December 22, 2008

The World According to Cheney
Vice President Dick Cheney has a parting message for Americans: They should quit whining about all the things he and President Bush did to undermine the rule of law, erode the balance of powers between the White House and Congress, abuse prisoners and spy illegally on Americans. After all, he said, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln did worse than that. So Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush managed to stop short of repeating two of the most outrageous abuses of power in American history — Roosevelt’s decision to force Japanese-Americans into camps and Lincoln’s declaration of martial law to silence his critics? That’s not exactly a lofty standard of behavior.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: Cheney may be attempting to rewrite history, but he won’t get away with it.

December 19, 2008

Sale puts atomic weapons plant in US hands
The UK Atomic Weapons Establishment, which makes and maintains the warheads for Britain ’s nuclear missiles, has come under the control of US companies after the government sold its one-third stake. Ministers were accused Thursday night of trying to conceal the change in ownership after failing to make an announcement to parliament.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)

December 8, 2008

And now for a world government
I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US . I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible. A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force. So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)
Comment: Democracy in the European Union has now been almost completely subverted by corporate interests. As such, exporting the European model of government to the rest of the world would effectively turn the planet’s system of governance into a global dictatorship.

December 4, 2008

Town indictment accuses Bush of war crimes
Leaders of Brattleboro, Vt., say they're serious about enforcing a measure calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush. The measure calls for the town's police to ""arrest and detain George Bush and (Vice President) Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them," The Washington Times reported Thursday. Rich Garant, a member of the Brattleboro's governing body who voted for the measure in January, said "a very factual case" could be made for the indictments. Citing the detention of prisoners of war at the military penal facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the treatment of captives and wiretapping of U.S. citizens, Garant said, "No one should be above the law."
Read news report at upi.com

December 4, 2008

Iraqi council gives final approval to pact with US
Iraq's presidential council on Thursday approved a security pact that sets out a three-year timeframe for U.S. troops to leave, a spokesman said, the final step for the agreement to replace a U.N. mandate that expires Dec. 31.
Read Associated Press news report at google.com

November 28, 2008

Iraqis OK 3-year troop withdrawal pact
Lawmakers' approval hailed and criticized
Iraq's Parliament approved a three-year timetable yesterday for the withdrawal of US troops, a pact supporters call a path to sovereignty and opponents say could be used to keep Americans on Iraqi soil indefinitely. The pact is the first step taken by Iraqi legislators toward ending the US presence in their country since the American-led invasion in March 2003. It is expected to be ratified by Iraq's three-person presidency council.
Read article in the Boston Globe (USA)

November 24, 2008

Russian analyst predicts decline and breakup of U.S.
A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts. Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily Izvestia published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

November 23, 2008

The Price of Our Good Name
Americans have watched in horror as President Bush has trampled on the Bill of Rights and the balance of power. The list of abuses that President-elect Barack Obama must address is long: once again require the government to get warrants to eavesdrop on Americans; undo scores of executive orders and bill-signing statements that have undermined the powers of Congress; strip out the unnecessary invasions of privacy embedded in the Patriot Act; block new F.B.I. investigative guidelines straight out of J. Edgar Hoover’s playbook. Those are not the only disasters Mr. Obama will inherit. He will have to rescue a drowning economy, restore regulatory sanity to the financial markets and extricate the country from an unnecessary war in Iraq so it can focus on a necessary war in Afghanistan. Even with all those demands, there is one thing Mr. Obama must do quickly to begin to repair this nation’s image and restore its self-respect: announce a plan for closing Mr. Bush’s outlaw prison at Guantánamo Bay.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)

November 21, 2008

EU Will Be Globally Weak 'Hobbled Giant' by 2025: Report
A new Global Trends report by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), Washington's main intelligence body, paints a bleak picture of the EU in 2025 with internal bickering, economic pressure and crime hobbling the bloc.
Read article in Deutsche Welle (Germany)
Comment: According to the report, the European Union will be a "hobbled giant" crippled by internal bickering and a euroskeptic citizenry by 2025.

November 18, 2008

Iraq war 'violated rule of law'
Legal advice given to Tony Blair by the attorney general prior to the Iraq war was fundamentally "flawed," a former law lord has claimed. Lord Bingham said Lord Goldsmith had given Mr Blair "no hard evidence" that Iraq had defied UN resolutions "in a manner justifying resort to force". Therefore, the action by the UK and US was "a serious violation of international law," Lord Bingham added.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

November 17, 2008

Toxic Chemicals Blamed for Gulf War Illness
Gulf War illness, dismissed by some as a psychosomatic disorder, is a very real illness that affects at least 25 percent of the 700,000 U.S. veterans who took part in the 1991 Gulf War. Its likely cause was exposure to toxic chemicals that included pesticides that were often overused during the war, as well as a drug given to U.S. troops to protect them from nerve gas, a frequent weapon of choice of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Read article in the Washington Post (USA)

November 17, 2008

Early Test for Obama on Domestic Spying Views
President-elect Barack Obama will face a series of early decisions on domestic spying that will test his administration’s views on presidential power and civil liberties. A court has ordered the government to turn over information on any federal eavesdropping conducted in the case of Ali al-Timimi, center, who was convicted of supporting terrorism. The Justice Department will be asked to respond to motions in legal challenges to the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program, and must decide whether to continue the tactics used by the Bush administration — which has used broad claims of national security and “state secrets” to try to derail the challenges — or instead agree to disclose publicly more information about how the program was run.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

