EAW's Breaking News archive

Floating Chernobyls
(Karl Grossman / OpEd News)

Russia has embarked on a scheme to build floating nuclear power plants to be moored off its coasts and sold to nations around the world but critics warn the plants would pose unprecedented hazards in the event of failure while promoting the risks of nuclear proliferation and providing irresistible targets for terrorism.
/know/read.php?itemid=9846

Now Showing: Countdown to Zero
(Hugh Gusterson / The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists)

It is unclear whether nuclear weapons will be abolished, but it is clear that the nuclear abolitionist movement is now being mainstreamed. Exhibit A in this process is the new general release film, Countdown to Zero, made by the same team that brought us An Inconvenient Truth. The movie's slogan: "More than a movie. It's a movement."
/know/read.php?itemid=9847

Cutting through the Media's Bogus Bomb-Iran Debate
(Tony Karon / Al Jazeera)

America's march to a disastrous war in Iraq began in the media, where an unprovoked US invasion of an Arab country was introduced as a legitimate policy option, then debated as a prudent and necessary one. Now, a similarly flawed media conversation on Iran is gaining momentum. The debate's ultimate purpose is to plant in the public mind the idea that a march to war with Iran.
/know/read.php?itemid=9848

Afghanistan's Dirty Little Secret
(Joel Brinkley / San Francisco Chronicle)

Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then, British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch and fondle them," military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told me. "The soldiers didn't understand."
/know/read.php?itemid=9849

What Obama Might Have Told the Nation
(Ray McGovern / opednews.com)

Commentary from a 27-year veteran of the CIA: "President Barack Obama's aides say his speech marking the end of 'combat operations' in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We'll see. On the chance Obama might be open to... addressing honestly the worsening quagmire in Afghanistan. I have offered him the following text."
/know/read.php?itemid=9842

Another False Ending: Contracting Out the Iraq Occupation
(Bill Quigley and Laura Raymond / TruthOut)

Another false ending to the Iraq war is being declared. Nearly seven years after George Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, President Obama has given a major address to mark the withdrawal of all but 50,000 combat troops from Iraq. But while thousands of troops are marching out, thousands of private military contractors are marching in. The number of armed contractors in Iraq will more than double.
/know/read.php?itemid=9843

KBR to Execute Two Refinery Contracts for Iraq's Oil Ministry
(Marketwire via Comtex)

"Halliburton has made a sizeable investment in Iraq," says Halliburton Chair Dave Lesar. Halliburton has been active in the Middle East since 1946. Currently, Halliburton has more than 4,000 employees in the Middle East, and construction on phase I of Halliburton's 400-man base in Burjisia, Iraq is complete.
/know/read.php?itemid=9844

US Contractors Kill Afghan Children; US Planes Kill Afghan Kids: Coalition Forces Kill US Contractors; Coalition Forces Kill Civilians; US Fires on 2000 Afghan Protesters
(PressTV & CNN News Wire & Morning Star)

Riots in Ghazni after two civilians are killed by foreign contractors. US-led warplanes are blamed for killing six Afghan children. Two private security contractors are killed by coalition forces who mistook them for insurgents. US troops fire on thousands of civilians protesting outside the US base at Bagram. Foreign troops kill eight civilians and injure 12 in a 2am raid on a private home.
/know/read.php?itemid=9845

Greenpeace 'Shuts Down' Arctic Oil Rig
(Severin Carrell and Bibi van der Zee / The Guardian)

Demonstrating considerably more strategic wisdom and humanitarian sense than the Israeli Defense Force that attacked a Gaza aide flotilla (and killing several passengers), Greenpeace claims to have shut down an offshore drilling rig in a daring pre-dawn raid. Greenpeace opposes the British company's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic. Four climbers have begun a nonviolent occupation of the rig.
/know/read.php?itemid=9838

N Disarmament Conference Closes with Call for Nuclear-Free Middle East
(Kohei Okada / Chugoku Shimbun & Hiroshima Peace Media)

Of gravest concern are the nuclear issues vexing Northeast Asia and the Middle East. In the closing session of the final day, government officials from the United States and Iran were at loggerheads over Israel. The former is a staunch supporter of Israel, while the latter is disapproving of its neighbor.
/know/read.php?itemid=9839

Ex-USSR Awash in Radioactive 'Dirty Bomb' Substances
(Agence France-Presse)

The entire territory of the former Soviet Union is awash in radioactive material that was used in Soviet times for some 30 various ministries and services, in medicine or agriculture. Hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium lie in storage at industrial sites -- "one can take bagfuls of them."
/know/read.php?itemid=9840

The Cost of Weapons: Defense Spending in a Time of Austerity
(The Economist)

At this summer's Farnborough air show, outside London, America's most advanced fighter, the F-22 Raptor, announced its power with a thunderous roar. But the fighter is an endangered species. The weapon that US field commanders clamor for these days is the Predator, an unmanned drone able to stay aloft for a day.
/know/read.php?itemid=9841

Rights Groups File Challenge To Targeted Killing By US
(Center for Constitutional Rights)

