http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606A.shtml
The Cunningham scandal set off alarms about the proliferation of Congressional earmarks -- money for pet projects inserted anonymously in spending bills -- which critics say pervert public policy, encourage cronyism and waste federal money. The 12,000 earmarks in this year's spending bills amount to $64 billion.
Baghdad's Chaos Undercuts Tack Pursued by US
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606B.shtml
The failure of the Iraqis to halt the slide into chaos in Baghdad undercuts the central premise of the American project here: that Iraqi forces can be trained and equipped to secure their own country, allowing the Americans to go home.
New York Times | A Timetable Isn't an Exit Strategy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606D.shtml
"The Iraqi government has not failed to develop adequate police and military forces of its own because it lacks the incentive. It has failed to do so because it is weak and divided, because its people are frightened and because the strongest leaders in the country are the men who control sectarian militias." Editors at the New York Times write, "A phased withdrawal by itself would simply leave the American soldiers who remain behind in graver danger, and hasten what looks like an inevitable descent into civil war."
A Shorter Vacation for Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606E.shtml
This parched Texas cattle town, population 705, has been a haven for President Bush every August, an escape from the buttoned-down confines of Washington. Here, Mr. Bush can clear brush, ride his mountain bike along scrubby trails, curl up with a book or kick up his feet for an afternoon siesta. But this year reality - in the form of the November midterm elections, the peace activist Cindy Sheehan and the legacy of Hurricane Katrina - has intruded on the president's summer vacation, cutting short his time at his 1,600-acre ranch.
Dahr Jamail | A City Lives On With Its Ill-Fated Charm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606F.shtml
"The poster on the corniche near the American University campus in Beirut has become justly well known. It shows a Muslim woman in full black abaya walking next to a slender woman in a bikini. Together," writes Dahr Jamail, "they're the face of Beirut."
US Activists, Iraqi Lawmakers Demand US Troop Withdrawal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606G.shtml
"Peace mom" Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden and 13 other US activists on Saturday joined Iraqi lawmakers in demanding a timetable be fixed for withdrawing US troops from Iraq.
Tom Engelhardt | Hiroshima Story
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606H.shtml
Tom Engelhardt writes, "Even though we promptly dubbed the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York City "Ground Zero" - once a term reserved for an atomic blast - Americans have never really come to grips either with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the nuclear age they ushered in."
Turse and Nelson | Vietnam: The War Crimes Files
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080606Y.shtml
"Just then, the voice of a lieutenant crackled across the radio. He reported that he had rounded up 19 civilians, and wanted to know what to do with them." Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson write, "Henry later recalled the company commander's response: Kill anything that moves."
Lyndon LaRouche PAC
Who Is Behind World War III?
http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/writings_files/2006/060802_behind_ww3.htm
Democratic Party statesman Lyndon LaRouche has written a document on the growing threat that the Israeli bombing and invasion of Lebanon is meant to provoke a much wider war, "a form of World War III characterized by nuclear-weapons-enhanced global asymmetric warfare." He addresses the key to stopping this crisis - identifying who is behind World War III and why they are doing it.
LaRouche writes, "The present homicidal madness currently spreading throughout Southwest Asia, is an expression of the strategic intention of the supranational financier-oligarchical interests typified in the U.S.A. by the corrupting influence of Felix Rohatyn over the Congress. The enemy is not a nation, not any nation. The enemy is the evil force of principalities and powers, for which the typical expression is the case of the bankers behind Schacht and Hitler, and their descendants, as typified by Rohatyn today."
LaRouche's document also describes the role he has played since at least 1971, acting in the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, as the hated adversary of these supranational financier-oligarchical interests. Read this document and two supplementary documents, under New Postings below, to understand what evil the world faces and how we must arouse Americans to defeat that evil.
New Postings on the Website: (These are really good articles!)Stop Being a Dupe! Know Your Actual Enemy
http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/writings_files/2006/060723_actual_enemy.htm
Fact Sheet: The Enemy Is Oligarchism
http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/otherartic_files/2006/060727_oligarchism.htm
In South Lebanon, a Fierce Fight for Every Yard
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506B.shtml
Qalaouay, Lebanon was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas Friday. As it was Thursday. And as it was the day before, along a rugged ribbon of southern Lebanon where the front has often moved by yards rather than miles, a grinding war of attrition that UN officials say may remain unresolved before a truce takes hold.
