Link: http://lukery.blogspot.com/2009/07/bombshell-bin-laden-worked-for-us-till.html

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript). In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11." These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These 'operations' involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner "as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict," that is, fighting 'enemies' via proxies.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/econ-j31.shtml

This week brought new indications that any economic “recovery” in the US will not be shared by the working class. Telecommunications giant Verizon announced that it would eliminate 8,000 jobs by the end of the year, new data showed that the foreclosure crisis is continuing to mount, and weekly initial jobless benefit claims rose. What is emerging is a protracted period of extremely high unemployment and growing social misery, which will be used to further slash wages, increase productivity and lower the standard of living and social position of the working class.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j31.shtml

At the start of this week, German-based Deutsche Bank announced a huge increase in its profits. The bank reported a net profit of €1.1 billion in the second quarter of this year, nearly doubling its earnings over the same period last year (€645 million). The massive increase in Deutsche Bank's profits follows record earnings for US-based Goldman Sachs. Two weeks ago, the US investment bank posted profits of $3.44 billion (€2.44 billion) in the three months to June.

Link: http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/31/lawmaker-dares-gop-to-repeal-medicare/

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), hoping to force the GOP to put up or shut up on health reform, introduced an amendment Thursday night that would have repealed medicare, thereby forcing Republicans to show their support for the largest form of government-run healthcare in the U.S

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/31-8

Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her that none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer. Now, on the eighth anniversary of the federal program created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program's top doctor says that McCabe, now 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected.

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMiQmByND.2A

The U.S. Defense Department wants to accelerate by three years the deployment of a 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb, a request that reflects growing unease over nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea. Comptroller Robert Hale, in a formal request to the four congressional defense committees earlier this month, asked permission to shift about $68 million in the Pentagon’s budget to this program to ensure the first four bombs could be mounted on stealthy B-2 bombers by July 2010.

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/31/un-civilian-deaths-soar-in-afghanistan/

US Air Strikes, Taliban Bombings Responsible for Most Killings. As the eight-year long Afghanistan War continues to escalate, civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of the attacks from both sides. A United Nations report today says that at least 1,013 civilians were killed in the first half of 2009, a 24% increase from the same period in 2008.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/31/warren-anderson-arrest-warrant

An New Delhi court issued a warrant today for the arrest of the former head of the American chemical company responsible for a gas leak that killed at least 10,000 people in Bhopal 25 years ago.

Link: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m56537&hd=&size=1&l=e

On Thursday, in a long-anticipated ruling (PDF), Judge Ellen Segan Huvelle granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohamed Jawad, an Afghan teenager seized after a grenade attack on a jeep containing two US soldiers and an Afghan translator in December 2002, and ordered the government to transfer him to the custody of the Afghan authorities, who have already stated that he will be released on arrival.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07312009.html

Time bombs tossed seemingly casually in the past month by his vice president and his secretary of state disclose president Obama, in the dawn of his first term, already the target of carefully meditated onslaughts by senior members of his own cabinet.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/world/141689/three_good_reasons_to_liquidate_our_empire_and_10_ways_to_do_it/

The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment will condemn the U.S. to a devastating trio of consequences. However ambitious President Barack Obama's domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/073109J

The health care debate ripped the bandage from a long-festering wound in the Democratic party this week, splitting the progressives and the conservative Blue Dogs in the House of Representatives. After drawing a line in the sand on Thursday, progressive forces altered the course of the legislation, restoring a key provision.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=11164

Despite its obvious benefits for our health and for the environment, organic food continues to be denigrated by the political and corporate establishment in Britain. The food industry, in alliance with pharmaceutical and big biotechnology companies, has waged a long, often cynical campaign to convince the public that mass-produced, chemically-assisted and intensively-farmed products are just as good as organic foods, despite mounting evidence to the contrary

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=11166

Former Kansas State Trooper Greg Evensen reports that there are plans for road-blocks to force vaccines with military personnel putting bracelets on people. Those who refuse to take the steel band with a microchip will be put on a prison bus and taken to a quarantine camp.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/31/exclusive_john_walker_lindhs_parents_discuss

In their first extended interview, the parents of John Walker Lindh, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, join us for the hour to tell their son’s story. He was born in Washington, DC in 1981. At the age of sixteen, he converted to Islam. In 1999, Lindh left the United States for Yemen to study Arabic and the Koran. He later traveled to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan, before 9/11, where he received military training from the US-backed, Taliban-run Afghan Army to fight against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan’s civil war. He was captured in late 2001, found emaciated and wounded, one of the few to survive a massacre by the Northern Alliance. To his parents’ relief, he was handed to US forces, but they brutalized him, as well. Donald Rumsfeld had ordered them to “take the gloves off.” He was designated Detainee 001 in the war on terror. When he returned to the United States in January 2002, he was being held as a prisoner accused of conspiring to kill Americans. As part of a plea deal, Lindh pleaded guilty to serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons and was given a twenty-year sentence.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14580

According to CNN, the Pentagon is "to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials." "The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command's Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary. As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.