November 14, 2008

An offer they couldn't refuse
The CIA is often credited with 'advice' on Hollywood films, but no one is truly sure about the extent of its shadowy involvement
Everyone who watches films knows about Hollywood's fascination with spies. From Hitchcock's postwar espionage thrillers, through cold war tales such as Torn Curtain, into the paranoid 1970s when the CIA came to be seen as an agency out of control in films such as Three Days of the Condor, and right to the present, with the Bourne trilogy and Ridley Scott's forthcoming Body of Lies, film-makers have always wanted to get in bed with spies. What's less widely known is how much the spies have wanted to get in bed with the film-makers. In fact, the story of the CIA's involvement in Hollywood is a tale of deception and subversion that would seem improbable if it were put on screen.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)

November 12, 2008

Bush, Out of Office, Could Oppose Inquiries
When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas. “If the doctrine of separation of powers and the independence of the presidency is to have any validity at all, it must be equally applicable to a president after his term of office has expired,” Truman wrote to the committee. Congress backed down, establishing a precedent suggesting that former presidents wield lingering powers to keep matters from their administration secret. Now, as Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

November 5, 2008

Vice-president says Iraq-U.S. pact should be put to vote
An Iraqi vice-president has said a draft security pact being negotiated with the United States should be put to a nationwide referendum. Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, said in a statement on Tuesday that the deal, which outlines the framework for the U.S. military presence in Iraq, “must not pass without approval from Iraqis”. “This agreement is an important and sensitive subject ... Iraqis should have their say,” he said. A draft agreement agreed last month allows U.S. forces to remain in Iraq for another three years, but after talks with Iraqi MPs it was sent back to Washington for further revisions. The Iraqi cabinet sought key changes, including greater legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops and guarantees that U.S. soldiers would not launch attacks on other countries from Iraq.
Read article in the Tehran Times (Iran)

November 4, 2008

For Obama, No Time for Laurels; Now the Hard Part
No president since before Barack Obama was born has ascended to the Oval Office confronted by the accumulation of seismic challenges awaiting him. Historians grasping for parallels point to Abraham Lincoln taking office as the nation was collapsing into Civil War, or Franklin D. Roosevelt arriving in Washington in the throes of the Great Depression.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

October 22, 2008

Russia says media reports on possible Arctic conflict 'alarmist'
Russia's Foreign Ministry believes media speculation about the possibility of a war over the Arctic are ungrounded and "alarmist," an ambassador at large said Wednesday. "Media assessments of possible aggression in the Arctic, even a third world war, are seen as extremely alarmist and provocative. In my opinion, there are no grounds for such alarmism," Anton Vasilyev, who is also a high-ranking official on the Arctic Council, said. "We are following the situation in the region, this also includes the military activity of other countries, but we hope cooperation will be the main feature," he said.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

October 7, 2008

In Blow to Bush, Judge Orders 17 Guantánamo Detainees Freed
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush administration to release 17 detainees at Guantánamo Bay by the end of the week, the first such ruling in nearly seven years of legal disputes over the administration’s detention policies. The judge, Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court, ordered that the 17 men be brought to his courtroom on Friday from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they have been held since 2002. He indicated that he would release the men, members of the restive Uighur Muslim minority in western China, into the care of supporters in the United States, initially in the Washington area. “I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention,” Judge Urbina said.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

October 3, 2008

Democratic Congressman: Representatives Were Threatened With Martial Law In America Over Bailout Bill
Warns that a panic atmosphere is intentionally being nurtured to get bill passed
A Democratic Congressman has warned that a panic atmosphere is being intentionally created in order to get the financial bailout billed passed, further stating that several members of Congress were told before Monday’s vote that martial law will be instigated in America if the legislation fails. Congressman Brad Sherman of California’s 27th congressional district told the House in a speech yesterday evening that he personally knew of several Congressional representatives who have said they were threatened with the prospect of all out martial law should they vote in opposition to the $700 billion bailout. Sherman essentially intimated that powerful forces who want the bill passed have attempted to blackmail elected representatives. "The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. That atmosphere is not justified." Sherman stated.
Read article at infowars.com

September 26, 2008

Medvedev orders upgrade of Russia's nuclear deterrent by 2020
President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia must upgrade its nuclear deterrent and fully supply the Armed Forces with modern weaponry by 2020. He said Russia would make the modernization of its nuclear deterrent and Armed Forces a priority in light of the recent military conflict with Georgia.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

September 24, 2008

China banks told to halt lending to US banks
BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday. The Hong Kong newspaper cited unidentified industry sources as saying the instruction from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) applied to interbank lending of all currencies to U.S. banks but not to banks from other countries.
Read news report at reuters.com

September 19, 2008

Russia wants cooperation with U.S., will rise above its rhetoric
Russia wants to maintain cooperation with the United States and will not succumb to its rhetoric and enter a new spiral of confrontation, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. Responding to the U.S. top diplomat's speech on the Russia-Georgia conflict, the ministry said Russia was "prepared to deal with the American side in all formats" but would not "succumb to its rhetoric and get drawn into confrontation, either verbal or any other."
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

