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Under current federal law, Kirkuk lands should return to the original owners and compensation should be given to those Arabs who built anything there. But some claims on the value of construction are disputed, and many others have not even come before the commission yet. One of the main reasons that tensions are rising in Kirkuk is that more than 90 percent of the cases already solved have given the Kurds the right to inhabit the lands and no compensation has been given to Arabs.
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by Omar Karmi
A campaign of Israeli artillery fire, mostly at targets in the northern Gaza Strip, dramatically intensified in late spring, in response, according to the Israeli government, to the firing of homemade Palestinian Qassam rockets over the Gaza border at targets inside Israel. The campaign also came shortly after the formation at the end of March of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, eight weeks after the Islamist movement won parliamentary elections
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by Charles Recknagel
More often used by neo-conservative writers who interpret its meaning broadly -- from restricting it to speaking purely about militant Islam to, at times, appearing to suggest Islam itself can be invoked to justify fascistic activities.
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by Alexander Cockburn
In the aftermath of the onslaught on Lebanon you can open up the Israeli newspapers, particularly the Hebrew-language editions, and find fierce assaults on the country's elites from left, right and center
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by Alexander Cockburn
Israel's long planned onslaught on Lebanon, presented to the world as a bid to extirpate Hezbollah, began as a divorce from reality many years ago. An army whose prime function for many years has been to terrorize Palestinian civilians, knock down their houses and tear out their olive groves inevitably degenerates in the quality of its officers and in its overall moral fiber. The British discovered that in 1899 in South Africa
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by Alexander Cockburn
Lieberman's rise as a national politician coincided with the Democratic Party's refashioning as full-time corporate whore-without-shame in the late 1980s. This was when the Democratic Leadership Council was ramping up, with denunciations of the Democratic Party as a sinkhole of old liberals in the mold of George McGovern or Walter Mondale. Lieberman, a former prosecutor, berserk Zionist, cultural conservative and race-baiter was exactly what they were looking for
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by Alexander Cockburn
Dan Halutz, appointed chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, has efficiently united all Lebanese in loathing of Israel while being an effective propagandist for Hezbollah. What better recruiter of sympathy for Lebanon than Halutz screaming, "we're going to turn Lebanon back into what it was 20 years ago," and threatening to blow up a 10-floor building for every missile?
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by Alexander Cockburn
What we are now witnessing is the simultaneous collapse of two countries -- Iraq and Lebanon -- as sponsored or encouraged by America's ruling bipartisan coalition and its ideological counselors -- ranging from Christian nutballs like Jerry Falwell to secular nutballs like Christopher Hitchens
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by Raul Pierri
A group of Paraguayan human rights activists and government officials had met Wednesday morning in Asuncion to inaugurate a museum in what was once a torture center of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. But suddenly the news arrived: The elderly former dictator was dead
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by Steve Young
Word is that there are some big changes due very soon over at Air America. Hopefully they won't be dishing more of the same
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by Steve Young
On MSNBC, the discussion progressed into one not of this President being an idiot but one debating his lack of intellectual curiosity and whether or not the leader of the free world should be intellectually curious. It seemed that Scarborough thought it would be nice to have someone with his hand on the button -- or someone whose hand was being held to the button by others -- was intellectually curious
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by Steve Young
It only takes a cursory flip through the history books to chronicle the Democratic Party's connection to the world's most horrific events, even as they work hard today to undermine our troops
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by Steve Young
At first listen, Sean Hannity's passion for the re-election of Joe Lieberman, would seem to showcase the fear that the Right has with losing a friendly pro-Iraqi war ally. But methinks what shows on Sean's poker face hides a much more devious hand than the he would want the other players at the table to figure on
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by Steve Young
As most of the U.S. audience slowly but surely is now realizing, the right-handed Lords of Loud have been lying to them. They were the victims predators like Hannity and O'Reilly have respected the least and were, in truth, the last to be trusted. They thought themselves as fans, but they were in actuality their suckers. Suckers who weren't able to be trusted with the truth. For if they were provided the whole truth they would have made the wrong decision -- the decision that their beloved host didn't want them to make
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by Steve Young
Now I don't know who is actually in charge of the homicides of those innocent...cells, but it would seem to me that if the President really means what he says, he will be going after every one of these killers and throw the Texas gas chamber at 'em. Whomever he or they are, they'll be killing more of those little lives than Saddam ever did, and we certainly didn't let him get away with it
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by Steve Young
You may think Hannity is an intellectual airhead, but he's not stupid. They don't give you a $25 million contract because you are. He knows exactly what he's doing and there are plenty who say they're on the left who are helping him
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Analysis by Jim Lobe
Among other things, noted Holbrooke, a top candidate for secretary of state if Democrats had won the presidency in 2000 or 2004, Turkey is threatening to invade northern Iraq; the world's largest anti-Israel demonstrations are taking place in downtown Baghdad; Syria may yet be pulled into the Lebanon war; Afghanistan is under growing threat from a resurgent Taliban; and India is threatening about punitive action against Pakistan for its alleged involvement in the recent train bombings in Bombay. Particularly alarming to Holbrooke, as to a steadily growing number of Republican realists and other members of the traditional U.S. foreign policy elite, is the apparent complacency of the Bush administration in the face of these events
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by Baradan Kuppusamy
Traditionally, ASEAN leaders and delegates let their hair down and celebrate the end of a packed week of annual multi-lateral talks, but this time the mood was sombre with Malaysians angered and gloomy over Lebanon. In resonance, Rice stuck to brooding pieces from Brahms
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by Fariba Nawa
