let us see what love can do

consortiumnews.com
July 7, 2009
Editor’s Note: Prior to giving some talks in Texas, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern offered the following op-ed to the Dallas Morning News and the Fort-Worth Star Telegram. Both newspapers in George W. Bush’s home state turned it down:

Seldom does a crime scene have so clear a smoking gun. A two-page presidential memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, leaves no room for uncertainty regarding the “decider” on torture. His broad-stroke signature made torture official policy.

Posted on Jul 7, 2009
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090707_so_this_is_what_victory_loo...

Fireworks lit up the Baghdad sky on the evening of June 30th, signaling the advent of “National Sovereignty Day.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared the new holiday to commemorate the withdrawal of American combat troops from the Iraqi capital and all other major urban centers, although thousands of “advisers” would remain in the cities, embedded with Iraqi forces. The celebration transpired inside a city that has been radically transformed over the past six years. Even with American combat forces ostensibly withdrawn, Baghdad remains one of the most militarized urban areas in the world. It wasn’t always so. When I was in Baghdad during the 1990s, I was struck by the lack of an overt military presence for a nation purported to be governed by one of the world’s worst militaristic dictatorships.

Update on kidnapped passengers, impounded boat, and the right for EVERYONE to see an attorney

Journalists' House
12 CyBC (RIK) Avenue
Aglantzia, Nicosia 2120, Cyprus

Greta Berlin (English)
tel: +357 99 28 41 02/ friends@freegaza.org

Ramzi Kysia (English)
Tel: + 357 99 08 17 67 rrkysia@yahoo.com

Caoimhe Butterly (Arabic/English/Spanish):
tel: +357 99 80 96 37 / sahara78@hotmail.co.uk
www.FreeGaza.org

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/
Posted: July 1, 2009 05:29 PM
The simultaneous conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond are all connected to the Pentagon strategy of "the Long War" projected to last fifty years in "the arc of crisis" that just happens to stretch across Muslim lands where there are oil reserves and plans for Western-dominated pipelines. The term "Long War" was introduced by Gen. John Abizaid in the 1990s and is the perspective of counterinsurgency experts around the Pentagon and think tanks led by the Center for New American Security.

Published on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/06-14
Who Will Stop the AIPAC Jews Before it is Too Late?
by Medea Benjamin
While I was being tackled by security guards at Washington's Convention Center during the AIPAC conference for unfurling a banner that asked "What about Gaza?," my heart was aching. I wasn't bothered so much by the burly guards who were yanking my arms behind by back and dragging me-along with 5 other CODEPINK members-out of the hall. They were doing their job.

Crawford protesters win appeal
Court rules tents did not violate law.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/23/0423crawf...
By Chuck Lindell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, April 23, 2009
An Austin psychologist and another protester should not have been arrested in 2006 for erecting tents near Crawford as part of Cindy Sheehan's anti-war protests, the state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday.

04 May 2009
AN URGENT APPEAL TO HELP BREAK THE SIEGE OF GAZA

"From the groundbreaking work of Gandhi and King to the ongoing example of the Free Gaza Movement, we can discern the transforming power of nonviolence at a crossroads in our history."
-H.E. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the UN General Assembly

Dear Friends,

We desperately need your help. It's with heavy hearts that we have to inform you that the Free Gaza ship, the DIGNITY, has been lost outside Larnaca port in Cyprus. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident.

http://www.texasradiation.org/wcsandrews.html

WCS is currently applying for the big nuclear waste dump license, but is also trying to get its other licenses amended/ expanded as well. See the discussion on the news page about waste possibly arriving from Fernald, Ohio to Andrews- which is currently a major topic with the Texas Legislature this year. Also read about Nebraska and how the waste from five more states may be coming to Texas through the infamous "Compact loophole."
Please find the latest news posted on the latest news page

Timeline of WCS License Application Events

Kabul Press.org - 1 April 2009

by Omar Akbar

http://nawaaye-afghanistan.net/spip.php?article8223

The strategic location of the Pashtun tribal belt has put it at the cross roads of imperialist nations’ ambitions, and military advances for centuries. The efforts of the Russians and the British in the Great Game, and the United States and Soviet Union during the cold war, coupled with a tribal structure and feudal system and inherent warrior nature of the Pashtuns, thwarted and hindered the enlightenment that led the intellectuals and philosophers of Europe through centuries long struggle to shatter the grip of feudalism in favor of constitutional rights, civil liberties, separation of church from state, thereby producing the grounds for a functioning civil society.

The tribal life and their unforgiving and sometimes vindictive, multi-generational inter tribal feuds were based on the Pashtun’s uncompromising and hard-line code of honor called Zan, Zar and Badal (woman, gold and revenge).

Khan Ghafar Khan
http://nawaaye-afghanistan.net/spip.php?article8223

"I have one great desire. I want to rescue these gentle, brave, patriotic people from the tyranny of the foreigners who have disgraced and dishonored them. I want to create for them a world of freedom, where they can live in peace, where they can laugh and be happy.
I want to kiss the ground where their ruined houses once stood, before they were destroyed by savage strangers. I want to take a broom and sweep the alleys and the lanes and I want to clean their houses with my own hands. I want to wash away the stains of blood from their garments. I want to show the world how beautiful they are, these people from the hills, and then I want to proclaim : show me, if you can, any gentler, more courteous, more cultured people than these."