BREAKING ALL THE RULES News

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. and the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus as well as author of the new book, "In Mortal Danger," may be the only elected official to challenge openly the plans for the new superstate.

Responding to a WorldNetDaily report, Tancredo is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of the government office implementing the trilateral agreement that has no authorization from Congress.

Tancredo wants to know the membership of the Security and Prosperity Partnership groups along with their various trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements reached with counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen, welcomed Tancredo's efforts.

"It's time for the Bush administration to come clean," Gilchrist said. "If President Bush's agenda is to establish a new North American union government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, then the president has an obligation to tell this to the American people directly. The American public has a right to know."

Henry Ford and the Jewish Question: Kevin MacDonald

Neil Baldwin’s book on Henry Ford begins by sketching the “McGuffeyland” world of Ford’s childhood — a world of courageous, honest, abstemious, hard-working boys. Ford’s beloved mother read the McGuffey readers to her favorite son, and in his adult life Ford became an avid collector not only of McGuffey first editions but of other Americana as well. This bespeaks Ford’s strong identification with the mid-western culture of his youth, and, in Baldwin’s view, that is a big part of the problem, because part of that mid-western culture was a subtle anti-Semitism. The McGuffey readers contained passages from The Merchant of Venice in which Shylock is described as an “inhuman wretch, incapable of pity,” a man filled with irrational hatred for the Christian Antonio. Baldwin implies that given such a culture, it is a small step to Ford’s “mass production of hate.”

Pat Buchanan: Impeach Bush Over Illegal Aliens

Buchanan follows Rep. Tom Tancredo's warning shot, "In Mortal Danger," with some sobering statistics and new ways to consider the crisis. He states:

One in every twelve people breaking into America has a criminal record.
By 2050, there will be 100 million Hispanics concentrated in the U.S. Southwest.

Between 10 and 20 percent of all Mexicans, Central Americans and people of the Caribbean have already moved to the United States.
Every month, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehends more illegal aliens breaking into our country, 150,000, than the number of troops we have in Iraq.

"Concerned about his legacy, George W. Bush may yet live to see his name entered into the history of his country as the president who lost the American Southwest that James K. Polk won for the United States," Buchanan writes.

China Replaces U. S. as World's Largest Exporter: Manufacturing and Technology News

During the first six months of this year, China surpassed the United States as being the world's largest exporter. Only five years ago, the United States exported more than double the amount of China. During the first half of 2006, Chinese exports of manufactured goods reached $404 billion compared to $367 billion in exports by the United States.

"This dramatic reversal, together with the increasingly high-tech orientation of Chinese exports, poses a serious challenge to U.S. export competitiveness and long-standing leadership in technological innovation," writes Preeg.

Canadian Was Falsely Accused, Panel Says: Washington Post

TORONTO, Sept. 18 -- Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.

US Army Counter Intelligence Officer Arrested in Moscow: Kavkaz Center

A 29-year-old American Army intelligence officer, Christopher Garner, serving at US Fort Bragg Base, NC, has been arrested in Moscow with his Ukrainian wife Svetlana on charges of murdering the husband of Svetlana's aunt of in the Far-Eastern Russian town of Khabarovsk on September 7. The couple came to Russia from North Carolina for the funeral of the aunt. The whole story is fishy and looks like a provocation of the FSB (former KGB).

The FSB told local press in the Far East that Christopher Garner was not a private in the US Army as he pretended to be but a counter intelligence officer. In Moscow, the couple sought refuge in the American Embassy and stayed there for 24 hours but then the Russian police purportedly persuaded the couple to "surrender", the FSB said. The arrested American citizen and his wife were sent back to Khanarovsk and put in prison.

No foreign correspondents in Moscow reported about the incident. No commentary from the US Embassy in Moscow was available.

A Hedge Fund's Loss Rattles Nerves: New York Times

Enormous losses at one of the nation’s largest hedge funds resurrected worries yesterday that major bets by these secretive, unregulated investment partnerships could create widespread financial disruptions.

The hedge fund, Amaranth Advisors, based in Greenwich, Conn., made an estimated $1 billion on rising energy prices last year. Yesterday, the fund told its investors that it had lost more than $3 billion in the recent downturn in natural gas and that it was working with its lenders and selling its holdings “to protect our investors.”

West Won't Win Afghan War: Eric Margolis

Attacking Pashtuns, renowned for xenophobia, warlike spirits, and love of independence, is a fool’s mission. Pashtuns are Afghanistan’s ethnic majority; long-term national stability is impossible without their co-operation.

What the West calls “Taliban” is actually a growing coalition of veteran Taliban fighters led by Mullah Dadullah, other clans of Pashtun tribal warriors, and nationalist resistance forces under Jalalladin Hakkani and former prime minister Gulbadin Hekmatyar. Many are former mujahadeen once hailed as “freedom fighters” by the West, and branded “terrorists” by the Soviets.

The UN’s anti-narcotic agency reports narco-state Afghanistan now supplies 92% of the world’s heroin. Production surged 20% last year alone. Who is responsible? The U.S. and NATO. Washington, Ottawa and London can’t keep pretending this is someone else’s problem. Drug money fuels the Afghan economy and keeps local warlords loyal to the U.S.-installed Kabul regime.

In Defense of Pope Benedict by Justin Raimondo

Clearly, Benedict had no idea that, in returning to the University of Regensburg, where he once taught theology, and delivering a lecture with the supremely inoffensive title of "Faith, Reason, and the University – Memories and Reflections," he would be charged with launching the Tenth Crusade. Yet that is plainly happening.

Out of a complicated and thoroughly delightful narrative on the relationship between faith and reason – intended to illustrate his point that Catholicism is the only authentic alternative to the "primitive" irrationalism of Protestant and Islamic mystics, on the one hand, and godless rationalism on the other – the fanatics (egged on by the media) have latched on to a few paragraphs, which are citations and not even the words of this pope. What is fascinating is his point that the long-term trend within Christian circles, Catholic as well as Protestant, has amounted to a process of "de-Hellenization," i.e., an attempt to divorce Christianity from what the "reformers" regard as alien accretions of the Hellenistic period. Yet the gospels were written in Greek, notes Benedict, and he goes on to explain, in so many words, how the Christian concept of the logos – in the beginning, writes Saint John, was the Logos – assumes a rational, benevolent God.

Germany Imprisons Homeschooling Mother: Brussels Journal

Last Thursday the German police arrested Katharina Plett, a homeschooling mother of twelve. Yesterday her husband fled to Austria with the children. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Hitler banned it in 1938. The Plett family belongs to a homeschooling group of seven Baptist families in Paderborn. We wrote about their case last year.

