20050218
Iraqi Died While Hung From Wrists
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ats-ap_us11feb17,0,1140899.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines
This is how history will remember the United States.
Nation’s largest newspapers play down a thousand pages of evidence of new torture
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=96
The Washington Post, apparently jaded by month after month of reports of torture of Iraq, Afghan, and prisoners held by Americans in various other countries, relegated a thousand pages of new torture documents to page A-16 of Friday’s paper. That story, by R. Jeffrey Smith, is excerpted here. The New York Times also dumped the story deep into the A-section, with a meager 633 words.
'Nobody is talking' : The evidence of two new books demonstrates that 9/11 created the will for new, harsher interrogation techniques of foreign suspects by the US and led to the abuses in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1417225,00.html
The reason 'nobody was talking' was that the US was questioning (then torturing) the wrong people. The US tortured peopole to find Saddam's WMDs. The US tortured people to find the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. The US tortured people to find the connection between Saddam and 9-11. But now the US Government ADMITS thhat there were no WMDs in Iraq. There was no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam, and Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.
So, the US Government has beeen TORTURING INNOCENT PEOPLE; the very crime for which the Nazis are rightly reviled.
Army DocumentShow Abuse Photos Were Destroyed
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4503991
The papers include allegations of beatings and mock executions. According to an internal Army investigation report, photos taken of a mock execution were intentionally destroyed.
The scandals hitting the US army one after the other are not easy to forget at all. After the big scandal of Abu Ghrieb Prison pictures that showed the army of miracles and liberations torturing detainees in the worst systematic way anyone can imagine, now we have a new set of pictures published by US soldiers in Iraq.
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-us-scandle-new-dahmer-buffet.html
The new pictures are published on a website being used by American soldiers to post grisly pictures of Iraqi war dead.
In a case that echoes the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posed before cameras while threatening to shoot prisoners in the head, shoving a detainee into a wall and punching another inmate.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-abuse18feb18,0,6352698.story?coll=la-home-headline
In the newly disclosed case, the images are also said to show U.S. soldiers "hazing" fellow troops by dressing them up as detainees with their hands cuffed and sandbags over their heads, then dousing them with water and rolling them through mud. The soldiers said it was done to celebrate birthdays, promotions and New Year's.
Sex Assaults on Military Reported Abroad
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_re_us/military_sexual_assault_5
A victims support group said members of the military have reported 307 sexual assaults that took place while they were stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan or Bahrain.
Is Fabulous President George W. Bush a Fabulous Homosexual?
http://www.bettybowers.com/isbushgay.html
The President chuckled. "Well, you got a pretty face," he told the surprised Mr. Reid. He wasn't done. "You got a pretty face," he said again. "You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott anyway."
Underage Homo Prostitutes Return To The White House
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1385.htm
Memories Of Franklin Coverup As Jeff Gannon, Republican CIA Operative, Removed From White House Press Core Over Gay Porno Links
A gay prostitute, a phony media organization that managed to sneak its "reporter" into White House press briefings, and the lies that were fed to the media and the American people in the run-up to war with Iraq – what possible connection could these items have to one another?
http://antiwar.com/justin/
"This case is about much more than the outing of a CIA agent: It's about a cabal of ruthless liars who stopped at nothing – not even treason – to achieve their goals, and kept lying (and committing forgery) even after they were caught. It's about a bogus war fought on account of faked 'evidence.' It's about the hijacking of American foreign policy on behalf of interests that are neither American nor morally defensible."
It has been a mindboggling Orwellian week when a Capitol Hill/White House Press Corps that couldn't stop salivating 24/7 over a blow job dismisses a non-journalist getting access to CIA documents and questioning the President of the United States, while he moonlights as a gay military hooker, dismisses the story as nothing, even as untold numbers of questions are raised about the White House credentialing process, with enormous implications for potential lapses in national security.
http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/05/02/edi05029.html
Here was a shill for the White House literally sitting amongst the mainstream reporters. A faux reporter by day and gay prostitute for Marines by night. A man who passed White House security using a pseudonym. A man the White House Press Secretary says that he was aware was not using his real name. A man who had access to at least one confidential CIA memorandum. And that's only the beginning of the unfolding story. The latest is that Dana Milbank, one of the reporters at the Post, says he believes Gannon/Guckert had a "hard pass" (no pun intended), not a day pass, as Scott McClellan has assured everyone. Gannon/Guckert couldn't even get accredited by the Capitol Hill Press Corps, but he got to ask questions of the President of the United States, as Helen Thomas was banished to a back seat.
