[APR-news] APR -- Weekend Edition -- December 2-4, 2005

Mon Dec 5 01:40:05 GMT 2005

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org
Weekend Edition -- December 2-4, 2005

The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for
our economy and open to our cultural assault. - Major Ralph Peters, US
Military

The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each
other--instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. - Edward
Abbey

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_20231.shtml
Video: The War Crimes of the Democratic Party

http://villagevoice.com/news/0549,vest,70643,2.html
And Now, the Fake News From Iraq -- Top 10 suggested headlines for the
Pentagon's new, new journalism

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=545&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Damaging Disclosures and the Plot to Bomb al-Jazeera
By Kurt Nimmo

As an indication of how well-entrenched the police state is in Britain,
consider the prosecution, under the Officials Secrets Act, of David Keogh, a
former communications officer at the Cabinet Office, and Leo O'Connor, a
former parliamentary researcher. "Mr. Keogh, 49, is charged with making a
'damaging disclosure of a document relating to international relations'
without lawful authority, while Mr. O'Connor, 42, is charged with having
receiving a document 'through its disclosure without lawful authority by a
crown servant,'" according to the Financial Times. "The document, according
to a report in the Daily Mirror, detailed minutes of a conversation between
Tony Blair and President George W. Bush, in which bombing the headquarters
of the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera was discussed." Interesting
how it is a crime to reveal a war crime (or potential war crime), deemed a
"damaging disclosure," and Keogh and O'Connor may actually go to prison
while Bush and Blair will be free to become "elder statesmen" advising
others on how best to kill innocent civilians and journalists.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=544&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Uncovering the Roots of American Terrorism in Iraq
By Mike Whitney

The media has played a central role in trying to obfuscate the details of
America's involvement in the terror-war by characterizing the hundreds of
murder victims as the result of tit-for-tat sectarian violence or of rogue
Shiite militias loosely connected to the Interior Ministry. But, as Fuller
deftly demonstrates, the more likely explanation is that the Ministry is
executing a clear strategy of gratuitous terror devised and directed by
their American handlers. The immense media disinformation campaign is
designed to shift blame away from its American roots and promote the idea of
massive sectarian unrest. This feeds the notion of an incipient civil war,
which in turn achieves the American policy objective of Balkanizing the
country to control its resources. The one reporter who diverged from these
fabrications was Yasser Salihee, reporter for Knight-Ridder news. Salihee
had uncovered critical information about the weaponry, vehicles and origins
of the death squads, and was expected to file reports on those topics. His
coverage, however, was cut short when he was assassinated in a gangland
style hit at a checkpoint outside Baghdad by an American sniper.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=543&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
NEOCONS 'R' BUSHED: The final days of the PNAC cabal
By Ingmar Lee

Yesterday, an exhausted looking George Bush,"Commander-in Chief," strutted
up to the faux riveted, banner-emblazoned and Hitleresque war-stump and
dictated his latest "Plan for Victory" in Iraq. Apparently, the
crotch-strapped President's famous "Mission Accomplished" victory
declaration was a little premature, because the slaughtering work of
spreading freedom in Iraq will not end on his watch without "complete
victory."

******
Other articles of interest

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/prop-d02.shtml
Made in the USA "free press" in Iraq: US military covertly pays to plant
stories in Iraqi media
Kate Randall, WSWS

The same day that the Bush administration, backed by congressional
Democrats, was outlining its "strategy for victory" in Iraq, news broke that
the US military has been secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish
pro-American propaganda stories. The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday
that the articles, written by US troops under the direction of the 
military's
"Information Operations Task Force," are translated into Arabic and planted
in Baghdad newspapers with the assistance of the Washington-based Lincoln
Group and its subcontractor BKSH & Associates.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=GRI20051202&articleId=1391
9/11: Possible Motives Of The Bush Administration
Dr. David Ray Griffin, Global Research

One way to approach this question would be to ask whether these attacks
brought benefits to this administration that could reasonably have been
anticipated. There is no doubt that the attacks brought benefits. Indeed,
several members of the Bush administration publicly said so. The president
himself declared that the attacks provide "a great opportunity." Donald
Rumsfeld stated that 9/11 created "the kind of opportunities that World War
II offered, to refashion the world." Condoleeza Rice had said the same thing
in mind, telling senior members of the National Security Council to "think
about 'how do you capitalize on these opportunities' to fundamentally
change...the shape of the world."

