Biometric car lock defeated by cutting off owner's finger

March 31, 2005 by element115
Police in Malaysia are hunting for members of a violent gang who chopped off a car owner's finger to get round the vehicle's hi-tech security system.

The car, a Mercedes S-class, was protected by a fingerprint recognition system.
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Goldman sees oil price 'super spike' to $105 a barrel

by element115
Oil prices have entered the early stages of trading that could lead to a 'super spike' with the potential to move prices to $105 per barrel, enough to meaningfully reduce energy consumption, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis.
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The state of the world?

by element115
It is on the brink of disaster
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PA prepared to exchange land for lasting peace with Israel

by element115
The Palestinian Authority said Wednesday it is prepared to exchange land for a lasting peace with Israel, while the Arab Israeli minority commemorated annual Land Day to protest against ongoing expropriation of their land. "If the 1967 line has to be modified, it will be done under negotiations and in a reciprocal and fair way," Foreign Minister Nasser al-Qidwa said after talks with visiting Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker.

Thousands of Jewish pacifists and members of left-wing Israeli groups are also expected in Abu Tlul to show solidarity with their Arab compatriots.
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The Epic Struggle for World Hegemony

by element115
The USA's Global Resource War
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America's superpower status is about to end

by element115
Gwynne Dyer ---> The very phrase "grand strategy'' has a antiquated ring; enlightened modern opinion rejects the notion that relations between the great powers are just a zero-sum game. But this is a group of people who are steeped in traditional modes of strategic thought: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley and Condoleezza Rice would all have worked quite comfortably for Cardinal Richelieu or Count Bismarck. (Whether they would have been hired is, of course, another question.)
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NutraSweet to Boost Aspartame Capacity Amid Rising Demand

by element115
With more consumers switching to diet soft drinks, NutraSweet Co., a leading producer of aspartame, plans to restart a mothballed production line at a Georgia plant this year to satisfy increased demand for the sugar substitute.

...poisoned and brainwashed nation.....pity
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17 Labour MPs "rebel" over Iraq

by element115
There is bad news for Tony Blair who has been trying to make voters forget and forgive his Iraq war adventure. Seventeen Labour MPs have reportedly signed a declaration saying: "I was and remain totally opposed to the war on Iraq. If elected as your parliamentary representative in the forthcoming general election, I will do everything in my power to bring the occupation of Iraq to an end."
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Pope's 'Living Will' Wants Life Support to the End

by element115
Pope John Paul, now being fed through a nasal tube because of his throat problems, effectively wrote his own "living will" last year in a speech declaring some life-extending treatments a moral duty for Roman Catholics.
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Clerics Fighting a Gay Festival for Jerusalem

by element115
International gay leaders are planning a 10-day WorldPride festival and parade in Jerusalem in August, saying they want to make a statement about tolerance and diversity in the Holy City, home to three great religious traditions.

Now major leaders of the three faiths - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - are making a rare show of unity to try to stop the festival. They say the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.
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EU Will Seek to Impose Sanctions on U.S.

by element115
The European Union head office said Thursday it will seek to impose additional sanctions of up to 15 percent on U.S. products to punish Washington for failing to repeal an antidumping law ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
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Schiavo Dies 13 Days After Tube Removed

by element115
Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose 15 years connected to a feeding tube sparked an epic legal battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died Thursday, 13 days after the tube was removed. She was 41.
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Meet the mind readers

by element115
Paralysed people can now control artificial limbs by thought alone.
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RFID - between spying and utility

March 30, 2005 by element115
"What if every product, from a candy bar to cars, has a unique identification code which can be known by any RFID reader?
Won't the distributor be able to find out what clothes does the customer wear, where did he buy them and how long does he have them??

And if that customer paid with a credit card, then finding the details, profile him or personalizing commercials for him can be a piece of cake.

The scenario where every customer sees personalized commercials on smart displays which identify him by the label on the shoes, is no more than three years away.
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Schiavo solves Social Security

by element115
...it is quite clear that neither George Bush nor his brother Jeb ever had any intention of saving Mrs. Schiavo from death by starvation. Like Pontius Pilate, they engaged in meaningless political machinations intended to deflect the blame from themselves while pretending that they were helpless to act. A simple executive order from either man would have sufficed to see the woman fed; the notion that the president has too much respect for either the 10th Amendment or the separation of powers doctrine to act is simply laughable.
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Controversial gospel to be translated

by element115
About 2000 years after the Gospel according to Judas sowed discord among early Christians, a Swiss foundation says it is translating for the first time the controversial text named after the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus Christ.
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US plans for plague, flu and nuclear bomb attack

by element115
The extraordinary list of nightmare disasters, most triggered by terrorists, is being used by the Department of Homeland Security to concentrate its resources in the areas of most likely attack.

The list, released mistakenly on to a website in Hawaii, shows where security officials believe the United States to be most vulnerable. It also includes a detailed breakdown of the expected casualties and economic costs that such attacks.
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1981 attack on Pope planned by KGB: Report

by element115
New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said on Wednesday.
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Bush's hypocrisy truly unbearable

by element115
As Texas governor, George W. Bush presided over 152 executions, more than took place in the rest of the country combined. In at least a few of these cases, reasonable doubts were raised about the guilt of the condemned. But Bush cut his personal review time for each case from a half hour to a mere 15 minutes (most other governors spend many hours reviewing each capital case to assure themselves no doubt of guilt exists). His explanation was that he trusted the courts to sort through the life-and-death complexities. That's right: the courts.
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Mahathir warns of a dollar catastrophe

by element115
Sharp-tongued Mahathir Mohamad, scourge of currency traders worldwide, has said the US dollar is headed for a 'catastrophe' and will never regain its old strength.
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Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'

by element115
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.

The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.

"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.
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New report reveals misery of Palestinian women's lives under occupation

by element115
The human rights organisation is calling on Israel to lift blockades and restrictions in the Occupied Territories and to ensure prompt passage and access to adequate medical facilities for pregnant women and others in need of medical care.

Israel is also called on to stop the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes and property.

The report does not just blame Israel's military occupation for abuses of women's rights, but also criticises Palestinian law enforcement and judicial institutions as unwilling to enforce the law.

The Palestinian Authority is called on to assume full responsibility for safeguarding women's rights, including by repealing discriminatory legislation.
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Zarqawi planning chemical attack in Europe: German press

by element115
Iraq's most wanted man, the fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been planning a chemical weapons attack in Europe, a German magazine said on Wednesday, citing intelligence sources.

"We in Europe have been afraid that a big bang is coming sometime and that Zarqawi is planning it," an official at Germany's BND federal intelligence service told the April edition of the political monthly "Cicero".

...what's the reason?
...why would "he" do that"?
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Malnutrition affects Iraq kids

by element115
Malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis has almost doubled since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a hunger specialist told the U.N. human rights body Wednesday in a summary of previously reported studies on health in Iraq.
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Ambulances transport Israeli troops

by element115
THE Israeli army uses ambulances to move troops and weapons in operations against Palestinians, a violation of the Geneva Conventions, according to a private television station.

The 10 station's report today included interviews with several reserve soldiers whose faces were blocked out to protect their identity.

"I and other members of my unit saw soldiers with their weapons, bulletproof vests and helmets climbing into military ambulances," one of the reservists said.

"The use of ambulances is against the Geneva Convention which Israel has signed. Moreover, once ambulances are used for military objectives they become a legitimate target," said Doctor Rafi Waldman, a member of the organisation Doctors for Human Rights.
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Pope Getting Nutrition From Tube in Nose

by element115
Pope John Paul II is getting nutrition from a tube in his nose, the Vatican said Wednesday, shortly after the frail pontiff appeared at his window in St. Peter's Square and managed only a rasp when he tried to speak.
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The Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia shot in the Addis Ababa

by element115
Doron Grossman was found by his bodyguard on Tuesday.

Grossman's situation has been described as critical. He is currently receiving treatment in a local Addis Ababa hospital.

An Israeli airplane has arrived in Addis Ababa and is waiting to take Grossman back to Israel for medical treatment.
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RFID Cards Get Spin Treatment

by element115
Conspiracy theorists and civil libertarians, fear not. The U.S. government will not use radio-frequency identification tags in the passports it issues to millions of Americans in the coming years.

Instead, the government will use "contactless chips."
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GCC Currency in 2010

by element115
The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council countries are committed to issue the GCC common currency in the year 2010, Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf stated yesterday. He denied press reports that the new currency has been named Gulf dinar. ?We have not yet finalized the name of the currency as to whether it be Gulf dinar or riyal or any other name,? Al-Hayat Arabic daily quoted the minister as saying.

