Link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/08/obama/index.html

Due process is seen as window dressing to enable to President to detain whoever he wants, for as long as he wants. Spencer Ackerman yesterday attended a Senate hearing at which the DOD's General Counsel, Jeh Johnson, testified. As Ackerman highlighted, Johnson actually said that even for those detainees to whom the Obama administration deigns to give a real trial in a real court, the President has the power to continue to imprison them indefinitely even if they are acquitted at their trial. About this assertion of "presidential post-acquittal detention power" -- an Orwellian term (and a Kafka-esque concept) that should send shivers down the spine of anyone who cares at all about the most basic liberties -- Ackerman wrote, with some understatement, that it "moved the Obama administration into new territory from a civil liberties perspective." Law professor Jonathan Turley was more blunt: "The Obama Administration continues its retention and expansion of abusive Bush policies — now clearly Obama policies on indefinite detention."

Link: http://colonelsabow.com/home.html

Decorated marine killed at home. Pentagon says "suicide," but guess who was about to expose deep-level govt. weapons and drug trafficking?

Link: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/08/iran-detainees-describe-beatings-pressure-confess

The Iranian authorities are using prolonged harsh interrogations, beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats of torture to extract false confessions from detainees arrested since the disputed June 12 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. The confessions appear designed to support unsubstantiated allegations by senior government officials that Iran's post-election protests, in which at least 20 people were killed, were supported by foreign powers and aimed at overthrowing the government.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/08/david-davis-torture-statement

Rangzieb Ahmed should have been arrested by the UK in 2006, but he was not. The authorities knew that he intended to travel to Pakistan, so they should have prevented that; instead, they suggested that the ISI arrest him. They knew that he would be tortured, and they arranged to construct a list of questions and supply it to the ISI.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNcCDVGtqNzSxz2aW8pMWFNMbJgAD99A9V5G0

British scientists claimed Wednesday to have created human sperm from stem cells but other experts questioned their data. Researchers at Newcastle University and the NorthEast England Stem Cell Institute say they used a new technique to derive what they described as sperm cells from embryonic stem cells. Stem cells have the potential to become any cell in the body. Newcastle research leader Karim Nayernia said in a statement Wednesday that the technique would allow researchers to study how sperm develops and possibly help develop treatments for infertile men. New Zealand Herald: A world without need for men. BBC: How to make human sperm in the lab (Video).

Link: http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/07/baghdad-is-victorious.html

Why were the USA and UK in Iraq? China has been granted a license to develop Iraq’s largest known oilfield. "The three largest Chinese oil companies are already gearing up to bid for 11 other oil and gas field contracts in Iraq that will be auctioned off later this year." Truthout: US Occupation of Iraq Continues Unabated: The US government has no intention of withdrawing from Iraq anytime soon. We have passed the June 30 deadline that, according to a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on November 17, 2008, was the date all US forces were to have been withdrawn from all of Iraq's cities. Today, however, there are at least 134,000 US soldiers in Iraq - a number barely lower than the number that were there in 2003. In addition, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified on June 9 that the United States would maintain an average of at least 100,000 troops in Iraq through fiscal year 2010.

Link: http://www.black-iris.com/2009/07/07/marwa-al-sherbini-killed-for-wearing-a-headscarf-but-at-what-point-do-we-say-enough/#more-2406

Marwa Al-Sherbini: Killed For Wearing A Headscarf But At What Point Do We Say “Enough”? The Guardian: The headscarf martyr: murder in German court sparks Egyptian fury: A man is found guilty of insulting and abusing a muslim woman by calling her a "terrorist" and an "Islamist whore". During an appeal court hearing, he stabs her 18 times to death. Her husband gets shot while trying to save her and it turns out that she was three months pregnant.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL8604925

"Let us be under no illusion," Bob Ainsworth, the third person to head the Ministry of Defence in the past nine months, told the Royal Institute for International Affairs. "The situation in Afghanistan is serious, and it is not yet decided. The way forward is hard and dangerous. More lives will be lost and our resolve is going to be tested." "We are engaged in a war against a dangerous and highly adaptable foe whose tactics and capabilities evolve as quickly as ours," he said.

Link: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m55764&hd=&size=1&l=e

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. American and British forces have jointly launched operations in Helmand province, south Afghanistan. This is in a time that during the past eighth years, never a day has passed or a night without Mujahideen sustaining great losses on the enemy. However, this time, they have resorted to launching vast operations. Yet it is but an effort in fiasco. Their advancement has been blocked and neutralized. They are just frustrating. This is not a mere claim made by us.

Link: http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/07/mckinney-kidnapping-ignored-by-media.html

Had it not been for twitter, I doubt that I would even have been aware that Cynthia McKinney was held hostage in Israel after attempting to deliver aid and supplies to the Palestinians. There has been a resounding silence on this issue as CNN, MSNBC and other mainstream media sources rush to give us the latest news on the death of Michael Jackson.

Link: http://www.garagetv.be/video-galerij/blancostemrecht/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle_Documentary_Film.aspx

The Great Global Warming Swindle is a documentary film that argues against the scientific consensus that global warming is "very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations". It has been described by both its original broadcaster Channel 4 and the British regulator Ofcom as "a polemic". The film, made by British television producer Martin Durkin, showcases scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and others who are skeptical about the scientific theory of anthropogenic global warming. The programs publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is "a lie" and "the biggest scam of modern times."

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/06/2617502.htm

The ABC's Middle East correspondent Anne Barker became caught in violent street protests involving ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem at the weekend. This is her graphic account of her ordeal. Jerusalem Post: "Come here you stupid nigger!"