News -- November 16, 2005

US used white phosphorus in Iraq - "The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja. "It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC - though not against civilians, he said. The US earlier denied it had been used in Falluja at all." -- Proof that this administration has lied. Do you really think that is the only lie you have been told?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4440664.stm

'I treated people who had their skin melted' - ""They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," he said. He had seen "pieces of these bombs explode into large fires that continued to burn on the skin even after people dumped water on the burns"."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article327136.ece

When Presidents Lie - "Let this be a lesson for the next time elected leaders try to cajole a reluctant public into war. There are tremendous institutional incentives for chief executives to call the military into action. Eisenhower knew what he was talking about when he warned of the dangers of the permanent military-industrial complex. The patriotism war whips up is always good for a bump in the poll numbers and a pass from an uncritical media. A lot of people make a lot of money from war, and a lot of other people -- people that don't matter to the leaders -- suffer. Power is seductive, and the people who crave power enough to want the most powerful job in the world are invariably never satisfied. They always want more. It's a story as old as humankind."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1115-33.htm

Prominent Conservative Leader: Government in Hands of Psychopaths - "Former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts expressed his dire warning that the US government has fallen into the hands of psychopaths and that the Neo-Cons in the Bush administration may be set to stage another terror attack in the US as part of a black operation to demolish growing dissent and coerce the public to rally behind the government once again." -- Of course a staged terrorist attack is possible to rally the sheeple. http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2005/151105inhands.htm

Senate Republicans Block Iraq Timetable - "The Republican-controlled Senate easily defeated a Democratic effort Tuesday to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111505Y.shtml

Suspected torture centre found in Iraq - "More than 170 malnourished detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention centre in Baghdad appear to have been tortured, the Iraqi prime minister says."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BFFFC9C0-206D-4821-9CA9-8D0B822E8F93.htm

Torture -- Spare Me The Tough Talk - "I can't get over this feeling of unreality, that I am actually sitting here writing about our country having a gulag of secret prisons in which it tortures people. I have loved America all my life, even though I have often disagreed with the government. But this seems to me so preposterous, so monstrous. Maybe I should try to get a grip -- after all, it's just this one administration that I had more cause than most to realize was full of inadequate people going in. And even at that, it seems to be mostly Vice President Cheney. And after all, we were badly frightened by 9/11, which was a horrible event. ''Only'' nine senators voted against the prohibition of ''cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control the United States.'' Nine out of 100. Should we be proud? Should we cry? ... Why did we bother to beat the Soviet Union if we were just going to become it? Shame. Shame. Shame."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1115-20.htm

About Iraq on the Record - "Prepared at the direction of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Iraq on the Record is a searchable collection of 237 specific misleading statements made by Bush Administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq. It contains statements that were misleading based on what was known to the Administration at the time the statements were made."
http://democrats.reform.house.gov/IraqOnTheRecord/

Marines Quiet About Brutal New Weapon - "This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings."
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001944.html

Not guilty. The Israeli captain who put 17 bullets into a Palestinian schoolgirl - "An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday. The soldier, who has only been identified as "Captain R", was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago. The manner of Iman's killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died." -- Bastards.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1643573,00.html

Bushenomics - "Bushenomics is the use of the government to take regular people's money and give it to rich people and corporations. The genius of Bushenomics has been selling it to the voters as something that's good for them."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1115-34.htm

Government showdown could break up Internet, experts warn - "A tense dispute over US control of the Internet in the run-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) could eventually lead to the break-up of the global network and hamper seamless browsing, officials warned Monday." -- Now who would benefit from breaking up the global network of information?
http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1611

Deal Reached on Managing the Internet - "Negotiators from more than 100 countries agreed late Tuesday to leave the United States in charge of the Internet's addressing system, averting a U.S.-EU showdown at this week's U.N. technology summit."
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/16/D8DTJ5UG1.html

IU survey of rural men stirs sex education debate - "Men who live in rural areas often use condoms incorrectly, according to a study out this week that Indiana University researchers say underscores the shortcomings of sex education in Hoosier public schools."
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051112/REPOSITORY/511120520&SearchID=73226444425699




Quote of the Day
"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."
~ George Orwell