As usual, the cold hard truth comes out: President Bush envisions a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to the one in South Korea where American forces have helped keep an uneasy peace for more than 50 years, the White House said Wednesday. These bastards must be tried and convicted for high crimes against the people of the United States of America. -Not so fast! The Ziocons and Mr. Bush will have to answer to the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine first. Next they will have to answer for their betrayal of the Constitution. The American people comes last because it is to a great extent responsible for the horrendous crimes of the Ziocons, because it was sleeping instead of protecting the Constitution of the United States of America.
New Peace Index Ranks US Among Worst Nations The People's Voice: Global Peace Index: Rankings

The Washington, DC, think-tank, The American Enterprise Institute, camouflages its purpose with its name. There is nothing American about AEI, and the organization’s enterprise is fomenting war in the Middle East against Israel’s enemies. Its real name should be The Likud Center for Middle East War. AEI has the largest collection of warmongers in America.

"In Goldman Sachs we trust," was the title of one of the chapters of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash, his account of the crooked dealings that triggered the great stock market bust of the 1920s. The People's Voice: Zoellick to be new World Bank chief

SEVEN NATO soldiers were killed when a helicopter came down in southern Afghanistan, the NATO-led force has said, after the Taliban claimed to have shot down the chopper. LA Times: 5 GIs among 7 dead in Afghan copter crash

The military did not indicate how the prisoner died. He is the fourth detainee to die of "apparent suicide" at the detention camp, which opened in January 2002 and holds about 380 foreign "terrorist suspects" on the US naval base in southeastern Cuba. Who knows what really happened? Maybe they just killed him because he knew too much, maybe some of their Mengele experiments failed...or maybe one of the soldiers went just a little too far..."The remains of the deceased detainee are being treated with the utmost respect. A cultural adviser is assisting the Joint Task Force to ensure that the remains are handled in a culturally sensitive and religiously appropriate manner," the Southern Command said. Their hypocrisy and dishonesty are beyond words! -You obviously have to be dead to make them talk like this. They certainly don't treat you with "the utmost respect" when you're caged like an animal in that godforsaken place!

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit Wednesday that accused a Boeing Co. subsidiary of helping the Central Intelligence Agency facilitate "the forced disappearance, torture and inhumane treatment" of three men the government suspected of terrorist involvement. "This is the first time we are accusing a blue-chip American company of profiting from torture," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said at a news conference in New York City. Denver Post: Jeppesen unit sued over alleged CIA torture flights

The Russian businessman accused of killing former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko here last year denied any involvement on Thursday and said that British intelligence was likely to blame for the murder, perhaps because Litvineko was working with British agents and talking too much to others about it. TimesOnline: British secret service involved in Litvinenko killing, says suspect BBC: Excerpts: Lugovoi news conference There's no way the Brits can win this game. -On level one, that is. And they know it. The reason they are making all this noise is that they have started a propaganda operation to convince the British public that their (minor) European nation has an enemy: the Russian bear, Ivan the Terrible -Putin, basically. They want the public to perceive him a cunning and evil bastard. The Great Menace. And tiny, plucky Albion is the only one capable of standing up to this enormous threat to the civilized world. -This would be ridiculous, if not for the fact that perception is everything. And perception can be managed. And they ARE managing it! Britain is on the fast track to fascism. People management under this scourge needs an enemy. There it is.

An all-but-declared candidate for months, Thompson will establish an official organization in the coming days to weigh a White House bid while launching a major fundraising drive next week. The 64-year-old Southerner would bring an overwhelmingly conservative record with a few digressions from GOP orthodoxy to a crowded Republican field. Thompson, best known as the gruff district attorney on NBC's drama "Law & Order" and a character actor in scores of movies, also would add star power to the presidential race.

The raid on the Finance Ministry in Baghdad by 40 policemen in 19 vehicles who calmly cordoned off the street in front of the building before abducting five Britons shows how little has changed in the Iraqi capital despite US reinforcements and a new insecurity plan. The militia activity is not despite the US troop surge. -Basically not even because of the surge. In fact, the increased militia activity is the surge. The troops are exhausted and have come up short in this hostile environment. The hired corporate killers from Blackwater etc. are taking over. Their cruelty and barbarity know no bounds. This is the true meaning of "the surge". WUFYS: Operation 'Targeted Killings': U.S. emulating controversial Israeli policy

In the blur of smoke and blood after a bomb blew up under his Humvee in Iraq, Sgt. Tawan Williamson looked down at his shredded leg and knew it couldn't be saved. His military career, though, pulled through. Less than a year after the attack, Williamson is running again with a high-tech prosthetic leg and plans to take up a new assignment, probably by the fall, as an Army job counselor and affirmative action officer in Okinawa, Japan.

