ICH May 14 2010 Headlines; Pakistan Taliban Threaten America

Pakistani Taliban say America will "Burn" By Robert Birsel Pakistani Taliban militants have warned America that it will soon "burn" while calling for Pakistan's rulers to be overthrown for following "America's agenda". http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25440.htm === Strikes On US Mainland? Al Jazeera Video Report US government had granted approval to the CIA to expand drone attacks. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25441.htm === Expect War for 5-10 More Years: Marine Corps Gen. By John T. Bennett The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Thursday told a conference in Washington that "no one I know thinks we'll be out of" these kinds of conflicts any time soon. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25443.htm === Let's Rejoice in Terror's Benefits! By John Kirby This still seems like a good time to pause and reflect on all the blessings we have received from Terror and the war thereon. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25444.htm === "I gave them a good boy, and they sent me back a murderer." By Seymour Hersh - Video Legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh delivered keynote address at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, sharing details about his work on My Lai in Vietnam, Abu Graïb, and about his particular relationship with sources. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25439.htm === Unrealistic 'Realism' Nakba and the Two State Solution By Dina Jadallah It is distressing that the Palestinians as a people, need to remind their so-called leaders as well as most other Arab leaders, of their lived reality which has struggled for decades to ensure that their fundamental and inalienable rights are not forgotten or whittled away by the pseudo pragmatic reality of a Two State solution. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25442.htm === "Thumbs Down" on the EU Bailout By Mike Whitney Greece should walk away from this farce and start fresh. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25450.htm === The Ineffective and Unfair Policies of the European Union By Vicenç Navarro What we are seeing today is the climax what used to be called "class warfare", where the dominant classes led by financial capital are imposing their demands on the popular classes in order to recoup their yields. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25448.htm === Finance 202: How We Became Debt Slaves (And Learned to Love It) By Gordon Arnaut Right now, the US Congress is holding hearings about bank wrongdoing. It is very entertaining kabuki theatre, but nothing will change. The Goldman chief (thief?) and his cohorts may take a bit of a grilling, but behind the scenes his bagmen are funnelling millions of dollars into the campaign trunks of every representative, senator (or likely hopeful) in the land. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25449.htm === Two Americas By Cindy Sheehan The America that I belong to buys into the Myth that we don't deserve to have healthy food, education, health care, a warm and non-leaking roof over our heads, without living as debt slaves, because we don't belong in the privileged "elite" class. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25446.htm === Right Wing Talking Points Jesus for the Supreme Court? By Brian J. Foley Socialist Puppet? Christ fed multitudes with bread and fish, for free (Mark 6:30-44). This giveaway reveals likely support for welfare programs. And where did this low wage earner obtain all this food? From powerful friends to whom he may be beholden if confirmed as a Justice? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25447.htm === Outlawing Latinos' Heritage By Eugene Robinson Arizona is already facing criticism and boycotts over its "breathing while Latino" law, which in essence requires police to identify and jail undocumented immigrants. Now the state adds insult to that injury. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25445.htm === Randomly Stopped and Searched for WMD's in North Texas! Video No wonder the WMD's were never found in Iraq! They were in North Texas! http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25451.htm === Bomb attack kills 25 in Iraqi stadium: A car bomb has been detonated at a football stadium in northern Iraq, killing 25 people and wounding some 100 others, police sources say. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126483&sectionid=351020201 === No sign of fraud after Iraq vote recount: "We finished the recount of 11,298 ballot boxes and no violation or fraud has been found," AFP quoted the commission's spokesman Qassim al-Abboudi as saying on Friday. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126481&sectionid=351020201 === Protests as Afghans say NATO killed 12 civilians : Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said in a faxed statement that ten "innocent people" were killed in the Surkh Rod village of Saydan, and that he "strongly condemned" the operation. http://snipurl.com/w92ik === Afghan protest turns violent: One Afghan protester has been killed in eastern part of the country as thousands of people were protesting against the killing of 11 civilians by US-led troops. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126464&sectionid=351020403 === 3 NATO occupation force soldiers killed in Afghanistan: A Canadian trooper died in a blast while on a foot patrol in the southern province of Kandahar. Earlier an American soldier was slain in a militant attack in eastern Afghanistan. Another NATO soldier was killed in a bomb explosion in the south, according to the statement. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126489&sectionid=351020403 === Top general: It's a draw in Afghanistan: McChrystal says the insurgency remains serious, with a reach that spans the country and a large number of fighters. http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/13/1944168/top-general-its-a-draw-in-afghanistan.html === The Inevitable Collapse of McChrystal's Afghan War Plan : The President ignored Sun Tzu's timeless wisdom, when he approved McChrystal's fatally flawed plan, despite the cabled warnings of retired Army general Karl Eikenberry, his ambassador to Afghanistan. http://www.counterpunch.org/spinney05132010.html === Afghan private security firms fuelling corruption, warns British commander: Private security companies are operating in a "culture of impunity" that is encouraging lawlessness and corruption, Britain's most senior commander in southern Afghanistan warned today. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/13/afghanistan-private-security-firms === Pakistan Taliban in overthrow call: Tariq said the Pakistani people were being sacrificed for the sake of the US by their own government, which he called un-Islamic. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010514145838312504.html === Holder vows to pursue Times Square suspects abroad: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told a House panel Thursday that federal authorities continue to believe the Pakistani Taliban was behind a May 1 attempted car bomb attack in Times Square, and he vowed that the administration would use all available resources to bring those responsible to justice, whether they are in the United States or overseas. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/13/AR2010051302793_pf.html === Blackwater infiltrates streets of Islamabad: 350 Blackwater personnel are residing in the city along with unspecified number of US marines and spies of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). http://paksiasat.com/2010/05/14/blackwater-infiltrates-streets-of-islamabad/ === At least 10 killed as deadly clashes erupt in Bangkok: Explosions and gunfire were heard in Bangkok's business district on Friday as the so-called red shirts battled with troops using tear gas and rubber bullets. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/05/2010514104737112484.html === One killed as clashes erupt in south Kyrgyzstan: Gunfire broke out in the city of Jalal'abad on Friday, while in Osh, supporters of the two sides threw stones and hit each other with sticks. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201051473329302961.html === Russia warns US against unilateral Iran sanctions: FM Lavrov says countries facing Security Council sanctions 'cannot under any circumstances be subjected to one-sided sanctions imposed by any government' http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3889165,00.html === Obama seeks $205 million for Israel rocket shield: President Barack Obama will ask Congress to provide $205 million to Israel to spur production and deployment of a new short-range rocket defense system, administration officials said Thursday. http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3889421,00.html === White House meets with rabbis to assuage concerns on Israel: Jack Moline, a Conservative rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Alexandria, Va., initiated the meetings after a talk he had with his friend Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, about the Obama administration's perceived deficit of friendliness toward Israel. http://snipurl.com/w92pc === Obama wants $80 billion to upgrade nuclear arms complex: Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the funds, which would be spent over a decade, were needed to "rebuild and sustain America's aging nuclear stockpile." http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100513/ts_nm/us_usa_russia_nuclear === Russia spurns Israeli rebuke over Hamas meet: After President Medvedev meets with Hamas politburo chief in Damascus and urges Hamas involvement in peace talks, Russian foreign ministry says, 'Hamas is a movement supported by significant part of Palestinians' http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3889325,00.html === Palestinians rally on Nakba Day: Thousands of Palestinian refugees have gathered in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to remember the 62nd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of their homelands. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126491&sectionid=351020202 === Israeli gunships open fire at Palestinian fishermen in Gaza: Israeli gunships opened fire Friday at Palestinian fishing boats out at sea, off the coasts of Gaza Strip. http://snipurl.com/w92s3 === Jerusalem residents attack writer Elie Wiesel over appeal to Barack Obama: Holocaust survivor accused of ignoring anti-Arab discrimination in Jerusalem http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/12/elie-wiesel-criticism-jerusalem-residents === Arrests follow US bomb plot raids: Three men suspected of providing money to the man charged with attempting to plant a bomb in New York's Times Square have been arrested in the northeast of the United States. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/2010513194023483513.html === City Council Votes To Boycott State of Arizona, Lynette Romero Reports: Video report http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/?watchId=70125774-393f-4d41-95b1-46325c402b68 === Let Us Work Towards Peace And Joy Tom Feeley