Clinton Dodges Political Peril for War Vote
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506C.shtml
Unlike Mr. Lieberman, who has long resisted turning against the war or President Bush's handling of it, Mrs. Clinton has consistently tried to distance herself from her initial vote without repudiating it, becoming increasingly critical of Mr. Bush's management of the war. Thursday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Mrs. Clinton bluntly and publicly castigated Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the war.
Anti-War Protests Erupt Across the Muslim World
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506D.shtml
Mass protests have erupted across much of the Muslim world against the war in Lebanon, prompting louder and more desperate calls for a cease-fire from governments fearful of a popular backlash. Meanwhile, the largest peace march since before the Iraq invasion is expected to descend upon Downing Street today demanding calls for an unconditional cease-fire in the Middle East.
Missy Comley Beattie | One Year After the Death of Chase Comley
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506E.shtml
"This weekend marks the first anniversary of my nephew's death in Iraq. August 6, 2005, is the date Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Comley was killed instantly by a vehicle-borne IED. My brother, Chase's father, received the news just after midnight, early on the 7th. 'We regret to inform you.' These are the words that shifted the earth's plates," writes Missy Comley Beattie.
E.J. Dionne Jr. | Curtains for Conservatism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506F.shtml
"Is conservatism finished?" asks E.J. Dionne Jr. "The question is being asked - mostly quietly but occasionally publicly - by conservatives themselves as they survey the wreckage of their hopes, and as their champions in the Republican Party use any means necessary to survive this fall's elections."
Fuel Efficiency Driving Toyota Profits
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506G.shtml
Toyota's reputation for fuel efficient cars was proving a boon at a time when drivers are balking at soaring gas prices, analysts said. Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second biggest automaker, is among a clutch of Japanese vehicle companies reporting robust results lately in contrast to the plight of the US automakers.
FOCUS | 40,000 US Troops Have Deserted Since 2000
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506X.shtml
Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted. Those who help war resisters say desertion is more prevalent than the military has admitted. "They lied in Vietnam with the amount of opposition to the war and they're lying now," said Eric Seitz, an attorney who represents Army Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the war in Iraq.
FOCUS | Iran Says Oil May Hit $100/Barrel
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080506Z.shtml
Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said on Friday global crude oil prices could touch $100 a barrel on geopolitical tension and soaring winter demand.
Media uncritically reported Rumsfeld's claim he "never painted a rosy picture" about Iraq war
Numerous media outlets failed to challenge Donald Rumsfeld's claim to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that he had "never painted a rosy picture" about the Iraq war, despite Sen. Clinton's proffer of specific instances in which she claimed he did just that. Read more
Moments after noting both Bushes "led wars in the Gulf," Gibson criticized Henican for bringing up Iraq
As John Gibson introduced a segment comparing the Middle East policies of the two Bush presidencies, he noted that both Bushes "led wars in the Gulf." But when Newsday columnist Ellis Henican tried to contrast "the allies we had in the Iraq war the first time" under George H.W. Bush with George W. Bush's approach to the current Iraq war, Gibson criticized Henican for "always want[ing] to go back to that Iraq war." Read more
Hannity: Despite both believing in global warming threat, "Al Gore is unhinged," but Pat Robertson is "sane"
On Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity declared that although "Al Gore is unhinged" because he is warning of the threat posed by global warming, Pat Robertson is "sane" despite having announced that the recent record-breaking heat "is making a convert out of me" on global warming. Read more
O'Reilly: Rape, murder victim was "wearing a miniskirt and a halter top. ... [E]very predator in the world is gonna pick that up at 2 in the morning"
While discussing the recent rape and murder of 18-year-old Jennifer Moore during the August 2 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly appeared to suggest that the clothing she was wearing at the time helped incite her killer. O'Reilly discussed several factors that contributed to the "moronic" girl's rape and murder, including that she was drunk and wandering the streets of New York City alone late at night. But in addition to those factors, O'Reilly added: "She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at 2 in the morning." Read more
Boortz read Media Matters reader comments aloud while again smearing adult minimum-wage earners
On his radio show, before reading comments from a Media Matters for America item that documented his August 3 remarks describing adult minimum-wage earners as "incompetent," "ignorant," "stupid," "worthless," and "pathetic," Neal Boortz again smeared them, calling adult minimum-wage earners "100 percent pure unadulterated loser[s]." Read more
US-Israeli war aim is to annihilate Lebanon
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/leba-a05.shtml
Iraq faces civil war and sectarian partition
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/iraq-a05.shtml
US minimum wage remains at $5.15 an hour
Failed Republican bill tied increase to inheritance tax cuts
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/wage-a05.shtml
German government expands political espionage powers
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/germ-a05.shtml
John Conyers | The Constitution in Crisis
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406R.shtml
Congressman John Conyers released the final version of his report today, the "Constitution in Crisis." The report, which is some 350 pages in length and is supported by more than 1,400 footnotes, compiles the accumulated evidence that the Bush administration has thumbed its nose at our nation's laws, and the Constitution itself.
