Human Events
by Mac Johnson

11/21/05

Last week saw the most important development in Iraq since the invasion began. This momentous event is the beginning of the end of the American war in Iraq and will -- if not reversed -- lead to partial U.S. disengagement sooner rather than later. And, no, I am not talking about Rep. Jim Murtha's embarrassing pants-wetting session before the U.S. media, in which he declared defeat and retreat in the panicked, exaggerated tones of a paranoid chat room gasbag. As well publicized as Murtha's wobbly soliloquy was, it was of transient consequence. No, the event that could end the war was the discovery of a 'torture center' being run in an Iraqi government detention facility in Baghdad...

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10419


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

WorldNetDaily
by Pat Buchanan

11/21/05

We Americans are lousy imperialists. We lack the patience and perseverance. We will not support the daily loss of American lives, with pictures of the fallen on television every night and in the paper every day, unless we are persuaded something vital is at risk. And who rules Iraq is not something Americans are willing to bleed or die for indefinitely. But as the air is full of allegations of lying, we at least need to tell ourselves the truth about what we are inviting, what we are risking, if, as seems possible now, America should lose this war...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47506


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

LewRockwell.Com
by Paul Craig Roberts

11/21/05

Under the Nuremberg standard, it is a war crime to initiate military aggression. It is a criminal act both in the US and the UK to commit military forces to action under false pretenses. Many aspects of the conduct of the war are criminal. Torture, murder of civilians, corruption in contracts. Prosecutors could build a list of charges against President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Prime Minister Blair. In England it is not Blair who is on trial for participating in what he knew was a wrongful act that has resulted in thousands of deaths. It is not the crimes committed in secret that get punished. The people who are punished are the ones who leak memos that reveal wrongdoing has occurred. Blair may escape punishment for his treachery to the British and Iraqi people. Bush, however, may not...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts132.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Reason
by Julian Sanchez

11/18/05

The man with graying hair had 'blunt force injuries complicated by compromised respiration,' the result of a synthetic hood placed over his head during interrogation by Navy Seals and 'Other Government Agency,' which typically means the CIA. The obese 56-year-old died of 'asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression;' the circumstances surrounding his death are classified. The 47-year-old died gagged and shackled to a door frame; his autopsy revealed numerous rib fractures and lung contusions. These are a few of the findings from 44 reports of autopsies on U.S. detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last month under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Eight of the 21 deaths classed as homicides, the ACLU concluded, appeared to have resulted from abusive interrogation tactics, with strangulation, asphyxiation, and blunt force injuries listed as causes of death. Because the documents sought by the ACLU are trickling out slowly, month by month, it is unclear how many more such reports remain to be uncovered...

http://www.reason.com/links/links111805.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

11/21/05

Murtha made a trenchant point when he said that the American people are 'way ahead' of their government on this issue -- and one can only wonder how long this yawning gap can be maintained. The elites are committed to a foreign policy that assumes American hegemony and the ever-present possibility of a U.S. military strike somewhere in the world, at any given moment. To any half-normal, ordinary American, such a foreign policy is just asking for trouble. So far, the War Party has managed to keep a lid on the debate by controlling both parties and never letting anyone of consequence step out of line. Murtha, however, has defied them and must either be humbled or appeased. There can be no middle ground...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8093


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

11/20/05

A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the 'philosophical guidance' and 'flexibility' that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities. Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities. 'There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it,' Wilkerson said on CNN's 'Late Edition'...

http://tinyurl.com/bnhzw


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle

11/20/05

The Rev. Jerry Zawada has already served a federal prison term for trespassing on government property to protest a Fort Benning school he blames for human rights abuses in Latin America. On Sunday, the 68-year-old Catholic priest risked another one. Zawada was among at least 41 protesters arrested during an annual protest calling for the closing of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Corporation, formerly known as the Army's School of the Americas, organizers said Sunday...

http://tinyurl.com/duzfp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Indianapolis Star

11/20/05

The U.S. is unprepared for the next flu pandemic, lacking the manufacturing capacity to provide 300 million doses of a vaccine for three to five more years, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Sunday. 'What we all learned from (Hurricane) Katrina is that sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable,' Leavitt said. 'We're not as prepared as we need to be. ...We will not have enough for everyone.' A strain of a bird flu that has killed 67 people in Asia has sparked concerns of a super-flu that could kill millions worldwide, and U.S. officials acknowledge that the strain in its current form could reach here through a migratory bird...

http://tinyurl.com/7opcy



Pandemic panic

Washington Times
by Michael Fumento

11/20/05

'The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus,' warns the nation's top health official. 'The projections are that this virus will kill 1 million Americans.' A quote ripped from today's headlines about an impending 'bird flu' pandemic? No, the year was 1976 and the prediction regarding the 'swine flu' fell 999,999 deaths short. That's something to remember as we endure the current hysteria. Another is that we've been here before with the same virus everybody is currently squawking about -- avian influenza type H5N1 -- which hit Hong Kong in 1997. Typical headline: 'Race to prevent world epidemic of lethal 'bird flu.'' I was there too, with a piece that was antihysteria (therefore grossly irresponsible). The world death toll from that 'wave?' Six. … But the best prediction is no avian flu pandemic at all, especially in the short period before we have stockpiles of effective vaccines and drugs...

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20051119-111342-5884r.htm



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp


http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Vaccines/

Mercury News

11/18/05

A near-agreement to extend the controversial Patriot Act was blocked Friday by an odd-bedfellows coalition of liberals and conservatives who protested that it did too little to protect Americans' civil liberties. The Patriot Act, which gives law-enforcement officials significant power to wiretap and search suspects in the United States, was Congress' main response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But critics have always complained about the powers it gives police to invade the privacy of citizens, including the right to examine library records and search homes without residents knowing it. As a result of such continuing concerns, an unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House was sufficiently upset at the latest proposed revisions in the Patriot Act that leaders Friday agreed to drop the immediate consideration of it, partly to avoid a threatened filibuster in the Senate over the weekend. Congressional leaders still plan to finalize reauthorization of the Patriot Act by year's end, but the delay was a disappointment to the White House and at least a temporary victory for civil libertarians on the right and left...

http://tinyurl.com/aauvk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp