In a severe blow to the Bush administration the US Supreme Court ruled that suspects being
In a severe blow to the Bush administration the US Supreme Court ruled that suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the US Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts. Ruling 5 to 4 the court concluded that the US government was violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely at the US naval base in Cuba. The ruling could resurrect detainee lawsuits that federal judges in Washington postponed, pending the outcome of the high court case. It remains unclear if this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held for more than 6 years.
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Added: 1 month ago
Views: 650
KIRK: We have various leaders, but from what we can see right now, the president appears t
KIRK: We have various leaders, but from what we can see right now, the president appears to be in control of the military and foreign policy of Iran. So when he says something hostile, we should listen.
Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and a Commander in the US Naval Reserves who serves one weekend a month as the Deputy Director of Intelligence in the Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC).
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Added: 1 month ago
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US Seeking 58 Bases in Iraq, Shiite Lawmakers Say
by Leila Fadel
BAGHDAD - Iraqi lawmake
US Seeking 58 Bases in Iraq, Shiite Lawmakers Say
by Leila Fadel
BAGHDAD - Iraqi lawmakers say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed "status of forces" agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely.
Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews the Iraqi government rejected this proposal along with another U.S. demand that would have effectively handed over to the United States the power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq. Lawmakers said they fear this power would drag Iraq into a war between the United States and Iran.
"The points that were put forth by the Americans were more abominable than the occupation," said Jalal al Din al Saghir, a leading lawmaker from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. "We were occupied by order of the Security Council," he said, referring to the 2004 Resolution mandating a U.S. military occupation in Iraq at the head of an international coalition. "But now we are being asked to sign for our own occupation. That is why we have absolutely refused all that we have seen so far."
Other conditions sought by the United States include control over Iraqi air space up to 30,000 feet and immunity from prosecution for U.S. troops and private military contractors. The agreement would run indefinitely but be subject to cancellation with two years notice from either side, lawmakers said.
"It would impair Iraqi sovereignty," said Ali al Adeeb a leading member of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Dawa party of the proposed accord. "The Americans insist so far that is they who define what is an aggression on Iraq and what is democracy inside Iraq... if we come under aggression we should define it and ask for help."
Both Saghir and Adeeb said that the Iraqi government rejected the terms as unacceptable. They said the government wants a U.S. presence and a U.S. security guarantee but also wants to control security within the country, stop indefinite detentions of Iraqis by U.S. forces and have a say in U.S. forces' conduct in Iraq.
The 58 bases would represent an expansion of the U.S. presence here. Currently, the United States operates out of about 30 major bases, not including smaller facilities such as combat outposts, according to a U.S. military map.
" Is there sovereignty for Iraq - or isn't there? If it is left to them, they would ask for immunity even for the American dogs," Saghir said. "We have given Bush our views - some new ideas and I find that there is a certain harmony between his thoughts and ours. And he promised to tell the negotiators to change their methods."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/10/9520/
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Leaked document says US plans for permanent bases in Iraq being discussed with Iraqi gov
Nadim al-Jaberi is a senior member and former secretary-general of Fadhila, a Shiite party that controls the Basra provincial government. The group, which holds 15 seats in parliament, withdrew last year from talks to join al-Maliki's cabinet after complaining of US interference.
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Khalaf al-Ilyan is one of the three leaders of the Iraq Accordance Front, parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc with 44 of the House's 275 seats. Last year, he played a prominent role in the Sunni decision to walk out of the Cabinet in protest of al-Maliki's policies
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Added: 1 month ago
Views: 225
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Pakistan's president refuses to resign, while opponents discuss impeachment.
Real News
Pakistan's president refuses to resign, while opponents discuss impeachment.
Real News Network's Senior News Analyst, Aijaz Ahmad explores Pervez Musharraf's rise to power after he ousted Nawaz Sharif through a military coup d'etat in 1999. Musharraf nominally continues to be the President of Pakistan; however, pressure is mounting for him to resign with some beginning to discuss impeachment. His listed crimes include taking power unconstitutionally, imposition of martial law, detention of a judge of the Supreme Court, and his participation in the US-sponsored "war on terror."
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=v iew&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1655
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Added: 1 month ago
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Cluster Bombs Are Not Good 4 Children, Hillary
(Ditto for Landmines and Sanctions)
By Pa
Cluster Bombs Are Not Good 4 Children, Hillary
(Ditto for Landmines and Sanctions)
By Paul Rockwell
13/03/08 "Commondreams" -- - The human soul is difficult to fathom. One person alone is capable of both compassion and cruelty.
