Environmentalists Against War: Breaking News

EAW's Breaking News archive

Obama's Afghan Surge Driving Thousands From Their Homes
(Chris Floyd /Empire Burlesque)

Commentary: "Barack Obama's Bush-like "surge" in Afghanistan has not even reached its full strength yet, but it is already driving tens of thousands of Afghan civilians from their homes, as they flee an upcoming massive attack in Helmand province."
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Wars Sending US into Ruin
(Eric Margolis / Toronto Sun)

Commentary: "US President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America's economic health. In fact, it's another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug â€” debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks."
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Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways
(Michel Chossudovsky / Global Research)

The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site. Ufortunately, Socotra sits at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is of crucial importance to the US military. A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden.
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Will There Be a Doup dâ€™Ã©tat in Iraq?
(Fatih Abdulsalam / Azzaman)

Analysis: "Our democracy has been a restricted and conditional one. It has been confined to a limited circle of factions and personalities committed to a political program agreed to prior to the countryâ€™s occupation.... Have Iraqi factions, those in the government and outside, prepared themselves for the post-US Iraq? That is a question for which the answer is negative at least for the time being."
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America's Silent War in Pakistan Unmasked
(Abdus Sattar Ghazali / OpEd News)

The Pentagon's so-called "Salvador Option" (a practice of "pacification" through the use of death-squads to commit mass-murder) was first applied in Vietnam, under the rubric of the "Phoenix Program." It also has been applied in Iraq and now is coming to Pakistan, compliments of US military.
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Assassinating US Citizens Raises "Troubling Issues"
(David Edwards and Muriel Kane / Raw Story)

The admission by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair that the United States intelligence community is authorized to assassinate Americans working with terrorists overseas has raised serious questions of constitutionality.
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Brown Accused of Cover-up: PM Under Fire as Key Papers on Iraq War Are Kept Confidential
(James Chapman / The Daily Mail )

Cover-up charges fly in Britain as Prime Minister Gordon Brown is accused of having 'gagged' the Iraq inquiry by blocking the release of secret documents about the war. Lord Goldsmith condemned the Government's refusal to declassify key papers, meaning they cannot be made public or even quoted from by the inquiry panel during questioning.
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Dr Aafia Siddiqui and The Truth About US Justice
(Yvonne Ridley / Information Clearing House)

Commentary: " Many of us are still in a state of shock over the guilty verdict returned on Dr Aafia Siddiqui.... Even some of the US media expressed discomfort over the verdict returned by the jurors â€¦ there was a general feeling that something was not right.
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Afghanistan and NATO: Figleaf Summit
(Eric Walberg / )

The plan voiced at the London Afghanistan conference to pay off the Taliban is belied by the plan at the Brussels NATO conference two days earlier to bomb them into submission.
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Thousands of Civilians Flee Afghan Region as NATO Plans Onslaught
(Jon Boone / The Guardian)

Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where UK and US forces are set to launch one of the biggest operations of the year.
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Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Committee Says
(Jonathan Tirone /Bloomberg)

In a secret report, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety warns that air passengers should be made aware of the health risks of airport body screenings and governments must explain any decision to expose the public to higher levels of pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning.
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Pentagon to Increase Stock of High-Altitude Drones
(Tony Capaccio / Bloomberg)

The US military plans to more than triple its inventory of high-altitude, armed and unarmed drones capable of 24-hour patrols by 2020. The long-range aviation plan delivered to Congress Feb. 2 calls for 800 high-altitude drones, up from 220 currently.
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CIA Has Program to Assassinate US Citizens
(Thomas R. Eddlem / The New American)

The US Central Intelligence Agency has maintained an assassination list of US citizens for the last eight year and has actually assassinated Americans. In 2000, the CIA used a remotely powered drone to destroy a car in Yemen, killing a US citizen named Kamal Derwish.
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Extrajudicial Killing: Intelligence Chief Says CIA Can Kill Americans Abroad
(Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post )

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill US citizens abroad who are involved in terrorist activities if they are "taking action that threatens Americans."
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Top 10 Problems With America Assassinating Americans
(David Swanson / Global Research)

The director of US national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee the government has the right to kill Americans abroad. Here are ten reasons why this may not be such a good idea.
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What Americans Really Have to Fear
(Scott Fina / Santa Barbara Independent & Global Research)