Link: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/07/31/ziauddin-sardar-the-erasure-of-islam-introduction-by-gilad-atzmon/

After a decade of elaboration on Jewish ideology and identity I came to a conclusion that Jewish identity, politics and ideology can be grasped as different manifestations of ‘self love’. The Zionist loves himself being strong and crude (Sabra), the Jewish leftist loves himself being a ‘humanist’ and ‘tolerant’, yet, for some reason, he prefers to operate in ‘Jews only’ cells (Bund, Jews for Palestine, Jews for Peace, Jews against Zionism, etc.). It took me some years to gather that Jewish ideology, politics and identity is not just surrender to self-affection, it is also driven by resentment towards others.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/heal-j30.shtml

The closer key congressional committees come to approving health care proposals backed by the Obama administration, the more nakedly is revealed the reactionary and punitive character of the administration’s overhaul of the health care system. For weeks, three right-wing Democrats and three “moderate” Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have been meeting in secret sessions to hammer out the details of legislation now slated to come up for a vote sometime in September.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/coll-j30.shtml

In selecting Francis S. Collins as the director of the National Institutes of Health, President Obama has sent a clear political message that he is willing to subordinate scientific research to Christian fundamentalist dogma.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/30-0

Britons among the most enthusiastic about action to stop global warming, while Americans among least willing to put environment first, according to global A majority of peoples around the world want their governments to put action on climate change at the top of the political agenda, a new global public opinion poll suggests. Unfortunately for Barack Obama though, who has put energy reform at the top of his White House to-do list, Americans are not necessarily among them.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/30/afghanistan-british-soldier-joe-glenton

Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 July 2009 21.29 BST Article historyLance Corporal Joe Glenton, a soldier with the Royal Logistics Corps, has written to Gordon Brown explaining why he refuses to fight in Afghanistan. He spoke to Alexandra Topping. I was sent to Afghanistan in 2006 and from the start it was very challenging, it's a very hard place to be posted. There was so much confusion about why we were there, whether it was to get rid of the poppy fields, or for national security. It seemed to change all the time.

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23167.htm

An Unprecedented Network of Military Bases That is Still Expanding In December 2008, shortly before being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama pledged his belief that, "to ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad", it was vital to maintain "the strongest military on the planet". Unveiling his national security team, including George Bush's defence secretary, Robert Gates, he said: "We also agree the strength of our military has to be combined with the wisdom and force of diplomacy, and that we are going to be committed to rebuilding and restrengthening alliances around the world to advance American interests and American security."

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23162.htm

A senior American military adviser in Baghdad has concluded in an unusually blunt memo that the Iraqi forces suffer from deeply entrenched deficiencies but are now capable of protecting the Iraqi government, and that it is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.”

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/30/the_hell_of_war_comes_home

A startling two-part series published in the Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs titled “Casualties of War” examines a part of war seldom discussed by the media or government officials: the difficulty of returning to civilian life after being trained to be a killer. The story focuses on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. Soldiers from the brigade have have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, drunk driving, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. The Army unit’s murder rate is 114 times the rate for Colorado Springs. We speak with the reporter who broke the story and get the Army’s response. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/30/exclusive_ousted_honduran_president_manuel_zelaya

In a Democracy Now! national broadcast exclusive, ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya joins us from the Nicaragua-Honduras border for a wide-ranging interview on his attempts to return home, who’s behind the coup, the role of the United States, and much more. “I think the United States is going to lose a great deal of influence in Latin America if it does not turn the coup d’état around,” Zeleya says. “It will not be able to put forth its idea about democracy. It won’t be credible before anyone.” On his message to the Honduran people, Zelaya says they should “maintain their resistance against those who want to take their rights away…so that no one will be able to disrespect them, which is what the coup regime is doing today.” [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aIgUh3Tv5ycg

Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and seven other U.S. banks paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008 while receiving $175 billion in taxpayer funds, according to a report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. You are being robbed blind Americans, your country is being looted into destruction

Link: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7015948481#ixzz0MyGLpREb

Health insurer Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) will remain in the spotlight on Thursday in healthcare sector after the firm posted a 60 percent rise in profit in the second quarter that topped estimates.