According to a study, the new currency will be the world?s most important currency union after the euro.
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Visit by pro-Israeli prof causes uproar at UofT

by element115
In an unusual move, more than 80 professors and graduate students wrote an open letter pointing out that Mr. Pipes has a "long record of xenophobic, racist and sexist [speeches] that goes back to 1990."
Mr. Pipes also drew criticism when he suggested, following the report into the 2001 attacks on the United States, that Islam is the enemy in the war on terrorism.
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Nuke the Holy Land--For World Peace

by element115
An exchange of nukes over the so-called Holy Land is a distinct but a growing possibility. Our American Herods--the unholy coalition of Christians and Jews who resemble the Biblical Herod's and command ALL aspects of US decision making power--make no pretense of friendly persuasion. Nor do they possess many diplomatic skills aside from Red Queen-style bluster. Indeed, their credo welcomes "a new Pearl Harbor" scenario of sneak attacks followed by counterattacks. What sort of provisions--or excuses--will they make once they've helped obliterate the birthplace of three major religions? Indeed, the nuclear fallout might be beyond even FEMA to repair.
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IDF fires outlawed Flachette shells in Gaza

by element115
he sources said the IDF tanks fired two volleys at the area, with a number of shells hitting the playing field while others fell in adjacent fruit groves. The nine injured, they said, included three individuals who were moderately hurt - Asalam Sabah, 10, Ismail Hamed, 12, and Balal Alarizi, 25. The three were initially treated at a clinic in the Jabalya camp and later transferred to Shifa Hospital in the Strip.
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Sleepwalking to disaster in Iran

by element115
Scott Ritter ---> The President had reviewed plans being prepared by the Pentagon to have the military capability in place by June 2005 for such an attack, if the President ordered.
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Wolfowitz charms himself into World Bank job

by element115
Mr Wolfowitz - a key Bush administration hawk - said he believed deeply in the work of the World Bank and was committed to helping the world's poor.

"Helping people lift themselves out of poverty is truly a noble mission," he said.
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General approved extreme interrogation methods

by element115
The highest-ranking US general in Iraq authorised the use of interrogation techniques that included sleep manipulation, stress positions and the use of dogs to "exploit Arab fears" of them, it emerged today.

A memo signed by Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez authorised 29 interrogation techniques, including 12 that exceeded limits in the army's own field manual and four that it admitted risked falling foul of international law, the Geneva conventions or accepted standards on the humane treatment of prisoners.
The memo, dated September 14 2003, also stated that the Iraq interrogation policy was modelled on the one used at Guantánamo Bay.
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Cloning of horses gets go-ahead

by element115
Horses are to be cloned in Britain after the government performed a U-turn over whether to allow the procedure. Twink Allen, a leading reproductive scientist, has been told that a previous Home Office block on his attempts to clone the animals has been reversed.
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N. Korea struggling to curb bird flu

by element115
North Korea has vowed to prevent the spread of deadly bird flu beyond the poultry farms where the outbreak happened, saying it has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of chickens and was taking countermeasures to contain the disease.
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Three Were Told to Leave Bush Town Meeting

by element115
Three Denver residents yesterday charged that they were forcibly removed from one of President Bush's town meetings on Social Security because they displayed a bumper sticker on their car condemning the administration's Middle East policies.
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Ann Coulter causes stir at KU

by element115
"Could 10 of the largest College Republicans start walking up and down the aisles and start removing anyone shouting?" Coulter asked. "Otherwise, this lecture is over."
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"I can't go back to Iraq"

March 29, 2005 by element115
What haunts the young American instead are a pair of incidents in which he came very close to killing innocent Iraqi civilians. Anderson says he is haunted in recurring nightmares by a series of "what-ifs". What if I'd pulled the trigger that day? What if I'd followed procedure and fired? Those are the questions he focuses on now, as he looks back on the recent chain of events and decisions that led him to flee the US Army and join a handful of other American war resisters in Canada.

"That's why I can't go back to Iraq," says Anderson. "You can't have a normal life after killing innocent people."
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U.S. Soldiers Accused Of Raping Iraqi Women Escape Prosecution

by element115
On International Women's Day, Guardian reporter Suzanne Goldenberg broke the story about how soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade accused of rape were able to escape the charges. The soldiers were from the same military unit whose troops fired on the car carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena.
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Romanians Want Soldiers Withdrawn From Iraq

by element115
Many Romanians believe their country?s participation in the Iraq war must come to an end, according to a poll by the Centre for Urban and Regional Sociology. 55 per cent of respondents believe Romania should not have a military presence in Iraq.
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The Case for the Draft

by element115
America can remain the world's superpower.
Or it can maintain its current all-volunteer military.
It can't do both.
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Israel maintaining 'strangulation' policy in Gaza Strip

by element115
The report, titled "One Big Prison," documents what the organization says are Israel's violations of human rights and international law in the Gaza Strip. The reported violations are primarily related to restrictions of movement Israel places on people and goods traveling to and from the Gaza Strip.
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The Wounded

by element115
Pictures
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WWII-era Jewish land in Poland now said to be worth $30 billion

by element115
"They controlled the oil and textile industries, and held expensive properties, many of which are now in the downtown areas of the cities," the source said.
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The dictator, the saint and the minister

by element115
After weeks of speculation, the education secretary Ruth Kelly admitted this week that she receives 'spiritual support' from the secretive Catholic sect Opus Dei. But even if reports of bizarre rituals are exaggerated, why would she be involved with the controversial group in the first place?
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U.S. to create list of 'unstable' nations

by element115
U.S. intelligence experts are preparing a list of 25 countries deemed unstable and, thus, candidates for intervention.
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Effort to Form Iraqi Government Collapses

by element115
Iraq's attempt to fill the first posts in a national-unity government erupted in shouting and factional strife Tuesday, as what politicians described as last-minute power plays overran a Shiite- and Kurd-led effort to form a coalition with Sunnis.

A National Assembly session meant to elect the essential post of assembly speaker opened with Islamic prayers followed by a veiled lawmaker rising to her feet in black robes to denounce "these behind-the-scenes" talks on a new government.
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A Pattern of Deception

March 28, 2005 by element115
It took Hundreds of Years to build the City of London's reputation for integrity.
In the last 25 years, Lloyd's has made major strides towards tearing down this reputation.
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Israeli forces raid Jenin

by element115
Israeli security sources said the fighters were involved in making crude rockets and mortars for attacks against Israeli towns.
Around 40 Israeli military vehicles raided the city and launched search operations. According to Aljazeera's correspondent, the Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians.
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Live Internet Seismic Server

by element115
...data updates automatically every 30 minutes
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TV shows Hariri 'murder footage'

by element115
An Arabic television station has shown a video of the moments before the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February.
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Indonesian VP: Quake May Kill Up to 2,000

by element115
"It is predicted - and it's still a rough estimate - that the number the victim of dead may be between 1,000 and 2,000, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the el-Shinta radio station. He said the estimate was based on an assessment of damage to buildings, not bodies counted.
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True face of World Bank is turned away from impoverished

March 27, 2005 by element115
Let me take you on a tour of the real World Bank. Picture scores of shut-down schools for poor kids in Zambia. Picture indigenous people being forced from their land to make way for an oil pipeline. Picture the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro, which are now, thanks to climate change, free of snow for the first time in 11,000 years.
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Weapons of mass deception revisited

by element115
Democratising the Arab world is no less a flimsy fig-leaf for Washington's real designs in the region than were Iraq's alleged WMDs and Al-Qaeda links.
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Cell Phone with Built-in Projector

by element115
Siemens researchers have developed a cell phone featuring a built-in projector system. A laboratory model was presented at CeBIT 2005 in Hanover. The system makes it possible to project a complete keypad or display onto a surface.
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Collision Course

by element115
So if you want to know why Europe is increasingly estranged from the US, the reason is simple: by printing too many dollars, Bush is trying to tax the Europeans to pay for his borrow and squander policies. By appointing Bolton, Rice, Wolfowitz and other neocons to high positions, he sends the signal that he expects Europe to capitulate.
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US troops storm hospital

by element115
Dr Ahmad Ibrahim, the assistant director of the city's paediatric hospital, told Aljazeera on Saturday that the soldiers entered the hospital on Friday after an explosion on Ramadi's main road.