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8198
Bush's 'Great Leap Forward' -- Our Great Helmsman is steering us toward
disaster
Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com

There is no real need for a line-by-line analysis of the speech delivered
yesterday by the Trotskyite-in-chief: a succinct summary will suffice. The
president's response to the polls, which show overwhelming opposition to the
Iraq war, is: screw you.

http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18340&s2=02
Hard Rain: Towards a Greater Air War on Iraq?
Ron Jacobs, uruknet.info

Recently, news reports in US and European newspapers have suggested that
Washington and London are considering a major reduction in their forces in
Iraq. These reports usually fail to mention that those same forces were
increased only last summer and that the rumored reduction is really not as
large as advertised when looking at the actual numbers in country. Also,
with few exceptions, most of these reports don't bother to state that if the
troops are pulled back from the front and brought home, the Pentagon plans
to replace their combat capability with air power. For those who were around
during the US war in Vietnam, this plan is an eery echo of the last few
years of that war. Back then, this strategy was part of the Nixon
administration's plan for "peace with honor."

http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_2742.shtml
Do Armed Robbers have a Right to Self-Defense?
William Norman Grigg, The New American

"It doesn't matter how or why the war began; now that we're in, we have to
win." This argument - if that word can be tortured into applying here - is
the moral equivalent of the armed robber's claim that he shot the homeowner
in self-defense: "It doesn't really matter how I got into the guy's home -
once he pulled a gun on me, I had to shoot." If someone has invaded a home -
or a homeland - by violence, without legal and moral authority, "winning"
the conflict with the outraged residents is an even greater crime, not a
victory.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd141.htm
HEIL HITLER! IT HAS BEGUN
Devvy Kidd, NewsWithViews.com

Anyone who doesn't recognize that a police state is being erected right in
front of their eyes is either in a state of denial or welcomes a repeat of
Nazi Germany under Adolph Hitler.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/771/op2.htm
The truth you don't hear
Mustafa Barghouti, Al-Ahram

The on-the-ground reality of Israel's moral bankruptcy in its genocidal
policies towards the Palestinians remains as clear as ever.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051204&articleId=1402
British Mercenaries Shooting at Baghdad Motorists is Part of "the Rules of
Engagement"
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research

Security contractors of the so-called "Victory" Group of the British
mercenary Firm Aegis Defense Services have committed the ultimate war crime:
the indiscriminate killing of civilians as part of  a "game", not a video
game but a real game of shooting Iraqi civilians as a form of entertainment,
as revealed in a "trophy video" posted on an Aegis employees website. There
are in fact several video clips, which suggests that the practice is not an
isolated event.

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/front/index_Tidwell.html
Goodbye, New Orleans: It's time we stopped pretending
Mike Tidwell, Orion

So stop the repairs; put the brooms and chain saws away. Close the few
businesses that have re-opened. Leave the levees in their tattered state and
get out. Right now. Everybody. It's utterly unsafe to live there. To
encourage people to return to New Orleans, as Bush is doing, without funding
the only plan that can save the city from the next Big One, is to commit an
act of mass homicide.

http://grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/12/01/schulman/index.html
A worried mother discovers the secrets of pesticide testing
Audrey Schulman, Grist

At the EPA website, I found a seemingly thorough list of tests that examined
chemicals' effects on birds, mammals, fish, invertebrates, and plants. These
tests checked for storage stability, residue on food, soil absorption, and
short-term toxicity, as well as carcinogenic effects, prenatal harm, and
damage to human fertility and genetic material. As I scanned the categories,
a knot of worry inside me began to relax. Until I learned all these
experiments are completed by the manufacturers.

http://www.energybulletin.net/11370.html
Revisiting International Energy Outlook 2001
by Ron Patterson, Energy Bulletin

