headlines

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/6/headlines

US Holds $50 Billion of Iraq’s Financial Reserves Hostage

The Independent of London reports the United States is holding hostage some $50 billion of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement to prolong the US occupation indefinitely. Patrick Cockburn reports the Federal Reserve continues to hold Iraq’s financial reserves as a legacy of the international sanctions against Saddam Hussein. US negotiators are threatening to remove tens of billions of dollars of Iraq’s money to settle outstanding court judgments dating back to the 1980s unless Iraq accepts the highly controversial military deal. The deal would allow the US to permanently keep more than fifty military bases in Iraq. American forces would also be able to continue to carry out arrests of Iraqi citizens and conduct military campaigns without consultation with the Iraqi government. American soldiers and contractors will enjoy legal immunity.

Senate Report: Bush Deliberately Distorted Pre-War Intelligence

In other Iraq news, a newly released Senate report has concluded President George Bush and his top policymakers deliberately distorted Saddam Hussein’s links to al-Qaeda and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq’s arms programs as they made a case for war. Sen. John Rockefeller, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee said the report shows the administration “led the nation to war on false premises.”

American Households Lose $1.7 Trillion in First Quarter

In economic news, a new report has revealed nearly ten percent of American mortgages were past due or in foreclosure at the end of March. During the first quarter of the year, homeowners lost their homes at a record rate. The Mortgage Bankers Association said nearly 450,000 loans fell into foreclosure between January and March. Nearly three million other homeowners are now behind on their monthly payments. Meanwhile, the amount of equity people have in their homes has fallen to the lowest level on record. Overall American households saw their net worth decline by $1.7 trillion in the first quarter of the year.

D.C. Police Set Up Neighborhood Checkpoints

The Washington Examiner reports police in Washington, D.C. plan to begin sealing off entire neighborhoods, setting up checkpoints and kicking out strangers, under a new program to combat violence. Under a directive issued by Police Chief Cathy Lanier, officers will stop cars at the checkpoints, record all license plate numbers and ask drivers why they are visiting the neighborhood. The directive allows officers to turn away anyone who does not have a legitimate reason for entering the neighborhood. Motorists who resist answering questions from police officers will be arrested for failure to obey an officer. D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas said he is worried Washington, D.C. is “moving towards a police state."


.......
These are incredible things that the US is getting away with. The police state has come home while we inslave and continue imperialist take overs of other whole countries and their economy while stealing their resources. This is nothing new, but when is it going to be too much for the public.
Minneapolios is right now holding a democracy and media reform conference. There are 3,000 people there. These issues need to be clearly reported and widely so people even realize that they are real. I attended the opening speeches and am very exited about the possibilities of change- let's just hope fascism hasn't taken it's full toll in the US.

cat and mouse

Darius Rejali on torture

pt.1

part.2

InfraGard

Orson Wells- Freedom River

Dusti Knew Too Much

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-deadgiraffe_both_20jan20,0,5140846.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
chicagotribune.com
Brookfield giraffe dies after becoming tangled in rope

By Monique Garcia

Tribune reporter

January 20, 2008

An 11-year-old male giraffe that was found unresponsive Saturday morning at the Brookfield Zoo died of a broken neck after getting tangled in a rope, a necropsy showed.

The giraffe, Dusti, was found caught in a rope by a staff member about 7 a.m. at the zoo's exhibit Habitat Africa! The Savannah, officials said. He had been checked on at 4:30 a.m. and was fine, but at some point reached over his enclosure in the main exhibit space, stretched around a 90-degree angle and across a 61/2-foot span, and became caught in the rope.

Located in a hallway outside the main exhibit, the rope was part of a pulley system used to hang branches and food for the giraffes. It was fastened with multiple safety clips to keep it flush against the wall. Staff members were stunned Dusti was able to reach the rope.

Keepers said they think the animal, which was 17 feet tall, may have used his tongue to grab the rope. Giraffes' tongues can be as long as 20 inches. It is unknown why Dusti was reaching for the rope other than because of his naturally curious disposition, officials said.

"It was one of those freak accidents; the staff is astonished," said Kim Smith, vice president of Animal Programs for the Chicago Zoological Society, which cares for and breeds giraffes at the zoo. "We are constantly looking at those things and the distance didn't look like something he could get to. This was not something he could get to easily, by any stretch of the imagination."

The exhibit was closed Saturday and the pulley was removed. Staff members spent the day making other modifications, including removing and covering other pulleys and objects, even in keeper areas inaccessible to animals.

"We're going to cover everything at this point," Smith said, "even if it seems no animal could ever in a million years reach it. The safety of the animals is our highest priority."

Dusti was a staff and visitor favorite. Hand-reared at Busch Gardens in Florida, he was a playful and personable animal, Smith said. After his arrival at Brookfield Zoo in 1998, he sired three calves, including Arnieta, who just turned 1.

New measurements and modifications are being made, so it is unclear when the exhibit will reopen. The death of Dusti comes less than a week after a 6-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at Brookfield died, apparently of complications from a respiratory infection.