WHITE HOUSE SCRAMBLES TO EXPLAIN FAKE REPORTER IN ITS PRESS CORPS
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/18/0748/71841
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan stated that Guckert was granted access in part because he was affiliated with a news organization that "publishes regularly." But yesterday, bloggers discovered video footage suggesting this standard was not applied to Guckert. Video footage of a Feb. 28, 2003 White House press briefing shows Guckert, apparently unaffiliated with any news organization, asking former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer a question. It is unclear why Guckert was granted any pass at this time, since the Internet-based Talon News did not register its domain name until March 29, 2003.
Even Guckert's ties to several sex Web sites and allegations that he worked as a male prostitute should not necessarily keep him or any other reporter out, Fleischer said. "The last thing our nation needs is for anyone in the White House to concern themselves with the private lives of reporters," he said. "What right does the White House have to decide who gets to be a reporter based on private lives?"If allegations that Guckert ran Web ads offering his services as a male escort prove true, however, this would represent more than a “private life” issue.
http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000807754
Asked what he thought about the recent revelations about Guckert's past, Fleischer said only, "It is all a bit odd."
Guckert linked to male escort sites, Va. orgy party: sources
http://www.washblade.com/2005/2-18/news/national/reporter.cfm
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), wants to know of Guckert’s possible involvement in the leaking of a classified memo containing the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Gannon/Guckert reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html
How did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?
Bush's Iraq coalition shrinking
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/10936384.htmThe White House now does prefer to talk about a multinational force, an official there says, meaning countries with troops on the ground in Iraq.
Bush warns Europe of Islamic alliance
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12296059%5E2703,00.html
Sooooo, Bush starts invading Middle eastern nations left and right, supposedly with a "coalition of the willing" (in which Israel is blatently not listed) and this is a "good thing", but when the nations Bush is wrecking decide to band together in mutual defense, this is a "bad thing?"
Israel assures us that Saudi Arabis, Egypt, and Syria now have WMDs.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=53935
First, They Attack the Past
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/pilger.php?articleid=4871
And now Iran? The drumbeat has already begun. How many more innocent people have to die before those who filter the past and the present wake up to their moral responsibility to protect our memory and the lives of human beings?
Iran says a brief worldwide scare over a blast near its only nuclear reactor was engineered byWashington as part of "psychological warfare" against Tehran and its nuclear programme.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5545035
Israel, which like its U.S. ally accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear arms, said on Wednesday Iran was six monthsaway from having the knowledge to build a bomb.
'America would back Israel attack on Iran'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/18/wiran18.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/02/18/ixnewstop.html
Israel, meanwhile, has given warning about Iran's nuclear ambitions, saying that an Iranian bomb might be only six months away and that such a weapon would pose a grave risk to its security.
Allawi: Iraq must unify or face ‘disaster’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6989956/
Interim prime minister warns of Iranian influence
Assassinating Al-Hariri Fits Washington’s Plan
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Whitney0217.htm
To understand who assassinated Rafik al-Hariri we don’t need to look any further than the $1.5 billion US Embassy currently under construction in Baghdad. The new embassy, the largest of its kind in the world, will facilitate 1,800 employees and serve as the regional nerve center for American political and economic activity.
White House condemns "brutal ... murder" of Lebanese leader
http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=2944919
The spokesman calls the attack a "terrible reminder" of the need for the Lebanese people to create a future free from violence, intimidation and Syrian occupation.
U.S. mulls strikes on Syria
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050111-105709-6329r.htm
The White House did not return phone calls.
From Baghdad to Beirut
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB17Ak05.html
Blame it on Syria. Blame it on al-Qaeda. Better yet, blame it both on Syria and al-Qaeda. Without a shred of evidence - or perhaps profiting from "intelligence" amassed by the Pentagon, the Israeli Mossad, or both - the Bush administration immediately blamed Syria for the bombing that killed "Mr Beirut", former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. And Washington recalled its ambassador to Damascus, Margaret Scobey.