Lamont Widens Lead Over Lieberman In New Poll
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406S.shtml
Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, riding strong anti-war sentiment, has surged to a significant lead over embattled Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) heading into Tuesday's Senate primary.
Six Marines Charged in Iraq Assault Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406T.shtml
Six US Marines were charged with assault late on Thursday in connection with suspected assaults on several Iraqi civilians in Hamdania, days before the alleged kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian there.
Group Sues EPA Over Beach Pollution
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406EA.shtml
An environmental group has sued federal regulators, charging that they failed to protect beaches and the Great Lakes from pollution and that negligence by the Bush administration exposed swimmers and surfers to potential illnesses.
Sea Urchins Dying off California Coast
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406EB.shtml
Hundreds of dead or dying purple sea urchins have washed up into tide pools at a Southern California marine refuge center in recent days, but no one is certain what is killing them.
World Must Race to Develop Green Energy
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406EC.shtml
An urgent project on the scale of the Apollo moon landings is needed to boost research into green energy sources and save the planet from environmental disaster, according to Britain's top scientist.
EPA to Ban One Pesticide, Lets 32 Others Stay in Use
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406HA.shtml
Nearing the end of a 10-year review of all pesticides, the US Environmental Protection Agency plans to ban a farm chemical that has tainted water and proved deadly to birds, but the agency approved continued use of 32 other widely used insecticides.
Wal-Mart Under Union Fire as Election Nears
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406LA.shtml
Wal-Mart's record on wages and health care benefits is emerging as an issue in the US November mid-term elections, driven in part by a union-backed campaign aimed at mobilizing public opposition to the retailer.
AOL Plans to Cut 5,000 Jobs, Some in Virginia
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406LB.shtml
AOL said yesterday it planned to lay off more than a quarter of its workforce - including hundreds of employees in Northern Virginia - over the next six months as the company restructures its business to focus on online advertising instead of dial-up subscriptions.
Plan B Decision Made Before Data Review: FDA Staff
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080406WA.shtml
The decision whether the US Food and Drug Administration should approve wider access to a morning-after contraceptive drug was made well before agency scientists finished their final review, two FDA officials said in court documents released on Thursday.
Stirling Newberry | The Revolution Is Not Being Televised
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406A.shtml
"The new politics has consistently selected politicians of a particular type, with a particular personality. The type is not the true outsider who comes in with completely radical notions about the system but, instead, the intellectual maverick who has risen within the system and who has succeeded by 'thinking outside the box,'" writes Stirling Newberry.
Specter's NSA Plan Hits Snag
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406B.shtml
Specter's White House-endorsed plan to formally legalize the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program ran into more political problems yesterday in the Senate as Democrats successfully maneuvered to block a committee vote on the proposal.
Traumatized and Afraid - 300,000 Children Want to Go Home
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406C.shtml
"I don't want to die. I want to go to school," says Jamal, a four-year-old Lebanese boy scarred by the Israeli bombing of his country. Home for Jamal is now a "displacement center" in the southern town of Jezzine, where his family fled in fear for their lives.
Gun Battles Erupt in Mosul in Northern Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406D.shtml
Heavily armed militants fought gun battles with US and Iraqi troops in the restive northern city of Mosul on Friday where four policemen, including a top officer, and four insurgents were reported killed.
Military Waste in Our Drinking Water
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406E.shtml
Today the US military generates over one-third of our nation's toxic waste, which it disposes of very poorly. The military is one of the most widespread violators of environmental laws. People made ill by this toxic waste are, in effect, victims of war. But they are rarely acknowledged as such.