The soldiers ordered medical staff and patients to leave, he said, before destroying the hospital's doors and detaining members of staff.
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Italian agent Calipari: A target of opportunity for US assassins

by element115
High-level European intelligence sources report that the 51-year old slain Italian SISMI military intelligence agent, Dr. Nicola Calipari, killed by U.S. sharpshooters while accompanying the freed Italian hostage?Il Manifesto journalist Giuliana Sgrena?to Baghdad International Airport, was a prized target of opportunity for American assassins because of his knowledge about past Republican White House ties to Saddam Hussein's nuclear program.
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Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee

by element115
The three military officers on the panel, whose identities are kept secret, said in papers filed in federal court that they reached their conclusion based largely on classified evidence that was too sensitive to release to the public.
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U.S. government confirms criminal probe of Black

by element115
Conrad Black, his top lieutenant David Radler and Hollinger Inc. are the subject of a criminal probe, U.S. federal prosecutors have confirmedThe U.S. government confirmed the investigation on Tuesday when it filed court papers asking to intervene in a civil lawsuit launched by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Black, Radler and Hollinger Inc.
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Bombing Overshadows Easter in Beirut

by element115
A bombing in a Christian suburb of east Beirut overshadowed Easter celebrations on Sunday and raised fresh fears of a slide back into Lebanon's violent past.
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Revolution that came too soon starts to fall apart in chaotic Kyrgyzstan

by element115
The success of Central Asia's first post-Soviet revolution was starting to look distinctly shaky last night, as Kyrgyzstan's self-appointed coalition struggled to form an interim government and assert the power it had won so precipitately earlier in the week. Reports from the capital, Bishkek, said that bands of youths, some armed, roamed the streets and sporadic looting continued. Local observers spoke of a growing sense that no one was in charge.
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A European Student's Experience at Columbia University

by element115
Before studying at Columbia University I hadn't thought much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Coming from Europe I had no specific links to the area. Then, after finishing my undergraduate degree in Europe and enrolling at Columbia as a graduate student, what struck me most was just the opposite of what some are complaining of nowadays: that is, how fanatically pro-Israel Columbia was.
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Empire Builders

by element115
...the doctrine of preemptive war threatens Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and sooner or later China and anyone else who dares stand in the imperial way. Diplomacy, negotiations, compromise are discarded for a steady stream of threats and packaged news.
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N.Korea Confirms Bird Flu Outbreak

by element115
North Korea Sunday confirmed a bird flu outbreak at two chicken farms in the capital Pyongyang and said the farms slaughtered and buried hundreds of thousands of chickens infected by the disease.

But no one is reported to have been infected among breeders on the farms, the North's official KCNA news agency said.
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Naomi Klein Reveals New Details About U.S. Military Shooting of Italian War Correspondent in Iraq

March 26, 2005 by element115
She says it wasn't a checkpoint at all. It was simply a tank that was parked on the side of the road that opened fire on them. There was no process of trying to stop the car, she said, or any signals. From her perspective, they were just -- it was just opening fire by a tank. The other thing she told me that was surprising to me was that they were fired on from behind.
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Goss says CIA ban excludes terrorists

by element115
CIA Director Porter J. Goss told lawmakers that the ban on assassinations by U.S. intelligence is still in force, but that it does not prohibit the agency from killing the terrorist enemies of the United States.
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Army Probe Finds Abuse at Base Near Mosul

by element115
Newly released government documents say the abuse of prisoners in Iraq by U.S. forces was more widespread than previously reported.

An officer found that detainees ``were being systematically and intentionally mistreated'' at a holding facility near Mosul in December 2003. The 311th Military Intelligence Battalion of the Army's 101st Airborne Division ran the lockup.
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How Can We End This War?

by element115
Video ---> Speakers Naomi Klein, journalist and author, Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies, Celeste Zappala, founding member of Gold Star Families for Peace, Anas Shallal from Iraqi Americans for Peaceful Alternatives, Michael Hoffman from Iraq Veterans Against the War, and others talk about "National Teach-In on Iraq: How Can We End This War?"
3/25/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 2 hr.
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Noam Chomsky Edinburgh Lecture

by element115
Video ---> Noam Chomsky delivered the last in the Gifford Lecture series at Edinburgh University?s McEwan Hall on Tuesday, 03/22/05
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Hersh speech blasts Bush and war policy

by element115
"We'll do something in Iran," Hersh said. "The Bush administration has long been planning it. This is the worst presidency and the worst war at the worst time in history that I can see. The Congress does not stand up to Bush. Their problem is that they're down 20 IQ points a man since the 1960's."
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The Coming War on Blogs

by element115
t's a universal law of capitalism: when an industry faces a new and significant threat to its profits and powers it turns to the government for protection. Well, bloggers who write on current events are challenging the mainstream media (MSM), the most politically well-connected industry in America. Watch for the MSM to start using their political influence to burden bloggers.
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Flight to torture: where abuse is contracted out

by element115
ON THE night of December 18, 2001, a Gulfstream jet, tail number N379P, landed at Bromma Airport in Stockholm carrying eight hooded Americans in business suits.
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Shut The FOX Up!

by element115
Foxblocker
Posted in | 0 Comments »

White slave trade now earns US$1 billion annually in Israel.

by element115
A report carried by the "News Israel" Hebrew website on the Internet on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 says that the total annual profits garnered from white slavery in Israel have reached the US$1 billion mark.
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Secret report of the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyz Republic

by element115
In the view of the pit-election situation and effort to provide fair and democratic elections in the KR and retain our positions in mass media and contacts with the opposition leaders, I advise focusing on discrediting the present political regime, thus making Akaev and his followers responsible for the economic crisis. We should also take steps to spread information on probable restriction of political freedoms during the election campaign.
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America's Dangerous Mideast Assumptions

by element115
Syria sees Washington's policies as driven by fallacies and misinformation.
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Employers Relying On Personality Tests To Screen Applicants

by element115
Even before the candidates had stepped through the door for the group interview, their fate had been largely determined by a computer. They had taken a 50-minute online test that asked them to rate to what degree they agreed or disagreed with statements such as, "It's maddening when the court lets guilty criminals go free," "You don't worry about making a good impression" and "You could describe yourself as 'tidy'."

A score in the "green" range for customer service gave an applicant an 83 percent chance of getting hired, "yellow" a 16 percent chance and "red" a 1 percent chance.
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EU: Israel breaching road map

March 25, 2005 by element115
The European Union's foreign policy chief has accused Israel of breaching the international community's road map for Middle East peace by moving to expand the biggest settlement in the occupied West Bank.
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India dismayed as US resumes sales of jet fighters to Pakistan

by element115
The White House rewarded a crucial ally in the war on terror yesterday, approving the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.
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U.S. tells Israel to Control Some Settlements

by element115
The United States expects Israel to retain control over large West Bank settlements under a Mideast peace deal, the U.S. ambassador said Friday.

U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer, speaking on Israel Radio, said the United States believes it is "unrealistic" to expect a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
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Cuba to present nine counts against Washington in Human Rights Commission

by element115
The Cuban delegation is to present nine counts of human rights abuses against the United States of America at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Syrian criticism

by element115
Damascus has described the reports of the UN fact finding mission over the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri of being fragrantly biased.
The Syrian diplomat indicated that the Hariri was an ally to his country's government.
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Lebanon criticizes U.N. report into Hariri's assassination

by element115
Senior Lebanese officials on Friday rejected a U.N. report linking the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri to tensions over Syrian domination of Lebanon, saying the U.N. mission exceeded its authority in accusing the government of negligence.
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Body Double

by element115
Chris Floyd ---> This week, U.S. President George W. Bush melodramatically cut short one of his innumerable vacations and flew back to Washington to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo when a Florida court granted her husband's request to cut off her life support after she had spent 15 years in a vegetative state. But days before, even as the president was supporting his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, and congressional Republicans in "defending the culture of life" in the Schiavo case, doctors in Houston were pulling the breathing tube from the throat of an ailing infant. The boy suffocated within seconds, legally killed -- against the wishes of his anguished mother -- in accordance with a draconian law signed as a "cost-saving" measure by the state's former governor: George W. Bush.
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SARS may spread in air, new studies warn

by element115


The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus was discovered in the air in a patient's room in Toronto, according to a Canadian study published in the new edition of the US-based Journal of Infectious Diseases.
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'Down to her last hours'

by element115
Schiavo is in her eighth day without food or water since Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer ordered the tube removed for the third time.
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Choosing baby's sex to be available in UK

March 24, 2005 by element115
The British parents will may have rights to choose the sex of their unborn baby, the UK's Commons Science and Technology Committee reported on Thursday.

The Science and Technology Select Committee was split over its decision not to call for a ban of the practice, with 5 of its 10 members refusing to put their names to the final report made public.

Critics say sex selection would turn unborn babies into consumer items and could pave the way for parents choosing other characteristics such as hair or eye color.
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'I was kidnapped,' says chess genius as he rails against Japan and US

by element115
"It wasn't an arrest, it was a kidnapping cooked up between Bush and [Japanese prime minister, Junichiro] Koizumi. They are war criminals. They should both be hung. I'm very happy to be leaving. Japan is a nice country, but you have a criminal leadership."

