Truthout
After Saddam, America's Next Fake Enemy: Deficits
Were Americans misled into the Iraq war? Yes.
But Karl Rove, who served as senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, argued in the Wall Street Journal in July that his "biggest mistake" was not fighting back in 2004 when the story began to spread that the Bush administration had lied to Americans during the run-up to the Iraq war.
"That was wrong and my mistake: I should have insisted to the president that this was a dagger aimed at his administration's heart," he wrote.
Obama's Iraq Speech: Don't Expect Him to Say the War Is Over
Is the Iraq war over? Not at all.
President Obama will give a major speech on Iraq today. The oval office speech is expected to declare an end to combat operations in Iraq, and confirm the administration's commitment to withdraw the rest of the US forces and Department of Defense (DoD) contractors before the end of next year.
Robert Naiman | "Palestinian Gandhi" Convicted for Protesting; US Silent
Last week, an Israeli military court convicted Abdullah Abu Rahma, whom progressive Zionists have called a "Palestinian Gandhi," of "incitement" and "organizing and participating in illegal demonstrations" for organizing protests against the confiscation of Palestinian land by the "Apartheid Wall" in the village of Bilin in the West Bank, following an eight month trial, during which he was kept in prison.
Media Didn't Buy Petraeus Command's Story of Low Taliban Morale
Washington - In an effort to introduce a story of "progress" into media coverage, Gen. David Petraeus’s command claimed last week that the Taliban is suffering from reduced morale in Marjah and elsewhere, despite evidence that the population of Marjah still believes the Taliban controls that district.
But the news media ignored the command’s handout on the story, which did not quote Petraeus.
So, Who Won the War in Iraq? Iran.
Beirut, Lebanon - In February 2003, as he marshaled the United States for war, President George W. Bush declared: “A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.”
News in Brief: UN Report Accuses Rwandan Troops of Genocide in Congo, and More ...
A forthcoming United Nations report says crimes committed by Rwanda’s Army and Congolese rebels during the 1990s in Congo could be classified as genocide. According to The New York Times, the report challenges the conventional history of events in the area following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, charging that after the genocide ended, Tutsi-led Rwandan troops and their rebel allies went on to kill tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus.
Warning: Why Cheaper Money Won't Mean More Jobs
Can the Fed rescue the economy by making money even cheaper than it already is? A debate is being played out in the Fed about whether it should return to so-called “quantitative easing” – buying more mortgage-backed securities, Treasury bills, and other bonds - in order to lower the cost of capital still further.
The sad reality is cheaper money won’t work. Individuals aren’t borrowing because they’re still under a huge debt load.
Workers to Break Ground on Chile Mine Escape Route
After 17 days of searching and a week of relishing good news, rescue efforts set to begin in earnest.
Copiapo,, Chile — If a wave of immense joy swept the country a week ago when the 33 trapped miners sent word on a note attached to a drill that they were alive and well, then a quiet euphoria pervades today, as the work officially begins Monday to carve out their escape route.
Education Reconsidered: Beyond the Death of Critical Education
After years of neglect by politicians and the media, education is now a public issue. The reasons are straightforward: in this depressed economy, credentials seem to have lost their advantage; parents and politicians are complaining that the schools have faltered in delivering what students need; there is a widespread perception that illiteracy is rising, if we mean the ability of more people to read complex texts; and, of course, evaluations of the first year's results of George Bush's No Child Left Behind, with its draconian, high stakes, standardized testing regime
Expat Sees Return of Scary Times
Victor Grossman, an expatriate American journalist now in his 80’s and living in Berlin, sees ominous parallels between America’s anti-Communist outrages during the 1950’s and the conservative ‘Blame-The-Other’ assaults rampant today in America, and in many European countries, including Germany.
Grossman ought to know. It was the Red-bating of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s that drove this Harvard grad to make a life-altering decision and leave America behind.
Federal Agents Open Inquiry Into Order Authorizing NOPD Cops to Shoot Looters
Federal agents are looking into allegations that high-ranking New Orleans police commanders gave orders after Hurricane Katrina authorizing officers to shoot looters, our partners at the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported today.
Agents have asked for information from New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas and are asking to interview officers with direct knowledge of the orders, the Times-Picayune says.
In Afghanistan, Supplying US Military Is Big Business
Kandahar, Afghanistan — Moving all the things 100,000 troops need to fight and survive in a hostile foreign land is never an easy task. In a landlocked, mountainous country the size of Texas, with few paved roads, it is even harder.
Anger Floods the Mall Along With Glenn Beck
Washington - The crowds that descended on the Mall Saturday for the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally were clear about several things: what they wanted to eat (sandwiches brought from home, chips), that they wanted to be in the shade and that they wanted a dry place to sit.
Beyond that, specifics - such as why they came to Washington or what they hoped would come out of the rally - were elusive. My questions about why these families had traveled from Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Jersey for a baking day in the DC sun were treated like a hostile act.
Afghanistan War: US Troops, Afghan Politician Targeted in Deadly Weekend
Seven US soldiers were killed Saturday and Sunday in Afghanistan, in a violent weekend that deepened concerns about security ahead of September elections. A senior Afghan official also raised fresh questions about US strategy in defeating the insurgency.
Over the weekend, a candidate for parliament was killed by insurgents and the bodies of five campaign workers for a female parliamentary candidate were found. About eight civilians also died.
Violence has risen as more US troops arrive in Afghanistan, bringing the number to about 100,000.
The Fate of New Orleans Hangs in an Uncomfortable Balance With Mother Nature
Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the havoc Mother Nature can play on a modern city.
It also brought to light the way our concerns about economics can compromise people's safety when we attempt to control nature.
Over one million people in the Gulf area were affected by "the storm," as residents call it, including just about everyone in New Orleans. Ninety percent of this 485,000-person city evacuated as 125,000 homes were severely damaged and 250,000 homes were summarily destroyed.
Reinventing Paradise 2.0 - A Video Essay on New Orleans
As America faces the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina - for those who lived through it, the scale and complexity of the disaster remain beyond words. Living it is one thing, understanding it is another. And reporting it, is yet another.
And as Spike Lee has discovered along with a myriad of other filmmakers, producers and writers - documenting the process of recovery is an ominous endeavor. There is no definitive story to tell. It is ongoing, dynamic, tragic and hopeful at the same time. But even more challenging is communicating to the rest of the nation the meaning and dynamics of recovery, and how our nation learns from the past and prepares for future disasters.
Despite "All Clear," Mississippi Sound Tests Positive for Oil
The State of Mississippi's Department of Marine Resources (DMR) opened all of its territorial waters to fishing on August 6. This was done in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Food and Drug Administration, despite concerns from commercial fishermen in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida about the presence of oil and toxic dispersants from the BP oil disaster.
Pachamama and Progress: Conflicting Visions for Latin America's Future
Miners in Potosí, Bolivia set off sticks of dynamite as cold winter winds zipped through the city, passing street barricades, protests, hunger strikers and an occupied electrical plant. These actions took place place from late July to mid-August against the perceived neglect of the Evo Morales administration toward the impoverished Potosí region.
Body Scanners in Courtroom, on Street, Continue to Raise Privacy Concerns
Despite previous assurances by federal agencies that images from body scanners were not saved or recorded, fears of indiscriminate scanner use rise as the US Marshal Service admits that it stored more than 35,000 body scan images collected from a security checkpoint.
First discovered by a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the agency by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a civil liberties group, the stored images of body scans were taken from February 2010 through July 2010 at a Florida courthouse during the testing of the machines.