Will the US government get away with the power to target and kill individuals, including US citizens, far from any armed conflict and without charge, trial, or judicial process? This is the central question in Al-Aulaqi v. Obama, a lawsuit CCR and the ACLU filed today in federal court.
/know/read.php?itemid=9834

War Veterans/Military Family Members Successfully Blockade Fort Hood Combat Deployment to Iraq
(Fort Hood Disobeys)

On August 23 five peace activists successfully blockaded six buses carrying Fort Hood Soldiers deploying to Iraq. Among those blockading were three veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and one military wife. This latest deployment comes less than two weeks after President Obama announced the second end to combat operations in Iraq. The 3rd ACR is a combat regiment.
/know/read.php?itemid=9835

Iraq's Troubled Young Hearts
(Victoria Fine / Al Jazeera)

After 7 years of US occupation and "nation-building," Iraq's decimated healthcare system cannot meet the need for pediatric heart surgery. In all, the waiting list is above 20,000.
/know/read.php?itemid=9836

Pentagon Plots Attack on Internet in the Name of “Defense”
(Ellen Nakashima
 / Washington Post )

The Pentagon is contemplating an aggressive approach to defending its computer systems that includes preemptive actions such as knocking out parts of an adversary's computer network overseas -- but it is still wrestling with how to pursue the strategy legally.
/know/read.php?itemid=9837

Review: The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's
(Andrew Feldman / Foreign Policy in Focus)

This is the paradox of post-September 11 America: While the US government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on war, spying, and covert operations, people in the United States still imagine that they are "the greatest victims on the planet" -- even as US drone aircraft evaporate weddings and funerals across the Middle East.
/know/read.php?itemid=9829

Torture. Corruption. Civil War. America Has Certainly Left its Mark

 in Iraq
(Robert Fisk

/ The Independent)

We should not be taken in by the tomfoolery on the Kuwaiti border -- the departure of the last "combat" troops from Iraq. Nor by the infantile cries of "We won" from teenage soldiers. They are leaving behind 50,000 men and women -- a third of the entire US occupation force -- who will be attacked and who will still have to fight against the insurgency.
/know/read.php?itemid=9831

Scared Women Are Packing Pistols in Iraq
(Nizar Latif, Foreign Correspondent / The National)

Each night before she goes to sleep, Umm Shekar checks to make sure her pistol is loaded and tucks it beneath her mattress. Increasingly worried about being robbed by criminal gangs or insurgents, the mother of six bought the weapon so she could defend herself and her family.
/know/read.php?itemid=9832

Is the US Pulling the Plug on Iraqi Workers?
(David Bacon / TruthOut Report)

The Iraqi government, while it seems paralyzed on many fronts, has unleashed a wave of actions against the country's unions that are intended to take Iraq back to the era when Saddam Hussein prohibited them for most workers, and arrested activists who protested. Arrest warrants have been issued for oil union leaders. At the US Embassy in Baghdad, the largest in the world, an official says mildly, "We're looking into it."
/know/read.php?itemid=9833

ACTION ALERT: 97 Congressional Candidates Oppose War Spending
(Coalition Against War Spending)

Ninety-seven congressional candidates and 34 national organizations are opposing any more funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The 97 candidates are from 29 states and Washington, D.C., and include 32 Greens, 24 Libertarians, 22 Democrats, 7 Independent Greens, 5 Independents, 4 Peace and Freedom, 1 Republican, 1 Socialist, and 1 West Virginia Green. Eighty-four are candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, and 13 for the Senate.
/know/read.php?itemid=9825

Pakistan: A Question of Water
(Gwynne Dyer / Common Dreams)

This may not be the most tactful time to bring it up, with much of Pakistan underwater and many millions homeless, but Pakistan's real problem is not too much water. It is too little water -- and one day it could cause a war.
/know/read.php?itemid=9826

Israeli Soldiers Sell Gaza Flotilla Passengers’ Computers and Steal Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Cash
(Ann Wright / CommonDreams)

Despite appeals from 750 passengers on the Gaza flotilla to the Israeli government to protect and return their personal belongings -- taken by Israeli commandos on when they forcefully boarded the six ships of the flotilla -- the Israeli government has left millions of dollars of computers, cameras and cell phones and hundreds of thousands of cash unsecured and uninventoried.
/know/read.php?itemid=9827

War and the American Identity
(David Swanson / David Swanson.org)

"Prior to World War II, Americans by and large viewed military power and institutions with skepticism, if not outright hostility. In the wake of World War II, that changed. An affinity for military might emerged as central to the American identity. The methods devised by Allen Dulles and... Curtis LeMay ... [have] allowed presidents to assert and exercise quasi-imperial prerogatives."
/know/read.php?itemid=9828

Torture. Corruption. Civil War. America Has Certainly Left its Mark

 in Iraq
(Robert Fisk

/ The Independent)
/know/read.php?itemid=9830

Yemen 'Abandons' Human Rights
(Andrew Wander / Al Jazeera)