He called Japan's ruling party "gangsters," and in one of his trademark anti-semitic outbursts, said the "Jew-controlled" US was responsible for hounding him.
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Surprise finding shows that plants rewrite genetic code.

by element115
In a discovery that has flabbergasted geneticists, researchers have shown that plants can overwrite the genetic code they inherit from their parents, and revert to that of their grandparents.
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United States Urges U.N. Human Rights Body Not To Target Israel

by element115
Members of the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights should refrain from singling out Israel for criticism in their discussions about human rights violations and support progress that is being made in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to Rudy Boschwitz, U.S. envoy to the commission.
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The battle for your mind

by element115
...expose the methods and technics used by these despicable abominations in their efforts to gain world control. This may help the leaders of the rest of the ?candidate countries for regime change? (Byelorussia, Tadjykistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and yes even in Chechnia/Dagestan as well as the happenings in Lebanon, Syria, Iran) to recognize what?s going on, and to check out those ?youth gatherings? to see what actually is happening at such events.
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America Rules

by element115
The World Health Organization has released a study that verifies the United States is the undisputed champion in mental illness, dominating various pathologies ranging from anxiety to depression to poor impulse control. We easily vanquished underachieving Old Europe in post-traumatic stress syndrome, bipolar disorder, and bulimia nervosa. Additionally, our magnificent land trounced the supposedly productive Asian countries in both senility and agoraphobia, while coasting past Africa in pediatric hyperactivity.
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Top U.S. officials approved detainees "ghosting"

by element115
Several other army reports and documents obtained by the Washington Post revealed that unregistered CIA prisoners were brought to Abu Gharib several times a week in late 2003, and that they were kept in a special row of cells.
Although top U.S. defense officials claimed that the CIA practice of keeping unregistered detainees at Iraq?s Abu Gharib prison was unauthorized, a new army report showed that the ?ghosting? program was systematic and approved by three senior intelligence officials in Iraq.
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Israeli arrested over involvement in Tel Aviv bombing

by element115
An Israeli Arab from Bakka al Gharbiya has been arrested for transporting the man who carried out last month's Tel Aviv bombing, which killed five Israelis, police announced Thursday.
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Israeli entrepreneurs train to enter U.S. homeland security market

by element115
MarketReach America, a program to help Israeli high-tech companies enter the U.S. market, is kicking off its third session this week with a focus on homeland security companies.
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Senate Bill Would Allow Citizens to Kill Those Who Threaten Them

by element115
A bill permitting the use of deadly force during a home invasion or when an individual considers themselves threatened unanimously passed the Florida Senate on Wednesday.

...'Wild West mentality' popular again?
...how about slavery?
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The USA's Tragic Withdrawal From the Rule of Law

by element115
Pentagon Confirms Unilateral Pre-emptive Strikes Are Now U.S. Policy
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Guantánamo Detainees Make Their Case

by element115
The prisoner never heard some of the evidence against him because it was deemed classified and was given to the court in secret.
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Documenting the legal process

by element115
...to obtain confiscated videos showing Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon on 9/11
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Capitol bill aims to control 'leftist' profs

by element115
Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors" in the classrooms of Florida's universities.

According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.

Students who believe their professor is singling them out for "public ridicule" ? for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class ? would also be given the right to sue.
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Ex-U.S. Marine in Chechnya

by element115
Rizvan Chitigov, who was killed in the district center Shali in Chechnya on Wednesday and was the third most influential warlord after Shamil Basayev and Doku Umarov, had graduated from an elite U.S. subversion and reconnaissance school and had served on a contract basis in a U.S. Marine battalion, Kommersant reports.

Marine dog tags indicating his name, and date and place of birth, were discovered on his body.
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We're all paranoid

by element115
...the most disturbing thing about the 9/11 truth movement, something you learn when you really dissect their most compelling evidence, is that the activists are raising critically important questions about the Bush administration's lies, cover-ups, and geopolitical strategy ? questions that are being almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media.

And they may well be right that more went down on 9/11 than the government wants us to know.
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UK refuses records on Jenin death

by element115
The UK Government is refusing to release information about the death of a British UN worker in Jenin who was shot by an Israeli soldier.
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US warns on Venezuela weapons plans

by element115
"I can't imagine why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47s, I can't imagine what is going to happen to 100,000 AK-47s," Mr Rumsfeld said before meeting Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "I personally hope the [delivery] doesn't happen...if it did, it wouldn't be good for the hemisphere.?
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His Own Private Abu Ghraib

by element115
He created a system to reprogram bad kids. Delete the bad code in their personalities. Break the will of sullen stoner boys, make bad girls confess to whorish secrets and reverse-engineer the minds of heavy metal kids. And rebuild all of them into an anti-drug army. Such were the works of Melvin Sembler...
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Discover What the World Thinks About U.S.

by element115
With Translated Foreign News Available NOWHERE Else In English
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The meaning of war

by element115
A heterodox perspective
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Massive looting engulfs Kyrgyz capital after government ousted

by element115
Massive looting engulfed the Kyrgyz capital early as darkness fell on a day in which opposition protestors swept aside the old regime and the president reportedly fled the country.

Uniformed police were nowhere to be seen on the streets where cars without license plates cruised and groups of mostly young men roamed, some of them with clubs in hand.

The bands smashed shop windows, walking off with everything from supermarket produce to refrigerators, microwaves and washing machines. Others stuffed armful of clothing, hangers and all, into cars.
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British legal adviser considered Iraq war 'crime of aggression'

by element115
A British government legal adviser resigned on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq because she believed such action would be unlawful and amount to a "crime of aggression," the BBC reported Thursday.

The BBC News website said the Foreign Office's former deputy legal adviser Elizabeth Wilmhurst made the claim in her resignation letter dated March 18, 2003, part of which was obtained by the broadcaster under the new Freedom of Information Act.
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U.S. bars Italians from examining victim's car

by element115
The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad.
The embassy in Baghdad reportedly alerted Rome authorities, who called off the trip.

The car, a Toyota Corolla, is reportedly still in American hands, at Baghdad airport where it was originally rented.
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Buck Up, The World Hates Us More Than Ever

by element115
Why the Left Was Right After All
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Diving Into Falluja

by element115
To Hell and Back with Documentary Maker Mark Manning
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The Iranian Threat: The Bomb or the Euro?

by element115
Dr. Elias Akleh ---> Iran does not pose a threat to the United State because of its nuclear projects, its WMD, or its support to ?terrorists organizations? as the American administration is claiming, but in its attempt to re-shape the global economical system by converting it from a petrodollar to a petroeuro system. Such conversion is looked upon as a flagrant declaration of economical war against the US that would flatten the revenues of the American corporations and eventually might cause an economic collapse.
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Scientists recover T. rex soft tissue

by element115
A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
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Students take over building in Montreal

March 23, 2005 by element115
Students protesting cuts to educational funding occupied a building in downtown Montreal on Wednesday, as hundreds of supporters outside faced off against riot police.
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Hijacking Democracy in Iraq

by element115
The problem is, there is good reason to believe that the percentage of votes for the Shi'a was higher - much higher. Well-placed sources in Iraq who were in a position to know have told me that the actual Shi'a vote was 56 percent. American intervention, in the form of a 'secret vote count' conducted behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny, produced the Feb. 14 result.
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The Undoing of America

by element115
Gore Vidal on war for oil, politics-free elections, and the late, great U.S. Constitution
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Big names get behind NBC's 9/11 propaganda miniseries

by element115
Former ABC News correspondent Peter Lance ("1,000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI -- the Untold Story") and former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll ("Ghost Wars: the Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001") are on board as consultants. Fred Golan ("Boomtown," "Law & Order: Trial by Jury") has been added to the film's writing staff.
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"Smart" Nanoparticles Target Tumors

by element115
"Smart" nanoparticles have been developed that use a tumor's acidity to deliver drugs to cancerous cells while sparing healthy.
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Bacterial Circuit Could Build Nanoscale Machines

by element115
Such a system could be used to detect dangerous biological agents such as anthrax. Combined with other technologies, it could also be used to construct nanoscale structures.
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Russia Banks on the Euro

by element115
The Russian central bank said on Monday that it had doubled the weighting of euros used to calculate the nominal exchange rate of the ruble from 10 percent to 20 percent at the expense of the dollar.
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Book claims US tried to topple Chavez

by element115
The book, published in Spanish by Fondo Editorial Question, analyses 4000 US documents obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act.
Golinger, who lives in New York and Caracas, writes that since 2001, the US Agency for International Development and the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) have "invested more than $20 million to foment conflict and instability in the name of 'promotion of democracy' in Venezuela".
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Perle May Face SEC Suit Over Hollinger Role

by element115
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle that it may sue him for his role in the alleged looting of Hollinger International Inc., the Chicago-based media company once controlled by Conrad Black.
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Kyrgyzstan government hijacks newspaper websites

by element115
Apparently in the government in Kyrgyzstan has hijacked opposition newspapers sites and are now pointing their URL to government friendly news sites.

It is still a mystery what is going on in Kyrgyzstan. The newspapers in the country are nearly all government controlled or friendly towards the government in such a way that they can not be trusted when covering the ongoing dispute between the opposition and the newly elected government.

