ISSUE 162 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Number of Iraqi Girls in School Down Sharply

Many families have lost their fathers or mothers and girls are asked to stay at home to help to cook, wash and clean. They are the ones paying the price of the violence since they have to forget about their future to be able to help the lives of their brothers. The problem is worse in the rural areas where religion is being used by fathers as an excuse to justify why their daughters no longer attend school

It's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, Coming to a Campus Near You!

by Alexander Cockburn Horowitz has thrown his energies into crusading on behalf of the American right, fuelled in his efforts by copious annual disbursements from the richer denizens of that well populated sector. Richard Mellon Scaife -- apex demon in the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' identified by Hillary Clinton amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- has poured money into Horowitz's organizations, as have other well-heeled conservative foundations. Every now and again, Horowitz will raise some spectacularly nutty alarum, like the Los Angeles Times being taken over by pinkos, and I always assume that Horowitz must be filling out his annual grant applications and reminding Scaife that others may snooze and idle but he, Horowitz, is unceasing in his vigilance against sedition.

Congress vs. the Country

by Alexander Cockburn The way things are headed, in two or three months we'll have over 95 percent of the American people wanting pull-out from the war in Iraq, and 95 percent of Congress obediently voting funds to keep the troops there

Nuclear Power Industry Wins Big Despite Green Bandwagon

by Alexander Cockburn By defining 'construction' of a nuclear plant to mean only the building of the reactor itself, the NRC has excluded from initial regulatory scrutiny about 90 percent of the actual environmental impacts of construction

Horowitz Bids For Attention With "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week"

by Khody Akhavi and Ali Gharib Horowitz's speech did not reflect a coherent policy towards the perceived threat. Instead, it overflowed with insults, sweeping generalizations and hyperbole that were aimed at smearing his political enemies -- mostly liberals, whom he described as 'leftists'" -- giving him ammunition for his fundraising drives

Big Questions Linger in Chauncey Bailey Slaying

by Josh Richman and Cecily Burt, The Oakland Tribune/The Chauncey Bailey Project As the investigation of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey's murder broadens into a multi-agency probe of Your Black Muslim Bakery and the Bey family, a key question remains largely unanswered. What, exactly, was Bailey working on?

Bill and Annie-Semitism

by Steve Young If Bill O'Reilly isn't an anti-Semite himself, then he is most certainly pro-anti-Semite. Why else would he let Ann Coulter's attacks on the Jewish faith slide?

It's the "Cards" Fault

by Steve Young While being a child of privilege might have made it difficult to relate to the poor, no matter how compassionate a conservative your campaign claims you are, why is there such a dramatic disconnect when it comes to the insensitivity shown to those who served and continue to serve honorably; to those who left part of themselves on the battlefields defending the country he now leads; to those he once served with...his brothers in arms?

Alfred Nobel Would Have Given His Award To George W.

by Steve Young Starting with the dissolution of the Iraqi Army through the slow abandonment of the Coalition of the More and More Unwilling, who but President Bush has done as much to reduce the standing armies in Iraq? When you count the dead and disabled along with the continuing crippling of own armies and National Guard to deal with further battle fronts and homeland emergencies, Mr. Bush should be a shoo-in for the Prize

Fake FEMA Press Conference Sets the Standard

by Steve Young Hillary: "To those of you who were here when we told you we would be holding this press conference at the moment we finished telling you we would be having it, thank you for being prompt. Please feel free to ask any question the media would have asked if we had been here to ask them"

Unable to Defeat Mahdi Army, U.S. Hopes to Divide It

by Gareth Porter The strategy of making deals with 'moderates' while attacking the 'extreme elements' seemed to be given credibility when Sadr signaled in early 2007 that he was ordering the Madhi army to lie low and even to cooperate with the new U.S. Baghdad security plan. But contrary to the self-serving assumptions of Petraeus and Odierno, Sadr was avoiding a confrontation with U.S. forces because he believed that the occupation had entered its final phase, in which the Bush administration would be forced to negotiate a settlement prior to military withdrawal, and that he had only to keep the Madhi army intact to emerge victorious over his Shiite rivals

Come On, Cosby!

by Earl Ofair Hutchinson Cosby publicly bristles at criticism that he takes the worst of the worst behavior of some blacks and publicly hurls that out as the warped standard of black America. Cosby says that he does not mean to slander all, or even most blacks, as derelicts, laggards and slackers. Yet that's precisely the impression he gives and the criticism of him for it is more than justified