In her autobiography, Living History, Senator Hillary Clinton portrays herself as an advocate for children, a defender of women and human rights. In fact, the Clintons have a long history of sacrificing the rights, even the lives of children, for political expediency. It is time to set the record straight.
On September 6, 2006, a Senate bill--a simple amendment to ban the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas--presented Senator Clinton with a timely opportunity to protect the lives of children throughout the world.
The cluster bomb is one of the most hated and heinous weapons in modern war, and its primary victims are children.
Senator Obama voted for the amendment to ban cluster bombs. Senator Clinton, however, voted with the Republicans to kill the humanitarian bill, an amendment in accord with the Geneva Conventions, which already prohibit the use of indiscriminate weapons in populated areas.
All senators are expected to inform themselves on the issues before they cast a vote. The evidence is overwhelming. It is hard to believe that Senator Clinton was unaware of the humanitarian crisis when she voted to continue the use of cluster bombs in cities and populated areas. A U.N. weapons commission called cluster bombs "weapons of indiscriminate effect." For years the international press reported the horrific consequences of cluster bombs on civilians. On April 10, 2003, for example, Asia Times described the carnage in Baghdad hospitals: "The absolute majority of patients are women and children, victims of shrapnel, and most of all, fragments of cluster bombs." Reporting from a hospital in Hillah, The Mirror, a British newspaper, became graphic: "Shrapnel peppered their bodies. Blackened the skin. Smashed heads. Tore limbs. A doctor reports that 'all the injuries you see were caused by cluster bombs. The majority of the victims were children who died because they were outside.'"
Even after wars subside, after treaties are signed, after belligerents return home, cluster bombs wreak havoc on civilian life. Up to 20 percent of the bomblets fail to detonate on the first round, only to become landmines that later explode on playgrounds and farmlands. Children are drawn to cluster bomb canisters, the deadly duds that look like beer cans or toys before they explode.
Clinton on Landmines???
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19535.htm
------Warning Pictures------
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3462.htm
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Added: 1 month ago
Views: 307
Senate Finds Pre-War Bush Claims Exaggerated, False
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Claims by U
Senate Finds Pre-War Bush Claims Exaggerated, False
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad's ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes were generally not supported by the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community had at the time, according to a major new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday.
The long-awaited report, the last in a series published over the past several years by the committee, found that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, in particular, frequently made assertions in the run-up to the war that key intelligence agencies could not substantiate or about which there was substantial disagreement within the intelligence community.
"In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent," the Committee chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, said on releasing the 172-page report. "As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed."
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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/06/9448/
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Added: 1 month ago
Views: 892
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A Free And Self-Governing People
Bill Moyers Video
"It is up to you to fight for the
A Free And Self-Governing People
Bill Moyers Video
"It is up to you to fight for the freedoms that makes all other freedoms possible"
Journalist Bill Moyers address the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by FreePress.net. For more speakers, press coverage, and info, visit: http://www.freepress.net/conference
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20059.htm
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Added: 1 month ago
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MATTHEW PALEVSKY, JOURNALIST, TRNN: I'm in Martinsburg here in West Virginia, one of the p
MATTHEW PALEVSKY, JOURNALIST, TRNN: I'm in Martinsburg here in West Virginia, one of the poorest and whitest states in the union. Senator Clinton is expected to win today's primary in a landslide, and the white, blue collar workers who make up her base have said they might be unwilling to vote for Senator Obama come general election.
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PALEVSKY: And you voted for—
ASHLEY: Hillary. And if she loses the nomination I'll vote for the other guy.
PALEVSKY: You'll vote for McCain?
ASHLEY: Yes. I don't feel like—put the black man there—no prejudice or nothing but I just don't have—I just think he should not be there.
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Added: 2 months ago
Views: 24,351
THE FUNCTIONS OF FASCISM!
Parenti says that fascism is a pseudo-revolutionary movement
THE FUNCTIONS OF FASCISM!
Parenti says that fascism is a pseudo-revolutionary movement that serves the same old power structure and promises to solve the ills of the many while really protecting the interests of the few. He answers in detail who financed the Fascist parties and what services the fascists rendered in return. Many of the measures enacted by fascists were frighteningly similar to those enacted today: They include the privatization of state owned enterprises, reduction of corporate taxes and inheritance taxes, defeat of unions, and the suspension of civil liberties.
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Added: 4 months ago
Views: 1,022
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