Paul Rogat Loeb | War at Home: The Seattle Shooting
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406F.shtml
Paul Rogat Loeb writes, "No moral argument can justify the Seattle shootings. Suicide bombings and the firing of rockets at civilian populations in Israel are equally contemptuous of innocent lives. But the question isn't about justifications. It's how to stop future violence."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Murtha Tells the Truth on Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406G.shtml
"Rep. John Murtha recently attracted considerable attention, and the wrath of the Bush administration, by expressing the opinion that it is past time to put forward a plan for US withdrawal from Iraq. Mr. Murtha is in an especially good position to make such a judgment based on his distinguished service as a Marine and on his many years with the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out.
Gay Marriage: One Year Later
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406H.shtml
Canada's small social revolution has allowed gays to fulfill themselves more, but some mentalities are slow to change.
21 Killed by Suicide Bomber in Afghan South
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406I.shtml
A suicide bomber detonated his car in the market of a southern Afghan town Thursday, killing 21 civilians and wounding 13, officials said. It was the deadliest attack to date in a wave of violence accompanying the NATO alliance's takeover of military operations from a US-led force in southern Afghanistan.
VIDEO | misc. Video news from truthout
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
Cindy Sheehan | Troops Home Fast: Day 32, Amman, Jordan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406J.shtml
"The most horrifying testimony of the day was when we met with 'Dr. Nada,' an Iraqi doctor who stayed in Baghdad to help her people during the sanctions and the invasion," writes Cindy Sheehan. "Dr. Nada told us about seven harrowing days she spent working in an emergency room in Baghdad between April 2 and April 9 in 2003. She said that over 100 casualties PER HOUR were coming through her hospital alone and that many died because they could not be helped in time."
Congressmen Question Oil Windfall
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406K.shtml
Two congressmen said Thursday that someone at the Interior Department may have deliberately removed provisions from offshore drilling contracts, giving oil companies a multibillion-dollar windfall.
US Generals: Iraq on Verge of Civil War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406L.shtml
Two senior American military commanders said today that the wave of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq has heightened the danger that the country will slide into all-out civil war.
Democrats Defeat GOP Estate Tax Cut
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406M.shtml
Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bid to combine a tax cut for the wealthy with a wage increase for the working poor last night, adding a volatile economic issue to this fall's Congressional campaigns.
Robert C. Koehler | Blowback From a Bad War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406N.shtml
"And where is it that the Vice Lords meet the Aryan Nation? Why, in Baghdad, of course - where, in one of the less obvious unanticipated consequences of W's disastrous war, potential domestic terrorists and 'army of one' nutjobs are getting top-notch weapons instruction and plenty of target practice. It's sure to come in handy when they get home," writes Robert C. Koehler.
Senator Clinton Says Rumsfeld Should Resign
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406O.shtml
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she said was a "failed policy" in Iraq.
Agony of New Orleans, Through Spike Lee's Eyes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406P.shtml
From the beginning, Spike Lee knew that Hurricane Katrina was a story he had to tell. Watching the first television images of floating bodies and of desperate people, mostly black, stranded on rooftops, he quickly realized he was witnessing a major historical moment. As those moments kept coming, he spent almost a year capturing the hurricane's sorrowful consequences for a four-hour documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," to be shown on HBO this month.
