AS THE WORLD SQUIRMSâ

Monday, July 30, 2007

"The 'common good' of a collective a race, a class, a state was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over man. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetuated by the disciples of altruism? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. They believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man be sacrificed for other men."

~Ayn Rand~ (Speaking through the character Howard Roark - The hero in The Fountainhead)

 

 

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US death toll in Iraq passes 3500

June 8, 2007

 

 

 

Sunday: 2 GIs, 66 Iraqis Killed; 63 Wounded

 

 

 

Monday: Explosion Rocks Baghdad City Center, 4 Killed

 

 

 

 

 

DC Notes: Disability claims from Iraq, Afghanistan vets top 176,000

 

 

 

 

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Why is Iraq in Chaos?

NO END IN SIGHT

 Learn the Truth!

7/27/07

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CANNON FODDER!

Army Offering $20,000 Bonus For 'Quick' Recruits

Bonus Goes To Those Willing To Ship Out Within Month

 

WLWT.COM

July 27, 2007-07-30

 

(Excerpt)

The $20,000 bonus is in addition to previous offers already in place.

The Army has had trouble meeting recruiting goals, especially in southwest Ohio, in the past few months as the Middle East conflicts continue.

Soldiers have often complained about the traditionally low pay as well.

Foley said some recruits could tally bonuses up to $40,000 during this period with enlistments of four years or more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martial Law is Now a Real Threat

Declaring the U.S. a Battlefield

“If ordered to turn their guns and bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our "heroes" in uniform follow their consciences, and their oaths to "uphold and defend" the Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their Commander in Chief?”

 

By Dave Lindorff

Counterpunch.org

July 27, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it my be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.

 

From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iraqi leader tells Bush: Get General Petraeus out


By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

The Telegraph – London, UK

7.29.07

 

(Excerpt)

Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush.

Although the call was rejected, aides to both men admit that Mr Maliki and Gen David Petraeus engage in frequent stand-up shouting matches, differing particularly over the US general's moves to arm Sunni tribesmen to fight al-Qa'eda.

One Iraqi source said Mr Maliki used a video conference with Mr Bush to call for the general's signature strategy to be scrapped. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues, he would arm Shia militias," said the official. "Bush told Maliki to calm down."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iraq Team Captain Calls for US to Leave the Country

 

International Herald Tribune

July 29, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

"I want America to go out," he said. "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TURKEY VS. KURDISTAN

George Bush’s Latest ‘Escapade’

 

By Robert Novak

Humanevents.com

July 30, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

·                    WASHINGTON -- The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. At a high level, U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.

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PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE!

Washington’s Disastrous, Interventionist, “Mideast” Foreign Policy”

 

Washington’s Self-Serving ‘Congressional’ Israel Lobby seeks  $30.4 billions in U.S.  Taxpayers’ Debt-Financed military aid to bolster the Israeli Apartheid-Regime over the next decade, “a significant increase over what Israel has received in the past 10 years.”

 

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Supplemental “Aid” For Israel: US Taxpayers to fund “defense” systems for Israel

 

Ynetnews.com

July 27, 2007

 

Israel Voices ‘Satisfaction’ with U.S. Taxpayer Financed Aid Increase

 

Defensenews.com

July 29, 2007

 

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·        As Rice and Gates Travel to Middle East, Air of Futility Pervades

·        US State Department Funding Blair as Mideast Envoy

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Foreign Policy Is Central in 2008 Presidential Races

 

By Doyle McManus
Los Angeles Times

July 29, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

Not every foreign policy issue is as polarizing as Iraq. There are even signs of potential bipartisan consensus on other issues: reinvigorating traditional alliances, rebuilding a war-weary Army and Marine Corps, preventing nuclear proliferation, and maintaining aid to Africa, to name some. But Iraq is the issue many voters say will determine their choice in the presidential election; the rest have barely rated a mention in the campaign so far.

The Iraq war "may be the most partisan major foreign policy issue that we've ever had," said Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy scholar at Johns Hopkins University. "This is a war unlike any other we have ever had, in that it is a partisan war. Even the Vietnam War, which was pretty divisive, had supporters in the Democratic Party."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Republican Youtube Debate Show

 

By Michael Kraft

Charlotte Conservative News
 July 30, 2007 

 

(Excerpt)

With the Charleston, SC Democratic debate behind us, hundreds of video questions pour into Youtube in preparation for the Republican turn at the wheel handling user questions.

The problem is, the candidates don’t seem excited, or even interested in the gimmicky format scheduled for September 17th.