Lebanese Opposition Calls for an Uprising for Independence
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aLazzSV0JfyQ&refer=top_world_news
Syria has 13,000 soldiers in Lebanon.
Syria needs to stop being a sponsor of terrorist activities.
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050217/OPINION01/502170334/1014
The Bush administration previously has accused Syria of allowing Iraqi terrorists to use its territory to smuggle weapons and fighters into Iraq. In addition to the Iraqi terrorists, Syria also reportedly has sheltered Palestinians who are out to destroy Israel.
Bush Tells Syria to Withdraw From Lebanon
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7663471
Bush recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria this week in reaction to the bombing. At a news conference, he said he did not know who was behind the killing.
"I don't know yet, because the investigation is ongoing," he said. Syria has denied involvement.
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of explosions ripped through Baghdad and a nearby city Friday, killing at least 35 people and injuring dozens on the eve of Shiite Islam's most important holiday, officials said. It was the deadliest day since Iraq's landmark elections last month.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050218&cat=news&st=newsd88b48hg0&src=ap
Suicide bombers attacked two Shiite mosques in Baghdad as Friday prayers were ending, another explosion occurred near a Shiite religious procession and a third suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood.
Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7677234
Bush Lied , 1,474 U.S. Occupation Troops Died
U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals are not counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005.
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1390.htm
The educated rumor is that the actual death toll is in excess of 7,000.
Last October, the British medical journal Lancet published a study by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers alleging that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed since the war began in March 2003.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?bid=13&pid=2201
" The Pentagon keeps no comprehensive tally. US commanders don't usually report instances of collateral damage."
Ecstasy trials for combat stress
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares.
Wave Of Bombings Rocks Baghdad
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1280052.html
Withdrawal will break the nationalist insurgency
http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=1122
Iraqi withdrawal symptoms
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB19Ak03.html
At the moment some estimates indicate that Iraqi forces are outnumbered by the insurgents. Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst for the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), estimated the number of Iraqi troops able to stand alone at only 4,500, as Fred Kaplan pointed out in Slate.com. Estimates of the number of active insurgents are put by the US military at about 17,000.
Rumsfeld refuses to estimate size of insurgency in Iraq
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/17/rumsfeld.ap/
"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks."
Aliases: Usama Bin Muhammad Bin Ladin, Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin, the Prince, the Emir, Abu Abdallah, Mujahid Shaykh, Hajj, the Director
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
Bin Laden is the leader of a terrorist organization known as Al-Qaeda, "The Base". He is left-handed and walks with a cane.
It's been 1,250 days since G.W.B. said he'd catch U.B.L. 'Dead or Alive!'
http://www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/Osama_Clock.html
The Secret Service at Booker Elementary:The Dog That Did Not Bark
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/9-11secretservice.html
THE VIDEO THAT PROVES 9/11 WAS NOT A SURPRISE
It came as a big — and pleasant — surprise to me. In a chance conversation with a complete stranger at the car wash, I screwed up my courage and dared to say it."You know ... our own government was behind 9/11!" I held my breath. My eyebrows scrunched up in anticipation of some mindwashed backlash of preprogrammed patriotic outrage.
The guy turned slowly and looked me squarely in the eye. "I know," he said, his furrowed brow mirroring all the painful pathos that has hogtied all the hearts in America these past three years. I breathed a big sigh of relief. And then I pushed the envelope.
"And you know ... all those people dead in Iraq — thousands of Americans and a hundred thousand Iraqis — all because of lies." The old guy tugged on his frayed plaid cap and wheezed. "I know," he repeated, shuffling his feet, his body involuntarily twitching from the realization of his long-suppressed acknowledgement.
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1081395.htm
PENTAGON STARTS SPACE WAR TRAINING
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001384.html
According to a report from the Pentagon's testing and evaluation office, the Defense Department wants to "target an adversary's space capability by using a variety of permanent and/or reversible means to achieve five possible effects: deception, disruption, denial, degradation and destruction..."
Star Wars III to open Cannes
http://www.thisislondon.com/showbiz/articles/16697180?source=Daily%20Mail
Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth...
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html
"Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and possibly have triggered a mass extinction."
