World-News

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/05/21-4

Amnesty International Responds to President Obama's Major Address on National Security
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/05/21-0

Obama's Civil Liberties Speech
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/21-16

--------

Tell the truth about torture through an independent commission
https://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=nvL6LeMOLjKZLlI&s=7qLLJWOvF9JJL0PCLmF&m=olI1KdNQJeL5G



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https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/21-0



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Mark Weisbrot, The Guardian UK: "The battle over intellectual property rights is likely to be one of the most important of this century. It has enormous economic, social and political implications in a wide range of areas, from medicine to the arts and culture - anything where the public interest in the widespread dissemination of knowledge runs up against those whose income derives from monopolising it."

https://www.truthout.org/052109N?n



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Business
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mark+Weisbrot

Ari Shapiro, National Public Radio: "It is clear that increasingly abusive interrogation techniques were used on Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee, in the months between his capture and the first Justice Department memo authorizing harsh interrogations. But the legal guidance that authorized those early interrogations remains shrouded in secrecy."

https://www.truthout.org/052109C?n



Diaries Recounting Zubaydah's Torture Should Be Given to Defense Attorneys, Judge Rules

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah is expected to finally gain access to diaries he wrote during the years while he was being tortured by CIA interrogators. A federal court judge has ordered the government to turn over unredacted volumes of the diaries and other 'specified' writings to defense attorneys representing Zubaydah. Zubaydah was the first high-value detainee captured after 9/11. He was repeatedly waterboarded and subjected to brutal torture techniques by CIA interrogators at secret black-site prisons. Although the order issued by US District Court Judge Richard Roberts on September 30 was filed under seal, Zubaydah's attorney, Brent Mickum, said in a Truthout interview that while he could not discuss the substance of the ruling, it was his opinion that the order 'should have been made public from the get-go' because 'there's nothing in [the order] that should be considered classified.'"

https://www.truthout.org/1021091



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Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers: "Oil and gasoline prices are rising fast as Memorial Day weekend approaches, but not because supplies are tight or demand is high."

https://www.truthout.org/052109D?n



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Norman Solomon, Truthout: "To understand what's up with President Obama as he escalates the war in Afghanistan, there may be no better place to look than a book published 25 years ago. 'The March of Folly,' by historian Barbara Tuchman, is a chilling assessment of how very smart people in power can do very stupid things - how a war effort, ordered from on high, goes from tic to repetition compulsion to obsession - and how we, with undue deference and lethal restraint, pay our respects to the dominant moral torpor to such an extent that mass slaughter becomes normalized in our names."

https://www.truthout.org/052109A?n



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By Danny Schechter

Its clear that, like on the war, government officials did mislead us. From original deregulators in the Carter-Reagan years to the financial "modernizers of the Clinton-Bush 2 era with their refusal to accept responsibility for the consequences of their free market fantasies, the gutting of rules and regulations, and their embrace of a phony "ownership society."

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22676.htm



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https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ownership+society
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Danny+Schechter

By Alexander Cockburn

It didn't take long for President Barack Obama to swing behind targeted assassinations and bombing raids.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22670.htm



Watching Obama Morph Into Dick Cheney

By Paul Craig Roberts

America has lost her soul, and so has her president.
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22671.htm



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
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By David Edwards and Muriel Kane

"They started this monthly treatment where they would come in with a scalpel or a razor type of instrument and they would slash his genitals, just with small cuts."

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22672.htm



U.S. Officials Admitted that Boys Were Sodomized In Iraq Prison

By Washington's Blog

In the Washington Post report, one detainee, Kasim Hilas, describes the rape of an Iraqi boy by a man in uniform, whose name has been blacked out of the statement, but who appears to be a translator working for the army.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22675.htm



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York residents object to Vodafone mast on the corner of Boroughbridge Road and Plantation Drive

9:09am Thursday 21st May 2009

By Gavin Aitchison

PLANNING chiefs have been won over by people power in the battle over controversial plans for a mobile phone mast in York.

More than 100 residents objected to proposals by Vodafone to put a 14.2-metre (47 foot) mast on the corner of Boroughbridge Road and Plantation Drive.