So far only Sen. John McCain and Rep. Ron Paul have agreed to participate in the debate, hosted by the Republican Party of Florida in St. Petersburg, CNN and Youtube.

Ron Paul is widely popular on the internet so this is no surprise, and McCain is dying fast in the polls and likely desperate for any bone he can get.

Aside from those two candidates, we havent heard from anyone else, said Sam Feist of CNN, who is sponsoring the debate with the popular video site YouTube.

Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, who are the current frontrunners and big fish both have very busy YouTube channels, but neither seem all too interested in the debate as it stands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bush’s Real Agenda In Palestine

 

By Ramzy Baroud

AlArab Online

July 29, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

It is vital that we keep this seemingly obvious reality at the forefront of any political discussion dealing with the conflict: the occupied Palestinian territories represent a mere 22 per cent of historic Palestine. Currently, Israel is on a quest to reduce this even further by officially conquering the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.. Gaza is only relevant to this issue insofar as it represents a golden opportunity to divide Palestinians further, to confuse their national project and to present a grim picture of them as an unruly people who cannot be trusted as peace partners to the far more civilised and democratic Israelis.

By prolonging Gazan strife, thus the Palestinian split, Israel will acquire the time required to consolidate its colonial project, and to further rationalise its unilateral policies vis-à-vis matters that should, naturally, be negotiated with the Palestinians.

Moreover, one must not lose sight of the regional context. The Israeli lobby and its neo-conservative allies in the US administration and in the media are eager for a military showdown with Iran, which would weaken Syria's political standing in any future negotiation with Israel in regards to the occupied Golan Heights, and which would obliterate the military strength of Hizbullah, proven to be the toughest enemy Israel has ever faced in its decades-long conflict with the Arabs.

Thus, its was of paramount importance for Hamas's "rise" to be linked directly to its relations with Iran; such ties, although greatly exaggerated, are now readily used as a rationale to explain Bush's seemingly historic move from backing Israel from a discreet distance (so as not to appear too involved) to initiating an international peace conference aimed solely at isolating Hamas, which would further weaken the Iranian camp in the Middle East.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What should Brown say to Bush this weekend?

Gordon Brown heads to the US this weekend for his first meeting with Bush as PM. We asked lawyers, writers, a former Guantánamo inmate...what should he say?
 
The Guardian – London, UK

Saturday July 28, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

Ken Livingstone, mayor of London:

Gordon Brown must explain that US governments need to return to a realistic view of the world. The US is the world's single most powerful country, but much weaker than the rest of the world put together. The attempt by one country to unilaterally impose itself on the rest of the world is not only undesirable but simply won't work. Ignoring this led to the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

 

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·      Gorbachev says U.S. is sowing World ‘disorder’

·      Putin stresses that the World should rest on norms of International law

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When “Officer Friendly” Comes Home…

Be Afraid Citizen, Be Very Afraid!

 

Accustomed to Their Own Atrocities in Iraq, U.S. Soldiers Have Become Murderers

After four years of war, American Marines and soldiers have become socialized to atrocity. The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There is very little killing.

 

By Chris Hedges

Posted on July 27, 2007, Printed on July 27, 2007

(Excerpt)

After four years of war, American Marines and soldiers have become socialized to atrocity. The American killing project is not described in these terms to a distant public. The politicians still speak in the abstract terms of glory, honor, and heroism, in the necessity of improving the world, in lofty phrases of political and spiritual renewal. Those who kill large numbers of people always claim it as a virtue. The campaign to rid the world of terror is expressed with this rhetoric, as if once all terrorists are destroyed evil itself will vanish.

 

The reality behind the myth, however, is very different. The reality and the ideal clash when soldiers and Marines return home, alienating these combat veterans from the world around them, a world that still dines out on the myth of war and the virtues of the nation.

 

But slowly returning veterans are giving us a new narrative of the war -- one that exposes the vast enterprise of industrial slaughter unleashed in Iraq for a lie and sustained because of wounded national pride and willful ignorance. "This unit sets up this traffic control point and this 18 year old kid is on top of an armored Humvee with a .50 caliber machine gun," remembered Geoffrey Millard who served in Tikrit with the 42nd Infantry Division. "And this car speeds at him pretty quick and he makes a split second decision that that's a suicide bomber, and he presses the butterfly trigger and puts 200 rounds in less than a minute into this vehicle. It killed the mother, a father and two kids. The boy was aged four and the daughter was aged three."

