Headlines for August 5 - August 11

A Stand For Justice


Food Stamp Use Hit Record 40.8m in May
The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a record 40.8 million in May as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government reported yesterday. America can ill afford to embark on another war in the Middle East (this time, with Iran).


Iraq Veterans Against the War Calls for Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials for War Crimes
At its seventh annual national convention in Austin, Texas, IVAW called for the prosecution of senior Bush administration officials for allegedly conspiring to manipulate intelligence in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.


No Blank Checks for the GOP — or Likud by Patrick J. Buchanan
is startling to learn 47 House Republicans just signed on to H.R. 1553 declaring unequivocal “support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran … including the use of military force.”

These Republicans have just given Tel Aviv a blank check for a pre-emptive war that Israel, unless it uses its nuclear weapons, can start but not finish. Fighting and finishing that war would fall to the armed forces of the United States



U.S. Funding for Israeli Missile Defense Programs Reaches New High
Our government must protect Israel at all costs, even as its own citizens go hungry. Thank Israel's lobby.


A Cakewalk Against Iran by Philip Giraldi
A resolution (HR 1553) is making its way through Congress that that would endorse an Israeli attack on Iran, which would be going to war by proxy as the US would almost immediately be drawn into the conflict when Tehran retaliates. The resolution provides explicit US backing for Israel to bomb Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel’s use of "all means necessary…including the use of military force." The resolution is non-binding, but it is dazzling in its disregard for the possible negative consequences that would ensue for the hundreds of thousands of US military and diplomatic personnel currently serving in the Near East region.


Russia Ready to Launch Iranian Nuclear Power Plant
The Iranian state owned FNA news service reports that the head of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency Sergei Kirienko will visit Iran in late August to attend a ceremony to inaugurate the country's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.


Will Israel Really Attack Iran Within a Year?
Based on dozens of interviews the Atlantic correspondent conducted in recent months with Israeli, American and Arab officials, Goldberg came to the conclusion that the likelihood of an Israeli strike has crossed the 50 percent mark. And Israel might not even ask for the famous "green light" from the U.S. - or even give couple of false pre-attack alerts, so that Washington won't try to stop the unilateral operation......Israel is trying to convey the message not only through the official channels - Israeli military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin visited Chicago recently to meet with the billionaire Lester Crown, one of Obama’s supporters, and asked to him to convey Israel's concerns to the American President, Goldberg reports.


New al-Qaeda leader lived in U.S. for years
Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaeda's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.


Iran ready for talks with Washington, says Khamenei aide



Afghan civilians dying at a faster pace, U.N. says
Most of the civilian casualties — nearly 1,300 dead and almost 2,000 injured — were caused by improvised bombs, which are also the principal killer of NATO troops. Insurgents are building not only more bombs, but more powerful ones, the U.N. said.


U.S. and EU fail to isolate Iran
Efforts by the United States and its European allies to build a united front to halt Iran's nuclear program are facing increasingly bold resistance from China, Russia, India and Turkey, which are rushing to boost their economies by seizing investment opportunities in defiance of sanctions imposed by the West......The countries say they will honor the weaker set of sanctions imposed on Iran in June by the U.N. Security Council, but are under no obligation to follow the more stringent rules that the United States and European Union tacked on in July.


Report: U.S. downgrades Saudi arms deal over Israeli concerns
The Wall Street Journal said Monday that the United States had signed on to sell dozens of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, but that details in the final deal had been negotiated to quell Israeli concerns over the possible exchange.


IAEA: Iran activates enrichment equipment



Iran pays 25 pct more for gasoline
Sanctions on Iran's fuel imports are forcing the Islamic Republic to pay well above the market rate for its gasoline, figures from the Turkish government seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.


Eyes on the Skies Over Bushehr Nuclear Reactor
Iranian and Russian nuclear scientists and officials have announced Bushehr's reactor will soon be receiving its first shipment of nuclear fuel 36 years after construction first began on the project.

This claim may be quietly fueling speculation that a military strike on Iran by Israel - or the U.S. - may be imminent.


Mayor Bloomberg’s Monumental Folly by Patrick J. Buchanan
But the issue here is not religious tolerance. There are a hundred mosques in New York City.

The issue here is the appalling insensitivity, if not calculated insult, of erecting a mosque two blocks from a World Trade Center where 3,000 Americans were massacred by Islamic fanatics whose Muslim religion was integral to their identity and mission. Not sure I agree with Pat on this one, but the comments are interesting.


Israel-Lebanon border clash has Israel complaining of Hezbollah's influence - Yahoo! News
“In a way, the Israelis are shooting themselves in the foot with their criticism of the Lebanese Army,” says Timur Goksel, a university lecturer in Beirut and former official with the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in south Lebanon. “They had been saying for years that they want the Lebanese Army to deploy along the border [to replace Hezbollah] and now [that they have]... they are saying they’re terrorists.” Israelis will complain about anyone that doesn't bow down and kowtow to them.


Decline of the Middle Class as Metaphor for the Decline of America
America's falling to pieces as we shovel billions to the Middle East to make it a safer place for Israel.


U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know
Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices. This is an awful, downhill road to follow, but it’s the one we are on. And bond traders will kick us miles down our road once they wake up and realize the U.S. is in worse fiscal shape than Greece. America's falling to pieces as we shovel billions to the Middle East to make it a safer place for Israel.