The political platform of Hezbollah calls for the destruction of Israel, but the group has successfully transformed itself from a radical extremist group into an effective political force which holds 18 percent of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament
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Analysis by William Fisher
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that President Bush does not have the authority to try suspected terrorist detainees without statutory approval -- and must adhere to the Geneva Conventions' prohibitions against torture -- has opened a widening chasm among members of the president's own party
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by William Fisher
As human rights groups expressed skepticism that detainees recently transferred from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabian custody could receive fair trials and escape torture, the oil-rich kingdom put the finishing touches on its new human rights commission
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by Gareth Porter
Specialists on Iran and Hezbollah have long believed that the missiles Iran has supplied to Hezbollah were explicitly intended to deter an Israeli attack on Iran. Ephraim Kam, a specialist on Iran at Israel's Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, wrote in December 2004 that Hezbollah's threat against northern Israel was a key element of Iran's deterrent to a U.S. attack
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by Norman Solomon
The Israeli leaders who launched this month's state-of-the-killing-art air assault on Gaza and Lebanon had to know that many civilians would be killed, many others wounded, many more terrorized. The smug moral posturing that Israel's military does not target specific civilians is moldy political grist -- and, in human terms, irrelevant to the totally predictable carnage
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by Joe Conason
The government of Israel appears to suffer from the same mental and moral dysfunctions that afflict the Bush administration: an urge to wage war without any plausible objectives, any viable plan for disengagement, or any rational assessment of costs and benefits. Israel's second invasion of Lebanon, only weeks old and with considerably more justification, is already beginning to resemble the American invasion of Iraq.
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by Peter Hirschberg
For all his bravado, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's life has just gotten a whole lot more complicated. And it's not just because of Israeli threats that if the abducted soldier is harmed, "his blood" will be on Haniyeh's head -- a warning Israel delivered personally in the early hours of Sunday morning when warplanes bombed the Palestinian prime minister's empty offices in Gaza
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Analysis by Thalif Deen
As Israel continues to unleash its deadly firepower on a hapless Lebanon for a second week running, the United Nations remains paralyzed and unable to take any action because of an indisputable fact of international politics: the unrestrained U.S. support for an intransigent Israel
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by Joe Conason
Whenever Sen. Joseph Lieberman complains that he is the target of a 'single-issue' challenge by upstart millionaire Ned Lamont, the three-term incumbent proves he doesn't quite get what is happening to him. It is true that the Lamont campaign began as a protest against his slavish support of the war in Iraq. It is untrue that growing anti-war sentiment is the sole reason for his peril in next month's Democratic primary
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by Molly Ivins
The problem is the rest of the world doesn't understand Dekes (Delta Kappa Epsilon). We need a Deke short-course in embassies around the globe
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by Molly Ivins
Late last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a new rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring mandatory registration with the SEC for most hedge funds. This may not strike you as the end of the world, but that's because you've either forgotten what a hedge fund is or how much trouble they can get us into
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by Molly Ivins
House Republicans, who know a good socially divisive issue when they see one, are perfectly happy to blame illegal workers for everything. Trade policy, repealing taxes for the rich, corruption in Congress -- it's all done by illegal workers. Everywhere you look in this society, there's a bunch of people named Gomez and Ramirez, all of them making decisions from the top -- in charge of the Pentagon, heading the military-industrial complex, deciding the rich need tax relief, in charge of this stupid war, making decisions on Wall Street
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by Molly Ivins
Bush might even empathize with Kim's desire to escape from the shadow of a father from whom he inherited his crown. As for the dictator thing, no problem: Bush just loves the one in Pakistan, whose country supplied North Korea with vital nuclear technology. And has any Bush ever had a problem cozying up to the anti-democratic royalty of Saudi Arabia? Of course not -- they famously give them kisses and hold their hands
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by Emad Mekay
The United States is using authoritarian Arab leaders, who fear that Iran could export its revolutionary political model to their disgruntled populations and are concerned about Washington's reprisal against them a la Saddam Hussein in Iraq, as a buffer between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, Washington's protege in the Middle East
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by Dahr Jamail
About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show. 'This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war,' Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut's largest
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by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
The fighting in the Middle East is less a test of Rice's talent and ability to broker peace in the region than confirmation that her main job is to tirelessly defend Bush's foreign policy initiatives, even when they are nonexistent or badly flawed. It's that job that she has done remarkably well, even as the casualties and suffering in Lebanon irk the world
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by Dahr Jamail
Officials say at least 64 bridges have been bombed. Many roads are cut by the bombing, and this is hindering transportation of food and aid supplies. Other Israeli targets have included the country's largest milk factory, a food factory, two pharmaceutical plants, water treatment centers, power plants, grain silos, a Greek Orthodox Church, hospitals and an ambulance convoy
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Analysis by Bill Berkowitz
For years, U.S. neo-conservatives have been ratcheting up the rhetoric -- mostly in small gatherings and on partisan web sites -- claiming that terrorist activities around the world constituted the initial stages of a new world war. But during the past week or so, with the Israeli/Hezbollah crisis in full swing, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is using any platform available to him to convince the public that the U.S. is engaged in World War III
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by William Fisher
Specter's announcement on the Senate floor coincided with the conclusion of a task force organized by the American Bar Association (ABA) that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action
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by Emad Mekay