September 8, 2008

Gorbachev says NATO growth aimed at isolating Russia
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that calls from the U.S. and other Western powers to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO are purely aimed at isolating Russia. "Why does NATO need these countries? To fight against Iran? This is just ridiculous," Gorbachev told Spanish agency EFE.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

September 8, 2008

Russia confirms sending warships to the Atlantic, Caribbean
A Russian naval task force from the Northern Fleet will go on a tour of duty in the Atlantic Ocean and participate in joint naval drills with the Venezuelan navy in November, a Navy spokesman said on Monday. "In line with the 2008 training program and in order to expand military cooperation with foreign navies Russia will send in November a naval task force from the Northern Fleet, comprising nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy and support ships, to the Atlantic Ocean," Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 28, 2008

Putin Suggests U.S. Provocation in Georgia Clash
MOSCOW — As Russia struggled to rally international support for its military action in Georgia, Vladimir V. Putin, the country’s paramount leader, lashed out at the United States on Thursday, contending that the White House may have orchestrated the conflict to benefit one of the candidates in the American presidential election. Mr. Putin’s comments in a television interview, his most extensive to date on Russia’s decision to send troops into Georgia earlier this month, sought to present the military operation as a response to brazen, cold war-style provocations by the United States. In tones that seemed alternately angry and mischievous, he suggested that the Bush administration may have tried to create a crisis that would influence American voters in the choice of a successor to President Bush. “The suspicion would arise that someone in the United States created this conflict on purpose to stir up the situation and to create an advantage for one of the candidates in the competitive race for the presidency in the United States,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with CNN. He added, “They needed a small victorious war.” Mr. Putin did not specify which candidate he had in mind, but there was no doubt that he was referring to Senator John McCain, the Republican.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

August 27, 2008

Russian analyst points to link between Georgian attack and Iran
A senior Russian military analyst said on Wednesday that the U.S. and NATO by arming Tbilisi used the conflict in Georgia as a dress rehearsal for a future military operation in Iran. Col. Gen Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, told a news conference at RIA Novosti, "We are close to a serious conflict - U.S. and NATO preparations on a strategic scale are ongoing. In the operation the West conducted on Georgian soil against Russia - South Ossetians were the victims or hostages of it - we can see a rehearsal for an attack on Iran. There is a great deal of "new features" that today are being fine tuned in the theater of military operations." He said the likelihood of a war against Iran was growing with each passing day, "As a result, the situation in the region will become destabilized," and added "causing chaos and instability" was becoming Washington's official policy line.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 27, 2008

Russia to respond militarily to U.S. missile shield
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will have to respond militarily to the deployment of elements of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe. The deal to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland was reached in mid-August, and followed the signing of an agreement on July 8 by the U.S. and Czech foreign ministries to place a U.S. radar in the Czech Republic. "These missiles are close to our borders and constitute a threat to us," Medvedev said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television on Tuesday. "This will create additional tension and we will have to respond to it in some way, naturally using military means."
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 26, 2008

Russia not seeking new Cold War, but not afraid - Medvedev
Russia does not want a new Cold War but is not afraid of one should it occur, the Russian president told the Russia Today international news channel on Tuesday.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 26, 2008

Russia recognizes Georgia's breakaway republics
Russia's president signed decrees on Tuesday recognizing Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states despite warnings by Western leaders not to do so.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

August 15, 2008

Gorbachev blames Georgia for provoking war, West for backing it
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has blamed Georgia for provoking hostilities in its breakaway region of South Ossetia and criticized Western states for backing Tbilisi. Appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday, Gorbachev said Russia had moved additional forces into South Ossetia in response to the "devastation" in the South Ossetia capital of Tskhinvali. "This was the use of sophisticated weapons against a small town, against a sleeping people. This was a barbaric assault," Gorbachev told CNN.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)
Comment: In an article published in the Washington Post newspaper on August 12, Gorbachev - the last president of the Soviet Union and who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1990 - stated that “[w]hat happened on the night of August 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond.” He added that “[t]he Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of US instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of Nato membership, emboldened Georgian leaders.”

August 15, 2008

Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles
MOSCOW (AP) — A top Russian general said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

August 15, 2008

Venezuela blames US for Georgia-Russia conflict
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is accusing the United States of masterminding the current conflict between Georgia and Russia. A statement from Chavez's government alleges the conflict was "planned, prepared and ordered" by Washington in an "incitement of violence."
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

August 15, 2008

US, Poland agree to anti-missile defense deal
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland and the United States struck a deal Thursday that will strengthen military ties and put an American missile interceptor base in Poland, a plan that has infuriated Moscow and sparked fears in Europe of a new arms race.
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

August 4, 2008

U.S. Headed Toward Bankruptcy, Says Top Budget Committee Republican
The ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee said the U.S. government is headed toward bankruptcy if it stays on its current fiscal course. “We know that for a fact,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told CNSNews.com in a video interview. “All the actuaries, all the objective scorekeepers of the federal government, are predicting this.” To back up this claim, Ryan cited an estimate by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office that says the government faces a $53-trillion shortfall to cover the costs of promised benefits in its entitlement programs.
Read article at cnsnews.com (USA)

August 1, 2008

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border
No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies
Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Read article in the Washington Post (USA)
Comment: An increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined after entering the United States. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco upheld the government's power to conduct searches of an international traveler's laptop without suspicion of wrongdoing.

