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2006-12-23 Citations

BREITBART.COM - U.S. Trade Deficit Soars to Record

The current account deficit is expected to hit a new record for the full year, far surpassing last year's $791.5 billion

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment - New York Times

An American civilian, who was also a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading. Detained for 97 days in a U.S.-run maximum-security detention site in Baghdad, the story illustrates how disorganized the detention system is in Iraq and shows how little recourse an American has to challenge his imprisonment.

USATODAY - States struggle to cover retirees

The efforts are the first to address a liability of more than $1 trillion for providing medical care promised to about 25 million current and future retired state and local civil servants.

FCC's McDowell says won't vote on AT&T/BellSouth | Regulatory News | Reuters.com

FCC honcho Kevin Martin’s underhanded attempt to force the AT&T-BellSouth merger through has fallen flat: FCC commissioner McDowell has refused to play along with Martin, and is refusing to cast a tie-breaking vote to OK the deal. Robert McDowell, said he won’t vote due to a conflict of interest. Martin had ordered the FCC legal staff to allow McDowell to vote, despite that conflict.

Ex-minister escapes Green Zone prison - baltimoresun.com

Ayham Samarrai's high-profile escape, splashed across Iraqi television channels last night, also could further damage the reputation of the U.S., which is believed by many Iraqis to have wasted and stolen billions of dollars in Iraqi revenues.

FOXNews.com - AP: Pentagon Wants $99.7B More for Wars

Overall, the war in Iraq has cost about $350 billion. Combined with the conflict in Afghanistan and operations against terrorism elsewhere, the cost has topped $500 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

McVeigh Video Destroys OKC Bombing Official Story

The August 1993 footage neatly fills in an unexplained gap in McVeigh' timeline that even the FBI cannot explain. Was this gap deliberately left ignored to avoid a probe into McVeigh's activities at Camp Grafton?

Independent > Morgan Stanley accused of falsely claiming e-mails were lost in 9/11

The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) says that the bank claimed millions of e-mails had been lost when the servers and archives of its Dean Witter business at the World Trade Centre were destroyed. In fact they were available on back-up tapes or on computers elsewhere within the company.

Foreign Policy: The Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2006

10) Hackable Passports 9) What’s Worse Than Bird Flu? The Cure. 8) Petro Powers Drop the Dollar 7)The Gender Gap Gets Smaller 6)Iran and Israel Hold Secret Talks 5) US Funds the Taliban 4)Bush’s Post-Katrina Power Grab, etc. ...

BBC NEWS - Iran - in depth

Organizational chart helps unravel Iran's complex political system

LexisNexis News - Bush backs minimum-wage hike, with conditions

President Bush on Wednesday offered his most explicit backing of a rise in the minimum wage, but a top Democrats bristled at calls to offset the measure with breaks for small businesses

U.S. to Declassify Secrets at Age 25 - New York Times

At midnight on Dec. 31, hundreds of millions of pages of secret documents will be instantly declassified, including many F.B.I. cold war files on investigations of people suspected of being Communist sympathizers. After years of extensions sought by federal agencies behaving like college students facing a term paper, the end of 2006 means the government’s first automatic declassification of records.

The Iraq Study Group: Official damage control and cover-up

The membership of the working groups is thoroughly dominated by figures from neoconservative, military-intelligence related Western think tanks, and outright intelligence fronts, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the RAND Corporation, the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the James Baker Institute for Public Policy and National Defense University (NDU). There are also officers with Bechtel and Citigroup.

Democracy Now! | Robert Fisk Criticizes 'Experts' Cited in Iraq Study Group Report

Before you actually read it, I do suggest you start at the back, because you will find that Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Baker have been kind enough to list all the experts who helped them. They’re actually called former officials and experts. Let me read through a few things here for you: Strobe Talbott, the Brookings Institution; George Will, the Washington Post; Kenneth Pollack, the man who brought you The Threatening Storm, the book that told you there really were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; the Brookings Institution; Carlos Pascual, the Brookings Institution; Michael O’Hanlon, the Brookings Institution; American Enterprise Institute; Martin Indyk, the Brookings Institution. You get the idea that perhaps these proposals are not really going to work, don’t you? And then, here we are, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times.

U.S. Finds Iran Liable In Khobar Towers Attack; Awards Families $254 Million - December 23, 2006

U.S. judge has found the Islamic Republic of Iran liable in the deaths of 19 American servicemen killed when the Khobar Towers were bombed in 1996.

Iraq: Istanbul Conference Enflames Sectarian Tensions - RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY

The clear sectarian nature of the Istanbul conference, on the surface, suggests that Iraq's Sunni Arabs are moving away from national reconciliation and closer to civil war and perhaps a broader regional conflict. The warnings delivered by the likes of al-Dulaymi and al-Shammari concerning Iran are possibly attempts to align Iraq's Sunni population with Sunni-dominated countries for what may turn out to be a proxy war against Iran within Iraq.

War on Iraq: Saudi Royals Snub Bush, Fund Opposition to U.S. Troops

Last week in Riyadh, at the end of a two-day summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (a six-country organism including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates), the Saudis announced their interest in developing a joint nuclear energy program. ... "The Saudis think a nasty civil war in Iraq could quickly sour into an even nastier regional war," Pike says, "so they're not in a real patient mood."

NPR : Fixing Iraq Policy Under Fire

With an increasingly unpopular war, stiffening opposition from the new Democratic majorities in Congress and fresh alternatives from the Iraq Study Group, President Bush is under enormous pressure to develop a new approach.

Vice President Dick Cheney to be called to testify in CIA lark case - Americas - International Herald Tribune

Libby is the only person charged with a crime as a result of an investigation into whether anyone in the Bush administration intentionally leaked the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency officer.

Somali Militia Ready to Fight Ethiopians | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Ethiopia denies its forces are fighting, but says it has deployed several hundred military trainers in support of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government.

publish.nyc.indymedia.org | The Occupation Project

Voices for Creative Nonviolence is initiating the Occupation Project: A Campaign of Sustained Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to End the Iraq War - In Chicago, a coalition of organizations and individuals will conduct weekly occupations inside the offices of elected Representatives and Senators beginning February 5.