AUTHENTIC TEXT OF CHIEF SEATTLE'S TREATY ORATION 1854. Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons. The white chief says that Big Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him for we know he has little need of our friendship in return. His people are many. They are like the grass that covers vast prairies. My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume -- good, White Chief sends us word that he wishes to buy our land but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also, as we are no longer in need of an extensive country.

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? 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? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people."

Chief Seattle is widely known for having supposedly given a speech in which he lamented the destructiveness of the white people. However, while he did give a speech in 1854, in which he thanked the U.S. president for buying his land, the widely circulated 'speech' which exists in various versions is a work of fiction written in 1971 by screenwriter and professor of film Ted Perry for the script of an ecological film Home, produced for the Southern Baptist Convention's Radio and Television Commission.

We will not tolerate any testimony behind closed doors from subjects not placed "Under Oath". We will not tolerate the real and hard questions being dismissed for reasons of "National Security". We will not tolerate our freedom of speech being dismantled and ignored as not to "Disrespect the deceased". I'm baffled as well by the fact Bin Laden's crimes listed on the FBI's most wanted list DO NOT include those of 9/11. If you do not believe me, see for yourselves - http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm -As far as "Loose Change- Final Cut" is concerned, I await the newest version to be presented to me, at which point I will make my decision to participate (or not) based on the film's content and merit. You Tube: 911 The explosive reality -Video (Part 2)

For two years I have served at the University of Texas at Austin on the faculty committee on “academic freedom and responsibility,” a pairing of concepts that is common in higher education. While there is a fairly broad consensus on what “freedom” means, competing conceptions of “responsibility” lead to two very different ideas about the appropriate role for professors in public life. On one side is the conventional (which tends to be cowardly), and on the other is the principled (which tends to be progressive). Norman Finkelstein, the controversial DePaul University political scientist, is in trouble because he not only believes in, but puts into practice, this principled interpretation. The principled view is that faculty members -- who have an extraordinarily privileged position in society, being paid to learn and convey that learning to others, with considerable autonomy that is rare in this corporate-capitalist economy, at a more-than-livable wage -- have a responsibility to pursue research addressing relevant questions that are meaningful in the lives of real people, especially the most vulnerable struggling for justice. That kind of research is likely to lead to trouble (because it challenges the prerogatives of the powerful to rule as they please).

In recent weeks a considerable amount has been written and said about Norman Finkelstein's bid for tenure at DePaul University. As most academics are aware, it is unique for a tenure decision, something that is an inherently internal process, to be subject to external discussion. Unfortunately, Finkelstein's case is important because of the way in which is not unique. Forces outside DePaul have attempted to interfere with the University's process in an effort to sway its decision towards denial of Finkelstein's tenure. This campaign is part of a pattern of attacks aimed at silencing prominent critics of the Israeli government. The goal is to erode the willingness of academics, journalists, politicians and individuals to speak out against Israel's human rights record for fear of losing their jobs.

Bedawi is teeming with new arrivals from al-Bared where there is still no water, power or food. A few NGO's still negotiating with army for permission to enter. (Still possible to sneak in from the east but getting more dangerous to try it). The problem is not being shot by Fatah al-Islam anymore. They are digging in. And the army is not as trigger happy as on Monday-Wednesday. The "security agents" on the slopes above the army looking down into al-Baled are the main sniper danger. People claim they are Hariri militia but I can not confirm that. The army told the PLO they would stop them but as of Saturday night they are still shooting. They are trying to shoot anyone they see inside or leaving al-Balad. Someone should stop them.

Wearing a beat-up ratty UNCHR tee-shirt left over from Bint Jbeil and the Israeli-Hezbollah July probably helped. As did, I suspect, the Red Cross jersey, my black and white checkered kaffieyh and the Palestinian flag taped to my lapel as I joined a group of Palestinian aid workers and slipped into Nahr el-Bared trying not to look conspicuous.

Leader of Fatah Al-Islam “Alabsi” appeared on Aljazeera few minutes ago for the first time without mask and he accused a “third party” of waging this violence for political reasons. Interesting is that yesterday Almanar newspaper also said the same thing saying that militias working under Sa’ad harriri and Jeajea authorities are the one who slaughtered the Army at the first day of the violence, and the same thing was said by Lebanese president Lahood today on his interview with Aljazeera accusing Lebanese parties cooperating with Israel to start this violence.

Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba By David Ruppe. In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

A senior legal official who secretly warned the government of Israel after the Six Day War of 1967 that it would be illegal to build Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories has said, for the first time, that he still believes that he was right. The declaration by Theodor Meron, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal adviser at the time and today one of the world's leading international jurists, is a serious blow to Israel's persistent argument that the settlements do not violate international law, particularly as Israel prepares to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the war in June 1967.

The most surprising thing about the Bush Administration's plan to invade Iraq is not that it is destructive of international order; or wicked, when we consider the role the US (and Britain) have played, and continue to play, in the Middle East; or opposed by the great majority of the international community; or seemingly contrary to some of the basic needs of the war against terrorism. It is all of these things, but they are of no great concern to the hardline nationalists in the Administration. This group has suffered at least a temporary check as a result of the British insistence on UN involvement, and Saddam Hussein's agreement to weapons inspections. They are, however, still determined on war - and their power within the Administration and in the US security policy world means that they are very likely to get their way. Even the Washington Post has joined the radical rightist media in supporting war.

Comment: #460 The factors driving America into war go well beyond 24/7 yellow journalism, which can be thought of as a kind of neo-Goebbelian grease lubricating the forces pushing for war [see Comment #459]. This blaster presents a wider view by transmitting the views of a learned outsider.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." If neoconservatives have their way, Americans will soon be repeating this refrain. The identical lies used to deceive Americans about Iraq are now being recycled to justify invading Syria and Iran.

Claims of 9/11 conspiracy have suspect running scared. Former Denverite says 9/11 work has made him a target. A former Federal Emergency Management Agency videographer accused of killing his wife in Denver is seeking political asylum in Argentina, claiming the U.S. government wants him silenced for what he saw in the smoldering ruins of the Twin Towers after 9/11.

Kurt Sonnenfeld's efforts to avoid extradition have gained interest from human rights organizations in South America and broad attention from conspiracy theorists on the Internet.

Sonnenfeld, 44, is charged with first-degree murder in the New Year's Day 2002 shooting death of his 36-year-old wife, Nancy, at the couple's home in Congress Park. The case caused a sensation at the time, with friends describing Nancy as among the city's "beautiful people" and the two as "madly in love." The charges against Sonnenfeld were dismissed just before trial in June 2002 after a note written by Nancy Sonnenfeld was found that supported Kurt Sonnenfeld's contention that she took her own life. New charges were filed in 2004, however, after two Denver jail inmates came forward to say Sonnenfeld had confessed to them during his time in custody. By then, Sonnenfeld had remarried and was living in Argentina. He has been fighting extradition ever since, describing the warrants against him as "a false pretext for other darker motives."

To paraphrase the famous quip during the 1992 US Presidential debates, when an unknown William Jefferson Clinton told then-President George Herbert Walker Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid,” the present concern of the current Washington Administration over Darfur in southern Sudan is not, if we were to look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa. No. “It’s the oil, stupid.” Hereby hangs a tale of cynical dimension appropriate to a Washington Administration that has shown no regard for its own genocide in Iraq, when its control over major oil reserves is involved. What’s at stake in the battle for Darfur? Control over oil, lots and lots of oil.

Tegenlicht, a documentary program by the Dutch public broadcast organization VPRO, allows several interesting opinion makers to speak on the future of the American and Israel relationship and the reception of John Mearsheimers and Steve Walts article “The Israel Lobby and US foreign policy.” Includes interviews with John Mearsheimer, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, cofounder of the Christians United for Israel lobbying group John Hagee, neoconservative Richard Perle and historian Tony Judt express their views in Marije Meermans and William de Bruijns documentary.

Looks to me like the founding fathers were anti-Zionists by this account: In 1789, two years after the United States Constitution had been proclaimed, one of the founders of the US, Benjamin Franklin, warned the nobility of the Constituent Council when he said: "Don't think that America is safe from threats by merely gaining independence. It is still exposed to a grave danger that is no less perilous than colonialism itself. This threat will emerge this time from the Jewish augmentation in our country, and we will subsequently be affected in the same way the European countries were, namely those which tolerated the Jews in their endeavour to undermine the traditions of the indigenous population, demoralise their youths, control their economic, financial and security institution, and who had refused intermingling with the people they were living among."

