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By Emily Spence
According to Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda Bilmes, the Iraq War cost three trillion dollars. While much of the money used to conduct the war was borrowed (most notably from Chinese institutions), ultimately American taxpayers will be responsible for many years to come for footing the bill, including the high interest payments on the funds loaned. This is because the federal budget, especially between the military and big business bailout costs, far exceeded the annual and shrinking amount taken in by taxes.
Was it worth it? The answer partly depends on whether one works for or has holdings in one of the oil companies that made out well in the aftermath.
The final major prize in the war, southern Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field, was finally awarded on November third with mixed results from an American standpoint. This is because the only successful bidders for it were BP and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the second organization, it can be assumed, will primarily support Asian interests over ones favoring Western nations.
By Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah
There seems to be a perfect conformity between Gabi Ashkenazi and his last name. The Israeli chief of staff is considered one of the main Israeli war criminals responsible for the virtual genocide against the Gaza Strip during the past winter. On his murderous hands, he carries tons of innocent blood, including that of more than 340 children, killed in Israel’s pornographic bombing of civilian neighborhood.
Last week, Ashkenazi was quoted as saying that Israel was likely to wage another quasi holocaust on Gaza, adding that the Israeli occupation army would enter the innermost corners and streets of the coastal territory.
As a nefarious mass murderer, Ashkenazi, like the rest of Israeli war criminals, ought to be in the Hague preparing his defense against charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. After all the crimes he perpetrated put him on equal footing with Nazi war criminals who had stood trial for their own crimes against humanity during the Second World War.
Tommy Tucci
Thank you Italia for your conviction of 23 CIA agents exposing Perpetrators as Perpetrators. Once again Italia demonstrates that the rule of law still exists in the world. The very same laws that are the legacy of all Western culture and society handed down from c.149BC Roman Empire SPQR "The Senate and the People of Rome." Though the CIA agents convicted in absentia may not have to serve any prison time, the ruling could set a precedent that no government is above basic human rights and laws. The American government up to this conviction demonstrated that no law in existence applies to Americas imperial arrogant leadership..
VICTIM is PERPETRATOR PERPETRATOR is VICTIM
by Greg Palast
On September 11, 2001, my office building, the World Trade Center, was attacked by al Qaeda, a murder cult of Saudi Arabians, funded by Saudi Arabians. And so, in response to the Saudis' attack, America invaded ... Afghanistan. Like, HUH?
And here we go again. New York Times headline last Friday: "Pakistani Army, In Its Campaign In Taliban Stronghold, Finds A Hint Of 9/11."
Google it and you'll find the Times report repeated and amplified 5,785 times more.
Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.
Your eyelids are getting heavy. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.
It's the latest hit from the same crew that brought you Saddam = 9/11 and its twin chant, Saddam = WMD, Dick Cheney's chimerical tropes which the New York Times' Judith Miller happily channeled to the paper's front page.
And they're at it again.
Stephen Lendman
A personal note. This writer was stationed at Fort Hood in summer 1956, a quiet time, post-Korea and pre-Vietnam, when terrorism and Islamophbia weren't issues, and shooting only happened on firing ranges to learn and improve marksmanship.
On November 5, The New Times headlined, "Mass Shooting at Fort Hood, saying:
"the Army confirms that the gunman (thought to be killed) was Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Reports said 12 were dead (raised to 13, including one civilian) and 31 others wounded from an incident at the base Readiness Processing Center where troops prepare for deployment. Two other soldiers were detained as suspects. Another was believed at large. The shooting began about 1:30PM after which Fort Hood was locked down."
U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase
"WASHINGTON -- The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday.
"The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, puts him in stark opposition to the current American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops. New York Times, Nov. 11
This isn't just any envoy. General Karl Eikenberry has served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, the second as head of the Combined Forces Command. After the second Afghan tour, Eikenberry was Chairman of the NATO Joint Military Committee. He's a West Point graduate with advanced degrees from Harvard and Stanford and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
General McChrystal has asked for 50,000 troops in early October. By October 28, the president was said to favor a "McChrystal light" number as low as 15,000. On Nov. 7, just four days before Eikenberry's statement, McClatchy Newspapers put Obama's preferred number at 30,000. At this moment, the president is reported have rejected all of the troop increases on the table, according to Associated Press at 12:02 am EDT, today, November 12.
How did we get from McChrystal's request for 50,000 troops in early October to Eikenberry's "written reservations about deploying additional troops" just days before President Obama's planned decision?
by Stephen Lendman
On October 29, the Australian web site zik.com.ua reported that:
"Western Ukraine was hit by a severe epidemic of unidentified influenza, tentatively diagnosed by doctors as viral pneumonia. The number of dead has climbed dramatically. Doctors advise Western Ukrainians to stay home and use preventive medicine."
On October 30, Jane Burgermeister's theflu.com reported that:
"More than 30 people have died in the Ukraine as a result of a mysterious new virus that has an affinity for the lungs," according to Swiss reports. Ukraine's Health Ministry said the virus' origin is unknown and showed "no signs of mutating to become more virulent." So far, 40,000 people were reported sick and 951 hospitalized.
On October 30, healthfreedomalliance.org reported that Ukraine's Health Minister, Vasyl Knyazevych, said two laboratories diagnosed 11 of 33 samples tested as "highly influenza A/H1N1." As a result, he considered declaring a nationwide quarantine, even though western areas alone were affected.
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett Excerpted, edited with comment
Change that shortchanges the people of the United States is no change at all. Sleight of hand - wherever and however it occurs, whoever commits the maneuver - maintains the status quo, undermines progress, moves America backward.
Few Members of the U.S. Congress consistently get it right. This one does.
"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care.
"We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. We can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system...
By Khalid Amayreh, IOL Correspondent
Hundreds of children were killed in Israel's war on Gaza earlier this year.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – A Jewish rabbi has issued a book giving Jews permission to murder non-Jews, including babies and children, who may pose an actual or potential threat to Jews or Israel. "It is permissible to kill the Righteous among non-Jews even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation," Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement in the occupied West Bank, wrote in his book "The King's Torah."
Re-reporting, editing and comment by Carolyn Bennett
Violence as the core response should not shock but outrage. Compel human beings to launch and sustain movements of disarmament and nonproliferation, dialogue and nonviolence.
It is from public stages, temples and pulpits, mass media, propaganda mongers and arms merchants, private places of home that inculcate and sustain a character of and predilection for violence.
I. IRAQIS 'FOR SPORT'
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. PAUL ALVIN SLOUGH, NICHOLAS ABRAM SLATTEN, EVAN SHAWN LIBERTY, DUSTIN LAURENT HEARD, DONALD WAYNE BALL Defendants. (Cr. No. 08-360-RMU), IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, September 7, 2009 Evidence in the Shooting incident on September 16, 2007: Nisur Square traffic circle in the city of Baghdad, in the Republic of Iraq -
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