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Trenchant Political Comment, Videos and More…

 

~Note: Articles & commentaries contained herein may have hotlinks, emphasis and formatting added to afford an additional perspective.~

 

March 12, 2007

 

 

Beyond Quagmire

Leaving Iraq – The Grim Truth

Rolling Stone Magazine

Panel Discussion

3.12.07

The Rolling Stone Panel

Zbigniew Brzezinski
National security adviser to President Carter

Richard Clarke
Counterterrorism czar from 1992 to 2003

Nir Rosen
Author of In the Belly of the Green Bird, about Iraq’s spiral into civil war, speaking from Cairo, where he has been interviewing Iraqi refugees

Gen. Tony McPeak (retired)
Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War

Bob Graham
Former chair, Senate Intelligence Committee

Chas Freeman
Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War; president of the Middle East Policy Council

Paul Pillar
Former lead counterterrorism analyst for the CIA

Michael Scheuer
Former chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit; author of Imperial Hubris

Juan Cole
Professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Michigan

 

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News & Views

·        Sunday Attacks Leave 76 Iraqis, 3 GIs Dead, 71 Iraqis Wounded

·        More US troops for Iraq, Afghanistan

·        MILITARISM: America Leads the World (Editorial, Charleston Gazette)

·        American Foreign Policy: 60 Years of Faulty Logic (by James Carroll, The Boston Globe)

·        Olmert 'planned Lebanon war before soldiers' kidnap' (Independent, UK) Ehud Olmert's decision to go to war in Lebanon in response to abductions of soldiers was taken as early as March 2006, according to a leak of his evidence to the commission investigating the war. The report means that the military strategy was decided more than three months before it was triggered by Hizbollah's abductions of two soldiers on Israel's northern border in July. Israeli officials said this was broadly in line with what the Prime Minister has already told the cabinet.

·        Military action against Iran would backfire on Israel, report warns (Independent, UK) Military action against Iran would backfire against Israel, which in turn would face "dire and far-reaching" consequences, a leading British foreign policy think-tank believes. Chatham House says in a report that it is "widely assumed" that preparations are "well under way" in both America and Israel for military action against targets related to Iran's nuclear programme. The report by Yossi Mekelberg examines the possible responses by Iran, which may retaliate with massive ballistic missile attacks on Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv or Haifa, resulting in "substantial loss of life".

·        Jews share blame for suffering: Winston Churchill (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia) The article begins with reference to persecution of Jews over the centuries and refers to a new wave of anti-Semitism across Europe and the US. "It would be easy to ascribe it to the wickedness of the persecutors, but that does not fit all the facts," it reads. "It exists even in lands, like Great Britain and the United States, where Jew and Gentile are equal in the eyes of the law, and where large numbers of Jews have found, not only asylum, but opportunity. "These facts must be faced in any analysis of anti-Semitism. They should be pondered especially by the Jews themselves. "For it may be that, unwittingly, they are inviting persecution - that they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer."

·        ISRAEL LOBBY: Cheney repeats “The Big Lie” and swears allegiance to Israel 

 

Colombians Clash with Police During Bush Visit

 

 

Roger Triana

Demonstrators protesting President Bush's visit charge riot police in Bogota, Colombia,

March 11, 2007. AP

 

A demonstrator, dressed as a U.S. prisoner, protest after the arrival of U.S. President

George W. Bush in Bogota March 11, 2007. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

 

Demonstrators burn a replica of a U.S. flag after the arrival of U.S. President

George W. Bush in Bogota March 11, 2007. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

 

 

·        Bush and Chavez: A Marriage Made in Hell

 

 

 

Years of strife and lost hope scar young Palestinians

 

Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Palestinian youth threw stones at Israeli soldiers in Ramallah, West Bank last week.

Parents fear that the atmosphere of despair has destroyed their children's sense of hope.

 

·        Libby, Lies, and Another Bad War (by Charles Kupchan and Ray Takeyh, Los Angeles Times)

·         Democratic senators say Gonzales should go

·        AUDIO: Harry Belafonte unleashed -- 'Condoleezza Rice is revered nowhere. She has influence over nothingness’...

·        Rice's Hiring of Neocon Leaves Observers Puzzled

·        U.S. security scares foreign visitors away

·        Guess who is coming to lunch? Halliburton moving headquarters to Dubai

·        Ariane-5 rocket launches British, Indian satellites

·        Belgrade, Pristina fail to agree on Kosovo's future

 

 

Anti-terrorism program mines IRS' records


Los Angeles Times
2.15.07

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Social Security Data a Major Source in Terrorism Probes

 

Washington Post

11.10.06

 

 

Cartoons

·        Captain Latin America… Christo Komarnitski, Sofia, Bulgaria

·        Sit and be quiet… Rainer Hachfeld, Berlin, Germany, Neues Deutschland

·        Bite by bite… Alexander Zudin, Obshaya Gazeta, St. Petersburg, Russia

·         Government, what it knows about you… Mike Keefe, The Denver Post

·        Political Dynasty… Manny Aenlle Francisco The Manila Times, Manila, The Philippines