ICH

Iran: Much Ado About Nothing?

By William Blum

So why the big international fuss over the Iranian election and street protests? There's only one answer. The obvious one. The announced winner, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a Washington ODE, an Officially Designated Enemy, for not sufficiently respecting the Empire and its Israeli partner-in-crime.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22985.htm

===

A Few Facts About the Honduran Military Coup

By Ken Silverstein

There's very little truth to anything you've read about the coup in American newspapers.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22989.htm

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John Pilger on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the Corporate Media, Obama's Wars and Resisting the American Empire

By Democracy Now!

Award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the media, health care, and Obama's wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pilger has has written close to a dozen books and made over 50 documentaries on a range of subjects including struggles around the world for a more just and peaceful society and against Western military and economic intervention.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22986.htm

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Our IDF

By Gideon Levy

It's a good thing we have Shayetet 13. Operating at the crack of dawn - or was it before nightfall? - the daring naval commandos fearlessly took control of a rusty, rickety, unarmed boat bobbing in the middle of the sea. That's exactly why we have a naval commando force - to take control of ships offering humanitarian aid. Behold, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22991.htm

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Its Not Just Our 21 Kidnapped Passengers.:

By Free Gaza

The kidnapping of 21 international human rights workers attempting to deliver needed aid to a besieged people is an outrage, but it is hardly an isolated one.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22990.htm

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What if the Uighurs were Christian Rather than Muslim?

By Glenn Greenwald

Muslims generally -- not just Al Qaeda -- replaced Communists as our New Enemy and became the new enabling force for our endless state of War and never-ending expansions of executive power. Rather obviously, the Uighurs were swept into the Enemy category solely by virtue of their status as Muslims.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22988.htm

===

Untold Truths About the American Revolution

By Howard Zinn

Why do we assume that we had to fight a bloody revolutionary war to get rid of England?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22987.htm

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Obama Takes Bush's Plutocratic-Socialism to the Next Leve

By Chris Moore

As the federal government and the two-party regime running it have become ever more corrupt, the bubbles have become ever larger and more frequent. And it is these successively more frequent bubbles that have destroyed the American economy, bankrupted Americans, and simultaneously made these revolving-door federal government elite/plutocrat-socialists in both parties rich.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22982.htm

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Obamageddon is Coming!

4 minute video

Food riots, tax protests, strikes and high unemployment all will characterize our economic future according to Gerald Celente.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22992.htm

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Is There Life After Democracy?

By Arundhati Roy

What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of its institutions has metastasised into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the Free Market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximising profit?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22994.htm

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The Crooks Get Cash While the Poor Get Screwed

By Chris Hedges

Tearyan Brown became a father when he was 16. He did what a lot of inner-city kids desperate to make money do. He sold drugs. He was arrested and sent to jail three years later for dealing marijuana and PCP on the streets of Trenton, N.J., mostly to white kids driving in from the suburbs. It was a job which saw him robbed at gunpoint and stabbed in the chest. But it made him about $1,400 a week.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22993.htm

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Happy Co-Dependence Day

By Cindy Sheehan

In our heart of hearts, do we really think that Obama is an agent of change for the people? Have we not been fooled, yet again? So, we lay all of our hopes and dreams for a better life on one person and allow the inevitable heartache of betrayal to wash over us and once again drown us in disappointment when that person turns out to be just another politician.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22984.htm

Endless War Rages On

Passing Storms Overhead

North Korea declares that it
will "weaponise all plutonium"
following United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1874 against the country.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 was adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on 12 June 2009.^[1] The resolution, passed under Chapter VII, Article 41, of the UN Charter, imposes further economic and commercial sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the DPRK, or North Korea) and encourages UN member states to search North Korean cargo, in the aftermath of an underground nuclear test conducted on 25 May 2009.

