News for 08-19-06

08-19-06 - Egypt warns against any military strike on Iran "The conflict between the United States and Iran must be resolved through diplomatic channels and direct dialogue, because any strike on Iran means the end of stability in the region and the world," Mubarak said in an interview published on Saturday in Egypt's Akhbar al-Youm newspaper.


08-19-06 - Waiting for Reinforcements - The fighting won't end: Gearing up for another wave of homeless vets "Supporting the troops is more than a slogan. Supporting the troops is putting words into action,"


08-19-06 - Libby denied some classified documents A federal judge blocked Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff on Friday from using some classified material to help with his defense in the CIA leak case.


08-19-06 - Lebanon gives warning after Israeli raid Israel said the raid was launched to stop arms smuggling from Iran and Syria to the militant Shiite fighters, while Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called the operation a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. truce. An Israeli officer was killed during the raid, and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.


08-19-06 - Israel kills 3 Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon raid


08-19-06 - Israel violated Lebanon ceasefire: Annan Israel has violated the terms of a UN-mandated halt to fighting in Lebanon, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, calling on all parties to respect an embargo on unauthorized arms shipments to Lebanon. Israel violate a ceasefire? Say it ain't so...


08-19-06 - Two of Iraq's Shiite Parties Denounce Iran


08-19-06 - Israeli aircraft attack eastern Lebanon: source Israeli aircraft fired several rockets at a Hizbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon early on Saturday, a Lebanese security source said.


08-19-06 - Iraq war bashed at hearing for soldier who wouldn't go "There was no authorization from the U.N. Security Council ... and that made it a crime against the peace," said Francis Boyle, a University of Illinois professor of international law, who said the Army's own field manual required such authorization for an offensive war.


08-19-06 - Taliban's terror tactics reconquer Afghanistan While we are bogged down in Iraq, a war that was waged due to the cherrypicked intelligence offered up by the neocons, Afghanistan goes down the crapper.


08-19-06 - Five key questions for anti-terror investigation


08-19-06 - Chavez launches fundraising drive for Lebanon, Palestinians President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela is carrying out a nationwide fundraising drive to raise money for rebuilding Lebanon and for the Palestinian people.



08-19-06 - Robert Fisk's Beirut Diary: A land reduced to rubble


08-19-06 - Lebanese army says its citizen kidnapped by Israeli forces Lebanese army said Friday that Israeli forces has abducted a Lebanese youth from southern Lebanon. Abdullah Malak, 22, was kidnapped from the southern village of Beit Leif, the army said in a statement, quoted by media reports.



08-19-06 - The Constitution: Checking a Would-Be King Lost in the underbrush is the reality that the architecture of FISA was shaped not only to protect the privacy of Americans but also to give the White House considerable latitude in pursuing urgent opportunities.


08-19-06 - Reservists: Officers stopped us attending protest against war Some 160 infantry reserve soldiers are accusing their commanders of preventing them from participating in a demonstration against the war in Lebanon, which they called a "debacle." The soldiers said they had been used as "sitting ducks."


08-19-06 - Annan says U.N. won't 'wage war' A key concern of many countries is whether the U.N. force will be called on to disarm Hezbollah fighters, as called for in a September 2004 U.N. resolution. They want to study the rules of engagement and concept of operations for the force, which were distributed Friday, before making a decision on troops.


08-19-06 - Bush should listen to elders instead of neocons Leaked information that the operation had been planned for over a year by Israel and the United States lays bare any pretense that pursuit of democratic reform in the Middle East is his goal -- a goal buried in the smoking ruins of a small but beautiful country used as a testing ground for future attacks on Syria and Iran, in line with neocon fantasies of hegemonic control of the Middle East.



08-19-06 - War Stirs Worry in Israel Over State of Military "For four weeks we failed to defend ourselves against daily bombardments against our cities. This is a failure that never happened before,"


08-19-06 - Policy on Middle East Divides Americans 35 per cent of respondents say U.S. policy is as fair with the democratic government of Lebanon as it is with the democratic government of Israel, while 37 per cent disagree.



08-19-06 - Israelis Back Attack on Iran Reactor Many Israeli adults would support a pre-emptive strike against a nuclear facility in Iran, according to a poll by Teleseker published in Maariv. 63 per cent of respondents think Israel should bomb the Iranian nuclear core.


08-19-06 - Historic Byblos polluted by war Berj Hatjian wants to know why Israel attacked oil storage tanks right by the sea. He thinks they must have known what the effect would be, that it would punish whole communities that had nothing to do with the conflict.



08-19-06 - Intelligence Test by JAMES BAMFORD the commission discovered that the original plan for 9/11 envisioned an even larger attack. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the strategist of the 9/11 plot, "was going to fly the final plane, land it and make 'a speech denouncing U.S. policies in the Middle East,'" Kean and Hamilton say, quoting a staff statement. And they continue: "Lee felt that there had to be an acknowledgment that a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was vital to America's long-term relationship with the Islamic world, and that the presence of American forces in the Middle East was a major motivating factor in Al Qaeda's actions."

08-19-06 - Russia says counting on Palestinian promise to end attacks on Israel


08-19-06 - Arab nations urge new Israeli peace plan


08-19-06 - Hezbollah supporters tell of bold Israeli raid gone wrong Israel said its raid, which drew harsh criticism from Lebanon's premier and threatened to throw off course a six-day-old truce, was aimed at preventing weapons shipments to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. But villagers in Buday, nearly all of them self-described supporters of Hezbollah which in recent days has doled out thousands of dollars in cash to those whose homes have been destroyed in southern Beirut, see a different motive. "They came to capture Sheikh Yazbek,"......The vehicles were painted in Lebanese army colors and the Israeli soldiers were wearing Lebanese army uniforms, so the Israeli soldiers were able to move freely for several hours, residents say.
I wonder how the Lebanese government feels about Israel pulling that one.


08-19-06 - Israel warns it will enforce arms ban In a boost for Israel, the U.S. declined to criticize the Israeli campaign, noting the U.N. resolution's arms ban on Hezbollah. According to the AFP report, this raid was not in fact about preventing Hezbollah from getting arms. Nevertheless, our government is a stoolie for Israel.


08-19-06 - Clean-up crews recover some of massive Lebanon oil spill Clean-up crews have recovered about 100 tonnes of oil along the coast of a historic Lebanese port city after a massive spill caused by Israel's bombing of a power plant.


08-19-06 - Bush breaks rank to boost independent's bid Neocons and Israel-firsters love Joe Lieberman. Why not? He's one of them. What's in America's best interest never factors in with these types.


08-19-06 - Ad pitch for Israel aimed at Christians the pitch goes beyond mere sympathy. The scenes are interspersed with biblical passages that suggest a divine calling to help the cause. And here's the supreme irony - Israel leveled Lebanon - a nation that is 40 % Christian. THOSE Christians won't be getting squat from the Christian Right in this country.