The Ineptitude on Iran, by Numbers by Hossein Askari

The United States has applied a varied mix of economic sanctions on Iran since 1979 in a bid to reverse a host of Tehran’s policies and, ultimately, bring about regime change. Clearly, the sanctions have not worked. And while the United States has been busy tightening its screws, average Iranians have become more nationalistic and supportive of the mullahs. The only discernible result of U.S. sanctions on Iran has been to delay Iran's development of its energy resources. Iran’s oil and natural gas reserves equal those of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has obstructed the development of at least two known large oil fields in Iran (Azadegan and Yadavaran) that together could have proven reserves exceeding 35 billion barrels and produce over 1 million barrels per day of crude at their expected peak; has hindered oil and gas development in the Caspian Sea by playing the countries of the region against each other; has vetoed the construction of Caspian pipelines through Iran (even though they would cost only about half the price of alternative pipelines); and has opposed Iranian gas pipelines to Pakistan and India, even offering India nuclear deals in exchange for not buying Iranian gas.

Open Letter to Pope Benedict from Indian Muslims

At this critical hour we need the men of faith to indulge in a "Dialogue of Civilizations". This is not a war between the religions of the world. This is also not a civil war within the Abrahamic faiths. The battle is truly between the religions of the world on one hand and Zionism on the other. Both Jewish and Christian Zionisms are theologically corrupting and thus have a subversive influence on Judaism and Christianity. At stake are the very moral and ethical foundations of Judaism and the principles of love, mercy and compassion, which was the central message of Prophet Jesus (p.b.u.h.). In fact Christian Zionism degrades the centrality of Christ in the process of salvation and redemption and places Israel at the centre whilst replacing Jesus !!.

Open Letter to Pope Benedict from Indian Muslims

When free speech costs a career: How profs' political advocacy outside academia can threaten their success within it : Yale Herald Cover Story

Six years ago, a scientist named Mazin Qumsiyeh was hired by the Yale School of Medicine as director of cytogenetic services, a post that placed him in a position of responsibility over many of the school’s genetic labs. Dr. Qumsiyeh had been born a Lutheran in Palestine and, when he wasn’t at the lab in New Haven, was working as the national treasurer of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and as an advocate for a single-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East. In the summer of 2003, Qumsiyeh found himself at the center of a firestorm of controversy for sending an e-mail to a Yale anti-war group listing the membership roster of the Yale Friends for Israel and labeling it a “pro-war cabal.” YFI members protested and Qumsiyeh issued an apology, but the issue lingered; many students were concerned that a Yale professor would express such an extreme opinion in such a public way. But free speech is protected in the academy, and while ITS investigated how Qumsiyeh obtained the e-mail addresses in the first place, there were no further inquiries. No one disputed his right to speak out against a war he believed was crippling his country. Looking back on the incident, Qumsiyeh still sees it as entitled free speech: “In a democratic and free society it is actually the duty of all people regardless of their profession to participate in public discourse and this is especially true for intellectuals and academics,” he said. “Academicians can and do balance career, civic responsibility and family life.” But when his contract came up for review in 2004, it was not renewed. The provost’s office would not disclose why; hiring and renewal decisions are as confidential as they can be controversial.

An American Monarchy? by Nat Hentoff

The president has removed high-level prisoners from a secret CIA "black site," but has not closed those cells for future "alternative procedures" in hidden CIA prisons. And despite the continuing controversy over whether he broke the law in authorizing secret National Security Agency eavesdropping, he's asking for even greater warrantless spying on Americans' international communications. He still believes he has "inherent" constitutional authority to act on his own in certain areas. But what would our Founders say? Let's find out.

'Vote for Me . . . and for World War Three' by Thomas Di Lorenzo

Many of the most prominent neocons are obsessed with being viewed as the next FDR. They keep describing the mass murderer bin Laden and his thousand or so looney followers as "fascists," as though they pose a threat comparable to Nazi Germany. And they keep insisting that "we" must enter what they call World War Three. "We’re already in World War III!" they wishfully bellow. Being neocons, they also seem to believe that the clincher in their argument is some version of "Lincoln would do it, therefore it must be the right thing to do."

The latest rendition of this hoary war chant – always made by people who have never spent a single day in the military – is a September 7, 2006 article in The Wall Street Journal Online by Newt Gingrich entitled "Bush and Lincoln" (not to be confused with numerous other articles published by neocons with titles like "Lincoln and Bush" or "Bush is Our Lincoln"). The article starts out with a Lincoln quote at the top of the page where Dishonest Abe is quoted as saying: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present . . . we must think anew, and act anew."

Zeroing in on Sources Used by Hewlett Packard: New York Times

According to people briefed on Hewlett-Packard’s review of its internal investigation, prosecutors are focusing on the role of the Action Research Group of Melbourne, Fla. Congressional investigators identified the company this year as one of the most prolific users of subterfuge for obtaining phone records, a method known as pretexting.

An owner of the Action Research Group, Joseph DePante, when asked by telephone on Friday about the Hewlett-Packard investigation, said: “I don’t know anything about that. Thank you for calling.” He refused to comment further.

In addition to the Florida firm, prosecutors have been examining the role of Security Outsourcing Solutions, a tiny Boston-area private detective firm. The firm and its principal, Ronald R. DeLia, have ties to Hewlett-Packard through the company’s Global Investigations Unit, which is based in Massachusetts.

Judicial Colonialism, The Assassination of Rafik Hariri: A Biased Investigation: Global Research

Interview of Jürgen Cain Külbel

A former criminal investigator of the GDR, who became a journalist after the reunification of Germany, Jürgen Cain Külbel is the author of a counter-investigation on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, who the Voltaire Network presented to the Arab public during a widely covered conference in Damascus, May 7, 2006. In this interview, he discusses the political role of the UN Commission and the unexploited leads pointing to Israeli responsibility.

Mark Glenn's Picture of the Day

Picture of the Day

“In the southern part of Hebron, the Israeli soldiers caught a Palestinian shepherd on the top of a hill. They checked his ID, and then they kicked and beat him. The Israeli soldiers, these “nice civilized soldiers” ordered the Palestinian man to bring his donkey. They ordered the poor man to strip, and then they threatened to shoot him if he disobeyed their orders. The poor man stripped, and then the Israeli soldiers ordered him to have sex with the donkey. ‘I couldn't refuse, the soldiers were ready to shoot me,’ he later reported. ‘The soldiers were spitting and cursing at me the whole time. I am so ashamed and disgusted,’ the poor man said.” --excerpt of “Israel is an Anti-Semitic state…the Daily life of Kawther Salaam,” written by Palestinian journalist Kawther Salaam

Afghanistan: a lost cause?: Graham Usher for Al Ahram (Cairo)

Taliban commanders now boast of a fighting force of 12,000 men and control over "20 districts" in southern Afghanistan. NATO officials say the figure is exaggerated but, with NATO's 6,000 troops over-stretched to command 23,000 square miles, they admit that the Taliban can "loosely control much of [Afghanistan's] four southern provinces much of the time".

President Bush could learn a lot from Sun Tzu: John Lang for the Baltimore Sun

Dear Mr. President,

It's too bad The Art of War wasn't on your summer reading list. If you'd read it, maybe we wouldn't be mired in Iraq. According to the author, Sun Tzu, esteemed for thousands of years as the Sage of Warfare, you're doing it all wrong.

