AS THE WORLD SQUIRMS

Sean Smith, the Guardian London’s award-winning war photographer, spent nearly six weeks with the 101st Division of the US army in Iraq. Watch his haunting observational film that explodes the myth around the claims that the Iraqis are preparing to take control of their own country.

~In other words…

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

~Joseph Goebbels

Adolph Hitler’s Propaganda Minister – Nazi Germany

‘The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.’

~George Orwell

News & Comment

Sunday: 118 Iraqis Killed, 62 Wounded; 7 GIs Killed

IRAQ :October Toll at 86 for US, Worst in A Year

Iraqis look at carnage left after suicide bomber detonated his vest Sunday evening in central Baghdad's Palestine street, Monday Oct. 23, 2006. Four people were killed and 20 injured in the blast. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

'Dynasty of Death' - Historic Perspective

on the Bush Family

There is no historic parallel that can be drawn, nothing compares with the accomplishments of the Bush family. No dictator or tyrant can equal the suffering and destruction they have wrought on humanity, as they are not mere tyrants themselves, but the makers and breakers of tyrants, the organizers and profiteers of war and death. They are not alone and solely responsible for creating the present day military industrial complex, however since 1915 the Bush family has been directly involved in World War One and Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, numerous CIA secret wars, the Gulf War, and now a “Never Ending War”. The past four generations of this one family have had a hand in promoting and profiting from most of major wars that America has waged since the beginning of the industrialized age.

· Russia to Israel: Using force against Iran could end in disaster: Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced any military operation against Iran in a meeting last week with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Putin told Olmert in the Moscow meeting that foiling Iran's nuclear program could end in disaster for the world. Russian sources attached great importance to the Russian president's first mention of a military option in talks with an Israeli leader.

· Bush Plots To Attack Iran – The Next War (Harper’s Magazine - by Daniel Ellsberg): A hidden crisis is under way. Many government insiders are aware of serious plans for war with Iran, but Congress and the public remain largely in the dark. The current situation is very like that of 1964, the year preceding our overt, open-ended escalation of the Vietnam War, and 2002, the year leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In both cases, if one or more conscientious insiders had closed the information gap with unauthorized disclosures to the public, a disastrous war might have been averted entirely.

· Alleged corrupt arms deals cost Iraq US$800M: Iraq's former finance minister alleged in a U.S. television report aired Sunday that up to US$800 million meant to equip the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals. The former minister Ali Allawi told "60 Minutes" that the arms fraud is "one of the biggest thefts in history" and that corrupt former Iraqi officials are now "running around the world hiding and scurrying around."

· What ‘Israel Lobby’? TIME MAGAZINE: Feds are investigating the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) following suspicions that AIPAC worked to ensure the reelection of Arch- Neocon Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman to the key House Intelligence Committee: The report, published Friday on Time's Internet news site, says that Harman, from California, and individuals from AIPAC, together with wealthy supporters, lobbied the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi to ensure Harman's reelection to the influential committee. Attempting to influence the outcome of the election of Congressional representatives to committees is a federal offense. Time, which said it based its report on sources in the administration, claimed that the FBI is also investigating if in exchange for AIPAC's support for Harman, the Congresswoman pledged to use her connections to ease the investigation of illegal activities against two then AIPAC staffers.

· They Lied About the Reasons for Going to War (FFF.ORG - by Jacob G. Hornberger): The circumstantial evidence with respect to the invasion of Iraq leads inexorably to but one conclusion: President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other U.S. officials lied about their reasons for invading Iraq. Those lies have profound consequences not only for the Iraqi people, who have borne the brunt of the invasion and subsequent occupation of their country, but also for the American people, including U.S. soldiers who have killed and maimed people whose government never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.

· Top US Diplomat: We Have Shown 'Arrogance and Stupidity' in Iraq: The United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq despite its good intentions, a senior U.S. diplomat said in an interview aired by an Arabic news channel on Sunday. "We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. State Department, told Al Jazeera.

· THE WAR PARTY ON CAMPUS - Lynne Cheney's Circles Call for the Mass Murder of Muslims (By Harley Schlanger): On Oct. 16, 2006, with the mid-term election less than three weeks away, and time slipping away for a Bush-Cheney Administration "October Surprise" military strike against Iran, a speaker told students at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) that a genocidal attack against Muslims was required to generate "a resurgence in the pride for Western civilization." In covering this speech, the Daily Bruin on Oct. 17 reported that the speaker, Dr. Yaron Brook, an ardent Zionist, former Israeli intelligence officer and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), warned that "Islamic totalitarian states pose a severe threat to the security of the United States," adding that a way to defeat these regimes "is to kill up to hundreds of thousands of their supporters." This, he said, would "shrink popular support for extremist ideas to a small minority of the population," instead of the 40% which he claims supports such regimes now.

An extraordinarily prescient TV interview with General Norman Schwarzkopf and Robert Gates - Deputy National Security Advisor to Former President George Bush Sr.

Why Invading Iraq Was A Very Stupid Idea…

(Click on blinking dot above for video)

“People should not be afraid of their government.

Governments should be afraid of their people.”