This bibliography selects important articles that are freely available on the Internet, a requirement to be included in this article. Some of these articles are news reports without editorial comment. Others are analysis and comment, the viewpoint of each author is clearly stated. Underlying this presentation is the assumption that the invasion of Iraq was an horrific mistake, a cruel, self and other destructive war whose rationale was cynically based in false intelligence, deliberately created to mislead the American public, the United States Congress and designated allies. This reading material is selected to introduce the history of British and American oil interest in Mesopotamia, how these corporations function in terms of business protocols and legalities. In the case of Iraq, this latter item now has a complex relationship with current American energy and economic interests which have been articulated through an aggressive militaristic and self serving policy since the opening day of the Iraq invasion. It is no longer debatable that the American invasion of Iraq was pre-planned, a real war whose rationale was based in lies and deceit that was set to be activated when the appropriate context gave the President enough confidence to approach the American people. 9/11 provided that context.

The American confrontation with Iran is riddled with hypocrisy and fear, as United States militaristic imperialism applies itself to a presumed threat from Iranian nuclear weapons whose development, let alone deployment, is several years away. Yes, Iran has had a nuclear technology program for many years, often aided and abetted by Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan - remember that country's notorious renegade nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Kahn. However, there is very long distance to travel in order to develop, test and deploy nuclear weapons systems.

In politics, as in medicine, a cure based on a false diagnosis is almost always worthless, often worsening the condition that is supposed to be healed. The United States, today, suffers from a plethora of public ills. Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem.

According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released on April 26, 2007, some 78% of Americans believe their country to be headed in the wrong direction. Only 22% think the Bush administration's policies make sense, the lowest number on this question since October 1992, when George H. W. Bush was running for a second term -- and lost. What people don't agree on are the reasons for their doubts and, above all, what the remedy -- or remedies -- ought to be.

Paul Wolfowitz is and always will be the honest face of the World Bank. True, he may have been forced to resign his presidency for using his influence to post his girlfriend with Liz Cheney – that's right, the World Bank employee with whom Wolfowitz was intimate was delegated to "work" with the vice president's daughter in the U.S. State Department's office of nepotism and related affairs. But that bit of petty corruption only confirmed the extent to which he was World Bank material. And his eminent departure from one of the creepiest of global institutions will leave it without an appropriate creep-in-chief.

Professor Mahl's excellent monograph helps clear up a historical mystery. As everyone knows, Americans before Pearl Harbor opposed, in overwhelming numbers, entry into World War II. So much the worse for the American public, say some historians, such as the eminent Thomas Bailey. Roosevelt saw that the defeat of the Axis was necessary to save the world. Only American entry into the war could secure this goal. The President accordingly had to resort to deception to inveigle America into the conflict. While promising peace, he provokes war. Roosevelt's policy, it is claimed, was vindicated by the Allied defeat of Germany and Japan in 1945.

Fifty days before 9/11, Silverstein Properties and Frank Lowy's Westfield America secured 99-year leases on World Trade Center Buildings One, Two, Four and Five. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey turned control of the World Trade Center over to the private hands of Silverstein and Lowy on July 24, 2001. Lowy leased the shopping concourse called the Mall at the World Trade Center, which comprised about 427,000 square feet of retail space. Silverstein insured the complex for $3.55 billion, but after the attacks of September 11 lodged a claim for $7.1 billion on the premise that each plane collision constituted a separate act of terrorism, doubling the payout. We all know about "Lucky" Larry Silverstein's part in 9/11 and his dubious connections to Benyamin Netanyahu et al, and I plan to do a write-up on him later, but not much has been reported on Lowy, so let's have a look.

A Mossad surveillance team made quite a public spectacle of themselves on 9-11. The New York Times reported Thursday that a group of five men had set up video cameras aimed at the Twin Towers prior to the attack on Tuesday, and were seen congratulating one another afterwards. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park."