The Key to Peace: Dismantling the Matrix of Control : The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

In the complex situation in which Palestinians and Israelis currently find themselves, two things seems equally evident: First, a viable and truly sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel is an absolute prerequisite for a just and lasting peace; and second, Israel needs a Palestinian state. Without a Palestine state Israel faces what it considers as two unacceptable options. If it annexes the Occupied Territories and grants citizenship to their three million Palestinian inhabitants, it creates de facto a bi-national state of 5 million Jews and 4 million Palestinians (not counting the refugees), an option that would end the Zionist enterprise. If it continues its Occupation, it inevitably creates a system of outright apartheid, an untenable option in the long run.

Education: Free and Compulsory by Murray Rothbard for the Mises Institute

It is hardly coincidence that the most notoriously despotic State in Europe — Prussia — was the first to have a national system of compulsory education, nor that the original inspiration, as we have seen, was Luther and his doctrine of obedience to State absolutism. As Mr. Twentyman put it: "State interference in education was almost coincident with the rise of the Prussian state."

Ford cuts 10,000 more jobs, 2 plants : Raw Story

Wall Street seemed unimpressed with Ford's accelerated restructuring plan. Ford Motor Co. shares tumbled more than 13 percent by midday, erasing more than $2 billion of the stock's value.

Won't Deploy? Can't Deploy: Slate

It is not the case now: Instead, Washington's aim is essentially to avoid the humiliation of withdrawal and to minimize the possibility of creating a bigger vacuum that will suck Iraq's neighbors into a regional conflict. One clear consequence of this, as the Washington Post suggested earlier this week, is that Anbar province, the vast Sunni territory in western Iraq where the insurgency has its deepest roots, has been lost. As the Post paraphrased the Marine Corps chief of intelligence for Iraq: "al-Qaeda has become the province's most significant political force." In other words, the prediction some began making a year ago—that Anbar would become a new and enduring sanctuary for al-Qaida—has come true.

Porn drove me out of British Navy, says chaplain: UK Telegraph

A Royal Navy chaplain quit the service after being told to turn a blind eye to pornography on board two warships, an employment tribunal was told yesterday.

The Rev Mark Sharpe, 37, was so horrified at the amount of pornography below decks that he left training after only a few weeks.
Mr Sharpe has brought a claim against the Ministry of Defence alleging sexual harassment, and discrimination on the grounds of religious affiliation.

Navy Chaplain Guilty of Disobeying an Order: Washington Post

A Navy court decided yesterday to reprimand and dock the pay of an evangelical Protestant chaplain after finding him guilty of disobeying an order by appearing in uniform at a political protest in front of the White House in March.

The chaplain, Lt. Gordon J. Klingenschmitt, said he intends to "appeal by all means possible all the way to the Supreme Court."

The Israel Factor: Ranking the Presidential Candidates (Haaretz)

Haaretz handicaps the various American Presidential candidates by how well they fawn for the Israeli lobby. Beware.

Palestinian Refugees' Right of Return and Related Matters by Gary D. Keenan

As well as the refugees of the 1947/48 conflict, this article also deals with those expelled prior to and during the 1956 war and as a consequence of the 1967 and 1973 wars. Given their importance, a brief discussion of illegal settlements, confiscation of Palestinian land and key events regarding East Jerusalem/the Old City is included.

Where was Osama on September 11, 2001? by Michel Chossudovsky

The fact of the matter is that every single administration, since Jimmy Carter have supported and financed the "Islamic terror" network, created during the Carter administration at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war. (See Michel Chossudovsky, Who is Osama bin Laden, 12 September 2001). al Qaeda is a instrument of US intelligence: a US sponsored intelligence asset.

Where was Osama on September 11?

There is evidence that the whereabouts of Osama are known to the Bush Administration.

On September 10. 2001, "Enemy Number One" was in a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi, courtesy of America's indefectible ally Pakistan, as confirmed by a report of Dan Rather, CBS News. (See our October 2003 article on this issue)

Neo-con favorite declares World War III by Jim Lobe

After taking responsibility for Republican losses in Congress in 1998, Gingrich resigned as Speaker, but he has remained politically active as a senior fellow at the AEI, an advisory board member of the pro-Israel Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and a member of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board (DPB).

In all of these capacities, he, along with fellow DPB members Richard Perle and James Woolsey, has been an outspoken champion of the hardline hawks within the Bush administration led by Vice President Dick Cheney and a constant critic of the State Department, which, from time to time, he has accused of disloyalty to the Bush agenda. Indeed, in mid-April 2003, just one week after invading US forces had consolidated control of Baghdad, he gave a speech in which he charged that the department was undermining Washington's military victory by endorsing a high-level dialogue with Syria and the "Quartet's" roadmap for reviving peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

His remarks, which were also delivered at the AEI, were so extreme that they provoked blunt-speaking deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage to give USA Today one of the most memorable quotes of the Iraq war: "It's clear that Mr Gingrich is off his meds and out of therapy."

Russian Central Banker Shot Dead: BBC

The first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank has died in hospital after being shot by two unidentified gunmen in the capital, Moscow.

Andrei Kozlov, 41, was attacked at a city's sports ground late on Wednesday. Prosecutors said the motive for the shooting was unclear, but suggested that it looked like a contract killing.

WATCHING LEBANON: Washington's Interest in Israel's War: Sy Hersh

The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel's retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah's heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preemptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.

Has Our Aim Been True? by Tom Maertens

James Madison once warned: "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." The Bush administration has already exploited the war in Iraq and fears about terrorism to stampede the American people into accepting an astonishing curtailment of their freedoms and growing lawlessness by the government. If the administration chooses to engage in the neocons' endless, global War for Civilization, American democracy will ultimately be one of the casualties.

Tom Maertens served as National Security Council director for proliferation and homeland defense in the George W. Bush White House, and as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism in the State Department on 9/11.

U. N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report by House Panel: Washington Post

Among the committee's assertions is that Iran is producing weapons-grade uranium at its facility in the town of Natanz. The IAEA called that "incorrect," noting that weapons-grade uranium is enriched to a level of 90 percent or more. Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent under IAEA monitoring.

When the congressional report was released last month, [Rep. Peter]Hoekstra said his intent was "to help increase the American public's understanding of Iran as a threat." Spokesman Jamal Ware said yesterday that Hoekstra will respond to the IAEA letter.

Princeton Scientists Create Vote-Stealing Program for Diebold AccuVote-TS: Truthout

In a paper published on the Web today, a group of Princeton computer scientists said they created demonstration vote-stealing software that can be installed within a minute on a common electronic voting machine. The software can fraudulently change vote counts without being detected.

"We have created and analyzed the code in the spirit of helping to guide public officials so that they can make wise decisions about how to secure elections," said Edward Felten, the director of the Center for Information Technology Policy, a new center at Princeton University that addresses crucial issues at the intersection of society and computer technology.

The paper appears on the Web site for the Center for Information Technology Policy.