I was among seven people arrested on January 31 for protesting outside the main gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base. My arrest had nothing to do with the security of our country, however, if convicted, my fellow protestors and I face a potential fine of $5,000 and up to one year in prison. The real story of our arrests concerns the United States Constitution.
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Muscling Latin America
(Greg Grandin / The Nation)

After Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, delivered on an election promise and refused to renew Washington's rent-free lease on an air base in his country, Washington answered with a show of force. The US and Colombia signed an agreement granting the Pentagon use of seven military bases, along with an unlimited number of as yet unspecified "facilities and locations."
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Iraq Rice Yields Slump; Rice Imports Surge
(Ali Shatab / Assaman.com)

Iraq harvested less rice this year than any other year before. Iraq currently imports about 10 times as much rice as it produces â€“ that is about 1 million tons a year.
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Decoding the Secret 'Jesus' Messages on US Military Weapons
(Brian Ross / ABC News)

In August of 2005 Trijicon was awarded a $660 million dollar, multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 of its Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) to the US Marine Corps. At the end of the scope's model number, you can read "JN8:12", which is a reference to the New Testament book of John: "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
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'Justice Denied' in CIA Shootdown of US Missionary Family
(Matthew Cole & Brian Ross / ABC News & CIA)

On February 3, 2010, Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, accused the CIA todof lying to Congress and covering up its role in the deaths of two innocent Americans, a mother and her infant daughter, at the hands of the CIA and the Peruvian Air Force nine years ago. The CIA has issued a dening the accusation.
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Cowardly Congress Lets President Drag USA Into War
( Sherwood Ross / OpEd News)

America frequently makes wars because Congress allows the White House to make the decision for war. "Congressmen and Congresswomen are almost always political cowards, and they care only about staying in office," says Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law. "They don't wish to cast a decision-making vote on war lest their individual decisions...cost them the next election."
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Army Imprisions Soldier over Anti-war Song
(Lloyd Rowsey / OpEd News & Jeff Schogol / Stars and Stripes)

The Army's "Stop-Loss" program has been called a "Backdoor Draft" and a form of illegal "enslavement" that forces soldiers to continue to risk their lives after their Army contract has expired and their term of service has ended. Army Specialist Marc Hall is in jail charged with recording a violent rap song that describes shooting those responsible for his stop-loss orders.
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Under the Army's Stop Loss Policy, American Soldiers Are Enslaved to Fight
(US Army Specialist Marc A Hall)

The Army's Stop-Loss program forces soldiers ato stay in the military even though they have already served and are finished with their contract as a soldier. Soldiers who rebel against are threatened with military scare tactics such as the Uniform Code of Military Justice which calls for a four-year prison term for anyone who dares resist.
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Hillary Clinton's Prescription: Make The World A NATO Protectorate
(Rick Rozoff / OpEd News)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was busy in London and Paris last week advancing the new Euro-Atlantic agenda for the world. When a US secretary of state speaks the world pays heed. Any nation that doesn't will suffer the consequences of that inattention, that disrespect toward the imperatrix mundi.
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Budgets, War and Blind Ambition: The Limited Minds of the American Elite
(Chris Floyd / Empire Burlesque)

The American elite's unbounded, unquestioned and unconscious sense of imperial entitlement and dominance â€” based ultimately on war, the threat of war and the profit from war â€” is one of the defining characteristics of our age. If you would like to see a glaring example, look no further than the front page of the New York Times and its analysis of the Administration's just-announced $3.8 trillion budget.
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Iraq to File Nuclear Warfare Lawsuit against US and Britain
(The Siasat Daily)

Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over the use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq. According to the reports, during the first year of the US and British invasion of Iraq, both countries had repeatedly used bombs containing depleted uranium. Atomic radiation has increased the number of babies born with defects in the southern provinces of Iraq, including Basra.
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Plan to Oust Saddam Drawn Up Two Years before Invasion
(Michael Savage, Political Correspondent / The Independent)

It has now been revealed that secret documents exist signaling that, long before the "decision was made" to topple Saddam Hussein, Britain was secretly plotting the overthrow of the Iraqi government by offering support to Iraqi dissidents and promising aid, oil and trade deals.
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Chilcot Inquiry: Iraq Invasion Had No 'Legal Basis in International Law'
(The Telegraph)

Senior British government lawyer Sir Michael Wood has told the Chilcot Inquiry that the invasion of Iraq had no "legal basis in international law." Sir Michael concluded: "In my opinion, that use of force had not been authorized by the (United Nations) Security Council, and had no other basis in international law."
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Another US War? Obama Threatens China and Iran
(Shamus Cooke / Global Research )