In late 2001 Roger Blanchard published a critique of the EIA's publication
"International Energy Outlook 2001". Roger thought they would miss their
mark. Four years later I thought I would check some of their predictions and
see how they were doing.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20051201093650658
An Open Letter to United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
Mobilization for Global Justice, Infoshop News

If the U.S. peace and justice movement is serious about ending the
occupation of Iraq
(and of Afghanistan, Haiti, and Palestine), the movement needs to develop
and internalize an understanding of the motivations for and the roots of war
and occupation. The drive for imperial control of natural resources, cheap
labor, and markets has been a key part of the motivation for U.S. wars and
interventions for decades (some would argue, centuries), and a peace and
justice movement that has a strategic goal of not merely ending this latest
war but undermining the U.S. war machine in the longer term, needs to build
this understanding into its actions.

http://www.ww4report.com/node/1337
THE POLITICS OF THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: And the Intractable Dilemma of 
International ANSWER
Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report

Even among activists who see ANSWER as problematic, there is little
consensus on how to address the issue. Joanne Sheehan, who chairs the New
England office of War Resisters League in Norwich, CT, says "ANSWER does not
foster grassroots activism. It is totally hierarchical, and I don't think it
empowers people. ANSWER is not the answer." Speaking on WWP's controversial 
positions, she says, "They do what the Administration they criticize
does-here are the 'good guys' and here are the 'bad guys.' They have this
view left over from the Cold War that my-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend, and
that's a very narrow way of thinking."

http://www.youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=ce0d7476e6c21590a396cd9145454503
The Red Cross Don't Like Black People
Sara Henderson, Youth Outlook

My Grandmother tried to warn me before I signed up with the Red Cross, that
their treatment of Black people had not changed from when she was a nurse in
the 50s. It is hard to understand how I could have been in such a state of
denial about the Red Cross, yet so aware of the fact that the racist
mentality of the past is still alive and present today.

******
NewsWire

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1203-04.htm
Iraqi Journalists Condemn US Military Media Tactics

http://www.bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9332
BBC broadcast 'fake' news reports

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL03Ak02.html
It's propaganda (shock, horror)!

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20051204071143532
Rewriting history: Snared in the web of a wikipedia liar

http://www.counterpunch.org/phillips12022005.html
US Media Ignores Hard Evidence: Proof of death by torture is in the
military's own autopsy reports

http://www.newswatch.in/index.php?itemid=2326
95 per cent US dailies ignored military autopsy reports that provide
indisputable proof of detainees being tortured to death while in US military
custody

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13314542.htm
State Department using ideological litmus tests to screen speakers

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/brit-d03.shtml
Britain: Two charged under Secrets Act for leaking Bush threat to bomb Al
Jazeera

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article331070.ece
Torture files: CIA agents reveal the 'cruel and inhuman' interrogation
techniques they use at secret prisons around the world

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11207.htm
Wrongful imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA mistake

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/rend-d02.shtml
Kidnapping, detention, torture: US "renditions" scandal embroils whole of
Europe

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12032005.html
Good news story of the week: Mighty US Military Machine "Broken, Worn Out"
and "Living Hand to Mouth"

http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB174/index.htm
East Timor Truth Commission report uses declassified U.S. documents to call
for reparations from U.S. for its support of Indonesian invasion and
occupation

http://www.thebusinessonline.com/DJStory.aspx?DJStoryID=20051204DN000252
Hong Kong blacklists WTO protesters

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/02/1451228
Hampton Univ. Students Face Disciplinary Action for Anti-Bush Walkout</a>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1903210,00.html
Frog farm shuts down after ALF attack

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=de07d8311523400686599b218482867d
Hip hop predicted liquor store trashings long ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301254_pf.html
For a former Black Panther, solidarity after the storm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051203-21493000-bc-britain-tamiflu.xml
Report: Tamiflu is useless for avian flu

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051202/ap_on_re_us/1000th_execution
1,000th Person Executed in U.S. Since 1977

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/30/opinion/edmuldavin.php
Beyond the Harbin Chemical Spill

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120205HA.shtml
Deadly Hospital Germ Is Spreading in US

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article330444.ece
Fast-food 'healthy options' still full of fat and salt

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