A new biography of former Israeli premier Shimon Peres reveals Israel and France once made a secret deal to produce a nuclear bomb together. The deal was later canceled, but the disclosure in the book by Israeli historian Michael Bar-Zohar the 500-page Shimon Peres - The Biography, sheds new light on the depth of France's involvement in making Israel the Middle East's sole nuclear-weapons possessing government. Bar-Zohar told Reuters his information came from recently released documents from Israeli and French government archives relating to the key role Peres, now 83, played in launching Israel's nuclear project more than half a century ago. Peres, a deputy premier in Israel's current government is best known abroad for sharing a Nobel peace prize for a 1993 interim peace deal with Palestinians which he engineered as a foreign minister.

Book says Shimon Peres played a key role in launching Israel's nuclear project more than half a century ago. Israel and France once made a secret deal to produce a nuclear bomb together, according to a new biography of Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres. The deal was later cancelled, but the disclosure in the book by Israeli historian Michael Bar-Zohar sheds new light on the depth of France's involvement in making Israel the Middle East's sole atomic power.

From Ohio and California to Scotland and France, the disputes surrounding electronic voting machines have gone truly global. E-voting machines have already been extensively studied and condemned by a wide range of expert committees, commissions and colleges, including the General Accountability Office, the Carter-Baker Commission, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, Stanford University and others. Rigging of a recount in Cleveland has resulted in two felony convictions. The failures of e-voting machines have been the subject of numerous documentary films, including the aptly titled HBO special "Hacking Democracy."

"Two types of machines were certified for use in France's election, both of which are of the paperless direct-recording electronic (DRE) variety now notorious (and hopefuly soon-to-be outlawed) in the States: an iVotronic model from American company ES&S, and another model from Dutch company Nedap." The following report published a week before the French presidential run-off elections on May 6 point to the use of e-voting machines in several French cities. The potential for electoral fraud in the run-off elections --in which Nicolas Sarkozy won with a four point margin-- cannot be dismissed and should be the object of an independent inquiry in the cities where e-voting was used.

Terrorism is a general term used to describe violence or other harmful acts carried out for achieving political ends. Most definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear or "terror," are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to an attack by a "madman"), and deliberately target "non-combatants." According to the United States Federal Criminal Code, Chapter 113B of Part I of Title 18, terrorism is defined as “activities that involve violent ... or life-threatening acts ... that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and ... appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and ... (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States ... [or] ... (C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States."

Alan, I will take each objection of yours in sequence: You cite the fact that I call for legislation as proof that the assault on democracy can't be as serious as I am arguing. I am sorry to say that the presence of legislative activity is by no means necessarily a sign of the health of a democracy or the absence of a fascist trend. On the contrary: parliamentary processes were central to both Mussolini's and Hitler's accession to power. Both leaders, of course, came to power legally. These two fascists overtook modern democratic societies by making direct and explicit use of the law, and of parliamentary processes to pervert and eventually subvert the law. Remember, Weimar Germany had a Constitution. Its own politicians weakened its own Constitution, making it much easier for the Nazis to come to power. Once empowered, the Nazis actually made using legislation to crush the German people into an art form.

"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth…. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not..? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know.. it — now." Patrick Henry, 1775.

In this era of perpetual warfare, escalating domestic tyranny, government-sanctioned torture, and a Nazi-like pursuit of Middle-East domination, one would expect, at the very least, an audible outcry from the People who proclaim resolute devotion to the ideals of liberty and justice for all. Yet for the most part, Mainstream America continues to assume a posture of apathy, bitterness, or eery silence.

When confronted with hard facts and scientific evidence linking key government officials to the attacks of 9/11, ostensibly intelligent, levelheaded people angrily and defiantly reject said information without a moment's deliberation. Sincerely compassionate and peace-loving individuals support the criminal invasion of Iraq and close their eyes to the U.S. slaughter of 600,000 Iraqi civilians, choosing instead to believe in the myth of American supremacy, at the heart of which lies the notion that foreigners alone are capable of such atrocities.

The US is fighting to water down a declaration on global warming being prepared for next month's G8 summit, it was reported today.

WASHINGTON — President Bush issued a formal national security directive Wednesday ordering agencies to prepare contingency plans for a surprise, "decapitating" attack on the federal government, and assigned responsibility for coordinating such plans to the White House.

The prospect of a nuclear bomb being detonated in Washington without warning, whether smuggled in by terrorists or a foreign government, has been cited by many security analysts as a rising concern since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The order makes explicit that the focus of federal worst-case planning involves a covert nuclear attack against the capital, in contrast with Cold War beliefs that a long-range strike would be preceded by a notice of minutes or hours as missiles were fueled and launched.