The provisions of the resolution include:

• Authorizing member states to inspect, "in accordance with their national authorities and legislation, and consistent with international law," North Korean cargo on land, sea, and air, and to destroy any goods suspected of being connected to the DPRK's nuclear programme.^[2]
• Requiring the North Korean government to return immediately to the six-party talks and renounce its announcement of withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.^[3]
• Preventing financial services that could contribute to the nuclear or ballistic missile related programmes.^[4]
• Instructs member states not to provide financial assistance to the DPRK nuclear programme, or enter into loans with the country, except for humanitarian or developmental reasons.^[4]
• Extending the arms embargo on North Korea by banning all weapons exports from the country and most imports, with an exception to small arms, light weapons and related material – though member states must notify the Security Council five days prior to selling the weapons.^[5][6]
• Demanding that North Korea halt its nuclear weapons programme and conduct no further nuclear or missile tests.^[5]
• Asking member states to notify the Council of steps they are taking to implement the sanctions within 45 days.^[7]
• Affirming the Security Council's commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the situation.^[7]

North Korean reaction

This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

An official newspaper said that the country would consider any new sanctions imposed as a "declaration of war".^[13] In response, a statement from the Foreign Ministry, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), said that the country would "weaponise all plutonium" and had reprocessed more than "one-third of our spent nuclear fuel rods".^[14][15] It also announced it would start uranium enrichment.^[14] The statement considered any attempt at a blockade as an "act of war that will be met with a decisive military response", and would "counter 'sanctions' with retaliation and 'confrontation' with all-out confrontation", accusing the resolution of being a product of a U.S.-led offensive against the country.^[16][17] The North Korean Foreign Ministry statement on KCNA continues:

The U.S. and Japan, not content with this "resolution", are hatching dirty plots to add their own "sanctions" to the existing ones against the DPRK by framing up the fictional issues of "counterfeit money" and "drug trafficking". The U.S. incited the United Nations Security Council to get more deeply embroiled in its attempt to stifle the DPRK, which resulted in the creation of an unprecedentedly acute tension on the Korean Peninsula.
... Had any other country found itself in the situation of the DPRK, it would have clearly realized that the DPRK has never chosen but was compelled to go nuclear in the face of the U.S. hostile policy and its nuclear threats. It has become an absolutely impossible option for the DPRK to even think about giving up its nuclear weapons. It makes no difference to the DPRK whether its nuclear status is recognized or not.^[18]

A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper alleged the United States had 1,000 nuclear weapons in South Korea ready to strike North Korea, with the Tongbil Sinmun warning that nuclear war could break out on the Korean peninsula.^[19] A U.S. military spokesman described the allegations as "baseless", adding that the weapons were removed under a 1991 treaty.^[20]

See also

• 2009 North Korean nuclear test
• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction

The American Empire Is Bankrupt\By Chris Hedges

This week marks the end of the dollar's reign as the world's reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That's over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22836.htm

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Afghan Villagers Slain As They Took Cover\By Jon Swain

Tears streaming down her face, the Afghan woman sat in a corner of a room with no roof and broken windows, mourning 19 of her closest and dearest relatives. "They were parts of my heart," she said.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22833.htm

The Iranian Vote: Citizen Journalism Round-up\By Jessica Reed

As Iranian commenters claim that "traditional media have completely failed" them following the outcome of Friday's vote, many turned citizen journalists overnight - using collaborative platforms to publish their pictures and live accounts of what has been happening on the ground as efficiently as possible. Here's a selection of links to some interesting pages in English.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22832.htm