Fearing Turkey Attack, U.S. Presses Iraqi Kurdistan to Crackdown on Rebel Group

by Jim Lobe Spurred by the deployment of at least 100,000 troops along Turkey's border with Iraq, the Bush administration is pressing its closest clients in Iraqi Kurdistan to crack down hard against the Kurdish Turkish Workers' Party (PKK), which Washington considers a terrorist organization

Tens of Thousands Protest Bush Iran Attack Threats

by Haider Rizvi Tens of thousands of people across the United States staged demonstrations over the weekend to protest the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq and the White House's reported plans to attack Iran

Utility Giant to Pay $4.6 Billion in Landmark Pollution Case

by J.R. Pegg One of the nation's largest electric utilities has agreed to spend $4.6 billion to reduce harmful air emissions from 16 coal-fired power plants, ending an eight year legal battle over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act

Rumsfeld's Lasting Legacy: $11 Billion a Year for Missile Shield

The Bush administration has promoted the shield as protection against rogue states like North Korea and Iran. But the State Department recently reached a diplomatic agreement with North Korea that would eliminate its nuclear weapons program, and Iran is years away from developing nuclear capabilities. So whose warheads will the shield protect us from? In August, during a lecture at a missile defense convention, one proponent of the system suggested the possibility of a new ballistic threat from a country that currently possesses no missiles: Venezuela

Korean Leaders Surprise With Call to Formally End War

by Antoaneta Bezlova The document signed Thursday between South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il -- only the second such meeting held between the two countries -- also invites the United States and China, participants in the Korean war, to help draft a peace treaty to replace the 54-year-old armistice and establish a permanent peace

Live Radio Becomes Vital Link in Indian Country

by Neelanjana Banerjee Native radio stations could be the answer to Indian Country's communications lag -- connecting tribes on reservations that still don't have phone lines, cell phone or Internet service

Subsudies for Ethanol and Other Biofuels Unsustainable

by Stephen Leahy A raft of new studies reveal European and American multibillion dollar support for biofuels is unsustainable, environmentally destructive and much more about subsidising agri-business corporations than combating global warming

Turkish Troops Cross Iraq Border to Attack Kurd Rebels

Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas Tension between Turkey, Iraq and the United States went up another degree as Turkish artillery continued Oct. 26 to shell civilian targets and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions across its border, while army helicopters launched several raids along the border separating Turkey from northern Iraq

Bhutto Returns to Pakistan, Survives Suicide Assassination Try

Analysis by Beena Sarwar Although the government is ostensibly allowing Bhutto to return, Musharraf requested her to delay her arrival -- she refused -- and warned her that she may be the target of a suicide attack. Bhutto has scoffed off such warnings with, 'I do not believe that any true Muslim would attack me because I am a woman and Islam forbids attacks against women. Secondly Islam forbids suicide'

UN Getting Nowhere With Burma's Generals

by Marwaan Macan-Markar Attempts by foreign envoys to discuss domestic politics with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, Burma's strongman, are treated with a measure of contempt, as if it is 'an internal issue'

Blackwater Gets a New $92M Pentagon Contract

by Ali Gharib U.S.-based private security firm Blackwater received a contract worth up to $92 million from the Department of Defense amid hard questions about its involvement in two separate violent incidents in Iraq

Fuego in San Diego: Spanish Media Failed on Emergency Alerts

by Abraham Nudelstejer, Translated by Ariel Soto When she came home on Sunday evening, Noemi Orozco didn't know what to do. The fire had grown massively. Orozco said she turned on her television but none of the Spanish channels interrupted their programming to provide information on what was happening with the fire.