Is Dick Cheney Dead Yet?
http://www.isdickcheneydeadyet.com/ ¶ 18.2.05
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ats-ap_us11feb17,0,1140899.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines
This is how history will remember the United States.
Nation’s largest newspapers play down a thousand pages of evidence of new torture
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=96
The Washington Post, apparently jaded by month after month of reports of torture of Iraq, Afghan, and prisoners held by Americans in various other countries, relegated a thousand pages of new torture documents to page A-16 of Friday’s paper. That story, by R. Jeffrey Smith, is excerpted here. The New York Times also dumped the story deep into the A-section, with a meager 633 words.
'Nobody is talking' : The evidence of two new books demonstrates that 9/11 created the will for new, harsher interrogation techniques of foreign suspects by the US and led to the abuses in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1417225,00.html
The reason 'nobody was talking' was that the US was questioning (then torturing) the wrong people. The US tortured peopole to find Saddam's WMDs. The US tortured people to find the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. The US tortured people to find the connection between Saddam and 9-11. But now the US Government ADMITS thhat there were no WMDs in Iraq. There was no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam, and Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.
So, the US Government has beeen TORTURING INNOCENT PEOPLE; the very crime for which the Nazis are rightly reviled.
Army DocumentShow Abuse Photos Were Destroyed
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4503991
The papers include allegations of beatings and mock executions. According to an internal Army investigation report, photos taken of a mock execution were intentionally destroyed.
The scandals hitting the US army one after the other are not easy to forget at all. After the big scandal of Abu Ghrieb Prison pictures that showed the army of miracles and liberations torturing detainees in the worst systematic way anyone can imagine, now we have a new set of pictures published by US soldiers in Iraq.
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-us-scandle-new-dahmer-buffet.html
The new pictures are published on a website being used by American soldiers to post grisly pictures of Iraqi war dead.
In a case that echoes the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posed before cameras while threatening to shoot prisoners in the head, shoving a detainee into a wall and punching another inmate.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-abuse18feb18,0,6352698.story?coll=la-home-headline
In the newly disclosed case, the images are also said to show U.S. soldiers "hazing" fellow troops by dressing them up as detainees with their hands cuffed and sandbags over their heads, then dousing them with water and rolling them through mud. The soldiers said it was done to celebrate birthdays, promotions and New Year's.
Sex Assaults on Military Reported Abroad
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_re_us/military_sexual_assault_5
A victims support group said members of the military have reported 307 sexual assaults that took place while they were stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan or Bahrain.
Is Fabulous President George W. Bush a Fabulous Homosexual?
http://www.bettybowers.com/isbushgay.html
The President chuckled. "Well, you got a pretty face," he told the surprised Mr. Reid. He wasn't done. "You got a pretty face," he said again. "You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott anyway."
Underage Homo Prostitutes Return To The White House
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1385.htm
Memories Of Franklin Coverup As Jeff Gannon, Republican CIA Operative, Removed From White House Press Core Over Gay Porno Links
A gay prostitute, a phony media organization that managed to sneak its "reporter" into White House press briefings, and the lies that were fed to the media and the American people in the run-up to war with Iraq – what possible connection could these items have to one another?
http://antiwar.com/justin/
"This case is about much more than the outing of a CIA agent: It's about a cabal of ruthless liars who stopped at nothing – not even treason – to achieve their goals, and kept lying (and committing forgery) even after they were caught. It's about a bogus war fought on account of faked 'evidence.' It's about the hijacking of American foreign policy on behalf of interests that are neither American nor morally defensible."
It has been a mindboggling Orwellian week when a Capitol Hill/White House Press Corps that couldn't stop salivating 24/7 over a blow job dismisses a non-journalist getting access to CIA documents and questioning the President of the United States, while he moonlights as a gay military hooker, dismisses the story as nothing, even as untold numbers of questions are raised about the White House credentialing process, with enormous implications for potential lapses in national security.
http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/05/02/edi05029.html
Here was a shill for the White House literally sitting amongst the mainstream reporters. A faux reporter by day and gay prostitute for Marines by night. A man who passed White House security using a pseudonym. A man the White House Press Secretary says that he was aware was not using his real name. A man who had access to at least one confidential CIA memorandum. And that's only the beginning of the unfolding story. The latest is that Dana Milbank, one of the reporters at the Post, says he believes Gannon/Guckert had a "hard pass" (no pun intended), not a day pass, as Scott McClellan has assured everyone. Gannon/Guckert couldn't even get accredited by the Capitol Hill Press Corps, but he got to ask questions of the President of the United States, as Helen Thomas was banished to a back seat.