O'Reilly repeated false claim that NY Times editorial board has sat out current Middle East conflict, baselessly alleged Times is "losing readers all over the place"
On his radio program, Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that The New York Times has "sat .. out editorially" the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It was the third time in recent weeks that O'Reilly has made this claim. In fact, the Times has published seven editorials on the topic. O'Reilly also baselessly claimed that the Times is "losing readers all over the place"; the most recent data available show that the paper's circulation increased during the six months ending in March. Read more
Coulter put "even money" on Sen. Clinton "[c]oming out of the closet"
In her August 2 nationally syndicated column, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter suggested that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is gay: "I'd say that's about even money" on Sen. Clinton "[c]oming out of the closet" in 2008. Coulter's column consisted largely of questions and answers she claimed "were left out of a Baltimore Sun article due to length." The July 30 Sun interview with Coulter can be read here. Read more
Media Matters applies Bozellian logic: Since GOP readers outnumber Dems, online newspapers must be conservative
L. Brent Bozell III used data from a new study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press to suggest that programs such as PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Comedy Central's The Daily Show "can be identified as liberal since they are so passionately embraced by the Left." By that logic, online newspapers must be conservative, since the study found that Republican readers outnumber Democrats. Read more
Boortz: Adults earning minimum wage are "incompetent", "ignorant", "stupid", "worthless," and "pathetic"
Neal Boortz asked his audience, "[H]ow incompetent, how ignorant, how worthless is an adult that can't earn more than the minimum wage?" Boortz also falsely claimed that "most of the people that earn [the] minimum wage are teenagers." Read more
ABC, Wash. Post advanced misleading arguments against minimum-wage boost, obscured Democratic support for wage increase
ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper and Washington Post staff writer Jeffrey Birnbaum both uncritically reported conservatives' argument that a minimum-wage increase will eliminate existing jobs and discourage the creation of new ones. However, several studies show that minimum-wage increases do not hurt employment. Read more
NPR's
Morning Edition uncritically reported Arkansas lawmaker's claim that
"over 10,000" studies show gay parents are "problematic for the
child"
On National Public Radio's Morning Edition, reporter
Jacqueline Froelich failed to challenge Arkansas Republican state Sen. Jim
Holt's assertion that "there are thousands of studies, actually ... over 10,000"
that show "the homosexual family or the environment is problematic for the
child." Froelich did not address Holt's dubious figure of 10,000 studies, which
would be possible only if a new study reaching that conclusion had been released
every day for the past 27 years. Froelich also did not mention that numerous
scientific studies show just the opposite of Holt's assertion. Read
more
Human Rights Watch catalogues Israeli war crimes in Lebanon
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/hrwa-a04.shtml
Germany
joins US, British, Israeli axis of aggression
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/germ-a04.shtml
NOW | Reporters vs. the White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306T.shtml
Is
the press failing its responsibility to the truth? This time on
NOW.
Tribes Call for Removal of Dams That Block Journey of Salmon
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306EA.shtml
Native
American tribes along the Klamath River rallied in Portland on Wednesday for the
removal of four hydroelectric dams that block salmon from spawning in their
historic habitat upriver. The tribes said they intend to pressure the governors
of Oregon and California to help push for removal of the dams.
Health
Worries Over Bay Pollution
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306HA.shtml
Dirty
water and contaminated fish in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries pose a
public health threat, but spotty monitoring and tourism industry worries could
block the public from learning the full picture.
An Estate Tax Twist
Reverses Party Roles on Minimum Wage
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306LA.shtml
For
years, organized labor has worked hard to raise the minimum wage, while business
groups have campaigned to block such a change. This week in the Senate, however,
the AFL-CIO is pushing to kill the wage increase while practically the entire
business lobby is demanding that it pass.
Tipped Workers Would Fall
Through Proposed Wage Floor
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306LB.shtml
A
bill approved last week in the House of Representatives promises to raise the
federal minimum wage, but one obscure provision has some worried that the
purported wage hike actually amounts to a back door pay cut for millions of
low-income workers.
Iranian Woman Awaits Stoning Decision
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306WA.shtml
The
chief of Iran's judiciary is to decide whether to have a woman stoned to death
for adultery, in a case which has outraged human rights activists around the
world.
Top Military Lawyers Oppose Plan for Special Courts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306A.shtml
The
military's top uniformed lawyers, appearing at a Senate hearing yesterday,
criticized key provisions of a proposed new US plan for special military courts,
affirming that they did not see eye to eye with the senior Bush administration
political appointees who developed the plan and presented it to them last
week.
Administration, Congress Eye "Liberation" of Cuba
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306B.shtml
The
White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro's illness, prepared
Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that
would give millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic
change.
Human Rights Watch: Israel Guilty of War Crimes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306C.shtml
Human
Rights Watch, after extensive investigation, has concluded that the Israeli
military is guilty of war crimes.
Judith Coburn | How Not to Vietnamize
Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306D.shtml
Comparing
"Vietnamization" to "Iraqification," Judith Coburn writes: "One of the great,
failed, unspeakably cynical, blood-drenched policies of the Vietnam era, whose
carnage I witnessed as a reporter in Cambodia and Vietnam, was being dusted off
for our latest disaster of an imperial war. Some kind of brutal regression was
upon us. It was the return of the repressed or reverse evolution."