July 31, 2008

'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.
Read article on the MIT website (USA)
Comment: Liberation from the tyranny of the oil cartel continues to draw closer.

July 26, 2008

Ex-SLC mayor to Congress: Impeach Bush
WASHINGTON - Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told Congress there's a "compelling case" for the impeachment of President Bush, but that short of that, it should appoint a special commission to investigate egregious abuses of power.
Read article in the Salt Lake Tribune (USA)

July 25, 2008

US Congressional Panel Hears Testimony on Case for Bush Impeachment
A congressional committee has heard testimony about the case for impeachment of President Bush. VOA's Dan Robinson reports, while majority Democrats have ruled out formal impeachment efforts, they approved the public hearing to examine limitations on presidential powers and arguments about what constitute impeachable offenses.
Read article on the Voice of America News website (USA)

July 24, 2008

Russia could place bombers in Latin America, N.Africa - paper
Russian strategic bombers may soon be deployed at airbases in Cuba, Venezuela and Algeria as a response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe and NATO's expansion, Russian daily Izvestia said on Thursday. Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying tracking radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states. Moscow has also expressed concern over NATO's expansion to Russia's borders and pledged to take "appropriate measures" to counter the U.S. and NATO moves.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

July 23, 2008

Moscow must answer U.S. shield with Cuban 'spy' site - analyst
Russia should respond to U.S. missile defense plans for Central Europe by reopening a 'spy' facility in Cuba to gather intelligence on the United States, a Russian analyst said on Wednesday. The electronic monitoring and surveillance facility near Havana at Torrens, also known as the Lourdes facility, the largest Russian Sigint site abroad, was shut down in October 2001 by then- president Vladimir Putin. "Cuba is a unique place to gather intelligence on the United States. I believe that the reopening of this station is both possible and necessary amid the threat that the Americans are creating for Russia," Alexander Pikayev, head of the disarmament and conflict resolution department at the Russian Academy of Sciences' World Economics and International Relations Institute, told a news conference at RIA Novosti.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

July 10, 2008

Bush Signs New Rules on Government Wiretapping
Bush signs bill overhauling government eavesdropping rules, giving telecoms lawsuit immunity
President Bush signed a bill Thursday that overhauls rules about government eavesdropping and grants immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the U.S. spy on Americans in suspected terrorism cases.
Read article on the ABC news website (USA)

July 9, 2008

Iran tests missiles in Persian Gulf
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. and Israeli attack, state television reported. Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said the exercise would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language," the TV report said. Wednesday's war games were being conducted at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. Iran has threatened to shut down traffic in the strait if attacked.
Read Associated Press news report at google.com

July 8, 2008

Paul: Congress supports bombing Iran
Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says members of Congress have voiced support for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran. "I hear members of Congress saying 'if we could only nuke them'," said the congressman Thursday. "If we do (attack) it is going to be a disaster," he told the Alex Jones Show. The 72-year-old veteran politician added that the atmosphere in Congress indicates that a military strike on Iran has already been condoned.
Read article on the Press TV website (Iran)

July 4, 2008

Judge orders Google to give YouTube user data to Viacom
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A US judge has ordered Google to expose to Viacom the video-viewing habits of everyone who has ever used YouTube in a decision condemned by the Internet giant and privacy advocates.
Read AFP news story at google.com
Comment: The ruling, which could have serious privacy implications for internet users worldwide, orders Google to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses.

July 3, 2008

Judge Rejects Bush's View on Wiretaps
WASHINGTON - A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the "exclusive" means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government's claim that the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

July 2, 2008

US Admiral Warns Against Israeli Strike On Iran
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday warned against the possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, saying that it would plunge the already volatile area into deeper chaos and added that it would be very stressful on the United States. "My strong preference, here, is to handle all of this diplomatically with the other powers of governments, ours and many others, as opposed to any kind of strike occurring," Admiral Mullen told reporters at a Pentagon press conference on Wednesday. "This is a very unstable part of the world. And I don't need it to be more unstable," he added.
Read news report on the RTT News website (USA)

July 2, 2008

U.S. hopes for missile defense deal with Poland soon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States expects to reach a deal soon on basing 10 missile interceptors in Poland as part of its European missile defense project, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Read news report at reuters.com

July 2, 2008

Are you being heard? Eavesdropping and wiretapping in Europe and the USA
The Swedes, through a narrow parliamentary majority, voted through last month one of the most severe invasions on privacy, the signal surveillance or wiretapping law. The Germans have been up in arms over data retention policies that came in on the back of a 2006 EU Directive. This also has a remit that is meant to protect Germans from crime and terrorism - but it also hands over data that can be used by the government for numerous other purposes! Meanwhile, the US government, and the Department of Homeland Security in particular, is doing its darndest to finalise a US-European pact to give it the right to access private data of European citizens.
Read article by the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) analyzing the latest attacks on personal privacy in Europe and the USA