The Yes Men

slavery


the movie

Foreign policy

Kickin' ass

Street signs by Yen34

IMF/World Bank

from: The New Rulers of the World

school of the assassins

Anti-flag

WMD - Weapons of Mass Deception - Iraq War Media Critique

War Made Easy - How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death

The War on Democracy - Covert CIA Terrorism and Subversion in Latin America

This is important to understand our foreign policies in America. Please take the time to watch.

Bin Laden is as real as jesus

skuf one

Gulf of Tonkin

Report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks

Tue Jan 8, 9:45 AM ET
(Excerpt)

...But he said that probably the "most historically significant feature" of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.

That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson's sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.

The author of the report "demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was 'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night,'" FAS said in a statement.

"What this study demonstrated is that the available intelligence shows that there was no attack. It's a dramatic reversal of the historical record," Aftergood said.

"There were previous indications of this but this is the first time we have seen the complete study," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080108/pl_afp/usvietnamintelligence512

sean hannity flees

advisors to the candidates

mountaintop removal

Anti-NAFTA border blockage

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/headlines

Mexican Farm Activists End Anti-NAFTA Border Blockade

In Mexico, farm activists have ended a thirty-six hour blockade of the U.S.-Mexico border to protest the lifting of the last of its protective tariffs on northern goods. A Mexican tax on basic crops including corn, beans and sugar from Canada and the U.S. ended January 1st under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Critics say NAFTA has devastated Mexican farmers by forcing them to compete with government-subsidized American and Canadian goods.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004103321_naftaprotest02.html

Mexican farmers protest lifting of tariffs

By Bloomberg News and The Associated Press

Mexican farmers Tuesday blocked all but one lane of the bridge linking Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, to protest the opening of Mexico's market to U.S. corn, sugar, beans and milk as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Farmers and supporters held protests across Mexico Tuesday as the tariffs were lifted.

The protesters argue Mexico hasn't done enough to protect them from cheaper U.S. commodities, said Enrique Perez, spokesman for the National Association of Commercial Field Producers.

"This is the most important, symbolic protest, here on the border," Perez said.

Mexico, the U.S. and Canada agreed to delay the opening of the markets for the four commodities until Tuesday, 15 years after NAFTA was signed.

But Mexican farmers say the damage has already been done and that Mexico has plunged deeply into a model of globalized agriculture in which they are ill-prepared to compete.

Corn, beans, sugar and milk were granted special 15-year import protections when the NAFTA, was negotiated in 1993, time that was supposed to be used to prepare Mexico for competition. But many say that didn't happen.

And while global prices for these commodities are booming, Mexico's farm parcels tend to be tiny and only marginally productive, so higher prices internationally have done little to improve people's lives here...

(go to the web address to read the rest of this article)

disaster capitalism

Americans in the Spanish Civi War

headlines

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/2/headlines

Giuliani Backer Calls For Extermination of Muslims

A leader of the group New Hampshire Veterans for Rudy has resigned from the Giuliani campaign after he called for the extermination of Muslims. John Deady made the comment in a videotaped interview with the Guardian newspaper.

John Deady, co-chair of state Veterans for Rudy: “He’s got I believe the knowledge and the judgment to attack one of the most difficult problems in current history and that is the rise of the Muslims, and make no mistake about it, this hasn’t happened for a thousand years. These people are very dedicated and they’re also very very smart in their own way. We need to keep the feet to the fire and keep pressing these people until we defeat or chase them back to their caves or in other words get rid of them.”


ABC & Fox Bar Six Presidential Candidates From NH Debate

In other campaign news, ABC and Fox have decided to bar six Democratic and Republican candidates from debates this weekend in New Hampshire. Democrats Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel won"t be allowed to participate in ABC’s Democratic debate on Saturday. Republicans Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter are being excluded from a debate hosted by Fox on Sunday.


Report: U.S. Has Become “Endemic Surveillance Society”

A new report by Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center has ranked the United States in the worst possible category for privacy protections. The United States is listed along with nations including China, Russia, Singapore and Malaysia as having an “endemic surveillance society.” According to the authors of the report, the United States is the worst ranking country in the democratic world.



Navy Attorney Resigns To Protest U.S. Torture Policies

A Naval lieutenant commander and member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps has resigned his post to protest the government’s use of torture in interrogations. Andrew Williams was a legal officer and defense counsel in the U.S. Navy, where he both prosecuted and defended people in military courts. In a letter to the editor published in his local newspaper in Washington State, Williams likened the use of waterboarding by the United States to practices used by the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi Germany and the Khmer Rouge. Williams wrote “we were [once] far different from the Soviet Union and its gulags, the Vietcong with their torture camps and a society of surveillance and informers like Nazi Germany. We were part of the shining light on the hill who didn’t do those things. Sadly, no more.”


Bush Issues Signing Statement After Signing Sudan Divestment Act

President Bush has signed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act—the legislation allows state and local governments to cut investment ties with companies doing business in Sudan. But President Bush also issued a signing statement in which he said he was reserving the authority to overrule state and local divestment decisions if they conflicted with foreign policy.