Under pressure from the Pentagon, Yemen has engaged in police and military actions that have lead to massive violations of human rights. Amnesty International says that over the past year, the Yemeni government has carried out vicious military campaigns, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings under the banner of the US "War on Terror" against Al-Qaeda.
/know/read.php?itemid=9821

Is the US Pulling the Plug on Iraqi Workers?
(David Bacon / TruthOut Report)

The Iraqi government, while it seems paralyzed on many fronts, has unleashed a wave of actions against the country's unions that are intended to take Iraq back to the era when Saddam Hussein prohibited them for most workers, and arrested activists who protested.
/know/read.php?itemid=9822

US Wars: People vs Generals
(Marwan Bishara / Al Jazeera Blog)

Commentary: "While the Obama administration continues to affirm its intention to withdraw US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the US' military presence in the Muslim world is actually expanding and this is exacerbating tensions and inflaming animosities."
/know/read.php?itemid=9823

The Pat Tillman Story, a Documentary Movie
(Mark Biskeborn / OpEd News)

Review: "Once he enlisted with his brother Kevin in 2002, Pat Tillman was worth more to the Army dead than alive. By 2004, the military was having serious problems to recruit more men to fight the war, much less to gain public support for the invasion of Iraq. By 2004, Pat Tillman was promoted as a unit leader and was the only one killed by someone in his own unit."
/know/read.php?itemid=9824

An Exciting New Muslim Country to Drone Attack
(Glenn Greenwald / Salon)

After the US attacked suspected Al-Qaida targets in Yemen with three Cruise missile strikes the Pentagon claimed it needed to increase use of drone aircraft because "Yemen poses a threat to the US." But a US Cruise missile attack on June 7, 2010, killed 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children. It appears that it is the US that is a threat to Yemen.
/know/read.php?itemid=9817

Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents
(Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Robert F. North / The New York Times)

The Obama administration's shadow war against Al Qaeda and its allies has been quietly expanded to a dozen countries. From the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics, the US has increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists.
/know/read.php?itemid=9818

False Flag Operations: When Governments Secretly Attack Themselves To Foment War
(WantToKnow.info)

"False flag terrorism" occurs when elements within a government stage a secret operation whereby government forces pretend to be a targeted enemy while attacking their own forces or people. The attack is then falsely blamed on the enemy in order to justify going to war against that enemy.
/know/read.php?itemid=9819

Facing Prison for Filming US police
(Chris Arsenault / Al Jazeera)

When police arrested Anthony Graber for speeding on his motorbike, the 25-year-old probably did not see himself as an advocate for police accountability in the age of new media. But Graber, a sergeant with the Maryland Air National Guard, is now facing 16 years in prison, not for dangerous driving, but for a YouTube video he posted after receiving a speeding ticket.
/know/read.php?itemid=9820

Another US-Inflicted "Ground Zero" in Pakistan
(William N. Grigg / Libertarian Standard)

If opinion polls are reliable at all, most Americans are too enthralled by the manufactured outrage over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque to notice that the government claiming to represent them just massacred, via remote-controlled drone, at least twenty innocent people in Pakistan.
/know/read.php?itemid=9813

Stryker Soldiers Allegedly Plotted to Kill Afghan Civilians
(Hal Bernton / Seattle Times)

Last December, Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs began joking with other soldiers about how easy it would be to "toss a grenade" at Afghan civilians and kill them, according to statements made by fellow platoon members to military investigators. Gibbs eventually turned the talk into action, forming what one called a "kill team" to carry out random executions of Afghans.
/know/read.php?itemid=9814

Wikileaks Releases CIA 'Exporter of Terrorism' Report
(BBC News and WikiLeaks)

This CIA "Red Cell" report looks at what will happen if it is internationally understood that the US is an exporter of terrorism. "Contrary to common belief, the American export of terrorism or terrorists is not a recent phenomenon.... The report looks at a number cases of US exported terrorism, including attacks by US-based or nanced Jewish, Muslim and Irish-nationalism terrorists."
/know/read.php?itemid=9815

'Gas Poisoning' Hits Afghan Girls
(Al Jazeera)

Dozens of students and teachers at a girls' school in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, have been sickened by an unknown gas that spread through classrooms. Wednesday's incident raised fears that the Taliban and other allied groups who oppose female education are using a new method to scare them away from classes.
/know/read.php?itemid=9816

Danish Warship Blocks Greenpeace Arctic Oil Protest
(Severin Carrell and Kirsty Scott / The Guardian)

In a standoff chillingly reminiscent of Israel’s confrontation with a relief convoy heading to Gaza, the Danish navy is bearing down on the Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, warning that it will be boarded by armed personnel if it breaches the exclusion zone to protest deep-sea drilling in the Arctic.
/know/read.php?itemid=9809

Space Warfare: Preparing the "Battlespace" for a New Imperial Adventure
(Tom Burghardt / Global Research)

General Lance W. Lord, then-commander of the Air Force Space Command told an Air Force conference that "space superiority ... is our destiny... Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future." And with no public debate whatsoever, new weapons programs spawned in the bowels of the Pentagon's black budget parallel universe are on coming on-line.
/know/read.php?itemid=9810