GOP Leaders Back Bush on Wiretapping, Tribunals: Washington Post

McCain expressed bewilderment at an administration stand that he said would tamper with interpretations of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. That stand is firmly opposed by top military lawyers. "The overwhelming majority of retired military people are weighing in on this issue and saying, 'Don't amend Common Article 3 [of the Geneva Conventions] because then you are allowing other nations' " to conclude that they, too, can change the conventions, McCain said.

McCain and his allies were unable to persuade White House negotiators to agree that an alleged enemy combatant could not be convicted on the basis of classified information that is not shared in some form with the defendant. "We're still gridlocked on that," McCain said. "They want to turn 200 years of criminal procedure on its head."

Senator George Allen: Flip-Flops on Sodomy Due to Gay Network in Allen's Organization?: Washington Blade

Conservative Caucus chairman Howard Phillips of Washington sends BATR's Mark Dankof a curious report from the pro-homosexual Washington Blade newspaper, under an August 25th Elizabeth Perry by-line (page 8). Ms. Perry reports that, "On gay issues, [U. S. Senator George] Allen has been criticized by gay rights advocates on both sides of the political aisle, who accuse him of flip-flopping."

Perry's Blade report mentions that Allen has been on both sides of the issue of including sexual orientation in hate crimes legislation, and the Federal Marriage Amendment, using David Lampo, vice president of the pro-homosexual Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia as a source.

Most interestingly, Perry goes on to say that after Allen switched his position on the Federal Marriage Amendment from anti to pro, gay activist Michael Rogers outed Jay Timmons, an Allen protege, who was serving as the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2004. Rogers also asserted that Allen "employed a number of gays on his staff." The Blade continues by saying that "Timmons was hired because his mentor, Allen, was named to head the GOP group in 2002, according to Blade reports from the time. Lampo would not comment on Timmons or others in Allen's office rumored to be gay. Repeated calls to Allen's office were not returned this week. . . ."

Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the 21st Century: Independent Working Group

BATR readers with programs that open PDF files will be interested in this report on the proposed militarization of space for purposes of missile defense, and the quandaries it presents. The sources of this report are Henry F. Cooper, former director of SDI, chairman of High Frontier, and chief negotiator to the Geneva Space and Defense Talks; and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr., President of the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Is it an accident that the Neo-Con Wall Street Journal ran reference to this report on August 28th?

Who Did 911: OBL, Bush, or Mossad? The Evidence by Nashid Abdul-Khaaliq

Another year has passed by since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. What has been gradually happening is that more and more the initial mainstream media version of what happened on that gruesome day is proving to be less true. Increasing credible and respected people such as scientists, ex-governmental officials, religious leaders, journalists and others are PUBLICLY coming out with information that refutes the mainstream media version of events. What is more interesting is that besides being called "kooks" and the information presented being called "conspiracy theories", the substance of the new information debunking mainstream media is going unchallenged! The new information about 911 and the ones presenting it are being called all kinds of names but the information being presented is not being challenged or proven in anyway to be false.

IDF Commander: We Fired More Than a Million Cluster Bombs in Lebanon (Haaretz)

"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war. Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.

In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war.

War in the Middle East: A Warning for Argentina by Adrian Salbuchi

Theodor Herzl’s Dream: creating TWO Zionist States, one in Palestine and the other in Argentine.

Has the time therefore come to activate an old and dormant – though not abandoned – plan to create a second Jewish State somewhere in the world? The “State of practical possibilities” as Russian Zionist leader Leon Pinsker once called it back in the 19th Century, and as later formally proposed by Viennese lawyer Theodor Herzl, founding father of Zionism?

This second Jewish State would be located in Argentina, as Herzl explicitly proposes in his milestone book laying the foundations for the International Zionist Movement “A Jewish State”, published in 1896, one chapter of which has the significant title, "Palestine or Argentine", which literally reads as follows:

The regime in Iran has been and still is (secretly) in bed with the United States: Jalil Bahar

We’ve been pushing for regime change and democracy in Iran for over 25 years – and all along the regime in Iran has been and still is (secretly) in bed with the United States government!! The key in politics is to see what people are doing not saying. In the United States especially, there is a keen political tradition of saying one thing forcefully and then quietly doing the opposite. US rhetoric and subsequent actions on Iran have followed the same pattern. The regime in Iran has been accused of everything under the sun – yet strangely life goes on unimpeded for the regime… day after day, year after year, decade after decade. The Mullahs have ruled for longer than the former Shah – and achieved every single goal they have set out for themselves. They have been very successful.In our interconnected global economy no one can succeed without approval and assistance of the United States. Yes, the Mullah’s have ruled through covert US government support. They are in bed with each other. How could this be?

Worried CIA Officers Buy Legal Insurance: Washington Post

The insurance policies were bought from Arlington-based Wright and Co., a subsidiary of the private Special Agents Mutual Benefit Association created by former FBI officials. The CIA has encouraged many of its officers to take out the insurance, current and former intelligence officials said, but no one interviewed would reveal precisely how many have bought policies.

On Palestinian Displacement by Refugees Studies Center/ Oxford University from PLO Mission (Washington)

The September 2006 issue of the in-house magazine of the University of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre includes a major feature on Palestinian displacement. Twenty-eight articles by UN, Palestinian and international human rights organisations, Palestinian scholars in the diaspora and Jewish and Israeli activist groups examine the root causes of the displacement of Palestinians, the consequences of the failure to apply international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Palestinian entitlement to protection and compensation.

Fatal Vision: The Strategy of Chaos and Ethnic Cleansing by Chris Floyd

In Dostoevsky's 1872 novel, The Possessed, a prescient dissection of the roots of political terrorism, a bit player named Shigalov provides a revealing glimpse of how the noble idea of "humanitarian intervention" to bring freedom and democracy to the benighted places of the earth invariably becomes a brutal despotism, geared toward imposing a single vision of world order.

Why Are We Suddenly At War With "Islamic Fascists"? by John Dean

Pat Buchanan, who addresses the term from the opposite end of the political spectrum, notes that "there is no consensus as to what 'fascism' even means," and observes that Arnold Beichman of the Hoover Institution asserts that "fascism ... has no intellectual basis; its founders did not even pretend to have any."

Buchanan says that using this term "represents the same lazy, shallow thinking that got us into Iraq, where Americans were persuaded that by dumping over Saddam, we were avenging 9/11." Buchanan believes that unless the Bush folks actually want a war of civilizations, he should drop this term, because it is deeply offensive to peaceful Muslims.

In short, adoption of this latest description of the enemy represents more fuzzy thinking; it is another effort to employ fear for political purposes; and it is an action inherent with potential unintended consequences. This, of course, has been the norm for Bush's post-9/11 foreign policy. Word games, from "bring 'em on," to "shock and awe," to "mission accomplished" have been employed to effect a continuing distortion of reality.