WHITE HOUSE SCRAMBLES TO EXPLAIN FAKE REPORTER IN ITS PRESS CORPS
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/18/0748/71841
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan stated that Guckert was granted access in part because he was affiliated with a news organization that "publishes regularly." But yesterday, bloggers discovered video footage suggesting this standard was not applied to Guckert. Video footage of a Feb. 28, 2003 White House press briefing shows Guckert, apparently unaffiliated with any news organization, asking former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer a question. It is unclear why Guckert was granted any pass at this time, since the Internet-based Talon News did not register its domain name until March 29, 2003.
Even Guckert's ties to several sex Web sites and allegations that he worked as a male prostitute should not necessarily keep him or any other reporter out, Fleischer said. "The last thing our nation needs is for anyone in the White House to concern themselves with the private lives of reporters," he said. "What right does the White House have to decide who gets to be a reporter based on private lives?"If allegations that Guckert ran Web ads offering his services as a male escort prove true, however, this would represent more than a “private life” issue.
http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000807754
Asked what he thought about the recent revelations about Guckert's past, Fleischer said only, "It is all a bit odd."
Guckert linked to male escort sites, Va. orgy party: sources
http://www.washblade.com/2005/2-18/news/national/reporter.cfm
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), wants to know of Guckert’s possible involvement in the leaking of a classified memo containing the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Gannon/Guckert reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html
How did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?
Bush's Iraq coalition shrinking
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/10936384.htmThe White House now does prefer to talk about a multinational force, an official there says, meaning countries with troops on the ground in Iraq.
Bush warns Europe of Islamic alliance
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12296059%5E2703,00.html
Sooooo, Bush starts invading Middle eastern nations left and right, supposedly with a "coalition of the willing" (in which Israel is blatently not listed) and this is a "good thing", but when the nations Bush is wrecking decide to band together in mutual defense, this is a "bad thing?"
Israel assures us that Saudi Arabis, Egypt, and Syria now have WMDs.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=53935
First, They Attack the Past
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/pilger.php?articleid=4871
And now Iran? The drumbeat has already begun. How many more innocent people have to die before those who filter the past and the present wake up to their moral responsibility to protect our memory and the lives of human beings?
Iran says a brief worldwide scare over a blast near its only nuclear reactor was engineered byWashington as part of "psychological warfare" against Tehran and its nuclear programme.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5545035
Israel, which like its U.S. ally accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear arms, said on Wednesday Iran was six monthsaway from having the knowledge to build a bomb.
'America would back Israel attack on Iran'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/18/wiran18.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/02/18/ixnewstop.html
Israel, meanwhile, has given warning about Iran's nuclear ambitions, saying that an Iranian bomb might be only six months away and that such a weapon would pose a grave risk to its security.
Allawi: Iraq must unify or face ‘disaster’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6989956/
Interim prime minister warns of Iranian influence
Assassinating Al-Hariri Fits Washington’s Plan
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Whitney0217.htm
To understand who assassinated Rafik al-Hariri we don’t need to look any further than the $1.5 billion US Embassy currently under construction in Baghdad. The new embassy, the largest of its kind in the world, will facilitate 1,800 employees and serve as the regional nerve center for American political and economic activity.
White House condemns "brutal ... murder" of Lebanese leader
http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=2944919
The spokesman calls the attack a "terrible reminder" of the need for the Lebanese people to create a future free from violence, intimidation and Syrian occupation.
U.S. mulls strikes on Syria
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050111-105709-6329r.htm
The White House did not return phone calls.
From Baghdad to Beirut
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB17Ak05.html
Blame it on Syria. Blame it on al-Qaeda. Better yet, blame it both on Syria and al-Qaeda. Without a shred of evidence - or perhaps profiting from "intelligence" amassed by the Pentagon, the Israeli Mossad, or both - the Bush administration immediately blamed Syria for the bombing that killed "Mr Beirut", former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. And Washington recalled its ambassador to Damascus, Margaret Scobey.