Hillary Takes Serious Look at the Post-Bush World

by Joe Conason In an interview with Michael Tomasky, editor of the new Guardian America website, she comments on those excesses and suggests she will undo much of what her predecessors have wrought. Not only does Clinton accuse George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of overweening conduct, but charges them with venturing far beyond their historically accepted authority

U.S. Again Top Arms Dealer to Developing Countries

by Jim Lobe Washington agreed to transfer a total of $10.3 billion in arms to developing countries in 2006, or 36 percent of the value of all arms transfer agreements signed by developing countries during the year

Three Gorges Dam May Displace Millions More

by Antoaneta Bezlova As a trickle of environmental problems emerging from the Three Gorges dam area steadily grows into a deluge, Chinese authorities have begun weighing plans to relocate several million people to avert an ecological catastrophe

Asia Prenatal Gender Selection at "Apocalyptic" Levels

by Zofeen Ebrahim Experts at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights are painting an apocalyptical vision of the Asian region where 163 million women are Ômissing' and the sex ratio continues to decline as a result of easy access to modern gender selection techniques

Bush Giving Mexico $1 Billion to Fight Drug War

by Diego Cevallos U.S. anti-drug aid to Mexico is to be increased from $40 million to over $500 million a year, an unprecedented boost in funding that will expand a controversial strategy in which the military is heavily involved in the war on drugs

China Turns Moon Probe Launch Into Media Event

by Antoaneta Bezlova When the rocket carrying China's first lunar orbiter Chang'e 1 blasted off on Oct. 25 the event was nothing short of a state spectacle; televised live, advertised and sold ahead of time to spectators by travel agencies, monitored and dissected by a dozen space experts on every type of media. The unprecedented publicity is a far cry from the time when everything about China's space program was shrouded in state secrecy

Putin Plots to Stay in Power as Prime Minister

by Kester Kenn Klomegah He spoke of a strategy that could be 'one step down and then one step up.' There has been much speculation that Putin wants to step aside for a while to then come back again as president -- with one of his trusted aides as president in the meanwhile

Factories Smother Cairo in Pollution

by Leslie-Ann Boctor Air pollution is so bad in Cairo that living in the sprawling city of 18 million residents is said to be akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. According to the World Health Organization, the average Cairene ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day

As UN Fraud Probe Drags on, Staffer Takes a Half-Million $$ Vacation

by Thalif Deen The UN Secretariat has doled out over half a million dollars on a single staffer who has been temporarily suspended with full pay while under investigation on charges of mismanagement and fraud

Desmond Tutu Compares Israel to South Africa

by Adrianne Appel Tutu drew parallels between the apartheid of South Africa and occupied Palestine of today, including demolitions of Palestinian homes by the Israeli government and the inability of Palestinians to travel freely within and out of Palestine

Clarence Thomas: Victim, Hater of Liberals

by Earl Ofari Hutchinson After fifteen years, Thomas hasn't budged one inch from his relentless public and private war against civil rights leaders and liberal Democrats. In his autobiography, My Grandfather's Son, his war of ideology and words shows no signs of abating. He wraps himself just as tightly in the martyr's garment as he did in his Mercer speech. He sledgehammers liberal Democrats and civil rights groups just as hard as before

Most Wastewater Plants in Violation of Clean Water Act

Billions of gallons of polluted wastewater spilled unchecked into America's waterways in 2005 as more than half the country's industrial and municipal wastewater facilities exceeded the limits of their Clean Water Act permits

The Senate's Strange Double Standard

by Joe Conason For an object lesson in the distorted values of the United States Senate, consider how that august institution is handling the ethical embarrassments created by Republican Larry Craig of Idaho and Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska

Repubs Fail to Fear-Monger "Socialized" Medicine

by Joe Conason Rudolph Giuliani, Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican presidential pack run around squawking about socialism whenever anyone proposes health care reform. Syndicated columnist Robert Novak warns that the federally financed, state-run Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is essentially a socialist conspiracy. So does President Bush, who has threatened to veto a modest increase in that program's funding because he doesn't want to 'federalize health care.' Although the red threat still triggers an autonomic reaction among GOP true believers, the rest of the country no longer twitches to that high-pitched, far-right whistle

Limbaugh's "Phony Soldiers" Slur

by Joe Conason Only in a media environment where conservatives have long felt exempt from scrutiny would Limbaugh still feel free to mock the military service of those who disagree with him. He is, after all, a certified chicken-hawk who cheered on the Vietnam War as it ground up tens of thousands of young Americans, but saw no reason why he should serve. His local draft board in a Missouri county, where his family enjoyed political influence, granted him a 1-Y deferment after he dropped out of college and forfeited his student deferment. Explaining how he escaped the draft, he has cited both a 'bad knee' and a cyst on his backside that supposedly rendered him medically unfit