The possibility of yet another US war became more real last week, when the Obama administration sharply confronted both China and Iran. The first aggressive act was performed by Obama's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who 'warned' China that it must support serious economic sanctions against Iran â€” i.e., an act of war.
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US Arms for Taiwan Send Beijing a Message
(Helene Cooper)

For the past year, China has adopted an increasingly muscular position toward the United States. Now, the Obama administration has started to push back. In announcing an arms sales package to Taiwan worth $6 billion on Friday, the United States leveled a direct strike at the heart of the most sensitive diplomatic issue between the two countries since America affirmed the "one China" policy in 1972.
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Call for Blair to Face Trial in Scotland
(Eddie Barnes, Political Editor)

Eight Members of Parliament have suggested that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be brought to trial before a court in Scotland on charges that he knowingly lead the nation to war on a suite of fabrications and false information.
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The Corporate Takeover of US Democracy
(Noam Chomsky/ In These Times)

January 21, 2010, will go down as a dark day in the history of US democracy, and its decline. On that day the US Supreme Court ruled that the government may not ban corporations from political spending on elections â€” a decision that profoundly affects government policy, both domestic and international. The decision heralds even further corporate takeover of the US political system.
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Less Than Citizens (Part Two): Occupation Wars and Rights
(Nick Mottern / t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed)

As President Barack Obama begins ordering 30,000 more soldiers into the Afghanistan/Pakistan War, Michele's statement raises two fundamental questions: How is the United States using its "all volunteer" military, and is this not violating basic civil and human rights of US military personnel and their families?
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US Refuses to Allow Monitoring of WMD
(Carl Herman / The Examiner & Noel Brinkerhoff / Associated Press)

President Obama rejected inspection protocol for US biological weapons, in Orwellian contradiction to his statement to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). This comes after increased US investment in bio-weapons during the Bush Administration with multiple reports of secret and illegal programs.
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Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret CIA Raids
(James Risen & Mark Mazzetti / The New York Times)

Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the CIA’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials.
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Ecuador Says U. Helped Colombia Plan 2008 Bombing
(Hugh Bronstein / Reuters)

US intelligence from inside Ecuador was used to plan a 2008 bombing by Colombian troops that killed a top FARC guerrilla chieftain inside Ecuadorean territory. A 130-page report prepared by the Ecuadorean government says US forces then based in the Pacific coast town of Manta helped Colombian troops target Raul Reyes, No. 2 commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
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Global Warming Also Triggers Military Conflict
(Madeleine Bair / East Bay Express)

If the legislators stalling a climate agreement in Copenhagen aren't sympathetic to photos of ice caps and polar bears, perhaps the prospect of more Darfurs will catch their attention. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences links global warming to human warfare and warns that over the next 20 years, if nothing is done, projected temperature increases in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to the slaughter of an additional 400,000 Africans.
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Controling Climate Collapse Means Abolishing War and Multinational Corporations
(Harvey Wasserman / The Free Press )

Commentary: "Waste is not sustainable. Nor is its most toxic incarnation — war. War in all forms, in all places, for all reasons, is a private profit center that furthers human, ecological and financial suicide. It is deeply ingrained in the human condition. But, one way or another, war must be definitively relegated to the compost heap of evolution."
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(Ann Wright / Information Clearing House & Ben Lynfield / The Independent)

In March 2009, the US gave Egypt with $32 million for border security projects. Now details are emerging that US funds will be spent to build an underground steel wall that will be 6-7 miles long and extend 55 feet straight down into the desert sand. The steel wall is intended to cut the tunnels that go between Gaza and Egypt. The goal: to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza.
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The Pentagon Is Going Green
(Renewable Power News)

Pentagon is going for a long-term strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by deploying renewable sources of energy. The solar installation in California’s Mojave Desert and minor initiative such as a 30 MW geothermal plant at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada are only a few calls.
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Excluded from the Copenhagen Agenda: The Manipulation of Climate for Military Use
(Michel Chossudovsky / Global Research)

World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 to reach an agreement on Global Warming. The Climate Change debate focuses on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and measures to reduce CO2 emissions. Following the 1992 Earth Summit, the issue of Climate Change for military use was never raised in subsequent climate summits. The issue was erased, forgotten. It is not part of the current debate on climate change.
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Strange Lights over Norway Provoke Rumors of Military Experiments
(Daily Mail )