The situation gets more blurred by the lack of foreign correspondents and public access to the Internet in Kyrgyzstan. This means no bloggers or eyewitness.
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Binladen Group Wins New Airport Projects

by element115
The Saudi Binladen Group has won the contracts to implement two airport projects in Egypt and Yemen financed by the World Bank.
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Chess legend Bobby Fischer heading for Iceland

by element115
Chess legend Bobby Fischer is on his way to Iceland after being freed from detention in Japan.
The move could mean an end to attempts by Washington to have the eccentric chess master arrested and deported to the U.S.
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Israel's homeland spy agency runs Internet recruiting campaign

by element115
Israel's domestic spy agency Shin Beth -- a driving force in the fight against militant activity in the Palestinian territories -- went online with a website to lure new recruits.
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US rules out Iran security pledge

by element115
The US has dismissed a call by the head of the UN's nuclear agency to offer Iran security assurances as a boost to talks over its nuclear programme.
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Alien Planets Show Themselves for First Time

by element115
stronomers said yesterday that they, or at least their telescopes, had laid eyes for the first time on planets beyond the solar system.
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Supreme Court blocks al-Qa'ida witnesses

by element115
The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in connection with the 11 September 2001 attacks, to be allowed to have three captured al-Qa'ida suspects testify in his defence.
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The Lie Factory

by element115
Mother Jones ---> ...only weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation to war.
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...like a dental appointment.

by element115
An autopsy showed that Dilawar's (the prisoner) legs were so damaged by blows that amputation would have been necessary if he had survived.
...the victim was beaten for five days straight. What kind of treatment is this other than barbaric? Then, the soldier's lawyer calls the technique "non-lethal," while the U.S. Army itself concluded that the victim died because of the blows. Unfortunately, few people in the U.S. have enough reading skills to question how a non-lethal technique can kill someone.
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The TRUTH about your status as a slave in America

by element115
Historical Development of Modern Feudalism
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Torture chicks gone wilds

by element115
A female civilian contractor kept her "uniform" - a thong and miniskirt on the back of the door of an interrogation room.
It's like a bad porn movie, "The Geneva Monologues." All S and no M.
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First cloned buffalo born

by element115
The world's first water buffalo cloned from somatic cells was born Thursday morning in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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Inflation fears prompt selloff on Wall Street

March 22, 2005 by element115
A warning from the federal Reserve that "inflation has picked up in recent months and pricing power is evident" sent stock prices tumbling Tuesday and pushed interest rates higher.
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Putin to Visit Israel - a 1st for Russia

by element115
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Israel at the end of April, the first visit ever by a Russian leader to the Jewish state, Israeli officials said Tuesday.
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Army Raises Enlistment Age for Reservists to 39

by element115
The U.S. Army, stung by recruiting shortfalls caused by the Iraq war, has raised the maximum age for new recruits for the part-time Army Reserve and National Guard by five years to 39.
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El Al 'planted gun on passenger'

by element115
An air passenger was stunned to find a handgun in his luggage after a flight with Israel's national carrier El Al.
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Scans that read your mind fuel ethical worries

by element115
Doctors are using scanners to study brain activity and develop techniques that could soon make breakthroughs in treating patients with depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.
But these scanners - called positron emission tomographs, functional magnetic resonance imagers and near infra-red spectroscopes - are also starting to play roles in everyday life, researchers have realised.

Soon they could be used to tell if a person is lying, to predict that a violent criminal could soon attack again or that they are not really in constant pain as they claim.
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Bird flu epidemic could kill as many as 750,000 in Britain: estimate

by element115
Hundreds of thousands of people may die and one quarter of the work force could be absent if Britain were hit by a bird flu pandemic, a senior government official said.
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Wolfowitz and the Coming Wars

by element115
The World Bank has operated below the radar for too long. Rather than reducing poverty, it's strategies of readjusting economies to meet the needs of global industrialists, have only created greater disparities between rich and poor and a 20 year cycle of economic stagnation. Wolfowitz's appointment will show the public how political decision-making has contributed to this malaise, and demonstrate how the bank functions as an extension of the US Treasury; working tirelessly on behalf of US financial institutions and big business. For those who think the bank should be done away with entirely, Wolfowitz provides an identifiable "name-brand" that will connect the bank to the egregious policies that keep most of the developing world in perpetual debtor peonage.
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North Korea says not opposed to nuke talks

by element115
North Korea is not opposed to six-party talks on its nuclear programme and could return to negotiations when conditions are "mature", the reclusive nation's premier says.
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Grass always covers graves, but the seas reveal the secrets of human folly

by element115
Robert Fisk ---> We journalists are students of human folly. Palestine, Iraq, the Gulf, Persia; for more than a hundred years, our Western meddling in the Middle East falls under that label "folly". A "foolish ... and expensive undertaking that ends in disaster" is how one dictionary defines this. I suspect it also contains an unhealthy mix of vanity and hubris.
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Media Downplay Historic Day of Protests

by element115
The New York Times reported that protests in the United States ranged from 350 people in Times Square to thousands in San Francisco. Later in the same story, the Times reported that several thousand marched from Harlem to Central Park. If thousands marched in New York, why did the Times highlight the 350 in Times Square?
CNN's report was worse - nothing about US protests.
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...for they are afraid of us

by element115
The following remarks were made by John Pilger (03/20/05) at an anti-war rally in Sydney, Australia
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May I have the envelope, please

by element115
So why is the Bushgang so intent on encouraging democracy all over the world?
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Indonesia moving ahead with plans for nuclear power

by element115
Indonesia is moving ahead with plans for a civilian nuclear power program, Jakarta's ambassador to the UN atomic agency Thomas Aquino Sriwidjaja said in Paris.
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The Head of the Compensation Committee reveals in numbers the Fallujah Tragedy

by element115
Dr. Hafidh al-Dulaimi, the head of "the Commission for the Compensation of Fallujah citizens" has reported the following destruction that has been inflicted on Fallujah as a result of the American attack on it...
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Toward a Sensible Israel Policy

by element115
...in the 1840s a gag rule prevented debating slavery in Congress. The ensuing bitter, daggers-drawn silence deepened sectional animosities and contributed to getting America to the catastrophe of civil war in 1861. So, with the advice of Hopkins in mind, let us talk briefly about America's interests in the Israel-Palestine issue, and let us use American history as our guide.
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Economists: Federal deficit a bigger risk than terrorism

by element115
The budget deficit has overtaken terrorism as the greatest short-term risk to the U.S. economy, and concern about the current gap is rising, a survey of U.S. businesses shows.
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Pentagon Reaffirms Globocop Role

by element115
Combined with the nomination earlier in the month of super-unilateralist John Bolton as Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, as well as the U.S. withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for cases involving the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Strategy strongly suggests that Washington's interest in its traditional alliances, multilateral institutions, and even international law is on a downward trajectory.
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Russian Intelligence Chief Says Al-Qaeda a Myth

March 21, 2005 by element115
On the pretext of fighting international terrorism the United States is trying to establish control over the world's richest oil reserves, Leonid Shebarshin, ex-chief of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service, who heads the Russian National Economic Security Service consulting company, said in an interview for the Vremya Novostei newspaper.
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The Death of the Dollar

by element115
Apparently, someone in power did the equivalent of shouting "the emperor has no clothes" and people woke up, and are beginning to see more clearly! The media decided it was time to expose the truth that GM is nearly insolvent, and will expect to lose $1.50/share in the first quarter alone!

But the story is worse than that! GM has $300 billion in debt.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Did Washington Lie to Seoul?

by element115
When the United States told its Asian allies over a month ago that North Korea exported nuclear material to Libya it was omitting a vital part of the information, the Washington Post reported Sunday. It was not North Korea but Pakistan that exported uranium hexafluoride, a substance needed for uranium enrichment, to Libya, and when Pakistan bought it from North Korea Washington had no particular objections, the paper said. Despite being fully aware of this, Washington fabricated the story of a direct sale from Pyongyang to Tripoli to step up pressure on North Korea, the report said.
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Who will prevent the pogrom?

by element115
Haaretz ---> Last week, Palestinian laborers were attacked by settlers in what the Israel Defense Forces described as an "attempted lynching." At various locations throughout the West Bank, Jewish hooligans have used guns, iron bars and hammers in an attempt to ignite the territories.
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Resurgent Russia challenges US

by element115
Rather than addressing the underlying cause of terrorism, namely unpopular US polices in the Middle East, the Bush administration opted to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in order to uproot international terrorism. International terrorism has been strengthened after three years of war as evidenced by the upsurge in terrorist strikes worldwide.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

In a warped reality

by element115
The Guardian ---> Two years on, the occupiers justify the war by embracing the irrelevant and ignoring the inconvenient.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Interview with "Unembedded" Journalist Dahr Jamail

by element115
Video ---> "Without a doubt the Pentagon is lying everyday"
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Deaths Reported in Minn. School Shooting

by element115
Several People Shot at Minnesota High School, Some Killed, FBI Reports; As Many As 14 Said Hurt
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Rumsfeld Cautions Iraqis on New Government

by element115
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned Iraqi politicians today to be "darned careful" in forming a new government that they not weaken Iraqi security forces. He also indirectly blamed Turkey for the persistent strength of the Iraqi insurgency.
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Stiglitz warns of violence if Wolfowitz goes to World Bank

by element115
...one of the world's most influential economic thinkers, has launched a savage attack on US plans to appoint Paul Wolfowitz as the World Bank's new president.
"The World Bank will once again become a hate figure. This could bring street protests and violence across the developing world." He described President Bush's determination to appoint his deputy defence secretary to the important post as "either an act of provocation or an act so insensitive as to look like provocation". Wolfowitz is widely regarded as the creator of the policy that led to the US war in Iraq.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israel's New Jerusalem Plan Angers Palestinians

by element115
Israel plans to build 3,500 new homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said Monday, drawing Palestinian warnings that peace efforts were at risk.
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Guantanamo abuse 'videotaped'

by element115
VIDEO footage of the treatment of prisoners by the US military at Guantanamo Bay would reveal many cases of substantial abuse as "explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib", a lawyer said today.

Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny, who represented Australian David Hicks during the early part of his detention at the military prison in Cuba, told a law conference today 500 hours of videotape of prisoners at the US base existed.
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Blair was told US 'fixed' case for war

March 20, 2005 by element115
THE HEAD of MI6 told Tony Blair that the case for war against Iraq was being 'fixed' by the Americans to suit the policy, according to a BBC documentary that will reignite its battle with the government.

The documentary - to be shown on BBC1's Panorama tonight - reveals that Britain and America were anxious to present a united front on Iraq despite a paucity of new data on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
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New technology uses human body for broadband networking

by element115
By sending data over the surface of the skin, it may soon be possible to trade music files by dancing cheek to cheek, or to swap phone numbers by kissing.

Your body could soon be the backbone of a broadband personal data network linking your mobile phone or MP3 player to a cordless headset, your digital camera to a PC or printer, and all the gadgets you carry around to each other.

These personal area networks are already possible using radio-based technologies, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or just plain old cables to connect devices. But NTT, the Japanese communications company, has developed a technology called RedTacton, which it claims can send data over the surface of the skin at speeds of up to 2Mbps - equivalent to a fast broadband data connection.
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A day that will live in infamy

by element115
The US intervention in Iraq is an example not of democracy but criminality.
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2nd Anniversary Iraq Invasion

by element115
New York Protest
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Don't say 'blogger' to US Immigration

by element115
It appears that the immigration people simply did not believe that Jeremy could make a living as a blogger. And they gave him the third degree - including an humiliating strip search - as a result for some hours. And banned him from entering the US.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

US troops are refusing to return to Iraq

by element115
"They can't train you for the reality of Iraq. You can't have a mass grave with dogs eating the people in it"
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Bring the troops home!

by element115
Sydney protest, today
Posted in | 0 Comments »

EPA Nominee Advocates Human Guinea Pigs

by element115
Stephen Johnson, Bush's nominee to run the EPA, advocates the testing of pesticides on humans -- even children -- for the benefit of large chemical companies.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Powerful Quake Rattles Southern Japan

March 19, 2005 by element115
The magnitude 7 temblor, which hit off the coast of Kyushu Island at 10:53 a.m. local time, was centered at an "extremely shallow" depth below the ocean floor, the Meteorological Agency said.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Anti-War & Protests

by element115
Photos
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Iraq protests

by element115
In pictures
Posted in | 0 Comments »

The World Says End the War!

by element115
March 18-20 marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing and invasion of Iraq. At least 765 towns and cities, in all 50 states - an unprecedented number - are holding anti-war events, in a reflection of the growing breadth of the anti-war movement. This is more than double the number of anti-war actions on the first anniversary of the war last year.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Thousands March Through London in Iraq War Protest

by element115
Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday, the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, calling on Prime Minister Tony Blair to get British troops out of the country.
Police said 45,000 people were taking part in the march which wound from Hyde Park Corner past the U.S. embassy to a rally in central London's Trafalgar Square.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Laurie Garrett Quits Newsday

by element115
"When You See News As a Product...It's Impossible To Really Serve Democracy"
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Huge explosion rocks Beirut

by element115
A car bomb exploded north Beirut early Saturday, injuring seven people, damaging parked cars and shops, shattering windows for several blocks; and raising fears that more attacks would be targeting the Lebanese capital the coming days or weeks.
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...two years ago

by element115
Bush defends war order on anniversary of Iraq invasion
Posted in | 0 Comments »

3D printer to churn out copies of itself

March 18, 2005 by element115
A self-replicating 3D printer that spawns new, improved versions of itself is in development at the University of Bath in the UK.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Mass Murder in Fallujah: Old News Makes the Rounds

by element115
Most Americans know absolutely nothing about what happened in Fallujah, essentially a textbook repeat of what the Israelis did in Jenin, only on a much larger scale (the United States likes to do things in a big way). Precious few Americans have seen the photographs from Fallujah of rotted bodies, bloated and grotesque, some with entire limbs gnawed off by starving animals.

---> Fallujah Photos
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Bird flu infects a 5-year-old Vietnamese boy

by element115
A 5-year-old boy in central Vietnam has been infected by the bird flu virus which has killed 47 people in Asia, the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper reported on Friday.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Web to have 'terror watch' team

by element115
The group will make recommendations on shutting down websites that break terrorism laws.
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Mysterious haemorrhagic fever kills 87 in Angola

by element115
An outbreak of an unidentified haemorrhagic fever has claimed the lives of 87 people in northern Angola over the past four months.

The Angolan health ministry is awaiting the results of samples sent to Senegal and the United States to identify the strain of the fever, health ministry spokesman Carlos Alberto said on Friday.
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North Korea: 'Human scum' Bolton is 'worst' UN envoy

by element115
North Korea referred to Bolton as "human scum" and a "bloodsucker."
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Judge Orders Schiavo Feeding Tube Removed

by element115
The presiding judge in the case of Terri Schiavo ruled Friday that the feeding tube keeping the brain-damaged woman alive must be removed.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Diocese of San Diego denies Catholic funeral rites to gay bar owner

by element115
A member of the Greater San Diego Business Association and owner of two gay bars has been denied a funeral at the University of San Diego and in any Catholic church or chapel in the Diocese of San Diego.
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Iran slams UNHCR for ignoring US detainee abuse

by element115
Iran has hit out at the United Nations for ignoring abuses by US forces of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, as well as their assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

In a speech to the UN Commission on Human Rights, deputy Foreign Minister Gholamali Khoshroo said that sparing some powers from international scrutiny showed "double standards", and called for reforms to end "politicisation of human rights".
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Filter Tips

by element115
Chris Floyd ---> U.S. President George W. Bush often complains about the "media filter" that distorts the true picture of his administration's accomplishments in Iraq. And he's right. For regardless of where you stand on Bush's policies in the region, it's undeniable that the political and commercial biases of the American press have consistently misrepresented the reality of the situation.

Here's an excellent example. Earlier this month, the American media completely ignored an important announcement from an official of the Iraqi government concerning the oft-maligned U.S. operation to clear insurgents from the city of Fallujah last November. Although the press conference of Health Ministry investigator Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli was attended by representatives from The Washington Post, Knight-Ridder and more than 20 other international news outlets, nary a word of his team's thorough investigation into the truth about the battle made it through the filter's dense mesh. Once again, the American public was denied the full story of one of President Bush's remarkable triumphs.
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Strausscon Banker

by element115
Kurt Nimmo ---> Now that warmonger and master Strausscon criminal conspirator Paul Wolfowitz has been selected by our cardboard cutout president Bush to head up the international loan shark operation, the World Bank, is it possible countries that default on their loans will be shocked and awed into submission? Of course, the World Bank does not have a standing army?it simply relies on the U.S. military to do its biding.
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A tragedy beyond belief itself

by element115
There are a few leaders who have stood up for justice in Iraq. Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela are two. However, they both are in the cross-hairs of U.S. policy and they know they will be targets, but they have let their integrity rule, instead of fear or greed. How long will they stay alive? - Terrorism is rampant today in the world. Never have their been so many terrorist activities; daily and worldwide. The headquarters for the largest, most efficient, most well-armed and most dangerous terrorist organization in the world are located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
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Un-Volunteering: Troops Improvise

by element115
Soldiers, their advocates and lawyers who specialize in military law say they have watched a few service members try ever more unlikely and desperate routes: taking drugs in the hope that they will be kept home after positive urine tests, for example; or seeking psychological or medical reasons to be declared nondeployable, including last-minute pregnancies. Specialist Marquise J. Roberts is accused of asking a relative in Philadelphia to shoot him in the leg so he would not have to return to war.
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John Pilger names the real killers in Columbia

by element115
The UK government finds it convenient to blame Colombia's huge murder rate on the drugs trade. The reality is that most of the killings are being done by a regime it supports.
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US can?t deter India on gas pipeline

by element115
India won?t be deterred by Washington?s opposition to its plans to buy gas from Iran, Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday, a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced differences with New Delhi over the project.
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Brazilian Official Defends Chavez in War of Words between Venezuela and the U.S.