Bowen's office, tasked by Congress to oversee the reconstruction efforts, released two reports on Tuesday and one on Wednesday that cited figures showing Iraq losing four billion dollars to corruption every year since the U.S. invasion
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Analysis by Trita Parsi
Through Hamas and the Hezbollah, Iran could bring the war to Israeli territory, a scenario that has further accentuated Israel's vulnerability to asymmetric warfare. By preemptively attacking Hamas and the Hezbollah now, Israel can significantly deprive Iran of its capabilities to retaliate against the Jewish State in the event of a U.S. assault on Iran. Once Iran obtains a nuclear capability, however, this option may no longer be available to Israel
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Analysis by Trita Parsi
Through Hamas and the Hezbollah, Iran could bring the war to Israeli territory, a scenario that has further accentuated Israel's vulnerability to asymmetric warfare. By preemptively attacking Hamas and the Hezbollah now, Israel can significantly deprive Iran of its capabilities to retaliate against the Jewish State in the event of a U.S. assault on Iran. Once Iran obtains a nuclear capability, however, this option may no longer be available to Israel
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by Kester Kenn Klomegah
Leaders of the G8 countries agreed to deliver a strong message Monday condemning bloodshed and military actions in the Middle East. But they stopped short of collectively prevailing on Israel to end the bombing, and found they had little means to persuade the Hizbollah to stop firing rockets into Israel
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The number of people displaced countrywide due to ongoing Israeli attacks has been estimated by the government at 65,000, with most seeking shelter in Beirut and in the north of the country
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Besides about $273,000 from the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent, Abu Dhabi pledged an additional $20 million to the effort, while King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sent $50 million to Lebanon for emergency aid
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by Dahr Jamail
About 15,000 people are said to have crossed the Lebanese border into Syria, seeking refuge from widespread bombings carried out by F-16 warplanes. As in the days of the Lebanese civil war, the border between Syria and Lebanon was a scene of chaos. Streams of buses and cars with luggage tied to the roof queued to cross into Syria
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by Juliana Lara Resende
After famously telling reporters that they 'don't do body counts,' Pentagon officials now say that they have in fact been keeping a record of civilian casualties in Iraq for one year. And while that number remains classified, independent estimates suggest that at least 50,000 people have died in the country since the 2003 invasion
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by Bill Berkowitz
Despite its relatively short time in office, the Harper government has been repeatedly accused of following the lead of the Bush administration in the United States. Now, it appears it has taken up the Bush administration's habit of mixing science and politics by purposefully expunging information from federal websites dealing with climate change and its ramifications. In addition, in designing its new 'Made in Canada' plan to deal with the environment and global warming -- a plan due to be unveiled in October -- government officials are working in secrecy and without significant participation from environmental organizations.
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by Sanjay Suri
The suspects are now in their second week in detention after the police won a court order Wednesday to hold them another week. Many Muslim leaders say this is only indication that the police have no evidence so far, and that they are only now looking for it
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by Molly Ivins
Somehow, activist judges are held responsible for gay marriage, Roe v. Wade and everything else Americans disagree about, as though Americans would never disagree without their encouragement. Conservatives have been mad at the Supreme Court since it decided to desegregate the schools in 1954 and seen fit to blame the federal bench for everything that has happened since then that they don't like
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by Molly Ivins
It's pretty embarrassing when the British intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, accuse the FBI of leaking like a sieve. British intelligence has a lengthy history in the leaking-like-a-sieve department -- so that's some pot calling our kettle black. Nevertheless, they are making the point that our leaks about the 'liquid terror' plot have pretty well bollixed up the case
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by Molly Ivins
The most cunning refinement yet in the administration's plot to scare the liver, lights and onions out of us with Tales of Terror Plots is the Department of Homeland Security's brilliant move to declare Indiana the national center of terrorism, with 8,591 potential targets
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by Molly Ivins
The administration has put itself in the position of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. If, God forbid, a serious terrorist conspiracy is uncovered, there will be a tendency to dismiss it as a backlash to these over-hyped 'plots'
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by Molly Ivins
Sometimes the press enjoys scaring itself or pretending it is about to be made into a bunch of martyrs. This is not one of those times. We are under full attack now, and it is time to fight. I am not infuriated by the performance of the press so far, but I am disgusted. I have watched the D.C. press corps play courtier to Bush since he openly insulted Helen Thomas, who is not only a first-rate journalist, but a lady as well. Shame on you all. No principle, no guts, no grace
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by Molly Ivins
From the first day of 24/7 coverage, you could tell this was big. By the time Chapter 9,271 of the conflicts in the Middle East had gotten its own logo, everyone knew it was HUGE. I mean, like, bigger than Natalee Holloway. Then anchormen began to arrive in the Middle East and people like Anderson Cooper and Tucker Carlson -- real experts. Then Newt Gingrich -- and who would know better than Newt? -- declared it was World War III. Let's ratchet up the fear here -- probably good for Republican campaigning
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by Molly Ivins
Let's run Bill Moyers for president. I am serious as a stroke about this. It's simple, cheap and effective, and it will move the entire spectrum of political discussion in this country. Moyers is the only public figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moral clarity just by being there
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| by Norman Solomon
The leading pro-war Democrat in the Senate is hoping for a landslide in the New York primary next month. And unless progressives quickly mobilize to dent her vote total, she's likely to get it
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by Emad Mekay
The U.S. Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, which monitors suspected foreign terrorists through international monetary flows, came to light when the New York Times and other newspapers published details of the secret program, drawing strong condemnation from the Bush administration and hawkish congressional members. The story showed how Washington was poring over millions of transactions within the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the premier messaging service used by banks around the world to issue international transfers