On December 9, a strange spiral pattern appeared in the night sky over Norway. The event was subsequently attributed to a failed Russian missile. But a similar "sky spiral" had previously occurred over Norway and both events appeared to coincide with tests at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The collider, built to simulate the "big bang" that created the Universe, has started smashing subatomic particles "at the highest energies ever reached by a human-made accelerator.”
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US Builds Up its Bases in Oil-rich South America
(Hugh O'Shaughnessy / The Independent)

The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia. The development — and the reaction of Latin American leaders to it — is further exacerbating America's already fractured relationship with much of the continent.
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ACTION ALERT: No Funds for More Wars
(EuroNews & Peaceteam & Campaign for Peace and Democracy)

US President Barack Obama’s presence in Oslo was not lost on environmentalists. “I think it does diminish the prize and it is a great disappointment and I think it undermines all of the work for peace and justice that really needs to continue happening,” said Frida Berrigan. Let the President know your thoughts. Take action by faxing, emailing, calling and writing to the White House. See the links and actions below.
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Afghanistan Massacre on Eve of Obama's Surge
(Bill Van Auken / Global Research)

With the first elements of 30,000 additional US troops set to arrive in Afghanistan next week, the massacre of as many as 15 civilians in a US raid has heightened fears that the Obama administration’s so-called surge will spell a dramatic rise in bloodletting.
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US Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan
(Noah Shachtman / Wired Magazine)

Over the past year and a half, the United States has stepped up drone strikes against militants in Pakistan — killing as many as a thousand people, by some estimates. Press accounts have largely credited the Central Intelligence Agency with running these missions. Government officials have refused to speak in public about drone attacks.
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The Secret US War in Pakistan
(Jeremy Scahill / The Nation)

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan.
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Strange Lights over Norway Provoke Rumors of Military Experiments

Obama's Rejection Speech
(David Swanson / After Downing Street & OpEd News)

Commentary: "That was not a peace prize acceptance speech. That was an infomercial for war. President Obama took the peace prize home with him, but left behind in Oslo his praise for war, his claims for war, and his view of an alternative and more peaceful approach to the world consisting of murderous economic sanctions."
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The Land Mines Obama Won’t Touch
(Bill Moyers & Michael Winship / Bill Moyers Journal (PBS))

Many people are troubled that Barack Obama flew to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize so soon after escalating the war in Afghanistan. The United States has not actively used land mines since the first Gulf War in 1991, but we still possess some 10-15 million of them, making us the third largest stockpiler in the world. Since 1987, 156 other nations have signed it, including every country in NATO. The US has refused to sign this agreement.
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No Ducking Land Mine Treaty, Mr. President
(Editorial / San Francisco Chronicle )

This country hasn't used land mines in nearly 20 years. It no longer makes the indiscriminate killers nor provides them to allies. Why then is President Obama — off to Oslo this week to collect a Nobel Peace Prize — refusing to sign an international treaty to ban the shrapnel-spewing buried bombs?
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Remarks by the President at the Acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize
(President Barack Onama / The White House)

US President Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize while defending the concept of a "just war."
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ACTION ALERT: President Obama's Wars Meet Resistance in US and Afghanistan
(Al Jazeera & Friends Committee on National Legislation)

For many Afghans, President Obama's strategy of even more troops does not fit into their vision of what will bring peace. Meanwhile, President Obama presents us with a historic opportunity to free the world of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, our Senate stands in the way of that achievement. We have to persuade Congress to support Obama's agenda for a world without nuclear weapons.
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The Environmentalists Against War Web Site Is Being Upgraded. Thank You for Your Patience
(EAW Staff)

Because of increased use of our Web site, we have been advised to transfer our files — including nearly 9,000 stories, reports and commentaries — to a larger, more robust Web-hosting system. While this transition is underway, EAW will continue to collect stories but will temporarily suspend online publication. The new material will be posted when we have made our move to the new, improved system. Thank you for your participation, your support and your patience.
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Human Rights Day, December 10, 2009

December 10, Human Rights Day, serves as an important benchmark by which to measure and evaluate U.S. efforts to rebuild the domestic economy and improve the lives of every man, woman and child.
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Obama: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
(Tom Hayden / The Peace and Justice Resource Center)