Teenager Hanged by Taliban in Latest Child Killing

On September 30, armed Taliban men hanged a 15-year-old boy on charges of espionage for foreign forces based in Afghanistan, said Ezatullah Mujahid, the administrator of Sangin District. For hours the dead body of the boy was hanging from a tree with warning notes stuffed in his mouth ordering locals not to collaborate with foreign troops

Army Captains Speak Out on the War

by Robert Scheer When will we listen to the troops? I'm not talking about soldiers used as props for a George W. Bush photo-op, telling reporters what Washington wants to hear. The military is disciplined and thus accustomed, from Gen. David Petraeus on down, to toeing the official line. But the Iraq war has also produced brilliant messages of dissent from the ranks that should cause us to stop in our tracks and reconsider what we have wrought. First, a group of sergeants came forward, and on Tuesday it was the captains' turn to speak out

The Martyring of Che Guevara

by Robert Scheer Little was reported about Che's life and what led him to shun the comforts of a physician's lifestyle in Argentina to fight as a revolutionary in the rugged terrains of Cuba, the Congo and finally in Bolivia -- or why someone who claimed to be obsessed with helping the world's poor was executed, gangland style, on the order of a CIA agent

The State Department's Murderous Guardians

by Robert Scheer How did it come to be that the ostensibly best-educated and most refined representatives of the United States in Iraq are guarded by gun-toting mercenaries who kill innocent civilians? More urgently, why did State Department employees and their bosses in Washington tolerate -- and pay to conceal -- the wanton murder conducted on their watch?

Bush Defense Spending at Highest Level Since WWII

by Robert Scheer Post-9/11 defense spending, excluding the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has increased 40 percent to build high-tech Cold War-era weapons in a charade that assumes that stateless terrorists present a military challenge even greater than the once mighty Soviet Union's armed forces. The $686 billion overall 2008 defense budget is the highest since World War II

Remote Immigrant Campsites Also Victims of San Diego Fires

by Amanda Martinez Undocumented immigrants who have survived for years living along San Diego's hillsides and canyons now find themselves left out of relief efforts in the Southern California fires

Attempt on Bhutto's Life Adds to List of Shadowy Attacks

by Beena Sarwar At least 50 of the 'Jaanisar-e-Benazir' (bodyguards ready to die for Benazir) perished in the twin suicide bomber blasts unleashed, soon after midnight, on Bhutto's slow-moving armoured truck. With a death toll of at least 140 dead and over 500 injured, the attack was one of the worst in Pakistan's political history -- one that is peppered with mysterious, unresolved assassinations and bombings

Cargill Building Controversial Mega-Port in Paraguay

by David Vargas Residents, environmentalists and local and national authorities in Paraguay are at odds over the pros and cons of a port complex being built by U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill on the outskirts of the capital. The project on the banks of the Paraguay river, called Puerto Union, is a joint venture by Cargill, the largest grain exporter in the world, and Puerto Zevallos, a local company. It will involve the construction of a soybean processing plant and a port terminal with the capacity to dry, store and process soy, for an initial investment of $25 million

Bush Rushes to California's Fire Aid

by Earl Ofari Hutchinson The California wildfires give him a chance to look like a strong, caring and decisive leader in a time of crisis, and to atone for his Katrina fumble. It also helps that the hundreds of homes that were wiped out were not in a poor, ramshackle, crime-plagued, inner city neighborhood such as the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, but are in middle and wealthy, suburban, resort and semi-rural neighborhoods and areas. A speedy offer of bushels of federal dollars and personnel is a win-win guarantee to draw public praise and applause

Cheney Escalates Charges Against Iran

by Jim Lobe In the harshest speech against Iran given by a top Bush administration official to date, Cheney Sunday warned the Islamic Republic of 'serious consequences' if it did not freeze its nuclear program and accused it of 'direct involvement in the killings of Americans'

Homeless Iraq Vets Find Little Aid From VA

by Aaron Glantz Since the start of the Iraq war, the backlog of unanswered disability claims has grown from 325,000 to more than 600,000. On average, a veteran must wait almost six months to have a claim heard. If a veteran loses and appeals a case, it usually takes at about three years.