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by Fariba Nawa
As the death-toll continues to mount in Mumbai's ghastly serial bomb attacks, it is becoming clear that India is witnessing a human tragedy of the same dimensions as the Madrid train bombings of March 2004, in which 192 people lost their lives. The bombings were Europe's worst-ever case of sub-state terrorism
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by Sabina Zaccaro
Almost a quarter of Lebanon's four million people have been directly affected. They have been displaced by fighting or cut off in villages made inaccessible after connecting roads were bombed out
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Israel's 43-day naval and air blockade of Lebanon is allowing some commercial flights into Beirut International Airport, and some relief-bearing ships into Lebanon's ports, but the economy is under pressure. Reports in the Israeli press indicate the blockade may continue for months, until Israel ascertains that Hezbollah is not receiving supplies of weapons, which it claims are transferred from Iran through Syria
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The stench of death awaits people returning
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Gabi and his friend survived the rocket attack, but two Arab Israelis sitting in the garden of the house next door were killed. Their deaths took the number of Arab Israeli dead to 15 out of a total of 39 Israeli civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks
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The road inland from the port city of Tyre, 60km south of Beirut, is riddled with craters filled with mangled cars. A cattle pen is jammed with dead and dying cows left to starve after their terrified owner fled. The road then forks east into the Aamel Mountains where entire towns are deserted, shops boarded up, bridges collapsed, and broken power lines flail in the wind. The once-bustling market town of Nabatiyeh, 30km east of Tyre, is a Hezbollah stronghold, with the faces of those killed fighting Israel emblazoned on flags. Now, just a few grocers and roaming cats are left
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A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that has sheltered some of the few remaining specimens of the famous cedars of Lebanon and the only ones in the southern part of the country is at risk from the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Lebanon
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Lebanese citizens responded with fury at the news that more than 50 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern town of Qana on Sunday. 'It's horrible,' says protestor Karim Harmoushe. 'I don't know why they hit the town again. The image that is being shown in the West is so biased. Now there are 50 dead Israeli civilians and 600 here. Does each Lebanese civilian count for one tenth of each Israeli civilian?'
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by Peter Hirschberg
Just over two days ago, when Israel agreed to a 48-hour hiatus in its aerial bombing campaign in Lebanon -- to investigate the strike in the village of Qana that killed dozens of civilians -- it had seemed as if the fighting might be winding down. But with the Israeli Cabinet having decided Tuesday to expand the ground incursion in south Lebanon, and committing thousands more troops to the campaign, a ceasefire hardly seems imminent
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Analysis by Jim Lobe
'A fact America and Israel must understand is that as long as there is aggression and occupation, there will be resistance and popular support for the resistance,' Abdullah, arguably Washington's closest Arab ally, said Thursday. 'People cannot sleep and wake up to pictures of the dead and images of destruction in Lebanon and Gaza and...say 'we want moderation.' Moderation needs deeds'
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by Jim Lobe
In systematically failing to distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and civilian population in its three-and-a-half-week-old military campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have committed war crimes, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch
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by Dahr Jamail
Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike
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by Dahr Jamail
Large numbers fled the south after Israelis dropped leaflets warning of attacks. Others have been unable to leave, often because they have not found the means. The Israelis have taken that to mean that they are therefore Hezbollah. Israeli justice minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radio Thursday that 'all those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah'
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by Thalif Deen
The only political action so far is a statement by the Security Council expressing shock at the Israeli bombing of a UN compound in Lebanon in which four unarmed observers were killed last week
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by Dahr Jamail
Air strikes on an electricity plant have released oil that has now spread over much of Lebanon's coastline. More than 15,000 barrels of oil have hit the coast after the bombing of five of six storage tanks at the plant in the coastal village El-Jiye, 30km south of Beirut. The northern winds have taken the massive oil slick to beaches and ports a long way up the coast
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by Jim Lobe
Hopes by the Bush administration for the emergence of an implicit Sunni-Israel alliance against an Iranian-led 'Shia Crescent' have faded over the past week as Arab public opinion has become increasingly united by outrage over the Jewish state's continuing military campaign in Lebanon and Washington's refusal to stop it, according to Middle East experts here
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by Dahr Jamail
Divided along the lines of the fractious population of Lebanon, the government is split primarily on its Syria policy. An inability to bridge this divide has left the government severely weakened as the war grinds into its third week
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by Dahr Jamail
Following Rice's visit to Beirut, the United States announced a $30 million aid package for Lebanon. Many here see this as crumbs of aid, and no compensation for the position the United States is taking in support of Israel. Tuesday afternoon and night, Israeli jets continued to pound both southern Lebanon and the Dahaya district of southern Beirut. Hezbollah continues to launch rockets into northern Israel, killing and wounding civilians. Fierce fighting continues in the south between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters, as the conflict enters its third week. There appears to be no end in sight to the ongoing violence
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by Roxana Saberi
"This is a Christian area, and we are supposed to be safe here," Gilbert said. "This should be a secure zone for the people. Why did they do this? You have to tell me why because there are no Hezbollah people here." But other Christians, like 38-year-old Yusef Yaqub, said Israel's continuing strikes on his country are only strengthening unity in support for Hezbollah's resistance against Israel. "Naturally we must help one another here and stand up to Israel," he said. "Christians and Muslims must be united."