Iran Protesters Defy Rally Ban\By Al Jazeera

In his first public appearance since the elections three days ago, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate, told supporters at the rally in Tehran on Monday that he would take part if new elections were called.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22831.htm

Dashing Fabricated Hopes:
The Meaning of Ahmadinejad's Victory\By Pierre Tristam

The point never has been for Iran to get a leadership the United States can deal with. That's the American perspective that's led nowhere for 30 years. The point is to get a leadership in the West willing to deal with whatever leadership Iran chooses for itself, on its own terms.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22830.htm

President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins re-election, amid protests and allegations of electoral fraud.

• British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces that an independent inquiry into the country's role in the Iraq War will be held in private. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Leaders gather in Yekaterinburg, Russia, ahead of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRIC summit. (AFP) (Xinhua)
• The European Union announces it will help resettle detainees released from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (Reuters)

23 insurgents killed in Afghanistan: US occupation force:

The US occupation force along with Afghan security forces backed by war planes killed nearly two dozen insurgents in a clash in southern Afghanistan at the weekend, the US side said Monday.
http://snipurl.com/k6mic

Taliban fighters murder female nurse in W Afghanistan:

Taliban militants in attack against government interests targeted a nurse along with her spouse, killing the armless couple in west Afghanistan, police spokesman in the region Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said Sunday.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6678119.html

Canadian Occupation Force Soldier Killed In Afghanistan:

A Canadian military engineer was killed Sunday as he tried to defuse two roadside bombs hidden in a rural culvert.
http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=21690

13 killed in bomb blast, US drone attack in Pakistan:

A suspected US missile strike killed at least five people on Sunday in a tribal region where Pakistan's top Taliban commander is based, intelligence officials said, breaking a lull in such attacks and posing a test for growing anti-Taliban sentiment.
http://snipurl.com/k6ml0

Q+A - Who are the Pakistani Taliban insurgents?:

Pakistan has ordered the military to carry out an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters, a provincial governor said on the weekend.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090615/twl-uk-pakistan-violence-taliban-qanda-s-672dc0e.html

Journalists shot at by Pakistani forces in Taliban conflict zone:

Pakistan's security forces allegedly opened fire on June 9 on members of a media team of AVT Khyber, a Pashto TV channel, and a photographer of the English daily newspaper Dawn, resulting in injuries to a cameraperson and a driver, the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has reported.
http://www.newswatch.in/newsblog/4284

Gunmen kill 7 US-allied Sunni fighters in Iraq:

Six died after gunmen ambushed their minibus near the Iranian border. A local sheik condemned the attack. He says the men targeted had been working to "spread peace and security" in the area.
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10530381&nav=Bsmh

2009 Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic
Main article: 2009 flu pandemic

In the 2009 flu pandemic, the virus isolated from patients in the United States was found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses – North American Mexican influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe – "an unusually mongrelised mix of genetic sequences."^[13] This new strain appears to be a result of reassortment of human influenza and swine influenza viruses, in all four different strains of subtype H1N1.

Preliminary genetic characterization found that the hemagglutinin (HA) gene was similar to that of swine flu viruses present in U.S. pigs since 1999, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix protein (M) genes resembled versions present in European swine flu isolates. The six genes from American swine flu are themselves mixtures of swine flu, bird flu, and human flu viruses.^[14] While viruses with this genetic makeup had not previously been found to be circulating in humans or pigs, there is no formal national surveillance system to determine what viruses are circulating in pigs in the U.S.^[15]

On June 11, 2009, the WHO declared an H1N1 pandemic, moving the alert level to phase 6, marking the first global pandemic since 1968.^[16]

^{http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/AntigenicShift_HiRes.png}

June 14, 2009 (2009-06-14) (Sunday

• Europe's first death from H1N1 is reported in Paisley, Scotland. (Reuters) (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)