A sharply divided UN Security Council voted Wednesday to establish an international criminal tribunal to prosecute the masterminds of the February 2005 bomb assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, and 22 others. The vote will lead to the first UN-backed criminal tribunal in the Middle East. Deseret News: U.N. approves tribunal in Lebanon slaying WikiPedia: Rafik Hariri Google Images: The Hariri Story

A military judge filed terrorism charges Wednesday against 20 suspected members of an Islamic militant group fighting Lebanese troops at a Palestinian refugee camp, court officials said. In Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested the U.S. was destabilizing the situation in Lebanon by shipping weapons to the army for its fight against the militants - drawing a pointed rebuke from queen bitch Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. WUFYS: Israel's House of Horrors AFP: Bush's New Middle East: In an interview on Democracy Now last week, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh stated that, Fatah al-Islam — the group of Sunni extremists inside the camp — were getting material support from the Saudis, the Bush administration and members of the Lebanese political establishment. It's hard to know what Bush hopes to accomplish by backing the bloody siege of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, but one thing is certain; things are never as they seem.

Declaring Gaza a hostile entity and an enemy state is a part of the new political plan which was presented by Israeli occupation Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday. The plan's main points include complete severance of ties with the Gaza Strip, isolating the Strip from the West Bank, bombing Gaza in retaliation of Qassam attacks, canceling Palestinian prisoners' visitation rights until captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released, and ending all contact with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In other words, "die Endlösung" (Endlösung der Judenfrage im 3. Reich) -the Nazi Final Solution. -This monster Lieberman is straight out of a horror movie. The People's Voice: A Jewish Hitler? --The rise of Avigdor Lieberman

The AMB, the armed wing of Fatah Movement, charged that the explosion was of a booby-trapped car left in the area by Israeli intelligence through local agents with the aim of assassinating one of its wanted commanders in the city, Sufian Kandil, who survived the attempt. The armed wing said that its reprisal to the Israeli crimes would be swift. IMEMC: Israeli army invades several villages near Jenin and kidnaps five Palestinians PCHR: Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory You Tube: Balata Camp (Nablus): Incursion May 24 (Video).

Just about everything that can be manufactured for the American market is now manufactured in China. There is no debate in the American Establishment: their wealth, and the financial health of the United States, is dependent on Chinese manufacturing.

Not content with its wide existing powers to keep information from public scrutiny, the government has been seeking ways to further emasculate and restrict the scope of the FoI legislation. A government that has flagrantly lied to the public in order to justify launching an illegal war of conquest in Iraq has much need of a “private space” where it can continue to hatch up further dirty deeds. AFP: The End of Liberty

The current polls indicate Rudy Giuliani is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. On September 10, 2001, the odds against such a situation were astronomical. New Yorkers were not unhappy about the prospect of Rudy leaving public service and it appeared that his political career was over. Haaretz: The Israel Factor You Tube: 911 WTC GIULIANI WARNED (Video).

Recent findings shed new light on the increasingly unequal terrain of American society. The new "top" involves pay in the hundreds of millions, a private jet and a few acres of Nantucket. The new bottom is slavery.

Many adults in the United States believe higher fuel costs will become a severe problem, according to a poll by Ipsos-Public Affairs released by the Associated Press. 68 per cent of respondents expect increases in the price of gasoline to cause financial hardship.

Election coverage is deplorably shallow: The media salivate over the Obama-Clinton rivalry just like they do over Paris and Nicole. Here's a look at the real news that's being overlooked in the process.

For millions around the world yoga is a source of relaxation and spiritual sustenance. Not so for the Indian Government, which has worked itself into a furious twist over efforts by American entrepreneurs – including an Indian-born celebrity “yogi” – to patent the ancient practice. Indian officials announced yesterday that they would lodge official complaints with US authorities over hundreds of yoga-related patents, copyrights and trademarks that have been issued in recent years. “How can you patent yoga – something that has been in the public domain for thousands of years?” said Verghese Samuel, joint secretary of the Ministry of Health department for yoga and other traditional practices. “It’s a ridiculous decision,” he told The Times. “We’ll have to challenge it. We’ve already started the process.” One is reminded of the great Native American Chief Seattle's thoughts: "How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?" We all know that the greedy governments in Washington didn't stop and ponder this timeless Native American wisdom. Now corporate America and the world's financial elite basically want to patent planet Earth itself and and all human activity. After Bhopal, the Indians have had enough of these ruthless and greedy globalists. They have a right to our support.