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by Peter Hirschberg
As a ceasefire went into effect Monday morning between Israel and Hezbollah and a tense calm descended on the region, Israelis were wondering whether the truce would hold, and were beginning to ask questions about what they had gained -- or lost -- during the 33 days of fighting
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by Haider Rizvi
As Israeli bombs continue to fall from the skies across Lebanon, destroying homes, parks, roads, bridges, forests, hospitals and power stations, scientists say the enormous amount of toxic waste unleashed by the attack will continue to affect human lives and the environment long after the fighting is over
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by Roxana Saberi
Residents of south Lebanon's biggest city and the refugees who have joined them are staying put despite warnings from Israel that it plans to bomb 'Hezbollah rocket launching sites' in Sidon, according to the city's mayor. Sidon's normal population of 125,000 has swelled as more than 100,000 refugees have fled here from war zones farther south
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by Dahr Jamail
The Israeli aim of widespread bombing of the Lebanese infrastructure in order to create resentment against Hezbollah seems to have played into the strengths of Hezbollah, known in many western countries as a "terrorist organization," but widely seen in Lebanon as a legitimate political and social power. One reason for this, according to an official representative of Hezbollah and member of the Lebanese Parliament, is that Hezbollah has never aimed to turn Lebanon into an Islamic state
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by Sanjay Suri
Quotes alone do not tell any story, and particularly not the Iraq story. Alaa brought us the tone of the talk, the feel of the street. Together with Aaron he brought us the voice of the people of Iraq, and their suffering, as do our other teams of correspondents working in Iraq -- and as perhaps no other news organization could
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by Bill Berkowitz
While other organizations have mostly talked the talk, Hagee's CUFI has set out a bold agenda and it appears to have the resources and political connections to walk the walk: CUFI intends to not only establish a visible presence in hundreds of cities throughout all 50 states, but it also intends to recruit activists to lobby on behalf of Israel. In addition, CUFI plans to set up an 'Israel Rapid Response' network which through e-mail, faxes and phone calls will make its voice heard by elected officials.
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by Victoria Neilson
The United States has been protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who would face persecution in their home countries for over a decade. Nevertheless, a gay couple that seeks asylum or withholding of removal on this basis must pursue their claims separately, unlike a married heterosexual couple
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In Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and France, 80 percent or more of adults accepted the concept of evolution, as did 78 percent of Japanese adults. Only adults in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation, were less likely to accept the concept of evolution than American adults
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Analysis by Emad Mekay
Numerous U.S. groups, intellectuals, politicians and media outlets are mobilizing in the United States to back Israel in its ongoing assault on neighboring Lebanon with one main idea to promote -- that Israel is always the victim
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by Jim Lobe
After posing as the champion of democratic reform and the long oppressed Shia minority in the Arab world, the Bush administration appears to be scurrying back to Washington's traditional policy of strong support for the region's Sunni-dominated, pro-U.S. authoritarian governments
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by Golnaz Esfandiari
A proposal to create a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has caused worry and fear among Afghans and human rights groups, who warn that the plan reminds them of the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which forcefully imposed religious and moral codes
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by Sanjay Suri
The arrest of 19 people -- all Muslims -- over what the police have described as a sinister plot to blow up U.S. bound aircraft from London, has cast a shadow of suspicion over the entire Muslim community in Britain. The extent of security precautions dominated news, and with that provoked new suspicions about Muslims, estimated to number about two million in a population of 59 million
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by Dahr Jamail
'They shredded our city. They thought this would turn us against Hezbollah, but now everyone is with Hezbollah. How could they be otherwise?'
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by Kafil Yamin
As the death toll in the earthquake and tsunami that struck Java island's southern coast on Monday crossed the 500 mark, officials admitted to having been caught by surprise, despite the elaborate precautions taken after earthquake-triggered monster waves smashed into Aceh province in northern Sumatra in December 2004
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by Richard Alan Leach
This latest aggravation by the despised rogue state provides the opportunity to review the sharp limitations of U.S. media coverage. The 'unpredictability' of the wily Kim Jong-il is a media staple, yet it was quite predictable that he would worry about possible U.S. plans for regime change. Yet the U.S. media would have us forget that a threatening new environment was inaugurated by the Bush administration in September 2002, with a major doctrinal shift announced by the National Security Strategy: a more aggressive policy of pre-emption against merely suspected or potential adversaries
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by Jim Lobe
Although it may raise regional tensions in the short run, Wednesday's test-firing by North Korea of at least seven missiles, including its multi-stage, inter-continental Taepodong-2 rocket, could speed resumption of long-stalled diplomatic efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear-arms program, according to some experts here
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by Jim Lobe
Although it may raise regional tensions in the short run, Wednesday's test-firing by North Korea of at least seven missiles, including its multi-stage, inter-continental Taepodong-2 rocket, could speed resumption of long-stalled diplomatic efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear-arms program, according to some experts here
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by Aaron Glantz
Most of the people killed June 28 (along with the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died over the last three years) will remain only numbers. Because we knew Alaa so well, we can tell his story
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by Laura Carlsen
This is the scenario that everyone hoped to avoid. A close race opens up doubts about the legitimacy of the winner and leads to protests that the public will has been violated. Under optimal circumstances, where the rule of law reigns and public confidence is high, a single vote lead should be sufficient to declare a winner in a one-round, majority vote like Mexico's. But neither of those conditions characterizes Mexico today
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by Diego Cevallos
In a unanimous decision, the seven-judge panel stated that after studying the legal challenges brought by the leftwing candidate, they found no evidence of large-scale irregularities in the official vote count
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by Adrian Reyes
While Obrador supporters keep up the pressure on the court with street blockades in the capitol despite the irritation of businesses and the public, business leaders in Mexico City have lashed out at the camps that protesters have set up in city squares and streets, which are blocking shopping and tourist activities, and they have called for the resignation of leftwing Mayor Alejandro Encinas, whom they accuse of placing political interests before those of local residents and businesses.