 

"And they briefed this to the general," Millard said, "and they briefed it gruesome. I mean, they had pictures. They briefed it to him. And this colonel turns around to this full division staff and says, 'if these fucking Hadjis learned to drive, this shit wouldn't happen.'"

 

 

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Militarism – America's State Religion
One soldier's literary blasphemy

 

By Justin Raimondo

Antiwar.com

July 27, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

This has got the War Party in an uproar: Michelle Malkin's head is spinning practically off its axis, like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, only faster, the boys over at Powerline are hotly demanding an "explanation," and, to top it off, Jonah Goldberg, of all people, is waxing skeptical over "Shock Troops," a piece in The New Republic by the pseudonymous "Scott Thomas."

So what's the big deal?

Apparently not much. "Thomas" now revealed to be Scott Thomas Beauchamp, a private stationed in Iraq with the First Infantry Division details two incidents that have the neocon blogosphere in a major tizzy, but which, examined by calmer heads, don't appear to be that big of a deal. So what's up with that?

Okay, let's look at the first such incident: our soldier-author is sitting in the mess hall, and in comes a woman whose face is "half melted" the victim of an IED, Thomas says. He's seen her around, but no one has ever talked to her that he has witnessed. He continues eating, but one of his buddies can't deal with it: suddenly, the buddy jams his spoon in his mashed potatoes and exclaims:

"'Man, I can't eat like this '

"'Like what?' I said. Chow hall food getting to you?'"

"'No with that fucking freak behind us!' he exclaimed, loud enough for not only her to hear us, but everyone at the surrounding tables. I looked over at the woman, and she was intently staring into each forkful of food before it entered her half-melted mouth."

Beauchamp then goes into a riff about how he thinks "she's fucking hot," and how much it turns him on to see "melted skin, missing limbs, plastic noses " His friend responds: "You're crazy, man!"

Yes, that's it, of course. He is crazy. So is everyone in Iraq, and on every battlefield since the beginning of time. War is madness, not the glorious adventure the War Party makes it out to be: it is always bad news, which is why our neocons are always complaining about the lack of "good news" about the Iraq war in the "biased" American media. That's because there just isn't any, although our chickenhawks and assorted laptop bombardiers are blissfully unaware of that: in their ignorance, they glorify war, and warriors, which is why Beauchamp's writings make them so angry. The mythology of militarism cannot survive such realism and Beauchamp's naturalistic depiction is deadly to it in a way that the revelations about Abu Ghraib and other American atrocities committed in Iraq are not. The Malkins and the Hewitts were scrambling to discredit Beauchamp and his Youtube-ish account of casual cruelty because it reveals our troops in the field as human, and painfully ordinary, rather than the hyped-up demi-gods of neocon myth.

 

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War, Gunboat Diplomacy, and the Church

 

By Laurence M. Vance

LewRockwell.com

Saturday, July 28, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

Throughout the twentieth century, interventionism, at home and abroad, was the guiding principle of the U.S. government under either political party. The 9/11 attacks were just the beginning of a worldwide revolt against U.S. imperialism and empire. Christians, of all people, should know the truth and speak the truth about the evils of U.S. wars and foreign policy. They should see Bush’s rhetoric about extending "the benefits of freedom across the globe" and enlarging "the realm of liberty" for what it is: plain, old-fashioned interventionism, pure and simple. Only a Jeffersonian foreign policy of peace, commerce, friendship, and no entangling alliances can cut the tentacles of U.S. global interventionism. Can any Christian honestly say that Bush’s principles are better than Jefferson’s principles?

 

 

 

 


 

 

If You Miss the First Time, Try Firing Another 300,000 Rounds

 

by Robert Higgs,

 Independent Institute

 

(Excerpt)

According to the educated guess of military researcher John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, U.S. forces have expended at least 250,000 small-caliber bullets for every insurgent killed in the present wars. That's a lot of misses, for which the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are no doubt grateful. With better marksmanship, U.S. forces could have already slain a large fraction of the people residing in those unfortunate countries. Of course, medium- and heavy-caliber bullets, artillery and mortar shells, rockets, and bombs have also killed many people in the present wars, their vastly greater force compensating for the smaller numbers expended.