July 1, 2008

Accord Could Give U.S. Government Access to Private Data on EU Citizens
Treaty could redraw privacy climate on both sides of the Atlantic
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may soon have access to private data on European citizens, thanks to a new transatlantic treaty nearing the long road towards ratification. Brokered by "high-level contact groups" between U.S. and European security officials, the data-sharing pact could give DHS officials access to credit card, travel and even internet browsing histories of EU citizens for antiterrorism purposes, such as screening airline manifests for suspicious passengers. An internal report seen by the New York Times says that the treaty was drawn up due to the stark differences in privacy laws between the United States and EU member nations. Strict data-sharing regulations in Europe make it difficult for American investigators to hunt for suspicious activity, creating heady disputes that "frayed" diplomatic relations and "required difficult negotiations to resolve."
Read article at dailytech.com

June 20, 2008

EU to lift sanctions against Cuba
The European Union is to lift sanctions imposed on Cuba in 2003 in protest at the imprisonment of more than 70 Cuban dissidents by the Castro government.
Read article at BBC News (UK)

June 20, 2008

Pharmaceutical industry spent $3.6M lobbying in 1Q
WASHINGTON - The pharmaceutical industry's main trade group spent more than $3.6 million lobbying the federal government in the first quarter, according to a recent disclosure form. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, whose members include Pfizer, Amgen Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co., lobbied on how prices are set for seniors' medications, rules governing drug imports and other issues.
Read article at forbes.com

June 19, 2008

Kucinich threatens 60 impeachment articles if Judiciary doesn't act
Rep. Dennis Kucinich warned the House Judiciary Committee that it would be wise not to ignore the 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush last week. If the committee does not act within a month, he plans to introduce even more articles.
Read article at globalresearch.ca

June 18, 2008

Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights
In the waning months of his tenure, President Bush and his allies are once again trying to scare Congress into expanding the president's powers to spy on Americans without a court order.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)

June 17, 2008

Law School to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution
A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. "This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."
Read Massachusetts School Of Law press release at informationclearinghouse.info

June 14, 2008

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says
MIAMI - From "Scarface" to "Miami Vice," Florida's drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit. An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

June 13, 2008

House votes to send impeachment resolution to Judiciary Committee
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to send articles of impeachment against President Bush to the Judiciary Committee for review. The impeachment resolution's sponsor, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, requested a recorded vote on the motion around 3 p.m. Wednesday, and 24 Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in voting to send the impeachment measure to the committee.
The motion passed 251-166.
Read article at globalresearch.ca
Comment: The Judiciary Committee already has before it articles of impeachment aimed at Vice President Dick Cheney, which it received in November 2007. Given that it has done nothing with these, it would appear extremely unlikely that the House will proceed with impeachment hearings before Bush leaves office.

June 11, 2008

Reminder Bill Raises Privacy Concerns In California
Privacy concerns have been raised about a bill moving through the California Legislature that would let pharmacies partner with drugmakers to send reminder letters to patients to refill their scrips, The Sacramento Bee reports. The senate bill is sponsored by a medical information company facing an invasion of privacy class-action suit, which alleges some of the same practices the legislation would make legal.
Read article at pharmalot.com

June 10, 2008

Rep. Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution
WASHINGTON - Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential contender, said Monday he wants the House to consider a resolution to impeach President Bush. Speaker Nancy Pelosi consistently has said impeachment was "off the table." Kucinich, D-Ohio, read his proposed impeachment language in a floor speech. He contended Bush deceived the nation and violated his oath of office in leading the country into the Iraq war.
Read Associated Press news story at google.com

June 6, 2008

Adviser Says McCain Backs Bush Wiretaps
WASHINGTON – A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush's program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

June 6, 2008

Bush Overstated Evidence on Iraq, Senators Report
WASHINGTON – A long-delayed Senate committee report endorsed by Democrats and some Republicans concluded that President Bush and his aides built the public case for war against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq's weapons programs and Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

June 2, 2008

President Hugo Chavez Warns of US Plan to Divide Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez warned today of a separatist plan orchestrated by the United States to take control of natural and other economic resources in several states in the west of Venezuela. "To be united is our best emblem. We must be alert to the attempts made by counterrevolutionary forces to promote division in this country," pointed out Chavez at a political rally with Socialist Party members in the state of Zulia.
Read article at globalresearch.ca (Canada)

May 30, 2008

Corrs guitarist: 9/11 was an inside job
Corrs guitarist Jim Corr has claimed that there was overwhelming evidence that the 9/11 attacks in America were carried out by "rogue elements" of US President George Bush's "neo-con administration". In a rare intervention into the political arena, the male singer with The Corrs band also came out against the Lisbon Treaty claiming that it is "tip-toe totalitarianism in the West". In an interview with Matt Cooper on Ireland's Today FM's 'Last Word', Corr made the case for voting 'No' to Lisbon, claiming it could introduce the death penalty to Ireland and contribute to a "new world order".
Read article in the Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland)

May 29, 2008

Ex-Bush spokesman: White House fed war propaganda to a "complicit" media
In a stunning blow to what very little remains of the Bush administration's political credibility, the president's former press secretary Scott McClellan has published a book indicting the White House for launching an "unnecessary" war in Iraq based on false "propaganda." Even more telling, particularly coming from an official who was in charge of dealing with the press, is McClellan's harsh indictment of the American media as a servile and willing accomplice in this process.
Read article at globalresearch.ca (Canada)

May 29, 2008

Bolton dodges attempted 'war crimes' arrest
The environmental campaigner George Monbiot last night tried and failed to make a citizen's arrest of the former Bush administration official John Bolton over alleged "war crimes" committed during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN, ended an hour-long discussion at the Hay festival, Monbiot, who had earlier challenged him for alleged breaches of the postwar Nuremberg Principles, defining war crimes, moved towards the stage waving a charge sheet. But security staff intervened and bundled Monbiot out of the tent as 20 supporters chanted "war criminal" and waved placards.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)
Comment: Monbiot's Charge Sheet for the attempted arrest of John Bolton specifically cites the WWII International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg's ruling that "to initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime".