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by Adrian Reyes
While analysts warn of the risk of social upheaval in Mexico if the authorities confirm conservative candidate Felipe Calderon as president-elect, thousands of supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a civil resistance campaign Monday to demand a vote-by-vote recount. Estimates of the size of the demonstration varied wildly, from two million (as reported by authorities in the PRD-governed Mexico City) to 180,000 (according to the national government of President Vicente Fox, which until now had refrained from releasing estimates of the number of people taking part in street protests)
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by Adrian Reyes
Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential hopeful, is encouraging supporters to engage in peaceful acts of civil resistance and keep a close eye on the ballot boxes stored in 300 districts, reiterating that conservative Felipe Calderon stands to take over a presidency stripped of legitimacy if he continues to block a full recount
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by Marcelo Ballve
Under defeated presidential candidate Lopez Obrador, Mexico could have followed Brazil's footsteps and instituted important social programs for the poor without emulating the populist excesses of other left-wing Latin American leaders
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by Adrian Reyes and Diego Cevallos
In his first press conference since the election -- which according to the official tally he won by just 0.58 percent of the vote -- Calderon urged his rival against 'squandering your political capital' and not to discredit the the clean electoral process with negative protests
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by Eduardo Stanley, Translated by Elena Shore
Mexican president-elect Felipe Calderon's National Action Party (PAN) won with the help of Mexico's TV networks, which convinced the electorate that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was a 'leftist' and a danger to the future of Mexico
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by Diego Cevallos
According to allegations by Obrador, the election was plagued with irregularities and the whole process was totally lacking in transparency. He also said that 'the state apparatus' was biased in favor of 'the rightwing candidate.' The vote count indicated that the majority of states in the north of the country, which are economically the most powerful, preferred the conservative Calderon, whereas in the capital and the southern states, where poverty is more widespread, people voted for the leftist Obrador
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by Diego Cevallos
Mexico awoke Monday morning to not one, but two claims of presidential victory -- one from the governing-party candidate and another from his left-leaning opponent -- although the winner has yet to be officially declared. The unprecedented scenario has tensions running high and is putting the country's democratic institutions to the test
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by David Bacon
These were the latest efforts by Mexico's outgoing conservative Fox administration to force an end to a labor war that has rocked the country for six months, a war that has the beneficiaries of Mexico's privatization land rush worried. It is no coincidence that Fox moved quickly to crush the strike once Calderon, his hand-picked successor, declared himself elected
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by Jim Lobe
Despite the battering it has been taking from Israeli bombing and missile attacks, according to other experts, Hezbollah may well emerge stronger, perhaps not immediately as a military force, but rather as a political symbol for once again defying both Israel and its U.S. patron
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by William O. Beeman
Both Hamas and Hezbollah have their own history, their own reasons for existing, and their own agendas regarding Israel and the West. They are not empty vessels waiting to be filled with an Iranian agenda. Yet the neo-conservatives still say: destroy the state supporters, in this case Iran, and the offending groups will be destroyed in turn. More importantly, the neo-conservatives' proposed action -- attacking Iran militarily -- is acknowledged by American military strategists to be impractical and potentially ineffective at this time. Even if the United States or Israel could successfully destroy the Iranian government through a military attack, this action would not curtail violence against Israel. More specifically, it would not destroy Hezbollah or Hamas
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by Robert Scheer
Bombs were exploding and innocents were dying, from Beirut to Haifa to Baghdad, and yet George W. Bush managed to pose for yet another photo-op, smiling as he gave the thumbs up at the close of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. Thanks to an unsuspected open mike, however, we caught a glimpse of the mindset of a leader unaccountably pleased with his ignorance of the world
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by Robert Scheer
What's the percentage in keeping the minimum wage at $5.15 an hour? After nine years? This is such an unnecessary and nasty Republican move. Congress has voted seven times to raise its own wages since last the minimum wage budged. Of course, Congress always raises its own salary in the dark of night, hoping no one will notice. But now it does the same with the minimum wage, quietly killing it
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by Robert Scheer
It is one thing for those Democrats, like Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who admit that they bought into the Bush administration's lies about Saddam Hussein's alleged nuke program and partnership with al-Qaida and who now seek to make amends by working to bring the troops home. It is quite another, as Lieberman has, to continue to defend as wise this patently absurd betrayal of the public interest. And it moves from dumb to evil to claim that those, like Lamont, who dare tell the truth are giving aid and comfort to the enemy
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by Robert Scheer
Consider, first off, that the attack envisioned -- smuggling liquid-explosive ingredients onto a score of passenger planes -- was outlined in chapter five of the bipartisan 9-11 commission report as a plot first exposed a decade ago. The originator of that planned hijacking of 12 U.S.-bound planes, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was also the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. According to U.S. prosecutors, his nephew, convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef, even managed to explode such a liquid-based bomb on a Manila-Tokyo flight, killing one passenger
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by Robert Scheer
Hysteria over the barbarians at the gate has destroyed republics from Rome to Germany. Will President Bush's post-Sept. 11 America meet a similar fate? In the name of stopping the new bogeyman of international terrorism, our government has claimed an unfettered right to torture foreigners, eavesdrop on citizens and reorder the world with our military might. It is a policy that depends for its domestic political success on the specter of an enemy whose power and purpose must never be subject to logical and factual inquiry, lest it lose its power to alarm
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by Robert Scheer