The "From King to Obama" summarizes the evolution of the American civil rights movement into the successful presidential campaign of its heir, Barack Obama. Their the comparison ends, the linkage jarring. Perhaps it has been taken down. r. King was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964 after being stabbed, beaten, and jailed across the American South. President Obama becomes the Nobel recipient only ten days after he began rushing 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan.
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ACTION ALERT: More Troops & Drones Get You the Peace Prize?
(Debra Sweet / The World Can't Wait )

Commentary: When it was first announced that Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, I asked "What about the Nobel prize for war-mongers?" Some people unsubscribed from this newsletter, offended that I was pointing out a contradiction that much of the world sees easily enough. On Saturday, December 12, there will be a demonstration across from White House in Lafayette Park from 11 AM to 4 PM/
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Review: 'Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War'
(Sally Pollak / Burlington Free Press)

On the eve of President Obama’s announcement that he will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, a film about the environmental impact of war describes a number of ways in which war degrades the environment, from land mines that destroy and disrupt agricultural practices to the damage inflicted by the bombing of oil refineries and other chemical plants, to the risks posed by oil-filled World War II tankers that are deteriorating under sea in the Pacific Rim.
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CIA to Expand Use of Drones in Pakistan
(Scott Shane / The New York Times)

Two weeks ago in Pakistan, Central Intelligence Agency sharpshooters killed eight people suspected of being militants wounded two others in a compound that was said to be used for terrorist training. Then, the job in North Waziristan done, the CIA officers could head home from the agency’s Langley, Va., headquarters. It was only the latest strike by the agency’s covert program to kill using people using missiles fired from Predator aircraft controlled from half a world away.
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US May Widen Drone Strikes in Pakistan
(Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press)

The Obama administration is considering widening missile strikes on al-Qaida and the Taliban inside Pakistan and is planning to bolster the training of Pakistan's forces in a key border battleground where militants fuel the escalating Afghan insurgency.
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Pakistan Slams US Drone-attack Plans
(Tom Mellen / Morning Star )

Islamabad slammed US plans to expand drone attacks into Baluchistan, warning that they would serve to further destabilise the country. US President Barack Obama, a Nobel peace laureate, has authorised an expansion of remote-controlled CIA-operated air strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas.
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Obama's War
(Jim Hightower / The Creators Syndicate)

Cut the music, slow the rush, and let's all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into ... and whether we really want to go there. After all, just because the White House and the Pentagon brass are waving the flag and insisting that a major escalation of America's military mission in Afghanistan is a "necessity" doesn't mean it is ... or that We the People must accept it.
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A Tragic Mistake
(Bob Herbert / New York Times)

After going through an extended period of highly ritualized consultations, the president has arrived at a decision that will prove to be a tragic mistake. It would have been much more difficult for Mr. Obama to explain why it is in our best interest to begin winding down the permanent state of warfare left to us by the Bush and Cheney regime. It would have taken real courage for the commander in chief to stop feeding our young troops into the relentless meat grinder of Afghanistan.
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ACTION ALERT: Obama's Escalation Will Be Immediately Opposed
(Harvey Wasserman / The Free Press)

Tonight at 8pm EST President Barack Obama is set to announce his commitment to the worst blunder in US policy since Lyndon Johnson escalated the Vietnam War. There were those who knew the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” on which LBJ's war powers had been based was a complete deception. But it was not until the mass marches on the Pentagon and elsewhere in 1967 that one could say a truly national grassroots anti-war movement had taken shape. Find out about planned protests in YOUR neighborhood.
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War Fraud Whistleblowers Under Wraps
(Dina Rasor / t r u t h o u t | Special Investigative Report)

Recently, the Congressional Research Service released an amazing statistic — it will cost one million dollars a year to support one soldier for one year in Afghanistan. This number partly the cost of private contractors. Estimates for the numbers of contractors have been as high as one contractor for every soldier. One of the reasons for the high costs of maintaining each soldier is the lack of oversight of private contractor billings over the course of these two wars.
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Iraq Sees Alarming Rise in Cancers, Deformed Babies
(Suadad al-Salhy / Reuters )

Incidences of cancer, deformed babies and other health problems have risen sharply, Iraqi officials say, and many suspect contamination from weapons used in years of war and accompanying unchecked pollution as a cause. In the city of Falluja, scene of two of the fiercest battles between US troops and insurgents after the 2003 US invasion, a spike in the number of births of stillborn, deformed and paralyzed babies has alarmed doctors.
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ACTION ALERT: Prepare to Protest Afghan Escalation
(World Can’t Wait & Progressive Democrats of America)