The application of overwhelming firepower in lieu of alternative tactics has long been the American way of fighting a war. In World War II, U.S. factories cranked out, along with mountains of other munitions, about 41.4 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition, enough to permit the users to take about ten shots at every man, woman, and child alive on earth at that time. Military historians tell us that the U.S. warriors actually concentrated their fire somewhat, so some of the earth's inhabitants were spared exposure to that particular risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nazi Germanys War on Terror: The Warnings of History

 

Time For Change

7.24.07

Germany February 27, 1933: It started when the government received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference. "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion. Thom Hartmann, March 16, 2003

The above depiction by Thom Hartmann of the beginning of Nazi Germany
s War on Terror took place less than a month after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Monetary Fund says China, India and Russia will boost World economic growth

 

EuroNews

July 25, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

The International Monetary Fund has raised its world economic growth forecast for this year and next due to accelerating expansion in China, India and Russia. In an update of its forecasts made in April, the IMF also said the mortgage default problems in the United States do pose risks to financial markets, but for now the damage appears "likely to remain largely contained."

For this year, the IMF is predicting 2.6% growth for the euro zone and Japan but just 2% in the United States. But for next year it sees the US regaining momentum with the economy expanding by 2.8%. In 2008, the euro zone would grow by around 2.5% and Japan by 2%.

China's growth projection this year was revised to 11.2% from 10% in April and world growth over this year and next is upped from 4.9% to 5.2% with China, India and Russia accounting for more than half of that. But the IMF is warning inflation pressures are building world wide from high energy and commodities prices and labour shortages making it now more likely that central banks would respond by putting up interest rates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sami al Hajj – al Jazeera Cameraman

No Charges: But 5 years later, al Jazeera cameraman still held at Guantanamo

By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers

July 27, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

KHARTOUM, Sudan He is all but unknown in the United States, the country of his jailers, but in his homeland of Sudan, Sami al Hajj is a national hero. The president has spoken out about him, demonstrations have been held in his name, and a bakery in Khartoum has printed his picture on its packaging.

 

A 38-year-old cameraman for the Arabic news network al Jazeera, Hajj has been imprisoned as an enemy combatant at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five years, but never charged with any crime.

 

He was arrested by Pakistani police in December 2001 while on his way to a news assignment in Afghanistan, but he's denied having any links to terrorism.

 

The independent, Qatar-based network earned the wrath of top U.S. officials after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for airing statements by Osama bin Laden. Hajj has been interrogated approximately 130 times, according to his attorneys, and nearly every question has been about whether the network or its journalists are connected to al Qaida or other terrorist groups.

 

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British Report Criticizes US Treatment of Terror Suspects: LONDON, July 27 On the eve of the first visit to Washington by the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, a report by a high-level parliamentary committee sharply criticized the Bush administration’s practice of seizing terrorism suspects for interrogation in other countries, and found that in one case the Americans showed a lack of concern for the position of the British, their closest ally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America, Where is Your Conscience?

Facing the Truth

 

By Monica Benderman

Counterpunch.org

July 21/22, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

It's about time Americans faced the truth. Today a Marine not only convicted of conspiring to commit kidnapping, larceny, and making false statements; but the murder--MURDER--of an innocent Iraqi man, was given his sentence. He is to receive a reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge.

 

THIS is what America has become.

 

It is now considered "bad conduct" to murder an unarmed man, knowingly return to the scene to fabricate the appearance of self-defense and hide the facts after the fact.

 

Murdering an innocent Iraqi is now considered "Bad Conduct." In 2004 my husband, a ten-year US Army veteran, made a conscious decision to no longer participate in war--he spoke openly of the bad conduct of his commanders in giving orders to soldiers in his unit which not only jeopardized the lives of innocent Iraqis, and children, but also those of the soldiers he served with.

 

For his decision to no longer be part of the destruction, wanton killing, and unjust, immoral action this war has shown itself to be, my husband was accused of being a deserter, faced trumped up, fabricated charges of intentionally missing his unit's movement, and when the first court-martial attempt failed, was handed additional trumped up charges of larceny for combat pay his command erroneously placed in his paycheck. During a second court-martial attempt he was found guilty of missing movement or not getting on a plane and was sentenced to 15 months in prison, loss of all pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge.

 

A veteran with ten years of honorable service, who took a stand to no longer participate in an action in which murdering innocents is acceptable is now considered "Dishonorable."

 

How low do you intend to go, America ?

 

How far are you going to let your values dip before you stop the slide?

We don't need to see the documents "executive privilege" is denying us the right to see. Their content is evident in the actions of our military courts--Justice in America no longer has a conscience, and the travesty continues as Americans sleep through the reality of what it is they are about to lose.