Those who mindlessly support Israel, right or wrong, from President Bush on through the cheerleaders in Congress and the media, betray the security of the Jewish state. They are enablers, who have encouraged Israel's dependency on the drug of militarism as a false escape from the difficult accommodations needed to bring peace to the Middle East. For too many pundits and politicians, bombing just seems so much simpler -- until, as happened in Qana, Lebanon, on Sunday, those bombs blow up to your nation's disgrace, slaughtering scores of innocents, whose only crime was to be in the crossfire
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by Robert Scheer
The Bush foreign policy, from coddling Pakistan's nuclear bomb-making to cheerleading Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, is in a freefall of such alarming consequence that it may be difficult to grasp
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by Robert Scheer
There are still many naive Americans eager to be convinced that we have turned some magical corner in Iraq, despite all evidence to the contrary. In fact, the Karl Rove-led campaign to retain GOP control of Congress now is trying to spin the war as an asset, and all too many Democrats are willing to play along
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Oregon State University
The most severe low-oxygen ocean conditions ever observed on the West Coast have turned parts of the seafloor off Oregon into a carpet of dead Dungeness crabs and rotting sea worms, a new survey shows. Virtually all of the fish appear to have fled the area
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by Jim Lobe
One year after Democrats succeeded in blocking Senate confirmation of John Bolton as Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, the White House has once again thrown down the gauntlet, demanding that its least diplomatic diplomat be confirmed in the post for the balance of Bush's term
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by Marshall Fitz
House Republicans are on a two-month roadshow to rally their conservative base around an immigration crackdown, nixing signals that the public wants rational reform instead
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by Dannie Martin
Krauthammer and other leading neo-conservatives have assailed Olmert for not launching a massive ground invasion from the outset which, in their view, could have effectively crushed Hezbollah's military capabilities, if not the organization itself
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by Bill Berkowitz
Over the past several months -- perhaps as a response to a series of massive pro-immigrant demonstrations held in dozens of cities across the United States -- critics say that Dobbs has repeatedly crossed the line between fair-minded debate and fear-mongering
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by Joe Conason
Evidently, the neo-conservatives hope to escape responsibility for their debacle by complaining that the rest of us lack sufficient zeal. So they now pretend that Democrats and progressives, who overwhelmingly supported the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban and still do, want to abandon that effort. This is another partisan lie invented by the likes of William Kristol, who will answer to history for his own role in promoting the Iraq war
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by Jeff Milchen
With its ruling in Randall, the court is supporting the segregation of Americans into two distinct classes, just as it did when it twice supported blatantly discriminatory poll taxes that disenfranchized black citizens (and some poor whites) for nearly a century after the 15th Amendment officially enabled them to vote in 1870. Today, one political class is the overwhelming majority -- we express our preferences with our votes or volunteer efforts. But the other class consists of those wielding real power -- the ability to finance the bulk of candidates' campaigns and effectively 'set the menu' of candidates from which the rest of us may choose
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by Jim Lobe
In what some critics describe as a replay of the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives has released a report suggesting Iran may acquire nuclear weapons much more quickly than U.S. intelligence agencies believe
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by Jim Lobe
While some rights groups hailed the Pentagon's decision to apply the protections of Geneva's Common Article 3 to all detainees in its custody as a significant breakthrough, others said the administration's past record -- particularly its definition of 'humane' treatment -- gave them little confidence that the move would make any substantive difference
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by Peter Hirschberg
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Monday that the Israeli army was levelling a one kilometre-wide strip on the Lebanese side of the border to ensure that militants could not approach the border. But Israeli leaders, who also fear that the Shia organization will use a ceasefire to rearm, don't believe such a narrow strip will suffice
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by Brian Conley and Omar Abdullah
More than three years after the invasion, Iraqis seem increasingly to want to leave the country. Reports come pouring in about Iraqi refugees overwhelming Syria, Jordan and other nations in the region. Last month the United Nations released a report that more than 150,000 Iraqis have been displaced since February
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by Jim Lobe
Aside from calling for the unconditional release of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants believed to be tied to the ruling Hamas party, and urging Israel to ensure the flow of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population, Washington has been largely silent about a developing crisis with potentially serious regional implications
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by Thalif Deen
According to a new report released by the London-based Amnesty International (AI), China is a key arms supplier to countries such as Sudan, Burma and Nepal, described as human rights violators. Iran is also a longtime recipient of Chinese weapons, including Shenyang fighter planes, T-59 battle tanks, HY-2 Silkworm surface-to-surface missiles and rocket launchers. China has strong economic interests in both Sudan and Iran which, in turn, are oil suppliers
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by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Since his Jackson Square speech Bush has mentioned poverty only six times. He made no mention of it in his State of the Union Speech in January and did not utter a word about poverty in his speech to the NAACP convention in July. Not one of his anti-poverty proposals which included bigger tax breaks and grants for minority and small business, a ramp-up in job training, and child care subsidies, boosts in transportation funding and an urban homesteading program went anywhere
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by Norman Solomon
In U.S. news media, the implicit message is that American nuclear bombs are A-OK, and the fact that Washington's ally Israel maintains a large nuclear arsenal is supposed to be no cause for major concern
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by Emad Mekay
BP announced on Monday that it has begun a phased shutdown of the important Prudhoe Bay oil field, the largest in the U S., following the discovery of unexpectedly severe corrosion and a small spill from a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line. BP operates 22 miles of oil transit pipeline at Prudhoe Bay. The shutdown will reduce Alaska North Slope oil production by an estimated 400,000 barrels per day, or about eight percent of U.S. production.