May 28, 2008

Bush 'plans Iran air strike by August'
The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.
Read article on the Asia Times Online website

May 23, 2008

South America creates regional union
A new South American union was born Friday as leaders of the region's 12 nations set out to create a continental parliament. Some see the new organization, Unasur, as a regional version of the European Union. Summit host Brazil wants it to help coordinate defense affairs across South America and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez calls it a counterweight to the United States. "The number one enemy of the union of the south is the empire of the United States," Chavez said, claiming that the U.S. is "trying to generate wars in South America" to "divide and conquer."
Read Associated Press news story at google.com
Comment: The Unasur members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Modelled on the European Union – a regional supergovernment that has now been almost totally subverted by corporate interests – and mirroring efforts in North America for the creation of a North American Union, the formation of the South American Union marks the culmination of efforts to unite the region's two main trading groups, Mercosur and the Andean Community, into a single bloc.

May 19, 2008

Democracy and the Web
Users of the Internet take for granted their ability to access all Web sites on an equal basis. That could change, however, if Internet service providers started discriminating among content, to make more money or to suppress ideas they do not like. A new "net neutrality" bill has been introduced in the House, which would prohibit this sort of content discrimination. Congress has delayed on this important issue too long and should pass net neutrality legislation now.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: To learn more about the need for net neutrality and internet freedom, click here.

May 12, 2008

Quiet US Confession: Weapons Were Not Made In Iran After All
Longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq
In a sharp reversal of its longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq, the US military has made an unprecedented albeit quiet confession: the weapons they had recently found in Iraq were not made in Iran at all. According to a report by the LA Times correspondent Tina Susman in Baghdad: "A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was cancelled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran. A U.S. military spokesman attributed the confusion to a misunderstanding that emerged after an Iraqi Army general in Karbala erroneously reported the items were of Iranian origin. When U.S. explosives experts went to investigate, they discovered they were not Iranian after all."
Read article on the Centre for Research on Globalization website (Canada)

May 8, 2008

Parliament denies Canadians mandatory labelling of GE foods
Ottawa, Canada - A private member's bill giving consumers the right to know if the food sold in Canada contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients was defeated in the House of Commons today by a vote of 101 to 156. The defeat of Bill C-517 effectively protects the economic interests of GE companies like Monsanto over the rights of Canadians to know what they eat.
Read news story on the website of Greenpeace Canada

May 5, 2008

151 Congressmen Derive Financial Profit From War
Blood money stains the hands of more than 25% of members of the U.S. House and Senate
Who profits from the Iraq war? More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq. According to the latest reports, 151 members of Congress invested close to a quarter-billion in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the watchdog group OMBWatch.
Read article on the American Free Press website (USA)

May 1, 2008

Justice Dept. Will Share Interrogation Opinions
In a partial concession to Congressional pressure, the Bush administration agreed on Wednesday to show the Senate and House Intelligence Committees secret Justice Department legal opinions justifying harsh interrogation techniques that critics call torture. The decision, announced at a Senate hearing where Democrats sharply criticized the administration's secrecy on legal questions, did not satisfy other members of Congress who have pushed for the documents for several years, notably Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A spokesman for the Justice Department said officials were discussing whether to share part or all the opinions with Mr. Leahy's panel.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

April 30, 2008

Afghan 'health link' to uranium
Doctors in Afghanistan say rates of some health problems affecting children have doubled in the last two years. Some scientists say the rise is linked to use of weapons containing depleted uranium (DU) by the US-led coalition that invaded the country in 2001. A Canadian research group found very high levels of uranium in Afghans during tests just after the invasion.
Read article at BBC News (UK)

April 25, 2008

Malaysia's ex-PM Mahathir wants Iraq war leaders on war crimes charges
LONDON (AFP) - Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for an international tribunal to try Western leaders with war crimes over the war in Iraq, a spokesman for the organisers said. In a speech at Imperial College, London, Mahathir called for a tribunal to try US President George W. Bush plus former prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and John Howard of Australia for their part in the conflict, said a spokesman for the Muslim group the Ramadhan Foundation, which set up the event. Spokesman Mohammed Shafiq told AFP that Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, wants to see the trio tried "in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq.
Read AFP news story at yahoo.com

April 23, 2008

Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations'
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes - from writing bad checks to using drugs - that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: The United States is currently holding 2.3 million behind bars, more than any other nation. This works out at 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 of the population. If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up. But it doesn't have to be this way and - especially in the case of violent and anti-social behaviour - there are alternatives.

