Pentagon's 21st Century Counterinsurgency Wars: Latin America and South Asia\ "There will soon officially be military units from fifty or more nations serving under NATO command in Afghanistan - including what is left of alleged neutral nations in Europe (Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland) - from four continents and the Middle East. Never before in history have soldiers from so many nations served under a common military structure in a single war theater. Afghanistan is the training and testing ground for an embryonic world army." Israeli FM Tells Border Villagers: You Weren’t Conquered, You Were Liberated Despite 2006 Ceasefire, Lieberman Insists Shi'ite Village Will Remain Israeli AP Propaganda - 3 Flu Shots Needed This Fall Get ready to roll up your sleeve three times for flu shots this fall. That's right, three times. This year's flu season is shaping up to be a very different one. Most people will need one shot for the regular seasonal flu and probably two others to protect against the new swine flu. White House Asking For Informants To Spy On Anti-Healthcare Reform Advocates 08-06-2009: Obama's dissident database could be secret -- and permanent The White House request that members of the public report anyone who is spreading "disinformation" about the proposed national health care makeover could lead to a White House database of political opponents that will be both secret and permanent, according to Republican lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are examining the plan's possible implementation. US Kills Five Afghan Farmers in Air Strike Lahore Official Blames Indian Spy Agency for Recent Terror Attacks Israeli Arms Dealers Join Lieberman's Entourage to Africa The Real World: Mercenaries, Murder and the American Way Rights Groups Appeal For UN Investigation of Rendition House Provides $200 Million for Govt VIP Jets Barracks and Burger King: US Builds a Supersized Base in Afghanistan Australia Red-Faced Over 'Terror Target' Security Gaffe Envoy's Advice on Darfur Draws Criticism Protesters Clash With UN Troops in Rural Haiti Iraqis speak of random killings committed by private Blackwater guards Guards employed by Blackwater, the US security company, shot Iraqis and killed victims in allegedly unprovoked and random attacks, it was claimed yesterday. A Virginia court also received sworn statements from former Blackwater employees yesterday alleging that Erik Prince, the company’s founder, "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe". They also accused the company of following a policy of deliberate killings and arms dealing and of employing people unfit or improperly trained to handle lethal weaponry.... Afghan police: US airstrike kills farmers A local police chief says a Western airstrike has killed five farmers loading cucumbers into a taxi in southern Afghanistan... District police chief Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi says the airstrike killed the five farmers at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday as they tried to move cucumbers from the rural Zhari district to the city of Kandahar. Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker says the U.S. believes they were loading munitions... Israeli military blocks road and access to health, water services for approximately 700 Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills Israeli occupation and western taxpayers IDF "Child Killing Unit" Speaks Out Barack Obama's doublespeak http://world.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/65099 Who Owns The TV Networks BBC admit al qaeda never existed - Video A Swine Flu Windfall for GlaxoSmithKline? British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is set to reap billions as fear of the swine flu pandemic grows. The world's second-largest drug company has secured orders from 16 countries for 195 million doses of the vaccine it is developing against the H1N1 virus, which has killed more than 740 people worldwide German guinea pigs.How Safe Is the Swine Flu Vaccine? Swine flu symptoms may generally be mild but in a bid to prevent a pandemic health officials and pharmaceutical companies are planning to administer a new, little-tested vaccine to millions of Germans. Meanwhile, officials in the United States are taking a more cautious approach to fighting the virus. Illegal settlement in Long Island school? US faces huge bill for Afghan security The US will have to provide billions more dollars in coming years to finance a huge increase in the size of Afghanistan’s security forces, officials and analysts warn Adding up the true costs of two wars This wartime spending undoubtedly has been a major contributor to our present economic collapse. The U.S. has waged an expensive war as if it required little or no economic sacrifice, funding the conflict by massive borrowing. As we've observed in the past, you can't spend $3 trillion on a reckless foreign war and not feel the pain at home New head tells Afghans NATO will 'finish the job' NATO's new secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, pledged Wednesday the alliance would remain in Afghanistan despite flagging support in many nations. Polls show majorities in Britain, Germany and Canada oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, even as Barack Obama increases U.S. forceswww.innworldreport.net/inn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1247&Itemid=68 Health Bill Includes Abortion Coverage Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on abortion. Federal funds for abortions are now restricted to cases involving rape, incest or danger to the health of the motherwww.innworldreport.net/inn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1247&Itemid=68 Afghans Protest as NATO Insists Slain Civilians Were ‘Insurgents’ Following protests by Afghan villagers over a US helicopter strike that killed four people, including three children, NATO claims the four were in fact “insurgents.” NATO says the four killed were carrying “plastic jugs” and were assumed to be placing roadside bombs. The helicopter then fired rockets and killed them. NATO’s account disputes civilian witnesses who said the four were sleeping when the helicopter attacked their family’s compound. Official denials of the killing of civilians are common in Afghanistan, and officials regularly claim unspecified evidence that those it kills are insurgents or that the number of deaths is being artificially inflated as part of a Taliban conspiracy. Usually, however, such denials are followed with quiet revisions of the official story months later. In the meantime, the rising civilian toll is creating growing unrest, and the NATO denial is unlikely to pacify the protests www.innworldreport.net/inn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1249:international-news-8-6-09&catid=36:international&Itemid=1 BREAKING NEWS: In kingdom, Saudi prince's coup 'fails' Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom's former ambassador to the US, is reportedly under house arrest over a conspiracy against the monarch. Saad al-Faqih, head of the opposition group Islamic Reform Movement, said Prince Bandar has been disappeared and the media has published no word from the ex-diplomat's whereabouts for nearly three