by element115
The International Relations Advisor to Brazil's President Lula, Marco Aurelio García, defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez yesterday against harsh criticisms made by the Bush Administration, asserting that the criticisms were "ill informed" and that Chávez "is not only a democratic president, but he has also reaffirmed twice his democratic character? in the recall referendum and in the last regional elections.
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9/11 is an Expression of a Deep and Abiding Crisis in the Capitalist World Order

by element115
---> Video
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Over 725 Protests Planned to Mark Second Anniversary of Iraq Invasion

by element115
Saturday, March 19th, marks the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
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Playing the Democracy Card

by element115
The claim that democracy is on the march in the Middle East is a fraud. It is not democracy, but the US military, that is on the march? What has actually taken place since 9/11 and the Iraq war is a relentless expansion of US control of the Middle East, of which the threats to Syria are a part. The Americans now have a military presence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar -- and in not one of those countries did an elected government invite them in. Of course Arabs want an end to tyrannical regimes, most of which have been supported over the years by the US, Britain and France: that is the source of much anti-western Muslim anger. The dictators remain in place by US licence, which can be revoked at any time -- and managed elections are being used as another mechanism for maintaining pro-western regimes rather than spreading democracy.
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America's Agenda for Global Military Domination

by element115
Classified Pentagon Document
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Bulgaria Latest U.S. Ally Seeking Iraq Pullout

by element115
Bulgaria is the latest ally in the U.S.-led "Coalition of the Willing" that occupies Iraq to announce it was preparing to pull out. Italy, Ukraine and Poland also signaled they were eager to scale down their presence.
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45-day jail for forcing Iraqis into river

by element115
An Army platoon leader was sentenced to 45 days in a military prison for his role in forcing three Iraqi civilians into the Tigris River.
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Man sentenced for crimes he may commit: judge

by element115
Judge Keith Libby ruled that protection of the public was the most important consideration in sentencing Dwight Barnes. And in a move that invited the defence to appeal, Libby said the prison term reflected what Barnes might do in the future, rather than what he had done.
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Pentagon developing super-speed spacecraft

by element115
The Pentagon is developing a suborbital space capsule within the next five years that would be launched from the United States and could deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within two hours, defense officials say.
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Lab fireball 'may be black hole'

by element115
A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said.

It was generated at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in New York, US, which smashes beams of gold nuclei together at near light speeds.

Horatiu Nastase says his calculations show that the core of the fireball has a striking similarity to a black hole.
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NATO To Protect Its Troops With Anti-Missile Defense System By 2010

by element115
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the system would be a first and would cap 10 years of talks on the issue.

"The importance of being able to defend deployed troops against theatre-range ballistic missiles, such as SCUD missiles, was made apparent during the 1990s," NATO said in a communique
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Senate Rejects Bush's Cuts

by element115
The Senate on Thursday voted to restore cuts sought by President Bush in Medicaid, education and other domestic programs, and then approved a $2.6-trillion budget for fiscal year 2006.
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Ashcroft to teach at Robertson's university

by element115
One month after leaving office, former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft has a new job: He'll be a part-time professor at a Christian university run by television evangelist Pat Robertson.
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Journalists tell of US Falluja killings

by element115
All is quiet in Falluja, or at least that is how it seems, given that the mainstream media has largely forgotten about the Iraqi city. But independent journalists are risking life and limb to bring out a very different story.
The picture they are painting is of US soldiers killing whole families, including children, attacks on hospitals and doctors, the use of napalm-like weapons and sections of the city destroyed.

"She watched the soldiers enter and shoot her mother and father directly, without saying anything. They beat her two sisters, then shot them in the head. After this her brother was enraged and ran at the soldiers while shouting at them, so they shot him dead."
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Israel reveals new plans to re-occupy Gaza Strip

by element115
Israel has set new plans to re-occupy Gaza Strip fully or partially during the implementation of Sharon's disengagement plan, claiming that that this would be done with the aim of foiling attempts of rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters during Gaza withdrawal, Palestinian sources said.

Giora Eiland, the head of the Israeli National Security Council, says that if Israeli forces sensed any threat while implementing the disengagement plan, they will re-occupy parts of the Strip, specially Khan Younis City, south of Gaza Strip, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahya in northern Gaza Strip, as well as Al Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
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How To Save The Internet

by element115
Last fall, Kari bolstered his prophecy with statistics. Extrapolating from the growth rates of viruses, worms, spam, phishing and spyware, he concluded that these, combined with "bad people who want to create chaos," would cause the Internet to "collapse!"?and he stuck to 2006 as the likely time.
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Jewish 'plot over Temple Mount'

by element115
BBC ---> Jewish extremists are plotting to take over the Temple Mount in an attempt to thwart Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, an Israeli TV station has reported.

Channel Two showed a video of the plotters, including rabbis and far-right extremists, in a meeting to discuss ways to occupy the holy site.

The Temple Mount is known as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims.
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Bush to Host Sharon at his Texas ranch for Mideast Talks

by element115
The White House announcement confirmed earlier reports of the visit, which will be Sharon's first to the ranch in Crawford and can be seen as a move by Bush to bolster a close ally who is under fire from settlers at home over a U.S.-backed Gaza pullout plan.
Israeli officials had earlier expected the meeting to take place in Washington. Bush uses meetings at his Prairie Chapel ranch to reward important allies and court others.
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Iraq as the world's biggest cash cow

by element115
The United States has charged a former employee of the US construction giant Halliburton and a Kuwaiti sub-contractor with defrauding the US government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq, one day after an international watchdog group warned that lax oversight was threatening the reconstruction effort there.
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Italian troops to stay after all

by element115
Italian newspapers carried a "clarification" from Signor Berlusconi's office stating that after a "long and cordial" conversation with President Bush the Italian leader wished to make it clear that there was "no fixed date" for withdrawal, which could only take place "in consultation with our allies".
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Israel armed itself with nuclear option 40 years ago

by element115
Israel armed itself with the "nuclear option" 40 years ago for use as a last resort should Arab countries threaten its existence, one of the men responsible for the state's nuclear programme said in remarks published today.
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Ukraine Admits Sale of Rockets to Iran and China

by element115
An announcement by the Ukrainian Office of the Attorney General states that Kh55 missiles with nuclear capabilities had been sold to Iran and China through illegal channels.
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No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict

by element115
Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported.
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Cheerleading War and Slaughter

March 17, 2005 by element115
William A. Cook ---> As we commemorate the now annual date of America's March of Madness into Iraq, where the Neo-Con forces of liberation became the forces of occupation, we witness these very same Pharisees lift their respective heads above the roiling waters of the river Styx into which they sunk this country, tentatively waving their cheerleaders' pom-poms in celebration of their ultimate triumph, the democratization of the mid-east. This March 19th, America's "Day of Infamy," the day we launched Bush's illegal pre-emptive invasion of another country, a day that should be celebrated in this good Christian land with a Mass of the Dead accompanied by the anguished cry of Mozart's "Requiem," we have instead an advertising campaign from the board rooms of the American Enterprise Institute, the Project for the New American Century, AIPAC, the Pentagon, and the White House extolling the success of Bush's "Shock and Awe" as it elevated the Arab states from their "Age of Darkness" to the "Enlightenment" of civilized Capitalistic society.
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Wolfowitz at the World Bank

by element115
Jude Wanniski ---> A Perfect Fit
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Secret US plans for Iraq's oil

by element115
Greg Palast ---> The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.
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Update on America's Criminal Class

by element115
Mark Twain said it best: "America is a nation without a distinct criminal class...with the possible exception of Congress."
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Wolfowitz to spread neo-con gospel

by element115
BBC ---> By nominating Paul Wolfowitz to be head of the World Bank, President George Bush appears to be sending a message to the world that he intends to spread into development policy the same neo-conservative philosophy that has led his foreign policy.
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Israeli Whistleblower Vanunu Indicted

by element115
Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was indicted Thursday for violating the terms of his release from prison, the Israeli Justice Ministry said.
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Russian Army Chief Arrives in China Ahead of Joint War Games

by element115
Russia?s army chief Yury Baluyevsky has arrived in China for a four-day visit, Chinese state media report, as plans are laid for the first joint military exercises between the two countries.
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Anti-Blair jibe leads to Commons expulsion

by element115
Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price, who is leading the campaign to impeach Tony Blair, was today ordered out of the Commons chamber after refusing to withdraw comments that the prime minister had "misled" the house over the war in Iraq.
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House OKs $81.4 Billion on War Spending

by element115
President Bush got most of the money he wanted for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the House approved a $81.4 billion measure Wednesday, pushing the total cost for fighting terrorism over $300 billion.
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Bill calls for reporting of sexually active teens

by element115
A bill that seeks to overhaul Missouri's child abuse reporting laws could require teachers, doctors, nurses and others to report sexually active teenagers and children to the state's abuse hot line.
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Popular Mechanics' Deceptive Smear

by element115
Critique
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Popular Mechanics Attacks the "9/11 LIES" Straw Man

by element115
Another Critique
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White House Press Corps Dismisses "Gannongate"

by element115
Well, it's official. The White House Correspondents' Association has weighed in on "Gannongate," saying "individual episodes" should not prompt a crackdown on credentialing.
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Al Qaeda's 'Red Barons' and the 9/11 'melt down'

by element115
"Even more interesting is the WTC South Tower. Even though it experienced a less forceful hit than the North Tower and had smaller fires, it fell in only half the time of its counterpart"
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AP to Offer Two Leads for Some Stories

by element115
In a break with tradition at the 156-year-old news cooperative, the AP will now offer two different leads for many of its news stories, the organization confirmed Wednesday.