The Torturer's Apprentice by Ray McGovern

Bush in jeopardy? Yes. The issue is torture, which George W. Bush authorized in a Feb. 7, 2002, memorandum in contravention both of the Geneva Accords and 18 U.S. Code 2441—the War Crimes Act that incorporates the Geneva provisions into the federal criminal code which was approved by a Republican-led Congress in 1996. Heeding the advice of Vice President Dick Cheney’s counsel, David Addington, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, the president officially opened the door to torture in that memorandum. His remarks yesterday reflect the determination of Cheney and Bush to keep that door open and accuse those who would close it of being "soft on terrorists."

Video of Iranian Missile Test Is Fake, Pentagon Says: LA Times

WASHINGTON — U.S. military intelligence has determined that a video released by the Iranian government purporting to show a test of a new submarine missile is bogus, three Pentagon officials confirmed.

The Iranians released the video Aug. 27, one of a series of steps the Tehran government has taken in recent months to display its military potency in the midst of a confrontation with the United States and other Western nations over its nuclear ambitions.

The test apparently was designed to intimidate Iran's neighbors in the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which are U.S. allies and important oil-producing countries, regional experts said. The video showed what appeared to be a successful test of a submarine-fired missile that flies above the water's surface to attack ships.But U.S. intelligence officers analyzed the plume of smoke from the missile and determined it matched a video of an earlier Chinese test. (A copy of the Iranian television report, including the video of the missile launch, can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watchvtvpPAKNlf44.)

I-69: Yet Another NAFTA Super-Highway: Jerome Corsi for Human Events

Another NAFTA Super-Highway is moving state-by-state from the planning stage to the funding and construction process. As listed on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration’s website, the “I-69 Corridor” is planned to connect Mexico and Canada through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.

The CIA (or Mossad or China) did it: The First Post (UK)

9/11 five years on: The First Post presents its guide to the top 10 conspiracy theories.

Russian Copter With Generals Reportedly Shot Down By Ossetian Mujahideen: Kavkaz Center

On September 7, 2006 the Muhajideen from the Ossetian Kataib al-Khoul Jamaat vowed in their statement published by the Kavkaz Center news agency to shoot down Russian aircraft in the near future. They said:

"We have flight charts of the aviation deployed in Ossetia, we know all the airfields of military airplanes and helicopters. Allah willing, already this year Ossetia will stop to be safe airspace for them."

It seems, it has already stopped.

At least ten Russian high-ranking army general and colonels died when a military Mi-8 helicopter crashed near the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz at 17.33 Moscow time (13.33 GMT) today, September 11, 2006 as it ferried a party of 15 senior Russian terrorists in the North Caucasus region, Russian invaders said.

Republicans Push Hardline Military Tribunal Bill: Capitol Hill Blue

Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will propose on Wednesday that his panel approve a bill that would allow the exclusion of evidence to protect classified information. A floor vote is expected next week.

The bill puts Hunter, R-Calif., in line with the White House and Senate leadership, but at odds with his counterpart, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va. Warner and some of his colleagues have drafted a rival bill that would ensure defendants are allowed access to all evidence against them.

Are We Really Any Better Off Without Saddam Hussein?: Capitol Hill Blue

West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV made his views clear as the Senate released a heretofore classified document that reported, among other things, that the CIA had repudiated claims that there were ties between Saddam's government and al-Qaeda, one of the key justifications for the Bush administration's Iraq policy. In fact, the report quotes CIA testimony that Saddam regarded al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as his enemy and tried in vain to find him. Rockefeller serves as ranking minority member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which declassified the report.

Hurd to succeed Dunn at HP

[Patricia] Dunn became the center of a boardroom storm in the last week after revelations that an outside investigator for the company's board may have used illegal methods to spy on some directors as well as reporters as it probed leaks of sensitive company information.

TV Video: Ambassador Afif Safieh at SF World Affairs Council

The PLO's Ambassador to the United States sends BATR a note on his televised appearance before the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. Posted with thanks for the courtesy. Click the URL to begin the process.

Fascists Under the Bed by Pat Buchanan

Unsurprisingly, it is neoconservatives, whose roots are in the Trotskyist-Social Democratic Left, who are promoting use of the term. Their goal is to have Bush stuff al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran into an “Islamofascist” kill box, then let SAC do the rest.

Israeli-US Strategy: Lebanon and Iran by James Petras

A survey of Israeli State pronouncements, documents and press releases echoed by its resident representatives in the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and their supporters writing and speaking in the major media reveals a concerted effort to convince the United States to militarily attack Iran. Beginning in the mid 1990’s, Israel’s top US ideologues promulgated documents and propaganda manifestos, purporting to be strategy papers directed toward joint US-Israeli aggression against Iraq, Syria and especially Iran.(1)Even as the bricks were still smoldering from 9/11, Israeli ideological point men, Senator Lieberman and Undersecretary for Defense Wolfowitz urged Washington to attack Iran by launching either simultaneous or sequential wars. In pursuit of Israel’s regional priorities, its representatives in the US Government, in the Pentagon (Wolfowitz, Feith and Shulsky), in the National Security Council (Abrams), in the Vice President’s Office (Libby) and in the President’s Office (Speech writer Frum) falsified intelligence, designed the propaganda (War Against Terror, Axis of Evil) and planned the War against Iraq, and with the Lobby secured near unanimous Congressional acquiescence. They then successfully secured a US boycott of Syria and support for Israel’s expropriation, annexation and settlement of Palestinian land in the West Bank and the destruction of Gaza. Even as the US invasion failed to secure control of Iraq, Israel’s representatives in the US Government did destroy Iraqi society and state, and its capacity to support the Palestinian resistance, increasing Israel’s regional power (at a very high cost to the United States).

Full text: Vladimir Putin interview: Financial Times

An edited transcript of a meeting on between Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign academics and journalists, including Stefan Wagstyl, the FT’s East Europe Editor. Held over lunch at the Novo Ogarevo, the presidential mansion outside Moscow, on September 9.

How US merchants of fear sparked a $130bn bonanza: UK Observer

Five years after the World Trade Centre fell, a highly lucrative industry has been born in America - homeland security. There has been a goldrush as companies scoop up government contracts and peddle products that they say are designed to make America safe.
The figures are stunning. Seven years ago there were nine companies with federal homeland security contracts. By 2003 it was 3,512. Now there are 33,890. The money is huge. Since 2000, $130bn (£70bn) of contracts have been dished out. By 2015 annual federal spending on the industry could be $170bn.

Bush the Pitiful by Paul Craig Roberts

Another reason to feel sorry for Bush is because he is regarded by his own political party and his own Attorney General as a war criminal. Republicans recognize that Bush has committed felonies by violating the US War Crimes Act of 1996 (legislation aimed at the likes of Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic). Bush’s Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, and the Republican Congress have produced draft legislation that aims to protect Bush retroactively by gutting the 1996 War Crimes Act. Republicans hope to quietly pass this unconstitutional legislation before they are defeated in the November elections.

The Law of Opposites by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

Everyone is aware of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Most members of Congress understand that government actions can have unintended consequences, yet few quit voting for government "solutions" – always hoping there won't be any particular unintended consequences this time. They keep hoping there will be less harmful complications from the "solution" that they currently support. Economics teaches that for every government action to solve an economic problem, others are created. The same unwanted results occur with foreign policy meddling.

