LA TIMES
WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq has made global terrorism worse by fanning Islamic radicalism and providing a training ground for lethal methods that are increasingly being exported to other countries, according to a sweeping assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The classified document, which represents a consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, paints a considerably bleaker picture of the impact of the Iraq war than Bush administration or U.S. intelligence officials have acknowledged publicly, according to officials familiar with the assessment.

1. Take a happily married man with a couple of kids, a comfortable house, and a reasonable job.
2. Drop a bomb on his house while he is at work.
3. Tell this man his wife and kids are dead.
4. Let him see what remains of his house and family.
5. Bomb his workplace.
6. Destroy the infrastructure around him.
7. Give him some time to contemplate the circumstances of his life.

“Terrorist” created.

The “War on Terror”, by its design, will exponentially create “terrorists”.

Think about it.

Jim Mannion | AFP
The United States on Tuesday ordered nine warships to waters off the Lebanese coast amid fears of possible terrorist attacks on ships evacuating US nationals, officials said. Though only 124 Americans have been brought out so far, the State Department defended the speed of the evacuation, calling it “highly organized, very efficient, very active.”

Six days after the start of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon, the first US chartered cruise ship arrived in Beirut to pick up US citizens, and the US Navy ordered the nine ships to waters off Lebanon.

The vessels, including four amphibious assault ships now in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, will be used to bring out large numbers of Americans and provide security amid fears of terrorist attacks, said Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh, the commander of US Fifth Fleet.

“I’m concerned about attacks on ships, you bet,” he told reporters here via videolink from his headquarters in Bahrain.

Lou Dobbs | CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) — We Americans like to think we’re a pretty smart people, even when evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. And nowhere is that evidence more overwhelming than in the Middle East. History in the Middle East is everything, and we Americans seem to learn nothing from it.

President Harry Truman took about 20 minutes to recognize the state of Israel when it declared independence in 1948. Since then, more than 58 years of war, terrorism and blood-letting have led to the events of the past week.

Even now, as Katyusha rockets rain down on northern Israel and Israeli fighter jets blast Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, we simultaneously decry radical Islamist terrorism and Israel’s lack of restraint in defending itself.

And the U.S. government, which wants no part of a cease-fire until Israel is given every opportunity to rescue its kidnapped soldiers and destroy as many Hezbollah and Hezbollah armaments as possible, urges caution in the interest of preserving a nascent and fragile democratic government in Lebanon. Could we be more conflicted?

The Daily Californian
Newly surfaced government surveillance reports reveal that the U.S. Department of Defense monitored anti-war and anti-military e-mails sent by UC Berkeley students in April.

The students’ e-mails contained plans to host a campus protest against the war in Iraq and against the presence of military recruiters on campus.

The reports, released on June 15 following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in January, contained information copied from an e-mail circulated by student group UC Berkeley Stop the War Coalition regarding a protest planned for April 21, 2005 on Sproul Plaza.

The Seattle Times
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so.

Gingrich said in an interview Saturday that Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president.

“We need to have the militancy that says ‘We’re not going to lose a city, ” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said in the coming days he plans to speak out publicly and to the administration from his seat on the Defense Policy Board about the need to recognize that America is in World War III.

Telegraph
Muslim leaders in Canada have reacted with fury after a radical advocate of Sharia law revealed that he had been a government spy who helped to uncover an alleged al-Qaeda plot, writes Toby Harnden.

Mubin Shaikh, 29, came forward to confirm that he was recruited by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country’s equivalent of MI5, and directed a 10-day winter training course in guerrilla tactics.

During the course, which Mr Shaikh set up in a field in the remote village of Washago, Ontario, young Muslims allegedly dressed in camouflage, used guns for target practice and taped a video used to recruit others.

Amongst the major reasons given by the West when invading Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 was the connection between drugs and terrorism.

“We act also because the al-Qaida network and the Taliban regime are funded in large part on the drugs trade. Ninety per cent of all heroin sold in Britain originates from Afghanistan. Stopping that trade is, again, directly in our interests.” –Prime Minister Blair in an address to the British people on the ongoing attacks on Afghanistan, 10/7/01

Tony Blair again used this excuse recently to justify sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Whilst in the US enormously costly ads bought by the US government informed American’s that to buy cocaine or heroin is to help terrorism.

The truth is that since the invasion of Afghanistan’s the opium production has skyrocketed. Although the Taliban had virtually stamped out poppy production, the country now accounts for two-third of the world’s heroin.

Larisa Alexandrovna | Raw Story
One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with no financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the United States Government, RAW STORY has learned.

The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held on an open Jihadi web site, said Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer and contributor to American Conservative magazine, in a late Friday afternoon conversation. Although Giraldi acknowledges that the persons involved three of whom have already been arrested in Lebanon and elsewhere - are indeed extremists,” their online chatter is considerably overblown by allegations of an actual plot.

The Truth Will Set You Free
Does that mean Mubarek gets the $5 million bounty the US has on “al-Masri’s” head?

Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri al-Yawm has quoted Mamduh Ismail as saying he met al-Muhajir, also known as Sharif Hazaa, or Abu Ayub al-Masri, in Tura prison in Cairo, where he has been held for seven years.

“Sharif Hazaa [al-Muhajir] is in Tura prison, and I met him two days ago while I was visiting some of my clients,” Ismail, a lawyer known for defending Islamist groups, told the newspaper.

