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Co-editors: John Heathcote Seán Mac Mathúna
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland

RECENT NEWS

Constantly updated . . . last updated 17th September 2007


BLACKWATER; Privatised Terror
IRAQ'S (& HUMANITY'S) HISTORY ERASED

9/11 - Robert Fisk on the continuing controversy

Zeitgeist -World Banking - The Movie

 

Karmabanque Radio - The Truth about Markets

 

Cindy Sheehan and others call for moves to impeach the pResident and his croney ____Cheney, before he launches a rerun of 9/11 _. . . Also a letter from a retd. US officer calling for a coup to rescue the Constitution

 

 

BANKERS READY TO BANKRUPT WESTERN ECONOMY FOR PROFITS

With the recent crisis in the international banking system that has been kicked off by the sub-prime market, international financiers are preparing for their biggest clean-up of the people's money since the Wall Street Crash. _______________

In fact, the 'sub-prime' crisis in the USA reveals that these corporate thieves have been living off fraudulent earnings for a few years now - if you ever wondered where those massive bonuses and golden handshakes came from, look no further . .

Just to rub salt into the wound, the so-called New Labour Government (shouldn't that be 'New Labor' ?) in the UK has decided to prop up those institutions which have been run as privatised cash-cows with public money.

Those executives, whose experience' and 'financial talent' was worth so much that they could be paid 100's of times the earnings of their employees, are now revealed as no better than gambling addicts playing with everyone else's money.

In a strange reversal to previous eras, it is everyone else who end up in the poor-house. Those bank guarantees will be passed on in depletion of infastructure and public services, and ever-more preaching from the pulpit of Prudence to the poor workers, as to why THEY are the cause of inflation, with their 'unjustified' wage demands.

It is amazing that every generation for a hundred years has been ripped-off in a similar way; but that the propaganda and promise of unfettered capitalism is still shoved down people's throats, and they have to swallow it like battery-hens.

We should remember that Wall Street Crash and the ensuing Depression was only really brought to an end by the Second World War; and that many people in the USA are waiting for the next big distraction.

It is a rarely-mentioned fact that the strange collapse of WT7 in the 9/11 tragedy managed to destroy the banking records and paper-trails of all those other Enrons that were awaiting prosecution in the USA; and that the 'problems' in the money-markets then - which have now become major fault-lines - were covered-up by the subsequent shock and injection into the US economy of war finance and security payouts - both from public money - just so the rich didn't ever have to wipe their own arses, or stand in a public court and explain the fraudulent source of their wealth.

 

Blackwater used as mercenaries in the USA after New Orleans floods

It has just been reported that employees of the mercenary army BLACKWATER employed by the US to guard its personnel and terrorise the subject population have just been ordered to leave Iraq by the Prime Minister, after slaughtering at least 11 civilians when one of their convoys came under mortar fire.

A Washington Post employee in the area at the time of the shooting witnessed security company helicopters firing into the streets near Nisoor Square in Mansour. Witnesses said they saw dead and wounded people on the pavement.

The Iraqi government will investigate the incident and "probably will withdraw the authority for this security company in Baghdad," said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

"The security company contractors opened fire randomly on the civilians," he said. "We consider this act a crime ." ________________________________________ _( By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Serv )

Khalaf said the contractors opened fire after two mortar rounds landed in Nusour Square in the western Baghdad district of Mansour.

"By chance the company was passing by. They opened fire randomly at citizens," Khalaf said. Eleven people were killed, including one policeman, and 13 people were wounded, he said. (Christian Science Monitor)

This follows mounting disquiet over the involvement of mercenary armies in global conflict; foremost amongst them being the example of Blackwater in Iraq. There is also a growing unease in the US about the ever-increasing power and wealth of these 'contractors' , due to the 'revolving-door' between Government and the boards and shareholders in these sinister organisations.

A recent series of articles buy Naomi Klein described how the neo-con idea of imperial liberalism, or globalisation had built on the fear and uncertainty generated since 9/11; and had imposed a privatised state of terror on both their own, and non-compliant populations abroad. (This is a subject also dealt with in the documentary Power of Nightmares )

( Part 1 ; The age of disaster capitalism - Part 2 ; The erasing of Iraq - Part 3 : Why failure is the new face of success)

The Iraqi Government, who are guarded by these unaccountable foot-soldiers of the US Corporate Empire, had better watch their backs. . .

Latest update ; representations from US Government to protect their proxy army

BLACKWATER - Shadow Army ; YouTube film investigating the mercenary force

The Truth About Markets - Gulag Wealth and Privatised Terror

George Bush and the fake sheik - what can you believe in this litany of lies?

BLACKWATER'S ERIK PRINCE, War Profiteer, Republican - including video

 

The We-Told-You-So Section - Flame's article April 2003

IRAQ'S (& HUMANITY'S) HISTORY ERASED

In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, armies of looters moved in on the desert cities of southern Iraq and at least 13 Iraqi museums were plundered. Today, almost every archaeological site in southern Iraq is under the control of looters.