Governments Go to Extremes as the Downturn Wears On
Plenty of businesses and governments furloughed workers this year, but Hawaii went further — it furloughed its schoolchildren. Public schools across the state closed on 17 Fridays during the past school year to save money, giving students the shortest academic year in the nation and sending working parents scrambling to find care for them. America's falling to pieces as we shovel billions to the Middle East to make it a safer place for Israel.


Camden Closing Library System
New Jersey's most impoverished city will close all three branches of its public library at year's end unless a rescue can be pulled off. America's falling to pieces as we shovel billions to the Middle East to make it a safer place for Israel.


Hezbollah accuses Israel of Hariri assassination
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militants presented aerial reconnaissance footage Monday that he said implicates Israel in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.



Iran Holocaust-denying website angers Israel



Social Security in the red this year
Social Security will pay out more this year than it gets in payroll taxes, marking the first time since the program will be in the red since it was overhauled in 1983, according to the annual authoritative report released Thursday by the program's actuary.
America is getting poorer as we continue to shovel billions to the Middle East to Israel and others in order to make the world a safer place not for us, but for Israel. Because, our support for Israel actually endangers us. It was the sole motivation given by the mastermind of the 911 attacks, Khaled S. Mohammed.


Lebanon: US military aid halt is 'unwarranted'
"We will address the concerns that congressional leaders have rightfully raised about what happened recent and what it's potential implications are," Crowley said. "But nonetheless we continue to support our assistance programs to Lebanon."
I would think Congress would have more important things with which to concern itself. Such as things having to do with AMERICA.


Syria, Iran underline support for Lebanon against Israel



Arab Majority Backs Nuclear Iran
A new poll shows that the percentage of the Arab world that thinks a nuclear-armed Iran would be good for the Middle East has doubled since last year and now makes up the majority. You'll note that the critic of the poll who was cited in this article is from the WINEP, a thinktank associated with AIPAC, Israel's lobby. Naturally they're going to try to refute this poll's findings; it goes against their propaganda effort to paint the Arab world as in opposition to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.


Lebanon: We'll reject U.S. military aid if weapons can't be used against Israel



Tariq Aziz: 'Britain and the US killed Iraq. I wish I was martyred'
Aziz says the events of 9/11 were shocking to him and Saddam.

"We were against that at the time, but we were not speaking to the American government. Saddam Hussein called me and said he would like me to write a letter to Ramsey [Clark, a former US attorney general] and say that we condemn the attack. I did that."


Speak No Evil by Philip Giraldi
surely Clemons knows that Ross and Makovsky are leading members of the Israel Lobby. Ross, who is currently at the National Security Council, has been described as “Israel’s lawyer” while Makovsky is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank founded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. They are gatekeepers whose purpose in life is to protect Israel from any and all criticism. To suggest that as policymakers they have been focused on doing what’s best for the United States and its citizens is contradicted by their personal histories and their recorded statements. That they receive a free pass and even a pat on the head from Clemons and others is precisely why US foreign policy is as dysfunctional as it is.


Jewish Leaders Enter Fray Over Islamic Center Near Ground Zero
All three Jewish groups issued statements affirming the right of Rauf and his allies to build the center. But the ADL, unlike the others, said it was opposed to the construction. “This is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right,” the ADL said.


The Mosque and Us
Before it became a cause célèbre for Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and other rank opportunists, before the Anti-Defamation League sullied a once-noble reputation by siding against religious liberty, before the tweets and satellite trucks spun this all out of control, the plan to turn an eyesore of an empty building two blocks from Ground Zero into a mosque and Islamic center was embraced as a sign of true healing.


Google-Verizon Pact Worse than Feared



Saving Women and Preventing Genocide: The Real Reasons We’re in Afghanistan Now
So now the cheerleaders for war would have us believe that they are more concerned for the welfare of Afghan civilians than are those who wish to end the US occupation.


Britain's Cameron criticized for Iran nuke gaffe
Opposition politicians are needling British leader David Cameron for telling a town hall audience that Iran has a nuclear weapon.



Turkey backs petrol sales to Iran
Turkey will support petrol sales by Turkish companies to Iran, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters on Wednesday, despite U.S. sanctions that aim to squeeze the Islamic Republic's fuel imports.



Kucinich Bill Will Stop the Extrajudicial Killing of Americans
It has been reported that the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) maintain lists of individuals they can target for execution simply for being suspected of involvement in terrorism, in subversion of their most basic constitutional rights and due process of law. These individuals can be targeted for killing at anytime, despite being far from any battlefield, wherever they may be.


Tony Blair Must Be Prosecuted
Since stepping down as prime minister in 2007, he has accumulated an estimated £20 million, much of it as a result of his ties with the Bush administration. The House of Commons Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which vets jobs taken by former ministers, was pressured not to make public Blair’s "consultancy" deals with the Kuwaiti royal family and the South Korean oil giant UI Energy Corporation. He gets £2 million a year "advising" the American investment bank J P Morgan and undisclosed sums from financial services companies.


China is a barometer on whether Israel will attack nuclear plants in Iran
China’s defiance irks the US to the point that American officials are now openly critical of Beijing. Perhaps the US knows something about Israel’s intentions toward striking Iran that China doesn’t. A prime opportunity for Israel to strike Iran would be this fall, just before the US elections when politicians are most prone to support Israel despite its actions.

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