On Tuesday, December 1st, President Obama will announce plans to expand the occupation of Afghanistan with 34,000 more troops. This is not a "good" war. Afghanistan is now really Obama's war. The richest country with the most powerful highly militarized empire is destroying one of the poorest countries.
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Veterans Oppose US Afghan War Surg
(Nick Spicer / Al Jazeera)

While most US war veterans tend to be supportive of their country's military operations abroad, some have been voicing their opposition to any escalation. A number of these veterans have stepped before the cameras in an attempt to bring added attention to their concerns.
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ACTION ALERT: Saharan Peace Hero Fasts to Return to her West Saharan Home
(Cindy Cooper / On the Issues Magazine & Giles Tremlett / The Observer & The Robert F. Kennedy Center)

Aminatou Haidar, known as the "Gandhi" of the Western Sahara for her advocacy for the human rights of her people, was stopped from returning home after returning from New York where she received an award for her nonviolent advocacy. On November 15, Haider began a hunger strike on a mat in the airport. Thousands of supporters (including filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar) have flocked to the airport to demanding justice for Aminatou Haidar.
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Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan
(Jeremy Scahill / The Nation)

In a stunning investigation just posted at TheNation.com, Jeremy Scahill reveals a covert military operation being run almost entirely by Blackwater, USA, a military contractor embroiled in controversy for their actions in Iraq and the Middle East. The operation that includes planning targeted assassinations, "snatch and grabs" and other sensitive actions inside and outside Pakistan. This is a program that not even some Senior Level Obama Administration and Pentagon officials are aware of.
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"Profits of Doom": New Computer Game Teaches Militarism
(Chris Nuttal / The Financial Times)

Dean Takahashi, video game author, longtime player and writer for the Venturebeat blog, says he was shocked by the scene. "You really do cross a line when you give the player no options except to be a very evil character. In that scene, you can't stop the slaughter from happening. Most games give you an option of choosing between being good or evil." Still, he maintains, the sequence is softened by few women and no children or elderly people being mowed down...
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ACTION ALERT: Bills to Stop the Afghan Surge
(US Rep. Barbara Lee and The Peace and Justice Resource Center)

While thousands of peace activists flooded the White House with calls, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced her legislation, HR 3699, prohibiting taxpayer funds for more combat troops to Afghanistan.
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National Call-in Against War Nov. 23-25
(Kevin Zeese / Voters for Peace)

For three days, people from every corner of the country will be flooding the White House with calls. We oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan; we want the troops that are there now to be brought home! If you cannot get through on Monday, call on Tuesday or Wednesday.
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Deformed babies in Fallujah: Letter to the United Nations
(Dr Nawal Majeed Al-Sammarai, Former Iraq Minister of Women's Affairs/ UN Observer)

Young women in Fallujah in Iraq are terrified of having children because of the increasing number of babies born grotesquely deformed, with no heads, two heads, a single eye in their foreheads, scaly bodies or missing limbs. In addition, young children in Fallujah are now experiencing hideous cancers and leukaemias. These deformities are now well documented.
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ACTION ALERT: Tell President Obama: No to Escalation in Afghanistan
(Matt Lockshin / Credo Action)

Despite over $1 trillion in costs and the majority of Americans opposing escalation, President Obama continues to move towards increased military action in Afghanistan. Less than a 100 members of Al Qaeda remain in the country. American activities are believed to be a destabilizing force in neighboring, nuclear-armed Pakistan. A corrupt Karzai government is being propped up by American intervention. The cost of escalation is estimated to be another $100 billion.
/know/read.php?itemid=8933

Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
(Dahr Jamail / Inter Press Service)

US Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas. Hutchinson has been threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 15.
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ACTION ALERT: Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
(Friends of Alexis and Courage to Resist)

Take action to protest the treatment of single mother, Specialist Alexis Hutchinson who has stated: "It is outrageous that [the US Army] would deploy a single mother without a complete and current family care plan. I would like to find someone I trust who can take care of my son, but I cannot force my family to do this. They are dealing with their own health issues."
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EAW EVENT: Book Tour: Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War
(EAW cosponsors Mark Danner's San Francisco appearance)

Mark Danner’s latest book, Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War (Nation Books), was released in October. Environmentalists Against War is pleased to be a co-sponsor of Danner’s visit to San Francisco for a book-reading at the Booksmith Bookstore. The date is Friday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.
/know/read.php?itemid=8927

Orlando Shooter, US Army Fort Hood Shooter both Linked to Psychiatric Drugs
(Mike Adams / NaturalNews Editor)