62,006 - the number killed in the 'war on terror' : UK Independent

The "war on terror" - and by terrorists - has directly killed a minimum of 62,006 people, created 4.5 million refugees and cost the US more than the sum needed to pay off the debts of every poor nation on earth.

The GOP, RIP by Justin Raimondo

Under George W. Bush, today's GOP is in the vanguard of the biggest expansion of governmental power since 27 B.C., the year Octavian was crowned with laurel leaves in the Roman Senate, and the yeoman's republic on the Tiber morphed into an Empire.

European lawmakers demand locations of CIA prisons: Daily Star (Lebanon)

European lawmakers demanded Thursday that their governments reveal the location of secret CIA prisons after US President George Bush admitted Washington held terrorist suspects in jails abroad.

Senate approves $63 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan wars: SignOnSanDiego

With the latest infusion of war funds, Congress will have approved about $500 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other anti-terrorism efforts in the five years since the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Body Count in Baghdad Nearly Triples: Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Sept. 7 -- Baghdad's morgue almost tripled its count for violent deaths in Iraq's capital during August from 550 to 1,536, authorities said Thursday, appearing to erase most of what U.S. generals and Iraqi leaders had touted as evidence of progress in a major security operation to restore order in the capital.

Separately, the Health Ministry confirmed Thursday that it planned to construct two new branch morgues in Baghdad and add doctors and refrigerator units to raise capacity to as many as 250 corpses a day.

What is Paleo-Conservatism?: Answers.com

Recent readers from Canada and the Middle East have written BATR and Old Right to ask, "What is American Paleo-Conservatism and what are its core ideas and adherents?" With that question in mind, our main news page posts some of the answers provided by Answers.com, with a link to their Paleo-Conservative reference page, which opens with:

Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) refers to a branch of American conservative thought that is often called Old Right. Paleoconservatives in the 21st century often focus on their points of disagreement with neoconservatives. The term was coined in the late 20th century and derives from the Greek root palaeo- meaning "ancient" or "old".

Mark Dankof to the Toronto Sun: The Zionist State of Israel, not Iran, the leading nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons power in the Middle East

Mark Dankof of BATR joins Persian Scholar Dr. Kaveh Farrokh of the University of British Columbia, in formally responding to the Toronto Sun regarding the lunacy the latter printed in the form of Michael Coren's "We Should Nuke Iran." The letter draws particular attention to the Israeli intelligence mechanisms that may have been behind the Coren piece, and which are now known to be manipulating electronic and print op-eds in Corporate Media worldwide. Thanks to Al Jazeerah.info and its editor, Hassan El-Naijar, for publishing what you can bet the Toronto Sun won't. See the listings for September 8th.

Apocalypse Now by Azmi Bishara for Al Ahram

In the case of globalised violence against the US and the West, the Al-Qaeda "brand" is the other face of McDonalds, Coca Cola and other franchises for the distribution of consumerist democracy and Hollywood culture. It would have been impossible to conceive of internationalised organisations setting themselves quixotic global missions against the West and latter-day crusaders in the absence of cultural globalisation. The globalisation of culture precedes universal globalised nihilistic terrorism, which avails itself of the very material means of globalisation: the Internet, live broadcasting, the mass production, distribution and export of political/religious items (in the form of images and ideas, etc). All this is part and parcel of a process of globalisation that spreads consumer needs but not the means to pay for them; that spreads the values of democracy, freedom and justice but not the means to realise them; that spreads mass culture but not the sciences, the discoveries and the historical experiences of the cultures that came before it.

Bush's failures in Iraq allowed Taliban time to rebuild: Capitol Hill Blue

President George W. Bush's decision to divert troops from their mission dismantling the Taliban in Afghanistan and redeploy them for his invasion of Iraq has allowed the terrorist organization to regroup to the point that it is more powerful than before the September 11, 2001, attacks five years ago.

"Taliban forces now operate freely within Afghan borders without fear of U.S. or U.N. troops and now control regions previously thought free from the organization's control," says a classified Pentagon memo. "Their ability to regroup is directly related to the decision to withdraw forces that were deemed necessary to complete the mission."

A Poem: Zionist Acquisitions Bought by Bullets and Bombs by Genevieve Cora Fraser

Genevieve Cora Fraser's poem on the essence of Zionist methodology in Palestine and the Middle East should be required reading for John Hagee of Cornerstone Church and Christians United for Israel in San Antonio, along with the rest of the "Christian" Right and Neo-Conservative minions ready, in the words of Robert Parry, to commit the United States to a Third World War against one-sixth of the planet's population. Why do they hate us so? Old Right minions like H. L. Mencken, John T. Flynn, and Charles Lindbergh would have known the obvious answer, as do today's columnists at BATR News.

Election 2006 and World War III by Robert Parry

Bush’s virtual declaration of war on the Islamic world ranks as possibly the most ambitious military plan in American history – and without doubt the most reckless. This so-called “long war,” which Bush’s followers hail as “World War III,” would mean fighting large portions of a religious movement that has the allegiance of about one-sixth of the planet’s population.

Not So Clean Break: Taki for The American Conservative

Speaking to the London Spectator recently, Netanyahu suggested that President Bush had assured him Iran will be prevented from going nuclear. I take him at his word. Netanyahu seems to be the main mover in America's official adoption of the 1996 white paper, "A Clean Break," authored by him and American fellow neocons, which aimed to aggressively remake the strategic environments of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. . . . Normal, decent, sophisticated countries that claim the moral high ground, as Israel does, do not kill thousands of civilians and destroy the infrastructure of their neighbors because three soldiers were kidnapped. It was a set-up from day one.

Bush Admits Use of CIA Torture Chambers in Europe: Capitol Hill Blue

When The Washington Post and other news outlets revealed existence of the CIA prisons, where suspected are routinely tortured in direct violation of terms of the Geneva Convention, Bush refused to confirm or deny their existence and threatened to jail reporters for "revealing classified information" and "damaging the war on terror."

Now, however, Bush obviously feels releasing such information serves a distinct political advantage and declassified the information earlier Wednesday. It is a technique the administration has used before, most recently to try and discredit former Ambassador and Bush critic Joseph Wilson by revealing his wife's identity as a covert CIA agent.

Leak, Inquiry, and Resignation Rock a Boardroom: New York Times

The furor at Hewlett-Packard, the giant personal computer and printer company, began unfolding when Thomas J. Perkins, a pioneer venture capitalist, quit the board after an investigation pointed to a friend on the board as a source of the news leaks.

Mr. Perkins’s pique turned to outrage when he learned that investigators working for the company had posed as the directors themselves, armed with at least part of their Social Security numbers — a method commonly used by hackers and identity thieves — to obtain the directors’ personal phone records.

Those tactics are now the focus of a criminal investigation by the California attorney general — and the heart of the corporate intrigue.