April 21, 2008

List of McCain Fund-Raisers Includes Prominent Lobbyists
Senator John McCain has staked his campaign for the presidency in large part on his reputation as a reformer intent on curbing the influence of money in politics. But an examination by The New York Times of a list of 106 elite fund-raisers who have brought in more than $100,000 each for Mr. McCain found that about a sixth of them were lobbyists.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)

April 20, 2008

The Torture Sessions
Ever since Americans learned that American soldiers and intelligence agents were torturing prisoners, there has been a disturbing question: How high up did the decision go to ignore United States law, international treaties, the Geneva Conventions and basic morality? The answer, we have learned recently, is that - with President Bush's clear knowledge and support - some of the very highest officials in the land not only approved the abuse of prisoners, but participated in the detailed planning of harsh interrogations and helped to create a legal structure to shield from justice those who followed the orders.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)

March 24, 2008

US military death toll in Iraq hits 4,000
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The death toll of US soldiers in the five-year Iraq conflict has hit 4,000 in what the US military said Monday was a "tragic" loss of lives after four troops were killed in a Baghdad bombing. The four soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb while on patrol late Sunday in southern Baghdad, bringing the overall toll to 4,000, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org. Another soldier was wounded in the attack, a military statement said. The chaotic and brutal conflict which is now in its sixth year has also wounded more than 29,000 American soldiers, according to icasualties.org.
Read AFP news report at google.com
Comment: At least 97 percent of these 4,000 deaths occurred after US President George W. Bush announced the end of "major combat" in Iraq on May 1, 2003

March 14, 2008

Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush's Behest
EPA Scrambles To Justify Action
The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA. EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.
Read article in the Washington Post (USA)

February 29, 2008

U.S. Imprisons One in 100 Adults, Report Finds
For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults are behind bars, according to a new report. Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million, after three decades of growth that has seen the prison population nearly triple. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: Results emerging from studies at the cutting edge of the debate on crime and punishment increasingly suggest that criminal behavior may be attributable at least in part to nutritional deficiencies. To learn more, click here.

February 20, 2008

The EU Reform Treaty: A Threat to the Transatlantic Alliance
After French President Nicolas Sarkozy's and Ger ­ man Chancellor Angela Merkel's successful visits to Washington, D.C., U.S. policymakers might be for ­ given for thinking that U.S. strategic interests are now in safe hands in continental Europe. However, this optimism discounts the enormous threat posed by the Reform Treaty, which was signed in Lisbon on December 13 and is little more than the European Constitution with a cosmetic makeover. Under Chancellor Merkel's personal leadership, the European Union breathed life back into the rejected European Constitution, recasting it as the Reform Treaty. It still contains the building blocks of a United States of Europe and will shift power from the member states of the EU to Brussels in crit ­ ical areas of policymaking, including defense, secu ­ rity, and energy--areas in which the United States finds more traction on a bilateral basis. The treaty is a blueprint for restricting the sovereign right of EU member states to determine their own foreign poli ­ cies, and it poses a unique threat to the British- American Special Relationship. Above all, the treaty underscores the EU's ambi ­ tions to become a global power and challenge Ameri ­ can leadership on the world stage.
Read study by Sally McNamara on the website of The Heritage Foundation (USA)
Comment: This study is particularly notable for the fact that it recommends the United States should support calls for the United Kingdom and other European Union member states to hold referenda on the Lisbon Treaty.

February 19, 2008

La Revolucion del Castro
Fidel Castro, the Cohiba smoking, side-arm wearing, international symbol for revolution, uprising, and thumbing your nose at American hubris formally resigned the Cuban presidency today after nearly 50 years in office. Castro was the longest sitting president of any nation in modern times, having wrested away power from western puppet General Fulgencio Batista in 1959, after a 3 year guerrilla campaign waged alongside the now immortalized Argentine communist revolutionary (and sex symbol?) Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Ask just about any Cuban ex-patriot living in Miami today about Fidel Castro, and they'll likely paint a picture of a man that nationalized their lands and infrastructure, curtailed their freedoms, executed or imprisoned dissidents, and in many cases exiled them from their homeland. This is also the picture you're likely to have painted by members of the American government who have fought normalizing relations with the small communist country, even though such normalization would likely benefit American business interests. While this portrait is accurate on many levels, it fails to address much of what made Castro so seminal, both in the eyes of many of the Cuban people, as well as the rest of the world. Specifically, the rest of the world's poor and disenfranchised.
Read article at capazoo.com
Comment: To read Fidel Castro’s resignation message, click here.