As an army psychiatrist, US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was allowed to prescribe powerful psychiatric drugs to both his patients and himself. Many psychiatrists self-medicate, and Hasan was extremely anxious about the possibility of being sent overseas by the army. In almost every major mass shooting over the past two decades, since anti-depressant drugs became popular, the killer has been on SSRI's — serotonin reuptake inhibitors."
/know/read.php?itemid=8928

Was Fort Hood Killer On Psychotropic Drugs?
(Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet.com )

In almost every major mass shooting over the past two decades, since anti-depressant drugs became popular, the killer has been on SSRI’s – serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Psychiatrists have a history of “self-medication” because of the easy access they have to psychotropic drugs.
/know/read.php?itemid=8929

Realities of War Conference: Nov 8, 2009. in San Diego
(University of California at San Diego Student Groups & Supporters)

Realities of War Conference with Congressmember Bob Filner, USMC Veteran Cpl, Rick Reyes, TV/radio host Bree Walker, more. The day's events and workshops will be followed by a sunset vigil "Bring their Buddies Home" along N Torry Pines Rd "We wil provide each participant with a memorial page to wear bearing the name of a US military fatality in war."
/know/read.php?itemid=8926

Video: Atrocities Haunt DRC Child Soldiers
(BBC World News)

The abduction of children by militias which then force them to work as soldiers, porters and sex slaves has been a long-term and widespread problem in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). But in the past few months, fighting between the DRC army and Rwandan Hutu rebels and other militias has intensified, deepening the crisis for the country's youth.
/know/read.php?itemid=8921

Police Relaunch Lockerbie Bombing Investigation
(Robert Mendick and Andrew Alderson / The Telegraph )

Detectives have relaunched the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing and are pursuing several new lines of inquiry including a fresh analysis of forensic evidence. Authorities secretly ordered the re-examination of all evidence following the decision by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop his appeal against his conviction for mass murder. The relatives of British victims of the terrorist attack have launched a campaign for an independent public inquiry into who ordered and carried out the bombing.
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ACTION ALERT: Defend Independence of Honduras' Garifuna Community Hospital
(Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC) & Willie Thompson / San Francisco Bay View)

The Garifuna built their hospital brick by brick after President Manuel Zelaya gave the go-ahead. All 10 Garifuna doctors who staff it were trained in Cuba. The Honduran de facto coup government under Roberto Micheletti plans to eliminate the Honduran Garifuna people and culture. Micheletti has rescinded the Manuel Zelaya authorization to teach in the Garifuna language in school and to teach the language itself. All scholarships to Garifuna students have been eliminated.
/know/read.php?itemid=8923

Mysterious Deaths of Two Nuclear Test Ban Prompts Concern
(Anonymous Source to EAW & CTBTO )

An anonymous source with information concerning the mysterious deaths of two CTBTO employees, recently sent the following collection of articles to Environmentalists Against War, drawing attention to the mysterious suicide death of British nuclear expert Dr. Timothy Hampton.
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Beware a Times/Pentagon "Virtual Coup" on Afghanistan
(Harvey Wasserman / The Free Press)

Some military coups are still done the old-fashioned way. Tanks surround the capital, generals grab the radio station, the slaughter begins. When the Pentagon wants to trash inconvenient opposition and escalate yet another war, it seeks subtler means. For example the "virtual coup" now being staged in league with the New York Times, aimed at plunging us catastrophically deeper into Afghanistan.
/know/read.php?itemid=8917

Did World War II Really End the Great Depression?
(Richard W. Fulmer • November 2009 • Vol. 59/Issue 9)

Commentary: "Contrary to popular belief, the “public works program” known as World War II did not end the Great Depression; it ended the New Deal. The end of the war brought federal spending and tax cuts and the repeal of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. All these changes combined to pull the nation’s economy out of its long and painful slide, and all could have been made without the war."
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America Appeals to Extradite Russia's Alleged "Merchant of Death"
(Richard S. Ehrlich / The Free Press)

Newly obtained documents, prepared by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), portray an elaborate sting operation to capture alleged weapons trafficker Viktor Bout in Bangkok and extradite him to New York. Bout, a Russian citizen, has been dubbed "The Merchant of Death" for his long years as an alleged international weapons dealer involved in illegal and legal transfers.
/know/read.php?itemid=8919