Pro-Israel Lobby Targets Online BBC Poll: ZioPedia

BBC History Magazine was forced to remove an online poll after it was targeted by a project aimed at influencing internet opinion in Israel's favour.

The Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) website hosts a downloadable desktop tool called Megaphone. The program alerts users to opinion polls and "talkback" features on news sites so they can respond with pro-Israel views. In turn, users can alert GIYUS operators to any opinion polls they think should be targeted.

The Jerusalem-based World Union of Jewish Students launched GIYUS and Megaphone on 19 July, a week after Israel launched air attacks in Lebanon.

Israeli panel: Giuliani is 'best' presidential candidate for Israel

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is the "best" candidate in the 2008 race for Israel, a panel of eight Israeli experts assembled by Haaretz has determined. Giuliani is followed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Arizona Senator John McCain and New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Ranking bottom of the list is Illinois Senator Barack Obama.As part of a new project, "The Israel Factor: Ranking the presidential candidates" the panel will rank the candidates every month, up until the 2008 election, awarding them marks out of 10 on a series of questions that will determine which candidates are "best" for Israel.

The Nation: Bush Aims to Kill War Crimes Act

The US War Crimes Act of 1996 makes it a felony to commit grave violations of the Geneva Conventions. The Washington Post recently reported that the Bush administration is quietly circulating draft legislation to eliminate crucial parts of the War Crimes Act. Observers on The Hill say the Administration plans to slip it through Congress this fall while there still is a guaranteed Republican majority--perhaps as part of the military appropriations bill, the proposals for Guantánamo tribunals or a new catch-all "anti-terrorism" package. Why are they doing it, and how can they be stopped?

"Lucky Larry Silverstein": You've Got to Be Lucky to Make a $4 Billion Killing on a 6-Month Investment of $124 Million

Larry Silverstein is the New York property tycoon who purchased the entire WTC complex just 6 months prior to the 9/11 attacks. That was the first time in its 33-year history the complex had EVER changed ownership.

Mr. Silverstein’s first order of business as the new owner was to change the company responsible for the security of the complex. The new security company he hired was Securacom (now Stratasec). George W. Bush's brother, Marvin Bush, was on its board of directors, and Marvin’s cousin, Wirt Walker III, was its CEO. According to public records, not only did Securacom provide electronic security for the World Trade Center, it also covered Dulles International Airport and United Airlines — two key players in the 9/11 attacks.

The company was backed by an investment firm, the Kuwait-American Corp., also linked for many years to the Bush family. KuwAm has been linked to the Bush family financially since the Gulf War. One of its principals and a member of the Kuwaiti royal family, Mishal Yousef Saud al Sabah, served on the board of Stratesec.

Pat Buchanan for Pravda: Bush Has No Authority to Attack Iran

However, President Bush does not have the authority to launch a war on Iran, as Congress has not authorized such a war, and it must under the Constitution. Those of us who believe such a war would be a calamity for Iran, the United States, and the region will be demanding that President Bush first get the approval of an admittedly weak Congress, before he takes us to war. Also, fear of what war with Iran would do to oil prices, to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, to our vulnerable friends in the Gulf, to the war effort in Iraq - and many other considerations - are inhibitions. There is not here in America, today, the consensus for war on Iran that there was for war on Iraq, and there remains a strong possibility that opponents of a new war can prevail. But the war drums have already begun to beat in the same precincts where the drums began to beat for war on Iraq.

Illegal Immigration National Miller Boycott Site

Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, WI, producers of the popular beer Miller Genuine Draft, has given at least $30,000 to groups that support illegal aliens and illegal immigration so they can march down our city streets making demands of Americans. Here are the news reports about this beer maker's deplorable activity by Miller Brewing Company.

It's time for Americans to put their foot down and say enough is enough! We are not going to put up with corporations aiding and abetting illegal aliens anymore!

Illegal Immigration Boycott on Miller Beer

Please join our national boycott of Miller Brewing Company and their parent corporation SABMiller plc (LSE: SAB) by taking the following steps, including signing the petition.

The War is Lost by Paul Craig Roberts

The Pentagon’s latest quarterly "progress" report to Congress on Iraq is a grim tale of a lost war. The Pentagon told Congress what Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and propaganda organs such as Fox "News" never tell the American public, namely:

The Sunni-based insurgency remains "potent and viable" despite spiraling Sunni-Shiite violence and beefed up US forces.
Since the last report three months ago, Iraqi casualties from "sectarian clashes" – the Pentagon’s euphemism for civil war – have soared by more than 50 percent.
From May when the new Iraqi government was established until August, the average number of weekly attacks increased sharply to 800.
Since the previous report, Iraqi daily casualties have jumped by 50% from 80 per day to 120 per day. Currently, Iraqis are dying at the rate of 43,800 per year from violence.

Baluchistan: The Iranian Connection by Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Like the recent Israeli rampage against Lebanon and Hizbullah which is seen as a dry run for U.S. military operation against Iran, many commentators are now questioning if Pakistani military operation in Baluchistan is a prelude to a ground operation against Iran from Baluchistan.

In an article - Baluchistan and the Coming Iran War - published by "The Digest", Luciana Bohne writes that this is natural gas country where China is helping to build a pipeline, which President Bush opposes. "This is from where commandos are penetrating Iran (according to Sy Hersh – The New Yorker). This is where the "west" has been stoking up separatist fires, probably to get Musharraf's army to intervene. Need boots on the ground to encircle Iran."

Bohne went on to say: "The US has three military bases in Baluchistan. They say they are fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region. Perhaps. But, Baluchistan borders with Iran to the west. Baluchistan, too, is rich in natural gas and minerals. China is helping the Pakistani government to build a natural gas pipeline from Baluchistan's port of Gwadar to China, a project the Bush administration opposes. The port of Gwadar just happens to be geographically located to overlook the Straits of Hormuz, which the Iranians intend to block if they are attacked. Hormuz is the crucial sea route for international oil distribution."

Bohne asks: Is this is a coincidence that the US should be interested in "terrorism" in Baluchistan and urging Musharraf to be more zealous at the same time it is planning an attack on Iran?

Video: Planet of The Arabs

A trailer-esque montage spectacle of Hollywood's relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims. Inspired by the book "Reel Bad Arabs" by Dr. Jack Shaheen.

Official selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2005: 9 minutes viewing time.

The Next Phase of the Middle East War by Michel Chossudovsky

Israel's war on Lebanon is an integral part of a US sponsored "military roadmap".

The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is "a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations.

Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of Lebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda.

9-11: Five Years Later—Where Are We? by Paul Craig Roberts

The facts be damned. There are a large number of Susan Hartmans in the body politic. A group of scientists, engineers and university professors are trying to start a debate about the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings. I reported one of their findings: There is an inconsistency between the speed with which the buildings collapsed and the “pancaking theory” used to explain the collapse. Another way of putting the problem is that there seems to be a massive energy deficit in the explanation that the buildings fell as a result of gravitational energy. There simply was not sufficient gravitational energy to produce the results.For reporting a scientific finding, I was called a “conspiracy theorist.” Only in America is scientific analysis seen as conspiracy theory and government lies as truth.

