as it was called, cost some $250 million, and required two years of planning. The mock war was not aimed at Iraq, at least, not overtly. But it was set in the Persian Gulf, and simulated a conflict with a hypothetical rogue state. The “war” involved heavy use of computers, and was also played out in the field by 13,500 US troops, at 17 different locations and 9 live-force training sites. All of the services participated under a single joint command, known as JOINTFOR. The US forces were designated as “Force Blue,” and the enemy as OPFOR, or “Force Red.” The “war” lasted three weeks and ended with the overthrow of the dictatorial regime on August 15. At any rate, that was the official outcome. What actually happened was quite different, and ought to serve up a warning about the grave peril the world will face if the US should become embroiled in a widening conflict in the region. Full Story >> 150 Hostages and
19 Deaths Leave US Claims of Iraqi 'Peace' in Tatters Iraqi and United States-led forces were last night preparing to launch a rescue mission for up to 150 Shia hostages held by Sunni insurgents. The threat by Sunni militants in the town of Madaen, south of Baghdad, to execute the hostages unless Shias leave the area, intensified the growing sectarian fears. The upsurge in violence across Iraq in the past four days has left claims made by the Pentagon that the tide is turning in Iraq and there are hopeful signs of a return to normality in tatters. Full Story >> Bush silent as top terrorist seeks US asylum By Bill Van AukenRepublished from World Socialist Web Site April 14 2005 “If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist,” were the words used by President George W. Bush in justifying the invasion of Afghanistan three-and-a-half years ago and launching the campaign of worldwide militarism known as the global war on terror. But the Bush administration is itself harboring a notorious terrorist, wanted for the mid-flight bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner as well as other deadly attacks on civilian targets and attempted assassinations. Full Story >> Former U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector Claims A Cover Up Wed, 13 Apr 2005 Expert alleges deliberate U.S. mad-cow coverups A scientist and former U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector is claiming that his government covered up mad cow disease, years before a case turned up in Canada. Lester Friedlander says he was “forced out” from his job as head of inspections at a large Philadelphia meat packing plant in 1995 after blowing the whistle on what he called unsafe practices...>>Full Story U.S.: Pay Gap Widens Between CEOs and Workers April 12, 2005 by OneWorld.net by Abid Aslam WASHINGTON -- The chief executives of major U.S. corporations enjoyed double-digit pay raises last year, adding to a record of ''jaw-dropping'' compensation largely undisturbed by recent years' falling profits and share prices and a wave of scandals involving management chicanery, the country's leading labor federation said in a new survey. Chief executive officers (CEOs) were being enriched at the expense of working families' retirement savings, the AFL-CIO said in its Executive Pay Watch study, released Monday as a Web site. The latest annual update aimed to rally support for labor and other investors who plan to force some 140 companies to confront pay issues at annual shareholders' meetings in coming months. Read Full Story>> FBI Wants Greater Search PowersMSNBC - Tuesday 5 April 2005
WASHINGTON - FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday asked lawmakers to expand the bureau's ability to obtain records without first asking a judge, and he joined Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in seeking that every temporary provision of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act be renewed.> > Full Story
U.S. might develop need for military draft
WASHINGTON — If American forces aren’t pulling out of Iraq in a year, a draft will be needed to meet manpower requirements, military analysts warned Wednesday. With recruitment lagging and no end in sight for U.S. forces in Iraq, the “breaking point” for the nation’s all-volunteer military will be mid-2006, said Lawrence Korb, a draft opponent and assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, and Phillip Carter, a conscription advocate and former Army captain Full Story >> Halliburton Bribery Scandal Deepens By, By David Phinney March 30, Guerrillanews.com Former Kuwait manager indicted for million dollar payoff...From food services to latrine cleaning, trucks to cots and tents, gymnasiums and showers, to generators and air conditioners—you name it, KBR supplied it. Subsequently, the Pentagon awarded the company a no-bid contract—which eventually ballooned into $2.5 billion—to plan for and repair oil pipelines and wells damaged during the invasion. Full Story >> Women fear losing rights in new Iraq By Liz Sly / Chicago Tribune March 5th, 2005 The women at Nasar's beauty salon were Christian and Muslim, Sunni and Shiite, but they spoke with one voice on an issue that worries them all. "I'm sure they will form an Islamic government and our freedom will be gone," Suzan Sarkon, 30, said as she settled in to get her long black hair trimmed. "We've never lived freely in Iraq, and now I think we never will." Read Story>>> More Than a Thousand