February 13, 2008

Senate Votes for Expansion of Spy Powers
After more than a year of wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory on Tuesday by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants. One by one, the Senate rejected amendments that would have imposed greater civil liberties checks on the government’s surveillance powers. Finally, the Senate voted 68 to 29 to approve legislation that the White House had been pushing for months. Mr. Bush hailed the vote and urged the House to move quickly in following the Senate’s lead.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

February 11, 2008

How the spooks took over the news
In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale.
Read article in the Independent (UK)

February 8, 2008

Corporations Given ‘Human Rights,’ Humans Are Denied Them
In evaluating allegations that U.S. military forces deprived four British men of human rights during two years they were held captive in Guantanamo Bay prison, a U.S. appeals court found an innovative way to let the Bush administration off the hook. Two of three judges ruled the men — because they are not U.S. citizens and, technically, were not imprisoned in the U.S. — were not legally “persons” and, therefore, had no rights to violate. While those judges were defying common sense and decency by denying legal personhood to living human beings, an appeals court in Boston has been reviewing an April 2007 decision by Federal Judge Paul Barbadoro that engaged in a different form of judicial activism — granting human rights to corporations. Barbadoro struck down a New Hampshire law that prevented pharmaceutical corporations from learning exactly what drugs doctors prescribe and how much they prescribe. The law aims to protect doctors and, indirectly, their patients, from drug companies pressuring doctors to choose their products. The judge’s grounds? He claims corporations, as legal persons, have “free speech rights” that would be infringed by such a measure.
Read article at commondreams.org

New poll shows deep pessimism about direction of U.S. and Europe
While Americans have been saying for more than four years that their country is headed in the wrong direction, a poll shows that people in five major European countries share that pessimism about their own countries. The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24, shows a broad range of discontent in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States, especially focused on the economy. "This poll reveals an overall deep crisis of confidence in Europe and the United States," Patrick van Bloeme, chief executive of Harris Interactive France, said.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

February 4, 2008

Rule by fear or rule by law?
Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees. According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."
Read article in the San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Comment: Previously dismissed by many people as an “internet conspiracy theory”, the San Francisco Chronicle’s publication of these plans would appear to suggest that the US government could indeed be making contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens.

Poland Agrees to Host U.S. Shield
The United States and Poland reached "an agreement in principle" on missile defense Friday, prompting an angry reaction from Russia over the weekend. Poland agreed to let the U.S. military install missile interceptors on its territory after Washington consented to a demand by Warsaw's new center-right government to beef up the country's air defenses.
Read editorial in the Moscow Times (Russia)
Comment: Moscow has adamantly opposed the plans of U.S. President George W. Bush to install 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar installation in the Czech Republic, which Washington says are meant to protect against an attack by Iran or other "rogue states." The Kremlin - which believes the U.S. missile shield is directed against Russia - has threatened to target the Polish and Czech sites and to deploy missiles in the Kaliningrad region, which borders Poland.

January 30, 2008

The Fine Print
With President Bush, you always have to read the footnotes. Just before Monday night's State of the Union speech, in which Mr. Bush extolled bipartisanship, railed against government excesses and promised to bring the troops home as soon as it's safe to withdraw, the White House undermined all of those sentiments with the latest of the president's infamous signing statements.
Read editorial in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: Signing statements are documents that earlier U.S. presidents generally used to trumpet their pleasure at signing a law, or to explain how it would be enforced. Over the last seven years, however, Mr. Bush has issued hundreds of these insidious documents declaring that he had no intention of obeying a law that he had just signed. As this New York Times editorial explains, this week's signing statement provides yet more evidence that Mr. Bush never intended to end the war in Iraq – a reality that Dr. Rath has been aware of all along.

January 22, 2008

Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told
The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)
Comment: So long as the political stakeholders of the oil and drug cartel have direct access to nuclear arsenals, the world will continue to be in danger.

January 16, 2008

Warsaw ups ante for U.S. shield
The United States is headed for tough negotiations with Poland over a planned missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, with Warsaw now demanding that Washington pour hundreds of millions of dollars into improving its defense capabilities. The Bush administration considered the deal almost done under Poland's previous government, but the recently elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk has raised serious questions about the costs and benefits from the missile system for his country.
Read article in the Washington Times (USA)

January 9, 2008

Health Spending Rises to 15% of Economy, a Record Level
Health spending accounts for nearly 15 percent of the nation's economy, the largest share on record, the Bush administration said on Thursday. The Department of Health and Human Services said that health care spending shot up 9.3 percent in 2002, the largest increase in 11 years, to a total of $1.55 trillion. That represents an average of $5,440 for each person in the United States. Hospital care and prescription drugs accounted for much of the overall increase, which outstripped the growth in the economy for the fourth year in a row, the report said.
Read article in The New York Times (USA)
Comment: Despite the fact that most prescription drugs don't work for most people, spending on them accounted for 10.5 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the United States in 2002. The only beneficiaries from this expenditure are the pharmaceutical industry and the Investment 'Business With Disease'.

January 8, 2008

Big Pharma And Its Presidential Bets
These are the figures as compiled by OpenSecrets. Hillary Clinton received $269,436 from the pharma/healthcare sector, while Barak Obama garnered $261,784. Right behind was Mitt Romney, with $260,535. One caveat: this is as of Oct. 29. As an aside, it's interesting to contrast the contributions with the rhetoric. Last week, Clinton said: "I've taken on the drug companies. I've taken on the health insurance companies. I've taken on the oil companies, and I intend to keep doing it." Perhaps, she meant take them on until they contribute still more.
Read article at pharmalot.com

January 7, 2008

Poland Signals Doubts About Planned U.S. Missile-Defense Bases on Its Territory
Signaling a tougher position in negotiations with the United States on a European antiballistic-missile shield system, Poland's foreign minister says his country's new government is not prepared to accept American plans to deploy missile-defense bases in Poland until all costs and risks are considered.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)