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Analysis by Jim Lobe
Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neo-conservatives are calling for unconditional U.S. support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and "regime change" in Syria and Iran, as well as possible U.S. attacks on Tehran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah
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by Omid Memarian
Now, only a year after President Ahmadinejad's election, it is becoming apparent that the hardliners who occupy positions in essentially non-democratic institutions such as the police, the judiciary and parallel security establishments are expanding the scope of their suppression and censorship. Most likely, their efforts will accelerate and toughen in the coming months
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by Emad Mekay
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the House of Representatives estimates that Canada's proven oil reserves rank second only to Saudi Arabia, and are possibly even larger. But the report also says that large increases in Canadian oil sands output will take time as they require huge investments and progress in managing costs, and the committee chair acknowledges that the oil sands will not solve the energy problem
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The expanding global shipping trade is making the underwater world a noisy environment, with unknown effects on marine life, according to a new study of California offshore waters published Friday. The study shows a tenfold increase in underwater ocean noise off the coast of Southern California as compared with the same area in the 1960s
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University of California/San Francisco
A UCSF researcher has determined that a key reason for the epidemic of pediatric obesity, now the most commonly diagnosed childhood ailment, is that high-calorie, low-fiber Western diets promote hormonal imbalances that encourage children to overeat. Lustig also notes that children cannot be blamed or expected to take personal responsibility for their dietary behavior in an environment when the foods they are offered -- especially cheaply prepared "fast foods" that are full of sugar and devoid of fiber -- are toxic
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by Alexander Cockburn
Death comes in the form of moneyed quietness. There's no bustle of everyday life, no local kids in the streets, few old folk, no little food stores or wine shops. Just the bland, well-maintained exteriors of high-end international homes, part of a portfolio that might include a condo in Mayfair, England, or Vail, Colorado, or Hana, Hawaii. So the locals are moving out. The city's population is down to 70,000, from a high of around 200,000
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by Alexander Cockburn
America will see, over the years to come, thousands of traumatized soldiers trying to reenter civil society and resume their peacetime lives. Many will never shake off the traumas instilled by months of service in Iraq, and thousands of families and communities, not to mention the soldiers themselves
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by Steve Young
Sitcom writer/producer and National Review contributor Warren Bell has been nominated by President Bush to sit on the Corporation of Public Broadcasting board. A future peek at his Blackberry reveals his random thoughts on the first day on the job at CPB
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by Joe Conason
The conventional narrative of what may become Joe Lieberman's final campaign for public office -- parroted faithfully by pundits and politicians who admire the Connecticut senator -- is a moving tale of courageous dissent in the very maw of fanatical extremism. It is the story of a supremely decent public servant, purged by party activists with a mean-spirited, shortsighted, single-issue obsession. And it is a fable with a familiar moral, supposedly proving once more that the Democratic Party cannot be trusted to protect America
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Analysis by Trita Parsi
The sanctions that realistically can be imposed will be toothless. The ones that can inflict pain on Iran are just as costly -- if not more so -- to the Europeans themselves whose publics would be loathe to endure economic hardship for the sake of depriving Iran of nuclear technology. Washington, however, seems not in the mood to explore any other formulas than its own ultimatums and may pressure the Europeans to shy away from any new negotiations with Iran
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According to statistics from the ministries of health and interior, nearly 1,800 Iraqis were killed in July in sectarian violence and criminal attacks. A year ago, in July 2005, Iraq had 1,100 violent deaths -- none of them due to sectarian violence
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by Raj Jayadev
Until recently, most of San Jose associated scandal with Gonzales due to his soap opera-like affair with a young intern. Now Gonzales has been indicted on charges of felony bribery, conspiracy and misuse of public funds for a deal he made with Norcal Waste Systems, a garbage company. This latest scandal fits right into the narrative of San Jose in the post-dot-com era. Just like that mid-life crisis guy who still goes to dance clubs to reclaim a lost past, our city was destined for public disgrace
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by Norman Solomon
Syndicated columnist Richard Cohen declared in the Washington Post on Tuesday that an-eye-for-an-eye would be a hopelessly wimpy policy for the Israeli government. Cohen likes to sit in front of a computer and use flip phrases like "punch out your lights" as euphemisms for burning human flesh and bones with high-tech weapons, courtesy of American taxpayers
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by Jim Lobe
As noted by former Republican Connecticut Sen. Lowell Weicker, who supported Lamont against Lieberman, the primary was a 'referendum on the Iraq war -- not just for Connecticut but for the whole country.' That is precisely the concern of neo-conservatives like Kristol and other backers of the Iraq war who see in Lieberman's defeat not only the possible collapse of dwindling public support for the war, but also the loss of the leading champion for their foreign policy ideas in the Democratic Party, which have been channeled mainly through the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) of which Lieberman is a long-time member and former chairman
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Albion Monitor Issue 148 (http://www.albionmonitor.com)
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