Increased military activity throughout Iraq has pushed U.S. troop deaths to their highest level for any two-month period of the war. Pentagon records show that 115 troops have been killed so far in May. That raises the total for the past two months to 219, exceeding the 215 who died in April and May of 2004, when U.S. forces fought insurgents in Fallujah. WaPo: 10 GIs Die in Iraq. Sarah Meyer: Iraq: Security Companies and Training Camps (Updated). Sarah generously contributed this link too: The Guardian: A multibillion dollar industry built on the most dangerous jobs in the world

As the Bush administration completes secret new rules governing interrogations, a group of experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques torture used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable. What a sneaky way to frame the question! -ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA etc. are neither "outmoded", "amateurish" nor "unreliable". They are all methods to reconstruct the minds of the victims, making them into superb false flag zombies used by "Israel" and the US for the purpose of STATE TERROR in the Middle East and elsewhere. Global Research: Bio-electromagnetic Weapons: The ultimate weapon. This article may also be of interest: "Al Gore and the Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy", Part 1 and Part 2

“Today in Israel, there is no effective barrier – not legal and certainly not ethical – that stands in the way of using torture." Those are the words of Hannah Friedman, director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

President George W Bush has chosen former US trade negotiator and diplomat Robert Zoellick to replace Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank president, news reports said Tuesday. Zoellick, an executive at Goldman Sachs Group, would take over for a five-year term if approved by the board of the 185-nation development lending agency, the Bloomberg financial news agency reported, citing a senior US administration official. Mail & Guardian: Bush picks Zoellick as new World Bank chief Why is it that it is always the US that decides this and why is it that these guys are always Zionists, peddling the NWO agenda? Another question: why is it that the mad people behind a mad president (?) should get to decide this important issue? But more importantly, Zoellick is a PNAC signatory: why is a war architect to replace a war architect at World Bank? (Thanx, Sarah!)

One of the world's most spectacular ice formations - the towering serac forest near Mount Everest's base camp - is rapidly shrinking as a result of global warming, Greenpeace said today. Before and after photographs released by the environmental group show how the past 40 years of climate change are transforming the Himalayan landscape as ancient glaciers melt and retreat higher up the slopes. You Tube: The Great Global Warming CO2 Swindle -Video. Watching this video, please keep in mind that the ongoing global warming in itself is not being questioned. -What is being questioned is the role of CO2 as a possible cause of the phenomenon, or the role of human agency, if you like.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, prominent neoconservative Norman Podhoretz writes that he 'hopes' and 'prays' that President Bush will bomb Iran. He wants the US to do this for Israel. Podhoretz is one of the Original 25 PNAC signatories. -You know, the war hawks that needed a Pearl Harbor type of event to launch their century of unrestrained imperial dominance and plunder...He says "I hope and pray that President Bush will do it." Significantly, he did not say he prayed to God -the reason being that Podhoretz is a firm believer in Lucifer. -Yes, it's THAT bad! It would seem that the latter gave Podhoretz his Iraq war. Now this Ziocon wants more. He wants the US to nuke Iran and to waste more American lives on the alter of his terrible "god". Are we going to let him? -Had enough of Podhoretz and his ilk? Well, go and do something about it!

This section lists the results of the analysis into each nation's peace. This is the prime table in the Global Peace Index section. The countries are ranked from most peaceful to least peaceful, highlighting their ranking as well as their score. You can click on a country to see the detail of its peace indicators and drivers. The US is way down on the list. "Israel" is 3rd from bottom. "Israel" will of course blame everyone else for this poor result, as will leaders in the US. -They will not even consider their own supremacist attitudes and their aggressive militarism. Heavens, no!

Few adults in the United States believe the rationale for the coalition effort was correct, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 61 per cent of respondents think the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, up 10 points since April.

The U.S. is building an embassy in the heart of Baghdad's embattled Green Zone that will be the largest embassy on the planet -- big enough to embody the Bush administration's vision of an American-reordered Middle East. Sarah Meyer: IRAQ: Green Zone Blowback: Index Timeline

As they read their dueling opinions from the Supreme Court bench Tuesday, Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave voice to the competing interests of employers and workers on the job Wednesday. Employers should not be forced to defend outdated policies that may have led to pay discrimination based on sex or race, Alito said as he spoke for the five-justice majority that ruled workers cannot sue for inequities triggered by management decisions in years past.