Lebanese Opposition Calls for an Uprising for Independence
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aLazzSV0JfyQ&refer=top_world_news
Syria has 13,000 soldiers in Lebanon.
Syria needs to stop being a sponsor of terrorist activities.
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050217/OPINION01/502170334/1014
The Bush administration previously has accused Syria of allowing Iraqi terrorists to use its territory to smuggle weapons and fighters into Iraq. In addition to the Iraqi terrorists, Syria also reportedly has sheltered Palestinians who are out to destroy Israel.
Bush Tells Syria to Withdraw From Lebanon
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7663471
Bush recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria this week in reaction to the bombing. At a news conference, he said he did not know who was behind the killing.
"I don't know yet, because the investigation is ongoing," he said. Syria has denied involvement.
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of explosions ripped through Baghdad and a nearby city Friday, killing at least 35 people and injuring dozens on the eve of Shiite Islam's most important holiday, officials said. It was the deadliest day since Iraq's landmark elections last month.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050218&cat=news&st=newsd88b48hg0&src=ap
Suicide bombers attacked two Shiite mosques in Baghdad as Friday prayers were ending, another explosion occurred near a Shiite religious procession and a third suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood.
Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7677234
Bush Lied , 1,474 U.S. Occupation Troops Died
U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals are not counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005.
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1390.htm
The educated rumor is that the actual death toll is in excess of 7,000.
Last October, the British medical journal Lancet published a study by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers alleging that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed since the war began in March 2003.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?bid=13&pid=2201
" The Pentagon keeps no comprehensive tally. US commanders don't usually report instances of collateral damage."
Ecstasy trials for combat stress
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares.
Wave Of Bombings Rocks Baghdad
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1280052.html
Withdrawal will break the nationalist insurgency
http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=1122
Iraqi withdrawal symptoms
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB19Ak03.html
At the moment some estimates indicate that Iraqi forces are outnumbered by the insurgents. Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst for the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), estimated the number of Iraqi troops able to stand alone at only 4,500, as Fred Kaplan pointed out in Slate.com. Estimates of the number of active insurgents are put by the US military at about 17,000.
Rumsfeld refuses to estimate size of insurgency in Iraq
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/17/rumsfeld.ap/
"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks."
Aliases: Usama Bin Muhammad Bin Ladin, Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin, the Prince, the Emir, Abu Abdallah, Mujahid Shaykh, Hajj, the Director
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
Bin Laden is the leader of a terrorist organization known as Al-Qaeda, "The Base". He is left-handed and walks with a cane.
It's been 1,250 days since G.W.B. said he'd catch U.B.L. 'Dead or Alive!'
http://www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/Osama_Clock.html
The Secret Service at Booker Elementary:The Dog That Did Not Bark
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/9-11secretservice.html
THE VIDEO THAT PROVES 9/11 WAS NOT A SURPRISE
It came as a big — and pleasant — surprise to me. In a chance conversation with a complete stranger at the car wash, I screwed up my courage and dared to say it."You know ... our own government was behind 9/11!" I held my breath. My eyebrows scrunched up in anticipation of some mindwashed backlash of preprogrammed patriotic outrage.
The guy turned slowly and looked me squarely in the eye. "I know," he said, his furrowed brow mirroring all the painful pathos that has hogtied all the hearts in America these past three years. I breathed a big sigh of relief. And then I pushed the envelope.
"And you know ... all those people dead in Iraq — thousands of Americans and a hundred thousand Iraqis — all because of lies." The old guy tugged on his frayed plaid cap and wheezed. "I know," he repeated, shuffling his feet, his body involuntarily twitching from the realization of his long-suppressed acknowledgement.
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1081395.htm
PENTAGON STARTS SPACE WAR TRAINING
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001384.html
According to a report from the Pentagon's testing and evaluation office, the Defense Department wants to "target an adversary's space capability by using a variety of permanent and/or reversible means to achieve five possible effects: deception, disruption, denial, degradation and destruction..."
Star Wars III to open Cannes
http://www.thisislondon.com/showbiz/articles/16697180?source=Daily%20Mail
Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth...
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html
"Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and possibly have triggered a mass extinction."
Is Dick Cheney Dead Yet?
http://www.isdickcheneydeadyet.com/ ¶ 18.2.05