John
R. MacArthur | The American Raj Requires Instability
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306E.shtml
Following
the thread of "instability" in the Middle East, John R. MacArthur begins: "If
you're having trouble understanding why America has been sitting on its hands
while Israel devastates Lebanon and Hezbollah fires missiles at Haifa, I refer
you to the fall of 1990, when American diplomacy attained a new level of
cynicism in its dealings with the Arab world."
Rumsfeld Testifies to Senate About Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306G.shtml
Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld late Wednesday reversed a decision to skip a public
hearing on Capitol Hill and said he will testify at a session on the Iraq
war.
Jean Daniel | Israel in Iran's Trap
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306H.shtml
Jean
Daniel deems that Israel - spurred on by the US - has fallen into Iran's trap
and succeeded in uniting Shiite and Sunni so that the only chance for a durable
peace is now a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East.
Bill Moyers:
Faith & Reason | Pema Chodron
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306I.shtml
In
Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason, Pema Chodron, whose teachings and writings on
meditation have helped make Buddhism accessible to a broad Western audience,
talks about how her own spiritual search led her to become a Buddhist
nun.
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C.
20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
Claims vs. Facts on Qana
Today, the Washington Post ran an op-ed
headlined "The Rules of War," by
Moshe Yaalon, former chief of staff of the
Israel Defense Forces and now
a distinguished military fellow at the
Washington Institute for Near
East Policy.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201517.html>
Yaalon was head of Israeli army intelligence when Israel bombed a
civilian shelter in Qana in 1996. A civil suit in the United States,
charging him with war crimes, is pending.
Yesterday, Human Rights
Watch issued a report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's
Indiscriminate Attacks
Against Civilians in Lebanon," based on their
investigations in Lebanon.
<http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/>
The
following are quotes taken from each:
Yaalon: "Hoping to retain its high
moral standards in the face of such a
cynical enemy, Israel has made every
effort to avoid harming civilians.”
HRW: "In some cases, the timing and
intensity of the attack, the absence
of a military target, as well as return
strikes on rescuers, suggest
that Israeli forces deliberately targeted
civilians."
Yaalon: "It is clear to any objective observer that Hezbollah
is using
Lebanese civilians as human shields. It builds its headquarters in
densely populated areas, embeds its fighters in towns and villages, and
deliberately places missiles in private homes, even constructing
additions to existing structures specifically to house missile
launchers."
HRW: "Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah
deliberately
used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF
attack."
Yaalon: "But at Qana, Hezbollah responded to Israel's compassion
with
more cynical brutality. After launching missiles at Israel, the
terrorists rushed inside a building. When Israel fired a
precision-guided missile to strike at the terrorists, scores of
civilians, including children, were killed."
HRW: "Human Rights Watch
researchers visited Qana on July 31, the day
after the attack, and did not
find any destroyed military equipment in
or near the home. None of the
dozens of international journalists,
rescue workers, and international
observers who visited Qana on July 30
and 31 reported seeing any evidence of
Hezbollah military presence in or
around the home around the time that it
was hit. Rescue workers
recovered no bodies of apparent Hezbollah fighters
from in or near the
building."
The following are available for
interviews:
PETER BOUCKAERT, 011-961-701-57318, bouckap@hrw.org
NADIM HOURY,
011-961-363-9244, houryn@hrw.org
Bouckaert is head of the emergencies division of Human Rights Watch.
Houry
is Lebanon researcher for the group.
NOURA ERAKAT, (202) 332-0994, cell:
(510) 847-4239,
legal@endtheoccupation.org, http://www.endtheoccupation.org
Erakat is grassroots national organizer and legal advocate at the
U.S.
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. She has been working with
the Center
for Constitutional Rights as well as Qana survivors.
She said today:
"Moshe Yaalon is currently facing a civil suit for
war crimes in U.S.
federal court because evidence suggests that the 1996
Israeli shelling of a
UN compound in Qana that killed 106 civilians was
deliberate and not an
accident as he has claimed. He has asserted that
civilian deaths are to be
blamed on Hezbollah despite a 1996 UN
investigation that found, ‘the pattern
of impacts is inconsistent with a
normal overshooting of the declared target
by a few rounds.’ The UN
investigation and the report on which it was based
were never released
due to intense political pressure from the U.S. and
Israel."
The legal complaint can be found at [PDF]
<http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/human_rights/docs/Complaint_Qana.pdf>
and <http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1199>.
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