What You Will Not Hear About Iraq
(Prof. Adil E. Shamoo / Foreign Policy In Focus & Global Research)

Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq.
/know/read.php?itemid=9811

Civilians to Take US Lead After Military Leaves Iraq
(Micahel R. Gordon / The New York Times)

As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void. The State Department is planning to more than double its private security guards -- up to as many as 7,000 -- to defend the sprawling Green Zone and five fortified compounds across the country.
/know/read.php?itemid=9812

ACTION ALERT: Use Pakistan's Military Funding to Flood Recovery
(The Campaign for Peace and Democracy & Labour Party Pakistan)

The recent floods represent the worst disaster in Pakistan's history. The country has been devastated. The State, stripped of its capacity to meet peoples' needs by neoliberalism and militarism alike, has been found wanting. In addition to donating funds, people are invited to sign a petition calling for priorities that value people's over the demands of Pakistan's military.
/know/read.php?itemid=9805

Israelis Risk Jail to Smuggle Palestinians
(Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent / The National)

Nearly 600 Israelis have signed up for a campaign of civil disobedience, vowing to risk jail to smuggle Palestinian women and children into Israel for a brief taste of life outside the occupied West Bank. The protest was inspired by Ilana Hammerman, a writer threatened with prosecution after she admitted breaking the law to bring three Palestinian teenagers into Israel for a day out.
/know/read.php?itemid=9806

Soldiers Expose Deployment of Unprepared Troops
(Civilian-Soldier & Iraq Veterans Against War)

Army Reserve members facing imminent deployment to Afghanistan are publicly charging that their company is not properly trained or mentally fit for battle. Several members of the Indiana-based 656th Transportation Company, which is due to activate August 22nd, are requesting a Congressional inquiry into the unit's lack of readiness.
/know/read.php?itemid=9807

JihadiLeaks: How the Mujahideen See the Afghan War
(The Unjust Media)

Each day, Afghanistan's Mujahideen fighters file email reports on the latest clashes with US and NATO "terrorists." The report for August 23 claims that -- in the course of a single day -- Afghan fighters managed to kill more than 45 US soldiers, blew up 14 US tanks, and destroyed 55 vehicles. Even if only one-tenth of these reports were, it would mean the Pentagon's Afghan offensive is in big trouble.
/know/read.php?itemid=9808

Why the Wars Can't Be Won
(Prof. John Kozy / Global Research)

Analysis: "What did the Civil War really accomplish? It united a nation without uniting its people. The USA became one nation indivisible made up of two disunited peoples; it became a nation divided, and the division has spread. Therein lies a lesson. By the force of arms, you can compel outward conformity to political institutions and their laws, but you cannot change the antagonistic attitudes of people, that can remain unchanged for decades and longer."
/know/read.php?itemid=9801

ACTION ALERT: The Iraq Legacy: Tell It Like It Is
(Medea Benjamin / OpEd News)

With the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq, the administration, the military and the media are trying to put a positive spin on this grim chapter of US history. But the bitter truth is that the US intervention has been an utter disaster for both Iraq and the United States. ACTION: Sign the "Iraq Debacle Petition!" to support the victims of this war -- at home and abroad.
/know/read.php?itemid=9802

Back to the Heart of Darkness in America's Unended War in Iraq
(Chris Floyd / Chris Floyd.com)

"Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent Into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death," details how a team of US soldiers carried out the premeditated rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family. Just one crime of many in a war that killed a million innocent civilians. So did the war accomplish anything. Yes. This just in: "Halliburton gets letter of intent for Iraq oil."
/know/read.php?itemid=9803

(Juan Gonzales & Amy Goodman / Democracy Now!)

Is this the end of the Iraq war or just a rebranding of the US occupation? More than 50,000 troops remain in Iraq as well as 4,500 special operations forces and tens of thousands of private contractors. The US embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world -- the size of eighty football fields. Two Iraqi activists give a harrowing, personal account of life in the ruins of "post-combat" Iraq.
/know/read.php?itemid=9804

United Nations Report Criticizes Gaza Restrictions
(Ethan Bronner / The New York Times)

A UN report says 12 percent of the population of Gaza -- 178,000 people out of 1.5 million -- have lost livelihoods or have otherwise been severely affected by Israeli security policies. The report estimates that the restricted land comprises 17 percent of Gaza's total land and 35 percent of its agricultural land. Israel also restricts Gazan fishing to three nautical miles offshore.
/know/read.php?itemid=9797

Between the Fence and a Hard Place: The Impact of Israel-Imposed Restrictions in Gaza
(United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs )

Over the past ten years, the Israeli military has expanded restrictions on access to farmland on the Gaza side of the 1949 "Green Line." An estimated 178,000 people -- 12 percent of the Palestinians population -- is being prevented from enjoying full access to ancestral lands located 1,000-1,500 meters from the Green Line. Access restrictions are enforced by opening live fire on people trying to enter the areas.
/know/read.php?itemid=9798

New York Times Spins UN Report on Gaza Suffering
(Jeremy R. Hammond / Foreign Policy Journal)