Whistleblower Cases Dumped Special Counsel dismisses hundreds of disclosures and complaints in past year. Washington, DC - The U.S. Special Counsel has dismissed more than 1,000 whistleblower cases in the past year, according to a letter from the Bush-appointed Special Counsel released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The Special Counsel appears to have taken action in very few, if any, of these cases and has yet to represent a single whistleblower in an employment case. >>Full Story Reps. Waxman and Maloney Call for HearingsWASHINGTON -- February 10 -- Today Rep. Waxman and Rep. Maloney ask for hearings on whether political considerations caused the Administration to delay release of findings by the 9/11 Commission about pre-attack warnings. The text of the letter follows:>>Audit: U.S. lost track of $9 billion in Iraq fundsJan 31, WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday. Full Story >> United States and Europe Differ Over Strategy on IranBy Elaine Sciolino Direct From The PNAC website; Calling For A Military Draft January 28, 2005 On the Project for the New American Century website, a letter dated January 28, 2005 addressed to leaders of Congress calling for an increase in military. If you read the letter carefully (see below) you will see that they are calling for a military draft. Read the Letter ACLU Call for Hearings on the Justice Department’s Handling of Sibel Edmonds’ Case Jan 26th, 2005 The ACLU is urging the D.C. Court of Appeals to reinstate the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing. Fourteen 9/11 family member advocacy groups and public interest organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief this month in support of Edmonds. Many of them joined her today at a news conference in Washington, along with national security whistleblowers Michael German, Coleen Rowley, Manny Johnson, Robert Woo, Ray McGovern, Mel Goodman and Bogdan Dzakovic, among others. The ACLU and many of the groups signing the brief today called for Congressional hearings to determine whether the Justice Department withheld from the lower court its knowledge of an internal report concluding that Edmonds was fired for her whistleblowing. The groups are also seeking an investigation into whether the Justice Department retroactively classified documents to perpetuate a cover-up in Edmonds’ case. Full Story >> Published on Monday, January 17, 2004 by the Associated PressU.S. Gathering Nuclear Intelligence Inside Iran for Possible Strike TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Sunday that environmental samples taken from a military complex this weekend by UN nuclear inspectors will prove that the country's atomic program is for peaceful purposes and not for making weapons as the United States alleges. Meanwhile, the New Yorker magazine reported Monday that Washington has been conducting secret reconnaissance of Iranian nuclear installations inside that country for several months as a possible prelude to a military strike. Full Story >> Republican Congressman Howard Coble suggests pullout in Iraq1-9-05 By Stan Swofford, Staff
Writer
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FBI
E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation
Techniques |
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| December 20, 2004 | |
NEW YORK -- A document released for the
first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President
Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation
methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew
of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes
methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004
"Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that
abuse of detainees is being covered up...Full
Story >>Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004
Guinea Pig Kids: How New York City is Using
Children to Test Experimental AIDS Drugs
A new BBC documentary exposes how the city of New York has been forcing HIV
positive children under its supervision to be used as human guinea pigs in
tests for experimental AIDS drug trials.
All of the children in the program were under the legal guidance of the city's child welfare department, the Administration for Children's Services. Most live in foster care or independent homes run on behalf of the local authorities and almost all the children are believed to be African-American or Latino. Full Story>>
Will The GOP Nuke The Constitution?
December 21, 2004, Arianna Online
Right now, somewhere in the White House, administration strategists are hatching plans to go to war. Battle plans are being drawn. Timing and tactics are being finalized. A nuclear option is even being openly discussed.
The designated target? Iran? Syria? North Korea?
No, much closer to home: the United States Senate.
Salivating at the chance to radically remake the Supreme Court, the president and his loyal lapdogs in the World's Most Exclusive Club are plotting to obliterate over 200 years of Senate tradition by eliminating the use of filibusters against judicial nominees. Full Story>>
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The EPA and Industry Team Up to Protect Profits in Florida Study, Leaving Children Behind |
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They call it CHEERS. The "Children’s Environmental
Exposure Research Study" is a cooperative agreement between the
Environmental Protection Agency and the American Chemical Council. The
Chemical Council will provide $2.1 million of the $9 million dollar
study—the rest coming from our federal government.