Councillors had been advised by officials to approve the planning application but, following widespread complaints by locals, they objected to it.

City of York Council’s west and city centre area planning sub-committee said the mast was in an inappropriate location, but national policies mean the matter may not yet be settled.

Read More...
https://tinyurl.com/p6ff4n

Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, The Nation: "The Army's behavior toward Watada has been disgraceful from the start. The entire controversy could have been forestalled if the Army had not refused his initial request to resign. The Army charged Watada not only with 'missing movement' but with 'conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman' for speaking critically of government policy and President George W. Bush in ways that the military's own courts had repeatedly established to be constitutionally protected. In an effort to intimidate Watada's supporters, Army prosecutors subpoenaed journalists and organizers of public meetings."

https://www.truthout.org/052009D?n



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Watada
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jeremy+Brecher
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Brendan+Smith

Agence France-Presse: "Western air strikes sparked fresh controversy in Afghanistan on Wednesday as NATO said a bombing killed eight civilians and the US military estimated that up to 30 villagers died in an attack this month."

https://www.truthout.org/052009S?n



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=air-strike
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+deaths
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan

Warum viele Vermittlungsgespräche in Arbeitsagenturen ergebnislos bleiben.
https://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/30/30351/1.html



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Arbeitsagentur

In a 22-page decision issued Tuesday evening, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ruled that members in Al Qaeda or the Taliban could be detained, but that mere support for Al Qaeda activities is not a sufficient basis for the government to hold prisoners at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere.

https://snipurl.com/ig3yh



Shame on them: Democrats Defending Pelosi

Top Democrats said they believe that the CIA misled her in a September 2002 briefing about controversial techniques used during interrogations of alleged al-Qaeda operatives.

https://snipurl.com/ig3zk


From Information Clearing House



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
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By Mike Whitney

Do people realize that the reason their home equity is vanishing, their 401ks have been slashed in half and their jobs are at risk is because Wall Street was gaming the system with leverage and financial innovation? The current downturn is not really a recession at all; it's more like a self-inflicted wound perpetrated by avaricious speculators who put a gun to the economy's head and blew its brains out.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22667.htm



The Toll Booth Economy

By Michael Hudson

China's central bank is now the largest holder of U.S. government and other dollar securities, it has become the main subsidizer of the U.S. payments deficit - and also the domestic U.S. federal budget deficit. Half of the federal budget's discretionary spending is military in character. This places China in the uncomfortable position of being the largest financier of U.S. military adventurism.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22668.htm



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=federal+budget
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https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Hudson

By Yvonne Ridley

While some Republican red necks would probably just scoff at pictures of olive skinned men being brutalised, I'm not so sure they would shrug off so easily pictures of women and young children being tortured.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22663.htm



The Road To Guantanamo

Video

Three young British Muslims tell the story of how they came to be in US custody at Guantánamo for over two years, and discuss the Kafkaesque horrors that awaited them there, until finally they were released without charge or apology.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15880.htm



Drugged and Dangerous

U.S. Military: Heavily Armed and Medicated

By Melody Petersen

Prescription pill dependency among American troops is on the rise.
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22664.htm



Obama defends withholding abuse photos

In his speech Thursday at the National Archives, Obama said he has an obligation to protect Americans who are serving in harm's way, and that the release of the photos would endanger them by inflaming anti-American opinion.

https://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6434967.html



Senate OKs war funding, blocks release of detainee pictures

The Senate late Thursday easily passed a $91 billion spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After stripping it of funds to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and placing restrictions on the transfer of its detainees, the bill was adopted 86 to 3. The Senate included an amendment to prevent the public release of photographs that reportedly document the mistreatment of post-Sept. 11 detainees in U.S. custody.

https://snipurl.com/ikzms


From Information Clearing House

--------

Media Ignores Real Controversy Behind Torture Photos; They Show Prison Guards Raping Children

Former Governor Jesse Ventura: Let Me Judge Torture Photos On Behalf Of The American People

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, May 21, 2009

The real reason behind Obama’s reversal of a decision to release the torture photos has been almost completely ignored by the corporate media - the fact that the photos show both US and Iraqi soldiers raping teenage boys in front of their mothers.

