1. Certainly not enough, but at least it’s on the right track:
“12 Guantanamo detainees freed; captive count at 8-year low
The United States freed a dozen men from Guantanamo this week — including one of the last captives sent there by the Bush administration — in a mission that dropped detainees off in Yemen, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.
…
Defense and Justice Department officials Saturday refused to comment on the massive transfer, a portion of which was reported by The Washington Post on Friday as a potential “prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen” at a time of gathering Republican resistance to the White House plan to move other detainees to Thomson, Ill.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/80994.html
2. Mumbai:
“Did America keep mum on 26/11?
Did the Americans have detailed advance information about the 26/11 plot which they did not share with India, only passing on a watered-down warning? And was there an American spy within the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba who kept Washington (or Langley) informed of terror acts planned against India — even if this information was never handed over to us?
It is certainly beginning to look that way.
When Headley was first arrested, the Americans declared that they had foiled a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. Then, more details began to trickle out. The terror suspect, we were told, was a US citizen of Pakistani origin. He had some links with the LeT. He had visited India. He may have been part of an advance team for 26/11.
Indian investigators, intrigued by these reports, flew to Washington to meet Headley. They were denied any access to him. They tried to work out if Headley was in fact somebody they themselves had been looking for. They had asked the CIA if it had any information about an American who, their sources had told them, was part of the LeT. They received no real cooperation.
Then, even as the Indian media were obsessing about Headley’s friendship with Mahesh Bhatt’s son, investigative journalists in America tracked down court papers pertaining to Headley’s arrest on drug charges in 1998. These papers showed that Headley had been convicted and sent to jail. But after 9/11, he had been set free and sent to Pakistan to work as an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
According to US journalists, Headley had been given a new passport in the American name of David Headley (his American mother’s maiden name is Headley) rather than his original name of Daood Gilani. He flew around the world, entering and leaving the US at will, avoiding the sort of attention that a convicted drug criminal was certain to attract at US airports.
…
Why would the US treat a 26/11 suspect with such consideration?
The only explanation that fits is this: he was an American agent all along. The US arrested him only when it seemed that Indian investigators were on his trail. He will be sentenced to jail, will vanish into the US jail system for a while and will then be sprung again — as he was the last time.
So, could 26/11 have been avoided? If this theory is right, then yes, the Americans could have told us more. And we could have foiled the plot.”
3. Believe me, Tony, you’re despised here just as much:
“It’s only you Brits who don’t appreciate me, insists Tony Blair”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6962872.ece
4. Finally:
“EU opens borders to over 10 million Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians after nearly 20 years”
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/12/19/eu-opens-borders-to-serbia-montenegro-macedonia-2/
5. “Obama’s Bioweapons Program
The Obama administration’s recent declaration on bioweapons would simply be another run-of-the-mill example of our “change” president’s duplicity were it not such an unmitigated disaster.
Recapitulating sinister Cold War practices that informed American ruling class consensus when it came to secretly toying with nature’s most deadly pathogens, (a) because they could, (b) because it was, and is, highly profitable and (c) because they got with it, the profound failure by the administration to rein-in out-of-control corporate grifters, militarists and scientists thirsting after an endless flow of taxpayer dollars, have put us all on a potential glide path towards the abyss.”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16617
6. “Massive Hike in Military Spending Financed by Cuts in Health and Education
US House Passes $636 Billion Military Spending Bill
The combined budget deficits for all 50 states this year was about $180 billion, less than one third of the military appropriation passed by the House.”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16619
7. The worry over Iran invading Iraq oil-field is much ado about nothing – another faked news story:
“For the past several days, the spin behind the headlines surrounding Iran’s activities have been enough to send any one looking for cover — or declare war. After all, nuclear bombs, missiles, and the stealing of a neighbor’s oil fields is what prompted the “international community” to declare war on Iraq – twice. Why not Iran? As Bill O’Reilly said: ” What spin is, is taking a set of circumstances, all right, and taking that circumstance and making it not what it is.”
…
Clearly, what is not new is that Saudis (and Kuwaitis) are becoming an old hand at assisting Americans in their adventures in the region. In 1991, Nayirah, the 15-year old daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S., used her ties with the PR firm Hill & Knowlton and came up with the audacious lie that the Iraqis were throwing babies out of the incubators in Kuwait. Hill & Knowlton’s marketing helped build domestic support for the war. $40billion of the $60 billion US costs was paid by Saudi Arabia.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24227.htm
8. “Foreclose on the Banks
How to Give America Its Best Christmas Ever
The United States government could, and should, sue Citibank, Bank of America, JPMorganChase and other defaulting miscreants for breach of contract. With one out of seven Americans having been foreclosed upon by one of these institutions, it would be difficult to imagine any jury finding them not guilty. Mercy, after all, wasn’t something these banks showed their victims.
Since damages would likely exceed the defendants’ ability to pay, the U.S. could then seize the banks. The newly nationalized banks, owned by we the people, could reduce or cancel outstanding mortgages to the unemployed, sick and other worthies. They could increase credit lines and start making loans again–you know, do what they promised to do. It wouldn’t necessarily get us out of the Depression. But it would be a beginning.
Foreclose on the banks! It’s fair. It’s smart. And it’s long overdue.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24228.htm