The Times article gives weight to the Israeli claim that its activities in the Gaza Strip are matters of self-defense against Palestinian aggression and terrorism. The UN report, however, notes that much of the "aggression" is in response to Israel's incursions and destruction of Palestinian land and property. The loss of potential agricultural income in Gaza is estimated at over $50 million annually.
/know/read.php?itemid=9799

Court: Israel Responsible for Arab Girl's Death
(Diaa Hadid / Associated Press)

A Jerusalem court has ruled that the Israeli state was responsible for the death of Abir Aramin, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl killed by gunfire more than three years ago as she stood some distance from a demonstration. The case gained wide attention because the girl's father, Basam Aramin, was a Palestinian militant turned advocate for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.
/know/read.php?itemid=9800

We're Really Leaving!
(Dave Ross / CBS Radio Network)

Commentary: The last of the combat troops have left Iraq. Some by air, some on the ground. The 4th Stryker Brigade actually drove out, and rolled into Kuwait without a single casualty on the way. It’s an amazing thing because it was motivated by a date -- by a mark on the calendar. The deadline had arrived.... We just agreed to a date and stuck to it... we don't feel defeated. And we don't feel any less safe, either.
/know/read.php?itemid=9793

Soldiers Expose Deployment of Unprepared Troops
(Clare Bayard / CounterPunch & Civilian Soldier.or)

Army Reserve members facing imminent deployment to Afghanistan are publicly charging that their company is not properly trained or mentally fit for battle. Several members of the Indiana-based 656th Transportation Company, which is due to activate August 22nd, are requesting a Congressional inquiry into the unit's lack of readiness.
/know/read.php?itemid=9794

Naked Imperialism: The US Pursuit of Global Dominance
(John Bellamy Foster / Monthly Review Press)

During the Cold War, mainstream commentators were quick to dismiss the idea that the US was an imperialist power. Even when US interventions led to the overthrow of popular governments -- as in Iran, Guatemala, or the Congo -- or wholesale war, as in Vietnam, this fiction remained intact. During the 1990s and especially since 9-11, however, it has crumbled. Today, the need for American empire is openly proclaimed.
/know/read.php?itemid=9795

Civilians to Take US Lead After Military Leaves Iraq
(Michael R. Gordon / The New York Times)

As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void. The State Department is planning to more than double its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000. Meanwhile, another 2,400 US civilians would continue to work at the Baghdad embassy and other diplomatic sites.
/know/read.php?itemid=9796

Assassination in Afghanistan and Task Force 373
(Pratap Chatterjee / Corp Watch & Tom Dispatch)

"Find, fix, finish, and follow-up" is the way the Pentagon describes the mission of secret military teams that have been given a mandate to pursue and murder alleged Taliban or al-Qaeda members. Some call these "man-hunting" operations. The details of dozens of their specific operations have been revealed for the first time in the mass of secret intelligence documents published by the website Wikileaks.
/know/read.php?itemid=9789

America's Biggest Jobs Program: The US Military
(Robert Reich / Christian Science Monitor)

Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. If we didn't have the military to employ millions of Americans, the US unemployment rate would be over 11.5 percent today instead of 9.5 percent. Is having a massive military jobs program the best way to employ Americans?
/know/read.php?itemid=9790

The Iraq Withdrawal: An Orwellian Success
(Hannah Gurman / Salon)

The Iraq war, or at least the American military's role in it, is drawing to a symbolic close. To mark this moment, the US Ministry of Information has put its spin machine in high gear. Orwell would have had a field day with this one. He could not have invented a more Orwellian tale than the actual story of the US withdrawal from Iraq.
/know/read.php?itemid=9791

ACTION ALERT: August 21-22 -- Protest 3rd Battalion's Deployment to Iraq
(The World Can't Wait)

While the Pentagon and the Media celebrate the return of troops from Iraq, 5,000 soldiers with the 3rd Battalion based in Fort Hood, Texas, have been told they are to be sent to Iraq next week. Iraq Veterans Against War is holding a protest demonstration to draw attention to the fact that -- beyond the hype -- the war will continue to put the lives of young Americans -- and Iraqi civilians -- at risk.
/know/read.php?itemid=9792

The Iraq War Isn't Ending & War Is a Racket
(Kevin Zeese / Voters for Peace & Cindy Sheehan / Common Dreams)

President Obama is claiming an end to the war in Iraq. His end will mean 50,000 troops remaining and at least that many private troops, mercenaries. While the troops are no longer engaged in "combat" they will be "fighting terrorism." The end of the war seems to mean the continuation of it. As Marine Gen. Smedley Butler put it 75 years ago: "War is a racket."
/know/read.php?itemid=9785

Pentagon's 'Toxic Legacy' in Iraq: Fallujah's Poisoned Children
(Rawya Rageh / Al Jazeera & AlterNet)

The US military has been accused of leaving behind a legacy of toxic waste, left at abandoned bases as troops prepare to withdraw from Iraq. Meanwhile the children of Fallujah (site of a major US assualt) suffer from birth defects and strange mutations -- including a baby born with three heads. Alarmed officials in Fallujah have warned women that they should not have children.
/know/read.php?itemid=9786