The Bush administration used the September 11 terrorist attack as an opportunity to implement a "shadow government," based on old plans prepared during the Cold War. More than 150 officials were initially evacuated by helicopter to different locations in mountainous regions of the eastern United States. In late October the temporary arrangement was made permanent, officially establishing the new regime. Since then Bush has added hand picked people from top levels of the civil service who will carry out his commands unquestioningly. Legal documents have been drafted to give these officials the full powers of government in the event of a catastrophe. ►Executive Order #11000: Authorizes the splitting up of family units

In a timely decision, Azerbaijan recently (mid-March) granted NATO the permission to use two of its military bases and an airport to "back up its peace-keeping operation in Afghanistan" including support for NATO's "supply route to Afghanistan". NATO's special envoy Robert Simmons insists that the agreement has nothing to do with US plans to wage aerial bombardments on Iran. Media sources in Baku have intimated that this timely agreement is directly related to ongoing US-Israeli-NATO war plans. Its timing coincides with US naval deployments and war games in the Persian Gulf.

Several ancient tribes inhabited the land of Azerbaijan, and some areas became known after these tribes: Caspian, Mannai, Media and Caucasian Albania. Some of the states that emerged in the area from the 3rd millennium BC were powerful and quite advanced, specially the Mannai and the Medes. The Medes invaded the kingdom of the Mannai in the Xth century BC. The Medes, an ancient Indo-European people, ancestors of the modern Kurds, eventually built their empire, Media, stretching as far west as Cappadocia. By the 8th century BC Media was raided and settled - but not defeated - by the Scynthians, coming from the banks of the Black sea. In 550 BC the king of the Medes, Astyages, was defeated and imprisoned by his grandson Cyrus II the Great, and the region was first integrated into the Persian empire. This mighty state reached from the Caspian to the Indian ocean.

The Talmud is Judaism's holiest book. Its authority takes precedence over the Old Testament in Judaism. Evidence of this may be found in the Talmud itself, Erubin 21b (Soncino edition): "My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah (Old Testament)." The supremacy of the Talmud over the Bible in the Israeli state may also be seen in the case of the Black Ethiopian Jews. Ethiopians have more knowledge of the Old Testament than the Israelis. However, their religion is so ancient it pre-dates the Scribes Talmud, of which they have no knowledge. The Scribes claim the Talmud is partly a collection of traditions Moses gave them in oral form. These had not yet been written down in Jesus' time. Christ condemned the traditions of the Mishnah (early Talmud) and those who taught it (Scribes and Pharisees), because it nullified Biblical teachings.

MANY people who are interested in the Jewish question are wont to ask whether or not there is anything in the Talmud which is not beautiful and sublime, and entirely removed from anything like hatred of Christians. The confusion of opinion about the matter is so great, that to listen to those who argue so wisely about it, you would think that they were discussing a very ancient and remote race of people, and not the people of Israel who live in our midst according to an unchanging moral code by which the religious and social life of the Jews has been regulated to this day. This being so, I have undertaken to show what the Talmud really teaches about Christians, and thus satisfy the wishes of those who desire to find out about this doctrine from genuine original sources.

US-backed Racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel is deliberately STARVING its conquered subjects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in gross violation of the Geneva Conventions - half of the victims are Children. Key quote: "One-third of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are food insecure, according to a report by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). About 34 percent of Palestinians cannot afford a balanced meal and another 12 percent are at risk of reaching this state, the organisations found in a Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment published this month. Most affected is the Gaza Strip, where 51 percent of the population suffers from food insecurity." Comment: this is the harsh reality of Bush-backed Racist Zionist anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the Holy land.

The American alleged noble goal of spreading freedom and democracy in the Arab World has been scandalously exposed when the American administration, who encouraged Palestinian election (declared by international observers to be free, honest and fair), has rejected the people’s choice, and is attempting to starve the whole nation as a punishment for exercising their democratic right.

On the third anniversary of America's invasion of Iraq broadcast in full shock and awe to the world via green TV screens that all might see the night devastation of the city, another invasion was underway in Gaza, a silent invasion of human rights that, in its barbarity, casts its own shock and awe, the starvation of the people of Gaza by closure of that prison's gates by Israeli IDF.