Sudanese Minister of Justice Mohammed Ali al-Maradi on Tuesday accused the U.S. administration of attempting to distract attentions by announcing new sanction measures against Sudan. "U.S. President George W. Bush is looking for scapegoat," the Sudanese minister told reporters, noting that the U.S. president was trying to get out of the stalemate in Iraq. Speaking of Iraq -who's going to sanction the US over the murder & mayhem in Iraq? AXcess News: US to sanction Sudan over Darfur violence The Independent: Bush tightens sanctions after Sudan rejects UN troops Seattle Times: Impact of Bush's Sudan sanctions doubted Monsters & Critics: US tightens Sudan sanctions over Darfur 'genocide' If Mr. Bush is so concerned about violence and genocide, why doesn't he stop arming the Fatah in Palestine and the Zionists in "Israel" and stop waging a genocidal war against the Iraqi and Afghan peoples? The obvious answer is that he is NOT concerned about violence and genocide. Could it be then, that there is something else in Sudan that he would be interested in? -Could it possibly be o-i-l?

I don’t get it. First you speak an important truth to the American people. Then you take it back. Why didn’t you stand your ground? I’m sure I’m only one of millions who felt heartened to hear the news that the former president, Jimmy Carter, had declared that, the Bush administration was the worst in American history in terms of international relations. But then, Mr. Carter, just a couple of days later there was the news that you’d backed down. Why?

Perhaps the best indication of the toothlessness and complicity of the new Democratic Congress is that President Bush, who between September 2001 and December 2006 used so-called “signing statements” and a bogus claim of extra-constitutional executive authority as commander in chief in time of war to invalidate 1200 laws or parts of laws passed by Congress, hasn’t issued a single one since January. The truth is, this Congress, elected by a public that made it clear it was sick and tired of the Iraq War, has really done little or nothing to challenge the president — not on global warming, not on the Iraq War, and not on his unilateral gutting of traditional and Constitutionally protected civil liberties.

Anne Lind, the chef of the foreign affairs department in the Swedish Scaliest party, the biggest political party in Sweden, stated on Wednesday during a meeting with Palestinian minister of information Dr. Mustafa Al Barghouthi that her party endorses and supports the Palestinian National unity government and all its ministers.

When Israel attacks, the Pentagon retreats. It was 40 years ago this June 8 that the USS Liberty – a large, armorless, refitted freighter that was gathering intelligence in the Mediterranean at the outset of the Six Day War – was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedoes. Thirty-four U.S. sailors were killed, and 172 were wounded. The Liberty limped back to Malta. The People's Voice: American Treachery in the Attack on the USS Liberty Much Deeper Than Previously Thought

A new study by Media Matters for America shows that when the topic is religion, the media looks disproportionately to hard-line right-wingers for comment.

The irony here is that many Black voters despise Fox, in particular its coverage of racial issues. Kucinich said: "... for Sens. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama to skip the debate simply because it was to be broadcast on Fox was a snub of the Congressional Black Caucus."

The United States is better prepared to deal with a major disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf region in 2005, but still lacks a formal structure for coordinating a national response, the head of the U.S. Coast Guard said on Tuesday.

A New Zealand mother who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after a utility company cut the power to her home because she owed them 168.40 New Zealand dollars (US$122; euro90), her family said Wednesday.
Police said they launched an investigation into the death of Folole Muliaga, 44, on Tuesday in the northern city of Auckland, which occurred less than two hours after state-owned company Mercury Energy cut power to her house. MSNBC: Woman on oxygen dies after power cut off

The war in Iraq has claimed another victim - leaving the US peace movement without one of its most inspir-ational voices. The activist Cindy Sheehan has announced she is standing down from her position as the "face" of the anti-war movement, citing her frustration with the apathy of the American public and the failure of the Democratic Party to do more to bring the troops home.

The Iraq war isn't over, but one thing's already clear: China won. As the United States has been bleeding popularity and influence around the world, China has been gaining both. Beijing has shown dictators that they don't have to choose between power and profit; they can have both. People in China are oppressed and their miserable lives in the labor gulag is the "secret" behind the recent economic progress. The Zioncons want this for people in the US.