Questions Arise over Iraqi War Funds While Troops Are Declared 'Not Ready'
(Tom Ackerman / Al Jazeera )

The US, which has withdrawn its last combat brigade from Iraq, has spent at least $700 billion on the Iraq war since its start more than seven years ago. Now, there are also concerns that funds for Iraq's reconstruction are being misspent. Meanwhile, Iraq's most senior military officer has said that his security forces will not be able to secure the country until 2020
/know/read.php?itemid=9787

Members of Congress Call for Bipartisan Review US Policy in Afghanistan

Eleven Congressmembers have written to President Obama, noting that: "As America heads inexorably towards its tenth year of war in Afghanistan, it is clear that the end of this, America's longest war, is nowhere in sight" and calling for "the establishment of a bipartisan Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group to conduct a comprehensive review of US policy in these countries.
/know/read.php?itemid=9788

An Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi People
(Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord / Civilian-Soldier Alliance)

Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" incident have written an open letter of "Reconciliation and Responsibility" to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which US forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees.
/know/read.php?itemid=9780

CIA Interrogation Tapes Found Under Desk
(Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press)

In court documents, defense lawyers have been asking for medical records to see whether Mr. Binalshibh's years in CIA custody made him mentally unstable. He is being treated for schizophrenia with a potent cocktail of anti-psychotic medications.
/know/read.php?itemid=9781

The Guns of August: Lowering the Flag on the American Century
(Chalmers Johnson / TomDispatch.com)

Where are we this August of 2010, with guns blazing in one war even as we try to extricate ourselves from another? Where are we, as we impose sanctions on Iran and North Korea while sending our pilotless drones armed with bombs and missiles -- into Pakistan's borderlands, Yemen, and who knows where else -- tasked with endless "targeted killings" which, in blunter times, used to be called assassinations?
/know/read.php?itemid=9783

US Presses Investigation of Alleged Afghanistan Overbilling by US Contractor
(Brett J. Blackledge and Richard Lardner / Associated Press & CorpWatch Investigative Report)

A US contractor managing more than $1 billion in reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan faces federal criminal and civil investigations of claims that it overcharged the government for work. The Louis Berger Group is accused of submitting inflated invoices to the US Agency for International Development, which oversees many of the government's international development projects.
/know/read.php?itemid=9784

Renewable Energy at Work in War Zones
(Bill Scanlon / National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

It's tough to erect wind turbines or solar panels when the enemy keeps blowing things up. Still, Lt. Col. Brian Stevens of the Texas Army National Guard is determined to try. Stevens leads a group of 66 soldiers who want to help bring sustainable agriculture and renewable energy to rural Afghanistan.
/know/read.php?itemid=9776

Can Womanpower Break the Siege?
(Linda S. Heard / Online Journal)

Two ships bearing medical equipment and medicines for Palestinians in Gaza -- "the world's largest open-air prison" -- have set sail from the Lebanese port of Tripoli. What makes this flotilla different from others that have attempted to break the siege is that the ships are crewed solely by an all-female crew that includes doctors, lawyers, journalists and the Lebanese singer/actress May Hariri.
/know/read.php?itemid=9777

Leaking Sarin Rocket Discovered at US Military Depot
(Global Security Newswire / Nuclear Threat Initiative)

The US claimed Iraq had stockpiles of WMD rockets armed with Sarin nerve-gas. The claim turned out to be false. Now the Army reports that a leaking Sarin nerve agent-filled rocket had been discovered -- inside the US, during inspections of chemical weapons storage structures at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.
/know/read.php?itemid=9778

US Weapons Sale to Saudi Arabia Said to Reach $60 Billion
(Tony Capaccio / Bloomberg.com)

A proposed US weapons sale to Saudi Arabia of Boeing Co. F-15 fighter jets also includes as many as 132 Boeing Apache attack helicopters and United Technologies Corp. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that bring the total value of the package to around $60 billion, according to a government official familiar with the plan.
/know/read.php?itemid=9779

Secret US Airstrike in Yemen Mistakenly Kills Deputy Governor
(Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Robert F. Worth / The New York Times)

In roughly a dozen countries -- from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife -- the United States has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists.
/know/read.php?itemid=9772

Obama's War "Scalpel" Wielded by the Wise Guy Who Armed the Afghan Mujahadeen
(FireDogLake.com)

The stealth war that began in the Bush administration has expanded under President Obama. Virtually none of the newly aggressive steps undertaken by the US have been publicly acknowledged. The US military campaign in Yemen began without notice in December and has never been officially confirmed. Leading the Shadow War is Michael Vickers, a CIA operative who helped arm the Afghan mujahadeen in the 1980s.
/know/read.php?itemid=9773

"Permanent War": Defense Policies, Then and Now
(Book Review by Claude R. Marx / The Washington Times)

In his new book, Andrew J. Bacevich, a retired US Army colonel whose son was killed in the Iraq War, challenges the approach to military policy that administrations of both parties have pursued since World War II. He argues that these rules have benefited the political, military and business establishments but haven't done much for the country's security or domestic prosperity.
/know/read.php?itemid=9774