Bush Slaps Harsh Economic Sanctions on Iran

by William O. Beeman The new sanctions are an extension of a long-standing failed policy first begun under the Reagan administration, and extended under the Clinton administration. The United States is acting totally alone; it is not supported by any other nation. American dealings with Iran have failed in large part because the United States has never articulated what it wants to accomplish. They mostly consist of calls for Iran to cease doing things that Iran says it is not doing in the first place

Christian Right Warns GOP: No Front-Runners Acceptable

by Bill Berkowitz The threat leveled by Dobson and other leaders of the Christian right against the Republican Party could be seen as a politically savvy stare-down, or a desperate attempt to hold onto the levers of power within the party. Dobson is betting that Republican officials will blink

Burma to Lose Most Aid From Top Donor, Japan

by Mutsuko Murakami While the video footage of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai dying on the streets of Rangoon, as soldiers fired on demonstrating monks and civilians on Oct. 27, may trigger drastic cuts in aid to Burma from its biggest donor Japan, the ruling junta is unlikely to be moved

Congress Moves to Rein in Blackwater

by Khody Akhavi Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki demanded on Oct. 9 that the U.S. sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater, and also called on U.S. authorities to hand over Blackwater security agents involved in the Sep. 16 shootings for possible trial in Iraqi courts. Iraqi authorities also want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to the families of each of the 17 people killed

Rice Vowed Bush Would "Fix Mideast" Like U.S. "Fixed Europe After WWII"

by Khody Akhavi Condoleezza Rice was in a triumphant mood the day Baghdad fell in April 2003, writes journalist Barbara Slavin in her new book, 'Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies.' After summoning 18 high-level Bush administration officials to a boardroom in the West Wing of the White House, the then-national security advisor opened the meeting by emphatically declaring, 'We're going to fix the Middle East just the way we fixed Europe after World War II'

Drug-Resistant Staph Now More Deadly to Americans Than AIDS

Drug-resistant staph infections appear more widespread than previously thought. A study by federal government researchers published in the October 17 edition of JAMA shows that infections caused by MRSA are no longer confined to hospitals and are increasingly found in community settings such as schools. The study reports that an estimated 18,650 people died from MRSA in the United States in 2005

Pentagon Forced White House to Back Down on Big Iran Attack

by Gareth Porter The Bush administration's shift from the military option of a massive strategic attack against Iran to a surgical strike against selected targets associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to have been prompted not by new alarm at Iran's role in Iraq but by the explicit opposition of the nation's top military leaders to an unprovoked attack on Iran's nuclear facilities

Burma: New Wave of Arrests Causing Terror

by Moe Yu May and Marwaan Macan-Markar This week's arrests follow the taking into custody of some 700 monks and civilians who were picked up from protest sites and, eyewitness said, included a 13-year-old boy who was standing near the eastern entrance of the Shwedagon pagoda. The monks were mostly taken in following night-time raids that troops launched on select monasteries

Bush Secretly Approved 2005 Torture Loophole

by Abra Pollock Even while detaining suspected terrorists at "black sites" in Afghanistan, Thailand, and Eastern Europe, CIA officers questioned whether techniques being used were legal. As their concerns filtered back to the CIA legal counsel, the Bush administration turned to the Justice Department for the approval it needed to give CIA officers the go ahead

House Backs Off from Condemning Turkey for Armenian Genocide

by Jim Lobe Amid rising tensions with Turkey and strong White House pressure, the Democratic leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to set aside a controversial resolution recognizing as genocide the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I

Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Republican Turnaround

by Sunil Adam Jindal marshaled his conservative credentials by resolutely canvassing in the northern and eastern parishes as a Bible-thumping Catholic, who'd let creationism be taught in state schools. Fortunately for him, barring his target audience, few seem to believe Jindal's faith in Genesis as authentic, notwithstanding the constant flouting of his religious conversion (from Hinduism) and convictions

Repub Candidates Strut Their Stuff for Religious Right Judgement

by Khody Akhavi At a gala event on Saturday night, Dobson lamented the lack of a clear candidate to represent the interests of the crucial constituency of the Republicans. Former Family Research Council head Gary Bauer was more explicit when he said, 'Evangelicals have always been against suicide, and a third party is political suicide'

"Candidate Gore" a Long Shot, Despite Nobel

by Jim Lobe While there is indeed little doubt that his new status as a Nobel Peace Laureate will further enhance Gore's stature and electability, most political analysts, including members of Gore's inner circle, consider it highly unlikely that he will throw his hat into the ring

House Defies Bush, Recognizes Armenian Genocide

by Khody Akhavi A resolution recognizing as 'genocide' the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago has gained the sponsorship of a majority of members in the House, but it has also drawn heavy criticism from Bush administration officials, who argue that the non-binding and largely symbolic legislation could harm relations with Turkey at a particularly crucial time

Suicider: Evolution of the Suicide Attacker

by Jalal Ghazi Up to 150,000 Iraqis have fallen victim to suicide bombing attacks. Many American soldiers in Iraq have also been killed in suicide bombings. The most lethal attack took place on Dec. 21, 2004, when a suicide bomber detonated his bomb in a mess tent on an American base in Mosul, killing 14 U.S. soldiers.

