Times Online/UK, July 7, 2009
(AP) A Uigher woman confronts armed police in Urumqi
Jane Macartney, Urumqi
The “left” and the US military offensive in Afghanistan
July 6, 2009Joe Kishore, wsws.org, 6 July 2009
The American military is in the midst of a major offensive in Afghanistan, aimed at wiping out opposition to the US occupation in the country’s southern Helmand province.
Some 4,000 US Marines, along with 600 members of the Afghan Army, are participating in the drive to gain control of areas with populations deeply hostile to the American occupation.
How Meaningful Is the Pullback? Iraqis Are Skeptical
July 6, 2009Maliki Subsidized Parties Seen as Political Ploy
The celebrations in the streets of Iraq last week, held largely on the government’s dime, tell the story of a nation which sees the US pullback from Iraq’s cities as a huge step toward the return of the nation’s sovereignty in the wake of the 2003 invasion.
But is that story real, or imagined? On the streets, many Iraqis are skeptical that the pullback means anything, particularly given that the soldiers are all still there, just along the outskirts of the city limits. The parties too are regarded with suspicion, as many see Maliki’s role in organizing and funding them as a transparent attempt to curry favor with the voters.
Since leaving the cities, US troops have adopted a strategy to “encircle” them. In practice, this means most of the troops remain within a few miles of the city limits, and can re-enter at a moment’s notice with the permission of the Iraqi military.
The US isn’t planning on having troops leave in signfiicant numbers for the rest of the year, and there is growing concern that the rising violence of recent weeks may lead the Obama Administration to once again revise his pullout strategy, already significantly slowed from what he promised in the campaign.
Biden: US won’t stand in Israel’s way on Iran
July 6, 2009Middle East Online, First Published 2009-07-06
Green light
US Vice President says his country cannot dictate to Israel what they can do if they are threatened.
WASHINGTON – US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its dealings with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” Biden told ABC television’s “This Week.”
“Whether we agree or not. They’re entitled to do that… We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they’re existentially threatened.”
But the top US military officer meanwhile warned of the dangers posed by any military strike against Iran.
“It could be very destabilizing, and it is the unintended consequences of that which aren’t predictable,” Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told “Fox News Sunday.”
However, he added: “I think it’s very important, as we deal with Iran, that we don’t take any options, including military options, off the table.”
President Barack Obama has said he wants to see progress on his diplomatic outreach to Iran by year’s end, while not excluding a “range of steps,” including tougher sanctions, if Tehran continued its controversial nuclear drive.
Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a possible military strike against Iran, insisting that Tehran, which the Mossad spy agency could have a ready-to-launch nuclear bomb within five years, must not obtain nuclear weapons.
“If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice,” Biden said. “But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed.”
Israel, the region’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, contends — as does the West — that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear arsenal, despite Tehran’s repeated denials.
The Jewish state has also called the Islamic Republic a threat to its existence, citing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call to wipe Israel off the map.
Biden also confirmed that the Obama administration remains open to pursuing negotiations with Tehran, despite the regime’s crackdown on protesters following a disputed election outcome last month that saw Ahmadinejad return to power.
“If the Iranians respond to the offer of engagement, we will engage,” Biden said. “The offer’s on the table.”
Mullen declined to say whether the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran would be sufficient to outweigh the negative consequences of a US military strike on Tehran’s weapons program.
Death toll in Uighur crackdown rockets to 140 and rising
July 6, 2009Times Online/UK, July 6, 2009
(Reuters/CCTV via Reuters TV )
A video grab from CCTV shows people turning over a police car in Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang region where the ethnic unrest occurred on the weekend
Image :1 of 3
Jane Macartney, China Correspondent
VIDEO: Former General of all American Intelligence: An Aircraft did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
July 5, 2009|
authoritative statement
by Major General (ret) Albert Stubblebine
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Global Research, July 5, 2009
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“I do know that the Pentagon was not hit by an aircraft”
NO WAY, THE PRESS IS SAYING WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN TOLD TO SAY, THE STORIES ABOUT 9/11 ARE FALSE, Major General Albert “Bert” N. Stubblebine III, former head of all intelligence says: The Pentagon was NOT hit by a plane click link below |
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Print this articleLetter from an Israeli Jail, by Cynthia McKinney
July 5, 2009
Cynthia McKinney, Free Gaza Team
uruknet.info, Saturday, 04 July 2009 13:47
Original audio message available here:
http://freegaza.org/it/home/56-news/984-a-message-from-cynth
ia-from-a-cell-block-in-israel
This is Cynthia McKinney and I’m speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies – and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.
Saudis give nod to Israeli raid on Iran
July 5, 2009Iraq a failed imperialist venture
July 5, 2009Haroon Siddiqui | The Star, July 5, 2009
American troops were not welcomed with flowers in Iraq but their departure from cities and towns has been.
Iraqis celebrated National Sovereignty Day Tuesday as U.S. troops were yanked out of populated centres and put into remote bases.
In time, even that hidden presence will begin to grate on the Iraqis, just as a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia had spurred Osama bin Laden and others.
Peace and Justice Post 
RIGHTS: Muslims Under Scrutiny Despite Waning of ‘Terror War’
July 7, 2009By Thalif Deen | Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 6 (IPS) – When the administration of President Barack Obama formally abandoned the longstanding U.S. “war on terror” – perceived by some as a codeword for “war against Islam” – there were hopes of a new relationship between the United States and the Muslim world after eight long years of political friction.
A significant shift in U.S. policy was also articulated by Obama when he told a predominantly Muslim audience in Egypt last month that “America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”
The sentiments he expressed, including an appeal for “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world”, were applauded globally.
But the ground realities, both in the United States and in Western Europe, have not caught up with the widespread political euphoria.
Continued >>
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