months. www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=102313&sectionid=351020205 Still relevant "Interestingly, Obama's demands regarding settlements are not presented publicly as a call for Israeli compliance with the roadmap. As we see when we look at phases II and III, the Obama team is fairly closely following the roadmap rulebook even as it officially ignores that document and embraces a regional, comprehensive approach. Presumably, it wants to avoid being tainted by what appears to be its predecessor's failure in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Yet, it's all there in the roadmap." Israel seeks ways to silence human rights groups :: First goal is to stop Gaza war crimes revelations :: "Israeli officials are reported to be discussing ways either to make it illegal for foreign governments to fund “political” organisations in Israel or to force such groups to declare themselves as “agents of a foreign government”. IOA delivers demolition orders to 13 Jerusalemite familiesThe Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has distributed demolition orders to 13 Jerusalemite families in five suburbs in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday, Palestinian sources in the city reported.http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/ Evicted East Jerusalem families now living on street"Pointing to an olive tree near his family's sidewalk encampment, he added that "I am living under this tree, which has strong roots." The tree is also featured on his hat, with the inscription "We will never leave." The Gawi family sits under an awning 100 meters away. The Jewish residents who have moved into their former home have already begun renovations on the property. "It makes me terribly angry," said Nasser Gawi. "I was born in that house and all of a sudden someone comes and takes control of it." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1105645.html Clinton minces words for the E. J’lem atrocityThose Palestinians didn’t lose their homes in the middle of a war, they weren’t being punished for having a relative that was a suicide bomber, there weren’t any kids throwing rocks at tanks in the streets. They were families. And, I hate to mention that some were Christian, but I just relish the opportunity to point out how hypocritical the indifference to Palestinians Christians in the U.S. is. You couldn’t find a more benign type of Palestinian. Yet the apartheid judicial system in Israel–which is heralded as a beacon of light in the U.S. decreed that Jews could have Palestinian property if they were persistent enough. It’s not "deeply regrettable." It’s sadistic.http://mondoweiss.net/2009/08/clinton-minces-words-for-the-e-jlem-atrocity.html Does "Urging Israel" Amount to "Change We Can Believe In"?Israel forcibly removed Palestinian families from homes that its government declared to be under Jewish ownership last weekend.Never mind that the Palestinians had been living on the land in Sheikh Jarrah for decades. But within hours, Jewish families settled into the evacuated homes.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ahmed-shihabeldin/does-urging-israel-amount_b_252330.html PA militias intensify political arrests, kidnap 10 Hamas leaders and supportersThe Palestinian Authority’s militias in Qalqiliya carried out last night an unprecedented arrest campaign in the ranks of Hamas leaders and supporters in the city and kidnapped about 10 of them.http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/ Fateh conf stormy; Saudi king upset with AbbasSo yesterday, Abu Mazen and his cronies finally got the Fateh conference together in Bethlehem. Today, even the official spinmeister, Nabil Amr, had to describe the proceedings as "stormy." Actually, that M'aan report says that "delegates nearly came to blows." Hey, at least they didn't (yet) start throwing the potted plants at each other as participants in some Likud conferences did back in the 1980s. Guess what: Some of the delegates even wanted Abu Mazen and the rest of the Central Committee to give an account of what they've been up to-- financially and politically-- in the 20 years since the last General Conference was held.http://justworldnews.org/archives/003714.html Fath gangs and their conference"Hundreds of delegates at the gathering in the West Bank city of Bethlehem protested the lack of administrative and financial accounting by the Fatah leadership since the last congress in 1989. They rejected the explanations of the party's governing bodies that Abbas's opening speech on Monday amounted to a report on Fatah's management over the past 20 years. Delegates interrupted a speech by central committee number two Ahmed Ghneim, who angrily left the podium." Yet, Thomas Friedman today was praising the transparency of the Fath government. [end]http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/08/fath-gangs-and-their-conference.html Official urges PNA to probe the reality of Arafat's deathRAMALLAH, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A former aide of late Fatah leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday accused the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) of ignoring the probes to know who was behind the death of Arafat. Bassam Abu Sharif, a former advisor to Arafat told a news conference held in Ramallah that Arafat died in France when Jacque Chirac was the president. Sharif hinted that the former French president knows the real reason behind the death of Arafat. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/06/content_11832400.htm Right-wing Israelis want Fatah men arrestedBethlehem – Ma’an – Right-wing members of the Israeli Knesset initiated a petition to the country’s High Court on Thursday calling for the arrest of five delegates at the Fatah Conference in Bethlehem, according to news reports. MK Michael Ben Ari (Ichud Leumi), a settler, and his Knesset aide, Itamar Ben-Gvir, submitted the petition on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel Seven reported Thursday.http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=217196 (and by doing so maybe they will gain credibility?) Power Shifts in Plan for Capital Calamity WASHINGTON — A shift in authority has given military officials at the White House a bigger operational role in creating a backup government if the nation’s capital were “decapitated” by a terrorist attack or other calamity, according to current and former officials involved in the decision. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/politics/28continuity.html?_r=2 Conflicting portrait of NC terror suspect emerges http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090729/ap_on_re_us/us_nc_terror_arrests Afua Hirsch: A proud 700-year history of double standards on torture www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/04/torture-law-complicity-terror Muslims to attend mass camp at University of Warwick More than 1,200 Muslims are to attend a mass camp at the University of Warwick in a bid to tackle claims of radicalisation among British Muslim youth. The three-day Al Hidayah 2009, which takes place at the Coventry-based university from Saturday to Monday, is described as the UK’s largest annual retreat of young Muslims of its kind The US is not just fighting the Taliban, they are fighting the Pashtun people