In a long and devastating appraisal to be published in December, Lebanese archaeologist Joanne Farchakh says that armies of looters have not spared "one metre of these Sumerian capitals that have been buried under the sand for thousands of years.

"They systematically destroyed the remains of this civilisation in their tireless search for sellable artefacts: ancient cities, covering an estimated surface area of 20 square kilometres, which – if properly excavated – could have provided extensive new information concerning the development of the human race."

2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation . . .

INDEPENDENT Newspaper ; It is the death of history
Special investigation by Robert Fisk
Published: 17 September 2007

9/11 - The continuing controversy

Another Robert Fisk article recently broke the silence in the UK's 'respectable' media concerning the origins of, foreknowledge and participation in the attacks on New York's population, the Pentagon and the passengers of Flight 93.

I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field?

If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive".

He also queries ;

. . . the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error . . . .

But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter.

He concludes ;

Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality".

Robert Fisk (Independent 25 August 2007)

WAR NEWS

Why We Fight ; Storyville film review and YouTube links

Truth about US Casualty figures; from TRB magazine

War Fatigue and degradation of US / UK forces

WHY WE WILL LOSE; Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan

 

POLICE STATE USA/ UK

Police taser student at John Kerry Q&A session

Robot police force

Surveillance Britain;

Police recklessly kill civilians in car chases

and

WHY TORIES ARE HAPPY WITH LABOUR; The One-Party State is alive and well ; A good article by the usually terrible Observer journalist Nick Cohen, describing how good New Labour has increased the wealth-poverty divide in Britain

CENTRAL BANKS GIVE $£ BILLIONS TO PROFITEERS & WARMONGERS- Check this movie . . .!


Zeitgeist - The Movie: Federal Reserve (Part 1 of 5)

Zeitgeist - The Movie: Federal Reserve (Part 2 of 5)

Zeitgeist - The Movie: Federal Reserve (Part 3 of 5)

Zeitgeist - The Movie: Federal Reserve (Part 4 of 5)

Zeitgeist - The Movie: Federal Reserve (Part 5 of 5)

WHY WE FIGHT

A film first shown on the digital TV channel BBC 4 as part of their Storyville series.

Did you know that the US military's daily fuel consumption is about the same as that of Sweden? ( Yes, the country . . .)

Maybe this is a part of the explanation as to why the US defence budget is over half of the entire Government budget - including welfare and education; why the world is consuming fuel at such a rate; and why we have seen Cold and proxy wars being fought across the globe - largely over fuel supply and social economics - since the end of World War II.

WHY WE
FIGHT

It begins with President Eisenhower's last address to the US population, in which he warned them that their democratic institutions were in danger of being hijacked by the 'military-industrial complex'; and it ends in the blood-soaked sands of Iraq.

If you want an honest perspective on these 'merchants of death', supported by factual evidence - beyond the trite propaganda trotted out by (for instance) their fellow-travellers in the British Parliament - CHECK IT OUT!

WHY WE FIGHT (Eugene Jarecki, USA, 2005);

now up on YouTube

Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4

(Also in 6 parts)

and a good article

The Pentagon v. Peak Oil

ALSO . . .The businessman who hijacked an empire

DICK CHENEY; US President, not the puppet prince (2000)

Is this the real president of the United States? (2007)

 

The Bush/Cheney Butcher’s Bill: Officially, 30 US Military Deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan from 1 August 2006 - 14 August 2006- Official Total of 2,791 US dead to date (and rising)The actual total of dead American military personnel is now over 12,000 and also rising and the number of seriously wounded is now ca 25,000 . . .

A report carried in the Australian TRB magazine (not known to be staffed by Trotskyists) claims that the US casualty rate is being hidden from the war-weary public;

The dying and critically wounded are listed as en route to military hospitals outside of the country and not reported on the daily postings . . .

This report does not even mention the dangers of Depleted Uranium weaponry on both Western forces and the Iraqi people. Although slightly deranged (in the way that all God-botherers in the USA seem to be), this page carries some interesting information and links________________cuttingedge.org

ALSO; The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness

True nature of US mission to 'bring democracy to the barbarian'_____________American Soldiers attack on Terrorist sheep

 

COMMENT

It's sad, thinking back to the millions of people in this country who took to the streets before before the Iraq War, how many of the gloomiest predictions proved to be correct.

It took two or three years of increasing slaughter, the disillusionment of both the voting public with politicians, and the armed forces with their political masters, to result in the resignation of the British PM Tony Blair and the reversal of the march of triumphant neo-cons in the States.

However, the War is by no means over - the US Corporations have ensured that they can soak up both the US tax money and the Iraqi oil revenues for a while to come.

In the other - somewhat Forgotten War in Afghanistan, the UK forces are suffering constant losses on a daily level. Their campaign, which is not 'territorial' we are told, is also not to control the opium crop (the biggest ever); so must be for 'hearts and minds', with the idea of setting up a functioning semi-democratic (neo-liberal)state.

Either that, or we are there to support Corporate America's drive to suck up the last drops of oil and impoverish everybody except themselves before the whole globe is awash with toxic waste, washed out of the landfills by the rising seas . . .

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