The Unaffordability of Endless War
(Steve Chapman / Reason Magazine)

It's a shame to let accountants spoil the charming romance of war, but sometimes they insist. Recently the Congressional Research Service reported that our military undertakings in Iraq and Afghanistan have marked an important milestone. Together, they have cost more than a trillion dollars.
/know/read.php?itemid=9775

Anthropology and Militarism: The US Military's Quest to Weaponize Culture
(Hugh Gusterson / Annual Review of Anthropology & The Bulletin of Atomic and Maximilian Forte / Zero Anthropology)

Commentary: "The Pentagon seems to have decided that anthropology is to the war on terror what physics was to the Cold War. As an anthropologist, this makes me very nervous.When research that could be funded by neutral civilian agencies is instead funded by the military, knowledge is subtly militarized and bent in the way a tree is bent by a prevailing wind."
/know/read.php?itemid=9768

Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones & Anthropologists' Statement on HTS
(David Rohde / The New York Times & Network of Concerned Anthropologists )

In September 2007, Defense Secretary Gates authorized a $40 million expansion of a program that assigns teams of anthropologists and social scientists to each of the 26 American combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. But criticism is rising in academia. The "Anthropologists' Statement on the Human Terrain System Program" is one example of the growing opposition to "mercenary anthropology."
/know/read.php?itemid=9769

Documents Reveal US Dealings with Uruguayan Death Squads
(The New York Times & Associated Press)

Secret diplomatic cables show that President Richard M. Nixon wanted the Uruguayan government to threaten to kill leftist prisoners in an attempt to save the life of a kidnapped American agent 40 years ago.
/know/read.php?itemid=9770

Gen Petraeus' New War Strategy 'Mass Murder'
(Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (The Taliban))

The Taliban assesses the significance of General David Petraus' appointment to lead the US war in Afghanistan. Transcript of communiqué obtained and provided by investigators with the NEFA.
/know/read.php?itemid=9771

New Afghan Protests as US Accused of Killing More Civilians
(Al Jazeera)

Hundreds of villagers shouted "Death to the United States" after NATO forces killed three people in a raid. 
The UN said this week that the number of civilian casualties was up one-third in the first half of 2010 -- 386 civilians were killed by NATO or Afghan government forces, including 41 during search-and-seizure operations such as this latest night raid.
/know/read.php?itemid=9764

Prosecute Bush Administration Officials for War Crimes
(Iraq Veterans Against the War)

At its seventh annual national convention, IVAW called for the prosecution of Bush administration officials for conspiring to manipulate intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. A growing body of evidence indicates that Bush officials could be charged with criminal offenses against the US and violations of international law for making false claims to attack Iraq and occupy the country.
/know/read.php?itemid=9765

Why WikiLeaks Won't Stop the War
(Noam Chomsky / Z-Net & The New York Times Syndicate )

The War Logs -- an archive of classified military documents released on the Internet by WikiLeaks -- documents a grim struggle becoming grimmer, from the US perspective. And for the Afghans, a mounting horror. The War Logs, however valuable, may contribute to the unfortunate and prevailing doctrine that wars are wrong only if they aren't successful -- rather like the Nazis felt after Stalingrad.
/know/read.php?itemid=9766

Fires and Floods: Climate Change Proves More Damaging than War
(Juan Cole / Information ClearingHouse & Charles J. Hanley / Associated Press)

Floods, fires, melting ice, and feverish heat -- from smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Iowa and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. The World Meteorological Organization pointed out that this summer's events fit the international scientists' projections of "more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming."
/know/read.php?itemid=9767

Behind The Colombia/Venezuela Tension
(Conn Hallinan / Dispatches from the Edge)

The Colombian high command, claims a mass grave outside the La Macarena army base contains the bodies of thousands of guerilla fighters killed between 2002 and 2009. But the army is accused of committing "false positive" murders of civilians who are then dressed them up in insurgent uniforms in order to show the success of the army's counterinsurgency strategy, thus winning more military aid from the US.
/know/read.php?itemid=9760

A War on Drugs? No, This Is a War on the Mexican People
(Luis Hernandez Navarro / La Jornada & The Guardian)

Mexican President Calderón followed much the same script used by George Bush after 9/11. But, instead of sending troops to Iraq or Afghanistan, the Mexican president ordered them into the streets of their own country. 29,000 dead, human rights leaders murdered, the constitution violated -- This is the price of President Calderón's popularity bid.
/know/read.php?itemid=9761

"America's Vital Interests": Code Words Meaning Other Nations' Critical Resources
(Michael Payne / OpEd News)

"Protecting America's vital interests," a very patriotic thought, are code words for gaining control of another nation's or a region's critical resources, primarily, petroleum. Using these code words is a clever way of getting the American people to support our military actions in foreign lands without really explaining what those vital interests are.
/know/read.php?itemid=9762

ACTION ALERT: International Petition for Full Freedom for Mordechai Vanunu
(Eileen Fleming / Arabisto.com)

All whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has wanted since he emerged from 18 years in a tomb-sized windowless cell on April 21, 2004, has been the right to leave Israel and fade into the world, to have a job, a home and family. Sign the petition demanding that the Israeli government cease its persecution of Vanuna and recognize his human right to travel freely in the world.
/know/read.php?itemid=9763

Canada to Buy 'Useless' F-35 Jets from Lockheed-Martin
(Linda McQuaig / The Toronto Star)

Of all the things Canadians want from their government, my guess is that new military fighter jets would probably rank close to last. But new fighter jets are what we're getting. Despite the enduring popularity of peacekeeping among Canadians, the Harper government continues to ramp up war-oriented military spending, most recently with its plan to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin.
/know/read.php?itemid=9756

UN Secretary-General's Remarks at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony
(Ban Ki-moon / United Nations News Center)

"We are here, on hallowed ground, to see, to feel, to absorb and reflect. I am honored to be the first UN Secretary-General to take part in this Peace Memorial Ceremony on the 65th anniversary of this tragic day. And I am deeply moved. When the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I was one year old. Only later in life, could I begin to understand the full dimension of all that happened here."
/know/read.php?itemid=9757

The Nuclear Danger 65 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki
(Daryl G. Kimball / Arms Control Association & Stanley Kutler / Truthdig)

Commentary: "The first nuclear bomb detonation in July 1945 and the surprise attacks on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of that year ignited a global debate about the role, the morality, and the control of nuclear weapons that continues to this day."
/know/read.php?itemid=9758

The Peace Vision & A Youth Disarmament Camp
(Peter G Cohen / OpEdNews & Think Outside the Bomb)

Commentary: "We are losing the war. Not just the War in Afghanistan, but the war against war itself -- The Peace War. The very idea of "Global Dominance" is obscene. Pentagon spending has run up a debt that will burden our grandchildren. I imagine a peace movement that works in every community to reshape the Congress to better serve the American people and their needs, not corporate greed."
/know/read.php?itemid=9759

Alarms Sound over Trash Fires in War Zones of Afghanistan, Iraq
(Maria Glod / Washington Post)

Hundreds of military service members and contractor employees have fallen ill with cancer or severe breathing problems after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They say they were poisoned by thick, black smoke produced by the burning of tons of trash generated on US bases. Some 241 people from 42 states are suing Houston-based Kellogg Brown & Root, which operated the so-called "burn pits."
/know/read.php?itemid=9752

Going Organic in Gaza
(Jon Elmer / Al Jazeera)

A key official has stated the goal of Israel's embargo of Gaza: "We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death." A government white paper details the minimum caloric intake required, based on age and sex, to keep Gazans hovering just above malnutrition levels. In response, the citizens of Gaza are turning to organic agriculture to raise healthy food in their own backyards.
/know/read.php?itemid=9753

Government Has Run Amok Since 9/11


(Sheldon Richman

/ The Future of Freedom Foundation and CounterPunch)

Those who understand the exploitative nature of big government suspected that the US response to the 9/11 attacks had little to do with the security and much to do with power and money. Still, the magnitude of the scam is astonishing. The truth is out: the post–9/11 activity has been an obscene feeding frenzy at the public trough. Any success at keeping America safe have been strictly coincidental.
/know/read.php?itemid=9754

Exclusive: Caught in America's Legal Black Hole
(Robert Verkaik / The Independent)

Despite the President's pledges, the prison at Guantanamo Bay is still in business. It is here that hundreds of detainees, including 20 British citizens and residents, have been flown thousands of miles around the world to be shackled in cages beyond the protections of international law. Now, a Canadian named Omar Khadr becomes the first child to be tried for war crimes since the Nuremburg prosecutions.
/know/read.php?itemid=9755

Nagasaki Remembers Atomic Victims: No US Representative Attends
(Wayne Hay / Al Jazeera & Hurriet Daily News & Economic Review & Agence France-Press)

Thousands of people gathered in Nagasaki on Monday to mark 65 years since the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city during the Second World War. While representatives from Britain and France attended for the first time, the absence of a US representative at the ceremony irritated some Nagasaki A-bomb survivors. Last week, Washington had sent an envoy for the first time to attend the commemoration of Washington's nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
/know/read.php?itemid=9748

Video Evidence of Mass Killing by US/NATO
(Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald / The Brave New Foundation)

US and allied forces in Afghanistan have denied they killed several dozen civilians in Sangin District of Helmand Province on July 23. But our new video exposes the truth about one of the worst civilian casualty incidents of the war. Watch our exclusive interviews with survivors and demand that your elected officials act to prevent future catastrophes like this.
/know/read.php?itemid=9749

Pentagon Bars Staff from Visiting WikiLeaks Site
(Rowan Scarborough / The Washington Times)

Although the information has been widely disseminated to the public and the press around the world, the US military has issued orders banning personnel from visiting the WikiLeaks website, which recently released more than 70,000 classified diplomatic and military messages on the long war in Afghanistan.
/know/read.php?itemid=9750