New Study of 1960's Baby Teeth Reveals Nuclear Fallout Increased US Cancer Deaths
(Kim McGuire / St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Following the discovery of 85,000 baby teeth donated in the 1960s to study Strontium-90 fallout, a New York-based research group has released new findings that suggest male tooth donors who ended up with cancer as adults had double the amount of a radioactive isotope created by nuclear fallout than healthy donors who participated in the original St. Louis study. "The toll from bomb fallout is probably far greater than prior estimates," says Joseph Mangano, the lead study author.
/know/read.php?itemid=8920

Message for United Nations Day, October 24, 2009
(Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon)

The anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter on 24 October 1945 has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. It has traditionally been marked throughout the world by meetings, discussions and exhibits on the achievements and goals of the Organization. In 1971, the General Assembly recommended that Member States observe it as a public holiday. (resolution 2782 (XXVI)).
/know/read.php?itemid=8913

The Nuclear Double-Standard and Global Disarmament
(Riz Khan / Al Jazeera)

How does the disclosure of Iran's second nuclear site affect global efforts for nuclear disarmament? Israel says it "expects the international community to take substantive and prompt steps to halt Iran's military nuclear program." But what about Israel's nuclear arsenal? Interviews with Richard Burt, former chief US negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks and journalist Gideon Spiro.
/know/read.php?itemid=8914

The Iran Versus US-Israeli-NATO Threats
(Edward S. Herman and David Peterson / Monthly Review)

Analysis: It is spell-binding to see how the US establishment can inflate the threat of a target, no matter how tiny, remote, and (most often) non-existent that threat may be, and pretend that the real threat posed by its own behavior and policies is somehow defensive and related to that wondrously elastic thing called "national security."
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Top Ten Reasons President Obama Should Give Back the Nobel Peace Prize
(Bruce A. Dixon / Black Agenda Report)

At the Nobel announcement of this year's peace prize a reporter asked the Nobel spokesman “why”, since the man had only been in office less than a year, and had done so little to merit the honor. The spokesman replied that the prize had been given not so much for anything Obama had done, but in the spirit of hope and encouragement, for what he might do. Maybe.
/know/read.php?itemid=8916

Former Uruguayan President Jailed for Murder and State Terrorism: Abetted by US CIA
(Al Jazeera & Associated Press)

A former military dictator of Uruguay has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for murder and rights violations during his rule. Gregorio Alvarez was convicted of 37 "aggravated homicides." About 150 Uruguayans disappeared in the secret flights from Argentina in the late 1970s and an additional 29 people went missing in Uruguay, according to a commission of families of the detained and missing. US intelligence services provide secret help in "Operation Condor."
/know/read.php?itemid=8909

Rape Used as Weapon in DR Congo War
(Mohammed Adow / Al Jazeera )

The Democratic Republic of Congo is grappling with rampant rape, which has become an every day practice and is used as a weapon of war, the UN has said. It said almost 5,400 cases of rape against women were reported in the South Kivu province during the first six months of the year.
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START 'Cheating' — Russia Violating Treaty, Developing Missile
(Bill Gertz / The Washington Times)

Republicans in the Senate are gearing up to battle the Obama administration over the high-priority plan to finish a new arms-control treaty with Russia before the end of the year. The current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which is set to expire Dec. 5. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and No. 2 Republican Senate leader, has accused Russia leaders of cheating by converting one of their existing missiles, the Topol-M, to a new multiple-warhead variant.
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Do Candy-Eating Kids Become Criminal Adults?
(Alice Park/ Time Magazine)

According to a new study, kids who eat too many treats at a young age risk becoming violent in adulthood. The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University. He discovered that "kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers, and that these kids had terrible diets — breakfast was a Coke and a bag of chips."
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David Kilcullen's Plan for Washington's 50-Year War
(Tom Hayden / The Nation)

The death of capture of Osama bin Laden would not bring our troops home. Not as long as top military intellectuals envision a prolonged cold war against Al Qaeda, with hot wars along the way. It happens that the Long War is over Muslim lands rich with oil, natural gas and planned pipelines. The Pentagon identifies them as hostile terrain where Al Qaeda and its affiliates are hidden.
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Goldstone Dares US on Gaza Report
(Al Jazeera)

Richard Goldstone, the jurist who authored a UN report accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity during its war on Gaza, has challenged the US to justify its claims that his findings are flawed and biased. Goldstone has stated: "I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws in the report that they have identified are. I would be happy to respond to them, if and when I know what they are." VIDEO Interview.
/know/read.php?itemid=8906

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