(Read more…)

Hey guys/gals, I’m currently on Vacation to Key West, FL for the rest of the week… I’ll be back sometime on Saturday with more updates…

Meanwhile, I know it’s a long read, but read the below post about the Federal Reserve, I guarantee you will be thanking me later!

What is the Federal Reserve? The Federal Reserve is not in anyway federal, nor does it have anything in reserve. The Federal Reserve is a privately owned corporation, out for profit. It is the fourth central bank in America and on December 22, 1913 was granted the unconstitutional right to print and coin money, as well as set interest rates for the United States economy.

The United States Constitution strictly prohibits any institution, except Congress, from issuing our money in America. In fact, the US Constitution clearly states in Article 1 Section 8 Paragraph 5 that congress alone shall reserve the right to: To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins, and the standard of weights and measures. This means our coins are supposed to contain a specific and just amount of precious metal, in which the coins today contain none.

“We’ve marched, held vigils, lobbied Congress, camped out at Bush’s ranch, we’ve even gone to jail, now it’s time to do more”

“This war is a crime,” the icon mother told a crowd of clapping, cheering protesters.

“We represent millions of Americans who withdraw their support from this government.”

Millions of American have just watched in disgust as our congress ignored the will of the American people and voted against setting a timetable for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. Who exactly are they representing and what course of action do ‘we the people’ have at this point?

War supporters say that the only reason that people oppose the war in Iraq is because they hate Bush. While many may hold a certain enmity towards him, there are many reason why we oppose the war. Here are just a few. Pick one, or use them all, either way you slice it up, this is not a ‘good war’.

1.Raped Iraqi woman feared US troops: reportWho’s the terrorists?
2.Abu Ghraib
3. Depleted UraniumCauses diabetes, as well as cancer and deformities.
4. Cost of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to top $500 billion
5.Many US Iraq vets return to homelessnessWay to support the troops! Use them up and throw them away, disposable citizens.
6.US didn’t find WMD despite claimsNo ties to alQaeda either.
7.Documents obtained from Army relating to Halliburton subsidiary no bid contractsDick Cheney had a hand in their acquisition by his old company.
8.Keeping Iraq’s Oil in the GroundSo we can fund hundred million dollar retirement funds for all oil executives!
9.The Lie of the Century

David Lindorff | CounterPunch
Largely missed in all the coverage of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case was the establishment by the court majority that all Bush administration claims to the contrary, the Geneva Convention rules regarding captured prisoners apply to the captives taken not only in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in the so-called War on Terror.

What has been largely missed is the clear point that the Supreme Court has now declared that for the past five years, Bush and his gang of war-mongers, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State and former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, former Attorney General Donald Rumsfeld and current Attorney General and former White House Chief Counsel Alberto Gonzales, and many others in the administration, have been guilty of violating the Third Convention on treatment of prisoners of war. They are also, therefore, in violation of federal law, which back in 1996 adopted that convention as part of the U.S. criminal code.

In other words, the whole top administration, from Commander in Chief George W. Bush on down, is guilty of war crimes. The punishment for committing war crimes ranges from a lengthy jail sentence to, in the event the crimes in question caused the death of any prisoners being held, to death.

Reuters
The CIA has disbanded a unit set up in the 1990s to oversee the spy agency’s hunt for Osama bin Laden and transferred its duties to broader operations that track Islamist militant groups, a U.S. intelligence official said on Tuesday.

The bin Laden unit, codenamed Alec Station, became less valuable as a separate operation as counterterrorism operations eliminated top al Qaeda operatives and the movement’s focus shifted more to regional networks of militants, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Amanda Beck | Reuters
About 150 protesters sat in front of the White House on Monday to savor their last meal before starting a hunger strike that some said will continue until American troops return from
Iraq.

The demonstration marking the Independence Day holiday was organized by CodePink, a women’s anti-war group that called on volunteers to abstain from eating for 24 hours from midnight on Monday.

Some protesters said their fast would continue beyond July 4th.

Associated Press
Money transfer agencies like Western Union have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, company officials said.

In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending US$120 (euro96) to a friend at home this month because the recipient’s name was Mohammed.

“Western Union told me that if I send money to Sahir Mohammed, the money will be blocked because of his name,” said 36-year-old Abdul Rahman Maruthayil, who later sent the money through UAE Exchange, a Dubai-based money transfer service.

Rosa Brooks | LA Times
The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt the Bush administration a stinging rebuke, declaring in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld that military commissions for trying terrorist suspects violate both U.S. military law and the Geneva Convention.

But the real blockbuster in the Hamdan decision is the court’s holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention applies to the conflict with Al Qaeda — a holding that makes high-ranking Bush administration officials potentially subject to prosecution under the federal War Crimes Act.

Wake Up From Your Slumber
The Americans entered the Sunni Arab’s family home, separated three males from the woman, raped her and burned her body using a flammable liquid in a cover-up attempt, a military official close to the investigation said. The three males were also slain.

One of the family members they allegedly killed was a child, said a senior Army official who also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Imagine for a moment - if you’re a woman - that it was you in your new living room, with your brother and/or your son, your father, and perhaps your uncle, when these armed invaders entered your home and proceeded to gang-rape you and burn your battered and violated body alive, perhaps in front of your family.