Supreme Court Won't Hear Rendition, Torture Case

by Jim Lobe El-Masri, whose case has clearly irritated U.S.-German relations and contributed to European concern about the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, was kidnapped while on vacation in Macedonia on New Year's Eve 2003, according to lengthy investigation by the New York Times published in 2005. The father of six young children, he was flown to Afghanistan where he was held and interrogated at a secret prison called the 'salt pit' in Kabul for some four months. According to his own account, he was constantly shackled and sometimes drugged and beaten during his confinement until his CIA handlers became convinced that he was the victim of mistaken identity

Mexico's Top Cardinal Off the Hook, But Church Sex Abuse Controversy Rages On

by Diego Cevallos After a year-long review of the evidence, which included questioning Rivera -- Mexico's highest-ranking Catholic -- in the Mexican capital, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that there was no evidence to show that the cardinal committed a crime in the United States, and that therefore he could not be held accountable in a U.S. court

Demoralized U.S. Troops Find Ways to Avoid Iraq Patrols

by Dahr Jamail Iraq war veterans say that morale among U.S. soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed 'search and avoid' missions

Iran Tries to Hijack Image of Che Guevara, Fails

by Kimia Sanati An indignant Aleida, however, started her own address 'in the name of the people of Cuba.' 'We are a socialist nation,' she asserted. She also said the people of Cuba were grateful to the Soviet Union and there had never been any discord between the two nations, as mentioned by Ghasemi. She advised him to '"always refer to original sources instead of translations to find out about Che Guevara's beliefs'

"Remarkable" Drop in Iraq Violence-Related Deaths

Iraqis are breathing a sigh of relief as violence in their war-torn country is ebbing and the number of violence-related victims has dropped sharply since the beginning of this year, according to statistics compiled by the country's interior, defense and health ministries

Anbar Resistance Upswing After Killing of U.S.-Friendly Sheikh

by Ali al-Fadhily Resistance to occupation seems to have risen after the assassination last month of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, head of the al-Bu Risha tribe. Abu Risha had begun to cooperate actively with U.S. forces

Global CO2 Levels Begin Climbing Faster

by Stephen Leahy With the shocking loss of the Arctic sea ice this summer and several new reports this week that oceans and tropical forests are now absorbing less of the world's steadily rising carbon emissions, our collective train wreck appears to have already tipped into fast forward

Turkey-Iraq Tensions High as Troops Poised for Major Attack Across Border

Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have launched several raids on PKK positions within northern Iraq since Friday. TSK has deployed 100,000 to 150,000 troops, tanks and heavy artillery along the frontier in preparation for a major offensive within Iraqi soil. Three thousand special security agents were posted during the weekend on key positions along the border. The Iraqi government suspects that TSK may not stop their offensive once they have chased the PKK from the border, but could instead go deeper into the country and stay permanently in the region. Ankara has on occasion threatened to intervene in order to protect Turkmen populations throughout northern Iraq. Baghdad fears the Peshmerga might clash with Turkish troops and set the entire region on fire

White House Ignoring Hezbollah, Not Iran, Was Source of EFP Bombs

by Gareth Porter British and U.S. officials observed from the beginning that the EFPs being used in Iraq closely resembled the ones used by Hezbollah against Israeli forces in Southern Lebanon, both in their design and the techniques for using them. Hezbollah was known as the world's most knowledgeable specialists in EFP manufacture and use, having perfected them during the 1990s in the military struggle against Israeli forces in Lebanon. It was widely recognized that it was Hezbollah that had passed on the expertise to Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups after the second Intifada began in 2000

Delays in Tackling Global Warming Will Cost U.S. Billions

by Stephen Leahy The United States is facing hundreds of billions of dollars in weather-related damages in coming years if it does not act urgently on climate change, the first-ever comprehensive economic assessment of the problem has found