But there’s nothing cheery about CHEERS. The acronym is deliberately
misleading and, when examined, downright scary. This time, the government is
protecting an unethical study that actually exposes children, including
babies, to some of the chemical industry’s most noxious poisons. Who is the
EPA protecting? The health of American children? Or the profits of
American corporate interests? Full
Story> >
The Truth about
Nevirapine
Last week, Dr. Edmund Tramont, Head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIDS division, was outed by fellow NIH AIDS researcher Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, for burying evidence of drug toxicity in an African drug trial. Documents obtained by the Associated Press show that Tramont censored reporting of thousands of toxic reactions and at least 14 deaths in the ongoing Nevirapine study in Uganda. Nevirapine is the key component of George W. Bush’s $500 million donation to get AIDS drugs to Africans.
South African President Thabo Mbeki accused the U.S. of using Africans as “guinea pigs.” The Rev. Jesse Jackson echoed the statement, calling the cover-up “an outrage.” Full Story>>
The Neo-Cons: Are They Serious About Syria?
by Jim LobePublished on Friday, December 17, 2004 by Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON -- Just when it appeared that Syria was complying in earnest with U.S. demands to secure its border with Iraq and even making unprecedented peace overtures to Israel, key neo-conservative opinion shapers are calling on President George W Bush to take stronger measures against Damascus, possibly including military action. >>Full Story
Marriage Made in Media Hell
Tue, 7 Dec 2004
Summary: Could Clear Channel, mammoth radio conglomerate known for throwing pro-war rallies and banning outspoken country trios, get any more rabid?Three words: Fox News Channel. Yes, that’s right, the left’s favorite media devils are teaming up to provide America with all self-congratulation all the time news…Full Story>>>
US uses banned weapon,
By Paul Gilfeather, Political Editor
Republished from Sunday
Mirror 12/11/2004
US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah.
News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world.
And last night Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh.
Outraged critics have also demanded that Mr Blair threatens to withdraw British troops from Iraq unless the US abandons one of the world’s most reviled weapons. Halifax Labour MP Alice Mahon said: “I am calling on Mr Blair to make an emergency statement to the Commons to explain why this is happening. It begs the question: ‘Did we know about this hideous weapon’s use in Iraq?’”Since the American assault on Fallujah there have been reports of “melted” corpses, which appeared to have napalm injuriesLast August the US was forced to admit using the gas in Iraq.
A 1980 UN convention banned the use of napalm against civilians – after pictures of a naked girl victim fleeing in Vietnam shocked the world.
America, which didn’t ratify the treaty, is the only country in the world still using the weapon
And now the good news from America’s accomplished mission in Iraq …The other night on ABC News Nightline, Ted Koppel asked National Public Radio war correspondent Anne Garrels, who has been in Iraq throughout the war, “When you hear people in this country, Anne, say, look, the media is only giving the negative side of what’s going on there, why don’t they ever show the good side, what do you tell ‘em?”“I tell them that there isn’t much good to show,” she replied, describing how even military commanders have only bad news to share.Two weeks ago on CNN, Time’s Michael Ware, who has been covering Iraq for two years, gave an alarming account of being trapped in his Baghdad compound, which is regularly bombed and encircled by “kidnap teams.”He reported that the U.S. military has “lost control” and that Americans are “the midwives of the next generation of jihad, of the next Al Qaeda.” Full Story >>
U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.
"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that." Full Story >>
Mayhem in Iraq Is Starting to Look Like a Civil War
By Edward WongThe new Pentagon Paper
By
Sidney Blumenthal, Salon Dec. 2, 2004
A scathing top-level
report, intended for internal consumption, says that Bush's "war on
terrorism" is an unmitigated disaster. Of course, the
administration is ignoring it.
Read the full article
here (ad view required).
DOD
Misleads Nation on Casualty Count in Iraq
by Bob Simon CBS 60 Minutes, November 21,
2004 Soldiers injured in Iraq, even if in a hostile war
zone, are not included in the casualty counts unless their injuries are the
direct result of combat. Bob Simon talks to some soldiers who think this
is unfair. More...