Link: http://farmwars.info/?p=1314

The World Health Organization determined in 2005 it has the authority to dissolve sovereign governments and take control should there be a “pandemic”. This applies to any country signed onto WHO….which of course we are. The WHO just raised this non-existent pandemic to level 4.

Link: http://pulsemedia.org:80/2009/07/30/resigning-from-cohen-and-amnesty/

Renowned Irish composer and novelist Raymond Deane on the reasons why he has chosen to resign from Amnesty International. We encourage readers to follow Deane’s example. When I first – and belatedly – began fretting about human rights and political injustice in the wake of the 1990-91 Gulf War, I joined Amnesty International and started writing letters and cards to political prisoners and to a variety of Embassies.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20090729&articleId=14570

One of the great mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990’s in the USA and Argentina has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of GMO plants on humans or even rats. Now it has come to light the real reason. The GMO agribusiness companies like Monsanto, BASF, Pioneer, Syngenta and others prohibit independent research.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j29.shtml

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that a top Citigroup trader is demanding that the bank follow through on a 2009 pay package estimated at $100 million. Andrew J. Hall, who runs Citigroup’s energy trading division, has threatened to quit should the bank fail to honor his pay deal in full. According to the Journal, Hall, an energy speculator and top money-maker for the bank, received more than $100 million last year. Such nine-digit salaries exemplify the plundering of social resources that has become a hallmark of American capitalism and the American financial elite

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/29-2

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to reveal on Wednesday the Obama administration's domestic policies to prevent terrorist attacks, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday. In an interview, Napolitano said the new strategy is expected to rely largely on refining and expanding initiatives launched under former President George W. Bush, the paper reported on its website.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/29/honduras-coup-barack-obama

The United States must honour its promises to Central America by refusing to support the coup leaders in Honduras. Let's hope that the United States finally decides that it's going to do what its president said it would do for Central America. It should be a simple task, that of cutting off its support of the bad guys in Honduras and starting to honour the commitment to democracy that Barack Obama clearly announced when he met the leaders of Latin America at the Summit of the Americas.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/29/chavez-venezuela-freezes-ties-colombia

Hugo Chávez is freezing diplomatic relations with Venezuela Link to this video President Hugo Chávez has recalled Venezuela's ambassador from Colombia and frozen diplomatic relations in a row over weapons supplied to Colombian guerrillas. The leftist leader also threatened to seize Colombian-owned businesses in Venezuela and to cut trade worth $6bn (£4bn) between the Andean neighbours.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141627/how_corporate_media%2C_sellouts_in_congress_and_industry_bigs_have_hijacked_the_health_care_debate/

If you can frame the terms of a debate, you've gone a long way towards winning it before you've begun. Tragically, Republicans, the health care industry and business-friendly Blue Dog Democrats have largely been able to do exactly that, with a substantial assist from the corporate-owned media.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/07/29/illinois-axes-help-for-poor

THE "DOOMSDAY" budget didn't pass the Illinois legislature--but the cuts are devastating just the same. On July 16, legislators passed a state budget for fiscal year 2010. It didn't include the threatened 50 percent cuts in human services funding, so the people of Illinois are being told to breathe a sigh of relief.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/07/29/upside-down-priorities

The Obama administration came up with trillions for the banks--but it has turned its back on measures that would help workers. THE U.S. economy continues to stagger. Unemployment is at its highest levels since 1983. States from California to New York are slashing services, jobs and wages. Foreclosures will hit 3.2 million households this year, up from 3.1 million in 2008. And just 68 percent of the country's industrial capacity is in use, the lowest since records were first kept in 1967.

Link: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/In_Virginia_town_health_fair_tends__07292009.html

They came in their hundreds, America's uninsured and working poor, descending on this coal mining town in Virginia's southwest corner in search of the medical care they could not otherwise afford. Some slept overnight in their cars in the grass parking lot in front of the Wise fairgrounds, where some 1,700 medical professionals had set up dental chairs, mammogram stations, panoramic X-ray machines and more, ready to diagnose maladies, numb mouths, pull teeth and take pap smears for Americans down on their luck and battered by economic realities.

Link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4959.shtml

The politics of trashing the single-payer healthcare plan, or any healthcare plan for that matter from Obama, have to do with the Republicans humiliating him so badly that they can recapture their power. So it is in their best interest to invite the Harry and Louise TV commercials back (from the Clintons 1993 run at healthcare), plus a bevy of slime ads, pr types and lobbyists to spread panic plus disinformation and defamation re Obama’s original intention of Single-payer healthcare.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47864

David Cronin interviews European Commissioner for External Relations BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER - Israel enjoys closer relations with the European Union than almost any other foreign country - and work on deepening ties with Israel continues, even as its oppression of the Palestinian people worsens.