 

The United States Congress spent an entire night--wasted an entire night--in a public display of ridiculous bantering over a war which has now caused the deaths of almost 4000 US military personnel and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians--CHILDREN are dying every day in Iraq because of what this country has allowed to happen, and our Congress has the foresight to remember to place cots in the Senate chambers in case one of the illustrious elite might grow weary of their repetitious "pillow talk" and need a rest.

 

I am weary of the talk--the Iraqis are weary of the talk--and I know for a fact that American soldiers are weary of the talk.

 

There are some who, while wearing our nation's uniform, have committed horrendous crimes in this war, and in a great many instances have received little more than a slap on the hand for their actions. Hundreds of thousands more soldiers have served honorably under the most horrendous conditions, fighting against their instincts for survival to maintain morality in their actions in the most difficult circumstances. They deserve better than to see those who cannot control themselves face so little consequence for their lack of character.

 

The administration that sent our military to war has become nothing more than a dictatorship in emperor's clothing and our congress is clearly displaying how little backbone they have when it comes to defending the truth in the hallowed halls within which our Constitution is supposed to still matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ron Paul and the Greased Pig

Presidency, noun: The greased pig in the field game of Americas politics.
~ Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary (1911)

 

by Gary North

LewRockwell.com

July 28, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

I generally avoid discussing national politics. I always have. Thats because I dont think democratic involvement makes much difference except at the local level. The size of the permanent national bureaucracy is so enormous, in every large nation that political activities are capable of changing very little. Except in times of enormous crisis mainly national wars political change is marginal. War centralizes everything. This is why national politicians lie their countries into wars. This is a bi-partisan practice. It rarely fails. If you doubt me, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul in discusion with Google executive

Elliot Schrage as part of the company's Candidates@Google series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current News & Views

U.S.

·        Scientists Tests Hack Into Electronic Voting Machines in California and Elsewhere

·        US Army Hero Tillman Murdered By His Own Troops?

·        Dangers of a Cornered George Bush

·        US Accused of Fueling Arms Race With $20 Billion Sale

·        US, Ethiopia accused of war crimes in Somalia

AFGHANISTAN

·        Up to 50 Afghan civilians killed in NATO air raids

·        NATO Tries Not to Kill So Many Civilians

·        Taliban in first heat-seeking missile attack against Western aircraft

CHINA

·        China's Sovereign Rating Again Overtakes Korea

·        Big spenders stir protectionism

FRANCE

·        Brunei to drill new oil well with France's Total

·        France pursues Lebanon diplomacy

GERMANY

·        Crossfire War - Berlin Leads Criticism of French-Libya Nuclear Reactor

·        T-Mobile Germany opens web'n'walk portal to mobile ads

·        Overcast Germany Worlds Leading Solar Power Generator

IRAN

·        Iran says US is too stretched to attack it

·        Iran's ex-envoy slams IAEA

·        Report: Russia Plans to Sell Long-Range Fighter Jets to Iran

·        Iran Rejects OPEC Output Hike

IRAQ

·        Saudis tell US that Iraqi Prime Minister is agent of Iran

·        Eight more US troops die in Iraq, blast kills 25 Iraqis

·        Iraqi government in deepest crisis

·        No rest for Iraq: Soccer euphoria turns to carnage

·        Planning pullout from Iraq a `priority,' Pentagon says as violence increases 7 percent in July

·        Denmark 'pulls out troops early' from Iraq

·        Iraqi War Is A Dark And Even Depraved Enterprise, Say US Veterans

·        US Firms in Iraq Still Using Indentured Workers Despite Crackdown

ISRAEL

·        Israelis regard Olmert as less credible than leader of Hezbollah, says new poll

·        Pull Out of West Bank, says top Olmert ally

·        A Zionist politician loses faith in the future

·        The threat of the 'demographic threat' in Israel

RUSSIA

·        Gorbachev slams American 'empire'...

·        Gorbachev says British leadership panders to the United States

·        Putin stresses that the World should rest on norms of International law

·        Putin Veto of Kosovo Independence Means New Talks for U.S., EU

·        Russia, UK in fresh Berezovsky row as Kremlin summons British ambassador

·        Russians back Moscow in Britain row

·        Russia's GDP to grow by 7% in 2007

TURKEY

·        Turkish Soldier Killed in Kurdish Rebel Clash

UK

·        British Vet, 109, Revisits WWI Trench: 'War Isn't Worth One Life'

·        Bush-Brown Summit at Camp David to Focus on Iraq

·        Brown Tries to Distance Himself From 'Blair's War'

·        New British Leader's Tightrope With Bush: Be Close Yet Apart

 

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that the Shebaa Farms