Ohio hearings show massive GOP
vote manipulation, but where the hell are the Democrats & John Kerry? Guantánamo Prisoners
Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court By
NEIL A. LEWIS , The New York Times , Published:
November 8, 2004
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 7 - Each day, several shackled
detainees are marched by their military guards into a double-wide trailer behind
the prison camp's fences and razor wire to argue before three anonymous military
officers that they do not belong here. These briskly conducted proceedings, which have received
little notice, constitute the Bush administration's principal answer to the
Supreme Court's ruling regarding the rights of detainees who have been
imprisoned since the administration began its fight against terrorism after the
Sept. 11 attacks. The court ruled 6 to 3 in June that the detainees had a right
to challenge their detentions in federal court, saying that even though the base
is outside the sovereign territory of the United States, federal judges have
jurisdiction to consider petitions for writs of habeas corpus from those who
argue that they are being unlawfully held. Full
Story >>
Missing Antiaircraft
Missiles Alarm Aides Several thousand shoulder-fired
missiles - the kind that could be used to shoot down aircraft - are missing in
Iraq, and their disappearance has prompted U.S. military and intelligence
analysts to increase sharply their estimate of the number of such weapons that
may be at large, administration officials said yesterday.
Some U.S. analysts figure that as many
as 4,000 surface-to-air missiles once under the control of Saddam Hussein's
government remain unaccounted for. That would raise the number of such missiles
outside government hands worldwide to about 6,000. Full
Stor Neo-Con Agenda: Iran, China,
Russia, Latin America ... Washington - An influential
foreign-policy neo-conservative with longstanding ties to top hawks in the
administration of President George W Bush has laid out what he calls "a
checklist of the work the world will demand of this president and his
subordinates in a second term."
The list, which begins with the
destruction of Fallujah in Iraq and ends with the development of
"appropriate strategies" for dealing with threats posed by China,
Russia and "the emergence of a number of aggressively anti-American regimes
in Latin America," also calls for "regime change" in Iran and
North Korea. Full
Story >> The best hope of
preventing a civil war in Iraq and hampering the recruitment of terrorists is
reconstruction. But only a billion dollars of the $18.4 billion allocated
for reconstruction has been spent, and the administration plans to divert $3
Billion of the allocated money to security (which translates to Halliburton and
the military). Democratics and Republicans alike are offended by the
Bush's incompetence at managing the occupation.
USA
Today article>> In a National Intelligence
Assessment prepared for President Bush, several scenarios for the future of Iraq
were reviewed. The best case scenario was a "tenuous" stability. But
other case scenarios include civil war. And the best hope of preventing
such a civil war is Iraq reconstruction. But only a billion dollars of the
$18.4 billion allocated for reconstruction has been spent, and the
administration plans to divert $3 Billion of the allocated money to security
(which translates to Halliburton and the mIlitary).
Full NY Times article>>
Joseph C. Wilson IV was sent by our administration to South Africa to
investigate documents that claimed that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium.
Wilson's investigation revealed that these documents had been forged and this
was reported to the administration. When the president lied and said we
had this evidence, Wilson spoke out publicly. In retaliation, "an
administrative official" revealed the CIA status of his wife, endangering many
of her contacts abroad. Although Attorney General Ashcroft appears ready
to discard the constitution when it comes to dissenters, the administration
appears to have no trouble in applying it to protect a traitor in the White
House. WHY? WHO WOULD IT POINT TO?
Washington Post article>> When George Bush
proclaimed the the Taliban, Afghanistan's ruling party before the invasion, were
"illegal combatants" and not protected by the Geneva Convention, he sent a clear
message to Army and CIA intelligence which culminated in the torturing of
prisoners, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. (If the U.S. is invaded, I assume
that means that Republicans would be "illegal combatants")
MSNBC Article>> Read the independent report (PDF)
Suggest Recent
News Articles to Peacenetwork@ozarkpeace.net
Published: November 30, 2004 NY Times
by Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press Nov 17, 2004
Columbus, Ohio---Hour after hour the testimonies are the same: angry Ohioans
telling of vicious Republican manipulation and de facto intimidation that
disenfranchised tens of thousands and probably cost the Democrats the election.
READ
THE ARTICLE
By Dana Priest and Bradley Graham
The Washington Post, Sunday 07 November 2004
By Jim Lobe
Inter-Press Service, Friday 05 November 2004
REBUILDING
IRAQ:
OR MORE MONEY
FOR THE MILITARY & HALLIBURTON
September 15, 2004
The Future of
Iraq Looks Bleak:
National
Intelligence Estimates Show
September 15, 2004
SOMEONE IS
THE WHITE HOUSE HAS COMMITTED TREASON:
AND
CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS KEEP THEIR NAME FROM BEING REVEALED
September 15, 2004
JUSTIFYING
TORTURE:
AMERICA IS
ABOVE AN OBLIGATION TO COMPLY WITH THE GENEVA CONVENTION
August 25, 2004
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