World-News

Huffington Post
by Joshua Kors

04/14/10

I had been covering veterans’ issues for several years and thought I’d developed a thick skin. But the pain on the other end of the telephone line was difficult to stomach. Sergeant Chuck Luther, now back from Iraq, was describing his journey to hell and back. The worst part, he said, wasn’t battling insurgents or even the mortar blast that tossed him to the ground and slammed his head against the concrete — it was the way he was treated by the U.S. Army when he went to the aid station and sought medical help. In gruesome detail, Luther described what happened to him at Camp Taji’s aid station. He thought he would receive medical care. Instead he was confined to an isolation chamber and held there for over a month, under enforced sleep deprivation, until he agreed to sign papers saying that he was ill before coming to Iraq and thus not eligible for disability and medical benefits...

http://tinyurl.com/y4g3fnh


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Iraq Veteran Beating Tape: Video Of NYPD Assaulting Walter Harvin Released

The Manhattan DA's office has released the highly controversial footage at the heart of a police brutality case involving an Iraq war veteran.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/22/iraq-veteran-beating-tape_n_620853.html


From Information Clearing House



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=interrogat
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogat
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chuck+Luther
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joshua+Kors

Spiked

by Tim Black

04/14/10

Obama’s much-applauded war against nuclear weapons is about boosting Washington’s moral authority, not securing world peace...

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8520/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperialism

The "horrendous" scale of Britain's industrial recession has been laid bare by figures showing that manufacturing output is declining at the fastest rate since records began more than 40 years ago.

http://snipurl.com/dltzf


From Information Clearing House

The Terrible Plight of Afghan Children

The U.S. military alone spends $100 million a day fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan while the total spending by all donors is only $7 million a day, aid groups say.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4695501&page=1


From Information Clearing House

--------

Deficit cutters, here’s your first trillion

Our Future Blog
by Dave Johnson

06/14/10

Today the country is looking for ways to cut spending and borrowing. Yet military spending, the biggest spending item in the budget, is barely part of the discussion — obviously because of the amount of campaign and lobbying dollars it generates. The corrupting influence of lobbying money is clear: the fact that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 has not yet penetrated the bubble around the country’s capital. In fact, military spending has soared in recent years. Because of this application of lobbying dollars our military spending vastly surpasses the amount spent by the rest of the world, and dominates our country’s budget...

http://tinyurl.com/2czdssv



Why we must reduce military spending

Huffington Post
by US Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

07/06/10

As members of opposing political parties, we disagree on a number of important issues. But we must not allow honest disagreement over some issues to interfere with our ability to work together when we do agree. By far the single most important of these is our current initiative to include substantial reductions in the projected level of American military spending as part of future deficit reduction efforts. For decades, the subject of military expenditures has been glaringly absent from public debate. Yet the Pentagon budget for 2010 is $693 billion — more than all other discretionary spending programs combined. Even subtracting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military spending still amounts to over 42% of total spending...

http://tinyurl.com/273a4ke



America’s debt: Security threat to Europe

Christian Science Monitor
by Walter Andrusyszyn

06/14/10

America’s spiral of debt isn’t just hurting our economy, it’s weakening our national security and making the world a more dangerous place. No nation can maintain its power or projection of power if its economy is weak. That holds for Sparta, Rome, and the United States. Although America’s potential is formidable, Washington has so far lacked the courage to make the bold moves we need to restore our strength through vigorous economic growth in the years ahead. The good news is that the Obama administration is at least raising the topic for conversation. President Obama recently set up a special fiscal commission to tackle the nation’s debt. And Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used the release of the new national security strategy May 27 to link debt and diplomacy: ‘The United States must be strong at home in order to be strong abroad,’ she said...

http://tinyurl.com/25k2cqy


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

The military money pit
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/17/the_military_money_pit/?s_campaign=8315


Informant: Jackie Cabasso

From ufpj-news

--------

Keith Olbermann talks with Rep. Barney Frank about Cutting Military Budget
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1334?akid=101.124981.xNsRjo&t=18



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hillary
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Barney+Frank
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Pentagon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+spending
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=budget
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=military+budget
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deficit
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dave+Johnson
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Walter+Andrusyszyn
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Olbermann

Afghanistan could become the Colombia of the Middle East

America’s Taliban-support program

Reason
by Jacob Sullum

09/05/07

According to a recent report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, 19,047 hectares of poppies were eradicated in Afghanistan this year, 24 percent more than in 2006. Meanwhile, the number of opium-free provinces more than doubled, from six to 13. Those victories were somewhat overshadowed by the news that the total amount of land devoted to opium poppies in Afghanistan rose from 165,000 to 193,000 hectares, an increase of 17 percent. Due to ‘favorable weather conditions,’ estimated opium production rose even more, hitting an all-time high of 8,200 metric tons, 34 percent more than the previous record, set last year. Since their efforts have had precisely the opposite of the result they intended, U.S. drug warriors, predictably enough, plan to try harder, calling for more eradication, possibly including aerial spraying of herbicide, and more interdiction. Over the long term, if history is any guide, these supply reduction measures will have little or no impact on heroin consumption. Over the short term, they will continue to strengthen the Taliban insurgency...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/122295.html



Random thoughts on the War on Drugs

The Libertarian Enterprise
by L. Neil Smith

It is not my purpose in this essay to debate the merits or demerits of drug use, a question that should properly be left to the individual. … Given the number of turf wars, drive-by shootings, corrupted police and other officials, and invasions by police of the wrong address that are closely associated with the War on Drugs, it should be clear by now that drug laws and the attempt to enforce them cause vastly more destruction to individuals and society — and consume much more time, energy, and money — than the drugs in question ever did. We owe the existence and character of the police state which has sprung up all around us largely to government excesses in the name of the War on Drugs...

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle574-20100613-02.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=opium
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=heroin
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=war+on+drugs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=police+state
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=L.+Neil+Smith

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070604&articleId=5514


Informant: Amy Sasser

From ufpj-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+institution

http://tinyurl.com/khful


From Information Clearing House

(24.08.06)

Der Islamrat für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland hat die Kritik von Bundesinnenminister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) an Muslimen in Deutschland entschieden zurückgewiesen. "Terrorismus ist ein Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit. Wenn Herr Schäuble bis heute nicht gesehen hat, dass sich die islamischen Verbände gegen den Terrorismus wenden, dann bedaure ich das", sagte der Vorsitzende des Islamrates, Ali Kizilkaya, am Donnerstag in Köln.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14284

War on terror is a perpetual fight, says minister

A government minister today gave a stark warning that the "war on terror" was a war without end, telling a community meeting that the fight against extremists was likely to be "perpetual".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14659.htm