Cuban Dissident Doctor Detained, Five Year Old Son Nearly Killed by Castro's State Security Forces: Net for Cuba

At around 2:30AM on Friday, September 1st, over twelve vehicles with around 50 members of Cuba’s State Security (political police), descended on Dr. Darsi Ferrer’s home in Havana. With guns drawn, they knocked on the door. As soon as he answered, they handcuffed him.Dr. Ferrer’s wife was away, caring for her ailing mother. The police ignored his pleas to bring his five year old son, Dariel, along until his wife could come for him. Instead, they took Dr. Ferrer away shirtless and barefoot, left the child alone, and opened the gas main before shutting the door.

Neighbors went for the wife and helped her break open a window, finding the child still alive.At around 6:00 a.m. a Ministry of the Interior official arrived at the home to inform the family where Dr. Ferrer was being held. Two hours later, he was released. In the afternoon of the same day, he was again detained near the U.S. Interests Section, where he was about to enter for a visit. There, members of Cuba’s peaceful opposition movement may use the internet, which is otherwise unavailable to them.As of today, Saturday morning September 2nd, Dr. Ferrer had not been released.

The Jewish Daily (Forward): Rabbis: Israel Too Worried Over Civilian Deaths

As international human rights organizations decry the high toll of civilian deaths suffered in the Lebanon war, America’s main organization of Modern Orthodox rabbis is calling on the Israeli military to be less concerned with avoiding civilian casualties on the opposing side when carrying out future operations.

Behind the plan to bomb Iran by Ismael Hossein-zadeh

The military-industrial-Zionist alliance is represented largely by the cabal of neo-conservative forces in and around the Bush administration. The institutional framework of the alliance consists of a web of closely knit think-tanks that are founded and financed primarily by the armaments lobby and the Israeli lobby. These corporate-backed militaristic think-tanks include the American Enterprise Institute, Center for Security Policy, Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Middle East Forum, National Institute for Public Policy and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

"Fascism" Frame Set Up by Right-Wing Press by Jim Lobe of IPS

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News Network and The Weekly Standard, as well as the Washington Times, which is controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, and the neo-conservative New York Sun, have consistently and with increasing frequency framed the challenges faced by Washington in the region [Middle East and Iran] in the context of the rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1930s, according to a search of the Nexis database by IPS.

All of those outlets, as well as two other right-wing U.S. magazines -- The National Review and The American Spectator -- far outpaced their commercial rivals in the frequency of their use of key words and names, such as "appeasement," "fascism", and "Hitler", particularly with respect to Iran and its controversial president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

What Keeps Rumsfeld Up At Night? by Ariana Huffington

Forget the escalating sectarian violence. Forget the rising influence of Iran. Forget the 100-Iraqi-deaths-per-day. Forget the 2,638 American dead.

For Don Rumsfeld the problem isn't that we are not winning the war in Iraq, the problem is that we are not properly spinning the war in Iraq.

Along with comparing his critics to Hitler appeasers, the beleaguered Defense Secretary has spent the early part of this week making the case that the horrific state of affairs in Iraq is really just a case of bad PR.

LBJ Night Before JFK Assassination: "Those SOB's Will Never Embarrass Me Again": Prison Planet

LBJ Night Before JFK Assassination: "Those SOB's Will Never Embarrass Me Again"
Outside the debate of magic bullets, multiple shooters and grassy knoll theories - an astounding deposition of a deliberately planned criminal conspiracy straight from the horse's mouth

The night before the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson met with Dallas tycoons, FBI moguls and organized crime kingpins - emerging from the conference to tell his mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown that "those SOB's" would never embarrass him again. It's a jaw-dropping deposition and it's the biggest JFK smoking gun there is - despite the fact that it has received little media attention.

Before her death on June 22 2002, prolific author and lecturer Robert Gaylon Ross had the opportunity to conduct an 80 minute sit-down interview with Madeleine Duncan Brown and from that lengthy discussion the truth about exactly who was behind the assassination of JFK was exposed.

A Prison Planet link to the entire 80 minute online video interview may be found toward the end of the article.

ADL's Abe Foxman: He Likes Christian Zionist Cash but Not Christianity

The Jewish Standard interviewed Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, about Christian Zionism and John Hagee of Christians United For Israel.

Compulsory Courses on Christianity for Muslim Children in Russia: Kavkaz Center

The church's presence in the military, for example, has been growing steadily in recent years with the encouragement of the top brass. Orthodox priests already preach informally in many units, including those fighting Muslims in the North Caucasus, and the Russia Defense Ministry is currently considering the introduction of official chaplains in the armed forces.

Obligations: Cindy Sheehan

Along with most of the Republican Senators, congresspeople, executive branch, and Dick "I had other priorities" Cheney, I have no problem with anyone who did whatever they had to do to not go to Vietnam. What I surely do have a problem with is while they ran from the military industrial complex in the 60s and 70s, they feed our children to the ravenous monster in the next century's first war for greed. Congress also abrogated its Constitutional responsibility to declare war and handed the keys to the war machine to an irresponsible deserter and his vice-draft dodger.

Additionally, our commander in chief has an obligation to use his troops wisely - not recklessly and negligently. And what about the obligation to tell the truth to our country?

The Real Fascists Who Threaten Our Security: Capitol Hill Blue

President George W. Bush and his minions tell the truth when they say the world faces a new and continued threat from fascism. What he doesn't admit is that the fascist leaders who so threatens world peace and safety is he, his administration and any members of Congress - Republican and Democrat - who support his dangerous policies.

Under Bush's watch, the American Democratic Republic has disappeared into a police state where the American government spies at will on its own citizens, detains citizens without basic Constitutional protections and ignores the Bill of Rights as a matter of course.

Criticize Israel? You're an Anti-Semite! Rosa Brooks

The backlash was prompt. [Ken] Roth and Human Rights Watch soon found themselves accused of unethical behavior, giving aid and comfort to terrorists and anti-Semitism. The conservative New York Sun attacked Roth (who is Jewish) for having a "clear pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel bias" and accused him of engaging in "the de-legitimization of Judaism, the basis of much anti-Semitism." Neocon commentator David Horowitz called Roth a "reflexive Israel-basher … who, in his zest to pillory Israel at every turn, is little more than an ally of the barbarians." The New Republic piled on, as did Alan Dershowitz, who claimed Human Rights Watch "cooks the books" to make Israel look bad. And writing in the Jewish Exponent, Jonathan Rosenblum accused Roth of resorting to a "slur about primitive Jewish bloodlust."

Anyone familiar with Human Rights Watch — or with Roth — knows this to be lunacy. Human Rights Watch is nonpartisan — it doesn't "take sides" in conflicts. And the notion that Roth is anti-Semitic verges on the insane.

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter.

"Many seek to become a Syndicated Columnist, while the few strive to be a Vindicated Publisher . . . "

news you won't find in the mainstream media