Russia's first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, said the country had tested both a new multiple-warhead intercontinental missile, the RS-24, and an improved version of its short-range Iskander missile. He said the missiles were capable of destroying enemy systems and added: "As of today Russia has new missiles that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defence systems. In terms of defence and security, Russia can look calmly to the country's future."

Most cats do not like getting wet - as anyone who has tried to bathe a moggie will know. But as these pictures show, there's always the exception to the rule. For the cat in question is a large male white Bengal tiger called Odin. Six years old, and at the prime of his life, Odin lives at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Zoo in Vallejo, near San Francisco. He is about 10ft long from nose to tail, and is an excellent swimmer. White tigers - the colour is caused by an unusual genetic combination - are rare in the wild, although there are several dozen in zoos. Odin was hand-raised at the zoo. And after he was weaned, his British trainer Lee Munro discovered his remarkable skill: when a lump of meat was thrown into a pool of water, Odin would happily dive in after it.

New blog by Sarah Meyer: U.S. numbers of military deaths in Iraq receive a lot of attention. Unfortunately, other deaths in Iraq do not receive their due respect. But American public awareness of murder/death in Afghanistan is cloudy. Nor do people realise that foreign troops are as unwelcome in Afghanistan as they are in Iraq. This article is about some of those deaths in Afghanistan. Civilian deaths have recently infuriated the Afghan people. The Americans ‘pay off’ these deaths -as if money is compatible with and resolves grief.

Many Americans are dissatisfied with the performance of their federal lawmakers, according to three recent public opinion polls. 35 per cent of respondents to a survey by the New York Times and CBS News approve of the way Congress is handling its job, up one point in a month.

Robert Greenwald, the director of IRAQ FOR SALE, was invited to testify before Congress by Rep. Jim Moran. He prepared four minutes from the documentary to show. Republicans insisted this not be shown. You Tube: Mumia Abu-Jamal -- Memorials Of Madness! (Video)

Obviously, the Democratic Party has chosen to be an impotent, faux-opposition party in this bad theater they call "The Two Party System". We all see now that impeachment is indeed completely "off the table". So are a lot of things, like defunding the war, and giving any opposition at all to "Mr. 28 percent". Many of us have had a difficult time picturing how it's going to go in January of 2009. It's hard to imagine Bush and Cheney just walking away from their unpopular but apparently supernaturally powerful positions as the leaders of the Only Superpower On Earth. Well on May 9, Bush quietly signed a directive that may ensure that he and Tricky Dick II don't have to hand over the reigns. It's called the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive and provides Bush with everything he needs to provide "continuance" of, well, whatever he wants to "continue".

The U.S. has not had a serious political discussion about health care reform since the early 1990s, and the system is unraveling. In his latest book, Sick, Jonathan Cohn lays bare the consequences any one of us could suffer if we don't replace it.

Democrat Barack Obama is the top 2008 presidential contender in the United States, according to a poll by Zogby International. At least 46 per cent of respondents would support the Illinois senator in head-to-head contests against four prospective Republican nominees. HuffPo: Her Way: Hillary's Iraq Problem and Why It's Not Going Away WSWS: US big business funnels hundreds of millions into presidential campaigns

At the meeting, Crocker said the U.S. United States complained Iran was supporting Shiite militias in Iraq, that it has supplied armor-piercing explosives and other arms to groups in Iraq, and that at least some of those activities had been supported by the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. For its part, Iran asserted the American presence in Iraq is a threatening occupation on its doorstep and that the U.S. United States had inadequately supplied and supported Iraqi forces to address the militias and insurgency gripping the country. WaPo: U.S., Iran Open Dialogue On Iraq WSWS: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr makes bid for greater role in US-occupied Iraq Monsters & Critics: Iran-US talks end without breakthrough: Washington's ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who headed the US delegation, said following the discussions that the Iranian side did not respond to some of the raised issues, chief among them the US call that Tehran halt its alleged support to armed militias in Iraq. -Lori Price of CLG comments: Apparently, only foreign invaders - US terrorists - are allowed to arm Iraqis. The arms must be purchased from a US defense contractor.

It seems that the outcomes of Lebanon Second War are still looming over the Israeli political horizon and they are affecting their future. Voters of Israeli Labor party have said no for Amir Peretz who failed to conduct Lebanon war as a defense minister, as the Winograd Probe Committee found him inexperienced. WaPo: Peretz Ousted as Leader Of Israel's Labor Party