John Pilger is an award-winning journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, who began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia, before moving to London in the 1960s. He has been a foreign correspondent and a front-line war reporter, beginning with the Vietnam War in 1967. He is an impassioned critic of foreign military and economic adventures by Western governments. "It is too easy," Pilger says, "for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to 'our' interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present 'our' policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It's the journalist's job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society."

I mean we're just a peaceful nation right? The President tells us that it's because we're free...I submit that the 'real' reason makes a lot more sense! For over 100 years we've been 'intervening'...translation: murdering, people in this country and other countries all over the world !

In the media over the past four years, there have been nearly 1000 stories about US military brutality, atrocities, torture, sexual abuse, sexual perversion and massacres of Iraqi civilians.

These account for one hundredth (1/100th) of the truth of the matter.

Iraq is a prison and the US military, comprised of murderous, rampaging young men, contorted and demented by a war-hungry media, is the jailer.

Consider these stories then:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Pentagon survey of troops in Iraq found that only 40% of Marines and 55% of Army soldiers would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.

In the first internal military study of battlefield ethics in Iraq, officials said Friday they also found that only a third of Marines and roughly half of soldiers said they believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity.

The study also found that long and repeated deployments were increasing troop mental health problems. And it showed that more than 40% of Marines and soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the lives of troops.

The study was the fourth since 2003. Previous studies were more generally aimed at assessing the mental health and well-being of forces deployed in the war.

Fifty percent (50%) of US soldiers believe they should not treat non-combatant deaths with dignity. The media is re-wrapping the issue here by choosing carefully constructed words to pamper the American voter.

Her name was Margie Schoedinger. And she was, in fact, a real human being.

The following facts are her facts, not my own. The accusations are hers, not mine. I do not know the truth of them, but the fact of them is pretty damn...scary.

If you simply Google this woman's name, you will indeed instantly start getting a story about a woman who accused a sitting president of rape. In 2002 Shoedinger accused the sitting president G. W. Bush of rape. And much more.

These are the facts we know.

Someone tried kidnapping this woman. Her would-be kidnappers were foiled by a passing Highway Patrol, who broke up the melee, and for whatever reason, let them go after she vehemently told the officer they were "going to kill her" and she knew why.

Margie Shoedinger and many people in her family were brought into police custody for "vigorous questioning." After this she went public with rape allegations against GW Bush and filed four very interesting lawsuits.

Not one newspaper, not one tv news, not one cable news, not one radio program, not one tabloid in the US media reported it. It was as if a tree fell on us, and no one heard it.

In these lawsuits it openly speaks of a one million dollar settlement secured by her against GWB for damages. At this point, he had already paid her one million dollars. The settlement had been mitigated through attorneys. [I think he means "negotiated"? - HAC]

Four months after the accusations were filed in Fort Bend County Texas the USA invaded Iraq. Bush was ordered to come to court in Texas on rape charges.

Is it hyperbole to say that the Bush Administration has gone to war against journalists? Increasingly, this claim is a literal truth. Those who would dismiss the claim should contemplate some hard facts from the real battlefields of the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, over a hundred journalists have been killed – a multiple of the number who died in World War II – and a large part of that number fell to American arms. I don’t suggest that the U.S. soldiers intentionally targeted them; but it does appear that historical rules that shielded journalists on the battlefield have disappeared, and that this has led to deaths. And with respect to certain foreign press organizations, like al-Jazeera, intentional targeting is now documented.

Thousands of journalists have been arrested by U.S. forces, and a few hundred held for significant periods. Reports of beatings and abuse are fairly routine. Journalists who take pictures or shoot film that the Pentagon and White House don’t want seen on U.S. televisions suffer the worst – consider CBS cameraman Abdul Amir, held in prison for a year, or AP Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Bilal Hussein, now held for over a year – without charges.

In both Afghanistan and Iraq, journalists have had their photographs and film seized and destroyed by U.S. forces, acting on formal orders to interdict the transmission of film footage which would undermine the White House’s message.

Citing FBI abuses and the attorney general's troubles, senators peppered top justice and intelligence officials Tuesday with skeptical questions abo