https://www.prisonplanet.com/media-ignores-real-controversy-behind-torture-photos-they-show-prison-guards-raping-children.html



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By Michael Scheuer

In just over 100 days, President Obama is on the verge of ensuring that militant Islam's war on America will be waged for decades to come and its forces will never suffer manpower or money shortages. How did he accomplish so much in some little time? He simply behaved as all U.S. political leaders behave; that is, as an ignorant and arrogant interventionist.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22665.htm

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UK: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims

Independent [UK]

05/21/09

Five Muslim community workers have accused MI5 of waging a campaign of blackmail and harassment in an attempt to recruit them as informants. The men claim they were given a choice of working for the Security Service or face detention and harassment in the UK and overseas. They have made official complaints to the police, to the body which oversees the work of the Security Service and to their local MP Frank Dobson. Now they have decided to speak publicly about their experiences in the hope that publicity will stop similar tactics being used in the future...

https://tinyurl.com/qq2gvj


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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By Peter Lee

Washington, apparently believing that it doesn't have enough on its plate with al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan Taliban, is suddenly awash with dramatic plans to add a self-created problem to the mix: a quixotic effort to wrest Pakistan's nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Army if the situation deteriorates.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22669.htm



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Albright

United for Peace & Justice
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/05/20-22



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ufpj

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/20-3



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Yoo
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amy+Goodman

https://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/05/20-0



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
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https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/20-4



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=KBR
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+Ferraro

https://www.ufppc.org/content/view/8637/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperial
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan

https://lewrockwell.com/orig9/shostak9.html

Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax
https://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/tax-tax-tax.html



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https://lewrockwell.com/daughty/mogambo12.html



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https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mogambo

https://lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff23.html

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The Housing Boom and Bust

Reason
by Brian Doherty

05/20/09

Interview with Thomas Sowell, author of The Housing Boom and Bust. Sowell: “There are those who borrowed to buy a place to live and speculators who borrowed to speculate, and did enormously well for a number of years. Then there were people who simply don’t understand complex mortgages, particularly people who never owned a home before and whose educations were limited. But the people I would blame the most in the sense that without their interference other problems would have been within manageable means are the politicians — people in Congress and the president and regulators — who pushed the lenders and the banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into lending and buying mortgages based on people who didn’t meet standards that evolved in the marketplace and which had worked...

https://www.reason.com/news/show/133593.html



Ford, Goldman Sachs, the SEC, and the “new” Wall Street

LewRockwell.Com
by Eric Englund

05/21/09

Wall Street wants to regain your trust. Mutual fund managers, stockbrokers, Wall Street executives, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) want Americans to keep the faith that buying and holding stocks, for the long term, is a key to building personal wealth. This is a tough sell considering Americans have watched their 401(k)s become 201(k)s. Not to worry says the laughable SEC, they’ve got your back covered. Here is what is stated in the SEC’s 2008 Annual Report: ‘Today, as more and more investors turn to the markets to help secure their futures, pay for homes, and send children to college, our investor protection mission is more important than ever. And as the nation’s securities exchanges mature into global for-profit competitors, there is even greater need for sound market regulation.’ Of course, this is nothing but hot air from a worthless bureaucracy. If the SEC was going to help Wall Street turn over a new leaf, it would immediately investigate why Goldman Sachs recently issued a ‘buy’ recommendation regarding Ford Motor Company’s common stock. I promise this investigation will not transpire as the Wall Street banksters are in control and will continue to rip off anybody foolish enough to trust them...

https://lewrockwell.com/englund/englund53.html



Going after the perps of the housing bubble

The American Prospect
by Tim Fernholz

05/20/09

Talk to almost anyone about the financial crisis — or at least anyone who doesn’t work in the financial sector — and sooner or later you’ll hear it: ‘How come nobody’s in jail for this stuff yet?’ It’s not an absurd question. Most people recall the criminal charges associated with the Enron and WorldCom frauds a decade ago. Already, investigators of our current crisis have been able to determine that fraud was rampant in the sub-prime mortgage bubble that catalyzed the current recession. But we still haven’t seen major charges of white-collar crime...

https://tinyurl.com/qvpak8


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
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