"The concept is simple: On major spot stories -- especially when events happen early in the day -- we will provide you with two versions to choose between," the AP said in an advisory to members. "One will be the traditional 'straight lead' that leads with the main facts of what took place. The other will be the 'optional,' an alternative approach that attempts to draw in the reader through imagery, narrative devices, perspective or other creative means."

An example of the differing leads:

Traditional

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) A suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners Thursday, splattering blood and body parts over rows of overturned white plastic chairs. The attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 100, came as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.

Optional

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) Yet again, almost as if scripted, a day of hope for a new, democratic Iraq turned into a day of tears as a bloody insurgent attack undercut a political step forward.

On Thursday, just as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad were telling reporters that they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government, a suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners in the northern city of Mosul.

The AP set a standard for reporting events without bias or opinion. Now the AP has joined the rest of the media in their effort to manipulate public opinion.
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World reacts to Wolfowitz nomination with skepticism and alarm

March 16, 2005 by element115
The nomination of hawkish U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to lead the World Bank has sparked reactions ranging from official reserve to skepticism and outright denunciation.
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New Asian quake threat warning

by element115
A build-up of stress on faults in Sumatra following the Indonesian earthquake is likely to trigger another large quake and perhaps a tsunami.
That is the claim made in Nature by a team from the University of Ulster, UK.

The slip that caused last year's devastating quake placed increased stress on the Sumatran fault and on the adjacent undersea Sunda Trench.
A new rupture could trigger a magnitude 7-7.5 quake on land and a magnitude 8-8.5 quake beneath the sea, they say.
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Pentagon 'hid' damning Halliburton audit

by element115
The Pentagon stood accused of sitting on a damaging report from its own auditors on a $108.4m (£56.6m) overcharge by Halliburton for its services in Iraq yesterday.

In a scathing letter to George Bush, Democratic congressmen Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan said the Defence Contract Audit Agency's audit was completes last October - before the election. They also note that 12 separate requests to the Pentagon to view the completed audits on the contractor's $2.5bn contract to supply fuel and other services in post-war Iraq had been ignored.

"We would like to know why this audit report - and audit reports on nine additional task orders - are being withheld from Congress," they wrote.

"We also want to know what steps you are taking to recover these funds from Halliburton."
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Congress OKs Bill on Release of CIA-Nazi Documents

by element115
The U.S. Congress on Monday voted to extend by two years the life of a government panel charged with declassifying CIA documents that detail the spy agency's ties to former Nazis and war criminals.

The House of Representatives voted 391 to 0 on a bill that clears the way for the release of thousands of documents on former Nazis, including some who assisted in the CIA's Cold War espionage against the former Soviet Union.
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US tries to sink forests plan

by element115
The US plans to wreck a British initiative to commit the G8 states to combatting illegal logging in the world's threatened rainforests, a leaked memorandum revealed last night.
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Taiwan cabinet approves US arms package amid China threat

by element115
Taiwan's cabinet approved Wednesday an arms deal with the United States worth almost 15.5 billion dollars just 48 hours after rival China gave its military the legal basis to attack the island should it declare formal independence.
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RFID set to revolutionise retail payments

by element115
Contactless payments and radio frequency identification technology will transform the way people pay for goods, shop from home and identify themselves at work
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The White House Fakes It

by element115
The State Department claims that the ban on propaganda doesn't apply to them; so, as The New York Times reports, they use fake news extensively to spread positive messages about Bush's policies.
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Pinochet 'stowed $13m in banks'

by element115
The former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet stowed away more than $13m in 125 bank accounts, according to a US Senate investigation.
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Fujitsu sees biometric future in palms

by element115
Cross Fujitsu's palm with silver, and you'll get a biometric scanner that identifies people by looking at the veins in the hands.
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A Warning From Auschwitz

by element115
How Do You Shoot Babies?
"I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child, or an old man on his knees, crying with his arms raised to the sky, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son."
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Bush to Name Kevin Martin New FCC Chairman

by element115
He worked at the White House for Bush as an economic adviser and served as a deputy general counsel on Bush's first campaign. His wife, Catherine, is a special assistant to the president on economic policy and previously worked as an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney
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Senate Votes to Allow Arctic Drilling

by element115
Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush
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Anti-war groups plan to mark second anniversary of US invasion of Iraq

by element115
Anti-war groups say they are gearing up for a series of national demonstrations, including acts of civil disobedience, to mark the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
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Handmaiden of the State

by element115
Justin Raimondo ---> The role of the media in the age of empire
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Oil Prices Shoot to New High

by element115
Crude oil prices soared to a new intraday high above $56 a barrel Wednesday in spite of a decision by OPEC ministers to authorize the pumping of an extra half-million barrels of oil a day.
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Kerik's royalties shocker

by element115
Former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of dollars in royalties from a book published to raise money for the families of heroes killed on Sept. 11
Kerik contributed an 11-sentence foreword to the book of photographs, titled "In the Line of Duty."
Kerik's royalties on the book have so far totaled $75,954.52
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African-American youths are rejecting Army, military says

by element115
Increasingly, young African-Americans have been turning away from the Army, the military says. They don't agree with the war. They dislike President George W. Bush's handling of the military and foreign policies, and they are not willing to fight and possibly die for a cause they don't believe in.
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Gitmo taunter teaches tactics

by element115
An ex-Army interrogator punished for sexually humiliating detainees at the Guantanamo prison is now teaching soldiers interrogation techniques.
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Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism

by element115
Enter the "new anti-Semitism." This doctrine turns reality on its head, declaring criticism of Israel's racist behavior to be itself racist - "anti-Semitic."
Empathy for Palestinians being beaten, bullied, and bulldozed out of existence, the doctrine goes, is nothing but some disguised expression of Jew-hatred. Goose-stepping Germans and uprooted Palestinians are portrayed as part of the same unbroken line of anti-Semitism, even though those inhabiting concentration camps today - "the largest ever to exist," says Israeli historian Baruch Kimmerling - are the Palestinians themselves. But no matter. Abusing the memory of Holocaust victims to shut down criticism of Israeli crimes - crimes unearthed mostly by Jewish historians - may be obscene, but it is also effective.
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Israeli Forces Hand Over Jericho

by element115
The gesture, delayed for weeks by wrangling over its scope, launched a process to turn over five cities in the occupied West Bank to Palestinian authority agreed at a Feb. 8 summit between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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Bush nominates Wolfowitz as head of World Bank

by element115
"I think Paul will be a strong president of the World Bank," Bush told reporters during a White House press conference.
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Anti-U.S. protest in Lebanon

March 15, 2005 by element115
Thousands of Lebanese demonstrators, chanting "Death to America" marched on the U.S. embassy in Beirut on Tuesday, burning American and Israeli flags, and denouncing the U.S. interference in Lebanon.
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Italy 'to pull troops from Iraq'

by element115
Italy is to begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in September 2005, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said.
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Bush administration clears US troops in slaying of Calipari and wounding of Sgrena

by element115
...is anyone surprised?
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Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77

by element115
Thomas R. Olmsted, M.D ---> No Arabs wound up on the morgue slab...
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Jewish community lines up to blunt message of anti-Zionist author

by element115
Normally, this is not Finkelstein's crowd. The scholar and author of books like the international best-seller "The Holocaust Industry" and the forthcoming "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History," Finkelstein argues that American Jewry has "played the Holocaust card," exploiting the suffering of Jews as a political tool to generate sympathy for Israeli policy and further the aims of Zionism.
Finkelstein also spoke of human rights abuses Israel has inflicted on Arabs.
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